Letters from Lilongwe

Ok, so since I have been using Google+ I have automatically logged into the rich Gmail web client but that hogs a lot of my bandwidth.  While being on these travels I have had no internet and very slow internet connections.  Therefore I would love to be able to get back into the basic version of Gmail.  Its the clutter free version that just gives you the basics, you emails.  At times I have being really wanting to just send one email or just to check if something important came through.  But it takes 5 min to load the page because of all of the other features included.  Don't get me wrong I love how Google is integrating all of its products into Google+ and consolidating its branding.  But at the same time I have internally raised some objections about building Google+ into Gmail specifically. So for about one month every years college students around the country shut down their Facebook accounts in hopes that they can actually get some studying done.  It seems like if there

So I tend to go through these technology swings about every four months.  Its a trend that I am trying to jump out of and here is the reason.  I am kinda a tech addict and that is not just a byproduct of going to Georgia Tech.  Since I realized that the internet had a bunch of cool things, I wanted them.  I think the first thing that ever caught my attention heavily was when I was looking for a mp3 player back in the day.   I was trying to buy a Sansa m230 and I payed something like $85 for a 512MB player back in 2006.  So when your throwing around that much money you don't want to buy the wrong product.  Therefore I started doing massive amounts of research before buying the player.  I cannot attribute my lusting after technology to come solely from this purchase but it was one of the starting points. In the past years I have done massive amounts of research before buying any product, in recent years I have don't so much research that I can talk myself out of spending the m

Ya, two days ago we had one of my dads friends who works in Jerusalem give us a tour of the old city and we had some great discussions.  He is also an academic so he spoke great English and was very knowledgeable about politics in Israel since before he was a kid.  We talked about Obama and how in his mind Obama messed up big time when he said that Israel should stop building settlements in North Jerusalem.  He said every Israeli basically supports stopping settlements everywhere in Palestinian territories outside the city but not that close to the city.   It was interesting to hear these topics from his side of the perspective, but his wife was much more sympathetic towards the Arabs and their oppressed current state. From what I can tell that city has way to many "crazy" "religious" people fighting over shrines, and at any moment that stick of dynamite could just explode. My father actually recommended that we as Christians should just sell all of our shares o

While in Oxford we have not been doing that much sight-seeing touristy stuff.  That is partly because I am using this time to hang out with my family and not exactly trying to fill every moment of every day.  On Sunday we decided to go into Oxford and take a look at the  Ashmolean Museum , one of the best museums in the UK.  As we walked through the University section of town we decided to drop into the  Sheldonian Theatre  and take a look around.  It is an amazing facility with great history, I don't want to focus to much on the building but rather on one caption written on a door in an out of the way location.  The caption described the history of the image to the right. "The original symbol of fascism, in  Italy  under  Benito Mussolini , was the  fasces . This is an ancient  Roman  symbol of power carried by  lictors  in front of  magistrates ; a bundle of sticks featuring an  axe , indicating the power over  life  and  death . Before the Italian fascists adopted the f

This song has so much energy and passion it speaks directly to my soul every time it crosses my ear drums!! Just a few moments ago that I mostly write about songs about brokenness and pain.  Therefore when this song came onto my radar once again a few minutes ago I was overjoyed.  I used it in a video I made, and I think it played on repeat for about two days.   I am really kicking myself now because about three years ago my father sent me an email saying that Needtobreathe was in Chapel Hill.  He didn't know anything about the band and was just forwarding along an email he had gotten.  At the time I had not heard of them or listened to their songs and so naturally I said $8 is way to much money!!  Therefore I passed up a great opportunity to be in a group of probably 200 people in a small venue in Chapel Hill. Well life goes on so now its time to enjoy their music. In your ocean I'm ankle deep, I feel the waves crashing on my feet; It's like I know wh

Oh Man, ya its coming, oil is gonna be gone before we know it.  So it you enjoy some comedic relief hit up this video. Point to be made, I absolutely love the style of this film, with the shot choppy statements, and all made me laugh a lot.  I have never heard of this youtube channel before but they have some funny short clips and some cool product release information. A good short explanation of google plus from The Daily Conversation http://youtu.be/mzFv7F_n5cY All is amazing in the Lord

Awarded "Best Music Video" at 2009 San Diego Film Festival. Reilly - Official Sunlight music video, by Vinegar Hill Picture Works You are the treasure that I am after Some look for riches some look for power Just give me eyes to behold your beauty To keep me lost in wonder after wonder You are the father of every prodigal running into the arms of sick and soiled souls You make me whiter than the winter’s snow You cover over the ashes on the inside Sunlight, daybreak, chasing all my shadows away You’re in the whisper between two lovers igniting passion long after the altar. You are the reason I sing You are the reason I sing Sunlight, daybreak, chasing all my shadows away You shine a white light into my blind eyes And now I’ve seen you truly for the first time This revelation of my desperation brings me to Calvary, brings me to salvation You resurrect me, you rearrange me you make my heart beat to another symphony You’ve pursued me like you think I

I have listened to this song about six times in the last few hours and it still doesn't get old.   My soul finds rest in God alone, My Rock and my salvation, A fortress strong against my foes, And I will not be shaken. Though lips may bless and hearts may curse, And lies like arrows pierce me, I’ll fix my heart on righteousness, I’ll look to Him who hears me. O praise Him, hallelujah, My Delight and my Reward; Everlasting, never failing, My Redeemer, my God. Find rest, my soul, in God alone Amid the world’s temptations; When evil seeks to take a hold I’ll cling to my salvation. Though riches come and riches go, Don’t set your heart upon them; The fields of hope in which I sow Are harvested in heaven. I’ll set my gaze on God alone, And trust in Him completely; With every day pour out my soul, And He will prove His mercy. Though life is but a fleeting breath, A sigh too brief to measure, My King has crushed the curse of death And I am His forever.

Ok, so as I was walking around Headington on a normal gloomy day I saw a Land Rover with this bumper sticker as seen below.  My mind has been running all over the place in the last few days.  I can not spend a moment without having my mind jump from topic to topic, thought after thought can only be captured by my writings.  Therefore I jotted down what I saw and let the cogs spin in my mind.   So, its logical that we have one life, and we die, and if we trust in the salvation of Christ we spend eternity in the presence of the God of our existence.  That is an amazing thought that I am not going to try to explore at the moment.  We have one life, and we should live it, but what should we live it for? We have many options as to what we can live it for; money, power, prestige, possessions, relationships, love, acceptance, ect. Many of these things are "good" and some are destructive.  I would rather like to focus on who we live our life for.  All of these things above ar

Or is it? I have nothing against the song, but recently I have been thinking about my music listening in general.  While walking around everyday I have loved the fact that I have left my mp3 player at home.  I have been able to listen to the sounds of nature, other humans, the road(not a good thing).  All of this listening has allowed my mine to clear, and I have seen that I am finding a lot of good thoughts in the time of silence.  I am not saying that music is bad but I am saying at times for me it can cloud my mind, because I can zone out while listening and allow my mind to stop thinking.  That is great for a few minutes after studying all day but not when I am in chill mode and I have productive thoughts floating around that are being snuffed out by the excess music intake.  Ok, all that being said I think that I will from here on out try to keep ear buds out for the majority of my days and only sparingly dive into music for a break. All is Great in the Lord.

Ok, so now being on the wrong side of the pond for the celebration of The United States of Americas Independence is kinda strange.  We didn't go to Kenan Stadium for an amazing fireworks show, we had no afternoon cookout with friends and family, we didn't take our American Flag and wave it triumphantly in the air as I did in my youth.  Instead it was just another day in the Old Country, woke up kinda late with no plans, had an amazing quite time in an old Cemetery, then chilled for the rest of the afternoon.  As the night came we contacted a man we know from the local Church who was from Virginia and he was planning a small cookout to celebrate.  So we got ready for the three mile walk across town to the Common Grounds of Port Meadow.   Along the way we picked up my father and got smoothies and milkshakes, pre-gaming for the cookout.  Then after another thirty minute walk we were lost and asked some residents how to get to the park, and we eventually arrive with lots of food i

While reading this article I could not agree with many of his points. Mainly because I extremly dislike how apple does wall in its customers to use their products. Don't get me wrong they produce amazing products, that allow users a very slick and streamlined interface.  Like recently my father has been given an iPad 2 and is now playing around with it like a little kid.  He is not tech savvy but he can navigate and is starting to figure out the device.  Apple is a very smart company and if we were a communist globe it would work perfectly.  But people choose to by products outside the apple family and as apple unveils their latest and greatest contribution to the technology realm it is apparent that the iCloud will be used to tie people even closer to the apple family.  I could ramble about this problem all day long but people will continue to buy a product that works well for them and is reasonably priced.  At the moment Apple has been doing the best job of packaging a pro

As usual, I have snagged a Google Beta product before it is ready for use by all users.  I got my invite about two weeks ago after waiting for a few weeks after they opened up the program.  The product seems to be a decent idea that Google has been planning and getting ready to implement for a long time.  From the looks of the service it is very well implemented and has a slick streamlined interface for both the app and web interface.  On setup they give you some free music which was good because from my CR-48 there was no way to upload my music.  The upload system in a PC or Mac based software package that scans your computer for music and uploads it to the Google Servers.  This process can take days or weeks depending on the size of you library and the internet speed.  I am currently on a decently fast setup in Oxford and I was able to put up close to three hundred songs in about an hour.  Therefore I will be uploading another 3000 from my little sisters collection, which might t

Who's on First - The Classic by Abbott and Costello This video is a hilarious skit that makes me laugh every time - its a story of, well just watch it! If you have never heard of this comedy skit than I am sorry that you did not grow up in a Baseball Family.  I am grateful that I played baseball since I was knee high, it has taught me so much about team dynamics and leadership.  First time I can really remember baseball was playing on a Fall baseball team in Durham North Carolina.  I was playing with my brothers team because I was either to young to play on my own team or since we have four kids total in my family and we all played sports it was easier to just tag along with his team.  Those years of playing up were amazing because it forced me to be on level with guys who were two and three years older than me.  Therefore I always was a decent player and I always had a great time.  Just like anything I did not like the practice or the time that was invested into the sport

Google+ As I have been coming back into the real world. I have been blown away the this summers advances in technology and web services. Google+ seems like a very interesting and possibly promising social networking tool for Google. I personally might fall under the label of a Google Finatic because I got a CR-48 and always dive into the newest and coolest Google Beta product. The main reasoning behind my connection with Google is just the fact that most of their services are free and very helpful. I am not solely invested in Google, I own an iPhone 4 - but who doesn't now-a-days. I use a dell M1530 as my main "desktop" computer and I prefer Windows 7 to anything that Apple will ever produce. Ok all that to be said - I want an invite to Google+ so that I can poke around and see if their is any promise to the service. Come on Google go ahead and hit me up soon with that email!! Can Google+ Survive the Hype? | Lance Ulanoff | PCMag.com All is Great in the Lord

As our team traveled from Sarajevo to Makarska on Sunday the 26th I listened to Three Days Grace the entire ride down.  It was fascinating how most all of the songs deal with the brokenness of society.  Weather it is in relationships, life situations, our heart issues, it is clear that their music is powerfully rooted in a lot of pain. I have been having my eyes opened to the overall brokenness of human kind while in Bosnia and looking back on my time in Atlanta.  I am not qualified to analyse these lyrics so I will leave that up to yall. I never thought I'd feel this Guilty and I'm broken down inside Livin' with myself nothing but lies I always thought I'd make it But never knew I'd let it get so bad Livin' with myself is all I have I feel numb I can't come to life I feel like I'm frozen in time Livin' in a world so cold, wasting away Livin' in a shell with no soul since you've gone away Livin' in a world so cold, counti