cozart.org

Finally I have found something to blog about. Not that my previous posts have had something to talk about, but my life hasn’t been as interesting of late I guess.

Chad and I were doing some channel surfing the other night and happened upon VH1 of all channels. There was a young lady performing an acoustic set by the name of Natasha Bedingfield for the Live at VH1 series. Now I’m not much of a fan of pop music, but it is amazing how good a song can be when performed only with a guitar and vocals. This entire week at work I have been checking out all of the artists that have performed, and I find myself listening to some that I would not ordinarily consider. Acoustic music definitely has a soft part in my heart and ears. If you have time, check it out. However, you will have to use windows, as I have yet to figure out how to get my mac or linux box to play the streams. If anyone has luck with this, definitely let me know.

Last weekend in Fort Worth was a blast! I got to see the lovely Lori and finally meet some of the geeks that she goes to school with! I also got to hang out with Michael and the rest of the guys, which hasn’t happened in quite some time. Please remember Michael in your pr-y-rs (thats for your censors Rachael) as he will be returning to Iraq on September 1. I’m already looking forward to next weekend when Lori, my family, and I will be leaving for another Ruidoso Trip. The cool weather will be a welcome relief from the latest heat wave.

For those of you that do not read the comments on my site, Rachael has made it to China safely. I don’t know what I can type without getting her in trouble, so for her sake, I will be more conscientious about the content of my posts. Rachael, let me know if there is anything I should refrain from saying, etc.

As long as I am talking about friends that have wandered, Quentin has left for Uvalde. Sovereign Grace will not be quite the same without him…

Joe, we have another convert to the enlightened side. Webb just bought himself a “new-to-him” powerbook. And I must say, its about time. Now if only we can get Caleb, David. and the rest of the pblug guys to switch, our job would be complete.

Although my weekend plans nowhere near rival the weekly getaways of Matt and Bree, it should be exciting none the less. First up is a date with the wonderful Lori (no link for her name…she doesn’t blog :’( ). Then on Saturday, its on to see the guys. Michael is back on a two week furlow from Iraq, so most of us are getting together in Fort Worth or Dallas. Sorry ladies, he is already engaged.

I was just reading a couple of random blogs that I had stumbled across (out of respect, I will not link to them), but it made me all the more thankful for wordpress‘ ability to filter out spam in the comments section. Its insane how many comments are posted with advertisment spam.

BTW, I just counted and this post has 11 links! Thats a record for me or something…

Ok, so maybe I acted a bit hastily when I shut off the comments section to unregistered users. That has been reverted back to letting anyone comment after speaking to Chad about it. Come to find out it was the feeble-minded roommate Adam that thought he would be funny. So Chad: Sorry to confuse you.

If you were wondering where the lack of updates were lately, I had the privilege of going to Ruidoso and Cloudcroft with my parents. It was nice to get away from work, and to catch up on some reading. Plus, the weather was in the fifties and sixties most of the time, which is a relief from the 100+ degree temperatures here in San Angelo.

Instead of reading some deep theological books like I probably should have, I decided to start the Harry Potter series by JK Rowling. There was some recent discussion about whether or not these books contained Christ-like images of Harry, or if it encouraged the practice of witchcraft and magic. At first I was hasty to conclude that I would not allow my future children to read these books, but after thinking about it for a while, I figured the best way to come up with an educated conclusion is to read the books.

Its amazing how easy to read these books are, but I guess that should be expected as they are targeted to a younger audience, not adults. That being said, they are also addictived. I read the first three books in three days. That has to be a record for me or something. Anyways, to make a long story short, I see these books as just pure fiction, with no deeper purpose other than entertainment. As far as letting my kids read them in the future, I will make sure that they understand that the books are purely fictional and that they should be read as such. It is nice to fantasize about flying around playing quidditch, but thats what it is, pure fantasy. I’m actually looking forward to reading the rest of the series.

I wish I had pictures to post of the weekend, but Lori still has my camera, so that was a lost cause. But I should recover that this weekend from her death-grip on it. It is still mine, and I don’t have to share it….yet.

Since I am out of town and on dialup, I will make this post quick:

Due to the rash of people leaving comments with dumb names, I have decided to require registration for the time being. This is not something that I like to do, but until Chad, and whoever else might be leaving simple-minded comments decides to fess up and use their real name, membership will be required.

Funny thing at work today: Bob just now noticed that my new cube neighbor has an LED clock in his cube. So Bob sees it and is blown away by the “laser technology” that is used in this clock and how it can display messages on seemingly nothing. Right after Bob gets done talking about these awesome lasers, I get an IM message about sharks with FRICKIN LASER BEAMS!!

You know, from Austin Powers…

Is this a dumb post? Perhaps. But you read it and it made me laugh, so thats all that really matters…

So BK and I were talking today about blogs in general, and he mentioned that he liked the more “intelligent” bloggers (I don’t think he classified me as one) as opposed to the way he writes. So tonight I was thinking about this, and came up with some general classifications for people that blog.

The Xanga - These bloggers are by far the easiest to spot. Their blogs can be found on one of two sites: xanga.com or myspace.com. While their efforts to join the internet culture can be lauded to an extent, your eyes will often hate you for the grotesqueness (Is that a word?) of their html. There are a few glimpses of hope among these bloggers, as a few migrate to better blogging tools, but overall, the armpit of the internet has found its new home.

The Overachievers - Remember having to write all those essays in your high school English classes where everything had to be perfect? You know, your sentences had to be like 20 words long, perfectly puncuated, and full of wonderful content? Well, some people forgot that Mrs. Busic doesn’t have any influence on how you write in your blog or how well it is done. These are the blogs that go into great detail about either their life, or a current happening. A dead giveaway is the use of “management” words to describe every apsect of the event. I am by no means putting these bloggers down. Often times their sites have been designed with painstaking care, and are easy on the eyes, and I must say, it is entertaining to read their content. It only makes me jealous that I don’t take more time to write my posts.

The Nerd - These are the people that have been blogging in some form or fashion since they were old enough to buy their own domains. Although those new to blogging may not realize it, people have been posting news to their sites for years. Only recently has it come into the mainstream. You can usually tell the nerds by their wordpress based sites, or sites that they created themselves. Another dead giveaway is their excessive use of lists in their posts, as well as an abundance of links. Many times the nerd will discuss work, computers, or their frustration with the Xangers.

The Mutts - The ultimate combination! Smart, funny, and a keen eye for efficient blogging is required for this group. Many of these have either had a friend introduce them to the finer art of blogging (ie. xanga converts), or were lucky enough to appreciate the beauty of open source or blogger. The Mutts are the bloggers that can post about their lives, while maintaining an intelligent dialogue. While mutts can often lean more towards one group or another, they are able to maintain an efficient balance. (Mutts and Xangers rarely play well together, but there are some out there…)

So anyways, that is Slade’s view on bloggers. I probably missed a group or two, but you know I love comments…

Caleb was kind enough to point me to a nice little website this weekend called gnomefiles.org. For anyone that uses the gnome desktop manager in Linux, it contains a decent sized repository of open source software that utilizes the gnome libraries and gtk engine. Now many of you may be confused as to what this means, but to those that do follow me, check it out.

I stumbled across a handy application that takes a book’s ISBN number, performs a search, and pulls down detailed information about the given book, including a thumbnail of the cover! Now I know that I don’t have an extensive library, but I like to keep it somewhat organized. What better way to do that than software that will store information about each book I own, AND track when I loan books out! Pretty nerdy, I know, but hey, I like it. For some reason the Alexandria project’s homepage is down, but you can use this link to get to the gnomefiles page.

Another application that I found is Blam!. For those of you that don’t know, most blog sites provide an RSS feed that users can subscribe to and pull updates when a new post is posted. What Blam! does is takes a number of RSS feed and aggregates them into a usable interface. So now, I don’t have to spend time typing in URL’s and refreshing to keep up to date; I can simply pull up Blam! and see who has been updating. (This is the age of instant gratification you know)

Congrats Rachael, your site made the screenie!