Adventure

Tomorrow the journey begins: 4000 miles across the continent. Stay tuned for the adventure.

Creating a Podcast

Contrary to popular belief, I have not been deficient in the upkeep of my online presence since August--even if that was the last time I posted here. An idea was born, and I have been carefully nurturing it to grow to it's current state. The idea's name: theWordStream.

I really like my job as a software engineer. I experience challenges, problem solving, teamwork, successes, and learning--all things that I hope to keep in any profession that I set my mind to. However, my life was somewhat lacking in one area in particular--that is, the study of God's Word.

I wanted more than simply reading the Bible every morning and wondering what certain words meant--so I'd look them up in Greek or Hebrew. I wanted to know more background about people and places in the Bible--so I picked up a commentary. I wanted to really learn it and have some measure of accountability to keep me in the Word regularly, so I began to teach it. The idea of turning it into a podcast was probably a direct result of listening to Dave Ramsey, Dan Miller, and Zig Ziglar all in one morning run.

With a little headphone mic and recording software called Audacity, I recorded the introduction to the gospel according to Luke and promptly deleted it. I started over by writing a script and then kept the resulting recording. With the support of my wife and parents, I created a name and bought the domain for a couple dollars, but I didn't publish anything online until I had feedback from some of my friends.

Now the website is up with the introduction to Luke and chapter 1. Soon, I hope to get it into the itunes directory and out into the open seas of the internet. My system is in place, and I'll be releasing a new chapter each week. If it goes as planned, I'll write up a study guide from my notes as a companion for Bible study groups.

Maybe some day, I'll read, study, and teach all day, every day.

Cheap & Free Stuff

A lot of newly graduated people go out and stock their apartments or houses with all matching stuff and dig themselves in debt so they can look and/or feel successful.

Some stuff is necessary for living, but I'm not above garage sales and curbside giveaways for the rest. I'm getting a reputation at work for getting all kinds of free stuff, and Becca and I started listing all the free or really cheap stuff we bought or accepted in the last year. It's really not difficult to get a large variety of free and cheap stuff to stock a house until you can save up for the matching stuff. After all, it's just stuff:

Skis: $20
I bought them post-season. I'll be looking at boots for them today...















Mirror: $0
A coworker sold the original dresser and the buyer didn't want the mirror, so I got it for free. Thanks Soccermom.

I know the wood isn't quite the right shade, but we were going to stain the dresser darker some day anyway.












Rental House: $740/mo
It's 2 blocks from work. I heard about it when I was buying my friend;s white car.











White Car: $800
Bought from a friend with too many cars. I needed a car since Becca would be starting school (her car is the red one). Thanks Al.

Black Car: $100
Someone was moving and didn't want to deal with a deadbeat. I jumped it and drove it 20 miles home. Now I want to sell it for closer to what it's worth. Thanks Impatientpeople.




Swing: $0
A friend of mine at work gave me this swing while I was picking up a free grill from his house. Thanks David.










Dining Room Table: $0
Becca's grandfather gave it to us. Thanks Papa.

Sewing Desk & Chair: $35
Someone at work didn't want this desk at home. I happened to be in the market. Tying it to the back of my little car was fun. Thanks Guywithatinydesk.











Server: $0
A friend needed help merging to computers together and I volunteered to help him out. After merging this one and a newer one together, he gave me the old one. Thanks Al.

I have since installed Ubuntu 10.04 Server on it and use it as my home server.











Chair (left): $0
This was a curbside giveaway, and after much cleaning, it's my favorite reading chair. Thanks Oldguyattheendofthestreet.

Chair (right): $0
Becca's dorm room chair given to her by one of her sister. Thanks Cory or Lissa.

Coffee Table: $(bag of candy)
Some guys at work offered it to the first person to give them a bag of candy. I was quick.


Bed: $0
A lady at Becca's church didn't want a king size water-bed frame, towers, dimmer lights, and a mattress anymore, so she gave it to the newlyweds.









Grill: $0
Given to us by a friend who's moving to Colorado. Thanks David.











TV: $50
Coworker was upgrading everything to high definition. Thanks Overzealousman.

Entertainment Center: $20
Coworker's wife didn't like it.

Sony Stereo System: $10
Gathered dust for years in a coworker's garage.

Coffee Table: $0
A friend wanted to upgrade, claiming this one was old.

Couch: $0
My old boss got a new couch. We usually have a slip cover on it, but we paid retail for the cover. Thanks Marc.

My point? Be patient and get free stuff. Be a little impatient and get cheap stuff. We're in the most wealthy nation on earth, and people throw out all kinds of great stuff. I'm not saying you can't have nice new stuff, but until you can put down cash for it, get the nice free stuff. After all, it's just stuff.

Thoughts Continued

The word curious is rather curious. Kuri-\es, curi-\es, and kiuri-\es (schwas). How do teachers explain this word? "When there's a 'c' followed by a 'urious', the 'c' make a 'kiu' sound." (curry, curtain, and curse make a 'ku' not a 'kiu'). This is similar to the sound difference between queen and queue. Apparently the 'que' in queen is like 'kui' and the 'que' in queue is like 'kiu'.

------------------------------------

Rockwell Collins
More Unity
More Diversity
More Tasty
Try our new edible ARC-210.
"Melts in your mouth, not in your joint strike fighter."

That's why I'm not in marketing.

------------------------------------

Robert,
I noticed your IM quote:
"Software is a structure--not a plant; it ought to be designed--not grown."
and was curious about a couple of things:

1. How is software "a structure?"
2. What is the difference between "designed" and "grown?"

Thanks,
Greg

RE: Your quote

This quote came from my frustration at some code I had to write tests for. It was apparent that multiple engineers had added functionality over several years--an extra switch statement here, another if and flag there. That code was grown. I had to write tests for another kind of code a few weeks before seeing the grown code. It was organized, planned, and well structured. The if statements weren't there because of last minute exceptions to the rule, they were there because of a planned flow of control. That code has a blueprint somewhere, and I happen to know that it followed the blueprint closely. That code was designed.

Some code grows to fill in the gaps and reach for the sunlight, but I'd much prefer to work within a structure that can hold itself up even when the sun isn't shining.

Observations

This is the first of (hopefully) may posts consisting of my more random thoughts and observations that I would normally tell to the Co-op in the cube next to me. He will be leaving in August, so I am redirecting my random information outlet here. These are the things that make me chuckle during the week. I can only hope they do the same for you.

---

Manipulating the premise will never lead to successful scrutiny if in the end, your assertions fail.

---

"Could, would, should, but didn't." I've been reading Linchpin by Seth Godin, and he has a graph depicting this problem. The problem goes much much deeper: these words are terribly spelled. They ought to be spelled kud, wud, and shud.

---

Some programs have layers, one class has a function initialize() that calls another class's doInitialize() that calls another class's no_reallyDoInitiallize() that calls another class's actuallyGoingToInitialize() function. This may seem extreme at first glance--that's because it is.

---

I was walking down the hall when I caught some conversation as I passed between two engineers. The short woman said, "..so she literally walked down to the office, I mean literally went down there and talk to them about..." I suppose she figuratively walks down there most of the time.

---

"What does vested interest really mean?"
"It means it's important. A vest is decorative suit-like garment worn to important or prestegious events. You have clothed your interests with the intent of importance."
"Really?"
"No."

Soccer and Sickness

Today is a good day to sit at home and sip chicken soup. Two days of throat irritation bloomed into full sinus congestion overnight--with more thorns than petals. We had blue skies until this evening when the rain swept by in sheets and the sound of distant thunder lulled me into an early-evening nap.

Wednesday was far more interesting. The Rockwell Collins Soccer (summer) League kicked off, and I was on a new team from the spring league. Caleb and David joined the team, so they weren't all strangers. I met all the players, and we played a hard game against team 4 (not the most original of team names). In the second half I played sweeper, and as they fell behind 3 to 0, team 4 slipped into desperation. With only two minutes left in the game, one of their main strikers ran towards me, and I turned to keep ahead of him--his footing shifted. Crack. For a second everything was black; I felt my knees hit the ground. I stood and collapsed again, everything was blurry. I heard myself yell for a substitute somewhere in the muted distance as I stumbled towards a greenish blue horizon. With help I made it to the sidelines and fell to my hands and knees, gasping for breath.

Once I regained breathing control (lost partly from pain and partly from fury), Caleb and Stephanie took Becca and I to the emergency room to have my neck/skull looked at. The doctor didn't diagnose a concussion, and my brain is as ok as it has been. It'll take more than an intentional elbow to the the base of the skull to stop me.

Some travel

I'm alone in the DFW airport, traveling once again. Familiar sights and sounds surround me--a pilot scarfing down a sub sandwich, a wife talking worriedly on the phone, a business man trying to look busy on his laptop, and a bunch of bored people wandering aimlessly or hopelessly from gate to gate.

Matt and Tiana had a great wedding yesterday, the remote control helicopter ring bearer really stirred up the crowd. Everything went as planned, and they're off and married now. I witnessed (and participated) in one of the most efficient wedding cleanups ever. The church members all pitched in, and so did 15 or so college students. Becca and I were on the road for Fort Worth by 5:15.

I found a comfy lounge area in DFW with the some really awesome lounge chairs. I selected one that looks almost like a child's playground slide but leather instead of lightning-static-plastic. If I didn't like this airport so much, I'd probably take a nap. The internet here doesn't appear to be free, so I'll post this when I get back to Cedar Rapids. I miss the cold North. Texas is just so hot.

Futbol

Today my team kicked off the May futbol season. I have a great team with a few excellent forwards and a light footed sweeper. Our team didn't have any subs (they had ~4) or dedicated goalie so we were pretty tired by the end of the first half. In the end, we won 2:0. I'm looking forward to the side effects of playing soccer again: team camaraderie, toned muscles, and the ability to breathe.

A few other notes:

I'm reading "Mind Performance Hacks" by Ron Hale-Evans. Excellent book on memory and thought processing.

Becca and I found a possible rental house for the same price as our apartment, closer to work, and with a fenced back yard.

Mass Effect 2 is all they said it would be (the good stuff anyway).

Some Rambling

Duct tape is one of the most wonderful things invented in the last century.

Daisy has eaten (partially or entirely) at least 9 or 10 collars off of our more timid dog, Echo. One was doused in Lysol. Another was doused in Fooey ("most bitter stuff on Earth"). We would take off Echo's collar every night before they slept in the kennel, but inevitably we'd rush out the door one day and forget the collar, and the only evidence would be the metal buckle with Echo's tags sitting on the kennel floor.

I made a collar for Echo out of duct tape, and Daisy hasn't eaten it yet (this being the second day).

Daisy also gashed open her leg somehow--possibly on the heating system, possibly with her new scalpel set. She ate off a few bandages in spite of her cone of shame (which she also removed from her head and chewed up). After we ran out of medical tape, I used duct tape. She didn't eat that, so I made a whole cast out of duct tape. The next evening, it is still whole.

Duct tape, amazing.

After two and a half months out in the wild, I realized that I've slowed to a coast. Yesterday I made a list of areas that I want to see weekly growth: Biblical Studies, Literature, Exercise, Environmental, Software, Hardware, Household, Current Events, Fine Arts, and Language.

I took those ten areas and put two on each day of the work week with specific books or tasks associated with each area. Today I cleaned out the car and went on a walk with my wife (Household & Exercise). Now I have a plan, and I'm excited about it.

It's been a great semester, and the summer is shaping up to be even better.

What is my Purpose?

A friend of mine wrote to me with the questions of life: What is my purpose? Why am I here?

She had been taught all her life that she was a mistake, unwanted by the universe—or rather, that the universe was apathetic to her accidental existence. This of course was a terrible lie, but repetition ingrained it in her so deeply that when she left her loving home her life fell to pieces.

Informing her of the simple facts was useless. I shouldn't have bothered—facts are of little use to belief. I also find it interesting that beliefs will often warp facts into support. The features on this little blue planet can easily be explained by a few observant scientists and an ancient text—though the book does a much better job, always has. Truth has inherent value, but she didn't need facts, figures, or debate.

She was a very good person—better than most anyway, but she couldn't fill that empty feeling at the end of the day with goodness. I tried to give her what she needed so often that she stopped listening. She knew what she wanted, and it didn't come in the packaging I offered—there were too many strings. The only strings I found was that of commitment and love, which are voluntary anyway.

She said that Jesus was a good teacher, but she missed the point entirely. He said, “I am the way” not “this is the way.” He said, “I and the Father are one.” No good teacher would claim to be God, unless he was, but she had heard all those old arguments before. Perhaps it hadn't occurred to her that arguments may get old for a reason. Jesus' main purpose on earth was to save us from ourselves because He loves us. How could I have made that point without quoting Him or the wise men who wrote about Him?

It was as if she wanted the goodness of the Savior without the Savior Himself. The only conclusion I could come to was that she didn't want to be held accountable—couldn't be held accountable—for her life. If we admit He exists and that He is who He is, we must submit to Him, and our own desire for control—dare I say fear—will do all it can to deny such a God.

After all of that, the only thing I could do was to give her that ancient book and plead with her to read it again and understand. While she read, I spoke with Him. I asked him if I had been so obstinate in the face of such pure truth. He chuckled. And nodded.

New Books

We don't get out much. After 8+ hours of programming and meetings every day, I don't often go out and something exciting. I'm happy to have dinner with my wife, take the dogs out, and watch an episode of something or other. When I put it in words, it does sound rather drab.

Yesterday was the first Saturday that I've slept in since before we moved. I decided to mess with my graphics card a bit, and in the end, the easy way out was to reinstall my operating system. The up side is that I was prepared for such drastic measures. I now have Ubuntu 9.10 running on "Extra Visual Effects" mode--which means some of my windows are transparent and I can make my windows wiggle when I grab them with the mouse. It's the little things in life.

Last weekend I enjoyed reading and skimming, and I realized that I don't have any story books that I'm currently reading (and no such books that I want to read on my shelf). Saturday was also the first day in several weeks above freezing, and I hadn't been on a good long walk since Christmas. In response, we killed (or at least seriously injured) two birds with one stone--we walked to the nearest bookstore. The round trip was about 2.8 miles with some sidewalks, some snow-walks, and some roadside-walks.

After looking through a few books (Ubuntu, The Number Phi, Mind Hacks, and Nicoli Tesla), I asked one of the guys who worked there for some recommendations on science fiction or fantasy books to pick up. He was rather surprised that I hadn't read Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. He recommended a book called Red Mars about colonizing Mars, so I'll read that after Hitchhikers. I also picked up my very first Linux magazine--Linux Shell. I'm already learning about all the wonderful things I can do with Bash scripting.

Weekend of Rest

My first three weeks of work have flown by. It seems like last week we were passing boxes through the window and wondering if we'd make it to pay day. Not many people have saved enough to move from one state to another and fly round trip across the country without being paid for two months. We have been blessed.

My job is right up my alley. I didn't know at first how interested I would be programming radios, but there's so much going on in a radio. After three weeks, I still don't understand it all--which is what I need. I need something to wrap my brain around for a few years. I was also concerned that programming for work would sap me of any desire to code for fun, but I think my job has stirred up in me a new excitement for coding (previously burnt out of me with schooling). I started working on a multi-threaded neural net. Just for fun.

Today I reorganized the office to better facilitate my desire to read and do relaxing hobbies. I skimmed the remainder of The Art of War (the less renown one by Machiavelli), read two chapters of Financial Peace Revisited by Dave Ramsey, and a chapter of Twelve Ordinary Men by John MacArthur. We have three bookcases to accommodate our library. The tall shelf is full of reading books, split into fiction and nonfiction. The other two shorter shelves are reference books (Becca's and mine). For a newlywed couple, we certainly have a decent library, everything from Computer Organization and Design to Wildwood Dancing to The Silmarillian to Educational Psychology.

It wouldn't be a complete blog entry on Valentines day without a brief recap of the day's festivities. Last night I read several of the tales from Arabian Nights to my wife, and this morning I made her French toast with strawberries in the shape of a heart. I have a wonderful wife--without Becca, I would not be where I am or who I am today.

Cedar Rapids Iowans...

Eleven days ago I wrote down a few thoughts about moving to Iowa. Packing up a house into boxes in the back room is one thing, but actually moving it all 1000 miles is something completely different.

We got up at 4:00 A.M. on Thursday and packed the remainder of our belongings into a full uHaul and Ford Escort (with its front wheels strapped to the car dolly). We crowded the dogs into the front seat with us and drove to the gas station at 5:00 A.M. where I had my first attempt at filling up a 17 ft. truck with a car on a dolly close behind.

By ten o'clock we were five hours into our trip and crossing into Oklahoma. The trip itself was memorable--insomuch as it was my first 17 ft. truck drive and that in and of itself was stressful--but we drove through Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, and Iowa so I didn't see anything really worthy of note.

In an attempt to find our hotel in Kansas City, we took an exit that sent us directly into a residential district. I had to drive uphill in the snow on a road lined with parked cars on both sides. It was the most stressful drive of my life. At one point I had to pull in my mirrors to inch past an SUV, but we made it safe and sound.

Our apartment is half underground near the parking lot, so we moved at least two thirds of the truck contents on the first day (Friday) through the bedroom window. In the morning, we tackled the larger furniture (desk, couch, bed frame pieces, table) with the help of some upstairs neighbors who happened to see us unloading.

The kitchen is completely unpacked (to our knowledge) and most other rooms, save the office, are well on their way. We still have addresses to change, forms to fill, and furniture to purchase, but we're well on our way to being real residents of Iowa.

Musing on Moving

Packing a house provides a unique prospective on life.

I practically grew up packing. Every four years we'd move from Indonesia to travel around America for a few months, and in sixth grade, I began moving countries four times a year (Christmas and summer breaks). When I graduated high school and moved to college, I moved almost all I owned to a dorm room, and each semester, I'd move it out and back again.

Each time I moved, I would think about how similar my life was to that of a nomad and how this life is only the beginning of an eternal journey. But this is the first time I've packed up a whole house. This is the first time I've moved while married.

This time is different. I now have a family to move (my wife and two dogs). I am the provider moving my tribe to more suitable lands. It's a difficult thing to describe, this feeling. I suppose I never noticed just how self-centered all my previous moves have been. I have never needed to find a place near a park or considered purchasing a vehicle based on children I won't have for years to come. I have never before been responsible for someone else in a move.

I suppose this is what it is to be a leader--to be a husband.