A Pilgrims Way

I’ve finally come to the realization that when it comes to technology, I am cursed.  Nothing works for me like it should.  Last night was another perfect example that cemented by already firm belief.

I just got a laptop from a friend and wanted to setup my wireless network at home.  Yesterday the wireless access point I ordered finally arrived in the mail and I was so excited to set it up.  Now for normal people, this process would probably take about 15 minutes.  But for me it lasted about 4 hours and it still doesn’t work…I’m cursed.

Initially everything worked (in like 5 minutes).  I know, too good to be true for someone like me.  But in the setup I wanted to make my wireless connection secure so I enable the WEP.  On my laptop I found the network, but was unable to connect because of the WEP.  I have a Mac laptop, so I don’t know if that is part of the problem.  After fiddling with that for a few minutes my wife convinced me to turn off the WEP, which I did.  And everything worked fine.

But after a few minutes of surfing wirelessly the thought of leaving my network unprotected freaked me out so I wanted to setup my security features.  I was attempting to enable the MAC filtering in the wireless access point, but when I typed my IP address in the browser and tried to login I couldn’t.  I tried the username and password I created (didn’t work).  Then I tried the default (didn’t work).  And here’s where I made my mistake.   I had the bright idea of just reseting the access point.  So I did, and now nothing works.  The computer won’t even recognize the access point.  I called support, they were worthless.  I tried someone else on live chat, they were worthless.  I have never been more upset in my life.  I wanted to smash my computer to a 100 million peices, take a vow against ever using technology again and move to an isolated cabin up north and live as a hermit.

I’m cursed or either I’m an idiot.  I choose to believe the former and not the later.

Well I have a friend coming over tonight that’s  more technologically savvy then me.  Maybe he can help me out.

Check this out.

Clocky-an-alarm-clock-that-makes-you-chase-it-if-you-cant-wake-up-like-a-normal-person

I thought it was hilarious. Not a bad idea. I know people that hit their snooze button the maximum amount of times possible (10 or something like that). I’ve never quite understood that thinking. I like to sleep as late as possible without interruption, so I wake up on the first alarm.

A friend at work approached me yesterday about a little help for her daughters Young Author’s project. They lost their husband/father about three years ago and her daughter wanted to right about it. It seems kids at school occasionally make comments (With no intent to harm) about her dad not being around anymore because he’s dead. She wanted to write a story that let everyone know though her dads gone, he’s still present and active in her life.

So here’s her story. Check it out.

Once upon a time there lived a very special person, his name was Todd ***, and he was my daddy. My daddy is now an angel, who lives high above the clouds in a place called “heaven” with Jesus. My daddy has been gone for 3 years, but there isn’t one day that doesn’t go by that I don’t think about him or talk to him.

I went to see him in the hospital the night before he had surgery on his heart. A couple days later Jesus came down from heaven and gave my daddy a pair of big feather wings so he could fly up to heaven with him. My Grandpa *** and Uncle Corey live up there too. I’m glad that my daddy isn’t alone. It would make me sad if he didn’t have anyone to talk to.

When I sleep that’s when my daddy comes and visits me, we talk and play games together. He tells me what it’s like to live in heaven and I tell him what it’s like to be in 3^rd grade. He said Heaven is like Florida because it’s warm there, and the sun shines every day.

Whenever he thinks about me, he drops a feather from the sky and I find them. My mama said I will have enough to make a feather bed when I grow up. I do have a lot of feathers and I keep them in a gold box in my bedroom.

Even though my daddy isn’t here with me I know that he loves me, he protects me and watches over me. He is my special angel.

Pretty awesome for a third grader huh? So to my contribution. The girl loves Jesus. She attends a Catholic school and reads her Bible everyday. She’s always asking her mom questions about God, Bible, etc… And she wanted to include a couple Bible verses into her story: one at the beginning and one at the end. Her mom has no religious background at all and asked for my help, which was so cool. I was just in awe as she told me the story. So here’s the verses I gave her. I’m sure we could all think of better ones, but for whatever reason these were the ones that popped into my mind first. So I went with them.

Beginning of Book - Psalm 91:11 - For he will put his angels in charge of you, to guard you in all your ways.

End of Book - Revelation 21:1,3-4 - Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth…And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.

I came across some good posts to read today.  Check them out.

http://athousandtimes.wordpress.com/2007/03/21/lambing-time/

http://whateverisgood.blogspot.com/2007/03/scheming-swindlers.html

This is an old rant that surfaced again today when I came across an article in Newsweek. The comments I’m about to say are not new, I’m sure you’ve heard them before. But again…I’ve got to say something because I just find this kind of thing irritating.

The article begins with the question. What would Jesus download? Then goes on to tell about the youtube alternative for Bible toting, Disney Boycotting, O’reilly loving, vast right wing christian conservative moral majority conspirators, Godtube.com. I must confess I’ve not been to the sight yet, I promise I’ll check it out when I get home from work, but from the sounds of it, I already hate it. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not the content per say that I hate, but just the idea. The idea that a “Christian” alternative is needed. A separate, goodly, Godly site that Christians everywhere can go to protect themselves from the evil that lurks at our door like a monster waiting to gobble up our children and tear apart our faith. And that’s probably all who’ll visit the site, except for those “unbelievers” wanting to make fun of the “Crazy Christian” people, which I’m sure there’s ample content for that. (I’ve heard there’s a weird Ray Comfort / Banana video out there that you’ve just got to see). So add Godtube.com to the list of other stellar sites like Famster (Myspace alternative) and Conservapedia (Wiki alternative). I’m sure there’s some good content on these sites and I’m sure that the people behind them are well intentioned and not too crazy. I guess I just think that as Christians we should be immersed in the current culture working as subversive and redemptive agents of God rather then creating sub-cultures or counter-cultures that further polarize those who are “in” and those who are “out”.

So what are the future sites we can expect?

Goooooooooooodle - A search engine that ranks results by biblical/morale importance. No matter what word or phrase you search the number one result will always have to do with why homosexaulity is a sin and why we must crush the homosexual agenda in America. Result 2 will be about abortion, and how the life of the unborn is the utmost importance regardless of anything else. Result 3 will be something about Focus on the Family or James Dobson and it will tell us how they are always right and we should do everything they say. I could go on and on…

Godspot - A blog hosting site for those that want to talk about things like Absolute truth, Innerrancy of the Bible, Creationism, Conservativism, home schooling and the rapture. The sites has only two rules, you must believe in them all and you must never question anything.

G-bay - An auction site where you sell your new or used religious goods and wares. Mainly features, books like “Purpose Driven Life”, “The Left Behind Series”, Slightly used King James Bibles (1611 edition, written in the original language spoken by Jesus himself), and Bill Gaither’s 100 Disc DVD set of Homecoming videos.

Glickr - A site that hosts only christian themed images.  Images consist mostly of beautiful buildings and protest signs.

I’m just getting around to writing about the latest episode of Lost. I must say I enjoyed the show and I’ve enjoyed reading other peoples thoughts on it. At the bottom of this post I’m going to list some links to check out to see what other people are saying as well.

Here’s my thoughts on the episode.

We found out that Claire is Jack’s sister, when Jack’s dad visited Claire in the hospital. I don’t know what the importance of that is, but I think Jack’s dad plays a bigger role in this mystery then being just a bit actor in flashbacks. I think somehow Jack and Claire’s dad is tied into the island.

From Patchy we learned that (he at least) came to the Island on a submarine, by following a beacon signal. Since the “purple sky” the becon has been damaged and now no one will return. What does this mean? No more Dharma drops of food? Bigger implications I’m sure. Patchy also mentioned something about “The List”. Kate wasn’t on “The List”, because she didn’t understand, couldn’t understand. What is “The List” and who’s on it? My mind immediately jumps to thoughts about Julia. Julia was recruited to the island, she’s an other, she must be on the list. So people on “The List” must have some type of talent or ability the others (or Dharma? Confused here) need (i.e. Julia has some ability with infertilization). Are they trying to create this perfect Utopian society with selected individuals?

I found it odd in the last two episodes that the others would gladly die, rather then tell, assist, or go anywhere with the losties. (i.e. Patchy and the girl that begged patchy to shoot her last week). Is this some type of martyrdom or what? Or are they just afraid of the higher power, Jacob? Who or what are they trying to protect? Must be pretty big if they are willingly and thankfully laying down their lives.

It was good seeing Jack enjoying his stay with the others. In my heart I want to believe the others are good, just misunderstood in some mysteriously weird way. I couldn’t help but notice a hint of confusion, worry, betrayal in the voice and expressions of Kate. How can Jack be smiling? Having a good time? She must have envisioned him as locked up and miserable. Somethings wrong with the picture, but she doesn’t know what yet.

Maybe it’s just me, but I found a good parallel between Claire’s mother and the message attached to the bird. (Let me first say I thought putting the long and wordy message on the bird was odd) But who was the message for and what was it about? Who knows ultimately, it may lead to the losties rescue. Especially with the beacon being broken. But I think it had to do more with last weeks theme of hope, which seemed to bleed it’s way into this weeks episode. I think the message was for the losties and us. The parallel that struck me was in the phrases used by Jack and Claire’s dad in the hospital and the last phrase of the message attached to the bird. Jack and Claire’s dad said to Claire that her mother was, “Living, but not alive” (Pardon my paraphrase here, I can’t remember exactly). In the bird message, Charlie said the message was from those “still living” on the island. I took it as a “Sixth Sense” type message if you remember the movie. Live life while your alive, too many people are dead and just don’t know it yet, hold on to hope while you still have breath.  I think this also ties well into Charlie’s dilema.  Ever since he found out about his impending date with death, he’s been moping.  We thought he woke up from it last week, only to fall into the rut again this week.  Can he live, while he’s alive and not fear death.

BTW - I think Claire’s mother is still alive.

Here’ s some other links to check out. I liked the thoughts these folks had about Locke’s alliance and agenda on the island and Desmond’s occupation with saving Charlie. I can’t say it any better, so read it from them.

http://redhatmandan.wordpress.com/2007/03/15/lost-season-three-episode-twelve/#comment-2138

http://blogdedrew1.wordpress.com/2007/03/15/lostpar-avion/

http://newscoma.wordpress.com/2007/03/15/make-sayid-the-leader-for-petes-sake/

http://mycropht.blogspot.com/2007/03/just-to-clarify-it-wasnt-ostrich.html

I don’t know what’s going on with me, but I’ve been so tired lately.  Both before and after my vacation.  This morning I almost got in a car wreck on my way to work, because I simply didn’t see the guy turning in front of me.  On my drive to work, I’m half asleep.  When I get to work I’m half awake.  Even after drinking coffee.  I can’t concentrate on anything.  I feel like I’m walking in a fog the entire day and I have no energy to do the things I enjoy.  Somethings got to change.

First I think I’m going to try going to bed a little earlier.  I went nuts a few months ago staying up too late playing Xbox, but I’ve settled down.  I’m usually in bed no later then 11:00pm and up by 6:00am.  That’s 7 hours of sleep, but I’m still dragging.  I’m going to try and go to bed at 10pm now.  Which sucks…because a lot of good tv shows come on at 10 (i.e. Lost, Black Donnelly’s).  Oh well.

I need some other ideas to increase my energy level.

Can anyone help?

Here’s the first batch of pictures from the cruise. I’ve reached my monthly limit on flick, I’ll have to figure out a way around it later.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rich0107/

No vacation would be complete without a great story. And while there are several stories from our cruise I could tell, there is one that clearly stands out in my mind. One that I’ll never forget. One that changed my life forever.

The wave runner incident.

While I’ve been know to embellish things a little, I assure you the events you’re about to read are absolutely true. If there is any doubt in your mind about the veracity of this tale, witnesses are available upon request to corroborate the facts.   Before you begin, I must warn you this post is very long, but an epic tale such as the one you’re about to read deserves the right to be properly told.

And so we begin… Read more »

Got back yesterday from our cruise. I’m planning on putting up all my pictures on flickr I think, so everyone can see them all, but I wanted to get a few of my favorites up today. I’ll post more about my trip tomorrow.

First pictures are on the deck of the ship after dinner Sunday night. It was a beautiful night, there was a light breeze and a full moon.

Next are some pictures from Passion Island, Cozumel

Lastly a picture high above (150 feet) a Mayan temple in Belize. The place was called Xunantunich.