my geek life

In a few minutes I will be posting something that I have been trying to do for months. I finally did it.

At any rate, I figured I would take this time to let you know what I’ve been up to. Christmas was spent at my folks place. My sister came down from Washington. I had fun with her and her husband. My dad’s mom and brother also showed up. So it was quite the full house. I was sleeping on the couch in the living room. I pulled an all-nighter hanging out with Trina. She was visiting home from Cambodia where she’s teaching and didn’t want to experience jet-lag on the way back. New years found me at some friends house where I mostly just chilled and played ping pong (table tennis). Throughout all of this, I’ve mostly just been working in the office, madly programming. I’ve gotten a ton done, but it seems like forever until it will actually be useful.

That’s it for now.

cheers!

Blogged with Flock

Let’s just get the complaining out of the way at first. I’ve been sick for the last two weeks. The first week was the sore throat and some congestion, the second was just sinus pressure and more pressure. I didn’t feel congested like normal, just the pressure that almost caused headaches a couple times. I think I was mostly well today, but then I had to go and work from 7 till 10. That’s not conducive to staying well. Right now, I’ve got a splitting headache and I hope it goes away soon.

Now that that’s over with. Last week was spent in the office. First we rearranged the office so I have my own sweet space. I say sweet because it’s a corner with a huge L shape desk and white boards. (The white boards are quite useful when brainstorming a programming project.) By the way, I am very excited about having my own spot. It’s been two weeks and just thinking about it still makes me happy. Weird, huh? The rest of last week was spent catching up on CD sales orders, mastering CDs, and programming. Oh yeah, I also started playing Settlers of Catan. (Board game that’s addicting and a lot of fun.)

This week … well … I’m back in Yountville, CA mostly finishing their sound system … finally. Tonight was their Christmas music program and the first program to run through their brand new sound system. Yes. We finally finished it enough to use it. Let me tell you. I am very very very pleased that it’s not hanging over my head as another unfinished project. I guess I can’t see we are “finished”, but it’s close enough. It’s runs and they can use it. In my book, that’s most of the project done. This project has been very frustrating at times and that’s putting it mildly. So relief is the current feeling, well, it would be except for the headache. We got quite a few compliments on sound tonight and I am very happy with the way it sounds. I’m quite picky and have become even more so since I’ve been spoiled with an awesome system for our live shows. So, to make me very happy with it, means, “It rocks!”

Well, that’s enough to help you get caught up on my life short-term. Briefly, I spent most of November in Arroyo Grande, CA installing a new system there. Also, my original “home” church and I spent Thanksgiving down at my Grandma’s place in Loma Linda and actually got to briefly visit my other grandparents since they were down there with some cousins.

If you want to know what I’m up to, I suggest following me on Twitter. I’m horrible at updating this blog, but I tweet almost everyday. You can see my latests tweets on the right of this page as well as visit my Twitter page. If you don’t know what Twitter is, please see my old post upgrade and twitter.

cheers!

I’m just checking out how well posting from Flock 1.0 works.

[UPDATE:]
Guess it works pretty good.

Blogged with Flock

Wow! It’s been almost a month since I blogged last. Almost being less than four days. A lot has happened and I’ve been several places. Since my last post, I’ve worked in: Yountville, Fresno, Arroyo Grande, and Modesto twice. Yountville and Arroyo Grande are install jobs, but Fresno and Modesto were the fun ones.

Fresno was a church Youth Conference. We had to unload and setup in less than three hours. With God’s help and six workers, we actually did it. We had never setup the large sound system in less than eight hours before. The second time in Modesto was for a Prayer conference. Again we setup the large system. Fortunately, we weren’t time crunched. We had it up and running in six hours with no helpers. That included time picking up some lifts that we thought were going to be delivered. So, we are getting pretty fast at setting it up.

While working in Arroyo Grande, I stayed with my parents and was able to attend one of my dad’s performances. He conducted the San Luis Obispo Chamber Orchestra. It sounded awesome and the featured bassoonist was excellent. My grandparents also visited that weekend. So, fun was had by all. The weekend before was spent recouping from a 101.7F fever that I had Friday night. That was the first fever in almost 11 years. I can wait at least that long for another go at it. That was the temp an hour and a half after taking four ibuprofen. I wonder if it was higher earlier.

Today was spent cleaning up my mess in AG and driving home. Tomorrow, I load up a small system and head for the Santa Cruz area. I’m providing sound for Men’s Ministry Retreat. The speakers being brought in are pretty good from what I hear. Hopefully true.

Oh, I saw a tweet from Cali Lewis of GeekBrief.TV that they would be broadcasting the recording live on ustream.tv. I decided to attend since I had nothing else to do and lucked out. I had my domain mentioned because I used her GoDaddy promo code, GB1. If you want to see it, it’s at the end of Episode #248.

Oh, news about my laptop, too. I took it in to get repaired because the USB port on the right side was really messing up and causing problems. They opened it up and found out that there was water damage, which isn’t covered under warranty. Getting it fixed would cost at least the price of getting a new MacBook. Granted, I want the pro, but it’s not worth putting that much money into a 2+ year old laptop. So I’ve got it back and I just have to remember not to use that port. Hopefully it will last for a couple more months.

And that’s it for now. I’ll try to be more regular … why am I saying that? It will or won’t happen regardless.

cheers!

I just downloaded the new Opera 4 beta for my Blackberry and I love it! Finally able to browse regular webpages mobilely. Even the twitter javascript on the side of my page works! I just had to write this post because I am quite impressed. There is one complaint I have however. Text entry is messed up. When I’m entering a URL, it doesn’t auto period when I put a space and the enter key goes to the next line. Text fields also go to the next line when entering. Neither can ever hold the cr/lf characters, so what’s up? At any rate that’s pretty much it. Oh. Can’t figure out how to zoom out. That would be nice to know. Otherwise, very nice beta.

cheers!

I think I shall revisit my weekend chronologically, thus leaving the interesting and eye grabbing headline ’til the end. You can kill me later.

I visited my grandparents in Placerville this weekend. It is far closer than going “home” and always a relaxing and enjoyable time. On Saturday, we went down to Sacramento for a large convocation. It involved a church service and a concert in the afternoon. The concert was conducted by Ralph Carmichael and was his arrangements. Yeah, I didn’t know anything about him before this weekend, either. At any rate, the instrumentation was provided by the Sacramento Philharmonic and the choir was between 400 and 450 large. It was quite powerful, especially when they end on How Great Thou Art, which has to be one of the most majestic pieces ever written.

Sunday involved doing laundry (what fun!) and visiting several places on Apple Hill. My grandparents have in their back yard one of the most touristy places in California during mid-late September and October. Apple season brings tons of people up there and many of the farms have craft fairs and other such attractions during this time. It isn’t in full swing yet, which was nice. I got to experience a little of it without having to wait forever in slow lines of cars and giant crowds.

Now, the part you’ve been waiting for. I was heading west on 50/80 in Sacramento and all of a sudden a cop a couple cars ahead turns on his lights and starts weaving left and right across all four lanes of traffic. At first it seemed very erratic and … drunken. Eventually we, the other cars and I, figured out that he was signaling for everyone to stop. We stopped and he pulled up sideways next to a large piece of plastic, like what hangs underneath the bumper of a car. He picked it up and tossed it to the side of the road and took off. Now, this doesn’t sound very exciting anymore, but let me tell you. For the 15-20 seconds it took to figure out what was going on, it was really odd. It’s not every day that you see a cop swerving all over the place, cutting people off and almost hitting others.

Now I’m back in Yountville and staying with some friends again. I hope to put up some pics soon, but you know how that goes. It takes a while for me to get around to stuff like that.

cheers!

It’s been mentioned several times that men should be included in the band wearing if it is going to happen. I completely agree. I didn’t mean to distinguish between the sexes, just wrote from my point of view. I noticed that the pastor did not wear a band, either. So if I was a female, I would have written about that. Probably twenty years ago, males wouldn’t need to worry about wearing a ring but in today’s world, I know that it is the very first thing girls check for on attractive guys. And yes, I know this. Girls have told me they do and I’ve watched them do it. (And yes, I know there are exceptions that don’t.)

Another thing mentioned was the difference between a simple band and fancy rings. This brings up another thing that I find interesting in regard to engagement rings. Wedding rings are usually just bands, it’s the engagement rings that carry the fancy jewels and heavy price. A while back I read an insightful article in The Antlantic by Jay Epstein, Have You Ever Tried to Sell a Diamond? To help put this in context, N. W. Ayer was a leading advertising agency in the United States.

Toward the end of the 1950s, N. W. Ayer reported to De Beers that twenty years of advertisements and publicity had had a pronounced effect on the American psyche. “Since 1939 an entirely new generation of young people has grown to marriageable age,” it said. “To this new generation a diamond ring is considered a necessity to engagements by virtually everyone.” The message had been so successfully impressed on the minds of this generation that those who could not afford to buy a diamond at the time of their marriage would “defer the purchase” rather than forgo it.

The article is rather long, but a very good look at how our society and others have been socially engineered without our knowledge. This presents an interesting dilemma to Christian young people today. I believe, now, that it is irresponsible to purchase beyond what you can afford. I was just as brainwashed as everyone else when I was searching for a ring several years ago. I didn’t spend more than I could afford, however, and I’m pretty sure that I disappointed my fiancé when she didn’t have a diamond to show off to her friends. They did an excellent job brainwashing us. Girls grow up waiting for their diamond ring to show off and when it comes time to get it, the guys don’t want to disappoint, so they know that an expensive ring is required.

Now back to why this is an interesting dilemma. First, they have to fight against a way of thinking that they’ve been successfully manipulated into believing since childhood and the pressure of their peers. Second, it is wrapped up in the emotions that come along with engagement/marriage. I think this is definitely hardest for girls. How does she explain why she doesn’t have a fancy a ring to her girlfriends without coming off as holier-than-thou? How does she fight the disappointment she feels even though she knows it isn’t important to have $500+ on her finger, especially when her friends show her their expensive rings? Now I know that not all girls will have these issues, I’m not that dumb, but many will.

Well, I’ve spent more than two hours writing this, so I think that will do it. It will be interesting to hear your comments on this. If you get a chance to read the article, it isn’t for the faint of heart, but it is excellent.

cheers!

I just had a four day weekend in which I enjoyed camping, dam building and riding quads. This week has been spent getting ready for future events and installs. Yesterday visited a convention center so we know what we need to do because we have to unload, unpack and have a sound system running in less than three hours. That will be insane. Today was spent getting some equipment ready for another install and tomorrow will be shipping and getting ready for my first gig under Leo Lutz Engineering. I’m headed up to Angwin for a friends wedding that I’m providing sound for. I’ll be staying in Yountville that week and I’m not sure what happens that weekend exactly. I do know that the next few weeks will be spent in Yountville and I’m planning to go visit the grandparents in Placerville again. Well, like I said, just a little update.

cheers!

Today, I was doing some work at a church and there was a gal there about my age working. She was cute and I automatically checked to see if she had a ring on. She didn’t and I assumed she was single. Thankfully, we didn’t interact or it may have become awkward. It turns out that she is the pastor’s wife.

Just to make things clear, I am presenting this from a biased mind. I don’t have a problem with jewelry as many in my church do. I wear jewelry, but I don’t spend much money on it either. Actually, none in about a year and two before that. I say this just to be clear.

Now back to my illustration. This is nothing new in our society. About the time of the late 70’s, early 80’s, my mom had car trouble and a friendly stranger helped her out. He also asked her out and became very embarrassed when she told him that she was married. He was embarrassed because he didn’t want to be thought of as the type that hits on married women. Because of this, she got a wedding band. Even back then, a wedding band was a significant sign that you were not on the market, anymore.

Today, the same story could have occurred with me. Sure, I probably shouldn’t be asking a stranger on a date, but the point is that I expected to be able to tell if she was married. Why is it that some people still oppose the wearing of wedding bands, even in the younger generations? The only statement Ellen White, church founder, makes is that rings should not be discouraged from being worn in cultures where it is imperative. It has been imperative in this culture since the 80s!

My second argument for wedding rings comes from a friend that I’m living with right now. She mentioned that she wears the band so that people know they are married when they stay in hotels and the like. This speaks very true considering that it is imperative.

“Abstain from all appearance of evil.” – I Thessalonians 5:22

In today’s culture, if you don’t wear the band and are seen going to a hotel, it can be assumed that you do not care about abstinence. I guess you could avoid going to hotels, but it isn’t the hotel that is an issue. It is the fact that you don’t appear to be married.

Does the ring guarantee loyalty? No, but it is a symbol that you are not available anymore. My question to those married and not wearing a wedding band, “Why are you trying to hide that you are married?”

That’s my rant for the evening.

cheers!

p.s. I found the following article to be very enlightening. His conclusions make a lot of sense. I didn’t come to the exact same, but it is presented in a very well thought out and concise manner.

The Wedding Band, Ellen G. White, and the Seventh-day Adventist Church

[UPDATE:] Since I’ve been asked by multiple people; No! This did not happen in my home church.