Brian C. Russell

At my place of business, we have an office meeting just about every Thursday just before lunch, and I won’t lie, sometimes I don’t want to go.  Most of the time, after being there, I’m glad I went, but it’s right in the middle of my day and other excuses.

The thing is, that time is spent getting updates from the other teams and seeing what’s happening within our organization.  Which, as uncool as it may sound, turns out to be fairly inspiring most days.  Very much UNLIKE my four years at the HD where our store meetings were spent like a pep rally at a high school trying to “boost our confidence” in the company as if it were our life blood.  Remember that party in Office Space where they’re meeting the inquisitor people?  Yeah, that was a very muted version of the HD.

Did I mention that those meetings were at 6am on Sunday?  Everyone hated those meetings.  Everyone.

So maybe it’s that mentality that always clouds my view our our “Roundtable” meetings (which is completely misleading because there are no tables anywhere in that room for our meetings).  I’m not sure what it is, but it happened to me yesterday.  I dreaded going to this meeting.

Once I got there, we did our usual praise and worship time, and I wasn’t really feeling it, but sang along.  I’m okay with stuff like that.

But then, our boss, the US Director of Pioneers, Steve Richardson got up and began talking about something that made me rethink this meeting altogether.  He got up and said, “Do you realize that what we do is ‘worth it’?”

I sat there, thinking.  Yeah, I mean, I guess.  I can see that. Of course, comparing working at a missions organization to working at HD, of course I can see the difference.  But I wondered if I really knew how much it was worth it.

He then went on to describe a sermon that he had preached about missions and what God was doing all around the world through missionaries, and said that a few people came up to him after and thanked him.  One even said, “I’ve been giving to missions my whole life, and no one has ever told me that it was worth it.”

I’m not sure if you’re into missions.  I’m not sure if you give to missionaries.  But, you should know that it’s worth it.  God is moving all over the world.  From big cities with crime, drugs, violence and prostitution to huts in a jungle with spirits, magic, and darkness God is there.

In the book The Treasure Principle, Randy Alcorn says, “I’ve heard people say, ‘I want more of a heart for missions.’ I always respond, ‘Jesus tells you exactly how to get it. Put your money in missions—and in your church and the poor—and your heart will follow.’”

Recently, as my wife and I have been struggling with raising support for the ministry that my wife is involved with here at Pioneers (the EDGE - check it out!), we both got an itch to start giving back to missionaries that are out on the field, and like Alcorn says, “Suppose you’re giving to help African children with AIDS. When you see an article on the subject, you’re hooked. If you’re sending money to plant churches in India and an earthquake hits India, you watch the news and fervently pray…  As surely as the compass needle follows north, your heart will follow your treasure. Money leads; hearts follow.”

It’s totally true.  Before we began giving to the missionaries that we give to, even while working at a missions organization, I still wasn’t terribly into it.  I couldn’t explain it any better than Alcorn did.  If you want to see what God is doing throughout the world, then do it.  Join missions, go on a short term trip, or just start giving and praying for some missionaries.

There are plenty of ways to give and go.  I’ll plug Pioneers because I work here, but I also know of the great work that other organizations around the world are doing.  Here’s three that are all right down the road from me (including Pioneers).

Pioneers, Wycliffe, Campus Crusade for Christ

Well, what are you waiting for?

There’s something about Disney firework displays.  Just the sound of it makes you go, “Oh yeah.  That’s going to be awesome.”  Probably because it’s Disney and we all expect them to dump a ton of money into pretty much anything they’re doing (except with employees).  Right?

Well, let me just say that at the Magic Kingdom, it’s true.  The fireworks display is pretty darn awesome.  I wanted to take pictures of every firework.  But, there were way too many and the exposure would have been all defunct… Anyway, those fireworks are awesome.  The explosive action doesn’t stop until after the finale!  Just like a fireworks display should be…

However, Epcot apparently missed the tutorial on How to Properly Put on an Entertaining Fireworks Show because it was lacking in the fireworks and the entertainment; both of which are necessary for an Entertaining Fireworks Show…

Let me break it down for you (in case you’re on your way and your hopes are way UP HERE so that you know that the show is so down here…

They always say, lead and finish well, and what you do in-between is irrelevant.  This is what Epcot must have heard because the show starts off pretty cool.  (Mind you, this is from a male’s perspective.)  There’s some fireworks and a ROARING, EXPLOSIVE FIRE barge thing (which my wife thought was accidental, and that someone was being burned alive on…) (It wasn’t.) and that was pretty cool.  You could feel the flames from far away, and that’s always impressive for some reason.  Makes you think, “Boy, that’s a lot of fire.  Cool.”

But then… everything went away.  And there was darkness and Disney music.

Then, a big globe-shaped jumbo-tron screen starts spinning and CREEPING it’s way across the lagoon.  I’m trying to hold myself back from adding superfluous adverbs to “CREEPING” to show how slow it really was creeping for the sake of my writing critique group…  BUT IT WAS SOOOO SLOOOWWWW!!!!  (Meanwhile, an editor just fainted.)

Anyway, an hour later, when the globe thing finally made it to the center… it just kept spinning, showing picutres of… I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT OF BECAUSE IT WAS TOO FAR AWAY.

Then some more fireworks, not alot though, shot up and went bang, but by this time, I’m somewhere else in my mind.  Thinking about the best route to take to get to my car and gathering my energy to sprint through the crowds soon.  The globe opens and there’s a torch inside…  

Let me say that again.  The globe opens like a flower, and there’s a burning torch inside.  Like, the Olympic torch…  Let me be the first to say… LAAAAME.

Then some more fireworks went up quickly and that was the finale.  Ugh.  By that point there’s an announcer on the loudspeakers saying something, but being muffled by 1000’s of voices and cries of babies and commotion.  And the first thing my wife says is, “Well that wasn’t great.”

I need a t-shirt that says, “I watched the lousy fireworks show and all I got was this great shirt.”

BUT, of all the things the Epcot fireworks weren’t, it was still a great day to for my wife and I to celebrate our second anniversary!  (Which is today!)  Marriage is pretty great, and significantly outshines those fireworks!

Welcome to all new people and old readers!

I’m hoping that you all enjoy the new look for a new website.  I’d really like to incorporate all of my old fans of one blog that I retired and fuse them with my whole new outlook of the Internet and blogging.

I’ve had this idea for a while now (if you don’t believe me, just ask my wife!), and I’m glad to finally see it to fruition.  BUT, it wasn’t without it’s frustrations.

There’s a lot to be said about the awesomeness of the Wordpress software.  For instance, check out my website.  It’s pretty freakin’ sweet.  It’s got a fairly easy to follow administrator page and everything and it’s pretty simple for an amateur web-person, such as myself, to get the hang of it.  But, the nuances of such things as pHp coding language, MySQL databases and webhosting can be daunting if things aren’t going the right way…  Like say, you went with Windows hosting instead of Linux hosting.

When I signed up for said Windows hosting, I thought to myself, “Well, I’ve got Windows, so I guess that’s what I need.”  And, I’d like to tell everyone reading this right now, that’s not what that means.  Yeah, I hear you nerds out there!  Laugh it up!  I’m sure there’s someone else out there that doesn’t know what the heck that means!

But, I digress.  After much fighting and struggling, installing and uninstalling, kicking and screaming, and some phone calls to the hosting site… it’s okay.  All thanks to the GoDaddyGuy, who called me after another person basically told me I was SOL… and fixed everything.

Turns out that pHp is native to Linux, and therefore, works better than it does with Windows.  Go figure.

I’m sure there’s some of you out there that I lost a while ago.  Just be happy you weren’t me because I just got fed with fire hydrant of web terminology that I never knew before.  

Just enjoy the new sites and sounds of this new fandangled website.  What?  There’s no sounds?  Good.  There’s nothing more annoying than sounds on a website…

To recap:  This is my new website.  Hear me RAWR!

Have you ever just stared at your calendar, blinking widely at all the holidays that your job wasn’t giving you holiday pay or vacation for? There’s tons of them! Some are important and some are seemingly silly. The worst is when you have a calendar that shows you all the holidays that you’re missing by being in the U.S.! What about Boxing Day?

Anyway, I’ve put together a list of holidays that should be actually celebrated. Not just remembered. This is my Top 5 Nominally Celebrated Holidays, to date.

5.) April Fool’s Day
Seriously, there was nothing more fun than April Fool’s Day when you’re growing up. What? A day where pulling pranks on EVERYONE is okay? Where do I sign up? Why don’t we get to celebrate this on a much larger scale? Okay, so some companies do go all out on their pranks, and it’s hilarious, but it should be much more widespread. Google, Bioware, Bungie, Xbox and a other websites for things all had false information up, fake products, etc. Funny stuff. But why not a big display of an awesome new toy at Toy’s-R-Us and it’s just a bunch of boxes filled with rocks! Ha! April Fool’s!

4.) May Day Play Day
Okay, so I’m not sure if this one’s even on the calendars, but it’s so awesome! Does anyone else even remember May Day Play Day in elementary school? It was a day long extravaganza of elementary Olympic-style events like hula-hooping for the longest amount of time and track and field stuff, like wheel-barrow races! Potentially more fun than April Fool’s day if done correctly. Think about your work place taking part in a hula-hooping competition… got the image? Doesn’t that seem amazing?

3.) Columbus Day
I think everyone should dress up like a sailor on Columbus day and carry around a compass. Oh, and maybe a map. Spyglass is optional, but you’ll be looked down upon by the people that aren’t lame. Really. This could be awesome! What if we all had to talk in sea-faring lingo? “Ahoy, matey!” Yeah, I’m sure the period’s off, but the only boat movie I’ve seen in while was Pirates of the Caribbean…

2.) Halloween
We should all get the day off for Halloween. Everyone quit being so weird on Halloween. If you don’t want scary stuff for your kids, arrange a trunk or treat at your church with your friends and Sunday School classes. Everyone loves putting on costumes, and I’m sure if you don’t let people do it in a safe environment, it leads to oddities in their adult life…

1.) Martin Luther King Jr. Day
Everyone should get a marble cake and the day off! There should definitely be block parties and fun! In all seriousness, Martin Luther King Jr. has come to represent Human Rights in it’s entirety and it should be celebrated with fireworks and concerts! (Well, what holiday shouldn’t be celebrated by fireworks?)

So, to recap: There are plenty of holidays that we’re getting gypped out of! Let’s take them back and celebrate all of them! (or get paid time and a half for working it!) Oh, and happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day! Go shoot off some fireworks for me because I live in Florida where they don’t sell the good stuff!

What’s your favorite under-celebrated holidays and what would you do to celebrate them?

That’s right. You are not reading the title incorrectly. I’m questioning the big dropping ball in New York City.

Why in the world do we celebrate the New Year by New York’s ball dropping? Why do we go about our whole year and then watch a ball slowly slide down a pole and light up?

Aside from the fact that no one sits there and watches when this sort of thing happens to little boys, what’s the big deal with this celebration? Frankly, I’m not going to look it up. I’m sure there’s some special meaning in that ball, but I don’t really care.

I’m tired of watching a ball drop for New Year’s Eve. Who cares if it’s only using as much energy as a refrigerator? It cost $5 million! It could use a combination of solar and wind power and glow like the moon on a good day, who cares?

How many people drinking in Times Square really want to hear the Jonas Brothers? Who are the Jonas Brothers? I don’t know nor do I actually care, suffice to say that they aren’t very good. But hey, who am I to judge right? Just an average guy who doesn’t even understand the ball dropping.

Leaving out the prepubescent humor that I find in America’s ball dropping, I’m also pissed that we don’t get awesome shows like lots of other places do. What do we get, a big $5 million ball that gently sets down for a landing on in NY and confetti is sprayed all over the city? As if NYC wasn’t dirty enough…

They showed afterwards the celebrations that went on before ours around the world and I believe that England and Australia are kicking our butts to the max. Did you see the fireworks display from Australia? It was so awesome! Russia… was a different story. They had fireworks, which are better than confetti and a ball, but it was sad in comparison to the other displays.

Why can’t we do a ridiculous fireworks display to put every country to shame? Disney shoots off some of the most impressive shows every single night. Contract them out to do it! Combine forces with all the pyrotechnics that we have in Hollywood and Disney and put on a show that will make other countries’ balls drop.

The other thing is that all the other countries go first. So, if we see what they’re doing a few hours before… we have time to ramp it up! Let’s go America! For a country that gets the profile of being trigger happy with our bombs, we are seriously lacking in the explosions on New Year’s Eve.

Fireworks too expensive? Then save up your building demolitions for that day! Come on! You can’t tell me that they aren’t charging people to be out in Times Square that night! I won’t believe it! They’re at least making profit off of the stupid balloons and hats and fingers and beer and champagne!

Either way, are we really going to let Australia, England and Russia show us up? Since when!?

To recap: I think America is well past puberty and such in it’s aging and I think it’s about time that Uncle Sam let us come over to his house to blow some crap up. Don’t you?