Quitting Time

Sometimes, it's important for a guy to step back and take a look at the things in his life that he gives priority to. It's my turn now and I don't like what I see. My family is getting neglected. God has allowed my wife and I to have two wonderful little girls that deserve their daddy to be there with them, to love them and be an example for them. He has given me my wife who needs my love, my support and my companionship.

I'm going off-line for a while. I gave up the music ministry I enjoyed for the last four years. I'm taking a break from forums for a while. I'm going to stop blogging for a while. I'm not gone forever, I'm just going to be gone long enough to see that things in my life that need priority get that.

It is God's will for me to be the spiritual leader in my family and I have failed miserably at that. It's time to start reading the Bible with my wife and praying with her. It's also time to start teaching my oldest daughter about Jesus so she can ask Him to be her Savior.

On the plus side of things, I get to go to Church with my family for a change. I have wanted for a long time to be able to sit with my wife on Sunday mornings and to worship with her. I haven't been able to do that for a long time.

I'm going off-line for a while. It's quitting time.

Things That Make You Go: LOL!

Sorry for using a stupid acronym. I hate acronyms. I think it's silly for people to use this so called internet speak. Mrs. Dorky Musician in a conversation recently removed the vowels from the word Black to describe what was for dinner. It was something about black beans. I failed to see the point of doing it. I always make people spell out the words just to defeat the purpose of their shortcuts. But, I digress.

I am reading this article and having a difficult time containing my laughter. I blogged just a little while ago about the new blog I have added to my daily reading. You'll find the article in the "What Am I Reading?" section, but this one had that extra element that I found amusing. The guy is spot on. He wrote of a gun buyback program in Oakland:

The Oakland buyback was especially absurd because of the high price offered: $250. Why didn’t anyone running the program think to look at the price of a new gun? In fact, the first two people in line at one of the three buyback locations were gun dealers with 60 firearms packed in the trunk of their cars.

One wonders why the police even bothered to buy the guns from Oakland residents. Why not buy directly from gun manufacturers?

And this:

An Oakland gun buyback is like trying to drain the Pacific — every bucket of water you take out is instantly replaced.

Here's another bit of logic that I never considered when thinking or talking about gun buyback programs:

Imagine that instead of guns, the Oakland police decided, for whatever strange reason, to buy back sneakers. The idea of a gun buyback is to reduce the supply of guns in Oakland. Do you think that a sneaker buyback program would reduce the number of people wearing sneakers in Oakland? Of course not.

All that would happen is that people would reach into the back of their closet and sell the police a bunch of old, tired, stinky sneakers.

Logic obviously escapes people sometimes. I wonder how some actually make it to old age! Read the article, be amused.

Oakland's Gun Buyback Misfires

Digging in a Gold Mine

I've been digging in a gold mine recently and discovering valuable nuggets I couldn't find using standard methods. I recently posted about a technology blog that isn't slanted left like many are. Well, today I logged into Google Reader to check my daily reading. I decided to click the "Discover" feature, the thing that recommends news feeds that may be of interest to you based on what you are currently subscribed to, and at the top of the list was the Intellectual Conservative. I read through a few articles before I go and add it to my subscription list as I have so much to read on a daily basis, I don't want to bog myself down. I have found myself removing sites that don't interest me as much like Fox News.

Take a look and see for yourself.Intellectual Conservative: Conservative & Libertarian Politics.

Appropriate Responses

I read the Rimfire Central community forum regularly. It is the one forum I contribute the most to as I don't have much going on with "The Beast" right now and I haven't been involved in shooting long enough to really add much value to most conversations. For whatever reason, about once or twice a week, a small group of folks complain about this or complain about that. Most of the time they are complaining because they don't have the riches that they see everyone else having. At least, that's my take on it.

Right now, they are complaining about the "American Dream". The question was posed whether or not the American Dream is still achievable. A story accompanied that question indicating that it was available for one individual. It was a story of what you can accomplish when you start with nothing and put your mind to doing it. I wholeheartedly believe that only in very rare cases is the American Dream unachievable. For everyone else, if they want something, their only option is to get off their duff and go get it.

The point of this post isn't to argue my point against theirs though. It's about responses to them. This is the best I have seen posted so far in a thread on "What is middle class?":

Dang! I had to double check to make sure I hand't logged into move-on.org by mistake!

I laughed out loud when I read that! It was very fitting. I have, for the longest time, desired to post my own response, but have resisted as I don't want to make enemies out of other forum members. You know the old adage, you catch more flies with honey than you do vinegar. Honestly, though, I'm not interested in having flies. They're too much of a tax burden if you ask me.

I'll leave you with the response I would post if I could just bring myself to doing it:

Gag Me With A Spoon!

I try to avoid reading technology blogs these days as they usually end up being a hangout for liberals. I have no desire to read their opinions of how awful capitalism is. I don't honestly care what they think. I stopped reading Slashdot years ago. It just made me sick. I don't bother with Digg either as all the reasonable, well written comments get dugg down based entirely on the fact that they are written by conservative minded people. So, it came as a surprise to me this morning, as I was digging through Google Reader suggestions, to find a technology blog that doesn't have a problem with companies motivated by profits or free market and thinks taxes are bad.

Take a look at TechDirt: The Insight Company for the Information Age.

The Great Escape

The Great Escape
Originally uploaded by ukaaa


I was browsing through Flickr and found this photo. It made me laugh out loud, so, here it is... Shared with my friends.

Shooting Instruments

Update: I see that some people are finding this blog entry through google searches for dinosaurs. I have a regular photo blog that I keep here. This one is defunct. I don't figure too many people are really all that interested in what I have to say... Pictures are more interesting than words sometimes.

If you looked at my profile or my Toys section on the right, you probably have the impression I enjoy shooting. I mostly prefer to shoot my .22s as they are cheaper, but I get a great deal of joy out of shooting my .17hmr. It is more accurate at longer distances.

I would enjoy hunting and shooting for food. I plan on getting my sportsman's license this year as well as a shotgun so I can go out with my dad and hopefully put some food in the freezer.

I also enjoy shooting that doesn't destroy the target in one form or another. I have had in the back of my mind the desire to get into photography. So, this weekend, we picked up an inexpensive tripod. I originally intended to use it for the video camera to record Worship Services for the worship team.

Last night, out of boredom, I brought the tripod downstairs and our Olympus Stylus 300 and set out to shoot some dinosaurs. There was one problem though... I didn't have a decent background for them. I tried what I thought was a white bath towel. It turned out to be some sort of cream color. I tried some sheets. We didn't have any, but I found a mattress protector. It was too wrinkled. Searching through the house, I finally settled on a window shade. I had to take it off the window, but it seemed to serve its purpose well. Unfortunately, it wasn't very white. The shopping list for my next trip to Walmart contains a white shade.

Here are the dinosaurs I shot last night in my basement.

They didn't turn out too bad, I don't think, but with better lighting, background and perhaps a better photographer, they could have came out much better. I tried different methods. I turned the flash off, I set the timer so my hands would be off the camera when it took the picture, I tried portrait mode, night scene mode and whatever else I could think of. The above is what I was able to come up with.

My next shooting iron will be a Canon. A Canon EOS Rebel XTi to be precise.

Trip to Disneyland!

I don't like the real thing. Mrs. Dorky Musician and I went there with her parents and our only daughter at the time. There were way too many people for it to be a comfortable, fun trip. I prefer to either be surrounded by people I know and care about, or just being alone. Alone includes being with my family, or wandering around the pond or in the garage seeing if I can find enough staples and scrap wood to throw something together or cutting the grass.

Disneyland is supposed to be a fun place that everyone loves to go to. Somehow, the concept is lost on me. I have my own personal Disneyland. It's called Sam's Club. My Disney World is Walmart... I know, sacrilege... Walmart is supposed to be the great evil of our time along with Global Warming and Creation Science! Shame on me!

Mrs. Dorky Musician and I made a trip to Sam's Club this weekend as I needed an upgrade for my computer to fix a video problem I have been having. I expected to find the replacement video card at Best Buy, but we haven't been to Sam's Club in a while. I quickly disappeared into the DVD aisles then to the tools and power equipment department. It's like being a kid in a candy shop!

They have a nice mobile, stainless steel workbench that would be perfect for cleaning guns and other tasks. I also found a folding folding table! It's a table with folding legs that folds in half and has a carry handle. I thought it would make a perfect bench for shooting off of when in my back yard or other places that aren't the range. They have educational DVD collections on an end cap covering much of God's creation. They always have so many things that we usually spend more money than we should when we go. Lynn doesn't like taking me to Sam's Club or Walmart. I usually add some $5 DVDs.

I wrote all this to say that, even though I have been to two Walmarts a Sam's Club and a Best Buy, I have yet to find "Into The West" DVDs a friend convinced me I needed to watch.

What Am I Reading?

If you ask nice enough, Google Reader will tell you. I have recently started using Google's web services, such as their Calendar, Gmail and Blogger applications. But, the one I want to write about today is Google Reader.

Google Reader is a news aggregator that lets you aggregate all your content in one place. It keeps track of what you have and haven't read, allows you to categorize your news sources so you can select whether or not you want to read your friend's blogs, current events, what's happing in the world of gadgetry or a mishmash of all of the above. When you find an article you like, you can tag it so you can come back to it at a later date. When you find an article you really like, you can share it.

So, this blog entry today is to announce that on the right side of this page, there is a section called "What Am I Reading?" It's all the articles I saw fit to share today.

Me Too!

I attempted to comment on Indiana Cowboy's blog entry, "Remains to be seen." I couldn't keep enough to myself to make a reasonably sized comment, so, here it is. A new blog entry. Thanks JL for offering me something to write about.

I'm pretty much with you on the TV thing. I don't like it, especially when it comes to the current service offerings. I enjoy watching movies and some shows, but I'm not thrilled at all about the current crop of service providers offering up nothing of real value. The channels of value that they offer are only included in the larger packages, requiring more of our money.

I think it's wrong for the government to dictate how people watch their TV. I don't mean to get political here, but if people want digital, they'll switch. If the market can bear the loss of analog customers and feels there's a benefit to do so, it'll switch on its own. It seems to me it's nothing more than another regulation motivated by profits... I'm not against profits by any means. I'm just not a fan of government mandated spending.

Mrs. Dorky Musician and I were without TV service for over a year. I didn't miss it for a minute. I was happy watching our TV shows on DVD, at our leisure without commercial interruptions. I didn't miss having to skip over the channels I would never watch, but somehow ended up paying for anyways. It was nice. It was quiet. I actually read several books, I play my guitar and keyboard better, I got outside to play more. The only reason we turned our TV back on was for Mrs. Dorky Musician. She likes HGTV and watches it to help keep her sanity as she's taking care of our two girls.

I monitor my girls TV viewing like a hawk. Mrs. Dorky Musician can testify to that as she gets annoyed with me asking, "how long has she been watching TV for?" Even though the show is educational, teaching her things, she's not spending time being creative, using her imagination. She's not really having fun, just passing time away. She can count and knows her ABCs, but because we don't let her watch too much TV, she knows how to turn a box into a car or a boat, or make a livingroom out of a dozen Lego bricks, or turn her baby sister into a horse! If you ask nicely, maybe Mrs. Dorky Musician will blog about that.

When the girls are in school, we will likely turn off the TV again. It will have fulfilled it's purpose. The only way we will ever turn it on again is if we are offered real choice in what we subscribe to. I have no desire to watch the garbage on MTV, VH1, Comedy Central, FX, nor do I care to have several channels of ESPN as I don't watch sports. I like the educational channels, cartoons and old stuff.... Well, mostly old cartoons.

Here's where you lost me, JL...

By the way, when I was a kid…televisions had round screens. What happen there?

I'm glad they're gone! You ever watch a movie in wide screen format in your living room? I won't go back! Thankfully we bought most of our DVDs in wide screen format long before we had a wide screen TV. If you don't care about it, it certainly is a waste of money to have that kind of TV. I love watching movies. The last date Mrs. Dorky Musician and I went on was to our living room after dropping the girls off at their grandparents house. We watched Jurassic Park and had Chinese takeout for lunch. That was a nice, quiet, relaxing date.

Internet Stalking

I find it rather amazing how easy it is to find specific details about a person on the internet. It doesn't take much. I came to this realization when I tracked down someone's address. I had no real reason to do so, except for this... I Googled her name and found something she reviewed and asked her about it. She asked how I did that, so I told her. She came back a short while later with my address. I made it the day's mission to figure out how she did it and return the favor.

There were two very important tidbits of information I gave out that made her job very easy. It was the town I live in and my screen name on a forum I participate in. Anyone could have found that information without ever having talked to me.

Tracking her information down was not so easy, but it was far from being difficult. If I had intended from the start, it would have taken a couple of weeks or more to get to know this person to get some information that wasn't easily accessible. There are people who have the skills in social engineering they need to get any information they need from people. The following is a list of information I was able to get from her both directly and indirectly:

• Landmark viewable from a satellite map on Google.
• Family members names.
  
• State she lives in.
• Place of employment to help narrow down whereabouts more.
• Internet screen name that lead me to her MySpace page.
• Links to family members MySpace pages.

A lot of the information I gathered was indirectly via things people posted on MySpace. I found out the city she lives in based on her kid's MySpace profile. I found both her kid's and her husband's MySpace profile via links on hers. I found her husbands name from a "Happy Birthday" note in the comments section of his MySpace page. I knew it was her husband's page because his screen name on MySpace is the same as she uses to refer to him on forums.

I found the landmark in conversation with her. She told me about it in passing. I remember one question I asked specifically about it that helped somewhat, but I might have found what I was looking for without that specific detail.

Armed with some of the above information, I did a search on an internet phone book. I was able to narrow down the results to two. I went to Google Maps, entered the address information, looked at the satellite map and saw the landmark I was looking for. This left me about 90% positive I had the right stuff. This would have been enough if I had the wrong intentions and enough motivation. I don't have either.

The information I found wasn't all lumped together in one convenient place. It took time to get it and it took some searching. The pieces I found were small and by themselves, they wouldn't have been very useful, but combined, they were all I needed. Some of the information was found in comments sections of MySpace, user profile pages on forums and blogs and through friendly conversation.

The list of information above is only six items long and is far from being a definitive list of what is needed to find someone. I could have found what I was looking for without either her place of employment or the city she lives in. Knowing her place of employment made it easier to search in surrounding towns and cities within a reasonable driving distance. I probably would have been able to find what I was looking for without the landmark, but with it, I was more confident I had the address.

This blog entry isn't to brag about my accomplishments. I put it here to serve as a warning and a reminder to my friends and family who participate in online communities to be careful with what they share with people. There certainly aren't that many people out there who are out to harm you or your kids, but there are enough that you should be careful with what you give out, especially if you are one of the more active members of an online community.

I Can't Take It!!!

I wasn't sure what to blog about today.... Until I saw this picture.



That's me when things get a bit crazy around me. When there are a lot of noises around me, my mind goes totally chaotic. I can't think, I can't concentrate, I have a real hard time functioning. It's impossible to be me during those times.

Mrs. Dorky Musician gets mad at me when we're at a mall or a store for too long and there's a lot of noise or people. I'm fun for a while. I have fun wandering around the store with my older daughter, looking at toys and guns. After an immeasurable amount of time, I turn into were-daddy! My whole mood changes almost immediately. I try not to let it have that much of an affect on me, but Mrs. Dorky Musician will tell you I'm not always successful.

We tried Disney Land in California once. We tried Las Vegas, Nevada. We even tried Universal Studios. I couldn't even handle October Fest in the small town we live in! I'm fine for a little while, but after a while it just totally gets to me. I shut down completely.

So, armed with this knowledge, my 8 month old picks the days that I make it home early or days I have off or work from home to be cranky and noisy. She's a good kid. It almost never fails. When I'm going to be home for a long enough period of time, she gets cranky. Now, you're probably going to tell me it's because of me. It's not. She's cranky before I get home. Mrs. Dorky Musician can confirm this.

There's no moral to this or even a proper conclusion, just that today started off miserable. I got to work this morning and my phone started ringing. I hate the phone enough when it's just sitting there, doing nothing! We don't have offices here, just an open floor plan with desks. There are no separators either.

You can be sure I thank God immensely for my toy room, pond, garage, headphones and all the other quiet places that I can go to get away from it all from time to time. I thank God for this song I'm listening to, "I Will Wait" by Jason Upton.

Snow!

I love snow. It's fun to drive around in and it's beautiful to look at. Unfortunately, this winter has been pretty mild. It seems like we've had more rain than snow this winter. We have had some nice snow falls though. Not enough to really enjoy using our new snow blower, but enough to take nice pictures.

I was driving the back way home from Church one day and saw the following picture in my rear view mirror. I decided I needed to take it. I had the camera with me because I wanted to take a picture of the pond from the side of the road (see below).


Here's a picture of our pond from the living room window. That's a glare, not the sun.

Another picture of the pond from the side of the road.


Another picture standing in the driveway. I love it when the snow settles in the trees. It is especially pretty when ice forms on tree branches.



I don't ski, but I think I think building an igloo would be a lot of fun. After seeing those posts, I told my wife I wanted to move to Alaska. She thinks I'm nuts and I'm sure there's no chance I'll be able to talk her into it. Oh well.

Dude, Check it out!

Over there, on the right. I've added a new section, called "Toys". Google has, in their Labs, a page creator tool that lets you create, well, web pages. So, I thought I'd go ahead and create one for my 10/22 project, "The Beast". I'll update that section as I add new toys to my collection that are worthy of blogging about.

Google has so many other useful tools to help you throughout the day. I discovered that I can add a Google Calendar to Thunderbird. When I update the Google Calendar, Thunderbird gets updated, so I'm offered reminders right on my desktop. It's kind of nice. You can also share calendars with your friends and family. My wife and I have a calendar we use for Birthdays and other family events. My wife can add events to my calendar if she wants to remind me to do something. They all show up nicely on my iGoogle page too. If you don't have a Google account, go to gmail.com and get one. It's fun.


This blog entry, unfortunately, was not sponsored by Google.

Some Encouragement

During the spring of 2006, my wife and I bought a new house. We were planning on growing our family and wanted the extra space. We were living in a two bedroom house and it was going to get small real fast. So, we started looking and found a new place out in the country. I told my wife when we were looking for a house that I wanted a place that I can go out in the back yard anytime I wanted and shoot my guns. The only problem was, I didn't have any! So, that summer, I asked for an air rifle for my birthday.

While searching for the air rifle I wanted, I joined the Straight Shooter's discussion forum to ask questions and get help. There, I met Juan, from Puerto Rico. We e-mailed each other back and forth quite frequently for a while and discovered that we both were Christians, played guitar on our worship teams, enjoyed guns and had several other things in common. The e-mailing faded out to about one or two a month, but we still kept in contact.

Juan played a big part in helping me select this rifle (thanks Juan!), a Beeman HW-97:

I can confidently say that Juan is a good friend, even though I have never met him in person. He has offered encouragement and prayer over the last year and a half. We were e-mailing each other back and forth about guns, guitars and wood finishes. Out of the blue, in one of his e-mails, he added the following.

….Do you know something? We are part of the Lord plans in such a magnificent way!

If we die, meaning to the old nature, we will open up to a new life with Him!, All the ugliness, was left on the cross. Now a new and Christ like me shines thru the Sacrifice of the Son!

If we suffer, and we will, we certainly will rejoice with Him in our true home, the Heavens. But he says; “Don’t give up” I was up against the world and I won! My victory is yours now!!!

If we reject Him, He will do the same. He is a gentleman so he won’t force us to accept him. It is our decision to accept what He has in His heart for us. But most important, the opposite is also true; If we declared Him as our Lord and Savior; He will declare us as one of His friends, one of His own. That is good!

BUT, if we are unfaithful, he remains FAITHFUL. He won’t give up on us. He can’t do that. His nature is to be faithful. So there is always a way to the Father because he is always faithful. He will simply not abandon us. No matter how mean, or bad or away from Him we might be, His grace is enough to reach us!

There is really no reason why we should not get back on our feet, be right with the Father and Rejoice in his presence!!!!! Is this amazing or what? Our Lord is Awesome!!!!!!!

11 This is a faithful saying:

For if we died with Him,
We shall also live with Him.
12 If we endure,
We shall also reign with Him.
If we deny Him,
He also will deny us.
13 If we are faithless,
He remains faithful;
He cannot deny Himself.
2 Tim 2:11-13.

A Warm, Weird Welcome

I was given the honor of being introduced to the blogging world by a friend I had met on Rimfire Central. So, this morning, I'm doing the same.

I woke up this morning to another weird dream. My wife has some of the strangest dreams. She told me about the one she had last night. At this point, I'm half listening as I think I've heard them all. She must have caught on to that as she is now blogging about them! There is NO ESCAPE!

Welcome my wife to the wonderful world of blogging. "My Scribbley Blog" by Mrs. Dorky Musician.

Leaked Photo

Every now and then, a photo gets leaked from a private organization and it creates a stir. I haven't seen anything about it in the news, but I'm certain that there will be in the near future as the investigators home in on the details. In the event they decide to not spin this as a photo of a woman's rifle team, I will help them in their search by pointing them in the direction of the leaked photo. Surely Annie will be able to provide some information as to who sent it to her.

On a serious note, though. Being a guy, I have a tendency to keep my mouth shut on certain topics. I worry the militants in the above leaked photo will track me down and torture me. I also hate the sound of nails scratching on a chalkboard. That's what I imagine people in the above leaked photo sound like when they're together, plotting against us. So, whenever a woman blogs or talks about the subject, I say a huge, but quiet "AMEN!" to myself!

For too long, though, men have ignored the commandment given to them in God's word to love their wives. We have focused much more on the commandment that God gave to them to submit to us as the heads of our household as ordained by God. We expect them to work in the kitchen, clean the house, change diapers and not have opinions. We expect that they just do as we say without question. That's not always the case, but, too frequently, it is.

In case you're not sure what I'm talking about, here's what the Good Book says.

Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish. So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies; he who loves his wife loves himself.

Epheisians 5:25-28

And that we are to live in understanding with our wives, knowing them, their needs, and taking care of them as Christ takes care of His Church.

Husbands, likewise, dwell with them with understanding, giving honor to the wife, as to the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life, that your prayers may not be hindered.

1 Peter 3:7

The Bible also has this to say

Wives, likewise, be submissive to your own husbands, that even if some do not obey the word, they, without a word, may be won by the conduct of their wives.

1 Peter 1:1

How can a man expect his wife to follow that commandment from God and not follow the ones God has set before him? Husbands, love your wives, live with them in understanding, know their needs, care for them and cherish them as they are a gift from God to us because He loves us and knows we need them. I love my wife and thank God for the richness of blessings He has given to me through her. What do the actions say of a man who berates his gifts in front of the gift giver, treating them as dirty rags?

Free At Last!

I love Linux. I've been using Ubuntu since around version 4.10, or around the very beginning. It started out as a Live CD that I downloaded, burned, rebooted and voilà! Before that, I was using Fedora. Before that, regrettably, I was a Windows user. I dual booted, but still had Windows running. I have been free from Windows at home for at least three years now, but that's not what this post is about.

Since I installed Ubuntu 7.10, I've had this annoying problem with Firefox. When I install new versions of Linux, I typically keep my home directory. This time, I deleted my Gnome hidden directories, but I left my Firefox and Thunderbird directories in tact. I find it's easier to upgrade that way... Anyhow, Firefox would crash on me quite frequently. It seems to have had to do with Flash, but I found a neat tip here. Perhaps I should have started searching there to begin with.

The funny thing is, I was having some problems with Firefox at work (Windows machine). I decided to delete my profile directory there too. That seemed to have cleared up that problem. Why I didn't think to do the same at home is beyond me. It will now become standard procedure when figuring out issues like unplugging the DSL router for 30 seconds before plugging it back in and rebooting for the windows users.

I guess I'll turn Compiz back on and see if I am still running crash free. If so, my next adventure is to figure out the brightness problem with my monitor.

I would like to point out that this is the most problems I have had with Linux in a very long time. I have always been impressed with Linux and will continue to be a die-hard user. Now, to get UbuntuStudio up and running...

Update: I turned Compiz back on and have been using Firefox without any problems. It appears to be the problem is SOLVED! Now I don't have to wait impatiently for the next release of Ubuntu at the end of April.

Quick Like A Ninja!

When reading forum posts, I notice the frequency with which words are spelled incorrectly. It's absolutely astonishing to me that this can happen, especially in a time when there is as much emphasis placed on education as there is today. I understand that people make mistakes. They type fast and hit the "Post" button without proof reading their posts. It happens, especially in lively discussions. I do it. I've gone back and noticed spelling errors in my posts. So, I don't make it my duty to be the "Internet Spell Checker". Firefox does a good job at spell checking for me. I don't feel I need to point out people's spelling errors. I'm much more concerned about the content, what they're saying. It's the point that matters.

So, I'm writing this entry to share an experience with a self-appointed "Internet Spell Checker". This was a guy I was having a conversation with. It wasn't the prettiest of things. There were people from both sides posting, sharing their thoughts. It was a good conversation.... for a short while anyway.

In the middle of this, Internet Spell Checker broke out of the conversation to point out some minor spelling error in another's post. These are the words he wrote:

You spelled "commandments" incorectly.

Quick like a ninja.

Perhaps Internet Spell Checker meant, "Quick like a ninja, I clicked the submit button in haste without proofreading my post!" I probably don't need to say more as it should be fairly obvious, but I went back through several of his posts and found a few additional spelling errors throughout the conversation. I posted something along the lines of the following:

Don't be so quick to point out others spelling errors until you've run your posts through a spell checker.

Try "incorrectly", "hypocritical" and "shall".

I'm leaving out the context as the conversation is done and over with and it's irrelevant to this post, but you can be sure I'm taking every precaution before I click the Publish button on this entry as I would feel very foolish for posting this with spelling errors. There is very little excuse these days to post all kinds of spelling errors on the Internet as many browsers come with spell checkers built in, but there is also no excuse for posting spelling corrections when your post pointing out the errors is riddled with its own errors!

Good Morning!

I've thought about putting up a blog for a long time, but never got around to doing it. I figured a blog should have a purpose, that it should focus on a particular area. But, a friend that I met on a forum I participate in regularly, nagged me long enough that I finally caved in. She convinced me I don't need to focus on a particular subject as some blogs do. So, I get to put my thoughts on the following things (and more) out there for anyone to read:

• God
• My family
• Music
• Guitars
• Firearms
• Things that bug me

I'm a family man. I love my wife and my two daughters. They mean the world to me. I'll probably write about them from time to time. You might not see pictures of them. I discovered recently how easy it is to find exactly where someone lives and get their phone number. I'm not a private person, but I care about my girls, all three of them.

I lead the worship team at the Church I go to, so I'll probably put some thoughts about that on here. Even more, I love music, especially worship music, so I'll probably write about Matt Redman, Paul Baloche and Jason Upton from time to time.

I play guitar and keyboards, not very well, but I do. I'll write about that once in a while. I might show off my toys too. If I ever get a recording environment set up, I might post my music once in a while.

I have recently taken up the hobby of shooting, mostly rimfire, so I'll write about that here too.

I love God's creation, the outdoors, the wildlife, squirrels, snakes, rats, turtles, etc... They are fun to be around and watch. I enjoy walking around my pond and playing with my daughter there.

I'm very conservative in my world views, so expect that I'll write about the things I see right and wrong around me. When asked to label myself, I go with conservative libertarian. The founders of this country wrote the Constitution to not be a living, breathing document. They documented their thoughts, the process they went through to come up with the founding documents of this great country and made it well known to us. They wrote letters to people who had questions and they're out there for us to read.

If you don't agree with me, I'm not going to argue with you. I'll tell you what I believe, I'll have friendly conversation with you, but if you argue with me, I'll stop talking to you. If you're vulgar, I'll delete your comments.

I'm a nerd too. My hobbies used to involve programming, but now it's my career. I still get excited about technology and will post things about that. You'll probably hear about Linux, Firefox, Ubuntu Studio, Grails, Java, Groovy and all that other stuff I like and get payed to play with.

Most importantly, I'm a Christian. I love my God and wish to serve Him in my life. I often fail, but I desire to glorify Him. He created me, He loves me enough to have allowed His Son to die for me. The least I can do is love Him back!