Pablo Emmanuel Otaola

My Baby Bean

2010-07-22T08:39:00.000-07:00

We just had our first appointment :) We saw the heartbeat beating about 170 beats per minute! Couldn't hear anything yet... I was floored...

World Cup 2010 Song

2010-06-22T14:48:00.001-07:00

Argentina Vimeo Video by Humble TV

2010-06-21T08:05:00.000-07:00

Argentina Tops the FIFA World Cup Charts

2010-06-19T12:11:00.000-07:00

Click on the image to enlarge

Great Argentinean Restaurants in Chicago, IL

2010-06-11T11:02:00.000-07:00

Vida Lounge
1248 W George St, 773-935-5700

Costumbres Argentinas
1309 N Ashland Ave, 773-489-6214

Buenos Aires Forever
939 N Ashland Ave, 773-486-8081

El Nandu
2731 W. Fullerton St., 773-278-0900

Tango Sur
3763 N Southport Av, 773-477-5466

If you want to buy Argentinean foods to go and to make:

Tango Sur
3763 N Southport Av, 773-477-5466

Buenos Aires Deli
3100 North Cicero Avenue, Chicago, IL 60641-5109

TYC DEPORTES COMMERCIAL

2010-06-10T11:47:00.000-07:00

Insightful Review of Flash CMS Options

2010-05-19T11:24:00.000-07:00

A great review from 1st Web Designer...

Flash templates are getting more and more popular these days and though beautiful outside, they can be a real disaster inside. While most of the template companies state that their templates are easy to manage and update, customizing the ready-made template can be a tough task for you. How to ensure that you won’t have to dive into the flash code, Action Script or spend hundreds of dollars on a web developer to customize the template for you? This post is meant to give you a helping hand in the world of various flash templates and flash systems so if you consider creating your website from the flash template and want it to be real easy and affordable this post is for you.

First of all and if you have never seen Adobe Flash, do not try to convince yourself that you can manage it. Yes, you can probably learn some simple things from YouTube tutorials, but the flash templates of the new generation are much more than just a number or links, images and text blocks. So what’s the solution if you are a flash fan and dream of an awesome interactive flash template?

Flash Content Management System.

What’s a flash content management system or simply flash CMS? That’s a system that helps you manage your flash website without actual source files editing. The CMS based flash template usually consists of the 3 main sections: the design skin- that works like the shell for the content, the core- the codes and programmed functions, and the website content- that can be stored in the database or external txt/xml files. The content management system in simple words is an administrative interface where you can enter the content in a convenient, intuitive, friendly manner without going into any codes and this content will show up on the website in the real time.

So Flash CMS seems to be a really cool solution but can you build your website using its functionality if you are not a flash developer? The answer is obviously no. There have been lots of Flash CMS solutions reviews recently but they are useless for the regular users as most of us simply don’t know where and how to implement them. That’s why I have decided to create a review of Flash CMS templates solutions presently available on the market, the solutions that will allow you build your new flash website quickly, easily at without additional costs.

1. FlashMint CMS v3

FlashMint is a leading provider of Flash CMS Templates. They have CMS v1, CMS v2 and CMS v3 templates presented in their collection. While the first two versions of FlashMint content management system where pretty primitive, version 3 looks cool. There’s a nice intuitive admin area and the administration interface allows to perform the following basic actions:

Upload your logo; add company name;
Upload website background image;
Change company name and menu colors.

As every content management system FlashMint CMS v3 allows:

Create unlimited number of text pages;
Rearrange the order of the menu tabs.

FlashMint CMS v3 was developed mainly as the content management system for portfolios and photography websites hence the following features:

Unlimited number of photo galleries;
Photo controls for the website visitors;
Photo search;
Unlimited number of video galleries;
Slideshow creator.

Other modules presented in FlashMint CMS v3 include news editor, events editor, mp3 track editor, meta tags section. There are 30 beautiful flash templates to choose from, no special server requirements and no complicated installation. The system is not skin based, so every template is developed separately.

Template price: $204-215

2. ReadyPhotoSite Flash CMS

Initially developed for photographers community, ReadyPhotoSite CMS can be used to create any type of website, from business to entertainment sites. The product is available in 4 packages:

Basic- for business websites;
Creative- for photography websites and personal portfolios;
Ecommerce- for online flash stores;
Premium- includes the design .fla files allowing to make modifications not available from the admin area.

The modules presented in ReadyPhotoSite CMS include:

General website settings (logo, menu, copyright etc);
Meta-data manager;
Photo gallery (unlimited number of photo galleries);
Video gallery (unlimited number of video galleries);
Slideshow creator;
Mp3 tracks editor;
News section;
Events editor;
Password protected galleries;
Shopping cart and online store.

The pricing for ReadyPhotoSite websites depends on functionality. The basic package is $149, creative $159, ecommerce- $199 and premium package is $250.

The collection presently includes 10 templates and several new templates are added monthly. The templates do not require database to store info. All the texts, paths to the files and parameters are stored in the external XML files used by the system. The system is skin based but there are certain design restrictions applied for every template and thus changing one design to the other might be not a good idea. Deep linking technology makes ReadyPhotoSite websites search engine friendly and lets your reference the difference sections of your flash website as if it was simple clean HTML.

View ReadyPhotoSite templates View admin area demo

3. Fancy CMS

Fancy CMS is a new promising flash content management system that seems to be still in development. They have triumphantly launched their first template and promise more to come shortly. As a fresh developing product Fancy CMS might also be interesting for flash developers as there’s a beta version of Fancy Flash CMS Core available for free. One oops- the admin area is not available yet so if you decide to download the templates be ready to edit the info directly in the xml files.

Among the interesting features of Fancy Flash CMS are:

Rich content pages with 2-level menus;
Flash blog;
e-commerce shopping cart,
Option to change the pages design and layout;
Video, Image & Sound Galleries.

The system is skin based so you can easily change skins to newer design versions. At the moment the system is free.

Download Free Fancy CMS

4. FlashMoto CMS

Loved by flash developers the FlashMoto CMS has the widest range of functionality possible. There’s an option to edit the core of the system, add new modules and widgets and create separate projects based on the FlashMoto CMS. However when it comes to website management it gets complicated for most of us… since there are too many options available. Certain functionality limitations would guarantee that design look and feel remains stylish and professional but this in not the case when you can play around with almost every element and then can’t set it back to default position. Yet, we have to admit that FlashMoto CMS is a powerful engine, though (and in the consent of our theme today) oriented more on developers than end users. What’s really cool about this CMS is the Multilingual Control Panel supporting 12 languages.

Among the features of the FlashMoto CMS you will find:

Interface to update general settings like logo, menu, company name etc;
Ability to add unlimited number of pages in a rich WYSIWYG editing environment;
Media Library & Preload Item option;
News module, Video & Image Gallery ;
Video and MP3 player.

While the admin area works smooth I can’t call it intuitive though this can be a matter of time and getting used to things. People logging in for the first time to WordPress or Oscommerce admin area might be feeling kinda lost as well :)

The templates cost around $250 and are all designed in the up-to-date clean style which makes the offer even more attractive.

There’s an interesting fact that FlashMint and FlashMoto which are supposed to be competitors have recently signed an agreement where FlashMint will be developing templates based on FlashMoto CMS.

View FlashMoto CMS templates View admin area demo

5. Mint Editor

Mint editor is another flash website management product created by www.flashmint.com. This is not a standalone product or system but rather a management interface allowing to easily update info on the flash templates via simple admin area. While opened in Mint Editor, the template is represented as a structured combination of various flash components, with a separate set of configuration settings for each of them. The list of components include:

Audio gallery;
Image gallery;
Video gallery;
Slideshow;
Dynamic news;
Dynamic text page;
Contact section.

Mint Editor is probably the cheapest solution of that kind presented on the market. Mint Editor templates cost $50 and are hand-coded for a certain appropriate design.

6. AuroraFlash Site Builder

In simple words AuroraFlash site builder is your desktop flash WYSIWYG editor allowing to build fantastic flash websites without any special skills and within 30 minutes. The concept is very simple and the editor works as a candy. All you have to do is download the editor and auto install it on your computer in several simple clicks. After that the program will offer you choose the template to work with from the number of default designs and the interface will load.

The components presented in default free templates include:

Text pages;
News;
Photo gallery;
Contact section.

There’s a set of flash templates you can download directly from the website absolutely for free and use it for creating of your personal website, however if you plan creating a project for your customer based on AuroraFlash website builder be sure to read the licensing terms.

7. Yooba Flash CMS

Developer:

Yooba Flash CMS is a tool for creating simple flash animated websites in the Yooba environment. That’s a hosted solution so in order to manage your website you have to login to the membership area on the Yooba website. Before starting on the project you’ll have to prepare the design of your new web page and save all the elements as separate images that then will be uploaded to your Yooba interface. The nice feature about Yooba is that they offer simple website visitors stats.

The price of Yooba is somewhat high- €40 per slot a month and you have to build the design on your own. Yooba is not a CMS in the usual understanding however it allows to create animated websites with easy and without flash or any other special knowledge.

8. Wix Site Builder

If you have ever been looking for a free flash website you might have been on a Wix site and even considered using their builder to create your free flash website. Guys at Wix have a huge number of nicely designed templates and working with the Wix system is a real pleasure. It takes just a few minutes to sign up with them, choose the template and proceed to the editing interface. Editing the template reminds more of a fun game with big iconed tools :) You can change texts and fonts, you can add photos, videos and music and create nice galleries. You can also view your website online on the link like this one http://www.wix.com/adzyasan/anastasia and it’s also for free.

If you want more features than the free version of Wix allows you can sign up for a premium account (starting from $4.95/month) and use your own domain name, remove Wix ads and logo from your website.

9. TemplateAction Flash CMS

Developer:

According to TemplateAction team, TemplateAction website templates are fully customizable and editable via an extensive control panel. The admin area allows:

Rename pages, edit and format texts;
Add links, add/remove/change images;
Change the video background.

Compared to other Flash CMS system reviewed above, TemplateAction CMS doesn’t have an advanced functionality but it’s quite enough for a simple flash business or personal website. There are 17 nice templates presently available and the price is fair- $89 only. There’s a admin panel demo available on YouTube so you have a good chance to review the functionality before making your choice of the CMS based flash template and placing the order.

In conclusion I’d like to say that it’s only up to you what system to choose for creating and managing your flash website but let me give you some advice.

Check the admin panel demo before making the purchase and make sure that it’s convenient for you. Don’t trust the words, test it.
Think what features you need and what you don’t- you don’t have to pay for the stuff that you don’t need.
Make your decision based on your template type. If you are a photographer- you’ll need photo and video galleries as well as your own domain name for brand recognition. Wix templates will work for a personal hobby website but you have to be more thoughtful when choosing a flash solution for your company business website.
Avoid all the templates with huge/complex animations. This websites will not only work slowly but can make the browser and computer freeze.

The Ultimate Touché

2010-04-20T06:53:00.000-07:00

Literally laughed out loud!

One Sunday morning an old cowboy entered a church just before services were to begin. Although the old man and his clothes were spotlessly clean, he wore jeans, a denim shirt and boots that were very worn and ragged. In his hand he carried a worn out old hat and an equally well read Bible. The church he entered was in a very upscale and exclusive part of the city. It was the largest and most beautiful church the old cowboy had ever seen. The people of the congregation were all dressed with expensive clothes and jewellery.

As the cowboy took a seat, the others moved away from him. No one greeted, spoke to, or welcomed him. They were all appalled by his appearance and did not attempt to hide it. As the old cowboy was leaving the church, the preacher approached him and asked the cowboy to do him a favour: "Before you come back here again, have a talk with God and ask him what he thinks would be appropriate attire for worship in church." The old cowboy assured the preacher he would.

The next Sunday, he showed back up for the services wearing the same ragged jeans, shirt, boots, and hat. Once again he was completely shunned and ignored. The preacher approached the cowboy and said, "I thought I asked you to speak to God before you came back to our church."

"I did," replied the old cowboy.

"If you spoke to God, what did he tell you the proper attire should be for worshiping here?" asked the preacher.

"Well, sir, God told me that He didn't have a clue what I should wear. He said He'd never been in this church."

Funny Comics

2010-04-19T07:39:00.000-07:00

My dad sent me these! LOL

Obama cancels National Day of Prayer, declared Unconstitutional

2010-04-19T06:41:00.000-07:00

Please check out the video on my blog if you cannot see it here...

God produces fruit through NW CHICAGO YL!!!!!!!!!!

2010-04-06T14:29:00.000-07:00

"I am the vine and you are the branches. If a person remains in me and I in him, they will bear much fruit"

YES!!!!

I feel so privileged to have been able to talk to one of our guys and see him come to the LORD last Thursday the 1st of April on our way to lunch.

I had invited Tae to lunch because he was leaving for 3 months to go back to Louisiana to be with his mom and a conversation sprouted about how he wanted to come back because, "he had things to do." So I obviously asked what he had to do and he went on to say, "CAMP! I want to go to Young Life camp!" I laughed and we continue to talk about YL Camp.

Tae has been also going to the Grace and Peace Community Church youth group called Crossfire and has been hearing the Word of God for a while now, so he's been around church, but had never professed his faith. So, when we talked about camp, I kind of tippy-toed around the "religious" reasons of camp for a while until I could not hold back any longer and asked him, "What do you think about all this Jesus stuff?"

Like most teenagers, he answered, "Ummm, I don't know" hahaha. So I asked him, "Well, let me ask you this: Do you think you're going to heaven?" And he told me that he didn't think so because he sinned to much." So I started to explain that I sin too much too, but I'm still going to heaven. I told him to forget everything that he ever learned about God for a second so that I could start a fresh set of questions.

"Tae, do you want to know your destiny?"

"What?" He answered.

"Well, you told me that you believe that there is a God, and that you know that He created you... Right?

"yea"

"Well, would you want to find out why he created you?"

"I guess"

"OK Tae, let me ask you something. You like football right?"

"I LOVE FOOTBALL!"

"OKAY then. Cool. Let's go sign up for a ballet class."

"What? No way!"

"Why not?"

"Because I hate ballet and would NEVER wear tights!!"

"hahahaha"

"That's what I mean then. You were created to like football and for some reason right now you don't like ballet."

"so?"

"Well God created you in such a way that you would not only like football but also be good at it. And He created you in such a way that you don't like ballet. In the same way, God created you in a unique way so that you could do something amazing in your life. Do you want to find out what this amazing thing is?"

"Yeah. That sounds cool!"

"Well remember how you said you sinned a lot?"

"yeah"

"Well even 1 little sin in your life or my life is keeping us apart from the perfect destiny of heaven and the great destiny on earth that God has for us. And this is so because God cannot be where sin is."

"So I'm screwed huh?"

"hahahaha. No! That's what Jesus came to do. He's the one that can allow you to see your destiny!"

"How? What do you mean?

"Well. When we decide to follow Jesus for the rest of your life, He shows us the way to our destiny! When we are not following Jesus, we are walking aimlessly toward things that have nothing to do with what we were made to do and be like. And a really cool thing about following Jesus and discovering your destiny is that your destiny gets inter-twined with my destiny and other people's destiny. This is because part of our destiny is to love one another and be in community be each other to serve each other."

"I think I get it."

"It's like this. You play football so you know about zone defense right?"

"yea."

"Well with a zone defense what happens when 1 person doesn't cover their zone?"

"The whole thing breaks down"

"Exactly. The same thing goes with both of our destinies. Jesus points us towards each other in community, but when one person doesn't want to server others, the team is weaker."

"oh yeah, I get it."

"So just like in your football team, you got a coach that tells you how to read the playbook and all those x's and o's"

"Oh! The Bible is my playbook for life huh!?!?"

THAT LAST STATEMENT MADE MY JAW DROP!

"Yeah! But sometime you need that coach to explain things. I'm your coach :)"

"COOL!"

"So here's something that the Bible says: Romans 10:9-10 roughly says that if you confess with your mouth, understand in your head, and believe in your heart that Jesus Christ was real, was the Son of God, and that God the Father revived Christ from death, then you are saved. Do you understand that?"

"yeah I do"

"Do you believe that?"

"*nods while smiling* yes"

I WON'T EVER FORGET THAT LOOK

"Then that's it!"

"That's it?"

"yeah that's it! You are now following Jesus and He will reveal your destiny!!!!"

"That was easy...."

"Yeah, that was easy but SUPER HUGE... and that doesn't mean that it will get easier... in fact... in might get harder. Jesus doesn't promise that you football game of life will be easy, but He does promise that if you seek Him out and follow the destiny that He created your for, and that if you finish the whole football game of life with your blood, sweat, and tears on your uniform that you will be in Heaven with Him and with me."

"COOL! I can already think of other people that should be on the team with me and need Jesus to find their destinies because they are not in a good place. My aunt and others have tried to explain it but I never got it. This is the first time that I actually get why people follow Jesus."

HE MENTIONED A FEW NAMES FOR HIS TEAM :)

I was trying not to start crying. This was so cool!

- - - -

Later during lunch I told Tae that Heaven threw a huge party that day for him since he is now on the team and seeking out his destiny through Jesus. He LOVED it! He said that now, when he talks to people that party, he's going to tell them that if they really want to party, they gotta get to know Jesus. Hahaha. He was so excited!

Since he was very excited about actually understanding about Jesus, I took him to my house, pulled out my Message Bible, write in it, and gave it to him. I told him that the first place to read in this playbook was John because it talked a lot about what Jesus did and who he is. We looked at John 1 and read John 1:14:

The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood.

I told him that the WORD in John 1 was actually Jesus, so he read it again:

Jesus became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood.

He loved reading it because he felt like he could understand it more and realized that he still needed a coach to tell him things like, "The Word is Jesus"

I cannot believe that I had the privilege to be the one that explained this whole thing to Tae. I really look forward to seeing Tae grow in Christ for the next few years as Christ has both of our stories line up for a while. I am truly honored to have been part of this. And as one of our committee members put it, "This is the first kid that came to Christ while you were here, but there's many more to come!! Humboldt Park... WATCH OUT!!!"

Praise God.

Why it Hurts When Somebody Forgets Your Name. A Christian Perspective.

2010-04-06T14:28:00.000-07:00

From Don Miller... What do you think?

Yesterday I fired off an e-mail to a friend, only in the e-mail I referred to him by another name. I’d been e-mailing a few guys at the same time and slipped up. My friend e-mailed me back, joking with me, and in a subsequent e-mail, he called me Dan. And even though I’d been the one to first make the mistake, and even though my friend knows and loves me, seeing my name misspelled still stung a little bit. My first thought was that it stung because I was arrogant, after all, I did deserve the joke. But what is it in us that hurts when somebody forgets our name? I actually don’t think it’s arrogant at all. I think it’s by design.

You and I were designed to be friends with God, to be close to Him, to know Him and be known by Him. God gave mankind freedom to walk away, and man did. So now there is a separation. We are separated from the Deity we were supposed to be in relationship with. Without that love, we trade on each others love, which pales in comparison. When my friend saw that I called him by another name, he was reminded of the relationship he was supposed to be in, and reminded how impotent human love can be. He forgave me, but it’s a sad reminder. It’s even sadder because my friend is one of the most loving, other-person centered people I know, and as an introvert, I’m terrible in comparison.

But the news isn’t all sad. Through Christ, we will be reunited with God at the wedding feast of the lamb. We will be reunited with God, because God will look at us and see his Son, and we will have that relationship again. Until then, we are called to love, to work on love, to practice love, because love is what calms people down, comforts them and helps them believe something better may exist. Some day we are going to get the love we were designed to receive. And that thought gives me hope.

My Mouse Isn't Working

2010-03-17T07:41:00.000-07:00

My dad, a network engineer, passed this along to me. He also does some tech support and sometimes he comes across emails like this. Check this out... especially if you have ever had to explain how to do computer related things to people that...just... didn't get it!

Caller: Hi, our printer is not working.

Customer Service: What is wrong with it ?

Caller : Mouse is jammed..

Customer Service: Mouse ? Printers don't have a mouse you fool!

Caller: Mmmmm ? ? .. Oh really ?... I will send a picture.

Scroll down........

YOU KNOW YOU'RE GONNA PASS THIS ALONG. . . . . . . .

Palindrome

2010-03-17T07:26:00.000-07:00

PAY ATTENTION! LISTEN AND READ CAREFULLY.

A palindrome reads the same backwards as forward. This video reads the exact opposite backwards as forward. Not only does it read the opposite, the meaning is the exact opposite.

This is only a 1 minute, 44 second video and it is brilliant. Make sure you read as well as listen...forward and backward.

This is a video that was submitted in a contest by a 20-year old. The contest was titled "u @ 50" by AARP. This video won second place. When they showed it, everyone in the room was awe-struck and broke into spontaneous applause. So simple and yet so brilliant.

Take a minute and watch it. This video is best watched by clicking on the link to see it full screen. Or you can watch it below.

Lost Generation

Oil in the USA

2010-03-12T19:09:00.000-08:00

My father in law sent me this one! hahahaha!

A clunker that travels 12,000 miles a year at 15 mpg uses 800 gallons of gas a year.

A vehicle that travels 12,000 miles a year at 25 mpg uses 480 gallons a year.

So, the average Cash for Clunkers transaction will reduce an individual’s gasoline consumption by 320 gallons per year.

They claim the program turned 700,000 vehicles so that's 224 million gallons saved per year.

That equates to a bit over 5 million barrels of oil.

5 million barrels is about 5 hours worth of US consumption.

More importantly, 5 million barrels of oil at $70 per barrel costs about $350 million dollars.

So, the government paid $3 billion of our tax dollars to save $350 million.

Which means they spent $8.57 for every dollar saved.

I'm pretty sure they’ll do a great job with health care though...

Peace

2010-03-09T07:18:00.001-08:00

"I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world." - John 16:33 - What has the Lord told you in the past so that today you may have peace today?

As things get harder throughout the year and that dreaded thoughts about ministry come to mind, I am reminded of the one thing that brings me peace in the middle of my storm: I am loved.

I think that the phrase that always soothes, always calms, and always fills me with joy and energy is when I hear Jesus tell me "I love you."

I'm not sure why exactly that phrase brings me all those reactions, but I think that it's because that is what we ultimately want... to be loved and accepted as the people that we are at that moment. To be loved in spite of our errors and short-comings. To feel what a fully-dependent baby must feel when they are completely embraced and taken care of by their father.

In Northwest Chicago Young Life, we have been in financial ups and downs this year. And each time those financial downs have felt like this equation:

fire + storm + hurricane + earthquake + quicksand

and the equation always had this other factor as a multiplier

(fire + storm + hurricane + earthquake) * fear

And... this was an equation for disaster; an equation that nullified faith until I constantly remember this:

(fire + storm + hurricane + earthquake) * fear] <>

In remembering that faith is an action word, I remember that my faith is increased when I act on it. However, I always need to go back to why we are here in Chicago, and that's because Christ called us here. So what is the thing that Jesus has told us that brings us peace? It's that there is no safer place than in His will... and we are smack dab in the middle of it.

Hilarious Military Story!

2010-03-07T15:59:00.000-08:00

Lost Jewish tribe 'found in Zimbabwe'

2010-03-07T11:48:00.000-08:00

This is a SUPER interesting story about the Ark of the Covenant and a people group that now are being claimed to be direct descendants of the Jews that were alive during the Patriarchal times of Moses and Aaron.

I found this while stumbling onto BBC News...

Many Lemba are Christians and Muslims, but they embrace their Jewish roots

By Steve Vickers
BBC News, Harare

In many ways, the Lemba tribe of Zimbabwe and South Africa are just like their neighbours.

But in other ways their customs are remarkably similar to Jewish ones.

They do not eat pork, they practise male circumcision, they ritually slaughter their animals, some of their men wear skull caps and they put the Star of David on their gravestones.

Their oral traditions claim that their ancestors were Jews who fled the Holy Land about 2,500 years ago.

It may sound like another myth of a lost tribe of Israel, but British scientists have carried out DNA tests which confirm their Semitic origin.

These tests back up the group's belief that a group of perhaps seven men married African women and settled on the continent. The Lemba, who number perhaps 80,000, live in central Zimbabwe and the north of South Africa.

Lemba women do not have Jewish DNA

And they also have a prized religious artefact that they say connects them to their Jewish ancestry - a replica of the Biblical Ark of the Covenant known as the ngoma lungundu, meaning "the drum that thunders".

The object went on display recently at a Harare museum to much fanfare, and instilled pride in many of the Lemba.

"For me it's the starting point," says religious singer Fungisai Zvakavapano-Mashavave.

"Very few people knew about us and this is the time to come out. I'm very proud to realise that we have a rich culture and I'm proud to be a Lemba.

"We have been a very secretive people, because we believe we are a special people."

Religion vs culture

The Lemba have many customs and regulations that tally with Jewish tradition.

They wear skull caps, practise circumcision, which is not a tradition for most Zimbabweans, avoid eating pork and food with animal blood, and have 12 tribes.

Many people say that the story is far-fetched, but the oral traditions of the Lemba have been backed up by science

Tudor Parfitt
University of London

They slaughter animals in the same way as Jewish people, and they put the Jewish Star of David on their tombstones.

Members of the priestly clan of the Lemba, known as the Buba, were even discovered to have a genetic element also found among the Jewish priestly line.

"This was amazing," said Prof Tudor Parfitt, from the University of London.

"It looks as if the Jewish priesthood continued in the West by people called Cohen, and in same way it was continued by the priestly clan of the Lemba.

"They have a common ancestor who geneticists say lived about 3,000 years ago somewhere in north Arabia, which is the time of Moses and Aaron when the Jewish priesthood started."

Prof Parfitt is a world-renowned expert, having spent 20 years researching the Lemba, and living with them for six months.

The Lemba have a sacred prayer language which is a mixture of Hebrew and Arabic, pointing to their roots in Israel and Yemen.

Despite their ties to Judaism, many of the Lemba in Zimbabwe are Christians, while some are Muslims.

"Christianity is my religion, and Judaism is my culture," explains Perez Hamandishe, a pastor and member of parliament from the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).

Despite their centuries-old traditions, some younger Lemba are taking a more liberal view.

"In the old days you didn't marry a non-Lemba, but these days we interact with others," says Alex Makotore, son of the late Chief Mposi from the Lemba "headquarters" in Mberengwa.

"I feel special in my heart but not in front of others such that I'm separated from them. Culture is dynamic."

Crowds

The oral traditions of the Lemba say that the ngoma lungundu is the Biblical wooden Ark made by Moses, and that centuries ago a small group of men began a long journey carrying it from Yemen to southern Africa.

Hearing from those professors in Harare and seeing the ngoma makes it clear that we are a great people and I'm very proud

David Maramwidze
Lemba elder

The object went missing during the 1970s and was eventually rediscovered in Harare in 2007 by Prof Parfitt.

"Many people say that the story is far-fetched, but the oral traditions of the Lemba have been backed up by science," he says.

Carbon dating shows the ngoma to be nearly 700 years old - pretty ancient, if not as old as Bible stories would suggest.

But Prof Parfitt says this is because the ngoma was used in battles, and would explode and be rebuilt.

The ngoma now on display was a replica, he says, possibly built from the remains of the original.

"So it's the closest descendant of the Ark that we know of," Prof Parfitt says.

Large crowds came to see the unveiling of the ngoma and to attend lectures on the identity of the Lemba.

For David Maramwidze, an elder in his village, the discovery of the ngoma has been a defining moment.

"Hearing from those professors in Harare and seeing the ngoma makes it clear that we are a great people and I'm very proud," he says.

"I heard about it all my life and it was hard for me to believe, because I had no idea of what it really is.

"I'm still seeing the picture of the ngoma in my mind and it will never come out from my brain. Now we want it to be given back to the Lemba people."

Fire Bible Banned at School

2010-03-03T06:34:00.000-08:00

The title isn't the best since it doesn't "sound" like the bible is the item that is banned, but it's an important topic nonetheless...

If you cannot see the video because you are viewing this in your browser then go to:

www.pablo-emmanuel-otaola.blogspot.com

Meet Logan

2010-03-01T06:36:00.000-08:00

My dad sent me this the other day. It's worth the minute to listen and watch it...

Six Things to Keep in Mind when Designing a Logo

2010-02-23T09:11:00.001-08:00

I thought this was worth re-posting. It's an article from iStockPhotography...

So you fancy yourself a Paul Rand or Saul Bass and want to design some logos for iStock? Great! You've come to the right place! Logo design needs to begin with a great idea or concept, backed up with some jedi-like vector skills to bring it to life. In this article you'll find some design and technical tips to get you started and keep you on the right track. I've included some important things for you to think about as you are creating, as well as some reminders on how to keep your files technically sound for submission to avoid the dreaded "Subpar" rejection.

Thought and planning are a huge part of Logo design: preparation is key. We've prepared a set of considerations here for any illustrators ready to plunge into Logos. Keep the following in mind during your planning and throughout the process.

Please note: The 'good' versions of logo design seen below were each designed by some of our amazing logo contributors. They'd never dream of submitting anything like the 'bad' files you see here, which we created for illustrative purposes only!

It All Starts With a Great Idea

Start by selecting a Business Category or something that inspires you. Try to envision who the client will be or what kind of company or business may want to buy your logo. Creativity sometimes strikes when you combine a couple of ideas. For example, you may decide on creating a logo for a security company. For this business category you probably would want to convey trust, strength and reliability. This can be accomplished by choosing appropriate subject matter and using style, colors, weight, balance and shapes. The idea could be a bear with strong angular or masculine shapes and bold, dark colors combined with a sturdy font to finish it off.

By clearly visualizing who your client is and with some forethought, research and planning, the end result should be an appropriate symbol that immediately identifies the company, and clearly communicates the product or service. This is absolutely key to a successful logo design and should always be foremost in your mind while conceptualizing your design.

When you have your concept, start sketching it out to quickly come up with ways you can execute the idea. Starting in black and white can help ensure that your design is clear, legible and reproducible without any distracting features. Adding great color, style characteristics, or subtle effects will help make your design unique to stand out amongst the competition. Add some type to bring some context to your design and choose a font that compliments the symbol and communicates clearly. To ensure a successful logo remember to keep your design, Simple, Memorable, Timeless, Versatile, and Appropriate.

Reproducibility

It's extremely important that Logos are created with versatility in mind. As the main component of a company's corporate identity, the logo acts as the cornerstone of their visual brand. This means it must be reproducible using a huge variety of formats and processes while maintaining the integrity of the logo as it is utilized. Logos may be printed on anything like small business cards and pens to extremely large billboards and signage. They need to work well using traditional print methods like offset lithography and screen printing for T-Shirts, as well as other things the buyer may want like rubber stamps, stickers and embroidered golf shirts. Of course, it must also look fabulous on screen for use on websites and other pixel based media. It's a good idea to test your logo file at a monitor resolution of 72ppi at an inch or so wide to see what issues may pop up.

Here are some things to watch out for to keep your design from ending up on top of the reject pile:

— Consider carefully how much detail to add to your logo design. Lots of small shapes and skinny lines should be avoided as they could disappear or print very broken and rough when reduced to small sizes.

— The white spaces, or negative spaces, between shapes should be consistent and not too close together or they may fill in causing a loss in the definition of objects.

— Gradients should be used selectively, creatively, and only when they enhance the design. At one end, if tints are too light, they can disappear when printed and only show up as white. Conversely, dark tints can fill in to solids causing the logo to look muddy and unclear which can happen easily when printed in a newspaper. Also, gradients may not work with some reproduction processes that can not use continuous tone.

— It's easy to get carried away with our design by adding tons of fun and interesting things but the bottom line is it has to reproduce really, really well. In the end, ask yourself, "Does this help or hinder my design?" If the logo communicates the intended message just as well (or better) without it, take it out.

The excessive use of detail in this logo will seriously compromise its ability to be reproduced. Fine details like the sharp pointed tail and thin lines will disappear when printed at smaller sizes and the small white shapes will fill in losing their definition. Outlined type with extreme gradients will print poorly as well, making the type hard to read at any size. On the right, the elephant is drawn with bold shapes, leaving ample white space in between for definition. Just the right amount of detail is used to help convey the idea and the solid flat colors used will ensure that this design will reproduce great with pretty well any process. I wouldn't recommend using multiple colors like this in the type all the time but in this case it works to make it fun and exciting.

In these examples the differences are noticeable mostly through the addition of a heavy black drop shadow and the application of gradients to every shape. Gradients can work when used sparingly but in this case they are far too severe, and would look dreadful at a small size. The tiny hairline strokes on all the shapes will also be problematic especially when this logo is printed as a 4 color process job. The example on the right is clean, clear, and looks great at any size.

Reversals. What the heck are these?

Nope, we don't want you to create a mirrored image of your design and it is not necessarily a negative. A Reversal Logo is simply a version of your file that is created to ensure it looks great when used on black or dark colored backgrounds. Logos with dark or mid-tone level colours may not be visible so another version is needed. Again, its all about versatility so the buyer can use your logo design anywhere they want. A common method of doing this is by changing all of your colors to white. It doesn't have to be all white, as light or bright colors may be used, but by using white, you are keeping it neutral and making it usable on a large spectrum of dark colours. It also gives the client an added bonus of having a 1 color version of the logo if you chose to not create a solid Black Version or created a Black Version with tints of grey. Solid, 1 color logos are great to use as watermarks or as a reference for a die-cut or foil stamp.

Please do NOT place any kind of colored box behind your design. "But no one will see my design!", you say with despair! Yes, it looks invisible as it is now an all white logo in an all white document. Don't worry, we've thought of that! When you upload your white PNG file (with transparent background) it will show up on a nice black background conveniently supplied by iStock so your wonderful creation will be available for all to see.

The concept of a 'reversed' logo design can be confusing if you've never designed a logo before. In the example on the left, there is a black box placed in behind the design. While it may look nice on screen, this could look awful if the logo was placed on top of a photograph or different colored background. The logo itself has also been 'reversed' by mirroring the design! The example on the right shows an all-white logo selected in Illustrator: No background necessary. This design is ready to place onto any color the client wishes.

Color Palette

Never underestimate the power of color! There is so much emotion inherent in color and its psychological power can be extremely persuasive. Warm, cool, neutral, vivid, complimentary, analogous, soft, light, dark, bright, saturated — all of these color types can be used effectively to enhance our intended message. How we combine these colors is also equally important as they can create contrast, balance, and weight to help convey our idea.

Have fun choosing colors for your design and experiment with many different options and combinations. Color selections need to be appropriate for the subject matter. For example, it wouldn't be a good choice to use red for a dentist office, that's scary! Red is alarming and can symbolize blood. Instead, choose professional, calming colors. Soft blues or browns may be more appropriate.

Full color logos, or designs that use a large range of CYMK colors can look really great, but can also be very expensive or difficult to reproduce. Consider keeping your design to a couple of colors to keep costs down, and use tints of those colors when more levels are needed. Smaller color palettes can also work to keep logos from looking too busy and cluttered. Be inventive with your color choices and step out of the Illustrator default color swatch trap, there’s a whole world of color to explore!

The sample on the left is using far too many colors than is necessary, making it very busy and more difficult to define the individual objects. The use of fluorescent and uncomplimentary colors makes the overall composition unappealing and less attractive. Using default colors straight from the swatch palette and plain black for the type make the design much less sophisticated than it could be. The sample on the right utilizes a beautiful main palette of custom mixed complimentary colors of orange, green and brown. They all work together in harmony to bring the cute kitties to life while adding a warm and cozy feeling. The use of dark brown for the type keeps it complimentary to the graphic and maintains a good contrast necessary for legibility. Using the same orange that's in the kitties for the "petcare" type offers additional visual interest and helps separate it from the main type. This helps give the eye a break and enhances legibility as well.

Simple is good right?

That's a yes and no answer. YES, logo designs should be simple to effectively communicate an idea and to be easily reproducible. NO, they shouldn't be limited to simplistic stars, circles, ovals, squares and rectangles. It's important to keep logo graphics relatively simple to make them useable in many applications and print processes, but not at the expense of style! Chances are if you create something too simple it may look like like hundreds of other icons out there already. Not good! A company's logo has to work to differentiate them from their competition in order to be successful, and they don't want to buy logos that they could make themselves using Illustrators Shape Tool.

Think about what you can do to add you own style or flair to make your design unique. When designing simple logos it's important to find ways of adding subtle but highly effective visual interest. You can do this by giving equal consideration to both positive and negative space and the careful placement of each shape. Use different perspectives can add tons of visual interest putting a unique spin on your design. A little twist, shape or tapered line here and there can simulate motion or other effects making the design much more dynamic than it would be otherwise. Simply styled directional devices (shapes that lead the eye) can add real excitement. Get in there with the Pen Tool and add some personality!

The left example is very simple in its execution, using only basic square and circle shapes. The placement of all of the objects has left the overall composition looking static and boring while the plain black type is under considered, effectively ensuring that this logo generates about as much excitement as flossing your teeth. The example on the right however, has cleverly used positive and negative space to create the plate. The entire logo is comprised of only four shapes by creating two simple arcs to help define the plate and by letting the cutlery bleed off the bottom edge. The combination of these design choices and using Tragan for the font, give it a simple, classic, stylish feel appropriate for this audience.

The logo on the left is plain, and was created using simple squares, rectangles and triangles. It took literally 10 seconds to draw, so to jazz it up a little we added a snazzy orange outline (which took an additional 2 seconds to apply). The problem is that there must be thousands of simple symbols like this out there. The logo on the right, on the other hand, is also very simple but the designer has kicked things up a notch by incorporating a clever magnifying glass and using reversed gaps in between shapes to create a much more interesting visual composition.

Choosing a Typeface

OK, you've got your award winning logo design in the bag and now its time to add some text and a name. This will help add context to your design and give the buyer a clear idea of how it may be used (like it doesn't already do that!). A quick reminder here to remember to research any name you would like to use to help avoid any potential copyright or trademark issues. You must make sure it is not currently in use by any other company and a quick search on the internet should help you along the way. A safer bet is to stick to generic terms like, Construction Contractor, Attorney Logo, Retail Business, etc. It's not necessary to add a tagline or brand statement but if you do, make sure you have done it in such a way that it works well with the logo and any other logotype and that it is clearly legible without being too small to read.

Next step, read the font licensing agreement for your chosen typeface. Yes, these can be long and boring but it's important to make sure you have the rights to use this font in a manner that is compatible with the sale of your logo to iStock clients. Specifically look for the Usage Agreement section that states it allowable for Commercial Use in this way. Just because your font was 'Free' does NOT mean its OK for Commercial use! Also, 'Free' does not necessarily mean 'good'. Use quality fonts to add to your great logo design to keep the whole package looking good.

Choose a font that is appropriate and looks great alongside your logo. This can mean choosing a font that has complimentary shapes to match the style of your design or match the mood of the idea. A very professional business such as an attorneys office, would require a more formal looking font perhaps using caps or small caps. A font for a children's clothing store could use a more casual, friendly font using lowercase letters. Try not to choose fonts that are too funky or illustrative. Yeah, they're fun but they can seriously compromise the legibility of your logo and are really more for use in headlines, posters and other media.

Keep your type simply colored as harsh gradients, drop shadows and skinny outlines can create issues in reproduction making it very hard to read. Find a good spot to place your text alongside your logo and choose a size that is appropriate. Usually this means aligning it to some part of the logo to keep things looking neat and tidy. Remember to not get to close to the symbol, (give it some breathing room!) and find a size that strikes a nice balance. Again, think about how the logo will be used. Text that is too small in relation to the symbol will be too small to read when the logo is reduced to fit on a business card. A good habit is to test print your logo at about 1 to 1.5 inches wide and see what issues pop up.

Last step, include the name of ALL fonts used in the "Font used" field in step 4 of the upload process. The font field will only appear if you've clicked on 'YES' for the last question on Step 3 of the upload process ("This logo contains a font or typeface that I did not create"). This is because some people don't use fonts in their submissions – when they click 'No', they won't have to enter the font name.

Hard to read? It sure is! Skinny outlines, drop shadows and other effects used on type all work against keeping it clear and legible. The "Tiederhouse" text is too tightly kerned while the "Attorney ay law" type has far too much letter spacing. The type is placed too close to the graphic without enough breathing room and the tagline is much too small in proportion. The "Tiederhouse" text uses the font "Hobo" which is a 70's style font not at all appropriate for a professional law office. The sample on the right uses a much more professional and appropriate looking serif font with spacing and shapes that seem to mimic the construction of the symbol. It's clear, easy to read and is just the right amount of distance from the torch device. Making the line between the text gold colored would have been a nice touch.

We hope these tips give you something to keep in mind as you design your next logo submissions. Happy designing!

Image credits

'Grenade' sketches by 72ppi
'Circus' logo by DistinctiveDesign
'Shrimp' logo by samoyloff
'Love Coffee' logo by samoyloff
'Cat Twins' logo by o-che
'Paper Document Company' logo by filo
'Dining Room' logo by mediaploy
'Real Estate Search' logo by filo
'Torch' logo by lagomar4
'Salmon' logo by samoyloff
Get out of your comfort zone by alvinburrows
Printing Press by Franck-Boston
Splatter by bruce7

Google's Browser Size Module

2010-02-23T07:43:00.000-08:00

When developing a website, one of the trickiest components to master is having your site appear well in all monitor resolutions.

Google has released a tool to help with this called BrowserSize.

This tool will load up any URL and provide you a schematic of how your site looks on certain monitor resolutions.

Thanks to Jade Listings for this little tidbit...

Skype on Verizon Blackberrys and Google Phones

2010-02-17T07:05:00.000-08:00

This is huge! I read this as I was looking up some information on the Google Phone. It originally from www.pcworld.com...

I'm not sure if this is just an intriguing partnership or a major moment in phone history. But at the Mobile World Congress show in Barcelona, Verizon Wireless and Skype announced that they're working together to bring Skype to nine BlackBerry and Android phones on the Verizon network. A version of Skype Mobile will be available next month, permitting free Skype-to-Skype calls, chatting, and Skype Out calls to any phone number, including cheap international rates. And it'll all be done using flat-rate data plans rather than phone minutes.

There's nothing inherently historic about Skype being available on phones -- it's on the iPhone (albeit over Wi-Fi only right now) and I first used the service on a Windows Mobile handset years ago. (Only briefly, though -- it taxed the phone to the breaking point, and voice quality was pretty miserable.)

But a major carrier such as Verizon not only grudgingly permitting Skype but buddying up with it as a selling point for its phones is an interesting twist. I look forward to trying Skype Mobile on my Droid when it's available. And I have a few questions in the meantime...

Is there any integration with the phones' standard phone features? Say, access to the phone address book from within Skype? Or-dare I wish for it-the ability to route all calls through Skype, as Google's Google Voice app permits on BlackBerry and Android handsets? (Yes, I know that Google Voice isn't comparable to Skype-it uses phone minutes, and Skype doesn't)

How well does it work for incoming calls? Skype Mobile can run in the background, and I presume that you can use a Skypein phone number to permit people to dial a standard phone number and reach you in Skype. But does all this work smoothly enough that you could comfortably use Skype to take calls rather than the phone's standard phone features?

How's the quality? As good as a standard cell call? Better?

Are there any gotchas? On paper, this whole deal sounds...suspiciously enticing. The better Skype Mobile works, the more likely it is that lots of Verizon customers will do most (or all?) of their calling using it. Even if Skype cut Verizon in on any revenue it made, that couldn't be good for Verizon's bottom line.

A Burden to New Christians... and Old ones as well!

2010-01-05T07:12:00.000-08:00

I was reading my Bible this morning in Mark 2 and even though I have had Bible Studies on this passage before, I could NOT get why Christ said:

21No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. If he does, the new piece will pull away from the old, making the tear worse. ²²And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined. No, he pours new wine into new wineskins.

I read it over and over and could not get it. So I prayed about it... and nothing. Then I went back to my desk to look it up on my computer and I got distracted and starting working. However, I feel that the Holy Spirit stopped me in the middle of my "working and doing ministry" (haha) and had me look up the meaning and meditate on it. So I did. And here is what I read in Matthew Henry's Commentary:

That these were early days with them, and they were not so able for the severe exercises of religion as hereafter they would be. The Pharisees had long accustomed themselves to such austerities; and John Baptist himself came neither eating nor drinking. His disciples from the first inured themselves to hardships, and thus found it easier to bear strict and frequent fasting, but it was not so with Christ’s disciples; their Master came eating and drinking, and had not bred them up to the difficult services of religion as yet, for it was all in good time. To put them upon such frequent fasting at first, would be a discouragement to them, and perhaps drive them off from following Christ; it would be of as ill consequence as putting new wine into old casks, or sewing new cloth to that which is worn thin and threadbare, v. 21, 22. Note, God graciously considers the frame of young Christians, that are weak and tender, and so must we; nor must we expect more than the work of the day in its day, and that day according to the strength, because it is not in our hands to give strength according to the day. Many contract an antipathy to some kind of food, otherwise good, by being surfeited with it when they are young; so, many entertain prejudices against the exercises of devotion by being burthened with them, and made to serve with an offering, at their setting out. Weak Christians must take heed of over-tasking themselves, and of making the yoke of Christ otherwise than as it is, easy, and sweet, and pleasant.

It really struck me! I am doing my first volunteer training sessions with my first volunteers and when I tend to prepare a study tend to over prepare at which point I need to scale things back. It has been going well so far and I don't feel that I have over-burdened them, but this is such a great reminder that I need to remember that these people, while they are not baby Christians, need to not be over burdened by the homework that I give to them, by the task that I have them do, or by anything that I put on them that Christ has not asked me to put on them.

Then I think of my guys (my Young Life middle school guys). And I think about how they are not yet in Christ, but when they are (AND THEY WILL BE!!!), I must remember to gently help them grow with the patience that Christ had for his disciples. I will be with them for years as Christ was with His disciples and I need to make sure that I am not putting new wine in old wineskins not that I am patching something old instead of waiting for it to be new!

LORD I pray that You be the leader through me. That nothing of me remains in them as it is useless. I pray for the leaders that you placed in ministry with me. That you keep them united in all that they do for you and by you. And I pray for my guys. And I rejoice in knowing that You have great plans for them! And that You will bring them into Your Kingdom when you decide to!!

To find out more about our Young Life Area go to www.NWChicagoYL.org

Wiggle Wiggle in Honduras

2010-01-03T10:33:00.000-08:00

This is my Young Life boss Regional Director Brett Hersma from Chicagoland as well as Mike, the Oak Park Young Life Committee Chair practicing the song "Wiggle Wiggle" that is used to teach the little girls in Honduras English. I love this!! I went to this orphanage this past December and I look forward to going there again and again!

How Twilight Should Have Ended

2009-12-23T09:00:00.000-08:00

Check this out... I found it while stumbling! Thoughts!?!? Please let me know!

Innovative Office Outlets

2009-12-23T08:10:00.000-08:00

Just thought this was cool....

WirePod

Electrical “power pod” made of thermoplastic rubber and with four plug outlets is the first in a series of Artecnica products called Wiremore, which will make electrical cables more, rather than less, visible. [link]

Talking Dogs!!

2009-12-22T18:15:00.001-08:00

You have to check out these talking dogs!!!

PA PA PA PA POKERFACE!!!

2009-12-13T21:23:00.001-08:00

hahahahaha!

Pretty Freaking Adorable!

2009-12-13T21:07:00.000-08:00

This is a little boy that plays I'm "Yours" on an Ukulele

Bald Parrot!

2009-12-13T21:00:00.000-08:00

I just saw this and HAD to re-post!!! HAHAHA

Oscar is 35 years old and he is almost completely bald.
He has some kind of disease that makes his skin to reject the feathers.
But he still lives a normal life and has a good mood.

Amazing Beauty!

2009-12-13T20:53:00.001-08:00

I received this forwarded email from my sister-in law Jessica Reiss. Check out what the LORD made for us!

These are spectacular and the teepees are so pretty in the dark, but check out that thermometer!
Northern Lights, Yellow Knife , Canada

This is a fire rainbow (below) - The rarest of all naturally occurring atmospheric phenomena.

The picture was captured this week on the Idaho/Washington border. The event lasted about an hour.

Clouds have to be cirrus, at least 20K feet in the air, with just the right amount of ice crystals and the sun has to hit the clouds at precisely 50 degrees.

God's handiwork... Beautiful sight!

My First Personal Expereience of Racism in Chicago

2009-12-08T08:23:00.000-08:00

I knew it existed, but it was one of those realities that you don't think about; like when you sit on a chair and you just know it will hold you up, but you don't really think about it. Or like mugging you know? It happens all the time, but we don't think about it until it happens to us.

Well it happened to me.

Anna and I were leaving a store in Chicago and we were walking to our car. Once we got to the parking lot Anna took a left around a car and I took a right. The car that we split was a silver BMW jeep with a middle aged (60's) man getting in on the driver's side and what I assume was his wife getting in on the passenger's side. We approached the car from the front and I was passing it on the driver's side. As we got closer I heard something said by the man, but I thought that I heard wrong. I didn't.

The phrase:

Niggers and Spicks

Now I thought that I had misheard the man because of my own history and how I've been affected by racism. You know... he was a white man, well dressed in a shirt, tie and slacks getting into a nice car with a Latino coming towards him. I was actually worried that he might be fearful and was hoping he wasn't. So, when I turned around to make sure it wasn't him and that I was wrong, he was starting me down with a face that I would characterize as pure disdain mixed in with disgust and disapproval. I was shocked. I didn't know what to do or say. He got in the car and drove off. I have never been called that and have never experienced that kind of hatred towards me in such an open way. I was numb.

So the man drives off and Anna meets me on the other side of the car. She knew something was wrong immediately so I told her what happened, but she didn't know how to respond. I can't really blame her, she never experienced that either, and now the person that she loves the most was deeply hurt.

I soon turned from numbness to pain... then to anger... then to more anger...

In my anger I wished I could have gone back in time and answered the man. I wished that I could prove him wrong. I wished that I could deck him if need be! I thought, "I thought, who the HELL does he think HE is! You want me to be ghetto!? I'll SHOW you ghetto!" But then I would have continued the stereotype even though a large part of me didn't care and wanted to get even.

He was so ignorant and hatred blinded him. I wasn't even wearing anything that any "white person" wouldn't wear. I didn't look ghetto or like I would be in a gang. I looked like me. DANG IT! I still get mad thinking about it.

Deep breath...

Okay, well I quickly got to the point that day where I wanted to tell everyone... So I did... I posted it on my Twitter which then forwarded to Facebook. Many people sympathized, but it didn't make me feel much better. Again, I wanted to get even in the depth of my heart.

It took a few days to allow the LORD to work in my heart to open the wound, clean it, and then heal it. I felt like I assume a child feels when they hurt themselves and they don't want anyone to touch it. But then dad comes and puts something on it that makes us feel better when in all actually what we really wanted from dad was to be loved in our pain.

I really do pray that that man changes and that he gets overwhelmed by love. All that hatred must be rotting his heart and as I look at my scar from this incident I feel saddened by him. I'm healed, but he's still sick. I hope the next time this happens to me I'll quickly look at my scar and share the healing love of Christ instead of using my sharp knife of a tongue to cut him.

LORD, be in control.

An Amazing Dog... not mine this time :)

2009-12-08T07:35:00.000-08:00

I have seen this dog before, but I thought it was worth posting about him again. My mother in law send me this as a forwarded email.

This dog was born on Christmas Eve in the year 2002. He was born with 2 legs - He of course could not walk when he was born. Even his mother did not want him.
His first owner also did not think that he could survive and he was thinking of 'putting him to sleep'. But then, his present owner, Jude Stringfellow, met him and wanted to take care of him. She became determined to teach and train this little dog to walk by himself. She named him 'Faith'.

In the beginning, she put Faith on a surfboard to let him feel the movement. Later she used peanut butter on a spoon as a lure and reward for him for standing up and jumping around. Even the other dog at home encouraged him to walk. Amazingly, only after 6 months, like a miracle, Faith learned to balance on his hind legs and to jump to move forward. After further training in the snow, he could now walk like a human being.

Faith loves to walk around now. No matter where he goes, he attracts people to him. He is fast becoming famous on the international scene and has appeared on various newspapers and TV shows. There is now a book entitled 'With a Little Faith' being published about him. He was even considered to appear in one of Harry Potter movies.

His present owner Jude Stringfellew has given up her teaching post and plans to take him around the world to preach that even without a perfect body, one can have a perfect soul'.

In life there are always undesirable things, so in order to feel better you just need to look at life from another direction. I hope this message will bring fresh new ways of thinking to everyone and that everyone will appreciate and be thankful for each beautiful day. Faith is the continual demonstration of the strength and wonder of life.

This is What "IT" Looks Like

2009-12-08T07:28:00.001-08:00

My father in law sent me this... haha!

THIS IS WHAT

SORRY

LOOKS LIKE.

This is what

tired

looks like.

This is what

bad spelling

looks like..

This is what

intimacy

looks like.

This is what

courage

looks like.

This is what

'good grief!!'

looks like.

This is what your

tax dollars

look like.

This is what

'I can wait'

looks like.

This is what

impatience looks like..

This is what a

helping hand

looks like

This is what

cold

looks like.

This is what a

bad mood

looks like.

Merry... Christmas????

2009-12-08T07:25:00.000-08:00

hahaha... This actually won a "best decorated house" award! hahaha

Network Folder Password Protection

2009-11-18T07:13:00.000-08:00

My wife needed this for work and I thought that this was great! I found the post on TeachME-Buzz.

1. Open Notepad and copy the code below
2. Change your password in the code it's shown the place where to type your password.
3. Save file as locker.bat
4. Now double click on locker.bat
5. I t will create folder with locker automatically for you. After creation of the locker folder, place the contents you want to lock inside the locker folder and run locker.bat again .

<---The code, copy the whole thing---->

cls
@ECHO OFF
title Folder Locker
if EXIST "Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}" goto UNLOCK
if NOT EXIST Locker goto MDLOCKER
:CONFIRM
echo Are you sure u want to Lock the folder(Y/N)
set/p "cho=>"
if %cho%==Y goto LOCK
if %cho%==y goto LOCK
if %cho%==n goto END
if %cho%==N goto END
echo Invalid choice.
goto CONFIRM
:LOCK
ren Locker "Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}"
attrib +h +s "Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}"
echo Folder locked
goto End
:UNLOCK
echo Enter password to Unlock folder
set/p "pass=>"
if NOT %pass%== type your password here goto FAIL
attrib -h -s "Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}"
ren "Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}" Locker
echo Folder Unlocked successfully
goto End
:FAIL
echo Invalid password
goto end
:MDLOCKER
md Locker
echo Locker created successfully
goto End
:End

Just make sure that the phrase "type your password here" is fully replaced by your password. So if your password was "chain123"the line:

if NOT %pass%== type your password here goto FAIL

would turn out to be:

if NOT %pass%== chain123 goto FAIL

Let me know how it goes!

A Manly BBQ Grill

2009-11-10T15:51:00.000-08:00

My dad sent this to me a few days ago.... hahahaha

Now this is a BBQ guaranteed to get everyone's attention......I think it should be towed with the barrel facing backwards...then you wouldn't have to worry about anyone tailgating you....I don't know for sure but my guess is the owner is from Texas!!!!!!

Some Cool Funny and Pix

2009-10-24T09:47:00.000-07:00

My Friend Dia Becchio sent me this. hahahaha... My fave 2 are the last one and "Rollin"

hahaha

------------------------

I don't want to know how the guy in the first photo figured out that he could get into that position, or why he thinks its ok to demonstrate it in front of a crowd on a golf course, while wearing pink pants.

Texting While Driving

2009-10-21T12:02:00.000-07:00

My father in law passed this to us. Please take the time to watch this video.

Bad Breath??

2009-10-19T16:07:00.001-07:00

hahaha

Flip-flopper governor signs 'Harvey Milk' bill

2009-10-14T18:54:00.000-07:00

Can you believe this?

Charlie Butts - OneNewsNow - 10/13/2009 6:20:00 AM

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has signed a law designating May 22 as "Harvey Milk Day" for public school students.

Harvey Milk, the first openly homosexual member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, was murdered in 1978 while in office. Randy Thomasson of SaveCalifornia.com tells OneNewsNow that in light of the governor's signature on SB 572, schools in The Golden State are now a source for homosexual indoctrination.

"Now children are going to be taught to admire the homosexual activist, his entire homosexual/bisexual agenda -- even a cross-dressing agenda," he asserts.

Previously, Schwarzenegger previously had vetoed a bill authorizing Harvey Milk Day bill. But Thomasson says the governor's record helps explain why he signed it this time.

"He signed a bill recognizing out-of-state homosexual 'marriages' -- a clear violation of Proposition 8," says the family advocate, referring to the voter-approved constitutional amendment protecting traditional marriage. "[So] it's no surprise [that] if he flip-flops on marriage, that he flip-flops on saying one year the Harvey Milk Gay Day should be vetoed and the next year signing it into law."

According to Thomasson, calls to the governor were 4-to-1 against signing the bill -- and he now encourages people to call again and voice their disapproval. He also strongly suggests it is time for parents to make other educational arrangements for their children, noting that RescueYourChild.org explains how to do that.

First Club Night.... Check!

2009-10-09T09:53:00.000-07:00

Wow... as I laid there in my apartment, exhausted from a night of programming, music, games, skits, kids and more kids with never-ending candy-infused JR-high-type energy and thought to myself, "This is great!" Unfortunately my wife wasn't able to be there to rejoice in this with me since she's back in Santa Barbara, CA working, but I called her right away to share how the night went.

Can I share a bit about the night with you?

If you're reading this, then I assume you've given me permission... if you didn't give me permission then WHY ARE YOU READING THIS? :)

It was 7 o'clock. The Hip Hop music was loud, the lights were off in the gym and the kids were outside wondering what was going on as they have not experienced the craziness that is a Young Life Club. We snatched a kid (Gio) inside and locked the door to the other kids. They went crazy trying to come in, but couldn't. All they wanted to do was come in a see what was going on in there. We had them just where we wanted them.

Once we instructed Gio to go outside and have them all run in screaming we let him loose. We gave it 30 seconds and let them in. They came in running and screaming into the loud darkness as they got pelted with candy, inflatable balls and more candy. They didn't know what to do except run around, find us (all dressed in military fatigues) and tackle us. It was a great start!

We had a whole military theme that first night. We did this to show them that they were on a mission that night to make it through basic training, on a mission for the next week to bring kids in order to make it more exciting, and on a mission for the school year that end with Young Life camp. We showed them the YL camp video and they could not contain themselves in thinking that they would get to do all the things at camp. A handful of kids throughout the night asked me where they need to sign up to go to camp. Perfect!

So we started with a skit where I was Col. Temper, a colonel that's always mad because a volunteer, Matt Sollie, aka Private Goofs, always messed everything up and was not able to to salute correctly, do a pushup correctly, or anything. We had kids participate and get prizes to encourage them to participate. They all wanted a prize and all wanted to participate.

We move on to a game of duck, duck, goose, which we renamed Navy, Navy Seals. Instead of touching the kids' heads, we gave them a cup of water and on “Seal!” the kids sitting down got wet and they ran around trying to catch the person that got them wet. While this game took place, we had music blasting, and we had 2 of us running around, jumping and diving into the kids yelling things like, “I'm training!” and “get down!” I felt that I might be having more fun than the kids themselves!

Then came Skydiving. This is a classic YL game where we blindfold 2 kids and play a joke on them. We told them that they would be blindfolded and jumping off a table that Matt and I would lift up above our heads. However, the screaming kids and the wobbly table that was only 2 inches high tricked them into thinking that they were indeed up about 8 feet! Haha. When they jumped off they were super scared. Just think back of those times when you think that there was an extra step as you walk down the stairs and how awkward you look and you'll get the picture :) We of course gave them prizes since they were a good sport about it. They loved it.

Once Skydiving was over, Private Goofs grabs the microphone and starts telling his “military stories” and in the middle of that I chuck a rubber ball from behind the crowd and smack him really hard. Private Goof falls and the machine gun sound blasts off of the speakers. All the leaders yell, “get down get down!” as we grabbed youth and pulled them to the ground. We directed kids to low crawl to two different sides of the gym in order to get them to play Prison Ball / Dodge Ball. The only 2 things that were different was that when you got hit, you staid dead on the spot. All this happened while the leaders continued to run around and dive into “fox holes,” screaming military type commands and doing emergency field treatment on the wounded soldiers. It was great. Kids yelling for us to heal them, kids running all around trying not to get hit while trying to not step on us and other fellow team members.

We then calmed them down... at least a bit... since we wanted to remind them about the missions. Once private Goofs reminded them of the missions and gave them more candy (sorry parents for the super hyper kids that night :-) ) he introduced me as Pablo instead of Col. Temper and I gave the talk. The kids listened and I know that 2 of those kids heard of Jesus for the first time. We have a pretty diverse group as we have some church kids, some kids getting to know Young Life, and some kids that have never heard of Jesus nor want to. But they were all there listening intently because we have started to be their friends and they care about what we say.

I am really excited about next week, more contact work, and bringing more kids to Christ. Please pray that the LORD reveals Himself as He gives us vision as to how to integrate church and un-churched kids together into Young Life. Please also pray as we plan out our first Benefit Dessert this upcoming November 16, 2009. And also please pray as we seek God to give us vision of how this ministry in NW Chicago YL Humboldt Park - Hermosa should look like.

Thanks to you guys for all of your prayers and for taking the time to read this.

Blessings,
Pablo Otaola
NW Chicago YL
Area Director

Reaching a World Within Chicago's Humboldt Park

2009-10-05T10:41:00.001-07:00

Humboldt Park is one of the most diverse neighborhoods in the USA. It seems that people of all major ethnic backgrounds have their fingertips somewhere in the area. In such a diverse place, I have the opportunity to see the multicultural face of God in every Club, group outing, and while at school doing contact work. I would have missed out on all this, however, if I was never introduced to Tony Gonzalez and the Latino Student Staff program in Young Life San Francisco, CA.

I was introduced to Young Life and Tony Gonzalez in September of 2006 and he plugged me into the Latino Student Staff (LSS) Alpha 1 group. Being part of the Alpha 1 group in the Latino Student Staff program, I'm sure I experienced LSS a bit different than Ben Zayas Jr., a current LSS Alpha 4 staff member in my area. I remember seeing the program form as Tony introduced all of us interns to each other in Phoenix, AZ. As a YL staff member directed a seminar that weekend, I felt that my heart softly jerked tears out of my eyes because the practical incarnational methods of ministry that were taught to us Latinos were ideal for our Latino kids.

Now in Chicago, that methodology, theology, praxis, and wisdom learned through Tony and LSS program are tools that I rely on while ministering to these mostly Latino kids. Today, I am the Area Director of an area that reaches 60 kids weekly through contact work at 5 different schools, Club, and campaigners. These kids are mostly Latino, but I also have weekly contact with African American, Asian, and Caucasian kids as well; not to mention a couple handfuls of kids whose parents are of two different ethnicities.

I came on staff last summer and I was able to take 10 kids to camp with 9 of them accepting Christ as the Savior. This year, my goal is to take 60 kids to camp and I pray that the God welcomes the same 90% into the Kingdom.

I love my job. I love my kids. I love knowing that I am exactly where God has called me. And, above all, I love God, and how He is allowing me to see more of Him as He reaches these kids through me.

How to Transfer Ipod Songs to Mac Hard Drive

2009-09-23T22:07:00.000-07:00

This was SUPER annoying. My wife lost some of her songs and MAC made it SO hard to use the Ipod as an external hard drive (which is what it is) in order to get her songs that she lost from her Ipod to her comp hard drive. But I found how to transfer them by using Senuti.

Here's a blog that I found that did a good job. Credits below...

The iPod is probably the best portable music player the world has ever seen. It's simple to use, easy to operate, and instantly updatable. Never before has it been so easy to purchase, store, and transport thousands of songs. It's easy to take this beautiful and reliable device for granted!

But the iPod isn't perfect. One of our pet peeves is the inability to transfer an iPod's music to a computer. This seemingly simple feature has been disabled by Apple for fear of copyright infringement. We can understand the copyright stuff: Apple doesn't want punk kids giving all of their music to their friends. But there are some legitimate and legal reasons for transferring an iPod's music to a Mac.

Consider some of these scenarios:

Your Mac's hard drive crashes, and efforts to recover your data fail miserably. And, since you didn't backup your hard drive, everything is gone. Or is it? You still have your iPod, and it has all of the music you purchased.
That old third generation iPod, passed down to you from your big sister, starts wigging out. It resets itself periodically, and it won't play some of your songs. Since you've opted to manage your music manually, and you don't have your music on any one computer, you're getting a little worried.
Somebody ganks your new Macbook Pro, which has all the music you just spent days importing. You've already ordered another Macbook Pro, but you'd rather not import your music all over again.

Fortunently, there is a way to copy music from an iPod to your Mac. We'll show you how!

But First, Some Things You Should Know...

There are two ways to format an iPod: For use with a Mac or for use with a PC. If you've formatted your iPod for Windows, you can still transfer your music to a Mac. This is great news for all the switchers out there!
Don't think you can cheat Apple's DRM by copying music from an iPod. Purchased songs still need to be authorized for every Mac they're played on.
Transferring music from an iPod to a Mac does not mean that the music is erased from the iPod. You're not moving the files - you're merely performing a copy. After you complete the transfer, your songs will be on both the Mac and the iPod.
Senuti can also copy movies, podcasts, television shows, music videos, and other content off your iPod.

Transfer Music from an iPod to your Mac

Download and install Senuti. This free application does one thing, and it does it well: It allows you to copy all of your music off your iPod and onto your Mac.
Open Senuti and familiarize yourself with its interface. Since it looks a lot like iTunes, you shouldn't have a problem!
From the Senuti menu, select Preferences. Select Copying.

If you'd like the music on your iPod to be automatically added to iTunes, select the iTunes checkbox. We strongly suggest that you select both the Artist and Album checkboxes. This will keep all of your music organized.

If you'd like to save your music in a particular folder, click the Change button and select a folder.
Connect the iPod to your Mac if you haven't already done so.
In the Source side-bar, click Library. Unlike iTunes, Senuti uses Library to refer to your iPod's collection of music. After you click Library, you should see the songs on your iPod.
Select the songs you want to copy to your Mac. Hold down the Shift key while clicking to select more than one song. To select all of the songs on your iPod, choose Select All from the copy menu.
Click the Copy button in the upper right-hand corner of the screen. Senuti will move the music from the iPod to your Mac.

That's it! The music should now be on your Mac.

Did Senuti Save Your Life?

If Senuti recovered your music like it recovered ours, you should consider making a donation to the developers. Of course, the application is free to download and use, but your donation will allow Senuti's developers to keep improving this great program!

One of Many...

Senuti is only one of many applications that can help you transfer music from an iPod to your Mac. It's the best application, in our opinion, but if it doesn't work for you, visit VersionTracker's website for dozens of other options.

Meet Your Macinstructor

Matthew Cone is a technical writer living and working in Albuquerque, New Mexico. In his free time, he does the desert rat thing and hikes and road bikes around the Southwest. The rest of the time, he studies straw-bale houses, reads Anarchist philosophy, and pretends to not be working. You can email him at: matt@macinstruct.com

State Preambles

2009-09-23T09:47:00.001-07:00

Do you know the Preamble for your state? My dad sent me this over email and I thought it was interesting enough to post....

Alabama 1901, Preamble
We the people of the State of Alabama , invoking the favor and guidance of Almighty God, do ordain and establish the following Constitution..
Alaska 1956, Preamble We, the people of Alaska , grateful to God and to those who founded our nation and pioneered this great land.
Arizona 1911, Preamble We, the people of the State of Arizona , grateful to Almighty God for our liberties, do ordain this Constitution...
Arkansas 1874, Preamble We, the people of the State of Arkansas , grateful to Almighty God for the privilege of choosing our own form of government...
California 1879, Preamble We, the People of the State of California , grateful to Almighty God for our freedom...
Colorado 1876, Preamble We, the people of Colorado , with profound reverence for the Supreme Ruler of Universe...
Connecticut 1818, Preamble. The People of Connecticut, acknowledging with gratitude the good Providence of God in permitting them to enjoy.
Delaware 1897, Preamble Through Divine Goodness all men have, by nature, the rights of worshipping and serving their Creator according
to the dictates of their consciences....
Florida 1885, Preamble We, the people of the State of Florida , grateful to Almighty God for our constitutional liberty, establish this Constitution...
Georgia 1777, Preamble We, the people of Georgia , relying upon protection and guidance of Almighty God, do ordain and establish this Constitution...
Hawaii 1959, Preamble We , the people of Hawaii , Grateful for Divine Guidance .... Establish this Constitution.
Idaho 1889, Preamble We, the people of the State of Idaho , grateful to Almighty God for our freedom, to secure its blessings..
Illinois 1870, Preamble We, the people of the State of Illinois, grateful to Almighty God for the civil , political and religious liberty which He hath so long permitted us to enjoy and looking to Him for a blessing on our endeavors.
Indiana 1851, Preamble We, the People of the State of Indiana , grateful to Almighty God for the free exercise of the right to choose our form of government.
Iowa 1857, Preamble We, the People of the St ate of Iowa , grateful to the Supreme Being for the blessings hitherto enjoyed, and feeling our dependence on Him for a continuation of these blessings, establish this Constitution.
Kansas 1859, Preamble We, the people of Kansas , grateful to Almighty God for our civil and religious privileges establish this Constitution.
Kentucky 1891, Preamble.. We, the people of the Commonwealth are grateful to Almighty God for the civil, political and religious liberties..
Louisiana 1921, Preamble We, the people of the State of Louisiana grateful to Almighty God for the civil, political and religious liberties we enjoy.
Maine 1820, Preamble We the People of Maine acknowledging with grateful hearts the goodness of the Sovereign Ruler of the Universe in affording us an opportunity .. And imploring His aid and direction.
Maryland 1776, Preamble We, the people of the state of Maryland , grateful to Almighty God for our civil and religious liberty...
Massachusetts 1780, Preamble We...the people of Massachusetts, acknowledging with grateful hearts, the goodness of the Great Legislator of the Universe In the course of His Providence, an opportunity and devoutly imploring His direction
Michigan 1908, Preamble.. We, the people of the State of Michigan grateful to Almighty God for the blessings of freedom, establish this Constitution.

Minnesota, 1857, Preamble We, the people of the State of Minnesota, grateful to God for our civil and religious liberty, and desiring to perpetuate its blessings:
Mississippi 1890, Preamble We, the people of Mississippi in convention assembled, grateful to Almighty God, and invoking His blessing on our work.
Missouri 1845, Preamble We, the people of Missouri , with profound reverence for the Supreme Ruler of the Universe, and grateful for His goodness . Establish this Constitution...
Montana 1889, Preamble. We, the people of Montana , grateful to Almighty God for the blessings of liberty establish this Constitution
Nebraska 1875, Preamble We, the people, grateful to Almighty God for our freedom . Establish this Constitution.
Nevada 1864, Preamble We the people of the State of Nevada , grateful to Almighty God for our freedom, establish this Constitution...
New Hampshire 1792, Part I. Art. I. Sec. V Every individual has a natural and unalienable right to worship God according to the dictates of his own conscience.
New Jersey 1844, Preamble We, the people of the State of New Jersey, grateful to Almighty God for civil and religious liberty which He hath so long permitted us to enjoy, and looking to Him for a blessing on our endeavors.

New Mexico 1911, Preamble We, the People of New Mexico, grateful to Almighty God for the blessings of liberty..
New York 1846, Preamble We, the people of the State of New York , grateful to Almighty God for our freedom, in order to secure its blessings.
North Carolina 1868, Preamble We the people of the State of North Carolina, grateful to Almighty God, the Sovereign Ruler of Nations, for our civil, political, and religious liberties, and acknowledging our dependence upon Him for the continuance of those...
North Dakota 1889, Preamble We , the people of North Dakota , grateful to Almighty God for the blessings of civil and religious liberty, do ordain... Ohio 1852, Preamble We the people of the state of Ohio , grateful to Almighty God for our freedom, to secure its blessings and to promote our common.
Oklahoma 1907, Preamble Invoking the guidance of Almighty God, in order to secure and perpetuate the blessings of liberty, establish this
Oregon 1857, Bill of Rights, Article I Section 2. All men shall be secure in the Natural right, to worship Almighty God according to the dictates of their consciences
Pennsylvania 1776, Preamble We, the people of Pennsylvania, grateful to Almighty God for the blessings of civil and religious liberty, and humbly invoking His guidance....
Rhode Island 1842, Preamble. We the People of the State of Rhode Island grateful to Almighty God for the civil and religious liberty which He hath so long permitted us to enjoy, and looking to Him for a blessing...
South Carolina , 1778, Preamble We, the people of he State of South Carolina grateful to God for our liberties, do ordain and establish this Constitution.
South Dakota 1889, Preamble We, the people of South Dakota , grateful to Almighty God for our civil and religious liberties ...
Tennessee 1796, Art. XI..III. That all men have a natural and ndefeasible right to worship Almighty God according to the dictates of their conscience...

Texas 1845, Preamble We the People of the Republic of Texas , acknowledging, with gratitude, the grace and beneficence of God.
Utah 1896, Preamble Grateful to Almighty God for life and liberty, we establish this Constitution.
Vermont 1777, Preamble Whereas all government ought to enable the individuals who compose it to enjoy their natural rights, and other
blessings which the Author of Existence has bestowed on man ..
Virginia 1776, Bill of Rights, XVI Religion, or the Duty which we owe our Creator can be directed only by Reason and that it is the mutual duty of all to practice Christian Forbearance, Love and Charity towards each other
Washington 1889, Preamble We the People of the State of Washington, grateful to the Supreme Ruler of the Universe for our liberties, do ordain this Constitution
West Virginia 1872, Preamble Since through Divine Providence we enjoy the blessings of civil, political and religious liberty, we, the people of West Virginia reaffirm our faith in and constant reliance upon God ..
Wisconsin 1848, Preamble We, the people of Wisconsin , grateful to Almighty God for our freedom, domestic tranquility...
Wyoming 1890, Preamble We, the people of the State of Wyoming , grateful to God for our civil, political, and religious liberties, establish this Constitution...

Laila Otaola: Our New Dog

2009-09-07T17:31:00.000-07:00

Anna and I just adopted a 3 month old German Short Haired puppy that we named Laila. Her name is pronounced: "LAH-EE-LAH" and not "layla." We had been thinking about getting a new dog, but we wanted a pure bread, smart dog and did not have the finances to get one at this point. However, the LORD totally blessed us as we got this $800 dog, plus all her shots, some toys, food, and a large crate FOR FREE! The people that had her just wanted her to have a good home :) She is super smart and we love her so much already. She already learned where to pee and where not to pee and learned "down" and her name in just one day! Paisley loves playing with her as well as they play rough all day and all night. They actually cry when they cannot be together! It's such a blessing to have them get along so well. They even drink out of the same water bowl at the same time! We look forward to taking them to the dog beach. More pictures and videos to come :)

She's asleep here!

Waiting for treats of course :)
And they both sat :)

Laila!

Her paws are huge and she's 3 months old while Paisley is 5!

How to Sync Your Google Calendar with Any Email Client

2009-09-04T15:35:00.000-07:00

In my case it was with Mozilla Thunderbird, but this article written by Adam Pash is great!

Thanks Adam!!

Check it out for your convenience below...

Adam Pash, 9:00 AM on Tue Jul 29 2008, 232,816 views

As of yesterday's announcement of CalDAV support in Google Calendar, you can now sync your Google Calendar with virtually any popular desktop calendar for free. Not only can you enjoy your favorite desktop calendar software and still get the benefit of the web interface, but you can also sync any desktop calendar with any other across platforms using GCal as a go-between. Let's take a comprehensive look at how to set up bidirectional syncing between Google Calendar and your favorite desktop calendar—from Outlook and iCal to Sunbird and Thunderbird—for free.

Remember, this doesn't mean that you can sync Google Calendar with just one desktop calendar. It means that no matter what you're using—Outlook at work and iCal at home, for example—you can always stick to desktop calendars if that's what you prefer. Google Calendar now works as both a great web application and a dedicated syncing tool. It's the cloud, and once it's set up, you don't ever have to access your calendar through the web again if you don't feel like it. But when you're not at a desktop, you can fire up GCal from any web browser, make changes, and still be confident your desktop is completely in sync next time you fire it up. Let's get started.

Sync Microsoft Outlook with Google Calendar

Syncing calendar events between Outlook and Google Calendar has been a cinch ever since Google came out with Google Calendar Sync, a free application that provides bidirectional syncing between the two. (It also supports one-way sync in either direction, if for some reason you don't want two-way syncing.) Assuming you're using a supported setup (Outlook 2003 or 2007 and either Vista or XP), here's how to get it working.

Download and install Google Calendar Sync.
Enter your Google account email address and password.
Select your sync method (most likely you want two-way syncing) and the sync frequency you prefer. It defaults to syncing every 120 minutes, which seems a little long for most.
Hit Save and you're done. Easy, right?

If you've added a new item to your calendar and you want to force a new sync rather than waiting for Google Calendar Sync to run its next sync, just right-click the system tray app and choose Sync. It doesn't get much simpler than that.

Sync iCal with Google Calendar

UPDATE: Since this post was written, Google released a new utility called Calaboration that handles iCal-to-Gcal sync setup with even more ease. (Original post)

As of yesterday, Google Calendar supports two-way synchronization with iCal through the CalDAV remote calendar standard. Setting up iCal with GCal varies slightly based on whether or not you're using your default GCal calendar or a secondary calendar. First, here's how to set up your Google Calendar default with iCal:

Open iCal, then fire up your iCal Preferences (iCal -> Preferences or Cmd-,).
Click on the Accounts tab, and then click the '+' button to add a new remote calendar to iCal.
Call the calendar whatever you want (I went with 'Personal' for my main calendar), then enter the Google account username (which is normally your Gmail address) and password.
Click on Server options to display the Account URL text box. For your default calendar, enter the following URL:
https://www.google.com/calendar/dav/youremail@gmail.com/user

...replacing youremail@gmail.com with your actual email address.
Once you've done that, just hit Add and you're finished. Give iCal a few minutes to download all your events and you're good to go.

If you want to add a secondary calendar, the steps are exactly the same as above with one small difference. Instead of inserting your email address in the Account URL as described in step 4, you need to grab the calendar ID for that specific calendar. You can find it by opening GCal, clicking the arrow next to the calendar you want to sync, and selecting Calendar settings. In the settings, find the Calendar Address section near the bottom of the window, then just copy and paste the Calendar ID (which is formatted like an email address) in place of youremail@gmail.com in the URL above.

You can refresh iCal to make sure you've synced the latest-and-greatest at any time by selecting Calendar -> Refresh or hitting Cmd-R. (Original post)

Sync Mozilla Sunbird or Thunderbird with Google Calendar

Whether you're using Mozilla's standalone calendar application Sunbird or Thunderbird with the Lightning extension installed (Lightning integrates Sunbird into Thunderbird), bidirectional calendar syncing between either application and Google Calendar is a breeze. The special sauce in this sync is the Provider for Google Calendar extension. Installing Provider in either Sunbird or Thunderbird is basically the same procedure, and here's how it works:

Download and install the Provider extension by saving it to your desktop, opening the Add-ons dialog in either Sunbird or Thunderbird, and dragging the file you just downloaded into the Add-ons dialog. Once installed, make sure to restart the application.
Now that Provider is installed, you have to add your new Google Calendar. In Sunbird, go to File -> New Calendar; in Thunderbird, it's File -> New -> Calendar when you're in the calendar view.
You're now looking at the Create new calendar wizard. Select "On the Network" and hit Continue.
Choose Google Calendar as the calendar type. The Location field requires the XML flavor of your calendar's Private Address, which you can get by opening GCal and choosing Calendar settings from the drop-down next to the calendar you want to access.
At the bottom of the settings page you'll see the Private Address section. Copy the XML link and paste it into the Location field in Sunbird or T-bird.
When you hit Continue, you'll be asked for your Google Calendar username (again, your Gmail address) and password. Enter it, give your new calendar a name, and hit Continue. You're done.

From now on, any event you add to that calendar will automatically sync to GCal and vice versa. You can reload the calendar to get the most up-to-date information at any time by clicking the Reload button in your toolbar. (The button is installed in the toolbar by default in Thunderbird, but you may have to customize your Sunbird calendar to add it to the toolbar.)

Sync Your Mobile Device with Google Calendar

If you're interested in syncing your mobile device with Google Calendar, you've also got a ton of great and free options. BlackBerry users can check out Google Sync, a BlackBerry app made by Google specifically for Gcal-to-BlackBerry syncing.

Alternatively, the free, open-source application GCalSync does bidirectional syncing between Gcal and tons of supported phones. (Original post)

If you're an iPhone or iPod touch user, you can set up automatic, two-way syncing between your Google Calendar (and Gmail contacts) with web site NuevaSync. (Original post)

Finally, if your phone supports SyncML, web application GooSync can handle Gcal syncing without installing anything.

Other Options

If you're not happy with the methods detailed above—which I selected because each represents the easiest and cheapest (read: free) option—there are still tons of other tools to sync Google Calendar with your desktop calendar. First, we've covered how to sync Google Calendar and Gmail contacts with the more technical GCALDaemon. Also, the cross-platform Calgoo just went free, with both Outlook and iCal syncing capabilities.

On a somewhat unrelated but still useful note, you can also now sync Google contacts with your Mac OS X Address Book.

How do you like to get your GCal on your desktop? Let us know in the comments.

Adam Pash is a senior editor for Lifehacker who isn't happy until everything syncs. His special feature Hack Attack appears every Tuesday on Lifehacker. Subscribe to the Hack Attack RSS feed to get new installments in your newsreader.

Wedding Entrance Video

2009-08-26T14:35:00.001-07:00

Anna and I wish we would have done something like this...

Ohio Christian Teen Flees Murder From Murder Parents

2009-08-24T08:42:00.000-07:00

Young Life in Humboldt Park Update!

2009-08-21T07:18:00.000-07:00

Summer Camp is over for 2009. Praise God for the lives that are now His!

Now we're planning for Young Life this next school year (09-10) and it will be an amazing time where our team gets centered on Christ and begin to love one another as brother and sisters. We are looking forward to our prayer and planning nights as well as our first Club for Jr High on October 5th and our first HS Club Oct 6th!

Please pray for us as we seek his Face in planning themes, skits, games, and events. Also please continue to pray for us as we being to do Campaigner (Discipleship and Bible Study) meetings with the kids that are now in the Kingdom because of camp! And, please continue to pray as well as we seek financial partners in our ministry. If you feel led to partner with me in any way, please call me as I would love to share the great things that are happening in Humboldt Park / Hermosa! Please private message me for my phone number.

Blessings to you all and a special thanks to people that are partnering with YL already!

Pablo
pablo@nwchicagoyl.org

just SIT there and LISTEN

2009-08-17T10:05:00.001-07:00

Kari Jobe Revelation Song

Gun Shots - NW Chicago - Humboldt Park

2009-08-09T19:17:00.000-07:00

Anna and I experienced gunshots in the block for the first time just a few hours ago. The police is still hanging out in case of some sort of follow-up. We were watching TV and we heard 4 pops followed by 3 more pops. I looked out the window and there were some young people running around asking, "Where'd they go?" while another said, "I don't have my gun!"

It was all fast and just as fast was the police with about 7 cars and an ambulance. We are not sure that anyone got injured as the ambulance came and went rather quickly, but it could have been that quick because they were rushing someone to the hospital.

We were surprised to not be alarmed. More curious than anything. I know that being on the third floor makes us feel more secure, but above all of this I know that the peace that a person has when they are in the LORD's will is incomparable with anything else.

There is no safer place than where the LORD has placed you.

Chicago YL Update

2009-08-07T11:21:00.000-07:00

Hi guys,

Wow, I feel like I can finally slow down a bit. The last month has been extremely busy as I was preparing for camp at Timberwolf Lake in Michigan.

It was a great start to the month as I started with 10 kids signed up for camp. The week before camp, however, every one of those kids canceled and I felt a bit (more than a bit) down. It was definitely a time where I needed to get on my knees. And God answered!!

I was super blessed to have 10 kids from GAP Community Church come with me as well as Irais - a GAP Jr. High Volunteer Leader. Of the 9 kids that were not saved that went to camp, 6 came to the LORD! Praise God!

Now I am starting to contact the kids again to have a continual relationship with them. Today we'll play basketball and hang out a bit. As the Summer winds down, we'll do some paintball, basketball, video game nights, lots of food, and some on-on-ones for me to get to know them well.

I will be sending out a newsletter by mail in the next 2-3 weeks as well as a quarterly newsletter. Both the online newsletter and the snail mail newsletter are different. If you want to be included in either of those, please send me an email to pablo@nwchicagoyl.org with your email address and mailing address.

I can't wait to tell you guys all about it!

Please continue to pray for these kids as I disciple them and the kids that will be joining the Kingdom soon!

Blessings to you all!!!

Alex Campos - Like the Color of Blood

2009-07-27T18:42:00.000-07:00

This is an amazing video that my dad shared with me. It's in Spanish, but it talks about the valor and courage that Jesus had in dying for us. Praise God!

Paisley Otaola's Tricks

2009-07-13T10:22:00.000-07:00

Just some of the tricks that she's learned so far :)

Chicago Young Life Update

2009-06-27T08:37:00.000-07:00

Hi friends,

Sorry it's been a while since I updated you guys. I promise to make it more often now that things are getting a bit more settled.

So I have some exciting news! We're going to camp!! I was able to talk to some donors and the price per kid went down from $320 to $100!! Thank you God and thank you donors!

So yeah, I'm going to camp, but with who?!?!?!?!

Well, I'm so thankful also because I've been meeting parents and kids and have had great success! Every child and every parent that I've spoken to is really excited to be a part of what is happening and what is going to happen. So far, I've met with the following kids that I'm sure you'll get to know over time :)

- Nathan Roman
- Hector Hiraldo
- Joseph Ruidias
- Justin Ostoaiza
- JJ - Justin's cousin who will also likely go to camp!
- Eric Castillo (I'm picking him up to take him to Portillo's in a bit :))
- Eduardo

There are 3 kids that I'm still meeting this week, but everyone above I've had a chance to meet him, parents, and some even hung out with me (or I with them) in the last week.

I'm also excited because are so willing to hang out and do things. Maybe it's because they are SUPER bored now that they are out of school, but I'd like to think that at 29 (almost - Aug 2) I can still relate to kids :)

We've played basketball and will do so again next week. And we'll also go to a public pool next week as well. We already have plans of going paintballing, to Great America, and other fun stuff.

I've really enjoyed meeting the mothers as well (I have only met 1 father) because they are so protective of their sons and they are so willing to bring me into their lives as help for the time that they cannot be with them. I've spoken in Spanish with most mothers even though most are bilingual. They immediately heard my Argentinean Spanish and knew I was not Puerto Rican. haha. Most Latino's here are Puerto Rican and the Argentinean accent is like comparing US English with English from England.

I'm still speaking with donors and attempting to connect with more people. Anna and I have not yet found a permanent home church to go to, so we are still in need of a church community, but we are happy to have good friends that we knew from before. Anna is also starting to seriously look for jobs this upcoming week as we need her to find something by, at the latest, middle of August.

Thank you guys for your thoughts and prayers.

More to come soon! I want to introduce you guys to my kids one by one with pictures and video :)

Blessings!
Pablo
805.698.1615

The "Happiest Place on Earth" Trully Becomes So...

2009-06-21T07:22:00.000-07:00

My friend Dia Becchio sent me this link that she got from one of her pastors in IV CHURCH. I love when Jesus busts out for NO reason. I mean, just look at how this started...a person saying, "it would be cool if" in the privacy of their own bedroom. When we think, "how cool would it be if...." we might be receiving a vision and prophesy from the LORD. Don't brush it away.

http://kristendarpa.blogspot.com/2009/06/miracles-explode-in-disney-land.html

Otaola Humboldt Park Apartment Update Video

2009-06-17T09:25:00.000-07:00

Our Apartment in Humboldt Park!

2009-06-04T07:59:00.000-07:00

It's a mess right now! But we wanted to get a before and after picture :) Here's a video though... the pictures don't do it justice :)

Young Life Online Donation

2009-06-03T09:07:00.000-07:00

Hi Guys,

I just found out how to give online "one time gifts" or "recurring gifts" to my Young Life area. if you are interested, please look below.

Here's how you do it:

Open up Firefox because Internet Explorer crashes.... bummer!
If you do not want to do Firefox, or would rather call a person, please call (877) 438-9572
Go to:

https://giving.younglife.org/starthere.aspx

Choose "Recurring Gift" or "One Time Gift"
Fill out your information up top
Under GIFT DESTINATION

Type in the amount
Click on "A Young Life Area Ministry"
Click the green search button that appears
A pop-up window opens
Type "Chicago" in the search box
Hit the go button (pressing enter doesn't work)
Our area is IL31 (it should be towards the bottom). It says:

Northwest Chicago - IL31 Urban Office

Northwest Chicago
2100 N Kildare Ave
Chicago, IL 60639-3660
(773) 489-5949

Hit the orange "select" button for the corresponding area
If you are paying by direct deposit from your checking, then choose a date next to "EFT"
If you are choosing a credit card, then choose a date next to Credit Card

Under PAYMENT INFORMATION

Choose one of the payment methods
A new part under PAYMENT METHOD appears
Fill in your account info
Click submit

You can then create a profile so you can log in easily next time if you want :)
If you have any questions, please give me a call or you can call the phone number for Young Life Giving - (877) 438-9572

Thank you guys for caring about us!

All Set Up!!

2009-06-02T13:13:00.000-07:00

Man it feels good!! Got my computer, my internet, my secure wireless connection, my speakers, my scanner... everything set up!!

Loving it!

I even worked with a current client a little bit over CrossLoop and everything worked great :)

Little by little we are settling in!

CHICAGO update

2009-05-30T16:35:00.000-07:00

So we did quite a bit today with the help of Jose Ramos and some of the Grace and Peace Church guys again. I would say that we are 85% moved in :) We are waiting until Monday morning to move in completely as our gas will not be turned on until Tuesday mid day. No gas = no hot water :)

Anyways, we are SO happy to be pretty much moved in! We've had our things in boxes for more than 3 weeks and while we're getting used to not having our of our things, we are a bit irked about the situation. Not complaining though as we feel SUPER blessed at the deal we got from Beth and Dave Kanelos regarding the apartment that we are transitioning out of.

Yesterday, Keith and Debra Cantrell hosted an amazing networking dinner for us. The Cantrell's are Thomas Cantrell's parents. Anna and I know Thomas from Wesmont College. Mrs. Cantrell saw my facebook update that I was going to be doing ministry in Chicago and were immediately interested in being a resource for us. Praise God! They invited us over for dinner and also invited a few of their friends that have relevant ministries and interests. It was amazing! Thank you LORD for reminding us that it's your universal body!

Tomorrow we'll get to go to Park Community Church (http://www.parkcommunitychurch.org/) and meet with some people at the church that are also interested in the Humboldt Park area. One of the church elders helped Anna and I get settled and, again, other welcoming brothers and sisters invited us for dinner and the conversation took off! We look forward to hanging out with them and their friends as well as enjoying and participating in what I hear is an amazing service.

More news to come soon!

More of Paisley Otaola

2009-05-29T13:19:00.000-07:00

Videos up top and pictures at the bottom:

Paisley Otaola in a Bag

Paisley On One of Her Firsts Walk

Paisley Otaola Bites the Camera

Paisley Otaola Bites the Camera String

Pablo Otaola plays around with Paisley Otaola

Anna Otaola plays with Paisley Otaola in our Back Yard

My First StepStone Designs Employee!!!

She is SO curious!!

And Sleepy!!

Only way we could have take her on the train :)

Can't get much cuter....

Settling Into Chicago

2009-05-24T10:26:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone,

Sorry it's been a little bit since I wrote, but again, moving is exhausting and SO time consuming.

Anyways, enough with excuses :)

So my dad and I got here on Thursday the 14th and I can't believe it's been 1.5 weeks already! I am very thankful that we had a community waiting for us as Jose Ramos and other men of the Grace and Peace Community Church (www.graceandpeacecommunity.com) in Humboldt Park welcomed us by helping us move our things into a garage and a temporary house that we will live in until next Saturday the 30th. Again, Jose Ramos and some church men will help us move into our new place. Praise God that we don't have to do it ourselves!

The first weekend went by quickly as we welcomed Anna on Friday the 15th and said good-bye to my dad on Sunday the 17th. In between, however, we saw 4 apartments in the Humboldt Area and we began to fall in love with 1 of the 4 places that we saw.

On Sunday at Grace and Peace, Pastor John Zayas called me up to the front and the whole church prayed for me and the ministry. It was great and I felt really welcomed and protected by people that don't know me at all :)

Monday was crazy as we began our all day apartment search at 9am and ended at 8pm. EXHAUSTING! None of the apartments measured up to the one we saw on Saturday so we prayed about our options and we felt that the LORD allowed us to have the desire in our heart as we signed a 1 yr. lease on Tuesday morning for our 3rd floor apartment :)

We really look forward to move in on the 30th! Even though we now have a place to call home, both Anna and I are having a hard transition as we miss our family and friends from the West Coast, but we have rest in that we are both confident that the LORD has called us into Chicago. However, please continue to pray as we transition into Chicago and grow roots in the land the LORD has prepared for us.

The rest of the week I spent trying to put the puzzle pieces together as I talked to my new boss Brett Hersma, Dan Hofford of Grace and Peace, and as I mingled with some donors and brothers in Christ on a Friday morning Bible Study. I worked during the day and connected during the evening as Anna and I had dinner with some old friends and some new ones as well. It's so so so good to be able to walk into a foreign place and see that the Universal body of Christ is at work and welcomes us with open arms. Praise God!!

There's lots of work to be done and I know that I need to breathe, relax, and get on my knees to see what the LORD has planned for this place and not what I want to do. Please continue to pray that the LORD reveal His vision for Humboldt Park and Hermosa.

In Him,
Pablo

Our First Day with Our Dog Paisley Otaola :)

2009-05-20T06:42:00.000-07:00

FREE Online Streaming TV Shows!!

2009-05-07T19:38:00.001-07:00

So I was searching for FREE Smallville Season 8 episodes online and I ran across this web site. Check it out! It's completely FREE, legal, and no strings attached!!!

http://www.freeonlineepisodes.net/watch-tv-shows-online/

Provision

2009-05-05T20:36:00.001-07:00

My mom read this in a Christian magazine and it reminded her of Anna and I...

"We trust that if God calls, He will provide the resources"

How true!!

Chicago Update

2009-04-28T12:20:00.001-07:00

Okay... This is now becoming more real....

I just booked the two hotels that my dad and I will be staying in. The one in Green River, Utah will be at the Ramada Limited. It's a nice little 2 star hotel that will be right off of our path and won't give us too much trouble with parking.

The one in Omaha, NE (I STILL CAN'T BELIEVE THIS IS HAPPENING!!!) will be a Quality Inn & Suites which will be right off of the I80.... nice....

No other news as of now other than I'll be talking to my new boss Brett Hersma, Chicagoland Regional Director, about fundraising strategies in a few minutes :)

More updates to come...

Cell Phone Use in Cars Is All About the Brain, Not the Hands

2009-04-27T11:46:00.000-07:00

Below is an article that my friend Dia Becchio sent to me from the web site imakenews.com.

I think that a state-wide or country-wide ban of cell phone usage while driving will never pass because of how innate cell phone usage has become in society while driving. So, that takes me to thinking about who will create the necessary "gadgets" to make driving while talking on the cell phone safer? I'm thinking along the lines of auto-pilot using GPS systems and magnets on the roads. These are things that are already being experimented and might be applicable within our lifetime. But how many people will get into accidents until then? What do you guys think??

This also reminds me of a Rob Bell Nooma video where he talks about how noisy people's lives are and how that noise interferes with listening to God's voice. I used to talk to God for at least a bit over an hour while in college since I drove from Lompoc to Santa Barbara very early and I couldn't talk on the phone. Since then, while driving I have usually either been on the phone or with Anna so that time alone with the LORD has be nixed. My wife actually called me out on it and I've gotten a bit better about that... Any similar experiences out there?

Here's the article:

Cell Phone Use in Cars Is All About the Brain, Not the Hands
Bluetooth notwithstanding, humans just aren’t wired to drive and phone.

Many states have made it illegal to use a hand-held cell phone while driving. Experts believed the danger was in driving with one hand and manipulating the cell phone with the other. That has spurred the popularity of hands-free cell phone technology, most notably enabled by Bluetooth connectivity. Unfortunately, further research is showing that hands-free phone use is no safer than hand-held talking. The hands are NOT the problem. It’s the brain!

“It’s not that your hands aren’t on the wheel,” said Dr. David Strayer, Director of the Applied Cognition Laboratory at the University of Utah and a leading researcher on cell phone safety. “It’s that your mind is not on the road.”

A recent article in the New York Times reported that Dr. Strayer’s research has convinced the National Safety Council, the nonprofit advocacy group that has pushed for seatbelt laws and drunk driving awareness, to call for a complete ban on using cell phones while driving.

The New York Times article pointed out, “Laboratory experiments using simulators, real-world road studies and accident statistics all tell the same story – drivers talking on a cell phone are four times as likely to have an accident as drivers who are not. That’s the same level of risk posed by a driver who is legally drunk.”

Researchers believe that talking on the phone requires significant brain resources, enough to hinder the ability to process all of the information required to safely operate a motor vehicle. For example, eye-tracking studies have shown that safe drivers continually look side-to-side, scanning ahead as they are driving. When they tracked the eye movement of drivers using cell phones, they found the cell phone users tended to stare straight ahead.

Studies using a driving simulator and volunteers wired so researchers could see how their brains were processing information have shown that cell phone conversations are far more distracting than other speaking (chatting with a passenger) or listening activities (music or talking book) while driving.

The Journal of Experimental Psychology published a report in their December 2008 issue presenting the findings of a comparison between drivers conversing with a passenger in the car and drivers talking hands-free on a cell phone. The drivers were instructed to drive several miles until they encountered the exit for a rest stop that they were supposed to take. Nearly every driver and passenger found the exit and entered the rest stop. Half of those drivers using their hands-free cell phone system missed the exit.

Dr. Strayer’s interpretation? “The paradox is that if the friend is sitting next to you, you drive safer. When you talk to that person on a cell phone, you’re much more likely to be involved in an accident.”

Tell that to the “wired generation” who virtually live on their cell phones, say critics who believe it’s too late to change people’s habits. In fact, the distractions of car technology are greater with every new gadget. Bluetooth enables cell phone chatter. Voice recognition gives you command over virtually every user-controlled system in the cabin. Central control joysticks encourage you to surf the car’s network while attempting to operate the vehicle. Still, cell phones pose the most dangerous distraction of all. Unfortunately, cell phones and driving seem to go together like peanut butter and jelly. We’re realizing the peanut butter may be tainted.

There is room for common sense on this issue. Fact: Young people are the most enthusiastic and persistent cell phone users. Fact: Young people are inexperienced drivers who are just developing the mind/hand/eye coordination needed for driving competency. Conclusion: Young drivers need to focus all of their brainpower on processing the information related to operating the motor vehicle safely. Advice: Parents should ban cell phone use by minors while they are driving.

Chicago Update

2009-04-26T23:20:00.001-07:00

Hi guys. Some more updates as of a few minute ago!

We got the house locked up for the first two weeks!! We are SO SO excited about this as we will have a place to stay the first two weeks! That would be from the 15th of May to the 31st of May! Praise God!!

And another thing is that some plans have changed a bit. Tony Gonzalez from San Francisco Young Life will be speaking on Friday morning (15th of May) at a men's Bible Study in Chicago and Brett Hersma (my new boss) wants me to be there. The meeting with Tony and these guys is because these guys are interested in the Young Life area and Tony will talk to them about how I will be continuing the legacy that Tony started 23 years ago. Cool! So, my dad and I will be leaving on Tuesday the 12th, and instead of getting to Chicago on Friday, we'll push ourselves and get there on Thursday afternoon. Here's what we'll be doing:

Mon May 11th: Pack the uHaul truck with the help of friends and family
Tues May 12th: My dad and I leave for Chicago (Anna will be staying in SB-read below)
Tues May 12th: We get to Green River, Utah after an 11+ hour drive
Wed May 13th: Leave early and arrive in Omaha, NE after a 12.5+ hour drive
Th May 14th: Leave early and arrive in Chicago in the afternoon!
Fri May 15th: Meet for 7:30 am meeting downtown
Sat May 16th: Pick Anna up from airport

So, I mentioned that Anna will be staying in Santa Barbara for a while longer. That's great news to us! The dentist that she works for loves her so much and needs her so much that he is willing to pay for Anna's flight out to Chicago just to have her stay for 2 more weeks! He's such a great guy! If you don't have a dentist, check this guy out as he is one of the top dentists in Santa Barbara! His name is Doctor Thomas Blake, DDS. Anna staying a couple of extra weeks also means that we will be able to have a little more money in the bank than we expected!! Praise God!

So, please be praying for all those things as well as what's below.

A few people from our church have SO GRACIOUSLY taken on the challenge of doing a fundraiser for us! Miguel and Nancy Cornejo have volunteered to head up the planning for a soccer tournament that we are hosting in the the brand new synthetic soccer field in Girsh Park. This is great as it will also help up get more money for the move :)

One last update is that Anna has a phone interview scheduled soon! So we'll keep you updated on this as well :)

Thanks for all of your prayers guys!!

Young Life Chicago on FACEBOOK

2009-04-21T08:18:00.000-07:00

So I hope if you're reading this you are on Facebook. If you are not, then GET ON IT! tThere are over 200 million people on Facebook!!

Anyways, seriously, if you're not on Facebook, then it's time you were. And if you are on Facebook, come join the NEW group that I just created for our new Young Life ministry in the Chicago Northside areas of Hermosa and Humboldt Park.

This will be a way to stay up to date with our ministry and our lives. I will continually post pictures, videos, and blogs about what's going on. Also, I will be making a web site for the area as well, but that's in the next few months.

Click on the image below and it will take you right to the Facebook Group so you can sign up!

Young Life Chicago Update

2009-04-19T21:06:00.000-07:00

Speechless..........

Thank you LORD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Speechless..........

Seriously though... Anna and I just came home from being gone the whole weekend for a wedding and opened up some mail and our jaws dropped. The LORD is SO good!!

And yeah, everyone know that the LORD is good, but when He comes through and is faithful to His character.... it makes me just be speechless, tear up, and drop to my knees with praise and thanksgiving.

So to continue my story, we can home to 2 miracles. We had 3 letters that were return envelopes from the letters that we sent out to people to be able to know that we were called into ministry with Young Life and to also give them an opportunity to partner with us as we are being sent off as missionaries. All three checks were very generous, but 2 of the three people either know us very little or not at all!

The "Not at all:"
We sent a letter to a friend in Arizona and we received a letter back from that address, but from people that we do not know. They explained that they read the letter out of an impulse and they sent back money to support our ministry!! Praise God!! Talk about a divine appointment!! Only only only our God Almighty can do something like this. This couple are believers as well, so the chances of the people that opened up the letter being Christians as well makes the story even better!!!

The "very little:"
We also have spome married friends that know about our ministry with YL and they told their parents about us. So, our friends urged us to write the parents and their generosity literally left me speechless. I won't say how much they gave, but I WOULD HAVE NEVER EVER EVER thought that we would see a check for the amount that they gave us. All I can say is PRAISE GOD!! Even when we write them a thank you it won't seem like enough... Thank you LORD!!!

So, I'm going to go praise the LORD with my wife right now, but please continue to pray for us as we follow the LORD'S will in this calling and faithfully believe that He will provide from nothing...

We Need Prayer - Chicago Young Life

2009-04-18T08:40:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone,

Thanks for continuing to pray for us. I just want to update you guys on the process. I just received an email from Chicago that said that we are not going to be able to get the transitional housing that we were hoping for. It would have been for free, but the place that was in question needs some much needed repairs.

So we are a little bummed... more than a little bummed about that. It seems that as soon as we accepted the job, the enemy started to pounce on us. We know that the LORD will provide, but right now I feel that He is taking away anything that "we" had planned and any source of provision that "we" had in line. Go figure God wants to provide for us in His way and in His timing.... It's hard though :)

So please continue to pray for us as we keep fighting against feelings of frustration, anger at times, and for us to continually be faithful in remembering that our God is our Jehova Jireh...

Hurdles

2009-04-15T09:54:00.000-07:00

The Enemy is REALLY trying to discourage us and somehow impede Anna and I to both be joyous of our calling to go to Chicago and of us actually be able to go to Chicago...

We need to raise over $10,000 to be able to go to Chicago so we cannot waste money on any leisure things. And, since the time that Anna and I accepted the job offer and started to walk into the calling that the LORD has for us we got hit with medical and car bills that reach the $3000 mark!!

I've been a little concerned and I have even momentarily questioned if we were right to accept this job, but now I can only laugh at the Enemy's attempts to thwart our going... cause he can't!!! I mean, "If He is for us WHO WHO WHO can be against us?!?!?!"

I the name of Jesus we COMMAND the enemy to leave our family alone and leave the presence of His children!

I know the LORD is allowing Satan to do this and as soon as Anna and I learn to completely rely on Him about this, I know that the LORD will stop all of this and miraculously provide for us!!! AMEN!!!

Family.... and I mean all of my Community in Christ.... keep us in your prayers as we have moved to the front-lines and the enemy doesn't like it one bit :)

I feel so empowered even though I have been "weaker" than any of the last 16 months since I have been attacked by the Enemy... How good it is to be strong in our weakness because of the LORD's strengthening us :)

I could write forever about the LORD right now... but I gotta go be with my wife :)

Selling Full Bedroom Set

2009-04-12T13:39:00.001-07:00

Anna and I are moving to Chicago and we need to sell my bedroom set from my bachelor days :) Please let me know if you are interested and PLEASE spread the word. We need to raise a considerable amount of money and it would be a HUGE double blessing if we received funds through this sale AND we got rid of the bedroom set that we will not use. Comment on this blog if you are interested. The bedroom set is in Lompoc, CA 93436.

Here's my Craigslist Description:

Full Bedroom set in very good condition. I am the orginal owner and the item was bought brand new. Imported from Italy $1800.00 value. The set contains 2 night stands with 2 drawers each, a beautiful headboard as well as a bed frame. The dresser has 6 drawers with the size of 8 drawers (see photo) while a big vanity mirror rests on top. The wood on all surfaces has a slick feel to the hand. $500.00 or best offer. Will help with loading from house to your truck. Please email me at the craiglist email above. Furniture is in Lompoc; mattress not included.

Here are some pictures.

WAY COOL BUSINESS CARD!!!!

2009-04-06T11:21:00.000-07:00

Westmont in the West Side - Ministry opportunity

2009-04-06T11:12:00.000-07:00

Hey guys! If you are wanting to connect with some amazing ministries in the Santa Barbara Area, check out Facebook's "Westmont in the West Side" Group.

You don't need to be a Westmont Student to be in this ministry!!

Here's the direct link once you are logged in. I think you'll have to be Jeff's friend to see his profile, but here it is anyways: CLICK HERE

Here's their most recent post (Jeff Shaffer):

How do you like that for an intro!

Here are some important things for you to know about to continue the incarnational revolution!

WED APRIL 15TH

Local churches are joining together to consider transformation for the local poor in SB. We are meeting at Community Covenant Church on April 15th at 6:30pm if you want to bring something for a potluck dinner, or 7pm if you just want to come for the meeting. More info to come.

WED MAY 2

From 9am to Noon there will be a unique gathering for leaders for kids club goleta, east side, and west side. Kelly Soifer will be doing the training. If you are involved with Village Kids, this will be good to go to. I am awaiting more specific info on this as well.

SUMMER OF LOVE 2009

Every 40 years there is a revolution. Last time for us - the 60's. Since I am jealous of the 60's, we are going to have our own summer of love here summer 2009. If you are around this summer, let me know and I will fill you in. Buy a black light poster and bring your lava lamp.

Jeff

Chicago Update

2009-04-06T09:21:00.000-07:00

Anna and I have been praying and we are both in agreement that the LORD is saying for us to move May 12th. We will be packing May 11th and leaving early May 12th. Here's our tentative itinerary:

- pack things into the truck may 11th
- leave SB May 12th
- arrive in Cedar City, Utah and stay the night
- Leave Cedar City May 13th and drive to Denver, CO
- Stay the night with Anna's sister Jessica in Denver
-Leave Denver May 14th and arrive in Omaha Nebraska
- Leave Omaha on the 15th and arrive in Chicago May 16th!!!

Wow, that's 1 day, and 7 hours of driving with a car... so a big truck will take longer so I might need to rearrange my plans. We'll see. My dad will be taking the whole week off to help us move and Bob (Anna's dad) will help us pack before we leave. Bob also mentioned that he wants to come to our house once we are moved in, so that he can help us fix the place up a bit like he did in our current apartment :)

So, we were off for sure, and now we know exactly when we are off :)

Keep us in your prayer. I will also be making a Young Life Chicago Blog that I will shoot out to people so if you want those amazing stories from Humboldt Park and Hermosa neighborhoods in Chicago, then keep your eye out for it!

A Model and HER Runway

2009-04-05T12:45:00.000-07:00

I felt bad, but I couldn't stop laughing!!!!

Ummmm. Grape Stomp....

2009-04-05T12:42:00.000-07:00

You gotta watch the WHOLE video :)

FREE MUSIC ONLINE

2009-04-05T12:36:00.001-07:00

I just found this web site and it's totally cool when you don't have your music with you!!! Or when you want to hear some music that you don't have but don't want to buy.

www.justhearit.com

CHECK IT OUT!

You gotta see these!

2009-04-04T23:40:00.000-07:00

www.photosthatchangedtheworld.com

The title speaks for itself....

Beat Box Recipe

2009-04-04T23:38:00.000-07:00

Beatbox Fame Game
Uploaded by loranger

God is a God of Covenants

2009-04-02T09:02:00.000-07:00

I am SO encouraged with everything that is going on. God never forgets His covenants nor His people. He swears by Himself since there is no one higher and He ALWAYS brings things to pass since He will allow nothing to tarnish His name.

Once I left SF in Dec 2006, I remember driving from Lompoc to Santa Barbara and hearing the LORD tell me, "You will be involved with Young Life." In my "microwave world" I sought out Young Life right away instead of allowing the LORD to bring it to me in His perfect timing. Two and a half years later, the LORD reminds me of that prophesy. PRAISE GOD!

And now, I am in a place where I need to trust my God in that He will provide so that we can leave in mid-May. We need to raise quite a few thousand dollars and it seemed impossible that we would be able to leave Santa Barbara when we wanted to leave. However, the LORD plays by His own rules and allows situations to seem impossible so that HE AND HE ALONE can get the honor and glory!! AND I say again: PRAISE GOD!!

Young Life has agreed to pay for 2/3 of the truck/food/hotel/gas on our way there! Praise God indeed! That still leaves us to raise some $ since Anna will not have a job right away but my trust is in the LORD GOD ALMIGHTY! My Provider! I do not trust in myself or any man because, "Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who depends on flesh for his strength and whose heart turns away from the LORD" (Jer. 17:5)!!

Praise God!!! And I KNOW I KNOW I KNOW that He will provide for us to leave in time!! And I want to be specific that I mean His time... However LORD I pray that if it is your will, and I believe that it is, we will be leaving Santa Barbara May 12th... :)

We are going to Chicago

2009-03-30T18:17:00.000-07:00

Most people already know that we are going to Chicago, but they do not know where we are going exactly. Well here is the map of the whole Chicago area divided into neighborhoods. I will be the Area Director of the Humboldt Park and Hermosa neighborhoods.

Here's the pic with the highlighted areas (click on it to see it bigger):

Pretty Cool Illusion

2009-03-27T14:26:00.001-07:00

http://wrongdistance.com/?p=1364

Nuestro Idioma Argentino

2009-03-27T09:07:00.000-07:00

My family is Argentinean and here are some subtle "modismos" that adds on to people not understanding us! hahaha!

I didn't write this but it's SO true!!

Nuestro querido idioma:

Esto aconteció en Montevideo y tuvo como protagonistas a una familia y una
visitante canadiense que se alojó en su casa por espacio de tres meses.

La historia es digna de un profundo análisis lingüístico y palabra más,
palabra menos, es totalmente verídica.

Transcurría un plácido almuerzo, cuando de pronto, la ilustre visitante,
en un castellano con marcado acento canadiense, preguntó inocentemente:

- Pero... para ustedes ... ¿todo es pedo?

- ¿¿¿Cóóómo...???

- Sí, claro... Es que hay cosas que todavía no entiendo del todo...

- ¿Por ejemplo?

- Hoy Agustín fue caminando hasta el centro a cambiar una remera y el
negocio estaba cerrado. Cuando volvió dijo: 'Me hicieron ir al pedo'.

- Claro, eso significa que fue de gusto... o sea, en vano, inútilmente..

- Sí, sí, pero en plural es diferente. Cuando el otro día vinimos en taxi,

al bajar Micaela dijo: 'Este tachero nos trajo a los pedos'.

- Eso quiere decir que venían rápido...

- Sí, ya me di cuenta. Pero me resulta difícil entender la diferencia del
singular al plural... Además... hay otras frases que no son lo mismo, por
ejemplo:
Estar 'en' pedo, que estar 'al' pedo.

- Claro, estar 'en' pedo, es estar borracho; estar 'al' pedo, es estar sin
hacer nada...

- ¡Eso! ¡eso!, suena parecido a ir 'al pedo'... Pero... también lo usan
cuando quieren significar negativa a hacer algo...

- A veces, en ese caso decimos: - 'No voy a ir ni en pedo', que significa
que de ninguna manera lo haremos, o sea.... ni borracho iría, ¿me entendés?

- Sí, ahora sí. Aunque todavía me queda otra; cuando el otro día Agustín
no puso la mesa y vos te enojaste, Agustín luego me contó que vos lo
habías 'cagado a pedos'....

- Sí, en ese caso quiere decir que lo reté, que le llamé la atención...

- Ahora entiendo un poco más... pero.... me acordé de otra. Cuando fuimos
al partido de fútbol y el delantero hizo un gol, el comentario de Agustín
fue: 'Le salió de pedo'....

- Eso significa que lo hizo por pura suerte, que fue de casualidad...¿sí?

- Sí. Una última pregunta... ¿qué quieren decir cuando Micaela le dice a
Agustín: '¿¿¿¡¡¡vos.... te tiraste un pedo!!!???'...

- Ah no, disculpame, los otros pedos no importan, pero eso no se dice, es
de muy mala educación decirle a otro en público que se tiró un pedo...

!!!!!!!!!! ???????????

No nos entiende nadie

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