Jonathan D. Blundell

I had a recent post suggesting churches use YouTube for advertising. I think I got more hits on that one entry than the rest of my blog normally gets in a month (thanks to CMS readers). In the post I mentioned the advertising contest by Chevrolet. Here’s an update on the contest via treehugger:

In March we had great fun with the online Chevy Tahoe advertising campaign where one could go online and build your own commercial; TreeHuggers did so many wonderful parodies. Eight months later, Wired magazine analyses its effectiveness. “The contest ran for four weeks and drew more than 30,000 entries, the vast majority of which faithfully touted the vehicle’s many selling points… But then there were the rogue entries, the ones that subverted the Tahoe message with references to global warming, social irresponsibility, war in Iraq, and the psychosexual connotations of extremely large cars. One contestant…a posted an offering called “Enjoy the Longer Summers!” which blamed the Tahoe for heat-trapping gasses and melting polar ice caps. An entry called “How Big Is Yours” declared, “Ours is really big! Watch us f**k America with it.” The same contestant …created an ad that asked the timeless question, “What Would Jesus Drive?” On its own Web site, the Tahoe now stood accused of everything but running down the Pillsbury Doughboy. ::Wired
…BY ANY OBJECTIVE MEASURE, the Tahoe Apprentice campaign has to be judged a success. The microsite attracted 629,000 visitors by the time the contest winner, Michael Thrams from nearby Ann Arbor, was announced at the end of April. On average, those visitors spent more than nine minutes on the site, and nearly two-thirds of them went on to visit Chevy.com; for three weeks running, Chevyapprentice.com funneled more people to the Chevy site than either Google or Yahoo did.

I haven’t seen any but I wonder if any churches took the challenge to see what kind of television ads their members might make. Could “the church” build a website like Chevyapprentice.com and open themselves up to public scruitiny?
What do you think would happen? How would an ad built by your next door neighbor differ from an ad you might build.

According to experts, phantom power is a huge drain on your electric bill. What is phantom power? It’s the power your television, computer, VCRs, cell phone chargers and more drain when they’re not really in use.
Your television drains power so that it can stay in standby and a picture will appear the moment you turn on the set. Your VCR drains power so that your timer will stay set and your computer may be draining power to charge it or just simply because you left it on.
All those items around your house can add up.
Treehugger.com has some suggestions on how you can kill all that phantom power around the house.

1) Devices like the Kill-a-Watt and Wattson can point you to devices that attract the largest load, leading you to get…
2) A “smart” power strip like the Wattstopper Plug Load Control and Smart Strip Power Strip, that cut the power when your devices are off.
3) The Mini Power Minder has the smarts to shut off your computer’s peripherals and doodads when the computer itself is shut down.
4) Simply unplugging things like your cell phone charger, which is only in use a few minutes per day, will make a bigger difference than you’d think.
5) See How to Green Your Electricity to learn more about keeping phantoms, vampires and warts out of your electrical life.

And one for me – getting up and turning off your bedroom lights before you fall asleep will also make a big difference in your electric bill as well – especially if you leave your lights on one or two nights a week.

I was at a seminar for bridge maintenance today, being put on by the Texas Engineering Extension Service at the Waxahachie Civic Center. Learning a lot about the bridges we drive over every day. Lots of you tax dollars should be going to bridge maintenance, but it’s not typically a priority for counties.
I bet you’d be surprised to see some of the wear and tear bridges see over their lifespan.
Might make you think twice about crossing some of the bridges you go over.

The discussion continues on several blogs about whether church should be about a cooking show or favorite eatery.

the encounter

Headphonaught’s Nanolog

Headphonaught’s 2nd post

JDBlundell’s Myspace blog
The post from Thomas that started this all said,

While I couldn’t connect with much of what was happening there, I felt really touched by the message that was taught. But at the end of the service, I had a feeling of incompleteness. I wanted to talk about it with the others, tell them how it spoke to me and hear what it meant to them. Discuss how that could become part of our life. But there was no room for that.

I think this is why blogs are so important for churches. It may be impossible to connect with everyone every Sunday. But with new technology like blogs and Web 2.0 people can connect at any time of the week – when it’s convenient for them. Maybe someone can’t make it to church every Sunday but they can connect with others via the Internet. You can discuss the message, discuss the music, discuss thoughts and sharpen each other’s swords.
I’m not trying to say churches should rely totally on Web 2.0 (or Church 2.0 as Thomas likes to call it), but it can be a very useful tool to reach those that might miss out on connections otherwise.

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From a non-blogging friend, via e-mail:
UPDATE: McClatchy Newspapers report that in the official ceremony swearing-in House members, those taking the oath do not place their hands on anything. It says: “The House speaker administers the oath to members en masse on the floor of the House…. It’s up to individual members if they want to hold religious texts…. After the official swearing-in, members often have photos taken at a staged swearing-in ceremony in the speaker’s office or their own offices, where they can place their left hands on sacred texts or hold them and have their families or religious leaders present….””
View my first post here

From Marni…
Hey everyone,
I made a new friend at the shelter on Sunday. His name is Willie. We talked for almost an hour while he told me his story. Willie has a job, but he doesn’t get off of work each day until 4. By the time he gets to the shelter, we and/or our supplies are usually gone. And lately as it’s getting cold, Willie sometimes isn’t getting into the shelter because it fills up before he gets off work. Willie has a sweatshirt and a sweatshirt pullover, and that’s the extent of his cold-weather clothing. Willie says that’s not so bad for when he’s outside during the day, but on the nights his job keeps him from getting in to the shelter, sleeping outside is pretty bad with no real coat to keep him warm.
And our buddy Donald…the one from the video Jonathan shot. He was there for our coat drive, but he only got a zip-up jacket, not a coat.
I am trying to find 2 coats for Willie and Donald. So far, no luck, but between all of us, I know we know someone who can help. Willie needs an extra large and Donald needs a large. Let me know if you are able to secure the coats for our friends and we’ll take them out there on Sunday when we go back. And as a prayer request, Willie asks for a better paying job that will get him out of the cycle that he’s in right now. He would like to make enough to get into low-income housing because that would guarantee his job wouldn’t force him to miss his chance to sleep indoors. Thanks so much!