I sit in front of a computer a lot. And it really isn’t because I love computers all that much — I do not. But I do love to search out information, create, and think. And I can do all three of those at the same time on a computer.

And the tough thing is that, as far as I can tell, the majority of the non-directed time I spend not working on a video (Sony Vegas MS) or a web site (MT or Photoshop) or programming (PHP, learning a new language) is spent on useful things, not time-wasters like the Flash game sites or PC games or YouTube. At least 95% of my non-directed computer time is devoted to blog/RSS-reading, Amazon (reviews), and Wikipedia (Michael from The Office states convincingly: “Wikipedia… is the best thing ever. Anyone in the world can write anything they want about any subject, so you know you are getting the best possible information.”). I read this week about solar cooking and paper construction (Timothy has been fervently cutting and folding paper toys).

Last Wednesday night, when I should have been in bed reading, I was reading through a comment thread I found linked from TeamPyro. I was standing, with one knee in my chair, and I did not move for almost an hour while I read. And I even skipped a lot of the comments.

I can seldom read Tim Challies, Albert Mohler, TeamPyro, Theologica, or Tribalogue for fewer than 10 minutes each. I get behind on their RSS feeds and always find myself having to catch up. And these are good blogs. They make me think deeper about doctrine, faith, evangelism, and so many other topics, and result in an emphasis in my understanding of the importance of reading my Bible.

So the cramps are both physical and mental. But they are quite real, and often painful. And I have little desire to “correct” these habits.

And this is why I so much enjoy grabbing a book and sitting on the couch next to Tami, with a cup of hot coffee and no noise. But that leads to the fully related but separate topic of “life simplification,” and that deserves another post at another time.

Here are some of the things recently heard from the mouths of our children.

“He’s kinda cute when he cries.” Timothy, speaking of Isaiah.

“It’s a little bit chunky.” Lindsey, offering a critique of the first batch of pudding she ever made all by herself.

“Gee gee!” Isaiah, running to Grammy when she stopped by the other day.

About six months ago, our eight year old Hi-8 camcorder finally died. I have been working to get the Hi-8 tapes cut to DVDs, which is a long process involving lots of cables, hard drive space, and patience. But it sure is a lot of fun!

Two months ago our digital point-and-shoot camera died, at only three years old. Frustrating, but it does provide a bit more push for me to move to a digital SLR within the next year or so.

Yesterday we received our new camcorder. It is a Panasonic PV-GS320 MiniDV camera. I hope to do a post later that explains some of my reasoning for selecting this specific camera, and references to many of the sites that influenced my decision.

The manual is a prime example of how not to document a product. But the camera… wow. Somehow now that we own one it sure seems a lot smaller than I remember handling in the stores. But it is simple and very easy to use, and the little video I have captured so far seems outstanding. I have a lot more playing to do with workflow for backups and productions, but the ease and convenience of getting video from the camera to the computer is outstanding.

More to come later!

Documentaries available for free online.

Utilikilts — “We Sell Freedom”

If this is real, it sure is fast.

Amazing images and video of the sun. What an awesome Creator we have!

Tim Challies linked to this Piper post two days in a row. It really is a “must read.”

I just read Al Mohler’s column on Family Time vs. Church Time

According to the article Mohler references, families are increasingly choosing non-church activities over church activities when presented with the need to choose. This is likely more often the result of misplaced priorities (selecting “the world” before “Christ”), but it would be easy to assume this is always the case. I would suspect that Pop Warner has more spiritual impact than the teaching at a lot of today’s churches.

Be sure to read the entire article, or you could miss this:

When “church time” is seen as a competitor to “family time,” something is wrong at church. When family members hardly see each other at church activities, the congregation needs to take a quick inventory of its concept of ministry.

And if you make it all the way through the article, you would have seen the discussion of a Pastor’s life.

I had no idea the amount of criticism that senior pastors continually get. It just never ends. No matter what decision you make, you’ll always have somebody on the other side. That’s really hard for spouses, just to see the person that they love continually under criticism.

It is a great reminder to pray for your pastor and his family.

I was blessed to have been allowed to participate in a class this past weekend that introduced a method of Bible study known as arcing. Living Water Church was unbelievably generous in making such an opportunity available, and Tom Stellar and Jason Abell were incredibly gracious and kind to devote a weekend to teaching the small group of about 60 people.

It is frustrating that there is not more time and effort in our churches to devoted to teaching Christians how to study the Bible, whether the method is arcing, word study, inductive study, or any other method. We have strayed far from the “striving” and “treasuring” attitudes that we should have toward Scripture — It is God’s chosen method of revealing His mind and will to us!! As Piper says in the study book we used, “…if God humbled himself to take on human flesh and to speak human language, woe to us if we arrogantly presume to ignore the humanity of Christ and the grammar of Scripture.”

As is commonly the case with John Piper’s material, the booklet that very (very!) briefly explains the basic mechanical aspects of arcing is available at no charge.

Alan Groves was a professor of the Old Testament at Westminster Theological Seminary. He celebrated his homecoming early this month.

Here is a bit of a glimpse into the details of his death. But if you do not read that, at least take a few minutes to read his letter.