How can you NOT love Buddy Jesus?

We sent out a mailer a week ago using the graphic seen in my last post. It depicts Santa, Waldo (from Where's Waldo fame), and Buddy Jesus. Buddy Jesus was a statue that a congregation used to regain some 'hipness' some years ago. Since then it has gained no small amount of Internet fame. I'd say he's a meme if there ever was one.

Anyway, the point of the mailer was to point out how we relegate Jesus to the same stature as the other two, making him a 'character' that we look for at Christmas. Hopefully it makes the point that Jesus is not a character but a real-life man who is also God who can do nothing other than change our lives if we actually 'found' him this Christmas. Well, I know the mailer can't say all of that but it points to the Christmas Eve service where it will be laid out.

Well, here is a phone call we received regarding Buddy. Click on the link below.

<<Click this link to Listen>>

Christmas Eve Promotion Piece.

I found out what the title of the Christmas Eve message was on Tuesday and was charged to get some promotion materials started so we can advertise. The title was "Where's Waldo". I took some 'creative license' with it and shifted to "what are you looking for this Christmas".

I searched the internets for some pics of kids peaking into boxes or sneaking around corners to spy on Santa. But when all was said and done, I came back to good ole' Waldo. Here it is.



Now, I have to submit this to the powers that be. I'm totally not sure what kinda promotion we're doing. It could be as simple as posters and PSAs or hand outs or a huge mailer. Each one may necessitate changing this. Or heck, it may just bee too tasteless with 'Buddy Jesus' to use. I'm a big fan of Buddy Jesus and apparently he thinks I'm ok (as evidenced by the thumbs up he's giving me every time I see him).

A note or two: I'm not a fan of the sub title being in helvetica. I think Santa needs some color correction to match the golden hue (and to set off waldo in contrast).

Cool but pointless. Still... fun .

Latest Poster

I was tasked with creating a poster for the Crazy Clubhouse Christmas party for our elementary aged group. It was focused on ugly christmas sweaters and the person requesting the poster wanted someone in a bad Christmas sweater. There were not kid pics of such, so this is as close as I could find.

Now this is disturbing. I have a 13"x19" poster of this up above my computer. The more I look at it, the more it makes me laugh/cringe. I have NO idea of the requestee will like it at all. As Jesse put it, "it's may be too heady". And it looks way too much like 'the 40 Year Old Virgin" promos that ran a few years ago. I think it also harkens to Glee so who knows. It may or may not fly. Either way, I'm perfectly cool with it.

Woulda Coulda Gunnu

I have many catch phases that pop from my mouth from time to time. My mind is not unlike a big, battered cardboard box. Now imagine that box closed up with a hole cut in the top. Shake it around a bit and you'll hear my memories rattling around in there. My mouth will utter these phrases as if you shook the box and something just fell out. Here are some of the phrases:

What the well well welfare (from a skit I heard in the 80s)

gonnu (as opposed to Going To or Gonna)

No wheres near

better than a sharp stick in the eye

well that's the bees knees (I think I originally heard that from Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy)

Thank yee

Hell-the-frick-O (Overheard that in the hall of my dorm when someone answered the dorm phone)

Dum de deet dee dee, who-ah who-ah (MST3K)

There are so many more of these John-isms. I only realize that people have no idea where they come from when someone points them out to me. In my head they are perfectly normal things to say. There are precious few of you out there (and you know who you are) who'd know more than a few of these. We all have things like this that pop from our mouths from time to time. What are yours?

iPad

My wife was gracious to me for my birthday and got me an iPad. It's a luxury device to be sure and to be honest, I had to get over the embarrassment of owing such a shinny piece of tech. I didn't wanna be 'that guy' who owns one of those suckers and shows it off such as....

'Hey, John how's it going? How's your family'

'SEE MY NEW IPAD?? IT'S SOOO COOL?? DON'T YOU WISH YOU HAD ONE??'

'neat....'

The problem is that it's so dang useful. From watching video, to reading books, to listening to music / podcasts, surfing, TV remote, Remote login for work, Bible reading (I'm actually doing my one year through it now... I am not decided yet if I'm gonna jump back on the 'read the bible in 90 days' or slow down to do the 365 day play with Erin), and a bunch of other uses.

The major reason I wanted one is the condition of my 1st generation MacBook Pro. It's old and physically wearing down and it's hot as blazes. So i was hoping to save that for any video / web / creative work and keep it safe on the desk (away from my 2 year old) and use the ipad for my couch web surfing and content consumption. I'll be able to get a few more years out of my MacBook Pro if it's used gently.

So that's how I am trying to justify the iPad heh. I do love it and highly recommend it for those who want to read / watch / surf from the couch. I also think it makes a great tool for a student.

More to come on the iPad.

Catch up...

I'm going to be making a few, quick posts over the next few days for all of my zero followers out there. They will cover the range of topics from gadgets, apps I love, to my own personal life. So stay tuned.

Next series logo.

I had a hard time with coming up with a look/theme for this series. I wanted to stay as far away from trite 'marriage series' ideas. But when it all came down to the wire, I folded like a cheap metal chair. I scanned through istockphoto.com and found this couple laying on their backs, broken.

The roll-in idea is only slightly better. I decided to use clips from America's Funniest Home Videos of people drunk off their butt and falling over / saying stupid stuff with a version of "here comes the bride" performed by Queen. It's lighthearted and will serve the purpose.

Hopefully the addition of the type face here will add some impact to the dull background picture. Thoughts?

OK, it's time to get this blog up and running again.

qik

Life Resolution 0001

1. I will NOT be confined to a hovaround in public due to weight gain.

Wordpress 3.0

I upgraded to Wordpress 3.0. The main reason for the upgrade is that... it's Wordpress 3.0. Ya, a new version of any software is incentive for me to upgrade. But after my last upgrade my ability to upload pics and other media broke so i'm hoping that this will fix the issue. Let's give it a shot eh?

My First Vet Kit

Spazbro Test Podcast

[flv:http://spazbro.com/video/spazbro20100122final.flv 500 281]

This is a test podcast

Spazbro Podcast 0.1

Jimmy Fallon-Funny Dude

This week on American Idol, there was a 62 year old gentleman who sang a song of his own making entitled "Pants on the Ground". It lamented the state of youth style while keeping a jaunty street vibe (yes I'm being goofy here). It was hilarious. Well, Jimmy Fallon did a cover of the song as Neil Young.

Enjoy

LimaCC redesign.

It's that time again. Time for a redesign of LimaCC.com. Here's what I threw together tonight. I'm not at ALL saying this is the new design. OH no. I have a few people who are much better than I at graphic design. I'm just gonna throw out an idea or two as they will and then we'll all come together and put all the magic down in pixels. Tell me what you think.

Wheeling and Dealing can pay off

I've always been a huge fan of getting stuff for free. The barter system has treated me well yet again. I traded an old Apple Powerbook that had a funky screen and an even older iMac to a guy on craigslist for an xBox 360 that had a broken DVD drive. Both of us got exactly what we wanted. He wanted the macs to play with and get more familiar with OSX and I wanted the 360 to stream audio/video/tv from my Media Center PC.

We don't have cable at our house so my Media Center PC plays and records TV with a small HDTV antenna. Then through our home network we can watch that tv on an 360 live or recorded. Say what you will about Microsoft, but they really got the home theater pc and video distribution right.

This is the second craigslist trade I've done and I've been very happy with both. I know, I'm due for a horrible experience. But I'll keep doing my trades as long as my junk pile exists.

Reading the Bible in 90 days

I'm challenging myself to read the entire bible in 90 days. A friend asked why and how can I get anything out of it going that fast? Well I'm hoping to get some context. I've read through the Bible a couple of times. Normally, while doing that so much is going on with life that it's so easy to get distracted. So I'm hoping that I'll be able to get the whole scope of scripture passed before my eyes before I lose resolve. Only problem is that it is a ton of reading. But so far so good. 2 days: complete.

Jesse outdid himself yet again.