Lofland bLOG

A friend of mine was recenlty killed in Iraq. I wasn’t particularly close to him. In fact, I knew his sisters much better than him. His death is one of those things that I look at more like something disturbing on the evening news, than as a personal tragedy.

I do however feel very deeply for his family who is left behind. Unfortuantly, because I neither share in their personal grief over the loss, because I was not close to him, nor do I have any personal experience of such a loss that will allow me to relate, nor is my friendship with them quite close enough to be the shoulder they might cry on, I am basically just a bystander.

It is very odd to just stand on the side, and watch people that you love suffer. I feel like I am in this place a lot though. It is how I felt about hurricane Katrina. Having lived there before, I felt the tragedy and loss very greatly, but now living in Kansas, I cannot personally participate in the grief. Just standing on the sidelines, watching people I love in great pain.

When we see a car wreck, we all naturally want to help, but most of us don’t really have the knowledge or resources to be much of any help. I struggle back and forth over whether my feelings are of a sincere wish that these people could be helped, or whether they are simply selfish feelings of wishing that I could somehow be some sort of hero. I don’t suppose it really matters what the cause is, and probably it is both.

I really get irritated by people who don’t take resonsibility for their lives. If you talk to me much, you probably know that. It drives me nuts to see people who just meander through life, wondering why it treats them the way it does, instead of taking it by the reins and living life on purpose.
It has recently occured to me, though, that calvinism may really be a way for people to do this, and claim they are backed by the Scriptures in this way of going about life.

Could calvinism really just be an excuse to abandon personal responsibility?

I consider myself to be somewhat* of a calvinist, so this occurance bothers me a bit. The only thing more fun than defending my position, though, is rethinking it. =)

*I know, accepting SOME of the five points, but not all of them is considered illogical by most, but that is an issue for another post.

Wow, I am stunned. How can these people even exist?

Personally, I find it somewhat difficult to exist, as a believer in Jesus Christ, in a world that demands physical proof for any and everything. However, I believe that the difficulty is a good one. I would rather people be sceptical, than wishy-washy. Of course, the funny thing is, most people believe a huge number of falsehoods everyday that are not substantiated by any physical evidence. Things like, “If you buy this big screen TV, you will be happy.” =)

However, I had absolutely no idea just how wacky Scientology was! They are absolutely insane. The stuff is not even good science fiction.

Start here for a good shock at the weirdness, and then go to the front of the book and read it all if you have time. If nothing else, it will allow you to know what it is when you hear about it.

I always thought they were harmless weirdos with boxes, but they are crazy!

Do you remember when Sylvester the cat (Loony Tunes, AKA Bug’s Bunny cartoons) had a son that always wanted his dad to teach him how to catch a mouse? Sylvester would dutifully try to show his son how to catch a mouse (or bird), and would dutifully foul up dreadfully. His son would put a bag over his head and cry, “For shame, I have a father who can’t catch a mouse, for shame!”

Well, I’m searching for my bag. This kind of stuff is enough to make me very very embarrassed to call myself a Christian.

This story came up in several places, but I think the Jerusalem Post is a good place to quote from.

Conservative Christian broadcaster Pat Robertson suggested that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s stroke was divine punishment for “dividing God’s land.”

ARG! What a complete fool, idiot, dolt, etc. I can’t think up enough words for this jerk. It isn’t the first time Pat Robertson has said things like this, but this is really a new low.

To make things worse, here is what Angell Watts, Pat Roberson’s spokesperson, said when questioned on the issue:

“What they’re basically saying is, `How dare Pat Robertson quote the Bible?”‘ “This is what the word of God says,” Watts said. “This is nothing new to the Christian community.”

What! For shame, for shame.

Of course, the pundits are having a hay day!

Americans United for Separation of Church and State, said a religious leader “should not be making callous political points while a man is struggling for his life.”

Well, given the choice of which group to join, personally, I’ll join the ACLU before I join the ACLJ!

What a maroon!

Back in 98 we had some ancient Mac Classic’s in a classroom that I worked in. I really grew to loath those things. The most annoying thing was whenever they were unhappy with you they just popped up this little picture of a bomb. It was really the Mac’s supposedly non-offensive way of giving you the finger. But that isn’t the point of this.

One of the students there was really into computers and considered himself somewhat of a geek. He also was really into using the term “That’s the BOMB!” I never really could figure out if “the bomb” was good or bad. Whenever the Mac would give me the finger (bomb), though, I would always exclaim “That’s the BOMB!” He would come running over and say, “What, what, where, what is it?” I would just point at the screen and say, “There, see, right there, on the screen. That’s the bomb.” He would just roll his eyes at me and leave.

But that really is NOT the point.

I wanted to open up a file on the Mac. The dude was not networked, not much was back then, and so it was sneaker net. It was a simple task, I just wanted to open up a text file on the Mac that I hadn’t actually TYPED on the Mac. It happened to come from a PC, but it was just straight text.

I tried a couple of directions and it turns out the Mac was happy enough to read a PC formatted disk, which was really cool. So I copied my little text file onto the desktop of the Mac. Now what? I tried finding a way to drop to a command prompt so I could just do a “type” (DOS) or “cat” (UNIX) command, but the Mac HAS no command shell, either under it or on top of it. Nothing, just the GUI.

I dig through all of the programs and such and it appears that the only thing that is even remotely part of the default install of the Mac OS (must have been like 7 or 7.1 maybe?) that deals with text files is something called “TeachText.” I don’t know what it is supposed to teach or be taught, but it isn’t real bright. I opened up TeachText, used the menu and tried to open my text file. No go, didn’t like it and couldn’t see it. I tried renaming the file .txt, .doc, .tt, etc. No go, it didn’t’ care. I tried dragging the file’s icon onto the TeachText icon. No go. Tried opening TeachText and dragging the file into the program. No go. I mash a bunch of keys in frustration, and the Mac give me the finger (bomb).

Lovely, you can’t open a dang text file from a PC on a Mac?

So I hunted around and found a self-proclaimed Mac guru. I learned all about data forks and resource forks. Seemed like a really cool idea. Why should your file’s entire personality be tied into some stupid 3 letter extension? I could definitely see the benefits of this “resource fork.” Apparently my PC file only had a data fork, and no resource fork, and so the Mac had no clue what it was. So instead of just renaming the file to whatever.txt, as I would on a DOS/Windows box, I just had to give it a resource fork that told the Mac that it was a TeachText file. Never mind that notepad on Windows will attempt to open any file you try to give it, I guess the Mac is made for stupid people who might try to open the wrong file with Notepad. Don’t they know that most stupid people use Windows, not Mac’s?

“So anyway,” I ask, “how do we make the resource fork?

“Oh, easy, you just use Norton Utilities for the Mac or something like that.”

“Huh!?! You mean I have to go buy third party software just to tell this blasted machine to open a text file?!”

“Well, uh, yeah.”

Dumb, dumb, dumb . . .

Ok, so we scrounge around and just happen to actually dig up an old copy (probably pirated, but who cares at this point) of Norton Utilities for the Mac. I fire it up, and take a look. Sure enough, the PC file has a data fork but no resource fork.

“So what do I do?”

“Oh, just make a resource fork for it.”

“Ok, what do I put in it?”

“Oh, I have no clue, the only way to tell is to look at a file that is what you want it to be like and make it like that one.”

Head hitting keyboard, Mac returns the finger (bomb).

So I have to open TeachText, make a dummy file and save it. Then open that up in the Norton Utilities program and look at the resource fork and write down the information on paper, then attempt to make a resource fork for the file from the PC that looks like this the dummy file.

Wow, what a headache, but dude, I got the PC file to open up on the Mac! Now, why in the heck did I want to do that in the first place? I have no idea, I can’t remember anymore. Oh well.

I’ve seen some of those old Mac Classic’s hollowed out and turned into fish tanks. I think that is really cool, way prettier, just as useful, and those fish never give you the finger (bomb), because they don’t have any (fingers or bombs).

Disclaimer: Mac’s and PC’s have come a long ways since then. I am for using whatever tool gets the job done best. I have no particular OS loyalty. I do enjoy OS flame wars though, and whenever someone starts up a Mac/Windows war the above experience is what I always think back to.

Recently I was sitting in a food court near the Space Needle in Seattle. There are two things that Seattle has a lot of. First is Starbucks’s coffee shops. I found one corner in Seattle where I could see three Starbuck’s coffee shops at once! Not three doors, but three different shops. Crazy. The other is Bank of American ATM’s. I guess it is like their headquarters or something? Anyway, there are a lot of them too. There is a very prominent one in the middle of this food court. As I sat there eating my pizza and watching the poor souls that had to make a living serving out junk food, I tried to put myself in their shoes. What would it be like to stand behind that counter all day?

I realized exactly what it would be like. Sitting behind that counter, all day, waiting for people to get little green pieces of paper out of that Bank of America box in the middle of the room, and come put them in my box. I realized that I would become extremely cynical and depressed over the futility of the whole situation. I mean, if I could just go get those green pieces of paper myself and put a bunch of them in my box, then I could go home.

I could see myself becoming a bank robber. I can just see myself trying to explain my “little boxes” to the police. “Honestly, sir, I was just trying to speed up the process.”

Of course, I do know enough about economics to know why that doesn’t work, but I also know enough to realize that, on a larger scale, that really is just how it does work. They little green pieces of paper just go around and around in big circles. People have been trying to cut out the middle man for years, but the problem is, everyone is the middle man. The only way to cut out the middle man, is for me to get myself out.

That really is key too. I have never really had a love for money, but I do love the things I can buy with it. Slowly, though, as I watch the world go around me, I am loosing that. I think it is part of what God is teaching me through this time of my life. I find daily now, that I care less and less about anything that money can buy, other than the needs of myself and my family.

Don’t get me wrong, I like living “well!” However, “well” used to mean buying all sorts of unnecessary toys. Now it means just being able to buy generally good quality of whatever it is we need, and most of the things that we “could use” without any worries about the budget. I’m still not sure how well I could deal with living like a missionary or something, but I certainly don’t need, or even want, to live like a king either.

I noticed recently that my web presence has hit the decade milestone! I feel that is pretty impressive, considering just how new the Internet was to most people in 1995.

Ten years ago when I set up my first web page, the idea was more that you set up a page with the places you liked to go, and then other people could see it too. The idea of a “where I go” home page is still around, and is the focus of the “content” provided by most ISP’s today in the form of things like “MyYahoo” and such. The personal “home page” however, has morphed from a “my places” site to a public billboard to just say what you want to anyone that happens to pass by. Part of the reason for this change is search engines. Back in 1995 they were not so prevalent and certainly not so powerful.

Surfing the web meant just that. It meant starting at a page, and then jumping from one page to the next via links. By posting lots of links on your site, you helped people find things that you have found useful. There used to be huge pages of links for this and that subject that people would post on their sites. These were extremely useful for a long time. Even when search engines showed up that could spider the entire Internet, they still had a bad habit of just spitting out useless pages based on the words you searched for. Now days very few people post lists of links anymore. Some sites like Yahoo and Ask Jeeves still have sections where they try to list sites by subject, however search engines like Google have become so good that you really can just find what you want through them. We really don’t “surf” anymore, instead we “google” the Internet. Google’s ability to give you useful pages based on ranking was revolutionary for the Internet. It is funny though, that, at least as far as I understand, a lot of that ranking is based on how many people link to a site. =) I wonder if Google will ever got so popular, that no one will post links anymore and thus Google will have no way to rank sites anymore? Anyway . . .

My original site remains much as it was ten years ago at http://www.lofland.net/Lofland/ The content has changed a bit, and all of the links pages are gone, because, well because no one “surfs” anymore, and why should I update links when Google has them all? At some point I realized my site had multiple agendas, so I slapped on the main page that you see at http://www.lofland.net and put the “home page” under it. Then I added a FIAT page, pictures page and a Resume. Since then this blog was added, first as just a text file, and then later as you see it here. A webcam page has come and gone. Remember when those were “so cool?” My bulletin board/guestbook has come and gone and come again. It is brand new again now, though the content is still there.

I’ve gone through several hosting providers. Starting with my ISP (FutureNet) in 1995, then my employer, then a buddy of mine, then back and forth between him, my home over DSL, and a lousy provider, and back to my friend’s server before just this month moving to DreamHost.

So anyway, this is just my rambling post to brag about ten years on the ‘net. It isn’t really a big deal to anyone but me, but it is fun to think about.

I’ve just uploaded new family pictures to my website. It has been well over a year, so it is about time.

Lofland Family Pictures Link

I live in Kansas now, but from age two to fifteen I lived in Slidell, Louisiana. Slidell is a small community just north across Lake Pontchartrain from New Orleans.

I am sure that the house I spent most of those years in no longer exists. Here is a picture my wife found of the neighborhood that house is in:

The neighborhood, Eden Isles, is situated very close to the lake. That was part of the point. Every house had access to the water. We often had a boat at the dock in our back yard.

We always knew that we could be wiped out by any hurricane. When they came, we brought in the patio furniture (so it wouldn’t be thrown through our glass doors by the wind) and headed north. It was just how life was. It wasn’t scary, or a big deal, it was kind of an adventure for a kid. I always knew that if we came back to a pile of sticks, insurance would replace all of our stuff and build a new house for us.

What everyone who grows up in the area knows, is that evacuation in the face of a hurricane is a very personal thing. Many people who have spent decades there get hardened to them and don’t evacuate. They are always interviewing them on television, “I’d rather die in my house than run from a storm.” I’m sure their sentiments are different on the way up to a helicopter in a basket. Seriously though, in the past there was an evacuation in Louisiana where the evacuees were trapped on the highway by rising waters and then killed by poisonous snakes while they stood on top of their cars. Due to that incident evacuations were never again made mandatory in Louisiana. Instead, the Police drive down the street telling everyone to leave from their bullhorns. In true Louisiana style though, everyone listens to this, and makes their own decision. Some flee, some stay, and those who stay often suffer the consequences of thumbing their nose at nature.

Hurricanes aren’t like earthquakes or tornadoes. They used to be, but with modern technology, we know they are coming for days. We really can run from them. What is really sad is that while it is true that many of those who did not evacuate suffer the fate they brought on themselves, most of the ones we see on the news now didn’t stay by choice. Especially in New Orleans. Large cities always have large segments of poor. In a large city cars are not a necessity and can even be a liability, having to find parking at home and at work for it, and keeping it safe. While a poor person in a small community may be able to have an old junk car, in a big city it is a luxury that just isn’t possible. Most of the people left in New Orleans are very poor people who had no personal transportation. It is a great shame that we made no formal effort to evacuate them.

New Orleans is a death trap in such storms, and everyone knows it. There has always been the fear that some day a hurricane would come right into Lake Pontchartrain and displace the entire lake into New Orleans, leaving the city under fifteen feet of water. Actually, New Orleans got off easy this time. The levee broke after the storm surge was mostly over. The Lake wasn’t actually pushed into the city, but rather the levees just broke. It could have been worse.

Unfortunately, the contempt that comes with familiarity is part of the nature of hurricanes. They always come. Some people run, and some stay. The damage is rarely catastrophic in certain areas, and so we get used to them. Yes, they tell us on the news that this one is “really big” and that “it may be the big one,” but after surviving so many, everyone gets laid back. Even government officials charged with evacuating poor people from a death trap.

In the future, New Orleans should probably be abandoned. It is a really bad spot for anyone to live, certainly for a big city. At the least it should just be bulldozed and the entire bit of land raised about 20 feet. None of that will happen though. They will rebuild. The levees will be made stronger, and people will return. I don’t blame them. I would go back too. It is a wonderful place. I believe it is one of the few remaining havens in our country of truly unique culture.

Personally, it is kind of numbing to see it all in what used to be my back yard. In a way I wish I was there. I know if I ever go back, it won’t be the same. So many around me will look back to Katrina and I’ll just remember the news photos. However, I lived all of my childhood years under the shadow of Camille, and it happened before I was born. It was always “Camille this,” and “Camille that.” I could point out places where things ued to be that Camille destroyed and show your boats that were still where Camille left them, several miles inland. So maybe I’m just destined to live in the shadow of tragedy that missed me.

Just for fun I thought I’d post a picture of my latest toy. I bought it this Spring. In return I sold my 1985 Volvo Wagon and my ‘78 Black FIAT Spyder :’( . It was basically a decision of practicality that conincided with several other life events.

Despite the sacrifices, this is a very fun car! It is a stick shift. It had 37K miles on it when I bought it. It is 100% stock, even had the original tires on it! I have lots of ideas for it, but for now it is very fun as is, and the new tires is enough of an expense for this year.

These pictures were actually taken before I bought the car.

Life is not about doing, but being.

It is not about being busy either, but about being alive and being friends.

All of the modern conveniences of the 21st Century in the most “developed” nation in the world have not lead to more “free time,” but to more “busy time.”

I hope to spend my year in 2005 learning to do less, and be more.

Specifically I hope to spend much time sitting still and communicating with my wife, communicating with my children, communicating with my friends, and reading meaningful books about quantum physics.

I have recently witnessed yet another family who spent most of their years of existence running from ‘evil’ suddenly caught by it.

They avoided all modern media, nearly all movies, all forms of “rock” music, youth groups in churches, and just about anything else that could possibly be considered anything short of “perfect.” This running from evil was part of what they ate, what they wore, their education and everything.

Then, all in one day, they discover, that despite (and maybe even because
of?) their constant running from anything with the slightest hint of anything evil, evil found them. In fact evil had caught their familiy in ways that few families are caught. Things that the most liberal soul outraged!

Seems I heard someone say recently something to the effect of “You can’t run from it, it will hunt you down and catch you like a dog.” I know the word he used was “sorrow,” but it seemed to really be a good synonym for “evil” in both that scenario, and the ones I speak of now. If you haven’t seen The Village, do. If you don’t get it, either A. You are in a BAD way, or B. You are lucky enough to have not experienced what I’m talking about.

I really start to wonder if God ever intended for us to run from evil in the way that these people have. We don’t all hide in a “village,” but many hide behind high standards that keep them from living in our world.

I’m not advocating that we all start indulging in pornography, eating pepperoni pizza three meals a day, listen to music full of foul language or become nudists.

I am saying, though, that maybe the reasons for your decisions needs to be based on your knowledge of your relationship with Christ, and not on your fear of a relationship with the devil.

“Hey mom, look who’s on TV. The devil!” - Oh, did I quote another movie?

Everything in our culture is not evil, and running from everything in our culture will not protect you from evil.

Recently I heard on the radio that the motion picture association is going to start legal action against those it can find swapping pirated movies on the Internet.

It somehow strikes me as very ironic to see artists pulling in the law to defend them against the theft of music and movies that glorify breaking the law.

I mean, isn’t it kind of odd to think of being arrested for stealing “Gone in Sixty Seconds”? Or to have the police show up at your door and haul you off for pirating music that talks about selling drugs?

Seems like they are fighting the culture that they are promoting, with the weapons that they criticize the most.

It is very tempting to post a copy of some song ranting against the police on my web site, and wait for them to show up to haul me off for doing it.

I’ve finally been taken in by the “weblog” fad.

I have posted my “doings” in the past, but I hope for this to be more of just “my thoughts” on various topics.

My two reasons for this are:

1. To have some place where I can easily jot down my random thoughts on life for myself to keep and others to muse over.

2. To make it simple for anyone who feels the urge to make comments on my random thoughts.

So, check back here from time to time to see what nonsense I have put up, and please do leave your comments for me and all to see.

I will be “moderating” the comments, so they won’t show up until I read them and hit the “approve” button. That will eliminate the trash that tends to show up in these things (”grow hair fast!”). Also, if you don’t want your comment to be public, just mark it as PRIVATE in the title, and I’ll see it, but I won’t release it for the world to see.

A post that predates this weblog!

This is truly the beginnings of my webloging. These are very old posts to a very rudimentary “weblog” system I set up years ago. I post them here for posterity. Back then they were simply edited in a text file via telnet or SSH directly on the web server.

The primary reason for their existence was so that my bride to be (Jersuah) could keep up with some of what was up with me before we could really communicate openly (which as a subject for a whole other post).

I post it here to archive it in my new weblog as I take down the old page that it was sitting on.

Feel free to read some of my ancient history. =D

7:33 PM 8/13/2002 - Well, it has been ages since this web cam was up, but now I think I have it running semi-permanently at our new house. Look for Melissa to make guest appearances. =)

6:41 PM 12/23/2001 - After many many months the web cam is back up at OUR place! Well . . . maybe =)

11:58 PM 5/25/2001 - The trip was WONDERFUL! Lots of pictures, will be working on a web page soon. For now, just know, we are “officially” engaged now!”

10:22 PM 5/9/2001 - Will see my love in less than 48 hours!!!!!!

8:52 AM 4/23/2001 - I am going to the Philippines to visit Jerusha next month!!! SHE is what is happening in my life right now!

6:01 PM 4/6/2001 - The hard drive died on this server Wednesday morning. I Fedexed all new equipment for the server to Chicago that afternoon. A friend in Chicago was kind enough to rebuild the system and reinstall Linux for us that evening. Then I spent from 5:30 PM Thursday until 4:30 AM Friday (today) putting everything back on it. It isnt’ all back yet, but it is close. Mail works again at least, and web services exist, even if not all of the sites have been put back together yet. I wasn’t on top of backups as well as I should have been. =( So my site may seem dated now. Especially things like the guestbook and BBS. =) On the up side. The server is faster now, and reinstalling fixed a lot of odd problems that I was having!

3:02 PM 3/24/2001 - I’m staying home this weekend to Grandpa-Sit while mom and dad go to Dalls with my black FIAT to a car show.

3:00 PM 3/24/2001 - I’ve been busy enough lately. Haven’t said much of anything here. Spend most of my computer personal computer time talking to Jerusha! We are doing wonderfully! Everything is a million times better than either of us ever expected. It is hard to be so far apart, but we are enjoying every moment of communication. We’ll be together soon enough!

11:28 AM 2/22/2001 - “Praise to the Lord who o’er all things so wondrously reigneth, Shelters thee under His wings, yea, so gently sustaineth. Hast thou not seen how all thy longings have been Granted in what He ordaineth?” Let there be no doubt in your mind. It has been some time in the coming, but Jerusha Kohler and I are courting! We are an ocean apart right now, but our hearts are one.

10:04 PM 2/19/2001 - but when the desire cometh, it is a tree of life. (Proverbs 13:12b) All in good time, all will be told.

8:35 AM 2/5/2001 - Hope deferred maketh the heart sick . . . (Proverbs 13:12) I know there is more to that verse, but I’m in the first part. I think I need a vacation. :-/

9:47 AM 1/10/2001 - Sign my guestbook!

9:47 AM 1/10/2001 - Server is all happy again!!

4:31 PM 1/9/2001 - Have had a lot of trouble with the server, and the result is I cannot update this as easily anymore. If you want to know more about my life than any sane person should, check out my calendar.

2:49 PM 12/6/2000 - Last night was fun. I took mom out to “Joe’s Diner”. It is a “hamburger joint” that makes great malts, and serves breakfast all day. It is set up like a 50’s place and plays 50’s/60’s music. It was fun. We walked around the mall after that to “walk it off”. Had a good time and some good discussions.

2:20 PM 12/5/2000 - The days at work are FLYING by!! I tend to hope time does go quickly, but, at the same time, there are a lot of fun things to enjoy right now too, so I am not wishing those away just yet.

6:38 PM 12/3/2000 - Mom went to church alone today. Dad stayed in bed with a headache, and I stayed home to try to shake what acts like a cold comming on. I’ve been tired all of the time the last few days. Maybe it isn’t my health. Anyway, back to work tomorrow. It is hard to believe that this time last year I was still in Chicago!

9:43 PM 12/1/2000 - I’ve never understood it when people were separated by their “authorities” “for their own good.” I didn’t understand it when I was six. I didn’t understand it when I was 18. I don’t understand it now, but I can only trust God that it is for our best.

6:23 PM 12/1/2000 - Last night I went out with a VERY good friend that I have talked to a lot lately (Internet, etc.), but we haven’t seen each other in a while. It was SO good to see a friend’s face again! We had a great time, and solved some problems together. We’ll have to make it a habbit to see each other more often, as long as life permits.

7:33 PM 11/24/2000 - Isn’t it good to know that when we can’t be there for the ones we love, God CAN be!! - Went shoping today and got mom a new cell phone like my new one. Bought the Matrix too. Mom and dad have never seen it before, so we’re gonna watch it tonight.

11:46 PM 11/23/2000 - Great day. All of mom’s family was here (28 in the house total), good food, good fellowship. Played games and had a lt of fun. Then we went and saw “Unbreakable”. VERY good movie! DO see it if you want a fun sort of suspense movie. No sex, no violence, just good clean fun. One of those few great movies where the previews didn’t spoil it. In fact, the movie is NOTHING like what I thought it was going to be. You never know what is going to happen. If anyone has seen it, do NOT let them tell you what happens. I know some people will come out saying it was stupid, but I LIKED IT! Anyway, was a great Thanksgiving with family. Should be a nice relaxing long weekend now.

12:35 AM 11/23/2000 - OK, I have been WAY delinquent here. I won’t even try to catch up. Today is Thanksgiving Day and we have nearly 30 here for the day. Mostly family. It is great. Feel free to join us if you want, we probably won’t even notice one more! Have a GREAT Thanksgiving Day. I’ll be home all weekend, but probably off and about with cousins having fun and going to (GASP!) movies and such. I’ll try to post here more often. If you notice me lagging, email me and yell about it!

8:58 PM 10/30/2000 - Well, I haven’t said much lately. Just busy I guess. Not so much with important things. Just goofing off and such. Trying to get organized. Cleaning desk, cleaning room, etc. etc. Not sure why, but I got the itch I guess. Went to the symphony Sat. First part was great. Second part, had this lady who was a “classical percusionist”. It was TERRIBLE. Oh well. Like I said, first part was REALLY good.

9:37 PM 10/22/2000 - Church had a missions conference and a ‘New Tribes’ missionary from Paupa New Guini spoke to the college & career group. I wasn’t there, but several are thinking about going over there for 6 months to a year this summer. Maybe I’ll go, if nothing else comes up between now and then. Even if I can’t spell it! I don’t know if they need computer people or not.

11:37 AM 10/14/2000 - We are going to the Wichita Symphony tonight! We all (Mom, dad and I) bought season tickets to the sympony this year! Should be fun.

7:48 PM 10/11/2000 - I’m trying to clean up my desk, so I am actually in front of my camera for a few minutes. It is fun to watch and see who gets on my web cam. Some from FAR AWAY places now!

12:43 PM 10/9/2000 - Good trip. Came back Friday night actually. Drove back w/ my cousin Caleb. Got another camera. It is mobile! I can put it anywhere in the house and it feeds a picture via 2.4 Gigahertz wireless to my computer. We got it so we can watch grandpa from the other room. So it will be the “mobile cam” or maybe the “grandpa cam”. I only have one “server”, so you’ll see whatever camera I have plugged in. If it doesn’t look like my desk (the basement) then you must be watching the mobile cam.

11:12 AM 10/4/2000 - Tomorrow I leave to go out west. I’ll be driving my FIAT, which should be fun!

7:00 AM 10/3/2000 - Every Tuesday night we have some one to watch Grandpa, so my parents and I go out to eat. I won’t be around this evening (or many Tuesday evenings). BTW: The laser show was great. Played Rich Mullins music. I’d forgotten all of the words to Step by Step (we usually just sing the chorus), but if you get a chance to listen to the WHOLE song. Do. In fact, all of his music is good. Here it again, for the first time. =)

7:44 PM 10/2/2000 - Back to work (Monday) I’ll be watching the cam too to see what happens at home. I’ll be heading out west to do some jobs for Bell and visit my Aunt & Uncle this weekend.

10:32 AM 9/30/2000 - Mom’s sewing table and the ironing board. I’ll be out today. Going to take a look at a computer for a guy from work (moonlighting!) and then go to the Cosmosphere for a lasershow w/ the group from church. CYA

7:26 PM 9/29/2000 - It will do MIRACLES to turn the cache on on the MB and CPU in the BIOS! Thing is, I already ordered a MB. Oh well. It seems to be working well on the 486 now. We’ll see what the Pentium does when it gets here.

8:27 PM 9/28/2000 - I ordered a P133 chip on Ebay yesterday. Now I just need a Motherboard.
On other things. The trip to Colorado was GREAT! Really fun group from church. Really good preacher. It was an all around real uplifter. I really needed it too!

11:13 PM 9/20/2000 - FAILURE! Well, this is what you get. It is slower and smaller! I’m headed to Colorado w/ the church college & career group. I’ll be back Monday. Anyone want to donate a low end Pentium MB & CPU?

6:03 PM 9/20/2000 - For those of you wondering what my idea of “up all the time is”. It means until the whole system crashes. I’m working on setting up a new system even as I write this. It will work better.

11:07 PM 9/19/2000
Hi! I put this here so I can keep those of you who come here updated on what is happening. The latest is that my webcam should now be up 24×7 I put it on a different computer. At the moment that I write this, the camera is pointed at that computer. It has no case as you can see. It may be slower now. Let me know if it seems MUCH slower, or the same to you. Until then, good night!