Posted by Jared Barden on Feb 25, 2007 in
Opinion,
Personal I just saw a scene that made me think the Apocalypse might be coming sooner than we think.
Was it footage from Iraq? No.
Was it news of the pending nuclear crisis with Iran? No.
Was it (insert crisis situation looming in the world today here)? No.
It was Ellen DeGeneres leading a choir (on Sunday night of all nights) in a hallelujah chorus praising this year’s Oscar-nominated actors and actresses.
If that doesn’t signal the end of the world, I’m not sure what else does.
Posted by Jared Barden on Feb 22, 2007 in
Personal,
Search Engines I was referred to as a, “Jedi Web Geek” in a post one of my friends wrote last night. Let me explain.
My friend, Dennis, is the Public Relations Director for Mansfield University. I’ve know Dennis off an on for years, since my dad works with him pretty regularly. When I was at my last job, Dennis’ office called saying they needed help with some web work that was giving them fits. Dennis offered to pay me, but I asked for a signed copy of his novel, The Perfect Song, instead.
Afterwards, as I was getting ready to leave, I decided I would “pitch” to Dennis what I thought was a crazy notion – maybe the University should start podcasting. Podcasting was getting big at that point, and I thought it could be a cool idea and possibly be a way to spark some (relatively) cheap buzz for Mansfield.
To my surprise, Dennis mentioned that he had already been thinking about the idea. I think we spent the rest of the conversation talking about “geek” stuff – what was going on with podcasting, Google, the web in general, etc.
Today the Mansfield University Podcast has loads of episodes about all sorts of different topics, and has even gained national notoriety.
Ever since our first meeting, I have become (still becoming I would say) the Jedi Web Geek, helping Dennis along the way of the web. That name suggests that I know all or something like that, and that is far from the truth, but I like to help and share my knowledge where I can, especially to people like Dennis, who are so interested in learning whatever they can.
I can’t really even begin to express how much I enjoy my time spent with Dennis, learning about marketing, talk about the latest tech news, talking about life, etc. It truly has been great.
If you’re interested in what the meetings of a Jedi Web Geek and a PR Director are like, check out Dennis’ new blog, The Higher Ed Marketing Blog.
In light of reading Dennis’ latest post, I hope to start a series of posts with some Search Engine Optimization tips. Search Engine Optimization is basically the process of making changes to your web site (in my opinion) for the benefit of not only search engines (to help you rank higher on Google, for instance) but also for the benefit of users. There is definitely way more to it than that, but I hope to share some basic tips that should be useful.
Stay tuned…
Posted by Jared Barden on Feb 19, 2007 in
Personal To quote from The Incredibles, “there’s no school like the old school.” That’s especially true when it comes to video games.
I knew before I bought the Wii from my friend Dave that you would be able to download classic games from Nintendo for a small fee. This was one of the first things I looked into after we bought the Wii. I think it was actually the selling point for Danielle, because it allows her to play her favorite game of all time – Toe Jam and Earl (which, by the way, I think is incredibly boring, but that’s just me).
Right away I saw that I could download Super Mario Brothers from the original Nintendo Entertainment System. This game was released in 1985, which just amazes me. We have come so far in terms of video games in the last 22 years. It really boggles the mind sometimes.
But I digress. Saturday I was showing our friends’ son, Kurt, how to play this classic game. The highlight, of course, was when we finished the game. It brought back the feeling of being 7 or 8 again and experiencing the magic of playing the game. The way your heart skips a beat when you think you’re going to fall off a ledge, or the way you almost fall out of a chair when you throw your whole body into the game. When your biggest problem in life was getting a little pixelated character through a series of scrolling levels to save a princess.
The second highlight came in level 3-1, where you can earn unlimited free men by hopping repeatedly on one of the turtles coming down the steps at you. This was always a challenge for us when we were growing up. It took a couple of tries, but I got it soon enough.
It was just great to feel that same excitement I experienced as a kid again. It made all my “grown up” problems and life issues seem to disappear, if only for an afternoon.
Posted by Jared Barden on Feb 15, 2007 in
Opinion,
Personal So, we finally got our Winter Wonderland this week. Not on time for Christmas, but nice nonetheless. I hope to have some pictures up later this evening.
I believe the snow began late afternoon on Tuesday and continued right on until Wednesday night. It’s the most snow I remember getting at one time in a while.
I spent some quality time with Dad taking turns running the snow blower up and down our driveways. During one of my sweeps, my dad said something that seemed insignificant but struck me as pretty deep.
“Let the tool do the work for you.”
Like I said, simple enough, but also quite profound. As I sat there trying to get the snow blower unstuck and trying to lift it out of the snow, my dad grabbed the handle, let the blower run a bit, wiggled the machine, and next thing you know it was ready to go again.
I couldn’t help but think that this is not unlike our relationship with God. So many times we (I) think we have to fix things on our own. We struggle, we moan and complain, we try to do it our way. All the while, God is waiting for us to, in a sense, “let the tool do the work for you.” God wants us to acknowledge that we need His help, and then turn over whatever the situation is to Him.
How much easier our lives would be sometimes if we would only do that. I know I always feel like I have to fight certain battles on my own – that I should know how to fight and win those battles by now. However, there is no harm, and it will turn out much better in the end, if we hand those situations over to God and let Him deal with them the way He wants.
Just like that snow blower easily cutting its way through the newly-fallen snow, it’s amazing how God can work in our lives to deal with situations we thought were impossible.
“Let the tool do the work for you.”
Posted by Jared Barden on Feb 6, 2007 in
Opinion,
Personal My wife, Danielle, caused a little bit of a stir with her latest MySpace blog post having to do with Texas offering the HPV vaccine to 6th graders.
I won’t comment too much about the post here. I already did so in the comments on Danielle’s page. I must digress and state that sometimes when I get writing about a topic, especially if I feel passionate about said topic, I feel like I have to fight the urge to wander in my writing. But I digress.
I find it strange that they feel the need to vaccinate school children for a disease that can only be caught through sex. Some people say the girls might get raped and would thus need the vaccine, but you can’t vaccinate a the whole population do to the chance that a horrible tragedy will happen to a few members of that population.
It definitely seems to be one of those moral choice issues. I believe strongly that choices have consequences. “For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction, ” etc. etc. That’s how God operates. He is a loving God, but He won’t be mocked. He gives us choice, but also warns that the choice may have unwanted consequences. That goes all the way back to the Garden of Eden. God gave both Adam and Eve plenty of fair warning, but in the end the choice was theirs’.
The debate seems like a dialogue between two people.
Person 1: “We’ll treat your burn you got from playin with the fire.”
Person 2: “Why not just not play with fire in the first place?”
Person 1: “I can’t believe you would suggest that this person not play with fire. Everyone plays with fire. It’s inevitable. Don’t you want to treat people burned by fire?”
Person 2: “Yes, I want to treat them, but if they hadn’t messed with the fire in the first place, they wouldn’t have gotten burned.”
I know it’s a little more complex and emotional than that, but there is some truth, I believe, to that exchange.
That’s the great thing about the ‘Net, free speech, and blogs. I can have my opinion and express it, Danielle can have her’s, and you, beloved reader, can have yours.