the highs and lows of technology

I must admit, I am a geek. It must be unhealthy how excited I can get about technology. My wife gets annoyed with me because I seem to be always in need of some new and exciting product that will wire my life a little bit more.

My latest calling has been to acquire TiVo. I had heard amazing stories of people's lives being changed by this wonderous, magical box. Marriages had been restored, enemies reconciled, life snatched out the jaws of death...okay, so I made all that up. BUT, I did hear a lot of good things about TiVo.

Last week I was in Best Buy. (Yeah, further proof that I'm a geek. Sometimes when I am driving near Manhattan Blvd, Best Buy enchantingly sings my name like a siren and lures me in.) The 80-hour TiVo box was on sale...and I had just received a "bonus" (you know, one of those anonymous checks) from church just days before. I immediately flipped open my cell phone and held down the "2" to speedail my wife. (Did I mention I also have a new camera flip-phone? It's very exciting.)

It didn't take too much convincing to gain permission to walk out of Best Buy with TiVo under my arm. Oh, what a glorious day! I got it hooked up fairly easily and I added a wireless network connection yesterday. This thing is amazing. I could sit here and bore you by listing all of the cool things it does...but I will restrain myself. If you want to come over and visit me, I'll be happy to give you a demonstration.

Now, on to the bad news. Yesterday afternoon I my iPod froze and upon resetting it I saw an icon that I had never seen before...the "sad iPod" icon (see the pic).

I knew this probably wasn't a good thing. I tried resetting it again...no luck. I tried connecting it to my computer...it didn't recognize it. I tried calling Apple support...I found out that I would have to pay $50 just to have one phone call with a tech support rep. I researched sending it in to Apple (it is out of warranty), it was going to cost me some absurd amount of money (like $200) to get it serviced.

I was sad. The sad iPod icon made me sad. At this point, it appeared that I was down to two options: (1) I was chunking my iPod and buying a brand new one or (2) I would somehow figure out how to fix it myself.

I did a little bit of research online and discovered that the "sad iPod" icon most probably means that you have a problem with your hard drive. Not good. I held the iPod up to my ear and I could hear a clicking noise...like the head of the hard drive was trying to move but was stuck. I also read that some people had "thumped" their iPod to fix this sort of prob. Hmmm...

So a thumped it...pretty hard. No luck. I tried it again and again and again. (What do I have to lose? It's worthless anyway.) Finally I slammed the side of the iPod against my desk...and lo and behold the menu screen popped up!

And there was much rejoicing.

Everything is fine. I didn't even lose my sound files that were stored on the hard drive.

The moral of the story is: technology is good. When it makes you sad...just bang it against something really hard and it will make you happy again.

The End.

YOUTH EVENT: Final Four Party

Hey all.
You are invited to watch the Final Four semis at Church. We'll set up the big screen and project in high definition. We'll have some food and drinks.

The games are Saturday night at 5pm (George Mason vs. Florida) and 7:45pm (LSU vs. UCLA). We'll watch the game in the front building at Berean.

Don't miss it!

Let Doug know (doug@bereannola.com) if you will attend. Thanks!

MP3 file for week two of "IM or am i?"

I just uploaded the audio from last Sunday night (03/26). It is week two of the IM or am i? series. The talk is entitled, "identity theft."

Instead of posting the links...I'm gonna let you in on a secret. We are currently working on the new bereannola.com. Click here to visit the new youth audio page to download the current message (and all the previous messages). Feel free to click around a bit and let me know your thoughts on the new site.

SHHH! Don't tell anybody! The website isn't live yet. We hope to launch it very soon.

random links

Hello all. Sorry I haven't posted in a while. I plan on uploading the talk from Sunday's youth group sometime tomorrow. In the meantime, here are a couple of interesting weblinks for you to peruse:

• Click here to view the trailer for the upcoming movie United 93. Yes, it is about that flight 93. The one that didn't hit a building on September 11th. It looks very good. It is directed by Paul Greengrass (who also directed the gritty Bourne Supremacy).
• Apparently Tom Hanks has agreed to star in a new movie entitled, "How Starbucks saved my Life." And they haven't even asked me if they could make a movie about my life! Ha. Just kidding. It looks to be a story about someone working at Starbucks...not someone who is merely addicted to coffee.
• Why do Christians always have to take whatever is trendy and create their own (lame) version of it? Did you know there is a "Christian" version of myspace? Speaking of myspace, have you checked out the new youth group myspace?
• I just signed an online petition called CAPS - "Christians against Pat Speaking." You should too.
• I just stumbled across an article on the turnaround of O. P. Walker High School. For those not from New Orleans, O. P. Walker is a pretty rough public school that is here in Algiers. It was chartered and has been reopened for a couple of months. It is a pretty amazing story. I think good days are ahead for that school and for all of those in the Algiers Charter School Association. Big props to my elementary school principal Brian Riedlinger. He is heading up the ACSA.

I love you all.

ourspace

Well, we have decided to take the myspace plunge and start a official Connection Youth Group myspace page. You can see it here. Special thanks to Sam. She started the myspace for us and she will be helping me to keep it updated.

If you have a myspace, feel free to ask to be our friend. You never know, maybe we'll even honor your request. (Doesn't that sound a little weird? You can ask to be our friend? Yeah. I think so too.) In fact, you can even ask Jesus to be your friend.

Everything you need to know about our youth ministry will be posted there. We plan on having lots and lots of pictures, activity info and other goodies. It will constantly be evolving...so be sure to visit often.

So what does that mean for this blog? Does the new myspace page replace it? No...not exactly. I will no longer post youth group announcements here. Instead, I will focus on making this journal about me (Doug) and what goes on in my personal life. Which, of course, means that a lot of it will have to do with youth ministry. In other words, it will pretty much be the same minus the youth announcements.

Enough rambling...no one is reading anyway...you all have already hit the above link and are checking out our new myspace!

March/April Parent Connection

Click here for the Parent Connection newsletter that will be mailed out today...and click here for the Summer Trip Application that is talked about in the newsletter.

MP3 file from Sunday Night

We started the IM or am i? series this past Sunday. Things went off without a hitch...NOT. Despite the technical difficulties (which I was able to edit out. hehehe.), we had a great start to our exploration into Cyberspace. The title of this first talk is, "the WORLD of cyberspace." We explored what Scripture has to say about the "world." Is it good, bad, neutral? I guess you'll have to listen to find out.

Here is the handout and the MP3:

Click here to download the MP3 sound file

Click here to download the handout

Again, don't forget, it's best to right click on the link and choose "save target as..."

pics from the student life tour

Here are some pics from the Student Life Tour in Baton Rouge this weekend. Also, Student Life is supposed to post some "official" pics here sometime soon.

Enjoy:

Hornet's tickets still available

I still have a handful of tickets left for the Hornet's game this Saturday night. The game starts at 7pm...so we will meet at church at 5:30pm (eat dinner before you come). The tickets are $20 each and they are in rows 10 and 12 of section 315 ($43 seats!). Parents, if you want to come with us...just let me know. I'll reserve a ticket for you.

Let me know if you want one of the last couple of tickets.

my last couple and next couple of 24 hours

Hey all. Lots is happening in the life of Doug.

• Crystal and I (along with Brad, Julie and Chris) went to the Pastor's Luncheon with Billy and Franklin Graham yesterday. It was cool to see and hear from someone who has meant so much to evangelicalical culture. Heck, Billy Graham has meant a ton to American culture. Anyway, there is just something super-affirming about Billy Graham telling you that what you are doing matters. I think that it was encouraging for all of us who are mucking it here in Katrinaland. At the same time, though, it was a weird afternoon. People were ohhing and ahhing and claping and standing like this guy was Jesus or something.
• Last night I went to the MuteMath concert with Thecla and Chris (see the above pic). It was nothing short of amazing. Those guys can flat out play and they know how to make your jaw drop. If they ever are in your area, go see them play. If you have never heard of them, you can check out some of their songs over at their myspace page. The best way I can describe their sound is to say they sound like Coldplay's next CD. Does that make any sense?
• We leave for the Student Life tour this afternoon. I am excited! It's gonna be really good.
• We start a new series this Sunday night. (That's right, youth group is now on Sunday evenings at 6pm.) The series is entitled, "IM or am i?" We will be talking about cyberspace and who you are when you are online (think myspace). Here is a snapshot of the title slide. -->

my new phone

Yesterday I headed over to the local T-Mobile store so that I could get a new phone. I have had their newest "free phone" for about six months and one of the buttons is broken. I decided it was time to spring for a nicer phone, and I figured I would go for a camera phone while I was at it. If you know me well...you know that I'm not much of a picture taker. I'm hoping that having a camera phone in my possession will help me take more pictures.

It's also a great way to keep two-year olds occupied at restaurants...

Student Life Tour This Weekend in Baton Rouge

This weekend is the long awaited Student Life Tour. I am pumped about this! If you are going (or still considering going...more on that in a sec), here are some important tidbits:

• It's not too late to sign up! I purchased some extra tickets...I will give them out first come, first serve. Once I run out of tickets...you can STILL go. The only hitch is that you would have to pay an additional $5 for your ticket (bringing your total to $25 instead of $20).
• Speaking of money, make sure to pack some extra spending money. You will need to pay for one fast-food meal on the way to Baton Rouge. Also, their will be a ton of Student Life merchandise for sale at the tour. Check out their store website for an idea.
• Speaking of packing, you need to bring (1) a sleeping bag/pillow, (2) toiletries, (3) a towel, and (4) clothes for Saturday. We are spending the night at Community Bible Church.
• Speaking of Community Bible Church, they are a "sister church" that is providing accomodations and meals on Satuday. Awww...how nice of them. Their youth group will also be attending the tour and they will also be spending the night at church on Friday night to protect us from the Baton Rouge Boogey Monsters.
• Speaking of the Baton Rouge Boogey Monsters, I think that would be a great name for an Arena football team.
• Speaking of football, we like to play football at church...and YOU need to be at church at 4:30PM on Friday if you are coming. If it makes more sense for you to just meet us in Baton Rouge, call Doug (975-7570) and we can arrange that.
• Speaking of traveling to Baton Rouge, we will arrive home FROM Baton Rouge on Saturday night around 7:00pm.
  
  For more info, visit the Student Life Tour page.
  
  See you Friday at 4:30pm.

X3: The Last Stand

The new trailer for X-Men 3 has been posted online. You can see it here. It looks really good. Also, the impression I get from the trailer is that this will be the final X-Men movie. Too bad...'cause...well...did I mention it looks really good?

Luau Hilights

So, the luau was last night. About 25 of us were there. (Yay.) We listened to the Beach Boys and Jack Johnson. We enjoyed our shish kabobs and smoothies. We danced...we surfed...we played basketball?!

Seriously, it was really fun. Thanks to all that came. It was a great way to kick off our new Sunday night youth group. From now on, we will meet on Sunday nights from 6:00-7:30pm.

Congrats to Samantha, Stephen and Kaleb. Sam won our airboarding contest with some unique moves. Stephen and Kaleb's Thriller dance captured the coveted hula doubles competition. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately), I don't have any pictures of their award-winning acts.

Speaking of pictures, be sure to check out a couple of pictures of the night at the bottom of this post. We are going to try to do a better job of taking pictures of events so that we can post them online. Hope you enjoy...

Thanks to all that helped. Thecla and Samantha did a wonderful job decorating the place. Bridget and Crystal put together a scrumptuous menu...and Christina helped them prepare it. Jim and Rob were our grill masters. Thec, Rob, Keith and Clay were our judges.

Come to the Luau

Well, I told you we wanted to do something special for the first Sunday night youth group...well, we decided to put on a LUAU. That's right, we will have grass skirts, palm trees, shish kabobs, the works. Don't miss it! See this flyer for more details. Invite your friends, be ready to eat and dance.

Let me know if you have any questions.