Category Archive

Any further development on Slipstream will now have to wait until I return from my trip. I now must spend the next three days packing, help facilitate community group Tuesday night, and take care of other living details, like signing the lease to the new house. My new address is

316 NW Puget Drive
Seattle, Washington 98177.4843

Also, I finally sold out and started using Twitter. I resolved the fact that I’m utilizing it to engage that part of culture, as it is a very major driving force on net right now, so I’ve gotta pay attention to it at least for a bit. Don’t worry though, I’m not posting/receiving via SMS with it. That would just get out of hand too fast. Pownce is still my first message love, well second to Skype of course.

With the recent fear of giving out personal information over the web and simple ignorance of those who willingly give their information, it baffles me of people’s thought processes with a certain trend I am seeing on Facebook.

Often times than not, I have witnessed on the Newsfeed, or as I like to call it, the Gossip Wall, creation of certain events relating to loss of cellphone. This trend is running rampant like a plague.  The scenario is explained in the following. Those with enough friends on Facebook have probably seen this before or even participated, not knowing what you were doing.

Susie, through random happenstance, or for you Calvinists out there, was predestined to dropped her phone on the pavement… shattering its will to function and or chances of sentient life or future important SMS messages. (like omg!!!)

Susie, is disheartened. Her Chocolate/iPhone/Sidekick/RAZOR is gone forever! Data erased. All her phone numbers of friends and loved ones, gone forever in the aether. What is a girl to do?

Susie, through memory of what her friends have done in the recent past, recalls a quick fix. Facebook! Rather than go through all 2,342 of her friends pages and inserting cell phone numbers, dorm room numbers, former ex boyfriends’ numbers (so to not pick up when they call her, of course)… she creates an Event!

Susie is on a roll. She’s brilliant, she thinks to herself. Why, she’ll create an event called LOST CELLPHONE! And in the description she explains the predicament, possibly in all caps as well, after all CapsLock is CRUISE-CONTROL FOR AWESOME! In this she pleads for all her friends to post their phone numbers proudly and clear to see on the events page. Soon, the friends gladly/ignorantly help. They have minutes to spare. They were just Facebook stalking anyways.

Susie unfortunately, is clueless about the possible harm and repercussions this is causing on her fellow man. Let’s for a moment list a chain of people that this is affecting.

Susie’s immediate friends and family are now posting numbers, thus appearing on their Newsfeed.

One of Susie’s friends, Anna, has now posted her number on the Event page. Anna also has a large amount of friends, two people of which happen to be Carl and You. This event appears on a select amount of Newsfeeds on Anna’s friends list, depending on varying slider settings of those friends and influx of feeds draining onto their Newsfeed at any certain time. Guess what? Both Carl and You are two of those people.

Susie does not know Carl. You do not know Carl. Anna knows Carl, though only in passing. He was this shady guy she might have said hi to in Algebra back in high school. She really doesn’t remember him all that well. “But hey, he went to Generic Public High School with me, I’ll add him. No harm done right?” Wrong. Carl, for this story, is in fact, a danger to this internet community, triggered all by Susie’s thoughtless act of omission. Carl (not to mention You) can now see in full view this event and every public response to said event, i.e. their precious digits. Some of these people, while they thought only allowed a certain number of people access to their private phone number on their profiles, now have it exposed for the Carl’s of the world to see. The implications, awkwardness, and any other problem this causes is scary. Thankfully, because of reading this blog entry, You know better and won’t publicly post your number. Because if You do, Carl has your number now. Way to be Susie, way to be.

Just something to think about the day your cell phone falls in the toilet.

One of my younger twin sisters have now graduated from college. I can tell from all my siblings and conversations with the parental unit that our upcoming vacation to Daytona Beach is something we are all really looking forward to. We all need that escape from the chaos and frustrations of normal life. I am really hoping for our adventure to be very low key, refreshing, and most importantly, stress free. My mother announced her retirement, to happen in about a month (Mom, I hope you don’t mind me mentioning that). I am proud of her for doing so, I feel like my career as an artist, designer, design consultant (whatever I end up being for this time in my life) is something worthwhile and worth meaning, to not only myself, but my family, friends, and the Kingdom.

Progress on the new version of Slipstream is coming along. I’ve updated the teaser page to reflect the logo which will be used in the next theme.  While excited, there is still much I have yet to learn (at least learning how to make it work!). So, if everything goes to plan, it will be a moderately content heavy site. It’s more than just a portfolio or blog this time.

As for the extra content, I would like to make this post an open invitation. If you consider yourself in one of the following categories: writers, copy editors, journalists, photojournalists, bloggers, trend setters, philosophers, theologians, web surfers, designers, web media moguls or have interest in posting links about technology, arts & entertainment, gaming (all types), faith & theology… contact me via email and let me know what you like doing or currently doing in your life. This can be both an extracurricular activity  or something that takes very little of your time, and I’m talking very little. In your email, please include a link to your blog, articles you’ve written, Flickr gallery or attach works you are proud of. This invitation for collaborators is open at least to the end of the year, so if you aren’t free now, you’ve got time to consider it. Lord knows you actually do have the time, but you just don’t want to admit it. Everyone can at least find ten minutes of Facebook stalking to cut out of their week. Heck yes, I went there!

Both my weekdays and weekends are really starting to look about the same. A lot of studying CSS, dvd watching, web surfing, and Skype chatting. Lather, rinse, repeat.

My computer system is obviously not down at the moment, thus I would not write this. I was purging old emails just now when I came across my newegg reciepts and I remembered that I was going to post the specs of my computer build in order for those of you who were interested and may know something about my crashes with the info provided.

So here’s the lineup in no particular order:

• ABIT IP35 Pro LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Intel Motherboard
• Western Digital Caviar SE WD5000AAJS 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
• XFX PVT73GUGF3 GeForce 7600GT 256MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 SLI Supported Video Card
• Thermaltake TR2 W0070RUC ATX 430W Power Supply
• OCZ Platinum 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model OCZ2P8002GK
• Speeze 80mm Front Case Fan w/ 3 & 4 Pin Connector (S457-1007)

Feel free to leave comments or contact me. I’m pretty tired of dealing with this.

[ The following was originally written Friday, February 29th. ]

Winter. It’s been a chilly one, but not unbearable. Right now, being the last day of February, it feels more like a perfect Autumn morning, crisp but clear. This year started out semi-rough for reasons the internet does not need to hear. But on all areas now, life is pretty uneventful.

Should I be worried? I suppose my old self, sans Christ in my life, would certainly worry about what tomorrow will bring. But at the end of the day, what would that accomplish?

Lately, I’ve been racking my brain listening to free reformed theology classes on iTunes, as well as John Piper sermons. Recently Piper spoke at my church at a conference some of you might have heard of before. I didn’t buy tickets early enough, but I was able to watch parts of it free streamed online. Much of it was way over my head, but I’m trying to learn the terms and knowing the logic and vocabulary teachers of the Law have gone to very expensive schools to learn about.

Perhaps with nothing different in my life and the lack of excitement has resulted in so few of posts. Regardless, I’m tired of most blogs being apologies for not posting enough. So let me save you the time and inform you, Streamlined WILL NOT be one of those blogs. I speak no longer on the subject.

To update you on the PC upgrade, things are, for the most part, up and running. I have a slight problem with something, and I have looked into everything I know to check: drivers, memory sticks, etc… and I still get crashes at least once a day. If money came easy to me, I could of bought a nice packaged iMac. But that was out of the price range. I’ll post the specs soon so maybe I can get some outsider help.

Just a quick housekeeping note: I’ve shrunk back all the excess links that were on my Slipstream.cc front page. I will return to them in one form or another in another page I’ll probably title Influences or some-such. Have faith in the Lord that He uses me to increase His Kingdom with this website, through my own kooky ways of doing things.

Recent CD purchases: Radiohead’s latest album In Rainbows and Leeland’s sophomore worship album Opposite Way. On Opposite Way, the song Let It Out Now is my current theme song. Everybody needs one at any given point in their life.

Another worship song, one that I recall from high school ministry is More Precious Than Silver. That has been one that I’ve sung quietly to myself to and at the bus stops in the mornings. The specific lyric that I’ve been focusing on is ‘And nothing I desire compares to You.‘ My hope is that it will stay my anthem for this year.

Just a quick response to the silence and to update you all. I’m pushing my new computer build to after I return from Evansville on Dec. 31st. I type this on Becca’s laptop, which I commandeered in my old bedroom. I will ring in the new year with a fresh computer. The parts of which await my return sit in a box on my bed in Seattle. Until then, I’m spending the days remembering days of yore and laughing at/with old friends. And even saying goodbye to others.  My Uncle Richard died a few days prior to Christmas. I wish I would have known him better.

This free time to relax and stretch my wings is good and bad. I’ve been trying to push back anxiousness and longing to get back into my new life. Yet much of me wants to relish as much time I have here with my family. Something tells me 2008 will be a tough one. One that will bring into my life some radical changes that I MUST prevail through. I must be prepared to lead, in every area of my life, whether in work, church, relationships, free time. Of course, I hand the reigns to Christ and I can’t do any of it without Him. But He’s not gonna let me just kick back either.

 So no goofy resolutions or nonsense like that. It’s just me and Jesus. I close this in the words of a character from a recent indie-film release at the moment she knows she’s hours away from giving birth… “Thundercats……GOoooooooooo!!!”

I have an 8 to 5 job. I have a place above my head. I have cheap transportation, which due to the company I work for, will be free next month and the following month after that, and… yeah I’m content with life right now.

Yesterday, I got up early [for a Saturday that is] and walked down to a nearby bank to put in my second paycheck and open a checking account. After that, I got my hair cut at a the local Baseball Barber Shop. Yes, it’s really called that. And it’s just a woman that owns it. She really likes baseball I guess. Afterwards, I left with Scott and Brant and I made my third visit to IKEA to return my LACK shelves. A few days ago, I made the decision that the wall I wanted them hung on was not sturdy enough and just not worth the effort. So I now have a box with a new black-brown bookcase sitting outside my door, laying against my door frame, ready for assembly. Thank you Billy. Also while there, I had some extra in-store credit. So I picked up a much needed dark grey waste basket, a candle, and some junk boxes for receipts and misc. papers that just don’t require folders. You know what I’m talking about. Office space mess.

So back to the work subject, as many of you are sending me emails asking what it’s like. Nintendo is a cool place to work. It’s surreal working in a place just 10 paces from the area Nintendo Power is written up. Or how there is a sweet walk through museum with every system, yes every system they ever released. I cannot say what project I’m working on, other than it is not released yet. Basically these countless teams of men and women spend all their day scouring every inch of these games looking for and reporting bugs to our supervisors, who then prepare them for the Master Bug Log, which is read by the developers of the game, sometimes just a few buildings over in Digipen or the Area 51 areas that are so secret, most don’t know how to find them. That write up we put together is also translated into real-time for devs in Japan even. So the work we do is important to the very essence of the company and getting a quality product, at least one with no bugs, to the public. They take that golden seal on the back of the box seriously.

Lastly, last weekend I went to see 3:10 to Yuma. A very fine western. Dad would enjoy it a lot. It’s a remake of the original which changes little in the story except elaborates on the actual trip to the train station. It’s certainly the best western I’ve seen since Open Range or Serenity, if you count it as at least half a western.

Friday night, I said my goodbye to Chad and his family as they visited Washington for a two week vacation. We met up at The Triple Door to see Over The Rhine in concert. This was my second time seeing them and certainly not my last. Every show they do is a real treat. They know how to make an audience quake in the knees and beg for more. True entertainers to the highest degree. And yes, I picked up The Trumpet Child in vinyl. This brings my collection up to 12 since starting this Spring.

Okay, with that, time to get that bookcase up before church.