New Developments…
I haven’t written lately about my personal life. I’ve been analyzing and waiting, didn’t want to write too soon. Since the Christmas Banquet I’ve really gotten to know Betty. I realized how comfortable I was with her, and how much I like to be with her. You’re probably asking, “So, do you like her?” I hesitated to write about her because I wanted to give that question an answer. I wanted to be able to write a “Yes” or “No.” Since this Blog to me is an online journal/news/information hub for my friends and strangers I didn’t want to just jump to conclusions.
I have tried and failed with some relationships; I think I might have tried to hard to make things work with some people. However, this is different. Why is it different? Because it just happened, it wasn’t forced, it wasn’t awkward or uncomfortable. It was like trying to jamb the square into the circle slot all my life and then finally realizing that the square hole was in front of me the whole time and that it was the right slot. So, the answer to the question above, “Do I like Betty?” I have to say that the answer is yes. It wasn’t an emotional decision for me, rather a logical one. We both get along, we both have fun together, and we connect on so many different levels. We don’t have just one thing in common but multiple things. After the “logical” part of it fell into place the “emotional” part came. I like being with her, I found myself physically attracted to her or, as Bro. Weaver would put it, “romantically” attracted to her. “So what then?” Well, I told her. Probably the hardest thing I had to do. I actually feared rejection. This hasn’t happened. Sure I never liked it and I avoided it like any other guy. However this time I feared it. Well, I got the nerve and I told her, and she said that the feeling was mutual. GREAT! She told me that there were some things that I needed to do first. One of those things was to read two books: Dating with Purpose by Dr. Jack Schaap and Christian Dating by Mike Ray. Mike Ray is her Pastor in Napa Valley, he pastors Hopewell Baptist Church. The second was to talk to five people: Her Pastor, Father, Step-father, brother, and Bro. Weaver (Dean of Men at WCBC). I was ok with this. In fact, I agreed with 100%. Why not? This should be a serious thing. I also talked to some people, I talked to Bro. Schmidt, Bro. Whitman (he led me to the Lord), and Bro. Weaver.
For Christmas she was supposed to go to her brother’s house but because the trains weren’t running she had no where to go. So I convinced her to come to my house and meet my family and share Christmas at my house. She met my mom and my dad and they loved her. We hung out quite a bit and just talked. It was awesome. Today, she went to talk to Mrs. Weaver about me. Please understand that Mrs. Weaver is a mother figure to Betty. Betty lost her mom when she was a kid so she gets a lot of direction and guidance from Mrs. Weaver. Mrs. Weaver is an awesome person who “tells it like it is.” One of the reasons why I highly respect her and Bro. Weaver. Well, Mrs. Weaver, being concerned about Betty’s well-being and Mrs. Weaver not really knowing me sort of gave Betty the impression that it was not a good idea to date me. The response than neither me nor no Betty wanted to hear. I did expect it though; I don’t have the greatest reputation at college because I don’t really hang out there or know a lot of people there. As my dad once told me, “Persons are smart but people are stupid.” If people don’t know you they make up stuff to fill the void, or judge you some other way. Not once, not twice, but multiple times people have come up to Betty and told her that she shouldn’t date me, funny how none of them have a legitimate reason good thing Betty doesn’t listen to them, that’s one of the reasons why I like her.
What Mrs. Weaver told Betty was a little upsetting, not to just her but to me. While I was reassuring her that it would be alright her voice was cracking, I could tell that she was disturbed. I told her that I wasn’t perfect and that I’m still growing and coming to understand some things and Betty got up and said that she was going to go practice playing the piano and walked out. I just sat there saying to myself oh man I’m an idiot. Didn’t know what to do. I talked to Bro. Schmidt and he reassured me that everything was to be alright, it was just that Mrs. Weaver didn’t know me all that well, and that Pastor Chappell, Dr. R, Dr. Goetsch, himself believed that I was responsible enough to go pastor some teenagers in Visalia then it makes no sense to say I’m not responsible enough to date. He also said that Pastor Chappell, Bro. Whitman, Bro. Weaver, and he thought it was a great idea to date Betty then I shouldn’t worry about anything too much. I still feel unnerved, I’m not for sure if Mrs. Weaver has talked to Betty yet or if everything’s been put back together (it really wasn’t broke), Betty just respects Mrs. Weaver’s opinion and wants to get an the ok from her which is totally commendable.
I called Betty at work and she answered but told me that she was busy and couldn’t talk and hung up. Kind of unusual for her, she always puts me on hold for what seems like a decade and then comes back to me. This made me feel even more worried, but she called me back and left a voicemail hoping that I was having a good day and that everything was going alright. I still don’t know what to think of all this, we were trying to get a trip to see her family tomorrow for New Years approved but I won’t know about anything until tonight when she gets off work and I’ll have a chance to talk with her face to face.
Cell Phone Viruses
Fast moving phone viruses appear: “The Cabir virus only affects high-end handsets running the Symbian Series 60 phone operating system.”
How my favorite video game was delayed
Wired 13.01: The Shadow Internet
It’s cool how they did it, and what they did. However, becuase they did it Half-life 2 had to be reprogrammed and because that happened it delayed it’s release for another 2 years. So I have been waiting 4 years to buy Half-life 2. If those hackers didn’t do that then maybe we would have a Half-life 3 right now. I guess I’m only mad becuase I didn’t get the pirate version of Half-life 2 like everyone else did.
TreasuryDirect Account
Buy Government Bonds. I’ve been slowly buying government bonds. Why you ask? Well, for a couple of reasons.
1) Better Interest. They get a much better interest rate than a savings account. Right now, from off the top of my head, the interest rate for my savings account at Washington Mutual is 0.4%; For my Government Bond account it’s 3.67% and interest is dished out monthly like any other account.
2) It’s secure. In fact, it’s more secure than a bank (If you have more than $100,000 in your savings account). Let’s face it. If the Government goes bankrupt even cash is worthless.
3) It’s liquid. Unlike a CD’s or Mutual Funds that require a long-term commitment you can pull the money out of your Treasury account at anytime with the exception of the first year. That’s the only commitment
4) No minimum. There are no minimums, I was at Bank of America opening a bank account with them the other because they said if you opened an account with them the first day they opened you would get $125. Talk about bait and switch, but that’s another story. For a money market account they give the weakest interest rates. My PayPal account gives me 2.02% why go through Bank of America?
5) Electronic. You don’t need a broker. In fact the only way to buy government bonds anymore is online electronically. It deducts straight from your checking or savings account. It’s really easy to use, they just put up a nice website with a better interface then the previous one.
6) Secure. This is probably the most secure site I’ve ever been too. If you hit the back button at all while signed in the account becomes void. It just won’t work anymore, you’ll have to go back to the sign in screen and sign in again, it can be annoying but it is very assuring.
7) Customer Support. Their online customer support is phenominal. It’s all done by e-mail but you recieve an e-mail back within the hour, get this, by a real person!
If only the DMV and Post Office were this good.
What is Blogging?
The more I tell people about my Blog, the more I get the same question. What is a Blog? Well a Blog is short for “Web Log.” Wikipedia.com (An open-source dictionary) gives this definition. Time Magazine also put an article about the importance and the rising popularity about blogs and their impact on our world. Blogs can be an online personal journal, for your insurance business, to spread personal opinions on political, and religious opinions, or a place to post your baking recipe’s to the world. It could be the Boston Sports Blog for all your Boston Sports needs. A Blog is a tool to inform or disinform, to persuade, or to ridicule, to bring up, or to destroy. You can get inside people’s lives or read about topics.
The best way I guess to understand what a Blog is would be to just go find one you like and read it.
The BitTorrent Effect
Wired 13.01: The BitTorrent Effect
This is a great article about file-swapping, the movie industry, and what can be done. It also gives a little insight into the mind of the creator of one of the most used file-swapping programs in the world.
The Pirate Bay Plug-in
This is a bittorrent plug in for Mozilla’s Firefox and Netscape. You can use this utility to search for torrent files and then download.
Yahoo! News – Tsunami Death Toll Soars Past 55,000
Yahoo! News – Tsunami Death Toll Soars Past 55,000: “Desperate refugees foraged for coconuts or looted food on battered
Sumatra island Tuesday, as the number killed in a mammoth earthquake
and tsunami soared above 55,000 and tens of thousands still were
missing. Grieving survivors buried their dead by hand, trying to ward
off an epidemic that the U.N. health agency warned could double the
toll yet again.”
Can you picture 55,000 people? I can’t. It’s amazing the damage one tsunami can do.
Jamacain Dictionary
I wish I had this while working for Countrywide when we would call New York. It seemed as if, in the entire state of New York, the only ethnic population consistantly late on their mortgage payment were the Jamaicans.
Trillian
Cerulean Studios: Creators of Trillian and Trillian Pro Instant Messengers
I just downloaded Trillian – Above is the link. If you have AOL, MSN, Yahoo, IRC, and ICQ, consider getting Trillian. You can simplify your chat with this program that combines and utilizes all of the major chat programs. You can stay connected with friends and family on a sweet interface. Also whats cool is while you’re chatting you get underlined words from Wikipedia that will supply you with definitions. The sounds were the first thing my friend Eric and I noticed. They’re smooth and pleasing to the ear. Also, some emoticons come with sounds. Try it out I’m sure you’ll like it.
Folding@Home Distributed Computing
Folding@Home Distributed Computing
Donate Computer Time to Stanford to help them figure out protein folding, protein aggregation, and related diseases. They have split up work and sent it out to hundreds of thousands of computers that are donating their unused CPU time to better science. While my computer is on at night downloading I’ve got it set up to also solve these complex equations. Above is the link, they have software for Windows, Linux, and Mac. So everyone can join.
Avalanche – Very Addictive
This game is very addictive! Try to beat my High Score….14302
I’ll try to do better though…
Badger Badger Badger…Christmas Style
Santa Santa Santa Badger Style – Flash Animation
If you’ve ever seen the Badger’s, that I’ve posted before, they made one for Christmas. It’s funny.
Apple iTune Phone Coming
Personal Tech Pipeline | Apple iTune Phone Coming: “While precise details of the device remain sketchy, Forbes quoted Eddy
Cue, Apples’ vice president in charge of applications, as saying the
phone was close to being released.”
Happy Tree Friends : Watch Episodes
Happy Tree Friends : Watch Episodes
Gather the family together to enjoy some holiday cheer.
Take Action: Workers’ Rights Are Human Rights
Take Action: Workers’ Rights Are Human Rights
Countrywide should have a look at this.
TIME Person of the Year 2004: 10 Things We Learned About Blogs
TIME Person of the Year 2004: 10 Things We Learned About Blogs
I saw this in my Time magazine this week….they mentioned how blogging is becomeing a big thing.