off to charlotte

well, off to charlotte in the morning for the national youth worker's convention. good times. more to come...

that's one way to do it

need groceries? don't miss an item on the way.

snowshoe mountain is open

the skip trip is just over a month away. snowshoe is officially open now with 5 slopes. the link is updated daily. friday of this week the forecast is calling for more snow. keep checking back or check weather.com to see what the conditions are.

check out the daily photos.

what we are watching

here's what we are watching this tv season

• heroes - excellent, surprise hit
• the unit - second season has gotten even better
• the office - another great year
• 24 - can't wait for it to begin

face mapping

while it's not a brand new technology, face mapping has been taken to the next level with rainbow six vegas. with use of the xbox live vision camera you can take a few pictures of yourself and use that put your face in the game. according to major nelson, it makes it quite a bit easier to then recognize your teammates.

yao blocked

november 20th, 2006

encouraged

i am reading praise habit by david crowder. it has come alive for me on a couple of levels. first let me tell you i have a hard time reading. my mind drifts. quickly. i begin thinking of everything else in life. no matter how good the reading is. it doesn't take long and i am in another world. i know they say that reading is supposed to take you other places, but i don't think they mean like that. i lose track of what it is that i am actually supposed to be focused on. however, each section or chapter is short. it is easy to read. easy to follow. it is a lot of work to get through a book. i just want the concept. i find myself in this book getting through it without having to read pages again. generally i feel like by the time i finish a book i have read it 2 or 3 times. i think i will get through this one time the first time.

and to add to it i am reminded to praise Good for all that is in life. every piece from the small and mundane to the big and important and to the tapping of my feet as i can't sit still.

which file extension are you?

well...

Wii remotes breaking tv's

nintendo's new system looks amazing and is getting great reviews. however, recently there have been a few posts about the remote slipping from people's hands, the straps breaking, and then the remotes flying into the tv screen breaking it.

here's one set on flickr.

here's another.

there are a few others, too. i am sure this is just an unfortunate event. if you have or are getting a Wii, it would be smart after seeing this to make sure to reinforce the strap before tossing it in the direction of your tv.

dog rides

preparing for season 6

in preparation, tonya and i, have begun watching all the previous seasons of 24. she has only seen season 5 and i have not seen season 1 and most of season 2. so it begins. it seems like a big and daunting task. but we will get it done.

and on a side note, it is interesting that president palmer's first and last shots in the show are standing in front of a window gazing out on the city.

here's the preview for season 6.

they have no idea

the folks over at wikipedia got it all wrong. check it out for yourself.

bryant johnson

dice stacking

wow!

comparing windows vista editions

before you decide which version of windows vista is right for you, you must decide if you truly need to upgrade to vista.

to decide look here upgrade planning, why you should upgrade, and what you need to know.

there are some good things coming with the new operating system. does it truly offer more than windows xp? that can be debated. eventually most people should upgrade. at the start, there will br problems with software and hardware compatibility. so while your computer may be able to handle running vista, your other software may not. whatever you decide, you will still need to decide which version to buy.

here's a list of the different editions of windows vista. there's home basic, home premium, vista business, and vista ultimate. as move towards ultimate you are actually getting a more feature complete version. now, you should be able to upgrade to the bigger version if you decide even after installing it by activiating it online. i think the majority of people will have th ebest experience from the home premium edition.

the fact of the matter is that upgrading may cost you more money than expected. you may have additional costs of new hardware and new software depending on compatibility. this is always an issue. some hardware will be left behind for good once you upgrade. and some older versions of software may not work again.

use the upgrade advisor before making any decisions. it does a pretty good job of telling you how well your computer will run with vista.

black friday is coming

here is a list of things you can get free at some stores. now, keep in mind free means that you have to buy something first. if you buy the right item you get something "free." however, there are certainly some good deals out there. keep your eyes open.

busy weekend

well if the week weren't already busy, i had to reformat and reinstall everything on our computer at home. three nights of work after program the previous two nights. windows media player 11 with media connect built in was maxing out my cpu. i don't recommend it. anyways, a fresh computer is a good computer.

tomorrow i leave for crosstrainers at warren willis united methodist youth camps. sunday evening we have a parent's meeting for our high school winter retreat to snowshoe. and monday is our first quarterly volunteer training session. all great stuff. just back to back.

in the meantime i can't get my hands off of splinter cell:da.

need to hear something good?

here's a couple of options to listen to while at work, on your ipod, in the car.

Drive Time Devotionals , this comes from Saddleback in California.

Rob Bell, from Mars Hill in Michigan.

both of these will open itunes and ask you to subscribe to the podcasts. if you don't have itunes, get it here.

hard questions

pastor john's november journal discusses the hard questions series that has begun on thursday nights at 7pm. anyone is welcome to join. just thought i would highlight a couple of funny excerpts from his post.

"At the writing of this, Serious Answers to Hard Questions is dealing with "Evil."
I would like to invite the person who asked the question; "Why doesn't John
Retire?" to come to our class because they could probably give us a lot of
incite on the problem of evil. (Just kidding, I am sure they were jesting).

"Can we hear some of your sins and failures?" I will continue to answer that one
by saying: Yes you can, just suffer through one of my sermons!

Now I have a question for you: Are you willing to approach the throne of God
with an open heart, an open mind and an open soul?"

Movies and TV on the 360

HD movies and tv coming to the xbox 360. with the fall update tv shows and movies will soon be ready for download.

letter to joel

just wanted you to know that you have been on my mind and in my prayers. i don't know if you'll get to read this anytime soon, but i want you to know that i am thinking about you. i talk to jay pretty frequently and he lets me know how you are doing. he shared what had happened to your fellow soldier and humvee driver. i know that things are difficult for you and that fear sometimes may set in. remember Philippians 4:13. "i can do all things through God who strengthens me." stay strong while you are in iraq. tonya and i miss you. i remember out talks from sitting on the tailgate of my truck, to sitting on the stage in the youth room, and sitting in the chairs on my front porch. i told you a couple of times that i would take all of your pain i could. i meant that. every bit of it. i never knew, when i was saying that, that you would be doing and risking your life for me. fighting for our freedom. no matter what people say about the war, you are there fighting for us. i can't tell you how much i appreciate your courage and willingness to do that for us. well, until i see you again, take care. and when your done come to the beach.

"Made a Lady Think I Was God"

tonight's "my name is earl" was great! the show approached the topics of hearing God's voice, responding to what we are called to do, and understanding that God speaks to us through others. i wouldn't be surprised to see a series of lessons on this episode.

free utilities

my friend graig was asking me today about some free spyware removal utilities. i made a few suggestions to him of my favorites.

free avg
avg is an anti-virus program. it's great. i have been using it regularly for a couple of years. there is no need to pay for symantec and mcafee when there are better alternatives. it is small and doesn't use a lot of your systems processes. not too mention it works just as well.

spyware removal
there a couple you should use. each works well but each also will find things the others might not. if you have some major spyware issues try all three.
AdAware this is my personal favorite and the one i use the most. it provides you with a level of the threat, gives you an easy way to remove them.
spybot from safer networkinganother good removal tool.
and last but not least is microsoft's defender. again it is free, but is still in beta. i haven't experienced any issues with it. the full version will likely be included in MS' new OS, Vista.

CCleaner
this little utility will clean out your computer. it removes unused files from your system to help your computer run smooth. it will clean the reigstry, internet files, old .tmp files, and remove anything left behind after uninstalling a program.

and finally for a better internet experience use firefox. it's an alternative web pbrowser to internet explorer. without going into the details it is safer, not allowing web pages to install software without your permission. it loads pages faster and gives you more ways to customize it. try it out.