Blog Responsibly

Believers should take great care when navigating the blogosphere, avoiding such pitfalls as carelessness, gossip and dissension. Christian bloggers should adopt a responsible view of blogging that incorporates basic disciplines.

• Maturity
• Self-Control
• Accountability
• Humility

When undertaken responsibly, blogging can be a tremendous ministry. And the beauty of blogging is that anyone can do it.

Read the rest of Blog Responsibly at Boundless.org.

3 of Me

Here's an interesting photography project... put multiples of yourself into the same photo! Freak out your friends and family, and have a little fun at the same time.

What you need:

• Tripod
• Camera
• Graphic editing software, like Photoshop or the cheaper and almost-as-powerful Photoshop Elements. Use it to stick together your photos, and fix any overlaps.
  
• You... And any props or costume changes you'll be using.

You literally set up your tripod and camera, turn on the timer (or get a friend to help), and take a few photos of you in various positions.

Some tips you should keep in mind:

• Don't move the tripod. Even the slightest movement can throw your off your images.
• Fix the settings on your camera. Set it to Manual. If you're camera is on automatic, it might read different settings for each picture, which will give your photos different exposures.
• When editing, be careful of the overlaps.
• Be wary of the distance between your moving objects, and any shadows or interferences, and reflections.
• Edit any objects that might have accidentally moved between pictures. (such as the Xbox controller cables in my photo that I had to correct)

So have fun, and put a link in my comments to any cool and crazy stuff you come up with.

Blogger (back in) Beta

Well it looks like my efforts to categorize my blogging has been rendered useless... but for a good reason:
Blogger is back in Beta.
Or rather, the new version is. And in a few days or weeks, we'll have plenty of new features to play around with.

Here are the more exciting features that are coming out in the new version:

• Labels. Categorize your posts with labels. This basically makes my own list useless... which is just fine with me, cause it's annoying to update manually!
• Reader Permissions. Just like it sounds, you can control who reads your blog. Perfect for private business blogs, or trading romantic posts with your girlfriend ;)
• Template Editor. Finally, a real wysiwyg editor to make changes to your template! Lately, I've just been dropping my template into Dreamweaver to make changes, but this is easier and more accessible to the average user.

You can go and sign up for the new Blogger Beta, but will have to wait a little bit longer to convert your existing blog over to the new system... come on Blogger! Let's get the show on the road.

- My template in Dreamweaver -

Church Planning Center

Thanks to the podcast from over at ChurhTechTalk, I heard about a fantastic new piece of software called Ministry Centered Planning Center.

I'd suggest any church to check it out. It's totally free, and can organize every aspect of your church. Service outlines and notes, song databases, volunteer ministry rosters, calenders, files, photos, everything. It can keep your church up-to-date and on top of things.

Did I mention it was free? There's no install involved either, so it runs entirely through your web browser.

Moving Her Here

So, I'm in Chatham right now, helping my gal pack up the rest of her stuff, load it into a truck, and move it on down to Ottawa! She's already found herself a great job, a great apartment, and a great roommate... she's all set.

It will be really great having her live so close too. I'll no longer have to travel for 9 hours just to see my sweetheart! It's definitely a huge step in our relationship, and it allows us to get to know each other on a more regular and realistic level. I'm looking forward to building our relationship even further.

Film: Second Chance

Christian films have slowly and surely being catching up with the industry. Christian music has been widely recognized for a while now, and cinema is slowly on it's way.

The Second Chance, starring Michael W. Smith, is about a pastor who is estranged by the cold-shoulder of his fathers church, and returns to the church of his youth... right in the middle of the projects. He has to deal with homeless, prostitutes, and innercity street gangs, in a way that helps their daily needs, and shows them the light of Christ.

The film is fairly well directed, very well scripted, and has pretty decent acting. Good cinematography, and a true and heart-wrenching message.

Two cool things about this film...

First, a lot of the street people and some of the minor actors are actual homeless people or aspiring actors and actresses from the projects.

Second, the large church where some of the scenes were filmed, is none other than Brentwood Baptist! As some of you may know, they graciously hosted 8 of us when we drove 20-something hours to attend the Passion 05 conference. It was pretty weird seeing Brentwood play the role of a fictional church in the movie.