Friday
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Pizza from Tony’s Bella Vista and a movie at home. That was after we tried to go to the Gold Class Cinemas in Pasadena, but were turned away because everything we wanted to see was sold out. Maybe another time. Instead we fired up the DVR and watched Australia, which I thought was weird until I realized it was a Baz Luhrmann film.
Saturday
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Rode the Metro into LA, ate at Philippes, and walked Olvera Street and China Town. It was a very LA-centric day.
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That evening we stayed home, ate leftover pizza, and watched a couple episodes of Fringe. We’ve been working the way through our DVR this month trying to catch up on shows that we’ve been recording over the past two years. We recently finished the first season of Southland, which was amazing. I’m so glad TNT picked it up. I can’t wait for new episodes. Now, we’re working our way through Fringe. I feel like that show took a little while to get into but now I’m hooked.
Sunday
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Lead worship at church in the morning and spent the afternoon watching football with friends.
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That evening Erin made a really good butternut squash risotto and we continued the process of catching up on past episodes of Fringe.
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Posted in: Life.
Tagged: Life · Weekend Update
Here's a quick list of some of the blogs and feeds I look forward to each day. Hope you enjoy. Beware, the list is a little tech heavy.
Tech
Social Media
Humor
News
Other
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Posted in: Technology.
Tagged: Blogs · Technology
Lately I've been asking myself that question. I used to be the kind of guy who keeps his wallet in the back right pocket, keys in the right front, and cell phone in the left front, but lately I've been questioning this practice.
First of all, it's annoying to sit on your wallet all the time. And, not only can it be a little uncomfortable, but it can also wear a wallet shaped hole in the seat of your pants.
Because of this, I've been testing out some new configurations, but the problem always is where do you put the keys. Put the keys with the wallet in one of the front pockets and you damage the wallet. Put the keys with the cell phone and you damage the cell phone. And, keeping the wallet and the cell phone in the same pocket is out of the question unless you like giant bulges. It's quite a dilemma.
So, all this leads me to one question. Where do YOU keep your wallet and keys?
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Posted in: Life.
Tagged: Life · men
Friday
- Dinner at Zeke's Smokehouse in Montrose. Chicken, Ribs, Beans, Green Beans, Hush Puppies, Onion Rings, Sweet Potato Fries, and Shiner Bock. Good stuff.
- Watched Up in the Air. Erin enjoyed all of the little details about business travel.
Saturday
- A little work around the house followed by a lot of playing with my new WD TV Live. It's a cool little toy that allows me to share media on my home network and play it on my TV. It took me a while to figure out file sharing with my eMac, but it was because I skipped a step or two in setup. Oops.
Sunday
- Church
- More work around the house. We actually hung some stuff on our walls.
- Small Group and a little New Super Mario Bros. Wii.
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Posted in: Life.
Tagged: Life · News · Weekend Update
In no particular order, here are my 5 favorite albums of 2009.
Swoon - Silversun Pickups
Break Up - Pete Yorn & Scarlett Johansson
21st Century Breakdown - Green Day
Curse Your Branches - David Bazan
Noble Beast - Andrew Bird
Posted in: Pop-Culture.
Tagged: 2009 · favorite · Music · News · Pop-Culture
One of the accomplishment in 2009 of which I’m most proud is seeing both the highest and lowest points in the contiguous 48 states.
The week following Christmas I visited the Badwater Basin in Death Valley, which is 282 ft below sea level. In July I summited Mt. Whitney, which is the highest summit in the contiguous United States with an elevation of 14,505 feet.
It’s pretty crazy if you think about it. Not many can claim such an accomplishement, even though the two points are a mere 76 miles apart.
I truly feel blessed to have been able to make both trips this year. Thank you to all who made those trips possible.
Mt. Whitney - The Highest Point in the Contiguous 48 States
Badwater - The Lowest Point in the U.S.
Posted in: Life.
Tagged: 2009 · accomplishment · Badwater · Mt. Whitney · Vacation
All of the tech blogs have been talking about this all week, but I thought it was worth sharing with you. Google has a new tool called
Browser Size which shows you the size of the browser window for people who visit
google.com. It's an interesting tool, which you can use to judge what people will see above the fold when they come visit your website. This could be extremely helpful to non-profits and beginner web designers who are learning how to build effective websites.
The tool allows you to insert your url and see a color overlay representing different screen sizes; however, I haven't been able to get it to work for me. Could be the network settings at work. Check it out for yourself at
http://browsersize.googlelabs.com/.
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Posted in: Life.
I love Christmas, but I can understand why this time of year brings fear to the hearts of many. I was listening to my normal morning radio show this morning and they had people calling in to explain why they hated Christmas. Interestingly each caller despised the season for one of a few reasons: increased family tension, stress from being too busy, or stress from tight finances. Hearing these people explain their pain caused me to wonder if we’re doing Christ a disservice by trying to celebrate his birth at a time of the year which has come to mean something completely different.
Now, I’ve heard the arguments before about how we need to desecularize Christmas, and bring the focus back to Christ. That sounds great. I’m just not sure it’s possible at this point. No amount of picketing, boycotting, or getting angry over corporations who refuse to use the word Christmas in their advertisements is going to change those stressors, or make anyone feel better. I’m not necessarily abdicating that we give in and make Christmas a completely secular holiday either. In fact, I’m not really sure what I’m abdicating. It’s just disturbing to me that a time of year that Christians have set aside to honor the birth of the Savior is a source of pain for so many. It should be a source of comfort and a time of reflection and anticipation.
As I think about this a little more, maybe the answer to the season of stress is that we, Christians, need to follow the example of Christ, and love each other. I’m not saying that Christians should give in; I’m simply saying we need to love. Isn’t that what’s missing when people experience the tensions of the season? Isn’t that really what the message of Christmas is about anyway? Who cares if someone says Happy Holidays instead of Merry Christmas? If there are people hurting we need to set those petty concerns aside and be Christ to people He’s the reason for the season.
When I started this post, I was leaning toward celebrating the birth of Christ some other time during the year to remove him from a time associated with so much pain. Now, as I’ve thought through it a little more, I realize that even though we’ve screwed this holiday up, it’s still a time in which Christ is sorely needed.
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Posted in: Life.
I just downloaded another update to Google Maps on my Android (I'm running 1.6) phone today. This is the second update in a couple weeks. The last update added Google Navigation, a turn-by-turn navigation service, and a few other tweaks. This update brings
- Report a problem with the map or business listing
- See businesses at an address or near a point on the map.
- Try experimental features with labs.
I could be wrong, but this might be the first Android App from Google to have the Labs feature. Gmail has had the Labs treatment on it's web interface for a while, but I think Labs for Google Maps is a first in the app world. It seems Maps is turning into Google's flagship app on the Andriod phone. It's definitely getting more love than any of the other Google Apps. I wonder why they're pouring so much into this app? Do they think Maps is what will set their phones apart? Are they wanting to conquer the map/navigation world? It'll be interesting to see what the next step is.
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Posted in: Life.
It's time for another weekend update.
- Friday night, Erin and I, along with a few friends, went to the John Burroughs High School Holiday Spectacular. As usual we were blown away by the amazingly talented kids at Burroughs. Special shout out to Allie Adkins.
- Saturday, I spent daylight hours doing automotive work. It was time to change the brakes on the van, as well as the oil. While I was at it, I went ahead and changed the oil in my car as well. We now have two well-lubed vehicles.
- Saturday evening, Erin and I went to a screening of a little documentary named Dive! You might remember my post about it a few weeks back. We had a great time. The film was great and all the food that night was gathered from various local dumpsters. Don't worry it was safe. It's really sad how much we waste in the United States. Check Dive! out.
- Sunday, Erin and I were exhausted and a little under the weather so we stayed home from church and rested. We spent most of the day indoors, except for the short period of time in which we mowed, raked, and hung Christmas lights.
- Sunday evening, Erin went to a special event at Nordstroms with her mom and I watched the Lakers demolish the Suns.
It was a pretty nice weekend, and even though I got some rest yesterday I'm still exhausted.
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Posted in: Life.
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