Category: Alexandria

On the Marq, Finally

Kyle 1 Comment

A while back, I lamented all the difficulties involved in establishing a paperless seminary workflow. Lots of people chime in, but in the end we didn’t locate an ideal way to do the main task: mark up PDFs (with highlighting, marginalia, etc.). During that process (though not on the comments–perhaps via Twitter?), someone told me about Marqed.com, and online service that provides tools for doing most of the things we had discussed. To my great frustration, however, it was really buggy (perhaps just on my system–Firefox 3.0.17 on Ubuntu 9.04).

However, highlighting at least seems finally to be working well enough to make this a legit go-to tool for now. You get ten PDF uploads per month with the free version, or you can upgrade to unlimited. (The paid account allows you to upload MS Office documents as well, though don’t ask me why you’d want to involve a Web tool to edit a document that can already be marked up natively. Maybe for read-only files?) Of course, I’m not wild about being dependent an Internet connection in order to view my files, but all our classrooms here at VTS have Wi-Fi, so I guess I can deal with this for now. Anyway, I feel like I can finally recommend it. Check it out at www.marqed.com.

In other news, we got some beautiful snow last night here in Northern Virginia. I posted a few quick pictures to Facebook here.

(Video) Greetings from Alexandria

Kyle

Well, I’ve emerged from the minor ordeal that was finishing up a master’s thesis (an interesting process that probably deserves further reflection at another time), recovering from same, and moving across the country. So I wanted to start checking in (hopefully regularly) about my somewhat different new digs and educational context. Most of you know, I think, that I’ve started studies at Virginia Theological Seminary with the eventual hope of becoming an Episcopal priest. I’ve had a week or so to get settled here, and it’s definitely starting to feel enough like home to overcome the effects of the waning post-move adrenaline.

I’m sure I’ll have plenty of thoughts to share about this place, but for now let it suffice to say that a big part of why I was so excited about coming here is that the school seemed genuinely committed to the importance of formation in community and to fostering an atmosphere conducive to that work. I’m thankful that so far it has not disappointed.

Anyway, I was saying to a friend of mine before I left that I somehow felt like video blogging might be an especially good way to communicate some of my experience down here. I haven’t totally figured out why I think that or whether I’m right, but see below for a minor dipping-in-of-toes to that ocean. Let me know if there’s anything in particular you’d like to know about my life or studies down here. I’d love to try to stay connected in as authentic a way as possible–even if I do look and feel a little silly.