Archive for October, 2009
Today’s List
Posted by: | CommentsI had a list of things to get done today. It wasn’t an especially long list, but it was list none-the-less.
I wanted to …
-clean my car out
-organize some balloons
-re-write KidStuf script
-see chiropractor
-relax
-read parts of a book
-clean off my junk off the side table
And, today I did …
-brought josiah home from school (fever)
-read a few chapters from my book
-rewrote KidStuf script
-went to chiropractor
Oh well, I guess I’ll work on the list some more tomorrow.
Here’s the novel I’m reading right now.
Twitter vs. FaceBook
Posted by: | CommentsMany times, I get asked about my facebook/twitter accounts and how/why I use them.
I use facebook to communicate with tons of friends from church, our community and with family/friends from my past.
I use twitter primarily for communication with other Children’s Pastors around the globe and people I have met in technology circles. I also use twitter to follow certain things around the globe. An example, if someone tweets the word KidStuf, I get notified of it. This allows me to see what other churches are doing in their KidStuf programs around the world.
I currently have my twitter “tweets” or updates automatically become my facebook status updates. So, they are one and the same. Sometimes. There are times when I take this setting off.
Seesmic is the application I use on my computer to check my twitter feeds and my facebook updates. This one programs allows me to do both, and a lot more.
Seesmic allows me view all my friends on facebook and all the people i follow on twitter. Plus, all of the “searches” I follow on twitter.
Because of Seesmic, I don’t go to the facebook page or the twitter page very often. But I do use both on a daily basis, just thru Seesmic.
Make sense?
But, in 6 months from now, who knows what I’ll be using.
Hopefully, this…
Google wave. Basically, what if email was invented today – what would it include. It will be huge for collaboration efforts and projects. plus as a communication tool. You can do a google search for it. All I can say is WOW.
Nines Confefrence
Posted by: | CommentsBack on 09-09-09, I watched the Nines Conference. Or, I should say at least some of it. It was an amazing online conference and I enjoyed a lot of it.
Today, at our staff days, we watched this segment of it from Scott Wilson.
Wow, it really makes me think. He spoke about being very intentional about how we grow as leaders. I need to really think and process this some more.
Here are my notes.
The Nines conference – Scott Wilson
Year 1 – MODEL IT
- Read 35 Books
- Listen to 102 CD’s
Year 2 – MENTOR IT
- 20 Books
- 52 CD’s
- Your Team
- 5 Books
- 12 CD’s
Year 3 – MULTIPLY IT
- 20 Books
- 52 CD’s
- Your Team
- 5 Books
- 12 CD’s
– Their Team
– 5 Books
– 12 CD’s
hmmmmmm. Makes me think. What am I doing? Am I being intentional about it?
Christmas List
Posted by: | CommentsIt’s mid-October, os why do we need a Christmas list?
Good question! But if you’re in my family, you need to have a list created by October. Here’s one thing on my list.
Of course, I’d also like a Kindle and a MacBook 
Another Night
Posted by: | CommentsWell, tonight was another night of sorting balloons. I think I’m beginning to be tired of seeing balloons!!! The boys have been great. they have been sorting and wrapping the balloons for me. Of course, they get paid for it too (although, it’s not much at all). AND, they get to watch a movie while they sort out the balloons.
I’ve had two or three boxes sitting around the house that have needed sorting, so it’s good to get most of them done. We actually ran out of rubber bands tonight, so I’ll have to get more at the store tomorrow to finish it up.
In addition to sorting them and wrapping them, we are also organizing them according to size and color. I haven’t counted our balloon supply, but it’s safe to say we have several thousand here!
I have staff days all day tomorrow and Wednesday, plus I twist balloons at Red Robin tomorrow night, so I hope to finish the balloon sort/organization on Wednesday evening.
Story With Balloons
Posted by: | CommentsToday I told the story of Dorcas (Tabitha, or Tabi) with balloons in KidStuf.
Tabi was a seamstress (Acts, chapter 9). She seems to have influenced an entire community because of her sewing skills. She dies, Peter comes and prays for her and she is brought back to life. Pretty cool stuff!
We’ve been talking about Individuality – discovering who you are, so you can make a difference.
a>Tabi made a difference in her community by sewing. She influenced people. She helped people. She brought smiles to people’s faces. She impacted her community. I made a giant monkey. Similar to this one, but larger.
I talked about how we can use our gifts to influence our community. Our gift doesn’t have to be sewing. It doesn’t have to be singing. It doesn’t have to be a balloon man. We just have to be willing to use what we have to make a difference.
We can make a difference. It doesn’t matter if we are 8 years old or 80 years old. We can use what we have to make a difference in our community. We just need to ask God to use us, and be willing to be used by him.
Balloon Day
Posted by: | CommentsToday could be described as a balloon day. We did TONS of sorting balloons and also organizing some balloons. We didn’t finish, so I think it will continue tomorrow.
What started all the organizing? Well, we twisted balloons today at Messiah College’s homecoming and I wasn’t sure how far away we would have to park , so I didn’t want to use my regular cart. that means I had to use my other bag and I had to get it organized.
The balloons was for their Little Falcon’s zone. This is their kids area that they have before the big soccer game. Well, there has been so much rain that the game was cancelled for tonight and the kids are was moved inside.
This was a family event for us twisting balloons – all four of us! We were busy all the time! We made a TON of lady bug balloons.
It was a good time, but it wore us all out!
Balloon Day
Posted by: | CommentsA new order of balloons came in and it was sorting day! I like to be able to lay my hands on the size and color of the balloons I want in just a few seconds. So, we sort the balloons!
The balloons come in bags of 50 or 100 per bag. Each bag is just one color. But I like to have the balloons all sorted and rolled so they can fit in my bag or case.
The boys helped me today – and yes, they get paid. We rolled the balloons because we are doing a gig tomorrow – Messiah College’s homecoming. I think it’ll be cold enough to make one of these. 
Thankfully, they changed the venue so we are inside.
APPLE vs. ATT In Customer Service
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My Customer Service Experience – wow, what a story. I have been having a few issues with my iphone – in particular, I was not getting my voice mail. Or I should say, my voice mail was not telling my phone that I had any messages. I could go into the phone, dial my own number and retrieve any voicemails that I received, I was just never informed that I had any new ones. After about 2 weeks of not getting any voice messages, I manually went in and checked and had something like 22 new messages. Not fun! Particularly for someone who doesn’t like to talk on the phone.
I had some extra time this morning, so I decided this would be the day to take care of it. I decided that I would go to the Apple Store First.
APPLE STORE
If you’ve never been in an Apple Store, it’s an experience. Upon entering the store, I was greeted and was asked right away if there was anything that they could help me. I told them my problem, gave them my name and they told me that I could browse around or have a seat and someone from the genius bar would take care of me. (I actually signed up an hour earlier online for an appointment with the geniuses) The really neat thing about this lady greeting me when I arrived, she didn’t have to go over to a computer to register me – she just pulled out her itouch and registered me right there. super cool & super efficient!!
I had to wait about 5 minutes or so for my genius appointment. Did I mind? Nope! Not at all. I had a seat, pulled out my laptop, hopped on their free wireless network and started going thru email. All the while, I could see what order I would be called b/c of a set of displays behind the genius bar that showed the order of people. No worries that they forgot me or anything like that.
Name called – walked up to the genius bar and told them my problem – not being able to have my voice mail notify me of any new messages. They treated my problem like their problem. The tested out my iphone, noticed that a few things were a little wacky and not working correctly. They told me what they were going to do and what it would mean. They asked my permission to wipe it out and basically start fresh (take about 10 minutes or so). I gave the consent. They also stated that I might want to go to AT&T to get a new SIM card. That might also be the problem and it was also an original SIM card and older. They popped it out and suggested I go to the AT&T store in the mall to double check on my contract and the SIM card.
AT&T
Upon entering the AT&T store, not much happened. Then I went up to the counter and was asked if I could be helped. I told them (a lady and a man) my problem, that APPLE was rebooting my phone, and the suggestion about checking my plan and a new SIM card. They were not happy that I was there and told me that it is an APPLE issue and not an AT&T one. Also, they told me that they could give me a new SIM card, but couldn’t activate it because their computer was down. But I could try to come back in 20 minutes or so. So I left. It felt like I was inconveniencing them andI left with the intention of never going back.
Back to APPLE
Upon returning to APPLE, my iphone was being worked on a little more. I gave them the SIM card and told them that AT&T’s computers were down (PC’s by the way). They popped the SIM card back in, and we had the phone working again in a few minutes. They mentioned that “wiping everything clean” fresh install seemed to solve the problem. They still suggested I get a new SIM card to insure against that being an issue.
Back to AT&T
I didn’t want to go back, thought of leaving, but decided that today was the day and I just wanted to get this things taken care of. I went back. I was directed to a different guy who was very nice. I mentioned my problem, my “reinstall” at Apple and about the possibility of getting a new SIM card. He said sure, pulled up my info on their computer (was partially working now) and said that getting a new SIM card was a good idea since mine was an older original one. His customer service was vastly different from the service I received from his coworkers 1/2 hour earlier.
So… what’s this mean? It means getting my iphone taken care of was a pain. But it has served me very well the past # of years and hopefully will continue to do so.
But it also means that I like going to APPLE a whole lot more than AT&T. While the 2nd guy at AT&T was nice, knowledgeable and helped me out, I also don’t want to have to deal with lady #1 or man #1. They left a bad taste in my mouth. I left APPLE with good feelings about their store, their employees and the customer service I was given.
And isn’t that odd – because looking at the problem is interesting if you look at it from a distance.
- I bought my iphone from an AT&T store. (sure it’s an APPLE product, but it’s warrantee has long since expired).
- I am a CURRENT customer of AT&T and pay them monthly.
- The problem seemed to mostly be a non-cellular problem.
But yet, I feel better about APPLE than AT&T.
5 Things Updated
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Sometimes, how you present something is just as valuable as what yo present. With that in mind… Here is a better presentation of the 5 Things Every Kid Needs. (Click the image to make it bigger)