I guess I'm a raging liberal now

Well, it's true, I've gone over to the darkside and there's no coming back. Thanks to Judy Rich for blogging about this survey, I found it's results both interesting and disturbing at the same time. It appears that I have the most things in common with Hillary, but some of the things I agree with her on I don't consider very important. So now I'm stuck and don't know what to do. I think the big issue that I agree with her on is Universal Health Care. I think that when I marked that down I probably pushed her over the top. Here are the results of my test and a link so you can take it yourself. Let me know how you score!

Below are the candidates ranked by how much you agree with their stances.

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	Hillary Clinton Score: 34	Agree Immigration Stem-Cell Research Health Care Line-Item Veto Energy Gun Control Environment Education	Disagree Iraq Taxes Abortion Social Security Marriage Death Penalty
	Barack Obama Score: 29 Video	Agree Immigration Stem-Cell Research Health Care Line-Item Veto Energy Gun Control Environment	Disagree Iraq Taxes Abortion Social Security Marriage Death Penalty Education
	John McCain Score: 29	Agree Iraq Immigration Taxes Abortion Social Security	Disagree Stem-Cell Research Health Care Line-Item Veto Energy Marriage Death Penalty Gun Control Environment Education
	Mike Gravel Score: 28	Agree Immigration Stem-Cell Research Health Care Death Penalty Gun Control Environment	Disagree Iraq Taxes Abortion Social Security Line-Item Veto Energy Marriage Education
	Mitt Romney Score: 28	Agree Iraq Taxes Stem-Cell Research Abortion Energy Marriage	Disagree Immigration Health Care Social Security Line-Item Veto Death Penalty Gun Control Environment Education
	Dennis Kucinich Score: 27	Agree Stem-Cell Research Health Care Line-Item Veto Energy Death Penalty Gun Control Environment	Disagree Iraq Immigration Taxes Abortion Social Security Marriage Education
	Rudy Giuliani Score: 22	Agree Iraq Taxes Stem-Cell Research Social Security Line-Item Veto Energy	Disagree Immigration Health Care Abortion Marriage Death Penalty Gun Control Environment Education
	Ron Paul Score: 20	Agree Taxes Abortion Line-Item Veto Death Penalty	Disagree Iraq Immigration Stem-Cell Research Health Care Social Security Energy Marriage Gun Control Environment Education
	Mike Huckabee Score: 19 Video	Agree Abortion Social Security Marriage	Disagree Iraq Immigration Taxes Stem-Cell Research Health Care Line-Item Veto Energy Death Penalty Gun Control Environment Education
	John Edwards Score: 14 Video	Agree Stem-Cell Research Health Care Energy Education	Disagree Iraq Immigration Taxes Abortion Social Security Line-Item Veto Marriage Death Penalty Gun Control Environment

Take the Quiz!

-Jeff-

Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed

Here's a couple quick thoughts for you today, enjoy!

I stumbled across this cool looking video trailer today. Ben Stein (I had no idea he was a Christian) is creating a documentary that talks about the "blacklisting" that is occurring of Creation Scientists. In the video he makes the point that if darwinists were confidant in their own views, they wouldn't feel the need to squash creationists. I can't speak to any sort of conspiracy that's happening, but why won't they let creation science be taught in a public school class room?

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In other news on the creationist front, an article was published recently by a New England newspaper that criticized Creationists. Here is a quote from Ken Ham, Founder of Answers in Genesis, that he posted on his blog:

In a mocking news piece by a well-known columnist with a New England paper, the writer discusses the election and statements made by one candidate indicating his belief in Creation. The columnist then makes statements concerning the belief that the Creation Week in Bible was seven literal days:

It’s wrong. Dead wrong.

Seven days is wrong, even as a metaphor.

Seven days is wrong as duration.

Seven days is wrong as sequence.

Then, obviously to imply they should not be allowed to do so, he says, “These people vote.”

I think it's important to see the battle lines being drawn all around us, but standing up and complaining won't help anything. If we want to see the tide change in our post-christian society, the answer lies not in political rallies but in prayer meetings. We will change our country on our knees.

-Jeff-

Flood Recovery pt.5: It's gonna take awhile

It seems like just yesterday I stood up in front of our church and told everyone that I was able to sleep in my room again. I thought that was the end of our struggle, but in fact it was just another stage. It is almost two weeks later and half my clothes are still hanging in Kadin's room, my shed still has a layer of silt on everything and we're still using a space heater because the fireplace isn't hooked back up. If there's one thing I've learned going through this, it's that recovery takes a long time. The flooding happened on December 3rd and 4th. That was 6 weeks and two days ago, and yet I'm still meeting people who aren't back in their houses yet. Tiffanney and I drove by a house a few days ago that had everything stripped out of it just laying on their front lawn. It broke her heart driving through Chehalis and seeing red signs on people's doors, telling them that their house was unfit to live in and needed to be condemned.

It's easy to forget, when you're not part of it anymore. When the news isn't constantly reminding us of the stories of people who lost everything. It's easy to forget when it doesn't affect us. I remember being shocked a while ago when I saw a special on the two year anniversary of Katrina. They talked in there about how much rebuilding there still was to do in that city. I couldn't believe it then, but I can now.

If you're out there and you're wondering what can be done to help, contact me because I know there are still people who need it. And next week I think I'm going to unveil my church disaster recovery plan, based on my experiences here, both personally and with the church. Hopefully this weekend we'll get our house completely back together. Sorry for the melancholy tone of this blog, but it's rough knowing that just about every night I go home to more work.

Walking through this process has reminded me a lot of a spiritual journey. Recovery can take many forms, whether it's physical, emotional or spiritual. It takes time to go through each of the stages of recovery, just like it takes time to recover from an injury or an addiction. But remember these words "he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus." (Phil. 1:6)

-Jeff-

Tools I Use in Ministry pt 1: The Red Pearl

I stole this idea from Tim Schmoyer over at the Life in Student Ministry blog. Tim provides some incredible resources and I have been blessed by him several times since I discovered him a few months ago. If you are a youth pastor/leader/worker you should make it a point to check out his blog. His blog on Rememberthemilk.com may have changed my life and saved my marraige (okay, so that's extreme, but my wife loves that I'm getting more organized.)

Like I was saying, I love reading about the tools that others use to stay organized, be more efficient or make themselves more creative. So I submit to you this series, with updates whenever I feel like it, and I pray that it helps you in some way.

The Old Way:

This may become a two or three part blog in itself, because there is no end to the praise I can heap upon the Blackberry Pearl. Based on Tim's advice I started using rememberthemilk.com in order to help keep myself organized on a daily basis. It was(and is) a great site that I could update anytime I was at work or at home, and it helped tremendously with breaking my job down into manageable steps.

The Problem:

For all of it's tremendous ability, most of my ideas come when I'm standing in the youth room after church, or during dinner, or at the movies. So in order for an item to make it on my task list it had to be written down, placed in my pocket, removed from my pocket before going in the wash, set next to my car keys so I wouldn't forget it, placed in my car cupholder and finally taken to the office and input. It wasn't a perfect system, but it worked for me okay, as long as there wasn't a breakdown along the way.

How the Pearl saved the day:

It syncs to Outlook! For some of you the power of that statement just blew you out of the water and you're sitting there nodding your heads. If that's you, skip to the next paragraph, there's no need for you to read on here. But maybe some of you out there in bloggerland don't quite understand the power and magnitude of what I just said. For you, I offer this tidbit of advice: Find someone who knows how to use Outlook and have them help you set it up. In the next couple weeks I'll discuss how I organize my tasks, contacts and notes. But for now, just sit and play with it for a while.

The gripes:

There's only one right now, my 8100 doesn't have A2DP support. That means I can't use a stereo bluetooth headset like the motorokr S9, which I would love to own. I ordered a regular bluetooth earpiece last week and I'm waiting for it to come in. Once it does I'll know whether I can listen to music at all through bluetooth. If that doesn't work I'll be seriously bummed. But if it does I think I can handle not getting it in stereo for now, until OS version 4.3.1 comes out (it's been rumored since November though, and there's still nothing).

Conclusion:

I think the Pearl has doubled my productivity. I'm going to post more in the coming weeks about how I've done this, but suffice it to say that I love my new smartphone. It has been well worth the investment ($180 including tax, not including $50 rebate that I still haven't sent in). There maybe other phones with more features, but for me, the Pearl is all I need.

-Jeff-

Bill Gates last day at Microsoft

Maybe you've already seen this, but I just couldn't resist. What's really funny about this video is that if Billy-G would have started doing this 5 years ago, they'd be the cool company that everyone wanted to get involved with and Apple would be an afterthought. Ahhhh, the power of advertising. Anyway, on to the show.



-Jeff-

NFL Playoffs

Every year it's fun to try and see just how little I know about football. This year is no exception, the only difference is that I have a blog and I can post my stupidity on the internet for all to see. Not that anyone cares, but here's how I see the playoffs shaking out:

AFC:

Wild Card Round
(6) Tennessee at (3) San Diego- San Diego
(5) Jacksonville at (4) Pittsburgh- Jacksonville

Divisional Round
(3) San Diego at (2) Indianapolis- Indy
(5) Jacksonville at (1) New England- NE

Championship Round
(2) Indianapolis at (1) New England- Indianapolis

So here's my logic on the AFC: New England looks tired and their defense is suspect. Indianapolis has a great running game and a strong defense, and I think they prevail.

NFC:

WCR
(6) Washington at (3) Seattle- Seattle
(5) New York at (4) Tampa Bay- New York

DR
(3) Seattle at (2) Green Bay- Green Bay
(5) New York at (1) Dallas- New York

CR
(5) New York at (2) Green Bay- Green Bay

I would love to write the Seahawks into the Superbowl, and if they were playing Dallas instead of Green Bay I know they'd win it, but the Packers seem to have destiny written all over them this year. They may win it all, and I wouldn't be surprised one bit. Dallas is done, they peaked too early and they'll be missing TO for the game. There are no other contenders in the NFC.

Super Bowl
Indianapolis over Green Bay 31-17
Two very similar teams here, but it seems like Indy does everything just a little bit better than the Packers. Welcome to the Indy dynasty and shame on everyone for overlooking going into the playoffs.

Thoughts on the Seahawks:
They should roll in their first game against Washington. The only scenario in which Washington wins is if they get to Hassleback on the blitz. The 'Hawks have had trouble picking up the blitz all year long, and Washington loves to send pressure. Still I think they mix in some quick passes when the blitz is coming or run some draw plays and move the ball anyway. Todd Collins has been pretty good, but I wouldn't have any faith in him heading to Seattle in his first playoff game. It's just not going to happen.

My Pick: Seahawks over the Redskins, 27-10

Here's hoping for a great second season and a Seahawks miracle run,
-Jeff-