Random Saturday

-Follow up: Back in January during a Random Saturday post, I commented on my hope to stay as current as possible while getting older. I related it to facebook and other techie things. I then had to follow that up with an explanation...where I quoted a study by MIT on the demographics of Facebook. Yesterday I found this new article on the changing demographics of Facebook. Which is also ironically funny because my buddy Jason (Pastor J) just had his mother join Facebook last week and expressed to me some confussion as to how he should feel about that!

-Follow up #2: Also in January (and also during a Random Saturday post) I gave you an article about a Boy Scout who had earned all the merit badges that are currently offered. I found that to be pretty impressive. I just found a 10 year old girl from England who earned all the girl scout badges currently available in her country. Apparently for a 10 year old this is ridiculous.

-Seriously? Am I even considered a blogger anymore? All I really post these days are Monday updates and Random Saturdays. What's the point really? Every time I think something to post, I just don't. Pointless.

-Coffee Scoop - I like coffee a lot. I wouldn't consider myself a coffee snob. However after driving taxi for a few years and drinking a bunch of really bad coffee during that time, I fully appreciate GOOD coffee. I sometimes settle for lesser coffee, mainly because I'm a cheapskate and sometimes I just take what I can get. So I offer up to you coffee friends.....the SCIENCE of COFFEE.

-Cassette - I have in my basement well over 300 cassette tapes. Some of it is music that I still would listen to regularly. Oddly enough the stereo that came in mini-van we bought last summer has a cassette player (for the record it also has CD). I never really listen to the cassettes anymore unless I really have a hankering for something. These pictures made their rounds of the internet this week. It's an idea of something to do. Kind of like a lazy afternoon craft project.

-Bracket - When filling out an NCAA bracket, one should know something about teams in said bracket. It's just for fun and all, but I'm not doing good at all in my bracket fantasy league. What was I thinking?

-Pictures - Have you ever seen something and wished instantly that you had thought of it a couple years ago? I'm sure by now you've seen some of the videos of people who have taken their picture over the past couple years. Here or Here or Homer's version. ANYWAY...I found a rad picture set of a family. They started in 1976 with just husband and wife....and every year take a picture of each member of the family. VERY COOL. I wish I would've thought of it earlier.

-Tats - I don't have any tattoos. I'm too fickle for one thing....who knows if I'll like what I put on my body next week far less next year or when I'm 80. Also, I don't like pain at all. Also, I just don't want one bad enough. Here's a funny artist who created a funny kit though in case anyone's interested.


Dog does not want to play ball from Dave McG on Vimeo.

Where the Wild Things Are

Get ready. That is all

3/23 Monday update

the weekend that was:

-This weekend wasn't all that exciting. Be fore-warned.
-Friday I had the boys as always. We ran some errands in the morning, took naps, watched our afternoon movie, mom came home, dinner, play, bed.
-Saturday was another nothing day. As you know I've been trying to make Saturday my Sabbath rest day since Sunday is usually work for me. Marjorie wanted to get things done this Saturday so we butted heads all day.
-Mid-morning Corban and I drove to Jamestown. There's a small hockey shop there that has a cool cleaning machine for gear. It'll clean equipment without breaking it down (like most dry-cleaning stuff or home wash). I bought a new goalie glove awhile ago that was slightly used and I wanted it cleaned before I seriously use it (you never know what kind of fungus is in there). So we went to the hockey shop, then the hobby shop to look at train stuff for Corban. Then to Tim Horton's. I had previously won a free coffee in their Roll Up the Rim to Win contest. So we went to redeem it and get some donuts. I was kind of hoping to win the $10,000 but I settled for winning another coffee! See I'm a winner after all.
-Sunday morning was frustrating. There was a wedding at church on Saturday so all of the worship team's gear had to be packed up after practice Wed. night. We put it in an orderly fashion so Sunday morning it would all go up quickly. When I arrived early Sunday, a "helping hand" had moved all our stuff back downstairs haphazardly. So what could've been quick and painless became long and frustrating. I was a good boy and held my tongue though. Worship was awesome. Pastor Mike rocked another great sermon. It was kind of an "in-house" cleaning of sorts. He addressed some problems our church is facing and challenged us that if things didn't change we'd start dying. WOW! Great stuff.
-Sunday night we were back at the YMCA. We worked out a deal with a local guy to come in and use SCUBA gear with teens in the pool if they wanted. It was WAY cool. I hate water so I didn't participate in that, but it was cool seeing the smiles on kids faces. I got to play with my boys in the water though which was WAY fun too.

where i am at the moment: Home as always. just got back from Toddler Time with the boys. I'm about to make us some lunch.

on my to-do list this week: Last week went weird, so I need to clean up some messes. It also appears that this is the week for talking with teens. I've already been contacted by a couple that need to "talk" or need "my opinion". I'm hoping to pick out music past Easter this week...we'll see how that goes.

procrastinating about: I have two things that need to go in the mail...like last week. I also need to get our taxes in to our guy. That should've been done last week or two weeks ago.

book I'm in the midst of: On Friday I started "Jesus For President" by Shane Claiborne, and Chris Haw. I didn't totally agree with everything Shane had to say in "The Irresistible Revolution", but he does challenge my thinking (Andrea I know I told you I'd send you this book, I'll try to get it out this week....but you're in Disney World anyway...). I've already dove pretty hard into this book and so far like the way they make my mind work. Just for the record they also have a website, if you want to check that out.

music that seemed to catch my attention this past week: I think I'm going to change this category to "media" that had caught my attention. Just for the record. (We'll see if I remember that for next week or not) ANYWAY...music....Coldplay "Fix You". As much as it pains me to say this....I've also been drawn to "God of This City" which is really by a group called Bluetree, but made popular by Chris Tomlin. Tomlin's version is very.....Tomlin. The Bluetree version is real. There's a good chance our worship team will be doing that version.

grand revelations this past week: I'm glad Sunday night league hockey is done until Fall. It just opens my life up so much. I like coming home after youth group and relaxing with my wife rather than running off to an adrenaline rush.

how i’m feeling about this week: Not really looking forward to drama. Not looking forward to doing work that has to get done. That's the way of it though.

Random Saturday

-I find it funny that the number of people stopping by to see my blog on Saturday is much higher than other days of the week.

-There are a bunch of very specific blogs out there. Like super niche markets. ANYWAY...most of them are dumb or lame or just plain crazy...or all of the above. For some reason I find this one funny. Basically a guy sets up a camera all over the place, sets the 2 seconds delay and tries to get as far away from it as possible. So I guess it's just a bunch of pictures of a guys back side.

-My buddy Brandon (that's a link to his blog that he rarely updates) started a NCAA basketball fantasy bracket. We win nothing. We pay nothing. I know very little about college basketball. I filled out a bracket. It's amazing that just by doing that....I instantly almost care about the tournament this year!

-So I'm getting dumber. Once again this doesn't come as a shock to me. Just that there is now proof to back it up. I'm pretty pleased. Male brains start to decline around age 27...so basically I have no hope.

-This was all over the news this week. Some teenagers in Spain launched a balloon with a camera and some scensors into the stratosphere. They were able to take some amazing pictures of earth. The cool part is that they did it for around 80 dollars US. Now that's a science fair project I can get behind!

-This is something I found awhile ago and think it's really really cool. However I live in a part of the world that won't facilitate my involvement very much. The concept is simple. Take a picture using a digital camera. Take the digital card out and leave it where it'll be found....and then track the results on their website. It's called Photochaining. I'm contemplating starting a card here. Please let me know if you start one of your own. Let's get it going!

-You may or may not know this...but I am a Crayola freak. I have a GIANT collection of special edition crayon packs, a crayon maker, a Crayola truck, etc. Like...a lot. Since Crayola is celebrating 50 years of the box of 64, they came out with a new special box of 64. They asked students to name 8 new colors. I love promotions like that. The kids had some great colors: Giving Tree, Famous, Fun in the Sun, Best Friends, Super Happy, Happily Ever After, Bear Hug and my personal favorite....AWESOME. For more information on Crayola's colors over the years you can go HERE. For more on the history of Crayola as a company you can go HERE.

-Not having a shower all weekend, is a little bit annoying.

THIS IS REALLY REALLY FUNNY.

Broken

We rent. I kind of like it.....purely for lazy reasons. I don't have to mow the lawn. When something isn't working right...I don't have to figure out how it gets fixed.

Well our shower has been a problem for awhile now. Not a big problem...but our landlady (who is SUPER COOL for having to live next to our noise) is getting it fixed. Basically everything got ripped out and they're throwing up new stuff.

That begins said, there have been guys walking through our house all week long (which I'm not a big fan of as you can imagine)

So the other morning Corban looks into the bathroom and sees what you see above. He said something like, "Dad are they fixing our tub?" "Yeah it should be done in the next couple days." Then he said, "But why did they break things if they're fixing it?" Without totally thinking what I was saying, "Well sometimes things need to be broken before they can be fixed the right way." For some reason he was OK with that explanation.

As the day went along and I walked past our broken bathroom, I contemplated what I said to my son. I wonder if we're not often too proud to be broken. I don't like admitting that something's wrong. That I need to be fixed. I'm fine just the way I am. Status quo. I'm good to go. I can point to some major periods of my life where I wanted nothing to do with brokenness. My ego and my pride got in the way.

Pastor Mike teaches a lot on reconciliation and forgiving one another. I am constantly challenged by that. As the worship leader I try to select music that goes along with the general theme of the week. Can I just tell you that there are tons of songs about forgiveness and repentance as it deals with us and God....but very little (or I'm looking in the wrong places) the deal with forgiveness between ourselves. [I've joked with him recently that I'm just going to start writing songs about forgiveness so I have something ready for our fellowship next time he preaches on it]

I've never broken a major bone in my body. My understanding though is that the doctor has to "set" the bone just right so that it will heal properly. I've also heard of a doctor needing to re-break the bone because it's not healed properly. From what I've read, if the bone heals wrong, it might be very problematic, or possibly not useable.

If we're brutally honest with ourselves, we don't want God to point out problem areas in our lives that need ripped apart so we can get it fixed properly. If we're brutally honest with ourselves we don't want to ask forgiveness of people because that would also admit that we have problems in our lives. We're willing to let the bone set even if it's at a funny angle. We don't really want the dust and clutter of someone walking through our living room to fix the job the right way. We'll just let the mold and mildew rot areas of our lives out.

Please hear me when I say that this is self-examination, not condemnation. I'm not pointing fingers. I'm saying that far too often my pride hinders the needed brokenness in my life.

How about you? Am I off base here? Also, do you know any good worship songs/hymns that deal with person to person forgiveness and repentance?

3/16 Monday update

the weekend that was:

-Friday was the last day us youth pastors were at the Christian School for "Spiritual Emphasis Week". I took Corban and he was good. He played and watched a movie while we did our thing. I then swung by our awesome sitters house to pick up Tobiah. He was a wreck. Basically he's super congested and coughing goo.
-Saturday was do nothing day. Literally. I'd been going for a week....I needed nothingness. It was good. We went to Tim Horton's for dinner. It was a quality day.
-Sunday morning church stuff. The choir couldn't sing this week, so I roped two of our girls to sing with me during the offering. It went REALLY well. Pastor Mike's sermon ROCKED! He could've done a sermon series on the passage he used....and instead it was like Boom out of the park, Boom out of the park, Boom out of the park....point after point after point. He rocked it. The only downside to church was I had to keep yelling at two boys who were being noisy and distracting.
-Sunday afternoon some teens were playing ultimate frisbee in our "back yard". I really wanted to play but had a hockey game later, so I didn't. Apparently one of the kids, layed out for a disc, fell funny, and broke his collar bone. YIKES.
-So Sunday evening, as I've said my rag tag hockey team made the CHAMPIONSHIP GAME! So I got my youth volunteers to cover for me at youth group and went to play. The one thing I've loved about my team all year is that they're very low key. Lots of joking and talking in the locker room. We want to win all the time, but there is not pressure...which as a goalie is really nice. So this is the Championship....that we're not suppose to be in....and the locker room was the same as alway. Win or lose, we accomplished a lot. Also, we were playing the best team in the league...but they're good guys, and we've played well against them in the past. The first round of the playoffs we lost 2-1...which is a close low scoring game....we were hoping for that again.
So the game was back and forth. Lots of shots on goal for both teams. I was playing really well. I felt like I could see the puck well. Our defense gave up the puck to one of their O right in front of the net and he buried it. That was the second period....so after the second we were down 1-0. Before the third period I skated to our bench and said, "I have two things to say, one is really funny. The funny thing is...we're actually playing in the Championships. The second thing is....we're still very much in this!!" So our star defenseman scores part way into the third to tie it up. Then a little later he wraps it around their net and we GO UP ONE! However a little later one of their guys knocks a puck out of the air into my net. I made some crazy saves...fast breaks, etc...but there was no stopping that. So the score is tied. 42 seconds left in the game and their's a face off right next to our net. I said, "OK boys let's win this now". Then the craziest thing that's ever happened in my hockey career happened. I mean I have NEVER EVER seen this happen like this before. On the face-off both of their sticks clapped together with the puck. The puck shoots in the air in this little weird arch at the net and I didn't see it until it was past me. They win the game with 41 seconds left on the clock. It was a great game. Their team was super cool and congragulatory. I really would've loved to win.....losing like that stinks, but it's also one of those goals where there was nothing I could do...and everyone knows it. So once again, I'm a loser.

where i am at the moment: Home. Marjorie is off this morning. We're waiting for our homestudy lady to come do our "6month" evaluation this morning. Then later I get to take the boys in to the doctor.

on my to-do list this week: Other than picking music for Sunday, there's nothing "immediate" this week. However I really should do some long term planning stuff, that I don't get to do when I always have the immediate hanging over my head.

procrastinating about: Um.......

book I'm in the midst of: I'm between books. However my parents gave me another large stack so now I have a HUGE pile of books to get through.

music that seemed to catch my attention this past week: Starfield- Reign In Us.

grand revelations this past week: Tobiah puckers up for kisses. He knows we love it, so he's constantly puckering for kisses. Last night in the middle of the night he was up and wanted a bottle. So as he's drinking he spit it out of his mouth and puckered. I had to kiss him 8 times before he'd put it back in. My only thought was this....I'm going to miss this.

how i’m feeling about this week: GREAT! The weather is suppose to be nice (for here) and I don't have a ton on my plate this week!

Sunday

I found this the other day. At church this Lent season we're really focusing on who Christ was and what he did for us. (I know that seems obvious, but we're really trying to make it personal and spending much more time reflecting). This is simple. I like it.

This Just In

I misplaced this but re-found it.

Random Saturday

To be fair, this weeks Random Saturday will be short. Since I really haven't been functional most of the week, I haven't spent a lot of time searching or thinking.....which both lead to these type of posts. This is what you get.

-I've said it before and I'll probably say it again.....I'm pretty sure there is cocaine in Girl Scout cookies.

-My boys (particularly my youngest) has a hard enough time knowing what is food and what is not food. Tobiah puts everything in his mouth. That being said THIS IS A BAD IDEA! On a related note I heard this on the radio the other day and then found the article online. Looks like some other folks have a hard time knowing food and non-food too.

-Ghana has to be proud. They will be represented at the WINTER OLYMPICS. Only 5 years after first seeing snow, Kwame "The Snow Leopard" Nkrumah-Acheampong qualified for the Winter Olympics as a skier. Rocking!

-This is silliness. It's like Netflix for toys. You don't buy toys....you rent them. Seriously, who's doing this?

-So now there's proof. Morning coffee tastes better in your favorite mug or cup. I knew it to be true, but now it's official. Good to know.

One Week

Who needs a Monday update? I will now attempt to summarize the past week in one post. (sit back and relax this could get long)

Last Friday left for camp. This is a retreat the area youth pastors have been doing for 3 years now. Bunch of churches, great kids...meeting God. We do our retreat a bit different than most teen retreats. Instead of planning a cool game theme and then fitting in some "worship times"....we plan lots of General Sessions, workshops, Bible studies...and then figure out where we can throw in a few game slots and free time. The point of the weekend is discipleship plain and simple.

So Friday night kids show up. I lead music. It was my session to speak, so I brought that. We then went up to the other building and I lead some crazy game challenges until midnight. I slept 6 hours and then it was Saturday.

Ate breakfast. Lead music for the general session...then things started going south. I started getting a crazy back ache. It grew worse and worse and I started feeling miserable. My whole stomach/intestines started feeling like they were on fire or at least like an alien inhabited them. By the worship I was literally laying on the stairs at the front of the chapel trying to participate in a group discussion. I then skipped lunch and went to bed for the afternoon.....I slept through the next workshop and woke up for dinner...which I also didn't eat. LUCKILY, we had already schedule another group to come in and lead music for the evening General Session. I just sat at the back of the chapel in a chair.

I skipped the "talent show", which I understand was fabulous. I went to bed at 10. Now when I went to bed I was freezing. The room I had was like a hotel room with nice beds, but I still undid a sleeping bag to pile on for an extra blanket. Sometime in the middle of the night...I think 3 amish (that doesn't say AMISH)....I was burning up...and it wasn't a fever.....somehow the heat in my room was just full blast on and the room had to be between 90 and 100 degrees. The thermostat was unreachable upstairs in a locked office. I was so weak from not eating and from sickness that I could barely get the vents closed and get back in bed.

Sunday came. I was a little better, but by now hadn't eaten in 24 hours. I ate half a piece of toast for breakfast. I lead music for the Session, but was then wiped out. By lunch I was exhausted, but ate a meatball sub and man was it good.

I called my hockey team captain to tell him to find another goalie for that night. He said he'd call me back before 5 to let me know what he got. Camp ended at 2 and I was out of there. I slept a little at home. At 5 the captain called to say there were no goalies to be had.....could I suit up at all? By this point I was feeling slightly better and I have this stupid desire to not let my team down....so what choice did I have. I played.

Now here's the weird part of that...our team wasn't even a team at the beginning of the season. We are made up of hodge podge players because they needed an extra team to make it even. We barely won any games all year. We were in the basement all year. However....somehow during the playoffs we did pretty darn well. So well in fact that before playing Sunday night we had a chance to play in the Championship game this coming week. We need two teams (who were playing each other) to keep it close and we needed to take care of business. So guess what? We won. AND....our team of pick up players....is playing in the CHAMPIONSHIP GAME this week!

Monday-Friday of this week....for whatever dumb reason...us youth pastors agreed to do "Spiritual Emphasis Week" at the county Christian School. NEVER do a retreat and then do another week of teaching and music. It was a solid week out there every morning....but man are we all drained. It's like we've done a week and a half of summer camp or something. The major plus is that we work so well with each other that we not only joke while the other person is speaking, but add and share and read each others minds in how we're going to present a message.

So back to my health.....I was still sick Monday and part of Tuesday....by Wed, I felt better but was really weak. I'm definitely better, but I'm just exhausted. I'm really looking forward to doing nothing tomorrow. I need rest.

There it is a week in a post.

Back

I've been down and out (quite literally) but I"m sort of back.

This is with out a doubt the coolest picture I've seen this week. Doesn't look like much right? Well maybe you don't recognize VANILLA ICE and MC HAMMER!!!! They played one night together in Orem Utah. I wish I would've known....I would've been begging you all for plane fare to make it there!!!!

Another Apology

I'm always apologizing. I have several posts that had good intentions for this week. I'm just swamped with the youth retreat that starts tomorrow. There won't be a Random Saturday this week either. For those still stopping by waiting for something new.....there's a chance I'll have something this weekend, or maybe not....if I do, it'll probably won't be anything normal.

I'll try to be back on track next week. (this is one of my favorite pictures of all time. it was October of the year we brought Corban home)

3/2 Monday update

the weekend that was:
-After looking at our calendar last week, we realized we haven't seen my parents since before Christmas and probably wouldn't see them until after Easter if we didn't go this weekend. So Marjorie took Friday off of work and we drove down Thursday night.
-We realized that in that short amount of time Tobiah has changed quite a bit. He's crawling all over and is pulling himself up to his feet...and will walk if assisted. He's on the move.
-We were really looking forward to going out to Chinese food. In Warren there are several Chinese buffets.....but the food is just OK because it's a buffet. We were going to this AWESOME Chinese/Japanese restaurant that was the real deal. That was the plan anyway.
-Marjorie woke up Friday morning not feeling really that well. Not bad, but not well. By Friday afternoon she was VERY VERY sick. So needless to say she wasn't going to be eating Chinese.
-We had a wonderful time with my parents (well at least the boys and I did)
-We drove home Saturday night. I had my first Shamrock Shake of the year on the way home. YUMMY!
-Sunday was a little different. Pastor Mike and I have been planning out our Lenten season for awhile now. A couple weeks ago he informed me that he was going on a mens retreat the first Sunday (this week) and I was on my own. I guess it's only fair though, because I'm gone next weekend with our area youth retreat and he's on his own! It went well though.
-Sunday night youth was good. Good teaching time. CRAZY fun game tonight.
-Hockey game: WE WIN! We beat one of the better teams in the league and we're in the hunt to play in the championship game! We need to win next week.

where i am at the moment: Home. It's 1:40 am and I got home from hockey a little bit ago.

on my to-do list this week: This coming weekend is our area wide youth retreat. My to-do list continues to grow. I can't even put it all here....it's ridiculous.

procrastinating about: I don't have time for procrastination this week. Honestly. I need to be head down, nose to the grindstone all week. (that nose to the grindstone things seems like it'd hurt and not be much fun)

book I'm in the midst of: Even though I have tons to do this week, I'm almost done with Crazy Love and really want to get that finished before the retreat....we'll see what time looks like.

music that seemed to catch my attention this past week: Um....not much I don't think.....I listened to the new Death Cab for Cutie album once or twice.

grand revelations this past week: My boys are growing up crazy fast.

how i’m feeling about this week: Lots to do. Lots of stress. I need to get good sleep so I don't get sick.