Bubbles with Tom Noddy

This video is old but this guy was on Letterman tonight and was great!

I saw the sign...

It usually takes a lot to get on my nerves. Near the top of the list of annoyances is really bad marketing. It's probably because that was the field I worked in for so long. There is a vet clinic down the road from me that always has weird things posted on its sign that are incomplete sentences.

"Cheeseburgers and fries..."

Are what? Bad for dogs and cats to eat? Wonderful for humans to eat? Are you advertising for the McDonald's that is across the street? Oh, you are offering cheeseburger and fries at your clinic. Huh? Eewww... I always check the other side of the sign to see if I can get the rest of the message but I'm always let down...and confused. The ONLY time this sign ever made sense to me was when it said something this week like "Check for frozen pet bowls". Good tip, especially if your animals stay outside. I've been reading this sign every day for 5 years now. This may be a good clinic. I don't know. I've never been there. But I do know that I've already marked them up in my head as idiots.

Included in my marketing annoyances is really bad church signs. You've all seen them. They go a little something like this:

"Get right or get left"
"Prevent truth decay. Read your Bible daily."
"We have a "prophet" sharing plan."
“CH CH. What’s missing? UR!”
“Want to avoid burning? Try Son block!”
"Be an organ donor...give your heart to Jesus"

I love browsing on a site called Church Marketing Sucks. It's a really great site for relevant marketing skills and ideas. I came across an article about bad church marketing. It made reference to Crummy Church Signs. The commentary on these signs are too good to not pass on.

"Please, for the love of all things decent, don't use your church sign to broadcast lame quips." - Church Marketing Sucks

The last thing we need is people thinking we are idiots.

Links are here:

Crummy Theology
Wherein we are presented with a series of church signs that seem to indicate that the pastor of said church received his theology degree from the back of a cereal box.

Crummy Plays on Words
Wherein synonyms, antonyms, homonyms, homophones, alliteration, assonance, onomatopoeia, and rhymes are all abused almost beyond the point of recognition. Then, they are placed on a church sign.

Crummy Attempts To Be Cute
Wherein we are presented with a series of sayings that are best suited for an embroidered pillow, or perhaps an ornamental wall hanging. But not a church sign.

Crummy Attempts To Sound Wise
Wherein we are presented with a series of sayings that sound better coming from a fortune cookie, or perhaps a Magic 8-ball. But not a church sign.

Crummy Pop Culture References
Wherein a church, in a desperate ploy to appear hip and culturally relevant, appears to glean more inspiration from reality television and fast food commercials than from the Holy Spirit or the Word of God. And then they inexplicably place that inspiration on their church sign.

Crummy Grammar
Wherein we are presented with a series of sayings whose spelling, punctuation, or ignorance of the rules of basic grammar lead the reader to believe that they were composed in secret by first graders and not in plain view of the general public by the leaders of a church, as happens to be the case.

WHAT?!?
Wherein we are presented with a series of church signs that make us think to ourselves, “What the heck were these people thinking when they put this on their sign for the whole world to see? I mean, were they drunk or something?”

Hell Isn’t Funny
Wherein churches, in a misguided attempt to have humor on their church signs, make jokes about hell, damnation, burning, and eternal separation from God. And then they put those lame jokes on their church signs.

And the best...

Hall of Shame
Wherein the worst of the worst of the worst of the church signs from all categories are collected. Abandon hope, all ye who enter here…..

From "eewwww" to "ooohhh"...

So here is the finished product. This is the dresser I spoke of in the last post. It is finished! Now I just have to find a picture to hang above it and stuff to go on it. The whole thing was around $30-35 to redo! Whoo hoo! I've included before and after pictures!

Apparently, today is Doo-Dah Day!

On the way home tonight, Ethan asked me the funniest question:

"Mom, is today "Doo-Dah Day"?
"Umm...I don't really know. What's "Doo-Dah Day"?"
"Well, it's a day when we celebrate everybody and we all get presents!"
"Oh, really? Well, sure. Today can be "Doo-Dah Day".

It made me laugh so hard. He's made up his own holiday. It was a good reminder for me to celebrate the little things in life. Like the fact that I made dinner tonight and it didn't burn! (I have this tendency to be easily distracted!) Or the fact that the snow is melting and it's starting to feel like spring! Or the fact that I found this old dresser/buffet at the new Goodwill Outlet down the street for $4.99. I'm sanding it down, painting it and replacing the hardware for our dining room. So far, I'd say it looks great! I'll post pictures soon when the paint dries. A piece of furniture that needed a little TLC for $4.99 but now looks like it was a few hundred dollars? That's a reason to celebrate for me! :o)

A big "Happy Doo-Dah Day" to everyone! :o)

Thanks, buddy for making it harder for the rest of us...

Thanks, buddy for making it harder for the rest of us who are trying to do something GOOD for God and make a difference in the world. This is an article that I found on CNN this morning. Thoughts?

Pastor with 666 tattoo claims to be the new Christ
By John Zarrella and Patrick Oppmann
CNN

MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- The minister has the number 666 tattooed on his arm.

But Jose Luis de Jesus Miranda is not your typical minister. De Jesus, or "Daddy" as his thousands of followers call him, does not merely pray to God: He says he is God.

"The spirit that is in me is the same spirit that was in Jesus of Nazareth," de Jesus says.

De Jesus' claims of divinity have angered Christian leaders, who say he is a fake. Religious experts say he may be something much more dangerous, a cult leader who really believes he is God. (Watch followers get 666 tattoos for their leader)

"He's in their heads, he's inside the heads of those people," says Prof. Daniel Alvarez, a religion expert at Florida International University who has debated some of de Jesus' followers.

"De Jesus speaks with a kind of conviction that makes me consider him more like David Koresh or Jim Jones."

Is de Jesus really a cult leader like David Koresh, who died with more than 70 of his Branch Davidian followers in a fiery end to a standoff with federal authorities, or Jim Jones, the founder of the Peoples Temple who committed mass suicide with 900 followers in 1978?

Prophets 'spoke to me'
De Jesus and his believers say their church -- "Creciendo en Gracia," Spanish for "Growing in grace" -- is misunderstood. Followers of the movement say they have proof that their minister is divine and that their church will one day soon be a major faith in the world.

But even de Jesus concedes that he is an unlikely leader of a church that claims thousands of members in more than 30 countries.

De Jesus, 61, grew up poor in Puerto Rico. He says he served stints in prison there for petty theft and says he was a heroin addict.

De Jesus says he learned he was Jesus reincarnate when he was visited in a dream by angels.

"The prophets, they spoke about me. It took me time to learn that, but I am what they were expecting, what they have been expecting for 2,000 years," de Jesus says.

The church that he began building 20 years ago in Miami resembles no other:


Followers have protested Christian churches in Miami and Latin America, disrupting services and smashing crosses and statues of Jesus.

De Jesus preaches there is no devil and no sin. His followers, he says, literally can do no wrong in God's eyes.

The church calls itself the "Government of God on Earth" and uses a seal similar to the United States.

Doing God's work with a Lexus and Rolex
If Creciendo en Gracia is an atypical religious group, de Jesus also does not fit the mold of the average church leader. De Jesus flouts traditional vows of poverty.

He says he has a church-paid salary of $136,000 but lives more lavishly than that. During an interview, he showed off a diamond-encrusted Rolex to a CNN crew and said he has three just like them. He travels in armored Lexuses and BMWs, he says, for his safety. All are gifts from his devoted followers.

And what about the tattoo of 666 on his arm?

Although it's a number usually associated with Satan, not the son of God, de Jesus says that 666 and the Antichrist are, like him, misunderstood.

The Antichrist is not the devil, de Jesus tells his congregation; he's the being who replaces Jesus on Earth.

"Antichrist is the best person in the world," he says. "Antichrist means don't put your eyes on Jesus because Jesus of Nazareth wasn't a Christian. Antichrist means do not put your eyes on Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Put it on Jesus after the cross."

And de Jesus says that means him.

So far, de Jesus says that his flock hasn't been scared off by his claims of being the Antichrist. In a show of the sway he holds over the group, 30 members of his congregation Tuesday went to a tattoo parlor to have 666 also permanently etched onto their skin.

He may wield influence over them, but his followers say don't expect them to go the way of people who believed in David Koresh and Jim Jones. Just by finding de Jesus, they say, they have achieved their purpose.

"If somebody tells us drink some Kool-Aid and we'll go to heaven, that's not true. We are already in heavenly places," follower Martita Roca told CNN after having 666 tattooed onto her ankle.

Find this article at:
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/02/16/miami.preacher/index.html

Colts reign in the rain!

WAAH-HOOO!! The Colts won the Super Bowl!




The city has been crazy with excitement the last 24 hours. A few hours ago, the team was welcomed home via a downtown parade and ceremony at the RCA Dome. It was really fun to watch on the news. We would have went downtown but it is 4 degrees (feels like -6). Our kids would have turned into Popsicles. :o)

Long post. Many topics. All unrelated...

The last 10 days has been full of baby news. And before you ask, no I'm not pregnant. :o) This week we had some other friends from Texas, Micah and Rebbecca, who had a tragedy. Their son, William, passed away at birth on Tuesday evening. Many prayers and hugs go out to them. This is the second set of friends we have watched this happen to in the last week and a half. My heart breaks for them.

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I do have 2 pieces of really great baby news though. My friends who were having quads had a c-section this morning. All 4 boys are healthy and really cute. One boy is still on a ventilator. You can get pictures and news here. And, I forgot to mention that our friends Jonathan and Diane are expecting their first child in August. WHOOO HOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!

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In totally unrelated news, I played Guitar Hero II for the first time last night. It is an awesome video game. Thanks to Wayne for letting us borrow it for a week (or forever if I conveniently "forget" to return it!). I was amazed that I actually was pretty decent at it. Ethan and his friend Eli kept running around with their pretend guitars acting like they were playing the game with us and were shouting "Let's rock!!!". It was really funny.

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It's been a while since I've "blessed" you with some funny finds from You Tube. This one reminded me of our daughter, Erin. Enjoy!