Monthly Archive for January, 2008

3ABN Behind the Scenes: Viewer Survey 2008

Published
by
Michael
on January 30, 2008
in Journal
. 0 Comments

Well, well, well… my second 3ABN Today “Behind the Scenes” taping in two months happened this morning. This time I was on the show with Jim Gilley, Mollie Steenson, and John Lomacang. We talked about a variety of things. My part was explaining a forthcoming survey that will be sent to everyone on our mailing list; it will also be made available online. It’s something we hope as many people as possible will participate in, and I’m personally quite excited about the valuable feedback we stand to receive.

There are several sections to the survey: The first is demographics. The second and third sections are about the programs and presenters on 3ABN. And the final sections deal with more general viewer preferences, our supporting communications (the 3abn.org website and 3ABN World magazine), and 3ABN’s effectiveness as a ministry. If you watch 3ABN, either on TV or by Internet, I strongly encourage you to participate. It’s a great chance to help 3ABN chart a course for more effective (as in life-changing) programming. And as one of the primary architects of the survey, I can hardly wait till the responses start trickling in. Keep an eye on the 3ABN website for information about the online version of the survey. All the questions are easy, and the whole survey takes only 10-25 minutes to complete.

If you want to hear my segment on the 3ABN Today broadcast, tune in for the second hour of the program on February 14, 9:00 p.m. CST. It will be repeated Friday at 2:00 a.m. CST.

Warm, Windy, Raining, Cold, Hailing, Snowing Day

Published
by
Michael
on January 29, 2008
in Journal
. 0 Comments

Today started out warm and a bit breezy. Later on a fast-moving storm came in, bringing rain, hail, and finally, snow. We also had a tornado watch, but no twisters showed up for the party.

At the peak of the storm, all of the 3ABN employees were asked to come downstairs into the safer part of the building. It was a nice break, and we got to chat a bit. However, it was not really a severe storm, compared to others we’ve had.

Mwaaa ha ha haaa… Fruit Toast!

Published
by
Michael
on January 26, 2008
in Recipes
. 1 Comment

I feel so much power now. I just learned how to make fruit topping for toast. Previously if I wanted a break from cereal and oatmeal, I was pretty much limited to toaster waffles and applesauce, or maybe applesauce on toast, or something savory like soup, or beans and rice.

Well, now those chains are broken. I can have fruit on toast every week! And it’s pretty easy to make:

  • 3/4 c. water (cold!)
  • 1 Tbsp cornstarch
  • 1/4 c. sugar (or maybe you could go with 2 Tbsp or none at all if you have fruit that’s pretty sweet by itself, like peaches)
  • 2 c. fruit, fresh or frozen (I used frozen blackberries … yummy)

Mix the water, cornstarch, and sugar in a cold saucepan. Heat the saucepan on medium, stirring constantly. Eventually the whitish mixture will turn clear. Keep stirring. Eventually it will turn into a fairly clear gel that’s nice and thick. Add the fruit. Stir occasionally. If the fruit is frozen, it will take maybe 5 minutes to thaw. It smells really good about now — visitors might start peeking in: “What are you making???” The whole process takes maybe 10 minutes.

The above recipe should make enough for 4 pieces of toast, applied generously. You can multiply the recipe if you have more mouths to feed, or if you want to make extra and freeze it for later. Enjoy!

Actually, thinking back, I may have made this once before in my high school home ec class. (Yeah, I took home ec — go ahead and laugh.) But I’d forgotten how easy it was.

Political Quotes

Published
by
Michael
on January 26, 2008
in Opinion
. 0 Comments

Someone sent these to me. Since I’m not one for sending lots of e-mail forwards, I decided to post it here.

I contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle.
—Winston Churchill

A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul.
—George Bernard Shaw

A liberal is someone who feels a great debt to his fellow man, which debt he proposes to pay off with your money.
—G. Gordon Liddy

Democracy must be something more than two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner.
—James Bovard, Civil Libertarian (1994)

Foreign aid might be defined as a transfer of money from poor people in rich countries to rich people in poor countries.
—Douglas Casey, Classmate of Bill Clinton at Georgetown University

Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys.
—P.J. O’Rourke, Civil Libertarian

Government is the great fiction, through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else.
—Frederic Bastiat, French Economist (1801–1850)

In general, the art of government consists of taking as much money as possible from one party of the citizens to give to the other.
—Voltaire (1764)

No man’s life, liberty, or property is safe while the legislature is in session.
  —Mark Twain (1866 )

A government big enough to give you everything you want, is strong enough to take everything you have.
—Thomas Jefferson

MacHeist Bundle

Published
by
Michael
on January 13, 2008
in Technology
. 1 Comment

If you’re a Mac user, read on. Otherwise, please feel free to skip this one.

The second annual MacHeist promo is underway. This bundle includes more than $350 worth of applications, for only $49. Two of the three “locked” apps have already been unlocked in the first 3 days of the promo. And the third locked app is well past 3/4 of the way to being unlocked. And that’s with 10 days left … so it’s pretty much guaranteed that all 11 (there’s a chance a 12th will be added) apps will be unlocked and included in the bundle.

If you visit the MacHeist website, you will find a description of all the apps. Just click on their icons to learn more. The most useful ones in my estimation are 1password, Awaken, Speed Download, AppZapper, CSSEdit (if you edit websites), Snapz X Pro, and Pixelmator (which is not unlocked yet).

Picture 1

1password is helps you manage your passwords and much more. It does everything the autofill features of Safari and Firefox do, plus some other nifty things. You can create multiple identities — for example, one for work, one for home – and auto-fill forms from whichever identity you want. It can store secure notes on any topic you want. It has a “Wallet” feature where you can securely enter your credit card information and other personal details, to save typing them. It’s quite flexible, and you can use as many or as few of the feature as you desire. (Personal details were obliterated in Photoshop from the image above.)

Picture 2

AppZapper provides the uninstall functionality that Apple should have built into OS X. Before deleting an application forever, it allows you to see, and selectively keep if desired, any files related to the application.

Picture 3

Awaken is a glorified alarm clock. You can enter as many alarm events as you like. These can play iTunes playlists or other media that you select. You can also launch applications or files at specified times. It also has an egg timer (countdown timer) and a sleep timer (go to sleep listening to music, and it eventually shuts itself off after the time you specify). The clock can be show full-screen (handy if looking at it from bed), and it can be controlled via an Apple remote.

Picture 4

CSSEdit is for the webmasters out there. It allows you to edit CSS files with all kinds of super cool features every computer geek will love.

Picture 5

Snapz Pro X is a screen capture utility. Besides simple screen captures, it can also capture specific program elements, selected screen areas, and — most impressively — movies and other things that change over time.

Picture 6

Pixelmator (not yet unlocked as of January 13) is a cool-looking Photoshop-type application for editing photos and other types of images. If you look at the screen shots, you’ll notice it contains many of the same tools and features as Photoshop (Photoshop Elements is about $80 retail, Photoshop CS3 is $620–$1,040 retail, depending on the version). Although it doesn’t do everything Photoshop CS3 does, it appears to cover all of the most common tools and commands. And unlike Photoshop, it is designed exclusively, and optimized specifically, for OS X.

Speed Download was recently added to the bundle. I’ve been using this application for years. It’s very handy if you ever have to deal with downloads over slow internet connections, or downloads that are difficult to start or finish.

Other applications in the bundle include CoverSutra (works with iTunes, requires OS X 10.5), Cha-Ching (financial app), iStopMotion (create your own stop motion videos — fun!), and TaskPaper (note-taking app … a little underwhelming, but what can I say? … a better app is OmniOutliner). There is also a hint that one or more additional apps will be added before this bundle offer is done.

Interested? Head on over to MacHeist and buy the bundle!

If you’re wondering what this “MacHeist” thing is all about, it starts as a series of online puzzle games in the form of missions (”heists”). Those who complete the puzzle missions get other free apps, as well as discounts on the MacHeist bundle offered at the end. I completed all the puzzles this year (with help from other users … the puzzles can be very tough), and came home with all kinds of cool stuff. You can read a fuller description of this year’s puzzle goodies here.