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Art Plans Woodworking

How to Set Up a French Cleat Wall Easel

I’ve been trying to figure out how best to position large canvases for painting since my current easel isn’t all that great and I’d rather spend the limited time I have painting rather than constructing another easel (which I’m sure I’ll do at some point).  One of the challenges I keep running into is how to position my canvases, particularly the bigger ones, vertical instead of at an angle.

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Art

New Facebook and Instagram Profiles for my Artwork

One of my goals this year has been to focus more on my sketching and painting work and to try and develop some consistency and some continuity of themes, which in the past have totally been all over the place.  That’s an exercise that’s been particularly challenging for me because in addition to a busy workload as a part of a startup company and family responsibilities in a house full of teenagers time is very scarce and creative energy often has to be subservient to the necessities of life and the thought of being able to establish some kind of routine is, I’m afraid at this point of my life, more a pipe dream than a process.  But that’s not to say I’m not trying!

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Biblical Studies Create

Christ and Culture: Lesson 10

We’ve spent the last 9 weeks studying Christianity and culture from the very basics of defining what culture is to understanding multiple paradigms through which we, as Christians, can effectively engage the culture from a Christian worldview.  As we near the end of our study, we’ll take a deep dive into Tim Keller’s 4 “cultural camps” and tackle the questions, “Which one  does the Bible teach?” and ultimately, “What do I believe?”

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Biblical Studies Create

Christ and Culture: Lesson 9

Should we be pessimistic or optimistic about the possibility of cultural change?

Is the current culture redeemable and full of common grace, or fundamentally fallen and lacking common grace?

Our answers to those questions can help us to see where we fit into the spectrum of cultural engagement and also teaches us what we can learn from those who have equally orthodox, but pragmatically different perspectives on the Christian’s role in culture.

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Biblical Studies Create

Christ and Culture: Lesson 8

In this episode of Christ and Culture, Ike Reeder takes a deep dive into Richard Neibur’s 5 approaches to confronting the world. To get the most out of this lesson, you’ll want to reference the visual chart in the accompanying slide presentation which you can view below.  At the time of this posting, the chart appears on slide 24.  This chart references a spectrum of Christian views on cultural engagement with some explanatory notes that Ike refers to throughout the presentation.

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Biblical Studies Create

Christ and Culture: Lesson 7

The Apostle Paul exhorts us in 1 Corinthians 10:31 that whether we eat or drink, or whatever we do, do all to the glory of God. However, the way we express this out in our day to day lives and in our relationships with others can look very different depending on our philosophical approach to the broader culture. In this episode, join Ike as he concludes our study of C.S. Lewis’ “suburbs of Jerusalem” and explores Richard Neibuhr’s 5 categories or approaches to Christ and Culture.

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Biblical Studies Create

Christ and Culture: Lesson 6

If we are called by God to be culture makers through the creation mandate and within the context of the second commandment, how then shall we live?  In lesson 5 of Christ and Culture, Ike Reeder explores the approaches of 2 great thinkers, J. Gresham Machen and C.S. Lewis.  Join Ike as he unpacks their writings on the impact that engaged Christians can can have on our culture.

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Create Woodworking

SketchUp Tutorial: Adding Pocket Holes to Your Models

I’m in the middle of creating plans for another piece of furniture that has a number of pocket hole joints.  I thought it might be helpful for some of my woodworking readers who also like to use SketchUp to put together a really quick tutorial on putting 3D renderings of pocket holes into your models.  This comes in handy where you have joints where you’re using pocket holes on multiple sides and you want to drill your holes so that the screws don’t hit each other.

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Create Learn Work

How to use the VLOOKUP function to link 2 Google Sheets

Ever need to look up data in one Google sheet and use that to populate a different Google sheet?  It’s pretty easy to do, but you need to use the VLOOKUP function and the IMPORTRANGE function and it takes 2 steps:

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Web Video

Weather Channel App Video Animated Text Effect

I just finished a video on using Adobe After Effects to re-create an animated text effect that I see every time I look at videos on my Weather Channel app on my iPhone.  I really like the effect and wanted to use for a project and it may help you too. It’s a simple “reveal animation” where a line appears written on the screen and then text appears above then below the line making for a quick and stylish way to use text to enhance what’s happening in the video.