sounds that grip parents with fear

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My kids are early risers, all 3 of them.  Saturday mornings at our house start no later than 7AM.  I am always amazed when friends mention sleeping til 9 or later on Saturday because that just doesn’t happen around our house.  On a recent Saturday morning, early Saturday morning, I was lying in bed trying to muster the energy to get up and I could hear the kids playing in the den.  I knew if I didn’t get up they would barge in and wake their mother up and that would just ruin everybody’s day (Amen?!).  Suddenly I heard pots and pans, my pulse quickened, my thoughts raced…thus the inspiration for this post…sounds that grip parents with fear early in the morning (dum, dum, duuuum)

  • pots and pans
  • the pitter patter of little feet, then THUD!
  • the pitter patter of little feet coming down the stairs then THUD, THUD, THUD, THUD…(wait for it)…THUD!
  • the pitter patter of little feet…on the roof (OK, that’s pretty much scary any time of the day)
  • power tools
  • the car starting
  • the garage door going up
  • duct tape being pulled off the roll
  • someone saying “How do you light this?”
  • the blender or mixer
  • the smoke alarm
  • someone saying “Watch this!” then hearing the dog yelp and claw at your door
  • the repeated opening of the fridge door
  • whispers just outside your bedroom door
  • whispers then giggles just outside your bedroom door

and finally, the sound that scares me most early in the morning…

  • complete silence…that’s when I know they are really up to something.

Add to the list, this ought to be fun.

JNS

A few of my favorite apps and sites

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I’m a Droid guy.  My phone; the Motorola DroidX.  I love it.  I’m also an Apple guy.  My laptop; a MacBook Pro.  I love it too.

I love the simplicity and ease of use of my Mac as well as the options and ability to customize my Droid.  But the way the cloud brings them all together (notice how I said “the cloud” like I know what I’m talking about…I don’t) is the cherry on top.  Syncing apps across all 3 of these platforms is like the coming together of the perfect ratio of ice cream to chocolate syrup to whipped cream.

I’ve created a very short list of just a few of the apps I find myself going to everyday, whether it’s on my phone, my laptop or the web.

Evernote

Remember everything.  Capture anything.  Access anywhere.  Find things fast.  If you haven’t jumped on the Evernote bandwagon, what in the world are you waiting for.  Evernote is one of those apps that you start off using and think “Oh, this is a simple little filing system” but you soon discover just how powerful it can be depending on what exactly your doing with it.  I use Evernote to keep up with blog ideas, articles or website clips I want to share or use later, recipes (…yes, I said recipes), and the numerous contacts that I need to keep notes on.  If you haven’t read Michael Hyatt’s Evernote posts you really should.  He will open your eyes to the power of this amazing app.

Read It Later

ReadItLater has become my way of dogearing everything electronic.  If I come across a blog post, an article, something in my Google reader, something on my Pulse reader, a tweet, a tweet with a link…anything I want to come back to later, with a simple click, or two, I’m able to dogeared that link, page, article, post to come back to it later.  I use it most often on my phone as I’m running through my Google Reader or Pulse feeds and then rifle through my dogears when I’m sitting at my laptop.  There is a Firefox Add-on as well so I can choose to login to the website or sort through my dogeears in my Firefox sidebar.

TweetCaster*

I tried several Twitter apps on my Droid before I landed on TweetCaster.  The TweetCaster app is robust and does a fantastic job of handling all that I ask of it.  In addition to my @jesusneversaid account I also run 2 other Twitter accounts on my TweetCaster app (1 personal & another secret identity…mmmwwwahahahaha).  TweetCaster’s interface keeps them separated so I don’t have to worry about tweeting on the wrong account.  I’m able to choose my URL shortening service, image service, video service and there are a few other customizable features.  Lastly, the guys at OneLouder Apps are always updating and improving the app, tweaking and refining and so far the tweaks have been right on.

Pulse

I feel like I’m just beginning to scratch the surface of Pulse.  I am overwhelmed by the flexibility and the customizable interface of this app.  Honestly, my review won’t do this app justice, it’s just that good.  Try it and you will love it.

Pulse is technically a mobile app only, but via Pulse.me you can access articles that you’ve saved in sort of a pseudo-ReadItLater format.  I also love the fact that Pulse incorporates ReadItLater in it’s share menu, so you don’t really need to use the Pulse.me capabilities if you don’t want to.

YouVersion Bible app by LifeChurch.tv

I think most everyone can agree that this is by far the best Bible app out there.  Reading plans, bookmarks, translations and recently I have totally fallen in love with the audio Bibles.  I haven’t seen another bible app that comes close and the folks over at LifeChurch.tv continue to improve it so I don’t see it loosing it’s top spot anytime soon.  I’m still amazed by the fact that on any given Sunday people all around me pull out their phones to access their Bible now.

Here are a few Honorable Mentions that I access quite often as well…

JNS

*TweetCaster is only available as a mobile app.

people who “make no apologies” should

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I recently overheard one person speaking of another person say that she is “comfortable with who she is and she makes no apologies for it“…really?

This didn’t sit well with me and I was forced to ponder why I suddenly was taken back by this statement.  Here are my unapologetic thoughts.

If a someone says “she makes no apologies for it (it being her personality, behavior, attitude, etc.)” then that begs the questions what is so obviously different and disturbing about this person that an apology would be necessary.  And if an apology is necessary and they won’t make it then why would I want to know or get involved with this person.  And if she is “comfortable with who she is” but the rest of us would believe that she needs to apologize for who she is, wouldn’t that get real uncomfortable after a while?  Us waiting for her to apologize, her oblivious of her need to apologize.  It’s like talking to someone with a booger vibrating in their nostril, or with a pee spot on their pants, or with food in their beard and feeling the tension between their embarrassment when the realize it and their potential embarrassment if you tell them.  I digress.  Let’s be honest, people who say “I make no apology!” generally need to and when you feel obliged to tell the rest of us that “she makes no apology” for “being comfortable with who she is” you probably aren’t very comfortable with who she is either, or with who you are in relation to her.

I’m comfortable with who I am about 25% of the time, 65% of the time I’m apologizing for who I am, and the last 10% of the time I just gave up on a long time ago…sorry about that.  Oh dang, I just apologized.  Sorry…crap!

Just for fun,

JNS