Sunday Morning Youth (Video)

Check out my morning at church.

The Fall Classic.

With only a few regular season games left in Major League Baseball, October is looking like it is going to be one interesting month. Can the Cubs reverse 'the curse of the black cat?' Will the Angels manage to stay hot through the post season? Can Joe Torrie really lead the Dodgers to a World Series? This is such a volatile time of year for clubs. So much can happen, almost everything is unpredictable, and as always a few great players will separate themselves from the rest. Get ready for October. Stay tuned for pictures of Steph and I enjoying the post season. This is the time of year I love being an Angel's fan.

Typical

At the Golf tournament I played in over the weekend I received this Del Taco 'My Macho Card.' All you do is show it when purchasing your combo and get it macho sized for free. To some people this might not seem to cool, but I am pretty excited about it at the moment. The strange part (or typical of me) part of the picture is right bellow my fast food large size card is my gym membership card. Which one do you think I will be using more?

Golf

Sorry about the photo quality. Saturday was awesome. Tom, myself, Steve, and my dad played in a local golf tournament. We all played great and had tons of fun.

She said "Yes!" (The Proposal)

On Monday I proposed to Stephanie at LAX (Los Angeles International Airport). Steph was in Ireland for two weeks so it allowed me the right amount of time to plan the perfect proposal. If your wondering about the pieced together video, I was a little to quick for the camera. Here are the details though. I made a sign, on one side it said 'welcome home Stephanie' and on the other 'will you marry me.' As she walked out of customs I was waving the sign on the 'welcome home side.' Once she was closer to me I flipped the sign over 'will you marry me.' Then pulled out the ring got down on my knee and said, "Stephanie will you marry me." She said, "Yes." Then everyone in the terminal cheered for a bit while we celebrated. It was amazing. Check back soon for pictures.

Sunday (I was sick)

I was sick over the weekend. Caleb spoke at our Sunday morning gathering. Check the short video he put together. Sorry about the lack of blogging I have been sick sense Thursday!

America's Got Talent: Extreme Dance FX (Semi Final)

Last night I watched Danielle and her dance team dance their hearts out. It was awesome. The judges were like "you rock." Danielle did great. So cool. I can't wait to do a video blog slash interview with Danielle about her time on 'America's Got Talent.'

Transitions: How to video

We were worried people would not know how to get to our Saturday night college gathering so we decided to make this video.

A Day with Dad (Boost Mobile Pro)

My dad loves checking out the boost mobile pro every year (so do I).

Kelly Slater loves winning the boost mobile pro.

Surfing like this will get you there every time.

Machado making it look easy. I would be happy if this was the only trick I had up my sleeve.

$2

Today at Starbucks I said here is my two dollars. Make me a drink. What I received happened to be one of the best beverages ever (or at least the best beverage I had all day). Here we go. It was a grande upside down iced caramel macchiato, light on the caramel and with four shots of espresso. Pretty good. Either way this beverage got me thinking about $2. When I was in high school I would get two dollars each day for lunch. I would normally get a meal in the cafeteria for $1.25 then spend the other $0.75 wildly. My other option was to not eat at school and then stop by Jack n' the Box on my way home. These days most students I know get $10 a day for lunch. I am sure you have had the same thoughts about money and we have all most certainly have heard are parents stories about spending a nickle on a candy bar. It's common to toss around thoughts on how people spend money. In your head you probably already have answers to my next few questions. What will $2 get you? What will $200 get you? What will $2,000 get you? If you received anyone of these amounts of money would you most likely still need more to help pay for something else? I am always basing my plans and life agenda around personal finances. I am just now starting to realize there will always be something to spend money on or bills that need to be paid. It's important that we don't let these barriers stand in the way of life.

Accept,
John

I was just thinking while drinking my overly caffeinated beverage and decided to share...

Sunday morning.

Right now its 8:14am. I arrived at church early to help unlock and setup.

Things I've done so far:
-Unlocked Buildings
-Turned lights on
-Took out trash
-Cleaned up a few things from church last night
-Made sure everything was good in the youth building (a/c, sound system, video stuff, etc.)
-Checked over today's message
-Drank my morning Venti Iced Mocha

Now I am going to walk around some more and wait for services to start at 8:45am.

Peace,
John

Kelly Slater's Head.

I was looking through some old photos and happened to stumble into this funny picture of me and the champ (more like me and the back of his head). I guess we felt awkward about asking for a picture with other guys around. Maybe next year.

I guess you can come (Transitions BBQ)

If you didn't get the invite. Here it is.

Life in the fast lane?

By no means am I up for a slashie award (you know; best youth pastor slash student). In the next few months I am definitely going to be challenged though. School and work with little time for anything else. That is were Del Taco comes into play. Dan's Deal or as it is now called 'Del's Deal' is a staple in my diet for one reason. A drink, taco, and two burritos for $2.99!

John

Out of state readers sorry about this taunting post about Del Taco (at least you have Steak and Shake?)

How to start a blog (continued): Youth Pastor, Youth Ministry, or whatever else you want to blog about...

My reader base consist of two groups for the most part. The first being people who are part or our church community. The second group is made up of other youth pastors surfing the web. I guess I have a third group as well, friends and others who find my strange life interesting (If you read my blog and blog yourself let me know!). These groups make up most of my 8,000 plus readers. Today's post is for bloggers or those looking to get into the blog world. 

In a past blog I listed out a step by step process on how to create a blog. In this post I want to shed light on some not so new but very powerful blogging software. 

I hope you can find out how to make a blog by now. If not just go to blogger.com and sign up. Recently I entered the world of wordpress 2.6 blogging software. It will take your blog to the next level and even allows you to easily import your prior blogs from blogger.

The Transitions Community blog I have been working on is a good example of wordpress 2.6. 

To start a wordpress software installation you need a domain name and hosting provider. I would recommend doing everything through GoDaddy because of the low-cost solutions they offer ($10 for 1yr domain and 3 months basic hosting), as well as excellent customer support. You can also control your domain and hosting information in the same place which I find convenient. 

I like wordpress because it offers total control over your blog, and to your site visitors it appears to be a standard static web site with a blog. If you are afraid of control panels and admin interfaces I would continue using blogger but if you feel like taking your blog to a whole new level look into wordpress 2.6 software installation. On the wordpress site you can find a full list of features.

Accept,

John Denton

Not trying to get you to change over just letting you know your options... (notice I am still on blogger)

Extreme Dance FX: America's Got Talent

I loved when they all jumped off the scaffolding. I was like 'oh man' I thought someone was going to get hurt. I think they might win. Make sure to vote for Danielle and her dance team.

Balboa Park and San Diego Zoo

Labor day. Steph was on vacation to begin with and I already have Mondays off. The day off was already a day off but we made the most of it regardless. We went to the San Diego Zoo. I liked the hippos and the polar bears. Then after walking through the zoo we headed over to the Natural History Museum and checked out Dinosaurs and other exhibits. Being the nerd I am, I was looking forward to seeing the 'Dead Sea Scrolls' only to learn they went off exhibit in January (so sad). Then we walked through balboa park. It was awesome. Good day.