http://chris-barr.com/ en chris.m.barr@gmail.com Copyright 2011 2011-06-22T18:39:11+00:00 http://chris-barr.com/index.php/entry/togo_africa_2011_trip_-_videos/ http://chris-barr.com/index.php/entry/togo_africa_2011_trip_-_videos/#When:18:39:11Z I recently returned from yet another trip to the village of Gbetnchal in Togo, West Africa and it was an amazing experience! I had the opportunity to put together a few videos to update people back in the States about what was going on in Togo this summer. David Whetstone of Mentor Leaders update his home church, Conduit Mission, about what's been going on in Togo this summer. Pastor William is the pastor of the village of Gbentchal, and here he explains the challenges they face bringing the message of Jesus Christ to these people John Michael, Mazema, and Jenn show the dirty water the people of Gbentchal are currently drinking and then explain our temporary water filtration system which will be in place until the wells are dilled later this summer. Jenn interviews Christophe, some of the villagers, and Hermann to get their thoughts on what Mentor Leaders is doing for this village. Peter Dublin of Mentor Leaders gives an update on what has been done in Togo so far this summer, and what is to come. General 2011-06-22T18:39:11+00:00 http://chris-barr.com/index.php/entry/2010_in_photos_a_review/ http://chris-barr.com/index.php/entry/2010_in_photos_a_review/#When:03:59:51Z A little over a year ago I was inspired to start on a photography project I would have to participate in every single day for the duration of 2010.  At first it seemed a little overwhelming, but after some searches online it seems that there are actually quite a few people out there that have successfully done this exact same thing.  This was a huge relief to me to at least know that this was a feasible thing to do! So I started a Tumblr blog and began taking photos every day.  At first it came easy because I had so many ideas and it was new.  I also was uploading these photos to Facebook so that people I see on a daily basis would know about the project and be able to see what I was doing.  In hindsight this was probably the best decision because so many of my friends would say the most encouraging things to me about my photos.  This was really big for me because, as you might imagine, forcing yourself to do a specific out-of-the-ordinary task every single day can become quite a burden.  So a HUGE “thank you” goes out to all my friends in my life, and also to everyone online whom I’ve never met.  You all were a gigantic blessing and encouragement to me. So, to sum it all up: it was a success!  I managed to take a photo every day of 2010 except for one (oops.)  The one day I missed is something I can excuse myself for; I was in Africa and exhausted on that particular day.  I made up for it by simply extending the project into the first day of 2011.  Not ideal, but a fair trade off. Overall, I’m so extremely glad that I did it, and I’m very proud of what I came up with.  Of course some photos I like a lot more than others, a few I wish I could do over again, but in the end it is what it is and I’m happy with how it turned out.  Would I do it again?  NO WAY!  This turned out to be an incredible amount of work!  Much more than I anticipated.   Africa, Photography, Code, Personal 2011-01-04T03:59:51+00:00 http://chris-barr.com/index.php/entry/africa_recap_questionnaire/ http://chris-barr.com/index.php/entry/africa_recap_questionnaire/#When:05:35:05Z Back in July I was blessed enough to be able to be part of a mission to Togo, West Africa through Mentor Leaders which was amazing experience! During one of our flight delays on the trip back home, a friend of mine go to talking with a man in front of him in line. This man turned out to be the missions pastor of a church in West Virginia! Ever since then the two of them have stayed in touch. It's amazing how God even uses delayed flight to work His will! This pastor and his church are considering supporting Mentor Leaders in future endeavors, but first wanted to get an idea about what this past trip was like for the people who went. So they made a brief questionnaire for us to fill out and return to them. I was surprised at how much I liked what I wrote to them, plus I haven't written anything about my experiences in Africa on my blog yet; so I've included it below. What drew you to Mentor Leaders and how did you sense or understand God leading you to go? David Whetstone of Mentor Leaders has become a good friend recently, and upon hearing what his ministry is about plus just getting to see how on-fire David is for the Lord - it just seemed like a huge missed opportunity to not go. It took a while to convince myself, but then I realized that there was nothing holding me back from going; not even the funds for the trip. After I realized this and committed to going, everything just fell into place. I had enough funds saved up to be able to pay for everything myself, but even the vast majority of that was covered by God through gracious friends and family members. What made the most Spiritual impact on you during or after this trip? Several things made an impact, but there was one night in particular that stands out in my mind. The second village we went to (I'm not sure how it's spelled, but it's pronounced "Ben-jal") we set up a sound system, a screen, and a projector to show the Jesus film in their native language of Moba. We split up the film across three nights so that it would generate more interest and get more people to come; a plan that turned out to work amazingly well! On the second night we started playing the film around 7pm and it was already extremely dark to the point where you could look up and actually see the Milky Way galaxy. As soon as the people gathered we turned off the lights and began to play the film. Since we couldn't understand the film, many of us would just hang out until it was over; but that night we immediately noticed small points of light coming from every direction! We soon realized that these were the flashlights and motorcycle headlights of all the other people who were still on their way! It was absolutely incredible to just see all these lights everywhere all headed to the same place. A friend leaned over to me and said "imagine every one of those lights represents a soul." Wow. Hundreds of Africans showed up that night! just to think of all those lights as individual souls coming to be saved was overwhelming. After the film was over our translator, William, did a quick summary of what happened in the film and what it meant (I assume so anyway, because I don't speak Moba!) and then handed the microphone off to my friend Peter. Peter spoke for a minute or two while William translated, then he wished everyone a goodnight and asked them to come back tomorrow. No one even moved. Awkward. Peter took the microphone again and told them all they could go home. Nothing. He then asked if they wanted to hear a story, and it was a resounding "yes" from the crowd! I'm not 100% certain, but I believe Peter then told the story of Noah and the ark which absolutely captivated the people. After this they were more willing to go home, but even then some people needed convincing. This just stuck with me because I've never seen people anywhere so hungry for the the message of Christ! These people had probably just watched the very first movie in their lives, but they were still drawn in by the message and the power of the Gospel! Would you go again? If your answer is no, why not? A few months ago I would have said "no" or "I don't think I'm called to go to Africa." Getting home was a huge hassle with flight cancellations, long airplane rides, nothing going to plan, and some not-so-fun stomach bug that most everyone got. Combine all that with an intense desire to get back to our comfortable ways of life again, and I was happy to never go back to Africa. But once I got back home and started sharing stories of what we did with my friends, and finally getting to import and review all the photos I took - it all changed for me. Looking at the photos was one of the biggest things for sure. Photography is a huge hobby for me, and I really feel that many of my photos captured what the trip was about and what the people were like. It was amazing to look at photos of the crowds of children that were gathered around me and being able to remember the name or face of a child I interacted with, now thousands of miles away. So, to answer the question, Yes. I'm already planning on going back for another two weeks in this coming year. Many of my friends who went on this trip are also planning on going back, some for as long as 2 months! For me to go for a full two weeks I have to save up all my vacation days at work, which maxes them out and uses them all at once. If my employer allowed for more than 2 weeks off I would absolutely go for a longer period of time! What was the most positive and/or negative part of this experience? The most positive portion of the trip was without a doubt getting to meet the people in these villages. Even though we couldn't speak to each other, there was certainly a connection. We made it very clear that we were there visiting these villages as representatives of Jesus Christ. This made the connection we had with the people so amazing because they knew that everything we did was out of love and it was because of Jesus. My fondest memories of the trip was being able to take photos of people with my camera and then to turn the camera around and show them their own photo. Without fail, every single time, the people would burst out in laughter at their own photo or a photo of their friend because they had never seen their own photo before! In the very first village when we got off the van, my first experience was being surrounded by about 30 children just staring at me. Not knowing what else to do, I got out my camera and took their photo and showed it to them. One of my biggest regrets of this trip is not having a video of the reaction I got from these kids! They all laughed SO hard and so loud that I literally was taken aback! I was not expecting anything of the sort! The other memory that stands out in my mind was one hot afternoon when I was tired. I decided to take a quick break in the shade, and a few minutes later I was approached by a woman holding an infant which couldn't have been more 6 weeks old. I had never even seen this woman before, but she came up to me and then just handed me her baby! I wasn't really sure what was going on, but I was extremely humbled as she just sat down and watched me hold her child. So I did exactly that for about half an hour as she just watched me. The baby slept the whole time, which was a huge blessing to me because I'm not very good with babies! I honestly have no idea why this woman did what she did, but my best guess is that she was humbled by us, the white people, coming to her village. Many children would come up to you and simply want to shake your hand because you were white, and I feel like this woman might have just wanted her baby to be held by a white man. I can't be sure but regardless of the reason behind it, I was humbled. As for the most negative part of the trip, I would certainly have to say it was the the traveling and the sickness. I was lucky enough to only get a temporary stomach bug, but one friend got an intestinal parasite and two other friends contacted malaria (which is a blood parasite that stays with you for life!) So the sickness was not fun, but it certainly was not as bad for me as it was for my friends who had to be hospitalized and learn how to deal with their new life-long disease. Did you have any opportunity to share Christ directly? Due to the language barrier, no, not really. It's easy to show love and play sports and have fun with these people, but the hard part was just hanging around later because there was nothing really to say. There's only so many translators and once you involve a third person in your discussion it seems very impersonal. It was still an amazing experience to be involved in showing love to these people in any way at all, which eventually leads to hundreds of hands being raised when asked whether they wanted to have a personal relationship with Jesus himself. I can't wait to go back next year and see how much God has moved in these villages and to see the progress of the churches that have been planted! Africa, Personal 2010-11-06T05:35:05+00:00 http://chris-barr.com/index.php/entry/words/ http://chris-barr.com/index.php/entry/words/#When:05:25:11Z Design, Video/Motion Graphics 2010-08-16T05:25:11+00:00 http://chris-barr.com/index.php/entry/scrolling_a_overflowauto_element_on_a_touch_screen_device/ http://chris-barr.com/index.php/entry/scrolling_a_overflowauto_element_on_a_touch_screen_device/#When:05:48:50Z In mobile Safari on the iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad (as well as the webkit based browser on Android phones) it's not immediately obvious how to scroll a div that has overflow:auto; set on it. If this were a desktop browser you would see scrollbars and be able to manipulate those or even use your mouse wheel. No such concepts exist on a touch screen device! To scroll the entire page you just touch it and move your finger. But when you touch the element that would normally scroll, the entire page scrolls instead. This is a little bit broken in my opinion since there's no visual indicator that you aren't seeing all the content. However, if you are on a site and you know there's a scrollable div there is a simple (but not obvious) workaround. Simple use two fingers at the same time and scroll them in the same direction. This works OK but like I said it's not obvious, there's still no indicator that the content is scrollable, and when you use more than one finger you might accidentally trigger some other gesture like scaling the page. I recently ran into this exact issue at work and came up with a pretty solid solution in javascript. I broke this down into two simple functions, but the last one is where the magic happens. This first function simply attempts to create a new touch event. Only touch screen browsers like mobile Safari have these events, so if it doesn't throw an error then we are using a touch screen device. Otherwise it's probably a desktop browser. function isTouchDevice(){ try{ document.createEvent("TouchEvent"); return true; }catch(e){ return false; } } Next, this function calls the isTouchDevice() function, and if it succeeds we attach some special touch events to the page. First when a touch event begins (the touchstart event) we get the current scroll position and prevent the default browser behavior, which in this case would be to scroll the page. Next when you move your finger the touchmove event is called. Here we just subtract the position of your finger from the scroll position we saved earlier and again prevent the page from scrolling. function touchScroll(id){ if(isTouchDevice()){ //if touch events exist... var el=document.getElementById(id); var scrollStartPos=0; document.getElementById(id).addEventListener("touchstart", function(event) { scrollStartPos=this.scrollTop+event.touches[0].pageY; event.preventDefault(); },false); document.getElementById(id).addEventListener("touchmove", function(event) { this.scrollTop=scrollStartPos-event.touches[0].pageY; event.preventDefault(); },false); } } So that's it, just include these functions on your page and just call it by passing in the ID of the element you want to scroll. Like so: touchScroll("MyElement");. You can see a working demo here: http://chris-barr.com/files/touchScroll.htm. I feel like this is a better way of doing things because it's more intuitive since you're just using one finger, and it's potentially more obvious. Even if you don't immediately know there's hidden content, you might accidentally touch this while scrolling the page and realize there's more to see in this div. Web, Code, Javascript, CSS 2010-05-04T05:48:50+00:00 http://chris-barr.com/index.php/entry/typographical_javasctipt_clock/ http://chris-barr.com/index.php/entry/typographical_javasctipt_clock/#When:05:41:59Z I was bored, so I made one.  Check it out here: http://chris-barr.com/files/text%20clock/ Projects, Web, Code, Javascript 2010-05-04T05:41:59+00:00 http://chris-barr.com/index.php/entry/hot_chip_-_i_feel_better/ http://chris-barr.com/index.php/entry/hot_chip_-_i_feel_better/#When:03:38:29Z Music, Video/Motion Graphics, Comedy 2010-03-18T03:38:29+00:00 http://chris-barr.com/index.php/entry/kid_cudi_feat._mgmt_ratatat_-_pursuit_of_happiness/ http://chris-barr.com/index.php/entry/kid_cudi_feat._mgmt_ratatat_-_pursuit_of_happiness/#When:06:20:27Z Music, Video/Motion Graphics 2010-03-11T06:20:27+00:00 http://chris-barr.com/index.php/entry/broken_bells_-_the_high_road/ http://chris-barr.com/index.php/entry/broken_bells_-_the_high_road/#When:06:12:44Z Music, Video/Motion Graphics 2010-03-11T06:12:44+00:00 http://chris-barr.com/index.php/entry/new_years_resolutions/ http://chris-barr.com/index.php/entry/new_years_resolutions/#When:23:01:05Z It’s a new year, and a new decade. I know 2010 will be a great year for me, and I’m going to do my best to make sure of that by setting a few new years resolutions for myself. Take 1 photo a day and blog it to force myself to get more creative - I’m keeping it in a tumblr blog you can follow here: http://2010photos.tumblr.com Lose 10 pounds Make a short film about my trip to Togo, Africa in July Try to get a photo published somewhere or in a local gallery So most of these are photography related, but I think these all revolve around my trip to Africa later this year. This is more than likely a once in a lifetime trip, and I really want to make sure that I take some amazing photos and videos to remember it by. General, Photography, Projects 2010-01-01T23:01:05+00:00