Look up!

     I have a short story and a thought that I would like to share.  A while back, Joshua was starting to notice things.  He would point and grunt or squeal, sometimes quite loudly.  When he was most intrigued, he normally wouldn't make much noise.  He would only stare in wonder.
   
     After church on a Wednesday night, we got out of the car and I noticed that the moon was unusually bright and visible, directly above us.  It was so bright, in fact, that I could see clearly to walk to the house.  Of course, I wanted Joshua to see it, so I pointed and said, "Mira!" He looked around and pointed at the house, then he pointed at the bush in front of the house.  I tried again, but to no avail.  Then I tried to gently point his face upward, but he definitely did not want that.  Finally, I had an idea.  I laid him down in my arms so that his face was facing upwards.  Then he finally saw the moon, for the first time in his life.  See where this is going?

     God has some amazing things in life that he wants to show us and give us.  Of course, we do not think like God, (Isaiah 55:8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.) nor do we have the same plans as He does.  We may be like my son, we want to see and do the things we know to be good, yet, God has much better things in store for us.  God may be trying to show you something amazing, but you have your eyes set.  He may just point it out to you. If you don't look, he may try to gently turn your gaze to Him.  When that doesn't work, you may just end up flat on your back, staring straight up at His plan for you.  It is sad, but true.  Many times we are so determined that something is right for us, that we will not allow God to show us His plan.  That brings to mind Matthew 6:33, which states,  "But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you."  Seek Him first, look for His path, and you will have a better life than you thought possible for yourself.

Android L

While I still find humorous the codenames of Android, the current release is definitely pretty good. There are a few things that I like about it.

     1. You can use familiar Bluetooth items to unlock (lock screen) your phone. For me, this means while I am at home, I won't have to unlock my screen because it will be paid to my blu-ray player.

     2. Quick settings is definitely better. You can drop down once to see notifications or twice to see your settings. 

     3. I like the change in color for menus. It is an off white vs. the darker colors.

After waiting for what seemed forever, I have up on the OTA and flashed the factory image myself.  The hardest part of that was getting the right drivers for adb, and that wasn't too hard. Super one click gave me easy root access as well. I will try to attach a couple screen shots, but we'll see. I'm mobile.

Back again...

If I had a nickel for every time I said that...

Haven't posted anything on this blog in quite awhile.  It is very apparent to me even as I type right now, that Twitter, SMS, and tech talk have done wonders to my writing skills.  Please bear with me as I attempt to pick things back up.  These are some things I will be blogging about in the near future.

1. Spiritual Thoughts

     While I don't always completely understand what is being preached in church (all in spanish), I do my best to follow along.  A good result of this is I will pick up a seed thought and get some important life applications.  I hope to share some of these (I got one tonight).

2. Tech Bits
   
     Recently, I updated my cell to a used Nexus 4.  Although I love to try to stay current on technology, my budget and responsibilities demand otherwise.  Now, I am trying to sideload Android 5.0 (Lollipop).  Considering trying to "bake" a few custom ROMs for a couple of considerably older phones I have.

3. Family Business

     With a son that is over a year old and a marriage that is four years old, things are really changing, especially life views.....yeah, especially life views.  I am planning on sharing some of those as well.  Oh yeah, pictures too.  Here's one:

Now I've got to look for a Twitter button........

ATI Radeon in Linux

Back again.... As promised, I will tell my wonderful adventures with my Celeron 2.7 Ghz.  Originally I was running Linux Mint 11.  I liked it because tethering my phone was super easy and the layout was pretty similar to that of Windows.  The only issues that I seemed to run into were video drivers.  There were no drivers for my integrated video.  I ran to a small computer store on 23rd street and picked up an ATI Radeon of some sort.  It had VGA, S-video, and DVI outputs (which is what i was looking for).  When I plugged it into my computer, I could not boot up.  I tried a fresh install of Mint 11 and that didn't work either.   I kept getting a slot conflict error of some sort, no matter what slot I put it in.  After a few tries, I switched to Mint 10.  I successfully installed and loaded Mint 10, but for the life of me could not find a control panel, and I could not find a clue in the forums.  After spending quite a bit of time searching, I decided to revert back to Ubuntu.  I downloaded the latest version, and successfully installed it after moving my video card to a couple of different slots.
     Finally, my video card was working and my TV was connected as well.  The 3D and Open GL was horrific, though.  I read up and figured out that I needed to set up the "Catalyst" driver.  I spent quite a bit of time looking through AMD/ATI's driver support and downloading the driver.  The instructions weren't that clear and a bit hard to follow...actually, I never figured them out.  After a while, I came to the conclusion that Ubuntu probably already had these drivers some where.  I looked in the software downloading section and found the catalyst driver there. After installing it, I still had issues with Open GL and 3D.  It wasn't until  after I uninstalled all of the other ATI drivers that I was able to get everything to work right.

Occasional Post (Plans for More)

     Just knocked out a bunch of important paperwork and other looming responsibilities with impending deadlines.  Recently I picked up an older desktop.  Specs: HP Pavilion  with a Celeron 2.6 GHz   512 MB Ram (planning on upping to 1 Gig) and just through in an ATI Radeon 9200 (?).  200 gig hard drive.  Rather than paying the wazoo for windows, I put Ubuntu on it (for some reason, Mint gave fits with my ATI).  I picked up the video card so I could hook up my TV by way of DVI. Will post a little bit later about my journey through getting drivers for the ATI.  Anyhow, my PC is now hooked up to my 5.1 surround sound and I have watched one movie using my computer thus far. Eh, lots more about that, but it will take some time on a different post. No pics for now. Chau Chau

Ordination

Well, as soon as we got back from the honeymoon, I needed to work on getting us settled into the house. We got a few things done quickly, like our bed.

We bought the bed at Mathis Brothers in the as is section, which by looking at the picture you simply cannot tell.

After getting a few necessities like the bed and a washer and dryer, I had to turn my attention to ordination. I studied hard and was ordained this past Sunday along with Caleb Bruner.

Cozumel

Still on my honeymoon in the most awesome resort in Cozumel, Mexico. The food is OK, but the staff is super friendly and I can eat anytime I want. Of course, I am sharing it with the most wonderful girl in the world and the view from our hotel room is spectacular. Here's a couple fotos with a few to follow later.