Good Reminder

I love to be reminded of Good things by good people. My friend Lars just finished up elaborating on my top 11 current pieces of advice for youth leaders. And reading it over was a good reminder to continue to engage. What is awesome about technology and being a Christian, is that we can remain part of a "community" - even a community that is dispersed throughout the world and remain encouraged, enlightened and strengthened by other members - and we can still engage the world because we don't have to be huddled up in a cave somewhere. So, I'm stepping out of my office for a few minutes to go for a walk. Thanks for the good words Lars...

Fast and Loose

A couple of recent observations:

1) Facebook is like school when the teacher steps out of the classroom for a moment - yeah, you can get some work done, but often times the obnoxious kids in the back of the room ruin it for everyone. I don't use it much at all because I hate all the junk that people send out - invitations to stupid things. Yeah, it was funny the first time, but seriously - be discriminate about who you invite to be on your "let's make the biggest tinfoil ball" group. Don't randomly hit "reply-all" to e-mails and don't invite all of your "friends" to join you in whatever new gadget you found on facebook.

2) Just when you think you've got something figured out...God throws you a curve ball. Bridgette remains "with child" - and if his movements last night as we lay in bed were any indication, she'll remain that way for a little while yet. Brennan came 3 and a half weeks early - Aidan is taking his sweet time. Which means our house has got to be Mr. Cleaned every night - good ol' nesting kickin' in!

3) Police are people like you & I... with badges. As I drove into the office today I was passed by a female Ohio State trooper (does it matter she was female? I dunno, but she was) - she was talking... on her cell phone! Now, unless you're in Brooklyn, Ohio, there's no laws here about driving under the influence of a telephone, but as a police officer? What happens if you see a felony in progress? Better yet, what happens when you miss seeing a felony in progress because you're distracted?

4) Sometimes you've just got to do it. And this goes for nearly everything in life, including, but not limited to blogging. Just throw crap up there to get the juices flowing. So, that's partly what this is about. That, and I didn't feel like digging deeply yet into the things I've been pondering lately - but I will, rest assured, I will...

Word Picture

I just wordled my blog. It's a cool way to take something you've written and make a word-picture (or word cloud as they say) out of it. I'm curious to see what it would look like a month from now? I think it's funny that Canadian was the biggest word and US was right behind it. The size of the words is based on the use & prominence...

Estranged States to live in... Happy 4th

As a Canadian, living in the US for the past 10 years now, I experience a very odd feeling of not belonging. Now, I can't speak for every ex-pat out there, but particularly as a Canadian, in the face of the rampant patriotism that often doesn't allow you to question, let alone critique your country, I have quite a hard time. It's been even more the case in the last 4 years as I've gone from feeling like the US military presence abroad was actually doing something positive, to discovering some of the seedy details, and wondering if this wasn't just another case of power corrupting good intentions. Anyway, on this day, where the US celebrates it's independence (by way of a bloody war...), I'm going to kick back like everyone else and pretend that everything here is A-OK...
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Going Blue...

I thought it was time for a little change. Just minor. And maybe a little change in font upcoming, we'll see. Once in awhile my creative juices need an outlet. Now, if I could only put them to use for Sunday's sermon at our partner church - an Episcopal church in downtown Columbus...

I'm a proud papa

I came home to find Brennan had been singing the national anthem - how awesome is that!

Happy Canada Day!

Just in case you didn't know, today, July 1, is Canada Day. It's a little ironic that we had originally thought of taking a Canadian Vacation this summer, which would have included our first trip to Quebec City during it's 400th Anniversary Celebration. Instead, we are at home, waiting for the arrival of our 2nd little boy - a poor Canadian in exile. I think one day we'll have to take the boys on a cross-Canada vacation - maybe some kind of summer deal where we go coast-to-coast, hitting a CFL game in every province. Now THAT sounds pretty cool...