So, it's been a wee little while since I last posted. Some of you have contacted me via email to find out what's happening and to be sure everything's okay. I appreciate that -- I really do. So I was sitting here tonight with pretty much nothing to do except wait for the Super Bowl to begin and I thought I'd take the time to post a brief update via my little four-year-old PDA. Here are the highlights: We are all nicely settled into my father-in-law's home. I have a nice little private space in the basement where I can pay bills and work at a desk. (This is important because since I lost my job back in 2006 we've gotten behind in some bills. We haven't totally caught up yet, but my recent two month's of full-time employment really helped.) I've spent several thousand dollars in the past keeping creditors happy

As most of you who regularly visit know, back in November of 2006 I was laid-off from CTI. It wasn't anything nefarious or antagonistic — CTI always has been and continues to be very good to me, still tossing occasional freelance work and article assignments my way. (Hopefully because of my skill, not out of mercy. Though mercy is good, too, and welcome!) When my project's funding ran dry and I was out on the streets (well, more like in my skivvies, lounging around the house, generally making a nuisance of myself) I immediately signed up for a paid account at LinkedIN. I was sold on what it promised for professional networking and job searching opportunities.

Not yet disappointed

LinkedIN has not disappointed me. That isn't to say it's actually delivered on

This is just a quick update on what's happening in the BlogRodentSphere. (Yes, I take my "branding" too seriously, sometimes!)

I've been unemployed since November 9. However, by God's grace and the help of friends, Jennifer and I have not suffered from a loss of income. In fact, I've only drawn one week's worth of unemployment checks. We've managed to keep busy with enough freelance work that we've been able to make our dreaded mortgage-payments and other sundry bills relatively on-time. We're without health-insurance, though, so we are praying none of us fall ill.

I've had several interesting and fun interviews. None of them were high-pressure (with the possible exception of the church interview), and I felt instant rapport with everyone I've interviewed with:

As I have mentioned in various posts throughout this weblog, I have been a proud employee of Christianity Today International for some time now. After serving as the first webmaster for the General Council of the Assemblies of God and a brief stint as a self-employed consultant, I was invited to join CTI's staff by Vice-President of R&D, John LaRue.

That was in the late-summer of 1999. I already had a relationship with CTI by then because when the A/G first decided to go online in 1995, we did it through CTI's America Online content-provider area, "Christianity Today Online." In order for the A/G to provide content on AOL via CTI, I was sent to the CT offices in Carol Stream to learn how to use the AOL "Rainmaker" system for content-management. (What a headache that system was!) As it turned out, only a few of us outside content providers ever took advantage of the training CTI provided after returning home, and that apparently made me noteworthy in CTI's eyes. So, when Judy Gill, office manager for the content production team at that time, found out that I was no longer working for HQ, she prevailed upon John LaRue to find a way for me to come work on staff in an official capacity.

After two weekend-long video-editing sessions we finally went live with the new online training course anticipating the Da Vinci Code film opening next week on the 19th. It’s called “Da Vinci Code Conversations,” and it's intended to give viewers a brief, birds-eye-view of the major contentions in Dan Brown's novel and — presumably — the film.

Not having screened the film, everybody is guessing as to how much of the book’s more controversial elements made it into the screenplay, but we’re pretty sure it will involve the major highlights of this course since the plot largely depends on it:

I haven’t been blogging much of late because nearly every waking hour for the past three weeks has been focused on the imminent launch of the latest online training course I’ve been tinkering with (no—more like beating myself senseless against) at work.

I’m responsible for selecting and preparing content for one of ChristianityToday.com’s websites: CTCourses.com (short for ChristianityTodayCourses.com, natch). So far, since our launch in early January, 2006, we’ve managed to push two courses out the door, one on how to host small groups, featuring Brett Eastman, and another free course on managing email overload, featuring Kevin Miller (my supervisor at CT, freshly ordained Anglican priest, and also author of a book on managing information overload).

Tomorrow, if all goes well, we’ll be launching the third course, and we

Okay, after laboriously setting up a feed reader for myself so I can finally stay on top of all the feeds referenced in my PneumaBlogs and CTI-Blogs pages, I was also able to set up a couple pages here on BlogRodent to help you (and me) easily see what the latest posts are from these little slices of the blogosphere.

So, for your delectation, enjoyment, and frivolous wasting of time, I present to you:

Enjoy! Come back to see me some time.

(Note, if you’re a PneumaBlogger or a CTI-Blogger and your posts are not showing up on this page, it’s probably because your feed is broken, or it was impossible to find it. Contact me if you want to get added.)

[tags]BlogRodent, Pentecostal, Charismatic, Evangelical, Christian, religion, feeds, Christianity-Today, headlines, rss, OPML, PneumaBlogs, CTI-Blogs, latest-news[/tags]

In the spirit of my PneumaBlogs page, I’ve added another compilation of blog links to official Christianity Today blogs, links to unofficial personal CTI blogs, and links to ex-employees and affiliated CTI blogs. I hope you enjoy it. This is not an official list, it is not approved my employer, nor are all the links on this page representative of CTI opinion.

[tags]BlogRodent, Christianity-Today, christianitytoday, CTI, Christianity-Today-International, blogs, bloggers, godblogs, writers, Christianity, Evangelical[/tags]