Twitter

I guess one reason I haven't blogged a lot lately is Twitter. Basically Twitter is a service that ask what you are doing and you have 140 character to answer. People follow you and when you submit a response, those people get that sent to them. You can use various third part applications to use Twitter as well as instant message. I personally use Gtalk for it so I can follow by using my Blackberry. But you can also just use the web by logging into Twitter's website.

You can follow me here. So what are you doing? Remember, you only have 140 characters :)
dj

OpenID and blog

Well, we will see if I have this setup correctly or not. But I set up Twitterfeed for my blog to see if it will send out my blog updates. Here we go :)
dj

Church podcasting made easy

Wow, I must be getting back into this blogging thing :) Anyway, I was rummaging around the Joomla extensions site tonight and ran across this one. From the website

This component will manage mp3 sermons for churches on a Joomla website. It has an integrated Flash MP3 Player and supports iTunes integration, RSS feeds and the use of videos (.FLV).

I haven't used it so your mileage may vary but if you have a church website using Joomla, then this should be worth looking into.

Directing

This weekend was my scheduled weekend to work production at church. I was scheduled to be the technical director, you know, push the right buttons when the director tells you to push them. The key word is was. I get there and on the staff tells me that I am directing. Ok. If I had known, I would have showed up for the producers meeting with the director and the assistant director. It was an interesting service to direct as it was kind of broken up in different pieces. Not your normal music then announcements and then message. No, the message was broken up into four parts with music mixed in with it.

Everything went ok. It wasn't my first time directing but I was told I was going to be placed into the mix for directors after the next month or so. I got a lot of good tips from the staff member that technical directed for me. I have a lot to learn but it was fun and I can't wait to learn more. So, if you have any directing tips, pass them along :)

dj

Finances and taxes

Yuck. I'm tired already of taxes. Ok not really. I guess having a small income and three kids pays off sometimes ;) But really, it's time to start really getting our finances under control so hopefully this year I can get better organized and play a better role in our money. Misty pays the bills and handles pretty much everything but hopefully I can take that over this year.

A friend of mine is going to give me an old version of some finance software he has. He gets the newest version each year when he buys his tax software so that frees up the older version :) Hopefully I can jump in with that and take over our finances and mange it instead of it manging us.

I guess one good thing is that Dave Ramsey is coming to our church in March for two nights and I am going to be working production for at least one if not both nights. We have taking his Financial Peace University but it's always good to get a refresher and some additional motivation.

Anyway, here is hoping 2008 will be the year we beat the financial monster. :)

dj

Just upset

I just want to ask why people have to say stuff about people when they don't have a clue :( Just asking.

Happy New Year !!

Well another year has come and just about gone so I wanted to wish everyone a Happy New year. As I look back over my blog I see some good things that happened in my life along with some sad moments. I didn't really see anything bad that happened. Thanks to God for that.

Some of the highlights over the past year.

In March, had a nice day out with the family and then the weekend after that, my parents watched the boys while Misty and I went to the Smokies for an anniversary weekend. Log Cabin Pancake House and Wonder Works was two of the highlights of the trip. It's always good to get away and we are working on our trip for 2008 already. :)

In April, learned one of the pains of owning a house. During the first part of spring, got out the water hose and forgot to disconnect it during a cold snap and had a busted water pipe :)

Got to take Colby to another Lexington Legends baseball game along with a donuts with dad day at preschool.

In June, went on a huge family vacation with my family to Myrtle Beach. It was a great trip and even managed to squeeze in a date night with Misty to Margaritaville. Hey, it was five o'clock somewhere :)

July started the big changes for our family. After lots of searching and interviewing, I was offered a job back in Richmond for the city as a deskside support person. I get to do a lot more than that though. I have brought a new mail server online which replaced our iMail server. We went with Zimbra, an open source package that was just purchased by Yahoo earlier this year. We are looking to replace our Exchange server in the long run with it.

In August, Colby started Kindergarten. He is growing so fast and is so smart. He get assigned homework which challenges him more so his teacher keeps him on his toes.

Also got to take a mini vacation to the Smokies with entire family again.

The sad part of the year was back in February when a friend of mine since first grade passed away. Went down for the visitation and funeral. Met some friends that I hadn't seen since probably high school. Sad times for all of us. It was a rough couple of days.

Anyway, here's to 2008. Happy New Year everyone.
dj

Merry Christmas

Just waiting on some bread to finish baking for tomorrow morning so I thought I would take a second and wish everyone a Merry Christmas :)

dj

Vote for which book I read next

Thanks to some early Christmas money, I was able to buy some books I have been wanting to read. I couldn't find The Blogging Church or In the Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day at the book store I was at but I did purchase five books. Now which one do I read first. Well, I think I will leave that up to you. I have been debating on it for the last couple of days so I thought I would just put up a poll. So, come on over to the blog and vote. It's over in the right hand site. :)

dj

Jon Weece for Kentucky’s most intriguing newsmaker

The local newspaper has a poll going for Kentucky’s most intriguing newsmaker of the year. Our Senior Pastor is in the running after the Comair 5191 memorial service earlier this year. Jon's part of the service was special in that he didn't say a word but used posterboard and put simple words or phrases to covey his thoughts. If you feel inclined, please vote for him :)


Vote here

dj