Happy Valentine’s Virus!

It’s that time of year again. Ahhhh…Valentine’s Day. The time of love, happy feelings, happy thoughts and of course….e-mail viruses. Yes, Yahoo! News is reporting that once again, hackers have been planning on preying on the heartstrings of the unassuming and lonely hearts out there. Here’s the story.

As a general rule, never open e-mail that looks suspicious or from a sender that you don’t recognize. Or a subject that seems a little too off. What happens when you open the e-mail is it unlocks the virus that’s in it, and basically gives your permission to the computer to download the virus or program contained in it. If you’re not familiar with the term malware, get familiar with it. Malware can be bad news for your computer. Take it from one who knows.

Bottom line, when you open up your email program and get a weird looking email from a Debbie at Dallas.com and you don’t know a Debbie from Dallas.com, DON’T OPEN IT. Simply delete and go about your business. It will cost you less in the long run.

Until next time.

How about that Obese Youth Group?

West Virginia has come up with an original idea. Dance Dance Revolution. That’s not the original idea, but using a video game to help kids lose weight is. The preliminary results from a 24 week trial have looked pretty good for the kids. Stable to loss of weight is the end result they’re looking for. It looks like it might be on the way. Here’s the story from FoxNews.com.

So having a problem with obesity in your youth group? Maybe Dance Dance Revolution is your answer! Good news: video games can be useful for more than just leisure activities. Bad news: I still don’t think I’m any closer to justify playing Halo 1, 2, or 3 (when it comes out) to my wife. Oh well.

Until next time.

Importance of “The Blog”

Want to know the importance of the blog? Check out this article from the Des Moines Business Record. Bloggers can be great sources information, but also a great source of knowing your customer service to the community. Good or bad. Have you ever felt like Tom? I have. Did you notice his change after some great customer service. Oh how a song can change.

Two important points here. One, blog. It’s a great way to get some attention, but also some needed traffic to your website. Two, have GREAT customer service. Great customer service brings referrals, but can also bring a firestorm of negative advertising.

Bottom line. In today’s market, no matter what the business type, the internet and blog are vital. Find a way to use it to your advantage.

Until next time.

Like what you’ve been reading? You can subscribe in the column on the left. Thanks for reading.

Cellphone Nursery Nanny?

So I saw an interesting story on Fox News today(good luck finding the link on foxnews.com). The story told of a retailer that was putting a camera in dressing rooms for the ‘convenience’ of the customer. Convenience, you ask? Well, the convenience comes in when the person in the dressing room can take a picture and send it to any e-mail address or cell phone of their choosing. E-mail? Cellphone? Did you get that creepy feeling yet? Well don’t, this is a descent blog after all. You see, I had a different idea.

My church is getting the nursery redone right now. The sheetrock is up and should be painted by this weekend. Whoo Hoo. But, the senior pastor (yes, he’s my dad) is looking for a way to incorporate a one-way window, so parents can see in but the child can’t see them and get distracted. Good idea. The person in charge couldn’t find any one-way glass. Not a real big surprise to me living in little Des Moines. So they wanted to put a small closed circuit camera in the nursery, with the monitor just outside the door. Good idea. But then, me being me, I saw the story on Fox and begin to think.

Wouldn’t it be great to do the dressing room idea in the nursery. Let’s imagine: Mom gets worried about child during service, mom goes to website on phone to get picture or better yet, live stream, mom happy because child is okay. No distractions, mom focuses on pastor’s great sermon again. What a great scenario. Now I know that may be a little far stretched for today, but it’s coming. Trust me, it’s coming. That’s what this blog is all about, opening up to new ideas. Any takers?

Until next time.

10 Ways To Absently Communicate

Found this post the other day. It’s a great post about ways to have a discussion without being in the same room. There are many different ways of communication, it just takes a little bit of creativity and set-up. For you pastors out there having a hard time getting everyone together, this is fantastic. For you bi-vocational pastors, this should give you some great ideas on how to conference in all those volunteers you have.

Anyway, check it out here and let me know what you think. Just sounded like some good ideas.

Until next time.