Life Here and There

If you’re not familiar with the technical side of blogging, some of this may not make much sense, but I’ve just finished rolling out the newest re-design of this blog’s theme. If you’ve been here before, you’ll notice some differences. Most of the changes took place on the backend. This blog runs as a self-hosted Wordpress-powered blog and I host it myself on a server I lease from Hostgator (aff link).

I recently had the privilege of being a beta tester for the new Standard Wordpress Theme (aff link) and decided to use it as the code base for Life Here and There. I’ve used plenty of other premium Wordpress themes before, I’ve released some of my own free themes, and most of the websites I design for others are built on Wordpress… so it’s an interest. I know a thing or two.

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With the New Year coming, I want to issue the same challenge I issue every year – to read through the Bible in a year. There are a variety of ways to go about it, and YouVersion.com offers at least 21 plans to choose from. You can read the Bible through chronologically, a combination of Old and New Testament readings each day, or a variety of other methods.

YouVersion happens to be my favorite online Bible app. I do wish its search were more intuitive – with the ability to search keywords by Bible version and display them in biblical order – but the interface itself is awesome.

I also think YouVersion represents the future of online Bible apps in the sense that it involves and encourages community interaction. As you study, you can make notes and share them with others. Very cool all the way around.

Check out YouVersion.com and enjoy!

I have recently joined the ranks of the Fuel Network, which is somewhat of a collection of awesome online magazines about a variety of creative subjects. I’m the Editor of Fuel Your Blogging, a magazine about… blogging, of course.

All of the editors worked simultaneously on “best of 2009″ posts and they all launched together. So if you’re into photography, blogging, coding, design, etc. this is an awesome resource. So, go check out the Best of 2009 at Fuel.

I have agonized over my decision to buy a Mac for quite some time, primarily because of the cost. You can get twice as much “stuff” for the money in a PC. But… the Mac works. It works hard. It reads my mind!

Last night I finally broke down and bought a new Macbook Pro 15. In case you care, it has…

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Blogging, for some, is a hobby. For others, it’s a career. For me, it’s perhaps a tiny bit of each (more the latter), but it’s mostly a way to get an extremely important message out – how you can know you have eternal life. In addition to blogging here at Life Here and There, I also blog here, here, and over here. Plus, I really like Twitter, Facebook, and a few other sites. So I’m beginning to understand what it’s like to expand an online influence, and though it’s certainly not the greatest priority of my life by far, I do see an eternal and purposeful impact.

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Amazon’s Kindle Wireless Reading Device (aff) has just dropped in price today from $299 to $259! Why is that cool? Because with a Kindle, you can read books anywhere. I’ve seen people sitting in cars in the school car rider line, in waiting rooms, and driving down the interstate (kidding) reading their Kindles. Why don’t I have one? Because I use the Kindle iphone app, which is free. I’ve bought a few books though.

Other companies are releasing competing devices, but the Kindle may be the king of the market for a short time. Personally, I still love the feel of a nice hardback book – the older, the better – unless my wife is shopping. Then the iphone is nice!

I use Adobe software for graphics and web development, but the programs I use are very robust and expensive. If you’re looking for a truly professional solution for some basic graphic design work, Adobe Photoshop Elements is a great, scaled-down solution. It will do most of what you need as far as putting together graphics and even slicing web layouts. For a short time, there’s a rebate available too!

Check it out…

I’ve owned the domain ministrysitehosting.com for a year or so and have done nothing with it. The other day, a friend of mine (Chris Price) suggested I do some kind of post about how churches can get started with a web presence. Instead, I decided to use this domain to open a single page web site to offer some basic information. I’d like to add to it and tweak it to be as helpful as possible, but for now, meet ministrysitehosting.com and by all means, spread the word.

We’ve been recording messages and distributing them in mp3 format for quite some time now. Our old site (no longer in use, but holds archives) is BibleJourney.org and we now post sermons at Bethel’s site and distribute them via podcast.

There are a lot of ways to do this, and many may be more efficient or better from a technical standpoint, but this is the method we’ve found to be easy-to-follow and reliable.

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Ever have one of those killer ideas that turned into a great blog post, which led to a surge in traffic, which boosted your authority, which led to increased readership? Then, a week later, your great article has faded into the abyss of seldom-accessed archives? The internet is heavy-laden with countless millions of really great, but never to be read again articles such as your favorite one. Here’s a thought that’s good for the online environment – recycle!

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