One of my favorite bloggers, Liz Strauss is having a special even today in honor of her blog’s birthday. Normally on Tuesday’s she has something called Open Comment Night.

But today she’s opened it up for a whole day long extended play event. Stop over and check it out and have some cake while you’re there!

Liz Strauss over at Successful-Blog is having a blog birthday tomorrow. In light of that she is having a little contest where entrants must describe her blog in 25 words or less.

Since I’ve started hanging out at the Open Comment Night that Liz hosts every Tuesday night I’ve gotten to know her and have come to consider her a friend. I nearly had the opportunity to meet her when my work sent me to her home town of Chicago, but an unfortunate change of flights by my company got in the way.

Liz is a passionate advocate for Net Neutrality and her Net Neutrality pages (page1 and page 2) are an invaluable resource where anyone can learn more about the controversy.

The Tuesday night Open Comment Nights are often a highlight of my week. There bloggers from all around the world hang out for a while, bounce ideas around, build friendships, and sometimes even get a little silly. The only real rule that Liz strictly enforces is that everyone must be nice.

Liz is a master at building community. We could all learn a thing or two from her example (especially us church folks!)

So without further ado, here is my entry for the contest:

Successful-Blog is a fun community where you can rub elbows and learn from successful business professionals, writers, bloggers, and even a code writing donkey.

You’ll have to check out Open Comment Night yourself some Tuesday to find out about the code writing donkey!

Happy Birthday Successful-Blog! May you have many more Successful-Years!

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Over at Successful-Blog Liz Strauss wrote yesterday about learning writing tips from Peter Gabriel. Now I was a Peter Gabriel fan back in the day. His lyrics are thought provoking and his music is emotional. He was incredibly entertaining (not to mention having a completely Biblical name.)

Reading Liz’s post got me to thinking about dreams and visions. How important are they in our lives?

If you’ve ever been to a “success” seminar, especially here in the Bible Belt, you’ve likely heard someone say, “The Bible says that where there is no vision, people perish.”

Is it true?

Well let’s take a look. The verse those speakers is referring to is Proverbs 29:18. Usually those speakers are referring to the King James Version. In that translation it appears to be a stand alone statement. But when you look at some other translations the statement appears a little different. Go ahead and click on the link for the verse and read through the five different translations there of that sentence. (I’ll wait here for a minute.) What’s that all about?

Well different translators have gone back to the original languages in the biblical texts over the years and translated it from those original languages into English. Language being what it is, sometimes the translations come out slightly different from each other.

So what I do when I’m trying to understand a particular passage is read several different translations, compare them and work out what the original author really meant. That’s why you’ll see me reference different translations sometimes when I talk about Bible stuff.

Does that mean the others are wrong? Nope. Not at all. It just means that I understand the scripture best from whichever translation I reference.

All that said, I like the way the New Living Translation puts it:

When people do not accept divine guidance, they run wild. But whoever obeys the law is happy.

So what’s the vision? It’s divine guidance. Whoa!

That makes total sense. If we refuse divine guidance we will run wild and eventually perish. And at the same time if we accept it and live by God’s biblical principles we will be happy. And happy is in the big three that everyone wants! (The other two are thin and rich in case you were wondering. Everybody wants to be thin, rich and happy.)

So we need to accept divine guidance. But what does that have to do with dreams and visions? Actually a bunch. Let me give you a partial list of folks the Bible says that God influenced through dreams and visions:

• Abimelech
• Abraham
• Jacob
• Leban
• Joseph
• Pharaoh
• Eli
• Isaiah
• Ezekiel
• Gideon
• Solomon
• Nebuchadnezzar
• Daniel
• Zechariah
• Joseph (husband of Mary)
• Pilate
• Paul
• Ananias
• Cornelius
• Peter
• John

The list reads like a who’s who of the Bible, complete with the good, the bad and the ugly. It starts at the very beginning in Genesis and doesn’t end until the final book of the New Testament in Revelation. There is a consistent pattern of God communicating with people this way throughout scripture. And that makes sense because the Bible also says that God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. So He is still using dreams and visions to communicate with folks.

The folks on the list all were offered an opportunity to do great things for God. Many of them took that chance and changed their world. Some didn’t. Some started out well and finished in disgrace. And others had really bad starts but finished well.

I once heard someone say that the stories we read in the Bible fall into two basic categories. Some are there to encourage us and show what we can accomplish if we choose to listen to God. Others are there as examples for us and show us what can happen if we choose not to listen to God.

What’s your dream? To be an encouragement or an example?

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OK guys. It’s time for me to get a little preachy. If you are in the US, and most of you stopping here at this point are, you need to know there is something big happening in Congress in the next week.

It will affect everyone. Globally.

Do you support any non-profit charities? How would you like it if their information could no longer be accessed?

Congress will be voting on the issue that has been labeled “Net Neutrality”. The outcome of this vote will have lasting repercussions that affect your access to information on the internet and ultimately how everyone in the world can access information flowing from the US.

Congress may decide to keep things the way they have been for years by passing a new law. Or they may vote to give the giant phone and cable companies complete control of the internet so they can convert it to their own private network.

If Congress gives control to these corporate giants, these companies say they will choose what information their customers can and cannot access.

And it is already happening.

For example Craigslist is being blocked by Cox Interactive.

What can you do?

First – Get Informed.

You can read my previous posts on the issue here and here.

Go to the advocacy sites It’s Our Net and Save The Internet.

Read what Google says about the issue in today’s entry at the Official Google Blog.

Liz over at Successful-Blog has a whole page of links devoted to Net Neutrality. She’s been tracking this issue for a long time.

And you can read what Mark has to say at R-Web Designs. He was targeted with a comment spam attack because of his advocacy.

Then – Contact Congress.

Make your voice heard. Send an email. Make a phone call. If you don’t speak up now then you are allowing Congress to be swayed by the multi-million dollar marketing campaign that the corporate giants are using to tell their side of the story.

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Dr. Nora Barnes of U-Mass Dartmouth Center for Marketing Research is conducting a study about bloggers and is doing something smart – asking for input directly from authors of blogs.

Are you tired of the misconceptions that persist out there about blogging? Now you have an opportunity to help set the record straight. Take a couple of minutes to fill out the survey and return it to Dr. Barnes.

This study was brought to my attention by Liz Strauss over at Successful Blog who first heard about it from Diane Ensey at A List Review.

(We now return you back to your regular blogging program…)

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Gorgeous and I are having a bit of a rough week. I guess you could say we’re on a passion search.

Don’t get me wrong. We got no problem with our passion, if you know what I mean. But that’s not what I’m talking about. (Besides, this is not that kind of blog. Sheesh!)

We’ve been asking ourselves lots of questions.

• If money were no object what do you want to do?
• If you could set aside all the things you have to do and had all the time in the world, what would you want to do?
• What do you find yourself thinking about when your mind wanders?

Asking those sorts of questions helps refine what your passion really is.

Liz Strauss over at Successful-Blog some advice for folks who are searching to figure out what their passion really is

If you’re after an answer to that question, here’s how to spot something that’s your passion.You have a passion, if what you are thinking about is

1. a pastime or idea you’ve been interested in from the minute you encountered it.
2. a pastime or idea you talk about, read about, and write about even when you don’t have to.
3. a pastime or idea other people know that you know a lot about.
4. a pastime or idea you would miss sorely if you had to give it up.
5. a pastime or idea that energizes you when you get to share it with others.

What does it matter what your passion is? Why bother answering these tough questions?

Well it turns out you are likely to be more successful throughout life if you allow yourself to work at something you are passionate about. Curt Rosengren says passion will fuel your success and he tells us why.

Passion is a renewable resource. Doing work that comes from the heart of who you are and what you’re drawn to energizes you. And that is energy you can put into doing the hard work of success.Success in your career doesn’t come with a snap of the fingers. It takes time. It takes effort. It takes commitment. Above all, it takes the energy and inspiration to make it all happen.

Curt feels so strongly about the subject that he calls himself a Passion Catalyst and has made his own career out of helping others figure out their passions.

But here’s the best part about finding your passion and letting yourself focus there. Not only are you likely to make more money because passion pays, but you will be happier too.

Again Curt tells us that to Focus on Money, Prestige, Success is a Recipe for Unhappiness.

So there you have it. Finding your passion can make you rich and happy. And now you’ve even got some pointers on how to get started working out what your passion really is.

All and all a good day.

Enjoy!

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I’m heading out of town for a couple of days. The bummer is I’ll miss Gorgeous by a few hours since she won’t be home until tonight. {Sigh…}

Anyway, I’m heading out to Charleston for the Coast to Coast Multi-Site Conference. The conference is Monday and Tuesday but I’m going up early for a couple of reasons.

The first is that I’ll get a little extra time to hang out with some of our friends. Gorgeous and I lived up there for a while. If I just drove up Monday it would be all conference and very little hang out time. And I just find it hard to actually consume mass quantities of coffee when I don’t get a little hang out time!

The second reason for going up early is that I’ve offered to help out with the tech team supporting the conference. I’ll be doing basically the same thing up there that I do most weeks down here at our Seacoast campus in Savannah.

But the Long Point campus generally has about 5,000 folks or so on a weekend. We run 175-ish in Savannah. The gear they use up there is just a little different. (Ya think?) And I’d rather not try to work out those differences on the fly during the conference on Monday.

Since I’ll be away for a while and don’t know what kind of computer access I’ll have to post new entries, I thought you might appreciate checking out some folks that I try to keep up with.

Interested in business, blogging, writing, networking, or the internet? Check out Successful Blog. I was a fan of Liz even before she called me an SOB.

Or maybe you’d like a little humor from a stay at home mom with way too much on her plate. If so, be sure to check out HolyMoma! I don’t have kids, but Kelsey’s descriptions of the various ways her kids manage to get messy usually generates a chuckle.

If you are into sci-fi or writing, check out the Writer’s Blog. I just discovered this one, but Jim brings an interesting perspective to the table. And his blog design is killer.

And finally, be sure to check out my buddy David Turner at TURNED OUT. Speaking of great blog design, and I don’t usually go for the black backgrounds! David’s a deep thinker and his words are worth mulling over for a bit before you move on. Be sure to check out his Jump Start posts on Mondays.

That should keep you going until I get back. And who knows, I might even be able to get something out from up there.

Enjoy!

Well, I had a ship last night and didn’t get in very early. Since Friday is supposed to be date night with Gorgeous, we took in our weekly dose of Doctor Who compliments of TIVO and then turned in because I had to get up and head into work for a full day today.

This morning I got up a little early for a Saturday because I was off to work, fed the boys, and fired up the computer to check a couple things out before I headed in to the port. Checking my stats real quick on my way to perusing through my morning bloggage and I saw that Liz Strauss over at the Successful Blog not only linked back to me here (which is a treat in itself because we like links) but she actually had the audacity to call me out as an S.O.B.

I nearly spit my coffee on the keyboard.

But it’s not what you may be thinking. Liz highlights folks that she feels are Successful and Outstanding Bloggers (or SOB’s). Here’s her definition of an SOB:

They take the conversation to their readers, contribute great ideas, challenge us, make us better, and make our businesses stronger.
I thank every one of our SOBs for thinking what we say is worth passing on. Good conversation shared can only improve the blogging community.

So I’m celebrating my nice little honor by posting this official SOB logo here at CREEations. And thanks Liz for appreciating what I have to say here.

Although I have to admit, I feel a little like the Dad from A Christmas Story with my major award. Fortunately my major award is much better!

Enjoy!