This week marks a significant transition in my life. Friday was my last day at Micron and tomorrow I will start my new job. The team I worked with had a farewell lunch for the three of us who were leaving and afterwards I stopped by my new office to drop off the boxes in my car since it was right across the street. As you can see from the picture to the left, I was quite surprised by the computer they had set up for me. For the less enlightened among you, that computer is a Tandy TRS-80 Model III (affectionately known as a Trash 80) circa 1980. What a great group of people. I am so looking forward to working with them. In fact, I think I’ll bring donuts for all on Monday morning.
On Tuesday my son will return home after his year at Anthem. He has spent most of the past month on his missions trip which included stops in Dallas and New Orleans before the main outreach in the Dominican Republic. I am very much looking forward to hearing about all of his experiences in school and on his missions outreach. It’s been a lonely year without having my computer gaming buddy around. I’m looking forward to some father/son time.
This week is also my last week of involvement in Vineyard Leadership Institute. I’ve been involved with VLI for over 5 years with two as a student and three as an Assistant Coordinator with a brief stint recently as the Site Coordinator. The final final exam is this Thursday. It’s such a great program but it just hasn’t thrived in our current church culture. I’m not sure what it is. Perhaps it is the high level of commitment, the cost, or simply inadequate promotion. Whatever the reason, it will be sad to see it go. I went into the classroom to sort through all of the materials this weekend and was touched by the nostalgia.
This week also turned out to be the week that my friend Chad informed me that he is embarking on a new journey. I’ve known Chad for almost 10 years. First as a pastor, then as a mentor, and ultimately as a friend (I use the word ultimately there in both senses of the word – completion and magnitude). It just won’t be the same without him. I’d like to talk more about this but I am still in process and I’m not sure that it would be profitable to do so. Let me summarize with this: I long for the day when the church can live in true relationship. I long for the day when brothers and sisters don’t vote each other off the island. I long for the day when we don’t have to shed tears because people we love on both sides of a grievance cannot find reconciliation.
So what next? Well, I’m sure that I will have a big challenge in my new position. I have a lot to learn to get up-to-speed and will probably spend a lot of time reading Visual C++ books and such. I will also be focusing solely on marriage ministries in the absence of VLI and there is a lot going on in that area right now. There are some new couples who will be training this month to facilitate the Dynamic Marriage class alongside Sharon and I and we are already signing people up for classes in the fall. And, of course, I’m looking forward to spending some time with my son. The computers have been upgraded and I’ve installed some great new games for us to play together.
Though this past year has been exceedingly difficult, I am so thankful that God allowed my faith to be tested. I am grateful that he has shown me how much I have that truly matters. I am also so very thankful for the many blessings that he has poured out upon me and my family. I am amazed by his mercy and grace.
Sunday, June 15, 2008
A Time of Transition
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Hardware Review: Linksys DMA2100 - Media Center Extender
It might seem kind of odd to have a review of an electronic device on my blog but I assure you it is not. I love computers and I also fancy electronic gadgets. Well, the Linksys DMA2100 is a computer related electronic gadget and those are the best kind. I've also been waiting for one of these for almost a decade. Yes, I realize they haven't been around that long but it was around 10 years ago that I first asked myself why they didn't slap a network connection and some electronics in my receiver or come up with some kind of digital convergence box that would allow me to access all of the media on my computer and play it or display it on my home theater system. Well, that day has come because that's pretty much what this little black box from Linksys does.
These kind of products have been around for several years now and I have watched them with great anticipation. I've kept holding off on my purchase though because I was waiting for a better price point and, more importantly, I have been waiting to see an affordable product that has the features I want and favorable reviews to go with it. The DMA2100, though not perfect, seems to have been the first device in its class to achieve a reasonable level of user satisfaction. After reading through most of the reviews I felt that the few shortcomings noted were relatively minor so I went ahead and purchased it from Newegg.
Setup was relatively simple and straightforward for someone with a high level of computer expertise and a moderate level of home theater knowledge. I had only two problems during setup. For some reason the box would only accept wireless keys that were 5 or 9 characters in length and which were also numeric. This was easily resolved by changing my wireless network key. The second problem was my own confusion regarding the code that had to be entered on the attached computer which was generated from the DMA2100. The instructions were not very clear regarding the order of setup. At least not to me. Anyway, after wasting 90 minutes or so on those little problems I had the thing up and running.
I can now watch all the movies on my computer, look at all the pictures my wife has taken, and listen to any of our music. It's just so freaking cool to have access to my entire digital library from the comfort of my living room without having to go through the hassle and expense of putting a noisy media computer in my home theater cabinet. Instead, I have a small black box the size of a 10 CD case sitting on my center channel speaker. I opted for the wireless network connection and so far it has worked fine. I haven't tried any high quality HD (high definition) content yet but the built-in performance tester indicates that I should be fine to do so. You will need an 802.11n wireless router in order to view HD content. I'd recommend one anyway unless you are going to wire in an Ethernet connection. An 802.11g wireless router with a good connection would probably be okay for standard video content but I wouldn't care to push it. I went with the Linksys WRT600N router to stay in the family and also because it was affordable, had all the features I wanted, and had excellent reviews. The dual-band feature is really nice if you have legacy wireless laptops or other devices too.
There are just a couple of detractors from an otherwise perfect device. From time to time it does crash while trying to access or play some media. However, I think this is actually the software running on my host computer and not the media extender itself. The DMA2100 has to connect via a wired or wireless network to a host computer that is running the Windows Media Center OS or a computer with Vista Home Premium or Ultimate edition, both of which have Windows Media Center functionality. The one thing that I am really unhappy with is that the DMA2100 doesn't recognize some types of video files as a playable format. For example, I might have an AVI file that is encoded using the popular DIVX encoder. Well, DIVX is a flavor of MPEG-4 but the DMA2100 doesn't recognize it. It will play videos that have been encoded using XVID though which is also a flavor of MPEG-4. It is relatively simple to work around the issue by downloading a third-party application that allows you to change the fourcc code in the file itself from DIVX to XVID. This fools it into thinking it was encoded with XVID even though it wasn't. Although this workaround is relatively simple, it is a real pain. C'mon Linksys, this was a poor oversight but also something that you could easily fix with a firmware upgrade and numerous people, myself included, have complained to you about it. If you're reading this, please fix it.
Oh, and Microsoft, if your reading this: What on earth made you combine my pictures and video libraries on the same row so that I have to navigate like a knight on a chessboard to get to my movies? Please put it on a separate line or let me configure it that way. Also, it would be sweet if you could get all of the bugs worked out on the live TV stuff. I'd love to watch movie trailers and news clips but right now it's just too painful. I have around a 99% chance of crashing if I try to watch three video segments from your downloadable content offerings.
Friday, June 6, 2008
Movie Review: Fireproof
Last night my wife and I had the privilege of attending the first public screening of the upcoming move Fireproof. The movie is scheduled for release in theatres September 26, 2008. When we received the invitation I though to myself, "Oh great… Another one of those low budget Christian films that's poorly scripted and acted." After watching the film last night I am pleased to say that I couldn't have been more wrong. I went because the focus of the movie is directed at strengthening marriages and that's my cup-of-tea. I figured I could probably get some value out of it or at least be able to say that I went. Instead, the movie deeply tugged at my heart strings and spoke to me about my own marriage. I was also introduced to something that will undoubtedly become a very powerful tool for ministering to marriages when it is released in the fall. It's the best marriage related video I have ever seen.
I was impressed by how well they portrayed everyday struggles and temptations instead of going out on a limb with plot elements that weren't relevant to the everyday person. It was easy to relate to the characters, to feel their hope and dissapointment. At the same time, they added larger-than-life aspects that created suspense and made for a very entertaining movie experience.
Fireproof stars Kirk Cameron and Erin Bethea. It was produced by Sherwood Pictures who also brought us Facing the Giants and Flywheel. A website named fireproofmyparriage has also been setup to provide additional resources for couples. A study guide will be released in the spring of 2009.
Here is a brief synopsis from the Fireproof website:
At work, inside burning buildings, Capt. Caleb Holt lives by the old firefighter's adage: Never leave your partner behind. At home, in the cooling embers of his marriage, he lives by his own rules.
Growing up, Catherine Holt always dreamed of marrying a loving, brave firefighter...just like her daddy. Now, after seven years of marriage, Catherine wonders when she stopped being "good enough" for her husband.
Regular arguments over jobs, finances, housework, and outside interests have readied them both to move on to something with more sparks.
As the couple prepares to enter divorce proceedings, Caleb's father challenges his son to commit to a 40-day experiment: "The Love Dare." Wondering if it's even worth the effort, Caleb agrees-for his father's sake more than for his marriage. When Caleb discovers the book's daily challenges are tied into his parents' new found faith, his already limited interest is further dampened.
While trying to stay true to his promise, Caleb becomes frustrated time and again. He finally asks his father, "How am I supposed to show love to somebody who constantly rejects me?"
When his father explains that this is the love Christ shows to us, Caleb makes a life-changing commitment to love God. And with God's help he begins to understand what it means to truly love his wife.
But is it too late to fireproof his marriage? His job is to rescue others. Now Caleb Holt is ready to face his toughest job ever ... rescuing his wife's heart.
If you are married, thinking about getting married, or know someone who is married then I would highly recommend this film. If you don't fall into any of those categories please knock on the coffin lid so we can let you out. Bad jokes aside, please do put it on your calendar. You'll be glad you did. Just be sure to take a box of tissues… Or two.
