Last Friday night I tweeted:

First Ed McMahon. Then Farrah Fawcett. Now Michael Jackson. It’s been a rough week for the rich and famous. #rip

Minutes later, an old childhood friend of mine tweeted this in reply:

@jaledwith it always goes in threes

I remember my dad saying that when I was growing up. Apparently famous people tend to die in groups of three. The most infamous example I can think of occurred on November 22, 1963, they day John F. Kennedy was assassinated. Both C.S. Lewis and Aldous Huxley died that same day. (This actually became the premise for the novel Between Heaven and Hell.) There are plenty of other examples, I’m sure.

So, after being reminded of this “fact” by my friend, I was left somewhat assured. The loss of these three was still sad, but at least it was all over.

I found out about Billy Mays’ death on Sunday afternoon while it was a trending topic on Twitter. This news caused a 404 error in my head. First, this shouldn’t have been allowed to happen according to the previously established death in threes rule. But second, and even more significant, I had just seen him on The Tonight Show earlier in the week. He had been on Tuesday night promoting his new TV show. It’s an incredibly eerie feeling to have seen someone doing just fine on one day and to hear of their death the next.

About the video: I have the clip of his recent appearance on The Tonight Show embedded above (Facebook readers: watch it on Hulu). You can also watch that entire episode of The Tonight Show right here. I imagine Conan will have something to say about Mays’ death tonight; I’ll update the post accordingly.

Visit my site for more, or subscribe via email or RSS to receive new content automatically. You can also follow me on Twitter.

© 2004-2009 John Andrew Ledwith, All Rights Reserved

We all liked The Dark Knight. We all like clever YouTube videos. And, if we’re honest with ourselves, we all like to watch break dance battles. If you combined all these elements what you’d have is Bboy Joker, an interactive break dance competition in stop-motion pitting Batman against the Joker.

Interactive, you say? Yes! You, the viewer, aren’t just watching the action, you’re controlling it. You actually dance as either Batman or the Joker. I did mention this all done on YouTube, not some game site, right? The blog 10,000 Words explains: “The interactivity is created by overlaying annotations on top of the video. Annotations were previously used solely as captions or speech balloons leading viewers to another site for more information related to the video. Now they are transforming YouTube from a static video player to a tool for engaging the audience.”

Check it out and let me know what you think. Click here for some more interactive YouTube videos.

Visit my site for more, or subscribe via email or RSS to receive new content automatically. You can also follow me on Twitter.

© 2004-2009 John Andrew Ledwith, All Rights Reserved

15″ MacBook Pro

• Eventually I’ll need to buy a new battery for my MacBook Pro (when my current one stops holding a charge), and I’m glad to see that they’ve made a battery with even better battery life than my computer currently has. UPDATE: I don’t think I got this one right. Yes, the 15″ MacBook Pro has a better battery, (up from 5 hours to 7) but these new 15″ MBPs have a battery that cannot be swapped out by the user, only by Apple (one more reason I’m glad I got my computer when I did). So, it’s unclear to me whether the type of battery found in my computer received an update. I’m guessing it didn’t.
• I’m really glad I got my 15″ MacBook Pro when I did. My computer has an ExpressCard slot; now they come with an SD card slot instead. The average user will like this move, but not the power user. I think it’s a very strange decision.
• I’m glad to see the MacBook Pro received a price cut, even if it only affects the low-end model.
• I really wish my MacBook Pro could handle 8GB of RAM. That is a HUGE update. The hard drive and processor updates are also nice.
• Refreshed features and lower price is immediately available.

17″ MacBook Pro

• The 17″ MacBook Pro has such a niche market. I’m surprised they cut its price, but I won’t complain.
• I’m very glad to see that they left the ExpressCard slot on the 17″. Those power users need the flexibility.
• Lower price is immediately available.

13″ MacBook

• The FireWire 800 port is making a return to the 13″ MacBook. I bet those early adopters aren’t happy.
• I’m shocked that it can handle 8GB of RAM as well.
• The standard backlit keyboard is a bigger deal than you may think. I’ve come to really appreciate that feature on my computer.
• I’m confused on one point. Since the MacBook is now technically part of the MacBook Pro line, is it called a MacBook Pro? I know they made it a part of the line to further differentiate it from the old, white MacBook they’re still making (still, sort of a weird decision). But what is it called?
• Refreshed features and lower price immediately available.

MacBook Air

• That is one insane price cut! It’s now $700 cheaper.
• Lower price immediately available.

Snow Leopard

• It’s only a $29 upgrade for current Leopard users! I didn’t think I’d be upgrading for a while, but it looks like I will be.
• Exchange support doesn’t really mean anything to me, but I know it does to a lot of people. Way to go, Apple!
• The update to Exposé sounds like something I’d use.
• Somehow Snow Leopard is half the size of Leopard. I don’t see how that’s possible, but I’m all for it.
• The handwriting recognition for the trackpad could be cool. I’ll give my verdict once I give it a try.
• Safari 4 looks fast, but Firefox is still king in my book.
• Grand Central Dispatch will unlock the power behind multi-core systems. I’m very excited to see this in action.
• Available this September.

iPhone OS 3.0

• The fact that tethering is coming to the iPhone but isn’t coming to AT&T iPhone users (i.e. American iPhone users) is as epic a failure as you can imagine.
• Find My iPhone is awesome. Every cell phone should have this feature. Login to the web, send a message to your phone, it’ll play a sound, even if it’s set to silent. (I could see awesome potential to abuse this feature to great comedic effect.) Also includes a wipe command to use if your iPhone is stolen.
• The built-in iTunes U support might add to the growing fad of universities using the iPhone/iPod touch in the classroom.
• Turn-by-turn apps will soon hit the App Store. I’m pretty excited about that, but I’ll say this: the fact that TomTom didn’t announce the price of their app during their demo is probably a bad sign.
• I know nothing about Zipcar, but the fact that there’s an iPhone app that can unlock a car is pretty sweet.
• The iPhone OS 3.0 is a tremendous upgrade, but anyone who paid attention to the demo event months ago knew about a lot of the basic features already. As such, I won’t list them again here.
• Available June 17 — free for iPhone, $9.95 for iPod touch.

iPhone 3G S

• The name is lame (the ’s’ stands for speed). The name lameness will not hurt sales.
• A 3 megapixel camera on a phone is crazy. I remember when that was considered the standard for point-and-shoot cameras. How far we’ve come.
• Macro and tap focus look great. I’d like to see the result of each in person.
• An iPhone video camera (without jailbreak) is long overdue. The polished features look impressive, but I won’t coo over something that should have been released at the iPhone’s initial launch.
• How accurate is the voice control? It’s a sweet feature if I don’t have to shout the same command over and over again.
• I have said since its 2007 release that I wouldn’t buy an iPhone until the capacity hit at least 30GB. We now have a 32GB model for $299. The 16GB model sells for $199. (Prices are for iPhones bought on contract.)
• If you’re mid-contract you’d pay $299 for the 3G and $399/$499 for the 3G S.
• Available June 19.

iPhone 3G

• It was a GREAT decision to keep the 8GB iPhone 3G on the market for $99.
• New price starts today, so if price was what was holding you back before go get one.

General Thoughts

• It would appear that not even Apple is immune to the recession. Price cuts occurred across the board.
• For the first time I will seriously look at purchasing an iPhone. (I am already an AT&T customer, so the consideration comes down to the increase in monthly service costs and the purchase of a very expensive phone.)
• I will be upgrading to Snow Leopard immediately. The $29 upgrade cost was my favorite announcement of the day. I still can’t believe it.
• Even though I no longer have the newest version of the 15″ MacBook Pro I’m glad I purchased mine when I did. It’ll be years before I need more than 4GB of RAM, but I can see myself needing the ExpressCard slot much sooner.
• Clearly the 13″ MacBook is the biggest winner of the day in terms of refreshed products. I also think it’s Apple’s biggest surprise of the day.
• Even at its new price, you still shouldn’t buy the MacBook Air. There are satisfied customers, I’m sure. But it seems to generate more complaints than any other Apple product. If you want a small Apple computer, buy a MacBook, not a MacBook Air.

What Do You Think?

Have any thoughts about today’s keynote? Leave them in the comments.

Visit my site for more, or subscribe via email or RSS to receive new content automatically. You can also follow me on Twitter.

© 2004-2009 John Andrew Ledwith, All Rights Reserved

Team Preparation

For the past three months the team I’m on has assembled roughly every other Sunday to prepare. We have three people on our team who have been on this trip previously and another team member who was stationed in Germany for seven years when he was in the military, so we have a great deal of previous experience in-country to draw from. Some of the things we’ve talked about include fund-raising progress, the ways we can be praying for each other, and the range of our uncertainties in our ability to do everything we’re about to attempt.

Our team has really come together. I’m surprised by the bond that has developed between us already, a bond that I believe will serve us well once we get to Germany. I’m excited that I’ve been given the opportunity to labor with them.

Find Us on the Web

I wanted to direct you to a couple of places on the web where you can find out more about my teammates and what we’re doing in Germany. Our team leader has setup a blog where many team members, including me, will be posting updates throughout the preparation process. We will also try to update it while we’re in Germany as time allows. UPDATE, 6/12: The long-term team in Berlin has asked our short-term team not to have a public site. I’ll probably post a couple short updates on this site while I’m there (whatever the long-term team is cool with).

Also, just a few days ago our team leader started a Twitter account for our trip. Here you’ll find out ways you can be praying for us and other updates about our team. Go follow @englishcamp2009.

Visit my site for more, or subscribe via email or RSS to receive new content automatically. You can also follow me on Twitter.

© 2004-2009 John Andrew Ledwith, All Rights Reserved

Content, Circulation and Hits

First, let’s take a look at the three goals I had that dealt with the creation and circulation of my posts.

• Goal: Two posts each week. Reality: At that pace I would have published 42 posts this year by now. This entry will be my twelfth posts this year.
• Goal: Increase RSS subscribers to 40. Reality: I’ve had as many as 38 this year; presently I have 27.
• Goal: Add one original video each month. Reality: By now I should have five, but so far I’ve added only one such video.

Logically you would assume that since my site isn’t being updated frequently I would have seen a major drop in traffic. One of my goals dealt specifically with traffic, and I’m amazed at what I have seen.

• Goal: 100 page hits to my site each week in 2009. Reality: After 22 complete weeks, only 4 times have I not hit my goal. The last time I missed was two months ago. The week of May 18 I had 232 page hits, my highest total ever in any one week.

I’ve had dramatically increased traffic to my site even while posting substantially less content. How did this happen?

The Twitter Effect

The answer lies at Twitter. I’ve had a Twitter account since 2007 but I never did much with it other than automatically re-post my Facebook status messages there (using TwitterFeed). But toward the end of last year I started to use it independent of my Facebook account. Here’s what has happened since I started using Twitter more seriously.

• I have 146 followers on Twitter, up by 102 since I wrote my blogging goals post. My year-end goal was to have 150.
• Since January 1 I have tweeted 674 times. (I should note that publishing a certain number of tweets was not one of my goals.)

The reason I’ve had dramatically increased traffic to my site is because I have been posting substantially more content than ever before.

The difference is my content isn’t showing up on my blog, but rather it’s on my Twitter stream. Most of those 674 tweets included a link to something that I found engaging or interesting somewhere on the Internet. While most of that content wasn’t mine, per se, I was the one who brought it to the attention of my followers (and others, as you’ll see). Once that happened, many of those followers came to my blog to see what else I had to say.

Twitter drives traffic to my site directly and indirectly. Whenever I post a new blog entry, a tweet is automatically generated alerting all my followers, along with a link to that new post. But a lot of my Twitter traffic comes to my blog because readers of my tweets click on the link to my website on my profile page. From there they might go to one of my popular posts (listed in my sidebar) or read one of my recent posts.

But who’s reading these tweets? Who knows! It’s pretty incredible when I stop to think about it. Most of those 146 people who follow me on Twitter are people I don’t know in real life. They’ve decided that the short messages I compose are worth reading on a regular basis. But even beyond that, all public tweets are searchable. So, if I tweet about the iPhone and someone who isn’t even following me searches for tweets about the iPhone, that person very well could see what I wrote. (Both these facts explain why I don’t tweet overly-personal messages.)

Oh, it also didn’t hurt that I had one of my tweets directly quoted in this article by Lifehacker. I saw a big spike in traffic to my blog after that.

The Downside: A Higher Standard

The beauty of Twitter is that each message must be short: a maximum of 140 characters. Very little time goes into composing a tweet. Usually, when I see something I like on the Internet that I think others would like to see too, I’ll tweet about it (and if I think that link is something my Facebook friends would like too I’ll then share it there too). If what I see is especially epic I’ll also create a blog post for it where I’ll talk about it in more detail.

My problem is that writing a blog post can take days or weeks before it arrives at a quality level that passes my personal standards. So as you might imagine, I have equally high standards regarding what sort of content is worthy of more than just a tweet. This fact, combined with my already busy schedule, has contributed to the substantial decline in number of posts published on my blog.

I’m Still Figuring This Out

I’m a writer. I’d much rather take the time to talk about a topic in detail. But like I said, there just isn’t the time to do this with everything that strikes my interest on the web, so I settle for alternatives. Sites like Facebook and Twitter make it so easy to quickly share content with friends and followers. But most content shared like this never hits my blog in any meaningful way, which I also don’t like.

I’ve been trying to figure out how to resolve this problem. Early in last December I wrote a post that listed out all the links I had shared during the course of November. I stated that I’d be doing something like that each month. I didn’t realize I was biting off more than I could chew. As I started to share more and more links it became such a daunting task to put them all together into one post. But I think I was on to something; I just need to refine the idea a bit. So, starting in June, I’m going to experiment with different ideas I have to bring some of my tweets and shared links to my blog in visible and meaningful ways.

As for my original goals, all I can do is try to get back on track. I’m going to do my best to write twice each week, and hopefully I’ll be able to add some original videos soon. (I have quite a bit of footage that I just haven’t had the time to edit yet.) Feel free to give me some grief (kindly, please) if you see me slacking off again in a month or two.

Visit my site for more, or subscribe via email or RSS to receive new content automatically. You can also follow me on Twitter.

© 2004-2009 John Andrew Ledwith, All Rights Reserved

This past Saturday my roommate JD asked his girlfriend Liz to marry him. Her first response? I’m told that she quite literally jumped for joy–on him! Even typing that makes me smile. They plan to be married this summer. I can’t tell you how happy I am for them. I’ve known both JD and Liz for nearly seven years, going back to when I was a freshman at FSU. I first met JD through the Navigators after I had been in town for only a few days. Liz and I were in the same BCM Fish School our first semester. Later on, in a convoluted way, I was actually the person who introduced Liz to the Navs. So, I’m going to take minor credit for the fact that these two ever even met. Very minor.

Side note: Apparently I’m Hitch for alumni “never-daters.” When I move into a house these days one of my single roommates will “find” a lady, begin dating her, get engaged and get married, all in less than one year. That’s now happened twice in consecutive years. Ridiculous. Awesome, but completely ridiculous.

With all sincerity, congratulations, JD and Liz!

Visit my site for more, or subscribe via email or RSS to receive new content automatically. You can also follow me on Twitter.

© 2004-2009 John Andrew Ledwith, All Rights Reserved

This past Monday night my old roommate Luke got engaged to my next-door neighbor Katie. Both of them are campus ministers with the Navigators at FSU, so as you can imagine this news is making waves in our community. (If you’re getting a weird sense of déjà vu let me assure you it’s well-founded.)

I found out about their engagement Tuesday morning from my roommate Joe. He claimed he told me mostly so that I could tell our roommate JD. Joe hoped if the news came from me that I would be the one to receive JD’s all-but-certain hug. You see, Joe isn’t exactly what you’d call the mushy type. JD, on the other hand, is much more in touch with his emotions. Knowing this, I like to instigate moments of faux conflict between the two of them.

Later that morning I emailed both of my roommates about paying rent. JD’s response was short, sweet and not at all germane to my message, but I used it to my advantage. Enjoy.

Me: [My original message about rent.]
JD: Luke and Katie are engaged!!! :)
Me: Engaged to be MARRIED!!! =D
JD: aaaaaaaaaaaah!! :) :)
Joe: If I could punch you through the Internet, I would. Andrew, we might need to talk to the Embarq guy to see if we can make that happen. [Stuff regarding my original message.] I hope you girls are doing well today.

Worth it.

Congratulations, Luke and Katie!

Visit my site for more, or subscribe via email or RSS to receive new content automatically. You can also follow me on Twitter.

© 2004-2009 John Andrew Ledwith, All Rights Reserved

I chose not to review my previous birthday posts before writing this one, so I could be wrong when I make this claim. But I’m pretty sure each year around my birthday I dwell on the same questions. Do I feel older? Am I really any wiser? How am I using the days I’ve been given? What’s my direction, and did the past year’s direction take me where I thought it would? I become very introspective (and even a bit emo, I’m ashamed to say) whenever my birthday roles around. This year is no different, so let me pull back the curtain a little bit and tell you what I’m thinking about here on my 25th birthday.

Answering the question of whether or not I feel any older than a year ago will shed light on the rest of my annual inquiries. This question has received a different answer each of the last two years. I felt older than dirt when I turned 23, during my first year out of college, after having worked full-time for about a year. I was weathered and worn, and I remember telling some of my friends that I couldn’t imagine living like that for another forty years. A year later my life had changed significantly and I felt much younger as a result. Dave Wirgau, my good friend and former mentor, told me it was because I had been working as a campus minister. “Working with young people keeps you young,” he told me. Maybe so, but as I was celebrating my 24th birthday I had already made up my mind that continuing in that line of work was not in my immediate future.

But here at 25, working a job for the university that graduated me, serving as the old guy in the room for the ministry that raised me, and studying in graduate classes for the career I hope one day will have me, I feel remarkably young. And I owe it to nothing short of the grace of God. I mean that sincerely, not as some overspent cliché. It is my hope that this season, difficult as it sometimes is, will refine my character and not give rise to bitterness. Bitterness is the result of unresolved anger and is bred when a person believes they have the right to be angry. It masquerades as a desire for justice, but is really nothing more than an unforgiving, prideful heart. After two years out of college, having tried out a couple of different paths with little to show for it, all the while watching my peers begin to find answers to some of their questions, the conditions were perfect for my disappointment – my anger – to embitter me. And everything I know about myself tells me that I’m not a strong enough person to have prevented that from happening. I can only conclude that God, rich in mercy, fought the fight to protect my heart even while I was indifferent.

I think Dave made a good point when he opined what was keeping me and him young, but he may have been seeing the trees and not the forest. I now conclude that it’s a sense of joy and a sense of purpose that keeps a person feeling young. When Dave told me that being a campus minister was the cause he was right, because much of his joy and purpose come from his ministry. In truth, I too found instances of joy and flashes of purpose that year, which I think accounted for my newfound feelings of youth when I turned 24. But, as I’ve seen over the past twelve months, there were pieces missing.

At the start of 2009 my friend Andy Farina sent out an email to many of his friends. He encouraged us all to ask ourselves the following questions:

• Who am I? (Or, who has God truly made me to be before I started to seek to mold myself for others approval or to make myself feel valuable/powerful?)
• What do I want? (Only a dangerous question if I am not connecting with God with a willing heart overall.)
• How bad do I want it?
• (Ultimately Key) Am I willing to rearrange my life for what my heart most wants?
• Which spiritual practices and relationships have seemed to be most powerful in meeting the desires of my heart?

Without having ever put them into so many words, I had been asking myself these questions and living out the answers. Since my last birthday I’ve spent more time exercising my primary gifts, namely writing and teaching, and less time trying to fit square pegs into a round holes. I’ve also spent far less time caring about what other people think of me. One of the ways I’ve done that is by giving more time to reading Scripture, letting God tell me who I am. Furthermore, last summer I developed a two-year plan for my life and, so far, I’ve stuck with it. I’ve always been the type of person who is encouraged by steady, measurable progress toward my goals. I think a plan like this was a major piece missing from my life when I first graduated.

These things, and more I’m sure, have contributed to an overall sense of contentment. I say this while looking at the past year as a whole. I still had my down days, no doubt about it. Frustration and doubt continue to haunt me. But if this is my State of the Andrew Address, what I want to communicate overall is a profound sense of hope and peace.

I’m tempted to think that I’ve stumbled upon a formula that, if duplicated year after year, would lead to a lifetime of fulfillment. But I know that a year from now I’ll be staring at the end of my two-year plan, and I really don’t know if I’ll have a good answer for what should come next. I know that as I get older and the weight of my responsibilities increases, it will be necessary for me to take on roles in which I have no experience and perhaps no gifting. And, of course, the temptation to be a big shot in the eyes of those around me will always be there. So years like this past year, one in which a lot of the pieces seemed to line up, might be rare indeed. And I can’t help but wonder, supposing that a year like this may be the exception to the rule, what future season has this present one been preparing me for?

A simple question about how old I feel today gave me insight into my other concerns, like how well I’m spending my days and the direction in which I’m headed. And, if I may be so bold, I think some of what I’m learning about life, identity, and purpose is turning me into a wiser man. I still feel like I’m much closer to being 20 than 30, though that will not technically be true starting tomorrow. I hope this coming year will be filled with as much joy and purpose as this past one, but I understand that what likely awaits me are challenges I’ve not yet encountered or previously overcome. I look to this, my 26th year, with eager anticipation.

Praise the LORD, O my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name. Praise the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits- who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.
~ Psalm 103:1-5

Visit my site for more, or subscribe via email or RSS to receive new content automatically. You can also follow me on Twitter.

© 2004-2009 John Andrew Ledwith, All Rights Reserved

It might seem like this came out of nowhere, since I’ve not been too vocal about wanting to do something like this. But the truth is I’ve had a desire to go overseas on a short-term mission trip for nearly three years now. Specifically, I have wanted to go on a trip that sought to share the Gospel by teaching English to non-native speakers. This year an opportunity became available through Wildwood Presbyterian Church, the church I joined last summer. They partner with a ministry in the eastern part of Berlin that puts on a summer English camp for ten- to fifteen-year-olds. The trip will be from July 14-27. This trip was a perfect fit! I’ve wanted to get more involved at Wildwood, I’ve wanted to teach English overseas, and I have exactly two weeks of leave time from work.

Our team will spend the first few days learning how to serve in the specific role we have each been assigned. We will also learn how to communicate ideas about God to children who have varying levels of English comprehension. The camp itself will have many activities. I will serve as an English tutor and will be partnered with the same two to three kids for the entire week. I don’t speak any German, but I’ve been told this is actually an advantage. (Well, it’s an advantage when I’m around the kids. Things could get interesting when I’m out exploring Berlin.) The participants of this camp have signed up to be immersed in American English as a way to supplement the Queen’s English they are learning in school. Our team aims to immerse these children not only in our language but in the love of Christ and to speak to them about what He has done in our lives.

I am in the process of forming a “sending team,” people who would commit to helping me get to Berlin this summer. There are two parts to this sending team: financial supporters and prayer supporters. I am fund raising in order to go on this trip. God has already blessed me with 26% of what I’ll need. You can contact me if you’d like more information on how you can give financially. At any time you can check out the progress bar on the right-hand side of my website to see how close I am to reaching my funding goal. I’m also in need of people who would be willing to pray for me, both in the weeks leading up to the trip and while in Germany. Right now the biggest needs are for our team to bond prior to leaving and for each of us to raise the money necessary to travel.

I’d really like to answer any questions you may have about what I’ll be doing there, the organization we’re partnering with, or anything else about the trip for that matter. Leave a question in the comments or send me a message.

Visit my site for more, or subscribe via email or RSS to receive new content automatically. You can also follow me on Twitter.

© 2004-2009 John Andrew Ledwith, All Rights Reserved

What do you want your clothes to say about you? Well, now you can take chance out of the equation.

I recently read on Mashable about two different services that will turn your favorite status update into a t-shirt. If you’re like me then you just rolled your eyes.  Status King allows you to take a Facebook status update and create a t-shirt out of it. If you’re more into Twitter, pipe your favorite tweet into TWItoShirt for the same deal. Each shirt will run you about $20, depending on the style you choose.

Now, I’ll admit that I’m a bit of a geek. I even have a couple of geeky shirts (my favorite being my WordPress t-shirt). But this seems a little over the top, even for me. That said, file this under ideas I should have thought up that are making someone good money. (That file is getting thick.)

Your Thoughts

But I’d love to hear what you think. Would you wear a status update t-shirt? What would yours say?

Visit my site for more, or subscribe via email or RSS to receive new content automatically. You can also follow me on Twitter.

© 2004-2009 John Andrew Ledwith, All Rights Reserved