Blog
Moving Now
Well, I'm working on moving. It's terrible, though, because my room's in a distant part of the house and I was basically the only one who went in there. So, I had very little inspiration to clean it and keep it neat. It's not really looking much better, but I have a lot of garbage I've cleared out. It's gonna take a while longer, I think.
Last Day of 1888
OK, so it's not 1888, the title refers to a song by Kids In The Way.
But today is my last day of work, and right now I'm in the middle of it. Actually, the phones have been decently quiet today, so it's not too hectic. I just wish they didn't have everything so locked down - if their systems were more accomodating, I could work on websites while I'm here.
Of course, there'll be none of that at my new, really cool job. I start there on Thursday. I'll be developing websites full-time, and I can't wait to expand my skills in that on a minute-by-minute basis. It's going to be hard work, but it's going to be an exciting learning experience.
And, holy crap, I probably am also moving this weekend! How am I gonna fit it all in?!
Silly Wall Street
I knew these folks didn't understand technology.
Here's a great quote:
Google Inc. said in a surprise move on Thursday that it would raise a $4 billion war chest with a new stock offering. The announcement stirred widespread speculation and anxiety in Silicon Valley that Google, the premier online search site, would move aggressively into businesses well beyond search and search-based advertising.
- The New York Times (via the Star Tribune)
Really?? Google does more than search and search-based ads? Oh wait, that's right, all their other offerings are in "beta" and don't contribute to the bottom line. Plus, if they're doing R&D on anything, it has to be search and advertising, duh!
Sometimes I wonder if people think about what they're saying before they say it. Oh well, if G4 ever came up with a comic news show, it would give them plenty of stuff to make fun of.
Get Out!
Last night while talking with a few friends we talked about what the Enemy has been doing in our life. We're starting to read a series of talks about the Devil and how to recognize him. It's interesting. (Yeah, you can call him V-v-You-Know-Who if you like.)
I was thinking about how much of my problems I attribute to the interference of Satan. I don't think I do very often. Sometimes I just say it's a bad day, sometimes I just think I'm stupid. But rarely do I think, "it's the devl interfering."
I thought about how the Enemy may be working in my life, and I've decided it's in the area of lazyness. For the past year, I've been working on stuff in my home, and it's gone kinda slow. After I got up, read my e-mail, and did a couple other things, there was only a couple minutes left in the day. It took me months to get the sites done, but none of them were that hard. It wasn't bad stuff that I was doing, but I realized that I have to be more productive with my time. Instead of spending an hour reading the latest technology news, I should be playing with the technology or doing something else more productive. So is that the devil or just me being lazy? I dunno, but I gotta do something about it now. Let's see if I can get some website work finished up this afternoon.
Brother Roger Killed
I don't know if most news sources have been picking this up, but I learned from Jon's blog that the current leader of Taizé was stabbed to death. For those who do not know, Taizé is a community in France that focuses on prayer and meditation. During my years in the St. Thomas choir, we took part in a number of prayers and songs that were based on the Taizé way, and they were great. My friends who were in choir this past year spent a couple days with the Taizé community and they also said it was amazing. It's sad that somebody would jiust come up and stab a 90-year-old man who has done so much for the worldwide church.
The Jungles of Life
Last night I watched The MIssion for the second time (the last time was at least six years ago). It's an amazing, powerful movie that nobody should miss.
One of the most amazing things for me was the powerful influence and work that the Jesuit order did in those days. It's amazing to think that the religious leaders could have such an influence on everyone. It makes me long for the day when we can join with the poorest of the neighborhoods in our cities and create vibrant life with them.
The "Christian" Problem
If you're in the Christian music business or are interested in it at all, I reccomend you look at yesterday's post by Andrew Osenga. He may ramble on a bit, but he has some great thoughts for us in the industry to ponder. And, at cMusicWeb.com, some of his points are why we believe it's not a bad thing to look at music outside of the industry sometimes. Out ther, at least, artists write about what they're really thinking and feeling. Well, I mean, if that sells albums or gets them a hit on the radio, of course.
Hmmm...
I'm having trouble thinking of stuff to talk about. I want to blog something, but nothing much is going on.
One thin it looks like I'll be doing this week is updating softwares on websites. Because of this huge XML-RPC vulnerability (and a couple other things), every piece of software is updating. I've got updates to WordPress that I installed, plus I need to update my versions of phpBB and Drupal. It's a pain, especially since almost all of those are customized in some way.
My favorite upgrade, though, was upgrading my WordPress blog administration interface to the Tiger Admin. Apple afficandos will claim it's cool because it looks like Mac OS X Tiger, But the really cool part is that it looks much cooler than the default administration area of WordPress. Plus, if you're using a less-than-capable browser (like IE), it still runs the old admin interface.
This cool interface makes me want to design something cool in CSS for my blog. It could be amazing... if I get a chance to do it.
The Major-Label Surprise Is Here!
OK, so maybe it wasn't the big surprise. But announced yeterday was The Elms announcement of being signed to Nashville-based Universal South. Also, the band will go into the studio and co-produce their album with David Bianco (Tom Petty, Rage Against The Machine, AC/DC, Black Crowes, Primal Scream). Sounds like a great position for my favorite rock 'n' roll band to be in. Let's just hope Universal doesn't keep the album in limbo for too many months. These guys are ready to dominate and I can't wait too long for new music.
Never heard of The Elms? Need to hear a couple new tunes? Check out their MySpace page.
Back In The Old Days
I've been reading up on stuff and found that, in the old days, they didn't have computers. And therefore, the mathematicians and physicists of the world needed some help. So, until the computers were easy to get, they used a slide rule. It's like those tables we used in Stats class except they're printed really small on plastic instead of in the back of a big book.
If you want to learn how to do it the hard way, you can invest in a slide rule too! Apparently these things are the real deal because they were put in their boxes almost 50 years ago. Now that's an antique!
I remember one year that Mr. Jehring and Mr. Hall were offering the relic "Slide Rule of Antioch" if you won the chess tournament, but I sure as heck didn't win.