Outreach

Kristy and I will be doing a seminar this coming weekend at the "Main Street Ministries Conference" held by The Salvation Army at Camp Walter Johnson. We'll be dealing with what outreach is and how we can both make our programs and other initiatives more outreaching! It'll be good, I think. It will be the first time we've presented this material though.
Anyway, all of our material will be available on the following website in the coming few days: http://www.webandflowdesign.com/outreach.

Go there and check it out. Handouts, case studies, resources, and even our visuals will be there - if you need it.

Grace,

Des

Excellent News

I have excellent news:

Estimated 17" iMac (with intel core duo) arrival date: April 5th, 2006.

The time has come.

Des

p.s. I'm also working to update my "Web & Flow Design" site. If you don't know what that is . . . it's a side project I'm working on. Let me know what you think of my new front page . . .

http://www.webandflowdesign.com

Thanks.

High Tech

So, I know I was promoting how High Tech our Youth Councils show was . . . these headsets tell a different story.

They may be a little dated.

Grace

Des 

The winter of my discontent . . .

It's snowing . . . .

Not sure.

Des

More From Youth Councils

Well, we're still here at Youth Councils. Things are going well . . . it's Saturday night. Steve Fitzhugh has spoken some great messages that have really connected with the kids. We had the 3rd Annual GodStock Outdoor Music Fest Extravaganza this afternoon, and then In His Grip performed a couple of sketches this evening at a dinner event.

It's been a busy day.

Here are a few pics.

The first is a shot from the back of the hall, where I'm perched. The set is amazing. It was designed by Jeremy at DHQ and built by Major Musgrave who seems to be able to build anything at all. Including a billboard video screen.

The praise band is "Entertaining Angels" from Tampa Florida. They've done a great job too. Good sound.

This is them.

I've been doing a load of video work. I think I might post some of it so that it's available to the other divisions here in the south if they're looking for some content.

Added to the to do list.

The final picutres down below here are of the general area around where I've been working. My computer (and 19" aux display!) are doing well.

I've also got a Remote Desktop Connection to a server perched upstairs where the videos are all rendered.

It's a great set up. It's nice to have these tools available to us.

That's it. Hopefully I'll be able to post more pretty soon.

Grace.

Des



 

Appreciation

One of the cool things about my job is that I get to work on really cool things like this. Once a year . . . right about now . . . it's time for Youth Councils!

This is 13th Floor . . . performing on our stage.

Grace

Des 

Proving How the Universe Was Born

Physicists announced Thursday that they now have the smoking gun that shows the universe went through extremely rapid expansion in the moments after the big bang, growing from the size of a marble to a volume larger than all of observable space in less than a trillion-trillionth of a second.

I have only one thing to say - I think this also proves that God is amazing.

Grace,

Des

Do Yourself a Favor

So, I've been noticing that far too many of you are still using Internet Explorer . . .

If you haven't tried the firefox browser yet, you really need to. I use it all the time. It's light-weight and compact. You can add on all of these different things called extensions (like plug-ins) that let you do ANYTHING you want. For example, I have a calculator, lots of web design tools ('cause I like to do that kind of thing), music players, and, if you're desparate, you can even open things up in internet explorer from within your browser.

One of the other cool things is "tabbed browsing." You know how when you want to open two or more pages at once with Internet Explorer you have all of these different windows open? So if you want to have Amazon.com, Desmerizing.blogspot.com, google.com, and espn.com all open at once you would have to have 4 windows open. Well, in Firefox . . . you only have one with four different tabs open so you can quickly and easily switch between however many you have going at one time.

Try it out. I've got a little firefox button to the right side. Download it and install it and give it a shot. Be sure to try out the tabbed browsing thing, and try downloading some extensions too (by going to tools -> extensions). Worst case . . . you don't like it and you have to uninstall. I think you'll be hooked though.

Let me know what you think.

Des

Why Asheville is an Interesting City

So, Kristy and I have been walking about downtown Asheville for a couple of days now. We're trying to figure out where everything is, trying to find a good Coffee Shops, restaurants, etc.

Today, as we were walking along Patton Avenue, we came across the Jerusalem Garden restaurant.

Looks pretty neat. Inviting. Especially if you like Moroccan and Mediterranean Cuisine. But here is just one more example of why I think Asheville is one of the most interesting places on the planet.

Apparently, the Jerusalem Garden's claim to fame is that it has the Best Sat & Sun Southern Style Brunch. Now . . . I'm assuming they don't mean Southern Mediterranean or Moroccan. Can someone please explain how THIS place has the best biscuits and gravy?

I love Asheville.

Grace,

Des 

Written with Writely

This post was written with Writely.com. It's an online Word Processor that I've been "using" for a while. TODAY, though, they were bought by Google. I'm wondering how all of these little things that Google owns will come together. I think for the time being, they're not allowing new accounts until they make the transition completely to Google.

I just wanted to try to see how the blog posting worked!

Des

note: this post was written a few days ago, but there was an error when I tried to post it to my blog. But, it finally got resolved. Yay.

The Edmonton Temple Street Team

This is a poster for the Edmonton Temple Street Team that I found on Jason Guy's Blog at http://realguy556.blogspot.com.

It's pretty cool. Pretty easy to do if you can get the right people.

Have a look and check out Edmonton Temple's Site and Jason's Blog.

They're both pretty cool

Grace,

Des 

My Home and Native Land

I've tried posting this once.
Unfortunately, it didn't work as I had planned.
I just wanted to share these pictures because it's where I grew up. This is right in front of my parents home in Newfoundland.

THIS was acutally Christmas Day 2004. I know it's had to believe, with the lack of snow and all. But it's true.
The water is a part o Trinity Bay, which is a part of the Atlantic Ocean.

A very cold part of the Atlantic Ocean.

Anyway, that's it. It's small and quaint.

And it's home.

Grace,

Des 

New Life

Ok, so it's no baby. But I've started growing some plants again. I used to grow a lot of plants. This is my first attempt to get back at it. It's much harder when you're in an apartment building.

But . . . I'll make it work.

This, by the way, is Basil.

Grace,

Des 

Enjoyment

I really like playing my bass.

No . . . I mean REALLY. I really like playing it.

I don't do it enough.

But I did it tonight.

Grace,

Des

Another Another Angle

This is a continuation of the last post . . . please see the anonymous comment from "Another Angle" just below.

Firstly, let me say that I don't speak for The Salvation Army. I don't have much information on their beliefs. There is a Salvation Army Handbook of Doctrine, which I don't, at the moment, have a copy of. You can find it online at THIS LINK. That will have the most detailed official info about the 11 Salvation Army doctrines.

Now, as for the issue of predestination . . .

I don't think Lorne was insinuating that our days are already planned out for us and as much as we want to act independant, everything goes just according to plan. In terms of human "plans," I don't think there is much that goes according to God's "plan."

Personally, I believe in complete free will. I choose to act in such a way that I determine to be best. God, for sake of this discussion, simply observes . . . I guess in a way, grades us.

Just today I was reading about the Rich Young Ruler . . . basically a rich man that asks Jesus what he has to do to get eternal life. It's found in Matthew 19.

Jesus response is two-fold . . . his response to getting eternal life is simply to follow the commandments. Now, there is more to consider . . . this man is a Jew, and Jesus has not yet been crucified (i.e. This man couldn't claim Jesus sacrifice to get eternal life, because it hadn't happened yet). Either way . . . it was a simple "To get this, do this." Response.

When the man questions further, Jesus says something very interesting . . .

"If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me."

There is obviously more beyond simply receiving eternal life. It seems to me that you can do enough to "just get by" or, for the truly motivated, there is more that we can do to further serve God. I hate to use the grading analogy . . . but there it is.

So . . . back to Lorne's comments. I think Lorne's thinking was more along the lines of "if you want to be perfect" than anything else. If you will, as a pastor, he had my eternal best interests in mind.

Hopefully this makes sense. It does to me, but obviously I can get inside my own head. There's also much more to this than one passage of scripture as well, but I think it makes the point fairly well.

Grace,

Des

Another Angle

I posted a comment on a friends blog a few days ago, and thought that I would share it here too. When I started at university I had to move away from from home. Not far . . . just about a one hour drive. In any case, it involved a move and, therefore, new friends, new church, new environment, etc.

After just a couple of weeks, one of the churches I had been attending had a welcome dinner for college students following one of the services. Major Lorne Pritchett was the Corps Officer at the time and we got chatting sometime during the meal.

He gave me a piece of advice that has not left me since. I've moved, in some degree, several times since that first year of universtity. But he told me:

"You're not in [university] to go to school. You're here because God has something for you to do in here, and university is just the way that He's arranged to have you here."

I've never forgotten that. It has been at the forefront of my mind with every move, with every change really, that my life has experience since then. It's good advice.

So wherever you find yourself, God has something for you to do.

Grace,

Des

Come Together

I'm becoming discouraged.

I am a Salvationist and I am becoming discouraged.

Our army is becoming fragmented and we're taking to a kind of guerilla warfare. Every soldier has their own agenda. We don't have a unified front. We don't use the same ammo. We don't even share a common target. You shoot at me, I shoot at you: some shots hit the enemy, some shots hit ourselves. And it's doing us in.

I live in the present. I respect the past, and plan for the future, but I live in the present.

I've read blog posts, I've heard rants. I've been told that I should be shouting Jesus' Gospel from the rooftops in a annoying but supposedly effective style of evangelism. I've been told that, "What this corps needs is a Junior Band!" I've heard primitives call out traditional. I've heard traditionals rant against the NEOs. I've heard how we should be friends to all mankind and how we should not be friends with all of mankind.

Wading through all of the interpretations and thoughts and orders and regulations is not unlike taking a dip in the middle of the Everglades on a nice sunny afternoon. It sure is refreshing in the moment, but then you get eaten by a 'gator . . .

What strikes me as interesting is that while all of this "discussion" goes on - though it often does not have that much civility - the other 90% are going about our business, carrying on our civilian and our military duties. I've never fought in a "human" war, but I bet it would be hard to do if there were 8 different commands at any given time - some from military leaders, some from a militant uprising from within the corps, some from the veteran soldiers, some from the rookies.

soldiers, be strong and courageous. Continue to advance, as you have been, into enemy territory (middle class neighbourhoods, shopping centers, Africa, urban America, Waynesville, London's East Side, London's West Side, Buckinham Palace, etc). This infighting will not last forever.

There is a place for the front-line soldiers. Their valiance and sacrifice cannot be topped. There is a place for the administrator. Their careful planning and budgeting can determine the outcome of the war. There is a place for support staff. Tanks need Fuel and Ammo. There is a place for covert ops. We may never know how much is done out of the bright lights. Yes, there is even a place for the military bandsman. Doesn't Bush even have his own band? The President's Own?

Being a soldier, engaged in a battle, means more than you may think.

Grace,

Des

This Post Really Sucks

According to Mental Floss Magazine, the United Nations Economic Commission estimated in 2003 that sales of vacuum-cleaning robots wouldn't reach 400,000 units until 2006. Well, it turns out that the iRobot Roomba vacuum had announced that it sold it's one millionth unit just over a year later in 2004.

Now, that begs one very important question.

What on Earth is the United Nations doing discussing robot vacuum cleaner sales?

SURELY, there are more important things to be discussing at THAT level of global leadership. The last time I checked millions of people were dying of preventable causes all around the world. The lsast time I checked millions of tons of food COULD be distributed to starving families in some of the poorest countries. There are still wars. There are still horrific disasters.

And the UN is discussing vacuum cleaners?

That really does suck.

Grace,

Des

Pictures of a New Baby!

Kristy has been very excited about posting pictures of Caden Robert Stock - the newest Stock. He is a cutie. See him at Kristy's Blog.

Grace,

Des

It Only Gets Better

So, tonight at the coffee house in Waynesville, Chuck and I performed. I didn't even know he could sing. But he can. And he writes. He gave me a couple of his old notebooks that he's written poetry and stuff in. It's pretty amazing. After he started singing, I grabbed my bass and we rocked it old school.

In a way.

In a completely different way, we didn't rock anything. But it was definitely fun.

We played pool too. 3 Games. I beat him LEGIT in one of them. He MAY have let me - I don't think I'll ever know.

Anywho . . . it was fun.

And it keeps getting fun-er.

Chuck is a much better writer than I. He beats me at pool and he writes better than I do. Hmmmmm.

Grace,

Des

Another New Design

Well, as you can see, I've been working hard to redesign how my blog looks. I think this is my favorite so far. This is what I do when I can't sleep.

Anywho, I'll have to get to working putting a link to everyone's blog back up - and a few of the other things that I've had going on over there . . . but that will come.

Right now, I think it may be time for bed.

Grace,

Des