Personal | Social Media University, Global (SMUG)

Hoping for an Augustinian Turnabout

It seems a gang of rampaging ruffians has brought Trouble (with a capital T) SMUG’s global headquarters. Don’t let the chirping birds fool you:

When I spoke with the police officer who arrived on the scene, he told me this had been the fifth report of such vandalism overnight in Northwest Austin. It seems a group of young lads had been out joyriding with a pellet gun, and shooting out windows in vehicles parked on the street.

Not that we know who they are…or that they are even lads. Maybe they’re lasses.

I realized after shooting this video that our situation was worse than I thought, because it wasn’t just the one window that was affected. Two other windows had been shot, but just hadn’t shattered. So I guess the hoodlums kept going until they got satisfaction.

These two would actually be interesting looking, if they weren’t dangerous…and if they didn’t cost several hundred dollars to fix. Click to enlarge:

St. Augustine said he discovered the evil in his heart when he stole his neighbor’s pears, even though he didn’t like pears. He just stole for the sake of stealing. He became the greatest theologian in the first millennium of the Christian church.

For their sake, I hope these young lads will come to a similar realization and turnabout.

Another Facebook Baby

In my presentations I frequently introduce my granddaughter, Evelyn, as someone who owes her existence, humanly speaking, to Facebook. As a Presbyterian elder I believe God ordains everything, but also know that He uses secondary causes to bring about His purposes. In Evelyn’s case, Facebook was the means by which her father, Kyle, met her mother (my daughter, Rachel.)

I would call that a really significant ROI from social media.

This weekend I got to travel to Grand Rapids, Michigan to meet Evelyn’s baby brother, Judah, who was born on April 9th (and pick up my wife, Lisa, who had flown there to help Rachel.) He’s a pretty sweet little guy, and here are a couple of photos:

You can see more pictures from our visit….you guessed it… on Facebook.

Meanwhile, here’s a video update on Evelyn:

Why I’m glad I’m not at SXSW

Watching some of the tweet stream, I’m sure I would have really enjoyed being in Texas for South by Southwest. But I’ve had a lot of fun this week watching basketball, including Wednesday night when my son Joe, a high school freshman, got his first game action with the varsity team in the first round of the Section 1AAA Minnesota High School Basketball Tournament. Here’s a snippet of his play:

Joe isn’t the guy who nailed the three in that sequence; that was Connor Gunderson, a senior who scored his 1,000th career point in the last regular season game.

Joe only has 998 to go.

Tonight the Austin Packers, seeded third, travel to second-seeded New Prague for the semifinal. I would definitely feel badly if I were missing it. I’ll have to rely on @EdBennett and others for the #SXSW and #SXSWi scoop.

Update: The Packers made a valiant run at it, but came up just short after falling behind by about 20. They cut it to 5 but couldn’t quite make it.

Hoping Mrs. Jones would be proud

At Christmas, as part of my parents’ gift to me, they included my mid-year report card from 4th grade. This obviously was from an era in which, unlike Garrison Keillor’s Lake Wobegon, not everyone was considered above average (click to view at full size).

A few observations:

I still like books, as you can see from our library picture in the SMUG Facebook group.
I’m still pretty enthusiastic and contribute well to discussions.
It’s still amazing what I find when I clean my desk.

So after I head to the Y for a run, I’ll be exploring for treasures in my home office desk.

Maybe that runs in the family, though: I think it’s pretty amazing that Mom would find a 37 year-old report card.

I’m hoping Mrs. Jones would be proud that one of her “average in all areas” students has grown up to become a university chancellor.

A New Van for Bekah and Ruthie

This evening as I traveled to Winona for the #WSUPRSSA presentation on social media, I got to meet my youngest daughters and swap vehicles with them, so they would have reliable college transportation. Here’s the video I shot when they saw it for the first time. Having video also enables Lisa to get in on the fun, even though she wasn’t able to be there.

This also gives me a chance to show the WSUPRSSA group how easy it is to write a blog post.