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Tuesday, July 15, 2008

  • What is in your summer playlist?

    Many of you know I totally live for music (listening to it, that is), so it should be fairly obvious that my "summer playlist" is quite extensive. Here goes. :)
     
    In iTunes library order:
    1. We Bury Our Dead at Dawn (The Agony Scene)
    2. Eyes Sewn Shut (The Agony Scene)
    3. Prey (The Agony Scene)
    4. Scapegoat (The Agony Scene)
    5. Military Fashion Show (And One)
    6. Your Little Suburbia Is In Ruins (August Burns Red)
    7. Body Movin' (Beastie Boys)
    8. Intergalactic (Beastie Boys)
    9. Shake Your Rump (Beastie Boys)
    10. All Lifestyles (The Beastie Boys)
    11. Satisfaction (Benny Benassi & The Biz)
    12. Lost In This Moment (Big & Rich)
    13. Pepper (Butthole Surfers)
    14. The Hurdy Gurdy Man (Butthole Surfers)
    15. Starting Over (The Crystal Method)
    16. Through the Black (Demon Hunter)
    17. Turn Your Back and Run (Demon Hunter)
    18. Carry Me Down (Demon Hunter)
    19. I Am You (Demon Hunter)
    20. Thorns (Demon Hunter)
    21. Follow the Wolves (Demon Hunter)
    22. Fiction Kingdom (Demon Hunter)
    23. Not Ready to Die (Demon Hunter)
    24. Beheaded (Demon Hunter)
    25. Not I (Demon Hunter)
    26. Undying (Demon Hunter)
    27. Relentless Intolerance (Demon Hunter)
    28. Deteriorate (Demon Hunter)
    29. The Soldier's Song (Demon Hunter)
    30. Fire To My Soul (Demon Hunter)
    31. One Thousand Aplologies (Demon Hunter)
    32. The Science of Lies (Demon Hunter)
    33. Ribcage (Demon Hunter)
    34. The Tide Began to Rise (Demon Hunter)
    35. Returning The Smile You Have Had From The Start (Emery)
    36. Walls (Emery)
    37. The Secret (Emery)
    38. It's In the Rain (Enya)
    39. Amid the Falling Snow (Enya)
    40. How Can I Keep from Singing? (Enya)
    41. Oceans Apart (The Fire Theft)
    42. Heaven (The Fire Theft)
    43. Time Bomb (The Format)
    44. Dog Problems (The Format)
    45. Snails (The Format)
    46. Tomorrow Comes Today (Gorillaz)
    47. Rock the House (Gorillaz)
    48. Feel Good Inc. (Gorillaz)
    49. Soundcheck (Grits)
    50. Stop Bitin' (Grits)
    51. Fallen (Haste the Day)
    52. Substance (Haste the Day)
    53. Right Here (Hawk Nelson)
    54. Take Me (Hawk Nelson)
    55. The Seduction (He Is Legend)
    56. Illustrious (Ill Harmonics)
    57. Hide and Seek (Imogen Heap)
    58. The Cross (Kevin Max feat. DC Talk)
    59. Return of the Singer (Kevin Max)
    60. Prayin' For You (Lecrae)
    61. Jump (Lecrae)
    62. We're So Far Away (Mae)
    63. Messes of Men (mewithoutYou)
    64. In a Sweater Pooly Knit (mewithoutYou)
    65. January 1979 (mewithoutYou)
    66. Son of a Widow (mewithoutYou)
    67. Khampa Nomads (Mortal Treason)
    68. War Within (Mortal Treason)
    69. Teenagers (My Chemical Romace)
    70. The Years to Come (Nodes of Ranvier)
    71. Memphis Will Be Laid to Waste (Norma Jean)
    72. The Spy Hunter (Project 86)
    73. Say Goodnight to the Bad Guy (Project 86)
    74. Scrotal Torment (Psychostick)
    75. BEER!!! (Psychostick)
    76. Psycho (Puddle of Mudd)
    77. We Don't Have to Look Back Now (Puddle of Mudd)
    78. Merry Go Round (Puddle of Mudd)
    79. Already Over (Red)
    80. Cat and Mouse (Red Jumpsuit Apparatus)
    81. I So Hate Consequences (Relient K)
    82. Let It All Out (Relient K)
    83. Canon In D Remix (Ronald Jenkees)
    84. 56K (Ronald Jenkees)
    85. Sing Me To Sleep (Showbread)
    86. Mouth Like a Magazine (Showbread)
    87. Matthias Replaces Judas (Showbread)
    88. Fanatics and Whores (The Showdown)
    89. Head Down (The Showdown)
    90. Breath of the Swamp (The Showdown)
    91. Temptation Come My Way (The Showdown)
    92. Say Goodbye (Skillet)
    93. Time After Time (Spoken)
    94. Push It (Static-X)
    95. Burt Reynolds Vs. Godzilla (Training For Utopia)
    96. New York City is Overrated (Training For Utopia)
    97. Dead Signal 2000 (Training For Utopia)
    98. Turn Me On "Mr. Deadman" (The Union Underground)
    99. Brothers In Arms (War of Ages)
    100. I walked with a Zombie (Wednesday 13)
    Wow, would you look at that. exactly 100 songs. Hope you enjoyed the list, and I hope we can have a decent conversation about them, and others, in the comment section.

    I just answered this Featured Question, you can answer it too!

Saturday, July 12, 2008

  • Christian Hypocrisy and Forgiveness

    by vwagenjetta

        There are some who say that the most hypocritical people are those who sit in church every Sunday. This relates to the Brennan Manning quote used by DC Talk (and War of Ages), "The greatest single cause of atheism in the world today is Christians who acknowledge Jesus with their lips and walk out the door and deny Him by their lifestyle. That is simply what an unbelieving world finds unbelievable." Although some believe this statement goes against everything Jesus taught, I do believe it holds some truth in today's world.

        In today's society, being the kind of Christian God wants you to be can be extremely difficult. Around every corner is an opportunity, if not a legitimate reason, to sin. Sex has lost it's sacred value and become an acceptable pastime for "people who love each other" (see 1 Thessalonians 4:1-8); in some circles knowing the personal lives of others (e.g. celebrities) as well as you know your own has become necessary to retain a feeling of acceptance, or popularity (see Romans 1:29); and sharing the word of God with a non-believer will often get you the response, "religion is so yesterday." That being said, I believe Christianity, in its intended form, is the most difficult faith to be a part of in this, the age of "absolute freedom."

        I myself have been a hypocritical Christian. I've engaged in premarital sex, drunkenness, lying, cheating, and stealing, among other things. I do of course try my best to stay away from such things, and the weight of the guilt that follows them is crushing to say the least. God forgives our sins, but that doesn't give us a reason to keep on sinning, as so many so-called Christians do. Sins are mistakes, and like any "mistake maker" (sinner), Christians can learn from their mistakes, or sins, and reap the benefits of the guilt that follows by making sure the same mistake is not made twice. Suffice to say, I have learned my lessons, and I'm extremely thankful for God's forgiveness of my sins.

        Just like every human being in existence, I have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). I've done things so horrible in the eyes of God I deserve eternal death in Hell. But thanks to Jesus, who died in my place, God can forgive my sins, washing my slate as clean as freshly fallen snow (Isaiah 1:18). People, Christians even, seem to have lost the ability to truly forgive. We've all reluctantly said "I forgive you" to someone, only to hold a grudge against them afterward. Matthew 6:14-15 says "If you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if your refuse to forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins." This verse alone proves that truly forgiving others is a very important part of being a Christian.

        Sometimes truly forgiving someone over and over for the same thing can get annoying. Sometimes truly forgiving someone seems out of the question because we feel they've wronged us in a way that couldn't possibly be forgiven. Sometimes we reluctantly forgive someone only because we're forced to. There are many ways we can avoid truly forgiving people. But no matter how many times we have to forgive someone, no matter how unforgivable we feel the sin to be, as Christians we must forgive and forget in order to get on with our lives, and draw nearer to God. Because if we don't forgive others, it would be hypocritical to ask for forgiveness ourselves.

Tuesday, July 08, 2008

  • Derogatory?

    I applied for a store credit card a few days ago (not because I wanted to, but because I had to in order to get to where I wanted to go on the stores website) and I just got an email saying I was declined for the following reason:
     
    Derogatory items were found in the credit report provided to us by a consumer reporting agency.
     
    Derogatory items? They found swear words all over my credit history, or.....LMAO!!!!

Monday, July 07, 2008

  • Mormons

    Why is it that the Mormons keep coming back even after being told that no one in the household they're visiting has any intention of converting to their, or any, religion? Is insisting you're correct, and making every effort to prove it to others, the "godly" thing to do? It's arrogant, and their insistence in itself should be proof enough that they're destroying the name of the God they claim to represent.

Sunday, July 06, 2008

  • Currently Listening
    House of Om
    By Mark Farina
    see related

    My Next Build

        My next buildCenturion Mini is going to be more for Rachel than for me, but here's what it's gonna consist of. The case (pictured here) is going to be the Cooler Master Centurion Mini. It's a MicroATX case (after building a couple MicroATX computers, I've fallen in love with them), the ATX version of which my ex-roommate purchased, and loved. It really does a good job of keeping the internals cool, even in my apartment (which, at the time this case was present, remained at a constant 85-90 degrees (F) due to the heaters apparent inability to turn off), and cooling is a major issue when building a MicroATX computer, because everything is so close together. The case will be powered by a Rosewill 600W power supply.

        The motherboard, which will also be MicroATX, will be a Gigabyte GA-G33M-S2L. I've had tons of luck with Gigabyte boards (all of which have been MicroATX), and this one looks to be a pretty good deal. It uses DDR2 800 RAM, and supports up to 8GB's of it!Gigabyte GA-G33M-S2L The only problem I have with this board is that, like most MicroATX boards, it only has one PCI Express x16 slot. Not a big deal, I suppose, because like I said Rachel is going to be using this computer, and she doesn't need the dual 8800GTS SLI setup that I have. Anyone who's read my previous tech related posts knows that I don't skimp, however, so this computer IS going to get an EVGA Superclocked 8800GT. The boys are constantly wanting to install my games on their computer (which, currently, is a Dell from the 1999-2000 timeframe), and needless to say, their computer won't run Crysis.

        As for the hard drive, I've selected a 250GB Seagate Barracuda (SATA). SATA is a MUST when you're building a MicroATX box, because IDE belts are cumbersome, and not only do they make the inside of the case look messy, but they also get in the way of fans, plugs, video cards, etc. As a general rule, I will never use IDE again, unless I absolutely have toSeagate Barracuda. I chose to give her 250GB's, which may at first glance seem too many, but given the number of pictures she takes (and has), and the fact that the kids want to put my games on there, I figured 250GB's would be bare minimum. I've used the Seagate Barracuda (both 250 and 500GB versions) in a couple of my builds now, and I can honestly say they're a real bargain. This HDD is $59.99 on NewEgg, and for what your getting, that price is nothing.

      Running ANY computer with a single core processor is totally useless. If your processor doesn't have two cores (or more), get a new processor (or computer). The reason for this is, mainly, the number of processes running in the background on the latest and greatest operating systems. Granted, if you're running Windows 95, you don't by any means need a dual core processor (but it would be pretty fun to watch how much faster the computer ran with one!), but if you're running Windows Vista, or whatever that new Mac OS is called (is it "X" or something?), you're going to have more background processes running than a single core Core 2 Duo E6750processor can handle while maintaining a decent speed. The processor I chose for this computer, is the Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 Conroe at 2.66GHz. It's dual core, it's fast enough to tackle anything Rachel or the boys will throw at it, and I think it's the perfect inclusion in this "monster" budget build. With a price tag just under $200, it's definitely not the cheapest item on the list. It is, in fact, the most expensive. The processor, however, is the most important part of your computer's internals, and will (and must) therefore cost a pretty penny. A dual core processor will be expensive, however, because it's a new technology (not brand new, but close enough) and because you're basically getting two processors when you buy dual core.

       Overall, even with a dual core processor, 250GB SATA HDD, 600W PSU, and GeForce 8800 Series graphics card, the cost of the computer is just under $700. Pretty neat, eh? Ah, the cost-efficient power of building your own computer. I'm really excited to get this one started, because it'll quiet the children now that they'll have a decent computer to "game" on, but more so because its been a while since my last build, and I'm "feeling the pull."

    P.S. This post was also created using Windows Live Writer. The only downside I see to using such a program is that I can't make a post "private" or "protected," and I can't set my "Xangazon." Other than that, it's pretty much the same, except it has a Microsoft "red squiggly" spell checker, which is nice.