So, my buddy Rusty is making his own web page. Pretty neat. As a matter of fact, it’s the best web page teh internets have ever seen! You can check his spot out over at www.rustyjr.com. Oh, and be sure to click every link on his “Under Construction” page.

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So I am looking to buy a house. One of the things I know very little about is mortgages and the many different types out there. I dont live in the UK, but when I google’d mortgage mixed in the results was this page, titled “The Thrifty Scot.” On this page was some neat information. I think the website itself is very well laid out. Like the quote says there, the site is a no nonsense, plain speaking money saving website.

As with most webpages I enjoy getting totally lost in cool pages I explore. Sometimes I find myself randomly clicking on things just to see what comes up. Often times I read so many articles I forgot why I went there. Which in this case was exactly what happened.

What’s neat is you can tell it’s a blog, but it looks so much like a blend of a hand coded website, and something computer generated. You can tell this guy put some thought into what he writes about! Even though I still dont live in the UK, I would use this site as a reference for money tips as they can apply other countries as well. Especially his Budget Planner. Very helpful if you ask me!

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So I was in need of a good random password. At my job they require a insane length for you password, not to mention 2 of upper/lower case letters, numbers and special characters (!@#). So instead of hurting my head, I did a search on blingo (Uses the power of Google, except they reward you for searching with prizes) for a random password generator. I came across several websites, but most of them were terrbile. This one was rather fun and let me choose to create a batch of them. Remeber those war movies where the President has to confirm his missle launch codes and he has a list of them on a card? Thats sort of what I do, I print about 15 of them on a slip of paper that fits in my wallet and I remember which one I am currently using. When I need to change my password I create another batch and print off 15 more. This way you can keep your password with you without the risk of someone randomly guessing it. As an added measure of security, you can have the CAPS lock on when you enter it in so even though the paper says type “zbNMxz” you are really typing ZBnmXZ. Anyways, here is the linkage for this website: Linkage

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So, I was browsing around on freecycle and this guy named Ron was giving away some pallets. Now I was thinking standard pallets with that 1/4 by 4in wood planks. Well I got to his house to pick em up and they were 2×6x8’s instead! So we loaded em up on his truck and got em home. I took apart the pallets and was like… well now what!? I thought about it for a minute and decided to build myself a workbench that I can abuse instead of my deck or my kitchen table. After some minor trial and error, I was able to come up with a great design. The table is very heavy and sturdy. Definitely going to be able to stand up to some work to be done! When I get a chance, I will post some pictures here. I am eager for your comments and ideas on maybe how to improve on my design.

Pictures: Workbench - Straight on - Workbench - From the side. - Workbench - From underneath.

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Well, there are no new updates really. I just have not had the time to get outside and finish it up. Maybe sometime this week I will be able to. I did however fill in alot of holes using Elmers Woodputty. That stuff works great and dries really quickly. I will have to go get some more of it. Good stuff to have around.

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So, I went and saw that movie 300. Let me just say this right off the bat… if you have not seen it YOU MUST GO SEE IT TODAY. No question about it. It makes Gladiator look like a disney movie!

The plot is nothing original by a long shot. Good guy(s) defending their country against, yep you guessed it, a bad guy who wants to take it over. But there is so much character and feeling put into the movie that you almost feel like you’re part of it. The ending is especially great. I loved how it made you get this sense of Oh my Gosh I would hate to be there! If you want to watch trailers or anything like that go to www.fandango.com and check em out there. You can even read what it is all about. I dont want to give anything away. But for the most part, this is one movie that I am willing to pay movie theater prices to go see again. That type of movie has not come out for a very very long time (at least for me.)

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A little boy blows up a balloon and starts flicking it all around the
house with his finger. His mother tells him to stop it as he’s liable to
break something, but the boy continues.

“Johnny!” Mom screams. “Knock it off.” You’re going to break something.
He stops and eventually Mom leaves for a short trip to the shopping center.

Johnny starts up with the balloon again after his mom has left for the
store. He gives it one last flick and it lands in the toilet where he leaves
it.

Mom comes in and while putting away the grocery gets the urge. A diarrhea
run. She can hardly make it to the toilet in time and SPLASH, out it comes.

When she’s finished, she looks down and can’t believe what she’s seeing.
She’s not sure what this big brown thing is in the toilet! She calls her
doctor. The doctor is baffled as she describes the situation, but he assures
her he’ll be over shortly to examine everything.

When he arrives she leads him to the bath room and he gets down on his
knees and takes a long, hard look at the thing. Finally, he takes out his
pen and sort of touches it to see what it might be and POP! The balloon
explodes and poop is everywhere. On him, the walls, etc.
  “Doctor! Doctor! Are you all right?” she asks.
  He says, “I’ve been in this business for over 30 years, and this is the
first time I’ve ever actually seen a fart !”

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So I was browsing over some cool projects at www.instructables.com, and came across this project to create a bookshelf. The original designer used plywood and a nailgun. I used the wood from a box spring my neighbor was going to throw away.

I managed to get some good pieces from the box spring, but unfortunately most of the wood was old and very very dry so it split in a few places. But nothing some wood putty won’t fix. The photos you see are of the “after” pictures, after I tore the padding and fabric off the box spring, separated the wood and removed all 2 billion staples from the wood, assembled the pieces and am now waiting for the putty to dry so I can sand it down tomorrow, and on friday stain it/airbrush it. I’m not so good at airbrushing, but then again I’m not very good at woodworking either.

If you want to see the original project, head on over to here

Pictures: Bookshelf 1, Bookshelf 2, Bookshelf 3

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This is a true story of something that happened just a few years ago at USC.

There was a professor of philosophy there who was a deeply committed atheist. His primary goal for one required class was to spend the entire semester to prove that God couldn’t exist. His students were always afraid to argue with him because of his impeccable logic. Sure, some had argued in class at times, but no one had ever really gone against him because of his reputation. At the end of every semester on the last day, he would say to his class of 300 students,

“If there is anyone here who still believes in Jesus, stand up!”In twenty years, no one had ever stood up. They knew what he was going to do next. He would say, “Because anyone who believes in God is a fool”, “If God existed, he could stop this piece of chalk from hitting the ground and breaking. Such a simple task to prove that He is God, and yet He can’t do it.”

And every year, he would drop the chalk onto the tile floor of the classroom and it would shatter into a hundred pieces. All of the students would do nothing but stop and stare. Most of the students thought that God couldn’t exist. Certainly, a number of Christians had slipped through, but! for 20 years, they had been too afraid to stand up.

Well, a few years ago there was a freshman who happened to enroll. He was a Christian, and had heard the stories about his professor. He was required to take the class for his major, and he was afraid. But for three months that semester, he prayed every morning that he would have the courage to stand up no matter what the professor said, or what the class thought. Nothing they said could ever shatter his faith…he hoped.

Finally, the day came. ! The professor said, “If there is anyone here who still believes in God, stand up!” The professor and the class of 300 people looked at him, shocked, as he stood up at the back of the classroom.
The professor shouted, “You FOOL!!! If God existed, he would keep this piece of chalk from breaking when it hit the ground!”

He proceeded to drop the chalk, but as he did, it slipped out of his fingers, off his shirt cuff, onto the pleat of his pants, down his leg, and off his shoe. As it hit the ground, it simply rolled away unbroken. The professor’s jaw dropped as he stared at the chalk. He looked up at the young man, and then ran out of the lecture hall.

The young man who had stood, proceeded to walk to the front of the room and shared his faith in Jesus for the next half hour. 300 students stayed and listened as he told of God’s love for them and of His power through Jesus.

You have 2 choices:

1. Ignore this and never look at it again.

2. Tell your friends, maybe it’ll give them the encouragement we all need every day.

What’s your choice?

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