Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Great Idea...Wish I'd Thought of it

This truck was sitting in the parking lot of Bruno's--a popular local pizza place...

Thursday, August 14, 2008

Buried Treasure?

During the move a few weeks ago, I found a box of old desk items from my residence hall days (you know, one of those boxes that just gets moved from place to place--stored but never opened), and I found my old 35mm point-and-shoot camera...with film in it!

I purchased my first digital camera in 2000 (yes, I was an early adopter--paying $300 for a 1 MP Kodak) specifically because I was frustrated at not having any pictures of the events in my life. I bought it after developing a roll of film and finding two Christmases on the same roll--one at the front, some other misc yearly events in the middle, and another at the end. The thought was that by buying a digital camera and rechargeable batteries, the marginal cost of the next picture was negligible, thus encouraging me to take pictures more often.

It worked...I'm on my third digital camera and have taken almost 10 GB of pictures in the past nine years.

So this mystery role of film is likely from the 1999-2000 time frame, but it could possibly contain pictures older than that. What will it reveal? Stay tuned...

Thursday, August 7, 2008

The True Self

From Brennan Manning's "Abba's Child":

If I must seek an identity outside of myself, then the accumulation of wealth, power, and honors allures me. Or I may find my center of gravity in interpersonal relationships. Ironically, the church itself can stroke the impostor by conferring and withholding honors, offering pride of place based on performance, and creating the illusion of status by rank and pecking order. When belonging to an elite group eclipses the love of God, when I draw life and meaning from any source other than my belovedness, I am spiritually dead. When God gets relegated to second place behind any bauble or trinket, I have swapped the pearl of great price for painted fragments of glass. "Who am I?" asked Merton, and he responded, "I am one loved by Christ." This is the foundation of the true self.

When Wireless Isn't An Option

I was inspired during a recent move to clean up the mess behind my desk so it would be easier to clean my office and maintain the myriad power and other cables plugging into my workstation.

By attaching as much as possible to a piece of plywood, and then mounting this beside--rather than behind--my desk, I can now get at anything that needs attention without straining to reach around behind my desk at floor level...

The Ultimate On-line 'Status'

Everyone should have one of these...

http://www.abevigoda.com

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Conservation I can definitely support...

A quote from conservationist Chris Packham from an MSNBC.com article by Lizzie Buchen:

Humanity's experience with pandas has shown us that saving the species is not going to be easy — or cheap. In fact, eminent conservationist Chris Packham has called panda conservation "possibly one of the grossest wastes of conservation money in the last half century.” He said he "would eat the last panda" if it meant he could transfer all the money thrown at pandas to other, "more sensible" species (like insects, rodents, and plants) or to entire habitats.

See entire article here.