less than average.

In high school I was a C student. Its not that I didn't have the mental capacity, it was just that all I wanted from academia was a passing grade. I wanted to spend the least amount of time studying to allow more time for other pursuits. My priorities (i wince in hindsight) were fun, social, sports and popularity: probably in that order. Three of my current top priorities were sadly left behind: my faith, my family and education.

Today my priorities are in very different order, but all of my high school priorities are still, well, priorities. I have added the ones I was missing but others have morphed. Sports is now keeping physically fit and fun, like watching the lakers trounce an opponent. Being social now includes strategic dinners with friends and mentors as well as an occasional night out with 'the boys'. And popularity, well, its really not much of a priority, everyone wants to be loved, it more of a necessary evil to accomplish some of the higher ranking priorities.

I think either scenario, my priorities reflected my values, what was (is) most important in my life.

Priorities are who we are, what we are and where we are going.

final thougth about my hs grades. for fear of being labled a complete slacker, my gpa for post grad work was 3.8

exponential.

I was thinking about what we would think is the normal impact of the internet.

A news item caught my eye when a 17 year old new jersey teen and some friends he met in a chatroom (2 from russia) began and completed a ack on the most anticipated cell phone in history, the iphone. All it took was 500 hours, a sodered wire and some simple original programing. Anyone could do it right? Well, after the story of the iphones hack broke, george hotz, also broke the news that he would be posting how he did it, complete instruction, on the internet. (read his blog here)

So even though u cant, u could.

The internet empowers us to attempt do things together that we wouldnt dream of doing alone. Our seeming potential is compounded by that of others. We gain more knowledge, we garner more confidence, we google more queries and we gather more results. What we end up with is exponential growth, accomplishment, knowledge and so on. This means 15 years ago (when george hotz was two) something comperable to haccking an iphone would be impossible.

i, used to have a friend that was an entomologist, i had access to lots of bug info. We've lost touch over the years, and even though i cant easily get the 411 on bugs from him i have access to thousands of sites giving not only one persons expertise, but many and i get picture and video (google lists over 11,100,000 sites with info on emtomology).

Also, when good ol george was two, i just found out my favorite burger joint, in n out, had a secret menu. A priviledged fact for the chosen few. Today it is available for the click of a mouse.
So, good (n n out sec menu) bad (anarchist cook book)* or other (geroge), the internet offers us the power of everyone. hopefully, someday, everyone can end the tyranny of illiteracy, anti socialism and greedy proprietary companies (u listening att and sony); the internet is helping to speed the way.





* you didn't really think i would link the that did ya?

sophia's cooking school.

edible summer fun at sophia's cooking school.

the last week of summer was a great time with my daughter. i love to eat. i actually love to cook too. i was excited when she thummed through her kiddie cook book. here are some of her summer recipies.

the celebration dinner.


mmmm fish cakes that were shapped like fish, does the creativity ever end?

look out, that sandwich (snake) may bite you.

the snake and his creator.

we took a bite out of the snake, actually, pretty tasty.

the recipe book o plenty. shown here with the peanut butter and banana sh sh shake (it). this was pretty good too.

same. see above.

new mouse. very cool.

Microsoft Mice & Keyboards - Wireless Notebook Presenter Mouse 8000

just got the above mouse, incredible. it is a 4 in 1: presenter, mouse, laser pointer and a media remote controller. it is bluetooth (the dongle can be paired with other bluetooth devices, like my pda) it is easy to use (right out of the box) and the set up it quick and simple (once you actually get it out of the sill, yet cool, yet hard to open packaging).

favorite features;
1. non directional control thanks to blue tooth. this remote is 100x better than the one that came with my laptop
2. one button push changes the device from mouse to presenter
3. easy set up and brings immediate productivity with little experience curve needed

excited.

photo phun

isnt it great on when you are away from the hustle and bustle of everyday life that there is time for fun and goofy adventures? a couple of posts ago i told of a website that is similar to (better than) apples photobooth. it is found at http://www.sigost.com/. here is me and sophie goofing around.

the catch of the day and sanibel island

update on the jones vacation including the tons of shells from the beach.

evidently sanibel island is a shellers paradise due to the fact that the island is oriented east to west instead of north to south, thus the island is acts as a giant finger drawing in the shells to its many fine beaches. for more info on sanibel see below.

on to the pics....

at the beach, 10 miles on the bikes, the catch of the day(s), pool fun.

http://www.sanibelisland.com/

http://www.sanibelflorida.com/

Church Marketing Sucks: Grow Your Church By Asking People to Leave

Church Marketing Sucks: Grow Your Church By Asking People to Leave

Here is a new counter intuitive growth technique, or is it? is it counter intuitive or is it a technique? maybe it is just about negative growth, or not. hey, we can be all things to all people to win them to christ, but not to keep them in our church..........

sigost.com - a.k.a. Photobooth for Windows, Linux & Mac Online

sigost.com - a.k.a. Photobooth for Windows, Linux & Mac Online

after my friend william got his mac note book and showed me a program called photobooth, i thought, wow, here is actually one reason to get a mac.

here is what photobooth does; takes your webcam and lets you take pics using various effect and color manuplituation.

cool program, available only for mac. mac 1, pc 0, UNTIL...

http://www.sigost.com

now anyone with a computer, internet connection and webcam can have "photobooth"; pc, mac, linux and more. HA mac 1, pc 1

i like saturate combined with barrell.

check it out and send me your pics.

ahhhhhh, vacation with my 2 fav peeps

So here I am on the beach, fighting off harmful sun an uv rays entertaining the good ones. I'm looking past the store bought beach toys to my daughter playing w/ sea weed and a plastic water bottle we just finished. I'm content. Not w/ the moment or the romance of the beach but w/ kife. Is life perfect? Hardly. Current Ministry assignment is tough,tenacity becomes more difficult when confronted w/ escape, but life is good. christ came to give us life abundantly: to the hilt, the fullest, to the max, totally, for sure. Im glad i get to live every last drop outta life, better and worse, rich and poor sick and healthy, im livin large. Boyeee