Hopeful rumors stormed tech sites for months and years without the iPhone ever being available on Verizon, and even though I did get married and have my own account switching to AT&T while nearly all my contacts shared Verizon-to-Verizon minutes with me. So I waited.

Tired of waiting for rumors of a Verizon iPhone to come true, in October of 2010 I decided to upgrade my Blackberry Tour to a Droid X. Only to hear the news three months later that Verizon finally had the iPhone.

Since the iPhone has been on Verizon, my wife, father, mother, sister, sister-in-law, brother-in-law, best friend, best friend’s wife, pastor, group’s pastor, student minister, nextgen pastor, scc campus pastor, marriage pastor, and my ex-Droid X wielding boss to name a few of my friends who were able to experience the joy of the iPhone on Verizon. Oddly enough I actually had to help a few of those lucky friends setup their phones. And if you know me at all, I completely understand the supremacy of Apple in the tech market—as I write this post on a MacBook Pro.

While waiting for my iPhone, I have had 2 LG Chocolates, 3 defunct Blackberry Storms, a Blackberry Tour, and a Motorola Droid X.

And finally my waiting has ended.

Hello iPhone. It’s the white one.

Characteristics of a Goldy Man/Awesome Bro

What Characteristics to do relate with an Awesome Bro?

Leadership

• What is Leadership?
• There are different steps of leadership. Not everyone can be the president of the US or the president of anything, but you can always lead amongst your peers and in certain situations. How you lead with little responsibilities will determine how you lead with much.
• (“For those who know me best to know and respect me most.” Andy Stanley quoting his friend from Next Generation Leader) pg 155.
• “To become a leader worth following, you must be intentional about developing the inner man. You must invest in the health of your soul. Nobody plans to fail, especially leaders. But to ignore the condition of your should is the equivalent of planning to fail.” pg 153.
• The leader who refuses until fear is gone will never move.
• Most possess the talent to lead, but it’s your courage/strength that will establish you as a leader in the minds of others.

Strength/Courage

• What is Strength/Courage?
• “One need never violate the principles of God to maintain the blessings of God. The unseen King is able.” pg 147. Daniel 3 King Nebuchadnezzar story.
• Seek wise counsel.
• Proverbs 1:5 Let the wise hear and increase in learning, and the one who understands obtain guidance,
• Proverbs 12:15 The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but a wise man listens to advice.
• Proverbs 15:22 Without counsel plans fail, but with many advisers they succeed.
• Proverbs 19:20 Listen to advice and accept instruction, that you may gain wisdom in the future.
• The strength to say no.
• “Most of us lead busy undisciplined lives. We have ever expanding ‘to do’ lists, trying to build momentum by doing, doing, doing–and doing more. And it rarely works. Those who built the good-to-great companies, however, made as much use of ‘stop doing’ lists as the ‘to do’ lists.

Integrity or Character

• What is integrity/Character?
• Character is not an essential to be a leader. We all know leaders who lacked character. But character is what makes a leader worth following.
• “Character is the will to do what’s right even when it’s hard.” pg 133.
• “Character is personal, but it is not private.” Andy Stanley. Make sure you make your intentions known.
• Characteristics of integrity. (Available, accountable, dependable, generous, honest, loyal, pure, sensitive, and transparent.)
• “Leaders worth following do not pretend to live in two worlds. There is no discrepancy between their professional and private lives. They know the futility of compartmentalizing their lives.” pg 141.
• Proverbs 11:3 The integrity of the upright guides them, but the crookedness of the treacherous destroys them.

Godliness

• What is Godliness?
• 2 Peter 1:3-13 3His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, 4 by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.5 For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge,6 and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness,7 and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love.8 For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.9 For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins.10 Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to make your calling and election sure, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall.11 For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. 12 Therefore I intend always to remind you of these qualities, though you know them and are established in the truth that you have.13 I think it right, as long as I am in this body, to stir you up by way of reminder.

Here are all the Tips listed. Tip 8 teaches how to get out of the seat from the main menu.

Black Ops: Quick Tip #1

Black Ops: Quick Tip #2

Black Ops: Quick Tip #3

Black Ops: Quick Tip #4 (Napalm)

Black Ops: Quick tip #5 (claymore)

Black Ops: Quick Tip #6 (summit opening route)

Black Ops: Quick Tip #7 (Corner Campers)

Black Ops: Quick tip #8 (Secret zombie map unlock)

Black Ops: Quick tip #9 (summit nade spot)

Black Ops: Quick tips #10-12

Black Ops: Quick Tips #13 (dogs)

Cheat Codes when at the computer in the main menu.

If you’re like me, then you download and view multiple PDFs during the work week. If you are also like me, then you hate that the default application to open PDFs is Adobe Acrobat. Don’t get me wrong Acrobat has it’s purposes, but it isn’t as fast or useful as Preview when it comes to just viewing a PDF.

Here’s how to change Preview to be your default application.

• Open Finder
• Select a .pdf file
• Press ⌘+i (or right click > Get Info)(or File > Get Info)

• Find the “Open With:” section

• Select Preview.app from the dropdown menu

• Change All

Now all of your PDFs will open in Preview, if you open directly from Finder.

Excited about this one.

Being a true US soccer fan, I went to Facebook and voted. After watching Landon’s tweets after I voted I soon learned you could vote more than once, and I did so.

Then when Landon realized he was going to win, he set up a competition to award those that voted an opportunity to win 1 of 20 jerseys; he actually gave away 23.

Send me a pic of why you deserve a jersey and be creative. Have fun! And keep it PG please

January 3, 2011 10:48 am via EchofonReplyRetweetFavorite

@landondonovan

Landon Donovan

After brainstorming with @micahhuebner I decided to go all out and try to win a jersey.

Here was my entry:

i scored a sweet design and celebrated in true @landondonovan style http://yfrog.com/gz56023238j

January 4, 2011 2:07 pm via webReplyRetweetFavorite

@sullied

Michael Sullivan

I thought it turned out really well. It’s me sliding across my desk, mimicking Landon Donovan’s slide into the corner after he scored against Algeria in the 2010 World Cup.

Yes, I did dress up and come to work like that—not really.

I really wanted to win, but I didn’t want to litter my twitter followers with tweets about how I wanted to win. It wasn’t until a conversation with @micahhubener and @nathanielhale that I realized this was a once in a lifetime opportunity to win an actual jersey from who I believe is the best American soccer player to date.

So I went for it. I scheduled my tweets in 30-minute increments, hoping Landon would at least see one. I would have been disappointed if he didn’t see my entry. If he would have seen and didn’t think it was good enough I would have been fine with that. But if he didn’t even see my entry I would have been heartbroken.

In the process I annoyed a few of my twitter followers.

@landondonovan Please give @sullied a jersey! He's about to break twitter with his attempts to win one! http://yfrog.com/gz56023238j

January 4, 2011 4:02 pm via webReplyRetweetFavorite

@dralexander

Ryan Alexander

For the love of everything that is holy, @landondonovan please give @sullied a jersey!! We have to stop this madness!!!

January 4, 2011 8:02 pm via TweetDeckReplyRetweetFavorite

@weshoward

Wes Howard

I apologized to my followers and asked that they bear it for one day. Hopefully I didn’t loose many followers.

Landon mentioned, in a tweet, he would announce the winners at midnight Pacific Time, which is 2am in Tennessee. So I stayed up reading and watching Inception while waiting for an announcement.

Then at about 1:30 Landon tweeted the winners.

@sabrinaftw27 @rachelstoa22 @Mimi_dubs @tiffanyphillips @dutkae @unendlichkeiit @usald10 @lovesgonebad @yessica06 @sullied @louworrall #fb

January 5, 2011 1:00 am via EchofonReplyRetweetFavorite

@landondonovan

Landon Donovan

RT @cinD021: @landondonovan like on paper?? or on a word doc? LoL http://plixi.com/p/67973175

January 5, 2011 1:05 am via EchofonReplyRetweetFavorite

@landondonovan

Landon Donovan

My annoying tweets paid off. There it was. My twitter name was listed on a sheet of paper in Landon’s handwriting. (That’s pretty cool!)

I’m really humbled to have won, and will be mounting the jersey in a frame to hang in my office.

It’s pretty cool to think I can tell my future kids and grandkids about how I won a real Landon Donovan jersey, and then show them the goal he scored in the 2010 World Cup.

Only to have them say well <insert future star’s name> is better.

Info graphic by Playstation Blog so it portrays PS3 in the brightest light, but is still interesting to see.