New contest, same as the first, but a little bit later with a bit more verse!
New additional rule: If you’re already won, you can’t win again.
Author: josh
iTunes Song Up For Grabs
In the comments section of this entry, I’ve posted a code for a free iTunes song download that I just got off a Diet Pepsi bottle (yes, diet, because my metabolism shut off in college and I’m feelin’ the effects). You may use this code completely guilt-free on these conditions: you must leave a comment saying that you used it, what song you downloaded, and why or how you picked the song you downloaded. Maybe pick a song that has a bit of history with you that you don’t currently own? I don’t know. That’s the fun part besides the fact that you keep the song.
I suppose the only other conditions are that you have a copy of iTunes (which is free), and that no one else used the code before you did.
Good luck.
If people think this is fun, I may do it again sometime before April 30th.
#redefine
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what is permanent and what is temporary, and how the truth of that doesn’t necessarily show very deeply in my life, but especially not very deeply in my attitudes. I realize that what I’m about to write is all very rudimentary in the spectrum of Christian Theology, but it’s something that I keep coming back to, and I can’t pretend it’s not affecting me, no matter how simple it seems. Let me explain.
I spend a huge amount of my time chasing happiness. See if any of these ring a bell for you, personally. They’re all true for me. Some are things almost everyone wants. Some are more Josh-specific.
- I want to be good at my job.
- I want to have fun, interesting relationships with other people.
- I want to feel like I’m a good spouse and friend.
- I want to have fun little gadgets with which I can entertain myself.
- I want to be a talented musician.
- I want to live in a cool/interesting house with cool/interesting stuff.
- I want to experience new and interesting things regularly.
- I want to be (at least) reasonably respected wherever I go.
That list could go on and on for quite awhile. When I hold the entire list (not shown here) in my head, and I think about the percentage of my time I invest in achieving those things, I come out to a figure that is almost 100%. And that really disappoints me. I think some people will say, “Well, most or all of those are good goals, there’s nothing wrong with that,” but I think that response is ignoring a larger fact. All those things are attempting to bring just a moment of happiness, a miniature “high” from which I will eventually come back down, at which point I will simply repeat the cycle and try to get back up there again. It’s kinda pointless, isn’t it?
PG&E
I just love it when I stumble upon stuff like this. I’m unfortunately spending the evening calling credit card and utility companies to switch our service to our new address in Cupertino. (Yes, it took me this long to get around to it, and yes, we’ve already gone back to our old mailbox and picked up all our old mail.) Anyhow, I’m on the phone with the electric and gas company out here (called PG&E) and I’m listening to the automated phone options they give you, and the recorded woman says this:
“For gas leaks, downed electrical wires, or any other kind of dangerous hazard, press ‘3.’”
Now, what exactly happens if I press “3”?
I really like the way that, in my own twisted little world, the “any other kind of dangerous hazard,” leaves it totally open-ended to the kind of destruction I might cause. That really kept me on my toes.
I was a little disappointed that I only ended up vaporizing a house down the block. I was hoping for something more colorful, or at least noisy.
Servants of the Most-high God
My folks were out here visiting Steph and I between March 14th and March 22nd, and I haven’t had the chance to blog about it yet.
Let me begin by saying that my parents are amazing servants. They came out here as a vacation, and since Stephanie and I happened to also be moving to Cupertino that week, they spent the vast majority of their vacation working like dogs to help us get everything situated. I’m guessing they probably each put in 45- or 50-hour weeks for us. My dad spent countless hours fixing the old ’87 Volkswagen Jetta that I have, which I hadn’t driven since January when something happened to the electrical ground and some mechanics told me that it also had bad tie rods and suggested I not drive it if I didn’t want to put more money into it.
They helped us pack and unpack, they went to our old storage facility and brought boxes home from there, and they even went grocery shopping for us. Yes, grocery shopping. It was awesome. And it made me realize that, as a servant, I suck. I knew that before, but seeing their attitudes really drove it home.
But that’s not the point.
Holy Luncheon Meat, Batman!
OK, this whole blog spam thing is getting out of hand. In the last six hours, I’ve had over fifty attempts by someone or some group of people to do comment spam all over my blog. All fifty have been automatically blocked, and I simply can’t go without mentioning what tool did the blocking for me, because I’m so thankful for it.
MT Blacklist is a totally amazing blog-spam blocker, and if you have a blog, you simply must, must, must get it. There is no other choice but to get it and use it and love it. I would sooner watch Gigli than not use MT Blacklist for my blog. It’s that amazing. All the blogs on my server benefit from it, and my sanity stays in tact because I get a little bit of joy every time one of those evil idiots is blocked.
Do your worst, spammers! I will block you all! Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-haaaa!
Next Up: The Nutcracker
OK, this one’s going up with no delay. This video (Windows Media format) absolutely blew my mind. I mean, I know that robots will be doing many of our jobs in the next hundred years, but I never figured they’d be creeping in on one of Eddie’s passions.
At about 2:15 into the clip, I thought two of the robots were gonna get jiggy wit’ it. Or at least get down and feel alright.
I wonder if they can do The Robot.
The funny part is that the dance section they do after about 2:30 reminds me of the motions commonly seen by Stephanie and I through the window of a Japanese nursing home we used to live near in San Jose. Every time we drove by, we’d see about a dozen old Japanese people surrounding a large, rear-projection TV with a guy in a blue jumpsuit standing in front of a green hedge doing some kind of Tai Chi or something. All the old folks would follow his motions while staying in sync with each other. We saw it so often we came to expect it every time we drove by the place, and were greatly disappointed when they weren’t in there, slowing swishing their arms around through the air.
Now I can just have a robot do it! Sweet. Thank you, technology. Cuz you know, ain’t nobody gonna complain about dancing robots.