I have two fabulous children! I am completely biased – and I’m proud of it! But seriously, they are the most precious people I have ever encountered! Isaac has the most genuine heart and tenderness toward others that I find myself in awe of him, and at times a bit jealous. Lacie seems to be drawn to others – she genuinely LOVES other people – and again, as someone who is more quiet in nature when meeting others and even with the friendships I have, I admire this bravery, this transparency and this sweet heart. They often say that we, as parents, are to be examples to our children. No pressure there, right? :) But today, I find that my kids and I reversed roles as they were resounding examples to me…

Grandma came to town last night and after much anticipation set out with us on the many adventures that Isaac had planned for her. Today’s adventure took us to the Columbia Zoo! Yes, on this nice bright, sunny 95 degree day – Isaac, Lacie, Grandma and I set off to see the wonders and excitement that the zoo had to offer. On the ride there – I put in a Veggietales CD that has all kinds of music on it – ‘Wheels on the Bus’, ‘This Little Light of Mine’, ‘He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands’ and so forth. Classics from when I was a little girl! Well, along with these old gems it also included several ‘Veggie’ songs – one of which is called ‘Don’t Ya Know?’ The lyrics go something like this…’Don’t ya know…don’t ya know…don’t ya know that God loves you(oooo). Don’t ya know? Don’t ya know? Don’t ya know that God loves you?!’ Very catchy song – once it was over – Isaac immediately asked his grandma “Grandma, did you know that God loves you?!’ When her response was 'yes', he sat back in his seat very pleased – as if a load had been released from him. As we continued on our day, enjoying the zoo, chasing Lacie, wrestling our stroller, and snacking on everything imaginable…Lacie began to get a little tired. Her stubborn nature, however, prevented her from giving into this exhaustion and she set out determined to walk around! But then something came over her – she began to notice – not the animals - but the people that were walking around the zoo. She began by waving to them, peaking into strollers to give her condolences for their being trapped inside, and quietly assessing those who passed her by. Then this sweet, almost 17 month old, began to approach various people and hug them sweetly around their legs. They would seem a bit taken aback, but pat her on the head, smile and continue on. She continued… she went even further to not only hug their legs – often stopping people in their tracks – but she would look at them, say ‘Up’ (to which they would worriedly look to me as if to say ‘is this okay?’) and they would scoop her up and she would rest her head on their shoulder and hug them with such gentleness and genuine love. I heard one man say ‘that’s the first hug I’ve had in a long time’. I watched a young African-American man stand in awe having  totally taken in by this little one. I stood in awe as a larger woman in a wheelchair had my baby girl crawl up into her arms, lay her head down on her chest, and pat her gently on the arm.

What did my children teach me today? What was the example they demonstrated to me? We live in a world that is hurting, that doesn’t fully understand what genuine love is, and that does not know that God loves them! I observed sacrifice of fun and adventure in order that that love be demonstrated. I watched how easily it was given, how quickly it was received and the impression that it left. I watched as it was handed out to men, women, boys, girls, teens. Those who were older and those who were infants; color did not factor in, age was not a boundary and there was a steady, unending desire for everyone to experience it. Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior. He is my best friend! He has provided for me in more ways that I can count and certainly more than I have acknowledged. He brings freedom from heartache. He is hope! He is love – love without boundary, love without distinction, love that is unending. I am surrounded by a world who longs, but don’t know what they are longing for – and I need to be willing to sacrifice – whatever – to show them his love, to give them his love, to lavish them with his love. I praise God for the sweet nature of my son and baby girl. I am thankful for their example – and I only hope that I can one day share Christ’s love a tiny bit as much as what they did today.

Once the year rolled over and it officially became 2009 - something happened where the four of us became ridiculously busy. With all of our different activities time has seemed to slip away from us - as you can most likely notice from the fact that we haven't blogged since January. Shameful, I know. While we are working on our website and attempting to get ourselves back into gear in updating our site with the random happenings and stories from our little lives...we did want you to know that we have begun blogging in another way now too, which may help make up for our the many months that have passed by. Well, several months ago, Chris went on a trip - and to try and keep in contact with me and allow me to get a sense of what he was feeling and experiencing - he began to email me random pictures of his trip away and I tried to follow suit by sending photos of the cute things the kids were doing. This seemed to spark something in him and about a week and half ago, Chris began a photo blog - where each day he takes a photo or two, updating them with the happenings of that day or that photo. And about four days ago, I began to do the same. It has been a lot of fun for the two of us to be able to 'experience' what the other has done and so we wanted to make that available for our friends and family. We do this through the website smugmug.com - an really cool website where we are beginning to house and share a lot of our photos. You'll notice that when you come to our blog page - to the right are links to Chris' Daily Photo Blog and Sarah's Daily Photo Blog - please feel free to check those out, especially as we are slow to putting updates here! Thanks for sharing in our adventures with us! We'll try to be better at keeping you in the know!

I believe Rita Polk found this first and emailed  it around. It made it to me via Tarah Browning...It's too good not to share! I hope it makes the Journey Church line-up soon. Enjoy!

Standard mantra from the Cinnamon couch heard on almost a nightly basis…150 channels give or take, and nothing…to be honest we watch way too much bad TV…bad meaning, “there is nothing on so I guess we’ll watch this tired, overplayed, predictable crap.” Am I alone in this vacuum, this void, this seemingly black hole of never-ending, non-original, non-sense? Have we come to the end of creative, funny, dramatic, intense, informative ideas? Certainly not. We just aren’t getting anything original because the dinosaurs that run the networks don’t like risk, or unknowns, or anything new that doesn’t have a built-in audience and guaranteed revenue streams. Might I suggest something…the big media conglomeration are actually dying and will go the way of the dinosaurs and TV as you know it is about change; and I’m not talking about the overblown switch from analog to digital in February.

I don’t think you’ll wake up tomorrow and CBS, NBC, ABC, & Fox will be gone – of course not…but they are losing power and market share everyday and just like the big three automakers they will wake-up to the realization that most people (especially the younger generations) now consider the status quo a liability/trash/not worth their effort – people didn’t stop buying Ford’s or GM vehicles because they don’t make reliable cars, people stopped buying because ‘reliable’ lost its value and the cool, hip, fresh, risky became the deal maker - How else do you explain people driving cars that look like a box with 4 wheels! Meaning simply this: the average/reliable/safe/status quo just aint good enough anymore. This was never so evident to me than on Tuesday night when ABC premiered a new show…’Scrubs’ a zany show about a daydreaming doctor and his struggle to understand life through pithy circumstances surrounded by a group of hilariously wacky people. Problem is Scrubs premiered in 2001 on NBC…I actually like the show but after watching the ABC incarnation Sarah said they didn’t change anything, it’s the same exact show – and let’s face it – it’s tired, overdone, overplayed, and predictable.

So what is filling the creative void in the market? What is taking the eyeballs away from the networks? The internet…don’t make a mistake here and assume that the internet is actually the cause of change…it’s not…it is merely the tool by which creative, talented individuals are able to distribute and build communities around their work. Jay Black a blogger for tvsquad.com writes an interesting piece about Leo Laporte…one such entrepreneur that has succeed in capturing a niche audience that would otherwise go unserved or be reduced to enduring the terrible G4 cable channel. I’ll let you read his take on what Leo is doing - for full disclosure purposes I am a TWiT and happen to agree with Jay. I’m also a guy who found great interest in the ’24 hours of iPhone Coverage’ Leporte did during the iPhone 3G launch, which was basically people talking about the new iPhone while standing in line to get one – so you might not be able to track with my level of geekiness – I understand. But Jay’s point is valid, a network TV show cost roughly ½ million to 1 million to produce per hour…Leo’s (per his tweet commenting on the tvsquad the story) cost is about $450 per hour to produce – Someone in Leo’s position only needs a few thousand viewers to make a nice living – just wait until there are 100 TWiT-like networks or when there are a thousand – one or two them serving up content that you and a few thousand others really enjoy.

Ok, so maybe that’s only a small part of the equation and the TWiT network is more tech news oriented & round table discussion than pure original creativity. So what about creative people doing creative things? You have the recent Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog incident. If you have not seen it you should. It is a 43-minute musical film, initially produced exclusively for Internet distribution. It stars Major Minor TV star Neil Patrick Harris (Doogie Howser, M.D. or Barney on How I Met Your Mother) and tells the story of Dr. Horrible, the aspiring supervillain alter ego of Billy; Captain Hammer, his nemesis; and Penny, their mutual love interest. The short movie was written by writer/director Joss Whedon during the writers’ strike. It’s original, funny, edgy, and pretty entertaining.

But a single instance of creativity, or brilliance, or amusement won’t kill TV as we know it. So here are a few more examples of where individual are making almost TV quality content without the money of the big networks and more importantly without the influences of the big networks. Revison3.com is a whole network of internet-only shows. Many are focused at a niche group of people like comic book nuts or movie junkies or tech nerds. One of the shows on the network that Sarah and I both enjoyed was ctrl-alt-chicken, a slightly off beat cooking show hosted by a couple of nerds who don’t know how to cook. Sarah actually made two of the dishes they featured on the show – Chicken Cordon Blue (not so good) and Manicotti (very good) The point is the Revison3 network is full of shows that hit a target audience along with being fresh, untethered, and unpredictable. No network involvement, no scared CEO’s to nix something a bit different or new and if the show fails to gain an audience, like ctrl-alt-chicken which is out of production, you simply archive the dozen shows you made for the fans and you move on to next idea. For brevity I’ll mention only one more of the internet-only networks, though there are many and growing everyday… another example is channelflip.com – a British take on tech, games, movies, culture, comedy, etc…

Fueling their own death of dominance, big networks are jumping on the bandwagon and putting together/sponsoring sites like hulu.com and Joost.com. These sites are turning big numbers and making big in-roads even though they are only replaying network produced material. These sites have the advantage of being on-demand and pretty high quality. So now you can watch all three seasons of the off-beat comedy Arrested Development for free on Hulu.com – pretty cool. But they are making the mistake I warned you not to make – they assume incorrectly the internet is the catalyst driving the loss of eyeballs on TV, but it isn’t the internet at all. It is the pitiful content they produce year after year that has people searching for the new, the interesting, the next. They should instead launch sites with fresh new programming contrived and created by the best talent they have under contract and turn them loose to become a brilliant hit or a horrible failure (in the Revision3 vane – try something and see if it sticks). But of course they won’t and they will discover far too late just as the Big Auto Companies, the Newspaper Business, the Big Record Labels that individuals have changed and no longer value reliable cars, news that is printed on paper, or music produced by propped-up plastic artist that can’t really sing and no longer what to watch the same old junk they keep turning out.

One final area that is creating a huge distraction from traditional TV are sites like YouTube.com, Metacafe.com, FunnyorDie.com, etc…the list is endless. Most feature short clips that range from music videos to original comedy sketches to homemade videos of every stupid thing imaginable. Some of these sites like YouTube have actually been an asset to the big networks by reminding people of some the descent content they are producing. For example the recent resurgence of Saturday Night Live which hasn’t been funny for years, but recently with the political climate and the talents of Tina Fey has drawn a lot of attention – don’t worry I don’t expect it to be funny again for at least another four years. I’m also sure the phenomenon of these sites driving eyeball back to the network will fade too. Especially since the networks are actively trying to keep sites like YouTube from having and showing  their material. 

All this and more is changing TV as we know it. Not for the masses at first, but eventually the sheep will follow.

A milestone of sorts has been reached. One year ago we started theCinnamons.com blog. It has served as a pretty consistent flow of information for friends and family. I imagined it to a bit more than just family happening but that’s on me. I haven’t written the kind of thoughts that branch out beyond projects or funny things the kids do. Anyway here are the stats for 2008:

I enjoy numbers so it’s pretty cool to see how many unique people visited and how many pages were viewed this year. Google analytics is pretty awesome.

-Chris

To say I don’t read might be an overstatement…I can indeed read – I have to all the time, my job(s) require it. To say I don’t read for fun or enjoyment is more to the point. I don’t. My first actual read for fun, my first completed book where someone wasn’t forcing me to consume the content was Left Behind…I was twenty-one (Imagine my disappointment when I realized I would have to read another 21 books to see how the story ends).  I don’t even think I finished the Seuss classic Green Eggs and Ham – I remember getting to ‘would you like them in a box or with a fox’ and either getting hungry or deciding the impracticality of eating such a food in those places with those animals was beyond my sensibilities.?

So why am I sputtering on about reading for recreation and expansion of the mind, when it’s obvious it is not a priority and I don’t make time for it…because I have discovered something that has me excited about finally getting to enjoy the world of literature like never before. This is not a new concept, in fact if your parents, grandparents, or primary school teachers were concerned with your mental development, vocabulary skills, and ability to grasp concepts – they read to you. That’s right…Someone Reading to you! This concept is not new to me either, for nearly all twelve years of marriage Sarah has fought nausea to read while we traveled in the car somewhere. We have read some great books – 5 or 6 Frank Peretti books, Creating Community, Church Planting Books, and most recently Crazy Love by Francis Chan.

Up to this point I had not found a way to convince Sarah to ride everywhere with me and read ;0
For Christmas my loving wife out of her wisdom and grace got me a subscription to Audible.com. Audible is bookstore of over 55,000 books in audio form…it is an incredible resource and a new way to consume content like never before. I am of course late to the game, early adopters have been using and enjoying Audible.com for years but now that I have found it, I wanted to share it with anyone who will listen (pun intended). I typically spend at least 1h 15min in the car on my commute everyday plus an hour working out a few days a week…with that recaptured time I should be able to read at a minimum a couple books a month.  

Here is a free way to see you are going to like Audible.com
You can get a free audio book that I’m reading right now called Tribes – this is a book about the social culture of people and how they respond to leadership. Pretty insightful book about taking a group of people and turning them into a movement. It’s free, it’s about 4 hours, and it is read by the author. I’m enjoying it…

Click here to get it http://www.audible.com/adbl/entry/offers/productPromo2.jsp?BV_UseBVCookie=Yes&productID=FR_ADBL_000302

You won’t need a credit card or anything but you will need to setup an account. Follow the steps to download the audible software and it will put the book in your media manager of choice – I’m using iTunes. I think if you try it…you will love it. Let me know.
www.audible.com

--Chris

When we purchased this house it had a drainage problem in the back yard – a couple days after a good rain, water would stand in the backyard…at the walk through we said fix it. Despite the efforts of Lennar or their sub contractors the water issue remained. Until now…after about 4 months of the back patio area being a mess I finished the project.

I poured 3-4 yards of concrete, stamped, & colored it. And I added a drain to send water to the ditch in the back of the yard. This was my first experience with stamping and coloring concrete. It’s not great but it’s only concrete. Take a look at the pictures from the project.

We have been trying to get Isaac's Christmas program formatted and downloaded for a couple of weeks now, but have encountered multiple glitches. But at last, though not of fabulous quality, here it is!! :)

This is the very first thing that Isaac has ever performed in, and we weren't sure if he would retreat, stand quietly, show off, or what. Not too surprisingly the 'or what' happened. Chris claims that in true form, just like his mother (though she protests this), he hammed it up and stole the show. With the intermittent 'shout-outs' to mama, the 'look what I can do' tricks, the purposeful singing of the wrong words and overall just being cute. If you watch nothing else - you have to catch the last minute where he comes up with his own personal closing move. Not sure who decided to put him front row center stage, but am sure they might be questioning that choice.

Sarah spoke to my mom yesterday and she was lamenting the woes of winter in Louisville. Of course the weather has been extremely harsh here in Summerville...I say pack up and come where summer seemingly never ends. Looks like I'll get to wear short on Christmas day again.

So I have been a little jealous that so many of my friends are having pictures taken of their little ones for Christmas. Not having any dollars to put toward such an endeavor - I thought to myself - I'll take my own pictures - how hard can this be? Feel free to laugh out loud here as you take into consideration the fact that I have a little digital camera, a three year old, 11 month old, no extra hands, no experience, and little patience! It is not what I envisioned, they are not 'high quality', but in the end they are my sweethearts and pretty darn cute at that. Note to self - photography is not my gift - start saving for next Christmas. :) Here are the best of them...