Category: techno

Let your friends know they’ve been left behind

A new subscription service (only $40) a year lets you e-mail your friends and family members 6 days after the rapture!

With this service – “run by Christians, for Christians” – you can store up to 250mb of documents that will be e-mailed to up to 62 individual email addresses.

“Imagine being in the presence of the Lord and hearing all of heaven rejoice over the salvation of your loved ones. It is our prayer that this site makes it happen.”

Sure hope their team of 3 individuals, that are scattered across the US don’t forget to login, or don’t get thrown in the slammer all at once – otherwise your friends and family members might be very frightened to know that you’ve been raptured and they’ve been left behind.

Sign up today!

As for me… I’ll just send a message to Twitter as I zip up through the clouds – so be sure you’re subscribed to my Twitter feed if you plan on being left behind.

HT to Reformergent

simply living simply pt.2

Well I promised I’d try and share some of the things Laurie and I are currently doing to live simply.

I’m not sharing this list because I want to brag about what we do, or because we’ve got it all figured out and we do it right all the time. I’m just sharing this list because they’re some things that we’ve found that work for us (as in – “Hey! We can do this!”). Laurie may have some additions to this list (I hope she does).

Invest in others – Laurie and I are both involved in several groups where community and relationships are built. We are both part of a community group that meets each Tuesday night in the home of friends and we share life and God. Laurie also now meets weekly with several friends on Thursday night to just spend time building those relationships and I’m involved in a Bible study/discussion for men on Wednesday morning (the men’s What-a-Study) and typically meet with one or two other guys at different times during the week.

Recycle – we’re not doing near enough yet (in my opinion) but we’re doing a lot more than we used to. We recycle our aluminum cans, plastic and glass thanks to city recycling program. We should probably add cardboard and paper to the mix – but we haven’t taken the time to store and deliver paper products to a recycling site (mental note: add that to the goal list).

Utilizing public transportation – I’m a big fan of public transportation, especially good systems like DART. Granted, the old joke remains, “The thing I hate about public transportation is the public.” Sure there are days when folks can annoy you and get on your last nerve – but we save a great deal of money on gas and parking each month with my monthly DART pass. On top of that, it gives me an opportunity to actually be in fellowship with others rather than tuning the world out as I climb in my truck all by myself.

Using CFLs – We’ve switched all but just a few lights in our house to new CFL or LED bulbs. We need to find some good CFLs that look good above our bathroom mirrors, but otherwise I think all of our lights have been changed to money saving CFLs.

Utilize an automatic thermostat – This is one of those ways we’re easily putting technology to use to try and save money and automate our air conditioning/heating needs. We also utilize ceiling fans in our main rooms of use (including a brand new one I installed in our office today). While this may be too warm for some folks, we keep our thermostat at 78° F while we’re home and at 85° F during the day. We just discussed the possibility of lowering that day time temperature to 80 or 82 so our AC doesn’t run as long in the evening to cool the house off again. We haven’t found any substantial evidence as to which is best for efficiency, cost and wear and tear on our AC. While our winter bill was a bit higher, we’ve had 2 months of spring/summer electric bills of $70 or less!

We’ve discussed other areas we can improve on or start doing including:

  • starting a garden
  • starting a compost pile
  • recycling paper
  • eating more organic foods
  • eating out much less
  • having friends over for dinner on a more regular basis

Well there’s you a starting point. Any thoughts, ideas or suggestions?

Be sure and check out Shaun Groves’ latest post to see some of his goals as well.

simply living simply

Kevin has shared some thoughts on living simply.

I think everyone wanting to live simply has different reasons for doing so, Kevin says, “Part of my motivation is money: Spending less on stuff makes our adoption more affordable. It also makes it easier to help others and be more generous.”

Kevin points to two recent posts by Shaun Groves who writes that his desire for living simply is: “To free up resources which should be spent on those presently in need. To prevent need. To invest in personal health – mental, spiritual, relational and physical.”

These things resonate with me deep in my soul. Yet I struggle with simply giving up my wants and desires in order to simply live a simple life. Things like having my own car (truck) to take me where I want when I want, having the AC/heater on at the exact temperature I want it at, eating what I want, when I want or even living in a “suburb” away from the big city. These are things (along with others) that I want control over – but seem to go against the idea of living simply.

Some other things I think are important to living simply (that Kevin and Shaun didn’t specifically mention) are taking full advantage of technology when and where its affordable and practical. Probably one reason I’m a big fan of sites like Lifehacker.com and even social networking sites. I’ve always sent prayer requests to people via txt messaging and e-mails but now with Twitter and my BlackCrackBerry those processes are even faster and easier. There is some additional cost along the way – but to me, for what I do its well worth it for some of the technology (but maybe these are areas I should work on as well). Of course when and where I can use open source – I’m all for it.

I think ultimately I have several reasons for wanting to live simply and both Kevin and Shaun have included them in their reasons – but off the cuff here are some of mine…

  • Investing more in others rather than myself. The more I spend on myself, the less I have to give away. God may choose to bless me and Laurie, but I believe he blesses people so that we in turn can be a blessing to others. I also think this carries over into investing personal time and such with people as well. If I share my dinner with friends and family, not only am I giving to them financially, it offers opportunity to give and share relationally.
  • Being a good steward of ALL that God has given us. We hear this a lot in our churches, but I think we tend to only apply it to our tithe and finances we give back to the church or other causes. I think this also includes being a good steward of the world around us – i.e. living green, recycling, etc.
  • Living simply = less stress. Let’s face it, the less you have, the less opportunity you have for things to go wrong. Sure some of those things may happen and stress may still occur but if I become dependent on things – it becomes a lot more stressful when those things don’t work like they should.

Well those are the basics. Be sure and read Kevin’s post as well as Shaun’s to see what they’re doing. Maybe a little later I’ll share some of the simple things Laurie and I have started doing to try to simply live simply.

In the meantime, how, why and where do you live simply?

something beautiful :: 1.1 :: ((deep))

The latest something beautiful podcast is up online now!

Thomas and I spend some time catching up and talking about a new emergent gathering he’s hoping to get involved in near his home in Scotland.

We also hear from Thomas’ friends Dan and Laura who share their thoughts on Jesus’ question, “Who do you say I am?” (starts about 20 min in)

Looking forward to doing more of these. Maybe this will become the radio show I keep dreaming of hosting and producing. We’ll see.

Check out the show and share your thoughts and comments: www.somethingbeautifulpodcast.com

Some Beautiful Noise

Well, as one project comes to an end, another begins.

This last week it was decided that we would take OrangeNoiseRadio.com “off the air.” It’s been a blast working with it and I’ve really enjoyed helping Brian run the station but we’ve come to a place where we’re paying too much for music licensing and not getting enough revenue directly for the station or through other avenues. So while it’s sad to see it go, I’m thankful for the experience and fun I had getting it up off the ground and running. We’re still keeping things in place for the immediate future and if funding becomes available (or the music companies quit asking for so much money) we’ll bring the station back online.

In the meantime, Thomas and I have been plotting out our ideas for a new project via Twitter. We’ve settled on a name and actually finished our “beta version” of a new podcast last week. Something Beautiful – stories worth talking about – will be a weekly experiment in podcasting where we give folks an opportunity to share their stories and why God matters to them. As a huge blessing Brian offered to donate the hosting space for Something Beautiful as well, so I’ve been working on getting a website up and running as quickly as possible. Somethingbeautifulpodcast.com is live, but its still in it’s infancy – there may be many changes before it “officially” launches. But for now you can visit the site and listen to our beta podcast we put together last week.

Also, you can join the Something Beautiful Network on ning.com at somethingbeautiful.ning.com. Join up and add our podcast player to your Facebook page and then tell all your friends. We hope the ning site will become an extension of the podcast where people can share their own thoughts and stories alongside the (hopefully) weekly podcast.

So there you go. That’s what’s cooking right now in the fire and don’t be surprised if you get a phone call (or Skype call) from Thomas or I asking you to share your story on Something Beautiful.