New blog on teh blogroll; RSS feed available

Just a template update. I've added my good friend Chris G.'s blog, Penumbras to my blogroll on the right. It's definitely a blog for those interested in Web Design and it's associated buzzwords jargon terminology.

Also, I've finally figured out how to syndicate this blog using RSS. To add my blog to your favorite RSS reader, just click on the Syndicate Me! link on the right.

Say no to CITGO

That's it. I've had enough. I love how the communist dictator Hugo Chavez has the balls to come to our country and, while protected under our free speech laws, spew lies and fanaticism as he did at the UN recently, while he strangely enough doesn't afford the same courtesy to his own citizens. On top of all that, the Houston-based oil company CITGO, owned and operated by the Venezuelan government, sponsored an event Thursday featuring Chavez as the key speaker in Harlem to promote his so-called "heating oil for the poor" program (news article here).

Well, no more. As much as I loved CITGO's [usually] cheaper gasoline, and as much as I liked supporting Charlotte-based Petro Express, I refuse to continue to support that madman any longer. Funny, though, it seems I'm not the only one boycotting, as shown here, here, here, and here.

Oh, and lest you think that Chavez is simply a misunderstood man of the people, you might want to read about his spousal abuse and other antics at this VERY informative site by someone who's actually there: www.vcrisis.com.

Finally...

I get to be forever joined with the woman I love for the rest of my mortal life. Finally, I get to express y love for her in the most intimate of ways. Finally, I do.

Auto-shotty ftw

More YouTube video goodness to follow. Impressive as this guy is with a shotgun in his own right, the fact that the cycle on this gun is so quick is an engineering design marvel. Counter-Strike fans, here is your real-life auto-shotty.



Again, if you have issues with the imbedded player, you can click on the title of this post above to go to the YouTube link.

Cops, err, Troops.

In case the embedded player doesn't work in your browser, you can go stright to the YouTube video by clicking on this post's title above.

Ring ring ring ring ring ring ring...

BANANAPHONE!

I know this has been on the net for a while, but I just heard it and I LOVE it. If you want to just hear the song without the video antics, go to my MySpace page using the link on the right.

I don't know why it's so catchy, despite being a children's song by an artist named Raffi.

Click here for an even sillier flash movie using this song. Warning: badger badger badger fans may like this one better.

EDIT (7/1/06): OK, got a little sick of hearing "Bananphone" on my MySpace page. If you still want to hear the song, go to Raffi's MySpace.

Put those idle CPU cycles to work, boy!

In case anyone wants a neat little program to eat up those spare CPU cycles, go to the Folding@Home Project homepage. This program runs in the background of your computer and takes up CPU cycles that would normally be wasted by the System Idle Process and put them to better use: namely, performing protein folding operations with the hope the data gathered will assist researchers with finding cures for sundry medical ailments (cancer and Alzheimer's Disease to name a couple).

If you are interested in finding out more about Folding@Home or installing the software, go the above link and click on the FAQ and Download links on the left sidebar. I'm a member of the Maximum PC Folding@Home Team, which is team #11108 (the software will give you an opportunity to choose a Username and, optionally, a team number upon execution or installation). Check out my current folding stats and ranking here.

Perspective

This quote is especially appropriate in light of the recent Memorial Day weekend. I know I'll probably catch flak from any liberals, Bush-haters, or anti-military readers, but I'm posting it anyway. Next time you feel the urge to heckle an elected official (or anyone with a non-leftist worldview), throw a pie in their face, curse at them on national TV, or burn our precious flag, keep this in mind:

"It is the soldier, not the reporter, who has given us freedom of the press. It is the soldier, not the poet, who has given us freedom of speech. It is the soldier, not the campus organizer, who has given us the freedom to demonstrate. It is the soldier, who salutes the flag, who serves beneath the flag, and whose coffin is draped by the flag, who allows the protester to burn the flag.”
-- Father Denis Edward O’Brien, USMC

Bleh

I'm not feeling particularly inspired, but I should post something as I am absolutely horrible about keeping my blog up to date.

For starters, my friends have gotten me to get on the MySpace bandwagon, as the link to the right will show. If you're lazy, you can just click here. I've also added a new webcomic link to User-Friendly, a webcomic geared toward humor of the open-source/Linux/tech support variety.

The wedding date creeps inexorably closer. Less than 6 weeks away, now. Emily is stressing out about it, as I'm sure most girls do with their respective impending weddings. As with other big occasions in my life, I don't think I'll become anxious until the evening before.

In Tim's Good News, I finally got an Internet connection at the house--yay for 3 Megabit/second ADSL. Emily and I also just bought a mattress for our master bedroom (I've been sleeping on my old full-sized bed in the other bedroom, if, for some unfathomable reason, you're curious). We purchased it at the Original Mattress Company in Pineville, NC. This particular store has one of their regional factories attached, and the salesman showed us how they make the mattresses. In short, I highly recommend them for any mattress needs you may have.

Unfortunately, the air conditioning unit in my car failed again. This time, it was a roughly $310 repair, with a damaged high-pressure line being the culprit. This, combined with the last failure (a bent condenser assembly), puts my A/C repair costs for my car at around $1,000. Otherwise, it's been a great car, but A/C is must-have with the muggy summers we get down here in the Carolinas.

One of the more surreal moments I've had recently was Emily and myself purchasing our wedding bands. It really brought into focus the gravity of what we're entering into with this covenant of marriage. I keep screwing up and failing to be the best husband-to-be for her, yet she is sticking with me. Let me say this: if you find a woman who loves you that much, hold onto her with all your strength; those good ones don't come around often.

A good laugh

Sometimes, you get spam that is so horribly written, it makes you double over in laughter when trying to read it aloud:

Dea q r Home Ow e ne h r ,

Your c f redi w t doesn't matter to us !
If you O s WN real e y st s at d e and want I c MMED n IAT o E
c l ash to s t pen q d ANY way you like,
or simply wish to LO s WER your monthly pa c ymen j ts
by a third or more, here are the d o eals
we have T b OD x AY :

$ 48 s 8 , 000 - 3 , r 67% fi w xed - ra a te
$ 3 j 72 , 000 - 3 , y 90% v s ari t able - rat q e
$ 49 n 2 , 000 - 3 , q 21% in y teres x t - only
$ 2 g 48 , 000 - 3 , z 36% fi u xed - ra n te
$ 19 yz 8 , 000 - 3 , 5 y 5% variabl r e - rat r e

Hurr d y, when these d b eal r s are gone, they are gone !

Don't worry about a h ppr t ova v l,
your c q re b dit will not di g sq u ualif i y you !

Crunch Time

Things are piling up fast for the wedding. My dad and stepmom are booking a local country-cookin' restaurant to cater the rehearsal dinner. I'm in the process of finalizing my half of the guest list, and I just booked the honeymoon as well.

The more pressing matter, of course, is our purchase of a new house in the Dallas, NC, area. We got a call last night indicating that we are closing on the house next Monday. While this is exciting, it also means we have to get cracking with painting, moving my stuff in (and some of Emily's stuff), and buying furniture. And lemme tell you, furniture is expensive. I mean come on...$300 for a freaking Ottoman?! It's a stool with a fabric-covered cushion, for crying out loud. So, once again, I'm draining the savings account, except this time it's for furniture and appliances, not tuition and textbooks.

My Friday nights won't be as interesting and fun-filled, as Battlestar Galactica just finished its third season. So, no more new episodes of BSG until the fall. Guess I'll have to go out and buy the second season on DVD to give me my BSG fix until then. I already have the first season, and I watched pretty much every episode of the third, but I didn't actually start watching BSG until some time during the second season.

Then again, I should probably put off such purchases and save toward a lawnmover or larger television or something else we'll want or need for the new house.

I feel like a n00b again.

I am in the process of being promoted to the Microsoft server engineer/administrator position at work, now that the higher-ups have gotten word of my newly acquired MCSE and MCSA certifications. This means I won't in the NOC anymore, but it means a great deal more responsibility and stress, as I jump right into the role of server admin for our customers' Windows servers (as well as our own, but we mostly use Linux servers at work).

Of course, this also means that I am the in-house Windows support guy. And, most of the non-technical people at work run Windows--again, I have my work cut out for me.

But, if I can hack it, this is a good thing, as it means I go to a Mon-Fri schedule with 1st shift hours (though I will be the on-call engineer occasionally). It also means a pay increase (good for the upcoming marriage) and free broadband, as I need a high speed tunnel to work to be able to be on-call and do work from home.

In other news, Emily and I are buying a house in the Dallas, NC, area, just north of Gastonia. This is a good location for both of us, as we each are looking at less than 30-minute or less commutes to and from work. We close on the house in about 3-4 weeks, and I can't wait to furnish it and move in. Of course, I REALLY can't wait to have my future wife move in with me after the honeymoon ;-). July 15th is coming soon...

Uproot, prune, or use herbicide?

I was posting some comments over at the Winthrop University RUF blog recently, and their campus minister's response to one of them prompted this post. You may read the comments to the post on your own, but in summary, he likens West Virginia's usage of DDR in their phys ed program to our treatment of sin. That is to say, how we tend to address the symptoms, not the condition itself.

Yet, upon further consideration of the matter, can we truly address the root cause of our sin? John Calvin would argue an emphatic "No!" and I tend to agree. The Sunday School answer at this point is to say "Well, Tim, that's what Christ is for--He regenerates us and empowers us to overcome by grace." Yet people--good, decent, redeemed people--still sin. Why is that? Is God a liar when He says His grace is sufficient? Is He impotent? Of course not, else we should toss our collective Bibles out and plunge headlong into the logical end result [secular hedonism, or as Francis Schaeffer put it, the endless pursuit of "personal peace and affluence."

So what is the answer, then? Are we doomed and helpless? According to God's word, no, we aren't by His grace. Yet people still sin. Again, the Sunday School answer here is sanctification vs. justification. I.e., we are forgiven, but being made like Christ is an ongoing work-in-progress for each of us. But why would God simply not take away the root cause of the sin--the sin nature inherent to all humans? That is for Him to answer, not I, but I believe it has to do with relying on him and working out our faith from day to day.

I write all this to make this point. I don't believe that it's lack of effort that causes Christians to waver and falter. On the contrary, the apostle Paul himself dealt incessantly with a "thorn in his side." The issue at hand isn't lack of willingness to address the root causes of our vices. Rather, it's a question of motive. Why do we want to get rid of sin in our lives? To make us feel better? To be righteous in comparison to "them heathens"? Because it's just right? If the reason isn't chiefly the glorification of God, then our efforts are all for naught.

But can our motives ever be pure? I know mine aren't. Can I ever be motivated in anything in my life for solely the glory of God--soli deo gloria? I doubt so, more and more as I go on in my constant battle with pornography. Yeah, I deleted it all and have an accountability partner, but this is all too familiar. How many times have I "amputated" that part of my to only have it grow back in a matter of weeks or days, as if it were the limb or some twisted cruel starfish of a joke? I keep praying and begging for purification of heart and motive, but I fear sometimes I may be too far gone. Only God knows, and He's awful quiet lately. IF only my life were indeed sola fide, sola scriptura, soli deo gloria.

Challenging the education monopoly

Below is an interesting email I received from Palmetto Family Council, a pro-family group. Watch the ABC program if you can--and if you don't mind your views on education being rattled a bit.

Are kids in the United States stupid, or are they being cheated out of a quality education?

In a special report airing Friday night on ABC's "20/20", John Stossel reveals the surprising truth.

American high school students flunk international comparisons, placing well behind other countries, even poorer countries like Poland, the Czech Republic and South Korea. American kids do pretty well when they enter public school (with or without pre-Kindergarten programs), but as time goes on, they fall behind. Why?

School officials complain that they need more money, but as Stossel reports, most of the countries that outperform us spend less per student than we do. There are many factors that contribute to failure in school, like family breakdown, but the worst institutional problem is the government's monopoly over the school system. With a monopoly, most parents don't get to choose their child's school. In other countries, choice fosters competition, and competition improves performance.

In an extended report, Stossel questions government officials, union leaders, parents and students. He also examines how the educational system can be improved and reports on innovative programs across the country.

"Stupid In America: How We Are Cheating Our Kids" with John Stossel, airs Friday, January 13 (10 to 11 p.m. ET) on ABC.

Note: There is a South Carolina hook to "Stupid in America." Stossel visits the Palmetto State, where an important education reform measure, Put Parents in Charge, was narrowly defeated last year.

Dusting off the old blog

Man, I haven't updated this thing in ages. Well, let's see what's new with me. I finally finished school at York Tech and am awaiting graduation in May with an Associate in Computer Technology (computer networking emphasis) degree. I'm getting married in about 6 months, and am completely stressed because Emily and I are at an impasse in regards to where we're going to live. We want a decent house, but nothing we can't afford. We can't seem to decide whether to get a modular or go with an already-built house.

In Tim's Geek News, I broke down and bought an iPod. A friend of mine from high school thinks I bought it just because it's popular. Well, firstly, the thing is a marvel of engineering. Just use the Click Wheel for a few minutes and you'll know what I'm talking about. Plus, a 30 GB capacity and the ability to view photos, play video, and listen to music is not bad for a $300 device in my book. Take what he says with a grain of salt; he says this is the same reason I like Battlestar Galactica. And as we all know, Battlestar Galactica rocks...period.

Man, night shift sucks. 10pm-8am by yourself gets old...fast.