I got a free $15 gift card to Bountiful Bread, so I figured I’d check it out. It was explained to me as an “independent Panera.” Now Panera is one of my favorite places to eat, so that sounded pretty good to me. I checked it out today.
First of all, let me say that Panera can be a little chaotic when you go in there at lunch time — but it has nothing on Bountiful Bread. There’s a giant wrap-around counter with people standing all around it — apparently each place they stand has a different purpose, but it was just dumb luck that I picked the right one to order at.
They took my name with my order, and a few minutes later, someone yelled “JON!” at the top of their lungs. Of course 3 people plus myself ran up to the counter to find out if it was our food. Then I took my food to another, seemingly random, part of the counter — where it took 3 cashiers over 5 minutes to figure out how to process my gift card.
Then I went to the most haphazard dining area I’ve ever seen. And it was almost completely filled with women. It was like a testosterone-free zone. Women were sitting on stools, on pillows on the ground, on high benches, and on low couches. One woman was openly breast-feeding her spawn, while two children jumped off the couch she was sitting on. I took my glasses off, to cut down on the sensory overload, and went to eat my food.
I paid $7.50 for a Turkey Sandwich that consisted of: two slices of bread, 3 or 4 slices of turkey, some chunky white substance that could have been butter, or tofu, thinly sliced apple, and liberally applied honey-mustard. It was the most bizarre sandwich I’ve ever eaten. Combined with a fountain drink (the cashier got very confused when I asked for my cup) my meal cost just shy of $10, and took about 3 minutes to consume. Which sucks because I’m still hungry, but is OK, because I really wanted to get out of there. I still have $5 left on my gift card, but I’m pretty sure I’m not going back…

Indiana Jones 4 – Still looks like he’s up for it. I hope I’m still chasing adventure when I’m 60.
Other movies that they’d better not screw up:

• Transformers
• Live Free or Die Hard
• Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian
• The Dark Night

Movies I have high hopes for, but realistically expect to be disappointed:

• The Simpsons Movie
• Resident Evil: Extinction

Last night we had both a wrap-up and kick-off party, at our new campus. We ended our year of student ministry at the original campus, and started it up for the summer at the new one. We said good-bye to one student pastor, and welcomed another. And the Vertical Production Team got to put on one last show together in style.

It’s been a crazy and fun year, and we’ve learned a lot through it. Brian has done a fantastic job building an awesome student ministry, and its bittersweet to congratulate him as he moves on to his new position. But we have a great team of leaders, and some amazing students, and it was nice just to cut loose and hang out together.
I can’t say I’m not a little relieved that summer is here, and things can slow down a bit. But we do have some fun things planned for the next couple months — which I’m sure you’ll read about on the site. And it has been a year to remember: a year of VPT, Nine12 Serves, Backstreet Boys performances, the first ever Northway Missions team, and some great friends… Have an awesome summer everyone!

…Backward.
Actually, it’s more a crab-walk than a crawl. He pushes himself up on his fingers and toes, and then lets his body fall. You can tell he thinks he’s going to be moving forward — he sets his eyes on a toy that he wants — but it just doesn’t work out. Eventually he gives up and start rolling toward where he wants to go.
He’s also eating a lot more food. He’s not that big a fan of sweet potatoes — unless there’s brown sugar in them. But he does love carrots and makes “mmm hhhuuummm mmm” noises when he gets them.
And finally, our new favourite trick is what Nic has dubbed the “Happy Dance.” When he’s excited or glad to see you, he flails his limbs — all of them — around wildly and grins from ear-to-ear. It’s adorable.

Here’s my boy… asleep at a rock concert. If only I could sleep that easily!

June 30, leaving at 7:30am – returning around 1:30.
Somewhere near Lake George — about a 3 mile hike. (I don’t have directions yet, but I’ll get them).
Bring shoes that can get wet, clothes that will stay on when you hit the water, and pack a lunch.
If you read this blog and live in a 30 mile radius, you’re invited. It’s gonna be a blast.

There are people who disagree with our parenting style. Admittedly, we’re pretty new to this and have a lot to learn, but in general, I’m pretty proud of the decisions we’ve made for our son, so far. We’ve gathered tips from parents of some great kids over the years, and I’d like to think that Benjamin stands a pretty good chance of being a great kid.
I’m proud of the fact that two days after he was born Benjamin was at a Christmas party. That 2 days after that he was at a New Year’s party. That he goes to concerts, with his little headphones on, and that he hangs out with… pretty much everyone at Vertical on Wednesdays. That he loves people, and that he’s learning how to connect with them. That he spends so much time at church that he will grow up feeling like it is a second home — one where he has as much responsibility as he does the place where he sleeps. That he comes along with us when we serve at soup kitchens or on missions trips, and that he’ll grow up believing that showing God’s love to others is a normal part of life.

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related article
My boy will be loved and nurtured — but he won’t be coddled. He will skin his knees, and fall off his bike. He’ll come home with grass stains, he’ll get cuts and bruises. And he’ll come home to a mom and dad who’ll wipe the tears, clean him up, kiss him better — then send him right back outside to experience life.
That doesn’t mean we won’t protect him, or shield him from things he’s not ready to face. But we are not child-centered parents. He is not the center of our world — rather he is a part of the world we all share. And he will have the opportunity to learn and grow until he can make his own mark on it.
But to get that… to truly understand how big and how incredible this home God has given us is, Benjamin needs to see it. We, as a family, need to go. Not today, or tomorrow — but we can’t settle forever.
And its easy for me to say that I am restless, and not attach any parenting motive to that. But the thing is, I want this restlessness for my son.
It’s a curse, to be sure, to know that where ever you are is no more significant than where you could be. To know that “home” is a fleeting concept that travels with you and lasts no longer than the tugging of your heart toward a different place.
But it’s a blessing too. To get that tenuous hold on just how much is out there, how much you have left to discover. To know that for every awesome and unique person you meet where you are right now, there’s always one more person somewhere in the world who’s friendship will enrich your life, and challenge you in new ways. To realise that nothing you possess is at all permanent, or even that valuable, because the things we assign worth to are only worthwhile in the context of where we happen to be at the moment.
What I want for my son is to teach him that restlessness. To teach him that as soon as he gets comfortable, he’s stopped growing. To show him what’s really valuable in life: the people, the relationships, the places and the adventure that God wants to use to shape him. I want my son to be wild at heart…

Here’s a little script for all you Mac hackers out there. Say you have a media PC, like a Mac Mini, sitting in your home theater. Now you probably don’t surf for torrents on your TV — if you’re like me, you find them on your laptop and then have to copy the torrent file over the network, then mouse around on the media PC to open the torrent file up.
But what if you had a Drop Box where you could just toss in .torrents over the network, and have your TV immediately start downloading them for you? Why, that would be digital bliss!!
Supposedly Transmission has a feature that does this. The only problem is it doesn’t work. So I hacked together this. The script only works with SMB — alas, AFP does not notify the file system about changes, so automatic Folder Actions do not work. But as long as you don’t mind having at least one folder set-up for Windows File Sharing, try this…

on adding folder items to this_folder after receiving these_items
tell application “Finder”
set torrentsExt to {“.torrent”}
set allFiles to files of this_folder
repeat with theFile in allFiles
copy name of theFile as string to FileName
if FileName ends with torrentsExt then
tell application “Transmission”
open theFile
end tell
end if
end repeat
end tell
end adding folder items to

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Update: Here’s another little hack to do something similar for music. If you download your music on another computer, but want it added to a central library hooked directly up to your TV, like I do, you can add this to the above script and have music automatically put away after being dropped in…Below the set torrentsExt line, add

set musicExt to {“.mp3”}
set myMusic to alias “Mac OS:Users:You:Music:”

Below the if…end if for torrentsExt add

if FileName ends with musicExt then
move theFile to myMusic
end if

Then you could set-up a Folder Action like this one, to automatically add it to your iTunes Library. More ideas here…

OK, its pretty cheesy, but one of the students at the school my siblings and I attended in Kandern, Germany went on a motorbike ride around town and shot footage. If you’re at all interested in what Germany looks like, or what my life was like when I was 14, you should check out some of this video.
It’s rather long, but there are money shots around 3 minutes. At about 3:06 they drive down what was my normal bike ride to school. At about 3:40 they take a left into town, instead of a right toward the school, and it was pretty trippy to see that road and that practically nothing has changed. At about 7:10 they ride by the front of our school.
I don’t know either of the guys on the bike, and take no responsibility for their musical selection. But man, Germany was a beautiful place. Here’s the video…