but it is starting to change EVERYTHING.

how will it affect your…
work…
school…
family…
church…
sport…
ministry…
“other”…

(youtube link)

i saw this today. and i consider myself pretty “connected” to the social media scene. but there’s still a lot i haven’t been a part of, or simply don’t “get”.

and then i started thinking how i’ve kinda been neglecting my social media “skillz” because of how busy we are with MPD* and family. and then i started to wonder, “can we really afford to let our social media presence take a back burner if it’s turning out to be such an important aspect of the culture we live in?”

what are people saying about YOU?

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*MPD = Ministry Partner Development – that’s the name given to the process of us raising a team of supporters so we can report to Little Rock as fully funded staff missionaries with FamilyLife

as we enter a new month and new phase of ministry life, abe and I have decided to add a new format & hopefully more regularity to this blog. we look forward to sharing parenting & marriage insights with you as well as quick & easy recipes & podcasts on various topics. don’t miss out on a single edition – we’re gonna have a lot of fun!

i’ve been asked several times over the last year about “what’s twitter?” and “why should I use twitter?” while i’ll be the first to admit that you don’t really “get” twitter until you actually start using it, and you get equal value from twitter as you put into it.

so i’ve compiled a list of links to resources giving the various ways people are using twitter, as well as a post i wrote a while ago when i first started using the service. since then it has EXPLODED into mainstream use.

Continue reading

ever since the 36hr video contest our church held a couple of weeks ago i’ve gotten back in to making videos with iMovie. that and the fact that we also got a Flip Mino HD.

anyways, here’s a couple of the videos we’ve shot and edited recently.

36hr video contest entry:

the twins being cute on a slide:

Easter Testimonies video:

first of all i apologize for not being able to get this up and running on the church website, but hopefully this doesn’t throw your plans off too much. anyways here’s the info that i had planned to post on the church website.

for all the trouble i was having, and possibly the problem you’ve had trying to find this info, not only am i posting it a half hour earlier, but i’m also extending the deadline for turning in the video to 7:30am on Sunday morning. :) (see aren’t i a nice guy).

have a great movie making experience!!

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the following elements must be shown/represented in your movie in some way. they don’t necessarily have to be prominent, but they should be easily recognized by someone who’s looking for them.

in other words, for someone who doesn’t know about the required elements they shouldn’t think, “why in the world did they put that in their movie? that makes no sense. it seems out of place.”

but at the same time someone who is watching the movie should easily spot it and think it’s a natural part of the scene. some of these elements may be in the foreground or background of your video.

so without further adieu here are the 5 elements:

• the number: 633

• a pineapple

• a cowboy hat

• the phrases below must be spoken:

“are you talking to me?” AND “i sure wish i had a …”

• a shot of sunrise or a sunset

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below you’ll find the rest of the details about the contest already given in the handout, or downloadable from the homepage before. they are here as a reference and reminder of what else is expected. there is one MAJOR adjustment to the details. you can now also give me the video in a Quicktime format on disc, flash drive usb stick, or simply upload the video to YouTube and send me the link.

if you have any other questions about the contest or what is meant by any of the required elements or details feel free to contact Pastor Abraham via any of the methods listed below:

email: abelara@gmail.com

twitter: @abelara

facebook: Abraham Lara

phone: 509-303-0032

address: 503 Concord Ave. Grandview, WA 98930

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details //

When: March 27th-29th

required elements released at 7pm on Friday, March 27th. final edited video due to Pastor Abraham by 7am on Sunday, March 29th. (note video must be exported already in a format playable on Quicktime OR upload video to YouTube and send me the link in time. – see pastor abe if you need help with this).

Who: Anyone

your team can be your family, your friends, your lifegroup or even total strangers. they can be babies, kids, teens, adults or even pets. (at least one member of the team must be a part of Grandview Assembly of God)

Where: The World is your Stage

you only have 36 hours so you can’t go far, but be creative. you may use small portions of video clips from other sources, but most of the footage must be original to you and your team.

How: Mac or PC or ???

it doesn’t matter what type of camera or video editing tools you use. videos will be judged on 1) originality & creativity, 2) understandable story line, 3) editing, and 4) whether they meet the requirements below.

What: the Nitty Gritty

• video must convey one of the purposes of the church (Honor God in Everything, Reach Out to those w/o Christ , Mentor & Inspire Each Other, Equip Believers for Service, Connect & Live Life Together)

• minimum of 2 min, maximum of 7 min (including opening & ending credits)

• one team member from GVAG

• turned in by 7 AM on 3/29/09

• playable on Quicktime OR upload video to YouTube and send me the link in time.

• include all required elements in a believable way

• based on your favorite TV Show (if that TV Show made an episode based on a purpose of the church, what would it look like?)

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some video editing tips:

http://tinyurl.com/d3s8qo

http://tinyurl.com/dhcrcl

almost every american has childhood memories of what Christmas was like growing up. for me those memories include trips to california, singing around the piano, lots of family, and the nintendo.

that’s right. “the nintendo”.

that was the most memorable gift my sisters and i ever got for Christmas. i don’t know what your “nintendo” was, maybe a bike, a cabbage patch doll, a He-Man Master of the Universe action figure, an ipod, or maybe a puppy. whatever it was, it was what lit up your eyes. that thing that you made promises to your parents, Santa, or God in order to get. you saw it a catalog or online or maybe your friend had one. or then there’s those incessant saturday morning commercials in between the cartoons.

for me and my sister’s it was the original Nintendo Entertainment System (also known as NES).

Continue reading

for those of you who may not know, the now ubiquitous white earbuds and the iPods attached to them had a birthday this past week. yes, it was Oct. 23rd, 2001 that the iPod as first introduced to the world.

the first video is a promo video made by apple about that first iPod. (iPhone link: Original iPod Introduction)

this next one is the introduction of the original iPhone a year and a half ago and then one person’s wait in line at the NYC 5th Ave store.

it’s remarkable to me just how far we’ve come in the last 7 years. now with my iPhone 3G, i have all the innovations of the original iPhone plus the new App Store with thousands of programs from games to social networking to productivity software. it’s just so awesome! plus the phone, internet, email, iPod, and so much more. i wonder what cool toys we’ll be saving up our money for in 7 years from now?

do you have an iPhone? what are your favorite apps (free or paid)? after some use what’s made it to your “home” screen? here’s a screenshot of my current home screen:

you’ll notice that neither the phone or the email app made it to the dock at the bottom. i simply use the camera and twitterific more often.

do you not have an iPhone? are you sick of people talking about how great they are? or are you wishing you had one too?

i recently got an email from a friend asking about how to increase traffic to his blog, my response to him is what follows:

How do I get my blog more action i.e. visits?

simple answer: let people know you have one and keep them coming back by having content they want to read about.

what that means is include your blog site address in your email signature as seen below. when you write a new blog post, let people who follow you on twitter or facebook know about it. (and so you may also want to get more people to follow you on twitter and/or facebook, including people you don’t know but seem to have similar interests. Continue reading

so I took my first “free” ride with the van pool today. it was nice. I didn’t feel like making friends too much so I just listened to my iPhone and read some emails. I guess that’s the introvert in me. it’s not that I don’t like people, it’s just that I like to be alone more. (that last sentence won’t make sense to an extrovert.)

anyways, at work today Charlie and I went on a “house call”. actually the couple lives on a motor coach. the last motor home I was in was pretty old so I was really surprised at how nice the place looked.

it had a queen size bed, a washer and dryer, a huge 40″ LCD screen above the windshield, wireless hi-speed internet, and granite counters in the kitchenette. and for being a mini home on wheels it was quite roomy. naturally, it’s not something I’d want to move my family of 8 into. but perhaps it’d be something deb and I would love when we’re retired. it’d be fun to travel the country doing missions work or visiting all our grandchildren scattered around the country.

so how about you, would you travel in a motor home in retirement?

so if you follow me on Twitter then you already know Deb and I’s big news…

we got our iPhones today!!!

so how did these turn of events happen?

we were already planning on getting them this tuesday, but circumstances changed when (through my constant talking about it) our pastor decided it was time for him and his wife to also get new phones.  

to be fair… our pastor is already a big apple fan and was planning on getting an iPhone sometime in the future already.  he just wasn’t thinking it had to be on the very day that our sprint contract ended.  but after we talked last wednesday about some details about transferring our phone numbers he said he’d talk to his wife about possibly getting them some iPhones too.

well I was planning on getting our phones on tuesday during my lunch hour.  and then have the at&t guys call pastor to get the information they needed in order to port our numbers over. (for those who didn’t know our sprint phones are on the same “family plan” as our pastor’s and his name is the main one on the account, so i would need his authorization if i wanted to keep my same # on the iPhones.)  well once pastor decided that they also were going to get phones then it was more convenient for us to do go together on a weekend then during the week sometime.  he had talked with the at&t store and asked them if there was any way to pay/get the iPhones now, but not have the number ported over until tuesday when our contract ends (neither one of us wants to get charged $200/phone line by sprint for canceling early).  the guy at at&t said they would be happy to set up our phones with a temporary number now and then have us call an 800 # on tuesday (or anytime afterwards) to have our old numbers ported over.

and i was none to eager to agree that that would be a great idea.

i’m also excited that deb is so enthusiastic about her iPhone as well.  a few weeks ago when i asked her if she would also like to get one she was indifferent and said she’d be fine with just a “regular” phone.  but now that she’s had a chance to play with it for a little bit she loves it.  she was having so much fun browsing the AppStore on the drive home from the tri-cities- playing games, listening to music and surfing online.

yes, this is going to be the beginning of a beautiful friendship…

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PS.  i think this is going to allow me to start blogging on a more regular basis, since i’ll be able to write and publish posts from anywhere, not only when i’m in front of my computer.  plus the fact that i’m joining a “van pool” to get to work starting on monday, i’ll have plenty of time to write, read, listen to podcasts, etc.

if you want to know what our temporary numbers are you can see this tweet.  you’ll just have to know us well enough to know what our area code is where we live, or be good enough with google to figure it out.