Sometimes I think about the state of "religion" in today's America and wonder, "What will 'church' be like when my kids are older?"

Our kids are going to define the church of their age in much the way we've "defined" the church of ours.  Oh sure you might say to me, "Dave, the church is unchanging."  But you'd be wrong.  For "the church," or more properly "religion" in the non-standard way I'm referring to it here, change is one of the few constants.

Emphasis, interpretation, and focus change with the inevitable march of culture.  That major domestic cultural shifts can effect dogma is a well established precedent: prohibition, suffrage, the civil rights movement, birth control, the "war on terror."  Ripples from these worldview-changing events have made their way into even hallowedest transepts; confronting, convicting, and ultimately fracturing the belief-sets of many Christians in their time.

If you think about it for a moment, I'm pretty confident you already know the issue that's going to confront, convict, and ultimately fracture the church in the coming decades.

Within the next ten to fifteen years the issue of gay rights will split mainstream Christian churches.

As social acceptance of homosexuality slowly becomes the majority opinion, churches and denominations will have to stand to the left or right of the divide.  As secular opposition wanes and believing children of today become the believing adults of tomorrow, the modern day Ptolemaic camp will suffer history repeated, dwindling and failing once again in the face of enlightened Copernican thought.  In the 1950s it may have been tough to find a kid in highschool who'd say homosexuals should have equal rights; amongst today's youth you'll find large conservative pockets, although I'd bet already ebbing in both number and conviction; and in twenty years naught but the holdouts will ally with their archaic fore-bearers.

I used to think that this would be an impossibly hard transition for Christian majority thought.  However, lately I've come to think it more likely that the church will simply "wake up" one day to find their opinions have changed.  With the passage of time, even once hard-fought conviction will erode in the face of overwhelming opposition.  Perhaps glacially, but undoubtedly steadily.  Like slavery, divorce, interracial marriage, and other scripturally-defended dogma before it, the church will eventually change its collective mind.  Not as a whole, not as an absolute, but for the most part this will happen.  I'm not sure when or entirely to what degree, but I no longer doubt the overall endgame.

I'm-a still go.

Goodnight.

Welcome to 2009, readers.

New Years Eve day was another (nice!) slow one around the homestead.  Sharaun and I cleaned up a little more of the leftover Christmas mess (and foodstuffs lingering in the fridge, in my case).  Keaton got a deluxe edition DVD of Mary Poppins from our next-door neighbors, and, surprisingly, ate up the film (all that singing and dancing, she's just a sucker for it); so we watched that in the morning.  The place was looking tip-top (as tip-top as our place tends to realistically get) long before noon.  And yes, I am shooting for most use of parenthetical notation in a single paragraph (get it?).

Right now I feel like I haven't been to work in ages.  Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised to see my shoulders visibly sag were I looking in the mirror as the thought of going back this coming Monday enters my head.  To be clear, it's not that I'm dreading it, but it seems I've been taken by the strangest "bug" lately... this insanely strong inclination to cling to family.

Thus the time spent here at home with Keaton and Sharaun, the week my folks visited over Christmas, and even going back to the nice long jaunt we took to Florida to visit Sharaun's family back around Thanksgiving: All these things have created a snowball of emotion inside me... an almost physical urge to "family up."

And, to mention this new desire within me without also mentioning my newfound desire to better integrate "church" (used here, I think, as a generic word for religion, introspect, tradition, spirituality, closeness, etc.) into my family would be impossible (the expressed concept of "ownership" of what is truly our family is actually intentional here). I know that may sound odd, or maybe random and untied to the whole "family" concept I mention above... but in my head lately they are tied so tightly together that I have to finish the thought here.

I've typed and typed (and deleted and deleted) about this family/church concept over the past couple weeks, but find I'm still not ready to put what I'm talking about into words... so I'm going to leave it (for now) with this (admittedly lacking) summary: At some point recently, I've "decided" that the things which are most important in life are those which, as a father and husband, I should be working to surround myself and my immediate family (Sharaun and Keaton) with.  Chief among those things, I've decided, are our relationships with extended family and our sense of "church."

Right now, I can't explain why this doesn't mean we're going ultra-religious (or scary-religious, however it strikes you), but it doesn't.  It may read that way (so be it).  I think, basically, it means I want to spend more time with my family as a family, connected spiritually together through a common set of belief and faith (if that makes sense).  And, among other traditions and experiences, I want us to, together, enjoy and share this "church" thing I'm on about.

What it means... practically... I'm not 100% sure.  And, it may not even be blog stuff (there's plenty of stuff that doesn't make the blog, and it tends to be the more personal... so this might qualify for that exclusion... who knows).  I do feel better, however, for writing about it finally... and while the explanation is poor (by my own judgment), perhaps it'll help cement, for me, what I'm even feeling - and maybe put some action around the concept.

I don't know guys, I just don't.  I do feel, though... so that's something.  So hey, don't read this and assume I'm making drastic wholesale changes.  But, then again, I guess don't assume I'm not.  Realistically, I'm in early concept-phase here... so it's a wonder I even put this much around the idea.  OK?

To lighten the mood before I go, here's Keaton and I dancing to "Brothersport."  (And, for real, you need to get this new Animal Collective album...)

Goodnight.

For me, and tonight, it was an easy decision: Sharaun was at her pregnant teen-moms thing, and she'd taken Keaton along (man, I hope Keaton doesn't learn anything from those teens...), so I effectively had a kitchen pass until around 9pm. Even though she'd bought a rotisserie chicken for me, and left me handwritten instructions on the various sides I could make for myself (salad: tomatoes and cucumbers are in the bottom drawer; au-gratin potatoes: the box is in the cupboard; and garlic rolls: they're frozen, bottom shelf of the freezer), I decided to instead join the crew at the brewpub for a drink to the patron saint of Ireland. I spent about $15 on beer, $13 on a dinner of shepherd's pie, salad, a side of potatoes, and bread (starch-laden, just the way I like it).

But, I did manage to make it home by 8:30pm so I get to see Keaton before she goes to bed... and that's where I am now: Sitting on the couch typing while I await the arrival of my family. I even sliced off some of that (now cold) chicken and ate it, just so all my wife's efforts to take care of her poor helpless lout of a husband in her absence weren't entirely wasted. The chicken was good, and I'm able to listen to the iPod a little too. So, in all, it was a a good evening - even if I didn't lift a finger to get the garage shelf (and all its contents) up off their pile on the floor (which, incidentally, happened to fall right on top of our other garage-pile, making some kind of stunning super-pile - read yesterdays' entry if that doesn't make sense).

Well folks, that's about all I have. But, in closing, I just wanted to share an image I received in an e-mail from a dear, dear relative - one who believes all Democrats are direct spawn of Satan, and only Republicans can get into Heaven (I'm not sure she really believes this, it's just a comedic device - and, really, I do love her... for-serious-real). This was attached to a long mail about how President Bush is the Second Coming of Christ or something (read the thing here, if you're interested - but note Glenn didn't really say it all), but it was so good I had to share it all by its lonesome:

See, all the hubbub over that Abu Ghraib business was totally overblown, because... I mean, when you put it in context... look what Kennedy did. I was all like... wow...

Goodnight my friends.

I wanted to start these next few paragraphs with an impactful, attention-grabbing sentence: In this day and age in America, religion, Christianity in particular, I fear, is headed for the same fate as the Southern accent.

If you haven't noticed, in recent times the Southern accent has, quite unfairly, been associated with ignorance. I'm not sure where this stereotype actually came from, but you can pick up on it from just about any piece of pop culture from the last 70 years or so: look at Gomer Pyle, who was famous for his idiocy, and had the most pronounced twang in Mayberry; there's Cleetus, the "slack-jawed" yokel from the Simpsons; the entire premise of the backwoods hillbilly Clampett family being misplaced in the modern world. Yeah sure, those shows are serving to foster the image, and maybe it's unfair to use them as examples - but for more proof you don't have to look much further than Saturday Night Live's President Bush caricature. When did having a Southerly drawl automatically lower your perceived IQ? I'm not claiming it's ubiquitous, not everyone is shallow enough to pigeonhole someone by their accent, but still - it's there.

When I was a kid, we used to this incredibly mean and insensitive thing when we wanted to ape an idiot. We'd let our hand hang limp at the wrist, and then repeatedly thump it against our breast while making "Der, der, duh, der" sounds. This was an imitation of a "Jerry's Kid." Crazy thing was, as a kid I really didn't even know what I was doing. I mean, I knew I was somehow making fun of retarded kids, who apparently beat their own broken wrists against their chests on the Jerry Lewis Telethon - but I had no idea how mean it really was. We were just calling each other stupid. Make a dumbass comment, and I'm gonna tease you by thumping my chest and doing my best "Uhhh, derrr, oohhhuhh." See, I didn't really know any retarded kids (that's not entirely true, but mostly so) - but I assumed they were all stupid (OK, strict definition of "retarded" aside) and therefore a good point of reference when calling out someone else as such. Hicks, yokels, Okies, hillbillies, rednecks, Johnny Rebs. And I think Christians are headed the same way. Instead of tomorrow's kids beating their chests with limp wrists, maybe they'll thump and imaginary Bible or fold their hands in mock prayer.

Being religious is is turning into being stupid, and it's happening fast. Oh sure, throughout history people have always been "too smart" to have faith, the whole science vs. faith thing has been around for eons, but I think it's different these days. Today, the loudest voice is not longer the church and it's various supporters installed as kings and queens. Today, the voice heard above the most is that of media and celebrity. And that is, more often than not, not the church's voice (some might say it's the voice of reason, others the voice of Satan). Regardless, if the believing collective don't get their act together soon and do a major PR campaign, they risk being forever viewed as the Flat Earth Society - the new Jerry's Kids, the new Cleetuses. Plenty of smart people believe in God, right? Doesn't matter - who's going to willingly join a organization of dinosaurs futilely holding onto the old ways? You may think that, as everyone gets dumber, everything will balance out - but I disagree. Everyone being dumb just means it's easier for those who aren't to convince the masses their way is correct.

I'm rambling now. Let's sum it up: Christians in danger of being recast as simpletons, need to come up with plan of action before this fate unfairly befalls them. Stereotypes are bad, but they're also powerful as hell and take centuries to overcome.

I wrote fast, probably full of typos, omissions, and things I didn't mean. Goodnight bitches.

Motivated by nothing in particular, I spent some time tonight downloading MP3 versions of both the Bible and Quran. Put them on my iPod as audiobooks, which makes them "bookmarkable" (you can pick up listening where you last left off rather than beginning anew each time) and excludes from playback while shuffling (Matthew chapter 11 as a follow-on to some Kanye could really kill a party). Admittedly, I don't plan on listening to these very often, but I do think it's neat to have them at arm's reach for curiosity's sake. Used the Firefox DownThemAll extension to speed up the download process, grabbing all the files automagically (i.e. bandwidth-raping) rather than navigating through hundreds of individual links and pages.

As a pleasant second-order effect of my search, I was turned on to several great sites which offer completely free MP3 audiobooks. I think it's awesome that I can download and listen to all sorts of material on the iPod, from the classics to philosophy. If you're interested, Librivox and AudioBooksForFree.com both have nice-sized collections of completely free-to-download audiobooks (between the two sites there is nearly 1,000 works of literature available for listening). Most of the works available are older and are now public domain, but there are some original and newer titles as well.

In the process of writing the above paragraph, my mind once again drifted to being stranded on a desert island. How much more enjoyable would being stranded be if you had an iPod chock-full of music and books? Well, providing of course you first have health, food, and shelter. Anyway, the only problem here is the one of power… the iPod battery won't last forever. But… any person who has irrational fantasies about one day becoming stranded on a desert island who's worth their salt will have a solar-powered iPod charger with them at all times. All you need is the solar iPod charger, a solar AA battery charger, and a set of AA-powered portable iPod speakers - and you're the life of the castaway party! Seriously, I'm thinking about getting that solar iPod charger just for the "cool" factor.

Keaton's hair has almost all fallen out and is slowly being replaced with a new, blonder, quaff. Seeing this happen over the course of weeks tends to downplay how dramatic of a change it really is. In fact, I hadn't realized just how much her hair had changed until I was browsing some old pictures last night. In an attempt to illustrate this, I GIMP'd Keaton's hair from a picture taken at fifteen weeks onto the head of a picture taken last week. Roll your mouse over the image below to see the difference (allow a couple seconds load-time on the 1st rollover):

Wow! Goodnight.

Been devouring Wikipedia articles on the Middle East lately, in my continued efforts to educate myself on the elaborate intertwined history of the people and region. While I didn't start at the very beginning, I am beginning to establish a factual historical picture that I believe is opinion-free and fact-based. With all the shifting borders, disputed territories, and artificial partitions - it's a tangled nightmare to try and understand the geographical boundaries let alone the religious, tribal, and political ones. I do feel, though, that I'm getting a little better at it. I understand the implications of Israel's declaration of independence and the resultant Gaza Strip and West Bank. I'm fairly up to snuff on Hezbollah's motivations in the capture of Israeli soldiers as a bargaining chip for prisoner release, and how that kicked the situation into its current tailspin. For this knowledge, I love Wikipedia; I really do. Too bad it can't make people stop dying.

Speaking of the Middle East, I had a thought in church this morning that was interesting. Set a reminder on my cellphone to write about it. I thought it might be interesting to think about the current Israel/Hezbollah/Lebanon conflict as a fundamentalist who favors signs and portents. From that angle, what might the outcome of this fracas tell us? Let's think about it.

What does the eventual outcome here mean? On the surface, and from a simplified point of view, we have humans fighting other humans over religious beliefs. Sure there are politics and property rights and cultural aspects, but boiled down most of these things can be said to stem from religion. So, above two groups of humans who are fighting we have the God of each of those groups who, in no small way, defines each group. It only makes sense, based on what the sacred texts of each group tell them, that each firmly believes their God has an active hand in the events of their lives, and that whatever happens, it was God's divine will. This notion becomes extremely interesting (to me) when you think about the current Israel/Hezbollah/Lebanon conflict.

Even though the outcome of this particular conflict is still unknown, could a look at some of the potential outcomes possibly tell us something about the very nature of God? If the assumption is that some higher power is indeed directing or supporting his followers, can an outcome here give humanity in general some insight into the divine?

Will the God of Judaism let his chosen people be once again pushed from the land He promised them? Or will the God of Islam see Jerusalem and Temple Mount once again under Muslim control? Whose God loves His adherents the most? Going one more step: whose God is listening, whose God is rewarding the faith of His people... whose God exists?

Certainly some modern-day Christians would see collapse of the Jewish state as a step backwards in the march to the Second Coming. Without their promised land, the Jews certainly can't rebuild the temple - another misstep for the unfolding of Biblical end-times prophesy. Three faiths for which the outcome of this conflict could be interpreted as telling of the nature, plans, and, for some, potentially even the relevance or existence of their God. Sure, that may be a hyper-sensitive, reading-into-it, way to look at it - but I'm sure some of the more extreme of adherents are relying on God to see this conflict to what they consider the only just end. Being that it can't have a just end for both, some will be left questioning God's plans. Nothing new, to be sure, but interesting nonetheless.

Finally, a qualifying afterthought: I realize that this is most certainly not the first, and is not likely to be the last, time that religious differences have come to a head in the form of humans fighting. I also acknowledge that analyzing a point-view of instances like this on the timeline of humankind and then using that analysis to try and pick a "winning" God may seems stupid. Sure, I'll admit that Gods and/or their powers likely won't be proven or disproven by the outcome of one small skirmish along the road from the beginning of times to the end of times, I'll give you that. But, I still maintain that it's worth a look, and a good coal for discussion. And, what's more, maybe the way to look at it isn't from a point-view, maybe we should consider the longer-term "trending" that's happening (although, without have an endpoint in sight, trending could be argued worthless in terms of how "far" we've come). Anyway, what about those trends? Who's trends look good, who's don't? What would sports bookmakers and odds-men have to say about the world's religions at this point? Which one is the dark horse, which the frontrunner?

Maybe that would make a good entry someday, trying to get a semi-quantitative count of bad and good things that've happened to the major religions since their inception. Maybe a tally of purported prophecy fulfillment, new converts graphed against time, y'know, things that are quasi-measurable. Map all that out to see where they all lie, who's "winning?" Yeah... maybe someday, but not tonight. Tonight I'm done.

And that's it, decided to limit Monday's post to this topic only... binning the other random weekend-writing for mid-week filler. Goodnight folks, love you like money.

I honestly don't have much today: an entire paragraph built around one funny thought, some other junk here and here, and two paragraphs built around links. Not much original, I fear. We'll try to make the best of it though, eh?

Man, stem cells are good for blog comments, huh? I should write about divisive poll-splitting issues all the time. Next week I'm going to write about my opinions on using affirmative action to select condemned pregnant lesbian white women prisoners (with committed illegal immigrant christian life partners) for first an abortion and then subsequent death penalty. Yeah, that should get the comments flowing. Grease up your keyboards, you opinionated mofos... I love to hear from ya.

I know it was BoingBoingized yesterday, but it's worth posting in my ongoing coverage of the I/L/H (my new shorthand for Israel/Lebanon/Hezbollah) conflict. Some people out there are actually rooting for escalating violence in the Middle East. I imagine these folks sitting in front of CNN cheering on the Israeli rockets with big foam-finger #1 things on their left hand and a bible opened to Revelation in their right. The more natural disasters, stem cell research, rock and roll music, and Middle East violence - the better. C'mon Lord, you're really planning on taking these idiots?

Way to go Thom Yorke! Thom's 'headless solo debut crowned at #2 on its initial Billboard splash, being just barely edged out by some new Now! compilation of greatest hits. When I used to manage a record store in the mall, we sold tons of those Now! albums - people eat it up. Yeah, people love hits. Hits and crappy reality TV talent shows. Anyway, Coolfer had this to say about Thom's good works:

Yorke's first solo album, Eraser, is less commercial than would be a Radiohead release, and it was released by XL Recordings (distributed by Warner Music Group's ADA). So we have a less-than-totally commercial album released by an indie, and it still sold 90,000 in its first week. Digital sales accounted for a sizeable 16% of total sales.

Somebody out there likes them quirky beats and loopy basslines! Go Thom.

Goodnight

While I don't usually do celebrity gossip stuff, I am willing to link a funny story if it's related to something I care about. So, continuing the Scientology bashing theme from yesterday, here's the comical tale about some famous folks' heated run-in with a dude wearing a "Scientology is gay" t-shirt. Good story, and, where can I get that shirt? Come to think of it, it's eerily similar to a shirt I still want to make, but don't have the artistic prowess to illustrate. Anyone who has some basic drawing skills and wants to help me realize my multi-religion-bashing concept tee, hit me up and we'll do lunch.

As July approaches, and August after, my mind begins to drift to this year's Halloween prop. Last year, Kristi made a great suggestion to do a backlit scene on the lawn with a large glowing moon and animated wolves in silhouette, complete with scary baying sound effects. I simply adored the idea, and the concept seemed relatively easy to realize: 2D wooden wolf coutouts with hinged parts for movement, some kind of illuminated orb shaped from pipe/wood, and a simple motor to animate the thing (I have an ice-cream churn we never use which I can adapt). Now, don't get me wrong, I think this is an excellent project - but it sounded relatively "low touch" in terms of effort (of course, I'm probably wrong about that) and that prompted me to start daydreaming about a second, more involved, prop. Two props in one year, can it be done?! As my mind drifted on the 2nd prop idea, I centered most of my concepts around air-power, which I switched first experimented with (quite successfully, I might add) on last year's "pneumatic coffin-popper" project. Air power is so clean and easy, no electricity to deal with, no AC-to-DC rectifying, no relays or geared motors to wear out - just a compressor hidden away in the garage, a hose, and some cylinders.

So, air-power on the brain, I began to revisit an idea I'd had a while ago which was based on a "twitching, hanging-from-the-gallows" prop I'd seen somewhere on the net (and has since disappeared, I think). The hanging man always intrigued me, I think mostly because I imagined the hinged limbs moving in a slow-but-frantic, almost electrocution-like, way. Powered the way I imagine it, the whole thing would be quite random, the movements not based on repetitive motorized actions - instead only being "motivated" some force, the actual movements themselves being completely spontaneous and organic. I love the concept, but was kind of turned off by how macabre I imagined the final result. While I love Halloween, I'd like my display to at least remain kid-friendly scary... and besides, in these politically-correct times I'm actually a bit leery to actually place a "lynched" dummy on my lawn.

So, keep the concept but scrap the noose and gallows... what could I do? Then it hit me, a scarecrow. Scarecrows are very Halloween to me, and the scarecrow in my concept is a lot gruffer than your goofy Wizard of Oz variety, I imagine him with a twisted sneer or something. A scarecrow writhing to get off his pole, kicking and flailing... yeah, I love it! Here's a brief concept description and sketch I made today with all my enthusiasm:

"Flailing Scarycrow"

• PVC frame with dual-action push/pull air cylinder mounted vertically mid-torso
• PVC body "jointed" (springs or otherwise) at hips, shoulders, knees and elbows for organic motion
• Wire attached to each cylinder plunger, and attached to PVC arms/legs near elbow/knee joints
• Push/pull action of cylinder alternately tugs wires attached to knees/elbows, resulting in a jerky, flailing motion in limbs
• Cylinder should fire randomly, or perhaps be motion-activated, and be at a lower pressure to sell the effect

Here's a sketch I did, it was in color, but I don't have a scanner and the only one I have access to only does black and white. You can probably figure it out anyway.

One thing I do want to do is begin documenting my projects better. I've even considered a page devoted to them, with details and through processes like in this entry. Ambitious, I know, but a guy can dream. Anyway... I'm not saying it's ready to design, maybe a few more weeks o' thinkin', but it's got potential!

Changing subjects... did you see the strange comment yesterday on the "satanic flier" entry? (Remember, the "satanic flier" post is consistently my most read post, averaging 30+ reads per day.) I originally pegged it for a random-letter spam filter test, but was intrigued when a Google search for "zwaml" turned up a ton of hits. Though none of them in English, most of the results were in French, some German, and some still appeared to be a phonetic version of Arabic or some other script. Intrigued, I looked up the IP address of the poster, which turned out to via a system based in Mauritius (it's OK, I had to look it up too). AfriNIC, the Internet Numbers Registry for Africa, is based in Mauritius - leading me to believe the commenter was commenting from somewhere in Africa. Some more digging, and a few other searches seem to indicate a link between the word "zwaml" and the Kabyle region of Algeria, where they speak their own language: Kabyle, which is a Berber language.

Look, people, I researched this for hours last night. My conclusion? "Zwaml" is a slang word in some Berber-based language, it refers to a type or class of people and is derogatory. I also think it is a semi-localized term, being used primarily in the Berber-speaking regions of North Africa, and can be alternately spelled in English as "zwamel," don't ask me why.

Bottom line? I think I'm being called a name.

In other other news, I recently found out that the blog that started it all for me is now back online - and has been active again since sometime late last year. Glad to see it back, it really was my inspiration (oh, and please forgive the linked entry... it was only my 23rd of blogdom - cut me some slack).

Goodnight.

I wonder if CNN knows how much humor I derive from their webpage sometimes. It can't be intentional on their part, but I'll be danged if some of the stuff they write isn't hilarious. Take for instance this quote from their lead article sometime Wednesday morning:

A couple of Massachusetts construction workers picked up some bathroom cabinetry and discovered some illegal extras with their purchases. One contractor found ganja 'bricks,' and a plumber found a stash of cocaine.

Ganja bricks?

OK, who gave "the man" the weed-slang dictionary? What's next, Fox News reports on the chronic found at Lowes? MSNBC runs a headline about the sticky-icky-icky discovered at Ace Hardware? It's cool though, because CNN will probably run a follow-up about how the Home Depot doja was seeds 'n stems shwag anyway; just weak shake - not hydro, buddah, or nugs.

If you've been reading this page for a while, you'll know that I have a fascination with religion - more specifically with some of the amazing things humans will believe when it comes to religion. Without getting into my religious notions, I just wanted to share this awesomely concise "illustrated history of Scientology" with you. A series of animated GIFs which originated from the 'net-famous "you're the man now dog" site, it tells the story of Scientology from Xenu to today in a slideshow of cartoons. Well worth the time if you're unfamiliar with the "religion" and what they believe, and likely won't be up long since Scientology employs a stable of notoriously oppressive lawyers who make it their life's work to remove any content from the world which might portray their sacred beliefs in a negative light. So, check it out, and get a god chuckle. This stuff is better than magic glasses and reformed Egyptian: An Illustrated History of Scientology.

Sorry for the short entry, got all creative feeling and made a new index page again - I never did like that "on the plains" one with the growing trees all that much, I think this one is much nicer. Thought about actually taking my 96 Tears page of the index links, like I did a while back with my music pages, since it's such a terribly designed page (but, I'll admit, it's a neato window into my premillenial HTML skillz). But, it's still there...

Goodnight folks.

1) I uploaded some more pictures from the Germany trip - including snaps from the beer festival and our visit to Dachau concentration camp (the new pictures begin here, if you want to skip the older ones). Pat also posted his pictures, which are essentially the "raw" set from which I drew mine (we shared his camera), but with nicer captions. What a great trip, ranks up there as one of the best "working" trips I've had in a long while.

2) I redesigned the pharaohweb.com splash page, removing my music pages from the links (a bittersweet thing for me) and replacing it with the "media" page. I wanted to do another imagemap with rollovers, since I loved that cloudy/sunny thing I had before - but I think I may have been too ambitious, if I hate it too much I'll take it down.

3) I spent a good deal of time working on a completely new layout for sounds familiar (one with fancy web 2.0 rounded corners). The stylesheet looks good, but there's a few more finishing touches I have to make before it's ready to go live. Occasionally, over the course of the week, you may get sneak previews as I work. But, don't get too excited, it's still going to be two-column and green.

4) I booked our two upcoming vacations to Oregon and Florida, so Keaton can meet her grandparents, extended family, and friends. With the miles earned a day earlier on my return flight from Germany, I had enough to comp the two tickets to Florida, and I combined a work-visit to Oregon for me with tickets for Sharaun to get that one on the cheap too. All told, ended up spending about ~$250 for both vacations.. not bad at all.

Yeah, Saturday wasn't a total bust I suppose. Sunday, after we'd paid our respects to a jealous and avenging God, a God that takes vengeance and is filled with wrath, I decided to exact my own vengeance and wrath on the weeds in our backyard. Now, sometimes when I do things like pull weeds, kill bugs, mow the grass - anything that, to me, happens at a level I'm safely above - I like to pretend I'm a supreme being, lording over those who are unfortunate enough to be down at the level where my actions cause chaos. The ladybugs rent to pieces in the blades of my massive death machine; the green caterpillars left without their weed-foodsource lifeblood; the wasps kicking and seizing as my poison attacks their nervous system...

Whoa, let's rope this back to the stuff about weeding. Anyway, here's the proof - I've slain the weed kings and their court:

Tuesday this week (tomorrow, as you read this) I'm off on a quick jaunt over to Silicon Valley, doing the customer tour again. Not an overnighter, thankfully, but a long day with two flights, a rental car, and a presentation. Next week, I hit the skies again - with Pat again, no less - North Carolina on Wednesday, Oregon Thursday through Sunday. Sharaun and Keaton will meet me in Oregon Wednesday night, after Keaton's first flight - a thing which Sharaun, unfortunately, has to do solo. I wish I could be there to lend a hand, but at least we'll get to fly back together. I can't wait until Keaton gets to meet her yet-unmet grandfathers - I want to see their reactions.

Before I go, I thought I'd drop this link that my dad sent me, as it's pretty rich: Christians Against Hip Hop (possibly not safe for work). Good stuff.

Goodnight folks.