Maranappta Update: Adding Podcasts and Bible Study Series

I'm at the Chapman University Student Union where I took a nap this afternoon after church. After waking up, I fired up my laptop, logged into the free campuswide wi-fi and started working on more features to Maranappta. By Monday morning, Podcasts will join the menu of features, with iTunes links to various Bible teachers and radio programs. Your cell phone must have iTunes and/or QuickTime in order to hear the podcasts. I am also building a sample list of Bible Studies by various Calvary Chapel pastors, with a link to the entire lineup at CalvaryChapel.com.

As a deliberate shameless promo, teaser and bribe to get you to try it out, I will include podcasts from nationally syndicated pastors such as Chuck Smith, Brian Brodersen, Don Stewart and Waxer Tipton, as well as the weekday talk show "Pastors Perspective".

Update July 29, 2013: I haven't uploaded the new features just yet. I've been busy making phone calls and searching for full-time work. After talking with a friend at church, I have decided to drop Hank Hanegraaff and "The Bible Answer Man" from the final podcast lineup because while Hank is an excellent apologist and biblical scholar, his combativeness in recent years in attacking Christians holding a different eschatological view than himself--an issue Hank claims is a non-essential but in practice acts like it is--makes him divisive and a big turnoff.

Maranappta Update: Subject and Verse List is Growing

At the advice of a small group leader at church last night, I am expanding the Subject and Verse section of Maranappta with a few more subjects. I just added Bible verses related to Love, joining those dealing with Devil/Demons on Monday. Another subject, Comfort/Hope, is in the works, and another specifically for Evangelism based on a collection of verses known as "The Romans Road" will follow.

Newport Muse Now Linked to Newport Muse Live

I was planning on doing this later this week, but the chronic server problems at my now ex-web hosting service prompted me to add a direct link to the Newport Muse website immediately as I moved all the content to a new service as an emergency measure. Just click on the Website tab at the top of the page and you'll be sent to the site. Everything's still there; it just has a new URL.

As for my ex-web hosting service, I think Mr. Spock said it best at the end of Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country:

If I were human, I believe my response would be "Go to hell". That is, if I were human.

Live long and prosper.

Here We Go Again... My Website's Down

I was about to upload more content at this moment to my web app Maranappta, but the hosting servers at Zymic are down again for the second time this month. It's a free web hosting service, and the quality of its server hosting has always been good, until this month. I don't know if it's because their servers are crashing from data overloads, but this isn't good. I created a backup site with a different address just in case something like this happened again, so it looks like I'll have to fire it up.

I may also finally get a registered domain name for the site. More on that later. In the meantime, keep posted to this blog for more details.

Maranappta Update: They Like It, They Really Like It!

Forgive me for that Sally Field-at-the-Oscars moment. If you don't get the joke, here's the reference:

Miss Field's sincere and often-parodied acceptance speech, which is actually a reference to a quote from "Norma Rae" (her first Oscar win), is often called "The First Like", long before the birth of social media. :)

Okay, now for why the Sally Field moment. A few friends at church have tried out Maranappta on their iPhones and Androids, and they really like it--the layout, its native-app feel, the links to online Bible search engines, and especially the live streaming of Calvary Chapel radio stations from across the United States. Many of them bookmarked it on the spot and are looking forward to how the final product comes out.

And finally, I think Miss Field looks really cute in her acceptance speech. But she's Gidget, The Flying Nun and Forrest Gump's Mom all wrapped up in one, so of course we really like her.

Maranappta Update: More Content and Easy Navigation

I just uploaded more stuff to my app-in-progress Maranappta. The Bible verses for the Faith category under Subject and Verse have been added, and more arrow buttons at the top of the screen flip you through the main sections much faster and easier.

Also, a few more people at my Tuesday night study at church tried it out on their iPhones and liked it. Two bookmarked it and one said he was going to spread the word with their friends. I'm very encouraged that Maranappta is a valuable and needed app in the church, even though it's barely my first app and still under construction.

Check out the latest additions by going to the Maranappta tab and clicking on the web app link.

Now Beta Testing My First Mobile App

Okay, here's my first official post on Newport Muse Live. First, I need to explain why it's called Newport Muse Live and not just Newport Muse. The Newport Muse subdomain was already taken by a Blogger squatter who is a money-hungry nincompoop and a silly moo. I didn't want to give up the name, so I added Live to the name, and it's a lot more appropriate given the live nature of blogging.

Why's it called Newport Muse anyway, you ask? Well, click the About tab and see for yourself.

I am now beta testing (or just plain testing) my first mobile app, Maranappta, on my personal website as of last week. Three of my friends at church have tested it on their cell phones in my presence and it works, as long as you have Flash Player downloaded and enabled on your device for the live streaming links. If you want to try out Maranappta, click on the tab of the same name to learn more about it.

Test posting for new Blogger site

Of all the posts on my new blog, this is the first. Aloha. :)