Seemingly foregoing power user-driven requests like better inter-app
communication and file sharing, Apple is focusing on polishing iOS as
we know it, adding subtle and more visible improvements without
drastically revolutionizing the experience we are accustomed to.
I think this summarizes why I have mixed feelings about iOS 6. I really
was hoping for better inter-app communication, improvements to
notification center and a more updated UI. I have no doubt that iOS 6 is
a big improvement (especially with Siri coming to iPad and Maps getting
overhauled), but I had my hopes up for a bit more.
Three years ago I got laid off from my job at Mars Hill Church. The new
budget year was about to kick in and they didn’t have the money to pay
me anymore. That would be the start of the most difficult - yet by far
the best - season of my life.
The next four months saw me go into something of a spritual funk. I
basically kept gling to church wnd community group out of routine; there
was no passion in it to speak of. Then God brought Samson, a friend that
I had made while working at the church, to mind. I asked him if he’d be
willing to walk through that season of life with me and be my mentor. He
gladly said yes.
We started meeting weekly in October 2009 and set some goals: read the
Bible, do ministry, lose some weight, find a sustaining job, pray about
how to pursue a woman for marriage, things like that.
Since then, I’ve:
Married my best friend, whom I wouldn’t have even met if I still
worked down in Ballard. Emily and I met just after I moved to the
Shoreline campus of Mars Hill in August, 2010. I was one of the
refugees from the old Lake City campus that closed earlier that
summer and she invited me to her community group; our friendship
grew over the next few months and we started dating on December 14,
then married the following July 22.
Had a good and steady job where I’ve moved up twice in a company
that I thought I had topped out in. Going from service tech driving
to Kent 4 days a week to sales and a 10 minute commute now to being
our developer. What a crazy progression.
Lead a community group with Emily in our condo for a little over a
year now. One of the first things Samson asked me when we started
meeting was why I wasn’t a community group leader. I thought that
was a ridiculous question given the season I was in, but God used it
to plant the seed in my head 17 months before it would actually
happen.
Lost around 70lbs
It’s all happened only by the grace of God. I never thought that losing
my job could be one of the best things that’s ever happened to me but
I’m convinced now thats the case.
After a software-only WWDC last year, this is going to be a welcome
change for lovers of Apple gadgets particularly for those whove been
holding out for a new computer, a part of the business Apple
hasntspent much time talking about in public since July 2011 when OS X
Lion and new MacBooks were released.
So what will we see? Here are some educated guesses.
Those who really know me know that I haven’t seen lots of the
classics, either.
I’m fully prepared to take whatever is thrown at me in terms of mocking,
criticism, etc but I’m thinking that a fun project this summer can be to
knock a good number of the movies that I haven’t seen off of that list.
That said, here’s the list that I’ve compiled so far. It’s in no
particular order:
UHF
Alien
Alens
Terminator
Terminator 2
Jaws
Commando
Total Recall (the orignal)
Time Bandits
Pitch Black
Rear Window
Ok let the mocking begin. But please, at the same time, provide any
other movies that you think I should see that (given the list above) I
probably haven’t.
Journaling is one of those things that I hear people rave about; at the
same time it takes great discipline. While in the past I’ve wanted the
benefits of keeping a journal, I haven’t been disciplined enough to be
consistent.
I was able to pick it up just after the influx of Christmas iTunes gift
cards this past year. The thing that sold me is that there is one
universal iOS app (for iPhone and iPad) and a companion Mac app. The
interface is dead simple and even joyous to use.
But the thing that drives my love for Day One is reminders. Especially
in the early going of forming new habits, I need to be prompted to do
something. You can configure alerts to prompt journaling at different
intervals on your devices. For me I have it go every 4 hours starting at
8 am on my Mac at work, and daily at night on my iOS devices.
To this point I’ve put in over 300 entries in just over 140 days of
usage. For someone who hasn’t been a consistent journaler, I consider
that a minor miracle.
For all the great things about Day One I have had one minor quibble. The
app syncs great over Dropbox, but when I tried switching over to iCloud
I started losing entries. For now I’m sticking with Dropbox but I may
try it again after the next update or two (the developers say they have
improved iCloud support in the upcoming release).
There are also a couple great features coming down soon that I’m really
looking forward to: photos and tagging. I’m especially pumped for
tagging. Emily and I want to camp at all the Washington state parks, so
I could tag our thoughts in a post. Or I could tag entries based on what
I’m praying about in a given day so I can look back and create follow up
entries.
Overall Day One has been a terrific app for me and it’s really changed
how I chronicle my day to day life. Pick it up at the iOS or Mac App
stores with the links below.
I’m something of an app junkie. I remember looking forward to the old
Mac Addict magazine every month and being engrossed by the shareware on
the included cd. I worked selling Macs in high school and got access to
lots of different apps there too.
Over the last few years my affinity for great software has grown by
leaps and bounds with the App Store for iPhone, iPad and the Mac. There
are so many great apps out nowadays that you can’t go a week without
hearing about something new.
It sounds weird to say, but honestly my life has definitely been changed
for the better by these apps that I’ve grown to love. In that light I
want to share some of the apps that I love and the problems in my life
that they solve.
Part of my hope in this series is to get feedback. What apps do you use
to tackle the same things? I love thinking about the systems that I use
and am constantly looking for better ways to do things.
I hope you enjoy the series as much as I do and that it can be fruitful
for all of us!
Its been an exciting and kind of stressful last couple of weeks for me.
I got promoted at work, which has been amazing. I work at MicroK12 and we sell technology to schools. For the last couple of years I have been in our sales department doing inside sales. Now Im our new systems developer working on our internal FileMaker Pro databases and our website.
<This part gets pretty nerdy. Feel free to skip below if you want to avoid some nerdery.>
I have been doing database work for a while now, having developed my own solution to standardize price lists coming into our database. The web,
however, is pretty new to me. Besides some basic HTML that I did in middle school Im playing catch-up.
Ive had to learn PHP on the fly (which hasn't been too difficult, really) but the real stress came along when we migrated our systems from
FileMaker 11 to 12 the day before our old developer left. We had been working on updating the website to call the new database, but didnt do enough testing before going live. Our web server was running older versions of PHP and Fedora and needed updating (which none of us knew going in) and getting it back online proved to be an ordeal.
So in addition to getting up to speed with how our website is put together I also had to learn some Linux admin skills something that was
totally new to me. When everything finally came online I still had several days worth of work fixing the issues that we didnt catch, getting the needed libraries working, etc. Now its all back online and I feel so relieved!
</End nerdery>
On the personal side Ive been really up and down. Lots of cool things have been happening (new job, bowling championship, married to a great woman) but its also been countered with some heartache.
My grandpa died about three weeks ago. By Gods grace Ive never experienced the loss of someone close to me and its been a bit surreal. There were a couple days when I really questioned the point of everything (hint: Jesus is the point) and the Holy Spirit really did some work on my heart. His memorial is tomorrow and Im really not sure what to expect.
I guess I havent figured out what mourning looks like for me. Lately there has been so much going on that I havent really stopped to think
about it all. My big hope is that tomorrow can provide some good closure. I know he's with Jesus now and I rejoice since Ill get to see
him when I go home.
One last thing. I plan on doing more writing here. Ive already got a new series started that will be rolling out soon hopefully in the next week or so. So keep your eyes peeled here to see what thats all about. I hope it can generate some good discussion.
