Multi-Geek

Root-Geek

2011-09-17T14:20:00.000-07:00

I've finally decided to "root" my Droid 2.
Verizon puts a bunch of apps on it that you can't remove (bloat-ware, crap-ware, whatever you call it), and it was really driving me nuts to have these running all the time.
Turns out it's fairly easy to do. Here's a link to the instructions that I followed:
http://www.droid-life.com/2011/09/01/how-to-root-the-droid2-droidx2-droidx-and-droid3-running-gingerbread/

Here's the meat of those instructions (note, I had to search for a 32-bit version of the Motorola drivers):

Download: MotorolaOneClickRoot.zip
Instructions:
1. Make sure you have Motorola drivers installed - [Download Drivers]
2. Download the MotorolaOneClickRoot.zip file from above and unzip it to your Windows PC.
3. On your phone go into Settings>Applications>Development and check the box for USB Debugging.
4. Plug phone into your computer and select “Charge Only” mode.
5. Navigate to MotorolaOneClickRoot folder and run MotorolaOneClickRoot.exe.
6. Follow the instructions in the command window.
7. Your phone will complete 3 steps, rebooting along the way. When it finishes, you will be rooted.

Once that's done, I installed Titanium Backup from the android app store, and upgraded to the "pro" version. Worth every penny! It lets me "freeze" apps to disable them, and if I want to later, I can uninstall them completely. I'm a little wary to start nuking stuff right away just in case there's some system function in one of those apps, so I'm happy to freeze them for now.

I should have done this a long time ago!

To India!

2010-09-02T13:36:00.000-07:00

One week from today, I'll be part of a team of 10 people from Dow Corning sites around the world traveling to Bangalore, India for a month-long service trip.
I'm very honored to be chosen to represent our company and contribute to improving sustainability in a real way. My sub-team will be working with Sustaintech to improve their supply chain and quality assurance for cooking products that use less fuel and improve safety and economics for their operators.
I'm very much going to miss my family for the time that I'm away, but we're blessed to have many family, friends, and neighbors that will be looking after them, so I know that they will be well protected and cared for.
Unlike my annual backpacking trips though, I will be in contact with home through blogs, email, skype, etc. As a matter of fact, the team will have a running blog of our adventures, and I'll plan to link mine to my facebook page so all my FB friends can stay up to date with what I'm up to.
Please pray for our team that we would be well prepared, and that we will have a positive impact in India and in our various home cities when we return.

Science-Geek

2010-02-27T08:10:00.000-08:00

I recently read Richard Dawkins' new book called "The Greatest Show on Earth - The Evidence for Evolution" I've not read Dawkins before, and I was really impressed with his engaging writing style and wit. He starts off by stating that "Evolution is a fact, and this book will demonstrate it." and then goes into great and interesting detail on the subject of natural selection.
I kept expecting the natural selection discussion to build into some sort of proof of evolution, but it never came. Showing that natural selection is true isn't surprising or controversial. As a matter of fact, the key word there is "selection." There must be some pool to select from, which is precisely why in the example of the many thousands of generations of E. Coli didn't evolve into something other than E. Coli. Through natural selection, they selected different attributes that were already present, but they didn't become some new thing.
Toward the end of the book, he's honest enough to admit that there's no evidence for what the first steps were, and he comes to the conclusion that "It must have been whatever it took to get natural selection started." That sounds a lot like creation to me.
Far from proving that evolution from nothing to life as we know it today is a "fact", this book simply points out that somehow self-replicating life was created, and life has been making small adaptations since then.

Android-Geek

2009-12-24T12:17:00.000-08:00

There are a few applications for the Android phone that I consider to be essential in order to have the functionality that I expect from a smart phone (from the perspective of an ex-iPhone user), and there are a bunch of apps that really add to the utility and experience.
First, the essentials:

Bible. This app is free, and has every version of the Bible that you could want. It requires a network connection, but it's pretty zippy. For my off-line Bible needs, I also have a copy of the free OliveTree Bible app, and have purchased several Bible translations for it.
Notes. This simple app lets me write stuff down. Not exciting, but I gotta have it.
SMS Popup. By default, the Droid barely lets you know that you got a text message. Installing this app lets me configure the device to wake up the screen and display the contents of a text message when it comes in. It's super configurable, down to the color of the LED and how fast it blinks! You can also set it up to do different things depending on who texts you.
Touch Timer. I gotta be able to set a timer for baking my flour-less chocolate cake, or roasting coffee. This is the app that let's me time stuff.
SplashID Password Manager. When you have a couple-hundred different passwords like I do, it's essential to have a secure place to store them. I can't say enough good things about this app, and the people at SplashData. I had the iPhone version of this application, and the desktop companion. They gave me the desktop version for Android, and helped me easily migrate all my passwords from one version to the other, then wirelessly sync all my passwords to my new Droid!

Ok, so those get me able to do mundane stuff, what about the things that really take it to the next level? Most of these aren't available for the iPhone, and they're the stuff that makes people say "wow."

Ringdroid. Making your own ringtones from any part of any song on your device is something that would have been so nice to have on the iPhone, but Apple can't make money off of that. On Android, it's free and easy!
WikiMobile. A handy application to easily access the source of truthiness on the internet - Wikipedia.
Google Voice. Get my voicemails automatically transcribed and sent to me by text message?!? Really?!? Oh yes, and so much more. Ring multiple phones at once; send some callers direct to voicemail. . .
Droid48. Every geek needs to have an RPN calculator. Apparently, this developer also has a C64 emmulator, but even I'm not THAT geeky.
ShopSavvy. Use the camera on the phone to scan a product bar code, and then automatically look up prices at on-line stores and local stores.
Easy Envelope Budget. Synchronized virtual envelopes to keep our spending in check. If you know me, then you know that I'm geeky about budgeting and think it's really really important for a lot of reasons. This app makes it super easy to keep track of.
Scoreboard. Another app from our friends at Google, this one lets you specify your favorite sports teams and aut0matically receive updates when they score. Being a Lions fan though, I don't expect to get many notifications from this one.
Google Goggles. Last, but not least, this cool new app lets you take a picture of something, and it will do a Google search on it. Curious about a painting? Take a picture, and find out who the artist was. It's pretty amazing.

So those are the apps that I have on my Android phone. There are thousands more out there, and more coming every day. I'm trying to limit myself to ones that I'll actually use so that I don't fill up the phone with junk.

Mobile-Geek

2009-12-24T10:37:00.000-08:00

As an ex-iPhone user, here are my impressions after a couple days with the Motorola Droid.
I tend to agree with a lot of the reviews that I read, that for most users, all else being equal, the iPhone 3GS is the best phone out there right now. Does that mean that I regret switching? Not at all! Because all else is NOT equal.

I am not the typical user. I like to have a lot of options and settings, and take the time to figure out how to get the most out of my equipment. The android operating system allows far more customization than the iPhone. Apple is really good at making products that do a few things very well and have very few options for doing much else.
AT&T coverage is not good in the places that I care about. Maybe it's OK some cities, but there's no 3G coverage in my city at all, and even voice coverage at my house is inconsistent at best. When we first got our iPhones, they worked OK at home, but a few months ago, it got worse to the point that we really couldn't use our phones at home.
Apps can run in the background on the Droid, and there are a wider variety of apps because they're not tightly controlled like the apps on the iPhone. That makes it possible for apps that change how text messaging works, or apps that replace voicemail with Google Voice. One of the coolest ones is an app that lets me make ringtones from any of my music files, Apple will never allow that because they charge for ringtones.

So, if you want a smart phone that “just works” out of the box, you don't mind lock-in with Apple, and AT&T has coverage in your area, then get the iPhone. But if you want a smart phone that you have control over, has better apps, and is on the Verizon network, then the Droid (or another android phone) is for you.

Chain-Geek

2009-08-26T16:11:00.000-07:00

With around 4000 miles on it, it was about time to change the chain on my commuter bike.
As you can see from the photo, the pins were quite worn. This is the cause of what is called "chain stretch."
Bike chains do get longer with use and wear, but they don't actually "stretch"; it's the accumulated wear of the pins like the one shown here that add up to the extra length. And when a chain is a little longer, it doesn't fit into the sprockets very well anymore.
Now that I have a new chain (and new "cassette" of rear gears), the bike literally runs like new. I should have done this repair a long time ago! I can't believe how smooth and quiet the bike is now.

Chocolate-Geek

2009-07-11T12:39:00.000-07:00

If you like chocolate, and don't care about your health, this is the dessert for you!
The ingredients are as easy to remember as they are shocking. When people ask what's in it, they are usually taken aback.

1 Pound Chocolate (I use semi-sweet chocolate chips)
1 Pound of Butter (yeah, a whole package of the real thing)
8 eggs
1 cup sugar

That's it. 4 ingredients.
Here's how to put those crazy ingredients together:

Line bottom of 10-inch springform pan with parchment paper or wax paper (this is important if you don't want to have to use the bottom of the springform pan as the serving dish. It will not come off otherwise). Coat bottom and sides of pan with vegetable oil spray. Wrap outside of pan with a double layer of heavy-duty aluminum foil to prevent seepage (seepage is messy!).

In a double boiler, melt chocolate with butter over medium heat, stirring occasionally. While chocolate is melting, crack eggs in a bowl and whisk until frothy.

When chocolate and butter are melted and combined, transfer to a bowl. Slowly whisk in sugar until dissolved, scraping sides of bowl. Slowly whisk in eggs until well combined. Mixture will be somewhat elastic.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Pour batter into prepared pan. Set pan in a larger baking pan. Add hot water to larger pan so that it comes 1 inch up sides of springform pan (this is important for even baking; you don't want the edges to overcook while the middle is undercooked).

Bake in preheated oven 50 to 70 minutes. When it is done, it will rise and feel somewhat firm in the center. It may also crack near the center like a cheesecake.

When done, carefully remove pans from oven. Remove springform pan from pan of water, then remove foil from springform pan. Cool on wire rack. When cool, refrigerate uncovered at least 8 hours or overnight (I've gotten by with just a couple hours in the fridge with OK results).

Do yourself and your guests a favor and serve this with some really good fresh ground coffee. It's extremely rich, and you will enjoy having something nice to sip on while you enjoy this desert.

Coffee-Geek

2009-03-22T09:50:00.000-07:00

Why would a Coffee-Geek who roasts his own beans, and brews with a french press order pre-ground coffee and an electric drip coffee maker from Gevalia??
Thats what I was wondering when I happened to look at my credit card activity on-line yesterday and saw a charge from Gevalia for $35.90
I called and talked to Joy, who was very polite, and told me that she would cancel my account, and reverse the charge. Then later that evening, the people living at our old address stopped by with a package from Gevalia with the aforementioned items in it, and my name on it. So I called again this afternoon, and asked what they wanted me to do with the package. The person that I talked to this time (don't recall her name) also told me that she would reverse the charge, and said that I could keep the stuff (she thought maybe I'd like it and become a customer in the future, but I doubt it).
The part that really has me scratching my head is: how did they get my credit card number?
This really strikes me as a very questionable business practice. If they had sent the stuff unsolicited, and billed me, that would be bad enough, but to charge my credit card for something that I never ordered (and never would consider ordering), is pretty scary.
I'll keep an eye on my credit card statement, and if the charge doesn't get reversed within a few days, I'll call Visa and dispute the charge with them. I'm glad we keep a close eye on our finances, and avoid these scams!

Music-Geek

2008-09-08T18:42:00.000-07:00

It's past time for another update to my quest for easy to purchase music that will work with Linux and iPod.
I had been buying music from the Wal-Mart MP3 store, but now Amazon.com is selling MP3s, and it's even easier than Wal-Mart.
With Amazon's one-click purchasing, and with the Amazon MP3 Downloader software for Linux installed, it is finally easier to pay for music on-line than it is to steal it! Hurray!
The Downloader automatically places the music in my music folder in the right place, and all the ID3 tags seem to be working fine so it works perfectly in my Rythmbox player in Ubuntu, as well as iTunes on my wife's windows PC, and on our iPhones and iPod.
It's nice to have something that finally "just works" the way I expect after years of hoping.
So Amazon is getting all of my business from now on.

So what have I purchased lately?
I just bought the new Casting Crowns album for my wife's birthday. I like it too, so that's a win-win. ;-)
I've purchased albums from Warren Barfield, Superchick, Kutless, and a couple singles from Mark Schultz.
All excellent music!

Light-Geek

2008-09-07T18:26:00.000-07:00

As the days start to get shorter here in North America, I'll be commuting to and from work in the dark on my bike. Being visible to automobile traffic is of paramount importance for safety, so I have lights on my bike so that motorists can see me and then pass me safely.

On the front, and have a CatEye HL-EL410. This is a white light with three LEDs that takes three AAA batteries. It's not really bright enough to see by, but the point is to be seen by motorists. I really like this light because it's durable, weather-proof, and lasts for years on a single set of batteries!

On the back, I have a Planet Bike Superflash. I've tried a lot of different lights over the years, and found nothing that is as durable and noticeable as the Superflash.
Here's a video that shows the difference between a standard light and the superflash.
As you can see, this is once very noticeable light.
You can certainly find cheaper LED blinky lights for your bike, but when your life depends on it, go ahead and spend a couple bucks more for the best.

Also worth noting, it's important to have passive reflectors on the bike too. There's always a chance that something will go wrong with my bliky lights (like I forget to turn them on), but the reflectors will still catch drivers' attention.

Fender-Geek

2008-09-06T17:32:00.000-07:00

As someone who rides to work everyday, rain or shine, it's pretty important to have fenders on my bike. Riding in the rain is actually quite refreshing usually, and the rain that falls from the sky is not a big deal on a warm day, but the water that comes up from the tires off the road is nasty and I don't like having a stripe of it up my back when I get home.
The solution of course is to have fenders on the bike. When I purchased my bike from the LBS a few years ago, I had them add a pair of fenders for this very reason. The pair that they added were some no-name brand that worked OK, but were hard to adjust, so they were sometimes rubbing on the wheel, and tended to rattle on bumpy roads.
So last time we were at the REI store, I picked up a pair of Pla net Bike fenders. I finally got around to mounting these to the bike, and I couldn't be happier! The bike is so quiet now!
This week, we've had a lot of rain, and I was really able to enjoy riding through it in part because of these excellent fenders.

Beer-Geek

2008-09-01T12:12:00.001-07:00

Being a fan of Monty Python and beer, I really enjoyed this ale...

Backpacking-Geek

2008-07-28T17:53:00.000-07:00

We made it through our very difficult 7-day hike in the Bob Marshall Wilderness.
Even though there was very little snow, and the absolute elevation was lower than our trip last year, this trip was at least as difficult. The longer days, and constant climbing or descending really took their toll on our joints and feet.
It was well worth it though because we got to enjoy a true mountain-top experience that few are willing to work hard enough to experience.
Here's a panorama that shows a full 360 degrees of awesome creation:
You can't get to a place like that without a little work to get there!

Commuter-Geek

2008-06-06T10:13:00.000-07:00

Since I've been biking to work for the past several years, I thought it might be a good time to promote this healthy practice to my coworkers. I approached the HR department where I work, and they have been surprisingly supportive. I expected support, but not really the active support that they have provided. They are letting me teach a one-hour bicycle commuting overview class, and providing money for give-aways related to cycle commuting. One of the give-aways includes two brand new Trek 7100 "bike path" bikes! Our local bike shop has given us a good deal on the bikes, and is also being very supportive.
So now, I need to come up with what I want to present for this class! There are already 20 people signed up, and we don't even start promoting it in earnest until next week. That's about how many people I thought might be interested in total! I'm guessing that the high gas prices, along with health concerns are contributing to the perfect storm of interest.
Anyway, here are the places that I'm going to be drawing my material from. . .
First, the authoritative League of Michigan Bicyclists has a nice guide: What Every Michigan Bicyclist Must Know.
Second, I plan to glean a lot of practical commuting tips from the Commute By Bike blog.
Finally, I will try to share the fact that bicycling on the road is a safe activity by presenting some of the detailed information from Ken Kifer's web site.
I'm really excited about other people experience the freedom, health, cost savings, and environmental impact that comes from using their bicycles for transportation.

Following the class, we will have a "bike to work day", and then I'll be able to see for sure if people are really willing to give it a try. Once they do, I am convinced that they will see that most of the perceived obstacles are imaginary. We'll see.

Coffee-Geek

2008-06-04T17:22:00.000-07:00

I usually roast my own coffee, and I usually prefer African coffees from Kenya or Rwanda, but recently a friend of mine gave me some Intelligencia Tres Santos Columbia - Cauca. It is really good.
I think I must have been roasting too dark last time I tried Colombian coffee. I was really pleasantly surprised with how bright and balanced the coffee is.
Now some of my ideas about what I like and don't like are shattered, and I'm going to have to go back to some origins that I had dismissed in the past. It will be a fun and flavorful journey!

2008-05-29T18:46:00.000-07:00

Bicycle Tire-Geek
I finally needed new tires for my commuter bike. My Trek 1200c has been on the original tires for about 4000 miles over the last 3 1/2 years, and the tread was starting to come off in chunks. I've never had a flat with these tires, so I have absolutely nothing to complain about.
As I started looking for new tires, I asked around and went to roadbikereview.com to see what other people were having success with and what tires I should avoid.

The Michelin Krylion Carbon tires were highly rated, and I could order them on-line for a good price.
The Specialized All Condition Armadillo Tire only had one review, but was highly recommended. I also have a friend that has these on his bike and is very happy, and he said that one of our LBSs might have them in stock.
The Bontrager Race Lite Hardcase is what came on my bike, and I have been happy, and my favorite LBS did have them in stock.

One thing that surprised me when reading the reviews was that people were talking about switching to tires like the Krylion and saying that they went from frequent flats to only a few flats. I'm really spoiled I guess that I've never had a flat. That got me thinking that maybe I should stick with what I've had such good experience with.

I was going to switch to the Specialized tires, but the local store didn't have them in stock after all, and I didn't want to risk riding on the old tires any longer, so I went with the Bontrager Race Lite Hardcase.

At the same time, I switched from the 700x28 size and went down to a 23. The narower tire should help me get to and from work a little quicker, but might be a little less comfortable. We'll have to see if that's the case.

2008-05-27T18:39:00.000-07:00

Coffee-Geek
I've been roasting coffee from Rwanda Duhingekawa Women's Cooperative lately, and really enjoying it. I try to roast it just before 2nd crack as recommended by Tom at Sweet Maria's. That's about the roast-level that I prefer anyway, and African coffees seem to be my favorite.
I also like that I'm helping the economic success of an area that has seen such horrific conditions lately; a real win-win.

2008-05-25T15:09:00.000-07:00

Backpacking-Geek
Last year, we did our annual backpacking trip in the spring, which turned out to be difficult due to the snow even in June in New Mexico's Pecos Wilderness.
So this year, we're planning a trip to the Bob Marshall Wilderness in the Summer.
Here's a picture of our planned route for the seven-day, six-night adventure:
We plan to hike almost 60 miles, which seems pretty aggressive to me, but with no snow and less elevation than last year's trip, it should be quite doable.
We've got about 8 guys going on this trip, with 5 of us returning from last year.
I fully expect that this will be another mountain-top experience in more ways than one. Another opportunity to minimize distractions and "Be still and know that [He] is God."

2007-12-29T13:27:00.000-08:00

Calendar-Geek
Ok, so here's the thing; I want to synchronize my Palm PDA with my Google Calendar.
I can sync my palm to my PC with the built-in software that comes with the standard Ubuntu install. The trick is synchronizing that with Google Calendar.
The default calendaring application in Ubuntu is Evolution, and that's where my palm stuff gets synchronized to. So I needed to find a way to get Evolution sync'd with Google. There's a service called scheduleworld that can act as a central repository to synchronize with a variety of platforms, including Google, so I signed up for a free account. But how do I get the information to scheduleworld? That's where SyncEvolution comes in.
First you have to add the repository in Synaptic under the settings menu, select Sources, and then on the "Third-Party Software" tab, add "deb http://www.estamos.de/download/apt stable main" then back in Synaptic, search for "SyncEvolution", and you'll find three packages. For the version of Evolution that comes with Ubuntu 7.10, I needed to install "syncevolution-evolution-2.12" From there, it gets a little more complicated because I need to do some stuff in the terminal, and edit some config files. Fortuneately, the Getting Started link above is pretty specific for what I needed to do. Specifically, I had to do the following 3 commands in a terminal window:

mkdir -p ~/.sync4j/evolution
cp -r /usr/share/doc/syncevolution/scheduleworld ~/.sync4j/evolution/
gedit ~/.sync4j/evolution/scheduleworld/spds/syncml/config.txt

set "username" and "password" and choose a unique string for "deviceId"

Once all that was done, I could run the command "syncevolution scheduleworld", which would sync my PC's Evolution calendar with ScheduleWorld, and trigger ScheduleWorld to automatically sync with my Google calendar.
I added a launcher of type "Application in Terminal" with the "syncevolution scheduleworld" command in it so that I could to the sync in one click.
So in summary, I now have it set up so that I can click the SyncEvolution launcher, then sync my Palm, then click the SyncEvolution launcher again, and all my calendars will be up to date everyhwere!

2007-12-15T14:16:00.000-08:00

Bicycle-Geek
I competed in my first bike race recently. The Iceman Cometh Challenge is the worlds largest single-day mountain bike race. It's held every November in Traverse City, Michigan.
There are around 2000 competitors, and I raced in the beginner category.
With my only training being my daily (8 mile, flat) commute to work, I was concerned that I wouldn't be able to finish the 27.5 mile race on hilly trails. My goal was to finish in under 3 hours.
A good friend built up a nice hard-tail bike for me to race on, and I ordered a bunch of Gu to keep me energized.
The weather for the race was perfect, and all was going smoothly until about 2/3 of the way through the race. Inexplicably, the bolts that hold my chainrings started coming loose. I made the mistake of not bringing any tools, so when I stopped there was not much I could do. As I was trying to tighten them as best I could with my fingers, another cyclist stopped to offer help. He asked what I needed and how long it would take; when I told him I just needed a wrench for a few seconds, he produced one and I was all fixed! The joy was short-lived however because the loose rings must have done something to my chain, which broke within a few minutes. So I started walking in the hopes that I would find an aid station and someone with a chain tool. Fortunately, after walking for about 20 minutes another racer stopped to offer a chain tool! Understandably, he didn't want to wait for me to make the repair, so he left his tool with me on the chance that we would see each other at the finish. I worked very hard to remember his name (I'm terrible with names), and though I didn't see him at the finish, I was able to find his hometown from the results board and look him up later in the phonebook so I could settle-up with him.
So I did finish, and even with the mechanical difficulties, I made my goal of under 3 hours!
It was a very positive experience, and I hope to do it again next year. Next time I will bring plenty of tools, and I will also be very willing to help other racers like I was helped.

Here's photographic proof that I crossed the finish line:

2007-08-27T17:59:00.000-07:00

MP3-Geek
Last time, I posted about how Wal-Mart has made it as easy to buy music that will play on my computer as it would be to steal the same music. Now that I've bought a few albums (Seventh Day Slumber, Rebecca St. James, and Britt Nicole), I do have one complaint. The ID3 tags in the MP3 files leave something to be desired. ID3 tags are part of the music file that contain information about the song like artist, title, album, track number, etc. In the Seventh Day Slumber album, they were non-existent, for the other two, there was a bunch of stuff missing. This causes a problem because the software that loads these songs on my iPod uses this information to make it possible for me to find the music when I want to listen to it.
So the solution was to select "Add/Remove..." in the Applications menu of Linux, and find a free program that can help me modify my recently purchased files. One of the ones that I found was EasyTag, and it is excellent! EasyTag parses the filenames, and automatically fills in the ID3 tags for all the songs that I purchased from Wal-Mart.
Now I have all my new music on my iPod, and I couldn't be happier.

BTW, I'm really impressed with the Britt Nicole album!

2007-08-21T15:26:00.000-07:00

Music-Geek
Finally, I can buy music online!
OK, you might be thinking that purchasing music online has been around for years, but when you consider that I am using an iPod and Linux, that's not so true. Up until now, the only way to buy music was through iTunes or a similar "store" that only sold DRM'd song files. Then even when iTunes started selling some of their music without DRM, I was still left out because there is no iTunes application for Linux. (Of course it has been dead simple to get music at no-cost online, but I really do consider that stealing. How can it be easy to steal, but hard to pay for a product?!?) But now Wal-Mart has come to my rescue with their musicdownloads.walmart.com store. I can download tracks right from my web browser and now they play on my iPod, my computer, and my CD MP3 player!
It is amazing to me that it has taken this long for a retailer to finally start collecting my money!
I'll be enjoying the latest Seventh Day Slumber album now. . .

Oh, I almost forgot; the Wal-Mart store says it requires Windows, and it turns out that it will refuse to work with Firefox, but thanks to some advice from a guy on /. I installed the Epiphany browser, and that worked fine.

2007-06-30T08:06:00.000-07:00

Family-Geek
My youngest daughter and I had a little argument today over who loves who more. It went something like this:
Her: I love you daddy.
Me: I love you more!
Her: No, I love you more.
Me: No, I love YOU more.
Her: (thinks for a moment) ...I love you less than God, but more than baby birds. And I love baby birds a lot!

So she won the argument. I think it was really a win-win though!
It really doesn't get any better than that!

2007-06-08T12:28:00.000-07:00

There and back again.
The Pecos Wilderness was better than I expected! It was also snowier than I expected.
Overall, it was a phenomenal trip. There couldn't be a better group of guys: sharing, encouraging, and adventurous. We couldn't have asked for clearer skies, the only precipitation we saw was a light snow as we reached the highest pass. It couldn't have been much more extreme without major injuries; we really really had to rely on God for strength and wisdom. He is awesome!

Here are some pictures from the trip:

2007-05-23T06:03:00.000-07:00

Backpacking-Geek
After taking last year off to take the big family RV trip, we're back to the annual men's backpacking trip! This year we'll be spending 6 days in the Pecos Wilderness in New Mexico.
Here is a map of the area that we plan to hike in:
Day 1 – Leave Michigan 9:00am
Day 2 – Arrive at the wilderness 24 hours later and start hiking.
1st night will be along Rio Santa Barbara.
Day 3 – Hike up above tree-line, past No Fish Lake and over to the South side of the ridge
2nd Night near Truchas Lakes
Day 4 – Leave camp set up, and go day hiking up to Truchas Peak, or just hang out in the quiet solitude near camp.
3rd night in the same location
Day 5 – Hike East along the ridge line
4th night near intersection of trails 26 & 36
Day 6 – Continue hiking along the ridge, heading North today
5th night near Jicarita Peak
Day 7 – Hike out by evening and start driving home
Day 8 – Arrive back home the following night

Please “...keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give [us] the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that [we] may know him better.” (Eph 1:17)