Yesterday marked day eight of this retaining wall and fence project, we hope it will all wrap up today. In this timelapse you’ll see the crew rebuild our old fence using the original materials, which means I’ll be restaining it soon. It turns out we didn’t have quite enough dirt, so you’ll also see a dump truck make an appearance delivery two loads. We would have had enough dirt if the yard sloped a bit more and the wall was one block shorter, but it’s too late now.
I know that blogging lawyer from Wise County posted this picture not too long ago, but it’s do friggin cool I wanted to make sure that my readers saw it as well.
What a fantastic comeback for the Canadian women’s hockey team, what a horrible way for the American’s to finish. Hopefully the U.S. men’s hockey team will finish with the gold against Canada, but if we lose, it won’t affect us for long. If Canada loses, they’ll be hurting for at least a week because hockey is just part of their fiber.
When we ask BoyGeeding what color shirt he’s wearing he’ll respond with the correct answer in that cute toddler way of talking. But when he wears a shirt with a dinosaur on it and we ask him the color of his shirt, the answer is always, “Roarrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.” He also had his checkup yesterday and was tested for autism. Other than not playing with others in a group setting he passed all other criteria.
One may be surprised to know that ‘The Wonder Years’ never made it to DVD, and it’s all because of the music rights to the plethora of songs played on the show. Well, that’s about to change and the set will be on sale later this year.
I wonder if the creator(s) of ‘How I Met You Mother’ got the premise of the show’s voice-over/narrator from ‘The Wonder Years’?.
I love Rich Eisen’s bit of running the 40 at the scouting combine in his suit and tie, he’s been doing it a full decade now. But now the NFL Network is tricking it up by having NFL cheerleaders run the 40 to compete against Eisen. In case you are wondering, his best time is 6.03. That Eisen is on likable guy, he may have been my favorite of the ESPN old guard.
32 celebrities we think are Texans but aren’t – I’ve always been confused as to what qualifies as a Texan. For instance, do you have to be born here, live here a certain while, or what?
The TICKET’s Internet stream has been ticking me off as of late. There’s one or two commercials that play louder than the rest of the stream, and by loud, I mean it’s loud enough to punish Guantanamo prisoners.
A great behind the scenes look of what’s in the U.S. Army’s Center of Military History which includes lots of firearms, uniforms, and lots of artwork, even some from Hitler. Dang it, I mentioned Hitler, everything on the Internet comes back to him, but at least I didn’t compare anyone to Hitler.
One of the most dangerous fireworks festivals in the world is held once a year at the end of the Chinese New Year in Tainan City, Taiwan. Here, thousands of bottle rockets are ignited from a “beehive” to ward off evil spirits and bring good luck to those who are in the path of the rockets.
Although seemingly dangerous, the festival also includes activities for people who wish to play it safe. There are plenty of festivities for children and adults alike. Easily one of the most unique fireworks festivals on Earth.
It picks up at the 1:20 mark.
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CHARLOTTE, N.C. — You wouldn’t know it by the name, but Elevation Church is Southern Baptist. Its Pastor Steven Furtick graduated from a Southern Baptist seminary. Elevation was planted with seed money from Southern Baptists. And Elevation gives money to Southern Baptist missions.
But you won’t find the Baptist name on Elevation. Instead its campuses are marked with Elevation’s trademarked name and brand – the orange circle with the “up arrow” chevron shape inside. There’s not even the traditional cross on the outside of Elevation buildings.
But baptism – the sacred Christian rite symbolizing being raised to a new life in Jesus Christ – is clearly vital to Elevation. Online videos of Elevation’s mass baptisms play rising music as they show slow motion shots of people obviously moved by a religious experience meaningful to them.
Elevation Church keeps an exact count of its thousands of baptisms, all part of its laser like focus on numbers.
But those numbers have spiked and dipped from year to year according to a confidential internal report obtained by the NBC Charlotte I-Team – from 289 in 2010 to 2,410 in 2011, from 689 in 2012 to 3,519 for the first eight months of last year.
To get those thousands of baptisms takes a lot of planning.
And Elevation produced a document to show other churches how they could do likewise.
It’s titled “Spontaneous Baptisms – A How-To Guide” and the church shared it freely on the Sun Stand Still website.
But his is where the church loses its integrity:
Page one shows that the first people instructed to respond to Pastor Steven’s call to baptism were not converts suddenly inspired but Elevation volunteers carefully planted in the crowd.
The guide instructs, “Fifteen people will sit in the worship experience and be the first ones to move when Pastor gives the call. Move intentionally through the highest visibility areas and the longest walk.”
