bleh

I'm calling it a night. Progress: not worth mentioning. Few times in my short life have I needed a shower more than right now. As of right now, I have no idea how all our stuff can be put away neatly. And that's after I've thrown out stuff. Hope wanes. We'll see how tomorrow goes.

TIMMY!!!!

So I finally passed Timmy on Rock Band. I three starred it. Barely. But it was all I had left on medium solo tour, besides the one song after it. And of course the song after it was Pleasure by Bang Camaro, and I five starred it :). Guess it's time to start practicing hard...

Tonight I will have the joy of organizing my garage. Because I hate Derrel's mini storage, I don't want to give them anymore of my money. And also, we're getting a new washer and dryer on Friday (cheer!), so I need to make room. We'll see if I survive. This is what it looks like right now:

A is for apple

B is for what we're having! A....baby! LOL.

So yeah, the little bugger was really shy, not only hiding from the camera but being modest, too. Stinker. However, after I left (because I had to leave a little early), peanut decided to be free and give up the goods.

Equipment. Boy.

So I'm excited, but there are so many logistical questions that are now nagging my brain, but Carrie is nagging me to get over it and just be happy. And I am happy. Noah and Luke have a baby brother, and Hannah shall ever be the princess of the family. I know everyone who I talked about this said things like "wouldn't it be great if it was a girl?" And yeah, it would have been, but it's also great that it's a boy. It might have been a little more convenient as a girl, but I'm ok with 1 less monthly visit to worry about later on (LOL!).

Carrie is trying to force the name Isaac on me. When she told me a nickname for Isaac is Ike, she really wore me down. I like Ike. Little Ikey. :)

That's why they're called business socks

America is rockin! I watched the men's gymnastics last night, couldn't believe how awesome those guys did. Until pommel horse anyway. But I was really irritated at the high bar scores they got. All three of the guys killed it, and that second guy's routine was RIDICULOUS. But then the judges totally jacked his score! We got like a mid-15 score, where the chinese were getting 16s easy. I don't get it. I like to think that I'm being open minded here, and that if it was a Japanese or German guy I'd feel the same way, but I guess there's no way to know for sure, and I'm certainly no judge. But man those guys rocked it, and they deserve that medal.

In other news, we get to see the peanut today via ultrasound. Hopefully he/she is cooperative, and shows us the goods so we can finally stop calling it "the baby". Stay tuned.

Beeps and boops

Anyone who knows me knows I'm a geek. In case you needed more proof of this, I will tell you that I have always liked video game music. Even back on the NES. I would pause games and just sit back and listen to the game's music sometimes. I remember playing a game I didn't like very much all the way to the end just so I could hear the music on the last level. So imagine my delight 4 years ago when I came across a website where other people not only like vg music too, but actually remix it. Now, I'm quite sure I just heard some of you scoff at this, but I'm telling you, this is good stuff. The site just released it's 11th album, this one for the classic PC game Doom 2 (http://doom2.ocremix.org). It's probably a little dark and metal for some people, so I thought I would also share a couple of songs that really represent the community well (and also that I really like).

One from the NES game Megaman 3 (and I think the best song on the site right now) - link

And my brother's favorite song on the site - link

There should be an award for this sort of thing

As if I needed any more proof that my love for my wife knows no bounds, I did the unthinkable tonight. I watched "so you think you can dance" with her. And I actually watched it, too, I didn't just sit in the same room with her. I know I know, but in all seriousness, the 2 guys that are still in it are pretty cool to watch. They're hip hop, so it makes it easier to watch because there's no emo to deal with. And that Joshua guy can jump like 10 feet clear, no joke. So anyway, I had very little respect for dance until I met my wife, who is a dancer. No longer could I say that dancing is lame, lest I not wake up in the morning. I had to back up and try to appreciate it for what it is. For one, it's hard. Very hard. But some of it is also very cool, especially when done right. So to be very honest, tonight was not as painful as it could have been.

That's one of the funny things about marriage, you sometimes have to rethink your opinions on things that are important to your spouse. Something you thought of as silly before can't be silly anymore, because your spouse likes it. For Carrie, probably the number 1 thing she had to re-evaluate was video games. Now, she plays them with me (some. REALLY limited amount). However, there are some things I still won't get after all this time. Like her fascination with these things she calls "books". I think I saw one or two of those in school, and I'm sure I was supposed to read some, but I can't remember how I got away with NOT reading them, because I'm certain I didn't. And I'm sure she will never understand what's so great about coding. But that's ok, because I get money for doing it, so she has to respect it for at least that.

It's 12 o clock somewhere

What is this??? A post on my blog in the middle of the day?? Yes, that's right. The entire County can come to a stand still for 10 minutes while I try to collect the pieces of my brain that just exploded out of my ears. You know, these "desk jobs" are so easy. All you do is sit around all day, right? Well I'm trying to code business rules and systems that are too complex for their own good, and they are giving my head a beat down. It just makes me wanna cry, Jim.

So while I take a breather, I thought I'd share with all 2 of you that read this what I did last night. Guitar on rock band. I played through medium solo tour until I unlocked level 9 (and the Metallica song, woo hoo!). And freaking "vasoline" on MEDIUM can kiss my butt. It's on level 8, but it absolutely stomped on me the first time I tried it. Did I mention on medium? But it was all that stood between me and Metallica, so I did my best and 3 starred it. Barely. Then I tried "enter sandman" and lol'ed at how much I suck. Then I tried expert mode. At half speed. And was a terrible failure. Man I'm telling you, I'm prepping myself for hard right now, I'm holding the frets differently and everything, and I can even play a couple songs on hard with relative success. But expert? Forget it. I have no idea how anyone could do it. It just goes so fast, even if I know what notes are coming, my fingers don't move that fast. I guess it's the same way I thought when I was still on easy and I saw medium or hard, but this just seems more impossible.

Ok, my head feels better. Time to think really hard until lunchtime.

Mistakes were made, lessons learned

Well, another week is done, and as usual, this weekend was gone in a flash. Another week is just about to start, and all the things I hoped to accomplish last week, but failed miserably to do, now have another chance to get done. I actually dread right now, just before bed on a Sunday night. Not because of where I have to go tomorrow, but because of where I don't get to be. I'm one of the few that actually likes my job, I like where I work, I like who I work with. But I don't get to be with my wife and my kids, and that stinks. But do everything as unto the Lord, right?

Speaking of which, right now we are doing an 8 week study on "other religions" in our church class (Sunday school?). Today was on atheism, and I taught. I thought it went pretty well, though I was getting quite a few blank stares during the lesson (that is actually more common for me than I think is normal). We did end up having a good discussion once we started talking about evolution, probably because there is more to talk about with evolution than there is about atheism. At least according to my brother. But what I kind of realized while preparing, at least in a less vague way, is that atheism is just a fancy word for rebellion. Because that's really all people are doing when they live as an atheist, they are rebelling against God. They may say they have a reason, or maybe not, but in the end that's all it is. They don't think they should be held accountable to someone who is capable of holding them accountable for everything they've ever done, and deep down think they don't deserve it. They just take God from the #1 spot and put themselves there. The Bible calls that a "fool".

The more notes I took about this, the more I wondered why this doesn't get talked about a lot. We talk about how people can have their own opinions and it's no big deal, but it is. It is the biggest deal there is! People who reject God are in serious peril, and we all coast through life like there will always be tomorrow, Christians and non-Christians. God never promises tomorrow. He could return tonight. You could die tonight. The person you care about could die tomorrow morning. Nothing is certain. The only thing that matters is what you do with the man they call Jesus. I can think of people that I haven't seen for years, and I wonder where they are in their lives right now. I think about all the people I could possibly reach if I ever finished my "ark". God willing I do before time is up. But if I don't, will God still say to me "well done, good and faithful servant"? Or will He say "you know, you were awfully lazy". I feel like the latter on Sunday nights like this.

Wow, apparently I'm in "deep thoughts" mode, cause that's like 10 pages I just wrote. Guess I should stop now. For those that didn't stop reading before now, I'm sorry. I really like hearing "your blog is funny" from those that have read previous ones, but now I'm gonna hear "your blog made my eyes cramp from reading so much, you big jerk". So here is my vow, that my next post will be light-hearted and full of jest. Unless my hamster dies and I post about it*. See? See what I did there? I said I'd let it lie, but I didn't. Anyway I guess lesson learned, if I do this more frequently, I won't be compelled to ramble in one giant post like this.

* I don't have a hamster.

Protestari

So with this fancy blog comes a fancy google account. And what is a google account without gmail? That's right, I set up a gmail account. Let me take you through the "rationalization" process that brought me to act in such a way:

• I was using an anti-spam email address to sign in for this, but it was annoying to type.


• Fancy google has a fancy custom home page you can set up. And my current custom home page (pageflakes) has been annoying me as of late.


• Gmail actually lets you read email from different accounts, so I can check all my email in one spot (nice).


• I want to be cool like everyone else and have a gmail account

Ok so that last one is a lie, however, God was in this, because I learned something new today, and I'm totally psyched about it. My gmail address is protestari@gmail.com. "So what?" you say? Well gentle reader, prepare to be in awe of how cool that little word is.

"Protestari" is a latin word that means: "declare publicly, testify, protest". It is also the etymilogical root for the word "Protestant", and we all know that THAT is cool. However, the word itself also has a cool double meaning to it, because "publicly testify" is exactly what we should do as Christians. Pretty cool, eh?

As a side note, I will not divulge how long and how many names I went through to create a gmail account. Apparently I'm the last person on the Intarweb to have a gmail account, because EVERYTHING was taken. I even went through the "5 solas", they were all taken. At least there are other people out there willing to associate themselves with sound theology, I suppose. One more thing, to the 2 "Nic Llanos" out there, (because nicllanos AND nic.llanos were both taken), don't be jealous, I'm not trading you :P. Hehehehehe.