Hit the Back Button to Move Fwd by Gavin Richardson

bringing back the blog : an idea for the future

i basically took the month of june off from blogging, in case you didn't notice.. part was work induced, part was family induced, mostly though, i needed to take a break & figure out how to come back to blogging and feel good about it.

i figured to come back july 1st.. oh well.

the new ideas to the blog, will be to integrate more video commentary & teaching into my postings. this will mean less posting (which probably should have happened years ago), but hopefully a broader sharing of thoughts in not just the written medium but branching into video. we'll see how that goes. my goal is to integrate one to two postings a week in that format.

another spot too, as fillers to commentary, is to put in more practical looks into youth ministry & technology. its my calling & i've strayed way too far from it in the past few years getting caught up in some big church things. i still love the big church stuff, but i've been narrowing my 'responsibilities' and helping to distribute talents to some of the networks i've developed over these last 15 years of ministry so to tend to my flock God blessed me with more fully.

i might fall off what stool i was on in the big church landscape, but that is totally cool & totally necessary. not really sure how i got there in the first place, probably my own pride & ambition. regardless, i'm feeling really good going into this new phase of ministry & how to share it with others.

looking forward to reconnecting with you all again soon.

shalom

-gav

long time no post : i do have a plan

hey all, as you can see i've been sort of on a blogging hiatus. a few things seem to have brought this on.

• i've been increasingly asked to do projects (and asked to be a part of a few) that are taking up what blog time i've had.
• church life (for which pays my bills) has been blessed with some great growth & renewal opportunities. the opportunities need a great amount of attention.
• family life, erin & i are expecting child (if you hadn't already heard) and some of the prep stuff for that is adding on
• i want to be a lawn master! when i was a kid i mowed the lawn.. now i am now trying to figure out how to grown lawn & flower beds & all the extras. i figure i can start to live out loving neighbor by having a kickin lawn. not to mention i get to see & chat with all the neighbor folks when i'm outside. its a good thing
• i've been twittering, probably a bit too much that is arguable, which has been a lot of my commentary and conversations in social media spectrum.
• i am playing more golf. more on that later. but its a good thing for me... well, when i play okay. somedays are just bad.
• there is probably more, but this seems a sufficient list.

with all this, i'm not killing or shutting down my blog. with the time away i have a new vision for trying to take this medium and use it to its fullest. i won't reveal the whole plan, but i will resurge again with posting regularly, but not daily. personal stuff is going to move over to our family site and i am going to devote this space to the projects, ideas, training, etc that i am becoming a part of.

God has really blessed me with some excellent understandings, some name recognition, and a the coolest community of people to associate with. so i cannot see a reason to not be a part of the methoblogosphere & cyber communities. thanks for hanging with me

shalom
-gav

not a bad view : still on vacation

this is our little walk out view from my room in saint michael's maryland. here for my cousin anton's wedding. apparently where the ceremony is at the house featured in wedding crashers. is that prophetic in some way?

monday music : my uncool favorite song

there is something about josh joplin that i really love. he's only had one marketable hit, but then again, the grateful dead only had one top hit song too.. anyways, i just love his obscure song "i am not the only cowboy." if i had to guess why, its resonates with me lyrically. i like the white boy psuedo rap stuff cause i might actually be able to pull that off. note: he does a lot of talking & joking before this song actually starts, ffwd to about a minute & half in.

 

blogging towards enlightenment : discovering your virtual self

i've been doing some guest postings over at matt cheuvront's 'life without pants' blog talking up spirituality and social media. last week we talked about enlightenment & blogging today we are talking about discovering your virtual self.

got check them out, let me know what you think. lay claim to some of the stories & expand on them. did i mention that my latest posting i actually use capitalization? yeah, it was wreaking havoc on matt post editing

introducing pellet : who happens to be doing bi-cept curls

Pellet doing Bi-cept curls

i have posted this one facebook & twitter, but for my solo blog readers i am happy to introduce you to "pellet" who will be joining our family in september.. well, i suppose pellet has already joined the family as they've made quite the impact on wifey.

we have named you pellet cause we were tired of trying to say he/she before any reference of you. even though you are now the size of a chicken tender that's been half eaten we're still stuck on the name pellet.

view some of the first pictures of pellet from thursdays ultrasound.

archie carver jr. : may you rest in peace

this morning i received word that one of my dads, archie carver jr., passed away after his long battle with liver cancer. he didn't talk about his cancer battle much, but i believe this was his third onset that he had to take on treatment for. he passed away this morning, march 9th, 2009, around 8:30am with friends and family with him.

i will alway remember archie jr. for his quiet michievous-ness about him. in the big crowds of friends we'd find ourselves in at church he'd be the quiet one with this sneaky smile on him. telling jokes in his head, laughing at the rest of us trying one up each other,.. i'm not really sure, but that smile was always there. i know he wasn't always the quiet one, but i'll always see that face, that michievous smile and i'll smile myself.

archie was beloved by his friends. he was an active part of the cancer society in hendersonville, and many joined the cause on his behalf. last years relay for life was held in his honor as a survivor even. he was getting treatment in tulsa for the last 6 or so months. as is liver deteriorated and prognosis became grim a number of their friends left for tulsa to be at his & terri (archie's wife) side. yesterday his sunday school, at first united methodist, class spent the whole hour plus in prayer for their friend. they joked it would have been archie's favorite class to spend it in prayer without any real lesson.

you will be sorely missed in our church family archie. take rest & hope that you have been a part of something special in your friends & family. your children are wonderful extensions of yourself and terri, tiffani, archie III, and william.

may the Lord Bless you and Keep You. may he Heal you and Hold you. may he allow you to help cook some great eats for that communion of saints. until we meet again. shalom

update:

visitation is set on thursday, march 12th from 1-2pm, with celebration service beginning at 2pm and food afterwards, at hendersonville first united methodist church.

just call me daddy : then pray for said child

excited to report that erin is pregnant and we are going to welcome our first addition to this richardson family since we got married (the two dogs are from dating years).

it's scary to think that i'm going to be a dad..

we are just now telling folks. "pellet" as i like to refer to the child is only 11 weeks along (he/she is actually larger than a pellet, but i still like pellet as a name). pellet will join our crazy clan in the middle of september if all goes as planned. till then, erin has her good days and bad days. we're figuring out what odd diet stuff she craves. so far, nothing way off the ordinary. i'd give her a few more weeks.

thanks for all the well wishes! shalom

podcamp nashville : in the news

newschannel 5 did a quick segment on our 'so called' unconference. i didn't get show, which i thought i might as the camera seemed to sneak up behind me. but it did show buddy john ellis giving his presentation on all things new with google..

monday music : its a landslide

a little tip to jen lemen for weekend reminder of this haunting gem that i just love. at one point i was close to being able to play this song on guitar..

credit crisis in nutshell : modern economics that i can understand

one of the simpler explanations to the economic crisis that knucklehead like myself can understand. tip lifehacker


The Crisis of Credit Visualized from Jonathan Jarvis on Vimeo.

crazy or stupid : something to see to believe

i've been familiar with ice climbing before. when i was regularly going rock climbing & working at rei the idea of ice climbing was way cool, but being in an area that it rarely gets below freezing for more than two days straight it is not something i ever imagined doing myself. now i don't think i could ever imagine climbing iceburgs, but it sure is cool to know people try.

tip to espn

swimming with the characters of nashville : the polar plunge

Originally uploaded by gavoweb.

participated in the polar plunge today as fundraiser for special olympics. it was supposed to be a mission thing we were doing as part of our senior dudes small group. but it ended up just being us adult leaders as our youth wigged out, forgot to get out of work, or had some state hockey tournament.. all very lame excuses if you ask me.

todd's daughter, bailey, was our photographer for the day. so hopefully i can share some other pictures.

immersing in the new media : what has happened to my blogging

i regularly called blogging my spiritual practice. it was a way of reflecting on some idea or challenge that came across in my day. however, if i was honest with myself, the 'spiritual' aspect of my blogging practice was waining. very few times did i really have some thought that was challenging on a daily basis. instead, and probably more healthy as a practice, i was pondering something for weeks or months at a time. but that doesn't help in keeping an active blog going. so i have been feeling like i was putting in a bunch of filler stuff.

well, some of that filler stuff (which i do think was good most of the time, admittedly not all the time) is moving around to other avenues, along with some of my other ponderings. i am more and more using twitter as a way of crossing the town green, sharing prayers, information, links and photos from my day etc. i have also taken advantage of posting within facebook.

i've started to reshape my blog to reflect this change. putting all my lifestream stuff through friendfeed and showing it off on the side bar. i also created a lifestream page that is more expanded.

tricky part to all of this is that there is not a searchable long tail in twitter content. its probably a good thing as i am not sure i want to find 140 character snippets for the first page of all my searches. so what is worthy of sharing for the long term? i'm still trying to figure that one out.

look back into the past : the things that were about this time years ago

in my on going toss out of lifting up some of the archives of this blog from similar time period over the years.

• i jumped in on some oovoo conversations with marketing & tech type people (pretty sure i was the only youth minister participating in the event). that was fun, but oovoo hasn't taken off. tokbox seems to be the next multi person video conference center.
• some ponderings from the desert fathers & mothers on parenting & youth ministry
• everyone can use some new 'faith filled' pick up lines
• an early morning reflection on the homeless in my city
• remember when the nfl was going to sue churches if you had a super bowl party.. seems they have learned from that pr nightmare
• i was again likened to a celebrity.. well, he wasn't so much celebrity then, he's more now
• church shopping & the devices of the entertaining church
• i took the strengths profile test that our church is big proponent of. can you guess what i came out as?
• my abbey journal kept while on retreat at gethsemani. good times, need to get back soon.
• in what is the only time you see capital letters use consistently, my pastor michael williams guest blogged on the theological conversation with miroslav volf
• this is what happens when you are friends with jonathon norman
• thoughts on how justice issues can become an idol unto themselves
• some ponderings on contemporary worship in my church context & how our greater church sold their soul to contemporary worship
• starbucks goes down!

warmth in winter : glimpse into a retreat

this is partially a mobile test post

This is a pic of a core part of our design team for warmth in winter jumping around dancing at the end if another great retreat. they worked harder than ever before to make this one happen and it turned out great. view more photos at our conference flickr & my own flickr set.

lost generation : coolest thing on

this might be one of the coolest, and most truth telling things i've seen on youtbue in a long time. its not long & you must watch the whole thing to get the impact. no, some lame scary person isn't going to jump up at the end (i didn't tell you to turn up your speakers did i?). tip comes from family friend meredith who sent to wifey erin (not sure what it takes to get on meredith's email list but)

gavoweb poll : closing out a college season

as with everyone i know, i have an opinion on the rankings of college football. the things i get burned up about is the 80s/90s loyalty the experts have for undefeated teams, but then will swing around and say someone else is the best, but not put it into the polls. if you think someone is the best, show it by where you would put your money on betting for them. now, i'm not saying gamble, well maybe.. but put your commitment (and being honest, money is most peoples primary symbol of commitment) on the team you think is best and stick with them. so here is my rankings & i welcome your critique.

1. Florida : i just can't bet against them. they beat my tide too
2. Southern California : they are good, always have been they just get lost in who they are and slip up, but i'll bet on them anytime in a big game, except against florida
3. Texas : they seem to be balanced & play tough, beat OU soundly and only hit a perfect storm of TT to stumble. i like Colt McCoy
4. Utah : i wouldn't have bet on them till after sugar both, but i will now. their coaching can win them a big game.
5. Alabama : bama it tough and has a power game & defense that i will still back up
6. Oklahoma : they proved there isn't much defense in the Big 12, but they are still a threat. if they can get a jump on you, you are done. which could put them past the tide, but i'm betting on the tide.
7. after that i am betting on a sec team.. maybe even vanderbilt after this year.

update: ap & coaches polls are now out. ap gives props to utah, coaches poll surprisingly, is almost identical to mine.

congress on evangelism : making friends

congress on evangelism '09
Originally uploaded by gavoweb.

last night kicked off the 2009 congress on evangelism. it is here in nashville after being here about four years ago. i like the congress, not for the content, though some of it is very good, but the networking here is a lot of fun. i get out and meet a lot of people who are not in my regular circles.

last night i spent the evening in conversation with some of the boy from church of resurrection & the foundation talking techie geek stuff, but it was fun to finally, finally meet my long time blogger buddy wayne cook of tnrambler fame. i would visit his blog as i bet he will be doing some good recaps of the event. got to say hey to amy forbus who is all over the place cause she is so popular.

jay has some spurred thoughts on connectionalism from our evening together.

today i will be cleaning our house a bit then heading over to the conference again. come say hi to me

the purple church : reaching the early adopters

i was pondering my earlier post about how my church misses the mark in some of these marketing attempts things and getting their message (which i believe to be good) to the mass. i felt sorta bad because i made a critique without any real suggestion, something i am prone to do (and be done too). so what is a piece of advice or starting point in suggesting to my tribe church & its general agencies which are charged with supporting it?

i came back to thinking of seth godin & his purple cow. as he mentions the purple cow in this ted talk, stop trying to focus your energies on these broad based middle audiences. look for the early adopters to get your message to & inspire them to tell others. i liked the videos created, so i share it, and the viewership spreads from there.

not that i am the earliest adopter, but i do consider myself an early adopter. i am interested and listening to what my church has to say and putting out. i have google news feeds on my church (as i am sure others do as well) to tell me happenings in the world. i pay attention to technology & art and how it is being used in our church. i've used resources in my ministry work that has taken root in the mainstream of my church and conference. five years ago when jonathon and i started doing prayer station worship it was new, fresh, 'remarkable' for our context. today our youth & youth leaders are well versed it and have contributed to published books and articles.

one thing with the early adopters, it is a small demographic and those folks don't take as much money to communicate with as a mass audience. as the open hearts open minds igniting ministry campaign put out with how many millions of dollars? yet our church has continued to decline. imagine instead of getting people who watch 24 hour news (the only time i saw the commercials was on cnn) you reached out to a core enthusiastic audience who cares about the church and what new can happen. as godin mention's the steve jobs keynote, a general board can do an open meeting free to anyone who has a internet connection and microphone (and video camera too to see folks) via www.tokbox.com. content could be the newest ideas, what is happening in the local areas & around the world, who knows. it costs you nothing but your time to do it. millions can then be invested in to user generated ministries & missions that people can talk up with passion instead of a tired tv campaign.

those are some first thoughts. i hope this helps you be remarkable.

year that was 2008 : year that will be 2009

we are upon a new year. as is the customary we all look back at what 2008 was for us and what 2009 we hope to be. so, what happened in 2008? well...

• we introduced Eikon, our artistic communities, to our youth & church community. we expanded to have a writing and improv group this fall to add onto our photography groups. my hope is to take the failing game room and turn it into a studio room for visual arts.
• my goddaughter Madalyn Rose Richardson was born in march. we are all super pleased & it was fun to be there to take photos and play. luckily she looks a lot like her mother.
• our conference terminated the children's and youth ministries positions at the conference staff level. this was a sudden surprise and being the conference youth coordinator i was a portal for much frustration. this was a stressful time for erin & myself. lots of energy and prayer went into conversations and plans. in the end we actually improved our standings by establishing a fulltime youth & young adult person. but it didn't resolve the hurt from poor decisions and poor communication.
• nt wright came to nashville as part of his 'surprised by hope' book tour. it was amazing to see the array of people who came out. it was a fun time for erin and i to be geek theologians for the night together. we also had a good time with thunder & emily afterwards tasting some new brews.
• general conference happened this year in my united methodist church tribe. cool experience for that was going totally add and watching in second life with a bunch of other church nerds. it was actually quite helpful to keep up and have others explain 'what the hell just happened?' kind of stuff.
• i finished up our conference's youth ministry institute 2. it was a great experience. i graduated from youth ministry institute one some years back so getting around a bunch of youth leaders again and talking some serious shop was good fun.
• jason & i went to willow creek for shift conference. i was on invite from the willow folks and was happy to take up their hospitality. maybe they will ask me back to take photos for them as they are still using them for their promo stuff.
• the summer came and went with missions experiences and other trips, not to mention vbs. i was really tired at the end of this summer. i think i am still tired from the summer.
• took a great vacation with my family to fort morgan alabama. it was a great week. perfect place, perfectly on the beach. did the labor day weekend house boat trip with erin's fam. milestone of this trip, her dad and i went to play golf and i broke into the 70's. first time since early college days, 10 plus years, i have done that (i basically gave up golf after tanking & not making alabama's golf team).
• i got a pedicure.. the first for me & for someone who wears flip flops year round, probably something i should do again.
• my alama mater, the university of alabama, made its resurgence back onto the college football landscape. hate to say it but i really do have an emotional tie in with my bama football and it was a great fall.
• we finished out 3rd phase of our reminagining the youth lounge project. this was the intensive and highest impacting phase. the youth and the church are well pleased with how it turned out and seeing that we didn't stray from the original plan the youth devised some 2 years prior i'd say our discernment process that went into it had a bunch of God written onto it.
• the phillies won the world series.. i'm still thinking that was a dream.
• erin & i took an excursion out to albuquerque for the christian educators fellowship conference. i was teaching a series of technology & social media workshops. 
• my adoptive little brother (i am the adopted oldest son of the piper family), andy piper and his sister becky, opened up pied piper eatery. we are really excited for them & the restaraunt is doing really well.
• last big thing, i got asked to be on the board for the united methodist reporter communications. i'm pretty stoked about this one.. actually really stoked. they were also so kind to have me as a special commentator. 
• the only other thing, which will lead into 2009, erin & i started actively trying to have kids. so far, nothing to report which is okay, we are still just a few months into giving this a go.

so we get into 2009

• want to have a little richardson of our own.
• i hope to get into better shape. would like to loose like 50lbs. i lost like 20 over '08, but i think i gained most of it back as i never started a work our regiment.
• i want to finish more books this year. last year i started more books that i didn't, or am still trying to, finish.
• buy less stuff. this goes for me personally and professionally. one our church is in a budget crunch, so its necessary, but for ecology reasons.
• put together some long standing high impact projects. i've got some stuff in the works already that i hope will be some real impacts on church, community, and family.
• deepen 5 relationships a month. this might be a dinner/lunch conversation or doing something energetic.
• get outdoors. part of loosing weight is so i can fit back into my rock climbing harness (safely), so i don't have to "buy" a new one, and give us an old/new thing to do with our free time. also want to try out 2 new caves. this i'll have to do with my brother, erin doesn't like the caves.
• write more.. this might be an ebook, paper book, bunch of articles, or all the above. i want to take all these thoughts and put them into some framework to share with the world.
• take an extended retreat to a monastery. its been 2 years since i did my last extended retreat. i feel due.
• downsize the stuff of our life.. literal stuff and calendar stuff. i did better in 2008 than in prior years. the thing i didn't do well is that i stacked stuff, so i had spurts of many things.
• find a rhythm to my spiritual life. being a youth minister is tough, so many odd hours and demands of time & energy. i seek to find rhythm to life
• did i mention grow the family? yeah, that will be a big one and will probably reframe just about everything else on this list.

i wish & pray the best for you my friends in 2009.
shalom
-gavi

unto us a child is born : its all the talk

merry christmas all! i hope this day brings great joy to you.

in participating in service last night i was pondering the birth of Christ through the book of Saint Luke.

i got this imagery of joseph & the shepherd guys telling stories and jabbering on about this birth of a boy. the image was this photo of my brother when our newest richardson, baby madalyn, was born.

shawn & i at one time (many years ago) were both emt's and had been trained in emergency deliveries. madalyn's wasn't an emergency, but the doctors asked shawn if he wanted to catch her. shawn quickly jumped in on that and he was happy to tell us about how it all went down.

i can imagine joseph and the shepherd guys jabbering on about how cool this was.

"yeah, so you wouldn't imagine it.. i had these dreams.. we made this huge trek.. then mary.. i had to figure something out so i improvised, pulling a mcguyver to find a cradle and some shelter.. figured who would bother us out here. all the good places were taken."

jesus drafted my fantasay football team : complete silliness

i used to do the year round fantasy stuff, nfl & baseball being my primary leagues. i even did some hockey and golf. i gave all that up and now focus on one nfl fantasy team with my sunday school class fellas. not sure what to name myself i called myself 'shalom prophet'.. not quite sure why, but it's been a lot of fun claiming that God tells me who to draft or start. this wasn't my best year statistically (though i did have michael turner on my team, Jesus told me he'd be good) but i still managed to get to the championship game again. again though, i lost. my counterpart jim, who was my whipping boy sent me this video as the secret to his success.

the richardson clan : my girls

Originally uploaded by gavoweb.

two of my girls on saturday hiking the narrows of harpeth. not much of a hike, length wise, but the top of the bluff is quite a vertical climb. erin you recognize. the old gal is coe (co-ee). she's been with me for over 11 years now. ain't they good lookin?

three year anniversary : confused, but she still said 'sure'

oh, it was just three years ago this day that i got down on a knee in front of erin's family & some of my own plus a few best friends and asked her to marry me. she was way confused by the whole "operation marriage proposal," but she did agree to marry me. life had been wonderful since erin agreed to go out with me some three years prior, so i was excited that she would go along with my plan to continue the fun. Love Ya Wifey! thanks for saying "sure"

charity vs justice : her name is heather

two weeks ago we had adam, who is an understudy to our senior pastor, come and share with our youth his experience as a us-2 missionary and his passion for social justice issues.

one thing that adam said to the kids, that convicted my soul was how he saw charity vs justice. charity as he saw it was alleviating the short term problem or taking care of an immediate need, justice was finding out the reason for the problem and doing something to prevent it. i am a good person, with a load of compassion (that might get me in trouble sometimes). my heart breaks, for people in need, but asking myself what i have done for helping alleviate the problems or system that makes that need ever present i have to say i'm a failure. now, adam did go on to say acts of charity are good and do help, but for me i don't want to ignore a problem..

so i then drove down to nashville to meet up with folks from the national youth workers convention for a twitter meet up. as i parked in my special locals parking (my secret) i walked out of a garage and saw her... i didn't know her name, i just knew one thing about her, she was/is homeless... she was asking someone for money and i thought 'what to do here'.. i was going to have to walk past her. i could do some of the rhetoric i've gone through in the past asking questions to make sure they know where help is (the rescue mission, room in the inn, the soup kitchens in the neighborhood).. i could say i don't have anything, when i know, i have plenty.

i walked up to her, i looked at her, she started her story. "hi there sir..." and on she went. i looked at her, asked "what is your name?" "heather" she said. "what can i help with?" she just asked for food. so i asked her to walk with me. she waited outside the convention center (her insistence) and i bought some food for her for that moment and something she could hold onto for later. i brought it out to her, she thanked me, i just said you are welcome and said something like 'bless you & hope this helps.'

i walked from that park bench to the old spaghetti factory some three blocks away pondering what i had just done. was i dupped? maybe.. was it the right thing to do? maybe.. was it charity? surely.. was it justice? i cannot say that it was.

ariah posted this video and it had me thinking again of this moment.. justice is so involved. do i have the place in my life that i can truly participate in, develop, or find a home in social justice to ignite a passion? its funny being in ministry it sometimes seems counter intuitive to actually be in ministry. this video though gave me much to think about. brought to us from effective stewardship

i was encouraged to see others of my youth ministry colleagues taking care of heather and others of our nashville homeless population.

what is your charity? and what is the justice you seek out?

life of the blog : this week in retrospect

as i am doing every now and then, during this 4th year anniversary of ye' ole' blog i'm pulling out some posts that are significant to me for some reason.

• part of me is that i am an ambitious slacker..
• had an advent district worship service where we did prayer stations, choir of angels was my fav
• i began pondering the brilliance of henri nouwen's "clowning in rome"
• still one of my favorite morning prayers
• i wasn't then & i am still not, a fan of the war metaphor in youth ministry

daily prayer txt : sharing in my advent chronicles

i am opening up my daily prayers to be shared with all who wish to be a part. what i've done, and am going to do, is send out a txt msg, once a day (usually in the mornings) with some part of my daily prayers through the rest of advent that spoke to me. could be a scripture, could be a quote, could be some names i am lifting up.. who knows. you don't have to respond back unless you want, but i share this as maybe this will be uplifting to you and a deeper meditation for me.

sign up to be a part of my daily prayers via text message

bcs is my friend : whats wrong with college football rankings

my buddy thomas is a texas fan is rather upset by the latest fun from the bowl championship series rankings that put his longhorns out of the big 12 championship game and likely out of the national championship. i have my own strong opinions which i got into rant mode. figured i'd share them here. if you can't read between my sarcasm and serious thoughts just ask or take me to task.

i'm with you thomas as a bama grad. texas should be in the game. its painfully obvious how swaying the polls are to the whims of what happened last weekend.

if texas was on the primetime tv last saturday and showed no defense and scored 60 points against another team who had no defense then they would have held onto their 1st place standing in the b12 south by keeping ahead in the bcs.

as history goes, the media loves oklahoma and what have they done in championship games? generally they tank with only one national championship win (seven years ago). they are even the great team that lost to a non-bcs conference.

texas when they got a shot only beat the, at the time before kick-off, the 'team of the century' as the pundits were calling usc. let it be known that the big 12 is 6-8 in bcs bowl games, four of those losses come via oklahoma, i anticipate another one coming. texas is 2-0 in their shot at bcs bowl games.

i don't know why they don't consider tradition, it doesn't leave from weekend to weekend. the team you thought was so great one weekend shouldn't just fall away the next, just as one you didn't think was as good as another doesn't just leap ahead of the other this late in the season.

plus an offense cannot win a championship. the colts never did till they sured up their offense. the '92 miami hurricanes got throttled when they met the alabama defense. no one gave the ravens much of a chance with dilfer, but how'd that turn out? i have no confidence in a team that cannot stop another team from scoring.

okay, that feels like sufficient rant. texas got hosed because our pundits are more into fads than they are into sustainability and sound teams. they love the quarterback, or the single person talent on a team, over the offensive and defensive lines.

note: i am glad they still hold fast to the undefeated being number one, bama gets no respect for being undefeated except that as tradition goes an undefeated team gets default number 1 status. it pissed me off when ohio state got there with slow teams in the past, but it's proving helpful for my team this year.

all that said. bama beats florida in a close one that almost gives me a heart attack. then rolls on to beat oklahoma by hitting sam bradford into the chin and pushing their o-line back and stumping their wide-outs with an awesome secondary. or florida wins and beats oklahoma and scores more points than bo jackson in techmo

iron bowl 2008 : let the games begin

Originally uploaded by erictwright.

today is, my prayer & hope, the end of the line for auburn's winning streak against my beloved crimson tide. not much more to say except, let's play some football.

Roooolll Tide Roll!

east nashville eats : pied piper eatery

some time back i shared of my friend jenny who opened up pied piper creamery. entreprenuership, or an inability to work for someone, runs in the family. now my andy, my little adoptive brother (he was 12 when i first started hanging with him) has opened up his own restaurant, pied piper eatery on 1601 riverside drive, nashville, tn 37216 with his sister becky. i got a preview of the menu the week before he opened it looked awesome. judging from some of the reviews others agree. this one i thought was great.

Grizzly said he'd heard they have good veggie burgers there so I decided to give it a shot.  Let me tell you, this was absolutely the BEST veggie burger I've ever had!  I hardly ever use superlatives (let alone in association with Nashville cuisine).  But, I was absolutely blown away! Andy Piper makes his veg-burgs from scratch, no pre-packaged, store bough jammies for him. I think he mixes brown rice, beans (I'm Puerto Rican, of course I like it), beats, mushrooms and a bunch of stuff I couldn't figure out.  I'm guessing it's a proprietary secret. I got the mashed potatoes as a side and was totally knocked out by them too!  Red Russet (?) potatoes w/the skins still on, very chunky style is my absolute favorite and Becky & Andy totally nailed it. 

convenience fee? : how have i been missing this?

Convenience Fee?
Originally uploaded by gavoweb.

after the national youth workers convention i wanted to get a nice meal. well, the timing didn't work out to do a big going out thing, so erin ordered what has become our stand by meal. some folks call it comfort food. anyways, not only was the person who took our order kinda bitchy to erin, they told us it'd be an hour (what!) well, since we were heading home from the office we didn't leave right away. when i get home what do i find? none other than the pizza guy. so i went scrambling for a check, we payed the guy, but in looking at the bill i notice a $2 "convenience" charge.

uh, where did this come from? where did the idea of 'free delivery' go? anyways, the more i ponder it the more i am going to be calling dominos or roma's pizza now.

pembrokeshire coast walk : mile 90

no, its not me. i wish. erin & i actually looked at doing some of the pembrokeshire coast walk when we were there back in '04. this is my aunt and uncle doing the trek. they sent some pictures of the coast walk and it has me missing the uk. not sure when erin & i might make it back. till then i'm living vicariously through the uk contingent of family via our electronic means. their latest correspondence.

Hello everyone, from a very dismal West Wales...........everywhere is just so soggy!

 

I thought I'd drop you all a note to keep you up to date with our progress doing the Pembrokeshire Coastal Walk to raise money for CRY............... we are HALF WAY!! ('ish),

anyone with a map or Google, our last stop point was Martins Haven.

 

Due to an original typo on the Just Giving website, it did appear that we had fixed a completion date for sometime last summer, which has caused some confusion because we never ever had a target date as this is a first for both of us:(far too dangerous to commit to an end date!!).

 

So, to recap, we have walked around 90 miles so far, and we will of course let everyone know as we approach the finish at Amroth.  Hopefully, the going will be easier for the last half, some of the inclines we've negotiated so far almost called for crampons!! 

 

However we have thoroughly enjoyed every single day of our walk (especially when they're over!) and it's made us realise how so priviliged we are to live in such a glorious part of the country.

 

I'm enclosing some photos of the trip so far to give you a taster!!  (Any probs opening them, or if you want a full size version (I do own a 1.3 megapixel camera you know!) please get in touch!)  To see them chronilogically, look at them from the bottom up (If you see what I mean!)

 

All our love

george and glen

i am a bargain : alloting my time

i'm a fan of merlin mann, probably because i am such a poor organizer of my own time and just about anything he says is a challenge to me that i hope to try and work at. this presentation to google folks is something i've known about myself, its good language though for me to 'name it' so i can work on re-culturing my time. its a long video 35 mins, but it is worth your time.. really, it is. tip to lifehacker.

my veteran family : we honor you

today marks veteran's day. there are many folks in my life to recognize for their service to our country, but today i will lift up my own family folks. i am the odd man out (myself & my sister) who has not joined in with the service. i think i'm too wimpy for it.

my little brother shawn richardson. many might remember his first tour through Iraq where he kept a running blog. he is still in the army national guard for tennessee. he has been serving in the army reserves, active duty, or national guard (as an officer) since he was a junior in high school. last i knew he was a 2nd LT but was looking to move up in rank at some point (not sure if that point has come around yet). he is slated to return to Iraq at some point in the future, but no definite plans are set as of now.

my older brother david richardson. he broke from tradition and gave his service to the marine corps. he participated in the first gulf war. he was stationed on the tripoli, i believe, which hit a sea mine during the war. i like to play with him & insist that he did very little during that time. all his pictures that i saw were of him and his buddies playing volleyball on the beach in kuwait. i know that isn't true, but its fun to tease him.

my dad, william richardson jr. his service is more of a mystery to me. not something he talks about much, and believe me, he tells enough stories that if he cared he would have told them by now. dad was in the army, and as i know it was inbetween major wars. i think that is a good thing, dad is way to peaceful in my eyes to be a soldier. sidenote: he also claims to have been golden gloves, i don't see that one either, but it did take a number of years before i could get the upper hand on him in the dad/son wrestling air boxing match. dad had a number of friends who were a part of Vietnam & i remember visiting the veterans memorial and sketching in a few names. 

to the men folk in my fam, i salute you! please shawn, don't critique me on my salute, i know by now that i don't do it right. love, -gav

family reunion : photography of

i've posted a number of my photos from this weekends richardson family reunion. i also gave my d70 to my 10 yr old and 6 yr old nephews to take photos. can you tell which photos are taken by them over me?

sam with cool pumpkin : october closing

Sam with Cool Pumpkin
Originally uploaded by gavoweb.

happy halloween to everyone. our family has a little tradition with the davidsons where we give out candy, eat chili & grilled cheese, then act sophisticated with wine & drink and conversation. its been a fun evening tradition. this year i carved a pumpkin in honor of sams endeavor of 'cool people care'

it was a quick carving job, but i thought it turned out pretty good. you can check out cool pumpkin in night action.

taking photos : pilgrimage in albuquerque

Originally uploaded by gavoweb.

the wifey and i have been milling around albuquerque and santa fe the last two and half days in preparation for the christian educators fellowship conference. i am teaching some workshops (more on that later) but more interesting, we've been roaming around pilgrim style. these are some of our photos from albuquerque to santa fe, tram to winery. oh, the conference too.

i must say, some of mine need cleaning up. i apparently got some fuzz or something under my sensor. not sure how, but that dang spot showed up and i was without my tools to clean the camera. sounds like i will be doing some photoshop in the near future.

out early playing often : teaching tech to church folks

tomorrow, waaay too early for me, i'm heading out to albuquerque. i'm meeting up with wifey, who is flying in from washington dc, and we are catching a free day before i get to work teaching technology stuff to folks at cef conference.

i'm sure to be hanging out with david camphouse & hopefully laura, who actually lives there but not going to the conference. anyone else going to be there?

photo courtesy of 'open thread'

barcamp nashville : live blogging

erin & i are attending barcamp nashville today. i'll be live blogging what i can, as i did last year. you can also follow my twitter, and the barcamp twitter feed.

the wifey and i are all settled in & registered. got a cool t-shirt and already ran into john.

wordpress 101 : power to the people via mitch canter in 'other camp'
why wordpress?

• dynamic
• easy to use
• open source, hundreds of plug-ins available
• powerful
• useful & free!
• is the last software you'll ever use to maintain a website

where can i get?

• www.wordpress.com & www.wordpress.org
• .org user downloads the software
• requirements php 4.2.x or above, mysql 4.0
• godaddy.com or dreamhost give good deals on hosting and will do a turn key application

why host it yourself?

• custom themes
• advanced heirarchy
• ability to host podcast (podpress & powerpress)
• you own content!

set up!

• copy wordpress to your site via ftp
• database name, database username, database password, database host, table prefix
• confirm, run the install
• name it, log back in, you're in!

files

• missed stuff
• sidebar, recent posts, recent comments, blog counter, page index, widgets, etc.
• footer
• index, brings in the template and 'the loop' displays posts in chronological order, can be customized for any theme design, runs using logical php

why so passionate about wordpress?

• you can edit or make changes without knowing code
• wordpress themes are designed just like regular web sites
• go from photoshop, to dreamweaver, then to wordpress, then internet (works well and custom)

successful social media overview by david bullock in 'basecamp'

what do to?

• small workable steps
• case study barack 2.0 (www.barack20.com), he was using twitter, linkedin, myspace, meetup, flickr, friendfeed, facebook, youtube
• obama, has over 100,000 followers on twitter, you can push a headline, you can be authentic, valuable to the people who are following you.
• a url now is a new premium. if you can find something cool and give to people you have added value to their life. do that often enough they start following you
• use email, twitter & be valuable across the medium
• twittterholic.com list barack leads
• mobile messaging, (trumpia) and you can send them a text message. obama campaign sent out txt collected over
• user generated content, "yes we can" if you create a story that people become interested in, they will create content on your behalf. over 10million views of yes we can video, 53,000 comments.
• product placement, xbox 360 burnout paradise
• widgets / calculators - visitor engagement. the use of the obama tax calculator
• know your numbers, bounce rate is critical, people come to site and then leave cause it's not what they want. low bounce rate.
• product creation & distribution, 81% conversion. go from video to podcast, transcribe it then put out ebook or newsletter from just one conversation then move it offline to magazine for monetizing
• barack 2.0 site folks interview the barack obama site creators, check out
• you can take a blog and podcast that is not monetized and make it work for you if you pay attention to the market

• twitter is actually a mailing list.. think about it
• engage people who have a lot of folks who are following them. they will ask, who is this person?
• instead of talking about cats & what eating, have stuff of value
• 140 characters is a headline

• your major marketing channels: your blog, your list, your customers/clients, your comments/commentators, internet-email/twitter/social media, offline-magazines/etc
• props brought up for jackson's urlzen

times up!

pr 2.0 the deer have guns now via steve horton & bill seaver in 'other camp'

• some book drops, missed those
• choose a tool, simple tool or high end
• monitor, set up rss feeds on google alerts for business, boss etc. if you are into/needing metrics you can go paid route
• who are the talkers about you? what is their motivation? how much influence do they have? who is in their network? (how are they connected)
• you can feed twitters searches into your rss feed
• learn the culture, if you are new to this space you need to learn the culture to give your 'pitch'.. its not a traditional media outlet
• second, become a participant, get on twitter, comment on blogs, join relevant discussion boards & forums. (there is active chatter in discussion boards, don't write off them completely)
• pitch bloggers strategically, don't pitch them like traditional media outlet.
• the p.o.s.t. method (from ground swell book, that was one of the book drops)
  
  • people, who is it that you are trying to reach, who is going to do the reaching? marketing & pr are increasingly coming together in the social media space (so true). put money into people cause people have time and time is what is needed to work.
  • objective, what are you trying to do, accomplish
  • strategy, how are you going about doing that?
  • technology, tech comes at the end when you identify objective people and strategy. that is the only time tech should come up. where most folks start the tech and back into it.
• creating really good content, create & enable. e.i.e.i.o (average american gets hit with 4000 advertisements)
  • entertain
  • inspire
  • educate
  • inform
  • outrage
• measure your engagement, are the things you are specifically concerned about influencing are they happening? where should people be talking us? where are you no where on the radar?
• make it easy for others to create content, be not afraid for people to create content for you. how easy is it for them to grab all the logos and images they would want to create content for you?
• maybe create a whole news room on site for such a thing
• don't cross the post it note car and others this day and time!

times up!

podcasting, blogging, etc via mitch canter in 'other camp'
what is new media?

• social, the collaborative efforts of us
• interactive, not just something we do and push to side, but interact with
• immersive, there is always something we do
• omnipotent, it only knows what we put in it, but once its on there its there forever
• adding & sharing information, ideas, and lives

three main categories

• blogs
• podcasts
• social networks

blogs

• a conjunction with web/log
• shares easily
• rss (really simple syndication)
• to start, find a topic you enjoy, sign up, start blogging
• "the power of the press is only available to those who can afford a press, we all have press' now"

podcast

• main fear is getting over the fear of your own voice
• takes the information from your brain and puts it out there for others to listen too
• start with a blog it has rss, software (audacity, protools, garageband)
• microphone
• really really easy
• record it
• upload it (archive.org)
• publish it (podcast.com bluberry.com, itunes)
• lots of podcasting directions, get your artwork ready before distributing through itunes
• 2mobile used for sending out video feed anywhere. is there a place for podcasts? let us know

social networks

• network for people meeting together, connecting together
• general networks (facebook, myspace, twitter)
• niche networks (deviant art, linkedin)
• why use? to connect with people, to share ideas
• search.twitter.com for rss searches on twitter & hashtags
• privacy issues? hopefully we will be smart enough not to put stuff on the net that we don't want others to know about
• tubemogul.com to send one video to 17 services, 5 for free
• throwing out friendfeed for putting a plug in on site to harness all the stuff you are doing

times up!

free! digital loss leaders in the new economy via josh goggans in 'other camp'
how can we understand using free products, or sold as a loss to generate more sales.
the rEvolution of free! driving the new economy

• technology is cheap. everything on the net has a fixed cost & it is fairly cheap to add more in distribution. as numbers grow the per user cost goes down. you can get more users and eyeballs by giving it away.
• attention economy, with the net you can distribute digital content to a vast majority that you were never able to reach before, because they have something valuable, time.
• youtube has a vast amount of content and users so they have a vast amount of resource of peoples times, so they are getting a lot of monetization from that
• google forced yahoo to give away its email services for free
• the downturn is driving the free economy, so people are looking to save money. when the economy is good people are willing to spend money for convenient (netflix, example) when the economy goes down people have more time

models of free!

• the direct cross subsidy (askaninja.com you watch videos for free but pay for , local rabbit room offers music for sale to the free fanbase)
• media business model, business is offering free content because someone else is paying for the advertisements (leo leporte's podcast network is subsidized by advertising niche audiences. city paper might be a local model)
• "freemium" multiple teirs of a product, one limited set is free, to get more unlimited framework is paid. (flickr as an example, basecamp as well)
• "gift economy" capitalize on the scarce resources of peoples time (google 411 as example instead of cellphones companies paid call, they are collecting the data for future efforts, noisetrade.com is a more local example)

rules for using free in the economy

• you need a business plan. you just can't go out giving away free stuff
• be transparent, if users are feeling you are shady they will walk away
• it needs to be free. if you say it is free it needs to be free, no clauses. they will feel slighted and never use anymore
• value to them/user
• needs to be easy, if it is a complicated process they will walk away

people will watch if it is unique information in how its presented, has to do with you, niche

times up!

digital enablement in rural tennessee via paul van hoesen in 'other camp'
need to educate the stakeholders in the community, particularly rural area as many times agricultural background

• we are 15th in per capita broadband penetration among developed countries
• the us ranks in the lower third of nation in terms of the rate of broadband adoption. ie. 2/3rds of the developed world is connecting its population to the internet faster than we are. the top third is doing this at 2x the rate of the us
• in about 2000 the rural and urban areas diverged as usability and for some groups if you are not online you are not part of the conversation puts rural communities out the conversation
• digital citizenship produces the unseen downward spiral. high tech workforces leave out those who are not familiar with tech
• realities of fall survey, 29% had no computer at home, 47% did not have broadband, large gaps in broadband availability
• connectedtennessee.org
• the school is an important place of exposure to technology. for some students, its is all the exposure they may ever have
• real transformation occurs when the major local stakeholders agree to work together toward a common goal
• technology quotient? measure of personal technology readiness, regions attractiveness to new industry and ability. needs digitally educated employee

digital citizenship

• essential life skill, having email, instant messaging address, being able to find online information, posting a resume, online banking, online purchasing, relational online networking tools
• essential life skills are now the essential business skills
• increasing the technology quotient can stimulate an upward economic development spiral
• how to increase? computer ownership at home, community labs or collaborative environments, technology incubators to have young with mentors in digital business by peers and connection to outside support groups

initiatives

• expand internet access to unserved areas of the country
• touch typing, train students in touch typing starting in 6th grade. you have to know 30 words a min to get into 8th grade in lauderdale county
• video as supplemental lesson
• lynda.com fab resource for online training

video production goals

• incorporation of video into non-cte classrooms, creative writing, science, school morning broadcast, school's psa
• incorporate into advanced cte classes, teach commercial software packages like adobe
• courses are very wide-ranging

how can the digital have help?

• connect with the school system once a month as volunteer
• classroom webinars
• build and online mentoring relationship
• volunteer to help a tech teacher get resources they might need
• volunteer with community non-profit
• offer tech training to work programs

times up!

took some lunch with wifey, john and chris. talked a lot of geocaching in rippy's

seo site clinc by john w ellis & jon henshaw in 'other camp'

• if sites are structured well you shouldn't need a site map
• its all about who is linking to you, amazon and others selling your product are getting the link love
• going through www.chefjoanna.com website

not too much from this.. hard to follow what felt like a consulting session

brand management & marketing foundations via pinky gonzales in 'base camp'

brand is like describing the wind. brand is different for every single person that observes it. the brand is one thing & the perception of the brand is another thing

• imaging (logos, typfaces, colorschemes, etc)
• reputation, it is important to tend to the reputation that coincides with your brand
• associations, you are defined in part by who you hang with and associate with. we define a brand based on the preconceptions that we know about that person. politicians work within that especially
• platform
• stereotypes, if you brand is in anyway associated with a stereotype it can get you brand out even quicker
• communication, how you communicate the functions, flickr uses casual error messages, southwest humor

know thyself. personal brand. madonna & bono classic examples. the better we know ourselves the better we know the brand we can develop.

personal brand

• appearance, says something about my brand
• personality traits, the way you are wired
• psychological attributes, the way you think
• spiritual views, some peoples entire brand is based on their spiritual views. it will help to dictate what your brand eventually is
• political opinions
• social associations
• occupation,

to know yourself is to know your perspective on the world. to understand your perspective on the world is to justify the strategic decisions you make for yourself and those you serve.

company brand

• logos, can be so iconic that you don't even need a word.
• names, we are in a new era for corporate name branding.. in part due to domain squatting, trademark is easier to own a misspelling than a correct spelling,.. amazon is a name that we have re-purposed, sprint & apple the same way. catagory killers, names that created the category itself, kleenex/xerox/q-tip. slogans, spend so much time and effort that we are now familiar.
• iconic brands,
• product brands, brands within a brand, ipod. sum of the brands reaches the overarching message
• marketing foundations, be genuine, who are we after? how do we communicate? our reach? be in touch.  know. be consistent. a solid strategy implemented consistently over time has no other option but to grow, but in our hyper society we sometimes want abandon. listen, persistently

times up!

make google your bitch by jon henshaw in 'base camp'

keywords and domains sitting in a tree..

• google loves keyword

keywords and domains shouldn't use birth control

• buy domains that relate keyword to your
• buy domains, with dashes can be read better
• create vertical micro-sites

vertical mini-site

• focus on the keywords in the domain
• reuse/rewrite content, rewrite a bit so it doesn't look like duplicate content
• contribute frequently, build wordpress suggestion
• build links and test with ppc as a landing page
• link liberally to main parent domain

own competitors' traffic

• register a keyword centric domain that includes the word 'reviews'
• create a review website (wp and a good theme)
• only write about your competitors. am i insane? possibly..

avoid nofollow (nofollow is something the google police came up with, an attribute to put on blog comments so i could build links, they won't pass 'link juice')

sans "nofollow"

• with rare exception, always try to build links that don't use nofollow
• its a popularity contest, they are looking for who all people follow
• use 'do follow' directories, the absence of nofollow
• keep track of social networks that are 'do follow'
• use raven's free firefox toolbar to highlight nofollow links

external, internal & inbound

• write blog entries and articles frequently
• link out to high quality, relevant websites often
• make a habit of referencing high traffic sites, it will stroke the ego
• internal linking will reinforce keywords and context to google
• make anchor text keyword specific - don't use 'click here'
• nofollow unimportant pages, re-emphasize the important pages in your site
• keep and eye on nofollow links
• advertising won't help much other than to temporarily advertise

reputation repair

• social networking profiles
• wikipedia entry
• create vertical micro-sites
• argh missed the last three..

not my best note taking, but it's been a day. i'm sure you understand.
times up! barcamp nashville is over for this session. will check the website for future video updates.