Visa Update

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We got a Visa update today. Lilly has an appointment early in March at the embassy in Frankfurt to get it taken care of. :-D

This is way ahead of our projections. We're looking into booking the flights now...

Thoughts on Education and 63

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TREEINFOREST wrote an interesting article about funding being cut to a school/special program that he attended. It got me thinking, at first, about the Robin Hood plan that destroyed so many of the academic offering of the Highland Park High School school district as I was growing up, and it made me wonder how much those drops in funding "lessened" my educational experience.

In the end, I still had some really good ones though. Band was mostly unaffected, and I was able to get into Robotics, which turned out to be a major event in my life. However, right after I graduated, within the next year or so, almost all of the really great teachers were gone. (Not all of them though!) Many of these had been teaching in the district for 10, 20, or even 30+ years. The problem was, as I was told (my people in the know!), that they could no longer be afforded under Robin Hood, and many of them simply quit or were forced into retirement.

However, as I read further into TREEINFOREST's article, I found that the things he was describing there really reflected my thoughts on the recent "demise" (it sort of officially still seems to exist, but it only meets in an informal sense) of 63. It was that ministry that was used by God to bring me back into a walk with Him. In fact, I've been walking closer to Him than ever before, largely because of the influence of that ministry. Now, it's all but gone because people have chosen not to invest the time (as opposed to the state investing money) into it. (there is a money component, too, but I'm not paying too much attention to it at the moment) When they had meetings to discuss and decide 63's future, I was there, and I voiced my opposition. (That's kind of like writing a letter, right?) I decided that I would yield to God's will on the matter. And, I have.

Today though, after church, there was a church lunch during which various leaders of the various teams talked about the ministries they had been running or the things they had been doing. There was some pretty touching stuff. It surprised me though how much vehemence I felt when Grant announced the change of 63 to something far more informal.

However, I would not even be writing this right now if I had not just read TREEINFOREST's post. I can't do anything about the 63 thing. I can't even volunteer to help. Of course, for starters, in order to help, there would have to be a program to help, right? But, more significantly in my case, I simply wouldn't and won't be able to. In about 2 months, I'm getting married to Lilly. We've got so much to do before then. Then, at the end of September, we're planning to move to Germany. Between these two colossal things and the additional fact that I wouldn't want to allocate any additional responsibilities into my life during the early part of our marriage, there's no way I could dedicate enough time to helping.

I think that is what helps to make me so sad about it. I realize that, as things appear to be now, it might not ever go back to being what it was. And, even if it does, it will probably be too late for me to enjoy it. (I guess I'm thinking selfishly, eh?) I wonder to myself, "Surely, if God wants this ministry to survive and thrive, He will make it do so. Therefore this must be His will." That comforts me a bit. It doesn't help my selfish cravings though.

As we keep walking forward into God's plan for tomorrow (and the day after that...and the day after that...and the...), I pray that I will have the courage to remember that God's will is done. I can not (and should not!) worry about or try to change that. God's promises and God's faithfulness are unchanging and eternal.

**EPILOGUE**

In the meantime though, this conclusion causes me to give light to another ongoing situation in which Lilly and I (especially Lilly!!) would ask for your prayers and God's provision: Lilly's bags are still missing!! In them are almost all of her stuff. I'm with her almost all the time, and I can't imagine how tough this really is for her. We've been shopping a lot to replace some of the bare essentials.

So, my question, which is relevant to the aforementioned conclusion,is this: Where is Lilly's luggage, God? And, can we expect to ever see it again? And, why?!

That's not meant to be a demanding question, but just an honest one. And, maybe the last of it echos my question to so many things in this world, the question I really really really wonder all the time, and wait eagerly for God to reveal the answer to it at the end of it all (because I believe He will!). That question, simply put, IS:

Why, Lord? Why?

God's work done in God's way will never lack God's supplies.

- James Hudson Taylor

Philly

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We have many reasons to dislike Philadelphia. There are the Eagles and the Flyers. And, oh ya, we also have the Eagles and the Flyers. There's especially the Eagles. However, as Daniel pointed out to me last night, I now have a new one because Lilly was stranded there last night due to a snowstorm! She had to sleep in the airport. They told her it wouldn't be until Friday around noon before they could fly her here!!! Thankfully, God intervened, and she got a ticket for today. In fact, as I'm writing this, her plane supposedly took off about 15 minutes ago. :-D I'm very happy about that because I am missing her horribly right now.

So, Valentine's Day, you still suck!!.

So, I guess the only redeeming thing about Philly (and, yes, I have been there before) is the Philly Cheesesteaks. Those things are good.

So now I am getting up and preparing to get ready to pick her up. I'm hoping she made her flight (I think she would of called me by now if she had not). Please pray that everything is going well!

It is a handsome city, but distractingly regular. After walking about it for an hour or two, I felt that I would have given the world for a crooked street. The collar of my coat appeared to stiffen, and the brim of my hat to expand, beneath its Quakerly influence.

- Charles Dickens, American Notes (1842), ch. VII

Philadelphia merely seems dull because it's next to exciting Camden, New Jersey.

- Robert Anton Wilson

Lilly's coming back!

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Generally, I hate Valentine's Day. But, this year is the exception. Not because I've learned to like it suddenly or somesuch (I still think it's a horrible holiday!!), but, rather, because it happens to coincide with something far more joyous to me: Lilly's coming back today!!

I'm so stoked.

Homer: I am so stoked about Lenny's party, he said he's gonna make a surprise announcement.

Marge: Oooh, maybe he's getting married.

Homer: Cuph! Why the Hell would he wanna do that... [Marge is frowning] ...blessed sacrement, that has made my life so rich? I like your hat, sweety.

Marge: I'm not wearing a hat.

Homer: I mean... the one at the house.

- The Simpsons (Season 17, Episode 15) quote taken from: Wikiquote

Jonah 33

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I've been enjoying my new Jonah 33 album, The Strangest Day. I just wanted to post the lyrics to the title track, which I find really cool:

The Strangest Day

So wrong for so long
It’s a bitter pill to take
There’s nothing left for me to say
So take the time to change your mind
‘Cause where you’re at right now
Doesn’t work for anyone

You live like you were comatose
Deaf and dumb you grew numb to it all
You lost sight of what matters most
Where everything that you have known
Finally hits the wall

And it might be the strangest day
The moment that you break away
It feels like it’s a big mistake
Finally waking up to the strangest day

Letting go of all you know
Rearranges you
It reconstructs your point of view
As time creeps by you’ll notice
Your eyes begin to focus
Soon enough you’ll find
It doesn’t matter what you’ve left behind

You live like you were comatose
Deaf and dumb you grew numb to it all
There’s beauty in just letting go
Life is more than what we know
Then we could ever know

Religion, tradition
Nothing prepares you for the day it’s all made clear


- Jonah 33

The Real Life Stories of My Friends

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One of my good friends, Jason, drove my dad and I to get the new transmission for my truck a few days ago. On the way, he related an amusing story to me of customer mis-service that obtained quite a few guffows in response. He told me it was posted on his blog, and, so, I thought I'd share it here:

The Bare Necessities: My Local BestBuy!!

Mudhole? Slimy? My home this is. - Yoda

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Back in October, I posted on here about my experience in changing the transmission on my truck. You can read about it here and in the followup here. I wasn't expecting to be writing anymore about my transmission again for awhile. Yet, just a few nights ago, I did.

Tonight, we put the "new" transmission in. I took some pics with my new camera phone (A pretty cool Motorola v3 RAZR), and I'm currently uploading them via bluetooth to my linux machine so I can post a couple before I go to bed.

For the most part, the evening went smoothly. It was still about a 7 1/2 hour job, but that's not too bad for putting in a transmission, and the tough parts went by without too much difficulty. (There was one part I meant to get a picture of, but I don't think I did that involved a coat hanger, the transmission, and a jack....)

My dad did manage to break a socket at one point, and, while I got no picture of it, he was, at another point, lifting both the engine and the transmission with two separate jacks....one with his hands and the other with his foot while lying on his back under the car. I should of grabbed a picture, but the phone was up in the car.

Anyways, the pictures are uploaded now, and so I am putting them below for your viewing pleasure. (I apologize for not having one of my dad using the two jacks at the same time) Enjoy the rest!


You can see how tightly the suburban was parked in the garage.


There's barely enough room to walk next to it.


The garage door was barely able to shut.


There was almost no room in front of it either.


We used a coathanger to hold up the rear of the transmission so we could slide a jack under the front and lift it up.


If you look very carefully, you can see the crack...


The inside of the transmission as we pulled off the pan.


More of the inside.


In the top left, you can see the bottom of the oil filter. Beneath that is the back of the oil pan. That big "gear" looking thingy is the flywheel, and the brown/bronzish curved thing attached to it is the Torque Converter.

"There will be a substantial reward for the one who finds the Millennium Falcon. You are free to use any methods necessary, but I want them alive.

No disintegrations."

- Darth Vader (Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back)

Too Much Tech Talk

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Tonight has been a really long one. After the last few days of messing around with my laptop, trying to solve the problem, I invoked a little known trick of registry manipulation. It's kind of a take off of the old Windows 95 trick of replacing the registry file, system.dat, with the version created at install time, system.1st. The files are named a bit different under the NT Kernel (NT 4.0, 2000, XP, Vista, etc.), and they are in a different location (\windows\sytem32\config). However, the same trick has worked for me before under both Windows 2000 and Windows XP. It's supposed to reset the drivers, etc. back to the way they were at install time and allow you to keep your software registry. Tonight, it caused XP to reinstall itself. The "Administrator" directory for my user was still there, but now the "Administrator" account used a directory of "Adminstrator.%MACHINENAME%". (the %MACHINENAME% is the name of the computer) This basically means that I can not login as that user. Thus, I can not use any of that software, and I was now needing to completely reinstall Windows x64 (Windows XP 64 Professional). Doh!!! That was not cool!

So, I backed up as much as I could to another partition on my hard drive, and then I reinstalled Windows x64. It's now about 3 AM, and 5 hours later. My boss will not be happy tomorrow when I have to reinstall all of our work software at work. In the last 5 hours though, I have managed to reinstall almost everything I use otherwise. (I don't have the cds with me for installing the work software) I backed up my email and web browsers, and they are working exactly as I had them setup before. (woohoo!!!) I have restored My Documents, installed Open Office, and I am currently installingCygwin. That's just a part of what I've been doing.

On the plus side of it all though, this machine is running better than it has in months now. :-D I'm very glad about that at least. Maybe I won't have to deal with anything like this again. (***hopes***)

In other news, the two CDs I ordered the other day have arrived, and I have been listening to them this evening. They are Jonah 33 - The Strangest Day and Third Day - Wherever You Are. Both are fantastic! Both are also examples of how listening to music or aquiring music over the internet leads to purchasing said music. I found out about Jonah 33 from Pandora.com, and I really got interested in this particular Third Day CD thanks to seeing videos on You Tube. While neither instance is like the greatness of file-sharing that we had in the Napster of old,
they can be a little effective. (They certainly don't have me interested enough in new music to be going out and buying lots of CDs like I was with Napster, but they come closer for me than anything like "iTunes". All that DRM stuff has got to go (says me).)

Tomorrow, we are planning to buy the remaining components for the "new" transmission (i.e. a new filter, transmission fluid, a new gasket, etc.), and then we will lift it up into the belly of "The Short Bus" (That's my friends' nick name for my suburban). I'm not looking forward to the work at all. But, I will be glad to have my truck back. (Right as gas prices are going back up though. Doh!) Please pray for us that we get it done quickly, and that it is not too cold outside! (It's been nice during the day, but it's still been chilly at night lately)

I'm writing this entry on my laptop, and the Cygwin install is now 97% done. I'll go to bed in a couple of minutes, and maybe it will be done by the time I do. (I need to recompile the version of GAIM that I use because it's been in Beta for a long time, and I accidently deleted the install file I created before...) I also can not install The Gimp until I get Cygwin installed. (I need to install the gtk+ toolkit for both gimp and gaim to work properly, but I need to install Cygwin first) So, I will go get ready for bed now, and hope I can start these by the time I'm ready to go to sleep.

~ Goodnight!

btw, Dan, I think you'll like the Third Day song in the video below. (The video is kind of "homemade" though...looks like something off of Daystar)

Communion

This is the body
This is the blood
Broken and poured out
For all of us
And in this communion
We share in His love
This is the body
This is the blood

Well I will remember, everything Lord, that you've done for me
I won't take for granted, the sacrifice, that set me free
Well I hunger and thirst for your love
Come fill me today

This is the body
This is the blood
Broken and poured out
For all of us
And in this communion
We share in His love
This is the body
This is the blood

We hunger and thirst for your love, and your righteousness
We long for your presense here Lord
Be with us again

This is the body
This is the blood
Broken and poured out
For all of us
And in this communion
We share in His love
This is the body yea
This is the blood (x2)

This is the body
This is the blood (x2)

- Third Day - (off of: Wherever You are)

"Lord, Help us to know and understand your will with the Visa..."

Transmissions, Visas, and the Superbowl

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As some of you may already know, the transmission which I bought a few months ago gave out on me a couple of weeks ago. For the last two weeks now, I've been borrowing my parent's car during the week, and then sitting at home all weekend.



Some of the results of this:

• I Haven't had to pay as much for gas. (Their little Hyundai gets much better gas mileage than my big suburban)
• I haven't gone out to eat very much.
• My work schedule is suddenly less flexible because I have to fit my hours in around my parent's needs
• I've saved money because of all of the above (except maybe the "less flexible schedule bit")
• I haven't gone to church for the last two weeks now (on Sunday mornings)
• I've gotten to really enjoy the sunroof in my parent's car

It's really frustrating not having any wheels in a town without much in the way of mass transportation. (I don't think I really understood how effective mass transportation could be until I went to Germany)

Today, we went to get another transmission for me from the junkyard.

My dad getting into the back of my friend, Jason's, truck to ride to the junkyard


It must of been cold back there, but he still somehow found a way to catch some Z's

We haven't tackled putting it into the suburban yet. We're going to try to do that either Monday or Tuesday night. Lilly's coming into town a week from Wednesday. There's been another hitch in the whole Visa process. It turns out that they added another step in between the Immigration services and the embassy in Frankfurt. It has to first go to the "National Visa Center" for processing. Because of this, there's a really strong possibility it still won't be in time. It's theoretically possible for it to be good to go as soon as sometime this week. However, the lady at the embassy told Lilly it would more likely be months!! That won't work out for us. We'll have to pursue plan B. (What is plan B exactly???)

On the plus side, it'll save us from having to spend some of the money that would of had to have been spent at the embassy, and it might save us money, in the long run, on plane tickets. Only God knows how it will work out. Lilly's looking at the money situation and almost hoping the Visa won't go through! (Because it's several hundred dollars for what needs to get done!!) I'm looking at the need for her to be able to do her "practical training", and thinking that she will require her Visa in order for that to happen. **sigh**

I really don't know what the best outcome is. I believe God will cause whatever is best to happen. I just feel like I'm sitting on pins and needles waiting for it to come to pass.

***In other news***

My laptop is acting really funky. I've actually taken to using my desktop the last couple of days because of this. It started at work on Friday. It just decided that it wanted to slow to a crawl. I run Windows x64 on there, and that makes it a lot less likely that the culprit is a virus. I've been checking Event Logs, drivers, the Hard Drive, etc. though, and nothing has really fixed it. I did discover that I only had the Windows Firewall on for the wired connection. This was fine up until recently because, whenever I connected via the wireless, I was behind a firewall. Unfortunatly, for the past month now, I've had a wireless setup running at work. (We, because my boss doesn't want to "waste" the time to set it up, have absolutely no central firewall in our office. We rely on Windows firewall on each of the machines. (It's stupid, I know, but I can't convince him to let me set it up any differently!!) At any rate, I never thought to turn on the windows firewall for the wireless connection, and, since it was turned on for the wired one, it gave me no warnings!! It's on now after I discovered multiple attempts by various IPs over the last month to hack into the Internet Information Services FTP server.

After all the messing with it that I've done over the last day though, I still can't find any reason for the slow downs. (Basically, the core "System" process starts eating up all of the CPU power. Several sites online claim this to be a driver issue, but I haven't installed any new drivers recently...well, not until after this began at any rate!!) So, now I have downloaded avast! Anti-Virus, and I am running it on my laptop as I write this blog entry on my desktop. (avast! might well be, btw, the only available Windows x64 Virus scanner. Thankfully, it's free for my usage!) I almost hope it finds something. I almost never have viruses on my computers. I will be very annoyed if this doesn't help me fix the problem now. (useless fact: It is currently scanning my cygwin directory)

It's late now though, and I'm going to feed my cat and go to bed. Tomorrow is not only Sunday, but Superbowl Sunday. I pretty much hate the Colts (Manning is so overrated in my opinion), so I'll be routing for "Da' Bears". (Besides, maybe we can relive the joys of the superbowl shuffle that way!)

- The Superbowl Shuffle

Youtube.com and Video.google.com > MTV

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This is a cool video:

"You Are Mine"

It doesn't take much
For my heart to break
And you have done it
For what's seems the millionth time

Whenever I hear
Of your saving grace
And how you gave your life
In exchange for mine

Sometimes I wonder why you even love me
And why you ever chose to call me child
Then I remember
It's by your sacrifice
I can say that
I am yours and you are mine

It doesn't take much
For me to shed a tear
And you have done so many things
To make me cry
Whenever I think
Of all that I've done wrong
And everything that you have done
To make it right

Sometimes I wonder why you even love me
And why you ever chose to call me child
Then I remember
It's by your sacrifice
I can say that
I am yours and you are mine
I can say that
I am yours and you are mine

you are mine.... (repeats)

It doesn't take much
For my heart to break
And you have done it
For what's seems the millionth time

Sometimes I wonder why you even love me
And why you ever chose to call me child
Sometimes I wonder why you even love me
And why you ever chose to call me child
Then I remember
It's by your sacrifice
I can say that
I am yours and you are mine
I can say that
I am yours and you are mine
I can say that
I am yours and you are mine


- Third Day