I am toying around with the idea of playing around more with something called HDR (High Dynamic Range) in my photography… And so I wanted to know if yall liked the HDR stuff better than the normal photos or not… so here are some examples: 1st one is HDR the 2nd one is normal.
So what do yall think? Oh and ifyou would like to see more of the newest photos I have uploaded then please go to my Flickr page.
while in Orlando, Florida last week I found out about a conference that I going going to try to help at and attend. If you are UM and or Presbyterian and interested or got questions about the Emergent Church then this is the conference for you……
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Emerging Church for the Existing Church
To see the brochure for the conference click here.
This conference will provide opportunity for dialogue between younger leaders of the Emerging Church movement and leaders of the established church. It will be held on April 8-10, 2008 at St. Luke’s United Methodist Church in Denver, Colorado. Speakers include:
Doug Pagitt … Dan Kimball … Tony Jones
Bob Whitesel…Janet Forbes…Katherine Turpin
not pictured: Lilly Lewin, Karen Sloan and Don Payne.
This conference is being cosponsored by the Emergent Village, Clergy Uniting for Growth and Ministry, Iliff School of Theology, and the United Methodist Publishing House in cooperation with Denver Seminary. For more information send an email to info@leadershipnexus.net
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Also here are a few other cool things i found as of late:
That is a visual look at the bible and all of the cross references shown with different colors! How freaking cool is that, there are several more was of showing the bible visually, and I would encourage yall to go check them all out…very cool creative stuff (just go click on the pic and it will take you to the site)!!
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Well, I am trying to show in a new and different way all of my online life…and there is a new one out there called Mahalo…so here is a link to it, and it is just a better looking way to keep track of my online presence/life with tabs to several online things I am apart of. Go check it out here:
Yep, you read that one right…. 2 guys came again today to install the new washer (that replaced the broken one they tried to install yesterday) and here is how it went down.
I was working on my laptop checking email and about to start work on the Saturday evening worship talk…when the door bell rang. I cosed the laptop (and with a Mac it went to sleep mode) and set it in the Home theater chair beside the other one I was sitting in. I went to the front door holding Halo back…and it was the H.H. Gregg delivery team here to install my new washer and stack the already existing dryer on top of the washer!!! Woo hoo…(Tiffany and I have been living out of out suitcases we were in desperate need for clean clothes!)
Well, I watched them most of the time while they installed the appliances. And then I asked them if they would like a drink…and the new guy (one of them came last week) said that he would like to taste my new favorite drink “Bawls“….so I left them and went up stairs and got him the drink. I brought it down to him and everything was fine… Well, I had needed a wrench to take the shower head off upstairs and I thought that maybe they would have brought one with them…and sure enough they did have one…so they let me borrow it and I went upstairs to go and take of the shower head.
I guess it was during this time that they finished and walked into the Home Theater room to find a Mac Book Pro just sitting there in the chair. Sleeping…not doing anyone any harm… just laying down there with it’s little glowing white light in the front…and I guess one of them (or both of them) decided that it would be fun to steal a $2,900 laptop ($2,500 with two programs on it that were not cheap). Well, I walked down stairs to find the new guy waiting for me to sign the paper work so they could leave. I noticed that the other guy was already in the truck and the truck was running. Then we walked back into the Home Theater room to sign the papers and I noticed that they put the washer’s instruction booklet on top of the laptop in the chair… I signed the paper and they told me it might be a good idea to just let the dryer and washer go through one cycle to make sure that they were working…I said OK, and walked the new guy out of the garage door and watched him get into the huge white box truck.
Well, I went back inside and turned them both on to make sure everything was good and then I sat back down and reached over for my computer to find that my computer was not covered up by the washer instruction manual, but had been replaced by it!!!! I freaked out! I torn the chair apart hoping to find it in the cracks or under the chair with no luck…then I tore apart my other chair the one I was originally sitting in and nothing….then I decided to just go up stairs to look all over the place for the laptop…………..nothing…. then it dawned on me the only person inside the house other then me, Halo(the dog), and Sushi (the cat)? The H.H. Gregg guys!!!! then I got mad! So the first thing I did was cal the H.H.Gregg 800 number to tel them the installers stole my laptop….after waiting for an operator ad being transfered 2 times, I talked to Vinnie (sp?) he proceeded to tel me that I must have made a mistake because these guys have been on the job for a long time and all of there workers go through background checks, etc…I told him that they did it and he sad that he would call them and call me back….I proceeded to tell him that that was not the best idea…because it they did steal it…they would never tel their boss they stole it and they would know that i was on to them……bu the guy would not help me at all and so I got off the phone and proceeded to call the previous home owner (who just so happens to be a cop!) I told him and he was @ my house in a matter of mins. I told him everything and he took the invoice and called and talked to Vinnie (who would not help him either (at all) and really ticked us both off. He hung up the phone and told me to go ahead and call in the theft and they sent an Elsmere policeman to the house to make an official report. I told the policeman everything and he got eh serial number of the laptop, etc. and all the info. They started to look for the huge white box truck, and I don’t thin they found them. Well, long story long… I have to call the church’s insurance company tomorrow and make an official report to them, as well.
And to top it all off the washer was leaking after they left… I fixed it myself…bt still I mean come on…this is stinking horrible! The loss prevention guy @ H.H.Gregg called me and apologized profusely, and told me that he was contacting the general manger for the area and would do the best he could to take care of the situation. Then about 45 mins. after that conversation, a rep. from the delivery company Affinity,and a rep from H.H. Gregg. showed up to my house and wanted to see first hand all about the incident etc… so I walked them through the house and told them everything and gave them the police report, etc… So, we will see what comes of all of this.
so, if anyone sees a MacBook Pro laying around anywhere that has all of my stuff in it’s programs…could you just get it to me and bring it back. We (Tiffany and I) went to tonight to have our date night and I told here wen we get back maybe the laptop fairy would bring us a new one…and sure enough….I guess he/she forgot my house…oh well. It is a laptop after all, and not a human being…so I have a good view point on all of this..but it still sucks!
And the funny thing is, man I would have given these two guys the money in my wallet if they just would have asked for it. I really liked them and if yall know me at all I would have invited them to dinner if I had seen them again…..but even now I love them. I wish I could just talk to them. Let them know what I know about grace, love, and forgiveness. I would have done (and still would) almost anything for them. Oh well, please pray for all involved. the two guys, all the H.H.Gregg people, the Affinity delivery guy, and the policemen who help throughout this whole ordeal. God loves them too.
Well, please pray for Tiffany and I, as well. We are interviewing with the KY Conference tomorrow afternoon to be transfered over the the KY Conference of the United Methodist Church! We are excited about it and can’t wait to tell more people about Th3 Waters.
Thank you all for reading my blog. your thoughts and prayer are always greatly appreciated! and please KUTPs!!!! God bless!
Well, the past few days have been a blur..and it looks like the next few might just be the same…but life is good and fun…right now. I am happy, but very stressed…and stressed makes me a little angry…and angry makes me less of a Christian…or maybe I should say makes me act less like a Christian. It is weird…ever since Jay’s death…. there are just times out of no where that I cry, and other times, that I laugh, and other times still, that I just get very mad. I hate getting mad, and I know that I could control it if I wanted to, but I do not sometimes…and I just get angry…and then turn green and muscles grow, and my pants rip, heh… just kidding, but Anytime I feel like this it is usually a good indication that i am stressed and tired, and eve more so I know that I need now more than ever to spend time with God. Please forgive me God, and Tiffany for getting angry over the smallest things in the world and even though sometimes it may feel like I am yelling at you… I promise I love you and I am not yelling at anyone…just yelling…that is all.
Anyway… we have internet, the computers are up and going, the guest bed is up and needs to be made, the kitchen is coming along nicely (thanks to Tiffany) and the home theater is getting up and going too. (I still need to hang the side surround speakers and buy/put up the cable management stuff, but all in all I think that everything is coming along swimmingly.
We bought a washer and dryer:
(click on each picture to read more about what they can do)
The washer was brand new and the dryer was a scratch and dent floor model…and when they delivered it this afternoon…guess what? Yep…the dryer was just fine…not evena scratch on it, heh…and the (BRAND NEW washer) had a broken door……so, it looks like tomorrow I will get to sit around again and wait for them to deliver a new washer…and we have asked them to stack the dryer on top of the washer….I think it will just be better for Tiffany to have at least one of them higher up…if it does not work, then I will have a few people help me to make drawer/pedestals for them both to be placed on…and that way both of them will be higher.
Well, other than that…I have got to find some time to work and unpack at the same time… and I have to say that I loved the movie 300….it is not the best movie in the world…but it sure was on kick donkey (in the Biblical sense) action flick and anyone who loves battle scenes and a few good manly lines needs to go see this movie. Next up for me will be Pan’s Labyrinth, and maybe a few more…then again… I could just wait fr them to come on DVD and I can not wait t get to see the next Heroes that I DVRed!!! woo hoo….well, I must got to bed… I am stinking tired…God bless yall and KUTPs!!!!
Here is an article in the New York Times about how Wi-Fi is becoming the new air conditioning of the market place world. And I totally agree!!! I decide where I will go to “hang out” most of te time on if they have FREE Wi-Fi internet connection or not. Here is the article…and let me know what you think:
So here is two songs that cracked me up! the first one up is Baby Got Back (remake)….now this is an acoustic remake of an old rap song….so please be advised there is very questionable lyrics in this song…but holy cow this song is stinking funny when heard in this new way… here it is:
And the second song that you all must listen to is called Code Monkey. This is one of the best songs I have heard in a long time and those of you who code all day long will really apprecite this song! (it is a song by a geek for geeks) and this one even has a you tube video so check it out here:
Well, yesterday during lunch time Scott and I went out for a photo shoot. Scott is an amazing photographer and since I love photography…I decided to go with him every month or so and we go around the area to take pictures of different places and things. Yesterday we went to the Cincy Krohn Conservatory ad saw all the great plants and flowers they had…one entire section was closed so they could change it around for the seasons…but I still had a ton of fun and Scott is great company! So here are a few of the pictures I took, if you want to see more than just go to my Flickr photos over there on the right side of my blog and you can view them all….
Here is the waterfall…I took this one without a tripod which is why the greenery around te water is a little blurry too, but the water came out great.
The orchid room was amazing…it was not very big…but man those flowers are great!
Here is looking up a tree….. I loved the texture on the bark of the tree and just had to get a shot of it…and of course I love looking at things differently, so I decided looking up would be fun.
Barrel Cactus…. very cool cactus and just loved the shape. Ironic the shape is pleasing but the spikes are not, heh.
Not sure the name of the succulent plant, but I just loved the Black and White version of this one. The black tips came out great and the design of it is great!
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Well, Tiffany and I went to a meeting yesterday and when I went to check my pocket PC (PPC) the screen was fried and I could not see anything on it… so the piece of tech that held my contacts, calendar, (a few games), and tons of notes and tasks is now officially dead! So, I will be attempting to see if I can get by with just using my laptop for all those items…but it just will not be as convenient to get a telephone number, enter a date, etc… Maybe I can hold out for PPCs to get cheaper when the iPhone comes out, heh… anyway…it is dead…and I will get to change the way I work a little bit…but who knows this might be a blessing in disguise.
Oh here are a few pictures that I had laying around my Flickr that I meant to put up here, but just never have until now….
Here is a photo that my friend Scott shot of me for our church directory. They wanted a photo of us while at work, so we went to a local Starbucks and I thought this one was probably my favorite.
Here are a few more (this is mainly for my Mom….please do not think that I like to see my own photo…i hate it actually which is why I love photography…. most of te time you are not in yor own pictures, heh
Here is a Buffalo mounted at the Longhorn Steak house in the shopping center that the Friday night OG meets… I thought I would grab a shot of it.
Now this is a cool lamp I saw @ Lowe’s! Man it looks and moves like a robot (not on it’s own sadly), but what a cool lamp to have on a geek’s desk!
lastly, here is Jedi Halo! Halo loves to get the covers under his nose and lift them over and over again until he is under them and comfortable…I took this shot when he decided to emerge from them in the morning. ——————————————-
Well, yall have a wonderful weekend, God bless ya, and take care! KUTPs!!!
Hey everyone After Reading Alan’s blog post about Snap…I decided that it might be a col thing to add Snap to my blog…so now basically if you mouse over a link from now on it will allow you t see a preview of the link before you click on it… I thought it was very cool and so I have added it….let me know if yall like it or if it is annoying. Thanks and I hope to be back some time next week with a few videos of Christmas and how funny Caleb was/is…take care God bless…and I hope your first day/night on the job was a good one Sean!
Well, I must say ever since I got a MacBook Pro laptop…I have been amazed and blown away with the Apple brand. Apple was actually one of my first computers…well it was my brother’s computer…but I got to play games on it too, heh…. but then Microsoft came into play and it became THE machine for games and if any of yall know me you know I like video games……so it was an easy choice…to go with Microsoft and the PC…. but ever since I have gotten a taste of Mac OS X and seen some of the simplest, yet amazing things they do with their products (like the two finger scroll on the mouse pad on the power Macs…very easy and cool) I am blown away…and also since my design classes in Undergrad I have had a flavor for good design and there is no one in the consumer market that can beat apple with the class and design of their products. Well, the rumor sites have been hinting at it al along and with Kevin Rose on Diggnaton leaking a few f the specs it seems that the big day @ the Mac World Expo has come and the iPhone is a reality…. And why am I freaking out (along with the rest of the geek nation)????
(click the image for all the info and stuff)
Well that is why! It is a phone (only through Cingular Wireless as of right now) 4G and 8G iPod with widescreen, TOUCHSCREEN, video capabilities (i.e. download TV shows, music videos, and movies from iTunes and watch them on it), Wi-Fi internet browser, can hold your contacts, calendar, a 2Meg digital camera, widgets, clock, calculator, email, runs Mac OS X, bluetooth 2.0,has 2 batteries one for the iPod part and another for the phone so that you will not kill the other one if using the other…..(you get the point….it is an end-all-be-all in your pocket device! I am actually surprised that they did not make a deal with Starbucks and it could make your mocha in the morning and your frap in the evening…(but during Steve’s Keynote speech he did order 4,000 cups from Starbucks to go fro the iPhone by using Google Maps on the web browser, heh) So how much for this little fella??????
4 Gig = $499 5 Gig = $599
Yep, for the price of this device that fits in your pocket….you could buy a PS3, or a small HDTV, or a decent computer, etc…. So I am sure that Cingular will give their usual more or less $100 discount when you sign up for a 12 year agreement with them for the phone…and not sure about anything when it comes to warranty, heh…. but pending the FCC allowing it to come to market… Apple has single handedly revolutionized the cell phone and MP3 player market forever! Amazing just amazing….
Steve also just mentioned the (click the image again for info) {apple}TV
for your home that costs $299 that will hook up wirelessly to your computer and iTunes and will allow you to watch your downloaded movies, TV shows, Music, etc…from iTunes on your widescreen TV in your living room! This product and others like it may very well kill both the next gen HD-DVD and Blu-ray-DVD High Definition DVDs out of the water! While they are fighting in another format war just like VHS and Beta Max….the download able services found on the Xbox 360 live Market Place and Apple’s iTunes may lay them both to rest and the thought of walking around with a hard copy of a movie with be a thing of the past…because it will just reside in your phone…that someday you will just put next to your TV that will play the High Definition movie wirelessly! And seriously I do not think that kind of dreaming is not too far off.
Anyway…. this is the week that a part of me was in the consumer electronics business. The Mac World Expo is going on and so Apple is telling the world what is new in their corner of the world…and the the CES show (Consumer Electronics show is also going on too! CES…is the place that all the consumer electronics manufactures gather to gather to show off their latest technology, from gadgets, to cell phones, to TVs, to surround sound, etc… And man I know that I would just loose bowel control if I had the opportunity to attend one of these events… but until that happens some day and I make friends with Steve Jobs or good old Bill gates…I will just have to get my news from the people I can almost trust (news websites, the companies themselves, bloggers, etc…)
Well, needless to say I am very excited about all the electronic stuff going on especially the HDTVs that are being shown there… (especially since mine is being worked on and I am without my TV for 7-10 days…..aaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh, just kidding it is not too bad…especially since I have borrowed the church’s projector (thanks Gary)…but it is still not in HD…and with someone who just bought for Christmas the HD-DVD drive for the Xbox 360
(clickable again) it is all mine…my precious….my love…..(oh wait that would be Jesus and my wife…wel, it sure is fun to enjoy and play around with, heh heh heh….)
…it does kind of suck a little bit, heh…. But, some very cool technologies are out there and coming to TVs….like Sony’s new OLED technology that claims to have 100,000:1 contrast ratio…(it means very good ability to show the difference between the darks and lights in a picture which gives it much better clarity and definition no matter how much light is in the room that the viewer is in) this is something that plasma and LCD have been having a hard time with as far as a technology is concerned…but then Mitsubishi has a new technology that uses lasers to give the picture on their TV…and that has the potential of producing “perfect” colors instead of having to use red, blue, and green to produce the other colors, they will use CMYK and Red, Blue, Green…this will allow the yellows, Magentas, etc…to be really vibrant…and I am sure that technology will be amazing…even though I have not heard anything as of yet about it at this years CES, but the show still has a few days to go yet…. And all the news is towards the High Definition Format war…with LG even producing a player that plays both formats…so that it will not matter what movie studio goes with which technology that the consumer will be able to play them both, heh heh… and others (Warner) have gone the route that will allow the movie distributors to put both a HD-DVD movie on one side of the DVD and a Blu-ray HD movie on the other side! Very cool that someone out there cares about the consumers instead of being greedy and having a format war…. these selfish battles killed Super Audio CD and DVD-Audio….but then again downloaded movies might just kill them both off anyway…oh well………….
Well, let me see….. ah yes, Christmas and New Years….Tiffany and I had a great trip to TX (i.e. the promise land) and got back safe and sound with lovely gifts and the best gift of all getting to see family! So, I guess until I can get a few of the videos into youtube I will just have to put up a few pictures for yall to enjoy…so here you go…..
Here is one of my favorite gifts I got from Kevin…who i always have a “gag” gift for…it was just my way a long time ago of welcoming him into the family…and this year my plans were shot…so he got to have all the glory…and yes, that is a jewel encrusted toilet bowl plunger…and why you may ask did he do this…well, for a few of you long time blog reader you might remember this little gem of a post/story that involves Tiffany, poop, a plunger, and a phone call.
my parent’s dog Teddy
Teddy sleeping
My Dad and Brady (Kevin’s (the Holy Plunger guy) youngest boy)
The Stones and my aunt
Here is Caleb Nephew on tiffany’s side that did not want to hold anyone’s hand when he crossed the parking lot to the movies, heh… he was a wonderful delightful…handful, heh… But boy do we love him!
Here is Halley our Niece on Tiffany’s side…I loved the tongue she gave me for the picture.
Tiffany’s Dad with Noelle’s dog Sunshine
Me with little Haley
Caleb face
Caleb face 2
Central TX clouds….I just loved this shot
And to top it off a shot of that wonderful state of TX….God bless her!
Yall have a good night and go check out the tech stuff. It really is very cool stuff! KUTPs…and be looking forward to videos of our Christmas soon!
(clickable again)
