It’s that time of year, again. Time for the mark of another year gone, and a new one on it’s way. I have been trying to work my way through Michael Hyatt’s “Life Plan” but am still in the “reading” stage. I have most of my thoughts in place, just haven’t made them into a collective organized format yet.
I use to never make so-called “new year’s resolutions”, and for the most part, I don’t. They are so cliche, and are usually not reasonably obtainable, so I just didn’t make them. I do however set goals, and make continuous strides after them, or adjust them as plans change. That is basically what Hyatt’s Life Plan is about.
Looking back, 2011 was a tough year, but I did do, or continue towards, several things that were on my long term list. I took 67,000 images (that doesn’t include deleted images) in 2011, and trying to look back and pick a “favorite” out of 67,000 shots is impossible. I couldn’t even pick a favorite of mine, so that’s me, sitting in Entebbe Airport, waiting for our KLM flight from Uganda to Amsterdam. My two trips this year to Uganda were marks that altered my direction and focus, and in a strange turn towards the end of the year, helped solidify my reasons for continuing to pursue my seminary work.
Looking at what possibly lies ahead for 2012 is hard. There are certainly highs, and lows, on the way, but I will make the greatest attempt this year to give any worry about those things that make up life’s trials to the Lord once and for all. I hope I will complete the requirements to earn my first graduate degree in seminary, and develop in those areas I have identified for 2012. Most of all, to strive to use the time I’m giving to the very best of my ability. Not doing the things that don’t need to be done, and focusing on those that do.
When looking at the New Year, these two verses stood out to me earlier this morning, and I love how they mold together into a cohesive unit. Matthew 5.6 and 5.48 which says: Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Happy New Year everyone, and War Eagle from the Georgia Dome tonight where we will most likely still be when the new year comes to our part of the world.
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So I almost felt obligated at this point to do a post about Google+ just because it really wasn’t what I was expecting from Google. What I was expecting from Google was another failed attempt at doing something social (they do have a good long history of trying social networking and missing big time), but this time I think they created something that just might work long term. Of course, it works, because basically they finally developed a format stream that is just like Facebook except without much of the garbage that is Facebook. When (not if) Google adds an iPhone AND an iPad app they will have surpassed Facebook, at least in functionality.
When Zuckerberg made the statement that the iPad was not a mobile device, and therefore Facebook would not be developing an app for the iPad, he pretty much told everyone using Facebook that Facebook is whatever Zuckerberg says it is. Google, even though they seem to have the biggest rival with Apple, can no doubt see beyond this and will very quickly release apps for the iPhone and iPad. Once Google+ hits the iPhone/iPad users they will grow at an alarming rate. It’s the “mobile” users that will feed Google+ and the easier Google makes it to use on ANY mobile device the faster they will grow Google+. The misses right now with Google+ remain the lack of an iPhone app and some other minor functionality issues like being able to hide comments in a stream, being able to view several circle streams at the same time, and at the moment people. The people thing is a plus and a minus at the same time. The millions and millions of masses on Facebook are what makes Facebook work. Google+ has a different genre of people right now and I don’t see that as a bad thing, but they do need more buy in.
Why is Google+ better than Facebook already?
- No Ads
- No Spam
- Design is Cleaner
- Messaging System
- Integrates with Google Everything
- People Who Don’t Like Social Networking Will Like Google+
- It isn’t Facebook
- It is Google
- It’s New and Has a Lot of Potential
- Facebook still Doesn’t Give you Ownership of Your Data
so far (who knows how long this will last) there are no ads, anywhere. This is top on my list, and key. This is why I like twitter, this is why the experience on Google+ is better right from the start. All that junk on Facebook’s sidebars is the worst. You never know what’s going to come up but you know you don’t want to look at it.
Facebook and spam go together like spam in a can, or something like that. Spam is not the telemarketer calling you at dinner anymore. Spam is ANYTHING sent to you unsolicited. Facebook is full of this stuff from Mafia Wars to stupid games and poll questions, event invites, and all the other stuff that clutters up your feed stream with stuff you don’t want to look at. The stuff you do want to read is so buried in the mess of Facebook I often just give up trying to find actual real high quality content.
everything is cleaner, but making a cleaner design makes it easier to read, has less clutter, call it whatever you want but Google+ is just flat out easier on the eyes. Google has long since prided itself on simplicity of design, and in this case it works so much better than Facebook
while Facebook has been vastly improving their messaging system, trying to overtake email, the message system on Facebook has always been one of their weakest points, and until recently, no one wanted to look at that inbox, it was just annoying. Google+ has made sending a message to a single person, or a select group, extremely easy. I would expect this since Google has built it’s non-search business around Gmail, but Google+ has the potential to be able to do away with email all together.
this is a no-brainer but it’s worth pointing out. There are some things I like better off Google, like their photo system Picasa (Flickr still has better functionality) but overall everything you do throughout the day is basically run on Google’s cloud anyway, you are already there, so adding Google+ isn’t too much of a burden.
there are still some people that are not attached to a social network at all (really, I know this for a fact). For those people, Google+ is a way into that social networking circle without being in Facebook or Twitter. For many (or most) of these people they are already on Google. They use Google, they use Gmail, they are familiar with Google and in some ways have a trust built with them as a company. If you aren’t on Facebook or Twitter or anything else, you are probably already on Google, and Google will make trying Google+ a breeze for the non-adopters.
there are many people who just hate Facebook, for them, this isn’t Facebook and that is good enough for them.
this is just like the Apple vs Android thing. Some people think Apple is straight from the devil himself and think Android is not. Facebook has a lot of “you are the devil” fans so being anything but Facebook is a plus.
everyone doesn’t necessarily like change but new is always a big seller. Since every company puts out products or services today that are a work in progress (beta) and not a final completed entity, Google will continue to develop and improve Google+. Yes I know Facebook does this too, but they seem to take 2 steps forward and one step back and make everyone mad in the process.
some will say Google doesn’t either, but they have made far more progress in this realm than Facebook has, and Facebook has no intention of ever letting go of your data. Every time you put content on Facebook instead of your own blog or somewhere that you have access to your own data you are building up the mother ship, not your own history. Google+ has a really cool download data set functionality that will probably improve over time. Facebook has nothing. Facebook owns everything you put on there and you own nothing.
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I will be the first to say it, I love Apple. I love how they market their products. I love how they package their products, and I love the innovation they have created, much of which has changed the face of the world forever. AT&T, not so much, but it’s a package deal. In doing so, they have also created new type of consumerism like none who have come before, and all during a recession at that.
This time from the WWDC, Apple comes out with another technological landmark product, or an update to a landmark product, the iPhone 4 with iOS 4. Not just fabulous eye candy, which Apple always seems to achieve, but innovations to a cell phone that have never been seen before, and as Apple does so well, they made it a must buy item, with even more help from AT&T.
To Buy In or Not to Buy In
That really isn’t all bad of course, but, from a Christian perspective, there has to be a reality check somewhere along the way. The arguments you could make on both sides of this debate are endless. The huge, broad, range of reasons why we as Christians should or should not consume, and how much, and of what products, could contain volumes. I just wanted to touch on one specific aspect, AT&T’s early up on their contract dates.
In the information age of 2010, we are now the most instant and disposable consumers the planet has ever seen. We can’t wait for anything, ever, and most of the time we don’t have to. The comment above from WWDC on MacWorld’s live stream just hit the nail on the head.
You mean I have to wait two and a half weeks to get an iPhone 4? Augggggh!
He was kidding, but, not really, and AT&T agreed. [Not trying to pick on Jason Snell from Macworld, I loved reading his live updates from the keynote, and I can't imagine how many tweets I read that said the exact same thing... except they were tweets from pastors of large evangelical churches, worship leaders, seminary students... in other words, the church body (yes we love our Macs)... all clamoring to buy Apple's latest.]
Buy Now, Save Later, Sign Here
At the same time Steve Jobs was giving the keynote, news from AT&T started surfacing that they would graciously allow almost anyone anyone who had a contract with them (that would be everyone who uses an iPhone in the U.S.) that extended beyond 2010, to upgrade to the new iPhone 4, right now. [For those unaware of how cell companies work, AT&T dings you for a 2 year contract every time you get a new phone, but after one year, you can get another new phone, at a discounted price, and up your contract again for 2 more years.]
By the time the keynote was over, yes, even Apple made it official. AT&T was going to allow their customers to spend money on a new iPhone, right now, instead of having to wait for the contract upgrade date to come up (mine is in August and my wife’s is in October). All it will cost you, besides the price of the phone of course, is another two years of your life, in bondage to AT&T. [Of course you can break the contract but AT&T also upped the ETF (Early Termination Fee) to $325 PER PHONE starting June 1 for anyone wanting to free themselves from Ma-Bell, and at the same time did away with their unlimited data plan.]
When Does the 2-Year Curse End?
So, where or when does it end? I started looking at it from my own point of view. Both of our phones are actually, banish the thought, only 2nd generation iPhones (old iPhone 3G’s, not the 3G-S). Our one year contract date (stated above) comes up this year and we could just wait and upgrade then. But if we do that, we will actually be EXTENDING our contracts to October 2012. If we upgraded right now, we would be out of our AT&T contract in June 2012. But hey, even Steven Jobs carries an old phone (or hasn’t updated the OS), so maybe we could do the same.
Either way, we end up committing to a 2-year relationship with AT&T (not that we have a choice in the matter), at some $2,000+ a year. A commitment that not even many parishioners will do for their own church. We could say no, enough is enough, and just sit there and read 2 Corinthians 6:14 over and over until we convince ourselves that life is possible without a 2 year contract?
I guess it is possible to be without a cell phone contract? Two households in my immediate family actually don’t have one (my sister’s and my uncle’s), so I know it’s possible. But me, I have been “under contract” in one form or another to a cell phone company for more than 15 years, that’s something like $36,000 give or take, and longer than many marriages last today. As it turns out, those contracts never do expire. Once you are in, they’ve got you, and there’s no way out. It’s like trying to quit the gym.
It’s legal, immediate, addicting, consumerism Meth, AT&T & Apple style, except an intervention won’t work. You either pay a lot now to get out ($650 for a household of 2), or you pay a ton in little 2-year chunks until the next must have device comes out. To bad I don’t actually have AT&T cell coverage where I live, then I could actually get some use out of my AT&T never-ending contract. Oh well, at least I can upgrade to the new iPhone 4, who cares if I can actually make a phone call.
Thanks, Paul of Tarsus
Or, maybe Paul actually knew what he was talking about when he wrote to the Corinthian church way back in the mid 50′s. Even though it is such an ingrained part of our culture, such an integrated part of our lives in the 21st century, maybe we should, at least question, whether we as believers in Christ should be “bound together” by such terms.
In the end this looks to be one of the best updates to the iPhone Apple has made, especially when you take into consideration the display resolution. I will probably trade my older phone in for the new version, but there is probably an iPhone 5 around the corner somewhere.
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I received something yesterday that I haven’t received in almost 15 years (other than from myself), from a man I respect more each day as we begin to work together. A paycheck. It was really kind of strange actually. Over the past almost 15 years, Deb and I have owned our own business and worked for ourselves, and pretty much worked when and where we needed to as the business dictated, until December 2008. As of December, I have accepted a newly created position as the IT Director at Cornerstone UMC, and started a new direction and routine for my household.
Joining the staff of a church, mission, or ministry and being able to serve, as a career, is something I have wanted to pursue from almost day one when I became a Believer. As usually is the case, my timing is not always God’s timing and some 15 years after making my commitment to Christ, the time and place have come together in Auburn at Cornerstone. I have been given the general task of “Leading People to Know and Serve Jesus, through technology” and I am so excited about the opportunity to serve, have so much to learn, and can’t wait to see what God has in store in the years to come.
Being an IT person, I have followed many other church IT people over the years, and now that I am a part of it, I would love to hear from or connect with other staff that are in the same position or fulfilling the same roles as I will be in the months to come.
Two posts in particular that really got me thinking about what this job will eventually mold into is Zac Smith, the IT Director at NewSpring Church, The Perfect Job and this post that shows a great example of the relationship between church IT, communications, and media, Relationship between IT, Communications & Media. I also appreciate the example Jason Powell (the IT Director over at Granger) has shown me as my wife and I prayed about this job and what possibilities IT has within the church. Jason has taken the leadership role within the Church IT Roudtable group (and I hope to become a more active participant).
There was a lot that went into this decision in my own household and a lot of it had to do with the unbelievable staff that is already in place. I will be changing some of the ways I present my blog, (some of the topics are now going to be more related to my postion of course) with a mix of personal, photography, and work related content, so I hope you will stick around and see what else the Lord has in store.
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This may sound like another semi-negative blog post on my part, but it is something that my wife and I deal with quite a bit and has really struck a nerve, so stay with me if you can.
When we look at what we have and what we decide to give up for various things, it is truly fascinating to see what it is we find worth to give to God. Scripture says we are to give God the first fruits, right? We are not supposed to give him what is left over, but the good stuff. Well, when we started getting involved with thrift stores about a year and a half ago, we found something we really weren’t expecting. A lot of real garbage.
If It is Garbage, Throw it Away
Do we stop and notice what we are donating. Do we think about it before hand. I am donating this so someone else less fortunate than me can have it at a good price. We take up collections of items to ship overseas once in a while for a good mission trip, are these materials you would want to send to them?
This sort of leads me off topic a bit for this conversation to a familiar site among churches, the church garage sale (or bizarre, or flea market). This is where we bring all our junk and try to sell it off to raise money for the church in some manner. I have never cared for the notion of bringing up our items that have no value or meaning to us to sell, but that is all for another article (there are good “church sales” too).
The point here is, when we give, and we know it is supposed to be for a mission, the church, or to further the kingdom in some manner, do we reflect on what it is we give? Does what we give reflect on what perception we give others about the church?
Goodwill, Salvation Army, Mission Thrift Type Stores
Some of you may know that my wife and I volunteer in a mission type thrift store each week. We have done this now for more than a year, going on 18 months, so we have had the privilege of seeing what all we bring into these store to donate, and we are amazed, daily. A huge amount of our time (and everyone else who works there) is spent on sorting through what is actual donated materials that can be cleaned up and sold, and pure garbage. I am not talking about something old that I personally wouldn’t buy, or a color I don’t like, I am talking about trash. The stuff the WM (Waste Management) picks up at your house once a week.
You know, stuff that is of absolutely NO value what-so-ever. Old prescription bottles, coloring books with all the pages already colored, Bible studies that are completely written in or half the pages torn out, old food, broken items of all kinds (as in smashed with no repair possible), and so on. These are things that no one would ever want to give to someone, let alone sell.
Throwing Away Garbage Costs Tons of Money
This is a serious matter for these stores. Just this year, one of the local Goodwill Store in Opelika closed their doors for good. They had been opened at that location for 22 years. They were receiving items they couldn’t sell (stated lack of donations) among other reasons, but their costs to stay opened were just too high.
What is amazing about the whole process is the thrift store is left with taking out the trash. This has become more and more expensive over time but has now reached critical proportions. My wife and I work with one single section of materials, and we personally throw away about 2,000 pounds of materials each week that are not able to be sold in any shape or form. A recent conversation with one of the employees about the cost of trash pickup was amazing. He explained that last year, the thrift store we work with was paying about $300 a month for the dumpster pickup in total. Dumpsters were picked up a few times a month. We are not talking about the small dumpster either, this is the full size 18-wheeler trailer size.
But, prices had been steadily rising. Now, as of this post, the thrift store is paying $450 PER PICK UP, which happens a few times A WEEK, and the cost seems to have no ceiling. Over the past year from what I can tell, the cost for trash pickup at this store has gone from $300 a month to more than $2000 a month.
What is amazing is that the amount of trash that is required to be thrown away keeps increasing as more people donate their pure garbage instead of salable items the store desperately needs. What is truly amazing about this is that people are donating things to these stores, and are COSTING the store money instead of increasing their revenue. This is taking away from their effectiveness as a mission or all the other great things that they can do with donated material revenue.
Please Continue to Donate to Thrift Stores
Please don’t get the wrong idea here. If people did not donate to the local thrift stores none of these missions would be able to continue. Goodwill and the Salvation Army do many things other than sales at their stores. Disaster relief, aid for the hungry, and a whole host of other things, so please continue to donate, but when you are filling that trash bag, think about whether the trash bag should go to the dump, or to the thrift store.
If you dispose of something that is actual garbage, you will be saving the store money. If you are one of those pack rats that just can’t stand to throw something away, no matter what it is, just think about the cost incurred by the thrift stores to dispose of your trash.
What are your thoughts? Do you donate to the local thrift stores? Just leave a comment below, I always enjoy hearing what the readers have to say.
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With all the hype surrounding Twitter I had to give it a go a few months ago. The big question for me at the time was, is Twitter a useful tool or another avenue that eats time on the Internet?
I am not sure that question has really been answered in my mind yet, but I have made some observations over its use the last month, and if nothing else at all it has connected me to some people in business and blogging that I wouldn’t have known otherwise. At this point, I only wish more of my existing friends were using Twitter. I do see some fluctuation where people do come in and out of Twitter so it can be hard to make acquaintances and keep them going if the someone you meet then jumps out or is never heard from again. I wouldn’t say this is the norm, and there are so many useful applications now that you can use with Twitter, it is hard not to jump on the Twitter bandwagon.
So Does Twitter Have Usefulness
What caught my eye and got me using Twitter was all the blog posts about its usefulness in business applications, and of course blogging. A few good posts I came across are:
- 12 Ways to Be a More Interactive and Accessible Blogger, It was #8 on Problogger
- How to use Twitter to increase traffic to your blog or website
- Is Twitter a useful tool for technical authors?
- Most Useful Twitter Services That Can Help Your Business Grow
Since most of these posts go into how Twitter functions I won’t try to repeat that here, but I have found a few good applications for its use. Blogging is all about networking of sorts, and Twitter is a social networking agent, so put the two together with a WordPress Twitter Tools Plugin and you have a great match.
Twitter Tools Plugin & Twhirl
This is a great plugin (and another great one by Alex King, whom I am starting to think is the king of WordPress plugins) that will automatically post a tweet when you post a new blog article. It is simple to use, and is loaded with options. This is the area on my sidebar that says “What I’m doing…” and it updates with blog posts and also @replies and regular tweet posts.
Then there is Twhirl. This is a standalone program that runs on Adobe’s Air platform that will allow you to use Twitter similar to an IM window on your desktop. They also just came out with a new version, info is on their blog at twhirl 0.8 released – adding friendfeed support. This and support through iPhone and other mobile devises make using Twitter easy.
Interacting is Networking
I found out that you really don’t want to call an automatic blog post entry the end of your Twitter use though. This is not quite the best etiquette to be used on Twitter. Like most things. To make them truly useful you really need to use and interact with them.
This is the case on Twitter as well. I learned how to use the @replies and general updates through a fellow user on Twitter and it expanded it use and productivity, at least as far as traffic goes, ten fold. I would highly recommend using Twitter for more than just blog post entries.
What has your experience been with Twitter? Do you find it a useful tool to use in business applications?
If you are so inclined, you can follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/scottfillmer
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Today was one busy day. It started off with a normal routine of email and blogging and quickly moved into actual work. We had a schedule to keep today so all the orders from all the various places had to be processed and packaged so we could leave on time today.
I really liked the plan of action service we had on Sunday so we took the oportunity today to put things into action, and I did a quick post about it, Almost Mid-week, Are You Fluid?, including a nice mug shot of your truly.
Once in town, being that it is Tuesday, Deborah dropped me off for my guitar lesson and she went on to drop the orders at the post office, pick up our mail and a few other items. After my lesson was over, we hustled over to an appointment at a nearby store to see about something for my son’s upcoming wedding in August, then it was over to work with the books for a few hours.
Dinner and a Movie
After all the work was done, we did enjoy a nice dinner, although brought at completely separate intervals (and free of charge). This always seems to happen to us when we go to Chili’s but for some reason we still go back. It was nice to sit and relax for a while.
Wasn’t really a movie but we did get a chance to watch a little TV when we got home from dinner.
Incoming Music From LaLa
I do a bit of CD music trading on the music exchange site, LaLa.com and today I did receive four new CD’s to add to my collection.
- Alan Parsons – Try Anything Once (came broken)
- U2 – War
- Stevie Nicks – Street Angel
- Collective Soul – Blender (this is the second go around on this CD as well)
Nature in View
Nothing really to report here today, wasn’t in the office much so about the only observation of nature (other than looking out my window, which is actually pretty nice) was the image of the day, There is Beauty in Simplicity, but I think that counts as “nature”.
The Whippoorwills are still here and about to drive us crazy so I don’t really count them anymore at this point.
