take four minutes to grin

Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo.

That was Matt Harding from the website, wherethehellismatt.com. Here's his story:

Matt is a 31-year-old deadbeat from Connecticut who used to think that all he ever wanted to do in life was make and play videogames. Matt achieved this goal pretty early and enjoyed it for a while, but eventually realized there might be other stuff he was missing out on. In February of 2003, he quit his job in Brisbane, Australia and used the money he'd saved to wander around Asia until it ran out. He made this site so he could keep his family and friends updated about where he is.
A few months into his trip, a travel buddy gave Matt an idea. They were standing around taking pictures in Hanoi, and his friend said "Hey, why don't you stand over there and do that dance. I'll record it." He was referring to a particular dance Matt does. It's actually the only dance Matt does. He does it badly. Anyway, this turned out to be a very good idea.

A couple years later, someone found the video online and passed it to someone else, who passed it to someone else, and so on. Now Matt is quasi-famous as "That guy who dances on the internet. No, not that guy. The other one. No, not him either. I'll send you the link. It's funny."

The response to the first video brought Matt to the attention of the nice people at Stride gum. They asked Matt if he'd be interested in taking another trip around the world to make a new video. Matt asked if they'd be paying for it. They said yes. Matt thought this sounded like another very good idea.

it coulda been worse...

Remember the blog post from a while back where I put up pictures of a supposedly "undiscovered" Indian tribe located near the border of Brazil and Peru?

Remember how disappointed I said I was going to be if it turned out to be a hoax?

Well, according to this story part of it was a hoax. The tribe has actually been known about for a long time - but until this fly over there had been no previous contact with them. The photographer took the picture and fudged the details of the story to try and make a point about the logging industry.

So, I'm disappointed that they weren't newly discovered, but happy, at least, that the photos weren't staged or part of a new Jack Black movie or something.

For your viewing pleasure

Next Gathering?

I'm not sure if Lexington has these types of crosswalk countdowns yet, but I'm thinking it might be fun to do a local version of this stunt! A video for the ages of us counting down at 2pm on a Saturday afternoon in downtown Lexington! Celebrating like mad and having everyone around us bewildered with excitement and curiosity! Who's in?!?!


Crosswalk Countdown - GuerilLA from Kelly Herrington on Vimeo.

Looking for a Cheap Date?

And maybe an easy way to start building community? Be sure to check out the upcoming "Parking Lot Party" at St. A's on June 20th! Details below and no registration required!

Parking Lot PartyFriday, Jun 20, 2008
Crossroads Parking Lot
7:30 pm
Bring your friends and neighbors to the Crossroads Parking Lot for our 2nd Annual Parking Lot Party! We will feature

1. Live DJ
2. Make your own Sundae
3. Sidewalk Chalk Contest
4. Bike Coral
5. Tricycle Races
6. “Drive-In” Movie

Bring your bikes, blankets and lawn chairs! No need to register, just come on over! Rain or Shine!

Free!
For More information, contact Jason Koerner at (859) 263-4633 ext 240

Manipulating Motivation

I receive a weekly sales motivational e-letter and found this week's to be particularly interesting. Being that sales is only a portion of my job, I try to transfer the bigger picture message from these e-letters to multiple areas of my life including business and personal. Check out the meat of this weeks message:

"In 1939, Napoleon Hill wrote many of his success principles in one immortal book, Think and Grow Rich. One of the principles is, “Do more than is expected of you.”
Amazing how old truths are still so valid.

Before Hill, around the turn of the last century (1900), Elbert Hubbard wrote an essay called “Message to Garcia.” It’s about a military officer named Rowan that was given an important message and told to deliver it to a guy named Garcia. Rowan -- without a moment of hesitation, without a “where” or “why” question -- started on the mission and ultimately delivered the message.

In his essay, Hubbard went on to chastise people for not delivering their message, and challenges each reader to take on the same blind “do it or perish” status."

Keep in mind this quote is used in the context of motivating sales reps. But it got me thinking about being directed on what messages I deliver. More than that, what's my direction on delivering God's message?

We understand called to deliver His message of eternal salvation and forgiveness in exchange for simply accepting His love. The hook for me was thinking, what if God had delivered His desire for us to spread His message with a "do it or perish" attitude? Quite a different spin on Christianity I'd say!

But God chose to provide us with free will and the ability to choose. For many, having the option is our downfall. For others, it's even more energizing to accept God's love and gift of eternal life.

Step back for a moment and think about your approach to free will. What would your life be like if your personal commitment to sharing the glory of God were more along the lines of Hubbard's encouragement? If every day you prioritized above all else, your desire to live like Jesus, spread His word when presented the opportunity and refused to succumb to compartmentalizing this responsibility behind or equal to your daily responsibilities.

Man oh man, I've got work to do... :)

Living Large with the Legends

Last Saturday night the Young Adults Gatherings spent an evening eating heavily and watching the Legends (lose) and some great fireworks after the game. It was a bit steamy but settled into a very nice evening. Despite the loss, it was a fun evening that included eats (burgers, dogs, beans and sweet tea!) baseball and some pretty cool fireworks considering it was just another June Saturday night.

As for the Young Adults Gathering, don't let the name fool you. If you're anywhere in the 22 - 102 range, then come on out to our next event. We'll be participating in the church wide cookout/field day in July but then in August we'll be sponsoring the first ever St. Awesome's Amazing Race! It should be a lot of fun so look for signups near the end of June. And if that doesn't get you interested, don't forget we'll be hosting another games and karaoke night later this fall.

The CCC Young Adults Gatherings are meant to be a place to have a good time, meet some new people and start building new relationships without the pressure and awkwardness that sometimes gets in the way. We'd love to see you soon so check back on this blog regularly or check out the Crossroads site for upcoming events!

Here are some pics from the Legends game. Note the Ford sign in the outfield. We actually saw a homerun hit that sign on the fly!

I love friends...

Sometimes they give you the best giggle of the day without any fair warning. A close friend of ours baked a cake today and ran out of icing. So she simply named it a "hospital gown" cake an served it up anyway. :)

Twitter Sunday

Following on the heels of this week's digital-relationship heavy service and the previous blog post and the video explaining Twittering, I give you: Twitter Sunday!

A church in Michigan recently had a service where they let the folks in their congregation with Twitter accounts post reactions and comments during the service to their side screens. Here's a link where one of the church leaders discusses the experience. It's a little long, but an interesting look at an interesting idea. As can be expected, some people loved it and some people hated it. The positive side for many seemed to be that it made them feel like a part of the service.

the internet in plain english

Everybody see the video this weekend explaining social networking sites?

Well it was created by a company called Commoncraft and they have a series of videos explaining different web utilities.

Here's one explaining RSS feeds. If you have a lot of internet sites that you read on a weekly basis, RSS feeds are a godsend:


Ever wonder what the idea behind sites like Wikipedia is? Here's a video explaining wikis:


Here's one explaining Twitter - a service that Glen referred to this weekend:

If you decide to Twitter, let me know at patchdrury at gmail dot com. I and several other folks from Crossroads are already on Twitter.

And finally, here's the one from this weekend about social networking in case you wanted to watch it again:


There are a few more on the Commoncraft website if you're interested.

They'll have a McDonald's soon...

Some of you might have seen this posted around the net last week. I'm putting it here because it's so incredible and seems like something that couldn't be real in the 21st century.

These are pictures of a heretofore uncontacted Amazon Indian tribe located near the border of Brazil and Peru:





You've seen this kind of thing in movies so much that it almost seems like a cliche - primitive villagers shooting arrows at the strange metal bird. Although, that might just be me projecting cultural superiority and a Hollywood plot onto some pictures. For all I know the guy in the airplane sold the villagers bad iPhones and now he's making a break for it.

Assuming that's not the case it's cool to think that despite how small technology has made our world, there are still bits of it that civilization hasn't yet crept into.

If I find out this was staged or is a movie promotion in a few months, I'm going to be really disappointed.

Stories from the quake

I've always been a big fan of comics. I think you can do things, storytelling wise, with words and pictures that you can't do with any other medium.

This morning I stumbled upon a series of comic strips telling true stories from the aftermath of the terrible earthquake in China earlier this month.

If you get a chance, give the strips a read. They're really touching and sad. Then afterwards maybe say a prayer for the people of China - or check out the page the Red Cross has set up to see if you can help in some way.

Quick note - I didn't look around the site the comic strips are hosted on. I have no idea what content might be on the other side of any links you click beyond the earthquake stuff. I have no reason to think it might be objectionable, but be just click carefully.

In case you're wondering what Xroad's next series is going to be...

Okay, I just made that up. Maybe if enough people requested it, though...

Congrats!

Congratulations to Stephen and Carol Brown on the birth of their daughter, Stefi Gabrielle. She's beautiful guys!

Quote

"The Bible's purpose is not so much to show you how to live a good life. The Bible's purpose is to show you how God’s grace breaks into your life against your will and saves you from the sin and brokenness otherwise you would never be able to overcome... religion is 'if you obey, then you will be accepted'. But the Gospel is, 'if you are absolutely accepted, and sure you’re accepted, only then will you ever begin to obey'. Those are two utterly different things. Every page of the Bible shows the difference."

-Tim Keller

The Office returns!

Favorite show to many Xroads attenders and staff, The Office, returns to television tonight after a months long absence due to the writer's strike.

To pump you up, here's an interview with Office star John Krasinski over at the Onion AV Club website.

AVC: How did the strike affect the show? The Office can do standalone episodes as well, but it also has plot developments. What happens when the strike blows a hole through the season? How do you recover from that and make a complete season out of it?

JK: I didn't know how they were going to do it. But I think they've done a great job of sort of picking up and creating these little mini-arcs, and just planting seeds. But yeah, the strike definitely devastated any chances of long lead arcs or very intricate arcs. I was really interested to see where it's going to go, but it didn't affect the tone of the show. Some of our funniest episodes are coming up now. And every episode relies at least a little on having some prior knowledge of the show. For instance, on our first episode back, Pam and I finally go to dinner with Michael and Jan, which has been in the works for a long, long time.

As you watch tonight, remember that Phyllis totally knows who "Pastor Glen" is.

Books that changed you

Back when I was in high school I had a friend recommend the book, Real Christians Don't Dance (that's not exactly the title - on the cover, the "don't" has an x through it, but that's hard to represent when typing). He actually loaned me his copy and I don't think I ever gave it back.

The book was written by John Fischer, who, at the time, wrote for a couple of Christian music magazines and had a musical career of his own, I think. The book was a collection of essays on challenging the standard Christian mindset. It wasn't a radical book, or filled with earth-shattering ideas, but when I read it, it completely challenged my thinking on what it meant to be a Christian. Furthermore, I think the books quiet, slightly self-effacing storytelling had a direct effect on my own communication styles.

What about you? What books have you read that completely changed the way you think about things (and I'm not just looking for Christian, spiritual, or self-help books here - if To Kill A Mockingbird changed your life, let's hear about it)?

Welcome Freddy Jaoquin Acevedo

On Sunday afternoon Freddy and Erin Acevedo welcomed Freddy Joaquin Acevedo into the world. He came in at 7 lbs, 2 ounces and he's already better at sports than I am.


Feel free to use the comment section to send good wishes and congratulations to Freddy and Erin. Also, remember, if you have a birth you'd like mentioned here, on the blog, email me at patchdrury@gmail.com.

What were you made for

A couple of months ago I was reading this book that spent a lot of time talking about how every person should have an over-arching mission for their life. Instead of letting your life be defined by a job, it should be defined by the legacy that you want to leave behind you when you're gone.

Jobs and occupations, especially these days, can be volatile and temporary, so taking your identity from what you get paid for is sometimes a losing proposition. Taking your identity from your mission in life (which will, if you're lucky, include your job sometimes) is a much more satisfying experience and encompasses your whole life instead of just the hours between 9 and 5.

Reading that book made me sit down and try and figure out what my goal in life was. Clearly, as a Christian, I have a goal to try and follow God and honor him with my life - but what does that look like inside of my specific situation? What was I made for?

I think I've figured out that I'm supposed to tell stories. For edification. For entertainment. On blogs. On stage. On video. In print. By myself. With others. Through others. I feel like I have this thing inside of me that wants to write and produce stories. So that's what I'm trying to do. Maybe it'll change as I get older and wiser, but for now, that's what I see.

What about you? What are you made for? What is it that, when you're dead, you want people to look back at your life and remember? What's your mission in life, whether you're accomplishing it or not?

Still kickin'

Didn't want you guys to think that I'd already given up on posting after my declaration of renewed diligence. I figure my new schedule will be posting twice a week. I know some of our readers aren't on the internet all day like I am - so I want to leave some topics sitting as close to the top of the page as possible for a while.

If you haven't yet, please scroll down the page and vote in the politics poll. And, if you'd like, take a second and use the comment section to elaborate on your feelings on religion and politics.

voting and religion

It's impossible to turn on a tv or the radio lately and not hear about the upcoming Presidential election. And by "upcoming" I mean "still eight months away."

They say there are two things you shouldn't talk about in polite conversation: religion and politics. I think you could probably add a lot more things to that list ( sex, my uncle Eddie's gastro-intestinal problems, how sausage is made...). For now, though we're gonna eschew the rules of polite conversation and talk about religion AND politics. Specifically I want to discuss how your religion affects your politics.

To help you form your answer, here's a helpful poll:



After you vote, click on the comment button and tell us a little bit about yourself and how your politics and religion go together. Remember, though, there are lots of varied opinions on this kind of thing, so be respectful of other people and try to avoid useless generalizations like, "All republicans stub out their cuban cigars on puppies" or "All democrats live in hemp houses and mooch off the government."

Personally, I went through a stage in my life where politics and religion were so intermingled that they might as well have been the same thing. These days there are lots of times when I feel like the two things shouldn't be allowed anywhere near each other. Politics seem so dirty and compromised - I'm afraid if it becomes intwined with my religion some of the dirty will rub off.

I think like most things in this fallen world, there's room for God to step in and redeem politics on some level. I freely admit I don't know how that's supposed to happen, though. Thoughts?

Of blogs and other things

I've been posting on blogs, in some form or another, for the last five or six years. I like the format. I like the potential for unlimited access that writing on the internet offers.

When this blog started back a little over a year ago, I was excited to have another outlet for writing.

As time went by, though, I found it harder and harder to contribute. On my personal blog, I have no problem writing. I just kind of vomit out whatever is in my head and push the "publish" button. With this blog, though, I didn't want my voice to come through too much. I wanted it to be about stuff that would interest our community as a whole, instead of just me and my weird, juvenile interest.

When that became hard to do, I stopped posting as much. Luckily, there were other volunteers to step in and take up some of the slack. Life, however, eventually catches up with all of us and posting, as you know doubt have noticed, has slowed to a crawl.

Today, looking at this site, I felt a twinge of regret. Regret that I let something with so much potential wither on the vine. This blog has the potential to be a great sounding board and forum for the Crossroads community. All it requires is me not worrying so much about what I put down here - and opening the door to new voices.

So welcome to the second age of the Crossroads blog. I will, from this point on, endeavor to make it a site worth visiting. And I'd love your help doing so. Here's some stuff you can do to help:

1. Comment. If you don't use the comment section, then this blog is a one-sided conversation. And you have my promise that I will work hard to give you content worth commenting on.

2. Submit. Have something you want to talk about? Think you could be a strong contributor to the blog? Send me an email at patchdrury.com with your ideas and what you'd like to see from the blog. We can't give everybody posting rights, but there's room for lots more voices at this point.

3. Tell people. Lots of folks don't even know that this blog or the teaching blog exist. If you would like to see this aspect of our community grow - tell people about it.

That's it for now. New content later today!

Great, I'm dead.

Which Lost Character Are You?

More on Lost. Created by BuddyTV

New Year!

It's 2008! The old year is gone, taking with it all of the regrets, missed opportunities and bad juju of the last 365 days.

So now you've got a blank slate. A clean piece of paper. A fresh start. What are you gonna do with it?

I don't go in much for resolutions as they carry a connotation of "doomed to fail" in most people's minds. But I do believe in setting goals and taking advantage of fresh starts.

So what's 2008 gonna look like for you? What's gonna be different?

I have big plans, including: Getting married, selling a house, buying a house, and making some serious career decisions. In addition to the big stuff I'd like to make this a year with lots of creative output on my part - lots of making things and new ideas.

Now tell me about you. What do you want this year to look like? What do you want to see happen in your life?