It Was Rolly

Apparently my sister was able to contact the news before anybody else in the world about the earthquakes...they hadn't even known about it until she sent them an email so they interviewed her! Good job Jenny!

Firefox 3

If you haven't yet discovered Firefox 3, do it today! It's got tons of new features and when combined with some new add-ons, it is genuinely amazing! I've been playing around with it the past few days, trying to improve my browsing experience. Here are some pictures of cool things I've been doing.

Google Reader can display an actual blog entry, instead of just words!


I set up my facebook profile with a UC Davis theme...GO AGGIES!!!


Here, Google Calendar shows the current time, so that you can see exactly how far away an event is.


My absolute favorite add on makes my calendar completely full screen! On my 15 inch wide screen, I get the same picture I usually get on a 19 inch full screen!


My gMail includes icons to show the file type of the attachments (I believe chats have always had bubbles next to them, but this may be new as well).


This timer shows how long I've been online in any given day. Yesterday, I discovered I'm on WAY too much, so hopefully that'll go down some today and in the future.


Facebook lets me see pictures full size when I scroll over them :) No more thumbnails if I dont want them!!!


Hey! You can download Youtube videos without 3rd party software or additional equipment!


Last in my list (though certainly not the last of the MANY features I've installed) is gMail message highlighting. Scrolling over any given message changes the color depending on its read/unread status.


So, go get Firefox 3 NOW!!!!

Oh Facebook...

So, according to facebook, I'm supposed to know some people named Stacy Muelder and Amanda Ashdown. Now, I'm pretty sure Stacy is the same Stacy a bunch of my friends know (they all went to "Stacy's wedding!") Amanda...I have no idea...but I think she might be from Oregon - too many degrees of separation to have a clue.

Anyways, none of that matters...what matters is that facebook made me think Amanda was in the ku klux klan! (or some similar organization)...either that or she's naughty and has to sit in a corner with a dunce cap. I didn't realize there were two pictures here so Amanda's hood and Stacy's dress looked like one tall pointy hat! Check it out!


So...yah. The purpose of this post...does not exist? Just an observation and random thought...

Smoke 'n' Cheerleaders

No, they're not hot. The title implies that there is smoke. There are cheerleaders. Completely unrelated...except in this post. So here are some of the pictures I promised yesterday:

This one was a few days back before it started getting really bad. The picture doesn't do it justice, because you could barely see the tops of any of the trees or even the side of the trees further away! It was just a strange white haze surrounding the quad...

This one is from yesterday...see how you can't see a sky? Yah - and yet again, this doesn't actually look like the real thing. It was much worse! If the fires are big enough to cause this much smoke this far away, I feel REALLY bad for the people actually having to experience the fires themselves!

I think this one is pretty cool. It's not a good picture (but then again, most pictures that I've seen covered by an ominous gray smoke aren't TOO attractive) but I like how the sun doesn't even shine through so bright and most of the rays are absorbed into the smoke. Kinda gives an idea just how thick this stuff really is...

I took this one just as the sun was dropping on the AGO house. I have a panorama version too...but it's way too big to post on a blog....

It certainly has been an interesting few days of heat and smoke. Luckily, the heat died down a bit today, but unfortunately, the decrease of heat caused a rise in cheerleaders. Natures' economics? So, they're right outside my window, and since it's still fairly hot, I've decided to leave my window open. But they are SOOO loud and even more annoying! Literally about 500 little cheerleaders (age range - undetermined) shouting all day and never shutting up! Here's a picture of the beasts, just to give an idea of how close and how HUGE they are (and of course, by huge, I'm referring to the group; individually, they're twigs...probably anorexic). There are more behind all the trees, and then more come later, and more, and more...until the entire grass area has no walking space.

Heat, Smoke, and Stolen Signs

With the intense heat (reaching 108°F the last two days) and smoke from the Northern California wildfires, Davis California has officially become a death trap. The weather forecast to the right states that there is "Haze". I don't know if I could classify it so lightly. It seems so much more dangerous than just haze.

A quote from the University of California:

"Air quality around the Davis and Sacramento campuses continues to be unhealthy due to wildfire smoke. Everyone is advised to minimize outdoor activity and physical exertion. If you are experiencing adverse effects due to the smoke, please speak to you supervisor about the possibility of an alternative work environment."

It's pretty bad. I'll post some pictures (which certainly don't do it any real justice because you won't be able to feel or even taste the heat and the smoke) tomorrow.

What's worse, somebody stole one of my signs for orientation! I don't understand why somebody would do that! Just doesn't make sense to me... Oh well.

On a good note, the heat is supposed to stay below 100 tomorrow!

Anyways...back to misery. Ugh. I think this situation calls for Woodstock's...maybe not. Whatev. Too tired, sweaty, sticky, and miserable to care...

Gay Marriage...

It's the big topic right now in California.

Really Big!

Okay, not that huge, but you get the picture...a lot of people are talking about it. I'm not necessarily the biggest blogger as far as writing on my own blog goes, but I do read a lot of other blogs to fill my time. I was reading a blog I subscribe to called "Vintage Faith". The author of the blog, pastor Dan Kimball, takes a "theologically conservative viewpoint on the practice of homosexuality and biblical covenant of marriage". Basically, he believes that marriage is designed only for a man and woman to come together under God. The liberal mind that I have compelled me to write this today.

Now, I'm not exactly sure where I stand on the gay marriage issue, but I do know that there are a lot of Christian men and women out there who are gay. They live in fear of their own communities. They avoid other Christians because they fear rejection from the church. They avoid other gays and lesbians because Christians have a bad name in the gay community. They are outcast and very alone.

Many Christians believe that gays have a choice to be straight. I would love to challenge that by asking any straight person if they could just "choose" to be gay. Likely, the answer is no. I would begin to accept the question of "choice" if all heterosexuals would first apply it to themselves. This would mean asking "Why am I straight? When did I first realize I was straight? What makes me straight? Oh no, is something wrong with me?" These are the same questions most homosexuals have to ask themselves every day. Aside from the fact that the majority of heterosexuals NEVER face these questions, I also dispute the question of choice because I'm forced to ask why any sane person would actually CHOOSE to be put in this state of rejection and ostracization. No one. No one chooses to be less than equal. Whether one identifies as a woman, as black, as Jewish, as republican, as gay, as straight, as white male. Nobody consciously chooses any of these stereotyped identities. They just are.

Many say that homosexuality is a sin. Again, I don't know what I think about this, but I do know that according to Leviticus 19, so is eating your meat rare (v. 26), getting your hair trimmed (v. 27), getting tattoos (v. 28), and even using faulty measurement equipment (v. 35 - better make sure your rulers are accurate). Of course, the verse about gays in the next chapter is attached with a decree, "They must be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads." But then, didn't Jesus spill his blood so that we wouldn't have to? My only point here is that you can't pick and choose which sins are "worse" than others. Sin is sin in God's eyes and every little white lie you've told and every time you've dishonored your parents and any time you've looked at people or material things with lust, you've committed sin in God's eyes...so why condemn the gay "speck of sawdust...when all the time, there's a great plank" in your own life?

What really makes me angry is hearing people like my mom say "Well, if gays can marry, why can't you just marry some animal?" Now, I have some really close gay friends, and when I hear them compared to animals (and I'm sure when God hears his most beautiful creation compared to other animals), it breaks my heart. I'll tell you why you "can't just marry some animal". While a gay couple can consent to marriage, an animal, which doesn't have the capacity for speech or for human thought, can't make that decision and/or that commitment.

Are gay men and women doing any harm to anybody? I can't honestly say that they are. It's not fair for them to have to face the rejection which they encounter daily. I'll leave you here, with one last thought and a couple of questions. If we remember the two most important commandments, summed up as love God and love others, and put those above the ten commandments, and above all of the ancient laws which form Leviticus, and above our own personal convictions, then why is it so hard for us to be accepting and to embrace the gay community in love? Why can't we recognize that many homosexual men and women have committed much less sin than we have? Are we really so narrow-minded as a Christian community that we can't even TRY to recognize the struggles these people face, often much more difficult than our own?

Please leave feedback through comments. I'd love to hear what all you bloggers have to say :)

P.S. If there are any Christians interested in looking at life from the perspective of Christian gays, I recommend the video "For the Bible Tells Me So", a documentary on homosexuals in the Christian community.

Back in Davis...

Freshman orientation starts this week at Davis and I'm holding a seminar about getting connected in the Christian community on campus. I thought I'd be having a blast, but after getting here today, not so much.

The first thing I encountered was a house that looked like a zoo had come in... Next, beer bottles all up in the refrigerator and recycling bin (completely off limits in the AGO house). I went shopping for food to eat and paper to make flyers for my seminar...but kept forgetting things like the AGO bank card I needed to activate and a check I needed to deposit before making purchases on my account. That got frustrating. Clay came by and took Mike and me to lunch at Woodstocks (that was the highlight of the day...thank you!!!) and he took the beer bottles out of the fridge and "confiscated" them...hehe.

After a long day of preparing stuff, I finally sat down to rest up a bit, and after getting SOO bored of sitting, I watched two movies and cleaned the living room... I still have a lot of time before the end of the day. I'm thinking about going to the gym and eating dinner. Mmmm.

Catch you all later bloggers!

Camping

I went camping this weekend with my ex-girlfriend / future sister-in-law's family. We go every year and even though they stay for a week or two, I never manage to stay for more than 2 days...

Anyways, we go to San Antonio Lake in Monterey County and it is AMAZING!!! I enjoyed every moment of it from watching the water to getting in to tubing to sleeping inside baby Hillary (my tent). Nobody ever seems to understand that a 5'11" human can fit very comfortably in a tent with a diagonal of 6'5"...

Something about camping just makes me awe at God's creation. San Antonio Lake isn't necessarily the most beautiful place, but it really helps me to slow down and just take a look.

The sad part about camping...it made me REALLY miss Brittany. Looking up at the crystal clear night sky made me think about the fact that she's there too...under that same sky...how cool...and yet, how strange that we're still so far apart. I hope you're having the time of your life over in Malaysia babe!!!

That's all for now (until I post on my current situation in about 2 minutes).

8 Ways to Live a Happier Life: According to Positive Psychologist Sonja Lyubomirsky

1. Count your blessings - One way to do this is a “gratitude journal” in which you write down three to five things for which you are currently thankful-from the mundane (your peonies are in bloom) to the magnificent (a child’s first steps). Do this once a week, say, on Sunday night. Keep it fresh by varying your entries as much as possible.


2. Practice acts of kindness - These should be both random (let that harried mom go ahead of you in the checkout line) and systematic (bring Sunday supper to an elderly neighbor). Being kind to others, whether friends or strangers, triggers a cascade of positive effects-it makes you feel generous ad capable, gives you a greater sense of connection with others and wins you smiles, approval and reciprocated kindness-all happiness boosters.


3. Savor life’s joys - Pay close attention to momentary pleasures and wonders. Focus on the sweetness of a ripe strawberry or the warmth of the sun when you step out from the shade. Some psychologists suggest taking “mental photographs” of pleasurable moments to review in less happy times.


4. Thank a mentor - If there’s someone whom you owe a debt of gratitude for guiding you at one of life’s crossroads, don’t wait to express your appreciation-in detail and, if possible, in person.


5. Learn to forgive - Let go of anger and resentment by writing a letter of forgiveness to a person who has hurt or wronged you. Inability to forgive is associated with persistent rumination or dwelling on revenge, while forgiving allows you to move on.


6. Invest time and energy in friends and family - Where you live, how much money you make, your job title and even your health have surprisingly small effects on your satisfaction with life. The biggest factor appears to be strong personal relationships.


7. Take care of your body - Getting plenty of sleep, exercising, stretching, smiling and laughing can all enhance your mood in the short term. Practiced regularly, they can help make your daily life more satisfying.


8. Develop strategies for coping with stress and hardships - There is no avoiding hard times. Religious faith has been shown to help people cope, but so do the secular beliefs enshrined in axioms like “this too shall pass” and “that which doesn’t kill me makes me stronger”. The trick is that you have to believe them.

Of course this list is a bit daunting, but putting one or two into practice at a time will help to relieve the initial shock. As those few become habit, then furthering your practice of the list will be easier!

Credit to http://www.improvedlives.com/.