Category: Blogging

  • friends are friends forever

    you have to love michael w. smith songs. oh, the fond memories of childhood camps. funny thing is, i dont even remember 99% of the people i met at camps…those people i was soooo heartbroken over on the last day as we held hands and sang that song.

    i digress.

    things are a little busy for me right now, so my blogging might be sporadic in the upcoming weeks. i apologize. speaking at community of hope sunday went great! i love love love speaking. hopefully they did too. and appreciate the prayers you sent my way. once i get my hands on an mp3 and decide it doesn’t suck too badly, i’ll try and post it! if you want to see me in action, complete with britney spears headset (i had to resist singing “hit me baby one more time”) you can see a snapshot here. it was the first time i had ever used a headset and i thank the sound guy for helping me get it on without messing up my hair.

    since i am obviously not blogging interesting things right now, you should go check out this post on the lifechurch.tv swerve blog…

    bobby asks, “is community broken?

    i wrote about some of my thoughts on this churchy buzz word here and here (for those of you who are new)…but i would love to hear your thoughts on his question…i’m keeping up with the comments, so please dive into the discussion over there!

    is community broken? what do you think?

  • post 500

    well.

    here we are.

    evidently the issue of my choice to start capitalizing correctly was brought to the forefront.

    and with this post, i will allow you to cast a vote…

    whatever’s winning when i post next, will be the way i continue…

    the future of this blog is in your hands…

    (i’m not sure if the poll will show up in RSS feeds, so click here to cast your vote)

  • explore your feminine side

    (disclaimer: i realize i don’t have a blogroll. reasons for this being one… i am too chicken to deal with the drama and gnashing of teeth that sometimes results from having said blogroll, and two…ok, there’s really just one reason. now that i have labeled myself a hypocrite, let’s continue, shall we?)

    i am subscribed to 80ish blogs, but peruse so many more when time allows. i do love the blogroll feature and would not have found many of your blogs otherwise. it also allows me to see what kind of stuff you like to read and in turn inspires me on what to write.

    mandatory introductory paragraph aside, there is a SERIOUS lack of estrogen on ministry blogrolls. i know there are a ton of great women out there who blog about ministry, but why the heck aren’t they showing up on anyone’s link love?

    most pastorish types have links to the other pastorish types from those churches that make it on the lists of which (in good humor and love) i like to poke fun (please also note: the church i am employed at was on two of those lists, therefore allowing me such a right). occasionally i’ll see a few ladies sprinkled in, but seriously – where is the love?

    who are some female bloggers you like reading? DON’T KEEP THEM TO YOURSELF! show them a little link love. i am having a hard time finding their blogs, so my challenge to you is this…add some estrogen to your blogroll!

    bring on the girl power… what girls are you linking up? and no, that is not a euphemism, dirty.

  • happy 500th! (almost)

    as i was linking up the last post, i realized…wow, i am almost at 500 posts! this one is #494 (including all private ones).

    if we were all together geographically and it was a milestone event, we would of course throw a party, right?

    i’m left wondering, what should we do for post #500? my mind goes to the easy “donate $500” to a worthy cause (which, by the way, those of you who ordered “be” the church shirts – they are printing now and will be on their way soon along with thank you notes from the family you helped!)

    …but this little blog wouldn’t have gotten near 500 posts if it wasn’t for YOU…all of you…lurkers and all…(ahem. cough, cough. reveal thyself.)

    my resolution: starting post #501 i will be using proper capitalization.

    i am personally all up for people sending me airline tickets and going out to meet as many of you as possible. but that’s a little egotistical and selfish, ain’t it? :) anyway, do you have suggestions for what to do to celebrate the big #500?

    (on a side note, flowerdust.net has had a little makeover. if you’re an rss reader, click here to see it! if you’re not, make sure you hit refresh and see the new look!)

  • |block|

    having huge (blogging) writer’s block. brain empty. the last two days, we got to have the honor of this young man staying with us. never met him before in my life. and yes mom, that means we let a stranger stay with us. he only made off with the tv and one of the cats. he is actually quite fantastic. and that new bio picture over there (click here for you rss people), he took that for me, with some more i’ll get to posting one day.

    anyway, since i can’t come up with much to write about right now, i thought i’d ask you guys a question. if you could meet three people in the bloggoland, who would they be? and please, do not say “you, flowerdust. of course, you” unless you mean it. my feelings won’t be hurt. i’ll post mine soon…

    happy thursday!

  • who dropped the soap?

    when my friend was on a mission trip in his high school years, the group of guys he was with had the luxury of a communal shower. i believe most high school boys would find this an awkward situation, trying to keep their insecurities hidden by staring very intently at the tile wall in front of them.

    the rule of the communal shower was “eyes, straight ahead.” during the course of one of his showers, he heard a noise – a thud. looking down toward his feet, he noticed a bar of soap slide on the floor, right behind his legs. within seconds, a hand – only from the wrist up – grabbed the escaped bar. as quickly as the soap had appeared, it had disappeared.

    it doesn’t take a genius to figure out whoever this alleged soap-dropping-person was had to come into pretty close contact with my friend’s then sudsy derriere. now, he was faced with a life-altering decision.

    does he turn around and identify this brave (yet clumsy) person? or does he choose the safe route, eyes unmoving from the innocent tile wall?

    he chose the wall.

    yesterday while in kansas, i had a woman come up to me and introduce herself. she attends my old church and has been reading my blog. she was awesome and she thanked me for being transparent through this avenue of blogging.

    i have to admit, this computer screen in some ways is like the wall at which my friend chose to stare. i am honored that you drop by in some way or another and read these mostly muddled thoughts i toss out into cyberland. but truth be told, it’s a LOT easier typing these things than it is physically talking about them with someone.

    i got to spend some time today sharing about my struggles with stress and anxiety – things i have easily blogged about before (feel free to read through the “depression” category)…however, looking someone in the eye and saying, “yeah, this is where i really get hit” didn’t come out quite as elegant, witty, or as anonymous.

    honestly, i think i was surprised about how uncomfortable it was talking about these issues in person with a small group of friends as compared to writing it for however many random strangers to read. and as therapeutic as blogging these things has been, and as much as other people have shared the “me too” connection through those posts, there is definitely a huge difference in the amount of difficulty sharing such messy things to real, live-in-front-of-you people as opposed to typing them out for the whole world to see.

    all of this rambling to state the obvious: i don’t think blogging or an online community can take the place of real life interaction and sharing. can it compliment it? absolutely. i will talk until i’m blue in the face about the amazing things that can take place online.

    but looking someone in the eye after they’ve been up and in your ugly parts is a completely different – and now i realize very essential – dimension.

  • interaction soapbox

    Since announcing mad church disease, I’ve gotten a little more email than i normally would with people sharing their stories more indepthly, or sharing their thoughts on the book. It has been great to meet a lot of new people and if you have emailed me in the last couple of weeks and have not received a reply – I’m working on it – i promise!

    Gmail actually locked me out from sending email earlier this week since i had emailed my entire address book of 566 people. evidently that makes me a spammer so they put your account on hold! anyway i have 12 emails remaining to respond to…and i thank you for waiting as i will write back.

    however, after responding to some earlier emails, I’ve received a couple of replies like this back:

    Wow…I have to say I did not expect a response.

    i must say i am a little shocked to get a message from you.

    Now, this goes back to my soapbox on “three reasons i’ll ditch your feed” and “three reasons i’ll fancy your feed” – INTERACTION.

    while i may not respond to EVERY comment on this blog, I do try and respond to people who are new, or have a question, or been generous in their time and shared something with me. Please don’t misread this as my attempt to claim some nonexistent blogging bragging right, but a little something I’d like to call COMMON SENSE.

    When I spoke further with one of the people who said one of the comments above, he said:

    …I personally can?t stand it when people do not respond to me…

    Dude, I feel the same way. That is why I try (keyword: try) to do something different.

    I really think it’s a priority thing, and that’s okay. Some people have way more to worry about than blogging or responding. Maybe I’m lucky that I just have a full time job, a family, friends, and some side projects and nothing too crazy going on. But in all honesty, the people who read, comment and respond to things on my blog – you guys rock my world and I try (unsuccessfully at times) to not be just another virtual person…

    As ridiculously cheesy as it sounds, I love our relationships and our interaction. It really is very important to me. I know I feel valued when someone replies back to a comment I’ve made or an email I’ve sent.

    So – what do you think? Are you “shocked” when someone responds to something you’ve said on a blog or on email? Do you expect it?

  • searching…

    every once in a while, i check my stats to see what people are searching for and how they end up on flowerdust.net.  i sorted through all the recent key phrases, we decided these were my ten favorite searches.

    -levitation pills
    -disposing of cremated remains
    -taboo story about a hesitant aunt
    -i got rid of my bleeding ulcer myself
    -anne jackson cakes
    -porn cake toppers
    -athletic butt
    -how to take all the crap out of heroin
    -flickr women hairy armpits
    -anne jackson dead or alive

    WOW. that is some interesting searching. and just in case you’re wondering…i’m alive. thanks for checking.