Original ExistDifferently.com Weblog of David, a Christian Network and Systems Manager, with topics ranging from Apologetics to Worldview, and some crypto, open source, programming, opinion, and daily life thrown in between.

Thu, 2005-04-28 (Apr 28)

Adults and Debates

Filed under: Blog,General,Personal,Politics,Worldviews — David @ 11:48

There was a really good quotation from someone in “this post at WorldMagBlog”:http://www.worldmagblog.com/blog/archives/014355.html that I like a lot (the post was made by someone with my first name, but it wasn’t me! The comment was made at 9:29am yesterday.):

The quotation is from Dorothy Sayers’ “The Lost Tools of Learning”:http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect?tag=davidsworldva-20&creative=9325&camp=1789&link_code=ur2&path=tg/detail/-/B0007FRAVK/qid=1114706741/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1?v=glance%26s=books (which unfortunately appears to be out of print):

Have you ever, in listening to a debate among adult and presumably responsible people, been fretted by the extraordinary inability of the average debater to speak to the question, or to meet and refute the arguments of speakers on the other side? Or have you ever pondered upon the extremely high incidence of irrelevant matter which crops up at committee meetings, and upon the very great rarity of persons capable of acting as chairmen of committees? And when you think of this, and think that most of our public affairs are settled by debates and committees, have you ever felt a certain sinking of the heart?

I see this in politics at all levels all the time, it’s one of the reasons I got annoyed with politics and stopped paying much attention. I get annoyed with immaturity at this level. On the other hand, it makes good speakers all that much more easy to appreciate!

Sat, 2005-04-23 (Apr 23)

Glad to be home!

Filed under: Blog,Digital Cameras,Flickr,General,In The News,Personal,Photography,Tech (General) — David @ 02:47

Vegas was great, but it’s so good to be home! I love lots of things that are in my life, and people that are in my life. It’s a good time to be alive, and God is good. And sometime, I’ll be able to share a bit more of it. For now, you get to read whatever I feel like putting here (well, you’ll always get that, it just might not be as interesting as my life actually is :-)

I got my camera, and it’s really cool. Haven’t had much time to play with it yet! Also they didn’t send me an adapter ring that I need to use the lenses I got, but they’re sending me one for free that will hopefully be here next week (never depend on specific timing from the USPS!). So I haven’t been able to play with the macro lens that I was looking foward to…not like I’ve had time anyway, so I suppose it’s all working out :-)

I have two friends that have actually uploaded a significant amount of stuff to “Flickr”:http://www.flickr.com/ now! Takes time, but eventually I bring people around to the latest and greatest I’ve found :-) Sometimes ;-)

Also…I didn’t know until I read one of the blogs I keep up with that “Adobe bought Macromedia”:http://robert.accettura.com/archives/2005/04/18/adobe-buys-macromedia/! Very interesting, but makes sense. I’m sure we’ll hear more soon!

Thu, 2005-04-21 (Apr 21)

Home!

Filed under: Blog,General,Las Vegas/NAB2005,Personal,Travel/Trips — David @ 10:09

I’m home! Whew! More when I wake up…maybe. Or maybe later :-)

Layover in Cincinnati

Filed under: Blog,General,Las Vegas/NAB2005,Travel/Trips — David @ 06:20

I’m (almost) back! We missed our flight in Las Vegas at 10:50pm, and had to reschedule for an 11:30pm flight out, through Cincinnati, OH instead of Atlanta, GA like we came through on the way out. The first flight was only three hours instead of four, but we have a three hour layover instead of two, and we’re arriving home an hour later than we would have. Which is kind’ve annoying, but we ate a really good meal at Applebee’s (I had a great prime rib that practically melted in my mouth!) before we left, which is what made us late enough to miss our flight (we were an hour early, but checkin and security were too long to get through in time). But I’ll be home around 8:53 this morning!

Right now I’m sitting in the Cinci airport, listening to the wonderful country music [sic] playing loudly out of the Cinci Sports Pub behind me, blaring into the terminal. Fortunately, Josh hates country music and I just dislike it, so I guess I get the better deal :-) My feet keep tapping and they aren’t under my control! But I’d be happy without it. But perhaps it’s keeping me awake a bit, which is kind of good. At least I get to sleep when I get home if I want, because I didn’t sleep on the plane much (maybe dozed a bit).

“My camera”:http://butterflyphoto.com/shop/product.aspx?sku=FUJIS5100 should arrive today at my office, it arrived at the FedEx facility last night at 10:40pm and I’m hoping it will be delivered before I drive past work on my way home from the airport so I can pick it up, otherwise I have to go back to pick it up later in the day (and believe me I will, even if I have to sleep through doing so ;-)

Down to about 9.5 hours ’til I see Ruth again, and counting more slowly than I wish it would…

Looks like it’s going to be a nice day, around the same temperature I just came from in Vegas the first half of the week! Then rain through Monday. Oh well, at least I get some welcome-home sunshine…the best of which doesn’t come until around 3:30pm ;-)

Oh yeah, I got to go to “Star Trek: The Experience”:http://www.startrekexp.com/ while I was in Vegas! Very, very cool, even for a once-Trekkie who’s cooled a bit now that he has a real life (and I mean the past few years, not the past few weeks :-) Very awesome to be ON the ACTUAL SET of the bridge from the Star Trek: The Next Generation series that they actually filmed on, which was part of the show! I even got to wander around and look at stuff during the time I got my picture taken in the Captain’s Chair between shows, it was awesome, there were aboud 5 of us and the guide/photographer (named David…he was cool), and they took the pictures using a “Fuji Finepix S7000”:http://butterflyphoto.com/shop/product.aspx?sku=S7000, which I though was great since I have the next lower model (the S5100) arriving tomorrow, and the S7000 has the same sensor resolution as my point-and-shoot E550! Weird coincidence! I’d have bought the S7000 if it weren’t around $500 still (although it does have a 6x zoom vs. the 10x (both optical) zoom on the S5100. And I just checked, and it came down to $437 at ButterflyPhoto! But it’s out of stock, and I’m out of money :-)

More pictures to come at some point, I might try uploading some from the airport here. Hundreds I haven’t gotten to upload due to technical issues with the internet connection I had at the hotel! Lots of the Strip, more of the convention, and lots at Star Trek (they didn’t allow photos in the rides though :-(

I think I convinced Pastor R to do Star Trek tomorrow instead of golf in the afternoon after the seminar he stayed a day later for :-)

On to try uploading some pics! I’m trying to stay chronological so I won’t get to the Trek stuff right away!

Tue, 2005-04-19 (Apr 19)

Wonderful Hotel Internet :-(

Filed under: Blog,General,Las Vegas/NAB2005,Personal,Photography,Travel/Trips — David @ 10:45

Well, the pictures from yesterday, all several hundred of them, should have been uploaded overnight but the Flickr uploader tool kept timing out. A few uploaded, which you can “see here”:http://www.flickr.com/photos/existdifferently/sets/244083/ for now, I’ll add to the set and post here when I get a chance to upload the rest. Unfortunately the ones that did get posted (since I’m posting in chronological order approximately, at least by memory card) are from the NAB conference, and not from The Strip at night, which I also got a lot of! Some not as blurry this time :-)

We went go-karting last night on some go-karts that look like your average local fun park go-karts, but they weren’t speed-limited and could go up to 40 MPH! We had a lot of fun with those, the testosterone was certainly flowing strong :-) If it hadn’t cost $25 per ride of about 10 minutes or so, we’d have gone a second time for sure. But once was probably good, since several muscles got sore from use even that first time!

I actually got to bed by 1am last night Vegas time, and got up at 8:30 this morning. 7.5 hours…feels good, the last two nights I got just over half that :-)

Gotta go get ready for the day! The show is so huge it’s amazing. Many football fields in size, in each of several buildings!

End of Day Two in Vegas!

Filed under: Blog,General,Las Vegas/NAB2005,Photography,Travel/Trips — David @ 02:49

Well, short post to mention that day two in Vegas, the first day of the NAB convention, is over. I’m going to bed. New photos are uploading, most aren’t public yet I need to go through them. So I won’t link to them now, I’ll give you a link later, maybe tomorrow night, maybe later…depends on when I have time! I only have web access at night, even though I have email during the day (wireless at the convention is $25/day! Hotel is $10/day. Which would you go with?).

Mon, 2005-04-18 (Apr 18)

In Vegas!

Filed under: Blog,Flickr,General,Las Vegas/NAB2005,Personal,Photography,Travel/Trips — David @ 03:37

We arrived in Las Vegas around 9pm Vegas time, or 11pm home time. Took around an hour to walk terminal, get luggage, rent car…then we drove to the Strip where we’re staying at one of the hotel/casinos (I might post which one after we get back). Quite an amazing drive for three guys who’ve never been to Vegas! So many lights and so much money spent on looks!

We took a walk after checking in to the hotel, didn’t get too many pictures as I forgot to grab my camera on the way out the door at first, but got a few. Oh well, more later. You can “see the pictures here from Las Vegas Day 1”:http://www.flickr.com/photos/existdifferently/sets/241080/.

Walking down the strip, we walked past so many pimps passing out handbills I couldn’t keep count; they hold them out with one hand and try to offer them to you, and do a little flicking motion and makes noise against the paper as an extra attention-getter. Plus, the sidewalk was littered with handbills the size of playing cards, often well within 10 feet of each other (or less) they were so dense in certain areas. Like walking on nearly-naked confetti (but without looking at them closely you can’t make out anything other than they weren’t fully naked, they are playing-card sized after all, and many on the sidewalk were upside-down with just words (phone/advertisement/coupon/whatever) showing, too. Pretty sad. Fortunately I have less than zero desire for such a shallow relationship, not to mention the sin or cost issues involved, being on a church trip…numerous things would keep me from pursuing the adverts even if I were so inclined, which like I mentioned I’m not. What a wasted life for most of those girls and their pimps though.

We haven’t solified things, but we may see “Blue Man Group”:http://www.blueman.com/ at Luxor on Tuesday night! And “Star Trek: The Experience”:http://www.startrekexp.com at the Hilton is on the possible list as well…right down the street!

Sun, 2005-04-17 (Apr 17)

To Las Vegas!

Filed under: Blog,Digital Cameras,General,Las Vegas/NAB2005,Personal,Photography,Travel/Trips — David @ 00:57

Well, this afternoon (Sunday the 17th) I’m off to Las Vegas! A pastor from my church (the media pastor), the Technical Director, and me are all going to “NAB2005”:http://www.nabshow.com/ (the National Association of Broadcasters trade show/conference). It’s going to be fun, and we’ll hopefully pick up some good pointers for what we want to do in the future with our video/media. The show is Monday through Wednesday, and we’re coming back on the red-eye Wednesday night and should be back in town Thursday morning (fortunately I have Thursday off). My girlfriend Ruth is taking a couple of hours off work early on Thursday so I can see her soon when I get back (and finish sleeping Thursday morning, depending on how good the overnight flight goes), she’s so awesome :-)

Depending on what kind of internet access we have in Vegas, I may be posting some pics online while I’m there or perhaps when I get back, time permitting. I may shoot a few good ones over to this blog, but you could watch my “Flickr photostream”:http://www.flickr.com/photos/existdifferently/ directly for any new ones coming down the pike!

Also, in case anyone’s interested, Fuji has a nice $50 rebate this month on their “Finepix S5100”:http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/S5100/S51A.HTM SLR-like digital camera! It’s 4 megapixels with a 10x optical zoom, among lots of other good features, which you can see by reading the review the name is linked to. Best price I’ve seen (it’s where I ordered mine) before the rebate is from “ButterflyPhoto”:http://www.butterflyphoto.com/ and you can “see the S5100 item listing here”:http://www.butterflyphoto.com/shop/product.aspx?sku=FUJIS5100. Just $249.95 before the rebate, or $199.99 (yes, that’s less than $200!) after the rebate! This camera was at least $275 before shipping at the cheapest location I’ve ever found for it, back a couple of months ago when I bought my “Finpix E550”:http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/E550/E55A.HTM (buy it now for “$247 at ButterflyPhoto”:http://www.butterflyphoto.com/shop/product.aspx?sku=FUJIE550 which is over $60 less than I paid for it!) which is another awesome camera but more along the point-and-shoot lines (but is VERY nice for that type of shooting, and I’ve taken over 2,000 pictures with it since I got it around two months ago!). Anyway, I ordered this last (Friday) night and it should get here either next week around when I get home, or at the latest the beginning of the next week. I already have a second 512MB xD picture card to use in it…best price on those is “eCost.com”:http://www.ecost.com/ecost/ecsplash/shop/detail~dpno~269806.asp as far as I’ve found (free shipping, small handling fee, $10 for overnight shipping). The xD picture cards are a bit more expensive than traditional flash storage cards but the data transfer rate is much higher unless you buy a high-speed card of another type, which would likely be priced the same. But all xD cards are the same high speed, no need to double-check :-)

Thu, 2005-04-14 (Apr 14)

The Park – Yellow Flowers and Trees

Filed under: Flickr,General,Photography — David @ 01:55



Yellow Flowers and Trees – DSCF1347

Originally uploaded by ExistDifferently.

Went to a city park this past Saturday and took some good pictures out on the hiking trails. This one in particular was of a really nice area covered with yellow flowers among the trees, right next to the trail!

The rest of the “park set”:http://www.flickr.com/photos/existdifferently/sets/230616/ can be found on “Flickr”:http://www.flickr.com/photos/existdifferently/.

Wed, 2005-04-13 (Apr 13)

Lego Jewelry

Filed under: Funny,Tech (General) — David @ 00:25

“ForeverGeek”:http://forevergeek.com/gadgets/jewelry_for_geeks.php has quite the article about “Lego Jewelry”:http://www.jacquelinesanchez.com/gallery_n.html (click the Forever Young gallery name). I’m sure I’d never get any of this (right, you know who?) but it is somewhat fascinating :-)

At least people won’t bother me for not posting now. Ha. I might even post a picture next! I have some good new ones.

Fri, 2005-04-08 (Apr 08)

Stale Night-Water

Filed under: Blog,General — David @ 11:47

“Funny post”:http://coffeetalking.blogspot.com/2005/04/will-you-eat-this-one-mr-blogger-man.html over at “It’s Just The Coffee Talking,” where the author mentions that she can’t drink water left on her nightstand more than about four hours because it’s stale. I wasn’t aware of anyone else that suffered from this issue as I do, although I don’t know if I had my “stale” time figured down to four hours. If I’ve fallen asleep and then wake up, the water is pretty much stale. I think it’s from the dust in the air settling in the water :-)

Mon, 2005-04-04 (Apr 04)

Yellow-Striped Butterfly on Yellow Flower

Filed under: Flickr,General,Photography — David @ 00:59



Yellow-Striped Butterfly on Yellow Flower

Originally uploaded by ExistDifferently.

One of over 500 pictures total taken at the White River Gardens Butterfly Exibit on April 2nd, 2005. I just have a few online right now but they’re all nice and captioned/commented. This is one of the better butterfly pics I’ve got online so far. The better flowers and butterfly shots are also together both in a set available on my Flickr homepage, and also a Group for the Gardens with just the best, most interesting nature-related photos.

Fri, 2005-04-01 (Apr 01)

And to think there’s worse…

Filed under: Blog,Christianity,General,In The News,Personal,Worldviews — David @ 03:12

A “blog entry here”:http://coffeetalking.blogspot.com/2005/03/little-bit-of-everything.html links to quite a story: “False Imprisonment”:http://www.dmregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050331/SPORTS13/503310395/1003&lead=1

It’s worth reading all the way through. The sad part? I can tell you from personal (not my individual, but I was one of three people second-most affected) experience that what happened in this case is NOTHING compared to the true injustice in the, um, “justice” system in this country right now (try taking that story, drag it out to about seven years, and make it two separate false charges and two false or forced convictions…and that’s just for starters). Even sadder? That we have the “best” system of it’s sort on the planet. And some people are optimistic! And by that I mean utopian…they thing everything’s going to get better as we “evolve.” I don’t mean to say that you shouldn’t be optimistic about some things, such as God’s plan for your life and such, but don’t be optimistic about the world as-is getting better any time soon. It’s pretty much headed down the toilet, for the time being at least. Either Jesus is coming back first, or it will get worse until the next turn in the cycle mentioned by the book “The Fourth Turning”:http://www.fourthturning.com/ (which notes that it’s gotten bad like this (well, not exactly like this, but worse than we might usually imagine, also “see the book on Amazon”:http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/055306682X/davidsworldva-20/002-2086300-3510456?%5Fencoding=UTF8&camp=1789&link%5Fcode=xm2 and also note that I haven’t read the entire book, nor is it written from a Christian perspective)) in the past, but that history always seems to repeat itself, particularly in a four-part cycle identified in said book). Original sin brings us all this, and crushes utpianism, at least until God returns, and at that point “utopia” is just one of the two!

But I digress slightly :-)

Also, this is worth considering: “Iniquity Abounds”:http://www.jesus-is-savior.com/Basics/iniquity_abounds.htm

Time for some sleep, even though there’s no work tomorrow (yay!). I wish well those of you who may perhaps have to go to either work or school and stayed up a bit late ;-)

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