About
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I’ve been into blogging for a while, although at various times I’ve stopped or haven’t been real consistent with it. I really do enjoy it though, and I’ve always liked blogs that had lots of interaction with comments and insight and wisdom being shared.
But this year I finally started doing the Twitter thing, and there is now a huge temptation to tweet short thoughts and not take the time and effort to blog on topics. I’m not much of a natural writer — I mostly do it out of necessity and desire to communicate with others, but beyond that it takes a lot of discipline for me to stop and journal or write my thoughts down on paper. So while I often might think, “gee, that’d be a great thing to blog about!”, unfortunately my inclination is to not take the time to do so. And with Twitter, now it’s so easy to share those quick casual thoughts as opposed to going on ad infinitem about a topic.
Part of my problem is I tend to over-edit and go over and over something before I write it. For that matter, I’ve got a bad perfectionist streak and my tendency is to do that with lots of things — if it’s not going to be done “right”, it’s not worth the time. So I might get most of the way through a blog post and then decide to trash it because I’m not happy with how it sounds or what it’s saying.
Regardless though, I’m going to try and stick with this blogging thing too! I know writing is good for me, and I’d probably have a lot more clarity of mind if I did take the time to journal and write my thoughts out more, so an attmept is going to be made here, so lookout!
Just my $0.01 cent for the morning!
I am a Coffee-holic. There. I said it. They say the first step in dealing with an addiction is admitting there’s a problem. The thing is though, I like this addiction! I love the taste of coffee and my mind seems much sharper once it’s in my system (could be the dependence though haha).
The problem is, more than anything, I really love the taste of Starbucks coffee. It’s partly the romance of it — the marketing genius, the feel/ambiance of their stores, the elitist attitude of much of the clientele, but it’s also the taste. Blends like House, Kenya, Columbia, and Italian make my taste buds jump for joy! And not only are there Starbucks stores within 7 minutes of me 99% of my day, the coffee pots at home and church (home #2) both have Starbucks beans ready to brew at any moment.
Here’s the dilemma though, it costs over $2 now to buy a grande cup of Starbucks coffee. And as I found out two weeks ago, a cup of medium coffee at McDonald’s is only $1.60 (although I saw it on sale at one location this week for only $1.00!). And while McDonald’s doesn’t have much romance or ambiance, it’s A LOT CHEAPER!
Another interesting factor is that with Starbucks coffee, I usually really enjoy the first half of the cup, but the second half is hard to finish because it’s so strong and getting colder by that point (I don’t chug my coffee, I usually take 30+ minutes to drink one cup). With McDonald’s, I really don’t like the first half (too hot, and tastes watery), but I really enjoy the second half! So I endup having a good memory of the cup of McDonald’s and a more negative memory of the Starbucks! In fact, I’ve often found myself trying to convince myself to stop for Starbucks because the last experience was so bitter! And oftentimes, I end up getting Lattes or Frapps instead of the coffee — but that doubles or even triples the price and adds sugar.
So, I’m at the point now, that if I’m going to stop someplace and buy coffee, I’m going to force myself to be content with McDonald’s. In fact, I’ve decided that unless I’m meeting a friend there (couple guy friends I frequently meet up with and Starbucks is a great place for it), I’m NOT going to Starbucks. It’s just not worth the extra money — whether it be $0.40 or $0.80 or even more! So unless I need a LOT of caffine (like driving all night or have a ton of work to do) and get a Black Eye (coffee + two shots of espresso), I’m a McDonald’s man.
Did I just type that? I’m really getting old. One day I’ll probably be blogging about the great Senior discount I’m now eligible for at McDonald’s.…!
Over the past week or so, there has been a major story breaking in the tech world that between 2003 and 2008, Dell sold millions and millions of desktop PCs that they knew had bad motherboards. And Dell has had millions of problems because of that– companies found hundreds or thousands of computers would unexpectedly quit working and need serious repairs, and as often is the case with computer products, lots of them break after any warranty has expired.
It’s sad, it really is. The last Dell I purchased was in 2003, an Inspiron notebook that still “runs”. I also had my dad purchase a Dimension desktop during that time.
Dell was once the company to beat. They were “it” when it came to price and reliability, but obviously somewhere along the way they lost focus. Why would they allow faulty products to be sent out for years? Wouldn’t the repair costs to them be extraordinary? Apparently not, which just tells you how much it doesn’t cost them to make these computers. Parts that would cost us hundreds of dollars to replace ourselves they can replace for a few dollars.
I will not be buying any Dell products for the time being — although I have been avoiding them for years now. Ever since a friend who got the same laptop as me in 2003 had to replace the motherboard because of a bad power Jack design.… Interesting how these things manifest themselves. Sin finds us out — eventually the truth always prevails.
I’ve always been impressed by Apple Computer’s marketing genius. They are known world-over for getting people to buy their really shiny devices, and today, when pre-orders for the new iPhone have begun, is no exception. All morning I’ve seen people tweeting about “ordering the new iPhone” or “fail Apple, site is down” and when I tried to go to apple.com for something unrelated today, it was running horribly slowly.
All of this is because Mr. Jobs is an expert at creating buzz and generating intense excitement for separating people from their cash. He knows how to design, package, advertise, and secretly work on new things in a way that draws interest and promotes conversation. And I can’t help but ask myself in all this, “why can’t the Church do this?” Certainly, Christians hold the keys of the universe and it’s our job to communicate the most important message in History to the world! Why can’t we generate enough buzz that people shut down our web servers? Why aren’t people standing outside the church doors for hours to make sure they get a great seat? Why aren’t people standing around the watercoolers discussing what God is doing in their hearts instead of the last Lost episode or today’s World Cup game?
I know the answer resides in people’s hearts, and in the fact that the gate to eternal life is narrow, but shouldn’t we still make every attempt to generate buzz for it and try to inspire those around us to seek Christ? I think the last thing we should do is marginalize our ability to reach those around us, even if it might not look as shiny and cool as the world’s solutions. Besides, the people who had the latest 3Gs few weeks ago now have the old model… thank God His Kingdom will never crack, grow old, or have an expiration date!
Hi, I’m a Mac! Well, actually, I’m probably more like a PC (Windows, actually, since PC can technically refer to Mac, Windows, Ubuntu, or any other flavor of “Personal Computer”). I have several computers, probably too many to be specific, but the fact is, I have an obsession. And it’s called wishing I owned Macs! It’s not that they are shiny and look cool (although they most certainly do), but that the overall layout and feel of the OS fosters creativity and just feels so much smoother and clean. And for someone like me, that’s a very important thing!
The problem is, because I have several other very nice, fairly new, computers at my disposal, it would be nearly impossible to justify spending the many thousands of dollars it would cost to switch to Mac, not to mention the required software. Since I’m running software like Photoshop and Sony Vegas, which on their own cost as much as some computers, it would be a HUGE investment (err, actually not an investment because computers decline in value) expense for the relatively small benefit — being as how I can do pretty much anything on my PCs that I could on Macs.
So for now, I’m a PC. Although, there’s no saying what will happen several years down the road when these PCs need to be replaced!
Today, in addition to working on this website, I updated my Twitter profile. The background is an image I’ve had as my desktop for a while — I love the motion effect of the taillights/headlights and the nighttime city look. It’s a photo, taken in Chicago, that I found at sxc.hu I also modified the sides and colors to blend with the amber background colors.
I am almost never out around Chicago at night, but there’s certainly something really curious, romantic, and strangely beautiful about a big city at night!