John's Web Log

Hold My Hand

2007-08-02T20:30:00.001-04:00

So you are out on a third date with a particularly lovely person and you are peacefully sitting next to somebody who you are utterly enjoying the moment with. You get this urge to reach out and to hold their hand in yours. But what is this instinct? I personally have had no idea what to do with my hands when I am not using them for some other activity. What is so special about placing your hand in somebody else's?

Let's consider examples from popular culture:
Fergie
Big Girls Don't Cry

Yes you can hold my hand if you want to
'cause I wanna hold yours too
We'll be playmates and lovers and share our secret worlds

Hootie and the BlowFish
Hold My Hand

Hold my hand
Maybe we can't change the world but
I wanna love you the best that, the best that I can, yeah

Vertical Horizon
Heart in Hand

There for you and you're there for me

Pictures and photographs
Memories and windows
Goodbyes and epitaphs
Heartbeats and hellos

Are you waiting for
Heart in hand
Woman and man
See me where I stand I am
Heart
Heart in hand

Examples from the Bible:

Isaiah 41:13
For I am the LORD, Your God,
who takes hold of your right hand
and says to you, Do not fear;
I will help you.

The power of touch is always very powerful. It shows a level of comfort beyond what can be expressed through most words or actions. Also, are hands are our source of livelihood. Without our hands we could not feed ourselves, we could not open a door or drive a car. (at least not easily) Occupying our hands with the sole purpose of holding somebodies else puts your attention solely upon them instead of allowing you to do something else.

I can remember some of my most vivid memories involve holding hands. One summer I went to a summer concert with my older sister in downtown Atlanta. There were literally hundreds of thousands of people gathered together in an open courtyard. My sister and I managed to gather almost all the way to the front of the crowd. Within the first 20 min of the concert it started pouring rain. Having taken public transportation we were 45 min from our cars with about 15 min of walking to the train station. Us both being soaked I took my sisters hand and crossed the downtown streets of Atlanta. We both were soaked, in the dark rain with a long journey ahead to get home. But we were together and I knew that as long as she was near I could never frown.

One of the second most vivid memories of hand holding involved a girl that I was good friends with in high school named Meghan. As I started getting closer to her I invited her up for a weekend retreat at my best friends lake house. I picked her up and drove her the 3 hour drive down there. She slept the whole way :) I could not be more pleased that she trusted me blindly to get her there safe (I was a 17 year old driver). That night we sat around the fire singing to guitar music until it was time to sleep. Sleeping quarters were tight so we all slept on the floor in the living room. My sleeping bag was next to hers and as we both lay down for bed we lay holding hands as we drifted off to a peaceable sleep. I felt so at peace falling asleep in her presence - knowing that she was there right there, going through a similar experience.

One thing is clear, holding hands means can show you are not judgmental, you are committed, empathetic and totally accepting. I hope that everyone reading this can show their love to somebody else by the power of loving touch of hand to hand.

A Week in the life of a Wii Owner

2007-07-17T21:32:00.000-04:00

The good, the bad and the ugly. The Wii is certainly a great purchase for several reasons. I have owned one for a week now and I would like to comment on the overall system.

GAMEPLAY
====================================================

The Wiimote is certainly an great innovation. This controller is sensitive down to the atomic scale and is certainly brings mouse-like precision to the console arena. The interface introduces some lag, but this lag is minor and usually does not impact any game play. The Wiimote sports force feedback which adds to the tactile feel. Also it has a small speaker that provides extra sounds. This really places you in the game. Your Wiimote makes a clacking sound as you draw your sword in Zelda. Also, this operates on bluetooth and can be easily synced to your computer and used as a mouse with the appropriate drivers. Battery life is about 50 hours on two AA batteries. There is no built in recharging option.

The numchuck is also just as sensitive, but lacks the IR refinement so is only used for non-precision sensory motion. The numchuck + Wiimote cost a total of $60 a pop! This is crazy expensive. You can also get a classic controller which hooks into the Wiimote for $20 which is required for most ROMs. However, the Wii does have 4 ports for Gamecube controllers and these can be used instead of the classic controller, but the controller layout is not the best. The Gamecube controllers are required for any Gamecube game.

Ergonomically, I believe the Wiimote and numchuck are very easy on your wrist when used in moderation. I usually clock about 70 hours a week on the computer and enjoy playing tennis. Both of these put strain on your wrist and I usually experience a slight bit of discomfort. This past week I added about 30 hours of Wii play on top of that, and experienced no increase in discomfort. I even jammed my hand in a biking tumble and enjoyed playing the Wii for several hours that day after not being able to touch a keyboard. If you work on a computer all day like me, but still love games, the Wii is for you!

GAMES
====================================================

Wii game selection is now scant, but has several innovative games. Currently released top games include:

Resident Evil 4 (Top rated game for the Wii)

Zelda - Twilight Princess (Nintendo's best Wii game so far- tons of content)

Wii Sports (Free with Wii purchase, great party game)

WarioWare: Smooth Moves (Over 200 Microgames to play, another good party game)

Super Paper Mario (Continuation of the Paper Mario series, very solid overall)

Trauma Center - Second Opinion (Rehash of DS game- some new content, great use of Wiimote)

Excite Truck - (Fast paced, easy to pick up, allows user to listen to mp3s loaded on SD card)

More games are to be released soon and gaming production is slated to increase dramatically. Wii is slated to have another 100 titles by the holiday season bringing its total library size up to 160. This compares to the current library of about 200 on the PS3 and 300 on the Xbox360. Production of games on the Wii is anticipated to be much greater on the Wii. Comparatively it takes $5 million to make a Wii game, $10-15 million to make an Xbox360 game and about $20 million to make a PS3 game. Programmers from E3 cringe at the thought of making PS3 games but embrace the freshness of Wii games and are aggressively looking for new titles. Expect a steady stream of fresh and original Wii games for the next two - three years.

ROMS
====================================================

Includes support for NES, SNES, N64, Sega Genesis and TurboGraphics games. Selection is somewhat limited, but the majority of blockbusters are present. Top ROMs include:
The Legend of Zelda: Orcarina of Time
Super Mario World
Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
Super Mario Bros
Gunstar Heros
Super Mario Bros 2
ActRaiser
Donkey Kong Country 2:Diddy's Kong Quest

Games cost from $5-10 but you must pre-purchase in increments of $10. That money can also be applied to the $5 Internet channel which is a Flash 6 enabled Opera browser. With this browser you can surf the web, stream internet radio, watch you-tube videos (fullscreen!), play most flash games and remotely listen to/control with your PC's Winamp or Apple's Itunes. The Wii sports an 802.11G wireless connector and some limited RAM available for running web apps. All pages I visited rendered properly with no artifacts. Youtube video looks fairly smooth, but is not as good as a PC. Flash games only work if they are 6.0 compatible. It will try to run higher versions, but renders most games unplayable. Also, flash game size is limited. Several sites have compiled a list of Wii-compatible flash games and several of them were fun to play and could be zoomed to full-screen. However, a few of these I had problems with as well since I believe their links were a bit dated.

THE GOOD:
====================================================

Initial Price
Aesthetic Appeal
Extreme Backwards Compatibility (NES, SNES, N64, GC, Sega, TurboGraphics)
Innovative Controls
Innovative Games
Built in Wifi

THE BAD:
====================================================

Expensive add on controllers ($40 Wiimote, $20 Numchuck, $20 Classic controller, $12 GC controller)
Internet Multiplayer functionality (to be fixed in Q4 games)
System shortages 9 months into product life cycle

THE UGLY:
====================================================

420P Resolution
Weak Graphics Processor Unit
Video Streaming Quality (not quite DVD quality)

Mii has a Wii

2007-07-12T12:21:00.000-04:00

I recently got a new roommate and we both love God, technology and games. (In that order) He soon told me that he wanted to get his friend a Wii as a present. I asked him why he didn't do it. He said that in the last 9 months since the consoles release he was unable to find one in a store to purchase. I responded saying that is ludicrous - the console has been out for months! It must be in stores.
The next day I was talking to Alan Patrick (a long time gamer and Nintendo supporter). He was at work, watching E3 conference instead of working. Well, he was telling me all the hype about the Wii and so I figured I would look into how much a used Wii would be on ebay. I figure if it was only used for 5 months or so, maybe I could get one for about $200 ($249.95 is retail). Well, to my dismay there are almost no used Wiis on ebay, and every unit on ebay is selling for about $300-500 (plus crazy shipping charges of about $40). So I found one on Ebay using a Wii locator with 30 min left going for $200. Well, I put in a bid for $225 and was soon outbid. Soon the price skyrocketed to about $288 with much more time to go in the auction.

Dismayed, I said screw it, I am going Wii hunting. My first stop: Target. No luck at all. Next stop: Gamespot. I asked the guy there if they had any Wiis and he just grinned at me and was like: no chance at all. Apparently people snipe that store and come in when shipments arrive around lunch time. By 3pm all their shipment is usually sold out! GRRHHH! Next stop: Walmart- the most trafficked site of all! I thought I had no chance at all, but to my pleasure I saw two Wii boxes behind the glass! Ohh so pretty! So like a kid in the candy store I looked around for somebody to open it. I eventually got a nice nearby photo-guy to track down some keys and open the glass. I said I wanted a couple of Wiis and he had to go clear-it with his associate to make sure there were no limits. I also snatched up a copy of the new Zelda game.

So like a bat out of hell, I fled the Walmart store as if they had made a mistake in letting me purchase them. I could easily flip them on Ebay and pocket a quick $200! I am surprised the employees there do not do it. Anyways... more to come in part 2 as I review the Wii's awesomeness and grandeurs! It is amazing God has gifted us in such a way to create and build just as he is the great creator.

How to get a Free $25

2007-07-03T00:36:00.000-04:00

I have recently joined an online bank called ING Direct. They offer savings accounts with 4.5% interest rates, no minimum balances, and unlimited withdrawals. Also, if you deposit at least $250 using the below link referral you will receive a free $25 deposit(and I will get $10)! This account must be active for a minimum of 10 business days. They can link the account to your online bank account so you can have money automatically deducted to start a savings plan. Also, the rates are pretty competitive compared to most banks. (Not to mention you will get an immediate 10% return on investment)

Now that I have a new roommate, I will be placing all that money I am saving in this account to earn interest and save towards something special. Anyways, click on one of the links below for the special offer. Once somebody uses the link it will give you an error message on the page. Try the next link down until it no longer gives you such a message. Let me know if you have any problems.

Open new account link 1
Open new account link 2
Open new account link 3
Open new account link 4

Google should buy Facebook

2007-07-01T22:03:00.000-04:00

Yes, I have come to the conclusion that Google should buy Facebook. They could clean up all these useless applications out there and integrate it so well. Imagine having Picassa upload your album right to Facebook? Also, Google has rolled out a new feature in their albums to allow a map location linked to your photos. I just think if they integrated the two into one that things could get better. Although, I am always afraid of Google getting too big and starting to not innovate and start charging for their services. End rant. Anyways, here are some pix I took this weekend as well as the rest of my spring album. Feel free to click through and see where in the world these were taken.

Friday's are Fun

2007-05-04T13:39:00.000-04:00

I vote Friday's all time winner of the best day of the week for several reasons. First off, it is the last normal working day. Even if you work weekends, everyone around you is so happy to take a break that it makes your day that much better as well. Secondly, Friday is your most productive day. You are in the groove and you can catch up on all the little things that fell through the crack before. Also, NOBODY wants to bring up new things for you to work on at this point in the week, so you get to concentrate on getting a few things done. Third, Saturday is official sleep catch-up day, which means that Friday night is the night to stay out late and not pay for it the next day. This can include several nocturnal activities such as clubbing, reading, playing video games, spending time with your significant other until the wee hours of the morning, cooking, playing board games, and about a million other engaging activities.
So for everyone out there, happy Friday. (If today is not actually a Friday for you, take heart, a Friday is absolutely guaranteed in less than 7 days:)

My Favorite Movie List

2007-02-25T19:55:00.000-05:00

So, I have been using Netflix for awhile and have posted a list of my 5-star movies (like them or hate them). Also, conveniently enough, I currently do not own any of the below films and do have a B-day coming up. Anyways, I think it is a bit interesting to see which movies people place in the classic list.

A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001)
Appleseed (2004)
Austin Powers 1 (1997)
Battlestar Galactica: Season 1 (4-Disc Series) (2004)
Battlestar Galactica: Season 2.0 (3-Disc Series) (2005)
Blade (1998)
City of Angels (1998)
Crash (2005)
Dune: Extended Edition (1984)
Equilibrium (2002)
Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (2001)
Firefly (4-Disc Series) (2002)
Gladiator (2000)
GoldenEye (1995)
Hitch (2005)
How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days (2003)
I, Robot (2004)
Independence Day (1996)
Interview with the Vampire (1994)
John Q (2001)
Jurassic Park (1993)
Master and Commander (2003)
Mission: Impossible (1996)
Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)
Napoleon Dynamite (2004)
Ninja Scroll (1995)
Office Space (1999)
Princess Mononoke (1997)
Resident Evil (2002)
Saving Private Ryan (1998)
Serenity (2005)
Shrek (Full-screen) (2001)
Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003)
The Count of Monte Cristo (2002)
The Fast and the Furious (2001)
The Hunt for Red October (1990)
The Last Samurai (2003)
The Patriot (2000)
The Princess Bride (1987)
Titanic (1997)
Willow (1988)
Young Frankenstein (1974)
Zoolander (2001)

My Sci Fi Novel

2006-10-11T12:05:00.000-04:00

Ok, So our workplace has a wonderful system where we have a shelf where people bring old books that they have read that anyone can just take and read and put back. Well, finding out about this I chose Michael Crichton's Prey. I have read Timeline (and saw the poor make of the movie) and have heard Noah rant about how good all of his works are. Anyway, yesterday I was really tired and was about to go to bed, but I decided to pick it up. Well I got through the 1st 100 pages or so before I decided I would be kicking myself too much in the morning and I need to go to bed. And believe you me, I am a slow reader. Crichton paints a vivid picture of a near future that could very well happen. One thing I love about his writing style is that he has great detail on both technology and human relationships. Ok, so he hits the mark a lot closer with technology. He actually explains, very logically, how this Sci-Fi technology could actually work. I mean just having it is fairly cool, but if it is all lights and bells it means much less to the reader. As far as relationships, he has many of the parts of relationships there, but they are a mixed bag that would not likely happen in reality. Excess drama that leads to nothing, lack of drama where there should be some. And I do not think that he properly paints the difference in the way men and women interact. The first huge chunk of this story is about a jobless husband becoming a stay-at-home day while his wife works the corporate ladder to become an exec of a major tech company. Basically, Criton hypothesizes that the corporate environment is what makes your stereotypical man, not his inherit nature. The husband's inner dialog strictly follows the stereotypical female housewife mindset. For example, there is a 1 page conversation between him and another guy about the benefits of Pampers vs. Charmin for absorbency, seepage and overall quality. Amazing - I do not think that nurture cannot change our nature as much as Crichton paints, but the foil is probably intentional to entice the user to question our standard conclusions. And this theme is also evident in his critic of modern technology. Somewhat outlandish scenarios, that are logical, but would not happen in the real world. Anyways, so far I give the novel 4 stars with a slight hint of caution about a couple instances of bad language. Definitely better than Timeline (so far) for the true Sci-Fi fan.
Anyways, this past week has been fairly good. I was able to get together with some guys from church to play tennis and just hang out, and I got to catch up a bit with some of my family. Soon I will get to go to Alan Patrick's wedding down in New Orleans followed by a wonderful trip to Atlanta to see all my peeps down there for Thanksgiving.

My Downtown Raleigh

2006-10-02T10:10:00.000-04:00

So this past weekend my Dad came to visit me and see the surrounding area. Well, I have never really had a good reason to visit downtown area so this was a perfect opportunity. We decided to go downtown and try out the Science and Space museum. So overall, the downtown area is very scenic and historic. There are not a large amount of commercial businesses downtown. This is nice since the streets are not all jammed with excessive traffic and scant parking. So we were able to park right next to the museum and walk right in. And the museum itself was free. There were four floors of exhibits in all. Now granted, this place would be much cooler a decade ago, but it was still nice. We were looking at google maps with the hybrid view to try to find this place, and all of the downtown area has excellent resolution pictures. You can make easily make out cars and even some smaller objects. There was one picture in the museum of the entire NC coastal region where you could not even make out a large island very well. Naturally this was impressive in the 90s but nowadays google is my museum and library. Sigh. Well anyways, I think next time the art museum would be a good choice. Or the planetarium. Anyways, there were some great exhibits like the gemalogy exhibit was very cool. And, outside of the museum they have a huge sandcastle in the shape of a truck. And it was about the size of one too. They brought in 16 tons of sand for this thing. Also, downtown we stopped by a motorcycle rally in Raleigh they were having. Tons of bikes of all kinds. We finished up the evening with some excellent Mexican food and watching the Aviator (great film- very sad). All-in-all a good time in downtown.

My Addiction

2006-09-25T13:25:00.000-04:00

Ok, so my friends were finally able to convince me to try out this game- World of Warcraft. They were offering a 10 day free trial (Sign up for Free 10 Day Trial) and this was awhile back before my gf at the time was to move to where I was. So, a lovely 10 days of carefree vegging until the gf arrived. Well, all was well and I was strong.. until we broke up... and then I was convinced to sign up. Well, over the past month this has basically consumed the vast majority of my free time. And it has been fairly therapeutic.

But, I think I may be somewhat ready to come out of this grinding addiction back into the real world. Plus, working with and playing with computers all day gets a bit tedious. Yes- wow is great for occasional use, but easily abused. I think I will try to use it to only have a few nights a week that I can spend time with friends online. So, I need to fill the other time with other activities. So this week I have a tennis date setup and this weekend my parents are coming to visit. However, I could always use good ideas for ways to hang out/meet quality people in a new area.

My First Football Game

2006-09-12T12:00:00.000-04:00

So I never thought that I would ever like football. It was always such a cool thing to like - and for me in high school it was not cool to try to be cool. So when Noah tried to get me to go to a game in Atlanta I was originally less than thrilled. But, we really like Noah, so I would go with him to a yoga class if he bugged me enough. Anywho, we went to the GA Tech - Notre Dam game. It was the opening game for both teams. We had great seats just behind the End Zone with a perfect view. And, Noah was nice enough to answer my dumb questions about all the different Ref calls that were made here and there. Truth is- I really liked it. Actually, I think I am warming to football overall. Ok - so Baseball - only one guy doing anything at a time - very slow - very boring. Football - both teams always doing something. Very fast paced and interesting. I have even been listening to the scores on the radio now! If I had an antenna for my TV I would watch some games.
So, I think in Dec I am going to go to see my family up North and my newly wed sister and catch a Stealers game while I am up in PA. My sister got introduced to football by her husband and it is something they both can enjoy. Well, I have to get back to work now... but, I wanted to open this up: professional FB or college FB?

Guys and Girls

2006-09-06T09:50:00.000-04:00

When girls tell you about their problems they probably do not want a solution. They just want somebody to listen to them without trying to fix anything. Who knew? John Gray knew in his book Men are from Mars and Women are from Venus. But really, what are you supposed to do while girls sit their and talk about their problems? If they sense you are not paying attention then they bring up more problems or talk about them in more detail. There is no organized way that these problems are presented. And if you try to give a solution they will get upset and ignore what you said and continue to talk.
So the solution? There is no solution, that is the problem. No advice from men when women are being emotional. Calm them down, then speak of reason. But this is about the hardest thing in the world to do. What do you do to calm the one you care about most when she is bringing up issues that you know the solution to? What do you do when there is no solution?
I thought that when I used to talk to women and just say hmm, and uhhuh the whole time that I was being a bad friend. Maybe that is just the opposite. Well enough for now... still at work... but I figured I would at least try to do some blogging after Jen's suggestion. BTW... Dave, Jen, Noah, Erin, Kevin - you guys rock, it was awsome to see you. Any thoughts on this matter let me know...
-JB

Music and iPod

2006-03-08T02:46:00.000-05:00

Okay, so I have been doing this senoir integration paper on iPod. I have to find a way to integrate this with my Christian worldview. I have been doing a ton of research that has led me across some other discoveries that made me rethink a lot of things in general about techonolgy. Technology can be used for good or for bad. However, the natural tendancy of humans is to use it against our own good. Like Apple's iPod. It is a very convinient and can store thousands of songs easily accessed. But what kind of songs do you put on there? Using iTunes, you rate all of your current songs according to preference and upload them to your iPod giving preference to your favorites. So what do you get? A iPod full of chart toppers. Music that is made to be popular so that you will choose to download it and place it on your iPod. The mere fact that it is so convenient to access the songs you have a current fettish for is iPod's downfall. You do not have to listen to an occasional random but excellant song. Every song is downloaded to your computer, placed on your iPod and chosen by the user. This process excludes several excellant songs that would allow for you to branch out and appriciate a broader spectrum of music. This broader spectrum has been traditionally found on CD albums that you have bought or by radio stations that choose to play a variety of music. However, CD sales are drastically falling with the digital revolution of music and radio stations are even trending towards playing only hits. I currently am listing to Internet radio on winamp and the first 15 radio stations are mostly hit-exclusive radio stations of various genres. The ones that are not generally tend to stick very closely to the hit-stlye genre.
The problem with all these hits is the fact that creative ingenuity is stiffled. The music is all the same. After listening to hundreds of songs that sound exactly the same our minds become numb to what creativity is and complacent with dependance upon popular style music.
So the solution? A start is creative radio stations. One internet radio station that has a fair mix of some hit-style songs and other good songs that I have found is Sky.fm. There music is generally refreshing and crosses several genres without concern for focusing on any specific hit-style of music. Also, acquiring random music from the rest of an artist is useful so that you can experience more that the arist has to offer. Also, several artists intended their music to be appriciated weaved together so that their "pop" songs have context that helps impact them. This adds value to the songs that can not be found in hit-style song listening. Just some random thoughts, prolly too much research, not enough sleep.

yet again Bush is one of the most powerful men in the world...

2005-08-09T16:56:00.000-04:00

So Bush just passed a bill to change time.. Daylight savings time. He will extend it in 07 for an additional 7 weeks to help save energy. So, I guess with enough power, even time becomes within your grasp... Sorry, just couldn't resist. Anyways, besides the saving power thing, I hate changing all of my clocks and my sleep schedule twice a year. Does it really save that much power nowadays? Wasn't DST established a long time ago to pinch pennies to send men off to war? Hmmm... okay, well I guess that is still true today. It just seems kind of weird.

Monday Blues...

2005-08-01T14:48:00.000-04:00

Looks like I have a case of the Mondays... couldn't wait to get out of work for lunch. Anyways, last week was crazy busy/awsome. I went up to Chattanooga on Wed. to pick up one of my friends to come see me for a bit and we hung out up there for the evening. We hung out all week during the evenings and had some mad LAN-age going on. If you are a nerd, you know what I mean. We also got to go out to eat/just plain hang out. And now I am back to the grind... about 3 weeks till school starts. One last time....

Car Stolen!

2005-07-04T13:01:00.000-04:00

Ok, so last night I was going to go hang out with my Mom and watch a movie and show off my new car to her. We decided to meet each other at the Blockbuster in the publix parking lot to pick out a movie. It just happened to be raining a little bit and it was pretty dark outside too. There were a lot of cars in the parking lot there getting their last minute shopping done before the fourth. I go into Blockbuster to meet my Mom and we pick out a movie to go home and watch. I offer to pay since I have a Blockbuster gift card from Christmas that I still haven't used.
I go to pay for the movie and there was some new young girl working there. She decides to give me cash back for the balance left on my giftcard. Well, I think she miscounted because she handed me back over 80 dollars in cash! I asked her about it and she said she thought it was right. So I decided to just deck it out of there. I hug my Mom and tell her I am going to meet her over at her place in a little bit.
Still distrout from having received so much cash back I stumble to try to find my car in the dark rain. I eventually find it and get in thinking it is a bit dirty on the inside. I start it up and take off towards my Mom's house. Once getting out of the parking lot I suddenly notice that this is not my car. It only had 2 doors and was in pretty poor condition. So I turn around and head back to the parking lot. I parked that car and look around for my car in the lot. I also notice a bunch of police gathered at the front of the parking lot. Apparently, 4 other GM cars were stolen at the same time as mine. The car I was driving was their entry car that had the ignition drilled to work with any key.
Hardly knowing what to say I think to myself that at least I already have insurrance on the car. We got such a good deal on the car that I might even make money on the steal! Also, my previous car will probaly actually be fixed and I will still have transportation. But still, having your car stolen before you even get the license plate!! That is so horrible!
Well, anyways I woke up this morning and sighed... the previous night was only a fiction, a simple dream. Ahh, well it is almost time for BBQ now. Yumm. Happy 4th everyone! Go watch some fireworks, have a frostie and chill out.

Responsible

2005-06-26T00:03:00.000-04:00

So where along our lives do we become adults? Is it when we are 18? We finish high school or college? We get our first full-time job? We get married?
I was justing thinking lately about how I spend my time. I am becoming very responsible with everything I do. I feel like I am becoming an adult. I don't feel right about spending the whole day wasting time on one thing or another. If I become idle for too long I long for something else to work on. This is great for work, but horrible for relaxing.
I love the good ol days of spending a whole weekend not caring about what I did at all. Now it seems that everything is work-work-work. Work to make money to have a car and house so you can go to work. I feel I am becoming a work-a-holic. Working 6 days a week, and coming home and doing work for my internship 4 nights a week.
So who wants to go out and have a picnic? Go fishing? Play paintball? Walk around, just sit outside for awhile and relax. This is my dream. And it looks like my temp assignment is tapering towards an end so I may have some time for these activities soon before I am re-assigned.

NEW CAR!!

2005-06-15T01:31:00.000-04:00

Ok, so after much looking, calling and many disappointments I finally decided on the type of car I wanted. All that was left was finding a good deal. That deal ended up being in Augusta GA. Not too far away, but still a good drive. So all of Monday was devoted to this car effort. This included getting ready to go, driving 3 hours their, test driving for about 45 min, haggling for 1.5 hours, paperwork for another 1.5 hours, and looking for fitting floormats for 30 min.

I was just happy to be done with that process and ready to drive home. (http://kepler.covenant.edu/~beerman/Pictures/Summer05/slides/IMGP0652.JPG http://kepler.covenant.edu/~beerman/Pictures/Summer05/slides/IMGP0651.JPG)

So, after another 3 hours of driving home, and another 2 hours of talking about cars, me and my Dad (who severly aided me during this whole process) finally went to bed exhausted. Today, I was dragging my feet around work just waiting for lunch to roll around so I could take another drive around.

So now I am the proud owner of an '02 Pontiac Grand Prix GTP. This is a four door sedan with a serious taste for sports, and a moderate taste for luxery. With it's 5-8 lb supercharger it zooms in and out of traffic with 240 horses and over 280 ft-lbs of torque. Leather interior, CD, sunroof, top gun style HUD (yes, heads up display, like on video games; projects MPH and stereo settings on to windshield)... it has it all. Well, HID's would be nice but not available in any GM product.

Car Shopping

2005-06-03T22:59:00.000-04:00

Ok, so my car has been in the shop for over a year now getting the transmission fixed. This is absolutely horrible. For the longest time I thought it could be fixed, but now I have pretty much given up hope and I am very upset at the shop that is doing the work on it.
Anyways, this means that I need a new car. I have been looking at almost every car out there. I was first interested in the Camero, then the Impala, then the Grand Prix, then the accord and again the Grand Prix. Anyways, almost every car has its issues (kind of like most people). But, it was fun to get to drive all these cars. I got to drive a Z28 Camero with about 320 HP. But that was a very heavy car compared to the Grand Prix. It is a lot light but only has 200 HP. It revs higher but is quite peppy.
I have decided that cars salesmen can be just as bad as their stereotype. I went to Honda Carland in Roswell and the salesman would not leave me alone. He kept on telling me how much he was not trying to pressure me into anything but then he tried to make me promise to come back the next day to look at another car that wasn't anything like what I wanted. He also made fun of me for like the expensive car but not wanting to pay the outrageous price they had on it. Dealer prices always start out super high and this one was no exception. But, we did meet one awsome salesperson who actually sold himself before the car. He just showed us the cars, got the keys, and opened the doors. He didn't try to talk us into something but he actually listened to what I was saying about the car and let us try out cars that met that description. I also spent a lot of time talking about all the neat toys that come packed into seperate cars and how they could easily be modded for a cooler, customized look. He was from the Chevy dealer. I expected a lot more from the Honda dealer and a lot less from the Chevy dealer. It is because the Honda dealer doesn't need you to really be pleased because there is such a demand for that car that they will sell the cars anyways. It is horrible for businesses to not have competition that forces them to contour their practices to what the consumers need. You see it with Honda, Microsoft, Oil producers and many other monopolies...
Well, no decision yet on what car I am going to get but the Grand Prix is a fun, easy to drive and sporty car that may or may not have major drive-train (transmission) problems early in its life. Meditate on this further I will.

Guys and Girls

2005-06-01T16:26:00.000-04:00

So recently I have been reading Orson Scott Card's Children of the Mind. This is the last installment in the Ender Wiggins series originating from Ender's Game. Within this book there are many examples of interactions between guys and girls including when girls like guys more than the guys like them, when girls like guys but the guy doesn't like them and vice-versa. And, in all these situations you get to hear what they are thinking. Although Card's insight is a stretch in many of these situations it makes you think.
So girls are romantic in thinking. Based on emotion and then logic. Guys, are the opposite. This is not a problem when emotion and logic are in sync, but in many situations this causes many problems. This is further exasterbated when guys only focus on the logical aspects of life and give up their romantic selves. This happens often when guys become self absorbed and only participate in activities that directly and promptly reward them in one fashion or another.
The solution? Be content with what God has given you. Focus not on what will give you the largest return but on what is right to do. Reach out more and let your feelings guide you. But, like most dicotomies, too much of either side can be just as disasterous. Let your feelings be checked by their logical counterparts to ensure that you don't let your emotions carry you away. But, too much logic turns us into robots. Instinct, feelings, emotions must be considered. Is it easy to balance these? Impossible, by yourself. Reaching out to touch others is essential to maintain your balance. That is again why it is very important to spend time with both sexes. If you terry too long without this balance, it will be very difficult for you to be able to relate to the other sex at all since you are speaking different languages.
I may be off on some of these ideas as they are not fully formed, but just what I was considering today.

staying up late

2005-05-27T16:39:00.000-04:00

So, over the past week, the earliest I went to bed is 4:30AM and the earliest I woke up is 3:00PM. Only in summer right? Well, next Tuesday I start my new job doing data-entry. 6 hrs/day getting 12$/hr. Not too bad. And I still get to wake up late and be there by 11AM.
Anyways, my friend Noah and I just got done making our second Podcast. (http://www.fftrealm.com/podcasts/ccwr-ep2.mp3) and he stayed up until 4:00PM editing it and working on some other things. (what a trooper!) You can listen to it and hear about how sucky it is to not have a car (like yours truely) and a lot of other fun topics. Also, there should be some more podcasts to come shortly...

Refreshed Homepage

2005-05-23T15:51:00.000-04:00

So, I don't know what impulse it is, but all techies must have a half-decent homepage. They ultimately serve very little purpose, take hours to create and maintain, and cost valuable webspace, but no self-respecting techie can live without one. Soooo, I spent a good 6 hours refreshing my webpage to something half decent. (http://kepler.covenant.edu/~beerman) Ahh, feels good.
Anyways, life is pretty good for the moment. I just got a job for the summer that pays well, even though it is data-entry, and it seems that there is a possibility that I might get my car back from the shop this week. (it has been in there for over a year now)
I also my new CD just arrived- Enya, Paint the Sky with Stars. I am trying to broaden my musical horizons to include more cultured/reformed music.
Tonight, I am planning on watching the season final of 24 with my friends even though I have only seen one previous episode. I figure, the last final is one of the best episodes, so just see that first and decide if you want to watch re-runs of the other episodes(not sure if 24 shows reruns, but you can always get them online).

Ahh, Another Day

2005-05-22T00:29:00.000-04:00

Well, just decided to try out this blog thing, technology is wonderful. Anyways, I just got done with a wonderful day seeing my friend David get married at Covenant College's chapel. They make a great couple. They are off right now, well getting to know each other better, if you know what I mean. It is great to see people who are able to wait until marriage before getting too involved physically with anyone. God does have a purpose in everything that happens in our lives. Anyways, tomorrow I am going to see an old friend up here in Chatanooga and then drive my Dad's Caddy back home. Another fulfilling summer weekend.