Where has Mike been?

Sorry faithful readers, I have been missing in action for a few weeks. Let me catch you up to speed on what has been going on.
First, it is official: I am once again a college student. A couple weeks ago, Michelle and I went to CCU to look into the CALL program. everything sounds great. They went over my previous transcript and accepted 59 of my credits from KCC/KCU. That is huge. I still need a few general education classes. So last week we went to Sinclair and I met with several people to help me get registered. I had to take some placement testing, which I was really worried about. It turns out that my testing scores made eligible for honors classes. Not bad, since I hadn't been in school for 8 years. So after all that, I am registered, and signed up for 3 classes this next quarter. All three are online courses, which is great for a computer geek like me. I will take a few more classes in the summer and then start at CCU in the fall.

Michelle is working like crazy. She has spent the past 2 weeks working on the children's furniture line for her business, SanBox Creations. they have sold several sets so far. I am trying to work on their web site, but that is slow since I am learning as I go. But if you are interested you can search for them on Ebay. Their seller name is sanboxcreations.

3rd Place met tonight, ending our one week drought. It was good to be with friends again discussing, growing, laughing, and sharing.

Work on my book, Outside the Box, has been slow. I have about 6 chapters done. I am thinking of posting another chapter online. Several of you have told me that I should. I hope to get some more writing done soon.

Well that is it. I hope to update soon. Until then.....

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Things are looking up.

Well, I am back online. It is amazing that this little battery was the culprit.

Apparently, this battery was completely dead, causing the Mac to be unable to start up. I have never heard of such a thing, but a $14.00 fix is better than shelling out hundreds or thousands.

So I got that going for me.

We are still trying to manage on one income. It isn't that difficult, just a cause of frustration.

We had a cool group at 3rd Place last night. Adam and Jessica stayed after and we watch Kung Pow! What a hilarious movie.

Anyway, I wanted to post something to let everyone know that things are not always as bad as they might seem. I also wanted to thank Doug, Rochelle, and Jeff for really being their when I needed them. They are true friends.

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Really tough week

let me just say that this week has been one of the hardest we have had in a while. it all started on tuesday when my wife stayed home sick from work. around 1:00 that afternoon, we received an email from her boss explaining that "things weren't working out" and that she had been fired. fired by email?!?! that is low. then we had a problem with the brakes on her volkswagen, as of now i still have not been able to remove the calipers from her car to replace the brakes. then this morning, i planned to promote 3rd Place at Church. i had a video ready and took the imac to the church to set up a table. once the table was set up i pushed the power button on the imac and waited for it to start up. but it never started. nothing, not even a flicker. so here i am abusing the privilege of internet access at work so i can ask you for your prayers. i am incredible dependent on my mac, as is my wife. she has several papers due soon for school. in all of this, i am trying to be a loving, compassionate husband and an encouraging teacher. i know that all things happen for a reason, i just wish i knew what it was.

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Are you freaking serious?!?!?!

James Dobson is at it again. You'll remember when he attacked the TellaTubbies a few years ago, well now he has leveled his "morality sniper rifle" at Spongebob Squarepants. That's right, Dobson claims that the cartoon promotes tolerance and sympathy for homosexuality. Exactly something that Christianity should promote: tolerance and sympathy. This is why the world is not responsive to the Gospel. Anyway, one of my new favorite sites Church Marketing Sucks posted a great article about this topic.

Earlier this week, Dr. James Dobson, the founder of Focus on the Family, launched a diatribe at SpongeBob SquarePants. The lovable sponge, along with a cast of other children's characters, appeared in a video remake of the disco hit "We Are Family," which Dobson alleges is trying to insidiously promote gay tolerance. The video's creators say it's meant to carry a message of multi-culturalism and racial tolerance and does not have anything to do with sexual proclivity.

I'm not going to get into the political, social or moral debate at all, because that doesn't have anything to do with marketing. What I am going to tell you--and this isn't a suggestion, but a straight up marketing imperative--is don't ever, ever, ever get in a fight with a fictional characacter. I don't care if it's the protagonist in a classic novel, a lead figure in a play, a cartoon animal, a comedic role in a modern sitcom or the animated spokes-thing for a major brand of pet-food. It's a lose-lose-lose proposition for you from a PR standpoint. Why? Four main reasons.

1. You look foolish.

You're arguing about (and potentially with) something that doesn't exist. That's bad enough in the business and political world, but even worse in the world of faith. If you think that a particular type of entertainment or show is problematic, say so simply and back it up scripturally. You don't need to poke fun or villify the authors or creators of the work. All that will do is turn their fans into enemies. And fans of creative work are some of the worst enemies you can have from a PR perspective.

2. You're on their turf.

Created characters actually live in the world of information. That's all they are--content. You have to eat, sleep, walk the dog, sit in traffic, etc. You have friends whose opinions matter to you. You have family. They do not. They are not real. They can defy the laws of space and time. Dead presidents can speak on their behalf. They can appear on 20 different shows at the same time. It's like trying to outswim Flipper. Bad idea.

3. Reason isn't reasonable.

The fans of fictional characters love them because they aren't real. Serious, rational arguments about their "faults" don't count.

4. They bite.

It's one thing to get taken down a peg by a real-life antagonist; someone with an argument better than yours or a competing organization that simply does a better job at what you're trying to do. It's another thing entirely for a fictional character to take you out back and spank you like a redheadded stepchild. Murphy Brown did it to Dan Quayle. Not pretty.

Again... if you have a problem with the message being delivered by a character, show, medium or cultural sector, you should not hesitate from speaking. But to single out one particular character for public chastisement, ridicule or attention is asking for trouble from a marketing and PR stance.

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