Notes from the Trail

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You are mild-mannered, good, strong and you love to help others.

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It seems about every week I stumble on a cool "new" tool - new to me, that is.
I have found digg,
and I think I’m going to like it. I guess you could say I dig digg. Or I’ve dug digg. Whatever.

Although I use Bloglines daily, I have begun to fret between using it or Technorati - which continues to add new features all the time - and del.icio.us. All of these three have ways to keep track of your favorite sites and blogs and let you know when they’ve been updated. Which one will end up on top? It’s a toss-up, but a ton of folks seem to be using Technorati.

But here’s what I like about digg -so far. Go over to the main page, and you’ll see it tracks stories for you. When you see one you like, you just click on it. But then you have the option to send it to a friend, blog about it (it connects you directly to your blog), or to save it. (BTW, the Flock browser - which I’m using predominantly now - has similar features built in).

Another cool blogging tool that I’m using a lot now is cocomment. It’s awesome. Whenever you post a comment that you want to track or save, you just click on cocomment (put it as a toolbar link in your browser). Cocomment pops up - as you post your comment in your friend’s blog - and lets you "tag" it, track it (get notified when someone else posts a comment there), etc. Awesome!

Let me know which blog tools above you’re using or that you begin using after this post! Enjoy.

If you’re a Mac user and enjoy the easy functionality of iTunes and iPhoto, you’ve got to look at kip! It’s free right now, so toodle on over to this link and track it down!
read more | digg story

Check out the latest prognostications about Apple Computer! Heh-heh. I am doing the "I-told-you-so-way-back-in-1988" dance. (That’s how long I’ve been using Macs.) Back in September of ‘03, I got my first Powermac G5 - to start off my financially-challenged career as a graphic designer. You might enjoy this video from then.

read more | digg story

This is an example of a post that I posted directly from digg.

Have you ever been in a situation where you wished your cell phone would ring? Maybe you wanted to look extra important or popular on that hot date. Or maybe you just needed an excuse to escape from an unpleasant meeting.

read more | digg story

You may recall my "philosophy of the cell phone" post last year…

Playing catch up today on some design work and just thought I’d refer you to some blogs and sites that you may not have stopped by recently. Sorry for the laziness, but hey, you just might find a jewel in all these that becomes a regular stopover.

Oh, and Ryan and I are beginning to read The Pursuit of Holiness together for challenge and encouragement (like I need another reading group!). If any of you would be interested in reading with us this powerful but short book (notice the sneaky motivational hook there), grab you a book and let me know.

Here are my lazy entry links:

• Behind door number 1 - some Southern Baptist links for information and encouragement. Having served as an SBC minister and in their churches for most of my life, I’m still intrigued and keep up with what’s going on there. Wade Burleson’s blog, Grace and Truth to You, is an attempt by a trustee of one of the SBC’s mission boards to keep the playing field level. In recent years, a powerful few have gained control of key positions in SBC life and leadership. Burleson simply wants convention leadership to be held more accountable to the good folks in SBC churches…. Kiki Cherry is an OBU grad and friend serving as a collegiate minister in the northeast. Her blog, The Cherry Pit is a great read. T4G Blog is an ongoing public conversation between Mark Dever, Ligon Duncan, C.J. Mahaney, and Albert Mohler - all conservative evangelicals, not necessarily SBC-ers.
• Behind door number 2 - some blogs to follow the continuing emergent church dialogue. The "Emergent Church" movement is pretty difficult to follow, however. Depending on who you talk to, it can be encouraging/confusing or enlightening/darkening. A decent first read would be Wikipedia’s entry on emergent church. Steve McCoy has a personal commentary on the emergent church. There is an interesting article, with decent graphs at subversiveinfluence. Open Source Theology in pretty interesting. For a long critique of the emergent movement, read Phil Johnson.
• Behind door number 3 - some excellent blog designs, as well as content. I continue to be extremely impressed and a consistent lurker over at challies.com. 5thirtyone.com… I have no idea what it’s about, but I like the look. Sonspring is also pretty cool.
• Behind door number 4 - Mac stuff. Of course. The "Unofficial Apple Weblog" is a nice way to keep up. There’s Apple’s main site which will make you drool over the new Macbooks. Finally, there is dotmac.info which is a Mac user’s site with all kinds of ways to find out how people are using their Macs. (Is it just me, or is there a huge group of new church starts and ministers now using the Mac? Seems like everyone I come across these days has a Macbook.)