Brad Bird on Innovation

I saw this article this past summer while researching interpersonal communication issues in the workplace. I've found myself referring folks to it ever since. I'm a big fan of Pixar (in fact, my wife just bought me WALL-E today).

Innovation lessons from Pixar: An interview with Oscar-winning director Brad Bird

This is an excellent little window into how he approaches management of creative groups in the workplace. Brad Bird directed "The Incredibles" (possibly my favorite Pixar movie) and "Ratatouille".

Two UCG pastors interviewed on the radio

Yesterday I learned that BBC Radio interviewed Peter Hawkins on Monday, December 22, as part of a feature on Christmas. Mr. Hawkins is UCG's pastor in London.

Later that day, Victor Kubik was interviewed by KXLY in Spokane, Washington, on the topic of "Today's Toys". Mr. Kubik is UCG's pastor for Lafayette, Indiana, as well as for Eastern and Northern Europe.

Today I received a call from radio station KXLY 920 in Spokane, Washington. They wanted to interview me later in the day on a popular local talk show called Newscope hosted by Mike Fitzsimmons. It was during 3-6 PM drive time and I would be on right after Sean Hannity.

Mike Fitzsimmons had Googled “Today’s Toys.” I wrote an article eleven years ago for the Good News entitled “Today’s Toys: Child’s Play or Something Else?” It came to the top of the Google heap and he wanted to interview the author. His secretary called the Home Office who gave them my phone number. They said that they wanted to do two 15 minute segments at 3:00 PM Pacific time.
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Mike Fitzsimmons was most complimentary about the content of the article and the Good News magazine. He advised readers to get their own copy by Googling “Today’s Toys” which will get them the article and the magazine.

This story illustrates the importance of search engine optimisation (SEO) on the internet today. Last week Mr. Kubik was here in Cincinnati for the Council of Elders meetings which included an update on Aaron Booth's SEO efforts.

I Googled "Today's Toys" and the first two hits were links to Mr. Kubik's article. But what if that hadn't been true? What if it had been the fifth or sixth link? This opportunity may have been lost.

Then a surprise. My brother Eugene who did not know I was going to be on was listening to the program in his car and called in! He somewhat flabbergasted me and I had to ask him to repeat part of his question.

Mike Fitzsimmons commented how the article is even more applicable today than when I wrote it.

After half an hour he asked if I’d be willing to go another segment. This made my interview time 45 minutes. This was an enjoyable experience and hopefully this will bring positive exposure to the Good News and the United Church of God.

Here is the entire story from Vic Kubik. You can read his GN article here.

I could not find the interview on the internet, but Mike Fitzsimmons of KLXY blogged about the topic on Tuesday.

Samuele Bacchiocchi dies

I just noticed this story on Worldnetdaily announcing yesterday's passing of Dr. Samuele Bacchiocchi.

Biblical scholar Dr. Samuele Bacchiocchi, best known for his teachings on how Sabbath observance shifted toward Sunday worship in much of Christendom, died yesterday at his Michigan home at the age of 70 after a two-year battle with fourth-stage liver cancer.
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A Seventh-Day Adventist, Bacchiocchi believed there was no Scriptural mandate to change or eliminate Sabbath-keeping, and he singled out the Catholic Church for its role in changing the day.
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Bacchiocchi also explained the influence of pagan sun worship provides a "plausible explanation for the Christian choice of Sunday" over the day of Saturn. Its effect wasn't just limited to Sunday. It apparently led to the placement of Jesus' birth in late December.

"The adoption of the 25th of December for the celebration of Christmas is perhaps the most explicit example of sun worship's influence on the Christian liturgical calendar," Bacchiocchi writes. "It is a known fact that the pagan feast of the Dies Natalis Solis Invicti – the birthday of the Invincible Sun, was held on that date."

Dr. Bacchiocchi was probably one of the top 5 or 10 most influential advocates for the Sabbath Day in the 20th century. He is probably best known for his book "From Sabbath to Sunday: A Historical Investigation of the Rise of Sunday Observance in Early Christianity."

100th Beyond Today recorded

This week we recorded our 100th Beyond Today program, and the UCG.org site received a gentle facelift.

On Wednesday Mr. Kilough recorded an About Our Father's Business with Steve Myers, Darris McNeely, and Gary Petty, which is now online on the UCG members' site. It was nice chance for each of them to share some of their own personal reflections on getting to participate in this effort to preach the gospel.

The presenters enjoyed getting see a few GN commentaries recorded, and Mr. Myers and Mr. McNeely recorded a couple as well.

I'm glad it's the Sabbath and I'm looking forward to hearing the reports from next week's council meetings.

A Day Without a Gay

I noticed that gay activists have organized today as a national “Day Without a Gay”, a day when gays should skip work and should instead volunteer for community service.

Their goal is to demonstrate the positive impact gays and lesbians make in the workplace, and to show how much the country relies on them everyday.

One particular aspect of this event caught my eye. Many gays wrongly perceive all opposition to gay-rights as a personal indictment of themselves, and not their lifestyle choice alone. “Day Without a Gay”, for example, doesn’t even address gays' lifestyle – it instead addresses their basic worth as human beings and employees. Apparently gays (and most social liberals) believe that gay-rights opponents truly do hate them, and only use religion to mask their own deep-seated fears and prejudices.

And who could blame them? You could only observe so many brutal attacks against homosexuals periodically grabbing the headlines before you would begin to sense an omnipresence of hate. That, of course, is the essence of terrorism.

But while some are driven by hate, others are driven by love.

Gays may wonder how many people would risk death to save a gay person. Christians worship Someone who did.

God calls homosexuality sin. But God has already proven He loves all of His children unconditionally, because Christ died for all of us even while we were still sinners! God did not require us to do anything in order for Him to demonstrate His love. You can hate Christ, but He still died for you, knowing that you were yet going to hate him. This is so that you may have the confidence of first knowing where He stands.

And God desires to see all His children brought to glory. But because He loves us, He cannot allow behavior that He knows will be destructive, and He requires us to change, as difficult as it may be. His purpose is to perfect us.

If He didn’t love us, He wouldn’t care.

This change will be the most difficult for those who have built their entire personal identity on a false concept. I don't envy the unique challenges of those dealing with same sex attraction, but at whatever point God calls you, in Him you can find the strength you need. Through Him you can do all things.

Here's a nice source produced by my Church: http://breakingfree.ucg.org/samesexattraction/

Thanks for the buzz

...from Brian Lee, a blogger and fellow Christian in El Paso, Texas.

Hopefully I'll live up to it!

Youtube Compression Test: 2008 Feast Video

I've been tinkering around with Youtube compression lately in hopes of establishing a nice high-quality workflow, and I thought I would share some of my results. I have posted the 2008 UCG Feast Video in 7 parts here. You can choose between normal and high quality (via a link below the video). Contrast both quality levels with the official October 30 posting of the Feast Video on Youtube.

We probably won't update the Feast video, but I'm excited about us using the improved settings for future productions.

You can also embed a playlist, which is arguably better than one long video because it gives you an experience similar to a DVD with chapter markers. I've included a low-quality example below. (I haven't yet found a way to embed a playlist on a web site using the "high quality" mode.)

Example of an embedded playlist (low quality):