deep fried faith

Well, I looked at my blog today and was embarrassed.

The last thing I wrote was in January, which isn’t a really big deal in itself since there are bigger lapses than that if you look back through the archives.

The embarrassing thing is that the last 4 months have been some of the most amazing of my life.  We had a baby and now we have a baby.  The church has moved out of its original home at the Powerhouse.  I’m learning how to be a father and a husband and a friend and a pastor all at the same time.

This week, in honor of my 27th birthday on Tuesday, I’m going to catch up.  I’ll be putting down some thoughts I’ve had and adding cute baby pictures.  It’ll be fun.  Just like old times.

As for the blog’s neglect - I blame twitter.  Writing paragraphs is such a chore now…

The Inauguration snuck up on me. 

I watched the election as closely as anyone I know.  Every AP wire story I could find.  Every Tweet and every post that came across my RSS reader.  I walked by the Ford Center Debate site so many times that I surely made it on some government watch list.  I watched the returns in the hospital as my wife and unborn daughter were being monitored after an Election Day car accident (they were both fine, by the way).  I saved the commemorative magazines and I congratulated my neighbors who had an Obama/Biden sign in their front yard.

But I wasn’t ready for the inauguration.  It already felt like we had a new President.  The swearing in seemed like an formality.  It wasn’t until I saw shots of the crowds gathering, until I heard people chanting in the background of the NPR broadcast that I decided that this wasn’t an event that I needed to experience alone.  I needed more definition than a webcast could offer.  

I made my way to campus, where the festivities were being shown on the big screen in the Journalism Building.  I parked near the Circle and cut through the Grove as a rare Mississippi snow fell and a biting wind blew.  It was a gray day and campus felt cold and empty.

The room was warm and filled up gradually.  People old and young, black and white, Americans and Internationals took a seat as the former Presidents found theirs.  We watched the frail elder Bush, the defiant Clintons, the abivalent W. 

The gravity of the moment was lost on me until I saw several people snapping pictures from the side of the room.   Read the rest of this entry »

Here’s the 2008 Year in Review Video:

http://www.vimeo.com/2683224

Blake and I have made some pretty impressive slideshows in the last few weeks.  When people see them, they ask, “Is that more of that Mac magic you are always throwing down?” 

Surprisingly, this time the answer is “no.”

It’s a web-based program Blake found called Animoto.com that allows you to upload pictures and music and then - Voila - a killer slideshow.  You have to pay to make one longer than 30 seconds (3$ a video or 30$ a year).  But if you do this sort of thing often, it’s well worth it.

Here’s another example:

You can also download them to your computer, upload them straight to YouTube or embed them from Animoto iteself.

This should go along with my 2008 Twitter year in review.

Some of my favorite stuff from the last year:

Baby Excitement

Reflection

Surviving the iPocalypse

There was a visit from the MS Atheist Blogger (and friend).

A collection of pictures from my trip to St. Louis.

My Two Year Church Planting Writing Extravaganza

There was a lot of election stuff:

• Pat’s Voters Guide
• Debate Recap
• General freaking out over whether the debate would happen or not
• Important interviews

And as always, a shameless plug or two for Twitter

Anybody got a favorite?

I found YouVersion.com several months ago.  It has a lot of features that I like: Journaling sidebar, several different translations, a community aspect to reading the Bible and an amazing iPhone app.

Today is a good day to check out YouVersion because they also have a 1 year Bible Reading plan and it restarts today with Genesis 1, Psalm 1 and Matthew 1.  If you stick with it everyday, you’ll read through the Old Testament once and the New Testament twice in 2009.

If you have an iPhone or Blackberry, you can read it like I do: before I even get out of the bed in the morning.

I love twitter.  I wont lie about it.  Not only is it a fun way to keep up with my friends and other news, but now that I sit at the end of another year, it’s a great way to take a look back.  

So here it is, my life over the last year in reverse order in 140 letters or less…

I’m dreaming of a dry Christmas. 8:14 AM Dec 20th from web

just spazzed out about getting furniture stain on my carpet. fixed with paint thinner. 5:50 PM Dec 19th from web         

Celebrating 3 years of marriage. 5:42 PM Dec 13th from txt

Driving our new car home from Southaven. 6:33 PM Nov 25th from txt

Taking a break from the misery of car shopping to enjoy the misery of TARGET. 3:07 PM Nov 21st from txt

It’s tenderness is refutable; it’s loiny-ness, debatable. 8:52 AM Nov 15thfrom txt

Read the rest of this entry »

The sheer power of volume.  Crazy and annoying.

Spam gets 1 response per 12,500,000 emails | News | TechRadar UK.

Yes, that’s her playing the piano.  

I uploaded the extended-grandparent version.  

Look out for the twist at the end.  The baby already types faster than I do.

The Local Voice: 2008 Election Results for Lafayette County, Mississippi.

Just in case you wondered.

to Barack Obama for the big win, to John McCain for one of the classiest concession speeches I’ve ever heard, to Sasha and Malia for their new puppy, and to Wolf Blitza for his fancy toy:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJKkMLKFHxo

You can really hear the Star Trek fanboyism in his voice.

More vids: Read the rest of this entry »