Tech Update

It's turning into kind of tech-y week.  There were two fairly big announcements yesterday by two of the major video game companies.

First, Nintendo announced that on Sep. 12th, they're going to drop the price on the  DSi and DSi XL by $20 each.  The DSi will go from $169.99 to $149.99 and the DSi XL will go from $189.99 to $169.99.  I've never owned a DS.  By the time I thought I really might want one, I had a PSP and an iPod Touch and they off plenty of game options for the road.  True, there are a couple of Mario and Zelda gamest that it would be nice to get to play, but I don't have time to play the games I have for the xbox, but less for a DS.  Still, the way Nintendo has sold these things in the past, dropping the price is sure to have an immediate effect on sales.  At least until they announce the release date and price of the 3DS at the end of September.

As Nintendo was dropping the price of one of its products, Microsoft decided it was a good time to raise the price of one of theirs.  They're increasing the price of an Xbox LIVE Gold subscription by $10.  It's going from $49.99 to $59.99.  For the next couple of weeks, you can get a card from Amazon for $38.54.  If you have a LIVE subscription, now would probably be the time to get a card to have on hand the next time you need to renew.  I don't think I've ever actually paid full price for a year of LIVE before.  Someone usually has the cards on sale for $30 or so at some point in the year and I usually try to get one of those.  It still bothers me that they're raising the price though.  I don't know that what they offer is really worth $60.  Of course, if I want to be able to watch Netflix or play online with my friends, I don't really have much of a choice in the matter short of selling the Xbox and getting a PS3.

The last bit of tech news for the week happens tomorrow.  Apple is holding their now annual iPod press release event tomorrow afternoon.  Most of the rumors agree that they're finally going to add a camera to the iPod Touch.  It also looks like there's going to be a new Nano that includes a small touch screen.  They should also be showing off iOS 4 for the iPad and there may even be a new iPad model announced.  Then there are rumors that Apple is going to revamp the Apple TV box and that they've worked out a deal with TV studios to allow for $.99 TV show rentals.  Whatever they actually do announce, I'm sure it will get me worked into a geek frenzy and I'll be talking about it on Thursday, so just prepare yourself.

--Paul

Ready to Rock

I'm pretty excited about this weekend.  Saturday we're going to be taking the youth group to En Fuego in Verbena, AL.  It's a one day Christian music festival and it should be incredible.  They've got a pile of great bands playing and if all the kids that signed up actually go, we're going to have a pile of kids there.  I can't wait.  We haven't been to a concert since we went to Atlanta in January, so I think we're due for a little live music intake.  I would imagine that on Sunday, we're going to be a little on the tired side.

So that's the big thing this weekend.  If we can survive taking a bunch of teenagers to a music festival, then we'll have accomplished something.  I'll let you know on Tuesday how it went.

Other than that, I don't have much to talk about.  DeAnne's still working like crazy and with her working, I've taken to keeping the house in order.  Yes, I've been doing laundry, cooking and various other things.  Yes, it is possible for a man to take care of that stuff.

That's about all we've been doing though.  Have a great weekend and if I'm still alive after Saturday, I'll let you know how awesome the weekend was.

--Paul

Head Above Water

It's been a tough two weeks or so, but I think that last night we finally caught a glimpse of the proverbial light.  I don't know how many hours DeAnne has put in down at the school, much less how much time she's put in at home, but I think she's just about got things organized and rolling.  She's basically had to squeeze what most teachers would accomplish over a summer into as short a time span as possible while simultaneously teaching.  I'm not an educator, but she's put in a lot of hard work and has been dedicated to doing a good job and I think that considering the situation she was thrown in to, she's handled things pretty well.

School was basically our weekend.  I've tried to help as much as I can.  Friday we were planning on going to the football game but never made it down to the field.  We spent most of the night cleaning the room and trying to create some more space by rearranging furniture.  Saturday morning I helped out at the new building at church and then we went down to the school again to get some more work done down there.  We didn't stay too long though.  I had to come back and help Bro. Matt prepare his slide shows for his mission presentation Sunday night.  So after doing that, the Brady's invited us to dinner that was quite good.  In between services on Sunday, we found ourselves at the school again and then last night we of course were at the school again.

Like I said though, I think we're close to the point where DeAnne's caught up on everything and about has everything established and rolling.  By the end of the week, I think she'll be on solid ground and able to not spend every waking moment thinking about school.

--Paul

Crazy Week

It's been a pretty wild week.  Most of the craziness has come from DeAnne being called to fill in for Mrs. Wahl at Pleasant Home.  Mrs. Wahl became gravely ill just before school started and they called DeAnne last week to see if she could fill in for her.  DeAnne agreed and it's been a whirlwind ever since.  I'm not sure how many hours she's spent at the school but I think she's done nothing but work either there or at home for the past six days solid.  The other sixth grade teacher retired last year, so while they moved a fifth grade teacher up to that position, it's basically two new sixth grade teachers trying to get the year rolling under unusual circumstances.  I think it's starting to come together though.  DeAnne has said that each day was better than the one before it, it's just going to take a little time to get everything going.

So while DeAnne's been busy with that, I've been trying to hold down the fort at home.  I still haven't had a chance to cut the grass.  Hopefully, the rain will hold off today and I'll be able to get it done this afternoon.  PHS, along with probably every other high school, starts football season tomorrow night so we're going to go to the game.  Saturday is a work day at the church and then hopefully we'll have a chance to rest up a little.

That's about it.  Should be a busy weekend.  Hope you all have a good one.

--Paul

Weekend In The Woods

This is the first year I've gone on the annual men's retreat for church and I have to say, I had a much better time than I ever dreamed I would have.  It was great to get to hang out with a bunch of guys and stay up late and cut up and pray and talk about God's Word.  The facilities were pretty nice too.  Like I said, I had never been before, so I really didn't know what to expect when they said we were going to be staying in a cabin in a camp ground.  Turned out to be a pretty nice house type thing with a bunch of bedrooms and small bathrooms.  The beds weren't exactly the most comfortable thing on the planet, but for one night, they were fine.

Sunday, as usual, was filled with church.  We had a good crowd for Sunday School as school has started and people are through with vacations and things like that.  It was as good a day as Sundays ever are, so it was pretty awesome overall.

I think it has now rained every day for the past 5 days or so.  I'm never going to get my grass cut.  Every time I think I'm going to get the chance, it pours.  I've got band practice tonight and then Wed. is out with church, so it'll be Thursday now before I have a chance to get it done.  I'm afraid a liberal is going to accuse me of cutting down a rain forest when I finally do get to cut my yard.

See you on Thursday.

--Paul

Rollin'

DeAnne approved the white background to the blog posts yesterday, so I guess we're good to go with the new look.  The only other thing she asked me about was the font size, which I have now increased ever so slightly.

I haven't talked about music in a while and a lot of that has to do with the fact that there hasn't really been a lot of music to come out lately that I've enjoyed.  This is especially true of the secular realm.  In the Christian music world though, I've found several albums that have become staples on my iPod.

Needtobreathe have two albums out, the second of which came out about a year ago.  Both "The Outsiders" (mp3) and their first CD, "The Heat" (mp3) are incredible albums.  The band is from South Carolina and they have kind of a southern bluesy thing going on.  It's hard to place it exactly or to find a good comparison, but either way, they're an incredible band and I highly recommend both of their albums.

David Crowder Band is a group that's been around for a while.  Their new album, "Church Music" (mp3) is pretty special though.  This is probably about polar opposite of Needtobreathe's sound in that DCB takes a more electronic approach to this album.  Sounds swirl and swell and at times threaten to overwhelm the whole thing, but it seems as though the band were aware of this and knew when to back off at just the right moment.  That being said, the songs can stand on their own without all the production.  "Summer Happiness" is an EP that contains four of the "Church Music" songs played acoustic.  "Alleluia, Sing" and "How He Loves" are just incredible here.

Finally, Fee have two albums out and much like Needtobreathe, those albums will likely never leave my iPod.  The band is no longer together and there's talk that it's do to some infidelity between band members and wives and it's a complete shame that something like that happens to a band that has written such awesome music for the Lord, but we all sin and fall short and while my heart breaks that whatever happened happened, I believe that the music they put out is still valid and worth listening to.  "Hope Rising" (mp3) and "We Shine" (mp3) are both great, great albums.  I probably have a little more fondness for "Hope Rising" but that's probably only because I bought it first.  Great production, great lyrics, great playing.  All of it adds up to Fee.  We're already playing a couple of their songs on Wednesday nights for the youth and we're probably going to add at least one or two more in the near future.  I just hate that this is probably all we're ever going to have of them.

So that's five (or six if you count the DCB EP) of the albums that I can't stop listening to right now.  There are a couple of others, but I think I'm going to save them for a post later on.

The weekend is going to be pretty busy for me.  I'm going on the annual men's retreat that I church does.  It's the first time I've been and I'm looking forward to it.  I'm not sure what DeAnne's going to do with herself, but I would imagine it'll involve her sister and Liam.  Have a good weekend.

--Paul

Blog Design

After DeAnne's comment yesterday I switched to a different template but I didn't really like it.  I've now gone back to the kind of monochrome scheme that I had but I made the post backgrounds white and the text black so that hopefully it's a little easier on the eyes.  Let me know if it's still too harsh.

--Paul

Irony

I just noticed this morning when I got on the blog to write today's entry, that my last post was titled "Back to Normal".  I thought this was kind of ironic since a day after posting that, I changed up the look and feel of the blog.  Anyway, let me know what think about the new look.  It's just one of the default setups that Blogger offers but I kind of liked it.  I'm starting to really feel the whole "minimalist" craze that's started taking root in technology circles lately.

A solid weekend has past.  Saturday I managed to get the grass cut and the neighbors asked if I could help them burn our joint yard trash pile that's been needing to be burned for a year, so I gladly went along with that.  It actually worked out perfectly.  About the time it was down to smolders, it started raining and rained just enough to put the fire out.

Saturday night, Bryan held a back to school party for the church youth boys and it was pretty awesome.  We held a ladderball tournament and though I and my partner only managed to come in third, I didn't think that was too shabby since neither of us had ever played before.

Sunday was pretty awesome too.  Sara and Liam went to church with us and it was nice to have them with us.  Sunday night, Garrett and I led worship like we would on Wednesday and everyone seemed to enjoy it.

So all around, a good weekend.  I'm out of time, but I wanted to mention that besides the new look, there are a couple of other things I'm doing or am going to start doing with the blog.  One is that I'm probably going to start posting more and at more random times.  The other is that I've joined a program called Amazon Associates.  Basically, it allows me to link to products on Amazon.com and if someone clicks the link and buys the product, I get a commission.  The ladderball link above is an example of how this works.  I'm not begging you all to buy stuff this way, but I talk so much about different things (movies, music, games, etc...) that I figured it would be a way for me to get a little reward for all my blogging.  I don't expect to become rich, but I figured it couldn't hurt to try and certainly, you're not going to hurt my feelings if no one ever uses the links to buy anything.  I'm going to try and have it be as unobtrusive as possible.  I don't want to annoy you guys with product links, but don't be surprised if the titles of things I'm talking about start showing up as links.

--Paul

Back To Normal

Liam returned to his Mom Tuesday and things have been pretty quiet since.  It took a while for me to get used to him not being here.

In the meantime though, DeAnne's back has flared back up.  It's been worse the past two days than it has been since it started giving her trouble a couple of weeks ago.  We're not sure what happened to get her to this point, but she's got an appointment to see her doctor tomorrow.  She's in a lot of pain though, so I'm not sure what he's going to do for her.

Perhaps the coolest thing this week has been that it's "Shark Week" on Discovery.  I set the DVR up on Sunday to record pretty much the entire week.  It's amazing how much of the stuff they show they just rerun from one year to the next.  I think we've seen the first two "Air Jaws" specials 20 times each.  It's still awesome though and I guess we forget enough of it from one year to the next to enjoy watching it all again.  I just wish that they ran more new stuff each year.

We've also been watching a new show on Discovery called "The Colony".  It's a reality show where they simulate a global outbreak of a super-virus that decimates the world's population.  Kind of like a reality T.V. version of Stephen King's "The Stand".  They take 7 people and drop them off in an area with minimal supplies and they have to survive for 50 days.  They've run two episodes so far and it's been pretty awesome.  The biggest problem the survivors have faced is roaming gangs of other survivors.  On the third day a gang came in and took half their supplies and since then they've been trying their best to improve their defenses.

We should have a quiet weekend coming up.  Hope you all have a good one.

--Paul

Observations

Out nephew Liam has been with us since Saturday night and it's been really great.  For the most part he's been really good.  He got a little cranky yesterday but we think that he's hit a growth spurt and he was just really tired all day.  Overall though, it's been really awesome having him stay with us.  We've enjoyed the heck out of him and it's going to be kind of lonely around the house when he goes back to his Momma this afternoon.

I've learned a lot the past three days.  I'm sure none of this comes as a surprise to anyone who has children but for me, it was an interesting crash course in child care.  DeAnne says I came through with flying colors though.  

So what have I learned?  Well, for starters: Never, ever underestimate the power of a number 2 diaper.  After two mornings of major accomplishments in that area by our little champ, I have learned that when you go to crack one of those suckers open, you best be prepared for anything.  The take-away: An investment in a has-mat suit may not be a bad idea for when we have children of our own.

Along those same lines is the fact that no matter how nasty you think bodily fluids are, a baby will have up to three of them coming out of them at any given time.  Some ooze and some erupt but either way, steel your nerves and guard your gag reflex because they. are. coming.

Not every thing I learned was about the nasty stuff though.  There's also the fact that a rocking chair of some sort is worth its weight in gold.  We don't have one and with DeAnne's back like it is, I've become the de-facto rocking chair in the house.  I don't mind.  Actually, I really enjoy putting him to sleep.  That's something else I've learned:  When a baby goes to sleep, their face is a picture of pure love and is one of the sweetest things I've seen this side of Heaven.  However, I feel like I started a work-out routine that's going to kill me if I keep it up.  This boy is a chunk and after three days of toting him around, I'm starting to feel it.

That's leads me to another good lesson:  In order to prepare for a baby, you should probably start a weight lifting regimen.  At nearly five months, Liam is a hoss of a baby.  What I've found though is that he's not so bad on his on.  It's the accessories that kill you.  The car seat, the diaper bag, the pack-and-play.  All this stuff adds up to an insane amount of weight that my fat tail is not ready for.  Push-ups, here we come.

I'm sure there are plenty of other things that I've picked up the past few days, but I think that's good enough for now.  As I said, we say goodbye to Liam this afternoon but hopefully his Mom will let us have another sleep over sometime soon.  

Have a good Tuesday.

--Paul