Archive Page 3
News Bias
Now I know this happens all over the news spectrum… bias showing through. I just never have seen it so blatant as it is this year and the presidential election.
I try to maintain my list of news sources from many so I don’t get a more liberal or conservative slant on what I am hearing, reading or seeing. MSNBC and ultimately NBC has finally made its way off my list of watchable news shows.
During the announcement of Sarah Palin as John McCain’s VP candidate, MSNBC showed its blatant liberal bias by running this graphic. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Note that this appears to be a Fox News graphic but if you look carefully on the right side just to the left of the O’Reilly graphic, you will see that it is indeed MSNBC.
Although I was watching it at the time, I didn’t get an image of the screen until later when it was reported on Fox News (who has done some of the same stuff in the past so they aren’t saints either). If you want to watch the entire clip, there is a clip out on Youtube. I won’t even get into the fact that 1 hour before the announcement, MSNBC was showing a graphic announcing Palin as the choice and including 3 stats about her. She is 44 years old, she has an 80% approval rating, and she is FACING STATE INVESTIGATION. Before the announcement.
I’m not sure that anyone presents the news in a fair and balanced manner anymore. Maybe it’s time to get my news from the BBC so I can make a most informed decision.
Filed under: me, news | 1 Comment
Fantasy Football Time
Wednesday night we held our 2nd annual draft party for Crosspointe Fantasy Football. It is an event that I have been looking forward to for a while as there’s nothing like the start of football season.
Anyway I chose 7th this year and think that right now this team will end up somewhere around there at the end of the year. It won’t help that I will be in Kenya for 2 Sundays when I have to make most of my lineup changes for the year. I may have to find someone to manage Dunder Mifflin Schrutes while I am away. Internet can not be counted on in the bush of Kenya.
Here is the lineup for your Dunder Mifflin Schrutes of the Crosspointe Fantasy Football League (CFFL).
Draft Recap |
||||
| ROUND | PICK | PLAYER | POS | |
| 1 | 7 | Steven Jackson | RB | |
| 2 | 6 | Reggie Wayne | WR | |
| 3 | 7 | Michael Turner | RB | |
| 4 | 6 | David Garrard | QB | |
| 5 | 7 | Marvin Harrison | WR | |
| 6 | 6 | Bernard Berrian | WR | |
| 7 | 7 | Vernon Davis | TE | |
| 8 | 6 | Matt Forte | RB | |
| 9 | 7 | Ted Ginn Jr. | WR | |
| 10 | 6 | Stephen Gostkowski | K | |
| 11 | 7 | Pittsburgh DST | DST | |
| 12 | 6 | J.T. O’Sullivan | QB | |
| 13 | 7 | Bryant Johnson | WR | |
| 14 | 6 | David Patten | WR | |
| 15 | 7 | Tim Hightower | RB | |
Filed under: football, sports | Leave a Comment
Huge Yard Sale
The Crosspointe team going to Kenya in September is holding a huge yard sale for the benefit of the Cheppema Hope Center and the orphans at the Cheppema Children’s Home. The sale will take place at 108 Berrydowns Drive in Morrisville (just off of Town Hall Drive).
This link will take you to Mapquest for directions to the sale. Hours of the sale will be from 6am – Noon on Saturday August 23.
Donations of items are still being accepted. Please bring your items to the address of the yard sale on Thursday the 21st or Friday the 22nd from 5pm-8pm.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Leave a Comment
A Test of Sorts
I came home a bit early today since we have some guests for dinner and I wanted to give a test of a new camera I bought. I was tired of point and shoot digital cameras and the lack of control I had with my old 35mm SLR. I made the plunge into the digital SLR world by purchasing a Canon Rebel XSi. I have experience with the Canon Rebel film line so this was a natural next purchase for me.
I wanted to get it in time to practice with before I go to Kenya in September and gave it some tests today. Boy am I rusty in the SLR world. I’m going to need all the time I can get.
Here are a couple of pictures that I took today around the house. First our guests…
Then as I was transferring the pictures to the computer I looked out the window and saw this…
I wish I had time to switch from auto to manual focus for the second shot. There were a total of 3 of them enjoying an afternoon drink from the freshly made nectar.
More testing of the camera will come soon. Excited to rejoin the SLR world.
Filed under: camera, me, thoughts | Leave a Comment
Some Great Kids
I got to spend the past week with some great kids from Crosspointe Church in Washington D.C. working with the Center for Student Missions organization. Our high school kids took a short term mission trip to our nation’s capital to serve the poor and homeless for a week.
The majority of these kids had never served in this manner before and it was, to say the least, an eye opening experience for them. I would even say that it removed them from their comfort zone of Apex and Cary.
I have had the privilege of being on many short term mission teams but this was the first that I had been on exclusively with students. These kids rocked! I told them on the last night there that I would take them anywhere to serve. Not once in our week there did I hear a complaint and they served with grace and compassion wherever CSM had us serve. Whether it was making beds at a men’s shelter, bagging meals for AIDS and cancer patients or reading to a 6 year old in a summer program at the DC Boys and Girls club, they really stepped up and were the hands and feet of Jesus.
So, thank you guys for pouring yourselves into this week and coming back with a new perspective of life outside our comfort zones. To Merry, Brianna, Sam, Jenna, Sarah, Jordan, Toni, Stephen, Sammi, Dick and Bailey: you guys are the best. Thanks for giving it all in DC last week.
Filed under: church, missions, volunteers | 1 Comment
Saturday Serve
I got to hang out with some incredible people today… the Kenya mission team from Crosspointe Church.
In preparation for our trip in September, I asked everyone to commit to meeting monthly leading up to the trip. One of those meetings (today), I snuck in a service project at the Durham Rescue Mission.
Here are some pictures from the day of painting and gardening.
I really enjoyed serving with this team that is preparing to serve in Cheppema. I can’t wait until September 26th!
Filed under: church, kenya, volunteers | 3 Comments
Next Week
Next week I get to spend the entire time serving the homeless in Washington DC. And I get to spend it with some great students and leaders from Crosspointe Church. On top of that, 2 of the students who are going are my kids so I get to spend some extended time working alongside them.
It’s been a crazy, hectic summer with our entire family going in what seems like opposite directions. I haven’t seen Stephen for a couple of weeks since he’s been in Kentucky and Sammi and Lisa spent a week at CIY in Myrtle Beach a little earlier. Stephen comes home on Friday night and at 8am on Sunday morning, we depart for this mission trip.
I am really looking forward to spending time in DC working with the inner city homeless alongside some great students. It is my prayer that our hearts are changed by this trip and we will never be the same after returning. This is the first exposure our students will have in serving others in an environment such as this.
I am not planning on bringing my laptop on this trip although if you would like to follow along on our travel, our youth pastor, Eddie Mullins, has a blog where he will be updating everyone on our week.
Filed under: church | Leave a Comment
It’s Not My Fault
As I have mentioned previously, I have a problem with balance in my life. But sometimes it’s not my own doing.
Early yesterday (July 4th) I decided that since I had nothing to do until the afternoon, I would move my Saturday job of mowing and trimming at the church to Friday. That would leave me ALL OF SATURDAY to Sabbath.
Nope.
We obviously had severe rains that came in last night causing among other things a loss of power for a few hours. Along with the loss of power to the church came this:
which when you gaze up the ceiling looked like this:
Now we don’t necessarily have roof problems so I believe that the rain was torrential enough to come in.
I spent a couple of hours cleaning and repairing the area and it now looks like this:
And now it is raining and thundering again. Good thing that I didn’t put the lift away. It might be needed again in the morning.
Filed under: church | Leave a Comment
I do enjoy reading.
Right now I have 7 books on my nightstand, all of them have been started in some fashion or another. My attention span is one that always has multiple books going and I have no problem picking up where I leave off when I do get back to a book.
Leaving Microsoft to Change the World by John Wood is a different book for me. About 4 hours after I began reading this book, it was finished.
 |
Leaving Microsoft to Change the World: An Entrepreneur’s Odyssey to Educate the World’s Children by John Wood
|
John Wood is a global marketing executive for Microsoft in the high tech boom days of the 90’s. He was making loads of money, traveling the world and living a fast paced lifestyle. It was not uncommon for him to work 80-90 hours of week pursuing the dream.
John decides to take a break to hike through the Himalayan mountains in Nepal where he stumbles across a small school with hundreds of children and a library filled with 2 books. And one of them was a Danielle Steele book in English. Being brought up with all the advantages of education, this deeply troubles John who promised them that he would return with books for their library.
And he did return with books – on the back of a yak.
Thus begins the odyssey of John founding an organization called Room to Read. John subsequently leaves Microsoft and all the benefits there for a journey into the non-profit world of fundraising.
The book is in no way a spiritual account of John’s life. But what John and a small group of people have accomplished is inspiring to say the least. You learn about his passions through his words as it crosses faiths and political borders and focuses on what will change the world – education.
I have looked at his website and found that currently Room to Read is not operating in Kenya or Haiti. I have inquired about what it would take to get a library in Cheppema as I got to see first hand what a difference text books make in children’s lives. Imagine what a library full of science, adventure, history and fiction books will do!
Filed under: Haiti, books, kenya | Leave a Comment
Something Different – Wordle
There’s a website I stumbled across recently that I have been sharing with a few people. For the few I haven’t told, check out Wordle.
Wordle creates word clouds out of text that you enter and has the ability to print and share the word clouds you make. You can also change the color and font and get a really nice print out of it.
Here’s a word cloud I made out of the text from Genesis 1.
Filed under: Uncategorized | 1 Comment
