Yup, I’m taking a break. A sabbatical, leave of absence, vacation, or whatever you want to call it — a break from Web 2.0.

As of writing this, I’m not sure how long it’ll be. I’m thinking at least two weeks, but maybe the whole month of November. We’ll just wait and see.

No blogging, no Twitter, no Facebook.

I do plan to keep publishing the podcast during the month of November (that is if we can get some more stories), but otherwise…

A nice long break.

Why am I doing this?

• I’ve been blogging 4-5 times a week since April 2005 and I’m getting tired.
• I want to focus on finishing my novel and get it to publication.
• I want to prove to myself (and others) that I can live without staying in constant contact with others.
• I want to be sure that I can get by without the narcissism and ego boosts that come from having X number of readers and X number of friends or followers.
• Two weeks of vacation this year without Twitter were great. I need more breaks like that.
• There are other things that need my attention right now.

So there you have it.

I don’t expect to be legalistic about this.

You may discover me posting pictures to Flickr from time to time, or I may send out a Twitter update from time to time if an urgent need arises (especially to remind you that our friends are still in need of help to avoid foreclosure).

And of course, I’ll still be available on e-mail and phone — just don’t expect any updates on here, Twitter or Facebook.

And otherwise I’ll be on a Web 2.0 sabbatical for the next two to four weeks. See you on the flip side!

related posts ::

• A Christian Ethic of Blogging
• Social networking and the church
• Beating foreclosure
• Top 12 communication pet-peeves
• Helping our friends beat foreclosure – update
• With a little help for our friends
• Help a friend beat foreclosure
• My thoughts on church buildings
• Five things I did during the Great Crash of 2009
• Going dark

Just a brief heads up…

I’ll be back on Power FM Sunday night for Open Lines on Powertalk with Rick Walker. The show runs from 9 to 9:30ish PM CST.

It’s always a great time — and with Open Lines, you just never know what you’re gonna get.

In the past, we’ve talked about everything from cow tippin’, teen sex, masturbation, why God allows suffering and lots more.

In the DFW area, you can listen in on 89.7 FM KVRK or anywhere in the world, listen online at 897powerfm.com.

related posts ::

• I’m on a Powertalk Radio…
• Powertalk podcast

Wednesday of this week (10/28), was the third anniversary of my proposal to Laurie. I’m still thrilled that she said yes.

We were married six months later — April 28, 2007.

And only 2 1/2 years later, I finally got around to editing at least a couple minutes of our wedding video.

Enjoy!

Click here to view the embedded video.

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• Skye Jethani :: Where does our legitimacy come from?
• 7 is greater than 1
• Alan Hirsch shares during #thenines
• Wetoku – video interviews on the cheap

Over $4000 raised in just over a month!

Take a look at this map – it shows every city represented by at least one donation.

Awesome!

But we’re still not there yet. As of this morning we still need $450 to reach our goal.

We just need 45 more people to give $10 each, 90 people to give $5 each, or 10 people to give $45 each .

Donate online

Either way, I need your help.

I need you to E-mail this message, Tweet it, share it on Facebook, share it on Myspace. Send them to this page, or the original explanation page.

Get the word out so we can reach our goal and help a family avoid losing their homes.

Donate online

If you don’t think this is a real problem, take a few minutes and visit invisiblepeople.tv or watch these videos:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

We can do this — together!

Donate online

related posts ::

• Helping our friends beat foreclosure – update
• With a little help for our friends
• Help a friend beat foreclosure
• My thoughts on church buildings
• Taking a break
• Top 12 communication pet-peeves
• Monday briefs
• Help the Joneses
• Some great Twitter peeps
• Five things I did during the Great Crash of 2009

Click here to view the embedded video.

HT to TallSkinnyKiwi for the video. Also be sure and read his post, “The Art of Not Getting Embarrassed at a Baptist Church.”

And yes, this is shared with a nice bit of sarcasm thrown in.

related posts ::

• God of this City
• 7 is greater than 1
• Social media’s impact and the Church
• My thoughts on church buildings
• The question of multi-site churches
• Tall Skinny Kiwi visits something beautiful
• Visual worship
• Jesus, Liberal Or Conservative?
• Let it out
• The one where we say ‘I do’

I do my best to offer grace and understanding to folks — no matter where they are, what they’re doing or how they’re doing it.

But sometimes when it comes to communicating, certain things get under my skin. I’m not sure why, they just do. So I thought I’d offer a little insight into my world with a list of my Top 12 communication pet-peeves.

(I know some of these might feel like I’m picking on you. I’m not. Trust me, there are more than one person that does each of these — and several folks do multiples of these. Consider this a confession on my behalf more than anything else. Perhaps this list will give you a little more understanding into my world — and then you can offer some insight into your world as well.)

1. People who call, don’t leave a voice-mail and then complain that you didn’t call them back. I know I have caller ID on my phone, but if you don’t leave a message that asks me to call you back, chances are — I won’t.
2. People who don’t listen to voice mail. I leave voice mail many times so that you don’t have to call me back. Sometimes its just to let you know something, or I just wanted to say hi. I might also leave a detailed message that I don’t want to have to repeat all over again when you call me back. I don’t mind people calling me back, but it makes things a lot nicer when they’ve listened to your voice mail first.
3. People who switch communication mediums – mid-conversation. I know some folks who like to respond to e-mails via chat, rather than e-mail. While I get that to some extent, they usually pick up mid-conversation and think I know exactly what I’m talking about. They’ve just read my e-mail and that’s what’s on their mind, but as soon as I hit send, I move on to other things until I see a reply in my e-mail. Also, I have some friends that will tell you something in Facebook, you’ll reply in Facebook, and then they’ll send their reply in e-mail, or chat, or Twitter. It makes it difficult to go back and track the progress of the conversation.
4. E-mail forwards. — especially political ones and/or those that have already been disproved on Snopes.com
5. Starting new e-mail threads, outside of the original one. This may not happen to you much, but in our office, an e-mail gets sent to a group of say 10 people. Three people hit “reply-to-all” and send their reply to everyone. Then someone else decides to only reply to one or two people and rather than replying to the original e-mail, they start an entirely new email (without copying the original e-mail into it), with an entirely new subject line. Then along the way other people in the group will get added to this new e-mail thread and eventually you have 4 or 5 different e-mail threads you have to search through to find what you’re looking for.
6. Over using “reply-to-all.” In a similar scenario, someone may send an e-mail to a group thanking them for a job well done. Then many people in the group hit “reply-to-all” saying thanks, you’re welcome, etc. etc. sending those e-mails to everyone in the group, rather than just the original sender of the e-mail. While it may not be intended, it often comes across to me as trying to be as public as you can in your kissing up to someone.
7. People who don’t follow me on Twitter sending me a direct message. For those of you who don’t know, there’s a “private” way to send messages on Twitter — it’s called a direct message. But you can only send direct messages to folks who are actually following you. And unlike Facebook, you’re not required to mutually follow people. I can follow 5,000 people if I want and not one of them is required to follow me. I understand using direct messages on Twitter. I use them all the time. It’s great for “private” messages you don’t want to broadcast to everyone else. But if you’re going to send me a direct message, in order to keep the conversation “private” at least have the decency to follow me for the time being so I don’t have to “broadcast” my side of the conversation as public replies. What this comes across as to me, is that while I’m taking the time to follow you, I’m obviously not good enough for you to follow me and I’m not even worthy enough to be mentioned publicly by you. You have to hide the fact that we’re having a conversation.
8. People who use Facebook as their only way to contact me, when they have my e-mail address, phone number and more (and if they don’t have it – it’s all posted on my Facebook profile). I’m don’t mind using Facebook, but it can be a bit annoying at times when you have to login to Facebook to get a message that could have easily been e-mailed instead. I guess I just don’t spend as much time on Facebook as others. I prefer e-mails simply because I can receive them and respond to them quickly and easily on my phone without logging into another site.
9. Extra long e-mails. This one annoys me not because I hate reading long personal e-mails, but I always feel like I have to write a full response to them. And usually when I get these long e-mails, I may have time to read them all, but not fully respond and thus I simply let them sit in my inbox and before long they’re buried and I’ve forgotten all about them (and my need to reply).
10. People who do nothing but whine and complain. There’s something about social media and Web 2.0 that makes complaining easy and tolerable by the masses. Suddenly you have an audience who is (somewhat) willing to listen to your ranting, venting and whining. But for those who do it constantly, whether its about politics, religion, how bad their life sucks, etc. etc. — uggh — it’s such a power drain.
11. Spam.

So there you have it, my Top 12 communication pet-peeves (in no particular order).

Oh wait, there’s only 11 you say? Well that’s because it’s your turn! Tell me what you would put in the number 12 spot.

What did I leave out on my list? Share it in the comments below.

Or maybe I’m way out of line with this list. Feel free to let me know that as well.

related posts ::

• Going dark
• Taking a break
• Beating foreclosure
• Helping our friends beat foreclosure – update
• With a little help for our friends
• Help a friend beat foreclosure
• Social media hacks for your website
• My thoughts on church buildings
• Five things I did during the Great Crash of 2009
• Church 2.0 forum

Click here to view the embedded video.

Sunday night at the Derek Webb show, I found out they were shooting a DVD of the concert. What intrigued me most about that was that they were using three Canon 5D DSLR cameras (forgot the exact model) for the shoot.

The main closeup shot was using a 32 GB card, that stored up to 80 minutes of HD video on it. He also had a small boom mic that attached to the camera’s shoe (where the flash normally goes).

Needless to say, I was smitten.

All of Canon’s DSLR cameras that shoot HD video are quite a ways out of my price range ($2700 for the 5DMarkII body), but there’s always hope… and either way… the technology is amazing!

Update: Found the site for the guy(s) who shot the Derek Webb show (@brignac – http://www.brignac.tv/). They’re using the Canon 5D Mark II and this was one of their initial videos — another beauty!

Click here to view the embedded video.

My first shots with the Canon 5D Mark II. Lensed with:
- Mamiya 50mm f1.4 (m42)
- Canon 24-70mm f/2.8L
- Tamron 180mm f/3.5 Macro

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• Greg Russinger at The Idea Camp #icdc #justicefriday
• My life canon
• The one where we say ‘I do’
• How to worship (instructional video)
• Muse – New Born
• U2 360 Tour in Houston :: Videos
• The Butterfly Circus
• Lessons from the storm
• Skye Jethani :: Where does our legitimacy come from?
• 7 is greater than 1

300,000 women and children exploited for sex in our country each year.

The stats are astounding.

“You may choose to look the other way but you can never again say you did not know.” – William Willberforce

This demands attention!

Libby Spears, has devoted almost 10 years uncovering the sex traffic industry in lesser developed countries like the Philippines, South Korea, and Thailand. What she found out while filming there is that the United States is actually “influencing the global demand and growth of the sex trafficking industry.” That not only is human trafficking for sex apparent in less developed countries, but it is also “every bit as real in North America.”

After Spears’ discovery, she started filming “Playground,” which follows the story of victims in America and examines the United States’ influence by interviewing activists and experts in this field.

“The only way not to find this problem in any community is to simply not look for it.”

A special screening of this film will be presented by Dallas Women in Film and the Dallas Women’s Foundation on November 5th, 2009.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The event will be held at Studio Movie Grill – Royal Location, and begins at 6:30pm, 7pm screening followed by Q&A with director Libby Spears.

Studio Movie Grill
studiomoviegrill.com

11170 N. Central Expressway
Dallas, TX 75243
214 361 2966
Get Directions

The first 80 people to RSVP will be admitted for free. RSVP to Sherri Galbraith at sgalbraith@dallaswomensfoundation.org or 214-525-5301.

Thereafter, tickets are $5 for members and SMU students and $8 for nonmembers.

Nonprofits are invited to purchase blocks of tickets at the discounted member price. For more information, please email chickflicks@wifdallas.org or publicity@wifdallas.org.

The screening is also brought to you in part by the SMU Department of Cinema.

HT to I Live in Dallas for the heads up! Read more about the film.

Becoming a slave is easier than you think
Becoming a slave is easier than you think
Becoming a slave is easier than you think
Becoming a slave

There’s always a price to pay
It’s gotta hit somebody’s back
Trust me, new worlds don’t just build themselves

Progress has more than one face
Even though it’s always itself
There’s nothing you can change that doesn’t change everything else

So it’s simple
It’s so simple
If they’re not like us

(Derek Webb – becoming a slave)

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• #justicefriday – Imprisoned journalists share their story
• Chipotle responds
• #justicefriday – the Vieled Community
• The Killers and MTV unite against Human Trafficking
• iPhones and dirty Coltan #justicefriday
• Obama administration looks at human trafficking
• adopt a Jesus
• A kick in the balls
• justice is what love looks like — in public

A quick summary of emergent Christianity… via @jonestony

Dispatch 1: Emergents practice a generous orthodoxy that appreciates the contributions of all Christian movements.

Dispatch 2: Emergents reject the politics & theologies of left versus right — they anticipate a more complex reality.

Dispatch 3: The gospel is like lava: no matter how much crust has formed over it, it will find a way to burst through.

Dispatch 4: The emergent phenomenon began when a group began talking about how postmodernism was affecting the faith.

Dispatch 5: The emergent movement is not exclusively North American; it is growing around the globe.

Dispatch 6: Emergents see God’s activity in all aspects of culture and reject the sacred-secular divide.

Dispatch 7: Emergents think that an envelope of friendship and reconciliation must surround all debates about doctrine.

Dispatch 8: Emergents find the biblical call to community more compelling than the democratic call to individual rights.

Dispatch 9: Emergent is robustly theological; the conviction is that theology and practice are inextricably related.

Dispatch 10: Emergents believe that theology is local, conversational, and temporary.

Dispatch 11: Awareness of our relative position—to God & one another—breeds biblical humility, not relativistic apathy.

Dispatch 12: Emergents embrace the whole Bible, the glory and the pathos.

Dispatch 13: Emergents believe that truth, like God, cannot be definitively articulated by finite human beings.

Dispatch 14: Emergents embrace paradox, especially those that are core components of the Christian story.

Dispatch 15: Emergents have a hope-filled eschatology: it was good news when Jesus came & it will be when he returns.

Dispatch 16: Emergents believe that church should function more like an open-source network and less like a hierarchy.

Dispatch 17: Emergents start new churches to save their own faith, not necessarily to make new converts.

Dispatch 18: Emergents believe that God’s Spirit is responsible for all good. Our task is to cooperate with God.

Dispatch 19: Emergents downplay—or outright reject—the differences between clergy and laity.

Dispatch 20: Emergents believe that church should be just as beautiful and messy as life.

I’m sure Tony will continue posting the rest of this list via Twitter (@jonestony)– or Tony’s book, The New Christians: Dispatches from the Emergent Frontier, is now available on paperback. It includes all these dispatches and it’s a great resource for those interested in understanding the history of the emergent church movement.

related posts ::

• What is emergent? Missional
• What is emergent? Centered set
• What is emergent?
• Hitler does emergent
• Top emergent books
• The marbles are on a roll
• Nine practices of the emerging church
• What is emergent? Trinitarian based values
• What is emergent? A generous orthodoxy
• The Great Disappointment

Solving real solutions in real, practical ways.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Be sure and check out the other GOOD videos from GOOD Magazine and be inspired.

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