Blake Thompson daht Net

Like I was saying....

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Books I'm GOING to read

I have a lot of books. I have a habit of seeing books I want to get, buying them and reading the first third or half or whatever, and then putting it down, picking up another and then never going back to the previous book. So here’s a list of books I already own. I don’t need to go to Amazon or LifeWay or wherever and browse for the newest book with fantastic reviews. I need to start w/ what I already have and plow through them!

The Divine Conspiracy
Radical Reformission
Seven Practices of Effective Ministry
Podcasting For Dummies
Naked Conversations
The God Bearing Life 

All of those after the Bible, of course. I’m also going to dive into The Da Vinci Code since it is getting so much hype and the movie comes out next month. I remember reading Dan Kimball’s take on Da Vinci vs. Narnia and the effect it can have on conversations. So I want to know a little before hand.

Last.fm

Last.fmI’m checking out Last.fm after seing it in someone’s profile from their blog.

Pretty interesting. It basically watches what you listen to in your media player on your computer (Windows Media Player, iTunes, WinAmp) and then will recommend artists, songs, and other users music tastes and play them through a little radio thingy.

Sounds interesting. We’ll see.

Now I MUST run…

My wife is the runner. I am the poser when it comes to running. I’ll do it now and then. But I seem to concentrate less on the “now” and more on the “then”. There was a time when I ran more regularly, but it hasn’t been lately. But even on our wedding date, the two of us ran in the Gum Tree 10K run in Tupelo, MS before our wedding. Heck, even one of her bridesmaids and four of my groomsmen ran it with us.

Leading up to that day, my wife (fiance) and I would run a 10K race on the weekend, then I’d spend all week recovering from the soreness and stiffness, then run another one. We did that for 4 weekends straight until our wedding “race”.

But yesterday my wife brings up a race that’s going to be here in Clinton. It’s the Brickstreet Firefly 5K. At first, I thought, “Cool, I can do this.” But then she goes and starts telling some friends about it too, wanting us all to run it together.  So now I have more people to worry about. With just Beverly, I know I’ll finish behind her, but with a slew of other people, I’ll have to actually train a little so I won’t come in last in our group of friends. Who likes coming in last?

So. Now I MUST run to prepare. Three weeks. That’s enough, right? Enough time to build up some endurance. To build up a little burst of speed for the end. And maybe a little confidence as well so I really don’t come in last of all the people I know running.

Oh, and on my wedding day….Beverly came in first from our wedding party, and I came in …. last! But I was saving my energy!

Oh, my aching back

My back is killing me. Well, not killing me, but there’s something wrong with it. I think it is a flexibility issue or something. It’s not a recent thing. I can remember being in my apartment when I was in college. I remember thinking I was about to go out for a run and I was sitting in a chair leaning all the way over to stretch my back a little (not an official stretch), but I remember feeling a little twinge in the bottom right of my back.

A number of years later, I remember trying to get ready for a ski trip and I was doing some leg presses at the gym I felt that same pull/twinge. And it did me bad. I actually went to get a massage (which was a waste of money) to try to work something out. But taking some muscle relaxers for a few days was the ticket.

But crazy thing is, it seems that half the time I try to do leg exercises (squats or lunges) by lower back gets pretty stiff. But the other night, while just doing some stretches, I tweaked something again. So in my average walking around daily activities, it’s not so bad. But sometimes in propping my feet up or trying to move my legs in certain ways, I can tell something’s not right.

I’m hoping to concentrate on some cardio and some stretching and core building exercises that I hope will help w/ posture and flexibility and longevity of life…

New Beginning?

Of course we, as flawed people, always recognize the need to start over on somethings. But I think sometimes the actual change is intimidating. But after some both busy and quiet times to myself, I’ve decided there are a few things that need some new beginnings and a few that just need to get started. Maybe if I put them here for all to read (is there really an “all” that reads this?) then I’ll be more likely to do so. And feel free to keep me accountable.

MissSportsTalk.com:  My little hobby that started on a whim back in 2002 has grown. It has grown to the point that I need to start putting some extra effort into it and putting in place some ways for it to be self supporting. My first hosting bill was a $15/year plan that was perfect for a while. But my needs grew. And they’ve continued to grow. So much that I think I’m in need of a Virtual Private Server that is a good bit more per month than I’m paying (all out of my pocket) right now.

But I think I have a few possibilities as to how I’m going to do it. It’s going to take an upgrade in the software, which will mean an update in the skin. But then I’ll most likely use phpAdsNew. But I look to get some Mississippi advertisers to place a few ads on there to be able to support the server cost and maybe put a little extra $$ in my pocket if possible.

Running/Exercising: Yeah, yeah. There is always no time like the present to start a new exercise routine, huh? But I think I’ve found a new running partner. My wife would always be ahead of me on the ability scale, so her pace was always quicker than mine. But my 4 year old is my new running partner. Today we ran around the outside loop of our neighborhood. That’s about a mile. She did the whole thing w/o stopping. Then she hopped in the stoller and we did it a 2nd time…but it was The Wife pushing. Not me.

But I think that now is the time for a real exercise plan. There have been days that I’ve more than recognized I needed to watch what I eat and spend some time on the road or in the gym. And there have been days I’ve thought I could stand to lose a few pounds. But this past weekend, I actually began to think I was fat. It was depressing.

Talk Series: I’m planning on starting two new series at youth before school lets out. One will be called The Amazing Race and talk about our journey with God. I’m thinking it will be split up like Preparing For The Race, Running The Race, and Finishing The Race. Might try to get a few teams of students together to actually do a mini-amazing-race like the television show. I want a video camera with each team and put together a cool video of it all as well.
The other one will be on dating or relationships. But I want to have some questions to ask a handful of couples in our church, video their answers, and then edit it together to show. This would be a 2 or 3 part series. I’ve been playing with some demos of video editing packages. Looking to get one in the next month or so.
But I think series talks are good. They bring some continuity together, and you can plan for it, and people can know what to expect as well. Last night we talked about Samson some, and will be looking at him again next week. But I got a text message today from a student that said last night was good and they enjoy learning about OT people.

Reading…

I have been reading a lot lately online. And it’s got my juices flowing in wanting to do some different things.

First of all, I’m getting ready to start a podcast for church. This week I bought Podcasting For Dummies. I figure I’ll pour over it for a few days, see if there’s any specific equipment we’ll need to get, and then Tracy and I will start up an audio newsletter of sorts for the youth ministry. I think it’s got tremendous potential. And we’ll be able to include various kids and all as a part of it as well. So if anyone has any suggestions on what would be an awesome addition to a Youth Ministry Podcast…let me know!

We want to start a new blog on the youth ministry website as well. The site is “final”, but still might could use a little tweaking. There is a forum running vB on there right now, but it’s not really been used. I want to fire up a blog and have me and Tracy posting on there. We’ll see how the readership goes once we start. But we’ll need a nice skin for it and all. But I also bought Naked Conversations that should give me some keen insights on blogging for the marketplace, but is supposed to have TONS of transferable principles for churches. But it will keep me busy until The Blogging Church comes out.

Here are some recent blogs I’ve been digging:
DavidBlog.com
The Blogging Church
ChrisMarsden.com
TerryStorch.com

All Good Things Must Come To An End

Last night was a win for us. I was grilling out last night, listening to the game and heard us hit back to back to back homeruns. That’s right. Three in a row! The Bulldogs ended up winning the game 11-1. Too bad we couldn’t save a few of those runs for todays game. Because all good things must come to an end.

Well, I went to a Sunday School Bowling party and the Dogs were up 6-3 in the top of the 7th inning. I go out to check the score later, figuring we’d won and find out that our relief pitching gave up 5 runs in the bottom of the 8th. We lost 8-6.  Dang!

I can handle the loss. And I didn’t expect to sweep LSU at Alex Box Stadium. But it was the way that we lost that makes it sting a little extra. To be up like that and give up 5 runs in one inning. As I was getting out of the car, I heard Jim Ellis say that we needed a few extra runs because “you can never have too many runs when playing LSU at Alex Box.”

How right you were, Jim. The streak is over at 18. Quite impressive if you ask me.  Tomorrow is the rubber match. We need another win to maintain a good ranking as well.

Dogs putting it on the line!

Well, this is the weekend we really start to find out what the Bulldogs are made of. After seeing them reach #1 in the Baseball America Poll this week, they travel to LSU to put it on the line. LSU, probably one of the top baseball programs in the nation over the last few years.

Right now the Dogs are 17-0. I really don’t expect them to go 56-0 this year. But I do believe that they have a special group of guys. My goal for them is to remain in the Top 7 all year (yes, top 7…arbitrary number, I know) and then be able to host a regional and super regional.

The Morning Bus

This morning I had an early breakfast meeting. One that never actually happened. The person I was supposed to meet never showed up.

But as I drove back home at 6 something in the morning, I saw kids waiting by the end of their driveways. And it was a cold morning. In the 30’s. But then I think of the even colder days and the kids having to wait there on the bus. Will it be on time? Did it come early and I missed it? How late will it be?

Looking at those kids make me glad my mom was willing to drive me to school each day.

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