Also, this week.

• LookupCenter.org
• thesavageathlete.com
• landorhomes.com

… that’s seven days a week traveling, staying in hotels and away from my family?

When I went for the interview for the position with Olan Mills, I stopped and took this picture because of the turkey vulture on the roof.  It was one of those scenes that was pretty cool in person, but didn’t have the right atmosphere for the moment.  I played with the image a little this morning and came up with this rendition of the scene.  Enjoy.

Anyway, I am doing a second interview for a position I interviewed for this coming week sometime and hopefully can announce that here soon.

Original Image.

I created this little scene using the iPad and the brushes app for iPad.

But if you aren’t doing anything on Sunday and you live in the area, we’d love to have you join us.  Check out the post on the church website for more info.

Web & graphic design was never the objective, but it’s what pays the bills when I am otherwise out of work (along with my wife working outside the home).  This way, we both can make some income and not pay a daycare service.  If we had to do that, we’d be deeper in debt and not have the time we currently get to spend with our son, Aidan.  Soon, though there will be two.

Another little one is on the way, so I’ve been trying to up the number of websites I build and host on a regular basis for people.  Hopefully, if I get enough (around 10 more) sites, I will be able to tell my wife that she doesn’t have to work outside the home anymore which in turn will free me up more to do more design work.

But that is still plan B.  My heart is in Christian Ministry.  I’ve applied at a few more churches looking for a full-time opportunity.  But if that doesn’t pan out, I guess I’ll just get more involved where I am at now.  (See link to the right – in the sidebar)

More often than not, my plan b sometimes is God’s plan a.

If you’ve checked the tech blogs lately, they’ve been buzzing about a next generation iphone that came to light after an Apple employee lost the prototype at a bar.  Tech blog, Gizmodo apparently bought the device for $10,000 to take it apart and break the news on it for the sake of a few advertising dollars and a spotlight for a few days on the other tech blogs.

It’s an issue of morality & integrity that I think is unfortunately lost on a lot of our culture.  Apparently Gizmodo is also on the bandwagon of moral degradation too.  But I am curious what would have happened if Gizmodo had just given the device back to Apple instead of knowingly purchase stolen property to exploit?

Now, I have a lot of respect for Apple over their decision to ban porn applications on their app store.  A decision that I think actually embodies the philosophy of Google’s to “not be evil” better than Google has done themselves.  In this they have proven a moral stronghold when they could have easily chosen otherwise.

Bridges torn down instead of built up.

I am not sure what would have actually happened if Gizmodo had just given the device back, but I am sure that bridges would have been been built instead of torn down.  Now you have Cupertino upset over the issue.  Not because their device was leaked, but because of the lack of respect that has been shown them on behalf of the tech blogs in the face of the massive security measures usually taken by Apple to keep things under wraps till a launch date or press conference.

I will admit I am an idealist.  I think a person or company should be respected in regards to information like this.

If the device had been given back, Apple would have taken notice.  I do not think that they would have been left out in the cold either when the device was actually launched.  Apple likes to do things differently which is well-known.  An uncommon company like them would have also probably been uncommonly grateful as well.

Meet the Press.

Gizmodo hasn’t always been the giant tech blog that it is today.  Now it sits in the ranks of TechCrunch, Engadget and Lifehacker with millions of page views every month.  But Gizmodo has made it clear that they are the same caliber of journalists that made us hate printed media, blood-sucking journalists that are out to exploit anyone and anything for the bottom line.  Of course that’s what makes the page views.  That’s what pulls in the advertising dollars.  That’s how you make a name for yourself.  Exploitation.

It’s also why Gizmodo has been deleted from my feedreader as of late as well as other blogs that have done the same thing.

There are a lot of news organizations out there.  There are some really good tech blogs that I still enjoy reading, ones that haven’t “sold out” to get ahead of the game through buying stolen property.  I hope Apple shows grace to you.  I hope forgiveness is a part of their language.  The fact that this was a knowingly unreleased product, any judge in their right mind would rule in their favor, regardless of whether a police report was filed or not.

We humans do have this incredible imagination.  It’s a creative part of ourselves that lingers on the things that cannot be in this world.  From day to day I think we tend to think too small.  We think “if only” or “what if” about the things that we see around us.  These are merely daydreams that are entirely possible, though maybe absurdly outside rational thought.  We tease ourselves with winning the lottery or some rich relative that could die when it comes to money.  We think about how we could benefit from a billion other endeavors without doing a thing.  Maybe some of us even think about professional advancement in some way.

Amazing and wonderful some of these things may be they are still small-minded when it comes to the gifts of heaven & eternal life through the forgiveness of sins.

We got into a discussion this last week at Bible Study about what Heaven would be like.  How could we even hope to understand it?  Jesus Christ will be there with the Father and the Spirit.  We will be in fellowship with the creator of all of it.  We know that.  But what will it look like?  How will we interact on a regular basis in so vast a place as Heaven, a “paradise” as Jesus put it to the thief on the cross?  I have a few ideas.

Our imaginations will be set free beyond ourselves.

As a creative guy myself, I find this thought completely freeing.  Often, I get caught up in pleasing others for the sake of myself or even just pleasing myself.  I aim to please God, but often I end up settling lower than where I feel the work needs to be.  When it comes to Heaven, we will have no audience but God.  Yes, you too can be the ultimate kazoo player in the worship band of Heaven (or at least one of the bands).  I am convinced that the surest proof that Heaven truly exists is that we have imaginations that God has given us to procure an idea about what Heaven could be, then blow us away with the reality someday.  Why?  Because, I think He likes to really make us happy.  If the mere thought of Heaven and what it could be thrills you, then I think that you will be more than pleasantly surprised when you do get there.

Adventure.

I tend to be the kind of guy that like to look behind closed doors.  I am naturally curious.  Often, I think God put huge bones in the ground not because large dinosaurs once roamed the earth, but because it thrills us to find and imagine what it could mean.  I enjoy looking under rocks and finding things that I didn’t know where there.  I live in central Ohio where large earthworks were once built by the Native Americans that once lived here.  It is amazing to think an ancient culture once lived here.  I think that it is pretty amazing to think that people once lived, worked and loved where we are today and they built something that has lasted the test of time to get to our age and invoke such curiosity in us today.

I think we will find in Heaven an adventure that never ends.  We will find strange stars to look at and navigate across oceans large enough to swallow the sun whole.  Though some will argue that animals won’t be in Heaven, even the book of Revelations talks about strange beasts.  I think we will find those there too.  Yet we will not fear them.  In the presence of the author of Life itself, death itself will not be present.  In the absence of fear we will conquer the most wild of the beasts and sit around a bonfire on a sand strewn beach gazing at the Heavens retelling the story as we feast on the meat and fruit of the land.  Not out of wanton hunger, but because of a hunger for more of the life freely given.  I don’t know what I will do when I get to Heaven, but at some point you will find me on the prow of a ship, my face set toward the vast horizon with the wind blowing in my hair, eyes set on the setting sun while I think on what it will be like to sail into that golden bliss and harbor in the New Jerusalem with a tale to tell of the adventures that befell me on the unnamed islands of the great seas of that place.

Beauty & Love.

From what we can tell of scripture.  We won’t be married in Heaven.  We’ll all be free to be in perfect harmony with God and all of His creations.  Can you imagine just being in love with everyone?  For women, every man your lover or brother without jealousy or animosity.  For men, every woman your wife or sister you love dearly.  I’m not talking about sex either.  There is an intimacy that goes beyond sex or mere fancy.  We will be free to experience that with everyone in perfect unity with the one who made it all possible.

When it comes to beauty…  have you ever looked at a painting or a work of art that you always saw something new in?  Maybe a melody that you could listen to countless times and still hear a new note?  We see glimpses of that beauty here.  The way the clouds move or the way the filtered light casts a wonderful silent pale light right before a storm.  I think of all things, I will like the storms in Heaven.  To dance across the fields in wild abandon while lightning flashes about me… the thought even fills my heart with joy to think about it.  No harm could befall me.  The idea of experiencing all of nature as it was meant to be experienced without fear or consequence other than endless joy makes me smile even now to think about.  That is how beauty is meant to be experienced.  With both hands, grabbed up and immeasurably poured out, splashed about and yes, played in.

Then there is God.

I love the way C.S. Lewis talks about Aslan in the Chronicles of Narnia, and I know I can’t do it justice without the actual experience, but I should hope to meet Christ first when I get to Heaven.  To fall in those arms that stretched out and died on a Roman cross in the history of man, to embrace the one who embraced all that condemned me to death seems more than incredible.  The Lion, the Lamb, the King on His throne, the Jewish carpenter, the Man, we will see Him.  I could talk forever about how the place of Heaven fills me with incredible visions of what it will be, but one thing that I have trouble imagining is the meeting between the fallen creation that I am, and the God of all creation who took my place because He loved me that much.  For some reason, I think this will be one of those things that happens privately in Heaven.  I mean why not?  You have all eternity and God could do whatever He pleases anyway.  But a moment with the One where He gives you a new name and calls you His own is immeasurable.  The greatest thing about it is that from then on, He is with you.  The friend closer than any other.  To go with the artist of it all and experience the fullness of all of Heaven with God Himself  is the pinnacle of it all.

Conclusion.

Heaven is more than just a thought.  It is a place, a paradise in every way.  Imagination exists because Heaven exists.  While here on this earth, imagination is limited, but what will happen when it’s set free?  Think about this.  When our imagination is set free and we can come up with things we never thought, Heaven will still be greater than those thoughts and still surprise with the splendor that will exist for us to experience.  When you begin to understand it from this perspective, when Jesus says He is the only way to get there, it doesn’t sound exclusive anymore.  Giving up my will for this abundant, beautiful existence is really just exchanging rags for all the riches this world can offer.  When we welcome Christ into our hearts to be our savior, we are handing ourselves over and saying “do what you will, I am yours”.   The amazing thing is that He takes it and hands us ourselves back, set free from the chains of sin.  He takes us, and gives us our true selves.  If you think about it, you are giving the creator back His creation that fell of it’s own accord and somehow became broke… back to the creator who fixes it better than it was in the first place.  When you surrender yourself, you become more yourself and more fit to experience the place that awaits you on the other side.

Let me share what I use my laptop for.

• Browsing the web.  Simply searching for things, doing research, and writing posts and engaging with people and friends through online communities like facebook or twitter.  The iPad definitely looks to be the better choice for this in the long run.  I can use an app to engage different social tools like I do on my iPod touch.  Now I can actually use these applications on a decent sized screen without having to sit down at a desk.  Let’s face it, laptops were not designed for the lap.  Maybe to burn your legs while you cradled the awkwardly tilted screen while the dog chews on the power cord?
• Managing web sites. Yes, most of my sites are now run on wordpress.  It’s simple to use and easy to get it to do what you want.  I even build other people sites using wordpress.  A laptop has always been the best way to do this on the go.  Now I occasionally use  the wordpress app for ipod/iphone but I find that the mobile login plugin for my wordpress installations actually has a decent interface for doing about everything I need to do on a regular basis.  In the future I think the iPad will do equally, or better than my ipod touch.
• Writing. Not just posting on websites.  Occasionally I still open up OpenOffice and write something larger than just a single post.  Resumes for example.  But there are even apps for writing resumes now.  Increasingly, I have found that sitting down to write something using my laptop is becoming more of a multi-tasking adventure and quite a distraction from actually writing.  My antivirus needs updating.  I just received an email or windows itself needs some kind of update.  One of the greatest complaints about the iPad is that it doesn’t multi-task, but to me this is one of the reasons I am getting an iPad.  I don’t want to have to babysit my laptop so I can settle down to write something.  I might also mention that apps are better alternatives to over priced software as well.  Apple has always had a better software pricing scheme.
• Graphics. I do a fair number of graphics.  I design websites.  I do occasional cartoons using my wacom.  I put together marketing materials for others.  In short, this is one area that I may miss a laptop… or would I?  Macs have always been the choice for graphics professionals.  I just never had the money to go that route and still get a laptop-type computer.  Apple Macbooks are pretty expensive, but if I have something else to replace my laptop… maybe a Apple desktop would be a good choice now?  Two apple products (iPad and Mac Desktop) instead of a laptop pc or macbook sounds like a great alternative anyway.  I will be able to keep my desktop clear of unnecessary software because of my iPad, and since I am usually sitting down to do graphic work at home anyway, I can use my iPad to sketch out the idea if I get a brainstorm on the go.  Even in the short term, I may buy a pc and just go with a version of Linux.  Heck, I use gimp for graphics anyway, and WINE does a great job of porting windows applications to linux anyway.

I am sure I will find more reasons why I am most likely never going to buy another PC, but for now I think I better turn off my laptop.  It’s getting a little hot.

After Becca got home from the doctor’s visit today with Aidan.  I hunted down all the pictures of Aidan that I have on my computer.  886 images that show Aidan’s face.  Shown Below.

Picasa has a nice little feature that allows you to categorize photos with faces so it found all the images of Aidan’s face and I went through and verified the ones the program had trouble with.  I noticed that Picasa made all the images portrait shots of just his face for the categorization so I decided that I would try something else.

Picasa has a collage feature that allows you to effectively make digital double exposures.  I decided that it might be fun to get an “average” of all the pictures of Aidan that I had on my computer.  He’s grown a lot over the last year (he is after all 15 months old) and see what the “average Aidan” looked like.  The final image originally was a little muted, so I used the “I’m feeling lucky” button to give the image more dynamic range.  I thought it looked a little like a Rembrandt painting myself.

So take that, doctors who think Aidan has to measure up to some growth chart!  He may not be average according to the chart, but he is average for himself.  This makes him uniquely himself too.

This skull was on the wall in the bathroom of the lodge we stayed at.  The wood panel walls really seemed to set it off.  I think the only thing that worried me was if I were to sit on the toilet, it would freak me out if it fell.  Imagine sitting on the toilet and trying to do your business when this thing falls on your head or in your lap!

I’ve been looking at doing more oil paintings in the near future and getting some more representational artwork out into the open.  It is absolutely the opposite of the abstract stuff that I’ve produced over the last four years.  In particular, I am being drawn back to landscape painting and classical still life paintings.

I think this has been a revelation that has happened in two parts.

Part One

Last week, my wife and I went to the Columbus Museum of Art where I spent some time gazing at a painting done by one of my favorite artists,  Albert Bierstadt.

Part Two

I watched the movie, Local Color.  If you haven’t seen it, then it’s like “Finding Forrestor” for artists.  Younger aspirant meets master who wants to be left alone.  The two become friends and the aspirant finds his voice with his paintbrush.  It’s a pretty cool story (but I will admit it has it’s share of language issues).

So, this week, I’ve spent time relearning all the things I used to know about oil painting so I can put them into practice here in the next few days.  In a sense, rediscovering a lost love of painting.

I am still debating if the painting is finished or not.

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

2 Timothy 3

Godlessness in the Last Days

¹But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. ²People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, ³without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good,⁴treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— ⁵having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them.

⁶They are the kind who worm their way into homes and gain control over weak-willed women, who are loaded down with sins and are swayed by all kinds of evil desires, ⁷always learning but never able to acknowledge the truth. ⁸Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so also these men oppose the truth—men of depraved minds, who, as far as the faith is concerned, are rejected. ⁹But they will not get very far because, as in the case of those men, their folly will be clear to everyone.

Paul’s Charge to Timothy

¹⁰You, however, know all about my teaching, my way of life, my purpose, faith, patience, love, endurance, ¹¹persecutions, sufferings—what kinds of things happened to me in Antioch, Iconium and Lystra, the persecutions I endured. Yet the Lord rescued me from all of them. ¹²In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, ¹³while evil men and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. ¹⁴But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it,¹⁵and how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. ¹⁶All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, ¹⁷so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

Praying for You

Often, I pray for friends, family and people I meet. I think that some people perceive this as some kind of hidden motive if I tell someone I am praying for them. There is no hidden objective and no agenda behind it. It’s just a part of who I am in Christ. Other people influence me and I would be naive to think that I don’t influence them, so when I talk with God, yes I pray for those people. I also pray for things I write; that people’s hearts would be moved by God rather than by my own attempts. There really is no need to tell someone you are praying for them, but often when they know that you are, they mention specific ways that you can pray for them. Often for me, this also leads into a deeper and more open and meaningful relationship too.