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Thoughts about sportsmanship

2010-12-07T09:28:00.000-08:00

This story came up at work this week and I had some thoughts about it. If you don't want to read it then all you need to know is in the title.

"Hockey team leaves ice after racial slur"
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/toronto/story/2010/12/03/toronto-hockey-coach-123.html

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When I was about 11 or 12, I was playing little league baseball and I hit a long fly ball down the right field line. I thought it was going to go foul so I slowly jogged to first base. The call from the umpire was a fair ball and my coach urged me to run the bases – I’d hit a grand slam and made it all the way home.

The opposing coach pulled his players off the field because he knew the ball was foul, and I knew the ball was foul. I agreed to go up and bat again and to this day I don’t remember what happened (but I didn’t hit a home run the 2nd time).

I still think about that event today and I am 100% sure that the opposing coach was wrong. He should not have given the example to his players that they could somehow leave the game if they didn’t like the way it was going.

This is the exact same thing. The point of sports is to test yourself directly against someone else. That person may not play the way you think they should, but if you leave the competition you are a loser and have failed the personal challenge that comes when you need to face adversity. You might not win the game but at least you can look in the mirror and say that you met the challenge no matter how tilted or unfair it may have been. This is probably the most important lesson that any sport has to teach you as a participant.

This doesn’t even touch on the fact that one of the main strategies of Hockey is to disrupt the composure of the opponents so that they are irrational and make bad decisions. This player just figured out something that was more disruptive than fighting or calling him a fag or whatever.

I will add that the officials probably should have ejected the player from the game, but if they don’t then you need to go out there and beat that player within the rules of the game – you can’t just quit because that disrespects the challenge and the purpose behind even playing the game to begin with. Finishing the game isn’t tolerating the other player its finishing your commitment to yourself to do your best regardless of what everyone else does.

Outside of the game, I can think of a ton of different ways for that player’s team to show that they won’t tolerate this – thinking physical punishment during practice or even kicking him off. There’s always the grudge factor that the other team will gang up on this guy during future games and punish him physically, and last but not least we’re going to meet you in the parking lot . . .

Haiti and some realizations

2010-04-28T11:56:00.000-07:00

I've never really come up with airtight examples of how corrupt Haiti really is. In my exposure to local experts and some of the reading I've done, the closest that I can come to describing it is that there is an instituted culture of expecting handouts and taking free aid. That in and of itself isn't bad, but there is strong evidence to suggest that the US gov't has taken steps to transform the country from an agricultural one to "The Taiwan of the Caribbean." The result is that there is an embedded culture of need and dependence that has become aggressive in its demands for assistance.

There was a real plan to change Haiti to a place that could produce our trinkets and sew our jeans for us, but in order to do that we had to shift their focus away from growing food - in stepped USAID. The free food in Haiti has watered down the market so that locals can't sell their own harvests at a profit, and it gets more malicious than that. At 2 different times (now 3) during the country's history there has been enormous need. One was during a US backed embargo and the other during a drought. Both times food aid slowed to a trickle and only resumed in full force after the problems were over and when bumper Haitian crops were being sold at a fair market value. The new crops dropped the price and ended up hurting Haitian villagers and farmers.

To top it off, most of the food never gets distributed for free. It ends up in the hands of an intermediary who is able to sell it to someone who can afford it and the poorest never get much aid at all. This cycle of unwanted and intercepted food aid has created animosity amongst the Haitians. They often resent the food aid and since they have (in an indirect way) been moved off of their farms, they come across as entitled to receive free food. In more than one case during my trip, an American told me a story of having a Haitian demand something from them in an aggressive way - "Give me some food" or "Give me your phone." This comes across as an aggressive entitlement that seems selfish and ungrateful to outsiders.

A brief aside - The bright spot in recent years for the Haitian economy has been the fact that the illegal drug trafficking through that country has managed to trickle down some wealth to some of the poor and middle class Haitian's. Timothy T Schwartz tells a story in his book that I mentioned in an earlier blog about a drug smuggle that got intercepted by Haitian peasants and transformed the lives of almost an entire village. He quips that the drug 'hijacking' did more for that village than decades of government focused food aid. This story actually made me wonder if the reason we still fight a war against drugs in our country is because of foreign drug lobbyists trying to maintain their unique ability to provide an agricultural crop that we don't openly grow in the US.

Continuing - Combine hopelessly entrenched selfishness with the overwhelming poverty that is, unlike some other places in the world, visibly obvious and as an outsider you are left wondering if there is any future for Haiti. I realize after reading my blogs that I tell a story with some hope in it because the trip was hopeful and reinvigorating for me, but in reality I can't really see much hope in store for the people of Porte-au-Prince. The people there are living in the absolute worst conditions that I've ever witnessed first hand.

I managed to accidentally catch this ESPN story about the under 17 girls national team yesterday and was struck (again) by the hopeless future of young Haitians. This story didn't really have much to do with sports for me, it was more the ending that really struck me as a powerful example of how journalists can change perspectives and have their own views of the world turned to the side.

E:60 tells the story of the Haitian under-17 girls' team, from the welcoming arms of the Dominican Republic and Panama for training, then Costa Rica for the CONCACAF tournament and back home to Haiti

Haitian Girls Attempt to Qualify for U-17 World Cup

Thank you to my Supporters

2010-04-23T10:57:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to let all of you know that I've been back from Haiti now for an entire work week, and I've been slowly transitioning back into business as usual here.

I feel so honored to have been a part of the relief effort and am dumbfounded when trying to come up with explanations as to how the people of Haiti can move forward.

Whenever I've come back from an experience where I can witness first hand the disparity of wealth between some people on this planet, I can't help but feel some confusion, sadness, guilt, responsibility, even anger at how some are expected to survive. I think in recent years, I've tried to accept that my role is to share as best as I can with people that I care about them and want them to succeed. I can't make a big difference, but I can do something and all of you helped make that possible. Thanks for your prayers and support.

While I was down there I didn't experience any wooziness or even timidness about jumping into various medical procedures. I stayed healthy and have remaind so this week - even my feet stopped hurting by the 4th day into it.

Many Thanks,

Jonathan

Some Thoughts; Return Day 5

2010-04-21T08:13:00.000-07:00

I'm adjusting back to my life and learning to care about things like the amount of half/half in my coffee again. That seems relatively important compared to some of the work things that I need to focus on.

I had several episodes when I woke up in the middle of the night and had no idea where I was. It lasted longer than normal and I even started to get up and try to find a perscription drug for someone. Then I realized my dog was just barking at my own garage door and we both went back to sleep. The size of my house in that moment just after waking seemed enormous . . . .

I keep thinking about individual patients. There was one guy we saw who'd had a skin graft on his leg that was healing ok in parts and not so ok in others. He seemed really more dirty than everyone else and was probably the only person who acted like he had absolutely no idea what I was saying when I spoke French to him. One of the providers on our trip, Lisa, had to pick at some dead tissue for him with tweezers and Joellen attempted to wash his foot for him. The area above the bandage was swollen strangely, so I don't know really what the problem was. We bandaged him up and told him to come back, but I didn't seem him again. I wonder if he'll lose his leg at some point.

I've been grasping at trying to figure out what I'll do next to help these people. I've made some contacts with those in Haiti, but nothing specific has materialized. I've even asked some of my friends who are also providers if they could tag along on another trip - we'll see. I know that I can probably help provide the school with needed (legal) copies of software, so stay in touch with me if you want to be involved in that. It will probably be something like $30 to provide a copy of Windows or office.

I still haven't organized my thoughts about some of the things I've learned regarding the culture of aid that exists in Haiti. For those interested, I'm reading this book: http://tinyurl.com/y4lswqf. Its self published which means its either all true or all a 'load,' but its been very informative regarding the impact of food aide on Haiti and the US Govt's involvement in the history of that country.

Back at Work

2010-04-19T09:25:00.000-07:00

I'm already back at my desk working today. Thankfully, I've been scheduled for some training over the next 2 days which means I can pace myself to get going up to full speed again.

Part of this trip for me has been actively trying to engage others in the experience. My extravert personality also makes me live through things by sharing them with others, so I've been soliciting conversations and questions from everyone. This also helps me remember things and potentially get different perspectives on the experience.

Some people have asked me some good questions since I've gotten back. I think mostly they've asked open ended questions and I've had to say "The trip was a lot of things, good, bad, painful, rejuvenating." Someone asked if I would do it again and I immediately said YES. I am even sort of trying to figure out how I could go back next month.

I will say that it occurred to me that on other volunteer trips and mission trips I've been on, you deal with a lot of rejection, sometimes boredom, sometimes wondering if what you are doing is actually making a difference or even the right thing - but I don't really think I experienced that at all on this trip. We didn't have time for that. It’s a rare feeling to come out of something feeling so needed . . . . If I'm feeling any kind of difficulty adjusting back it’s because the things I'm doing are so much less urgent here than they were last week.

Some have asked me if I witnessed outbreaks of epidemics. The good news is that after reflecting about it, I don't really think we treated any patients for things like Dysentery or Cholera - others on the trip may remember differently. The bad news is that there was some concern about Tuberculosis but that is often a problem in Haiti. We did see several AIDs patients. Reports of incidences of Malaria are statistically more common than before the earthquake. Also many of the more common diseases have similar symptoms so in one consultation it’s hard to determine what the problem actually is.

To me this means that people are probably getting mostly good water, so at least some of the concerns about massive epidemics wiping out more people than the earthquake have not materialized. Complaints about Diarrhea and trouble breathing were common and can probably be related to uninfected but poor food and water supplies as well as a very large quantity of dust in the air from all the rubble. Several women also reported that they weren't going through their monthly cycle but failed pregnancy tests which could be due to stress and other factors. After explaining this to my wife, she remembered firsthand accounts of WWII concentration camps that reported that no women experienced their cycles even once throughout that horrific ordeal.

While in the tent cities no one is conspiring to actively commit genocide against the Haitians, the comparison to the Nazi holocaust was an interesting one for me to contemplate. People have been forcibly removed from their homes; have no privacy, and no control of their own future or well being. Their health is at constant risk and they have no positive way to occupy themselves.

I mentioned earlier that on our last day we went to a tent community where no Drs had been before. There had been another team close by, but they were the equivalent of multiple suburban blocks away which is too far for someone to walk if they are seriously ill. The fact that no team had been there before created some anxiety in the crowd waiting for us when we arrived. I never felt unsafe, but things could have potentially changed quickly and, at the least, forced us to leave without treating patients.
At one point, I asked a translator if there was a place to go to the bathroom. He went and found one of the local Haitian men and we walked a bit down the rocky inclined street that had tents on one side and concrete homes on the other. The roofs were a combination of rusted metal and plastic. I think they had probably cleaned up the street for us because I don't remember noticing any trash or burned evidence of trash. The man led me to a concrete hallway between 2 homes and I followed him chasing a juvenile chicken into a courtyard that seemed to join several living areas. The courtyard must have been about 8 feet wide and 10 feet long and was open to the sky above. There were two toilets in separated 2x2 concrete walled rooms here and even when I asked in French why 2 of them, I didn't find out the purpose of each one. I think rubble was piled up against the back wall of the courtyard or some kind obstruction(s) that looked like construction clutter to me at the time. The toilets were concrete holes that had been built up so at least you could sit on them and there was an actual toilet seat permanently stuck to the concrete. I don't know where it went, but it was deep enough and dark enough that I could not see the bottom. A lace curtain was drawn across the opening of one of the rooms for privacy. I took some of the women on our team to this place a few hours later and witnessed some twin girls taking a bath in a plastic tub and a woman cooking over fire on something that had been rigged up to hold a pot. I tried to speak some French to the 1 year old-ish twins "Salut les petits." The woman cooking could say Bonjour back, but wasn't able to speak any more French to me, another older child in a doorway behind her said nothing. They didn't react and pretty much all stared at us. I have no idea what they were thinking, but they looked tired and a little afraid. From the looks on their faces, I doubt they'd ever had a white person in their bath/kitchen courtyard. It was time for lunch, and I walked back to the tent area where we were treating patients and ate a pre-packaged meal I'd brought from the states, drank some water and we chatted about some work things and the cute little twins - then we got back to work and finished up our last afternoon of treating patients in Haiti. I didn't really think about it much till later but seeing that family's home was actually a nice bright spot for me; some semblance of normal behavior in an otherwise very chaotic environment.

Found Some Mission Rescue Links

2010-04-18T15:01:00.000-07:00

These are from others who have been there

http://www.cathedralofpraise.org/pages/page.asp?page_id=96911

http://globaldiaconate.wordpress.com/2010/03/02/bethlehem-haiti-team-tuesday-march-2/

http://www.mvi.org/mision-rescate-rescue-mission

Quisqueya Crisis Relief blog
http://qcsrelief.quisqueya.org/

I also started a facebook group:
Misión Rescate (Mission Rescue) Haiti

Haiti Day 7

2010-04-17T06:48:00.000-07:00

Its Saturday morning and I'm packing up my things and getting ready to catch the bus back to the airport. I don't really want this trip to end.

At some point yesterday while I was taking an outdoor shower, I realized that I hadn't even thought about watching TV or playing a video game the entire time I've been here. Despite the physical exhaustion, this has been one of the most rejuvenating experiences that I think I could have had.

I've really enjoyed the team of people that I've had the priviledge to spend time with this week. I've remarked multiple times about how we've just got some really solid individuals with us here and its been great getting to know them and learning from them.

I've also really liked being able to test myself learning something new. I really couldn't have told you about anti-biotics before this trip and I actually memorized some of the treatments and dosages while fetching drugs for our wonderful physicians.

Clicking back into French has been nice. I haven't spoken to the patients as much as I would have liked, but there was certainly a time for that along the way. I realized yesterday that my French was equivalent or better than the English of our Haitian volunteer translators and it was helpful to have a native English speaker who could at times bridge the communication gap a bit.

Another thing thats been great is the ease of logistics. The school put together meals and transportation and pretty much everything else. Its hard to come to a country like this and know what conditions are like and how/when you will be able to move around. Frankly there probably is no other way that I would like to visit Haiti than to stay on these school grounds.

Yesterday we went to a tent city and actually saw patients in someone's tent home. It was less hectic than mission rescue and there were no surgical procedures, but those people had not had any Dr.s come to that location yet, so we were really excited to provide some care. I stood right in front of the pharmacy table (3 steps away from both Dr.s) and tried to keep up with the perscriptions they wrote. We were also joined by some Haitian medical students who did triage work and saw patients as well - they worked faster and without translators so I had my work cut out for me filling sandwhich bags with pills.

Since I'm getting ready to leave, I want to sum things up, but its just not time for that yet. More to come . . .

Haiti Day 5

2010-04-15T17:59:00.000-07:00

I've been back to Mission rescue every day this week. I've turned myself into an on the spot pharmacist and the Dr.s I'm working with tell me that I'm doing a really good job.

My day at MR involves filling sandwhich bags with pills of Tums, Tylenol, Vitamins, and other OTC medicine, but it also involves me learning and keeping track of a lot of antibiotics and hypertension medication. That along with anything else that could possibly be wrong with someone - we have to some how have a way to treat them.

Drawing a picture for you, Haitians line up from the tents to the police station and the line is long. We've treated somewhere between 300 to 600 patients each day. They are triaged under a tent where vitals are collected and then sent to wait for us. We see 'General' complaints which means not Women with Ob. concerns or children (although they are next door and I am their pharmacist too). The waiting area is a narrow hall that was also probably a waiting area for the police, they then move in to our general area where they are called by a Dr and a Haitian interpreter for consult. The Pharmacy is a table that is 3 steps from the consultation area and supplies stretch all around the room. I try to make it easier for the Dr.s to find the medication, needles, sterile equipment, and everything else. I also assist with surgical procedures since I'm the one who seems to be able to keep track of most of the stuff and I'm sort of 'good in the pocket.'

There have been a lot of medicines collected in the main MR pharmacy tent which is seperate from our area (in the courtyard style parking lot). I had a chance to help organize it this week. I can't really keep track of all of the new experiences that I've had and all the learning I've had to do.

Some highlights from yest and today:

-Learning that Augmentin is Amoxiciline plus something else (I know it when I see it)

-Learning what Amoxiciline is

-Tons of other drug stuff (Mebendozole kills something like tapeworms)

-Assisting in surgery on a women who had worms inside an open leg wound. It was pretty gross in an awesome way

-Showing up after pickup at MR and being taken to the General Hospital around the corner where 8 trauma victims had just arrived from an auto accident. The power was out in the tent outside the hospital where they do triage and the heroic Dr.s were working with headlamps, practically in the dark - I mostly stayed out of the way.

-Watched some fluid drains including a Pneumonia patient who needed fluid drained from the lungs - and a patient who needed perniel (sp) fluid drained from his scrotum

-Not getting woosy even once the entire time I've been here

Part of our discussions here have been about the problems of providing free health care. There is a long history of dependency in this country on foreign aid and I'll blog about some of the things that I'm learning on that topic next time.

Haiti Day 3

2010-04-13T17:32:00.000-07:00

Hard for me to organize all of my thoughts from the last few days. A few people asked me if I was able to sleep inside or if we were camping on the grounds of the school. Our group of 8 people were able to secure a school room (6th grade classroom) where we unpacked our sleeping bags and are sleeping on cots and airmattresses.

Work for me has been pretty amazing. I've been assigned to work at a clinic that is operating out of the main police station right across from the crumbled Presidential Palace - It really is falling down.

The clinic calls itself "Mission Rescue." It seems to have been started by an American from Floriday who is trying to maintain a supply of medications and staff it with volunteers. In 2 days working there, I think we've seen more than 1000 patients with various maladies, some are fresh wounds while others are suffering from more ordinary afflictions like upset stomachs and fever/colds.

My role has been as a sort of pharmacist and organizer. I think I've learned the names of more medications in the past 2 days than I knew in my previous 33 years of existence. I package up multi-vitamins, anti-acids, antibiotics and other things so that they are easily distributed to our patients. I'm also working as a translator, but many young Creole/English speaking Haitians have volunteered to translate which is good because while I'm getting complimented on my French constantly, its only really working one-way with some of the poorer people who need treatment. Thats because you have to have some education to actually learn French in this country.

Despite some of the communication difficulties, I don't think I've ever done any work before like this that felt quite as worth while. The people coming to mission rescue line up very early and they come from different places nearby. There are quite a lot of tents (like 10s of thousands) in the surrounding neighborhoods so presumably the people are coming from there.

We've basically got the ground floor of one wing of the police station. We try to do OBGYN stuff in a seperate room, while children are sent to a pedi-care room staffed by som volunteers from Michigan. The team from Quisquea (me) sees general patients and we are staffed by a Dr, 2 very experienced EMTs, a retired nurse, and a Physician's assistant. I stand on my feet about 7+ hours just running around filling pills as I mentioned above, disinfecting and cleaning wounds, and sometimes giving instructions to the patients in French (take this one 3 times a day etc.) Some of the highlights of treatment have been me having to hold down a 'street kid' while we gave in a novacain injection and then stitched up a wound his friend had given him from a broken bottle - I also saw the Dr. lance a really gross boil today that kinda exploded - it was awesome!

Some of you are aware that I can feel a bit light headed from discussions of some medical topics, but that hasn't happened to me at all here. I'm seeing a lot of gross stuff and it isn't really phasing me at all.

One thing about the mission rescue site is that you can go up onto the roof to eat lunch when we managed to pull ourselves away for a break. Up there you get a great view of the crumbled presidential palace as well as the records building with all the adoption information next store (that one is just ruble). You also can take in the scope of the destruction from a high-ish place and its difficult not to be overwhealmed. Not every building has fallen down, but there are more in ruins than you can count. Who knows if they will ever climb back up from this - and they weren't really in a very high place before anyway.

From the roof today I got to see what we thought was Michelle Obama's helicopter touch down on the grounds of the Presidential palace. There were American soldiers up there with sniper rifles pointed toward the landing zone - kinda cool.

All in all I'd say that the experience has been exhausting, but I'm really feeling like I'm making a difference. Thanks to all of you who supported me and are continuing to pray.

Will try to blog again tomorrow or Thursday.

A first day in Haiti post

2010-04-11T16:44:00.000-07:00

-Woke up 2:50am
-Incredible awesome sister took me to Fairfax Community Church where I met up with my team and we headed to Dulles airport for our 6am departure
-Checked in and to my first dose of Larium for malaria (after hearing a team member story of it making them very ill in the past)
-Arrived Miami - NOT very ill from Larium!!!
-Quick bite of breakfast and possibly my last cup of coffee for a week in the airport
-Short flight to Port au Prince
-Customs in Haiti - super easy and all of our bags made it
-Quisqueya Christian School (http://quisqueya.org/) right on time, sent a truck with a big cage on the back to pick us up. There was a padlock on the back but they didn't lock us in. JK felt very safe
-Lunch and an orientation - so many doctors and medical practitioners here its amazing
-Short nap
-Walk around the environs, found a bakery that sells pastries and ice cream and is air conditioned, didn't expect that!
-Typing this blog

Here are some disorganized thoughts about healthcare

2010-03-23T12:51:00.000-07:00

I think the characterization of the faceless rich lining their pockets while we suffer has been over-dramatized. I doubt the health care industry in general profits as much as say, the energy or finance industries, and there are probably sectors of it that barely make a profit which would be considered healthy.

No one really supports taking the government completely out of our 'Free Market.' We have tons of constraints placed on our industries by the government and some make our problems worse. Health care is a very 'regulated' industry as it is.

I don't really get scared away by labels of Socialism, we've always had some constraints in this country so its not like anyone is really a Free Market purist; controls by themselves aren't bad.

I just think that hospitals will continue to overcharge and now they'll have a growth in patients who, on a gov't plan, pay them less. This and the fees leveled against insurance providers will make it so private insurance costs go up and they will pass that cost on to your employer making it harder for your employer to pay you or pay someone else like you.

Most of my apprehension is from my first hand exposure to the French system. The amount of transfer payments that an employer is required to pay to hire an employee adds up to more than half of the employee's annual salary. The payments go up if the employee is laid off and firing people becomes extremely difficult due to some additional constraints. Basically, France's economy can only grow by creating new business that earns enough to cover an employee + 60%. This means that those who are educated enough to get into a highly productive industry can make some profit and grow, but the working class becomes more and more dependent on the government and in turn those in their country who actually grow some sectors of their economy. The incentive for the productive members of society to make progress is progressively reduced.

We don't have a history of government programs that cover our citizens 100% besides things that protect us like police, fire, speed limits etc. So I see this as a first step toward inevitable stagnation (like France), and my feelings are negative about it.

My hope is that people will be more relaxed about health care and as a result become more productive. Perhaps our country will be made stronger by a class of people who are now provided for in a way that was previously not possible. I'm skeptical about that, however.

A Plea for a Plastic Free Subscription

2010-03-22T20:25:00.000-07:00

From: Jonathan Clark
Subject: A Plea for a Plastic Free Subscription to your Magazine
To: subscriptions@wired.com, info@wired.com, editor@wired.com
Date: Monday, March 22, 2010, 10:25 PM

Dear Wired Magazine and Conde Nast Media Group,

My name is Jonathan Clark and I am a current subscriber to Wired. My account number is ____________.

I would like to request that you offer a subscription option to your magazine that would be guaranteed NOT to be wrapped in a plastic bag while in transit to my house. I understand that you need to protect the quality of the magazine as well as the advertising devices inside, but I am so tired of extra plastic packaging on my products that I would rather not receive your magazine than see another issue in my mailbox wrapped in plastic.

My subscription expires this month and I will not renew unless you can offer me a plastic-wrap free subscription.

Sincerely

Jonathan Clark

Jonathan's Volunteer Trip to Haiti

2010-03-18T05:26:00.000-07:00

I wanted to let my blog and FaceBook-o-sphere know about an upcoming volunteer trip that I am taking to Haiti. I'm pasting the details below. Please let me know if you have any questions.

I am sending you this letter because I thought you might be interested in some of the details regarding an upcoming trip to Haiti that I will be taking. I stumbled across an opportunity to participate in a short term, medical mission trip with Fairfax (Va) Community Church to Port au Prince, Haiti. I’ll be gone from April 10th to April 17th.

I say ‘stumbled across’ because I do not attend Fairfax Community Church. In fact, I only found out about the opportunity because my sister who lives in Northern Virginia attended the church and sent me information about their trips to Haiti. The church is committed to sending a team of volunteers every month for 6 months. The first team was made up of mostly doctors and they assisted in a triage surgery center in Port au Prince in January. The April team will hopefully consist of a full medical ‘field unit’ who can go out into existing medical field stations and provide care. I will be assisting with French translation for the doctors and nurses who have also volunteered. Check out the following link for more information and updates: http://www.fairfaxcommunity.net/helphaiti

In preparation for this trip, I am building a group of supporters who would be willing to donate money and/or even best wishes as I get ready. Each team member needs to raise the cost of their flight to Haiti, and I will also need to get myself to Virginia to meet up with the team before we all leave together. The cost of the flight to Haiti is arranged through travel agents who are willing to offer a discounted rate to missionaries and will cost about $1200. If you are willing to be part of my support team, please fill out the attached form and return it to Fairfax Community Church by April 9, 2010. If for some reason, I am unable to go on the trip, the funds I have raised will go toward Fairfax’s ongoing Haitian outreach.

For those of you whose companies offer corporate gift matching, know that Fairfax’s EIN is 54-0895396, and they were already in our giving system here at Microsoft. If you give a gift and request a match, you can add a note indicating that the gift is for Jonathan Clark’s trip to Haiti April 10-17 Attn: Chris Wagner. What is exciting is that Laura is planning on going on a follow up trip in June, so any matching gifts could be potentially applied to her trip.

Thank you for your time and investment. I look forward to sharing with you, when I return, about my experiences and observations. I appreciate your support and I encourage you to think of me in your thoughts or prayers while I prepare for what will undoubtedly be an unpredictable and exciting experience.

Best Regards,

Jonathan

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
RESPONSE FORM

I, _______________________________, am committed to sending Jonathan Clark on the mission trip to Haiti April 10-17:

I will support you financially. Enclosed is a check made out to Fairfax Community Church in the amount of _________________. (For tax purposes, please do not write the name of the participant on check. Instead, enclose this form with your check so the funds can be dispersed appropriately.)

Final Contributions due by April 9.
Mail to: Fairfax Community Church
11451 Braddock Road, Fairfax, Virginia 22030
ATTN: Haiti Mission Trip

Final Part of Staycation 2010 (aka the 2nd annual video game-a-thon)

2010-01-28T11:25:00.000-08:00

Finally I'm going to ramble a bit about time and how one should spend their time before giving a brief review of the last 2 games on my list.

One thing that has struck me during both the 2009 and 2010 staycations is just how truely long these video games are. Its almost discouraging to think that I spent 5 whole days playing about 6 different games and I didn't 'finish' any of them. If you start to break this out it gets even worse. Each day, I played games between 9-10 hours. Over 5 days this is 45 hours. During the rest of the year I probably will play games a little less than that over 3 months. So I was able to make about 3 months worth of headway into these games in 5 days. If (big if) I got halfway through all 6, that means that I need to be playing only these games over the next 3 months to 'finish' them. Thats pretty staggering in my opinion. I mean how is a person with a job expected to get through these games? The games industry acts like we need to be playing a new release every 2 weeks, I mean how do people do it? Even if I had no job, It would still take tons of time to keep pace with the exhausting release schedule of only the games I actually want to play . . .

In my mind this whole discussion begs the question "What else could I be doing with that 45 hours." I usually come up with a few good ideas, but in the end I decide that I like playing games and that I should spend time doing what I like. Sure, I'd like for the house to be tidier and the cars to be washed, but I also want to sit on the couch for 2 hours and play games.

When it comes to my free time, I think I've gotten to a point where I can easily say "NO" to the sense of duty inside me that constantly insists I should be doing chores or work or learning something. I believe that most of the time that voice is wrong and doing what it tells me will probably make me unhappy. Free time is free, and we live in an era with more of it than at any other point in human history. We also probably do more work for people other than our own families than at any other point in human history. I'd say that makes us a bit more selfish about our free time than our ancestors. At least thats how I feel about it, and right now I'm choosing to play games with my time.

Now on to the rest of my list:
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed - I played this on the 360. The Wii version of the game actually gets slightly higher ratings and the 360 version feels like its been squeezed down a bit to accomodate the Wii's less powerful hardware. The cinematics are abrubtly stopped at points, there are long load times to get through the menus, and the controls seem a bit simplified. BTW the menus thing doesn't seem like a big deal until you realize that you keep having to check them to see what moves you can do with your lightsabler "Do I push x+y or x+b?" You have to wait like 7-10 seconds EVERY TIME you enter the menu to check this and because you are constantly unlocking new moves you have to check A LOT. These are just little knocks against the game however, but they do tend to reduce my enjoyment of it overall. I'd say my biggest complaint about this game is the way they implemented the "Force Throw" power. Again this doesn't seem like a big deal, but I want to be able to effortlessly throw rocks at jawas and instead I can't seem to pick up the one that I want, and when I do it goes off in some wierd direction where I didn't intend to throw it. To make matters worse, Its almost like the game encourages you to use this power and then laughs at you as you miss your target like 80% of the time. GAME - "Haha, you'll never get that rock back cause its off the screen. Also, it was the only thing big enough to take out the AT-AT. . . . . Haha!" Its only after you clear those obstacles that you get to enjoy this game. I gradually developed a style of play that minimized the loading and the force throw, and I was able to get into a really well done and engaging Star Wars story. It takes place between Ep3 and Ep4 and tells the story of Darth Vader's secret apprentice. They used motion capture on the actors' faces and it ends up looking really good. (The lead is played by Crashdown from BSG). This might have been the "worst" game I played on the staycation, but it is still a good one. It actually made me want to go back and play the Ep3 game for PS2 because I was a big fan of that one.

Dead Space - This game borrows from a lot of current gen titles and it does it very well. I don't remember the last time that I played a game that was this effortlessly fun. It doesn't really shock you with innovation or surprise you with new styles of gameplay, but everything it does seems so easy to interact with that you don't end up minding at all. The best way I can describe this game is if Bioshock and Resident Evil 4 had a baby in space it would be Dead Space. 3rd person action with spooky space aliens and an interactive mystery story that you uncover as you explore the abandoned SS Ishimura. Its great! One thing to note about this title is that it seems just as long as any other action/adventure game, but the pacing of the game seems really geared toward an adult with a job. You can finish one of the game's chapters in about 60-90 minutes. Thats perfect for someone who just put the kids to bed and wants to play something great in a short period of time. Or someone like me who is probably going to fall asleep at 11:30 whether he likes it or not and can't get into something that takes 79 hours.

Part 2 -Staycation 2010 (aka the 2nd annual video game-a-thon)

2010-01-19T13:04:00.000-08:00

So I want to lead off part 2 of this by simply addressing what and why it is that I seem to enjoy video games so much. A lot of people think that to play current gen video games you have to have a long history of playing and enjoying video games. I fit into this category as I've been playing video games for quite some time, and I think that past experience certainly helps explain why it is that I like to play games, but really, games have changed so much over the past 30+ years that playing games from 1979 doesn't really help you enjoy games from 2009.

Most people have had some positive experience with a video game in their life. Maybe they liked PacMan, or Tetris, or Mario, or Bejewelled. These games are easy to like because they are relatively simple and do the most important thing a game can do which is stimulate AND reward multiple sensory inputs at once.

I think games are addictive because they stimulate so many parts of your brain at one time. Sight, Sound, Reaction, Manipulation, Intensification, and Analysis. I think if you think about a game you really liked, it probably stimulated all of these things and you can probably think of more or better ways to describe the way you felt. There was also a very obvious reward for you as you used these 'senses' the way the game wanted you to. Sometimes the reward is as simple as an explosive sound and other times its getting to take a short break before the next level starts. In any case you were making progress and it was fun.

If you were used to playing games from 1979 you will remember that they were mostly based on Sight, Sound, and Reaction. Games have gradually added more elements that require advanced hand eye dexterity and problem solving analysis along with cinematic style storytelling that can even illicit intense emotion. This actually has the effect of delaying your reward. Instead of just eating pellets, you have to learn how to make your character go fishing so you can finish the first chapter of the story. If the actual task you are supposed to learn is too complicated it feels like work and you quit before you get your reward.

I'll say that there is a point in pretty much every game when I feel like this, and thats where my long experience with games kicks in and I do some natural things to analyze what I'm doing in the game to try and make things easier for myself. If you don't have this experience (and are actually interested) here is what I do:

Think about the game as a finite set of rules. The solution to whatever problem I have fits into a small set of things that are possible. What was the last addition to the ruleset before I had this problem? Is there a way that it changes the game in some way I haven't considered yet?

Try everything, but don't try the same thing. Most of the time the solution to my problem isn't more repetitions, but something I haven't tried yet. Trying the same thing too many times in a row is boring and leads to f-bombs and other exclamations.

When you get stuck, use www.gamefaqs.com to find walkthroughs and solutions to your problems. Games are very long now, and there will be lots of challenges for you beyond the one that has you stuck. Using a walkthrough instead of losing your marbles is acceptable.

Moving on through my list . . .

Zak and Wiki Barbaro's Treasure - this game is actually called: Zack & Wiki: Quest for Barbaros' Treasure. Despite its wordy title (lovingly referred to as Zip & Faggy) this is an excellent puzzle solving game hidden in a Japanese style cartoon. The action in the game is point and click style. It reminds me of old PC point and click adventure games like Space Quest, Day of the Tentacle, or Sam & Max. However, rather than making you combine ridiculous items to magically open a sealed door, this one seems a bit more creative with its puzzle solving. "I have to pour the lava in the pit to burn the pole before I dump the water to get the treasure." The beauty of the game is that you just use the Wiimote to point and click your way through these puzzles. Occasionally they make you do some Wiimote push or pull or flick that ends up being mostly amusing and occasionally irritating.

No More Heroes - Hmmm . . . Its hard to explain this game. The best part of this game is the extremely entertaining storytelling style. Its a rare combination of a Japanese produced product that has successfully formatted itself for a North American audience. The main character is essentially a douchbag, 20 something who has a lightsaber and wants to become the #1 contract killer in the country. To do this he has to slice his way through killers 10-1 using the Wiimote buttons to unleash sword attacks and the motion controls to do 'wrestling' moves. Its got an open world feel to it like a Grand Theft Auto game, but the story is complete candy that somehow does not get old. Hilarious one liners, creative use of (a lot of) profanity, and incredible sword mutilations have kept me glued and laughing most of the way through this one. I think they took some big risks 'stylizing' this and in my opinion it totally works. I get it.

Ok well thats all I have time for today. I guess I'll finish up in Part 3

Staycation 2010 (aka the 2nd annual video game-a-thon)

2010-01-18T12:09:00.001-08:00

For the 2nd year in a row, I took 3 days off of the week immdiately preceding the start of Laura's spring semester. This gives us a chance to spend some quality time together after the hectic holidays and before the busy back-and-forthing to Waco begins for her anew.

Last year when we chose to do this we were neck deep into our remodeling fiasco and we needed some time to escape and not spend money. We decided that since we own an absurd amount of video games (that we BOTH like to play) that we should dedicate our 'Staycation' to playing games that we already own that we've negelected since purchasing.

Because last year we had no kitchen (not exaggerating) we bought a bunch of food items that could be prepared in the toaster. -Not even trips for food will keep us from our lazing about at home- We kept the 'toaster trash' tradition alive this year and our menu included such classics as pizza pockets, bagel bites, taquitos, snickers ice cream bars, and a grocery store party tray sampler with cheese cubes and salami.

So the staycation came and video games were again the primary focus. We also sprinkled in some massages and a Dallas Stars game just for kicks.

Here are the rules for the gaming:
-We both make a list of all the games we own that we want to play. The list should be longer than what you actually have time for
-We rate the games on our list to determine which games we'd most like to play
-Once prioritized we evaluate what systems the games are on and then set up 2 different TVs with the consoles least likely to conflict with each other for game time
-When play on one of the games begins we set a 90 minute timer. When the timer goes off you finish up what you are doing in the game and switch games.

The switching means that we get to play different games. Seeing as how the point of this is to play games we've bought but have neglected, this method lets us dust off the most neglect possible from a high variety of games.

There were probably about 25 games on my list with priority ratings from 1 to 5. The 6 high (5) priority games this year were:
-Chrono Trigger (played on a PC SNES emulator)
-Knights of the Old Republic (XBOX)
-Zak and Wiki Barbaro's Treasure (Wii)
-No More Heroes (Wii)
-Star Wars: The Force Unleashed (360)
-Dead Space (360)

Lower priority games I also played were
Beautiful Katamari (360)
Rayman Raving Rabbids (Wii)
De Blob (Wii)

I didn't "finish" any of these games and I plan to continue playing them all to completion as they are all good games. I've put about 7-12 hours into each one now and here are my 'halfway point' impressions.

Chrono Trigger - I've started this game a handful of times but wanted to really get into it this time. Its a Japanese style RPG, and is often considered to be in the top 3 all time in that category. This is the oldest game I played as it came out in 1995. The game is instantly entertaining and is full of quirky and likeable characters that belong in a young adult fiction story. For its time the game introduced some really different interactive story telling techniques and will challenge even hard core movie going adults to pay attention as its complex time travel story unfolds. The 'boss' battles are frequent and they keep you feeling that sense of accomplishment that encourages you to explore and investigate the different stages of the story. The other thing that others always talk about with this game are the combination abilities that your characters can activate together. I'll agree with the screaming masses that the combos are really fun and should be in more RPGs.

Knights of the Old Republic - Bioware's Star Wars classic that takes place 1000 years before Episode 1 has been on my list of "must plays" for quite some time. This game was released in 2003, and while I've tried to play it on the PC, its really the original XBOX version that gets most of the praise. I finally borrowed a copy of the original XBOX version for the staycation and dove in. This is also an RPG but not of the Japanese variety. The story telling is great. The game really captures the feel of the Star Wars universe and does it well. The gameplay itself is solid although the maps feel too small after playing next-gen games. This results in the exploration elements feeling pretty easy. The combat flows like a real time or action RPG, but I'm constantly stopping it to switch to my various characters and activate their abilities. This can break up the feel of the game a bit. With around 12 hours in, I'm not really even halfway through, so I need to give this one some more playtime, but I'm enjoying it mostly for the story at this point.

Ok, look out for Staycation part 2 coming soon. . . .

Top 10 Games of the Decade

2009-12-28T12:48:00.000-08:00

Top 10 Games of the Decade
=============================

-Spyro: Year of the Dragon
If you didn't play this game then you missed out. The real masterpieces were the first 2 games released in the 90's, but I didn't play any of them until the 00's so I'm including the 3rd game (released in 2000) in my list.

-Madden NFL 2001
Spent lots of time exploring the very rich franchise mode. I just couldn't put it down.

-Katamari Damacy
So shockingly entertaining and unexpected that I still cant believe its as much fun as it is.

-X-Men Legends
An incredible co-op experience for me and Laura on one of our favorite subject matters.

-NCAA Football 2005
The memorable moments that the game saved for you were a nice addition. Dynasty mode kept me stuck on the couch forever.

-Guitar Hero
Still probably my favorite GH game to play. This is another one that I couldn't believe until I played it.

-God of War
Perfect action game with a great story.

-Lego Star Wars
The (movie) prequels sucked but this made up for it. Possibly the best co-op game(s) ever.

-Boom Blox
Knocking down blocks is simple and makes for one of the best games of the decade IMO.

-Mass Effect
The best video game story I've ever experienced. This is the game I wished I could play all those years.

Honorable Mention
=============================
--FIFA Soccer 2002 <- helped teach me a lot of French
--Guild Wars <- my dip into MMO
--Wii Sports <- taught me to love the Wii; at least for a while

Some Others:
=============================
The Sims
Rayman 2
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
Sid Meier's Pirates!
Karaoke Revolution
James Bond 007: Everything or Nothing
The Movies
Dance Dance Revolution
Catan
Scene It? Lights, Camera, Action
Fallout 3
Magic the Gathering
Plants vs. Zombies

Some Rules
=============================
--I didn't pick sequels, just chose one game from a series or family - ex. Guitar Hero 2, 3, 4, 5 . . .

--I didn't pick games that were re-released on a different platform in this decade - ex. Dragon Warrior III for GBA

--I didn't pick games that I hadn't spent a considerable amount of time with - ex. Deadspace might make this list eventually, but I'm not done with it

Surprises:
1) I didn't really name more than 10 and had to go back and look at gamerankings year over year rankings to get ideas
2) I haven't really been able to devote time to a sports franchise mode since about 2005

My 'Feedback' to GameInformer magazine about their feature on the top 200 video games of all time

2009-11-25T14:08:00.000-08:00

From: Jonathan Clark
Subject: Show me some C64!
To: feedback@gameinformer.com
Cc: wongojack@yahoo.com
Date: Tuesday, November 24, 2009, 7:59 PM

I love your magazine, but I couldn't help noticing that your list of top 200 games of all time included no titles from the Commodore 64 (or Amiga). I know we all love our arcade classics, but there were people playing games between 1983 and 1986 and they did it on Commodores (and others - nice cameo by Lode Runner for Apple II).

Zelda is in my top 5 games of all time, but certainly some games from the C64 could have made it in "The 200" - Sid Meier's Pirates, Summer Games, Bard's Tale, Impossible Mission????

Thats not to mention the fact that some genres like sports franchise modes trace their origins back to Amiga/64 titles like Superstar Ice Hockey. How bout the Jump Man lovers who claim that Mario ripped them off?

I know C64 is just a memory and probably didn't do squat in Japan, but I think at least one game could have made it in the top 200.

PS - Nice choice on the 2600 being represented by Adventure. It was way ahead of its time. Although I wouldn't be surprised if you got an angry e-mail from David Crane

Election Day Observations

2009-11-03T10:43:00.001-08:00

In Texas we have constitutional amendments proposed to us all the time. For example, one of the more recent ones was an amendment to define marraige which I voted against, but this post is not about the pros and cons of that issue.

We had another 11 amendments proposed to us today which will undoubtedly pass; all seemed basically unnecessary to me.

The highlight is Proposition 11 which is an attempt to restrict the government's eminent domain or the right to buy your property and turn it into a highway offramp. They have always been able to do this but recently eminent domain has been stretched to include property that could improve urban areas and increase tax revenue for the state. So in some situations around the country, they have been able to force grandma to sell her house so they could gentrify the neighborhood and open an Anthropology next to a Starbucks because that improves tax revenue etc.

Well the Proposition proposed to us was supposed to prevent such property seizure by private enterprise, but they included some deliberately flexible language that allows certain organizations to essentially seize property:

"entities granted the power of eminent domain under law or for the elimination of urban blight"

This is troublesome and even my friends at the Libertarian party of Texas, who would normally be all over limiting eminent domain, couldn't make up their minds about it. (I would paste a link in here, but every attempt I've made to paste in this post has simply done nothing?)

I chose to vote for Prop 11, thinking that some regulation on this sensitive topic is probably better than none. At least some claims will be thrown out immediately and someone's property will be protected.

I chose not to vote on 2 other propositions (3 and 5) that seemed written in such a way that no one could possibly understand their intent unless they were standing on the floor of the legislature helping to write them. I don't use this internet abbreviation lightly when I type - WTF!

I went with the Libertarian recommendations on most of the propositions, but split from them on Prop 7. Call me paranoid of military dictator overlords, but I think that if you're in the military you should retire before you run for elected office.

There was one item on the ballot other than the 11 amendments and even though I was a political science major and am actively interested in local politics, I still don't really know what the school board does. I mean, I know they make decisions about the budget appropriated to them and probably sanction texbooks as well as appoint the superintendant, but how am I supposed to choose who would be best at that job? The shool board election is a bit of a political 'foot in the door,' and the job would probably be done better by an actual career educator.

I did not cast a vote for School Board.

Also, I'm running for Dallas School Board next year

Not really

The Shards of Richmond Prime

2009-07-14T18:20:00.000-07:00

This is a scene I wrote out of a large sci fi/fantasy story. Xtranormal is just a funny little way to produce it quickly and I wanted to play around with making my own little movie. . .

http://www.xtranormal.com/watch?e=20090714211846981

Andrew-"I don't know how I really feel about this, but I've got to tell you that I've found something that just can't be explained without considering the black rock stories"

Jude-"What do you mean? We heard all kinds of stories out there"

Andrew-"You might not remember, but once or twice grandpa mentioned his own ancestor Paul Davidson. I can't remember if it was his grandfather or great grandfather. He said that God had told Paul that he had to find and do something with a treasure that was "poisoning the planet" while "under the control" of a group called the CAFO"

Jude-"I remember. He claimed God told Paul to 'seal' the treasure. . . I just thought he was making it up - kinda. He was so serious about it though and it was weird that he said 'under the control' But why would God tell Paul to get some treasure."

Andrew-"I don't know, but I found something in the library that I'd never seen before. I don't know where it came from, but its one of grandfather's old books. Actually it looks older than him - pre colonial. In it there is reference to an object that seems to control people. I can't really read much of it but it talks about a "collection" "poisoning the spirit" and there are news clippings of some old disaster. Its a power plant explosion of some kind. Someone has written in notes that are even harder to read. Then there is a receipt of some kind that is also hand written and a sketch of the belt buckle that grandpa gave me.

Jude-"So grandpa was taking notes about his life and you found it. We knew the buckle was special to him. . . ."

Andrew-"I can't explain it but I think there is something more. I've been wearing the buckle lately and I've felt more of a . . . . connection to grandfather. I can sense something special about it. I even started carrying it around when I'm not wearing it on a belt."

Jude-"You need to get some sleep. Are you trying tell me the buckle is magic? Maybe it came from our ancestor who got it from God, because we all know about the magic clothing that they talk about in the sacred texts. In case you didn't pick up on that, it was sarcasm."

Andrew-"It sounds ridiculous. I don't even believe I'm thinking it, but there is one more thing I haven't told you. There is a letter from grandfather to our father and in it he tells father that the buckle was made from metal from before the colonies and that the metal was recovered from the W.O. headquarters by Paul Davidson.

Jude-"Whats the W.O.?"

Andrew-"I had to look it up. Its a 22nd century organization that had a mission to bring freedom and equality to the old nations. I found a picture of their headquarters and it turns out that they were originally called the Confederation for Amical Freedom and Order."

Jude-"C.A.F.O."

Andrew-"The last part of the letter tells father that Paul recovered another object from the W.O. and explains how grandfather buried it near black rock after he originally came to Richmond Prime. The instructions are detailed and could double as instructions for burying some kind of poisonous waste. 10cm think Iron within Titanium . . ."

Jude-"I don't know what to say. I guess there could be something buried out there. I never really knew what grandpa was doing most of the time out there."

Andrew-"I didn't either, but if there is something there, I think we should try to find it. I think this is related somehow to Saratoga."

Jude-"What if there is something there? It sounds like granpa wanted to keep it hidden, and what will we do with it once we find it."

Andrew-"I think that whatever this thing is, its important. I also think that the recent interest by the veritas faction sounds a lot like the same thing that this W.O. was supposed to be about. Specifically their interest in what they describe as 'moral phenomenon.'

Jude-"Not this again, Crystal works for a subsidiary of that group and its the best job she's ever had - they are great."

Andrew-"I know, I know - look just come home and lets go out to black rock and find out if there is anything to this. We owe it to dad and grandpa, and I can't tell anyone else. They don't know the stories and they didn't know grandpa like you and me."

Jude-"Ok, I'll do it for grandpa, but dad was an ass. It'd be nice to get a trip home after so long, I've been missing that stupid breakfast cereal that we can't get out here."

Andrew-"Thanks J, grandpa would want us to do this, I just can feel it or something like I'm being lead back to black rock"

Goodbye Adam

2009-07-13T09:35:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to say goodbye to an old work friend of mine named Adam Lokey. I don't have any kind of canned way to deal with his death, instead its this kind of thing that makes me question well intentioned lessons about "God's Plan for Our Lives," but Adam probably wouldn't want me to dwell on that.

I can't say that I knew Adam very well but we were amoung a group of 'young-lings' at my previous job, and we frenquently shared common observations of work and life and love etc.

I remember that just when I thought my job couldn't get any more boring, Adam showed me what he knew about color. We were looking at something specific for work and he broke down the color variation in a way that really made me see him as an artist. I was impressed.

Adam once made me a surprise mix CD of Wes Andersen movie music which I listened to all the time in the years we worked together. I loved it and had never even considered listening to that music before he shared it with me. I was impressed.

Adam played indoor soccer with a group of guys one year from work (and his and my past). It was then that I understood his illness and how it impacted every segment of his life. He dealt with it like a nobleman bearing his burden for the realm -Nobless Oblige. I was impressed and humbled as any minor health complaint of mine paled in comparison to what he dealt with.

Goodbye Adam, you changed me and I was lucky to have known you.

French Contract Translation

2009-04-28T12:35:00.001-07:00

A friend asked me to translate the following:
L'affilié recevra dans le cadre de ce contrat une rémunération sous forme de commission équivalente à 2% du chiffre d'affaires HT réalisé par une commande enregistrée sur le site dans les 15 jours qui suivent la première visite. Ce chiffre d'affaires comptabilisé s'entend hors taxes, hors impayés, retours et remboursement, frais de transport et frais de douane, commande provenant de manière identifiée du site de l'affilié généré pour la vente des produits high tech RueDuCommerce. Il est entendu que les internautes refusant les cookies ne pourront être comptabilisés.

I don't know the rules for run-on sentences in French, but this type of language always makes me think that they are ok or at least the rules are very different. Here is what I came up with quickly.

The party will receive, as specified in this contract, payment in the form of a commission of 2% of the sales figure which will have been created by a given order entered on the site within 15 days following the first visit. This figure is accounted, by excluding taxes, debts, returns, transportation fees and customs fees. The origination of the order will be identified from the site of the generating party and will be for the sale of "RueDuCommerce" high tech products. It is understood that users refusing cookies will not be accounted for.

This is what an online translation site came up with

The affiliated member will accept a remuneration as part of this contract in form of identical commission in 2 % of the turnover HT accomplished by an order recorded on the site in the 15 days which follow the first visit. This counted turnover agrees duty-free, except unpaid debts, returns and refund, transport charges and expenses of customhouse, commands coming of a way identified by the site of the affiliated member generated for the sale of the high-tech products RueDuCommerce. It is heard

Mine is better, but its interesting to see that the online service also seemed to be confused by the run-on

and expenses of customhouse, commands coming

That comma should really be a sentence break in English. French grammar fun - good times!

Getting Things Done (GTD) - Whats the big Deal?

2009-04-07T08:34:00.000-07:00

If you don't know, "Getting Things Done" is a sort of method of organization and a book of the same title by Mr. David Allen. I'm not the right person to introduce you to this because, as stated above, I don't really GET the need for it. Also, I haven't read the book.

The reason I'm interested enough to rise from the grave and resurrect my blog on this topic is that I have several friends (and now celebrities that I admire) that use this method to stay organized.

Celebrities:
-http://www.nerdist.com (Chris Hardwick)
-http://lifehacker.com/5199293/comedian-rob-corddry-is-no-messy-ironist (Interview with Rob Corddry)

I understand the need to improve yourself with organization, but what I don't really get is the moment when it hits you that you need to implement someone else's technique. This isn't that strange a concept. One might use someone else's techniques for something tactical like "How to Milk a Cow" or "How to Debug a Stack Dump." One might also use another's technique for self improvement. . . which is probably what this is. I myself have found great value in examining Steven Covey's 7 Habits.

So, I guess I need some comments from people who might read this. Why do you feel you need help "Getting Things Done?" I can speculate as to the answer, but it always comes done to some kind of personality difference akin to introvert vs. extravert.

This led me to an interesting observation. I think that I actually gain confidence and energy by organizing. Sort of like an extravert would gain some energy by talking an interacting or an introvert would do the same by reading a book or taking a bath. I think there is a personality type out there who actually spends energy organizing.

Since the introvert vs. extravert thing has helped me a great deal in attempting to understand people, I'm hoping this realization will be equally beneficial. I'm already thinking about how it impacts my marriage.

My hastily drawn conclusion is that because it actually builds me up to organize then I don’t need to move tasks out of mind. I actually like the act of keeping them there and I develop ways that I’m not even aware of to keep track of them. The opposite conclusion is that people who spend energy to organize need to use a method like what Allen proposes.

If you are interested in Allen’s book look it up on Wikipedia or Amazon. There is stuff everywhere about it.

Fantastic 4 The Musical?

2009-01-02T10:17:00.000-08:00

A chat I thought was interesting

2008-12-29T09:34:00.000-08:00

[10:50] wongojack: I generally just don't think Japanese fiction is very good
[10:51] wongojack: I think we have much more mature perspectives on life and human interaction [in this country]
[10:51] wongojack: I've got some detailed thoughts on this that I don't want to bore you with
[10:52] K: please do...
[10:52] wongojack: Basically Japan hasn't gone through the decades of social change that our country has
[10:52] K: is it the whole hello kitty and obsession with that sort of stuff?
[10:53] wongojack: they were pulled from a near fudal society into the modern world after WWII
[10:53] wongojack: now they have a world class economy but still live within severe sexism and classism
[10:53] K: that's true
[10:54] wongojack: as a result their fiction doesn't depict a realistic 'tableau' of emotion and feeling
[10:54] wongojack: certain things are not accepted as acceptable for mainstream content
[10:54] wongojack: Their attempts to write ream after ream of gender bending manga should be applauded as a step in the right direction, but that doesn't make it interesting
[10:55] wongojack: I play a lot of video games and the same sort of thing comes up over an over- the stories are less than what they could be because of the cultural limitations regarding what is appropriate
[10:56] K: i've never thought about it. it's true that most of the stories I enjoy from Japan are ones of history and past cultures that, as you said, don't exist any longer.
[10:56] wongojack: Chinese fiction on the other hand always seems to be able to really tell stories without that same impedement
[10:57] wongojack: but they have other things that get in the way
[10:57] wongojack: still, I usually prefer things that are Chinese to things that are Japanese
[10:58] K: food? :)
[10:58] K: i do love me some sushi
[10:58] wongojack: Actually me too; Japanese food is usually better than Chinese
[10:59] wongojack: Having traveled I really admire our 'social progress' in this country. We usually don't let things get in the way of expressing ourselves and I think we are typically better adjusted psychologically for it
[11:01] K: you'd think from watching the media, films, and TV, that our country is terrible, uneducated, and filled with uncaring people.
[11:01] K: that's kind of a blanket statement. i don't really think that - but I have to say it has definitely opened peoples' eyes to what more we can do to help other people and the world.
[11:02] wongojack: the problem is that people see our way of treating each other as different than their own
[11:02] wongojack: we are fast and efficient
[11:03] wongojack: But we offer therapy for em because we can be serious with each other without cracking a joke; talk about how we aren't really very good at some things; and we think about what really matters to us
[11:04] wongojack: In France they see that kind of self-honesty and don't trust it.
[11:04] wongojack: But its like a therapy patient before and after 2 years of therapy; you have no idea what the benefits are before you start but they can end up being life changing

in 2008 I work in Technology; in 1898, I'd work in meat packing

2008-12-18T07:30:00.000-08:00

I work in the technology industry which is very different than the auto industry but the same. Here's what I mean:

I'm not really central to the creation or innovation of any technology, my job is necessary but was created by someone else who had an actual passion for software, or money, neither of which I really have.

I don't even really like using technology all that much. I go to Best Buy and I see assignments:
"I'll need to get a flat screen to have a serious TV experience." "I better play that new game if I consider myself a gamer." "I should research that new camera so that my wallpaper looks respectable." "Maybe my iPod is too old? Where do you get cheap MP3s again?"

All that being said, I am an excellent USER of technology. I built my own DVR, share files all around my wireless network from my 'Home Office' PC, have built or rebuilt every computer in my house (I think we've got at least 6), take advantage of the 'discounts' the internet has to offer, play Wii and 360, keep my iPod loaded, and take advantage of the various communication and social networking opportunities on the web.

In short, technology is my friend and it makes my life better, but I am not really an 'insider' to the tech scene.

I got my job at a major US software developer because I was in the right place at the right time. I learned what they needed me to learn and am a really good fit for my job. However, I don't have ambitions to innovate or create the next great business software solution. I just think what I do is interesting and it lets me live my life.

I think that the auto industry was probably able to support tons of people just like me 50/60 years ago. They were the growth industry in this country and because of them tons of other businesses were able to thrive. However all their "Right Place, Right Time" workers have cost them. It seems that at least one cause of their now seemingly imminent collapse is that they've overpaid their workers. The abundance of fat times has made the now lean times unbearable. Will the US tech industry be in the same position in 50 years? I dunno but if I had been out job hunting in 1965 instead of 2005, I probably would have headed to some sort of job related to the auto industry to help me live my life.

And if it had been 1895, I probably would have found some job related to meat packing and food transportation. This is actually still really big business in our country (food transport) and meat packing companies were once included amoung the fortune 500. They helped establish communication and transportation lines all over our country and introduced lots of towns to technology that drastically improved people's lives.

Meat packing companies are either transformed or are long gone. Thus too shall (probably) pass for the auto industry. I personally think that if these companies were worth saving then some Asian automaker would make an offer to buy them, but that isn't happening which means their debts must really be out of control. Maybe we should do something to save them, but even if we do I only think its a matter of time before they go the way of the meat packers.

If you worked for the auto industry in 1965 then you were doing what you needed to do to live well. If you worked for it in 1995 then you were in an industry with no future. If you work for it now then I hope your retirement is sured-up. If not then you should switch jobs and do something else. I hope someone will warn me about my own industry when it is time to go.

Make Friends with my Wii or Else

2008-12-08T17:26:00.001-08:00

So many people have Nintendo Wiis out there but since its so hard to share your console number, very few of my friends are also my Wii friends. Here is how to add me as a Wii friend:

First you need to enter the message center of your Wii menu. You can do this by clicking on the little envelope at the lower right hand of the main Wii menu.

Next you should click on the 'Create Message' icon on the lower left of the message dashboard. Its an icon that looks like a pen and paper

Now you have 3 choices, select 'Address Book.' Its the one with the happy faces on the right. This shows you your Wiis unique id number.

Click on the blue arrow on the right hand side to turn the page and show you the first page of your address book. You can also press the + button to get there.

If you've never added anyone, the next screen will be an empty page of your address book. Click on an empty slot

You'll now see a screen that prompts you to add a 'Wii' entry or 'Others.' Choose Wii and it will prompt you to 'Enter a Wii Number'

Click on the box to bring up the keypad and then use your Wiimote to enter my console number:

IMPORTANT
========================================
0846 4447 8635 1869

To complete the registration process, you will have to comment on this blog post with your console number which I enter on my end. When all this is complete, we can share Miis and I will send you a Mii for myself (or you can make one) that you can associate with this address book entry.

I'm tired of not being able to share content for Boom Blox, play Dr. Mario together or have some fun with Smash Bros online. I also want to see the creative Miis that everyone creates, so please add me as a friend and

IMPORTANT
========================================
REPLY BELOW AND PROVIDE YOUR WII NUMBER OR THIS WONT WORK

I'll send anyone who friends me the trial of Dr. Mario onliine

So we went to the R&R hall of fame

2008-12-02T10:55:00.000-08:00

Some Thoughts:

Music is so many things to so many people that its hard to communicate that with a walk through musuem. They did have music available to listen to which was nice, but I didn't have time to really experience that.

I know just about every inductee from the 60's 70's and later. This either means that I'm a well versed rock-o-phile or that the industry has crammed these artists in our faces to the point where we all know who they are weather we like it or not. We all know that there is some cramming and that those worthy of induction aren't all super-terrific rock geniuses. I like the Beatles but I don't really need to listen to a best of album with George Harrison's greatest hits.

Naming it after a Genre is weird; do they want to honor the youth movement that happend when R&R was first getting going? If so then it will always be frozen it time. I know that Rock and Roll is more than a genre, but that phrase is almost unuseable now. So many other music movements have come and gone, even some that wouldn't want to be called R&R.

I think the recent changes in the record industry have made me view the history of R&R with a much different view. Instead of explosive messages changing the course of history, I see expression being limited by the vision of a corporate record industry that for the most part is now a thing of the past. Internet distribution of music might make something like the R&R hall of fame obsolete. How can we determine who has #1 songs when no one listens to the radio anymore?

Can't Blog

2008-11-25T07:35:00.000-08:00

Everything I have to say is about our house right now, and I don't want to put anything on the internet that could somehow jeopardize us getting the work done or our money back etc. . .

I guess if you actually care about the remodeling then you'll have to e-mail me or something.

In other news we are going to Cleveland. I wish I could say I was more excited about the football, but I'm really just looking forward to getting out of town for a little bit. At least Baylor has had a good year.

My Worthless Opinion on the Election

2008-11-05T07:44:00.000-08:00

Listening to co-workers, friends, and various others, I decided that my education as a political scientist (I think that is an actual thing) does qualify me to make educated comments about what last night’s election means for our country. If you are reading this (all 4 of you) and thinking "Baylor sucks, he doesn't know anything" then I'll just say that I had to do some pretty serious historical election research as a student which I'm using to make some judgments here.

I'm going to come out and say that last night's election did signal a major shift in American politics, but probably not in the way that you think. I don't know if I'm the first to say it, but I think last night's election signals the final nail in the coffin of the 'Contract with America.'

Presidential elections are one thing, but the legislature can really tell us where the country's opinions lie. Looking at the congressional party map for the last 50 or 60 years reveals 2 distinct periods. Basically the Democrats controlled congress for 40 years between 1954 and 1994 although not both houses the entire time. The Republicans controlled congress by a thin majority from 1994 till the last midterm election in 2006. I believe they had even lost the Senate before that, but I didn't look it up.

This morning it now looks like the last 14+- years of Republicans in Congress may simply be a blip on the timeline between periods of Democratic control. So what happened in 1994? It was only the most unprecedented and surprising election in the history of our country. Republicans organized a grass roots effort to weed out corruption and rallied behind simple precepts like smaller government and lower taxes. This was also strengthened by an outpouring of voters who were motivated by social issues like abortion, prayer in schools, and gays in the military. There were also cases of corruption among the sitting Democrats that greatly helped shift public opinion towards - get ready "CHANGE!" The 1994 election also gave voters something special - "HOPE!" that government could be influenced and in short, fixed.

I went to Washington as a Congressional intern in 1997 while the spirit of the Contract with America was still very much alive. Conservatives were trying to forever change government and they largely failed. Newt eventually wound up looking like a crybaby who didn't get to sit at the front of the bus and Clinton became everyone's favorite dude in the Oval office. The class of 1994 became diluted and lost its vision and I hold them and those who followed them responsible for basically turning public opinion against Republicans and really F'ing up some major attention getting events, including the policies that led to the bailout and the mishandling of the war. Not to mention other things that may not have been their fault like 9\11 and the Katrina crisis.

The spirit of the 'Contract' is now gone completely, washed away by someone who also fills Americans with a desire for CHANGE and a newfound HOPE; washed away by more than a decade of Republicans who essentially were given enough rope to hang themselves and did.

I want to spend some time on something that Democrats want to overlook as an event that doesn't matter, but I think profoundly affected the politics of the last 8 years - The sexual promiscuity of one Mr. Bill Clinton.

No one knows of course, but I strongly believe that if Bill had not gotten some random BJs from one specific intern then Al Gore would have been president and the end of our current Republican era would have come much sooner. That specific choice by the president mattered to a lot of people and it certainly mattered to enough of the people who gave Bush his narrow victory in the 2000 election. I know that Dems have a very special affection for BC, but I think he's largely to blame for their lack of success before last night - twisted I know.

That gets me on to what the future of the Republican Party looks like from this point. Last night was the first election night in a long time when religious conservatives did not seem to have the same influence that they typically have had. I think that Republicans will gravitate towards this group of voters and reshape the Republican Party around them (again).

The idea of Rs being fiscally responsible, small government lawmakers is over for the time being and the only really strong thing that they are associated with is social conservativism which will most likely define the party in the 2010 mid-term election.

One thing I'm wondering is how Mike Huckabee would have done last night. Due to his status as a social conservative, I have to think he would have done better in some very key places like Ohio, Iowa, New Mexico, and Florida. Since the economy became such a key issue in the election, I don't think incumbent Rs really had a chance unless they could distract voters away from that issue. Huckabee would have distracted people better than most potential candidates.

Thus ends my opinion about last night’s election.

French Futur and Conditionnel: How to tell the difference when spoken

2008-10-22T12:53:00.000-07:00

I've always assumed they were pronounced the same way until I went searching for some pronunciation hints for another question and found this thread

http://www.languefrancaise.net/forum/viewtopic.php?id=3013

No one has ever explained it to me that way before, and a little light bulb went on inside my head when I read it. If I can remember, I will now pronounce the conditionnel je serais as if it ended in e grave (I can't type accents into this blog)

Anyone know what @ is called in French? I’ve heard ‘a commercial’ and ‘arabesque’

We moved on Saturday

2008-10-01T08:23:00.000-07:00

Our final moving costs:
$200 - actual pay to movers
$40 - tip
$63 - truck
$15 - gas for truck
$318

The movers we hired didn't have their own truck, but they were good. I didn't feel like I was hiring some Ex-Cons to move my stuff.

The biggest downer on moving day was that our contractor did NOT have the bedrooms painted, so we had to move furniture into the living room and leave it there. This doesn't completely defeat the purpose of hiring movers, but it does make them less useful as we've had to move our stuff from the living room back to the bedrooms.

We still don't have a kitchen which was expected.

Little things have slipped through the cracks as a result of the painting

Basic Reason why Democrats are Different than Republicans

2008-09-06T08:08:00.000-07:00

Blogs never convince anyone to change their mind about political opinions so I won't even try. I simply want to state something that I've known for a long time which is the basic difference between D's and R's.

Democrats believe that people are good and that government can help them be better. Republicans believe that people make bad decisions and government can't do anything about that.

Thinking this truth for many years, I was encouraged to hear it summarized in the same way while reading Bill Clinton's book. In it he describes a discussion with a republican leader during the government shutdown in the early 90s when he is confronted with that same truth while being frustrated by Republicans in congress.

This basic belief is almost impossible to change which is why people rarely ever change sides in a political debate. Ask yourself if you think people are more inclined to be good or bad and you'll probably find your political footing.

I still don't get first person video games

2008-09-05T07:45:00.000-07:00

This is a well worn topic in certain circles so I wont get into anything really that in depth, but from a design perspective I don't understand why anyone would want a game to take place from the first person perspective. If you don't know what I'm talking about it means all you see is what would be seen from a virtual character's eyes directly in front of him or her.

At first, I think people assume this means the game is somehow more realistic as if that is what you see in real life. So why wouldn't you want to play a game that way?

The thing is that in actual life I have more senses than just vision and crappy computer sound to tell me whats going on. For instance, I can feel my feet and tell what I'm walking on. I can also tell if someone is punching me in the neck from behind and it doesn't take me more than a split second to turn around and focus on said puncher.

But I don't care about how a game compares to real life. Of course it won't be like real life! I just care if the game is fun and the first person perspective restricts my motion in such a way that the game is 'LESS' fun. The worst example of this is when I'm required to jump or crouch to avoid some death bringing lava or other obstacle. The control in these situations is horrifyingly bad and makes me want to quit playing the game immediately. If you want me to jump on a platform, then let me see my character's feet please.

Most people assume that I don't know what I'm talking about at this point in this conversation. They think I haven't played first person games before. Truth is that I've been playing first person games since the Commodore days long before ID thought it would be cool to put an allied commando in castle Wolfenstein, but those games were not like the shooters of today.

Wolfenstein was the first 'First Person Shooter' (FPS) that I ever played, and I played it in college (94). It was entertaining and at the time technologically interesting. ID software dealt with the tech limitations of the day by not animating the main character but letting you see through his eyes. It was brilliant.

Now we have the technology to fully render complete 3D images of our video game characters, but whenever I play an FPS, I don't even get to see them. Instead all I see is a hand with a gun in it that rotates around as I search for targets over and over again.

My biggest complaint against the FPS is that it is by far the genre of game that has the least differentiation in gameplay between the various titles. My opinion is that these games are simply copies of each other with no discernable differences outside of setting and story. For example, I have the same experience playing Delta Force that I do playing Halo 3 and the games are more than 8 years removed from each other.

MY FPS RESUME
My most recent 'retry' on the FPS genre is the original Halo. I bought this for PC because it was cheap and because it is probably most responsible for making this genre into the monster money maker that it is today. Before Halo, I spent a lot of time with the original Medal of Honor as well as one of its sequels that had online play, so I have played FPS games with other people, including the old PC favorite Delta Force which I played at many a LAN party back in the missionary days.

An e-mail discussion about who's news agency can beat up yours

2008-09-02T11:39:00.000-07:00

My Thoughts - See below for the article and e-mail that kicked off the discussion

At least we know where Heather Mallick stands - thank God

Having been exposed to all of those media outlets you mention below and their coverage of the war in Iraq (I've only seen Middle East media in Egypt but I was exposed). I am much more confident in the news and journalism in the United States than that of any other region or country on the planet.

News is for people so it gets reported with a consumer's perspective. No matter what you learn in school your writing is changed by the audience who will receive your message. Our country has the best media outlets because we have the greatest variety of choice and because our government has the smallest role in directly funding the news outlets.

In France in particular 4 of the 5 Television stations are owned by the government and all deliver exactly the same message. Newspapers in France are a similar story with one or two independents and then a list of government subsidized rags.

As someone who considers himself conservative, religious and having 'brains,' I look at Fox news as a reaction to some of the other media outlets who don't seem to offer much balance at all. I think 'Liberals' offended by Fox news don't get that the people running it aren't interested in their opinions at all, they are interested in the people watching them. 'Fair and Balanced' because no one else will say what Fox will say so they balance the field.

As for crazies who think Fox is manipulating people's minds or inciting racial violence I say you are just that - Crazy. Every journalist on TV is trying to change people's minds the same way that Hasbro is trying to get you to buy Transformers. We have to be smart enough to filter out what is truth and not be surprised when we find out that the guy with the microphone has a point of view.

BTW If you are going to pick a reason why the war in Georgia was 'Staged' go with trying to challenge Russia for access to energy reserves through far east and central Europe. Money is always a more believable motive.

===============================================
Discussion starts with this link and e-mail:

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2008/09/01/f-vp-mallick.html

Frankly, I've never forgotten something my teacher told me when I was young. "Politics is lazy journalism."

There's no work involved in reporting on politics (election year or not). It always happens, regardless of how mundane. These days just seem worse in that it all seems "pre-canned."

"Weapons Of Mass Deception" is an interesting documentary about the media and the Iraq war. An intriguing point..."there were four Iraq Wars...the war that North America saw, the war that Europe saw, the war that the Middle East saw and the war that the rest of the world saw."

Shift Switch

2008-08-25T17:58:00.000-07:00

I am now working Monday through Friday which is great. Right now I'm at home after already having eaten dinner and walked the dog and its still before 8pm which is my old leave time.

Other things I'm looking forward to
-I GET SATURDAY BACK
-Exercising before and after work on a consistent schedule
-Not being so eye strained that i can't look at a computer when I come home
-Because of getting Sat back, I also get college football back
-Energy to do chores after work like cook or grocery shop (did dishes already tonight)
-After work activities - I'm back Softball!
-Time to work on some professional development at work
-I GET SATURDAY BACK

There is more, but thats what I'm excited about right now

A Little Update

2008-08-13T09:24:00.000-07:00

Things going on

Realizing that if we remodel the kitchen it wont even be done by Oct 1st. Freaking custom cabinets that take forever.

Focusing on finishing some old games that have been laying around and moving through others. My games playlist for the last 3 weeks has been

-- Prince of Persia SOT PS2 - Finished WooHoo
-- MLB Power Pros Wii
-- Scene It XBox
-- Boom Blox Wii
-- From Russia With Love PS2 - Finished WooHoo
-- All the Guitar Hero games and Rock Band PS2
Our neighbors moved out downstairs so I took advantage of that and played some drums. I'm also going back and playing a little of all the GH games on Expert.
-- Sing Star 3 different titles PS2
-- Gears of War XBox
-- God of War II PS2

Watching a lot of Olympics and blown away by the number of condoms that they aparantely use at the 'O' village:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080812/od_uk_nm/oukoe_uk_olympics_condoms

Pessimistic Much? or Why I Think Dark Knight is my new Favorite Movie

2008-08-07T10:36:00.000-07:00

I'll break this down quickly by saying that I think the film makers of Dark Knight really hit a home run by nailing the current political/economic/spiritual/personal attitudes of our age.

Say what you want but things seem pretty bleak these days. Media is focused on the war or poor economy or the widening gap between rich and poor or the freaking planet being destroyed.

I think it boils down to us all wanting and needing a Dark superhero who blurs the line between good and evil. That being said I think all movies have been overly fascinated by the anti-hero for more than 20 years, but the Dark Knight let itself examine some current popular themes through the voices of its characters which transformed anti-hero(s) into village voice shouting from its soapbox.

1) The Joker plot is about chaos being at our doorstep. It just needs a little push to be unleashed.
2) The Joker also refers to the fact that you can't go back to the way things once were.
3) The 2 Face plot is about how everything is left to chance and there is no real order in the world.
4) Bruce's plot is about what it means to be a hero and being forced to make sacrifices that ultimately result in you getting only part of what you really want.

These are powerful subjects to tackle and its impressive that a super hero movie was able to take them on and do it successfully. I won't really go into them individually except to say that you can put a personification of America into each one and you come out with a truthful statement about the current state of our country.

#1 "America's situation is fragile and is faced with chaos at its doorstep"
#2 "America can't go back to the way things used to be"
#4 "America is both a villian and a hero and will not get what it wants"

#3 is more personal, but I still think a lot of Americans feel these days that most things in life are based on luck - jobs, relationships, salvation, death. This is certainly becoming more and more true for me personally.

So because of its profound commentary on current opinions about life in general I think Dark Knight is a very important movie. I wonder if it will hold up over time?

We're buying a house

2008-07-25T08:54:00.000-07:00

We've agreed on a price and are in the waiting period.

http://www.ebby.com/details/-2651124.html

I'm excited but as with every life stage change, I have a bit of apprehension.

Inspection will be Monday or Tuesday.

Lemme know whenever you want me to fart at you

2008-07-17T07:37:00.000-07:00

So we live in an apt complex with a lot of friends. Actually not really friends more like people who are there and we talk to when someone gets their car stolen . . .

last night I decided to wander out and talk to these folks who are nice enough, but I don't really want to see them away from the apt complex. Anyway, I talk to them about how we're moving and how only one person who lives there is older than me -blah blah- then my stomach starts to hurt.

I Fart

Silently

I didn't smell it so I just kept talking but there was one of my neighbors sitting about butt level next to me on a stool and in about 2 minutes she got up (without saying anything) and went back to her apartment.

I kept talking for awhile because the others weren't acting weird and I hadn't really fully grasped what had happened. Eventually I needed to deal with my stomach issues so I casually said something like - well I should go. I got back in my apt to deal with the upset-ness and discovered my fly was DOWN!

so here's the sum total of events:

Guy comes out of apt to talk with his fly down and farts in his neighbor's face - "bye lemme know whenever you want me to fart at you, I live in #8, btw I wear boxers"

Blue Carpets is Gone

2008-07-15T15:33:00.000-07:00

Someone else bought the house and the 10 day 'test' period is over which means they didn't back out. I'm about 80% dissappointed and 20% relieved that we don't have to do all that work.

L and I don't have a 2nd choice on which we agree.

I gave in

2008-07-11T13:43:00.000-07:00

I joined facebook and twitter

House Hunting Madness

2008-07-09T14:37:00.000-07:00

We keep looking at different houses and neighborhoods and seeing different things we like and don't like.

We've come back this this house as a possible option more than once:

http://www.ebby.com/details/317726.html

Lots of work to be done inside however. Unless you like blue carpet!

I like to sit and be quiet

2008-07-03T07:37:00.000-07:00

So remember when adults used to say to you "lets play the quiet game" and there was an age at which you figured out they were trying to manipulate you and you got mad.

I'm not really around kids very often and actually when I am, its so short that I don't need them to be quiet.

Lately, I kind of want to tell the rest of the world to play the quiet game and stop bothering me with things I have to do that aren't exactly what I want to do, but the world has figured out that the quiet game isn't fun and it just gets more mad at me.

Some things piling up on me lately include

--My work schedule, which finally after almost 3 years seems to be getting on my nerves. I'm tired of forced 10 hour days!

--House hunting, which wouldn't be so bad except that it so time consuming and requires a lot of that special focused married person communication.

--Travel, a blessing and a curse. Too much travel means we haven't done our laundry since probably before the Bahamas in May.

--Weekend plans, having 3 days off is great until you start filling it up completely. I think we've had a couple of loafy days since L's graduation, but I think only one weekend where we didn't have some kind of travel/family plans since May 10/11

--Our 2 bedroom apartment, because we've started house hunting we've fully accepted the apartment is too small. Now its a challenge to accept it as anything but temporary which is motivating when searching for a house to buy but depressing when its time to clean up - there's no space left to put anything away!

--Role change at work, my title change from SE to SEE - whoopiee. Now I'm expected to know some things that I don't which is stressful. I need to do some 'personal development' and catch up but my weekends are crammed with other crap already and there's no 'studying' to be done after I get home after 8:30 on the workdays.

--The thought that if I did have free time all I would do with it is play video games. I really don't have a desire to do much else

More Vacation

2008-05-30T17:20:00.000-07:00

We went to Nassau in The Bahamas for a short trip.

We chose to go to the Bahamas because of the close proximity and the fact that there is a direct flight from Dallas. This made it easy to get in and out in 3 nights like we planned.

We stayed at an all inclusive resort which you can't really find inside the US, but the Bahamas are so close to Florida that it made me wonder why they were never annexed. John Adams must not have thought it was worth it to try and steal them from Britain. He also must have had forsight enough to know that we'd all want to go there for the in-room liquor dispensers.

We didn't really do anything Bahamian at all, just sat on the beach or in our room and watched the waves. It was nice and we considered staying an extra night, but ultimately decided not to, partly because I didn't sleep very well in our room which was otherwise great. I slept so poorly our last night that we both woke up very early and watched the sunrise.

We should have stayed - boy we should have.

Our 4pm departing flight was delayed and then finally cancelled at 8pm after they had us disembark 2x!

We ended up checking into a Sheraton around 9:30 and had to wake again before 4am to get a flight to Miami at 6:30. It sucked and I soooo wish we'd just stayed the extra night in the first place to avoid all the hassel.

Even though we got back to Dallas before noon, I still called in to work - 7 hours of sleep in 2 days is not enough for a 10 hour shift. I did call my boss and tell her to call me if there was a strike in India or anything severe. She didn't call.

The Tudors - Mixed Feelings

2008-05-07T13:19:00.001-07:00

I have mixed feelings about this show. I'm only watching season 1 right now and while I have to admit I am really interested in the fictionalization of the history, the sex is outrageous.

L and I keep Wikipedia open while watching it to check facts and refresh our memory on the history, its really fascinating, but the show at times almost seems obligated to show you some boobs.

In a couple of episodes there has literally been a meaningless sex scene. Henry sees woman - Cut - Woman is naked. More than once the naked recipient of Henry's love doesn't even have any lines and is never featured in the show again - Thats pretty much the definition of soft core.

The thing that really made me question the show was when they proceeded to show us Mary Boleyn giving the kings royal scepter a bit of oral satisfaction. They basically just stopped short of showing his actual wang - again soft core.

In spite of the obligatory Showtime moment (and sometimes because of it) the show is pretty good. I recommend checking this one out on DVD, but I wouldn't recommend watching it with your mom.

Unless of course you don't mind watching doggie style with your mom - then go ahead.

my laptop broke - I FIXED IT - i broke it - FIXED AGAIN!

2008-04-23T13:05:00.000-07:00

I like tinkering around with computers. A few years ago I just decided to build a computer and I wound up building like 10 out of old parts I acquired from my job and other places. I did this mostly for free buying used parts on E-Bay to enhance my projects when necessary. I did it totally on the cheap and never really bought anything expensive or new.

We use 3 of these computers still actively at home and I've distributed 2 more to friends and family. Its fun for me, but I don't really understand why. I find myself so sporadically interested in anything lately that the reason for my interest in this is mysterious.

I could get on a huge soapbox here about how we are all over-sold on technology and really your computer from 1997 will work just fine if you know how to upgrade it, but instead I'd like to talk about my recent compulsion to fix my broken laptop.

I used good troubleshooting skills to determine that the problem was the video card. I know how to open my lappy and I've replace parts before so it wasn't hard to take a look at the video card and recognize that the thing that had been causing the weird buzzing sound up until the day it failed was a boogery looking thing stuck to the fan - scratch one internal video card.

I tested some other things about the machine, on other laptops, just to be sure like the screen and the CPU, but all signs pointed to the food booger (or whatever that was).

I ordered a new card on e-bay and attempted to make it work with very limited success. I really tested the hell out of the thing for about 2 weeks before I gave up and got the seller to agree with me that it was bad. In the meantime, I ordered another card because I wasn't sure that I would be able to get that particular model working and the seller was just going to replace it with another of the same kind.

In short I got the video working and the replacement card worked well, so I bought a bunch of other stuff for my laptop.

Why? Its like 5 - 6 years old, why invest in this machine when I can get a new one. The answer is that I don't really know. I like to make things last and I don't like wasting things, I think that was a big motivator here.

Some panic set in as I tried one of my upgraded parts and it really looked like it wiped out my machine. I freaked and in a huff bought even MORE replacement parts! This turned out to be sort of a waste as I was able to fix the original problem with some patient troubleshooting.

In the end, I upgraded both of my laptops as they use a lot of interchangeable parts and I spent almost all of a recent spot bonus I got. I couldn't have bought 2 new laptops for the money I spent so I feel like it was sorta worth it, but upgrades rarely make that big a difference unless they are extreme. I'll be able to sell some of the excess back out on e-bay, but the success of the project is really what I was paying for here.

I LIKE TINKERING - so I spent like the last 5 weeks tinkering around with my lappies and its interesting to me. I'm finishing up now and the experience still has value to me because I get the satisfaction of economising by re-selling some of the parts on e-bay.

I'm such a tight-wad or dork or geek something.

About to Leave

2008-03-18T09:06:00.000-07:00

I´ve got like an hour to wait for our transfer to the airport and have access to a computer.

We´re going to stop and see one more thing here in the Alti-Plano or High Plane near Titicaca on our way to the airport. Yesterday we took a boat out on the lake and saw a culture that lives on man made reed islands in the lake. It was a nice break from the Peruvian urban landscape we´d been seen for the past week. I should say that we took a bus from Cusco up here (9 hours) and saw plenty of non-urban landscape, but somehow this was different. The villagers took the time to invite us into their reed huts (that had television) and explained to us how they built the individual islands. We then tooled around a bit in boats made of (guess what) reeds.

Its a long way home today. We´ll leave from a town called Juliaca around 5pm and arrive Lima about 2 hours later. Our flight to Miami doesn´t leave till 11pm and then we have a connection at 8 or 9 tomorrow morning.

I have no deep musings to pass on here at the end of the trip. We spent most of our time with others who had purchased on TravelZoo like us. They were nice and we had many an evening meal sharing our various experiences on this trip and on others. My fear that our only companions would be 20 year olds or retirees was unfounded as our fellow travelers turned out to be 30-40 somethings who also found a good deal online.

Peruvian Post

2008-03-14T21:25:00.000-07:00

Things of note so far from my trip to Peru:

1) Limaen cabbies think we speak Spanish. I guess we know more than the usual gringos they get down here
2) Guniea pig tastes like duck. Or as someone else on the trip pointed out - a cross between duck and rabbit. However, its hard to confuse it for one of those animals when it comes with its skin and head still attached.
3) The rain forest is actually rainy

Sunday Night

2008-03-03T23:14:00.001-08:00

I took a trip to the grocery store by myself Sunday night and for once was not in any hurry at all to go anywhere else. I had no list and had done no preparation for the trip. I was not going to make any other stops on the way home, and I had stopped no where else before arriving.

It was both refreshing and sort of hopeless at the same time.

I think we spend a lot of time planning little chores for ourselves so that we will always have someplace else to go and something else to do. If we run out of errands to run and wind up with a minute of time where we don't know what the next duty to be done is or the next bit of entertainment to be consumed is we'll have to think about what it is we really want in that moment. Its at that moment that you see people whip out the cell phone and start reading e-mail or text messages or rearranging their address book, or whatever they do on their phone. I'm guilty of this too, not really the phone thing, but filling up my time with stuff that is just stuff - not good stuff or bad stuff - just stuff.

I've been thinking for some time now that I need a vacation to simply think about what it is that I want to do with my time. There is something about being outside of your normal zone of responsibility that frees your mind into clarity about what it wants. Or maybe its that your mind relaxes enough so that you can listen to your heart and spirit tell you what they want.

The trip to the grocery store was interesting because it became this sort of journey. I (inadvertently at first) focused on the people going through the grocery store with me on that journey. First we were together in the vegetable area. Some passed the opposite direction and some took my path on to the breakfast aisle. We separated for a while around the meats, but then passed briefly again amongst the frozen foods. We made room for each other in the dairy section, and then somehow both circled back to the bread area. There were 3 or 4 of us, some in groups - couplets that would split up and then rejoin, some alone. Some were busy planning stuff, some were refreshed and hopeless.

The fact that we were on the same path did not mean we were together. In fact, we all chose specifically not to take the journey together simply moving along in the same steps separately like an information age cliche of individuals reluctantly in a community wishing for anonymity.

Next week I'll be going to Peru where I hope to start out busy and full of hope and end up educated and full purpose. I'm looking forward to being both aimless and fruitful and getting back in touch with that feeling that accompanies great travel - which always seems to provide a tremendous dose of perspective.

Maybe I'll figure out something good that I want to do with my time when I get back, and maybe I'll just think about more 'stuff'. If its anything good, I'll let you know.

I am old

2008-02-27T08:35:00.000-08:00

I watched the first episode of the new show Quarterlife which is about people only a quarter dead (age 25 I guess). The main character video blogs (with her Mac of course). The show started as an online thing on Myspace or somewhere.

My reaction:

1) I am old and farther from 25 than I thought

2) The show is not presenting anything new. Conversations in the first episode included a discussion about how women talk too much and artists are always unhappy.

This is basically 'Singles' with a computer. Same old 'Shit' with a new cast.

The Terminator Show

2008-02-22T12:02:00.000-08:00

The new Terminator show is good. I told this to someone who replied - I've never seen the movies. In case this is you, I wrote this summary:

yotababy75: Huh...I guess I don't really even know much about them, other than that Arnold is in them

wongojack: Synopsis: T1 - Arnold is a robot from the future who travels back in time to kill Sara Connor. In the future robots fight people and Sara Connor's son (John) is the leader of the people. John Connor sends back Kyle Reese to defend his mom from the robot (aka Terminator) Kyle fucks Sara and thats how John is conceived

yotababy75: Ho HO!

wongojack: T2 The humans in the future get their own robots to fight for them. John Connor sends one back (Arnold) to defend himself. Instead of just defending the Connors they try to stop the bad robots from ever being created by attacking the company responsible for producing them. The company working on the robots is doing so because they got a big tech jump when they recovered a piece of the original robot sent back to kill SConnor.

yotababy75: Ha--oops!

wongojack: T3 isn't even worth summarizing. The end of the world happens but better than expected and John becomes the leader of the resistance. The bad robot is a girl. Arnold is a good guy again. Claire Danes is the love interest for young John.

wongojack: Sarah Connor dies before T3 even starts and the show takes place between T2 and T3 - the show is called "The Sarah Connor Chronicles"

wongojack: now go download the 7 or whatever episodes that have been aired, they are good

Update

2008-02-10T07:15:00.000-08:00

I've purchased one game since the frenzy - Zelda Oracle of Seasons for Gameboy Color. It was $4.50 with my Gamestop discount.

I did play Metroid II all the way through and have spent some time with Mario Tennis, RE4, and From Russia with Love

Work is long and takes up 4 complete days a week

Game Buying Frenzy

2008-01-16T11:55:00.000-08:00

Off the energy of my last post, I embarked on a somewhat extravagent game buying frenzy. Not very many expensive ones in the group but there are just a lot

GB=Gameboy
GBC=Gameboy Color
GC=GameCube
N=New

Games I've bought recently:
Donkey Kong GB $10
Metroid II GB $13
Warioland GB $4.50
Golf GB $2.70
Zelda Oracle of Ages GBC $9
R-Type GBC $2.70
Dragon Warrior III GBC $4.50
Warlocked GBC $7
Super Mario Bros Delux GBC $9
Warioland 3 GBC $3.60
Mario Tennis GBC $9
Viewtiful Joe GC $9 N
Metriod Prime GC $15
Animal Crossing GC $15
Rogue Leader II GC $6.40
Zelda Wind Waker GC $15
Resident Evil 4 Wii $24.70
Trauma Center Wii $24.70
Rayman Raving Rabbids Wii $24.70
Cooking Mama Wii $30 N
From Russia With Love PS2 $9 N

So that is a lot of used and new games! Gheez what is that like $250!!!!

Actually, I feel pretty thrifty buying some oldies and used games to get the most for the $$, and we haven't made a big electronics purchase in quite some time so it works for now.

I'll update you all more on my ability to resist my game buying urges in the next post.

Nintendo Power

2008-01-10T14:51:00.000-08:00

I had the original Nintendo Entertainment System back in '87. I was never a huge Mario fan, but there were some classics that kept me in front of my Nintendo for hours. I still got a lot of play time out of my Commodore 64 as well.

I played both of these machines and acquired no others until about 1996 when I got the original Playstation. I was in college and I was actually turned on to it by my brother. I still played a lot of RBI baseball for the NES in those college days, but I've been on a Playstation kick ever since.

Anyway, the 10 year gap (87-97) between current gaming systems seems ridiculous now when we are expected to get something new every Christmas. Somehow this consumerism was not engraved on me during my high school years when I was content to play old games, watch old TV re-runs after the local news and be social -I guess thats what I did {scratches head}

As a result I missed out on just about everything that Nintendo did between about 1991 and 2006 when I got a DS (I also got a Gameboy Advance). Now with the Wii I can play Wii and Gamecube games and with DS/GBA, I can play the entire history of Gameboy games. I've jumped on this opportunity to go a little game buying crazy. I've re-encountered my love for Zelda and added a ton of games, in which the fabled princess appears, to my amazon wish list.

Here is a neat button to my wish list. Be sure to sort by priority if you go. Of course I don't expect you to buy anything; just enjoy my geeky-ness with me.

There is a felt need to re-discover and play these games some of which are very old and have gone out of techno-fashion. I missed out on my chance to love them when they were new and now I want to show them the respect they deserve.

I probably won't even play through 50% of the ones I buy all the way, but such is the way of the gamer these days which is a topic for another blog.

Craig's List

2008-01-04T08:26:00.000-08:00

I know that I'm late to the party on this one, but I've recently discovered Craig's list.

I went through a couple phases of e-bay buying and selling where I actually did a good job of saving packaging materials so that I didn't have to buy them. I made some money selling some things that my office gave me when I was done tinkering around with them. E-bay was a great but I got tired of storing the packing materials and wasn't interested in paying fees anymore.

So I recently put some things on Craig's list and have had what I would call moderate success. I sold a Christmas present (that wasn't from a family member) that was a highly sought after item on there very quickly, and I also sold an item that I got in my Wii bundle. I got cash for both which is a very nice alternative to PayPal.

I've had less success trying to trade/sell the Wii game "Bleach, Shattered Blade." If anyone is interested then check out my listing here:

http://dallas.craigslist.org/tag/522831530.html

I'm also trying to sell the old motherboard and CPU to my laptop which I upgraded last year. I might have to go to e-bay with this one as it seems there isn't a big market for computer supplies on C'list.

I really recommend checking out Craig's list. Its totally free because there is no money exchanged on the site. It takes less than 5 minutes to create a posting after which other members will e-mail you (through c'list not directly) if they are interested.

I got a Wii

2008-01-02T09:42:00.000-08:00

My Brother had one for us to play with at Christmas and I really enjoyed it.

I expected it to be gimmicky and not that much fun, but I was convinced at its lasting value while watching my Mother and Father play the thing until way past their normal 65+ curfew.

Mom and Dad have a history with video games. My mother has found her niche several times in the short history of the home console. In 1983 she could be heard complaining about her "Asteroids Thumb" which quickly developed a callous after the arrival of the 2600 in our household. She's also been known to play quite a bit of Tetris and solitaire, but Wii bowling brought it all back for her.

My dad was also instantly sucked in and ended up developing quite a short game in Wii golf.

The simple fact that everyone seemed to like the thing really freakin impressed me! I found one in a bundle at Fry's the Friday after Christmas and swooped it up. Granted, I had to spend about $65 more than I really would have normally, but the thing is so hard to find that it made it worth it.

The Wii immediately paid off as we had some friends over on NYE and enjoyed much spirited fun hitting virtual tennis balls and bowling pins. We also found time to play the multiplayer God Rock Band which really did not dissappoint.

The thing is that games are more fun with other people, and I've really gotten more focused on video games that emphasize this fact. Games like Guitar Hero, Karaoke Rev, Sing Star, Rock Band, Wii Sports, Mario Party, X-Men Legends, Lego Star Wars have all been big time favorites lately because of their emphasis on non-traditional gameplay and the strong LIVE multiplayer aspect. LIVE here meaning not online.

So, I was a doubter and became converted. If you are on the fence about a Wii I think you'll probably enjoy it. If you happen to be in a store where they have them in stock, pick it up and see for yourself. If you don't like it, I'll buy it from you and sell it to another friend who actually likes to have fun. :)

2007-12-14T09:56:00.000-08:00

We'd affectionately named her Dolores because of her early audible speaker squeek when the Cranberries were played loudly on her Chrysler factory stereo.

Last night Dolores met an untimely end when she was stolen from in front of our apartment. The broken glass and missing car were the biggest clues as to what had happened althought I did think "Was I towed for parking too close to the corner?" I wasn't.

One of our neighbors said he saw our car about 15 minutes before I found it was stolen and we flagged down a policeman who just happened to be driving by. He said that because we reported it so early that he thought they'd find the car and they did.

Not more than 2 hours after it was stolen, Dolores wasinvolved in a hit and run accident in west Dallas. She was the 'Hit' and our thief did the 'Run.' The victim did not have a description of the Dolores' driver.

Right now she's in the city impound lot where she was towed last night. We have to go check it out tomorrow and report to our insurance company what condition she's in. My guess is that her time has come to an end.

Financially its not such a big deal. She's paid for and had several big problems that would have really cut into her sale price. One problem was an oil leak and another hail damage. Both had been quoted as being over $1000 to repair. Her bluebook value was probably around only $2k so given the damage, I don't think I would have ever been able to sell or trade her for anything at all. This way the insurance company will probably give me around $2k for her so that is a bonus.

Personally, we are starting to question our safety in Munger Place. Dolores was broken into twice since the beginning of October (this was the third). There have been other incidents in our apartments and in the houses on our street. We are planning on making a move somewhere as soon as we figure out where/if Laura will be studying next year.

Since Laura does have such a flexible schedule right now, I think we are going to live with just one car for a while. This will be a bit of an inconvenience, but we are pretty experienced when it comes to getting around without a car - at least in France we were.

Anyway, I just wanted everyone to know. Dad helped us pay for her which we really appreciated and she was a great car for four years. I thought about getting rid of her several times this year, but the pro's always outweighed the cons.

If this is indeed the end then thank you for your consistent and reliable years of service Dolores, we will miss you.

Random Stuff

2007-11-28T09:25:00.000-08:00

I can't log into my gmail account. I'm pretty sure I remember the password too, but nothing works, and when I request that they send a password reset to my secondary e-mail addy nothing arrives. Anyone ever had this problem?

As a result of researching this, I spent some time in my junk e-mail folder. Here is a quick sampling of subjects:

1. Does someone you love have diabetes

2. Wish you had a bigger !%pencil

3. Prepare your love wand for the next battle

Sydney-Siders

2007-11-03T08:30:00.000-07:00

I didn't describe what we did on our first stop in Sydney. It was awesome - we kicked that town's ass.

We stayed in a trendy-ish part of town called "The Rocks." We made it into a B&B that is in an 18th century dwelling down there. It wasn't the ritz but we liked it. Somewhat chilly at night, but the weather was actually sunny and beautiful during the day with temperatures hovering in the 60's and 70's

Here's a brief list of what we did. Notice that we don't really go to museums anymore. After living and studying in Europe, we've been to enough:

1) Right off the plane, lunch on the harbor down on "The Rocks"

2) Second day off to the Zoo and Aquarium (took the ferries across the harbor)

3) Convict barracks um . . . museum (the only one and it was neat)

4) Saw a play with Geoffrey Rush - Ionesco absurdism and it was Geoff's birthday. He was great

5) Australia v S.Africa rugby match at the Olympic stadium

6) Shopping and exploring including Chinatown

I picked up an Australian lambskin leather coat and we looked for cheap DVDs in Chinatown, but weren't inspired to pick up the entire run of MI5 for $19 AUD.

We had a great meal one night with seafood and the best bottle of wine the entire trip. I don't recall the vinyard, but it was a W.Australia Viognier - good stuff.

Excuse the messy picture layout up top please.

Finishing up on the Gold Coast

2007-11-01T14:46:00.000-07:00

Our last full day on the Gold Coast, we drove up near Brisbane to a Koala sanctuary. This was something we had planned to do before we left on the trip. We had it marked a 'must see.'

The big draw at this particular zoological facility is that they have the most Koalas of any sanctuary in the world, and they let you hold them and have your picture taken.

Koalas eat the entire time they are awake, so you have to get the pic while they are eating. Which is very cute. We've got a pic of Laura holding a Koala named 'Gandalf.'

At this same park you were also able to walk right up to Kangaroos and feed them by hand. It was kinda scary at first, but you figured out pretty quick that mama kangaroo was just interested in the food bag in your hand - not kicking you with her hind legs like a cartoon.

Time to Relax

2007-10-24T13:16:00.000-07:00

We got a really nice hotel suite while we stayed in a city called Surfer's Paradise. Because of the wedding, we spent more time here than any other stop on our trip and took the time to relax a bit.

The first part of our trip was full of early mornings and busy city bustling while this stop was much more about sleeping late, reading, and watching music videos on Australian TV.

Watching videos was a much more pleasant experience than the equivalent activity back here in the states. I found out that Silverchair is still really big over there along with another band I'd never heard of called Powderfinger.

I took a lot of comics on the trip, and I got to read some of them in 'Surfers'. I also went to the bookstore and bought a bunch (like 4) foreign affairs mags and journals which I dug into during the trip.

Reading list included but was not limited to:
Transformers - Infiltration and Stormbringer
--These are both trade paperbacks which means they collect a series of individual comics into one magazine sized paperback
book

Star Wars Legacy Vol 1; Broken
--Also a trade paperback

(Adjectiveless) X-MEN
--I read about 15 or so individual comics from the no adjective X-Men series. L has a subscription and I got caught up on those just before issue #200

Wired Magazine
--It was July and I was reading February and March

Texas Monthly
--Surprisingly good - I think I read April and June

Harvard International Review
--Volume 29, Issue 1

National Review
--June 25, 2007. I barely made it into this one but picked it up again when we got back

2007-10-24T13:14:00.000-07:00

Um, I just had a huge post erased by an unhandled IE exception. You'd think those clowns at Microsoft could figure it out!

Here is a picture from our hotel room window on the 'Gold Coast'

The Next Wonder

2007-10-12T13:12:00.000-07:00

We flew from Uluru to Cairns (Try not to pronounce the R). This is pretty much Great Barrier Reef Central. It kinda felt like a mix between Cancun and Disney World.

We didn't have much time here but our hotel upgraded us to a corner suite looking over the Bay and Marina. I wish we could have spent more time in it.

We booked a diving trip on a boat right outside our door in the Marina that took us out for snorkeling and diving. We had never been diving before, but decided to do it anyway. It was awesome!

The diving highlight was probably getting to touch a giant clam - CHOMP. It didn't chomp me but it did blow out a bunch of cold sea water like it was exhaling - very cool.

More Australia

2007-10-10T15:02:00.000-07:00

We traveled from Sydney to the middle of the Australian continent and a place known to Europeans as Ayer's Rock. Its been given back to the native people of the region and then rented out from them as a national park where two sandstone rock formations protrude like great stone memorials to a time on earth that was probably pre-plant life.

The most famous rock is called Uluru while its neighboring friend is Kata Tjuta which is pictured here. Its actually several different rocks that have been exposed after - well - a really long time.

The rocks are sacred places to the local aboriginies and some parts are off limits. For anyone searching for a modern reference point on these, you may have heard of them because of the infamous "The Dingo Ate My Baby" stories. That family was camping next to Uluru when their baby went missing.

1st Stop

2007-09-29T13:12:00.001-07:00

Quick Australia Post

2007-09-28T17:11:00.000-07:00

We went to Australia in July for Laura's cousin's wedding. If you go I think you should understand that its going to cost you like $10,000 (everything incl) but there are ways to ease the pain. We bought a Quantas Airpass which gave us the ability to fly to 3 destinations within Australia for about $300 more than just the round trip to Sydney would cost.

Our route around the continent looked something like this quick map I made.

I got caught in a phishing scam on myspace

2007-09-27T08:50:00.001-07:00

I got a comment from an old friend that was a video

I clicked on the video which then prompted me to log into MySpaceTV - which I did

My guess is that this wasn't really MySpaceTV but a phishing site set up to catch my info

The friend who posted the comment later told me that they did not actually post it

Beware!!!

Its been so long

2007-08-29T14:27:00.000-07:00

I stayed away after I became embarrassed about the length of time between blog posts.

I'm boring - L and I were talking about how we've taken it easy this year and as a result the muse of thought has not struck me in such a way as to want to share anything on this blog.

I am going to try and push myself to blog about or trips to San Francisco and Australia, but I'll have to organize my thoughts and pictures for that.

If you still occasionally check on me and my blog thank you.

An E-mail Discussion about Islam in Europe

2007-02-02T17:36:00.000-08:00

From: Me
Date: Fri, 2 Feb 2007 12:16pm
To: S

A lot about Iran but not alot really about Europe in this segment.

Marseille is set to be Europe's first Muslim city, and most whites there seem to react with reactionary racism. They don't like it, so I don't really agree with this statement:

> "Europeans are losing their own loyalties and their
> own self-confidence," he said. "They have no respect for
> their own culture." Europeans had "surrendered" on every
> issue with regard to Islam in a mood of "self-abasement,"
> "political correctness" and "multi-culturalism,"

The French are fighting Islam's influence all the freaking time. Thats why they fight the veil in schools and also why the facist guy (LePen) who runs for President every time gets support from more than 1/3 of the country.

My opinion is that there are very few French who are aiding the process of integrating Muslims into their society which creates tension that can explode as it did in 2005 with the burning car wriots. This fact makes the following an interesting observation:

> The only pertinent question regarding Europe's
> future would be, "Will it be an Islamized Europe or
> Europeanized Islam?"

If France would take a few more steps toward racial and religious tolerance, I think they could help to Europeanize Islam in such a way that European Muslims would come into their own and dominate the world's opinion of Islam.

I base this mainly on the fact that the Muslim immigrants to Europe I have met are very similar to Central American immigrants to the US. They come from mostly poor environments with very little freedoms, and when given the choice, none of them really ever want to go back. They want to stay in Europe and have a European life. If Europe could show them that true Religious freedom and tolerance is part of what makes life in a democracy so valuable, I think that would help to start a new pillar of Islamic culture in Europe and take a lot of the focus off the militant poor in the Middle East and Asia.

The attitude might actually start to trickle backwards to those regions and the West wouldn't be as much of a target as an environment to emulate in the eyes of Muslims around the world.

I don't think that there is a need to "fight" Islam in Europe. The Europeanization of Islam will happen eventually due to a combination of economic dominance and the fact that freedom is inherintly superior when it comes down to an individual making a choice.

I don't personally believe that there is enough power and propaganda in militant Islam to retain the children of European immigrants. They would have to choose to remain in a religious bubble that demands that they be outcasts from regular European society when that same society offers so many advantages to their own.

Its not a commonly voiced belief, but I do believe that Europeans could speed the process of Europeanization up for all immigrants by taking a few lessons from the US. When it comes to a citizen's personal understanding of political correctness and tolerance as it relates to respecting other people's personal freedoms, the US is superior. In my opinion, the only European countries that come close to a US understanding of these concepts are the UK and Ireland and they could still use some catching up.

I could talk about this for a long time. I'll stop now and continue if your friend has more questions for me.

. . .The article that started the discussion follows. . .

From: C
Date: Fri, 2 Feb 2007 10:08:50 -0600
To: S
Subject: Article by Prof. Bernard Lewis

It would be interesting to learn what your friends in Marsaille, France have to say about this article. I have no idea the accuracy of the statements. The email was sent by my friend, R, who stays in touch with Palestinian Christians that they met when touring Israel last year. Hmmmmm _____

From: G
Sent: Friday, February 02, 2007 8:02 AM
To: C
Subject: Hitler meant it, so do the radical Muslims!

Islam could soon be the dominant force in a Europe which, in the name of political correctness, has abdicated the battle for cultural and religious control, Prof. Bernard Lewis, the world-renowned Middle Eastern and Islamic scholar, said on Sunday.

The Muslims "seem to be about to take over Europe," Lewis said at a special briefing with the editorial staff of The Jerusalem Post. Asked what this meant for the continent's Jews, he responded, "The outlook for the Jewish communities of Europe is dim." Soon, he warned, the only pertinent question regarding Europe's future would be, "Will it be an Islamized Europe orEuropeanized Islam?" The growing sway of Islam in Europe was of particular concern given the rising support within the Islamic world for extremist and terrorist movements, said Lewis.

Lewis, whose numerous books include the recent What Went Wrong?: The ClashBetween Islam and Modernity in the Middle East, and The Crisis of Islam:Holy War and Unholy Terror, would set no timetable for this drastic shift in Europe, instead focusing on the process, which he said would be assisted by"immigration and democracy." Instead of fighting the threat, he elaborated, Europeans had given up.

"Europeans are losing their own loyalties and their own self-confidence," he said. "They have no respect for their own culture." Europeans had"surrendered" on every issue with regard to Islam in a mood of "self-abasement," "political correctness" and "multi-culturalism," said Lewis, who was born in London to middle-class Jewish parents but has longlived in the United States.

The threat of extremist Islam goes far beyond Europe, Lewis stressed,turning to the potential impact of Iran going nuclear under its currentregime.

The Cold War philosophy of Mutual Assured Destruction (MAD), which prevented the former Soviet Union and the United States from using the nuclear weapons they had targeted at each other, would not apply to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's Iran, said Lewis.

"For him, Mutual Assured Destruction is not a deterrent, it is an inducement," said Lewis of Ahmadinejad. "We know already that they [Iran'sruling ayatollahs] do not give a damn about killing their own people ingreat numbers. We have seen it again and again. If they kill large numbers of their own people, they are doing them a favor. They are giving them a quick, free pass to heaven. I find all that very alarming," said Lewis.

. . .More followed about Iran and not so much about Europe. . .
(Arutz Sheva,IsraelNationalNews.com, January 19, 2007)

Back from my Trip

2007-01-24T07:48:00.000-08:00

Well, I'm back from my trip and returned to work after a 3 week break. It feels like the first day of school.

I'm really excited about a friend of ours who auditioned for Am Idol in Memphis and got through to the next round.

Watch as Sean Michel performs Johnny Cash and makes it to the next round.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSoqDsWZkXU

Here is his myspace page:

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=18671038

Still on Vacation

2007-01-15T02:30:00.000-08:00

Nothing really all that earth shattering to report. We are having a lot of fun with our friends wondering why we ever stopped being missionaries in the first place - NOT really.

Hmmm that could be misinterpreted so that people would think that we've become alcohol drinking heathens that are full of piss and vinegar for our old tee-totaling psedo-sexist employer. Oh wait, we've always been that way.

I'll move on to putting in a list of things we've done since my last post - its been cool and there has been much alcohol imbibed (but not much drunkeness :)

1) Arles - we'd never been to this city of Roman vestiges and Van Gogh's inspiration. We walked right by the site where he painted Starry Starry Night only to realize later that that little emblem in the sidewalk wasn't a dude with a backpack but a painter - duh. This was a very nice and very French town. We ate Confit de Canard, an old favorite.

2) Football (the american kind) - We spent time watching the playoffs with our friends. Since we left Europe, some genius has come out with the North American Sports Network. This would have been awesome when we lived here and is a perk we can enjoy with them since we are not in a frantic hurry to have the vacation of a lifetime. I woke up at 2:30am with a huge Buckeye fan to see them get embarrassed - went back to bed at halftime.

3) Cassis - little French costal town where we went for lunch. Watched the sun set in the Med. ==Pic== We ate whole wheat crepes and salad with bowls of French cidre to drink. We also went to a movie in Marseille called Hors de Prix. It was a surprisingly light hearted French comedy, and we both loved it.

4) Carcassonne and Le Pays des Cathars - I'd been to Carcassonne before. It is a beautifully restored medevial town in the south of France. L and M hadn't been, and we spent the night there inside the city. No tourists but us and it felt like we had the whole city to ourselves. The swankiest hotel inside the wall actually offered me a room for 300 euros off, but it was still too expensive. We didn't have to go far to find another option. I ate Cassoulet with duck and sausage and had probably my 3rd serving of foie gras since the trip began. ==Goofy Pic for LB==

4a) The Pays des Cathars is a region in the south near the Spanish border that I really didn't know anything about before this trip. The Cathars were a catholic splinter sect that existed for somewhere between 200-300 years in the south. They left probably a dozen fortresses around that you can visit to this day. This region of France was not known to me as a wine region, but oh boy is it ever. The drive was truly an exquisite one in the foothills of the Pyrenees which are almost covered with vineyards. I wish I could come back to hike across this area sometime in the summer. We had steak-frites in a small town and then feu de bois pizza in Narbonne on the way back to Marseille.

there's more, but I'm bored with this post.

First Time in Marseille

2007-01-07T23:15:00.000-08:00

Being the experienced European types that we are, we've had many experiences with a good friend of ours named "Jet-Lag." Our system for ourselves and everyone who came to visit us while we lived in France was basically to suffer through the first day and then sleep a normal 8 hours from whenever you could last until at night (usually just after dinner at 8pm) until a reasonable hour the next morning - say 8am.

If you actually get 12 uninterrupted hours of sleep your first night in Europe and wake up when it is morning local time, you will have defeated "Jet-Lag" completely.

What usually happens however is that you sleep from 8 till about 11:30 and then from about 12:30 (after you take something) till 3am and then from somewhere between 5 and 7 until the maid comes and knocks on your door and tells you its time to checkout . . .

We were always happy to interrupt our guests before the maid in order to avoid the unpleasantness of a possible 6 hour nap from 8am till 2pm that would effectively screw you for your entire 8 day trip to Europe.

On our most recent 14 day trip (which we are on while I am typing this message), our friends picked us up from the airport at around 1pm in the afternoon. We did great, renting a car and making it through dinner at their home. We managed to last until about 10:30pm when the attempt at sleep began. I made it from about 10:30 to 1am and then fell back to sleep around 4. From this point, earplugs, black out the sun shutters in our room, and not having any type of clock to look at combined to screw us over to the tune of letting us sleep till about 2pm. Even our friend's 1 and 3 year old didn't wake us up.

We made the best of it by getting out and about and visiting some of the more prominent sites in Marseille - Notre Dame de la Garde and Le Vieux Port. The photo above is me in front of a view of Marseille from the hill on which ND d.l. Garde sits.

The day was short and it culminated in us finding the grocery store, where we endulged by buying all the old favorites we enjoyed while we lived in France. Our grocery list might surprise you as it isn't filled with pain au chocolate and baguettes but we've got our reasons:
1) Straight for the Foie Gras de Canard
2) That curled up hard French salami (very salty good with cream cheese)
3) Pain Complet (wheat bread is good for you)
4) Une bouteille de Chateauneuf de Pape (because we are in the Rhone wine region)
5) Pate en Croute (not really as nice as you're thinking, this is something only a poor missionary in France would attempt, but we love it)
6) Lots of yogurty desserts - Mmmmmm
7) Boursin (kinda like cream cheese with garlic and chives blended right in)
8) Little toasties like melba toast except intended for adults (for the foie gras and boirsin after the bread goes stale)

After our shopping trip we returned home and feasted on the random France comfort food we had acquired, and it was time to try and sleep.

I think I was awake for more than 5 1/2 hours before I finally gave up and decided to wake up with the houshold - grrrr.

I'll report more on our trip later, but the next day went really well and involved passing out in front of the TV at like 10:30 when I finally conqured "Jet-Lag" and got on schedule.

Ali Toure and The Rockwells

2006-12-22T08:51:00.000-08:00

For those of you who attended the CD exchange party, I wanted to post info about the CDs I brought.

You can listen to samples of Ali Farka Toure here: http://www.mp3stor.com/albums/65/4560/39580/ali_farka_toure/savane/

The Rockwells have been around for a while. Check out their website where you can download the new album we shared at the party:
http://www.rockwells.com/

I Don't See a Wang in This Picture

2006-10-14T07:15:00.000-07:00

But Something Else Stands Out . . .

Not So Hot Actresses

2006-10-06T13:07:00.000-07:00

There are no purely ugly actresses that make it big. The system is designed to weed out those women who don't look the part, and the parts are always well . . . for the hotties.

There are some actresses, however, who clearly work on their 'craft' more than their looks.

Glenn close has always been a bit "manish," and while I think Hilary Swank is gorgeous, a lot of guys still think she has a penis. I just think Juliette Lewis is ugly. Sorry Juliette, I bet you might think I'm ugly too - put it on your blog.

The Debate - Hot Actress or Good Actress?

2006-09-08T08:29:00.000-07:00

The trick is to find someone who does both, but in our world of constant physical attention and the misguided search for the perfect rack, some hotties stand out from others (for their looks). Here are some of my favorite actresses who (almost) ruin movies, but look good doing it.

Jessica Simpson has only really been in one movie, but has done an amazing job at being seen during many different stages of breast size, taking special notice for it. See This

Video Game Nostalgia

2006-08-30T11:24:00.000-07:00

As the first real generation of life long video gamers firmly enters adulthood, there has been an incredible re-surgence of older video games.

And why not. . . There are plenty of financial reasons for game publishers to do this as we are all finally earning the means to purchase whatever games we want, but this is a boring reason.

I prefer a more sentimental one.

Eventually, the entertainment that a game provides becomes something that you take ownership of, remembering fondly the hours you spent playing it, and the ways you made it your own interactive experience.

This is much the same for me as remembering the first time I saw a memorable movie.

Part of what brings these pieces of entertainment back to us fondly is that we actually ended up developing part of our personality around them.

I was just discussing Star Trek TOS with a friend of mine. By today's standards, I may not really think that the original series offers much entertainment value at all, but I get some variety of warmth remembering when I first watched it, exposing me to such RADICAL concepts as a world where Russians and Americans were at peace and blacks and whites could kiss on TV.

If we apply this same reasoning to old video games, I can clearly say that while going back and playing a game like The Seven Cities of Gold
for my Commodore 64 may not carry much in the way of current entertainment value, I remember that through this game I was able to learn navigation techniques and was free to explore in my imagination a time in history that helped shape my own adult desires to learn and explore. More over, I owned the experience that I had with the game because I controlled it.

If somehow the video game era has passed you by and you're wondering what the fuss is all about just do a quick comparison in your mind. Think of some iconic symbol of your childhood or adolescence and play it back in your mind, maybe something like the theme song to the Facts of Life or the Never Ending story or even a shriveled little alien saying "phone home." (or if these don't work for you something better)

Now replace that moment with the catchy little jingle that plays when Pacman dies, Pitfall Joe swings on a vine, or Mario bumps a coin and you're probably close to understanding the same feelings that us old gamers get all tingly about.

Something that Surprised me

2006-08-18T12:54:00.000-07:00

The number of motorcycles parked at my office everyday.

More than 10 less than 20 by 9am

Granted, I work at a big company, but I don't know anyone here who rides one.

I apologize to my blog

2006-08-02T12:25:00.000-07:00

I've neglected you blog - sorry (not really)

On generosity:

I've sort of lost that thing inside me that somehow reminds me to be guilty for not being more generous.

I think that if you aren't satisfied with the amount of time you spend not being selfish it means that you aren't meeting some sort of standard that you've set for yourself.

Or that others have set for you.

I feel more and more like I am meeting my own personal standard. I guess thats whats happening because I don't really have that thing reminding me to be more generous than I already am.

I'm Boring

2006-06-28T11:52:00.000-07:00

Well I don't actually think that about myself, but I have shifted into low gear lately.

Maybe its the heat or something, but my ambitious Spring has been exchanged for a Summer of experimenting with new liquor that I've never tried and video games.

What a way to fill the last month (weeks) of my 20's

Here's something I was thinking about while not being boring:

I have been thinking about gender lately and how hard it is to seperate the way that I think about certain roles from gender.

The noun 'Preacher' came up this weekend when I realized that I had a lot of negative baggage associate with this word.

My wife was able to define the term in a gender neutral way; ascribing certain qualities to someone who was a preacher regardless of gender. This might not seem like a big deal, but it was revelatory for me to think of a preacher in a positive light disassociated with gender.

There was more thinking about gender after we watched the movie "I Heart Huckabees" for the first time. The characters portrayed by Schwartzman and Whalberg are what I would consider stereotypical intellectual males. I might be reaching a bit, but we all know someone who kind of over-analyzes things and slightly annoys everyone around them.

My thinking here is that this person is usually male, and I haven't seen many female depictions in fiction - or encountered many in real life for that matter.

This sort of led me to a realization that men and women seem to think about different things. I know DUH.

But when talking about gender barriers and equal opportunity, I think it is important to recognize that the sexes still seperate themselves by what they choose to explore.

Could be a product of environment - Dunno

Things I Don't Care About

2006-05-09T11:43:00.000-07:00

How COOL my phone is!

Seriously, I don't really care about any of the options that are available for cell phones.

Camera
Games
MP3
Ring Tones
Backgrounds
Extra Small

Develop a phone that needs to be recharged once a month and I'll buy it!

For now I don't need to send people pictures of myself drinking at the Cock n Bull on Gaston last Sunday night while simultaneously playing Defender on my extra small MP3 phone.

How Did I Miss That?

2006-04-18T07:43:00.000-07:00

Somehow this past Friday I missed the chance to toast my longest and perhaps best friend at his rehearsal dinner.

It started to sink in Saturday while I was standing beside his bride at the altar-of-love when I realized what a big mistake not toasting was.

The reality of the thing is that Winston and my relationship has changed a number of times over the years, so I'm not really emotional about the whole "will it be the same" question, but I should have a lot to say about where he's come from and where I see him going.

I'd like to apologize for not getting my head in the game on Friday and pulling this together, but I thought I'd give it a shot here on my blog.

Winston and I met at Prestonwood in HS although neither of us really remembers talking back then. It wasn't until we spent a weekend during our freshman year in College Station (which was weird because we both went to Baylor) that we became friends. I think we probably had 2 or 3 classes together that year, and realized that we were some of the only ones serious about learning anything.

I also realized that he had an enormous bulge in his pants that was irresistible!

We were great friends and roommates all through college, although I have to admit that living with Winston definitely prepared me better than any test I could have had for living with my wife later in life (insert another gay joke here).

Seriously though, I had never come across someone so absent minded in my entire life, and I'm pretty sure that I still haven't.

One time I remember that our air conditioner (which was in the ceiling in my bathroom) was leaking water whenever it was turned on. I explained this to Winston, and I even think I put a little sign on the refrigerator to remind him. Ya know something complicated like “Don’t turn on the AC,” but one day I came home to find about 5 inches of water on the bathroom floor - flowing over the trashcan that I'd left there to catch it in just such an occasion. When I confronted Winston about it, he said in typical Winston speak "You know I do stuff like that."

Well we got passed that oh so difficult moment, managing to remain friends.

Fast forward a bit and when Laura and I got married (2000), Winston agreed to be a groomsman at my wedding and to perform a song that still means a lot to me today whenever I hear it.

We separated a bit while I lived in France, but upon our return I was happy to put aside all my water dripping memories to move in with Winston once again. Laura and I were returning from the mission field and had no idea what we were going to do in Dallas, but were grateful to be able to count on Winston for a place to stay.

We lived there for a little over a year and Winston was a great friend to me during a time when neither L nor I really had much interest in "working" for new relationships. He encouraged me and helped me plug back into a career as well as some old and new friendships for which I am extremely grateful.

All around he's been the only man-friend with whom I've maintained a meaningful and deep relationship for longer than about 2 or 3 years, which leads me to Lindsay (and . . . I realize now I'm unsure how to spell your name).

Lindsey, I was really worried that no woman would ever choose to marry Winston. After, living with him twice I was sure that W would have a hard time convincing any woman to agree to cohabitate with his forgetful ass.

Heck, I'm just surprised he never burned his own house down, or got robbed by the workers who remodeled because he NEVER locked a door. I also have a strong suspicion that if I hadn't lived there, the trash would never EVER have been taken out when you first started dating.

Winston - you owe me for that one.

So Lindsay, I'm grateful to you. Because while you two have been together, I've seen a lot of Winston's insecurities and annoying little tendencies fade away under a thick coat of happiness. I've never seen him as confident as he is now, and there is a distinct sense I get from him that suddenly he is able to accomplish the things he wants out of life in a way he never has been able to before. I attribute that to you and the powerful love that you share together.

While I don't know you very well (Lindsey), seeing the two of you in love not only makes sense, but it makes you both better, and I think that is a testament to true love.

I offer my toast to your new commitment, that you would continue to love and improve each other for years to come.

J

Me and Music

2006-04-14T10:02:00.000-07:00

For a long time, I was really into discovering bands and listening to all kinds of music, new and old.

Now I find it exhausting. Seems like it was easier to pick out and find music that I liked in the by-gone era of less choice. Back in 1987 When I could go to "Mother's Records and Tapes" at Military Circle mall, I knew exactly what was cool.

I'm still very proud of my early purchases:
1. Lenny Kravitz - Let Love Rule
2. 10,000 Maniacs - In My Tribe
3. Peter Gabriel - So

I bypassed Poison and Erasure at the time for much more "alternative" choices before there even was an alternative genre.

This culminated in my being possibly the biggest - Junior High - R.E.M fan on the east coast. I had every R.E.M album before anyone ever even heard a little song about losing your faith. To this day R.E.M's "Dead Letter Office" is in my top 5 albums of all time.

Note that some might argue that this not really an album in the true sense but more of a compliation because it is really just a collection of B-sides and earlier songs. Depending on which version you get, the last five songs on DLO are actually from another early R.E.M album called "Chronic Town." C'Town is usually referred to as the first R.E.M album, and their inclusion in DLO makes it a great way to "discover" the early days of R.E.M if you aren't familiar with them already.

The Chronic Town songs were very influential on me. In fact I probably still compare all music I hear to those songs as a sort of ultimate example of "my kind of music." R.E.M has evolved, and I have to say that I am not as big a fan nowadays.

My music taste went from whiney white guys to angrier white guys with the "grunge" movement, and then somewhere about 1997; I just kind of dropped out. Now I struggle to find new music that I really feel is worth taking the time to experience. I just end up looking at buying old "Offspring" albums or some kind of iTunes R.E.M compilation where I can hear some of my old favorites. Even the new music that I do like usually sounds like something from 1995.

I think I'm posting this as a way to sort of mourn about the fact that this part of my life is basically over. I used to really relate to emotive lyrics and felt sincerely that music was a way to express myself when I couldn't find other words to do it.

Now the same old songs just bring up good or bad feelings from the old days which is good, but not the same.

2006-04-11T09:07:00.000-07:00

The Cynical Tyrant said...
i'm quitting journey if it moves to saturday. i don't like to interrupt my weekend to go hang out with Jesus.i don't like 5pm sunday, either. that still cuts into my weekend.

=======================================
I said...
Where has Jesus been lately, he's so hard to get in touch with recently, and he never shows up at any of the places I go.

I mean I always have to make this big effort to show up someplace where I know he's gonna be. I thought he was God or something. Can't he be a bit more accomodating?

Long Live The 486

2006-03-13T08:35:00.000-08:00

BLOG READER E-MAILING ME

Hi - I got your email address from your blog. I am going to make an assumption that this is Jonathan, the same person who posted this message at computing.net several months ago:

Interesting
I am not so surprised to find this thread, but I am surprised to find it from October 2005.

Even more surprising is that I am wanting to replace the exact same battery in the same month - weird.

Anyway, looking over the PB450 motherboard on this particular machine reveals that the BR1225 is soldered on.

It looks like there are 2 metal leads coming off (one top, one bottom) that suspend the battery above the board.

My question now is how do I go about replacing the battery. Do I need new leads or can I clip and use the old ones? Can I use any hunk of metal if I need new leads?

There is also a way to disable the on-board battery and plug an external battery right onto the jumpers of the board. Can I just plop some wires down on the + and - side of the battery and plug them in?

Any help would be appreciated.

It's weird that so many people are having this exact same issue at the same time - still a lot of love for 486's I guess. I keep mine around for retro-gaming purposes, but have now run into the dreaded battery problem.

Did you wind up fixing yours? At first I thought it would be a delicate soldering job, but it looks like, as you said, it may be as easy as plugging in a new external battery.

Here is a picture of our PB450:

http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Lakes/8774/mother/pb450.gif

The actual lithium battery is soldered to the right of J30 (Battery) in the diagram - the unlabeled gray circle.

Anyway, I was hoping that you had fixed this problem and could give me some pointers. I don't really know anything about putting an external battery on - except that it's going to somehow attach to J30. Do I actually have to "disable" the regular battery, or if it's dead it's dead?

=========================================
CONT

Wongo,

I think that I've figured out most of the battery
issue I previously
e-mailed you about. This battery should work with
the external port:

http://www.cablesnmor.com/lithium-battery.html

Does that look right to you?

Thanks,
John

=========================================
MY RESPONSE BELOW

Yes, that looks almost identicle to the one I made myself except that you're getting a lithium battery there and I just used alkaline AAA's.

Its funny, I posted that on my blog figuring that someone would end up there with a similar probelm. I'm glad that I could help.

I think that I did have to move a jumper on the board to indicate that I was using an 'external' battery, but you may have figured that out by now. A few weeks ago, I checked the links I'd been using for my Packard Bell motherboard diagrams and some of them had been taken down, but I bet you can find a diagram and description of the various jumpers by going to this site, http://rtgo.hopto.org/th99/ and looking for the PB450.

Good Luck and keep the retro gaming alive. I've personally had a lot of fun playing "Starflight 2" recently.

Check it out on The Underdogs Here if you've never heard of it.

Journey on Saturday

2006-03-06T12:15:00.000-08:00

JOURNEY

I think with the move to the new location, Journey should also consider moving worship time from Sunday night to late Saturday afternoon, say 5pm.

Here are my reasons (mostly all selfish)

I would just be a lot more likely to go. Sunday night is a time when I am wrapping the weekend up and inevitably have something to do that I’ve put off all weekend long. I never feel like I have appropriate time to socialize on Sunday night because of the impending dread that the end-of-weekend feelings bring on.

When I do come to Journey, I always want to rush home right away, which takes away a big part of the “community” aspect for me. On Saturday, I would be a lot more likely to socialize after Journey which would re-open the whole thing to me and Laura.

Maybe with the move to the new building, it would be a good time to suggest a schedule change?

Who Is This Guy?

2006-02-22T10:53:00.000-08:00

He Looks Like a Much Bigger DORK Than J-Lay Actually is!

Dude, I'm Thinking That is not a Good Look for You.

Blogging is Boring

2006-02-14T14:24:00.000-08:00

Chime in!

Throw me a Bone Already!

2005-12-12T14:53:00.000-08:00

If you are interested in Rhapsody, Magazines, or Blockbuster on-line, you must follow this link

Win A Free Video iPod

You can sign up for all of those things with an introductory discount and start yourself on the path to winning a free 60GB Video iPod.

Its a site that lets you win an iPod when 8 of your friends complete one of various offers, and it really works! 3 of my friends have won an iPod from this site.

So help me out! I only need one more person and you can be on your way to winning your own iPod.

Iraqi War Exit Strategy from the Libertarian Party

2005-11-17T07:29:00.000-08:00

I support this plan, and I wish that we would begin the process of exiting Iraq right away.

Random Thoughts About Riots in France From Someone who Claims to be in the Know

2005-11-07T08:30:00.000-08:00

I have a lot of thoughts about these riots, and no I am not really surprised at all.

Everything written recently kind of skirts around the race issue that is at the center of this whole problem. Poverty, of course, is inevitably attached to race (or vice-versa) in most developed countries, and it is no different in France.

I've said for years that the French economy is so cannibalistic that it is heading for a big downfall, I had no idea that it would manifest itself into this level of riotous violence, but France has a very real history of "Revolution and Revolt."

Also, I jumped immediately to the organization idea. For the violence to have spread like that indicates a real organized effort.

My honest reaction is that France kind of deserves what it is getting here. I love the country but they treat immigrants very poorly, and the opportunities to succeed in France are limited when compared to our country. One thing that has always troubled me is the lack of a minority presence in the political arenas. To my knowledge, there are still no North African members of the assemble (Congress) and no North Africans in the president's cabinet. For that matter, I don't think that there are any blacks either, and the French gov't recently stipulated a minimum requirement on the number of female candidates that each of the major parties would have to put forward for the assemble. Implying that there weren't enough women in goverment either.

All minorities have been underrepresented in gov't over there, and I think you are seeing a real expression of frustration as a result.

Kindred Spirits

2005-11-03T07:00:00.000-08:00

I found this article and thought that it really summed up what I thought that I would be doing at 29 when I was 22.

(Skim the Nov 1st article about aid workers in Sudan and come back)

Unknown 'Soldiers'

I sort of have done that. I've lived in a foreign country. I speak a foreign language very well. I've dedicated years of my life to improving people's lives.

But it wasn't humanitarian aid - it was mission work, and instead of getting praise on Yahoo, I get dismissed as a fundamentalist or asked questions like "Does France Really Need Missionaries"?

I know how to address those issues, but this article made me think about some other things . . .

I went to Africa 2x while I lived in Europe. Once on vacation to Egypt and once with a friend to French speaking west Africa.

On my visits, I was confronted with my own wealth. The feeling that I had so little in common with the Egyptian men trying to sell me postcards was only diminished by the thought that they were only selling them as an excuse not to beg from me.

As poor as Egypt was, the poverty in west Africa seemed even more evident. Upon seeing a deformed child begging in the street, I was surprised to hear my hosts tell me that the child's parents had probably allowed the deformity to get worse in order to attract more attention while begging. Apparently there was enough medical care available to correct the problem, but the opportunity cost was too great. Now that's economics up close and personal!

The trips to these places strengtened my desire to reach out, but instead, I've closed the international helper chapter of my life for now.

I'm ok with it.

I hope that part of being 29 for everyone is looking back on the 20s and noticing where you've made deliberate choices for advancement or sacrifice. I know that I am where I am now because I've put myself here. I have no real regrets.

But I still want to help.

Tim Schermbeck

2005-11-02T22:08:00.000-08:00

My Dog

2005-10-26T20:10:00.000-07:00

He's the one who bit my toenail off (read below)

His name is Toad. Doesn't look so vicious when he's all sleepy like that does he?

Comment On Another Blog

2005-10-26T09:03:00.000-07:00

Read the original post from the original blogger here:

Shannon's Blog

But if you don't want to do that, here is my response. I thought it was Blog-Worthy

Lonely is as Lonely does. . .

Now I am gonna come in here and kick all you losers while you're down.

Don't you know that lonliness is just about attitude? You just have to believe that people are interested in you and will fullfull all of your interpersonal needs - it will happen for you.

YEAH RIGHT!

Sometimes I think I was more lonely before I got married (5 yrs ago) and sometimes I think I am more lonely now.

Before marriage, I had a lot of time to seek out different relationships. I had the energy to work on those relationships and experience the different kinds of interaction that went along with them, but there was never anyone there to really share in my experiences and care about my life the way I do. There was never anyone who was always "on my side" (for lack of a better cliche).

Now that I am married, my wife provides a constant support. She is "on my side," gives me a lot of strength, and helps me to never feel completely alone.

But I don't have the time and energy I had when I was single to develop relationships with people who are different than my wife. I also don't really think it is appropriate for me to develop any relationships with other women, so "the field" of friends is cut in half, and the time (and don't forget energy cause marriage is hard) I have to spend out there is reduced by even more.

I think we've all got to cope with some level of lonliness in life. The French are experts in this. If you want to see a bunch of lonely people, go live in France for a few years. They all seem to embrace the fact that they are all alone in eternity and nothing can change that.

In fact, I realized reading your post that since I got back from France I don't really think about being lonely as much. I've seen another level of despair, and I realized that I am just not playing with the same deck of sadness as some others.

There are a lot of things that contribute to that. Family, environment, Christianity. . .

I think this is one of the obvious areas of my life where It is a big advantage to be a Christian. Ultimately we are never alone as Christians.

I never really understood the opposite of that proposition before I was a missionary in France. No one is fooling themselves over there. They almost all think (when they die) they are going straight into the ground and never coming out.

And they've made peace with it.

Kinda makes you want to only work 35 hours a week and take 5 weeks of vacation doesn't it.

Micronics M54hi Plus Motherboard Assembly

2005-10-26T07:12:00.000-07:00

I had this old board and didn't even know if it would work. A friend of mine asked me if I had an old computer he could use to play Privateer II, and I went into action.

Link to original Privateer from the-underdogs.org

I've never played Privateer or Privateer II, but they are cousins to my beloved Wing Commander series of games, and I deemed it worthy of a construction project.

If you are searcing for info on this motherboard, you will find these links very useful:

Micronics Manuals
M54Hi Plus .pdf Manual
M54Hi Plus Diagram and Specs

They are links to manuals and diagrams that detail the various options and operating procedures for the M54hi Plus Motherboard.

This weekend I assembled this motherboard with the following specs (pretty much maxed out).

166 Mhz CPU
512 KB Cache Ram (external in this era)
128MB RAM

I find the instructions that usually come with motherboards to be excellent. The steps are simple:

1. Correctly insert the CPU (processor) and set any appropriate jumpers
2. Insert Memory
3. Attach to Case

1. You have to be careful that you put the processor in at the right orientation. Some sockets will only take the CPU one way while on others you need to watch out for a small arrow or dot on one of the corners. That marks PIN 1, and there will be a corresponding mark on the MoBo socket. Put those two marks together or the CPU won't work.

2. Insert Memory - probably the easiest upgrade or computer building step there is. Pretty much the only thing to mention here is don't force it. Be sure the memory you are using fits the slot available. I get the DIMM, SIMM, DRAM, SDRAM designations mixed up. Just be sure that the memory you are using will fit. You can just eyeball it most of the time.

3. There are a couple of tricky things about attaching the MoBo to the case.

a. Be sure that the metal that sticks out of the back of the board doesn't touch the case metal. This will cause the board to ground out (or something) and it just won't work. Don't worry though, if you did this than the board probably isn't broken. Most boards have a "spacer" of some type that prevents this from happening - use it.

b. The screws you use to attach the board to the case can't extend beyond the metal area around the screw hole. This will be obvious if you're looking at a board, and it would be hard to find a screw that big, but this will also cause the board to ground out.

c. You must attach the power supply correctly. Power supplies can only attach to the board in one way. In other words, you can't really screw it up unless you try really hard. Older AT boards can be a bit trickier. When attaching an AT power supply, make sure the black wires are next to each other and you will be fine.

After successfully attaching the M54hi+ to its case, I:

I. Inserted a PCI video card
II. Plugged in a PS/2 keyboard using a small AT to PS/2 adapter (the only connector on the board was a single AT style port)
III. Hooked up all my various storage devices (Drives)
IV. Installed Windows 98

The only problem is that there is no way to attach a mouse (or anything) to this machine right now. This is a major setback to playing Privateer.

I've purchased these items to help with this problem, and they should clear it up.

https://www.cyberguys.com/templates/searchdetail.asp?T1=204+1125&dept=&search=PS2+Adapter&child

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=5816050609&rd=1&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWN%3AIT&rd=1

Then I can move on to another nerd project. I'll keep you updated.

Ever Googled Yourself?

2005-10-21T07:03:00.000-07:00

Of course you have . . .

I thought this was particularly interesting

http://www.geocities.com/jonclark500/

The Search for a Replacement CMOS Battery

2005-10-20T10:21:00.000-07:00

This is the kind of thing that keeps me up at night. Seriously!

I can't get stupid things like repairing my old worthless computer out of my head and yet I can't remember to call my neice on her birthday. Ugh

Anyway

Call it an RTC battery, Call it a CMOS battery, If you found this post and don't know me then you are probably pulling your hair our trying to find ways to get an old machine stop giving you a "real-time clock" error. I will use the terms RTC and CMOS battery interchangeably. If you know the difference, please post a comment explaining as much.

The "real-time clock" is a clock kept in your computer's BIOS. It doesn't really have much to do with your operating system, but is kept in memory on your motherboard. The mother (aka "main") board also stores some basic input/output system (BIOS) info that is critical to the operation of your computer.

The issue that arises is that the board needs power independent of the ac power source to store this information. So your computer has a small lithium battery that provides enough juice to the motherboard to retain that info in memory when you turn off or un-plug your computer.

So what happens to a lithium battery after about 10 to 12 years? It dies.

A CMOS bat on an old machine I keep around died, and I had to go about the process of learning how to replace it.

Now, I knew what an RTC battery was, so I knew what to look for and how to start the process of replacing it.

First it is important to note that your operating system will probably never report a CMOS problem. You will see error messages before you get into Windos, Mac OS, or whatever. These pop up on the bios boot screen. You will have seen one if you've every tried to start your PC without a keyboard attached, or started your pc with a "non-system disk" in the floppy drive.

If you get an error message like "RTC is out of sync, CMOS checksum error, or (duh) replace CMOS battery" you might have a need to replace your CMOS battery.

On most recent computers, this is a super easy fix, but it does require you to open the case and not break anything on the inside of your PC. If you aren't comfortable with that, just take you computer to a repair shop. Its pretty much always a good idea to take your laptop to an experienced repairperson, unless you don't care if you break it. Laptops are more difficult to disassemble and repair, but it can be done sucessfully.

So for not-a-laptop, you will want to figure out what kind of motherboard you've got. The link below is a sort of gateway to a gallery of older MoBo's. If you can't ID your MoBo just from looking at it, take a peek at this site and try and find yours by simple recognition.

http://rtgo.hopto.org/th99/

You will also sometimes be able to ID the Motherboard from the information that is displayed on screen when your computer first boots up.

The RTC battery usually looks like a coin and lays horozontally on the MoBo. Sometimes they are suspended on legs but usually they sit in a holder soldered to positive and negative poles on the board. If you see a coin thingy about quarter-sized in a holder, you are in good shape. There should be a way to pop it out and put a new one in. If that is the case, you're set. You'll find a replacement by checking the numbers on the old battery. Find your replacement on-line. Its out there somewhere and that is probably what a repair shop would do anyway.

Occasionally the battery is solderd to the board. This presents a bit more of a problem. If your battery is soldered down and you can't use your computer anymore because of it, consider throwing it in a nearby dumpster. Its probably 10 years old anyway. If you're like me and you just can't part with it yet, you'll have to do a bit more work.

I was personally dealing with an old Packard Bell Legend 10CD. Its a 486 with the PB450 MoBo. My RTC battery was the Rayovac 3V BR1225. It was suspended horozontally above the board and the legs were soldered onto the board.

I found the part (with legs) on-line fairly easily, but I don't have any soldering equipment, so I searched for another solution. After some reading, it became obvious that it didn't matter what battery I used as long as I hooked it up correctly and it produced 3V of output.

Now the makers of this and other old boards were wise enough to give me a way out without any soldering. They left me a 4-pin jumper that works as an input to the CMOS memory. It is there specifically as a way to replace the RTC battery without soldering.

Instead of ordering an expensive (and potentially non-existant) external lithium CMOS battery, and instead of ruining my computer by f'ing up the solder-job. I chose to buy a AAA battery holder from Radio Shack for $1.69. I then took the 4 pin connector of an internal CD audio cable and fastened it onto the positive an negative wires (red = +) coming out of the battery holder.

I checked my MoBo specs and pluged the 3v battery pack (1 AAA battery = 1.5v) up to the board (connecting red to pin 1 is almost always the rule) and to my relief it worked. Now that old 486 turned 586 is working again and it only cost me $1.69 and 2 AAA batteries.

And that is pretty much what I did yesterday.

Too Long for "About Me"

2005-10-17T08:00:00.000-07:00

More and more I find myself retreating to science as a captivating effort into which I can pour myself.

My interest in Politics and Religion has been waning for quite some time, basically because I never meet anyone who actually agrees with me when dealing with such subjective topics.

Instead, I've buried myself in computers. Science and Math are objective and there is less disagreement when discussing such matters. Plus I never really lose myself in anything quite like I do trying to rebuild an old PC or write a simple program that draws a bunch of asterix in the shape of a diamond.

I'm captivated.

That said, I like to talk about just about everything. I'm smart and I know it (minus spelling errors) so I can pretty much carry any conversation.

I lived in France for 3 years and speak French.