Sesame Workshop recently launched a new online store  (http://www.ebooks.sesamestreet.org/) for the Sesame Street eBooks.

 This is essentially the commercializaiton of the free eBook access we previously posted. The free version will continue to be available at http://ebooks.sesamestreet.org/free.

If you prefer to have unlimited access, you can subscribe to access more than 100 Sesame Street eBooks. The annual fee will be $39.99, but is being offered at an introductory price of $24.99 through July 4. You can view a demo at http://www.ebooks.sesamestreet.org/demo to see if you are interested in subscribing.

The Onion comes up with some very clever and funny pieces.

For those of you not familiar with it, The Onion is a parody newspaper and website. People may be offended by some of the content, but there seems to be a hint of truth in most of the articles. I think that is why I find it funny.

They recently posted a parody review of a children’s book called “Chomper & Clomper”.

“Scholars and critics across the country expressed outrage this week following the release of Chomper & Clomper, a children’s book that some have called an irresponsible and exploitative portrayal of the celebrated friendship between Clomper, a Brandenburger gelding, and Chomper, a caterpillar of the Junonia genus.”

Good stuff.

To me, this review (and The Onion, in general) serves as a reminder that we sometimes take things too seriously.

You can read the entire review here.

Enjoy!

Admittedly, this is completely off topic. However, I wanted to point out two items that are fun and educational (especially for those intrigued by space):

1.) Stellarium (http://www.stellarium.org/) is “a free open source planetarium for your computer. It shows a realistic sky in 3D, just like what you see with the naked eye, binoculars or a telescope”.

The really cool part is you can select any location, date, and time and modify the Earth’s rotation to control the sky image presented.

FYI – I looked for the Star of Bethlehem, but apparently the program is not sophisticated enough to account for signs from God that occurred over 2000 years ago.

2.) GigaGalaxy Zoom (http://www.gigagalaxyzoom.org) – “Through three giant images, the GIGAGALAXY ZOOM project reveals the full sky as it appears with the unaided eye from one of the darkest deserts on Earth, then zooms in on a rich region of the Milky Way using a hobby telescope, and finally uses the power of a professional telescope to reveal the details of an iconic nebula.”

CNN.com posted an article today that provides some additional detail on how the site was constructed, which states “the image is composed of almost 1,200 photos”.

The site allows you to click your way through the night sky, zoom in on points of interest, and get more detailed information.

I think both are worth a look.

A recent article from Publishers Weekly highlighted a children’s book application ScrollMotion is developing for the iPhone.

The application is scheduled for release this year and will “fold in lots of partners and integrate text, audio and pictures in an organic and fun manner that is interactive for parents and kids, with buttons and interactions especially designed for small fingers.”

If this is executed well, it could be a significant improvement over the current text-only readers. I really like the idea of developing the application and its features with children in mind.

If any of you have an iPhone and try the application, please let us know what you think.

Our 2 year old daughter has started gravitating to a few favorite books.

I thought her perspective may be interesting to some of you with younger children, so I have started adding them to the Our Favorite Books page.  They are listed at the bottom, so you will need to scroll a bit.

There are only have a few listed so far, but will try to track her progression.

It seems that the e-book device wars may be heating up. Publisher’s Weekly recently posted two articles about contenders to the Kindle:

1.) Sony’s wireless device – the Sony Daily Edition

2.) A joint venture between Barnes & Noble and IREX Technologies to produce a new wireless-enabled digital reading device with access to the 700,000 e-book titles

It will be interesting to see how this competition plays out.

On the surface, this reminds me of the battle between VHS and Beta, so I wondered if the winner would be the one providing the best content. However, it appears that all of the competing devices will provide substantial content.

What do you think? Will it come down to specific features? Price? Ease of accessing the content?

Will adoption rates provide significant demand for each to maintain a critical customer base or will one or two dominant players emerge?

It should be fun to watch.

It came to our attention today that the email form on the ”Contact Us” page of our site was not functioning properly.

The issue is resolved and we apologize if anyone received an error while submitting a message.

Again, we apologize for any inconvenience and invite you to resubmit any previously unsuccessful communications.

Sorry…it’s tangent time again.

What does “prayerfully” mean to you?

This adverb seems to be used with great frequency throughout the Christian community. Recently, I have been pondering its use.

If you have previously reviewed this blog, you may already realize that I think prayer plays an important role in our lives.  Prayer is a critical component in our relationship with God and is the primary (two-way) communication method available to us.  As a result, prayer can and should help form and guide our passions, goals, and journey.

On the other hand, I have been questioning the use of the adverb “prayerfully”.  I previously commented on “prayerfully consider”, which is probably the most common use, but am currently hung up on “prayerfully ask”.

As a member of my church council, we are reviewing a devotional that discusses how our fellow disciples “prayerfully asked” us to be leaders in the congregation. I do hope that our congregation members prayed for guidance as they elected the leaders of our church. However, the term “prayerfully asked” in this context seemed out of place to me.

I have “prayerfully asked” the Lord many questions and requests, but how can one person “prayerfully ask” something of another? Perhaps I am interpreting this more directly than intended?

As with other topics that inexplicably gnaw at me, I felt the need to investigate. Various sources seem to focus on two distinct meanings for the adverb (and its corresponding adjective).

The first group of definitions relate specifically to prayer - given to praying frequently, typical or indicative of prayer, etc. This is the grouping that comes to mind when I see the word “prayerfully”. 

However, the second meaning focuses around something devout, earnest, and/or sincere. This meaning makes much more sense to me in the context of “prayerfully asking” something of another.

The second group of definitions eased my mind on this topic, but I wonder if this is the intended meaning by those who use it.

I realize this may be significantly more attention and detail than this topic warrants, but what does “prayerfully” mean to you?

We had a special guest, Nathan Tasker, visit our church this weekend. Nathan is a very gifted musician and uses his talent to testify God’s love.

In addition to recording and live performances, Nathan’s ministry includes serving as a guest artist during worship services. There was a concert last night, but he also participated in both services (traditional and contemporary) this morning.

Nathan was engaging and provided a powerful message through his stories and wonderful music. We definitely enjoyed his visit and wish him the best with his ministry.

If you are interested in learning more about Nathan, I encourage you to visit his website (www.nathantasker.com).