Happy 4th of July!

Reba and I celebrated Summer's four month birthday on Saturday by taking Victory to the dog park. Victory has been needing more exercise this summer and is feeling a little neglected with how much attention Summer requires. He also needs a close eye to watch his feet when he goes to the park as he has been ripping the pads on his feet with how rough the gravel at the park is. He seems to be doing ok and healing up fine this time. We left as soon as he got a little hole in one pad, and it isn't bad enough to hurt him any. Summer slept the entire time we were there.

We also attended the annual DOSUG (Denver Open Source User Group) bbq/cookout at Plumb (something) Park. Good food and good talking with the active members. I want to start attending the regular meetings the group holds monthly. Reba enjoyed talking with some of the ladies that came. Good family event.

Sunday we slept in as Summer didn't sleep much Saturday night or Sunday morning. Lunch at Nate and Jos's was good as always and I helped nate with a wiring problem in his new truck. It now has a working radio! All the cousins had great fun, and all four are growing like weeds; especially Summer.

Today we took Summer and Victory to Cheesman Park to watch Nate's family bike/ride/walk in the 5th annual bike parade. Very hot out, but lots of shade to be had made it survivable. This evening was a cookout with Chris and Marie. Vic had to stay home, and was very good! He didn't get into anything this time! Chris grilled up some good buffalo burgers and a perfect t-bone steak. We swam for a bit and watched fireworks on TV. Twas a good day.

Potentate of the Rose

This morning, I became a "Potentate of the Rose". If you don't know what that is, check out the link, or search for "Petals Around the Rose". I figured it out and am sticking to my guns of not revealing the secret, but I would be more than happy to prove to any other members that I know it. And I will say one thing, having a very analytical mind helped. I saw three rolls and had the secret figured out.

If you want to try figuring it out, use this puzzle page from Lloyd Borrett.

More Minecraft Videos

For those who didn't know, I'm shooting minecraft videos on my youtube channel at http://www.youtube.com/arigornstrider. I finally got around to editing all the footage I've recorded (all the way back to the first of the year), but it took several days to upload as well. I was coming home for lunch some days this week just to get more videos started uploading, and I think Comcast has been throttling and even stopping some of my uploads completely (it could have been browser issues, but if I waited an hour or two, without closing the page I could restart the upload and it would work).

I'll throw up another post in a bit to talk about work and other life stuff. Hope all my readers are doing wonderful!

New Blog

Hey all,

It's been a while since I've last kept a blog, and as I've shut down that webhost and the blog running on it, I may be starting over from scratch. But I wanted to start writing some thoughts down and keeping a "brain" log as thoughts and memories come up.

Speaking of memories, My wife Reba and I are currently taking Dave Ramsey's "Financial Peace University", from which I have graduated once already before getting married. I am happy to have no debt and have a decent emergency fund saved up to take care of the unexpected expenses. We're going through a budget and savings plan, and are making good progress and agreeing on how we want to do things. Since we are expecting our first child in March (2011), we have started talking through how to teach her financial responsibility.

Growing up, I was paid for some chores that I did, and not others. I had to keep my room clean or I would get spanked (or some other punishment as age appropriate). I got paid for helping with some family chores like doing the dishes (and actually getting them cleaned). I had summer jobs all three years before I started college at Trevecca, and put that money into savings. I had a deal with my parents to go to one of three schools for college if I wanted financial assistance, and if I kept up my grades, we would split the bill half and half (they had been given money by my grandparents for us kids to go to school and additional gifts when each of us got married to put aside for a house), with any scholarships I earned counting toward my half of the bill. I was able to graduate debt free and with a modest care in my name (I had saved up while working 20-30 hours a week when not in classes).

My grandparents were very smart with money, and they passed that on to my parents. My parents then passed that on to me. Thanks to the planning and generosity of my grandparents who had passed away before I was old enough to get to know them, I have a much better start in life and when I moved away from home, had a reserve saved up instead of starting deep in the red with lots of loans and car payments. I thank God for His providence in my life.

Abnormal Grief (Wordpress Import)

Ok, here's the setup: a great friend from Florida (the guy who got me the job I have now) moved into an apartment out here today and I am exhausted getting home around 1AM after carrying boxes for 13 hours. Also, I got word that one of the longest employees at our company passed away today unexpectedly of what seems to be heart failure. I don't have any info on what all happened, but am just lost about what to say. He was in better shape than anyone else I know. He leaves a large family behind, and I grieve for them more than him, because I know I'll see him again in Heaven. What do you say when this happens? I just can't come up with anything. My heart goes out to the wife, mother, father, and nine children he leaves behind. It was so sudden.

Keep watch, dear Lord, with those who work, or watch, or weep this night, and give your angels charge over those who sleep. Tend the sick, Lord Christ; give rest to the weary, bless the dying, soothe the suffering, pity the afflicted, shield the joyous; and all for your love's sake. (Book of Common Prayer, the order for Compline)

Identification (Wordpress Import)

It has been a long time since I have enjoyed reading. Truthfully, the last book I enjoyed had been one I read just as I was starting college (when I was 15 years old). There were lots of books I was supposed to read or could have read in school, but I did not enjoy that they were assigned and I was graded on them. I do not usually like being forced to do things, particularly, when it is a topic I might not be interested in, such as early/mid American Literature.

However, I have found a book I really enjoy. I started watching the new series on TV named "Legend of the Seeker" [Hulu.com] about a young man named Richard Cypher. The pilot episode was enough to grab my attention, so I watched a few more and started taking note of the story line. I suppose there were a few areas in which I could identify with the protagonist and sympathize his story with mine.

Knowing that the books were already published (not requiring me to wait for each new episode to be released) and included a greater level of detail about the characters and events, I picked up the first in the series by Terry Goodkind titled "Wizard's First Rule" [author's website] (upon which, the TV series is based). I have yet to dissect exactly where the title comes from, but figure I have the rest of the book to sort that out.

I was correct in my assumption that the book would be significantly different from the TV show. And far better. I read the first chapter as soon as I got home from the book store. I could not put it off. I planned to just read a little at a time, digest it as I read, and then read it through again as fast as possible (most people do the reverse).

Then last night happened. I woke up at 2am and could not return to sleep. I got up, threw the laundry in the washer, and took a shower. I waited a little, surfed TV and a few websites finding nothing interesting. The laundry had finished, so it was moved to the dryer. I still had no hint of sleepiness. Should I get ready and head into the office? by now it was almost 3am. No, I could not do that. I only had a small amount of work left I could do without further assistance or steps from co-workers who wouldn't be there at 4am. Should I fix the sewing machine? The last two Saturdays have consisted of me laying in bed sick rather than doing the long overdue repair. No, I wouldn't want to stop in the middle of the repair if it took longer than the time available. I will attempt that again this coming Saturday. Hum, what should I do? Ah, I know! I will read some more. And read I did. I have finished 1/10th of it at this point, and after I spend most of Dec. 24th at the airport, I should basically have it finished. The chapters are short so far, and make for frequent places to stop if I am interrupted or run out of time before my next scheduled event. The only better use for the night could have been actually sleeping, and that would have only been slightly better than if I had a big, padded armchair pulled up to the fireplace with a few logs burning. Speaking of, I need to buy some firewood and a set of smithed iron fire tending tools (poker, shovel, broom, and tongs would be nice). But I ramble.

In short, I am enjoying my new find and have renewed my desire for a few hobbies (including reading). So far, I have not been disappointed by "Legend of the Seeker" and am enthralled with "Wizard's First Rule". I look forward to finishing this book and launching into the next some time early next year.

All Stitched Up (Wordpress Import)

I found an interesting article on the WIRED blog about a music video director named Cesar Kuriyama using 45,000 photos stitched together instead of the traditional video to capture the music video. It's a great article, though the video is a little strange. Check out [the article] or [the video].