Check out our “2008 NFL Draft: Road to Sundays” March 1, 2008
Posted by Steve in : Weblog , add a commentJosh Wright, Steve Raquel and I are making great strides in building out the underlying technology for Fanfuego.com, the premier social network for sportsfans, whcih will launch in early April (and all of you will love it and regular users!).
As we get ready for the launch, we are beginning a multi-episode series looking at five players who are hoping to get drafted in the 2008 NFL draft in late April. There will be a new episode each week, and each episode will be roughly 3-4 minutes.
Check out the series — it chronicles the ups and downs and real-life experience of athletes who want to move up to “the big dance” .
Here is the promo — please help us by passing this along to others.
Chicago is the Most…… January 6, 2008
Posted by Steve in : Chicago, Chicago Fact , add a commentAs many of you know, I LOVE CHICAGO and all things about ti and believe that is ti the most livable, and best global city to live in around the world. As we begin 2008, I thought I would give you some of the titles Chicago holds as I Googled around the web.
Chicago is the most………
1. Caffeinated city in the US (Healthsaver survey)
2. Chocolate consuming city in the nation (Healthsaver survey)
3. Colas consuming city in the nation(Healthsaver survey)
4. Expensive place to buy cigarettes (retirementliving.com)
5. Studied American city— thanks to the birth of American sociology at the University of Chicago.
6. Accessible city in the country. The transportation hub of the Midwest, Chicago boasts the world’s busiest airport and is located at the intersection of the busiest interstate highway system. Approximately, 180,000 travelers pass through O’Hare International Airport daily. Chicago is the only U.S. city with three airline hubs, plus 50 commercial, commuter, and cargo airlines at O’Hare alone. When combined, O’Hare, Midway, and several small local airfields serve nearly 70 commercial, commuter, and cargo airlines with more than 300 daily flights to approximately 200 cities. All told, the Chicago area offers more nonstop flights than any other city. And, in an increasingly important global economy, airline carriers offer direct service from O’Hare to 60 cities around the world.
7. Important railroad center in North America. More lines of track radiate in more directions from Chicago than from any other city. Chicago has long been the most important interchange point for freight traffic between the nation’s major railroads and it is the hub of Amtrak, the intercity rail passenger system.
8. Visited U.S. destination for business travelers for several years running, according to a survey of business travelers fielded by Accenture, a global management and technology services company. This city is always adapting and improving to better meet the needs of convention organizers and their attendees.
9. Important Great Lakes port.
10. Searched City’ for Holiday Cards - CardsDirect.com
11. Ethnically diverse city in North America per capita. On the north side of the city, one out of three people is foreign-born.
12. Chicago is the most popular destination for Labor Day 2007 (priceline.com).
13. Important architectural city in America.
14. Bike friendly city in the country. Mayor Richard Daley is solidly behind initiatives to create a 500 mile network of bike paths and bicycle-friendly streets in Chicago. He wants Chicago to be the most bicycle friendly city in the United States. The Bike 2015 Plan is the City of Chicago’s vision to make bicycling an integral part of daily life in Chicago. The plan recommends projects, programs and policies for the next ten years to encourage use of this practical, non-polluting and affordable mode of transportation.
15. Popular site for national conventions of both major political parties; since 1860, when Abraham Lincoln was nominated by the Republican Party, 26 national Republican or Democratic conventions have been held in the city. (MSN Encarta)
16. Known world-wide center of Polish immigration. Poles in Chicago are more visible and spectacular group than the Poles in NYC. Even on the airport O’Hare in Chicago one can hear announcements in Polish quite often. Many custom officers are caring the badges with the information “Mowimy po Polsku” (We are speaking Polish).
17. Livable major city there is, major being places that are home to several million people or more.What makes Chicago so great is that it looks and acts like a big city, but it doesn’t feel like one. Unlike so many cities its size, its cultural and recreational charms come with some big benefits. You won’t break the bank to live there; rents and home prices remain relatively reasonable. It’s accessible by public transportation and car. And it’s looking spiffier than ever thanks to major beautification and redevelopment efforts. (Best Places to Live)
18. Ethnically and culturally diverse city in the United States, and probably in the world.
19. Expensive city to fill up your car’s gas tank, thanks to city and county taxes.
20. Dog friendly city in the US.
New Year’s Resolutions January 2, 2008
Posted by Steve in : Weblog, Family, Methods & Strategies , add a commentEach year, I read about lots of people’s new year’s resolutions. Long lists of things they want to accomplish in the current year — many of which are abandoned before the long winter nights of February are through. I am not doing the list of 57 things this year.
This year, I am setting five simple new year’s resolutions:
1. Love God,
2. Love my wife well
3. Love my children well
4. Do well in leading others at work
5. Spurred on by a competition with my daughter — to read 52 books this year.
On the last resolution, iron sharpens iron and the more I read, the better decisions I make and the more I learn from outsiders that can help me understand, shape and clarify my views and my way of doing things.
First books up are:
“American Pharoah: The Story of Richard J Daley” – I love Chicago and it history and this is a great one.
“Now Discover your Strengths” - Gallup — Knowing what one’s strengths are is a good reflective exercise and allows you to see what other talents you need around you to succeed.
What are you resolving to do this year?
A Reminder: New Year, Same King December 31, 2007
Posted by Steve in : The City, Sunday Services, Church, Inside Park, Urban Church, Missional, DifferenceMakers , add a commentThis Sunday, Park Community Church was honored to have Victor Rodriguez,
Senior Pastor of La Villita Community Church here in Chicago give the last message of the year. Victor is a differencemaker in Chicago and leads a congregation in the “Little Village ” area of Chicago located around 26th street and Kedzie.
Little Village is the retail, residential and cultural capital of the Mexican community in the Midwest—a neighborhood alive with Mexican arts and culture, and a great place to live for both longtime residents and new immigrants. Over the past 30 years, Little Village has become a major port of entry for Mexican immigrants, and more than half of its residents are under the age of 25.
As we begin to think about our new year’s resolutions, Victor implored us to get to know the King better in his message. His message was a strong reminder of the King we serve and this video he played is a great reminder of all that Jesus is, qwhat he does and what He will always be:
Gingerbread Train Day December 9, 2007
Posted by Steve in : Weblog , add a commentWhile I am still knocked pout by the flu, today was pencilled in as the day to build our annual gingerbread creation. So this year, it was a gingerbread train. This is one of our Christmas traditions that we love as we enjoy “Christmas in the City”. How do you think the kids did? (They all got lots of icing and candy so it was a big hit with them!).
Leave a comment as to what your favorite family traditions are.
How’s Your Dialogue? June 21, 2007
Posted by Steve in : Methods & Strategies, Leader Zone , add a comment“When it comes to improving performance, most organizations’ problems can be traced to their inability to think and talk together at critical moments.”– Paraphrased from William Isaacs’s book Dialogue, p.3
How do you talk to your staff? How do you conduct a meeting? Do you generally have good dialogue with your staff, first talking, then listening and then responding appropriately? Doug Sundheim of Fast Company tells us that “What passes as “communication” in most organizations is nothing more than people talking AT each other. Firing different opinions around a room with little structure to productively move any action forward. The dialogue is dysfunctional - meaning that it doesn’t produce a deeper understanding of the issues at hand. Eventually, when a decision must be made, it’s often the person who has spoken the loudest, longest, or with the most conviction that wins - whether it was the best idea or not.”
Good dialogue can be boiled down to 5 key elements - Listening, Respecting, Suspending, Voicing, and Inquiring. When dialogue breaks down, it’s usually because one or more of these are missing between the players involved.
Think of an unproductive conversation you’ve recently had. Consider the following questions to see where you might have been contributing to the problem.
1. Listening - Did I truly hear what the other person(s) said?
2. Respecting - Did I respect their opinions - even if I didn’t agree with them?
3. Suspending - Did I suspend my own opinions long enough to create an opening for new perspectives?
4. Voicing - Did I say what I truly thought and felt in a responsible way?
5. Inquiring - Did I probe for clarification when things weren’t clear?
6. When you find that one or more of these are missing, experiment with ways to bring them into the conversation.
Cool Easter Eggs! April 9, 2007
Posted by Steve in : Breaking News, The Cultural Conversation, The Arts in the City , add a comment
All my life, I wonder at people who are given gifts and abilities from God to paint, photograph, to create, to visualize and to express the wonderment of life in various forms of media. When Sue and I took a year off and travelled the world in 1996-97 (25 countries) before kids and a mortgage, I marvelled at all of the art and the expression through canvas, steel, clay, music, drama, photos, etc. I loved to sit and ponder the artists’ life while reflecting on their work in galleries rround the world. So even now, I love to see people use their God-given artistic talent in all forms of media. Here are some unique canvasses upon which to create — Easter eggs — these are traditional Sorbian style Easter Eggs at the Sorbian Easter Egg Market in Bautzen, eastern Germany.
In eastern Germany near the border with Poland, the Sorbs, a Slavic minority that has lived for generations in this area, celebrate Easter with a parade called the “Kreuztritt” (Cross Walk) and the decorating of Easter Eggs. A batik-like decorating process known as pysanka produces these intricate, brilliantly-colored eggs.
The men of the village dressed in traditional costumes of black jackets and top hats, ride horses in a circle form from town to town announcing the resurrection of Christ. The Sorb’s Easter celebration can be seen in every town in this area of Germany called Lusatia. For more info on these intricately decorated Easter eggs, and some more great pics, check out our awesome military’s daily newpaper, Stars & Stripes.
SUNDAY: Why Me? Why Did I Survive? March 24, 2007
Posted by Steve in : Chicago, Sunday Services, Church , add a commentUnited Airlines Flight 232 was a scheduled flight operated by United Airlines between Denver and Philadelphia via Chicago. On July 19, 1989, the Douglas DC-10 operating this flight suffered an uncontained failure of its number 2 engine (mounted in the tail), which destroyed all three of the aircraft’s hydraulic systems. With no controls working except the power levers for the two remaining engines, it broke up during an emergency landing on the runway at Sioux City, Iowa killing 110 of its 285 passengers and one of the 11 crew members. See the video. Owing to the skill of the crew and a DC-10 instructor pilot, 175 passengers and 10 crew members survived.
Why me? Why did I survive? Why did I receive life why others died? These are some of the questions survivors were asking after surviving the crash. Our own Teaching Pastor, Ron May, was among those who survived the harrowing experience, while traveling at the time to take a deposition in a legal case, and will talk about God’s grace among the wreckage. This is an awesome opportunity for you to invite your non-churched friends to answer some of life’s real questions. Join us at Park Community Church this Sunday —we meet at Francis Parker School at 2233 N Clark Street at 9:00 am, 11:00 am and 5:30 pm.
Future Web: What is eBay Focused On? March 4, 2007
Posted by Steve in : Technology , add a comment
As church technology evolves, we need to look to bellwether representatives to see where technology (specifically the internet) is headed. Recently, Max Mancini, the recently appointed senior director of platform and innovation at eBay, spoke to IDG News Service about where eBay is devoting a majority of time and resources over the next 12-18 months. I love the name of one of the groups he heads — it is called the Disruptive Innovation team, which was started last year.
eBay started with innovating around consumer-to-consumer commerce and the auction format online, then progressed just to keep up from scale and growth perspectives, with its main focus on scalability, performance and (more…)
