Marc’s Musings

Just GoogleMapped the local Starbucks for it’s phone number. (It was a travesty to find I didn’t already have the number in my PDA!)

Check it out here.

First thing I noticed was they totally got the map marker in the wrong location. The address is correct but the marker is in the next town over. Not really a big deal since my car can drive to Starbucks by itself at this point. (And I think it does at times…)

But now check out the wicked cool link by the telephone number.

YOU CAN CALL THE BUSINESS THROUGH GOOGLE!!!

You type in your number. Google calls you and then connects to the business. They pay all local and long distance charges. (You have to pick up the tab for air time if you’re on a mobile.)

It worked. So cool.

If I punched in my cell number, it would appear the call is coming from Starbucks. That way I can automatically have my number in the cell.

Seems quite superfluous and geeky but I’m loving it!

Google QOTD

Man is the only animal that laughs and has a state legislature.

- Samuel Butler

Listening to a sermon Brian McLaren did on February 27, 2005 called “Making More of Public Worship–Teaching: More than Listening”. (Click on the sermon title for a link for the RealAudio file.)

It’s one of a series they did on what public worship is for. Here are just two tidbits (in my words):

1. So what that you don’t remember what was preached the day before. Can you remember what you ate on April 3, 2003? You probably can’t remember it, but it still played an important part in nourishing you and bringing you to this point.

2. Don’t become a sermon connoisseur. We all kind of rank a talk or teaching as it goes along. “So far a 5 out of 10. Oh! Good point, now it’s a 6.” Don’t do that. McLaren says his sermons are really conducive to being copied down as notes. It would be far better to jot down ideas that come to you. “Oh, I should call Joe. It’s been a while since we connected.” The point isn’t being able to regurgitate what you hear. The point is to be empowered to live a Spirit-filled life for the 166 hours you’re not at church.

3. Think of the sermon you remember the most since the last 5 years. It’s probably the one you disagreed with the most. In our world of increasingly being able to listen to only what we want to hear–books, tv, ipods, everything we choose–hearing something you completely disagree with could be an incredibly important part of your spiritual formation.

The entire sermon series, and lots of other sermons, are available at http://www.crcc.org/converse/talks.htm.

From my Google QOTD

Too many have dispensed with generosity in order to practice charity.

- Albert Camus

I hope and pray that will never be said of me!

The journey continues! Today I siphoned my brew from the first bucket to the second for the next couple weeks of fermentation.

This one is to round out the flavors.

For some reason, my wife has added the Bonehead of the Day Award to her personal Google homepage. This was the award for the day.

Yep. That’s an airbag that goes off!!

Reuters reports that the Nepalese mistakenly used a picture of Peru to promote tourism to Nepal.

Nepal isn’t that big. Seems like that kind of mistake should be caught BEFORE publication, doesn’t it?

Read the story here.

Remember Mad Libs? I used to love them as a kid.

Well check out this slightly scary, Evangelical Mad Libs.

Thanks to Dan Wilt for the head’s up.

We just started a new sermon series at VCW called Livin’ Large. (Link to the Livin’ Large mp3 here.)

I firmly believe we’re missing out on all God has to offer us. And I believe He wants so much “more than we can ask or imagine.” (Yep, that’s Eph 3:20 if it looks familiar. )

Reading Steve Sjogren’s new blog jumpstartchurch.com, I had an ephiphany like experience. One of his suggestions to make 2007 an incredible year was:

Pray for a breakthrough in your spiritual life. Where there is no discontent with the status quo there is no growth, no advances personally, no momentum built. It all starts with a “holy discontent.”

Asking a loving Father to give us what He already wants us to have? What a great idea! Thais definitely going on the “2007 To Do” list!