Mar 2
If you saw my first doodle you’ll understand what these posts are about. Here’s the second doodle that just appeared when I started drawing randomly while thinking and listening (I tend to do that, I’m fidgety by nature). So, as I always ask. What do you think this means?
Feb 22
I doodled this today while I was thinking. It just kind of “appeared”. I don’t know what this means. Do you?
[image from flickr]
..and new decade – wow! What was I doing 10 years ago? Hmmm…I think I was doing an all-nighter with some youth in the church I was pastoring in Hanover. Honestly, I can’t remember… which is probably not a good thing. I actually caught myself saying to my 6 year old son tonight that in 40 years I will probably be dead. Note to self: don’t tell your young child at his bedtime that you are going to die someday. It leads to a very long conversation. Just saying.
I’m really looking forward to 2010 and this next decade. From a tech point-of-view, the changes that I’ve experienced in the past 10 years are simply astounding! Of course there have been a lot of changes in my personal life as well. I really can’t imagine what the next 10 years are going to bring!
As far as new years resolutions go, I’ve never really been one to make them – I guess I always think, why should I only resolve things only once a year? It’s funny, but for me, my year tends to start in September, not January – must be something to do with having kids in school and pastoring a church…
A couple of days ago I released a new website that I designed for some friends of mine who are the new directors of the Village of Hope in Malawi, Africa. David and Connie Buzikievich are an awesome couple who are following through with their offer to God to take them wherever He wants and use them however He wants. Their example of selfless service is inspiring!
Ever since my short term missions trip to the Village of Hope in Zimbabwe my heart has been captured by the work the Village’s of Hope are doing in Africa to make a difference in children’s lives (and indeed in the communities where the Villages of Hope are planted!). One of the exciting ways I’ve been able to contribute to the work they are doing is by hosting and designing websites for both the Village of Hope, Zimbabwe, and now the Village of Hope, Malawi. Getting the word out and keeping supporters informed is always one of the bigger challenges facing those working at the Villages and doing this helps free time and resources for focusing on what they need to do.
Dec 3
In playing with a new service called Animoto I decided to create a short video highlighting one incident from my short-term missions trip to Zimbabwe in June 2007. As part of that visit to the Village of Hope in Zimbabwe, I went to the “plots” which are a slum-like area with terrible living conditions that the workers from VOH go to every day to help feed the kids and give them some teaching. One day we passed out some toys we had brought with us. Their gratitude was priceless! I was ruined on this trip.
By the way, Animoto is a really cool app – you should check it out. It only took me 15 minutes to make this vid.
This is creativity to the max! I’m amazed at what these folks were able to do to buildings using some pretty cool projection techniques! I want this for Christmas “lights” on my house this year… (via BitRebel).
http://www.vimeo.com/4238052 http://www.vimeo.com/5677879 http://www.vimeo.com/6865392For nearly 10 years now I’ve been gone through many different systems of organizing and keeping track of the printed material I read (that is magazine articles, photocopies, pamphlets etc.). I used to just keep the magazines I read in boxes, but then my stash got too big and it would take me forever to find something I remembered reading. However, this is the system I used for nearly 5 years.
Next, I started keeping only articles I thought were worth keeping and keeping a database/spreadsheet of the articles on my old Palm IIIe. It was a system that worked quite good for about two years. I would file the articles in a binder alphabetically and by number (using stick on tabs) and then in the database I’d include keywords and short blurbs from the articles with the article information. To find articles around a subject I just had to do a search and then I could locate the article in my “article binder”.
Oct 13
One of the things I do is write a quarterly column for the Communication Magazine of my church district (Western Ontario District of PAOC). The magazine is called Connections and it is sent out to over 500 credential holders and leaders and the title of my column is ‘Tech Pass”. I usually write about various software/web apps and technology tools I come across that I think are useful for churches and ministry. For a copy of the latest magazine you can get it from the wod.paoc.org website.
The internet is an awesome tool and incredible resource. In the last 10 years or so it has grown from humble beginnings as a hobby-for-some into a multi-media delivery & application platform that many of us wonder how we’d ever get along without! However, along with the good things the internet brings us is also the bad – things like viruses, spam (not the ham wannabe, but those annoying Viagra like ads you get in your email), and evil websites (sites that promote crime, pornography and the like).
Oct 12
I came across this picture from John Saddington’s (Human3rror) blog and it sucked me in for a good 5 minutes of wasted time. I just couldn’t resist re-posting it here. For your eyes only (oh, and trying to clean your monitor doesn’t work. I tried…)
Decided to see what the wordle of UnfoldingNeurons.com looks like now. Here it is! Oh, if you want to see the original it is here.
Can you see the hot keywords here?
My name is Darren Ethier. I'm the Assistant Pastor of Waterloo Pentecostal Assembly in Waterloo, Ontario. I'm the father of four children and husband of the most beautiful woman in the world. My passion is technology and it's strategic use in ministry. I'm also the developer of the popular WordPress plugin Organize Series 
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