RADIATE08//BLOG

And now…

The world premiere of the music video for “Burnin’ Up for You DC” by The Bridge Band and me. Enjoy it, folks–we did it for you.

According to TV, here are a few things that are completely true:

1. I’m saved by zero…0% financing from Toyota, that is.
2. If I don’t get Direct TV, ghosts and little blonde haired girls will invade my bedroom.
3. Regardless of who I vote for, my taxes will go up.
4. Tina Fey is really, really funny and I should think that she’s really, really funny because SNL is really, really funny and “30 Rock” is the greatest show to hit the television world since Oprah (who guest stars on “30 Rock” this week, by the way).
5. The commissioner of the More Taste League is smarter than any sports-watching male in the entire world, and I should obey his every word.

So, here’s the million dollar question: Is TV correct? I’ll answer that question with another question: Who cares?

I’m pretty sure that TV lies to me about 99% of the time, but the truth of the matter is that there will be no advertisement whatsoever for RADIATE08 on TV. Mostly because it costs like $30 million for 30 seconds of airtime on any of the 4 major networks, and that’s just not in the budget. The real truth is that RADIATE will change your life. It changed mine.

When I was a Junior at Virginia Tech, I attended this conference and it changed the way that I looked at the world, my school, God, and my vocation (not necessarily in that order). I love RADIATE, and it’s my hope that you will come and join in the life-changing experience with me this year. You won’t see us on TV, but as I’ve already pointed out: Who Cares?

At the World Series this year (Yeah, Philly) there were a variety of people that sang the national anthem before the first pitch was thrown. Old people, young, groups (BSB), etc. and none of them really did a great job at singing a song that’s been belted out by some amazing singers a thousand times in the past. Until Taylor Swift took a step up to the microphone with her rhinestone encrusted guitar, that is.

Her performance was simple, elegant and not drawn out for the sake of drawing out a song like, “…and the home of the, of the, of the, of the, little ‘ole home, hooooooome, home, home, home, of thuuuuuu, thuuuuu, thuuu braaaaaaaaaaaaaaaave!” Ugh.

I really appreciated her performance that night. So much so that I have chosen Taylor Swift as the frontrunner for a parody song that I will write for this year’s RADIATE conference. Which song? That is a secret that will be revealed in December in DC. Come and you’ll find out.

Here’s a little sneak peek into the life of one of our speakers at RADIATE08. I thoroughly enjoyed my time at the Herr’s Factory and I hope you will too.

Oh, and just so you know, Ed Herr has a good, firm handshake. I think that’s a great quality in any speaker, don’t you?

I’ve been offline for a while attending to some personal matters, but I’m now back to share with you some important news.

I’ll be completely honest with you all…I’m disappointed. As of today (Oct. 23,2008), I have received exactly 1 (one) entry for the little video contest I put together for RADIATE08. I’ve come to the conclusion that one of the following things is happening:

1. People aren’t that excited about making a promotional video with their own flava.
2. People are making these videos and it’s taking some time to put them together.
3. People are scared of the internet.
4. People have never heard of YouTube.
5. Acid Reflux disease is running wild on campuses across the mid-atlantic states, thus preventing promotional video making activity.

I personally hope that scenario number 2 (two) is taking place and that the others are just a figment of my crazy imagination. You do realize that there are prizes involved for this contest, right? You do realize that your video will be seen by thousands of people, right? You do realize that I love contests, right?

Nothing should inspire you more now, should it? Thank you for the 1 (one) entry and I hope to hear from more of you in the very near future. Again, with the rules:
1. Must be G-Rated
2. Make it 3 1/2 minutes or less
3. Put as much live action video in it as possible (not just slideshows)
4. Upload them to YouTube
5. Email me the link (shelbyabbott@gmail.com)

Depending on where you live, the trees are most likely beginning their transition into the vibrant change of color phase. It’s cool outside, the air is thinner and the leaves are turning orange, yellow and a fiery red.

I, myself, went through this change…however, it was far less vibrant, not beautiful, and included a wicked case of acne. I googled it, and the official term for this change is “puberty”. Most of you reading this have already ventured through the choppy seas of this inevitable transition in life and you know what I’m talking about when I say that it’s definitely not pretty. It happens to everyone (I think) and so we are able to understand when someone talks about their personal experience with the dreaded metamorphosis into being completely awkward. It’s a shared episode; something we have in common.

Well, my friends, the commonality does not have to end with the teenage segue into adulthood. We can share a much more exciting, fun, enjoyable, thrilling, growing, heartfelt experience together this year at RADIATE. It will be full of adventure, not unpleasantness. Full of depth, not awkwardness. Full of love, not squeaky voices. Let’s share the experience together.

Love is a very complex and somewhat confusing word. For example: there is a squirrel that lives in the tree next to my house that loves to bury all kinds of nuts and other tree related items in my yard. I would love to kill this squirrel.

See what I mean? Love can mean a variety of things depending on the context in which you might use the word. I love Apple computers, the smell of pine, chili from Wendy’s and my wife (not necessarily in that order), but I love them all in different ways and with varying degrees of strength.

So what does love mean when placed in the spiritual context? What does it really mean to be loved by God and to love others in a godly way? I’m looking forward to exploring in much greater depth the meaning of “RADIATE HIS LOVE” come the end of December.

If you come, I’d love it.

So here’s what happened…

I always cut my own hair. I’ve been doing it for the last 9 years or so. It saves me money and I can get my hair just the way I want it. Plus I don’t even have to tip myself $1 when I’m done. Last night, however, was a time that I deserved zero tip for the catastrophe I caused my poor head.

I have one of those clippers with the different colored guards on them. The key to what sized guard it is that corresponds to the color is on the actual clipper. Everything started out fine with the trimming…buzz, buzz, trim, trim…just dandy. Then I switched the guard from blue to purple. I took a swipe at the side of my head and a voluminous amount of hair fell from the clippers down into my bathroom sink. The following words are my conversation with myself as the evening continued…

“Hmmm, that’s a lot of hair. Maybe I don’t have the right guard on. Oh well, I’ll try it again and see if I get the same result when I go to trim a second time. Wow, a lot of hair came off then too; what’s going on? I’ve got the right guard on–it’s purple and the key here on the clippers say purple is 7/8 of an inch…oh, wait, there are two purple guards. Oh wait, the dark purple guard is 1/8 of an inch. Oh wait, I’m an idiot.”

That’s about right. Bottom line: the mistake was an unrecoverable event to the point that I took it all off. It’ll grow back, right?

Okay, I’ve had a few questions on what kind of video one could create in promotion for RADIATE08. Above is a link to a promotional video done by a few friends of mine from Penn State for last year’s RADIATE. This is a great example of what could be done for promotion of the greatest conference to ever hit these United States.

I know I said that the sky was the limit, but according to some of you, the sky is very, very big, so here are a few more boundaries:
1. Must be G-Rated
2. Make it 3 1/2 minutes or less
3. Put as much live action video in it as possible (not just slideshows)
4. Upload them to YouTube
5. Email me the link (shelbyabbott@gmail.com)

As I’ve said before, if your video is judged by the students attending RADIATE as the best, you will be able to come up on stage with me, talk about it AND THERE WILL BE A PRIZE. This is new in order to tempt you for quality video here. We want to see what your creative minds can come up with in order to promote RADIATE08.

Get Crackin’!