What’s Coming Next From Apple?
I can’t reveal my “insider” source, but here is a “sneak peek” at what’s coming next from Steve Jobs at Apple… (with some history to show you the trends)
So, what do you think? Are you going to get in line?
Kidologist.com: Karl Bastian's Personal Site and Blog
Archive for Technology
Drawing the Bible; Turn Off the DVD Player
I’m speaking this week at Hartland Bible Camp in California. It’s my first time here, but I am really loving the experience. I’ll post more about the camp at the end of the week. I wanted to post a few pics about one of my favorite teaching methods… Bible Story Drawing. Besides drama, illustion, and some of my other usual techniques, for the actual Bible story segment, I am illustrating the Bible Story by drawing it as I teach it. Since the drawing gets erased each day (Actually, by my arch nemesis before the next lesson, more on that in a future post!) I take a picture to save my works of art for posterity!
Here they are, perhaps someone else might enjoy them… as you can see, my artist skills peaked around the second grade. As for the lesson content, I am covering The Nine Virtues and teaching Bible Characters that displayed them. I’ve done four so far:
Courage: Displayed by David: (Click image to see full size)
HONOR: Displayed by Young Jesus (Click image to see full size)
TRUTH: Displayed by Peter (Click image to see full size)
LOYALTY*: Displayed by Esther (Click image to see full size) *Fidelity
(All spelling errors while drawing are in fun and for audience participation and laughter… you just keep on going, you are drawing quickly!)
I love this technique because the kids enjoy it, it involves the audience because it is funny and it also gives a very unique visual. Kids are so used to video today, it is almost “high tech” and “NEW” to see someone manually draw something to illustrate, since it is just not done any more. Plus, much like ToyBox Tales, it is something they can relate to, since kids like to draw. You don’t need to be an artist to do this, because kids aren’t artist either! I’d really encourage you to try it!
Kids come up to the stage afterward to look at the drawing, and then many copy it throughout the day in their notebooks, which is reinforced learning. They are getting a visual overview of the book/story – which is a great way to learn.
I wish more teachers would find ways to get rid of the DVD player and teach in new ways that “draw” kids in. It isn’t hard, and its actually MORE effective.
LET ME CHALLENGE YOU, loose the DVD player. If you use it, limit it to NO MORE than ten minutes in your lesson. More than that, and you are honestly losing effectiveness. Kids need real people in front of them teaching. And if you can draw a stick figure, you can teach better than a DVD can. Honestly.
I will post the rest at the end of the week in a post on Kidology.org and update this post with a link to that post with much more detail on the entire lesson scope and details on the overall unit on the Nine Virtues.
Kidmin Blogger Survey
If you are a Kidmin Blogger, jump over the KidminAndy’s site and give a few minutes and provide some feedback on how you blog for the betterment of the Kidmin Blogger Community. Your input could help others when he shares the results… maybe even you!
As for me:
I’ve been blogging since March 2005, but that’s only if you count when I’ve been using blogging software. I used to blog before there was blog software! I like to say I was blogging before there were blogs because I used to just make pages when I went places in pure HTML, like this: kidologist.com/alaska or Air Dad (If you look carefully, you’ll find a link to my first “web company” that is still live, even though the host company, Flash.net, has long since gone out of business. LOL)
Anyway, I HIGHLY recommend WordPress because it is easy to use, themes abound and are easy to install (though I had a custom one made for me by a friend) hosting yourself on either One and One or GoDaddy.com (even though I hate their advertising, they are the easiest to use and have the best prices and remind you when you are up for renewal, etc.) and as for what I blog about – because I have another main site for Kid’s Ministry, (that you may have heard of) my blog is more personal in nature – though I do blog about kids ministry.
So my blog is meant to be the from the “man behind Kidology.” As the description says,
Welcome to Kidologist.com, the personal site of Karl Bastian. Sometimes fun, sometimes serious, always what’s on my mind.
So it touches on kids ministry, what’s new on Kidology, but it’s also my personal family journal, things I’m thinking about etc. Unfortunately, I’ve had to learn to steer away from politics because people didn’t seem to get that this was my personal site and would say they were dropping their Kidology membership if they disagreed with me politically. They couldn’t separate the man from the ministry. So I’ve been censored a little in that area on my blog. (I have an alias Twitter account and blog that is VERY political and some people have discovered it… if you do, contact me there, but don’t mention it here. I’ll admit I am Karl on that site, if you ask me there! That has been my solution that dilemma.)
I have some other posts on my blog about blogging linked below, but jump over and Fill out Andy’s Survey.
Social Media Bad for Kids?
Social Media and Kids from a Conflicted Social Media Junky
by Karl Bastian (a.k.a. Kidologist)
See at the bottom how to WIN A FREE BOOK and Download the Complete Kidology Report on Social Media and Kids that includes additional authors.
I both love social media and fear it. I can’t attack it too much or I’d be a hypocrite I have over 10,000 “tweets” so far, and nearing 1000 friends on Facebook, but why do I still feel so lonely? Social networking is a part of my daily – O.K., let’s be honest, moment by moment, life! I do not, not, think it is an addiction or bad for me! (I could quit any time I wanted to, right? I just don’t want to!)
Quite to the contrary, it has given me yet another avenue to amplify the message God has given me to share. Unlike many who live their lives like a pin-ball game bouncing through life from one opportunity to another with no clear game plan, I sought God for a very specific Life Mission at age nineteen and have had a laser focus on that Mission ever since. It is written and defined and has enabled me to say “no” to many good things and focus on the Great my entire life and ministry (not that I haven’t gotten distracted and needed to get back on course at times!).
Social Networking has enabled me to expand this Mission into spheres that otherwise I could have never reached, and on a daily basis during idle moments that other wise could have been wasted… Relaxing? Reading? Enjoying my family or praying or… There I go again… the internal struggle erupts! But would I truly be doing those noble things every time I tweeted or updated by Facebook status? The simple answer is no. Social networking has enriched my life with friendships I would have never made until heaven! Now heaven will be a grand Tweet-Up!
But enter children into the conversation, and the conversation shifts. Is it good for them? Unfortunately, folks, there is an element of surrender here. Frankly, we can’t stem this tide – only steer it. Let’s look at it from a different or historical angle. How many teenagers DIE annually driving cars? Do we ban them from driving? Perhaps we should! Unfortunately, that will never happen. You, like them, were destined to drive. My preschooler is already talking about when he will get to drive. In fact, all he wanted for his fifth birthday last month was a REAL Jeep. So we rented one for a day and I taught him how to control the wiper blades and turn signals and let him sit on my lap and steer around the block. My own dad understood both the dangers of driving and the inevitability that the son he loved would soon be on the road without him. Once of the best things he did was take me out and teach me, not only how to drive, but how to slide and spin and control a skid. He had me memorize, “When you are spinning, you are not out of control, you have only lost the ability to stop.” This saved my life years later when my wife and I spun out of control on the highway in winter on the highway. As we crossed the center line spinning with a semi-truck plowing toward us and cars spinning in all directions off the road I yelled at my wife, “I AM NOT OUT OF CONTROL! I HAVE ONLY LOST THE ABILITY TO STOP!” And I control spun the vehicle in front of and around the semi, and back to the correct side of the highway, all while spinning. While God had a lot to do with it, for sure – my dad had trained me for this event, and saved our lives.
The point? Today kids are driving Social Media! We cannot prevent it. We would be fools to think we could stop it. They are in the drivers seat. But we can, and MUST prepare them for the spins and wipe outs ahead. They will listen to our wisdom and advice, and we can give them the guidance and protections they need to keep them safe. We can teach them to put it down. We can give them limits. We can help them find balance and foster real relationships outside of 140 characters and digits and keyboards. We can show them sunshine and go for walks and plan outings and plan in-person socials. We can help them stay real and remind them that we care and make sure they know they don’t need to turn to anonymous sources when they need companionship, counsel or help.
- Karl Bastian, Founder of Kidology.org
This is my portion of a complete Kidology Report featuring several authors. Download the entire report and then add your own input in the Kidology Forum.
You can also WIN A FREE BOOK by Jim Weidmann of Heritage Builders just by adding your comments in the discussion forum. So let me know your thoughts on Kids and Social Media. Details in the forum discussion thread.
The full report is HERE and the discussion is HERE. I look forward to hearing your thoughts on the topic!
Cloud Technology – What Is It?
At CPC last week, I got to teach a workshop with Michael Chanley on technology – and it was a lot of fun! We bantered back and forth, live webcasted and confused half the room with everything we covered, but it was a blast!
I demonstrated remote accessing my Macs back home as well as all my backup drives from my iPhone and iPad among other cloud perks and tried to answer questions on a wide variety of technology issues. I went over why Cloud Technology is so important – why it enables you to have access to all your data from anywhere from any device and never lose your data again, as well as the difference between POP and IMAP e-mail so your e-mail is all synced across all your devices. Plus we did webcasting with live chatting right from my iPhone – and showed how to do that for free and embed it on your website with live chat, also for free. (See it on my blog and Kidologytogo.org as well.)
I’ve had a ton of requests for the workshop, so here’s what I’m gonna do.
1) Here is the PDF handout: DOWNLOAD HERE (668kb)
2) Here’s an MP3 of the workshop: DOWNLOAD HERE (65.7mb)
3) Here’s a video of the workshop that was running for a little while when I was live webcasting. (Not the entire time) WATCH HERE then continued HERE
If you have questions, post them here in Comments, and I’ll answer the best I can!
A New Normal is Here
On a recent overseas trip, the President of the United States used a phrase that caught my ear. He mentioned a “New Normal”, suggesting that Americans must prepare to accept current unemployment rates as staying steady into the future.
This got me thinking that there is a “New Normal” in children’s ministry as well. Things have changed! What was was once considered “normal” is rapidly changing! As I watch my 4-year-old use my iPhone or iPad, I see that his world is going to be much different than mine. Indeed, he has had his own iPod Touch because at age 2 he was caught operating my iPhone without any instruction. I knew he needed to be equipped to embrace his world.
Perhaps you are following the discussions in the Leadership Forum, where Greg Baird has invited 18 authors to write about The Future of Children’s Ministry.
What are you doing in your ministry to embrace this New Normal? Or does your ministry still look like it did 10 years ago? There are no easy answers, but I can tell you this: When you were a kid, you could tell which teachers were with it, and which weren’t, and you gravitated toward the teachers who were “hip.”
And now you are in the position of being the one they evaluate. Take a hard look at yourself and your ministry. Don’t be written off by your kids. The effectiveness of your ministry is at stake, and it may only take a few minor tweaks to win them over and show them YOU are “hip!”
Got a cool idea? Tweet it to me @Kidologist
Taken from the lastest Kidology Newsletter – READ ONLINE or Subscribe. (they’re free!)
How Are You Using Technology To Connect?
How are you using technology to reach today’s kids?
In his contribution to Greg’s Baird’s series on The Future of Children’s Ministry, Todd McKeever writes about how he has allowed texting during church to give tweens a safe way to ask tough questions. Since the average American teen now texts over 3000 times a day – it’s might be better to join ‘em than to fight ‘em!
Join the discussion on Kidology and share how YOU have tapped into technology to connect with kids or engage kids in your ministry.
BUT FIRST – watch this incredible video, and consider if you need to DISCONNECT from our cell phone a little more.
I know this convicted me:
iPad First Impressions
If you follow me on twitter, you may have caught that I was not initially that excited about the iPad. Yes, I’m a Mac fanboy who even waited in line for an OS release and have done other silly Apple posts. After waiting in line to be one of the first to get an iPhone, and later reviewing it, and suffering through some of the early iPhone issues (even getting the $100 credit when they dropped the price!), I initially decided I would wait out the iPad rush.
My first evaluation was that this was a consumption device rather than a creative device, more for those who don’t already own a Mac and/or iPhone, and since I already have both, I saw no need for one. I liked the look and feel of it, but thought I had no need for one personally. I was in the “its just a giant iPod Touch” camp.
But I slowly caved for a number of reasons. First, I decided to get my wife one for her birthday (which was today) because I had given her aging laptop to a new employee last fall and it died and she needed something for around the house and travel for doing e-mail/calendar/facebook and basic computer tasks and the iPad seemed perfect: easier, faster, lighter and ideal for the mother of a four year old, especially around the house. Then came the realization that if she had one, I’d be playing with it all the time and she would be annoyed at me constantly for taking her iPad and that could lead to unhealthy marital tension, something worth avoiding at any cost. But the final straw came in the last two weeks as I came to the realization of just how much REAL WORK I actually do ON MY IPHONE! Seriously, I screen, respond and manage most of my e-mail on my iPhone, as well as basecamp (Kidology’s online project management solution), as well as many other things on my iPhone – all on a very small screen. It dawned on me that doing all this on a larger screen would be a dream.
Karl with his new iPad
Having only owned it for a few days, I could already describe just how incredible it is – but it would be all the same stuff you read everywhere else. Instead, let me share with you a unique story that happened today at lunch that shows the power of an iPad. We were out for Easter lunch at Texas Roadhouse. Since it was Sara’s birthday I told her she was not allowed to cook as she usually does on Easter Sunday, but was to pick a favorite restaurant to eat out. We were out enjoying our meal when a family walked up that I have not seen since childhood! He now has a wife and kids of his own, I had not seen Eliot since we were boys! As we were catching up on decades of having not seen each other, he asked what I do. How do I explain Kidology.org in a nutshell? Toyboxtales.com (to his kids?) and the various websites? DiscipleTown which I write and Children’s Ministry Magazine which I contribute to? etc. quickly and succinctly? I pulled out my iPad, turned on my Verizon MiFi wireless access card for Internet (explained below*) and was able to SHOW HIM Kidology.org and other websites with ease instantly.
In a point: I WOULD NOT DO THAT WITH A LAPTOP. Not even my awesome MacBook Air could have done that so quickly. I would have had to get it out, plug in my broadband card, open a browser, and it would have been clumsy and awkward compared to how it was with the iPad. Especially when you click on videos and they can instantly go full screen, and rotate the iPad horizonal and they rotate and go full screen to show full screen horizontally with beautiful sound. In a crowded restaurant, where I had only a few minutes, I was able to introduce an old friend to the my ministry on a super thin beautiful crystal clear and sharp bright screen they could pass around. That is powerful!
All the rest – the countless apps, the productivity on the go, the amount of potential I can carry with me is mind boggling. When I went to church, I had my Bible and notepad with me, inside the iPad. The Bible I bought in the iBooks store is incredible, the pages turn like a real book! No more paper notebooks! No more pen or paper! With my iPhone and iPad, its all I need to take with me around town or to meetings. On trips, I’ll still take my MacBook Air, as the iPad is NOT a laptop – but it can do a LOT.
WHICH BRINGS UP THE COMPLAINTS…
Everyone is talking about all the stuff it can’t do. I have two responses. First of all, it is fine to wait. Of course, later models may do more. I’m sure I’ll be upgrading later, and selling mine, or giving to an employee as a “hand me down.” But I don’t recommend waiting. Why? Every month you wait, is a month you didn’t get to use one. You might pay more getting the first model, but you are getting to use one more, and that’s worth paying a little more. Personally, I don’t think the price is going to drop significantly more. Don’t count on it. The features will increase, so I predict the price will stay steady.
The other response I have, is that this ISN’T A LAPTOP. All the so-called “missing” things would make it not what it is. If you want all that other stuff – buy a Mac. That’s why I have a MacBook Air. THAT is your thin dream machine that has everything – and I LOVE mine! Plus, if an iPad had all these “missing” things everyone is whining about, it would cost a lot more. I think it has everything it needs.
NO CAMERA? The issue with the camera is what side to put it on? If they put it on the back to take pictures of things, like many would want, using the screen for preview, it would be just like an iPhone. That’s what an iPhone is for. However, others would argue, they should have the camera facing the user, like on a Mac, for video conferencing or photo booth – which would make taking pictures of other things, other than the user, very difficult to preview the subject, so you would have people upset and frustrated. So Apple would have to put in two cameras, or install a rotating camera, which would drive up both the cost, and the risk of damage and repairs and apple care cost. Or they’d have to offer a “Camera Model” which opens another whole can of worms. Bottom line: you don’t need a camera – that’s what an iPhone is for. I PREDICT: an external camera is coming that plugs into the port, you turn your iPad upside down, screen rotates, and wa-la! A camera. Probably not even made by Apple.
That is the beauty and power of the iPad, Apple doesn’t have to do everything – they designed something others can improve and add on to.
MULTI-TASKING MYTH: “It doesn’t multi-task!!!” This complaint I find kind of silly when you understand the purpose of this device and after having used it. Let me repeat, this isn’t a laptop – you don’t need to be running multiple applications at the same time, and besides, as a human being, you CAN’T TRULY MULTI-TASK ANYWAY! You can only DO one thing at a time, and you can only LOOK at one thing at a time, and on the iPad, the experience feels like multi-tasking since when you open something, for most applications they open where you left them last. So what’s the big deal? Why do you need something actually running in the background using up valuable resources? You aren’t rending video on this thing! Seriously! You are reading e-mail, managing documents, looking at pictures, reading websites, etc.
AND (good news) if this whole “IT DOESN’T MULTI-TASK!!!” cry is simply because you are worried you can’t open the iPod section, start music and close it and do something else, relax, YOU CAN. Just as you can on an iPhone. “No multi-tasking” has never meant that the native applications couldn’t run in the background – it means you can’t run secondary applications simultaneously, which for me is a “DUH” you have to launch them. Apple’s apps DO run at the same time in the background constantly. (depending on your settings, watch your battery life based on those settings!)
MISSING PORTS: Folks, haven’t you learned by now? Ports come and go, but one thing remains – third party products. Nuf said.
BOTTOM LINE: All the nay sayers were wrong about the iPhone and continue to be wrong about the iPhone. And they are all wrong about the iPad too.
Setting up my iPad
WHY I BUY MAC: I didn’t buy an iPad because I’m a Mac Fan. For the record, I didn’t buy a Mac because I’m an Apple Fan. People forget I was once a Mac user who converted back to PC when Macs ceased to be the best solution for my ministry. (When Windows 95 came out, it was better than my OS Classic Mac) I converted back to Mac again when OS X came out. I am a Children’s Ministry Fan and Productivity Fan and Efficiency Fan and a Don’t Waste My Time With Viruses and Stupid Errors and Pop Ups and Spyware and Stuff That Just Plain Doesn’t Work Fan.
The reality is, Apple is the company that knows what they are doing and the iPad is just the lastest in a long line proving it. This thing is a beautiful piece of engineering genius. It is simply a dream to work on.
DO YOU NEED ONE?
That is a question only you can answer. For me, I run an IT company with employees and volunteers all over the country. Our main form of communication is e-mail. I manage multiple web-based databases and I am responsible for over a dozen websites plus social networking is a major part of my daily networking both personally and professionally. I do over half of this Mobily on my iPhone, and now can do it on my iPad instead of my cell phone. The iPad makes it much easier on the eyes as well as makes access quicker than a laptop. You will need to assess how much you access e-mail, the web, social networking, and the other apps available on the iPad and if instant access would be helpful to you.
*DO YOU NEED THE iPAD 3G? (AT&T vs. VERIZON)
I do NOT recommend you get the iPad 3G when it comes out. BAD IDEA!!! As someone who loves his iPhone let me warn you. AT&T service is TERRIBLE. It is the only thing I HATE about my iPhone. I usually hesitate to use the word hate, but not in this case. I don’t know what AT&T is doing with the millions of dollars they are making off iPhone users, but they aren’t spending it on cell towers. Coverage is terrible. I get dropped calls everywhere, even in highly populated places like airports and shopping malls! I will say, it is still worth getting an iPhone, unfortunately, because the iPhone IS that much more superior to ANY other phone, despite what other may say. The droid and other wannabees do NOT come close despite their claims. But I get dropped calls every single day no matter where I go.
So why oh why would I want to PAY to have an iPad by online with AT&T? NO WAY!
But there is another reason not to! It is foolishness to pay for ONE IPAD to be online with AT&T when with Verizon (who is has a GREAT NETWORK) you can have ANY FIVE DEVICES online regardless of whether they are iPads, or laptops or what!
That is what I have! I have a pocket MiFi card that allows my MacBook Air, iPad, and up to THREE MORE devices to ALL be online AT THE SAME TIME to be online! In fact, I can be walking in the mall, with my MiFi card in my pocket, with my iPad WiFi online, and I’m a Walking Walking Internet Hub! If I’m out, my wife’s iPad can be online too! If you are near me, I can give you the password and your iPad or laptop can be online too!
So, why would you pay to have ONLY your iPad be online with terrible AT&T, when instead you can have ANY 5 devices (or your choosing) be online with reliable Verizon at any time anywhere? It’s awesome!!
Even Luke loves the iPad!
I’m still getting to know my iPad and exploring all its potential – but so far – I’m impressed!
COOL TIP: Go into settings and under Accessibility go to Triple-click Home. Choose White on Black. Then, any time you click the home button three times quickly, it will turn the screen into negative resolution. (Repeat to go back to normal) It is designed for night reading, but it just looks cool. (Its also a good prank to play on someone who has an iPad if you can get your hands on their iPad and do this to them! FYI: Control-Option-Command-8 will do the same thing on your Mac! Go ahead, try it!) Have fun!Life Online Changing
My life online is changing. I used to blog a lot more than I do now. I love my blog and I do have people bug me to “blog more” – but the reality I connect in other ways, and I do have this other little site where over 20,000 people come each and every day, so when I am starring at my laptop wondering what to blog about, there is a part of me that says, “why blog? you don’t need a blog.” But my blog gives me an outlet for posts that don’t quite fit on Kidology – either they are CM related or are more personal. So in the spirit of both blogging, and why it is harder to blog lately, I’ll reflect on:
HOW HAS MY LIFE ONLINE CHANGED?
#1 My iPhone has changed online life for me! Dramatically. I do Facebook and Twitter almost exclusively from my iPhone. Seriously, when I’m at my computer, I have WORK to do! I can even do WordPress blogging from my iPhone, but haven’t found the practical need to do som, maybe I should try that more – for personal outings. I really want to blog more – I need to figure out how to do this, whichout it becoming a duty or obligation.
First, some thoughts on FACEBOOK and TWITTER and WHY I BROKE THE LINK BETWEEN THE TWO. I probably just lost half my audience! But the rest, have been asking.
Since I started on Facebook, I had my “Tweets” (Twitter status updates) automatically update my Facebook status. Why? Because I was first and foremost a Twitter user and Facebook was an afterthought – it was something for college kids, right? But I had an account because underneath this aging body, I’m still that young Moody student, right? Times are changing, Facebook is now made up of MORE OVER 35 PEOPLE than college kids (much to their frustration!) and becoming the #1 networking site in the world. (could ultimately be a blog killer) I ended up slowing down my Twitter use because I didn’t want to be overwhelming my Facebook status with every little Twitter update – which tend to me more trivial and more links; news feeds, marketing, and twitter conversation. Now, thanks to Selective Twitter Status (a Facebook Ap) by ending my Tweets in #fb I can selectively decide which Tweets end up as my Facebook status and only change my FB status 1-3 times a day, where as I may tweet 10-20 times a day.
I AVOID FACEBOOK on the computer because I rather hate it. Please don’t invite me to groups and causes I ignore them all, and please don’t take it personally. If you invite me to be a Fan of starving children on the moon and I ignore it, it isn’t because I don’t care about starving children on the moon, it is that being a fan of them won’t feed them, it will give me more email and things to click every day. They get fed by people feeding them, and if you are feeding them, GOD BLESS YOU, I too am devoting to giving to and supporting charities and have founded one myself.
Facebook is for networking with people – and I use it exclusively for that – and I LOVE THE iPHONE APP because that is ALL IT DOES. No groups, no causes, no games, no snowballs, no pokes, none of the stupid Facebook stuff, just Friends, Status, and Messages. Ahhhh, the good stuff. I love my friends and family, all of them! (Even the ones I have no idea who they are!)
Be my friend at: www.facebook.com/karl.bastian
Now that I have freed my Twitter from the question, “Do I really want this on my Facebook page too?” I feel liberated again! I can tweet anything at any time, and the fun has returned! When I see something that makes me laugh, snap a pic, and tweet it. When I’m irritated, rant to the world. If a company gives bad services, finally there is consequence, with instant feedback to the world, interaction with friends and family, checking in on others, twitter is just fun and fills idle moments. Yes, there are times to just turn off the iPhone and enjoy your family or a quiet moment, and I do, no worries. But when you are fueling the car, or stuck by the train, the only option you had in the past was the radio. Twitter puts my in charge of my loose time. (I don’t like calling it ‘free’ time, because often it isn’t ‘free’ it’s costly, but it I’m not able to spend it the way I’d prefer to!) Follow me at www.twitter.com/kidologist
KIDOLOGY.org
And in case you are the last to finally hear about it, we finally got the ALL NEW Kidology.org launched, and besides the personal excitement over it, I am loving the new dynamically loaded home page so I am CONSTANTLY checking the home page for what is the latest discussions in the forum and jumping to chime in. My personal interaction in the forum has probably soared – which is probably a good thing since I’m the creator of the website!
I also have a new “From the Kidologist” spot on the home page (also posts and archives here on my blog) that I’ve enjoyed updating) that gives me an opportunity to talk directly to the visitors to Kidology.org, granted, IF they scroll down on the home page. I put my spot “below the fold” intentionally as I’m not the most important thing, but I am glad to have a place on the home page so that it’s a little more prominent.
You know, we DO have a free membership now! Join at: www.kidology.org/join
Shopping?
I leave shopping online to my wife! She is the expert there. But I do find Froogle.com to be a huge time saver! When I do need to find something fast and still want to save!
That me online!
So that’s how I spend my time online now – (not counting e-mail) – networking on Facebook and Twitter and contributing to Kidology.org. How do you spend your time online?
Over and Out!
This is my last blog post until AFTER Yosemite Summit! No more Facebook, no Twitter, no e-mail, no cell phone, no work! I’m disconnecting for an entire week. I’ve been praying, planning and preparing for a year and its so exciting to see the eight guys that God brought together for this amazing week in Yosemite. They’ve been coming in over the last two days, and tonight we all gathered for our first meal all together before hittin’ the road in the morning.
Steve, Matt, Tom, Scott, Karl, Scott, Marc, Brent, Pat
(Canada, TX, PA, SD, IL, CA, VA, OK, OH)
Please pray for each of these guys that God would really do a work in each of our lives during this next week. We each come from a different state and one from Canada. Each is leaving family and ministry behind to focus on their walk with God. Each understands that the best thing for their ministry isn’t another idea or resource but a closer walk with the Lord. Pray for safety and for an openness to what God has in store for us. I can’t wait to get started! So time for me to sign off and shut down. No worries, I’ll be blogging pictures and stories afterward! Until then,
Over and Out!
