After a lot of “soul searching” my wife and I have decided to send our three boys to a Lutheran school just outside of Lincoln. Our oldest is nine, and we have had them at home until now. I still believe home schooling is an excelent choice for Christian (and non-Christian) parents, and we may delve into it again at some point, but we think the boys need more structure right now and they will get more of that in a traditional setting. Of course I will have to deal with a little bit of Lutheran indoctrination and young earth creationism, but I’d rather deal with that than King and King: a book about two princes that fall in love. We obviously considered sending the boys to public school, but when Anthony Martin shared the link with me that mentions a failed lawsuit concerning the book (being read to second graders) it reminded me of one of the reasons I want to keep my boys out of the mainstream education system.

A few weeks ago we gave the old tape based video camera away and bought the Samsung SC-MX20B. The MX20 is an entry level flash based video camera, and it is everything I have ever wanted in a video camera. First of all it was very afordable. I payed far less for this camera than my last two. Second, it is easy, easy, easy. Pick it up, flip it open and hit record. After that I plug in the USB cable and import the movies right into iMovie. Thrid, the battery life is wonderful. Fourth, the image quality is more than acceptable for a camera at this price point. I wasn’t looking for the best image in the business. I was looking for a camera that I would use often, and I found it. You can view a sample video on my MobileMe Gallery.

I’m posting this entry from a Dashboard widget called WordPressDash. I don’t know how well it will work, and there is no spell check so… It is pretty cool not to have to log in to WordPress though. Maybe I’ll post more this way, but I doubt it. Still, it’s a cool addition my Dashboard, and is a better alternative than Twitter which got old quick.

I know there are thousands and thousands of freeware apps for Windows, but it turns out there are quite a few really good ones for Mac as well. I don’t really know where to start so I’ll start with one that I actually donated $5 for. It is freeware, but I really like it. Simple, clean, effective.

Pastor is “a tool to store all your passwords, website logins, serial numbers, etc. encrypted and password-protected. With built-in password generator.” That’s what it says, and that’s what it does. Pastor was written by Marcus Mehlau, and is available free from www.mehlau.net.

You can throw a copy of the app and your password file onto a thumb drive and take it with you to another Mac that isn’t running Pastor, or you can just take the password file with you if the other machine is already running Pastor.

Now for the really great news. According to the website there is an iPhone/iPod Touch version in the works! No word as to if you will be able to sync the two apps, or what the app with cost, but either way it would be cool to have it in hand at all times.