THE "NEW" BEST PART OF WAKING UP...

Soap with a kick. Check it out.


(Thanks to Jordon Cooper for the link.)

YAWN...



This is me as an adult at a political speech. (Watch the slideshow...)

CHICAGO



I gave Brad the 4 hour Chicago tour today. In fact, as I blog, we are sitting in Starbucks in the Andersonville neighborhood on the north side of Chicago.

Today we spent a couple of hours in China Town (see pic w/ Brad above). While there, I stopped to snap a picture of a bunch of fish in a fish tank and as I leaned up against the glass to take the picture one of the fish jumped out of the tank. It scared the *** out of me.

Gotta run - more later.

BRAD



My friend Brad is visiting from Scottsdale, AZ for a couple of days. It's good to catch up and hang out. Brad and his wife, Noelle recently planted a church in Scottsdale, Arizona called The Life at Scottsdale.

(The pic is for all of you Arizonians on my site - especially for you, Noelle.)

P.S. When Brad gets back everyone ask him about the diaper.

WORK IN PROGRESS

Good point, from DJ Chuang's blog:

"this theme echoed several times in the past 24 hours - why not reveal what is happening on the inside while it is in process? Instead of holding back an idea or a plan until it is perfected and done for communication/publicity channels, which keeps the masses in the dark, in an organization or corporation or church, and creates stirs of ignorance + cluelessness, or worse, suspicion or discouragement (b/c the masses see "nothing going on").. rather, reveal what is going on while it is in process, and invite others to participate in the conversation, pitch in their ideas, collaborate, and produce something better than what can be done behind closed doors..."

Thanks for bringing up a valid point DJ. I suppose that there are exceptions to this idea, but overall I think it is right on. We sometimes treat information as gold and don't want to share it out of fear or concern that people may challange our "plans". The only problem is that our plans need to be challenged from time to time. I also think that allowing "outsiders" to be a part of this process helps people take ownership of the idea/project even more.

SPAGHETTI IN MY MOUTH



I had the weirdest dream last night. I was giving a talk in a workshop about church transition and as I was talking, I was breaking pieces of uncooked spaghetti and shoving them into my mouth. The next thing I know I could hardly talk and I was almost choking to death on the spaghetti. I remember looking over at Amanda and she was looking at me like, "What the world is the matter with you??", yet she didn't really do anything to stop me from shoving the sharp pieces of spaghetti into my mouth.

I finally woke up and was drenched in sweat.

So weird.

I don't really think the dream had a whole lot of significance, but I would be interested in your interpretation. Bring it on!

GHOST TOWN



This has got to be one of the most moving things I've seen in a very long time. It is a website documenting "Elena's" journey via her motorcycle riding through Cherynobyl.

From her site:

"...a story about town where one can ride with no stoplights, no police, no danger of hit some cage or some dog."


(Thanks Joi Ito for the link)