Bag of Randomness

  • I saw the most interesting three wheeled vehicle at the gas station yesterday.
  • If I haven’t said it before, let me say it now, Sonic commercials beat me down, especially the one where the guys are in a truck and go through a drive thrus of competitors.  My biggest grip is those guys are bothering and I would even say mocking those  innocent hard working people.
  • It’s interesting how we often take a clip or a phrase and use it to support an idea or opinion.  It’s been done with the quotes from our Founding Fathers and with the Bible, all too often without the entire scope of said piece being fully displayed or examined.  The latest example of this played out this week with the Shirley Sherrod firing, formerly of the USDA.
  • Just when I thought Jerry wouldn’t have Dez Bryant signed before camp he proves me wrong.
  • Yesterday I mentioned a story about a Frisco mega church that is building a church that resembles a cathedral with a modern twist.  Here’s the story.  And here’s a video of their women at a thing called Girl Talk where they do a Beyonce routine.
  • Google Images has changed and I don’t think I like it.
  • Every nuclear explosion
  • The Definitive Mad Men Summer Reading List
  • This was all over the Intertubes yesterday – Stuffed Animal Beer Bottles
  • AskMen.com’s The Great Male Survey 2010
Posted in Personal | 2 Comments

Traded an old cell phone for a Porsche

Most people throw away old cell phones without a second thought. Steven Ortiz is not like most teenagers. This 17-year-old Californian went on Craigslist to turn a used cell phone a friend gave him into a Porsche convertible. Harvard Business School, watch out for this guy.

Ortiz’s story brings to mind the similar accomplishment of Kyle MacDonald, a Canadian who started “Craigslist swapping” with a red paperclip in 2005 and eventually ended up with a two-story farmhouse. Through his blog and the kindness of strangers, MacDonald made 14 swaps over the classifieds website, upgrading one item to a more valuable one until he ended up with a house a year later.

Craigslist isn’t so different from a newspaper’s classified section: People list items they no longer want for whatever reason. But sometimes instead of selling these items for paltry amounts of cash, online users barter with each other.

Unlike MacDonald and his red paperclip website, however, Ortiz didn’t publicize his efforts—he did it quietly on his own. It took him one year longer than MacDonald, but the Glendale, CA, youth managed to turn an outdated phone into a 2000 Porsche Boxster S.

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‘House churches’ keep worship small, simple, friendly

DALLAS (AP) — To get to church on a recent Sunday morning, the Yeldell family walked no farther than their own living room to greet fellow worshippers.
The members of this “house church” are part of what experts say is a fundamental shift in the way U.S. Christians think about church. Skip the sermons, costly church buildings and large, faceless crowds, they say. House church is about relationships forged in small faith communities.

In general, house churches consist of 12 to 15 people who share what’s going on in their lives, often turning to Scriptures for guidance. They rely on the Holy Spirit or spontaneity to lead the direction of their weekly gatherings.

“I think part of the appeal for some in the house church movement is the desire to return to a simpler expression of church,” said Ed Stetzer, a seminary professor and president of Lifeway Research, which is affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention. “For many, church has become too much (like a) business while they just want to live like the Bible.”

House church proponents claim their small groups are sort of a throwback to the early Christian church in that they have no clergy and everyone is expected to contribute to the teaching, singing and praying.

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