The Wii remote is truly an innovative tech piece. Just watch in this video clip how it can be used to create some interesting interactivity with our normal borning PC's.
We are officially in the new house!
Category: Life
At 5 P.M. EST on Oct. 12, 2007, we officially moved into our new home. It feels so good to be a proud owner of such a nice blessing. This is all God's workmanship! Everyone has an open invitation to visit us in our new home!
Satelite photos of forest fires in Pembroke GA
Current mood: thankful
Category: Life
Last week Pembroke GA, as well as other parts of Georgia was plagues by forest fires. One was so close to our house that on SunDay / Monday we were on standby to evacuate. The firefighters fought back the fire and the next day everything seemed fine. Then on Thursday, the fires flared up again, and by the afternoon ash was raining down in our front lawn. We were evacuated to a less dangerous part of the city.
It was a tense time for the whole family. Our fears deepened when the huge columns of smoke suddenly turned dark as we watched from afar. Thank God, by the next evening, we were cleared to return home. And on that weekend it rained. I have never been so happy to see rain before in my life
Here is a satellite photo of my house courtesy of Google Earth. You can plainly see the brown patches where the fire burned the forest. My backyard is right against that woodline. Our house was about the distance of roughly equal to the width of a street from the blaze. During our evacuation, I had no idea just how close the fires really were.
Ernesto's Got A New Job!
Current mood: ecstatic
Category: Jobs, Work, Careers
After being stuck at Electronic Service for 2 years, Ernesto [finally!] has a new job! I interviewed for this position back in February, and I got "the callback" yesterday. Starting June 1st, I will be working as the Computer Support Specialist for Savannah Christian Church. You Go Boy!
How I got a new car
Current mood: happy
Category: Life
Our church is putting on a play for Easter called "Deliverer". We were recording the show, so I had to do some camera work last night for the play. We finished up at around 9:30 pm. Its dark, and the roads have few travelers.
So, I'm driving on the country backroads to my house, and I was about halfway home when a truck in the oncoming lane is literally halfway in my lane! I swerve to miss him, and end up hitting some rough ground on the side of the road. I just knew that my front tire was going to go flat, but luckily there was a gas station down the road. I drove on the flat for another 100 yards or so to the gas station lovingly known as Joyner's Corner.
Of course the gas station is closed at this time of night, so I park by a light and jack up the car and take the lugnuts off, and the wheel is stuck! Can't get it off! I try calling the house, and the phone is busy.
I ask this old man who happened to pull up for some help getting this wheel off. He tries hitting it with the spare. Nothing! Then we try prying it off with both of our lugnut wrenches. Still nothing… He finally suggests that I put the tire back on, with the lugnuts on loosely, and drive around a bit to loosen the tire. Then he gets back into his car and drives off into the night.
So I put the tire back on, putting the lugnuts on loosely, take the car off the jack and drive around to loosen the tire up. After a few minutes of driving, I park under the light again and jack up the car only to find out that my lugnut wrench is missing. GONE! I guess the old man accidentally drove off with it.
I try calling home again – busy signal. So I'm like screwed at this point, the wheel still won't come off, no way to tighten the lugnuts even if I could, and the home phone is still busy.
Another man pulls up, this time a thoroughbred redneck. I ask him if he has a lugnut wrench I could borrow. He does… at home. And he drives off to get it. Luckily, he lives a mere 100 yards away. He comes back a few minutes later with a 4-way. We still can't get the wheel off. I ask if he has a hammer. He pulls out a 2 pound hammer from his cluttered trunkspace and literally beats the wheel off of the disc brake assembly. Success!!
So I change the tire, thank the man for his help and I'm off. I decide that I should only drive 45 mph because the spare doesn't sound right. Besides that, I have to hold the steering wheel to the left in order to go straight. I'm thinking at this point the alignment is a little off. The phone finally rings and I tell Amie about the whole ordeal.
I finally made it home around 11 pm. I got home and the first thing I told Amie is that we are trading that car in this week!
I left for work in the morning and found the spare tire was already flat!!! Great! Amie happily gives me a ride to work. I was there for about an hour and a half and Amie calls me and asks if I'm busy. Of course I'm at work, so I say, "no". She tells me that she has been on the phone with Michael Bracken at NeSmith Chevrolet, who sold us our Chevy Equinox back in October. She explained the situation, how this Toyota had survived the trip from California, had scratched paint, alignment problems and is currently sitting on a spare. She also explains our financial situation to him. He asks her what kind of car we are looking for. She replies, "As long as it is not a blue hatchback Chevy Aveo, we don't care". She also tells him that payments have to be under $300 a month. He crunches a few numbers and calls back saying, "It is done!"
I was thanking God on the way to Claxton. Just a few days ago, I got the idea in my head that we just could not afford to trade this car in. It had too much negative equity, and I just could not see with my credit score and income how this would even be possible. Besides, it badly needed a tuneup and a set of tires.
Michael had hooked us up with a silver 4-door Chevy Cobalt with a rear spoiler. It was a demo unit with 4000 miles on it. But the price was reduced by $3000 and would still come with a full manufacturer's warranty. Definitely just want we needed.
I asked Amie how is all of this happening? She turned around and asked me, "Don't you think God wants us to safely get to church?"
By 1:15, I was rolling home in a new Chevy Cobalt. I did not think that this would've happened so soon. But it did. And its funny, because we like to think that God is not interested in our daily struggles. But he wants to bless us and help us with our problems in these crazy and unpredictable ways. I think He's trying to teach me something about my preconceived notions about how God reveals His plan to us.
Why does God allow bad things to happen?
Current mood: accomplished
Category: Religion and Philosophy
One question many people have about God is, "Why does God allow bad things to happen?" Well, Cam Huxford, Senior Pastor of Savannah Christian Church explains the answer to this question in a sermon entitled "Recycling Your Pain". I won't recycle the entire message here, but I will leave you with a couple of key scriptures from this message:
"Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed.
1 Peter 4:12
"Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will recieve the crown of life that God has promised to those who love Him."
OGLE - OpenGL 3D model screen capture
Current mood: cheerful
Category: Web, HTML, Tech
I just found out about a neat application called OGLE. OGLE was developed so that users of OpenGL applications (listen up gamers!) could reuse the 3D models in those applications for other purposes, such as animation or graphic design. I haven't used it yet, but I will definitely be looking into this one for sure.
OGLE creates an .obj file in the directory where your application runs. You can open this kind of file in Blender (free!), ArtOfIllusion (also free!), Maya (not free), or whatever other 3D editing/viewing/modelling application you use. This could be a good way of getting gaming characters or level designs into your own 3D animated movie.
On Jan 4th, I posted some info about a class project in my Marketing 421 course at University of Phoenix. Our team had came up with an energy drink called "Einstein" with a target market made up of college students and intellectual professionals. It was to be made with all-natural ingredients and infused with herbal extracts.
An article I found on MSN describes the new marketing strategies of Coke and Pepsi. <-- Read Article Here -->. It seems that these high-fructose soda pop giants are viewing natural energy drinks as a "viable investment". Perhaps the Einstein idea may see production yet! Stay tuned for more...
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accomplished
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