I don't know about you, but between my duties at home, with the fshbwl, Genesis, and the eLife, I have a slew of different project areas in my life and I'm constantly trying to keep myself organized and up to date on what needs to be done. Then of course, because I work from home, my office, and my laptop, I need access to my task list from a number of locations. Moreover, I'm not particularly good at mental notes, so, if something is going to make it into my task list, it needs to get there immediately.

So, what's my solution? Remember the Milk. Remember the Milk (RTM) is, at the most basic level, an online task list that allows you to categorize and tag your to-do items, but, the real beauty is the way RTM mashes up with other applications.

For example, when I'm sitting in a meeting and am reminded that there is something I need to do, I can text Twitter with a "d rtm" command and my task will be added to my task list. Or say, when I'm in the car and I recall something that needs to be done. Using my bluetooth I can speed dial Jott, identify it as a message for RTM, and use their voice recognition software to add a task to my list.

Then of course there is the integration with gMail (or a google aps mail account) through a Firefox extension. The result is that my task list sits right next to my inbox and, I can easily add messages that I need to follow up on later to my to do list (which then allows me to tag and archive the message and keep my inbox empty).

As if that wasn't enough, I'm also able to share specific task lists with other RTM users so, Anita and I have some shared items and, if there' something she wants me to get done around the house, she just drops the item in our shared list and I get the hint (sometimes).

Of course, because I'm not always online, RTM also works with Google Gears so, on my laptop, I always have the latest version of my task list and, if I change anything offline, the next time I log on, everything will sync. This will get even better when I get an iPhone and can use the RTM page specifically designed for the iPhone.

RTM is a wonderful tool that I'm sure will only get better over time.

I just discovered Skitch yesterday, and I'm already loving it.

Basically, Skitch is an uber-screenshot application. So, you use Skitch to take a screenshot (or just drop a graphic into the Skitch display), then you can do all kinds of editing to it, upload it for sharing, copy it to your desktop, drop it into your IM client to share with a friend, or any other number of things.

Yesterday it came in handy when I was trying to show Bob something I wanted change on the elemental life site. I took a screenshot with Skitch, dropped it into Adium, and off it went. Then, today I've used it on both of the images I've posted. I uploaded both into my Skitch page, selected the share option, grabbed the image code that was all ready to go, and put it in my entry (I did have to tell it to right align).

Here's a video with a bit more on Skitch:

In the Spring of 2006, a guy from Genesis suggested that I write a book about the basics of the Christian faith and how Christians view the world around us. It seemed like a good enough of an idea, and now, a couple of years later, the elemental life is in print. Here's the book description:

Life, the decisions and challenges we face concerning work, recreation, money, relationships, and the future can become complex and overwhelming. But they don't have to be.

The elemental life uses the four ancient elements of earth, water, fire, and wind to take a fresh look at historic biblical Christianity. In the process, the elemental life offers a different way of looking at the world around you ... a way that provides clarity in the midst of chaos, speaks words of forgiveness when confronted by failure, makes the most of the struggles of life, and gives meaning to the mundane moments of your everyday experience.

It's not easy, but it is elemental. Find a friend and talk, challenge, encourage, and discover together. Get back to the elemental life.

Because the whole thing was written with the goal of getting people to ask questions and explore deeper, I've also developed a website to go with the site where readers can ask questions and I'll dig deeper into the ideas behind the book through the eLife podcast.

Because I've had a number of instances where I've pointed out some tech thing to friends lately and it's helped them out, I figured I'd post a number of blogs on some of the "lesser known things" that I use on the tech front. Now, nobody could argue that Firefox is lesser known, but it is essential for a number of the other lesser knowns that I'll be talking about later.

So, why Firefox? As I mentioned when the Mac Air came out, I'm one of those people who is diving in headfirst into the whole Web 2.0 (and maybe even Computing 2.0 or 3.0) approach. One example of this is that, the vast majority of my information, is now kept in the cloud, that is, on a remote server that I can access from any web terminal in the world (I'll post on where in the cloud later).

Because the key to my information is no longer my hard drive, but my Internet browser, having a browser that not only performs well but also has the ability to be tweeked for my personal preferences is of utmost importance.

While Firefox is a memory drain and doesn't run as quickly as Safari (although the soon to be released 3.0 edition is supposed to be a huge jump in these categories), the ease at which it can be modified through extensive plug-ins and scripts (I'll share some of these later) makes it my browser of choice.

I had an incredible conversation with a friend earlier today.

We were talking about ministry and I made the comment that, in my opinion, the most important ministry a church can do, is men's ministry. This belief stems from the biblical concept of headship, and the ongoing idea that men are to love their wives as Christ loved the Church. My basic argument says that, if congregations equip men to do what God has called men to do, then you're not just doing men's ministry, but, through the trickle down effect, you're also doing women's ministry, family ministry, youth ministry, and children's ministry.

This prompted a side conversation on the whole sin issue and how, in Scripture, outside of Genesis 3, Eve is not the one who is identified as bringing sin into the world. Rather, Adam is given the blame for sin because he failed as a husband at the tree. This sets the stage for the discussion of the New Adam, Christ, who, at his tree (the cross), loved his bride (the Church) fully.

At this point, my friend commented, "And God knew that all this was going to happen from the foundation of the world and yet, he went through with it anyway." As she debated an answer to the why of that question, she suggested that it might be so we would choose God over ourselves. Personally, I don't think this is the right answer, instead, I offered this illustration.

J: When you had your daughter, you were trying to have a child, right?

F: Yes.

J: Before you had her, did you know that she would do things that would hurt you? That there would be times she would reject you? That she very well could not "choose" you but do her own thing?

F: Yes.

J: And yet you had her anyway ... not so that she would choose you and love you, but so that you could choose her and love her no matter what.