1 or Fewer

I read a blog post yesterday on ChurchCrunch entitled Sorry, You Are Not as Unique as You Thought... which featured a website called HowManyOfMe.com which tells you how many people in the US have your name. I went there and tried it. 123 people have my last name. Pretty exclusive if accurate. 1 or fewer have the combination of my first and last name. 1 is pretty exclusive too, even more so than 123 (by the tune of about 122 I would guess). 1 or fewer is a little too exclusive for my tastes. I mean really, just where does that leave me in the total scheme of things?

So I went to the most accurate source I had at my fingertips, the Magic 8 Ball I had on my desk (picked up somewhere in my corporate travels and viewed as an essential financial planning tool by some). When asked if there could be fewer than 1 person with my name, I was told "Reply Hazy, Try Again". The tension mounted. I tried again. "Yes" was the reply. So now I am really in a bind. Two trusted sources said there could be fewer than 1 person in the US with my name, including myself.

I will let you know how my identity crisis turns out. If indeed I am actually around to have one.

Technorati Tags: Magic 8 Ball, ChurchCrunch, HowManyOfMe.com

My MOO Minicards Are Here!

Grand Canyon at dawn.




Sedona at sunset.




The flag of Penza, Russia (yes that is Jesus on the flag!).

Sunrise at the Grand Canyon.




Sedona at sunset.




A sign at an Indian reservation just outside the Grand Canyon National Park, I like that they put children before pets.



I won a set of MOO Minicards at ChurchCrunch a few weeks ago. If you are not familiar with these, they are mini-business cards, way too cool for an old boomer like me to be walking around with. But John, being a man of truth and honor bought me the set he promised in his contest. And it had nothing to do with a pay off for me guest blogging there.

I had to design them, so I picked a bunch of photos that I had taken that just tickled my fancy when I was leafing through my computer files. The challenge was finding scenes that fit well into the size of the card. Many I picked just did not look good on a minicard template so I had to nix the selection.

Hope you like 'em. Maybe you will get one if we ever do business together.

Prayer From The Wallet and Not From The Heart?

How wrong is this? I cannot begin to say. I hope it is all a joke, although if it is, I do not get it.

"Information Age Prayer is a subscription service utilizing a computer with text-to-speech capability to incant your prayers each day. It gives you the satisfaction of knowing that your prayers will always be said even if you wake up late, or forget.

We use state of the art text to speech synthesizers to voice each prayer at a volume and speed equivalent to typical person praying. Each prayer is voiced individually, with the name of the subscriber displayed on screen.

At Information Age Prayer we think our service should be used like a prayer supplement, to extend and strengthen a subscriber's connection with God. Traditional prayer is an integral part of this connection and should never be forgone, even after signing up.

You can subscribe for yourself, or you can purchase a subscription as a gift to friends or family."

[HT: ChurchCrunch] (By the way, cool blog that actually let me guest blog)

The Narrow Road Guest Post

You can catch me over at ChurchCrunch today for a guest post on supporting church/ministry leadership. I want to thank John at ChurchCrunch for the opportunity to guest blog and for the nice pictures he added to my post.

Go take a peek and see what else ChurchCrunch has to offer. You will not be sorry.

The Old Grey Mare

Church Crunch is running The "I'm a Blogger and I Need a Business Card" Contest. Go over and check it out. And stay on his blog and learn a lot of stuff about ministry and social media and cool technology.

As an aging boomer, I am somewhat tickled that the business card, a decidedly low tech piece of social media, is still highly desirable. What it says to me that personal, face to face, hands-on social interaction still resonates within us. We need it.

Even in the burgeoning world of social media, it is still important to have one. I do, that's it in the upper left. It has a title of Business Consultant and Seminarian. It has a cross. It raises an eyebrow or two as I hand them out. And yes, it has my blog address on it.

I need a card because I need to stay connected to both the print and electronic world. I think there is a place in community for both. I think both enhance the social interactivity of our culture if used properly.

The business card is an invitation, a badge and a claim stake out in the world. It is an ice breaker, a memory jogger and a collectible. I have bunches in rubber bands and some in card cases. But I do use them when I am looking for someone in particular, a product, a service or just a name and number.

Simple yet elegant. The business card thrives in an internet world.

New Comment System for The Narrow Road

I have installed IntenseDebate (I think) to track comments on my blog. If a post has a comment already, it will continue under the old tracking. Any new posts or previous posts with no comments appear to have converted to the new system. I probably could have converted them all (I think), but the Social Mediot takes it slow, so it is a going forward process only.

Please bear with me during the conversion, I pray it is painless. Try one.

HT: ChurchCrunch for getting me into this.