What kids think has a lot to do with where our nation goes.  Companies discovered a long time ago that if you want to sell your product, sell it to kids.  They’ll drive their parents nuts till they get it.  It has more to do than just selling a product however, the kids of today are the adults of tomorrow.

The astronauts today grew up with people like John Glenn and Neil Armstrong as heroes.  They watched the first moon landing when it happened live.  The space race of the late 60′s and early 70′s is what shaped their futures.  Their world was shaped by their dreams of life in space.

It’s not the same today. Ask some of the kids today who was on the last Shuttle, and they couldn’t tell you.  Truth be told, I couldn’t either.  It seems like the only time they talk about a shuttle launch is when it doesn’t happen.  Space does not capture us like it once did.

Then and Now

At first, space was exciting.  It was new.   It was the next great frontier.  All the people involved were rock stars.  If you couldn’t make it as an astronaut, then you could try and be one of the scientists that make the rockets fly.  There was glamour about the whole program.  It was something to make people dream, and strive to make those dreams come true.

Today, it’s a different story.  Michael Hanlon in the article says it best:

Another big problem is the legacy of some terrible decisions that left NASA with the expensive, dangerous space shuttle and a white-elephant space station that manages the feat of making space seem as dull as cardboard. The whole thing is a mess.

Space does not capture us like it once did.  The men and women of NASA are not heroes, they are robots, and not even the cool kind.  They are machines that do a job.

I know this is how it needs to be to keep everyone safe.  I am not even saying that all of this is the fault of NASA or the government.  I am just pointing out the truth.  We don’t have any real space cowboys anymore.  If we do, no one is making a big deal about them.

No More Adventures

I think the heart of the problem is found in the children and the world that they live in.  What made the early space program so romantic was the adventure.  These people were going into space.  No one had been there before.  We really don’t know what they are going to find.  We don’t even really know if this all will work.  It was a huge adventure.

The adventure of space travel sold because people back then loved adventure.  It wasn’t about money, it was about being on the edge.  It was about pushing the envelope.  It was about seeing how far we can push ourselves, and then trying to go further.

Today, it’s all about money.  It’s about fame.  Kids today have a very different kind of hero.

Something has been lost.  Kids today don’t seem to care about the things that the past generation did. They don’t see the world the same way.  The worst part about all of this is the fact that more than just space travel has been lost.  I think if things continue the same way, we will see fewer and fewer scientists and teachers.  Everyone will be looking for the easy road to make it rich.  Money will be the only thing that people care about.

If we want to see things like space travel continue, then we need to reach the kids.  We need to show them that there is more to life than sports and video games.  That there is a world outside that they have never dreamed of.  We have to show them what adventure really is.  We need to awaken the dream with in them.  If we don’t, then we have lost everything.

Eudora High student helps classmate particpate in marching band

BY JANET REID

Lawrence Journal-World

LAWRENCE — Kyle Snow marches out onto Laws Field in Eudora on a recent Friday night.

He’s not wearing a band uniform.

He carries no instrument.

He doesn’t make a sound.

But Snow, a Eudora High School senior, may very well be one of the most instrumental members of the marching band.

This is what I like to see. This is what we all need to be doing. This is what Christ called us to do. This is helping our fellow niebor. We all need to follow the example of this kid!

Take a moment to read the whole article, and you will see what I mean.

Here is the truth, if you want to make the world a better place, start by making life better for one person. Your world will be changed by making their’s better. It really is that simple.

Posted via web from The World According to Me!

One of the more underrated things in Wichita is our music theater.  A few years back, we were one of only a few cities aloud to put on Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast”.  (This was due in part to the fact that one of our actresses played Bell on Broadway.)

Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth created the roles of Elphaba and Glinda (respectfully) and their performances of these roles are featured on the soundtrack of the Broadway cast.  They are the ones I’ve been listening to all this time, and who I thought of as I though of these characters.  I have to admit that I was concerned that who would be playing them here would not be as good as the originals.  I was surprised.

Marci Dodd (Elphaba) and Heléne Yorke (Glinda) lead the cast for our leg of the tour, and they nailed it.  They were every bit as good as Menzel and Chenoweth.  I had no problem forgetting what I knew and getting lost in the show.  If I could have bought a soundtrack with them on it, I would have.  From what I could tell, they were flawless.

The rest of the cast did a great job as well.  You can see a list of the principles here.  The whole musical is one power song after another.  With only 32 players, it’s a relatively small cast, so the chorus did multiple parts.  Being as the chorus was in just about every scene, it was a vocal work out for every one.  They all did a fantastic job.

I can’t say that there was one part that really stands out to me, but as the curtain goes down at the end of act one and the last notes of “Defining Gravity” are dying in the air, I wanted to give a standing ovation right then.  (I did restrain my self.)

The comedic parts were really funny, and the emotional parts tugged at your heart in just the right way.  Almost all of the character development was phenomenal.  You really saw how each person grew throughout the course of the story.  When Elphaba and Glinda sing “For Good”, you can see how they changed each other.  Elphaba is more confident, and Glinda is a deeper and more selfless person.  In the three hours of performance, you identify and connect with each one.

To be balanced, the weak point in my mind was Nessarose, aka the Wicked Witch of the East.  She seems to be almost an after thought.  In act one, she is more of a side character, but by act two, it seems there is much more to her that we missed.  It was as if I had slept through about 45 minuets of the musical.  To me it felt like they put her part of the story in at the last minuet to explain what we know about the Wicked Witch of the East from the original Wizard of Oz.

Over all, the whole show was highly entertaining.  If you have a change to go and see it, either the traveling cast, or on Broadway, then I would take it.  I know I would love to see it again.  Definetly a highlight of my life.

Posted via web from The World According to Me!

Walsh has one of those voices that pulls the emotions out of you.  She effortlessly makes you feel just how she wants.  As she sings, your heart is taken on a journey, and it’s one you want to take over and over again.

On this album, just 3 songs, it’s just her and a guitar.  The beauty is in the simplicity of the music.  It is like she is sitting in your living room singing only for you.

In a time when most pop artists are using a lot of production techniques and vocal tweaks in the studio, it is refreshing to hear some pure music.

The album has a slow tempo, but the kind perfect for grabbing a cup of tea and watching the rain fall.  You want to sit back and relax as she gently serenades you.  I say this is an album you must get.  If you hurry, you might still be able to get it for free, if not, it’s worth the few dollars it costs.  You can download it here.

When a lock-in goes well, it is fun beyond belief.  When they don’t…  There is a kind of terror that comes from having a room full of teenagers hyped up on caffeine and sugar at 3 in the morning and you don’t have anything for them to do.  Captain Bligh didn’t face as horrifying a scene on the Bounty.  I have heard it said that there is a special wing in most mental hospitals for youth pastors that didn’t put on a good lock-in.

I think it’s safe to say, you don’t want to be that youth pastor.  Your sanity lapesed enough when you agreed to put one on, now you just want to get through the night.  I have here the 7 key things to include in your lock-in that will  guaranty that it will be an overwhelming success.  You follow these tips, and you’ll be in great shape.

Key 1: Sleep

Ok, you are not as young as you once were.  The days where you could stay up all night and keep right on going for three days are long gone.  (Be honest, when the clock says 10, you want to be in bed, or you are sleeping where ever you fall.)  If you don’t want to wake up to a youth group that would fit into the pages of Lord of the Flies you need some sleep.

Your not going to get it that night, so I recommend sleeping in the day of the lock-in.  Also make sure that your schedule is clear the day after so that you can go home and sleep.

If you get all your sleep leading up to the lock-in, you will be ready for more while your youth are dropping where they stand.  The youth pastor’s motto at a lock-in, “Never let them see you yawn”.

If you can stay awake for the whole event, then you are well on your way to success.

Key 2:  Planning

You have to have a game plan.  You also need a plan of games.  Every moment of the night, you need to make sure there is something going on.  If there is too much down time, you’ll loose the kids.  (They might be falling asleep, or they might just start going off to do their own thing, and that never leads to any good!)  I will talk more about schedule and games down below.

You really want to put at least several days into the planning of your lock-in.  Think about what you want to do.  Start thinking about the games you are going to play, and what you will need for them.  Are you going somewhere other than the church?  You might want some permission slips.  Do you have enough help?  You might want to start talking to people (The further out you start your planning, the more money you can raise to bribe the help, but you didn’t hear that from me.)

It doesn’t hurt to talk to other people who have had some great lock-ins.  They might have some tips you haven’t thought of.  The point is, when you go into a lock-in well prepared, you are in total control, and you succeed.

Key 3:  Schedule

The clock says 3:30 am, do you know what the kids are going to do next?  What about at 4?  You have to have a schedule.

I find that going in 30 minuet intervals is the best way.  I also recommend giving your self about 30 minuets before to get all the kids checked in.  This is a great time to collect any forms you wanted from them and any money you may have charged.

When you have a clear idea of what you are going to do, and when, it is much easier to keep the kids in line.  They will follow your lead.  If you are calm and organized, they will behave.  If they smell your fear then you are doomed.  When it comes to youth, they take no prisoners.

One side note on schedules, you have to have one, but you also have to be flexible.  When the kids are having a great time with a game, you don’t have to stop playing just because your piece of paper says you have to do something else.  When the kids are happy, you’re going to be happy.

Key 4:  Games

Games are the back bone of a lock-in.  This is why the kids are there.  You want to have a lot.  You have enough games if at the end of the event, you still have ones you haven’t played yet.  (These make a great starting point for the next one.)  If you run out of games before your time is up, your in big trouble.  (Remember Bligh on the Bounty?  If he just had a few more games…)

When you are planning your games, keep in mind that the later it gets, the more willing the kids are to do things, but they are less able to grasp more complex games.  At 4 in the morning they might be willing to eat peanut butter out of a diaper, but they aren’t going to be quoting any Shakespeare while they do it.

It is also a good idea to plan games at the start that get everyone involved.  It is best if it forces people to interact with others they don’t really know.  Your all stuck together, it’s best to get the group unified right off the bat.

Prizes don’t hurt either.  Kids will do a lot of crazy things  if the rewards right.  Also, make sure some of the games are competitive.  Kids like to compete against each other, so let them.  Make sure, however, that you don’t let them get to aggressive.  We want to build up, not tear down.

If you keep the kids having fun, they don’t have time to think about what you might look like with hot pink lipstick.  Repeat after me “I MUST HAVE LOTS AND LOTS OF GAMES!”

Key 5:  Mandatory Participation

Let’s be honest, some kids think they are too cool to play along.  They just want to set out and not do anything.  If you let a few, it is not long till everyone is just sitting around getting more and more bored.  At this point, it doesn’t matter how many games you have if none of your kids are going to play them.

On the other hand, if you make them play, for the most part they will enjoy them selves.  I think that for many of them, they just want you to “force” them to play so that they can look silly and still be cool.

Trust me on this, if you make them play, they will have a good time.  When they are having a good time, time will fly and you won’t think about how tired you really are.

Key 6:  Food

Lock-ins, like armies, march on their stomachs.  Teenagers are the opposite of Gremlins, if they are up after midnight and don’t have something to eat they turn into horrible, scary, monsters.  If you have enough junk food on hand, they stay normal (if you can call a teenager normal).  I have seen youth eyeing each other when the snacks ran out.  Food is like games.  You know you have enough if there is food left over.

If you don’t know what kind of food to get, just ask the teens.  It should have sugar, salt, some kind of artificial flavoring, and most importantly, less nutritional value than the bag it’s packaged in.  If it’s the kind of thing your doctor has told you to avoid, then it’s what you want to have in abundance.  (You can also just look at the wrappers on the floor of your youth room for ideas)

Repeat this: “I MUST HAVE FOOD!  LOTS AND LOTS OF FOOD!”.

Key 7:  God

This is the most important one.  If He is not at the center of it all, then it will fail.  We are here to reach kids for Him, not to keep them entertained for a night.

The games and food will bring them in, but what are you going to do once you have them?  What is the lasting impression that they will have from the lock-in?  Will they leave with nothing more than sleep depravation and sugar induced comas, or will they leave changed?

From the very start of your planning, include God.  Make sure that you are doing what He wants.  If you stay focused on God, then that is where the focus of the kids will end up.  Repeat after me once more, “IT’S ALL ABOUT GOD!”.

Lock-ins can be a blast.  If you do it right, the kids will start asking you when the next one will be.  (No, you can’t intentionally do a bad one just so you don’t have to do them ever again.  We do want the kids to have some fun.)  You never know, you might just have a good time as well.

I hope you next lock-in goes well.  Follow these ideas and you will be moving in the right direction.  If there is anything you think I might have left out, leave a comment.  If you are going to have one, let me know so that I can be praying for you, you’ll need it.

I am a firm believer in David Allen’s GTD and I have started to implament it in my work life, now I’m bringing it into my home life as well. I hope this will help me get more on top of things in my life. I also need to streamline what I do while I’m at work. I want to use my time how I want to, not how I have to.

Time is something that should work for us. It should be our slave, not the other way around. Too long I have been a slave to time, but no more. From this point on, I will make my time work for me.

In the next few posts, I am going to talk about the things that I am doing to take back my time. This is not a series per say, but it is where I am in my life, so it is what I’m going to talk about. As always, any thoughts or comments you may have will be welcomed. Keep it simple!

I was thinking about why I like working in coffee shops (especially because I prefer tea to coffee.) and I would have to say it is the atmospher. Coffee shops are just more layed back. You buy a cup and then just get to chill. I have never been asked to leave (except for those times when it was 30 minuets after they closed.). While you’re there you can let the world go on with out you for a time.

I’m at a point in my life where this is what I like to do. I get bogged down in the world. I like to escape and catch my breath. For some reason I can’t do that at home, so I come here. I get my tea and just relax. It is my zen garden.

I would recomend that If you want your life to be simpler, from time to time, just step back and let the world pass you by. I mean really, do we always have to be rushing around? Does running all the time make our lives better? No! If anything it makes them worse!

Don’t rush, relax. Find your space and step back. Live in the now, because before you know it, this now is gone and with it all of God’s blessings that you could’ve had with it. Take your life and live it. You will be glad that you did.

I have moved.  Sad, but at the same time, it is all over with.  I have remembered why I don’t like moving.  Next time I am hiring someone to do it for me, even if I have to give up eating for a week just to pay for it.  (I don’t think it will come to that, but I will if I have to.)  But enough of this.  Let’s talk about what has become of all my stuff.

I have gone from having rooms full of things that I thought I needed to being able to fit everything I need into a couple of bags.  (This doesn’t include clothes and toiletries, those would take more than just a few bags.)  There is a lot of my stuff boxed up and placed in storage, but these are things that I will need someday. (Really they are!)  It’s a relief to know how well I have compacted my life.

Of the things that I really need all the time, I always know where they are.  They are easy to find, and they don’t take up that much space.  Also, when I am done with them, I can easily put them back where they go.  I have found that living a simple life means living a very neat life.  I ask myself: “Self, why did you not do this sooner?”  Oh well, no point in staring at the past.

Now I find my self loving this change, and wonder what the next one I make should be.  I ask you all now, what changes have you made in your life?  How has making them improved your life?  What changes do you want to make?  I really want to know.  Put your answers in the comments section of this post.  You never know, you might inspire me.

I know what my problem is.  I have admitted it to the world, and now I have to deal with it.  I find my self with two choices, I can accept this is who I am, or I can change.  What I’ve decided is change.

The change has to start in my mind.  I have to basically change the way I look at stuff, namely the stuff I have collected over the years.  My old way of looking at things was to see them as part of my identity.  All that I owned was a part of who I was.  It was a key to my past, or goals for my future.  Believe it or not, this is not something that is unique to me, it is I have found out, a guy thing.  In the June issue of Realsimple magazine, there is an article about a mans collection of stuff and what it means to him.  I read it, and thought, now I have an excuse to stay the way I am.  You could say that this was kind of a set back to my transformation.

Now I understood where the writer was coming from, and I have to say, I wholly agree with all of his points, but I see the problem.  Men who are like what this writer described are controlled by their stuff.  I was controlled by my stuff.  I let it define me.  In a way, I let it control me.  It was who I was.  Do you see the problem in all of this?  I don’t want to be defined by my stuff.  I want to control my stuff.  So I am resolved to keep up with the change.

I used to look at my stuff as an extension 0f who I was, now I see it for what it is, tools.  The things that I own are there to help me become the man I am supposed to be.  They are the things I need to function in the world.  It is true that there are things that I need.

Take this laptop that I am working on right now.  I need this for different parts of my work, and for writing this blog even.  I use it for a lot of different parts of my life.  This laptop is something that I need.  Now the computer setting in my back room that I have not even turned on for several months, I don’t need that.  I like to think of my self as a geek, and so having a computer sitting around that I am going to tinker with really sounds like the geeky thing to do.  The truth is, I am not that kind of geek, so I am going to get rid of my computer.

Another change that I am working on is not just having stuff because I can.  In the past, if I had a bag I was going to take somewhere, I would put something in every pocket.  If it had a pocket, something had to be in that pocket.  I my never use the things that I packed away, but I felt good knowing that every pocket was filled.  Did I mention that I like to get bags with lots of pockets?  What did I do, I started finding bags with fewer pockets.  This way, I was less inclined to back stuff I do not need.  I am working on carrying around only what I know I am going to need. My short time in the Boy Scouts taught me to be prepared for anything, but there has to be some amount of realism in how I gather things.

It is not easy changing the way I look at my stuff.  I found my self going through the same pile of things more than once.  I would go through and keep only the things that I think I needed.  Then I would have to go back through it and get rid of more stuff.  In some cases, I got rid of everything in the pile, just not all at once.

At the end of the day, my wife and I have purged a vast amount of stuff from our home.  It was amazing how much stuff we had, though a part of me thinks there are still some things that we can get rid of.  We are about to start packing up to get ready for our move, so I am sure some more things will get removed then.

I still find it hard to get rid of things, and I know that I have chosen to hang on to some things I really don’t need.  I do feel that I am less attached to my stuff, and that it is less apart of who I am.  I know it will take more than just a few weeks to make this new mind set I am working on a total part of who I am, but I think I am off to a good start.  I no longer feel controlled by my stuff.