Thoughtful Thursdays

 My Friend Adam Freeman has started this post on his blog called Thoughful Thursdays.  I think this is a great idea. We all need to take more time to share kindness throughout the world.  I am also participating in something called Revolutionary Love - similar concept. Here is what Adam said about Thoughtful Thursdays:

Okay, here is how our "Thoughtful Thursdays" works.
You all are going to go out in to this crazy world and do something EXTRA nice for someone else. You can do something nice for someone you love, someone you don't love, or someone you you have never had the chance to love and come back here to share about it each and every Thursday.

What I am going to do today is to go into work late this morning so that I can help Jamie out and take Ryan to school.  This way she will not have to juggle two kids this morning.  She'll love that! 

Social Madness

Once you get sucked into the online social world, it is hard to go back. Can you image not using facebook or twitter? How many people have you connected with or reconnected with just this past year? For me, it is amazing. I now have more relationships than ever (some strictly online and others we have actually met face-to-face). Seems ridiculous that we use to think meeting your spouse online was strange.

But how do you decide which social networks to stick with and which ones to ditch? Every week it seems that I run across a new site. And because I love new sites I always sign up. Some I drop by once a week and others I have never really used. I recently had to add a folder to my Firefox bookmarks called "social." (by the way, started using tags in Firefox to test that out - maybe I can get rid of folders all together in my bookmarks).

I have to admit that I have not been into posting to video sites, but they do intrigue me. Take www.12seconds.tv/ for example. Kinda a twitter but in video format. Love the idea. Cannot image following and posting like I do with twitter if I had to rely on waiting for video to load.

Yahoo also just started a new social network called 360. Seems to me they are trying too hard in this area already dominated by facebook. What makes a great social network is not only the platform of the site but the number of relevant users. I guess I'll keep signing up and if enough people join me some of the social madness will stick!

Living in Web 2.0

There has been buzz around the phrase Web 2.0 for some time now. First coined by Tim O'Reilly in 2004, O'Reilly describes Web 2.0 as this:

“Web 2.0 is the business revolution in the computer industry caused by the move to the Internet as a platform, and an attempt to understand the rules for success on that new platform (1).

So, what does that mean for most of us. For me, I love finding applications that I can use online, instead of having to download them. For one, web apps seem to run better and not slow down my computer. Also, I can access them from anywhere - I am not limited to one computer.

Another great thing about web apps is that I don't have to install updates or backup my data. The downside is that most do not work without an internet connection (some do have offline options). Also, depending on the browser there are limitations (people should not program sites to only work in IE!). Despite any drawbacks, I still love new web apps. Here are a few I have used lately:

www.mailchimp.com
www.surveymonkey.com
www.box.net
www.turbotax.com - so easy!
www.youversion.com
www.google.com/apps/
www.acrobat.com/

Finally, here is a cool site that keeps up with some of the Web 2.0 sites: www.go2web20.net/

What web applications make your life easier?

My 365 Project

What would it look like if you could look back over the past year of a snapshot from each day?  That's exactly what 365project.org lets you do.  I figured I would give this free service a try.  The only catch is that I have to remember to take and upload a new picture each day.

The site is friendly on the eye and easy to use - very much "twitter-like."  Still, there are many features missing such as a way to email photos to the site.  But this site is in it's early stages so I image these features are right around the corner.  

I'm not sure what the revenue model is for this site (much like twitter) but founder Ross Scrivener is an IT guy from England who love to take photos, so I imagine he just enjoys the site for his personal fulfilment in some way.  

If you want to check out my progress, hop on over to http://365project.org/kylewsmith/365 and check it out!

The Piano

Does music speak in your life?  What is your soundtrack?  I have always been moved by music and how it relates to our lives and emotions.  When God gave us music, He really must have taken so much joy in knowing what it would bring us.  I truly believe it also brings us closer to Him, especially when we use it to glorify His name.

Being a piano player, I found the following short movie very enjoyable.

Watch The Piano - Amazing Short in Aniboom  |  View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

just wondering what social networks will stick long-term. Just found yahoo!360 - Will all of these networks be around in five years?

testing pink.fm. This will make things easier or make all my sites look really redundant...