When I feel most alive … go ahead, take your shoes off!

I know it sounds a little wierd, but xxxchurch.com says it is the #1 Christian Porn Site. Before you start to wonder what is wrong with me, they don’t give out porn, that’s just the subject of the site. The site was started by two pastors who have a vision for letting people know the dangers of porn and what God thinks about porn. It is not some sort of hate-site, but they are befriending people in the porn industry (producers, porn-stars) and sharing Christ with those people as well as the dangers of porn.

The reason I am posting about it is because they have a new radio show podcast that you can subscribe to on iTunes. They have had 4 episodes and they come out ever Wednesday with a new episode.

From their website, they describe the show like this:

Dirty Little Secrets with Craig and Mike
Explicit Talk About Relevant Truth

The show will consist of hard hitting interviews with special guests, call ins, traffic and weather from Junior and Rob, and a segment called “questions you can’t ask your mama” where Mike and Craig answer a hot topic question sent via the web.

Part bullhorn of truth, part pop culture lesson, and part spiritual quest, Dirty Little Secrets will introduce you to two of the most engaging if irreverent men-of-the-cloth to ever take religious vows. It’ll entertain and inspire. It will challenge people to engage in real issues and to be aware of what is truly important.

Hosted with disarming humility, self-deprecating humor and uncommon frankness, Dirty Little Secrets will shock you and school you, move you and rock you, no matter what you think about sex, free speech, the Almighty, or whether Jesus really does love porn stars as much as he loves pastors.

I encourage you to check it out, but be aware that this is not the typical, “family-friendly” Christian radio broadcast. Not that it is in any way obscene, they just talk about issues like sex, pornography, and Jesus, without shame. I think we need people like this, Christians, who aren’t pretending that people aren’t struggling with these things, and aren’t afraid to talk about them. It’s unfortunate that most Christian radio stations would never air anything like this because they are “family-friendly” but in the family is exactly where these problems exist and need to be addressed! We need parents and teens listening to stuff like this, becoming more aware of the dangers of porn and what they can do to protect their eyes and hearts, and be encouraged to love God more, and to love the world, but not be of the world.

As Liz and I have been looking for a church in the Richmond area, we have been going for several weeks to KingsWay Community Church, a church in the Sovereign Grace Ministries family of churches.

One neat thing that I really like about this family of churches is that they are committed to creating new music for use in worship through the gifts talented song-writers in the church. This means that I am unfamiliar with almost all of the songs as I visit this church for a few Sundays. I know some of them because I went to a similar church when I lived in Orlando last year, Metro Life Church which was also a Sovereign Grace Ministries church. But still, most of the songs are new to me.

But interestingly, singing these new songs have made my worship much more alive. I have felt free to look at God in ways other than the same songs I am used to singing or have sung for years. These new songs are challenging me to worship God in a new way, to celebrate His wonder and grace and gifts in new words, with new melodies, and new attitudes in my heart.

I like it! And I think God is pleased as well, because as it says in Psalm 33:2-3 - “Praise the LORD with the harp; make music to him on the ten-stringed lyre. Sing to him a new song; play skillfully, and shout for joy”, Psalm 40:1-3 - “I waited patiently for the LORD; he turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand. He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see and fear and put their trust in the LORD.” , and Psalm 144:9 - “I will sing a new song to you, O God; on the ten-stringed lyre I will make music to you”.

I think it is important for us to always be singing new songs to the Lord. It helps us to not get too familiar in how we are worshipping God. When we get too familiar with the same order of worship, words, songs, and prayers, I think our minds and hearts begin to disengage and we don’t connect with God in worship in Spirit in truth. A new song brings freshness and newness to our worship of God, and an eagerness for the Spirit to work in new ways in our lives. Let’s not stop writing and singing new songs of worship!

Recently I have been taking a lot more pictures since I got my new camera, a Sony DSC-P200. It takes great pictures, but the problem is that I want to be able to show them to people online. There are a lot of programs that will let you EXPORT photos and create web pages from your iPhoto library but this is a time-consuming process that is a one-time thing. That means that you have to manually re-create new pages if your library changes. This isn’t acceptable for someone who takes a lot of pictures.

So I over the last year have found several dynamic page-creating programs that will build a dynamic web site from your iPhoto library and host it on your computer.

WebPhoto
myPhoto
iPhotoWebShare

They each have their advantages and disadvantages. iPhotoWebShare is by far the easiest to set-up, but myPhoto has the most features (and most difficulties as well).

I am using iPhotoWebShare for now, since it is working well and I like it’s ability to let you download the full size image. I like that it’s controlled in a preference pane in the system preferences and not some extra application.

If you would like to see my pictures page, check it http://scottpaulis.webhop.org (If it doesn’t work, I have my laptop away from home somewhere with me, and you’ll have to try again later!)

I have gotten used to using the convenient “Mark All As Read” command in Net News Wire. (pictured here) I like to scan the news items that I’m interested in reading and then mark the rest as “read” (I know, I know - I didn’t actually read them, but I want them marked as read so that I can tell when I have new incoming items)

What I want to know is: Why is there no such command in Apple’s mail.app??? I would use that in a heartbeat. I am stuck with two series of hotkeys. Assuming I’m in the “Unread messages” smart folder that I have created that contains only unread messages, I first have to press Cmd-A to select all and then Cmd-Shift-U to mark the selected messages as read. Not only does it require TWO shortcuts in a row, but the second Cmd-Shift-U requires TWO hands on my Powerbook keyboard. Why can’t there be a single, one-handed shortcut to mark all unread messages in the current folder as read? (Like Cmd-K as in Net News Wire Lite)

After searching for a solution. I tried unsuccessfully to create an Automator workflow or an AppleScript that I could tie to a Quicksilver trigger. I couldn’t figure out how to select all the messages and mark them as read with either method. (Maybe I’m just an Apple Script dummy, or the Automator actions are ridiculously limited in selection - there are no “Select All Messages” or “Mark Selected Messages As Read” actions)

I did find a way to shorten the process a tiny bit by using Mail Act On and by creating a rule to mark all selected messages as read that is tied to a keyboard shortcut Ctrl-X, which only requires one hand instead of two like Cmd-Shift-U.

If anyone knows of a way to create an AppleScript to do this, please let me know!

I think I’m pretty good under pressure. I have found interviews to be fun, even thought most people would feel a lot of stress in an environment with that kind of pressure. I enjoy it. I like proving why I’m good for a job and having to think on my feet. It’s a challenge that I enjoy. I actually think I’m starting to like interviewing and might be getting kind of good at it. Who knew?

I was interviewed by 5 different people for various jobs in the last week. Pretty crazy, eh? Hopefully I will get one of those jobs! If my interviewers thought the interviews went as well as I thought they did, then it’s quite likely!

It’s been an exciting week.