You Are Viewing Goin’ to Town

It’s not too often that I review a product, and this will be short and sweet, but after plunking down a wad of dough for our iPad, I promptly began puttering around for some iPad protection. One thing you’ll discover quickly is that most of the cases that Best Buy and retail stores sell are, well, sorry. And expensive.

When I found the CrazyOnDigital Folio on Amazon for only $20, I was pretty skeptical. “That’s cheaper than most iPhone cases! How can it be any good?”

I’m a review reader, though, and after skimming the reviews of the case, I opted to get one. Amazon has a great returns policy, and I took advantage of our Amazon Prime membership for free 2-day shipping.

Short story: We love it!

It’s truly a quality, attractive case. I also love that it has utility pockets. The fold-over design allows you to set it up on your lap, or do give it just the right tilt angle on your desk to type on your iPad effectively.

What are you waiting on? Go get it.

It’s been about three weeks since we got our iPad, and I thought I’d share what we’re continuing to learn from it and our use of it. It really is in the process of revolutionizing how/when/where I digest information and media.

1. It’s all about the apps. Even more so than the iPhone. Yes, one can argue all you want that “it’s just a big iPhone/iPod Touch,” but that’s not a valid argument. For starters, there are apps for the iPad that are not available for those devices. Second, many apps that are available for both have been rewritten and redesigned for the iPad. And yes, they are ultimately better.
2. The screen is gorgeous. Yes, I know my Macbook Pro screen is similar or better. But I don’t hold my Macbook Pro screen at the same viewing distance as my iPad. Watching movies via Netflix or iTunes with an iPad is stunning. You feel immersed in the story. The screen also makes working on the iPad completely enjoyable.
3. Reading books on the iPad is truly doable. I’ve been a skeptic of eBooks for a long time. I don’t know that I’ll ever get over my love affair with a bound volume. Plus, I doubt I’ll take my iPad into the bath tub with me. (sorry for the mental picture) There are several eBook apps that are simply brilliant, and many give you the option of adjusting the screen tint so that you feel like you’re actually viewing a printed page.
4. The iOS is pretty stinking amazing. I wrote in my journal the other day that it’s actually liberating for me. I’m a huge multitasker, and too often I’m guilty of bouncing through screen real estate from one program to another, one project to another and losing myself in the day. The way the iOS is structured has compelled me to think linearly, and it has been refreshing. I don’t have dozens of windows open in the background. I can’t see what’s going on behind the scenes while I’m in an app without exiting. No Growl notices. Etc. I hope that the upcoming iOS 4 update for the iPad doesn’t ruin that wonderful simplicity of focus for me.
5. Perfect for communication. Skype works flawlessly, and thus far, we haven’t used the 3G capabilities of the iPad. From email to Twitter, the iPad is wonderful for connecting.
6. MobileMe. It just keeps getting better. But with Apple’s cloud service, our phones, our computers and the iPad are all simultaneously synced with our contacts, calendars, web bookmarks, etc. Sigh.

A complaint about apps

One complaint I have is that apps that are available on both iPhone and iPad platforms generally require two different purchases. I can’t gripe too much because the iPad apps are better (see #1 above). However, with the App Stores not allowing you to preview software, it’s like shooting in the dark as to whether an app will be good or not. Since apps are more expensive for the iPad in general than the iPhone, that’s not a risk I take. Rather, I opted to immediately jailbreak our iPad, and I use Installous to preview apps before I buy them. Those apps that are good, I buy; those that aren’t, I delete. There needs to be an app store process like renting movies from iTunes which gives you 1-3 days with an app before it “times out.”

Apps to “check out”

The eBook apps continue to turn heads (and pages). In addition to Apple’s own iBooks, there are stellar apps from Barnes & Noble, Amazon Kindle, and Borders. My favorite (and the one that is consistently cheaper) is the Kindle app. It’s truly a work of art, and it makes buying an actual Kindle moot. Why buy a Kindle which only does eBooks when you can buy an iPad with a wonderful Kindle app? (or the Nook for that matter)

Twapps

The following apps are ones that I’m currently comparing for the ultimate honor of being my official Twitter app on the iPad:

• Echofon Pro
• Osfooro
• Twittelator

Each have pros and cons, but I like how Echofon syncs my read/unread tweets with Echofon for the iPhone and for the desktop. Osfoora is probably the most well-designed and graphically appealing, but I wish it had another theme option besides the dark one.

Big Facebook Fail

I could not believe Facebook didn’t have an iPad app. I guess they’re trying to push you to simply using the Facebook site in Safari? However, I’ve loved the simplicity and distractionlessness of the iPhone Facebook app. It’s a definite niche and a plus. At this point, there’s an absolutely gorgeous app called Sobees Lite that renders Facebook like a magazine. I heartily recommend it, but it lacks many of the iPhone apps functionality. The Facebook hole on the iPad at present is just begging to be filled by someone.

Another iPhone-iPad transition fail is Fox News’ app. Cmon, guys!

It’s Raining, It’s Pouring

I prefer Accuweather over the Weather Channel Max. Accuweather may look too simple, but everything is clickable, and it has a nice graphic interface to get to maps, video reports, etc. The free WC app is that way because it supports annoying popup ads.

Feed Me

If you’re still surfing to your favorite blogs one at a time, you are so… late 90s. Get a feed reader and use it today. I’ve chosen Google Reader simply because Google owns our birthright, and I wanted to be sure I was in their will. It also syncs with everything but your kitchen, uh, nevermind. You get the picture.

I’ve used Reeder on my iPhone for quite a while, and its iPad app has the best rating. However, I hate – with a passion – its start screen. It’s essentially little stacks of paper representing the different folders that I’ve sorted my blog reads into. I much prefer how the iPhone app lists them in the left column. I was pleased to discover that MobileRSS Feed Reader has a much better layout initially.

However… Reeder just seems to have a smoother feel to it functionally and aesthetics-wise than does MobileRSS. I’m torn between the two. Everytime I fire up Reeder and get those obnoxious and unhelpful little stacks, I get fired up. But when I attempt to use the other exclusively I feel like I’m missing a long lost friend.

Other Apps I Like & Use

• Words with Friends HD (was there really a need to say this?)
• Taska – the best productivity app I’ve found on the iPad. Beats Things, ToDo and others. Like that it syncs with ToodleDo. I wish 2Do had an iPad app because that’s what I was using on the iPhone.
• Chronicle – for journaling, notetaking
• News apps: Fox News (iPhone version), NYT Editor’s Choice (I can’t help it for now; it’s beautiful), Early Edition, USA Today
• Camerabag – wonderful photo editor
• Bible apps: ESV Bible (great!), YouVersion Bible (super!), OliveTree Bible Reader (it has some great free resources, among which are a downloadable, searchable and indexed archive of all of John Piper’s sermons)
• ContactsJournal – a pretty cool way of keeping notes for those who have a large contact list; great for organizational leaders who need to remember conversations and news about members or volunteers
• Netflix and ABC Player
• DC Comics and Marvel Comics - I was a comic book collector nerd forever. In reading a few stunningly gorgeous issues on these apps, the inner nerd is clawing to get back out.
• Calendar – yes, the stock iCal app for the iPad is just, well, perfect. Thank you, Apple.
• TwentyThree – a way cool geo social network consolidator. Great for digital stalking. And beautiful. Check out the pic below.

Recommendations to Steve

Here’s what I would do to improve upon the iPad:

1. Multiple users. With OS X, the ability to create user accounts is wonderful and allows families to share one computer without messing up the settings, emails, and creative personalizations. Currently, the iPad is a little hard to use between multiple folks. It’s not like an iPhone that is mine. The iPad, I would imagine in many settings and households, is shared.
2. A camera. Yes, I’m an early adopter, and no, I don’t mind that the first iPad didn’t have one. But bring it on!
3. Sortable options in the App Store. When I do a search for “Twitter” to check out Twitter apps, I want to be able to sort the results by price, by rating and by release date. Having to scroll through windows by clicking on arrows seems very Windowish. Give us a list view or something.
4. Quit fighting jailbreakers. They improve your product significantly. Or if you just fight with them for the free media attention, then you’re still a genius.
5. Put a little gap in the case somewhere so that if you cover it with your finger, the person to the right of you will lose all cellphone signal.

Apps We Need

• A texting app that allows you to receive texts sent to your cell phone and then allows you to send through that account… over WIFI. There are numerous texting apps that require you to create a new virtual number, and those are nice, but I’d really like to get my texts on my iPad – without 3G.
• eBook Low Price. An app that consolidates the prices among all the big eBook apps and shows you which app/vendor has the cheapest price for that eBook. I would imagine that clicking on that low price automagically launches the corresponding eBook app and brings you to the purchase page for that book.

What about you? What’s been your iPad experience? How has it changed or is it changing how you relate with news, media and communication? Apps you like or want to see?

If you haven’t been following the drama, tension and amazing craziness that has resulted from the collapse of the Blacksburg High School gym earlier this year, it’s a good time to jump in. It’s about to take some strange plot turns.

Since February, the students and staff of Blacksburg High School have faced and defeated what seemed insurmountable obstacles. They relocated, took things in stride as much as they could, and graduated the class of 2010 amid much fanfare. However, all the details and headaches for students, faculty and families of coordinating education and family around a 2:30-7:30 p.m. school day have taken a huge toll.

Most of Blacksburg associated with the schools have been holding their breath in hope that the high school would be able to be move back to their building this fall. The debris from the gym collapse sat for months, with no overt progress.

Suddenly, a bombshell dropped last week, and due to last week’s revelation that the high school will not be able to be used this fall, the latest proposals by the Mongomery County School Board are simply to allow a takeover of the Blacksburg Middle School by the high school and relocate the middle school students and faculty somewhere else. This makes no sense whatsoever to me.

However, there is no great solution, and perhaps the county school board and administration have finally realized the need for cooperative decision making and input from the community. They’ve called community meetings for this Monday and Tuesdays at 3:00 and 7:00 at BMS and CMS (Christiansburg Middle).

I’ve included the news release from the county schools administrative office as well as a response to the proposed solutions from the Blacksburg Middle School staff. It makes one wonder whether the school staffs are being consulted in these important and significant decisions.

There are also a couple of survey links below that you can respond to.

Letter from the Montgomery County Public Schools office:

NEWS RELEASE June 16, 2010ne 16, 2010
English: World English Bible - WEB
Izbrano poglavje ne obstaja!

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Montgomery County Public Schools Announce Community Meetings Regarding Facility Plans for Blacksburg StudentsOn Feb. 13, 2010, the gymnasium collapsed at Blacksburg High School. Although fortunately no one was injured, the daily schedules of students, parents, families, teachers and staff have faced upheaval as the school had to be closed for demolition and investigation into the cause of the collapse. The patience and support exhibited by everyone in our community have truly been amazing during this time of uncertainty and inconvenience.

School administrators, community leaders and many others are working closely with the School Board to plan for the 2010-2011 school year. As the safety analysis of the classroom building is not yet complete, a return to the BHS campus in the fall appears unlikely. There are currently several options under consideration for housing the approximately 1,200 BHS students and staff this coming school year. These options will be shared with the community at meetings on June 21 and 22, with the goal of making a final recommendation by July 6 for housing BHS students.

OPTIONS

• Blacksburg Middle School (BMS) houses grades 9-12 on a traditional schedule. Old Christiansburg Middle School houses middle school students (grades 6, 7es 6, 7
  English: World English Bible - WEB
  7 He touched my mouth with it, and said, “Behold, this has touched your lips; and your iniquity is taken away, and your sin forgiven.”
  
  WP-Bible plugin and 8).
• Christiansburg Middle School (CMS) operates on a unified schedule with grades 6, 7es 6, 7
  English: World English Bible - WEB
  7 He touched my mouth with it, and said, “Behold, this has touched your lips; and your iniquity is taken away, and your sin forgiven.”
  
  WP-Bible plugin and 8 from the Christiansburg area and grades 6 and 7 from the Blacksburg attendance area; Blacksburg Middle School facility will house Blacksburg students in grades 8-12.

In addition, other options are currently under review and will be shared as feasibility evaluations are completed.

COMMUNITY MEETINGS

• Monday, June 21, Blacksburg Middle School Auditorium, 3 and 7 p.m.
• Tuesday, June 22, Christiansburg Middle School Auditorium, 3 and 7 p.m.

For those who are unable to attend these meetings, comments may be sent to the School Administration Office at the address above or e-mailed to http://forms.mcps.org/bhs_input.htm.

A response from the Blacksburg Middle School staff:

An Opportunity for Excellence

Our community has proven numerous times that we are resilient and committed to our children and each other. This is just another opportunity to not only persevere but to look to improve on our educational ideas and environments.

• We feel the tragedy for our BHS community should not be turned into a double tragedy by displacing our BMS community. The focus is to support the needs of the faculty and students of BHS as they cope with this crisis. To do this, we need to create an educational environment for all students impacted that best meets their developmental and academic needs in the short term and can benefit our district’s educational progress in the future.
• As professionals we should see this as an opportunity for educational improvement. If we use a proactive thought process with a focus on long-term implications and enduring solutions, opportunities will become apparent. It is imperative to address this problem with paramount consideration for the educational needs of all students involved. Long-term educational objectives and implications should drive the decision, not capacity numbers or athletics, both of which can be solved through alternative physical arrangements.
• A decade ago members of the BMS and CMS [Christiansburg Middle School] communities collaborated to select the building design utilized in the two new middle schools. At BMS we use this specialized physical environment to foster important tenets of the middle school concept addressing the unique developmental and instructional needs of young adolescents. These buildings feature separate hallways for each grade level subdivided into smaller areas for academic teams, a design that helps middle school educators meet the needs of middle school students and builds smaller learning communities within a large school. The environment is actually used as a teacher. Our space supports teaming, inclusion, flexible grouping, collaboration, and integrated curriculum which are all essential components of a strong middle school program. Additionally, family involvement in the education of their children is an essential characteristic of a successful middle school. This becomes problematic if our school is not located in our community.
• Current enrollment at BHS is 1,117is 1,117
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  WP-Bible plugin and BMS is 883. The difference in enrollment is 234 students. OCMS, with a capacity of 775, is not adequate for either school population. Therefore, relocating either school would require extensive modifications and mobile units so all costs must be considered.
• Although BMS has a capacity of 1200 students, it was not designed to house four grade levels. It is a middle school designed to house three grade levels. The BMS campus cannot support the entire BHS program.
• Remaining efficient is crucial in the final decision of the placement. We want this plan to have positive long term effects on all impacted in our division. Customizing a building to meet the high school needs is necessary. It would be beneficial to utilize a building that can benefit from this expense after the high school has left the facility. OCMS fits this description because of the alternative high school programs that would re-inhabit the facility. Customizing BMS to support BHS involves spending scarce funds on modifications that will require subsequent funding to restore BMS to its original state once BHS has its own facility.
• If BMS were moved to OCMS there would also be costs for customizing this facility to meet our needs as a middle school. OCMS would need to be greatly modified to meet our teaming, technology, and instructional program needs. The cost of relocating two schools and seven grade levels to provide for their academic needs compared to the cost of housing one school with four grade levels, which is already displaced, must be considered. Furthermore, any money invested in any facility should continue to benefit the students of MCPS long after the temporary housing needs of BHS are resolved.
• During the shared occupancy, the facilities at BMS did not meet the needs of students enrolled in Career and Technical Education (CTE) programs. In addition, they were concerned that their students’ ability to compete well in VICA and other such competitions would be affected. These competitions lead to opportunities for post-high school education and employment. This group of students is often overlooked in the rush to provide academic and athletic needs.
• The challenge this crisis presents provides an opportunity to look to research-based education reform for innovative ideas to enhance the educational offerings of MCPS. For example, research shows that 9th grade is a pivotal year for students as they transition from middle school to the changing demands of high school. The idea of a Ninth Grade Academy, which separates the 9th grade from the traditional high school, addresses this critical transition by creating a smaller learning community which provides more structure and direction for students. An option like this would open up new ways to think about a space for BHS students. We have facilities in our district such as the OBMS annex building that could house a 9th grade class. This would leave only grades 10-12 relocating to OCMS.

Surveys

We’re almost ready to pull the trigger on an iPad at our house. Carolyn and I are going to “share” one as our 18th anniversary present. But we’re selling stuff first.

Here’s where we need help… With the new data plans from AT&T announced this week for iPhones and iPads, should we:
1. Get rid of one iPhone and get iPad 3G data plan
2. Keep both iPhones and get iPad WIFI with no 3G
3. Get iPad 3G AND get a Verizon mifi which would give us Internet for up to 5 devices (we could also discoonect an iPhone)
4. Jump down, turn wound, pick a bale of cotton.
5. Other

Go.

“Westboro Baptist Church” comes to Blacksburg tomorrow to spew hate in the form of picketing and insults. They have toured the U.S., making many enemies but showing no love. I put the name of their organization in quotes simply because they may be Westboro, but they are not Baptist, and they are not a Christian church. They are a cult.

On their website, you will unfortunately find a lot of scripture from the Old and New Testaments, with much of it twisted and taken out of context to serve their own use.

As a local pastor, I’m grateful that it appears that most people in our community understand this group is not representative of Christianity at all. However, I suspect that there will be some that allow WBC to nurse their antagonism toward the institutional church. I don’t blame them. I can only hope that they’ll look past flawed messengers (including me) and look to a perfect God who has revealed Himself in love through Jesus Christ.

Our community has offered many options for response to WBC. Mayor Ron Rordam offered:

I encourage citizens to simply stay away from this demonstration of hate. Make contributions to Tech’s Center for Peace Studies and Violence Prevention or, if you need to be part of a group, go by Tech’s Graduate Life Center plaza off Otey Street starting at noon.

Blacksburg is a community. We are bigger than this. We are a peaceful community and we can show that on Friday when we make a statement by leading our lives as we always do, filled with the spirit of Blacksburg, a spirit that embraces all people.

Others are planning on picketing them. Through Facebook, there are those calling for several thousand students to show up in silent protest. All are urging civil, controlled responses.

I happen to completely agree with Mayor Rordam about staying away. Everywhere this group has been, the media aids their hate rhetoric by covering them, and they are further enabled to continue their spree of travel and taunting by pressing lawsuits against those that lose their temper and act against them. The best way, in my opinion, to respond is to simply ignore them. Don’t feed the animals.

When you see a sign like that on a zoo cage or in a park, you understand it’s for your protection. You may think it’s cute and fun to feed a furry critter, but what that critter may be eating next is you.

WBC is only composed of about 15 folks. How can such a small group continue to draw such attention? Because we keep feeding them. In our disdain for them, we enable them. We can’t help but do something, we think. But perhaps the best way to respond is to treat them as we would other insignificant and ignorant movements. Don’t feed them.

They plan on picketing downtown at two locations and then at the Blacksburg Middle School (where the high school is also meeting, thanks to the collapse of the gym because of snow – I guess that fuels WBC’s claims that God hates us). I do wish that our local authorities had prohibited them from picketing near the school (if they could). I think it’s a grave mistake to allow any external group to picket or demonstrate at our educational facilities with our children and students in attendance.

For Christ-confessing ministries and churches in our area, it’s very tempting to try to offer an alternative. I am not in a position to offer a definitive solution. However, I would encourage you to be the church on every day of the year and not just seek to make an appearance tomorrow. Let us daily offer our community the love and truth of the Gospel and speak openly about sin as people who are only saints because of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection. It is a great treasure to know the love of Jesus Christ,

“But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.” (2 Corinthians 4.7)

One wonderful gift that WBC does give to our community is its heightened appetite for spiritual or religious conversation right now. It is a door through which thoughtful Christians can walk with humility and grace as we share the loving truth of Jesus’ words and life.

It is loving humility and self-sacrifice that makes a people remarkable to a world in doubt of God. In fact, Jesus said that we ought to be known by our love… not by our signs. (John 13.35)

Other Perspectives

• Collegiate Times article
• Roanoke Times article

One interesting tidbit from the Roanoke Times article that supports the thesis of non-mobilization is the cost to taxpayers. In our depressed economy, it’s deeply frustrating to consider that such a small group can cause the rest of us to pay dearly:

In 1991, about 30 members of the Ku Klux Klan staged a rally and march in Blacksburg that drew about 500 counterprotesters. Some 250 police officers from several jurisdictions provided security. That event cost taxpayers about $23,000, according to the Roanoke Times archive.

I’ve always been enthralled by the ability of the iPhone to allow you to use location-based apps. I wrote an early entry about Loopt vs Whrll. Since then, there’ve been a series of great apps out using the phone’s capabilities from the start, among them:

• Loopt
• Whrll
• Brightkite
• Gowalla

I wrote reviews of the above apps while I was writing for AppAdvice.com. You can see those articles about Whrrl, Loopt and Brightkite here.

New to the location-based apps (and there are dozens out there now) are My Town and Foursquare. They both offer a twist beyond the mere “check-in” of others. Each app is a game or competition. I tried Foursquare for a while, but grew really tired of having to manually enter the locations – with complete street addresses required. I’ve been playing with My Town for a few days now, and I like how convenient it is in already having most locations entered for you. (Brightkite is also very strong in this area).

My Town is more of a Monopoly-style game – allowing you to buy properties and charge rent for them, while Foursquare allows you to become “mayor” of certain sites based on how often you frequent them.

Rather than giving you a detailed review of each, you can pick between the excellent reviews comparing these two apps below:

• App Showdown: Foursquare vs. My Town (via everythingicafe.com)
• Why My Town is bigger than Foursquare or Gowalla (via gigaom.com)
• Booyah’s mobile app MyTown turns the real world into Monopoly (via venturebeat.com)
• Foursquare + Monopoly Makes MyTown GPS Driven App (via crenk.com)

Should you decide to use one of the apps, let me know. If you’ve got another perspective on some of these, I’d love to hear that too. Here are some features that could sway users toward one or the other app if it was implemented:

For Foursquare

• Improve your check-in system. That one feature alone would gain you users.
• Make it impossible to “check-in” to a place if you’re not physically present there. In a game of competition, this makes cheating prevalent.

For My Town

• Add social connections. Like yesterday. The inability to have a friendship base on the app like Gowalla or Foursquare makes your app very lonely. (By the way, forcing folks to use the My Town app on Facebook is NOT social. It’s a pain.)
• Prevent multiple ownership of sites. This makes the whole game a little pointless.
• Add the ability to sell sites to specific people. Allow us to name our price – that would add heightened strategy and competition.
• In addition, you should only be able to collect rent once a day from each site you own.

As you start off this new year, if you’re looking for some fun apps for your iPhone, look no further. Both app creators have promised upgrades right around the corner, so many of these requested features may be present soon.

Invite your friends, and help us spread the word! You can buy tickets here.

A new local news site – The NRVHub – is sponsoring a great competition. The local church that registers 100 users for their site by October 31 will receive $500! I’d like to humbly ask you to consider registering to help Northstar Church (or another local church if you’re a member there). You don’t have to be a member of Northstar to register. They made this clear in the following instructions:

Just go to the Hub (http://www.nrvhub.com) and go to the upper right hand column, where it says sign in or create log in; from here the user will be sent to a new page to create their profile. This is where they can type in the church affiliation. So far not one Church has reached 100 names. Gotta get there to get the $500!
Remember the user does not have to be a member of your church. It can be anybody that you ask to help you earn the $500………..

So spread the word. The $500 will be a great boost, and we’ll present to you some ways that it can be used specifically for kingdom purposes if Northstar should win it. Remember to put “Northstar Church” in the affiliation spot.

Thanks!

Sometime ago, I read Mark Buchanan’s book Now, Discover Your Strengths and took the StrengthsFinder inventory. I have discovered that it really helps to communicate with others in leadership arenas when you speak the same inventory “language.”

I’m posting my results here straight from the material just as an FYI:

My Signature Themes

Activator

“When can we start?” This is a recurring question in your life. You are impatient for action. You may concede that analysis has its uses or that debate and discussion can occasionally yield some valuable insights, but deep down you know that only action is real. Only action can make things happen. Only action leads to performance. Once a decision is made, you cannot not act. Others may worry that “there are still some things we don’t know,” but this doesn’t seem to slow you. If the decision has been made to go across town, you know that the fastest way to get there is to go stoplight to stoplight. You are not going to sit around waiting until all the lights have turned green. Besides, in your view, action and thinking are not opposites. In fact, guided by your Activator theme, you believe that action is the best device for learning. You make a decision, you take action, you look at the result, and you learn. This learning informs your next action and your next. How can you grow if you have nothing to react to? Well, you believe you can’t. You must put yourself out there. You must take the next step. It is the only way to keep your thinking fresh and informed. The bottom line is this: You know you will be judged not by what you say, not by what you think, but by what you get done. This does not frighten you. It pleases you.

Strategic

The Strategic theme enables you to sort through the clutter and find the best route. It is not a skill that can be taught. It is a distinct way of thinking, a special perspective on the world at large. This perspective allows you to see patterns where others simply see complexity. Mindful of these patterns, you play out alternative scenarios, always asking, “What if this happened? Okay, well what if this happened?” This recurring question helps you see around the next corner. There you can evaluate accurately the potential obstacles. Guided by where you see each path leading, you start to make selections. You discard the paths that lead nowhere. You discard the paths that lead straight into resistance. You discard the paths that lead into a fog of confusion. You cull and make selections until you arrive at the chosen path—your strategy. Armed with your strategy, you strike forward. This is your Strategic theme at work: “What if?” Select. Strike.

Intellection

You like to think. You like mental activity. You like exercising the “muscles” of your brain, stretching them in multiple directions. This need for mental activity may be focused; for example, you may be trying to solve a problem or develop an idea or understand another person’s feelings. The exact focus will depend on your other strengths. On the other hand, this mental activity may very well lack focus. The theme of Intellection does not dictate what you are thinking about; it simply describes that you like to think. You are the kind of person who enjoys your time alone because it is your time for musing and reflection. You are introspective. In a sense you are your own best companion, as you pose yourself questions and try out answers on yourself to see how they sound. This introspection may lead you to a slight sense of discontent as you compare what you are actually doing with all the thoughts and ideas that your mind conceives. Or this introspection may tend toward more pragmatic matters such as the events of the day or a conversation that you plan to have later. Wherever it leads you, this mental hum is one of the constants of your life.

Belief

If you possess a strong Belief theme, you have certain core values that are enduring. These values vary from one person to another, but ordinarily your Belief theme causes you to be family-oriented, altruistic, even spiritual, and to value responsibility and high ethics—both in yourself and others. These core values affect your behavior in many ways. They give your life meaning and satisfaction; in your view, success is more than money and prestige. They provide you with direction, guiding you through the temptations and distractions of life toward a consistent set of priorities. This consistency is the foundation for all your relationships. Your friends call you dependable. “I know where you stand,” they say. Your Belief makes you easy to trust. It also demands that you find work that meshes with your values. Your work must be meaningful; it must matter to you. And guided by your Belief theme it will matter only if it gives you a chance to live out your values.

Achiever

Your Achiever theme helps explain your drive. Achiever describes a constant need for achievement. You feel as if every day starts at zero. By the end of the day you must achieve something tangible in order to feel good about yourself. And by “every day” you mean every single day—workdays, weekends, vacations. No matter how much you may feel you deserve a day of rest, if the day passes without some form of achievement, no matter how small, you will feel dissatisfied. You have an internal fire burning inside you. It pushes you to do more, to achieve more. After each accomplishment is reached, the fire dwindles for a moment, but very soon it rekindles itself, forcing you toward the next accomplishment. Your relentless need for achievement might not be logical. It might not even be focused. But it will always be with you. As an Achiever you must learn to live with this whisper of discontent. It does have its benefits. It brings you the energy you need to work long hours without burning out. It is the jolt you can always count on to get you started on new tasks, new challenges. It is the power supply that causes you to set the pace and define the levels of productivity for your work group. It is the theme that keeps you moving.

I’d be curious what your results are if you’ve taken the SF inventory. And… if you think you know me… how do these results compare to what you know of me?

I saw this on a fellow Twitterer’s blog and thought it would make for an easy blog entry on Monday…

visited 20 states (40%)
Create your own visited map of The United States.

visited 8 countries (3.55%)
Create your own visited map of The World.

I’m updating my blog feed to be http://feeds.feedburner.com/journeyguy. If you are subscribed in a feed reader to http://feeds.feedburner.com/NotesFromTheTrail, you will need to update the feed to the new location. I think it should do it for you automagically, but check it out, just in case!

Who would have thought my attitude toward AT&T (which was admittedly declining rapidly) could change in a day? Yesterday, I blogged about our less-than-ideal experience with their service here in Blacksburg. It’s been pretty frustrating to be in a rapidly growing urban sector of southwest Virginia and realize we had better cell service in rural south Arkansas.

Since Apple signed the exclusivity agreement with AT&T back in June 2007, many have compared the phone company to the Empire in Star Wars. One of my favorite images has been the rendering someone did of the AT&T logo as the Death Star.

However, as I wrote yesterday, it takes great communication to alleviate the angst that customers feel when they are left out of the loop of issues that affect them. Carolyn and I received that yesterday. Let me tell you what happened.

We had an errand date. Among other things, I got a haircut (actually I got them all cut), returned some things to Lowe’s and then bought some stuff for Adelyn’s closet at Home Depot (cheaper there, or so I thought), and finally, we made a stop at the local AT&T Store in Christiansburg.

We pulled up out front, and I said, “OK, get your angry face on.”

We both scowled at each other and stepped out of the car, loaded for the angry-customer-routine at AT&T. Then we broke down into laughing at each other’s expressions and stepped into the store. We were met by Scott, and his humor, identification with our problem (his phone had also been down over the weekend), and warm, friendly attitude soothed our ruffled feathers in a microsecond. Not only was he helpful but he was likable. Kudos to AT&T Christiansburg for hiring him. The other employees in the store were also warm and sincere. We were impressed.

They assured us that the service was sketchy due to the soon-to-be announced network upgrade to 3G. They apologized profusely, which they didn’t have to since it really wasn’t their responsibility. Scott then helped us switch our cell numbers to local numbers. Imagine our delight and surprise to learn that JEFF (5333), CARO, SAMN, and ADDY were all available! Scott and the others were pretty entertained by our Arkansas enthusiasm. After learning I was a pastor, Scott suggested that I get 998.LORD so if people needed Jesus, they could call me.

While the Scripture does say, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved,” (Romans 10.13) I couldn’t bring myself to do it. Felt a little sacrilegious.

We left the store happy customers.

But wait, there’s more…

Upon returning home, I logged into the AT&T site to check my online account and make sure that all our upgrade dates had not been reset as well as ensure that our carryover minutes were still in place. They were both gone. New upgrade date was two years out. Grrrr.

So I called AT&T customer service… Here’s my second great experience in one day. Are you sitting down? The girl I spoke to was extremely friendly from the beginning. I related to her about our recent move and what we’d done in the store. She checked the records and then assured us that it would take up to 24 hours for the records to be updated in the system. She then scheduled a phone appointment with me for Wednesday to make sure it had been taken care of!

On top of that, she asked why we’d moved. I related that I had been called to be the pastor of Northstar Church here in town, and she happily congratulated me. When she asked if there was anything else she could do, I replied, “Fix our reception issues.” Upon learning that for our 3 weeks in Blacksburg we’d had very poor service, she said, “Hold on.” Upon returning, she said that it appears that they’re preparing to turn on 3G in Blacksburg, and the date is scheduled for… August 14! This Friday!

She laughed as I cheered. I related to her about my blog entry yesterday and said I wished AT&T would communicate better with us so we’d understand what was going on. She agreed and after I asked if there was any possibility of them reducing our fees for the month of July, she graciously gave us a $50 credit toward our bill. “You guys have been great customers for a long time now. With two iPhones on your account, we want to honor and keep you happy. Is this credit sufficient?” she said.

I enthusiastically agreed.

Soooooo….. although my griping about AT&T over the past weeks has been pervertedly fun, I’m ending it now. Thanks to Scott and girl-whose-name-I-can’t-remember. It only takes one or two folks like that to put a whole new spin on the AT&T world.

For those of you who follow me on Twitter or have seen my updates on Facebook, you have probably felt my pain in recent weeks as I’ve discovered AT&T’s poor Edge service in Blacksburg. When we moved to a larger city (with more than 25,000 college students), we presumed that our iPhones would not miss a beat. How wrong we were.

For the past three weeks, we’ve had intermittent Edge service – all while continuing to pay the same fees. Yesterday it wasn’t just Edge (data/internet) that was down, but our phones all had “No Service” on them for most of the day. We finally got bars back sometime after 11:30r 11:30
English: World English Bible - WEB
30 For as you in time past were disobedient to God, but now have obtained mercy by their disobedience,

WP-Bible plugin p.m. Eastern.

One thing that has occurred to me during all this time is the simple importance of communication. AT&T is a company that sells communication, but it does an extremely poor job of it. Rumor has it that they are upgrading their service here in preparation for a fall 3G service. However, I think they would earn customer appreciation and loyalty if they would learn to do what they sell: communicate.

I would suggest a simple text message to customers in the Blacksburg area. Their Twitter account, ATTNews, would also be a good place to share updates and outages. As it is, we’ve heard nothing, and in searches on the internet could not find a single place where they post news and information about location issues.

Sigh.

This is a great lesson for all of us in positions to impact our organizations. The importance of proactive communication cannot be overstated. Telling folks ahead of time – or in an unexpected situation – what is going on will reduce overall frustration. If we had known that work was being done, or that they were aware of the issues, we would have felt a lot better.

As it stands, it’s easy to understand why AT&T is earning the ire of millions of customers. I regret that for them, because they were visionary enough to see that the Apple iPhone could be a HUGE revolution in the communication industry. Yet, they seem to have embraced it more for what it brings them financially than allowing its technology and others to reshape the future of the industry. The companies that make things possible for their customers (in addition to making money) will earn the loyalty and blessing of tech geeks like myself.

More bars in more places? That’s true in Blacksburg, but only because it’s not a dry county.

I just moved from a town in which the college campus there didn’t play as huge a roll in the town as it could or should have. It wasn’t the fault of the campus at all. Many times, it felt like the campus was ignored by local residents. The town itself didn’t offer the college students much in the way of entertainment or hang out spots, enabling a few enterprising businesses to work around the dry country status by securing a liquor license for their restaurant. Other businesses that served the student population seemed to be the cell phone stores, movie theater and fast food joints.

We’ve moved to Blacksburg, Virginia, which according to the 2000 census, had 39,573 people in it. More than 20,000 of those were students attending Virginia Tech. Both Blacksburg and VT have grown since then. You cannot ignore the campus here. We have yet to experience football season, but locals assure me that on those home game weekends, you better know the back roads if you want to get to the store. VT is a massive presence here, rich in heritage and tradition.

I love the presence of the campus, but what I love even more is that there are vibrant campus ministries here, just as there were back home. I had the privilege of visiting with a student Monday who is a leader in Cru (Campus Crusade). He shared with me the leadership training process and how every student involved is equipped and expected to share their faith in an authentic, relational way.

In addition, there is the Baptist Collegiate Ministry. It’s near and dear to my heart – not just because I’m great friends with its director, but because I’m also a former BCM director. Its students too are enthusiastic and deeply devoted to making the hope of life in Christ known to students, faculty and staff at Tech.

I wanted to encourage you to drop by their websites and check ‘em out. I expect to meet the other leaders of the dozens of campus ministries at VT in the weeks to come, but I wanted to highlight these two and ask you to begin praying for them as they prepare for a vitally busy few weeks of relationship-building, service and ministry.

Let me just say it unabashedly. I think I was the first Twitterer in Monticello, Arkansas. Yup. If you can disprove me, then I will sadly relinquish the self-claimed title. However, I join a host of tweeples here in Blacksburg, VA. Yet there are many who have not jumped on the microblogging trend. I’ve written about my experience with it before, but I saw an interesting thread on Facebook the other day I wanted to respond to.

One of my pastor friends was considering taking the plunge and becoming a twit (officially). He posted that on his Facebook status… Since Twitter and Facebook are probably the two main competitors in the microblogging world, I found that interesting to begin with. He asked for input on whether he should Twitter. What developed from there was even more interesting. The vast majority of respondants (including family members) urged him not to waste his time Twittering.

Rather than defending some of the relational and influential benefits to becoming a microblogger, I think I’ll link to another preacher’s defense of why he chose to capitalize on the Twitter trend. I love how John Piper framed part of his response:

I find Twitter to be a kind of taunt: “Okay, truth-lover, see what you can do with 140 characters! You say your mission is to spread a passion for the supremacy of God in all things! Well, this is one of those ‘all things.’ Can you magnify Christ with this thimble-full of letters?”

To which I respond:

The sovereign Lord of the earth and sky
Puts camels through a needle’s eye.
And if his wisdom see it mete,
He will put worlds inside a tweet.

On tire sounds

Yesterday was T-Day: a day I’d scheduled to get our tires rotated and balanced and Wal-Mart. I felt so Arkansan heading back to Wallyworld to take advantage of their lifetime rotation and balance deal (if you buy your tires from there). I’d hoped that this would solve the developing wah wah wah sound emanating from one of the rear tires.

After 2.5 hours and a hike to Target and then to Chik-Fil-A with Adelyn, we drove away.

The wah wah wah sound was now in the front instead of the back.

Darn.

So the car was back at Wallyworld this a.m. trying to determine if one of the tires is bad. I hiked over to Starbucks from where this beautifully crafted blog entry was written and posted. By the way… Feeling sweet? Copy this number: 6038201464013622, and then reload my Starbucks card here! Since there are three locations in the Blacksburg/Christiansburg area, I anticipate many meetups and office days inside of coffee shops.

I’ll tweet about the results of my tire trials. And if you’re still with me and want eye candy, here is a nice Wordle of my July tweets ala Tweetstats.com.