Josh's blog: September 2005

Friday, September 30, 2005

Twenty Eight: A celebratory post.

Its my birfday and while I might not be "in da club" we're still gonna party like it's my birfday. So for today I proudly present: Twenty-Eight things on my Twenty-Eighth Birthday

A new look - yeah. Been working on this one on and off again for a while. I really wanted to use Gitgan Green on my blog - I think the pink is a nice compliment to it. I'm 28 now, married, quite secure in my masculinity and let's face it Pink is the new Black. This new template is my birthday present to me.
Kirsten - With a post to rival some of my longest ramblings - my beautiful wife Kirsten has updated her blog. She wrote out her version of our story over the last two years dealing with infertility, God and the journey that we're on with adoption. A fine piece of writing with hyperlinks and everything. She's much more eloquent than I and fills in some of the gaps that I left in my post on the subject. If you read it, comment on it - I know she'd appreciate it. Grab a box of Kleenex and settle in. When I read it - it made water come out of my eyes.
Eric Robertson - I know I'm probably the only person that triple-clicks that paw print over on the right hand column but, if you do you'll probably see quite a few referrals from www.robertson-family.org/wordpress Why all of the sudden so many hits from that end of the internet? Well - Dude ripped off my post about the Ostovics moving to Troy, MI. If plagiarism is the highest form of flattery, then plagiarism + sending hits to my site = One flattered Josh. Thanks again!
Jeremy Bear - I was talking with Rockwood a couple weeks ago about this and we recalled Mr. Bear's vow to become the #1 Jeremy Bear on the internet. Well, after a bit of hate mail and a few years - He's done it. Check out the Google search for Jeremy Bear. On a different, but related note - it's been said that history repeats, but does it delete too?
Apple - as time passes and I use my Powerbook more and more I am only becoming more convinced that the Mac platform is the premier operating system. Not just because of the fun stuff in OS X 10.4 but because of the stability and total ease of use. I used Automator the other week for the first time. Never really played with it before and in 2 minutes I had automated a quite repetitive task and in the process, saved myself at least 45 minutes. And the coolest thing about this is that most Apple software is that easy to use. First time out of the gate and you're off.
Hands - At work we have this award that is given 4 times a year to an employee, nominated by their co-workers for some outstanding characteristic. It's the "Gotta Hand It to Ya" award and this time around I got it. Pretty cool too - well the award itself isn't. They took a rubber kitchen glove and filled it with plaster, let it dry, removed the glove and gold spray-painted the resulting hand and arm. Then mounted it to a small wooden pedestal. It looks a little creepy, but it's still really cool to be recognized by your peers. I thought the hand could use a little something - so I went to KB Toy Store and got some new hands - Hulk hands. So we had cake and celebrated it was very nice. Oh and I also got a Visa gift card - sweet!
Sneak Peek - one person from a state on the west coast got a sneak peek on the new look of my blog and even commented on a test post I put out there. More proof that if you write more often, people will visit more often.
Welcome - There's a new voice on the web, another screamer in - to borrow the term - "The Hive". Welcome Jenn & Nelson (but from what I understand - mostly Jenn) Lewis to the world of blogging. Her reason - she's gonna be a mommy! Congrats guys!
They won, and I helped! - My buddy Donny works for Evergreen Homes, they build homes in areas of Akron, Cleveland and Canton (I think) where the neighborhoods are in need of some sprucing up. They do an awesome job. A couple of weeks ago Kir & I went to the Cleveland CitiRama where Donny's company had built a home. It was easily the nicest one there and it won! I didn't stuff the ballot box but my vote counted. Don't you love living in a democracy? Congratulations Donny!
T-Shirts - The t-shirts for the upcoming contest are in. Watch for details in an upcoming post. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, read this.
Three Days - See, the rule is when you have your birthday on a Friday, you get to celebrate it all weekend. Yes, three days of wild partying. As long as you define wild partying as a low-key Friday night, a baseball game on Saturday morning, hanging out with the in-laws in the evening and then an afternoon lunch with the fam. Yes, I know, not exactly wild but a lot of fun nonetheless.
Three words - nonetheless it's three words rolled into one. Who decides that is okay? Can you just randomly decide words should be stuck together? Ifthatsthecase then I think we'd all doitmoreoften.
Three more words: Mother-In-Law - all right, so this might be the part of the post that all of you find the funniest. That is until you stop and think about it being your mother-in-law. Let me 'splain it... So Friday is my birthday and it was moving along just swimmingly - at 3:00 pm I was to receive the Hand award at work other than that it was going to be a quite uneventful day. I ran out around a quarter till 2 to get the Hulk hands and I got back to the office around a quarter after. As I'm walking in I notice a red VW Jetta, that normally isn't in the parking lot, but didn't think too much of it. I go into the office, head to my cubicle and start to write some stuff down for the hand ceremony presentation. Just seconds after I start to write our receptionist walks over and asks me if I could help her in the kitchen with something - I say sure, but ask if it's going to take long because I wanted to prepare. She said no and I lead our way back to the kitchen. As soon as I get around the corner I see a face that isn't supposed to be in this realm of my life; it was the face of my mother-in-law(MIL), Maureen. But it wasn't just the face that surprised me, it was the singing. Maureen had either found or written a birthday song to the tune of Stars and Stripes Forever and was singing it to me, with a few of my co-workers looking on. Now it was embarrassing enough for me that my MIL was at my place of employment, but a singing MIL pushes you to a level of humiliation that is hard to surpass. Just when she gets to a part that I feel would be a logical place for the song to stop (or God to show me mercy via lightning bolt), The MIL launches into the instrumental section then the last verse. The whole time she's singing, the receptionist is taking pictures and people are sticking their heads into the kitchen to see what's going on. The whole thing was just surreal. I'm standing there, my MIL is not just singing to me, but staring straight at me while photographic evidence is being procured. The receptionist keeps telling me to stand closer to her so she can get us both in the picture. The whole song took around 2 minutes, I gotta tell you it felt much longer to me. I started feeling this uncomfortable queasiness in my stomach, a feeling that only shows up in situations like this or when someone uses the words "interpretive dance." Strangest thing about this was that it was entirely out of character for Maureen. I guess she's getting a little more free-spirited as she gets older. She said I deserved it, and while I'm not sure I'd wish that on anyone it does make for a good story and a memorable birthday. So, thanks Maureen, but really - you don't need to ever do that again. Really.
This post - while my birthday celebration stretched over three days, writing this post has taken much longer. And sadly I'm only halfway through. We must forge ahead though - because we don't do that "there is no Number 14" thing like some people I know.
Tennis anyone? - One of my birthday presents from Kirsten was a tennis racket. I haven't played tennis in a long time but I had fun when I did. She got herself a racket as well so we could "be active" together. We actually went out on Monday night and played at Keyser Park. We were going to just go to Valley Vista Park since it's closer to our house but when we drove past there were other people on the tennis courts and we didn't want to risk interfering with their game. It turned out to be a good thing that we drove a few minutes further north. We really were all over the courts, but hey - we had a good time and were "active." Speaking of active...
This year - in my 28th year of life I really do want to get into better shape. Not just because I need to lose a few pounds but because I want to be able to run around with our kids when we have them. So we'll be joining the Cuyahoga Falls Natatorium once again. Hopefully this time I'll be a bit more successful at getting up and going in the morning.
So I got my hair cut - Last Thursday night I decided that before the golden hand was presented to me I should get my hair cut. I go to Best Cuts, yep - I trust my hair to only the best. I always have my hair cut short in the back with just enough in the front to stand up. Lately I've been pushing the sides in towards the middle - I think it looks kind of tough. If it were a little longer I might be able to call it a fauxhawk. Well, today I realized something. This is what my hair looks like now. My shadow looks like this: Which reminded me of this.. Which is this: Not so tough huh?
Good Goodbyes - As I mentioned before, Friday was pretty low key. We went over to the Tinkham's house for a Goodbye Open House for Derrak & Melanie Ostovic. It was really nice, we sat around the fire, told stories, laughed and listened to people remembering when. (Sounds like a song lyric, hmmm?) Derrak & Melanie - we only wish we could have gotten to know you sooner. Yes it was low key but, I couldn't have spent my birthday in a better way. Bonus: Got to hang out with everybody's favorite Chapman - Steve!
Speaking of Song Lyrics - I can't believe I'm posting this before my wife but, Sara Groves has a new album coming out this week. I'm really excited, I do like her music - but mostly I'm excited for Kirsten. This means she'll get to learn the entire song, instead of singing along to the 30 second snippets from her website, over and over and over again.
Oatmeal - Friday morning I had oatmeal for breakfast. I don't know why, but after 28 years it tasted good for the first time. Weird. Maybe 29 is the year of the asparagus.
Doh! - I got Season Six of the Simpsons from my younger brothers. Season six for of you that missed out because your parents took Dr. Dobson's words as gospel - was the season that concluded with the episode that asks: Who Shot Mr. Burns?
My bookmarks - I'm not sure why, but if you want to see what my bookmarks are you can see them at www.gitgan.com/bookmarks.html. The bookmarklets - for those of you who've never heard of them are little scripts that run when you click them. They do cool stuff like resize your browser window to 1024 x 768 or turn off the CSS on a page and show you the text and images.
Oregopia - check out the latest and greatest oregopia.com, the web home of Jeff & Leanne Becksfort. It's another site managed by blogger, with modifications by yours truly. While you're there - let them know how excited you are for them! What? You don't know? They're totally pregnant - because you can't be a little pregnant.
Blue Like Jazz - Ben got me this book for my birthday. I guess it's becoming all the rage. I'll post something about it once it has made it into my backpack.
Columbus - We'll be taking a little trip this weekend to visit The Feathers, and on Sunday - The Underwoods. I really like going to Columbus, getting away for the weekend is nice, kind of like a mini vacation. Only without the sun, sand and double digit travel times.
Mom & Dad's New House - It's being built and is really coming together quickly. Every once in a while I drop off empty boxes from work and their current house. I have to say, it will be weird when they move out but their new place is going to be really cool. They've done a ton of work at home and the place is just about ready to go onto the market. I'll post a link to the listing once it is up. The new place is out in Rootstown and it's supposed to be done around the end of December. So the holidays could potentially be really busy, leading into...
A busy January - Ben and Ashley will be getting married on the 7th. They're doing pre-marital classes at church now it addition to finishing up their schooling and looking for jobs. Engagement is a wonderful time isn't it! If you know of any businesses in need of a good graphic designer and communications person let me know and I'll pass it on to Ben.
Finally - on our family - we're still just getting started in all the adoption stuff. Lots of paperwork ahead of us and lots of friends filling out references for us now. We also have training and all kinds of stuff to go through but we're confident that God is taking us through them in His time. Check out Kirsten's blog for some more info on all this.

Whew man. Twenty-eight - I'm never doing that again. What's that - one to grow on? Maybe next year.

Monday, September 12, 2005

Question for ya...

Where did you come from? I get asked that question an awful lot. But this time, I'm asking you. If you're a regular reader and get here many different ways - go ahead and check off all of the methods you use for getting here. If you want - comment and let me know where your blog is, or what blog you came here from. Thanks

Thursday, September 08, 2005

Big 'ol post!

This one is going everywhere so hang on for a bumpy bloggy ride.

Books in my backpack

Velvet Elvis: Repainting the Christian Faith Rob Bell Wow. I'm only a few chapters into this book and I know it's already one that I'll re-read time and time again. Why Velvet Elvis? Every piece of art isn't a Picasso; some are destined for the basement to be forgotten. But that doesn't mean that people have given up on art. Creativity continues - people don't stop painting, sculpting and designing. This book asks the same about the Christian Faith - it prods us to explore it ourselves, ask questions and seek truth. Lot's of people are fine with what has been written, there is a lot of knowledge out there for us as Christians to explore in different books or by listening to different pastors and preachers. But the problem is that many times all we do is listen. We hear their interpretation of what they think the Bible means when it says something and we, the listener or reader, have a choice to nod or shake our heads at what they have just said. We have the opportunity, if we choose to take it to explore what the Bible says and form our own conclusions. If you're interested in doing something like that - I highly recommend this book. Read an excerpt at Zondervan.

Bulletproof Web Design: Improving flexibility and protecting against worst-case scenarios with XHTML and CSS Dan Cederholm I've gotta say - I've really become a big fan of Dan Cederholm. The guy really knows web design, and he's got a great blog on technology and life. Check it out at Simplebits.com. In this book Dan covers a variety of commonly used web design techniques and shows you how to rebuild them using web standards. I'm gonna get geeky here for a minute but bear with me. Web Standards are the recommendations for how websites and web technology should be built. Think of web standards like tires. When you go to buy new tires for your 96 Civic you drive up to Walmart and go to the tire and battery center. You walk up to the desk and the friendly sales associate lowers his comic book and greets you with a friendly-sounding "Can I help you?" You answer by telling him you believe that your vehicle needs new tires. The first thing he asks you for is your make and model of your car. Why does he ask you this? Because of standards - your Civic has 13 inch wheels so you'll need tires that fit your rims and those sweet plastic spinner hubcaps you picked up in the aisle next to the new car scent air freshener. The same applies to the web - there are certain ways that you should develop or design. But they're not rules as much as they are recommendations. This book uses XHTML as the core structural language and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) as the core presentation language.

Web Standards Solutions: The Markup and Style Handbook Dan Cederholm Dan's first book digs deep into web standards showing the advantages of using them. I'm really kind of digging learning this stuff. CSS and XHTML are the technologies that blogs are (or at least should be) built upon. Developing web sites using this means that the site you design will look good on the majority of browsers, maintaining their placement, look and feel. Plus if built correctly, web pages will be fully indexable by the search engines which means it will be easier for people to find your site. Using web standards also makes your site accessible to people using screen readers for blindness or vision problems. This book covers a lot of commonly used practices and shows you how to build so pages look good and function properly.

News from friends The Ostovics

Big congrats to Derrak on his new job with Kensington Church in Troy, Michigan. Derrak will work as Creative Director for the Middle & High School ministry. Dude's gotta pack quick too, cause the fam has gotta be up there the first week of October. Here are some random facts about Troy, MI:

2005 was Troy's 50th Anniversary (the city newsletter didn't say who he married but, I'm sure she's swell.)
You can watch the City Board and Council Meetings on Channel 10 WOW or on position 53 on Comcast Cable. VHS tapes of meetings are available by calling 248.524.1147. City Council Meetings are $15. (I'd totally just set the Tivo and watch the whole season at once. Small town politics are action-packed!)
Need a bouquet you can eat? Just visit Edible Arrangements on W. Square Lake in the Troy Corners Shopping Center
Visit the Beavers! Much like our fair city of Akron has done with Horses; the City of Troy has a Beaver decorating contest to benefit the Troy Historical Society, Troy Community Coalition and the Community Foundation of Troy. (I'm pretty sure those last two fall under The Department of Redundancy Department.)

So good luck Ostovics, enjoy the adventure! We'll be praying for you, your church and your ministry. Good luck and blog often! The Aufdenbergs

A couple of days ago I got an e-mail from my good friend Tyson Aufdenberg. He wrote to tell me a little about what's happening on the other side of the world. You see Tyson and Caralee along with their two boys - Cole and Trace - are in Okinawa. Yeah - you know home of Mr. Miyagi, the Crane Technique and a pretty substantial amount of our military. The Aufdenbergs are serving with Cadence International, a mission agency that shares the gospel with our military by sharing their lives with them. What an awesome mission! Oh, the other reason they wrote was to show me that someone in Okinawa has my dream car - the Subaru Impreza WRC version - it's even cooler with two of my favorite little guys standing in front of it! Keep up the good work - we'll keep up the prayers!

Music in my iPod

DJ MAJ - Boogie Root So last Sunday we stopped by Berean Bookstore out in Montrose. They were having a Labor Day sale and we are part of the "reward" program which entitles us to an extra 10% discount off of any other sale so last weekend we got 30% off of the price which just happened to be a few cents cheaper than we could buy them from the iTunes music store. This CD is pretty good - DJ Maj has been around for a while and actually has another album out already. I heard of him at the Alive Music Festival when he was spinning for TobyMac - see I'm hip, I'm with it! I use cool words like "spinning" when I could say something uncool like "he was playing the records and doing that scratchy thing on them." I guess I like this album because you can't tell that it's Christian until you really listen to it. Not that there's anything wrong with being blatantly Christian. Favorite Song so far: H.A.N.D.S

Chris Rice - Amusing Ahh, Chris Rice. In the world of CCM, Chris is like a really comfortable pair of jeans. I have no idea what that means. Actually I do, Chris is one of those artist that seems to get better with age. And he is aging, man. That's one thing that you don't see with the album art from iTunes. I can't actually say that this one is on my iPod yet. Kirsten has it in her car and I've yet to get it out of the changer in her trunk to rip it. (See another cool word!) This album is pretty good, a little less rambunctious than Smell the Color 9 but is definitely going to be in heavy rotation in the next few weeks. See the thing is with Chris Rice, the music isn't always the best, but the writing is generally awesome and so you end up really liking the songs because of what they say, rather than how they sound. Eventually like all of his other albums, Amusing, will find itself as an old standby for road trips and rainy afternoons. Big plus - no Cartoon song. Favorite song so far: Lemonade

Jamiroquai - Dynamite If you've never listened to a Jamiroquai album you're missing out. It's not a Christian album, but it's definitely not anything that's dirty, crude or offensive. Dynamite is a mix of dance, R&B and soul. Might just be my interpretation but I think there are questions to a higher power in the song Starchild. I like Jamiroquai because you can pick up on the lyrics pretty quickly and that means you'll see me singing along in my truck. Yes - I sing quite loudly when in the safe confines of Ferguson. Favorite Song so far: (Don't) Give Hate a Chance

Cool Web & Computer Stuff Another shout-out via weblink to Jeremy Bear for his latest comic creation "Mount Paran Christian School" You are a badd dawwg! Blogger Managed Sites I have to say that this might be cheating a bit but - using blogger as a content management system is a pretty good idea. So good, I've recommended and implemented it for a few sites. You lose a bit in terms of a custom look and feel (at least until I learn more CSS) but gain a whole lot - especially for those people who don't want to learn any HTML. The ability to easily edit any page, add new content, links, pictures and, most importantly, full indexibility (if that's a word) with search engines. Check it out in action on botzum.org and cadet-ettes.org. Speaking Geek with the ladies Kir and I joined a few couples from church for half-price appetizers and discussions of Unix, Linux, SharePoint Portal Server and web technologies. Well actually it was just for conversation and food but it turned into that. The cool part about it was I didn't start it! We went to Applebees on South Arlington road - there were four couples, so that makes eight altogether. A number that seemed to be quite daunting for the staff, we waited - taking up the entire waiting area for about 25-30 minutes. I guess that's not that bad. Anyway it was Kir & I, Zac & Hilary Derr, Brian & Megan Kunkler and John & Colleen Penn. The topic of blog's came up and we talked about writing, reading and in Brian's case - never updating them. John & Colleen took off before the air was thick with nerdspeak. Eventually we moved from talk of blogs to computers and spent a pretty fair amount of time discussing the differences between Mac's and PC's; Unix, Linux and Windows and open source software; liability and access issues. The thing that I realized after we left is that I was talking about all these things with Hilary & Megan. Kirsten was singing along with whatever was playing in the restaurant, Zac was watching ESPN or something and Brian was just listening. Turns out Megan works at a school that is a client of my day job, and Hilary is in the IT department at another school. Kirsten would say that I was in my element. Speaking geek. Talking FTP, HTML, XML, CSS, RSS heck, Hilary even threw in COBOL and Megan contributed with memories of Apple IIe. Isn't technology great!

A few quick thoughts about being in/and enjoying... The Great Outdoors Baggo Donny and Jennifer just got a Baggo set for their backyard. It's the nicer sounding name for Cornhole. There was a big case a few years back that prevents them from using "cornhole" as a product name. You might have read something in the news about it - West Virginia Backyard Games v. Beavis & Butthead et al. Pie Irons Donny & Jennifer we're in Amish country not all that long ago and I asked them to get me a pie iron from this store down there. Last week I got to use mine for the first time late last week. Pie Irons - if you've never had a camper pie or hobo pie then you haven't lived. Basically, its two slices of bread, buttered on the outsides and the insides are filled with pie filling or other food. Close the pie iron and stick it in the hot coals of a campfire and in minutes you've got a great snack or meal. Just don't let anybody eat more than three at a time - you wouldn't want them to get sick in your tent. Crazy things can happen in the dark - one might be franticly searching for a container to catch the vomit in and accidentally grab - oh, I don't know - a strainer. That wouldn't be good - but it would make for a good story though. Hmm. Bug in my eye I got a bug in my eye the other day when I was mowing. It's not as bad as knowingly swallowing a bug, but it wasn't any fun. I went into the house to get it out and pulled my eyelid back to get it out and the thing just went deeper into my eye. It was pretty gross feeling it crawling around in my eye. The worst part is I had to kill it in my eye to get it out. Drivewaykill The other morning I was walking my dog, Shelby, and we walked past a baby rabbit that had been run over at the end of a driveway. It was kind of sad; it was a cute little bunny. There was this thick white fluffy stuff next to its body near its guts. Logic and ancient doctors would probably it was some sort of bile or a reaction of a bodily fluid with oxygen. Homer would tell me it was tasty marshmallow cream. I told Kirsten about this and when I finished telling her she thought seeing that bunny made me have some deep spiritual thought about life - nope. Unfortunately sometimes I think Simpson.

Wednesday, September 07, 2005

Goodbye Mini - Hello Nano?

Apple's got some big news and it's small - The iPod Nano. SAN FRANCISCO—September 7, 2005—Apple® today introduced the iPod® nano, a revolutionary full-featured iPod that holds 1,000 songs yet is thinner than a standard #2 pencil and less than half the size of competitive players. The iPod nano features an ultra-portable, lightweight design with a gorgeous color screen, Apple’s patent pending Click Wheel and the ability to hold 1,000 songs or 25,000 photos. iPod nano works seamlessly with the iTunes® Music Store, the world’s number one digital music service. The iPod nano is available immediately in a 4GB model priced at just $249 and a 2GB model priced at just $199, with both models available in stunning white or black designs. “iPod nano is the biggest revolution since the original iPod,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “iPod nano is a full-featured iPod in an impossibly small size, and it’s going to change the rules for the entire portable music market.”