Holiday Parties

Today was the annual Help Desk Winter Semester Extravaganza at my house. I realized tonight how nice it is to get together with co-workers and employees outside of work. It really helps disconnect from the daily grind and remember how great it is to work together.
That is pretty much it.

The Cool Kids

I have a great friend named Nate Houge. He happens to be the front person for the band I play in Nate Houge & the Honest Folk. I am "the Honest Folk" along with Micah Taylor. When we get the chance to play music it is awesome. I love playing good music with a message I believe in. That, however, is not what this blog posting is about. This blog posting is all about Nate Houge's awesome recent posting entitled, "God save the Cool Kids." You can and should read it... now. I have attempted to summarize it a few times and I always go back to the fact that the original is just too good and too short for you all (all 2 of you) to not read.

Enjoy

Extra Ubuntu Eye Candy: AWN

Avant Window Manger is all the fun of a dock style task bar without the closed system. I found a walk through on Ubuntu forums, but it needed some tweaking to work in the latest release.
This requires a bit of advanced editing of your apt-sources and whatnot, but the end result is quite pretty as you will see here in the screen shot to your left.


Here is the installation walk through:



1. Open Terminal and type: sudo nano -w /etc/apt/sources.list
2. Type the following at the bottom of your sources.list file.
## AWN
deb http://download.tuxfamily.org/syzygy42 gutsy avant-window-navigator
deb-src http://download.tuxfamily.org/syzygy42 gutsy avant-window-navigator
3. Save your edited sources.list by typing Ctrl-X in order to save your edited document.
4. Type the following in terminal:
wget http://download.tuxfamily.org/syzygy42/reacocard.asc
sudo apt-key add reacocard.asc
rm reacocard.asc
sudo apt-get update
5. Now install AWN by running the following command in Terminal:
sudo apt-get install avant-window-navigator-bzr awn-core-applets-bzr
6. You can run AWN by going to Applications>Accessories>Avant Window Navigator.
7. I highly recommend removing your bottom panel when running AWN. You can remove it by right clicking on the panel and selecting: Delete this panel.
8. If you like AWN enough you can add it to your auto-start by going to System>Preferences>Sessions. Click Add, then type avant-window-navigator to the command field.

Many thanks to all the folks at Ubuntu Forums for providing the information for this posting in the post titled: HowTO: functional eye-candy with Avant Window Navigator and Affinity.
Enjoy

Zen and the Art of Linux Installing: Part 1

I have been playing around with Ubuntu 7.10 lately in my free time. I thought it would be interesting to archive a bit of my set-up process here for your enjoyment (perhaps). I noticed on Day 1 that my repository downloads were running very slow. My office is connected up on Internet2, so changing my repository to point to another University with Internet2 access would certainly speed things up.

Change Repositories for my local mirror:

1. Click on Applications
   
2. Select Add/Remove...
   
3. Click Preferences
   
4. Type your Password
   
5. Select the Download From: drop down box. Now select a mirror that you know is going to be fast. Sometimes it is the closest mirror. I chose mirror.cs.umn.edu because I know our Internet2 connection will deliver fast response.
   
6. Uncheck the box for Installable from CD-ROM/DVD. I never carry my CD with me, I prefer to pull everything off the local mirrors.
7. Now you can simply close the window and it will update your repository. Things should load much quicker
   

Use Add/Remove... in order to Install Fun Stuff
There are three programs I know that I want right off the bat. Add/Remove... makes this very possible. I know I want the Advanced Desktop Effects Settings, Xchat IRC, and Amarok. Installing is super easy with Add/Remove Applications. All you have to do is search, check the box and apply the changes and your ready to roll. With my repositories adjusted properly downloads are quick and everything installs wonderfully. Best of all no restart required!

Enjoy

Video: My Mornings

This is a great depiction of how my mornings have been lately.



Thanks CuteOverload

The U.S. is not a 'Christian nation'

Today in my ramblings through my e-mail I found the following article by Jon Meacham. I think it is a great review of the founders of the United States and the role Christianity played. Probably one of the more meaningful quotations in this article is,

They grounded the founding principle of the nation - that all men are created equal - in the divine. But they wanted faith to be one thread in the country's tapestry, not the whole tapestry.

As a person of faith in the United States today, I find it difficult to see my own Christian faith reflected in the American Civil religion that is invoked continuously by the leadership in this country. It is refreshing to read Meacham's statement that the intent of the federal framers was not to create a Christian nation but instead to create a nation full of religious freedom.

Enjoy the article: The U.S. is not a 'Christian nation'

Happy Rocktober!

Let's kick off Rocktober the right way with a little Rock.

Religions of the Founders of the USA

I was listening to NPR earlier today and there was an interview with someone who was speaking about the Christian faith of our Founding Parents. I always wondered, just how Christian were the founders of the USA. I found a great link that divides up the religious beliefs and gives backgrounds into the personal faith lives of the first people who created the United States of America. I was excited to see that 5 Lutheran made the cut.

Faiths of the Founding Fathers

Tags: Religion, Faith

Inspirational Commercial

This is one of the better commercials I have seen in a long time. It is for a great product and features and amazing percussionist.

Cold Press Coffee

This summer the Dunn Brothers Coffee Shop in St. Paul started serving a drink named Vanilla Iced Nirvana. It is made with cold press coffee. These days I have attempted to order lattes and mochas made with cold press instead of espresso. This is usually met with a weird look from the barista and a lot of confusion when it comes time to ring up the coffee.
I have decided that it would be great to try and learn how to make cold press at home. This weekend I made my first attempt. I did my research, but I found a lot of conflicting recipes. I am working with this cold press recipe at the moment. The basic gist is coarse ground coffee, 4 parts water, 1 part coffee, steep for 3 to 24 hours. My first attempt was a 24 hour steeping (is that even a verb?). I'd love to hear tips from anyone who has attempted this. My goal is to avoid purchasing a Toddy Maker if possible.

Tags: coffee, cold press, caffeine

Game: Grow Island

I believe the original "grow" game by eyemaze is the first flash game that I was ever addicted to playing. They have pulled through with another excellent sequel.

Grow Island

Tags: flash, games

Harry Potter and the Mysterious Ticking Noise

Here is a joyous little video featuring a great beat, puppets, and Harry Potter. In other news, I've just returned from vacation so expect a rash of posts in the near future as I attempt to play catch up.
Here is your Video:

Tags: video

Video: Mitch Hedberg

I love Mitch Hedberg. 'nuff said.

Tags: comedy, video, Mitch Hedberg

I hate my writing

So, I read my photo post and realized that I hate the way I sound when I am writing. I just plain old don't like it. It feels like fingernails on a chalkboard. This isn't a new issue for me. When I traveled with Youth Encounter, we each had to write a journal entry and submit it online to some sort of forum database thing. (Think blog but slow and less pretty.) The first two months all of my journal entries sounded as if I was possessed by some sort of writing demon. The lowest quality of my journal entries was about one of the more memorable experiences I had stateside. The overall unimpressive nature of my writing has been preserved at the archive section of the Youth Encounter pages. I managed to turn a great experience into something trite. I feel as though I am doing this again and I am now issuing a call for help.

Here is what I am reading right now: If you write like you talk, readers will listen
Any critique out there for me? Help me sound human again.

Update: 4/6/2013
Anne Lamott's text Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life has been very helpful.

Tags: writing, blogging

Photo Post: ACTC

ACTC - Andhra Christian Theological College
Originally uploaded by newcoventry

I traveled to India and Nepal in 2002 essentially as a church tourist. I went with a group of friends to visit the churches and learn about differences and similarities to the churches in the United States. The first place we visited in India was Andhra Christian Theological College. This is a seminary located in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India. I ate the hottest meal of my life at this school in the cafeteria.

Throughout all of India people did their best to accommodate our westernized taste buds. ACTC gave us the opportunity to eat dinner with the students in the cafeteria after our evening program. I was excited by our first opportunity to spend time with Indians our age. They appeared to be very excited by watching our reaction to un-westernized curry. My friend Debbie began sweating profusely. My lips became numb and I drank about 32 oz of water. it was almost 6 hours until I could taste anything again. I was glad to see that dorm food could unite two very different cultures.

New Feature: Photo Posts

Erin and I recently went Flickr Pro, so I have begun backing up tons of images from my computer to Flickr. As a result, there are tons of images that have great stories that I would love to tell. I am planning on posting a new Photo each Monday with a story. The first round of images will be from India and Nepal.
Enjoy!

Movie Review: Once

There are a few movies that I have seen that I instantly know I want to own and watch over and over. They are in no particular order: Walk the Line, Garden State, The Motorcycle Diaries, Almost Famous. Once has now been added to this list. The movie is by far one of the most "feel good" movies that I have seen in a long time. The soundtrack was awesome, the acting was sensational, the filming was casual and created great depth.
I strongly recommend this movie to anyone and everyone.
Here is the trailer to whet your proverbial whistle:

Mindless Fun: Acrobots

Every now and then I love a well designed game that has absolutely no point. Acrobots remind me of all the fun of wacky wall walkers without ending up with a hair covered sticky plastic thing after your done playing.

Enjoy Acrobots

Hip Hop Violin

I love a good fiddle player. Every now and then some hip-hop is excellent as well. Thankfully the world of YouTube allows us to connect the two in a visible way.
Enjoy

Game of the Week: City Jumper

You are a small stick figure with a penchant for leaping over tall buildings, bridges, and maybe even catching a seagull or two.
Enjoy City Jumper

Presidential Politics

I am a big fan of Dennis Kucinich. I am also a big fan of the Minneapolis and St. Paul. I think it would be awesome to have him visit. So much so that I created an eventful posting for it. Check it out.

An Unreasonable Man

I've been watching "An Unreasonable Man" over the last few days. It has reminded me how much I can admire the passion and the fervor that Ralph Nader has for pretty much everything I believe and stand for. I have been so frustrated and fed up with our political system for the last few months watching the Democrats sacrifice everything they have stood for.
A few years ago I read "Crashing the Party: Taking on the Corporate Government in an Age of Surrender" and began my love affair with Ralph Nader's ideas. It is so frustrating to hear people blame Nader for the Bush regime.

Friday-ish Fun Link: Bloons Tower Defence

If I can find a game that my wife is fascinated with as much as I am, it is usually a sure sign of an entertaining game. Kill the evil bloons! Kill them with dart throwing monkey towers!

Bloons Tower Defence

Wednesday Video: 1, 2, 3, 4

Here is a great video by one of my new favorite bands: Fiest

Sprint Triathalon

No doubt some of you are readers of my twitter postings and may have wondered, why would Jason roll from St. Paul to Fergus Falls. This journey even held me back from posting a game of the week (like Newsbreaker). I am now a triathlete and about two days ago I would never had considered myself anything that has the root word athelete.

About a month ago, Nate Houge contacted me and informed me that he was hosting a sprint triathalon at his house. Which came in handy because it turns out that I had been training for a sprint triathalon for that past two years (just not every month). It was a great time, and I have lived to tell the story.

We began with a 1/2 mile suede (swim + wade) through Otter Tail Lake, then hopped on our bikes for a theoretical 15 mile bike ride, and then walked 3.2 miles back to the Houge Household for Brats and Blue Ribbons. Some of us accidentally took the scenic route and had more of a 18 mile bike ride, but it was so worth it.

Wednesday Video: Young Folks

This is one of my new favorite videos.
Enjoy

Political Link: Pick Your Candidate

I've always struggled with how to pick and ideal candidate to support. As far as I can tell by the conservative media's standpoint some form of mutant that finds just about every Democrat and Republican a little too conservative. I figure it would be fun to post a few political links every now and again.
Here is a tool that allows you to rank your most stances on different issues and weigh them from meh to key. The only downside to this tool is it only includes the republican and democratic candidates.

Pick your ideal candidate

Which-Way Adventure

I loved Choose your own adventure books when I was a kid. This game helps me relive the memories, if only I could hold my finger in the page before I was eaten by a giant manticore...

Which-Way Adventure

Wednesday Video: Internet Crash

The internet crash of 2007!

Fun Link: Quarkz

Own that subnuclear matter! I know you can do it. You show that other Quark who owns this space!

Quarkz

Vensday Video: Neuro

Today I discovered a wonderful short flash based film entitled Neuro. It deals with the struggles of living in apartments near airports... or something.
Enjoy

Neuro

Marketing Manager - Netherlands Style

Here is a rather entertaining Olympic style game that is all about being a marketing manager. I am sure this is some sort of advertisement for something, but on the bright side, I can't translate it, so I don't want to buy it.

Enjoy.

Marketing Manager

The Gnomes are Falling

I play another mmo but someday I think I will play World of Warcraft. I was astounded by the creativity of the gold farmers in WoW as seen in this video. Enjoy.

Rocky's Biscuit Breakout

You are a wiener dog that really loves biscuits, you also happen to have lost out on your life calling to join Cirque de Soleil. Throw the dog around and catch him in the trampoline. This game makes Arkanoid look easy.

Rocky's Biscuit Breakout

An Overdue Video Post

Hey Happy 5th of July, I hope everyone got a chance to revel in their freedom yesterday. My wife and I parked our car in front of our cranky neighbor's house. That made me feel free.
Here is the video:

iPhone = NSA Surveillance Device

A great article evaluating the iPhone and its service provider AT&T. I suppose all telco's are evil when you get to the bottom of it. AT&T is just a little more evil.

Gas Prices Got You Down?

Don't worry about high gas prices, you can play this great little mindless simulation game and be a gas station attendant just like at the gas station down the street... (in 1950). You fuel cars and if you are quick about it the customers will pay you even more! Just like in the real world.

BP Gas Mania

Cat of Insanity

I have a thing for cat videos. This cat has some serious crazy noise issues going on.

Flugtag Tournament

You are a pilot, your objective to fly further than all other pilots in the distance competition taking place over a lake. Awe yeah, good fun. Apparently sponsored by RedBull Energy Drinks.

Flugtag Tournament

Video Games: An Addiction?

As a prelude to today's game of the week, I thought I would post a link to a story featured in the Star Tribune this week on a battle that American Medical Association has taken on to get computer gaming addiction covered by insurance.

Video Games: An Addiction?

Riverdance Rap

Straight out of Dublin... awe yeah.

Fun Link: Pushies

Today's game requires little thought, only willingness to push arrow keys to save your box from being pushed to the other side.
It is mindless and crazy addictive.

Pushies

Video: Icon's Story

Today's video features the secret lives of windows icons.
Enjoy

Icon's Story

Friday Fun Link: Scrabulous

My mom and my wife are hopelessly addicted to Scrabulous. Essentially you play Scrabble online for free and you can play with anyone in the world. You can also watch games where wordmongers are beating each other senseless.
Enjoy

Two new features

So, you may say to yourself, "Self, why do I even bother reading this blog anymore." There are times I wonder why I even keep it open. I have decided that the time has come to add some new features. Here they are: I announce two new posts every week. Yeah that is right! Underachiever's unite!!

Wednesday Wideos: Each Wednesday I will post a new video I dig up from somewhere exciting.
-and-
Friday Fun Link: Each Friday I will post a new fun link to something I found on the internets. Believe you me, it will be fun because it comes from this series of tubes I like the call the internets.

So without further ado I present today's wideo:

Ah, who hasn't yet ripped off the Mac/PC commercial theme? That's right comic books!

Whole Farm Coop

Erin and I are trying to focus on becoming healthier eaters. One of the things we are trying to do is to eat more organic foods and less processed foods. I remembered the Whole Farm Coop from back in my House of Mercy days as a place to get great foods in the Twin Cities area. You should check it out. They deliver to a church near you. The great thing about all this is that the profit goes directly back to the farmers and not to corporations.