Kidologist.com: Karl Bastian's Personal Site and Blog
Archive for PK Cruiser
December 3, 2005 at 12:33 am · Filed under Children's Ministry, Humor, Leadership, PK Cruiser, Spiritual Growth
There is nothing better than a nice Sunday afternoon drive in a convertible…
in the rain. (My sister snapped these pictures from her car)
The best part was the looks from the other drivers, from bursting out laughing, to ignoring (not wanting to encourage me), to scowls. Now it wasn’t pouring, but it was sprinkling. Cool thing was, when the car was moving NO water got in the car due to aerodynamics of the wind flow over the car. At the one red light on the way to lunch, I shot up the umbrella. No, I don’t do this often, I put the top down at church as a joke, and then noticed that no rain got in the car while it was moving. So I left it down and headed to lunch with some church families.
Pay no attention to the arrow on the ground. It is only a suggestion.
Tuesday Evening Awana was SPY NITE!
I showed my spy gadget collection, told my stories of espionage over the course of my life (can’t post those on my blog, some of you don’t have clearance), and then gave the kids all a gadget for sharing the Gospel with their friends and trained them to us it.
The Junior Agents had a great time!
November 23, 2005 at 6:12 pm · Filed under Children's Ministry, Kidology, Leadership, Order of the Ancient, PK Cruiser
YES! It is one thousand four hundred and sixty-nine days since I got the idea for my novel!
Here I am – driving to meet our printer with the
first shipment of the books!
We met in an undisclosed parking lot. I pulled up next to him, looked both ways, and whispered, “You got the stuff?” He said, “It’s all in my truck.” He assured me it was good stuff. After examining a sample, I agreed.
After one more glance around, we began the transfer.
No one seemed to notice even though we were on a busy street.
How to fit them all in a PK Cruiser? Hmmmm…
The rest had to go in the building. But now I can have a mobile bookstore and can open shop in parking lots everywhere!
Here is the happy author excited to hold the
FIRST OFFICIAL COPY in his hands! WARNING: Shameless Promotion Ahead!
The PRE-ORDER SALE ends midnight Friday, so this will be your last chance to get 11 copies for only $9 each, plus a signed copy. AND FREE SHIPING! There will never be a sale like this, this is to help with the initial printing cost. (every order is greatly appreciated and celebrated!) ORDER TODAY before it is too late. Some churches and bookstores are ordering at this discount rate and selling them for $10 or $12. (Not a bad fund raising idea!)ALSO: INDIVIDUAL ORDERS are also being accepted now and will ship next week!
FOR MORE INFO CHECK OUT:
www.orderoftheancient.com
August 26, 2005 at 10:54 am · Filed under Humor, PK Cruiser
Gas prices are nuts! I’m thinking of starting a new ministry: Gasaholics Annonymous. (GA for short)
“Hi, my name is Karl Bastian, and I am addicted to gasoline.”
Which is why, over a year ago, after seeing the prices, at that time, nearing $2.00, I sold my gas-eating trailblazer and got the PK Cruiser. I REALLY liked my TrailBlazer (especially the On Star On Board) but every time I gas up I am so glad I jumped the tank.
TRADED IN THE GAS-HUNGRY TRAILBLAZER
FOR THE MUCH MORE GAS-FRIENDLY PK CRUISER!
Another gas-related story… while on sabbatical, we drove thousands of miles, so were often in the hunt for good gas prices… then one day, we saw a sign off the side of the road:
GAS 4 LESS?!?!?!
We did a U-TURN and headed back!
WOW! These were SUPER PRICES!!!
I sped into the station only to see:
I guess there prices were just to good to be true…. it was an old out-dated sign.
Well, if you are depressed over gas prices – COMMENT BELOW and give us your city/state and what the price is there. We aren’t to $3.00 yet, but it is getting close. I got $2.77 yesterday and felt pretty lucky!
TO CHEER YOU UP – WATCH THIS GAS VIDEO!
It may just give you an idea on how you can save money on gas!
GAS VIDEO (1.4MB Windows Media Player)
August 19, 2005 at 11:50 pm · Filed under Devotional, Family, Humor, Internet, Kidology, Leadership, Life, PK Cruiser
I’m always saying to my wife, Sara, ‘As soon as life returns to normal….,’ to which she replies, ‘this is normal.’ Whew! What a week! Busy! But lots of fun. Crazy, insane, but exciting at the same time. The thing I like best about this blog is that it helps ME to keep perspective on all the great things God is doing – so that in the midst of all the deadlines, e-mails, paperwork, and chaos I don’t overlook all the good things that have happened. I often look at this blog and marvel at the fun things here, and know it looks like all I ever do is play – the hours at the computer, late nights at the office, nearly missed deadines, and overall scatter-brained activity isn’t blogged. People often ask me, “How do you find time for all the fun stuff when you have two very full time ministries to lead.” My answer is always, “I don’t find the time, I make the time.” If you don’t schedule fun, time with people, recreation, and travel – you’ll never do it. The important things in life never ‘pop up’ – you must make them happen in the midst of the madness – or they never will. That’s my two cents for the day, before blogging all that happened this week!
MONDAY
Sara’s brother and his wife and two kids came to Chicago for a visit, and it was so awesome to see them – it’s been several years since we saw them. The kids are twins – and a smart pair they are! After lunch we all went mini-golfing!
Sara lining up her shot… she’s actually a pretty good mini-golfer… when we go alone, its some fun competition, and I’ve even been known to let her win!
The fastest mini-golfer you ever saw on the course. Most quoteable at the end of the 18th hole on this 90+ degree day: “I think at the end, there should be a pool you get to dive into.” We filled out a comment card for the owner.
Future PGA Tour? He’s got the stance down, that’s for sure!
TUESDAY
Great American Pastor!
On Tuesday, our senior pastor treated the whole staff, spouses, and kids to a lunch cruise on Lake Geneva, a historic Wisconsin town known for its beautiful lake (home to many Wrigley Family Mansions).
We sailed on the Yacht Polaris, which was built in 1898 for Otto Young, one of the original millionaires on Geneva Lake. The boat floor was the original mahogany and had brass railing and trimmings. The weather was beautiful and the breeze made it an ideal day.
At the end of the tour, I asked everyone to pose for a group picture – perhaps the most complete staff photo we’ve had in awhile… but the funniest thing happened…
The last thing I had done with the camera on the boat was take a video of a sea plane taking off, so I balanced the camera precariously on a stack of chairs – posed everyone – set the timer for ten seconds, and ran to join the group…. only to discover that it was taking a video (!) not a picture. The video is actually kinda funny, you can view it here: Karls VCB Group OOOPS! (1.8MB QuickTime, 10 seconds long)
WEDNESDAY / THURSDAY
Wednesday I was up and on the road before the sun was shining to head to Philly, well actually Valley Forge Christian College, where I have just been added to the faculty as part of the teaching teach for the NEW Children’s Ministries University Online.
( www.cmuniversity.org , or www.cmuo.com )
Here I am with: Dr. Philip McLeod (Vice President of Academic Affairs), Jason Rhode (Founder/Creator of CMUO along with Dick Gruber), Me, and Dr. Don Meyer, (President Of Valley Forge Christian College).
I was there for faculty training on Blackboard, the online training software I will use to teach children’s ministry courses online as a part of CMUO. The first course I will be teaching is “Pastoring Children” (Begins Oct. 1st) and the first course I will be writing/developing is “Children in Ministry” for the Spring semester. I’ll write more about this later (mostly on Kidology.org) but in short, Kidology is partnering with CMUO to provide accredited online training to any childen’s ministry worker/leader ANYWHERE that wants to be trained in childen’s ministry. The potential is so exciting, I can hardly sleep at night. This is the realization of a dream since 1994 when I started Kidology.
Just a cool picture I took while there, download the wallpaper!
Here is the moon over downtown Chicago, taken from the air. Well, OK, so I moved my camera around a bit too much while the shutter was open… but I thought it looked cool. The red at the top is the light on the wing of the plane. I may be the only person, but I think this picture looks cool, though I doubt I’ll win any awards for it!
Got home late, and then O’Hare was INSANE! Took me 50 minutes to drive the 2.4 miles out of the airport! Arrrrrrg. And all the blocked off lanes had NO construction or work being done. Overall, a usually 45-50 minute trip was well over two and half hours! And this is after 11pm!!
I had to drop by the church on the way home, and it was a full moon! I took my anti-dote to prevent turning into a hairy beast, but snapped some post-midnight pics, that I’ll share because it’s my blog, and I can post if i want to:
I just KNOW you want the wallpaper for this gorgeous shot,
so go ahead, make your day, and download it!
FRIDAY
Is it Friday already? I began today asking my wife, “What day is today?”
Today was catch up day, and my first planning meeting with the adult leaders for my fall Kids Church. We had it at one of the leaders home… and she suggested we swim since it is 90+ degrees here every day lately. Swim when we had important ministry business to discuss?!?!? So what did we do?
Had our meeting in the pool, of course! Complete with laminated agendas!! I hope this starts a new trend in children’s ministry. Remember, the WWJD fad is over (tho hopefully not the concept!), instead, when it comes to ministry, I like to also ask, What Would Kids Do? A meeting in a pool? How can it get any better! What started as a joke ended up being one of the best planning meetings we ever had. We splashed some topics around, tried to make sure we were going deep and not just riding the latest wave, and floated different ideas around, all the while tredding carefully into the tough areas so that we could dive right in to what was most important. Overall, the flow of the meeting was great and we decided that we will hold our breath until we can do it again. After all, instead of being a flop, the idea was a stroke of genius. (I know, I’m all wet, time to go to bed!)
June 2, 2005 at 5:34 pm · Filed under Humor, PK Cruiser, Star Wars
Star Wars met Earth on my drive to work yesterday! There I was, drivin’ along in the PK Cruiser, listening’ to talk radio mindin’ my own bizness, when suddenly I see in my rear view mirror great clouds of smoke and explosions and cars careening off of the road… what could be causing all the choas behind me?!?!? It is an alien attack? Will I need a hitchhikers guide to the galaxy?!?!?
I whipped out my camera to record what could very well be the end of the earth as we know it…
What is that THING?!?! (note camera in shades)
With cars flying off the road in every direction, I knew this would be on the evening news, this was my chance of a lifetime to get some rare photos of an alien attack on our planet!
Would I survive to tell the tale?!??!!
I hit the PK-Nitro-Turbo-Booster, but it was no use this monstrosity of a truck was gaining on me every second! What would I do? Would this be the end???
Surely the Galactic Empire is conquering Earth!
Look at the SIZE of those PINCHERS!!!
As it got next to me, I prepared to fire my fender-anchored proton torpedoes…
The wheels were bigger than my car!
I could just make out the Empirial Pilot who was attacking me…
What would I do? How would I survive? Would this be the end of my blog? To see it racing past me, watch this video! (3MB QuickTime)
Through some fancy driving, I was able to out maneuver the evil truck and avoid any blasts from its twin ion canons…. and i slipped behind to unleash my own fire power…..
Maneuvering Behind at high speed…
I HAVE YOU NOW!
I was about to pull the trigger when i heard the voice of a long lost mentor, “Use the Force, Karl!” so I turned off my targeting computer, just then, the phone rang, and Sara said, “Karl, you’ve turned off your targeting computer!” I answered, “I’m fine!” and settled into the last momments…. until a cop pulled up behind me…. I decided I would let him do his duty to save the earth… I pulled back (and lowered the camera) and let the copper pull ahead of me…
What? No red and blue lights?
Obviously, the cops are already on the take from the Empire, as the cop did nothing. But at least I lived to tell the story. I am sure this is only the first of many Rogator Fighters!BY THE WAY: My parents always said I have a tendency to exaggerate stories. While not this one, I just thought I should mention that.
May 30, 2005 at 10:25 pm · Filed under Children's Ministry, Family, Leadership, PK Cruiser, Spiritual Growth
Well, this is it. The eve before my sabbatical is over. Tomorrow morning I head back to work, that is, if I can remember where I work. (hahaha) Wow, what an awesome trip this was! We got to travel to Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, (through a bunch of states on the train), Washington, Oregon, California and of course, Illinois. Got to go back to Yosemite (my favorite place on earth) plus Cedar Point (second favorite, funnest place on earth) plus along the way visited over ten churches meeting with the children’s pastor from most of them. (not to mention the Star Wars Convention, that was pretty cool too)
I was back in church on Sunday, but didn’t have to do anything, just enjoyed being there. It was great to see all the kids again, and nice to be fought over again. 
After church it was back to Culver’s, the unofficial after church hang out. These pictures from Sunday lunch say better than words why I am so glad to be back, and why I love my job so much…..
Still some more Sabbatical Posts coming – but thanks for following us along the way. POST A COMMENT and tell me what you enjoyed the most, or what you’d like to see more of on my blog now that the sabbatical is officially over. (Especially if you’ve been reading and never posted!)
May 28, 2005 at 12:21 pm · Filed under Family, PK Cruiser
Well, yesterday was a pretty special day. My little brother Jordan got married to a beautiful and sweet girl who became the second Kelly Bastian in the family. Me and the PK Cruiser got to play Chauffeur for the day!
PK and the PK Cruiser, now for hire for Weddings.
Last bachelor pic of Jordan before the Wedding. 
Pastor/Uncle Greg praying for their new life together.
Off to the reception, Big Bro at the wheel.
Proud Big Brother with best rear view ever.
Nothing makes a bride like a cool car in the background.
The question is, will the storm trooper make the wedding album?
Oh, how lovely. Is that dress getting dirty??
That’s my bro! (and the newest Mrs. Bastian)
I also had the honor of producing a wedding video (on my Mac!) for the wedding reception dinner. If you would like to see it, you can either send $49.95 plus shipping and handling* for a DVD or you can just download it here:
QuickTime Small (15MB)
QuickTIme Medium (48MB)
* that was a joke. Any family can request a DVD.
April 28, 2005 at 10:14 pm · Filed under Family, Humor, PK Cruiser
And I thought gas was expensive in Chicago!
(and this was the lowest we could find!!)
We have arrived in Everett (20 miles North of Seattle) Washington. Decided to get in the mood for our miles and miles of driving…
Where is the red convertible when you need it?
We’ve arrived at Kim’s house… a childhood friend of Sara’s from the Philippines who was her Maid of Honor when we got married. More pics to come!
Another buddy named Nathan!
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in the rain. (My sister snapped these pictures from her car)
The best part was the looks from the other drivers, from bursting out laughing, to ignoring (not wanting to encourage me), to scowls. Now it wasn’t pouring, but it was sprinkling. Cool thing was, when the car was moving NO water got in the car due to aerodynamics of the wind flow over the car. At the one red light on the way to lunch, I shot up the umbrella. No, I don’t do this often, I put the top down at church as a joke, and then noticed that no rain got in the car while it was moving. So I left it down and headed to lunch with some church families.
Pay no attention to the arrow on the ground. It is only a suggestion.
Tuesday Evening Awana was SPY NITE!
I showed my spy gadget collection, told my stories of espionage over the course of my life (can’t post those on my blog, some of you don’t have clearance), and then gave the kids all a gadget for sharing the Gospel with their friends and trained them to us it.
The Junior Agents had a great time!
