Not that anybody really reads this but...

I would like to clarify that I in no way think that if you are what I would call a "nerdy" Star Wars fan that there is something wrong with you. I see no problem with liking Star Wars enough to enjoy it as a hobby. I DO see a problem when you convert your whole lifestyle into trying to manipulate the force and role-play your own Star Wars universe on a daily basis.

Today I get to work out of the Lancaster, PA office. This is a good thing because it cuts my commute down about 32 miles each way. The Lancaster office resides in a huge building in the center of the city on the fifth floor. I don't know any of the people that work here, and none of them do anything that is related to what I do in my department. Therefore, I'm kind of working independently here. I don't mind that, because it challenges me to think harder about solutions since I have less help surrounding me. Which brings me to another topic...

...thanks to the inventions of instant messaging and e-mail, work productivity is all more efficient in this type of environment. I can instantly communicate via IM with all of my coworkers on any given day about topics. We can send files to each other via e-mail or through our network. Even if we are 35 miles away. This is something that would have been impossible 20 years ago for most people. I sometimes marvel at how wonderful it is that we have these tools to communicate these days. This kind of thing probably sounded science-fiction when I was a kid. I also can keep great communication with family and friends with e-mail and instant messaging no matter how far away we are. Not that this should ever replace a decent phone call, but it sure is nice to be able to have these options available.

Enjoy your Memorial day weekend everyone. Let's all take a moment this weekend to stop and remember those who gave their lives on the battelfield for our freedom. Its sometimes amazing to think of the amount of courage and bravery people have had for the love of their country and its honor. To all of the soldiers who did this....Thank you.

"Star Weird"

With the opening day of the final prequal to the original Start Wars trilogy upon us, I figured that it would be necessary to comment on some glaring details of what happens when a movie like this is released. But first, let's comment on what I feel is a healthy star wars fan, a nerdy one, and an unhealthy one.

Common Characteristics of a Healthy Star Wars Fan:

1. Grew up playing with Star Wars action figures and watching the original trilogy.
2. Possibly keeps old Star Wars toys in attic for nostalgia.
3. Has seen all the latest movies, and understands the story line and theme.
4. Still enjoys watching Star Wars.
5. Probably lives on their own, has a girlfriend/boyfriend/wife/husband, and a decent job.

Common Characteristics of a Nerdy Star Wars Fan:

1. Grew up playing with Star Wars action figures and watching the original trilogy.
2. Knows the names of all of the star wars characters, and detailed biographical information on most of them.
3. Collects Star Wars action figures as an ongoing hobby.
4. Has read every book every related to Star Wars and knows details beyond the scope of the movie themes.
5. May or may not live on their own and may or may not have a girlfriend/boyfriend/wife/husband, and a decent job.

Common Characteristics of an Unhealthy Star Wars Fan:

1. Grew up playing with Star Wars action figures and watching the original trilogy.
2. Collects and plays with Star Wars action figures reguarly as an adult.
3. Goes to every opening day showing of a Star Wars movie dressed up as a wookie or other Star Wars character.
4. Camps out in a tent in line to get tickets weeks in advance of them going on sale.
5. Has no job, or at least uses paychecks to finance his/her "active star wars" lifestyle
6. Most likely still lives with their parents with no girlfriend/boyfriend/husband/wife out of a room that still has original Star Wars posters adorning the walls.
7. Actively pursues the "Force" and believes that they possess this power.
8. Has legally changed their name to that of a Star Wars character.


So as you can see, these are how I classify the Star Wars fans of our day. What gets me is how the Media loves to highlight the "unhealthy" among us and create a common image of a Star Wars fan as someone with no life or no grip on reality. I can definitely vouch for those of us who are NOT crazy lunatics. I like Star Wars, but I don't think I'll be dressing up as a Wookie any time soon.

Weekend Warriors

This past weekend turned out to be very productive for us. We decided to organize our very unorganized basement an relocate the items to our also disorganized shed. After organizing both basement and shed, we ended up with more space in both. Our shed has tons of space for more stuff, and our basement is working its way towards being temporarily inhabitable. Our goal is to get the basement to be usable space for a future family room. This will add loads of space for our little place.

We also finally got around to putting away the winter clothes and re-discovering that we have summer clothes. Of course, it also leads to revelations in weight gain over the winter, which I hate to say seems to happen to me every year. Since changing professions from teacher to computer programming I've gained probably somewhere between 15 to 20 lbs. I guess if my next profession were sumo wrestling, I'd be heading in the right direction, but that's not the plan.

To update an old thread, the construction patterns on 222 still seem to show no signs of improvement. On any given day, traffic will be backed up for at least half a mile for no aparent reason. I think that it might have a lot to do with how bad Pennsylvania drivers merge. I even had a guy try to force me off of the road because he didn't want me to merge into his lane. I don't get it. When the signs say, "use both lanes to merge point" and "take turns merging into single lane", you'd think people would honor that. In any event, I found it irritating to need an hour and forty-five minutes to get from work to home thanks to a tractor trailer with a flat tire blocking the oncoming lane in a two-lane construction zone. The only thing that keeps my sanity through all of this is knowing that it will eventually get better as the new roads are finished.

Finally, an article that defends us.

Here's an article that I found that addresses the complaints of united states performance in the programming and engineering industry against other nations. Tons of article come out talking about how our educational institutions are failing us in math and science, and how we will lose our jobs because of the lack of competitiveness that we have against other countries in the industry. This article defends against that statement. Pretty interesting perspective.

Another Geek-like Entry

This article was really interesting to read. A lot of the news out about the new forthcoming Windows O/S has been on features. This one takes on that topic, as well as a few more broader aspects of how Microsoft affects the technology industry. I just thought that it was interesting to read on how many factors are directly related to this coming release.

PenDOT woes

I drive 35 miles one way to work. Sure it sounds like a long trip, but its not too bad. Its pretty much 95% highway travel, which makes it seem quick. However I have some issues with my route. Route 222 goes north and south between Lancaster and Reading. Right now there is existing construction on that route in Reading where they are building a new highway to support more lanes back and forth. Each time I travel out there, for about 10 miles there is construction which brings traffice down to one lane going each way. It slows things down, but what is encouraging is how much you can see getting done. There are tons of workers and a lot of highway and bridges being built. BUT. There is also construction that just began at the beginning of 222 on my route. This construction makes no sense. They've been cutting giant square slabs out of the road and are doing this for about 7 miles of road. Why? I have no clue. All that I know is that when I go to work at 7am each morning I never see anybody working. And when I come home from work I still don't see anybody working. What's the deal!!!! I mean, they leave all of their equipment and vehicles on the side of the road, they block off a whole lane which slows down all of the traffic, but the workers just don't show up? Maybe they are all up at the Reading end working? All I know is that thanks to this new construction where nobody works, my commute just grew by 15 minutes. Stupid PenDOT.

My New Job so far

With two days down, I'm really starting to like my new job. I'm learning tons (Except the 100 pin numbers and passwords I have), and the people are very friendly. My department deals with support for 3 major education applications which are used in school districts in 12 states. We've just got word that 3 new states may be added, which means tons of work for me. Very cool!

My new job also gave me a new IBM Thinkpad laptop computer. This is my only computer for work. Basically, I have to take it home with me too, so it kind of "lives" with me now. It has built-in wireless, so I am able to log into my wireless network at home. They aparently give all employees in our division a laptop because so many of the employees are sales reps and service reps, and that means they are required to do a lot of traveling. Makes sense, I guess.

The commute for the job is longer. I now commute about 50 minutes one way to work. It doesn't really seem as long as my previous commute, which was 25 minutes one way. I guess because my previous commute forces me to hit every stop sign and light on my route, where my new job is pretty much all highway. The killer is the mileage. Old Job = 10 miles. New Job= 32 miles. Total Miles per week for old job = 100 miles total miles per week for new job = 320...yikes!!! The good news is that they are putting an office in Lancaster here, so I will be able to work out of that office a day or two a week, when I eventually get accustomed to my new position. The Lancaster office is only 2 miles from my house...nice!

Life updated

...so I end up getting this watch on ebay for one cent. I figure, "hey, its a good deal either way, right?" WRONG. First of all, I'm an idiot for thinking that a 16 dollar shipping charge is normal for a watch I paid one cent for. What's even better is when the watch comes wrapped in bubble wrap inside a standard first class letter envelope. The watch? Well, the 3 chrono dials for date, month, and seconds don't work, and the watch feels like its been made from tin foil and twisty ties. Nevertheless, I've learned my lesson about bidding on ebay items after midnight and without reading other buyer comments first (which were mostly negative).

Tomorrow is my last day of work as a programmer for The Hightower Group. It's been a very growing experience for me there. I've learned so much about how little I know about computer programming over the past year. I will miss the casual, laid-back atmosphere and friendly faces. But boats do sail, and this one's a castin' off again...:-)

Nothing can give you more perspective on just how tiny your 8 month old daughter is until you fold her laundry. Nothing can give you more perspective on just how big your responsibilities are until you hold your 8 month old daughter in your arms and see her give you her famous "Four-toothed grin". And nothing can make you smile wider than when you hear her laugh as you bounce her on your knee.

I went to the doctors the other day to find out that I had an ear infection. Not good. I've probably had more ear infections as a child than China has people. Luckily, I've been stocked up with antibiotics and decongestant medicine that tastes like the inside of a marathon runner's shoes. The good news is that the infection is supposedly minor, and the medicine should do the trick. Let's hope so. I can't afford to lose any more hearing.

A New Beginning

Yesterday was the start of a new beginning for my family and I. After a few months of searching, God has given me the opportunity to move elsewhere with my career as a Visual Basic programmer. I am now officially hired as a Visual Basic programmer for a company called Weidenhammer Systems Corporation (www.hammer.net). They are a company that develops IT solutions for businesses and other organizations. Now the question may follow, "Did you not like your old job?" The answer is, Yes, I did like my old job". The reasoning behind the new job is more of a financial stability thing that involves more personal detail than I care to go into on a weblog.

The biggest issues facing me now are the commute and learning the new position. It is an easy commute, but yet lengthy. 34 miles one way, to be exact. The job is located just outside of Reading, PA. in a town called Wyomissing. The position will probably start me out as a maintenance programmer. My job will be to fix bugs and provide support programming for a Reporting Module that is part of a larger educational software package for School Districts in 12 different States throughout the East Coast. I'm very excited about the new position, because it will expose me to working in a more team-oriented environment where I will have room to grow and elevate my experience to other levels.

The good news is that the company is putting an office in downtown Lancaster soon, and there is probability that I might be able to work a couple days a week out of that office. This would put me less than 4 miles away from home. So this is the latest news for now. If you are reading this in surprise, feel free to give me a call and I'll tell you more.

My Belated Post for 4-6-05

Okay, so I'm a little late with this post. The truth is that I've been busy doing....Okay, maybe not that busy. But work has been keeping me on my toes. Recently, I've been working on developing an in-house program in visual basic that we are intending to eventually sell on the market. Its been an interesting experience for me to make the switch back to Visual Studio from Microsoft Access. I started my job using Visual Basic and then moved to ASP programming, then got put on months of Microsoft Access VBA programming for which I did several applications. Now here I am again with Visual Basic. Go figure. Good thing these languages are all so closely related.

I found a really neat remote access tool that allows you to control computers remotely. The tool is called "Log Me In", and it allows you to set up a connection on any computer, and then log into your account to control that machine. The service is free for basic remote control access. You have to pay like 13 dollars for the beefed-up service. But for what I need, the free service works really well. You can check it out at www.logmein.com

One of the happiest moments of my life recently was when I discovered that I could actually get my portable Cd player to work in the Chevy Malibu. This made the trip to New Castle and Cleveland a more enjoyable one. I love listening to music when I drive. Sometimes I wonder if I get excited about the trip because of the idea of driving to music. OK, I'm a little weird. Speaking of which, you can check out some of the pictures from our trip up to New Castle and Cleveland where we visited my family. We visited my mom, brothers, father, and their significant others and relatives. As you will see on our website, where the pictures are posted, Audrey stole the show. But that's how we wanted it anyway. :-)

Entry for Monday 3/21/05

For what its worth, you've got to love the suspense that comes with the NCAA men's tournament. I mean, even the NFL is a bit more predictable with games. I think that one of the great things about a sport are the fact that you can't predict an outcome (In most cases). I haven't watched a single regular season NCAA basketball game this year, yet I can still find it fun to turn on the tv at any time during the tournament and watch. What is also good, is that you can tune into the 2nd half of a game and still get in a good hour of basketball.

I realized that I was definitely a geek when I found myself actually reading sections of a reference book on Structured Query Language this weekend. Oh well.

I'm finding that when your own child is sick, its not as gross as it would be if it were someone else. My daughter can spit up on me, blow her nose on my shirt, or do whatever and it doesn't bother me. It just seems different when its your baby. Note that I mean "MY" baby. I would be totally grossed out if another baby did that to me. Okay, I'm weird.

Nevermind, I'm off the fence.

I wrote my last entry on the eve of doing the necessary research on the benefits of buying an Imac Mini. After reading several very informative articles, I've been convinced that this sort of investment would serve no good purpose. Being a long-dedicated PC user, I think that it would be too much of a hassle to add a new platform. Particuarly when you consider the up-front costs of using a Mac. And while there are certainly benefits to computing in a Mac world. None of them are great enough to cause me to buy a new computer that would give me essentially the same use that I get now out of my PC. So, if Apple wants my business, they are going to have to try harder.

Sick and on the Apple Fence.

I just got over probably one of the worst sicknesses that I can remember. Let's just say that it was a 24-hour stomach bug that rendered me utterly useless for an entire day. Just making it to the bathroom was an adventure I had to mentally and physically plan for.

Okay, Okay, I'm starting to get curious. You see, there may be an opportunity coming up where I might have the option of spending some money. Thanks to my friends, curiosity in the Mac Computer world is starting to take hold. I'd be the first to admit that I'm not an excited follower of Apple, nor do I know or even care much about IPods or Steve Jobs, etc. I'm just curious. I'd only be interested in laying down a little cash for an IMac Mini if anything. Just to test it out. The real question is whether or not it would be a worthy investment. Perhaps fear of liking it more than the PC might drive me away from my current comfort in the PC platform? Also the reality that Mac ownership might prove to be a more expensive long-term investment? Whatever the case, the answer will be decided by an approaching financial opportunity.

Notes for Monday

Have you ever come into a Monday feeling really revitalized by your weekend, and then when somebody asks you waht you did this past weekend, you find that you haven't the faintest clue? That happened to me today. I remember that I enjoyed my weekend, but I faintly remember the details. Weird. I must be getting old or something.

I'm finding that I have a weird sense of happiness if I get to dress the baby. I don't know why. I never volunteer really. I don't find it easy to dress babies. They wiggle and squirm too much, and sometimes they just scream in your face the whole time. But for some reason if I get to dress Audrey, and somebody comments on how cute her outfit is, it really makes me proud. Go figure.

Our new pastor is really cool. In fact, I'm finding that our church is really cool. I would have to say that a month ago, I wasn't really excited about being a member of Wheatland. But I guess the more involved I get with it, the better it makes me feel. I always have felt that the more involved you are in something, the more you can feel like you are a part of it. I would 100 percent agree with that notion and church, aside from the theological and practical benefits.

The Futile Path to Destruction

This article makes me laugh. Its so obvious that AOL is doomed. Let's examine, in my opinion, why AOL is on its way out:

First, AOL came about at the dawn of the internet browsing age, when connecting to the internet and using E-mail was a chore so large, nobody would dare try anything else. Now we have people checking E-mail on their watches, and surfing the web on their mobile phones. If they can do that without much help, then I'm afraid that most people have no real need for internet access and E-mail assistance from AOL

Second, notice that I said, "most people". There still are a chunk of people out there who know nothing about the internet and E-mail. I call them Senior Citizens. Half of them don't want anything to do with a computer, the other half will only use AOL because its easy, and they like everything done for them without hassle. Well, we all know that old people will eventually die. When they do, I'm pretty sure that most of AOL's market will die with them.

Lastly, we have the nontechnical fan base. These are your average "I don't know or care how it works" computer users. These kinds of people will probably always be around, but as our generations learn at a quicker pace, the number of these types of users will steadily decline. Let's face it, even most computer experts agree that their teenage son knows more about computers than they do these days. Once those Generations grow up and start taking over, AOL will be doomed.

Why do I not like AOL? Mainly because their business strategy to charge extremely high prices for slower-than-my-grandma dial-up service is absurd. Also the fact that their software is designed to infiltrate your computer and never leave again, and their subscription cancellation staff does nothing more than harass you when you try to cancel. Add to that the fact that their dumbed-down approach to the internet is keeping millions in the dark about how to easily connect to the internet on their own, and I think I've made my point. AOL STINKS!!!

Quality Time

This past weekend I got the opportunity to spend some quality time with some good friends of mine. I realize that as time goes by, good friendships are the ones that stay strong through the test of time. The visit was great, and I look forward to future opportunities to meet up again. I know that this sounds discreet but it is for reasons. Anyways, just wanted to "hollah back to my peeps" for the fun weekend.

In other news, Meg finished up her part-time job for Hope International. She's a full-time mommy once again. I'm pretty glad about this. Part of the reason we moved up here was so that we could invest the time into our new family. I also like the knowledge that our baby girl gets to grow up learning how to be a great woman from Meg's example.

Lastly, Meg and I sat down the other day and planned out the calendar for the coming year. Its exciting to see that we'll be visiting more of my family this year than in prior years. I look forward watching Audrey get to know them. I only hope we can manage to afford the trips. We average about 100 dollars spent each time we go up, and that assumes spending just 25 after two fill-ups and toll fares. Yikes!

Freeware

I have to admit. I LOVE free things. Although I'll admit that I'm not desperate enough to slam on the breaks when I see a cardboard sign on top of a rusty shopping cart along the road that reads, "Free", I still like free. Particuarly in the world of computer software. If you live in a Microsoft Windows environment, you can pretty much live on free software. Everything from web-browsers, office productivity tools, and the like can be found somewhere on the internet.

These past couple of days, my job had required me to research a free software program that would enable our business to convert our Microsoft Word document into a formatted help file for distributing a piece of software to some of our clients (forgive my run-on sentence). I knew that here had to be a way to do it. I had faith that we could do it for free. I'll admit that at one point I gave up hope. But then after persistence, I found not only a solution, but a superior piece of software for the problem. The cost? "0" dollars. All freeware. Its great.

Speaking of freeware, I also am in the process of collecting useful freeware for myself. I just don't collect anything. It has to be of high quality. Take for instance right now, I'm using a little program called, "w.bloggar" which enables me to write blog entries to several different blog sites, with tons of formatting features and settings. This software is convenient and best of all....that's right...its free. :-)

Why I'm giving up on Mozilla Products

I have finally had enough. While it was fun to try something different than Internet Explorer for so long, it seems that the fun has run out. Recently, Microsoft has announced that it is working on IE 7 which should be out in beta form within a few months. To tell you the truth, if it has any of the features that Firefox did, as well as better security, then I'm all for it.

Reason 1:

I recently had an experience where I was doing my taxes online. I got so far into the interview process where I was asked a question, but had no options to choose from. No links to click or buttons to press. So in my confusion, I calmly saved my work and decided to go after it later. Only to find the same error. Then it hit me. I was using firefox. A quick switch to IE revealed the buttons and links that I needed and I was done in no time with no confusion. There was no warning on the site to indicate that only IE would work for it. Should I blame the site? Yes. Should I also blame Firefox? Why not? If it wants to compete, it better make things convenient. That experience was the last inconvenience that I choose to live with. As soon as the new IE7 comes out, I'm all over it.

Reason 2:

Mozilla thunderbolt had me hooked initially. Then I discovered its crappy issues. First, its buggy. It doesn't always check mail according to the settings that you set. It had multiple problems sending mail and connecting the the server. And just recently it stopped working altogether in connecting to my work'sE-mail E-mail server. No reason. No settings had been changed. It just stopped. Other than the really cool address book layout that it has, I'm pretty much through with it. I'd rather use something that I ran rely on its stability and such. I've switched to Eudora, which provides a free(lite), ad-based, and paid version of its E-mail program. It gets the job done.

In conclusion, I'd like to say that going against Microsoft merely for the idea of having a choice means nothing when your choices are mediocre at best. Open source software has a major flaw in that, because there is no real support department dealing with customer complaints, the product doesn't necessarily need to be fixed and updated in a hurry to appease the consumer. We all know that Microsoft and other companies work hard on keeping the bugs out of their software for reasons of customer loyalty, etc. I'd rather put up with the overwhelming flow and ebbing tide of Microsoft and others and have a product that works, than have a product that works when it wants to, written by a group of people with no pressure to fix things.

Expectations

One of my favorite tibits of wisdom that I have learned over the years is that "The measure of one's assumptions is exactly porportional to the potential of one's disappointments". In other words, the more that you expect, the more you need to be prepared for disappointment.

For instance: Let's say that I expect my boss to take me out to lunch, and he doesn't. Should I be mad at my boss? Well, it depends. Did he make plans with me? If so, then I have built an expectation upon his promise. What if he didn't make plans, but I felt that I've worked so hard, that I deserved it, and he should do it. Now I've not only created an expectation, but made an assumption on someone's behavior. We all know that assumptions are also dangerous and foolish to do, since they rely on un-founded predictions. But let's get back to expectations. Is it wrong to have expecations? Not necessarily. If I buy a 5 dollar item and give the clerk a 10, I expect to get 5 dollars back. That's a realistic and rational expecation (its also a law in most cases). But what if I give him a tip, and expect him to decline it and give me it back and he doesn't. Then I've again become the fool and made an assumption. So the problem here is to define expectations versus assumptions. Here are my own definitions:

Expectations: Anticipated results predicated by facts or laws within a reasonable context.
ex. "I expect to be arrested if I go punch that police officer in the face."

Assumptions: Foolish anticipation of results predicated by subjective ideas and limited or no facts.
ex. "I assumed that my mom would love this handful of worms I found under that brick."


Why am I even writing all of this? Perhaps as a reminder to myself. Happiness with others lies in the area of less assumptions and more communciation.

Random Thoughts for Today

I wonder about marketing hype.

VOIP? It sounds nice, but the catch is sometimes hidden. What? I need to have power to my DSL or cable modem to use the service? What? I need to work out a backup phone alternative in case this happens? No thanks.

Online music services. What? So I pay you money each month so that I can listen to my favorite music? I can take it anywhere I want? Hmmm, they've had something like that for quite a while now...its called a Radio. So I can own the music, but I can't make copies, and it expires after a month? Didn't you say it was "My" Music?

Good Music-Good Lyrics

A lot of people like music for different reasons. Some people, like myself, enjoy many aspects of music. One area that rarely gets respect with music are the lyrics. A lot of today's most popular music fails to even communicate much more than basic themes of love, sex, or depression of some sort. Even the christian music scene is plagued with a lot of overdone themes. Sure, praise is important, and so is salvation, but how about some other issues? One band in particular who has knocked me off of my feet in this area is Switchfoot. They are band that has entered the charts on both secular and christian music channels. Their latest album "Beautiful Letdown" really puts out some hard hitting lyrics that really ask the big questions. One popular song, "Meant to live" certainly drives home the idea that there is more to what the average person thinks about our lives and mankind. My favorite song thus far, is one called, "This is your life". This song does nothing less than smacks you in the face about your current condition. I'll post the lyrics below, and if you have the opportunity to hear this song. Let me know what you think.

yesterday is a wrinkle on your forehead
yesterday is a promise that you've broken
don't close your eyes, don't close your eyes
this is your life and today is all you've got now
yeah, and today is all you'll ever have
don't close your eyes
don't close your eyes

this is your life, are you who you want to be
this is your life, are you who you want to be
this is your life, is it everything you dreamed that it would be
when the world was younger and you had everything to lose

yesterday is a kid in the corner
yesterday is dead and over

this is your life, are you who you want to be
this is your life, are you who you want to be
this is your life, is it everything you dreamed that it would be
when the world was younger and you had everything to lose

don't close your eyes
don't close your eyes
don't close your eyes
don't close your eyes

this is your life are you who you want to be
this is your life are you who you want to be

this is your life, are you who you want to be
this is your life, are you who you want to be
this is your life, is it everything you dreamed it would be
when the world was younger and you had everything to lose

and you had everything to lose

Random Thoughts for Monday January 31, 2005

Have you ever found yourself with an unexpected amount of time or money? And because you didn't expect it, you become overwhelmed with the situation and it ends up shutting down your brain? That happened to me yesterday. I always tell myself, "Man, if I would definately do ..., if I had a couple of free hours to do it." Then I got a couple of free hours yesterday, and ended up doing nothing productive with it. I mean, unless you call playing video games, emptying the dishwasher, and playing a song or two on the guitar a productive two hours, then I guess I blew the opportunity. Oh well.

I hate how the super bowl has to be two weeks after the championship games. It throws off my football watching rhythm too much. I mean, every Sunday during the regular and playoff season, I know that I can come home from church with the anticipation of a good football game to watch. But this Sunday I came home to nothing. For the first time in about 19 weeks, I had to come home to nothing on Sunday. No football. Why? Because the superbowl has to be two weeks later. That stinks. A football fan's rhythm shouldn't have to be maligned like that. This is why nobody cares about the pro bowl. By the time the pro bowl comes on, your average footall fan is watching PGA Golf and thinking about his golf swing.

We became members of our church this past Sunday. We are now officially members of Wheatland Presbyterian Church. We had actually transfered membership from Chapelgate Presbyterian Church, but had to go through some red tape to get our membership. This is the second church that I have ever been a member of. To be honest, our last church membership didn't really do much for us. The church was so big, that we felt like ants anyways. Wheatland is much smaller, so hopefully we can settle in a little better here. We already know a lot more people here , due to Meg's prior involvement here. Its also nice to be a member of the church where we were married.

Apple Issues OS X Security Patch

Yahoo! News - Apple Issues OS X Security Patch

One of the greatest things about the article, is how the security researcher explains away these issues. I'd love to see Bill Gates get away with excuses like this:

"An operating system is a huge, complex thing, and there are bound to be many issues with it."


The fact is that not many people are really paying attention to really care if there is a vulnerability in the MAC OS, and the hypnotic loyalty of Apple fans will alway enable them to get away wtih it.

New Monday Rants

Well, I guess the top rant for today goes to the letdown from last night. I can't say that I went into the game with high expectations for the Steelers. After all, they looked awful in the Jets game, and they certainly topped that performance with the one last night. Are you kidding me? Watching that game had me wondering how they even got so far in the season. Big Ben played QB like he was blindfolded on rollerskates, the Defense must have been playing cards in the locker room during the game because I saw no evidence of the NFL's number 1 defense there..oh wait, perhaps I they all meant the Patriots? And Bill Cowher...oh man...just when you think you can pat him on the back for some great coaching, he calls some of the worst plays I've ever seen at 1st and goal. Needless to say, I found myself watching Extreme Makeover: Home Edtion and Desperate Housewives by the end of the first half, and switched back to the game between commercials to confirm that the Steelers indeed had blown it (and they did).

This weekend was marked by a big snow through the area. I'd have to say about 6 to 8 inches fell on us. This was cool, because we actually planned to spend the whole weekend indoors watching movies and taking it easy. I saw Dodgeball for the first time. I'm glad I didn't pay to go see it at the movies. I'd have to say that the movie's sarcastic humor stood out enough that the movie actually made fun of itself, so I won't do that here.

Yesterday I purchased a package of Orbit gum. I actually like the stuff, but this one flavor: "Bubblemint", tastes terrible. I figured I'd be brave and try it for kicks. Well, its awful. I would rank it up there with that stupid "Holiday Spice Pepsi". Another letdown.

So I guess that in review of my weekend, all things were letdowns: The Steelers, the "Dodgeball" movie, and even something as minor as a little package of chewing gum. Hmmm, let's hope this trend is over.

America the Fat.

Woman Eats Six-Pound Hamburger

Its stories like the one above that clearly demonstrate the gluttony we U.S. citizens embrace. When you consider that 6lbs of ground beef can feed a small family for a good portion of a week, and yet some 19 yeard old girl eats one in 3 hours there's just no denying how wasteful and disgusting that is.

In other news, my house is nice an cozy thanks to the recent installation of our new windows. Hopefully, our electric bill won't triple again. Its so nice to wake up to a temperature above 60 degrees in my room.

And in sports, the Steelers are under-dogs once again. Even though they've only lost one game all season, they have one of the most complete football teams the NFL has seen in a long time, and they have home-field-advantage. Now granted, that game against the Jets was a very tight and insanely close one. They probably shouldn't have won it, but that's no reason to make them under-dogs so readily. Oh well, I wonder what they will say about them if they beat the Patriots in a close game?