Blogging, Facebook, Twitter

I don't blog enough. I enjoy writing, but I don't do it often enough.

I don't check my facebook very much. I still have a myspace, but I don't really check that pretty much ever.

But, I still signed up for Twitter. Why? Because I feel like I'm out of touch with technology and culture, because I didn't have one yet. I don't understand how @ and RT are used.

So, here's my Twitter.

The Day's Events--Awesome Manly day

Wow...what a crazy day.

Today, I finished painting my office. Then, I cut down a bunch of rose bushes, overgrown shrubs, shoots from trees that had become trees, and blackberry bushes. I got a bunch of thorns in my body.

We were working on renovating the house at church before we start renting it out to the next set of tenants.

My dad found a gopher above ground, so I got 3 shovels--one for him, one for Andrew, and one for me--and we picked up the planter boxes it was hiding under. It ran towards my dad, who scared it with his shovel towards Andrew. Andrew stabbed it a bunch, but I had to hit it couple times too.

But, about the tree cutting. Andrew had his hatchet with him, and since we didn't have a saw, we ended up cutting down a bunch of stuff the old fashioned day. The apex of our day was at the end, when Andrew, Stephen, and I cut down a 40 foot tree using nothing but the hatchet, and a rope tied to a rock that we threw over some of the top branches, and then pulled on (it was like tug-o-war versus the tree). It took a lot of energy, and I was exhausted.

I probably could have gone to sleep right then, at 6 PM. But, Julie and I had dinner plans with Michael and Kim--a couple on her soccer team. So, we went over to their house and had a great dinner. We watched "He's Just Not That Into You," which I thought was pretty good. Not great, but not bad. That was the first chick flick Julie and I have watched since we got married.

After hanging out for awhile, Julie and I came home and recorded English overdubs for a video. Julio from church is originally from Ecuador, and is doing some fundraising for a foundation in Ecuador that helps Special Needs kids. The video that he had was in Spanish, so he gave me an English script. It was definitely a first for me. Julie did a great job with the voiceovers.

Hopefully Julio is able to raise some money before he goes back to Ecuador at the end of July.

Flying Home--Over the Grand Canyon--From the Funeral

Today Julie and I flew home from Utah. I scheduled our flight home on U.S. Airways, because it gave me enough miles on United (they're partners) for a free flight. It was only a few bucks more than the cheapest flight back to Oakland.

That meant we had to fly through Phoenix. I realized a couple days ago that we would probably fly over the Grand Canyon.

Sure enough, today we flew over the Grand Canyon.

The canyon looks bigger from the air than I remember it looking from the rim. The last time I was there was 10 or 11 years ago, though. I might have just forgotten about how big it was.

It was pretty cool to see.

Despite the fact that we were in Utah for a funeral, I still had a lot of good first-time experiences. I rode in a limo for the first time, stayed in a Bed and Breakfast with Julie for the first time. There were some things I did that I hadn't done in awhile--went to a viewing at a funeral, shot a gun. And there were some things I wasn't particularly looking forward to that I did, and I think I am the better for it--especially helping to carry the coffin as a pall bearer. I've never really enjoyed coffins (although I've been OK with many other aspects of death), so it was good for me to face that.

It was great to hang out with (almost) all of Julie's extended family in one place. I also saw people I hadn't seen in awhile (in Julie's family), or in a really long while (such as the guy who was my dad's Senior Pastor 25 years ago, and who did my parents' wedding). It was good to see the place Julie grew up now that I've heard more stories than I had when I visited before. I also got to meet a lot of her old friends and her second cousins and third cousins once removed who all live in the same area.

Thoughts on Death, Relationships

Recently, I've been thinking a lot about death. Now, before you think I'm suicidal, let me explain.

First, a few weeks ago, a friends' grandma died. Then, a lady from church died last week. She had just started coming in the last year, but her family has been a part of our church for some time. Then I heard early this week that another friend's grandma died. On Thursday, I ran sound at the memorial service for the lady from our church.

I've gone to a lot of memorial services because I'm a Pastor's Kid, and because I know how to run a soundboard. But, no one close to me has died since I've been old enough to understand anything. My great grandparents and my grandpa died when I was young. My mom also miscarried, and I still remember the funeral we had for my brother, David. I was 3.

But, as I sat at the memorial service the other day, I realized that I don't understand this kind of loss or grief.
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On Friday at noon, I got a call from Julie. I thought she was calling to let me know that she was off work. I heard her say, "my grandpa just died," through her tears and short breaths.

Just like that. Out of nowhere.

You think I would have been expecting something. I kind of was, but I still felt blindsided. And I didn't even know him very well.

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There has been a lot of death around the people I know. People who I don't know very well, old friends, new friends, my wife--all of them have lost loved ones in the last 2 weeks.

All of you who have lost loved ones recently, I'm praying for you. I kind of was a couple days ago, but I saw--and began to feel--your grief as I held Julie yesterday, and now I know how to pray more.
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I feel that God is reawakening my zeal for valuing every person I come into contact with.

I yearn to know the people I know more and more deeply. Today, I've been wanting to really pour into all my relationships at a degree that I'm not. I don't know how to do that. How can you increase spending time with everyone?

How can I even spend more time with those who I'm not spending a lot of time with unless I stop spending as much time with the people who I usually spend time with. I guess I don't need as much alone time.

All the wasted time could be used.

I think that part of my approach to being a full time pastor (starting in 1 week--crazy) will be to always hang out with people.

I want to spend time with people who are younger than me, people who are older than me, people I don't know yet, and people who I feel like I should know a whole lot better than I do.

2 websites I'm loving right now

I just became aware of 2 websites. I'd heard of the second one, but never checked it out.

I was reading a photoblog that I often check out, and the guy mentioned this video:



Watch it if you have a few minutes. That video was from ted.com, which is a site for the TED conference. That conference has speakers on a variety of subjects speak for 18 minutes. That is the first site I'm really interested in. It has some good ideas for public speakers to emulate.

The other site I'm liking right now is gapminder.org, which is the site that Hans Rosling(the guy in the video above) created to help communicate statistics to the average person. In the videos on TED, he talks about how important it is to use statistics responsibly, and also the importance of using the animations to make them matter to people, and be more compelling. This is also a good principle for public speaking--relevant communication of important truth that can be overlooked if not presented in a compelling way.