Roberts Rules Rules!

We just received a motion to correct a correction, which required that a vote that we suspend the rules.

Deep Thought

The average age in the United Methodist Church is 57.

Helpful: Reconciling Ministries

No real action shots from tonight. The first worship service was fine, and the first plenary session had to do mostly with the rules. I just got back to the hotel about 11:30 - MAN are these going to be late nights!

I will have more to write tomorrow, but in the meantime, I posted over at the Reconciling Ministries Network blog a post I wrote on the plane.

Oh, I should note that one delegate from South Carolina is in high school, and she was wearing UGGs on the floor of General Conference, which must be a first.

Helpful: On-time shuttle buses

After a delayed flight and two-hour shuttle experience from the airport, I'm waiting on another bus to take me to the convention center. I will probably miss my 5:15 meeting and may be late to the 6:00 worship. But I promised pictures so here you go!

I+H: General Conference 2008

I don't have much time before leaving for the airport, but I am heading for Fort Worth for 10 days for the United Methodist Church General Conference. Every four years, delegates from around the world meet in the US to rewrite the rule book of the church–the Book of Discipline–and approve the budget for the next four years.

I was elected as an alternate delegate for the delegation from Northern Illinois, and I think our church needs to be open to be people of all ages, races, classes, gender identities, and sexual orientations: every human category. We are all children of God. My experience in Chicago and at my church, Holy Covenant UMC, has taught me that if we're going to bother with church at all, we need to be open to everybody. Shutting anyone out from community, from the sacraments, or from the opportunity to serve and give is contrary to Biblical teaching. Open the doors!

I will be blogging and posting photos to this location, the Holy Covenant Facebook page, and to a blog for the Reconciling Ministries Network.

Helpful: OmniFocus and OmniPlan

If you like to Get Things Done and you have a Mac, it's time to fork over some money to the Omni Group for their fantastic personal organization software, OmniFocus. With the new job, I've been in need of a solid GTD tool that will help me track dozens of projects at home, at church, and at work. Since I use one laptop for everything, having my todo list in the computer has been great. It's worth the money to have something that works.

For big project planning, and I mean BIG PROJECTS, I am trying out OmniPlan, the Mac version of Microsoft Project.

Helpful: David Allen

I've been re-reading David Allen's book "Ready for Anything" and found this quote:

There’s a simple way to become indestructible: Have the intention to do your best at whatever you’re doing, right now.

So that's the plan.

Interesting: Twin Kittehs

Helpful: SXSW download

For the fourth year in a row, the South by Southwest festival is putting up a huge music download with more than 700 free mp3 tracks from the 1,700 that are performing this week. The file can be found here:
http://lifehacker.com/366564/ginormous-sxsw-music-download

I download this each year (I use Transmission for torrent files, BTW) and I always find about 50 great songs in the mix. It does take about 2 days to download, but it's free, as in beer.

Amable: Obama Reggaeton!

Como se dice, como se llama?
Obama! Obama!

Interesante: Viva Obama!

Hermanos, mira a esto!
Viva Obama!

Helpful: Yes we can

Interesting: Vacation in Arizona

We had a great anniversary trip to Arizona last week. I'll be posting reviews and recommendations later, but first, some pics!

AZ Trip (99 best)

Interesting: Chicago Hoods

For the Chicago lover in your life...
Neighborhood Posters by ORK Posters

Helpful: Gin recipes from Plymouth

We went out tonight shopping on Clark Street and got some presents, and some North Shore Gin! Local booze always tastes better. But Gin and Juice is so 1998. We found this instead from the Plymouth Gin website:


Silver Bronx
50 ml (1 shot) Plymouth Gin
1 dash Sweet Vermouth
1 tbsp Egg White (whisked)
25 ml (1/2 shot) Orange Juice (Fresh)
1 dash Dry Vermouth


Fill mixing glass with ice
Add the Plymouth Gin, vermouths, orange juice and whisked egg white (optional)
Shake well
Strain into a martini glass

Delicious.

Helpful: An Iraq War Vet for Mark Pera for Congress IL-3

Why is an Iraq War Vet working for Mark Pera - watch this video to find out.



Mark Pera for Congress '08 : Video Clips

NOTE: This has been reposted with the correct video link. Sorry if this shows up twice on your feeds.

Helpful: Amazon Wish Lists

It's easy to set up, easy to share, and who knows, maybe **COUGH COUGH** your friends and beloved family **COUGH COUGH** will get you some good stuff this year. Not that you weren't thankful for last year's gifts, of course.

Interesting: Major League Soccer salaries

I'm working on a long post about relegation and promotion for MLS, but in the meantime, I found a list of salaries for players in MLS.

MLS Players Union :: Player Salary Information

The total of all salaries this year is only $42,000,000.
Highest, LA Galaxy - $9.3 million
Lowest, Chivas USA - $1.7 million

In baseball in 2006:
Highest, NY Yankees - $192 million
Lowest, Florida - $14 million

Interesting: Surprisingly Doable

I saw this in the Red Eye a few days ago and couldn't believe it. Condos are so easy!

Adrants » That Hot Chic...And Chicago Real Estate Are Surprisingly Doable

Interesting: Homeless vets

Absolutely shameful.

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- More than 25 percent of the homeless population in the United States are military veterans, although they represent 11 percent of the civilian adult population, according to a new report.

On any given night last year, nearly 196,000 veterans slept on the street, in a shelter or in transitional housing, the study by the Homelessness Research Institute found.

Everyone says that the US is the richest nation in the world. Well, obviously not. If we can't use our trillions of tax dollars so that all people have at least their basic needs met, then shame on us. And if we can't agree that all people deserve to have their basic human needs met, no matter what their choice of occupation, then God help us.

Helpful: How to Be Interesting

Tonight, I went to an event that had a lot of people I didn't know. I wasn't very interesting, I think. I got bored, felt awkward, and left. Turns out, rather than being interesting, I should have been interested.

Oh,and I should also start collecting something. Do soccer jerseys count?

Not Helpful: UMC Judicial Council Shenanigans

Some inside baseball on the church front. At the big "C" church level, I'm part of the team that is fighting to open up the United Methodist Church membership, clergy ranks, etc. to people of all races, genders, sexual orientation, and any other status. The church has some contradictions to work out, namely:

1. The UMC constitution states that people should not be denied membership based on status
2. Sexual orientation was recently ruled by a regional church judicial body to be a qualifying status
3. Other regional judicial bodies have ruled that pastors can deny membership based on sexual orientation

Like in the US government, there is a supreme judicial branch, the Judicial Council. This summer at our Annual Conference, we in Northern Illinois approved a formal petition to the Council to address this contradiction, and to rule that discriminating based on status should be unconstitutional.

Result:
They punted, saying that we didn't pass our petition correctly.

This is bogus. All of our petitions were available for debate and were voted on. The Judicial Council is literally making up law as it goes.

Interesting: Record Disapproval

USATODAY.com: Meanwhile, Bush reached an unwelcome record. By 64%-31%, Americans disapprove of the job he is doing. For the first time in the history of the Gallup Poll, 50% say they 'strongly disapprove' of the president. Richard Nixon had reached the previous high, 48%, just before an impeachment inquiry was launched in 1974.

Interesting: Mod styles

This would be better suited for another blog, but check out these styles from the year of my birth, 1977...




15 Minute Lunch: Strap in, shut up and hold on. We're going back.

Interesting: Halloween 2007

Great party, great location, great friends!

Picasa Web Albums - Matt - Halloween 2007