Friday, September 29, 2006

Goodbye Newsgator... Hello Google Reader!

I think that the time has come...

I have been an avid user of the Newgator online RSS reader for quite some time now (Maybe as long as a year). It has been my one stop shop for all of the latest on the internet. In fact, I use it so much that I have it burned in my brain to visit http://mail.yahoo.com and then http://www.newsgator.com... I almost type the two addresses as one.

When Google first came out with Google reader, I did not really like it (And I love Google). Yesterday, Google gave me what I wanted and updated the google reader. It now has the features that I have longed for. The main feature that I wanted was the ability to mark an item as read (As if it were email)... After playing around with the reader today, I believe that I may be switching from Newsgator to Google Reader. I will keep both running for a while and see which one I like the best. First impression- Google rocks!

Monday, September 25, 2006

Silicon Valley, California

Tiffany and I are settling back into real life this week after a visit to San Jose, California last week.

Our adventures began on Saturday, September 16 with separate flights to San Jose. My flights were all messed up going to California, so our luggage also got messed up... I think it finally arrived Sunday afternoon (Note to self: Never fly through Chicago again... Oh, never fly United either).

When we arrived in California, our "son" met us. Mark is a long time friend from college and he flew himself up from the LA area to spend Sunday with us. We call him our son because he practically lived with us for a year during college.. Good times!

Sunday morning, we took a trip on the Roaring Camp Railroad! We rode an old Shay Steam Locamotive up into a mountain filled with giant redwood trees. We will post pictures on Flickr shortly. After riding the railroad, we drove up the coast to San Francisco! We drove down the famous Lombard street, walked around the touristy places and drove across the Golden Gate Bridge... Again, I will post pictures soon.

Monday morning put a stop to the tourism as I began my week long intensive study of Polycom Certified Video Engineer training... The course is very intense but wonderful. While I was in training, Tiffany spent time in and around San Jose. She had a great time and did not want to leave.

Since we were in Silicon Valley, we made sure to visit a few of my favorite places: Google, Yahoo, Intel, Apple, etc... Those pictures will also be posted soon!

Friday evening, before getting a couple hours of sleep and flying home, we drove to San Luis Obispo to see my step brother and his wife (JT and Demetria). We had a great time with them and caught up on a few years worth of information (Yeah, time travels WAY too fast around here).

Once again, our luggage was lost on the way back from California, but it arrived shortly before I had to pick Tiff up from the airport.

Now we get to settle back into life and the rush. Hopefully, I will be able to take my cerification test soon and add "CVE" to my list of accomplishments. I am very excited about this certification as it is very comprehensive in the video conferencing world. It also comes at a good time and coincides with my recent promotion.

Well, time to get back to the grind stone!

Monday, September 11, 2006

Promotion

I received a pleasant surprise at work on Friday, September 8th. A few posts back, I mentioned how busy we have been. Well, it has paid off at work. I was promoted to the position of Infrastructure Engineer/Project Coordinator!!

I am very excited about this new position as it gives me an opportunity to continue learning and developing skills. At the same time, I am in a position that places me on the cutting edge of video conferencing and audio/visual. I am not sure what my full responsibilities will be at this point, but I do know it will be fun! This is the height of geekdom for me!

I cannot help but praise the Lord for how he has been working in our lives. He is teaching us so much lately and opening doors that we would have never imagined. This new position will give me skills and experience that I hope we can use for the Lord.

I look forward to the new challenges that are ahead!

The Walk- Matthew 7:13-20

One of my favorite Steven Curtis Chapman songs is "The Walk." As I was reading through Matthew 7:13-20 today, this song came to mind. Our walk with the Lord and our walk in life is why we are here. How we choose to walk through this life shows what we truly believe and what our goals are. On top of that, how we choose to walk through this life will also determine how our lives turn out. That may seem like an obvious statement, but we tend to live like our decisions do not have outcomes and consequences.

If we are walking on the narrow path, our goal will be to glorify God. That narrow path will be hard at times and we will be tempted to take the easy road, but the results of taking the narrow path are wonderful. The deepest and most rewarding pleasure in life is serving God and glorifying God. That should be our number one goal at all times.

This truth really hit home when Tiffany and I went to Bali, Indonesia in 2005. While in Bali, we studied "The Blazing Center" by John Piper. The material was more than we could take in during one week. Since that trip, the Lord has really impressed these truths in my mind and it has helped me know how to focus.

The Walk (Steven Curtis Chapman)
I've got a Grandpa Rudd
He gave thirty years to the lumber yard
Loving his family and working hard
Got a faith like a solid rock
He's just doing the walk
I've got a friend named Larry
He sends me letters from a foreign land
He moved there with his kids and his pretty wife Mary
To answer a holy call
He's just doing the walk

You can run with the big dogs
You can fly with the eagles
You can jump through all the hoops
And climb the ladder to the top
But when it all comes down
You know it all comes down to the walk

There's a man I know
He said He'd come to show us the way
He died on a cross and He rose from the grave
And proved He was more than talk
He taught us the walk
And now I'm singing my songs
Standing up on a big, bright stage
And I do my dance while the music plays
But when the music stops
Am I doing the walk

You can run with the big dogs
You can fly with the eagles
You can jump through all the hoops
And climb the ladder to the top
But when it all comes down
You know it all comes down to this

Do justly, love mercy
Walk humbly with your God

'Cause you can run with the big dogs
You can fly with the eagles
You can jump through all the hoops
And climb the ladder to the top
But when it all comes down
You know it all comes down, down, down, down, down
To the walk