Jurassic World: Building an Animatronic Apatosaurus
Love the care and the detail put into this.
PermalinkLove the care and the detail put into this.
PermalinkThe rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is slave to the lender.
Proverbs 22:7
Debt is not easy, yet America loves it. You don’t need another article that shares more statistics. You can find that elsewhere. For my wife and myself, the majority of our debt is my student loans. Even so, in our current financial situation (income vs. expenses), it’d take 3 years to pay of just our credit card, medical, and car loan debt. The student loans would take another 15-20 years to pay off.
So we are doing something radical. A few months ago Nikki encouraged me to look into jobs in St. Louis as she looked at a number of rental properties in the area. Five weeks ago, after much prayer and consideration, we accepted a job in downtown St. Louis and secured a townhouse in Maryville, Illinois. We achieved two goals: raise our income and lower our expenses. With the changes, we are looking to pay off our credit card debt, medical debt, and car loan in 8 months. The student loans could be payed off in 5-6 years time.
Dave Ramsey— a great financial guru— says that we need to make the choice to live like no one else so that one day we may live like no one else. Do everything you can to eliminate your debt. Have fun later when you have money in savings and no debt to pay. Obviously there is a fine balance. We have things we want to do over the next few months and even the next few years, but our primary goal is to get rid of debt and do everything we can to not take on more debt.
This is a faith thing. For years we haven’t been able to be as generous as we have wanted, we haven’t been able to save as much money as we have wanted, and we haven’t been able to make as much of a dent in our debt as we have wanted. So we are taking a leap of faith. Nikki grew up— and has always lived in— the Chicago area. Me, I grew up in St. Louis but have lived in the Chicago area for 11 years after moving up for college. Between family in the area and friends that have become like family, this has been a tough choice. But we are tired of the cost of living and the debt. Through hard prayer and wise council, we have made a choice that we believe is best for our family.
So last week we made the move to Maryville, Illinois and last Monday I started my new job at HLK. From our office windows, I can see the Arch and Busch Stadium. And for all of you back in Chicago wondering about the commute, it takes me 20-25 minutes to get here from and go home to Maryville.
I’ll be blogging more soon, I hope, as we begin to settle into our new place and new area.
PermalinkThe original iPod is only… 14 years old?! Has it really been almost 10 years since I worked at Apple? The Internet makes me feel old.
PermalinkOne thing we know even now, just hours after the tragic shooting took place, is that the gunman did not adhere to the Conduct Policy. He ignored the gun ban, he ignored the bans on violence, intimidation, and physically threatening behavior, and he ignored the rules against “unlawful conduct.”
The second thing I do, after praying for the victims of a shooting, is look to see one thing: was it in a gun-free zone. The shootings in Aurora, CO, Newtown, CT, Charleston, SC, and Chattanooga, TN were all in gun-free zones. Each of these states have concealed carry laws, but either allow businesses to declare their property gun-free or declare specific types of properties gun-free (usually churches, schools, etc.)
Aurora’s Century theatre declared themselves a gun-free. There were theatres nearby that were not. James Holmes chose the theatre that he could inflict the most amount of damage.
Connecticut declares schools to be gun-free, preventing teachers from defending their students with anything but their bodies.
South Carolina declares churches to be gun-free. Instead of going anywhere else in Charleston where there were plenty of blacks, Dylann Roof targetted a church where he could inflict the most amount of damage.
Chattanooga is yet another case of a military base where soldiers, the most trained in armed combat, were unarmed by law and unable to defend themselves.
And now Lafayette, LA. Another theatre that declares itself a gun-free zone.
This doesn’t stop the crazies from coming out and declaring:
Isn't it funny how you never hear about mass shooters being stopped by lawful gun-carrying Americans? It's almost like that doesn't happen.
— Jack Moore (@JackPMoore) July 24, 2015
Yeah, Jack Moore, it’s funny that law-abiding citizens see a sign as they enter a privately-owned property and decide to obey it, under penalty of the law, and leave their protection in the car, while the shooter walks right past that sign that clearly said no guns allowed and opened fire on people that were unable to protect themselves. Hilariously funny. Wait. No. That isn’t funny at all.
So what have we learned today? If you want to shoot a bunch of people before offing yourself, find a gun-free zone and take full advantage of those that cannot defend themselves.
PermalinkAnother thing that makes me wish my child was older. I cannot wait to do things like this with Charlotte!
PermalinkTalent.
PermalinkI love, XKCD. Sometimes it gets a quiet chuckle out of me. Other times I cannot contain the laughter. This is one of those. Maybe it’s because I just went through a series of interviews, but this has gotta be one of the best pair of answers to the most popular interview questions.
PermalinkHeiko Hillwig said Wednesday the 22-year-old was part of a team that was setting up the robot when it grabbed and crushed him against a metal plate.
Hillwig said initial conclusions indicate that human error was to blame, rather than a problem with the robot.
Remember, robots, when crushing humans, always claim human error.
PermalinkI love Adam4d and this comic hit a phrase that has bothered me for some time. Jesus is not my copilot, he is my pilot.
PermalinkHoly cow. That was the bad-ass Hiro of the future, wasn’t it? Please be awesome, NBC.
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