by Marc Buxton | | General
No matter what you do in life, you have philosophies and boundaries that direct you. It’s definitely the case in your business. I hear many people talk about “thinking outside of the box” as a positive thing. I think it is. In our ever-changing world, social media, euphemisms, and the “what’s hot” list are constantly in motion. You have to think outside the box to be successful. I think Seth Godin does this everyday, effectively.
But I would point out that to think outside the box, you have to have one. If you don’t have structure, you will have no platform to stand on. Nothing that makes your product what it is. Here’s the key: your structure should provide opportunity to change. “We’ve never done that before” is not a viable argument. You have a box. You know who you are (or what your company “ships”, to use Godin’s phrasing). You have to be able to get outside of the box, and then get back in.
For my “business”, as an independent missionary, our model of raising financial support is a bit outside the box in our “missionary world”. So is our gospel illusion ministry. We are oustide of our box. A lot.
Are you ever outside of yours?
by Marc Buxton | | General
I recently saw a TV commercial from Black & Decker. They have a new iron that doubles as a handheld steamer. Pretty cool concept. But this is not a review post. I hate ironing. The point of this post is not to discuss the product, but the commercial.
In the commercial, the tagline for the new “variable steam” iron is “evolution of the iron”. In addition to using this phrase, the voice on the commercial uses the term “redesigned”. This caught my attention. Did the iron evolve or was it designed? This may be just semantics with this silly example, but when we are talking about the origins of the universe, it is a different story.
I think this question is representative of many real life assertions that we encounter everyday. In discussions concerning the universe, these two ideas – evolution and design – are contradictory. As Ben Stein proved so adeptly in his documentary “Expelled”, Intelligent Design and Evolution are, in fact, sworn enemies. Yet I will often hear proponents of evolution slip up and use terms like “designed”, “designer”, “engineered”, etc.
My theory? These “slip ups” are just the manifestation of what we were made to understand: to have a design, you must have a designer.
What about you? Have you ever heard someone use these two ideas in a self-defeating way? Please comment.
by Marc Buxton | | General, Technology
I posted awhile back about some of my favorite iPhone apps. That was before I had acquired this little gem. The official Adobe Photoshop app – PS Express – is now one of my favorite and most used apps. It allows you to do a variety of things with your photos including:
Crop, Straighten, Rotate, Flip
Change your Exposure, Tint, Contrast, etc.
Add Effects and Borders
For someone who has little experience in photo editing and no experience using Photoshop, I found this app a breeze. It has allowed me to increase the quality of the pics I upload online. And I can edit a pic using this program in under 3 minutes. Very cool.
If you have an iPhone and you upload pictures, I would highly recommend you try this app. Did I mention it’s FREE?
Here’s some example of pics I’ve edited using the app:
by Marc Buxton | | General
I don’t post too often about our missionary travels/life. I try to keep things diverse and interesting. But it’s always good to stop and let my readers and friends know what is going on….
This week we are in beautiful San Antonio, continuing to raise support for our ministry on deputation (see my blog post about deputation). We have had a wonderful time in just a few days here in Texas. This past Sunday, we shared our ministry with a church in the area, and they were so moved by what God is doing that the church voted – on the spot – to partner with our ministry financially. That is a rarity! We give all the glory to God for that.
Monday is usually my day off, and yesterday was no exception. It was exceptional, however. We were able to visit one of America’s most historic landmarks, The Alamo. I learned a lot of cool history about the fight for Texas independence, and was quite pleased to learn that the commanding officer and hero of the Alamo was a fellow South Carolinian (Travis).
Our historic trip to the Alamo was also a family affair, as we were able to share the weekend with my wife’s brother and his family. Luke and Kelly Lyons are also missionaries (www.impactingasia.org) and were in San Antonio at the same time. It was great to see our two little boys, cousins who will grow up together in Manila, hanging out for the first time.
Deputation is full of ups and downs, trials and rewards. This weekend was mostly ups and rewards, and it was a wonderful blessing as such. In fact, in just the last week we have had two churches start supporting our ministry financially, helping us reach more people with the gospel of Christ. If you would like information on how you can help our ministry, visit www.join360.info.
Please share your prayer requests in the comment section below, and I will pray for them. Will you pray for us as well?
If you’d like to see more posts like this one, check out the “Missionary life” category to the right.
by Marc Buxton | | General, Technology
There is a daycare playground that I pass almost every day. On the playground sit two plastic space shuttles – of the springy, bouncy, fun variety.
I believe in American exceptionalism. America is great, not because of skin color or cultural nuances, but because of her principled freedom and resulting achievements. The ultimate example of this is the U.S. space agency – NASA – and her crowning achievement: the Space Shuttle.
I have a family member that works in the space program, and there has been much talk of President Obama’s plans to cancel the space shuttle. NASA, and specifically the shuttle program, represents America’s best and most innovative work. Many of the things we use everyday were created or perfected by NASA scientists: scratch resistant lenses, memory foam, ear thermometers, cordless tools, and water filters. But in addition to these things, NASA gives us something greater: the ability to explore the unknown world of space, and the resulting innovations that benefit all mankind.
I listened yesterday as my friend’s son, 5 years old, explained to me the workings of the space shuttle toy that he was so proudly exhibiting. He had me “countdown” for the launch, and then lifted the space shuttle and rocket boosters up, up, up towards the ceiling fan. I was amazed when the rocket booster fell away at precisely the right moment, and he indicated that a “parachute” would open and bring them back down. NASA is the stuff dreams are made of – exploring the unknown. American dreams. No other country could produce a space shuttle. We should not stop launching them, if only for that reason. But further still, NASA provides an outlet for dreaming the impossible, and making it reality.
Imagine if one day on that playground, a little boy asks his teacher, “what’s a ‘space shuttle’?”
by Marc Buxton | | General
How do you decide what movies and TV shows to watch and what not to watch? What is good and what is bad?
In thinking about this, I’ve determined 3 things:
1) You cannot trust the movie ratings system
Hollywood is not getting better. The movies that are rated “PG-13” now would probably have received the “R” rating just a few years ago. I’ve even seen some ‘PG” movies that weren’t quite family appropriate. And don’t even think about trusting PG ratings from the 80s (yikes!).
2) You cannot trust the previews
Hollywood is getting wiser. They realize that there is at least some moral pulse left in America, and so they aren’t going to show you all the bad stuff in the previews. When is the last time you heard a curse word in a preview? Side note: don’t you hate it when the previews contain all the best/funniest parts of a move? I hate that…
3) You cannot trust your friends
I know this sounds harsh. I have a lot of friends that I would trust to recommend a movie as “family-friendly”. I also have a lot of friends that I would not trust. Because their definition of “family-friendly” is much different than mine, I’ve learned not to trust word of mouth alone.
So what is the solution?
For several years now, I have been consulting a website called “Kids in Mind” (kids-in-mind.com).
The site offers reviews, not of the storyline, but of the content. They rate movies on a scale of 1-10 in 3 categories: “Sex & Nudity”, “Violence & Gore”, and “Profanity”. I find this site very helpful in determining what movies we are going to watch and more importantly – which ones we aren’t.
This site has been helpful to me as a single guy, a married man, and now as a father of young children. I imagine it will be even more helpful when I am the father of teenagers….
I challenge you to check out your movie on Kids-in-Mind before your next viewing, and ask yourself a few questions while you read the review: Is this movie appropriate? Do my children need to see this? Would God want me to watch this?
What about you – how do you determine what movies to watch?
