Kinda Blah

I don't know that anyone ever reads these blogs, but should anyone read this particular one, I apologize now. This is going to ramble and not be very coherent.

Technology is amazing. It puts the world in our pocket, it saves us time, it makes life easier. It runs our lives. Think about it. 5 billion of the earth's 6 and a half billion people own cell phones. The cars we drive have computer chips in them, without which the cars cannot operate. Computers hold the records for businesses, schools, churches and governments. The majority of homes in the US have at least one television, and many have more than one. The movie industry (a multi billion dollar shebang) uses fancy schmancy equipment to film and edit the movies they make. The very fact that you are reading this means you own or have access to a computer of some sort. Technology is everywhere.

I love technology. I personally own an iPhone, iPod touch, Dell Inspiron, Mac Mini, TV, blue ray player, and a host of other gadgets too large to name here. I have internet access on my phone and both computers, and I am online every day, most of the day. I text my friends all day every day. I listen to music in my car and on my computer all the time. I watch tv/movies pretty much every day. My life is steeped in technology, and I love it.

But every now and then I just look at my life and say, "What the hell am I actually doing?" There is nothing tangible to show for all the time I spend immersed in techy stuff. It doesn't *really* strengthen my friendships or relationships; in fact, it makes a lot of them weaker. When I see all this stuff, it makes me want go live on a farm in the middle of nowhere, with no electricity or anything super modern. Sometimes I just want to turn everything off and either listen to the quiet or actually DO something. Something like spend time with my friends or make something.

I don't really have an ending to this, because there was never any direction to it. This was my vent, and since I have now run out of things to say, I shall stop writing. Maybe one day I'll find the happy balance between technology and real life.

The Terrific Ms. Trish

Atmosphere. It was good, surprisingly. Having never been to any type of collectible card game tournament before, I didn’t know what to realistically expect. To be safe, I prepared for the worst. I expected the venue to be seedy, and the coordinator to be a greedy person trying to get as much money from me as possible. I expected the other players to be completely win-driven, determined to win at all costs – even if it meant cheating. I expected the items for sale to be ridiculously high-priced. And the expected atmosphere? Well let’s just leave it at “unpleasant” to be nice. Thankfully, I have never been more wrong in my life.

I arrived to find a small but neat anime/hobby store, run by a middle-aged, lively woman affectionately called Ms. Trish by all the regulars at her store. Within minutes it became evident to me that she genuinely cared about every single one of the close to twenty people present – myself included. See, that’s what blew my mind. How could this woman who only just met me care so much about me? Logically, it doesn’t make sense. I pondered this as I mingled and got the feel for the game I was about to play.

The people gathered there that day were of a wide assortment of ages, ranging from 10 up to about mid-thirties. I always considered myself a nerd for even liking anime, let alone for playing a card game based on one. These people, however, seemed to be of a completely new breed to me. Nerd I may be, but not to the level of these people. These are the people who know the ins and outs of every single card ever made, they know the manga and anime forward and backwards, they do things by memory that I have to look at an instruction sheet for, and they do this all with more than just one game. They are the outcasts of today’s society. But that’s not all they are. They are also kind, generous, highly intelligent, and willing to help pretty much anyone. They reminded me of things I should do in the game, things that ended up hurting them. They didn’t get mad if they lost, and they didn’t gloat if they won. They patiently explained things I didn’t understand. They’re the kind of people you want to know your whole life.

Between the rounds, I wandered around the store looking at the merchandise Ms. Trish had for sale. Surprisingly, the items were not expensive. In fact, they were equal to or cheaper than identical items for sale at other places, even places like Wal-Mart or Target. There were also things for sale there I’ve never seen before at other stores, things that would make playing the game much easier. I began to get excited, and quickly realized I could spend multiple hundreds of dollars in the store if I wasn’t careful.

Even though I had a blast playing the game that day, that is not what made the day fantastic – Ms. Trish is. Her outstanding character and evident love for her “sons and daughters” is mind blowing. She runs her store, The Castle, not to make money, but as an outreach center. She provides a safe environment for the outcasts of society in Tyler, Texas, to play and grow and find acceptance and love. She gives her products away like they don’t cost her any money, and she seems more interested in making her “kids” happy than making money. She hosts movie nights at her store, and provides free video game time to any person who walks in her store. She immediately accepts every last person she meets, regardless of their situation in life. I believe she would give you the shirt off her back, if she knew you really needed it.

When I left her store that night, I was refreshed and uplifted. During my three-hour drive home, the main topic of conversation was Ms. Trish and how wonderful she is. How did Ms. Trish make this much of an impact on me? She has such an intimate relationship with Jesus and is so full of His love that there can be no other result than it spilling over to touch every person she comes in contact with. She has been given the gift of hospitality, and she is utilizing it to the fullest. She is Jesus with skin on. Even though I only spent eleven hours in her store, Ms. Trish has left a lasting impression on me. I hold her in the highest esteem and have more respect for her than I do for many people I have known for years. I will never forget her.

If you ever find yourself in Tyler with a few free minutes, you should stop by and get to know this amazing woman of God. (Visit her website at http://the-castle.yolasite.com)

Teachers

Teachers. When most people hear this they will automatically think back to either their favorite or least favorite grade school teacher. But teachers are not just people who have expensive degrees and get paid next to nothing to stand in front of a room full of young people who don't care about what is said. A teacher is someone who instructs someone else in some way, shape or manner. Teachers are people who help you understand something you didn't understand before. Teachers are people who read stories to children or young people.

Teachers sometimes don't even know they're teaching. That's right. When you yell and scream a driver who cuts you off, you just taught your 8 year old in the backseat that it's okay to do that. When you cheat on your taxes, you just taught your 16 year old that stealing is okay.

I had an argument with someone very dear to me the other day about teachers. This person said they would laugh if I one day ended up a teacher. I had the typical response and thought of teaching in a public school setting. This person was thinking more along the lines of teaching in a church or small group setting. We argued for quite a while about it and ended up dropping the subject awkwardly and trying to make the conversation limp along after that. It's a shame we weren't both thinking of the same definition of "teacher."

See, the truth is that we're all teachers, whether we realize it or not. Whether we teach people good things or bad things is up to us. We have to choose to consciously teach the people around us all the good things we have learned from other teachers.

Best Jailbroken Apps Ever

The iPhone is slowly taking over the world. It's true - I can hardly go anywhere without seeing multiple people carrying one, whether it be an original (yes, people still carry those), 3G or 3GS. This summer Apple is going to release the 4G iPhone, which will only increase the number of people aiding Apple's world domination conquest. There is another type of iPhone though, one that Apple is not at all happy about and is doing everything they can to stop: The jailbroken iPhone. My iPhone is jailbroken and I love it. Because I love it so much, I thought I would share a list of my favorite jailbreak apps.

1) SBSettings

This allows you to swipe the info bar at the top of the phone and access a quick settings panel, where you can quickly turn things like 3G, wifi, bluetooth and the like on and off - without having to go through all the menus in the normal settings app. My favorite feature of this is that it has a quick access to the brightness settings. This also lets you access Poof!, which is an app that lets you hide apps from your springboard (don't worry, they're still accessible via Spotlight).

2) 3G Unrestrictor

This app tricks your iPhone into thinking it's connected to wifi when it's not. Why would you want to do this? If you've ever tried to download something over 3G and gotten that very annoying "You must be connected to wifi to download this" popup, this app will save your life. You can download huge songs, apps, videos or anything else you want to download, all over 3G.

3) Flashlight

I know, I know. There are hundreds of flashlight apps in the Apple App Store; why would I want to download a jailbroken flashlight? This one does something none of the ones in the Apple App store can: It automatically adjusts your brightness as high as it will go, then when you close it, it readjusts your brightness like it was before you opened it. Pretty sweet.

4) Safari Downloader

Absolutely necessary if you want to download things from anywhere other than iTunes or Cydia.

5) iFile

Lets you access all the files on your iPhone, even the ones you don't want to mess with. You'll need this app if you want to start changing your SMS tones, but the most useful feature is that it lets you view all the files you download. It will even play movies and music you download.

6) Cylay

Ever freaked out because you couldn't find your iPhone? Cylay is the app for you. It allows you to log into their website from any computer and use the GPS on your phone to locate it (3G and 3GS only; 2G only uses triangulation, which is not as accurate). You can also make the phone make a loud noise so you can find it, turn it off, lock it down so someone can't access it, take a picture of whatever the phone is looking at, or display a message on the phone's screen. I've used this feature twice already and I'm very glad I have it. Major drawback: It's not free. The app is free to download and comes with a two week free trial, but after that it's $20 a year. When it comes down to paying $20 a year or buying a new iPhone, it's worth it though.

7) Hackulo and Instalous

For this one you have to add a source to Cydia in order to download (source: http://cydia.hackulo.us/ ). This allows you to install the app called Instalous, which gives you access to hacked versions of any app you find in the Apple App Store. These apps are completely free and completely the same as the "normal" ones - you just don't have to pay for them. This is the college-student-friendly way to get apps. Drawback: You can't get the updates for the app. You have to check back in Instalous frequently to see if there is a new version of the app available and manually install it.

These are the only apps I'll highlight for now. I may come back with more later. Free your iPhone, love your iPhone, personalize your iPhone; these tools will help.

The Effects of Music

Music. It's everywhere: iPods, iPhones, computers, singing, whistling, humming, tapping your feet, playing the piano, "under" the tv show you're watching, in your car. Escaping music is virtually impossible in the culture we live in, unless you decide to live in a cave. The types of music are innumerable and ever evolving. Some people like only one or two genre of music, while others like virtually every genre of music.

I happen to be one of the people possessing what is both blessing and curse - liking almost every kind of music. If you look at my music library, you can find almost any type of music you want to listen to. I have music playing in my dorm room almost at all times, unless there is a movie on or something. I also own an iPhone, which I have all my favorite music on and take literally everywhere with me. Lately I've been listening to Lady Gaga, Ke$ha, Beyonce, and Flo Rida a lot - and by "a lot," I mean a LOT. These artists have catchy, fun music that gets stuck in my head easier than anything else. However, when you start looking at their lyrics and analyzing them, they're not really that great - NOT songs I want stuck in my head. The majority of these songs are about sex - sex outside of a God-covenant, sometimes with multiple people, many times with complete strangers. Now, I'm 19 years old - I think about sex enough on my own; do I really need to be pouring music that glorifies sex into my head around the clock? Not really. Do I need to have songs talking about how great my partner is at giving oral sex stuck in my head the moment I wake up in the morning? Not really. When these songs/themes are stuck in my head like that it makes it incredibly difficult to keep my focus where it should be: On the Living Hope that is Jesus. It's hard to focus on Bible reading (or even to want to read it, for that matter) when all I can think about is sex. It's hard for me to recognize the needs of people around me when all I can think about is sex.

So what's my solution to the sex-saturated music that surrounds me? I deleted over 10 GB of music off my iPhone today - all I left on it was my worship music and my Broadway music I listen to to stay awake while driving. I didn't stop there, though. I synced the entire audio Bible to my iPhone. I'm going to start listening to the Bible instead of sex music. This should be interesting over the next few days/weeks.

Life Without Facebook

I'm not Catholic. In fact, I'm about as far from being Catholic as you can be and still be considered the same religion - I'm Pentecostal. As such, I have never observed Lent before (Lent is a time of fasting and getting closer to God the 40 days leading up to Easter). This year I have decided to observe a modified version of Lent: Instead of fasting food as is traditional, I will be fasting Facebook. When I was trying to think of something that I either spend a lot of time with/using/doing, Facebook is the first thing that came to mind. I log into Facebook every day, multiple times a day, and spend many more hours clicking on little squares on Farmville or cyber-stalking people's updates than I do working on homework or playing the piano or reading my Bible - combined. In the time I spend on Facebook every day, I have the time to do all my homework twice every day. That's just insane. So I made the tough decision - I logged out on my computer and deleted the app on my iPhone.

It has now been one week. Most of the time I'm okay, but there are other times where my addiction withdraw kicks in and I want to log in and start clicking on little squares again. All in all, I don't regret my decision.