Words cannot descriibe
EDIT::: I DID NOT LOOK AT THE SITE CLOSLY BEFORE I POSTED IT. AFTER RECEIVING THE BLOG COMMENTS I LOOKED AT IT BRIEFLY AND DIDN”T FIND ANYTHING TOO CRUDE. JOSH CHALLEGED ME TO LOOK AT IT A LITTLE MORE. NOW I SEE WHAT PEOPLE ARE TALKING ABOUT. I APOLOGISE TO ANYONE WHO MISTAKENLY FOUND THEMSELVES SEEING THINGS THEY DIDN”T WANT TO SEE. PLEASE FOLLOW THE LINK WITH DISCERNING EYES.
As widely reported google is filtering results in China. Their rational is that something is better than nothing. Dave sent me a link this blog post, which contains a couple of links.
I keep having all these great ideas of things I should post to my blog but never get around to it. Here is an attempt at remembering a few of them.
North American International Auto Show
I was going to write about it but got lazy. Josh wrote a good post over here
Seminary Classes
My classes started up last week. I think I am really going to enjoy there. There is more reading than I expected so I guess all hopes of having a social life this semester are gone.
A Modest Proposal
I came across A Modest Proposal a while back. I came up at lunch today so I thought i would post a link to it.
My New Ride
I figured out what I want my next vehicle to be. The Terra Wind seems to be a good around vehicle.
Relationships
A number of friends have posted “relationship” rants. I am going to resist the urge to rant as I don’t have time to do it justice and I don’t like putting stuff like that on a public blog. I did just read the away message of a friend a moment ago that I think appropriate and wise: “If you aren’t happy alone, you aren’t going to be happy with someone else.”
If you are the author of a rant please don’t take my quoting of the quote as an accusation directed at you, rather, as a general thought for all of us to chew on.
Farewell
I’m off to grab food and then to Mel Trotter for the small group I’m leading. Then I get to read 60 pages of Systematic Theology and attempt to make my head spin. 
I think I promised more details on the Gulf Coast portion of my motorcycle trip. Here is a better write up of what we observed. I wish we would have had more time to spend there a really get a good feel what is happening and to help instead of just doing our fly by.
Bayou La Batre has many of the boats are back in the water, some of the processing plants appear open, and lots of trailers are setup. That “normalcy” contrasts sharply with other boats still sitting on dry ground in remote locations with no signs of getting any closer to water, with factory building missing walls, and homes and businesses sitting vacant.
Pascagoula has a more middle class population than Bayou La Batre but they are still facing the issue of spending tens of thousands of dollars in home repairs. Volunteers are saving homeowners thousands upon thousands of dollars while showing the love of Christ through serving. The Jackson County Baptist Association is still hard at work. Helen said 400+ volunteers were working in the community that week. The demudding and gutting of houses ended in early December and the focus has transitioned to rebuilding. God has been good and supplied their needs. They have a licensed carpenter from Indiana volunteering his leadership and expertise. Work crews have been coming in at just the right times and God is just plain good in general and specifically has been blessing people in Pascagoula. The current focus is on drywall, painting, roofing, and flooring. As of the morning we visited 17 houses had been painted, which means 17 families will soon be moving back into their homes. That is great, but, there are still hundreds left living in trailers.
US 90 along the coast is a still a path of destruction. Most of the buildings along the beach are either leveled or so damaged they will need to be torn down. It is amazing to thing about all the devastation left ever so many months.
New Orleans is a place of contrasts. We didn’t know our way around the city so much of our time was spent driving in circles. Sections of the city are a ghost town and eerily silent and lack traffic. I don’t think we saw the worst of the damage but what we saw was pretty bad. Some places down in Jefferson Parrish and the French Quarter are fine. The French Quarter didn’t get flooded but is suffering because there aren’t many people visiting. I was really young when I was last in New Orleans so I don’t have a good base of reference but it was really slow. I just heard on the news that they aren’t even going to touch some neighborhoods for several months while they try to decide what to do.
Hancock County I thought I had seen enough that there couldn’t be much worse. I was wrong. A quick shot south of I-10 to get a picture of the bikes by the state sign landed us in yet more destroyed homes. This time in a rural setting instead of the urban.
The Future
There is a group of about 15 CU students and staff heading down over spring break. We are going to be working through Volunteers of America in either Bayou La Batre or Pascagoula. Please pray that our trip will continue to come together smoothly and that we will be able to show God’s love through our actions and tangible deeds.
Way back in the stone ages of IS someone had a great idea, an idea that would be passed on from generation to generation. That senior staff would tell tales of excitement, intrigue, and danger to the younger staff. And so it was that I heard great tales of the pranks of past, having auxiliary roles in some, and being the recipient of some.
Ok, maybe it’s not quite that dramatic.
Denise is the latest victim/recipient. It was decided that we should do something to her office in the middle of her vacation. Dave and I figured we couldn’t let her have a week of sun and surf on a cruise without somehow trying to “brighten” her return to cloudy West Michigan. It was hard going at first. We thought about boxes, but that had been done to my office. We considered reversing her furniture or trading offices with her, but that sounded like too much work. Covering her walls and desk in a festive and gaudy wrapping paper assortment was an idea, but that involved moving everything on her desk. We even entertained the idea of hiding a fish behind her bookshelf but quickly figured we would have to smell it too – besides, she smells non-existent smells already. Finally, in a moment of genius, we had the idea of streamers. Not just a few streamers, but a mile of streamers.
The plan started fairly small, but once we started talking about it quickly grew. Taping them too the ceiling would work, but that was too small, we needed to think bigger. Our calculations said 2600 feet should be enough to have pretty good coverage. But, what if we could hang a mile of streamers? By draping them over the ceiling tile supports we wouldn’t need tape, we would have a nice pattern, and we could easily use a mile.
We needed streamers, lots of streamers. We’re all poor and not looking to spend a ton of money. Walmart or the dollar store wasn’t good enough for our needs. We needed wholesale streamers, but didn’t have time to order them online. Google Local came to the rescue and we discovered Party America. They sold 500 foot rolls at an acceptable price.
Vicki, Rachel and Jen were recruited to help Friday evening. Vicky, Rachel, and Jen cut the streamers to length. Dave and I removed the ceiling tile, hung the streamers, and replaced the tile while being careful to dump as much tile dust as we could while not breaking our necks. That wasn’t enough so I “helped” Vicki and Rachel be more efficient in their cutting of streamers (I think they still talk to me.)
We were pretty smug and satisfied with ourselves by 7:30. 5500 feet of streamers were carefully hung from the ceiling with just enough room for the door to open. We each went our separate ways and waited for Denise to return.
Denise decided to play hooky on Monday much to our disappointment.
Tuesday, she came, she saw, she liked.
She’s been working in her office with the streamers. We’re glad she can work because we aren’t going to take them down and she is pregnant, so she can’t really take them down. It looks like she will have to wait and continue working in her colorful office.
I got my butt kicked at work today. You know those days where nothing really seems to work right? Where you get to the end of the day and realize what you’ve been working on has a foundational flaw? Umm… I don’t know anything about that.
I worked late, worked out in the BHC for the first time in a year, and decided to play with my blog. I upgraded WordPress from 1.5 to 2.0. It is a really smooth upgrade. I highly recommend any “power users” try WordPress.
I’ve seen several other blogs display the latest music played so I figured I should join the crowd. I installed a plugin for Yahoo Music Engine which posts to last.fm. A WordPress plugin then grabs a feed from that and displays it. I could have written my own widget but I figured it was easier to use COTS (Common Off The Shelf.) Now that I’m sharing my music habits with the world I figured I should share my camera phone pics too,
I’ve grown tired of the theme I had so I switched back to the default theme. I’ll play with it more later. Maybe much later. I also want to figure out a good way of posting video. I’m leaning toward converting to FLV.
I’m off to bed. This took a little longer than I anticipated, but at least it was productive and I didn’t get my butt kicked!
I’ve heard about the January Series at Calvin College and thought about going but never turned the thought into action until last week. Dave asked if I wanted to go to the lecture by Eugene Spafford called “You’re Almost on Your Own: The State of Computer Security.” It was good, not real geek oriented but more of a general overview of the problem with computer security and what the future holds. Basically computer security isn’t a priority of industry or the government and it is up to us as users to insist in more secure applications and to make sure we practice responsible computing (setting WEP on wireless and keeping Antivirus programs up to date.)
I was intrigued by the series so I also went to “Revolutionary Papacies: John Paul II, Benedict XVI, and the Future of the Catholic Church.” By George Weigel on Friday. Pope John Paul II has had a huge impact on the Catholic Church and on society. The lecture consisted of a brief overview of the last 200 years of the papacy, to accomplishments of Pope John Paul II, and a little bit of information about Pope Benedict XVI and the challenges he faces.
Friday’s lecture was interesting and thought provoking. I realize just how little I know about the Catholic Church – which claims over 1 billion members. Many of the challenges the protestant church is wrestling with are being or have been fought by them as well. It will be interesting to see what happens over the next several years as Pope Benedict XVI follows in the footsteps of Pope John Paul II.
I’m really looking forward to going to some more of the lectures. I’m thankful my job it pretty flexible (and Denise is out of town ) so I can come in early and/or work late and take a long lunch and shoot down the road. I’m planning on attending at least three this week. If you are interested in going let me know. I try to leave CU at about 12:05 and have been getting back at about 1:50.
Mon - Paul Farmer
“Public Health & Social Justice”
Tues - Tim Dean
“Globalization of the Media: Who is Really in Control? ”
Thur - Philip Jenkins
“Reading the Bible in the Global South ”
Good bye Lotus Notes…. Almost…
My mail got migrated from Lotus to Exchange/Outlook last night. I’m fighting a few annoyances but for the most part I like it. If nothing else, it looks pretty.
I’ve been searching Google like a mad man, talking to coworkers, and hunting for tips and tricks. I found some cool things which I think are useful. In the spirit of sharing the wealth… here they are in no particular order.
Auto-complete E-Mail address
Type the partial address (Last name) and press Ctrl-K
http://ask-leo.com/where_do_outlooks_autocomplete_suggestions_come_from.html
Change which files are blocked by Outlook
Outlook blocks a lot of attachments because they could contain viruses. Sometimes they are real and need to be unblocked. Do this only at your own risk!!! It could trash your computer, delete your E-Mail, and burn your house down!
http://www.slovaktech.com/attachmentoptions.htm
Use Search Folders
This allows you to create folders which are comprised of E-Mail messages matching search criteria.
http://www.outlookexchange.com/articles/HenrikWalther/
Using_Search_Folders_in_Outlook_2003.asp
Modify the Outlook Today View
I haven’t actually tried this but it seems pretty cool. Please remember this is NOT SUPPORTED in any way and could injure or maim you.
http://www.outlookexchange.com/articles/ricardosilva/customizeouttoday.asp
Change the New Message Sound
I don’t know why you would want your computer making noises. It could be fun to set a co-workers computer to play “interesting” sounds every time a message comes in??? Or maybe you want everyone in the office to know exactly how many messages you get a day.
http://email.about.com/cs/outlooktips/qt/et112102.htm
View Full Headers
Some of us like to know all that we can about a message.
Open Message, View, Options,
http://www.slipstick.com/mail1/viewheaders.htm
Apply Changes to all Folders
Some people are really picky about how folders are displayed and have a lot of them (*Jen*) It isn’t obvious how to change all folders. This link shows you how.
http://techrepublic.com.com/5100-1035_11-5243615.html
More Tip Sites
http://email.about.com/od/outlooktips/
Lots of cools tips and tricks. Some look pretty useless or annoying.
http://www.outlookexchange.com/
Lots of advanced server and client stuff. No article index, just a search and author view. That’s really dumb!
If you know of some tips or tricks which I didn’t post please comment.
Here is a run down of the last half of my trip.
Day 5 – Friday
After an evening of reminiscing and going to the Roaring 20’s where we had pizza and watched/listened to an old Wurlitzer theater organ being played I had a fairly early bed time. Friday morning we hit the highway heading south. We branched off and took the Tamiami trail across the heart of the Everglades. It was a nice two lane route where we saw alligators lounging beside the road.
Traffic was heavy and backed up heading from Homestead to Key Largo and it was slow going. Once we got through Key Largo the road cleared and it was smooth motoring across the series of keys, towns, and bridges. The towns weren’t any too exciting but there were lots of mobile homes and travel trailers. I was surprised by the number of people living on the keys. I have always pictured them as being small and only a handful of people where in reality there are a lot of people there.
Key West is fairly large and includes a section of “regular” town and then the tourist district. We spent a little bit of time in both. We stopped for a burger on Duval Street and met a guy from Grand Rapids and who happened to have a cottage about 10 miles from my hometown. What a small world. He went to Florida three years ago for Daytona Bike week and never left.
We didn’t want to get stuck in traffic heading out of the keys in the morning so we left just after dark and rode north east toward Miami. We rode through downtown Miami at 11:30pm toward Dad’s sister’s place in Ft Lauderdale. Traffic was moderate but moving fast.
We arrived at Debbie’s around midnight after a series of wrong turns as Dad was talking to her on the phone and she was trying to guide us in. We stayed up and chatted until much too late.
Day 6 – Saturday
We woke early again because Debbie had an early appointment. We packed geared up. I turned the key on my bike and … nothing. Strange, must be a dead battery. Push starting didn’t work so we tried a jump start. Still nothing. Dang it. Must be something else. I checked all the fuses, wiggled connections, and scratched my head. Finally I wiggled once connector and the lights all came on. I figured it must be a fluke and we went on our way. We stopped for fuel and the bike wouldn’t start. This time the connector was melted. Some cobbling and it was fixed good enough to complete the trip.
We went up to Loxahatchee to visit an old tractor pulling friend. He wasn’t home but was up in Okeechobee so we went up there. It was good to see Marty we visited a while and then grabbed lunch at the Golden Corral.
We made our way north toward Daytona Beach via two lane cutting through cattle and citrus country. Did you know there are a lot of cattle in Florida?
We got to Daytona just as it was getting dark and the beach was closed to vehicles. We drove around, got a motel for the night, and had a good dinner at the Bubba Gump Shrimp company, and walked around. We went back to the room and I took a nap while Dad and Aaron went out to the block party and fireworks. My nap ended up turning into a nights sleep. I wasn’t feeling well because I had a killer cold and the sleep was much needed but I did miss ringing in the New Year.
Day 7 – Sunday
We got off to a late start this morning and enjoyed an IHOP breakfast where we got to observe one of the cooks walk off the job. The beach was still closed because it was too soft for vehicle traffic. We rode north along the coast for a while before heading west on two lane. In Lake City we hopped on I-10 and headed back to Dothan.
We got the bikes loaded up just as it was turning dark and started to rain. Aaron headed toward North Carolina and we headed back to Michigan. Just as it started getting light we rolled into Grand Rapids.
2500 miles and 4 states had been covered on the bikes and 2100 miles in truck in exactly one week. I’m tired but I think I’m getting over my cold. It was a good trip. In hindsight our route was too ambitious and didn’t have enough time to stop and see the sights. The short days of the winter really limit the number of miles that can enjoyably be covered. The weather was great with only a few sprinkles on Sunday. We saw everything from the devastation along the Gulf Coast to the hedonism along Bourbon street in New Orleans. We passed through Laurel Hill where the Hobo Festival is held every year as well as the home of speed in Daytona. It was good to spend time with Dad and Aaron. The bikes performed well with minimal problems. I even reached my goal of over 10,000 miles in 2005.
Only 4 more months of PMS: Parked Motorcycle Syndrome.
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