Weekly Wanderings

The Tech-World

Different Online Social Networks Draw Different Age Groups: Report - I
knew it... I'm surrounded by 12 year olds!

8 ways to shoot video like a pro - with everyone having digital
camcorders and YouTube I think it's about time that we learn how to use them
like a pro would. 

'Tower of Babel'
translator made - image mouthing words in English and they come out
Spanish.  That's what they hope to do.

Personalized
news via the web - Northwestern Univ. is working on using TTS
(text-to-speech) technology, rss feeds and some visual graphics to deliver
your own personalized news show of all your blog posts.  It's
interesting and will probably be mainstream in the next year or so.

iPod, Bye-bye click wheel? - iPod is going away from the ionic click
wheel.  Why? Why! Why!!!!!

The Wikipedia and the Death of Archaeology - this is a very good point.
Will their really be a need (or at least as much need) for Archaeology in
the future?

IdeaWins.com
- have an business idea, but need some help organizing all the details. 
MS has free accounting software to get you started.  If any tries to
use it tell me how you liked it or disliked it. 

Ads, Ads..
everywhere they're Ads! - check out this interesting article on the
history of computer Ads.

Hell.com Takes Bids - Anyone?  No?

America's Internet Disconnect - The U.S. is the places 15th in broadband
communication.  Potentially loosing our economy $500 billion

"The Post-Modern Internet,
Web 2.0, and its leaders have a responsibility to mature in their power"
- Interesting...

Video Gaming

PS3 Controller Flimsy, Wii Controller Fun - 1/2 the price, twice the
fun. LOVE THE Wii!  LOVE IT!

20
Worst Games Ever! - Any other games that you think should of made the
list?  E.T. did suck.

Nintedo Up, Sony Down - another reason to Wii!

Cook An Egg on a Xbox 360! - no joke.. there is a video of it.

Faith, Church and Issues Facing Them

Every right idea is eventually the wrong idea - oh how true, oh how
true.

Ted
Haggard, Mark Driscoll & the Emerging Church - Over the Ted Haggard
scandal much as been talked about.  Mark Driscoll, pastor of Mars Hill
Church of Seattle commented on it and everyone and their mother (not mine,
but probably yours) was blogging about it. Especially the emerging church;
Scot McKnight,

Bob Hyatt, etc.  Today Mark

addressed his previous post.

Emergent Church: Friend or Foe? - Dan Kimball led a session at a
Outreach conference on "EC- frined or foe"?  What a pointless question. 
That's like saying Contemporary (or Traditional) Church: Friend or Foe...
the truth is their are some friends and foes in all of these kinds of
churches and I'm still going to do my best to befriend both people any how

Oxfam versus Starbucks - maybe Starbucks global practices aren't
as bad as everyone thinks.  I said 'maybe'

McLaren set to speak
at Open Door Community Church - Open Door is a church pastured by gay
pastors.  I don't know how I feel about this.  I guess I don't
have a problem with him speaking there, but I think he (or I) should address
the sexual sin. I mean I would address other sexual sins, if I knew about
them so I would have to in this case also.  I would however do it in
the most graceful way I could think of.  So, I personally would turn
this speaking engagement down and just befriend those at Open Door including
the pastors.  

Course Outline for Story We Find Ourselves In - A course written for
teenagers to accompany Brian McLaren's book, "The Story We Find Ourselves
In"

Terra Nova CC new site! - Finally my friend Jason Allison church plant
finally launched their website.

N. T. Wright
speaks in Toronto (Audio) - I always enjoy N. T. Wright, especially when
he sings a Bob Dylan song.  He's a genius and a scholar.  More
importantly a humble follower of Christ.

FAMILY GUY:
Vol. 4

I know it's risky and has some unnecessary content, but still I enjoy it
because of all of the pop-culture references and the awkward pauses and
production style.  Here is one of my favorite pop-culture references from
Season 4:Vol 3.

Who remembers watching the original video,
Take On Me by A-ha?  I remember being mesmerized by it.  Here
watch it.

H.I. (wife and mom style)

H.I. is the
abbreviation for Home Improvement.  This week Sondra and my mom have been
working on the kitchen cupboards.  What a weird word cupboards... are they
boards for cups or can I put other things in their too?  Sorry, ADHD at
it's best.  They cleaned, removed doors/panels, sanded, primed and painted. 
It looks nice and the best part is that it doesn't have a weird stinky smell
that it once had.  Good stuff.  I'm so blessed and thankful (getting
in the holiday spirit a little early) to have such an amazing family, on both
sides, and an amazing wife.  It's nice to come home to freshly painted cabinets.   Our  walls are going to be yellow!  I can't wait.  They call me mello-yello!

Jonny Lang
   Turn Around

I've always been a big fan of
Jonny Lang.
When he started his career when he was 14 and was opening up for B.B. King
by the time he was 15. Jonny has also opened for the likes of
Aerosmith and Rolling Stones. Now he's 25. Recently (in the last
couple years) he became a follower of Christ. His music is by far the
best stuff out there, right now. Both musically and lyrically.
Every song has a great message behind it with some seriously talented
musicianship. It's like a parable to music. "Turn Around" is the best album I've heard this year. My
good friend Lee described his music this way. "It's like all the best parts
of John Mayer and Kirk Franklin in one." I have to agree.

Jonny played in Columbus last Thursday.
I wanted to go, but my wallet/budget wouldn't agree with my will to go.
My favorite songs are Bump In The Road, Thankful, Only A Man, Anything Is
Possible, It's Not Over, and On My Feet Again (now playing). I'm sure you'll get to hear plenty songs from Jonny on this blog in the near future.

 Sardis

Speaking on Sunday mornings has been such a blessing to me. Spoke this week
(again with Andrew) on 1 of the 7 churches of Revelation, Sardis. Sardis
is very different from the other 7, but is very similar to many churches in
America. I said many not all. No video this week. Only Audio.
Below is a link to the PowerPoint, could be helpful to those of you who would
like visual. Towards the end of the teaching time we always open the floor
for questions. This week was very different... Just listen if your
interested.

          Click here download PPT - Sardis

Here are
some comments I got after the service:
  "You're weird, in a good way." - JG (I have no idea
what that meant)
  "You remind me of JG <quoted above>, you pace like him."
(who's weird now... j/k)
  "I'm glad you didn't say anything more about worshiping a 'big woman'" - several women

Arrived just in time to hear the starting 5 announced. Got to our seats to find a nice magazine of what's going on with the Cavs and other teams.

The seats were amazing, so easy to see how freakishly large and sweaty the guys were.
<<Lebron and Paul Pierce pictured above>>

The Cavs got off to slow start and where down 25-15 to the Celtics at the end of the 1st
<<Made us sad.>>

By half they were down 34-48. Sondra and I went to the bathroom and when we came back they had the 1st half stats print out for us.

The 3rd quarter had it's ups and downs falling behind by 25pts but gained some of the ground back going into the 4th. At the beginning of the 4th it was 78-60 with the Celtics on Top. Cavs went on a mad run making and got on top with 3mins left in the game, but only by 2 or 3. It came down to 1.3 seconds and it looked like a for sure victory for the Cavs. Cavs shot a free throw and missed (on purpose) so the clock would run out and it did!
Confetti everywhere! It was great. Then I thought to myself... I wonder what they'd do if they shot of the
confetti to early? Would they clean it up. Then I hear a few seconds later, put 1.3 seconds back on the clock. Do to a foul line violation the Celtics will have the ball with 1.3 secs left. They were struggling to get all the
confetti of the court, but got it after a few minutes of hustle and bustle. The Celtics in bounded a little over half court to Paul Peirce who shot it. It went halve way down before hits bounced around and wiggled out. Cavs one after all. What a night, what a game, what seats!

Congrats to my long time friend, (as of 3 years ago, I think that's a long time friend) Carl on becoming the the director for YFC for Mid Ohio. He's the one in the bottom right corner of the picture. I pray that Carl's vision and presence at YFC will impact our schools and ignite a new generation of Christ followers to change the world. Check out www.prayforateen.org and partner with them if you felt led to.

  Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira

This past Sunday believe it or not they let me teach again. No real slip ups. We talked about 3 of the 7 churches that Jesus addresses in Revelation. I talked context and Andrew talked about application. It's amazing how much clear the bible speaks when you here the context that it was written in. If you interested and have 45mins to spare click play.