Category: misc

Photos tomorrow

So… because this is the way we roll.. Laurie and I are going to go take some more wedding photos tomorrow. Yeah it’ll be three months since we were married on Saturday but we thought it would be fun to get our tux and dress on again and go take some more cool photos. The downside is… it’s supposed to rain tomorrow. DOH.
We were debating on going back to Las Colinas (see our engagement photos) or going to downtown Dallas somewhere to take pics.
We might do both – but we’d love to hear some suggestions for cool locations from you guys.
Send us your ideas – hurry! quick! jump on it!

Junky Car Club

Got a junky car club – or know someone who does? Join the Junky Car Club.

The club has pretty basic membership requirements:

Basic Membership
1. You are wanting to live with less so you can give more and looking for ways to be more generous to those in need.
2. You care about the issues of poverty and social justice and want to bring awareness to these important issues.

Chrome Membership
1. Your car is paid off and you have no car payments.
2. You are wanting to live with less so you can give more and looking for ways to be more generous to those in need.
3. You care about the issues of poverty and social justice and want to bring awareness to these important issues.

Elite Lemon Membership
1. You are currently sponsoring and helping a child who is living in poverty. If you want to sponsor a child now, please click on the COMPASSION banner above.
2. Your vehicle is 10 years old or older and MAY have trouble starting on cold mornings, have a funky smell inside, and have an annoying hum coming from the radio.
3. You are wanting to live with less so you can give more and looking for ways to be more generous to those in need.
4. You care about the issues of poverty and social justice and want to bring awareness to these important issues.

Check out the website and sign yourself or someone else up.

Promoting your church with YouTube

I wrote about using YouTube and viral marketing last November to advertise your church — and now a church in Boston is putting this into practice (not claiming any influence on their decision at all – just saying).
Greater Boston Vineyard is encouraging folks to make promotional videos for their fall kickoff, which takes place on Sept. 9 (encounter’s 3 year anniversary – woot!).
Folks are then encouraged to post their video to YouTube and get as many people to view and rate the videos as possible. The winning video (top rated) gets $500.
From the church:

We thought it might be fun to experiment with some new, grass-roots, technology-enhanced “word-of-mouth” advertising techniques. Thus… we’re having a “Cheesy YouTube Video Contest” for our fall kick-off this year. This year’s fall kick-off is happening September 9th at both sites.
Here’s how it works:
Make a video that promotes the Vineyard’s September 9th service in some way.
Submit your video to our YouTube group: www.youtube.com/group/vineyardvideocontest
Get lots and lots of people you know to watch and rate your video (YouTube has a built in rating system of 1 to 5 stars).
This is a REAL contest with REAL prize money! If your video winds up with the highest rating, then you could win $500!

How would you advertise your church? Come on – bust out your video camera and start making your own commercial. Or if you’re a Flash genius, do like this guy did and make your own Flash ad. And if nothing else, get out and make something with MS Paint or your favorite graphic software. Make a banner for your website, email, Myspace or whatever then show us what you got.

Here’s the viral iPod video made by George Masters’ that’s mentioned in the Wired article above:

Religion beat writer loses his faith

From NPR:
Los Angeles Times religion reporter William Lobdell was an evangelical Christian when he took the job, and during his time on the beat he almost converted to Catholicism.
But he says after covering religion for eight years, he has lost faith in Christianity and left the religion beat. Lobdell talks with Alex Cohen.
It’s a very interesting story. Be sure and listen.

Media coverage

Dallas has seen some HUGE explosions near Industrial Blvd. in downtown Dallas today.
Here’s some interesting thoughts on media coverage.
WFAA.com has had live video running on their website. I’m still watching it.
Fox 4 also has live video running.
CBS 11 has a live video feed as well.
NBC 5 now has live video running but I didn’t see it right off. Their main story rotates so if you just come to the page you may not actually see the explosion story but instead a story about school lunches.
Nationally, CNN.com has live coverage on their website as well with live video from WFAA.
Everyone’s beloved Fox News has no mention of the explosion but instead a story about the “bad girls of Hollywood.”
foxnews.jpg
So there you have it. I applaud WFAA for their coverage and posting their live feed on the web right away.