Supafly.com

I just got back from Inspiration San Antonio a couple hours ago. Now I am meeting Candyce here at Einstein’s for coffee. I’ll work on my laptop and she’ll do her homework. It’ll be a pleasantly normal thing to do together. I love stuff like this!

This fall Life Teen is hosting five rallies in five states at five theme parks. We’re calling it a “tour” because people are more likely to show up if you do. If we called the event the “Traveling Six Flags Prayer Meeting”, I doubt anyone would show up. It’s not about the speakers or the musicians, but everything about God and the people who show up at the event. We spend most of the day on the rides and around the park with the teenagers. In the evening we meet in an amphitheater and go deep.

I spend so much time behind a computer running lifeteen.com, and it was exciting to get out and meet the people who come to the site every day. I know I write after every trip, but it’s different each time. More teenagers are coming to the site, so every trip gets better than the last. I mean, we did a game where we asked questions from the stage about the website, and the person who had the correct answer got a free mouse pad. I couldn’t believe how much they knew! It feels so good to know that my hard work is making a difference in their daily lives.

I saw a lot of familiar teenagers who came to LTND this summer or to one of our three camps: Covecrest, Tepeyac, and RockyVine. I picked them out because they were wearing shirt that I designed for whatever event they attended. This is special because for years, Life Teen was a youth program run by hundreds of remote churches. Now through camps, conferences, and the website, parishes are building relationships with one another. What a thrill for a high school student–to have friends all over your state!
Traveling on the Inspiration Tour is so different than what I’ve done in the past. For years, it was just me: driving to the airport, flying to the event, speaking on stage, sleeping alone in a hotel, then flying back home. Now it’s different. Mark picked me up at my house on Friday and we made it to San Antonio together. Flying is tolerable when I am with a friend.

Candyce isn’t here at the coffee shop yet. I didn’t think I’d make it through this whole journal without getting up to say hi to her. I love her so much. I want to be excited that I have next weekend off to be here in Phoenix, but I honestly can’t remember if I am here or not. Anyway…it’s a good life. Candyce is back in school and we can see each other more. This fall I’m going to be a part of three other stops on the Inspiration Tour, and I know those will be just as awesome as yesterday.

We launched the new version of lifeteen.com in February of this year. We had an online store then, but it felt cheap and it was difficult to use. We spent several months trying to upgrade the store without it costing us a lot of money. Then finally we hired a qualified person to get it done. The store now looks and works great, and it’s time to get it going.

Carlos has been shooting some stuff with his fancy camera all day today. It’s mostly small resources like CD’s, DVD’s, books, and training guides. Tomorrow he’ll start shooting all of our clothing with actual people. He has some great locations that’ll make for some cool photos. We have a budget of zero, so he’s having to be creative. He’ll shoot through most of the weekend. Next week I’ll format the photos and begin building out all the graphics for the store. This is exciting because most of the clothing I designed myself, so it’ll be a treat to make it all come to life in the online store.

The website is expensive to run, and we need people to buy stuff so we can pay for the site. I’m trying to avoid putting banners on our site because I think they are tacky and they steal the reverent vibe we’ve worked hard to achieve. I also don’t want the site to become cheapened by the store that peddles cheap religious wares just to make money. I am grateful that all the products we’ll sell in our store are quality and tasteful. But I’m going to keep a close eye on any additions to the store to keep it clean. So if you are reading this and you like lifeteen.com, go buy stuff.

I’m delighted to have my Element, but I am getting tired of all the finance paperwork. Because I have good credit and a strong financial history, my bank and the car dealership are both trying to get me to finance with them. But they aren’t willing to give me a rock-bottom interest rate until the other under-bids them.

It’s a thrill to get 3% knocked off an already low interest rate, but I am tired of the endless phone calls back and forth. Each is shaving off a quarter of a percent at a time, and it’s just getting annoying. Today I did the math, and a quarter of a percent only saves me a few hundred dollars over the life of the loan. So this afternoon I decided to go with my bank, even though the dealership offered me a better loan. I’ve been banking with Wells Fargo for four years now, and I’d rather finance with them and build a better relationship with them. The more I bank with them, the better it gets for my checkbook.

A few times a year I’ll read an article in the paper that Americans are totally in debt, especially when compared to other countries. This used to make me embarrassed to be an American, that maybe we were greedy and foolish. But I am seeing that part of being successful is daring to go in debt. You borrow money to make money. As you pay back that money, your credit grows, and you are able to borrow more. As long as you are responsible with your borrowed money, debt can work out great.

For the past several years, I’ve been too busy working full time and traveling every weekend to make grande financial moves. I made basic financial decisions, like saving a lot while spending little. I made a couple real estate investments, bought a few cars, and upgraded my home. All of those qualify as financial decisions, but I wanted to get books and learn more about things like the stock market and banking. Now that I am traveling less, it is exciting to do finally do those things.

One week ago my car was stolen, and now I’m driving a new car. Well, it’s not new new, but it’s new to me. It’s a black 2003 Honda Element. I’m actually sitting at a coffee shop right now, and it’s parked along the curb in the window right in front of me. I know it’s vain to sit here and stare at my car, but when you pay that much money, I consider this part of the package.

About half way through the week I realized that I wanted an Element. At first I was going for an Accord coupe or a Civic coupe. They are sporty cars and they get good gas mileage. They are low-maintenance and therefore they hold their value. But after looking at there prices, I realized I was going to be paying a lot of money, and I might as well shop around and see what else I could buy for that much.

I found a couple beautiful 7-series BMWs that were five-to-seven years old. I’ve never been drawn to the BMW, but it’s pretty hard to say no to getting that much car for such little money. If I weren’t working for a non-profit; youth ministry, I would have definitely bought one of the two BMWs. But people don’t deal well with cars that are status symbols. Maybe I should just put a sign on the rear window that reads: “This car costs less than the cheapest new cars on the market. I bought this with a modest budget because it was a lot of bang for my buck.” But even then, people wouldn’t get it…and I’m okay with that.

So I opted for the Element–the boxy, mail-truck-looking SUV that you either love or hate. I test-drove one a couple years ago, but I didn’t think it was right for me. Since that drive, I’ve loved ‘em and hated ‘em depending on my mood. All the while I was driving my gas-saving Honda Civic.

But in the past several months, I’ve come to realize that my Civic was saving me money on gas, but it was costing me in opportunity. There were so many projects around the house that I’ve postponed until I could borrow a truck from a friend. But none of my friends drive trucks. So I try to make it happen by stuffing cement blocks, bushes, and tools in the back of my Civic in the Home Depot parking lot. It was getting absurd. Now the thought of getting more done around the house gets me super-excited.

Another reason I thought an Element could work is so I could fit more people in the car with me. We carpool to the studio now, it’s become a lot of fun. I know “carpooling to the office” sounds like a real bore, but it’s actually a lot of fun. It’s me riding with my best friends to a Web and TV studio where we get to play all day with cool toys. We listen to our favorite bands on the CD player…CDs we get for free in the mail. We get our “work day started” by talking about what movies we’re going to review, which bands we’re going to interview, and what Flash games we want to make. It makes me happy to know that riding in the Element will be more comfortable for my friends.

The final reason why the Element seemed like a good investment was because I can use it to promote NoMoHo.com. Even though that is what my Chevy is for, I don’t drive it everyday. It’s more for special events and promotions. For the past year I’ve driven my Civic around town, and every time I pull up next to a promotional car, I get jealous. I could be promoting my website with my daily-driver car, but instead I’m just saving money on gas. An Element has plenty of “ad space” with it’s boxy form.

I knew an Element was the right way to go, but I was shocked to see how much a used Element cost. I shopped around on the Internet throughout the week, and I found nothing affordable. I had a friend use his connections at a local Honda dealer, and they were still all more than I was willing to pay. But yesterday morning I found a black, Honda-certified 2003 Element with low miles for $14,210 on the Internet. That was thousands less than any other Element with the same options. I knew it was a good price, but I didn’t feel like making a decision, so I went outside and did some yard work. After ten minutes of raking leaves, I stepped inside and knew I needed to do something.

An hour later my friend Fr. Dale and I were test-driving the Element. I knew as soon as I drove it off the lot that it was the right one. Everything felt right! After twenty minutes of joy riding, I surrendered the joy of haggling to Fr. Dale. I snooped around the neighboring Dodge dealership while he followed the salesman inside and haggled. Ten minutes later, I had a perfect Honda Element for $13,500. How did that happen?

After signing the papers, I drove down the 101 to meet Candyce at my neighborhood pool for surprise party for her brother. It was such a delight to drive the Element. I listened to NPR, enjoyed the AC, and hummed along the interstate. It just felt right.

At the party last night, I explained the story about how I got such a good price on the Element. “I could not find a comparable Element for less than $18,000…I can’t believe I picked one up for $13,500.” My friend Robo did the math in his head, then he responded, “That’s cool because that’s a $4,500 difference–the exact amount that your Civic would’ve been worth on a trade in.”

It looks like God gave me a trade-in, with or without my car.

It’s a terrible feeling knowing that my car was stolen from my own driveway. It’s made me paranoid. Last night I had a lot of friends over, and there were 10-15 cars along the curb. Every twenty minutes, I walked outside and paced up and down the street to see if any car had been broken into. We were playing doubles in ping pong, and I spaced out in the middle of an intense volley. I gave someone my paddle and stepped outside to walk up and down the street–for the fifth time.

I’m trying to have a good attitude about this whole stolen car situation, but I cannot deny how much it sucks. I don’t know why they chose my car and not another. I don’t know if its the last time something of mine will get stolen, or if this is the beginning of more thefts. I don’t know how someone can justify stealing someone else’s car. I paid for that car with my own money that I worked for, and they took it all away in less than ten seconds.

I’m trying to think of creative ways to protect my cars. It’s a tough situation at the house because I have a two-car garage. Matt Maher’s GTI is in one spot, and my ‘54 Chevy is parked in the other. I don’t want to put my pimp ride on the curb, and I don’t think it’s fair to kick Matt Maher out of the garage so I can fit in a second car.

I’m going to get a Club for the steering wheel, and an alarm. That will take care of theft, considering it already has a lot of modern anti-theft gizmos. I’m going to put more lights on the outside of my house too. Some will be motion-sensor, others will be on through the night.;

One option is to create a tasteful gravel parking spot in my backyard for my Chevy and park my Element in the garage for easy in-and-out daily life. I have a side gate that gives easy access to the backyard, so all I really need to do is re-think how to finish my landscaping project that I began last fall. I’d need to find a good-fitting car cover to protect it while it is parked. It doesn’t rain much in Arizona, so this is more just to protect the car from the sun and from paint scratches.

Another option is to park the Chevy under my covered patio outside of my dining room. Although it sounds a little irrational at first, it could actually add a lot of rock ‘n’ roll to my house. With the right lighting, it could become a piece of art to add some excitement to my otherwise predictable home. I just think it’d be cool to be able to admire it while I’m lounging around the house.

This idea of having a car in my house has been with me since I was ten years old. I watched a sitcom in the 80s called “My Two Dads” because they lived in a hip loft. One of the dads had a sofa that was made to look like a classic big-fendered 40’s hot rod. I couldn’t imagine anything cooler than that. So maybe it’s time to make it happen.