How To Get Folks To Come To Your Event With < 24 Hours Notice

1. After you send the invite, call your guests
2. Talk-up your event, but absolve invitees who already have plans
3. Let the guests know they will be well fed, and watered
4. Be flexible on start and end times, giving guests the widest timeframe to attend
5. Offer carpooling, or arrange to pick-up guests who don't have transportation.
6. If it's Summer, have the venue near water
7. If it's Winter, allow your guests to sleep over, if they want to.
8. If it's going to run 'til sun up, offer breakfast
9. If it's going into the wee hours of the morning, arrange for rides home
10. Door prizes
    

The Toliet Office

When the kids are sleeping in both rooms, the wife is cooking, and the T.V.'s blaring; what we have left is the quiet, calm solace of the toliet office.

Three Most Interestingly Named Places I Drove Through Last Weekend

1. Frackville, PA
2. Fishkill, NY
3. Halfway, VA
   

A Shiver In My Bones

This is about the time of year when I wonder whether to get ready to put the motorcycle away for the season. It's been a good Fall for riding so far and the folliage especially radiant. Even my tires seem to be rolling smooth. I'm sue there's a nice physics lesson to explain that. Still I like that what I love to do means less oil burning.

Two Ways To Get Buy-in To Faith

I think there are two ways people get sold on a particular faith (product or service for that matter), that offers the path of least resistance.

First, is that the people need what the faith (product or service) is offering. Let's suppose your house or appartment is on fire. You need (not want) the fire department. The fire department doesn't need to hard-sell you on their services. They don't need to run ads, give discounts, or offer free coffee and donuts. You seek them out, because they are the best solution to your current problem.

Second, is that a person gets a recommendation from someone that is (to him or her) beyond reproach. We all have or know someone like that. That person recommends a certain movie and, no matter what it is, we go see it. Either that person is rarely wrong, or her judgement is trustworthy.

When I think about Christianity and evangelizing, I wonder why most organizations of faith, I've been a part of, don't examing and utilize these two ways more often. I returned to the Christian faith because of a someone illustrated in the second example. Yet that person doesn't fit the mold of what people would consider a "Good Christian". Still, he got me going back to church. Why? Because he knew me well enough, and I trusted him enough in this particular department.

When I speak with people that are ambivilent or doubt the legitimecy of organized religion, the reasons that I hear over and over are either hypocracy, piety (e.g. holier-than-thou attitute), judgmentalism, or "D", all of the above.

My revelation as I wonder how to get people to buy-in to faith, is that I will be more successful either being the source of the best solution to their current problem at the right time, or being that someone is worthy of their trust.

Brazil 2014 and 2016

I was so thrilled when Brazil received the nod for the 2014 World Cup a few years ago. Now I'm besides myself that Brazil has received the honor of hosting the 2016 Summer Olympics. Vamos lá!

Be You Wherever You Find Yourself

Part of the anxiety from living today (in the U.S.A.) is that with so much access to media, there's such a push to be everything you can or want to be, now. That is what is sold to us. It's what makes us consumers.

It's not possible for everyone to be the perfect dress size, on the perfect vacation, a millionaire, in the perfect job, or running your dream business, right this second.

What I believe we can do with bring that attitude to whatever or wherever we find ourselves. When you can't be great on the outside, right this second, for whatever reason...be great on the inside. Be who you are, and then be who you want to be.

Happy 49th Nigeria

Nigeria gained its independence from Britain 49 years ago. So much has changed since then. From the bloody Biafra war, to the discovery of oil, to the curse of it that followed. From a military regime to democratic elections. From a dearth of landlines to a smattering of GSM mobile phones.

Then you hear about about the corruption of government, of the people, and you wonder what to make of it. Nigerians these days are remembered primarily for fraud and bad movies. It almost a caricature.

So where are we? Where does Nigeria plan on going. What's the point of it all. Some people are going back to Nigeria to be a part of the economic changes and opportunities going on in Lagos and Abuja, the capital. Some, are ashamed of Nigeria. Some romanticize it. Still others feel that nothing will ever change, and you either need to lead, follow, or get the hell out of the way