Pastor as Investor
Had the opportunity to share about productivity at a Gospel Coalition meeting at Credo House in OKC. Had a great time talking with J.J. Seid of Bridgeway Church fame.
Covered several big ideas, specifically:
- Too much time doing, not enough time planning
- The true cost of trying to do everything yourself
- How your lack of planning and thinking things through is a signal that you have serious issues with Jesus and your view of Him
- Book recommendations
- Email and productivity tips
Download the talk here (direct link 20 MB)
Revision3 Explains Why Rdio is Better Than Spotify
I’ve been an Rdio fan for a few months now, ask my office mates. Yeah, I have an open ceiling, nice speakers, a sub, and no respect for fellow coworkers. At least they seem to like my taste in music.
At $10 a month for an all you can eat buffet of sound, it’s a dang good deal. That includes the iPhone, iPad, desktop, and web app. I like it all better than Spotify.
Here’s what Revision3 has to say about the Rdio vs Spotify debate:
Overall, I think we’ve made it pretty clear. We are Rdio fans.
Hit the link to watch the Revision3 App Judgment video, they breakdown all the differences.
Oh yeah, if you want to find me on Rdio, look for Rex Barrett (rexhibitionist).
My Aeropress Cup of Coffee
My taste in coffee has matured over the last few years. It might horrify you to know, but I used to order the candy flavored drinks at the not-so-local chain brewer about five years ago and thought that was coffee perfection. Along came Coffee Slingers, in downtown OKC, and I learned what coffee actually tastes like, not what flavored syrups do.
Learning what great coffee tastes like takes time. Believe me, I’ve been practicing, daily. My macchiatos, cappuccinos, French presses, and cuppings contributed to my newly refined palette.
All that to say, here’s how I’m making the beautiful black cups of coffee at home.
The Aeropress is my tool of choice. Why? I don’t like my last few sips of coffee to be filled with the grounds you get with the French press. I’m also consistently getting a beautiful cup every day.
The prefect cup, for me:
- Grind ten grams of quality coffee about three clicks shy of the finest grind setting you have.
- Boil your water and then take it off the heat for a minute.
- Fill the water portion of the Aeropress to the top part of the two marking.
- Pour it over the grounds you put into the coffee side of the Aeropress, let that take about 10-15 seconds.
- Stir the grounds once for about 10 seconds. Don’t worry, water will be draining through, that’s okay.
- Let it sit about 10 seconds longer and press through quick.
- Add a touch of the boiled water to top off the cup and enjoy.
Obviously, you can make this cup weaker by adding a bit more water or keep it potent by adding just a touch.
iPhone Apps On Which I Spent A Lot of Money at ¢99 a Pop
Yeah, I’ve tried a lot of them, four folders full to be exact. I had always intended on writing an article about them but Jim Barraud beat me to the punch.
Apple Power Button Cufflinks For the Well Dressed Mac User Among Us
I rarely wear a long sleeve button up shirt, much less a shirt requiring cufflinks. I just might consider these open source beauties though. Yeah, I said open source.
We sold out the first batch in less than 1 day! We will be putting more in the store this Friday, June 17th.
The “pulsing” is similar to the “breathing” LED pattern on many laptop and computer systems. The default pattern is reverse engineered from the Apple “breathing” LED on Macs, MacBooks, iMacs, etc.
Only $128 from adafruit industries.
Unfriended: Six Million Americans Fled Facebook Last Month
Cord Jefferson’s one man crusade to banish Facebook from the face of the earth has started. Let the posts at GOOD continue. He almost has me convinced. Especially after the booting I got from Facebook a few months back.
What explains the stunted growth? Several things, the first of which is a growing concern about privacy amongst Facebook users. It was inevitable that a social site that turned its users into a commodity for advertisers would eventually be a turnoff for some, and that looks to be happening at Facebook en masse. Beyond that, competing sites like Twitter, which demand less engagement and information from users, are also siphoning away some former Facebook loyalists.
We try to look for definitive answers as to why people would quit using Facebook, what we should be looking at are the cumulative reasons for people leaving. The ads, the growing complexity, the constant changing, moving around, and misplacing of the things we’re used to using.
Facebook asks us to make them our online home but keeps putting pictures on the wall we don’t want to see and moving our furniture around.
Say Goodbye to @Twitpic?
From the Twitter Blog:
Millions of people share photos on Twitter every day. We’re going to make that easier than ever. Over the next several weeks, we’ll be releasing a feature to upload a photo and attach it to your Tweet right from Twitter.com.
Most of us probably use the official Twitter apps on our devices, a lot of us have Twitpic selected as our photo host of choice. This might not bode well for our friend Noah Everett. And, I quote:
We understand that Twitter owns and controls the platform, but a clearer roadmap from them and better communication would have been appreciated by us and all the developers.
We’ve always had Twitter’s best interest in mind with building and running Twitpic, we would have hoped the same from Twitter, at least in the form of better communication.
Double gut punch.
Confession: I Hate Myself for Eating at Subway
Cord Jefferson has a great culture piece up at GOOD.
But how much whole wheat is in Subway’s healthy sounding 9-grain wheat bread? None at all, actually. The first ingredient is enriched wheat, and the fourth ingredient is high-fructose corn syrup. In fact, there’s corn syrup in a lot of the stuff at Subway: the 9-grain bread, the sourdough bread, the salami, the pepperoni, the oven-roasted chicken patties, the teriyaki sauce, the bologna, the marinara sauce, the roast beef, the steak, the honey mustard, and the red wine vinaigrette. Jared, Subway’s speed-walking mascot, somehow failed to mentioned this.
Better than a burger, sometimes. Better than a local sub shop, rarely.
One Charger Will Save Them All
Several devices get charged out of one cable. For example it charges my iPhone and Kindle using an adaptable tip and a micro USB cable out of the side.
IDAPT i1 Eco is a dual charger (tip and USB) that allows you to charge all your devices…
Long Distance Commuting Can Lead to Your Divorce
I love OKC, just ask anyone, they’ll tell ya. There are things I don’t like about our fine city, though. One of them being OKC’s sprawl.
This Swedish study shows why you just might want to take that job on your side of town instead of opting for a few bucks more with the long commute.
Commuting to work can be advantageous in terms of income and career opportunities, and it presents a good alternative to moving. But long commuting times also entail less time for family and friends and can lead to stress and health problems. Pair relationships are also jeopardized, and according to a new dissertation from Umeå University, the risk of separation is 40 percent higher among long-distance commuters than among other people.
Cork iPad Sleeve is Sustainable and Beautiful
Feel good at only $22 for your iPhone or $39 for your iPad.
Bring high-tech goods back to earth with the warm, natural look and feel of these cork laptop sleeves. A sustainable material, cork is naturally water-resistant and durable. Its soft, textured surface will protect your laptop from scratches or wear, and will develop a unique patina with use. The iPad sleeve features a brass snap, keeping your gear securely in place. Handmade in Spain.
I'm a Friend of Coffee and Coffee is a Great Friend to Me
My hangout of choice is Coffee Slingers, a fantastic little cafe that makes the best coffee I’ve ever had. I enjoy the love they pour into each cup and the pretty hearts and flowers they create with the foam.
Take a look at this latte art with a uniquely geeky twist. No, these weren’t made at Slingers, but might be after I show them this post.
Have Your Instagram Photos Printed and Sent Anywhere For 99¢
As a practicing photographer, the print is still very important to me. Sure, I love having thousands of images on my phone to look through, but most of us are one phone drop into the toilet from losing every precious pic.
Introducing Postagram: instantly print and ship photos from Instagram or your Photo Album right from web or iPhone. Send high-quality photos to friends and family, anywhere, anytime.
App is free, the printing and shipping is a flat 99¢ rate.
This Sedentary Life We Lead is Killing Us, The Infographic
Thank your boss for that beautiful chair you’re sitting in, soon you’ll be able to thank him for that nice casket you’re laying in too.
Sitting 6+ hours per day makes you up to 40% likelier to die within 15 years than someone who sits less than 3. Even if you exercise.
Get up, stretch, move around, do what it takes. I still want to know you in a few years.
Behance Creates a Way For Creative Professionals to Have Inexpensive and Dead Sexy Portfolio Websites
As a photographer, I’m constantly looking for an ideal solution to showcase work. My current method is a mix of free or inexpensive web apps all thrown together in a mess of webspace. See, I don’t want to code, don’t want to develop, just want to put work out there.
My goal was to use publicly available, easy to use sites like Flavors.me and Carbonmade.com, then teach people to do the same.1 Looks like Behance came up with a solution to my problems and manages to only charge $11 a month.
