What's not to LOVE??

Inspiron E1705, Intel Core 2 Duo processor T7200 (4MB/2.00GHz/667MHz)
17 inch UltraSharp TrueLife Wide-screen WUXGA, for Inspiron 9400/E1705
2GB, DDR2, 667MHz 2 Dimm, for Inspiron 9400,E1705
256MB ATI MOBILITY RADEON X 1400 HyperMemory, for Inspiron9400/E1705
120GB 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive for Inspiron 6400/E1505
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium Edition, English
Vista, PC-Restore, Dim/Insp
Integrated 10/100 Network Cardand Modem, for Inspiron
Adobe Acrobat Reader 7.0, for Inspiron
Roxio Creator Basic
8X DVD+/-RW Drive, for Inspiron 9400/E1705
Integrated Sound Blaster Audigy
Intel PRO/Wireless 3945 802.11a/g Mini Card (54Mbps) for Inspiron 9400/E1705
Trend Micro PC-cillin InternetSecurity, English, 15-Month Subscription
80 WHr 9-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery, for Inspiron 9400/E1705
Microsoft Office 2007 Home and Student Edition
3 Year Limited Warranty
CompleteCare Accidental DamageProtection, Inspiron, 3 Year


Thank you for choosing Dell!


Gonna be here in a week or so...

Pictures to follow.

Money to dissipate.

Blogdump time...Life's fiber.

Time for a blogdump. Why? Cause I'm sitting here at the computer, the windows are open, it's just a little too nice outside, there is a freshly poured glass of RC Cola sitting here...and I have lots of thoughts right now. Plus I have the day off...

--------------------

First off, a new link out of the way. The Secret History of Star Wars. Just ran across this on one of the forums I infrequently frequent, and while I haven't read it completely, looks to be an excellent read. If you want to know what went wrong literally anywhere in the course of the Saga, here you go.

--------------------

I've discovered an interesting thing about my Bible reading habits. Unless I'm forced to my a "Bible in A Year" plan or something, I will never choose on my own volition to read anything pre-Psalms or post Ezekiel. I know it would be good for me to read more of those books, but I just can't bring myself to do it. Spiritual failing or laziness? You decide.

Recently though I've been reading through Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Acts. Yes, kinda diverse and random, but that's just where I'm at. And I've come to the conclusion that Proverbs and Eccl. are two of the more depressing books in the whole Bible. It's a two part thing; one, depressing because it shows just how far I have to come in terms of general wisdom and reliance on God; the second is it reveals just how messed up everyone else in the world is too. When you look around and all you see are the "fools" Proverbs is fond of, you start to get a little down. Add a dash of Rush Limbaugh and a scoop of today's "popular" culture, and you start despairing of life in general.

Ok, something specific from Proverbs that stuck out to me. Proverbs 26:4-5: "When arguing with fools, don't answer their foolish arguments, or you will become as foolish as they are." And then verse 5: "When arguing with fools, be sure to answer their foolish arguments, or they will become wise in their own estimation."

So which is it? Please, feel free to enlighten me...I value input from Baptists, Centrals, and Pentecostals, and the occasional PenteBaptistcostal.

--------------------

A thought - Why do people who listen exclusively to Bach, Beethoven, and other forms of classical music tend to elevate their musical tastes over others? I understand simply preferring one form of music to another; but what is it that sets it upon a pedestal as the epitome of music?

--------------------

Picked up a copy of Jeffrey Overstreets' book Through A Screen Darkly. So far...not bad at all. I only meant to read the introduction before going to bed, but then I got through two chapters before putting it down. I'll write a full review of it later.

Jeffrey's website.
--------------------

The search for a laptop continues. One of my fellow coworkers suggested I look into Dells because of their financing options. I'll admit, the idea of spending $100 or less a month toward a laptop, as opposed to $1500 all at once, is enticing. So...with that idea in mind, I've visited two Dell kiosks (Dell Direct, excuse me), one at Southdale and the other at Rosedale. Southdale had a really nice laptop that I'd consider; it even had HDMI output. We messed around with some settings online, and came out with a really nice product.

The next day, I went to the Rosedale store to look at it again. Except, "it" wasn't there. In fact, they claimed that all kiosks had the same models, and they had never heard of that one. And the internet didn't have it either, although a day before it did. So now I'm fairly confused about the whole situation, and really don't want to drive back out to Southdale.

Plus, another guy at work told me that even though he was married, owned a car and a house, and had a full time job, he still couldn't get financing through Dell. And that scares me, since I've got nothing compared to him. Just more charm is all...

--------------------

I suppose I should wrap this up. But one final thought or two before I log off.

God has recently been bringing to my attention my attitude regarding certain people, be they from work, my school past, church past, future, or whatever. Namely, He has been saying "Be bigger than that. Get over it!" I will readily admit that there are plenty of people I DO NOT LIKE, for various reasons. Whether it was the person who decided to invite himself to my church and then proceed to make out with his girlfriend in the back of my car both to and from church; the former manager at work who abused my time and abilities and tried to set me up for the fall; the woman who taught me in my senior year while treating me like a four year old; the professor who would abuse prayer to God in order to use it as a tool to control a classroom; or the old youth pastor who publicly took you to task for trying to find God in other editions of the Bible besides the holy KJV.

There is a song that comes to mind when I think of these people...older song, goes something like..."You took Jesus from me"...or something...think the real lyrics were "I saw Jesus in you" but that can't have been the case...

But God is working. Get over it. And so I've been making steps to try to correct my thinking and change things around.

I might not still like you. I might choose to avoid you and not have any contact with you. But I do not want to be chained by you or embittered toward you anymore. For that I sincerely apologize.

It is way too easy to empower people unknowingly...

--------------------

Anywoo...time to sign off.

Leave a comment, I'd appreciate it.

OS X and XP

Now THAT is something I kinda like. I don't know why, not really...but I like it.

Macs. Interesting machines. Granted, most of my user experience with them is on that insanely crappy machine running in the Harpel's basement...you know, the Mac that takes a day and a half to open eye(sore)Tunes, can't view videos online because of it's dying screen, and has that annoying mouse that tends to forget it's attached to the machine.

Or are those just hardware issues? Hard to tell at times...

I should probably take the time to post a whole blog about this...later though. But I'll just say this up front here:

If I could get a Mac to do everything a PC does, and do it as well as a PC without relying on "illegal" programs to provide basic user compatibility, or any gimmicks (making movies, podcasts, "hey look a camera!"), can natively play any computer games I might already own and that I might wish to own in the future (within graphical reason), all for under $1500...

I'd buy a Mac. Although 95% of the time I'd still hate OS X with the exception of one or two programs.

I'm already learning slowly but surely to hate Windows Vista. Yes, it has only been out for a handful of months and needs time to shake the kinks. Yes, I still wish I could do everything in DOS cause I like having control (OS X, Vista, and to an extent the 95/98/XP family does the same thing).

It's the OS I can't get over. That and the Dashboard...ugh.

There will never be a perfect computer. This I know. The most I can hope for is an easy to understand and use experience. Which seems to be screaming Mac nowadays.

But so help me if I become a self-absorbed materialist left-wing jerk who appears in commercials...

A Very Convenient MisTruth

I've been getting really tired of many things recently. I'm really tired of Al Gore and his global warming...excuse me, climate change...agenda. Getting really tired of people telling me that Hillary Clinton "makes sense" and would be a good President. Getting really tired of people telling me that it "is so unfair!" that we are in Iraq.

Getting really sick and tired of all the stupid ignornant morons who are convinced that they know the truth without doing any research. REALLY. SICK. OF. IT.

New rule with me - if you think you have an opinion on a political subject, and you think your opinion is valid, then I'm going to ask you a few simple things. And if you have no idea what I am talking about, or try to work your way around the questions, then just shut your mouth. You are an ignorant cog in the masses. You are, simply, NOTHING. Grow up.

I'm thinking of several people in particular here, but I will not name names.

And now...to finally do away with all this nonsense about global warming, read this.

An Inconvenient Truth To Promote A Cause

My title, not the authors. Excuse the lame but intentional pun on Gore's "picture."

God of Work, The Sequel!

Little bit of good news I should probably post on here, for those still wondering. I've been told that within the next week to 10 days, I should finally be able to take over the late baker's position, netting better hours and hopefully better pay.

Hopes are high...although I've heard this exact same thing (minus the time frame) a few times over the last few months. So...soon at least.

Hmm...kinda sounds like the withdrawal from Iraq talks. Oh wait...politics. Can't go there.

But anyways...I probably will not be able to get to church right at 7 with my new schedule...but depending on my level of nastiness and sweat, I should be able to be there by 7:30 or at least 8! Just in time for "the good stuff"...

Although, hopefully, I would love to be able to be there by 6:30. As I was talking to JP, I'd love to take over, or at least help with, the recording of the service and running of the soundboard. I've been doing it for several years now, already enjoy it, so it seems a perfect fit.

One last thing before I shuffle off...THIS is what has been taking all my time and attention recently. And it is amazing.

Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses, Live from Target Center

Wow...has it really been almost a year and a half since this show? Amazing...



The song of course is Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses, from the Achtung Baby album. Just a little different arrangement from the original.

While the Minneapolis show was special because it was here in MN, obviously, as well as being the show where I officially "introduced" U2 to Joe and David...personally, I think my previous show in Chicago was better, May 12 (a few days after Bono's birthday). While the Chicago show was my very first U2 show, it was better for more reasons than that.

The one thing that bummed me about the Minneapolis show was the number of acoustic songs. Don't get me wrong; we got an awesome show, one that is always listed in the most downloaded Vertigo Tour shows online. "The First Time" was played, "Crumbs From Your Table" was played live for the first time, the above "Wild Horses" was also special...really, great song choices all around. But, in my mind, it was lacking.

What I really wanted, and especially wanted my friends to witness, was U2 overload. Specifically, the "ZooTV lite" segment on most Vertigo Tour shows: "Zoo Station," "The Fly," "Mysterious Ways," and "Until the End of the World" (especially this one). I got to experience this in Chicago...with the exception of "Zoo Station"... and it made my day. We in Minneapolis were treated to a variety of rare and acoustic songs; in Chicago, we got to see U2 rock out.

The more I look back on it, the more that Chicago show was the "perfect setlist" for me, or at least perfect for my first show. I got almost all the songs I've always wanted to see performed live. And I'm lucky enough to not only have audio cds of the show, but a really decent dvd of the show too (except for that annoying time delay in parts). For Minneapolis, I've only got a halfway decent (aka crap) audio copy. I know there are various cam shots from the show, which the above footage is from, but the only way I can get those is from a torrents site, and my internet connection doesn't have the horsepower to do that. One day...one day...

Still, I'm grateful for the shows that I got. Never mind that a friend of mine was literally on the edge of the ellipse during the tour opener, got to see them maybe 6 more times during that first leg, as well as getting to go see the last show of the tour in an open air stadium in Hawaii...

I'm still grateful.

Looking forward to the next tour!!

------------------

You know, if people were to try to get to know me based solely on the strength and topics of this blog, they'd think I was obsessed with U2. I'm not. At least not entirely. I know that more people read this blog than I know of...I'm always hearing about someone else reading or at least knowing about my blog. And if they don't want to take the time to comment, that's ok. I'll do my best to keep you entertained.

"Your mama is so fat...on a scale of 1 to 10, she's a seven-forty-seven." -Sharpton to Obama

I really need to start to diversify my blog posts...

XM gospel and The Secret

Been hearing about The Secret a lot recently. Oprah seems to be on a big kick about it...as are others. Well, I think I figured out what the secret really is...

A few days ago, as I was walking back to the bakery to get to work in the morning, pushing my 3 or 4 shopping carts (we somehow use them all), I had a lot of things on my mind. This is typically normal for me; but this past week or two I've been in a different kind of funk. Not depressed, just lots on my mind. Most of it has to do with only getting the occasional day off, and not two days in a row or anything; so just a general feeling of being tired and weary (shovelling snow, 50 lb bags of cake mix, and moving pallets of food around can do that to you).

So...I was just walking back to the bakery, pushing my carts, lost in my own mind (but still alert for forklifts). Scene set. We have XM Radio or some other satellite service that pumps music throughout most of the store; our little corner gets nothing but our blown out boombox. Normally we tend to listen to a lot of 80's hair metal...yick...but they decided to put on some hit list station for that morning.

Two songs in particular stuck out to me. First, that one song that all the radio stations can't seem to stop playing...that one song that Jelani likes...goes something like:

"I keep on waiting, waiting/ Waiting for the world (song) to change."

Or something like that. Hideous song, equally stupid music video. Bad artist all around. Anyways, the song seems to be the current message that keeps being said around the world: everyone wants change. They don't know what they really want, but go ahead and change the status quo anyway. Anything is better than what we currently have, right? We got the war in Iraq going on, Bush is still in office, the Vikings suck, everything just seems to be going downhill, huh?

So as the song closes..."Keep on waiting, waiting...waiting for the world to change," the next song that the playlist (or DJ) decides to play is essentially the answer to that cry.

See the world in green and blue See China right in front of you See the canyons broken by clouds See the tuna fleets clearing the sea out See the Bedouin fires at night See the oil fields at first light and See the bird with a leaf in her mouth After the flood all the colors came out

And then later...

What you don't have you don't need it now What you don't know you can feel it somehow What you don't have you don't need it now Don't need it now It was a beautiful day

U2's Beautiful Day, if you haven't figured it out. And once again, Bono's lyrics speak volumes. A song of hopelessness followed by a song that practically shouts "HEY! It's already better! Things got better a long time ago! There is a way out, that you can take, right now! How can it not be a beautiful day?"

I don't know. Once again, I'm having trouble writing what I'm thinking, or remembering how I felt at the time. But it just struck me as important, you know? Yeah, this world sucks. It's pretty messed up. But things are going to better. Christ is coming, and in a sense, is already here. While we might still struggle in the dirt, sometimes even enjoying it, ultimately we are clean and will be clean. And the only way that is accomplished is through Christ.

You understand me?