Rachel Held Evans - Superhero Stuck on a Roof

Every now and then I'm going to highlight some people I really admire, probably people I know, people who really make a difference in the world around them. I will try not to gush but make no promises.

Rachel Held Evans is one of my heroes. I've yet to meet Rachel in person. She's a writer, a sister, a thinker, a woman of valor, and someone who isn't afraid to push the boundaries.

Having heard for years about a tenuous concept she was to aspire to, the so called "Biblical woman" (always spoken in a special tone), and-- with every other woman on the planet-- finding herself unable to measure up to such a tenuous yet rigorous standard, she decided to research and live it for a year. Or do so as much as she could in modern, western society (specifically the USA). She spent time on the roof of her house, over a week each month not so much as touching her husband or anyone else, and hours at her city limits holding up signs praising her husband.

Then she wrote a book about it. It just came out. I can't wait to read it.

Just as women have always gotten flak for being good at something, she's gotten flak about the book. It contains the V word (No, not "Vulgate", but rather an anatomical term for something found only in women) which her publisher warned her might keep her out of certain bookstores. Lifeway has decided not to stock it although it's unclear why.

Rachel is brilliant, insightful, wise, and funny. Regardless of what you believe, you should read this book, if only to bust some myths about Judaeo-Christian values and maybe figure out why some of the people you know think like they do. And you will definitely get some laughs.

I'm going to buy extras to give away, based on my perception of who would get the most from it. Replying to this blog certainly won't hurt your chances.

This is part of a surprise synchroblog to celebrate Rachel and her book!

The Roadkills-R-Us 21st Century Debate Format

I have a great idea for future debates. This would keep things more on track.

Put a panel of three high school debate teachers on the stage. Each has two Big Red Buttons and two Big Green Buttons in front of them.

Above each candidate's head is a flat panel with a big, red letter grade. Each candidate starts with an "A+". (We could start with a 100, but there's an advantage to the letter.)

When a candidate breaks the rules of the debate (goes over time, fails to obey the moderator, etc), a debate judge can hit that candidate's Big Red Button. At that point that candidate's grade drops a mark (A+ to A to A- to B+ to B, etc.) Unless both the other judges press that candidate's Big Green Buttons within, say, 10 seconds, the drop stays. Once a candidate hits "F" the debate is over and they have officially LOST.

Using letters keeps the range short and sweet. Twelve dings is more than enough.

Under this system a candidate would be penalized the same for refusing to stop when the time was up, interrupting, or running across the stage and taking out their opponent with a flying tackle the way CONTROL's Chief attacked the Vice President in the Get Smart movie. I think we could use more of that. Not enough to bump it up a mark, although that's tempting...

There you have it: the Roadkills-R-Us 21st Century Debate format. Please write everyone you can think of in the media, blogosphere, Congress, or United Nations and demand this be used from now on (for UN debates as well!)

I'm Fed Up and I Approve This Message.

Joel & Cheryl Davis - They're Just Somebody That You Ought To Know!

Every now and then I'm going to highlight some people I really admire, probably people I know, people who really make a difference in the world around them. I will try not to gush but make no promises.

I'd heard of Joel & Cheryl Davis for a year or two before I really met them. I'd seen them; we had even interacted a little. But in that sense, I meet a lot of people-- some whom I still don't know, some I haven't seen since.

While we'd been involved with teenagers and some college age people, mostly in the Round Rock area, they'd been involved with Baylor students. I think some weekends they had 10% of Baylor in their home. My kind of people.

The Davises got caught up in the same whirlwind I was caught in, hanging around Bill & Traci Vanderbush. While our paths into ministry, into playing parent to far more young people than we could possibly have conceived or birthed in a lifetime, and in hanging out with the Vanderbi were very different, there we were. In Houston. At a conference. In the most delicious, God set up ambush sort of trial by fire, getting to love on and bless a thousand people or more. Representing not just Bill, but world famous ministers and God. Along with the rest of us on the team, Joel and Cheryl took deep breaths, grinned, and dove into the deep end.

A few months later, same scenario, we were in Batson, Texas (motto: "If you can find us, we'll give you some doggone good pie!") doing the same thing. Only this time it was for dozens. The thing I loved about them the most that weekend was that they had the same level of enthusiasm and passion for the dozens as they had for the thousand plus.

Cheryl's a serious extrovert, and the more obvious "minister". Joel's much quieter, often looking at things with a businessman's eye, not to get rich off anyone, but seeking ways to truly improve things for people. He's happy to let Cheryl be in the limelight and stay in the background most of the time, but they're both powerful, joyous, loving people. They're a potent team. They're as happy down in the mud with Romas who've just had what little they had taken away as with a country's national level leaders. You can sometimes find them in both position in the same day.

They fell in love with a country most Americans haven't heard of except in movies or the Harry Potter books, Albania. For most of us, it's a myth or it's a scary place (Think the thugs in Taken or Lord Voldemort's recovery room). In reality it's a beautiful flower on the Mediterranean, snuggled between Greece and Italy, a country recovering in uncertain times from communism and dictatorship, one of God's own jewels, hidden away for now.

After one of their trips there, Cheryl mentioned something about it to to me, and I had a vision (I've described it elsewhere). I knew I had to go. Albania was calling me.

That June, I went. The Davis's idea of a mission trip was unlike anything I'd heard of. While there were things that were scheduled, there was plenty of time for fun and to just do what you felt led to do. And we were always up for ministry, at castles, restaurants, the beach. Nowhere was off limits. One day some of us went to a park and played music and sang and just loved on and shared with and prayed for the people who showed up. We went to several beaches. We worked closely with Genti, pastor of Ray of Light Church in Tirana. On the way to or from a planned event or something else, we might stop a half dozen times to hug people, pray for them, bless them, etc. When we worked with the Albanians, it was their show; we were there to support them, not take over and tell them how to do it.

Cheryl and Joel people are gold miners. When they look at you, they want to see what God sees. They look for the gold-- the good, the beautiful, the precious, the lasting things. They dig lovingly for this gold, to bring it to the surface. "Look. This is what and who you are. Not all the other stuff. This."

I felt out of sorts after a few days in Albania. I really wanted to contribute, to make a difference. I know my gifts. I know who I am, what I'm good at, what I'm called to. And I was trying really hard to do those things... and getting nowhere. I felt pointless. Few things have bugged me more.

When I brought this all up, Cheryl and Joel (and Melody Carson!) immediately saw the problem. "Quit trying so hard. You don't have to do anything. Just do what you do best, be. Be you, be Miles. That's the best thing you can do for Albania." This is the sort of thing I'd told lots of people, especially young people, over the years. And as always happens, it came home to roost.

They were right, of course. It transformed not just the rest of the trip, but my life. I made ten times more connections, and ministered to ten times more people, the second half of the trip. All because I quit trying to do anything. I was just me. "God doesn't make mistakes." How many time had I said that to people to encourage them to just be themselves... Now I was living it more than ever.

I've watched them do this sort of thing over and over and over.

Another huge thing was when I realized that the vision I had as a result of the vision Cheryl first shared with me was not the same vision she had, there was no problem. I support theirs, they support mine. Instead of competing, we look for what glorifies God, what will bless Albania. We work together. Far too many times I've seen this disintegrate relationships, when one or both parties feels they have to be "the right one".

I pray each and every one of you has a Joel and Cheryl in your life. And that you are, or become, such a person to others. If you don't think that's possible, maybe it's time to find out who you really are and just be you. Quit trying so hard to do stuff, or even to be somebody, whether that's someone else or yourself. Just do it. Just be.

And if you're having a hard time with that, I know who you can talk to.

I Need a Friendly Frost Giant

I need a friendly frost giant.

I need one in my car.

I need one in my pocket.

Why do I need a frost giant in my car? To cool it off, of course.

The previous Mazda 3 had marginal air conditioning for a Texas summer. If the car didn't sit in the sun too long, the A/C was fine. If it got very hot, the A/C would eventually be fine, but it could take a loooong time to initially cool the car down. On a 105 degree day, parking in the sun for an hour meant the A/C blew warm the first few minutes, cool another five, and after ten was blowing cold air. By then you could be soaked. The only saving grace twas that by the time the temperature was that high, the humidity was low. I usually drove home with the air off and windows down; evaporative cooling worked better than the A/C those days.

Our new 3, a five door, has a larger passenger compartment (18% bigger because storage is inside, not in the trunk), has the same A/C, which struggles even harder.

Mazda is hardly alone in this. Most cars apparently are neither designed for, nor tested in, climates like those of the southern US.

 

Why do I need a frost giant in my pocket? To cool my phone off, of course.

My smart phone already has plenty of problems, documented elsewhere. But another problem is that it just can't cope with the Texas heat. If it's in my pocket or a fanny pack (while running) on a 100+ degree day for even a half hour, it needs to be shut off and put somewhere cool for a bit or (a) the battery discharges crazily fast and (b) the phone just locks up.

 

This is poor design and poor testing. I don't know the actual numbers, but a decent percentage of North American car and phone customers (among others) live in climates that get pretty hot or pretty cold. The products need to be designed and tested for these extremes.

We should all be demanding this of the manufacturers and voting with our dollars.

 

Recommendations for well designed, climate robust products welcome.

This is Not the Droid You Are Looking For

Last summer I bought my first smart phone. All my friends ragged on me for getting such a small one until I dunked it in a glass of ice water and then used it. The Droid's claim to fame was that it was nearly indestructible-- water resistant, sand resistant, a screen made of Gorilla[tm] Glass, etc.

It ended up having a few problems. Occasionally calls were scrambled, sounding like a demented modem or FAX machine rather than voices.

It would sometimes slow down to the point of uselessness when running an app (especially Facebook, but others as well), requiring a reboot (a nearly two minute process, sometimes requiring battery removal).

The camera was so so at best, especially with bright lights or at night. Video was 640x480 with no zoom. These problems I knew about beforehand, but they were still more annoying in real life than they sounded in reviews.

Other people had the same problems. A few had hacked their phones and installed newer versions of the Android OS resulting in much better behaved phones, at the cost of a voided warranty.

The call scrambling and slowdowns got worse with time. When I realized I was rebooting the phone several times every day I took it back to T-Mobile.

It turns out that a one year warranty only obligates them to replace the phone for free-- not pay for shipping. And the provider couldn't simply swap phones; Motorola had to do the replacing. For a $20 shipping and handling fee fee.

(I could have gotten the extended warranty at $8 a month (30% of the phone cost over the time to pay it off). That would cover the $20 shipping. It seemed excessive. In retrospect it was a steal, because the phone was over-priced near junk.)

The local T-Mobile store offered to cover the $20 fee.

And of course the replacement was a refurb, not a new phone.

I took the replacement back two days later. It was worse than the original. I had to wonder if it was even refurbed, or simply shipped straight from another dissatisfied customer's local store to me.

T-Mobile covered the shipping again. I really appreciate T-Mobile.

The third phone was the best of the lot in terms of the problems so far, but...

The camera was worse in low light conditions.

Getting wet meant the mic or speaker didn't work properly for a few hours.

The back no longer stayed latched, which (a) is annoying and (b) means the camera is no longer water proof of dust proof.

The third phone had showed up just before the one year warranty expired, and I discovered the back fit problem several days after that.

I spent several hours backing up, reloading, re-installing apps, re-syncing with each phone. And of course each transition lost some contacts despite my following instructions to the letter. At least the photos hung around.

Motorola only released one OS update, a few months after the Droid came out. This update was necessary for many apps (including many social media apps), but was less reliable than the original! After that their answer was, "buy a new phone". The old model was a year old, I had owned mine for six months, and their answer to a fairly pricey phone's problems is, "buy a new phone"?

At this point, I'm probably going to hack the phone and install a new OS. It's out of warranty so I have little to lose. It's almost paid for. Almost.

If I'm not happy with the new OS, my only option is to get a new phone.

I can guarantee you it will not be a Motorola.

I still haven't decided if I want to ebay this one or just take it out and shoot it. If I shoot it, I will ship the pieces to Moto's VP of marketing. Maybe I'll ship them an extra cartridge as well. "In case you need to shoot your own phone. Unless you have an iPhone. I hear those work quite well."

I remember when Motorola was the communication device standard. Now they're a second rate Evil Empire in my book. At least Darth Vader's hardware and software seemed to work.