Like I was saying....
Daley Hake is a photographer with mad skills. I envy him. I want a camera like his. And I wish I had his vision. Maybe one day he’ll shoot some stuff of my family.
But his mom posted an amazing story of a very serious moment in her life. If you have five minutes…it’s definitely worth the read.
I’m not exactly sure what that means.
But there are times in my life when it just feels like things are changing. And those changes require a little something of me too. Something that will make those changes go well and be monumentally effective.
But I’m so looking forward to it.
Let the journey begin!
I thought it would be cool to try out this SpeedTest.net. Now take into account that this was done late at night, but still some blinding speed for regular Comcast cable internet!
<a href=”http://www.speedtest.net”><img src=”http://www.speedtest.net/result/205910753.png”></a>
I’ve never had the flu before.
I’ve never had a flu shot.
Do I need one? I protest that I don’t. But they were giving free ones Monday at the office. They convinced me to get one. Now my arm is every so slightly sore.
But if I end up getting the flu this year, I’m going to be very upset.
Yesterday was a really patriotic day. But at some point in the day I watched a slide show with the song “God Bless America” behind it. The pictures were all of our soldiers and military. It was a tribute to them for Veterans Day.
But I was torn as I watched. I knew I was supposed to be proud and supporting them and saying, “Go USA!” But I listened to the song asking God to Bless our country and to stand beside her and guide her and all that. But the images were of M1-Abrams tanks and AH-64 Apache helicopters and guys in full desert armor carrying M16 machine guns. And then the song is asking God to bless that.
And inside I’m torn and not sure exactly what to think or feel.
Leave a comment and tell me what you think…
I have a problem with books. I like to get them and read the covers and buy them and then get another before finishing the first one. So I have scores of good books that I’ve read some or most of, but not all of.
The other day The Wife needed me to order her some books for her small group she leads. Of course if you use Amazon.com you get free shipping if your order is over $25.00. Her order was $24 and some change. So I, being the frugal husband that I am, wanted to save on shipping. So I bought myself (another) book to get free shipping.
When the lovely Amazon.com box came in, The Wife saw my book in there as well. “You need another book?” I promptly explained the issue of shipping costs, free books, and my frugality. With a furrowed brow she mumbled something like “Okay…”
That night, as we were reading in bed, I had my new book in hand. There are not many things like a crisp new book to look down upon. It’s so different from the ones that your kids have jumped on, broken the spine, spilled milk on, and gotten stuffed in backpacks and gotten all scuffed. The Wife looked at it and said, “Read only that one.” “Huh?” I said. She challenged me to read this one and this one alone until I finished it.
Always looking for a challenge, I said, “And what will I get?”
“What do you want?” she asked. Without needing a lot of time to think I answered, “The new camera I’ve been talking about!” “Okay,” she says. “If you finish the book in a reasonable amount of time, you can can get your camera.”
I wanted her to define a reasonable amount of time. She said two weeks. HA! I said I could have it finished before she woke up with that carrot hanging in front of me. I didn’t finish it by morning. But easily w/in the week. [btw, it’s a good book. I’ll describe it later.]
So I said to The Wife, “Wifey, I guess it’s time to cash in on my reward.” Then she tries to play the surprised look. “What do you mean?” So I go through the whole recap of our conversation. And she acted like she’d never heard that conversation before. Can you believe it?
So now I guess I have to read another book before I get to get my paws on a new camera. Right, honey? (I know she’s gonna read this…)
I remember telling yall a few months back about my new favorite television show. It was a show that I missed the first episode, but caught up quickly with my trusty VCR (what is TiVo?) and NBC.com. I wasn’t sure it’d hold me, but it ended up gripping me very tightly. To the point it rivaled LOST as my favorite show on television.
Friday Night Lights is a show about people who are closely connected to a high school football team. Read that again. It’s about people. Very real people. But it’s not about football. Yes, there’s lots of football in it. But it’s about the people. And I haven’t seen a more “real” portrayal of how people live, act, love, hate, relate, and everything else.
But sadly, it’s not getting good ratings. It gets awesome reviews. If every critic was a Nielson household, it’d be the #1 show around.
Season 2 starts tonight. I’m excited. I just heard a little about the first episode. And already…I’m surprised. Give it a shot. Everyone. Please.
We got the MacBookPro at the office a while back, but it was just this week that I really dove into playing with iWork (which I had preinstalled when I got it.) I’d used Pages a few times for some simple word processing and hadn’t really looked at Keynote much at all.
We were going to be putting together a new Youth Newsletter. Most of the ones I’d seen done or even done myself were with the trusty ole Microsoft Publisher. Man, how amazing was it when I first cranked out a newsletter with it in 1997? Sad thing is, most of the stuff I’ve seen done with MS Pub 2003 looks like the first version I ever had.
But Pages has blown me away. It’s got so much drag and drop functionality. Once you learn the way something is setup or tweaked, it’s like a simple one-two-three process. Our newsletter is going to look almost professional (based on my limited skills for sure.) Apple’s Pages is sort of a cross between what you know to be MS Word and MS Publisher…but better. And you must know that I’m using iWork 06. Apple just released a newer version that now has a spreadsheet program with it (Numbers) and Pages & Keynote have updated features.
Also, we’re going to be using Keynote a lot too since we just got ProPresenter (buh-bye, MediaShout.) I’ve noticed Granger Community Church using it some and want to use some of their ideas with the announcement slides. Keynote is a program that belly laughs at Powerpoint.
So, my feet are barely wet with iWork right now. But I’m liking how the water feels. And when I end up getting a Mac of my own soon (-er than later I hope), I think I’ll have this installed on it as well.
When the newsletter is complete I’ll post a pdf of it.
It’s funny.
I go away on vacation and post at least once a day, if not twice.
Then I come back home and the blog gets nudged to teh side a little. It wasn’t on purpose, but it seemed that the days got filled with work and soccer and birthday parties and school visits and sleep and movies on DVD.
But now that Labor Day has come and gone, we actually got a vacation in, and now college football has started, I guess Summer is scooting towards the door while Autumn is about ot start knocking. I just wish Mr. Autumn would come a little sooner since it’s still blazing hot outside most of the time…not that I’m complaining.
As I sit in my darkened hotel room in the shadow of the US Capitol, I’m watching MSU get embarrassed on a national stage by LSU. I was optimistic about the year. Even after the first half I thought we were “okay”. But I’m crushed right now… but anyhow.
We made it out of Jackson this morning, a layover in ATL, and now we’re in the heart of our nation’s capital. When I told my mom we were coming for a brief vacation here, her response was, “Why?” I guess it is because we thought about the massive amounts of history and heritage here. Plus there are some cool things here as well. Today we had an outside glimpse at a few.
After making it to our hotel we caught our breath and took a quick walk around. We saw many things from afar while afoot: the Capitol, the Washington Monument, the Jefferson Memorial, the Reflecting Pool, and lots of governmental buildings that make you say, “Oh, so that’s where that is”, but you don’t have a big desire to look in there.
We did swing through Union Station. We’ll want to go back and spend a little bit of time in there later. That’s also where we’ll be going to church later. Then we met up with David Russell of National Community Church over at Ebeneezer’s Coffee House. He gave us a quick tour of the offices and then a ride back to the hotel. Super nice guy.
Then we came back to watch SEC Football and The US Open. Now I’m going to read a bit before snoozing. But tomorrow should be a day of walking around in the sun, taking pictures of stuff, and sweating a good bit. Check back later…there should be an update.
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