Christmas is now Underrated

Merry Christmas everyone!

And as my gift to myself, and you (if you appreciate it), is my first song in mp3! I don't think I will continue using this service, but I had to at least get ONE song online before the New Year. Can you imagine what people would say otherwise?

Enjoy. Let me know what you think about the song. I will try to do the next one multi-track so you can hear my voice better. (remember, this is just a one track demo... so don't expect too much!)

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Underrated

Sometimes I think that this life is overrated
cause everything's the same
today it's all been rearranged but the same at the core
nothing really changed

I need something new to breathe
I need something new to breathe

Well, if that's the way it's got to be
then maybe the change should be in me
if there's a way to break monotony
it's walking away from what I used to be
over and over again
over and over again

I see that look in their eyes but what can I do
I'm just a link in the chain
I know that I should really care, it should break my heart
but I can't feel past my pain

Sometimes I think that this life is overrated
but maybe it's just me

Bless the Lord and enjoy your families tomorrow :).

Yahoo! Answers - All Your Questions

I originally posted this on Tech-Bites.com, but if you don't follow that blog, I also wanted to post it here. Yahoo! Answers is fabulous and I encourage everyone to give it a go.

Yahoo! Answers is one of my favorite networks and a great place to find answers to questions that have been in the back of your mind for days! Learn the ropes in this new video! Click here to go to Yahoo! Answers.

God's breath must be powerful...

Funny, yet horrible :)

eBible - The Best Online Bible

To date, I have not found anything that can match the power of the Blue Letter Bible for research. Though it is ugly and not good for reading, it's probably the most useful tool for studying meanings and translation.

In fact, most online Bible's are not good for reading, which I think is sad. At least I was sad until this morning!

eBible.com

eBible does include good search, tagging, and commentary tools, but what I like most is the simple streaming interface it uses. In "study" mode (just click the magnifying glass to turn it on), it has pleasant, readable, text that is not cluttered with countless notes and numbers and scrolls forever. There is no scroll bar or bottom of the page and it even features a parralel mode if you'd like to compare two translations.

Although it won't be replacing the Blue Letter Bible for studying particular passages, I think it will become one of my favorite casual reading Bibles. Very nice!

Photo Courtesy of: Rachel Pennington

How to Buy a Computer in 2008 - Product Announcement

This is my personal blog, so I'm not trying to sell anyone here on my new product. But because this is my journal, I want to let everyone know what I've been so busily up to.

How to Buy a Computer in 2008 -

Click Here to Learn More

Learn how to buy the perfect computer for 2008 and avoid making critical buying mistakes that more than 50% of the consumer population will make on their purchase.

Attention Affiliate Marketers: To help get my message out and help the most people possible, I am offering a 75% Commission to anyone who helps me sell it! I’m making so little per sale it’s practically a charity, but there is plenty of profit in it for you, click here to learn more.

Drummer

Wish I knew this guy. Hard to find good people who are decent drummers (or vica-versa).

I think his name is Weston DuPree from the band, "Eisely". Already in a band :(. Oh well...

His brother plays bass... guess I would know him too!

What am I saying?! I wish I knew somebody who played something or at least could sing! Funny thing is, this DuPree family (brothers, sisters, and cousins) all play, sing, and compose marvelously. What a cool set up.

I'm blubbering about, so I guess I'll stop :). More on Eisley later, they seem like a neat bunch. They just finished a fall tour with Mute Math who is... a neat bunch too!

I created a new tag, just for this post... o.O

Image taken from http://www.eisley.com/tourpics/eisleymutemathPICS/Eisley-MuteMath-Tour.html

Dead Sea Scrolls... and stuff

First, the important news: my strings broke today while I practiced a new song I wrote down south. While the breaking part is a bummer, the fact that they have lasted as long as they did is a great thing!

To all guitar players suffering from breakage, buy D'addario XP. After this next set expires, I will be strapping on the Cleartones I have heard so much about.

In other news:

I'd be lying if I said I was actually interested to see these things. I'm afraid I've always had a general disinterest in things that are very old or very dead. It's not that I can't appreciate the value of ancient relics and such, it's just that... well... ok, maybe I don't know how to appreciate them! I'm sure they deserve the attention though.

Regardless of my undeserving eyes, the rest of my family was quite interested in going to see these dead scrolls before they are locked up in Israel (and various other places) for good, due to their fragile state. I decided it was best to apply myself then, if we must see these old bits of parchment, so as not to be ungrateful for the opportunity that I know many would have loved to take in my place. So here's what we found (most pictures taken with my phone, so sorry about the quality):

It's a fairly small museum, but it's a pleasant one.


Before heading in, we took notice of this marvelous "Fig" tree. Now THIS is interesting... and still living! It was a pretty massive specimen.

After spending some time admiring this big tree, we made our way inside the museum to find us some scrolls. The security guards were kind enough to inform us that no electronic devices were permitted to be on and that our cell networks need to be turned off as well. There were no pictures allowed either. I tried to sneak a picture at one point and a lady walked up to me and told me to shut off my phone or she'd pluck my eyes out and confiscate my phone! (Ok... that didn't really happen)

This was the first entrance to the top level of the exhibit. You spend your time, roughly thirty minutes, looking a pictures of Israel and reading explanations of where the scrolls came from (the Dead Sea!) and their significance. They also spend a good deal of your time attempting to convince you that it took millions of years to form the Dead Sea's unique sea bed and that San Diego is remarkably similar to Israel. This felt like the longest part of the exhibit.

And then we came upon it!



This is where they keep the scrolls. No camera's allowed inside :(. I wanted to sneak some shots but security cameras are bred in hordes in this museum!

They gave us these phone-like, wireless, listening units that had number pads on them. If you punched in the corresponding number of the particular item being exhibited inside the... cave... a message would play with the details concerning the display. This seemed to work well, except when you get fast at it... suddenly everything is in Spanish. Push the numbers sllloooowwwwlllyyy.

We made our way around inside and learned some interesting things. I did listen to every exhibit display message so as not to be left wondering if I had skipped the one that contained something important.

The Dead Sea scrolls do contain some Biblical writings, most notably Isaiah, but contain many more documents that carry other significance, such as Biblical commentaries, cultural reports, songs, and legal papers. Obviously, unless you have interest in these sorts of documents, learning about them can try your patience a bit.

There was also a lot of information, relics, and papers regarding Qumran, the "settlement" that was just above where the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered.

Qumran was destroyed by Roman invasion but there are still remains there that archaeologists find most interesting. Pots, inkwells, furniture, and a fortune's worth of coin! Based on the research done on Qumran, many scholars believe that there were scribes at Qumran that were directly responsible for the Dead Sea Scrolls. They hid the scrolls, among other things, in the caves below Qumran when they feared an attack from the Romans.

Of the scrolls, the most interesting were Isaiah and Enoch.

The Isaiah text is almost entirely complete and predates any known written copy of the book. And since it has been available to scholars since the 50's, it is odd that it has not been utilized in modern translations of the Bible as it is long been considered to be more accurate than the Masoretic version which it predates by over 1,000 years.

Interestingly though, this turns out to be of little importance because scholars found that, after careful comparison, the two texts are nearly identical with no substantial differences at all! This stands as a very useful fact to argue against the common accusation that the Bible has been corrupted or poorly interpreted throughout the ages (often an argument made by Mormons and other offshoot Christian or Jewish sects). Scholars also find this interesting because it makes Isaiah one of the most well preserved texts in the history of known literature.

Gleason Archer, a respected Scholar, wrote,

"Even though the two copies of Isaiah discovered in Qumran Cave 1 near the Dead Sea in 1947 were a thousand years earlier than the oldest dated manuscript previously known (A.D. 980), they proved to be word for word identical with our standard Hebrew Bible in more than 95 percent of the text. The five percent of variation consisted chiefly of obvious slips of the pen and variations in spelling."

Enoch is also quite an interesting find. Though it is just a fragment, it is interesting that it was found amongst so many pieces of what we would call "canon". Many scholars also claim that Jude quotes from this very book in Jude 14 and 15. Though the book of Enoch is rejected as part of our scriptures, I found it very interesting. The fragment that was discovered reads as follows (thanks ibiblio!):

"12. ...But you have changed your works, 13. [and have not done according to his command, and tran]sgressed against him; (and have spoken) haughty and harsh words, with your impure mouths, 14. [against his majesty, for your heart is hard]. You will have no peace. Ena I iii 13. [They (the leaders) and all ... of them took for themselves] 14. wives from all that they chose and [they began to cohabit with them and to defile themselves with them]; 15. and to teach them sorcery and [spells and the cutting of roots; and to acquaint them with herbs.] 16. And they become pregnant by them and bo[re (great) giants three thousand cubits high ...]"

This strange bit of text is very familiar if you've done your homework on Nephilim in the Bible. Otherwise, it's just a bunch of nonsense. But the startling number of 3,000 cubits is quite intriguing... maybe the Israelites weren't lying when they said they'd found "giants" in the land.

Speaking of giants....

They claim that Goliath is on record in the scrolls as being only about 6'7", contrary to what our Bible claims his height was. They say that it was due to an inaccuracy in later texts that people thought Goliath was a giant. It seems unlikely to me, however, that the Israelite army was scared stiff of a 7' giant :).

Another thing that was somewhat humorous was that everything in the exhibit was dated with the acronyms "BCE" and "CE" (rather than "BC" and "AD"). And under most of the exhibit items were little labels saying that this was the new "official" dating system.

Finally, about half-way through, I saw a note saying "... to learn more about the new dating system, press 42...". So I did:

"Due to the overtly Christian nature of the previous dating system, BC, meaning "Before Christ" and, AD, translated from latin as "the day of our Lord", scholars have adopted a neutral dating system that peoples of all religions and races can use. BCE stands for "Before Common Era" and CE for "Common Era". Other than the acronym, both dating systems are identical." (not their precise wording)

No matter how you slice it though, our whole dating system centers around the birth of Christ. But, I suppose you can use whatever acronyms you want if it makes you feel better ;).


So that's the Dead Sea Scrolls as best as I remember them. Afterwards, we walked around the museum a bit before eventually departing for Cabrillo "National Monument" (it's just a lighthouse on a hill). Here's some pics.

(yeah right)












(behind the scenes)




















(me and my sister)


And like all good days, this one ended with Ice-Cream:



Stay tuned at the family blog for a more complete report!

Worst Hunter vs. Dumbest Deer

Somebody send this to our good hunter friend... :)

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Earthships

I'm not an environmentalist (I've been caught declaring that Yosemite should be entirely paved over) but I think these "Earthships" are pretty sweet. They are far from low-tech, have no service costs (power, water, etc), and look really wild. A cross between Hobbit homes and moisturizer vaporator farms on Tatooine are the best way to describe the way these homes look.

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Earthship Biotecture creates buildings that...

• Heat and cool themselves naturally via solar/thermal dynamics
• Collect their own power from the sun and wind
• Harvest their own water from rain and snow melt
• Sewage containment and treatment on site
• Produce food in significant quantities
• Utilize materials that are byproducts of modern society like cans, bottles and tires

Anyways... cool stuff, if you can get past the nature oneness and global warming emphasis that is so prevalent.

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Down below

It's about time for me to get some sleep. But before I went, I wanted to record a small report to blog.

In part, because my laptop has never been able to use my little USB directional mic properly... usually corrupting the sound. So before I left, I tried it, seeing as I recently switched the entire system from Windows to Linux.

And it worked great!

I was quite proud of my good judgment in ridding Windows from my machine. Maybe God sensed that, or something, because now it doesn't work.

---->

Anywho, I've eaten plenty of turkey, ice-cream, eggnog, ham, potatoes, and home-baked cookies. And now I feel terrible. I think I'll eat salad and fish for a week when I get home... :)

Speaking of fish, my Mother and sister discovered some Sushi rolling sheets at a garage sale. I'm not really experienced eating Sushi, let alone making it, but I'll give it a go when I have some time. Seems pretty fun. Now that I can make hamburgers that I am happy with, it's time to move forward!

I better get to sleep though... sorry you could not hear my raspy, over-tired, voice!

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Proof that I sleep on both sides

I'm an ambidextrous sleeper :)

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Ghost Posts and Flock Rocks

Ghost Posts: My humblest apologies. Might as well call this the "Promise Blog" because I've been trying to get my music and new designs out forever! I really wanted to do it this week... believe me. But my schedule wouldn't allow it!

True love waits, right?

Flock Rocks: I've posted about Flock in the past, so I'm not going to go on about it today. But right now they are on "1.0" which means the browser is basically ready for prime time.

Flock fills a unique but needed role for me, because my Firefox is waaaaay tricked out with plugins and functions related to the web work that I do. It's also been pretty sluggish these days. But now, thanks to Fock, I can manage all my communication, for-fun browsing, and blogging a nicer environment while Firefox remains my primary work horse.

The main benefit of Flock is that it IS basically a tricked out Firefox, but without the add-on overhead. It's nice and fast. The notable things it supports out-of-the-box are:

• Blogging - pretty much every blog service (blogger included, obviously). Much faster than logging into the control center... though video uploading has not been added to the tool yet :(.
• Flickr & Photobucket - Managing photos and using them on the web (blogs, forums, emails, etc) is almost TOO easy in Flock. It's all drag n' drop.
• Facebook - This was a pleasant surprise. I don't have to log into Facebook anymore to know what's going on. I can see friend updates, pokes, messages, and more right from Flock.
  
• Twitter - If you're a big Twitterer like me, this is really nice. Alerts you too direct messages too.
  
• de.licio.us - always nice to have your bookmarks.
• Firefox add-on support - IF you really miss a Firefox add-on, you can just go grab it at mozilla.com like usual. Right now I'm happily using Flock with no extras... but I may need my trusty Greasmonkey before long.
  

I realize that many people aren't well acquainted with Twitter or Facebook yet, I'll blog about them next. Their significance is... well, SIGNIFICANT! But it can be hard to see the point initially when you first sign up for either service. Both services sub-consciously became a permanent part of my daily activities. Kinda like getting a cell phone... you can do without one until you have one :).

Anywho, we're headin' out on vacation starting Wednesday and won't be back until the 3rd. So, guess the music will just have to wait :'(.

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Falling in Love with Sandy

Oh Sandy, mother warned me never to take on a girl as my secretary, but now it's too late!

*ahem!

Sandy is a "personal assistant" that functions via email. You just send her an email with something you want to be reminded about, and when (if you want), and she'll shoot you an email at the appropriate time, fifteen minutes early.

It may sound simple, but it seems incredibly useful to me. Not only will she remind you, but if you CC a friend in the email, she'll introduce herself to them and send the reminder to them as well, so it also makes for a killer collaboration tool.

She can actually do a LOT more than reminders, but I'm still getting used to having a girl around my inbox, so I'll report back on the other functions another time. This makes for an extremely simple planning system that I am quite excited about, because anything bigger just starts to feel clumsy.

Oh, and I also set her up for Twitter and I can access her from my phone. Very nice!

Where have you been all my life, Sandy?!

www.iwantsandy.com

Marketing Monday

Looks like a really busy week. I've got a truck-load of updates for this blog that I can't wait to unload, but I don't know when I can get to it!

Especially for Monday and Tuesday, my mentor assures me that we're about to get into the best thing since Italian bread sticks for Internet Marketing. I'd tell you what it's about, but they'd probably kill me and, worse, steal my computer!

On top of that, I have another special project I've been working on for over a week now that should be seeing a release at some point this week or early next week. I'll definitely be blogging that once it's available. It will be my first public product.

On another note, my strings have been holding up pretty good! I do have a back up set, just in case, but these d'Addario XPs are lasting a long time. My Mom and Sister are going to be away, for the most part this week, so hopefully I'll be able to carve out a little time to start rolling out all the blog updates.

In the mean time, here's an odd picture of me you may enjoy from our recent goodbye BBQ for the Kennedy's.

gOS: Is the 'new' OS sneaking up on us?

gOS would like to convince you that Google is already your Operating System, most people just don't know it yet.

While all the geeks in the world are preaching Ubuntu (and Dell has listened), which is the OS I'm writing this post from, Walmart (!) seems to have pulled the carpet from beneath our feet, choosing the small gOS in their new $200 computer instead. A new linux OS from LA that hasn't even gotten an ounce of attention from the linux community... until now.

gOS looks to be the OS that I, as my friends can attest, was wanting to create myself for a while now. And seeing as it's still in its "Alpha" state right now, I forecast only great things for the OS that managed to get the attention of WalMart.

Here's part of their "about" page:

Out of the box, just works!

We're creating an OS ecosystem that is complete. We come with all the software you need to browse the web, email, instant message... play movies, music, and connect to iPods... create and edit documents, spreadsheets, presentations, databases, images... out of the box. Plug and play!

Bring on Google and other wonderful applications

We recommend Google for just about everything... Gmail, Gtalk, Calendar, Maps, Docs and Spreadsheets, and more. Out of the box, just works!

Open source and other values

We thank the Ubuntu 7.10 community and Enlightenment community for their contribution to gOS and the world. Our dedicated team and passionate community of volunteers are committed to bringing our alternative OS to the masses... so people everywhere can enjoy a third, more affordable and attractive choice when shopping for a computer. To get ahead of ourselves, we're saying goodbye to closed software and the digital divide.

Another interesting thing about this OS is that it uses the beautiful, but small, Enlightenment Desktop Environment, which could see a MAJOR upgrade later this year. Besides being beautiful though, it is also one of the fastest DEs in the world, so you can safely expect to blow Windows Vista, Mac OS X, and Ubuntu (defacto) out of the water when it comes to speed with this OS.

Suffice to say that this little OS has my attention right now.

Proof that Halloween is Evil

We don't think people who "Trick or Treat" are bad, or that it's a sin to participate in Halloween in any way. We just choose not to be involved because it doesn't sit quite right with our beliefs and feelings about the "holiday" (holy-day?).

But strange things can happen on Halloween and last night was confirmation in my mind that Halloween is, indeed, EVIL.

So, what happened?

Well, for a few years now, we've made a small family tradition out of watching a long movie (usually Pride & Prejudice), eating our favorite sweets, and shutting all the blinds and turning off all the lights around the house to avoid being "trick or treated".

This year though, we did things a little deffrinit.

We went out to dinner at Pete's Place around 4pm to fill up for the rest of the evening. Most of their food is tasty, a good value, and extremely greasy. Both satisfied and bloated, we went back home to get ready for the night.

The next variable was that we were to break our yearly P&P tradition by watching a different movie called North & South, recommended by some friends of ours. Although we were certain that no long, drawn-out, BBC romance/drama production could ever dethrone P&P, we tried to clear our minds to give the new kid a chance.

That guy is perfect for Halloween... And she is Clueless

Not only that, but instead of candy this year, we each got our very own container of Ben n' Jerry's Ice Cream! Yum! (Ok, there was little candy going around too)


So we settled in and popped the first disc into our DVD player. It was a two-disc movie.

It was horrible! A terrible movie. Within the first hour, at least six characters had died (of which we felt no emotion for because we didn't know who they were! We had a body count of 8, by the end), the two main characters hated each other for some unknown reason, and everything was gloomy and despairing. It made no sense whatsoever! Such a far departure from our beloved P&P!

By the end of the first disc the two main characters met in a seemingly unrealistic and unimportant way. They both got off trains headed separate directions at the same exact time. The guy pulls out a flower from her old home in the South (of somewhere, we think they were near London) and after briefly discussing a business matter they started kissing! And the disc ended!

What is up with this movie!? So we furiously popped in the "2nd" disc, unsure of where the movie could possibly go now that the lead characters were already in love (suddenly). And the first thing we see is her, alone, in the same train they were in at the end of the last disc holding that silly flower, followed by a caption: "Two Months Earlier".

What?! Now we have to go back in time? They're going to explain everything AFTER we've seen the climax? How lame is that?

Anyone who has seen this movie before knows what happened :).

We watched the second disc first.

My Dad was the first to figure it out, after which point we burst into hysterics for about 15 minutes, marveling at our own stupidity. My Mom was actually slapping her thigh... I didn't even know people really did that (it seems like a compulsory reflex when you are unable to breathe). Of course, with a 4+ hour movie, it's not likely we'll try it again soon... it was the worst movie experience and best family experience we'd had in years ;).

Confused, tired, and with sore tummies (from laughter and ice-cream) we sought relief in our beds. Then I realized my next mistake:

Pete's Place, Dark Chocolate, and Ben n' Jerry's are not compatible substances.

After a restful slumber of about 30 minutes, I was up the rest of the night belching, pacing, and with a fast heartbeat.
So I listened to a 3 hour marketing conference, prayed, and made mind maps in an attempt to figure out my crazy life before finally going to sleep at 5:30am. Then I woke up at 8am because we needed to do a window job.

I persuaded my benevolent father to leave me alone for a while so he rescheduled the job for 11am.

A good father he is.

About 20 minutes later, I realized I can't sleep at 8:30 in the morning.

I hate Halloween.

Note to Parishes: Thanks for putting the discs in backwards.

If you'd like to read about our Halloween night from a slightly saner person, check out my sister's version at the family blog.

Blue Screen of Death Strikes... Apple?

Windows fans circle today on your calendar, today Apple's OS X (10.5) succumbs to the infamous "blue screen of death" (BSOD) on many Macs who still had older versions of the OS installed (10.2, 10.3). It won't likely last long, however, so enjoy it while it lasts :).

OS X Leopard is Out

Everybody scream :)

Still working

Well, it looks like I managed to confuse a lot of people with my recent blog address change. Even though my old blog address (justaleaf.blogspot.com) does redirect to this page, my domain did not (justaleaf.com).

From now on, if you are just now rejoining me here, I will be blogging at http://blog.justaleaf.com. This decision was made because I am expanding justaleaf.com to include Music Archives and possibly more on the main site (which is still not ready).

The good news is, though, that I have 2 songs ready to go to (dis)grace your ears as soon as I can get the site up! So, by public demand, my voice is about to get a lot louder :).

Thanks for hangin' in there through all the blog craziness!

Oy Vay - Breakage

First reader to get me unbreakable strings that sound good gets a million bucks (when and if I ever get that).

I worked all week and was looking forward to recording my first couple archive music entries. I got my blog self-hosted and rigged up. Aaron let me borrow his condenser mic, which works with my TC Helicon voice thingy, and I went to Radioshack and bought a converter to get the audio to my PC.

Everything was set.

And my strings break. And I have no backups.

No backups!? I hear you exclaim... well I didn't think would need any for at least a few weeks. I just bought long-life Elixir strings that are supposed to have the life of 3 strings! 4 days later though.... TWOOOIIIINNNGGGGGG!!!!! And I didn't even play every day this week!

*sigh*

There's no where, to my knowledge, to buy strings here in Oakhurst, so I guess the music project is on hold for now :(. This is the third time this has happened with Elixir's, I just need to stop trying. D'addario is the only brand that lives more than two weeks on my guitar (I guess I play kind of hard, for at least 30-60 minutes a day, on average).

Drum roll please...

The People Have Spoken!
(all 8 of them)

The music is on it's way, I'm going for full public embarrassment! And now the site is OFFICIALLY, blog.justaleaf.com. This is now a non-free blog :). So update your bookmarks. Hopefully the feed is ok.

Stay tuned for music at www.justaleaf.com. Coming soon to your computer! By public demand even.

This could take a bit...

This should get to the RSS readers no problem, but I just wanted to send out this message letting everyone know that Just a Leaf blog is going through some changes, so please have patience with the poor thing :).

I will explain what is going on as soon as things are up and running again!

*Cough* - *Hack*

From whence it came, I know not, but alas the truth is not easily denied. Mine throat, ears, and nose are all stuffethed up... I think I have a cold **sniff** :'(

Unfortunately, this may mean that I miss my chance to go visit our Orange Cove friends (double **sniff**!) tomorrow. But I'm not going down without a fight.

• Lemon-water, all day
• Vitamin C, 2 doses
• Garlic 400mg
• Chicken broth (home made and organic!)
• Rasberries, high in anti-oxidants
• Get to sleep early
• NO SUGAR

It may be better if I don't make it on Sunday though... I'm sure the Church would appreciate a quiet day of worship for a change :).

Inspirational Skit - MUST Watch

A family we know sent us this video, a skit from a Church in Tennessee, I think.



Yeah, we cried too.

2 days left to vote!

My fancy-pants poll will close in 2 days! If you haven't voted already, make sure you do! It makes me happy ;)

I need these shirts...

And the best for last...