One of the guys I work with takes a lot of heat on having an outdated cell phone. He claims he had to upgrade it's version of DOS and sent me a copy of this picture.

Jason turned me on to these videos callled Red vs. Blue. It's hilarious. The author took clips from the video game Halo and dubbed audio to make these videos.

I just heard the Def Lepard song Photograph redone as a country song. I'm all for covers. Just not this one.

I've added this Logitech Harmony remote to my wish-list of cool things to get someday. I know that $249 is a lot for a remote control, but my system has gotten so complex that it's a little painful for most. I've got 4 separate inputs going into my TV (S-Video, , Component, DVI and Line Input) not to mention changing settings at a receiver level. This remote hooks into your computer via a USB cable and can be programmed to perform a set of functions at a task level (i.e. Watch TV) that will take you through changing the settings for every component in your system, as opposed to having to manually go through the steps involved in that event (i.e. Switch to DVI input, Change Receiver Audio output, turn on TiVo, turn on TV, turn on receiver, etc.).

I've been messing around with two software packages lately that are both pretty cool. One is called Pluck and the other called GIMP. Both are free, both are pretty cool.

Pluck is an RSS news reader that lets you easily read all of the blogs you keep up with on a regular basis in one easy place. That's fairly standard though. The nice thing is, it integrates right into Internet Explorer and gives you a nice interface that lets you move between computers without having to reset up your feeds. It also has a concept called Perches, that let you have reoccuring searches across news services, ebay, etc on a given product, company or topic. It pre-fetches all of these things and gives you one place to go. I like it so far. Downside is that it doesn't work with Firefox yet, which is my browser of choice.

The second product is called GIMP and is basically an open-source photo-shop type image editor. I haven't used it to it's fullest extent, but so far it's got a good interface, good functionality and is fairly easy to use.

I also got a cool ASUS pocket wireless router that's about the size of a pack of cigarettes that I can plug into any hotel room or conference room and have an instant wireless network without those painful cables.

I just put some of the pictures from Phoenix online.

Cathie and I got at 6 this morning to get out to Sedona to sight-see. My breath was literally taken away when we rounded the corner and saw all of the beautiful red-rock formations. It's one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen. We walked around Sedona for a while, picked up some souvenirs and then headed out on the Pink Jeep Tour. The tour was amazing. You're riding in this huge 4x4 jeep going through ridiculous terrain that a jeep just shouldn't be able to do. You're going up 60 degree angles, down 45 degree angles - crazy stuff. Our driver was a really interesting guy who shared all sorts of interesting facts about the terrain, the history, the water and the rock formations. The guy really knew his stuff - seemed like he'd be a neat guy to buy a beer and hear some great stories. He's been a guide in the rocky mountains various capacities for 14 years - grand canyon river guide, hunting guide and jeep guide.

Cathie and I got back to the Biltmore, hung out by the pool and had our "treatments". Cathie had a hot stone massage and I had a treatment that I'm not going to mention (no, it wasn't a high calonic) for fear of being mocked.

We fly out tomorrow on the 6:05AM flight to Detroit, which means we're going to have to get up around 4. Great. At least we'll be home in time for the Lions football game.

Last night we had an awards banquet at the Wrigley mansion (as in Wrigley's chewing gum fame). It was located up on a hill with the mountains surrounding it. We saw one of the most beautiful sunsets ever.


It's a great group of people on this team, and after working on this project for two years, a number of them have become great friends.



Matt, Ross (pictured above) are I have just started a competition that involves points for working out each day and for taking time praying and reading the bible each day. Pretty simple, but it just speaks to the friendship that we've developed that we're doing something like this together.

Cathie and I are heading to Sedona this morning to go on a Pink Jeep Tour which are supposed to be amazing.

I got up this morning about 6AM and hung out on my balcony watching the sun rise, drinking coffee and enjoying the weather. I had meetings from 8:30 - 12 and then hung out at the pool for a while. Cathie was at the pool and then had a facial and a pedicure. I had a stone massage this afternoon, which was great. It's like a normal massage, but with hot rocks stuck all over your body - but not in a bad way. I think I feel asleep at one point I was so relaxed. This has been a great getaway so far.

My Dad can't figure out why I keep a blog, and I started thinking about why I do it. Part of it is that I'm a person who loves stories, and I love to use this as a medium to share them. It keeps me from having to share the same story 400 times. On the downside, I don't know who reads it and when I share the stories, I'm either quickly interrupted and informed that they read it, or they placate me and nod their head, knowing the end of the story. To that note, I talked to a friend of mine, Mike Thompson, the other day. He told me "I know you, but you don't know me." I had no clue what this meant, and he explained that he'd been reading my blog and knew what was going on in my life. I told Mike to get a blog.

Cathie and I arrived in Phoenix yesterday. Cathie did her usual gig where she stays up until 5AM getting everything ready to leave - lists, itinerarys, backpacks, clothes - everything. We then got up at six and headed to the airport. Cathie rode in First Class while I was waaaaay back in coach. I had an exit row seat, which is normally good, excpet for this seat, which had the door protruding out in front of it and a small leak of very cold air. I was wrapped in blankets and my toes were numb by the end. I'd forgotten how much nice the first class flight attendants are to you. A friend of mine, Marge, upgraded both of us for our return flight. Thanks Marge!

This place is amazing. Our room is about 1000 square feet - huge! With a giant wrap-around private balcony that over-looks the pool, actually 7 different pools a a giant water slide and water fall. Everything about this place is beautiful. I took the above picture last night on our way to dinner, as the sun was setting. All of the grass here is manicured like a putting green. It's an entire campus, lots of pools, fountains, golf courses, etc.


I was in meetings from 12:30 - 5:00 yesterday while Cathie hung out by the pool. We had drinks and dinner with the team and then went swimming and hit the hot tub. I took this picture last night:

Hopefully today, we're done by noon today. We've got a big dinner tonight at the Wrigley mansion.

I just started watching the show Scrubs. I don't watch sitcoms. This is one of the funniest shows I've ever seen. I'm laughing non-stop throughout the whole show. I need to check out season one when and if it comes out on DVD.

Cool new technology I'm trying out that I got from Erik. It's been a super-top-secret search technology from Amazon that was just put out there to compete with Google. The theory is that Amazon will drive Google and Yahoo crazy enough with this stuff until their stock price falls enough for Amazon to buy them up. Check out the toolbar and search engine at A9.

I just got back from Washington D.C. I'm not sure what's going on there, but it was nuts. All of the rental cars were taken at every rental car place, and when I tried to get on an earlier flight, there were over 1,000 people in line to go through security. I hate that airport. Plus they have these goofy terminal shuttles that must have been designed in comittee. I flew out at 7AM and back at 10PM. Back at the airport tomorrow at 8AM.

My ticket was upgraded, but Cathie's isn't. She gets my seat, I get hers. Hopefully I'm sitting next to crying children while she's in the lap of luxury.

Cathie and I are leaving for Phoenix tomorrow. We're staying at the Biltmore, which is an amzing spa/resort out there. While I'm entertaining a customer, Cathie will be getting spa treatments. My mom is coming tomorrow to stay with the kids through Friday, Jess is staying with the kids Friday night and my brother-in-law Ed and his wife Stacy are with the kids Saturday and Sunday, when we get back. Things almost fell through with the arrangements, but Ed & Stacy bailed us out at the last minute.

Remeber that whole I found some of your life site I mentioned earlier? Hope you had a chance to check it out, because it's now GONE. Not sure why, but all that's left is an apology note. Bummer. It was damn funny.

The InformationWeek 500 report is out....Xerox came in at #9 (up from #220 last year). We are top of the Consulting and Business Services Industry sector (see table below). This year's criteria include "crisp and efficient tech strategies that cut costs and optimize productivity...with a focus on corporate governance ...and ROI."

Here lies the Florabama Lounge and Package Store . I was down in Mobile Alambama last year and had a chance to visit the legend, which is often mistaken as a shanty. It's been made famous by lots of artisits, particularly Jimmy Buffett's lyrics. Buffett is a regular, playing there all the time.

When I first walked in, I thought it was a liquor store, and a dive at that. I knew I'd heard of the place before, but couldn't place it until I walked through the place and saw famous artist's all over the place, including autographed lyrics sheets from different artists that talk about the bar. The owners have comitted to opening it back up.

Ever lost your digital camera? If so, what pictures were on it? One guy who found it has decided to provide the world with 227 days of entertainment. I Found Some Of Your Life will post a photo a day and accompanying fictional narrative for the next 227 days using the photos found on a digital media card left in a cab.

I laughed hard at this. Emily was watching Dragon Tales and came up to Cathie and said:
Emily: "Mom, I can't watch this show. It has a bad word in it."
Cathie: "What word is that, Emily?"
Emily: "Fart. It says "I wish, I wish with all my heart, to fly in dragons with a land of farts."
Cathie: Hiding laughter. "Sweetie, it says "Land Apart, not land of farts'.

Jess had a bachelorhood party on Saturday night. Cathie, Dana, Sherry, Sue, Jen & Lori bought Jess an outfit, did a makeover (complete with fishnet stockings and a shirt that read "I'm so Hot"). They took her out for a night on the town that involved a limo ride, dancing and gifts for use on her honeymoon.

We had a crazy week last week and an equally crazy weekend. Actually, Cathie had the crazy weekend, I pretty much sat home and watched a lot of sports on TV. We decided to sit home on Friday night, kick back and watcha movie. Saturday Cathie was out running errands to get ready for Jess's bachlorette party and wedding shower. I had some guys over to watch the disappointing MSU vs. Notre DAme game. On Sunday, Cathie put on Jess's wedding shower. I'm amazed at how much it takes to do such a simple thing. All-up, all-in, I'd guess that it took about fourty hours to coordinate and throw the shower. That seems like a ridiculous amount of planning. Guess that's why guy's don't have them. Sunday night, Cathie and I went on a date and reaquainted ourselves with each other.

For what it's worth, my fantasy football team toasted Matt Gielow's team - even though I had Roy Williams on the bench.

Cathie and I watched the movie Man on Fire with Denzel Washington. I haven't gotten into a movie like that in a while. Not to give too much away, but the movie is about an ex-special forces counter-insurgency guy who has hit bottom and ends up as a body guard for a young girl. Things go bad and he tries to make things right. The last half of the movie is about him pursuing justice and vengance. I don't think I've ever rooted so much for a movie character and wanted so badly for the bad guys to get what was coming to them. There's an amazing scene at the end of the movie that was such a great picture of what Jesus did on the cross for us. At the end, Denzel willingly walks across a bridge into the hands of the enemy in exchange for a hostage, knowing full well what's coming to him. The core message in this movie really struck me - a guy who believes he' s destined for hell, but it doing his best to reconcile himself for all the evil he's done in his life. In the end, he finds something bigger than himself and his alcoholism to live for and redeems himself through sacrifice.

Cathie and I watched the movie Man on Fire last night with Denzel Washington. It was one of the best movies I've seen in a while. (Spoiler Alert) The movie is about an ex-special forces assassin who becomes a body guard for a little girl. Things go south and he goes on the rampage. The best part of the movie for me was a scene at the very end where Denzel's character makes this amazing exchange of himself for a hostage. It's such a great picture of how Christ gave himself up for us, hands raised in the air, not resisting, knowing his fate in the end. It's a pretty violent flick, but I can remeber a movie where I was rooting aginst the bad guy more. It was a fine line between vengance and justice. I was rooting for both, probably leaning on the side of vengance.

Every now and then my kids come up with some great words that stick with me. Take for example:

• Baby Fighter - Great generic word that can be used as an insult, a complement or an explicative. Nate came up with this one.
• Stink Rat - A pillow fighting game that Nate and I play. It involves getting points for either sneaking up on and wacking someone with a pillow or launching a pillow from across the room.

The latest one comes from Emily:

• Ching Bonk - She and I were out on a bike ride last week and saw a squirrel. She came back and started talking about the Squirrel (Ching Bonk). It's a great word. You've gotta try saying it.
  

Here's the latest from my sister-in-law Beth's mission trip to Honduras:

We saw about 1300 patients today, probably about 150 to 200 per doctor. Needless to say, it was a busy day at the office. My office is on the bacony loft over looking the Enlaces Youth center. It consists of a table and chairs to talk, my instruments, and an air hockey table covered with a sheet for an exam table. (And there are no walls.) The weather is muy caliente. I am sticky all the time, but thank goodness for a warm shower. The people are so grateful even though they wait many hours in the hot sun to see us. It's really a great feeling.

My brothers, Dad and I went shooting sport clays at the Island Lake shooting range. I didn't win - I came in somewhere around the middle of the pack, pretty tight with everyone else, except for Kevin and my Dad, who did fairly well. If you've never shot sport clays, you stand in a blind and multiple clay pigeons (discs) are launched (by the same machine you see aimed at Will) in different patterns in the air for you to shoot. The person at the end with the most pigeon's shot, wins.

Great article from RELEVANT magazine :: I Don't Like Church Anymore: "I've come to expect the church to forge my spiritual development. Instead of working on my own prayer and devotional life, I want the church to do it for me. Please tell me I'm not the only one in the Body of Christ who has this problem. Please tell me there are other lazy people, who come to church on Sunday and expect to be filled up for the week ahead."

I just added a great, free blog stat counter called StatCounter.com, which gives me all sorts of info on the usage patterns from my blog, including where people are visiting from. I have no idea who actually reads this. Not sure if I want to know, really. Leave a comment or drop me a note if you're one of those people that I have no idea read this.

Here's a strange story about a man being sentenced to probation Monday for snatching the hairpiece off the head of another man at a restaurant. The story's really not all that interesting, but the timing is ironic. A friend of mine was sharing with me an interesting story from the Bible that shows one way to deal with this situation: 2 Kings 2:23-25

23Elisha was on his way to Bethel and some little kids came out from the town
and taunted him, "What's up, old baldhead! Out of our way, skinhead!" 24 Elisha turned, took one look at them, and cursed them in the name of GOD. Two bears charged out of the underbrush and knocked them about, ripping them limb from limb--forty-two children in all!

I found the story pretty wild and obscure. I had no idea it was in there. Bible lesson for today - if you make fun of someone, you may get eaten by a bear.

This is my sister-in-law Beth (Jon's wife) holding a peas. Apparently in Korea, dried peas are a snack worth of being called airline food. Beth's over in Hondorus on a missions trip right now. She's a doctor, and went over there with a group of doctor's to help the poor and hurting. She's got her own interpreter. Pray for her. (Beth, not the interpreter. Well, okay, the interpreter too.)

My friend Will has The Gout. Will's the second person I've known with this disease. If he's going to go and get an odd-ball disease, he should have gone with some more like scurvy. I'm not saying it's the case here, but apparently large quantities of beer is one of the causes of Gaut.

I was a self-righteous weenie todya. My internet connection went down today and I was pissed. The speed on my connection was slow, at about .5% of what it should be - 3k/sec, which is slower than dial-up. I was on the phone all morning with SBC trying to get it resolved. Since I'm a computer guy, I obviously know more than them (or so I was thinking) as I explained to them that I'd changed nothing at home, therefore it must be their fault. They eventually sent a guy out who did all the line analysis and tracked it to an internal problem. Impsosible, I've done nothing. I've only got one phone plugged in, so it can't be my problem. As I went to unplug that one phone, I noticed that I have three TiVo systems hooked up. I disconnected my new TiVo system and lo-and-behold, it worked. I learned about the importance of putting filters on your line with a DSL connection and that I don't know everything in the world. Probably be a good one to write down somewhere where I can see it on a regular basis.

My brother jon turned me on to this ridiculos paintball gun being sold on ebay.

Good article about two technologies I love dearly: Why Netflix Can't Save Tivo.

This is a blog I read periodically. It belongs to Mark Cuban, the owner of the Dallas Mavericks and lead on his own reality show. He loves himself, but he's pretty honest in his writing.

Did you know that you can get a Harley Davison Sporster for only $6,495 . None of us believed my brother Jon when he told us this, so he sent out proof.

On a side note, all of my brothers (Kevin, Dan, Dad, Jon, Will) are going shooting this weekend. We're shooting sport clays at the local Island Lake Gun range nearby. It's got a great course. I'm either shooting really well, or really badly. I can usually tell within the first few shots.

I just got my HDTV Tivo hooked up and after seeing the picture quality of HDTV, I'm seriously considering quitting my job so that I can focus more on television (Oh wait, that's what Will and Jason do). I feel like a kid whose been playing in mud puddles and was all of the sudden shown the beach at the ocean. I was watching football tonight and The Tonight Show, both in HDTV. I'm giddy as a school girl. Tomorrow, the guys come to put the new DirecTV dish on my roof so I can pull down the HDTV satellite images. The nice thing with HDTV is that it's digital and you actually get a higher definition picture over the airwaves than you do over the sattelite or cable. The DirecTV Tivo unit is very cool, integrating the local broadcast and satellite channels together nicely, so I can record from either.

This article challanged me to look at my own worship: LeadershipJournal.net - It's All About Who, Jesus?:

When we're not affirming God for how well we're nurtured, our songs often
congratulate ourselves on how well we respond to God's grace. Have you noticed
how much we sing about how loud or passionately we sing? We talk a lot about
what we're going to do usually in the singular: I will worship, I will praise
you, I will bow down, etc., etc. One beautiful and well-intentioned song even
tells us that God thinks of 'me above all.' As my professor friend says,
'Begging your pardon: the only person who thinks of Me above all is Me.

Check out Jimmy Buffett's concert rider. Each concert involves 30 cases of Corona, distributed to every bus, van, car, room and stage. Amazing.

Check out the Smokinggun.com's collection of documents. These are complaints from people who've had interactions on the New Jersey turnpike with the toll-takers.

My brother Jon turned me on to this Bible review on Amazon (It's the third one from the top if you don't believe me):

At first, I was not sure if I was Extreme enough to understand this Extreme Teen Bible. I questioned my Extremeness and wondered if Jesus would accept someone as un-Extreme as myself. However, after reading the Extreme Bible I can say that only through Jesus can true Extreme-ness be reached, and that through Jesus even the least Extreme can find the true light of Extremeness and truly excellent righteousness! Now, I kick it with God all the time Forget, Snoop Dogg; Jesus (or Master J as I call him, we tight) truly is the most Extreme of them all, amen!
Don't you wish you could be Extreme too?
Read the Extreme Teen Bible and kick it with Jesus!JESUS CHRIST!
CAN I GET A "WHOOP WHOOP"?

This site is a collection of really, really bad senior high school pictures.

I was getting my shoe's shined today at the airport while sitting next to Rick Mahorn. Rick was a part of the Detroit Piston's bad boy era. He's a little heavier than the 255 he was at when he played for Detroit. I could think of absoloutely nothing worthwhile to say to the guy.

I finally pulled the trigger and bought an HDTV DirecTV TiVo system. It's got two tuners and allows me to simultaneously record HD programming over the air and off the dish. The picture quality of HDTV is mind-blowing. I can record 200 hours of normal television or 30 hours of HDTV. I'd been waiting for a long time to buy either an ATSC tuner, but I wanted the TiVo capabilities. This is the first unit like this I'm aware of. DirecTv has to come out and put a new dish on my house to support the unit, since it requires three LNBs on the dish.

We were at my parents house today with the whole family, except for Will. His IB syndrome was acting up on him. We celebrated Cathie, Kris and Dan's birthdays. Per the picture, Jon thought he should be the one to blow out the candles. We had our normal water-fight, we hung out and ate a lot. The guys made their ususal best-buy run while the kids all played together and were spoiled by Grandma. My brother Dan had just gotten back from China and brought lots of stuff for the kids, including Yu-Gi-Oh cards, which they loved. As a gift, he received this giant box of Moon Cakes. It was huge, done in ornate gold-leaf packaging, and turned out to be nothing but a glorified fruitcake (the moon pie, not Dan). It had something that resembled a worm in it, but Kris was the only one bold enough to eat it.


Shortly after we cut the cake, Jon thought he should be the first to get a piece. My sister in-law Kris proceeded to grind the cake into his face, leaving a large chunk up his nose. You can see the rest of the pictures here.

The kids start school tomorrow and I'm off to Kansas City for a couple of days. Yeehah!

My bother Dan just got back from China. He took a picture of this Starbucks there, and a pay toilet immediately behind it. They can't make the toilet free when they're charging $4.00 for a Latte?

We've had a really busy labor-day weekend so far. I flew back from Rochester on Friday afternoon, and was able to get on standby for an earlier flight through Detroit. Problem was, I couldn't get all the way back to Lansing where I'd flown out of (don't ask me why). The only thing I really needed there was my car. Instead of sitting in the Detroit airport for 6 hours, Will came and picked Bill and I up, getting me home about 6 hours earlier than planned. I was beat. I came home and crashed, while Cathie and the kids were swimming at her parents.

On Saturday, Cathie and I met one of the interim-pastor candidates for Crossroads, named Shan. I really dug the guy. When we first started the whole pastoral search thing, my criteria was that I wanted someone who'd come out of a youth ministry background that had the wisdom that goes with being an experienced pastor. This guy's got both, plus he kinda reminds me of Mike Yaconelli when he talks about what the church should be. He's got his finger on the culture around him, likes to have fun and seems to have a great grasp on what the kingdom of good and the church are all about. He's the kind of guy you'd enjoy sitting down and having a beer with and hanging out. My only concern was that he was very evasive when I asked him what super power he'd choose, if he could choose from any of them. He wanted to have the super powers of the shadow, but Jason explained to me that the Shadow had crazy tibetan mind control powers.


From there, we went to Brad's Cottage to enjoy the end of summer. Brad, Will, Ted and I tried tubing at first, but the boat just couldn't pull that much weight. We ended up going about 5 mph. We eventually got the big four-man tube going where Brad, Eli, Ted and I beat the crap out of each other, throwing each other off at high speeds. The lake was pretty busy, and we were constantly being thrown off and picked up as boats dodged us. At one point, I was floating in the water waiting for the boat and a pontoon boat filled with a big group came by. They asked if I wanted a lift, and proceed to throw me a beer and a jello shot while I waited to get picked up.


On Sunday, Crossroads had a huge picnic - complete with big bouncy things. They had this bunjee rope course that hooked you into a harness while you ran forward as far and fast as you could. When you reached the end of the line, you snapped back - hard. Hard enought to flip you if you did it right. We set money at the end, and if you could go far enough to reach it - it was yours to keep. They finished the picnic off with some fun family games, but we had to head out early to go to Cathie's parents.


Cathie's grandparents were in town, and we hung out with a bunch of family at their pool. It was a perfect day for it - hot and humid, and the pool felt great. The kids were in the water pretty much the whole time. I was amazed that my daughter Madeline (age 6) can do a flip off the diving board (that's her mid-air, above). I was messing around with my camera, taking some pretty cool pictures of Cathie's brother, dad and the kids jumping off the diving board (Those are my father-in-law and brother-in-law in mid-air). We hung out there until about 8, picked my car up from the airport and headed home.


We got home and watched the movie The Big Bounce. It blew.

Bill was so kind to share the story of my airport incident, so here's a story that I found pretty funny. On Thursday, our group from work had a team building activity near Lake Ontario in Rochester, NY. We were at a park hanging out and a group of us started kicking a soccer ball around. Bill happened to be on his cell phone on a conference call while this was going on, kicking the soccer ball as he talked. About 10 minutes in, someone lobs the soccer ball in the air and bill tries to stop it with his chest. He misjudged the distance. The ball hit him square in the junk as everyone looked on and he doubled over and tried to continue his conference call. I find this kind of thing funny. Is it just me?

I'm in Rochester until Tomorrow in planning meetings, meeting some of the other senior team from around the organization. Bill was able to tell the "Airport" story to just about everyone there. As he told it each time, it got better and better. By the end, it was a 96oz. tube of KY Jelly and I got a full body cavity search.