Easy, safe access to clean drinking water is not a cure all for the world's problems, but I believe it is a good place to start. Below is a video that displays why bringing clean water to people is important to me.

Jane is eight years old. She walks miles to get clean water just so she can bathe her younger brother and sister. See her story in the video below.

WARNING: This will break your heart.


I just received an email from my contact in Kenya. He gave me the contact info for a driller in Nairobi. We're another step closer to making this dream a reality.

Thoughts?

HT: Zak White via Chris Marlow

Labels: activism, africa, poverty, video, water

I installed iLife '09 last night. The feature that is getting all the hype is the Faces feature in iPhoto. They have come up with some face recognition algorithm that helps you tag people in photos based on their faces. I have found some interesting things in the little bit of time that I've played with it. Here are a few...

My wife looks like the valedictorian from my high school class. After you label a person in a photo, you can go to another page and see other photos that may contain that person. Well, Kim's other photos contained a lot of pictures of Amy "Hooks" Wallace, which I thought was kind of interesting because I had never thought of them as looking alike. I told a co-worker this and she said well I hope that not an ex of yours because that would be awkward. It turns out that "Hooks" is an ex of mine. I think we "dated" in middle school for about a week, which means we may have held hands and talked on the phone a couple times.

Another interesting find was that the Faces feature seems to think that Daniel and I look a lot alike. I have a lot of pictures of Daniel because we hang out quite a bit, but as I was going through the pictures that may also contain Daniel, there were a ton of pictures of me. I'm talking like almost half the suggested pictures.

Check it out for yourself in the picture below...



What do you think? Do we look alike?

If you have iPhoto '09 and you have pictures of Daniel and me, do we come up in each others suggested photos?

Labels: faces, iLife, iPhoto, photos

Today, the hour between when I left work and when I went to our home group meeting was a bit stressful.

A few years ago, on a dark and rainy night in 2000, I was driving my car down I-35E just north of Dallas.* When I was approaching Flowermound, I got off the interstate onto the service road. I drove up to the stoplight and took a left to go across the bridge over the interstate and head to the house where we were staying.

Well, soon after turning, I realized that all the other cars on the bridge were head in the opposite direction. I had turned the wrong way down a one way road. To correct the situation, I sped up (bad idea) and went to make a left turn onto the service road on the opposite side of the interstate. As I made my turn, another car came up the hill on the service road, and let's just say we made a connection. Since that night, I experience low level anxiety when driving at dark in the rain.

So, tonight when I left work it was lightly raining and dark. I went to day care and picked up Palmer. Then, we headed for home. Now, you should know that I drive a 1991 Acura Integra. I'm sure that when my car was new the defrost worked great, but let's be honest, 1991 was a long time ago. So, I'm driving home in the dark, in the rain, and I can only see out of a very small, fog-free area on my windshield. Palmer was trying his best to help navigate by screaming his head off in the back seat. On a scale from 1 to shoot-myself-in-the-face, my ride home scored about a 17.

When I got home, I was informed that the internet was not working. This may seem minor, but my wife works from home and relies on the internet to do her job. Also, our phone is VOIP. So, no internet means no phone. I decided to fix the problem, which meant I would restart the cable modem and/or the routers. That led to frustration because I have placed my modem and routers in a tight spot in the nook over our fireplace behind our TV. Yes, I do know, this maybe the worst possible place in my house broadcast a wireless signal from.

This is getting longer than expected. Bear with me. I'll wrap it up soon.

So, I get the internet fixed. Meanwhile Kim has made dinner. She and Palmer are at the table. He's not eating the way he should. (Looking back I think he was fine, but I was already stressed out.) The time is 7PM and we are supposed to be at our home group meeting at 7PM. This adds a little more stress.

Finally, we get ready to leave. I have changed into a t-shirt from high school that has been washed a thousand times and it the most comfortable shirt I own. I added my favorite article clothing, an old ratty hoodie and I put on the most comfortable shorts I own. This helped a little, then I realized that my faced itched because I need to shave, my nose hurts because I am being forced to go without contacts for a week and that I need a haircut. All things that I normally notice, but tonight they were frustrating me.

When we get to the Smith's, we have a ton of people there and it is loud and I can't stand it. I'm about to explode.

I happened to have my laptop with me because I was teaching tonight and I had some headphones in my pockets. Just what I needed to escape. I found a seat on the floor. I pulled out my headphones. Put them on and plugged them in. Then, I jacked up the volume on my 1998 hip-hop.

Minutes later the story unfolded as told in the previous post.

* If you are not familiar with this area, you should know that they don't have exits on the interstate. When you get near the crossroad you want to turn onto, you merge from the interstate onto a service road. Then, you take the service road up to the street you want to turn on and make your turn. In theory, you could simply drive down the service road and avoid getting on the interstate completely. There are stores and whatnot on the service road, too.

Labels: home group, stress

Tonight, before our home group meeting started, I was sitting on the floor with my macbook in my lap. I had my earbuds in and plugged into the laptop. I was donning a old ratty hoodie and had the hood pulled over my head and almost over my eyes. I was trying to escape from reality for a moment after a really stressful hour between leaving work and arriving at the home group meeting.

The music selection in my iTunes on my laptop was limited to the Billboard Top 100 from 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, and 1998. I found my escape with Puff Daddy and the Family. The song was Victory, which I was blasting as loud as possible, which was just loud enough to drown out the noise in the room.

As the song, which by the way has an awesome beat, but not the greatest lyrics, was winding down, I started feeling a little better. Then, from across the room, Daniel was trying to get my attention. I could hear what he was saying. So, I took out my earbuds

See, I had to teach tonight at our home group meeting and he thought maybe I was getting pumped up before I had to "go on". He asked me if i was "gettin' my Michael Phelps on"? Then, Jeramie bent over and did his best version of the infamous Michael Phelps pre-swim arm swinging, back slapping routine, and he said something to the effect of "Is Shannon going to do this before he teaches?" Both of those comments made me laugh and kind of got me out of my funk.



Thanks guys.

Labels: church, home group, michael phelps, puff daddy

Before an hour ago, I had never heard of Matt Chandler or of The Village Church. A couple people I follow on twitter mentioned him in their updates tonight. So, I decided to check him out.

When I went to their podcast site, I found that they have been in a series on Luke for a long time. I decided to go back to the first sermon in the series. I just listened to it.

This dude rocked it. Wow. I hope the rest of the Luke series is as good as the first message.

Who are you listening to?

Labels: bible, church, Luke, Matt Chandler, podcast, The Village Church

Moe's Southwest Grill is rolling out a new smaller burrito called the Joey Jr.. I saw a sign for it the other day. It falls somewhere between the size of the regular burrito and the Moo Moo Mr. Cow (MMMC), which is the kid's burrito.

You might remember the short lived Napoleon Complex that they had on the menu over a year ago. I think that one was the same size as the MMMC. I don't think it lasted because you had to pay a dollar more for the same burrito AND you didn't get a cookie. Most people probably said "I'll just take the kids meal, please."

They did try to recoup some losses by taking away the free drink if you were a non-kid ordering a kid's meal. My guess is that they have decided to go with a slightly larger burrito with the hope that non-kids will move to ordering it as opposed to the MMMC.

This is all speculation, but whatever the case may be for why the Joey Jr. is hitting the scene, the fact still remains that you can get a FREE Joey Jr. today at all Triangle Moe's locations from 11AM-9PM. I plan to eat there for lunch and possibly dinner, too.

Welcome to Moe's!

Labels: food, free

You know that rush of emotion that sweeps through you just before you are moved to tears. Well, that's what I felt when I watched this video. I didn't actually cry because... well... I'm not sure I know how to do that, but that's a different story.

Anyway, Alan and I had lunch yesterday. He's interested in bringing clean drinking water to people in Nicaragua. As we were about to leave, he told me to go check out BornInSeptember.org. When I went to that site, the first thing I saw was the video below.



The September Campaign Trailer from charity: water on Vimeo.

Now, I'm not sure which September they are talking about in the trailer, I assume is was September 2008. Also, I'm not really suggesting that you donate your $33 to them, though you can if you want. The point of me posting this, other than informing you that I almost cried, is to show you an example of the kind of thing I want to start.

There's no rocket science behind what the folks at charity:water are doing. They are just a small group of people making a big difference by using the skills, talents, and connections they have been gifted with. I want to do that, too, and I want you to join me.

If you have a skill, we can use it. If you are talented in some way, we can use it. If you are passionate, but don't know what you can do to help, we can use that passion.

So, anyone want to help make the world a better place?

Labels: activism, africa, video, water

A couple days ago, Chris Marlow posted about his Daily Productivity. I thought it sounded like something that could help me. So, I am trying to adopt it. I thought I would share it here in case one of you could get some use out of it.

His strategy is to list three main action items for the day and then have a second list of... well... secondary items. The first three things are things that must get done. The second list are things that it would be nice to get to, but they come after the first three.

He gave an example of his lists for the day. So, I will, too.

Thursday, January 8, 2008
The must dos:

• Contact C.W. Bing to see how the plans for digging the well are going and to set up a meeting between him and Joseph.


• Meet Sam Ed. for lunch to discuss the Africa Hope Center team's involvement with fund raising for the well.


• Set up a new server. (This one was work related. So, I'll spare you the details.)

The other to dos:

• Respond to people who commented on my blog.


• Blog about Marlow's productivity strategy.


• Blog about 2008 goals and new 2009 goals.


• Read a chapter of a book.


• Buy and hang roman shades for Palmer's new room.

I was able to get all three of my "must dos" done. I emailed back and forth with Claude a few times. I had a great conversation with Sam Ed. at lunch. And, I actually delegated the work item to my intern. So, I'd say on day one, the productivity strategy worked out.

I did notice a few things. New to dos seemed to pop up during the day. Some of them I took care of immediately, but some of them I needed to add to the secondary list. Also, I think that things will move up from the secondary list to become must dos. For instance, today Alan Wilser called me. So, I put calling him back on the secondary list, but tomorrow it will most likely be on my must do list.

I think this will continue to be useful, but it would be nice to have a way to track it. Marlow mentioned that he uses Things to keep track of his lists. I watched a video on that app and it looked really cool. I just wish I had an iPod touch to use it on. Maybe someday.

Do you have an strategies for staying on track from day-to-day?

Labels: productivity

The other night, I watched Texas and Ohio State play in the 2009 Tostito's Fiesta Bowl. I was a great game won by Texas after they took the ball with two minutes remaining and put together an 80 yard drive that ended with a Colt McCoy to Quan Crosby touchdown pass with only 16 seconds to go. It was exhilarating to watch.

After the game, some random lady presented Roy Miller with the Defensive MVP trophy and Colt McCoy with the Offensive MVP award. You can see a video of that presentation here.

If you watch the video, you'll notice that Roy Miller rattles off a laundry list of thank yous and slips a "Thanks God" in there near the end. Then, Colt McCoy gets on the mic and leads off with "I want to thank my Lord and savior, Jesus Christ."

After seeing this I began to wonder how, or if, this effects the spread of the gospel of Jesus?

This may seem like a strange question, and it may well be, but I have a few thoughts, or really, a few things that I am thinking about, that I would love to hear you thoughts on.

Here's the first... As a Christian, I hear an athlete say thanks to God and a part of me thinks, "That's cool." Then, there is a more cynical part of me that throws almost all athletes into the same bucket. So, cynical me hears this shout out to God and responds with "Whatever dude." This is largely in part to the "Pacmen" and Plaxicos of the sports world, who treat their guns like American Express cards.

Now, it turns out that Colt McCoy is a Christ follower and seems to be a standup guy, and I am sure that there are a ton of other athletes out there that are just as solid people. However, it's hard to see the good apples when all the bad ones get the front page stories on espn.com.

Here's my second thought... It starts off the same as the first... As a Christian, I hear an athlete say thanks to God and a part of me thinks, "That's cool." However, what does the non-Christian think, or better yet, what would I think if an athlete gave a shout out to Allah, Buddah, or some other god? I'm not suggesting that I would be offended, or that athletes should not thank God because they may offend someone. I'm simply trying to look at this from another perspective.

Here's my final thought... We live in a world where athletes endorse everything from underwear to bug spray. Athletes are product pushers. Companies pay big bucks for athletes to wear their shoes and clothes or drive their cars. So, when an athlete comes out and thanks God, does it come across like they are pushing a product? There was an interesting article and rebuttal on the Church Marketing Sucks blog this week that addresses the problem of pushing God as a product, or brand.

So, those are the things I've been thinking about. I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Labels: church, sports

Today, my friend Jeramie posted a letter to his unborn child. You can find more in depth info about the situation his family is in on his blog. Here's the brief version: the doctors told them they were having a girl. Then, they went back and had another ultrasound because of a minor abnormality, and now the doctors are not sure if it is a boy or a girl. Beyond that, upon further investigation, they have found another issue that they want to monitor. So, they will be going back for another ultrasound in a few weeks.

So, I'd like to ask that you say a prayer for the health of their baby.

Labels: baby, prayer request

A few weeks ago, Capri tweeted that she was "Spreading the Love". She was referring to paying bills.

Tonight, I sat down to "spread some love" and I got to thinking. I know it sounds weird, but I really like paying bills. I was trying to figure out what it is that I like about it. It's not that I like giving away my money to the man. I think, I just like the feeling of accomplishment when I can see in Money that a balance is almost paid off and there is a minor explosion from the joy volcano inside me when we pay someone off completely.

A little bit of disclosure here... Our family is digging our way out of debt. This isn't a new thing. It is a battle that has been going on for several years now. Slowly, we are moving towards becoming debt free. If you live debt free, congratulations. I commend you. If you don't, maybe you feel the same burden that I do and maybe you have that same eruption of elation when you take another step towards being free.

I don't really mind the mortgage, but aside from that, I dream of the day when we are not limited financially by debt. It's not that I want to buy more stuff, a nicer car, or a bigger house. I want to be free to give my money away to whomever I want. I want to be in a position where if I felt lead to I could fund drilling a well for some people that need clean water on my own.

Are you debt free? If not, what would you do differently if you were?

Labels: debt, freedom, money

The Nike: Fate commercial was picked as one of the top five commercials of 2008 by adage.com. I agree. I love this commercial. It doesn't really make me any more likely to go out and purchase some new Nike shoes, but I love the idea. I get chills when I watch it. I also found out that the director of this commercial was the director of 'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button'.

You can see the other five commercials here.

Labels: advertising, football