Flowers on the deck

Love the dahlias already

Reblog: How to fail 25 secrets learned through failure

http://www.unstructuredventures.com/uv/2008/09/23/how-to-fail-25-secrets-learned-through-failure/

Bailey

He’s typically always looking around the corned. He’s a very curious dog.

Chloe

took this tonight

Stand by me…

Playing For Change | Song Around The World “Stand By Me” from Concord Music Group on Vimeo.

Local band

Got to chance test my new 5D Mark II out on a local band. If you get a chance check out the full res shot at 5000 iso!

Orange is the new black….

B

this photo spoke to me for some reason.

Four square

Built in 1888

Dang that’s old.

Texture + Light

This wall had some great texture and colors. The light hit it just right.

Crooked

Normally I straighten my photos out. But I think this crooked photo, is represented of many things these days. I think the crack in the parking lot is the icing.

Another book, done

I finished up listening to Blue Like Jazz today. It was a pretty good book. Donald Miller, the author, definataley has his own style. Tomorrow is my one month anniversary of audible. I finished my first two books up just in time to get two more tomorrow. I’m also reading currently Do Hard Things which is written by twins that are teenagers. The gist of the book, is that America has dumbed down the expectation of teenagers and what it has done to society. I’m about a quarter of the way through and hopefully, I’ll finish it in the next week or two.

Book Finished

I just finished reading a book called “Sustainable Youth Ministry” by Mark Devries. One of the best Youth Ministry books I’ve read in a long time. I definately have some work to do.

I’ve also turned a new leaf. I got my new tredmill last week and I finally started putting some miles on it today. I did 2 miles out doors with the dogs and came in and did another 2 miles while watching a podcast. My goal is to get up and do another mile or so before I goto work tomorrow.

Books

So I’m sick of listening to the news every morning on the way to work on my XM Radio that I bought about a year ago. The news right now is grossly depressing and I can’t take it. I’ve been thinking for a while about subscribing to Audible. So this past week I took the plunge. I needed to read Velvet Elvis again for Lenten study at church and just haven’t had the time. So far it’s been great and I would highly recommend it. It’s the most affordable way to get audio books.

I don’t like cats

but this is humerous.

Cat Roomba

Bacon Explosion

I heard about this on the radio this morning and it sounds fantastic.

http://www.bbqaddicts.com/bacon-explosion.html

Auto Show

Made it to the auto show again in Detroit. It’s one of my annual outings with my dad. This year the displays weren’t as elaborate due to the finical crisis. With less displays, you didn’t have to worry about tripping on people and it seemed much bigger.

Telsa was at the show this year, showing off their new all electric roadster. I’ve seen it on the web, but in person it’s pretty slick.

I’ll take 2.

Food for thought

To many meetings

It is certain that every organization has too many meetings, and far too many poorly designed ones. The main reason we don’t make meetings more productive is that we don’t value our time properly. The people who call meetings and those who attend them are not thinking about time as their most valuable resource.

—Reid Hastie, Professor at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business

Credit: 37 Signals SVN

Benefits

One great side perk of working for a school district is when there is no school due to whether, Smitty doesn’t have to goto work!

Woot, woot… Today was our second snow day of the year.

New Years Resolutions / Plans

Everyone has them, here are mine. I’ve broken mine out by category and tried to quantify their success.

Programming/Work

• Build something using a framework like Zend or Code Igniter

Health

• Eat less, Eat healthier. No pop at home.
• Drink more tea, less pop.
• Walk the dogs, 5 times weekly.
• Bow Flex or Cycle, 2-3 times weekly during the crappy weather months.

Photography

• Acquire a new Canon 50 D (a  Canon 5d Mark II would be cool)
• Shoot 4-5 Weddings at my leisure
• Shoot more fun photos. (500+ month)

Church

• Get the new website live by March 1. Have ministry leaders updating by June. Use flickr!
• Start something new.
• Work to widen the appeal of our worship service + simplify.
• Work on community related events

Travel

• Go to Florida (Jan)
• Go someplace cool (far away) in (Sept/Oct)
• Go someplace fun (close by) in (June)

Be Entrepreneur

• Get 1 new website off the ground
• Write a business plan for one of my ideas and float it to see what happens.

Other

• Carry business cards, hopefully it will increase my odds of winning a free lunch.

Marley & Me

We just went to see the movie Marley and Me. It was great. About 5 minutes into the movie, we noticed there was a yellow lab sitting behind us, he ended up being a leader-dog in training. Great movie, makes my labs look like angels.

Bailey’s been here a year (cont)

One of his favorite spots to chill is by the bar stools.

Bailey’s been here a year

It’s hard to believe, but we’ve already had Bailey for a year.