it’s about freakin’ time! seriously. our logo is almost old enough that it’s cool again. i half expect it to show up in old TV syndication re-runs.

we’ve needed a fresh look for a long time. we had some agreement and some disagreement about this over the years. and we had other fish to fry at points. and we just didn’t even think about it at other points.

but, about 6 months ago, i said to david welch (our marketing dude), “dave, we went through all that reinvention of who we are a few years ago, and then we got bought by zondervan, and they have a new logo, and we’re continuing to reinvent ourselves, and this sentence is getting really long and running on forever.” (or something like that.) i told him i thought the time was right to develop a new logo. david and a small team of logo bandits jumped right on it.

and here we are, a handful of months later, with a sweet new logo that i totally dig:

a few other things:

here’s a story about the process and why we did this.

here’s a bit of a visual history of ys logos through the years.

oh, and if you didn’t notice, we also took this opportunity to re-paint our entire website. dang, it’s such an improvement!

here’s the new sign in front of our building, surrounded by some of our staff (not everyone, but whoever was around at the moment). that’s steve, the shipping and facilities guy doing rabbit ears behind the heads of unsuspecting co-workers, mature dude that he is.

max (my 9 year-old son) and i fly to guatemala tonite. our primary reason for going is to be a part of the ys youth workers convention in guatemala city this coming weekend. this is our 3rd year of conventions in guatemala city. but i didn’t get to go last year, so i’m pumped to return.

here’s the convention website (it’s very cool, even if you don’t speak spanish!). i’ll be speaking in a general session, and presenting two seminars. all with translation, of course.

but max and i flying in a couple days early so we can travel out to a village to see some of the work of compassion, int’l. compassion, if you don’t know them, are a leading child-sponsorship organization, and have been friends and partners with ys for years. we’ll be lead by our old friend rich van pelt (co-author of the youth workers guide to helping teenagers in crisis, and regular ys convention speaker), and will be joined by my buddy and ys friend, marv penner (also a ys author, speaker, core team member). should be a challenging, wonderful and memorable time. i’m really looking forward to sharing it with max.

i won’t be home until tuesday, august 7. but i have at least one post set to go live each day, so you won’t get too bored!

i preached twice at my church in the past month. first time was on identity: called “who are you?” second one (this past weekend) was on freedom: called “free at last.” both are available as a downloadable podcast, here.

books three and four in the middle school survival series released this past friday. they are MY FRIENDS and MY SCHOOL.

i co-authored those first four books with my friend kurt johnston. it was a wonderful thing to write with him. we were friends prior to the books; but it seems like our working together gave us reason to connect on a very regular basis over a couple years, which raised the level of our friendship a couple notches. sadly (but for good reasons), kurt asked to bow out of the last two books in the series, and i’m starting with a new co-author: scott rubin.

scott is the junior high pastor at willowcreek, and, like kurt, one of the most humble youth workers i know. i have always loved it that these two guys (kurt is the junior high guy at saddleback) are in positions of significant influence, with tons of youth workers looking to them, and they are both wonderfully normal and humble.

in the last few weeks, scott and i have been finalizing the table of contents for MY CHANGES and MY FUTURE. and today, just after i post this, i’ll start writing my first of 75 chapters (plus a few extra bits and bobs). october 1 deadline. gotta get crackin’!

uh. wow. i’m almost speechless. and, i mean no disrespect to the prison systems of whatever country this was shot in, but…

and, dude, that square-faced balding guy in the tube top? that ain’t no woman.

seriously, what kid hasn’t dreamed of doing this?

Saturday, July 7, 2007
99 Balloons
Balloons suspend Kent Couch in a lawn chair as he floats in the skies near Bend, Ore., on his way to Idaho. Flying a total of 193 miles, Couch carried a global positioning system device, a two-way radio, a digital camcorder and a cell phone. He also had instruments to measure his altitude and speed and plastic bags of water to act as a ballast.

this volume of ysmarko’s recommended music is a catch-all of the best music i’ve downloaded in the past few months. too many to write reviews of them all. upcoming reviews, however, for kendall payne’s new album, and the amazing .

icky thump, by white stripes. file under “way-out creative alt-rocker duo from DEEE-troit rock city.”

theology, by sinead o’connor. file under “eclectic dreamy spiritual music, better than the reviews it’s received elsewhere.”

the else, by they might be giants. file under “fun, creative, original goof-rockers.”

, by chick corea and bela fleck. file under “the sound that results from mixing a brilliant jazz pianist with a legendary bluegrass banjo virtuoso.”

blunt object (live in tokyo), and prog, by the bad plus. file under “jazz piano trio with inescapable hooks.”

(music from the motion picture). file under “silly quirk music that’s fun for the whole family.”

release the stars, by rufus wainwright. file under “brilliant lyricist with always-creative piano-driven pop progressions.”

new moon, by elliott smith. file under “postumous collection of brilliant alt-folk songwriting.”

volta, by bjork. file under “wtf? i like this.”

back to black, by amy winehouse. file under “sultry-voiced retro r&b and blues with modern lyrics.”

minutes to midnight, by linkin park. file under “it’s mid-afternoon and i’m drowsy, and i need some hard and fast music that works like an energy drink.”

the reminder, by fiest. file under “brilliant lilting pop that does not get old after dozens and dozens of listens.”

the fragile army, by the polyphonic spree. file under “choral pop madness with hooky singability that makes you want to be a part of the choir.”

zeitgeist, by smashing pumpkins. file under “if there is such a thing as ‘classic alternative rock’, this is it.”

funny mashup of harry potter and welcome back kotter:

very interesting, and somewhat counter-intuitive (at least to me), new research shows that talking about “crushes, popularity, and other personal issues” does not have an impact on boys who do this regularly, but can lead to depression for girls. this article in the l.a. times reports.

“Talking about problems is a good thing, but too much talk is too much of a good thing,” one of the researchers said.

i have always thought it wonderfully healthy for kids to talk about their “stuff”. but this study shows there’s a limit, in a sense.

[the researcher] said girls got caught up in a “vicious cycle” in which depression or anxiety spurred rumination, which in turn led to increased depression or anxiety.

(ht to bob c, via email)

so, i thought this was interesting and cute, until the lady said, “i think of her as my daughter.”