I confess, I saw Star Trek Into Darkness this weekend, and I loved it. Sure it wasn’t perfect, but it was a fun, space adventure — everything I want in a summer movie. (As a side note, it made me super excited for what JJ will do with Star Wars). To celebrate the number one movie this weekend. Here’s a funny little video I saw this weekend:
I think I may have to make a starship Enterprise costume like this to wear at Comic Con this summer.
In the latest episode of the new YS web show, YS Idea Lab, they interview Bob Goff. I also enjoy an opportunity to listen to him, if you’ve never heard him before this is worth 5 minutes of your time.
YS Idea Lab – Bob Goff: Loving People Inefficiently from Youth Specialties on Vimeo.
I’m really excited that Bob will be at the National Youth Worker Convention this fall, I hope to see you there.
Have you ever needed to make name tags or badges for an activity, event, meeting or trip in your ministry? There’s a great new app for your PC or Mac that makes it easy, plus the badges look amazing. It’s called Badgify, and it’s available at Download Youth Ministry.
Here’s what the creator at pdesigns describes it:
Have a new volunteer? No problem! Just enter their name and BAM! You have a new, printable badge for them to wear! Making the process quick and painless is our primary goal. In fact, we designed it to be so easy, a volunteer with absolutely no graphic design experience, can knock out badges for an event with no effort whatsoever.
You’ll be able to create a badge for any occasion in less than 10 seconds. Once your badge is created, it will save to your computer as a JPG that you can print on any printer. No need for any training or graphic experience. Just a few clicks and you’re done!
Tired of boring badges? Want something more than a white square with a name (we’ve been to too many boring badge conferences)? Our badges have been designed with “Oh that looks really cool” in mind. Choose from six unique designs and easily swap between them without having to retype your info.
After playing with it for awhile, I can confirm, that’s it’s as easy as the description says, and it looks way better than something I might throw together. Here’s a screen shot of the app making a name tag for myself:
You can see the options are very simple and straight forward. You have fields for First Name, Last Name, Church, and Position, but if there’s one you might not wish you use you can turn any of them on or off for the badge you are working on. Once you have everything typed in, the app creates a PDF for printing. There are currently 6 styles of tags to choose from, but the developer says more are on the way.
Here’s a quick video about how it works:
Right now you can pick up Badgify for only $12. I’m not sure how long that price will last, so I would act fast.
If you haven’t read these great books by Kara Powell, Chap Clark, and Brad Griffin, this is your chance to pick them up for only $2.99 on the Kindle store. I don’t know how long this offer will last, so I wouldn’t wait.
This is a great curriculum too, it’s not $2.99, but still a pretty good deal at $6.64. Great to teach your seniors before they graduate.
Are you a geek or an uber-geek? Learn how to move up the geek ladder.
Image source: www.bestcomputersciencedegrees.com
From now until Christmas the iPad iBooks version of The Crowd, the Critic, and the Muse by Michael Gungor is free. I haven’t finished it yet, but what I’ve read is great. It’s been a both thought provoking and funny look at how we are all creative. The iPad version is also full of great visuals and audio to accompany it.
From the Publisher:
“We are all creators. Whether or not we create is not up to us. We are human, and creating is what we do. Every interaction, movement, and decision is creativity at work. We are all artists. We all order creation around us into the world that we want to make.”–Michael Gungor
In The Crowd, the Critic, and the Muse, Michael Gungor takes an uncompromising–and humorous–look at our creative selves and the world that we have fashioned around us. Through story and reflection, Gungor shows how our deepest beliefs and assumptions about the universe affect how we order creation.
An award-winning, globetrotting musician, Gungor also reveals his personal journey as an artist and creator, a tale of moving from innocence to wisdom, from simplicity to complexity and back again, a tale of leaving home and
returning in a new, better, and more creative way.
To celebrate the release of The Hobbit this weekend, enjoy the most amazing Hobbit video ever. It even better than getting the Star Trek trailer in front of the movie at theaters.
For all those that have not been thrilled with Apple’s new maps, you can rejoice that Google Maps is now available again. Download the all new version complete with voice turn-by-turn directions. Best of all it’s FREE.
OK, there’s much excitement in our house about Star Wars Angry Birds in our house. It’s a mashup of two of our favorite things. After playing it for a few days, we are still just as excited. Who doesn’t like an Angry Bird with a light sabre slaying though evil storm trooper piggies.
If you are interested you too can enjoy the fun and games. It’s available on just about every platform out there.
May the Force be with you!
There are a ton of software bundles out there, and I haven’t mentioned one in awhile, but this one has some great tools youth workers need in their tool belt. The first is a 15 month premium Evernote account (a $60 value) and the other is PDF Signer that allows you to modify PDF files and save them. I’m sure there are others too, but those 2 definitely make it worth the $29.
