First thing’s first. I’m getting baptized tomorrow. Before I get into the why, I’ll talk about the where and when. It’s going to be at Edmonds Marina Park, and put on by Mars Hill Church Shoreline. Here’s the event page for more information. The picinic starts at 6, then Pastor Steve (lead pastor at Shoreline) will preach, there will be some testimonies including me and then the dunking will begin.

Now for the why:

History

I grew up in the Lutheran church where the tradition is to “baptize” babies. I use the quotes because as Pastor Mark describes in his sermon from this last Sunday, infant baptizm is nowhere to be found in the Bible. Here’s what the Bible does say about baptism:

Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.” Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.” (Acts 2:36-39)

The pattern is clear: repent and be baptized. When I was baptized I didn’t have that opportunity, so now I’m here 29 years later and I haven’t come forward to make that public declaration of faith.

Why now?

The topic of baptism is something that came up as long as 6 years ago when I became a member of Mars Hill. I had never considered the topic very seriously, and honestly didn’t feel like God was directing me that way. I prayed a little about it since then and honestly didn’t feel like I wanted to do it. Only recently, though, has God put it more on my heart through earnest prayer as well as conversations that the Holy Spirit used with my wife and community group.

The primary reason that I didn’t want to get baptized was fear. I’ve been getting more plugged into Mars Hill and I had a strong hunch that I would be asked to share some of my story if I decided to go through with it. I’m not someone who likes being in front of a big crowd. I much prefer things behind the scenes. So my nerves got the best of me.

On top of that, I reall don’t know exactly what I’m going to say. I really started to take ownership of my faith around 10 years ago, but before or after that haven’t really struggled with the “big” sins. No drugs. No porn addiction. But the reality is that I have been proud. I have been somewhat of a gossip. I have been gluttonous. Those are some things that I still deal with now, even. And I still remain a sinner in need of God’s grace.

I decided to get baptized before Sunday, but the sermon we heard from Pastor Mark really nailed it when he said this:

And one of the most common answers I get is, “I’m shy.” But obedience says to repent of shyness, because your shyness might be a sin.If Jesus is saying, “Be my witnesses,” which is exactly what he says, and then people are baptized, one way you are a witness is through your baptism. So, let me encourage you today to consider:

Are you a Christian? Have you turned from sin?

Have you trusted in Jesus?

And have you been baptized?

If not, why is there disobedience? And I would tell you, your obedience glorifies God.

So that’s the big reason I’m getting baptized. I want to be obedient to Jesus. I know he died for my sins. I know he rose and conqured death. I know that the Holy Spirit will give me the words to say tomorrow. Because he is with me.

Awesome.

More words to come.

Soon this screen will be kit with The Dark Knight Rises. And it will be glorious.

There has been lots of speculation around the possibility of a smaller iPad that’s on the horizon. In all likelihood it will be between 7-8” (with many predicting 7.85” exactly). If you haven’t read John Gruber’s piece from this week, it’s required reading. While I’m not in a place to speculate on the new iPad’s existence, I do want to throw my hat in the ring and predict its name.

First, I think iPod-inspired nano or mini monikers are out (Sorry Dan Benjamin, no iPad Jr. either). Those names came for entirely new product lines with distinct features and branding. I don’t think this iPad will be that way. Apple seems to want to unify the iPad brand which is exactly why they went with the new iPad when it launched in March. They are going for unification, not division.

I believe where we should look is to their computers, specifically the MacBook Pro. For years, Apple has branded their computers by the line and screen size with the specific model being something like 13-inch, mid 2009^1^. When you go to the Apple Store online you click MacBook Pro and then chose your screen size. Try it for yourself. It seems to me that they want that kind of simplicity across all of their product lines, especially where computers are involved. Since we all can agree that iPads are more closely related to computers than iPods I think that’s how they will move.

So if the new iPad is introduced, I expect the matrix to look something like this:

• iPad (7-inch)^2^: 16GB, 32GB, 64GB
• iPad (3rd generation): 16GB, 32GB, 64GB

That’s how it could be initially. When they update to newer iPads, they will stick to iPad (7-inch or 9-inch, 4th generation). I don’t know if they will move the 7-inch iPad up to 4th generation or not, but it seems likely to keep things consistent across their product line.

If Apple does in fact release this new iPad, one thing is for sure: it will sell like hotcakes no matter what it’s called.

1. In fact, when they launched the 13-inch Pro in June 2009 that is exactly what it was called.

2. One interesting thing to note on the MacBook Air is that Apple rounds down their screen sizes. The 11” Air has an 11.6” screen yet they call it an 11”. That’s why I’m guessing that the smaller iPad will be called 7” instead of 8”.

My love for Fantastical was born out of my disdain for what Apple did to iCal. I dont think Im alone in this, but I used to be an avid iCal user. It was great and the first calendar app that I really used consistently. Then it all went to crap in Lion (Mac OS X 10.7). My biggest gripe aside from the hideous leather UI was the removal of the calendar sidebar and usable monthly navigation overviews.

In light of that I sought out alternatives. BusyCal was a throwback to the iCal of old but was just different enough that I couldnt get behind it. And then along came Fantastical. Admittedly I was skeptical at first until I tried it.

The way you interact with Fantastical is nothing short of magical. Just type in your calendar event and it parses the language automatically. So for instance,

The Dark Knight Rises at midnight on July 20 at Alderwood Mall

Gets added as a calendar event called The Dark Knight Rises at 12:00 AM on July 20 with the location set to Alderwood Mall.

The more I play around with how it recognizes criteria of what I type the more surprised I get. From recognizing people on an event and inviting them to setting up repetitions automatically I am always amazed by what it can do.

The big thing that held me up from getting it was the price. I wasnt really a fan of spending $20 on a calendar app since I had been used to iCal which was free with OS X. I let the 14-day trial expire and went back to iCal for a while before deleting my preferences to reset the trial. But In the end I sprung the $20 for it and really havent regretted it.

Thats a shift Ive been seeing in myself more lately: I enjoy supporting small developers who make great apps. Most of the apps that Im planning on writing about in is series are all from small developers and its a huge part of what makes the iOS and Mac ecosystems so great.

I urge you to check out Fantastical. The price is normally $20, but right now its on sale for 50% off at the Mac App Store and I cant recommend it enough.

$9.99 on the Mac App Store for a limited time

I love making breakfast smoothies!

God Wants You to Complain (Link)

I love this reminder from the Psalms.

Personally, I suck at talking to God about everything that’s going on good or bad. That was one of the things that I loved about Redemption Groups at Mars Hill is that they have you write a psalm. I’m convicted by this that my journaling especially isn’t focused enough as a series of prayers to God of thanksgiving as well as groaning.

I became an official member of the Dollar Shave Club today. Will post my thoughts on their stuff soon!

Passwords can be annoying beasts. We all need them to safeguard our info but our tendencies are to use a couple for all the places we go because managing them can be a huge pain. I was firmly planted in that camp until about 4 years ago when I decided to plunge into 1Password from Agile Bits.

What makes a utility like 1Password great is that it integrates with your browser. So when Im at a site that Ive registered at it remembers my login. If Im somewhere that I havent been before, 1Password offers to remember my new login and password and will even make suggestions for a new and very secure password for me.

Im at the point where I know hardly any of my passwords and I love it.

But it gets even better from there. With 1Password I can even store my contact info for multiple locations as well as my credit/debit cards. The great thing about this is that it knows which fields to fill in when Im buying something and fills in the right info. It just works!

But I can hear you asking, what about syncing between all of my devices? Youre covered there too. Dropbox is fully baked into 1Password on the desktop as well as iOS and Android and it syncs seamlessly in the background so you dont have to do anything. And if youre not near one of your devices you can login to your Dropbox and open the file from your browser

1Password supports Mac (where it got its statt), Windows, iOS (iPhone, iPad and iPod touch) and Android. On Macs integration is supported with Safari, Firefox and Chrome whereas with Windows it supports all of the above plus Internet Explorer.

My biggest request at this point would be to build in a full web browser with iCloud bookmark support into their iOS version. That would probably be enough for me to consider using 1Password as my full time iPad browser.

Ideally Safari would allow extensions on the iPhone or iPad olive you can have on your desktop browser but that likely will never happen.

There are many purchasing options for 1Password. I have found the Mac App store to be the best way for me, since it will come with a free upgrade to the forthcoming 4.0 release. I dont have zany info on the new features, but Ive heard its going to be awesome and beautiful.. Im looking forward to that one.

You can find 1Password at the Agile Bits website, or at one of the links below for multiple platforms.

$49.99 on the Mac App Store

$14.99 for iPhone and iPad on the iOS App Store

$49.99 for the Windows edition