A little technology post here.  I have a mac and last week I ran upon a program called Books.  It is an open-source book cataloging application for MacOS X.

What it does is allow you to use the ISBN number (or author or title, etc) of any book you own to create an entry into its system so that you can keep track of your cool book collection.  It even has a section to record to whom you might have loaned the book out.  But it gets better!

It actually has a button that if you click it, the program will engage your iSight camera (or any other default video camera attached to your computer) and produce a video capture screen that has a series of lines on it.  If you put the bar code of the book up to those series of lines, it will read the bar code, grab the ISBN, put it in the new book ISBN section so that you can click “Quick Fill”.  It will then go out to the internet database you have chosen (I use amazon’s US site) and download all the information about the book into your database.

Voila!  You have cataloged your entire collection in no time.

Give it a try!

Some good links to look over at the end of the week.

Writing/Blogging:

1. 24 Things to do When Stuck for a Topic to Blog About
2. Word 2007 for Writers: Part 3 – Master Documents and Outlines

Science/Technology:

1. Makers of Firefox come up with a new Web browser
2. Magnifying Taste: New Chemicals Trick the Brain into Eating Less: Scientific American
3. The Frontal Cortex : Morality and Distractions
4. The Supercollider is about to go online.

Ministry:

1. internetmonk.com » Do Baptists Believe “Once Saved, Always Saved?”
2. JDGreear.com: Attempting to Do Ministry Against the Strong Man
3. Thoughts from the Edge – a new podcast by Todd Littleton where he talks about the difference between right belief and right behavior.
4. The Suburban Jesus Hates Me by Michael Spencer, aka iMonk.

Here are some reads I found really interesting and wanted to share them with you:

1.  An Intrinsic Interest in God by Brenna Phillips.  People have an intrinsic interest guiding their quest for knowledge. I began to think specifically as a children’s minister and how to apply that to a child’s intrinsic interest in understanding God and faith.

2.  Dark Knight Shift:  Why Batman Could Exist – But Not for Long at Scientific American Mind.  To investigate whether someone like Bruce Wayne could physically transform himself into a one-man wrecking crew, ScientificAmerican.com turned to E. Paul Zehr, associate professor of kinesiology and neuroscience at the University of Victoria in British Columbia and a 26-year practitioner of Chito-Ryu karate-do. Zehr’s book, Becoming Batman: The Possibility of a Superhero (The Johns Hopkins University Press), due out in October, tackles that very question.

3.  Sleep on It: How Snoozing Makes You Smarter at Scientific American Mind.  During slumber, our brain engages in data analysis, from strengthening memories to solving problems.

4.  The Mr. Spock Guide to Effective Blogging by Copyblogger.  When the author sat down to write about the need for rational, logical planning for your blog, he found no better model. Sure, blogs are personal, emotional constructions. But if your blog isn’t performing the way you want it to, try using a little Vulcan logic to move it in the right direction.

5.  Networked structures: Liquid v. Solid church by Alan Hirsch.  If Apostolic Genius expresses itself in a movement ethos, it forms itself around a network structure. And once again this tends to be very different to what we have come to expect from our general concept of church.

6.  Paris Hilton mocking and ad by John McCain at Fox News.  This is a real funny story and a funny video (at the bottom of the article.  Attention…Paris in a bathing suit.

Some posts to consider for your reading this week.

Life and Leadership:

1. The Secrets of Storytelling: Why We Love a Good Yarn. Our love for telling tales reveals the workings of the mind
2. Seth Godin has a new book out entitled, Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us.
3. What Makes Life Worth Living.  A look at what brings meaning to life from the folks at Lifehack.
4. Numbers Guy: Are Our Brains Wired for Math?  The author describes how humans have an inbuilt “number sense” capable of some basic calculations and estimates. The problems start when we learn mathematics and have to perform procedures that are anything but instinctive.
5. Seeing is Hearing: New Type of Synesthesia Discovered. For some, visual movement triggers a perception of sound

Church and Ministry:

1. Get a Life: The Church as a Living System by Alan Hirsch.
2. The Problems with Institutions, Part 1 and 2 by Alan Hirsch.
3. Incense May Act as a Psychoactive Drug during Religious Ceremony.  Scientific America Mind

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Contact:
Missional Press
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Smyrna, DE 19977
Phone: 302-449-4318
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editor@missional-press.com

Missional Press Announces the Publication of its First Book.

Smyrna, DE – September 24, 2007 — Missional Press announces the publication of their first book, Kept: The Message of Jude. The book is authored by W. David Phillips, the pastor of Mission Fellowship Church in Middletown, DE and is available for purchase, beginning today, September 24, 2007.

The book of Jude is a pearl waiting to be discovered. It is a small, yet potent book that covers two main topics: faithfulness to the Gospel of Christ and keeping ourselves from embracing a distorted message.

Kept: The Message of Jude is a devotional commentary that helps one see how to maintain our faithfulness and keep ourselves from embracing a distorted message. Kept helps us see the importance of Jude to our mission in being Christ-followers in our current culture. Designed for those who would like to study, teach or preach through the book of Jude, the author provides solid biblical exegesis and practical application.

The book retails for $9.99, but Missional Press is providing a 25% discount until October 31, 2007. The book will be available for purchase at the Missional Press online store – store.missional-press.com – immediately and at online retailers and other bookstores before the end of the year.

Missional Press is a publisher of Christian books that relate to all aspects of missional living and ministry. It has 4 projects in development with various authors with topics ranging from the house church movement in China to the journey of transitioning a church from a traditional system to a missional mindset.

For more information: http://www.missional-press.com or
Email: editor@missional-press.com
Phone: 302-449-4318