Big storm

We had an interesting storm a couple of nights ago. We are currently in rainy season, which is the same as hurricane season. Hmm, interesting how that works.

Normally we only get rain in the afternoon between 3:00 and 6:00. But with this strange storm we had come through, it broke loose at 2:00 in the morning. That meant that in our sleep deprived stupor, we were running around trying to get things shut down and unplugged.

Since there is only one outlet in my office, it is pretty easy to unplug the 16 items plugged into the 4 daisy chained power strips. Fortunately we never lost power in all of this. Quite surprising too since the lightning bolt that woke us up felt like it was right out our window. We bounced out of the hammocks and clung to the ceiling before the light and noise left the room. Then we bumped into each other trying to figure out what needed to be unplugged.

When it was all over we laid back down and I thought about needing to unplug one more item–the telephone line to the DSL modem. I did not do it though. The lightning was essentially gone by then. I don’t know if that was the culprit, but the next day our modem would connect to the Internet just fine, but would not connect to the internal network. My computer’s network card is dead as well as my PCI bus.

Our son’s computer is just flaky. In Windows no USB device will work, and the only PCI device that works is the video card. Also the keyboard is dead. In Linux the keyboard works, but PCI devices (except the video card) are all dead along with the USB devices.

We were without an Internet connection most of yesterday. I was finally able to get a new modem at the ISP’s office in the late afternoon. They replaced the modem with no charge. That was a surprise to me since I don’t have a contract with them and I bought my modem outright instead of renting from them monthly.

Still trying to figure out what to do with these two crippled machines. One is my main box, but I am able to work with my notebook on the Internet and transfer files through a USB flash drive from the big box.

This means my website updates that I was hoping to finish on Thursday have been seriously delayed. Maybe by Saturday night I will have them up and running.

Websites update

I am heavily working on 2 sites right now. On this one, My Thought Spot, I am mostly just tweaking a few things here and there as they show up. I did not do any serious testing of the theme before I put it live. I also have some features with the old theme that I have not moved over here yet.

The bulk of my site building time has been spent working on my main ministry site www.dpeach.com. I have the new site at www.dpeach.com/new which is mostly ready to roll out. Currently I don’t like the header border. I have not figured out how to change that white section to another color and still keep the nicely rounded corners.

I also am working on getting phpList integrated with my theme so that I can still have people sign up to get our prayer letter. My old CMS software that I was using at dpeach.com has a mailing list program built in. With the move away from phpWebSite, I need to find different mailing list software.

The one thing that is keeping me from putting this all together is that I don’t like the “plain text” mail that phpList is sending out. My preference is always plain text mail as opposed to HTML mail. But somehow the text coming out of phpList is different than the plain text I get from any other source. I am subscribed to a couple of mailing lists which use phpList and they all have the same font problem. The font is too small. I thought “plain text” meant a certain standard? Until I can figure out how to get the fonts working right I am hesitant to commit to phpList and therefore the roll out of the new site will be delayed.

What is your project about?

I read a blog posting that said XBMC is a great project. Then there were comments to the posting that said how much they loved XBMC. Finally someone else posted that XBMC has been forked and now there is the OSXBMC.

Wonderful. What is XBMC?

I checked out the link to the supposedly improved forked OSXBMC. Nothing obvious on the main page as to what the project is. They only say what has been changed in the most recent version.

I hate that. No clear information as to what the project is about when you visit the main page.

Oh, great, there is an About link at the top of the page. Though it requires that I go somewhere else to find just basic information, at least it will be right there. Uh, no. It just says they are a group porting XBMC to OSX. There is at least a link to the official XBMC site in the side bar.

Too much work.

I am picking on this site/project because it happens to be the most recent one I have run into, but it happens often, and mostly in the open source community. There has always been a disconnect between developers and users. The developers give the users what the developers think the users want. Then the users have to think like a developer to figure out how to do it. Often the interface suffers in open source software.

The lack of information at a website is another example of this disconnect. The developers know everything about the project, therefore they don’t understand the need to explain it to the users. They expect the users to understand the project as much as the developers do.

And, no, I am not going to tell you what the project is about. It is not my job to be their evangelist. They need to handle that on their own and win me over as a user. Then maybe I will take up the cause.

Trains of Mexico

Today when I was in the post office (in Mexico) I saw a sheet of stamps that had pictures of trains. I am not a big train buff, but I do love clever pictures. Especially stamps. As you can see from the photo, some of the trains span several stamps.

The stamps are only valued at 50 Mexican centavos each. Which equals out to 25 pesos. Currently that is about $2.45 US. I only bought one sheet. The sheet is numbered on the back like it is a limited edition.

Click on the image below to get a larger version of the picture. You can also download a high resolution scan, 16.5 MB.

Medium size image of trains

I’ve been hit!

Ok, so it was just a tag, not a full on hit.

Jen from Toughnoodles/On the Way tagged me to find out a little more about my running. There are 5 questions that I need to answer, and then tag 5 more people.

How would you describe your running 10 years ago?
Non-existent. 10 years ago I weighed 235 lbs. Then I went up to 275. About 4 years ago when I was back down to 264 I decided it was time to do something about my weight. I began exercising. Started with walking. Then I progressed to a calisthenic type work out. I used a jump-rope as my main aerobic exercise. Within 6 months (and 45 lbs lighter) I was going to a Tae-Bo class.

Fast forward to a little over a year after I started and I was down 60 lbs or so. Hovering right around 200. My brother mentioned that he was training for a half marathon. I had done a couple of running sessions and found that running wasn’t so bad. I decided to train for a half marathon too. I got my brother’s training schedule and started focusing on that.

I have been running for about 2.5 years and am holding steady at 190 lbs.

What is your best and worst run/race experience?
Best: Without doubt my best running experience was a run I did about this time last year when I was in Long Beach, California. I just went out for a casual run just to see what I could see. No agenda and 3.5 hours before I had to be anywhere. I ran along the beach with a few different training groups as well as through town.

Worst: I don’t know. I have had a few bad experiences, but I can’t think of any one run that sticks out. The thing that frustrates me most is cars that get too close to me. If they are close enough for me to extend my arms and touch them, they are too close. I give them a good whack, but I try to be courteous about it.

Why do you run?
For me it is not so much the running as it is the exercise. I have found that I am addicted to the stuff. Running is something that I have found that I can really do for many years to come. It is also very portable.

My only regret is that I did not learn I was an athlete until I was 36 years old.

I do use running sometimes to clear my head. Especially on Sunday mornings if I don’t feel totally ready for the day, I go over my notes and then head out for a run. I don’t always think about my sermon directly, but somehow things come together during the run. Oh, who am I kidding? You know I am an ADD procrastinator. Most of my Sunday morning sermons are born out of that morning’s run.

What is the best or worst piece of advice you’ve been given about running?
Best: That it is OK to slow down.

Worst: Just mostly the stupid stuff people say about running, i.e., that it is bad for you, etc. I have been one of those people in the past too.

Tell us something surprising about yourself that not many people would know.
I usually am the last person in the house to go to bed and try to be the first person up. I have always done this (at least the first person up thing). Even when I am at someone’s house as a guest or there are guests at my house. I don’t want to miss any action.

Bonus surprise: This was actually a surprise for me. I was a bit of a loon in school. Always the class clown, loved by everyone, hated by only the best. I tried so hard to be “normal” in college. I even thought I pulled it off pretty well. The last few weeks through Facebook I have connected with quite a number of college friends and fringe acquaintances. I have had a few that look at my pictures and my writings and say that I am still just as crazy as I was in college. Apparently I did not hide it too well.

Rules of the game: I am now supposed to tag 5 more people and get them to answer the questions. I will pick on T3rry first and add to the list as I think of 4 more running blogging friends.

If you have been tagged, you will find your name at the end of this post. You should then, copy the rules (or your version of them), and the set of questions onto your blog post, provide your own answers, and then tag 5 new people.

Just to be sure that everyone tagged knows they have been invited to play, go to their blogs and leave them a special comment letting them know, and refer them to your blog for details. One more thing, once they’ve answered the questions on their own blog, they should come back to yours to tell you.

List of victims: T3rry,