Happy Halloween!

Stretch Sketched

(Cross-posted to YouVersion.com)

Stretch Sketched (Message #1 of s t r e t c h)
Sunday, Oct. 9, 2011. Pastor Jeff MacLurg, Our Savior's Baptist Church, Federal Way, Wash.; www.oursaviorsbaptist.org (My notes from the 9 and 10:45 am
services, I pray they will be useful for you.)

What is "s t r e t c h"? (Philippians 3:10-17)

--- About Stretching ---

static - hold a stretch until your muscle screams - especially good part-way and after exercising. At least 20 seconds.
active - stretching and unstretching repeatedly. Strengthens and lengthens muscles.

Stretching prevents injury, increases blood flow, amplifies your exercise benefits. You will be healthier and you will feel better. Even if you only stretch, even if you don't do any other exercise.

--- About Spiritual Stretching ---

- It prepares you TO DO what you really want TO DO.

It trains you and involves you in things you want to do (in some cases, you may not yet realize you want to - kind of like me and running. I never realized I liked it and still dread it sometimes, but I usually enjoy it while I'm out there doing it.)

How Not to Sell a Car

So when you build a Hyundai online, the price is displayed in the top right corner. (The red box is mine.)

Anyhow, as you select options, the price changes with a flourish.  Since they start you at the base level, you're constantly pushing the price up as you add radio, doors, tires, etc.

So this little flourish, which looks great when telling you how much you've won at a slot machine is actually quite annoying when the price is ticking up by two or three-thousand each time you click another option.

It's almost as if they're jovial that they're about to get more money from you every time you add something else.

I think it should be a very subtle adjustment and not call attention to itself.

The Sift 296-300

The Sift 296: Amazon

• Amazon lockers come to NYC, no more getting caught by UPS in your PJs
• Amazon Lets You Manage Your Print Magazine Subscriptions
• Kindle Touch Disables 3G Web Browsing
• Californians Get Another Year of Tax-Free Purchases from Amazon
• Ad-supported Kindle 4 has built-in $30 "upgrade", gets rid of embedded special offers

Read more...

---

The Sift 297: Cars

• DeLorean DMC-12 EV announced for 2013 production, Doc Brown's whip gets real... electric
• Waze 3.0 brings foursquare searching
• Peugeot’s Future Car is Called "World’s First Diesel Hybrid"
• U.S. Army Could Replace the Humvee with the Diesel Hybrid L-ATV
• Consider an Auto Auction for a Great Deal on a Used Car

500 in 300: Running Up the Numbers

This isn't good.  Life has continued fight against me in terms of my getting out there and running.

I'm still ahead, but I've slipped even a little more.

Yesterday was day 77 and I've reached 142.34 miles.  I only needed to reach 128.33, so if I don't run again until 11/2, I'm still ahead.   It's hard to believe, however, that I still have 357 miles to go.

Let's Get Intentional (A Work-Related Post)

I've joked at work that we need fewer sign-makers and more microwave repair requestors.  Because you know what I think of signs and what I think of signs.

There is definitely an epidemic of microwave failures at work.  Probably at least 4 out of 9 are dead right now.

But as I looked at them today I was struck by a different thought.  When are they going to fix them?  Have they called someone?  Or do they just want us to buy hot food from the cafeteria and stop bringing our own lunches from home?

It's quite possible that we could come in tomorrow and see 4 new microwaves.  Or a guy with a screwdriver in his mouth murmuring to himself as he dissects them all.

But expectations are not being managed.

What if the signs said "Out of Order - Replacement on Order - Scheduled for Oct. 27 Delivery"?

What if every time you made a promise, you were specific?  You had to commit.  No empty promises.

"I'll give you a call *tomorrow before noon.*" 

"I'll look into that get back to you *no later than Friday.*" 

"We should definitely do lunch.  I'll send you a meeting invite *as soon as I get back to my desk.*" 

"We will get that fixed.  We will send a status update *every 2 hours until it's fixed.*"

Stop Me If You've Heard This One

So... yeah... my car's dead.  Not completely.  But it wouldn't start.  I think it's at Midas, but I'm not sure.  This evening, the tow truck came and carefully extricated it from our driveway.  Almost no scraping whatsoever, very impressive considering that crazy annoying driveway and street of ours.

And then the tow truck took off and I followed it down the street until it made the turn and I got stuck waiting for a lot of cross-traffic.   And then a few blocks later, they made a weird turn.  I figured they were just lost, so I pulled over and waited for awhile.   But they never reappeared, so I figured they looped around and went back the other way down a side-street.  It made sense, it would mean no u-turn at a median if they went that way instead of the way they had started.

So I looped around, looked, didn't see them, looped around and headed to Midas.  I got the paperwork started, and then I waited.  And waited.  And waited.  Finally, the phone rang.  The tow truck had broken down.  Again... THE TOW TRUCK BROKE DOWN.

So a new tow truck was coming and then they'd bring it on to Midas.  I said I was going to head home and they agreed to drop the keys in the drop box.   So, yeah, hopefully my car is at Midas.

I'm pretty sure it's not going to be cheap.  We have a cut-off.  If the cost is more than that amount then we're declining, paying to have it towed home and buying a new car.  I hope it doesn't come to that.  Because I am nowhere near ready to buy a new car, if you remember how long it took me to pick a cell phone.

(Of course, as was confirmed in Cars 2, there's no way this would happen to Mater. © Disney/Pixar.)