Windows 7

Microsoft may have finally managed to lure me away from Windows XP. For the first time ever, I'm actually interested in swapping to a new version of Windows as soon as it's released. I thought Vista would pull me in, but after about an hour of experimenting, I realized that I hated it.

I've been running Linux (specifically Kubuntu) since December or so (whenever it was that I managed to break my computer so that Windows was good for about 5 minutes before bluescreening). Instead of bothering to fix Windows (Linux was intended to be a temporary solution), I just stuck with Linux because I managed to get most of the stuff I cared about working.

For various definitions of "working," that is. Linux is great for what it is...but what it is isn't a desktop operating system for the masses. Sorry, people...Linux just isn't ready for the desktop.

2009 wasn't the year, and I don't foresee 2010 being it either.

Anyway, all that to say - I've seen lots of people say lots of good things about Windows 7 from the betas, and I got my hands on the Release Candidate and installed it...and I really like it. It's smooth and seamless and plays nicely with my hardware and most of my software...

I expect to get my hands on a copy of Home Premium when it comes out.

Happy Birthday

It's that time of year again. Happy birthday.

Wish I could say more. Not that it matters, I have it on good authority that you don't know this exists. In all honesty, that's probably for the best. But I've not yet forgotten.

The Importance of Being Christian

I've had a few conversations in the recent past (recent past being that period of time between whenever "now" is for any given point of time and whenever "now" was at the time I posted in the blog three posts ago. If I blogged daily, then the recent past would be in the last 3 days. As it stands now...the recent past started about 4 months ago) which were trying to figure out why it's important to me that a significant other in my life be Christian. Either that or I imagined that these conversations happened (a very likely possibility. My memory over the last 4 months isn't perfect, and it's prone to invent conversations).
While driving home the other day, the reason hit me. I mean, it's never been an issue that was a question for me. I know that "she" (whomever "she" might be, someone I currently know or someone I haven't yet met) is, she'd have to be Christian, but it's important that I be able to explain to others why this is.
The easiest way I found to explain it is to just phrase some hypotheticals. Imagine that you met the woman¹ of your dreams, but she completely refuses to acknowledge the existence of your dad². Now, I'm not saying that she ignores him or that she doesn't like him, but that she simply is convinced that he doesn't exist. She may put on airs that it's okay that you have conversations on the phone with him, she's polite (but condescending) when the two of you have dinner with your parents. She enjoys talking to your mother, but when any of you discuss Dad, she starts to look uncomfortable as though you're talking about an imaginary friend.
When Dad (who's right there at the table with you) tries to talk to her, she's oblivious.
Somehow, this situation is completely absurd when discussed in these terms, but when it comes to Christianity, non-Christians seem to puzzle over the fact that Christians can't seem to be bigoted and/or biased against people who refuse to subscribe to this "crazy notion" that God exists, interacts with us daily, and is a very real part of our day-to-day lives. I don't see where the puzzlement is. If those two people try to build a relationship, at the foundation is this part of each person which thinks (at best) that the other one is fundamentally crazy. And not the good kind of crazy.

¹I'm a guy and a chauvinist at that. My writing follows the absolutely "horrid" trend of using masculine pronouns instead of the socially-correct-but-stylistically-abhorrent "him or her" or even worse "s/he"-type constructs. I'm also going to write as though you're me and let you do the work of substituting the appropriate other characters/situations/whatever.

²Everyone has someone in his or her life who is important to the person. It could be a relative or a good friend (or both). Whatever, it's not important. For sake of ease-of-writing, I'm going to refer to this person as "Dad." Replace this character with whomever makes sense for you.

Everybody needs...

A Badonkadonk.

My trip to Hollywood.

So I went to Hollywood. And got my photo by some of the cooler stars on the Walk of Fame. Here's one of those photos. More to come as I get them e-mailed to me.

Pet peeve

When I'm standing in line for fast food and the person behind the counter says, "I can help whoever's next."

I make a conscious decision every time I hear that not to tell the person that it's "whomever."

Yet another Oh Wow.

This blog isn't going to become exclusively a place for me to post random cool videos that I come across, but that's all I really feel like talking about at the moment so it's all you get.

In the mean time - a highly entertaining acapella version of many of John Williams's themes.