santa claus in lego star wars II

on decmber 22nd lucasarts reveals that santa claus is playale in lego star wars II: the original trilogy. the mix of star wars and christmas; what could be better? directions on how to do it can be found at ign. time to spread some of the christmas spirit with a light saber.

merry christmas!

it is almost here. one more day until christmas. we are heading out tonight for a tour of the state of florida. we will be visiting tonay's family, seeing my sister and her family, then going to my father's for a two nights. have a merry christmas!

ice!

we went and saw ice at the gaylord palms yesterday. it was an exceptionally cool exhibition. here's some of the pics from it.

if only i could

12/20/06 first anniversary

on our first we went to watch the sunrise. truly beautiful.

new pancoast

the newest pancoast. the little one not big one in the picture. elliot noel.

looking good

things are looking good slopeside. 30 trails are now open.

guitar at its best

LED's lighting the world's architecture

wired magazine's photo blogs displays pictures of the world's architecture lit up by LED's (light emitting diodes). great shots of towers, bridges and offices from across the globe.

words of a three year old

"have you seen mr. boot?"

"no i haven't. what does he look like?"

"he's got a big round head, ears, and a big belly. he's not like us."

Twentysomethings Put Christianity on the Shelf

"A new study by The Barna Group (Ventura, California) shows that despite strong levels of spiritual activity during the teen years, most twentysomethings disengage from active participation in the Christian faith during their young adult years – and often beyond that. In total, six out of ten twentysomethings were involved in a church during their teen years, but have failed to translate that into active spirituality during their early adulthood."

-we see this in our own churches. we should work at discovering ways to encourage young people to get better engaged into church life.

excerpts from an email

So here's another thought to explain how I feel about sin as a whole. It is not our job to judge. While we are told what is sinful in the scriptures, we are also told not to judge others for that sin. In our relationships to others, especially those who are cast out on a high level, such as homosexuals, our job, I believe is to err on the side of love and compassion. We then continue to love the lord our god with all our heart, all our soul, and all our mind. We also are then able to love our neighbors (all others) as our selves. When we do this, we show others what god is like, and we allow god to do his job. And don't step on god's toes. And of course as with anyone, as we build relationships with others we may have the opportunity to help them move from sinful things to a deeper relationship with Christ. We cannot do that without getting to know, getting to know their story, spending time with them. However, I am not able nor do I think I would ever want to be able to judge. I feel like our role as Christians is to help draw others near to god. God is here and available to all despite our sinful nature or sinful acts. Christ paid the price for us and homosexuals, prostitutes, pre-marriage sexual acting people, and everyone else just the same. It is hard for us to accept god's ability to love all people the same. It is great when we know that we are loved, but it is difficult to understand that the rapists or the sexual offenders who were on the board at the park on Sunday are loved by god just the same. We have a job to not let people hurt others however, I do believe that hell is full of people that god loves. I also think that god is willing to redeem all people. Can we grasp to fullness of that? Not likely in our limited ability to love and our conditional ways of loving. We must make an effort to love all people, no matter what walk of life they come from. It is easy to love our friends and those we agree with and those who think like we do and those who are like us. But the scriptures call that fake, if we don't love our enemies too. Now, don't mistake kindness for weakness or tolerance. However, first and before anything else we must love.

never knew...

angel decoy

just in time for christmas

more photos from charlotte - performers

skit guys
lost and found
shane and shane
starfield
leeland

photo highlights of the national youth workers convention

parting shot
my wife and i
the exhibit hall
charlotte at night
the view from the westin
the westin

on our way there




more to come...

met chauncey billups

while we were in charlotte for the national youth worker's convention, we were able to attend a charlotte vs. detroit nba game. we found out the pistons were staying in our hotel. how could you miss them? at 7 feet tall, you take notice. anyways, chauncey billups, point guard for detroit, was kind enough to take a picture with me. very cool.

off to charlotte

well, off to charlotte in the morning for the national youth worker's convention. good times. more to come...

that's one way to do it

need groceries? don't miss an item on the way.

snowshoe mountain is open

the skip trip is just over a month away. snowshoe is officially open now with 5 slopes. the link is updated daily. friday of this week the forecast is calling for more snow. keep checking back or check weather.com to see what the conditions are.

check out the daily photos.

what we are watching

here's what we are watching this tv season

• heroes - excellent, surprise hit
• the unit - second season has gotten even better
• the office - another great year
• 24 - can't wait for it to begin

face mapping

while it's not a brand new technology, face mapping has been taken to the next level with rainbow six vegas. with use of the xbox live vision camera you can take a few pictures of yourself and use that put your face in the game. according to major nelson, it makes it quite a bit easier to then recognize your teammates.

yao blocked

november 20th, 2006

encouraged

i am reading praise habit by david crowder. it has come alive for me on a couple of levels. first let me tell you i have a hard time reading. my mind drifts. quickly. i begin thinking of everything else in life. no matter how good the reading is. it doesn't take long and i am in another world. i know they say that reading is supposed to take you other places, but i don't think they mean like that. i lose track of what it is that i am actually supposed to be focused on. however, each section or chapter is short. it is easy to read. easy to follow. it is a lot of work to get through a book. i just want the concept. i find myself in this book getting through it without having to read pages again. generally i feel like by the time i finish a book i have read it 2 or 3 times. i think i will get through this one time the first time.

and to add to it i am reminded to praise Good for all that is in life. every piece from the small and mundane to the big and important and to the tapping of my feet as i can't sit still.

which file extension are you?

well...

Wii remotes breaking tv's

nintendo's new system looks amazing and is getting great reviews. however, recently there have been a few posts about the remote slipping from people's hands, the straps breaking, and then the remotes flying into the tv screen breaking it.

here's one set on flickr.

here's another.

there are a few others, too. i am sure this is just an unfortunate event. if you have or are getting a Wii, it would be smart after seeing this to make sure to reinforce the strap before tossing it in the direction of your tv.

dog rides

preparing for season 6

in preparation, tonya and i, have begun watching all the previous seasons of 24. she has only seen season 5 and i have not seen season 1 and most of season 2. so it begins. it seems like a big and daunting task. but we will get it done.

and on a side note, it is interesting that president palmer's first and last shots in the show are standing in front of a window gazing out on the city.

here's the preview for season 6.

they have no idea

the folks over at wikipedia got it all wrong. check it out for yourself.

bryant johnson

dice stacking

wow!

comparing windows vista editions

before you decide which version of windows vista is right for you, you must decide if you truly need to upgrade to vista.

to decide look here upgrade planning, why you should upgrade, and what you need to know.

there are some good things coming with the new operating system. does it truly offer more than windows xp? that can be debated. eventually most people should upgrade. at the start, there will br problems with software and hardware compatibility. so while your computer may be able to handle running vista, your other software may not. whatever you decide, you will still need to decide which version to buy.

here's a list of the different editions of windows vista. there's home basic, home premium, vista business, and vista ultimate. as move towards ultimate you are actually getting a more feature complete version. now, you should be able to upgrade to the bigger version if you decide even after installing it by activiating it online. i think the majority of people will have th ebest experience from the home premium edition.

the fact of the matter is that upgrading may cost you more money than expected. you may have additional costs of new hardware and new software depending on compatibility. this is always an issue. some hardware will be left behind for good once you upgrade. and some older versions of software may not work again.

use the upgrade advisor before making any decisions. it does a pretty good job of telling you how well your computer will run with vista.

black friday is coming

here is a list of things you can get free at some stores. now, keep in mind free means that you have to buy something first. if you buy the right item you get something "free." however, there are certainly some good deals out there. keep your eyes open.

busy weekend

well if the week weren't already busy, i had to reformat and reinstall everything on our computer at home. three nights of work after program the previous two nights. windows media player 11 with media connect built in was maxing out my cpu. i don't recommend it. anyways, a fresh computer is a good computer.

tomorrow i leave for crosstrainers at warren willis united methodist youth camps. sunday evening we have a parent's meeting for our high school winter retreat to snowshoe. and monday is our first quarterly volunteer training session. all great stuff. just back to back.

in the meantime i can't get my hands off of splinter cell:da.

need to hear something good?

here's a couple of options to listen to while at work, on your ipod, in the car.

Drive Time Devotionals , this comes from Saddleback in California.

Rob Bell, from Mars Hill in Michigan.

both of these will open itunes and ask you to subscribe to the podcasts. if you don't have itunes, get it here.

hard questions

pastor john's november journal discusses the hard questions series that has begun on thursday nights at 7pm. anyone is welcome to join. just thought i would highlight a couple of funny excerpts from his post.

"At the writing of this, Serious Answers to Hard Questions is dealing with "Evil."
I would like to invite the person who asked the question; "Why doesn't John
Retire?" to come to our class because they could probably give us a lot of
incite on the problem of evil. (Just kidding, I am sure they were jesting).

"Can we hear some of your sins and failures?" I will continue to answer that one
by saying: Yes you can, just suffer through one of my sermons!

Now I have a question for you: Are you willing to approach the throne of God
with an open heart, an open mind and an open soul?"

Movies and TV on the 360

HD movies and tv coming to the xbox 360. with the fall update tv shows and movies will soon be ready for download.

letter to joel

just wanted you to know that you have been on my mind and in my prayers. i don't know if you'll get to read this anytime soon, but i want you to know that i am thinking about you. i talk to jay pretty frequently and he lets me know how you are doing. he shared what had happened to your fellow soldier and humvee driver. i know that things are difficult for you and that fear sometimes may set in. remember Philippians 4:13. "i can do all things through God who strengthens me." stay strong while you are in iraq. tonya and i miss you. i remember out talks from sitting on the tailgate of my truck, to sitting on the stage in the youth room, and sitting in the chairs on my front porch. i told you a couple of times that i would take all of your pain i could. i meant that. every bit of it. i never knew, when i was saying that, that you would be doing and risking your life for me. fighting for our freedom. no matter what people say about the war, you are there fighting for us. i can't tell you how much i appreciate your courage and willingness to do that for us. well, until i see you again, take care. and when your done come to the beach.

"Made a Lady Think I Was God"

tonight's "my name is earl" was great! the show approached the topics of hearing God's voice, responding to what we are called to do, and understanding that God speaks to us through others. i wouldn't be surprised to see a series of lessons on this episode.

free utilities

my friend graig was asking me today about some free spyware removal utilities. i made a few suggestions to him of my favorites.

free avg
avg is an anti-virus program. it's great. i have been using it regularly for a couple of years. there is no need to pay for symantec and mcafee when there are better alternatives. it is small and doesn't use a lot of your systems processes. not too mention it works just as well.

spyware removal
there a couple you should use. each works well but each also will find things the others might not. if you have some major spyware issues try all three.
AdAware this is my personal favorite and the one i use the most. it provides you with a level of the threat, gives you an easy way to remove them.
spybot from safer networkinganother good removal tool.
and last but not least is microsoft's defender. again it is free, but is still in beta. i haven't experienced any issues with it. the full version will likely be included in MS' new OS, Vista.

CCleaner
this little utility will clean out your computer. it removes unused files from your system to help your computer run smooth. it will clean the reigstry, internet files, old .tmp files, and remove anything left behind after uninstalling a program.

and finally for a better internet experience use firefox. it's an alternative web pbrowser to internet explorer. without going into the details it is safer, not allowing web pages to install software without your permission. it loads pages faster and gives you more ways to customize it. try it out.

scenes from halloween

my lovely wife, tonya and our spider trunk. worked perfect in the back of our honda element. tonight was trunk-n-treat. we had a great turnout for the first time at our church.





overheard at trunk-n-treat: "now i have to go to my stinky neighborhood. which isn't too stinky because i have a full bag of candy."

xbox 360 recieves an update

the fall update has a full lineup of added features. check the list here. one of the biggies is the ability to stream videos (wmv) to your 360 without having a media center pc and from other devices, too. it also includes support for divx.

3000 pumpkins

3000 pumpkins once sat here. as of 7:30pm on october 30th, all of them were gone. our group did a great job with this fundraiser. i just can't believe we sold out.

for more on the funraiser go to pumpkins usa.

wrong again

it seems the new version of snapshot is actually already out.

waiting

it seems i am always waiting for something. i am ready to get our youth webpage up and running. but i am waiting on a new software version to come out before we get going. one of the best packages is from simply youth ministry out in california. they offer a software package called snapshot. occording to this page, the new version will be out in October, 2006. that means one more day until it is released or there is more waiting to be done. patience is a virtue, right?

fun finds

the folks at grow-a-brain found some interesting picture on the web and put them into a collage.

this is great.

The New Atheism

this is an article in the november 2006 issue of wired magazine. the author interviews and attends ateist gatherings and a few churches to see and experience some of the differences. the interesting thing is that the "new atheists" are starting a movement of heavy evangelism. the goal is to find people who haven't made a decision on God and persuade to believe that there is no God. it is good to know where others stand. the write is not necessarily in support of this movement but illustrates what this belief is about.