Google Voice is Google’s take on voicemail. It offers those of us without an iPhone or other fancy smart phone some pretty slick features for saving and organizing voice messages. But it does much more than archive messages. Google will give you a new phone number. You can then direct all your existing numbers to that one number. Indicate which line should ring when Person A calls. Block Person B entirely. Even listen in on Person C’s voicemail as they’re leaving it and, if it’s too important to wait, pick up the call mid-message just like back in the day when we all used our answering machines to screen our landline calls.
The feature set sounded awesome from day one, but I didn’t like the idea of needing to give out a new phone number to everyone just so I’d have a few more features on my phone. Google has hinted at allowing users to port their existing number to their service sometime in the future. They still haven’t added that ability, but today Google released the next best thing. You can now use many of the Google Voice features with your existing cell number.
Published on 10/23/09. Categorized under Ministry.
On October 20 I had the opportunity to teach at Nav Night, the FSU Navigators’ weekly fellowship meeting. My topic was conflict resolution. It was cool to have a topic that was so practical, but rough because I didn’t want to come across like a know-it-all just out to criticize or fix people. Still, I’m glad I got to be the one to teach the subject. I’m in my eighth year with the FSU Navs and I’m not sure I can remember ever hearing a message on conflict resolution before.
While I was in Germany this summer I tutored kids in English. Each morning I taught the same two kids two lessons, and each afternoon the students in the program would break up into different clubs. Each club had a specific theme, like sports, dance, board games, baking or video production. I helped out with the newspaper club. As a group we decided to call our newspaper The Alien Herald because our camp had an outer space theme.
There were four students in the newspaper club. I gravitated toward (no pun intended) a young man who I’ll call “Wayne.” Wayne was a really smart kid. His English skills were among the most advanced of any of the children at the camp. But when it came time to participate in the club activities he tended to act out rather than go along with what we were doing. The truth was he was bored. I finally realized that what Wayne needed was a challenge, something that he’d have to put a lot of time and effort toward, and something he could brag about when he finished. And I knew just what would pique his interest. I asked Wayne to write our front-page article.
National League Cardinals over Dodgers, 3-1 Rockies over Phillies, 3-1 Cardinals over Rockies, 4-1
American League Angels over Red Sox, 3-1 Yankees over Twins, 3-0 Yankees over Angels, 4-2
World Series Cardinals over Yankees, 4-2
I think this postseason is boring with the exception of the Rockies. Here’s hoping they win it all, but I think the Cards will prove to be too much for them. The defending champs have no relief pitching. The Red Sox haven’t looked impressive all year, but I’m picking the Angels mostly because I don’t want to see the Yanks and Sox play yet another ALCS. I can’t stand picking the Yankees out of the AL, but they’re clearly the best team in that league.
What do you think of my picks? Also, will a World Series win by the Cardinals make them the team of the decade?
Go Marlins! Another season over .500 and a second place finish in the NL East!
