Grace Baptist in Columbus, GA

Saturday we drove up to Columbus, Georgia. It is about 4 1/2 hours from Pensacola. We were there to be at Grace Baptist Church. This church has been a partner in our ministry for 7 years.

Everyone knows where they were on the morning of September 11, 2001. For us, we were at this church. We taught a sign language class at the church to help them reach out to the deaf community.

I preached there last night. They recorded the service.

[audio:http://www.amazingrace.net/ra/112308pm.mp3]

My part starts about 8 minutes into the recording.

Page 56 meme

I just read about this yesterday. Apparently it has been around for years.

Rules:

  • Grab the book nearest you. Right now.
  • Turn to page 56.
  • Find the fifth sentence.
  • Post that sentence as a comment below.
  • Don’t dig for your favorite book, the coolest, the most intellectual. Use the CLOSEST.

For me the book is Momentum is Your Friend by Joe Kurmaskie.

“I’ll most likely die out here on the road.”

Grab a book and post the 5th sentence on page 56.

Installing Twhirl on Kubuntu

My friend Gordon needed help installing Adobe AIR and Twhirl on Ubuntu. I just installed it on my notebook running Kubuntu 8.04. These steps should work almost the same on Ubuntu. I don’t know of any changes in the 8.10 release that would make this any different. But I have not tried it.

  1. Download Adobe AIR from http://labs.adobe.com/downloads/air_linux.html
  2. Navigate to the folder you downloaded AIR to. In Kubuntu you can use Konqueror or Dolphin, in Ubuntu you would use Nautilus. Right click on the downloaded file and select Properties. Select the Permissions tab and select the little check box that says “Is executable”, or “Allow executing file as program”.
  3. Click the file to start the Adobe AIR install. It took a few seconds before the installation started on my machine, be patient.
  4. Step through the prompts to install AIR. You may need to give it your user password at some point.
  5. Download Twhirl from http://www.twhirl.org/ I clicked the “Download and install” link in the section that says “Manual Installation” instead of trying the automatic install.
  6. Click (or double click) the Twhirl application that you downloaded to start the installation.
  7. Install using all the default settings that AIR gives you.
  8. Configure as necessary.

It really was that simple. I did it last week on my desktop and installed it on my notebook as I was writing this.

There are optional ways to set the permissions and install using the command line. That is the way I did it on my desktop. But since I was trying to write this in a simplified manner, I used the GUI the whole time and it worked just fine.

My Thought Spot 24: NaBloPoMo

In this episode I talk about some of my recent posts as well as include some audio from my second meeting with PlaneT3rry.

Show Notes:

Nike+

I got a Nike+ footpod and receiver in the mail yesterday. One of my Twitter friends won it as a door prize (or something) and said that he had no use for it. I tweeted back and told him that he could send it to me whenever he was ready. Later he asked for my address and sent it to me this week. Cool!

This is a little device that plugs into an iPod nano and receives data from an accelerometer that you place on, or in, your shoe. If you have a Nike+ enabled shoe, you can slip the pod under the insole. Otherwise, you can get a little pouch and strap the pod to your shoe laces. My friend sent me a pouch too.

It then records how many steps you take and your pace. This is all calculated with the distance per step (you calibrate the device) to tell you how long and far you travel on your runs.

This morning I went through the calibration step twice. I was not sure it calibrated correctly the first time. I am not convinced it worked right the second time either. I did not have enough time to do another run with it before appointments this morning to see how it worked or if the calibration was right. The next time I run with it I will know.

I have wanted one of these for a while. It does have one limitation that has kept me from buying one in the past. My heavy duty iPod case cannot be used with this device. Until I get a better solution, I will be running with the nano in my hand or pocket which just means SWEAT all over the iPod. I should be able to find something soon. At least I don’t sweat as much here as I did in Mexico.