Subtle Coolness

Emily Loves to Swim

2010-07-21T16:02:00.000-05:00

Rebecca takes Emily to the pool several times during the week, and we all go as a family in the evenings or on Saturday afternoon. Emily loves being in the water. She seems to have no fear. She crawls around in the shallow end and kicks her legs when we hold her in the deep end.

She also looks super cute in her swimsuit.

Trust in the Lord

2010-07-12T08:49:00.002-05:00

[This is the transcript of a talk I gave in church on Sunday, July 11, 2010. An audio recording of my remarks is also available.]

When our daughter Emily was nine months old—and I say that like it was a long time ago when it was two months ago—she discovered a fun new game that she could play with us. We would sit her on a chair, or on a couch, or on our bed, or on the stairs, and then we would sit down in front of her, on the floor facing her. Emily would then throw herself off her perch headfirst into our waiting arms. She would giggle wildly, and then we would set her back up and repeat the process, over and over.

Children seem to be born with an implicit sense of trust in their parents. Before they can even walk or speak, they have confidence that their parents love them and will take care of them. When the Lord asks us to trust in Him, I believe He means that we should show the same confidence that little children show in their earthly parents.

Now unfortunately, on a few occasions Emily has attempted to play the diving game while we were not paying enough attention to her. Even though she has gotten a few bumps and shed a few tears, she still loves to throw herself into our arms.

Even though He has the ability, the Lord will not always catch us when we dive headfirst off the couch. But that does not mean that we cannot trust in Him.

Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. [Proverbs 3:5]

What does it mean to trust in the Lord? A close examination of this and other scriptures can help us understand what the Lord means when He asks us to trust in Him. Much like Sister Keeler¹, I sometimes also have an obsessive fascination with language. In my studies I discovered that the Hebrew word that is translated “trust” in Proverbs 3:5 also appears in other places in the scriptures, but it is not always translated as “trust”.

I will not attempt to pronounce the Hebrew word, because I do not know Hebrew. We have enough intelligent people in the congregation that I think there is a good possibility that one of you does know Hebrew, and I don’t want to embarrass myself in front of you.

In Deuteronomy chapter 28, the Lord explains to his people the great blessings that will come if they keep the commandments. He follows a long list of blessings with the matching curses that will come if the children of the covenant do not hearken to His voice. Included with these curses is this promise (with the same Hebrew word):

The Lord shall bring a nation against thee from far, from the end of the earth, as swift as the eagle flieth; ... And he shall besiege thee in all thy gates, until thy high and fenced walls come down, wherein thou trustedst, throughout all thy land ... [Deuteronomy 28:49, 52]

The Lord warns His people that it is not enough to simply build gates, walls, and fences to defend against their enemies. They must also put their trust in Him and keep His commandments. If they do not tend to these spiritual defenses, then they can expect their man-made defenses to fall when their enemies come knocking.

We are not so much occupied with building gates and walls these days; I think it is safe to say that we won’t have an opposing army marching on our city any time soon. So how does this counsel apply to us today?

When the children of Israel began to occupy the promised land, fortifying cities against their enemies was an essential temporal pursuit. In our day, building gates and walls can be likened to providing shelter, food, safety, and security for our families. The work of providing for the temporal needs of our families should not be neglected. But do we trust that our temporal preparations are all we need to keep us happy? Merely having warm beds and full stomachs is not the end of our existence. These necessities of life will not protect us from an enemy far more destructive than any earthly army.

When we trust in the Lord by keeping His commandments, fasting, praying, and studying the scriptures, we build spiritual gates and walls for ourselves and for our families. The prophet Nephi makes this clear:

... and whoso would hearken unto the word of God, and would hold fast unto it, they would never perish; neither could the temptations and the fiery darts of the adversary overpower them unto blindness, to lead them away to destruction. [1 Nephi 15:24]

From these scriptures we learn that to trust in the Lord means to believe in and act on His promises. He promises that if we follow Him and do what He asks us to do, He will protect us from the temptations and attacks of our adversary the devil.

Through the prophet Ezekiel, the Lord teaches us an important lesson about humility, and points out a dangerous place where we can be tempted to put our trust. Again, with the same Hebrew word:

When I [the Lord] shall say to the righteous, that he shall surely live; if he trust to his own righteousness, and commit iniquity, all his righteousnesses shall not be remembered; but for his iniquity that he hath committed, he shall die for it. [Ezekiel 33:13]

It appears that we can never be so righteous that the Lord will excuse a little iniquity. There is no righteousness quota that, when we meet it, qualifies us to sin, even just a little, even by mistake. The atonement does not work that way. This is what the apostle Paul meant when he wrote this to the Galatians:

... we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. [Galations 2:16]

Having faith in Christ goes hand in hand with trusting in the Lord. The Pharisees of Paul’s time believed that if they obeyed the law of Moses perfectly, they would earn their salvation. Unfortunately, they also believed that they could actually obey the law of Moses perfectly. In Paul’s words, they were attempting to be “justified by the law”. In Ezekiel’s words, they were “trust[ing] to [their] own righteousness” rather than trusting in the Lord.

The erroneous belief that salvation comes through a perfect adherence to the law of Moses was not new to the Pharisees in A.D. 30. About 180 years earlier, on the other side of the world, a prophet named Abinadi posed this question to the evil King Noah and his wicked priests:

... Doth salvation come by the law of Moses? What say ye? And they answered and said that salvation did come by the law of Moses. [Mosiah 12:31-32]

The correct relationship between the law of Moses and the atonement of Jesus Christ is expressed by Mormon as he described the righteous people of Anti-Nephi-Lehi:

Now they did not suppose that salvation came by the law of Moses; but the law of Moses did serve to strengthen their faith in Christ ... [Alma 25:16]

These scriptures teach us that if we believe our good works and righteousness alone will save us, if we “trust to [our] own righteousness”, we will inevitably stumble and fall. To trust in the Lord means to understand the purpose of His atonement and to have faith in His saving power.

Please note that there is a subtle but important difference between these two ideas. It is incorrect for me to believe that my good works and righteousness will directly qualify me to inherit Celestial glory. Rather, it is correct for me to believe that my good works and righteousness will qualify me to receive the cleansing blessings of the atoning sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. As the prophet Nephi taught us:

... we know that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do. [2 Nephi 25:23]

The same Hebrew word we found in Proverbs 3:5 is translated in other scriptures as “be confident” or “have confidence”. In the 27th Psalm, David sings:

The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? the Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? When the wicked, even mine enemies and my foes, came upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell. Though an host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear: though war should rise against me, in this will I be confident. [Psalm 27:1-3]

Our enemies are the devil and his angels. Our foes are anyone who would lead us away from the strait and narrow path of salvation. The devil’s agenda is not a mystery; the scripture says:

... he seeketh that all men might be miserable like unto himself. [2 Nephi 2:27]

“Misery loves company” is a gospel truth. Satan is now and always will be exerting all his strength and using all his cunning to make us miserable, to make us doubt, to make us fear and despair, to shake our confidence in anything worth trusting.

Try to recall for a moment a time when you felt the Spirit testify to your heart that something specific was true or right. It could be the peace you felt when you decided to be baptized. It could be the still, small voice whispering to you that The Book of Mormon is true. It could be a spiritual confirmation that you are about to marry the right person. For example, I remember a very specific moment and a very specific feeling when the Holy Ghost testified to me that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God.

Now, try to remember if you ever felt doubt about your testimony or decision. Did you ever question whether you had done the right thing? If you are like me, the gut-wrenching answer is, “Yes, I have felt doubt.” Satan sows these seeds of doubt in us hoping that in turn we will pick up a watering can and a spade and cultivate those little seeds until they grow into poisonous weeds and completely overcome our spiritual garden. But if we trust in the Lord and have confidence in His strength, we will recognize these doubts. We will know that they come from Satan, and we will know what to do with them. Elder Jeffery R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles gave us this counsel:

With any major decision there are cautions and considerations to make, but once there has been illumination, beware the temptation to retreat from a good thing. If it was right when you prayed about it and trusted it and lived for it, it is right now. Don’t give up when the pressure mounts. Certainly don’t give in to that being who is bent on the destruction of your happiness. Face your doubts. Master your fears. [“Cast Not Away Therefore Your Confidence”, Ensign, March 2000]

Elder Holland goes on to quote the Apostle Paul:

Cast not away therefore your confidence ... [Hebrews 10:35]

When we trust in the Lord we have confidence in Him and He in turn helps us to have confidence in ourselves.

We already know how we both demonstrate and develop our trust in the Lord: we keep His commandments; we study the scriptures; we pray sincerely and often; we gather our families around us and help one another learn and live the Gospel of Jesus Christ; we seek to understand the atonement and how we can obtain its blessings.

The Hebrew word for “trust” we found in Proverbs 3:5 is also translated elsewhere in the Bible as “to be secure”, “to hope”, and “to be bold”. When my daughter throws herself off the couch into our arms, she is secure because she trusts that we will catch her. She certainly hopes that we will catch her. And throwing oneself off a couch expecting to be safely caught by ones parents can definitely be described as “bold”.

When we truly trust in the Lord He blesses us with a feeling of security. We have a hope and confidence that the Lord will fulfill the promises he has made to the righteous. We can be bold as we stand for the things we know to be true and important. When we stand, we will not be moved. Psalms 125 begins:

They that trust in the Lord shall be as mount Zion, which cannot be removed, but abideth for ever. [Psalms 125:1]

One final promised blessing I will mention comes from Elder Richard G. Scott. He said:

Your peace of mind, your assurance of answers to vexing problems, your ultimate joy depend upon your trust in Heavenly Father and His Son, Jesus Christ. [“The Sustaining Power of Faith in Times of Uncertainty and Testing”, Ensign, May 2003]

I testify that the Lord is one in whom we can put our trust. He will keep His promises if we trust in Him. We will know peace, confidence, and security when we trust in Him.

In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Farrah Keeler spoke just before I did. In her talk, she explained that she is a language teacher and has “an obsessive fascination with language” (her words). ↩

He Literally Exploded

2010-07-07T08:08:00.001-05:00

Julie Moody at KUT is unfamiliar with the meaning of the word “literally”.

8 years ago, Robert Rodriguez literally exploded onto the movie scene with his indie hit “El Mariachi.” But Christopher Kelly says that freewheeling, energetic and innovative style has disappeared from Rodriguez’s more recent films.

Perhaps his innovative style disappeared because he literally exploded when his first movie was released?

Paint, Paint, Paint

2010-07-04T20:00:00.001-05:00

When we moved into our house over a year ago, our bedroom walls were just some standard, boring white color. We weren’t sure what we wanted to do with them, so we waited.

And waited. And waited.

Then about a month ago, suddenly, Rebecca knew what color she wanted to paint our bedroom. Yesterday we painted the walls in our bedroom Lyndhurst Gallery Beige.

The pictures don’t do it justice. You will have to take a closer look the next time you are visiting.

Happy Father’s Day

2010-06-20T19:53:00.002-05:00

Today is my first Father’s Day as a father. Emily recently discovered and fell in love with our slide. Well, I told her it was her slide, because she’s the only kid we have. Emily runs this place, did you know?

Also, Emily has not yet slid down the slide. She prefers to use it as more of a seat. But it makes her happy, so I won’t rush her into sliding anytime soon. She will continue to thoroughly enjoy sitting on her seat.

Today for Father’s Day, Rebecca gave me a windshield visor and steering wheel cover for my car. The weather gets hot in the summer, you see, when you live in Texas, and I don’t always have the opportunity to park my car in the shade. I have a hard time driving home from work when my steering wheel is hot enough to cook ground beef on, according to the windshield visor packaging. I could also cook a turkey on the dashboard.

Who needs a grill?

Patents and such

2010-06-16T21:53:00.000-05:00

I thought it appropriate that today is the 30^th anniversary of the Supreme Court ruling Diamond v. Chakrabarty, wherein the Court found that man-made life is patentable.

The man-made life in question was a new species of genetically-engineered bacterium that breaks down crude oil.

Because of this property, which is possessed by no naturally occurring bacteria, Chakrabarty's invention is believed to have significant value for the treatment of oil spills.

Old habits

2010-04-01T20:44:00.000-05:00

When I turned two years old I received a Glo Worm as a gift. I just learned today that the Glo Worm was first released the same year I was born, making it a fitting gift indeed.

What went through my mind as I hugged my new friend? Did I ever, in my wildest two-year-old dreams, consider that this very scene would be played out with uncanny similarity a quarter of a century later? Certainly not.

Even the green clothes match rather well. I am sure I felt about as much happiness as a two-year-old could feel when I hugged my little Glo Worm. I know I felt the same way when I held little Emily, too.

Mary got married

2009-11-28T07:23:00.005-06:00

State of the Art

2009-11-21T12:16:00.000-06:00

Rebecca recently inherited the following piece of furniture from her grandma:

Do you recognize it? That’s right, it is a Victrola VE 9-18X, built by the Victor Talking Machine Company in 1928. You can read more about it on the Victor-Victrola Page.

I didn’t know what it was when I first looked at it. I assumed it was just a cabinet. When I opened it I noticed the shelves were in strange places, and most of them had holes precisely cut for no apparent reason. Then I found the brass label on the inside of the cabinet, complete with model and serial number.

Unfortunately, all the electronics were pulled out of this cabinet a while ago. But I appreciate that the purpose of the piece is to provide a decorous way to conceal electronic equipment. So I did just that: I used the cabinet to conceal my cable modem and wireless router.

I lied about the Windsor knot

2009-11-15T14:36:00.001-06:00

If, sometime in the last five years, you asked me what kind of knot I used to tie my tie; and if, in response to your question, I answered, “Windsor;” then I regret to inform you that I lied.

I do not exactly remember where or how I learned the knot I had used for the last five years. I have vague recollections of a set of instructions that came bundled with a tie I received as a gift, but I cannot, with 100% certainty, claim said instructions as the source of the knot I had used for the last five years.

So, somewhere along the way, I convinced myself that I was tying the Windsor knot. “But why?” you may ask. “Perhaps because it sounds impressive,” I might reply.

This weekend I found instructions for The 85 Ways to Tie a Tie, including the Windsor knot. I learned, sadly, that I had not been using the Windsor for the last five years. “But what knot have you been tying for the last five years?” you may ask. “The half-Windsor,” I would reply (to be brief).

To be more accurate, yet long-winded, I would reply, “The co-half-Windsor, a cousin of the half-Windsor, but with the added benefit of being a self-releasing knot.”

However, if you happened to see me at church this morning; and if, upon seeing me, you happened to notice the subtle robustness, balance, and style of my tie knot; and if, upon such notice, you asked me what kind of knot I used to tie my tie; I would, with confidence wrought of diligent research, answer, truthfully, “Windsor.”

Facebook

2009-11-11T08:20:00.001-06:00

With kindest regards to Randall Munroe, the artist responsible for xkcd, I adapt one of his comics.

Riddle 8 Solution: Burning at Both Ends

2009-10-29T14:34:00.001-05:00

Jared solved the riddle first:

light the first rope at both ends and light the second rope at one end. when the first rope has burned up (in 30 min.), light the other end of the second rope. It will burn up in 15 min. 30 min + 15 min. = 45 min.

Sarah, I’m afraid your solution won’t work, because you are still independently measuring fifteen minutes somehow. If you had a watch, the entire riddle would be moot.

Riddle 8: Burning Rope

2009-10-26T16:06:00.000-05:00

Hey, remember that time I put a bunch of riddles on my blog and solicited answers from my readers? Let’s do that again. Refresh your knowledge of the rules, then take a crack at this conundrum.

Consider a certain kind of rope with the following characteristics: If you light one end, it will burn up in exactly one hour. Unfortunately, the rate of burning may vary unpredictably. For instance, the first half of the rope may burn in ten minutes and the second half in fifty; or it may be divided into many different areas. There is no way to tell.

Given two of these ropes (and a source of fire, of course), how do you measure 45 minutes?

Windows 7 Party Pack

2009-10-12T10:36:00.001-05:00

Some time ago I signed up to host a Windows 7 Launch Party. The only reason I did that was so I could get a box full of stuff from Microsoft and/or House Party Dot Com. That box came this weekend!

Partly because I want to show you what is inside, and partly because I want to make fun of stereotypical “unboxing” posts that often appear on tech and gadget blogs around the Internet, I now give you: The Windows 7 Party Pack Unboxing Post Of Flames And Awesomeness, But Not Necessarily Flames.

The box opens:

On the top there are some instructions for making my Windows 7 Party even more awesome than I ever imagined. That is not a Nondisclosure Agreement. And you better believe I didn’t read it, but my party is going to be even more awesome than you ever imagined.

We have streamers:

I plan to use every last inch of streamery goodness to decorate my office.

We have balloons and a deck of cards:

Note how the balloons came in the awesome Microsoft-patented colors “Windows Red”, “Windows Yellow”, “Windows Green”, and “Blue Screen of Death”. The cards are for gambling on how long it will take to install Windows 7 on your netbook. Or to give you something to do to pass the time.

We have a puzzle:

No party is complete without a puzzle in a convenient resealable bag. Because I will definitely want to save the puzzle and put it together on my own while I am waiting on the Windows 7 install I’ll be doing six months from now. Also, the person who correctly guesses the number of puzzle pieces in the convenient resealable bag wins one of these amazing promotional offers:

Also, did you see the Windows 7 napkins? Those are for cleaning off our faces and hands, because KEEP THE SALSA OFF THE KEYBOARD, MAN!

The prior information I had about what I was going to receive in this box mentioned a “Signature Edition” of Windows 7 Ultimate, and I wondered that exactly that meant. Well, now I know.

My copy of Windows 7 was signed by Steve Ballmer! The CEO of Microsoft! “Developers, developers, developers!” I was hoping for Bill Gates, but I understand he doesn’t work there anymore.

We have a nice big poster:

It features some of the default desktop wallpapers that come with Windows 7. Most of them look really creepy.

Finally, we have tote bags:

Again with the creepy artwork. I don’t know if I want to take this to the grocery store or not. People will think I’m weird. Which I’m not. Even if I am throwing a Windows 7 Launch Party.

Sorry, no flames after all.

Want to see something funny?

2009-10-04T20:07:00.001-05:00

So, my two-year-old nephew walks up to me with a cell phone in his hand and says, “Want to see something funny?”

“Sure,” I reply.

He then proceeds to spend twenty seconds—seriously, I counted—punching buttons on the phone to bring up this funny thing that he wants to show me. He turns the phone display to me and laughs.

I don’t know what is funnier: that my two-year-old nephew is trying to show me something funny on a cell phone; that he pushed buttons for twenty seconds to do it; or that the battery in that phone had been dead for a year.

WardMap has been resurrected as LDSWardMap

2009-07-06T23:58:00.002-05:00

Back at the end of 2006, I whipped up a script to help me with my Church duties. I was a membership clerk at the time, and responsible for keeping the membership records accurate.

The Church provides a directory of telephone, address, and email information on the local ward websites, and gives you the option of downloading the directory as CSV file. WardMap, when I originally wrote it, was meant to parse that CSV file and put markers on a map to indicate the the addresses of the members in the ward.

I let it languish for a while, but with my recent personal success of moving birthdayfeed to Google App Engine, I decided to try the same trick with WardMap.

So now, the webapp formerly known as WardMap, and now re-christened LDSWardMap, is available and hosted on Google App Engine. I’ll be going through this blog archive to refer old links to the new location.

I find LDSWardMap very useful when I need to visit several members in one go, and I want a rough idea of where I will be going.

Artificial Milestones and Personal Character

2009-07-03T05:25:00.002-05:00

This morning Rebecca shared with me a piece of writing about the challenges and benefits Scouting presents to the Scouts, their leaders, and their parents. It is a tender piece, and reminds me of the importance of my calling as 11-year-old Scout leader.

Without criticizing the piece or the author, I wanted to talk about one small line that stuck out at me. Even though Rebecca called my attention to it when she shared the piece with me, I didn’t expect to be affected so much by it.

My sisters and I didn’t marry a scout molded under dad’s tutelage, but we all followed our mother’s example of choosing an Eagle Scout.

Last month I attended the Eagle Court of Honor for my brother Mark. I’m proud to have such a hard-working, smart brother, and I’m really happy that I could be there along with several other members of my family.

The thing is, moments like that are fresh reminders to me that, so far, I am the only one of my mother’s six sons that did not earn the rank of Eagle.

Please don’t interpret this as some sort of bitterness or regret. I have wonderful memories of my time as a Scout. I also have some terrible memories; I really did not like camping very much. But overall, I learned and grew so much thanks to the Scouting program. And now I’m a Scout leader, with the opportunity to give “the next generation” an experience as good as or better than my own.

Earning the rank of Eagle represents real work and dedication. It is usually an indication of a person’s character, and can foreshadow greater accomplishments later in life. But usually is not always, and someone who did not earn Eagle is not therefore incapable of having the same caliber of personal character, or accomplishing just as much, if not more.

When making choices about who to spend time with, or be friends with, or date, or marry, it can be detrimental to lay an artificial milestone in someone’s path: “I will only marry an Eagle Scout.” That’s crazy talk, and unfair to every faithful young man who did not earn Eagle.

It doesn’t stop there. I remember some missionaries (elders) that went home from my mission telling themselves they would only marry a returned missionary sister. That’s crazy talk, and unfair to every faithful young woman that did not choose to serve a mission.

I will be forever thankful that my wife didn’t pass me up because I wasn’t an Eagle Scout. I hope we can teach our children to not judge people by artificial milestones, but by personal character. Eagle Scouts can go bad, and returned missionaries can go inactive. While both achievements are significant and meaningful, they should not be the sole reason to include or exclude someone from the expectation of a life full of happiness, faithfulness, and accomplishment.

Suddenly, radio is fun again

2009-06-24T05:21:00.002-05:00

Rebecca and I took our car to the body shop yesterday morning, and rented a Dodge Caliber. Rebecca noticed a “Sirius” logo near the radio, and wondered if the car really had satellite radio. This morning on the way to work we turned it on to find out.

Yes, our rental car has satellite radio.

This shouldn’t matter much, considering we never—except when I’m driving somewhere alone, like to Scouts—turn on our radio in our own car. This morning, however, we listened to music from the 40s on our rented satellite radio.

Enabling postfix (sendmail) on Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard

2009-06-21T12:58:00.002-05:00

I recently migrated off a web server running Ubuntu onto a server running Mac OS X 10.5 (client, not server). Everything has been working except sending email. On Ubuntu, when someone left a comment on my blog, the web server sent me an email. I hadn’t received any email from the server since I moved to OS X. Today I found out why.

Mac OS X 10.5 comes with a mail-sending program called postfix, but it is not turned on by default. Today, while diagnosing the problem, I found an excellent article explaining how to enable postfix on OS X.

If you just want to send all of your outgoing mail to some relay server, like the SMTP server of your Internet service provider, you usually need to have a host name for the computer that is sending the mail. This configuration is for a server that is not being used to receive mail.

Open Terminal and enter the following commands, each on a single line. After the first command you will be prompted for your password. (Oh, you need to be logged on as a user with administrative privileges.)

First, you want to set postfix to run when your computer tries to send mail:

% sudo launchctl unload /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/org.postfix.master.plist
% sudo defaults write /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/org.postfix.master OnDemand -bool true
% sudo launchctl load /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/org.postfix.master.plist

Next, you want to tell postfix what the host name of the computer is:

% sudo postconf -e myhostname=<host-name-of-computer>

Next, tell postfix what SMTP server to use to send email:

% sudo postconf -e relayhost=<your-isp’s-smtp-server>

This works for me because my ISP does not require authentication to use their SMTP server. They only require that the traffic be coming from their network.

If the SMTP server you are using requires authentication, there are a few extra steps:

% sudo echo <you-isp’s-smtp-server> <username>:<password> >> /etc/postfix/sasl_passwd
% sudo postconf -e smtp_sasl_auth_enable=yes
% sudo postconf -e smtp_sasl_password_maps=hash:/etc/postfix/sasl_passwd

At this point, if postfix tries to send email to someone@<host-name-of-computer>, the email will be delivered locally. If your email for this host name is handled by some other server, tell postfix that this is not the final destination for email sent to that host name:

% sudo postconf -e mydestination=localhost

I used the following specifically for my environment:

% sudo postconf -e myhostname=subtlecoolness.com
% sudo postconf -e relayhost=smtp-server.austin.rr.com

There! You should now be running postfix and your web server will send emails (again)!

Been Busy

2009-02-28T00:38:00.001-06:00

My online creative efforts have been directed elsewhere for some time now. I feel a little sad when I think about what this blog once was, and what it has now become.

But I get over that fairly quickly. On to some announcements:

Most of the news about what is going on recently with my wife and me can be found over at our blog, Accio Jacksons!

If you can’t get enough of food and cooking blogs, you should subscribe to My Wife’s Food Blog.

My most recent personal programming project fills my need to be reminded of birthdays in a natural and familiar way: in my feed reader! Check out birthdayfeed for details.

The Texas Hayfield Maze

2008-10-12T03:38:00.002-05:00

On Saturday Rebecca and I went to Sweet Berry Farm in Marble Falls, Texas. We got a lift on a hayride to the Texas Maze. This is a huge “hayfield maze” shaped like Texas.

The point of the maze is to go in, find nine points that represent the geographical locations of certain Texas cities, and punch a hole in a card with the hole puncher at each point. If one found every city, one got a free drink when one came out.

We probably spent close to an hour searching for cities, and we came out once to consult the map for a few cities that we couldn’t find at first. Rebecca’s mother Ann called me (probably because Rebecca did not have her phone with her) and asked me where we were.

“We are lost in a giant maze the shape of Texas,” I replied.

With Ann’s well-wishes, we succeeded in the end and Rebecca got her bottle of water and I got my pink lemonade.

This is a fire

2008-09-20T11:22:00.001-05:00

Last night was my first camping trip as a Scout leader.

At first I was hesitant to go. I remember camping only reluctantly as a youth. I always preferred a house to a tent. It always rained whenever I camped.

But last night the weather was beautiful and I helped build a fire. After only three hours of the smells and the sounds I wanted to stay, but Rebecca and I already had commitments today so I left early.

Riddle 7: A Basic Counting Problem

2008-08-24T10:56:00.001-05:00

Please provide the next number in this sequence:

2,201,102
132,332
30,412
13,102
5,531
3,676
2,642
?

TV is boring.

2008-07-21T11:56:00.001-05:00

Text message from 18173193839

2008-07-16T10:29:00.001-05:00

Help, someone lost a text message.

Received: 15:26:48 2008-07-16

Hey man i am about the take a practice MCAT so i will be unavailable until after 9. We are planning to play pong after 10. Let me know when you are free for the night and if you have other guys who want to come. We can pick you up at jester and drop you off

So, I have not idea who this came from or what they are talking about. But I love it when someone dials the wrong number. I used to get calls all the time for a different William, but at least that time it was from someone I knew and the other William was also a friend.

The reference to “jester” lets me know that the message is from someone local. Jester is the name of the biggest dormitory at the University of Texas. I was tempted to play along and send a message back that sounded vaguely like I knew what I was talking about, but I ultimately decided against it.