I know that my postings have been missing for several months, and for that I apologize. I'm not going to make a lot of promises, but I do intend to resume writing at some point. In the meantime, you can keep up with what I'm doing by following me on twitter at www.twitter.com/marklunsford. Thanks for your patience!
Before I moved to Texas, I believed that all people who lived in Texas were obnoxious. There is no other state in the country whose flag is the primary decoration in most people's homes. I just could never figure it out. When I lived in Tennessee, a lot of the people I worked with had ties to Dallas, and that sealed it for me. I mean, I was from Florida, the best state in the union, but you didn't hear me whooping and hollering about how great it was. Well, I'm not sure what has happened to me, but I really do like it here. In fact, for my first year anniversary I even bought a shirt that says, "Everything's better in Texas"! I'm wearing it like a proud, obnoxious Texan. I'm still not sure why everyone thinks it's so great, but I'm not fighting it any longer...so count me a proud member of the obnoxious Texan club!
Okay, boycotts can't last forever right? This weekend I ended my ipod boycott by buying an iphone. Something of an early birthday present for me. I've been very vocal over the years in my support of the subscription model for music and have begged and pleaded with Apple to offer subscriptions as an option. (You can read more about it here and here.) I actually struggled with the decision for a while. I've been using a Samsung Blackjack for the last year, and I have been extremely happy with the phone. It offers everything needed in a smartphone-email, web access, and oh yeah...makes calls too. But I saw iphone owners doing all kinds of cool stuff with their phones, like playing games, using location based gps, watching movies, and I wanted my phone to do that too. So...I created some great rationalization for my purchase. :) My decision to purchase the iphone was made based on all of the things it offered in spite of the fact that it was also an ipod. In fact, I'm still using Rhapsody (although I'm switching to Napster because I like the interface better) for music so that I can download whatever I want, whenever I want for one set price per month. I just wish that I could use one device for everything. My trusty Dell DJ will still serve as my primary music player...for now. Maybe one day Apple will hear me and offer subscriptions as an option. But until then, I'll just keep playing tap tap revenge, cowabunga, labryinth, and all the other time wasting applications that are now available to me on the iphone!
As most of you know, I serve as Executive Pastor at Hope Fellowship in Frisco, Texas. I've been here over a year now, and I can tell you that I've never been more excited about the direction of our church and the potential we have for making an impact in our community. A lot of people ask me, "so what is it that you actually do?" I pretty much do whatever is needed. But more specifically, I work alongside our lead pastor, John McKinzie, in developing the vision and strategy for the future. On a daily basis, I oversee all the finance and business management, lead our life group ministry and weekend ministry teams (ushers, greeters, parkers, connect, and coffee). Since some of the readers of this blog are also involved in ministry, I thought I'd share some of the tools that we have implemented recently that have been a tremendous help in our ministry.
My vacation has ended and I’m reminded of a joke that my friend Rick in Nashville told me a long time ago…
A certain man died and went to hell. (That could happen, the rest of this, probably not.) At the entrance to hell, he was met by a demon who told him, “Welcome to hell, you must now choose between any of the three doors in front of you to choose your place of eternal torment.” Behind the first door was people screaming and wailing while flames burned all around them. “Ouch” the man thought. Behind the second door snakes and rodents climbed all over the people in the room. “EEww.” He had always been afraid of snakes. As the demon opened the third door, a bad odor hit the man’s nose. The people inside were standing in manure up to their waists, but they were sipping coffee out of nice cups. The man thought,”Well the smell is awful, but I think I can get used to it. Besides, it beats getting burned or having snakes crawl on me, and I do enjoy coffee!” He told the demon, “If I have to choose, I’ll take this door.” “Great,” the demon replied. “Enjoy your eternal torment.” As he waded into the room, he wondered to himself where he might find the coffee maker. At that moment, a loud voice boomed over the intercom and said, “Okay everybody, break’s over. Back on your heads!”
Today I realized something that was so obvious, I can't believe it's taken me this long to figure it out. When I started this blog, I didn't know if it's something I would really keep up, so I set it up with a regular blogspot address. The problem has been, it's not very easy to remember. In fact, when I start to tell someone, they almost always stop me and say, "Wait, can you write that down for me?" It just doesn't roll off the tongue...God dash Life dash Stuff dot blogspot dot com. Ten syllables!! Well, starting today there is another way to get to the site. MarkLunsford.net That's it! How easy is that! Now when I want to tell someone how to find me on this here world wide interweb, all I have to say is MarkLunsford.net. So if you're ever in a conversation with someone and it goes like, "Hey you remember that Mark guy?" "Yeah, I think he has a blog or something?" "Oh yeah, how can I find it?" "I don't know, why don't you just try MarkLunsford.net?" Guess what, that person will actaully find me! :) Now, If you already subscribe to God. Life. Stuff. you don't have to change anything. You'll still continue to receive updates whenever they're posted. And if someone goes to the trouble of typing in those dashes and spots they'll still find me too. This will just make it easier for people to find this site in the future.
I just finished a book called "Built to Last" by Jim Collins and Jerry Poras. The main idea behind the book is looking into what makes organizations last for generations. They studied several "visionary" companies and compared them to other companies that started around the same time but didn't have the same level of success. They wanted to figure out what qualities separated a visionary company from the rest.
Here are some of the ideas that I took away from the book.
Time Teller vs. Clock Builder- Before there were such things as clocks, if there was a person who could look at the sun and always know what time it was, that would have been pretty cool. People would always be asking him what time it was, and would wait in awe to hear the answer. The only problem is, what happens when the time teller dies? His gift dies with him. On the other hand, what if someone built a clock so that anyone who looked at it could tell time? When the clock builder passed away, people would still be able to know what time it was. How does this relate to organizations? They found that the processes were more important than the personalities in the companies they studied.
Preserve the Core AND Stimulate Progress- Visionary companies have a distinct set of core values that they live by. But they don't preserve the core at the expense of being progressive. Rather, they preserve the core and stimulate progress at the same time. Just doing one or the other will not lead to lasting success. However, it's not a matter of balance between the two but wholeheartedly embracing both at the same time.
BHAG'S- I first heard this term when I was having lunch with Jeb, but this book is where the phrase began. BHAG's are Big, Hairy, Audacious Goals. These are goals that seem impossible. Goals that would take years to attain. But these are also goals that organizations can rally around. Visionary organizations continue to set new BHAG's when they achieve the goals originally set. One instance of a BHAG achieved but not built upon was Henry Ford's Model T. He wanted to make the automobile affordable for the masses. This seemed unthinkable at the time, but he accomplished it. Unfortunately for him, General Motors took it one step further and eventuallly surpassed Ford's accomplishments.
Although this book was originally written in the mid-90's, I thought that it was still very relevant for today. Recommended.
One feature that most blogs have that I have not included so far is a blog roll. For anyone not familiar with blogs, a blog roll is simply a list of links to other blogs to make it easier to discover new people worth reading. I have decided to go ahead and start a blog roll of my own. As I started to think about it, I realized that I always feel honored when I notice that I'm on some one's list, and I've discovered some great blogs by checking out other people's lists. Since I started blogging, I have become aware of several friends who also write blogs. I have really enjoyed keeping up with their lives through their blogs, even if I don't get to see them very often or even at all anymore. My blog roll will only include friends that I actually know, not just people that I read. The list includes current and former coworkers, friends from current and former churches, family, business associates, and school friends. I will only include links to blogs that I currently subscribe to and read regularly. So, for those of you who typically read my posts by email or rss, take a minute to drop by the site and check out my "friends with blogs".
I've been busy lately and I haven't had time to post about my lunch with Jeb Bush a couple of weeks ago. I was just as surprised as you that Jeb would want to hang out, but I guess we both have the Florida/Texan thing in common and he wanted to see how I'm adapting to the new state. Okay, not really, but it sounds cooler to say it that way. Actually I had the chance attend the Comerica Bank business forum and Jeb Bush was the speaker. He was a very engaging speaker, and not afraid to say things that could be considered controversial. I thought I'd share some of his points.
- Take a Risk. He said that in his time as governor of Florida, he never shied away from vetoing items that didn't make sense. His example was the alligator marketing fund. Jeb said, "We don't need to market 'em, we need to kill 'em." Basically, his point was that great things can't happen if you're not willing to go against the flow and take a risk.
-Ask the "Why not" question. When someone has a new idea about how to make things better, it's easy to dismiss because it's different. He suggests that any time new ideas come into play, ask "why shouldn't we do it?" It might be surprising what ends up getting changed.
-Have a BHAG. BHAG stands for 'Big Hairy Audacious Goal'. Some of his while he was in office included education, and energy security. BHAG's are goals that you can't achieve on your own. It will take many people working together.
-Stick with it. Focus on the long term, not the immediate.
-Listen before you communicate. He says in this complex world listening is becoming a lost art. Make it a point to hear what others are saying before you begin to speak.
-Integrity and Authenticity Matter. This one resonated with me. He said, "Say what you're going to do, and then do what you said." Seems pretty simple, but especially in politics it's been proven to not always happen.
I enjoyed my lunch with Jeb. I hope he calls again sometime.
This weekend we were out and about in Plano, dropping in on a new burger place recommended by my friend mistermunoz, when I came across my very own street! I guess when the city found out that I was moving to Texas, they hurriedly put this sign up in my honor. They must have done it quickly, because I didn't even get an invitation to the dedication! I'm sure they just figured I was way too busy to be involved, being the famous blogger that I am. Either way, I'm just glad that my work has finally been recognized, and that whenever people walk down this street,they will think of me.
The other day I was thinking about the many digital photos that our family has taken and how they are being stored on the various hard drives in our household when it occurred to me, what happens if that computer locks up and the hard drive fails? Now, one of our computers is a Mac, so I know it will never happen (wink, wink), but I realized that we have several years worth of memories that should probably be protected. I decided to start looking for an easy way to back them up online, so that I wouldn't have to worry about dying computers ever again.
Xdrive is a service from AOL that allows you to upload up to 5gb of data for free. It's a pretty sweet deal, but I found the interface a little clunky, and it wasn't optimized for photo sharing.
Google's Picasa Web is a service that I currently use. They only give you 1gb of storage for free, but it's fairly cheap if you need to upgrade. ($20/year/10gb) I like the interface, it's easy to share albums, and it works well with the Picasa desktop application, but I wanted something even easier. I didn't want to have to load pictures onto the computer, and then manually upload them to the web. I thought there should be an automated option.
That's when I found Sugarsync. It's a brand new service that automatically syncs your pictures (or files, videos, music) to the web. Not only that, but if you have several computers, you can keep them synced as well. When you load your pictures onto one computer, it will automatically add them to other computers if you want it to. In fact, you can see them on your smartphone as well. It costs a little bit more ($50/year/10gb) but it is much more sophisticated than the other sites. And, they are offering a half price promotion if you sign up before April 15.
Try some of these out before you have the unfortunate realization that hard drives don't last forever!
While it's much less significant than yesterday's anniversary, today marks an important day also. It's the one year anniversary of God. Life. Stuff. I didn't know when I started if this was going to be one of those ideas that I would actually follow through with, or a fad that came and went. I'm pretty excited that I've made it a year! I re-read my first post and it pretty well sums up what this blog is all about. Through the first year, I have written 100 posts, and have been able to stay in touch with a lot of friends, both old and new. Thanks to everyone who reads this. I hope that this blog will continue to be a source of encouragement, fun, and information for you.
As much as I love gadgets, I have never owned an ipod. It's not that I don't like them, I've just been on an ipod boycott. The reason is because I have been waiting for Apple to come out with a Subscription service, so that I wouldn't have to buy each song individually. I have used Napster and Yahoo for the last three years instead. If you're new to this subject you can read where I wrote about it here. Last week I was going to give an update on the status of the subscription model for music when I saw this article. But today, I read this article and this post about the fact that Apple may be coming out with a subscription plan of their own. Now I know it's too early to get giddy, but it's the first glimmer of hope I've seen on this. I guess my boycott is making a difference!! I knew I had the power to bring "the man" to his knees. :) I will make this promise. If Apple does come out with a subscription service, I will end my ipod boycott THAT DAY and buy one! Until then, long live Zune, Napster, and Rhapsody!
The girls are getting ready to start soccer season this year. We took some time Sunday afternoon to practice in the backyard. It's nice to feel some Springtime weather.
I decided to check out some of the advanced features on the Wii. One of the things you can do is download games from older systems. I noticed that they had Donkey Kong from the original NES. Back in the day I loved playing Donkey Kong and wasted countless hours away climbing ladders and jumping barrels. I decided that for $5 we needed that game, so I downloaded it. I've had a blast reliving my youth. But it just seems wrong to have a "next generation" game console, and playing a "last generation" game.
I think I might need an intervention. I have always been a fan of Pringles, but recently I've discovered some new flavors. Specifically, Salt & Vinegar and Screamin' dill pickle. Once I start, I can't stop. Those things must have crack in them or something. Anne caught me literally drinking the crumbs out of the bottom of the can. I gotta get off this train, I can feel myself spiraling...Put the can down....that's it, I'm never buying those again. I'm just too weak.
This afternoon I took advantage of the privilege that we have in this country to have a voice in government, and voted in the Texas primary. I know that all of America is watching this race closely, but mostly on the democratic side. Since I'm a registered republican, I didn't get to choose between Obama and Hillary, but I let my voice be heard anyway. Except in one race....when I got to the voting booth I realized that I had researched the wrong congressional district race. This is my first election in Texas, and I had looked at the candidates from district 3, but I guess I actually live in district 4. So...the list of candidates were completely unknown. I decided it was probably better not to just guess so I just left that one blank. I suppose you could say that I mostly made it count! :)
Over the weekend I had the opportunity to go to the Dallas Mavericks game versus the Sacramento Kings. A friend from church invited me, and of course I said YYYEEEEESSSSS!!! I love going to sports events. I even decided to buy a shirt to show my dedication to my new team. When we arrived and walked to our seats, I couldn't believe it. We were sitting on the floor!! Just underneath the basket. This picture was taken from my seat. I have to tell you, it's a whole different game from up close. I took it all in, and had a blast. I may never get that close again. :) Oh yeah, the Mavs won, but they had lost the night before to the Spurs and then lost yesterday to the Lakers. Why is it that teams start to lose when I jump on the bandwagon?
The weather in Frisco is beautiful today. Clear, 66 degrees. I think it's actually warmer here than it is in Tampa.
Anne and I found a new Thai restaurant last night. It's called Zak8. The food was great! It may have just passed my former fave, Benjarong in Tampa. However, it was a little awkward when the fire alarm went off shortly after they brought us our food. Apparently the restaurant next door burned their bread.
I was driving to an appointment today, listening to my mp3 player, (the Dell DJ) when I realized that I've been using the same one for three years now. Three years is like 20 in mp3 years. :) It looks OLD SCHOOL! But, it's still cranking out the tunes.
Speaking of tunes, my picks for this year's American Idol are David A. and Alaina.
**UPDATE (9:50PM)-I was surprised that Alaina got voted out tonight. I'm pretty sure this is the earliest my pick has gone home. I know that she didn't do very well this week, but I thought there were enough others with bad performances that she would make it through. She has a great voice, and I think she would have gotten better with experience. I guess America didn't have the same vision...:)**
Speaking of American Idol, I deleted Fantasia from the DJ today. Just didn't make the cut for me.
I'm going to the Mavs game tomorrow!! I'm pumped!
Have a great weekend!
Earlier this week Blu-Ray was declared the winner over HD-DVD as the standard for high definition discs. I am so glad that we're finally going to see a lot more support for high def now. I realize that I am becoming a high def snob, but I can't help it. Once you get used to the clarity, it's hard to go back. I realized that this week when we rented Oceans Thirteen. Not only was the movie a total waste of time (all that star power but no story), but even at 480p on DVD it didn't draw me in because it didn't have the crispness of HD that is becoming more and more prevalent. At Target, there was an endcap display with a Blu-Ray loop and I couldn't take my eyes off of it. It kept showing "Cars", "Surf's Up", and "Spider Man" and I couldn't look away. I told Anne I definitely NEED one of those. She reminded me of several other things that she considered higher priority, including the fact that one of our daughters doesn't have a dresser in her room for her clothes. Hey, I think the plastic bins work very well. She usually just uses her floor anyway. Besides, I can't have my friends over to ooh and ahh over a new dresser. Didn't work....but the Blu-Ray is definitely on the list. :)
I hate to say it, but I was seduced by clever marketing...
If you haven't tried one yet...go to Taco Bell and get the Cheesy Gordita Crunch! Excellent with Po' Boy Lemonade!
