Home?

Has anybody noticed the shift in the way people talk about the places where they abide, their homes?  I've always referred to it as the place where I live but now, it's also common for people to talk about where they Stay.  Here's an example at urban dictionary.    I think this concept makes me kind of sad.  

Intern Team

I was just thinking this morning about how the trio of interns working with us this summer is really gelling into a wonderful team.  We've had so many great interns over the past few years, people willing to dedicate some serious time to loving on the kids in our youth ministry at PV.  

with three, they are beginning to outnumber the staff, and the energy these kids are bringing to the table really is pretty awesome.  

Good work, guys!  

Pollicious

Today they're using one of my polls at Pollicious.  Check it out!  

1408

Holy Crap.  

For whatever reason, Rampton and I decided to blow the free night tonight by letting Stephen King scare the crap out of us.  We went to see 1408, which is from a  King short story.  I love King's work, and really went on a tear trying to read a bunch of it over the last couple of years.  I've never read this bit of terror, though.  

It builds like crazy, and disarms you, then throttles you.  It's cruel, subtle, strong, and uses all kinds of trickery to bait you into its traps.  Even when it telegraphs them, you can't help but be pulled in.   

I hate movies like that.

But, for those of you that like them, this is worth a try.  I think it's pretty well done, and John Cusack makes it happen.  He carries the whole thing on his back, since most of time it's just him freaking himself out in this room.  

Gave me the willies.  

Powerpoint Church

Garr Reynolds wrote this blog entry about this article in the washington post this last week.  

I think there are some very similar questions to be raised about how Powerpoint is used in the church. Generally speaking, we use it poorly, in my opinion. I think much of what is said in the above could be used for us, if we substitute "sermon" or "lesson" for "presentation".

I still am guilty of much of this, but I've really tried to move towards a different style of using powerpoint, one that lets it support the content I'm working with, instead of duplicating it, replacing it, or dominating it in the development stage.  Powerpoint does those things when we forget that the slides don't do the teaching, they're meant to reinforce or provide emphasis to the content that is coming directly from the person.  One good rule of thumb to make sure that we're on the right track might be counterintuitive, but if our PPTs can be read through and our message comprehended without the oral communication that should come with it, then that probably means that we're letting it do to much of the talking.  If that's true, then we should expect that people will just read the slides, instead of listening.  On the other hand, if our slides are designed to enhance what we're saying orally, then they are really going to be minimal and poignant.  

Less is definitely more!  

Sickly

Today I spent most of the day on my couch, nursing a cold. I was pushed to avoid folks by the news this morning from the other side of the bed that my wife had caught whatever bug I've been hosting. So, we had a date to the Doc together. It was really sweet.

My throat still feels really scratchy, but besides that it's kind of a wimpy cold. I wasn't even really tired, so we just watched movies most of the day, and practiced not giving our illnesses to others.

anybody out there with a sore throat that wants to blame it on the Hovaters? I wouldn't be too surprised. We've been around a lot of folks the last couple of days!

The Bookstore Story

So this past weekend Kelly and I took our friend Jordan, who's visiting with us from Fresno, to Memphis for a day of (yawn) shopping. while at the the mall, I had already had my fill of looking at T-shirts and shorts and such, so I took off for the bookstore in the mall, and began reading a book about drawing (thanks Dan Pink), even though I have almost no ability to draw as it is now. The only place to sit I could find was a stool in the children's section, so I went over there and sat down. At some point, Kelly and Jordan came in, and we chatted (she said she had tried to call, but I didn't hear it) and they decided they still had another store they wanted to check out. I opted on hanging out in the bookstore some more, so we arranged to meet up later, and they left.

After a few minutes, I got up to look for a different book, and while up I realized I didn't have my phone in my pocket, so I began to walk back over to the kids section, assuming I left it near the stool. While on the way back there, I passed a young girl (about age 13) and her little brother, and as I passed, her backpack began emitting the sound of the Alabama fight song. we turned to look at each other, and my first thought was something like "Hey, she has something in her backpack that plays the fight song". that was substituted for "she has my cell phone in her backpack" as I realized that the coincidence was a little much that she had something that happened to sound just like my ring tone. (we weren't in Tuscaloosa, after all!) I at first asked her if she had seen my cell phone, then changed that to "did you pick up my cell phone?" She asked if it was silver, and I was like, "yes, and it's ringing". she had the most busted look on her face ever, and reached into her backpack and pulled out my phone. Pretty fortunate that Shannon had chosen that random time to try to call!

ug.

Uggggggg. Here are two things. first of all, my throat hurts really bad. At first, I thought my voice was just shot from crowd control at the Uplift buttfights, but now I think I really have some sort of cold. (the additional symptom of my loss of taste leads me to believe this is valid, and sucks.)

Second, I spent all day today in girl land, as Kelly and I took Jordan shopping in Memphis. Yeah, that's right, the all day shopping trip. good grief!

We actually did have a lot of fun, even though we were pretty dead tired when we got back to the Rock tonight.

Tomorrow I'm going to try to blog a funny story of something that happened to me in the mall. (ha, I laugh just thinking about it!)

Pollicious

A friend of mine designed this site, Pollicious. Check it our, it's a fun idea to bookmark and check in on. They just take random polls.

Uplift 2007

I just returned from a great week with our kids at harding's summer camp, "Uplift". we had more kids than ever go with us, and I think it might have been one of the best years ever for our group dynamic. Our kids really did do a great job of being inclusive, of spanning barriers between cliques and age groups, and had a blast together. They also went out of their way to take care of each other, and I love getting to watch that.

I finished reading Dan Pink's book A Whole New Mind this past week as well. I think I'll have some more thoughts about that in a little while.