Please rank your own list in the comments section. You know you need a 10 minute diversion for something as important as this. Hoping some of the long time experts will weigh in. You know who you are.

1. Creed Bratton – www.creedthoughts.com/creedthoughts enough said
2. Toby Flenderson
3. Andy Bernard- cause I sing his songs all day long
4. Michael Scott-
5. Dwight Shrute
6. Kevin Malone- somedays he’s first on my list
7. Ryan Howard
8. Darryl Philbin-
9. Pam
10. Jim
11. Meridith Palmer
12. Kelly Kapoor
13. Stanley Hudson
14. Jan Levison
15. Phylis Lapin Vance
16. Oscar Martinez
17. Angela Martin
18. Holly Flax

I just needed to get this one of my chest. Whether you are a Calvinist or an Arminian- I don’t truly care. The way I see you though is based on the amount of chatter you give to your argument- whichever side you’re on. Let’s face it- it’s one of those questions we’ll have to ask in heaven. The topic has been debated for centuries so why would we have the answer now. The more dogmatic you are about your particular persuasion the less credibility you have in my sight. I wonder how your heavenly father views it.

I personally lean much more towards the Arminian side of the debate but again who cares. All this topic can do is divide the Body of Christ. I believe we can all agree it will not unite us. Is it a matter of doctrine that will affect our eternal salvation- I think most would agree that it is not. So other than our personal ego’s why do we feel the need to debate it.

I wake up many mornings and want to be a Calvinist. It would make things so much easier to believe that God predestined certain people to be saved and certain to be condemned- which logically would have to follow. I want to make sense of this world, outside of “take heart I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). Calvinism helps me make sense of the world. It helps me when family members who did not believe pass on. It helps me with the problem of pain and despair in this world. It helps me when I think of other religions and the masses on the wide path leading to destruction. I do believe certain things are predestined in our lives and that others are carried out by our free will.

I cannot personally put God in a box though. Of course the argument is always limited atonement so I won’t even talk about it. I think more in lines with C.S. Lewis. God is beyond time and space and our minds cannot grasp him for we think it terms of time and space. For me to say that God’s plan is this or that is a bit arrogant for me personally. Outside of his will being that none should perish (2 Pet 3:9), I’ll just have to leave that one alone. I do know this: trying to persuade others to take your side of this debate is not unifying the Body of Christ. It screams pharisee. It screams legalism. Whichever view you have.

Let the Calvinist be Calvinist and let the Arminian be Arminian and let’s get on with the great commission.

I fell in love with French Press Coffee and when I fall for something I really fall. They both gave me instructions on buying a press and producing my first cup.

I’m a visual kind of guy so maybe this will help you by seeing how I make a pot. I filmed a quick video preparing a cup of French Press. I really just wanted to try out my new flip video.

I watched a few videos online and there seems to be a lot of different ways to make a pot of French Press Coffee. Hopefully you get the overall big picture though.

Caution- I have only used these tips twice, once in a quick practice putting session and once in an 18 hole round. The practice session helped me get the feel down and the results from the round were astounding. I had 27 putts and made around 80 feet of putts with none over 18 feet (meaning I didn’t make two 40 footers and miss everything else).

Everyone will probably try this because of Phil’s win at the tour championship. Below I have linked up several videos of Dave Stockton teaching putting. Apparently these are some of the tips Phil used this past week. I’m sold.

The things I implemented so far were:

• the open stance and ball position
• forward press right into the stroke
• no practice stroke
• not thinking of making the putt (sounds crazy but it worked for me)
• square to square
• visualizing where the ball will enter the hole based on break and speed

Enjoy!

I believe I’ll focus on the one key thing I saw on Sunday. I saw it a few years back by another player who ousted Tiger in a different fashion. Both Y.E. Yang and Angel Cabrera have accomplished this feat in the last 3 years. I must say I was much more impressed with Y.E Yang’s performance than Cabrera’s at the US Open two years ago. Cabrera was not paired with Tiger and was leading and not trying to catch the greatest player in the history of golf.

Yang faced off head to head while trailing but he pulled it off. How? I think because he played to win- instead of playing not to lose. Is that just a play on words? Absolutely not. Anyone who has competed in sports knows exactly what I mean. Let me give you some examples.

Your softball team is up 5 runs in the bottom of the 7th inning with 2 outs. A couple hits. The pitcher gets a little tight. The fielders stop trying to make a great play but focus on keeping the ball in front of them. Don’t give up the big hit. The nerves tighten and the hits keep coming. Runners keep crossing the plate. You look up after an error or two and a walked batter- now the game winning runner is on 2nd base. Another base hit and you’re shaking hands going how did it happen. We lost a 5 run lead with 2 outs in the last inning.

You’re watching a Sunday football game and your team is up by 2 touchdowns with 3 minutes to play. This one is all too easy to call. Your team puts on the prevent defense. When they do get the ball they run it up the gut 3 times and settle for a punt. Well 3 minutes later your team just gave up a touchdown, a second touchdown, and an onside kick. This leads to game winning 45 yard field goal.

Need another example. What about when you played that golf tournament? You were ready to post a killer score and all you had to do was steer it in on those last 3 holes. Two hands on the wheel and all your thoughts turned to your score instead of your next shot. Here we go again, 3 holes later and you’re walking off after a bogey, bogey, double bogey finish. What happened?

We’ve all been there and we’ve all watched it happen so many times. Y.E. Yang made a decision to go for it. He played to win. He hit shot after shot that if he didn’t pull off would have left the analysts saying what is he doing. The shot he hit on 18 summed it all up. What was the play there? You have the world #1 on the ropes. He needs a birdie just to tie and even if you bogey and he pars your in a playoff. That’s something to say. I was in a playoff with Tiger Woods at the PGA championship. Y.E. Yang could have hit it short right and safe. He could have played away from the tree instead of over it. He could have hit a bailout right avoiding the short side left. In case you missed it- he didn’t. He stuck it. Because you don’t beat Tiger playing not to lose, you beat Tiger by playing to win.

This is such a hard lesson. Athletes are so worried about what the announcers will say, what the critics will write and how the Monday morning quarterbacks will recall the event. Then someone comes along who’s out there having fun, not caring so much and playing to win. Refreshing.

For the last two years, I’ve planned and built, tweaked and refined, sold and invoiced, collected and accounted. I’ve marketed and branded and promoted. I’ve written and blogged and spoke and taught. I’ve coached and consulted. I’ve laughed, cried and learned a whole lot along the way.

I don’t regret starting Simplified Solutions, LLC two years ago. It has been the single best business learning experience I have ever had. I made so many mistakes. Too many to list here. I definitely failed forward at times. The best part was that this last two years was a training ground. A preparation if you will for the greatest business opportunity in my life thus far.

As my business has started to succeed the last several months, it’s been in large part due to a company called ithemes- and a open source platform called Wordpress. I owe a lot to Wordpress and to the team at ithemes. Wordpress gave me, and more importantly small businesses, non profits and ministries; an affordable, effective, and attractive way to gain an online presence. Ithemes created some amazing themes powered by Wordpress. That made the rest pretty easy for me.

A few months back my relationship with this amazing company grew a little closer. I always wondered how employable I was after being in sales most of my life and then running a small freelance business. Deep down though I knew I could follow a great leader and be a contributor on an amazing team. Well I’ve found both. The great leaders are Cory Miller and James Dalman. The great team is the team at ithemes and now WebDesign.com.

About a month ago, we started a serious dialogue about me joining a new venture that ithemes was launching. Time passed, many chats and conference calls lined out the details and I flew to Dallas this past weekend to meet the team and join this new venture – WebDesign.com

I am joining a thriving team at ithemes and have become their first sales consultant with WebDesign.com. To say I’m thrilled would be the understatement of the year.

We have a rockin team and we are ready to show the world an amazing model for web design and the customer service that comes with it.

You can follow all the details here at http://webdesign.com

You can also follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/webdesigncom

My new email address is bryce@webdesign.com and the cell phone is still the same.

I have already spoken to most current customers and this transition will be very seamless. I’m just joining the company that I promoted and sold before accept now I have a team of programmers, project managers, coders, designers, graphic designers, tech interns, owners and partners behind me. Way cool!

Simplified Solutions, LLC will still be an accounting entry in Quickbooks. Some things will trickle in and trickle out but I’m putting my 100% focus on making WebDesign.com the best in the world.