~Sterling

Weight Loss, My Way

Andrew Sterling Hanenkamp — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 10:24:04 -0700

Disclaimer: IANAD: I AM NOT A DOCTOR. Please consult one prior to engaging in any attempt at weight loss. I provide no recommendation you do things my way and take no responsibility for your health.

Disclaimer 2: I am not affiliated with, have never given money to, and have no relationship at all with the Unnamed Diet System I have based my diet plan upon. I do not recommend for or against their system, I am just sharing t

Wascally Perl Operators

Andrew Sterling Hanenkamp — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 20:34:13 -0700

I just finished writing a test that discovered I’d made a rather dumb and (upon looking back) rather obvious mistake in a return value in this Perl application I’m working on. The mistake involves a certain errant combination of return and and must be dealt with carefully.

The particular bit of code looks something like this:

sub blah { return $foo and $bar;
}

For those who don’t

Converting from iTunes to Banshee

Andrew Sterling Hanenkamp — Fri, 22 May 2009 16:12:40 -0700

This past week I purchased for myself a mini laptop. I wanted something nice and portable that I could use for personal use on trips and do hobby projects on. This thing is great. I got Ubuntu installed and started playing around since it’s been a couple years since I had a Linux desktop, and even then I usually had a Mac OS X laptop I used with it. As such, when it came to copy over my music and such, I needed to convert to a new music player. I’ve settled on

The Best Way to Add Icons

Andrew Sterling Hanenkamp — Wed, 13 May 2009 16:00:00 -0700

With my work on qublog.net continuing to progress toward hosting this service on the qublog.net web site. I’ve been using the silk icon set for the icons, but recently decided to switch over to the fugue icons. In the process, I rethought how I added icons to the system, which I subsequently chose to try on some work things as well. There’s no magic here, no

When Science Becomes Faith

Andrew Sterling Hanenkamp — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 19:06:20 -0700

There are a lot of folks out there who claim they have no religion or that they are atheists or agnostics, but many of them are lying. I’ve found science to be the single most potent false religion of our day and the irony is that most of the followers believe they’ve somehow avoided being a part of organized religion. I’m not here to criticize these folks. You are welcome to pursue any belief system you want. I believe quite strongly in free will, but I do want to point out

Mutator Defaults: The Wrong Way

Andrew Sterling Hanenkamp — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 19:35:20 -0800

I’m messing around with Drupal again for a church web site. The task I’m working with at the moment is trying to make it so that the breadcrumb is based upon a menu other than than that Navigation menu (which is the normal way content breadcrumbs are set in Drupal). Long story short, we’ve chosen to make the Primary Links the site map rather than the more typical Navigation menu.

The technique that really ought to work is this:

menu_set_active_menu_name('pri

A God-Shaped Hole?

Andrew Sterling Hanenkamp — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 19:24:46 -0800

This is a phrase used among Christian’s to refer to every person’s need for Jesus Christ in order to fulfill one’s life. Over time, I’ve come to think of this as being a somewhat optimistic metaphor. Yet, it is true. The human soul was meant to be tightly knit with it’s Creator and since no man or woman has that naturally because of our sin, we have a very difficult problem to overcome.

Interestingly, virtually every person alive knows of this need. Some c

May the Lord Do What Seems Good to Him

Andrew Sterling Hanenkamp — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 19:01:05 -0800

“Be of good courage, and let us be courageous for our people, and for the cities of our God, and may the Lord do what seems good to him.” — 2 Samuel 10:12

In the middle of 2 Samuel, here is a section covering yet another relatively unremarkable battle (or so it seems to me amongst a long stream of such). Joab, the general of the Israelite army, notes that he’s surrounded. He has the Syrians at his front and the Ammonites at his rear. H

Ideal versus Practical Government

Andrew Sterling Hanenkamp — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 18:45:15 -0800

When it comes to politics, I believe in a peculiar paradox. I believe there is (and will be one day) a single, objectively true form of government. I believe it will be close to a communist, theocratic monarchy. On the other hand, I live in and believe in improving a form of governance today, a capitalist, democratic republic toward conservative and libertarian practicalities. As such, I sometimes confuse myself and state the ideal when the pragmatic is being discussed and vice-versa. I’

Myth #4: Christ is not God

Andrew Sterling Hanenkamp — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 12:27:06 -0800

There are many sects that base their view of the world on the fact that Christ is not God. There are a number of different strategies for attacking Christ’s deity. Some reinterpret the Scriptures to shade the meanings differently than the context indicates, sometimes even going so far as inserting new words into the text. Others use a rational argument that attempts to first oversimplify belief in the trinity to make it seem that Christian’s believe in three Gods (a “straw m

Foolish

Andrew Sterling Hanenkamp — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 18:20:46 -0800

The word of 2007 was “surge.” The word of 2008 is “bailout.” I want to say that all this bailing out and buying up of commercial stock and debt by the government is pretty foolish. The U.S. Government is now creating massive budget deficits (i.e. borrowing money) to replace private deficits (borrowed money) created when government run financial institutions (Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac, established via Carter-era housing legislation) made bad decisions. Essentially we’

The Wheels on the Bus

Terri Hanenkamp — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 06:45:56 -0800

Grandpa and Grandma Vesper came to visit while Daddy was in Pittsburgh for a conference. I had just gotten Gabe a new bus at a garage sale that morning, so he was really excited about it. Grandma was trying to get him to sing the song...

Get the Flash Player to see this player.

Basketball Star

Terri Hanenkamp — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 20:09:38 -0800

I bought Gabe a basketball hoop at a garage sale this summer, and he's had a great time "throw a ball in a hoop!"...or at least trying.

Get the Flash Player to see this player.

Learning his colors

Terri Hanenkamp — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 19:51:56 -0800

I feel almost silly posting this. It was taken over two months ago. Gabe now consistently identifies red, blue, yellow, green, orange, purple, pink, white, brown, black, gray, and yes, aquamarine. But...it's still cute! :)

Get the Flash Player to see this player.

Why am I happy?

Andrew Sterling Hanenkamp — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 20:08:13 -0800

Life sucks. Reading my previous few rants, one might get the impression that I’m ticked off, gloomy, and upset. You might wonder if I’m depressed or sad that “my side” lost the election or angry that people voted for someone I think is the absolute wrong move. You’d be wrong. I may have strong feelings and opinions on these other subjects, but I’m actually pretty happy. Why am I happy?

I’ve got a good job at the moment and I can say without hes