String Theory

Healing is a Choice: Review

Tue, 03 Jan 2012 11:27:33 -0500

Disclaimer: This is a review for booksneeze.com

Healing is a Choice is a classic from New Life. Stephen Arterburn has written several books, and I’d say if you’ve read one and you’ve read them all. Seriously - the content is almost the same in every single book, with a slightly different spin on it.

This book takes the angle of choices you have to make to heal spiritually and emotionally. I’ll jump straight to the pros and cons - I think that’s a fitting format for this book.

Pros

- Real Stories. I love it when authors use stories. Stephen has a ridiculous amount of experience in Christian counselling (being host of the only Christian counselling show, New Life Live), and he shares personal stories and examples for his theories, including his own divorce.

- Proven. A lot of the advice Stephen gives in this book is time tested and sound.

Cons

- Ridiculously Long. The introduction was 21 long-size pages. I’m the type of reader who likes numerous but tiny chapters. This was painful.

- Extra-Biblical. As Sheila has already written, I do agree that the biblical basis for his theories aren’t really there. I’m not saying the book’s against the bible or anything like that, but the book is more common sense and experiential wisdom compared to an exploration of God’s word on the topic.

The Verdict

If you’re a selective reader, skip this book. It’s not worth your time. Listen instead to the New Life Podcast.

If you enjoy reading, give this book a try to get a gist of what New Life’s counselling books are like.

If you’ve never read any book on emotional/spiritual healing, this book might change your life.

If you’re into Biblical counselling as the only means to healing, skip this book. It’ll make you angry.

And there we have it. Healing is a Choice. 2 out of 5.

Say Hello The pitch for Say Hello, a project I worked on during...

Tue, 22 Nov 2011 11:16:05 -0500

Say Hello

The pitch for Say Hello, a project I worked on during Startup Weekend Toronto.

SayHelloAt wins 1st place in Enthuzr Signups

Tue, 22 Nov 2011 11:16:05 -0500

SayHelloAt wins 1st place in Enthuzr Signups:

enthuzr:

As soon as we made the Flying Start Challenge leaderboard live, things started to heat up, with Say Hello, Pictagram and StockFridge leading the pack. In only 24 hours, they got over 100 users each and quite some buzz online.

Me @ Startup Weekend Toronto with the WingMate crew. (I’m...

Sat, 19 Nov 2011 10:01:05 -0500

Me @ Startup Weekend Toronto with the WingMate crew. (I’m on the left)

Thanks TBFF!

rebellionhq: The new Rebellion Site is up! Check it out at...

Tue, 08 Nov 2011 18:02:07 -0500

rebellionhq:

The new Rebellion Site is up! Check it out at http://rebellionhq.com

You can continue to access the community site at http://community.rebellionhq.com

Our hope is that this site will make it easier for you to figure out what we’re about, and help serve you better. We’d love your feedback! Let us know what you think of the new site in the comments section below.

Orphan Sunday: Why Love Orphans? From Kelly Yen: “This...

Sun, 06 Nov 2011 13:02:05 -0500

Orphan Sunday: Why Love Orphans?

From Kelly Yen: “This Sunday is Orphan Sunday. What part will you play in caring for the orphans?”

The Ultimate All-In-One Ruby 1.9 eBook is on SALE for $5!!!

Fri, 04 Nov 2011 12:39:05 -0400

The Ultimate All-In-One Ruby 1.9 eBook is on SALE for $5!!!:

I’ve just recently bumped into the community at RubyLearning.org - they bring together virtual cohorts of wannabe coders from around the world, and help them learn Ruby, Git, and the like.

Satish Talim, the man who started it all, has just created e-pub & mobi versions of his Ruby 1.9 book, and has put it on sale for $5.

I’ve toyed with the book, and it covers everything you need to know about Ruby 1.9, from variables, to blocks, to classes. There’s been so many times this summer where I’ve wondered how to do something in Ruby. With this ebook, I just fire up Kindle, and search for “blocks”, and voila, a chapter on blocks. Neat!

At $5, it’s a steal. Go Get It Now!

Disclaimer: I have written this purely out of joy, and have not been paid by RubyLearning in any way.

Polar Bears are my favorite! When I was young, I wanted to be a...

Fri, 04 Nov 2011 09:43:05 -0400

Polar Bears are my favorite! When I was young, I wanted to be a Polar Bear. And then I found out they were just like normal bears.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 vs. Battlefield 3: Which...

Thu, 03 Nov 2011 11:00:00 -0400

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 vs. Battlefield 3: Which one’s better?

With the launch of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 imminent, I thought it’d be good to take some time to discuss these series. I’ve been playing Call of Duty competitively since Call of Duty 2, and have dabbled in Battlefield since Battlefield 2, all on the PC.

So which one’s better? I’m hoping to help you figure that out by looking at their appeal, as well as the history and future of each of the series.

Their Appeal

Here’s the big differentiator between both the games: Intimacy. This is definitely not obvious, but it’s something I’ve thought about for a long time.

I enjoy Call of Duty. I loathe Battlefield. I’ve got a friend who enjoys Battlefield. And (you guessed it) loathes Call of Duty. Try as I might, I cannot get myself to play Battlefield. I’ve played in the Battlefield 2 & 3 betas, and own Bad Company 2. It’s not my game.

Battlefield is all about the massive scale: Large, Open Landscapes. Vehicles. An Army. Call of Duty is all about the close-ups: Small, Claustrophobic Maps. In Your Face Action. A Team. This is what I mean by Intimacy - Call of Duty is more intimate, and Battlefield is more large-scale. I’m a fan of small scale, 5-on-5 strategic battles. This makes me uncomfortable with the large-scale, 32+ man Battlefield games. Based on this, I prefer Call of Duty. You might prefer Battlefield. And that’s okay.

One last thing to note is that historically Call of Duty has always shipped with a Single-player story-based component, and more recently, a co-op component as well. Battlefield has not always had a story-based single-player component. Bad Company 2 has a good single-player component, which is one reason I purchased it. Battlefield 3 does have a single-player and co-op component.

Their History and Future

Battlefield came first, in September 2002. Call of Duty came out a year later, in October of 2003. Battlefield has shipped 11 Games, while Call of Duty has shipped 8.

They’ve both been very successful.

The Battlefield series has been quite stable, and will continue to be so. It is EA’s flagship title in the modern warfare category, and as such, they are investing a lot into the series. Battlefield’s Battlelog is a testament to this - a self-developed community platform with free voice chat support - quite revolutionary for an FPS shooter (although there are precedents, such as Quake Live). Battlefield is here to stay.

The Call of Duty franchise has historically been quite stable since the first Call of Duty. However, ever since the launch of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, there’s been trouble. The trouble started with the lack of dedicated server or mod support in Modern Warfare 2. This truly was a step backwards in the PC gaming community. The reason dedicated servers are so critical to the PC community is because player-hosted servers are 1) Horrible due to limited internet speed and varied computers/processing power, and 2) Give the player hosting an unfair advantage in terms of latency. The community left player-hosted servers a long time ago in favor of dedicated servers. The lack of Mod Support was highly disappointing as well, since mods increase the life of a game, and allow communities to customize a game to their liking.

The second fumble came with Infinity Ward’s split. Dubbed “The Biggest Break Up in Video Game History”, Infinity Ward lost a lot of developers, and its Key leaders, Jason West and Vince Zampella. The team that left has formed Respawn Entertainment, with help from EA. (I cannot wait to see what they come out with.) This to me is more cause for concern than the lack of dedicated servers in CoD: MW2. Losing the key players who contributed to the series’ success since day 1 will have a big impact.

Modern Warfare 3 was worked on by the remainder of Infinity Ward, and two other studios, Sledgehammer games and Raven Software. The addition of two other studios shows to me that Activision is taking their game seriously, and is doing its best to see it succeed. Watching the latest videos, my “Gamer Sense” tells me that this game will not be better than Modern Warfare 2 in terms of quality. However, Activision has indeed put its best efforts forward to make the game successful, and has more games planned. Call of Duty is not going away anytime soon.

The Winner

So who wins? The answer: Both of them. They have different audiences. While they will have fans in common, they are different games. Battlefield will continue to appeal to the “Huge Massive Large Scale Warfare” fans, but Call of Duty will continue to appeal to the “In Your Face Action” fans. They both have had a stable and consistent past, and will continue to be on the horizon for years to come.

My advice? Pick your favorite, and stick with it. Don’t let the reviews sway you.

Update, 11/3/2011, 11:23am EST: I had wrongly listed the number of Battlefield games as 18 - it is actually 11 with 8 expansion packs. Thanks to rawrjoeynashomg for the feedback!

Project Management gone Agile: Pivotal Tracker

Tue, 01 Nov 2011 10:00:06 -0400

Project Management gone Agile: Pivotal Tracker:

Pivotal has been a breath of fresh air. Last summer, my team and I went through loads of project management tools to find the right fit. It was a nightmare that stretched across several weeks. After much digging, we finally found Pivotal Tracker, and it’s been a huge blessing ever since. Try it out! It could change your dev life.

Enter Skagzilla. In other words, The Dip. Skagzilla is a...

Mon, 31 Oct 2011 11:00:05 -0400

Enter Skagzilla. In other words, The Dip.

Skagzilla is a monster in a game I’ve been playing. Fighting this monster reminded me of Seth Godin’s book, The Dip.

The message of the book is simple - some dips in life are worth it (like following God). Some aren’t (like following bad leaders). Some are going to change you for the better. Others aren’t. Some might not even have an other side.

Skagzilla was a dip I wasn’t ready to face. He was big. He was strong. And try as I might, I could not beat him. The reason: I wasn’t ready yet in the game to face him. He was 4 levels higher than me. And so I decided to quit. That’s another lesson from the book: knowing when to quit.

We need to QUIT the bad dips early - the ones that lead nowhere. And STICK through the important ones - where the goal is worth it.

I think I need to take a peek at the book again.

Have a great week! :)

"Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the..."

Sun, 30 Oct 2011 10:00:06 -0400

““Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the LORD.””

- God, on boasting. Jeremiah 9:23-26, ESV

Notes from "The 10 Mistakes I've made...so you don't have to"

Fri, 28 Oct 2011 11:00:06 -0400

Notes from "The 10 Mistakes I've made...so you don't have to":

This is a link to my personal notes and figures from Tara Hunt’s presentation, The 10 Mistakes I’ve made…so you don’t have to. You can click above or here to access them.

I’m hoping someone out there finds these helpful.

How much RAM can my Macbook have? Finally! I upgraded my 06/07...

Thu, 27 Oct 2011 11:38:06 -0400

How much RAM can my Macbook have?

Finally! I upgraded my 06/07 Macbook’s RAM, and can cut through the uncertainties: The Macbook recognizes 4 GB of RAM, but can use only 3 GB of it.

However, according to MacSales.com,

“Although limited to physically utilizing a maximum of 3GB, there is a performance benefit due to 128 Bit addressing when 4GB( 2GB x 2 Matched set) is installed.”

And now I’ve got 2GB of Macbook RAM to give away - give me a shout if you’d like em! :)

MacBook: Won’t start, flashing sleep light

Wed, 26 Oct 2011 21:16:43 -0400

MacBook: Won’t start, flashing sleep light:

This just happened to me :P - this link was useful in pinpointing the problem and putting me at ease.

doctorswithoutborders: In the Starved for Attention film “Why...

Mon, 17 Oct 2011 11:00:05 -0400

doctorswithoutborders:

In the Starved for Attention film “Why Do We Have To Wait For A Crisis?” photojournalist Lynsey Addario documents the food crisis in Somalia and northeastern Kenya. All children have the same nutritional needs to grow and thrive. It shouldn’t take a war or famine to occur before vulnerable children have access to a healthy diet.

This is one of 195 million stories of malnutrition. Sign the petition and donate your profile to help us rewrite the story.

Photo: © Lynsey Addario/VII

An amazing site! - starvedforattention.org

Sun, 16 Oct 2011 22:12:53 -0400

An amazing site! - starvedforattention.org:

(Scroll down, and keep scrolling)

wow. Maybe some of you know more of the story (please do...

Sun, 16 Oct 2011 11:00:05 -0400

wow.

Maybe some of you know more of the story (please do tell!), but I couldn’t find any justification to this injustice.

Many of you have seen this already, but this is news to me.

This has been in wide circulation since the tweet from @JPBarlow.

Some other sources and related posts I dug up:

1. Digital Journal

2. Jonathan Turley, who mentions two other cases: Homeless Man Steals a $100…

3. The New York Times (Connected to Turley’s post): Prisons Aren’t Nursing Homes

An amazing, out of the box poster from Velocity. (Velocity is an...

Sat, 15 Oct 2011 11:00:05 -0400

An amazing, out of the box poster from Velocity. (Velocity is an incubator I lived in while at UW)

My Thoughts on Courageous: I think it’s the best movie in...

Fri, 14 Oct 2011 11:00:06 -0400

My Thoughts on Courageous:

I think it’s the best movie in terms of production values from Sherwood yet. I liked the story, and the amount of character development and drama they managed to pack in. I kept thinking, the movie is going to end here, but it didn’t. I think they packed a whole TV season in there!

If you haven’t seen it yet, you should see it, if not for the movie itself, then to be inspired by where indie film making can go, and to see the current state of Christian film making.

Peronally, I still like Facing the Giants the best, because at the time it came out, the team I used to lead, TeamJL, was going through similar challenges.

What about you? Which Sherwood movie do you like best? Flywheel, Facing the Giants, Fireproof, or Courageous?