Tuesday, October 28, 2008

More Cool Tools & Widgets

At some point I'll write about bouncing from the 1st to the 21st centuries throughout the day. What's with the 1st century? I'm writing about it in my "engaging good humored" way for my next book about the Jewish roots of almost everything Christian. Quite the challenge on many levels, including internally for yours truly. But that's not what this post is about.

This post is about my 21st century adventures. Now that I'm on Twitter and following thought leaders and trend setters in the world of social media, I'm getting access to some very cool stuff. Here are two items you might want to use.

Stop watch: A fabulous and very cute but not cutesy count up and count down meter. I have it on my desktop screen, sized down to nearly unobtrusive, and set to manage my time at the computer. A bell rings when the time runs out. I reset it and keep going. Since I write/break in 45/15 minute rotations, this is very handy and keeps me on task.

Random Bible Verse: Take a look at my blog's sidebar. See the Scripture snippet? This widget was developed by Jason DelGuidice as SacredMint.com. Hit the "refresh" a bunch of times to see how it rotates verses. Now, go get the code and put it on your blog or website.

Not only may you choose among designs, but also from among 16 translations. As you can see, I've chosen the NIV translation. I have my reasons. In fact, I devote an entire chapter of my new book to explaining ways of reading Scripture as well as wassup with different translations. (I do this without using the word, "hermeneutic.")