In New Jersey, at my cousin's house right now. Pretty nice around here. Its unbelievable how many people are in Manhattan. Just a sea of people & cars. This keyboard is really loud and clicky and my cousin is sleeping right now so I gotta go see ya.

What should be the husband's role in marriage? Oh I see! OK, what, then, should be the wife's role in marriage?

Urbana (December 27-31, 2003) is a convention that the Lord will use to change and equip lives for his purpose.

Urbana 03 is both about your future and about your life today. We learn about God’s heart for people in the remotest hills and for the students on our dorm floors. All people are equally valuable to a King who died so we might live. While Urbana conventions always feature some well-known speakers, delegates invariably remember for the rest of their lives the ten-minute testimony of that African missionary who got stoned by villagers, or of that old lady who was held prisoner in Vietnam. Urbana speakers are not necessarily great people of God, but they are always people of a great God. There is nothing quite like an Urbana convention. The atmosphere is at once like a family and a city. People return from the convention changed forever. Being in a posture of submission to God’s reign in your life, you may be stunned by how bright, big, and alive is the world, and how great is its need for Jesus. At Urbana 03, join 20,000 college students, missionaries, and church and campus leaders. Seek God’s will for your life. Worship with people of diverse cultures. Learn about God’s passionate love for the world through Bible study, prayer, seminars, and dynamic speakers. Explore opportunities to serve in God’s Kingdom. Impact the world.

If you're trying to decide, maybe this will help decide should I go? Hope to see you there.

In life, its so easy to get caught up in the lack of. Whether its lack of control, time, strength, or money. Or perhaps more personally - lack of love, lack of obedience, lack of discernment, or wisdom. These things can be immediately overwhelming. Or if not, then like a small burden that continues to grow - like a bag of rice we can't put down and someone keeps adding a grain at a time, never ceasing - until the bag just becomes too unwieldy and frustrating to carry any more. In my own life, I feel struggles in many areas: lack of courage - standing up for the things I believe in. Lack of conviction - a compromise of what I know to be truth. Lack of love, lack of ability, and on and on. The easiest way to discern where our eyes are - either looking at our inadequacies, or fixed on God's ability, and willingness to do on our behalf - on his own behalf - the easiest way to tell where our hearts are focused is in response to these inadequacies. Do I find myself in mild despair and hopelessness, or do I find, in that very moment, an overflowing joy in the adequacy of God? God can do it. God will do it. Perhaps a person finds that God has placed in them a willing heart to serve him, yet, the call just seems to difficult or too lofty. Ministry? Not me. I mean, I'd like to please God in serving him, but I'm not capable of it - it's just not who I am. My character is too deeply flawed; I struggle with this sin or that; I'm not smart enough; people don't listen to me; my personal history tells me I fail when I try ... I find that there are two simple steps we can take that are very encouraging and effective. Firstly, sometimes we don't allow ourselves to dream because in our hearts, we inevitably know our dreams will never come true, that to hope, is to eventually have to give up hope - and where hope goes, despair sets in. Well, I've discovered that to just close the eyes, and answer the question, "what if there were no limitations?? what if there were no boundaries? what would life look like?" And to just take the leap - totally dream. And secondly, to then rejoice in the God who - "will do more than we can ask for or imagine." To know and stand firm in the knowledge in our hearts that God loves dreams, particularly dreams that are in line with his own heart. So, first we dream, then in the midst of the dream, God blesses us with the eyes to see that "hey, these things can come to pass! In fact, why wouldn't it happen?" Faith is the one thing that moves the hand of God, and it pleases him tremendously when we say, "without you God, there's no way, ever, this could happen. but with you God, because you said so, it's as good as done." And as we dream, and begin to believe, God will illuminate for us one step at a time to get to that place. It's his promise - "delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart." God said so, its a done deal! Dream. At least once a week. The bible talks a lot of endurance and patience. So its important to keep dreaming, keep hoping, keep trusting. What the devil does is steal the seeds of hope and faith, and to replace them with hopelessness and doubt - its his character and mission. Showers are good for us and the people around us, but to shower infrequently (once a year?) is really not of much use, right? So dreaming about God's provision and faithfulness is great, and to nurture the attitude of hopefulness and knowing that God will provide every resource, every need, all grace in our lack - is truly food to the soul.

SCO, the company, has been stirring up quite a ruckus - trying to sue the pants off of everyone, and threatening to make people pay license fees for Linux. Linux, the free operating system, which is pretty much not owned by any particular entity. And SCO is claiming rights for it. Ridiculous. Anyway, you know those Nigerian e-mail scams? Here's an SCO parody that's pretty funny.

Back from hotlanta. As a result of living in a place like Houston, it brings me great delight to do some of the small stuff like ride the subway to the airport, or go for a week without a car. It was a lot of fun. I'm sure it'd get routine and sucky after a while, but it was great for this past week. Hmm. I've got a lot I could write about, but not feelin the flow comin on right now. bbl?

I've been at a trade show in atlanta, georga for the past several days - very limited internet access (I need an 802.11b card - there are wireless hotspots all over the place here), thus the lack of updates. Neat city. Staying in the Westin Peachtree Plaza - its actually a 73 story hotel - probably the tallest I've ever seen. Quite nice. I've been practicing a lot using the new digital camera, learning how to adjust aperture & shutter speeds, the effects of using a flash vs. no flash, etc etc. It's pretty cool stuff, stuff like this is totally trial & error, experienced based learning. One more day and I'll be back in h-town...

The trailer to Mel Gibson's upcoming movie, "The Passion" is out on the web. Its pretty intense.

Houston

Exploring extreme programming, and thinking about how I can it implement the practices in my workplace. I've been following this for a while now, mulling, thinking, considering. I've been subscribed (on and off) to extremeprogramming@yahoogroups.com and also read several websites. I can say that programming as a career carries with it certain areas of frustration that seem to be common across the industry. The cool thing is that XP is aware of these and attempts to address these problem areas (apparently rather successfully). The bad thing is change is difficult, particularly in a corporate environment. And, I'm not really good at making things happen. Well, it'll be a learning experience. I'll periodically throw up links to articles I find informative and interesting regarding XP.

Lots of goodbyes lately, more emotional than normal. A friend from church yesterday, and a co-worker today. Both people have been very pleasant and fun to have known. I guess for the most part I remain pretty emotionally unattached to people, but goodbyes always kinda suck. Well for one thing - these goodbyes have been great tributes to the like-ability of these respective people. The way people respond when you're leaving is a pretty clear indication to what sort of relationship-investment has been made. Especially today, I found in myself being quite reserved as far as sayin goodbye - I mean, what's the point, right? Life goes on. And it does. That's why I personally hate having to say goodbye - when I left austin, I just packed up real quick, walked out to my car, and drove off without looking back. Maybe that's bad ... maybe departures need to be done properly. Sometimes its just easier not going thru that. Next time, when my path takes a different turn - what would that goodbye look like ... ? ... For yesterday's going-away party, we went around and each person took time to make a comment about the person who was leaving and it was amazing to hear the things being said. And one person noted - it'd be nice to express these sentiments to people while they're still around.

Wingman (the commercial video)

(D) This chick's rockin' your bro on the dance floor. (D9) (G) But she's towing an anchor. (D9) (G) A junior investment banker. (Bm) (A) Who's talkin' about herself and not (F# on the2 nd fret with the B and Estring ringingout) much more. Oh (G) (Dsus) (the sung melody is an F#) So buy her a beer, (Dsus) (A) its the reason you're here: (A) (Bm) Mighty Wingman (Bm) (D) (A) You're taking one for the team, (Bm) (A) (G) so your buddy can live the dream: (F#) (G) (D) Wingmaaaaaaaaaaaan

my roommate thanh and my coworker duane have linux vs. windows battles. amazing display of wit as these intellectual giants clash. check out a cute note thanh left for me recently on my desktop:

i have a linux computer and it sucks big time. by big time i mean extremely sucky. everytime i want to do something i have to compile it? wtf? that sucks. compiling code that i didn't even write? so what happens if it doesn't compile correctly? do you have to fix it or correct the source code? my friend, bill said linux is the worst os in the world because it is free. he said that good things in life are never free. i have a laptop that's running windows xp and it rocks when i said it rocks, i meant it kicks major ass! what a great machine. i even bought it a new desk. it loves me so much because it kept telling me that i have new mail. i think that it's more than a machine. if i can make it into a woman, i totally would. it would get turned on when i push a magic button.

lol next up: the greatest dialog ever

Woohoo! Got the Larrivee in yesterday. After playing for several hours, I've decided it sounds pretty fantastic. However, my fingers are bruised and hurting now. :-) woke up this morning feeling a bit apathetic about life. spent some time thinking about the wonderful freedom that God has given to us. felt quite refreshed afterward. hoping to play some tennis today - hurricane, go away!

a few events & updates: 0) daniel's Sanyo SCP8100 should be arriving any day now. awww yeah, time to fill up the phone book wit da digits... 1) ordered the Larrivee D-03, a canadian made guitar. should also come in later this week. yay. gotta upgrade the 6-string skills now. 2) volleyball victory today! our team record is now 3-2. we defeated a really talented team today, so the win was quite rewarding. 3) life has carried with it such a sweet fragrance as of late. there are ups and downs, but mostly, my heart has been mostly full of gratitude and joy, at just at being alive, and in knowing the Lord. can't stop smiling... 4) my strong & desperate desire has been to live a purpose-ful life, to bear fruit. what i think i know about bearing fruit: it doesn't come from a strong will power, or thru sheer determination, but instead thru staying in the love of God, thru continued intimacy with Jesus. thus, the dictate is of life is no longer "do not taste, do not touch," but instead - avoid, run away from the things that seem to hinder God's intimate touch and - run wholeheartedly, continuously, daily, fiercely, toward the things that widen the river of the joy of God into my life...