openswitch

The night before last my family experienced our first all-nighter. And by “all-nighter” I mean, of course, that my son threw up all night long. It was extremely odd as he didn’t have a fever, 98.6F all the way. And when he first thew up it was clear, no food in his stomach. Food poisoning? I’m not sure. All I know is that when a 3 year-old child throws up it’s never a silent affair. Crying, loud crying, always ensues.

The first couple of times we were like, “Crap! What a mess! Get the Lysol!” Then I had the brilliant idea to get a small trash can for, ya know, the stuff. At first Toddler Boy was all like, “You want me to do WHAT in there?!” Then after a few puking episodes he was like, “ZOMG! Where’s the can?! It’s coming again!” Suffice it to say, he’s an old pro at hurling (not to be confused with Curling, which is a sport . . . but that would be cool too.)

Just finished installing Hardy Heron so here are my first impressions.

Nice looking theme

There’s a new-ish Human theme included by default called “Human Murrine” which is a big improvement over the clunky standard Human theme. Also, unlike the fugly default background for Gutsy, the Hardy background is actually worthy of being seen. Very nice job, Ubuntu team!

Transmission included by default

w00t! Transmission is included in Hardy by default. Okay, okay, it’s a small thing but you know what? (Sniffle) /me wipes nose with arm. It shows they care about me. It’s the little things.

Firefox 3

Interesting that Firefox 3 is included by default seeing as it’s still in Beta. Oh well, I’m sure it must be stable for someone to have made that decision, right? RIGHT?

Cool icons showing which processes are working.

Not really a necessity for a fellow like me who’s used to running *nix but for the first-timer stuff like showing when a Synaptic Package Manager is running can be very useful. Very good call on the part of Ubuntu.

Change BIOS option from IDE to RAID

This was my wtf? moment of the week but it makes sense when you think about it. Originally I was having trouble with Hardy on my Dell 530. The new 530s strictly use SATA connections for the hard disk(s), they don’t have any IDE connections or those fat ribbons you find in computers of yesteryear. Seems that my BIOS was set up on an IDE configuration and Hardy didn’t like that. Gutsy didn’t mind so much but it threw Hardy for a loop. The solution was to go into my BIOS and find the option where I could change it from IDE to RAID and that solved the problem.

FWIW, this should never have been a problem in the first place. I really don’t understand why the Ubuntu devs couldn’t fix this as it was reported before the final release of Hardy last Thursday.

At any rate, The new Ubuntu rules and I’m hooked (again).

I remember the first time I “shaved.” I was a young teenager and had only a wisp of hair on my upper lip. I got curious about shaving one day so I grabbed a blue plastic Gillette Good News razor out of the medicine cabinet in the bathroom and without water or shaving cream I ran that thing over my skin and thought “well, that’s not so bad” and it wasn’t.

As I got a little older things changed, or more correctly, I changed. I began shaving my whole face and quickly realized that dry shaving was out of the question. I began getting my own razors and shaving cream instead of using the rusty ones in the medicine cabinet and I learned that shaving against the grain was the only way to get a close shave (or so I thought).

As I got older I continued to buy in to all the latest shaving fads. First it was a pivoting head, then the Mach3, then the Mach3 Turbo, then the Mach3 Red & Blue. Then Schick added a blade, the “Quatro.” But Gillette skipped over the 4-blade razor and went right to a 5-blade beast and called it a “Fusion.” I don’t know what it was a fusion of, maybe a fusion of price tag and hype? o_O

Well, 8 cartridges for $30 was a little steep for me especially considering I’d only get 5-6 decent shaves out of a cartridge before it started tearing my face to bits (well, more than it did already). Thankfully, by the time the Fusion was debuted it held no I-want-it power over me because I was well on my way toward learning how to shave with a double edge (DE) razor.

At first I wanted to shave with a DE razor because it was different and as we all know I love going counter-culture or at least counter-popular-culture. Also, realizing that I could get 100 blades for $10 shipped, it was a sound financial decision too. But as I got better at DE shaving I realized that I no longer had the skin irritation that I had previously gotten from the Mach3. I no longer had to shave against the grain to get close shaves either. And most thankfully I didn’t get ingrown hairs on my neck anymore. Quite without realizing it I had begun to enjoy shaving rather than merely enduring it.

Granted, the buy-in price is high: $20 for a decent razor, $10 for 100 blades, $40 for a decent brush and $5 for a decent cake of soap. But bear in mind that a decent razor should last you the rest of your life, a cake of soap will last half a year at least, 100 blades will last a year (assuming you shave every day and you get 3-4 good shaves out of a blade, which is typical) and the brush should get at least a few dozen good years of use before it needs to be replaced. The cost of DE shaving is a bit lower than using the canned goo shaving cream and a cartridge razor but the most important benefit you’ll get is an increase in the quality of your shaves.

OK, so the first couple weeks of DE shaving will suck; after all, you have to unlearn all the bad shaving habits you learned from cartridge razors such as the faulty idea that if you want a closer shave you just need to press harder. But after that initial learning period you’ll notice a marked improvement in your shaving experience. And let’s not forget that unlike those plastic cartridges, a steel DE blade will merely rust away in a landfill, the razor isn’t disposable (I use one from 1961 and it will likely last me until the day I die) and the cake of soap comes with minimal packaging (hey, every little bit helps, right?)

So if you recognize that you’re throwing money away on a grueling, sub-par shave every morning, why not join the shaving revolution? You’ll find that reading through the threads on a forum such as Badger and Blade will be immensely helpful as you’re starting out. I’m an active member there and have picked up a lot of great advice from seasoned DE shavers. You have nothing to lose except a lot of razor burn and ingrown hairs.

In two weeks our church is holding a True Love Waits weekend for the students; yet I can’t help but be pessimistic. I know that statistically speaking the rate of sex outside of marriage is the same for church goers as it is for non. I suppose I could think of reasons (excuses?) why this is the case but I prefer not to right now. Instead I’ll just take that fact at face value and move on.

What kind of a difference am I making by holding this event? Are the students actually going to change their behavior for the rest of their lives as a result of 3 days of study? I find it hard to believe so. Just like a teacher has an almost impossible time making a child want to learn, so is a minister almost incapable (notice I said “almost”) of making a student want to live a virtuous life.

Let’s be honest, by the time a student is in high school their attitudes toward life and their core values are already in place thanks to their upbringing. At the point they come into a youth group the very best a youth worker can hope for is to come alongside this young adult and walk through life with them. Their core character and moral fiber have already been formed.

That’s not to say you can’t teach an old dog new tricks, I’m just saying it’s just about impossible. Call me Mr. Pessimistic from now on, OK?

I first read about Shyfter on Read Write Web. I followed a bunch of the links and read what people had to say about this whole thing and I’ve come to a conclusion: you should feel free to steal my content.

So, from what I can gather, Shyfter is a web app that takes people’s content, posts it on their site and then lets people comment on it. Seems to me like it’s more of a really cool feed reader on steroids.

Some people are complaining and getting some attention for it. Squeaky wheels and all that. But after reading their points of view the major objection to Shyfter and content theft in general I’ve realized that it all comes down to one thing: money. Those who are whining the loudest are the ones who have the BS job of “professional blogger.” And if they’re not “professional bloggers” then they’re aspiring “professional bloggers.”

Makes my twitch.

Frankly, I’m with Scoble, realizing that the era of blogger’s control over their content is over. As a matter of fact, I’ve believed this to be true for some time now, hence the Creative Commons Licensing of my site.

Y’all need to quit your whining and focus on creating something new and interesting. If you do that you’ll never need to worry about people riding your coat tails, you’ll be wearing the coat.

This is the complete kit (and then some) of all the materials I presented at the Flint River Association VBS Clinic at Southside Baptist Church on April 12th 2008. Feel free to use, adapt and redistribute any of this material at will.

As I’ve written about before (here and here), once a month I have a “Real Talk” session in place of our regular Wednesday night youth group Bible Study.

Today we had another one and I asked the students’ permission to publish their questions along with my answers on this blog. They were all pretty excited about the idea so I’ve published them below . As you can see, some questions are very serious and some less. Under each question I’ll write the answer I gave. Most of the answers I gave were longer, or more specific but I can’t remember exactly what I said and I didn’t record the Bible study.

Q: “What was your favorite part of high school?”

A: Graduation day. To be honest I was at least somewhat socially retarded in high school; or to put it more politically correct, I was a “late bloomer.” I was extremely shy and on top of that I had a horrible self image. This caused me to, by and large, avoid all kinds of social interaction. My last year in high school was moderately better but I still did not like it at all.

It wasn’t until I got into college and joined the cheerleading squad during my 3rd year that my self image really began to improve and I overcame my shyness.

Q: “Do you think home schooling is good?”

A: I think it depends. It depends on the parents as well as the child. I’ve heard the argument that home schooling creates socially retarded kids, but studies tend to show that’s not true most of the time. From personal experience I’ve also found that those kids who are socially retarded have parents who aren’t very socially inclined themselves (though this is not always true).

I think that in general home schooling is a good thing if the parents are very involved and adamant about their children succeeding.

Q:“On what movie can you find the name Scuba Steve?”

A: Big Daddy

Q: “How do you feel about labor unions?”

A: Generally I dislike them. I think at one point in history they played a crucial role but today they’re causing more problems than they’re fixing. By demanding higher salaries and other such terms for employment they’re reducing the ability for companies to be competitive and forcing many industries to outsource their work off shore to countries without labor unions.

Q: “Why are so many people argumentative when it comes to talking about religion?”

A: Good question. I think the crux of the issue is that a person’s religion is close to the core of who they are as an individual. When you begin attacking a person’s religion you are, at least partially, attacking who they are. This makes it very difficult to have a respectful, thought-provoking discourse about religion as people (myself included) tend to get defensive and argumentative.

Q: “My mom says I have to go to a christian high school. I don’t want to. All my friends are going to a normal high school. If I go to this school I want to go to I have a better chance to get a scholarship. I know that colleges cost a lot. I don’t want my parents to pay anything.”

A: Well, first you should know that generally speaking, the high school you go to will not affect your ability to get scholarships. Certain exceptions could be attendees of under-privileged schools but I don’t know that for a fact.

I think in this instance you should respect your parents and go to the high school they want you to go to. They’re paying the bills, you’re not old enough to move out, and your relationship with your parents is much more important than the high school you attend.

Q: “If you are having a hard time in school with temptation and [at] home with family, and it feels like the whole world is falling on your shoulders, what do you do!”

A: Gosh. I think it’s important to recognize the fact that we all struggle with temptation, especially in middle and/or high school. That’s not an effort to trivialize the struggle you’re dealing with, it’s just me trying to buy some time to think of a good answer! Hehehe.

I know that in my life I’ve had struggles with certain kinds of temptation. Sometimes I’ve seen a lot of failure in overcoming the temptation. Other times I’ve seen some degree of success. But I think that the first step anyone should take when dealing with temptation, whether it be over eating, drug abuse, alcohol abuse, sexual temptation or any other kind of temptation, the first step is to have a close friend or possibly a family member (though that can be more difficult) in whom you can confide. There’s a lot of strength to be found in close friendships.

Brokeback Mountain finally came around on our Netflix cue so we figured it was high time to see what all the fuss was about with this film. In brief, I could have done without the boobies but the film itself was very well done. The acting was phenomenal, and the story itself wrenched my heart, especially the ending scene.

When I watch a movie, especially one that has been well written and well filmed, I find that I put myself in the shoes of the characters and feel what they’re feeling. Some say this is empathy or sympathy (I honestly can’t remember which is which) and it’s why I’m such a good minister. While watching this film I felt the pain that Ennis Del Mar felt; I felt the confusion, betrayal and bitterness that his wife Alma felt; and I felt the yearning for something unreachable that Jack Twist was going through.

The fact of the matter is this story isn’t just about homosexuality. Homosexuality was the veneer. On a much deeper level, Brokeback Mountain is about social norms, cultural expectations, and how each of us bend (break?) our lives to fit into them. Perhaps that’s why this story wrenched my heart like it did. I think we all at some point yearn for something we can’t have. We all are confused about what, exactly, we want or need. And we all feel betrayed by people close to us, people we thought we knew.

There comes a point in every parent’s life when, while looking at their prodigy, they sit back and say, “I’m proud of that little person over there.” This past week, my friends, I had just such an experience.

For the past three and one-half years I’ve been changing diapers. If you figure that a child goes through 3 diapers a day (a conservative estimate by far) that works out to a little more than 3,800 diapers I or my wife have changed since my son was born. That’s a crapload of diapers (pun most definitely intended).

Some people are pretty adamant about potty training their kids early. Just give these parents a ball whistle and they’re one set of Military fatigues away from being a drill sergeant. I even knew a family who insisted on potty training their boy before he turned ten months old. I think it’s just common sense to let a kid develop at their own rate so that’s why we never forced the issue with our son. We did, however, encourage him to use the potty.

Going pee pee in the potty was second nature to the boy. He was a pro, completely messless, it was phenomenal. But poo poo? No way. Sit the boy down on the potty when he had to go poo poo and you might as well have thrown Diego off a cliff right in front of him. He was mortified to do the deuce on the throne. You could cut the frustration with a spoon.

But this past week, without warning, he has started taking the kids to the pool all on his own, without any prodding from us. At first it was hard to believe. But now we’re in diaper-less bliss. Oh what a wonderful thing it is!

MY SON HAS CONQUERED THE THRONE!

Jesse McPherson is a front-end web developer (so I like him already). A little while back he got his laptop, his TV and his XBOX stolen. The police didn’t offer much, if any, help so he took matters into his own hands. Especially after the person who had his stolen items left him messages on XBOX Live.

He eventually got all his stuff back his XBOX and laptop back but is still waiting to get his TV back. This is a prime example of internet vigilantism at its best. Here, watch the news spot for yourself:

Oh, and he’s got an awesome website to boot.