Happy Mother's Day

Generation Change

This is the new book by Zack Hunter. He's a teen-ager who started an organization called Loose Change to Loosen Change to help end modern-day slavery. He's helped to raise over $200,000 already, and he's only just turned 16. He was 15 when he wrote his last book, "Be the Change." You can read what I said about that one here.

This one isn't just about slavery. It's about many injustices going on in the world now, and how teens (really people in general. Since he's a teen-ager, he writes towards teens, but it's a book for adults as well) can get involved. He talks about slavery, hunger, water, medical needs, education, all kinds of different things. He talks about how we, as Christians, have to care about people and take care of others.

In every chapter, he would tell a story about how somebody was doing something to take care of whatever need he was talking about. He would talk about a group helping to raise money to build water wells in Africa. He would talk about someone who would help people get shoes. Then he would end each chapter with several ideas that people can do on their own to make a difference. Many of the thing can be done by anybody, even people with little money and little resources. This is a book I would recommend to anybody who wants to help make this world a better place. In fact, I'm probably going to give it to all of my volunteers and leaders.

First-born kids really do have it tougher, new research finds

This was an interesting article about parenting children. It says that first-born kids have a tougher time on discipline than the younger kids. I knew this growing up. I always had different standards applied to me than my brothers. Also, I had a lot of younger cousins around. I was always the oldest. I always had a little more responsibility and a lot more discipline than my brother. If we got into a fight, even if he started it and punched me 10 times, and then I punched him back once, I was the one who got in trouble. If he didn't want to clean the bedroom we shared, he got away with it because he was so young. This is a couple of things I can remember. Anyways, I could go on and on, but just to let you know that this was a great article for parents. Check it out.

San Antonio News

Tonight, a bunch of the shows that Suzy watches were cancelled because apparently there was a building that was on fire somewhere in San Antonio. It was on all the main stations tonight and they did continuous live coverage of the fire. It was at a college that nobody's ever heard of unless you live in San Antonio called Our Lady of The Lake, or something. I just think it's weird how they have all these channels covering this fire on such a place that is only significant to people who grew up in San Antonio and those who went there. Fortunately, nobody was hurt. So, why was the Simpsons not shown. Next time something like this happens, I hope it's during a Spurs game. Then people around here will get really upset.

Youtube Shows Guilt

Last weekend, some of our high school boys stayed in our youth room all night. It's a group called "All the Kings Men." One of the seniors leads this group, which is a discipleship group of the core boys. The senior high pastor was out of town, but he gave them permission to stay in the youth room since it was the core boys who are on the leadership team. Basically, there only rule was to not go outside. About 3 a.m. the police were knocking on the door. Apparently, when the senior was sleeping, some of the guys went out and climbed up onto the roof. Somebody saw them and called the police.
But not only that, but they left proof of them emptying our helium tank that we use for balloons on youtube. It's weird to me that kids just don't think. Whatever thought goes in their head is done. But then, I'm reminded about some of the stuff I was pulling and getting away with when I was 15 or 16, and I wonder what in the world was I thinking. Anyways, I think these guys did enough that they'll never have another night where they can stay in the youth room.
Here's the video, and I just don't understand why kids incriminate themselves on youtube.

Top 4 Tween Tech Gifts

This was an article I read that shows what kids between 11 and 14 want. They were things that I've never even heard of, but they seem pretty cool. Here's the article.

Impress the trendy tweens in your life with these must-have presents

Paul Hochman TODAY gear and technology editor

June is around the corner, which means your tween might soon be successfully completing another grade in school. Some people rightly take this as an opportunity to reward their hardworking scholar with a fun present.

But while the old adage about it being “better to give than to receive” is true, there is an exception: It can be pretty agonizing to find a gift that a “tween” will actually admit is cool.

speedousa.com

Speedo's waterproof AquaBeat mp3 player holds up to 500 songs.

So here’s a little help: a quick list of fun, way-cool high-tech accessories that your 11-to-14-year-old will like. For one brief, shining moment, they might even think you’re, well, y’know, kind of OK. The moment won’t last long, so enjoy!

Speedo AquaBeat
If your favorite student is a water hound, they probably can’t wait to hop in the lake or the pool this spring. But until recently, they weren’t able to take their music with them. Speedo, famous for its swimsuits, has created a waterproof MP3 player that holds up to 500 songs and comes with waterproof earphones, extra earbuds and even a carrying bag. The music can be taken down to 10 feet below the water’s surface and, if dropped, will float in water. It plays music for up to nine hours on a full charge. $144.99; speedousa.com

cygnett.com This gadget will allow your tween to wake up to cool tunes instead of a jarring alarm clock ring.

Cygnett GrooveToons
Apple owns over 80 percent of the portable MP3 player market, which means it’s very likely your nephew, niece or grandchild has one. One of the best accessories I’ve seen for the iPod is the GrooveToon, a cool-looking alarm clock that works with the first three generations of iPod. It even doubles as a speaker system, and, since it’s very compact, will fit on a desk or a bedside table and do double duty as a personal stereo. The best part: Your kidlet can wake up to their favorite tunes instead of the insistent beeping produced by most alarm clocks. It even charges your iPod while you sleep. $49.99; cygnett.com

Hercules Mobile DJ MP3
For kids who consider themselves music aficionados, you’ll probably shock them with your latent coolness by giving them a Hercules Mobile DJ MP3. Basically, what it does is allow them to be their own disc jockey and mix together music playlists that they can play at sleepovers or parties and prove their coolness to their friends. Lots of effects buttons, made possible by much cheaper processing technology, lets them “scratch” and cross-fade and even synchronize different tracks. It’s powered by two C batteries and — here’s the kicker — it even works wirelessly with your PC. $99; hercules.com

FlashFlight SpokeLit
Some of us still remember the days when it was cool to attach playing cards to our bicycle wheels with a clothespin, making the card chatter out a “rat-a-tat” as the bike picked up speed. Here’s something that’s frankly a lot cooler … and safer, too. FlashFlight, which has been making safety lights for Halloween for years, now makes the SpokeLit, a spoke-mounted, water-resistant LED light that installs in seconds on any bike spokes and makes the bike rider much more visible at night. This fun, easy-to-use add-on glows or flashes a spooky green light(just press a button to choose), lasts for hundreds of hours. $9.95; niteize.com

13 Things I would do if I won the lottery

I don't even play the lottery, so for me to win, I would have to find a ticket, or maybe Suzy would buy one on a whim. But right now it's up over 100 million dollars, and it's fun to think about what to do if you had that kind of money.

1. Build a Library for my college. I went to a small college in Arkansas and the library was awful. It didn't have anything, and the books it did have were super-old. I would love to give them a state of the art library. I would also build them a big fountain in front of it because I think every college should have a fountain somewhere on the premises.

2. Build a school in Thailand for former girls who were in slavery. I don't know how much this would be, but I think it would be worth it. I would love to give some these girls a chance to come out of that life and break some family cycles.

3. Travel. I would go to Ireland and Australia. I still don't think I could stay in a $500 a night hotel, even with that kind of money. I think I would still feel funny about it.

4. Buy a house in Marin County, California. I think this is where I would love to retire if I could. It's beautiful there. Sure, there's a lot of weird stuff there, but that makes it interesting.

5. Help Suzy's sister start her own bakery. She's a pastry chef, a mighty good one at that, and it would be cool to help her with that. Plus I'd let her make me carrot cake a lot. Mmmm. Carrot Cake.

6. Help my brother and his kids out a little bit. He jumped in to a family head first getting 2 kids almost immediately after getting married, which is great, but I think they could use a little bit of a buffer in their bank account. As long as he doesn't spend it all on chimichangas.

7. Adopt a few kids. I would love to have a ton of kids, especially ones from third world countries. I think it's cool to be able give somebody a totally different direction in life by giving them a family who cares as well as a family who could provide education and resources they couldn't get. Hopefully, it would protect them from a hard life, and then they can go on and make a deeper impact in their community as adults. Did you know the guitarist from Korn became a Christian and this is something he did. He adopted a lot of kids to give them a better life.

8. I would like to buy a VW bus from 1967-1976. I would restore it and make it awesome. This would be the only car I would buy. I like my Expedition, and I don't need to get any super expensive car for the name of it. Plus I get so mad at people who drive BMW's and super expensive cars because they drive like they own the road. They cut people off more than anybody.

9. I'd help support some of my friends who are missionaries. I know they have a hard time raising money for specific projects they want to do. It would be cool to help them spread the love of God throughout the world.

10. I would adopt a village in Africa. For $10,000 you can adopt a village in Africa through World Vision. This helps them get animals for farming, clean water, medicine, clothing, and education.

11. I'd send Suzy's parents on a trip. They help us a lot, and I don't think they get back to Korea or Japan as much as they would like to see their family. It would be fun to help them out with that.

12. I'd pay off all of our debts. This would be a relief off of Suzy.

13. I'd have a big ol' party, and have Flatfoot 56 come and play at it and have In & Out cater it.

Hopefully, if I ever won the lottery, I wouldn't change that much. I don't think I would need to buy super-expensive things. I don't think I would move into a super-big house. I would like to live life normally, and give a lot of it away to things that Suzy and I believe in and would like to support.

Suzy and I watched "Lars and the Real Girl" last night. We both thought it was a great movie. It was about a man who is mentally ill and lonely who purchases a life size realistic doll and starts telling everybody that it his girlfriend. His family, church, work friends, the whole town pretend like she is real for him. She even gets a job. It's a very sweet movie that shows a lot of love for this guy, Lars. I know it sounds weird, but it was an excellent movie, one of the best I've seen in a long time. I think I might buy it. Plus, there was no bad stuff in it. I don't remember one cuss word, and there wasn't any violence or sex or anything. This is one I would recommend to anybody who would like to see an off-beat kind of movie.

Born Standing Up

This was the autobiography of Steve Martin. I love Steve Martin. I love the 3 Amigos. I love The Jerk. I even liked him in Father of the Bride. I think he's funny. He's also super smart. This book was about his stand up comedy life, which he quit and never looked back on in 1981.

What I really liked about this book was that it talked about his philosophy about comedy and how he came up with his material. Some of it was weird, and some of it you could see him doing it. He used magic and banjo and a ton of props in his act. I wish I could have seen it.

I liked this book a lot. In fact, when it was over, I even read the acknowledgments because I didn't really want it to be over. He used a lot of his jokes in the book, and how he came up with them. He talked about how he came up with the idea for The Jerk. If you like Steve Martin, if you like stand-up comedy, then you'll think this book is awesome.

Losers Club: Lessons From the Least Likely Heroes of the Bible

Losers Club was a book about people who have failed in the Bible, and God still used them. This has been an idea that many people have talked about, but this book really communicated it in a fresh way. It was written towards teens, and I think it was great for that. So many times when we think about the people in the Bible, we think they must have been amazing people who had faith that could have never faltered. These are people who God used to perform miracles. We think of them as heroes, and yet, many of them failed miserably at some time in their life (often times they failed a lot.

Basically, the author, Jeff Kinley, was saying that it is good to be a loser. A loser who puts God first and is willing to be used by Him. If you aren't willing to be used by God, then you won't be. You must get past yourself, and this is what he meant by being a loser. He talked about people who murdered, people who had serious doubts, even a couple of prostitutes. If God can use them to do amazing things, then God can surely use us, but first we have to get past ourselves and see that we are nothing without Christ.

He ended the book with this quote, and I kinda liked it:

We all struggle in this journey. But it's not the struggle, pain, and failure that define your identity. Rather, it's the progress toward Christ that makes you who you are.

It was a good book that I would recommend, especially to a teenager. It had a lot of stories and was an easy read. I basically read it in 2 days, although those 2 days were a week apart. Go check it out.