Digital Wilderness

Hmm, one of these would be great for me, as a color blind individual who doesn’t do well at coordinating colors…

Smart Closet

“The wardrobe can tell you that you have a meeting this morning with Joe Bloggs, that you have worn the same shirt the last three times you met him and that maybe you should wear something else or he will think you only have one shirt,” says Prof. Bruce Thomas, director of the wearable computer laboratory at the University of South Australia.
Photo courtesy of University of South Australia
PhD student Aaron Toney, left, and final-year computer systems engineering student Wynand Marais check out the University of South Australia’s ‘smart wardrobe’ system.

If you’re not sure what tie matches your suit, if your skirt is too tame for your new animal print pumps, or whether you should go business casual or dressy for a weekend dinner with the boss, researchers say the smart wardrobe can tell you that, too.

…has come to an end! As I wrote about last week, James talked me into growing some facial hair, specifically a mustache for Movember. Well, I gave it two weeks and couldn’t stand it any more. I like a day or two of scruff, but two weeks…not so much.

Instead of growing just a mustache, I grew a beard first. I’ve thought about growing a beard a couple times in the past, but never got beyond 4-5 days. Well, most of the time those thoughts were because I was just lazy. So, on the way to a mustache, I thought I’d go the beard route first. Once I got past the one week mark, it wasn’t so bad. It really didn’t think it looked all that bad. However, once it started getting close to the two week mark, it started annoying me. I could feel it on my lips and my skin just didn’t feel good. It was getting a little scraggly, but if I knew how to groom a beard, it probably wouldn’t have been too bad.

But not for right now… So last night I shaved the beard, leaving just a mustache. Ugh, not a fan of that at all, the look or the feel. To humor James, though, I kept the ‘stache for the day, but it was gone as soon as I got home.

As requested, here are a few pics to commemorate Movember, and the end of that “experiment!” Now it’s back to my minimal scruff

The book for my management class, Developing Management Skills, has many quotes in the margins of the book. Here are some good ones from the “teams” chapter.

“A camel is a horse put together by a committee.”
–Unknown

“If you see a snake, just kill it. Do not appoint a committee on snakes.”
–Ross Perot (former US Presidential candidate)

“As a coach, I play not my eleven best, but my best eleven.”
-Knute Rockne (football coach)

“We didn’t have the twenty best guys. We had the twenty right guys.”
–Herb Brooks (1980 US hockey team coach)

“I have never put players’ names on the back of their jerseys because I was under the impression they were playing for the name on the front.”
–Bob Knight (college basketball coach)

“Don’t make assumptions. Find the courage to ask questions.”
–Don Miguel Ruiz

Thomas Watson, found of IBM, was once asked,
“Mr Watson, how many people do you have working for you?”
His response: “About half.”

“God helps those that help themselves.”

I heard that a lot growing up – in church, in school, from friends, from teachers, etc. While in college, I had a Sunday school teacher that taught about Biblical myths one Sunday. That lesson stuck has stuck with me over the years, and one of the myths covered was this one. My teacher said that there was not a verse in the Bible that said this, and that really struck me because I was sure that it was, given how much I had heard it. Instead, this is actually a quote from Ben Franklin that appeared in Poor Richard’s Almanac in 1757.

A few weeks ago, randomly, I heard the following that put this into further perspective:

Sam was in dire trouble. His business had gone bust and he was in serious financial trouble. He was so desperate he decided to pray for help. He began, ‘God, please help me. I’ve lost my business and if I don’t get some money, I’m going to lose my house as well. Please let me win the lottery.’ Lottery night came and Sam didn’t win. Again Sam prays, ‘God, please let me win the lottery! I’ve lost my business, my house and I’m going to lose my car as well.’ Lotto night comes and Sam still has no luck. Once again, he prays, ‘My God, why have you forsaken me? I’ve lost my business, my house, and my car. My wife and children are starving. I don’t often ask you for help and I have always been a good servant to you. PLEASE just let me win the lottery this one time so I can get my life back in order.’ Suddenly there is a blinding flash of light as the heavens open. Sam is confronted by the voice of God Himself: ‘Sam,’ says God, ‘meet Me halfway on this. Buy a bloody ticket.’

This is a good analogy, because while God helps the helpless and anyone who calls upon His name with good intentions, He doesn’t want us to sit on our duff and do nothing but lip service, either.

I think gotquestions.com says it pretty well.

Apart from salvation, there is perhaps a way that the concept “God helps those who help themselves” is correct. As an example, if you asked me to help you move a piece of furniture, but then just watched me as I moved the furniture for you, I was not actually helping you. I would be doing the work for you. Many Christians fall into the trap of inactivity. Many Christians ask God for help, but then expect God to do everything Himself. They excuse this by pointing to the fact that God will provide according to His will and in His timing. However, this is not a reason for inactivity. As a specific example, if you are in need of a job, ask the Lord to help you find a job – but then be active in actually looking for a job. While it is in His power to do so, it is highly unlikely that God will cause employers to come looking for you!

Just some thoughts…

And now for the rest of the story! (If you missed it, you can read part 1 here.)

On Sunday, we went to Sunday School and Church at Capital City Christian Church, where Dan is the Student Minister. It was a nice church and it was cool to hear and see Dan’s vision for the students, as well as the church as a whole, which was in the midst of a capital campaign to grow the church. Who would have thought that in the middle of Carolina country I would run into two Kentuckians?!? The senior pastor, Jon, and another member of the church were from around this area and Jon even had on a shirt with the UK logo. Felt like home

After church, Lori cooked a spaghetti lunch and we relaxed for a bit. Then we went geocaching! After hearing about it, Dan was really interested in geeking out with me, so we set out to find some geocaches in the Raleigh area. Lori joined us in finding three of them before she got tired, then Dan and I found two more. Dan seemed to really enjoy it and even wrote about it on his blog.

After our geocaching conquests, Dan and Lori went to church for their evening student ministry meeting while I stayed behind to study and do some homework. Yeah, that stunk, but I had a lot to get done for class the following week – quiz, paper and test. So I studied for a few minutes, then watched some football and The Office. Dan and Lori eventually returned from church and we wrapped up the night with some Skip-Bo. Lori finally won a game – go Lori! She was pretty hyper, too, and provided some great entertainment.

Monday dawned, and I had to hit the road bright and early. I had class that evening, and since the class was three and a half hours long, and we had a quiz and a paper due that evening, I decided to leave in time to get back for it. Bad call… It was an uneventful trip and I made good time (and no tickets!). I got to class and…we took a 1 minute quiz (it was the exact same as the practice quiz she had given us to study) and watched We Are Marshall. Needless to say, I was a bit upset that I left my friends early and busted my butt to get back in time to watch a movie. At least it was a good movie, but still…!

So, that’s the run down on a very fun weekend. I had a fantastic time in NC visiting the Staifers, and can’t wait to see them again! Thanks for a great weekend, Dan and Lori!

Pictures from the trip are in the gallery.

Here’s the route that I traveled, as well as the location of some of the places I visited.

So, James, Tommy and I are growing some facial hair – specifically a mustache. This is another one of James’ goofy ideas, inspired by the Relevant Gentleman’s Society, and I decided I’d go along for a bit. It is Movember, after all!

It’s been a week since I’ve had a good shave. I’m growing a beard for the time being, but I’m going to shave the beard and leave the ‘tache this weekend. This is gonna be weird… As of today, this is the longest I’ve let my facial hair grow, and I want it gone. I like one day’s worth of growth – seven is too much. I’m not planning on keeping the mustache for long, maybe a day or two. We’ll see.

Right now, I’m considering the Errol Flynn, the Anchor and the Autolycus. Thoughts on these or others?

Flynn:

Anchor:

Autolycus:

In my management class last night, we broke up into teams and did the following activity.

You and your companions have just survived a small plane crash. Both the pilot and co-pilot were killed in the crash. It’s mid-January, and you are in Northern Canada. The daytime temperature is 25 below zero, and the night time temperature is 40 below zero. There is snow on the ground, and the countryside is wooded, with several creeks crisscrossing the area. The nearest town is 20 miles away. You are all dressed in city clothes appropriate for a business meeting. Your group of survivors has managed to salvage the following items:

• A ball of steel wool
• A small axe
• A loaded .45-caliber pistol
• A can of Crisco shortening
• Newspapers (one per person)
• A cigarette lighter (without fluid)
• Extra shirt and pants for each survivor
• 20 X 20 ft. piece of heavy-duty canvas
• A sectional air map made of plastic
• One quart of 100-proof whiskey
• A compass
• Family-size chocolate bars (one per person)

Rank these items 1-12, with 1 being the most important to survival and 12 being the least important, then we’ll compare them to an expert’s ranking and see how you stack up in survivor skills. My group had a difference of 32.

NO CHEATING!!! Don’t google for the expert’s rankings…where’s the fun in that?!? And you won’t have google when you’re stranded in the Canadian tundra!

I’ll post the expert’s rankings and reasons in a couple days.

4 days, 4 states, 1050+ miles…

Last weekend, I packed up the car, loaded up the mp3 player and hit the road for Raleigh, North Carolina to see the Staifers. Boy, was I excited about seeing them and needing to get out of town! We started planning the trip a couple months ago, and it felt like it took forever to get here. I’ve missed my buddy Lori, been anxious to spend some time in NC in the fall and needed some days off work.

About an hour and a half into the trip, on the AA highway in the middle of Bracken County, I hit a bump in the road. Typically when I take longer trips like this, I find someone else who is traveling at my speed and I settle in behind them. Then I get lost in thought or music or talk and next thing I know, I’m at my destination. Well, on the AA, this came back to bite me. I was following a car, zoned out in lala land, when I noticed the car slowing down and driving slightly on the shoulder. I was wondering what in the world he was doing when I suddenly noticed a cop in my rear view mirror. Busted! I had been so absorbed in thought that I didn’t even see the cop, wherever he was hiding, or that he was coming up behind me. Oops… After pulling us over (yeah, he got the other guy, too), he came up to me, and not only said I was going 68mph in a 55mph zone, but that I also passed on a double yellow line (the car in front of me passed a truck, so I did as well, though apparently too late) – then cited me for both. Ouch! I had nothing to say back, because I totally wasn’t paying attention. I admitted as such, that I was just following and didn’t realize my speed or that I passed illegally, but that didn’t make any difference. Oh well…

And that was the only bad part of the whole trip. The rest of the drive down to NC was uneventful and went by fairly quick. It took about nine hours to get to Raleigh and the autumn colors were stunning in NC – the deepest crimsons and brightest yellows that I’ve seen.

When I arrived at the Staifers’ place, dinner was waiting. Dan had cooked for us – hazelnut chicken, salad and some veggies – and it was quite good. Lori made a cake for me, too! It had Lori written all over it, as it was fun and “peppy.” Half of it was gone in no time. Mmmm…

After dinner, we just hung out, catching up on everything that had been going on, watching an episode of The Office and a movie recommended by Dan, Ong-Bak.

Saturday, we slept in a little (I needed that!), Lori made chocolate chip pancakes, then we set out to explore Raleigh. Using me as an excuse to be tourists, Dan and Lori suggested we take a ride on the “Raleigh trolley” and see the historic sites of the city. It was interesting to learn how the city was founded and planned, and see the tiny home in which former US President Andrew Johnson was born.

After the tour, we set out to feed the academic nuts in Dan and I. There are tons of colleges and universities in this area, including NC State, Duke and UNC-Chapel Hill. Already knowing that I would need to decontaminate myself when I got home just from being close to Duke (Go UK!) and UNC (Go Big Blue!), I didn’t think it would hurt to visit the campuses. I love being on campus and the academic environment anyway, so why not…

Duke has a beautiful campus, very green and with brick buildings. However, the sports facilities were about as big as their high school equivalent. Duke’s football team is perennially one of the worst in the country, so I wasn’t too surprised at the small size of the football stadium, but when I was Cameron Indoor Stadium, I had to double check to make sure I was at the right place. Wow, was it small!

(Interesting side note – when I got back from the trip, I saw an article on CNN SI about Duke having trouble filling the stands for some of their basketball games. Duke fans have nothing on UK fans! The Big Blue Nation Rocks!)

Taking a page from Paul’s trip to Microsoft in Redmond, WA, here’s me “peeing” on the Cameron Indoor Stadium sign. The Duke football game was going on at this time, so I had to be careful that no one was around (I was wearing a UK hat) but luckily, there weren’t many people at the game.

After Duke, we went to The Barbecue Joint for lunch. Any time I travel, I like to eat at a restaurant that is new to me, one that is not a chain and is popular in the area. Having watched the Food Network a couple times and hearing about some good NC BBQ, I knew what type of food I wanted, so a quick Google search later and we had our destination. It was pretty good, but not as good as I was expecting. I guess the Food Network set my expectations a little too high.

After lunch, we went to visit UNC-Chapel Hill. We took a walk down the college street, visited an area with the dorms and quad, but it was a big campus, so we ended up driving through most of it, including going by the “Dean Dome” (Go UK!). It wasn’t quite as nice as Duke, but still seemed like a good campus and was plenty green. I guess I’m so impressed by these campuses because NKU is anything but green and these campuses have nice brick buildings, compared with the concrete that’s everywhere at NKU.

After UNC, since we were getting tired, we headed back to the Staifers’, settled in for a movie – Toy Soldiers, which Lori really liked and wanted me to see (we had a good laugh at a line in the movie “show my explosive expert how to get through the grate,” said from a high ranking military officer to the dean of a school) – and polished off the rest of the cake. We ended the night with a round of Skip-bo then Dan hit the sack since he needed to get up early to get ready for teaching his students at church the next day. Lori and I stayed up for a couple more hours and we just talked about whatever came to mind, including some things that have been weighing on my mind lately. We haven’t been able to talk like this in quite a while, so it was really good to be able to do so, especially in person.

Well, this has turned into a pretty long post already, and I still have two more days to cover, so I’ll finish up my narrative in another post, hopefully sometime this week.

Pictures from the trip are in the gallery.

Haha, this is pretty cool. UC Berkeley’s Marching Band performs a video game themed half-time show, including Pong, Tetris, Donkey Kong, Pokemon (I think…), The Legend of Zelda, and Super Mario Brothers.

YouTube – UC Berkeley Video Game Half-Time Show

This past Wednesday night, Megan, James and I headed up to the Cincinnati Gardens for the Appetite for Construction tour, featuring Ruth, Relient K and Switchfoot. Awesome show! Relient K was the main draw for me, and they delivered! I think this was the third time I’ve seen them live and each show has been absolutely great. They played a good mix of old and new songs, including the oldie but goodie “Sadie Hawkins Dance,” which is one of my all time favorites by them. They also played the theme song to The Office and a little ditty they wrote about the show. In support of their new album, Let It Snow Baby… Let It Reindeer, they brought out one of those inflatable Christmas thingees and played a couple Christmas songs. Other songs in the set included Must Have Done Something Right, Who Am I Hate Who I’ve Been; Which To Bury, Us or the Hatchet, Be My Escape, High of 75, I So Hate Consequences, Devastation and Reform, Give, Forgiven and Fallen Man (and more that I can’t remember). Very nice set list that included most of what I was hoping to hear.

Switchfoot wasn’t too shabby themselves, though the lead singer seemed a little…weird…with his stage antics at times. I haven’t listened to much of their music lately, having been turned off when they hit it big and were overplayed, so it was good to hear some songs I haven’t heard in a while, such as Stars and We Are One Tonight, as well as many from their new album, including, Oh! Gravity, American Dream, Dirty Second Hands and Awakening.

Ruth is a newer band, but I like what I’ve heard from them so far. They put on a decent show, though they were very much overshadowed by the two headliners. There was an embarrassing when a radio personality from WAKW (an adult contemporary Christian radio station that I wouldn’t expect to play much from any of these artists), referred to the band Ruth as a “she.” D’oh! How can you not know this important bit of information before you introduce someone?

Some not-so-clear-pictures are up in the gallery.