Justin

Passing Out

Mon, 18 Jan 2010 00:02:18 GMT

As we wrote about in Dahlia's blog, she fell down yesterday and got a cut on her head. After a while she calmed down and let us take her into the bathroom to clean it up a bit. When we pulled back the hair it was a little deeper than we had thought and I guess I wasn't prepared for that. Combine that with a lack of sleep and a little too much wii fit earlier in the day and it was a bad situation. I remember getting a little nauseas and light headed, the next thing I know I'm laying in the bathtub Gwen's slapping me in the face and screaming and the shower is on. My first thought was that I wasn't ready to get out of bed yet and couldn't imagine what was so important that I needed to get up so quickly. My second thought was 'Why am I sleeping in the shower?' Then everything came back to me when my vision returned and I saw Dahlia sitting on the counter screaming.

Gwen says that I fell pretty hard, but I didn't feel like it at all. She said I was out for a good 15 seconds. It freaked her out pretty well since she was also having a hard time with Dahlia and everything. and she says my eyes were rolled back and open making me look dead and creepy! turning the shower on as I was falling made the whole thing more funny ... in retrospect.

Language is Hard

Mon, 24 Aug 2009 04:58:00 GMT

Yesterday I was putting a shelf together and the kids both really wanted to 'help' me. Gwen was shuffling Valen away so I could finish and she asked if she should grab Dahlia too. I said, "Just Valen is fine, I don't care about Dahlia". Dahlia looked a me a little confused and sad and said "You don't care about me Daddy??". Needless to say, I gave her a big hug and explained.

These kids get smart quickly.

Last.fm

Thu, 21 May 2009 10:49:00 GMT

Been a while since I've written eh? Thought I'd drop in and share something tech related. Maybe I'll start doing my tech Thursday posts again... yeah, maybe...

Do you like music? If you answered no then you might be a communist and you can skip this post. For the rest of you, I recommend that you check out last.fm. It has many cool features for just about anyone.

It's huge

They have a huge amount of music. Seriously, if you can think of a musician or band that isn't on there, then the band you are thinking of is probably a band you were in in high school.

It's connected

Not only do they have all of this music, they have it all connected intelligently. If you look at any band, they will have a list of other bands that you are likely to enjoy if you enjoy that band. I've been impressed for the most part with their recommendations.

It's easy

Just about every popular music player either has a plugin for last.fm or has it already built in. Once you log in to it, you don't have to do anything. It just starts uploading a history of everything you've listened to. I started using last.fm about three years ago. I didn't really log in for a year or so afterwards but now I find it very valuable. It automatically gives you recommendations for bands you might like. It even will give you a list of free downloads from band it thinks you will like. You can check out my page here:

http://www.last.fm/user/sporkss

It's social

If you have friends on there (and if you're reading this you have at least one), then you can see everything they're listening to. It will even stream a 'radio station' of music that your friends listen to.

There are loads of other little features that you might love as well. I suggest you check it out for yourslef. If you do, don't forget to drop me a note :)

Dahlia Runs Linux

Sat, 01 Nov 2008 23:52:00 GMT

Today was a very proud day for me. Dahlia has learned for herself the joys of linux. She saw an Ubuntu logo and asked what it was. I said Ubuntu and she started repeating that all day.

Advent Conspiracy

Mon, 20 Oct 2008 01:08:13 GMT

I had heard about Advent Conspiracy the last two years through Imago Dei and had thought it was a great idea. Today I was able to present it to my church at both services. Anyway, check out the promo video and visit their website for more info.

Advent Conspiracy Intro - 2008 from Robert Terrell on Vimeo.

We're going to be giving half of the money we raise back to Advent Conspiracy and half of it to SafePlace, a local group that helps abused women.

Pastor Justin

Sat, 05 Jul 2008 09:37:43 GMT

This last Sunday I had the opportunity to preach my first sermon at a real church! I was very honored that they asked me after only being at the church for the last 5 months. All in all I think it went pretty well. I received some encouraging feedback anyway. If you want to check it out here's the link:

http://www.sermoncloud.com/realitychurch/love-is-good

I have a tendancy to talk really fast when I speak in front of large groups. I didn't realize how fast it was till I listened to the sermon. I think when I get nervous somewhere in my brain I think that if I just talk faster it will be more interesting. Really it just doesn't give enough time to think about each point. This will be the biggest thing I'll work on next time delivery wise.

This was the longest speech I've ever done (32:00). With shorter speeches it's easier to keep everything I want to say fresh in my mind; my notes are there just in case. This time I had to really rely on them. I ended up rewriting them after the first service from the sage advice of one of our elders.

I've also never done the same speech twice in one day before. I didn't think about this much beforehand but it was a little bit challenging to get into it the second time. I forgot to say some things in both services but I was more prepaired for the second so I think that one turned out better all in all.

It was a really good experience for me if for no other reason than that I got to think about love all the time for two weeks and telling the whole church what I'm working with regards to that will help motivate me to live it out better.

Bibbity Boppity Bacon

Mon, 03 Mar 2008 10:13:10 GMT

http://www.milkandcookies.com/link/74980/detail/

How I love Japan

Fri, 04 Jan 2008 22:12:09 GMT

Japan is crazy, and I say that with love. Here are some examples, enjoy.

Flash Mob

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bj0Ma2CsHME

Toilet Prank

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YsDbOMJOMgQ

Spa Prank

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omu4G8igoVc

Rice Rice Baby

Mon, 17 Dec 2007 16:34:29 GMT

Do you like people not starving?

Do you like improving your vocabulary?

If you answered yes to either of those questions, you should go to...

You answer vocabulary questions, for every one you get right, 20 grains of rice donated to needy people. It's fun and it makes you feel good inside, or at least slightly better.

Parable

Fri, 31 Aug 2007 22:31:25 GMT

From the Gospel of Dahlia:

"Suppose a little girl has a hundred Cheerios and loses one of them. Does she not leave the ninety-nine on the tray and go after the lost Cheerio until she finds it? And when she finds it, she joyfully puts it in her mouth and gets back in her highchair. Then she calls her parents and brother together and says, 'Rejoice with me; I have found my lost Cheerio!'."

Time is Running Backwards

Sun, 26 Aug 2007 23:56:11 GMT

We like to keep clocks around the house. For whatever reason we like to know what time it is. Once and a while there is need to replace the batteries in these clocks. Last week this need arose, so naturally I set out today to rectify this. After a new battery was inserted into the clock and the clock was rehung high above our kitchen, we noticed something peculiar. The movement seems to be working accurately, only exactly backwards. I set the clock to 5:38 and a little over an hour later it read 4:30, a few hours after that it was 1:30.

Two questions. Has this ever happened to any of you (the clock is of the cheap target variety)? Should we leave it like this or try to fix / replace it?

Church Cloud

Sat, 16 Jun 2007 01:07:14 GMT

We released a new web site at Monk Development recently. It's called Church Cloud. I'm pretty proud of it, even though it's still quite basic. There are two basic uses for it.

Find A Church

Enter in a city or zip code and you should be able to find a number of churches in that area. There are over 27,000 churches in the database, so there's a good chance you'll find something. The obvious goal is to have pretty much every Bible believing church listed. Some churches just have the name and location, most we have more info, like denomination and website.

It's primarily intended for people to find a church to attend, but it can also be helpful in learning more about the other churches in your area and hopefully lead to greater cooperation between churches.

Simple Web Site

After a church adds themselves to Church Cloud, they can list all kinds of other info useful to potential visitors and regular attenders alike. You can add service times, contact info, a description and more. You can add events to keep members informed and give visitors an idea of your community. You can add sermons to give new members a taste of your teaching and create a nice reference for members.

A bad website will turn people off, a good website is expensive and can be hard to maintain. We hope to bridge that gap so that even the smallest church can have an attractive place on the web.

This is the second site in our "Cloud Network", Sermon Cloud being the first. I'm starting work on Worship Cloud tomorrow with a planned release latter this summer.

Update-O-Rama

Tue, 01 May 2007 01:31:27 GMT

I've been a busy beaver the last few weeks, thus the utter lack of blogging. So here's what's been keeping me busy...

Pictures!

I revamped the photo galleries here. I added tags and commenting among other things. For your convenience I put the date of the last picture added in the sidebar on each blog and an rss feed for all the pics...

http://bodeutsch.com/bodeutsch/includes/rssPictures.xml

Dell

My laptop died a few weeks ago. The good news is that it is still under warranty. I was pretty impressed with their customer service, here's what happened...

It stopped working on Tuesday April 3rd. I had done our taxes on it and hadn't printed them yet so I was hoping and praying to get it back before I had to pay my taxes, really did want to have to do them again. I called them on Wednesday, after they had me do a few tests to make sure it was really really dead they said they would send me a box which I could use to send it back to them. On Thursday I got the box and sent it back. On Friday I got a call from them telling me they had received it and would let me know when they had found the problem. On Monday (after Easter) I was hoping they would fix it and maybe mail it on Tuesday. I was quite surprised to see the DHL truck pull into my driveway with my laptop. Five days after I called them (three business days) I had my laptop back, good as new.

Geo

After many years (7) of loyal service and fun, the Geo and I have parted ways. It was a mutual decision and we are committed to remain friends... Well, I suppose since we sold him to a guy in Gresham, we won't so much be friends, but I'll always remember ol' metro fondly. Many good memories in that car. The timing was great, we needed him the last few weeks as the Honda was in the shop. More on that later...

Who Knew

Mon, 19 Mar 2007 21:11:47 GMT

A couple weeks after we got our new Honda, we decided to take it in to have it looked over, just to make sure we didn't get ripped off. The night before we were to take it in I got in the car to make a quick grocery run. I turned the key and there was a lot of whirring but no starting. The door had been left ajar for the previous day, so I assumed it lacked the power to start. We called Gwen's dad and had him come over to try to jump it (he had the metro at the time). Still nothing. After a short while we decided that power was not the problem.

The next day Gwen's dad replaced the spark plugs (since they weren't firing) and tried a few other tricks to get it going. After none of them worked, we decided we would tow it the next day if we couldn't get it going. The next morning I decided to try one last time. I turned the key and it started right up. I drove around the block and all seemed well. When I got home we decided to take it to the shop right then. After getting all bundled up, Gwen and Dahlia got in the Metro and I got in the Honda... which didn't start!!

Very frustrated at this point, we had it towed to the shop. They gave us a call a short time later and they asked us if we had the original key. The key we gave them, we had just made at Fred Meyer. As it turns out in these fancy 99 Hondas, you have to have their magical key with a transmitter in it to get it going. The one time I did get it started was the one time I used the right key.

The best part is that to get a new key we have to go to the Honda dealer, which is good news, because we are such good friends with some people over there as you might remember from previous posts.

Like Japan

Tue, 06 Mar 2007 00:26:39 GMT

This site is now smaller and more efficient! I've been doing a lot of behind the scene type stuff on the site over the last few weeks, making the site run a lot better. We got rid of a lot of old stuff, as Trè pointed out. The plan is to add updated content over time. In any event there should be more visible changes in the near future.

You may need to update your bookmarks since the locations of every page but the home page are different. The old rss feed should redirect but you may have to update that manually. :(

Boring Technical Stuff

I switched the site from asp to php. The two driving factors being that apache is a better server (it doesn't run asp) and I do all my coding for Monk in php. I also switched computers I'm running it off of from a really slow computer to a less slow computer. I switched over to a mysql database a few months ago. Hooray for open source!

From Craig with Love

Sun, 18 Feb 2007 00:00:00 GMT

The Bodeutsch's have cast the geo aside and upgraded their vehicle. We are now the proud owners of a 99 Honda Accord. The day after our lovely experience at Dick Hannah we found a deal from our good friend Craig, or specifically, his list. We are big fans of Craig's List, that is where we found our home we live in now. We were planning on posting a picture soon after we bought the car, but I was in Sandiego on business the week of.... other than that though, it has been because of pure laziness.

To some folks a 99 doesn't sound all that luxurious, but drive the metro for a couple minutes and you will understand. We can actually go 60 miles an hour and not feel like we are getting a massage at the same time.

Special Guests

Fri, 16 Feb 2007 00:00:00 GMT

While eating dinner tonight some young men in crisp white shirts came to my door. Despite their young age, they name tags proudly proclaimed that they are elders. That's right, the Mormons chose me of all people to come and visit. I shooed them away due to time constraints, but they will surly return. I just haven't decided what my response will be when they return.
I'm tempted tell them I'm not interested and ask them not to return. Then I think about the fact that for every minute they are talking to me, they aren't talking to someone else. It's almost a civic duty to entertain them for a bit. It's been a while since I've studied the LDS in non rap form, so I was wondering if any of you had any recent experience with them. I don't want to be arrogant and try to shove their errors in their face, rather I'd just like to bring up some of the honest concerns I have with them. The main thing I want to discuss is the deity of Jesus, but are there some other topics that might cause them to rethink their positions? I'll update as the situation progresses.

Buying a Car

Mon, 29 Jan 2007 00:00:00 GMT

We're buying a car, and this time we mean it. We started looking at cars well over a year ago, but kept putting it off. We're leaning more towards buying from a private seller but today we decided to look at a few dealerships just so we could look at a few cars in person and see what we really like. After stopping by a few small places we decided to look at Dick Hannah simply because they had a lot of cars. Two hours later we left, never shall we return.

    As soon as we exited our humble Geo,we were greated by a salesman. We told him we just wanted to look around. He heard "Please hold my hand a walk me around the lot". I didn't mind that he showed us American cars even though we told him we wanted Japanese as we were wanting to get a feel for all of what was out there. I did mind that he would say "just joking" after showing us cars completely off of want we told him we wanted.

After a good look around the place we thanked him for his time and we were about to leave... BUT WAIT... he told us there possibly might be one more car but he'd have to go inside and check. We should have left then, silly us. We he returned a young salesman was with him. We had been handed off, it was time for the hard sell. We were led around to look at a few more cars, all of which we had no interest in. I didn't really mind the tricky sales tactics, I found them funny and interesting at first. We still wanted to leave, but he lured us inside because we were very cold, he had coffee/hot chocolate and there was that promise of that one car that he wasn't sure if he could sell that he had to check on.

    After waiting a few minutes he returned and informed us that he'd know about the car in a few days. We gave him our number and we're about to leave. We had dismissed the offer of a lease already, but he brought it up one more time. Since we knew very little about them we decided to ask about them. I should have left immediately when he pulled up Internet Explorer to look at kbb.com (blue book). :)

    It sounded less horrible than we thought so we let him babble on about the whole deal. (first of all we would never buy a brand new car for 23,000!!!! but he slyly tricked us into running a check just to make sure we were eligible. We weren't eligible for the best rate which he had been pitching to us which didn't stop him from trying to get us to get the package way out of what we could spend. We had him on the ropes, we stood up and thanked him. He tried his hardest to get us to sign the deal despite telling him many times that we absolutely didn't want to buy a car today. We told him that there was NO way that we were making a decision on something we just now heard about. But I guess there are lots of suckers out there who buckle and give in with the salesman's persistence, so he kept at it.

    We then made our final mistake. We went to the bathroom. After we emerged from the bathroom, our salesman was waiting for us, but he wasn't alone. ANOTHER SALES MAN WAS WITH HIM! We were hungry and we needed to get back to Dahlia who was waiting at Gwen's parents. Salesman number three repeated the same information about how wonderful leases are and how we really should do it. I felt like we were just going to have to start literally running to get out of there!

    We did end up leaving shortly after that, but we were in a very sour mood at that point. We felt completely ignored, they showed us cars we didn't want. We told them we wanted to spend 8000-10,000, they pretended that 10,000 was our starting point. They did everything they could to keep us there even though they knew we needed to leave. They didn't lie to us really, but they did talk down private sellers a bit much. They came up blank when we asked them if there were any other dealers with cars more in our price range. And the hot chocolate wasn't even very good.

    I don't know if any other dealers are any better, but we're done with them. Certainly the large ones. Have any of you had similar experiences or know of one that is better?

Christmas Tradition

Sat, 30 Dec 2006 00:00:00 GMT

My family has a lot of family traditions. Over the years we've refined the whole process down to a predictable process. Even with the addition of several new members, things still pretty much stayed the same. This year was extra fun with two new babies that had never met.
One tradition that has lasted a few generations of the Bodeutsch clan is the order in which we open presents. After passing out each gift to the recipient, we each open one present at a time going from youngest to oldest. The process was quite drawn out this year since there was 13 of us, some with 15+ presents!
As I've grown up and experienced a few other traditions I've realized that not everyone does it this way, in fact, I'm yet to find anyone who does do it this way. So since I can never find that perfect place in the conversation to ask people what they do, I figured I'd ask here. So what do you do? Do you have a mad free-for-all? Do you have a methodical method? Do you shun presents and just shower each other with compliments? I'm dying to know...

Tech Thursday 12 - Del.icio.us

Fri, 17 Nov 2006 00:00:00 GMT

Apart from having a really cleaver name, Del.icio.us is a super cool web site. Seriously. Let me count the ways.

1. Store all your bookmarks online.     If you ever use more than one computer this can be very handy. If you've ever been at someone's house and wanted to show them a web page but just couldn't quite remember how to find the site, this is great.

2. Tags not folders.     Instead of having to sort through long lists of links or remember exactly which folder you put something in, you simply have to remember what the site was about. When you add a new site, you can add as many 'tags' as you would like. So you might tag mlb.com "sports, baseball, mariners, fun". Then when you want to find that site again, you could look in any of those categories to find it.

3. See other people's bookmarks.     You can look at anyone else's bookmarks. If you find someone else who has similar interests, you can see the sites that they find interesting. You can even save your favorite people, so their bookmarks show up right next to yours.

4. See popular sites on any topic.     You can also find the most popular sites on any given subject. For instance, if you wanted to find good recipes you could just go here: http://del.icio.us/popular/recipes
    There are lots and lots of tags and site also. I tried the tag donmiller (Don Miller, author of blue like jazz) and found a number of sites. http://del.icio.us/tag/donmiller

5. It's easy to use.     There are tools available for every browser so if you are on a site that you might want to keep for later reference, you can click one button, tell it which tags you want and you are done. You don't even have to leave the site that you're on.

Try it out, it's fun and useful. While you're at it check out my bookmarks.
http://del.icio.us/sporkss
If you have a del.icio.us account, post the url in the comments.

The Joy of Movement

Sun, 12 Nov 2006 00:00:00 GMT

As you may have read in Dahlia's blog, she has been crawling now for a week. It's very exciting to see growth happen so quickly in someone. When people are older, change is so gradual it's easy to overlook, but with Dahlia every day there is something new to notice.
    In some ways it's scary that she's gained more mobility. You have to keep an eye on her at all times lest she wander too near the fireplace, speaker wires or any number of other hazards that are bountiful in our living room. As she learns to stand up now, there is danger that she will fall (and she already has) and hurt herself. I am personally aware of this, I cracked my head open when I was three and had to have it stapled shut. So it adds a little extra stress.
    Ultimately it's great for us though. She can keep herself happy and entertained for much longer now. This gives us a little more time to get things done around the house (our dishes are already thanking us). She was already a pretty good girl before, now she's even better. Also, it requires us to baby proof our house. This is just the motivation we need to keep the house that much cleaner. Already today I've found myself about to discard some junk in some forgotten corner of the room only to stop myself, realizing that whatever is left on the floor is sacrificed to Dahlia.
    So, while crawling is scary, it's nice. I'll just have to remember this when she gets her driver's license.

Tech Thursday 11 - Browsers (again)

Mon, 06 Nov 2006 00:00:00 GMT

It's been a while since my first post on web browsers and since then, every major browser has released significant new versions.

Opera 9      The fastest and most secure browser on the market is now even better. If that wasn't enough, it's standard features are the best (mouse gestures, bittorrent, nice tab options). There are some decent add-ons available as well.
    The downside is that it still has some compatibility issues with a few advanced sites, although that list is getting shorter all the time.

Download Here

Firefox 2     Some pretty good updates over the previous edition. Some of my favorite changes are... It spell checks everything you type. The default search (the one in the top right) uses Google suggest (try it out, it's nice). The default theme is much nicer. There are lots of other little things which I am still discovering.
    Firefox with no extensions isn't as good as Opera. But, Firefox has a ton of extensions available, which tips the scales in favor of Firefox.

Download Here

Internet Explorer 7     For the first time in 6 years, Windows' default browser got a major upgrade. It adds loads of new features and theoretically is a lot more secure, although time will tell. It also fixes many (but not all) of the display issues that make web developers like me want to commit violent crimes. All in all, it's a huge step forward. It's not as good as Firefox or Opera but it's probably 80-90% of the way there. It should be available if you run Microsoft Update, but if not...

Download Here

Banks

Sat, 28 Oct 2006 00:00:00 GMT

What's the deal with banks? Often when I visit the bank there is a long line of patrons waiting to do their financial business. As my heart sinks at the prospect of waiting in line for untold amounts of time, a glimmer of light shines through. I see the ATM with no one using it. Sometimes there are one or two people there, but always much less than the line for the tellers. I've never really understood this. Do people enjoy waiting in line? Does the half-hearted smile from the teller keep them coming back? Do people not realize that there is a faster way? Are they afraid of the robot who eats their checks and spits out cash? What do you do at the bank (or are you extra lazy efficient and do direct deposit)?

Tech Thursday 10 - More Open Source

Sat, 21 Oct 2006 00:00:00 GMT

Now that we've looked at a few of the major Open Source programs I thought I'd give a little summary. Here is why I like open source...

It's free
And not just free as in cost, but also free to change. Anyone (who knows how) can look at a programs source and make sure it's not doing anything annoying or stupid.
It can be very good
Some (Firefox) are much better than the closed source version. Some (Open Office) are good enough to be a viable alternative. Others (Linux) can be a matter of preference.
It makes me feel good
Having a computer and good software can help kids in school, help people get good jobs and in general help in life. Anything that can lessen the gap between the rich and the poor is a good thing in my book.

Check out this site for a list of good open source programs that covers most everything you do on a computer.

If you are on a mac, try this list.

Bric-a-brac

Sun, 15 Oct 2006 00:00:00 GMT

I watched an interesting movie last night called "Who Killed the Electric Car?" You may watch the video here. If you don't feel like watching all hour and a half I'll summarize:

California mandated that car companies sell electric cars.
Car companies made some cars and leased them to a few people.
Car and oil companies lobbied to get the mandate removed.
After the leases were up for the cars, the companies took the cars back and destroyed them, despite the fact that the owners loved the cars and there was demand for more cars to be made.

I've never been much for conspiracy theories but it is clear that car and oil companies are very scared of changing. Now they are pursuing hydrogen as the fuel of the future, despite the fact that there is no guarantee that hydrogen will ever be a viable alternative.
The movie does end with a glimmer of hope in that hybrid cars have done very well and should be able to move from being more gas than electric to more electric than gas and from there to go fully electric.

We at Monk Development launched Sermon Cloud a few weeks ago. It's a great tool for churches because it's a quick easy way for them to get there sermons on-line and available. It's great for everybody because it's a simple way to find good sermons on any topic or passage. It's still relatively small (about 1,200 sermons on file), but it's growing quickly. Here are some of my favorite sermons.

This is funny: http://www.ie7.com

Tech Thursday Nine - Linux

Thu, 28 Sep 2006 00:00:00 GMT

You may or may not have heard of Linux before. Even if you have heard about it, most people don't know very much about it. I didn't know much till about a year ago. So...

What is Linux? It's an Operating System (OS). Windows is the operating system almost everyone (who isn't on a mac) uses. In the early 90's windodws was the best most user firendly OS, so it became popular. Linux has been around for a while in various forms, and has always been free. The problem was it was made by nerd for nerds, you had to have a good amount of technical abilities to run it. Fortunatly, in the last few years, a huge effort has been made to make it easier to use. There are a number of different versions of Linux (it's open source so anyone can make one), but the most popular and easiest is called Ubuntu.

So Who Should Use Linux? The are a few good reasons to use it. It's 100% free, possibly even 120% free. It runs a lot faster than windows, and can run on older computers much better. You don't have to worry about viruses and spyware. Most importantly, people will asume that you are really smart and tech savvy just for saying, "I use Linux."
The biggest reasons not to use Linux are... if you already have windows, linux isn't so much better that it's worth switching. Windows programs don't run on linux. There are ways of running the most popular programs, but not all of them. Doing most things is really easy in Linux (well in Ubuntu anyway), there is even a program that will download and setup all the common programs for you. If soemthing doesn't work right it can be very difficult to fix, but that is true for Windows as well.

Two years ago, linux was a good option for uber-geeks. It has come a long way and now is a great option for a second computer or for people who don't mind learning a new way of doing tihngs. I really believe that in another two years, Linux will be flat out far and away better than Windows, but time will tell.

If you want to know more give me a jingle, I'd love to let you know if Linux is right for you and help you get setup!

We're Back!

Mon, 25 Sep 2006 00:00:00 GMT

Wow, it's almost been a month since we went off-line. Here's what happened (if you happen to care)...
I was graciously given some extra RAM from my good friend Kyle (and a video card too!). New RAM gets me so excited that I tend to make bad choices, I know some of you can relate (Dusty). Installing RAM is an easy process, but when I turned my computer on, it didn't recognize the new RAM, only the old one. A smart person would have immediately turned the computer off, I didn't. We had to go somewhere so I just left it running. When I got home a few hours later the computer was dead.
    OK, no huge problem, that's why I have a backup computer I can use as a server. Unfortunately, in the process of trying to resurrect my first computer I destroyed my other one as well. So I had two blown motherboards and one frustrated guy. I found out later that not only did my motherboards die, but my power supplies too, SUPPLIES,(to be said with Asian accent).
    So I ordered a new motherboard which came a few days later. The bad news was that it came two days before we moved. So I had no time to build a computer. After we moved in I found a little time to work on the computer. I got it running before long but for various reasons, I decided that I didn't want the web site on the main computer anymore. The only problem was that I didn't have another computer. The good news was that last Sunday, we dropped in on our friends Brad and Jenny. They had an old computer they hadn't used in some time that they donated to the cause. It turns out that slow computers make fine web servers. Thanks Brad!!
    All this week, when I haven't been working or running or sleeping or eating or playing with Dahlia, I've been getting the site set up again. I got it done on Friday, but we figured we should finish redesigning the homepage before we launch again, so check that out if you missed it. It's my favorite design yet.

Growing Up

Wed, 23 Aug 2006 00:00:00 GMT

There are some things that I loved when I was a kid, but now think are silly. At different points I loved MC Hammer and Carman. I watched Home Improvement every week for a few years. I read every 'Boxcar Children' book that I could. Now I can't stomach any of them.
Other things I loved then and I love now. I loved and still love Animaniacs. I've played Super Techmo Bowl for the Nintendo every year for a long time. There was a few years when all I listened to was Weird Al. As I got older I kept thinking that I needed to stop liking him. As hard as I tried I kept coming back to him. My on-going interest was furthered today with the release of Weird Al's newest song.
I wonder what things I love today will be old news in a few years. If you know a magic formula for figuring that out, I'm interested.

What are some things that you loved as a kid that you are embarrassed of now? What things do you still love?

Tech Thursday Eight - The Gimp

Fri, 11 Aug 2006 00:00:00 GMT

While Photoshop is only half as useful as Office, it's twice as fun. In a time when literally everyone has a digital camera, the need to crop, lighten and touch up photos is great. There are a number of simple products out there that will take care of a few of the basic tasks. The beautiful thing about Photoshop is it does everything. The problem is that it also costs everything ($650!).

The good news is there exists a free open source alternative, The Gimp. The Gimp does most everything that Photoshop can do. It can be a little frustrating at times, but so can Photoshop. If you are already familiar with Photoshop, there is a version of The Gimp whose layout emulates Photoshop. Also, there are a number of tutorial online covering both basic and specific tasks.

If you're looking for something a little simpler Google's Picasa is free, will do most things and is way easier than Photoshop or The Gimp. Corel's Paint Shop Pro is another very good for advanced functions and only costs $80. It's also worth noting that Windows Vista has some very cool photo editing capabilities coming, but that's another topic...

The Irony of Battle Ground

Tue, 08 Aug 2006 00:00:00 GMT

Have you ever wondered how the illustrious SW Washington town of Battle Ground got it's name? I sure have. But thanks to Wikipedia, we no longer have to wonder.
I love Wikipedia, there is such a large amount of interesting information on there that it LITERALLY boggles my mind. So if you see me walking down the street with a boggled head, you'll know why.

Tech Thursday 7 - Open Office

Fri, 28 Jul 2006 00:00:00 GMT

Microsoft Office is one of those products that is hard to do without. At some point everyone needs to open or create a Word document. Power Point, Excel and others aren't quite as needed but are very nice to have. There also aren't very many competitors to Office. So you are stuck paying $400 for Office... or are you?
Open Office is an open source version of Office. It works just about same as office, has all the same programs, and like all open source software, it's free!
    So is Open Office that great? I've been using it for a little while now and I've been completely satisfied. I should note that I haven't tested out any of the advanced features. I've mostly just created short documents and sent them to people. So if you want a review of all the programs and the advanced features, you'll have to look elsewhere. From everything that I've heard, it's a great alternative that will do what you want.
    Reasons not to get Open Office... If you already have Microsoft office or can get it for free then stick with it. If you heavily depend on MS office and you don't have time to learn something I wouldn't switch.

To find out more and download it click here.

PS Google has online versions of Word and Excel in the works but aren't available to everyone yet. While not Open Source, they are expected to be very nice and good alternatives to their Microsoft counterparts.

I've Got It!!

Sun, 16 Jul 2006 00:00:00 GMT

I think I may have figured out what the deal is with babies and all their crying, they are itchy. Think about it, have you ever had an itch someplace that you couldn't get too. Maybe you were carrying something that you couldn't put down, or performing at a piano recital, maybe you were kidnapped by keebler elves and they tied you to a chair while an itch on your forehead drove you nuts. It can be darn near unbearable!
Now think about babies, they cry when they have a need that they can't meet themselves. Many times you can pinpoint the problem; they are hungry or tired or poopy. Sometimes no matter what you try, they just keep bawling and bawling. I've tested my theory on Dahlia a few times, but it only seems to make things worse. which doesn't really surprise me. Having someone else try to scratch your itch never seems to hit the spot. So until she's older and can scratch her own itches, we'll just have to keep watching her suffer.

Tech Thursday Six - Open Source

Thu, 13 Jul 2006 00:00:00 GMT

Software is expensive. Microsoft Office is $400, Windows XP is $200, Adobe Photoshop is $650. That's a lot of money for a few programs that can be hard to live without? Fortunately there is a better way, it's called open source.
Most software is a product of a company. Someone decided to make a product, they hire a bunch of people to do it and then they package it and sell it. Open Source works a bit differently. Anybody can work on open source, whether they are writing code or testing it out. If enough people work on something a great product will emerge. The best part is, it's always free.
The most popular example is the firefox browser. There was a time when firefox was not that great. As time went on more and more people helped out on it and it has become the best web browser around. The more popular it has become, the more people work on it and the better it is.
Over the coming weeks (I'm back on my every other week schedule), I'm going to take a look at a few (at least three) other open source programs and weigh the pro's and con's of each.
Are there any programs that you wish you could get for free? Let me know and I'll see if I can find a open source and/or free alternative.

Where have I been?

Sat, 08 Jul 2006 00:00:00 GMT

It's been so long, old friend, only a month but it feels more like 39 days. A combination of travel, world cup, running, dahlia and work have kept me procrastinating. But no more excuses it's time to blog... now I just need something to talk about.

A few random things:

This guy is my new hero.

I went on a trip to the Oregon coast with my youth group. It was fun, but I swear it was the same temperature as it was the last time I visited the coast... in December.

What's the deal with people using the word literally like it's literally going out of style. I literally want to jump off a bridge when people say 'literally' when they don't mean it. I read a report about a soccer match and the writer said that one of the teams was literally asleep on the field. I literally wanted to reach through my computer and literally punch him into next thursday!

My family is back from Thailand permanently. In August they are moving back into the house that I grew up in, which will be nice. Now they just need to figure out what to do with themselves.

Congrats to Kyle MacDonald who successfully traded one red paperclip for a house.

Tech Thursday(ish) Six - Microwaves

Sun, 04 Jun 2006 00:00:00 GMT

I don't have any special insights for microwaves, but I do have a question...

What's the deal with all those buttons on microwaves? Don't get me wrong (I've been gotten wrong before, and I don't like it), I love microwaves, but are those buttons all necessary? Do they even do anything? I'm sure that if I press them, they will beep and perhaps display something but it will do the exact same thing as if you hadn't pressed them. Do you ever use the supposed myriad functions of your microwave?

On the Run

Tue, 30 May 2006 00:00:00 GMT

For the first time in many months, I've been running. I like running for a number of reasons, not the least of which is what it teaches me about faith. When I run, especially when I'm out of shape, my body frequently lies to me. It says, "Justin, please stop now, we can't continue on like this." My body backs up this plea with healthy doses of pain. At first I'm tempted to believe my body and slow down, but I don't. Instead I try to trick myself. I reply to my body, "We certainly can't keep this pace up for the whole time, but I bet we can for another block or so." Having called my body's bluff I keep going on at the same pace or faster for the remainder of the run. Often when I finish, I realize that I could have gone much faster.
Every time I lace up my shoes and head out the door, I have a little more confidence to push through the pain. I know that not only will everything be alright, but that after I've caught my breath, I'll be stronger and healthier than before.
Trusting God at times can feel counter-intuitive. You know in your head that God is good and will see you through but it can be so tempting to give up and stop trusting him. But if you stick with it you will find in the end that not only that you are ok, but that you have grown. Then the next situation will be easier to navigate.
Faith is not something that comes easy, but I wouldn't trade it for anything, even a new pair of running shoes.

Tech Thursday Five - VOIP!

Fri, 19 May 2006 00:00:00 GMT

V.O.I.P. is all the craze these days. You can't turn on the TV without seeing a Vonage commercial. V.O.I.P. stands for "Voice Over Internet Protocol", or simply, it's talkin through the puter. Instead of sending your calls over those copper phone lines, your calls go out over whatever internet connection you happen to have. There are two ways to use VOIP, on your computer or with a regular phone.
    Programs that let you talk over your internet connection have been around for some time. I remember using them way back in 96 (is that right Travis?). If you use MSN messanger or GoogleTalk all you need is a microphone and speakers and you can talk to anyone on your buddy list. The most popular program for calling people from your computer is called Skype. With it, you can call for free anybody else who is signed up. The best part, is that for a small fee, you can call any real phone number. I use skype to conference call with my coworkers in San Diego.
    There are other companies that allow you to use a regular phone, have a regular phone number, but use your internet connection to make calls. Vonage is the most popular but there are a few other good ones out there. Other companies like Comcast and Quest call in "Digital Voice" in a shameless attempt to trick people into thinking it's something else. They charge TWICE as much for the EXACT same thing. DO NOT buy VOIP from Comcast or Qwest under any circumstances, it is a huge rip off.

The Good
    You can save a lot of money over traditional telephone companies. For $25 you can get unlimited minutes and free long distance (Canada too!). They also include lots of other features like call waiting, caller id and voice mail for free. International calls are also pretty cheap.
The Bad
You have to have a good internet connection already. Really you should have cable for it because if you have DSL then you are probably getting it from you phone company at a discount because you use their phone service. So switching to VOIP would nullify that advantage. Also, if your internet goes down, you can't use your phone either. Once a month or so we'll have a call get dropped or garbled too.

We've been using VOIP for a year and a half and I highly recommend it. If you have been thinking about getting cable internet it can help defray that cost. If you do decide to switch then find someone who is using it and have them refer you. Both of you will get a good discount.

A Big Day

Mon, 15 May 2006 00:00:00 GMT

Today has been a very exciting day for me. We finally launched Imago Dei's new web site. I have been working on this site for many months and I have put many hours into it. The site was designed by an excellent designer at Imago. It's been fun because Monk (my other job) is developing the backend (how Imago's people update the site). So basically, I work for a customer of the company that I work for. The site is a huge improvement over the last one. The three things I'm most excited about are... 1. Drop down menus, you can find anything on the site quickly and easily. 2. Lots of good info on the home page. 3. Comments, you can comment on anything and everything on the site. So, go check it out!

Tech Thursday Four - Spyware

Sat, 06 May 2006 00:00:00 GMT

I like being in control of my computer. I don't want anything taking up my processor power unnecisarally. So when I notice something installed that I never asked for or wanted, it makes me so angry that I could eat a gallon of ice cream (isn't that what you do when you're angry?).
Spyware is any program that uses your computer without your consent. The main two things that spyware will do is try to show you advertisements and try to steal your personal information. They do other things too, but the bottom line is, you don't want them. I would say, the number one reason that computers slow down over time, is because they are bogged down by spyware.
Removing them can the tricky. After you spot the offending program, many times a simple uninstall will not do the trick. Fortunately there are a few programs that can help you out. My personal recommendation is, Adaware. It's free, it's easy and does the job. It's a good idea to keep one anti-spyware program installed on your computer at all times. I also recommend installing a second program every few months or so and find what your main program might have missed. Other programs I recommend are, spybot (free), and spysweeper (30 day trial for free, so it's good for a one time check).

Download Adaware!

If you have never done a spyware scan before, it will tell you that it found 4,304,392 (well a huge number anyway) items. 95% of these are not that important. There may only be two or three critical items. They just like you too see a big number to make their product seem more important.

Like a Phoenix

Thu, 27 Apr 2006 00:00:00 GMT

In honor of the Easter season (I presume) mini-cam came back to life this week. Lo these many months mini-cam lie still on my desk. A periodic check would reveal that the camera still was certain its batteries were low, even when new batteries were endowed upon it. Then this last week as sunday gave way to monday and a new week was born, I spied the absurdly small camera ironically sitting in an absurdly large glass. I held the diminutive camera in my right hand and struck it against the palm of the left hand with no little force. I hit the power button and I was pleasantly surprised to find that the camera worked! I have no idea how long it will work this time, but it is sure nice to get a little visit from an old friend.

Tech Thursday Three - AntiVirus

Fri, 21 Apr 2006 00:00:00 GMT

Ok, I'm officially changing tech tuesday to tech thursday for reasons that I'm not going to go into here
AntiVirus Why is having antivirus software important?
    If didn't have an antivirus program AND you didn't run updates, you would have a plethora of viruses in short order. If you keep your computer up to date and you pay attention to what you are doing, you will get very few viruses and your antivirus program will be your last defence.

What do viruses do?
    In the good old days, viruses were primarily about gaining fame in the hacking community. They just wanted to replicate fast enough to get out there and do enough damage for people to notice. Now viruses are more about turning your computer into a zombie. Unfortunately, not the fun loving, flesh eating zombies we all know and love. These kind want to take over your computer and use it to do other nefarious task such as sending out spam and attacking other computers.

What do we do then?
    I've used just about all the major antivirus programs at some point. I discovered that the more expensive the program, the worse it is. McAfee and Norton just try to do too many things and eat up all your computer's resources. The best one I've found is also free. It's not pretty, and it could be a more user friendly, but it works well. The only adjustment I had to make after I installed it was to have it scan my computer in the middle of the night.

Download AVG antivirus here!

I've heard of some other free ones, but I haven't tried them yet. If you have let me know!

The Good, The Bad and the Poopy

Sat, 15 Apr 2006 00:00:00 GMT

It has now been more than three months since Dahlia was born. To sum it all up, I'd say that it's been hard but very rewarding.
    Nobody ever said that having a baby was easy. Our lives have changed substantially; we can't just decide on a whim to go out somewhere. It takes a lot of planning and timing to do anything. Last Saturday we left Dahlia at the Grandparents and went to the Olive Garden. It was a race against the clock. We decided what to order while waiting for our seats and we asked for the check as soon as we got our food. We almost had to ask the cooks to pre-cut our food to save time.
     The limited time is well worth it though. Every day it's so much fun to just watch her grow up. The changes are slow and often imperceptible, but then you look over at her and you noticed something new. Last week she started sucking her fingers all the time. This week she will turn her head and look at you when you talk to her.
    The best part is when she smiles though. Recently we invented a game called 'One, Two, Three, Push!' While laying on her back, I hold her feet and when I say One, Two, Three Push and she pushes off and scoots herself backward. She gets the biggest grin every time.
    This stage can be quite frustrating at times. But, when we look back on it, we will miss it in a lot of ways.

Tech Tuesday Two

Wed, 05 Apr 2006 00:00:00 GMT

Ok, I'm late, I know, and it's only my second one...

Keeping with the browser theme, it's time for

Extensions (and themes)
    As I said in my last tech tuesday, the great thing about Opera and Firefox is that you can customize them to do what you like. To change the look of Firefox you simply need to change your theme.
    To change your theme click tools and then themes, then in the box that opens click 'get more themes' in the lower right corner; a new page will open in the background. Click on any theme and click install and it will appear in your list of themes. You'll have to restart Firefox to see them.
    My favorite two are Noia and Walnut.

    Extensions are done the same way. Click tools - extensions- get more extentions - find one you like - install - restart FF to use it. Here are my favorites:

Can't Live Without
    Mouse Gestures
       Just hold down the right button on your mouse and move the mouse and it will do many common operations. Move the left and you go back, right and go forward, up and it opens a new tab. Very handy and you get used to it pretty quick. (This come built into Opera(
    Adblock with Filterset.G
       This is actually two extensions. Adblock allows you to right click on any image and then click 'Adblock image' and it will block it forever. If you also download the filterset, it will block 95% of all ads on the net!

I Really Like
    Image Zoom
       Right click any image and move the scroll wheel up and down the image gets bigger and smaller.
    TabBrowser Preferences
       Gives you some additional options for the way tabs work.
    Sage
       My RSS reader, I'll cover this some time soon.
    Web Developer
        A must have if you make web pages or if you just like monkeying around with CSS or HTML.
Other
    Reveal
       This is nice if you have lots of pages open at once. I haven't gotten used to it yet.
    Nuke Anything
       It will easily get rid of anything on a page.
    Stumble
       Lots of people like this. It's a good way to find fun stuff.

That's my list for now. I'm always looking out for new ones, I'll mention them as I find them.

What are your favorite themes and extensions? I'm itching to know!

Spirals of Doom (or Goodness)

Mon, 27 Mar 2006 00:00:00 GMT

Moods are interesting to me. Specifically, the way that they spiral. For example:
    Before I quit my job, Sunday nights were dangerous. At some point in the evening, I would realize that my precious weekend was ending and that soon I would be off to work again. Then I'd start thinking about how depressing it is that I can't enjoy my last moments of freedom because I'm dreading the future. As time went on I'd start getting depressed earlier and earlier. I assume that if I continued working there, by the time I got home on Friday, I'd already be in a bad mood.
    Fortunately, it works the other way as well. Last night I starting thinking about how great my new job is for me. Then I remembered that it was Sunday night, suddenly I was even happier knowing that Sundays are so much less stressful. Then I thought about how many different ways life is better when you have a few good things going.
    I've had lots of spirals in my life. Whenever I succeed at something difficult, I get extra confidence and I can't wait to tackle the next goal. When I fail, I lose motivation to do even the simplest task ("why should I even bother brushing my teeth, I'm just going to get cavities anyway").
    I wish that I had some magic, easy way to break out of downward spirals. At the same time, I think the way to break out of them is easy to know, but very difficult to do. You have to realize what's happening first of all. Then give it to God. From there you just try to focus on the good things you have going and do things that you enjoy and are good at. Easy to say hard to do.
    What about you? Have you experience spirals? What do you do to stop downward spirals?

Tech Tuesday

Tue, 21 Mar 2006 00:00:00 GMT

I've decided to start using my powers for good, not that I was using them for evil before, but it's time I gave back to the world that has given me so much... anyway...
I intend to write a little bit about something internet related every other tuesday. I want to keep it broad enough so that anyone can understand it, but even knowledgable people can find a new trick. And if I miss anything, feel free to add a comment and let me know. On to my first entry

Browsers
    The program that you are using to look at this page is a browser. Internet Explorer is the most popular with Firefox coming in second. This is not good, let me explain.

Why Internet Explorer is Bad
    The biggest reason why you shouldn't use Internet Explorer (IE) is that it is old. It came out in 2001 and a lot has changed since then. There are lots of new things that programmers (like me) want to do, but are unable to because Microsoft has been slow in updating their browser. Also, security has changed a lot; there are hundred of holes that evil people can use to do bad things to your computer in IE. This is complicated by IE being the most popular browser, thus there are more people trying to find these holes. IE is coming out with a new version that will be much much better but it's still around a year away.

What is better?
    There a few browsers (ok, every other browser) that are a lot better. My favorite two are Firefox and Opera. They are faster, easier to use, more powerful and safer. The biggest advantage is tabs. Instead of having a new window for every page you want to view, you keep all the web pages open in one window. You can also download tons of extensions to make the browser look and act just like you want it. I'll dedicate a later entry to my favorite extensions. As for security, there are a few known holes, but they typiclly get fixed much much faster than the IE ones do.
    Firefox is better if you want to do a lot of customizing but I actually like Opera better. It is faster than Firefox and does a few more cool things. I still use Firefox most of the time, but when Opera comes out with their next version (9) I'm probably going to switch over.

If you are using IE I implore you to download a different browser, here are some links...
Firefox
Opera

This page shows what browsers are being used on this site.

Today, Tomorrow and the Rest of My Life

Mon, 13 Mar 2006 00:00:00 GMT

The funny thing about the future is that it hasn't happened yet. As such, it is very difficult to say exactly what will transpire in my lifetime. Nonetheless I will now make an attempt to nail down what the remainder of my life will consist of.
    In the last few years two things have emerged as things that I am both good at and enjoy doing; teaching and making web sites. In some form, I imagine I will be doing both of them for a long time. Which one I get paid to do and which one I do for fun has not fully been decided. If I were to make a guess, I'd say that I'll be doing a lot of web development the next few years and some teaching. Probably the older I get those two will switch. Then when I retire I'll do lots of teaching and I may or may not do any web development.
    There are two reasons why I'd like to be doing web development primarily right now, one selfish and the other a little more spiritual. The selfish one is of course money. I will be able to make a lot more money a lot faster making web pages. Before you call me a 'sell out', let me tell you about one of my heroes, John MacMurry. Every couple of months John goes backpacking in New Zealand or Oregon or Germany or wherever and takes a few pictures. He comes home, prints them out with some squares and numbers below and makes a lot of money for it (he makes calendars). Then he uses the rest of his time to be with his family and teach. Sounds like a pretty sweet situation to me. If I can do enough web development to do the other things I really want to do, I'll be a very happy man.
    The other reason for my plan is the burden that God is putting on my heart. I really want to see the web used to glorify God! Churches could be doing so much more to attract new members and foster community with a fairly simple web site. As Imago launches their new site I'll talk more about what this looks like. Secondly, as my Dad said in his comment, missionaries could also be using the web more. I really think that every missionary that is able, should have a blog. They could stay much better connected to their supporters and get connected to each other. Ryan Potter was telling me that in a very small area in Japan there is something like eight Churches. All doing similar things but not connecting very well. That is partly due to denominational issues, but certainly be helped. Lastly, good teaching could be spread more quickly through the web. This has already started but has a long way to go. I've been pleased to see the number of Churches and organizations that have podcasts, this is a great start.
    In conclusion, I have no idea what I'll be doing next year, much less the rest of my life. I am confident knowing that God has brought me safely thus far, and that he will certainly lead me home.

How Did I Get Here?

Fri, 03 Mar 2006 00:00:00 GMT

If you had asked me a few years ago what I was thinking of doing after graduation, web development wouldn't have been mentioned. All the same, this career didn't just come out of the blue. God has been planting seeds in me all along to get me to this point.
    I have had a computer as long as I can remember. While other kids played mario on their Nintendo, I played 'Winter Olympics' and 'Heart of Africa' on my commodore. In middle school I learned a basic basic programming language and spent far too many hours making silly little games in it. In high school I started my first web page. I once again spent far too much time learning html during my final two years at BHHS.
    My freshman year at multnomah I had big ambitions for learning more, but had more ambition than opportunity. When I was in Belize (of all places) in the summer of 2000 I heard a sermon about how we need to use technology for God. Just as the printing press helped restore and advance Christianity, so today's technology can impact today's world.
    I did very little with web development for the next four years. It wasn't until Davin (multnomah's web developer) gave me the opportunity to be his lackey that my desire to learn matched my opportunity. In my year there I learned as much as I could. At the same time I was beginning to see more concretely just how the web could be used for God.
    The biggest idea I had was a content management system for churches. I knew it would be years before I would have the means to develop something like this so I was thrilled when I found out that not only is there a company that is developing something like that, but that I could also help them.
    So even though this wasn't my plan for my life all along, I have no doubt that God has lead me here. In my next post I will expound upon where I'm hoping to go with all this.

Did I Vote For Pedro?

Tue, 21 Feb 2006 00:00:00 GMT

Because all my wildest dreams just came true.

Last year at this time I was recovering from the worst sickness of my life. This year is quite the opposite. What's the good news? I got a new job!!! I'll be working for a company called Monk Development. Let's compare my old life to my new one:

Old Life: After eight hours of working, an hour lunch and one to two hours of driving, I'm gone 10+ hours per day.

New Life: I'll be working from home, no commuting, no road rage, no packing lunches, no eating breakfast in the car.

Old Life: After my 50ish hours of netbiz working and driving, I worked for imago dei for 10-16 hours per week. I have had precious few days off in the last five months and 14 days.

New Life: Between Imago and Monk, I'll be working 40 hours total. That's it, no more. I'll have a lot more time to help with Dahlia and see my friends and go running and whatever else it is that I do. I can't really remember what I like to do with my extra time, I haven't had any in so long.

Old Life: The work was OK at Netbiz. I was constantly learning. Everyone on the team had different strengths, and I enjoyed learning from everyone. The hardest part was that we were under certain constraints that prevented us from writing really good standard code. Furthermore, the code that I was working with (HTML, CSS) is great to know, but I want to move on to more complicated stuff.

New Life: I'm absolutely humbled to be part of monk. Everyone there is amazing and writes amazing code. Hopefully some of it will rub off on me. Furthermore, the type of code I'll be writing is what I want to do (PHP, mySQL, javascript and maybe some AJAX!).

So as you can see, I'm excited to move on. I am very grateful for my time at Netbiz, it came at just the right time and was a very necessary step in my life. But now, I thrilled that it's over!

Dahlia TV

Tue, 14 Feb 2006 00:00:00 GMT

Dahlia can be a lot like bunny ears. We've all been there and some are still there. Holding those two long troublesome poles, adjusting them ever so carefully hoping for that elusive perfect picture. Precision is paramount, for moving them just a centimeter off can result in meaningless static. The best part is, that magic spot is always different. Last year during March Madness I discovered there was a spot between the couch and the TV, that while I was occupying, the picture was clear. Needless to say, I stood in the spot for a while.
It's the same way with Dahlia. When we want her to go to sleep, it's a matter of locating that perfect spot. While she is still crying, adjustment after adjustment is made. The wrong position (and there are plenty of those) results in an ear piecing scream will erupt. History is no guarantee, the perfect spot one minute, may be the worse the next. One thing stays the same, when that perfect spot is found, you stay there, even if it requires the most awkward positions for you. Sure you may lose all feeling in your appendages, but 30 minutes of peace is worth it.

Irrational Fears

Sat, 28 Jan 2006 00:00:00 GMT

I have a few fears. Some are normal and rational. For instance, I'm afraid that my car might break down at any moment. This is a good fear because it helps me to be prepared for that situation.
    Other fears are somewhat irrational. I'm afraid of heights. It's good because it prevents me from jumping off anything that could potential hurt/kill me. It's also annoying because it prevents me from jumping off things that would be fun to jump off of.
    Then I have fears that are just plain weird. Perhaps my biggest fear is that I'll be driving down the road, picking my nose (which is most of the time) and I'll hit a big bump, or someone will hit me and I'll shove my finger way up my nose and end up killing my self. Apart from the usual sadness that goes along with dying, It would be a really lame way to die. You'd think it would motivate me to stop picking my nose in the car, but it doesn't.
    What about you, gentle reader, what irrational fears do you have? Double bonus points for Agoraphobia.

Old Faithful

Wed, 18 Jan 2006 00:00:00 GMT

Tonite was my triumphant return to youth group. It had been a little more than a month, so I was starting to miss them all. For my return I brought a little trick that Davin showed me. It involves dropping four mentos into a 2 liter of diet coke. Here is some video of other people doing the same thing.

Don't worry, there was a tarp under the table

I'm a Dad Now

Tue, 17 Jan 2006 00:00:00 GMT

I've been a Dad now for two weeks and it's just now beginning to set in. It's really impossible to prepare for this experience. There wasn't anything that I could point to and say, "Having a baby is just like this". When we first learned we were pregnant, I bemoaned the loss of freedom that accompanied it. I was excited, but also worried and scared.
It's kind of like the Price is Right. You always pass on the first showcase. Sure there was some good stuff in there and you don't know what the second one holds, but you know it's better. You stand there wondering if maybe you should have stuck with first one until they open those doors and you are so glad you held out.
Now that we have Dahlia, I don't care about the loss of freedom. The 'joy' of being able to go out and do whatever whenever is nothing compared to holding a tiny person in your arms. Sure I can't just up and go to a movie, but frankly, I'd rather just sit on my couch and stare at my baby.

Stickers for Bumpers

Mon, 02 Jan 2006 00:00:00 GMT

Does anyone know a good way or place to make bumper stickers? I'd really like one that says 'Bumper Stickers Aren't Persuasive'. While I enjoy the occasional humorous and witty bumper sticker, I'm generally annoyed by them. Nobody ever read a bumper sticker and said, "Gee, I never thought to give peace a chance, I think I will now" and very few people have voted for someone based on the number of cars the candidate's name was plastered on. I will admit that some easily confused individuals perhaps have been convinced of a candidate's or idea's popularity by vehicular promotion, but more often than not, people are just annoyed. It's best when the bumper sticker's are for past events. The only thing those convince me of, is that John Kerry's supporters either are too lazy to take the stickers off, or they have failed to realize the election is over.

One down, more to go...

Sun, 25 Dec 2005 00:00:00 GMT

Merry Christmas to all! Gwen and I just got back from Seaside. We were celebrating our first year of marriage. It's been a crazy year in a lot of ways, lots of changes and decisions. On a scale of 1 to 10 I'd say our marriage is awesome...
The biggest reason is the one that we heard the most, communication. I've learned to listen a lot better than ever. I've learned that if I don't know what her expectations are in any given situation, then we're already in trouble. And vis versa too, If I just expect her to guess what I want, or what I'm feeling, she probably doesn't know. Almost every time we talk about the situation and convey our thoughts, we do well.
The second reason we're doing well is something I can't take any credit for. Gwen doesn't treat any problem like a little problem. I admit, this can be frustrating at times. But in the long run it saves A LOT of trouble. So many times I'm content to let a little thing slide and not worry about it. I won't bring it up till I'm really frustrated and it's become a big problem. I think that a lot of relationships turn sour, not because of one or two big problems, but because of a lot of little ones. So we were proactive early on, and it has helped a lot as time has gone by.

For your enjoyment

Sun, 11 Dec 2005 00:00:00 GMT

Check this(4.8mb) out. I think I'll do something like that at my place.

My one year anniversary is coming up on the 21st. It's really been an amazing year. I got married, moved twice, graduated from college, had three jobs and now we are having a baby. Needless to say, my life is a little different now.

Gwen and I saw two movies this weekend, which is as many as we had seen together in the last year. First we saw Narnia, it was great. I liked how they could keep everything from the book in, seeing how the book is so short.
Tonite we saw It's a Wonderful Life. It's fun (and cheap) to go see an old classic in a theater, it was even better than I thought it would be. So if you are bored and in Portland, you should go see it at the Laurelhurst theater this week.

Justin Bodeutsch Helicopter Pilot

Sat, 03 Dec 2005 00:00:00 GMT

Gwen and I went in to get our Oregon driver's licenses today. After some frantic last minute studying (QUICK, you are at an 11 way stop driving an 89 Accord with a bad muffler and you want to turn right on a three way street on thursday; do you have to give right of way to a bee flying south by southwest?) we both passed with scores of 93%. After I got home I inspected my new card more closly. I turned it over to see just what vehicles I am alowd to operate, low and behold I find that I can operate "Any emergency vehicle operated by a firefighter." I read the line again to make sure I wasn't mistaken. Sure enough, If the local firestation (1/4 mile down the road) came to my door and asked me to drive the big red truck, I could!

    It gets better though, it says ANY vehicle. I have oft seen on the news figherfighters fighting run-away forest fires with helicopters. According to the state of Oregon, I am a helicopter pilot. I've played enough video games to know that flying a helicopter is as easy as moving a joystick around, so if someone happens to leave their helicopter running while they dash into 7-11 for a slurpee, I just may have to go on a little joy ride.

    The moral of the story is, next time you see a fire engine barreling down the street, pull over right away. If for no other reason than it may be Justin Bodeutsch at the helm. Furthermore, if you ever hear a loud whirling noise descending on your front porch, it's not the FBI coming to get you for that song you downloaded illegally, it's just me, literally dropping by.

My mom and brother are in town for the weekend. Yippee! Among other things, my mom brought us these sweet silk robes from . Don't we look dapper...

Free Music Just Sounds Better

Fri, 18 Nov 2005 00:00:00 GMT

First order of business... check this out. Cami, Ryan, Translation, STAT!

An interesting trend has begun recently. A few bands are giving away their music. It began with Harvey Danger. It's pretty a pretty good album too, if you don't mind atheists. Then The Havalina Rail Co did the same thing. A very good album (and they are Christians too!). And then this week I heard about Steadman. They have a ton of music available that I'm still sorting through. What I have heard I have liked a lot.
Here are two songs for you to sample:
Havalina
Steadman

A lot of other bands have a song or three to download for free from their websites. I'm still going to buy an album now and again, but there is a lot of good free music out there if you look around some. Or if you don't want to look (or don't have the time) just go here...

I took my camera to work with me today. I managed to get some good shots at lunch...

Click to bigify...

And so it begins

Sun, 06 Nov 2005 00:00:00 GMT

It's official, I'm a real uncle now. My older sister Kirstin, just gave birth to her first child, Warner Michael. I'm yet to see a picture, but like all Asian babies (half or whole), I'm sure he is very cute (did I just say cute?!?). I always figured I'd be 'Crazy Uncle Justin'. Sort of like uncle Ted from Bobbie's world. I'd be the single guy that would drop in and stay for a while. My siblings would hate me for being a free-loader. Their kids would love me for being fun. I guess I can still be fun, but the irresponsible single free-loading part isn't coming true. I'm still planning on issuing large quantities of 'noogies' though...

This is also significant because it marks the first in a flurry of babies that may last for some time. Gwen's sister is due in mid January. We have some good friends due two days after us. Our friend Venessa is due late summer (yes Venessa is pregnant!). Who knows who will be next, but for the foreseeable future, someone will be pregnant. It seems like we've just shifted from the time in our lives where all our friends are getting married, to the time when all our friends (and family) are having kids.

I'm glad for this change, if for no other reason then we are one step closer to the time when all our friends are rich and take us on expensive vacations with them... that's next right?

Kirstin and Gil at my wedding

Just plain different

Thu, 27 Oct 2005 00:00:00 GMT

Check this out. Thanks to Davin for showing this to me. - Don't say that you never learn anything on this blog...

Pez Goodness

Fri, 14 Oct 2005 00:00:00 GMT

I just stumbled over this today. It's a pez mp3 player. How could I NOT get one?

Oh Mini-Cam, How I Love Thee

Wed, 12 Oct 2005 00:00:00 GMT

Yes, that is Peter Jackson, and yes thst is a mini-cam. (DSC-U20). I heard that he filmed King Kong with a bunch of these....

No solicitors

Fri, 16 Sep 2005 00:00:00 GMT

Speaking of irony... In my new office most of the people call realtors selling them a few on-line products. Next to the front door is a bold sign that reads "NO SOLICITORS". Apparently we are too busy soliciting to take solicitors. Ah double-standards, they make the world go round...

work work work work

Thu, 08 Sep 2005 00:00:00 GMT

    In an interesting turn of events, I have another job. I knew a guy who knew a guy who knew a guy who knew a guy that had a job for me. So I'm working full-time for a company called netbiz. I'm mainly using existing templates to make personalized web pages for small businesses. I'm still working 16 hours/week for imago, so I will be a busy (albeit rich) little boy. The biggest problem with the job is that it's located in Tigard. So far it's only taken me 25 minutes to get there, but it's only been two days. Which brings me to my next point.

    When driving down I-5 as you leave Portland they have a misleading sign. The sign reads "Safety Corridor". Since I've been down the road before, I know what it means. This stretch of road is curvy and has lots of elevation changes. The sign, I presume, wishes you to use extra caution whilst driving through. But why call it a safety corridor. There is nothing safe about it. An unwitting driver, passing through the rose city for the first time may read the sign as an indication that things are going to be safe for the next stretch of road; the results could be tragic. Instead, I purpose they put up signs that read "Danger Corridor". People would notice that. And if that doesn't do the job, make a huge sign that says, "EXTREME FATAL DEATH AHEAD". When people's lives are at stake, you can never go too far.

    In baby related news... I was wrong, I will admit it. I had been proudly boasting to all who would listen that I am expecting a boy. I saw the ultrasound in person and there can be no mistaking it. It clearly is a girl. The doctor said that she was 99.9% sure. Other than being wrong, I am very excited about it. And not just because we will get lots of hand-me-downs from our niece.

Back in Business

Fri, 26 Aug 2005 00:00:00 GMT

After two technician visits and three service calls, Bodeutsch.com is back and better then ever! For those of you that don't know, I host this website on my home computer. If you don't know what that means, let's just say that it's magic. We moved into our lovely new place last weekend. It so overwhelming to have more then one room to live in. Not to mention the dishwasher and garbage disposal (oops, I mentioned them). All of these amenities off set the fact that we were living 80's style with no internet. To get my techno fix I started playing minesweeper again (Expert: 287seconds). But the sweet nectar of information is once again flowing freely in and out of my home.

In other news...

I have a job. I'm going to be working for Imago Dei I'm going to be their part time tech/web guy. It's really exciting in every way save that it's part time. I'm working on a few more leads for part time work, more as this develops.

In other other news...

Link of the day random chronological interval: Space Elevator. I heard about this idea last summer. Now I'm quasi obsessed with it.

Justin Takes on Rockstar

Sat, 06 Aug 2005 00:00:00 GMT

I just email this letter to Rockstar (the skanky drink company, not the preverted video game company):

I am a male in my mid 20's and, from the looks of it, right in your core demographic. I don't really know much of anything about Rockstar. Judging from the can that your product comes in I assume that your product is some sort of liquid beverage. But this is neither here nor there...

I am never going to take the time to learn about it, much less spend any money on it. Why this willful ignorance, there is one gigantic reason. As I drive down I-84 in Portland, Oregon my eyes are accosted by one of your advertisements. It consists of a Godzilla sized women in not but her skimpy bathing suit. From what I understand she makes up a large part of you advertising campaign. I am fully aware of the effectiveness of using sex to sell a product. I don't think that it is right, but that does not make it ineffective.

All this to say, if you are going to use sex to sell...

1) Know that while you are gaining many young men, you are also losing many as well. The ones that you have lost are now gone forever. No catchy slogan or clever campaign will ever regain them.

2) Please please don't put the ads in public places. Put them in Maxim or other provocative men's magazine. Put it on spike TV. Throw it all over your website. But don't put it places where everyone has to see it. People don't need any help objectifying women. Put the ads places where objectifying is already going on.

I appreciate you taking the time to consider my objections.

Salmon

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 00:00:00 GMT

The wife and I were out for an evening constitutional last week. As we happened down Salmon street a peculiar odor wafted into our nostrils. As we sniffed, we came to the eerie realization that Salmon street actually smelled like Salmon. So we went home...

Justin Cubed

Wed, 20 Jul 2005 00:00:00 GMT

A funny thing happened at church (Evergreen Bible) the other day. Pastor Toby was talking about evolution. As an example he held up a rubik's cube. He made an analogy that just as the rubik's cube would never be solved simply by chance; so the world could not form without a designer. As a side note he asked if anyone knew how to solve the cube. Last summer in Greece, one of my students, Jordan, had a cube. He could solve it in under two minutes every time. I was so inspired I tried to solve it my self. After one week I solved it while stopped at the Greece Macedonia border (see picture). I hadn't done much with it since then. Just this last week I had picked it up again and remembered how to solve it. So when Toby asked if anyone could solve the cube, I proudly raised my hand high in the air. He tossed the cube to me and asked me to solve it. This was a dream come true for me. I don't know how many times I imagined being somewhere and someone asking if anyone had one of my random talents. I solved the cube before long. The church was so impressed with my obvious mental prowess they voted me onto the elder board. (ok the last part is a lie, but the rest is true)

Slurpee Day 2005

Tue, 12 Jul 2005 00:00:00 GMT

Yesterday, July 11th, was free slurpee day. Needless to say, I went to three different 7-11s during the day. Now I'm having withdrawals.

As the day progressed I began to wonder, in other countries do they give out free slurpees on Nov 7th? Do they mark this blessed day at all? Seeing how about 1/3rd of my hits are from non-US locals, I leave it up to you, gentle reader, to do some research for me. And for readers in Japan, since they don't even have slurpees there, see if they give out free american dogs. A gold star if you mail me one, I miss them...

A Good Job

Sat, 02 Jul 2005 00:00:00 GMT

If anybody is looking for a new job here is an idea. Become a clown in Portland. It looks like fun...

A Question For You

Wed, 29 Jun 2005 00:00:00 GMT

It's really amazing to me how important questions are. To love someone you first have to try to understand them. To understand people you have to ask them questions. It's that simple, really.

I knew a guy that asked great questions. He was a very different type of person than me. I still loved being around him. I didn't even mind meeting with him at 7am (we did meet at Mr. Donut though). He would just ask me good questions and I would answer. I always left those meetings excited and encouraged.

I'm not sure exactly why I'm bad at asking questions, but I am. It's so easy yet I never do it. Maybe I have brain damage. Maybe that's just the way that people are. We want to do things and for some inexplicable reason, we don't. I guess that's what accountability is for.

Magnet for danger

Tue, 21 Jun 2005 00:00:00 GMT

I was beginning to get a little worried as we drove back from Seattle on Sunday. Our last trip was utterly fraught with danger; yet this trip had been seemingly innocuous. Just as I began to let my guard down I began to notice something peculiar on the horizon. A dark menacing veil was inching its way ever closer. By the time we reached Vancouver for a stop at Gwen's parents, it was upon us. The winds were kicking up, lightning was seen in all directions. Rumors of tornadoes and hail stones of Biblical proportions were rampant. We dashed inside just in time to escape the drenching down pour that began. I was nearly swept away when I ventured back out to roll up the car window. Fortunately the storm fizzled and I was very glad to have averted another episode of certain DOOM!

Baby Names

Fri, 17 Jun 2005 00:00:00 GMT

We've decided to name the baby after my Grandpa if it's a boy. It may seem strange to some people to name a baby 'Grandpa' but we like the name.

It will make family gatherings even more confusing though. It's hard enough that there are several people who go by Grandpa. To resolve this I think we will call him Grandpa Jr. Then he can pass on the name to his son (Grandpa III).

Or maybe we'll go back to my first choice, Ichiro.

Certain Death at Every Turn

Thu, 16 Jun 2005 00:00:00 GMT

It's a miracle that I am even able to write this entry. On Tuesday Gwen and I were driving out to Lincoln City. Halfway there, we were minding our own business when out of nowhere a huge white car came flying out at us. Gwen was driving and she and her cat like reflexes swerved to the left to avoid the car. We were on highway 18 at the time so it was quite lucky that at that point there was a suicide lane, and an unoccupied one at that. Certain death avoided.

Then, just a few hours later we were leaving our hotel when were heard there was a earthquake off the coast. A massive tsunami was headed our way with plans to wipe the coast off the map. We all remained calm and did what we do best... we went to cold stone. When we came back to our hotel on the coast people were evacuating. So we went down to our rooms and turned on the tv. We then learned that the tsunami had been canceled (not enough funding I assume).

It's worth mentioning that a hotel that I stayed at in Thailand was wiped away by their tsunami exactly two years after I stayed there. I'm starting to feel like Bruce Willis in Unbreakable(Unbearable).

Too much fun

Mon, 13 Jun 2005 00:00:00 GMT

POOM!

Not quite snood, but still good.

My best is 15750.

It's funny how things work out

Mon, 13 Jun 2005 00:00:00 GMT

Some times bad things turn into good things. For example Gwen's jobs. Read her entry if you want to know about that. For me I was frustrated because my precious mini-cam died. I would turn it on and it would tell me that the batteries were dead. After double checking to make sure sun flares hadn't mysteriously drained all my batteries I began to mourn the loss of my trusty side-kick. We had done so much together over the last few years! EVERYTHING! Well, not showers and other watery activities.

Anyway... We decided what with Gwen's 'condition' right now. We needed a camera. Just before we were about to acquire one, Gwen's job fell through. So we decided to wait.

Today I took mini-cam to work with me. i thought to myself, "What would Ryan Potter do?" I got out the tiny screw drivers and dismantled the thing. After a little bit of canned air and one big shock (i'm still twitching) I reassembled it and only one itty bitty piece was left out. So, to make a long story boring it works now. Thank you Lord!