Sunday, July 21, 2013

Gadget review: Martian watch

Martian Passport Watch
The Martian Watch is an analog watch with a single-line LED that communicates with your smartphone (or tablet) using Bluetooth 4.0. I used my Martian Watch with an iPhone 5, but it also supports Android devices as well as IOS ones. The watch uses the LED to alert you to things like incoming calls, texts, and appointments.

Martian Watches come in multiple styles (Passport, Victory, and G2G) in differing colors. Mine is the Passport with a black leather band which costs $299. I only paid $115, however, as I was one of the early supporters via Kickstarter. 

To read the rest of this review, visit its new home at Principled Technologies' Tech Everywhere. 

Thursday, July 18, 2013

Romans 8

Unlike some people I know, Romans is not one of my favorite books of the Bible. In fact, I don’t really like it. At times, the book feels like Paul is showing off. At other times, it reads like a boring legal document. “The party of the first part, being God, holds the party of the second part, us sinners, to be solely culpable for all transgressions done by the party of the second part against the party of the first part.” Sorry, but that is what it reads like to me.

As I’ve been reading through the New Testament, one chapter a day, I was quite enjoying the gospels and Acts. Romans, however, loomed large. I was rather dreading it. The first seven chapters were as I remembered them. Then, I hit chapter 8. It was like someone put beautiful poetry on the 8th page of a 16-page legal document!

After detailing all of the wretchedness and sin of mankind in the proceeding chapters, chapter 8 starts out with Paul’s bold proclamation, “Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.”

Midway through the chapter (verse 15) Paul says, “For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, ‘Abba! Father!’” Put that in your legal document!

The chapter concludes in verse 38 with one of the first (and sadly, few) passages I memorized, “For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is Christ Jesus our Lord.” Amen!

Wow. I am not a fan of poetry. I am even less of a fan of legal documents. Paul’s words in Romans, however, put the two in an amazing juxtaposition.

In the future, I don’t think I will dread reading Romans so much, though I think I will always look forward to getting to Chapter 8.

Sunday, July 14, 2013

Apologies

My last blog entry (about sabbaticals) was over two months ago. Those sabbaticals are precisely the reason that I have not been able to find the time to write blog entries for so long. Despite the personal cost of Mark’s and John’s sabbaticals, I am more convinced than ever of the value of sabbatical programs such as PT's.

The good news, however, is that they are both back and, while there are still summer vacations to deal with, my work life is beginning to calm down enough to allow me time to get back to writing. I have a number of partially written entries that I will be working to finish over the few weeks. These entries include my take on some cool gadgets as well as my thoughts on a few other topics. I'm also working on some ideas about how to spruce up the blog and make it easier to find past topics.

Thank you for bothering to check and see if I’ve written anything. Come back soon and see some real entries!