It's the Most Wonderful Time of The Year

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope everyone out there in internet land is having a wonderful Christmas, I sure plan to. I am writing this from St. Louis in my parent's house. Tomorrow we will travel up to Eureka, IL to spend the day with my Grandma and my Mom's family. Then on Tuesday it is out to Pennsylvania to get together with all of my immediate family. We will drive down to Williamsburg, Virginia to spend the rest of the holidays.

This will be my first chance to see my new niece Norah. I will get more pictures of her when I am out east.
















And here is a message from Linus:

Adorable

Maybe this little game can give you a little winter cheer. It seems to get harder the higher you go, and the doves are very important. I got 21450 after about 10 tries.

Crazy Blogging Software

Blogger offered me to change over to their new system, and somehow it got set to moderating comments. I just realized this and fixed it. Now if you posted a comment in the last week it is now showing.

You Have The Poor With You Always

On an investment forum I read a thread a started about poverty in the world. One person posted a link to this story. It is very lengthy, and I have not finished all of it, but it was an interesting look at volunteer aid work in Tanzania. One of the problems that does not have an easy solution is that when lots of clothes are given to a poor country, then their textiles industry cannot compete, and close up shop. The same problem with giving food, then the local farmers cannot compete with the almost free food, and cannot sell their goods.

This paragraph was also interesting:
"My suggestion to people who want to help Africa is to save $1 a day and 7 years later go to Africa and spend two weeks there. It is a worth vacation and much better for the world in my opinion. Perhaps save the $1 into a economic development fund to be used by African businesses to grow."

On most of my mission trips to poorer countries, I have been doing things for children or the deaf. I do not have much first hand experience with his story of trying to help the general population improve their living standards. To achieve this end, sustainable development must be set up. How that is to be done? I wish I knew.

Political Commentary Circus

I think this Family Circus speaks to some political climate today. Oops, that is not a real family circus? My mistake.

I do agree with the quote here though, do not become the thing you fight.

Killer Toys from Beyond the Grave

This article is about the toys from yesteryear that would not make it to market today. I mean, who can't appreciate a toy that impales your skull, or irradiates you? Kids today have it so easy.

Big Mac Daddy

Well I have now ordered my first Apple computer. I will be receiving a MacBook on Thursday from Amazon. I wanted a new laptop since my old one is on its last legs, and I can't really take it anywhere (it also weighs 8.3 lbs). So I might from time to time post on how the new Mac is working out.

I also have to say that the apple commercials shouldn't be converting anyone to apples. I just don't think that they are a very good argument about why Apple is better then Microsoft. They also reinforce the mistaken notion that PC = Windows. PC stands for personal computer, which technically apple computers are too. In fact Apple made the term popular with the Apple II back in the 1970's. The term has been modified to mean IBM PC compatible, as in running on the Intel x86 architecture, which now that the Macs are on Intel they are also IBM PC compatible. I guess they just can't have the Bill Gates guy say "And I am a Windows Box."

We will see how much my opinion of Macs change, but I have this impression from using them and watching others use them that Macs are real easy if you are doing what Apple wants you to do, but just as complex and nitpicking if you want to do anything off the beaten path.

For unto us a child is born

I got a call this morning at just past one AM from my mother to inform me that I have another niece. Nora Ann Miller came into the world on 12/10/2006 at 3:22 AM. She was 8 lbs. 4 oz, and 20 in. and healthy.

I am excited to see her in a few weeks when I travel out for the family Christmas.

Jokesy Rhymey

For a long time Southwest Airlines has been a lot more uptight then their old happy-go-lucky days in the past. I vaguely remember joking stewardesses and pilots in way back past times, but for a long time they had discarded this persona. They became the cheap and efficient, but not too different airline. Lately however this has been changing, and I couldn't really put my finger on it until my flight on Saturday morning.

As we were coming in to land the pilot came on the intercom and talked a little then broke out into song. He completed three verses of "There's No Business Like Show Business" with the lyrics changed to be about Southwest. It was an impressive feat while we were about 500 feet above the ground coming in to land. This is not the Southwest of the last few years, but a kick back to the old Southwest. I wonder if there is a command from on high in the company to rekindle this persona. Perhaps as the TSA becomes more neurotic and unfriendly Southwest is trying to distinguish themselves form the other airlines again so as to imprint the customers with good memories of their trips with Southwest. I guess we will see how this works for them.

Heroic Attempt

I don't know how widely this story has circulated outside the western states. This man James Kim was an editor for Cnet in San Francisco. He attempted after nine days stuck in the mountains to walk out to save his family.

This story hits close to home because a number of years ago the men in my family spent three days rafting the Rogue River which was just a half mile down at the end of the creek where they found his body. That is pretty sparse country, very wild. To be stranded out there in the winter when there are no other humans for many miles would be disheartening.

I hear from home and read in the news of the mighty snow storms back in the Midwest which knocked out power to more then half a million people and claimed at least eight lives in St. Louis alone. My parents were without power until Monday morning. I posted below about the fires in the LA area. Nature keeps reminding us of her power, and that we are still in the hands of God.

The Four Seasons of Southern California

I have just returned from my trip to Southern California. It was a good trip, I stayed at the Aberle's house in Moorpark. They hosted a church potluck on Saturday night with many people in attendance.

The wind was pretty amazing coming off the mountains to the north east. In the morning there was a lot of smoke in the air, and the winds continued to gust. Here is a news story on the fires. It was pretty impressive, and stopped our first attempts to get to church. We encountered a blocked off road with good reason, there was so much smoke (the fire was bordering several roads we tried) that it would be almost impossible to drive through. The water carrying helicopters were pretty impressive, even more so that they were flying so heavy laden in the very high winds. We finally had to travel north and around to get out of the area. This greatly increased our time to church and we were about an hour late.

Now I just have to experience the other seasons of Southern California: mudslides, earthquakes, and riots.

Great moments in golf ball launching

Yes, they do shoot this golf ball into many objects. I started playing golf after my senior year in High School. I don't play nearly as often as I would like, but I still really enjoy getting out on the course and putting the ball into the hole. It is a brilliant game.

Comics Hijinks

This guy makes me laugh out loud as I read his posts dissecting the daily comics. I actually enjoy some of the comics, but so many are bland, or are soap operas that I don't have the patients for. However, these daily examinations of such comics are too much for me to handle.

The comics in the papers seem to be dying out, in part because of the way papers handle voting. When cutting space for more "important" things (like Kid Rock and Pamela Anderson divorcing) they have people vote for their favorites and least favorites. This leaves a few good comics that everyone likes, and all the bland ones that people have no real reaction to. The ones that in some way excite a negative emotion from some people get cut, while the ones that excite no emotion are left. Thus Garfield is still running.

Shopping Cart Returns

I have noticed at several stores here in California a disturbing lack of shopping cart return slots in the parking lots of the stores. The other day this came to my attention at the Fry's Electronics (Wild West themed). Just tonight I was at Safeway and had the same problem, and even Costco seems to have fewer then needed. They have a few cart return places, but they are small and not well placed. Back in the Midwest I didn't have these problems. It is a real pain to cross back over the traffic lanes in front of the store with an empty cart, and I am loathe to do this. I also am annoyed by carts just left in parking spaces, or pushed up into the planters. So I end up crossing a row of spaces and pushing the cart most of the way back to the store to the tiny return. I just don't understand why they are so lacking on the service, where elsewhere in the country this is not a problem. And according to Wikipedia (but sadly not referenced): "20,000 children are injured each year in shopping carts." I imagine this comes from cart jousting, or maybe just bad wheels causing the cart to overturn.

Tonight I cooked up some spaghetti with sauteed mushrooms, hamburger, and some olive and caper sauce. That should serve me for a few meals this week, mmmmmm.

Will it Blend?

I am cracking up watching this.

Hint: yes, it will blend, whatever it is.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner with Nathan and Kathy and a few of their neighbors. Still just a quiet week here.

I finished And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie this week, and didn't figure out the killer by the end. She is pretty tricky, but there were a few details at the end that I think were a little bit of a cheat.

I am really enjoying John Adams by David McCullough and continue to be surprised by how much I didn't know about him.

Non-Post

Quiet week.

I didn't get a Wii yet. I was 26 in line at a Toys R Us that only sold 24. Hopefully more will hit the stores soon.

The Shark Tank

Last night my Dad led a bible study examining the metaphor of the church being the bride of Christ in terms of Jewish marriage practices of the time. Most of the information he presented was totally new to me, and really gave a better reference for many comments Christ makes in this area.

This morning my parents found out that their flight was canceled, but found out that a new flight was out at 4pm, so we had the morning to do a few more things. We hit San Francisco with Nathan, Kathy, and Arthur. The Palace of Fine Arts is always a good little spot to enjoy the outdoors. We talked and looked out over the bay and at the Golden Gate.

This evening Nathan invited me along to the HP Pavilion (The Shark Tank) down in San Jose to watch the Sharks play the Philadelphia Flyers. It was a pretty lopsided game finishing up for the Sharks 6-1. It was my first time to attend a sports game in a box seat. We were invited to the game by a friend of Nathan and Kathy's that works for a company that does a sort of timeshare with sports box seats.

Hopefully, on Sunday I will be able to acquire a Nintendo Wii as it is launched today. I think I will be able to pick one up at the local Target, but have some backup stores in mind if they sell out.

The Parent Trap

A little excitement this week. My parents just flew in this evening from Vegas to spend the end of the week here in San Francisco. I have opened up my apartment to them, and they are enjoying my air mattress in the other room. Just a reminder that I can house guests :) They were in Vegas for the Ophthalmology conference, and decided to visit the family out here. I guess they will spend time with Kathy and Arthur while Nathan and I work the next two days.

I hope to pick up a Nintendo Wii on Sunday (hopefully without too much difficulty). Getting a PS3 before Christmas seems like a lost cause. Good thing I was never planning on trying.

I stuck my corn starch liquid in the fridge for a few days, and it became a solid that would not revert to the previous state. Totally uselss. Now I guess I will have to make some more.

Down to Shakeytown

On Saturday I left rainy San Francisco for sunny LA (weekend pictures here). Amy Jackson and Lisa Zaagman (visiting from Grand Rapids, MI) picked me up at the Burbank airport and we were off to Santa Monica. In the car Lisa and I made PB&J sandwiches (about 17). Note to self: do not attempt making many sandwiches in a car again. At Santa Monica we met a group from Pepperdine, including Braden Mogler, who had over 300 sandwiches and also drinks and other foodstuffs. We handed out all of this and clothes to the homeless there.

I walked around with two of the students to some of the parks. At the first park down overlooking the ocean a man walked up, asked and indicated that he wondered if he should take off his shirt. At first we were a little confused, but then got the idea that he was offering to give us his shirt for us to give away. He took it off right there and put on a new one he had just bought before he met us. That is an action I will remember for a long time. Literally giving away the shirt off of his back. The entire operation was very good with almost everyone interested in the food and drink. I think only one or two people were not interested out of the probably 40 sandwiches I handed out. We also saw a group of people camping out waiting for the PlayStation 3. I guess I don't know who has $600 to spend on entertainment, but also a week to waste sitting on a lawn chair in front of Circuit City.

That evening there was a young group bible study down in Hermosa at Justin and Robin's. Daniel Luthi led the study on prayer. We all had dinner beforehand and a singing afterwards. It gave me many thoughts to ponder about prayer.

Sunday after church most of the young group headed out to Ingrid Steiner's to help rebuild a giant K'nex roller coaster and enjoy games and dinner. All in all quite the weekend.

In other news: Joe Lieberman of Connecticut and his opponent weirdness: 2000 Lieberman race results, 2006 Lieberman race results. Notice both times his closest opponent got 448,077 (A republican in 2000, a democrat in 2006).

I thought this was so cool I went and made the fluid myself just to check it out. The stuff is a liquid, until it gets disturbed in a serious way, then it solidifies. I can punch it and tap it. If I slowly push into it then it acts almost as thin as water. I tried increasing the corn starch and it is almost like playdough unless I move really slowly, but if I pick up a piece it soon liquefies and will drain out of my hand. I can almost roll a ball out of it. But it is coolest when it the mixture is just enough to make it possible to slap it without coming away with more then a little liquid sheen on the hands, which quickly drys to corn starch powder. Now all I need is a kiddy pool and several dozen boxes.

Global Warming?!

I find this Article and accompanying cited references interesting to say the least.

So the evidence points to some form of global warming. We just don't know if this is unnatural or how severe a problem this is. If it is true that back in the 1200's the world was maybe 1C hotter, then that bodes wells for us. It means that we are not close to some "greenhouse cliff" that will cascade into serious disaster and we still have time to figure out what is going on.

Whatever the reality, clean air is still good, and we are gonna run out of oil at some point.

The Karma Ghost

I stumbled upon a little movie that I found interesting. If there really were karma ghosts the world would be a little different.

This is just trippy.

Electioneering

Yup, today is November 7, 2009. If you are like %40 of the people in California you have already voted absentee. When I got my California drivers license they had an option to register to vote, and an option to be a permanent absentee voter. So I got my ballot in the mail and sat down last night (procrastinating to the last minute) and checked out the candidates and ballot measures and voted. I actually liked having as much time as I wanted right there to decide on the ballot measures, much better then having to remember in the booth.

Happy voting day!

Only in India

OK, there was some skepticism about the previous post and photos. I don't know if I agree that there was photoshop involved in those, but this is a video, so no photoshop.

For those interested in photoshop pictures, worth1000 has some really cool photoshop contests.

Blogging Theft

I stole this link from my sister-in-law's blog, I cannot decide which picture is the most outrageous.

Pie Chart Jokes

More Bad Ideas.

I just cannot fathom why anyone thinks these poor voting machines are a good idea.

Electronic voting either needs to have a paper trail, or to NOT happen at all.

This will continue to be a source of major problems until one of the two solutions above happens.

We can only hope.

"Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!"

Over the weekend the Aberles took me to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California. I found it very enlighting, seeing as how his second term as president started the year I was born. I didn't really know that much about the Reagan Administration before going, somehow this history was lacking from my schooling. The big item of interest there is the Air Force One that has been retired, complete with the Nuclear Football. I have now been to two Presential Libraries. Abraham Lincoln's in Illinois is also quite impressive.

I will not link to the Library website as I have found it one of the most annoying sites to navigate (it opens a new window for every link).

The Bookstore

Amazon.com is great and all, but I just can't get the same experience there that I get in a real bookstore. Today I wandered around at a Barnes and Noble and browsed the books. I really enjoy just wandering around the bookstore and seeing what is on the shelves. Picking up a book and browsing through it is great. I also like to own books, Libraries are great, but something about having a book on your bookshelf is better. I tend to have books on my shelf that I want to get around to reading. They languish there with a bookmark at page fifty or so, and then one week I will pick them up and finish them. I guess I just have to be in the right mood the read a book on a paticular topic. The books on my bookshelf range from Sci-Fi, to Historical looks at human culture, to Comic books, to Computer Science books, to Language Instruction, to Horror, to Mangna, to Classic Liturature.

One of my hobbies is to collect bookmarks made out of unusual materials. My favorite bookmark is a leather one from the gift shop at the Sumpreme Court building. But hardbacks and softcover books have different bookmark needs. I wouldn't use my big Supreme Court bookmark on a softcover, it just wouldn't work as well. I have a pagemarker from Israel that is great for smaller books.

I purchased two books that I plan on reading. I escaped my usual Science Fiction choice (partly because I am listenting to some Science Fiction books from my audible.com account). I hope to work my way through The Tenth Man by Graham Greene and And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie. I just realized that I choose two books that deal with a group of ten people, hmm.

Thursday is Laundry day

Yup, best day of the week to do laundry.

Don't click here or here unless you are a really big Star Trek geek.


Tick tock tick tock tick tick.
- Neal Stephenson

And more very short story goodness can be found here.

This week in California

I finally got around to getting the pictures off my camera, and then found out that matthew.schrenk.org is down, so no pictures yet.

Not too much happening, visited Altadena last weekend, and going this weekend.

My Nephew and Father have their birthdays on Friday. Arthur's birthday party is this weekend, so I am going to miss it :(

I have ridden my bike every day to work this week. Overall a quiet week in Lake Wobeg.. I mean Redwood City.

I leave you with Ernest Hemingway's short: "For sale: baby shoes, never worn."

Wii Experience

Ok, less then a month left to the release of the Wii. They posted these videos on us.wii.com. I am just so excited by the release of the Nintendo Wii.

I know you want your grandparents playing this, just look at this.

Habeas Corpus, R.I.P. (1215 - 2006)

I have to agree that this is really bad.

Excerpt from:

The Constitution of the United States

Article I Section9.2. The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in cases of rebellion or invasion the public safety may require it.


Ok now consider the following excerpt from the Military and Commisions act:

section 7 "(e)(1) No court, justice, or judge shall have jurisdiction to
hear or consider an application for a writ of habeas corpus filed by or on behalf of an alien detained by the United States who has been determined by the United States to have been properly detained as an enemy combatant or is awaiting such determination."


I would have to say that these two documents are in contridiction.

(for information on important social and political documents I recommend www.constitution.org espically the founding documents page)


I also don't think that many of these people held are getting any help from these:

Article the sixth [Amendment IV]

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

Article the seventh [Amendment V]

No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.

Article the eighth [Amendment VI]

In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have

the Assistance of Counsel for his defence.

The Robot

The kid in the orange shirt has all the moves. Impressive.

300,000,000

"On or around October 17th, according to the Census Bureau's population clock, the number of people in the country will hit 300m, up from 200m in 1967."

Today was the day that the USA probably reached 300 Million people. As the economist points out a growing population is unsual among the developed countries of the world.

Later in the article is an interesting statistic: "At the Woodlands, a 28,000-acre (11,300 hectares) planned community north of Houston, you can buy a three-bedroom family home on a quiet wooded street for $130,000. By comparison, the median house price in San Francisco is over $700,000."

Location, Location, Location. What a difference in price.

Leek Spin

Can you stop watching this?

The interweb never ceases to amuse.

Things are going ok here in Redwood City. Not much new.

Paraskevidekatriaphobia

Yup, today is 10/13/2006.

1 + 1 + 3 + 2 + 6 = 13

Paraskevidekatriaphobia is the fear of Friday the 13th. I hope you all had a good, because we all know that there is no such thing as luck, well at least 91% of us do according to gallop.

Oh, the humanity!

I think that the last line here made my day. War truly is a gruesome thing. Don't try this at home kids.

One soldier told him later: "Sir, three years ago before I joined the army, I never thought I'd say 'That damn marijuana'."

Things that have come to my attention

I thought I had a bad cold, then I saw what was happening to my brother.

The Economist taught me that the f-word is fascism.

At dinner I luckily remembered reading on the NyQuil label not to have alcohol while on the medication.

Habeus Corpus has been suspended elminated, just for funzies.

Monday, October 9th, was Leif Erikson Day.

Board Game Geek continues to be the best board game website.

I just can't support IceWeasel, the Debian arguments against using FireFox just don't resonate with me.

Jupiter's little white spot is now red.

That is all.

I've Never Seen Him Fall

This cold is getting the better of me. I just got back to Redwood City and am feeling terrible. This is one of my worst colds ever. I have called in the reinforcements in the form of NyQuil (well actually the generic equivlent because it costs half as much). So hopefully this will keep me tonight till I take the DayQuil type liquid tomorrow.

I really will get some pictures up sometime (there are not as many as I had hoped to take, but I was too busy to get lots of pictures).

My poor sinuses were brutalized by the airplane.

Ticket to ride

My weekend trip has been extensive. Redwood City to SFO to STL to Creve Coeur to Urbana/Champaign to Taylor to Creve Coeur. Tomorrow I am flying back out of STL to SFO then heading back to my apartment in Redwood City.

It has been a wonderful time. My sister, Rachel, and niece, Madeline, were in St. Louis when I got in and I had not seen them since I moved out to California. Madeline is getting so big, and has quite a lot of hair. She is very cute and bonded well with her cousin, Arthur.

I had dinner with the family at a Japanese Restaurant named Oishi which means delicious. If you have never had sushi, I really recommend trying it. The first roll you should probably try is a California roll which has crab, avacado, cucumber, rice, and seaweed.

Later that night, I spent some time with the couple whos wedding I was in this past summer. We had a good chat. I really miss my midwest friends. They are both teaching now, and I am amazed by everyone getting married and having real jobs. Life sure moves fast sometimes.

Every year for the last 29 years the Manger family in Champaign has a weiner roast and hayrack ride. I have not missed one in 22 years. They invite back many people who lived in the area over the years. The event got too big for the U of I students and everyone else to come on the same night, so now the students come on Friday and everyone else on Saturday. I made it to both even though I am no longer a student. Friday was wonderful, we had about one rack of students and the moon was amazing. It was one of the brightest nights I have ever seen, the stars were hardly visible because of the full moon. We had a lot of good fellowship and we sang a number of songs on the hayrack ride. As I talked to others I found out that most of the students that I know really well will be graduating this year, and as I said above, Life sure moves fast sometimes.

The weekend was wonderful, and I was able to pack in a lot of good times. I have some pictures, but won't be able to post them till I get back to California. I also have a cold that I think I got from Arthur, for a little guy he sure has strong germs.

Pink for October

As I am sure you have noticed my page is pink this month. I will try to improve the look when I have the time, but right now you will have to deal with the assault on the senses that is the background. I am doing this because October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. I got the idea from this guy with his pinkforoctober.org site. This will also force me to actually work on the template for my blog and keep it up to date. Although I do like the minimal black look, I will probably go back to something more like that in the future.

The Machine

I just couldn't not post this.

Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency

I am joining a team working to compete in the upcoming DARPA Urban Challenge. This looks to be quite a bit of work, but also lots of fun. The guys running the team competed in the previous Grand Challenge, and had a car that was impressive. I will see how this goes.

Sometimes I do miss my goatee and shaved head. I guess I will just have to get by. I thought of this because I tried a barber who butchered my hair the other week. I guess I am going back to the hair cuttery place next time.

I hit the golf course the other week, and sometimes I feel like Sherman here, without the last panel. I have only played once this year, and it was showing. After just 9 holes though, I did get par on the last one.

The Babysat

On Saturday evening I cared for my nephew, Arthur, by myself for the first time. Nathan and Kathy were at a birthday party for a friend, and I got to watch the little guy. I was a little apprehensive, but it went well. I was able to play with him for a while until he got tired, then fed him a bottle to get him to sleep. Whew, no problems. He is such a cutie.

Now Nathan and Kathy are gone to Europe for a few weeks, so I have eight days of work by myself. I think it will go well, but having Nathan around to answer my questions is really helpful. He has helped me a great deal in solving problems I encounter programming.

The WCA

I went to high school at Westminster Christian Academy in Ladue, MO. I was just browsing around facebook and came accross these two links.

I am very startled by this. My heart goes out to that community that I was part of for many years.

Please pray for this boy.

You can't alwasy have what you want.

Ahh, the J. Peterman catalogue. Or as they call it "The Owners Manual". Where else can you get a great story with your overpriced clothing. At some point I am going to buy the duster that started off the company. The last chance department has some things that are actually reasonable in price.

Disappointing

I am troubled by this news. If these are the students of today, then the country will have many problems in the future. Now I guess I understand why every college class I attended spent some of the first lecture and part of the syllabus on the cheating policy, and the possible dire consequences. Perhaps I was just unaware of some of what was going on, but I didn't encounter lots of this cheating.

I think the closest I came to this sort of behavior would have been in the computer labs programming. I would sometimes work side by side with other students in my classes, and we would help each other out when stuck on a problem. We would sometimes look at each others approaches to problems, which under a certain reading of the syllabus might be considered cheating. I think that the people I worked with followed the spirit of the law and refrained from cheating. We were trying to learn the material, not just get the work done. I am a little surprised that those cheating on their work like this are passing their exams. I guess it is a good thing that exams make up such a large part of the grade for most classes, because it is more difficult to cheat in such a venue.

Avast, me hearties!

And here I almost forgot that today is an international holiday! Today, September 19, is Talk Like A Pirate Day.

Oh, did you hear about the new pirate movie? It is rated Arrrr.

If you were unaware of this holiday, feel free to get in some pirate talk this evening.

Bad DRM, bad.

It looks like the new Microsoft Zune player will not play Microsoft's own PlaysForSure DRM( Digital Rights Management) music or video. Thanks to the DMCA it is also illigeal to strip off the DRM and play your music on a unsupported device, so your purchased digital music collection will probably soon be useless. I was excited about iTunes until I found out that once you purchase music you cannot download it later if you loose your copy. I don't understand why they don't do what Audible does and keep track of your purchases so you can get any book you have ever bought. Audible does have some DRM, but it isn't too obtrusive, and if need be later I can burn my books to a CD to listen to on any CD player.

I really enjoy lisening to audio books, this weekend I started Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis and I will report back when I am finished with it.

This last Saturday at the Altadena church we had a "Vision Day" to look at where the church was and where it should be heading. I found the small church presentation was enlightning, and the entire day was a good process for the church. Hopefully the things that come out of it will edify us and glorify God.

On Saturday evening some of the young group took some of the Sunday school to the LA county fair. I think it was the biggest fair I have ever been to (considering before that I had only been to the Creve Coeur city fair in MO). We had a lot of fun, and I was really impressed with a group of acrobats. The amount of their lives they must dedicate to acheving some of those feats must be astounding.

November 17

Wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii

I am excited. Nintendo might just pull off something really fun.

Americans, take note.

This says it all.

BrettspielWelt

Awhile ago I posted about the XBox 360 getting some german board games. When reading about that someone directed me to BrettspielWelt and I was interested, but didn't get around to trying it out. Last night I had the oppritunity to play with my cousin in Chicago, and we played Carcassonne on this system. The German is a little tough to get past, but it is possible to set most of the language in their client to english through a properties file. With some form of internet voice chat this was really fun. I don't think that it will be too difficult to get several people togather online to play some games. The client interface is a little clunky, but once we were in the game it worked great. I am really excited to try out some of their other games. Oh, and did I mention that it is free?

If anyone is interested I am usually on AIM after 6:30PM Pacific (8:30PM Central) with the name matthewschrenk, and I should be able to help others set up the client.

I can dream can't I?

I got information in an email that if you fly to Hawaii between September 13 and December 10, 2006 on ATA (through Southwest) you earn double rewards (meaning 8 points, or half of a free round trip ticket). I looked at the flights out of Oakland and each way is only $147. Mmmmmmm, I dream of a trip to Maui.

Woozy

Spinning, oh the spinning. Today I woke up a little dizzy. Man that does not feel good. I was also a little nauseated all day with a slight headache. Hopefully tomorrow will be better, cause I don't like this.

Apple today announced some changes to their iPod product line. The new shuffle is a cute little clip, but I was interested in the new 80GB video iPod. I got a white one.

Election season is coming up, and we have some really big messes to look forward to. Maryland's primary election had some problems today with their new electronic voting machines. While most of the article is about user error (they forgort to bring the cards that had the election information on them needed to run the machines), there is some about the machines themselves (at least one person had to unselect pre-selected votes on their ballot). I think that electronic voting machines could possibly be OK, but there are so many things that can go wrong. At the very least when you cast your vote the machine should print out a paper record that you can look at to confirm that your vote was right. These papers should be kept safe in case there is any question of vote tampering. There needs to be a physical record of the votes, because it would be too easy to tamper with a digital only record. I just don't get what is wrong with having paper ballots?

Wow, people are crazy. I think that Steve Irwin was very knowledgeable about the dangers that he faced, and considering only seventeen people have died worldwide from stingrays ever, I think they can be considered not very dangerous. It was less likely then being hit by lighting. He was a unique man who died in a very rare way.

Going to bed now for some well needed beauty sleep.

Five years out.

I didn't even realize that today was 9-11 until the day was half over. Wow, I almost can't believe that it was five years ago when I sat there and watched the second plane hit the world trade center. It was a moment my generation will remember where they were when it they first heard about it. Since then I have been to NYC to see where the towers stood, and I think it is good that they are going building something new there.

Hmm, long time between posts. Last week was a nice short four day week at work. Over the weekend I ran some errends that had been neglected for the three weekends I was out of town. Finally changed my oil, which I had been meaning to do for about a month.

If you are even in a Bose store I recommend you check out their demonstration room. I was absolutly amazed by it. It has been quite awile till I saw some technology that really surprised me.

Today I started learning the Ruby programming language, I am pretty excited about it after just a little introduction.

I am firming up the plans for my baptism, and it looks like it will be one of the two last weekend of January, I will keep you updated as to when it will be. As for where, I will be babtised in St. Louis church.

Once upon a time in Los Angeles

Wow. I am still a little sore and sunburned from my labor day trip down in LA. I did manage to get quite a few pictures which can be found here. Most of the Altadena YG were down in San Diego for ACYF over the weekend. There were two sisters from Minnesota, and two brothers from Phoenix and Prescott, AZ in attendence. On Friday evening we had some struggles with pre-holiday weekend airports, ick. Things turned around Saturday with a busy day.

We started it off with some beach volleyball at Hermosa Beach in the morning. For lunch we hit Venice Beach and wandered around seeing the sights. We visited the UCLA campus town for cookie ice cream sandwitches and some bubble tea. Then we helped Braden Mogler pick up a free leather couch in Santa Monica and hauled it out to Pepperdine in Malibu. Braden's GPS steered us wrong when we tried a scenic route out of Malibu only to find a gated off dirt road at the top of a mountain. Braden's taurus had a slight case of smoking brakes on the way down. In the future shifing into first will be considered earlier. After a tour of Pepperdine it was back to BJ's Restaurant & Brewhouse for some pizza dinner. We visited the UCLA quad for singing. A few in our party decided that they wanted to slide down a big hill there in campus seeing as how it was wet from watering. Whew, I think everyone was tired after that day.

After church on Sunday we were going to go for a hike, but the heat was pretty extreme, so we instead spent the day enjoying fellowship and games back at the Klotzle's.

Labor Day was spent again at Hermosa Beach with some of the group enjoying rollerblading, the local art festival, and some nice waves. Lunch at Scotty's on the beach was the last thing I did before having to clean up and hit Burbank Airport for my 6:00 flight home (which all of my expectations was right on time, and actually got in early to San Jose).

I hope everyone else had as good a Labor Day weekend as I did.

Titles? We don't need no stinking titles!

It has been a quiet week in Redwood City. I am looking forward to a long weekend down in southern California over the upcoming Labor Day weekend. For those of you not in LA that weekend, you are sure missing out.

Today I instituted a new policy, I will only lock my door from the outside with my keys. I was a little upset to find out when I got to work that I had forgotten my keys, wallet, and phone in my now locked apartment. I had to stop by at lunch to have the apartment manager unlock my door.

It looks like on thursday my Sumo Omni Tangerine will arrive. If I like it I will probably buy a few more to serve as my living room furniture. I will just have to decide what colors to get.

I also noticed the other day that commenting on my blog was restricted to only registered users, I have corrected this.

I also found out over the weekend that there is a diet drink that I really like, I just think that it has been a long time coming.

As I said, quiet week. All work and no play makes Matt a dull boy.

In what color do Elephants Dream?

I just watched Elephants Dream and was very impressed. I think that this movie is cool for many reasons, one being that it was made using only open source tools, notably Blender. The other cool thing is that they offer it in HD, which comes out at 815MB for a movie just shy of 11 minutes. If you don't want to DL that much they have versions ranging down to 99MB, but the HD one is stunning to see if your monitor can display that size (which is 1920X1080). My monitor can only display up to 1600x1200 so it is not the HD aspect ratio.

I found that VideoLan was a good media player to watch it with. In fact I VideoLan is the best media player I have ever used and I think you should try it out.

I really wish I would take the time to learn how to use some of these tools like Blender, but I just never seem to get around to even learning the basics.

If you watch it, please throw out your theory of what it is about, I am a little unsure of what is going on.

You came and you gave without taking.

I almost cannot utter the awsomeness of this. Are you ready for it? Really ready? It looks like Microsoft will be offering European board games over their new live service. I was not that interested in this device before, it had some appeal, but this news might just push it over the top. If I could play Settlers of Catan or Carcassonne with my friends around the country, I just might have to get one of these. When this comes down the pike, look for it.

We don't need no education. A small parable.

I just relized that for the first time in 17 years I am not going to be starting school this fall. It is a little sad, but then life moves on. Reading about every one elses back to school fun does make me miss it more.

Justin Moser this Sunday talked about this house in his neighborhood that was the biggest house around. It started construction, but was not finished. Whomever had started buidling it did not have the funds or something to finish it. It sat unfinished for several years. Then someone else bought it and was able to finish it. He compared this to some spiritual lives, and that the building can be interrupted, but still built on later. One part of the sermon really stuck with me, and I have been crafting this little illustration to let you into how my mind works.

You take some time off to relax and catch up with some old friends. Your friend invites you to stay with him for a few weeks in his new place down by the beach. His new house is beautiful. It has all the modern conveniences and is the lap of luxory. You head out and are enjoying the trip, catching up on old times. However you notice something strange, on the weekend your friend heads off and returns the next day. The next weekend he says he is going away again. Upon inquiring where he is off to you find out that he also has a place in the mountains. Thinking that this would be a nice change of scenery you ask to come along, and he is more then happy for you to come. When the two of you reach the house in the mountains you are startled because it is shell of a house. It was never finished and the weather is wearing it away. When you ask why he spends any time at this wreck your friend replies indignantly that this is his main residence and the other house is just another place. He claims his heart is up here in the mountains, but you question this based on where he spends his time and money to make it nice.

This friend's spiritual life only gets worked on when he gets around to it on the weekends, his real treasures, effort, and time are spent elsewhere. We need to give Christ the best of our time and build our house to him up, so that it is full of the things that we cherish.

Mi Casa

I finally got around to taking some pictures of my new apartment. I had kept it pretty clean, but I finally got around to scrubbing it top to bottom (pretty much) last night. I have to say that a cordless vaccuum is the way to go.

Yea, I got nothing else to say.

Snaggletooth.

Main Entry: snag·gle·tooth
Pronunciation: 'sna-g&l-"tüth
Function: noun
Etymology: English dialect snaggle irregularly shaped tooth + English tooth
: an irregular, broken, or projecting tooth

I did not even guess that it was a word. Today I had a snaggletooth(blurry picture, I was in a hurry) for a few hours. As I was finishing up my breakfeast I felt my top, right, front tooth was missing. This annoyed, but did not suprise me. I broke this tooth about 10 years ago when I went over the handlebars of my bike and face planted into the pavement. If I haden't been wearing a helmet it could have been much worse, as it was I just broke a tooth. I made a dentist appointment and had it fixed up in no time. The dentist recommended that I have this temporary filling replace with a porcelin veneer in the next few months, so I just need to get around to that.

I am gonna head down south this weekend, so I guess I will see what the fuss is about with all the new security measures. No carryons? I hope they speed up the offloading of baggage, because I am used to not checking anything.

Camping and blogging.

This weekend I went camping with my local family, and some of their friends. We were car camping near the beach and had a good time. I will admit that in the future I will know how to pack better, for example camping near the beach gets cold at night. We also got in a hike to the epicenter of the 7.1 magnitude earthquake that happened on October 17, 1989. I forgot my camera for the trip, but hopefully I can post some of the pictures taken.

I also just learned that the president of Iran has started his own blog. I find this both humorous and interesting. You can find it at http://www.ahmadinejad.ir/ and make sure to click on the flag at the top right that corresponds to your language (the little half USA flag is english). I haven't read his whole first post, but it seems to be an autobiography (I am saving my autobiography for a six figure book deal, or not). Be sure to vote on his poll.

Fresh Air

I am now riding my new bike to and from work. So far I have only done it twice, but I really like the fresh air and exercise. It is a refreshing change from sitting at my desk all day. I think I am only 2.5 miles or so from work, so riding my bike dosen't even double my time to work. Also I am riding perpendicular to most of the traffice going up and down the peninsula so I feel very safe.

The last few burgers I have cooked on my George Foreman Grill have been these 99% fat free turkey meat. I decided last night that they just don't have much taste and am going back to the 93% fat free real hamburger meat.

I am going camping with my local family this weekend and am looking forward to cooking out. Almost every weekend I have been down in LA we have had a cookout on the beach, so I am getting used to campfire food.

Well, I have to get back to work.

There and back again,

I just spent a very tiring weekend down in LA. There was a pretty large group visiting mostly from Taylor and West Lafayette. I only got a few pictures of the weekend. They are going to be in San Diego for the rest of the week. On Saturday morning the guys and girls split up to take a hike and swim a little. The guys had some fun jumping off a few rock cliffs into the water. One jump was about 30 feet and the other we think was 40 feet. It was the second time I have jumped from such a height. That afternoon we took the metro into LA to see a little of the city. We visited the LA Central Library and the Westin Bonadventure to see the city from the external elevators.

I really enjoyed the weekend, but I am totally beat. I am looking forward to a quiet weekend in Redwood City next weekend.

Tracy meeting.

This Wednesday evening I met with some other AC's out in Tracy California. For me it was two hours there and one hour back. I really don't understand the traffic out. It would be fine with all the cars going 70 and then for no reason (no off-ramp or merging traffic) it would slow to a halt. Then fast once more, then stop. I just don't get it. I should post a picture of the group soon, but it was nice to meet the other centeral California AC's. Oh, yes and Greg and Carla Rassi from Chicago where there with their son Nathan (representing from St. Louis).

My brother and sister-in-law where helpful enough to purchase a bike on sale while I was gone. I will be riding to and from work to hopefully get some more exercise. This will also allow me to tour around town a little easier then on foot.

While in the car I also finished Jupiter by Ben Bova, which is part of the Grand Tour books by the same. I first started these books by reading Moonrise and was instantly hooked. That was way back in high-school if I remember correctly. Since then I have ticked off the books one by one, with about half of them still to go (7 books). The problem is that he keeps writing more of them. They are about the expansion of the human race out into the solar system in the 21st century. I really like this sort of "hard" science fiction. So on the way back from Tracy I started listening to The Rock Rats.

Books and such.

I flew back into SJC today with a one hour and fourty minute late flight, oh well.

This weekend was a blast down in LA, with much fun in the sun, sorry no pictures this time.

I finished Will the Real Heretics Please Stand Up this weekend, and I will have to take some time to digest it. I thought it was an interesting book on the history and practices of the early Christian church. I may mention it later as I think about it some more.

So I headed over to the bookstore to find something new to pick up. I had heard of Guns, Germs, and Steel and had a friend recommend it to me so I picked up a copy. I think the idea behind the book is facinating, and am excited to get started on it.

Well, I am tired after a long weekend and will be heading to bed soon.

Friday night in the city.

This friday night I was invited up to San Francisco to have dinner with the Stollers's (Clark, Cindy, Katrina, and Leah from Gridley, IL) at the Boudin Bakery on Fisherman's Warf. So I headed up after work. Their hotel was right by the piers and we just had to walk across the street for a wonderful dinner. We had a great time and afterward wandered around a little by the piers. We capped the night off with some Gin Rummy and a few games of Egyptian Ratscrew (I may have to try some of the variations listed on that link).

This is just a reminder that anyone can come out to enjoy the Bay.

1, 2, 3, 4. The counter knows all.

I just added that nifty little counter to my page and it is pretty cool. You can see where in the world people are visiting the site from, and lots of other mundane details.

The weather here is finally back to a reasonable mid 80's so things are good. I will be heading back down to altadena this weekend for perhaps more fun in the sun.

These new iPods are almost too much to resist, I may have to pick one up to entertain me during my travels. Also every (expensive) accessory known to man is made for it. It will also make it easier to listen to my books then on my shuffle, which was great for my college life, but not so great now.

Also having to use quarters for washing and drying is really inconvienient, and doing laundry outside your living space is tiresome.

I have decided that I will play these MMORPG's only with people I know and using voice chat. They are just too much of a time waste if I am not interacting with friends.

I have been using AIM a lot more then I used to so feel free to look me up with the screen name matthewschrenk.

I just finished reading Cryptonomicon and the batman comic The Long Halloween and enjoyed them both. Cryptonomicon is very techie focused, but goes along at a good clip for all 910 pages.

So, anyone out there have a new gadget that they really like? Perhaps a good book recommendation?

Some like it hot.

This last weekend I headed down to LA once more and had a really great time. You can find a few pictures here (I really don't understand that first photo). There were a few people up from San Diego and I hope to visit down there some time. We had a great time on Saturday at the beach where we escaped from the dreadful heat. That evening we had dinner at Joe and Sue Klotzle's house. There was some King Elephant and fun all around.

Sunday services were vary nice. Sunday was also Jim Klotzle's 23 birthday, congrats Jim. We hit the Pasadena Ice Rink for some more beating of the heat. Remind me to avoid rental skates in the future, the ones I had were lacking in the edge department. I flew back Monday morning to get in six and a half hours of work.

Work is going well, I feel like I am really learning new things and I am excited by the progress we are making.

Till later.

Hiking California

I almost cannot believe that I moved out to California almost one month ago. It has been a very busy month, so I am glad that I have been able to stay at home the last two weekends. The last two Saturdays I have gone hiking with my brother, sister-in-law and little Arthur pictured here. You can find my uploaded pictures form hiking here.

This last weekend my parents flew in to visit me and make sure that I was settling in OK. I was happy to accomodate them for a few nights on my guest airbed. The hike we went on togather was pretty long, probably about six to seven miles with a pretty steep vertical climb for the last mile (it was all uphill from the ocean). We were hiking in McNee Rance State Park up the side of Montara Mountain (we hiked the yellow trail from the left and took the split off on the purple trail till we could see over the mountain). We were a little dissapointed when we reached the top and our view of San Francisco was blocked by the clouds. The first half of the hike was through some pretty thick fog also. On the way down it was a little dangerous because of how steep it was. Mom just had on some tennis shoes and slipped and fell two times. She was carrying little Arthur in his backpack so it was a little tense. So I got to carry Arthur on my back most of the way down until he got fussy and hungry.

I am getting a little better with my camera, and was able to take some good shots of flowers and the fog. I am really enjoying all the outdoor activities that California offers and hope to spend lots of weekends enjoying some nature. The fog on the mountain was very majestic and beautiful.

We had a little Bible study on Sunday reading out of Ezekiel 33 which in part discusses that if we turn from our path and follow him we will live and the people declared in verse 20 that "The way of the Lord is not equal." They were right, because God is both just and merciful and will restore us if we turn to Him.

On the weekend that my parents were not here I called in to Altadena to listen to their service. I first tried it with my cell phone, but that was not a very easy way to listen. So I checked out Skype. I have not yet tried to talk to anyone, but just listening on my computer worked very well. I think I will get a local number through skype, because it does not cost much per year. Also calling out for the rest of the year is completly free! And, I know some people going to Mexico soon, and it looks like calls to Mexico are free this weekend (July 22-23). I think I might be hooked on voip.

Have office supplies, will trade.

I just had to post about this guy. He decided to try and trade his way from one red paperclip to a house. And he succeded in just a little less then a year. How bizzare is that?

Fourth of July in Minnesota.

Wow. I just returned from a whirlwind trip to Minnesota for a long holiday weekend. I didn't manage to get a picture of the entire group, but most everyone is represented in the pictures at http://matthew.schrenk.org/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=19. I am happy to report that I now have a place to post all my pictures as can be seen by the previous link. I hope to do some more work on matthew.schrenk.org, because right now there is nothing there but the gallery.

I was going to fly out of San Jose, CA to Minneapolis, MN at 6:35 AM Saturday July 1, and so I woke up at 4:30 and was at the airport at 5:45 to catch my plane. I approached the gate to the announcement that the flight was overbooked and they were offering a free round trip ticket voucher for anyone willing to give up their seat. I established that the next flight left at 12:10 and decided to take that offer. So with a $100 voucher and a round trip voucher on Northwest I got back in my car and drove back home. This made me five hours later that I had planned and I missed some of the first day activites.

You can find another view on the trip over at Tifani's blog.

Ben Dill picked me up from the airport and he headed over to join everyone at Minnehaha park, but we passed them as they left, so we just headed back to the Dill's house for a cookout dinner of brauts and hotdogs. I think we sang everyday for at least 30 minutes, sometimes twice a day. Patriotic songs were high on the list, and I found out how many of those songs have a strong christian theme. Our founding fathers (and also our founding composers) had a great deal to say about what made this country great, and it was God.

That night we played some four and a couch, occupation, and telephone pictionary with the whole group. The group consisted of UofI people (Katrina stoller, Brent Sauder, Eric Zimmerman, and Loren Mogle), some sister from Kansas (Stephanie, Tifani, and Chelsie Bahr), and the Minni YG (Krissa Skoglund, Cheryl Luthi, Zena Davila, Ben Moser, Jeff Rienhardt, Braden Mogler, Meg Dill, and Ben Dill). I think that telephone pictionary is one of the best group games with more then six people, it really helps you get to know each other in a fun way. Braden Mogler's family invited me into their home for the weekend and I thank them. Sunday was my first time at Minneapolis church and I found it welcoming. It was small enough to get around to everyone and have some conversation with a few. After church the rest of the UofI group left. I was sorry to see them go so soon. We relaxed Sunday afternoon then headed to see some Shakespeare in the park ("The Merchent of Venice"). We had a picnic dinner, played some frisbee, and walked around the park.

Monday was a late start to do 17 miles of canoeing on the St. Croix river between Minnesota and Wisconsin. We had a blast and just got a little wet, OK my canoe did tip over for no reason, but we still had fun. That night we had to say goodbye to the Kansas group who was driving out in the morning. On the fourth we visited Historic Fort Snelling and saw some historical reenactors showing how the fort was back in the early 1800's. We also visited St. Paul to spend some time at the Taste of Minnesota. The longest game of the Settlers of Catan that I have ever played was between dinner and the fireworks.

I was so sad to say goodbye to everyone as I flew out the next morning, I hope to see them all soon, and perhaps will need to visit Minnesota in the future.

Almost all settled in

I have now been in Redwood City for almost two weeks, and I have been busy. Last Saturday I flew from San Jose to Burbank to visit the Altadena church and meet some of the young group. We had a blast with a trip to the (cloudy and windy) beach and an evening of fellowship pictured here. I am pleased that I will be spending time attending church down south for now.

I have started working and am still getting used to it. The major adjustment peroid from college to profession is hopefully almost over.

My mom helped Rachel, my sister, and her family pack up for the move from Burbank, CA to Quakertown, PA around the week I was down near Burbank. Then mom came up and helped me pick out and assemble furniture from IKEA. I appreciate the help and support that she gave and continues to give. So now my apartment has furniture, and I will post some pictures soon.

Go West Young Man!

... or "That time I almost died in the desert." Here I am Friday, June 16, 2006, 6:15 AM with my car packed up and ready to go. Just 2122 miles to go. I just needed to go pick up my friend Drew Winship who was going to help me with the drive. The original plan was to take three days out to Redwood City. We would travel 13 hours from St. Louis to Denver, then 10 hours to the Nevada border, then the last day 10 more hours. This was not to happen.



Here Drew poses as I pick him up. And we are off through Missouri on Interstate 70. We made our way to Kansas City with little difficulity and were going strong through the interminable length of Kansas. We were so stupified that we missed the Colorado border and were a little confused when we saw the sign for the Denver Airport, that is until we realized we had made it to Denver. It was only about 6pm, and we both felt good so we decided to push on with the trip. So we hooked a right on I-25 up to Fort Collins.




In Fort Collins we had dinner at the Charco Broiler, which had peaked our interest because it seemed to be the favorite of the locals. I highly recommend that you stop by for dinner sometime, it was delicious. After dinner we hit the road up to Cheyenne and spent the night at the Express Inn at the intersection of I-25 and I-80. That night we looked at the map and figured that we could make it the rest of the way in one really long trip. It would give Drew more time to hang out in California before he had to leave.


The next day started early once more with some toast and cereal at about 6:10. Here Drew and I prepare for the second day. Wyoming was beautiful and clear. We crossed over the Great Divide at 7000 feet and it was mostly downhill from there. Into Utah we saw Park City where the Winter Olympics were held and passed through Salt Lake City with no incident. Along the Great Salt Lake we were stopped by an accident which we were a little concerned about because one of the cars was burnt crispy. Thankfully it appeared that no one was hurt as all those involved were standing by the side of the road when it was finally reopened. And that is when we passed out of history and into Legend.

Western Utah. The 37 miles between exits 4 and 41 are the longest exit-free stretch on any US interstate. It was right here that we lost the treading on our left rear tire while we were doing 80mph down the road. Our about 4000 foot gain in altitude and the desert heat had made our tire prone to damage. So here we are in the middle of the Bonneville Salt Flats stranded by the side of the road. This is where the Donner Party had some wagon wheel trouble. The first thing we do is push the car off the side of the road so we can put on the spare. We have to unload all of my wordly possessions onto the side of the road and pull out the spare. Once we jacked it up and took off the stripped one we have to pack everything back up with this large extra tire on the trunk. We are very thankful to my Mom for packing four bottles of water that helped keep us alive in the salt filled dry air. Then we try to start the car..... and it starts.... and it sputters and dies. We panic. Then we call AAA. The nearst service station is about 40 miles down the road in West Wendover, Nevada. I call my Dad to explain the situation and he recommends that we check the fuel cutoff that triggers when the car is in an accident. We push the fuel cutoff button back in and get in the car and start it... and it roars alive! So we tool down this stretch of road at 43mph while everyone else is doing about 90 past us. As I pull off the highway into West Wendover I see that the next services are 58 miles away in Nevada, and realize that I need new tires before going to a service station in either direction. So we drive past the eight or so Casinos just across the state line and start asking at gas stations where we can buy some tires. The first buisness card we get only results in a message machine. That is when we realize that it is 5:15 on a Saturday night and West Wendover buisnesses, while located in Nevada, stayed on Utah time because of all the visitors they get from Salt Lake City. We get two other leads, "try the second Sinclair gas station on the left down this road." And a card for a tire shop back at exit 4 in Utah.

The guy at the Sinclair station asked if we wanted some used tires. We looked at the piles and piles of used tires that were stacked around and decided that was not what we wanted. Could we please buy some new tires? He would have to call his boss and would get back to us in thirty minutes. We escaped that place and hit the highway going the wrong way back to exit 4 Utah, The Bonneville Speedway Exit. Behind the only structure visiable from the highway (a gas station) we found what appeared to be the home and business of the only legitimate tire shop in probably 100 miles. By legitimate read "expensive new tires". However, there was just one little problem... He did not have the right size tire. He would sell me these two tires that were just a little taller and thinner then my current tires. When you have no other option it is pretty easy to make a buying decision.

After loosing a couple hours to our desperate adventure in the desert we set forth once more to conquer the continent. Nevada was uneventful and boring, and California was a little scary because we were driving down twisty roads at night. But, in the end we made it and pulled into the driveway of my brother, Nathan, at 3:30am after being on the road the second day for 22 hours.

I may make a later post about my first week in California, but for now I am moved in and ready for a new chapter of my life.

I just flew in from the Middle East...

Well, not really. I have been delayed in posting for a long time. 10 days in Jordan and Israel in which I did not access a computer, and now I am planning for my move to California.

Israel was awsome in every way. I went with my parents and my brother-in-law (Josh). It was a whirlwind trip as we flew into Amman, Jordan on May, 23 and returned on June, 2. We spent two days at the start of the trip seeing Jordan. Then we went across the border to Jericho and Jerusalem. The picture to the left is my dad, Josh, and myself on the Mount of Olives with the temple mount in the background. We saw the Dead Sea and the Sea of Galilee. If you want more details then you will have to talk to me in person.

So now I am deciding on a place to live out in Redwood City. I am going to get a one bedroom apartment because I am wary of trying to find a random roomate, and after four years at Brown House it will be nice to be alone. The prices of places is pretty steep, but hopefully I will be alright.

I am going to be driving out with an old highschool buddy over the weekend of the 16-18 with two nights at hotels in Denver and Nevada. It should be one 13 hour day followed by two 10 hour days. So now it is on to packing.

The Right to Read

I was just directed to this essay and have been thinking about it. It really brought my attention to what has been happening over the last decade. This was published 9 years ago, and back then it might have seemed ridiculous, but now it really scares me. This isn't even really a slippery slope arugment that he presents here, it is the outcome of combining many laws that are being enacted today. I am glad that you can get many (older) books for free still on the internet at Project Gutenberg. I guess we will see what the future holds.

The story has a happy ending, so to all of you: amore and viva la revolucion.

I have to ask myself, why?

So it occurred to me that what is happening to me and my life may be interesting to a small number of people (perhaps my mother), but everyone else might want something more. To that end I intend to have more then just updates of my life here. Rest assured I will still talk about myself as often as possible, but there should be more here too.

I am going on a trip to Israel next Tuesday. To that end I have decided that I should practice with my camera so that I can get some good photos. To the right here is a photo of my back yard and house from the southeast. If anyone has any tips on photography, digital or otherwise, feel free to share.

I also invested in two tripods for better picture taking. One is the Promaster D1 the other is this funky gorillapod that I will probably take along because it is so much smaller. The gorillapod is cool because it can hang or stand pretty much anywhere, but it seems like it will take some work to get pictures that are pointed where I want and at the correct angle.

And over to the left is a picture I took of my niece when I was out in Burbank, CA over Easter. I mean, really, too cute for words. I really like my camera because it is so small and light. I know that if it was too large I would not take it anywhere.

So recently I have been thinking about what I am doing next in my life. There are one or two things I have always had something on my plate. Like graduating from college or getting my post-college job. Now that those are out of the way I have so many options now that it is a little staggering.

There are things I want to do in my spare time like learn a musical instrument or two. Perhaps actually get good at a foreign language. Perhaps co-found a successful technical company (hey I can dream can't I?) And, you know, other things.

I now have a link on the blog to what is essentially my mom's blog. She started it to talk about my dad's health and current situation, but she keeps updating it for now.

Well I guess that if life is a road I am still just traveling down it. At least I have a road atlas to life to rely on and give me some direction. There I went and talked about myself the whole post, but I did include some pictures and links to at least give you some more content.

Graduated!

On Sunday the 14th (aka Mother's Day) I graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with my Bachelors of Science in Computer Science. Wow. It has been a great four years in Urbana. Just yesterday I moved about 90% of my things out of Brown House, my home for the last four years. I am sad that I will not see all of my friends from school very often, but I am glad to be done with classes. College would be great if it wasn't for all those pesky classes. I think I am gonna have to spend some more time on AIM to keep up with everyone who is now farther away.

Last night I spent some time with some high school friends and my friend Drew is 22 today. We will be celebrating his birthday tonight with some food and hopefully some games.

So here I am writing from my parents house in St. Louis with all my things stacked in the hallway. It reminds me of a book I once saw where a photographer traveled the world and had taken pictures of familes with all their possessions stacked in front of their house.

I can now start the countdown to my trip to Israel on May 23 (one week from today... eek). I will be going with my parents and my brother-in-law Josh. I am a little apprehensive about the unrest over there right now, but our lives will be in God's hands.

I am not sure if anyone is even reading this, please leave a comment if you get the chance.

A beginning is the time for taking the most delicate care that the balances are correct.

Seeing as I will soon be graduating from the University of Illinois and moving away, I have decided to start this blog. We will see if I have will take the time to actually keep this thing updated.

Thursday night was my first ISU bible study, and most probably my only one in the foreseeable future. The message was about lukewarmness and it was excellent. Afterword we headed over to The Dollhouse for snacks and fun. I played telephone-pictionary for the first time, and it is perhaps one of the best party games I have ever played.

Yesterday was of course cinco de mayo, and following my personal tradition I went out for a mexican lunch. I invited everyone in the Chambana AC young group for lunch, but only my roomates showed up. That ment that one more person had cinco de mayo lunch with me then usual.

Later I headed over to the driving range with Andy and BAM to test out my new clubs. It was BAM's first time out and he made some improvement. Just a few hours ago Caleb, Bob, BAM, Andy, Martin, Alyssa and I learned how to play the card game "Bang!" and it was a blast. If you ever want to play I can really recommend you try it out. Feel free to ask me to play.

I am just winding down the semester and have 3 finals to take before being done with college. I am excited to get my degree and be finished with school for now. I will miss the college experience, but I won't missing going to classes anymore. I feel that this last year has been a great time of learning and fun, but we all have to move on sometime. It will be interesting to see what God has planned for me in the future.