My Beautiful Family - We miss football season!

5 years later

Notice anything? After 5 long years of Beta Google has lifted the "Beta" tag. Today is a monumental day as they have lifted the tag on all Google products...

In true Google form though in "Labs" you can turn it back on :-)

Gotta love 'em!

RIP Billy Mays

I loved his show "Pitchmen"

Pallbearers at Billy Mays funeral the other day all wore blue shirts in a tribute to the commercial king.
His Dad, his son (both also named Billy Mays) and his business partner Sully among the pallbearers...
Really sad!

I love my country!

Today we put aside politics and celebrate our Nations birth. This may be one of the best performances of the National Anthem I have ever heard!

Excellent Video!

Watch and discuss

Public Service Message

I know I have not posted in a while but I am compelled to post this consumer warning. Being the gadget hound that I am I pre-ordered Blackberry Storm from Verizon.

I was so excited to have something on the Verizon network that compared to the iPhone... (Help me I am trapped on Verizon!!!)
I eagerly awaited this phone and read many positive and some even glowing reviews about this amazing new device. LIES ALL LIES!!! These guys must be getting paid off to give this thing positive reviews.. the only decent feature on this phone is the camera and even that takes about 5 seconds to snap a pic. I think they must have been slipped some sort of hallucinogens and given iPhones to review. This is the only explanation for such positive reviews. It it is the worst phone I have ever had (and I have had a lot of terrible phones) The touch screen with a click that they all rave about is a joke. You have to push so hard it hurts after a few minutes of typing. The internet browser is terrible and almost every function on the phone is sluggish to respond. Don't even get me started on how bad the typing is... in portrait mode the only way to type is "sure type" which is terrible enough on a non qwerty phone much less the absolutely inaccurate screen of the Storm. I could go on and on about feature after worthless feature, but thankfully Verizon has a return policy and this worthless piece of junk is going back on Tuesday! For all of you waiting in line for a Storm... stop... step away from the hype...I want my Curve back... truthfully I just want an iPhone... :-( Verizon, what were you thinking when you turned down Apple's initial offer to distribute their technical work of art?

BTW I tested myself typing this post on the Storm... gave up after about an hour and collapsed into a sobbing heap clutching my beautiful iPod Touch and praying it would magically turn into it's cooler sibling that also makes phone calls... All you iPhone owners out there just hold your dear one close tonight and be glad that you are not trapped in phone hell like me...

Seriously???

Brand new machine...

First startup

This is the most hilarious error ever!



For those that don't get it... Windows Explorer is being flagged as a possible virus :-)

This is one of the coolest things I have seen in a long time!

I love Adam and Jamie from the Mythbusters TV show. Me and my kids watch this show faithfully. Here they are demonstrating the power of a GPU. Don't worry if you are not a geek you will still like this :-)

Unstuck and misc Olympic thoughts

Ok so last time I was Stuck in Portland.... for a year (in blog world anyway...)

This time I thought I would take a mini blog break again while Stuck in Witchita

Been going like crazy the last couple weeks and trying to cram as much Olympics in as I can.
A few truly random Olympic thoughts:

• Phelps is awesome... he is the Chuck Norris of sports  

 

• Bela Karoly is Bob Costa's personal comment grenade... he just pulls the pin and then  watches in mock horror... seriously... Bela says what we are all thinking... Yes we all think the Chinese girls average age is 12 (one of them is missing a baby tooth!) Yes the judging stinks... see next comment

• Alicia Sacramone got robbed! The North Korean went out of bounds and the Chinese girl fell... ROBBED!!! Alicia you are a medal winner in our eyes!
  
• The Nancy Grace sound- alike in synchronized diving is truly annoying... I mute the sound while I watch
  
• Andrea Kremer the woman who interviews after swimming events is HORRIBLE!!! Seriously I think there is someone in the truck daring her to ask stupid questions or something... "So what was your goal in this event?" ummmm winning? Or the worst was her interview of the athlete whose dad travelled to Beijing while battling cancer... she is either really gutsy or just dumb.
• I am convinced the commentators all went to some sort of Chinese brainwashing school before the olympics... they come off as anti-american... Except my boy Bela :-)

 

• OK I am tired of hearing about the opening ceremonies... yes they were awesome... awesomely robotic...with a dash of communist evil thrown in... really... when your options are success or working as the lead paint specialist in a toy-making sweat shop factory with the 12 year olds that did not make the gymnastics team... you tend to work really hard to make sure your little box goes up and down or beat your drum at the right tempo... I am so sad for the chinese people... extreme communism with faux capitalism make for a scarily impressive Olympics. Now if they could only get the "volunteers" to show up to fill all of these "sold-out" venues. Have you seen how empty most of the events are?  The best example of my horror at their quest for perfection is these girls below... one a perfect picture of beauty and grace.. the other a beautiful singer but not attractive enough for the communist regime... DISGUSTING!
  

 

I am enjoying the Olympics but the IOC should be ashamed of awarding these games to a country with such a terrible human rights record. 

I believe in our country and I am proud to be an American!! Go USA!!!

Stuck in Wichita

This weather map is apparently why I am still in Wichita, Kansas instead of home with my family in Idaho right now... Ordinarily this would not be the airlines fault... but with United Airlines it is their fault... OK seriously you put hubs in San Francisco, Chicago, Denver, Cincinnati, and Washington DC... Could you pick worse cities for your hubs? I mean c'mon there is ALWAYS major weather in at least one of those cities...

I am here visiting clients from Gracepoint Church in Wichita which is an incredible church and a fun project. I flew in (on 2 delayed United flights!) on Sunday evening and we got up early and drove down to OKC with the church team and contractors to visit churches for the day. Started with visiting my PEEPS in Norman from Journey Church where Robin and I spent some of our best years in ministry helping from the early days. It is awesome to see what Clark and the team are doing. They are such an innovative church!

Rod Conant, Yours Truly, Clark Mitchell, and Bryson Butts (Pastor of Gracepoint)

I will post more about the trip later with pics, but we saw Journey, 3 campuses of Life Church and a really cool new facility for Trinity Fellowship in Yukon, OK. Spent the day today back in Wichita with the team at Gracepoint and then headed to the airport... now surfin wifi and waiting to go back to the airport in the AM to head home... wish me luck... I am on Frontier so maybe I will have better experience... Did I mention it was 107 degrees with about 85 percent humidity? I wanna go home!

STOP IT!

 seriously... Pop Psychology wants to dig into every detail from the past and process and reprocess it.  "Get over it!"



Sometimes this really is what I need in my own life.. whether it is a bad mood, selfpity, frustration, lack of patience, whining... I just need to "Stop It!"

I wish I had a tube of this right now!

This is awesome! I am going to buy a caseload!!!

You gotta love it!

Thanks Mike!

My man John Daker on American Idol!

Mac to School

I find it incredibly entertaining that on the Microsoft site for back to school with Microsoft Office it features a MacBook Pro with Office 2008... My personal take is that the Office Team realizes what a failure Vista is as well :-)

For Tracy

In response to this post




Happy Birthday Tracy and God bless you "Unheard Melodies"!

"Watch out for Knuckles!"

I was in the drive thru at my regular Starbucks today and was reminded of some sage advice I received from my dad many years ago.

One of the baristas has just returned from a missions trip to china and we began to discuss her trip and how it went. Inevitably any conversation about travel to foreign countries ends up with the topic of the local cuisine. She was surprised at how much she disliked the food... I mean who doesn't like chinese food?

We always are surprised as Americans that the ethnic foods we love here in the States are not the same in their countries of origin. I absolutely love Japanese food for instance, but in my travels in Japan I lost weight.... really... I was starving! The things I thought of as traditional Japanese food like Sushi, Teppanyaki, etc... were not to be found? Instead 101 ways to cook tofu...

Anyway... as me and my barista were commiserating on our culinary misgivings I remembered this pertinent fatherly advice I mentioned earlier. My Dad as a world missions traveler extrordinaire while always wanting to be polite to his various hosts in missions travels had this to say... "Watch out for knuckles... this is where I draw the line" Good advice dad... good advice. Think about it...

One of my favorite pics I took a couple years ago :-)

Not too many animals with knuckles... he was speaking in a remote jungle village in India when he was given a bowl of soup... with knuckles... and fingers... I think it is important to follow this sage advice. I would also learn the local language for words like:

Brain

Innards

Stomach

Intestine


You get the idea... enjoy your travels... and watch out for the knuckles!

Check this out# 6

World's oldest Bible goes online

from the website

Codex Sinaiticus

Codex Sinaiticus is one of the most important books in the world. Handwritten well over 1600 years ago, the manuscript contains the Christian Bible in Greek, including the oldest complete copy of the New Testament. Its heavily corrected text is of outstanding importance for the history of the Bible and the manuscript – the oldest substantial book to survive Antiquity – is of supreme importance for the history of the book. [Find out more about Codex Sinaiticus.]

 

WOW! This is a really cool use of the web! Imagine the world's oldest manuscripts, books, art, sculpture in the most accessible museum in the world... the web. 

It will happen!

Dear Megan,

Megan,

You started 4th grade today (Year round school) I was driving to work and I had the sudden realization that my little girl is half way to independence... halfway to the day you might leave for college! I am so proud of the young woman you are becoming and I am even more challenged today with my responsibility to disciple, love on and spend time with my kids! I truly see you developing into a Proverbs 31 woman of God!

I love you Megan and I am so PROUD of you!



Daddy

subconjunctival hemorrhage

OK so I went with Robin and a bunch of friends to see the new Batman movie... in IMAX (Sit far away from the screen)



The movie was great... INTENSE! SO intense I got one of these..



Not sure if the movie had anything to do with it... but my eye looks disgusting!

It doesn't really hurt but the constant blood and drainage is a bit annoying :-) I was pretty freaked when we got to the ER because I only have one good eye... for those that know me well I am basically blind in my left eye so when anything goes on in my right eye I get a little paranoid... My BP was pretty high when they were examining me... once they told me I was OK it went to normal...



Good times!

Too Perfect

Addiction safe...

The official list of Starbucks closings is out...  I feel for my friends who are near Boise State at the loss of the University and Capitol Blvd store, and for those who duck into the Fred Meyers at Fairview and Locust Grove.



MY STARBUCKS IS SAFE!!!

 

How do I love thee...

OK first... anyone who knows me at all knows what a geek I am... I may just be really tired, but the world changed last night!
At around 1am Apple finally got around to us lowly iPod Touch owners and gave us the magical 2.0 software update. The update has a few cool features but HOLY COW!!!! The app store and the new Apps available are AMAZING!!! Here is a glimpse of some of the apps I downloaded

I am still playing (and tired from late night downloads) but here are some of my faves.

1. YouVersion Bible
2. Remote (Control your computer iTunes with your iPod Touch)
3. Paper Football (C'mon what a classic!)
4. MotoRacer (Uses the accelerometer to ctrl your motorcycle on a road race)
5. Zenbe Lists (To Do, Shopping and much more)
6. Super Monkey Ball (You have to see it to understand)
7. iTip (Tip Calculator)

So many more!!!
It took my pretty cool music and video player and turned into an addiction!
Way to go Apple! You set an impossibly high bar last night... now to figure out how to switch the church account from Verizon to ATT... must have iPhone 3G!!!

Check This Out #5

This 1's 4 Tracy.
4 all of u trying to cram more nonsense in2 a 160 char txt msg.

thsrs

Check This Out #4

For all of my graphics and video peeps. This tool is really cool

Come to the bright side

Anyone who knows me knows of my love of all things Apple. With the number of people I have rescued from the dark BSOD Microsoft world I present...

Tips for switching

and this

Enjoy!

Check this out #3

Dan Kimball includes a couple of letters in a recent blog post that I found interesting. Not sure if these can be substantiated as fact, but take a look... it sounds about right...

"I am no music scholar, but I feel I know appropriate church music when I hear it. Last Sunday's new hymn - if you can call it that - sounded like a sentimental love ballad one would expect to hear crooned in a saloon. If you insist on exposing us to rubbish like this - in God's house! - don't be surprised if many of the faithful look for a new place to worship. The hymns we grew up with are all we need."

Of course, this letter was written in 1863, and the song they were talking about was "Just as I Am". Here's another one...

“What is wrong with the inspiring hymns with which we grew up? When I go to church, it is to worship God, not to be distracted with learning a new hymn.  Last Sunday’s was particularly unnerving.  The tune was un-singable and the new harmonies were quite distorting.”

This letter was written in 1890 and about the hymn “What A Friend We Have In Jesus”.


ht to Todd Rhoades

Right where I am at...

Perry Noble posted this today... I think he and I are getting the same downloads... This is right where I am right now

Four Leadership Questions That Are Stretching Me

Here are four questions that I wrote down last Friday that the Lord is using to stretch me…

1. What do I need to stop doing? Every leader should ask themselves this question about once a month. If we are not careful our plates will become loaded up with things we feel like we have to do rather than the things we are called to do…and we begin to operate our lives out of obligation rather than celebration. (When a leader ceases to celebrate his life/work because of all he feels he has to do–there is a problem.) So, I’m making that list…it’s not going to be easy…but there are some things that must go…
2. Do I always have to be right? One of the things the Lord has convicted me of lately is that I have always felt a silly desire to prove myself and show the world how “right” I am. My primary calling by God is obedience…not defiance of those who disagree with me. This question has caused me to slow down when someone brings up something that I do not disagree with…I ask is it worth the discussion…is it a matter of personal preference or Scriptural interpretation…will it impact the vision, you know, those sorts of things. As I am growing as a leader I feel less and less the need to be right all of the time. (By the way…the leader who always needs to be right will drive the leaders around him away.)
3. Am I helping people around me succeed? If I am successful in life…then yea for me. But if those around me are successful…THAT will define me as a leader. People will not remember me for what I accomplish…but they will remember me for what I helped them to accomplish. And…I SERIOUSLY want everyone around me to live a life beyond their dreams and become who God created them to be…and I am SOLD OUT to that.
4. Am I speaking positively of other people? I had a friend once who would not allow you to say a positive thing about another pastor or leader. Seriously, it didn’t matter who you were talking about they would say, “Yeah…that person is great and all, but…” To be honest…I always wondered what they said about me. One of the signs of a secure leader is that they can speak positively of other people without having to slam them at the same time. Those are just a few things the Lord is using to stretch me!

Check this out #2

OK now maybe 3 of you that read my blog will understand this (not trying to be condescending but lets be real folks! I am an uber geek!)

Let me know in the comments how you think this little bit of news will change the web.

Check this out!

In Alaska

In Alaska working on a client project and  my daughter Megan came along with me... we have a video blog and would post more but staying with my parents up on the mountain... really slow internet :-) Says high speed on the modem... pretty much dial up...