Tech Tips for Catholics

If you follow us on Twitter, then you know how much we love Kickstarter.com.  Kickstarter is a fun way to fund creative projects.  So, whether you are a Christian musician trying to fund your album, an artist trying to inspire, a software developer with an idea for a game, or someone with an idea for a book and a board game, Kickstarter is a super, great way to get others involved.  What we love about Kickstarter is the community aspect of it.  I have personally created one project and have backed several other worthy projects.

Why really great projects do not succeed…

1. You have no clear vision for your project: If you don’t know exactly what you want out of your project, how do you expect others to be on board?
2. Your project lacks a personal connection: Kickstarter people are real people, doing what they love.  Show your passion. Tell your story.  If your kickstart does not feature a good pitch video, of you, then your project is destined to fail!  Just be yourself and have fun with it.
3. You spam, rather than share: Sending out unsolicited @ tweets makes the rest of the Kickstarter community look bad.  A status update, letting those in your social network(s) know about the project is fine (just don’t over do it!)  Letting your family and friends know about your exciting project is totally acceptable and encouraged.  Podcasting and blogging are other great ways to share your project with others on a personal level.  If your project is creative enough, the buzz may come naturally.
4. You have lame backer rewards: One of the cool things about Kickstarter is the ability to create fantastic rewards for different level of support.  The more special the reward, the more support you will have for your project.  Spend some time looking at what other successful projects have offered to get an idea of what works and what doesn’t.
5. Your goal is too high: Because Kickstarter uses All-or-nothing funding, it is more important to reach your goal, than it is to reach the amount you hope you can get to fully fund your project.  If you go above and beyond your goal, then great!  But, if you do not reach your goal, then you get nothing.  Some people that you see often, and who want to support your project, but do not feel comfortable using Amazon payments, will probably provide funds the old fission way.

We hope to support your Catholic Kickstarter in the near future.  If you kickstart a  project and you would like to plug it in the comments section below, please do!
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I thought of this fun, little game after I had recently ordered some new books on Amazon. I thought, Wouldn’t it be cool to see what others are reading? Better yet, what Catholic books are others reading?

Here are the rules:

1. Take a picture of your Catholic bookshelf
2. Post the picture on Twitter (using whichever service you prefer)
3. Use the hashtag: #myCatholicBookshelf in your tweet

That’s it!

Well it has been one year today that I decided to give up the social, Facebook game, Farmville, for good. It was taking up way too much of my time.  I chose not to remove it completely ― figured I’d let my “neighbors” continue to fertilize my desolate garden.

Not long after I quit Farmville, SQPN came out with a Podcast dedicated to it. You can still listen to the archived episodes of the “Secrets of Farmville”.

Soon I began to notice articles like: “Farmville Players Beware ― Facebook Partner Will Do Anything To Get Your Money!” and “Facebook Privacy Breach: Users’ Info Leaked To Advertising, Tracking Firms”.

Social gaming was exciting to me for the short period of time that I participated, but it became highly unproductive. Of course after viewing the screenshot below, you might beg to differ! ; )

Below are some related links to this topic:

• Review: Priestville (Facebook)
• Are you giving up Social-Networking this Lent?
• Connecting with our Youth via Facebook

In the heart of “1000 Journals” I’d like to send out 5 blank journals into the Catholic community. The holder of the journal has the special opportunity to share their faith with other Catholics in words, art, or whatever other way the spirit moves them. When the holder of the journal has created an entry page, he now has the obligation of passing it onto another faithful person, with the hopes that the journals will one day be completed and returned to me. When I have received a completed journal, I will share the journal pages, in both picture and video form, online so that others can enjoy. I have titled the project “One Voice, One Church.”

With the funds, I plan to purchase five really nice journals and items to make them unique and set them apart from just any ordinary journal. Each journal will have specific guidelines and directions on how the current holder can keep the community updated on the specific journal’s whereabouts. Also, some of the funds may go toward the shipping of the journals to different parts of the World (Japan, Canada, and opposite sides of the United States). Be assured that if we go above and beyond the goal of $125, that the extra funds will go towards better journals or perhaps we could up the number of journals that we send out. But, if we do not reach the goal, then the project fails and we all go back to our boring lives ; )

Ultimately, I hope that people have fun with this project and that we will be inspired by one another, and by the gifts that God has given us!

I’m asking any and all who read this to help me spread the word about this project. Feel free to rip the audio from my YouTube video and use it in your Podcast, Blog about the project, Share the project with your Facebook and Twitter friends, tell someone about it while you are socializing after Mass. The link to my Kickstarter Page is” http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/710603221/one-voice-one-church-5-journals and the hash tag that I plan to use on Twitter once the project is funded will be #1voice1church.

Thanks for being a part of this!

- Josh

In a fairly recent article, written by William J. Doherty, Ph.D., he points out the importance of eating meals as a family.  He says, “Research has continually confirmed that eating meals as a family affects nearly every area of a child’s life.  Kids who eat regular family meals get better school grades, are better off psychologically, receive better nutrition, don’t smoke as much or do drugs, and are less sexually active as teens.”  He goes on to say, “… it’s not only the quantity of family meals that contributes to their life satisfaction, but also the quality of meals. For years, experts on family meals have preached turning off the TV — but now texting, iPhones, and video game consoles also compete with family dinner.

Tom McGrath and Bret Nicholaus have teamed up to improve our “quality of meals” with The Meal Box.  The Meal Box contains 54 cards, each one featuring a creative question guaranteed to spark fun family conversation during family meals.  The questions, such as If you could have the voice of any famous person, whose voice would you have?, are sure to engage everyone in the family.  The reverse side of each card features a quick “Food for Family Thought” tip from family expert Tom McGrath.

“The Meal Box” card game would make a great expansion pack for the “Loaded Questions” or “Loaded Questions Junior Edition” Board Games!

And now, you can Get The Meal Box on your Kindle! This would be great for long, family road-trips.

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The Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN) recently released a Catholic Children’s Website.  I’m not a kid, but even I had a lot of fun learning about our Catholic Faith.  Parents will have a blast exploring the site and discussing the Faith with their children as they go along.  There is something in this Virtual Town for Catholics of all ages.

Here are just some of the activities you will find:

• Bible Bites
• Learn Latin
• Word Searches
• Matching Games
• Quiz Games
• Coloring
• Puzzles
• Dot 2 Dot
• Saint Trivia
• Choir Practice (Simon)
• And so much more!

If you have a question about the Faith, head on over to the local post office and mail EWTN a letter (in the game, but they will receive the e-mail and should respond to it).

When you login, you start off inside the clubhouse.  If you click on the “What’s New?” Star, you will find the latest activities that have been added.  Other than this, just click around and see what you find : )

Below are screen captures that I took while playing around on the EWTN Kids site (the music, I added afterwards).

Below are some related links to this topic:

• Catholic Bible Trivia Game Online
• JellyTelly: Online Children’s Video Channel
• Free Download: Catholic Game Show slides (Eucharist edition)
• Fun Wii Download: “Critter Round-Up”

Back in the day, and perhaps still today, video game magazines were notorious for pranking their readers between the pages of their April issues.  Printing fake game cheats, news, and all sorts of other little bits of fabricated information.  For those of us who were anticipating the April issues, knew what to expect, but I always felt sorry for those who were not prepared.  I admit that there were a few times when I forgot all about the April issue and spent countless hours implementing the gaming tips that were supposed to “grant me infinite lives”, or that would “unlock” something cool in the game.  It is never fun to be on the receiving end of an April Fool’s joke.  First you feel angered or deceived, then comes the urge to get back at the person with an even bigger prank, which I’m all for.  Just don’t get too out of hand.  Some people take it too far.

This April 1st, Twitter will be inundated with contrived lies, half-truths, and deception.  Some may even be outright malicious, but hopefully this won’t be the case.  There’s nothing wrong with good, clean fun, if done in a light-hearted manor.  I plan to avoid the internet altogether on April Fool’s Day.  I’m pretty gullible and I know for a fact that I would fall victim to at least one online April Fool’s joke.  Here is an example of one from last year.

All of this talk about April Fool’s jokes got me thinking.  What does the Bible say about fools? Actually, there is quite a bit of Scripture that talks about what it means to be foolish or to be a fool.  A fool is described as someone who is:  full of deception (Proverbs 10:9-10; Proverbs 10:18; Proverbs 14:8; Proverbs 19-9), reckless and sure of himself (Proverbs 14:16; Proverbs 17:7; Proverbs 17:27-28; Sirach 22:7; Ecclesiastes 4:13-14; Ecclesiastes 10:3), a brute (Sirach 22:9-20; Proverbs 17:20), lacking in faith or is in ignorance of God (Luke 24:13-35; Wisdom 3:1-3; Wisdom 13:1-9; Psalms 53:1-2; Jeremiah 5:21), wicked (Ecclesiastes 7:25; Ecclesiastes 4:17; Proverbs 10:21-23), quick-tempered (Proverbs 14:17), discontent (Ecclesiastes 7:9), unwise and/or unprepared (Matthew 25:1-13; Wisdom 3:11; Proverbs 17:16), and is grief to his parents (Proverbs 10:1; Proverbs 17:21; Proverbs 17:25).  These are just a few examples.

Have a fun April’s Fool’s Day, and try not to be too big of a fool!

Critter Round-Up is actually a pretty fun game!  I was at a friend’s house a while back and he had some Wii Shop credits to burn.  One of the WiiWare Games that he purchased from the Wii Shop Channel was Critter Round-Up.  This is a 1-4 player game.

The object of the game: is to fence in different types of animals before they eat you or before they eat each other!  When you get up into some of the higher levels they throw the domestic animals in with the wild and it can be a disaster if you don’t round up the most ferocious first.  Every once in a while you can collect an arsenal of steak, squirt gun (or maybe it’s pepper spray), and other tools to help attract or repel certain species.

With 50 challenging levels, taking place in the Outback, the icy Arctic, your domestic Farm and more, I recommend this game for all ages!

Below are some screenshots that I found online:

What are some of your favorite WiiWare Games?

Catholic Christians:  Download “What Do We Believe?” Catholic Game Show slides (Eucharist edition)

Here are some slides that I created for one of our Generations of Faith nights. You are welcome to download them and use them for your Youth Group, CCD, RCIA, Confirmation classes, or in your own home. We made it adults vs. kids and it was a blast (3 adults on one team and 4 children on the other). I played the host, wearing a suit that I got at our local thrift store. The adults won, but not by much. During the game, someone in the audience shouted “I’d like to Phone-a-Priest” : )

Click the thumbnails below to view some examples:

* Compatible with most multimedia/video programs.  Add some game show type music to add to the experience.  There are 35 slides in all.

Download Slides Here!

Never mind the Error message. You can simply click the Download button to the right to download the compressed folder. Enjoy : )

CateQUIZ’em! is an interactive DVD-based video curriculum for middle and high school catechesis.

The content of each annual volume is put into the context of the four pillars of the Church – Creed, Sacraments, Morality, and Prayer.  Users interact with the content through the DVD’s four main sections – LEARN IT!, PLAY IT!, LIVE IT!, and PRAY IT!

Volume One – Holy Spirit: Lord & Giver of Life (great for Confirmation prep) will be available in March 2009.  Future topics include: The Trinity, The Father, Jesus – Son of Man, Jesus – Son of God, Mary & the Communion of Saints, The One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church, The End Things, Chastity, and The Beauty of Life.

For more info about this series visit: www.catequizem.com