Blog Posts of Category Community

Christianity and America

In case you did not know, I am a Christian. Until recently, I went to church every Sunday. (In case you’re reading this from the future, in this part of 2020 there’s a “novel Coronavirus” keeping us away from large group events like church and sports, so I have been watching a church service online.) I generally don’t feel the need to talk about my Christian beliefs. I don’t consider myself a leader of the Christian world and I don’t often feel like I have a good handle on the details.

Minnebar Launching Your Site Presentation

Below are my slides for the "3...2...1... Launching Your Site" at Minnebar 12 on March 25, 2017.

Thanks to all who attended and get back to me if you have any questions, comments or feedback. I'd love to hear it.

Come to MinneBar 11!

The Twin Cities (Minneapolis/St. Paul) technology community is a vibrant place to be. One of my favorite events of the year is coming up in three weeks, the 11th annual MinneBar un-conference. If you are at all a member of the technology community, sign up for a free ticket and join us for a day of learning, sharing ideas and networking. Did I mention there's free food and beer?

Building SEO-Friendly Sites with Drupal Slides

Today I gave a session at Twin Cities DrupalCamp 2014 called Building SEO-Friendly Sites with Drupal. Attached here is a PDF of the project slides. Thanks to all who came out to the session.

Tools for Stalking Me

A couple weeks ago, a friend who usually requires me to comment on the latest news from Apple told me that she wanted to hear more about me and what I'm up to on my blog.  She also asked that I post those on top of the technology posts, then just a couple days ago she asked me, "What's Drupal?" and I told her to get reading.

Merry Christmas from Dinkytown

Last night, we wanted to go caroling, but it was pretty cold out, so we didn't. Instead, we decided to bring some caroling cheer to the online community. Here it is:

UPDATE: This video was removed from YouTube due to "artistic differences".

A Wireless Close Call

I was wondering things like, "Who's music library is that?" Somebody said, "Probably a neighbor's." I said, "But our Internet is supposed to be secured by an encrypted password."

To my horror, I found that the main wireless access point/router on the 2nd floor had been somehow reset. It was named "linksys" and available for all the world to use. What a shame! Even worse, it would've been easy for someone connected to it to wreak havoc over the network and lock us out for a while until we could reset everything.

New CityBuilder.org Site

Last year, the website CityBuilder.org was the host of tons of information relating to building cities for Christ in the People of Praise. Much of the short video pieces were related to fixing up and building houses in Allendale, a poor neighborhood in Shreveport, Louisiana. However, the weekly live video broadcasts covered a much broader section of topics applicable to City Building and People of Praise life in general.

Music and Video from Indiana, Tennessee, and Texas

Here's a bunch of my recent favorite videos. First up, here's my sister and her roommates in a little production about South Bend, IN.

Second, Andy Osenga posted one of the best music videos I've seen in a while. It's not as professional as the Mute Math one, but it's a keeper:

The Solution

It's really easy to get down about tragedies like what happened at Virgina Tech last week, but, thankfully, there is a solution to all those problems. Here my friend Rus lays out the answer for a group of students in Indianapolis:

What Is Church?

Shaun Groves is an artist I have seen play a couple times and also talked with one of those times... briefly. I always thought the guy was great and his message was great, but (sorry, Shaun) I never really got into his soft-rock sound. Then, a year or two ago, I discovered Shaun's blog and then begins the real liking of the guy. He knows plenty about the music industry and seems knowledgeable about just about everything else.

The People of Praise, Businesses, and Housing

Yesterday there were a couple interesting meetings in the People of Praise in addition to the weekly meeting. It was a great testimony to our desire to live even more in common with each other. Members of our branch talked about doing life more in common through living closer together and working together on small business ventures. It was a great time to talk to members of the People of Praise that I rarely get to see. I hope to hear even more about it in the future.

The State of the World

My Grandpa was talking about this and he said he got this from his brother, who is possibly the most knowledgeable man I know about business. It's an Open Letter to CEOs entitled What In The World Is Going On?: A Global Intelligence Briefing to CEOs. Apparently it's going around mostly by e-mail, but I did find a copy of it at a blog site.

People of Praise and Blogging

OK, so this one's more like two topics. First, yesterday TJ posted and interesting link to a documentary about the blogosphere. It was an interesting look at the people that make up blogs and how blogs have changed the landscape of news. (Man, if I would've found that strike blog I would have felt a lot more connected.) The video's embedded below the jump.

People of Praise Member Blogs

The number of People of Praise members with an online presence has been growing immensely. And now, we have a way to track it. Justin has created a del.icio.us tag called peopleofpraisemember. It's a great way to keep in the know of the latest of many people throughout the community.

Vine & Branches Now Online

Vine & Branches Feb 07 CoverFor many years and even more so for the past year, Vine & Branches has been the newsletter for the People of Praise.

The Community Section

No, the "Community" section is not like the "Community" section of your local newspaper. That's call the "Mass Transit" section on this blog (talk about politics based on only one issue!).