icanhazbeard!!1

Ever since I hacked my thumb to bits (read: sliced a little bit of the end of my thumb) I'm afraid of sharp objects. Obviously this presents a problem in the morning routine. Ergo, additional facial hair accumulates. Luckily, my wife has a secret obsession with hockey players and their playoff beards.



Christmas posts to follow - wife gots a new camera to show off :)

i chopped my thumb!

in the spirit of minimizing the amount of typing i need to do, i'll trade in the following picture for 1000 words.



To make a long story short, an 8" chef's knife took a decent chunk off the tip of my thumb, right through the nail. Duke urgent care sewed me back together with 6 stitches, three of which actually go through the nail. That part was pretty interesting - they had to burn 6 little holes in my thumbnail to thread the stitches through. I'll go back today to have them check it all out and make sure it's not going to fall off. I'll take a better picture later when I change the bandage :)

on the internets

Today we see (a satire of) Microsoft's latest "wow" gadget: Surface. While the video's newly updated audio track is a bit on the sarcastic side, it does beg the same question that I had when I first saw this thing: WHY. SO. BIG?! Video.

Speaking of Microsoft, looks like they'll be in hot water soon over bundling their cheatin' web browser Internet Explorer with Windows. The short version is this: Opera (3rd party browser developer) is suing Microsoft for bundling IE with their operating system, complaining that it takes advantage of their "dominant position" in the market. Additionally, the offense is further aggravated by the fact that the browser doesn't even conform to standards widely accepted by nearly all others. This results in developers designing websites to function properly in IE (again, due to its prevalence) which indirectly defames other standards-conforming browsers with how poorly the pages are rendered. I think there's some weight behind this one - MS is in for some trouble.

Now I've been a little hard on old Billy G today. Steve Jobs is no better - I've got to hand it to this guy - Apple went too far with their representation of perceived Windows machines on your network. It was funny to me until I realized that it was on every Mac running Leopard in the world. Smug, indeed (yet somehow still funny).

I'd pick on Linux today, too, but... well, market share speaks for itself :]

Toyota's new 'bot needs to go pee-pee

What is it about making a robot look semi-human that these brilliant engineers find so difficult? It seems like a slew of freakish contraptions emerging as of late are just dying to prove that we're actually moving backwards from R2D2? Toyota is taking this in an entirely new direction, proving that making a robot which appears to have its continence in check is just far too difficult.



Perhaps it's because I work in children's ministry, but my first instinct was to hold its hand and walk it to the toilet before I have to have an embarrassing talk with its mommy.

why say anything nice when you can say nothing at all

*the title is not a reference to anything, other than a BNL song*

One of the guys from the water treatment facility (which I support) brought me a brand new 2008 wildlife calendar and a can of peanuts, both clearly branded with the logo of the contractor who handles all of our chemical treatment needs. Thanks to the recent email in circulation regarding the gift policy, I know it's that shameless branding which makes this gift acceptable. The exact same thing, if not labeled as such, could be considered a bribe. Tricky devils - how did they know that a can of peanuts and a wildlife calendar are all it takes to bribe me to - well, do nothing. Their biggest computer problem since I got here was a failing floppy drive.

OK, I suppose one could argue that the bigger problem there was that they still use a floppy drive. Apparently the water treatment world hasn't caught up with this decade's technology.

two fer tuesday

You lucky blog reader, you! Two updates in one day, after such a lengthy absence. Whatever shall you do with yourself?

Probably tune right out, unless you're a tech-savvy (or at least tech-curious) gmail user who likes to keep their mail on one too many devices! This is my story - I hope it's useful for those of you "coping" with the advent of Gmail IMAP.

I guess that most people check their Gmail mostly from three different places: the office, at home, and on the go. Thanks to Gmail's new trick (namely IMAP), you now have some new options. For the longest time, I've checked my Gmail account at home on a Windows PC running Outook via POP. This worked just fine for me. Sure, if I sat in the office all day emailing people (and not working) then I'd have a bit of cleaning up to do when I got home. After all, the web interface doesn't sync w/POP clients - it just dumps new messages to the client and leaves it up to you how to handle them. Simple rules handle my most common messages. I've done this for years, so I have an elaborate (and hefty) virtual filing cabinet of emails.

Recently, I migrated all of that clutter over to my new iMac. I chose to go with Mail.app for email (because it's free, and its slick). Sure, that means I need two more apps to handle my calendars and contacts (iCal and Address Book, also included), but I'm OK with that since OS X does so much behind-the-scenes coordination between these applications anyway. I don't even think of them as three separate apps, really. Anyway, all of that to say this: I use Mail.app at home to check my Gmail via POP, and a combination of Mailboxes on my Mac and rules to deal with organizing them.

At work, I use the capable default Gmail web interface. A little background: I provide computer support for a branch of the government. I support primarily Windows PCs, but on a limited level, I also support Macs. I keep a Linux machine running for various tools and utilities that Microsoft has no excuse for not including in its very much not free operating system. That said, I could be using one of three web browsers from one of a couple hundred computers at any given time to take a quick look at my email. The web interface is the obvious choice.

On the go, I use my iPhone. Until now, I've used the default POP connection here as well. It's somewhat clumsy, since there is no mechanism for rules (or Smart Folders) so I'm stuck with a couple of annoyances, the most painful of which is an Inbox full of my own sent messages.

Along comes IMAP. For the uninitiated, let's review: IMAP basically differs from POP in one major way - synchronization. It allows you to connect multiple clients to a single account and have basically the same directory structure and message statuses in each place (yes, I looked up the plural form of status). "Beautiful!" you say. "All of your problems are solved!" Well, not really... remember that massively complex (and intricately nested) system of filed emails I mentioned? It would be a nightmare to try and migrate that to the IMAP environment. One major reason for this is that Gmail doesn't properly support nested folders. Another is that some of my folders don't have a simple rule for their contents. In other words, I'd have to manually sort through thousands of messages in order to migrate to IMAP. No, thanks... I'll stick w/POP at home.

However, this IMAP thing does solve a lot of problems for the iPhone - I can have a number of labels in Gmail that make finding important messages much easier. These show up as folders on the iPhone, the contents of which may exist in the Inbox as well. This is confusing unless you keep the mentality of labels and not of folders. Most importantly, I can forget the headache of dealing with my sent messages in my inbox. All in all, IMAP i the obvious choice for the iPhone.

This has a slight impact on how I view my email at work. I now have labels to deal with, which is fine. I'm actually growing fond of the concept of labels, in spite of my affinity for adherence to widely accepted standards. Gmail turns up the prettiness factor by allowing you to color-code your labels. How festive.

Final thoughts: after using the iPhone via IMAP for a while, you might notice some rules in the Gmail web interface that you didn't create. This is because the Drafts, Sent, and Deleted folders on your client don't line up to those of the server by default (surely to be fixed in the next iPhone software update). It's a simple thing to fix manually: from your iPhone, go to Settings and then to Mail. Open up your Gmail IMAP account, and tap Advanced. Note the section at the top showing you how your Drafts, Sent, and Deleted Mailboxes are mapped to the server. Tap Drafts. Now, under "On the Server" tap [Gmail]/Drafts. Repeat for Sent and Deleted, and you're good to go. You can delete those labels in Gmail now (check to make sure they're empty, as they should be). I guess this would work the same from any IMAP client.

As always, your mileage my vary.

weekend update

I'm finally starting to feel normal again, after a somewhat rough weekend. Lauren and I both woke up Friday morning complaining of cold symptoms, yet we still picked up a storage building from a certain orange home improvement store that evening. Somehow our new home is already overflowing with clutter (and it's only going to get worse). So, Saturday my husbandly duty was to erect said structure. I knew going into it that the 90 minutes for assembly that the manual estimated was by no means reasonable. All told, I think it was more like twice that. It's pretty nice, though. Around 3pm I took a lunch/coffee break to go meet Clifford at Jason's Deli. It was good to catch up with him for the first time since the wedding. Later that night, I was putting the final screws on the building with my handy (if not geekifyng) headlamp.

Sunday was pretty much the normal schedule - church, nap, AWANA. JD started a new series called "Anthem" which asked some really stirring questions about your relationship with God. However, I'm convinced that a shockingly different take on a relationship with God is the only thing that will move a non-believer past the point of prejudice against the "religion" laden culture so prominent here in the south. In other words, if it's not dramatically different, it's not going to win any souls. We can't afford to be disregarded as just another notch in the Bible belt.

Oh, in a bit of tech news, iPhone + Gmail users are in for a treat! Relief from an inbox burdened with sent mail comes in the form of IMAP for Gmail. You'll have to manually configure your iPhone instead of choosing the default Gmail config. This video shows you how. I guess it's actually good news for anybody who uses anything other than the default web interface to check their gmail account.

Time to get back to work. Pray for me - there's a meeting at church tonight about the future of the Deacons ministry - and I'm invited! Apparently, those attending are being asked to decide if this is a ministry where they can serve. I think that means that somebody thought of me as a candidate. Maybe I'll get there and find out every dude in church was invited. In any case, it's very humbling. I'm praying that God will put pride far from my heart and humble me with this challenge. I hope to see only His plans for me in this, and not my own reputation.

back from the ashes

having not blogged in (counts on toes) a really long time, i guess i figured and update was overdue. actually, my wife is at a hockey game with her family and i just got a new imac, so i suppose that's the real reason. if that bombshell of a sentence didn't quite strike you as "what the deuce?" then how bout a pic? BLAOH!



MAN is she hot. and she's mine. the wedding was perfect. the honeymoon was great. being married is friggin sweet. God is awesome. also, here's the new imac.



obviously, it's dead sexy. the setup was a breeze. it pulled all of my files, settings, and even applications from my old mac over firewire - all i had to do was boot the old one in target mode, and the imac did the rest. the only thing it didn't manage to do correctly was set my password. once i got that changed, i was in business.

well, the wife is on her way home with a cheeseburger. i'll avoid the obvious pun. later, kids.

edit: i'm mildly embarrassed that you can see two other computers in that last pic.

atheism

"When I was an atheist my argument against God was that the universe seemed so cruel and unjust. But how had I got this idea of just and unjust? A man does not call a line crooked unless he has some idea of a straight line. What was I comparing this universe with when I called it unjust? If the whole show was bad and senseless from A to Z, so to speak, why did I, who was supposed to be part of the show, find myself in such violent reaction against it?... Thus in the very act of trying to prove that God did not exist--in other words, that the whole of reality was senseless. I found I was forced to assume that one part of reality--namely my idea of justice--was full of sense. Consequently atheism turns out to be too simple. If the whole universe has no meaning, we should never have found out that it has no meaning." - C. S. Lewis (Mere Christianity).

back from Turkey

actually, i've been back since last saturday, but who's counting? oh, you are. sorry.

my first flight(s) and airport experiences were pretty interesting. when we were leaving durham, we waited in all kinds of lines to check in, go through security, etc... nothing exciting. take-off and landing were really the only exciting parts to the first flight. the charlotte airport was a bit more interesting. you know, moving sidewalks, more stores, more food, etc. i can tell you this much - the folks working the ticket counters for lufthansa were just plain awesome. with typical german efficiency, they didn't even blink when lauren and i asked them to place our seats together. back at rdu, they acted like we asked for help moving a piano or something. anyway, thus began the 9 hour flight to munich. i have to say, it was no where near as bad as i thought it would be. i was ready to get off the plane, don't get me wrong, but it was ok. next time, we're requesting exit-door seats for more leg room. the hop from munich to turkey was no big deal. one thing i did notice was that the airports in munich and in izmir were ghost towns in comparison to rdu and charlotte.

so we were in turkey. we rode the tour bus back to the hotel, and that's when we all got our first glimpse of the city. it didn't look so incredibly different from what you might see here in america. the landscape was pretty neat, though. you've basically got a city hugging a sound off of the aegean which is then surrounded by mountains. i was pretty much ready for a good shower and some sleep at that point. sleep turned out to be rare in turkey. jon and i stayed in a room that faced the side of the hotel where the especially lively turkish wedding parties were held each night we were there.

sunday we toured ephesus, which was just awesome. we got to see old auditoriums, prisons, an amazing library, and a phenomenal stadium. however, possibly the most interesting thing we saw was the roman toilets. basically, it was just a marble bench in the shape of an "L" that had holes cut in them. they sat much like a regular toilet, with one interesting caveat: they were cold. now, this is particularly interesting considering that it was 100 degrees outside. the story goes that the wealthy men who used these toilets had their slaves sit on them first to warm them up when they were cold. ingeniously gross, i thought. we also saw the basilica of st john/the church of saint john and the ephesus museum. moving to the slightly more modern, we visited a turkish pottery joint and saw some of the most beautiful and expensive hand made pottery i've ever seen. a dinner set for 4 people was about $2500 (all hand made and hand painted). probably most impressive was the turkish carpet place. we saw how the harvest the silk from the cocoons, how they ladies actually hand-made each and every rug, one knot at a time, and we got a good education as to how each one is unique and special based on composition, design, style, etc. i was convinced that a person could not buy a better run than a turkish rug. i was actually thinking about buying one until the one i liked turned out to be $20,000. yeah, that's a 2 and then four 0's. twenty thousand. i'm not saying it's not worth it, but it's certainly not in my price range. all in all, a very good and tiring day.

monday through friday we spent mostly with the kids of the workers there in turkey. we took them to the playground, we did arts and crafts, we taught a lesson, and we showed them a movie. i was surprised at how normal the kids all seemed to be. i mean, if you consider knowing conversational turkish normal, or knowing more about the bible than several adults i know normal, these kids were normal. we had kids there from several different sending organizations (including, i think, an independent family). we even had an english family's four kids. the youngest daughter (anna) was the cutest litle thing i've ever seen! she wasn't always happy to be there, but when she does cute little brittish things like calling trash "rubbish" and referring to her blanket as her "snuggles" it more than makes up for it. there was a group of 5 brothers who had only been in turkey for a few weeks, and they were a handful, too. the whole experience of working with those kids was just amazing. i won't soon forget it.

we did get some time to see a little of the city during the week. we went up to teleferik, which is basically a cable-basket ride up a mountain to a few shops and restaurants. one of those was probably the coolest eating experience i've had in a while. basically, it was a meat market where you buy your steak, chicken, kabob, or whatever you want, and your veggies - all raw. then, you are brought a grill by a picnic table and you cook your own food. being the grilled food lover i am, i really enjoyed it. there were some pretty cool vistas from up on the mountain as well.

we also got to see a turkish bazaar, which was essentially a flea market. it was a cool experience, but it was also quite frightening at the same time. the shop owners are all shouting at you to come into their store or restaurant, and there was this little girl that followed us for about 10 minutes trying to sell us worthless trinkets. we did get some turkish apple tea and i picked up a puzzle ring, as well as some little trinkets and such from the turkish christian book store. if it weren't for the fact that i desperately needed a (normal) toilet, i would have enjoyed it much more, but i had fun.

the plane trip back was absolutely brutal, especially right at the end. danny figured out that it was the longest day of his life, mathematically. our last flight, the 24 minute hop from charlotte to rdu, was delayed by three hours. when you're than close to home, for some reason, that sort of delay just really frustrates you. anyway, i did eventually make it home for a much needed and well enjoyed shower and good night's rest in my own bed.

overall, the experience was unreal. the differences in the culture were enough to break down some of my preconceived notions about how everybody else in the world lives. i saw the kids who were brought there because the Lord called their parents to a place they had never seen nor heard of, and how they were living life in a strange place. i learned new definitions of "hot and sweaty" that just don't apply here at home. i was extremely thankful that lauren was there with me all week - she was my little piece of comfort and home. i'm really thankful for the opportunity, but i'm grateful to be home. i think i've more thankful for all of the things i have and the things that i take for granted, like drinkable water from the faucet and central a/c and (relatively) affordable gas. by the way, they pay for a liter what we pay for a gallon, so stop whining. all in all, i had a great time in turkey.

sorry it took me so long to update. i've got another update to do later about work-stuff, so stay tuned.

there's an update a-comin'

i can just feel it...

Turkey!

Yes, folks, the day is here. I'm leaving for Turkey! I'm pretty excited, but I also don't know what to expect, so I'm a little nervous as well. It seems like there have been 100 people giving me advice and I can't remember any of it now (other than to take pictures). Speaking of, I'll post a few when I return.

Have fun, kids - see you on the 23rd.

links to watch

We leave for Turkey this Friday. Of course, this link is a real-time-ish 10-day forecast, so daily check-ins will ensue until our take-off on Friday. Yes, I went for a record number of hyphens in that last sentence.


Izmir, Turkey 10-day forecast

And since we stop in Munich (on Friday)
Munich, Germany 10-day forecast

too bad i just bought an alarm clock

because this adds a whole new level to helping you get out of bed.
my only fear is that it might not stay in the room long enough to wake me up. I'm sure an engineering student thought of that.

Clocky!



**edit**
disambiguated title, due to the fact that i did NOT purchase this alarm clock. however, i would have, had i not just purchased this baby.

everything is going to be alright

thanks to my therapy buddy.

E.T. has been found!

Thanks to Google's new Street View feature in Google Maps, E.T. has been located!

check it out

countdowns

i leave for Turkey in 17 days, and i'm starting to get excited. this will be a lot of first for me - my first mission trip, my first plane ride, my first visit to another country, and my first experience living w/jon-thom for a week. i'm not sure which one will be the hardest. i've started to pick up some supplies, and i'm thinking about which bible-hero story i'll tell the kids when it's my turn to teach. i'm also looking forward to walking around in ephesus while we're there. this is going to be lots of fun.

i get married in 138 days, and i'm pretty excited about that! of course, anybody who knows me knows that will be a handful of firsts as well, including my first trip to disney!! i think i'm going to enjoy living w/my wife a lot more than i'll enjoy sharing a hotel in turkey w/jon (even though the one in turkey is a 4-star).

i get chick fil a for breakfast in about .1 days, and i'm extremely excited about that.

FINALLY PROVEN!! The Terrance Steadman theory

OK, so it's no great mystery, but I've argued with more than one of my friends that there have in fact been TWO SEPARATE ACTORS to play the role of Terrance Steadman on Prison Break. Initially, the role was played by John Billingsley for three episodes in the '06 season. His face was almost never seen, which is what makes this hard to prove without evidence exhibit b: Jeff Perry, who played 4 episodes spanning '06 and '07. Unfortunately, IMDB doesn't have a picture of Perry, so I had to go dig up my own. Hopefully we can all put this behind us and recognize how right I am.

news flash!

i got my passport!!

pidgin

for those of you who are still using some ridiculously stupid IM client for windows, you are hearby ordered to download and install pidgin. then, in a week or so, rinse and repeat when the FINAL 2.0 comes out.

that's an order, soldier.

http://pidgin.im/

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actually, i take that back - you're recommended to download now. you're only ordered to download the final release. that is all.