Month: February 2005

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blogger comments

HURRAY! blogger has updated their comments! now non-blogger users can post comments with their name and website. ah, yes. it’s good.

SIDE NOTE – i uploaded the summary video from our fall JESUS project retreat. i made the video in imovie and therefore the format is quicktime rather than the usual realmedia that i publish the other movie files in. i’m not very pleased with this video. i wish it moved a little faster. it feels like every scene last about 4 seconds too long. it makes for a slow feel through out the whole video. of course, i made the video in the 30 minutes before our last worship service on the sunday that the retreat ended so i guess the video is as good as time allows. i really need to figure out how to use final cut express 2. i’ve just been too lazy to really dig into the program and figure the whole thing out.

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the lesson of the day

it’s a common proverb that you should try to learn one new thing every day of your life. with this in mind i would like to tell you my lesson for friday, february 11, 2005. what i learned today is that terrell men should never attempt to fly stunt kites. terrell’s are traditionally excellent kites-men. it’s really true. when i was in high school my family and i would make our own kites from scratch. we even entered dothan, alabama kite flying contest – quite possibly the world’s premiere kite competition. many people would say that the history of kites began in china 3,000 years ago but those people would be wrong. kite flying began in dothan, alabama and the art of kite flying reached its zenith in dothan. the terrell men were a part of helping dothan reach that high point.

of course, that was with traditional and box kites. we never flew stunt kites. they’re a different breed. since, pam is gone for the weekend (trying of for jeopardy) i decided to have a little fun with the boys and go fly some kites at highland park. we went to academy to buy a few kites. apparently academy sports & outdoor is trying to destroy all of the traditions of america because they did not carry any traditional kites. all they had were stunt kites which operate by means of two separate strings. being an expert in regards to regular kites i guessed that my skill would be sufficient to operate the easiest stunt kite they had in stock. turns out i was wrong.

me and the boys tried again and again to fly the stunt kites we bought from academy. each time we tried to fly a kite we met with complete, abject failure. our longest flight was about fifteen seconds and reached an apex of twenty feet in height. we tried for an hour solid with three different kites and never did any good. it was all pretty humiliating. ironically we had allot of fun in spite of the fact that we were horrible and flying those stupid kites.

tomorrow we’re going to search the town and see if we can find a traditional kite. if all else fails i’ll make one.

SIDE NOTE – if you are a pc user (instead of an intelligent mac user) and you are still using micro$oft internet explorer then you are missing out. you really need to consider swapping to mozilla’s firefox. it is a much better browser and allows you to surf in tabs. try tabs for a few days and you’ll wonder how you ever got along without it. on top of having tabs by using firefox you’ll also have the pleasing knowledge of not supporting the “evil empire” of micro$oft.

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baby got book

i normally think this stuff is cheesy but i personally find this video hilarious. it’s called baby got book” and it is a paraody of sir mix-a-lot’s song “baby got back.” connecting to it is pretty hard right now because too many people are watching it and it’s crashing the server. if it works it definitely worth it. if it doesn’t work then just enjoy knowing that it made me, jessica, alan, and josh laugh out loud.

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feminar video

this blog started out as a journal of my exploration into learning how to use homemade video within our ministry. that’s why i need to tell you about another fact i have justed learned about video within youth ministry. the fact i learned is that if you asking someone to video an event for you make sure and walk them through all of the operation of the camera. give them in depth instructions. we had a “feminar” for our girls this past weekend (i have discussed the feminar is an earlier post). i asked one of our adult volunteers to video the event (since i as a male was not allowed in). she did a great job of videoing the weekend except for one minor detail – i didn’t tell her about the camcorder’s night shot feature. she videoed the entire night with the nightshot feature on. this makes all of the video looked like a greenish black and white film (which i guess would be a greenish and white video).

anyway, here’s the summary video in realmedia format.

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feminar video

feminar 2005i just finished the summary video from the feminar. the video looks a little washed out because the camcorder’s night shot feature was on for all the filming.

for those who don’t know what it is, the “feminar” is a girls only mini-retreat. the weekend was about the girls’ worth because they were created by and are loved by GOD. i don’t know much about what happened during the weekend because being a guy i was excluded from the weekend (sexist girls!) but i do know from the video that there was ALLOT of dancing. it would appear that girls dance pretty much all the time.

anyhow to watch the video you must have realplayer installed (it’s free) and then simply CLICK THIS LINK.

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flickr

preschoolif you enjoy photography i want to make sure that you know about flickr. flickr is a photo sharing community that several of the people who are involved within the student minsitry are a part of. the beauty of flickr is that we can all view each other photos and then comment on each of them. of course, you can also use it as a way to post photos on your blog. anyhow, i was just wanting to make sure y’all knew about it and to encourage you to get involved in it if you were into taking pictures. here are the people from the student ministry that are involved in flickr right now:

we also have a former member (he moved to north carolina 3 1/2 years ago) on it – brad. if you’re in flickr and i don’t know about it please comment or email because i love seeing the pictures that others have taken.

this ends our non-solicited commercial for flickr.

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the inner nerd

who knew that a “nerdiness” survey would get the most comments i’ve ever reached (16 thus far). i think i know why too – many people are afraid to admit their “inner nerd.” we all have one. some where lurking in your body is the “nerd you could be.” that nerd is just sitting there waiting to be let out. admit it, you’ve got some secret little love that every one else who laugh at if they knew about it. maybe it’s the fact that you love the discovery channel or maybe c-span. maybe you love math or have a secret fondness for calculators. could it be that you love science fiction books or you have an inordinately extreme love for star wars? maybe you know that you are socially awkward and you just hide it well. even fonzie (the epitome of cool) had an “inner nerd” that came out in episode #53 of “happy days“. if fonzie has an “inner nerd” then everyone has one.

your inner nerd is why you find yourself pulling for the nerd to win. go ahead admit it. when you watch a movie that has a nerd in it you find yourself hoping that every thing will work out for the nerd. you want the nerd to win because you empathize with him/her. you connect with the nerd because of the fact that there is an “inner nerd” hiding right behind that well developed mask that you try to wear for every one else to see.

we all have an inner nerd. it’s just that some of us are afraid to admit it and that fear causes the fearful to act out in violence against those that point out the nerdiness of the world. that’s why everyone jumped on the “nerdiness survey.” you’re afraid that the survey could point out how nerdy you actually are and then the rest of the world would know what you already know – you’re a nerd.

now it’s time for us to begin to experience nerdy freedom. let’s be open with our nerdiness. if we all admit our nerdiness then we will no longer have to fear being known as a nerd. so i’ll start

i love some science fiction books and i definitely love science fiction movies. i have actually read a little bit of the klingon language version of the bible. i am the proud owner of 1,000 star wars cards. i love the “history channel.” okay that’s a start. i will no longer fear nerddom.

SIDE NOTE – if you want to view the “joke” videos from tonight’s view then click the links below:

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the view – february, 2005

for the next several weeks at the view we are doing messages based on teens questions that they put in a fish bowl each week. some of the questions are serious and some of them or not so serious. tonight we discussed:

  • was jonah swallowed by a fish or a whale? a question came back to how do we understand scripture: as a book of facts or as a message meant to convey GOD’s good news to a hurting world.
  • is satan a homo? we answered this be means of a video that we had allot of fun with.
  • faith or works?
  • what is robert’s favorite color? we answered this with another video

it made for a somewhat disjointed night but it was still fun and the discussions on “jonah” and “works” brought up some really good discussion that is needed within the youth ministry.

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quiet versus noisey

my life is usually quite noisy. my home is full of sound. i have an amazing wife, two wonderful kids, a dog and two cats all who like to make tons of noise and tremendous amounts of activity. i work in a wonderful church that is constantly full of noise. i have an incredible office suite that always has someone new walking into it just to talk. when i’m not at the church office during work i’m usually at a school visiting people or at a hospital checking in on someone, both active, busy places. my life is full of activity and sound. this usually means that i am desperate to find some quiet. this means i’m usually looking for a place where no one else is so that i can focus on studying or just to winding down. it’s a constant struggle.

but not now. pam has work and school that is keeping her busy, my kids are in mobile, alabama making noise for someone else, and all the schools in town are out for mardi grass break. it’s very quiet. i’ve gotten so used to desperately trying to find quiet that now that i have it i don’t know what to do. i find the whole thing quite disturbing.