Ten free (or cheap) programs every mac user should have on their computer.

1. Dropbox 

Online file sharing/syncing.  Basically this free (up to 2g storage) program tricks your mac into thinking a remote folder is on your box, and manages to sync and store your files online.  It works on both windows and mac, so its great to have if you have varied work environments.

2. Quicksilver

This program changed the way I use a computer, it is an application launcher and so much more.  It allows you to do anything that would take you minutes to do with your mouse with a couple quick key combinations.  If you own a mac and you don't have quicksilver, then you don't own a mac.

3. Glims Safari Plugin

I just found this one recently.  It adds several important features to safari and tweaks some basic settings.  It lets you see thumbnail previews on popular search sites, gives you the option of a full screen mode, and lets you search from the address bar.  Its very handy.

4. Boxee

Boxee is like Front Row, but it doesn't stink.  Boxee's coolest feature to me is that you can watch internet tv from almost any major site, Hulu, CBS, NBC, CW, etc.  You can use Boxee to watch Netflix instant watch movies and it works with your apple remote.

5. Google Notifier

Mail and iCal are great, but I have dumped them for Google Notifier.  GM puts a few icons in my menu bar and notifies me whenever I get a new email message.  Its actually very handy and makes Gmail and Gcal feel more like something on your system.

6. Caffeine

This is a neat little (and I mean little) program that keeps you computer awake.  It puts a coffee cup icon in your menu bar and when you click it it keeps your computer out of sleep mode.  Very helpful for watching movies.

7. Teleport

This program allows you to control other Macs on your network with one mouse and keyboard.  I put my macbook on my desk next to my iMac, fire up teleport and I never have to take my fingers off of my iMacs mouse and keyboard.  It also allows you to copy and paste between computers and drag files from one to the other.  Very Useful.

8. Evernote

Evernote is like my online brain.  It syncs the little tidbits that I collect across my different comptuters.  There is a windows version, a mac version and even an iPhone version.  Its really quite handy and worth a look.

9. Camouflage

I hate a cluttered desktop.  I almost always use a black and white desktop picture and try to keep my desktop as empty as possible.  Still, it tends to become a dump for anything that doesn't know where else to go.  Enter camouflage, fire this program up and your desktop junk disappears (not really, you just can't see it).  To access your desktop files, just double click on any empty part of the desktop. 

10. SuperDocker

This is a leopard only program that allows you to customize your dock.  If you want a leather or a wood 3D dock than this is the program for you.  It also allows you to put spacers between dock item (my favorite feature) and toggle between the leopard (3d) and Tiger (2d) style dock.  

Some Things I Am Thinking About

A lot has gone on in the last couple weeks, and a whole lot has been going on in my mind.  I love being a fundamentalist, and I am about as firmly settled in fundamentalism as any twenty-five year old can be settled in anything, but still some things about our small little camp alarms me.  I have been thinking a lot lately about my tendency to judge anybody who doesn't agree with me as the enemy.  Specifically, if I take a stand on something and I know some one opposes me, I have a terrible tendency to think that person is the enemy of truth.

The other day, Amanda and I watched "Fireproof" which I absolutely loved.  It was one of the very few movies that has ever made me cry and I am going to recommend it to people as often as possible.  It really made me like Kirk Cameron more which is what got me thinking.  

You see, Mr. Cameron and I wouldn't agree on many issues, if he went to my church I would have a tendency to look down on him as subversive and see him as the enemy of what I am trying to do.  Now I am not saying it is wrong to take a stand or have a doctrinal direction or even to think that you are right about something, but what I am saying is that its wrong of me to make people my enemy because we don't see everything eye to eye.

There is only one scriptural tool that I can use to judge another's spirituality - that is the fruits of the spirit.  If some one displays the fruits of the spirit (and as far as I can tell Kirk Cameron does) than I have no right to judge his externals.  

These are just some things that have been crossing my mind lately.

My New Crazy Project

I, being of the restless sort, am wont to fill my free hours with little projects.  My Dad is this way, and I always thought it was amazing how he could teach himself to do just about anything.  Well, one project is behind me, and I have another one before me.

Have any of you seen the Apple TV.  The little pretty silver box that streams music and video content from all of the computers in your house to your television.  Well, I sort of want to make a home made Apple TV on steroids.  The other day, I downloaded Boxee, a free program for Mac OS X that is based on the Xbox Media Center.  Boxee basically accesses and plays all of the entertainment content on my computer, a task that can be done by the built in Front Row application.  But where Boxee excels is that it connects to a bunch of online content.  You can sit in twenty feet away from your mac and use your apple remote to go through the library of free tv at Hulu or watch videos from CBS.com.  You can watch Flickr or Picassa slide shows and listen to radio from last.fm.  

What I want to do is build (or cannibalize) a computer that 1)runs Boxee, 2) is hooked up to both macs on my network and can access there content, 3)has all of my dvds burnt on to it, and 4) connects to my TV.  Maybe in the future I will get a card for it and use it as a Tivo.

Now all of those goals are easily accomplished accept for #4, which is going to require the purchase of a good video card.  The problem is my tv is seriously old, in fact it is a hand me down from my grandfather, and I don't have the cash for a new one.  So I need a way to hook up a computer with a good card to a TV with only a composite RCA connection.  But I think I can get it done.

Nine New Years Resolutions for 2009

1. Be a better christian
I really hope this always stays on my new years resolutions because this is what its all about.  If I can't be a christian (in the Biblical sense) then being a preacher doesn't matter. 
2. Be a better teacher
I work a lot on being a better preacher and better at other parts of my ministry.  But honestly, I don't work hard enough on being a teacher, and that is really important because it is what I do most often.  If I put as much effort into my science class as I do into a sunday school lesson, l would be a much better teacher. 
3. Improve my posture (more)
This was on my list last year.  When I was in college and then throughout my time in New Hampshire I let my posture go to pot.  Lately it's been getting much better though, and on my last trip home many people commented positively on my posture, but I need to keep working on it.
4. Stop biting my fingernails (for good)
I actually managed to quit biting my fingernails this year.  I bought some Don't Bite It, a kind of clear nail polish that tastes as nasty as anything I have ever put in my mouth and it really worked, but what guy wants to wear nail polish, so I stopped using it and eventually started biting again, this year I do want to stop though and really stop.
5. Gain weight
I haven't gained a pound since I was in high school.  When I was in college they called me Auswich because I was so skinny, its time to start changing that.
6. Be more of a people person
I am really good with a computer and can hold my own with a group of people, but one on one I need some work.  I am really going to try to open up this year, smooth out a few more of my New England rough edges and be more social.
7. Read my Bible more
I actually opened Explore the Book the other day for the first time since college and I loved it.  I want to try to study a New Testament book and Old Testament book every month this year, I did this in December and November and I loved it.
8. Learn patience
I am probably the most impatient person I know and I really need to change that.
9. Be less cranky
Enough said I bite off more heads than the people who work at the peeps factory and it is not good.

Chillin (literally) with my family in NH

I am currently doing something that I am not good at . . . I am taking a vacation and spending time with my family.  Amanda and I decided to rent a car and drive up to New Hampshire for Christmas this year and spend some time with our family and our old church.

For those of you who don't know, I come from a large family, I have four brothers and three sisters, most of which are in college right now (poor mom).  Because we are all grown up, most of the time its hard for us to get together, so coming home is something special.

We drove up through the teeth of a snowstorm, from Connecticut to New Hampshire, we didn't drive faster than 40 miles per hour.  As soon as we got here, it started snowing even more, and I have spent at least four hours shoveling snow with my brothers in the two days since we have been here. 

I am so grateful to come from a Christian family.  I have two brothers and a sister preparing for the ministry, and my parents are busy with church work all of the time.  We really are a close family.

Well, currently I am in Panera bread and need to get back to the fam, so I am snapping a picture of me in full "vacation mode" and going back to catchin up.

My Latest Site

Over Thanksgiving break, I finally got around to changing and updating our school's web site over at www.fairviewchristianacademy.org.  I did it using something that would have been anathema to me when I was doing this sort of thing all the time.  I used wordpress.  I have to say, the program has come a long way since the last time that I used it.  I love the new gallery function, and several people are developing themes now that are more than just themes or style sheets, they are high powered frameworks that make the web site work.  

After using these new themes, particularly Justin Tadlock's excellent and highly customizable options theme (which will soon power both our school and camp website but you'll never know) I can't in good faith go back to modx or textpattern, and I have a mind to go back to my old websites and redo them in wordpress.

What is worldliness anyways?

Is it just me or have the christians in America just completely abandoned the idea of being separated from the world?  I mean, what do you have to do these days to be considered worldly?  Is there any doubt that popular christianity has been defining worldliness down now for so long that it doesn't seem to exist anymore.  

I get all kinds of mail from youth ministry magazines and I am always appalled at what the "worship leaders" look like.  I have seen tattoos, punk jewelry, all forms of outrageous hair styles, every hair color (except for those normal people are born with),  long hair on men, no hair on women, and the list goes on and on.  How do these people reconcile there looks, music styles, and ministry methods with the Bible's command to be in the world but not of the world.

Here is how they do it: 

1)They change the definition of the word "world" every time it comes close to forcing them to alter their actions.  It seems that christianity has taken a page from the playbook of Bill Clinton (define "is") and are using it every chance that they can get.  By changing the definition of the word "world" they can make "worldliness" a moving target impossible to prosecute.  

To me it's just not that hard to understand.  The world is defined as "the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life" in I John 2:15, these verses refer to anything that we want to do, have or be that God doesn't want us to do, have or be.  We can see the world pretty easily when we look through the lens of this verse: we can see it in movies where fornication is almost always seen in a positive light, in TV shows glorifying adultery, in billboards advertising everything from hooters (lust) to high dollar luxury cars (greed) to a glorification of the human body through work out centers (pride).  We can see it through fashion which consistently seeks to either draw attention to the sexual zones of the body, or display rebellion for all to see.  We can see it at the mall as we watch poor ignorant teenagers living for the approval of their peers.  Modern christians need to stand apart from these things, but instead, we are emulating them and wearing our worldliness as a badge of pride.    

2) They ignore clear teaching of the scripture when it comes to how they act in our sin-sick culture. Here are a few ways:

• Does the Bible not say in Phillipians 4:5 "Let your moderation be known to all men"?  Then why are today's christian teenagers being encouraged to go to extremes in every area of fashion.  From christians with choker necklaces to christians in bikinis, where did "moderation" go?  
  
• The Bible clearly forbids the wearing of tattoos in Leviticus 19:28.  While it is true that that is in the law and christians are under grace does it not show where God stands on the issue?  A Christians body is the temple of the holy ghost, not the canvas to display its particular brand of the counter culture.  
• The Bible tells us we are to "not conform to the world" in Romans 12:2.  So why are so many christians trying so hard to look cool?  It would seem the the churches in america are going through an identity crisis similar to the one a kid goes through in sixth grade, they want so badly to be accepted by the world.  But God has said that the world will hate and persecute all christians who follow him (I John 3:13).  Is this not clearly worldliness.

3) They attack well meaning christians for trying to help them with their worldliness.  

If I had a dollar for every time a teenager has told me I was judging a saint in the last year I would have a lot of dollars.  What does the Bible say about judging other christians?  If you used the logic that the critics of this post would use, you could never have a problem with a single idea ever put forward by anyone who claimed to be a christian.   

Far from the minds of these people, though, is the fact that the Bible commands christians to "try the spirits to see if they are of God" (I John 4:1)  and that God commended different churches for not just accepting what the apostles had to say, but weighing it by the scriptures (the Berean church for one).  It is hard to come to any other conclusion that it is my christian duty to "judge" any new idea that comes down the pike.

So what is the "world" refer to in passages like 1 John?  I challenge any of you CCMers out there to come up with a logical definition that doesn't condemn your methods and behaviors.