Second, this is not a new concept. It is a conversation I’ve been having since college, but a random comment a couple of minutes ago brought it to my mind and I realized I’ve never blogged on this. I’m hoping the age of this makes it retro chic, not just hopelessly out of date.

Church 1.0 aka Church Classic

Over 2000 years of history. Church classic has received many revisions and updates, but through the revisions you will find the same rich feature set.

• Solid Foundation: I mean really solid, most are concrete with a brick and mortar setup on top of that. When the wind blows this church will probably still be there
• True HD services with full surround sound: in some services you will be able to hear shouts, amens, and other phrases from a full omnidirectional sound, and as much resolution as your eyes can perceive
• Plug N Play interface: plug your butt into pew, no other adapters or software required
• Built in social networking: the included “gossip” aka “prayer chain” network will keep you up to date on what is happening in the lives of the other church members in real time with no character limits
• On Site Support: in most locations there is a 24/7 support staff. it is a little known fact that pastors don’t sleep and only eat communion wafers and occasional meals with church members.
• Massive User Manual: a veritable Bible of church knowledge.
• Template Based Option set with literally thousands of variations: find the church that fits you.

Church 2.0 aka Church for a New Generation

With all the features of Church Classic, it is not surprising there are many users that have not upgraded, but for the new generation you can gain all these new features.

• Cloud Based: like Heaven, which means it must be holier
• MMORPC (Massively Multiplayer Online Roman and Protestant Church): no denominational boundaries, but you might want to make sure your OS is compatible
• Worship on Your Schedule: adapt to your busy life, fast forward through the songs you don’t like, and even skip sermon points that only apply to your friends and family.
• Come as you are service: Church classic has been claiming this for years, but show up in your underwear one time and they will never let you work in the kid’s ministry again
• Flexible: not like that one kid in high school that can fold into a box, but able to adapt to your life, and that’s the point right?
• Low Maintenance: reduced overhead so you don’t have to give. Tithe can be structured to mean 7%, which is a much holier number anyways.
• Achievement system: measure your holiness by achievements “You gave to help feed hungry kids in Africa, Feed the Hungry Achievement Unlocked.

Cross Platform Ideas

I have a few ideas for bridging the gap between the Church Classic and the Church for a New Generation.

• Flash Mob Service: Once a month arrange a flash mob to a different Church Classic service. Immediately following the service everyone breaks into Jesus Loves me with the hand motions
• Web Design Outreach ministry: you can tell the difference between a Classic Church and a New Generation Church by the website. Have your 2.0 church reach out to the less fortunate in the web community by offering free design services to 1.0 churches.
• Church Prayer Chain inclusion: even with Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ the church 2.0 simply cannon keep up with the gossip ability of the prayer chain. Reach out to friends in church 2.0 by offering to let them be a part of your prayer chain.
• Church Social Outreach: The church was built around community meals, just read the book of Acts. Church 2.0 is really missing out, and a lot of those poor hipsters are rail thin. This is because of a severe lack of potlucks. Invite your Church 2.0 friends to your next fellowship meal.

The Future of the Church. Church 3.0

There’s an app for that.

I added my avatar to status updates on my site. Twenty Eleven does this and I thought it was a really cool feature. I like how it turned out. Planning a couple of posts because it has been too long.

I just got a new laptop. Been looking for a while. Mostly I needed something I could take into town to get work down while visible on Main St or so. The one I got has up to 7 hour battery, which is perfect.

I can watch Star Wars followed by Lord of the Rings and Star Trek and not feel bad in any way. I don’t own any Star Wars toys, but if I did I’d probably be happy playing with them isntead of leaving them sealed in their containers. I’d have epic fights with ThunderCats, GI Joes, and Transformers. Imagine Vader, StarScream (I never had MegaTron because he just turned into a gun and that was kinda lame compared to a jet), Mumm-Ra, and Cobra Commander lined up on one side, and Han Solo (Luke was such a whiner), Optimus Prime, Lion-O, and Duke on the other plus all the lesser characters and green and tan army men (the green are the good guys).

It would start out with the baddies winning, but then they would start fighting each other and Optimus Prime would try to sacrifice himself (he really enjoys doing that), but then Han would fly in with the Millennium Falcon to save him as Chewie yells. Some of the Joes would lose their arms or legs (they are detachable after all), C3-PO probably wouldn’t make it and Jar Jar dies very early, probably in the first attack, but in the end the good guys would win the day.

Now pardon me while I go check ebay for some cool new toys, I have a battle to plan.

Finally sick of it I ordered a new keyboard on Monday. It came in this morning and I’m very happy. I can finally type mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm, floor pie without causing a blister.

If you are wondering, I went with the Logitech Wireless Wave Combo MK550 from NewEgg, I’ve only had it for about 6 hours, but I’m already pretty comfortable. The keys a pretty low profile, but provide a nice “clicky” feel. It isn’t a sound so much as feeling like I’ve actually pressed the key. My previous key board didn’t have that feeling. If you are into pianos, it is sort of the difference in a keyboard with and without weighted keys. It just feels better.

There is a slight curvature to the keys. The documentation says this is because our fingers are different lengths, but I don’t know if I buy that since my fingers aren’t even while on the home row. The slight curve down allow my wrist to sit at a more comfortable angle than a traditional keyboard, but not quite as comfortable as the full ergonomic keyboards.

It has several handy buttons, including short cut buttons that can be customized. I can see myself using a few of them, but it would have been nice to have some macro buttons.

The mouse feels a lot like my old wired mouse in shape, but is a bit lighter. It has a back and forward browser button on the side that feels a bit in the way to me right now, but I’ll probably get use to it. Actually when I use it left-handed it feels great. The extra buttons are right by my ring finger for easy access without be obtrusive.

The main reason I wanted this is the wireless functionality. It is nice to sit back from my computer, but the distance of the receiver seems limited. If I turn to the right it loses connection on the keyboard even though the receiver is only a foot further away. Probably too many other things on the 2.4 frequency band around here. Setup was quick, and I have a good signal from the position I’ve found to be most comfortable for seeing my monitors and typing.

I wrote about the Gallery post format output change on my Design Blog with detailed instructions on the code I wrote and exactly what it does.

Just looking at how Matt Mullenweg handles Galleries according to this article on Post Types, Taxonomies, and Formats by Otto. I think I’m going to rewrite the Gallery format for my version of Tapestry to emulate that.

It will be much more functional if the gallery ever has more than a few images.

A few days ago I posted about the plugins I’m using on the blog. Many blogs I’ve worked on have 20, 30, 40, or more plugins. This can cause big time slow downs and potential conflicts. A lot of simple things can be done with a few lines of code in the theme. I wrote about how I added my tweet button and made it add hashtags automatically on my Design Blog. Click through to check it out.