Year / 2007

by Greg

Some Good Reading?

Life In The Rearview Mirror

$12.88

Hey folks…
There has not been much time for blogging of late, which is actually very good. Business is “booming”… I am getting lots of repeat business, and perhaps even cooler, referrals from current clients. That’s neat. I’m very glad God is providing for us through this. I do mostly enjoy what I do.

There will be time when things at least slow down (I’d imagine?) so I’ll post more thoughts here later, but for now, I have been re-reading the book I released last year, “Life In The Rearview Mirror” and there’s some good stuff in there. I’ve been encouraged to read some of the stuff God had taught me in the not too distant past, and to see how that could help me in the now to handle some of the things I (we) am (are) dealing with now. Some stuff about money… and a few chapters lately about just the way God made the world to work best.

I feel like I did not give LITRVM as much attention since the Here’s The Church book was so much more focused “topic-wise” and seemed more relevant to more people. And, it’s a great book, and I am glad so many people have purchased or downloaded it from the GregsHead.net Bookstore. That’s awesome.

I’d like to recommend again that you check out Life In The Rearview Mirror. If you’re able to purchase, that would be great. You can buy it at my bookstore (linked above) or using the button in this post. Or, you can get it at Kavanagh Books right here in Palmyra, or even better… you can purchase straight from Amazon, via my Amazon Store (and they will pay me a commission on the sale of my own book!) πŸ™‚

If you really don’t want to buy the book… may I recommend you read the blog posts from whence the content of LITRVM came? (Well, at least, two of the chapters) πŸ™‚ Here are the links to the two articles I spoke of before. If you can get the book, that would be grand, and I think you’d enjoy it. If not, enjoy these articles from 2005…

The Right Place
Selflessness

by Greg

Broked – Part II

OK… If you’re following along at home, you might think that last week’s troubles ended with the PowerBook hard drive failing (or perhaps you might even think they ended last week?) πŸ™‚ That is not the case. So, the saga continues with another trip to the Apple Store on Thursday night, following the failure of yet another hard drive!

Thursday morning I was hoping to have a more successful day… just really hoping to finish the crazy week with a normal, quiet day. Wednesday night, Jen & I spent a little time going through the iTunes store to choose some music for her to use her $15 gift card on. That was fun, and after some tough choices, she settled on just the right songs to spend her gift money on. I sent the links up to the computer where we store our iTunes music library on Wednesday night, and made the purchases that following Thursday morning.

After all had downloaded, I went to get Jen’s iPod, and connected it to the computer. It mounted, and started updating, just as it always does. But right as it finished, it gave a little error message. Something like, “Unable to write to disk” or something. That sounded bad, but I assumed it was some strange glitch, and just unmounted the iPod drive and then re-connected it.

That’s when everything got broked again.

The iPod decided not to show up as it is supposed to. It thought it was updating, but iTunes (nor my computer) did not see it. I tried a few things, but eventually it just froze up my two applications that handle mounting iPod hard drives. I tried to force quit both of those, and nothing happened there… so I eventually decided to just unplug the iPod.

It didn’t like that.

It tried to restart, and was not successful. It restarted, then crashed, then restarted, then crashed… until the battery finally died. πŸ™ It was a physical hard drive failure. We had just had that happen not 3 months ago! So, the best part was, I assumed it was still warranteed, and we took it up to the Apple Store (our second visit in as many nights.)

I need to make this long story short, so here are the highlights:

1) Long wait at the Apple Store… grumpy Genius handled my troubled iPod
2) “You’re out of warranty,” says grumpy Genius.
3) “How far out of warranty?” asks Greg. “I can’t tell,” replies grumpy Genius.
4) I notice on the paper that the 90-day warranty began on 10-18-2006. It was 1-19-07 that night. ARGH!!! Thankfully, the manager whom we know was working that night, and she took care of us. πŸ™‚
5) They ship back our iPod, and order a new one for us, free of charge.

So, that kind of worked…

Friday morning, I had to restart my computer because Tuesday night the iPod crash had frozen up my disk utility program. So, when I got the chance, I restarted. BUT… for some reason, it spun up my external hard drive, and then would not quit. After waiting a very long time, I decided to force it to shut down. When the external drive is spinning, and you do a forced shut down… that makes a very very bad sound.

I spent the next 45 minutes I think doing all I could to save my 500GB external drive from a hard shut down. Thankfully, that actually worked! Was my luck changing? Were things technological going to begin to improve for me?

Guess not.

Sunday we got the call that the iPod was in and we could come pick it up. Jen did, and when she returned I went up and happily connected it to the computer, so we could load all 25GB or so of our music on there.

It didn’t show up. The computer, and iTunes were not recognizing it. I tried several different things. Nothing. I unplugged it (not recommended) and tried again… again nothing. Finally, the third time I unplugged it, I got the bad, BAD sound again! It fell right back into that loop the last one had done. Restart, crash, restart, crash…

You get the point.

Yes, folks. The REPLACEMENT for the REPLACEMENT of the REPLACEMENT … CRASHED! The FIRST TIME I CONNECTED IT!!!

It has been a very bad technology week here. πŸ™

So, we’re headed to the Apple store tonight to have them order another one for us. It’s warranteed… but come on. This is ridiculous!!! Hoping the curse has run its course….

I’ll let you know in episode three…

by Greg

Broked

Tuesday morning, I awoke to a few phone calls, a couple IMs and an e-mail or two from a client (and friend) of mine who had woken up to find his website was down. That happens… so I wasn’t too worried. We had just spent 9 straight days getting him up and running on a new server – MAJOR craziness – and all was going well for a week… untill… his account just disappeared from the server. Gone. No trace of it ever having been there.

Thankfully, with some great help from several sources, we got his site up and running again within 24 hours. That was a bit of a miracle, you could say. It was quite welcome news this morning.

This afternoon, after a few more minor things were not going well… I went to check a web page I was working on over on my PowerBook, and I noticed I could not access it. The mouse was still moving, but I couldn’t click anything. I couldn’t get out of it any way I knew how, so … I just shut down the computer and tried again. Unfortunately, it just kept getting worse and worse… until, I was fairly certain I had lost all hope of recovering any of that drive πŸ™

I am very good at backing things up, but unfortunately this time, there were DAYS worth of work on that computer that had NOT been backed up. Gone. Lost. No trace of it ever having been there.

Oh! And I almost forgot… I have some old gaming systems (Nintendo NES, Sega Genesis, TI 99/4a) and I had created the entire current Sabres team on the Sega Genesis NHL ’96 game! It’s awesome! The boys and I have enjoyed that. Last night, I played two games, and at the end of the second one, as I was about to shut it off… the screen froze. When it does that, you have to shut it off immediately, or you might lose the season, or perhaps other data. Yes… you guessed it. Not only did I lose the season… I lost every player I created, and all traces of it ever having been there.

Goodness… I’m in a pretty serious rut here…

At one point this evening I wanted to just completely eliminate all things that can break from my life. Mainly I was thinking electronic things… but then I just thought, how about EVERYTHING that can break. No more frustration then, eh? πŸ™‚

Sadly… I do realize that everything breaks. Servers, hard drives, old computers, tables, couches, houses, and yes, even people πŸ™ That’s the way it is.

Still, I can’t help but think that some of the great frustration I have endured this past week (and even this whole month so far I think) could have been alleviated had I a bit less dependence or involvement with electronic technology. The weird part is, that’s what I love! I love all the fun technology we have… but it does seem to cause me almost as much grief as enjoyment.

Perhaps a solution would be a technological sabbatical? What’s the likelihood of that? Me giving up technology???? It would certainly be different… πŸ™‚

SO, my PowerBook has been shipped off to Apple again, and it will come back brand new… covered under warranty. But I did lose all the data on that. And there are some other things that are working around me… but it’s only a matter of time before they get broked too.

That’s just no fun. Wish stuff didn’t get broked.

by Greg

What A Surprise!!!

I can’t believe how little I have been able to get up here and share the fun stories from life in the Campbell home. I really do love to tell stories. I think it’s because I love to read stories. (I could say something cheesy like, “Stories are the fabric of life.” or something… but we all know that anyway, so I’ll leave the cheese out here…) Who doesn’t love stories?

Well here’s a quickie…

Last Tuesday night, Jen & I were headed out for a nice dinner together… no kids… (there’s a theme to today’s posts…) πŸ™‚ but first we needed to get some gas. We went up to our gas station and filled up, and this time I happened to have lots of cash, so I decided to use that. (Almost never do that…) After I had filled up, I headed inside, but the pump beeped LOUDLY at me. I figured I needed to do something else, but when I returned to check, it said, “Please Pay Cashier”. I thought, “Ummm… right!” πŸ™‚ And I headed back inside.

Our gas station gives away 50 gallons of gas every week. When you fill up, you just run in and get some tickets, and then check back on Fridays to see if you’ve won. We never have, but I still like to get tickets. Just in case. πŸ™‚ This time, as I was heading inside, I noticed a sign on the door that said “Double Tickets on Tuesdays!” Sweet! More chances to win! I was going to make sure I mentioned that when I was paying.

When I came inside, the two ladies behind the counter were laughing, smiling… just having fun. I smiled, but thought nothing of it. As I approached the counter, I noticed that one of the ladies was our old neighbor (from our previous residence) and smiled a hello at her. Her co-worker, a younger, perhaps teenage girl, was arguing her case, “He was just cuuuute!” I smiled at her as well, and in response she said, “You were just cute! Running up and then running back to check the pump and then running back in!”

I was cute? They were laughing at me? Hmmm. I was a bit surprised by all of this now, and really didn’t know what to say. I said, “Thanks?” And after a bit more explaining, justifying, etc… the giddyness seemed to die down and I said, “I need to pay for my gas…” πŸ™‚

They were still chatting happily as we completed the transaction, and as they did, I made sure to request my tickets. The younger girl gave me my double tickets and then a few more for good measure. (I was “cute”, remember… I guess that gets you more tickets…) πŸ™‚ And then our former neighbor and I chatted a bit… just catching up on our respective families.

When I left I recounted the entire (humorous) story to Jen and we had a good laugh, too, over my “cuteness” and then had an enjoyable evening together… Jen took me out to a sub shop we’d never been to. Then we stopped by the Apple Store for a leisurely, “kidless” evening. It was quite nice.

Alright… I said “quick” but we’re getting long…

Fast forward to Saturday morning. It’s nearly noon and I need to hit the bank and the PO before the clock struck twelve. The bank was first… and with a long line, I knew my plans were mostly foiled. But, it went rather quickly, and I was out at 12:01. The library, which is in the same parking lot, had a book on hold for us, so I ran in there real quick, hoping they had stayed just a few minutes past 12… They had. I found out they close at 2. πŸ™‚ That was nice.

I hurried to the now closed post office and got a stamp out of that little machine, and sent in my tax payment… so that was all good. Just one more stop… had to check on our gas tickets, since I was right there anyway.

I jumped out of the car and hurried in (remembering the funny “cute” story from a few nights before). I checked the tickets again and looked at the general set of numbers I was hoping to see on the winner’s board. When I got to the counter I looked at the number, and it was close! But we’ve been there before… just a number or two off. But this time… IT WAS EXACTLY OUR NUMBER!!!!

I must have checked it four times before I finally said, kind of quietly, “I … think we won?” The guy behind the counter said to another worker on the floor, “This guy says he thinks he won the gas giveaway.” The lady he was speaking to came over to inspect and I said, “I think I’ve got it!” She verified they were the same numbers and took my license number so that when we come in, we just put our gas on that tab until we’ve gotten our 50 gallons!

FIFTY GALLONS. Gas is $2.45/gallon at the moment, so that’s $122.50 worth of gas!!! Nice!!!!! We’ve said before that money is not flowing freely around here, and that remains true. It’s even been a lot tougher of late, which causes a little extra stress in the home. So, this was just nice timing, and a very fun gift to us. We’re excited!

So what I got out of this story was, be sure to be cute when you’re getting gas, and you might end up winning 50 free gallons!

Well, ok… maybe not. πŸ™‚

by Greg

Peace and Quiet?

So, yesterday afternoon, we drove the kids over to Grandma & Grandpa’s (well, almost all the way there…. we met in the middle…) and now we have a couple days with no kids! That’s great on a couple accounts… 1) Grandma LOVES to have her grandkids… especially stay overnight, and 2) we get to have some time together, alone, and… quiet! We went out for a nice leisurely “lupper” (That meal that is neither lunch, nor supper… but, “lupper”…) last night at Olive Garden with a gift card (which helped tremendously!).

When we got home, the quiet was kind of nice. But kind of not nice. I missed our kids. I think Jen did, too… though she was enjoying the quiet a bit more than me. We fell asleep on the couches watching the second football game of the day (even having missed all of the first one!) and it was still just very… quiet.

After not too long, the quiet just made me realize how much I love the Life that is in our house. God has richly blessed us with four great people that he added to our family. I was quite surprised at how much I really did miss having them there (they had only been away for several hours at that point) and how little I was enjoying the quiet.

Jen was dealing with it as well. The kids take all of her focus and energy, emotional and physical, and once she didn’t have that, she was a bit directionless, and was having to deal with some internal things that she had not had time (or taken time?) to face since she is busy with kids from the time she rises in the morning until she crashes at night. That was not a pleasant part of the evening (nor is she likely past it…), but it was another part of the quiet. Perhaps that one will be good in the long run…

Finally, when we did go to bed, I turned everything off in the house as I normally do. This time I turned off the monitor to the girls room, too… which I do not normally do. As I was laying there with Jen, I could hear her breathing/moving… but all else was silent. That was strange. Almost sad, actually. Usually there are some signs of life in the house. Either breathing, or slight movements… creaks of beds, something. Last night… there was quiet.

There’s certainly something to be said for quiet. It is enjoyable at times, but I suppose (maybe for the first time) last night I realized that I enjoy the “noise” that God has surrounded us with. We are really quite blessed to have the incessant noise that generally permeates our house. It means our family is full of vibrant life. And I guess last night reminded me that I wouldn’t have it any other way.

by Greg

ο£ΏTV and The iPhone Becomes Reality!

ο£ΏTV
I would love to go on and on about the amazingly cool products apple just released yesterday, but all I have time for right now are links and this photo. πŸ™‚

AppleTV
iPhone (Please don’t think this is just a phone…)
Watch the whole Keynote speech (A well-spent 2 hours!)

Enjoy! I’m sure I’ll write more later!

(And… if you’d like to get any of this great new stuff… click here then click here) πŸ™‚

iPhone

by Greg

Cyborgs, and the World Wide Mind

PBS is offering a series of shows on iTunes as a free download, and then asking viewers to vote for the best show, which will then become a regular series on the network. I downloaded the shows yesterday and decided to watch the one called 22nd Century first. I like futuristic stuff, science fiction and whatnot… so, I thought I’d check it out.

The show was about cyborg technology. Tiny computers that enhance people’s organic functions. There was a story about a man who completely lost his hearing, but with a small computer connected to his brain that could interpret the signals still coming to his ears, he learned to hear again! And then another story of people who are “locked in” and can not communicate with the outside world (though they are full cognisant of it), but with the help of tiny computers connected to their brain, they were able to just think a word or letter, and get a computer screen to show what they were thinking. The machine learns (and is programmed) to react to the different signals the brain sends out when the person was “thinking” of that specific word, letter, object… whatever. That one took some more training time, but was pretty amazing.

All of that was well and good, even the guy who wore glasses that had computers in them (and I think they were attached to his brain).. neat stuff. The totally insane part was some of the other folks who were suggesting that since we can tap into our brains like this, the 22nd century will be replete with Cyborgs – people and machines working symbiotically.

Is this a good thing? On an individual basis, why not? Obviously if it was required by others (like a government policy or something) that would be a very, very bad thing. But if you just wanted to enhance your body (though the validity of that statement could certainly be challenged) then go right ahead. However, this technology allows for individual “cyborgs” to be connected to other machines (like a computer network). Again, that’s not that bad… the main question there is who is in control? Is the person and their brain in control, or, does the machine have the capability of taking over? It sounds like sci-fi, but is it possible?

Certainly the possibility of a machine by malfunction, or even worse, by way of programming taking over the mind of a human being is not a desirable outcome of this technology. It’s rather a scary thought. But that was not the worst idea put forth by this 60 minute show.

The WWM (pronounced, “whim”), or, the World Wide Mind. The idea here is that as we have the internet now, which requires that we interface via keyboards and screens and such… we could have instant connection by having a sort of computer network in our brains. We would be “always on” the world wide web… in our mind. We would be able to hear, read, see, even feel what other people are thinking. IT’S THE BORG! πŸ™‚

While there may be a fascinating side to all this, and apparently many feel it is entirely plausible… the down side is just disastrous. It would be so easy to control another person who is “wired” this way. It would be way too easy to invade another person’s “self”. It’s just scary.

The world-wide-mind thing is a mystery to me as well. Why would we WANT to be connected to people in this way? I know we are relational, but why aren’t the built-in ways to relate good enough? πŸ™‚ It seems that any benefit you get from linking to another person this way is FAR outweighed by the negative possibilites that come from such a link. There is no privacy, no … self! Anyone can “access” you any time they want.

Well, I finished the show just hoping this was some wacko’s idea of what the future could be. I’m all for integrating technology. But, we must be very, very careful. Technology is much easier to hack than the great “firewalls” God built into us. Yes, there are problems with those, too. (How could there be any deceit if we all knew what each other was thinking?) But I’ll take the original, thank you very much!

And, I’ll have fun using all of the great stuff we’re going to see in about 5 minutes from the Macworld conference in San Fransisco… πŸ™‚

by Greg

Go(o)d Timing

While I am here… I wanted to post this story last week, but didn’t have the time. (I don’t now, but since I’m here…) πŸ™‚

I usually take a break for lunch (which my wife dilligently prepares for us) around 1pm every day. Often it will end up being 1:15… or if a particularly busy day, it could be later. But this past Friday, I had finished up some things… and there was a rumbly in my tumbly… and didn’t want to start the next thing for fear of going way past 1:00… so, I decided it was time for lunch at 12:15. Usually, I would not make such a decision. There was a set of odd circumstances that led to that, and then even more odd was, if I ever do “leave” early… I usually find several things to do on the way out of my office. But today, I didn’t. I just left.

I walked downstairs and greeted my family. The greeting I received in return from my wife was, “Why are you down here now?” It was not the kindest greeting, but Jen prefers things to be as they “should” be. So, deviation from the norm (though completely expected from me) is much more difficult for her to handle than me, or perhaps our children.

I tried to think of how to explain why I was down there early, but really, there were several reasons (too long to explain) and at the same time, there were no reasons. So, after a brief pause, I replied, “Because I had to.”

The words even surprised me. πŸ™‚ I think I followed that up by saying quickly, “That was a weird thing to say!” But not 5 seconds after I had said, “Because I had to,” there was a knock on our front door. I peeked around the corner to see who it was and it was a friend we have not seen in a while who stops by on occasion to spend time with “basic”, as he calls us. πŸ™‚ From observation, it seems like he’s on the lonely side, so we’re happy to share a meal with him or just hang out for a while.

So, I said to Jen, “And maybe this is why…” (refering to my previous statement, “Because I had to.”) I went to the door, and happily invited him in. πŸ™‚

The cool part was, had I dove right back into the next project, I would have come down, but not been “free” to do so. This time, I was, and it was an enjoyably quirky lunch. (He’s an odd fellow, to be sure…) πŸ™‚

After he left, I just marveled for the rest of that afternoon at God’s timing, and maybe even the way he gave me words to say. I mean… I didn’t know really why I chose the words, “Because I had to,” but they seemed to fit once our friend knocked on the door. (FIVE SECONDS after I said them!!!)

Just a fun God moment in a very busy week. Wanted to share it with you. πŸ™‚