Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Behind the Music: Psalty

I saw this over at Stuffchristianslike.blogspot.com and thought it was amusing, so I decided to bring it to you! Happy New Years Eve!!!

Friday, December 26, 2008

This really is a different world

Than the one I grew up in. I'm 29 years old, old enough to remember pagers and dial up internet. We live in a world where technology is changing things so fast that our morals are having a hard time keeping up. Some have referred to this age as the "Wild, Wild West" of the Web 2.0 era, and stories like what I read a couple days ago reinforce this fact. Here's a snippet of the story:
Surely that's a typo, I thought, when I first saw this story. A misplaced decimal point. A bad guess. Something, anything to restore faith in humanity. Alas, it appears that's not the case and the numbers are true: According to a study of over 1,000 teens and young adults from 13 to 26, one in five said they posted nude pictures or videos of themselves online, or emailed them to someone else.
That's 20% of teens and young adults who have done this. Where did they get the idea this was okay? Then again, do they have anyone telling them it's not okay? It reminds you of the days when everything was settled by who had the fastest draw, because that was what seemed right or made the most sense. I wonder how long it will take us to move out of this era, and will our young people still be alive to tell the tale?

-Jeff-

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Nerf Guns

Kadin and I have become obsessed with Nerf Guns after he got this one for his Birthday:



I've been saying for a while that we really need another one, and I think I finally found what Daddy wants for Christmas, check it out:





Thanks to Josh over at Morethandodgeball.com for the video.

-Jeff-

Friday, December 5, 2008

3 Steps to Choosing a Great Retreat Theme

Yesterday Tiffanney and I had a meeting with Jesse Reimers from Marysville 1st Assembly to talk about Winter Camp. We went out and saw the facilities (had to sneak in because they were closed, shhhh, don't tell anyone). We talked over schedules, service ideas and the importance of altar time, and as we're getting ready to leave the subject of what to call the thing comes up. Here are the guidelines we used:
  1. One Word. Yes, I know that's two words, but for some reason we really wanted the title of the Retreat to be one word only. It's simple, yet descriptive. It gets people talking and engages the imagination. And it looks beautiful on graphics, leading to the second point.
  2. Visual. It needs to carry an image behind it. One of the ideas we tossed around was "Ascend". It's a cool one word title, but there are also so many visuals associated with hiking, birds in flight, airplanes, shangri-la, etc. We wanted a theme that would make it easy to create graphics and media to match it.
  3. Fits the Purpose. We didn't really get anywhere until Pastor Jesse mentioned that to find the theme of the camp, we should start at the end. So we talked about our ministries and what we would like to see individual students get out of this experience. Then we tried to work backwards from there.
We're still praying about the theme of the camp, so I can't tell you what it's going to be called yet, but I wanted to post the process while it was still fresh in my mind.

Anything you'd like to add? Leave a comment,

-Jeff-

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Black Friday Eve

How was your Black Friday Eve? You know, the day when you invite family over, prepare a huge feast and sit around the table pouring over sale ads and discussing strategies for the next morning? Maybe I'm being slightly facetious, but I think Thanksgiving is more looked at as the beginning of the holiday shopping season than as a time to be thankful. So, to help me be more conscious of the real reason for Thanksgiving, I Twittered some of the things I was thankful for throughout the day on Thursday. Here are my thoughts from Turkey Day:

Give thanks to the Lord for He is good, His love endures forever. Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!!!! 8:30 AM Nov 27th from TwitterBerry



I've decided to keep a running list on twitter of all the things I'm thankful 4. 1st off: I'm thankful 4 all that God did 4 me. And family. 9:07 AM Nov 27th from TwitterBerry



And the smell of turkey that's filling the house. And internet enabled cell phones. And living next door to a church. 9:08 AM Nov 27th from TwitterBerry



And for Christmas music on pandora.com. So much better than 105.3. 10:29 AM Nov 27th from TwitterBerry



And Safeway employees who work on Thanksgiving. And Starbucks. And my Pontiac Montana. 11:30 AM Nov 27th from TwitterBerry



And for people who think that having to wait for 4 people in line is the end of the world. 11:57 AM Nov 27th from TwitterBerry



And for all who housesit 4 me, then I return the favor. 11:57 AM Nov 27th from TwitterBerry



And for turkey that cooks WAY too fast. 12:25 PM Nov 27th from TwitterBerry



And for family that understands when you have to move dinner up by an hour. 12:37 PM Nov 27th from TwitterBerry



And for my new team, the Titans. How do you tell your third string to take it easy on the other team? It's nice to root for a winner. 12:43 PM Nov 27th from TwitterBerry



And for my DVR, Wii and laptop. Not to mention my two TVs. 12:55 PM Nov 27th from TwitterBerry



And for Shannon Sharpe: "there is no reason the lions should be playing on T-day. We're sorry you had to watch this." High comedy. 1:07 PM Nov 27th from TwitterBerry



And for enough storage space to be able to hide our junk without having to deal with it properly. 1:16 PM Nov 27th from TwitterBerry



And for turkeys that aren't completely defeatherd. And for not realizing it until after the turkey is cooked. 1:27 PM Nov 27th from TwitterBerry



And I'm thankful that we're getting ready to eat. 2:59 PM Nov 27th from TwitterBerry



http://twitpic.com/ok16 - And the perfect turkey!!! 3:15 PM Nov 27th from TwitPic



And for grandparents who are willing to watch the kids while we go shopping on Black Friday. 7:13 PM Nov 27th from TwitterBerry




If you want more of my wit and wisdom, check it out at www.twitter.com/pastorjgraham.

-Jeff-