brent(inWorship)

I have reached the number 2000!

Alright, most of you have no clue what I am talking about. Let’s start with this.

“I LOVE TWITTER”

There I said it and I’m not ashamed. I’ve been Tweeting for the last 6 months and I love it. Some of you have no clue what Twitter is. Well here is a great video that describes it. But the main reason I Twitter is because of this!

Community! Twitter is an amazing community. I have met some amazing people, communicated with some I would never have access to through email or phone and been a part of ups, downs and everything in between with those who have chosen to share their life with me.

If I am not enjoying all of you on my blog, I am on Twitter. You should join and come follow me!

So what was my 2000th Twitter?

@mattsingley was given the honor of participating in my 2000th. Thanks Matt

I remember Summer vacation. The feeling was amazing. Freedom. No schedule. Sleeping in. Yes!

I miss Summer vacation. As adults, we no longer get to experience that 10 week vacation.

Here’s the problem though. Every Summer, I go through the withdrawals and struggle with motivation. I see my kids home everyday. I watch them play when I come home for lunch. Everyone is still asleep when I get up for work. I want to be on vacation.

I am certain this will only be temporary, but this week I have no interest in doing anything.

What do you think? How can I get over my wtihdrawals?

So in the comments of the last post, we started discussing “gross” games. This demanded a new post!

So, here is mine…

I was at a youth retreat leading the music. One of the evenings we were there, they did a bunch of team oriented games. One of which was this.

They took toilets (brand new-never been used) and filled them with Mountain Dew.

They then dropped Baby Ruth bars into the toilets.

The teams then bobbed for the Baby Ruth bars.

I about puked!

So what is the grossest game you’ve been involved with???

We moved into a house this Winter that backs up to a cool little city park. Another benefit of the house is that it has a pool. We are looking forward to taking full advantage of it this Summer.

So, I was talking to a neighbor yesterday and he asked if we were having any issues with kids in the park. Here is a pic of our house. As you can see, our back fence is the only thing that separates us from the park.

As, the neighbor and I were talking, he told me the previous tenant told stories of sitting in their living room and hearing loud noises and then splashes in their yard. They would go out back and find that kids had hopped the fence and were swimming in their pool. Now, I have my thoughts on what I’d do, but I want to hear from you.

What would you do if you found kids in your private back yard, swimming in your pool?

I posted about this on the other blog, but wanted to revisit it here.

Since this blog is self hosted, avatars (the little pictures that pop up next to your name) do not work the same as they do with places like Wordpress or Blogger. When you leave a comment on a site you are not registered with, your cool little avatar does not show up. Some sites allow little funky pictures to be used, but others (like mine) use the Gravatar system.

The Gravatar system has solved this issue by working with services that allow avatars. Gravatar attaches your avatar to your email address. So when you comment on a blog and sign in with your email address, your avatar appears. The cool thing is this works all over the internet at places that allow email sign in and avatar use.

It’s slick and easy to use. Just head over to Gravatars Site, sign in, upload your avatar and you have a universal avatar. You can choose to change it at anytime by returning to your site.

After you’ve done that, come on back, leave a comment, refresh the page and check yourself out

If you’re here, it’s because you’re either curious, or you plan to hang out. Whatever the reason, welcome!

I decided to move my blog to a self hosted site. I wanted more flexibility with design and tools. I wanted to be able to bring to you, my readers, all of the things I’d love to share.

So here we are! Make yourself at home!

Let me share a couple of the features I’ve added to try and make your participation more enjoyable.

First, the comments section. So many of you encourage and participate in great discussions here, so I wanted to make it easier for you.

#1 There is the option of being notified of follow up comments via email. If you’d like this, just select the box to “Notify me of follow-up comments via e-mail” then submit your comment. Once someone leaves another comment, you will be notified to come check it out.

#2 You can leave a video comment. If you’d like to do this click on “Or add a Video Comment” then click on anonymous and follow the directions. I know you guys could have a fun time with this one!

#3 Is a courtesy to you. When anyone signed in with their email address leaves a comment, a link to your personal blog and your latest post will appear, so people can visit you as well.

Second, I’ve created a couple new pages. You can access these pages at the top of my blog. You have your choice of reading through my Blogroll Page. These are people that have contributed at some time to my blog. There is also a Contact Page. This gives you the opportunity to contact me directly and privately. If you ever have a comment, concern or just a simple question you are welcome to use it. Your comment will not appear on my blog, it will only come to me. Finally, there is a Live Page. This page has an embedded video player that links to my Mogulus video page. Here is where the fun will happen. We will periodically host live chat session with you as well as produce family videos that you can enjoy as well.

Another little touch is…if you own an iPhone, the blog is converted for your browser. So enjoy!

Now, here is something you can do for me. If you have me linked in your blogroll, would you be willing to change that to my new address brentinworship.com/blog. Also, if you are subscribed to my blog would you consider subscribing to this new page. You can either click on the link at the top right of my page or use this address in your reader http://feeds.feedburner.com/Brentinworship

If you haven’t subscribed before, here is your chance!

So go check it out, get involved and enjoy yourself. If you have any suggestions, feel free to use the contact page and let me know!