One thing I get tired of hearing is people saying that they’re “an internet computer dummy.” Imagine that. What if you heard someone say they were “a bicycle dummy.” Anytime some activity requires them to ride a bicycle somewhere, they have to call their bicycle “expert” in order to get the task accomplished. Apparently they’ve refused to learn to ride the bicycle. Or just don’t have the patience it takes to get adept at bicycle riding.
Some people take longer to learn to ride bicycles. Some people have to use training wheels and ride for years with those extra wheels on there. Eventually they learn to ride. But no one ever calls themselves a bicycle dummy.
Its the same way about computers and the internet. Its certainly not magical by no means. People just need to take a little extra time and patience to learn it. They somehow expect that computers will make their life a whole lot easier. Yet they don’t realize is that they might have to work to figure it out. No one was born knowing how to ride a bicycle and no one was born knowing how to use the internet. There’s a learning curve there.
I just get tired of people referring themselves as internet dummies and not trying to do anything about it.
Maybe its because of all these Computers for Dummies and The Idiot’s Guide books. We’re all calling ourselves dummies for some reason.
So I’m sorta frustrated. I offer to do a school’s webpage for free, yet I can’t seem to get FTP access to their server (yet). Only the school’s administrator can get to it for now. I decided I really shouldn’t even bother working on the webpage unless I had FTP access…or knew exactly what the server’s abilities and limitations were. I’d like to do shtml and/or php on it. But all my work would be in vain if it wasn’t available. Write the page in php and then have to redo the whole thing…. You know the drill.
It was sorta weird the other day. When I sat down and discussed the webpage with the principal, I think she was thinking I was going churn up a webpage then and there. These things take time. Whatever webpage I churn out is going to have to meet my standards….standards that can’t be met within a hour or so on a principal’s computer. Not that my standards are far superior than everyone else’s. I just get sick of looking at crappy webpages.
So if I can’t get FTP access, I guess it will mean me going back and forth to the school with a floppy disk. Quite teadious and unnecessary.
Friends, the next big thing is the Lexar Media Jumpdrives. Get yourself one of these. I managed to find one on sale at the local Office Max. Holds 64MB of data and fits on the end of my keychain. Compatible with Win 98 through WinXP. Pretty soon we’ll all be using these.
Armchair Pundit
Yesterday I noticed there were American flags up along the utlitiy poles on Mt. Juliet Road. They usually break out these flags on the 4th of July, Memorial Day, or some other patriotic holiday. However you tend to see them more often as current national and world events warrant. I’m not so sure this is a polticial statement….maybe it is…saying we support our troops.
I’m not going to bother reporting whatever is going on in Iraq right now. It would just be a rehash of what you already know. You know where to go to find this information. I’m just an armchair pundit. The shock and awe explosions were quite….well…shocking. Bombs hitting specific targets. Huge explosions. I can only imagine this will cause more angry young men to carry out terrorist attacks in the name of Allah.
Then again I believe these bombs will ultimately make the world safer. Mayhaps. Like I said, I’m just an armchair pundit with a poli sci degree from a podunk university. I’m certainly not an expert in anything.
Meanwhile Dan Rather keeps interupting the NCAA tourney games. March Madness, huh?
Wilkesboro Elementary School profits after Avril Lavigne wears school’s t-shirt in music video
Montreal Hockey Fans Boo US Anthem
Scott’s Blogging Adventure
Scott Burka has begun his blogging adventure. Visit it. Read it. Pay homage to it. You know, Scott is a deep person, or at least it appears to be on his blogger. So his short scripted IM conversations are just that. Short scripted. So anyways the worldwide blogosphere has grown. I’ll have more and more to read each and every day…or every other day. So now I realize why some of you read this junk I post everyday. Reading other people’s thoughts is somewhat interesting. Although I admit that I don’t always read every single word of them, especially if it is a long entry.
One of my regrets from the camp trip yesterday was not charging up my camera’s battery beforehand. The batteries died on me after about 2 dozen pictures. ARGH! And the replacement batteries I had were low too. But anyways… I did get some decent pictures with Todd’s camera. Just like mine except better. 4.1 Megapixels ya know.
Maybe you should read Todd’s account of our Kentucky travels yesterday. And you can visit the Photo of the Moment for a view of a Chinese/Mexican Restaurant.
Tried calling one of the ministers who is on the camp’s board of directors. Unfortunately he was out. I was going to talk to him about this fallen tree thing. I can’t begin to tell you how potentially earth shattering this fallen tree situation is to camp. The thing to do when you go swimming is to swing out on the rope like a monkey. We’re going to have to find a contengency plan. Another tree to put a rope on. And I didn’t know if the board needed to approve this or what. Technically the other side of the creek isn’t even owned by the camp.
I visited the principal’s office today. I wasn’t in trouble. I had just been asked to do the webpage of a local school. I visited the principal trying to get ideas about what needed to be done. So maybe it will look good, if I can get some information about the school….
While I was meeting with the principal, there was some kid in there who was obviously in the elementary version of “In School Suspension.” I thought about asking the kid what did he do to deserve this? Fight? Hitting a teacher? Well in any case it was none of my business. The kid seemed quiet and I pretty much paid him no attention. I felt sorta sorry for the kid, thinking he’s probably not a bad kid, just probably made some huge mistake and had to spend all day in the principal’s office. The kid was pretty well under control…obviously not wanting to rock the boat. The kid even raised his hand to ask to go to the bathroom. As I was leaving I noticed his father pulling up to the school and taking him home early. The father looked like Tim McGraw….
Another Day, Another War
Watching this back to back war coverage is sorta tiring. I’m getting sick of it. Over analysis. Rescripting and restating the obvious. Newsmen in gasmasks. Kids, turn off the TV or just change the channel.
This whole Iraq War is something out of Quantum Leap. If you knew something bad could be prevented, wouldn’t you do anything to prevent it from happening? Maybe Bush does know something we don’t know. Maybe that’s why it is so urgent to take Saddam out. The world doesn’t understand that. Colonization? Nope. Protecting our interests. And plenty of Iraqis feel as though Saddam is a bad man whom they would like to get rid of also. So its against international protocol. September 11th was against international protocol too.
I recently found that I HATE video phones. Seeing these grainy images all over my TV screen courtesy of these phones is worse than having no images at all. I’d rather have a map of Iraq and a picture of Geraldo than seeing this poor excuse for a slow internet connection. Sure, you can transport them in and out of remote areas easily. But the output sucks. Just plain sucks.
You know, during the 1991 Gulf War, I don’t recall hearing about soldiers getting right with God before going on the battlefield. But right before this war, soldiers are getting baptized. Maybe its a whole new world. Maybe there’s a greater chance of getting killed out there.
Brentwood Hills Church of Christ is part of an AP/CNN story.
Soldier Changes Name to “Optimus Prime,” heads to the Middle East.
Our Kentucky Fried Field Trip
I woke up to bad weather today, but thankfully the storms moved out of the way and it turned out to be a really good day.
Phil, Todd, and I drove up to Taylor Christian Camp today. We’re having our Spring Retreat out there in May. Phil had never been out there before and wanted to check the place out.
We ate at the Colonial House in Scottsville for lunch. Unfortunately they had discontinued their all you can eat buffet, so we paid for each item individually. Mine came to $5.11….chicken leg, mac and cheese, and banana pudding. And Sunkist. Can never forget the Sunkist. I think its in cohoots with RC or something.
Anyways we made it out to camp. There were a couple of workmen out there putting the last of the $86,000 improvements to it. (Did I hear that right? That dollar figure seems a bit high). The basement part of the dining cabin has been completely redone. Still waiting to get them to put in the doors. Otherwise it is looking really good. The outside of the dining cabin was sandblasted or something. Made it look brand new. Excellent.
I also found out there’s gonna be a bigger and better waterslide at the top of the hill by the boys’ cabins. It’s gonna be permanent in nature. Should be ready by summer camp. I’m already looking forward to it.
There were still remnants of the old red stained cabins in the girls’ part. So they still haven’t replaced all of them yet. After 10 years they’re still around.
We did walk down to the creek. It was good we had walked or Phil’s car might have gotten stuck in the mud. Quite a muddy walk. I tried to stay in the non-muddy grassy knoll area. But it was no use with the thornbushes.
Anyways down at the creek Todd suddenly got the crazy notion to go swimming just to test out the water. Phil got the same crazy idea. Call it peer pressure.
It was later on when I noticed the big giant tree which held the rope had fell down (the tree, not the rope). So that’s a big bummer. Phil and Todd were there to offer comfort…send sympathy cards and all that. Anyways I’m sorta kinda wondering if I should make note of the problem, buy some extra strong rope from the Home Depot and put it up there. The only thing is that I’m not good at climbing trees and tying ropes. Plus I’d feel really bad if the rope broke and some kid was seriously injured by it. We’re looking into contengency plans. I really want that rope back.
All the while Phil kept copious notes on the small Kmart film receipt I had given to him. How many bunks per cabin…. How many showers…. How many times it took to flush the toliets…. Where to find plungers…. Stuff like that. Then there’s some graffiti left by David Fleming in cabin 6….etc. Plus I saw a bunch of pecular graffiti in one of the girls cabins. Friends, if you are going to vandalize church camp stuff, be sure to leave out what church you’re from on the written graffiti. My admiration for a certain church dropped significantly after seeing that. I feel like anonymously emailing pictures of it to people who’d care.
Anyways it was a good trip except for one little accident afterwards. But that’s just water under the bridge and we’re just not going to talk about that on here.
So the trip brings back great memories. It was sorta interesting to see Todd’s reaction to all of this. This was his first time back since his camp days of June 1995 when he was 12 or something. Todd said that going into the big girls cabin must have been the highlight of his trip. Could it be? Did he really think about girls way back in ’95? From being cleanest cabin judge for the camp, I had already been to all of the cabins before. So none of it was exactly earth shattering to me.
Then again the camp seemed a bit empty without everyone there. Maybe that’s what makes camp. The rest is just empty environments.
But the visit made me remember how good camp can be. So many souls have been touched. So many songs have been sung. So many pranks which were pulled. So many new friendships made. So many old friendships rekindled. Through that camp my circle of friends has grown so much. I know people from all over that area. And still keep in contact with many of them.
This is it. This is War.
“This is what we’ve waited for.
This is it boys, this is war.”
–Nena – “99 Red Balloons”
It appears war has begun. As I recall the Gulf War started on Wednesday night too….right before church. Now this appears to be deja vu all over again. My thoughts are with our troops and their families during this crucial time.
Helpful hint: In case CNN.com goes down due to too many hits, go to robots.cnn.com instead.
I wish I had more to say. I probably will later on….
“another day, another dollar, another war…”
-Jewel – “Who Will Save Your Soul”
Old Emails
Those old form emails I found on the floppy disks? I posted them online. Usually I’d send out a long email to friends at the beginning of a new semester with the highlights of what I did over the break between semesters. It was a good opportunity to catch up. The earliest one is from January 1996. So its kinda fun to look back and find out what I was upto during that time.
Back then email wasn’t such a chore. It was something to look forward to. Email was a novelty of sorts. College buds had it. Some techies had it at home. But most people outside of the educational and technical world hadn’t heard of it yet. “Email? What’s that?” was the response of many of the generation ahead of me. The year 1997 was when the internet started getting some momentum. Soon everyone had it. And I mean everyone. Your grandmother even had it.
The ones from 1998 were posted on my old website in my pre-Blogger days. Before Blogger software was even developed, I’d usually post a commentary on my website until I got bored of it. It was too much trouble to post a new message…format the page properly….and archive my old ones. Movable Type and Blogger make me take those days for granted.
Like an old western, Bush has called out Saddam and given him 48 hours to get out of Dodge…or Baghdad whichever is easier to say. At least Bush has stood up for something. Some people can’t seem to take a stand one way or another.
Other war news:
“We have to arrive at a position that makes the most sense for the NCAA, but we don’t want a tyrant to run our lives.”
Dixie Chicks’ song falls 15% after Natalie Maines’ comments on Bush.
Its like defacing the Statue of Liberty….spraypainting your country’s national icon.
MTV News or lack thereof
MTV has, and always will be biased. The latest example comes from their 2 minute news brief I just saw. Pay attention to the bolded line:
“Hi, I�m John Norris with an MTV News brief.
A number of country western radio stations are boycotting the Dixie Chicks. This after the group�s lead singer, Natalie Maines, told a London audience she was ashamed that President Bush came from the Chick�s home state of Texas. KSCS FM in Dallas-Ft. Worth polled their audience and after over 93% said they didn�t agree with Natalie�s comment, they pulled the plug on all Dixie Chicks songs. KPLX also in Dallas-Ft. Worth followed suit as did stations in Houston, El Paso, North Pratt, Nebraska and Talladega, Alabama. At one Kansas City, Missouri station they held a �Dixie Chicken toss� party on Friday where people dumped the group�s tapes, CDs, and concert tickets into trash cans.
And these are people who presumably support the implementation of democracy and freedom of speech in Iraq.
Maines has since apologized for that comment and issued a statement saying:“As a concerned American citizen, I apologize to President Bush because my remark was disrespectful. I feel that whoever holds that office should be treated with the utmost respect.”
However Maines reiterated her opposition to the war in Iraq.”
Yeah, John Norris is anti-war. You know it’s cool to be anti-war these days. It’s the happening thing. But next time, John, don’t bring your views into a news broadcast. What made mainstream news sources good? It was their lack of commentary, or bias in news reporting. Remember, in Iraq they don’t have fair and balanced news. It has state controlled media, where nothing bad is said against Saddam. The moment that News crosses the line in expressing opinion, it is no longer news, but an editorial. John should have said “Here is an MTV Editorial.”
Natalie said something stupid. She expressed her opinions knowing full well that many of her fans do not share her views. Fans are certainly free to dislike someone because of their views. Do you watch television shows which you don’t agree with? Is that a slam against free speech? Certainly not. Are the fans advocating the total destruction of all Chicks merchandise? Certainly not. They are just expressing their views by burning their tapes, CDs, and concert tickets.
And don’t get me started about MTV’s “Choose or Loose” broadcasts – an obvious front for a pro-Democrat party. Remember, they had a MTV Presidential ball when Clinton got elected in 1992. Did they have a Presidental ball when Bush got elected? Nope.
Intellimouse Drivers
Does anybody know where I can find a driver for an Intellimouse 1.1A PS/2? The church’s computer mouse is that version. Unfortunately Windows 2000 doesn’t carry that driver. I’ve been doing some web searches for it, but I can’t find a driver without first signing up for some lame access to these type of drivers. Windows 2000 seems to work with the Intellimouse 1.2A, but not 1.1A.
I dug up some really old floppy disks to make CDR backups. Mostly of stuff I had from Lipscomb. It’s amazing. The total amount of data on these disks are about 10MB – so small compared to the amount of data we are working with today. I was hoping to fill up a CDR with it, but I think I’ll wait until I find some more stuff to archive. I found some old emails from 1996 and 1997 – where I had written form letters to all of my friends to update them on what I was doing. This weblog would probably be excellent to archive this type of information in. However I’m not sure if I’ll do it.
I’ve been digging into how to implement CSS with webpages. I edited Josh’s Weblog…which uses CSS. It seems pretty slick. I wish I could find a good WYSIWYG editor for CSS files. Anybody got any suggestions? I guess I must be behind the times since I’m not that familiar with CSS and everyone seems to be using them these days.
Oh yeah. It is St. Patrick’s Day, which means very little to me. Only that I’m supposed to wear green or get pinched or something.
60 Minutes for God
Today was a good day. Andrew, our new education minister led singing during worship….and led plenty of songs. Lots of times I think we get into a rush and have to give the sermon a certain amount of minutes. Where do we cut? Number of songs per worship service. But today was good. We had about 8 songs. Excellent. Some of the best part of worship is the singing. Why are we are forced to cut back on it just because someone wants to get out at a certain time? It is asking too much to give God 75 minutes from your 168 hour week? So what if we are unable to squeeze the entire worship service into a nice little box of 60 minutes?
David used a trashcan and shovel as object lessons during his sermon. I’d like to get a picture of him slinging that shovel around with the zoom camera for church bulletin documentation. A year or so ago, he used a sheep as part of an object lesson. It helps to get the kids (and adults) with short attention spans to focus on a sermon with objects held in front of their faces.
Weblogs I read: There are a few weblogs that I have been known to read. Most of which got started directly from my suggestions.
- ye ol written word of todd a burka – long time listener; first time blogger.
- Josh’s Blogger House – Todd’s friend. Just getting started – looks to be interesting so far.
- Jesse – Live and Petal-Open – Josh’s girlfriend.
- Mrs. Williamson’s Diary – hardly ever updated. Can we declare this blog D.O.A. ?
Meanwhile….
The Dixie Chicks face more backlash on Bush comments.