Sage - a great blog/newsfeed Firefox companion

Man, I must be in a really big blogging mood today (that or I am desperately trying to avoid doing any work around the house). A buddy of mine hipped me to a great Firefox extension called Sage. I hadn't really used it much, but am really discovering how cool a tool it is and how easy it is now to keep up with my favorite newsfeeds and friends' blog sites. The extension opens up a sidebar where you can keep a listing of your favorite newsfeeds. Click on one and the latest feeds from that site display in the main screen. Some nice features include not having to know the RSS/atom URL. Just click the magnifying glass "find feed" button and it automatically searches the website for any valid newsfeeds. You can also click a button to refresh your lists, and it will highlight all your newsfeeds with new posts since your last visit. Saves a whole lot of time going to all of them, or keeping them all on a google page but trying to remember what is new and what is old. Sorry, Jay. The Google thing was cool and all, but I think this is an easier and more elegant solution to our "keeping up with the Jones" problem! LOL

Seven Promises of a Promise Keeper

I know ya'll know about my beliefs about my faith. And I am sure ya'll have heard me mention Promise Keepers (PK for short) before as well. Well, the whole Promise Keepers movement is based on the following Seven Promises:

1. A Promise Keeper is committed to honoring Jesus Christ through worship, prayer, and obedience to God’s Word in the power of the Holy Spirit.


2. A Promise Keeper is committed to pursuing vital relationships with a few other men, understanding that he needs brothers to help him keep his promises.


3. A Promise Keeper is committed to practicing spiritual, moral, ethical, and sexual purity.


4. A Promise Keeper is committed to building strong marriages and families through love, protection, and biblical values.


5. A Promise Keeper is committed to supporting the mission of his church by honoring and praying for his pastor, and by actively giving his time and resources.


6. A Promise Keeper is committed to reaching beyond any racial and denominational barriers to demonstrate the power of biblical unity.


7. A Promise Keeper is committed to influencing his world, being obedient to the Great Commandment (see Mark 12:30-31) and the Great Commission (see Matthew 28:19-20).

I know most aren’t interested or care about this, but this is what I am referring to when you hear me talking about being a Man of Integrity, and what the foundation is of this PK thing I am all gung ho about. (Plus I wanted easy access to it on my blog since my memory is like a sieve…LOL)

Netgear wireless access point... this looks cool!

My wireless stuff just does NOT have good range in my house, and though I do already have an access point I could use at home, I loathe the idea of running CAT cable under the floor and through/up the wall to a central location in the house. However, as I was surfing (as I am wont to do), I came across this from Netgear. One piece plugs into the router and then into a nearby wall outlet. Then you simply plug the second piece into any wall socket in the home. The wireless signal is sent through the wall outlets to each other. No need to run CAT cable! Now, they do say you don't quite get the 54mbps speed due to a little loss of signal through the wall outlets, but if you just need to spread your wireless signal better through the house for surfing or sharing files, this could be awesome! Has anyone ever seen them in use, or know anything about them? I know some of my PC/networking/wireless guru geeks out there will have an opinion, and I would love to hear it.

Great Xbox360 video!

Everyone... quick... go over to Gamespy and download one of the videos of the Xbox360 Xbox Live demonstration from the conference in Germany! Yeah, the text on the screens are in German, but the demo is being done by MS reps and is in English... Oh man.... I just saw NEON on a 30 foot screen in the video....sweet! Bliss! Pure, trippy, psychedelic bliss!

November.... November... go to my Happy Place.... go to my Happy Place....

Argh... Fed Ex!!!!!!!!!! Don't tease me!

So as you know, I got my FlexDock (no, not my Bowflex, you fitness crazed people.. and you know who you are!) the other day for my Tablet PC, and am loving it. I was supposed to get my extra battery and bluetooth keyboard designed for my Tablet today. Remember how I said they were coming from California and the FlexDock came from China, but it got here first? Well, even though my other stuff was to be delivered today, here it is almost 6:00 pm and it ain't here yet. So of course since this is Friday, I won't get it til Monday. Fed Ex why do you tease me so! Tracking has had it in the state since 6:59 am this morning, but the couldn't get it 3 hours down the road TODAY. Bums.

I hate Thursdays...

So here it is, 8:00 pm. On Thursdays I see patients from 8:00 am til 8:00 pm. Except since I am too busy to book out time for paperwork, I have to do that in off hours. So I have actually been here since 7:00 am. I know I don't get sympathy from some of you folks who have to do 12 hour shifts and such, and my job clearly is not physically draining, but let me tell you. This job can be amazingly emotionally and mentally draining. Nothing like hearing people's pain and frustration and sadness and depression and whatever-else-you-can-think-of for 12 hours to wear you down. I am just glad I am a guy and good at that whole "compartmentalization" thing, where I can leave it here and not drag it home. Sorry. Just had to vent.

Speaking of home. I am going there now.

Anybody know where I can find one of these?!

OK. So I have lots of testing software for the evaluations that I do on my patients. Most of it is in CD format, though some (like some key disks) are 3.5" floppies. Companies like Fellowes and Kensington used to make media storage containers designed for both CD's and floppies together. Since CD's and flash media are becoming ubiquitous and floppies are starting to go the way of the dinosaur, nobody seems to make them any more. Does anyone know where I can find one? I have even looked at Ebay to no avail...

Thanks ya'll!

Fun with Blogger hacks!

I am really digging playing around with blogger, figuring out how to customize the theme and such. I knew there were add-ons, but I have recently discovered hacks! Basically customizing the CSS/HTML code to tweak the blogging features.

I have already added two. I will let you explore the place and see if you can find them. I really like them and plan to add more. Oh, right. In my SPARE time... Anyway, ya'll should check them out... I am off to google around for some more hacks before my next patient in, oh, two minutes...

Um...we were just wrestling!

OK. After the earlier post about blogs and faith and trying to stay on the straight and narrow, I am going to try to keep this as G Rated as I can. However, this is one of those bloggable moments that any of you with growing children will eventually encounter...

...so one night last week Kelly and I get the boys to bed, and we start chatting and get, um, amorous and all...things are going along just fine (if I do say so myself) and we are settling into quite the extended session of uneven-bars-floor-exercise-vault-mattress-play...

You see what's about to happen don't you?

As were are in a somewhat compromising position on the bed, our nine year old Connor opens the door! Partly in surprise and partly in admitted anger that, um, certain rhythms had gotten interrupted, I spoke loudly to Connor to get back to bed. He says, in a most sheepish tone, "Oh, uh, sorry. Sorry." And starts to close the door. I get up (luckily the lights are very dim so it is difficult to see so he didn't actually see anything, though my beached whale skin does tend to glow in the dark) and walk to the door as he is heading back to bed. I say, "Connor I will be there in a minute!" (Well, not just a minute really... it is just a figure of speech)

Kelly and I start giggling about this - we had been saying how it was only a matter of time before this happened since our boys were getting older - but troopers that we are, we completed the gymnastics routine with, oh, I would say at least a 9.775. Except for that Russian judge... he always gives low marks. Go figure. Anyway, we recover from the rigorous exercise, and I throw on my gym shorts and go to Connor's room. Turns out he has a tummy ache. I talk to him for a bit seeing if he needs or wants anything, and he just asks for a glass of water. He then says, "Dad, sorry I interrupted your's and mom's "thing" (using the double-handed-two-finger move for a quote as he said it) a while ago." I kind of shrugged it off, saying, "Oh Connor, it was no big deal bud. Me and mom were just goofing and wrestling around on the bed."

Did he buy it? He sure seemed to - he is a relatively sweet innocent little guy. However, this weekend I think I need to go buy some wrestling tights just in case.

I love new toys....

So Motion Computing, the makers of my wonderful Tablet PC, put some of the accessories for my model on sale, since they just released two new Tablet models. So I promptly ordered a FlexDock, extra battery, and bluetooth keyboard designed for my Tablet. Evidently the keyboard and battery are being shipped from California and the Flexdock from China. I get the Flexdock first. Go figure.

This thing is great! All my power and peripherals plug into the dock instead of my tablet. So instead of plugging and unplugging everything multiple times per day, all I have to do is slide the tablet into the dock and it automatically connects to my power supply and peripherals. It even adds an extra USB port on the front of the dock.

But here's my favorite feature. Those of you who know Tablet PC's know you can use them in portrait or landscape orientation. Though I typically use mine in portrait mode, there are times when I need landscape. And pressing a button to "scroll" through all four orientations (90, 180, 270, 360 degrees) to get the orientation I want is a pain. With the Flexdock, all I do is rotate the screen on its bevel thingie, and it automatically changes the screen orientation!

Yeah, a lot of you people go, "So what?" But those tech geeks out there (and I know who you are) are loving this and wondering why YOU don't have one!

I don't have my camera with me, but I will wait until the wireless keyboard comes in and take pictures of both together. See ya then. Back to work. Got patients to see.