quotes from the last 2 weeks

"my brain is about as reliable as a windows 98 installation." -switch
"becca is one of the only names that can be said by a chicken." -dave r.
"i hope chapel is boring tomorrow so that i feel justified doing my homework." -cliff
"zippy, i'm going to call you my recovery cd." -switch
"i think i'm lyxdexic." -bubbles (the one on g2)
"i've never had my eyes checked -- for all i know i could be legally blind!" -cliff
"love is blind. marriage is an institution for the blind." -dr. chuck davis

my addiction

chapel was really good today. "the IT band" played some really great songs - i work with these guys and didn't even know they were musical! then Lynell Shamburger from payroll spoke about her son's experience of committing a murder, being put on death row, and being executed, and how God has worked in their lives because of this. Her son started by stealing a little cash here and there. he continued to do it because of the rush he got each time. this eventually led to murder and attempted suicide...

i'm not scared that i'll commit a murder or anything, but i am realizing that i do need to be a little careful because i, too, am addicted to rushes. they are why i enjoy downhill skiing (even after colliding with a tree), physical sports (football, basketball, soccer, softball), techno music, circuits (when i actually get a problem right, it's exhillerating!), reformatting my hard drive (wondering if i remembered to backup everything and realizing that i did), and having an element of danger in what i'm doing (welding, farm work, working at a lumberyard, doing construction). but most of all, i think my addiction to rushes helps explain why i enjoy working at IT so much. when someone frantically calls in that their computer is nonfunctional or even when "just" Outlook isn't working and i get to go over and fix their problem, the rush i get is amazing! not only do i get one from successfully completing what i set out to do, but i get another when i see how thankful and relieved they are that they can continue their work without computer worries. (that sounds kinda sappy, but it's true...) then i return back to the IT shop and am handed something else to fix. the cycle repeats itself until i clock out.

i hope you all enjoy and receive as much satisfaction out of your jobs (or anything for that matter) as i do!! it sure makes your days go better when you have something like this to interrupt the dreary cycle of homework, classes, and cafeteria food.

Just notice.

Notice the sky today, so pink and blue and gray.

Notice the way the one who loves you kisses your lips.

Notice.

Notice the place where fear tends to start, in the throat,
or the stomach, or the head, or the heart. Then notice that
it doesn’t stop you.

Notice that everyone laughs and cries, lives and dies,
falls and flies.

Notice that we all are blood and bone, and that you will
never be alone.

Notice.

Notice that you’re where you, who you are, and how you are,
because of you. If it pleases you, be proud. If not, change it.

Notice.

Don’t look back or around, just inside. Shine a light on
that firefight between hope and despair. And, do hand-to-hand
combat with every doubt you ever had, that kept you feeling bad.

Then rise, so ready to be who you want to see in the mirror.

Notice it all.

Notice that children sing quietly as they color.

Notice the birds that roll through the breeze.

And notice the love. And notice the joy. And notice that girls
still notice the boys.

And when you believe that you’ve noticed it all,
notice the tock of the clock on the wall.

Then notice your hands, your face and your feet. And the way that
life can be deliciously sweet.

Then notice once more how perfect you are,
for the path that you’re on, beneath perfect blue stars.

And notice the fact that you’re tried and you're true,
that you’re perfectly fine, when you’re perfectly you.

So perfectly you.

--Jim Warda
do you want more of this wonderful writing?? just send him an email.

we're getting chapel credit for what?!

i think i broke an unwritten rule that blogs should only be a certain length in order for people to actually read them...but i just couldn't contain myself - opera is just that much better! :)

this year especially, it seems like we get chapel credit for too many things, whether they enhance our spirituality or not. like, this week we can get chapel credit for attending the LU vs. ETBU basketball games. granted, they are our biggest rival and they want to actually have fans at the game, but is the right incentive to provide chapel credit?? couldn't they instead have door prizes or 3-pt contests? (maybe they already do...i've never been to a varsity sporting event here, so i wouldn't know) chaplain carl told us today that we are offered credit "to develop a spiritual community on campus." what the crap? rather give us credit for going to prayer and praise or floor devotions. i am not in favor of this, but it would make more sense because they at least benefit us spiritually.

but what REALLY gets me is that we can get chapel credit for going to the communion service at the beginning of each semester. i believe the only reason to take communion is to be reminded of Christ's sacrifice for us. that's it. chapel credit should not be an incentive! i'm sure God doesn't want Christians to take communion if the main reason they are there is so they can sleep through more chapels at the end of the semester.

i welcome your comments on this issue. i desperately hope there are good reasons for why our school so liberally gives away chapel credit. if any of you have any ideas, please share! :)

a shameless plug for opera

before i begin telling you how much better opera is than internet explorer, i need to confirm something i said in my last blog entry. i told you that i believed God had taken away my need for sleep so i could finish my homework and still attend the events of mission emphasis week. well, tonight i laid down on the floor on my pillow to read my prophets assignment (just as i did a few times last week) and promptly fell asleep.

now onto the topic at hand... last spring i was complaining to a fellow geek about how my laptop's screen was only 800 x 600 and i was wishing to be able to have a larger viewing area for some web pages. he told me to check out opera because it has a zooming feature. so that night i downloaded it and have been in love ever since. the only thing i have found that IE can do better than opera is viewing microsoft web sites. the majority of the sites that one would actually need to go to (which would exclude most of MS's) are well-coded and versitile enough to be viewed on any browser. the exeption to this is the site i'm using now to edit my blog. opera shows the "new post" area as a 150 x 50 pixel block of space, as opposed to the ~1/3 of the screen that IE provides. so ironically i'm forced to use IE to praise another browser. aside from the zooming feature (which i now use to zoom-in - 19" monitors with large resolutions are absolutely wonderful!!), there are many other cool features of opera...

~it's much faster. i just tried to go to MS's own www.msn.com using IE and it took 5 seconds to fully load. with opera it took 3. and that's with MS's main site!!

~all the pages you are visiting are contained within one instance of opera, so you can have a bunch of sites open without filling up your taskbar

~by default (i believe) when you close opera, it saves all the pages you were browsing until you open it again. right now i am starting to research for a presentation i have to give in a short while. a few days ago i started pulling up some websites on my topic. everytime i open opera those sites appear again, so i didn't need to remember or write down where they were. it's also nice because you don't have to browse to the sites you look at daily - email, news, weather, my blog :), etc

~the look of the browser is more customizable than other browsers. for example, there's 5 different ways the main bar (back, forward, home, etc) buttons can be customized. i'm sure there's a way to customize that a bit in IE, but i can't even find where, so i can't compare the options it provides for the main bar. if memory serves me you can only choose if you want big or small buttons.

~the status bar includes the amount of documents and images left to be downloaded, the speed at which they are coming in, and the time it has already taken.

~less pop-ups. in addition to less of them, there is an option in opera to have the popups show up behind where you're browsing or even not at all

~searching made easy. by default there is a search drop-down box next to the address bar. but if you don't feel like tabbing over, you can just type the keyboard shortcut and the search words into the address bar (to go to google and search for my blog, you type "g zippy's blog")

~keyboard shortcuts and mouse gestures. for those of us who would rather just use the keyboard, you can browse free of the mouse using 1-key keystrokes. back is simply 'z,' instead of the alt-left arrow in IE. if your hand happens to be on the mouse, you don't even have to move up to the back button. for example - to open a new browsing window, just double-click in your workspace

i must add that there is a small ad in the corner (which i don't even notice anymore), but that is sure a small price to pay for all the wonderful features opera provides.

He has made me glad
He has made me glad
i will rejoice for He has made me glad, glad, glad --insyderz

mission emphasis week has come and gone for another year. i went to alot of the sessions and became really interested in a few organizations. before coming to letourneau, i didn't think there were many opportunities for computer people in missions...oh, how i was wrong!! numerous organizations need lots of IT people - wycliffe, hcjb, jaars, maf, mercy ships, world team, and others...

God REALLY tugged at my heart this week!! i don't cry in public very often, but i was overwhelmed with tears on more than one occasion while listening to dr. chuck davis speak in chapel. after worship in chapel on friday it happened again! it wasn't even that they were at emotional moments - it was more like God just decided to spontaneously overwhelm me with His presence.

on a slightly different note, i've only slept 17 hours since tuesday. but here's the catch - i haven't been tired all week until about 5 minutes ago. i can usually go 1 or 2 days on 5 hours a night, but after that i really drag until i get a good night's sleep again. i've had lots of reading to do this week and my back's been a bit sore. so i've been laying on the floor...on my pillow...reading some really boring material...and i never fell asleep until after my homework was complete. i can tell you why i slept only 2 hours last night and haven't been tired all day - i had lots of caffine. but as for the rest of the week, the only explanation i have (and i hope i'm not over-spiritualizing here) is that God wanted me to soak in as much as i could from the visiting missionaries that He took away my need for normal amounts of sleep. the only reason i was always up so late is that i made time to attend the sessions. i managed my time well and still didn't ever go to bed before 2.30. the past few weeks i've slept at least 7-8 hours a night, so it's not even that my body is getting used to the lack of sleep. isn't God amazing?!

i'm going to build a computer for JESUS!!!!

last spring break, i went on a mission trip to hcjb (they are basically a mission that sets up christian radio stations around the world). i basically decided to go there because it was one of the few spring break trips where my computer skills would be used. i had a good experience then, so i figured i'd sign up again. with hcjb, they give us a sheet with projects they need worked on and we send them our resume and our favorite 3 projects. this year, one of the projects is building a compuer from scratch (they hand me the parts and i make them the computer ready for use).

many of you know that i built myself a computer this summer. now, i'm not near knowledgable enough to pick out which brands to use and how to get the best specs without spending a ton. so i had someone help me out with that and i did the rest. from the time i retrieved the boxes from the post office until my installations and configurations were complete, i was unable to be distracted. my apt-mates made tacos, good friends watched movies that i REALLY wanted to see (they were mine actually), great conversations went on around me, and of course i also missed sleep. i was obsessed, focused (to the extreme), and passionate. a good friend told me he hadn't seen me this happy EVER (and he has known me since i was ~3).

ok, so i was this passionate about building a computer for myself...now i get to build one for Jesus! mine is used by Him some, but this one will be totally His!

i started reading blogs this summer, mainly because i had a class in the computer lab and got bored with the other sites i normally go to. i never thought i would have my own blog - i didn't think i had much to say to a general audience. but in the last week, i've found that i have lots to share with everyone. i just keep thinking of random, and not so random, observations about people, letourneau, God, or anything else that i think might be entertaining.