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  • Best Compliment You Can Give A Band (Styx)

    Best Compliment You Can Give A Band (Styx)

    styx tommy shawI tried, unsuccessfully (thank goodness), to blow my home theater speakers watching the Styx Grand Illusion / Pieces Of Eight DVD.

    Those two albums from the late 70’s are so great.  The band plays both albums back to back.  It was the first time I’ve ever heard songs like Castle Walls and Aku Aku performed live.

    Here’s something about Styx that I think sets them apart (at least for me). When you go back and listen to albums like this, you find yourself thinking, “Ok, this is my favorite Styx song”. Then the next song starts and you think,  “Ok, this is my favorite Styx song.”

    And the cycle repeats.

    I have a feeling for some musicians that may be the best compliment they can receive.

  • The “OMG Dad You’re Annoying” Wave Off

    When you’re the parent of a teenager who is dropping your child off at a friend’s house, you wait until they are in the door.

    This is what you do. You are a good parent.

    The teenage boy is absolutely horrified by this, especially if the friend’s house belongs to a girl. This is when the child flails their arms wildly trying to get you to leave before the door opens.

    We call this the “OMG Dad You’re Annoying” wave off.

    Thank you Collin for recently refraining from such wave. You are growing up so fast.

  • A Hopeful Browns Fan

    A Hopeful Browns Fan

  • How To Schedule A Yammer Message For Later Delivery

    Here goes my most geeked out blog post ever.

    This is for Yammer users who want to schedule a Yammer message for posting to their Yammer network at a later time.

    We use this at my company, Intrapromote, for staff announcements on new blog posts set to publish the following day.

    So, you want to schedule a Yam to hit your Yammer network feed at a certain time? Yammer doesn’t have this feature, but here’s how to make it happen.

    What you’re going to do is create an email and schedule it to send to your Yammer network at the time you want it to hit your Yammer network feed. IMPORTANT: You will need Boomerang For Gmail or some other email scheduling program. My instructions below are based on using Boomerang.

    1. In your Yammer Account Settings (Edit Account > Notifications) uncheck the box next to “Require me to confirm my email before it’s posted”

    2. Compose a new email From the email address registered in your Yammer account

    3. In the To field, put [your yammer network name]@yammer.com

    4. In the Subject field, put the subject of your yam or leave blank

    5. In the Body field, enter your Yammer message

    6. Schedule your email to send at the time you want the message to hit your Yammer network. With Boomerang, Click Save Now, then click Send Later, assign your time and click Confirm.

    Your Yammer message will be emailed to Yammer at the time you assigned and hit your Yammer feed about 30 seconds afterwards.

    That’s some serious geeked out tweakage!

  • Some Thoughts On Giving More in 2012

    Some Thoughts On Giving More in 2012

    I’m reading a book that’s main focus is about a “hole” in the Gospel. The author’s main point is that the Gospel of Christ is more than just believing, it’s also about living it out through tangible expressions of our faith.

    I had a bit of an epiphany recently. I was walking around totally engulfed in myself when suddenly a question popped into my head. It was actually kind of simple yet profound. The question was: “What have I done today that isn’t about ME?” Ouch, right?

    That question hasn’t left me. The more I think about it, the more simple it becomes. And I wonder what 2012 might be like if we asked ourselves this every day and had an answer other than “wow, not much”. Could this take us a small step away from our self absorbed mentality and move us toward intentionally and tangibly acting out God’s love like He intends us to do?

    Jesus tells a story about a rich man who isn’t willing to forsake everything for Him. That’s a little bit hard to relate to, the idea of forsaking EVERYthing. It really makes you wonder what kind of disciple am I really willing to be. But what if we start by just forsaking SOMEthing? What if we asked ourselves “what did I do today that wasn’t about me?” so often that it really got ingrained into who we are and we see what God does with it? Then, I think we get closer to the Gospel overflowing from our head and our heart to our hands and our feet.

    The Ausbury family will be looking for ways we can really act out our faith this year both individually and together as a family. We’re setting up a bulletin board so we can routinely see what this looks like.

    An interesting point made in the book I’m reading refers to Matthew 25 where Jesus gives a glimpse at the final judgement where the goats and sheep are divided. The author’s point is not about making sure you are a believer so that you fall into the right group (the sheep), he points out that if you look further into Matthew 25 you’ll see that the goats and sheep are separated based not on their confession of Christ, but on how they acted out their faith to the poor, the sick, etc. I never saw this verse that way, but I think it’s a good point.

    I wrote a 2012 version of Matthew 25:35-36 to consider:

    For I was hungry while you enjoy all you can eat buffets.
    I was a stranger and you went out of your way to avoid me.
    I was thirsty while you actually threw away bottles of water.
    I needed clothes while you have 3 of the same turtleneck.
    I was sick and you acted like I had it coming.
    I was in prison and you said I was getting what I deserved.

    Anyone up for giving more than you’ve ever given in 2012? I hope to be blogging about these things this year.

  • Baby Jesus 2011

    Baby Jesus 2011

    It’s time for the 4th annual Where’s Baby Jesus annual tradition at our house. Here are links to the last three years: 2008, 2009 and 2010 (amazing to see how Collin has grown the last 4 years!)

    So this year, Collin didn’t hesitate to let Baby Jesus take a camel carriage ride all by himself. As you can see from this picture, Baby Jesus looks quite content and like he’s digging this ride! The camel has that look on his face that says, “Uh huh, that’s right…Son of God right here!”

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  • My “Pick 5” Stock Experiment, 5 Years Later

    My “Pick 5” Stock Experiment, 5 Years Later

    Five years ago today, on March 18, 2006, I decided to choose 5 companies that I liked and buy their stock. I didn’t spend any time researching the companies I chose. I simply chose companies whose product or service I liked!

    I took $10,000 and bought $2,000 of each stock. Here are the companies I chose:

    Netflix (NFLX)
    Ebay (EBAY)
    Comcast (CMCSA)
    Tivo (TIVO)
    Google (GOOG)

    It’s been fun to watch these 5 stocks in my Ameritrade account especially since I had an interest in them and liked what they offered.

    Of my $10,000 investment, the value of all 5 stocks as of today is $27,394. So overall, in 5 years, the overall gain was 174%. Do you think I bought all huge winners to get a gain like that? Not exactly.

    Only 1 of the 5 company’s stocks did not increase since March 2006. That stock was Ebay which is down only 5% so my $2,000 in Ebay stock is now worth $1,903.

    Of the other 4 companies, you might assume that the gains were spread out across them right? It gets a little interesting here. The gains on these other 4 companies range from 9% to 797%! Here they are in order of gain percentage:

    Comcast 9%
    Google 25%
    Tivo 50%
    Netflix 797%

    What are 5 companies you like and would you buy their stock? I say no matter what amount you have to invest, trust your gut and go for it.

  • Some Of My Favorite Quotes

    Some Of My Favorite Quotes

    Here are some of my favorite quotes:

    No man is poor who has a Godly mother.

    You could see the bright side of a plague.

    Call on God but row away from the rocks. Hunter S. Thompson

    Suck is non-linear.

    Maturity is knowing the difference between having something to say and just having to say something.

    Cleveland and Detroit are not what you call destination cities.

    We were meant to see thru our eyes with a conscience, but the visual media makes us see world events without a conscience.

    That’s not a red flag, that’s a massive rippling banner of war. Andy Selsberg

    Nobody gets exactly what they want from life. But if you work really hard and are kind, amazing things can happen. Conan O’Brien

    You’re only as happy as your least happy kid.

    Listening never makes a situation worse. Kevin James

    Still water runs deep.

    Nothing says “I’m old” like sitting around putting crap on Facebook.

    People that don’t make bad decisions don’t make any decisions.

    Those two get along like two wet cats in a bag.

    It’s your own journey. Go ahead and hog the road.

    Always bet on yourself.

    The two worse things to impact our world: 1) Nazi Germany 2) Bad Coffee

    I think that maybe inside any business, there is someone slowly going crazy. J. Heller

    If you’re going to march to a beat, why not have it be YOU playing the drums? F. Sudnuty

  • Kim On Can You Relate?

    Kim On Can You Relate?

    Kim’s segment starts about about 19:00:

  • Cribbs Vanilli?

    Cribbs Vanilli?