Sunday, February 26, 2006

Tic Tacs

Just thought I'd share a funny story from the weekend.

One of our kids had some Tic Tacs last night at about 11. Since we were starving, he said we could have some. His mom took one that looked like it was still shiny like it should be, and I took one that looked a little more dull for some reason. After we got done eating them, his mom asked him where he got them. He replied that he found them on one of the inflateables he was playing in. Needless to say, we were a little grossed out, but I'm here blogging now, so I don't think it did too much harm.

The camp we were at had an inflateable maze, a 20 or 30 foot tall inflateable slide, a bouncing room, and a rock climbing wall. It really was a blast. The camp itself was gigantic. There were tennis courts, basketball courts, lots of "cabins" where the campers stayed and all sorts of buildings used for classes and the main auditorium where we had most of our meetings.

We started yesterday with breakfast early in the morning, followed by free time until 10:00 for morning worship and sermon. After the morning meeting, we had some free time before lunch. After lunch we had some game time followed by a class on sharing your faith using the Chronicles of Narnia. After this class, the boys had an hour to play on the inflateables. After this time we had dinner, followed by free time and the evening service. After the service they had inflateable time again, but we only stayed about an hour since we were all exhausted.

It really was a fun weekend. I was surprised by what a good time I had. I'd do it again in a heartbeat.

Great Weekend

This weekend we were in Carlisle with our PowerKidz group from the church for a Narnia-themed camp about missions, among other things. Even though I'm pretty much exhausted right now, we had a great time. Our kids were great, the meals were great, the sessions were awesome, the praise and worship time was great. Everything was just great : )

The weekend focused on using the Chronicles of Narnia (which, by the way, is an allegory about the life of Christ. If anyone tells you differently, they're not quite right about what they're talking about.) as a way to witness to friends and loved ones that don't know Jesus. It was just awesome to see how simple Christianity is when you really break it down to a child's level. It's so simple. I think as adults we tend to make it too complicated sometimes. We try too hard, when all we really need to do is come to God like a little child.

I was amazed to watch how receptive our kids were to the different sermons and talks given throughout the weekend. When there was a time to pray, they were up there praying for each other, crying with each other, laughing with each other, and when people were bullying their friends, they stood up for each other. It was a great bonding time for all of us I think. I really go to know the kids better and just appreciate spending time with them. Life is so much simpler when you see it from the perspective of a child.

I have so much more I'd like to write, but it's hard to get it all in to words right now.

To my friends that don't know Jesus as their savior. It is my sincere prayer that you make a decision to invite him into your life to be your Savior. It's a decision that you'll never regret, and it's a decision that will save your life for eternity.

Wednesday, February 22, 2006

Ryan Wilcox on MacTech

My friend and former boss, Ryan Wilcox, just made the cover of MacTech magazine. MacTech is a magazine that has lots of technical articles about cool coding stuff you can do on your Mac.

Congratulations, Ryan. I've always admired your work ethic, your business ethic and so much more about you. I'm proud to have worked with you and proud to count you as a friend. Here's to continued success.

Sunday, February 19, 2006

Check it out

Warning: the following is a somewhat shameless plug.

If you have a chance, and you'd like, check out Church of the New Covenant's web site. I've been working on the site for a while for the church. It's turning out pretty well I'd say.

Saddam

When can we all quit pretending that there was no possible way that Saddam Hussein had WMDs? Nightline just ran a report the other night that had video or audio (I'm not sure) evidence of Saddam talking about all sorts of things related with terrorism and WMDs (link The Secret Saddam Tapes.

I'm really tired of hearing people say that there were no WMDs and that they were all destroyed back in the early 1990's. Maybe that's true, but I highly doubt it. If it were, why would Iraq have given weapons inspectors such a hard time and kicked them out of the country numerous times? A lot of things just don't add up.

I haven't heard much talk in the mainstream media about this story, and why would they? They have the WAY more compelling Dick Cheney accidental shooting story to talk about, and we all know how important that is to our national security.

Seriously, if anyone ever tries to convince you that the media is way biased far to the right, I'd think twice about what they are telling you. Just look around. Listen. Think for yourself. When we're spending more time talking about Dick Cheney (which was a terrible accident) and not focusing on the evidence that could be vital to our security, something is out of whack.

Monday, February 06, 2006

Bye Bye, AdSense

I've been running AdSense ads on the site for a while, but I decided to take them down today. I don't like the fact that I don't much control over there content, and they weren't really doing anything except taking up space anyway.

I'ts all about the money?

If This is true, I'm not sure what to think about it. If Joe Montana really did have a game to go to for his son, then so be it. And if Terry Bradshaw really wanted to be with his family (why he couldn't take them to the game, I don't know), then so be it. But if it's true that it was really about money, then shame on both of them.

Even though I didn't know all the players introduced last night, and it was a little tedious, it was cool to see a representation of football's past. It's always good to remember where you came from and the people that made something the way it is today.

Sunday, February 05, 2006

Congratulations, Champs

I just want to say a big congratulations to the Pittsburgh Steelers for winning a tough game tonight to become the 2005 Super Bowl Champions! It still seems surreal to me. The game seemed to go by so quickly. I was so worried at the beginning of the game. Pittsburgh really wasn't looking good at all. They didn't start to shape up until sometime in the 2nd quarter, and even then it was still a little shakey. Roethlisberger definitely had an off game, but that's why it's a team sport, and everyone really was there to support him, and then made it one heck of a game, if not just a tad bit ugly. That pass by Randle El to Ward was amazing, right on the money. It was great. I was telling everyone tonight that I really haven't had my "own" team in the game since the Bills made it back in the 90's, and we all know how that went. It was great to watch the Steelers all season long and watch them overcome all the adversity and all the pressure to pull out a win in one of the biggest games in all of sports. It's especially great to see Jerome Bettis, who seems like an all around good guy, go out on top.

I had a great time with Josh, Katie, Darrin, Krista, and Danielle and my folks tonight too. It's always great to be around good friends, with good food, and a great game.

Life is good. Now if I could just get Google to work better for a search I'm working on, I'd be all set.

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Copyright 2005 Jared Barden