mike goldsworthy

Wanted to pass on this great free resource to you if you use gmail or Google Apps. It’s called Syphir, and is essentially server side rules for gmail. I have all of my email accounts (including all of our Parkcrest email accounts) running through Google Apps. so for me this has been huge.

Here’s what it does – you can set up rules that before you even get an email in your inbox, it’s already done all kinds of things with it. Let me give you an example…

I have a terrible habit of occasionally checking my email on Thursdays, which is my day off. If I have some down time, I end up just checking it really quick to see if there’s anything I need to respond to. It’s really not helpful for me and takes me away from having a day off. So, I set a rule that any email that comes in on Thursday is delayed until Friday morning. Even if I check it, I won’t get it.

I have another rule that they call “Black Magic”, which essentially figures out how important an email is and how likely I’ll need to reply to it, and categorizes it based on that. Don’t ask me how it knows (I’m guessing it’s black magic…), but it’s pretty accurate.

And there’s all kinds of other things you can do with it too.

It’s free and it works well.

So, if you’re using gmail or Google Apps, Syphir might be worth giving a try

One of the things that kept me waiting almost an entire week after the iPad came out to buy one (I know, amazing self-control, right) was wondering whether or not it could replace my Kindle. Allison and I have a deal for new technology – no questions asked if I can sell what I already have to get it – and in order for me to get the iPad, I was going to have to sell the Kindle.

After talking with several friends who owned and regularly used a Kindle and who picked up an iPad right away, the common response seemed to be, “I haven’t touched my Kindle for reading since I got the iPad.” And that was all it took to convince me.

Since the most common question I seem to get asked about it is how it compares to the Kindle, I thought I’d offer some of my observations comparing the two now that I’ve had the iPad for 2 weeks.

The Kindle

The Kindle was designed to do one thing well – to be an ebook reader. And it’s a phenomenal ebook reader. It’s lighter than the iPad, you can hold it in one hand, and its batter life is amazing. I had gotten really good at reading with the Kindle and really enjoyed it for the most part.

The iPad

Of course the iPad does so much more than just being an ebook reader, which is why it was appealing to me. But as an ebook reader I’ve actually been surprised at how much I’ve liked it. Seeing charts, pictures and illustrations from your books in color is a stark contrast to what you’re able to do on the Kindle. Also, with the Kindle app I still have access to all my Kindle books as well as notes and highlights. It’s far superior for making highlights in books and taking notes in them. And my biggest concern – eye strain – hasn’t been a problem at all.

I do have a few things that I’d like to see different in the Kindle app…but the thing is that it’s easy for them to make those changes, or at least seemingly easier than it would be to make the changes on the Kindle itself.

So, for me there’s definitely advantages to the Kindle, but in the past two weeks with only my iPad, I haven’t looked back. I’m happy with the decision to use the iPad instead…and plus, I could have never written this blog on a Kindle.

We’ve been doing some cleaning, trying to declutter, and have a bunch of books we’re going to get rid of. We thought we’d offer to give them to you first before we sell some of them on Amazon.

So, if you’d like one of the books below, you’re welcome to it. First come, first served…you’re just responsible for getting it. If you’re out of town, we’d be happy to mail it to you, you’ll just need to pay for shipping. Shipping via media mail costs around $2.50.

So, let us know if you want any of these by next Friday

(click on the image to make it larger)

Macs seem to be getting more and more popular. In fact, it’s not rare when I go into a coffee shop now to see more people working on Macs than on PC’s.

My goal is to read 50 books a year. I’m not exactly sure how many I got through this year…I probably need to do a better job at tracking that, but it’s somewhere around 50. My favorites tend to be books that had me talking about it and thinking about it later. They’re books that I found myself referring back to and referencing to people in conversations. Often, as was the case with a few of these, I end up buying copies that I give away as well.

So, here were my favorites that I read this year¹:

7. In-N-Out Burger by Stacy Perman
I’m not going to lie. I love In-N-Out. We had it at our wedding. Anytime I’m out of town, it’s the first place I go when I get back. So, I really enjoyed reading about how it started, some of their practices and some of the things they’ve done that have set them apart from other fast food chains. It was a good read for leadership principles. The only problem was that every time I read a section I had to run to In-N-Out to satisfy a craving.

6. Born to Run by Christopher McDougall
I seriously didn’t expect to like this book. I don’t think I’ve ever before read a book on running. It was a great story, that along the way gave you stats, advice and helpful antidotes on running. It inspired me to run for the joy of running, and to do it barefoot.

5. Me, Myself and Bob by Phil Vischer
This is the autobiography of Phil Vischer who was the creator of VeggieTales. Reading about how VeggieTales got started and what happened to it was interesting. But what sucked me in more was his story of grace and how he encountered God in fresh ways when he wasn’t trying to do more good stuff for him. After reading it, for Isaac’s birthday, I also ended up buying the children’s book that Phil wrote shortly after he lost VeggieTales.

4. Lamb by Christopher Moore
Probably about 5 years ago, a few people kept urging me to read this book and I never got around to it. I don’t know why I didn’t at the time, but it was definitely worth reading it this year. It’s the fictional account of the Gospel according to Biff, Jesus’ Childhood friend. It was so funny and fun to read. I actually laughed out loud several times as the author would retell a common story of Jesus from Biff’s perspective. One brief disclaimer though: Although there’s some great historical and biblical research done for the book, Christopher Moore isn’t a Christian, so if you’re someone who is easily offended, it’s probably not the best book for you to pick up.

3. The Orthodox Heretic by Peter Rollins
Peter Rollins is a bit controversial for some other things he has written, but regardless of whether or not you agree with his theology, I think that this book is brilliant. Essentially he writes his own parables, some of which had me thinking about them for days afterwards. It also made me think about what it looks like in preaching or writing for the story to be the message, and to not have to make the story be supplemental to the message. I haven’t ventured to try anything with that yet, but it definitely compelled me to consider it.

2. The Blue Parakeet by Scot McKnight
Scot has definitely become a significant voice in the evangelical world, and it helps that we had him out to speak at Parkcrest and I got to know him a bit. But this book was something that I had been looking for, for a long time. A book that the average person at Parkcrest can read that helps us to thoughtfully engage the Scriptures.

1. A Million Miles in a Thousand Years by Donald Miller
This was the one book that I read this year that I had a hard time putting down. I think I read it in two sittings, and need to go through it again. This was definitely Donald Miller’s best book yet. He recaptured his great writing style where he tells you stories about himself, but at the same time has a bigger overarching narrative that he’s drawing you into. He does a great job at encouraging us to live a better story.

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Since it seems that about 1 out of every 5 people with a cell phone now has an iPhone, I thought it might be helpful to post what my most used apps this year were.

9. Mint
We began using Mint this year to track our personal finances. It is amazingly awesome. The two best things about it are that it’s free, and all of the work is done for you – you don’t have to reconcile your checking account, you don’t have to mentally subtract your credit card from your checking account to figure out how much cash on hand you have – it’s all done for you. The iPhone app is a nice quick glance at our cash flow and how we’re doing.

8. Dragon Dictation
This just came out a few weeks ago, but it’s already been incredibly helpful. I find myself dictating emails on my way home, and it’s got huge future potential.

7. Best Camera
I’ve got several camera apps that I’ve tried for doing quick edits of photos, but this is my favorite. It’s got a few prebuilt filters that for the most part are all that I need to use to make an iPhone photo stand out a bit.

6. RunKeeper
I began using this before my barefoot running obsession, but it’s definitely helped. It tracks where I run, how fast, how far, average pace and calories burned. I was using Nike+ for a little while, but I found this to be more accurate and more versatile.

5. YouVersion
At the beginning of the year, I was using this for my morning Bible reading. I stopped using it regularly because I got frustrated by the lack of ability to follow a plan at my own pace, to have it sync with my online reading on YouVersion and with the lack of ability to use a different reading plan than the default one. With their most current release, they’ve dealt with all three of those, so it will definitely become a most used app again.

4. Evernote
Evernote can run on the Mac, PC, web and iPhone. I use it to drop anything that could possibly be used for research for messages, leadership development, or some random future project. I take pictures of my whiteboards and save them on here. It’s all searchable and archived online. I love having access to all of that on my mac and iPhone, and now that I was recently given a netbook, I can have access to it on there as well.

3. Omnifocus
This is definitely my most expensive iPhone app, and many people won’t have a need for it. For me, I cannot stay organized without Omnifocus on my Mac, and having it sync to my phone and having all of my projects and the work I need to get done with me all of the time has proved to be incredibly beneficial.

2. Words With Friends
Kozmo talked me into downloading this game, and I’ve been sucked in. It’s basically playing Scrabble with anyone else who has it, at whatever pace it takes you. A game could last a day or weeks. I’ve currently got several games going with people from around the country. (by the way…my username is mgoldsworthy if you’re playing)

1. Tweetie 2
I love the design and interface of this Twitter app. Not only does it have a clean interface, but it also integrated TextExpander, so you can type a few letters and an entire sentence, or phrase can be automatically inserted, which is brilliant, especially for using the iPhone.

What were your most used iPhone apps this year?

Too good not to share.

This year, Parkcrest is going to be taking part in The Advent Conspiracy. We’re going to attempt to discover together what it looks like to approach Christmas in a more revolutionary way.

One of those ways is by intentionally spending less in order to give away more. But, I don’t want to leave people hanging without giving alternative suggestions for gift giving.

So, I’m looking for some ideas. Things that generally fit into one of 3 categories:

Give Your Presence
Presents that are more relationally geared. Experiences that you do together…presents that give your time to spend with a person.

Give From Your Talents
Creating gifts based on what you’re able to do and create on your own. DIY and homemade gifts would fit with this.

Give Gifts That Do More
Presents that when you buy them, you’re giving more than just that gift. Like TOMS Shoes

I’ve got a bunch of ideas started, but I know that there’s a ton more that you have that are probably better than most of mine. In fact, I know some of you do these kinds of things already every year. You’ve got a lot of stuff to share.

So, let’s hear what you’ve got…help us out!