I’m impressed with the spam filtering of MovableType thus far. I got bombarded with 12 comment spams last night, and it marked marked every one as spam and those comments did not appear in any of my entries. Yay for spam blocking. Now, I just need to tweak my settings so I don’t even get the emails about comments marked as spam.

Well, I’ve settled thus far on a combo of EagleFiler and Evernote. They’ve both been helpful so far and I want to give some of my thoughts on using them together. In other news, we just had our 14 week checkup on The Littlest Hulson, and all is well. Got a B- in Intermediate Greek Grammar, which makes me happy. I thought I was solid C all the way. No other thoughts at the moment. I’m really just posting this to get the juices flowing again.

YOJIMBO VS. EVERNOTE VS. TOGETHER VS. JOURNLER VS. EAGLEFILER Helpful recent blog post about the most recent versions of the popular data management apps. I just downloaded EagleFiler and am surprised at how much more this one is what I’m looking for. More later. I intend on doing some theological writing again, I’m just really trying to get my workflow down because I have realized that my lack of writing has a lot to do with how confusing my workflow has become. Give me patience while I figure this part of my life out. Then I can get back to finishing my thoughts on that Edwards sermon…. ;o)

I’ve been interested in some kind of information manager for a little while, and today marks my first step into the the terrain. I was inspired by John Gruber’s article, Untitled Document Syndrome, in particular what he had to say here:

iTunes became popular and useful before there was an iPod, and before there was an iTunes Store, because it absolved the user from managing music as discrete files in the file system. Instead of putting music files into a folder, all you had to do was put it into iTunes. Once you’ve added a song to iTunes you no longer need to worry about where it actually is in the file system. I remember the confusion I felt when I first started using iTunes. Previously, I had been managing my MP3s through an old application that eventually became iTunes, Sound Jam MP. I had several steps to manage my music: 1. Organize my music into folders and subfolders, usually by artist/album 2. Create playlists 3. Drag the MP3s from those folders/subfolders into the playlists iTunes basically took over Step 1 and did it in the background. What that did was eliminate my tinkering with my music file system ever again. Sure, I tinker with it, but I tinker with it in iTunes, not in the file system. I don’t do folders anymore. Same thing for iPhoto, which offers many great ways I might want to view my photos. Same goes for iMovie. So, what about documents, PDFs, bookmarks, things I’m keeping an eye on on Craigslist, or photos that don’t fit into iPhoto? What about little notes I might have about an idea related to a project? How about Bible study notes, sorted by chapter, verse, book, or topic? More importantly, how do I organize all of those items, especially when a particular document might properly be filed in more than one place? For example, I may take some notes on Ephesians 3:1-13 (my current task) for my current school project, but in the future I want these as references for sermons, conversations with friends, or blog posts? Should I put the document into a school-related folder (~/Documents/School/TBI/Greek/Study Notes) and then put aliases or copies into the Bible study folder? (~/Documents/Bible Study/Ephesians) As you can see, a document can properly be filed in more than one place, because it can have meaning in more than one context. Until now, I’ve been doing the old folder/subfolder routine. The more I’ve been trying to diligently stick with it, the more I’m getting confused with what I have, the harder is to save some new file I may have just created. I’m introducing a lot of annoying steps that require more thought process than I want to give to filing. Enter the need for an iTunes for “the rest of the files.” On my Mac, iTunes handles music, iPhoto handles personal photos, and iMovie handles my home movies. The rest of my files are just kind of “there,” whether it be GarageBand ideas, or what I put into the latest box I took to the attic, or recipes, or date ideas, or user names and passwords, or cheat codes for some Super Nintendo game I’ve been wanting to replay. There are four that are holding my attention, one that I am currently using. They are: 1. Evernote 2. Yojimbo 3. Together 4. ShoveBox I am currently using the first, Evernote. Mainly because, well, it’s free and it works freely on my iPhone, as well as a free web interface so if for some crazy reason I’m without my iPhone and laptop, I can still access my stuff. The others range from $30-$40, and I’m not yet willing to plunk it down ’till I’ve given them a run through. Yojimbo is currently vying for my next attention. It’ll really boil down to which one is best. I’ll post about how I’m using it and why I think it’s useful as I go along. Right now, the main thing it helps me with is tagging. And I’ll write a blog post about tagging soon. @robhulson fires up Things, creates a new entry for posting about tags

Deanna Rayburn (thanks, Rosanna) on how we use our words can affect what we eventually do:

I’ve become much more aware of my own lapses into weak and bloodless language, the words that just lie wanly on the sofa, pallid and undemanding. They have no expectations, those words, and they never inspire any acts of greatness. We say things like, “I’m going to try I’ll do such and such today.” We basically cut our legs from under us when we give ourselves an out, so that when we fail to live up to what we had intended on doing, we can say to others (and more to ourselves), “Well, I just said that I would ‘try.’” This is one of my weaknesses. In my previous blog post, regarding blogging more, I said: I’m going to make a comeback. That has had an effect on my blogging already. BONUS POINTS: Can anyone think of a song that includes the title of this post? Hint: it’s by an Irish band.

Inspired by my wife’s note on Facebook, I typed in “Rob needs” into Google, and here are some results from the first page: 1. Rob needs therapy 2. Rob needs a job 3. Robert needs a new blazer 4. Rob needs a professional profile on Linkedin 5. Rob needs help 6. Rob needs Jesus (cool!) 7. Rob needs a breakthrough in the Holy Spirit (sweet!) 8. Rob needs us to make a donation (awesome!) 9. Rob needs AV Rivals and BvS Sparring buddies

I’ve got a couple of things on my GTD list for my website. The first is making comments easier. Sometime ago I switched to some sort of service because I was getting a lot of comment spam. That was probably two or three years ago, and comment spam blocking has come a long way. The second is probably just a cleaned up home page. The current one is rather outdated for what I’d like. No ETA, but I would like to have it done within the next couple of weeks. I miss blogging. Rosanna was reading one of my old blog posts to me, Risk Taking Love, and it reminded me how much I used to love blogging. I’m going to make a comeback.

Here’s a sampling of the craziness surrounding our beverage of choice tonight. Those Japanese marketing gurus…. Recommended as a good mimosa substitute. And Rosanna’s not drinking more than a couple of sips, so get off my case.

Let’s see how WordPress is compared to MovableType.