andrew dodson

This is why churches and Christians need to be preaching a TRUE gospel to a lost world.

How ’bout the new look of the blog? Wordpress.org has revamped their theme directory and I found this one yesterday. I really like the simplicity of it.

So, what have I been up to? I’ve kept up with learning Flash and that’s coming along fairly well. I’m thinking about implementing some Flash on the Josh Martin Band website, but I’m not sure. I’d like to put what I’ve learned into practice in one way or another.

I’ve mainly spent time redesigning a few sites as of late. I continue to get people calling or emailing with interest in having a website done, so that’s been encouraging for BADmedia. I’m hoping to nail down a few more sites by the end of this week.

The Josh Martin Band stepped back on stage this past weekend at the Frankfort Christian Academy. It was good to play again. We’re going to start rehearsing again soon for some upcoming gigs. Josh has written some new material, so we will work on that as well.

Q: At what point can it be determined that a person’s music collection is too large?

A: When considering buying an album at the iTunes Music Store, you search your music library to discover you already own the album. In addition, the album’s play count in iTunes sits at zero. Meaning, at some point you spent $10 on something you’ve never used.

I give up. I’m going to learn Flash.

I’ve resisted to this point. Why? Well, it’s not really standards-compliant. Meaning? Not everyone can view flash on websites. By saying “not everyone,” my not-so-scientific percentage would be, maybe, twenty-five percent. Mostly, the type of people that use the web for informational purposes and don’t care to download all the latest, wizz-bang plug-ins and features for their browser. Some might read this as “older folks,” but you didn’t hear me say that. I just don’t like making people that want to view my sites download something to view it correctly. Is that so bad? I’ve always said if the day came that Flash came installed on every browser 100% percent of the time, I’d gladly learn Flash.

It’s been all-the-rage in the internet world for several years now, and the rage continues to grow, it seems. Nearly ever web design job I’ve found on the web requires Flash experience. Everyone wants animation, videos, fade in effects, motion graphics, and other fancy features that only Flash seems capable of producing.

So, it seems I just need to give in and start learning it. I’ve done a few tutorials, and yes, it’s cool. It’s neat. It’s fun. But, it can also be way-overdone on a lot of sites. My hope is to learn to apply Flash - a.) only to sites that require Flash, and b.) in a tasteful way. Okay, I might break rule “a” every now and then.

Bottom line is this - if I’m trying to do web design full-time, I need to constantly learn new things, whether or not I like the new things personally. It’s the only way I can survive as a hopeful freelancer. So, getting BADmedia off the ground is kinda like going back to school at the same time. Except, this time, I’m the teacher and the student, sort of (with some help from the internet and books).

I stumbled across Caleb Rowden on eMusic a couple of days ago. He’s a Christian artist from Missouri. I’m really enjoying his debut album right now. The closest comparison I could give is a mix between Jeremy Camp and maybe a Kutless or Story Side B. It’s definitely more of a rock-style of worship music. Check him out.

I’ve become a huge fan of storing a lot of documents with Google Docs. As I’m sure is the case with anyone, I have a habit of printing out articles that I find online and reading them while I’m away from my computer. After a while, I throw away the print out. Later, I wished I still had the article to read again. Enter Google Docs. Now, I’m able to either copy and paste from the web into a new Google document, or, if it’s a PDF or Word file, I can upload it into my Google Docs.

Another way this is effective for me is that I use at least three different computers on a regular basis (desktop, laptop, and computer at work). Since all of these have a web connection, I can pull up my documents at any time for reference, editing, sharing, and more. There is also a feature to view your documents offline. Say, if I’m using my laptop and there is no wi-fi available, I can still pull up my documents, edit them, or do whatever needs to be done. Once I have an internet connection again, it will sync with my online Google Docs to keep everything organized and up-to-date.

The sharing feature is very useful for groups that need access to documents that are always up-to-date. Businesses, churches, and other organizations could benefit from this feature, I would think.

There are other ways to keep track of your documents. Using a USB jump drive alleviates the need for an internet connection. But, you have to hope that you always keep up with your jump drive - I’ve certainly put mine through the ringer several times. I just think using a web-based solution for document storage is easier to maintain.

C.C. DeVille of the band Poison has become a Christian. As any young Christian should do (and all Christians, for that matter), he’s seeking out wisdom, guidance, accountability and prayer from other Christians. Check out the story (and video) here.

(HT: Challies.com)

I’m looking for a PC - as in, a Windows computer. It doesn’t have to be fancy AT ALL. Basically, I only need it so that I can view my websites through Internet Explorer and other Windows internet browsers. This would be very helpful when designing my websites.

I’m not going to be picky, but if it were a laptop, that would be great. Only reason is, I really don’t have room in my apartment for a desktop, monitor, keyboard, mouse…. all that. A laptop doesn’t take up much space.

Ideally, I’m looking for someone that wants to give away an old laptop or PC. As mentioned, it doesn’t have to be anything terribly nice. If anyone out there has one they’d like to get rid of (even if you’d rather sell it), let me know. You can email me.

As I’ve started to do more work through BADmedia, I’ve started eating through my cell phone’s monthly anytime minutes. I’m a Verizon carrier (one of the few and proud in Frankfort), and I love them. I don’t quite understand most of Frankfort’s love for Sprint. For iPhone carriers, I can understand the need for AT&T (plus, my dad works for them, so I don’t guess I can bash them too much).

I carried Sprint for a while and hated it. Dropped calls all the time. Bad service in some areas of Kentucky. I’ve never used AT&T/Cingular/whatever-they’re-calling-themselves-these-days, so I can’t speak for them. Anyway, I digress…

I just changed plans in a matter of five minutes. I doubled my anytime minutes, now have unlimited text messaging and it’s not going to cost one red penny more. In fact, because of the texting plan, it will likely be cheaper each month.

(By the way… and for the record…. in the span of about five years of carrying a Verizon phone, I can only recall a dropped call being my phone’s fault a couple of times. Their service is rock solid.)

Just wanted to check in and say hello. Haven’t been blogging much lately, I know. So, we’ll go with some rambling, random thoughts.

Did anyone catch Josh Hamilton in the Home Run Derby? Wow! What a story. I haven’t had a “favorite player” in baseball since Eric Davis & Nolan Ryan, but this guy would come close. If you haven’t caught up on this guy, please, please, please Google him and read up. I don’t know if his Home Run Derby highlights have made it onto YouTube yet, but you could check there too.

John Piper is doing a sermon series right now on the importance of church membership - specifically how it relates to baptism. It’s an interesting subject. It’s hard to disagree with Piper on much because we all know he’s searched the Scriptures on pretty much every topic far more than any of us. But, I will say, even after reading his first sermon, I haven’t landed on how I feel about the matter.

I’m spending this week recording the band Altered Worship at Georgetown College. They are the worship band for the Centri-Kid camp hosted by Georgetown this summer. It’s all very similar to my experience recording the Crossings bands last summer. The band is great, and I’m praising God for yet another opportunity to record something like this. So far, so good.

BADmedia has been busy in the past couple of weeks. I’m praying that work will continue to come in and the business will grow. I’ve had a good time getting it off the ground over the past few weeks. It’s the first time I’ve really pushed the business and advertised for it, and I’ve been encouraged by the response.

Here’s to hoping there are more frequent posts coming soon!