Draw from the Well

Friday Links 8/12/2011*

*Sorry these didn't post on Friday!

These are just plain cool: Gravity Glue.

I want to make one of these: Cardboard Shelf

I love body hacks - here's 18 of them.

 

Friday Links 8/5/2011

• Have you heard of Grouptune? One weekly deal of Christian tunes. I like it!
• New music I'm digging these days: The Civil Wars, Hillsong's Aftermath, and Jeremy Riddle!
• Learn to love the Taste of Water. Hmmm. But Diet Coke is so tasty!
• This is cool: Matchbox Car City - Metropolis II
• Holy cow - this will knock your socks off:  Visualization of the US Debt!

Friday Links 7/29/11

• This song is amazing (ignore the cheesy pictures) Nichole Nordeman & Amy Grant: http://www.jesusneedsnewpr.net/nichole-nordeman-amy-grant-duet/
  
  
• I dare you to draw an "E" on your forehead.
  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/journalists/daniel-h-pink/8641925/Daniel-H.-Pink-Why-bosses-need-to-show-their-soft-side.html
  
  
• This makes me smile.
  http://blog.guerrillacomm.com/2011/06/apple-ambush.html
  
  
• Stay safe
  http://lifehacker.com/5825528/basic-self+defense-moves-anyone-can-do-and-everyone-should-know

Flannel Shirt Haiku

Flannel Shirt Haiku

Soft, warm, cloak of love.

Woven garmet; shield from cold.

Embrace me with plaid.

Ode to Flannel

 Ode to Flannel

• to my flannel shirt on a winter's day

 

Fuzzy friend you keep me warm when winter trees are blow and torn

by bitter winds and raging storms.

Soft is your touch and warm your embrace

Caressing my skin, delighting my face.

With you on my side, I never need fear!

Casual or formal, no fashion inferior.

In a shirt or pants, shoes or lingerie

You keep me warm on every cold day.

In simple woven wool I delight.

Carded cotton in plaid – such a beautiful sight!

No logger, truck driver, or farmer am I.

“Just a girl who loves her flannel!” I cry.

Change Happens

While I was on vacation, my brother called and told me that he was having the house painted.  This is something we'd discussed, but when it happened - it happened fast.  And I had no idea what colors he had selected.  It was a exercise of trust.

The house is now painted, and the color has really grown on me!

Now I am working on painting the back deck to finish up the makeover!

Thanks to the guys at Bonsai Painting for doing such a great job!

BEFORE:

NOW:

  

What Freedom Means - Lessons Learned in China

No one would ever call me ultra-patriotic or more than moderately political.  Although my father served in the military, one of the few times my parents told me "no" about something was when I suggested I enlist in the reserves after high school (what can I say?  I like guns and uniforms.)

The biggest change which has come to my understanding of what it means to be an American happened when I lived in China for five years.  Living abroad helped me to separate and articulate what was "American" in me.  Seeing how other people lived and labored helped me to realize the ways the USA operates and what we value.  Hearing the criticisms and anger against the US, also allowed me to step back and ask hard questions about my own country and heritage.

Here are a few things I have come to value:

1) Being born in America means that I have the an amazing amount of freedom of opportunity and choice.

In China, everyone carries a "hukou"...in effect it's a permit for where  you live.  Brilliantly, the Chinese have figured out how to prevent the problem of overpopulation in their cities.  Without the "hukou" I believe China would look like India, but worse.  Yet what the "hukou" also means is that a person is not free to move about as they wish.  If you are born in the countryside, unless you can change your "hukou", you will remain in the countryside throughout your life.  Education is a means to change your "hukou", which is one reason it's so important.  Literally, I knew families where one parent's "hukou" was in a different city than the other parent's.  Families only came together over holidays.

2) Being born in America means that I have protected freedoms.

No earthly man-made system of government is perfect.  Not the USA's nor China's.  Yet even in the imprefection of our own government, there are basic rights we have which are protected: speech, bearing arms, religion...and the list goes on.  But allowing freedom is dangerous.  Letting people do things means that life has a certain unpredictability.  The possibility of messes is palpable.  The Chinese do not allow their citizens to own guns.  This doesn't mean that crime never happens, but I was never frightened to wall around the city at night even though I lived in a small/big city of 2.9 million.  (Something I would never have done in Los Angeles or New York.)  But this Chinese law is perhaps more motivated by fear than altruism.  We all remember the iconic images of Tianamen Square, which we perceived as a fight for democracy.  Even now, China continues to change and grow out of her Communist past (I experience very little communism when I was in China...but lots of socialism.)  I believe what the Chinese government feared from the crowds in Tianamen was not democracy (which they are slowly moving towards), but the loss of control (in Chinese "luan".)  Chaos.  I love our freedoms, but understand that they open the door to things which aren't my preference, too.

3)  Being born in America means that I have influence.

Who am I to shape culture?  I'm not a diplomat or a politician.  Yet due to where I was born, I was treated differently (not always good, mind you.)  There were people from many other countries in China, but still us Americans were looked at differently.  This is a great responsibility.  First, every American needs to beware of the global community (they know way more about us than we do about them!)  Second, we need to walk humbly with the opportunity, influence, and power we've been blessed with.  Finally, I believe we need to use our influence for good, not evil. 

4) Being born in America is great but there is something better.

Living in China was a huge privilege.  I wouldn't trade that experience for anything.  It has helped shape who I am.  But I lived in tension there.  Although I became "comfortable", I always knew I was a "stranger", an "alien", a "foreigner in a foreign land." I loved the food, I learned the language, I never blended in...but people told me I was becoming "Chinese."  But I knew this place was not my "home." I'm a lot more comfortable living in the US, but as a Christian, I know that even the country I was born in is not my ultimate "home".  I was made for heaven.  The ultimate freedom is freedom in Christ, which transcends every human barrier (culture, language, government, oppression, sin...)  This should set us free to live well under any condition.  Chinese Christians taught me this.  To be truly free in the midst of oppression, that is something.

SNL Behind the Scenes

The more I learn about the tech world, the more amazed I am about what it takes to make performances, shows, and even church services go smoothly.

In the past year, we added a new position to our service team: service producer.  The service producer is a combination coach, ring master, and cat herder when it comes to the service. The coordinate the sound, video, cameras, transitions, and manage all the unexpected things which happen during the service.

I am the service producer for our Living Water Olympia High Campus.

I'm always looking for ways to learn how other professionals keep doing it well and I stumbled on this clip from a recent SNL show.  My favorite part is that the scenery is still wobbling as they go live. 

Easter Peep Countdown: -10

The other day I returned to my desk and found the following:

Dispatcher: ?? (see trivia below)

Dispatching Method: push pins

Dispatching Trivia:  I love that people are getting in the spirit of the peep countdown.  I had to search, but found out that it was Val who choose to create a peep-pin cushion.  All I can say is that when peeps get left out in the air, they become hard.  We learned that from trying to take out the pencil from Andy's peep.  I just tossed the peep cushion because it wasn't worth it, but he did adorn my desk for a few days.

Easter Peep Countdown: -11

Dispatcher: Michelle the intern

Dispatching Method: lamination

Before:

 After: 

Dispatching Trivia: Michelle was so excited to laminate a peep.  Perhaps too excited.  This was a very cool way to dispatch a peep, until we discovered that we broke the laminator.  Oops.  Peep squirted out and gummed up the machine.  We figured that the lamintor was done for.  But Michelle and I took apart the laminator and cleaned it.  Everything is fine now.  BTW, make sure you note the eye in the middle of the page!