Candidacy Essay

Just a quick note to say that I've posted my ELCA candidacy entrance essay online over at my website. Head over there if you're interested in reading it!

Keyboard Shortcut for Add Comment in Word for Mac

I use Microsoft Word's comment feature (Insert menu → Comment) frequently, both when I'm revising other people's work and when I'm working on something of my own and want to come back to it later. Annoyingly, in Word 2008 (the version I'm using) and presumably in Office 2011 as well, there's no keyboard shortcut listed. I finally did some research, and there is indeed a Mac shortcut for inserting a comment!

In Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac, the keyboard shortcut to insert a comment is: Command-Option-A (⌘-⌥-A). Why? I have no idea. On Windows, the insert comment shortcut is Ctrl+Alt+M, which makes just as little sense. Hope that helps!

Seminary J-Term Project: Effective Church Websites

An update on what I've been up to recently: Just in case you missed it, I'm now a Master of Divinity student at Wartburg Theological Seminary, located in beautiful and hilly Dubuque, Iowa. The school is basically a castle, as you can see in this picture. I've finished my fall semester, and I'm now a week into January term. For J-Term, I'm doing an independent study on effective church websites.

Since moving to Dubuque, Christin and I have been looking for a church, and as part of that, we looked at a bunch of different church websites. Disappointingly, although perhaps unsurprisingly, there are a lot of really bad church websites out there. Many churches don't even have a website, and some that do don't have what I think should be basic information on them, like what time the services are, how to contact the church, or even what city the church is located in! Of course, many churches do have good, effective websites, and frequently, those are the ones that are growing. So, with my interest in technology and ministry (remember, my Luther College degree is in computer science and religion), I'm working on a J-Term project to study what makes church websites effective.

So far, I've visited every church website in Dubuque (approximately 72!), read several books on the topic, and started a website about my project with a blog and tips for church websites. We'll see where this goes!

Fundraising Campaign for He Who Never's New EP

My good friend and ex-roommate, Aaron Rosell, aka He Who Never, is working on a new recording project. The EP, titled "Timing," will be released January, 2013. As he says,

"Since the very beginning, my music has only been possible because of the unbelievable friend base I've had backing me. Because of them, I have entirely avoided the expenses that come with studio time, engineers, producers, equipment, and studio musicians. Here's the kicker: I've never paid them. I've never been able to. And they've never minded."

Now he's looking to raise some money to pay for the project, so check out the EP fundraising campaign here and give him some love!

Update: The fundraising campaign was successful, and the Timing EP is officially out today!

If you haven't heard any of his music before, check it out for free at He Who Never's Bandcamp page.



He Who Never - Timing EP Campaign from He Who Never on Vimeo.

Top 4 Simple Non-Scam Ways to Make Free Money on the Internet

Yes, it is possible to easily make money on the internet! None of these will provide a living, but extra spending money is always nice, and I've personally gotten legitimate money from of them, so I know they're not scams. These aren't work-at-home methods, they're not going to replace your day job, and they won't make you rich, but they do provide something to do in your free time.

So, without further ado, here are my experiences with several different legitimate sites for making easy money online:

1. SurveySavvy
         SurveySavvy is exactly what it sounds like, a site for taking surveys. I've taken surveys for a couple months through them. Your experience will vary depending on your demographics, but I tend to get about a survey every day or so, of which I qualify for about one third. The ones I do qualify for take about 10 minutes and are worth $1 or $2, although I've seen ones for as much as $5. For me, the real money through SurveySavvy has come from being linked to other panels. They occasionally send out surveys for "exclusive online advisory communities," and I qualified for one of those. Through that community, I've made $55 in Amazon gift cards in about 10 weeks with about 10 minutes per week of work. Highly recommended. www.surveysavvy.com

2. Ebates
         Ebates is a site that pays you to shop online. Sound too good to be true? It actually is true. They work by directing customers (you) to online retailers, who pay them a percentage of your purchases as a commission. Many sites do that. However, ebates then turns around and gives you back part of their commission. I've only used it for a couple of large purchases like computers for my family. I keep forgetting to use for little purchases like on Amazon. I've made about $35 through ebates so far. Payment is via check mailed to your house. The definite advantage of this site is that there's no effort on your part beyond remembering to visit the website before you shop. Highly recommended. www.ebates.com

3. Amazon's Mechanical Turk
         Mechanical Turk is sort of a freelance site for jobs that take a few seconds. Called "hits" (human interface tasks), these are a wide-ranging variety of "jobs" for third-parties ranging from performing a Google search, to tagging photos, to proofreading a document, to writing an article, to surveys, to audio transcriptions. Each task completed gives you a small reward ($0.01 - $1.00 in my experience), paid in Amazon Payments credit. The advantage of Mechanical Turk is that there are always many things to do and the payments are faster than other sites. The disadvantage is that you have to be careful because many jobs want you to do things like sign up for newsletters or complete scammy type online offers. These are against the terms of service, but Amazon doesn't seem to very closely police the jobs offered. Again, it doesn't pay particularly well, but it's a great way to kill time and make a little extra money. I've probably only made about $10 from here, but it was all while "wasting" time. www.mturk.com

4. Swagbucks
         I don't know much about Swagbucks yet, but I have a friend who's made $20 or so in Amazon gift cards without too much effort. You get points for things like filling out surveys, or for buying products or services through sites through them (similar to ebates). www.swagbucks.com

Good luck! Please post your experiences and reviews of sites!

Kevin Max Joining Reunited Audio Adrenaline

If you haven't heard yet, it's official! Kevin Max, formerly of the great dc Talk will be the new frontman for Audio Adrenaline. I saw rumors last week, but both AudioA and Kevin Max linked on their Facebook pages to this article on Billboard. Sounds like recording has been happening, so I'm looking forward to the new recordings! I've never been a huge AudioA fan (although I do have their Adios CD), but I love Kevin's voice, so it's exciting to see him get back into mainstream Christian recording!

AudioA of course broke up in 2006 due to frontman Mark Stuart's vocal issues. I remember when I last saw them (I think it was in July, 2006), it was painful to see how much he was struggling to sing. Since then, they've been devoting their time to the Hands and Feet Project, a children's village mission outreach in Haiti.

And of course, you can't mention Kevin Max joining AudioA without comparing it to Michael Tait, also of dc Talk, joining Newsboys 3 years ago. Here's hoping that Kevin and AudioA will have as much success as Michael and Newsboys!

Here's a video that AudioA recently posted before the announcement hinting at their re-formation.

Newsboys Veggietales: The League of Incredible Vegetables Lyrics

Brand new song from Newsboys and Veggietales! Here's the band video. Lyrics are from this lyric video. I didn't see the lyrics anywhere on the web yet, so here are the lyrics to the Newsboys Veggietales song The League of Incredible Vegetables! The movie comes out October 16, 2012 and is available for pre-order.



The League of Incredible Vegetables
by Newsboys

Verse 1:
He's got you running
You're in trouble tonight
'Cuz you're all by yourself
And it's too big of a fight
And ya wanna know
You will make it alright
Where to go, where to go, where to go-oh?

That supervillian's got you feelin' so small
Need a superhero like never before
So ya send up the signal
Yeah, ya give us a call
Here we come, here we come, here we come!

[Alfred, Larry-boy to Alfred! I need backup!]

Chorus: 
Hey, when you're in the dark
Hey, we're gonna light the spark
Hey, no question mark
The league of incredible vegetables!
Hey, like a flash of light
Hey, we're gonna bring the food fight
Hey, flex our veggie might
Hey, the league of incredible vegetables

Uh oh! Incredible vegetables!
Uh oh! Incredible vegetables!

Verse 2:
He's out in front with an incredible belt
She's all lookin' stylish, yeah she's wearin' it well
And he's got the moves like a ninja gazelle
Watch us go, watch us go, watch us go-oh!

Here we go!
His super suction never fails in a brawl
He's all ricocheting like he's outta control
And they run to trouble when you give 'em a call
Here we come! Here we come! Here we come!

[League of incredible vegetables, engage!]

To Chorus

Bridge:
We are the undefeatable
Eyes on the ever powerful
We are all around the world
Right where you need, we are
Yeah!

Chorus:
Hey! When you're in the dark
We're gonna light the spark
No question mark
The league of incredible vegetables!
Hey, like a flash of light
We're gonna bring the food fight
Flex our veggie might
Hey, the league of incredible vegetables

Tag:
We're watching
We're waiting
There ain't nothing left to be afraid of
We're watching
We're waiting
The league of incredible vegetables

We're watching
We're waiting
There ain't nothing left to be afraid of
We're watching
We're waiting
The league of Incredible Vegetables!


Lyrics reproduced here for educational purposes only. Lyrics are copyrighted property of their owners.