Look at the Orange

I am passionate about 2 things…maybe that isn’t allowed, but I’ve got to go with both of these, they just go together in my mind. My 2 passions are…

-Church Ministry
-Technology

I have always been passionate about figuring out how to best use technology to empower/enhance ministry and also had the opportunity to work at a church in the tech department for 3 years…which I loved doing!

I am looking forward to sharing more about why I think these two items go hand in hand and how they best compliment each other. At first glance, they may seem like the two don’t belong together, but I disagree. Check back soon to find out why I would disagree with that.

So much to say…I’m looking forward to talking about this stuff!

Today I was in need of plotting about 100 places on a custom Google Map and doing it by hand didn’t sound like a lot of fun. I tried the obvious thing to start off with and just clicked “Import” and selected my Excel file…but, those of you much smarter than me, already know that didn’t work. The reason it didn’t work is because all I had was a city and state, and Google needed the geo-location to be able to import it. That’s where the magical site, batchgeo.com comes in! It allowed me to paste in all my excel data, match up the columns to the right fields in Google and voila, out came a KML file, which is exactly what Google needed! It’s little tools like this that make all the difference in the world for me. Next time you need some custom pins on a map, head over to batchgeo.com to simplify your life big time!

LifeChurch.tv and XXXChurch.com have created an event called ThePornEvent.com that everybody needs to check out. Here’ s a description of what this thing is all about…

From May 23-28, LifeChurch.tv and XXXChurch.com present ThePornEvent.com, a 25-minute interactive experience focused on the real-life effects of pornography. ThePornEvent.com has two segments, one for men and one for women; more details and the schedule can be found at ThePornEvent.com. During ThePornEvent.com we will examine the effect porn has on our lives and relationships, and look at next steps for those who are struggling. Expect a non-threatening environment featuring stories, helpful answers, and an open conversation with people whoʼve traveled a similar path. ThePornEvent.com is for anyone who is interested in what it looks like to live a life beyond pornography.

Both of these organizations do awesome work, and this is definitely an important topic that we all need to face. It’s not the topic most want to talk about, but it has penetrated most people’s lives. Here’s just a few stats that prove how big of an issue pornography is in our world today… (more…)

I’ve now had my 32gb Wifi iPad for 5 days and am really enjoying it. I am definitely using my laptop less than before and my iPhone seems so small now. I’ve been impressed that I am already getting to where I can type pretty fast with the on screen keyboard in landscape mode. Although it’s great that you can hook up a bluetooth keyboard to it, I think it’s important to get proficient on the soft keyboard to experience the maximum benefit of the device. As always, there are things that I wish were included that haven’t been…but never the less, Apple creates some beautiful, simple devices and this is no exception. I am also encouraged by the news of the updates coming in iPhone OS 4.0 later this fall (summer for the iPhone). Cool stuff.

So what do I use it for?

Email (personal & work), RSS reading, watching tv shows and clips, listening to music, reading books, Twitter, whiteboard brainstorming, to do management, reading the Bible, checking the weather, taking notes, managing web domains, calculating, etc.

True story. It’s pretty handy.

Some of my apps so far…

-FeeddlerRSS

-Things

-NYT Editors’ Choice

-Pages

-The Weather Channel

-Bible

-Pandora

-Instapaper

-ABC Player

-Evernote

-Adobe Ideas

-TweetDeck

-Twitterific

Really there’s only one app I am dying to have on the iPad… Tweetie which will now be known as Twitter for the iPad. Hopefully it will be as amazing as Tweetie2 on the iPhone!

This past week I got home from work and it was just absolutely gorgeous outside, so I decided to go for a walk. I popped in my headphones, turned on some music and headed towards the pond/park in our neighborhood. There is something so relaxing about taking a stroll and enjoying God’s awesome creation! I had a great conversation with God during this walk and also had fun taking some pictures on my iPhone. I would love to have a better camera – photography is fun. Maybe you’ll enjoy some of my pictures from my walk…