promises, promises

I have not been living up to this goal lately. I have promised my son that I would do a few things for him, but I have not done those things yet. Some reasons for this have to do with the way that he acts sometimes. We all know how kids can be.

Other reasons have to do with the fact that I spend entirely too much time on the computer. He said something to me the other night that made me think about it a lot. I had promised him that I would setup the XBox now that we have our new carpet installed. I did not get to it that night and he asked me about it again when it was time for him to go to bed.

I told him that I would not be setting it up that night, but I would get to it. As I was headed down to the computer room, he asked me what was more important “him or the computer”.

Today, my plans are to go home, change out of my work clothes, grab a football, and toss it around with him for a while.

See more progress on: be a good father | tags: parenting, children

Hurricane relief?

I was listening to the Slashdot Review podcast a little while ago and it mentioned a story on Slashdot where FEMA is requiring people to use Internet Explorer to file a claim. I guess if you are a Mac or Linux user and have survived the hurricane, then you are out of luck for filing a claim.

read more | tags: FEMA, Hurricane Katrina, Internet Explorer, apple, Mac, Linux, stupidity

Air Force banning promotion of religion

I just read a news bite on Fox News that points to an article at the N.Y. Times which talks about the Air Force's decision to ban the promotion of religion in any official communications or functions.

read more | tags: religion, faith, Air Force

What the ...

OK... let me get this straight. Mayor Nolin is standing in front of the camera in New Orleans yelling, screaming, and cursing the federal government about no action, yet he has several hundred buses sitting in a flooded area that could have been used to get people out of the area? Where were these buses Tuesday morning? The A.P. has published a photo of this.

view photo | tags: New Orleans, hurricane katrina

Digital Rebel (300D)

My father just picked up a steal on a Canon Digital Rebel. This is the original (300D), not the XT (350D) model. I got to play around with it today a little when he dropped by to try out my 75-300 mm lens on it. One thing that I noticed real quickly is that the 300D is a lot bigger and a little heavier than my Canon EOS Rebel G (film camera).

Unfortunately, my father is going to have to send the camera off, because we finally figured out why someone took it back to the location where he got it. It will not fire a shot when the lens is set in AF (auto-focus) mode. According to posts that I have found on a few forums, the original Digital Rebel had an issue with the secondary auto-focus pin breaking after a few months of use. One person’s description of the problem was exactly what we were seeing here. :(

Nonetheless, it does take some pretty nice pictures in manual mode. I believe he is probably going to keep it and use it in manual mode for the next few weeks until my nephews high school football season is over and then send it off to be repaired under warranty.

This pretty much seals my desire on the Digital Rebel, but I will be getting the 8 megapixel XT model, though. :)

See more progress on: Save for/Buy a Canon Digital Rebel XT

tags: camera, Canon, Digital Rebel, Digital Rebel XT

From bad to worse!

NBC News is reporting that a bus carrying evacuees from New Orleans to a location in Texas has crashed and overturned. At least one of the refugees has died in this accident.

read more | tags New Orleans

Gasoline situation

The situation with gasoline prices has gotten out of control. It went up about 30 cents per gallon last night in our area. By the time I got home from work, It had gone up another 20 cents per gallon. I know it is bad in other places, but $2.99 per gallon is very high for Alabama.

I just came across this picture on FoxNews.com that is absolutely absurd, however. This is at a BP station in Stockbridge, Georgia. I cannot see where this is anything other than price gouging.

Update: I just received a link to a page on Snopes regarding this picture. It turns out that this was in fact true, but it only lasted for a day as the Governor of Georgia enacted legislation to bring sanctions against retailers who were in the practice of price-gouging.

read more | tags: gasoline, price gouging

Crisis that hurts us all

Hurricane Katrina struck a very fatal blow to locations on the Gulf coast. Places that use to be bustling and full of life are now just a spot of dirt on the map. I saw pictures today that looked like a atomic bomb went off around Gulfport, Mississippi.

Unfortunately, this is a disaster that is already putting a strain on the rest of the country. I saw reports of gaoline selling for almost $4.00 per gallon in Chicago today. One reporter on MSNBC reported that she happily paid $35.00 for five gallons of gas on her way out of Baton Rouge to Houston. I will let you do the math on that one.

Tonight, I got a taste of what my parents probably experienced in 1973 and 1979. I remember the oil crisis of 1979. We had the long lines and irritated consumers. We have that again now. I experienced this tonight when I stopped to fill up my car on the way to church. Our local gasoline station was stacked three deep at each of its eight pumps. By the time that I got to the pump to fill up, they had already run out of regular and mid-grades. At $2.67 per gallon, their premium was still OK for my car, because it was cheaper than regular at any other station around.

Things will probably get worse before they get better over the next few months. This is truly a crisis that hurts us all.

Need gas?

This is a photo of a gas tank left on the interstate after hurricane Katrina passed through Mobile.

Buying a house

Well, I guess it is somewhat official. We signed the contract and put down $1000 in earnest money tonight for the home that we are going to buy once our current home is sold and the new one is completed. These are exciting times! :)

prayers are answered

During my prayer time last night, I asked God to take control of our situation with the sale of our house. If I asked Him to send someone to us if He felt it was best for us at this time.

At 1:05 p.m. today, I got a phone call from our selling agent. He had a guy driving 165 miles this afternoon to look at the house. It turns out that the man’s wife just got a job about 20 minutes down the road from where I live. She has been staying with her mother, who lives less than five minutes from me, during the week to go to work and then driving that 165 miles back home on the weekend.

Some people will say that this is just coincidence. I like to believe otherwise.

See more progress on: pray more

tags: prayer, Christ, personal growth

Who is a Christian?

Have you ever stopped to think whether or not a particular person is a Christian? Have you ever said to yourself, "No, that person couldn't be a Christian" because of the way that someone is dressed or the way they act?

A person's actions do not convey whether or not they are saved by grace. They do, however, convey one's current relationship with Christ and those very actions can weigh heavily on another non-believer. For instance, if I talked with you very seriously about the grace of God and what it means to have the joy of Christ, but later you see me how partying and drinking, what does that say to you about my witness?

We should never judge another person no matter if we know they are a Christian or not. I am sure at one time or another, we have all been guilty of this. I know that I am and I would be committing a sin here and now if I said otherwise.

Considering this, it was with great excitement tonight when I came across a link under the Technorati tag of Jesus entitled "salty dogma". This blog entry refers to a piece that Rick Warren, pastor of Saddleback Church in Los Angeles, sent to the staff of his church. This piece of an excerpt from an interview that someone had with Bono, the lead singer for the rock band U2.

Update: I came across another blog entry regarding the same interview. I have linked to it below as well.


read "salty dog" | read "Judging Bono"

tags: jesus, Bono

Fantastic movie!

Matthew and I watched “The Incredibles” this evening. This movie is absolutely fantastic. I loved it. There were times when I was rolling. Since Matthew had seen the movie in the theater, I would ask him a question every once in a while. He would just give me one of those sarcastic “what do you mean” looks and then say, “Daddy just keep watching”. :)

See more progress on: Watch “The Incredibles” with my son

Spoken Word Bibles

I was looking around for spoken versions of the Bible tonight and I came across a couple of good sites. The first site is AudioTreasure. This site has the spoken Word in MP3 format. You can download it and listen to it whenever you like.

The second site is Audio-Bible. This site uses streaming Real audio that is narrated by Alexander Scourby. You can read along with the passages on the site as you listen to the spoken Word.

Neither site will ever replace sitting down with a Bible and reading, but they could come in useful for someone on the go or in a situation where a physical Bible is not handy.

Tags: bible, audio

Learning from the young ones ...

I came across a blog post on a blog that I just started reading this week. It is short, but it really hits home to what it means to put your trust in God.

Butt First

See more progress on: Grow in Christ

Dinner

My wife has had to pick up some extra work as of late due to a technical glitch at the company for which she is doing some work. Luckily, she is getting paid again for everything that she already did previously, because it was someone else who messed up. This is a bad thing because she has been so busy, but it is a good thing after she told me how much it would be worth to us this morning. :)

Anyway, because she has been so busy, I asked her to take a break for dinner and I took her and my son out for dinner. We let Matthew choose where he wanted to go and this six year old chose Chinese. He loves Chinese food. Since my wife and I both do as well, it turned out to be a very good family meal.

See more progress on: spend more time with my family

Undone

I came across a very interesting podcast about life, religion, and how to live life the right way... for God. Ryan Dobson, the author of Be Tolerant and To Die For, uses his hand-on knowledge of youth culture to relate to young people and help them understand how to live for Christ.

Ryan Dobson's Undone

Tags: Ryan Dobson, religion, Christianity, podcast

The one you love!

I really love my wife. If I said that we never have any problems, then I would be telling a pretty big lie as would any married couple. I just came across a CNN article that is just too much. I can understand wanting to get rid of your wife without doing anything bad, but this takes the cake. :)

read | marriage

Ready to sell

My home is now on the market. Our agent listed the house today. I hope it sells right about the time that the new house is ready, but hey... if it sells next week, that is good too. That would be a very good problem to have. :)

Results are good

I had to go to have another test this week since the ultrascan last week that I had on my gall bladder was not definitive. The test that I had this week was a Hydascan. Basically, this is a nuclear X-ray. The technician shot some kind of nuclear liquid into my blood stream. This stuff had a half life of 6 hours, so I was radioactive for most of the evening after the test. :)

Anyway, I had to lay on this small table, like an emergency backboard, under this huge camera that was about four inches from my chest. The hardest part was being completely still for an hour. After the first thirty minutes of taking a three minute picture every five minutes, the technician shot me up with what she called "my big fat cheeseburger with no calories". hahaha

It hit me quick and hard. After a few minutes of continuous picture taking, she said that I could get up from the test early. My gall bladder emptied just as it should have.

I got a call from the doctor Thursday after he got the results from the radiologist. Everything looks normal with my gall bladder. He said that he could refer me for an upper endoscopy, but at this point, I am not interested in getting the scope down my throat.

When I first started having my symptoms, I prayed about it and changed my diet a little. I have not actually had any problems that I was having for about three weeks.