Digital Wilderness

*gasp* I bought an ironing board!

It remains to be seen if I’ll actually use it…

It’s that time again. Not as much progress this month as last month, but I can’t stay on fire the whole year.

2006 Goal Tracking

• Learn to whistle loudly using my fingers
  No progress yet. My grandma is having better luck than me
• Learn three five card tricks
  No new progress, still two down, three to go.
• Learn five origami models
  No new progress – still 3 down, at least 2 to go. My friend Ben is going to teach me some good ones.
• Redecorate/organize my family room and den
  No new progress. Now that I have my tax refund, I should be able to finish up the remainder of my goal.
• Get involved in a puppet team
  No new progress.
• Take a another small business development class
  Completed – I went to the class “Secrets to Starting Your Own Business” last week and picked up some good tips. The SBDC at NKU offers these free classes, so I’m going to look into taking some more, specifically “Accounting & Financial Management” and “Financing Your Business”
• Get A+, i-Net+ and/or SAS certified
  No new progress. SAS certification, while potentially the easiest and most relevant certification for me right now, may not be the way to go in the long run. The company is changing database and server software, moving away from SAS to Oracle 10g and J2EE. Guess I’ll focus my energy on the A+ for now and see if it’s worth taking the SAS exam at the end of the year.
• Take a week-long vacation and visit another state and national park on my list
  Heading down to Nashville this weekend. It’ll be a nice four day weekend and a nice road trip. Plenty planned for the Nashville weekend, too. Paintball, swing dancing, Elizabeth cooked meals Still toying with the possibility of heading to Maine and New England in October.
• Find a church home
  No new progress.
• Have a consistent daily quiet time
  Prayer time is getting better, but still have lots of work to do.
• Memorize 200 Bible verses
  Approx. 87 down, 113 to go.
• Swing dance once a month on average
  Went once in February, I will be going this Thurs, plus this weekend in Nashville. That puts me on goal.
• Be more punctual
  So-so.

Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday, dear Matt H
Happy Birthday to you

Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday, dear Grandpa Vaught
Happy Birthday to you

I had some paintball fun this weekend! Feels like it’s been awhile, probably because of the small turn out last time. We had a strong 16 this time, though! Thanks to everyone who came out. We had the usual group of “regulars” as well as several new faces to our game. It was good to have some new blood, literally Everyone seemed to have a good time and expressed interest in playing again, so hopefully we’ll be able to play more often. Finding people to play is typically the obstacle, so with a bigger group, the changes of having a good turn out improve.

We couldn’t have asked for better weather – not too hot, not too cold and dry. We played 7 games, about 4 hours worth. The games included 2 Capture the Flag, 2 Protect the Pope, 1 Capture the Flag with only 20 paintballs and 2 Center Flag.

Paul and Emily have some pictures posted on their website.

Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday, dear cousin Steven
Happy Birthday to you

Great song – Nuisance by John Reuben, with Matt Theissen of Relient K

Watch Nuisance

Here are the lyrics:

So, here we are in the same old spot
Knowing something needs to happen
But our mouths are locked, tongue-tied, closed tight, sealed shut, yup
I tried hard but it just wouldn’t come up

It’s on the tip of my tongue
It’s in the front of my mind
Yet the words were still so hard to find

Finally the reality of things to come
Pushed me to the edge
I jumped off the cliff into abyss as I said

I’m not trying to be a nuisance
I just think we can do better than this
That was simply my two cents
You can, you can take it or leave it.

The conversation lingered on and on and
before I knew it night had turned to dawn and
Were we searching for the truth in all of it
Are we debating just to win the argument

Cuz none of us wanna hear about where we go wrong
This song could easily be from me to you or me to john
Cuz I have the potential to be the guiltiest
My greatest strength is also my strongest weakness

Chorus
Chorus

Let’s think about this path that we’re taking
Let’s think about this future we’re creating
Let’s think about this life that is fading
Think about it, come on, Think about it now

Let’s think about this time that we’re spending
Investing in monetary things that are ending
Let’s think about it and, Let’s think together and
Let’s think about what we can do to make it better

Chorus
Chorus
Chorus
Chorus

We can, we will do
We can, we will do
We can, we will do
We can, we will do

We can, we will do
We can, we will do
We can, we will do
We can, we will do

Better than this

I posted this last year and had thought it was interesting, so let’s have it again!

1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the next 3 sentences on your blog along with these instructions.
5. Don’t you dare dig for that “cool” or “intellectual” book in your closet! I know you were thinking about it! Just pick up whatever is closest.

My Bible is the closest book this time around:

The person to be cleansed must wash his clothes, shave off all his hair and bathe with water; then he will be ceremonially clean. After this he may come into the camp, but he must stay outside his tent for seven days. On the seventh day he must shave off all his hair; he must shave his head, his beard, his eyebrows and the rest of his hair. He must wash his clothes and bathe himself with water, and he will be clean. On the eighth day he must bring two male lambs and one ewe lamb a year old, each without defect, along with three-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil for a grain offering, and one log of oil.

That’s Leviticus 14:8-10 of the New International Version for those who are curious.

Post your’s in the comments or on your blog with trackback.

This is pretty cool: Desktop Earth

Desktop Earth is a wallpaper generator. It will generate a high-resolution, accurate representation of the Earth. The imagery is based on NASA’s Blue Marble Next and Earth’s City Lights.

Day and night is accurately represented depending on the Sun’s overhead position (which depends on both the time of day and the day of the year) and both the snow cover and the foliage changes with the seasons.

Desktop Earth comes in two versions:

Online: You select the date and time, specify the resolution up to 1920×1200 (WUXGA), and click Generate. A high-resolution lossless PNG file will be displayed in your browser.

Downloadable: This is for Windows only. Desktop Earth will sit in your systray, run whenever you are logged on, and continuously update your wallpaper with an accurate representation of the Earth. There is no limit on the resolution, and the imagery is calculated from high-resolution 2560×1280 textures, so you can go wild with it even on 30″ flat panel displays. Multi-monitor configurations are also supported.

Notice how the ice expands and retreats in the northern hemisphere…

Saw this on Oddessey2000.

Which Literature Classic Are You?

Umberto Eco: The Name of the Rose

You are a mystery novel dealing with theology, especially with catholic vs liberal issues. You search wisdom and knowledge endlessly, feeling that learning is essential in life.

Never heard of it. I’ll have to add it to my reading list.