Being Benjamin

Complete the Task

2012-02-12T15:58:00.000-06:00

God, You are sovereign over all creation. You are worthy of all our worship. May Your name truly be hallowed among all thenations. God, in Your great mercy andlove, You have given us this time in history to take Your Gospel message—Yourredemption story—to all those who have not heard it. From the very beginning, when You called outAbraham, Your plan was to make Your name known among the nations. You have invited us to be a part of Yourmission, so let us not waste our lives in meaningless pursuits any longer, butbe radically changed toward completing the task and ushering the return ofChrist!

God, this world is broken but You are still at work in Yoursovereignty. For the parts of the worldthat are closed to us, would You open doors and allow Your children to take theGospel where it has not been heard. God,Your church is under persecution in ways we cannot even fathom here in America,where our tribulations are little more than risking offending someone. For those hidden places where our brothersand sisters are meeting in small groups, hungry for Your word, completelydependent on Your power in their lives, praising Your great name, and carryingon Your message to their families and friends, I pray for safety and for YourSpirit to fill those rooms so they fear nothing and know that death nor lifenor rulers nor powers…nothing…can separate them from Your love. God I pray that Your church will perseverethrough the persecution. They may burndown buildings but the true foundation of Your church can never be destroyed;they may jail Your followers, but Your mission continues in prisons, and theymay take lives, but as Your word says “For Your sake, we are being killed allthe day long”. God by whatever means Your name is to be known, do it, for Youare worthy of our very lives.

God in the places around the world where Your work is beingdone even in this very hour, I pray that You would go before every effort toconnect with people of a different culture, to communicate the Gospel in theirlanguage, and to plant churches that they can then begin the journey of makingdisciples. God through Your mightyworks, would You show Yourself to the unreligious. Lord, open paths for us to go to the remotestof tribal areas so that they can know who You are. In the Hindu nations, would You help us toshow them that You are the One and True God. In the areas of the world where Buddhism is prevalent, will You helpthem to see the eternal security they seek can only be found in Christalone. And for the Muslim nations, God,would You help us find common ground and teach them with our lives and our lovethat Christ is the only way, truth and life.

One day, Lord, Your Word says that every tribe, tongue, andnation will be represented before Your throne, seeing You in all Your glory,worshipping You. You are truly worthy ofnothing less, Lord. As we pray daily forthe peoples around the world--individually, as families, in small groups, andcorporately--would You unite us in this one heart: to bend our lives to You and complete Yourmission. Do this for Your name’s sake,Lord. Thank You for the privilege to beinvolved, for there is no higher purpose. We ask through Your Son, our Savior, Christ Jesus, Amen.

Where I Belong

2012-01-17T17:01:00.001-06:00

I received a letter today from my sponsored child's pastor. One of the exciting things I learned from it was a better knowledge of Vijay's location. Though I still can't determine exactly where in India he is at, I do know he is within 250 miles of Bhopal, which is pretty much central in India. (Before I only could know a 1000 km radius!)

But what hit me the most of this Pastor's letter were the conditions our brothers and sisters are facing over there. Yes, those are our brothers and sisters in Christ! When is the last time any of us even considered that notion? I really don't have a clue. We're too caught up in our comforts and culture and national pride to even begin thinking on a global scale. But Revelation makes it clear that every tribe, tongue, and nation will be represented before the throne. And there is a whole world waiting to hear God's Good News who have never heard it before. There are fellow believers who are facing honest-to-goodness life and death persecution just on the chance to meet together and talk about the Bible. We sit over here and brush off going to church if we're too tired from staying up too late on Saturday. We go to all the things that entertain and provide things for us, but end up "busy" when we're called to participate in discipleship and worship. We leave talking about how the songs didn't really do it for us today.

I just can't tolerate this anymore. I long to be in the places where there are no hindrances and preconceptions of entitlement. Just a people who need to know God. We don't know what it means to depend on God. Maybe we think we do, when we can't pay our cable, cell phone, internet, or car bills. And if we don't have one or more of these things, we are considered poor. That may be an American definition, but I'm sorry, that is not poverty. Real dependence on God, I think, comes when faced with what these people in India face. Here are a few of the conditions from the Pastor's letter:

Malnutrition is commonplace for children.
High illiteracy rates; less than 25% can read. Those who do attend school have a drop-out rate of 60%.
Improper sanitation leading to all sorts of health issues. Malaria, hepatitis, and tuberculosis are all common.

I'm deeply, deeply humbled that this man would end his letter saying HE was praying for ME! And through this small act of generosity, he is able to provide hygiene supplies, run a care center where children learn manners, sing songs and dance, explore their talents, and receive tutoring! Vijay's family lives on less than $22 a month. That's 4 cups of coffee to me. I know Vijay is not going to school because his family needs him to be working. At 8! Seriously, I think I have a clue on God's global perspective? (Why in the world did I struggle for two months on how to come up with $38 to sponsor this child?)

We're free to worship who we want, when we want, where we want. A lot of the world is not so fortunate and we don't get that. Pastors in India ask us not to pray that their persecution would stop, but that they would persevere through the persecution for His name's sake! What boldness! Who among us who have lived in first-world comforts could pray such a bold prayer? I'm fascinated by such boldness in those who truly have nothing--not the American sense of nothing--really nothing.

When I pray and things don't turn out for the better, my faith wavers and I wonder where I misstepped! I have no clue. Our "persecution" is worrying about offending someone by bringing up Christ in a conversation. They are being killed! God never promised that when we pray for something, things will get better. He said all things work together for good for those who are called according to His purpose. What's His purpose? To make His name known among all people groups. So when something goes the opposite way in which I pray, and I have the audacity to question God, well just maybe that's because His way is going to lead to Him accomplishing His purpose. (This is a whole other post, so I'll move on.)

All I know is God has radically changed my life in this last year. I'm not the same Benjamin I was January 2011. I don't know if we haven't kept up together a lot or if you know what all has been going on with me. All I know is, my perspective is completely flipped right side up (see what I did there?) and God is showing me generosity for the sake of His Kingdom. Most assuredly, though, He is massaging in the notion that this is not my home. I am blessed beyond measure to live in America. But our definitions of being Christ's disciple have been absolutely marred by our entitlements, comforts, and wealth.

Our churches need to stop wasting millions on programs and productions as if we're trying to lure people in, cater to their sense of entitlements, and convince them to buy into Christianity on false pretenses. We need to draw on the presence of Christ and allow Him to work, so that we're not just having people say an ABC prayer and toss them back into the world, but so we are honestly creating disciples who learn the Word in order to share, show and teach it to the next person!

We need to shirk nationalistic pride and this American dream mentality, and develop Kingdom pride! We are citizens of heaven!

We are not a poor people. We do not have what we have to live our lives in comfort and complain about it when they go away.

In America, we have been put in the context of having heard of Jesus, having clean water and food, hygienic sanitation, and medical care. Two BILLION people out there don't.

No matter what safety, security, or comforts we have to sacrifice, our God is worth it. I have wasted 15 years as a "Christ follower" before finally getting it. He alone did what I could not do. He alone loved me when I was still His enemy. He alone made the way for me to be adopted as His son and share in Christ's inheritance!

Even knowing those things in my heart like I do now, I'm still only crawling in this journey. I'm scared to death! I can't even pray the words I know I need to pray. I, in my flesh, cannot give up my home, family, or even my pet. But God is moving and preparing me on some capacity to be part of His Kingdom work. He didn't have to include us in His plan to save His people. He could have used big signs in the sky or given people dreams and visions. But He didn't. He chooses to use us! This is a PRIVILEGE, not an obligation!

I may live here and experience the freedoms we enjoy, and God may or may not be asking me to move to somewhere else in the world, but what I do understand is this is not where I belong.

The End of Texting; the Beginning of Impact

2011-12-05T15:10:00.001-06:00

A lot of people have asked why I dropped my texting plan from my cell phone service. I wasn't going to announce this, but then after some thought, I decided that just maybe I could let someone else know about the opportunity of giving that God showed me.

You see, God has placed on my heart the unreached people groups of the world. What does this have to do with dropping text messaging? Hang with me... Without going into the full story here--though I'd be thrilled to share with you in person--God has shown me the deception I was living under and also taught me a lot about generosity. While He is still preparing, pruning, and providing for me to begin being obedient to His global mission call, He showed me ways I can make a difference right now, from where I'm at. In one respect, He has brought many people groups to us! In fact, we have a young man from India visiting as a student and attending Compass. India has been on my heart since learning about the persecution there in April. This led to Him speaking to my heart to sponsor a child through Compassion International. It is $38 a month to provide resources to a child so they can attend school, church, and other meaningful activities for physical and spiritual wellness.

So I made the commitment to do so and began searching for areas I could cut back to be a sponsor. With the advance in Apple's iOS and all the other avenues of communication we have, I decided the $20 per month that cellular providers outrageously charge for texting was a good place to start. Only a handful of my friends/family use some other device or haven't upgraded, so it really hasn't been too big a deal so far. If someone is so insistent to communicate by message rather than voice, there's still Twitter, Facebook, email, etc. It's fine. A minor inconvenience for a major influence. Another place I'm cutting is my Netflix service. They doubled their rates recently, so I'm halving my service. That's $9. Finally, I cut the "premium" tier of my U-verse bill, which let me get the Red Zone Channel. $5 there. That's $34 total...just about the cost of my sponsorship.

I looked for a couple months for a child, but it was so overwhelming, I kept putting it off. How could I choose? Finally, I found a link on the site that said "let us choose for you". Yes please! I set the parameters of a boy in India who had been waiting the longest for a sponsor. I received an 8-year-old boy named Vijay, who lives in northern India. Google Earth can't quite pin down where he is; the closest I can focus in is 1000 km away. I just finished writing my first letter to him. I pray these resources will cause him to know Christ one day soon!

There's been several jokes that I was being snobby about only using Apple's iMessage, and while I do know they were all in good fun, I assure you, I had no such motivation. And if this post causes you to consider getting in on God's global mission, in this small way, this is something you can do NOW! Want to know more? Let's get together! Holler at me on Twitter, Facebook messenger, email, or iMessage. Just don't text! :)

Catan Being Conquered

2011-10-21T09:54:00.000-05:00

Y'all probably know I'm a pretty big Settlers of Catan fanatic. We have a weekly group that plays. And we were excited to find a new scenario released this week called "Oil Springs". Basically, there are 3 hexes that now produce oil. Oil can be used to buy 2 resources or build a metropolis (not the same as C&K metropolis). The metropolis lets you collect 3 resources and protects you from flooding (see below). Or...you can sequester the oil for conservation, which permanently removes it from the game. Doing so 3 times gives you the "Environmental Champion" card and 1 VP. Using oil, however, causes the environmental disaster calendar to tick forward (like the Barbarians in C&K). When the token reaches the end, disaster strikes and either one hex is PERMANENTLY REMOVED from the game or a flood takes out all settlements along the coast (same effect as volcano). If disaster happens 5 times, Catan becomes uninhabitable and NO ONE WINS THE GAME. WHAT??!?

Of course with new rules comes some challenges and we had some hangups along the way, but I think we've worked out the kinks after a couple rounds. It was clear that some chose to use the oil to build for themselves, no matter the cost or ramifications. Not many were in to conserving the oil. And sure, there are parallels here to reality. I think that's the point of this scenario. The guys had fun and we'll play it again! Hoping for rules to combine with Cities & Knights soon!

The Common vs. Holy

2011-07-25T14:03:00.001-05:00

We were asked by our small group leader to write an honest email to him of where we are at with totally surrendering to God. There are two huge areas God is working on me right now, and I wanted to share my thoughts on one of them. There is a process of pruning that we all undergo at Christians so that we can be fruitful on the vine that is Jesus Christ. Some of these things are good things, but to make the best fruit possible, even those things may have to go.

There is plenty of opinion on the subject of alcohol consumption amongst Christians, and it is also a subject that places the church in a state of hypocrisy in the eyes of lost people. We can go back and forth all day about if it is right or wrong, but that is not what this post is about. This is about my personal journey and my decision alone. I want that to be clear before going on.

As I've prayed in the last months for God to show me what areas I'm not willing to give up in my journey to totally surrender to Him, this is one that has come up. I've been reading through the Bible each morning and am up to Leviticus. In chapter 10, I came across this passage:

And the LORD spoke to Aaron, saying, "Drink no wine or strong drink, you or your sons with you, when you go into the tent of meeting, lest you die. It shall be a statute forever throughout your generations. You are to distinguish between the holy and the common, and between the unclean and the clean, and you are to teach the people of Israel all the statutes that the LORD has spoken to them by Moses."

I see great guidance in this that is still applicable despite being in Old Testament law. The context of this passage is that Aaron was being consecrated as God's priest. When Aaron and his sons were doing God's work--going into the tent of meeting--He commanded them to refrain from consuming alcohol. They needed to set themselves apart from the common practices of the world and the holy practices of God.

I know with certainty that God is pruning me to begin doing His global mission work (and it's about time I surrender to this, too). There are plenty of people who think it is okay to drink, and I'm probably still in that camp. At the risk of oversimplifying my thoughts on it, there are plenty of instances where wine was used in Bible times. But the key here is, I need to be set apart in order to be able to effectively teach/show lost people His Gospel, like Aaron and His sons were to teach Israel the Law. There's not a priest anymore that speaks for and to God on our behalf. Effectively, we ARE the priest. You could even say that we ARE the tent of meeting now, because God dwells in us. It probably sounds contradictory to say I'm still okay with alcohol consumption and yet we need to be set apart, but what I'm trying to say is, a social drink is okay to me (obviously dependence upon or excess consumption of alcohol is a sin), but I'm probably not going to partake of it for this reason of Him calling me to be set apart.

We have the express freedom to do whatever we want. That's the free will God gave us. But just because we can do something, doesn't mean we should. God may have placed things on this earth that are available for our enjoyment, but that doesn't mean it is always beneficial for us to partake of it. For me, it's not about what I think I deserve or am allowed to have anymore. The Bible speaks to this in Galatians:

For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.

There is also the oft-quoted verse about being a stumbling block. Those words have become a cliche-Christian term. But I think the verse reinforces the concept set in Leviticus about separating the common and holy.

But take care that this right of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak.

I'm not sure how else to describe the consumption of alcohol except the word "common". It's like anything in the world that people do and don't give it a second thought, such as cussing. We can say "it's just a word; people defined the evilness of the word, not God. It's what is in your heart that counts, so if you don't say it in anger, you're okay." Well, I think that is a very superficial assessment in an Americanized Christianity. And boy, do I have a long way to go in reassessing my choices and fighting the engrained notions we have about things.

This idea of common vs. holy is not to make us "holier than thou". I believe it is so people can see the difference Christ makes in a very tangible, visible way. Want to use the argument that people should see Christians properly enjoying such things in moderation? That may be true, but I would counter that most, if not all, of the people in that category are "weak" or lacking in faith and for me, the risk is too great of them seeing no difference Christ has made, seeing hypocrisy and turning away from Christ, or seeing no need to change the way they are living and thus have no need of Christ. Once my "freedom" to drink causes any of those happen, I have failed miserably and sinned against God. I'm not turning up my nose at people who choose to drink, but I do want to use every opportunity I can to explain the difference Christ has made and why I don't need anything else. We replace the common with the holy:

And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit,

I'm afraid of this decision, to be honest. I don't know how my friends are going to react. But in the past few months, as I've mostly abstained while I work through this process, I've been met with resistance and pressure. But these things cannot concern me. It is for me to be obedient to God's calling and move forward with His good work for His glory. Christ did not spend His three years sugar-coating His message and delivering sermons that made people feel better about themselves. He used every opportunity to say, "I've come to bring you life if you'll follow me, and in order to do that, you must be totally surrendered." That undeserved life He gave me can only be responded to with complete obedience. Oh, I have such a long way to go, but God is at work. I pray for the obedience to follow. His Gospel must be spread for His glory. At the end of the day, that's all that matters.

Barefoot in the Grass!

2011-07-09T14:09:00.004-05:00

Dug up this panoramic I made of my backyard before I got my trees cut down last November. So I went outside and took another of what it is now! Amazing difference in 8 months. I'm so proud of it and grateful for everyone who helped me with it. Be sure to click on them to see the full size.

Changing the Way We Do Church

2011-06-20T17:29:00.000-05:00

6000 unreached people groups. Of those, 3800 are unengaged. The number is staggering and yet I believe it to be numbers that can be easily defeated. By definition, unreached means that less than 2% of the population of the people group is Christian. Unengaged means no one has taken the Gospel to them. These people are born, live, and die never hearing the Good News. In our day and age: unacceptable. And no matter what the Rob Bells may say about these people who have never heard the Gospel, those who do not trust in the Lord Jesus will be separated from God for eternity, and it falls on us to make sure they hear the Word of God.

Less than 2% of all Christian churches in the US--or only 10% of the 40,000 Southern Baptist churches--need adopt ONE unreached, unengaged people group. Why can we not do this? We are too inwardly focused. We're comfortable. We check off our religious boxes and find contentment there. We pride ourselves in our programs and productions that bring people into the door and pat ourselves on the back saying "look how many we reached!" And I'm not saying that God can't use those things. What I am saying is that we need to change our focus, our purpose for coming together each week.

Even at my own church, we do many good things, but I'm realizing that we're still missing the mark! I myself am the leader of the team responsible for putting some "wow" factor into our services! But we can get to point that our lights and our PowerPoints and our techno-geewhiz substitute for the simple and effective power of God in a worship service. Then we become reliant on those things and use those things to try and draw people in. All those resources are wasted because the truth is we don't need them! God's power alone is sufficient! Yes, there are things that we use to help deliver the message: a sound system is necessary, stage lighting is needed, video work helps us reach more people in the space we have. My point is, every decision I make going forward will be based on the effectiveness and need to help promote God's Word and if it does not, then it is a waste and we are being poor stewards, and I can't let that happen any longer.

I'm also convinced that our teaching, our preaching, our discipleship and fellowship...all of it needs a new focus. EVERYTHING we do must be geared toward equipping and preparing the members of the church to go and take the Good News to the ends of the earth. Everything. You might say, well some people just aren't at that point in their walk yet. I firmly believe that whether it is a class that simply walks a new believer through the Bible from beginning to end, or a study on a passage or character, or a seasoned study about grace...it cannot stop with us. When we go into a class or hear a sermon, we must do so to use that wisdom to help reach the unreached. We take what we learned and teach it to the next person. And as a natural by-product we ourselves are becoming filled with the Word and our lives DO change and grow. The life-application is happening underneath automatically! But the point is, it can't stop there!

The same is true of the sermon time, of community group time. You might say that life application studies are good, and I would agree! But hang with me.... These are the corporate and intimate moments when we need to be equipped with God's Word. But the American church has watered down the Gospel. We've made it the point to get people in and out of the door. We've got all our Christian cliches to make the Gospel easy: say your A-B-C prayer of salvation, walk down the aisle, congratulations you're saved, now live differently! I like how it was put by one pastor: this is kool-aid Christianity. In the three short years Christ had to teach his disciples, He spent that time telling them how much it would cost to be His follower. That they had to give up anything and everything. That their love for Him had to be so great that the love they had for their families had to look like hate. And that the prize would be worth it all! To God's glory!

People just aren't going to be saved during Sunday morning invitation time. I say that superlatively, because it can happen, but the point I'm trying to make is, we are commanded to go out and spread the Gospel. So let the evangelism occur outside the walls of our buildings! Here's what I'm trying to say at last: let our teaching and preaching be geared toward the Christian so that it equips us for the work we have to do, and then we'll know how to build a relationship with a person, perhaps meet some physical need that will open doors, and allow God's Spirit to use the Truth we speak to draw them to Him. In other words, the time for us to focus on the nonbeliever is the other ~166 hours of the week. Then they'll come on Sunday and join the ranks of believers in pursuit of spreading the Gospel to the next person. And it goes on and on and on. Yes, it's important to present the Gospel on Sunday morning, but let's also put more of our efforts into equipping the church to go out and less on sugar-coating the Gospel with this "Jesus will make you feel better" tactic, with no follow-up or teaching of what it really means to be a Christ-follower. This is the reason the church exists. Not to sit in Sunday School or hear a good message that convicts us or makes us feel better or "we learned a little more about God today". Until we use the Word we are learning and put it into action, it is dead faith! Worthless. Disobedience. And I'm so afraid for the countless number of people who have been filling pews and will stand before the Righteous Judge thinking their eternity secure but hear the words "depart from me, I don't know you" (Matt 7:21-23).

Not one person who has Christ truly in their heart can look at the Great Commission and turn away. That's because your "want to" is saved too, and yes, we all have insecurities and reservations and fear, but at the end of the day DO WE TRUST GOD? You can't say "that's someone else's job" or "I'll give money for someone else to go". The Christian on "spiritual milk" or eating "spiritual meat", the call is the same. We can't ignore it any longer. We are each and every follower of Christ called to go. And I believe we can fulfill the Great Commission in our time. There is risk, sacrifice, uncertainty. But there's also reward! God's glory and a share in His eternal inheritance for each of His children. I'm reading through the Bible while watching a 52-week study on His redemption story. The Bible has opened up to me in a new way and when I think about what God did for me, why would I not want to give him all praise and honor and glory?

I think about the things I have, the life I live. By pure grace I'm where I'm at. I ask myself each morning, am I willing to give it up? What's the most important thing here? That I'll offend someone? I have a feeling that won't go over well when God asks me what I did with His Son. That I was afraid of getting sick, injured, or dying? What's the worst they can do, take my physical body? God has my soul; NOTHING can take that away from Him. The Christ I have come to know in these past months of rapid and explosive growth is worth it and demands it. And when I really get down to it, when I truly conceive and believe in His love for me, how can I respond any differently? Can we do it? Yes, God. Let it begin with me!

I'm On a Boat

2011-05-28T16:02:00.002-05:00

It's been a long time since January when my friends and I booked a vacation on the Carnival Elation. But it has finally come and gone and been one of the best experiences I've had. We had a 9 hour drive to Mobile, AL. We weren't sure how far we'd get on the drive, but did make it all way. So along the way I reserved us a hotel. The last time I stayed in a hotel, it was a La Quinta...pretty nice and good price. So I reserved at another one this time. Oh boy was that a bad idea. It wasn't anything like the nice La Quinta I stayed at before. Pretty sketchy, but we survived. The next morning we had some time, so we visited the USS Alabama museum. Very cool, even if we did have to hurry through. I can tell I would never be cut out for the Navy.

We arrived to the port and quickly got into a hurry up and wait mode. It took a little over two hours to board. The VIP boarding was looking really good, but not worth the extra expense of a suite to get it. We boarded, ate (of course), and headed to the top deck to see off the US!

The Elation is one of the smaller ships in the Carnival line, but I loved it that way. I was pleasantly surprised to not find just mobs of people everywhere, constantly. We ate at formal dining every night and shared a table with a great family from Destin, Fl. They were seasoned cruisers and had some good tips for us, including a great deck to go lay out on where a lot of people didn't go. That ended up being my spot and there were never more than a dozen people up there; plus it had a full view of the deck stage for the shows and games. Perfect!

The view from the deck I lounged on most of the time.

I participated in a couple of activities like trivia and karaoke. Went to all the evening shows. They were good, if not a little amateurish. Of course, I had lots of critiques for their technical aspects. But the cast and crew did a good job.

Formal dining was always fun. The ladies we sat with--Nanna, Jan, and Cara--were awesome. One night of the cruise is "elegant night", so we dressed up. Well, Nanna had a few too many martinis prior to dinner and was an absolute riot. She couldn't stop laughing at anything and everything. After dinner, we went to karaoke and I decided to sing "Shameless" to her. That was definitely the most fun night we had. I did karaoke the next night too. I ended up singing "Dream On" and it was way higher than I expected it to be. But I just made light of it, got the audience laughing, and really had them rolling when I hit those extra high "dream on!" notes at the end. HA!

The food was endless. Buffets were open 24/7. The dining room menu was always an interesting experience. Didn't try too many new things, like escargot. But it was always quite tasty. Desserts were especially "nice". :)

Our first port of call was Progreso. We booked a tour of the Chichen Itza ruins from the Mayan Empire. It is one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. The tour had a little information but was more about selling us things than anything else. And some of those vendors are aggressive! The 52m temple is unbelievable in its construction. Its structure is based on the calendar and on the solstices, it will cast the perfect shadow of a serpent. There's actually a smaller temple within the outer one! No climbing on the ruins anymore, but I didn't mind...I'd rather they be preserved. The ruins have some crazy acoustics. Clapping can create an endless reverberating echo or produce a completely different sound. Other buildings included a ball court, a sacrificial alter, and the royal court.

Temple of Kukuikan - the structure and steps are all "tuned" to the calendar.

Ball Court - players used anything but their hands to knock a ball into the hoops (you can see on the sides). The WINNER (yes, winner) got sacrificed.

Royal Court

Underground river exposed by a sink hole. This river sustained the Mayan culture, who disappeared for unknown reasons. But the peoples and language still exist as a blend of Mayan and Mexican.

We had just enough time for the tour before having to reboard Elation. It was a 2 hour trip out, 2 hours to look around, 2 hours back. That was my only negative feeling about the trip...that we didn't have more time in ports.

The next morning we arrived in Cozumel. There ended up being four Carnival ships in port that day, so I was SO thankful to not have booked a Carnival Cruise excursion. Instead, we learned of Eagle Ray Divers for scuba diving through some friends that had been there. What an experience! There were only four of us on the boat. We had about an hour long lesson, then had to do some check-offs in shallow water. Then our guide took us down about 40 ft. There we saw all sorts of colorful fish and coral. I wish I had some pictures, but the underwater camera did not perform well. After the first dive, we easily decided we wanted to go again. This time we went out to the edge of the reef where the ocean drops down 1500 ft. The current there was unbelievable. But it was an amazing view; we even saw a couple sting rays!

After diving, we only had an hour until we had to board again. Again, our time limitation sucked. I really wish they would stay a night in port. But anyway, we asked where a great place to get some authentic Mexican food and our guide pointed us to the right spot. We each got a platter with a sample of everything and were stuffed. Quick souvenir shopping and we were boarding back on Elation.

L to R: baked plantains, black beans, chicken, guacamole, taco, beef, taquito, quesadilla

On the last day at sea, I got to go on a behind the scenes tour of the boat. It is a pretty exclusive thing; only 16 people can pay to do so. It was definitely worth it! We started out in the galley and saw how all the food preparation and serving takes place. A common perception of cruises is the amount of food waste they have, which is true to an extent, but Carnival does a good job not over-preparing. And food scraps from plates gets ground up and dumped in the ocean for fish food!

We saw the linen and laundry area. They have HUGE machines that dry/press/fold the linens. They had already done over 5,000 when we came through around 9:30 am. We saw the trash/incinerator area, storage, bulk food prep. Then we went to the engine control room. Lots of guards while we were there. The Officer of the Watch spoke to us for a while. Unfortunately, they can't allow people in the engine rooms anymore, but we saw them on monitors. The Elation was the first ship to be built with propellors that can spin 360 degrees. So no need for a tug boat! On the front of the boat is a water propulsion system that sucks water in one side and pushes it out the other. Also, the whole ship runs on six generators.

We walked through the crew areas and dining. There are five separate dining rooms for them: staff, crew, officers, senior officers, and captain. At worst, crew members have to share a room with one other person. They serve anywhere from four to eight months at the time on the ship, with two months off. We then went up to the bridge and met the Captain, First Officer, Junior Officer, and Quartermaster. The Captain's position is very much aloof. They couldn't show us where his quarters or dining room were or really anything about him, other than his role on the ship, which is mainly as an adviser when the First Officer needs help. They drive the whole ship with a joystick no bigger than one on a game controller, which is kind of crazy to think about. They have the same set of controls on either side of the bridge for docking. Most of the time, it is on autopilot.

We then went to the backstage area of the theater, which you know I loved. And we ended on the crew's deck and lounge. Tour over and lunch consumed, I headed to the deck, as was my tendency to do on "at sea" days. It was awesome just to lay there and read or do nothing. But toward the afternoon, I started getting really tired from all the sun from the week. I headed to the spa area and cooled off in an amazing shower that shoots water at you from 5 directions.

Debarkation happened sooner than we expected the next morning. We were barely out of bed when they called our deck to start moving to start heading off. Through customs, which went about as quick as you can anticipate, and a long drive home. It really was a great time, we had perfect weather, met some awesome people.

If you want to see all my pictures (to be honest, I didn't take many), head here.

Awakening

2011-04-25T17:02:00.002-05:00

Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many might works in your name?' And then will I declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.' - Matthew 7:21-23

Does this unsettle anyone beside me? Have you ever even read it and seriously pondered it? There are so many things I want to say and can barely keep organized in my mind. It scares me to death and I express myself so much better in writing than speaking, so here I go.

Last Friday, I participated in a simulcast of "Secret Church". The author of a book I recently studied talked about how on mission journeys around the world, he would meet in secret locations with people where the Church is not allowed. These people would be so hungry for the Word, he would end up talking for hours and hours, often in a closet-sized room with a single light bulb. That is the premise of an organization he founded to equip people to take God's Word out to the world. On Good Friday, a six hour intense study of the Gospel was given. And if you saw any of my tweets, you know how profound those six hours were to me. I've never heard the Gospel presented so powerfully and authentically.

See, the thing is, I don't think I ever really got it. I believe Jesus died for me and I am saved by grace, but have I ever really connected with that? I don't think so. And I didn't expect to in the span of six hours on April 22, 2011. But I did.

Why am I so mired in the same old sin that entraps me on a daily basis? Why am I only obedient in the things I want to be--and only then out of obligation--and disobedient in others? Why have the things that I do for my church become routine and job-like? Why doesn't my want-to want to?

Because I haven't let what God did for me really hit home. I have not let it embrace my full being. I accepted it as fact and came to a rational conclusion. But the truth is, God is completely irrational in human perspective.

God created me to love Him and abide in Him and yet in one moment we destroyed that relationship with sin. He is holy, so He can have no part of me as a sinner; He is wrathful and so abhors me for being a sinner; and yet He loves me so deeply He made a way to reconcile me to Him. And not only does he justify me, He calls me His son! WHAT?!

For 18 years, I have called myself a follower of Christ. But what exactly have I been following? What kind of Americanized model have I allowed to influence me and so keep me from experiencing the true love and freedom of God that comes from being completely abandoned to Him? How has the message gotten so watered down that I became satisfied with the status quo?

My eyes have been opened to the way we have trivialized the Gospel. We've made so many aspects of God to be one way or the other, when in fact--in all His mysteriousness--He can be both! Jesus was both 100% God and 100% man! God both hates sinners (yes, not just the sin...the sinner) and loves them! We are free to choose God (free will) yet He also chooses us (predestination)! We've developed an A-B-C Gospel that tells people "just say a prayer and you're good", when in reality, that is far from the truth. It is so much more than walking down the aisle at the invitation. It is repentance! It is faith! It is obedience! Just look at those verses in Matthew 7!

I don't know about you, but I can't tolerate the American Church anymore, where we argue over programs, money, and music styles while our brothers and sisters around the world are literally dying just on the chance of getting together and hearing the Word! I want to be hungry for the Word like they are. I want to risk everything like they do. I can't just dress up, sit passively in a pew on Sundays, check my religious boxes, say that it is someone else's role to go, and be content with my Christianity anymore! I'm afraid those are the Matthew 7 people that are going to be shocked when they stand before the Lord.

No, what Jesus told the people who wanted to follow Him was that in order to do so, they would have to be totally sold out to Him. In the three years he ministered, He said nothing about ABC prayers or coming forward after the sermon while people sing "Softly and Tenderly". He assertively told them what it would take to be His follower. No mincing of words, no pithy Christian cliches, no cute programs, no fancy productions. He said that their love for Him had to be so great that the love they had for their parents, siblings, or kids had to look like hate in comparison! That they had to be willing to give up anything and everything.

That's the most terrifying thing to me! Ha, fear of snakes has nothing on my fear of giving up what I have and am. I'm comfortable with my life. I like the things I have! I don't like the notion that at any moment Jesus could tell me to give some or all of it up! I'm so shallow, I even worry that God could convict me to stop watching certain TV shows! But why have I felt that way? How can I say I'm a follower of Jesus if I think that way? I can't!

David Platt, the teacher at Secret Church, said that if I am settling for anything less than Christ, then my desires are too weak. So true! For years and years, I've become more and more discouraged that I would never be able to conquer the sin in my life. I've turned to these things to satisfy a hole that can only be satisfied by Christ! I know that is the cause of my distant relationship with God. And in those night hours of study on Good Friday, I came to understand that it is because I never trusted God to change my desires. I can't afford to do that any longer! Praise to God, for the first time in my life, I feel like there is hope! God has made me right, calls me His son, and will help me persevere! Do you know how much this excites me? I don't feel like my words here are expressing it quite right. I can't quite explain what clicked inside me, but it did.

18 years, I have led a passive Christian lifestyle. I've focused on my rights and privileges, when really I have none. Everything I have and am belongs to God. I'm beginning to understand that I'm okay with that! I'm saying that in the space of this Easter weekend, I am a changed man. I can truly feel it. And a passion has awakened in me. There are people out there that need to know this Good News that has given me a sense of purpose and belonging and love. I'm uncertain of what I need to do and I don't even know how to do it. But I can feel deep inside me the stirring of a God-sized plan for me. I look at the ways that God has blessed me in the past years--even mired in sin and disobedient as I was--to shape me for this moment. To enable me to do what it is He is planning for me. I'm terrified of how other people--even my family and friends--will react. I don't handle rejection well. I've always been a doer and considered myself successful in my endeavors. But I'm also afraid of pride and arrogance settling in; two of my biggest character flaws. I'm also praying that this isn't some emotional high.

But my faith in Christ has been renewed like it never has been and I know that if I truly believe it, then I'm going to live obediently--not out of obligation, but out of love. If I truly believe it, then overflowing fruit is going to spill from my life. Works are evidence of true faith, after all! And if I truly believe it, then I can't contain it within me; I've got to go out and share it.

I have no idea what all this means. But consider this your fair warning, as my family and friends: all I know is, I have to go!

The Debate About Glee

2011-03-18T10:13:00.001-05:00

I had a great conversation with a coworker about this week's episode of Glee, particularly relating to Kurt's storyline this season. A lot has been said about the "gay agenda" on the show this season. The thing is, this show intentionally portrays "misfits". Fat, nerd, handicapped, gay, hoe, emo, stupid, etc. Anyone not considered normal by the mob. We all know high school can be very cruel. This show celebrates being different. And one thing to also notice is that every misfit portrayed has at least one person who accepts them and in an over-the-top way (Puck's crush on the overweight girl, anyone?).

But out of all those words I just listed, which is really the hot-topic, taboo issue? Gay, right? So that's what we are inclined to debate the portrayal of the most. It's also the issue that most resonates with the show's creator, Ryan Murphy. I've discussed how Murphy is "preaching to the choir". Most people who watch the show are probably already okay with homosexuality as a lifestyle for those who choose it. But now I'm thinking that's not who Murphy is targeting at all....it's this young generation who maybe haven't solidified what they think just yet. My issue is that Murphy is trying so hard, I find it a little unbalanced. The Santana/Brittany storyline a couple weeks ago seemed completely out of the blue! Sometimes it feels like everyone is going to come out. Heck, I wouldn't be surprised if Mr. Shue does, after all his lady problems. And the whole Karofsky bullying storyline sends out this strong message that if you are a homophobe, you must really be a closet gay. What most viewers are at odds with in Kurt's character, and why he has become so unlikable, is that he is guilty of being just as intolerant of straight people as he thinks everyone is of him. I don't have to remind anyone of the uncomfortable scenes of him sharing a bedroom with Finn, the intolerance to his friends wanting to pray for his dad when he was sick, or the wedding that ended up being all about him instead of his dad and Finn's mom. Everyone has to conform to him; he is always the character who has done nothing wrong. Pop culture, big hits like this DO have tremendous influence, so if it were me and I wanted to teach tolerance to my viewers through diversity, then yes, I would change a few things. Kurt HAS misstepped several times in his pursuit to end his persecution, and I would have him come to realize his own intolerance.

But here's the thing we have to remember: EVERYTHING is over the top about this show, including the representation of said "misfits". One example: on this week's episode the Kathy Griffin character--one of the judges at Regionals-- was an obnoxious ultra-conservative, Sara Palin-esque character. For one second, I thought, "nope, I'm finally done with this show." I really did. I did not like the portrayal of a Christian to be so overly and negatively painted; her line seemed way too forced anyway. Why the need to throw in a line about her not agreeing with gay people getting married and implying they are going to hell in a discussion about who should win a singing competition? That's Murphy trying too hard! (And by the way, being gay does not lead to separation from God--or hell; not having a relationship with Jesus Christ does.) But then I decided, EVERYONE is portrayed that way. Look no further than Sue Sylvester for that evidence. She's throwing students down stairs, shooting them out of cannons, and verbally/physically abusing them in the halls on a daily basis. These would all obviously be criminal acts in real life. It is just that *I* am particularly sensitive to the Christian character portrayal. I personally wish every Christian would be known more for what they DO stand for than don't, but the reality is quite the opposite. Griffin's character was portraying that reality in Glee's way.

At the end of the day, Glee's message is about celebrating diversity and it's medium is through over-the-top comedy. That means it is going to cross a "comfort line" once in a while and it is up to each person to decide if that is worth the value of the entertainment they are receiving. This season has pushed me almost to that limit, admittedly, from--my opinion--the unbalanced tolerance storyline of Kurt. But the entertainment I get from everything else Glee does so well is enough to keep me in and enjoy it! And so I will!

HB 1002

2011-02-18T16:45:00.001-06:00

Friends and family of Arkansas, we need your help. This is a serious request. I don't want to go so far as to say "if you love me, you'll do this" but this is a pretty severe problem being faced by state colleges. As you know, I work for one of those colleges.

The issue is with bill HB 1002. The name is the "Capital Gains Reduction Bill of 2011". It just passed the House by 53 votes. If this passes the Senate, state-funded colleges will lose an estimated 5-10% of their funding.

I don't think I have to tell you that in an economic climate where more people have returned to school, this is not the time to cut college funding. At PTC, we have seen record enrollment of over 11,000 students. As my friend, you may be aware of the extra classes that I had to teach last semester and how stressing and awful it was to have a full time administrative job plus an overload's worth of teaching. Without administrative duties, a full load is three sciences; I taught five. Well, most of our instructors will be forced into overload schedules because we will not be able to hire to meet the demand. That means quality of our instruction goes down. Our student services and administration is already taxed; our computer systems can't stay online on the busy days. We simply can't keep our heads above water.

I'm asking you to write your state Senator. Urge him/her to vote against this bill. If you don't know who your Senator is, click here. Please don't just read this and do nothing. This will affect me on a personal and daily level.

Here is the letter I wrote my senator, if you'd like an example:

Dear Senator Johnson,

I am writing to simply urge you to vote against HB1002, which just
passed the House with 53 votes.  I work in administration for Pulaski
Technical College.  We have experienced explosions of student growth
during these more difficult economic times.  We have barely contained
the record 11,000 students.  Faculty are teaching overload schedules,
administration and staff struggle to stay above water with support
requests; there are days when the computer systems fail because so many
people are on the servers.  If this bill passes and we lose an estimated
5-10% of our state funding, I don't want to even imagine the results. 
The quality of our service and instruction to students will suffer. 
This is a time we need to be expanding our workforce, our student
support services, and our economic development, not reducing it.

Thank you for your time,

Benjamin Peacock
Little Rock, AR

I was surprised to get a reply back within 10 minutes! Here is what he said:

Benjamin, thanks for writing. I agree with you and plan to vote against the bill. David

I'm by no means any kind of activist, but internal emails from the upper echelons of PTC have notified us about the seriousness of this bill. I'm just asking for a few minutes of your time to help us out. Thank you.

Tea

2011-02-15T15:14:00.000-06:00

Last Friday, a buddy and I went to the mall and happened to stop by the Teavana store. I made the mistake of saying "yes" to "would you like a sample" as we walked by. That turned into a 30 minutes spiel, but it ended up being pretty interesting. And wow, were those teas tasty. See the problem, apparently, is that we have been hoodwinked by big tea companies to think that what we all typically drink as tea is really tea. The difference in a Lipton tea bag tea and what they were brewing was immediately apparent. Tea is meant to be steeped open leaf, not in little bags with ground up leaves. I believe it.

Teavana was a little pricey for me; if I had bought everything the guy wanted to sell me, it would have easily topped $400. They had cast iron pots (that get seasoned with each brew) and matching serving sets. That was about $300. Then he scooped out what I told him was my favorite tea--apparently a rarer Chinese white tea--which would have been another $100. o_O Yes, it was something like $20 per ounce!

I thanked him for his time, told him I am not really an impulse buyer, and explained that I would need time to think and research. I happen to watch a tech podcast where the host is really into tea. He even took a vacation to China last year just to sample local teas. He really knows his stuff. He recommended a site called Adagio. I read their lessons on tea and found it quite interesting, actually. Here are some of my notes (yes, I took notes):

Tea, properly, comes from the plant Camellia sinesis. There are three components to the plant that make the tea. The essential oils, which give tea its aroma and flavor; the polyphenols, which give tea its astringency and health benefits (which are numerous); and caffeine, which gives an energy boost. Tea comes in many categories, but there are four main families of them: white, green, oolong, and black tea. Each is processed a little differently. Organic materials undergo oxidation, which more or less causes decay. White teas are unprocessed, so they keep their fine white filaments on the leaves--thus the name. They are allowed to oxidize very little, and as a result, are the highest in antioxidants. Green teas are also oxidized very little but undergo a series of steaming, pan-firing, and/or rolling. Oolong teas undergo the same processes and are allowed to oxidize anywhere from 20-80%. And finally black teas are processed like oolong but are allowed to oxidize almost completely. There is also a class commonly referred to as herbal teas, but they aren't technically teas. They are called "tisanes" and are caffeine free. The variety of tisane blends is a bit overwhelming to me right now, but it can be flower, fruit, leaves....whatever can be steeped.

Proper brewing of tea should consist of pure, filtered water. Approximately 2 teaspoons of tea per 6 oz water. The water should be boiling for black, oolong, and herbal teas; about 185 F for green and white teas. Steeping time is about 3-5 minutes for black and oolongs; 2 minutes for green and white teas. I'm not quite sure what these descriptors mean--seems kind of relative--but they note that "delicate" teas can be enjoyed with seafood, salads, and chicken. "Bright" teas are best with meat and spicy foods. "Rich" teas for desserts". And "Pu Erh" teas for digestive and calming effects at the end of the day.

I'm pretty excited to get into this, if the samples I had at the mall were any indication. I'll let you know how the tasting goes when my supplies arrive! I welcome the opportunity to cut back on my caffeine intake, but I don't think I'll quite give up on my "grande white mocha, extra hot, no whip" addiction just yet.

A Case for Cutting Cable...Or Not?

2011-02-04T10:25:00.003-06:00

I've toyed with the idea of cutting cable and going with an internet-based TV model and wanted to do the numbers on if it would be worth it. Let's face it, the DVR has revolutionized the way we watch TV. It used to be that a station's decision to air a show at a certain time dictated when you had to be home to watch. Now, I know plenty of people who--even if they are home--wait at least 15 minutes into the show so they can fast forward commercials. I'm the same way. The only time I ever see commercials is during live sporting events.

There's a couple of other annoying factors. First is the sporadic breaks that networks take between new episodes. Especially when a show is heavily serialized, like Lost, it is frustrating to have to wait for, say, sweeps month. (That's when ratings dictate how much networks will charge for ads based on viewership.) Some networks heard this cry and the old model of starting the new season in September and running it through May is slowly dying. Shows like "Lost" and "24" began mid-season (January/February) and ran straight through. Networks are also introducing new shows staggered throughout the year. But with a new show, who wants to invest themselves in it and it end up being canceled?

Not only are commercials loud and annoying, but so are the in-show lower third banners. They are becoming downright distracting and obtrusive. I watched three seasons of "Big Bang Theory" on DVD to catch up with the current fourth season. Nice and clean. Just the show. Now that I'm watching live, I'm completely disgusted with the network's self-promoting banner ads. Unfortunately, they are becoming bigger and more frequent BECAUSE we are DVRing and skipping their commercials.

Technology has made it so we have a choice in how and where we view our favorite shows now. The market is still young and in flux, so who knows what this will look like a year from now, even. But here's what I would consider except for a couple of problems. You may think the problem is no DVR, but it's not. I'll refer to it later.

Cut cable. The first thing you can do is watch your local channels in high definition over the air. In fact, that is the best quality you can get. There is no compression from the cable provider. You'll catch a lot of sports, news, etc. Yes, you lose the DVR for shows but just wait on that.

Add Hulu Plus for $7.99/month. This gives you access to limited-ad supported, whole seasons of shows on the major networks. This effectively acts like a DVR. You just have to wait 24 hours before the show is available on Hulu. There's usually 4-5 30 second ads per hour long show. Hulu is expanding where you can watch, instead of just a computer. It's on all game consoles and i-devices. It's also coming to Boxee (a set-top box that allows you to connect to internet "channels" on your TV). $7.99 is a lot easier to swallow than $79.99, huh?

To supplement Hulu, go with Netflix, which begins with a streaming-only plan at $7.99. Netflix is so popular, it accounts for 20% of internet traffic in the US at peak times. That's enormous. I've only recently tried streaming, when it was added to the PS3. I'm watching the entire back-catalog of Stargate SG-1 right now. The first few seasons are only in 4:3 standard definition, so it looks fine on my TV. But when I've tried to watch a 16:9 SD stream, it was awful. I'm very interested to see how HD streaming is going to look. For a few dollars more, you can add disc rental and you gain the ability to watch episodes of a season of your show back-to-back rather than live. Of course, you have to wait months and won't get to talk at the water cooler with your coworkers about what happened on last night's episode. I like to talk about shows, so that is a concern for me, but then again, that's where Hulu comes in. Netflix is for those shows not on Hulu.

Well, now it is time to address the problem I have with this model. Live sports. Obviously, you still have the over-the-air local channels, but there are a lot of sports on cable networks like ESPN and Fox Sports. Well, I see two options right now. 1) Boxee has an ESPN3 channel, which effectively takes care of most of cable's sports. 2) You can buy internet packages for each sport. Some you get the whole season, every team. Others you can pick a few teams. A few examples: Baseball has MLB.TV, which I found for $99.95 for the entire 2011 season. NBA has a package for $64.95 for all season. NHL has one for $119.95 for 40 games/week all season. Unfortunately, the NFL has no internet package due to their exclusive all-access pack with DirecTV.

The quality of the streams would be a concern for me, which is my second problem. Everyone knows I love hockey; it would be a concern for me if the stream was not in HD. But not just that, all of the streams from Hulu or Netflix that aren't available in HD, whereas they are with cable.

So let's look at the cost savings here. That's probably the primary concern. I pay $74 per month for HD cable and $45 for high speed internet with U-Verse. That's $1,428 a year. If we cut the cable and bump up the internet to ensure we get good speed, internet will go to $55 per month. Add $7.99 for Hulu Plus and $11.99 for a one-disc/streaming Netflix plan (with Blu-Ray, of course). That's $899 per year without any sports packs. So savings are $529 or about 34%. However, I would want baseball and hockey, so we have to add in $99.95 and $119.95, bringing my yearly total to $1119.66. That's only saving $309 or 21%.

So now I've written this long blog post to only find out the savings for me is probably not enough to justify what will probably be a loss in quality by streaming across the board. The $309 is arguably worth keeping a DVR, maintaining HD quality, and having the ease of just turning on the cable box. But if you aren't as picky as me about HD quality and don't need the sports packs, you can potentially save a lot of money. Of course, if you don't already own a gaming console that can do these things, you'll have to buy one which will eat into those savings the first time.

This ended up being a pretty indecisive post, but truthfully I was writing it live as I researched. I didn't know how it would turn out when I began it. Turns out, it is probably easier to just keep cable for now. Ha.

Thoughts on the Semester

2010-12-03T22:23:00.000-06:00

I think everyone knows by now that I had to take some extra classes this semester due to an instructor canceling on me right before the semester began. Well the hellacious semester is over. Still have some grading to catch up on but the teaching is done. Never again. Yah, I have a pretty easy job otherwise and love its flexibility, but I think that was overcompensated this semester. After it is all done, it'll be worth it because of the things I was able to do with the extra income (i.e. backyard project, new Mac). It was also, without a doubt, the fastest semester I've experienced.

Well along the way, there are always ups and downs. And the downs this time were REALLY down. For example, I had to withdraw several students for non-attendance and in return was accused of discrimination and prejudice and was called (and I quote) cold, callous, unapproachable, and arrogant. Some of the decisions were admittedly tough to make, but a policy is a policy and I can't judge who it will apply to and who is excused. But why does one student respond that way and another come and say "thank you; I've made the changes needed and it won't happen again"? That was a really low point in my career. There's always those few students, too, who make it interesting. They just don't seem to get it and you wonder what in the world they are doing--and how they got--there.

Take my A&P I online class. I started out with 10 and I'm going to end up with 4. FOUR! And when we met in person for lab, I just felt like we had this huge disconnect. It was a zombie room. I'd go in and give instructions, ask for questions (there'd be none), and the students would work in silence. No interaction online either. Never had quite such a disconnected group before. And it bothered me.

My A&P II online class was refreshingly one of the best groups I've ever had. For the most part, they worked steadily and showed up! I probably had the best connection with them out of the five sections of classes I taught this semester.

My Chemistry online class was pretty typical. This is a tough course to do online. I typically see about a 50% retention and that was the case this time as well. I struggle to get students to interact with me online. It wasn't just this group; that's been pretty typical and I'm trying to figure out what to do about it. To encourage questions BEFORE homework is due and as they study.

Those classes are what I typically teach. The two extra sections I had to take were classroom chemistry sections. Haven't been in a classroom in a few years. I started out with 30 and ended up with 18. The reasons for the drop rate ranged from absences to personal reasons. These sections were a lot of work. I think for the most part we all got along, even though we got off to a shaky start. (I remember saying something the first day I later regretted and apologized for the next class, but it apparently stuck with some of the students.) So no real complaints here.

But I guess the biggest thing that bothers me is the reputation I apparently have among students. And it is a negative one. I think there are two reasons for it. 1. I'm tough. Won't apologize for that. 2. I need to work on my sarcastic humor and empathy.

To speak to #1: I'm pretty easy to get along with. I balance that with high expectations of hard work and timeliness. When those expectations aren't met, then I have a no tolerance policy. I will come down hard. I do so out of the desire to make the most disciplined and dedicated life-long learners. If someone wants to cast me in a negative light because of that, then so be it. I want to make the best health care providers possible and I'm unapologetic and won't compromise in that regard. I do get it, believe it or not, that life happens sometime. Yes I believe I can work on my empathy and will but we have to push on and sometimes tough decisions must be made on my part or the student's. If they can't get childcare or are ill or have family issues...well enough of those happen and the student just needs to consider trying the semester again later when things calm down for them. As I said, I can't be the judge of what is excusable or not. An absence is an absence.

To #2: I've been told I have a pretty dry sense of humor. (I know, you are saying right about now "you think?") Those students who I have the best relationships with say that people just have to understand me. What *I* need to understand is that everyone isn't going to get me. I admittedly can become quickly sarcastic when students ask questions about matters that I have already given instructions. While I do maintain a high level of expectation (see point #1), I think I can respond in a better tone. I also teach Socratically, so the manner in which I respond in that pedagogy can use some adjusting so as not to come off so sarcastically. I also know that when students come with an excuse of absence, I could be more empathetic in that moment while holding to the school's policies.

I'm taking a look at my course policies to make adjustments while still maintaining a proper level of work and attendance for students. These are going to be our health care workers, after all! And I don't know if I should have done this or not, but I was personally affected by things this semester, so I posted a personal message in each of my courses. I said much of what I did above (some parts word-for-word) and asked for feedback. We'll see what happens...

Unfortunately, a reputation can be annihilated in an instant and take years to recover. It's not so much that I care what students think of me--I'm not there to be friends--but it does matter to me that they feel like they can take my classes and when they do, they can come to me. (If nothing else, I need my classes to make, or I'm screwed financially.)

So that was a long and public expression of what's on my mind. No real point other than for me to get it out and not bottle it up.

NaNoWriMo

2010-11-28T16:37:00.002-06:00

MANY years ago, when I was involved in the student ministry at my church, we would regularly make silly videos. We spoofed Monty Python and the Matrix at the highlight of our film-making. I then wrote a silly script based on Lord of the Rings that we were going to do. But due to circumstances I won't go into here, it never happened.

Well, every year about this time--namely November--National Novel Writing Month occurs. I've written about it before and have always wanted to participate but never have. The goal is to write a 50,000 word novel in November. Well I took the script that has been gathering virtual dust and turned it into a book. I'll be the first to say it really sucks. Just looking over it...it's awful. The characterizations are tripe and as superficial as can be. And in some places, I felt like I got too preachy. The "battles" are horribly written. Enough criticism, though. The point was to write 50,000 words, draft quality. I made it to 51,928. That's something like 95 pages in Word (although I'm using a Mac program called Scrivener.) You can check out how I did over the month.

To be honest, I don't think I'll go back and fix it up. And I'm so unhappy with it, I don't even know that I'll finish it. BUT...I did meet the goal and wanted to share that victory. So yay me! However awful it is, I wrote my first novel.

TSA: Privacy vs. Security

2010-11-22T10:23:00.002-06:00

I'm not exactly what you would call an activist, but these past few weeks, we have been inundated by stories of the TSA's inhumane practices while completing searches to insure we can all travel safely. I hope all the media attention causes some kind of action. There's got to be a better way. The people who work for TSA have got to be more caring. They cannot have omnipotent powers. Take these few examples from the last weeks alone:

1. Full body scanners are becoming more regular as a screening process. But how invasive are they when they come to your privacy, you know, down there? Well hundreds of photos were leaked out recently in a completely embarrassing breach of security in the TSA's databases. Story link

2. A man who must wear a urine bag under his clothing was selected for pat-down. He informed the agents about the bag, but they uncaringly patted him down anyway with no regard to his medical condition. The sensitive equipment attached to his body was damaged and he was forced to board his plane soaked in his own urine. Story link

3. A personal friend said he eye-witnessed a veteran with a war injury set off the metal detectors. He was "treated terribly" by the TSA agent.

4. A woman who survived breast cancer was made to take off her prosthetic in view of the public. Story link

5. A young boy was strip searched in front of the public, even after not setting off the metal detectors. An on-looker recorded the incident and was subsequently followed by TSA agents in the airport until he boarded his plane. Story link

A week or so ago, new policies went into effect. You either get a nude full body-xray scan or you get groped. President Obama has told the public that these measures are necessary to ensure the public's safety. Don't get me wrong, I want to travel safely! But this is an abuse of federally mandated powers by the TSA. The TSA Chief gave some PR nonsense this morning about their procedures. I don't fly often and I honestly don't know why this has me so unsettled. Things like this usually roll off my back. Heck, I'm probably going to get black-listed for this post. But it really is a frustrating thing to see such people as those who served our country and those who have battled cancer be treated in such a way by apathetic workers, who at the heart of their duty, are supposed to have the greatest concern for our well-being.

How Puzzling!

2010-09-29T16:54:00.001-05:00

Back in January on my trip to Las Vegas, I visited the Coca-Cola store. I could've bought almost everything there and wanted to, but I restrained myself and left with just a puzzle. I say "just a puzzle" but it is a doozy. It's 2000 pieces and measure about 3 feet by 4 feet. And it is mostly red. So I knew it was going to be a challenge. The goal was to add it to my kitchen decor.

Didn't exactly have a big enough space to do it, so I cut up some cardboard pieces and tried on my guest bed. I started out trying to put the edge together. Took a good couple hours to systematically sort through 2000 pieces. And let me tell you there are some funky shapes in this thing.

After 6 hours:

And a few more hours after that:

The bed ended up being too low and proved too painful on the back for long periods of time. I was also frustrated by how slow it was going. So it sat in that bedroom from January until August, untouched. I finally decided to get it done and went to Home Depot and found the cheapest wooden panel I could find that would fit the whole thing. Brought it to my kitchen table and there I worked on it. But I was nervous...an edge piece was missing. I decided to push forward and hope it either turned up in the box or in the room. And I tore that room apart, believe you me. For three solid days, I worked. And I literally mean dawn to dusk. (The edge piece ended up being in the box.) These were the days my trees were getting cut down, so it gave me something to do since I wanted to be home while they worked. I would sort through the box and pick out the pieces for 2-3 different sections of the puzzle at a time. Put them together, sort again, and so on.

End of Day 1. What I called the "most obvious" sections were done.

End of Day 2. The red sections that were different enough for me to pick out were done.

End of Day 3. The final red sections and their logos came together. The remaining holes were the solid red pieces.

The red color didn't end up being the biggest challenge. Each sign was different enough, however subtle, to pick out. What ended up being the headache was actually the words in the logos: the Coca-Cola. Each piece had such a small portion of each letter, it was impossible to tell where it belonged at times. I would stare at the pile and have to get up for a bit, frustrated. Several times it came down to a matter of just seeing what fit, rather than trying to put it together by mentally seeing the image being pieced together.

Of course, Naomi was a big help during the whole process. I had to keep the puzzle covered with the cardboard I originally was using underneath. She also had a fondness for frolicking in the box of pieces. At one point, she jumped in it and it scooted off the table, dumping the hundreds of pieces all over the floor. I just knew I'd lose one, but I lucked out.

Got that puppy done and glued together. Waited for a great framing deal--which was still hard to swallow--but it is done and I'm pretty proud of it. Looks great on the wall and I was able to spread the rest of my trinkets out along the wall.

Finished!

So if you are one of those who occasionally or regularly comes to my house, be sure to step into the kitchen and see it in person!

Framed and hanging nicely on my wall.

What's It Take to Get a Friggin' Tree Cut Down?

2010-09-08T16:03:00.003-05:00

Last spring, I had my fence repaired and the guys helping me out noticed that a couple of the tall pines in my backyard were growing into my shed. We started looking around at them and noticed that another was rotting at the base, and yet another was growing into the fence. (Click the pic above to see bigger panorama.) Well great. One of the guys knew a reputable tree cutting service, so I had them come out and give me a bid. This was Quality Tree Service. Quality told me for as much it would be to cut down the four, I should just do all eight, and quoted me $2,500. Ouch. He actually called back on his own accord and lowered the price to $2000. I told him I'd have to save for a bit, but that it sounded like a good deal. Considering that would be $250/tree when they are normally $400-600 each, it was a GREAT deal. Just a lot to swallow at once.

I ended up with all those extra classes this fall so I knew I could get the job done. Gave Quality a call and scheduled him to come on a Friday so that I could be home while they did it. Enter the drama. He called me that morning to say he was broke down on the highway and wouldn't be able to make it. So we postponed to the following Friday. I had already told my neighbors, so I stopped by the older couple (don't really care about the rednecks on the other side) to let them know. She really didn't like the fact I am cutting them down, but I told her why I had to. The night before that, I called him to make sure we were good to go, but he told me his wife went into labor so he had to subcontract the job to another company. He asked me to make a check for $500 to him and $1500 for the company coming out.

The new guys, from Arbor Care, arrive. They looked like they would do a good job and had quite a bit more equipment to boot. Not to mention the owner is the four time state tree climbing champion. Whaaaat?!? Now it was my understanding at that point that a guy from Quality would be helping them and that's why he was getting $500. No one showed until 2 pm and that was just to pick up the check. Which I stupidly gave him. I asked the Arbor Care guy why Quality gets $500 and he basically said he shouldn't have. So now I've got a company doing a $2,500 job for $1,500. That doesn't sound very fair to me.

They bring down 4 trees and start grinding the stumps. He actually gets a few bids on jobs in my neighborhood while he works. My neighbor lady came out at one point and was apparently pretty huffy about limbs falling in her yard. They told her they'd clean it up, but she proceeded to inform them she didn't want them over there and started pitching the limbs over the fence. she seems so sweet and meek before this!

They work until about 4 pm. The pile of limbs is enormous out front. I call the city to schedule a pick up. They said they'd come Tuesday. I told them to be sure to bring the dump truck and crane. You can see why. The Arbor Care guy said he'd be back on Monday--in fact he said it several times--so even though it was Labor Day, I was thusly expecting him. Monday rolls around and no one shows. I try to call both Quality and Arbor Care. No one is answering. By 11 am, it is clear no one is coming. Mildly frustrating.

Tuesday arrives and it begins to rain. But I'm actually not too sad about it because the city is coming and since there is no more room to put limbs, they can clear it out and make room for more. Except they never came. I called them up and asked what was up. Turns out the crane/dump truck service take 2 weeks to come out! Good-bye nice lawn. Glad I wasted $200 on fertilizing service this year just to have you killed. I seriously have no idea where more limbs will go.

The rain continues today. So we can't get any work done because their tractor thingy would tear up my yard and my neighbor's side yard. In the meantime, I still can't get ahold of Quality. The phone is off...it goes straight to a "this number is not accepting calls" message. So I had called my bank on Tuesday and had them issue a stop payment on the $500 check. My intent was to make my message clear...I wanted him to call me. I finally got through to at least leave a voicemail this morning. Well lo and behold! His phone was miraculously working again, because he had called back within 15 minutes. I had just stepped out of my office so he left a voicemail. In it, he threatened to take legal action against me which would result in me being evicted from my home. He said he never intended to supply a worker and that the $500 was what the two companies had agreed to.

I immediately called him back but (surprise!) got a voicemail. I told him that his threat was baseless and completely out of line. My purpose in doing the stop payment proved to be very beneficial, because it had the effect I wanted--for him to call me back. I told him I found his business practices highly questionable and unethical and would be informing the 3-4 people waiting to hear how this job went that his company could not be counted on. The fact is Quality did not provide one minute of service to me! I told him I would release the check and the two companies could argue it out; I just wanted the job done.

I feel bad for Arbor Care, but that's all I can do...feel bad. I tried. It's not my place to intervene anymore. I filed a complaint the Better Business Bureau, but who knows what will come of that. Arbor Care will hopefully be back Friday to finish up. The yard is looking so much bigger already and I can't wait to have a nice grassy backyard!

Wanna see more pics of the process, including a short video clip of the four time state tree climbing champ doing his thing, go here.

Upgrading

2010-08-25T09:29:00.000-05:00

I converted to the world of Macintosh back in 2006. Then I was an aspiring home videographer, just getting into podcasting for my church and having been making some silly little clips for student ministry. I wanted to up my game a little. And besides, Windows Vista sucked. I had also just quit World of Warcraft. So it was a tumultuous time in my life to say the least. LOL

All that to say I got my first hardware upgrade from Apple and went the desktop route this time. The unfortunate need for me to teach 5 courses paved (and paid) the way for this upgrade and I certainly went all out. I got a 27" iMac, with the 3.6 GHz Intel Core i5 processor, 4 GB DDR3 RAM, 256 GB SSD, and 1 TB HD. /evil grin

Here's a little photo journalism of the unboxing. My mouth was hanging open at this thing and when I got it in place I was almost overcome with emotion. Almost. /wink

I spent about 6 hours working on it after unboxing. I immediately wanted to move all my files, music, videos, etc to the secondary HD. I found a tech article that explained how to do it but it ended up going very wrong. I called AppleCare and the support guy sounded pretty pissed I would do such a thing. He said I'd have to erase and install. Oh well. Nothing lost but time at that point. I did want to try again though, so I started a clean install and set up the storage path again. It worked this time, so there must have been some setting in the pre-installed OS. I proceeded downloading updates, installing software, etc. At midnight, being a work night and all, I decided to stop for the night. All that was left was to install Final Cut Studio, which I'm doing as I write this. :)

Seriously though...this thing is BLAZING. The SSD upgrade is epic. Every program opens before an icon even has a chance to bounce in the dock! LOL Can't wait to produce some movies to see how that's going to go.

To change the subject just a bit, as I was installing things, I was perusing my RSS feeds and ran across several stories about Apple possibly upgrading their AppleTV. Rumor is it will run the iOS that is currently on the iPhone and iPad. Okay wow! I mean, this could change the face of TV and entertainment. Think about it. Here are two scenarios I immediately thought of. 1) Why subscribe to expensive higher tier cable packages? Want HBO? They could just bypass cable providers and create an app for purchase and you've got it through the AppleTV. 2) How fun would it be to buy, say, the Monopoly or Scrabble app and have the board on the TV screen, then everyone with an iPhone or iPad controls their pieces from their own device? There's already a model for this...now it can be on the TV. This is certainly very exciting and if it proves to be true, I hope that the older hardware will be able to support the new iOS.

Dilemma

2010-08-09T15:58:00.000-05:00

June is a very peaceful month. July gets hectic. August is downright stressful. Then the school year comes and routine settles in. So here we are in August and the typical stress has set in. Until last week, I was pretty certain one of my evening instructors was going to be able to take an additional two sections of chemistry. That didn't work out in the end. I immediately called the Dean of Sciences and asked for a list of prospects. They just hired a full-time guy, but pretty much relayed that the ones they didn't hire were for a good reason and he didn't really have a pool to choose from. That's the short version to lead to this fact: I have to either take the sections on myself or somehow cancel the class.

The problem is, I am already committed to three classes. Five would be too much. I had to talk my boss into letting me keep the three. And being at night? That means work all day at my regular job, then stay and teach. That prospect leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I would have to do that for 16 weeks. Boo! On the other hand, it would be a really nice paycheck. I could get the trees in my yard cut down like I need to, buy the new iMac I want, have the root canal I'm going to eventually need, and have a little left over! But I just don't have a settled feeling in the bottom of my stomach. I can't positively say it would be worth it. With the commitment of my three and the two extra being on Monday/Wednesday night, I would be teaching from 9:30 am to 8:30 pm on Mondays, with only three 30 minute breaks. That's awful and it really concerns me to do that to Naomi, first and foremost. An option is to see if my other instructor can swap sections and then I could at least come home for a few hours on Tuesday/Thursday before heading back to teach. But still....

I said the other option is just to cancel it. Well that actually may not BE an option. As a part of nursing, many students HAVE to have chemistry this fall. There are a few seats in other sections available, but are there enough? Then if I tell the others that can wait to do so, will they fall below full-time hours needed for financial aid and such? There's just so many variables. It is my priority for work tomorrow to figure it out.

I'm praying for something to work out. I just wish the commitment wasn't so long. To think of having to do that for the rest of the year doesn't sit well with me. I ask for your prayers for discernment and, well practically, an instructor to fill the gap. But if not, then that it will work out for each and every student that will be affected.

How I Was Stalked By My Pastor

2010-05-10T17:25:00.000-05:00

There are two things you need to know before I tell you about present-day events.

1. I watch too much "24" and other highly dramatized serial shows. I'm not apologizing for it. I love it! However, I am admitting that perhaps it has made me a bit paranoid in real life.

2. The subsequently described events have happened before, but for real. I described the event in a prior blog post, complete with also admitting to point #1 above. The point is, today was Grades Due day...so the fact that the following occurred put me on edge that maybe someone didn't like the grade they got.

Read on...

So I'm pulling off Kanis into my neighborhood and a grey trunk proceeds to turn right behind me. I don't know why (all I can do is refer you to point #1), but I immediately decided to roll through the stop sign and try to get up and around the corner. I turned off the loop into my part of the neighborhood, so did the follower. I turned right, again not stopping at the stop sign. So did he. At that point, I chose not to turn on my street and kept going around. The chances of being stalked would be 100% if the driver took all the same turns at that point. I turn left on to Timber Ridge and book it back to Atkins Dr. I then decide to go back toward Kanis Rd. Looking back in my mirror, the follower finally turned the opposite way, toward Markham Rd. I cleverly thought in my mind that the person knew at that point I was on to them following me.

Two seconds later, I get a phone call from Leslie, my worship pastor. "Hello?" I say. He replies, "You didn't stop at any of those stop signs." Wide-eyed and shocked, I yelled, "That was YOU?!?" I proceeded to tell him how I thought I was being followed and why (points #2). He said he figured that out at the point I turned back out of my neighborhood. We laughed and I returned home. The end.

The Burden of Proof

2010-05-06T16:06:00.001-05:00

My first week on jury duty and we were called in. Wouldn't you know it. At orientation last month, the bailiff said he only saw two of the three groups a few times each. The pool is selected by drivers license now, not voter registration, and serve for four months. So every Wednesday beginning this week, I have to call to see if we report on Thursday. And week 1 we did.

Can I just say, wow! some people are IDIOTS! Let me share a few stories.

I half-way knew what to expect, having served as a witness when I worked for the crime lab. So I brought a book expecting to wait. A woman sits down beside me and starts complaining immediately about the inconvenience this is. Oh, sorry that your democratic duty "inconvenienced" you today. Get over it. She is wearing a "National Day of Prayer" shirt and tells those around her that she hopes it will get her out of being selected. Then she starts to rail about how Obama's administration is trying to do away with this recognized day. I had enough at the point and closed my book, looked at her, and informed her that in fact, a district judge made that decision and President Obama was the chief signor of the appeal.

A young man on the other side of me, who apparently served in our distinguished military began offering up information--unsolicited--about his tragic past, including his injuries sustained while serving and his stillborn daughter.

We finally get called in and go through the motions of what the defendant is charged with, we meet all the court officials and witnesses. Then we go right back out in the hall for unknown reasons. 30 minutes later we are called back in, only to be recessed a short time later because an interpreter is needed. During these sessions, the judge asks the group such questions like "has a crime like this happened to you", "do you have any immediate family in law enforcement", and "do you know any of the people in the court". Actually, I did! A friend of a friend, who I used to watch Lost with, was the co-prosecutor. I wasn't sure if that was enough, but we made eye contact and she nodded slightly, so I stood.

Finally we get started with the vetting. A box apparently containing all our names is produced and the defense attorney is allowed to stir it. The court official calls out 12 names, then the prosecutor and defense both get to ask questions. This is where the day really drug on forever. Some people talk too much. Like the toothless redneck guy who said he didn't think the system was fair. Or the 6-7 people who had other things to do should the trial go into the next day. Or the veteran who said people who aren't citizens should not be protected by the law. Or the people that didn't understand what "the burden of proof is on the prosecutor" meant.

Two hypothetical scenarios were presented, one from each side. After asking if everyone could be impartial, no matter what, the prosecutor presented a situation where an elderly woman with cancer who could only find relief from the pain by smoking marijuana would be found guilty. The law says marijuana is illegal; there is no medical proviso in Arkansas law. Suddenly, several of the jurors changed their mind. The defense asked the jurors if the prosecutor did not present their case beyond reasonable doubt and the defense called no witnesses, would they have a problem issuing a not-guilty verdict. Oh boy...this one took a while. I wanted to be called on just so I could answer it. I wanted to scream it! People...the definition is that the burden of proof is on the PROSECUTOR. If he didn't make his case, the defense doesn't NEED to call witnesses. They have nothing to prove. Innocent until proven guilty! A not-guilty verdict MUST be rendered. But no....these people kept hanging on to their notion that they wanted more facts; more information. They didn't get the scenario that there were no more facts; the evidence was presented. It wasn't enough. The end. Not guilty. Go home.

Well it was an interesting day to say the least. Suddenly I'm nervous about who exactly this jury of my "peers" are if they are mostly of this similar niche of society. Not that I ever plan on standing trial. And I don't mean that to sound ugly, but dang, it's scary!

iPad vs. Kindle: Is It Fair to Compare?

2010-05-04T12:50:00.000-05:00

I'm very indecisive when it comes to new technology. It took me a long time, for instance, to finally start purchasing my music solely as a digital format simply because I couldn't do without the CD cover. I think the same can be said of books. Can't do without that tactile sensation of lounging back with a book? I've accepted that, given time, I'll get over that and enjoy an ebook reader.

The problem is, the market is so young for e-readers, it is difficult to decide what to buy. The forerunners are the Amazon Kindle and Apple's iPad. But both are so completely different, it almost feels unfair to compare them.

In this corner, we have the Kindle. A device whose sole purpose is to read books. Its display is made of a new technology called e-ink. The screen does not require back-lighting like computer monitors. It reads like paper. It is only currently available in grayscale. This leads many people to think it is antiquated technology, but if you really look into it, it is quite a remarkable screen. The refresh rate is a little sluggish and the contrast is arguably difficult on those with poorer eyesight. The screen is about the size of a paperback book; the bigger version is about the size of a hardback book's page. The Kindle itself is very light. Books are available through only Amazon's store, and in the tumultuous new market, e-book prices are on the rise slightly. Books can be downloaded in seconds at no data cost; an embedded dictionary lets you look up words as you read.

In the other corner is the iPad. A multifunctioning, revolutionary portable device. Its limits are in the hands of developers. It has a backlit screen, just like a computer monitor. Some say this leads to eyestrain. I say staring at ANYTHING too long leads to eyestrain. Brightness and color can be adjusted in the ebook apps available. And that's another "pro": you can shop around...Amazon Kindle app, Barnes and Noble Nook app, and Apple's iBookstore. You get color covers and images. The Kindle app doesn't have the dictionary. It would be difficult to read in sunlight, and the device is heavier than a Kindle, albeit still lighter than most hardback books (which is what I prefer to read). Around 8% of people buying an iPad said they bought it primarily to be an e-reader. That's really not many and makes me wonder why. Seems like the reading aficionados go for the dedicated e-reader.

I guess there is room for them both. The Kindle for heavy reading; the iPad for everything else. But I don't want to carry around two devices. I remember how silly it was to cart my iPod and iPhone until I got enough memory in the latter to sync all my music.

Another side note, a recent article said that reading on an iPad in bed can cause insomnia. Melatonin is a hormone in the brain that influences our biological clock. Its release is induced by light. The light of the iPad's screen could cause melatonin's continued release and thus throw off your sleep cycle. (That also goes to show why it is not good to watch TV right before bed, and why many parents choose to not let their kids do so.)

I go back and forth between the two, but all I know is I do want an e-reader. I've been patiently waiting for the market to resolve into some semblance of order, just like I did back in the Blu-Ray/HD-DVD war days. I know I would want the bigger Kindle, which weighs in at $489....$10 shy of an iPad. And that's why I'm like "why don't I just get an iPad and get multiple functions"? Then I think "will I like reading on a backlit screen?" I don't suppose I'd get that much extra use out of an iPad having an iPhone. I don't watch TV/movies on computers; my phone can check email just fine.

I wait for Amazon to release a new hardware version of the Kindle or at least drop the price...but no word is coming about that any time soon. At some point, one just has to buy into a technology, realize there will be upgrades, and commit to not buying again for a certain period of time. I get that. But the indecision in my mind about the two devices--again it seems unfair to compare them--keep me holding on. I've just about saved enough for either one. I may buy the smaller Kindle to see if I like it, then if I do, either keep it or possibly return it and upgrade to the bigger one. If not, return it and go iPad. They give a 30-day return guarantee.

Anyone have an opinion?

Dallas Stars!

2010-03-25T10:59:00.002-05:00

If you followed my Twitter/Facebook feed at all on Tuesday, you know how insane I went when I got to experience my first NHL game. And in a big way. We were on the front row right behind the Dallas Stars' bench. I can't even describe the awesomeness of that evening.

We arrived at the arena when it opened and watched warm up. Every time the Stars came out, I'd lean over the railing and solicited the fist bump from the team (which I would say about half the team acknowledged), screaming my encouragements to them.

My next statement is rather obvious: watching the game on TV is nothing like being there. But to describe what I mean, you can't get an appreciation for how fast these guys skate on TV. While our seats were amazing for their proximity to the bench, it did make it a bit difficult to watch the game. I've never wiggled around in a seat so much in my life...trying to see. But that didn't matter...I WAS THERE!

The Stars ended up breaking the Predators' 7 game winning streak, winning 3-1. Goals were very weird; I really only saw one of them occur. The first goal came in the 2nd period, by Trevor Daley, just kind of happened all the sudden. The Stars fan we sat next to didn't realize it had happened either. Ha. The Preds tied it 1-1 by the end of the 2nd. In the third, the Stars scored 2 back-to-back goals off some horrible turnovers by the Preds. The goals were scored by Loui Eriksson and Matt Niskanen.

Also odd were penalties and stoppage of play. I guess being directly behind the glass, we couldn't hear the whistle. We'd just see a player head off to the penalty box across the ice.

Here's just a few photos of warm up and of my favorite players. I took as many as I could during media time-outs, but I didn't want to watch the game through my phone during play; by the end of the game, my battery was 10%. LOL (Click on the photos to see them big.)

Warming Up:

Face-Off:

Brenden Morrow (10; Team Captain), Stephen Robidas (3), and Kari Lehtonen (32; recently acquired during mid-season waivers):

Steve Ott (29):

Jamie Benn (14; 5th highest scoring rookie in the NHL):

Kari Lehtonen (32):

If you wanna see the rest that I spruced up, head to my gallery.

Also next to us was a couple...they actually had seats on the rail. I wanted to try to get an autograph or 20 after the game. I had brought a pen but lost it, so I asked the lady if she had one and told her why. She offered to get the autograph for me, and as attractive as she was, she would stand a MUCH better chance of getting them than I would. Kids and hot chicks...that's how you get things from athletes. I eyed Marty Turco, the long time goalie of the Stars (but he sat out this game) and motioned to see if he'd sign the program I handed her. He nodded. I wanted to get several and asked as they left the arena, but no one stopped. But I'm pretty pleased with what I got:

I have this bittersweet problem where when I go to things like this--so rare because of where I live--I get a little star struck. I think how amazing it would be to have the resources to do this all the time; or even have a job where I could be around the team. Heck, I even envied the bench-squeegee guy. I know it looks more glamorous on the outside though, and I've got a pretty good deal going here, but it sure was one of the highlighted experiences I've had. I'll end this post by repeating what I said in one of my tweets:

considering im not married this is the most epic night of my life!

The Life I Want to Live

2010-03-08T12:26:00.000-06:00

I've been on the "do it my way" track for a while now. It started last year with a pretty devastating loss to me. Actually, 2009 kinda sucked all around. I lost a lot of security and contentment. A lot of insecurities came blaring out and I was suddenly sensitized to things that I haven't been in a long time. To counter that, I made choice to fit in to the mold of my social world. I made other choices that provided immediate (but temporary) gratification. And thus the degeneration began, and my fellowship with God waned...and waned...and waned. The good things either dropped off or became meaningless routine. And I found myself in a place not even having the want to change.

I knew I was on the fast track to losing my communion with my Creator, but by that point, I couldn't let go of some things that I had begun. A wise man told me, when I asked how to get rid of them, that will power wasn't enough...that I had to replace those things with good. And so I took some steps to do that, yet to this date some of the old leaks back in. Our pastor has been leading a study on Philippians and how to fine true, inner joy through Christ. It is resonating with me. A conviction came over me so greatly this weekend, that I knew the time had come...I either needed to make the necessary changes in my life or I would be heading to a point of no-return; of doing things I would not be able to take back.

I really suck at praying. I have to think about what I'm going to say and rehearse it like a speech in my mind, before bowing my head and closing my eyes. So the first thing I did this morning was ask God to teach me to pray. Then I asked Him to guard my heart against the temptations I've let slip in. And I prayed for this kind of life:

I once thought these things were valuable, but now I consider them worthless because of what Christ has done. Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ and become one with him. I no longer count on my own righteousness through obeying the law; rather, I become righteous through faith in Christ. For God’s way of making us right with himself depends on faith. I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead. I want to suffer with him, sharing in his death, so that one way or another I will experience the resurrection from the dead!

I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me. No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.

Let all who are spiritually mature agree on these things. If you disagree on some point, I believe God will make it plain to you. But we must hold on to the progress we have already made.

I'll hope you'll pray for me in this, and join me in this pursuit.

Sleep Cycles

2010-02-24T11:11:00.004-06:00

Flipping through the top selling apps on the iPhone, I ran across an app named "Sleep Cycle". I checked it out. This app uses the phone's accelerometer (motion-sensor) to monitor the degree of movement while you sleep. You set an alarm time and, based on what stage of sleep you are in, it will wake you within 30 minutes of that alarm. The idea is you aren't woken during a deep stage of sleep.

As a physiology instructor, I was interested to see how well this app worked and how much of it was just novelty. So if you'll indulge me, let me speak briefly about sleep cycles.

We alternate between "non-rapid eye movement" (NREM) and "rapid eye movement" (REM) sleep during the night. For the typical person, it takes about 45 minutes to slip through the first two stages of NREM and into the latter two, when true deep sleep occurs. (Incidentally, nightmares tend to occur in the latter two stages of NREM.) After about 90 minutes, brain activity changes dramatically, our muscles become inhibited, and our eyes start flicking around (thus the name of the sleep). Most dreaming occurs in REM; the muscle paralysis keeps us from acting out our dreams, even though the eyes are following what is being seen. The brain activity is "more awake" during REM than when we are actually awake. The typical adult will re-enter REM about every 90 minutes; each time, REM lasts a little longer. NREM is thought to help physiological processes "reboot" (if you will), while REM is thought to work through psychological needs.

So in trying this app out, the graph is a little misleading. Since no motion occurs during REM sleep, the part of the graph that says "dreaming" is a misnomer. Perhaps a better term would be "wakefulness". However, "deep sleep" works okay for the lower portion, but keep in mind that REM is when we are dreaming the most, and true "deep sleep" occurs in the latter two stages of NREM. More motion likely means you are not in REM, but for deep sleep you could easily be moving or not. Being woken from deep sleep is what makes for the groggy feeling, so motion is not the best indicator. The app builds on ideas that actigraphy utilizes--where sleep technologist monitor motion--but should be used for novelty purposes only and to get a GENERAL idea of how you tend to sleep. The fact is, you could lay still during NREM just as you do in REM, so motion is not a true test of sleep cycling; only a brain monitor can do that. However, if you are really having sleep issues, a true sleep study is the way to go.

My first night with the app did show fairly consistent time frames for the typical sleeper that I described above. I entered a state of no-motion (which is REM) about every 90 minutes. I apparently had two such stages during my 7 hours of sleep, which by the way is arguably not enough cycles through REM, and the second was longer than the first. (I started to enter a third, but about that time my pet woke me up. Ha ha.)

2010 Winter Olympics

2010-02-11T08:11:00.002-06:00

If you are as big a fan of the Olympics as me, you'll find yourself glued to the TV for the next two weeks. Well that may not be so easy, so I went searching for a complete TV schedule and found this. Maybe it'll help you pick out what and when to watch. TIMES ARE IN EASTERN.

NBC Universal's 2010 Winter Olympics Schedule
This is the NBC Universal Olympics Schedule from Day 1, February 12 until Day 17 on February 28. I have omitted overnight programming on MSNBC which starts at 3 a.m.

DAY 1 - FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 12
NBC, 7:30 p.m. - midnight: Opening Ceremony, Ski Jumping: Qualification

DAY 2 - SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 13
NBC, 2 p.m. - 6 p.m.: Ski Jumping: normal hill, Speed Skating: men's 5000m and Biathlon: women's sprint.
CNBC, 3 p.m. - 5:30 p.m.: Women's Hockey: Sweden vs. Switzerland
CNBC, 8 p.m. - 10:30 p.m.: Women's Hockey: Canada vs. Slovakia
NBC, 8 p.m. - 11:30 p.m.: Short Track: men's 1500m (live ET/CT). Alpine Skiing: men's downhill -- and women's moguls.
NBC, midnight - 1 a.m.: Luge: Men's Singles, Women's Short Track prelims: 500m, relay and medal ceremonies.

DAY 3 - SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 14
NBC, 1 p.m. - 6 p.m.: Nordic Combined (live ET/CT), Speed Skating, Luge and Biathlon.
USA, 3 p.m. - 5:30 p.m.: Women's Hockey: USA vs. China
NBC, 7 p.m. - 11 p.m.: Alpine Skiing: Women's Combined. Figure Skating: Pairs Short Program. Luge: Men's Singles Gold Medal Final
NBC, 11:35 p.m. - 12:05 a.m.: Recap and analysis from Figure Skating's opening act: the pairs short program. Plus, medal ceremonies from Speed Skating and more.

DAY 4 - MONDAY, FEBRUARY 15
NBC, 1 p.m. - 5 p.m.: Women's Cross Country, Men's Snowboarding and Men's Cross Country
MSNBC, 5:30 p.m. - 8 p.m.: Women's Hockey: Canada vs. Switzerland
NBC, 8 p.m. - midnight: Figure Skating: Pairs Free Skate, Snowboarding: Men's SBX, Speed Skating: Men's 500 meters
NBC, 12:35 a.m. - 2 a.m.: Women's luge, Medal ceremonies

DAY 5 - TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 16
USA, noon - 3 p.m.: Men's Curling: USA vs. Germany
NBC, 3 p.m. - 5 p.m.: Biathlon: men's 12.5K, women's 10K
USA, 3 p.m. - 5:30 p.m.: Men's Hockey: USA vs. Switzerland
CNBC, 5 p.m. - 8 p.m.: Women's Curling: USA vs. Japan
MSNBC, 5:30 p.m. - 8 p.m.: Women's Hockey: USA vs. Russia
CNBC, 8 p.m. - 10 p.m.: Men's Hockey: Canada vs. Norway
NBC, 8 p.m. - midnight: Figure Skating: men's short program, Snowboarding, Speed Skating: Women's 500 meters
CNBC, 10 p.m. - 12:30 a.m.: Women's Hockey: Finland vs. China
CNBC, 12:30 a.m. - 2:30 a.m.: Men's Hockey: Russia vs. Latvia
NBC, 12:35 a.m. - 2 a.m.: Women's Luge

DAY 6 - WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 17
USA, noon - 3 p.m.: Women's Curling: USA vs. Germany
NBC, 3 p.m. - 5 p.m.: Women's Cross Country Skiing
MSNBC, 3 p.m. - 5:30 p.m.: Men's Hockey: Finland vs. Belarus
CNBC, 5 p.m. - 8 p.m.: Men's Curling: USA vs. Switzerland
MSNBC, 5:30 p.m. - 8 p.m.: Women's Hockey: Canada vs. Sweden
CNBC, 8 p.m. - 10 p.m.: Men's Hockey: Sweden vs. Germany
NBC, 8 p.m. - 11:30 p.m.: Speed Skating: men's 1,000 meters, Alpine Skiing: women's downhill, Snowboarding: men's halfpipe, Short Track: men's 5,000 meter relay & 1,000 meters.
CNBC, 10 p.m. - 12:30 a.m.: Women's Hockey: Switzerland vs. Slovakia
NBC, 12:05 a.m. - 1:30 a.m.: Short Track: men's 1,000 meters, doubles luge, medal ceremonies.
CNBC, 12:30 a.m. - 2:30 a.m.: Men's Hockey: Czech Republic vs. Slovakia

DAY 7 - THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 18
USA, noon - 3 p.m.: Men's Curling: USA vs. Denmark
NBC, 3 p.m. - 5 p.m.: Women's Biathlon: 15K, Women's Snowboarding: Halfpipe
USA, 3 p.m. - 5:30 p.m.: Men's Hockey: USA vs. Norway
CNBC, 5 p.m. - 8 p.m.: Women's Curling: USA vs. Denmark
MSNBC, 5:30 p.m. - 8 p.m.: Women's Hockey: USA vs. Finland
CNBC, 8 p.m. - 10 p.m.: Men's Hockey: Canada vs. Norway
NBC, 8 p.m. - midnight: Figure Skating: Men's Free Skate, Women's Snowboarding, Speed Skating: women's 1,000 meters
CNBC, 10 p.m. - 12:30 a.m.: Women's Hockey: Russia vs. China
CNBC, 12:30 a.m. - 2:30 a.m.: Men's Hockey: Russia vs. Slovakia
NBC, 12:35 a.m. - 2 a.m.: Skeleton: Men's and women's 1st and 2nd runs, Biathlon: men's 20K, medal ceremonies.

DAY 8 - FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 19
USA, noon - 3 p.m.: Women's Curling: USA vs. Russia
MSNBC, 3 p.m. - 5:30 p.m.: Men's Hockey: Sweden vs. Belarus
NBC, 3 p.m. - 5 p.m.: Women's Cross Country Skiing
CNBC, 5 p.m. - 8 p.m.: Men's Curling: USA vs. France
CNBC, 8 p.m. - 10 p.m.: Men's Hockey: Czech Republic vs. Latvia
NBC, 8 p.m. - 11:30 p.m.: Figure Skating: Ice Dancing, Women's Skeleton
CNBC, 10 p.m. - 1 a.m.: Women's Curling: Canada vs. Denmark
MSNBC, midnight - 3 a.m.: Men's Hockey: Finland vs. Germany
NBC, 12:05 a.m. - 1:30 a.m.: Medal ceremonies

DAY 9 - SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 20
MSNBC, noon - 3 p.m.: Men's Curling: USA vs. Sweden
NBC, 1 p.m. - 6 p.m.: Freestyle Skiing: Women's, Ski Jumping: Large Hill, Cross Country Skiing: Men's 30K Pursuit
MSNBC, 3 p.m. - 5:30 p.m.: Men's Hockey: Norway vs. Switzerland
CNBC, 5 p.m. - 8 p.m.: Women's Curling: USA vs. Great Britain
MSNBC, 7:30 p.m. - 10 p.m.: Men's Hockey: Slovakia vs. Latvia
NBC, 8 p.m. - 11:30 p.m.: Alpine Skiing: Women's Super G, Bobsled: Two man, Short Track: men's
CNBC, 10 p.m. - 1 a.m.: Men's Curling: Canada vs. Great Britain
MSNBC, midnight - 3 a.m.: Men's Hockey: Belarus vs. Germany
NBC, midnight - 1 a.m.: Short Track: Women's 1,500 meters and medal ceremonies.

DAY 10 - SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 21
MSNBC, noon - 3 p.m.: Women's Curling: USA vs. Canada
NBC, noon - 6 p.m.: Freestyle Skiing: Ski Cross, Biathlon: Men's 15K, Men's Hockey: Czech Republic vs. Russia
CNBC, 5 p.m. - 8 p.m.: Men's Curling: USA vs. Great Britain
MSNBC, 7 p.m. - 10 p.m: Men's Hockey: USA vs. Canada
NBC, 7 p.m. - 11 p.m.: Figure Skating: Ice Dancing (Original Dance), Alpine Skiing: Men's Giant Slalom
CNBC, 10 p.m. - 1 a.m.: Women's Curling: USA vs. Sweden
NBC, 11:35 p.m. - 12:30 a.m.: Biathlon: Women's 12.5K, Medal Ceremonies
MSNBC, midnight - 3 a.m.: Men's Hockey: Sweden vs. Finland

DAY 11 - MONDAY, FEBRUARY 22
USA, noon - 3 p.m: Men's Curling: USA vs. Canada
NBC, 3 p.m. - 5 p.m.: Cross Country Skiing: Men's and Women's team sprints
USA, 3 p.m - 6 p.m.: Women's Hockey: Semifinals
CNBC, 5 p.m. - 8 p.m.: Women's Curling: Canada vs. Sweden
CNBC, 8 p.m. - 10:30 p.m.: Women's Hockey: Semifinals
NBC, 8 p.m. - midnight: Figure Skating: Ice Dancing (Free Skate), Freestyle Skiing, Ski Jumping
CNBC, 10:30 - 1 a.m.: Men's Curling: USA vs. China
NBC, 12:35 a.m. - 2 a.m.; Men's Hockey: Elimination Round, Medal Ceremonies

DAY 12 - TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 23
USA, noon - 3 p.m.: Women's Curling: USA vs. China
NBC, 3 p.m. - 5 p.m.: Biathlon: Women's 4 x 6K Relay, Speed Skating: Men's 10,000 meters
USA, 3 p.m. - 6 p.m.: Men's Hockey: Elimination Round
CNBC, 5 p.m - 8 p.m.: Men's Curling: Canada vs. China
CNBC, 8 p.m. - 10 p.m.: Men's Hockey: Elimination Round
NBC, 8 p.m. - midnight: Figure Skating: women's short program, Freestyle Skiing: Women's Ski Cross Final, Bobsled: Women's, Alpine Skiing: Nordic Combined
CNBC, 10 p.m. - 12:30 a.m.: Men's Hockey: Elimination Round
MSNBC, 10 p.m. - 1 a.m.: Women's Curling: USA vs. Switzerland
CNBC, 12:30 a.m. - 2:30 a.m.: Men's Hockey: Elimination Round
NBC, 12:35 a.m. - 2 a.m.: Figure Skating recap plus medal ceremonies

DAY 13 - WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 24
NBC, 3 p.m. - 5 p.m.: Men's Hockey: Quarterfinal Round
MSNBC, 5 p.m. - 8 p.m.: Curling: Tiebreaker Round
CNBC, 7 p.m. - 10 p.m.: Men's Hockey: Quarterfinal Round
NBC, 8 p.m. - 11:30 p.m.: Alpine Skiing: Women's Giant Slalom, Bobsled, Short Track Speed Skating: Men's 500 meters and Women's 3,000 meters relay
CNBC, 10 p.m. - 12:30 a.m.: Men's Hockey: Quarterfinal Round
NBC, 12:05 a.m. - 1:30 a.m.: Short Track Speed Skating: Women's 1,000 meters and Medal Ceremonies
CNBC, 12:30 a.m. - 2:30 a.m.: Men's Hockey: Quarterfinal Round

DAY 14 - THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 25
USA, noon - 3 p.m.: Women's Curling: Semifinal
MSNBC, 2 p.m. - 4:30 p.m.: Women's Hockey: Bronze Medal Game
NBC, 3 p.m. - 5 p.m.: Cross Country Skiing: Women's 4 x 5K relay
CNBC, 5 p.m. - 8 p.m.: Men's Curling: Semifinal
MSNBC, 6 p.m. - 9 p.m.: Women's Hockey: Gold Medal Game
NBC, 8 p.m. - midnight: Figure Skating: Women's Free Skate, Freestyle Skiing
NBC, 12:35 a.m. - 2 a.m.: Figure Skating wrap up plus Medal Ceremonies

DAY 15 - FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 26
USA, noon - 3 p.m.: Women's Curling: Bronze Medal Match
NBC, 3 p.m. - 5 p.m.: Men's Hockey: Semifinal
MSNBC, 3:30 p.m. - 5:30 p.m.: Speed Skating: Men's and Women's Pursuit
CNBC, 6 p.m. - 9 p.m.: Women's Curling: Gold Medal Match
NBC, 8 p.m. - 11:30 p.m.: Alpine Skiing: Women's Slalom, Short Track Speed Skating: Men's and Women's 1,000 meters
CNBC, 9 p.m. - midnight: Men's Hockey: Semifinal
NBC, 12:05 a.m. - 1:30 a.m.: Snowboarding: Women's PGS Gold Medal Final plus Medal Ceremonies

DAY 16 - SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 27
USA, noon - 3 p.m.: Men's Curling: Bronze Medal Match
NBC, 1 p.m. - 6 p.m.: Snowboarding: Men's PGS Gold Medal Final, Speed Skating: Pursuit
CNBC, 6 p.m. - 9 p.m.: Men's Curling: Gold Medal Match
NBC, 8 p.m. - 11 p.m.: Alpine Skiing: Men's Slalom, Bobsled: Four Man, Figure Skating: Champions Gala, Snowboarding: Men's Parallel
MSNBC, 10 p.m. - 12:30 a.m.: Men's Hockey: Bronze Medal Game

DAY 17 - SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 28
MSNBC, 6 a.m. - noon - Figure Skating: Champions Gala
NBC, noon - 3 p.m.: Cross Country Skiing
NBC, 3 p.m. - 6 p.m.: Men's Hockey: Gold Medal Game
NBC, 7 p.m. - 11 p.m.: Closing Ceremony
NBC, 11:35 p.m. - 12:35 a.m.: Wrap Up

The (In)Complete and (Un)Authorized Vegas Autobiography

2010-01-18T11:30:00.002-06:00

I've never been on a real vacation on my own, so I had been looking forward to this trip to Las Vegas with friends since it was booked in October. We got a great fare for the flight and one of our buddies hooked us up with a free stay at a hotel. We had roughly 3.5 days to take in as much as we could, and I must say, it was just about the right amount of time. Click the links for pictures and video clips.

Tuesday: Our flight out was great! After having my traditional McGriddle before traveling, we headed to the airport and breezed through security. Well, actually, I got the full search. The metal detector went off on me, which turned out to be from the large metal buttons on my shirt. The TSA agent was very nice and professional, even explaining to me that if he needed to search a "sensitive area", he would use the back of his hand. He then asked if I needed him to define a "sensitive area." I think I had it pretty well defined. On the plane, the flight attendants really went all out for us; guess they liked the idea of a group of guys heading out to Vegas for a good time. They comped us a round a drinks and even made Ryan a crown of peanuts! Our flight arrived 45 minutes early and we embarked for the hotel. My buddy Craig and I stayed at MGM Grand, while Kyle and Ryan stayed at Caesers Palace. Not only was Kyle able to get the rooms comped, we got upgraded to suites, aka bungalows! Sweet!

We spent the afternoon checking out the strip. When someone tells you that the hotels appear to be close together but are in fact, quite far apart, they speak the truth. By the end of the week, my poor feet would be revolting! Seriously, most of our day time passed by walking. We checked out a few hotels then headed back to our respective rooms to get ready for the evening. On the way to our venue, we got to watch a fountain show at the Bellagio. The main feature of the evening: Penn and Teller's magic show at the Rio. Two words: Ah-mazing! I have no idea how they did the things they did. Their gimmick is to "reveal" how many traditional tricks are done, but as they are doing so, throw in a new twist that leaves you wide eyed and mouth open. The evening topped off with the "magic bullets" trick. If you haven't seen it, you have to! After the show, Penn and Teller signed autographs.

Wednesday: Today, we were up early because we had a bus to catch. We booked a Hoover Dam tour. This was a definite highlight. After about a 30 minute ride out to Lake Mead, in the Black Canyon, we arrived. Currently under construction is the largest arch bridge in the US. It is part of a new highway being built due to frequent delays this area deals with. The driver said that 30 minute trip we just took could take 3-4 hours sometimes. We took a tour underneath dam, standing over the huge pipes. The power of the rushing water flowing through that 30 ft pipe is quite overwhelming. We also got to see the generators by which the power is created. Returning to the surface, we got some free time to walk along the top of the dam and look around.

Heading back, we stopped at some casino (I can't remember the name) for a buffet. We were left there a long time. No doubt, the tour company was given a little incentive to leave us there for enough time to play, but I would have liked 30 minutes more at the dam and less at the casino. We got back to the hotel and once again got ready for the evening. Kyle made us reservations at a high-end steakhouse called Smith & Wollensky's. We all wanted to eat out nice once. I had one of the best, and definitely the biggest, prime ribs I've ever had. And no, I couldn't finish it. After dinner, we took a walk down the strip and visited some more casinos. The dress shoes I had bought and were wearing were killing me. I was pretty miserable. We ended up stopping at Treasure Island for a while...and by a while, I mean until 4 am! Time can certainly fly when playing and having fun! For some reason, my body just cannot sleep late, so despite finally falling asleep permanently at around 6 am, I woke up at 9 am.

Thursday: Today was to be our "touristy" day. Craig and I attempted to geocache for a little while. I don't know if the 3G was so congested or what the problem was, but neither of us could get our Geocaching app to work. It kept freezing. Pretty disappointed, we gave up. Instead, we visited more hotel/casinos. So far we had walked through Planet Hollywood, Paris, New York, New York, Venetian, Bellagio, and Treasure Island, as well as a few smaller ones. So this time we went the other way to visit the Mandalay Bay, Luxor, and Exalibur. Besides, we had to pick up our tickets for the evening venue.

That afternoon, we met up with Ryan and headed way down the strip to the Stratosphere. We stopped off so Ryan could do the indoor skydiving place. He said it was really fun, but short. Heading to the Stratosphere, it was a very windy day. We bought our tickets to the top of the observation tower and ride passes. Yup, there are three rides at the top of this 109+ story tower...the highest in the world. The Big Shot is the highest...it's like a reverse death drop, shooting you up the needle of the tower. The Xtreme is a teeter totter that tilts and slides over the edge of the tower. The last one, Insanity, is a spinning swing set, but it was closed due to wind. Craig isn't a fan of heights, so it was up to Ryan and I to complete this feat. And ride we did. So I can now say I've ridden the highest rides in the world! Sweet! To be honest, the rides themselves were really wimpy; 90% of the battle is just being on top of this tower (Big Shot is 1100 ft up). On the ride, we met this crazy girl who is self-described as a "weird ass adrenaline junkie". Her boyfriend wasn't so much excited (see previous picture to know exactly what I'm talking about). We gave her and extra ticket and rode the Xtreme, then headed down. Riding the tram back to our hotels, we got ready for an evening at the Mandalay Bay and the musical "The Lion King".

This performance blew me away. The staging, acting, and costumes were absolutely phenomenal. Many lines were word-for-word from the movie (my favorite Disney, by the way), with a few added scenes that I'm sure were to complement the different medium. The show was only slightly spoiled by two things: 1) After the second scene, we noticed the sound guy started moving frantically and talking on two phones; then the curtain went down and the lights came up. They then announced that the performance would be delayed due to an actor taking ill suddenly. After about 20 minutes, we resumed. 2) A couple of foreigners behind us felt the need to comment about EVERYTHING going on to each other. A couple in front of us turned to shoosh them once, then I finally turned around and asked them to be quiet as well. I really can't stand rude audiences. Craig and Ryan were equally as impressed as I; it was definitely worth the ticket. I was wiped from only getting about 3-4 hours of sleep, so I opted to head to the hotel; the others stayed out a while longer.

Friday: No agenda today; just finish out the things I wanted to see. We played a table during the day before the stakes would go up. Did some shopping at the Coca-Cola store. Visited some more hotels, including Caesers Palace. Stopped by the Apple Store in there. We watched the Treasure Island pirate show and the Mirage's lava show. The night's agenda was to hit a club for one last night of frivolity. We hit up "The Bank" in the Bellagio. It was an exquisite club! First of all, there were tons of security. To sit in this place would cost you about $400, which would include a bottle and table service; otherwise, the cover was $20. The cheapest thing at the bar was like $10! It was crazy how this one guy and (what I'll call his) slave-boy would run up and down the club. The first guy would shine a light on something and yell at his fellow to pick it up. I'm talking a piece of lint on the carpet! If you took your hand off your drink, it was gone. Match books were replaced within seconds. These guys were serious about keeping it clean! The place was so packed; it was hard to move. Although it was fun to let it loose for while, I was done in about 1 am and headed back.

Saturday: Up in just enough time to pack, grab coffee, grab some souvenirs and head to the airport. It was an awesome, unforgettable vacation shared with some great friends. If/when I ever go back, there are still some things I'd like to do. Unfortunately, Cirque de Soleil was taking a production break and the NY, NY roller coaster was down for maintenance. So those would be on tap. I think I'd be up for hitting more clubs in the evening too. But overall, I did it all, saw it all, and had a blast.

Sports Broadcasts Rants

2010-01-08T20:08:00.003-06:00

I'm a hockey fan. Huh??? you say? It's true. It happened back around 1999-2001 when the Stars won a couple Stanley cups. Being from the Dallas area, I got caught up in the hype and watched. But I came to really enjoy the game. It is a non-stop battle. It's so hard to score that when it finally happens, I think it is the most exciting score of any sports. Now saying all that, I've pretty much self-taught myself the rules. And there are plenty I'm still not familiar with.

And that brings me to the point of this rant. Fox Sports, the channel Stars games are featured on, is really bad about not explaining anything, particularly when it comes to penalties. Well they all are bad about it, really. Sometimes they'll say something like "2 minutes for high sticking" but they rarely show it again. I need to see the penalty so I know what constitutes it. Sometimes it can be as bad as just saying "2 minute minor"...no indication of what foul was committed. It's hard for me to see penalties at the high rate of play most sports are, so it would be nice if broadcasters would take a second to show the penalty while play is stopped. The other day, I saw my first "misconduct" penalty...a 10 minute one! No explanation.

Explain a rule every so often! I'm not asking for something unreasonable like explain everything every game (more on that in a second). That would suck for the fans that know what is going on. But every few games, when something happens, just take a second to explain it. For example, icing. This was hard for me to figure out. If a commentator had simply said "and the puck travels across the lines without being played so icing will be called"...I'd have known. That's a non-invasive way of slipping in an explanation, I think. (Incidentally, icing is a rule so that players are forced to play the puck across the rink and not just shoot it down the ice. If called, the puck comes back to the other side for a face-off.) They all list season records with 4 numbers, as in something like 10-4-2-0. Okay, win-loss-tie?-??? What the crap are those numbers? They never say! What are these "points" a team accumulates that determine who gets into playoffs? How are they different from points an individual player gets? How the heck do either EARN the stinking points??? Frustrating!

There are still plenty of other things I don't understand, like what exactly constitutes interference or the technicalities of where a face-off happens...but the internet has been helpful to some extent. I've even downloaded the NHL Official Rule Book. Haha. In summary, I think broadcasts would benefit from this notion because it would pick up new viewers long term by keeping them interested (because they are learning) and informed. Finding a balance for the pro-viewers and the new viewers is win-win!

But at the same time, it can't be taken to the other extreme, which is to over-explain a procedure every stinking time. And the overly glaring offender here comes from football and the video review. How long have we had reviews now? WE KNOW THE EVIDENCE HAS TO BE INDISPUTABLE! Do you have nothing else to say? Yes, it must be conclusive enough to overturn. Thank you! We got that the first year. Gah!

And just while we're on this subject, can I just say how useless coach and player interviews are? Just play a record that says "we need to work harder, score more points than [the other team], and come out ready to play", etc...because that's basically all these interviews amount to. Well, duhhhh! Can I get the last 5 minutes of my life back please? If you didn't do those things why show up? How about some substance. Call out some specifics! I know they don't want to point to individual players, but come on! What about the "running game" do you need to work on? HOW do you work on not turning over the ball? Substance! Amirite?

Unprecedented Movies of the 2000's

2009-12-29T12:08:00.004-06:00

I loooooove movies. I've invested quite a bit in my home theater and enjoy a good experience in the theater (of which I'm quite picky about.) I guess I'm an escapist at heart; I love to get involved in a good story. So I thought it would be fun to look back at some of the game-changers in movies from the last decade. I probably won't remember all of them, but these are the ones that stick out in my mind and why. Random order.

1. Batman Begins/Dark Knight - I put these movies together because they spawned the "reboot" era of movies and added that word to our movie lingo, once it was shown to be a success. Thus we get such successful franchises like "Star Trek" once again. "Dark Knight" is there because it was one of the first--if not THE first--feature films to be shot with IMAX film, albeit just parts. But it was those parts that made going to see a movie in "IMAX" cool...even though nothing has really be shot in IMAX since. The actual cameras to do so cost several hundred thousand dollars and only 4-5 are in existence. (They accidentally destroyed one in the making of "Dark Knight".)

2. Lord of the Rings trilogy - this was the first time a studio foot the bill for THREE movies to be filmed at once. It was a massive undertaking. I believe the typical movie can shoot in a period of 3-4 months. These guys filmed on-location and in studio for about a year. Not to mention the 7 or so years it took to plan the movie, then do post-production work. There hasn't been anything quite like it since, though some successful first outing movies have filmed two sequels together. Also, their revolutionary detail of a complete CGI character in Gollum spurred the technology to make movies like "Chronicles of Narnia" possible. (We won't give that credit to JarJar Binks, okay?)

3. Harry Potter franchise - it is unprecedented for one main reason, in my opinion: they kept the same actors for all 8 films. Okay, well Dumbledore's actor changed but that was because the actor passed away. But this is seriously unheard of...actors don't like to be type-cast or nailed down to one project for so long, typically. (Of course, Daniel Radcliffe is doing his best not to be type-cast by appearing in the play Equus between filming.) But not only is this fact unprecedented, but the turn-around time for such a special-effect driven film pretty remarkable. They were turning them out about once a year in the beginning, then lengthened it to once every 18-months. And now the last film (due Nov. 2010) is coming out in two-parts (2nd part July 2011). They say it is because they can't get it all in one film. Bah. They did okay with books 4 and 5...they just want to milk that money. Hopefully the Blu-Ray will have them together? (Yah right.)

4. Avatar - Come on, you really didn't think I'd leave this off? The 3D craze was a gimmick to draw in crowds until this movie. But James Cameron just did "something" different here that made 3D viewing the only way to see this movie. That's amazing, but at the same time Hollywood is going to make EVERYTHING in 3D now which is really gonna suck...because without a visionary person like Cameron, it will still be only one thing: a gimmick. But Cameron shot Avatar with this new 3D tech that made you feel like you were there. You seriously can't get any closer than actually going. It is hard to put into words, but I have never visually experienced something like that ever. And it just wasn't about the 3D, it was about the new, innovative motion capture technology. The facial movements for speech and expression is unsurpassed and sets a new, high bar in motion capture. And it begs the question, who should win an award for motion captured roles? The actor; the special effects team? This is new territory.

5. Shrek - I thought of this one late into this post. Actually, I wasn't sure it was from the 2000's, but it is. I think this is the computer animated movie that put computer animated movies on the map. Hardly anything has been hand-drawn since. Pixar and Dreamworks exploded on to the scene after this movie.

If I think of others, I'll add them. But chime in with your own and why you think it changed the movie industry.

LIEmax Rant

2009-12-18T11:06:00.005-06:00

My friend Daniel talked me into going to see "Avatar" in IMAX, against my better judgment. Over a year ago, I was so excited to hear we were getting a feature film IMAX (since the Aerospace one doesn't show them). I saw "Dark Knight" on it...and have seen one or two other movies...but I never really loved it. My two biggest rants about the place is the screen size (we'll get to that in a minute) and the film projection.

Local critics cited the film projection as a problem too, so I'm not just complaining about something arbitrary. I simply cannot pay attention to the movie when trash, debris, and dust on the lens are flowing across the screen, blown up to "IMAX" size. It is so distracting. Back before digital projection, that was one of the main reasons I wanted to see a movie as soon as it came out. The film quality dramatically decreases as it is plays more and more. Or is some cases, it is just bad to begin with. I remember going to see the premiere showing of Jurassic Park 2. During a climactic scene where the RVs were hanging off the cliff, the film melted off the reel. It took about 20 minutes to restart and it picked back up after the scene was over. The second time I saw Fellowship of the Ring, the audio track got hung up in the reel and we didn't hear the last 5 minutes of the movie.

It may be bigger than traditional screens (or is it...hold on, we're getting there) and the sound may be 12,000 watts, but the viewing quality was a deal breaker, so I opted for the Rave every time. Besides, very little has actually been shot on IMAX film. You can see the difference here. Only 8 scenes in Dark Knight were...the rest of the movie was not. So when you are going to see an "IMAX" film, that's a bit of a misnomer. Just like watching movies on your TV at home, there will be black bars at the top and bottom of the screens, which may or may not be cleverly hidden by movable currents to frame the screen.

Okay, on to screen size. There is a guy out there who has mapped out
all the IMAX screens in the country and noted if they are true IMAX, Omnimax (domed screen), or LIEmax. It seems a bit superficial to only rely on screen size to determine if you are having a true IMAX experience, but it is the most obvious. Well, I'll let this extreme example speak for itself.

I wrote Dickinson Theaters to find out how big our "IMAX" screen is and they replied that it is 45 x 70 ft wide. The reported true size of an IMAX screen is 76 x 97 ft. The original IMAX, according to Wikipedia, has different dimensions than that. So who knows what a "real" sized IMAX theater is supposed to be. But compared to the image above, ours isn't that bad, but it is still only 75% or so of the "true" size. To me, it's like buying Blu-Ray movies for 20" TV screens. What's the point? Well, okay, there's the sound and the projection style, etc. In fact, one article put it like this:

The company maintains that it's not just the size of the screen that matters, it's their "revolutionary projection system, a powerful digital audio system and customized theatre geometry" that make up "The IMAX Experience."

I'll buy that. And when I went to reluctantly buy our tickets for Avatar, I asked the manager if they were still film-based. He said they are digital now. So that's a HUGE step up for me. So the issue comes down to this: is the added expense worth it? If you like to see regularly-filmed movies shown a little bit bigger and a more power sound system, then yah, maybe it is. I wouldn't have said that when they were projecting film, though. So we'll see how this showing of Avatar goes.

A Warm Place to Take a Nap

2009-12-15T09:09:00.003-06:00

Day 1 with Kitty

2009-12-11T16:26:00.003-06:00

Kitty is a little tooter, I'll tell ya that. She is very playful...likes dangly toys more than rolly toys. She skitters across the floor back and forth. Right off the bat, if I would leave the living room, she would hide under the couch. When I'd come back and kneel down and tell her I was here and she would come out! She checked everything out cautiously, including my fireplace, where she got black soot on her nose. Ha ha. She is also quite the purr-er, which I LOVE!

We watched Fellowship of the Ring together, but I could tell sounds were kind of making her nervous, so I had it down more than normal. The heater coming on and just other house sounds still give her a little pause.

We started out the night with bedroom-only access. I moved the food, water, and litter in with me. She slept for about an hour in the crook of my arm. Then it was play time. Suddenly I heard her meow several times, so I turned on the light and she was laying a huge pile of poop down on the floor. Whoops! So even though I didn't really want to, I made her a little pallet in the bathroom, gave her a night light, and moved everything in there. This morning she was sleeping on the little pallet. I was worried that she didn't eat at all yesterday, but food was gone from the bowl this morning. :)

Most of the morning she sat with me and napped while I worked on the computer. She explores but only if I'm in the room. She now meows if she can't find me. Awwwww. I wanted to test being away from home for a short time, so I went out to lunch for about an hour. Nothing was amiss when I got back, but I'm sure she meowed a lot like she does when she can't find me.

As of afternoon, she hadn't used the litterbox yet...there's gotta be a little peepee somewhere. /sigh But I'm happy to say she just poopied in her box before I started typing this. And boy, does she pack a wallop! If she keeps going, maybe she'll earn full house privileges sooner than I hoped.

Thanks to everyone for the encouragement. It's fun and I'm happy, but also have some anxiety. I'll come with a name soon, I hope. I'm terrible at it. No seriously. But I do like to name based on personality and characteristics, so if you have suggestions, feel free to share.

Coming Home...Take Two

2009-12-10T14:57:00.004-06:00

Original Post:

About three weeks ago, I was meeting with a mentor and friend and the conversation evolved to how life was going. It's been pretty rough, to be honest. I've been in lower point for a season. It really stemmed from losing Scamper this past spring. I got stuck in a rut, tried to start filling what I thought I needed with things that weren't spiritually healthy. And when that is not healthy, nothing else is. I found myself not praying--not even wanting to, my relationships with friends became a little distant, and I could easily find myself trying to get a quick fix to being lonely. Contentment with what I was and had in life was something I had achieved, but when I lost Scamper, it escaped me. I wondered--still do--whether I really ever had it. Seems to me contentment is something that doesn't ebb and flow. It's like joy vs. happiness.

So my friend helped me by sending me some good short studies about how to put a stopper on temptations not by ignoring them, but by replacing them with good things. Long story short, my "assignment" was to get a pet. Have something to come home to. Something to give my attention. Something to build new, happy memories on the old ones that painfully linger. Everything he said made since and I knew it was good, sound advice. And with school wrapping up, it would be a good time for me to be able to stay at home for several days.

So a few weeks went by and the time for me to do this crept up on me. I started to talk myself out of it. Tried telling myself how nice it has been to not have to worry about pet hair/dander, friends who want to come over but are allergic, cleaning poop, and dealing with everything else that comes with a pet. It was beginning to be like my friend never said anything at all.

So today, I decided if I didn't go, I wouldn't. I went to the Little Rock Animal Shelter and viewed the cats, played with them a little, held a few. My only criteria was that I wanted a baby...as baby as I could get it. Optional but preferred things included it being a boy and I was leaning toward a grey color. Playful's a plus. And the volunteer mentioned she likes a purr-er. Me too! :D

The last time I went, I thought too hard and waited too long and got emotional and had to leave. I came to a decision pretty quickly this time and am happy--and yes, a bit anxious; even hesitant--to say this little guy is coming home with me tomorrow. (PICTURE REMOVED)

The shelter gave me a huge gift bag with toys, food samples, and a scratch pad! I was amazed! Tax dollars put to good use! Just kidding...it's all promotional stuff from pet companies, but I still greatly appreciate it.

Name will come soon; I like to name pets based on personality. So with that, he'll be home around 4 pm tomorrow!

NEW POST

So I was out to lunch with my parents and got a call from the vet at the animal shelter. Turned out the little kitten had Feline Immunodeficiency Virus...which is essentially cat AIDS. Unbelievable. I built up the strength and muster to go and this happens. And not only that, I found out they had to euthanize ALL the kittens in that cage (6-8 in all) because it is contagious. As they play, they scratch and bite...and the FIV could spread. Awful!

I went back up there fully expecting to just get a refund. But they encouraged me to go back and look. There were some more that were 6 weeks old...still wobbly and not particularly playful yet. But they were so cute that small. There was also a 12 week old girl who was pretty affectionate and playful. A little older than I was looking for, though. I asked the worker what it is that I would miss out on in getting a 12 week old over a 6 week old. He told me the younger would have to be kept in a bathroom with a litter box for a couple weeks for training. I guess that's a little too young, to be fair. So I ended up getting the 12 week old. She's already spayed and ready to come home.

This Is Why I Worked in Forensic Chemistry

2009-11-26T08:09:00.003-06:00

The following is a true story based on actual events that occurred on Thanksgiving Eve 2009.

Wednesday night is "Glee" night and my friend Kim comes over to watch. We get through another great episode and I mention that I have Star Trek and we agree to watch. But as I pop in the movie, she starts telling me about her downstairs neighbor. She mentioned how she thought it was odd that the door had been opened since she left for work that morning and that her mom remembers seeing the door open at 4 am when she got home from work.

An elderly couple used to live there, but in recent months, both have passed away. Their daughter had moved in with the mom, until the mom passed about a month ago. The daughter was apparently quite the alcoholic and would become very angry and have multiple outbursts. Kim and her mom remembers hearing the daughter yelling at apparently nobody about a week ago.

When Kim's mom went to work Tuesday afternoon around 2 pm, she recalls seeing the neighbor sitting on the floor in the doorway, but when she tried to wave, the woman ducked away. And as I said, when she came home from work, the door was open. This time the woman was reclining in her chair. Though odd the door was open at 4 am, she didn't stop to check because of the way the woman acted earlier. Not to mention the anger episodes she had been having.

Well, Kim goes to work around 8 am and comes home close to 5 pm and the door is still open and the open is still sitting in the chair. Now we are caught up to present and we're about to start Star Trek. I suggest we go check on her in case there is a medical emergency. She said her mom should be getting home right about then, so she calls her and asks if the door is still open, the same lights on, and if she is still sitting in the same chair. She said yes. With us on speaker phone, she goes down and knocks on the door and there's no response. I tell Kim we need to go over there and we do.

We get there and the woman is clearly not breathing. She is also very cold and stiff. 911 was called but it was unfortunately way too late. She was gone. I called one of our pastors because we were all kind of freaked out. The ambulance and fire truck arrive, followed by a lengthy wait for the police. They report multiple empty bottles of alcohol on the counter. She was also known to be diabetic. Yikes. Kim mentions that since the lady's mom passed, the daughter has pretty much been shut up in the apartment. With the door open and her body in view, it is not hard to imagine she wanted to be found. The police couldn't find any next-of-kin information. Detectives and coroners showed up and took statements. It was finally cleared out around midnight.

I'm irrationally creeped out by dead things, so I had my own freak out moment. And when I worked at the crime lab, I was always thankful that I didn't have to deal with that aspect of crime scenes. People would ask me all the time if I had to deal with bodies, but I always thankfully said that I only worked drug crime scenes. Walking up on something like that cannot easily be forgotten. Nor can the tragedy of the situation and the sad existence that came to this end. So today on Thanksgiving, I am thankful that I have a loving God who provides strength and significance, a loving and supportive family, and the best friends that can be had.

What's Popping in that Popcorn!

2009-11-24T13:19:00.003-06:00

I heard about and read a story this week in the LA Times informing consumers of the healthiness of movie popcorn. If you don't know about this study, you may find it shocking. Read on.

An average medium popcorn and soda is equivalent to eating three Quarter Pounders topped with 12 pats of butter!

One movie chain's medium popcorn contains 1,200 calories, 60 grams of saturated fat, and 980 milligrams of sodium. That does not include the butter. The source? Many theaters pop in coconut oil. Some are switching to canola.

When people complained about the unhealthiness of the movie snacks, one chain tried switching to air-popped popcorn. It didn't take long for sales to plummet because of complaints about taste, and the theater return to their old methods. So what do you do?

On a side note, there is a debate about which is more detrimental when popping popcorn in a microwave at home. The carcinogens in the bag or the unhealthiness of the product...

My opinion? Most people don't visit the movie daily or even regularly...so it is not like it is a constant consumption. Treat yourself when you go!

In Memory of Uncle Orville Sutton

2009-11-10T18:39:00.004-06:00

Life has the habit of shifting your relationships. Those high school or college friends who you would never lose contact with are rarely called anymore. Friends who move away and promise you'll always keep in touch....eventually it fizzles out. As a child, I was closer to my extended family than I have been since college. And so most of my fond memories come from that time. My mom and I lived in a Dallas suburb and traveled to Searcy, AR--her hometown--regularly each year to visit relatives. (Funny that all those times crossing over the Arkansas River on I-30 and straining to see the capitol, I never thought in my wildest dreams I'd be living here one day.) The first thing we *always* did upon reaching town was to stop at Uncle Orville's shop in the back of an outdoors store in downtown Searcy. Uncle Orville repaired guns there. Mom and him would chat for a while as I eyed all the grimy tools and machinery he used to do his work. Then we'd make our way to Aunt Mary's (my mom and his sister). Eventually, we would visit Uncle Orville and Aunt Imagene again at their house near Sidon. Sure they didn't have a lot, but he made it enough. His kids, Matt and Aaron, took me on many outdoor adventures...good old country boys through and through. And we'd go running together when our mischief got a little past what he wanted. I'd even stay the night with them on occasion, on those trips.

I guess my greatest thoughts of the ways Uncle Orville lived was that he valued hard work and respect. He took his family to a little church down the road. He'd often be working in his garden out front of his home when we would arrive. And he always had his pipe in hand. His influence stretched across all aspects of our family...his kids, his nephews and nieces, and beyond. He was a good man who lived on great values and left that legacy to everyone he came in contact with.

I'm Walking on Sunshine?

2009-10-29T07:47:00.002-05:00

This is about the most dramatic weather bulletin I've ever seen...concerning rain. I saw a stat that said the longest we've gone this year without rain is 8 days. Wow! Well here is the imminent doom set before us for the next 48 hours. I've bolded my personal favorites that seem particularly ominous and dramatic. You've been warned.

..MAJOR HEAVY RAINFALL EVENT EXPECTED TODAY AND FRIDAY OVER MUCH OF ARKANSAS... ...PREPARATIONS TO PROTECT LIFE AND PROPERTY SHOULD BE COMPLETED AS SOON AS POSSIBLE... MOISTURE HAS BEGIN INCREASING FROM THE SOUTH THIS MORNING...AS A POTENT STORM SYSTEM HEADS TOWARD THE MID SOUTH FROM THE WEST. WIDESPREAD SHOWERS AND ISOLATED THUNDERSTORMS WILL CONTINUE TO DEVELOP...AND SPREAD NORTHWARD INTO ARKANSAS THIS MORNING.

SEVERAL UPPER LEVEL SYSTEMS WILL MOVE THROUGH THE REGION OUT AHEAD OF AN APPROACHING SLOW-MOVING FRONTAL BOUNDARY. THE SYSTEMS WILL INTERACT WITH THE SLOW FRONT...AND THIS WILL ALLOW FOR SEVERAL WAVES OF MODERATE TO HEAVY RAINFALL TO OCCUR ACROSS A LARGE PART OF ARKANSAS TODAY THROUGH FRIDAY NIGHT. FOR THIS REASON...A FLASH FLOOD WATCH HAS BEEN ISSUED FOR A LARGE PART OF ARKANSAS THIS AFTERNOON THROUGH SATURDAY MORNING. AS MUCH AS 5 TO 7 INCHES OF RAIN IS EXPECTED IN PORTIONS OF CENTRAL AND SOUTHERN ARKANSAS TODAY THROUGH LATE FRIDAY NIGHT. THE HEAVIEST RAIN WILL OCCUR IN AREAS MAINLY ALONG A LINE FROM SALEM...TO LITTLE ROCK...TO CAMDEN. IN AREAS EAST AND WEST OF THIS LINE...AMOUNTS OF 3 TO 5 INCHES WILL BE COMMON...WITH ISOLATED TOTALS APPROACHING 6 INCHES.

NEAR-RECORD RAIN HAS FALLEN DURING THE MONTH OF OCTOBER IN A LARGE PART OF ARKANSAS. THERE HAS BEEN VERY LITTLE TIME FOR ANY SIGNIFICANT DRYING...WITH THE GROUND SO SATURATED. MANY STREAMS... CREEKS...AND RIVERS ARE ABOVE NORMAL LEVELS FOR LATE OCTOBER...WITH SEVERAL POINTS ALONG THE WHITE...CACHE AND OUACHITA RIVERS ABOVE FLOOD STAGE. THERE WILL SIMPLY BE NOWHERE FOR THE WATER TO GO. WITH ALL THE EXPECTED RAINFALL...AGRICULTURAL IMPACTS WILL BE LIKELY. MANY LOW-LYING ROADS WILL BE FLOODED...AND LOW WATER CROSSINGS WILL BE IMPASSABLE. STREAMS THAT HAVE A TENDENCY TO RISE RAPIDLY DURING PERIODS OF HEAVY RAINFALL WILL TEND TO FLOOD THE QUICKEST.

ANYONE CAMPING ALONG THE BANKS OF A STREAM OR RIVER... PARTICULARLY IN CENTRAL AND EASTERN ARKANSAS SHOULD MAKE PLANS TO LEAVE AS SOON AS POSSIBLE OR AT LEAST MOVE TO HIGHER GROUND. COMMUTERS DURING THE EVENING DRIVE ON TODAY AND THE MORNING DRIVE FRIDAY SHOULD BE ESPECIALLY CAUTIOUS. IF YOU DRIVE ACROSS AREAS NEAR BODIES OF WATER SUSCEPTIBLE TO FLOODING...MAKE PLANS FOR AN ALTERNATE ROUTE. PLEASE STAY INFORMED BY MONITORING THE LATEST FORECASTS AND INFORMATION FROM YOUR LOCAL NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE. BE PREPARED TO TAKE ACTION IF A WARNING IS ISSUED...YOUR LIFE MAY DEPEND ON IT.

A Dramatic Week

2009-10-03T11:18:00.006-05:00

Friday-Sunday: Looking back, at least the week started out on a high note. My best friends and I went on our 2nd annual camping/float trip in Gilbert, AR.

View Larger Map

We stayed on that white "beach" area just off the road leading to the river. The mild summer and high rain falls had the river up and we were worried the sandbar wouldn't be there, but it was. We went on the longest float this year. It was supposed to take 6-8 hours. The river was so swift, we got done in 4 hours. That was with a few stops to chill, eat, etc. Oh yes, did I mention we came uncomfortably close to stepping on a snake? We saw a cave in the rocks and wanted to climb up to it. Not 10 steps on the shore and Michael goes running the opposite direction, me right behind him. The other guys said they heard it hiss. I didn't, but had I, I might of passed out on the spot. Luckily, I only saw about 1 inch of it and ran. I'm getting nauseous thinking about it, so moving on...

We ended up getting back in time for the other guys to listen to the Razorback game on the radio. It was a beautiful weekend. Couldn't ask for anything better. Well, the country restaurant we got the fabled rooster bullet was closed...that was very disappointing. But overall we had a great time and it was nice to get away. Here's some more photos, taken by my friend Daniel.

Monday: We join a story already in progress. You see, a while back, someone backed into my truck at the school's parking lot. And they didn't leave a note. I finally decided I should get it repaired. The driver side bumper was bent and pushed in the side panel and popped out the light. I was told it would be a two day repair. Monday represented day 7. Apparently the original $800 estimate was off as there was more damage underneath than originally seen. The problem was the supplemental paperwork didn't get transferred and for three days my truck just sat there not getting worked on. In the meantime, I got a car from Enterprise that was chained smoked in, despite their no smoking policy. I got a 2nd car, but my insurance made me give it back since I went out of town for the weekend. The third car I got was nice though. On day 12--that being Friday, Oct. 2--I finally got my truck back.

Tuesday: I recently upgraded to the new operating system on my Mac, Snow Leopard. I also purchased my own license of Final Cut Studio and installed it. After doing these things, and cleaning up some system files, I noticed I was 20 GB of hard drive space down, which was completely unreasonable. I'd been having enough quirks with Snow Leopard that I decided to reinstall it cleanly--meaning a full wipe and start over. So I ran Time Machine to back up my files and took my system to work on Tuesday to let the installers run while I worked. I wiped the HD, installed Snow Leopard, and went to grab my files from the back up. Except the back up folder was not whole. For whatever reason, about 2-3 folders deep into the file tree, Time Machine stopped saving. So, for example, the folder tree for music is: Music > iTunes > [artist folder] > [album name] > [songs]. The back up stopped at the artist folder. No music. Same for documents and photos. Anything saved in a folder was gone. Mildly panicking!

I was on the phone with Apple immediately. He had nothing. He helped me restore my iTunes purchases from my phone, but all music from CDs (when I still used to buy them) could not be transferred. I got on forums and discovered I could retrieve my music and photos (many sentimental ones, particularly of my cats and family) from my AppleTV. Except it is not a simple transfer; you have to break into it--voiding the warranty--and connect the hard drive to the Mac as an external USB device. So I took it up to church and Leslie helped me do just that. I retrieved it all back. In the end I lost documents in folders and some old photos, but they were things I hadn't opened or looked at in years, so I wasn't too upset.

Thursday: Once again, in what seems to occur every semester, I had to face two students cheating on an exam by taking it together. I've become very hardened to this sort of thing. Two years ago, I was so nervous about having to deal with it, my voice would be shaking, my hands trembling, my mouth dry... In fact, funny story...the first time I had to do it, the students came back in tears, apologizing profusely because they could hear the anger in my voice. The thing is, it wasn't anger...it was nervousness! Ha! Well, whatever...it worked. One student fessed up after I presented the evidence. The other was completely flippant and left never really thinking she did anything wrong and saying "it just sucks because everyone does it, but I'm the one that got caught." Greaaaaaat. After fuming for a while and stalking around the building for more potential problems, I just came to the realization that I have as much security in place as I can reasonably put, and if students want to cheat, they are going to. The fact is, it WILL catch up to them one day.

Friday: This is the day I got my truck back. While I was going to pick it up, a friend texted me to apologize for something that happened a couple days ago. A 2-day-later, text apology didn't really sit well with me, so I wrongly sent a terse reply back. That just set things off and we ended up going back and forth and some underlying issues came out. I hate it when this kind of things happen. I wish I was a better person when it comes to dealing with tough things like this. /sigh Oh well, we'll survive.

That catches you up. Today's agenda: Notre Dame football at 2:30 and the Dallas Stars season opener at 7 pm! YESSSSSSS! Hm, may try to sneak some Geocaching in too; too nice of a day to let it waste.

It's Over My Head

2009-09-11T14:06:00.003-05:00

Lost for the words to say
I'm left here in disarray
Waiting for You, waiting on truth
I've thrown reason overboard
Knowing that there's still more
I don't yet believe, I can't even perceive
I can't seem to understand
Can't seem to find my way
It's over my head, it's over my head

Learning this mystery
Trust what I cannot see
It's over my head, it's over my head

The wonder of all You've made
Foundations Your hands have laid
Bringing me back to my knees, to my knees
I'm lost for the words to say
Lost for another way
Bringing me back to my knees, to my knees
I'm lost for the words to say
Lost for another way

Ruined for anything other than Your love
I'm desperate to know You, Lord
Desperate for what's in store
Finding my hope in only You, in only You
Take me beyond this door
Lead me to something more
Open my heart up for more of You, more of You

-Starfield, "Over My Head"

Baseball!

2009-09-03T10:19:00.006-05:00

I can honestly say one of the best purchases I made in the past year was the mini-season ticket plan for the Arkansas Travelers. I absolutely LOVE going out to Dickey-Stevens park! I bought a 10-game package with my friends and pastor Larry and Wanda Remington. We had great seats behind home plate. Though the Travs didn't have a spectacular record this year (tied for last at the time of this posting), it is fun to watch. I always take my trusty scorebook--something of a hobby I guess.

I'd say the only thing that really gets on my nerves is the amount of advertising we are subjected to at the park. Between every pitch, it seems, and definitely every inning, everything possible is sponsored by someone. Foul balls that get hit out of the park are sponsored by a windshield repair company, strike-outs by a bank, fly outs by a restaurant at the River Market...I wouldn't be surprised if pitch counts started getting sponsored! "That 2-2 pitch is brought to you by...." Bleh!

Well, I did take advantage of ONE promotion during the season. Every game I entered to try and win a seat upgrade. They have two nice, reclining chairs right behind home plate. I think it was our 6th or 7th game of the season and I finally won!

But I think the highlight of the season was Tuesday. As the promotional announcer guy (named Lance) walked by, I flagged him down and asked if my two friends could play the dizzy bat game. He said they already had a pair picked out, but asked if we wanted to clean the bases. WHAT?!?! Hecks yah! So in the 5th inning, when the field crew sweeps the infield dirt, we got to go out with some HUGE toothbrushes and scrub the bases! I really wanted to try to catch my favorite player and shake his hand, but he had already made it out to center field and I chickened out speaking to an infielder. I don't know why...they were busy warming up and stuff. LOL.

I had my friend video it with my iPhone. No zoom, so I'm a little speck on 2nd base...but it's fun to watch. Click this link: Cleaning the Bases!

Another Rant About Email Etiquette

2009-08-15T12:53:00.003-05:00

You've heard me fuss about email before...spam, forwards, reply-to-all...I'm adding another one to the list. CC'ing people into the middle of a one-on-one discussion. OMG, where do I begin.

Before I tell you the present story, let me mention some past occurrences. My first point is that, as the director, I feel like I've been entrusted to make decisions and solve problems. I was hired, so I must have made the impression that I am capable of doing this. And I feel like I do a pretty good job. I'm open, I listen, I gather the facts...then I make a decision. In other words, I like to be able to handle things on my level. I feel like upper management (above me) is generally interested in the fact that the problem got solved to the benefit of the organization. The day-to-day workings and conversations not so much. Simply that it got worked out.

Soon after I was hired, there were many transition snags and fresh methodology. Problems arose; it has to be expected. In one such case, I was emailing with a person back and forth for a while, coming up with a plan when suddenly in the CC field appeared the head of the school's name. Say what? We were handling the situation just fine, but before it reached its conclusion, the big boss was brought into the middle of it. So now we have to bring her up to speed, which takes more time and frankly, wastes time. To me, when the solution is reached, then we can let her know and see if she approves.

Sorry but CC'ing someone in like that is the electronic version of tattling. It's unprofessional, inconsiderate, and certainly not amiable.

So to today's story. A couple weeks ago I had to make an unforeseen schedule change to our curriculum. Unfortunately, the instructor assigned could no longer teach the course so the chairman was then tasked with finding someone else. I was very apologetic and explained why it happened. Fine. Today he emails me to say he has an instructor, that it was very difficult, and he was frustrated by not having any information to give her.

He CC'ed this to the Vice President of Instruction and the President of the college. W...T...F... In both cases, I feel slightly offended personally. By interrupting our conversation to bring in someone else, it makes me feel like they don't think I'm performing adequately and they need to let the bosses know.

I've grown so tired of this petty "look what he made me do; I've got to let the higher ups know" crap, I called him out on it. And yes, I clicked reply-to-all. I made it very clear--again--why it occurred, thanked him for working so hard, and showed my gratitude that everything will work out to the benefit of the students. I also questioned why he felt he needed to bring in the heads of the school to a solved situation and that I'm sure they'll be happy to know we worked it out. I also told him I find it much more amiable (I like that word) to handle our local problems on our level.

So folks, just stop and think before you click that Send button. Seriously...

What's Crack-a-lacking? ME!!!

2009-08-09T14:04:00.002-05:00

If you follow me on Twitter, you may recall I was bedridden a couple months back from a pulled neck muscle. The truth is, I've been going to a massage therapist for about a year now, on a regular basis, to try and loosen up that region. It feels great! But I just didn't feel like it was treating the source of the problem. A friend was going to a chiropractor and so I started thinking about it. Won't bore you with the "checking the insurance and information" details...suffice to say I went last Friday.

I really do think I'm getting the right treatment now. I wish I could have videoed what he did to me from my iPhone. He felt around my spine for a bit then took some observations. Then he started describing the symptoms I would be experiencing based on what he was feeling and seeing. He nailed it! I mean the tension headaches, the tight shoulders, the slightly forward way I hold my head...etc etc etc. Apparently my first and second vertebra are turned slightly, but in different directions. My thoracic region is slightly flattened, and my hips aren't level. Geez!

Okay so the treatment starts. If you've never been, let me try to describe it. The doctor has you lay in different positions, places a majority of his weight on you, then without warning, snaps your head around. I was seriously and literally thinking to myself that I had walked for the last time. I just knew I'd be leaving paralyzed. Thankfully, that wasn't the case. But I've never experienced the combination of fear and relief at the same time. The combination is tantalizingly pleasing, like odd food combinations. I was definitely sore the rest of the day, and I have four weeks--at two times a week--to go.

He gave me some pointers about where to position my computer screen (because again, he knew it was sitting too low) and told me to ditch my wallet and go with a front pocket version. That's hard to do because as long as I've had a wallet, it's been in the back right pocket. Guys, you know how it is. Everything has a pocket. Keys and chapstick in the the right; iPhone in the left; wallet in the back. When my hand doesn't feel it there, I'm in immediate panic mode. Still getting used to it.

I'm definitely looking forward to this...these daily tension headaches are the worst! Actually...I haven't had one since Friday!

How to Turn Around a Bad Day

2009-08-06T09:54:00.003-05:00

It's no surprise that August is about the most stressful time of year for me. This year is no exception. Enrollment is in full swing. Couple that with trying to hire a new full-time instructor--a first time experience for me--and it has been a long few weeks.

This year enrollment is BOOMING. I have traditionally scheduled about 120 seats in my classes here. Two days ago, I got final numbers and learned 200 students are coming! For the last two days, I've scrambled and had conversation after conversation with a dozen people to figure out how to create new classes, when they can be held, where they will be held, and who will teach them.

During this fiasco, I also had to finally tell one of my long-term part-time instructors he didn't get the new full-time position. That was pretty rough because he really wanted it. I got home that night and had a letter from the city that parking wouldn't be allowed on my street anymore due to "complaints and emergency vehicle access." Okay, I don't necessarily care about that but it just FELT like bad news after my day. And if it means my neighbors are going to start parking in their lawn more, then that will cause me to be pissy.

After that, I went to the gym, as typical, with Daniel. Pushed myself a little too hard on leg press and started feeling sick. I mean, no color in my face nauseous. I sat in the locker room and knew that the only thing that would make me feel better is, you guessed it, to throw up. So I did. I can't STAND throwing up...but I did it.

Well, the next day was a little better. The schedule started coming together, but was still stressful. It's been a long week. I got home and decided randomly that I wanted to make one of my "signature" things...so I made a chocolate creme brulee pie and took it to the Johnsons down the street. They were so surprised and grateful! It made me smile, which was really needed after two days of hectic stress. When I got home, I realized that was really a God moment. The only way to take the focus off my own troubles and stress was to do something kind for someone else. And it really did work!

My First Geocaching

2009-07-10T18:21:00.008-05:00

I was watching a podcast a couple of weeks ago and they had a segment where the hosts went out "geocaching". Geocaching is sort of like a treasure hunt for people with GPS units. Someone has hidden a container (could be small or large) with a logbook in it and most likely some trinkets. The goal is to go to the coordinates and find the cache based on their description. Hints are usually provided, as well, although they are encrypted at first.

Now before you read further, if you have any aspirations of doing this and will be searching in the west Little Rock area, my story will probably contains spoilers to the whereabouts of the caches.

I gathered up a couple of friends (Alex and Joel) and we went out with our trusty iPhone 3GS's. Our first stop was at a cache near Barnes and Noble on Chenal Pkwy. I didn't want to decrypt the hint at first, so we were looking in the bushes and around light poles. The GPS showed it near the road at the end of the parking lot. I gave in and we looked at the clue which said "this should enLIGHTen you". Okay so we start looking at light poles again and even at the traffic light poles. The parking lot poles have plastic covers near the base that I notice can be lifted up. Sure enough, our first cache find! We signed the log feeling rather accomplished already.

Next stop was a cache at Krispy Kreme. We nervously walked around the building as a worker was outside talking on the phone. After a full circuit, we looked at the hint. As we searched the worker looked at us funny, then asked "are yall here for the geocache?" We said yes but not to tell us. Eventually we found it. And it was very cool! In fact, it had what's called a trackable item in it. The idea is to take the object and move it to another cache. Some of them even have destination goals. This one said it wants to end up in a place where music is big. The object was a guitar. So we took it with plans to hide it in another.

Our next stop was a nice community called Woodland's Edge. The difficult rating was 3/5, but having found two caches, we felt ready for the challenge. Well, we weren't. Lupka's hoping it is just not there any more. Defeated, we left. A cemetery cache caught our eye and boy was it in a strange location. Located just behind the Heart Hospital, this very small, fenced area is a family plot of some kind. The stones that could still be read had death dates in the early 1900's.

At this point, Lupka and I both decide to fork out the $10 for the iPhone app. It made things so much easier than switching between the website and Google Earth. The GPS tracking was MUCH better, too.

Next up was one near Baptist Hospital. The description said "wear long pants because it is pretty overgrown here". Well we were all in shorts and basically bushwacked out way through some thorns and stickers. Not finding it we tried working our way back to the parking lot. Joel stumbled across it, fortunately. We dropped off the guitar in this cache. (Later I would find out that we had to have a tracking number off the guitar to log it as moved on the website. So I gotta go back to this cache pretty soon to get the code off it in order to update its location.)

Our final find of the day was at the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission. Pretty easy find. Again, this had a couple of trackable items in it. Lupka and I each took one. At that point we decided we wanted to make a cache. So we went to Wal-mart and got a water-tight container. We threw some objects in there and a logbook and hid it near the lake by Lupka's house. We're still waiting for approval from the website for it to be active, but we can't wait for people to start finding it and putting objects of their own in there. We dropped off the trackable items from the Game and Fish cache in ours, too.

So we were 5 of 6 on the day and created one. Pretty fun afternoon. I could definitely see doing this regularly....cuz when we pulled up the Little Rock area map, there are HUNDREDS here alone, waiting to be found!

Locked Out

2009-07-04T14:50:00.003-05:00

The perfect storm. That's the only thing I can liken to what happened to me today. I'm outside working in my flowerbed, pulling weeds and such, and need to pop back inside for a second for whatever reason it was. Picture it: I pull the storm door open and the suction created by that action pulls the door closed, which I had left barely cracked open. I go to push on the door handle...it doesn't move. That's right, it's locked.

This particular lock is one in which I do not have a key. The seller did not have or leave one. I've never used it. I had changed all the deadbolts and other door handles out. I would have changed this decorative handle except I couldn't find one just like it. Getting something else would leave unpainted holes and such in the door...it was just never worth the trouble. The inside part of the handle's locking mechanism is fairly loose...sometimes just pushing down on the lever on the outside can cause it to turn into the locked position. So I've become rather conscious of making sure it is turned to the unlocked position and/or I just leave the door slightly cracked.

Now review the sentence about the suction created by the storm door. And just like that I was locked out. Now I'm a reasonably smart guy. And cautious in many ways. I have a contingency plan for just such a situation! No, I don't have a hidden key on my property, but rather I gave a friend a key to keep. Except this friend just happens to be in Illinois this week.

It's in the mid-90's as I walk around the house to see if any of my uber-security windows just happens to be unlatched. Of course not. As I said, I'm cautious--nay, even a bit paranoid--about my safety. Garage door is down, but that wouldn't matter because I deadbolt the door inside anyway.

It's a holiday. Locksmiths are charging double their trip rate. My insurance company is closed. So I call a friend and neighbor, Mike. He comes down and tries the credit card trick for a while, but it doesn't work. He takes out some of the weather stripping to get better access. Nothing doing. Starts taking apart the frame of the door for even better access, but the construction is such that it would just take too much.

So I called my mom in Searcy. She can't get away to even meet half-way (in Cabot) at the moment. She said it would be 2-3 hours. Okay, now I'm really nervous because my ticket to the Traveler's game/fireworks is inside and if I have to wait that long, I don't think I'll make it. But she calls back a few minutes later and says she can meet us. My good buddy Daniel drives me there and back, and now I sit back inside my house typing this incredibly lame story.

FAIL!

A WTF kind of day...

2009-06-23T13:27:00.003-05:00

The past 16 hours of my life have been completely bizarre. Let me regale you as the rain falls outside in the bright sunshine. (Ahh, summer heat showers...) Around 4 pm yesterday, my friend Daniel made me an energy drink, which I drank. Flash forward to bedtime, around 10 pm. I start to read, as usual, and do so for about 30 minutes before falling asleep. 15 minutes later my eyes pop back open. I toss for a bit, but every time my mind starts to slip off to sleep, something rather like a fail-safe jolts me back awake. I give up, turn the light back on, and continue reading. For 2 hours... Let me tell you that energy drink packed a wallop. I didn't feel sleepy until about 1 am, which is finally when the pages of the book I was reading started to blur. Not to mention that during that time, I had to pee 3 times!

About 4 am I woke up again but this time for a literal jolt...of pain in my neck. From my right shoulder blade to my upper neck, every movement, toss, or turn sent a shock of pain across me. For the rest of my sleep I tried to stay still, but turning happens and I would wake back up from the pain. When it was finally time to get up, I could barely lift my head up the pain in my neck/shoulder muscle (also called the trapezius) hurt so bad. I immediately took ibuprofen and told myself if it didn't get better I was going to the doctor. That's how bad it hurts! I don't go to the doctor. Not because I'm against them, but because I hate my insurance and have to shell out $400 before they even begin to pay anything.

I end up just going to work because sitting at home is doing nothing. No position is comfortable. Tried laying down, but to get back up just made it hurt worse. I call the doctor and get in for an 11 am appointment. In the meantime, the tension is growing in my neck tremendously from having to hold my head up.

I'm at the doctor's office and he's looking over my chart. I've been having neck tension for a while but can usually stretch it out. He said I must have tweaked it in my restless sleep from the energy drink. He suggests a muscle relaxer shot, a prescription, and possibly physical therapy!!!! WHAT?!? OMG, that shot was painful. But wait...there's more. As he skims through my history, he asked why I didn't have a physical last year. Just didn't, I say. He then points out that I have a history of low white blood cell count, also known medically as leukopenia. He asks if he can have it checked again. I'm there...why not. Go in for neck pain; leave with leukopenia. All in a day's work.

So far the shot has given me a little more range of motion. The Flexeril is kicking in...but neither are taking away the throb of holding my head up. So I'm gonna get off here and try to a comfortable position. Not likely....

Movie Trailers

2009-06-18T14:49:00.004-05:00

There's nothing like a good movie trailer to get you hyped up for a great story or a visually overwhelming experience on the silver screen. But I've come to realize that trailers are "damned if you do and damned if you don't." (Sorry to those I just made choke with my verbiage.) Seriously. You want to see them to see what the movie is going to be about. Sometimes, that's the only way I even KNOW about the movie.

The problem is trailers also tend to spoil the best parts of the movie, in which the movie ends up being a huge disappointment. You expect more of what you saw in the trailer, but all you get is what you saw in the trailer itself.

Two recent examples that were guilty of this: "Knowing" and "X-Men Origins: Wolverine". The first movie was about predicting all these disasters that were happening and starred Nicolas Cage. There were like four major things in the trailer that we saw, including an airplane crash and the apparent annihilation of New York City. And guess how many disasters the movie had? Yup...four. As the movie led up to the climactic event--the script told the viewer there was only one left--well we hadn't seen the NYC disaster yet so you immediately knew it was coming. You know they aren't going to stop it. No suspense.

Wolverine was the same way. All those cool mutants we've been dying to see that were never included in the original trilogy? Yah, pretty much what you see of them in the trailer is what you get in the movie. Including the fan-demanded and highly popular character Gambit. That's it. No more. Literally seconds worth of cameo.

That brings me to this simply incredible, spectacular trailer of the upcoming movie "2012". Playing on the myth that the Mayan calendar ends in 2012 and thus spells the end of everything, Roland Emmerich (Independence Day, Day After Tomorrow) creates his next big end-of-the-world movie. I hope it doesn't suck like Day After Tomorrow. I also hope these eye-popping shots of this trailer aren't all we get. View at your own risk, I guess.

The Life of a Gamer

2009-06-02T15:09:00.004-05:00

E3, the biggest video game conference of the year where all major brands present their newest, best, and most innovative products, is in full swing. Been keeping an eye on it, being a pretty big gaming fan. *Glosses over World of Warcraft addiction mentioned heretofore in this blog.*

So to recap things that interested me:

X-Box: Not an owner of one, but their announcement of "Natal", a motion-sensor device, seems to trump anything the Wii has done for motion controllers. This thing can sense your movements and recognize your face to log in to XBox Live, among other things they showed. You hold nothing. They also announced that their game library will eventually become completely downloadable.

Nintendo: Easily the most boring announcements. Whoopee, a device that monitors your pulse! And then more of the same games...Super Mario Galaxy 2, Wii Fit Plus, etc. Okay, Metroid might be okay. But I don't have a Wii and won't be getting one, so /shrug.

Playstation: One of my personally most beloved games and RPGs (role-playing game, for you noobs) is Final Fantasy VII. It was on the original Playstation and they announced it is now available for download on the PS3! When they said that, I wanted to run home that moment and get it! They showed some footage of the newest Final Fantasy, #13. Can't wait for this. But then the shocker came when they announced Final Fantasy 14, which will be an MMO (massively multiplayer online game...again for the noobs out there. In other words, it's like World of Warcraft.) There is a current FF online game, #11, but it was so-so and I didn't play it. Then they announced their version of a...wait for it...motion controller. It looks like a rectangle with a glowing ball on top. But the tracking motion demonstrated is arguably the best of the three major system. So Sony one-ups Microsoft who one-upped Nintendo. Still, ho-hum. I'm not all about flailing around to play games. The new PSP Go looks pretty cool, but I'm not really into hand-held gaming. All games will become downloadable for this platform, too.

Miscellaneous: There was coverage of the new Star Wars MMO, The Old Republic. It will be the first online game to feature totally fully voiced characters and players. The game trailer they showed is simply un-freaking-believable. Watch it right now. Seriously. How I wish the prequel movies had been more like this trailer! I really will want to try this game...though I'm sure my friends will have something to say about that, given my aforementioned WoW addiction. But then there's Final Fantasy 14...gosh...what to c choose! Will have to keep an eye on HOW the game will be played. Don't want to get bogged down in a same-style game as WoW. Of course, if they aren't on a Mac, well forget it. And I will be needing a better video card, but I plan to upgrade next spring anyway. Those games won't be out by then.

One final thought: With games becoming fully downloadable, I would expect some conversation on these gaming sites to be about price, but I haven't seen any chatter. Seems to me if the middle-man is being cut out (Best Buy, Amazon.com, etc), they can lower the price a bit for a direct download. Yah right, like developers will do that!

Okay, well there. Thank you for letting me nerd out for a bit.

Paranoia

2009-05-21T15:22:00.002-05:00

Admittedly, I watch my fair share of TV and movies. But I don't think what happened to me today is entertainment-based paranoia. Let me explain.

I'm pulling out of the school's parking lot today and a red SUV is behind me. He (or she) turns left onto Bowman behind me. That's fine. 50/50 shot there. Get to Kanis. I turn left. He turns left. Now my eyebrow is raised in suspicion. Okay stop here. Who really thinks they are being followed just because of these facts I've told so far? I mean, I wasn't fully serious about my consideration of being followed, to be honest. Until...

Going down Kanis, I turn on Point West. Red SUV turns on Point West. Now I'm serious about thinking I'm being followed. So I turn onto Point West Loop and book it around the loop. As I round the curve to get out of sight of the red SUV, they suddenly stop IN THE MIDDLE OF THE INTERSECTION! Who does that? Only people that don't know which way to turn because they've LOST THE PERSON THEY ARE FOLLOWING!

I make it to my street and enter my garage, shutting the door immediately. Peering out the windows I never see the mysterious vehicle.

You may think I'm nuts...but given the couple of students I've had to deal with in the closing weeks of school taken together with the smallest percent chance someone leaving at the exact same time I am lives in the exact same neighborhood, one can never be too careful.

TG(i)F: Trolley Good Friday

2009-05-11T10:07:00.005-05:00

This story is funny enough to tell, but I hope it comes across as humorous as having experienced it. So Friday night, my BFF's Johnny and Michael were going to go to a Travs game. We get there and the parking lots are full so we drive down to Main St. and park next to Creegan's Irish Pub. We walk down to the field and it looks packed, but about that time a pilot friend of Johnny's calls and says he's laid-over in town and at the Flying Fish. So Johnny asks if it would be alright to skip the game and go meet up. Michael and I give him crap about it as we walk back to our cars.

We decide to ride the trolley over to the Rivermarket. As it is coming, we notice the sign says that we need correct change. I happen to have a dollar but the other boys don't. So as the trolley is pulling in, Michael hauls it down to his car to get quarters. We get on and the trolley heads in the opposite direction we need. We end up looping around North Little Rock. Along the way, we see our friend John Willis at his job and wave. We arrive back to where we got on the trolley and head across the river to the Rivermarket.

Johnny decides he's not sure if the trolley actually goes down to the Flying Fish, so we get off as soon as we cross the river. As we walk, the trolley passes us, arriving next to the Flying Fish before we do. Nice. Did I mention it is steamy humid out? Arriving to the restaurant, the place is packed with a line out the door. There's no way we can squeeze in to meet his friend. So Johnny calls him up and says we'll meet him next door at the Saucer. But wait! It's closed for a private party. Guy at the door says go down and to the left for the "other door". So we do. It's a dead-end alley with no door. Jerk.

Michael and I decide Johnny is no longer in charge and we decide to head back to Creegan's. Back to the trolley--oh wait, we don't have correct change again. Guess we're hoofing it all the way back to NLR. Michael suggests the new walking bridge (that used to be the old railroad bridge). We get there and it is still under construction. So we have to walk up past the State Convention Center and cross the driving bridge. Michael is complaining the whole way about not liking to sweat, while I'll complain about having hiked across the two cities in flip-flops. Poor Johnny. Well we arrive back to NLR exactly where the evening started out and spend the rest of the evening at Creegan's. And that was pretty much the craziest guy's night we've had to date. But dang, Creegan's has some good appetizers and it has a touch of class the Rivermarket lacks. Too bad we just didn't start and stay there. Ha ha.

Good story.

Apropos

2009-05-06T17:50:00.005-05:00

The age of creating mixes for the purposes of wooing a significant other are over, thankfully, but that doesn't mean the perfect song doesn't come along. I guess I'm still in some state of grief over the loss of Scamper. The denial is mostly over but I've moved into a questioning phase. Basically, I take it a day at a time and keep occupied with other things. Trying to find my way back to regular living, if you will. And that's where the lyrics of a song by Red called "Ordinary World" come in.

Barring the fact the artist is talking about a lost love--as in a person--the first verse and chorus still strike me to my core as describing the state I'm pretty much in.

Came in from a rainy Thursday on the avenue,
thought I heard you talking softly.
I turned on the lights, the TV, and the radio,
but still I can't escape the ghost of you.

What is happening to me, crazy, some would say.
Where is the life that I recognize, gone away.

And I won't cry for yesterday--
there's an ordinary world, somehow, I have to find.
And as I try to make my way to the ordinary world,
I will learn to survive.

Coca-Cola

2009-04-28T11:25:00.005-05:00

Anyone who has been to my house knows I'm going with a Coca-Cola themed kitchen. Yes, I'm a guy and I have a theme. Let's move past that now.

A while back I went antiquing and got some old replica trays, bottle openers, accessories, and a vintage wooden bottle case. Those products are now proudly displayed on my walls. Well, I decided it is time to add some more so I went to E-bay. Found some pretty cool stuff. First are some nifty potholders:

I held on to that bid for 3 days. Then there were 3 minutes left and I got outbid, so I waited until there was 15 seconds left and upped my bid and won them still at a pretty reasonable price.

What I was really excited about was finding a miniature replica set of Coca-Cola bottles and this cool belt buckle. Well, the sad part is I didn't win either. Both of them got crazy expensive...over $40 I think it was. A little good news is I found the exact same bottle set on the official Coca-Cola store for $25. The belt buckle was a loss though. Maybe one will come up again.

A couple other interesting pieces were some old coaster with the advertising scheme they used in throughout the 30's-50's and a sign to advertise Coke for sale. I won both and they'll nicely supplement the other displays on my wall.

Thank You and Update

2009-04-21T10:15:00.005-05:00

I wanted to take a second this morning and thank my friends and family. These past couple of weeks have been some of the hardest--if not THE hardest--I've ever faced. I have felt everyone's love and encouragement and prayer in an unexplainable way. God has truly surrounded me with the best relationships and He is truly with me, despite my miserable failings every day.

I know there is not much one can say to help the situation, but I want you to know your presence is enough. I wanted to share a few wonderful examples. Sunday (Easter) I went to church then immediately left for Searcy. The pain was still very fresh. When it was time to come back to Little Rock, I pulled up to my house but could not go in. The silence was deafening in my house. So I walked down to my neighbor (and more importantly...friends) Daniel and Gabe's house. As I finally came to terms with having to go home I walked back and my friend Zak was in the driveway, waiting for me. He was an answered prayer...to walk into my house with me and just hang out. I told Zak later that he is very much my little brother in all but blood and I mean it. What a tremendous, selfless act!

I pretty much took the week off from work, except going in to teach my labs and be there for a few hours when summer registration opened. Each night, my friends from community group were there for me. Monday was community group and as it concluded I found myself in the same state of fear and sadness about going home. Michael and Rebekah were dropping off a car at the airport for a friend and I rode along. Tuesday, they invited me over for dinner and to watch "24" (a mutually favorite show). Wednesday is always "Lost" night. Thursday my friends Jonathan and Lauren took me out. Throughout the week, I get regular phone calls from friends, family, and pastors (pastors are friends too :D).

By this point, I am working through moments of grief that just kind of hit me. Small acts like getting milk out of the fridge or opening the back door...both of which would cause a great deal of meowing from Scamper as milk was his favorite treat and going out back his favorite play time. But what has been the most difficult is the oppressive silence. I've had to have music on constantly and keep my mind occupied with reading or playing video games. Anything...lest my mind immediately wander back to my grief.

Friday I picked up Scamper's ashes from the vet. He sits in a cherry wood urn now on my bookshelf in my bedroom, with a framed picture in front. Needless to say that was a difficult afternoon. Saturday, I spent half the day creating a picture-framed collage of Scamper and Callie. I went through my album and phone pictures. Some of the best shots were on my old and current phone because that's the device I had on me when they were doing something fun or cute. Unfortunately, camera phones aren't the highest quality, but they turned out well enough to frame. It was a very difficult project, especially when I found his baby pictures. It probably took twice as long because I had to stop and cry every time I chose one to include and framed it.

Saturday night I spent with my best friends, but having done that photo project, I was wrecked emotionally. I got to Michael's a little early and like a true best friend, he could tell I was really missing Scamper. I was able to express to him some of my grief...about the silence. And also about the loss of security I'm feeling. Not that Scamper would have warded off an attacker, but his presence was comforting. And also about my struggle with the fact that I have nothing and no one to go home to anymore. Perhaps my contentment was--at least in part--wrapped up in having Scamper with me, but I have lost that now. It's a feeling of "what or who do I have anymore?" Yes, I have an amazingly loving mother and family and the best friends anyone could ask for...but I guess the realization of how each of them have someone to go home to and I do not weighs heavy on my heart. I hope to find the contentment I once had; the security of knowing it didn't bother me. But right now, I just wonder if I will spend the rest of my life alone.

Some people have asked if I will get another pet sooner or later. The only answer I have right now is "I don't know." Greg Kelley left a kind voicemail yesterday with the best way I can explain it. He had a dog that he had to put to sleep and has not gotten a pet since because of the single fact that one day we have to say good-bye to them and suffer that pain. That's exactly my state of mind right now. The saying "it's better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all" is not a true statement to me right now.

I continue to covet your prayers, your presence, and your love.

Scamper

2009-04-11T19:59:00.003-05:00

It was the summer between my 7th and 8th grade years, as best I can recall, when my mom took me to get Scamper. It was shortly after my regular visitations to my dad stopped. We went to the pound that day. I remember a wall of kennels full of kittens. I reached in to one and pulled out a black one. Then, a small, cowering, orange fuzzball caught my eye. I set the black one down and picked up the orange one. He had white paws, chest, and mouth, expect for a little "tobacco stain" on his mouth. He scooted up in my arms and put his head against mine and that was all it took. He was mine. He could fit in the palms of my hands that day.

I remember how he got his name. It was my mom's idea actually. He was playing or searching out things or doing whatever cats do, darting around the place. Mom said, "Look at him scampering about! Scamper!" I loved it. And I have loved him.

The memories flood back in of those early years. Even of silly ones like my 2 year old nephew (who is now in college) throwing Scamper up in the air like a big ball of confetti. He has always been so affectionate. He'd crawl up on me or Mom's stomach and start kneading it. Then the water works started as he drowned us in drool...an apparent sign of deep affection. A couple years after getting Scamper, Mom brought home a calico cat from a woman who's child developed allergies. Her name was Beth, which I promptly changed to a more fitting and unique name of Callie. There's no doubt about it, Scamper was king of the house and they would fight a lot. It didn't help that Callie was so skittish. She never liked to be held all the years I had her. There were many a night when a cat would appear in the backyard and Scamper would get angry and howl and fluff up. Then for some reason he'd fight Callie. After a few spankings, he knew he would get in trouble for fighting with his sister. When I'd come stalking into the room, he'd shoot off. He loved going out back, which I let them do supervised. Scamper never hissed but a handful of times in his life, usually because he was upset by another cat.

Next to leaving Mom when it was time to go to college, leaving Scamper was one of the hardest things I've done. When my mom moved to Searcy my sophomore year, the cats were in an outdoor cage with a dog house while their house was being built. Mom didn't tell me about it until later, but one night a big storm came through and knocked over their cage. She ran out to them deathly afraid they were gone, but they were in the little house snuggled up together. After Mom had a shop built, they were kept in there. The minute I had my own place after OBU, I had them back with me. It's been 3-4 years now since I lost Callie to kidney failure. We buried her on Mom's land.

For more than half my life, I've had this friend who has always been there. My source of comfort; my companion; my baby, really. Going on 18 years. A couple of years ago, Scamper developed a pretty serious problem within his colon. Dozens of special foods and one medication after another, we were only able to ever control it enough to give him a good quality of life and enough time to reach the litter box. And that didn't always happen. His most recent health issues were his kidneys. His eating habits changed and when I took him in, the beginning signs of failure were there. Over the past few months he lost over half his weight. In the past couple weeks, he barely ate, was tired all the time, and just didn't have the quality I wanted for him.

Last night, I cried myself to sleep as he tossed and turned, never able to get comfortable. At some point in the night, I heard him fall off the bed. He stared at it for a while but didn't--or couldn't--jump back up. This morning, I looked at his food bowl...it was the same level it had been for two days. I tried to give him some of his favorite treats and he wouldn't even consider them. He looked so tired and that is when I knew. I couldn't keep him like this just because I wanted to hang on to him. It was the single hardest thing I have ever done. My hand shook so that I could barely sign the authorization forms. My mother shielded my eyes from that which I could not bear to watch as I cried so hard I could barely breathe.

I don't know how it could have been possible to love him more than I did for all these years. But now he is gone and I am at a total loss. It is so surreal to me. I've rarely had to deal with the pain of death in my life especially not as an adult, and I don't know how to do so, other than to try and put it out of my mind. But every place I look, I remember his fun, quirky, loving nature. I just want to hold him again. But I can't. I want him to rub his cheek against mine. But he won't. I want to hear that unique hello-meow when I come through the door. But it won't be there. To have him at the foot of my bed to sleep. But it will just be me tonight. Meowing at the door to go out, walking across my book as I tried to read, not letting me sleep late because he wanted to be fed... With relief, I know he is no longer hurting, that his sicknesses are over...but oh, the pain of losing my best friend is too much.

Please, time, pass quickly and take away the hurt.

Kitchen Project Accomplished

2009-04-07T08:51:00.006-05:00

When I bought my house in November 2007 (holy crap, has it been that long?), I knew one of my first priorities would be to update the kitchen. The sellers had begun restaining the cabinets and I liked the way they were looking. I asked if they could leave the products they were using so I could continue; they were kind enough to do so.

The counters were probably original to the house. They looked 80's-style and they had multiple places of knife and water damage. I remember taking a brief visit to Home Depot to price new counters and it was a bit out of my range for just having all the moving expenses.

So fast forward to now. I got a nice tax return getting to itemize for the first time and decided now was the time! Or if you'd like a more noble purpose, I felt like doing my part to stimulate the economy.

So my experience shopping for counters was pretty interesting. I'll pause here if you want to go back and read that. ... Okay, back. In the subsequent weeks, I tweeted a lot about my indecisiveness and experiences. Since I have Twitter update my Facebook status, many supportive friends weighed in. Here are a few of my comments:

alright twitterati and facebook friends, tile or Formica kitchen counters? weigh in on pros and cons. (Feb 20th)

not only was the plumber not scheduled yesterday after my counter install, now he has a flat tire and *maybe* can get to me today. /sigh (Mar 25th)

ok so staining isn't so bad. a little messy and long periods of waiting...but pretty easy. (Mar 26th)

part 1 of staining project completed. this. is gonna take about 4 more days to finish. (Mar 27th)

well, poop. no staining today. too cold to have the windows and doors open. 39...brrrr. (Mar 28th)

back on cabinet duty...stripper isn't removing old finish as well today. looks bumpy from the right angle. oh well, not going back now. (Mar 29th)

cleaning up from a major project sucks but it's also good b/c it means I'M DONE! pics to follow. (Apr 3rd)

why can i only see the imperfections in the work i did on my cabinets? (Apr 4th)

I did end up going with Formica. And when they called to tell me the counters had arrived, I took up an offer from a friend to help me tear the old cabinets out. As I was working daily, I literally went to Home Depot for supplies every day. Just some little something I didn't think of.

My friend and neighbor Daniel had a good suggestion of spray painting the hinges when I was telling him I forgot that those would have to be changed out too after purchasing new handles. Great idea and turned out nice!

Let me tell you using chemical stripper is nasty stuff. A drop of that gunk would get on my arm past my gloves and it would BURN! It was sticky, nasty goop. Almost every day for two weeks that is what I did. Strip, sand, stain. Each of those was about a 20 minute chore followed by 3-4 hours of waiting.

Needless to say, this is pretty much the biggest project I've ever done. Much thanks to everyone who helped me. Leslie for helping me tear out the old cabinets, Michael and Daniel for helping me re-hang my doors, and Larry for letting me borrow his tiling supplies. Oh forgot to mention that part.

Behind the stove was a sheet of the old laminate. So I tiled over it. Pretty simple job, having been taught to do it by Larry when he helped me with my guest bathroom. Well, like an idiot, I accidentally skipped a line on the directions for the grout. After spreading it, I read "let it dry for 3-4 hours before cleaning." I took that to mean, leave the grout alone, then wipe it off later. So I had grout spread all over the place and went to a movie. Came back and it was hard as a rock all over the tile. DUH! I missed the line that said "after spreading, wipe off excess with a damp sponge." So I had to scrape dried grout off and scrub the grout to make it smooth between tiles. /sigh Live and learn.

So here's what it used to look like:

And here's the new:

I have this perfectionist problem of only seeing the imperfections and mistakes in what I did. Like the rough spots where I didn't notice the old finish hadn't come off. Or the variations in the darkness of the stain across all the cabinets. I know that's just something I'll have to get over and hopefully stop focusing on as time goes on. But if I'm really honest with myself, for my first time to do this...it's not too shabby. :)

iPhone 3.0 Thoughts

2009-03-17T13:31:00.004-05:00

In case you missed the updates, here they are:

1. In-app purchasing of upgrades

This is a terrible precedent. You buy a game but now you don't really get 100% of it. Want that cool weapon in the shooter game? Cough up a couple more bucks. MMOs are thinking about doing this too, instead of a monthly subscription. I will not buy into this scheme.

2. Peer-to-peer via bluetooth

Play games with each other nearby, share files, etc.

3. Turn-by-turn GPS capability

This isn't native. A developer will have to have his own maps. Be interested to see how much these apps will run and how quality they are. If good and decent priced, may get a car mount for my phone.

4. More hardware accessories that can access the API

Example given: a blood pressure cuff and diabetic monitor. Interesting.

5. Fixed push notification

Rather than run apps in the background, this is their response. Well, this was supposed to work last year and didn't. We'll see...

6. Streaming video and audio capabilities

ESPN demoed a basketball game in an app they developed. Pretty cool.

7. Cut, copy, and paste

Finally! And one cool note: you shake the phone to undo a paste.

8. Landscape mode for all native applications

Never seen the big deal about this. Too much screen real estate is used up by the keyboard.

9. Pictures sent via text messaging (also known as MMS)

Except it won't be available on 1st gen phones. Oh well. Also, we'll be able to forward texts already sent.

10. Voice memos

11. Add calendar subscriptions to iCal

12. Search feature for all native apps and Spotlight app to search them all

13. Sync for Notes

Finally! Always been annoyed that the iphone and my Mac have notes but they can't talk to each other.

14. Miscellaneous: Youtube channels and ratings, stereo bluetooth, shake to shuffle songs, auto fill-in forms.

Okay, but where's my 32 GB iPhone 3G so I can upgrade??? :(

Me

2009-03-10T19:39:00.006-05:00

I would normally Twitter this, but it is so perfect, I had to elevate its status to blog-worthy.

Don't Be THAT Guy (or Girl)

2009-02-26T13:44:00.005-06:00

My buddy Alex linked me a website today. It's a list of people who deserve to be punched in the face. I'd like to list the ones I would personally like removed from the gene pool.

#113 - The All Caps Typer

This is one of those annoyances I picked up while playing WoW. Seriously, there's no need for it. It makes people's eyes bleed.

#99 - Uncontrollable Chain Mail Forwarder

I've gone on record about this. I won't again. The funny thing about the post on the site is the old lady in the picture. Seriously people, wisen up.

#96 - Ringtone DJ

When I'm calling students, I can't stand it when--instead of a ring--a voice comes on and says "please enjoy this music while we connect your call." Then the S hits the F. I want to hang up. Sometimes I do.

#89 - Reply-to-All Guy

I've been dealing with this for the past couple weeks at work. An announcement will go out and some shmuck hits reply-to-all for a statement meant just for the original sender. What's worse, when I point out to the offender they shouldn't do this, the response is either "just delete it and mind your own business" or "why?" /sigh

#86 - Movie Theater Text Messenger

I'm getting angry as I read this list. This is one of the biggest reasons I don't go to theaters as much anymore. My system is so good and audiences are so bad, it is not worth the expense. I love it though. I mean, why are these people there if they are just going to text through the whole movie. The screen glare is completely distracting to everyone else.

#58 - Everything's An Emergency Girl

Oh dear god. This one drives me crazy. I deal with so many students who think they are the only one who needs to register for class or has to have such-and-such by a certain time. Well, guess what...EVERYONE DOES. Lack of planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on mine.

#34 - Slow Walker Sidewalk Blocker

Not just sidewalks, but hallways. Okay fine, I have a little more bounce in my step. And by the way, this is America, we walk to the RIGHT. No need to do the little dance when heading in the same direction.

Okay, there were some honorable mentions, but these are the ones that fired me up. Check out the site and see if any of them get you going and let us know.

Kitchen Counter Shopping

2009-02-13T14:53:00.003-06:00

I'm old and domesticated. That's the only excuse I have for changing my plans for my tax return from a big vacation to a little one and new kitchen counters. If you follow my Facebook status (or more importantly my Twitter feed, you saw the experience I had at Home Depot last Friday. To recap, I was standing there waiting to be helped as some workers finished up a project. I was acknowledged only with a glance, but then an older woman and her mother approached the desk and the workers asked if they could help her. She said she'd like to make an appointment to talk counters and the worker said that no one was waiting. I immediately put my samples back up and left.

From there I went to The Countertop Store in Maumelle. Looked at some Silestone samples (97% quartz) and got an estimate. $3000 /choke For my little kitchen...Well, I took the samples back and had a look at them. To be honest, the stone seemed overkill. I'm going to restain the cabinets, but even then, the stone looked TOO fancy for everything else I have.

In the meantime, after I had stewed over the Home Depot issue, I decided to write them. In an economic recession, when someone wants to come spend money, a store best go out of its way to attract a customer...and I wanted to let them know that. So they call me back and at first I'm like "I've already decided to handle my project elsewhere." The guy asked if there was ANY way I would come back in and hear what they had to say. So I agreed and went in this afternoon. I was greeted by the store manager, another managerial fellow, and their top kitchen specialist. Okay, so they are pretty serious about wanting my business. I explained the whole fancy stone theory and we look at laminate. They draw up an estimate that's around $1400. Now we're talking. I never asked for it and didn't come back to the store expecting it, but the managerial guy offered a 10% discount off that should I choose to go with Home Depot. Not one to hold a grudge over one bad visit, I tell them I will consider and call back.

I head back to The Countertop Store and this is where I start becoming frustrated. It's a good 15-20 minute drive. I get there and ask for a new estimate with laminate so that I can compare with Home Depot. I'm out the door in less than 5 minutes because all the guy does is write down the samples and says they'll call me back. Next I want to head to Lowe's. That's another 15-20 minutes thanks to traffic. I get there, am greeted, but the guy says they don't make estimates without coming out to get a "Detail," which by the way costs $35. He ballparks it around $1500. 20 minute drive back to WLR. I've listened to an entire hour long podcast on my iPhone. Total afternoon time spent on this was 90 minutes. That's 30 minutes of in-store time and 60 minutes of driving. /sigh

I got the samples back and actually was pretty pleased with one I hadn't expected. Going to get some second opinions and we'll see what happens. Is it old and domesticated to be excited about new kitchen counters?

Snowboarding

2009-02-10T15:29:00.002-06:00

I guess I never really did tell everyone about my first ski/snowboard trip I went on two weeks ago. I have a good buddy who is quite the snowboard enthusiast. We chat almost every day and are in community group together. It was Wednesday and I was talking about taking a little vacation with a small portion of my tax return. I had mentioned a ski trip for the first time. He said he was thinking about taking his yearly trip to Hidden Valley soon. We looked at the calendar and realized if it wasn't that weekend, it wouldn't be for a long time. So I called up some people to cover my church responsibilities and plans were set. This was a few days after the ice storm, but we called the lodge and they said it was all snow.

I'm a planner so this was quietly freaking me out a little. Daniel could sense it some but was very kind about it. He let me borrow snow gear and a board. And off we went Saturday morning. We picked up an old school friend of his named Nick in Memphis, then headed north. It was about a 6.5 hour drive. We got there around 3:00 pm to a packed parking lot and 40-50 degree temperature. I had to rent boots and we had a brief scare when a sign said they were out of my size. But just as we walked in, a pair was available.

The first snowboard lesson wasn't until 5:00. So Daniel and Nick graciously showed me some very beginner stuff, but eventually I told them not to waste all their time on me. The lesson was good...they taught how to turn and lean on your heels and toes. After the lesson, Daniel stopped by and saw my "progress" and gave some pointers. They were spot on because my turns started getting better immediately.

After 10:00 or so, I'm still slowly working up and down the beginner hill. Still can't stop without purposefully falling to do so. I'm going up the tow rope and ahead of me is a skier. They tell you to get out of the way if you fall off the rope, but she doesn't and I have to let go and crash in order to keep from colliding with her. Jacked up my wrist in doing so, which ended my night. My tailbone was pretty dang sore by that point too.

We hit the hotel room and pretty much fell asleep on the spot. Denny's for breakfast the next morning, then hit the park again. At this point, it is taking a lot of mental encouragement to keep struggling through beginner pains. The guys show me (and explain the need for) sliding down the hill with the board perpendicular. This slows the descent and was the first step in learning to stop without having to fall down. Work on that for a few hours (lol) and I'm starting to get okay at it. But falls still occur. Well, I'm scared about my wrist so I'm purposefully falling a different way...which leads to me tweaking my shoulder. Didn't think anything of it because it really didn't hurt that bad. Breaks come more frequently today as every muscle in my body (even ones not used directly in snowboarding) begin to protest. By 3:00 pm, an hour before we needed to leave, I was done. I had started at the top of the beginner slope, came around the area by the lodge, and down another beginner slope (think a big L shape) and stopped without falling. Wanted to end on a good note.

The ride back was pretty uncomfortable and I moved stiffly for two days, but it was all worth it. I'm grateful to Daniel and Nick for the experience and great time. Can't wait to do it again.

P.S. The extent of my shoulder tweak wasn't known to me until I was lifting heavy equipment on Thursday to clear the stage at church and I jacked it up. Still dealing with that, but I say it was and is all worth it. :)

Digital TV Conversion Delayed

2009-02-05T09:57:00.002-06:00

This is a tad bit frustrating. It is official, TV stations will not have to flip the switch to digital on the 17th. They still can if they want to, but it is not mandatory until June. Here's my issue: these TV stations worked hard to get the equipment and facilities ready for this change. They have spammed commercials and ads and banners every 30 seconds for the last 8 months. The whole project has been in the works for three years.

The reasons cited for the delay are consumer confusion and that the government subsidy for the boxes ran out of money. Okay, the first reason is laughable. If consumers haven't figured it out by now and taken the necessary steps, then the only thing that will push them into taking action will be for them to not have TV on the 17th. I ask you, will it not now be more confusing when the new ads and banners go up saying "just kidding about 2/17...you have until June now..."

I hope our Arkansas stations will go ahead and flip the switch on the 17th, for all the promotions and consumer education that has been going on. There are more important things for our government to be debating and voting on...

My Life:...to the Present (Part 5)

2009-02-02T17:00:00.002-06:00

I mentioned I graduated with honors. To do that, we each had to do an honors thesis. I hooked up with my biology professor, who knew of some interesting research going on at UAMS. I had decided a couple years into my college courses that I no longer wanted to do medical school. I became very interested in NASA, actually. The research was taking a look at bone loss in simulated space environments. Through this connection--not to mention it was close to Searcy--I decided to attend graduate school there. I applied for the PhD program in Physiology. Working for the last time in Garland, I said adieu to Texas and made my permanent move to Arkansas in early July. Bryan was having his second surgery so I wanted to come on up. Although my mom and I toured for apartments previously, the only ones that stood out were ones I didn't get to see firsthand. So I basically moved into Chenal Lakes Apartments sight unseen. That was on a Saturday. With everything still in boxes, I saw a church around the corner and just opted to visit it on Sunday. Needless to say, I haven't left Parkway Place since. Think God had a hand in that? :)

Back then, the pastors did "pop" visits, where they came over and brought a soda. My pastor was Leslie Willis. We talked a bit and he asked if I sang. Thanks to Janie, I was again, so he invited me to choir practice.

School started up and it was way worse than I could ever have imagined. There were only 6-8 of us in the class, but every single other person already had a connection to a professor and knew what they would be researching. I--having come from a small, private, liberal arts college--had no idea what I was doing. And that made for a very stressful year. Being handed professional journal articles and expected to critically analyze it in a presentation was a nightmare. I made my first "C". Then I had no clue as to what I wanted to research yet, so I would rotate labs. Well, the professors would ask what I wanted to do. You can imagine how well it went over when I said "I'm not sure." Long story short, I was not a quality student in their eyes. It came to a head one day when a professors told me I was acting like a "5th grader" and asked why I wanted to get this degree. She said that my research had to be the. most. important. thing. in. my. life. Well that was a red flag and in that moment, I knew I didn't want to live that way either. So at the end of my coursework, I went to the chairman and asked to use my credits for a master's degree. He agreed, indicated this was a one way trip.

Before I continue that story, I have to pick back up on my experiences at PPBC. I was suffering from huge separation anxiety from OBU. I would go back every Saturday for football games and to see friends. But back in Little Rock, I was hurting. I would spend all my free time in chat rooms online. I joined these silly role playing groups and would sit and chat "in character" for hours on end. I went to see the pastor, Allan Greer, a couple months after moving. He could see my struggle and invited me to do "Experiencing God" with him one-on-one. I also met a crazy guy named Jared Hodges, who was the interim student pastor. We became friends and he invited me to some events with the students. I guess you could say that's when I became involved with the student ministry. Leslie also asked if I knew enough "tech" to help out on Wednesdays with sound. So, I guess that's when I became involved with the A/V team.

The church eventually got a full-time student minister. But as I said, I was really struggling with a lot of issues. The student minister and I never really had a solid relationship. I loved those students though. We made some crazy videos back then (check them out on my Youtube page), and I ran sound for the services. Good times.

So back to school...it's 2003 (I've been in LR for two years). I've opted to go for a master's degree instead. So I needed a job. There was a chemistry position open at Little Rock Christian Academy. I interviewed; it went really well. They seemingly were on their way to hire me by the types of things they asked me and the comments they made. I knew God's hand was in this unexpected turn. Oh His hand was definitely involved, just in an...unexpected way. I graduated, but then didn't get the job. I was completely devastated. So certain I was, of God's leading in this, that when it didn't happen, I questioned everything I knew about God.

A few weeks into the summer, the student ministry went on a mission trip to Arizona. I had already committed so I went. But that was really my breaking point. I was so confused and angry that what I was doing out there made no sense. And I kept getting pushed to produce. It got so bad I was contemplating leaving this middle-of-the desert place and find a way to get to the airport to fly home. Allan was on the trip and was going into town one day and I jumped in the van. He could see my pain and frustration and lovingly talked me down. We returned home; I was working at Chenal Country Club. I met with Allan and another mentor, Tim Knight, for weeks. We read "Celebration of Discipline" together. I quit the student ministry, because I knew I had no business being in that position in the state I was in. It was such a hard decision.

In the meanwhile I was looking for a job. But the situation got worse: my hours were cut back to about 8-12 per week. I had to get help for two months to pay my rent. One Sunday in November, I was convicted to take my tithe to church, something I didn't really know about until having read "Celebration of Discipline." But I didn't. On Monday, I dropped to my knees for the first time in my life since having given my life to Jesus and begged God to act. I took my meager check up to church and handed it to the secretary. Hours later, I received a phone call to interview at the State Crime Lab for a Forensic Chemist position. In December, I started there.

At church, many exciting things were going on. "40 Days of Purpose" was revolutionary and stands out in my mind. I began singing on the Praise Team, while also taking on more responsibilities on the A/V team. Eventually we started to video the service, so I made the tough choice of leaving the choir and just doing A/V ministry. I tried leading a young single adult ministry for a while, but that wasn't part of God's plan for me, so I let that go too.

The crime lab was awesome. In fact, I loved it and felt pride and purpose there. Like any place, there were a few people who just didn't click with me. When I transferred sections, in fact, I had many a run-in with a coworker. I also began teaching as an adjunct instructor for Pulaski Tech a couple of evenings a week. (I feel sorry for my first class. I was pretty terrible.) I was getting increasing responsibilities in small doses there, but the politics of the place were starting to eat at me. In spring 2007, the director of the science curriculum at the nursing school campus where I taught was promoted and recommended me for her position. The possibilities--not to mention the better salary--were very enticing and in June 2007, I was hired. And that's my job to this day. I like it well enough, though it is not entirely everything I expected. I struggle with patience almost every day when it comes to dealing with student who can't seem to help themselves or don't want to do the work it takes. That's something God is still working on with me. /wink

While I was working at the crime lab, a coworker got me interested in online gaming. She told me about World of Warcraft, specifically. (Go ahead and groan.) I started playing with them and eventually a lot more than them. I mean A LOT more. I honestly became addicted. There was a span of months where as soon as I got home, I would log in (around 4:30) and would sign out at bedtime (around 10:30). Every Saturday, I would wake up and play, logging 12 hours easily. I mean it when I say every literal minute I wasn't at work or church, I was playing this game. Every minute. It had its share of guild drama (guilds being the group of people you play with), but man was it fun. I went to the midnight release of the expansion pack. I even custom built a computer to handle the graphics of the game without a hitch. But soon after the expansion, the drama of playing with other people got to me. My guild broke apart after I had worked so hard for months building up my character. I didn't want to start from scratch with another guild, having gotten fairly high in the ranks of the one I was in. (Can you tell this was serious business?) So I quit. And really, it was a good thing. I was wasting my life away on this game. Over two years of playing it--and I'm embarrassed to admit this--I spent four months of actual play time online. /cough Moving on...

In the time since I worked at the crime lab and PTC, PPBC has grown so much, and so have I. The student pastor left after only a couple of years (which left me feeling kind of vindicated for some odd reason.) A new student pastor came and eventually I re-connected to the student ministry. I made friends and some friends moved away. But the fact is, for the first time in my life, the meaning of "relationship" is something real and positive. And I'm building eternal friendships with many people.

During the last couple of years, as we started our second venue Passion, my responsibilities on the A/V have exponentially multiplied. I joined an amazing community group led by Larry Remington, our Discipleship Pastor. I met with him one-on-one for a long while, telling him things that I have told no other person. He guided and taught and listened...he is one of the most important people in my life. I've since moved to a new community group which my closest friends started. A very hard decision, indeed.

There was a time as I served on the A/V team, when I let the busyness of it become my idol. I had to take a break and did so. During that time, God really showed me what it means to serve and do so in love. Over the course of our "Imagine" campaign last fall, Allan met with me and basically said he was looking to me to lead the A/V team in excellence and service. To have that put on me, along with all the projects I had going for this campaign was simply overwhelming. But I didn't do it alone; my God was the source of strength I needed and name in which I turned to for wisdom.

I look back on the years at OBU and realize how much of a baby Christian I was, having no clue as to the vastness of God's love and grace. Through much patience and love and listening, the pastors and leaders at PPBC have grown me in ways I never thought imaginable. And the exciting part is, as much wisdom and growth as I feel I've learned from them, there's still so much more to learn about our great God! There were a couple of opportunities in the past years for me to move away, but I know that God has called me to this place in this time to serve here. My job is my provision (even enabling me to buy a house about a year ago); my purpose is my ministry.

So all that is left to say is "to be continued" because as much as God has worked on me these last few years--growing me by leaps and bounds--there's certainly more in store. Thanks for reading!

My Life: Out of the Nest (Part 4)

2009-01-25T17:10:00.000-06:00

I was really considering hard about the University of Texas. Not wanting to go all the way to Austin, I became very interested in UT-Dallas. I really didn't want to move out and leave my mom by herself. About this time, she was seeing a gentleman she had met through my being in Boy Scouts. In January of 1997, they married! Yay! Burt has been my step-dad ever since. Of course, there were some adjustments to make that weren't always easy, but I am so grateful for him. Well my mom was planning on retiring back in Arkansas eventually, and knowing this, she wanted me to go to a school she knew of in this little town called Arkadelphia. I agreed to go visit this oh-ah-chee-ta; or is it oh-wash-it-awe...whatever. Unfortunately, the weekend I went was a few days after a tornado had wiped out half the town. I had never seen devastation like that before. I loved the campus; it was beautiful. They had an awesome new science building to boot! But I wasn't sold.

I was going to Freeman Heights (the church that put on Judgment House) quite regularly by that point. Got baptized and the whole bit. The student ministry was awesome. And they happened to be going to summer camp at Ouachita. It was during this trip that I knew I wanted to go there for sure. Had Burt not been a blessing on our lives, I doubt I could have done it. Go God!

That summer, I turned in my volunteer badge at the hospital and became a full-fledged employee--a pharmacy tech, to be precise. Remember that overbearing-ness I spoke of earlier? Yah, it carried over into this job. Wow, I look back on that and wonder how I ever stayed employed. I kept that job every summer I came home; every time I came through that door in May, just about every one looked at me and groaned. I had good relationships with a couple of employees. Heck, we even joked around a lot. Except one time, another person (who didn't like me) overheard a joke and informed the manager, who called to fire me, had it not been the pharmacist I was joking with telling him it was nothing. Anyway, it was a good job and I gained a lot of experience. If I could, I would go back and tell my manager thank you for giving me a shot when he had every reason to let me go.

August came and it was time to leave the home I had grown up in for 18 years. I remember just holding Scamper and Callie for as long as I could, crying the entire time. Burt and mom loaded me up and off we went. We arrived for freshmen move-in, arranged a couple of things, Burt shook my hand, and then there was my mom and me. So many years of going it alone, and here we were at last...a day we both were excited about yet dreaded with all our hearts. There was silence, then the words "no sense in delaying it", and we hugged and cried and hugged some more. And then they were gone and I was really on my own.

I had a roommate...all of 3 weeks. Look, you live solo and have things your way your whole life, it is pretty hard to adapt. Robbie was his name and he would wander in every night about 1 am, then call his girlfriend and talk for about an hour. He went home on the weekends. I was very dedicated to studying and starting off well, so I went to bed at reasonable hours, so this wasn't working. Since I never saw him, I left a note one morning asking if he could call his girlfriend in the lobby. He left a note in turn saying he shouldn't have to. In the meantime, I was on the rowdiest hall of Daniel South. This was the notorious slip-and-slide hall. I made a couple calls to the dorm parents and of course, I was berated for it by some in the hallway. I requested to be moved and paid the extra fee for a private room. A few weeks later, the dorm parents called me in and asked if I wanted to be an RA. So I moved again to Daniel North, a hall of mostly guys on the swim team. I enjoyed the responsibility, despite all the, uh, nudity in the hallway. LOL. We'll leave those stories for another time, perhaps.

I was an avid sports fan, never missing a football game, unless it was out of state. I wrote for the school newspaper. And of course, I studied. I'm proud to say I got a 4.0 my first semester, even with a little home sick crisis during finals. In fact, every fall I made that, but spring fever must have taken me because I made a B or two every spring. :) My sophomore year, I bought a truck (the same one I still drive today). On the way home for Thanksgiving, I was about 10 blocks from my house and had a wreck. *sigh* Also, my sophomore year, my mom and Burt moved to Searcy. I would continue going back to Garland, though, for my summer job. I lived with my sister for two summers, but she ended up moving to Searcy too, so the last summer I stayed with an old Boy Scout buddy.

About midway through the baseball season of my sophomore year, I approached the coach concerned about the lack of attention the team was being paid. There was no scorekeeper, announcer...nothing. So I asked if he'd like some help. Me and a buddy started doing it. The next year I was officially the baseball team manager. (I also got to call a few basketball games.) My junior year, I became a volunteer athletic trainer for the football team. Some of my best memories come from this part of my college tenure. The long nighs of practicing taping ankles with buddies, the long two-a-day practices that always ended up at the hospital with cramping players instead of getting to eat dinner, standing on the sidelines, and getting to go on road trips...just to name a few. I can't help but stop and smile.

I had moved to the "nicer" dorm that year, too, no longer an RA. My senior year, a buddy talked me into an apartment, which I did for one semester, but the amount of partying that went on with the people from the other school in town quickly ended that. I moved back on campus into the football dorm (coach's hall) and its community showers. Oh boy....why did I ever move off campus? But, with the friends I had on the team, it really was one of the best places I lived.

I made so great life-long friends during school. One of the most annoying people I had ever met ended up being my BFF--Rachel Elliff. We helped each other through a lot of personal issues, she and I. In fact, I didn't really allude to this before, but I was still having trouble with my self-esteem my freshman/sophomore years. Even went to the school counselor for several sessions. I was really struggling with my identity. But through Rachel, a kind family from the church I was attending, and well...God, I worked through those as best I knew how. Rachel unexpectedly didn't come back one semester and I was pretty much at a loss. But God came through and built up new friendships for me, namely Christina Overton. We too had many great times together, having met in a biblical studies class.

Getting involved in sports really helped with my confidence in that area. Not that it was easy being the baseball manager. Some of the guys were really hard on me. But I kept at it, if nothing else for Coach. The football team was not as harsh, and I even began making some friendships with guys for the first time since elementary school. During the spring break of my senior year, at a baseball game, there was a very bad injury to one of the players. Our catcher--Bryan Jones--was making a play as the runner came sliding into home. But the runner slid into Bryan's knee pushing out to the side. This tore 3 of 4 ligaments, chipped bones, and tore his meniscus. It was so bad, he was transported to Baptist in Little Rock. I flew up in my truck after the game. Bryan was very appreciative and asked me if I could stay. So I did...all week, in the hospital room. Bryan went through surgery (which I got to watch) and came back to Arkadelphia. His family was certain he would have to withdraw from school, but I suggested he move in to my room and I would do his rehab and get him to class. And so that was what we did. Bryan and I became fast friends, though as much pain as I put him through during his stretches, I have no idea how. :)

So that was me in college...you could find me pretty much in the science building or the sports venues. As I said, I attended a church there. A family "adopted" me who just happened to be the music ministers. Janie and Will Thompson. Janie somehow got me involved in handbells. I played the big ones...the really big ones. And though I was reluctant for several years, she eventually got me singing again (for the first time since elementary school) in the college ensemble.

My ability to leave home and return to school became easier about 2 years into it. Leaving Ouachita in 2001 was equally as hard as leaving home in 1997. Christina was the last person I said good-bye to and also the point when I lost it. I graduated magna cum laude and with honors. All my family--except my dad--came to see me. God had done so much in my life in those first four years of being called His child, but little did I know how much things were about to change and life become all the more challenging.

The Great Blackboard Crash of 09

2009-01-21T15:24:00.004-06:00

We interrupt this program to bring you this disturbing story that is still unfolding...

So I teach some online courses in addition to my administrative duties at PTC. They are actually "hybrid" science courses, with the lecture part online and lab still meeting in person. Last year, I developed, wrote, and led new sections of chemistry and Anatomy & Physiology I. The system PTC uses is called Blackboard. It's okay. Some of it is not very intuitive, especially when it comes to making exams. In fact, it takes me hours to half-a-day to write a science exam. Over the Christmas break, I started writing my third course, A&P II. But before I got far, they announced that Blackboard would be down for scheduled upgrades.

When it came back in early January, I resumed working. But then one day last week, I couldn't log on. I emailed the guys and a short time later an announcement was issued about a database error. Another instructor called me and was like "last time this happened, we lost data". I got a little worried. I back up my files as much as I can. But like I said, the program is not entirely intuitive. Some files--and exams--have to be made in Blackboard and can't be pulled out. Those also happen to be the ones that take the longest to create.

A couple of days rolled by with no update and still no access. I didn't want to be "that guy" that emailed and bothered them, but I did...and asked how bad it was and should I start re-writing things. The response was "when was the last time you created new content?" I know just enough about computing and servers for that to be a dangerous question. Clearly the question is saying: we are trying to restore directly from when it went down but cannot, so we are having to go to a backup point. Normal procedure is to backup server data nightly at an off-site location. I eventually found out, the last good backup was from Dec. 29. So pretty much everything I did over the break would be wiped out. Well then the date went further back to Dec. 17, wiping out more work I had done. Thankfully, you can role over courses from a previous semester, so two of my three would be saved. Oh wait...

Saturday comes and an email is sent out. Blackboard is back up but all attempts to restore data failed. You have your course shells but they are blank. We won't turn Blackboard on for students until noon Tuesday, rather than midnight to give you a chance to get some content up.

Ohhhhhh @#$%@!!!!!!

Sunday evening and all day Monday I feverishly worked until my shoulders ached, my wrists and fingers were numb, and my eyes were cross to get some beginning material up for my three classes that had been wiped away. At 11:00 am on Tuesday, I got that much done. I need to do more work...a lot more, obviously, but I'm so burned out, I haven't done a lick since. And as far as those items I couldn't back up...creating them in Word this time and c&p'ing them. Exams...using an external exam-maker so that the files are on my computer.

Last I heard, from the instructor forums, teachers were jumping from the tallest building on PTC and stoic, unemotional types are feverishly working through blurry, tear-filled eyes. Unfortunately, my building is only one story. Would only break a limb at best and I need it to keep typing... /sarcasm

My Life: High School (Part 3)

2009-01-19T16:50:00.003-06:00

High school rolled around. I went to North Garland High School, which was within short walking distance, just past my old elementary school. I was also promoted into Boy Scouts, but more on that later. In high school, I tried my hand at acting again. But I just don't think it was my calling. And it doesn't help that the drama teacher hated me. She would openly make fun of me in front of the class. I'm not just saying it like that because I'm bitter...I'm dead serious. For three years I tried that and finally had enough. I remember rehearsing one morning, and as usual she left the drama room, leaving the class to ourselves. This particular day the students turned the lights off and began playing hide and seek in the dark. Suddenly, the lights came up and a huge object came flying at my face, busting my nose. Blood gushed down my arms as I tried to stench the flow, running to the clinic. As the nurse tended to me, the drama instructor came in and yelled at ME(!!!) for fooling around and making it so she could never trust a class again. She had gotten reports that I was running down the hall and partaking in the sortie. The nurse kicked her out, and that was the end of my acting career.

Most of my friends by this point--due to my low self-esteem--were girls. But by the end of my high school tenure, that fell apart too. Two particular girls, hormonal as they were, could not stand each other and manipulated me through deceit and lies. I ended up breaking off contact with one of them. She tried to make me touch her at a movie, explaining how lonely she was. I know God was guarding my innocence then. I later befriended a wonderful person named Amanda. We became best friends by senior year and she even asked me to the prom! We had a mock casino at prom and together, Amanda and I had enough "money" to win a trip to New York, which we took. (Her brother went with us to "save face".) My senior year, I was a huge school spirit kind of guy. In fact, I was nominated for best school spirit! I graduated 18 of 300.

As far as academics, I was above average. Can't say I really studied, but if I had, I'm sure I would have been top 10 of my class. I buckled down my senior year though. And by the way, I waited until then to take the dreaded PE credits. Ha ha. I also devoted a lot of my academics to medical classes. They had a unique program where students could spend half a day observing at a hospital. I did that for two years, certain I was headed for medical school one day. To further my experience, I began to volunteer at the local hospital. The same hospital, in fact, where I was born. There was a nurse who, I found out, worked in labor and delivery the year I was born (she didn't remember me =P).

Outside of school, as I said, I was in Boy Scouts. Troop 57. Being the runt is not easy. In fact, since this story is getting long, let me just say that it became a knockout drag fight when it came time to go to the meeting each week or camping each month. My mom and I would argue, but she kept making me go. I progressed through the first couple of ranks slowly. I tried to get a few modest leadership positions (required for the upper ranks) but never got elected. After months and months the torment and mental suffering, my mom experienced it first-hand. We were leaving from the meeting one night when a boy yelled out across the parking lot--with my mom beside me--"why don't you do this troop a favor and quit!" My mom yelled back at him and finally she saw what I was going through! We started visiting around because she was determined to keep me involved. I ended up joining Troop 884. I was accepted there, which is always what I've been longing for. Unfortunately, I didn't know how to handle it. I became arrogant, headstrong, and developed a "my way is the only way" attitude. But patient leaders grew me in that area. I rose in the ranks and got elected leadership positions. I developed great friendships, some of which I still keep (though distantly) today. The leaders--like Bill Bliss, Robert Divelbiss, and Ron Wood--are some of my biggest influences in who I am today. I even went on three backpacking expeditions, leading one of them! (As me for my journals sometime.) I obtained Eagle Scout in 1996 and even completed the Eagle Palms before I turned 18. Not a lot of people in my life now know about this side of me, but yah, I can be quite the outdoorsman when I want. :)

As far as church activities, those didn't go so well either for most of my high school years. But it ended in the best possible way! The church I was attending had a huge youth group. But it was more of a fashion show than anything else. I ended up making my schedule at the hospital so I worked Sunday mornings, just to avoid having to go. But the pain of my dad was still very real and very fresh, even a few years after it had happened. This other church in town sponsored a "Judgment House" every Halloween. It was a HUGE production; not like a hell house. My senior year (1996) I wanted to help out with it, so I became a guide that took audiences through. The other adult staff started talking to me and investing in me. They answered questions I had that I never felt able to ask. I remember reading John and got to 20:29, I think it was. Blessed are those who believe without seeing. As you can imagine, I was having a hard time reconciling my circumstances with faith in Christ. But pull on me God did, and on Halloween night, 1996, I gave my life to Christ. And the healing of the pain from my dad and all other tough circumstances began.

My Life: Miserable Middle School (Part 2)

2009-01-12T17:24:00.000-06:00

Middle school sucked. I mean, really. My two friends from elementary abandoned me. One got into the "gotta be cool" stuff and the other went emo. Okay, there wasn't the term "emo" back then, but that's what it was in today's context. I was picked on a lot because...well, I was a late bloomer. And to top it off, the story I'm about to tell you happened during those years. But there was one brilliant light in that time and I will never forget her. Mrs. Gail Baugher (rhymes with locker). She was my 6th grade English teacher and an angel sent by God for me. Besides teaching me my helping verbs (which I still remember her jingle today), she was there for me in personal struggles I faced. She let me start a club called "Kids for Saving the Earth". We started a paper recycling program. I thought it would be fun to count the number of pages we got. I don't know why, but we did! Anyway, Mrs. Baugher...well, I can't say enough praise about her.

Middle school is where I started developing my science aptitude. And it wasn't without notice...by the other kids I mean. AKA, I was a nerd. I remember running out of class one time crying because the other students were making fun of me for asking so many questions. I also had given up on choir and wanted to try band. But we made one of the last "interest" meetings so my top picks for instruments were already full. I ended up playing the clarinet. My 7th grade year, the band director asked if I wanted to be last chair symphonic or first chair concert band, so I chose concert. My 8th grade year I was in symphonic. But then "marching band" started to loom ahead and I didn't want to do that, so that was my musical instrument stint. I really wish I had just stuck with choir. I weaseled my way out of taking PE--something that terrified me--by volunteering to fill the building's coke machines as PE credit. My 8th grade year, they didn't let me do it again, so I tried to be a team manager for athletics. That plan backfired, because even though I did equipment stuff, the coach still made me dress out. I was mortified the day I walked into the locker room during the "athletic" period. Yes, more making fun of me. :(

Around about that time, my dad re-married. She has a daughter, Kimberly. It was his weekend for my visit and when I came over Kim told me they were married! They just went down to the JotP and did it, I guess. I liked his new wife well enough, I suppose, especially before they got married. But for some reason, after they got married, she got it in her mind that I was out to break them up and get my parents back together. (I wouldn't know this for many, many years.) It was awkward and I started withdrawing when I stayed with my dad. And it got really bad. I would, in time, become completely silent the entire weekend, only talking to Kimberly. And soon enough, every visit led to them yelling and fighting the entire time I was there. So I became more distant and they fought more and on and on. And whereas my dad used to come into mom's house when he came to pick me up, that degenerated into just standing at the door, then sending Kim to the door, then just honking. That is how paranoid this woman became.

Finally, the "S hit the F" one weekend and she told my dad that it was either me or her (also information I found out much later). My dad had time to grab his boots and me and get out of the house. He was going to take me to my grandma's for the remainder of the weekend, but I wanted to be taken to my sister's. And that was the last time I saw my dad on any "official" terms.

For the remainder of my time in Garland, my dad would ever-so-often call me from work (he worked on phone lines) or swing by after school if he was in the area on a job. I have regularly gotten a birthday card and Christmas card. He gave me some money regularly in college, too. All in secret. All those comments I made about "finding out much later?"...it wasn't until a summer break in college that I learned the circumstance of that day and what led to it. He told me he didn't want to grow old alone and that he knew one day I would grow up and be out of the house, so he had to make a choice. It would not be until my late 20's when I finally, completely reconciled myself to what happened that day.

So as not to end on a low note, one positive did come out of that. My mom took me to the pound soon after that day and that is when I got Scamper! He has been my comfort and closest companion for 17 years. Some people just don't get peoples' attachment to pets, but I hope you may see a little insight into mine. He's my most precious gift in this world!

My Life: The Early Years (Part 1)

2009-01-04T18:00:00.000-06:00

[Without further ado, here is PART I of "my life". I'm just ad-libbing as I go, so bare with the rambling. Hope you enjoy!]

The most defining circumstance that has made me who I am is the fact I grew up in a single-parent home. I grew up in Garland, TX, in the same house until I moved to college. Homestead Place, it was. Across the street was a huge city park with little league fields, pool, rec center, etc. I have 3 half-siblings who were grown up out of the house by the time I remember anything. The oldest is my sister, followed by two brothers. They each have 2 kids each, ranging from 18 to 10. My sister informs me when I was a baby, she would take me to cheerleading practice to pick up guys who thought it was cute she had a baby.

My parents divorced when I was three (I think it was). For a time, I had regular visitation to my dad's, like one weekday a week and every other weekend. Looking back, my mom was a trooper. I can see now--however ungrateful I might have been about it as a child--how incredibly much she loves her family. They are everything to her. And there were tough times, just like almost everyone experiences. She'll openly admit to not always making the right choices, but she always made sure we had what we needed.

I lived around the corner from my elementary school, Ethridge. Before that, even, I went to a daycare called Holly Hill, until I was old enough to walk home from school. I never was the popular kid or very bold or outgoing. I had a couple of friends. In fact, my best friends in elementary school were named Dustin and Josh. I remember many a recess we would run out to the field behind the playground and pretend to be Ghostbusters or Ninja Turtles. We played two characters each. I was Donatello (the smart turtle, of course) and Master Splinter.

I mentioned tough times and I think that is what led to my mom going to church. We went to Calvary Baptist Church. I was in 2nd grade when we joined. You know how it is: a 2nd grader going down front with their parent who is joining. I didn't have a real grasp with what I was doing. I honestly don't think that was the moment where I was truly saved by Jesus Christ, but don't worry, we'll get to when I was. I remember being in kid's choir; got a lot of leading roles. Same for school. In fact, in third grade I had the lead role and had to wear this awful glittery superhero outfit. I could make Christmas cards come alive and then refreeze them. A story about that: when it was time to re-freeze a card, I would have to do this big swirling motion with my arms and chant "whoa whoa whoa..." until the actors got back to their places. Well, I got it in my head that I wasn't allowed to take a breath while doing this and would be running on "fumes" and my voice would break while I tried to finish the line. I also remember a time when I didn't have my lines memorized because I was confused by the instructions and the director took me to the 5th grade area to call my mom, rather than to the office. She wanted to humiliate me and it worked! Ha...I just remembered I was in a city-wide play too. I had one line, but I wore this itchy pajama costume and sat there the whole time scratching all over. I also nearly tripped over a giant doll, flailing my arms to many a gasp from the crowd. But don't worry, I steadied myself and kept right on going. So yeah, I was into singing and acting during elementary school.

I was also active in Cub Scouts. (Dangit, I can't remember my Pack number.) It was important to my mom that I be around some good, positive male influences. So I did the whole camping, pinewood derby, pack meetings, etc thing. I seem to remember my mom being a cub leader for a time, and I think I hated it. LOL. She would be polite to the other boys and let them go first on activities, which would make me mad. Anyway, I got through that and earned the rank of Webelos (WE BE LOyal Scouts...creative, huh?) and the coveted Arrow of Light. Oooooo!

Middle school came around. I went to Bussey Middle School. And this is when things began to get really tough for me.

To Be Continued...

The Real Cost of Video Gaming

2008-12-31T12:28:00.007-06:00

A buddy and I were discussing the Wii and how much it costs to get all the little unique controllers. A little later, I coincidentally read an article about how the PS3 is lagging far behind the Wii and XBox in the console market. It spurred me to do a little research to see what the REAL costs of starting up one of these systems are.

For my research, I chose the best version of the console available and assume that you want to play with 4 people total. I chose only the accessories needed to fully play and enjoy any game, not things like a microphone, USB keyboard, etc. Let's also assume you buy two games. I used Amazon.com and EB Games (when Amazon didn't have it listed b/c they are out of stock) to get the prices.

Playstation 3

Console (80 GB harddrive): $399.99
Dual-Shock Controller: 3 x $54.99 = $164.97
Games: 2 x $59.99 = 119.98
Total: $684.94

XBox 360

Console (Elite): $399.99 (Pro - $299.99)
Controller: 3 x $44.99 = $134.97
XBox Live 1 yr: $44.99
Games: 2 x $59.99 = $119.98
Total: $699.93

Wii

Console: $249.99
Wiimote: 3 x $35.99 = $107.97
Nunchuck: 3 x $17.99 = $53.97
Classic controller: 4 x $19.99 = $79.96
Games: 2 x $49.99 = $99.98
Controller Accessories:
Balance Board: $89.99
Zapper: 4 x $19.99 = $79.96
Wheel: 4 x $9.99 = $39.96
Total: $591.87
Or with controller accessories: $801.78

It has always been Nintendo's hook to be death-by-accessory. I remember a few Gamecube games that you couldn't 100% complete unless you had a DS. My findings: even though the PS3 console is the most expensive, to get started with everything, it is the cheapest. (A caveat being you go all out on the Wii controller accessories. If not, the Wii is, in fact, the cheapest.)

A few other things to consider: the PS3 is a blu-ray player and a darn good one. Its online gaming is free. It is not fully backwards compatible. The XBox has Netflix streaming. The Wii is Gamecube-compatible but you must have the classic controllers. A lot of cool old-school games are available for sale via download.

For me, the Wii doesn't make sense because it is only fun if you play with someone. I live alone, so no point. I miss some Nintendo titles though. I've just never really been interested in the XBox. Can't really pinpoint why. My draw to the Playstation really has its roots in the Final Fantasy series, but for the PS3, it was definitely the Blu-Ray player that got me.

A new direction

2008-12-29T16:52:00.002-06:00

In the next couple weeks, my community group is going to try something a little different for a while. We're going to take the next couple of months and just learn about each other. One or two stories a week, person by person.

We got the idea from a concert a while back. The artists, Andrew Osenga, talked about his community group wanted to get to know each other before getting to know Jesus better together. What a great statement! I mean, really, how can we expect this to be the safest, deepest, and most active source of our growth without really knowing who each of us is growing with? We're not talking a testimony, in the pure sense of the word. And it doesn't have to be all about the dark pasts, which is often the first thing people think about. Just our story. Who we are. What and where life has brought us that makes us who we are today.

I'm up first.

I thought it'd be fun to provide a lighter version on my blog. Sorry, no gritty details for you here. Ha ha. So if you might be interested on who I am and what my take is, stay tuned!

When We Disagree

2008-12-18T13:33:00.003-06:00

Last week I had an interesting, uh, conversation. I was at a friend's house for dinner. Conversations typically range widely between the hilarious to the inane to the serious. I don't even remember how we got to talk about it, but the ol' Anne Pressley crime came up. One guy mentioned how he wished the assailant would suffer the same horrible death she did. I think the next thing said was something to the effect of "yeah we want that kind of justice but that's not really how God wants us to think about it." This really set the guy off and a very long debate ensued. In the flesh, I agree with the guy. If someone attacked a friend or family member, I would want equally bad things to happen to them. I hate the great treatment prisoners get because as far as I'm concerned when they took the rights of someone else, they lost theirs. But I'm not "of the flesh" anymore when I became a Christ-follower. I must allow the justice system to do its thing, accept God's vengeance on the man, and even be open to the fact that the man could be saved and forgiven. That last statement in particular is hard to swallow. This fellow just seemed like he wouldn't hear any of it. (Early on, another friend pointed out how no one was using scripture to back up their opinion.) To him: the guy is guilty; he DESERVES what he gets.

During the course of the debate, this guy kept changing his point, which in my experience, when someone does that, they don't have one. He was, in my opinion, perverting some scripture and misusing Old Testament references. He also brought up how we deserve what we get as sinners. (Not sure what that has to do with criminals getting the death penalty though.) I don't have answers about the stories in the OT when God wiped out nations all for the sake of his chosen people. I mean, did those killed get a chance to know Him? Was that their only point to being born? Where are they now? I don't know... But what I do know is that when Jesus came He changed the rules. It may have been "eye for an eye" and God wiping out nations, but now it is "love your enemy" and "saved by grace."

He then attacked my political opinions, calling me liberal (just because I voted for Obama) and how liberals "don't believe in the death penalty." Let it just be known that my politics do not influence my religion. And this is the point I withdrew from the conversation and let the others have it. There was no scriptural backing. And he almost came across as "that doesn't matter." The bitterness was becoming very apparent.

Okay, so if someone wants to agree with the death penalty (and by the way, please don't use the words "believe in" when talking about it), that's fine. But as a Christ follower, I can't reconcile my faith and grace with a statement like "they deserve it." To be honest, I don't know what I think about the death penalty. But what I do know is no matter how heinous the crime they committed, there is always room for grace.

Late Night in Nashville

2008-11-22T23:36:00.002-06:00

Sitting in the lobby of the Doubletree, where I finally found internet access, answering questions on my online courses and skulking around the internet, while downloading the new iphone update. There's a wedding reception wrapping up and about a dozen people wobbling past me in nice dresses and tuxedos. Next to me is another laptop user who is doing something that makes his computer sing "Yahoo!" every 5-10 seconds and he is not turning it off. OMG....

Today was very informative. That's the best word I can use. If you've followed by Twitter updates, here are the details. I never sleep well the first night in a hotel. It didn't help that every time the heat came on it was preceded by a very loud clunking sound. So I did wake up in time to attend the early bird sessions. The one of interest was a beginners Photoshop course. I knew most of the tools, but it was still good to finally HEAR someone explain it rather than just self-learn it from a book. I won a DVD of the instructors on some more advanced techniques! :) I also found out he was having a more advanced course that afternoon. I had wanted to attend the "behind the scenes" tour of the main sessions, but I felt this Photoshop workshop would be more practical. Definitely learned some cool techniques. It makes me want to get the creative juices flowing and create some cool "Christian-esque" graphical art to put up in my house. (Yah right...)

The main sessions have been, well different. Last night they had three mini-speakers followed by a Q&A that we could text to. Problem was they got to about 2 questions each speaker because the facilitator kept asking their own questions. Actually, overall the speakers have been a bit odd to me. One guy can only speak in one tone: dramatic...and did I mention he ended by disco dancing? I did get one thing out of it though...I'm now a member of the Slow Club.

The rest of the group I came with wanted to watch the Tech/OU game, but I wanted to go to the session again, so I did. I'm really glad, too. Unknown to me at the time, I got to hear the manager of the Human Genome Project talk about how he reconciled science with faith...his journey from atheism to Christianity. The. Head. Guy. Of. The. Human. Genome. Project. He spoke. He's a Christian! OMG! I'm kinda wigging out! His talk lost a lot of the crowd, I'm not going to lie (maybe part of it was the football game coming on). And really, I don't like to get caught up in the evolution/Genesis/creation/faith argument. Cuz really it shouldn't be an argument. It's a non-essential; the questions will be answered when we see God's face in heaven. For him, the reconciliation was important. And he laid out evidence that evolution is occurring and is a tool being used by God. That Genesis isn't a framework of 7 literal days. Okay fine. Bottom line: science and faith don't have to clash; they can flow together. We can figure a little bit out of how God did things, and doing so does not challenge His position as God.

Tomorrow's a lighter day. Walking around the vendors; one seminar. Football game is in town so it is going to be car-azy around here. Good night from Nashville.

November is NaNoWriMo

2008-11-09T18:55:00.000-06:00

This month is National Novel Writing Month. Funny enough, I found out about it in my Macworld magazine (they were reviewing some novel writing software). The goal is to write a 50,000 word novel by December. Any time I hear or read about people writing, I always think about my project "Lord or the Ring". I started it some 4-5 years ago, now, and never finished it. In short: take the premise of Lord of the Rings and apply it to a modern-day spiritual warfare story. Not completely creative, but let me tell you the context.

When I started with the idea, I was working with the student ministry under Jack McCarty. We had come off a successful "movie" series called The Pontrix, one of my first major video projects. Wanting to top it, I started writing a script for a Lord of the Rings spoof, because they were coming out in theaters then. But as I wrote the story in script format, the characters weren't coming out like I wanted. So I decided to write it as a story. When I hit writer's block, I was up to 103 pages. That's 8 1/2 x 11, mind you. At some points, I really felt like I wasn't writing it. It was so interesting to see how my characters were coming about and the choices they were making, as if alive. But then, as I said, I hit a wall. I had pitched the video idea to the staff and was turned down due to inadequate resources. That blow took away any creativity and 4 years later, the cursor is still blinking in the place I left it.

And now here we are, National Novel Writing Month. What do you think? Should I give it another shot? To be honest, I'm not sure who my audience is here...though I know 3-4 regular readers. One of the magazine's suggests is to post the story on a blog as it is written. Would you be interested in reading it? I mean, yeah, it has some corny moments meant for teens, but I don't think it is that bad for a complete amateur writer, and I had a couple editors helping me along at the time. Not sure about the filming prospects anymore...the whole LOTR has worn off, but it could still be a fun read.
So the poll is out! You are my friends/family and I need your opinion! Should I try to finish it? Post the chapters on my blog in scheduled releases?

IMHO (In My Humble Opinion)

2008-11-05T09:50:00.001-06:00

What a day this nation woke up to this morning. I'm excited and anxious for our president-elect to begin the tough process of repairing our economy and our status around the world, among other things. President-Elect Obama's speech was one of the best I have ever heard. The emotion was evident and substituted any words that could be said about the moment.

Some other thoughts: I'm surprised the Arkansas lottery passed as many times as it has been defeated. Perhaps the wording was specific enough and the cause noble enough this time. Texas and Missouri were both prepared to lose $30 million in revenue, I heard. So at least the money being spent will be in our state now. And perhaps the money given to students will increase retention and bring our state up on college graduates.

I'm torn about the adoption ban. Sure, I believe a child should be in a positive environment, but perhaps it really should have been a case-by-case basis. The point of the law is to prevent homosexuals from fostering and adopting, but I have a bad feeling about all the red tape and bureaucracy fostering and adoptive parents will have to endure.

I'm am completely shocked that Lightle won the criminal court position. She simply advertised better because there is no way her 3-months on the environmental court (aka the "dog barking" court) matches Finkelstein's 20 years of defending and prosecuting criminal cases. I'm sure he's in a WTF state this morning. Her connection to Gov. Beebe, which led to her appointment, really paid off.

In national news, surprisingly the ban on gay marriage in California is on the road to passing, though it is still close. Colorado rejected the "life at fertilization" law, which is probably best because of all the legal trouble that would have started. Several states were added to the list of those who ban gay marriage. And a few states will still allow abortions.

Thankfully, the Senate did not get its filibuster-proof majority. I was really concerned about this. I think it would have taken away some checks-and-balances that need to be in place. And even though I don't think Obama is as left as people make him out (he's not a socialist, people), he also needs healthy debate when he wants legislation passed.

So it's time to unite and see what happens. It is a good thing to remember that the hot topic issues of evangelicals and conservatives aren't really decided by the president. Yes, he has influence with his supreme court appointments and veto power, but so far the federal government has left it to the states to decide gay and abortion rules...as evidenced by how many of these issues were on the ballot across the nation. And if he does pick a Justice, the court will remain in its 5-4 status. So no extreme change there.

If you voted, good job! Now, no matter our differences, we can coexist peacefully as a free nation of united individuals! Go America! Yes we did!

Upsetting Email

2008-10-23T09:12:00.001-05:00

I got a forwarded email yesterday from a church member regarding the upcoming election. It upset me so much, I was shaking...and I had to sit on it a day before I responded to it. I just wanted to share what I wrote back in hopes that it will encourage my readers to reconsider passing along the smut that comes across your inbox.

I'm not going to lie....your email upset me. I had to sit on it a day before I responded. By forwarding it, you are saying you agree with what it is saying, which is "if you believe in prayer, you should be praying that Obama doesn't win." Then it backs up this claim with erroneous statements about his patriotism and faith. I pray for the direction of our country and I am voting for Barack Obama. Do I agree with everything on his platform? No.

But you should stop and consider what kind of damage you can do to relationships with your Christian family and your witness to unchurched. God is not a Republican; Satan is not a Democrat. Invite people to pray for our country and encourage them to go vote; and leave it at that.

Rooster Bullets and Dog Shlobs

2008-10-14T11:22:00.001-05:00

Fall break. An extended weekend of recovery and relaxation for me. This year it worked out where my good friends--Jonathan, Daniel, and Michael--and I could go camping. We called up another buddy, Nathan, to ask for a good spot, and he recommended a place near Gilbert on the Buffalo River. So off we went, loaded down for a weekend of fun with just the guys.

One story that came out of the drive up was a point when we realized we had missed a turn off the highway. The ol' iphone map was a little sketchy being out in the sticks, but we did indeed have to turn around. By this point, Daniel and I had to pee pretty bad, so we stopped on the side of the road. Suddenly I hear a weak cry from Daniel and loud barking. This dog appears out of nowhere and all but molests poor Daniel while he's trying to relieve himself. Seriously, the dog is jumping all over him. It made for very entertaining commentary on the remaining part of the trip.

We get to camp on the riverbed just down the street from Gilbert. Amazingly we are the only ones there. Nathan had a fire going and dinner made in a dutch oven. Let me just say that it was amazing. It was a meal with chicken, sausage, potatoes...very hearty and manly. After dinner we whiled away the night--and most of the morning--around the campfire. Nathan had to leave around 4:30 to go to deer camp.

I'm a pretty early riser when it comes to camping. I have a different biological clock, I guess. So I was up a few hours before the other guys, despite only having a few hours sleep. The others slowly trudged out of the tents. I made a little coffee over the fire and we made plans to do a float trip. A little pricey but a great time was had. We went about as leisurely as you can go. Took us about 5 hours or so. Got back to camp and roasted some hot dogs and potatoes over the fire. The effects of having only gotten a few hours sleep finally caught up to me and I turned in pretty early.

The guys had discovered a little country restaurant within walking distance, so the next morning, we decided to eat breakfast there. Coffee was a mere 79 cents. I audibly announced my surprise that it wasn't $4.79 and another table looked over and said, "you must be from the big city." Ha! We all ordered a item off them menu called the Rooster Bullet. Let me just break it down for you (cuz I think my stomach is still breaking it down to this day): country biscuits layered with eggs any way you want them and a meat of your choice. Then the whole thing is covered in skillet gravy. Drowned in it, is more like it. Then there's a side plate of hash browns. 3 out of 4 of us could not finish it. And none of us ate lunch.

We chilled for a few hours on the bank of the river and packed up. I tend to withdraw when I'm outdoors and this trip wasn't an exception to that. But the time I shared with my best friends was great and I look forward to making it an annual trip!

The Last 48 Hours

2008-10-10T11:20:00.000-05:00

There are many things I want to write about, so I'll just fill you in on the previous 48 hours or so of my life. Where to begin?

Wednesday afternoon - It became apparent that there were some serious issues with an online exam for my chemistry students. I required them to use a special browser that protects the test while they take it. Top that with the incorrect time limit was given so most students didn't finish and freaked out. The fairest thing I can do is re-open the test on a designated day and allow those who want to re-take it to do so. So frustrating...

Thursday morning - Met with the professors of the Toxicology department at UAMS. They are doing some fascinating drug dependency and behavioral studies. Fascinating! Would love to be a part of it. But...I can't. The full professor whose group I'm interested in frowns upon even part-time employment. I realize getting a science doctorate requires extensive lab time. It is a unique program unlike any other doctorate. So I would basically have to quit everything and live on the fellowship stipend of $24,000. That's not happening. I'm really okay with that, because in the end, I am happy. I just thought a PhD would open more doors when I'm ready to head back to analysis/research. May never be the top dog in a lab, but I can still get a lucrative job with a Master's.

Thursday afternoon - Finally finished up the chimney repairs. It was supposed to be a simple screen install. Ended up not being so simple. And the secretary for the company kept calling the poor guy every couple of minutes reminding him of his next appointment. He started yelling and cussing. It was awkward. At the same time, the garage door repairman came. Oh yes, did I mention? My garage door broke Tuesday night. But THIS repair was covered by home warranty, thankfully. Saved me $400. As he was going over the door mechanisms, he noticed the safety switches that keep the door from closing on bodies were sitting on the opener--uninstalled. So he fixed those too. Garage door repairs were on my offer and the opener was replaced, so I thought it was a done deal. It's another little fun surprise I got; another (pardon me) half-assed repair, like the chimney (which cost me $600).

Friday morning - Tying up as many current loose ends at school and about to go have lunch with my mom. Then some shopping for my weekend camping trip with the guys in my community group. Lupka, take care of my house! No wild parties!

Future Prospects

2008-10-02T11:58:00.000-05:00

So today, seemingly out of nowhere, I decided to visit area university websites for a graduate program. Not really sure why I up and started looking around. Visited UCA first, but there weren't really any PhD programs. I don't really want to go to UALR, but I looked. Yah, nothing doing. (I just rolled my eyes thinking about what to type for the next sentence.) I looked at UAMS. Even though I had such a bad experience there, it was really my only option left for this area. And as a colleague told me later on, it really was just the department I was in that was the issue.

I clicked through different programs and stopped on Interdisciplinary Toxicology. Hmmmm.... Given my continued interest in drug forensics, I read into it. Basically, this is the study of the biological effects of poisonous substances, from environmental to whole organism to cellular level. Now when I left the crime lab, I had just received training and certification as a Site Safety Officer for chemically hazardous crime scenes. I had also attended a couple of conferences with interesting studies about the hazards and effects of methamphetamine manufacturing. Although my job wasn't investigating these aspects, it was very interesting to me nonetheless.

I inquired to the program. I read through the research going on...four or five labs are working on drug dependency studies. Could be possibilities there. But what I don't know is how I could maintain a job with going back to school. I'm at the point I have to keep working. So that was part of my inquiry....how would that work? Right now I have a flexible enough job where I could attend classes. Albeit if I go this route, going back to the crime lab at the beginning of the year would probably be out because I would lose that flexibility. I think I'm okay with that for now. So let's just say this does work out...makes me kind of feel like this could be the higher purpose to my taking this position at PTC.

It has always been my desire to finish what I started, namely a PhD. It's just I had no experience in research laboratories at the time I went to UAMS and that made it very difficult for me. All the other students in my class had some connection to a professor and knew what they were going to do. I didn't. And it created a lot of conflict. Enough that I stopped, earned my MS, and got out.

I have an appointment next week to talk to the department chair for more information. Nervous, excited, anticipatory...all the usual emotions. We'll see where this goes...

Two Full Time Jobs

2008-09-30T09:54:00.001-05:00

Wow! We're in the last week of our 40 Days focus imagine. What a challenging, exhausting, wonderful journey this has been. It has been my privilege to have lead the media aspects of this. I have had such intense video work in the last 5 weeks than I have ever had...more than I thought I could possibly handle at some points. In recent weeks, it has felt like I've had two full-time jobs...probably because I pretty much have.

Going into this, I wasn't on a particular "imagine team" but got a call one evening to attend an organizational meeting. Suddenly, I was thrust into an overwhelming number of projects. We wanted a blog-style website to post the prayer journal and let people receive emails and post their thoughts. I needed to film a series of interviews of people describing their vision of our imagine statement to show for a series of four "parties". I needed to film an interview with the pastor emeritus of Parkway Place about their journey to West LR. Then, the faith interviews began. Initially shared through their "cardboard testimonies", the details of these journeys are being shared over the weeks through a more detailed interview.

Above all, these stories have been the biggest source of growth for me. Only myself and Carolyn (the person helping me interview) hear the full story. The congregation gets the edited version. My heart is touched by every testimony I've heard and I look forward to filming more in the weeks ahead. As I prayed for a willing heart during all this, I believe this is what God used to give that to me. While I have experienced my own difficult situation(s), to hear stories that affirm what I know to be true about stepping out in faith gives me courage to do so.

Then my pastor handed me another project. He showed me a music video put to the song "God of this City" by Chris Tomlin. Initially, he just wanted to insert pictures of our people in a few places. But that didn't sit well with me (maybe that was God) and I told him I would recreate the video entirely. What was I thinking??! I'm not sure the task was quite as big as creating "Peace Be Still" because there was no filming involved, but it was no less challenging and ambitious. Any time I do this, I want to create a project that has impact...not just a temporary emotional thing, but a lasting impression that challenges, directs, or calls a person toward Christ. The response was unbelievable. (I actually had two versions: one created for live singing by the choir and one to the actual track.) Never have I received such affirmation or heard stories of the impression it made. I was completely humbled by the thankfulness of the people who saw it. Clearly God was in this project, as I needed him to be it was made. It was tough! I took 3 days off last week to get it done and at one point, I just had to walk away for a while and tell God he had to finish it because I was stuck. I'm glad he did!

So here it is. I hope you are touched by the message God has given me through this project and given Parkway Place, as we become an irresistible church that is fully resourced and eternally focused.

Forwarded Emails

2008-09-22T10:23:00.001-05:00

So this morning I had a forwarded email from a former student. I guess I was in her address book and she clicked everyone. Normally I just insta-delete these and then email the person to ask they do not forward. Sometimes I feel compelled to explain the absurdity of believing anything in these emails, much less forwarding them.

Well this particular one was about Obama. So out of curiosity, I scrolled quickly. And I saw the word "Hitler". I stopped. I read. This email started by talking about how Obama has all sorts of charisma that has led him to have celebrity status. Then it said that Hitler had a lot of charisma too and that turned out disastrous. It then listed by bullet-points where Obama supposedly stands on issues and referred to the website Snopes to verify these "facts".

Oh wow. Needless to say I responded.

Anyone who takes emails like this as factual and allows it to influence their decision should really take the time to go the candidates' respective sites and see where they stand on the issues. Snopes is an un-educated person's way of checking facts. Take the time to do real research. Personally, I don't think it is the government's responsibility to push Christian moral beliefs on the people of a free nation by making them unlawful. The church should fill that gap by building relationships with people and having credibility with them to point them to the right choices. So look at the things that mean the most to you. In these times, the economy and foreign policy should rank up there. Just to retort a few of the points below: If you read where he stands, Obama assures a $1000 tax break for the middle class and an increase on high income families. His "universal" healthcare will only be available to those who have no option of healthcare. If a person can get it, but refuses to, they won't be eligible. To pay for it, he plans for a corporation tax. He wants to redeploy troops from Iraq to Afghanistan. Since announcing this, the Bush administration has begun trickling the idea of this to take away the steam of Obama's proposal. As for the other points, well there's never going to be a perfect candidate. I disagree on some of his points, yes. I even started out a Bush supporter but his policies haven't worked and it is time for a change of perspective. Even Senatory McCain has flip-flopped many "Bush support" statements to separate himself. I'm not trying to sway your opinion; just asking that you make an informed decision. Forwarded emails are never a good source for ANY information.

So far I got two responses. One was "please remove me from your list." I quickly apologized and relayed that I didn't want to be on it either. The second pointed out a typo and that I shouldn't make statements about education when I have typos. I responded jovially and thanked him for catching the typo. He wrote back and agreed that Snopes is horrible. We'll see what else comes in today...

Persistence Pays Off

2008-09-20T18:30:00.000-05:00

I went to the AT&T store today to get a comparison of their HD signal vs. mine. It was markedly better. So that told me there HAD to be something going on at my home to get this poor quality of TV. I put in another call to tech support. Asked to be immediately transferred to Tier 2. Enter Dustin. If blessings do indeed come in even small places, Dustin is the prime example of it. He shares my affinity for home theater and offered ideas that no other technician has. Between the two of us, the picture quality was improved VASTLY over what I had been getting. No comparison. And along the way of this 90 minutes support call, we chatted about different TVs and surround sound options and this and that. It was great! Like talking to a friend! I was so impressed by his level of service, I asked for his manager's contact info so that I could commend him. Too often managers only get angry correspondence, but I wanted to make sure he got the accolades he deserved. He made me feel valued as a customer and has most likely saved me from having to be a Comcast customer for a long while. There's still an audio issue...the HDMI firmware is not allowing surround sound to pass. So I'm going through an optical cable, but it has its own issue with sound going in and out. No work around presently, but at least he knew about the issue. No other person has. Three in-home technicians; several phone support calls...and HE was the first and only one to work out a fix.

Is the picture quality BETTER than what I have with Comcast? It's debatable now. But one thing is for certain, all the people I badmouthed this service too, I'm going to have to go back and tell them that AT&T stuck with me to the end. Be patient with the new service/technology and eventually a livable quality will be reached. For the money, this will do.

Watch This

2008-09-18T12:50:00.001-05:00

The Beginning of the End

2008-09-18T12:50:00.000-05:00

Today marks the beginning of the last month of my 20's. What a remarkable decade it has been. No call to reminisce now. I've got 30 more days to enjoy it!

Statement

2008-09-15T14:29:00.001-05:00

It is not for the government to enforce our Christian beliefs, convictions, and doctrines on the people of America. Making Biblical sins against the law is not how we fulfill the Great Commission. That is the responsibility of the church, not a politician. Vote for the change we need in our economy and foreign policies. What we've had the last eight years is not working. I started out supporting the current regime, but not anymore. We need a different, aggressive viewpoint.

I support Obama/Biden.

Marvelous Monday

2008-09-15T12:00:00.000-05:00

Okay, so I geek out a bit too much on the blog. Sorry about that. Here's just a fun little story about my Monday morning.

I get to work and find an email from a concerned student who disagrees with the reading assignment she was given for her English class. Apparently it depicts explicit lesbian encounters in it, and she felt uncomfortable reading, much less discussing the book given her "religious beliefs."

Then I get an email from a student who wants to re-submit an assignment that she admitted to cheating on. A short time later, another student comes to my office and asks to borrow my textbook so she can do her assignment. By the way, it was due an hour previous.

Another email comes in, this time from a student who is protesting her PTC bill and the way she has been treated by Student Services. She's placing blame entirely on the school, and while admittedly she was misinformed, she did not accept responsibility for what I have documented she said.

Then a student comes by when she "suddenly" saw a D on her transcript when last she checked it was a C. This would jeopardize her standing in the nursing program because she must have this class completed at this point.

Now it is lunch. Later is chemistry lab, when I meet the 4 or 5 students who cheated on their homework. I don't like confrontation. I hope they accept responsibility for their actions.

Tonight I have community group at the same time as the last Imagine Party at the same time as a Celebration Event team meeting.

Technology Can Be a Headache Sometimes

2008-09-11T17:02:00.001-05:00

Been a teensy weensy bit busy lately, so I haven't posted in a while, but I think it is finally time to share my extraordinary story about AT&T. Gonna geek out a little, so bear with me.

I'm about as patient as they come when it comes to new technology. And AT&T's U-Verse service is new here, so of course there are going to be hangups. Well two technicians, calls all the way up to Tier 4 support, and four days of them basically living with me...and I finally got up and running on Monday. They had to do some serious work down at the fiber optic hub at the end of my street. Then someone at their division forgot to match the work done in the computer systems. Yadda yadda yadda. It's working. Sorta...

I'm thrilled with the internet connection. Despite having signed up for the mid-grade service, I'm getting premium speed. 9.4 mbps down, 1.4 mbps up, with about a 90 ms ping. That ping is actually a little high; not sure how it will affect online gaming. (For the noobs: ping is the term to describe how long it takes a command to be sent to a server after you command it.)

But the high definition TV is another story. In short: it is poor. It is hard to describe in words what is happening on these channels. I can liken it to this: when I make a video, I can choose to render it in high, medium, or low quality. The HD channels look like a video that has been rendered on low quality. Motion turns into little fuzzy blocks, an artifact called macroblocking. Solid colors appear to jitter a little or pulse when it should be, well, a solid color. You can make out the gradations of brightness and it doesn't change smoothly as a sharp picture should. These abnormalities are a result of the TV signal being too compressed on their lines. This is something I read about from other users in advance and was worried would happen. With as critical an eye as I have for this, I don't think I'll be able to keep the TV service.

Further there is a firmware issue with the box that AT&T "may or may not know about". Simply, it is not passing audio codecs correctly through the HDMI cable to my receiver. Shows sounded like mush, comparatively to my Comcast signal. I tested this with an optical cable and it worked correctly--a nice, crisp sound. So something is definitely wrong with the HDMI firmware.

I was so looking forward to this. No more Comcast; gain the ability to set a recording from anywhere with internet; no more Comcast; and no more Comcast. As much as I hate being their customer, their picture quality is (it's hard for me to write this) far superior to AT&T's. The third technician that came out saw what I was talking about. I feel like he knew what he was saying and he told me "I'm sorry to say that this may be the best quality that we offer." If that's the case, no thanks. I'll just stick with the internet.

This has been a long hard battle with many retreats going back to canceling Dish Network. Dish would have been ideal, because of the (now) four providers to choose from, they have the most superior system. But not having local HDs is a deal-breaker. DirectTV just added them two months ahead of schedule, so hopefully Dish won't be long. Unless AT&T cranks up their bandwidth over their lines, then their service is going nowhere. Well maybe they will...the average consumer buys into the fact that they are getting "high definition" but as each provider scrambles to provide the most HDs, it forces them to put more information on the same amount of pipe flow. The only way to do that is to reduce the information sent per channel, which means poorer quality. And at that point, it is no longer HD by definition. I see past that, but it's all we got...

Woes Turn Into a Great U-Verse

2008-08-29T18:22:00.000-05:00

I have a reason to be thankful for my troubles today. The disappointment of canceling my satellite service and the trouble of signing up for AT&T DSL have given way to the ultimate destination I was seeking in the first place. Turns out it is called U-Verse.

Background: I called AT&T today because I got my first bill. The phone line was significantly more than I expected so I was calling about that. As I was on hold, I was browsing their site and came across a DSL service they offer WITHOUT needing a phone line. I asked the representative about it, noting that the man who helped me before had a real strong accent and I never truly felt he understood what I wanted. She started to switch to this new DSL, when she asked me what I was doing with TV service. "Funny you should ask," I say.

She then told me about a newer, "advanced" technology of delivering TV through fiber optics, never once using satellite along the way. From there, she patiently waited as I read and researched this service called U-Verse. With the fiber optics line comes vastly faster internet speeds of up to 10 meg down, despite getting an internet package that touts 3 meg. I reviewed the technology quickly and compared the channel line up to what I have now. Locals are in HD and there are about 10 more channels that I'm not getting in HD with Comcast. (Plus there's ESPN-U. That's for you, Lupka.)

They were running a promotion for $250 check to people who got TV and internet and there is no commitment. That'll come in handy with the $700 repair I'm having done next week. First month is free as I try it out. The package I chose will run me $94/month. That saves me $40 over Comcast and I'll be completely out of their terrible structure. (I see today that I ended my internet service with them not a moment too soon.) The rep even offered to back-date all my current DSL charges since it was never quite what I wanted. I am so fortunate to have gotten her as my rep when I called!

Hopefully there will be no unpleasant surprises when they install next Saturday. A process that takes 4-6 hours apparently. But I'm already very excited at the possibilities...chief among them, the ability to use my AT&T phone to set my DVR to record remotely. Whaaaaat!!!! Heck yeah!

Update: I've spent the better part of the morning reading technical forums. Seems most, if not all, users agree that the HD quality is not as good as satellite or cable. AT&T has to compress their data to fit all the streaming for HD and internet in to their pipes. (All TV providers compress, but apparently AT&T does it a bit more than satellite and cable.) What results is a lot of macroblocking, or a pixelated background and a softer image. Makes me incredibly nervous but I'm going to have them come on out and install it. First month is free, after all. Won't cut off Comcast just yet.

Finding Out About Life on Facebook

2008-08-28T14:07:00.000-05:00

Believe me, I'm about as pro-technology as they come. But there's a point where the technology replaces the human-to-human contact where I have to draw the line. Facebook is the prime example of this. Every time I find out about a very significant event in someone's life because another friend of mine saw it on Facebook, it really irks me. (I don't have Facebook myself, so I get the news second-hand when a friend sees a person's status has changed.)

One example: several months ago a couple broke up. For some reason the first thing people do when this occurs is to log in and change their status. Then the grieving can commence as if that finally makes it official. And by the way, this apparently justifies not telling anyone because "you could have seen it on my Facebook".

Another case (which spurred this little post of mine): a guy I used to know came out of the closet, taking everyone by surprise. Perhaps he was so scared of judgment or maybe he wasn't completely confident in this decision that it was much simpler and more brave to hide behind a monitor and announce to the world via a keyboard.

I'm not being a hypocrite by the fact that I blog and use Twitter. Anything I say on here invites conversation or is a result of a conversation. Most of it is nonsense anyway. But when people reach the point of using these avenues to not do the right thing by having that person-to-person contact, I would go so far as to say it is not what God intends because the relationship with that person suffers. It's like emailing someone when you are angry with them, instead of talking to them. It's a weak, character-miring cop-out. Soapbox off.

My Satellite Dreams Shattered

2008-08-22T14:03:00.000-05:00

I just canceled my DISH Network service. About 15 minutes after the installer left. Let me lay it out for you: I sign up online with the aid of a representative via chat. I'm signing up for an HD-ONLY service. I select my package. Now I have to choose features. Among them, there is an option to add local channels. Representative tells me they are, in fact, available. Process my order. Fast forward--get it installed today. Installer leaves and I start flipping through my channels. All I can find are the local channels in standard definition. So I call and tell them I think I got the wrong package installed because not only are there no HD locals, I've got tons of other channels not listed in my package. After 20 minutes, the tech support lady comes back on and says HD locals are not available in my area. Um, WHAT?!? She says I could get a digital antenna, but I can't DVR them that way. Forget that....After verifying the information, she tells me that it could be next week, or it could be next year, when HD locals are added. I have the service canceled. I feel terrible for the guy that installed everything but what's the point of getting an HD-only package with no HD locals? I went back and acted like I was signing up for new service. NOWHERE does it say that this service is unavailable. Wow.....

Still getting rid of Comcast's internet though....despite AT&T going back on my modem rebate. But my desire to get off Comcast is stronger than my conviction toward AT&T's integrity in this matter. This has not been a pleasant experience overall....

Comments on Commercials

2008-08-18T19:14:00.000-05:00

I don't watch commercials. That's the beauty of living in the DVR age. Even if I'm home, I'll wait for 15-20 minutes before watching a show. But with the Olympics, I've been forced to watch them. There's three that stand out in particular I feel compelled to provide commentary for.

1. Dish Network: As you know, I'm making the switch from Comcast to Dish. And I discovered their awesome HD-only service by their commercial. Well done!

2. McDonalds: Okay, if you've seen one of their commercials touting their new "southern style" chicken sandwich and biscuit, it should be very clear that they are targeting Chik-Fil-A. I mean even down to the two pickles. Jumping on the bandwagon a little late, aren't we Ronald?

3. Alltel: They are still pumping out the Chad vs. the other guys commercials. This latest one, featuring an RVing family, particularly attacks Verizon's "all inclusive" feature, noting that it cannot be shared by family. Um, aren't you guys merging?

Well that's all for now. Gotta get back...race just ended and they're going to commercial....

What a week....

2008-08-16T14:33:00.001-05:00

There are two days in the year that I dread the most--payment due day for the Fall semester and payment due day for the Spring semester. Wednesday was one those and as typical, it was a mad dash from the moment I walked in the door. I'll never understand why students who have months of advance notice wait and scramble right up until the deadline. It started out with 85 students receiving "impending drop" notifications. We were able to work the list down to 22, who did end up getting dropped. This was much higher than normal. (I later found out that PTC had a record drop number. Curious if it is a sign of the economy.)

In the meantime, I learn that they do not have enough instructors to cover my six sections of chemistry. They promised me last year to hire someone and that I could be a part of the interviews. Well the latter didn't happen even though the former did; however, they kept the new guy on the main campus. So I was faced with having two overload sections past my commitment to do two online sections. I called my boss to let her know and she was not happy. She went straight to the top. Long story short, I was relieved of the sections, but the solution is definitely not in the best interest of our chemistry curriculum.

In the meantime (again), my full-time faculty received new computers. Now PTC has been on the BHSLR campus for over 7 years and it has never been a problem to have them connected to the network so that we could have internet access. But all of the sudden, the IS department has decided they don't want to put computers not purchased through them on the domain. So they canceled my request. At this point I was still patient because I thought it was a misunderstanding. But I entered into frustration when it was confirmed and I was told my instructors could go to the student lounge to use the internet. I consulted the school's administrative lead and we've gone back and forth all week with IS. First it was run DSL lines from the guest network to our offices. Then it was a wireless connection option. Then it was PTC should buy computers through BH-IS (yeah right)..... Now I'm moving into the realm of anger. I have not gotten one good reason why these computers can't be added other than "we can't" and am getting the feeling they are going to disconnect the ones that are still there. Late Friday I was told they were finally going to honor my original request, but 15 minutes later, I get a call that the computers will be connected wirelessly and that I'm responsible for buying the wireless network cards (with no budget mind you). That's where we are at right now...somewhere between thinking it was done and being back to a wireless option. In the midst of trying to get a semester off the ground, this has been the single-most worst experience I have had in this job.

And that's just work. Shall I get started on all the things I have to do for church in the next several weeks?

Making the Switch

2008-08-14T21:40:00.001-05:00

I'm finally getting rid of Comcrap, er...Comcast. Years of poor cable quality and recent stories of their net neutrality-killing practices of throttling traffic to certain sites, not to mention the cost, has done them in for me.

While watching the Olympics I saw a commercial for Dish Network's new TurboHD package. I checked it out. Their lowest package (Bronze) is $29.99 and lacks 3 HD channels I have now, but adds about 12 that Comcast doesn't even have at all. I did extensive research on the weather/signal loss issue and asked plenty of people. My plan is to buy a digital "rabbit ear" device if the signal is lost for any significant amount of time due to storms. That way I'll at least always have locals, after the digital conversion Feb. 19.

I was paying somewhere around $60 for a digital package that only just allows me to also get HD service with Comcast. But that's another $15 (with DVR). So that's $75 per month for about 15 channels (because I don't watch any of the others). Their internet is about $40. All told...$135 per month.

I'm also getting AT&T's DSL service. I wanted to get the 3 meg download package (DSL Pro) but unbelievably it is not available in this area. Further bummed because they were giving the modem for free with that package. So I got on chat with a guy and said that I should get the modem for free anyway since I fully intended to get the Pro level but can't. He said he couldn't do that, so I told him I wasn't going to sign up. He went to get his manager who quickly approved the rebate for me. After an agonizing hour of trying to sign up for service--their website was having major issues--I finally got signed up. I tripled checked with him that he was sending my rebate and he assured me he would email me with all the details. Haven't gotten it yet. Gonna be pissed if I don't get that rebate. But for this service, the phone line--which I won't use a phone at all--is $11.95 and the DSL is $25. So that's about $37.

All told, with satellite and internet for about $40 each, I'm saving over $50 per month now. Sweet!

Job Update

2008-08-11T09:19:00.001-05:00

The word is, they are going to try to take measures internally to catch up on their work load. If these measures do not work, they will post a job in December. So we're on hold until the beginning of the year.

And I think that is okay, because I'm considering picking up two more classes for some extra money. And if I did that, I would definitely have to wait until the end of the semester because I'd be locked contractually.

So maybe it's a small blessing....