Teddy Love

Mikayla loves her teddy! I snapped this today in our kitchen. I used my 50mm f/1.8 lens with no flash and got a bunch of blurry pictures and a couple good ones. This was a good one :o)

Happy Birthday Zach!

Hey, Zach! Happy birthday! Remember this?

For everyone else, let me tell the story: My cousin CJ (left) learned in school that you should never talk to strangers. He passed this information on to Zach (right) and the two of them decided that this would be something fun to play. So, they dressed up, walked out, and said, "We're the strangers!"

Zach, if you think this is embarrassing, you must not have seen Dad's post on his blog yet. Everyone, you should check out this post! Krista also has a birthday post on her blog.

Spyware

I did it. I ran an app that I shouldn't have and it infected my PC. It was a nasty piece of malware too. It loaded everything under the sun on my computer. I had a browser hijack, pop-up ads, dialers, a trojan, some kind of trackware, and more - you name it. I ended up running Adaware, Spybot S&D, MS Antispyware, Trend Micro's web scanner, Norton, CW Shredder, hijackthis, and AVG. I'll probably end up reinstalling XP though, because I STILL HAVE SPYWARE! I get blue screens of death at random times, ads still keep popping up in IE, ads pop up in a new tab in Firefox and resize my window (very annoying), and more weird little glitches that I didn't have a couple days ago.

My hatred for spyware probably isn't much different than anyone else out there. But, this is the first time I've really been hit bad on this end of the spectrum. Usually, I am the one fixing other people's PCs. I am the one telling people how to avoid spyware.

There was one little program that I needed to use to format my USB thumb drive to make it bootable and the app cost money. I knew I would probably only be running the program once in my entire lifetime and at the time $19.99 sounded like too much to pay. So, I found a trial version hack that would allow me to do what I needed to do. Oh how I wish I had just paid the 20 bucks!! Let this just serve as a warning to others - hacks, cracks, warez, etc. is a bad idea to get into. I know this, I tell people this, but I got trapped. No matter what your ethical stance on the topic of piracy is, it will cost you time. It won't take long until you hit that piece of software that installs every piece of spyware known to man.

It makes me feel stupid. One little app ran and BOOM, my computer is shot. It's slowly bleeding now and won't be fixed until I reinstall. At least Zach showed me nlite - a nifty little app that allows you to create your own XP install disk. You can add in all the updates and patches, make the install unattended (pop the cd in, reboot, walk away, come back to XP installed), and more. Very cool.

Over a dozen pop-ups have popped up since I started writhing this post. I'll take any suggestions for other software I could run to try and fix my system...

If only I was running a mac...none of this would happen. Maybe someday there will be spyware problems on the mac, but there isn't right now. That is just one more reason to make me drool over a mac.

Parking in the Garage!

That's right! I have unpacked all the boxes on the side of the garage that the Explorer will park on. This is very exciting. This means no ice on the windshield this winter. This means we can pack and unpack dry when it's raining.

It might not seem like much, but it's a big deal to me. Now we just need to work on Krista's car getting in the garage...that will be a little longer.

Apple Napkins

Apple needs to make some napkins...so those of us drooling over their products can put them under our chins...my keyboard is a soppy mess!

Yes, yesterday was Apple's 3rd announcement in 5 weeks. They talked about the new quad processor macs, updates to the powerbooks, but the coolest thing was something designed just for photographers. Aperture. Aperture is their new "Picasa on steroids" as I have started calling it. It is WAY cool. Basically, it is an image organizer, raw converter, basic editor, and more - all designed for the photographer. I watched the videos on it last night and wow! Go check them out now:

http://www.apple.com/aperture/

For a photographer, this as a companion to Photoshop makes the ultimate digital photo editing package. There are two downsides to it however. First, it only runs on a mac, so I need one of those. Second, it's $500 (when it comes out in 6-8 weeks). Now, I need a mac. Maybe a quad G5? :o) I'd settle for a nice 20" imac. However, all that costs money. Maybe someday photography will really take off for me, but for now, I'll have to just drool.

Come on Apple! Provide us with napkins!

;o)

A Walk Down Memory Lane

A couple weeks ago I took a Wednesday off from work. I spent the afternoon getting my Comcast internet hooked up and setting up my desk, computers, etc. However, I spent the morning at my old college. The school formerly known as Western Baptist College, now known as Corban College.

It was a lot of fun. I met Eugene at Farrar (my old dorm) and we ate breakfast in the much improved dining hall, walked around the campus visiting a few people, and then going to chapel. The new chapel building is INCREDIBLE! If you ever went to WBC/Corban during the time when they met in the gym for chapel, you need to go see their new building. Wow.

It was amazing to me how at home I felt there. Time went by very quickly and I was reluctant to leave. Memories of hanging out with old friends, studying, doing stupid things, late night Taco Bell runs, falling asleep in World Thought & Culture, working in the Communications office, running out of breath walking up and down the steep hills, going to dorm meetings, staying up late talking about all the problems in the world...I could go on and on.

Sometimes I wish I could go back. But most of the time I am grateful I am done with it :o) It was a lot of work and I am glad to have moved on. I'll go back and reminisce any day though...so many memories of my home for 4 years...

10 Tacos!?

Saturday was a long day for Krista and I. Mikayla was acting up all day, Lily was getting into EVERYTHING, Krista and I were trying to unpack, etc.. We ended up getting a lot done, but getting very tired in the process. I decided I'd make dinner. Well, I can't make much, so it was going to be tuna noodle casserole. However, after a couple hours of unpacking and thinking about making dinner, I decided I'd go buy dinner and bring it home. Krista was in the mood for Chinese and I wanted a grilled stuft burrito and a cheesy gordita crunch. So, I stopped by Safeway, picked up a $5 plate of Chinese and then headed to Taco Bell. I should mention that I went to the Keizer, Oregon Taco Bell. I was surprised to only find one car ahead of me in the drive-thru line. I ordered my grilled stuft burrito and my cheesy gordita crunch and pulled forward. In less than a minute my order was ready and then I pulled out of the parking lot. I noticed the car in front of me had backed up and was pulling up to the drive-thru window as I left. "Bummer for him," I thought. I got home and unpacked Krista's dinner and then opened my Taco Bell bag. At least they got the fire sauce right. I was looking at 10 tacos. Regular beef/cheese/lettuce/crunchy tacos. I thought about registering www.ihatetacobell.com, but it's already taken. So, I guess it would have to be www.keizertacobellstinks.com. I have problems EVERY time I go there. So, I guess it's my fault for not looking in the bag until I got home. And, ontop of everything, I ate all 10 tacos that night for dinner...

Our New Place! (Photos)

This is our new place! Let me give you a photo tour.

This is the living room. Bernie likes to hang out in here and watch TV with Mikayla.

Another view of the living room.

One more view. You can see the entry into the kitchen and hallway on the left there.

This is our embarassingly large TV. My parents traded/gave it to us. We are very appreciative.

Welcome to Toy's 'R' Us. Oh wait...this is our playroom/family room.

And the kitchen.

The coolest thing in the kitchen. Get it? "Cool"est thing? LOL!

And the dinning room.

Had to get a shot of the toilet.

I'll pan left to right in the girls' room. Note the design on the wall.

Panning...Mikayla's bed...note the design on the wall.

Panning...Lily's crib.

Low-light close-up of the design Krista painted on the wall.

The very dark office.

And this is my desk! 2 computers for 1 Bill. I'll never be able to go back to 1 again.

Mikayla likes to type her ABCs on Mommy's computer.

This is our room.

And this is what's left to unpack...the garage. As soon as it's clear, I get to park in it. And the ice is coming. I can't wait to park inside!

That's all for now!

Alive, just busy

Yes, I'm alive. I know I haven't posted much lately, but moving is a big deal and there is so much to do. Unpacking is a lot of work. I am no where near unpacked and I've been extremely tired the last couple weeks.

Well, I did it. I got a MySpace.com account. I figured if a site gets more page views than Google, I'd better check it out. [edit @10:30PM] So, for all you MySpace.com'ers, here is a link to my page:

http://www.myspace.com/englishw

Anyway, there's a quick update. I'll post again when I actually have content to post =)

Let's go to Toys 'R' Us and get a...

...8-foot long Burmese Python!?!!?! WHOA! Check it out!

Statesman Journal Artilce

At Last! Internet Again!

Well, I survived. My server has been up for 12 hours and 34 minutes and I've downloaded 3.34GB of data. That's a good start. The only things left to do computer-wise is the wireless bridge to the Xbox (worked on that a bit) and Krista's computer. I think Krista plans to set that up today.

Our move went very well. We are working our way through unpacking boxes, but it is going to be a long road. I have a pile of boxes in the garage right where I want to park. As soon as I get through the boxes, I can park there. Hopefully I'll be able to talk myself into parting with some junk. I realized with this move that I have too much junk.

Well, I'm going to cut this short because I have over 1,000 un-read stories in my Bloglines...I've been out of touch and I need to catch up.