Category: Uncategorized

Michael did what I normally do to any forward I get, and actually Snooped the Bill Gates story.
Guess I should have thought about that ;-).
I still think it’s good advice, but the original was not attributed to Bill Gates.

No, this list didn’t originate with Microsoft head Bill Gates. (It’s frequently cited on the Internet as having come from his book Business @ The Speed of Thought, but it didn’t.) Why it’s attributed to Gates is a mystery to us; it doesn’t really sound the least bit like something he would write. Possibly, the item the Internet-circulated version of the list generally ends with (“Be nice to nerds”) struck a chord with someone who views Gates as the ultimate successful nerd of all time……
This list is the work of Charles J. Sykes, author of the book Dumbing Down Our Kids: Why American Children Feel Good About Themselves But Can’t Read, Write, Or Add. (The list has appeared in newspapers, although not necessarily in this book.) Many versions omit the last three rules:

Rule No. 12: Smoking does not make you look cool. It makes you look moronic. Next time you’re out cruising, watch an 11-year-old with a butt in his mouth. That’s what you look like to anyone over 20. Ditto for “expressing yourself” with purple hair and/or pierced body parts.
Rule No. 13: You are not immortal. (See Rule No. 12.) If you are under the impression that living fast, dying young and leaving a beautiful corpse is romantic, you obviously haven’t seen one of your peers at room temperature lately.
Rule No. 14: Enjoy this while you can. Sure parents are a pain, school’s a bother, and life is depressing. But someday you’ll realize how wonderful it was to be a kid. Maybe you should start now. You’re welcome.

Cobalt Tree
Originally uploaded by Jdblundell.

Who knew blue colbalt bottles grew on trees.
This was built and installed at a home in Waxahachie and seen as part of the 2006 Gingerbread Home Tour.

From theemerge blog:

I have a very close friend whose dad is on a ventilator and diagnosed with lew gehrig’s disease. Unfortunately, his dad has been confined to his bed and couch and only gets up to use the bathroom. Only once, since he has been home from the hospital (in late Feb. I believe) has he been outside of his house. His wife is with him almost ever hour of the day, she has become a virtuous woman if I’ve ever knew one. They are believers and love Jesus very much.
Now the question, how are these folks exposed to participate in a church service as we know it today? Some might say, “Well, the wife should go to the church and hear what the Revered had to say and then go home and share it with the husband.” Or others may advise the wife and say, “Even though your husband has been incapable of going you should at least participate in church service, that’s the least you could do.” And of course some would say, “You need not to forsake the assembling of the brethren.”
How amazing it is to me, that so many are stuck in tradition of “going to church”. The theme in Scripture is not go to church, but rather, be the church.
Is it not true, does the spirit of God dwell in you? Is it true that where the spirit of God is, there is liberty? Doesn’t Christ say, “where two or more are gathered in my name, “That is Church” or I am in their midst, whatever way you prefer.

(Hint click the link above to read the rest.)

Found this site today, check it out: theemerge.com. Looks like a lot of interesting conversations on the church and the future of the church.

It started as a vision during a worship conference in San Diego, Ca. in 2003. A vision to provide an alternative service to this wondering generation. For the first two years God put it on hold while He was molding and making the foundation on which theemerge.com would be founded.
“The Emerge” was first visioned to be a alternative worship service for young adults and teens, something to substitute the usual Sunday Morning stuff. Many churches were doing it at the time and still many do it today. “The Emerge Service” first launch was a well planned, well thought out disaster. Hours upon hours of planning and prayer were given to it. We even had shirts made for the staff that were a bit tight. But “The Emerge Service” died before it even started. It wasn’t that it sucked, it actually rocked, but God called it quits right after it’s launch. Why the chaos, we still don’t know. But because of the events that followed those pioneer days theemerge.com would finally come to it’s given nature.
With drastic events during it’s conception theemerge.com was birthed as a launching pad for a conversation in faith; what it was always meant to be. Something simple, yet profound. A place where you can go to share what you really feel, think, believe. A place that’s as real as you want it to be.
God is evolving this place daily into whatever He desires. Only He knows where it’s been and where it may go.

Don’t know how legit this is, but its supposidly what Bill Gates said at a high school recently… either way its got some good advice to it.

Bill Gates recently gave a speech at a High School about 11 things they did not and will not learn in school. He talks about how feel-good, politically correct teachings created a generation of kids with no concept of reality and how this concept set them up for failure in the real world.
Rule 1: Life is not fair – get used to it!
Rule 2: The world won’t care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.
Rule 3: You will NOT make $60,000 a year right out of high school. You won’t be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both.
Rule 4: If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss.
Rule 5: Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your Grandparents had a different word for burger flipping, they called it opportunity.
Rule 6: If you mess up, it’s not your parents’ fault, so don’t whine about your mistakes, learn from them.
Rule 7: Before you were born, your parents weren’t as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you were. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent’s generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.
Rule 8: Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life HAS NOT. In some schools, they have abolished failing grades and they’ll give you as MANY TIMES as you want to get the right answer. This doesn’t bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.
Rule 9: Life is not divided into semesters. You don’t get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you FIND YOURSELF. Do that on your own time.
Rule 10: Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.
Rule 11: Be nice to nerds. Chances are you’ll end up working for one.