Category: ThoughtStream

Things we think

iPaddio Daddio

John Saddington, purveyor of the fabulous ChurchCrunch, posted the question – “Is there any practical and realistic use for the new Apple iPad in a ministry context and environment?” – and the followup question – “Are you going to get one and why?”.

First, here is the response I gave in his post’s comments:

1. I can give my pastor one and repurpose his woefully underused MacBook Pro.
2. The PCO and ProPresenter Remote iPhone apps will rock, especially when optimized for the iPad.
3. The welcome center idea from Alex Tillman is right on – how cool would that be?
4. POS at ministry counter for book and CD sales; registration signups; online giving help.
5. Another iPhone app that will be immeasurably easier and fantastic on the iPad – LogMeIn.
6. I agree that this is not a device to help creatives create – but this will be perfect for presenters to present.
7. Preaching and teaching directly from this while controlling my presentation video? Absolutely!

But I don’t plan on buying one for me – I’m desperate for a new MacBook Pro to replace my obsolete Powerbook, because I picture myself as one of those creative types. But for 90% of my computing tasks and 90% of my users, this will be perfect.

Having said that I don’t plan on buying one for me, let me qualify that: I don’t plan on it now. Or exactly for me. Although I hope to enjoy one.

The iPad is going to be a phenomenal device, I hope. No one really knows. Except that the iPhone is already changed many things for me, and I expect that the iPad will do something quite similiar.

My 13-year-old daughter – who was previously saving for a laptop – is completely thinking iPad now. Laptop is overkill for her, but iPad is right in the sweet spot. My wife is also contemplating selling her MacBook and moving to an iPad. I can’t think of anything she does on her laptop that she couldn’t do on an the new iDevice. One of the biggest things is that for $499 or even $599, this is a great entry-level computer that does everything they could think of.

I was one of the ones who paid $599 for the original iPhone (which has since moved to the possession of Trudi). $499 for something that is multiple times faster and more powerful, with twice the storage of that original iPhone?

Easy decision. I believe it will be equally easy for many people – and the church needs to be there.

Tags Apple, computer, iPad, iPhone, technology

ThoughtStream

English girl

Our eldest monkey, Shae, is now in Nottingham, U.K. for a five month study abroad program at the University of Nottingham. She has started her own blog, My Life is Nottingham, to post details and pictures of her experiences. Check it out at Shae.SarcasticMonkeys.com.

Tags blog, My Life is Nottingham, Shae

ThoughtStream

Tebow, the losing winner

Okay, I admit it. I read the TimTeblog, a blog about all things Tim Tebow. Most of the time it’s pretty good…and funny.

But in a post the other day, writer Dan Shanoff was insightful as well. His focus was Tebow’s loss in the SEC championship, and the crying that followed, along with the Bible verse inscribed in Tebow’s eyeblack that day. By extension, you could apply this to the Heismann trophy presentation this weekend. Shanoff said this…

But to the extent that losses are a part of sports — and a part of life — Tebow comes closer to fulfilling his personal mission, beyond football, by the way he dealt with adversity, not success.

Winning usually doesn’t tell you much about your character, but losing almost always does.

Tags life, losing, winning

ThoughtStream

Getting things right vs. Getting things done

Post author By Tim McDaniel
Post date November 18, 2009
No Comments on Getting things right vs. Getting things done

Love this quote from Matt Perman (www.WhatsBestNext.com) via the TwentyTwoWords.com blog:

Whenever people begin to ask, â€œDoes it fit our rules,â€ rather than, â€œDoes it serve our mission,â€ then you have a bureaucracy.

Tags bureaucracy, GTD, law, mission, rules

ThoughtStream

It’s that time of year, again

Post author By Tim McDaniel
Post date November 13, 2009
2 Comments on It’s that time of year, again

Wasn’t she cute? I think so. And she’s more beautiful every day, inside and out.

I would never have had such a wonderful family without her. She keeps us going, keeps us straight, keeps us fun.

Happy Birthday to the Lovely Trudi.

And many, many more.

Tags birthdays, Trudi

ThoughtStream

The introduction I was supposed to give

Post author By Tim McDaniel
Post date November 9, 2009
No Comments on The introduction I was supposed to give

Last summer I saw the video “Cletus Take the Reel” on YouTube. It was by some guy I had never heard of. Later I saw another of his videos and showed it to my family. They thought it was hilarious.

Eventually Sam and Shae found all of this guy’s videos and watched them over and over. I think Sammy has them all memorized.

Of course, the comic we “discovered” was Tim Hawkins.

Last fall Sammy and I, along with 2 of his friends, went to Punta Gorda to see Tim in concert. It was a phenomenal concert.

And I thought – “wouldn’t it be great to have him in concert at OUR church? We could do that!”

And so we are. And here he is – everyone give a warm North Fort Myers to Tim Hawkins!

————–

THAT was I was supposed to say last night when I introduced Tim Hawkins. Instead, my brain had vapor lock and all I managed to say was “everyone give a warm North Fort Myers welcome to Tim Hawkins!”

There. Now it’s off my mind and we can move on.

It was a great night anyway.

Tags comedian, regret, Tim Hawkins

ThoughtStream

Going mobile

There is a fantastic new plug-in for WordPress blogs that lets you easily offer a mobile phone-optimized look to your site. It’s called WPtouch, from BraveNewCode. Yes, this is one of those geeky, computer-talk posts. But if you want to see what I’m talking about, try viewing SarcasticMonkeys on your iPhone, iTouch, Blackberry or other mobile browser.

If you have a WordPress blog, you really need to try this. It’s easy and makes your site look great on a mobile device without changing the way it looks in a normal browser.

I’ve installed it on my church web site and on our church’s Scrooge blog, too.

As an added bonus, the plugin points to another site – Flavor Studios – that allows you to create free icons that work beautifully and look great on an iPhone.

Tags computer, iPhone, mobile, WordPress

ThoughtStream

Version 4.0

Yes, another new look for the blog. My first non-traveling weekend in a while has resulted in some noodling with this site and a transition to a new Woothemes template – f0101 is the name of it. The biggest thing it had going for it was the ability to put the big picture of the family in.

I’ve also got an idea of how to make this blog actually useful. That’s coming. It’s another reason I had to change the look. There were structural changes under the hood as well.

More to come…soon.

Tags blog, change, woothemes

ThoughtStream

Testing from my phone

This is a test of the WordPress 2.0 app for the iPhone. I tried the first version of the application and couldn’t get it to work correctly. Every time I would try to write a new post, it would work…until I tried to save or post it. Then it would disappear.

So far, this version seems more stable. And if you’re reading this, then we both know it actually works.

This picture – if you see it – is from another iPhone app. NASA’s appos free and has some really cool pictures you can download. I’m including the picture here just to test the picture-inserting capability of this app.

Judging by the fact that I’ve been able to get in and out of editing this post without losing it, I’m guessing that posting this will be no problem. So I can also tell you that, should you decide to use this yourself, it’s a pretty straight-forward application. You can’t see the formatting of your template, and there aren’t any options to take care of most of your administrator options, but you can post, moderate comments, insert pictures, and work with pages, too.

Tags blogging, iPhone, WordPress

ThoughtStream

Gorging at Life’s Buffet

It seems like I take on too many things at once. (Ever feel that way?) And I can’t quite seem to get enough done. (You might feel that way, too.)

Perhaps it’s part of the same problem that I – and Summer – have at restaurants. Everything looks good. It makes the deciding hard. Fish, chicken, steak…it all looks good. Choosing one thing invariably means that I won’t be able to do something else.

Unless I try to do it all.

That leaves you very uncomfortable at the dinner table. In the same way, you can be very uncomfortable when you don’t make the hard choices and limit yourself from sampling everything in life’s buffet.

You can have it all – but you will suffer for it.

But, even though I know it, sometimes we still choose to suffer. Like I am right this minute – writing on a blog, when I should be going to bed.

But this all started because of even one more thing that I’m trying to do – when maybe I shouldn’t. Something I’m working on in the background, that will be very closely related to this blog. In fact, it’s already hiding in plain sight. But it’s not time yet. Because I don’t have time yet.

But, soon… 🙂

Tags blog, choices, update

ThoughtStream

What do they think? Find out

Post author By Tim McDaniel
Post date September 19, 2009
No Comments on What do they think? Find out

Thanks to everyone that attended the New Media & Ministry workshop at the All Church Ministries Convention yesterday. Hopefully you found it to be thought-provoking and worth the time for your ministry.

Just saw a post from another blog (MoreThanDodgeball) from Josh Griffin about a service, PollEverywhere. It looks like another great tool that might be useful for your ministry. Josh used it for anonymous prayer requests. That’s a good idea. Or you might collect other useful data. Let me know how what ideas you come up with.

UPDATE: Here’s an example of what it looks like on your website:

Make your own poll voting question with Poll Everywhere

ThoughtStream

Clean Up, Clean Up…

High on my to-do list…”Clean the site”. I like this theme template from WooThemes, but it’s pretty confusing for a blog. Gotta choose a new look.

Tags templates, themes

ThoughtStream

Adding my Voice

You may or may not have heard of Google Voice. They’ve been in the technology news recently because of supposed trouble with Apple, and the delay in acceptance/rejection of their iPhone app.

I’ve had a Google Voice number for awhile, but have never published it. I’ve just hung onto it in case I ever want to use it. I obtained it before Google Voice existed, through Grand Central, which Google eventually bought.

Today I changed my number. The downside is that I changed it to a number outside of my own area code. Most people have nationwide long-distance through their cell phone anyway. (However, it IS a local number for people in the Euless/Dallas-Fort Worth area.)

The upside is that it’s (sort of) easy to remember: 682.Rev.McGator

(If you, like me, hate trying to figure out what letters match what numbers on the phone, that number is 682.738.6242. But that’s not as easy to remember.)