Adam White

I listen to a lot of preaches. I find that they are a great way for me to learn about God and the bible and a 40 minute preach fits nicely into a morning run or a lunchtime wander.

However, once a week I have to sit down at Gateway Church Swindon and pay attention to a real person talking at the front of my church. I find this quite a difficult thing to do as my mind will wander.

Thankfully, I discovered fairly quickly that if I made notes during a sermon I would stay focussed and take on board everything that was being said.

So it was this way this morning. I was sat making my notes as usual. It dawned on me though that despite always making notes and highlighting things which I thought were particularly relevant to me, as soon as church finished I knew I would forget it all. I always have the intention of going back over my notes but I very rarely do.

So it was with some inspiration from God that I came up with this idea: Every week I am going to write a blog post on the day’s talk.

I was told once that no matter how many preaches I listen to, the most important one is the one given at my church on that Sunday. The reason being that that is the sermon that God wants me to hear. This coupled with the fact that I remember things better if I rewrite them in my own words (as hard as this is for me to do) is the motivation for doing what I am about to do.

There may just be some Sunday’s where I don’t get the time to do this or I may just get lazy but my hope is this will be the start of me listening and also remembering what it is that God wants to say to me.

Let the blogging begin…

Posted by Adam under Faith & Personal | No Comments »

I’ve just had to learn another lesson the hard way from God but sometimes that is the only way we listen.

I am good with computers, I always have been. In recent years this has turned into the useful skill of being able to fix other people’s PCs. I have a loft full of spare parts to help me out and I enjoy doing it.

So when I was asked recently to take a look at someone’s PC because it was running slowly I thought I would go and upgrade the RAM and hard drive and that would be it. I knew at the time that I was really busy and I should say no but it was such a simple job what could go wrong?

How about seven days of stress? That’s what I ended up with! For a start the motherboard wouldn’t support more than 256MB RAM so that meant the only option was to change motherboard. I should have stopped at this point and said no but I carried on.

Cutting a looooong and painful story short I’ve had boot failures, blown motherboards, blue screens of death, registry corruption, dead monitors and data loss. However, after lots of late nights and a lounge that now looks like a Maplin’s warehouse I finally have the PC back as it was when I first got it. I’ve spent countless hours and effort and achieved nothing.

So, I’m going to accept this lesson from God and shut the doors on this computer repair shop. Now only family and very close friends get to have access to my time. For the sake of my sanity I’m going to have to say no to anybody else from now on.

So, please don’t take offense when I say no to you in future. Trust me, it’s for the best!

Posted by Adam under Personal & Techy Stuff | 3 Comments »

1. You get over worked. You do everything that’s asked of you, and that can be alot. You get tired and grumpy.
2. You don’t perform to your best. You know the score – when you’re stressed or doing too much, mistakes happen or things get missed. That failure you were so afraid of becomes more likely.
3. Your time is misused. There are things that you’re naturally good at, where you excel. But when you’re running around doing everything, you don’t play to your strengths. You do twenty things to a mediocre standard, when you could be doing 2 or 3 to a high standard.
4. Important priorities get missed. By this I mean those areas that aren’t asking for your help. It might be that you neglect your own home because you’re busy looking after someone else’s. Or you don’t spend enough time with your family because your always off helping someone else.
5. You prevent someone else from excelling. Listen – you’re not the only one who can do things! While you’re doing a job that you’re ok at, just because you were the first person to be asked, someone who has the particular skill and gifting to do that job well isn’t doing it!
6. Some people just keep asking you to do things. They know you’re a ‘yes’ person, so they take advantage of you. They don’t necessarily mean to, they just know you’re someone they can ‘depend on’. But it’s not a good thing – it means they’re not finding out other people who can also help, spreading the load, because it’s too easy just to ask you.
7. You’ll come to resent it. No matter how cheery a servant you are at the start, keep giving in the wrong areas for the wrong reasons without giving yourself a break, and you’ll start to resent that you’re always the one they ask.
8. Some people will stop asking you altogether. These are the people who have noticed that you’re a ‘yes’ man. They know that whatever they ask of you, you’ll do. But that means that you’ll do it even if you shouldn’t, or that you’ll do it and resent it. They won’t ask you because they can’t trust you to say ‘no’ if necessary.
9. You give other people a get out clause to not help. ‘I don’t need to, because Joe will do it’. It’s not a good attitude to encourage! There will always be those people who could help but don’t. It’s tempting for the serial ‘yes’ man to step in to fill the gap. While that sometimes may be necessary – consider that filling the gap means that they don’t see the consequences of their not helping. Sometimes leaving a gap encourages someone else to start being a gap filler too.

Read the full article at: http://millyj.posterous.com/just-say-no-63

Posted by Adam under Personal | No Comments »

Upcoming film The Expendables is arriving in cinemas in the US at the same time as the new Julia Roberts film Eat Pray Love. Watch this fan-made trailer aimed directly at guys!

Posted by Adam under Films & Fun Stuff & Personal | No Comments »

1. Turn down opportunities that might be a good use of who you are but not the best use of who you are.
2. Never say yes to anything immediately, buy time to think and pray about it.
3. Practice the theology of enough. Don’t have a list of things that fall into the category of: I would be happy if______.
4. Ask God to deliver you from an unhealthy appetite for acclaim, approval, position, power, and honor that would push you to do more and more for the wrong reasons.
5. Pray to be released from the restless, gnawing greed for more money and more stuff.
6. Remind yourself daily of who you are and who you are not—be content to be you.
7. Carve out sufficient time alone with God for humble contemplation—give him opportunity to quiet your anxious heart and keep you focused on your “few themes.”

Read the full article at: http://theresurgence.com/7_things_to_simplify_my_life

Posted by Adam under Faith & Personal | 5 Comments »

I may not have said anything about it this year but for lent I felt prompted to give up film again. My reasons were thus:

  1.  It had got to the point where I was watching on average of a film a day. One Sunday I even managed to watch four films after church!
  2.  I was running to film as escapism rather than running to God.
  3.  Film was getting in the way of prayer, bible and my relationship with God.
  4.  I really felt like this was what God wanted me to take a break from.

Last time I did it, I did it as a religious thing to prove I could do it and didn’t spend my time wisely. I filled the days with TV shows and computer games. It was a pride thing to show I wasn’t addicted to film.

This time round I set myself some rules and objectives to help direct me:

1. No films, no TV, no computer games.
2. Read my bible every day, pray and spend more time with God.
3. Learn to be in peace and quiet without filling it with noise and distractions.
4. Open up my home to people and have others around for dinner and socials.

So, 40-ish days later how has it been? Well God definitely had plans for the time but not what I had in mind!

Two days into my fast I found out that a guy I kinda knew from church had found himself totally homeless and was facing the prospect of sleeping in his car. After an initial wordly reaction of selfishness I quickly came to the conclusion that I would open my spare room to him for a few days until he could sort himself out.

Well, he’s still staying at mine and it has been a great growing experience for the both of us. A friendship has formed where one might not have done under normal circumstances and the lack of films has helped us to chat and get to know each other rather than sit and ignore each other.

This lent period has been tiring, eye-opening, challenging but really important for me and it has shown me that when fasting is done for the right reasons (and not just out of religion or tradition) God can really use it to move me and shape me it great ways.

Posted by Adam under Faith & Films & Personal | 1 Comment »

So, now that I have had my shiny new phone for three months, what do I think of it? Has it lived up to my expectations?

Let’s start with the hardware. The Motorola device was quite weighty and felt fairly solid when I bought it and the hardened glass screen has already come in handy a I have been known to knock it off the odd table or drop it onto the floor. It has a few minor scrapes around the edges of the phone but the screen is still as good as the day I bought it.

The slider is starting to loosen up but it still functions as it should and still satisfyingly clicks into place when opened or closed.

The keypad got a little getting used to as I would often spend a while searching for the symbols like @ and ‘ but I have now got used to their locations and can happily tweet or text while walking home without falling over.

The battery life is not great as the high resolution screen does drain if left on. However I have got used to having it plugged in whenever I am near a PC (which is when I am at work or at home). When out and about it can last the day as long as I remember things like wi-fi and don’t run battery consuming applications when I don’t need to.

The main selling point of this phone though has to be the Android operating system. It was the first phone to run version 2.0 and if the rumours are to be believed, version 2.1 with all of its improvements should be made available to me before April.

It does everything a smart phone is meant to do and it’s hooking up to Google is superb. I now manage my contacts, emails, documents and calendar from wherever I am. It is like having a mini-laptop in my pocket.

Surprisingly it has had a few issues with being an actual phone. I have had a couple of instances where I’ve not been able to make phone calls without restarting the handset first. Thankfully I don’t make a lot of calls but a heavier phone user might find this annoying!

But what has really made this application great and the reason that I believe that the Android operating system is the future of mobile OSs is the vast (and I mean vast) number of free applications that can be downloaded. I have everything from task managers, music players, replacement texting applications, a bible with every translation you want, weather notifications, games and so much more.

I’m planning on writing a couple of posts on some of my favourite applications but trust me, there is something here for every need you might have.

So, in summary, 3 months on I am still really happy with my choice and have become a permanent convert to the Google operating system. With new Android phones coming out all the time this is the platform to watch.

To be continued…

View entire series

Posted by Adam under Personal & Techy Stuff | No Comments »

I’ve gone and done it again. I get myself distracted and don’t blog for ages!

Here’s a short update of what has been going on over since Christmas:

• I’ve watched A LOT of movies – I got into the habit of watching a film a day, sometimes I would get through three!
• I have discovered a website called tvgorge.com that allows you to watch TV programmes online after they have aired on TV.
• And on the back of these two HUGE distractions in my life I’ve given up film/TV for lent! My life was beginning to revolve around a TV screen and I didn’t like it. So I have taken a step back and decided to spend the time I would have been watching moving images to get stuff done and focus on God.
• I’ve begun another Bible in a year reading plan. The difference with this on though is it is on my Android phone so I can read my bible on the move!
• And finally I have taken in a temporary lodger! A friend of mine found himself unexpectedly without a place to stay so he is sleeping in my spare room until he can get a place sorted.

That’s pretty much where I am at. I’m hoping to find more time to blog but I do tweet a lot so you can follow what I am up to via the sidebar on this website or at www.twitter.com/adamwhite1421

Posted by Adam under Personal | No Comments »

I’m feeling a little overwhelmed again at the moment. Now that I have got back into the daily groove of work I am rediscovering how tired it makes me. This hasn’t been helping me get anything done so my to-do list has been ever growing since Christmas and my stress along with it.

Those that follow me on Twitter will notice the amount of films I have watched recently and will say “Stop watching films then and get on with some work”. This is easier said than done where I am concerned though.

My personality does not lend itself to self-motivation. After a little self reflection recently I came to the conclusion that the thing that motivates me more than anything else is getting things done. That’s why I love my 9-5 work at the moment. I feel like I achieve something on a daily basis and come away smiling.

Unfortunately, I am so tired when I get home that motivating myself to do anything apart from just pray, cook, eat and chill  is too much. I want to relax in the evening and at the weekend so I can be ready for the next working day.

But if this carries on I will never get anything done at home again!

Before Christmas I discovered an online app called Teux Deux (http://www.teuxdeux.com) which allowed me to schedule what I was going to do on a day by day basis and it really worked. My problem now though is I have so many things to do that I don’t know what order to do them in.

My plan is to read up on the Getting Things Done principle (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Getting_things_done) which I have looked into in the past but never properly implemented in my home life.

So I may be a little busy for a while organising everything but hopefully when that is done I will find the motivation to blog again and get lots of other things done.

Watch this space…

Posted by Adam under Personal | No Comments »

I’ve always been quite techy and know what I’m doing where computers are concerned. A lot of my friends and family know this so I have a number of calls over the years to fix technology related problems.

So it was again tonight: I was sat with a friend’s laptop which didn’t want to connect to the Internet anymore.

However, thankfully, I have been in this position before with other people’s PCs. Lots of times. So I knew exactly what to look for first.

A quick check through the installed applications highlighted immediately what the problem was: Norton Anti-Virus software.

McAfee and Norton anti-virus software are the most annoying applications I have ever come across. They are bloated and cause more problems than they fix. Why else would a program come with a special uninstaller that you can download from their website? Because they break your PC and are a pain to get rid of!!!

They scare the public into buying their products at ridiculous prices when people really don’t have to. If there is anybody out there who has a Windows PC heed my next piece of advice: Never pay for anti-virus software for personal use.

My advise is to use one of the following products instead which are all free, all really good and don’t mess up your computer:

Microsoft Security Essentials

The latest application to join the party but the one I am going to mention first as it is my current product of choice. It integrates extremely well into Windows (you don’t notice it is there most of the time), it rates highly on virus catching capabilities and is developed by a household name for that extra piece of mind.

http://www.microsoft.com/Security_Essentials/

AVG Anti-Virus

This is the product that I loved up until Microsoft’s offering and is still installed on a number of PCs I have fixed over the years. Again it is free, rates highly and is very popular. Get it if you have an allergy to Microsoft products! Be careful when navigating their website though as they try and confuse you with links to the pay for version. Just keep clicking the link for the free version though and you will be fine.

http://free.avg.com/gb-en/homepage

Posted by Adam under Personal & Techy Stuff | 1 Comment »