Tag: marko

  • An Ode to the Pancreas

    Preamble

    My buddy Marko is in the hospital with a bout of pancreatitis. He wasn’t feeling well when we went to the Padres game on Tuesday night and was admitted to the hospital Wednesday.

    I tried to convince him that the only possible cure would be eating hotdogs, handfuls of peanuts, and drinking over-priced beer. But he wouldn’t take my sound medical advice. He drank water. And look who is in the hospital now?

    Dedication: To Marko’s pancreas. May you be less irritated and inflamed in the days to come. I hope for you that you will soon be happily hugged by your friends the gall bladder and small intestine.

    An Ode to the Pancreas, the most phallic of internal organs

    The Pancreas – A Limerick

    Seeing your tail makes me giggle

    I can imagine that sometimes you wiggle

    To know when inflamed you must be even more round

    With giant scopes and crazy cameras, perhaps a lost quarter is found?

    But mostly your picture makes me giggle

    The Pancreas – A Haiku

     O sad pancreas

    Only rhyme with couple things

    Like pain in the ***

    The Pancreas – A short sonnet

     Let me not delay this decree

    Admit impediment, impurities I oft partake

    Thou pancreas please, in thou’st head whilst thou forgive me

    All of thine yummy treats, I shall now forever forsake

    O, no I promise I shall never re-embark

    To mock you, my beloved pancreas, for thine striking shape

    For thou doth look as male genitalia– I’m forced to remark

    Proudly serving other organs, you deserve to wear a cape

    The pancreatic juice, while gross, I require

    Thine juices flow from duct to duct to Duodenum

    Without you in my life I may expire

    For these juices are needed, and more than cool denim

    To thine own bile I will be true

    To thine own bile I will be true

  • Recapping the U2 Show

    Amazing? Too cool at the U2 show, originally uploaded by mclanea.

    How do I recap the U2 show? It’s an beyond description.

    Here are some thoughts from the trip, in no particular order.

    1. It was well-timed. A week before my trip to Cincinnati for NYWC and with all the stuff stirring at work, a day away from the chaos was God’s timing.
    2. I had good company. Kristen and I rarely get to do a road trip without the kids. And it was great to have Marko and Tash as companions. Technically, Kristen and I were along for the ride since Tash took over driving!
    3. Phoenix is a long way away. It’s a solid 6-7 hours away from San Diego. It’s hard to understand because it’s only a 70 minute flight.
    4. Bono is amazing. He is a captivating performer. How a man puts out that kind of energy for 2.5 hours I will never know. And his ability to do little moments throughout the show for the fans is incredible. I think I saw him grab a camera and take pictures of fans!
    5. The stage becomes the 5th band member. I love production in a show. And this is done so masterfully that the production actually becomes a member of the band.
    6. It was worshipful. Hard to explain unless you’ve experienced it. But so many of U2’s songs have deep meaning. There were moments of elation, tears, and just resting in the joy of the show.
    7. It was what I needed. Look, it wasn’t a “Beautiful Day.” Tuesday ranked right up there with one of the toughest days of my ministry career. But that song in the show really spoke to me. Finding moments of joy through sorrow was poetic. I keep going back to that song.
    8. It was worth the money. Tickets to this show weren’t cheap. Getting there wasn’t easy. But the journey, the show, and the memories of the day made the costs a bargain.
    9. I’m still recovering. It’s been two days. And a missed night of sleep is hard to recover from. I am not 21 anymore.
    10. We missed the Black Eyed Peas. Seriously, traffic into the stadium was so crazy that we missed all but their last 2 songs. I’m sure they were great. What we saw was a lot of fun.

  • YMX Acquired by YS

    Today, at 4:47 PM EST it was official. My mouth has been shut for weeks since I couldn’t talk to anyone outside of my family about the deal with YS. But it is now done and I couldn’t be happier. YMX partnering with YS is, in my opinion, the perfect place for YMX to fit into the youth ministry landscape. As Marko said, it’s only natural.

    We’ve truly enjoyed being the independent source of youth ministry stuff. And we hope to continue on with that flavor.

    There are a hundred reasons I am excited about this deal. The most obvious thing to be excited about is that I get to run YMX as part of my new job with YS. How cool is that? I’m also jazzed about the massive door of opportunity that was just swung open to us from the YS/Zondervan family. There are too many cool things to talk about with this. For now…

    Here’s the press release

    And here are the FAQs we posted in the forums about “what happens next” for YMX/YS.

    How will this effect the way I use YMX?
    One of the coolest parts of this is that the YMX community will mostly stay the same. The same people will be running it and Youth Specialties is taking a very hands off approach to YMX. YMX will benefit mostly from access to tons of resources to grow the site in a way that helps fulfill the community’s long-term vision.

    Will this effect the way the forums operate currently?
    Yes. Eventually, the forums will shift from a subscription based forum to a free forum. In other words, there will no longer be “premium level” areas of the site which require payment to utilize. The terms of service, the community accountability, the emphasis on self-moderation, will all continue.

    Will the forum community be under a new and/or revised terms of service?
    Not right now. If the terms of service ever change we will contact you to let you know.

    What about the privacy issues? I thought the forums were secure and now they will be open to anyone?
    We share your concerns. Starting in January 2008, YMX changed the method of registering new members so that new members have to provide personal information that is verified before we allow new members to access the forums. We will continue to utilize this option as a way to prevent trolling and keep the community safe. This meets the same need in protecting your privacy on the forums fulfilled.

    Will the forums be indexed on search engines?
    No. Since the forums require a registration to see anything, the search bots are prevented from searching forum content. This is not changing.

    Will the forums be managed by different people and/or different moderators?
    YMX, including the forums, will continue to operate as we always have.

    I am a charter/premium subscriber, what does that mean for me?
    Most of our premium/charter subscribers have been with us a long time. You guys are awesome and we thank you for your support. We will soon contact you to offer you a store credit with Youth Specialties. If that doesn’t work for you, please contact adam@ymexchange.com.

    Will the Oasis still be available?
    Absolutely. The private Oasis area of the forums will still be available upon request, with a team of caring, youth ministry-understanding people to listen, pray, and confidentially walk with youth workers through tough or tricky situations. In fact, we hope to bring even more hope and help through the people being part of YS makes available to us all.

    Does this mean that you won’t be accepting and publishing user-generated content?
    Not at all! Actually the opposite. As a property of Youth Specialties we will be increasing the frequency of content for the community. While you may see some new authors on the site, we’d love to continue to work with new and emerging authors.

    How much money were Patti and Adam given to make this happen?
    We can’t answer that at this time. Adam and Patti are currently on the Youth Specialties jet on their way to FerrariWorld in Roma, ciao! http://www.ferrariworld.com/

    Will YMX still be appearing at the conventions to promote the community?
    Yes. Look for us at all the National Youth Workers Conventions this fall.

    What about Raising Lazarus and the community’s desire to help hurting youth workers?
    Raising Lazarus has always been a separate entity of Youth Ministry Exchange, LLC. YMX will continue its partnership with Raising Lazarus to offer practical support for those who need help. In addition, with more time dedicated to running YMX, Adam and Patti will be more available to help.

    Will the site continue to place ads?
    Yes. The site will largely operate as it has.

    Does this mean that YMX will only promote resources that are Youth Specialties products?
    No. The site will largely operate as it has. If we review a resource or report on a news item, we will include a disclosure stating that our our parent company is Youth Specialties when it is relevant. This is similar to the way you see reporting on mainstream media.

    Doesn’t YMX own other sites? Are those part of this deal as well?
    Yes, YMX will continue to operate the blog ad network, Youth Ministry Tips, Youth Ministry Pro, and just like we are today.

    Your thoughts?