Jeff Geerling's blog

Pope Benedict XVI on Catholic Identity in Educational Institutions

Jeff Geerling — Tue, 08 May 2012 14:49:34 +0000

From the Vatican Information Service:

"It is no exaggeration", the Pope added, "to say that providing young people with a sound education in the faith represents the most urgent internal challenge facing the Catholic community in your country".

"First, as we know, the essential task of authentic education ... is not simply that of passing on knowledge, essential as this is, but also of shaping hearts. There is a constant need to balance intellectual rigour in communicating ... the richness of the Church’s faith with forming the young in the love of God, the praxis of the Christian moral and sacramental life and, not least, the cultivation of personal and liturgical prayer".

Read the full article here: The Catholic Identity of Educational Institutions.

Minecraft Patching Guide for Macs

Jeff Geerling — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 15:09:29 +0000

I've watched a few episodes of 'The Minecraft Project' on YouTube for inspiration, and I occasionally play Minecraft for an hour or two as a diversion (it's like LEGOs on a computer, but much more fun, because there are zombies!).

My humble little Minecraft farm.

One thing I've always liked is The Minecraft Project's look and feel, mostly due to syndicate's use of the DokuCraft Light texture pack. However, getting that texture pack to work along with other mods and patches (especially the automatic tool switcher mod) took some work on my Mac, and I thought I'd post my process for getting everything to work here, for the benefit of others having the same troubles (especially those getting the 'Use the patcher noob' messages where water, lava, etc. are supposed to appear):

Switch Minecraft to the default texture pack.
Download and run MCPatcher.
1. If you have problems, delete the entire 'bin' folder from the minecraft directory (in Users/[yourusername]/Library/minecraft/), reopen Minecraft and run it (this will force-redownload all the Minecraft binary files), and then try MCPatcher again).
Download the latest Dokucraft Light texture pack, and place it in the proper folder (on a Mac, drop the downloaded .zip file into Users/[yourusername]/Library/minecraft/texturepacks/.
Download ModLoader and follow the directions in the linked forum thread to install it.
Download AutoSwitch and put the .class file into the minecraft.jar file at Users/[yourusername]/Library/minecraft/bin/minecraft.jar.
1. If the jar file can't be opened like a directory, change the filename to .zip, double-click on it to unarchive it, then put the file into the directory and change the name back to minecraft.jar again.

NOTE: To open the 'Library' folder in Mac OS X Lion, hold down Option while in the 'Go' menu in the Finder, and you'll see 'Library' appear in the list of folders there

Getting Back into Photography - Lens Debates

Jeff Geerling — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 14:31:33 +0000

I'm getting dangerously close to GAS (Gear Acquisition Syndrome), as I've just purchased a dream lens (the Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 VR), and now I'm thinking hard (probably too hard) about whether I should sell a couple other lenses and get a nice f/2.8 wide angle zoom lens.

The Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 is an amazing lens (D3, 70-200mm @ 70mm).

I know that lenses don't define pictures (nor do cameras!), but 95% of my shooting is indoors, and most of that is without any artificial light... meaning a fast lens is never fast enough. I often use a 50mm f/1.4 prime (my 'light vacuum' lens), or a 35mm f/1.8, both of which create pleasing photos on my D7000. However, I've almost always wanted the ability to zoom, because moving back and forward isn't always an option, and switching lenses is a pain.

I bought an 18-105 VR lens, thinking VR could help me get past the slow f/3.5-5.6 aperture... but alas I'm still not happy with this lens. I fear that I won't be satisfied until I try out and acquire either the Nikon 17-55 f/2.8 DX lens, or the 24-70 f/2.8.

I've been reaching out to some fellow photographers on Facebook and Twitter, and gotten some good advice, but what do you think? I'm probably going to look for a used copy of the lens to save 30-40%, and I'll probably end up selling a combination of primes (I have the 35mm f/1.8, 50mm f/1.4 and 180mm f/2.8 right now) to fund this new lens. I would probably end up selling the 18-105 VR as well, as I don't think I could ever go back to more than f/2.8 once I dip my toes in that water :).

[Aside] Another cool photo resource I found recently, which explains the Nikon AF system used in the D7000 quite well, better than Nikon's own manuals: D7000 Focusing Guide. (I was always a bit confused by the different AF-C modes and zones... and it'll be fun to try them sometime at a sporting event).

A Few New Sites

Jeff Geerling — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 18:37:30 +0000

Lately I've been working on finishing a few side projects – some websites, some apps, etc., and I thought I'd list off a few of the things I've done lately here for posterity:

Keith English for Missouri State Representative (website)
I've worked with Keith to make a nice website where he can present his campaign platform and show some of the things he's done for the area he's hoping to represent. The site has some neat little front-end optimizations that I've been playing around with lately.
Before I Do St. Louis - Wedding and Event Planning (website)
My good friend, Jenny Madras, has recently started her own business planning events and weddings in the St. Louis area, and it seems she already has some great clients! I'm excited for her, and was glad to help her make a very simple but elegant website.
Jeff Geerling's Portfolio (website)
For a year or so, I've had a very basic HTML5-based website set up at jeffgeerling.com, but lately, I wanted to port it to Drupal and start building out a better portfolio of my work. Progress is slow, but the basic site is done, it runs fast, and it's a responsive design, so it should look pretty good on mobile devices!
flocknote (website)
I've been working like crazy on flocknote (my full-time gig) the past year, and we recently added a ton of new features and gave the entire website a makeover. If you're doing any kind of Catholic communication work, check it out!
Mac Apps, iPhone Apps
I've been polishing up Quick Resizer (a simple/fast image resizing program for the map), and I'm working on two different iPhone apps and an Android app right now. More news to come on that front sooner or later!

Marriage is great, and my wife and I just reached our 1.5 year anniversary. I hope to write a few more anecdotes about the married life soon—stay tuned!

Camera and Lens Rentals in St. Louis, MO

Jeff Geerling — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 15:37:39 +0000

For the past few years, when shooting large events in indoor spaces (such as the 2010 Priesthood Ordination Mass), I've rented camera bodies and lenses from BorrowLenses.com, a great online rental store, with pretty much any lens or camera body you'd ever want to use (especially if you're like me and could never justify the cost of purchase!). I highly recommend BorrowLenses (though I have also used and liked LensRentals.com and RentGlass.com).

This year, however, I decided to look into whether it might be more advantageous to use a local camera shop. I found that both Schiller's and Creve Coeur Camera offer camera and lens rentals, but both have more limited selections. However, the lens and camera body I need are usually available at Schiller's, I don't have to pay shipping (pick-up only, but the store is nearby), and I can pay a one-day rental rate for a weekend (most of the events I use the cameras for are on Saturdays).

So, this year, I've saved over $100 in shipping/insurance fees by renting locally. And, I got to talk to someone over the phone to get everything sorted out.

If you live in St. Louis and need one of the $1,500+ Nikon lenses or $5,000+ Nikon camera bodies for a day or two, I'd highly recommend Schiller's. (I don't recommend CCC only because their prices are a little higher, and I've had some bad customer experiences with them in the past).

Life is a Prayer - Looking great on your smartphone!

Jeff Geerling — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 01:58:38 +0000

For the first time ever, I decided to make one of my personal sites look good on mobile phones by incorporating 'responsive' design. Basically, I use some spiffy CSS to say "when you're viewing Life is a Prayer.com on an iPhone, or Android phone, or a window smaller than x pixels, change the layout of the site so it's a LOT easier to read.

So, if you have a mobile phone that runs iOS or Android, whip it out really quick, head over to Life is a Prayer.com, and tell me what you think (even the comment form works great now!).

If you don't have a smartphone, but you use a modern web browser, try making the browser skinnier until you see how the content on the site re-flows (and images resize) so they fit the window a bit nicer!

I'll be blogging more about responsive design and how easy it is to get a design 90% of the way there over on my Midwestern Mac blog, but I just wanted to post this here for historical relevance and to give people an example of a responsive design that doesn't make the website unusable or radically different.

October Baby - Movie Review

Jeff Geerling — Sun, 25 Mar 2012 18:29:49 +0000

After receiving the typical deluge of 'new faith-based movie coming soon!' marketing emails from The Maximus Group, my wife and I decided to go watch October Baby last night.

I'll just offer a few observations here, as I don't want to get into a full-on review, especially since there are hundreds of more-detailed reviews online. To preface this review, I'm going mostly on techincal/production quality merit... the story was compelling, and the movie is worth watching, but I don't feel this movie was worth a full $10+ ticket price at a movie theater.

Not a Hollywood movie.
We're definitely getting closer... but this is still not a 'Hollywood-level' movie. The sound mix had multiple glaring problems, many shots had focus point problems, some framing was a bit off/distracting, and there were a few scenes that were cut at TV-level (or worse) quality. I really, really wish these faith-based films could get to the point where, technically, at least, they were on-par with lower-budget Hollywood films, and didn't remind me of 1990s Hallmark Hall of Fame TV flicks.
About that sound mix...
When a sound mix distracts from the visual content of a movie, you have a problem. There were a few times this happened: when sitting on a dock, the lead male actor's phone rang (from inside his pocket, center screen), but the phone was so quiet, and to the right/back side speakers in the surround mix, that it sounded like it was in another theater! Also, when songs were mixed in with dialog, it sounded like iMovie/GarageBand's automatic ducking feature was used, as the music went so quiet at times it sounded like the theater was playing it's background mix (the one that plays while ads are rolling before a movie).
Not a Hollywood budget.
It's hard to compete with movies that cost hundreds of millions of dollars when you're operating on a shoestring budget. It looks like October Baby is on track to make a few million dollars (see: October Baby on Box Office Mojo), but not much more. I hope the studio recoups the money they spent, at least. It'd be interesting to know the movie's budget, and how much was spent on marketing (I'm imagining less than a million).
More editing would've been better.
There were a few sequences and scenes that had way too much unnecessary 'filler' material that detracted from the main storyline. The whole 'let's go on a wild road trip' thing was definitely not interesting, and offered only a couple quick gags at the expense of about 10 minutes of film, without adding any emotional depth or character development. If something isn't contributing to the story, drop it.
Pick-up shots needed.
Going along with the first point, there are a few scenes where individual shots were oddly-framed, or the focus was slightly off. When the audience notices details that aren't relevant to the story (like a large sign on a building, or a phone number on a door that has nothing to do with the story), it distracts from the movie. In big-budget films, editors would notice these things and ask the production crew to go get some pick-up shots to replace the bad shots from earlier. But it seems this movie (like most lower-budget faith-based films) didn't do this.

[Warning: Potential spoilers ahead!]

I'm not saying, by any means, that this movie was a bad movie. It definitely makes one think about the consequences of abortion; and helps people realize that not every abortion is 'successful'. One of the scenes I really though had impact was when the biological mother reacted to her daughter's note; I wish her storyline would've gotten more room in the movie, because hers was probably the strongest performance in the cast!

One other quibble I had was with the adoptive father's strange schizophrenic behavior; he seemed to be loving, then uncaring, then kind-of loving, then angry, etc. It seemed to me he would've been a little more effective as a character if he would've been more consistent in his attitude about revealing his daughter's true history, and conversational with his wife (who seemed to have almost no role in the movie whatsoever).

The main character (a female lead portrayed in a good light, strong-willed and chaste—that rarely happens in Hollywood fodder...) definitely has a good career ahead of her; she acted very well with what she was given, but her character didn't seem to develop organically throughout the movie. It seemed like some of the emotional symptoms that were somehow caused by a botched abortion just fell away once she forgave her biological mother and adoptive father. I've never seen such an instant conversion of heart before, but it is a movie...

Finally, I don't know from where the movie drew inspiration for the doctor, but I have met very few doctors in real life who would even consider abortion to be the cause of anything negative (physically or psychologically), because their medical world feeds them constant lies about how safe and good abortion (and related ill-conceived medicine) is. Sadly, this is something that we'll have to pray about.

Conclusion: I don't feel the movie was worth $10.50, as I feel it was a made-for-TV quality production. But I would watch it again, and I do recommend the movie to anyone involved in the pro-life / pro-abortion debate. It's not the most fully-fleshed out argument in favor of a pro-life viewpoint, and has flaws, but it's a good point of discussion.

St. Louis Catholic Business Owner Sues HHS over Contraception Mandate

Jeff Geerling — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 02:14:34 +0000

Frank R. O'Brien, owner of O'Brien Industrial Holdings, has filed a lawsuit against the US Department of Health and Human Services because the recent contraception mandate violates his right to freedom of religious belief.

CBS News reports:

The lawsuit marks the first legal challenge to the HHS mandate from a private business owner and his company. Until now, only religious organizations or institutions have brought lawsuits challenging the mandate. ...

[American Center for Law and Justice representative Francis J. Manion says] "The HHS mandate tells people like Frank O'Brien that they have to choose between conducting their business in a manner consistent with their moral values, or conducting their business in a manner consistent with the government's values. The constitution does not allow the government to impose such a choice."

It'll be interesting to see where this goes. And no, HHS, making insurance companies pay for the contraceptives instead of the small business itself is not different; you're still violating conscience rights, and for what?

If you can, please show support (either through prayer or direct contact) for Mr. O'Brien and those who oppose this ridiculous mandate.

More Information: Direct link to the lawsuit documents (PDF)

Deleted my Google+ Pages

Jeff Geerling — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 23:04:04 +0000

I've maintained social pages and accounts for the more popular business ventures and websites I run on Facebook and Twitter for a few years now. These pages and accounts have driven a good amount of traffic to my sites (and they would drive more if I put more time into making them more relevant/personal).

When Google+ announced pages similar to Facebook's, I quickly set up a page for each of the same sites. But since I don't have time to manually post and manage each of these pages, they sat dormant since the day I set them up.

Plus, nobody 'circled' any of them.

Plus, nobody's really on Google+ anyways, besides the regular early-adopter crowd that, like me, jumps from new service to new service just to test it out and see what's neat and what's not.

Plus, Google+ doesn't have a real API that provides any value to me. Heck, I can't even have my site post an update to a Google+ page automatically... that's like feature #0 that should be in the API.

Like a rotary telephone, Google+ is not really relevant.

So, anyways, I haven't really posted much on Google+ in the past few months, and I'll probably end up not posting at all sooner or later. You can still find me on Twitter and Facebook.

Maybe if Google+ becomes relevant, and builds a useful API, I'll come back. As it is, the only neat thing about Google+ that provides any value to me over Facebook or Twitter is the Hangouts feature.

Pope Benedict on Silence

Jeff Geerling — Sun, 11 Mar 2012 20:28:19 +0000

Continuing his Lenten messages pertaining to the value of silence in our lives, Pope Benedict XVI delivered another pointed message at this past Wednesday's general audience:

The interplay of word and silence that marks the prayer of Jesus during his entire earthly life—especially on the cross—also touches our own lives of prayer, in two ways. The first concerns our welcoming of God’s Word. Interior and exterior silence are necessary in order that this word may be heard. And this is especially difficult in our own day. In fact, ours is not an age which fosters recollection; indeed, at times one has the impression that people have a fear of detaching themselves, even for a moment, from the barrage of words and images that mark and fill our days.

He continues, speaking specifically of personal prayer and liturgy:

This principle – that without silence we neither hear nor listen nor receive the word – applies above all to personal prayer, but it also pertains to our liturgies: in order to facilitate an authentic listening, they must also be rich in moments of silence and unspoken receptivity.

Even Sunday choir liturgies, youth Masses, etc. still need moments (more than a few seconds—preferably a minute or two at least) of silence to facilitate the recollection of which Pope Benedict speaks. Please encourage your liturgy planners, priests, and musicians to work towards a goal of proper amounts of silence in liturgy! There are few parishes that consistently provide me enough time after communion (or heck, even after Mass) where I can quiet distractions enough to actually pray in thanksgiving for the gift I have just received.

HHS Mandate - Why Birth Control?

Jeff Geerling — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 16:17:52 +0000

I've been thinking about this lately—especially after the uproar having to do with the Georgetown student and Rush Limbaugh—but why haven't more people questioned the fact that the HHS mandate only provides free birth control, and not a hundred and one other drugs that are, in fact, much more helpful to the saving of lives? The Crescat, in fact, is also thinking about this (why free birth control...).

Birth control, let's face it, can be helpful for one of two goals:

Sexual relationships without 'consequences' (or, to put not too fine a point on it, women being able to have sex without pregnancy as a result).
Limiting the expansion of the human population (eugenics).

Either one of these two goals is not something I want my tax dollars supporting. Besides the fact that I'm morally opposed to all forms of artificial birth control, I'm also opposed to paying for other people's sexual gratification, and I'm extremely opposed to population control.

Why, if we're going to take millions or billions of dollars of people's money and use it for free drugs, does this money not go to insulin, to healthy diet programs, to subsidization of healthy foods (veggies, fruits, etc.), or to cancer treatments? Actual lives would be saved through these kinds of measures. If we're going to become a socialist society (at least in terms of healthcare), we should start funding more essential drugs, and not drugs that encourage promiscuity and population control...

What do you think?

Old Mac of the Month - Macintosh IIci (on 512 Pixels)

Jeff Geerling — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 20:26:34 +0000

This month, my old Mac story about a IIci was featured on on the excellent Apple-related blog 512 Pixels, by Stephen Hackett: Old Mac of the Month: Macintosh IIci.

I briefly mention the IIci in my (not-yet-complete) Computing History article here on Life is a Prayer.com. I really liked the IIci, and it's probably one of my favorite Macs of all time, especially considering I probably owned and used it the longest!

Special thanks to my brother and dad, who not only helped me get into electronics and computing, but also helped me edit the article.

Life will find a way...

Jeff Geerling — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 21:32:35 +0000

This week I've been visiting doctors, getting checkups, getting tests, and generally being a lab rat. My health has been better, so any prayers you could spare could be appreciated... but enough about me!

Since I've been feeling not-so-good lately, and since the whole HHS mandate fiasco's been so annoying to me, I've felt relatively pessimistic in the past week.

Well, during one of the many waiting room visits (I hesitate to call them doctor visits, since I usually spend more time in the waiting room ;-), I heard a lullaby play over the hospital's PA system. Nobody seemed to notice it, but I asked one of the receptionists what the lullaby meant (I figured maybe it was employee nap time or something like that, being 3 in the afternoon...).

When she told me that a baby was just born in the labor and delivery area, a little tear caught in my eye. What a great thing to have happen while I was sitting there!

A few days later, I was back in the waiting area for a while, and just before I was called to get a test done, I heard the lullaby again (awesome!)... and about a minute later, another lullaby!

Sometimes these little moments can turn a day around 180°. I'm still pretty happy to have been at the hospital during three births, and I'm reminded that, as Malcolm says in Jurassic Park, "Life finds a way." Life finds a way to bring you back to hopefulness. Life finds a way to remind you that death and cancerous beliefs in society (like the contraceptive culture's belief that it's a positive influence) will not be victorious in the end.

I'm feeling a little better now.

Obama's HHS 'Concession' is no concession at all

Jeff Geerling — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 20:06:37 +0000

I usually avoid writing about politics on this website, but the recent Health and Human Services coverage mandate debacle has annoyed me to no end, as I feel that it's one of the first incisive and direct attacks on the freedom of my religion I've witnessed.

Basically, the mandate is telling me (if it is ever enforced), "The U.S. Government has the right to make its citizens pay for whatever the U.S. Government deems necessary for whatever reason, even if a citizen is morally opposed due to a religious belief." In a way, this happens from time to time (like with a war I don't support), but never as a direct, out-of-pocket expense, like that of my health insurance premium (something for which I pay more than my residence).

The key here is the separation of Church and state, and the first amendment of the constitution, which clearly states the government's mandate to not prohibit the free exercise of religion. Forcing a religious employer to pay for something it believes to be wrong means the government is meddling in my religion (and the whole line in the compromise about the 'insurance company paying for it, but the religious institution not' is hogwash. Anyone that believes the pay will not come out of our pockets needs an education in fundamental economics).

Asides

Besides the attack on religious freedom, who says that birth control is a fundamental women's healthcare right (which will be free for all women, everywhere), while other things (like breast cancer treatments, childbirth admittance, etc.) are not? I know many population-control theorists would presume that birth control is the answer to all life's problems... but do we want to take their unproven theories and violate religious freedom (and pay for convenience medication*) because of them?

Additionally, it has come up time and time again in this debate that many Catholics (if not most) don't even believe what the Catholic Church teaches—namely, that artificial birth control (as opposed to something like Natural Family Planning) is intrinsically evil, meaning it should never be used in any situation whatsoever! (And is the government going to mandate NFP coverage? Meh, don't get your hopes up...). This is a sad, sad reality that only time and proper catechesis will heal.

I also keep hearing 'Church haters' (as I'll call them) parroting the old line "Nobody wants 13 children anymore! The Church should get out of the middle ages."

Many people do want 13 children, and would raise all those children to be prosperous, wonderful adults who would contribute much to our world. However, the Church only teaches responsible parenthood (part of modern NFP... there's no such thing as 'Catholic roulette' anymore). This means that each married couple is called to plan their families in conformity to God's will for them, but in such a way as to ensure all their children will be well-cared-for, educated, and holy. Most Catholic families who practice NFP don't have too many kids. They have just the right amount.

A law that mandates artificial birth control (and even some abortifacient drugs—I maintain that a fertilized egg is a human life) is a slap in the face to any Catholic, and any person who realizes what a scam this is.

Quick Resizer - My first Mac App

Jeff Geerling — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 17:14:04 +0000

I've created a few iOS and Android apps for mobile devices and tablets, but just a few days ago, my first 'desktop' app (for Mac OS X 10.7+) was released on the Mac App Store.

Behold, Quick Resizer ($0.99 on the Mac App Store):

I created the app mostly because I realized I would often drag an image to Photoshop to simply resize it from something like 1024x768 to 500 pixels wide, constrained. Quick Resizer makes resizing JPEGs and PNG files super-easy, and everything can be done from the keyboard (or the mouse, if you're so inclined).

Developing for the Mac is a bit different than the iPhone, but Objective-C and the libraries included are very similar, so it wasn't like creating the first iOS app!

If you like the app, feel free to rate the app on the Mac App Store after you buy it :)