Sheep & Goats

Post written by Steve Otto. Follow me on Twitter.

photo courtesy of Clevergrrl

In Matthew 25, Jesus shares with us an amazing story about falling into one of two categories. Either we will be recognized as one of his sheep and placed on his right, or we will be seen as a goat and placed on his left.

The Sheep and the Goats
31″When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. 32All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.

34″Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’

37″Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’

40″The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’

41″Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’

44″They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’

45″He will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’

46″Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”

To be honest, I struggled with this passage for a while after reading through it because it went against one principle I understand as a Christian – that we cannot earn our salvation. There is nothing we can do that will earn us a spot in heaven. We can do no amount of good deeds. We could do no amount of sacrifice, or offer gifts of love, or courageous acts that would result in us earning our name in the book of life. Only by confessing your sins and accepting Christ Jesus into your heart and becoming a follower of Him, will you find yourself living eternally in Heaven.

Well this passage, seems to point out that if you fail to feed the hunger, invite in a stranger, clothe the naked, or visit the sick in prison, you are doing this for Christ and will be considered righteous in His eyes and one of his sheep. And those who don’t, well, you end up as a barbecued goat. Certainly this is not anyone’s goal, and I don’t think it’s uncommon for Christians to second guess their eternity.

There are a few things that I’d like to point out about this passage.

Flip it around. These actions are not what you need to do to become a sheep. These actions are actually a byproduct of being a sheep. Jesus isn’t saying that in order to get into heaven, you need to do these things. He is recognizing his sheep because they did these things. Let me explain that a little better. If you give your life to Christ and truly experience a life change as a result of following Jesus, these sort of actions will be the natural outward expression of your love and obedience to Christ. You will have a desire to do these things out of your love for Christ and what the Bible teaches us. So these are indications of a Christ Follower, not rules to become one.

It’s healthy to wonder. I believe it’s healthy to wonder a little which stable you would fall into. It’s a good thing to wonder if you are following God’s plan for your life. Every now and then you should stop and do a spiritual assessment of your life. Are there clear examples in my life of acting like a sheep, or would I consider myself a goat right now?

Get your focus right. If you find that you more closely resemble a goat in your spiritual assessment than a sheep, what should you focus on? As I explained above, the actions are not the goal, but rather the indicator of whether you are a sheep or goat. In the same way, you need to focus on the source, rather than trying to do the actions. Do you have little to no desire to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, or visit those in prison? Then maybe that is an indicator that you are not reading your word enough. Jesus is the source of that love manifesting itself into obedience and action. My guess is that when you spend more time reading God’s Word and spending intimate time in prayer, your heart will become closer to God and you’ll desire the things that God does. So don’t focus on getting out there and doing things. Focus on getting tapped back into the Spring. Tap back into God’s heart. And then watch these things naturally begin to flow out of you.

Start small. Both with your time with God and carrying out his will, by doing the deeds he mentions in Matthew 25, understand that it is okay to start small. Anytime you try to make an extreme change, you oftentimes end up in failure. If you have not worked out in 3 years and decide to go out and run a marathon tomorrow you will surely find yourself frustrated, in pain, and ready to go back to sitting on the couch. So start by reading just chapter a day – maybe even just a paragraph or two from God’s Word – if you haven’t been doing so. Turn to God for a few minutes each morning, rather than trying to get up an hour early. And when it comes to doing the things of a sheep, start by doing something locally, rather than planning a huge overseas mission’s trip. Don’t paralyze yourself by setting your goals too high. Those who are faithful in the small things, God will entrust with bigger.

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Disney Trip

Just standing in line here fir the Magic Kingdom bus and thought as a Tech Jock that I could be doing something techy. So I thought I would see if I could keep an ongoing article on our trip. So here goes…

I’m using the wordpress app for the iPhone which doesn’t give me ad much control over the format but I’ll do my best.

Right now we just fastpassed thunder mountain railroad to avoid the 10 minute wait and are going on splash mountain. Jake is deathly afraid of getting wet so we are doing our best to encourage him. Basically we are flat out lying…

Okay so we nearly finished our first ride – splash mountain – and it broke. We are sitting here I’m brear rabbits tunnel waiting for staff to come around and assist us to get out of the boat.

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Finding the right Church

Post written by Steve Otto. Follow me on Twitter.

photo courtesy of Jim Linwood

This past weekend we attended our church membership class in which the Pastor shared many different aspects about the church so we could make an informed decision about becoming official members. We have been attending for the past year and have already experienced the way the church operates, but were able to hear the philosophy behind how the church runs. We were able to put words to what we’ve seen for the past year.

I grew up in a Christian home and have been a part of many different churches during my lifetime. I find it intriguing how different churches operate, and primarily what their leadership model is. The vast majority of churches have a leadership model in which the Pastor is at the top of the pyramid, followed by a council, team of elders, then the ministry leaders, and then at the bottom of the pyramid you find the members and attenders. There are varying degrees to the separation between the Pastor and members and how they implement that hierarchy.

I’ve been in and heard of churches where the Pastor actually holds some sort of celebrity status and considers his elders his personal body guards and I’ve been in churches where you don’t even realize who the Pastor is until he steps up to the podium, because he’s off serving somewhere or doing some activity that you would never expect a Pastor to.

While I realize that each person has their own style of worship and church atmosphere that works best for them, let me share one of the most beautiful examples of a church that we have experienced for the past year and had the chance to see that painted into a picture.

This is a picture of what the typical church looks like. I’ll call this the Status Model. The interesting thing is that I think a lot of churches like to refer to themselves as the next example, but fall into this category. Many pastors fall closer to this model however, where they are the head and everyone falls below them. I don’t think this usually happens because of bad motives, but when this is the case, it’s a completely different experience from the next example. While most of the churches I have been in that followed this experience were a good experience, I didn’t realize what I was missing until I experienced the next model.

I’ll call this model the Servants Model. This is the model we have experienced for the last year at Rochester Calvary Assembly (which is actually in Chili) and we actually find ourselves in disbelief that this can actually happen. Pastor Bob has such a humble, servant’s attitude and he is one of the most genuine people I have ever met. The best way I can express the difference is that with this model, the Pastor is much more of a shepherd. It’s not a very easy thing to describe, but it’s also not something you can disguise. Again, I’ve heard pastors describe the servants model but exercise the status model. It doesn’t take long to figure out what model a church uses. You can often determine it simply from their website.

When a church uses the servants model, you find it exactly a place like Calvary Assembly has created, “a safe place to find faith, friends, and your future”. If you are not currently attending a church I encourage you to look desperately for one that fits the Servants Model. When we were searching for a new church, it was not easy. It was discouraging. We found church after church that just didn’t feel like home. But in the end, the change was so worth it. Our new home brings us new life. We are designed for community and I think the Servants Model best fits God’s desire for that community.

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There’s an App for that!

Post written by Steve Otto. Follow me on Twitter.

photo courtesy of Apple

There are a ton of applications you can download for your iPhone or iPod touch. I’ve tried my fair share of them and would like to suggest a few that have hung around on my iPhone. I’d love to hear your fav’s so be sure to post your app treasures in the comments below.

Get incredible real time weather forecast right at your fingertips. We found this extremely useful when we were on vacation in the Adirondacks. My wife was predicting to the minute when the sky would clear up or the rain would fall. Love the doppler feature where you can see the precipitation that’s passing over.

Quickly go to any scripture reference in just about any translation. And I mean any…say like Bulgarian, Czeck or Luther Bible 1545. Plus the basics of course, like NIV. Also features a daily read, bookmarks, and plenty of other contributions. Another one I’ve used is Mantis Bible Study. That has a ton of great notes features, but you have to purchase additional translations.

One of my favorite Pastors/Authors is Bill Hybels. This is a nice and simple app that provides me with a quick and easy devotional each day. Sometimes you’re on the run or it’s not convienent to have a devotional or Bible with you so his devotional offers some terrific nourishment. This devotional is focused on Courageous Faith. Starts off with a Scripture verse, his short message and a prayer.

Just came across this one recently so I haven’t used it a whole lot yet. But I’m loving how clean and useful the design is. Search for recipes by type (Dessert, Dinners, Lunches, Cocktails…) or by main ingredient. Also shows you reviews from others by what they rate it out of four forks, and how likely they would be to make it again. Once you select a recipe, you can email the shopping list to yourself or view it right on your iPhone.

Alright, this one’s pretty self explanatory. If you’re on Facebook, then you understand how valuable it is to have a terrific app right on your iPhone. Makes it easier to ignore those old high school friends who didn’t talk to back in HS but now want to be your Facebook friend. The news feed is very handy and satisfies your Facebook addiction until you can make it back to your iMac.

Alright, this is arguably best game ever. I love this game. Land several different types of airplanes on your choice of four different airfield designs. This game can easily burn up any amount of time when you don’t feel like getting your work done. Oh, and my max aircraft landed is currently at 183. I dare anyone to come close to that!

The only negative thing about this app is that it requires wifi. This app actually streams Film, Music and TV episodes. I haven’t really used it for Film because I don’t recognize the titles, but this app is worth downloading for one reason alone. I can watch the old G.I.Joe cartoons! You can also go right to Joost at Joost.com to view them, but it’s great to watch right on your iPhone. I thought you should know, because knowing is half the battle.

I used this for the first time at our Young Adult group last week. Apple’s Keynote is basic like powerpoint without being sucky. Keynote is awesome and what makes it even more awesome is being able to see and advance your slides right on your iPhone. I did notice some more expensive Keynote remote apps that offer a bit more, but this one is very sleek and works great.

If you are a MobileMe member then this app is a must. MobileMe is an entirely other article I’ll feature sometime in the near future, but one of it’s highlights is the iDisk – which is an online storage drive. View all of your documents on your iDisk quickly and easily with this app.

Flixter is one of those apps that provides a ton of information and is laid out very well. It automatically uses your current location to show you the theaters in your area so you can see what’s playing and when and even watch the trailer. See the Box Office stats and a list of upcoming videos and even see what is out on DVD.

I’ve heard many totally cool iPhone users say this is their favorite app. Pandora is another service that by itself its completely awesome, and having it on your iPhone gives you the same excitement that you had the night before your birthdays when you were a kid. Listen to your favorite style of music and you can even make your own stations. Works great if you already have an account online and can just login.

Another app I just came across recently. This is one of those things that some genius probably predicted would happen back in 1982. You actually use the iPhone’s camera to scan a barcode and it instantly brings up a list of stores where you can see the best pricing. Never overpay on a product again, unless of course you just can’t wait and your impulse nerves get the best of you.

This app definitely gets the coolest name award for what it does. Ever been out somewhere and you hear a song but don’t know the name or who sings it? Simply Tag Now with this app, and Shazam! It tells you the name of the song. It takes about 15 seconds to tag and analyze it and even gives you links to iTunes and YouTube for the song.

Twitter is the new Facebook. The most popular thing on facebook is the status updates and that is essentially what Twitter is. So of course there are a ton of Twitter Apps in the App Store. After trying out far too many, I found Tweetie to be the cleanest, most useful app. It’s nice and simple and does what it should very well. btw – Click the link on the right sidebar to follow me on Twitter.

Last but not least, Where is a terrific app that provides a ton of great features all in one program. Check out the weather, lowest gas prices, news, closest Starbucks, restaurant recommendation, community events, road construction, and movies all according to where you are right now. I heard recently that we take in more information in one day than someone who lived 200 years ago took in, in a lifetime. Let Where help you out with that.

So that’s what’s on my iPhone right now that’s actually being used. Let me know what your favorite apps are!

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Olympus Stylus Tough 6000 Review

Post written by Steve Otto. Follow me on Twitter.

Not Your Average Camera

the Stylus Tough-6000 by Olympus

First Impressions
When I first received the camera I decided to completely disregard the Instruction Manual and refrain from checking out the website and just play around a bit. I wanted to get my own impression of how great or lousy the camera was without the influence of the website’s marketing. To be completely candid, I wasn’t really too excited over doing a camera review. I mean, how exciting is it to compare compact digital camera’s? They are all pretty much the same. I pictured myself checking out the ISO settings, picture quality, zoom feature, maybe even get into the quality of the camera strap. Not too exciting, right? Well, think again.

Earning it’s Label
The Olympus Stylus Tough-6000 has several features that set it apart immediately from other cameras that I’ve owned or used before. Besides the non-traditional color of yellow (which looks more green to me) – the words shockproof and waterproof on the front of the camera caught my attention. (It also comes in blue, orange or silver). Being this was a loaner camera, a sly grin came to my face. Shockproof up to 5 feet, huh? We’ll see about that. After enjoying a few drops myself (which I found it amazingly difficult to let an expensive gadget slip out of my hands) I shared this joy with my wife. It brought a smile to her face as well to toss the camera onto the ground and after inspecting the camera, we were both impressed too find that it still powered up and operated fine. Oh, I can’t forget to mention the very cool stainless steel lens cover that slides up when you turn the camera to off.

The other part of it’s tough label is that it happens to be waterproof. I also looked forward to sticking this camera down into some water and capturing some images that I’ve only been able to do in the past with a disposable waterproof camera that costs about $30 and uses traditional film. The camera lived up to this feature as well and captured some terrific underwater photos that, not surprisingly, come out much better than the disposables we’ve used in past. More on this later…

The Basics
Before I get back to the fun features that really set this camera apart, let me go over some of the basic settings you would want from any camera. The features I’m most interested in, as an amateur photographer, are picture quality, flash, zoom, screen size, shutter quickness and battery. I realize there are a ton of other features, but when it really comes down to it, these are the must-have’s that need to work well.

1. Picture Quality The pictures have amazing definition, using 10 megapixels. After shooting a few pics and uploading them on my Mac, I noticed these were as impressive as any DSLR camera pictures I’ve seen. The colors were vibrant, and the images were very detailed. I could zoom in significantly and appreciate the amazing detail provided by a full 10 megapixels. This, I must say, was the turning point for me and the camera. At this point, I compared the picture quality of these new photos to my older compact Canon, and it suddenly felt broken, or at least inadequate. I had been planning on upgrading my camera in the near feature and was fully expecting to go to one of the larger DSLR camera’s but the Olympus Tough was beginning to change my mind.

2. Flash The quality of the flash, or rather more importantly, how the camera does in low-light, is very important to me as well. The Tough 6000 has a built in flash which does limit it compared to the larger DSLR’s that can handle a $200 external flash, but it did quite well in low light. I have to be honest, I do need to play around a bit more. I tried many different combinations, using the flash settings, different scenes, no-flash, and some of them came out grainy, but some of them came out extremely clear. I simply need to remember what specific combination to use the next time I’m to capture a moment in low-light.

3. Zoom There are two ways to compare the zoom. Again, I was considering going to a larger DSLR camera, in which you can add on expensive lenses allowing you to zoom in and capture someone’s nose hairs sitting on the other side of a stadium. So in that example, no compact camera would compare. Nor are they even in the same price range. But as far as comparing it to similar compact camera’s, it has an pretty impressive 3.6x optical zoom, for not having any external lens. Most camera’s that have any sort of zoom over 2x have some sort of lens that protrudes out of the camera, but the Stylus Tough stays slim and sleek.

4. Screen Size The Tough’s screen was quite interesting to me. While looking at the large 2.7 inch LCD screen when shooting a picture, it looked very clear to me. Once I snapped a photo and saw the image I just took that displays for a few seconds, it looked slightly less detailed. When I took my first few pictures I thought they weren’t coming out so great, but once I got them on the computer and viewed them full sized, I realized they look great. I’m being very picky here, but did want you to be aware of that. Other family members I showed this difference to, didn’t seem to think it was that bad. When viewing pictures I took in playback mode, you are able to zoom in on the pictures, and that certainly showed how terrific the definition was. It’s just good to know that the quick review of the image you just shot is going to be even more impressive on your computer screen or prints.
5. Shutter Quickness There is nothing worse than trying to capture a quick picture of your kids doing something cute and you end up getting the back of their heads as they run by or some other awkward pose just after the moment you really wanted. How quickly the camera can take a shot is very important to me. The auto focus feature has a big impact on the shutter quickness. Most cameras now allow you to hold down the shutter button halfway to focus and the then you press it fully down to capture the image. The quickness of the focus (or lack of) plays a big part in your ability to capture the right moment. I shot several images without using the halfway focus feature to see how quickly the camera could focus and take a shot – in case I wanted something quick. The camera did it’s part quite well. I would guess it was about a quarter of a second to focus and get the shot – where as my older Canon seems to be around a full second. And obviously, if you do hold down the shutter button halfway to pre-focus, your shot is instant once you push down the shutter button fully.

6. Battery The Tough uses a Li-ion Rechargeable Battery. Now rechargeable batteries can be either good or bad. I love not going through countless AA’s, but if the battery doesn’t last very long, you are outta luck unless you want to purchase a second rechargeable to have on hand. So how does the Tough fair? Well, I used the camera very extensively one day on our trip to the Adirondacks (which btw, seemed like the perfect environment to test it out), taking about 200 pictures one day alone, and the camera was nearly full at the end of the day. The camera is a beast. I would recommend charging before each day just to play it safe, but I have no doubt it will last for a full day’s use when it’s fully charged.

The Highlight Reel.

Okay, there are actually a ton of other very cool features that most other cameras don’t have, so I’ll try to run through those quickly.

Panorama The Tough has a very cool and easy feature to create Panoramics. The Panoramics are stitched together right in the picture with the help of a little dot. My camera does that now, you’re thinking, but not like the Tough. Simply take your first picture and then move your camera angle to the left or the right and you’ll notice a little box on the screen as well as a dot. Once you put the dot in the box (which lines up your next shot) the camera automatically takes the next picture. You repeat this step a second time and then the three pictures get stitched together with some cool animation and voila – a perfect panorama picture.

The Menu Normally I wouldn’t even pay attention to the camera’s menu system. Most of them are pretty basic and a little annoying, but Olympus did a wonderful job creating the menus for the Tough. It was honestly a joy to use. Very clear and easy, and great graphics.

Scenes If you are not up on all the settings like ISO, WB, ESP, etc. (like me), then you can easily choose one of the many built in scene settings, like Candle, Sport, Nighttime, Beach & Snow, Sunset, Underwater, Self Portrait, as well as several other useful scenes. I played around with a few, including Beach & Snow when my kids were building sandcastles and I certainly wouldn’t have changed a thing. The detail and colors came out great. If you want to master the settings on your own, they are certainly there and easy to modify, but this camera allows you to shoot like a pro without having to know all the settings.

Tap Control Alright – now we are going from cool – to very cool. This camera has something totally unique that comes in very handy for outdoor adventures. If you are an avid skier or into hiking, you would appreciate this. You can actually tap the sides, top and back of the camera to change the settings. That’s right, give the right side a tap to toggle through the flash settings, or tap the left to choose a macro mode. Or tap the back and put the camera in playback mode and then tap left and right to scan through your images you just took. Image how useful this is if you’re out skiing and wearing gloves and want to turn the flash on!

Video I haven’t played around with this feature enough yet to give a good review, but I did try a few. The videos I took came out very clear and vibrant (in good lighting) and showed little lag or delay, that you often get with video from a compact camera. It obviously won’t compare with a high quality video camera, but if you don’t feel like lugging around another device, you can certainly take home some great videos that are worth sharing.

On Screen Display Two other features I’ve never seen on a camera that the Tough sports are the Grid and Histogram. The grid allows you to easily use the rule of thirds and the histogram allows you to quickly adjust your picture so that it won’t come out too white or black and review the luminance distribution. If you know what that means, you’ll appreciate the feature.

Beauty This is another one of those features you never see in a camera, but it’s quite handy. Take a closeup image of someone’s face and the camera will actually chug away for about 10 seconds and remove any blemishes. It works very well.

Sequential Shooting The camera allows you to shoot pictures continuously at a high speed. This is handy for so many reasons, especially for moments when the subject is moving and you want to make sure you get the best shot.

And Much Much More There are still a ton of great features that Olympus implements very well in the Tough camera. I could make the review about four times as long, but this hopefully gives you a good idea of how awesome this camera is.

Final Thoughts

Now days, there seems to be a big trend in purchasing the larger DSLR cameras. These camera’s take terrific pictures but they come at a sacrifice. Price and size. You can easily spend $600 or more on just the camera, another $200+ for the flash, and $150+ per lens. The Tough-6000 goes for about $279. As far as size, DSLRs are obviously much larger than a compact camera, and certainly much more delicate than the Tough-6000. I would never bring a Canon 40d to the places I brought my Tough-6000. When we were at the Enchanted Forrest Water Safari (where the fun never stops) I actually threw the camera in my swim suit pocket, went down the water slide, and then pulled it out at the bottom to catch my family entering the pool at the bottom. To be honest, I wouldn’t feel comfortable even bringing an expensive DSLR into a theme park in which I’d have to leave it alone in my bag when I went on certain rides. Or the other option being that someone would have to stay back and watch it. The Tough went literally everywhere with me – even down the huge water slides.

When watching pictures at the end of our vacation, the Tough’s 10megapixel shots were just as good as the DSLR shots that two of my family members had. One sacrifice though – I didn’t have the zoom they did. I wasn’t able to shoot things super far away. But I found I really didn’t have many things that were really far away I wanted to capture. I did have a ton of incredible pictures of my kids playing in the water park and it did bring me a little joy to let the camera occasionally fall in the water while other guests cringed before realizing the camera was waterproof.

All in all – I would only recommend a DSLR if you are a professional photographer or someone who insists on capturing the majority of your (dry and safe) photos from 300 feet away. Otherwise, enjoy the benefit of having little to no fear of bringing your camera everywhere and getting incredibly great and fun looking pictures.

Oh, and one more thing. I didn’t return the loaner camera after my review. Instead I sent them the $279 and kept it.

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Adventures of a Tech Jock

Post written by Steve Otto. Follow me on Twitter.

photo courtesy of bfishadow

The Golden Years When I was in Elementary and Junior High School I was your typical dorky adolescent. I remember hanging out with some of the more goofy kids (which I fit into that category perfectly) who played Dungeons & Dragons and had collections of Star Wars figures and Radio Controlled Cars. I didn’t really fit into the ‘cool group’ at that point, but as I came into High School I started excelling in sports and shedding some of that goofy and awkward layer I carried around for years. Being in a small school with a graduating class of about 65, it was actually possible to know nearly everyone in my High School. That became a goal of mine. I knew what it was like to be part of the goofy group – you know the band geeks or A/V kids in your High School. But I also enjoyed becoming part of the popular crowd. At one point I even had possibly the most attractive girl in our High School longing to date me but at the time I had my heart set on another girl in my church youth group. Thank goodness neither of those worked out.

A new term I remember at one point in my High School Years when a female friend of mine was complimenting me on my skills. I had found some loophole in the system where I was really good at computers and gadgets but didn’t fit the personality profile of most of the A/V guys. I didn’t have a pocket protector or coke bottle glasses and I was actually coordinated. So she gave me a new label – “Tech Jock”. I fit in with the coolness of the Jocks (evening earning Athlete of the Year my Senior Year) while still enjoying my passion for gadgets (and we’re not talking all the cool gadgets like we have now – we are talking gadgets like the Commodore 64 here).

For my peeps So for all those guys out there that have a passion for Audio and Visual goodness but were shunned from the cool group, being called a computer nerd or other debilitating names – this column is for you. You can enjoy A/V and still be cool. You too, can be a Tech Jock.

Of more importance So Technology is of course one of my passions, but I also have a few other roles that outrank the Tech Jock Label. Husband, Father, and a Follower of Jesus. I am absolutely blessed by my marriage to my wife Amy. She is my best friend and we have a lot of fun navigating through life together. Which brings me to our kids – Hannah and Jacob. Life is never boring in our house, and I look forward to sharing some of those adventures with you. Finally, through all of this, my love for Christ is a part of everything I’m involved in. I’m sure I’ll be sprinkling stories in which God is working in my life here in there, because that is always exciting as well.

So I hope you enjoy my weekly column here on Sundays and I want to leave you with one recent story of our 4 year old Jacob.

A Parenting Ubermoment I recently came across the iPhone app called Joost which allows me to watch old TV episodes right on my iPhone. While I was browsing through the retro animated cartoons I came across my absolute favorite: G.I.Joe. My brothers and I were such big G.I.Joe fans that between the three of us we honestly owned about 400 figures and over 100 vehicles. It’s no wonder that all three of us eventually joined the Army Reserves. I was thrilled to share these episodes with Jacob and hoped he would enjoy them as much as I. It wasn’t long before Jacob was cheering on Snake Eyes and fearing Storm Shadow. The episodes are terrific because there are no cartoons, but they do show the commercial brake. It’s kind of entertaining. At the end of an action sequence the G.I.Joe logo comes on and the narrator states “G.I.Joe will return after these messages.” The screen goes black for a second and then the narrator comes back on and continues, “And now back to G.I.Joe”. Well after watching nearly all of the 20 or so episodes and having a half dozen commercial brakes for each episode, it wasn’t long before we found Jacob repeating this. The way he shares this is adorable and a little intriguing. Jacob will recite the narrators comments word for word and then close his eyes for a second or two before coming back with the phrase, “and now back to G.I.Joe”. You gotta see it to see how cute it is…

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YouTube Direkt

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Ubervice Re-Launch

Great news if you have been missing your daily Ubervice articles. Ubervice will be re-launching in mid-september – adding up to 5 new writers!

We’ve got some great stuff planned so check back often!

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Have a Passion for Writing?

Ubervice has been consistently growing in readers each month, since we started back in March. Since then I have been blessed by having Pete Strub join us by writing an article every Thursday. It is still quite an enormous workload for me to write some sort of article every other day and I realize that, especially with our busy summer with weddings, I won’t be able to keep that up for long.

I am looking for more writers to join our team. We are looking for writers who simply enjoy writing and can commit to writing one article per week. If you are interested, please contact us through the following form:

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Parenting UberMoment

Post written by Steve Otto. Follow me on Twitter.

The boys admiring their amazing find

What Four Year Old Boys Admire

This past weekend we went camping with my side of the family. My wife’s idea of a vacation is finding a nice hotel with a pool and hot tub, so she gives us one day a year to actually break out the tent and go camping. Although I must say she’s enjoying it more each time we go so next year we may double our stay.

On the way back from our camping trip we stopped at a Splash Park with the rest of our family. Between my two older brothers and I we have eight kids, and only two of them are girls. Six boys between the ages of three and nine can provide all kinds of entertainment. You never know what is going to happen.

The splash park proved to be lots of fun and accomplished our goal of wearing out the kids enough for them to fall asleep during the rest of our ride home. As I was bringing Jacob to the Men’s Room to change him out of his suit and back into some dry clothes he spotted something that he felt the need to point out to me.

We walked past a woman who was sunbathing and that apparently caught Jacob’s eye. “Dad, look!! Look!!!” he said with excitement as he was trying to turn my head to look in this girl’s direction. (I’m realizing as I write this, that no matter how carefully I try to describe the girl or this situation, I will land in some level of trouble with my wife. So I hope you appreciate what I’m sharing here.)

I tried to appease Jake by offering him a, “Yeah, that’s great buddy!” not realizing that he wasn’t pointing out the sunbathing girl, but his keen eyes had noticed something entirely different, entirely more valuable, and way more exciting to him. I was a little relieved that Jake’s hormone’s weren’t kicking into overdrive prematurely, when he shared the object of his excitement, “It’s a Batman Towel, Dad!”

The story doesn’t end there. When you find something so exciting like a Batman Towel, you can’t just keep it to yourself. You gotta share that with your friends. So when we arrived back at base camp, a small tree just outside the water section of the park, Jake filled in his cousins on this amazing find. So before long, Jake brought one of his cousins, Michael, over to check out this treasure. The two walked right up to the girl as Jake pointed out the famous batman logo that covered the towel she was laying on.

As they came back to the tree again, wearing their innocent smiles, they invited a third cousin, Luke, to check out this masterpiece. At that point I quickly grabbed a camera to capture this moment. I did my best to grab a quick snapshot without looking like some stalker taking pictures of sunbathing women. I can only image the conversation going on as the three stood around the girl staring down and admiring the fine craftsmanship of the towel. “Must be at least 600 thread count,” Jake says while pointing out the towel, “Bruce Wayne would demand no less.”

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Upromise: Free Money for College

Post written by Steve Otto. Follow me on Twitter.

Upromise is a very easy way to save money for college. There are several ways in which you can save money, and the great thing is that, you don’t even have to think about it. Once you sign up and register your credit cards (don’t worry it’s safe), you just go about your normal spending habits and save money.

Here’s how it works. Basically you register your credit cards, shoppers club cards, etc., for any company that is part of the Upromise program. When you buy certain products or eat at eligible restaurants, a portion of the purchase price will be deposited into your Upromise account. It’s that easy.

Amy and I have been doing it for probably about 6 years and we have $300 in our account. Now maybe you were expecting more money, but again, we signed up 6 years ago and I forgot about it until I received a recent email statement. The great thing is that I haven’t done anything different in these last six years to try to help Upromise. In fact, I should probably have a lot more, because for about half the time I forgot to update Upromise with my new debit cards we receive routinely from the bank.

Another great feature is that you can have family and friends sign up as well. For example, your parents can create their own Upromise account and pass their savings on to your little one.

What if you don’t have a child yet? Are your kids already through college? Doesn’t matter, you can still start saving now, and then when you do have kids or grandkids, you can move that savings into a 529 plan that can be used for their college expenses.

I’ve spent probably about 1 hour on the last six years on Upromise signing up, and registering new cards. That has earned me $300. I suppose if I spent a little more time actively finding places to spend my money that support Upromise, I’d have much more, but I like the idea of not having to do anything extra to earn free money.

Check it out – it will certainly be worth your time.

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Comfortable

Post written by Steve Otto. Follow me on Twitter.

Jake in the chair at Sal’s Barber Shop

I’ve been giving our son his haircuts pretty much since he’s been born and each haircut proves to be quite an adventure. The routine is pretty much the same every time. Place a stool about four feet in front of the TV. Turn on a video or cartoon he likes. Have about four lollipops ready for him to cycle through. And then for the next hour, yes its usually about a full hour, I go to battle with Jake over his hair.

He hates the razor so I try to use the scissors on as much of his hair as possible. Anytime the razor gets close, his shoulders instantly come up to his ears protecting his neck and ears from the funny tickle it gives. I usually try to get his hair slightly damp, because its easy to cut, but if a drop of water or a clump of hair happens to fall on his lap, he screams bloody murder.

The climax of our dual is the point when I try to trim the hair on the back of his neck. I’ve tried so many bribes that if Jake actually accepted them, he’d be driving a Bentley right now and I’d be his butler. The battle usually ends with either Amy holding Jake’s head down while he screams and cries and I quickly shear as much as I can, or he walks around with a mane on the back of his head and wears collared shirts for the next month.

A few days ago I was on my way to my thrweekly (every three weeks) hair appointment and Amy said to check if Sal, my authentic Italian Barber, had an opening after me for Jake. We weren’t sure this would be worth the money if Jake gave the same resistance to Sal as he does to me. Not only would this be embarrassing, but I pictured Jake coming home with a half-shaved head, full price haircut, with me finishing the job with an even more frustrated Dad and Son. It was worth a try, we thought.

Amy arrived a little before Sal was finished with me and Jake and Hannah sat and watched as Sal so easily performed his craft, that I tried to mimic at home with Jake. I could hear Amy whispering to Jake to take note of how still Daddy was sitting as well as the other patrons. I could see Jacob’s bright little face in the mirror as I sat and we smiled back and forth. Then came time for Jacob to take the chair. This was the moment of truth.

Sal placed the booster seat on top and as Jacob sat down, he floated the cloth cape over top of him and powered the seat up another foot, giving Jacob a quick ride. Jacob must of appreciated this experience right from the beginning as this was a certain step up from the crappy stool and trash bag Dad uses at home.

For the next twenty minutes Amy and I sat in awe as Jacob was a perfect statue. He sat so still, in fact, that Sal informed me he was better behaved than I normally am. It was amazing and it was well worth any amount of money to not have to face our blood boiling battle that Jake and I face every so often. As a bonus, Jake’s hair has never looked better. No straggly hair on the back of his next and around his ears. No ‘homejob’ style haircut, but rather a nice looking style. And two proud parents.

After watching those twenty minutes of magic, I recognized something that happens very often in families. We get comfortable with each other. When we deal with other people – the people we work with, our friends at church, people around town – we give them our best. But its easy to get home and be a little too comfortable with our family. We say things we are thinking that we would never say to someone we see once a week. We forgive really quickly those at work, but hold our spouse and children to the highest of standards. In some ways, this being comfortable is a good thing. We need to be completely transparent with our spouse and family. We need to be totally open and honest. But at the same time we need to give them the same respect that we give our church friends or coworkers. We should be much quicker to forgive the person you vowed to spend the rest of your life with, than the person who sits four cubes down.

So I’m going to make an effort to get comfortable in my love and openness with my family, but become uncomfortable with my criticism and judgment. It’s no easy task – facing years of bad habits and human nature, but I owe them my best.

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Grateful for Family

Post written by Steve Otto. Follow me on Twitter.

photo courtesy of Pink Sherbet Photography

Last evening we had a gentle reminder of how blessed we are. Blessed because of our family. Blessed because of the opportunities we’ve been given. Blessed by the friends we have. Blessed by the support of our church family. So many of the blessings we have all stem from the families we’ve been raised by and the support we’ve been given throughout the years.

This Old House
We recently purchased a new washer and dryer and just sold our old ones on Craigslist last night. A very sweet family came to purchase our dryer and in the short time we encountered them, we were reminded at how blessed we are. As we chatted while loading the dryer into their van, we learned that they had just moved up here and were renting an apartment in a very old house. From the sounds of it, it was pretty run down. They were here on their own. No family to look to for help. They hadn’t developed any new friendships. They were missing the support group that we take for granted every day.

Their Return
The family returned to our house about an hour later after purchasing the dryer because it wasn’t working after they hooked it up. They had purchased a new cord when they originally bought the dryer and the Dad used my tools to wire it in to the back of the dryer. I’m guessing he didn’t have any tools at home. We know the dryer worked fine, and we are guessing the new cord wasn’t properly connected or the older house may not have been wired properly. My wife and I tried to help as best we could as they asked all sorts of questions about hooking up the dryer. Even simple things like, ‘Do we need to have a hose connected to the vent in the back.’

They had trouble getting power to it and mentioned they knew the plug worked because they tried plugging in the washer. This concerned us, since the washer normally runs on 110 and the dryer runs on 220. So they started asking if it was easy to rewire the outlet.

Easy Questions when you have Help
These seemed like a pretty easy questions for us, but then again, we had family there when we bought our first washer and dryer. Mom and Dad reminded us to buy a new vent hose. They explained that the Dryer ran on 220 and we needed a special cord. Sometimes they run on gas and they helped us determine which type to buy.

Sure you can figure these things out on your own, but the support of your family and friends makes an incredible difference in your life. As I think back, both my wife and I were born into very loving families who weren’t necessarily rich, but definitely provided everything we needed. They gave us opportunities – from small things like loaning us tools, to big things like the opportunity to go to college.

Broken Hearts
It broke our hearts to see this family without that kind of support group. My wife overheard the Mom say in her frustration, “Maybe we should just pack up and go back home to Virginia.” I wasn’t able to be out in the garage helping them for too long as I snuck away from a wedding planning meeting (another thing that wouldn’t be where it is today without the tremendous support from family and friends) for a few minutes to help, but I wish I was able to ride over to their apartment and offer them some of the help we’ve received over the years.

Heart Attacks or Old Age
My friend just started a book that my mentor recommended to me, called The Outliers, by Malcom Gladwell. My friend shared, that in this book, Malcom discusses an incredible community, I believe in Pennsylvania, that has a very interesting statistic in common with everyone in the community. Everyone in that town basically dies of old age. No heart attacks ever occur – despite that being one of the top reasons for deaths nationally. This community all happens to be immigrants or descendants of immigrants from the same village in Italy. So they did study after study to see why these people defied the odds of dying from a heart attack that everyone else faces. First they thought it was something genetic or in their health because they all came from same town in Italy. Many of these people smoked and often worked long 12 hour days, so it wasn’t based on their health. They thought it might be environmental, but the town on either side of them all had the normal heart attack rate. Study after study ruled out what might be the cause for their ability to avoid heart attacks and die of old age until they finally determined it was one simple thing. Community. Everyone in this town was huge into community. They constantly gathered together and treated everyone like family. Houses were homes to extended families instead of nuclear families. Sidewalks were always filled with folks catching up on each other. Everyone knew everyone and they had community together. That was the one thing that was different between this small town and all of their surrounding towns.

By Design
We are designed to be a part of family and it is so important to us it makes a difference on our health. Take a minute and think about how blessed you are to have the family you do. Or perhaps you are in a situation like the family who bought our dryer and you don’t have that luxury. I would encourage you to find a healthy church, in which you are treated like family.

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