Just got a call from stamps.com. Nice place. I've used their stuff before, and it's a good idea for someone who mails stuff, but I'm a web developer and don't do a ton of mailing. Repeat, I'm a web developer and don't do a ton of mailing. I guess what saying that to the sales rep who called didn't mean to much.
She was pleasant, which is a good start, but her persistence became annoyance when I said I was in the middle of something and asked her to call me back and she asked me if I could minimize what I was doing. This was after she asked if I had an Internet connected computer and a high speed connection to the Internet. I'm a web developer and don't do a ton of mailing.
If she had listened more, she would have not asked some simple but disconnecting questions, and would have also quickly got me through the process of signing up for the free trial.
To be honest, I was more sold on the free trial by the fact that I typed in samps.com and it took me to the stamps.com site. Now that's worth signing up for a free trial!
Curses! Someone else just called and asked the question, "Do you all take credit cards?" This time, I caught him, "Why do you want to know?" "Um? Have a nice day." Have a nice day! Why did you call? What did you want? Is this some sort of underhanded survey? "Hi, what color socks do you have on? Blue? Thanks, bye."
Grrr...
Big Brother, you can make my do-not-call list request active anytime...
I recently (at long last) finished Joshua Harris' Not Even a Hint. I received the book for free as part of a "please review" promotional for bloggers. That was some time ago. Since then some others have done reviews of the book, and the title has even changed to "Sex is not the problem (lust is)."
My review (about 2 years late) will be from a perspective of a married, almost 26 year old who started the book as an unmarried 23.5 year old just out of college.
One thing I can say for certain is that this book's message was consistently convicting even as my perspecitve changed.
Joshua's greatest strength in this book is his focus on the Gospel, and not solely on Sex. While writing on a topic that can distract even the most disciplined of minds, Joshua consistently points to the need of Christ's centrallity in this struggle in each chapter. He does not, however, pass the whole battle off as something easy to defeat, silly, or cruely impossible. His consistent message and examples from his own life keep the book accessible and friendly.
One thing I have found hard to swallow in the past was my need for accountability. Joshua's presentation of it--and constant reference to it even from the earliest chapters--was focused more on the growth of grace in the believers life than "this'll fix the problem" style promises. Accountability in the book is shown to have a stronger Biblical bases, and it's foundation and use is reasoned and shown to be affective through Joshua's own personal experience.
Unlike other books, pamphlets, or lectures I have read or heard, this book does not through the male gender into a disparaging and nearly unredeemable light. Quite to the contrary. Joshua spends an adequate amount of time reminding female readers that men are not the only ones who struggle. As in the rest of the book, his words are ones of encouragement and hope.
Even in the more shame-connected sections of the book--chapter 6, titled "Self Centered Sex"--Joshua's message of hope reminds the reader that Christ's sacrifice was for this sin among all the others we commit. Joshua spends ample time in this chapter pointing to the opportunity and need of turning from this sin to the truth of Christ and to what He has made available to all mankind in the joy of the marriage bed.
Joshua does not, however, point to marriage as the only solution for lust. In the last third of the book, Joshua outlines several helpful options for pursuing righteousness whether one is single or married. Accountability is chief on the list, and is shown to be enhanced by Bible reading, memorization, and prayer. Joshua proves that "Lone Rangers are Dead Rangers" in the chapter with that title. While Bible reading, memorization, and prayer are extremely important, the ministry of the Body of Christ through accountability should be a believers first line of defense, not the last.
Conclusion
Whether you are married or single, do not simply gloss over this book or be embarrassed to pick it up because of the topic. This book is about your growth in Christ and the joy that pursuing Him over any earthly desire will bring. The promises and truths in the book are shown in every chapter to be relevant and needful for men and women whether single or married. None of us are alone in our struggle with lust, and Joshua's book gives Biblical instruction on pursuing holiness through the pursuit of Christ and the important ministry of accountability in our lives.
Thank you, Joshua for writing this book. I'm sorry this review has been so long in coming.
I've spent far to much time trying to create an afterFind() method to change my date fields from yyyy-mm-dd to mm-dd-yyyy. From what I've been able to find, CakePHP doesn't have getters and setters for each field in a model. PEAR::DB_DataObject uses these to easily modify or format fields whenever they are retrieved or saved.
In DB_DataObject, I'd simply change getBirthday() (for the birthday field) to change the format to mm-dd-yyyy, but in CakePHP, I get to write a giant afterFind() method that can process all potential returns from a find request--these come in various forms of hierarchical arrays, single dimension arrays, or even strings. Most of the code I've written to make this work has been simply to handle every possible return from a find() request.
In the end it's just making Django look more and more enticing. :)
I've tried to convey my ideas on content management, but I know they often don't come across clearly and that inevitably someone sums up what I'm try to say as "geeky." Allusions to grammar, literature, cooking, cars, suites, etc, things only get more muddied.
Today, I found an article titled "Personal Content Management" by someone far more articulate than I am. In this post, Jeff Croft, conveys the concepts and meaning of content management that I've so unsuccessfully conveyed to several friends.
I'd like to hear from your perspective, if the article conveys things as clearly as I think it does.
Cheers!