Category: Stuff (Page 20 of 65)

So I’m not writing like I promised myself. But here’s a lazy (so far) Memorial Day for me. Here’s what’s on tap:

• Weed Eat: It’s been staring at me for a while. But I need to get on it. I can load up the mp3 player and listen to a podcast. I usually try to listen to the RelevantMag podcast while weedeating. But I have a few LOST ones to catch up on. I need to move some dirt that’s in a pile from where I planted a tree last weekend too.
• Work Out: I’ve been neglecting that. And it seems my back is getting more and more stiff. Still to the point of a painful twinge if a bend just right (wrong?)
• Dodge storms and grill out: Supposed to grill and swim w/ some friends later this afternoon/evening. But it could be a stormy time. We’ll see. But good times could be had.
• Ride Bikes!: Not really me. But Addison has dropped the training wheels. Now she’s a free bird out there on her bike. I might walk w/ her while she rides the neighborhood loop.
• I need to read: I need to read a lot. Bible, of course. But a few youth ministry books. Some are re-reads. Some are new reads. And of course there’s a few general reads I want to fit in.

It seems like at the start of my day I can tell you about 28 hours of stuff I think I need to get done. But then I also put in a few hours of stuff that doesn’t really matter much and at the end of the day I’m thinking I still have some of the same stuff to handle.

Tonight is the season finale of LOST. It’s a 2 hour event. So that means that I’ll have to record it from 8 til 10, then stay up until midnight watching it. The Wife will try to convince me to come to bed and finish it tomorrow. But, c’mon, Honey! This is the season finale! And JJ Abrams has promised to blow everyone away.

I think LOST might actually be one of the best television shows ever. There have been a few times I wondered if it was starting to jump the shark. But no jumpage just yet. It has a great team of writers, a phenomenal following with all the online fan sites and theories. And some great Podcasts.

Here’s what I’m hoping to find out tonight:

• Is there an underwater hatch?
• Is Walt taller?
• Will Michael get smacked around some? (I hope he does. Maybe by Hurley. He anoys me. But his son was stolen, so I should be sympathetic, right?)
• Where has Desmond been?
• Was Desmond married or somehow connected to Libby?
• What happens when the button is not pushed?
• Was the plane crashed on purpose?
• Is Jack a brother to Claire?

Those are just a few.

Tomorrow is the baccalaureate service at church. So as the Director of Youth Ministries, I get to deliever the message at the 10:45 service. Yea me!

I’m going to be sharing some from Phillipians 4:5-9 and Colossians 3:17. It’s about doing whatever you do w/ excellence. Not just half heartedly doing it. Big giving it your all and doing it for the Lord.

I think we lots of times get so caught up in trying to find out exactly what God wants us to do when He’s thinking, “Just go do something and be outstanding at it and bring Me glory through it and your circle of influence!”  If it is being a coach or a architech or bus driver or store owner or market advisor or whatever….whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all to the glory of the Lord Jesus!

Now if I’ll just let my life’s walk actually reflect the talk!

So I’ve started reading Chazown. If I read this and go through the processes and procedures of the book, I should have a much better idea of my Chazown, or VISION, for my life…at least according to Craig Groeschel. I hope I stick it out. Because I know I need some more focus in my life. I know I need more direction. But more than anything, I think I just need to get out there and take some risks. Just grab some innitiative and ambition and go for it.

I was driving through town the other day and saw a little quote outside of a store. They’re usually VERY cheezy, but this one said, “Opportunity never knocks; it just answers the door when you knock” I thought that was pretty right on! We have to make our opportunity happen. And I think that’s what God wants from us too. Not to just bury our resources and hope they don’t go away, but to be aggressive in investing them and making some of them. Not for ourselves….but for HIM.

Sad thing is…I think sometimes I hear good ole Opportunity knock…and I might even answer the door. But I invite him in to sit down and talk instead of grabbing Opportunity and taking full advantage of it.

Dear God…please break these chains that seem to hold me back. I don’t want to be held back….

I started using Firefox a couple of years ago. I think it is better than IE. And I’m noticing more and more people using Firefox as well. Looking at the webstats I see it increasing quite a bit in usage.

Here’s a pretty funny reason to use Firefox. Watch the video.

I’ve not really been running that much, hadn’t run since the late night run last Tuesday. But felt pretty good going into the run last night.

But before the 5k, there was the One Mile Fun Run. Addie registered and ran it. The Wife ran it with her. I sat out. I wanted to save my energy for the 5k. In hindsight, it might not have been a bad idea to use that as a warmup. But she ran this one in 10:45. Over 30 improvement. Not bad for a 4 year old.
But when our race started, I was running w/ friends Cory and Alex. I thought it was probably about a 10 minute pace. My boss and pastor, Bob, was a bit behind us running with Mike Grove. Pretty soon they caught up to us and we were all running together. It became clear Bob was wanting to go on ahead, so Mike, Alex, Cory and I ran together having decent conversation along the way as Bob sped on ahead. The course was basically an out and back w/ a few loops through some neighborhoods. But there were no mile markers or people calling out times. I’m glad I had my watch w/ me. But even though I knew the time, I couldn’t tell how far.

But after a semi-dramatic finish I realized my time was somewhere around 27:40. So I took off about 5 whole minutes from two weeks ago. That’s not too bad of an improvement. But it was a fun night. We had a handful of people from the youth ministry and the church as a whole running. Even had around 10 or so people place I believe.

Running can be fun….sometimes.

Today, going through the mail, I seperated the keepers from the look at before throwing away from the rip up and throw away.

One in the rip up and throw away pile was a credit card application. One of those “you’ve already been approved” and telling me all these benefits on the envelope of why I’d want to be a part. But I have no need for it. So I ripped it up and asked my daughter to throw it away.

She did so, then came back saying, “I know you love Jesus. Why did you throw that away?” Turns out that this credit card was connected to Family Christian Bookstores. You can earn some credit or something by spending tons of money elsewhere. “That mail you ripped up had crosses on it. And I know you love Jesus. So why did you want to throw something about Jesus and crosses away?”

Sheesh…kids these days.

Late last night I signed up w/ my VPS. Then I went to bed. I was welcomed this morning by an email detailing all the stuff that was over my head. So I dove in. I think I’m getting the hang of it, but only because I am skimming the surface.

But I think I successfully transfered MissSportsTalk.com over to the new server and now I get to hurry up and wait. I am waiting on the DNS to propogate to the new servers. Hopefully all will be right in the world when I wake up in the morning (hopefully I get to sleep late too!). And hopefully there’s be no more annoying error messages that have plagued the site lately.

Tom Cruise/Katie Holmes baby thing. They named their little girl Suri because they apparently opened up a baby name book and it just leapt off the page at them. In their official release, Tom and Katie say the name means “red rose” in Persian and “princess” in Hebrew… Ummm… Er….. You guys were a little off the mark there. A Hebrew expert says Suri actually means “go away” when you use it toward a female, so it’s pretty fair to say that the new parents made a mistake here…By the way, Suri also means “pointy nose” in some Indian dialects and “pickpocket” in Japanese. So ultimately, Tom and Katie have named their kid “Go away, you little pointy-nosed pickpocket” Cruise. HI-larious.

I’m nervous about it. It’s a big step. But a step that I’ll have to make on two fronts.

MissSportsTalk.com is starting to get too busy to be hosted on it’s current server. I love the hosting company and their prices and their features. But I think I need more than they can offer. So I’m going to have to bump up to a Virtual Private Server. That costs more money.

Plus, I need more money. Seems expenses are starting to get close or exceed income. I know some of it is need of us tweaking our budget, but I need to take advantage of the potential that this site has for bringing in a little extra cash. So I’m going to attempt to put ads on MST.

This week I will switch to a new host, try to get the board upgraded to the latest software, and get ads placed on it. Then I’ll try to get it reskinned to look pretty much like it does right now.

Then we’ll see if I can find advertisers….