Barlow Blog

So this has been an interesting week for technology around Coastal Oaks. When you're frustrated about something, what's better therapy than blogging about it? I'm sure there are other options, but I'll stay with blogging for now. Some of this week's technology stories are stories of progress...other are stories of failure. Take a look...

1. I'll start on a good note...here's the 1st thing that worked this week. Our Pastor, Kevin Muilenburg, purchased a 2nd media projector for our sanctuary and got it linked up with the older projector without any hitches. We'll have to come back and string cable underneath the stage, but wow, I didn't expect it to be that easy.

2. Our Ministry Assistant, Verna, has been working on - or tolerating - an 8-year old Toshiba laptop since her previous laptop took a dive back in the fall of '08. On Friday of last week, Windows XP decided it was going to follow suit, and took a dive also - along with many of the documents we use on a regular basis around COC (Sunday programs, prayer lists, sermon notes, logos, etc.) Solution? $700.00 and a new 17" HP laptop from Best Buy. Problem? Starting over...and I mean all the way over.

3. I've been a long time Yahoo! user (email, Flickr, etc.), but I recently decided to dump Yahoo! (mail specifically) due to several issues I had come across, and go with Gmail. As with Yahoo!, having Google log in credentials enables you access to a myriad of Google owned sites...Blogspot, Picasa, Gmail, YouTube, etc. So far, I'm lovin' Gmail and decided to stick with Blogspot b/c I had a log in for it already. See below...

4. I've also recently decided to start blogging more (or at all). I never really got into the blogging thing when it first came out and I'm still not sure I have enough to say to necessitate a blog, but here I go anyways. I went with Blogspot after testing out Word Press and a few others, and figuring out that my newly acquired Google log in credentials would allow me access without having to have another set. Here are a few observations so far...

4a. Unless you know some CSS and HTML, your Blogspot blog will look *VERY* plain. Maybe they figure that's their target audience, but I'm not okay with that. Customization (thank you Burger King - have it "your way") is the new American way and if you can't give me customization, you can't call it technology.

4b. I still think there are some things that should be easier. I want to add my Twitter feed in something other than a plain, white, text oriented box. So far the best I've been able to do is add a Twitter "widget"...I don't like widgets so far. I also want to add some icons for my social network...Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, etc. The best I can do here is to add text only links, which is not "eye salvy", in my opinion. Again, this goes back to customization.

4c. Knowing some CSS and HTML has helped me have some thing moderately apealing to my eye, but the addition of some of the things posted in #2 would make me satisfied. Can you help me?

Ok, that's enough...I'm going to technology counseling now.