Catching up and all that.
I will be at a “web apps in education” conference tomorrow. The positive? I don’t have to be perky. The negative? I actually kinda wanted to watch the inauguration.
Glad to be home
Reply
Monthly Archives: January 2009
Casas Day 2
I leave for one weekend and everyone gets delusions of grandeur.
The Cardinals are doing what? King Brian, what strings did you have to pull? Woo also to the Steelers. Even though I am a literate fan first and foremost, it all boils down to wanting to see Mike and Sean duke it out with laser swords. February 1st it is, people.
Also, congrats to Manbeast W for winning first in the wrestling tournament.
But the biggest MVP? My wife. My oldest woke up at 4 this morning sick. My wife woke up with her while I was still groaning, “Why are we up? Why aren’t we sleeping?”
My wife was able to go thanks to Danjo sacrificing and staying behind. We really appreciate it. The house did get built, Jesus was honored, and now for the pictures:
We will have to get photos from other people’s cameras. The first non cellphone pictures that we took were after the house was already up. Oddly enough, all of the ones posted today are from my Nokia.
Is it wrong to be so enamored with a windowsill?
One co-builder mentioned as I shaved the edges of the drywall that he had not seen such a masterpiece since Michelangelo’s David.
With Extreme Home Makeover, we did not see Ty and the crew. We were too busy building a house for people. Irony. I am glad to see that the El Paso paper defended Ruiz against the criticism from talk-radio and Internet goofballs.
Well, this is new:
Last night we had to give over all of our IDs and only one was scanned. Today we had to hand over all of them. They were handed back. We then had to hold the photos up to our faces while the van was opened up. We did not have to file out, which we expect next time. This was on the U.S. side of things.
On the Mexico side, things were tense. I guess 2,000 troops have been deployed to the city this past week. Before we freak out, though, keep in mind that the Juarez cartel is not a new thing, it’s just now getting more coverage through faster communication. Also keep in mind that Juarez is a spread-out city. There’s 1.5 million people in the city. I think I saw maybe 20 troops this weekend. Juarez is bigger than we think. We just get to the edges, where it’s more of a reservation-type landscape.
There was a soldier who was shot this weekend, but it seems like it was a drinking game gone wrong. Everyone was out and about, though, and thankfully my wife caught the word “iglesia” as we got stopped.
(That guy’s armed on the roof.)
With all of this, keep in mind that there are innocent (as much as the rest of us) people in Juarez who need help and need Jesus.
Next MLK weekend: open invitation. Mark your calendars now.
Day 1 – Casas
Don’t forget the Twitter feed in the sidebar.
We’re back at the hotel. Our biggest hold-up was Napolitano’s fences. Very impressive but still inefficient. The border patrol collected all of our papers, ran one, and then threw the clump of passports, certificates, and licenses into our car without checking the rest.
Good thing they didn’t scan our Russian mafia talent.
With the house:
The walls were able to be put up today which is a first. I had to re-invent myself because we no longer did the wheelbarrow for concrete, we just put the mixer in the frame of the foundation. Changing workforce in an ever-expanding global economy, world is flat kinda way.
Fun was had by all three of us, and as promised for the grandparents:
More photos as we share data connections.
Happy Birthday, Mike!
I did not forget, my friend. It is a custom of my people to celebrate one week later. May the Cardinals, both clerical and otherwise, rock this weekend for you.
Pictures from the past couple of days
We are now at the hotel, back from the food court. Earlier we were watching documentaries on the Mobility Denial System and the Death Star black hole. Now we are resting for the big Casas build starting tomorrow.
And by the way…my phone rocks. And the Torrent that my dad is loaning us is pretty cool, too. Dad, did you know that you have an AUX port where you can play music from an iPod/phone over the stereo system. I swear Pontiac must share some factory space with Scion. (I miss my Scion. It’s weird how over the course of a few days I am really humbled about a ding in the car.)
Torrent at Wilcox:
Torrent at Deming:
And on top of the weird goings-on, check out what one of our budding Sherwood Forest thieves did at school:
Now more than ever
I want to see the Father on distant shores.
G.I. Joe vs. Street Fighter
Is this is a portent of incredulous precipitance?
I must admit that at first I was only going to discuss the current reading level of the bloggh:
At first I was going to petition for the current practitioners of jurisprudence who follow the bloggh to contribute articles (Dad and Josh, you can still add your thoughts) but then I realized that I have a William Tyndale “English ploughman” thing going on. (Have you seen Google’s timeline results? Very cool.) (So, that High School badge? It’s not dynamic. You shall not get sidebar placement.)
Tonight I was at Fry’s picking up the necessities for taking care of a sick baby. I was sitting in the Scion when an elementary school kid in the truck parked next to me slammed his door into the side of the car. I did get out quickly to check the scratch but pulled back when I realized what a 6’9″ scowling Hairyman must look like to the poor kid.
Now imagine my encounter with humility as a mom with two young kids is sobbing as she gets them into her car. She’s got the scarf and look of a chemotherapy patient. As she’s crying, I’m thinking, “Do I treat her kids to Baskin Robbins? I have to get home. Should I go get them dinner?” While my brain is in discourse, I watch as a group of women from all walks/sedans/SUVs of life, including a cashier in full uniform, come support this woman and comfort her. People surprise me. (To feel like you were in the Scion with me, check out what I was listening to.)
Think about all of the heartache that we see/endure/cause during the course of one day. Opportunities.
Also:
I was glad to hear from The Cannon (our stand-up comedian/puppeteer friend)(re-printed in case you missed the e-mail):
Either gender is welcome. Yesterday I got two tickets to go see Tim and Eric (a hilarious comedy duo) for Sun. January 18th 7:30pm. And, then afterward I wish to go see a weird circus sideshow act at the Trunk Space. It’ll be an all expenses paid trip to wacky fun land. The first response I get is the person I take with me on this grand adventure.
Wacky fun land is, in fact, truth in advertising. Any takers?
And Israel/Gaza/Puppy breaks it all down nicely:
My To-Do List
Auto-generated by Nokia 5310 CommlinkBOOYOR using recent sports news feeds
- Buy lottery ticket.
- Invest in Euro-Disney.
- Pick up cream cheese for tomorrow’s faculty meeting.
- Warn mime friends of imminent velociraptor attack.
- Get Audacity of Hope signed by his biggest fan, Slade.
- Teach professional development class on arena combat.
- Kill Samson.
Evil Booyor identified by eye patch.
88 Years in the Making
And sold out in 6 minutes.
We mocked you, Burton, for your wasted devotion. I hope you got tickets. NFC Championship? As in Pro Football?
Nokia 5310 First Thoughts
After filling up most of the space on my hand with complex notes of DVD projects, I am very glad to have a new phone. Much thanks to my mom for improvising and to my grandma for never upgrading her phone. (I guess she only uses her phone to call people. Weird.) (On the topic of thank you speeches and awards ceremonies…Sasha Cohen, my condolences. It’s always tough to watch bad jokes be put out of their misery.)
With the Nokia, it’s cool to see how many revisions have been done in just one upgrade.
Improvements I’ve noticed so far:
- The ability to create playlists on the fly. (Before you had to use a half-baked PC-only program.)
- No sliding keypad – yes, the keys are there, but it’s a sturdier design
- The phone is now just a little bit bigger than the Nano my wife has
- Headphone output is normal headphone output size and not crazy Nokia size
- Higher resolution camera
- Guitar Hero III is included. Granted, it sounds like rockin’ out on a Tandy or Commodore 64, but that’s because we know what the original artists sound like. If we had to ford a river in Oregon, it would be dead on.
- The best feature? Still tweakable like the 5300. Very exciting.
The playlist on the fly is huge, since I don’t always listen through an iTunes U lecture from start to finish in one sitting.
Next order of business – Danjo, where did you get your phone case?
Back to Fourth Grade
I received another note this week from a staff member that had my first name and last initial on it. There’s another person on staff now that shares my first name.
I am now being called by the same name I had in fourth grade, when there were three of us who shared the same first name.
To be fair, the quality of my day is a function of the amount of strawberry milk in the cafeteria, which can best be described by:
Don’t forget to carry the 2. Any fourth grader could identify this simple Jacobi polynomial.
Extreme Makeover: Casas Edition
So, you know how I go build houses in Mexico? Check out the latest newsletter:
Click here for a zoomable view.
My powers only work at the grocery store
If you remember from wayback the article about NeuroSky, with their mind-reading hilarity, check out what the Futile Ohm found.
I would like to say I’ve grown as a bloggher since last year, but
In Twilight Princess, when I’m trying to rescue the kid by horse-chase and then a showdown joust over a spanning bridge, I don’t want to play worse because my mind is singing “Meow Meow Meow Meow” or “I am I, Don Quixote, the Lord of La Mancha! My destiny calls and I go!”
Yep. Still a valid concern.
This one’s for Rachel.
I guess there’s some show called Grey’s Anatomy and they decided to make a Wii game about it:
See More Grey’s Anatomy: The Videogame Screenshot at IGN.com
I hope Ubisoft (makers of Tom Clancy games)(and then a whole bunch of junk) do better at an adaptation than the boys at Bandai (adapters of Astro Boy, Gundam, Godzilla…sense a trend?) did for Gilligan’s Island:
Planet Earth switches from an Acer to a MacBook
Intel is now providing a dual-core planet for faster processing and higher rotation rate. Here are the top seven ways that life will now change with this knowledge:
- Textbooks will have an addendum photo
- Not much else.
Bad News, Good News
Bad News
I haven’t slept as well, as soundly, as refreshingly, as I did the night of January 1st. It had been a while. I wonder if there’s a correlation between…
Good News
The incessant barking of the boxer and German shepherd next door has returned. I looked over the fence to see what all of the commotion was. Yep, they made their way home from the park.
Go away, migraine. I have better things to do.
Two packages arrived in the mail today, one from Patrick Carman and one from Ally Carter.
Wonder Phone Mysteriously Broken and I’m Doing Awesome
My Nokia 5300 screen is nearly unreadable in the bottom 3/4 of the screen. A big crack had started in the top part of the plastic but had been fine for a while. Today, though, all of its techy goodness bled through. I am now going through my connections trying to wrangle up a phone for the busier of my two semesters (good ol’ AIMS).
Day-ruiner, right? Not so, Mr. Obsessive Bloggher. Tonight I went to Third Format to see a friend be baptized.
Me. 6’9″. In tears more so than the baby I was holding. I was very excited to be there and witness the work of a God who still reminds me that he’s a lot more infinite than me and keeps his promises. Strunk, I’m proud of you.
Jesse, please stay in contact
Have fun in Idaho.
Take your treacherous Massassi with you.