My Dad loves to send us funny videos and stuff… well, this one made me laugh. 🙂 Hopefully it does for you too. 🙂
Year / 2007
12 Days Of Christmas
Saw this on another blog I read regularly… it is fun, and pretty amazing, I think. Amazing enough to post here again! Enjoy! 🙂
Remote Control = God?
I remember when I was a kid, one of the coolest things in the world was remote control cars. I mean, you could make it go… even though you weren’t touching it! How cool is that?!?
Well, last night I noticed that remote control is still one of the coolest things.
I was walking away from our vehicle and needed to lock it as I was going out of sight of it, and all I had to do was press a button on the little key fob and … voila! It was locked! Like magic!
When I was able to do that, I realized that remote control is a bit like being God. You can manipulate things outside of yourself, like magic. (I know… it’s not magic, but… it looks like it is!) Whether it’s a toy car, or a boat, or a plane… or a real car that you can lock, unlock, or even start! You say it, or click it, or whatever… and it happens!
And there’s so much like that these days! The whole world is going wireless. Cell phones, GPS thingies, satellite radio, key fobs, Wi-Fi computers and other devices… everything is wireless. On our home network, I can log into Jen’s computer from my laptop, and send files from there to my computer in the office… without being on either computer! I can even do a “screen sharing” thing where I can use other computers as if I were right in front of it. I can print stuff in the office from any computer… WIRELESSLY.
We have some pretty amazing powers these days… 🙂
So, just a little observation. I still believe the next computer interface (probably Mac OS X 10.6) will be a spoken interface. So not only will things be “remote control”, but we will speak and it will happen.
And Greg said, “Let there be e-mail” … and there was e-mail.
Weird. 🙂
Let It Snow! Keep It Coming!
In all the busyness of my web design work, and my Buffalo Bills show, and everyday life as a family of six, I have not gotten to say HOW MUCH I AM LOVING THIS WINTER!!! (AND IT’S NOT EVEN WINTER YET!!!!) 🙂
Just after Thanksgiving, people had their Christmas lights up (and on at night) but the ground was still green. Well, just about my birthday, that all changed! We got snow… and it’s set up camp! Looks like it’s going to be around for a long while and that is GREAT NEWS!!
It makes the Christmas lights look a lot better, too. 🙂
It snowed all day today – another 6-7 inches maybe? It’s supposed to snow all day Sunday. And Monday. And probably more after that! Oh man! This is my kinda winter!!!
The cool part for me is that I work upstairs. I don’t have to get the snow off the car, or shovel the driveway, or DRIVE in the stuff. I just get to have a nice hot cup of whatever and LOOK at it! Whoohoo! Oh… and I get to make snowmen with my boys at 10:30 at night. 🙂 (See below…)
Bring it on, winter! This is why I live in upstate New York!!!! 🙂
Coverings
I came across a blog post today that was pretty interesting, and I thought I’d pass it along. Jen and I talked about it a bit tonight on our way home from the evening’s activities… it’s just interesting how we put stuff between us and God. It could be a person (pastor, accountability partner), or a group of people (elders, leaders), or … well, lots of stuff.
As the blog post says, the cross removed shame, and removed the need for a “covering”. You may not be familiar with that terminology, but basically it’s the idea that you need help living your life out with God. You need to be “accountable” to other believers. While there may be truth there, it’s the wrong approach. It puts something between you and God. This blog post/email has an interesting take on that.
My Teams
As many of you know, I am a sports fan. Many sports, but not all sports. (You won’t find any baseball, golf, auto-racing, or gymnastics being discussed here…) Well, there’s a good deal going on with all of my favorite teams, so I thought I’d give a brief update to those who might be interested (or wonder what sorts of things I and the Campbell fam are doing these days…)
Buffalo Bills
Obviously I am following this team the closest, as I still have the number one Buffalo Bills show on the internet! 🙂 The Bills are also making it fun! Two weeks ago they benched last year’s starter – for good – and brought in the first year guy Trent Edwards, who after a 4-touchdown game last week is now 5-1 as a starter! That’s fairly amazing for a rookie, but when you factor in the unprecedented amount of injuries this team has suffered, and the already “green” talent that he has to work with anyway… that’s almost impossible!
Believe it or not, the talk around Bills country is that this team of injury replacements actually has a very good shot at making the playoffs! If they win their last three games, they will finish 10-6, and the best the other two teams they are contending with can do is 10-6. Now, if they all finish with that record it’s bad – crazy tie-breaking procedures – but, if just one other team is tied with them… the Bills will go to the playoffs. (I know… ridiculously hard to understand, but I do think I finally get it.) Basically, if we win all our games, and Tennessee loses just one… we’ll go to the playoffs for the FIRST TIME since 1999! Wow!
So, we’re pretty excited here, and had one of our most fun shows last night. If you’ve never checked out our Buffalo Bills show, click the link and check it out. You might like it even if you’re not a Bills fan. 🙂
Buffalo Sabres
I got to see a Sabres game last night – which is rare these days, since we’re not paying the outrageous price for cable just to get the channel that carries their games! – and it was … not so good. Strange, really. The Sabres (if you’ll recall) were the President Trophy winners last season. That means they finished the season with the most points and the best record. Of all the teams… they were the best.
BUT, this year has been very different. They are near the bottom. Were AT the bottom at one point. Bad bounces, players lost in the off-season, injuries, strange bad luck. I saw more of it last night. They outshot the other team more than 2-1, but only scored one goal! Goal posts, great saves, missing the net, more great saves… it was crazy. And so, they are 13-14-1. I don’t think they had 14 losses till March last year! 🙂
Michigan State Football
Yes, my Spartans are in a Bowl Game! December 28th at 5:00pm you can catch the Spartans and the Boston College Eagles on some channel somewhere. 🙂 They have a pretty good team this year. Some stars on both sides of the ball… lost a lot of close games in a very tough conference. They hung with the #2 team in the country, Ohio State. (Or are they #1? I forget…) They are all a bunch of young guys, too… so expect to see them near the top of the Big Ten next season!
That’s a pretty good update for now. There might be more, but I need to get back to working on websites 🙂
Go Bills, Sabres and Spartans!
Chickens
We had dinner with some friends tonight who are back from Mozambique where they have been missionaries for quite a long while. It was a great night of good food and just enjoying time together.
Speaking of food, the conversation turned to food at one point. We began talking about how you make a nice grilled chicken salad in Mozambique. It’s not as easy as just going to the grocery store.
“First you have to kill the chicken!” said our African friend, to which we all laughed. She continued, “Oh, but first, you have to catch the chicken!!!” We laughed even harder.
Without missing a beat, her husband – the more seasoned veteran of life in Africa chimed in, “First… you have to find the chicken.”
At that point I just lost it and said, “THAT is going on my blog tonight!”
So far in life, I have not had to FIND my food. 🙂
Another Reason to Not Divorce
I’ve written here before how much divorce pains me. Well, apparently it pains the planet as well. Interesting…
Venezuelans Say NO To Chavez
Not sure if you heard about the vote or not, but any mention in the news of my former place of residence usually catches my attention. There was a vote (yesterday, I believe) where current president Hugo Chavez was attempting to amend the constitution to remove term limits (among other things). He wanted to ensure that he could continue to run for – and win – the presidency. His ultimate goal is to move Venezuela from the democracy that it currently is to a socialist state – with him in command.
The vote was 51% “No”, so not overwhelming (and Chavez is spinning that to his advantage) but it was still ‘No’. This is a small victory, but still a victory.
I was just talking with a former elementary school classmate from Venezuela about the current conditions down there, and her response was, “He won’t last too long.”
I only have fond memories of Caracas. I mean, it’s a huge city, and I’m not too fond of huge cities now, as an adult, but what I remember from living there with my family is all good. I’m sure a lot of that goodness is still there, but it’s so sad to hear in the news, and from Venezuelan friends that it is not the same place it was when we left more than two decades ago. Maybe someday it will be again.
If you are interested, here are a couple articles I found today about the election.
Venezuela Rejects Chavez’ Power Play (CBS News)
Hugo Chavez tastes defeat in referendum (The Telegraph, UK)
Some Teams…
There are just some teams that I never like to see win. I know, I should root for a team instead of against the other one, but … that’s just the way it is.
Tonight I am rooting for probably my second favorite team, the Cincinnati Bengals, but it’s not looking good for them. The Steelers (one of those teams I never want to see win…) are getting lots of “homer” calls, and it’s pretty annoying. Probably wouldn’t be as annoying if I didn’t like the Bengals and so strongly dislike the Steelers…
Just so it’s in writing, here are the teams I always root against (and if they are both playing, I usually just don’t even watch the game!) 🙂 Steelers, Cowboys, Patriots, Giants, Eagles, and Ravens. So yeah, remember those two Super Bowls that featured Giants vs Ravens and Eagles vs Patriots? Didn’t see ’em. 🙂
There are some other teams in other sports, but since it’s primarily football season, I’ll leave it at that.
On a more positive note… my Bills did pull out a last-second, one-point victory today! Nice job, Bills!