Joel Young Blog.com

A couple months ago I wrote a post about my efforts to tip-toe into the world of Macs (here’s the link), and today I am here to say that the Young household is officially PC free. That’s right, we’re an exclusive Mac household now. I found that once I looked into the world of Apple, I just kept wanting to look deeper.

It started with a small 12″ Powerbook, but led to the desire for the iPhone 3G, and the capabilities of the Apple TV. Then, I replaced my wireless router with the Airport Express router and wireless print server, and traded my workhorse Sony laptop for a new 13″ Macbook.

The funny thing is, I put off looking into the world of a better product because of the expense, like most people. But with the help of Craigslist and eBay I made the PC to MAC conversion for next to nothing.

This stuff has really turned me into more of a tech guy than I ever was, but there’s one thing for sure. After my experience I would definitely consider buying some stock in Apple. BTW – During our current economic downturn Apple’s first quarter profits were the highest they have ever experienced.

I’m not declaring myself a Mac warrior just yet, but I am beginning to develop a real loyalty to the quality of Apple products.

I’m one of those people that really struggles with what to personally study when I sit down with my Bible. There are so many things that I like to read, and so many things that I don’t like to read, and too often I gravitate to the parts of the Bible that I like to read. So, with the start of the new year I started a new Bible reading plan that I had heard about that I think you might get some mileage out of as well.

It’s a very old plan called the Daily Bible Reading Plan and it was developed by Robert Roberts over 100 years ago. This plan takes you through the OT once and the NT twice in a year. Really, the main reason I gravitated to this plan was because lifechurch.tv has developed an awesome new way to stay with the plan, but it’s a pretty good way to read the Bible. They developed a website and an iPhone app called YouVersion that makes reading the Bible with this plan, and just in general, very easy and collaborative.

The app sends the daily reading to my phone and I can read it right off the screen every day, and since I always have my phone it couldn’t be easier. You can also go to the website and get the daily reading each day and read it right from your browser.

Check out YouVersion.com to give it a try or if you have an iPhone go to the app store and download it there. Either way, this one is worth your time and the plan might actually make it easier for you to get serious about reading God’s Word.

Like any educated web surfer I have been free of the stupidity of IE for years now. If you haven’t done so yet, you need to delete it from your computer and download a better browser NOW. There are many capable and functional browsers out there, but today I discovered a great new option.

Much in line with simple and super-functional web applications Google has released their first web browser called Google Chrome. I just downloaded it and I have instantly become a fan. I am already a loyal user of most of their web apps like gmail, picasa, google reader, and google maps. But this new browser has knocked my socks off.

It takes all of the things I hate about firefox and simplifies them, and all the things I hate about safari and made them more usable. With tab browsing, a bookmark bar, google application integration, and a sleek and open layout it is as functional as it is beautiful.

Right now it’s in the Beta stage and can only be run on a PC with either XP or Vista, but Google has assured us that there will be improvements and fixes along the way as well as a Mac version. I can’t wait to try it out on my powerbook.

Do yourself a favor and download it now for free. You won’t regret it.

This week I changed from a very large and capable cell phone with a full QWERTY keyboard to a very small flip phone with standard features. I made the switch because I got a new ipod touch a few weeks ago and I ended up using it for A LOT more than I thought I would. So, instead of carrying two giant pieces of technology I thought I would switch to one giant one, and one small one. Here’s my comment.

How in the world does anyone text on these small keypads with only T9 Word complete? It’s difficult, stupid, and frustrating! Sometimes the word complete won’t recognize names and you have to change the entry method before you can continue.

This post may make me sound like a geek, which I probably am, but I think someone needs to come out with a text messaging speak and spell or something. I can’t type on my phone!

Can I get an AMEN?!?!

Ok, so I have to give some props to something that I was VERY skeptical about. A couple months ago I was on the verge of leaving my wireless provider (who isn’t these days) but because of some new features I decided to give Verizon one more chance to keep me. So, I upgraded to a LG voyage with all the bells and whistles; text, internet, email, and VZ Navigator. I knew I would use most of these features, but the one thing that I thought would be utterly useless was the navigator, but man have I been wrong.

With the click of a button this thing can search all the gas stations around you and find you the cheapest gas. It can search local events happening near you and even get you movie times, ratings, and descriptions. But here’s what it’s really good at.

Last night at about 9:00pm I was rolling back to Cincy from Louisville after a LONG day of work and meetings. About 30 minutes from home, I-71 turned into a parking lot. After about 5 minutes of waiting I checked my navigator to see how bad the traffic was, and it was really bad. So, I hit the grass and turned around depending on my trusty navigator to get me home. Within 20 minutes I was back on the interstate ahead of all the traffic. This thing detoured me around all of the congestion and got me ahead of it all as fast as possible.

If you are considering upgrading to a premium package through Verizon, I would highly recommend it. The internet is fast and the navigator is awesome!

I know for years people have assumed that Microsoft was the computer and software leader, but it seems that is recent years Apple has become king of the mountain. With their easy-to-use macs and ipods, and even easier-to-use programing they have gained mass popularity. I myself even have a 30 GB ipod where I store all of my music. It’s really convenient and I have been using it for about 3 years now, but yesterday I learned about a new and more attractive system through Microsoft. There is a website called spiralfrog.com where you can download over 800,000 songs for FREE, and it’s LEGAL! The only catch is, you can’t burn them to a CD or your ipod. You can only listen to them in windows media player on your computer, or transfer them to your approved Microsoft portable device. So, since I listen to music all day at work on my computer and my Motoroa Q is one of those approved devices I decided to give it a try.

Surprisingly, I have found the system very convenient and easy to use. I have a 2GB capacity on my phone and that holds a decent amount of songs since they are on average only 3-4MB. Plus, the new Windows Media Player 11 is very intuitive and has a nice layout. Dare I say that it performs a little better than itunes? SprialFrog.com doesn’t have all the songs in the world and it takes them a little while to get new albums, but it seems like a decent service. After all, it is free.

Maybe the answer to the age old question PC or MAC isn’t so black and white anymore.

If you are involved in graphic design at your church or are always on the lookout for free Christian graphics resources then look no further than creativeMYK.com. This is a fairly new Christian based resource sharing site that allows people to submit original graphic work that they have done to share with the world. I’ve found it very useful in the few weeks I have known about it and have even submitted some of my original graphic work to the site.

Give it a gander.

In my small group this fall we chose to use the new H2O video series put together by Kyle Idelman and City on a Hill Productions and boy have I been blown away. Kyle is a local guy here in Louisville and is a preaching associate at a little church called Southeast (some of you may have heard of it) so we figured we would give it a try. I thought it might be like some of Rob Bell’s NOOMA videos, but it goes much further. Kyle gives you a lot to think about and the videos are second to none. They travel to many cool locations and each location truly adds to the message.

Kyle has also put together a similar DVD set called STORM that deals with 10 tough topics. The ones I have seen so far on evolution and validity of the Bible were excellent. This is more of a teaching video with the same setting in every episode, but the information is well put together and as always well delivered.

They are a little pricey, but I think it would be worth your while to check it out if you are looking for some great small group material.

Check out H2O & STORM

Ok, I don’t normally give people or places a public ripping unless they deserve it, but I’ve been holding this one in.

When I first started college my whole gang would go out every Tuesday to the local B-Dubs and pound 20 wings. This is because of the awesomeness of 30 cent wing night. We looked forward to this every week and rarely did a week go by that we didn’t perform this ritual, but like always things were destined to change.

When I was a senior in college, for no apparent reason, raised the price of wings on Tuesdays to 35 cents a piece, and even with the increase my crew and I faithfully continued to support Tuesday night wings at BW3’s with no complaint. We were a peaceful people who only wanted cheap, quality wings served up with the occasional ball game. Little did we know that the winds of change were not through blowing.

Last Tuesday I was making the weekly stop at B-Dubs with a co-worker of mine and like usual I order 10 spicy garlic and 5 honey BBQ wings and when I got my bill I saw that it was a little high. When, I politely inquired about the obvious mistake the cashier had made she rudely snapped back to me, “Wings are now, 40 cents a piece on Tuesdays!”

Never in my life have I felt such betrayal. This was the last straw for me! So, on Tuesday April 17 Buffalo Wild Wings lost one of its most loyal customers and supporters. I will no longer be taken advantage of by purchasing overpriced little chicken wings. I will now only be eating wings at Applebee’s between the hours of 5-7pm.

Some may call me cheap, but I the consumer, have had enough of this wing gouging and will tolerate it no more.

Rant over.

Ok, I have to admit. Even though I am only 23 years old I hate the thought of hearing new Christmas songs that have been written by the moment’s brightest star. I mean I love the traditional Christmas songs that we have sang all of our lives. Some how no matter how great the intentions these new songs always turn out bad. But, in the true fashion of most of my life, I was recently proven wrong. This year Third Day released their Christmas Offerings CD and it contains a track called “Born in Bethlehem,” that I absolutely love. It is a very well written song that portrays Jesus’ journey from the cradle to the cross. I like it so well that we are doing it as our Christmas Sunday special at my church. It is currently the FREE Song of the week at worshiptogether.com so I would encourage you to go and download a FREE copy of the sheet music to check it out for yourself.