Blog

Posts by Jeff Geerling about life, marriage, religion, philosophy and technology. Formerly titled 'Matthew 12:37 - Blog by a God-fearing Man'.

Pope Benedict XVI on Catholic Identity in Educational Institutions

May 08, 2012

From the Vatican Information Service:

"It is no exaggeration", the Pope added, "to say that providing young people with a sound education in the faith represents the most urgent internal challenge facing the Catholic community in your country".

"First, as we know, the essential task of authentic education ... is not simply that of passing on knowledge, essential as this is, but also of shaping hearts. There is a constant need to balance intellectual rigour in communicating ... the richness of the Church’s faith with forming the young in the love of God, the praxis of the Christian moral and sacramental life and, not least, the cultivation of personal and liturgical prayer".

Read the full article here: The Catholic Identity of Educational Institutions.

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Minecraft Patching Guide for Macs

April 24, 2012

I've watched a few episodes of 'The Minecraft Project' on YouTube for inspiration, and I occasionally play Minecraft for an hour or two as a diversion (it's like LEGOs on a computer, but much more fun, because there are zombies!).

Jeff's Humble little Minecraft Farm
My humble little Minecraft farm.

One thing I've always liked is The Minecraft Project's look and feel, mostly due to syndicate's use of the DokuCraft Light texture pack. However, getting that texture pack to work along with other mods and patches (especially the automatic tool switcher mod) took some work on my Mac, and I thought I'd post my process for getting everything to work here, for the benefit of others having the same troubles (especially those getting the 'Use the patcher noob' messages where water, lava, etc. are supposed to appear):

Switch Minecraft to the default texture pack.
Download and run MCPatcher.
1. If you have problems, delete the entire 'bin' folder from the minecraft directory (in Users/[yourusername]/Library/minecraft/), reopen Minecraft and run it (this will force-redownload all the Minecraft binary files), and then try MCPatcher again).
Download the latest Dokucraft Light texture pack, and place it in the proper folder (on a Mac, drop the downloaded .zip file into Users/[yourusername]/Library/minecraft/texturepacks/.
Download ModLoader and follow the directions in the linked forum thread to install it.
Download AutoSwitch and put the .class file into the minecraft.jar file at Users/[yourusername]/Library/minecraft/bin/minecraft.jar.
1. If the jar file can't be opened like a directory, change the filename to .zip, double-click on it to unarchive it, then put the file into the directory and change the name back to minecraft.jar again.

NOTE: To open the 'Library' folder in Mac OS X Lion, hold down Option while in the 'Go' menu in the Finder, and you'll see 'Library' appear in the list of folders there

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Getting Back into Photography - Lens Debates

April 24, 2012

I'm getting dangerously close to GAS (Gear Acquisition Syndrome), as I've just purchased a dream lens (the Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 VR), and now I'm thinking hard (probably too hard) about whether I should sell a couple other lenses and get a nice f/2.8 wide angle zoom lens.

Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 at Ordinations
The Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 is an amazing lens (D3, 70-200mm @ 70mm).

I know that lenses don't define pictures (nor do cameras!), but 95% of my shooting is indoors, and most of that is without any artificial light... meaning a fast lens is never fast enough. I often use a 50mm f/1.4 prime (my 'light vacuum' lens), or a 35mm f/1.8, both of which create pleasing photos on my D7000. However, I've almost always wanted the ability to zoom, because moving back and forward isn't always an option, and switching lenses is a pain.

I bought an 18-105 VR lens, thinking VR could help me get past the slow f/3.5-5.6 aperture... but alas I'm still not happy with this lens. I fear that I won't be satisfied until I try out and acquire either the Nikon 17-55 f/2.8 DX lens, or the 24-70 f/2.8.

Nikkor lenses (courtesy Nikon.com)

I've been reaching out to some fellow photographers on Facebook and Twitter, and gotten some good advice, but what do you think? I'm probably going to look for a used copy of the lens to save 30-40%, and I'll probably end up selling a combination of primes (I have the 35mm f/1.8, 50mm f/1.4 and 180mm f/2.8 right now) to fund this new lens. I would probably end up selling the 18-105 VR as well, as I don't think I could ever go back to more than f/2.8 once I dip my toes in that water :).

[Aside] Another cool photo resource I found recently, which explains the Nikon AF system used in the D7000 quite well, better than Nikon's own manuals: D7000 Focusing Guide. (I was always a bit confused by the different AF-C modes and zones... and it'll be fun to try them sometime at a sporting event).

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A Few New Sites

April 04, 2012

Lately I've been working on finishing a few side projects – some websites, some apps, etc., and I thought I'd list off a few of the things I've done lately here for posterity:

Keith English for Missouri State Representative (website)
I've worked with Keith to make a nice website where he can present his campaign platform and show some of the things he's done for the area he's hoping to represent. The site has some neat little front-end optimizations that I've been playing around with lately.
Before I Do St. Louis - Wedding and Event Planning (website)
My good friend, Jenny Madras, has recently started her own business planning events and weddings in the St. Louis area, and it seems she already has some great clients! I'm excited for her, and was glad to help her make a very simple but elegant website.
Jeff Geerling's Portfolio (website)
For a year or so, I've had a very basic HTML5-based website set up at jeffgeerling.com, but lately, I wanted to port it to Drupal and start building out a better portfolio of my work. Progress is slow, but the basic site is done, it runs fast, and it's a responsive design, so it should look pretty good on mobile devices!
flocknote (website)
I've been working like crazy on flocknote (my full-time gig) the past year, and we recently added a ton of new features and gave the entire website a makeover. If you're doing any kind of Catholic communication work, check it out!
Mac Apps, iPhone Apps
I've been polishing up Quick Resizer (a simple/fast image resizing program for the map), and I'm working on two different iPhone apps and an Android app right now. More news to come on that front sooner or later!

Marriage is great, and my wife and I just reached our 1.5 year anniversary. I hope to write a few more anecdotes about the married life soon—stay tuned!

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life

random

websites

Camera and Lens Rentals in St. Louis, MO

April 03, 2012

For the past few years, when shooting large events in indoor spaces (such as the 2010 Priesthood Ordination Mass), I've rented camera bodies and lenses from BorrowLenses.com, a great online rental store, with pretty much any lens or camera body you'd ever want to use (especially if you're like me and could never justify the cost of purchase!). I highly recommend BorrowLenses (though I have also used and liked LensRentals.com and RentGlass.com).

This year, however, I decided to look into whether it might be more advantageous to use a local camera shop. I found that both Schiller's and Creve Coeur Camera offer camera and lens rentals, but both have more limited selections. However, the lens and camera body I need are usually available at Schiller's, I don't have to pay shipping (pick-up only, but the store is nearby), and I can pay a one-day rental rate for a weekend (most of the events I use the cameras for are on Saturdays).

So, this year, I've saved over $100 in shipping/insurance fees by renting locally. And, I got to talk to someone over the phone to get everything sorted out.

If you live in St. Louis and need one of the $1,500+ Nikon lenses or $5,000+ Nikon camera bodies for a day or two, I'd highly recommend Schiller's. (I don't recommend CCC only because their prices are a little higher, and I've had some bad customer experiences with them in the past).

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Life is a Prayer - Looking great on your smartphone!

March 30, 2012

For the first time ever, I decided to make one of my personal sites look good on mobile phones by incorporating 'responsive' design. Basically, I use some spiffy CSS to say "when you're viewing Life is a Prayer.com on an iPhone, or Android phone, or a window smaller than x pixels, change the layout of the site so it's a LOT easier to read.

Lifeisaprayer.com - Responsive design on iPhone 4s

So, if you have a mobile phone that runs iOS or Android, whip it out really quick, head over to Life is a Prayer.com, and tell me what you think (even the comment form works great now!).

If you don't have a smartphone, but you use a modern web browser, try making the browser skinnier until you see how the content on the site re-flows (and images resize) so they fit the window a bit nicer!

I'll be blogging more about responsive design and how easy it is to get a design 90% of the way there over on my Midwestern Mac blog, but I just wanted to post this here for historical relevance and to give people an example of a responsive design that doesn't make the website unusable or radically different.

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