I Officially Hate Delta

My band and I were headed to Utah/Idaho to lead worship for a student event out there this weekend. My drummer was not able to go so I had to find another drummer to take his place. Not a big deal, right? Wrong! According to Delta, even though I paid for the ticket, I am not allowed to decide who gets the ticket and who does not. They overbook their flights by about 7 seats and actually need people to not show up so they have enough room for all the extra seats they sold. Even though I bought a ticket and had someone to fill the seat, they claim I did not actually buy a seat but rather a contract with Delta that says I agree to fly delta and that contract is exclusive to the person whose name I originally told them would be flying.

Long story short, I had to make a decision at about 2:00 AM (about 6 hours before the flight) whether to not take a drummer or spend the $1800 for the only seat available on the flight – in first class. So, I chose to take the loss and take a drummer. But I’ll never fly Delta again.

What is Up With the Web?

There are some wired things happening at the Leaf office and at my house concerning the internet. Some of my posts aren’t posting, and some I’ve typed and saved for later have disappeared. Myspace and Facebook won’t load pictures and every once in a while the whole thing just stops working. Even the pictures on my site acts funny and will not load in the center. ARRRGGGHHH!!! Since we are both with the company formerly known as Bellsouth, I’m betting they are the problem. Anybody else having issues? Is it time to become Comcastic?

UPDATE: I figured out how to fix my pictures but it is WAY more work than it used to be.

January 30th International Close Your Myspace Page Day?

So some guy is fed up with having to deal with all the poop that is Myspace and declared Jan 30th the day everyone should shut their page down day as a way of sticking it to the man. I rarely ever check my Myspace and when I do I hate having an inbox full of “this profile no longer exists” messages. I’m pretty sure I don’t know all the people who are in my friends list. There is also that whole “controversial” side of Myspace that keeps it blocked by most conservative parental filters (even though sites like perezhilton.com have no problem getting through). I guess I can understand where this guy is coming from but…

…I like thinking I actually have that many friends so I’ll just keep ignoring it like I’ve been doing for almost a year now. Anybody up for Twitter?

Thursday Throwdown: MLK Celebrations???

When I was younger, I always used to wonder (oohh…that could be fun song lyric) why we took off MLK day from school but didn’t take off the combined birthdays of our first and one of our greatest presidents and why that “special” day wasn’t on either one of their birthdays. I have since grown to highly respect the work and ministry of Martin Luther King and personally feel like much of what he stood for and fought against has long since been forgotten or distorted. Even though it is not as obvious or celebrated and in many cases the table has been turned in the opposite direction, there is just as much hatred, racism, and discrimination in America today. Trying not to dive into too much politics and debate here, I’ll ask a single question that has been on my heart all week. Has the church decided it is not important to celebrate MLK Day anymore?

I heard of one story that moved me and made me ask myself why this kind of celebration or joint Christian effort is not happening more often in more places. If you think about it, most church congregations are mostly white or mostly black. There are few that successfully blur that line. And if there is one time of the year that line should always be ignored, it was this past weekend. I understand that certain people like certain styles of worship and get uncomfortable (or bored depending on what side you are coming from) in worship environments they are not “used” to, but I personally think it would do us all a lot of good to do what ever it takes to keep the color lines blurred.

Closing Church for Flurries?

We all know that people in the south get crazy and stupid with even the smallest amount of snowfall on the ground, but closing church without any major accumulation? Can someone call Guinness to see if that is a new low? I remember back in 2005 when a father/son duo both with prominent churches in a major southern city made a radio announcement they had decided to cancel their respective church services on Christmas day so they (and of course their congregations) could spend Christmas with their families. Sure, family is important, but not having church the day you celebrate the birth of the reason you have church in the first place?

So here we are two years later and one of the above mentioned churches along with 770 other metro Atlanta churches closes its doors before the flurries really even had a chance to survive on the ground. I like what my pastor said,

“If the post office will deliver mail in any conditions, I think that we should have church no matter what. We have this notion in America that Christianity is easy, that it’s supposed to be safe. Tell that to the Christians around the world who are meeting illegally.”