Sign Wednesday: Dedicated to Michael Phelps

To whom much is given, much is required. This is a famous statement that goes hand in hand with all role models. I know that most professional athletes or even Olympic athletes don't ask to be role models, but it happens and you must learn to deal with it. There have been many fall from grace before and not just Michael Phelps but he is the latest. In my humble opinion, I believe that when role models do stupid illegal activity they need to move to the following street for some time.




Thanks goes to Justin Tapp for sending me this sign.

Twitter Tuesday: New Tag #kidmin

Are you using twitter? Do you know about hashtags? Tags are a great way to look at a topic. For instance if you wanted to see everyone's opinion about Super Bowl commercials you could go to http://search.twitter.com and put into the search bar #superad09. It would pull up tons and tons of people's opinions about the Super Bowl ads. Why does it pull all of these up? Because at the end of each of these post the person tagged it with the tag #superad09. Fairly simple but also very important. It makes twitter just that much more useful. There are to many tags to list below but there is one tag that I think you should know about if you do Children's Ministry. If you could mark your tweets that have to do with Children's Ministry with the tag #kidmin then that would really help us out. It would let us know who you are and then it would also let us know what you are doing in ministry or what questions you have. I look forward to seeing what the tag #kidmin does for the Children's Ministry community.

Ministry: Networking or Hook Up?

It has been a long time since I have been single. In fact this year I am celebrating 10 years of marriage. So it has been a long time since someone has tried to hook me up with someone else. Well until recently and it isn't to go on a date. For some reason over the past couple of weeks I have had the phrase uttered, "I think you should meet__________. I just know that you would really like __________. You know ________ is in ministry too."

I love to network. In fact one of my goals for this year is to network even more than I have in the past. I like to learn from other people. I also know that ministry can be very lonely if you don't surround yourself with other like minded ministers. I even enjoy helping business guys meet other business guys. This is one aspect of my ministry that I didn't think I would come to love as much as I do but I can't think of not doing it now. For some reason though, it seems a little bit like someone is trying to hook me up when I hear those words above. Maybe it is because most of the time it just doesn't work. Kind of like when people try to hook you up on a date. My hope is that these connections are enjoyable. Let me just say that just because that guy is in ministry doesn't automatically mean that we are going to get along with each other but I do appreciate your effort.

Does anybody know what I am talking about? Do you have this happen to you?

2 Minute Tuesday: Obama Dog Choice

I think it's kind of silly that we as a nation care about what kind of dog the Obama family will get. That being said, I thought Patriot, Azlan, and I should weigh in with our thoughts. Enjoy.

Ministry Monday: So help me God

Do you know the 35 words that it takes to become the President of the United States of America? Here they are:

"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."

Notice it doesn't say, "So help me God!" It is not necessary for the President to take an oath (saying so help me God). Instead the President could take an affirmation (not saying so help me God).

I'm glad that our current President decided to have God on his side. Even if it was purely political, it makes his words in my view even more solid.

Do you think it matters? Are they just words? Do you think Obama meant them when he said those words?

Sign Wednesday: Don't Make More Work For Yourself

Has anyone else noticed that people love to make work for themselves? I spend a lot of my time trying to be the most efficient and effective person I can be. I hate it when people just try to come up with more stuff to do just so that there is more stuff to do. I was horrible at school when it came to busy work. It frustrated me more than anything.

So to the person who made this sign, "STOP IT!"



And by the way, put important information in important places.

2 Minute Tuesday: Light Up Clothes

I never thought that light up clothes would be a problem but believe it or they can be. Watch the video to find out when you don't want your kids to be wearing light up clothes.

Tech Thursday: I should be excited.

Being a tech geek of sorts, I should be outside my mind excited about this week. I should be on Mashable, Engadget, TechCrunch, Technorati, and all other sites that are geeking right now. The thing about it though is that right now I am very underwhelmed. Underwhelmed by MacWorld. Underwhelmed by CES in Las Vegas.

I know I said this before but innovation is the only thing that will get us out of any economic down turn. Innovation is the key to future power, growth, and stability. Why am I not excited about the biggest week in technology right now? Simply put there is a huge lack of innovation.

It doesn't matter if Steve Jobs or Bill Gates is giving the keynote. Steve Ballmer and Phil Schiller could have been better if the message was better. It is about the message not the messenger. Jobs and Gates are who they are because of their messages of innovation.

Please tech world get back to creating and not revamping.

Sign Wednesday: Geek Gang Signs

Have you ever seen Geek Gang Signs? Well you have now.



I don't know why this makes me laugh so much but it does.

Interaction is ALIVE

Wired Magazine wrote last year that blogging is dead. The article goes on to say that services like Twitter, Flickr, and Facebook have replaced this once hot service. So what is the point? Interaction on blogs have slowed way down and is moving to other areas. Why? Because it is easier to interact in Twitter. It's easier to keep up with your friends in Facebook. People want to interact with each other. They want to be able to ask questions and get answers. They want to be able to share their life with others and in return learn, grow, and just maybe earn a little respect. Can blogging come back to life? Of course it can. But only if interaction comes back to blogging.

Here is my plan for interaction for 2009.

Twitter- you can follow me, ask questions, see what I'm doing, and read what I think is interesting all by becoming my friend or following me at http://www.twitter.com/mattmckee. I reply and the most interaction through this service. It is by far the easiest way for my to interact.

Facebook- you can become my friend and get all of my Tweets from Twitter by reading my status on Facebook. You see, I update Twitter and it updates Facebook. So you get all of the benefits of what I am doing but I don't interact as much. I will do better in 2009 with the interaction through Facebook but it is harder. Why? It is an extra step for me to log-in and find your response so that I can then interact. Therefore interaction is not as quick.

McKeelive.com- I will continue this site. I enjoy it. It is a nice form of experession and tidbits of information. Thank you to all of my readers. Here is my promise for 2009 because I don't want this site to be dead. If you comment on one of my post. I promise to at least acknoledge by saying thank you. I hope that we can have healthy conversations even when we may disagree.

Qik.com- I love this little service. Being able to do live video from my cell phone is just stinking cool. If you follow me on twitter or facebook then you will get a notice that I am about to go live and you can actually interact with me while I am shooting video from my phone. You can comment on what is being videoed by going to http://www.qik.com/mattmckee while it is live. If you just want to check out the videos after the fact, then come here and check out the qik feed on the right hand side of this site. I am really excited about this in 2009.

Tokbox.com- This is a a video conferencing site that I am stoked about for 2009 as well. This is where you can video call through your computer for free or get in a "room" with a lot of people and discuss topics. This is the best service for this so far and it is Flash based so it works with Macs and PCs without anything to download. You can become my friend by going to http://www.tokbox.com/mattmckee

And Finally----

E-mail- If you really want to get a hold of me for some reason and you don't care when I get back to you, then send an old school e-mail. My e-mail address is matt@mckeelive.com.


I look forward to the interaction this year. I can't wait to find new ways to learn and be apart of people's lives.