by Greg

Macworld 2009: Some Pretty Cool Updates

Well, the keynote is over, and the announcements have been made (iLife ’09, iWork ’09, iWork.com, new 17″ MacBook Pro, and even a DRM-free iTunes!) And while there was no Steve… there were some pretty neat things.

Check out the extensive video tutorials for both iWork ’09 and iLife ’09. Some really amazing new features in iLife like face recognition, amazing integration of geo-tagging, and a greatly improved iMovie app.

No time to go in depth here, but definitely worth the upgrade. Both iWork and iLife are $30 off through April 20 with the purchase of a new Mac. And you can buy a Mac Box Set (Leopard, iLife 09, and iWork 09) for $169. (That’s a really good deal, actually.)

Come by my Apple store and check it out! 🙂

by Greg

No Steve Jobs = No Fun?

Today at 1pm EDT, Apple fans all around the world will be tracking the always greatly anticipated announcements to come from the keynote presentation at the annual Macworld Convention and Expo in San Francisco, CA. But this year, the keynote will be a bit different. And perhaps less highly anticipated than usual?

No Steve Jobs.

This year, one of the most famous CEOs on the planet will not be presenting the reports on Apple’s progress, the new products, and he most certainly won’t be uttering his now-famous line, “One more thing…” Does that mean Apple will not be announcing any new products of any significance? Is it just because this is the last Macworld that Apple will be attending?

Will it still be FUN????

Seriously. This day just after Christmas has been just as big (and fun) as any holiday for Apple fans around the globe. It used to be even more, but Apple has begun announcing product updates and releases much more on their own schedule, and throughout the calendar year over the past several years. They have already diminished the significance of the first Tuesday in January, but … still…

My thought is that it’s a little bit of everything. Life changes. Obviously, Apple has decided that the big trade show/convention deal is not in their best interest. (Even one with their name in it!) So, that is a change. Eventually, Steve Jobs will move on from Apple. That will be a change. Life is change.

Today, I, along with Apple fans all over the world, will be following along (as we are wont to do) as Apple moves forward. A bit unceremoniously (last Macworld keynote… no Steve Jobs…) but I’m sure to more FUN in the future. 🙂

I may have a report here later regarding whatever “FUN” Apple announces today.

[NOTE: I am writing this as a fan of Apple, not as an employee of Apple, Inc. I have no special knowledge, or inside information on products or personnel or anything of the sort. So don’t ask.] 🙂

by Greg

University at Buffalo – BOWL GAME!

UB BullsI am actually an alumnus of three different universities. All undergrad. All within four years after completing high school. That’s kinda strange, but does give me a few teams to root for.

One of those is playing in a bowl game today!

At 1:00pm on ESPN2, you can see the UB Bulls take on UConn (do they have a football team?) in the International Bowl (I think) up in Toronto, Canada. (What is it with Buffalo teams playing in Canada???)

UB actually is not only competitive this year… they’re pretty good! We’ll be rooting them on here.

Also, as a little piece of trivia… way back in the spring of 1994, the UB football team roster included this name: Greg Campbell.

It’s true! But I gave up my career in football to pursue a degree from Cincinnati Bible College and helping people learn to live with Jesus. That’s been an interesting ride! Not what I would have expected. But, I definitely wouldn’t change anything.

I just might be picturing me out there catching passes in the UB blue today… 🙂

by Greg

Music Added to our Library in 2008

And, just for fun… been listening to our “Added in 2008” playlist the last could days. Here’s a sample of some of the music we added to our collection in the calendar year 2008. (Again, random order.)

  • Chris Tomlin: Hello Love
  • Santana: The Anthology
  • Wings: Wings Greatest
  • Derek Webb: The Ringing Bell
  • Chris Rice: Short Term Memories
  • Paul McCartney: Give My Regards to Broadstreet
  • Sixpence None The Richer: My Dear Machine EP
  • Derek Webb & Sandra McCracken: Ampersand
  • Alex Mejias: Alex Mejias
  • Michael Jackson: Thriller (with video!) 🙂
  • Watermark: The Purest Place
  • Sandra McCracken: Gravity | Love

And some other stuff, too. 🙂

by Greg

Year In Review: 2008

I know, this is a little late, but… on our trip down to visit family in Ohio, all seven of us compiled a list of the best things we could remember from 2008. (OK, maybe not too much from Emma…)

This is what we came up with: (in no particular order, except for the first one!) 🙂

  • Emma Caroline was born! – Mar 13, 2008

  • Started working for Apple – first selling computers, then training people to get more out of them

  • Jen started working for IBPS (in her spare) time) 😉

  • Ian turned 10!!!!

  • Celebrated 5 years of owning our house. (Well, 5 years of paying a mortgage anyway…)

  • The Vs Moved Away 🙁 (This was a pretty big event for us in 2008, too!)

  • Greg’s sister and family moved to Clarence – much closer!

  • Got our first membership to Strong Children’s Museum

  • Made the decision to completely stop using credit cards. So far so good.

  • Got a new computer!

  • (and Madden 08!) 😉 … seriously, that was a major part of 2008 for Alex, Ian … and Dad 😉

  • Went to a couple Bills games – Lions, Chargers

  • 4th season of Buffalo Bills Review: featured shows with Steve Christie, Jerry Sullivan, Donte Whitner, Tom Calderone, and added some Ball Burglar friends

  • Didn’t go to Ohio to visit family! Crazy!! (Did get there on 1/1/09… 😉

  • basic: sang with Scott & Leah at ABY Convention, but not much else! Was a quiet year!

  • Kirstie made friendship bread! 🙂

  • Enjoyed watching: Psych, Monk, and the BUFFALO SABRES

  • President Obama (not really a Campbell family thing, but was a big event from 2008…)

  • Leaped a Year! 🙂

  • Sabres weren’t in the playoffs, Bills weren’t either, but the UB BULLS ARE! 🙂

  • Boys played baseball and soccer!! (And were awesome!)

  • Went to our first Amerks game!!!

  • Watched the Summer Olympics: Diving, Running (Track & Field)

  • Kept various friends children for a few days at a time

And that was our 2008! 🙂

by Greg

Mac Tip: Repair Permissions

For some reason, this little feature in Mac OS X 10.5 Disk Utility (and previous iterations of OS X) keeps popping up as a solution lately. I thought perhaps readers of this blog might benefit from a little reminder, and quick tutorial for performing this routine maintenance task.

First, what it is not. It is not “defragging” your computer. (Spell check doesn’t like that word.) Windows users frequently ask for a way to do such a thing on the Mac, but to my knowledge there is no way built into Mac OS X to do such a thing, other than what happens at log in. Mac OS X does perform similar tasks each time you log in to your computer.

What it does do is explained in this support article from Apple. I don’t completely understand it, but what it does seem to do is take care of “quirks” that pop up every now and again. It could be a computer that seems slow, or files not behaving the way you think they should… I have prescribed it a lot recently, and it seems to do the trick.

How it’s done:

  • Open the application Disk Utility (find it using Spotlight, or go to Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility
  • Select your hard drive from the list on the left side of the window.
  • Click on “Repair Permission” button near the bottom middle of the Disk Utility window.
  • Depending on how often you do this, it could take a few minutes or longer.
  • Disk Utility will let you know when permissions have been repaired. Close it down, and you’re all done.

For good measure, you can log out and back in. (Or restart the computer.)

If you’ve been noticing “quirks”… give that a try and see if it improves performance on a sluggish or quirky Mac!

by Greg

Bailouts

As you are well aware, I do not frequently comment on things in the political realm here. Mostly because it either seems irrelevant to me, or too annoying to talk about anyway. (Or, too volatile to post thoughts here… why are some people so tied to their political thoughts/beliefs/affiliations??)

But today I saw the first “bailout” news I really felt I could applaud.

I’m sure you are well aware of all the government efforts to “bailout” various private institutions. Banks, mortgage lenders, other creditors, and most recently, the auto industry. Chrysler announced cut backs, extended layoffs, and various things indicating they are in serious trouble. The thought behind these bailouts is that if these giant foundational pieces of our economy were to “go under” then our entire economy would collapse. And, that would be bad.

But not entirely.

When poor choices are made, the consequences of those choices are bad, painful, difficult, hurtful, etc. What the government is doing is trying to avoid the natural consequences of these poor decisions. But the problem is, they are just borrowing more money (in the trillions) to “bailout” these large industries. Who is going to bail them out? Who is going to bail us out??

Who is going to pay this debt, and how?

So, when I saw this headline (thanks to a Twitter post by Scott) I felt good about one company in America. I was proud to see Ford state publicly that they do not want/need the government’s short-term financial assistance. Their plan is to restructure their business and make wise choices to keep going – without a hand out from the federal government. And I applaud them.

I don’t think it would be a bad thing if these institutions were allowed to suffer the consequences of their spending choices. All will balance out. Someone new will rise to the occasion. Jobs will be found. The economy will get over the bump in the road. It may be a big bump, but it might be a deserved bump. Dumping more money (that doesn’t really exist) into the problem will only exacerbate the problem.

So, I applaud Ford, and though my loyalty has been to General Motors, thanks to my Dad’s working for them for 31 years, I admit to adding a big star next to their name on my imaginary star chart on my wall. They are now (if they stick to this) one of my favorite American companies.

Maybe one day the government will stop meddling in private sector business… but I’m not thinking it will stop for at least the next four years. Hopefully more of the private sector will say, “No thanks.”

by Greg

Santa Claus to the Rescue!

SantaWe went out tonight to a cool old, historic house (Sonnenberg Gardens) to hear our friends Steph and Robert perform some Christmas music. Met up with some other friends there, too. Was a very nice night.

But the best part was definitely when a poor concert goer got stuck in the bathroom. The door was a bit tricky. You had to lift it up as you pushed on the handle, or it just wouldn’t open. The lady inside did not know that, nor did anyone on the outside trying to help her.

After a few minutes, a most unlikely rescuer finally came to her aid. Was it the janitor? Was it a locksmith? Was it another member of the staff?

Nope. It was Santa!!

(Santa was there in full costume tonight, and he was the one who knew the door trick!)

by Greg

Christmas Music

‘Tis the season… Christmas music is back in regular rotation on our iPod and iTunes players. Aside from our Christmas CD (which hopefully by now you have heard of) I uploaded a playlist today of my favorite stuff from our library. Really like MercyMe The Christmas Sessions, and Steven Curtis Chapman’s second Christmas album All I Really Want For Christmas. And ours, of course. 🙂

Check out the cool iMix I posted at the iTunes Store:
Favorite Christmas Music (click that link)

In the meantime, I did add a cool feature to our Christmas page this year. There is a Tell-A-Friend form. You can spread the word about the God Came Christmas album … or just buy it as presents for your friends and family. 🙂

This blog is quiet now… but it will pick up again once Bills season is over. Which could be tomorrow. 🙂

Merry Christmas… more soon.

by Greg

Who You Know

I was thinking tonight about how things have happened in my life. I got to chat briefly with a long-time, good friend – Adam – whom I do not get to really share life with any more. He and his family live in another area of the country, and aside from the occasional conversation over electronic mediums, and the even more occasional (meaning, almost never) in-person conversations, our friendship is mostly something from our past.

We can always pick it up again, whenever we strike up those conversations. But with such distance geographically, and chronologically, our friendship is definitely different than it was “back in the day”. (When I would say he was probably my closest friend.)

What is so interesting though – perhaps only because I’m thinking these things after two in the morning? – is how when you look back on life, it’s so cool to see how all things do work together for good. God crosses paths at just the right times. Somehow, reminiscing about the good ol’ days with my friend Adam reminded me that his friendship with Jen (and the words he spoke when he introduced the two of us) eventually brought five super-awesome people into the world.

Not directly, of course. Not even intentionally. But it happened. Adam knew Jen, and thought she was awesome. He said, “Jen’s the kind of girl you could marry,” meaning the general you, but … truer words he never spake. 🙂 Now eighteen and a half years later… I can’t imagine my life without Jen, and God has given us five tiny people to love and to be Dad & Mom to. Crazy.

That’s the other thing. Thanks to my friendship with Adam, I met Jen. Many years later, we married, and God added to our family… and not just “some people” but specifically, Ian, Alex, Kirsten, Julia, and Emma. Those are the specific people that God created – from me and Jen – and he wanted us to be the ones who were Mom & Dad to them. Sometimes that blows me away. Other times it just makes me smile. How cool that God set it up that way. He is the giver of life, and he has given these specific lives to our care, and us to them. So cool.

So just remember tonight (or, likely, this morning or later) that you are who you are supposed to be. All your strengths, and all your weaknesses. You are also in the right place, and in the right relationships, and perhaps you are even the Mom or Dad you are supposed to be. That doesn’t mean complacency about destructive behavior or relationships. It does mean that when you start to doubt your worth, or your impact… it’s time to remember that YOU are the perfect you.

Who knows what will be credited to you eighteen and a half years from now?