You Will Waste Time, and You Will Like it! - 15 February 2022 - Plague Journal Day 705

Micah 6:8
Psalm 90:12
Yes, your life matters.

Some of you are still sheltering in place, but fear not: I'm here to keep you sane and entertained.
One could hardly ask for much more than that, now could one?

Can you believe it? Seventeen years ago, on 15 February 2005, YouTube was launched in the US. Who knew back then that a single url could hold more video than everyone could watch for the rest of time? Certainly I didn't.

Forty years earlier, on 15 February 1965, Canada adopted its current national flag showing a maple leaf. Given their recent transformation into a seeming dictatorship, one can only wonder if a new flag won't be in the offing. At least it's already red. (I grew up in the era of Better Dead than Red, so I saw this coming long ago.)

Today's freewrite prompt word is Flounder

Apart from Stephen Furst's fabulous performance in the role of Brother Flounder, my main non-culinary association with flounders would be from Rocky and Bullwinkle. "Fan mail from some flounder?" was Bullwinkle's suggestion. It was a meme in the days before memes! (a proto-meme?) What a wonderful show that was. There were plenty of jokes and allusions for the adults forced to watch along with the kids, but not in a way that took away from the enjoyment of those kids. Brilliant writing.
It would be nice to come across something - anything - nearly that good today. Suggestions?

Thanks.

Keep Calm and Don't Stay Away.
I'll be back tomorrow.
The mental health issues related to our insane lockdown and the pandemic are especially hard for people with depression. NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, has a 24 hour helpline: 800-950-6264.

Worship - 01 November 2020 - Plague Journal Day 234

Micah 6:8
1 Thessalonians 1:2-5
Yes, your life matters.

We all are still sheltering in place, but I'm here to keep you sane and entertained.
One could hardly ask for much more than that, now could one?

We're still meeting to worship inside the church building in the sanctuary - our fourth Sunday in a row! Masks and physical distancing are still enforced, but we are blessed to be worshiping together.
Note that you must have registered already in order to join us, so please join us online if you didn't. 

Speaking of joining us online, this week we have exciting changes at GPUMC. We have a new streaming solution: all new cameras and software running on a new, video-optimized computer. We've only gotten a bit of training on its operations, but we're just going to go for it, so we'd appreciate some prayers that there won't be any problems with getting the stream out to our remote worshipers.

Today's stream should just appear as the latest entry on our YouTube channel, here.
You'll find all our previous worship videos right there at that same place, and today's stream will stay there as a recording as well. (This all assumes that everything goes according to plan, so feel free to pray for us!)

Keep Calm and Stay Away.
I'll be back tomorrow.
The mental health issues related to our lockdown and the pandemic are especially hard for people with depression. NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, has a 24 hour helpline: 800-950-6264.

06 September 2020 - Plague Journal Day 177

Micah 6:8
Psalm 148:1-4
Yes, your life matters.

We all are still sheltering in place, but I'm here to keep you sane and entertained.
One could hardly ask for much more than that, now could one?

It's Sunday, why not join us for worship at Grosse Pointe United Methodist Church? (211 Moross, Grosse Pointe Farms)
We meet on the lawn around the Memorial Garden, and worship starts at 9:30AM.

If you can't be there in person, join our YouTube live stream here.
This and other worship services can be found on our YouTube channel.

Keep Calm and Stay Away.
I'll be back tomorrow.
The mental health issues related to our lockdown and the pandemic are especially hard for people with depression. NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, has a 24 hour helpline: 800-950-6264.

21 June 2020 - Plague Journal Day 101

Micah 6:8
Ephesians 6:1-4

We all are still sheltering in place, but I'm here to keep you sane and entertained.
One could hardly ask for much more than that, now could one?

We were back "in" church together! (Why the quotes? We're not wililng to limit ourselves to the governmental edict of small numbers inside, so we're going with an outdoor service where we can have up to 100 people appropriately distanced. We had nearly 80!)
As we hoped, everything worked well enough for the first time, but of course we left ourselves plenty of room for improvement. We had some small camera malfunctions, one audio malfunction, and nobody cared - we were together worshiping, and surely the presence of the Lord was in that place.

And, to all the fathers out there, I wish you a very Happy Father's Day!

Keep Calm and Stay Away.
I'll be back tomorrow.

20 June 2020 - Plague Journal Day 100

Micah 6:8
Matthew 18:19-20

We all are still sheltering in place, but I'm here to keep you sane and entertained.
One could hardly ask for much more than that, now could one?

This is an exciting day. We're getting ready to worship together irl, and to live-stream the service over YouTube!
OK, we spent about three hours preparing on Tuesday, then another three hours today. It looks like it will work, but this simple technology is complicated. That's probably a bit unfair. The most complicated part is the sound system - and that's because we're cobbling it together from various bits we have for totally other purposes. Still, it's looking good. Worship and Communion, here we come!

SDG

Keep Calm and Stay Away.
I'll be back tomorrow.