The Weekend

This past weekend is the first time in a long time that I have not had anything specific to do. It was the opportunity to actually relax and take some time with myself and my family. Friday's I get to work 1/2 days which enables me a quicker weekend. I decided that I had not been to a movie for a while and it was time for me to take my son to see Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull (My wife had to work on her Masters binder so this was the opportunity to take Malachi out of the house). Of course I did my usual flop up and because I confused the times we were late for Indiana Jones but on time for Prince Caspian. I didn't want to spend money to see this movie but because I promised my son a movie we decided to watch it anyway. Since I like to do reviews here is a short review: REVIEW: It was actually pretty good, it was not really to much like the book. But the basics were all there. It was like they were trying to make an epic movie and did well with the battles but really got away from character development. I would say this was better than the first but it is a renter. Give it a try when it comes to video B-

Continuing on with the weekend...

The rest of weekend consisted of playing a lot of Nintendo Wii with the family. The Wii is a great game for our family. Everyone can get involved and since they like to play it makes the purchase really great.

Recently I have had a lot of trouble with my personal computer and decided it was a good time to restore the original settings and start from scratch. But we were not going to do that until we bought an external hard drive which we did on Sunday. We found a 500 GB at Office Depot for a good price and that night I proceeded to transfer our information and start the recovery process. I was able to delete everything successful but was not able to get the recovery disk to do its job. The computer kept shutting off. So now I had a computer with no OS on it and I was stuck as to what I should do. I tried several times to get the disk to go but had no success. I gave up for the night and decided I would try one last time in the morning. Monday morning, I tried and was able to get success. Whatever seemed to be wrong with the computer, seemed to be fixed after the restore. I spent most of the day trying to get the computer updated, the antivirus going, and WoW loaded and updated. As I was doing that my sister called me to help her get her new wireless router going. After breaking one computer and almost cussing out the other we finally got the router to work. So I was working on two computers (one of the phone and my personal one) most of the day Monday.

My brother is a big fan of Smash Brothers so I got my fun money and purchased it so I can have another game to play against my brother. It took a while to figure out but I had fun.

So there it is a REALLY QUICK synopsis of my weekend. Of course there are a lot more details but this gives me a post and gives you something to read. :)

Wii Fit

Wednesday morning was the big night for the release of Wii Fit. My wife allowed me to buy the Wii if I bought her Wii Fit upon its release. With the knowledge that most Wii Fits were sold out on preorder I decided to check Walmart. They did no preorders so Wednesday at midnight was our best shot at getting one. Elizabeth wanted to do the midnight thing so we went at 9:30 p.m. expecting to wait in a chair in order to get this hot item.

We waited for 2 1/2 hours just to find 3 people waiting in line and 30 wii fits in stock. I had a blast hanging out with my wife though which made the long night worth it.

My wife played it Wednesday morning, and I played it Wednesday night. We both were having difficulty really getting the thing to work right. We found that the Mii was doing the exact opposite than what we were doing. After a while I found that we positioned the balance board the wrong way and when that was corrected the Mii's and the game became a lot simplier.

Review:

This is kind of an early review but I have had several people ask me what I thought about the Wii Fit. To be honest I did not have to much expectation for this interesting device. It's expensive but when you basically get a scale, BMI reader, and exercise machine w/ game the price is actually quite reasonable. The set up time takes a while to get started. It judges your center of gravity and does some other measurements including weight. It takes that information, tells you where you are at and where you should be. It then takes your Mii and adjust its body to your proportion, which mine blew up like a balloon. It was somewhat embarrassing since my whole family was watching me. (I will get a picture later)

Anything relating to the balance board is actually quite fun. I would keep trying and trying until I got an acceptable number. Everything else is hard work, but that's the point. Its not much of a fitness tool if you don't sweat. But like most exercise you have to stay on it and really push yourself to see results. You can't just do little games and expect big results. Another feature that is really neat is jogging. You jog around a little village, as you jog, the Mii's that have been on your Mii channel show up jogging around you or next to you. In some cases they trip which is actually very funny. In one instance I saw Sam and tried to kick him but the wiimote didn't register that.

Overall the game is fun, its fairly cheap, and its fun to do with others like most Wii games are. My grade is a solid A.

If I stay committed I will let you know on my progress and results. What do you think about the Wii Fit? Do you think its nonsense? a good thing? or just something else for people to waste their money on? If you have one leave a comment about your opinion, I would like to know.

Podcast

I work at a steel fabricator. My job is a very broad spectrum so I could not give you what I actually do, but I am considered the IT Guy at this point. Most of my day I make myself availble to do different jobs that are needed. Some days I spend a lot of time at my desk, others I am out and about. Because of this uncontrollable inconsistancy, I need something to listen to.

Several years ago I discovered podcast and would download a ton of them for me to listen to but then I got busy and most of the podcast I subscribed to were quickly taking up room on my computer prompting me to unsubscribe and delete them all.

Recently I have rediscovered the great podcast and have subscribed to several different podcast. Recently I have been playing a lot of games so a lot of the podcast are from gaming websites but I also like to listen to sermons and have downloaded several of those to listen to as well.

So here I am, listening to podcast, trying to broaden my mind while at work. Some of my favorite podcast are Gamer Husbands, Hardcore Christian Gamer, Sarcastic Gamer, Mosaic, and The Married Gamers. As I said a lot of podcast on gaming.

What are some of your favorite podcast? Are there ones that you suggest me to listen to as I sit here?

Genuine Excitement

I love Wednesday nights. Wednesday nights is my relaxation, which is funny because for most its another day that is tied up doing "something". Wednesday's are my day to be a part of a program that I feel is one of the most important the Church is involved in. I am not saying the most important but its up there. That ministry is youth ministry.

Not being the leader has its perks. I come without having to prepare a lesson. I get to play around, joke, and talk to students. It's an awesome experience. Filling the "volunteer" role has been an eye opening experience (I hope to share more with you later but I am not confident in those post yet). Let me explain...

As a youth leader, I knew what I wanted from a volunteer. I always had trouble explaining what I wanted them to do. Some dealing with discipline others with their own commitment. My experience was that there were people willing to be a body but not willing to move beyond that. Some of my youth meetings had many disruptions including volunteers yelling at students, joking when it wasn't appropriate, calling me minutes before youth saying they would not show up, angry with me because I never "listened to their suggestions", and the list goes on and on and on.

Every so often I would have counselor meetings and in those meetings I tried to explain what I needed to be done. But I never talked about their purpose. To be honest I didn't have a clearly defined description of what I expected, it was always a work in process. This led some volunteers to be frustrated with me. It led some to take advantage of my non confrontation habits and allowed them not to be committed. It caused a lot of confusion and frustration with my team.

In this new role, I have tried to be the volunteer that I always wanted. In some places I can see what my expectations were might have been unrealistic. In other ways it has helped me better define what I want. For example, I play with the youth, joke around and have a good time. When the lesson starts I become quiet and attentive. I see the my body language can become a distraction to others so if I am unfocused the chances are the youth will be as well. When a youth is being unintentionally disruptive, I quietly find a way to instruct them to not be. This allows the youth leader to be focused and not be distracted from what he/she is teaching.

A new perspective has allowed me to look at things with new glasses. To be able to take what I couldn't explain, put it to practice, and next time really find out how to demonstrate, explain, exemplify what my expectations are. It has also given me more appreciation of those who help and are committed. Its not easy but still Wednesday are my favorite.

**I will be writing more about my volunteer experiences with my leadership experience. I hope this becomes a resource for others to use or maybe can bring in new perspective in the youth volunteer genre.**

My wifes big Game

Tuesday is a night that I go and play Coed softball with the church. Elizabeth goes to support and to get Malachi out of the house. Yesterday we had a problem, only 2 girls came to play and we needed another girl so that we wouldn't have to forfeit the game. My wife was asked to play, to be honest I was a little nervous for her. Honestly I have never seen her play to many sports and she typically gave me a dirty look when I asked her to play Ultimate Frisbee with us. I also could tell she was really nervous.

She actually did quite well. I mean she didn't hit a homerun or anything but she went to bat 3 times and hit 3 fair balls. It was awesome, she made me proud. Her hits when something like this:

1st hit: Straight up 3rd base, she almost made it but the ball beat her.
2nd hit: up the middle but ball was dropped and underthrown allowing her to get to first base. After 2 other hitters she made it home for her first run
3rd hit: By the base, she got to first but was called out when she was clearly safe :)

Again I was very proud of her, she stepped out of her shell, had a little fun, and really did a great job. Good job honey!!! You can read her side of the story here.

WoW - New Realm

At the end of last year my brother got into a game entitled World of Warcraft (WoW). Its a little independent game that no one really knows about... ok unless you are deaf to the world its one of the most popular RPG Open World games that has ever existed.

I have been playing since November under the same realm as my brother. I am not really into RPG games but this game (when you can talk) is very engaging. I have really enjoyed getting to to know the game but unfortuately I am not really involved in the game so my character is actually not as advanced as it could be.

Just for the ignorate (John D) there are two sides, the Alliance and Horde. On Uldaman realm I am on the Alliance side and playing on the good side of world. Just recently I found out that a youth and her father have characters under a different realm. I decided to start a new character in thier realm (Zuluhed). I am playing the Horde side which in reality is the same as playing the Alliance side. Its very familiar. I am a hunter on both realms. So if you play WoW and want someone to pal with (I could never help, my ignorance of the game is overwhelming) find me on either realm.

QUICK REVIEW:

Games like this are usually listed as evil in the Christian Genre. Obviously I do not agree with that philsophy. As far as a "Christian Perspective" there is nothing morally wrong with this game!!! That said, gameplay is very engaging. The game keeps you interested and its built in such a way that when you start, being alone is fun, but as you advance you really need friends to advance the gameplay options and the fun really begins. The negative side is that its to involved, as a husband and father this game has to take the back burner because there are more important things to do. People who neglect relationships in there home because of this game should be scolded. At times the game can be overwhelming to the newcomer. Its also somewhat expensive to keep playing but a nice feature is that I can stop playing and paying come back a couple months later and my character is still there. If you get addicted to games stay away, if you can balance your gaming with real life this is a fun late night game to get involved in. Because of the negative over involved, overwhelming this casual gamer gives it a B.

New Blog

Really quickly..

I am directing college camp for Kentucky Church of God Ministries. I am trying to get more information out to people about what it is and what we do and that process has started with the launch of a new blog site. To find out more about College Camp 2008 click here.

Finally a Wii

In November of 2006 the Wii came out with much antipation. One of the most popular consoles of all time and one of the most difficult to find. It is the console I have wanted for my family since its I have heard about it but have passed it up several times. (at one time I found 8 in one spot and fought hard not to get it, another time I heard there was one at EB Games and waited in line for another game with my card ready but no wii) I have obsessed about it until Rock Band was released and then my obsession was temporarly taken over. (I had small hopes for Rock Band and a Wii for Christmas)

I got Rock Band and have been content and with the addition of our element and several xbox related items my obsessive personality was able to be occupied with so much that the Wii was midly forgotten. Then I heard about a game called Boom Blox that people couldn't stop talking about and my head was again turned at the Wii. Of course I have done really well at not being impulsive with my money so I did not go out and try to find one.

Things calmed down for a very SHORT time when I recieved an email from my Brothers wife and her interest of us all going in to buy Samuel a Wii for Christmas. This was a suprise to me since Samuel, when I asked, showed little to no interest (stating that it gets boring after a while) to the purchase of a Wii. I have been trying to get Samuel to get a Xbox 360 for months but he has looked blindly... Which sucks because its fun and it would be another way for us to communicate...

anyway... We decided to go in together for the purchase and on his birthday (and after looking for several weeks with no luck) he was given a Wii. He called me to thank me and my obsession started picking at my brain. I was wondering about Boom Blox, Mario Kart and yes its online compatibility. A couple of days went by when I finally could take no more so I proceeded to call my wife. I was expecting the answer NO with a little argument but it would have knocked me to my senses and I would like without but to my suprise she said OK. Which I was speachless... I didn't really know what to say... There was no argument, the only thing is I have to buy her Wii Fit. So off I went with the OK from Elizabeth to find a Wii, and with every phone call I was turned down. Elizabeth had a hair appointment in Danville so I decided to look at the local stores to see what they might have so it went like this:
Call to Gamestop - Got shipment check back in 10 minutes, returned call there were None
Walmart - None
K-Mart - None - I then asked the sales rep about anymore places that might sell electronics and she pointed out Radio Shack and F.Y.E.
F.Y.E. - Happened to be next door to K-Mart, with not much hope and the resignation that it was not my time I went in and found none. I went to chase Malachi and from the corner of my eye I saw a Wii box with a sign saying in stock. I kind of yelled at the sales rep and said DO YOU HAVE ANY WII's? his response: Yes, My Response: I'LL TAKE IT

It happened to be the last one so I got the Wii, Wii Play, and Extended Warranty :( and went to pick up Elizabeth. She could tell we were new owners of a Wii when I came into the shop. After the haircut we went to Gamestop and got Boom Blox and Mario Kart. We had a nice time trying out this new console and Malachi was able to enjoy it as well. You can read more on her side here.

Last night we tried online play with Samuel and Elya and it was fun. Unfortuately not able to talk is kind of a downer but it was still fun (hopefully Nintendo will fix this with a new wiimote). I will give my review of the Wii and games soon. Great Purchase, Wife fell in love with it, Great Family Fun, and I threw my arm out... It was a GREAT WEEKEND!!!

Another Stupid Chipmunk

Another adventure with a chipmunk...



This time Domino brought it in. He got it trapped behind a corner phone cabinet (which happens to be right next to the sliding door. I thought I would be smart this time and put the cats in the bedroom and seal off all doors with a towel so the chipmunk wouldn't get in the room this time.



With a broom and a door open (and yes, Malachi was on the couch jumping for joy) I proceeded to shoo the chipmunk out the door. At first it looked as though my plan might work but the chipmunk made a new move right into the kitchen and on through to the washing machine room.



There was a lot of places for the chipmunk to hide but I was confident I could corner him. As I started to dismantle the room, I thought about how I might catch this new chipmunk, again I wasn't sure as to what I should do but I thought I would fight that battle when the time came.

As I destroyed the room I found the chipmunk and then lost him again. The only pieces that have yet to be moved was the washer and dryer so I proceeded to move those to find out the chipmunk was no where in sight. After looking around the room and then the living room I called my Dad let him know that there was chipmunk on the loose and I had given up trying to find it.

I let the dogs in and thought how am I going to let this chipmunk on the loose while I was going to be sleeping but decided I would just watch tv. After about a 1/2 hour I saw Teddy (Mom's Dog) sniffing around by the desk. The chipmunk was underneath the desk and no I had him cornered. I decided to enlist the help of our cat Mouse, who kills mice on a regular basis. He's a pro and I knew if I had any chance of getting that chipmunk out it was going to be with his help.

I showed Mouse the chipmunk and when Mouse caught site of it I let him go. The chase began...
The chipmunk ran from under the desk to be bite and swatted (the cat has no claws) at. Mouse chased him under the recliner where it then crawled for a while until I lifted the chair up. Malachi was helping Daddy and was excited about seeing this chipmunk, was on the floor in front of me. Mouse caught site of it again and started to chase it. The chipmunk ran in between Malachis arms and to side with the sliding doors. Mouse had him cornered between the fireplace and a basket. I had a plan. I picked up Mouse and the basket positioned myself to corner the chipmunk. I also opened the sliding door... On the other side of the chipmunk I placed Mouse who darted for him and the chipmunk ran right into the basket. I then automatically tossed the basket w/ the chipmunk inside out the door. I immediately shut the door and watched to see if the chipmunk was in the basket. It was and again Malachi and I survived another day with an out of control wild animal in the house. SHoo!!!!

Youth Meeting 5-14

Really quickly...

I thought last nights youth meeting was pretty good. We started out playing a game of chair dodge ball...which I rule at...

Then we talked about purity. Purity of the heart actually. She started with us racing to eat a piece of chocolate. Most chocolate taste good but Bakers Chocolate...well not so much. We ate with the immediate groans of youth and their displeasure of the taste of the chocolate that partook in. It was gross...

Of course I ate the most but since I am a youth volunteer I was not allowed to win the prize but it was fun to watch their faces.

Jessica then proceeded to talk about what looks, smells good on the outside doesn't allows mean its good on the inside. She used main stream events like alcohol commercials and the reality of what alcohol can do, bad movies, even people. It was pretty good!!!

BUSY BUSY BUSY

Life has been to busy to post much. I have a lot to update you on but just a lot going on at work and been to busy to post anything at home. A lot of good things are happening in youth and I am really excited about our community event coming in the end of May. We have had a late start but things seem to be coming together. I will post more later as time allows...

Stupid Chipmunk

If you ever read this blog you sometimes here about my cat Mouse. He has become quite the hunter!!! He kills about 1 mouse a day and has eaten a couple of birds along the way. There have been 3 animals that have escaped the mighty grasp of the mighty Mouse!!!! The latest is one that I thought I would NEVER had to deal with. It was a stupid Chipmunk!!!

On Saturday I saw an object being chased in the bedroom. I thought it was a mouse and couldn't find it so I thought I would set a trap (although I forgot to) and try to get it. The cats went after it but once I was looking for it they seemed to loose interest.

Sunday rolled around, my son and I were watching t.v. I saw the cats getting kind of crazy and from behind the bookshelf ran out a brown flurry chipmunk... and went right under the love seat. I totally was at a loss for words. I really wasn't sure what to do at this point but I noticed that the love seat was next to the sliding door so I came up with a NO FAIL plan. I put the cats in a room and got Malachi on top of the couch. I opened the sliding door and then very carefully tipped the love seat over. The chipmunk ran straight for the door took a right turn through the gate (separating the dogs from our bedroom) ran underneath the bedroom door right into our room. Unfortunately the door was closed so I was not sure where the chipmunk went.

Again I was lost, not sure what to do. I got into the room with a flashlight and looked through every crack before I would destroy the bedroom. He was no where to be found. My next plan was to start the destruction process beginning with the bed.

SIDE NOTE: Malachi was again very excited, jumping up and down trying to help me look for the chipmunk. Unfortunately I had to be firm because I was afraid that he might get bit but he stayed on the couch very excited about the prospect of seeing Daddy battle this new foe.

I destroyed the bed. I took both mattresses out, and with a broom rumished through the contents on the floor. I was scared to death, thoughts of a rabid chipmunk going for the neck surrounded my head... but there was nothing. I checked two or three times. Then I looked behind the t.v. and again saw nothing. Then I glanced at the closet but didn't really didn't see it and I was pretty sure he wasn't in there.

I called my Dad to tell him about my little adventure and that I was at a lose as to what I should do. He told me I should take his 16 yr old beagle to try and track him down. So there I was with a beagle, two terriers, and two cats trying to hunt down this little animal. The beagle was scared out of its mind and was not able to function in the room. One terrier did not dare come in and the other terrier is really stupid and thought I was playing a game.

I proceeded to look in different places, I was getting desperate. I sure could not even put Malachi to sleep or go to sleep knowing there is a deadly Chipmunk on the loose. I decided to look underneath the dresser that holds the t.v. one more time and saw something running. I was pretty sure that I could not get him so I decided to get Mouse to lure him out from behind the dresser. Mouse was uninterested but decided to stay by the dresser and then he saw it. He chased it and the chipmunk came from underneath the dresser and straight into the closet. Mouse lost him and I could not get Mouse to go in the closet after him.

Our closet has A LOT of stuff in it. It has the remains of what was left at the old apartment when we moved and is piled up in the closet. The chipmunk had a lot of places to run. I found a snow glove and put it on...

ANOTHER SIDE NOTE: Just for an imagine of what this looked like, I was at home with just shorts (no shirt), no shoes, and one glove. Plus I was sweating profusely because I was not sure what to do.

Anyway, it was time for me to go after this chipmunk. Again Malachi exciting and taking in everything that was about to happen. I was a little overstressed and had trouble containing my emotions. As I was carefully ripping the closet apart, I was saying some choice words. Not the full blown words but the "Christian" version. As the chipmunk went through the closet I had lost him. I basically took everything out of the closet. There was a box of books that I took out in order to see the back of the closet. I saw nothing, this demonic Harry Potterish chipmunk disaperated in front of me...

I saw the books and decided I would look in there to see if maybe the chipmunk left some evidence as to where it had gone. As I took the first book out (with my glove) I saw it move. I decided that it was not a good idea to go any further (it was looking at my neck). I went to the door opened it up, carefully took the box outside. I slowly took out books until most of them were gone. I tipped the box over and there was....NOTHING!!! I was shocked, I decided to move the remaining books until I saw it run out on the porch. (I peed myself a little)

So the chipmunk got away unharmed, but now I had a destroyed room, an overexcited little boy and a disappointed cat. It was a long night...

I also forget how impressionable my 3 yr old is. After everything was over and I was putting the closet back together, Malachi yelled, "I am going to get the FREAKIN Chipmunk" which I was like dang as I lowered my head. I did laugh but then said I was sorry for saying that and he shouldn't say it either. Fortunately Malachi sometimes listens and never said it again. :)

**SORRY THIS HAS NOT BEEN PROOFREAD I AM AT WORK, ALSO I WILL POST PICTURES (OF THE AFTERMATH) LATER**

An Ordinary Day

Lastely I have not really been to busy, just kind of vegging out with not much personal time. At work I have been working on estimating this crazy job and my inexperience is really being challenged.

This weekend I got some extra money and got Grand Theft Auto IV (GTA IV). Its not a game that I would normally purchase but heard some good reviews and decided I would like to try it. Because of the M rating and its clear reasons for being so I was very limited in when I could play the game. The game has been engaging and been hard to put it down. The cussing has been EXCESSIVE but other than that the rumors you hear are false (at least to the point of the game that I am in). It's got a very Godfather like feel, its almost like when you see Robert Deniro as Vito coming to America. Its story line is very interesting and I really am excited about playing somemore.

Because of the language and gun shots censorship is very important in our household. I don't play the game in front of Malachi, my nieces and nephews, or anyone who is not an adult but again it really limits the avaiability of when I can play, which brings me to my next obsession the Ear Force X1. For sometime I have been obsessing over the wireless headset from xbox but this "gaming" headset is way better. Its still has cords but it fits over both ears you can hear the whole game through those and not the regular tv. I am looking forward to buying it when the money comes available.

Its funny as a kid my interest in video games. About 5 years ago I got engaged into Halo 2 and its multiplayer capabilities. I was hooked!!! Since then I have become a gamer of sorts, more for recreation rather than a serious gamer, but it has been an enjoyable hobby for me. Oh well not much else just a quick post to let people know I am still alive I will post more on GTA IV later.

Our Youth Meeting

This past year has been a crazy time for our youth group. In the past several months we have had our youth leader. We have a couple who have taken it over. We have had several youth leave (unrelated to the youth leaders), and just have had lots of changes. To be honest I sense more discouragement than encouragement lately, I think a big blow was when we decided not to go to San Antonio for the International Youth Convention.

These past few weeks Trevor and Jessica (the new leaders) have been setting up the stage for change. Most people think you should wait for change but in this case change is a well needed feature. We still have pictures of the old youth pastor (which has been gone for almost 2 1/2 years) and old youth hanging up. Its been a while since our youth room has been "updated". Yesterdays task was talking about a new name for our youth group. The previous name was RDE (Reach, Disciple, Encourage) and really we haven't used that name to describe us since I have been a part of the youth program. After discussing what the youth group "stood" for, we left the youth to themselves to come up with scripture and possible names.

The counselors went to the fellowship hall and chatted coming up with our own names. My suggestion was F.A.R.T. (sorry I can't remember what the letters stood for but they DID stand for something). I even had a great t-shirt idea, a cow with its tale up, inside the shirt would be a button in which the cow would fart and spray out green gas. That idea was shot down pretty fast.

ANYWAY back to the youth:
After about 1/2 hour of deliberation they had decided on two verses but no name. They are hoping to get time next week to discuss a name. The youth seem really excited about this, it would be good to use this excitement to get things rolling as we start our first community event.

After Youth (The Youth Counselor Meeting):
We had our 3rd Counselor meeting since Trevor and Jessica (Now Called Tressica). The main focus was a community event we are planning for the end of May. We are hoping to have an on site event for an out of school celebration and invite the surrounding community and friends of the youth that attend. We are trying a couple of things to get a response, one being a xbox 360 giveaway (a Nintendo Wii was suggested but I thought an xbox is more popular with the middle/high school age group). We also will get some inflatables for some fun activities (Joist baby YEAH). We really didn't get to much further than that but its a good start but unfortunately time is a HUGE factor.

We will probably have some more meetings but I would like to come up with some ideas that might help move these meetings into direction. So I am asking, "What would you suggest would be a good attraction to bring in youth from the community?" What's worked for you? What have you done to tell the youth in the community whats going on AFTER the event has taken place?

Xbox Live Vision

I absolutely love the xbox 360. As I have said before I think it is a superior machine mostly because of what it CAN do. I have made it a mission to explore more options of the 360 as I have been able to get the money and afford it. Granted the usefulness of the 360 depends more on who actually has a 360.

My latest venture was xbox live vision. Essentially it is an accessory for the xbox (and can be used on the computer) that allows you to see others while video chatting and while you are playing some games. Its not a feature that a lot of games use, yet, but it seems to be a growing fad. Of course I only use it with people I know and not for others, I am a pretty private person.

I bought mine new but opened on ebay and it came with two games one being Uno. I like Uno, don't love it but like it. Its a fun game and one that I really enjoy through the 360. I tested the vision for the first time throughout that game. It was kind of neat to see people as they play. I can really see this being more useful for Poker games. I happened to tell a youth pastor friend of mine that I had gotten it, he asked me for my opinion on it. He happened to have some buddies who were thinking of purchasing the same product so he eventually bought it as well.

One day we were on together and played Uno to "test" out xbox vision again. This session had us two and two other boys who had to be in the Middle/High School range. My camera was unplugged so I was having trouble getting the camera plugged in as I was trying to play the game but that didn't stop the conversation happening on the screen. One particular boy was chatting to another and talking to us on occasion. Then out of the blue, seriously, I did not expect this at all, he asked the other boy if he wanted to see his girlfriends [explicit]. That is when I turned on my mic and said "NO" very aggressively (I was still trying to battle getting the camera plugged, I am sure I looked like a real idiot). His response was why not and still asked the question again to the other boy, the other boys response was sure and that is when I and my buddy left the table. We started our own game in which my first response was, "well that is the negative side of xbox vision".

This situation got me thinking about how life has changed so much. I would never dream of saying anything of this sort, and definitely not act it out. I am sure xbox vision was more for connecting people and not to be used in perverse ways. In some ways its a tragedy that these kinds of things happen. That this type of door has opened up in the world of teenagers. As a youth worker I find my mind surrounded by, "how do we approach this with the youth and with the parents of youth?"

My question is how do we approach technology? How do we teach students/parents the dangers and temptations of the advancing world through the internet? Is this an issue we (the Church) should even address? I am interested in your thoughts!!!

MY WIFE AND SON ARE COMING HOME!!!

I haven't blogged about this, I have been meaning to but have not really felt like blogging to much this past week. A week and 1 day ago I put my wife and son on a plane to visit her parents in Florida. I have only been at this current job for 1 year and haven't "earned" a week of vacation yet, (The concept of "earned" time off seems so backwards to me) so I was not able to go.

This week I have been batchin it pretty good. Because of current conditions my wife, son and I live with my parents. We have one wing of the house, they have the other. We share a kitchen, dining room, and living room. This week I have pretty much stayed on my side of the house. A typical day looked like this:

Get up go to work
Work all day
Come home
go straight to room
get dinner and head back to room
play xbox 360 and surf the internet

YES I KNOW...its pathetic but in reality my family is a big part of my life and I was a little lost without them this week. I did get to relax a little and caught up on some major sleep but I still missed them.

Sometimes I take for granted what I have and when its gone I feel the full effect of whats missing. So I have been a little depressed this weekend and a lot lonely. I am really excited about today though. I will be seeing them around 6:30, we are going to visit someone at a nursing home really quickly and spend time with my old coworker for dinner. It will be nice to catch up with EVERYONE.

To see a picture of what they did go here.

My Weekend

This weekend consisted of several things. I had to keep myself busy or I would have gone crazy. Friday I spent most of the night playing on the Xbox 360. It was a lot of fun, I took out some old games that I were collecting dust and tried them again. Games I played this weekend were:

Halo 3 (DUH!!)
Poker Smash (Trial Version)
Robotech (this games really sucks)
Uno w/ xbox live vision, which I will post more on later
Texas Hold Em' (Trial Version)
Gears of War

I like Gears of War but it is a lot different playing style than Halo. After playing several rounds I was getting beat like crazy. I started playing with some guys who were really good (or at least better than I) who finally saw that I was really bad at this game. They did something that brought back feelings I haven't felt since Middle School. They made fun of me and were real critical of how I was playing the game. They definitely did not try to help me. The feelings brought back times when I would get picked last or not picked at all to play a game. When I got picked it became a big joke.

I guess I have a hard time understanding that type of philosophy. If someone is not as good, lets call them names and make fun of them. I almost always try to help others understand the game, I am never easy on them but I try to help them understand the rules and controls as we play. It makes it much more fun because you are helping someone become competitive and thus creating a much more fun and balanced game. But what happened was I left the game and put in Halo again. I didn't like feeling that way and probably won't play Gears for a little while.

OK I am off my soap box...

On Saturday morning I went with the youth for an outing called DU or Destination Unknown. The "Unknown" places we went to was the new Champs, not to skate but to play Laser Tag. It was fun but not as fun as I use to remember, the real dissappointing feature was NO RUNNING, but we were not allowed to run at Laser Quest either.

The 2nd "Unknown" thing was Putt Putt golf at the Lexington Ice Center, where we found out that they are in Guinness as being the only Putt Putt golf place with all holes biblically themed. I really suck at that game but it was fun to hang out with the youth. After that we went home.

I also did some community service by playing some games with senior citizens this weekend. OK it was my parents and the Sutton's but they taught me this fun game called Chicken Foot. It's a domino game that is not to difficult to learn but takes a long time to play. We had good time with friends and it was nice to get myself away from the TV for a little while.

I also made a cornhole set of my friend Sarah. That has been a task (I have only made a small set previously). I am still not done but it is close to completion. I am not a 100% happy with it but for my first try I think it turned out pretty nice, hopefully Sarah thinks it did as well.

Without a wife and son I had to fend for myself for food and instead of going grocery shopping I decided that going out to eat was the best option. Here are the places I went:
Friday - New China (Elizabeth doesn't like Chinese food, my parents always eat at a different Chinese place)
Saturday - Qdoba - Chicken Burrito YUM.....
Sunday - Bella Pizza - Always a treat

Sunday morning we had special guests for the service called the Covenant Players. They were a drama team that travels around the country doing skits for different places. It was quite interesting and was nice to see what people were doing for ministry. This particular team was made up a family of three and have been traveling for 30+ years.

It was a good weekend but I am ready for Malachi and Elizabeth to be home. Even though they are probably not missing me, I miss them immensely.

Facing my own mortality

Its funny, in school I remember learning about invincibility that kids face. They do things without really thinking about the consequences because in their mind they can not get hurt or killed. Its something you are suppose to grow out of.



Some kids are absolutely fearless, they can do things and not give a second thought about what might happen. I was a little different growing up, I thought to much about consequences which has held me back on a couple of adventures.



Death is something we all think about. I have thought about it a lot lately. Not really that I was afraid I would die but more just thinking about what happens after you die. I know I will die but for some reason most of the time I have this invincibility complex that allows me to think that I will be fine. This complex keeps me from the Doctors for the most part.



Two years ago I had a physical so I could drive a school bus. In that physical they were checking for drugs in the system, but the strip they used also detected other things. The thing it detected was a little bit of blood in the urine. I was concerned but really didn't think to much of the situation and allowed my life to go on as planned.



Last Monday I had a problem with my throat and scheduled to see a Doctor but decided to make it a physical instead of an appointment. I told him about what went on 2 years ago, so he decided to check it out again along with some blood test. That Thursday the results came back with the same message, there was still blood in the urine. It suggested I go to a urologist for further testing. This was a scary situation, I really started to think about life. I thought something was really wrong for this "suggestion" to be in place.



My wife and I talked for the first time about death together. We talked about what we will do, what she should do. (I know that I had not had test and I was over thinking the situation but again the post is called Facing my own Mortality) We talked about my life and my calling!!! It was a scary conversation, I didn't sleep well. It was premature thought but since it was to late to contact any Doctors office there was no real easing of emotion.



The next day I scheduled an appointment with the urologist. (They said are you available for Tuesday, my response um...how about today) The urologist told me that in most cases, because of my age, there was nothing wrong, BUT there have been people tested positive for cancer in my age group, even though that result was small. He told me he wanted to do a procedure and a CT Scan. He told me I could do them next week, I decided to do the procedure that day.



I tried calling my wife and then my mother but could not get a hold of anyone. So I had the procedure done without anyone in the family knowing about it. It was the loneliness I have felt in a while. So the procedure was done (I will spare you details) and they found nothing in the bladder.



Tuesday I did the CT Scan and got the results yesterday. Nothing was in the kidneys...so I am good. No further testing is needed.



The whole experience, even though some might say I overreacted, brought me to realize my own mortality. The truth is we don't really know how long we are a part of this world. I have been reading about Saddleback's One Month to Live Series (I would be interested in seeing how it was done) and really tried to put that in perspective. What have I done with my life? What have I done for my family? For God? For Friends?



Those days of thinking about what could be happening, really allowed me to enjoy Malachi and Elizabeth a little more. It helped me appreciate my parents and siblings a little more. After this experience it makes me want to really make a difference, to be more involved in my calling, in what God has designed me for.

My day in New Albany

February 15, 2006 was the last day I spent in New Albany, IN as the youth pastor of the First Church of God. That was a sad day for me, I was leaving a place and church that I really loved. For 2 years I have thought about the people and especially the youth that were a part of my life while I was there. I had promised I would return to see them but because of one thing or another was not able to.

Yesterday, I was able to return. I drove down Veterans and was surprised to see new stores and got myself a little lost in the process. I finally made my way to New Albany and stopped by some of the people who meant a lot to me. I spent about 30 mins with each of them, we caught up, laughed, and said our goodbyes. I look forward to stopping by again sometime to see them again. They are saints and I am so thankful I have had the pleasure/honor to meet/befriend them.

After that I played basketball Ben and we got whooped (I only played like 7 mins though). Then we went to Tumbleweed and met Ashley, then called Jay and he came over to meet with us. Unfortunately that is all that came but people are busy and I can understand that.

We took a couple of hours and really caught up.

Side Note: Ben and I tried a buffalo burger from Tumbleweed and its was surprisingly dull. I think the service at Tumbleweed is good but can't say I care much for the food.

It was hard to go back. I always felt that I turned my back on them. I would have almost done anything to stay there. I look forward to the next time we can come to visit and be apart (for just a little while) their lives again.

Kicking out a whole youth group

A couple of weeks ago I was listening to the Simply Youth Ministry Podcast and the discussion came up about kicking out a student. Andy told of his recent experience of telling a youth that he had to home. On the chat room, stories started popping up about other youth pastors experiences.

I have told youth that they couldn't go on trips but had never really asked youth to leave. When I started at the First Church of God in IN, they had some discipline problems within the youth program. A lot of that had to do with organization but it was a problem none the less.

As time went on, the youth group got a little more tamed down. But discipline was still a problem. The first thing we did was split the groups to Junior High and Senior High. That helped because the Senior High was causing some problems because they didn't like being mixed with the Junior High. Some of the Senior High would come on Wednesday to help and that really helped discipline because a lot of the younger ones looked up to them.

As things cooled down some more junior high started coming and the discipline was out of hand again. After about 3 weeks of the lesson taking 4 times as long because I had to stop a hundred times, I had finally had it. The next week we played a game and came to sit down for the lesson. The Junior High was especially hyper and I couldn't even get a sentence out. They were just very loud and obnoxious. I had to yell to get their attention and when I did I went on a spill about how they like to come for games but don't want to take 15 mins to listen and finally said, "I should just stop youth right now and try again next week...I think that is what I am going to do!!!" I told them to go home and if they wanted to come back they needed to straighten up. So I kicked the whole youth group out. I told my Senior Pastor with some MAJOR disapproving looks. He was almost speechless. I felt, and still do, that I did the right thing. Of course you know that Pastor knows best.

The truth was the Junior High liked coming, they liked the socialization and it was a real sign that they did something wrong. I wasn't sure about this until the following day when I ran into some of the youth at Wendy's. They were with their grand parents and they stopped me and said, "I think these boys have something to tell you" and in unison the boys said they were sorry. I apologized for my actions, but was stopped by the grand parents saying that I had done the right thing and next time I had problems to call them.

The next week youth was full with the same kids and I had no problems. Problems came back but were never to that magnitude. After that point I found some of the "leaders" and started eating, and spending time with them. I got them on my side and they helped me with their examples.