OCC Pics Page

Just put together a way to share Oakbrook pics. Check it out.

Joseph pt 3

Click here for the PDF text from my talk in our 3rd week of our Joseph series.

Or download the podcast.

instant classic

I'm just into this book & I must say it's A+ stuff.

One of the things I like is the unique format: No section is more than 3 pages and many are just one page. And it's cross referenced. At the end of each tiny section there are links to other similar axioms. I easily found myself hopping around the book. You could say it's a post-modern format---don't have to read it beginning to end, hop around to your own liking.

I won't be surprised if this becomes a leadership classic, and maybe Bill Hybels' best book to date.

plants at dusk

Latest from the Nikon D40. Sandra grows 'em--I shoot 'em.

Jermtech Week Homage

For a truly great laugh, picture me in my mid-late 20s as a braided pony-tailed manager at Rax Roast Beef Restaurant and Jermtech as a high school age employee. Image us saying things like,

"Wouldn't you like some large fries with that?"

"I'm sorry, but we're all out of Horsey sauce."

Ah the good ol' days. Working fast food, closing down the store wizzing tortillas like Frisbees through the dining room, and talking about music. This is how we met and began talking music and later, church.

This is how I in fact got to Oakbrook. Jermtech came back to the restaurant and asked me to play drums in an outreach production @ IUK. And the rest, as they say, is history.

One day, two guys in a fast food restaurant talking smack. Another day, the same two guys trying to infect the world with Christ. But without the pony tail...

Love you Jermtech--HAPPY JERMTECH WEEK!!!

the great trophy & title stealing epidemic

It's heard after every Super Bowl, NBA Championship, World Series, etc and then last night the great Michael Phelps reminded us during an interview with Mark Spitz after winning his 7th Beijing Gold Medal--"...they can never take it away..."

Based on the frequency that I hear this phrase, I'd think we live in some dictatorship where the evil government indiscriminately "takes things away" at will.

And it seems odd that so often the people who exclaim, "They can never take this away," are people at the very top of the economic strata--people of unbelievable means. As if someone wanted to take something away from a millionaire could easily do it legally or through their elaborate security system.

And true they can't take it away (because possession is 9/10 of the law), but they can get disputed and tarnished. Just ask, Marion Jones, Ben Johnson and the 1919 Chicago White Sox to name a few. So they may not be able to take it away, but the value can certainly drop like a brick from a 17th story window.

So let me suggest some more realistic translations:

"Hey, if I screw up later and lose all my stuff to tax evasion or bankruptcy, at least I'll have this."

"Glad to win today--and just so you all know, if I make a huge moral mistake down the road and everyone thinks I'm a jerk, I'll still have this title!"

Hey--I have an idea! This would be a great line for high school and college grads to use as they receive their diploma.

"Thank-you so much, Dr. So-n-so. They can never take this away!"

Dr. So-n-so looks confused and shakes hand anyway...

baseball bedside table

What kind of bedside table do you make for your baseball-playing son? A Homeplate table ;-) I made this out of some spare melamine, some spare trim, leftover paint and three legs from Lowes. $15.00 total. "Play ball! (then go to bed)"

n'sync

I'm watching the synchronized diving and I must admit--I don't get it. The idea is to be exactly alike? Ok. Why? Because we were out of dive ideas? Can the future of sync'd diving not include tri-dives? Quads? Seriously now--after the 2,008 drummers and dancers in the opening ceremonies, doesn't synchronized anything pale in comparison?

Then again, it may be the commentary that drives me a bit batty--the likes of which:

"John, they were so nearly alike on that last dive."

"Wow--in near perfect sync."

"Accept for that little move, they were perfectly together."

"Oooh, nearly exactly together on that last dive!"

I think to tie it all together the commentators should have to say the exact same comments in unison... ;-)

cheap flash fix

Check out this little idea I came up with today...