A change in plans

I have moved  in a new direction with my blog. I will continue to write about the same things but I have moved to a more permanent spot. So, if you have me linked on your site or blog please update it soon to

www.taylorjamesdesign.com

Thank you so much for your current support. I hope to continue to intrigue you in the world of photography, life, and many other topics that you will request.

By the way if you have not been to my new site drop by and leave me a message on the make a request page at the top.

The Fellowship of the Believers

So, what does fellowship mean to you? Does it refer to a potluck dinner after church? Maybe it’s hanging out with friends that are Christians?  What exactly should we expect to see when a fellowship of believers is gathered? Should we see scripture reading? Worship? Offering? Is it church? 

Luke recorded in Acts 2:42 that 

42 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 

Now this was after Pentecost. When the apostles were filled with the Holy Spirit. People on the street were hearing the word of God but in there native language. Some were amazed. But others mocked them as if they were drunk.

Later, Luke also records in Acts 2:43-47 that

 

⁴³ Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. ⁴⁴ All the believers were together and had everything in common. ⁴⁵ Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. ⁴⁶ Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, ⁴⁷ praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. 

It is beyond imagine what this must have been like. The joy that overflowed from the apostles to the people they met were so impacting that “the Lord added to their number daily.”

This should be an encouragement to us all. This is The fellowship of the Believers.

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Scrabble with Eli

The name of the game is see how much you can do before Eli messes up your letters.

The Best Sunrise

I have been going out to Lake Monticello for several weeks now at sunrise. It is amazing the difference in the sky and atmosphere from day to day. The early morning time is so peaceful. It is a time to my self but could enjoy it with my wife or a friend. A cool breeze, the songs of birds in the air, maybe the faint sound of turkeys in the distance. It is difficult to get out of bed that early and it is not fun being the fuddy dud that goes to bed early to make up for it. But it is worth it.

Tell me, when was the last time you saw the sunrise. Where was it? Did you share it with someone? What comes to mind when you think about it. If you can’t remember, I challenge you to start one day next week watching the sunrise and let me know how it goes.

Palatte

Ask Gary a Wine Question

Changing the wine world.

Human tongues are fascinating. The tip of your tongue is where you taste all sweetness, the sides of your tongue are salty and sour, and all bitter tastes are at the very back. The mixture in the middle is the finish and is typically the deciding factor in what we like.

I have been trying some different fruits and veggies and food and drinks just to explore the taste experiences in a new light. Pairing food tends to be a little easier when you are pairing it with other foods. Pairing ice cream can be fun too.  Things get a little bit trickier when you start pairing drinks with those foods and desserts. We can always tell when a drink doesn’t pair well but it isn’t as easy to do a process of elimination with drinks because there are so many. Sure we can always refur to the standards like soda and tea or milk and water.

Take juices for example, it isn’t easy to find out what goes with grape juice, but we know that garlic bread and pastas can counter the sweetness giving us a satisfied palatte. So, I challenge us all to venture in to trying different drinks with are meals. See what counters or maybe even accents different foods that we so often eat and enjoy.

I myself am no genius on the matter but the link above is to a leading internet wine critic website and he is excited about what he does. I would love to have your comments but he would love to have your questions.

Can I justify my being busy?

Is it good to be busy or bad to be busy? Jesus seemed to be busy and yet he was most likely up at the light of day if not before praying and meditating on God’s word.

My problem tends to be that I am so busy with something on every night of the week that when I get home I want to be lazy and I sure as heck would rather be sleeping in the morning. I do always have a better day when I get up early and get to work early but then my nights are so busy that my lack of sleep catches up to me and gets the best of me. 

When a free day comes up I don’t do any of the “todo” stuff on my list because I just want to rest. Mainly because I feel like I deserve it and sometimes I probably do.

The thing is I don’t dislike any of the things that I do. So how do I choose? How did Jesus choose? Sometimes in scripture it seems as though he had too many irons in the fire. He rolled from one miracle to the next in several instances. So do I keep on being busy or do I choose the most important things on my list? 

Playing the Flute? Can it be cool?

It’s so weird. I have to be honest I was skeptical when I saw it too. I thought to myself, as I was searching for beat-box videos on my new iphone, there is no way that a video of someone playing the flute could anyway possibly be cool. Boy was I wrong. Check this out.

Micro-Innovations

Man, I thought I was getting a steal! I took my forty bucks down to walmart and got the most expensive wireless keyboard and mouse. I got the most expensive because you normally get what you pay for when you are purchasing electronics. Not this time.

I use my keyboard often but not just for typing. When I am in Photoshop, I use my left hand for keyboard shortcuts and my right hand on the mouse. Some of these keyboard shortcuts are three to four keys at a time. Let me tell ya, it wasn’t happenin’ with the Micro-Innovations. It couldn’t even multi select files in my file browser when I held down the shift key. I will say though, It was nice to beable to open up calculator with the grey button at the top. But that’s it

 

And the mouse was worse. It was battery operated and had a switch and a button on the bottom for turning on and off. If it shut off while in the on position (it did this often when I left alone for five minutes) I would have to turn it off for a minute and then turn it back on. If the little red laser came on, then I would press connect if it didn’t come on, I would turn it back off and wait longer. Now you wouldn’t have to go through that process if you remember to turn it off before you get up for five minutes.

Needless to say the forty dollars was placed on a gift card when I returned the set back to walmart. The lesson to be learned here is always keep your reciept when shopping at walmart and think twice before buying a wireless keyboard and mouse with a brand that is unfamiliar.

 There will be a sequal to this post so stay tuned for the post on what I replaced the walmart innovations with.

It’s never fun to be wrong…or is it?

I have to say that most of the time, I hate being wrong. It is especially bad when I am wrong and my wife is right (very seldom). That is until this very fine day. I told Lee Ann that I would shave my head before Steve Jobs would lower the price of iPhones and boy was I ever wrong.

Apple drops the iPhone 8GB price by $200 bones

You knew the day would come when Apple would drop the price of the iPhone. However, you probably didn’t think it would happen in just over two months and by $200. Yeah, that’s one is kind of a shocker and I’m sure there are some $600 iPhone owners out there that are a bit steamed at the moment. However, I’m not one of them. Why? Is it that I have this unlimited fountain of money? Nope, I just don’t get ticked about money I’ve spent months ago for a product that I’ve been enjoying. Sure, if I had just bought an iPhone this past week, I’d be marching down to the Apple store for a refund. However, I’m just not going to sweat money I spent on bleeding edge technology 65 days ago. Ouch! OK, I’m over it.

Now the real question is, how much is the 4GB model? Apple says they will sell the 4GB model while supplies last (read – they don’t have many left), but they didn’t say at what price. Does that mean that the 4GB model is now $299? If so, that would be a steal  for someone that could get by with 4GB of storage. NOTE: A quick call to my Apple store and yes the 4GB model is $299 while supplies last. So if you want one at that price, don’t hesitate.

You can read more of this article (I highly recommend reading his others that is if you are into tech stuff) at:

http://terrywhite.com/techblog/