"May God bless you with discomfort
at easy answers, half-truths, and superficial relationships
so that you may live deep within your heart.

May God bless you with anger
at injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people,
so that you may work for justice, freedom and peace.

May God bless you with tears
to shed for those who suffer pain, rejection, hunger and war,
so that you may reach out your hand to comfort them and
to turn their pain into joy.

And may God bless you with enough foolishness
to believe that you can make a difference in the world,
so that you can do what others claim cannot be done
to bring justice and kindness to all our children and the poor.
Amen."

-A Franciscan Benediction

Here's some of my latest pictures. They were taken on a trip to Chicago with Emily to visit our friends/family at Moody.

Sell What You Market!

Some things have interesting timing. Yesterday I tweeted simply to say that I was working on some branding for Calvary Baptist Church where I work. My friend Josh Puckett saw the tweet and replied to it. He sent me an article about branding. The article basically said that the era of graphic branding has somewhat passed as people are starting to realize that a fancy brand doesn't necessarily mean a good product. I say this not at all to diminish the importance of a quality graphic brand, but instead to show the importance of backing that brand with a quality product. (The article Josh sent me can be read here.)

So here's where the timing comes in... Over the past week or so, I've been working with a local printing company that will remain nameless, to get some print items made for our church. This company markets themselves not necessarily with a good graphics package, but with the fact that they employ professionally trained printers, and have the highest quality equipment along with very reasonable pricing. That led me to choose this company...

I now regret that choice. Why? Horrible customer service. It's been over two weeks now since the files were delivered and I still haven't even received a date on when they'll be done. Grant it, I wouldn't have worked with "professionally trained" people, and the "highest quality equipment," but I could have gone a couple miles up the road and walked out with this same print job about half an hour after walking in the doors for the first time.

Sorry, this is somewhat of rant, but what fueled me to post this was the email I received today from the company after asking, once again, the status of our job. They simply said, mind you this is after over two weeks of waiting on a relatively small job, "Sorry for the delayed response. I'm absolutely swamped. Let me check with employees name and get back to you on this." You mean, after over two weeks you still have to check with another guy and get back to me about when my prints will be ready?! I could've ordered these much cheeper online and had them by now. These prints need to go out in a mailing last week!

Anyway, all this to say. Please! If you're going to market yourself as being good at something, don't let down. You'll lose business if you do.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on this. What's important to you when searching for a product or service?

Indwelling Sin

I was reading Park Community Church's 8 Minutes With God devotional this morning, and I came across this quote from theologian John Owen regarding the reality of sin in our lives:

"When we realize a constant enemy of the soul abides within us, what diligence and watchfulness we should have! How woeful is the sloth and negligence then of so many who live blind and asleep to this reality of sin. There is an exceeding efficacy and power in the indwelling sin of believers, for it constantly inclines itself towards evil. We need to be awake, then, if our hearts would know the ways of God.

Our enemy is not only upon us, as it was with Samson, but it is also in us. So if we would not dishonor God and His gospel, if we would not scandalize the saints of God, if we would not avoid our own conscience and endanger our own soul, if we would not grieve the Holy Spirit, then we must stay alert to our own danger."

iPad Uses

I said a couple weeks ago that I would write my opinion on what the iPad would be best used for in its early days. With a new device like this thats essentially in a league of its own, many are skeptical of its practicality and functionality. I'm sure as this new device becomes more popular its uses will expand, but in these early stages, here's where I see the iPad working best:

1. In the home: For those who can afford it, the iPad would be a great tool to have around the house in addition to the families computers. It would be perfect to have at the table in the morning to read the days news, around the hose during the day to tweet and keep up with your other social networks, in the kitchen in the evening to find that perfect recipe, and on the nightstand at night to check on some last minute things before bed.

2. In the office: I also see the device being popular among businessmen since iWork is available. Attach the device to a keyboard dock and maybe a larger display at the desk, but when it's time for a meeting or a business trip, pick up the ultra-thin and lightweight, device and hit the road, no file-syncing necessary!

3. With the traveler: Take a trip once or twice a year, a laptop may not be to cumbersome or inconvenient for you. But, if you're job or lifestyle requires you to be on the road week in and week out, a smaller and lighter device could be a much more practical solution. Worried about leaving something behind? Don't! With professional level remote access apps, such as LogMeIn, available at very reasonable prices (around $30), you can have full access to your home computer from anywhere in the world!

So as I said, these obviously aren't the only uses, or even necessarily the best. These are simply some places, off the top of my head, I see the iPad as an extremely powerful tool.

What do you think? Where would you use an iPad? Where have you seen them being used already?

Summer

I just wanted to take a minute to point out how pumped I am about this upcoming summer...

• I'm really looking forward to not having school work hanging over my head. I have a job that I really enjoy now, and it actually goes along with what I want to make a living out of. (Media Arts at Calvary Baptist Church) My friend Josh Burns wrote a post that I identify with while he was doing this same job last summer. I could write my own version, but it would say the same things, so you might as well just read his. Anyway, I'm looking forward to being able to give all my work efforts to that and take on more responsibility there.
• Obviously I'm also looking forward to not having class and being able to chill more
• I'm going to South Carolina with a bunch of my good friends to be in a friends wedding.
• I'm trying to plan a trip to Myrtle Beach with some other friends... it's still in the planning stages, so hopefully that happens.
• I'm trying to work out a way to go to Echo Conference again, but I don't know if that's going to work out or not with all these other trips.
• Even next semester will give me a lot to look forward to throughout the summer as I'm going to be getting in to my major and minor a lot. I only have two gen. ed classes left!

All that to say, I'm really looking forward to summer, to doing cool things, being with cool people, and generally just livin' the dream. Only 3 more weeks of classes and one week of finals to get through! What are you doing this summer?

Here's a couple videos I was able to take while using the iPad on release day. The video's don't have any relevant audio because the wonderful atmosphere in the store was a bit loud.

In this first video I'm simply going through some basic functions and apps on the iPad.

This is a live stream of a baseball game via the MLB At Bat 2010 app. The video is being streamed over the Apple Store's wifi.