• Trying to decide which scriptures to use for a small group discussion about how our prayers can have power. #
• I need a re-group/thinking/writing day.Too many ideas cramped up in my head, that I don’t have good words for communicating to people. #
• Feeling oddly fulfilled today. Maybe it was the good small group we had last night. #
• Sent the iPhone back again for repairs on the repairs they did last time – hopefully this time it will come back completely awesome. #
• Really missing my iPhone right now. Opera Mini on my nokia 6682 does not cut it – though better than the built-in browser. #
• I thought this was funny, and I know it will amuse my wife, maybe it will amuse you too. http://tinyurl.com/a4ed5a #
• Finally down to 1 laptop and 2 lcds at work. Desktop is completely clean, and sitting on the floor. ~75% more desk space now. ☺♥ #

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http://www.internetforeveryone.org/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVLYRDoC8nY

I believe that the internet is the single most powerful tool for learning in existence today. It blows away TV, and it contains most of if not all the books written that are currently in the public domain for free.

That is why I believe our municipal duopolies of telephone/cable companies are not the solution we need in America for providing internet. My bill for broadband internet has gone from $40 to $65 in the last four years with almost no increase in service. It is trends like this, coupled with the internet provider companies beginnig to throttle access to sites or services/protocols that don’t cooperate with their rules that makes me passionate about this. People in an economic tier below mine are stifled in their ability to get access.

I propose that internet access needs more attention than the digital TV switch, much much more. (just for the record, I think this delay of the digital transition is stupid, and is the type of thinking that annoys me from the democrats, and I also believe it is motivated more by corporate interests than the public’s safety [OMG did I suggest that someone in the Obama administration might not have pure motives...silly me] /soapbox) If we treat the internet more like a utility, or a road, and have the government build out the lines that connect us, and then allow ISPs the right to compete for providing the customer an IP address, a DNS server, and access to their backbones, while we pay the city or state a basic fee to maintain the system that we will end up with something that much more accessible and affordable.

Anyway, the links at the beginning of this I completely agree with and urge you to check them out and put a little thought into this. Because as more things go online (like job searches, and federal sites) the digital divide is one of the divides that continues to help keep injustice flowing to the economically disadvantaged, while widening the gap between those that have money and those that don’t.

Since some people asked, but I haven’t put it down formally, here is a list of some DVDs I’m selling because I got them on bluray.
1) The Dark Knight, two disc version, one of which lets you download a digital copy to your iphone/ipod/media player, and it is completely new, not even out of the wrapper: $16
2) Batman Begins – think we’ve watched this twice since getting our new copy (after the break-ins): $8
1 + 2) Will sell them as a pair for $20
3) WALL-E: $12
4) where the case itself transforms into Optimus Prime: $20

Also of note, separate to the DVD business, there is a chilli cook-off at the Town Hall Brewery a week from this Sunday, Feb. 1.

Who is interested in going to that after church?

We booked our 5th (sorta) anniversary trip this week. We are going to Galveston TX for the Vineyard National Leaders Conference. Then we have a couple days to bum around before we go on a cruise to Jamaica and Mexico. (Sorry Kyle and Ellen, we wanted to visit, but this was the only way we could go to the conference and do a vacation). So that is pretty exciting for us.

After that we will be responsible people and put more money into paying debt, but this sounded like a good thing to do prior to having kids, which we are thinking about in the not-so-distant future.

Besides that we had a great time running around in the Quad Cities IA, O’fallon IL (by St. Louis), Memphis TN (Lauren only), Indianapolis IN (me only), Champaign IL, Chicago IL, Eau Claire WI (stupid ice storm…this was an unplanned stop). Also I got a bluray player and some cool bluray discs to play in it. Good holiday times.

Last weekend we had a ‘roaring 20’s party’ and dressed up like flappers and gangsters and proceeded to drink gin out of a pot and beer out of a 5 gal keg. Good times again.

We just started a new small group which meets for the second time on Tuesday. I’m SUPER excited about it, and we really enjoyed the first week where we had 9 adults and 3 kids.

A while ago Lauren and I talked about what we wanted to do (kinda a pie in the sky thing, not a ‘I’m a church planter and need to do whatever needs to get done’ type of thing) if we were to start leading things again. And we both felt like we really wanted to get more involved with the poor and homeless, and do more servant evangelism and street prayer. So we said that if we ever started a small group that is something we would incorporate in it.

Well, starting in Feb. we are going to do the first of our monthly outreaches. And then after both Lauren, I, and our intern plan one of the events so everyone is used to the idea, it is going to turn into a thing that people can sign up for leading. I’m excited and scared of this all at the same time. But if my past experience is any indicator, these type of things usually are good for character and group building at their worst, and super exciting and God really transforms people through them at their best.

Sometime in the early spring I want to sit down and collect some thoughts and try to turn them into some substantive, hopefully professional sounding, blog posts. I would like to do a little more than I have with my blog, which will hopefully mean some more tutorials, more thoughtful stuff, and less narcissistic junk. That has been difficult so far as my writing style doesn’t currently do a good job of conveying my thoughts – something I want to practice and work on a little.

After that, I think I’m going to learn the basics of Drupal, in anticipation for designing my wife’s website for her eventual commercial success as a writer.

And that about does it for me recently. How are you doing?

• New small group starting at my house tonight at 7pm. It’s gonna be a blast, and anyone is welcome to come check it out. #
• Thank the lord for cold cranking amps. #
• Radio says 57 straight hours of negative temperatures. Yeah MN! Last time it was a little colder than this the governor shut the state down. #
• Just remembered BSG restarts tonight…now brain won’t leave BSG addict mode. WHO IS THE FINAL CYLON – I MUST KNOW! #
• Who has Sci-Fi channel, likes BSG, and is willing to let Lauren and I (and maybe some other friends) join you for tonight’s episode? #
• Planning a two-week vacation that starts with the National Conference and ends with a cruise out of Galveston TX. http://tinyurl.com/8rtqb3 #
• Must find somewhere to watch BSG – can not wait until tomorrow to try to watch it on my broken internet connection. #
• This is the first time in a looong time I wish I had cable. #
• Found a place to watch BSG last night. And all I have to say is: “DAMN!” “Freaking amazing” and “did he really say ‘Main Vein’?” #
• 5 gal. kegs of Sam Adams Cherry Wheat are to regular kegs what fun-sized snickers are to regular candy bars. #

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• Getting ready to return to work for the first time in 2 weeks. What a great vacation, so sorry to see it end. #
• Open source, cross-platform, MediaShout alternative. New project, so get your input in now if you have ideas. http://snipurl.com/9kxa3 #
• Planing an new small group, exciting and tedious all at the same time. Especially when your out of practice with leading one. #
• New small group: My place, starting next Tuesday, 7pm. Gonna attempt to do an outreach once a month as an experiment with small groups. #
• Selling some DVD’s, who’s interested? They are: Wall-E, Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, Transformers. I got them on bluray for christmas. #

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• http://vineyardusa.org has reworked their website. So far I really like it. I wonder what CMS is under the hood here. First guess is drupal. #
• Happy 2009! Currently chillin’ in Indy, getting ready to visit Cham-bana. Who is ready to party w/ Lauren and me? #
• Living it up w/ my friends in Chicago. Drinkin beers, mocking Daniel. Good times. #
• Stupid weather. Got a stuck in a storms agian this year. And this time I got so close to gettin all the way. In Eau Claire WI. #

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Originally I wrote this as a possible guest-submission to Dave Schmelzer’s Blog, but silly-me, I had forgotten that a similar topic had been covered in a couple previous posts around September-October time-frame. So, in the future, Lauren may submit something as a guest-blog over there that extends upon this idea and proposes some other questions that are related. This had accidentally appeared once on LJ while still in draft status, due to a mistake in how I handled the cross-posting plugin, so I’m deleting a few old comments (sorry Rob and Bob), and opening this up for new comments because after editing the post took a different tone than originally was planned.

Please share your thoughts, I’d love to hear what some of my friends who don’t frequent Dave’s blog think about this topic.
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Every year for my wife’s birthday she has a movie marathon and shows 6 of her favorite movies throughout the day. A perennial favorite has been Iron Jawed Angels, a movie about Alice Paul fighting for women’s suffrage.
( The 'Ethanol Effect' when tackling the worlds issues )