Cogitations by Brad

I’ve released ExpoSong 0.6! This release includes the following:

• Presentations can now be searched.
• Slide timers make the slides move forward automatically. (Only one time for the whole presentation for now)
• You can import and export both schedules, or the whole library.
• Changed some icons to improve UI.
• Some shortcuts have been simplified to single letters. More to come later.
• A few bugs have been fixed.

Looking forward to next release, here’s a few important things to look forward to:

• Bible verses
• Default slide order for presentations.
• Improved schedules - Planned currently is slide orders, notes, and backgrounds that will be specific to the schedule.
• And, I hope to improve the interface, with a better main screen, and improved background image handling.

Well, after over a year, I’m finally just about ready to make a release. I apologize to any who would like to use this product professionally. This release will include searching the song list, importing and exporting, slide timers, and a few other features and bugs fixed. Look for it in the next few days.

Google Chrome is the new web browser that has changed the way I browse. There’s lots of things I like about it, and lots of bugs that I wish would get fixed.

They’ve really cleaned up the screen space in the program. They combined the title bar with the tabs, which is a real plus. They removed the status bar, which was a bit annoying at first as I like to see what link I’m clicking on, but it turns out the status area pops up when you hover over a link.

I also like that search and the url bar are one bar. It comes in handy when you don’t exactly know if you’re looking for a .org, .net, or .com. It’s pretty hard to go back to Firefox when I get used to Chrome though.

I really miss the “/” to search. In Firefox, you could use “/”, and you would press enter to follow the link. In Chrome, the user must press Ctrl-F, and the enter key goes to the next search result. To follow the link, I either have to click it with the mouse (annoying), or press escape to exit search, and enter.

I don’t quite understand the tab-unresponsive dialog. When the tab stops working correctly, it says I can close it or wait, but the only button on the dialog is “Wait”.

While there are other various bugs, it’s a pretty good program so far. I’ve really been a big fan of Firefox from the beginning, but sometimes it takes a whole new program to create new ideas. I hope to see even more improvements to Chrome, and maybe Firefox will join some of the ideas to create a more stable browser for Linux.

If you maintain a website, my suggestion to you is this: Don’t put a link called “wiki”, or anything else that is the name of the software you are using. If the wiki pages contain your documentation, put “Docs”. “Wiki” explains nothing to me as a person looking at your site. And in the same way, a link titled “wordpress” would mean nothing to some people, whereas most people understand “blog”.

Don’t describe the software, describe the purpose of the webpage.

Note to self, a double slash at the beginning of the URL does not mean the same as a single slash. If you link to “//image.gif”, then the web browser attempts to go to http://image.gif, instead of http://yoursite.com/image.gif.

I should already know this, so here it is for the anyone else who may need it later on as well.

You know what would be really cool? If I could put my own custom comments by each entry in my online banking. Who do I talk to to get this done? Or which bank already has this implemented?

It has almost been 5 months since I made a release, but life has been hectic. I have a few changes here and there, but I’ve found a couple of programs since I now have a windows computer to work on it with.

One that I can’t figure out is in the images. I found that the image presentations were being saved in the xml file as absolute paths, so unless your username was “brad”, and you installed exposong to the same location as I did, the example image presentation didn’t work. I’ve started to fix that, only to find another. It seems as though I have not actually implemented moving the images to the data folder. It’s weird that I missed that.

I’ve started some testing on getting bible verses to work too. It’s going to be hard to fit it into the window, because it’s already starting to feel a bit cluttered, especially with the background selection area. I may need to redesign a bit to get this more streamlined.

I’m starting to wish I had gone with something besides GTK. Getting it working on windows currently takes 4 installers for GTK, 1 for Python, and then unpacking Exposong itself. I’d like to bundle it, but I just have not felt the desire to go and learn how to package it. A volunteer with experience would be great.

Anyways, I’ll start trying to fix some bugs, and I might even put out a minor release around my Thanksgiving break.

I still have a 6 weeks to go, but I am so ready to be done with these classes. This would have to be the worst semester I’ve had. Only one of my classes do I occasionally feel like I’m learning something that’s of value, but oh well, these guys that picked the required courses knew what they were doing 5 years ago; I’m actually being sarcastic, because 5 years ago is a lifetime for technology in the past 20 years, and in actuality, I don’t think it’s important that I learn how to write a feasibility report, or to research what’s going on in the world of banking. If I cared enough, I would watch the news. But I digress.

I don’t actually have a job lined up yet. Tonight, as I can’t seem to fall asleep, I’ve been contemplating what number value for a salary that I will actually need. I think I’ve decided that I could easily live off of $30,000 a year in Lubbock, even though it’s about $20,000 less than the starting salary of someone going into the field. It’s a lot easier not having a family to support, or many bills to pay. I’ve asked my boss about a job, but he hasn’t gotten back to me about it yet. Maybe I should see if he could use me for that low of a price.

I really wish I could put some more work into ExpoSong, but college demands a lot of my time right now. I’m way behind on a project I’m supposed to be doing on my own for credit, but I’ve been halted because I can never seem to schedule a meeting with the man I am doing it for. I feel so pressured for time because these classes demand a lot. I am easily drained when I’m forced to do things that frustrate me, such as these classes, so when I have felt a bit short on time.

I left Tech because I thought LCU would be easier. It was for a while, but now it’s pretty tough. I shall press on though. Wish me luck on my grades.

I was browsing through a Christian bookstore today, and just so happened to pick up a lesson planner that had some ideas about teaching lessons. I don’t remember the title exactly, but it was about the hard teachings of Jesus. I read the first lesson, which covered the rich young ruler, and it gave me a new perspective on the story.

The ruler, even though he had kept all of the commandments, Jesus told him that he had to sell all he had to be able to inherit the kingdom of God. The ruler left, not feeling so good about himself. I always thought the point was that we have to share what we’ve been given, to be generous to others.

The way the author explains it though, he says that the money, and the garments that made him appear as a ruler, defined him in society. It was his money that he had put his hope in in life, and the only way for him to truly be a Christian, he needed to shed off that old societal definition of being rich, young, and a ruler, and to become fully devoted to God.

It’s the same with us. We are defined by our popularity, by the crowd we fit in, and even by our wealth. I see in myself that I often define myself by the way other people see me. Whether I feel like a “fun” person at the time, or slightly boring, often my self-worth is measured by what society tells me. I’ve recently had problems with vehicles, and two incidents happened with my car. When something of monetary value of mine is threatened, I start to worry, and it gives me huge butterflies so much so that I can’t sleep. Jesus tells us not to worry about food or clothing, and yet I can’t even imagine life without a car. I think this was the rich young rulers problem. He was defined by his wealth, and so if he lost it, he would be a nobody.

When we are defined so much by something in this world, we lose our definition as Christians. We put our hope in our jobs, instead of our walk with God. Or maybe our hope is in the car we drive, or the crowd we are with, or even our family. All these things are blessings to have, but they can easily come between us and God.

What’s it going to take for us to be God’s child, to see ourselves by what God sees, and not by what’s on the outside. We need to leave the popular crowd, and reach out to those who are a little lower than ourselves. We have to get out of our mind off of the cars we can’t afford, the clothes that make us look like snobs, and the newest Gadget that might give us a couple of hours of entertainment.

So what is Jesus saying to us. “Leave your best friends, and follow me” (2 Cor 6:14). “Don’t work so many hours at your job; teach your kids about my love.” Jesus tells us to put our teasure in heaven, instead of in things that are just temporary on the earth. What are you defined by?

I attended Haskell Singing School this past week. The song I wrote, I actually wrote 2 years ago, but we had a class over writing harmony parts. It’s the best song I’ve ever done, which may not be saying much. Feel free to use it as you wish. I arranged the parts as well while attending Haskell Singing School. I’ve included the pdf sheet music, a midi file to listen to, and the lilypond source used to create the music.

Romans 15:13 - PDF
Romans 15:13 - MIDI
Romans 15:13 - LilyPond