Christmas Experiment

This is a bit of a social experiment, so feel free to pass on it, but I wanted to see what the real power of social networking is.

If you are reading this you are either a follower on Twitter or one of my 500+ friends on Facebook.

As many of you know I do a lot with media at my church. My biggest problem is that the machine that I do most of my "homework" on, an ancient Powerbook G4 867Mhz has finally decided to kick the bucket. I unfortunately do not have the liquidity at the moment to outright purchase a new machine. As I do not have a sufficiently fast machine to do videos and audio at home, the quality of the work I do suffers. 

So what I have done is create an account on Bestbuy.com for what is called a Pitch-In Card. What I am doing is I will be adding funds to this card as a placeholder to purchase a new Macbook Pro that will be dedicated to media work. If you feel led to help, the minimum contribution is $5, but you can donate as much or as little as you like. you can find the card on Bestbuy.com under Gifts, and you can find it by searching my name, or by following the link I will supply and searching my name.

This machine will ultimately allow me to increase the scope of both this blog as well as make all of the media that we do through First Baptist to reach a new level of concurrancy and quality!

As I said this is an experiment, and know that the funds will be held until such time as I can purchase a machine that will fit the needs of my ministry within the church!

I appreciate all of you looking at this and passing it on, because even if you do not donate to me, you can use this yourself to create cards for birthdays and such!



Thanks and MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!


- Jason

UPDATE:

So apparently you cannot link directly into the website.

The way to get to the Pitch in Card:

Navigate to http://www.bestbuy.com

Click on Gifts and select Pitch In card.

Select search for a list:

Use List #8331721789

Then enter the amount you want to give!!


Thanks!!!

Feedback Wanted!

Hello all of those who work with worship! I am putting together a new blog and possibly making it a netcast. I need to know what kinds of questions you might have about technology, volunteer management, training volunteers, etc. These are all areas that I have room to grow in as well, so I would love to have you tell me what parts are important to you and I will do interviews / have guests on that are knowledgeable in these areas! I am going to try to have the first trial netcast done in the next 3 weeks. Expect blog posts; both on the production of the netcast, and on the information I come up with. When I set up the interview I will put out a call for your questions through Twitter and here on the blog.

God Bless!!
I look forward to hearing from you!

Resistance is...

Well, here we are just a few months after my first Blog post. The last time I wrote, I was talking about joining Twitter, and joining it with my Facebook as a way to better communicate to those who might find my point of view interesting.

I have now decided that we are DEFINATELY at a turning point in human development. Not in a physical sense, but in a IS THIS REALLY HAPPENING kind of way.

My friend Klo made a comment in response to my Tweet about District 9; "Agreed. District 9 does what all great sci-fi does: deals with real life issues and emotions in an imaginative way."

This made me think about a phrase that to this day brings up memories, for many people, of that horrifying first time they heard the words "Resistance is Futile." Three words that in all of their simplicity, delivered in a monotone of layered voices, that filled the viewer with dread and hopelessness as they gazed at the half-man half-machines on the screen. Ultimately the question is; how could a race become so screwed up that they lose themselves looking for perfection, drive the unique qualities we all have away, all in the name of progress...

Today sitting on the desk in front of me I have my desktop PC, my work phone (on which I can recieve E-mail at any time, and surf the internet, send messages,) my iPhone, (all features of other phone, but with my personal information,) a now defunct HP Pocket PC, and various other electronic gadgets. At any time, anyone I know can become aware of exactly what I am doing by either direct contact, (a phone call,) or indirectly by my posts on Twitter and Facebook. Almost instantaniously the world is consuming so much of this information, the internet can hardly handle the load. Remove this from us, disconnect us from the collective, and we often have withdrawals! All that is left is for us to begin implanting ourselves with bluetooth recievers (creepy idea from Shark Tank, please someone lock that guy up!) and we will truly have our technological and biological distinctiveness added to everyone else's. We are becoming so driven by this need to know it all, have access to it all, that we go nuts if we cannot figure it out! How many times do you find yourself running to the computer in the course of a normal conversation to look something up on Wikipedia or IMDB, just because the answer is on the tip of your tounge? That my friends is the beginning of our Collective conciousness...

I know we are a LONG way from the Borg, but as Klo said, this is something we WILL deal with later, and are dealing with now. Is it bad to have all this information at your fingertips? OF COURSE NOT! We are living in a wonderful time of discoveries, and interconnection between peoples of all countries that could never have been imagined even 20 years ago! I regularly play XBOX LIVE with a guy in Ireland, that was not even possible to make a free phone call across the pond until the internet came around, now we do it in game!

As Uncle Ben famously stated, "With great power, comes great responsibility." I want to add to that...

"With the power of instant knowledge, comes the need to reflect individually." Do not lose yourself in the pursuit of knowledge alone, get away from the gadgets, spend time with the phone and TV off. Do not let the TV raise your kids, and take all I said and throw it out the window. I know I will not be able to do what I say all the time, but I can try. God asks only 3 things of us, Believe, spend time in his word, and love each other. I will need to work on #2...

If you made it this far you will find this next piece of information interesting. There will be many new posts coming soon, not all of pointless ramblings, but of useful information. I am putting together the basis of a new blog/podcast(possibly) dealing with two of my favorite subjects: Technology and Worship. Stay tuned and make sure that you follow this blog as well as my twitter; Milerky2 for updates!

The Beginning of the End, of the Beginning, I think...

This week has been one of those interesting weeks where nothing is as it seems, yet delivers as advertised. I began a few days ago the fall into the pit that is Twitter. I have always been something of a holdout when it comes to this whole social networking thing. I have let MySpace fall to the wayside, (I don't think I have even logged in in over a year!) and I had always been somewhat reluctant to stay up to date with Facebook. But as with both MySpace and Facebook I felt that to truly understand the draw of these sites I had to at least give it a shot...

What a Wonderful Mistake! Not only have I been able to have conversations with both Derek Webb and Josh Moore of Caedmon's Call, but I have been able to connect with a couple of people I had lost contact with.

To make matters worse I have been able to link my Twitter account to Facebook to allow all of my Friends the wonders of my existance as I see fit to relay it.

My Crackberry allows me to use an application called Twitterberry, to update my Tweets. I also have a Facebook App to keep up with status updates as well.

The question is, what have I learned? In an age where technology has connected us in a way that is closer than any culture before it, we are farther apart. We have replaced REAL conversations with "What are you doing?" We have replaced fellowship with tweets. We have replaced our time with God with the insatiable thirst for what everyone else is doing, instead of looking at what our heart is needing.

I have looked at a lot of things introspectively and have found that I am no better than anyone else, I get wrapped up in the latest thing. I hope to use this blog as a way to form my thoughts, write what I am feeling and challenge anyone who reads it to walk the strange road with me. I may talk about religion, I will most definately talk about technology, but most of all I will talk about what I feel strongest about. I invite all to dialog with me in an intelligent way, take nothing overly seriously, but ponder it wisely.

But most of all, ENJOY!