zachharrod.com

my tweet detox

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twitterI’ve caught lots of grief from friends, both in Prague and in the States, about my twitter (Don’t know what Twitter is? Where have you been living? Sorry for the sarcasm, here’s an explanation.) habit over the last year or so. It’s actually been pretty entertaining at times. I’ve been “defrieneded” on facebook (because I send my tweets to fb) due to my tweeting habit and then I’ve had others say they love it. Quite a contrast, isn’t it? In the midst of this, I’ve actually grown to enjoy twitter and the positives of tweeting and being on twitter. Here are some of the positive that come to my mind (I’m not trying to be a twitter evangelist, but you can read others for that.):

  • Feeling connected with friends that are an ocean away.
  • Being able to pray for those friends as they are doing life and ministry. I know I can do this without Twitter, but it’s a good reminder.
  • People standing with me in prayer. It’s cool knowing that when I tweet there are people that will read it and lift me or that request up in that moment.
  • Being challenged theologically, biblically and so much more. I love that I have such a difference people, whom I follow, that are constantly challenging me through their short 140 character messages.
  • It’s taught me to be brief, well briefer, or should I say getting to the point, if that’s possible! Those of you that know me, know that I’m not one who is lost for words ofter, and I struggle with being concise. Well 140 characters, let’s say, is a bit of challenge for me.
  • It’s entertaining. I follow some people that just make me laugh. Living in Prague and the challenges that it can present, I find myself needing to laugh more. Twitter brings laughs through some hilarious people.

Those are some great things, yeah? But I’ve also seen negatives of the world of tweeting and those are why I did my short week plus tweet detox. Here are the negatives for me:

  • It consumes my life. I find myself not wanting to miss a tweet and in not wanting to miss a tweet, I can live on on twitter (actually my iPhone). This is the main reason I said, “I need a tweet detox.”
  • With it being time consuming, I don’t want to look at a screen more than the faces of people in front of me! So it can rob me of relational time. I want to engage the person, who is actually in front of me, in conversation, with my heart and not stare as some well-picked profile pic.
  • Tweeting can lead me from my identity in Christ and who I actually am. I can fine, or have found myself, worried about being some of other guy – who will wow people, make me people roll laughing, make people ponder the deepest of thoughts and so on. I have found myself trying to reinvent who I am, because of others, instead of simply being me, Zach Harrod.

There is why I did my detox. Some of you out there, might think I’m needing some professional help. No worries, I don’t think I am addicted and I think where I am is actually very healthy. However, needless to say, I needed to step away. I needed to see, what life was like without twitter. If I could do it in a healthy and redemptive manner. I was led to asking this, because recently I’ve had good friends hang up there tweeting (or fb) cleats and have called it quits because social networking was consuming them. I give these friends credit that they acknowledged it was affecting them in negative ways. With that said, I think my week plus, was enough to strip me of the negatives of my tweeting, enough to me, to still do relationship with those around me and live in a way that is healthy, while still tweeting. It’s actually been more refreshing since the detox, I don’t feel the pressure to tweet or to read every tweet. I also can actually enjoy twitter redemptively now! Who knew that was possible?!?! No if I could only get back on the blog train and write regularly! We shall see… Thanks for stopping by!

change is fun…

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…with that in mind, today, I said, “Why not,” and this happened….

before_after_april09

As my dear friend, and director (Billy), and I rode the 217 Bus back from the office today, he asked me, “So what are you going to do with my clippers?” The clippers that I used for what you see above! I smiled and said, “I like my hair, but it’s all going, why not, huh?” He said,”You kind of got the deranged, struggling artist look going.” Ok, he didn’t say, “deranged,” but I thought it was fitting! So in my opinion, I traded it, for “Deranged Convict.” What do you think? Make the world of zACHhARROD.com land marvel at your wittiness, what descriptions do you got? Share them, but make sure they don’t hurt my feelings too much!

By the way, I do like change. Sometimes change for the sake of change is great. It keeps people, and me, on their toes! Love it. Now I’m heading to bed. Good night world!

i’m watching you….

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Ok, I know I’m a dork, but I find this interesting. When Clint did my redesign (THANKS AGAIN CLINT!), we made sure to get Google Analytics kicking with my blog so I can track and see who is reading my blog and etc. For what reason? I’m not sure why, but like I said I find it interesting. So I’m going to share 3 maps with you. Three maps of where I am getting my views from. I’m getting absolutely ZERO love from Africa, South America, Asia, or Antarctica! Sadly… But I’ve been thinking about some unique strategies to get my readership up in Antarctica, while I’ve been on mass transit here in Prague. We shall see…

The first is the good ol’ U.S. of A. (the darker shades of green indicate the highest amount of readers)

g_a_usa

I’m not getting much love in a few States, but I was surprised to see that most of the States are some sort of green….
g_a_europe

No surprise, I get more love in Eastern Europe than Western.
g_a_czech

Here is what Czech looks like. Obviously, I would have far more hits in Prague, than else where in the country. But here is a shout out to the peeps who read my blog in Cesky Tesin, Brno and Ceske Budejovice!

Thanks to all you read my blog! I apologize for being quite this spring. As things get chaotic in my life, this is the first place where you see it played out (and me not folding laundry). Thanks for sticking with me! Here’s to more posts, ZHTVs and etc! Oh, I also have been told recently that my lovely sister’s blog (ZMENA) is more entertaining than mine! I’ve had to pray about this, but after much thought, it’s true her blog is more entertaining. Shoot. Should I begin a Sibling Blog Feud? Hmmmm… We shall see… Muhaha…

UPDATE Before clicking publish, I checked Google Analytics once more and saw that Germany popped up on the grid since yesterday! Hallo aus der Tschechischen Republik und vielen Dank! So here is a shout out to you peeps in Aachen and Halle! Ok, now back to trying to be productive….

a little more web procrastination

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So I wanted to get a real post up today, but it didn’t happen. Wah, wah… BUT Check out my flickr site, because I put some pics up from a coworkers’/friends’ hockey game from a few weeks ago, and pics from the half marathon today. I love the new camera my parent’s and a friend hooked me up with back in at Christmas. (Thanks again guys!)Enjoy the pics and these two videos, one that is just beautifully creative and the other that is outrageously/very cool creative.


more procrastination, but good procrastination!

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This weekend my sick friend, David Baker, (David get well soon man and shake this nasty flu thing!) sent me a link to a very cool and very slick website entitled I AM SECOND. You need to check it out. I’ve tried to limit my procrastination on it, by only watching one of the stories here or there, but it’s good. Marvelously done! Thanks for the link David!

late night procrastination…

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Oh my… So I am somewhat the media department for AIA||Czech Republic and that has meant that I’ve slowly acquired the tools to create quality pieces for us, as well as ways to express myself creatively, and much more. During my trip back to the States, I acquired another couple of pieces to add to those tools and I’m stoked to use them. I’m currently working on conceptualizing, shooting and editing a promo for the Czech Project, but in doing so I’m trying to learn how to use these tools while I’m in the process of creating. I’m thankful for the world we now live in that allows me to find and consume information and etc. so quickly but it could also lead to hours of sitting and “learning” (let’s just call it that, it makes me feel better, but in reality it’s procrastinating a little, I guess!). In that I stumbled upon the videos of a guy, named Ugurcan Kara, on vimeo and I love what he is doing! He is using something called the “Magic Bullet Look,” which I’m trying to figure out how to join in this look, but do it under a budget. Anyway, I wanted to share two of his videos that have served as inspiration and procrastination at the same time for me! I really want to do some projects like these, just beautiful work! Enjoy!


balon from ugurcan kara on Vimeo.


bittersweet from ugurcan kara on Vimeo.

inspirations & robbers

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A few weeks ago, I read an entry, from Matt Chandler (pastor of the Village Church) and I’ve returned to it several times, because it has made me think much about my life. I recently, posted a link where I mentioned being an expert procrastinator (which sadly I think is an epidemic of my generation, because we have grown up with too much information. Which makes me wonder about future generations!), and I’ve been thinking about things that lead to that and adversely things that lead away from that. Chandler’s post that has made me think often was entitled Inspiration. He shared his inspirations and then a list of things which “robbed me [him] of zeal for Christ and His mission,” which for me was a list that leads to idleness and procrastination. Here are Chandler’s two lists:

Inspirations

  1. Early mornings and hot coffee
  2. The writings of John Owen (at the time it was The Mortification of Sin)
  3. Listening to Lauren sing
  4. Walks through graveyards (I know this is weird but it reminded me of mortality)
  5. The book of Hebrews
  6. Robust dialogue on ecclesiology or missiology
  7. Sermons by John Piper
  8. Angst-filled music

Robbers

  1. Watching too much TV and spending too much time online
  2. Staying up late for no reason
  3. Following sports too closely
  4. Being physically lazy
  5. Empty conversations (talking for hours about nothing)
  6. Idleness

Here are mine, after thinking and praying about this for quite some time (you’ll see some parallels):

Inspirations

  1. A strong cup(s) of coffee
  2. Preaching and teaching from John Piper and Mark Driscoll
  3. The Psalms – especially Psalms like 13
  4. Walking through Prague with good music cranking into my ears, while praying and laying down life, mission, work, relationships and more at my Savior’s feet.
  5. Big, sweeping epics, that is films
  6. A dude and his guitar type music
  7. Good, deep theological convo, that makes me want to read, study and pray more
  8. Good convos with people that challenge and inspire me, but also who like to listen to me. (is that possible? ;-))

Robbers

  1. Too much time on chicagobears.com, nfl.com and the endless list of blogs I want to follow
  2. Relationships lacking depth
  3. Facebook
  4. Late nights, that are late for no reason, as opposed to late nights that have great reason!
  5. Not being productive and getting things off the lists (I find peace in productivity)
  6. Not finishing things I’ve started (i.e. blog posts, I have so many half written posts)
  7. “Trying” to relax, instead of just being

I’m sure there are more that I could add to either of those lists, but that is what I’ve been thinking about. What are yours?
(HT – Reid)

the art of manliness

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So I’m a pro at procrastinating sometimes, especially when it comes to blogs (which is something I’m continually trying to work on!)! Last week, while I was reading my friend’s blog, (Steve McCoy) I stumbled upon this:


I love it! They encourage men, to be men! That is putting it simply, but what it doesn’t mean is men being shovanist pigs who are passive and pounding their chests, while loudly grunting. It however means, being real men, who take initiative to lead and lead well, who turn off the porn, who honer women as they should be honored and much, much more! I love it and I think many of us men could learn some manliness lessons from it. I’m no expert in being this type of man, but, Lord-willing, I’m growing into being this type of man. There are hours of procrastinating, that could be spent reading this blog, but here are two quick summaries to two entries I enjoyed. Click on the titles to read the whole entry.
The Brad Pitt Rule

Imagine that instead of you, Brad Pitt had asked this same woman out. Would she use the same excuse with him? If Brad Pitt asked her on a date, would she still say she had to study or was going to the movies with friends that night? Nope. She would have dropped pretty much anything and everything to be able to accept a date with Brad.

How to Give and Take Criticism like a Man
How to Give Effective Criticism

    Go in cool, calm, and collected.
    Be specific.
    Criticize the action, not the person.
    Be a diplomat.
    Make specific suggestions for improvement.
    Personalize your approach.
    Point out positives.
    Follow up.

How to Take Criticism

    Consider the source.
    Shut your trap and listen.
    Don’t take it personally.
    Stay calm (even if the other person is being a complete jerk).
    Ask clarifying questions.
    Take ownership of your mistake.
    Change your perspective on criticism.
    Thank your critic (even when they handed your butt to you).
    Take action and follow up.

Good stuff, check out the site! I’m off to bed…

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