Sex God

I just finished "Sex God" by Rob Bell. Before you razz me about being a fast reader (I just finished this review), let me just say that this book is an incredibly easy read (in terms of time, not content) and will take the average reader (that's me!) only about 3-4 hours to consume.

Sex God is an interesting book to say the least. For those of you who don't know, I am a HUGE Rob Bell fan. Check out this photo of my son Seth and I during a past trip to Mars Hill Church in Grandville, Michigan:

I have been following him since I became a follower of Jesus. I love his insights into the delicate fabric of scripture, specifically his take on the Greek and Hebrew roots of today's translations. I share a common interest in this area of knowledge as well.

Sex God captivated me from the start. I love chapter one. It gets a little weird from there. Bell is obviously concerned about the world, it's politics, and the atrocities that plague it. There were a few parts in the beginning where the soapbox became noticeable to the reader. It quickly passed, but the thoughts stick with you. I was compelled however, to continue thinking about my goal of traveling and helping others across the globe. Rob's passion definitely finds itself in sharing Jesus with a suffering world.

The book continues by explaining the connection between God, sex and just about everything else in the world. Both singles and marrieds will find content of interest with this book, so I highly recommend this for both audiences. There were points that I was smiling from ear to ear, others that brought me to tears, and another where I just had to thank my wife for choosing me from over 6 billion people in the world (quite a thought...if you stop and think about it for your own relationship!).

Bell will definitely stimulate your thinking and provoke some interesting conversations. Take time to read this book - I don't think you'll be disappointed. Stick with it, get past the political grinding near the beginning, and enjoy his unique style of writing and blend of wit, humor and of course, biblical foundation.

I'm A "Pro"crastinator!

Greg points us to this site. Man can I relate! Take time to read the definition of "structured procrastination" - you just might find a bit of yourself in there (and a good laugh as well!).

We'll be wrapping up the "Who's Kidding Who" series this weekend. It's been a great series - we've had tons of comments on how God is working on moms, dads and kids alike and it's been amazing to see transformation and changed lives.

I'm pumped about this weekend as Bryan takes a new and different look at the "prodigal son" story. The band will be kickin' it with the Daughtry tune "Home" - it could very well be a defining moment that will rock our church family. All I can say is this - don't miss this weekend!!

Don't forget to check out the Who's Kidding Who Blog and leave a comment. Let us know how this series has impacted you or your family and some practical ideas that may help others. We'll leave the blog up a few extra weeks for anyone that wants to join in the discussion.

See you this weekend!

The Blogging Church

I just finished reading "The Blogging Church" by Brian Bailey and Terry Storch. A very good read. I enjoyed the straight-ahead, no frills approach to the writing - very reachable for any audience.

If you are new to the blogging world, this book is a must for you. This book is also required reading for any pastor who is contemplating starting a blog - some great gems for you to consider before you begin.

For those of us who have been blogging for awhile, no incredible breakthroughs, but some great reminders about blogging. It really gave me clarity as to the "why's" of blogging, although I must admit that I am probably a cross between a personal and ministry related blog. While the authors suggest that this is not all bad, I tend to go back and forth to often (which might explain my limited readership?).

One last note - I have resisted the RSS feed for over a year now. I am from the "old school" where I like to visit each page individually. This has been quite easy with Firefox's tab feature - open all blogs I follow in tabs simultaneously and then click through very rapidly. HOWEVER...I am really working on streamlining my use of technology, so a few days ago I subscribed to all of my favorite blogs (24 total) via Google Reader. So far it has saved me a tremendous amount of time!!

Thanks to Bailey and Storch for their work on this book - get it and check it out for yourself. Whether your a newbie in the blog world or a seasoned veteran, you won't be disappointed with this book.

WWDC 07

WWDC 07 kicked off today. You can read a great recap of Steve Jobs' keynote here. Or Terry points us to a recap here.

Not any HUGE announcements this year, but there were some interesting thoughts:

• Some big games will be released for Mac - are they trying to capture a share of this market?
• Leopard looks stinkin' awesome!! Some additional interface designs that look phenomenal including a better search function.
• Time Machine - one click backup - simple, easy and very effective.
• Some other odds and ends: iPhone details, Leopard price points, etc.

Overall a solid keynote but nothing earth shattering. The future however, looks incredible. Or to borrow a phrase, "the future's so bright I gotta wear shades!"

Skills Our Kids Need To Know

I wrote about the "zen habits" blog recently and I have been a big fan ever since. This article is a must for those of us with kids. Probably nothing shocking, but a great reminder of our duties as parents. Remember that schools and churches are there to supplement what we do as a parent, not replace. Society has a hard time remembering that sometimes. I think all of us are guilty as some point or another.

UPDATE: I've noted that this site is occasionally not accessible for some reason. Keep with it - you won't be disappointed! I'm sure they'll get the bugs worked out soon. NOTE: This blog author is living in Guam.

Monday Morning Insights

WOW!! This guy nails it again with this post.

It's definitely Monday. I've been on vacation for two weeks and tomorrow I head back to work. We spend a lot of time prepping for vacation and a lot of time catching up once we get back. The time in between? It seems to go by so quickly.

I'm pumped about getting back to work, but I'm also hesitant because I didn't get as much done over my break as I wanted to do. Isn't this the norm? I've enjoyed the extended time with my family and God spoke to me in little ways that held big meaning. The question I've been delaying is whether or not I will listen and obey. That's always the challenge.

So for this Monday morning I'll continue to contemplate life, prepare to retreat from vacation and establish some priorities for the weeks ahead. Life is good.

Is There A Barista In Me?

Anyone that knows me understands that I'm a coffee addict. I LOVE COFFEE!! I love to grind my own beans, brew it up every morning and sit back and savor the flavor. I love finding new ideas and thoughts about brewing coffee, which is why this is cool:

Tony points us to this site.

I've never considered roasting my own beans, but it sure looks awesome!! If I can keep from electrocuting myself, I might even give this one a shot. Bring on the beans!

By the way, two questions for the coffee lovers out there:

(1) What is your favorite type/style of coffee?
(2) Where is your favorite place to order coffee/beans?

Pilgrimage

I wrote a few months back about the passing of one of my favorite jazz musicians, Michael Brecker. A few weeks ago marked the release of his last album - Pilgrimage. I've just started listening to this album, but it is quite phenomenal. It's even more astounding when you consider that Michael was battling leukemia during the recording of this project and barely finished the title track (the last song on the album - very fitting) before his passing. You can read more "behind-the-scenes" info here.

If you are a jazz enthusiast or just looking to experiment into this musical realm, you won't be disappointed with Pilgrimage. You might even come away as a believer in the musical faith of jazz. Whatever the case, this album will stand as a tribute to Michael Brecker and his passion and love for his family and the core of his soul, jazz music.

ISBN you?

Okay, so where have I missed this link? I usually go to amazon.com for my book purchases, but this handy dandy little tool might help. Give it a try before your next purchase!

Get 'er Done!

I've been reading a lot about this book lately. I haven't purchased it, but I plan to in the next few days or so. I'm always looking for ways to increase my productivity through simplification and organization. My challenge is that the ideas sound great, but oftentimes they are difficult to implement. Not because of the difficult systems, but usually because of me.

Here's a great site with TONS of resources and fantastic little articles. If you're interested in GTD, try this entry. It's chocked full of great links and ideas.

What are some of your tips for staying organized? Are there any software solutions that you would recommend? Let's get this discussion started!

Late Night Laughter

If you're looking for a good chuckle, check out this post from this guy. Does anyone own any of those?

Activity vs. Outcomes

Terry points us to this article. If you lead any organization do not miss this blog entry. It's another great way to talk about busyness versus productivity, but in terms of activity versus outcomes. A few key thoughts:

• In a world of infinite choices, choosing which activities will occupy your day is likely to be your single greatest driver of effectiveness.
• Successful leaders–and, therefore, successful founders–invest the time to clearly identify, prioritize, and communicate key goals. They then measure their success by real progress against those desired outcomes.
• Because many of us are so accomplishment driven, we tend to look at both activities and outcomes as accomplishments.
• Once founders begin to assess their team against key measures, they are often surprised to see how quickly they can create a results-driven culture. In that kind of enlightened organization, it’s about ownership, trust, accountability — and not about hours worked.

Patti's, Pork, and Pie

After a few hours on the road, we decided to pull off at a rest stop for a couple of hours of shut-eye. About 4am we started on the road again. Things went fine until we hit Atlanta. Road Construction. YUCK! We moved less than a mile in an hour! We took the next exit and had a bite to eat before finally finding an alternate route north.

Since the stroller jacking, tire blow out, leaving late and the construction, we decided to stop at Patti's Settlement for dinner. If you haven't been to Patti's, I would HIGHLY recommend it!! It's located in Grand Rivers, Kentucky right off Interstate 24. The food is delicious and the desserts are incredible. Here's a shot of my food - their infamous 2" pork chop (and yes, it tasted just as good as it looked!):

I had the chess sinker for dessert (Melissa had the Coconut Cake) and then we were back on the road. After nearly 24 hours on the road, we finally arrived home at 10pm Tuesday night.

Today we unpacked a bit, caught up on email, took a nap and basically "vegged" out all day. Both Melissa and I felt out of sorts today - lack of sleep, structure and trying to get past the "vacation hangover." I'm sure tomorrow will be more productive (I hope)!!

So that's it for the 2007 Walt Disney World trip - I hope you enjoyed a week in the life of the Goldsmith family!

One Beach, One Tire and One Exhausted Family

We left the condo at 9am this morning and headed south to Vero Beach. We met my Aunt Susan (she is 9 years older than me to the day) who is a professional dog trainer. You can visit her website here.

We had lunch at a great little local restaurant and then headed over to the beach for a few hours. The water was exceptionally clear and the kids enjoyed swimming in the ocean for awhile.

Kayla had the day off so she was able to go with us. We decided to let her drive back to Orlando so that I could get a quick catnap before the long drive home. On the turnpike one of our tires suddenly blew out. I don't mean a little flat going on, but an entire blowout - the tire was completely shredded. Fortunately Kayla was able to guide it over to the shoulder (I was sleeping, but came awake VERY quickly).

I started assessing the damage and groaning about how long changing a Suburban tire was going to take when out of the blue a "rescue" vehicle pulls up and offers to help. I have no idea how this guy got there so fast and none of us really saw him pull up, but obviously God had it all worked out! Here's another catch - I found out that we had no jack!! Our jack had been jacked! We had no idea how blessed we were that this fellow showed up when he did. In about thirty minutes our tire was changed and we were back on the road.

When we arrived back in Orlando, we decided not to take a chance driving without a spare so we found a Wal Mart at the very exit we were at. It was past seven and the lady said they were not taking any more customers for the day. When she found out that we were driving to Missouri, she talked to one of the mechanic guys and they said they would work us in. Two and a half hours and four new tires later, we headed back to drop Kayla off at her apartment.

It was sad to leave her, but we had a great time seeing her. You can read more about Melissa's thoughts here. I really think Kayla is excited to be in Florida, and it wouldn't surprise me a bit if she decided to stay and go to school full time in Orlando. She has some exciting thoughts in mind and when the time is right I will be able to share more on this blog.

We hit the road at 10pm - exhausted but ready to return home.

Next blog entry - the return trip!

There's Magic In the Air!

Day seven warmed up a little more - the upper 80's but still sun, sun, sun! We headed over to the Magic Kingdom (most of our family's favorite park) for the day. It was a day to catch up on a few rides as well as hit Emilee's favorites again.

Emilee really enjoyed this ride:

Which is surprising since it has a HUGE drop near the middle/end of the ride. But, she loved it! She also enjoyed Big Thunder Mountain Railroad which is no easy roller coaster for a four year old!

Her favorite "little" ride? Peter Pan.

You may not know this, but Peter Pan is THE most popular ride in terms of the fast pass system. By mid-afternoon all fast passes were gone for this ride - several hours before other major attractions had sold out their passes. Peter Pan lasts a mere two minutes, but kids love it.

The big event for this day? Our stroller was stolen - or should I say "jacked." In four visits to Disney World, we have never, ever had an issue with our stroller. Melissa, Emilee and I rode a couple of rides and came back to the stroller parking area to find Emilee's Tinkerbell backpack attached to a different stroller. Ours was a new Winnie the Pooh umbrella stroller, but we suddenly found ourselves with a broken down many years old Pooh stroller! YUCK! Long story short, in true Disney fashion, they hooked us up with a rental stroller for the day, six fast passes and a free box of popcorn for Emilee! Stroller owners beware - don't get your stroller jacked at the Magic Kingdom!

We closed the day by watching the fireworks - my personal favorite part of the day. The fireworks are themed with various music soundtracks and include a real life flying Tinkerbell. It was the perfect close to a wonderful day (minus the stroller incident of course!).

We're checking out of our condo tomorrow and heading southeast for a few hours to visit my aunt Susan. She lives in the Palm Beach area, but she is meeting us part way at Vero Beach. It will be great to see her!!

Day 6 - School's In Session

Animal Kingdom is the closest park to our condo, so that's where we went with Kayla to get our daily tickets. While we were there we decided to hit the Safari ride:

Then we took a train out to Discovery Island. None of us had ever been to this island before, but it was a fantastic experience. It was a place to learn about animals, what they feed them, see the animal hospital and they even had a petting zoo. It was similar to a zoo experience, but of course, with the Disney touch!

After a morning at Animal Kingdom, we hopped a bus over to Epcot for the rest of the day. Thankfully the tropical storm blew on through, and by afternoon the skies were blue and the temp was a perfect 80 degrees!!

We headed over to World Showcase again and began another tour of each country. You really can't see and do everything at Epcot in just one day. This time we grabbed a bite to eat and for dessert we headed over to Norway for their famous "school bread." This was actually our second school bread of the trip, but who's counting!

It tastes even better than it looks - the inside is filled completely with a light and tasty custard. Not the heavy and crazy sweet stuff you find in most donuts, but a very light and incredibly tasty filling. I absolutely love these things!

We continued touring the different shops and also stopped off to see more shows including this one:

The Taiko drummers are a staple in the World Showcase. Melissa also bumped into (literally!!) Peter Noone. He was heading over to get ready for his show that evening and Melissa clipped him with the stroller! Whoops!

We ended the evening at Planet Hollywood. It's a short walk from Kayla's work, so she met us there for a late dinner. The food was average (most Planet Hollywood's that I've eaten at are this way) and the service was not so hot, but it was great to hang with Kayla and have some good conversation.

Only one more day left at Disney - we'll celebrate this by heading over to the Magic Kingdom tomorrow!!

Day Five - Animals 'R Us

I hope I can remember the details from this far back...my memory is fading...

DAY FIVE:

We were up early today as we moved into a condo for the weekend. Our friends had a timeshare place until today, so I found a great three bedroom/two bath condo online for an UNBELIEVABLE price!! (Feel free to email me for details) We spent the morning moving in and then we headed over to Animal Kingdom for the day.

Animal Kingdom is my son Seth's favorite park. He is seriously considering a career in the animal field (possibly a zoologist?) so he was pumped about this park. This is Disney's fourth major park and is not as large as the others. There are lots of things to do however.

The best ride in the park is Everest. If you like coasters, this ride will thrill you. It has a great theme and you ride forwards and backwards at times during the ride. A definite "must ride."

We also checked out the new Nemo Musical Stage Show. I wasn't sure what to think at first (not to mention we had to be there 45 minutes early just to get a seat) - the cast members were holding a larger "puppet" sized version of the character they represented. It's hard to explain, but it struck me quite odd at first. However, that soon went away and the show was really quite good. No pics were allowed of any kind so I don't have a peek to give you.

While the "big kids" rode Dinosaur, Emilee and I headed to her favorite "little" dinosaur ride and then to the Boneyard where she climbed different towers and then slid down the numerous slides. Disney is phenomenal about designing kid friendly areas and Emilee loved it.

By late afternoon, tropical storm "Barry" rolled in and we experienced the first (and only it turned out) rain of the trip. It was a steady sheet of rain for about 12 hours, so we headed back to the condo and turned in early.

Tomorrow we'll head back to Epcot for more!

It's Time to Surface

Greg points us to Surface from Microsoft. Technology is incredible. The future is SO wide open - it's going to take dreamers and implementers. Some of us try to be both, but I really think the best people I know focus on only one. Which side of the brain do you fall on - dreamer or implementer?

Where In the World Is Goldie?

We're finally back in Fredericktown and I am DOG TIRED!! Lot's to catch you up on, but it might have to wait until tomorrow morning. I'll post days 5 forward in the morning. Needless to say, when we moved to our new condo on Friday there was no internet!! YIKES!! I have not been without internet access for that long in ages! Has technology really become a vital part of my lifestyle? In a word...ABSOLUTELY!

Stay tuned for updates, pics and more information than you probably cared to know...

Life is GOOD!!

Day Four - MGM and Coconut Cheesecake!!

Sorry for the LATE post!! Another crazy and exciting day - this time at MGM Studios! Seth and I rode our two favorite rides:

Rockin' Roller Coaster is the park's MOST popular ride - Seth and I grabbed a couple of Fast Passes and then headed over to ride Tower of Terror (twice!). Both rides are definitely worth the visit to this park.

MGM is one of my favorite parks. It's not just because of the two rides above, but mostly because I LOVE MOVIES!! I'm an avid film buff, and this park hits the highlights from the past all the way up to today. It's also Star Wars Weekend, so we'll definitely be seeing a lot of the characters from those movies. The park is not very big, but there's a lot to do and see, plus there are quite a few "shows" here. I had the chance to see a friend of mine (Doug Teel) from college perform the "pre-show" to Beauty and the Beast. You can check out his group here.

We hit the condo a bit early to prepare for a "date night." Our friends from Illinois (Cary and Angie) joined us for a night out at the Cheesecake Factory. I LOVE THIS PLACE!! I love it because they must have the most menu selections than any other restaurant I've been to, and second, because they have great desserts!! I had a new one (for me at least!) tonight - Chocolate and Coconut Cream Cheesecake. It was DELICIOUS!! It had a chocolate brownie type bottom layer, followed by a layer of coconut cheesecake, followed by a layer of coconut custard with whipped cream on top!! UNBELIEVABLE!!

Now we're back at the condo with our bellies full. Tomorrow we'll meet Kayla early to get our tickets, and then we'll be switching condos for the rest of our stay in Orlando. After we get settled in to our new home we'll hit Animal Kingdom for the day. It should be a great day - until then!!