App Development Time

I am working on new apps for my iPod and open to suggestions. Sadly I do not know any coding stuff so I am a bit light on the details of how to make these things actually work, but the idea is the main thing, right? right?

Virtual Cuppa - this app gets you through rainy days, boredom, slight illness, or anything else that cries out for comfort. You pour a mug of water, hold the mobile device over it, and type in what sort of tea you want and if you want any sweeteners. The app even heats it. There will definitely be a beta version for hot chocolate (gotta figure out how to whip the cream) and probably some coffee lover will insist on yet another similar app.

Not Today - allows you to hit the button and bump a crisis into the future. Bad day for the washing machine to flood the basement? Just access Not Today and it will be moved forward. (One guess what may have happened here today) I am pretty sure you will not be allowed to bump a particular crisis more than once, so use it carefully.

TruPaint - I have been thinking about the need for this one from way back in Commodore 64 days. This app Truly Paints your walls, furniture, car, whatever, just as quickly and smoothly as a paint program fills in areas on the screen - no drips, no spills, no missed spots, no brush strokes or gnats stuck in the paint. Just take a photo of what needs to be painted, highlight the area to color, and click on the desired shade. Voila - your item is immediately and perfectly painted, in just one coat! Did I mention it dries instantly to the exact hue you chose, no matter what the lighting is?

Math Meld - This app is pricey, sorry about that, but I call it a bargain. It allows the homeschooling Mom to simply wirelessly convey math skills to the somewhat frustrated child by accessing the app and placing her hands on the child's head, Spock style, assuring success in everything from decimals to factoring pesky trinomials to basic differentiation. 

ReDo - This is the biggest idea yet. It quite simply moves you back five seconds so you get a second chance to not touch that live wire, drop the casserole, or say the smart aleck remark. 

got more ideas? I'm sure I'll be adding more as soon as I figure out the details so the apps work.  :) 

Learning to Be Here, Now

I have watched this a few times and like some of the things he says. I especially love the way he uses his hands to communicate. It also merges well with my favorite C. S. Lewis quote at the moment ~ "The present is the only time in which any duty can be done or any grace received." And my favorite line (ouch!) "Multi-tasking is a myth. You ain't doing anything good, just everything awful." So close your other browsers, ask the Holy Spirit to give you ears to hear, and listen.

(not) Busy

I am not doing a resolution per se this year but I am finding my self thinking about the word busy. We are getting our, uh,  somewhat late Christmas letter ready to go out, and I have determined to not use that four-letter word.


So, some of my thoughts.
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Nothing in Scripture supports an assumption of our culture: that the busier you are, the more important you are (what does being "more important" even mean when we are all like slugs, albeit beloved slugs, made in the image of the Holy God?). 


The ESV uses the word only a few times ~ once as a passing excuse in I Kings 20:40; twice in reference to being busy with "wicked deeds" or "iniquity" (Psalm 141:4 and Isaiah 32:6); once contrasting being "busy at work" with being "busybodies" (II Thessalonians 3:11); and twice in Ecclesiastes (1:13 and 3:10), where the poet says he has seen the "business that God has given the children of man to be busy with." 
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Maybe "busy" is just what we do in our twenty-four hours a day. And everyone fills them in some way, so maybe we are all equally "busy." Maybe it implies productivity - but that idol cannot stand. 
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Even the vegetables know that feeling busy does not solve anything or reflect the face of God, it only makes me unwilling to serve others and serves as an excuse for my failure.

I'm busy, busy, dreadfully busy
You've no idea what I have to do.
Busy, busy, shockingly busy
Much, much too busy for you.

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And yes, as I was formatting that, Miss Dog Lover came asking me to fix her belt on the back of her top. I nearly said it. I nearly said: "I'm busy." Bleh.
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Why do I wear busy like a badge of some sort of goodness? Jesus said in John 17:4 that HE had "accomplished the work" that God gave Him to do. Could it be possible I am so arrogant I think God has given me more to do than He gave the Christ?
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Challenge to self: no more self-righteous being too busy to love God and the people He made in His image. Care to join me in 2012?