What is Twitter? Why would I do it?

I know many of you are tech-savvy and already know about Twitter. Some of you use it and love it :). But if you don't know, check out this website. It is a discussion from an NPR show where the guest does a much better job explaining it than I could. It's about 5 minutes long, but a very easy listen.

If you're interested enough to sign up, follow me at http://twitter.com/matthewtennison/ once you are signed up!

Side note: Have you ever tried to explain Twitter to someone? How have you done it? Did they "get it"?

Technorati Tags: Twitter

Biking

I like to ride my bike around town. Unfortunately that's not a year-round activity in Michigan. Though I can say that as a kid I would ride my bike occasionally in the winter. That was fun when you hit ice!

I was trying to figure out recently why I like bike riding so much. A few things came to mind:

• Health benefits - Ok, this one is obvious, but it should be included.

• No barriers between you and the world. When you're in a car, you have metal and glass separating you from everything else. It encapsulates you. When you're on a bike, you contain the bike in a sense between your legs. That leaves the rest of your body closer to, well, everything else.

• Freedom - you can access more places on a bike than you can in a car. I've found sidewalks and paths in the middle of the city I never knew about.

• Photography - I'm not a professional photographer or anything, but I do like taking pictures on occasion. There have been many time where I'll see something driving along, and not be able to capture it because I couldn't get to the camera, or I couldn't stop the car. But if you're on a bike, it's much easier to safely stop somewhere and get all the pictures you want!

I think it also slows me down, and creates opportunity to clear my head and even have some conversation with my wife and kids. It is a choice I make to step away from all of the screens in my house (TV, Computer, PDA (still working on turning the cell phone off)) and take in some of the natural beauty of the world.

Anyone else have a love of biking or walking or running?Technorati Tags: bicycling

It's been forever...

...or at least it feels like it. In fact, it's been so long that my preferred blogging tool, Scribefire, has updated two or three times since I last used it. I like some of the new features, but if you're not into Firefox and Scribefire you probably don't care ;) And if you do use them....well, you probably already know about them.

Work continues to be a struggle for me, but I continue to make it through. I've been with this company for almost three years now, and I rarely take vacation (partially as a security measure) so I decided to take some. Last weekend I took two extra days off and went to my in-laws' cabin in Northern Michigan. We had a GREAT time, and I was able to relax and reset myself. We didn't have many plans, so we could take our time and just rest. We ended up going rafting one day, and kayaking the next, which was a LOT of fun! I'd love to get some kayaks for us, but they're expensive! Even Brooke is able to paddle her own all by herself, and I was surprised! I mean, she's 6 years old! Yikes!

We're still fighting debt, and we're down to our last non-mortgage debt. We've lost a little steam lately because it's summer, and there are so many things to do. Kinda makes us wish we had more money to do more fun things. But then again, that's why we're getting out of debt. We've got to remember how much more fun we could have if we didn't have a $200 car payment! We're hopeful we'll be out by the end of summer, but that is fast approaching, and I think we might not hit it. We really need to engage the debt snowball more, and start using the money we've freed up from other debts to attack the car.

When we were in Cadillac this weekend, we decided we wanted to go to a church up there. Not having any personal recommendations, we cracked open the phone book and found a page and a half of listings for churches! The bummer part is that our fellowship doesn't have a gathering up there, so we kinda had to guess based on names. We really just wanted a church that was Bible-based and sound. We ended up choosing Independent Bible Church. I couldn't find anything out about them on the web except their service times, but we tried them anyway.

When we got there, everyone was very friendly, and wanted to introduce themselves. That was very welcoming. the church reminded us exactly the churches we grew up in. Traditional brown brick building, conservative service, pews, hymns, the whole deal. But it also seemed like the speaker (not sure if he was an Elder or Deacon or just a member, but the Pastor was on vacation) wanted to help them be more relevant. he used a laptop with a projector, and had a nice slideshow for song lyrics, and even a PowerPoint to go along with his study.

The problem was, it was like putting a video arcade in a nursing home. Something just doesn't fit. I think they may be on the right path, but the reality is that a large part of the congregation was older, and probably likes to worship the same way they've worshiped for many years. is there anything wrong with that? No. Is there anything wrong with wanting to change to be more relevant to the community and a new generation? If it's led by God, then no. The point is that those two groups just may not be the best to have in the same service. There is nothing wrong with having a traditional service and a contemporary service. In fact, in many ways it's better. The form of worship is of much less importance than the object of worship and the quality of teaching.

As far as the teaching goes - it was solidly grounded in the Bible. It was a good message, and the teacher went verse by verse through one passage. While it wasn't particularly invigorating, it was sound, and we could appreciate that. It goes to show how God can change your heart when you can listen to a less-than-invigorating teacher and not fall asleep ;).

All-in-all, we miss our church, and look forward to being back there this week. We especially miss the people there. The ones who know us and support us and have invested their time with us. It's like a sweet aroma.

Work, Twitter,

Well, I still have a job. I thank the Lord, and I also wonder why I'm still where I am.

In a way, I was thinking that God was using this reorganization to move me, because I wouldn't move otherwise. I have complete faith that He works all things together for good, but I just don't see how. I don't know why I'm still where I am. I do know I'm here for a reason. I also know I'm looking at other job opportunities.

A couple of good things have come from the whole experience. It's made me question if this is really what I should be doing. My wonderful wife bought me a book I've been wanting for my birthday. 48 Days to the Work You Love is a book by Dan Miller, and highly recommended by Dave Ramsey. I figure that Dave has really good financial advice, so his recommend on career advice may hold water :). The book asks lots of good questions, and asks me to look at what I like to do, and if what I'm doing fits that.

There is a lot more to blog about on that subject, and I'm considering airing out the answers to many of those questions on my own blog like Mindy. Could be fun ;)

In other news, I've been Twittering a lot lately. In fact, I blame that in part for my short-term disappearance from blogging. Ultimately though, Twitter is not a replacement for my blog, as fun as it may be. Why do I Twitter? Well, it's kind of like a chat room where no one expects you to respond instantly, and you can invite anyone to join your chat room that you want to. What you end up with is a place where you can find out a lot of interesting thoughts from people very easily. Of course, it's good to contribute too, so others can learn little tidbits about you too.

If you follow my Twitter Feed or follow me on Twitter, you'll know that I recently broke my unbreakable glasses. Yeaa, you know the kind that are so flexible that you can bend them around your finger? Those are the ones that snapped in half two weeks ago. Fortunately I was fitted for contacts last year and I have some left over, even though I don't wear them. So I've been wearing them for a couple weeks now until I order another pair of glasses. They work pretty well, and after I got used to looking in the mirror and not seeing glasses on my face, it was ok :).

The only disadvantage to the contacts is that they don't work quite as well as glasses. I have a slight astigmatism that the contacts can't correct. End result is that my vision is slightly fuzzier when I wear my contacts. The phenomenon that occurs is that I've been feeling fuzzy lately. Not fuzzy like a Muppet, but lacking in clarity. everyday actions have felt cloudy. Anyone else ever had this happen? Fuzzy vision = Fuzzy mental state? I'm adjusting after two weeks of contacts, but still feel it once in a while. It kind of makes me wonder, as I have before, did God make me nearsighted for a reason? Maybe I'm supposed to pay attention to small, close-up details.

Anywho, that's what's fit to print :) Talk to you later.

Certainty

I've been on pins and needles in a way the last two weeks. Two weeks ago, I came into work at my office. I normally only come to the office when I need to, and travel around my area the rest of the time, but that day I came in. I had just received my pay stub online the night before, and it wasn't quite right. See, I was supposed to get a yearly raise, and judging by my review it should have been the same as last year's raise. When I opened my pay stub, I found out it was much less.

So I decided that I was going to talk to my boss about it. In fact, my boss is new at the company, so I was going to talk to HIS boss about it. However, that was thwarted...when my boss's boss was "let go" that morning. Human Relations from a higher office came in, and explained the situation to everyone. My boss and one of his coworkers were let go as well. The real problem though, is that when HR told everyone, they all but said "there'll be more in a couple weeks".

Which leads us to today. No one really knows when the axe is coming, but we know that more people will be let go, and we don't know when or who. Of course this creates a PERFECT breeding ground for rumours. I hate rumours. All they do is reduce productivity and raise stress in this environment. Seriously, every time I would relax and settle into my work, someone would bring up one of these rumours and I'd tense up again, and lose all focus and desire to work.

I'm not sure how I feel about the whole situation. My job is the one that provides the vast majority of our family income, so it is necessary that I work, and this job provides a very steady paycheck. On the other hand, I've had 4 bosses over the past year, so my department has not had much real leadership lately. The lack of leadership has made me question how much I really like this job. But honestly, I have really liked this job over the last couple of years. So I have a hard time telling if I'd really be happy in this job should I be allowed to keep it, or if I should move on (one way or another!).

So on one hand I'm excited to see what will happen. On the other hand, I'm scared because I don't know.

I do keep resting in the knowledge that God works all things together for good. He knows my needs, and He knows the needs of my family. It is AWESOME to be able to put faith in what He is doing. I know that I'm not here on my own. I know that the birds of the sky don't work, but they eat. I know that the fields don't work, but they are clothed. I know that God created me to work, and cares for us more than the birds and the fields. I know that He won't leave me or forsake me. Sometimes I just have to get my heart to know all of that, and to rest in Him.

One thing to think on though. If you believe what the Bible says, and you believe that Jesus is who He said He was. If you believe that Jesus is God's son, who became a man, and died on the cross for us, and rose from the dead. If you believe that, then you have to realize how great the cost was to save us all. And He did die to save us ALL, even those who deny Him and haven't yet asked for forgiveness and put their trust in Him. All you have to do is ask.

The point is though, if God paid so great a cost for ME and for YOU, do you really think that He would give up on us? Do I really think He would give up on me? No. He won't leave us or forsake us. The price was too great to do that. I'm going to learn to trust in Him more, and not in my job, and not in a paycheck. Jobs and people and money come and go. He stays.

Too Long

I once read that if you want your blog to be widely read, you should publish at least twice a week. Hmmm, guess I don't really want to be widely read.

So today was interesting. I got to spend some good quality time with my wife and kids. We watched "Brother Bear" tonight, which was fun because I haven't sat down and watched a whole movie in quite a while. Now I'm watching a rerun of House (waiting for the new episodes to start!) and waiting for the dryer to get done drying our sheets.

Other than that, I'm enjoying the weather. It's finally warming up here in Michigan, and it's GREAT! Today my father-in-law came over with his truck after work and pulled out a bush from the front of our house that we really didn't like. I mean, we've only disliked it for the 3 and 1/2 years we've lived here...so it was about time. Now we just have decide what to replace it with. Maybe I should post some pics and get your advice? I just might do that.

I'm looking forward to having campfires and grilling out for friends, so make sure you set aside a couple of weekends to come over ;)

Over-Censorship

Sometimes our own protection can get in our way. I won't be launching into a tremendous rant on the authority of government or Homeland Security or police protection in our lives tonight though. I'll start with something much simpler.

A while back, I started to protect my network with a service called OpenDns. Their site is at OpenDns.org. They provide free protection to your home network by re-routing your internet requests through their servers. If there is content you don't want to come through, they'll block it. The nice part for me is that I can set up my router to use the service, and it automatically protects all computers accessing the internet through it. This is especially helpful if I have guests over.

The service allows you to block different categories of websites from coming through - like gambling, pornography, or even online dating or game sites. The only problem is, sometimes it can be a bit too restrictive. For instance, Flickr has been categorized with the "nudity" flag. That mean that I can't access my pastor's pics on my network, even though they are FAR from pornographic.

Fortunately, the site lets you customize things down to the tee, so I can add Flickr to my "safe" list and even block out other sites I don't like that aren't automatically blocked. The point is, has protection ever gotten in your way?