by Bret Capranica | Jun 19, 2009 | Featured Articles, Personal, Technology
[YouTube video blog] What are you favorite iPhone apps? In honor of today’s release of the new iPhone 3Gs (of which I do not own . . . yet), let’s talk about which apps you like most on your iPhone. What? You don’t have an iPhone? O.K., well you need to ask for one for Christmas. So, to indulge in the truly meaningless, here are my favorite apps on my phone – some of which make me more productive and others that balance out my time wasting: Out of the 81 apps on my iPhone here are the ones on my Home Page – my most used and most favorite apps: Address Book. All of my contacts reside here. The iPhone is great with its address book. Searching for names among the hundreds of contacts is very easy. Integrating maps with the address for a one tap step has helped me on many occasions to figure out how to get to someone’s house for a visit. One failing on the iPhone that I had with my Palm Treo (didn’t have it with Balck Berry either), is with one tap I could assign a single ring tone to everyone in my address book. Meaning if someone in the book called, they had a distinct ring. If someone outside the book called, they had another distinct ring. I didn’t even have to look-just listen to know who was calling. Apple is still behind here – though I use the address book very often. Evernote. I can’t say enough about Evernote. It is the best electronic notebook I have ever used (ct.,...
by Bret Capranica | May 28, 2009 | Featured Articles, Pastoral Ministry, Personal, Technology
It”™s time to stop living the lie that I”™ve been living. The struggle has been a drain on my conscience, especially since I have been living one way in secret, keeping even my wife in the dark (sort of). It”™s time to be honest ““ it”™s time to acknowledge not merely a radical change for me, but more of an acknowledgment of who I really am-who I”™ve always really been. I really can”™t keep it a secret anymore. I am a . . . Mac User! Three weeks ago, I bought my first iMac and have been living in both the PC and Mac world since. Two weeks of using both, I can say I”™ve been continually frustrated with my PC and continually satisfied using the Mac. Today that all ends. I have come out of the closet and embraced the Mac way of living. First, a little history. In college, I was a Mac user. My university had two computer labs: a PC lab that most of the students on campus used and a Mac lab in the music and art building. Since I was a music major for a year and half I regularly used a Mac. At that time (late 80s, early 90s), PCs were a drag to use. I wrote all my papers and even did a substantial amount of church work on Macs. However, as I moved into seminary, the world of Mac was simply not as compatible or suggested. So I became a Mac hater ““ why in the world would anyone own a Macintrash? Yet, secretly, I have always been attracted to...
by Bret Capranica | May 21, 2009 | Featured Articles, Personal
Check out the mastery of photographer Chad Martin. Last week, Kelly, Brie, Mya and I had the joy of doing a photo shoot with the very talented Chad Martin. I cannot say enough about how pleased we were with Chad and his graciousness to come to our home, set up and do the photo shoot. I highly recommend him. Take a look ““ he really makes us look good (well, the others look good ““ Chad really helps me out). See Chad’s other work and contact him...
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by Bret Capranica | May 4, 2009 | Personal
I was doing so well ““ that is blogging much more regularly. However, the past three weeks have been a most busy time at the Capranica Villa. In addition to a week of vacation, the rigors of normal ministry and family life, we have had little added activity around here. I changed over [well, really my good friend Chad did the heavy lifting] THE CAPRANICA to its own domain name. There is still a bit to do to get everything working perfectly, but it is done and I’m very pleased with it. WordPress is such a great blogging platform. I also taught a seminar recently at our Association’s Equipped for Excellence Sunday School conference. The seminar was entitled, “How to Plan the Work of Your Church” (it was assigned to me). I enjoyed the prep for this five hour workshop. We discussed how to effectively implement your philosophy of ministry, organize around it and execute it well. I don’t think I do this as well as I like, but I thoroughly enjoyed the preparation, teaching, and discussion ““ and it is an area for constant personal and ministry growth. In order to be finished on time with the 50 page handout for 30 people, the power-point and my notes, I had to pull an all-nighter-I don’t do these as well as I used to and the effects tend to linger a bit longer. I’ve also begun teaching a new class at church on Baptist History and Theology. This has been a great time of study and review for me ““ reminding me of the biblical nature and the historical...
by Bret Capranica | Apr 14, 2009 | Blogging, Personal
The Capranica has successfully moved. Thanks to the help and expertise of one excellent, Chad Martin (who you should look at using for professional photography!), we are now located at a domain name all our own. What has changed? Umm, well, not much really. I hope to be posting more (although I’m on vacation right now and really should be relaxing and not blogging ““ just ask Kel). The entire site with all the thrilling articles of the past are still located here for your enjoyment. One thing that HAS changed are the FEEDS. If you feed THE CAPRANICA, you will need to change to the following: Click HERE for RSS feeds. Subscribe to THE CAPRANICA by Email Thanks to all 10 of you who regularly read (that’s really up from some time ago). I appreciate you dropping by. Now, back to vacation . ....
by Bret Capranica | Mar 27, 2009 | Miscellaneous, Personal, Reading
Ever wonder what tends to shape the mental meanderings of THE CAPRANICA? Welcome, THE CAP-STORE! Through the beauty of the web and the world that is Amazon, THE CAPRANICA can now offer an online store to house books and resources reflective of my personal tastes, convictions, enjoyments, hobbies, interests, etc. THE CAP-STORE is only in its beginning states so far, but will be ever expanding to include books and products you can purchase that have perhaps been reviewed or highlighted here at THE CAPRANICA. Or you can simply reference some of the materials I find intriguing or would recommend reading. Click over to THE CAP-STORE through the link at the top of the page and begin to peruse the...
