Tag: san diego

  • Learn from me on December 3rd

    If you live in Southern California (or are willing to come visit) I am hosting 2 classes on December 3rd through a brand new website, Skillshare.

    Growing your business with Mailchimp

    How to get started with Mailchimp, set-up and grow your lists, and grow your business

    Mailchimp is an amazingly powerful tool. Whether you are a small start-up, a restaurant, a band, or a non-profit– Mailchimp can help you grow your business. In this 2-hour class we’ll quickly cover the basics of the service and quickly dive into unleashing the power of this amazing email marketing webapp. We’ll talk about lists & groups, templates, integrations with tools like Eventbrite, Facebook, and Salesforce, and email marketing strategy.

    Cost – $25 Register here

    Blogging 101

    Learn how to start a blog from scratch, build an audience, and have fun while doing it!

    This class will be laid back but full of experience, practical application, and practice. As a full-time blogger and blog coach I’ve helped countless bloggers get going for their own blogs and even launch small businesses.

    Topics covered: (But not limited to)

    • Getting started for free
    • Choosing the right platform
    • Customizing your blog
    • What to write about
    • How to write for response
    • How to build a tribe
    • Intro to analytics and other measurement tools
    • Principles of social media interaction

    The class will be two hours. But the format is loose and I won’t leave until I’ve answered all of your questions. My goal is that you walk away with a firm understanding of what to do AND ready to get started. In true McLane Creative form, after class the teacher is buying the first round next door at the Mission Brewery.

    Cost – $25 Register here

  • San Diego blackout live blog

    4:00ish – they power went out, first we thought it was just a breaker. Ten a neighbor banged on our door.

    4:05 – saw on twitter lots of activity. Hearing it’s out all over San Diego. Crazy!

    4:08 – trolleys are down, people are leaving work. Beer thirty came early! Thankful I didn’t go back downtown after my meeting at Journey.

    4:21 – kids got bored, playing dominos. (lofi fun!)

    4:32 – kids bored again. Goodbye dominos.

    4:44 – hearing sirens on El Cajon Blvd. Eerily quiet out there.

    4:47 – taking bets on when the power comes back on. Paul says dinner, Megan says tomorrow. When do you think? Also seeing on Twitter that parts of Arizona, New Mexico, and Baja are out

    4:55 – filled up a couple jugs with water, just in case.

    4:59 – cell service is completely slammed. I’m not getting anything through now.

    5:04 – just heard that SDGE is reporting power will be out into the night, maybe as late a tomorrow.

    5:09 – off to find ice

    5:15 – Vons is closed, strike 1.

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    5:21 – you can always trust a liquor store to be open. Unfortunately, my favorite one is sold out of ice. (avoided buying booze, tempting)

    5:29 – Paul (age 8) is telling me he thinks this was caused by a solar flare.

    5:37 – everywhere is either closed or out of ice. The upside is that everyone is calm and courteous on the roads. There will be a massive party tonight, you can feel that coming.

    5:46 – good news, no problems with water (yet) watering the garden. It’s cooling off rapidly out there.

    5:52 – looks like the gas is out, too. Thankful that our roast was already done for dinner. Weird that the gas is out.

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    6:04 – lots of sirens in the distance, no bueno.

    6:10 – bad news on the roast, we have to eat it all.

    6:21 – Filling up more stuff, the water pressure is noticeably lower. We are also sitting in the back yard now. Going to be a night of community!

    6:33 – sitting outside and playing, “I survived the blackout and all I needed was an Apple, baboon, cotton candy, deer, ear plugs…

    6:39 – the world may end… We have no cell service.

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    6:55 – going to take a walk, might as well be neighborly

    7:15 – rolando community BBQ tonight, awesome. Everyone is out walking and talking. Best night ever!

    7:38 – back from our walk, digging out candles. SDGE is saying maybe no power back until tomorrow. Some area have a water emergency, so far not ours. Have I mentioned how quiet it is? No planes or anything.

    7:48 – darkness is arriving, the kids are pacing in a dark house. They have no idea what to do. How many hours until the sun rises?

    7:56 – with darkness settling in, all I hear is chatter of neighbors, crickets, and a helicopter over City Heights. I hope the helicopter pilot got epic shots of a dark city. Crazy.

    8:01 – on our walk a gas meter looking thing was running, sounded like a generator. Anyone know what that is?

    8:10 – saw on twitter that school was already cancelled for tomorrow. Summer vacations revenge! Thankful our area not under water restrictions yet. Am I obsessing about water or is it just hot?

    8:25 – brought the kids outside to look at the stars. The moon is almost obnoxiously bright.

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    8:29 – forced the children to eat all of the ice cream, also informed them that school closed tomorrow. Best day ever!

    8:48 – listening to am 600. Heard they are restoring power to OC, Tijuana.

    8:58 – KPBS is reporting that the power is back on at SDSU. I guess the giant toga party is ending…

    9:09 – spoke to an AP reporter covering the blackout.

    10:25 – we see lights on far out to the east on the hills. We secretly hate those people.

    10:34 – power is on in La Mesa, just like 2 miles from here. Now I’m just wanting this over.

    10:35 – if the power isn’t on by morning, filet mignon and eggs for breakfast.

    10:48 – power on at SDSU & La Mesa, but Rolando? Nothing. I’m calling Jesse Jackson in the morning.

  • Being Good News

    Today’s video post is a synopsis of about 10 conversations I’ve had in the last 60 days. All of them get to the question, “Adam, something has changed inside of you. I like it sometimes and I don’t like it sometimes, what is it?”

    One thing I’ve learned to get comfortable with in the last 10 years of ministry is people asking me hard questions, diving into my motivations, and even offering critical responses. I can handle it. I am not intimidated by it. In fact, questions like this actually encourage me.

  • Rules for Public Transportation

    We are a one car household. Fortunately for us, we live in a city where you can get away with having just one car because we have a decent public transportation system.

    Our transportation system, San Diego Metropolitan Transit System, also has a policy that permits bikes. This allows me the daily privilege of riding my bike to the trolley station, than taking my bike on the trolley with me, than riding the rest of the way to work.

    But riding public transportation definitely has some rules. Social norms that make the experience much more pleasant.

    1. Always wear headphones. Even if your headphones don’t connect to anything but your pocket, always wear headphones.
    2. Don’t stare. Look at your phone, look out the window, or stare at the floor. Just don’t look at anyone unless you want to talk. Making eye contact is an invitation to conversation.
    3. Don’t eat. It may seem like an efficient thing to do. But you never know when you’ll see something gross, smell something really gross, or have the awkward opportunity to eat in front of someone who clearly hasn’t eaten recently. Just don’t eat.
    4. Help people who are obviously lost. This is the joy of living in a tourist town. I never mind helping someone who is genuinely lost. They all have “the lost look.” example: My home station is San Diego State University. The funny part about helping people from there is that they have to really listen to understand why I am telling them to go a certain way. If they are going downtown it might make sense to go two stops further away downtown and transfer to a different trolley line. When you look on the map it looks further and the wrong direction. (It is) But it is actually significantly faster because the other line goes directly where they want to go with fewer transfers. Riding the trolley isn’t like driving. You want the fastest route, not the shortest.
    5. Be aware of what is going on. I’ve taken public transportation both in San Diego and Chicago frequently enough to know that there are sometimes dangers to be avoided. The general rule of thumb is, “If it feels bad, it probably is bad.” The good news in San Diego is that they have closed circuit cameras everywhere. If something did happen (I’ve never seen anything truly bad happen) there is a good chance it got caught on camera.
    6. Discretely take pictures or video to giggle at later. Oh, I know this is probably a social faux pax to mention. But I have seen it all on the trolley and sometimes people don’t believe me.
    7. If you ride regularly get to know your riding partners. The funny thing about this is that you “know” people but you might not know their names. But you know that one person gets on at this stop and reads a book every day. And another gets on and always sits near you. Or one lady is always in a hurry but is claustrophobic so won’t ride the first elevator because it is too full. You may not “know” these people, but regular riding partners will make you feel more secure.
    8. Know your schedule. If you ride for a while you get a sixth sense about when your bus or trolley runs. I know if I leave my house at 7:58 I have a good chance of catching an earlier trolley. Or if I don’t leave right at 5:00 PM from work, I might as well hang out another 10 minutes.
    9. Keep smiling. Sometimes the trolley drives me nuts. But any time I’m a little delayed or stressed out by a minor inconvenience (like a person dying on the trolley and delaying it 2 hours) I just remember that I don’t have the expense of a second car and I’m not sitting in traffic thinking about my next oil change. Taking public transportation has limited stress in my life– and for that, it’s awesome!

  • Thankful

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    Thankful.

    That’s just about the only word that can describe my heart right now. The last week at NYWC left me completely spent both physically and mentally– but I sit here now with my spirit soaring.

    Feet aching, eyes leaky, and thankful.

    Back in December I had this silly belief that YS’s best days were still ahead.

    It came out of my mouth all the time. It came out of my mouth because it was what my heart was telling me.

    Obviously, the people at YouthWorks who had just hired me to stay with Youth Specialties loved it when I said that… But for those who have been around YS for a while– that thought was almost offensive. People just politely smiled when I said it. You see, our history and the things in the past have been so great, that to even set the expectation that things could be better than the past seemed like I wasn’t honoring our past.

    That’s just not true. My feeling was that the best way to honor what we’d done over the past 40 years was try to work hard to resonate with what we’ve always done well while taking everything else to a whole new level. I felt like it would be dishonoring to play it safe in 2010 and it would honor the past best if we looked at every tiny detail as an opportunity to innovate.

    Fortunately for me, Tic and everyone else felt the same way. And we set off on this crazy idea of not just getting through our first year with new ownership, but using this as a reset point.

    Even though in 2009 we had laid our heart out and finished feeling trampled, damaged, and hurt… we would learn what we could from that and lay our heart down again. Maybe we were masochistic? But we just had this crazy desire to keep trying.

    9 months later– all that was left was to see if all of that crazy idealism could become a reality. Walking into last week I kept telling people, “I’ve got this feeling God has an amazing story to tell and I can’t wait to see what it is.”

    All weekend long people asked me how the weekend was going. Then they proceeded to tell me all sorts of nice things about the weekend. All I could do was smile. Everything just felt right. The venue, the set-up, the affirmations flowing from the pours of the staff, the way the stage looked… everything.

    You won’t get this grin off of my face for a few more days.

    Over and over again Tic told us he wanted everything to be done in such a way where people who program for a living could just relax and know our team had everything handled. Hearing nice things tells us that people were shutting off their programming minds and just enjoying themselves. Phew.

    For us, the evaluation process is just beginning. But based on what we heard and saw on site– I feel really good about San Diego. (We are all perfectionist, so of course we’ll tear it all apart and fix all sorts of minutia before Nashville.)

    I was never more proud to work for YS than I was over the last 7 days.

    The level of difficulty was exceptionally high. We had to navigate a new relationship with YouthWorks while at the same time trying to create an amazing Youth Specialties event at a time when youth workers desperately needed it. And some how it all came together. I know it’s not good to talk about pride in the Christian world… but I’m very proud of what we did this weekend together.

    I’m not trying to say this was the best NYWC ever. Nor am I saying that this was YS’s shining moment in history. But I am saying that this weekend was a step towards better days to come.

    Call me crazy. Call me stupid. Call me whatever name you want. But each day I have to wake up and believe that our best days are in front of us.

  • New Heights Project highlight video

    A few weeks ago I mentioned something our youth ministry does over the summer. We hire a group of high school students to run our children’s ministry outreach program. Here’s a highlight video they showed in church at the end of their experience.

    I’m so thankful for the impact these students had on our community! Of course, they didn’t do it alone. The whole staff of Harbor was fully engaged as well as a big crew of adults from the church as well as some other missionaries from InterVarsity’s urban project.

  • Nehemiah vs. The American Church

    Photo by Nick Chill via Flickr (Creative Commons)

    I love the audacity great faith brings.

    It’s idealistic. It’s over-the-top. It’s incomprehensibly arrogant simplicity. It’s stupid fun to be around.

    And that’s why I love my church.

    This little church in the city truly believes they can be instrumental in seeing a new San Diego rise up to be an amazing place to live.

    Right now, we’re in a sermon series on the book of Nehemiah.

    As I read the narrative I can’t get past step one.

    Step one of rebuilding your city? Chapter 1… lay on your face and be honest in confessing to God.

    O LORD, God of heaven, the great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love with those who love him and obey his commands, let your ear be attentive and your eyes open to hear the prayer your servant is praying before you day and night for your servants, the people of Israel. I confess the sins we Israelites, including myself and my father’s house, have committed against you. We have acted very wickedly toward you. We have not obeyed the commands, decrees and laws you gave your servant Moses. Nehemiah 1:5-7

    What I love about Nehemiah and its message to the church is obvious… it’s not about your church, people. The purpose of the church isn’t to build a little empire. It’s to bring life to a dead and dying city. It’s to see the gospel bring renewal.

    When I look out over the landscape of church culture I can’t help but see that we’re missing step one.

    We need to deal with our own hearts. And we need to focus on the city and not our fiefdom.

    This next passage absolutely wrecked my view of the local church. At the end, when Jesus comes to judge the church, Revelation 2-3 gives us a glimpse of how he judges the church… it should change how you and I do business.

    v. 1 “To the angel of the church in Ephesus write”

    v. 8 “To the angel of the church in Smyrna write”

    v. 12 “To the angel of the church in Pergamum write”

    v. 18 “To the angel of the church in Thyatira write”

    3:1 “To the angel of the church in Sardis write”

    v. 7 “To the angel of the church in Philadelphia write”

    v. 14 “To the angel of the church in Laodicea write”

    In case you missed it. Jesus isn’t judging the work of a single, local church. He’s judging the work of His body in each city.

    Can I get an Amen?

  • Summer update

    Summer officially began on Memorial Day, 5 weeks ago.

    A whole hodgepodge of things have happened.

    • Lisa has been here for just over a month. So far that has pretty well. She does fit into the flow of our house… so it really hasn’t been hard at all. Finding volunteer work for her for the first 6 weeks just didn’t pan out. She did a few things for a charter school that is opening in City Heights and she did a few things for a non-profit I’m exploring starting in City Heights. But most of our other leads never materialized. Several organizations were super interested, but when it came time to do something they bowed out. Who would have thought it’d be so hard to volunteer 6 weeks of labor? Not me. It’s been great to have her here for the convenience factor. Kristen and I have love being able to go for walks, go to the store, or whatever we want without necessarily having the kids in tow. That said, I think Lisa is a bit weirded out by how many people asked if she is my wife!
    • The kids get out of school this Thursday. We like the year-round school concept. But it does feel weird to tell them to get ready for school in July! It’s hard to believe that we’re just a week away from having a 4th grader and a 2nd grader. They’ve got an easy week ahead. There are parties every day and field day on Thursday. Both of them are something like 2 grade levels ahead academically… so moving up is a very good thing.
    • I connected with the YouthWorks San Diego team twice this week. (Gold star employee that I am) I went over and met them on Monday at their ministry location. And then when I realized it was just 10 minutes from my house, we invited them over for a BBQ last night. They are four very impressive college students running missions projects for 10 weeks with 50+ students per week from all over the U.S. and Canada. The guys inhaled all the protein, no surprise.
    • Kristen and I leave for Haiti in just 5 days. We are flying to Fort Lauderdale this coming Saturday night. We’ll have all day Sunday and Monday morning to just kind of relax and get used to the tropical humidity before flying over to Port-au-Prince Monday afternoon. (There may or may not be a beach and tropical beverage as part of this preparation.) We still have some pre-trip shopping to do. We need a tent, sleeping pads, and duffle bags. Outside of that we are set. I’ve got a lot of pre-trip thoughts for this trip. But I’ll save them for their own post.
    • Work stuff is going great. When I compare what we we felt like last year at this time to this year… man, we are in a much better space!
    • Speaking of work. I was afraid when the shake-up occurred that I’d somehow lose all of those friendships with now former co-workers. It’s been fun this summer to connect repeatedly with people who used to work for YS. Bit by bit everyone is landing on their feet. While I don’t see them nearly as often as I did when we worked together… it looks like those friendships are going to make the transition. And for that I’m stoked.
    • I’m evaluating a whole menu of personal projects. (Web design, app development, writing projects, stuff like that) It’s cool to have so many opportunities to evaluate. At the same time its a bit overwhelming.
    • It hardly feels like summer in San Diego. We’ve gotten a heavy dose of June Gloom that has carried over into July. This has been great for the garden, but not great for a nice warm summer. I’m thinking there will be a time later this summer when we’ll remember the coolness fondly. But for right now it’d be nice to get into the 70s.
    • The World Cup has been fun to watch. The games certainly were a fun part of our vacation! Yet I’m glad it’s only every four years because I don’t really like soccer that much to watch it all the time. When I watch sports that are a bit boring on TV I always come up with fun ways to make it more interesting. What do you think of this one? When a team scores a goal they have to chose a player to take out of the game. So if they go up by 2 goals they are 2 players down, etc. It seems like that would result in higher scores and make it more interesting. And they should get rid of the shoot out. Once they get to the 3rd overtime they just need to add a couple more balls. Split screen because there would be shots coming from everywhere!

  • Urban Farming Inspiration

    Kristen and I are now 5 months into our experiment. Our goal is to grow or purchase 25% of our food locally in 2010. So far, it’s been a fun experiment! And in the process we’ve found a hobby that the whole family can participate in.

    One thing that has been incredibly satisfying is knowing that we aren’t the only family on this journey. I’ve met a number of co-workers, friends, and youth workers who are leading their families on similar experiments.

    It’s been super encouraging and satisfying to discover that you don’t have to have a lot of acreage to feed your family. In fact, we’re pretty confident that if we keep improving the soil quality, expand to just a few more planting beds, and a few more seasons of experience under our belts, that we can actually produce much more than 50% of our families produce right here in the city. (Thank God for a landlord who loves gardening!)

    Here are two bits of inspiration for Kristen and I. One of which we discovered months ago while the other we only discovered this weekend.

    City Farmers Nursery This place is legendary in San Diego. A massive organic nursery in the heart of City Heights (aka, the hood)

    Path to Freedom One families attempt to live off the land in the city of Pasadena. Now they are launching a movement the are calling, Urban Homesteading.

    Here’s a rundown of what is growing in our garden right now:

    • Artichokes
    • Cilantro
    • Oregano
    • Coriander
    • Parsley
    • Rosemary
    • Thai basil
    • Sweet basil
    • Peppermint
    • Chocolate Mint
    • Mr. Stripey tomatoes
    • Traditional beefsteak tomatoes
    • Acorn squash
    • Zucchini
    • Cucumbers
    • Sweet corn
    • Eggplant
    • Jalapeños
    • Roma tomatoes
    • Yellow tomatoes
    • Strawberry
    • Spinach
    • Watermelon
    • Green beans
    • Green peppers
    • Tangerines
    • Grapefruit
    • Oranges
    • Peaches
    • Plums
    • Mandarines
    • Lemons
    • Sunflowers
    • Pumpkins

    What’s really crazy is that this probably only takes up 20% of our backyard. Here are some things we want to add in the next year:

    • Chickens!
    • Herbs in the front yard
    • 2-3 raised beds
    • Avocado
    • Triple our worm composting (we have 1 container, need about 3 more to capture all of our food waste)

    Some quick facts:

    • No, this isn’t taking over our lives. If anything, its a major stress reducer.
    • No, this isn’t expensive. There are some start-up costs with getting drip irrigation, basic tools, and composting equipment. We’ve spent less than $500.
    • No, we don’t have a rain barrel yet. Shame on us.
    • Yes, we are spending more money on gardening stuff and our CSA. But that is offset by less money spent at the grocery store. And we’ve already down-graded to the smaller box of our CSA.
    • Yes, the kids are involved. They love helping! There’s nothing quite like the joy of picking carrots or strawberries with your kids.
    • Yes, we really can have chickens in the city. Our neighborhood is zoned for up to 25. (No roosters) There are people near us with goats and pigs, too.
    • Yes, we really are doing all of this on property we rent!
    • Yes, we do live in the city of San Diego. (Though not a super urban neighborhood.) We live in a quiet neighborhood about half a mile from San Diego State University.

  • Beach day



    Stoney rules!, originally uploaded by mclanea.

    Today we took the whole family on an outing to dog beach. We all had a great time, but I think Stoney had the most fun of all.

    Here’s a link to the rest of our pictures from the beach.