My Favorite Albums of 2009...

I used to get really into analyzing the world of media from year to year, but I don't get so into anymore. However, I figured I would go ahead and let you know what my favorite albums of 2009 were.




1) Thrice - Beggars
2) New Found Glory - Not Without A Fight
3) Crippled Black Phoenix - 200 Tons Of Bad Luck
4) Say Anything - Say Anything
5) Third Eye Blind - Ursa Major
6) Brand New - Daisy
7) Two Tongues - Two Tongues
8) David Crowder Band - Church Music
9) Appleseed Cast - Sagarmatha
10) Propaghandi - Supporting Caste

The honest truth is that there are probably a lot of great albums this year I missed and on any given day with an exception of the top 3 albums or so, the others can switch places on the list.

These are my favorites. I'm not claiming that they are the best albums of the year, just my favorite.

What were some of your favorites albums from this year?

Hello Hello...

Before we begin, let me ask... Would you rather live without a vehicle or without a cell phone? Leave your answer in the comments.

On to my update.

So, I guess it has been a while since I have given you anything worth reading. I apologize (to my two faithful readers, ha!) What can I say? I have been slam packed busy this year. I made a terrible decision to do school non-stop this year without breaking for the summer. Though now I can look back on it and be glad that I did it, it made the summer months ridiculously stressful and pushed me so close to burn out that I would still say it was a bad choice. Thank God for a loving family, group of friends, and church family who encouraged me through it and understood when I dropped the ball so often on other things.

But now, classwork is done. All of it. No more classes for my Master's degree. It is a liberating feeling. I still have a comprehensive exam to take (I'm aiming for February or March) and an internship to complete (shooting for the fall) before I officially have the degree, but this still feels so good.

2010 is going to be a busy year it seems. I got a handful of things going on.
-Of course, there is the school internship.
-I'm working with Dave Herring on a secret project (shhh...)
-Taking a trip to Indonesia to teach at their Bible college with a couple of friends in May. This is huge, and I will write about it more specifically at a later date.
-Hoping to get a guest roll on iJames Play House (not really, but you need to check this out and get weak for a minute.)

Here's to hoping I blog more (does anyone really hope for that?)

Say Huh?

I used to blog. What happened?

Five Thought Friday 8-7-09...

Ok, technically its been Saturday for 15 minutes, but I need to do a Five Thought Friday, so here it goes.

1) I don't think Chinese buffet restaurants ever have to worry about customers dining and ditching. No one is running after they eat there. Coincidence? I think not! Good job Chinese restaurant owner!

2) It has been revealed that use of crack was a contributing factor to Billy Mays' death. A report I heard on the radio stated that the family was upset that that information was being made public. That got me thinking, was that tidbit really the public's business at all?

3) One reason I need a wife is cause I stink at shaving my head. I seriously just spent an hour doing it. For some reason I can never manage to hold the clippers at the right angle or something. I know this is supposed to be an easy task, and I feel like an idiot for struggling with it, but if I had a wife, it might not be such a problem!

4) I am pretty stoked about a couple concerts coming here in November. First is the Get Up Kids on their "Something To Write Home About" 10th anniversary tour. This is one of my favorite albums, so I am stoked to go to the show. Thrice and Brand New are also coming later in November. I LOVE THRICE.

5) Today I had a girl who struggles anorexia try to convince me that I am not fat. She is 5'2" and 112 pounds. I told her I am more than double her weight, and somehow she will argue with me that I am not fat, even though she is. Ugh, anorexia is such a deceptive disorder. I hate that people struggle with it.

Connect 2k9...

I am sitting at the Perkins' beach house in Nag's Head, NC hanging out with Colonial Heights youth group. For some odd reason they asked me to come and be their speaker for their annual beach retreat. We will be here till Friday morning and I will be blessed with the opportunity to speak, and hopefully encourage these kids to live like the people described in Daniel 12:3 and Philippians 2:15; people who shine line stars! This what I got planned to talk about...

Mon Night: We live in a dark world
Tue Night: God saved us from darkness through Christ
Wed Night: Learning how to shine (through prayer and study of the word)
Thur Night: Shining

There are 35 students here, 8 (I think, lol) adults. My boy Mike Twine is here leading worship for the crew too. If you think about us, keep us in your prayers! It's gonna be a great week!

Anonymous...

There are a lot of things that are frustrating and make no sense. Sometimes we are confused, other times we are ignorant, and sometimes we are neither rather we are just frustrated.

Though the joys far outweigh them, I think those are things that we experience and feel a lot in ministry.

For example; one might wonder why a minister/elder/deacon/secretary/volunteer/etc in a church can exhibit a constant bad attitude with no consequence, but upon committing some kind of "more serious" sin such getting caught up in pornography, getting too friendly with alcohol can be relieved from their ministry or position with haste.

What I want to do is give you an opportunity to vent about what it is about ministry/church/faith/christianity/etc that frustrates you, confuses you, makes no sense to you, or just hurts your heart. We will do this anonymously.

So here are the rules...
1) Leave a comment that vents your biggest frustration, confusion, or hurt with the topics mentioned above.
2) Leave it anonymously (sign out of your blogger account). If you leave a name or account link, your comment will be deleted.

Go!

Re-Open...

This blog will open up for business again in an hour and fifteen minutes.

Check it out and play along.

Txt Mch? Using Twitter To Text Your Students...

Twitter is an amazing, FREE, way to send text message announcements to your youth group. I got the idea and instructions from ChurchyMedia, but I wanted to write it out in a little more detail for some of my less technologically inclined friends.

Quick Directions:
1) Register a twitter account (ex: wpyouth)
2) Have students text "follow account" to 40404 (ex "follow wpyouth")
3) They text back their name, and boom, they will receive updates.
4) They can send "stop" to 40404 if they want to stop receiving updates.

Detailed Directions:
1) Go to www.twitter.com and get a twitter account started. Ours is "wpyouth" (twitter.com/wpyouth)

2) Once your account is set up, have anyone that wants to subscribe to text message updates text "follow account" to number 40404 where account is your account name (ex: "follow wpyouth")
NOTE: They must remove signatures, any other characters in their text message will screw it up. Also, I believe the message has to be all lowercase. I just offer these pointers from the troubles I have had with getting my students signed up.

3) They will then be asked to send their name, and boom, they are following you. Now when you update that twitter it will send a text message to all your cell phone followers!

4) For those who do not want to receive text messages, they can still keep up with announcements by going to the twitter webpage. (ex: www.twitter.com/wpyouth).

5) If at anytime they want to stop getting the updates, all they have to do is send "stop" to 40404.

6) For those of you that have a personal twitter account as well, I reccomend the Twitterfox add-on for your browser (I don't know if there are similar add-ons for other browsers. If you know link it in the comments.) With a single click you can switch between accounts (as opposed to having to login and logout all the time.)

This is a great means of communicating with your students. I am still working on getting all my teens signed up and on board. We use this to send announcements to the group, but also to play games. For example, I sent a message "first person to call the church and ask for eddie gets free cookies." Its just a fun way to interact with students.

And of course, you can use this for any ministry or group you organize. Try it out and let me know what you think!

Five Thought Friday...

1) The stimulus plan: The only thing I know to say about the stimulus bill is that is gonna destroy our economy. Many politicians have said that we need to pass this as soon as possible so that we are at least doing something. That makes about as much sense as giving someone with a cold rat poison so that they are least doing something about their sickness. Ugh, people just stop spending money you don’t have. That goes for you businessmen too. And if none of you can live that way, don’t cry when your stuff is repossessed and your companies fail.

2) Moving Mountains: If you have never checked them out, you need to listen to them. I find them to be very relaxing and inspiring.
http://www.myspace.com/movingmountainsmusic

3) Liberty Tax Service: It is ridiculous how they promote their services. Having some dude prance around in a lady liberty costume just strikes me as silly. I have more thoughts about this, but I think I will write separately about that. What I really wonder is how many people would forget about taxes if it weren’t for that dancing fool? Kinda scary to consider.

4) Money Money Money: Speaking of taxes (3) and financial responsibility (1) I find myself awaiting that tax return. And although I have pretty much decided that other than a new phone, I want to put it all into savings, lately the temptation has been getting at me to spend some more of it on stuff I want but don’t need. What are you planning to do with your tax return?

5) God has reminded me this past week that I have so many good people in my life. My family is awesome, friends I have from back in the day are awesome, and my newer friends are awesome as well. So take a minute today and thank God for the good people in your life.

Resurrection...

I need to start blogging more. I will do it! Tomorrow I will bring back my old school blog feature from Xanga. That's right, five thought Friday!