theVERSOgroup » theVERSOgroup

Blackberry and Social Media

Johnny LaLonde — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 20:27:12 +0000

I have had a Blackberry now for about a year and totally love it. It helps keep my life sane. As a counselor, I have a lot of appointments to remember. Prior to my Blackberry, I had a cheap old PDA. Prior to that, I used to store them in my head. Amazingly, I never missed an appointment while doing that. Recently, I decided that it was time for me to embrace social media a little bit more and get my Blackberry in on the act. You see, I love to punch away on that thing. So, blogging or status updates done through my phone would be a lot more appealing to me!

However, two complaints have risen out of this. First, Blackberry doesn’t allow you to use their apps on a wifi network. You have to subscribe to the Blackberry service. Ripoff! Second, I am getting old. I am so overwhelmed with trying to figure out how to set up all these services and get them connected. Added to the overwhelmed feeling is my own over active need to be organized. I like to have a place for things. I like to see things in one location. Using different social media sites definitely aggravates that. And, I have no doubt there is some amazing website or program that would do it all for me. At the present moment, my overwhelmed feeling is keeping me from looking into it.

Rock the Universe

Johnny LaLonde — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 19:53:45 +0000

My wife and I had the oppourtunity this past weekend to chaperone some high school students at Rock the Universe. My friend Dusty just recently started a position as Youth Pastor at Crossway Community Church. Dusty put together a great discipleship weekend that led up to some fun at RTU. It was an awesome weekend. All of the guys in my discipleship group were great- very present and engaged with the time we spent together. I enjoyed the chance to invest in their lives and be encouraged by their openness and honesty. RTU was a nice perk as well. The term chaperone is used pretty losely here. The kids had free roam of the park and just had to check in once or twice with Dusty. That meant all the chaperones got to hang out and enjoy the rides. So, we did. Mummy was the highlight for me. Rode it twice. Wish we had done a few more rounds on it.

The Hot Seat

Johnny LaLonde — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 19:16:30 +0000

I recently had the oppourtunity to be the client again. It is a strange feeling to walk in to a counselor’s office and sit down to talk about your heart. After years of being in the counselor’s seat, I had lost sight of what it is like to be in the “hot seat.” Week in and week out, I see so many people that I forget what it can feel like to be sitting in the waiting room. Especially for that first sit down. It can be a very anxious experience! A lot of thoughts went through my mind. Is my problem really that serious? Why am I paying this person to listen to me? What if I get in there and they tell me that I am the problem? What if they don’t like me? Can counselors not like a client?

It was a little surreal but I am happy I had the oppourtunity. It was a good reminder of how intimidating counseling can be. And, I am glad to say, it turned out to be a very rewarding experience. I am glad I did it.