Friday, November 30, 2007

Spot... Up close and personal...

Spot... Up close and personal...

Christmas Progressive Dinners!!!

We've got a great Christmas Party lined up for December 14th for both middle and high school students. We are planning a Progressive Dinner (everyone travels to different houses... eating a different course of the meal as they go). At the final homes, each ministry will have a $5 gift exchange.

It will be a total blast. Now, I'm just waiting to see who has the best lineup of food before I decide where I'm going... hehe...

Frontline (High School) will be visiting these families:
-Morton/Hutto (appetizer)
-Brooks (main course... spaghetti and breadsticks)
-Reffett (dessert and gift exchange)

Underground (Middle School) will be visiting these families:
-Cerezo (appetizer)
-Galloway (main course)
-Alfred (dessert... brownie sundaes... mmmmmm...)

Student are signing up for the Progressive Dinners right now. It starts at 6 pm and concludes at 9:30 pm and costs just $10!!! That's a pretty good deal...

I can't wait!!!

Jim

Good use of a power cord...

My wife found an interesting way to use her power cord today... As a
bookmark...

Library... Again...

Another day off...
Another day in the library...
Ugh!!!

Jim Clark
Student Minister

Sent from my iPhone...

Thursday, November 29, 2007

Come on SNOW!!!

There is some snow predicted for the Chicagoland area for the next couple of days!

Which is great for me! This week, we are putting out the sign up sheet for the High School Ski Trip on January 21st. We are heading to Cascade Mountain in Portage, WI. I can't wait. I love the ski trip.

This will be a great trip and I'm really looking forward to it because the High Schoolers go now... the Middle Schoolers go in February... Jim goes both times!!!

Jim

I missed out today...

I'm kinda bummed right now.

Today we were supposed to host a Purpose Driven Youth Ministry Community Lunch here at FVCC. I always look forward to these. It's a chance to sit around a table, talk about ministry and life and most importantly, get some encouragement.

Except no one showed up.
I knew that no one was coming. I had sent out the invitations. I emailed... I called... Everyone "couldn't come." Or didn't even bother to respond. Major bummer!!!

I missed out on some encouragement. I missed out on some connection. I missed out...

Jim

Cold...

Brrrrr...
Winter is here.
Its about 28 and cold...

Jim Clark
Student Minister

Sent from my iPhone...

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

12 Days of Simply Youth Minstry Freebies!!!

My friends over at Simply Youth Ministry are doing their 12 Days of Christmas Freebies again this year. They did this last year and it was great. Every day, they release a new freebie for download.

Today was a Powerpoint game that I am planning to use this weekend. Its great. Check it out HERE.

I'm all about freebies that are free... always good... and good freebies that I will actually use.

Enjoy!

Jim

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Long drive...

These rides home are so long...

Jim Clark
Student Minister

Sent from my iPhone...

Staying ahead of the wave...


Schoolwise... I'm paddling like crazy and at this point in my week, I'm staying ahead of the wave. Today, I had a major project due in my worship class (which I will turn in in about 15 minutes). Next week, I've got a reading assignment due for worship and a journal due for reformation. So, for the next week, I'm going to be paddling as hard as I can.

But I did get a little reprieve. My prof (and adviser) for reformation history pushed back our reading report due date to December 14th. Which gives me an extra 3 or 4 days to finish up my reading for that class... and that's a welcome relief!!!

Well...
Back to paddling...

Jim


***Hey Chris... I thought you might like this picture!!!***

Sunday, November 25, 2007

5 Best Things to Say When Caught Sleeping at Desk...

This week is going to be a long week with lots of school projects to finish up as the semester draws to a close... I might need a couple of these. I found this HERE.

5 Best Things to Say When Caught Sleeping at Your Desk:
submitted by Liz Kroll

5. "They told me at the Blood Bank this might happen."

4. "This is just a 15 minute power nap they raved about in the time management course you sent me to."

3. "Whew! Guess I left the top off the Whiteout. You probably got here just in time."

2. "Did you ever notice sound coming out of these keyboards when you put your ear down real close?" And the NUMBER ONE best thing to say if you get caught sleeping at your desk...

1. Raise your head slowly and say, "...in Jesus' name, Amen."


Jim

BCS standings...


Today, Sunday, the new BCS standings come out.

Over the weekend, #1 LSC lost... we knew that. But #2 Kansas lost as well... which I called... WVU won... which I was hoping would happen.

Today Ohio State is #3...

If Oklahoma wins over Missouri this weekend... and I'm officially give it to Oklahoma. WVU has to play Pittsburgh, which WVU will win.

But if Oklahoma rolls like I'm calling, then Ohio State will be back in the running for a BCS Championship against WVU!!!!


Go Bucks!!!

Christmas Lights Gone Wild

A student showed me this this morning (Thanks Will). I just had to post it. Fun fun...

Jim



Check it out on YouTube HERE.

Saturday, November 24, 2007

I'm really beginning to hate the library...

And I'm not talking about the public library.

I spent half of my Saturday today down at Wheaton College in their library. Today actually wasn't too bad of a day to be in the library since most of the undergrads are still on Thanksgiving break. But I'm getting tired of seeing the inside of libraries... Wheaton... Lincoln... blah... It's a nice enough library. I would just rather be spending my Saturdays on the couch watching college football or something.


But I guess I'm going to have to get used to it...

Jim

Ohio State back in the BCS Championship game???!!!???


Last night, LSU fell to Arkansas... 50 to 48 in 3 Overtimes!!!

LSU was #1... not any more...

Tonight, Kansas #2 and Missouri #4 square off (I give it to Missouri...)

West Virginia #3 is playing Connecticut #20...

#1 is no more...
Either #2 or #4 is going to lose...
If #3 were to go down (and there's a chance...)

Guess who might be back in the BCS Championship Game!!!!! (I bet you won't really have to guess...)

Jim

Friday, November 23, 2007

PDYM Community Lunch

Conversation
Connection
enCouragement

And food!!!!

That's what the PDYM Community is all about... minus the food. But it's all about building connections between local youth workers, having conversation about what's working and what's not in student ministry and get encouraged to continue in the ranks of youth ministry.

I'll be hosting a PDYM Community Lunch next week (November 29th) at Fox Valley Christian Church in Batavia, IL. If you are local, I'd love to have you join us for lunch at 12:30 pm.

If you have questions feel free to ask at jim@fvcc.com.

Jim

4:22 am... no "Black Friday Shopping" for me!!!

As the title says... It's 4:22 am.

'Why are you up?' you ask.

Well, I was planning to go "Black Friday Shopping" this morning. It would have been the first time ever!!! Jackie just left for work (Starbucks opens at 5 am here in Chicagoland...) and I was planning to hit one sale that starts at 5 am (a couple at was at the same Thanksgiving Dinner as us yesterday had a whole plan of attack for today... yuck!.

My sister and I are trying to pick up a present together for someone in our family. But the phone just rang and she picked one up at a sale in Ohio about 10 minutes ago (5 am EST). So, I'm going back to bed. I've never been "Black Friday Shopping." I just don't get it. It doesn't seem like much fun... elbowing people... getting up early (it's now 4:26 am)... going out in the cold (it's about 21 degrees here)... fighting people... rushing...

I think I'll just go back to bed. I had too much turkey and dessert yesterday anyway...

It's 4:29 am.

Zzzzzzzzzzzzz...

Jim

Thursday, November 22, 2007

Happy Thanksgiving (thankfulness...)

So...
It's Thanksgiving. I'm sitting here on the couch waiting for the Packers vs. the Lions coming on here in a few minutes. And so I thought I'd take a couple of minutes and share some things that I'm thankful for (in no particular order).

-my Savior
-an incredible wife (who cares enough for our family and its finances to work on Thanksgiving... even opened this morning at 4 am... ugh!!!)
-a great group of students that I get the privilege to work with every week (most of which have been throwing turkeys and mashed potatoes at me on Facebook all day)
-my great parents (whom I spent an hour and half with on the phone today... and would love to be eating turkey with them today... my dad and I have the habit of "carving the turkey" in the basement together so that we can eat some before we take it upstairs and mom doesn't know... don't worry... she never reads my blog anymore unless I tell her...)
-a couple of good football games (Packers v. Lions... Cowboys v. Jets...)
-the Pauleys and the Reffetts (who invited my wife and I to join their families for Thanksgiving and we're actually taking them up on it)
-the Jacksons, the Jansons and the Watkins (who also invited us for Thanksgiving... but we didn't take them up on it)
-a great church family that I have the opportunity to serve at FVCC
-great staff relationships (Steve and I had lunch yesterday for an hour and a half... Chinese buffet day!!!)
-having my Cruizer back (it was in the shop this week... rental cars stink!)
(I said in no particular order... its mostly off the top of my head)
-a pretty good Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade today (I'm a sucker for the holiday parade thing... and I'll watch the Rose Parade on New Years Day as well...)
-my education at Lincoln Christian Seminary (although right now I'm in the midst of deadline time... so I'm wondering how thankful I really am...)
-friendships (which aren't as far down the list as it would appear... too many to mention...)

I think that's probably good enough...
If I think of some others, I'll add them later.

Wherever you're at today, have a Happy Thanksgiving. And remember to be thankful for what you have regardless of what the television tries to convince you that you don't have (at Sears, JCPenny's, etc) that you have to go out at 5 am tomorrow morning and buy.

Psalm 100:3-5
"Know that the LORD is God.
It is he who made us, and we are his;
we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

Enter his gates with thanksgiving
and his courts with praise;
give thanks to him and praise his name.

For the LORD is good and his love endures forever;
his faithfulness continues through all generations." NIV



Happy Thanksgiving!

Jim


Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Starbucks TV commercial

A pretty cool little commercial... and almost a little rip on Caribou...

Jim



Click HERE to check it out on YouTube...

Snow TONIGHT!!!!

It's official!!!

Here in St. Charles at 8:30 pm, there was snow reported!!! Maybe if it sticks around until the morning... or accumulates enough to see... there will be pics here.





Jim

Snow tonight???!!!

So...

The Weather Channel is calling for 2 to 3 inches of snowfall for the Chicagoland area tonight. Will it be a white Thanksgiving???

That would be awesome!!!

Jim

Rock Band was fun last night

Last night was a lot of fun.

If you haven't, check out a couple of "live blogged" pictures from last night's Rock Band-athon (I took them on my iPhone and put them right on my blog from Jeff's...). Boone, Clayton, Will, Matt, Jeff and I rocked out on Rock Band for about 2 hours together.

If you don't know what Rock Band, it's Guitar Hero with drumming and singing involved for XBox. It really was a lot of fun and I think there's an inner drummer trying to get out.

Jim

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

More rock band

Yeah... More!!!

Rock band

Some of the high school guys playing rock band.... Rock on!!

Cool Lighthouse Pic... Pigeon Point


I stumbled on this picture today on my usual stop... Digg...

Check this out HERE. It's a great picture!!

Here's a snipet of the story: "Once per year at the Pigeon Point Lighthouse they shut down the weak insipid modern (presumably electric) light and switch over the the 5 kerosene lamps and fresnel lens of the original, as it was 135 years ago."

Jim

Monday, November 19, 2007

Phil Dawson Crazy Field Goal

This was awesome...

Jim



Check out YouTube HERE.

Saturday, November 17, 2007

Rose Bowl Bound!!!


Final:
Ohio State: 14
Michigan: 3

Big Ten Champs!!!!

Rose Bowl Bound!!!!


Jim

Ohio State... Still leading...

Here's what I'm getting tired of...

Ohio State is still leading... 4Q... 13:52... 14 - 3!!!

The commentators are basically pulling for Michigan... Chad Henne this... Chad Henne that... Llyod Carr... blah blah blah... Its like I'm watching a game being televised on local TV from Ann Arbor rather than a nationally broadcast game by a national network... Brent and Kirk stink!

Jim

Ohio State... 14... Michigan... 3... 3Q 13:51


Ohio State: 14
Michigan: 3
3Q 13:51

62 yard run by Wells!!!!

Go Buckeyes!!!

Ohio State... 7... Michigan... 3... 2Q 10:07


Wells scores!!!!

Ohio State: 7
Michigan: 3
2nd Quarter... 10:00 minutes left...

Go Buckeyes!!!

Today's the BIG day at the BIG house...

5-1...
That's currently the record between the Buckeyes and the Michigan Wolverines...

Today, it goes to 6-1... the Buckeyes winning 6 out of 7 games. And gets a little revenge from last week's game of no-calls versus Illinois (that probably cost them the game).

About 90 minutes until the game!!!

O
H
I
O
!!!!!

Jim

Friday, November 16, 2007

Google searches leading here...

Here's another volume of Google searches leading to my little blog... which is now averaging 30 visitors a day!!! Wow!!!

-Apple PR lady
-Guitar Hero III crack
-Big Ten Network rocks
-can i download my music from itunes to iphone
-legends of rock playlist
-starbucks song of the day
-man vs wild fake
-iphone my show song
-ministry song guitar hero
-what you eat on space
-start of change, youth ministry
-Go buckeyes commercial
-Apple Podium Commercial
-"Judy Gregory" + myspace
-iphone diet
-purpose driven youth ministry outline
-why Michigan football stinks

Always amazing... Especially the "Judy Gregory" one...

Jim

ESPN 360!!!

I love ESPN 360!

Recently we discovered that if you have AT&T Internet (which we do both at the office and at home), you can surf over to ESPN360.com. And what you will find is that you can watch live games that aren't on TV. And you can also watch replays of previous games!!!!

This is incredible. And the stream that is sometimes herky-jerky on live streaming stuff like this on the Internet, is actually pretty good.

Right now, I'm enjoying some morning Starbucks (Christmas blend) and watching a replay of last weekend's Ohio State loss to Illinois (normally I won't care to watch, since I know the outcome... but I've heard several reports of poor officiating and several have asked me for my comment... so I thought I would watch and get an opinion so I can comment).

If you've got AT&T... go for it. It's great!!!

Jim

Thursday, November 15, 2007

Crazy excuses...

So I've been doing youth ministry for a while now... close to 10 years. And in the midst of that time, I've done a lot of youth ministry events... CIY... amusement parks... camps... retreats... and in doing those events, I've done a lot of sign up sheets of students who are planning to attend. In the midst of those sign ups, I've heard some crazy excuses as to why people can't come or don't come to events.

We've been working on getting our student worship band up and running on the weekends. (It's been down for a couple of months.) And we've got a great guy working with a couple students... Clayton who plays guitar, bass guitar, and drums... and Tracy who sings.

We were getting ready for practice tonight, as everything Thursday night. And Tracy didn't show up. So, as typical, I gave her about 10 minutes just in case she was running late. When she didn't show, Alex gave her a call. But she didn't answer. A couple of minutes later, she called me back and told me that she wasn't going to be able to sing anymore because she was moving to Alaska.

Yeah... you read that correctly!!!

That definitely goes down in my book as one of the craziest excuses (true or not) that I have ever heard in youth ministry.

Moving to Alaska!!!

Jim

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Apple Get a Mac Ad: Podium

A great one...

Jim



Check it out HERE.

Apple Get a Mac Ad: Boxer

Another great Mac ad...

Jim



Check it out here.

Apple Get a Mac Ad: PR Lady


Pretty great... Leopard that is...

Jim


Check it out HERE.




Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Apple Leopard!!!

I just got done with the update yesterday to Leopard!!!

It's awesome!!!

From an appearance standpoint, and I haven't gotten to all the little fun "new" things like Time Machine... it's stunning. I am looking forward to spending some time with the booklet learning about it's new features. But at this point, it's awesome!!!

Jim

Sunday, November 11, 2007

the Fall Retreat was awesome!!!!

I'm just getting back in home after the fall retreat. Actually, I'm not at home tonight... we've got high school church tonight and one of my leaders is leading. So, it will be great. I can sit and relax.

But we had an incredible trip. The retreat was excellent. Things came together at the last minute to make it an incredible trip. The students had a blast. Ken Leslie, a PDYM friend from Michigan, came over and helped out with the worship and did an incredible job at the last minute.

I'm hoping to squeeze some photos out of some of my-digital-camera-crazy-students this week and post a couple. But it was a great weekend!!!

Jim

Saturday, November 10, 2007

House slippers for capture the flag

Will deuerling decide to play capture the flag tonight in house
slippers tonight. Some thing new eveyday.

Thursday, November 08, 2007

Fall Retreat this weekend!!!

The Fall Retreat is coming up this weekend. I am just getting ready to publish the booklets for the event. It should be lots of fun. Hopefully I'll be able to post a few pictures from this weekend and some thoughts... but I'm sure that they will be mobile posts as I don't know how much Internet I'll have access to out at the camp. (I think they have some WiFi, but I don't know where and how strong.)

But I'm really looking forward to it.

Jim


Wednesday, November 07, 2007

95%

I got my paper back for my worship class... I blogged about it in the process HERE and HERE.

I got a 95%!!!

Yay!!!

I'm going to edit it some and submit it to a journal contest in for the Stone-Campbell Journal. So, that should be interesting.

Yay!!!

Jim

My face is arriving in your inbox...

My face should be arriving in email inboxes all over the country today. In fact, it already showed up in my inbox.

I was asked by Simply Youth Ministry (Doug Fields/Saddleback) to put one of my articles that I wrote a while back in their monthly newsletter. If you don't normally get one, you can check it out online HERE. And the article is HERE.

The article was one that I wrote after a small group night (students) that I had with Jackie. In fact, the article was posted here on my blog. You can check it out in its original form HERE. I spruced it up a little bit for the publication in the newsletter. So, the form that you find here and the form that's in the email might be a little bit different.

Fun fun!!!

Jim

Tuesday, November 06, 2007

Small group

I walked in tonight to small group... And there was a student who has
been coming this year. She didnt know me and remarked that I was
'new'. Oh the joys of small groups...

Jim Clark
Student Minister

Sent from my iPhone...

Brrrr

35 degrees...
5:09 am...
Brrrr... I hate mornings...

Jim Clark
Student Minister

Sent from my iPhone...

Monday, November 05, 2007

Mobile blogging

I'm trying to figure out if I have this mobile blogging thing figured
out... Cause I need to blog more...


Jim Clark
Student Minister

Sent from my iPhone...

Saturday, November 03, 2007

Total moron. Total off road idiot.

Trinity University 28 - Millsaps 24 End Zone Angle

This is a great video to remind you to never, ever give up... even when things look bad and you're going out of bounds... there's still hope.

Jim

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7oF4ZDigjM

Go Buckeyes Go!!

The Buckeyes continue to roll on.

Thanks to the Big "GAG" Network, I had to watch the Ohio State vs. Wisconsin game on ESPN.com's Gamecast. Certainly not the best way to watch a game... but since it was the only thing that I had, that's what I went with.

But they roll on...
Next: Illinois!!!

Jim

Down with the Big Ten Network...

So...

I'm just going to come right out and say it... I hope that the Big Ten Network collapses on itself and folds. I discovered this yesterday and I've been silently (at least to you guys... not so to my wife) brooding over the fact that today...

#1 Ohio State is taking on #21 Wisconsin...

A huge game of two ranked teams. Plus, one is Ohio State. But where is the game... On the Big "Gag" Network (as I've been calling it lately). Which means that NO ONE will watch it... not even people in Columbus unless you have that network on your satellite, and the game is right down the road for those people in Columbus.

So here's one hoping that the Big "Gag" Network collapses...

Jim

Friday, November 02, 2007

Thursday, November 01, 2007

Guitar Hero III - TODAY!!!

I got my first crack at Guitar Hero III today...

Jeff (one of my most excellent Sunday morning leaders) and I had about 2 hours of it this afternoon. It was an excellent time of connecting and hanging out... plus the rockin' out was awesome. There are several new features that I like on this one... including "Battle Mode" (you collect 'weapons (i.e. broken string, etc)' to use against your competition) and "Co-op Mode" (where two folks play through sets together rather than solo.

It's very cool. And it will definitely be a purchase. But as soon as school is done in December... lest I got on a 40 or 50 hour GHIII binge and not get any school work done.

But a very excellent play...

Jim

Gas prices are up...


Gas prices have really gone up around Chicago...

Earlier in the week, they were $2.75... today, I got gas for $31.59... Wow... That's a jump...

And yeah, I really did take this picture.



Jim