Category: personal

Posted on

nuebia update

i received this update from claudia a little earlier today and i thought i would pass it along to anyone who read this and loves the baltodonas.

Dear friends,

I would like to thank you from the bottom of my heart for joining us in prayer on behalf of my mom. We took her to the doctor today for the test they needed to do to figure out the size and kind of tumor they had discovered. The result was NO tumor. Everything clean. Not even swollen anymore. Thank you for believing with us for a good report. We serve an amazing God who works in misterious ways.
My whole family is thankful to God and to you for standing up in prayer for my mom. You definitely are what a true friend is supposed to be!

love you very much,
Claudia and family

Posted on

if only


as always brought to you by jon birch at the ongoing adventures of asbo JESUS

Posted on

curling

i joined a curling league today. thanks to the olympics it’s been my dream to curl for the past 12 years. now that dream is about to come true.

Posted on

the marko effect


i promise that i will soon begin to blog about something other than marko but i thought some of you would find the power of marko interesting. above is the google analytics graph for the traffic to my blog for the week before yesterday. as you can see i had my normal 40 people coming to view the blog (approximately 35 of which are my mom). things changed dramatically once marko posted the link to the top ten list. the traffic jumped up to 364.

to give you a comparison i’ll compare the traffic to my blog when it was put on the ys update (back in september). here’s the graph for that.

as you can see it wasn’t as big of a jump. marko is basically three times more influential than the ys update. he is a online youth ministry power and a force to be reckoned with.

all hail the power of marko’s name.

SIDE NOTE – after changing my design several times i finally built the desk for my study (now affectionately dubbed the “man cave” by pam). it’s basically a collapsible table so that the “man cave” can easily be turned into the “guest room” when the need arises. that’s right my space has to remain portable so that i can remove my stuff when we have company. oh yes, i am master of this domain.

the desk cost me a grand total of $16.24 after tax. now i’m getting an old computer from my dad (needs a power supple – $30) that i can run ubuntu on, and probably a widescreen monitor for movies.

Posted on

free is good – maybe

i’m a vetran garbage digger. when i drive down the street and see a pile of someone else’s junk on the side of the road i am more than willing to stop and pick up something that i like. i’ve found several great things doing this. after all, one person’s trash is another person’s treasure. last night i trash dove for the first time in wisconsin.

on the side of the road were two sets of waxless cross country skis. they are espoir titans (215 & 213 centimeters) and i know nothing about them (and i can’t seem to find anything on the net). all i know at this point is that they are at least better than what i had before – which was nothing. i’ll take them the hostel shoppe tomorrow. they will probably laugh at me but i’m okay with that because no matter how trashie the skis may be they are still free.

as a southern boy (born and rised in alabama) i have to add that finding skis in someone’s garbage was just odd and put a smile on my face. it’s probably normal for people native wisconsinites but it definitely wasn’t for me.

Posted on

top ten reasons why marko should link to one of my posts – part 2

this is the completion of the top ten list started here. these are the top five reasons why marko should link to one of my posts like he did with j.t.’s (blessed be his name) post.

    5. it will solve the bcs/college football playoffs debate. for years college football fans have been arguing about whether the bcs was worth squat or not. many thought they were longing for a play off system, while others have thought a play off system would ruin what is best about ncaa football. if marko merely posts a link to one of my posts the world will suddenly be enlightened with the answer of what is best for college football and this argument will be settled. college football harmony is within your hands marko.

    4. my kids will respect me and hope to grow up to be like me. marko, you’re a dad. you know how important it is to live your life in a manner that your kids can respect you. yesterday my youngest said to me, “dad, i would be so proud of you if someone like marko would link to one of your posts” and then my oldest son added, “and if nobody links to your blog then i’m going to view you as a failure and choose mike tyson as the role model for life.” marko, you can’t let this happen. i can’t lose my children down that path and the world definitely doesn’t need another mike tyson.

    3. your kids will respect you and hope to grow up to be like you. lifting up the weak is a sign of a follower of GOD and if you link to one of my blog posts you will be lifting up a weak blogger (a blogger too weak to write like j.t. – blessed be his name). you’re kids will see this action (in fact, i will gladly send you a certificate documenting the event of you linking to one of my blog posts) and praise your name as the wonderful human being that you are. realistically it would not surprise me at all if you daughter and son suddenly started introducing you to their friends as “my great and caring dad who is exactly like i want to be.” this, of course, would make you the envy of all the other parents in the neighborhood and then you could start your new “side” career as a lecturer within the field of parenting. you’re first book could be titled, “link to robert’s blog and win your child’s respect forever.” i’m sure it would be a bestseller. see, this works out as not only a wonderful parenting strategy for you but also your first step into your new profession. let’s face it, nobody in their right mind would actually desire to work with ys (though if you need a representative in central wisconsin i would be open to a conversation). by linking to one of my posts you win the admiration of your kids and begin your journey of creating the next focus on the family. you will then be able to not only be a voice of power within the religious right but you will also be able to set yourself up as a political pundit and direct people in all areas of their lives. marko, this is the way that CHRISTianity is supposed to work. right?

    2. it could save your life from a crazed, stalking fan. now, surely i don’t know if you have any crazed stalking fans but if you’ve seen “misery” then you surely know what type of danger these people represent. it couldn’t hurt for one of them to see you post a link to one of my posts and thereby realize that you are “a man of the people” rather than an ivory tower person. marko, these people are dangerous and you should do everything you can to keep them from being angry with you. i’m only looking out for what’s best for you. btw, i’m not the biggest fan of the blue shirt you wore yesterday. you look much better in the green one you wore two weeks ago when you were drinking coffee … at least that’s what i heard … and i know merely through hearsay and not personal knowledge … but you should wear the green one more often.

    and the number 1 reason why marko should post a link to one of my blog posts is …

    because i’m asking nicely. really marko, pretty please with sugar on top and all that other stuff. i’m even typing this with a smile on my face. honest, you can ask the person beside me at emy j’s (a local coffee/ice cream shop). i’m grinning like an idiot.

so those are my reasons why you, marko, should post a link to my blog or a post of mine. yes it would be easier if i could write something as great as j.t. (blessed be his name) but we both know that’s not going to happen. after all, j.t. (blessed be his name) is a youth ministry god (and a really decent guy too).

bonus reason – i could convince the people that are planting a church with me to name the church after you. instead of “tapestry” (technically it’s “stevens point tapestry church” which will be great 10 years form now when a one word name for a church sounds stupid) i think i could convince them to call the church “marko” (technically “stevens point marko church” which will be great 10 years from now when a one word name for a church sounds stupid). i think it would be a huge draw. after all people really just come to a church for a cool name, music, and marketing. this works for both of us. heck if you preferred we could even use “oestreicher.” central wisconsin is polish/german/scandinavian territory so most of the people around here would probably be able to pronounce your last name with ease. your name would be immortalized without even having to make a major monetary contribution to a university.

Posted on

top ten reasons why marko should link to one of my posts – part 1

as many of you know marko posted a link to to one of j.t.’s (blessed be his name) posts. it is now my goal to goad marko into posting a link to one of my posts. of course, i could just post something good but it’s so much more fun to be lazy and try this approach. so here is the first set of the “top ten reasons why marko should link to one of my posts”:

    10. my posts may be lame but they’re no lamer than the items that marko points out as being stupid in his “JESUS junk of the month awards. while i can’t claim the ability to post something as good as j.t. (blessed be his name) i do think that at least some of my posts add more of a contribution to the internet and life than the miracolous JESUS night light. even though it’s a small contribution to the world wide web it is still a contribution and it should be honored. i can think of no better way to do this than by marko linking to one of my posts.

    9. peace on earth – oestreicher is a german name and terrell is an english name. marko, your people have been attempting to brutalize my people for centuries. don’t you think it’s about time you commit an act of peace and bring our people together. i think linking to one of my posts would be such act. sort of like when one monarch would marry off one of his children to the enemy and thus insure peace. marko, it’s about time for peace.

    8. it would be a good escape from the san diego nywc. when you really get down to it who wants to listen to shane claiborne, doug fields, the david crowder band, chris tomlin, or third day? nobody i know. having to listen to those guys for 5 days is simply not the way to have a good time. i know that it’s probably wearing mako down. wouldn’t it be a nice break to post a link to my blog? come on marko, i’m only thinking of you. it’s important for your health.

    7. i will name all my future children “marko” no matter what sex they are. this offer is not diminished by the fact that i had a little surgery awhile back that makes it unlikely that i will have any more biological children. it’s the thought that counts and i’ve honestly had the thought of naming my future children “marko,” if marko will post a link to one of my posts. “marko elizabeth terrell” actually has a nice ring to it.

    6. marko should ask himself “what would JESUS do?” we all know that JESUS would say “marko, give the guy a link.” that’s the way JESUS rolls and as a follower of JESUS marko should do the same thing. you could almost say that by linking to one of my posts marko would be practicing discipleship. now i don’t want to go so far as to say that it would be a sin for marko not to post a link to one of my posts but scripture does say that to him who knows what is right and doesn’t do it. i’m just trying to protect marko’s soul.

Posted on

an impossibe challenge

as i posted yesterday j.t. (blessed be his name) made it onto marko’s blog and thereby became a youth ministry god. being a vain and conceited person i released my not so veiled attempt to goad marko into linking to a post on my blog. all i got was a comment. for those too lazy to visit the comment i post below what the great middle school one said:

nice. write a post like j.t.’s, and maybe — just maybe, i’ll link to you.

the problem here is that this is nigh impossible. j.t. (blessed be his name) is … well … a youth ministry god, and i’m not even a youth minister anymore (unless you count the only adolescent we have in our church but i like to call that parenting instead of youth ministry). there is no way that i can write a post like j.t.’s. (blessed be his name). you might ask well ask porky pig to speak eloquently or dwight schrute not to be weird. it’s just not possible. remember j.t. (blessed be his name) is a youth ministry god and i can’t compete with a god.

i actually think that one of the main reasons that j.t. (blessed be his name) can write such remarkable posts and i can’t is because of the differences in our hair. here’s a south park inspired version of j.t. (blessed be his name) on the left and a simpsons inspired version of me on the right.


notice the clean aerodynamic lines of j.t.’s (blessed be his name) head? this helps wind to flow smoothly over his head and thus prompts the exchange of heat between his head and the air. this heat exchange is key to maintaining the proper temperature of the brain and thus promoting amazing thoughts. on the other hand (or head), look at my head. the hair there ruins the flow of air and thereby kills the heat exchange. if i think real hard without this exchange of heat my brain freezes up until it cools down. yes i am missing a good bit of hair but my widows peak is just enough to stop the proper flow of air. some of you might be thinking that i could solve this heat exchange problem by shaving my head to look like j.t.’s (blessed be his name). the problem here is that my head looks really bad when bald. it’s a disability and it’s not real nice of you to point out my disabilities.

so as you can see i will never be able to write a post as good as j.t.’s (blessed be his name) and thereby get marko to link to my blog. as far as i can see this leaves me with only one other option of drawing the attention of the the great one of middle school knowledge, marko. i will kiss up to marko as much as humanly possible. in seminary i always hated it when people went up to the professors after class with the obvious desire just to get the prof’s attention. i thought i would never become one of those people but this is so much more important than my theological education. it’s marko’s blog and therefore i’m willing to humiliate myself as needed.

if this fails i’ll probably just start a psuedo-marko blog, link to myself, and pretend like it really is marko. if i pretend, then no one will know the difference.

Posted on

oh yeah, i like the dog park

oh yeah i like this place
yesterday we took the dogs and the kids to the dog park at the standing rocks park just outside of plover. it was awesome. it’s a 37 acre fenced area where montana and roux were able to run and sniff till they were ready to collapse. the area even has an agility course but i really can’t imagine my basset hounds being very interested in it.

i actually think my kids enjoyed the dog park as much as the dogs did. they spent most of their time playing on the agility course. i’m not sure if i can enter them in agility competitions or not but i do know they can do the course faster than a basset hound can.
adam & noah at the dog park

Posted on

window shopping

right now i feel like i’m in a peculiar situation with the birth of tapestry. the issue is that i have been dreaming about this for quite some time, where as the people i have been meeting with are just now beginning to consider it as an option. so i’m at the point of slowly moving from the dream of tapestry to the reality of it. yet i can’t really start moving too fast until others are on board with the church. so what i get to continue doing is dreaming and hoping for other people to join in on the dream.

so today just for the fun of it i went to view some leasing property in downtown stevens point. i have mixed feelings concerning leasing property. on one side i would prefer to be rather nomadic. i think it sends a powerful message when a church decides to place it’s resources towards priorities other than a building. on the other side of the coin i think store front churches send a powerful message also. for me it connects very strongly with the original concept of the “ecclesia” being a body of those called out from within the city. there is something amazing symbolic in a church building that is completely physically connected with the other buildings of the city around it, rather than a church building that is a separate little fortress from the other buildings within it’s community. i also think it is just plain cool that anyone walking by a store front church building can look in and see what the people of GOD are doing in the room (hopefully they will be able to see the people of GOD doing many other things all around the community). it’s open and inviting. i’m ready for some other people to start joining the dream of tapestry so we can start deciding what messages are most important to us.

so without any real agenda, other than curiosity, i went downtown today to look at a few of the buildings currently available for lease. after looking at three buildings (one of which had a large side room that could be separated off from it and would work perfectly for what who i believe we will be in a year and a half). it was so cool to walk into a room and imagine a group of people dreaming about and living out the life GOD wants for them. of course, we’re a long ways from being in any type of building. still it was nice.

SIDE NOTE – i presently have a huge scab on my forehead from hitting the exhaust pipe of pam’s minivan saturday. from a distance it looks like a large “mole” on my forehead. because of this “mole” i battled in my mind over whether or not i should get my wisconsin driver’s license today. i finally came down on the side of getting it today because i thought it would be funny to see an chasier’s, security agent’s, or officer’s response (hopefully it will never be an officer’s) when he/she looks at my license and sees a huge “mole” on my photo forehead but not on my present head. it made me laugh continually while i was in the dmv waiting for my photo. i’ll post the photo when i receive my license in the mail.