Stuff and Such

Tank #48

2007-10-23T17:59:00.000-05:00


Time of fillup:         10/23/2007 1759
Odometer:               19,473 miles
Trip Odometer:          411.0 miles
Fuel input:             13.068 gallons
Price/gallon:           $3.099
Total Cost:             $40.50
Fuel Mileage:            31.43 mpg
Time since last fillup:
                       14 days, 21 hours, 22 minutes
                     or
                       21,441 minutes
Minutes per mile:       52.21 min/mile
Minutes per gallon:     1640.8 min/gal
Ave. speed:             1.15 mph

Tank #47

2007-10-08T20:37:00.000-05:00


Time of fillup:         10/08/2007 2037
Odometer:               19,062 miles
Trip Odometer:          379.0 miles
Fuel input:             13.016 gallons
Price/gallon:           $2.959
Total Cost:             $38.51
Fuel Mileage:            29.13 mpg
Time since last fillup:
                       14 days, 23 hours, 55 minutes
                     or
                       21,594 minutes
Minutes per mile:       56.96 min/mile
Minutes per gallon:     1659.11 min/gal
Ave. speed:             1.05 mph

Tank #46

2007-09-23T20:42:00.000-05:00


Time of fillup:         09/23/2007 2042
Odometer:               18,683 miles
Trip Odometer:          344.0 miles
Fuel input:             13.118 gallons
Price/gallon:           $3.049
Total Cost:             $40.00
Fuel Mileage:            26.21 mpg
Time since last fillup:
                       18 days, 2 hours, 41 minutes
                     or
                       26,080 minutes
Minutes per mile:       75.86 min/mile
Minutes per gallon:     1988.11 min/gal
Ave. speed:             0.79 mph

Tank #45

2007-09-05T18:02:00.000-05:00


Time of fillup:         09/05/2007 1802
Odometer:               18,339 miles
Trip Odometer:          328.0 miles
Fuel input:             13.022 gallons
Price/gallon:           $2.899
Total Cost:             $37.75
Fuel Mileage:            25.19 mpg
Time since last fillup:
                       20 days, 20 hours, 53 minutes
                     or
                       30,052 minutes
Minutes per mile:       91.62 min/mile
Minutes per gallon:     2307.86 min/gal
Ave. speed:             0.65 mph

Tank #44

2007-08-15T21:09:00.000-05:00


Time of fillup:         08/15/2007 2109
Odometer:               18,011 miles
Trip Odometer:          400.0 miles
Fuel input:             12.776 gallons
Price/gallon:           $2.779
Total Cost:             $35.50
Fuel Mileage:            31.36 mpg
Time since last fillup:
                       7 days, 3 hours, 1 minutes
                     or
                       10,260 minutes
Minutes per mile:       25.61 min/mile
Minutes per gallon:     803.15 min/gal
Ave. speed:             2.34 mph

Tank #43

2007-08-08T18:08:00.000-05:00


Time of fillup:         08/08/2007 1808
Odometer:               17,611 miles
Trip Odometer:          326.0 miles
Fuel input:             12.956 gallons
Price/gallon:           $2.779
Total Cost:             $36.00
Fuel Mileage:            25.17 mpg
Time since last fillup:
                       14 days, 20 hours, 13 minutes
                     or
                       21,372 minutes
Minutes per mile:       65.54 min/mile
Minutes per gallon:     1649.58 min/gal
Ave. speed:             0.92 mph

Obligatory Potter Post

2007-07-27T11:44:00.000-05:00

I need to go back and see what I last posted and update anybody out there on the time since. I've got about 10 tanks that need to be posted, including my best mileage yet.

But to the point. I have just received my copy of the last Potter book. I bought #6 in Heathrow when I returned from my work trip there a year and a half ago. It was the British adult version. Slightly different than the US, and I liked the size and all too. So this time around, rather than buy the US edition you can find anywhere, I ordered the British edition from amazon.co.uk. I guess I won't be getting much sleep tonight or tomorrow. Luckily, I have avoided any spoilers on this one, so it shall be without blemish that I read it.

On to lunch.

Tank #42

2007-07-24T21:56:00.000-05:00


Time of fillup:         07/24/2007 2156
Odometer:               17,285 miles
Trip Odometer:          331.0 miles
Fuel input:             13.043 gallons
Price/gallon:           $2.799
Total Cost:             $36.51
Fuel Mileage:            25.32 mpg
Time since last fillup:
                       15 days, 0 hours, 53 minutes
                     or
                       21,652 minutes
Minutes per mile:       65.57 min/mile
Minutes per gallon:     1660.05 min/gal
Ave. speed:             0.92 mph

Tank #41

2007-07-09T21:04:00.000-05:00


Time of fillup:         07/09/2007 2104
Odometer:               16,954 miles
Trip Odometer:          483.0 miles
Fuel input:             12.733 gallons
Price/gallon:           $2.769
Total Cost:             $35.26
Fuel Mileage:            37.99 mpg
Time since last fillup:
                       1 day, 11 hours, 2 minutes
                     or
                       2,101 minutes
Minutes per mile:       4.34 min/mile
Minutes per gallon:     165 min/gal
Ave. speed:             13.81 mph

Tank #40

2007-07-08T10:03:00.000-05:00


Time of fillup:         07/08/2007 1003
Odometer:               16,471 miles
Trip Odometer:          501.0 miles
Fuel input:             13.031 gallons
Price/gallon:           $2.839
Total Cost:             $37.00
Fuel Mileage:            38.42 mpg
Time since last fillup:
                       19 hours, 45 minutes
                     or
                       1,184 minutes
Minutes per mile:       2.37 min/mile
Minutes per gallon:     90.94 min/gal
Ave. speed:             25.35 mph

Tank #39

2007-07-07T14:18:00.000-05:00


Time of fillup:         07/07/2007 1418
Odometer:               15,970 miles
Trip Odometer:          526.0 miles
Fuel input:             12.246 gallons
Price/gallon:           $2.839
Total Cost:             $34.77
Fuel Mileage:            42.96 mpg
Time since last fillup:
                       1 days, 21 hours, 58 minutes
                     or
                       2,757 minutes
Minutes per mile:       5.24 min/mile
Minutes per gallon:     225.13 min/gal
Ave. speed:             11.45 mph

Tank #38

2007-07-05T16:21:00.000-05:00


Time of fillup:         07/05/2007 1621
Odometer:               15,444 miles
Trip Odometer:          517.0 miles
Fuel input:             13.38 gallons
Price/gallon:           $2.879
Total Cost:             $38.52
Fuel Mileage:            38.61 mpg
Time since last fillup:
                       3 days, 2 hours, 21 minutes
                     or
                       4,460 minutes
Minutes per mile:       8.64 min/mile
Minutes per gallon:     333.41 min/gal
Ave. speed:             6.95 mph

Tank #37

2007-07-02T14:00:00.000-05:00


Time of fillup:         07/02/2007 1400
Odometer:               14,927 miles
Trip Odometer:          535.0 miles
Fuel input:             12.768 gallons
Price/gallon:           $2.859
Total Cost:             $36.50
Fuel Mileage:            41.85 mpg
Time since last fillup:
                       1 days, 4 hours, 1 minutes
                     or
                       1,680 minutes
Minutes per mile:       3.15 min/mile
Minutes per gallon:     131.66 min/gal
Ave. speed:             19.07 mph

Tank #36

2007-07-01T09:59:00.000-05:00


Time of fillup:         07/01/2007 0959
Odometer:               14,392 miles
Trip Odometer:          577.0 miles
Fuel input:             12.504 gallons
Price/gallon:           $2.899
Total Cost:             $36.25
Fuel Mileage:            46.19 mpg
Time since last fillup:
                       1 days, 19 hours, 28 minutes
                     or
                       2,607 minutes
Minutes per mile:       4.51 min/mile
Minutes per gallon:     208.49 min/gal
Ave. speed:             13.29 mph

Tank #35

2007-06-29T14:32:00.000-05:00


Time of fillup:         06/29/2007 1432
Odometer:               13,815 miles
Trip Odometer:          454.0 miles
Fuel input:             13.339 gallons
Price/gallon:           $2.699
Total Cost:             $36.00
Fuel Mileage:            34.01 mpg
Time since last fillup:
                       6 days, 20 hours, 15 minutes
                     or
                       9,854 minutes
Minutes per mile:       21.72 min/mile
Minutes per gallon:     738.74 min/gal
Ave. speed:             2.76 mph

Tank #34

2007-06-22T18:18:00.000-05:00


Time of fillup:         06/22/2007 1818
Odometer:               13,361 miles
Trip Odometer:          361.0 miles
Fuel input:             13.093 gallons
Price/gallon:           $2.769
Total Cost:             $36.25
Fuel Mileage:            27.6 mpg
Time since last fillup:
                       15 days, 20 hours, 21 minutes
                     or
                       22,820 minutes
Minutes per mile:       63.15 min/mile
Minutes per gallon:     1742.99 min/gal
Ave. speed:             0.95 mph

Tank #33

2007-06-06T21:57:00.000-05:00


Time of fillup:         06/06/2007 2157
Odometer:               13,000 miles
Trip Odometer:          366.0 miles
Fuel input:             12.916 gallons
Price/gallon:           $2.789
Total Cost:             $36.02
Fuel Mileage:            28.31 mpg
Time since last fillup:
                       16 days, 1 hours, 29 minutes
                     or
                       23,128 minutes
Minutes per mile:       63.25 min/mile
Minutes per gallon:     1790.72 min/gal
Ave. speed:             0.95 mph

Tank #32

2007-05-21T20:28:00.000-05:00


Time of fillup:         05/21/2007 2028
Odometer:               12,634 miles
Trip Odometer:          400.0 miles
Fuel input:             13.033 gallons
Price/gallon:           $2.839
Total Cost:             $37.00
Fuel Mileage:            30.72 mpg
Time since last fillup:
                       11 days, 22 hours, 13 minutes
                     or
                       17,172 minutes
Minutes per mile:       42.89 min/mile
Minutes per gallon:     1317.58 min/gal
Ave. speed:             1.4 mph

House Update 2

2007-05-10T00:17:00.000-05:00

So it has been a month since my other post about buying a house.
Since then, I found another house. It is smaller and older than the first, but in much better condition. Much better condition. I put a offer/contract on it and if the rest of the paperwork goes through, I shall be closing on May 21.
Since everything is fairly nailed down now, I've decided it is time to post a few pics. You can find them here: My New House. The photo quality isn't really all that great. I had to scan in the 'pamphlet' I received when first visiting the house. Then crop and resize them all to appropriate sizes. Obviously, once I move in, I shall be taking and uploading much better quality pics. But this shall give you a taste of what it is like.
The basics:
3 bedroom
1.5 bath
pool
1600 sq.ft.

My current roommate is moving with me. It is not quite as large a house as I was hoping for, but it shouldn't be too cramped. My #1 desire at this point is to house a pool(billiards) table in the 2nd bedroom.
It does have a decent sized pool in the backyard. I'm looking forward to being able to hone my virtually non-existent swimming skills. It also facilitates having pool parties over the summer months. If you should ever happen to visit, do bring swimtrunks.
All in all, I am looking forward to this very much. There's been a lot to this whole house buying thing. It has been quite obvious that God has been leading me in the search and buying process; even through the first house I found.

In other thoughts, a few friends and I are going to see the BodyWorlds exhibit in Dallas. I've been describing it as a bunch of 'skinned, plastified human corpses' on display. It sounds quite repulsive I know, but it looks fascinating. Some other friends saw it the other week and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Finally, the long awaited 6 most recent tank stats are momentarily arriving. I really don't know how they affect the RSS feed, so if you are reading this and them in that manner, I apologize for any weirdness that may ensue.

Tank #31

2007-05-09T22:16:00.000-05:00


Time of fillup:         05/09/2007 2216
Odometer:               12,234 miles
Trip Odometer:          340.0 miles
Fuel input:             12.678 gallons
Price/gallon:           $2.729
Total Cost:             $34.60
Fuel Mileage:            26.76 mpg
Time since last fillup:
                        22 days, 3 hours, 35 minutes
                      or
                        31,894 minutes
Minutes per mile:       94 min/mile
Minutes per gallon:     2515.78 min/gal
Ave. speed:             0.64 mph

Tank #30

2007-04-17T18:41:00.000-05:00


Time of fillup:         04/17/2007 1841
Odometer:               11,894 miles
Trip Odometer:          343.0 miles
Fuel input:             12.686 gallons
Price/gallon:           $2.799
Total Cost:             $35.51
Fuel Mileage:            27.05 mpg
Time since last fillup:
                        22 days, 23 hours, 26 minutes
                      or
                        33,085 minutes
Minutes per mile:       96.43 min/mile
Minutes per gallon:     2607.99 min/gal
Ave. speed:             0.62 mph

House Update

2007-04-11T08:25:00.000-05:00

To update the news regarding the house I spoke of last post, I've had to terminate the contract. I had inspections done and there were enough things that needed repair to make it clear it wasn't the house for me. The sellers were not willing to pay for any repairs, and the things that needed repair, while not huge, were enough in number to cause me great hesitation with going forward. So this week I had to get the paperwork that goes along with that signed. Now I'll be getting back into the house search again.

News

2007-04-04T14:37:00.000-05:00

In recent news, I am in the process of looking for and purchasing a house here in Tyler.
I've made an offer on a house that is close to perfect in terms of location, features, etc. I'm hoping to finalize the offer today and start the process towards closing in early May.
Pictures shall obviously be forthcoming once I close on it.
It is a nerve-wracking experience, but God has been gracious and steadfast in guiding me through the search process and especially the past 5+ days of offers/counter-offers/etc. We'll see about an in-depth account of it all at some point in the future.

For those of you dying for more tank stats, I've got a couple that need posting. Patience, and they shall come.

Tank #29

2007-03-25T19:16:00.000-05:00


Time of fillup:         03/25/2007 1916
Odometer:               11,551 miles
Trip Odometer:          336.0 miles
Fuel input:             12.504 gallons
Price/gallon:           $2.579
Total Cost:             $32.25
Fuel Mileage:            26.9 mpg
Time since last fillup:
                        22 days, 6 hours, 32 minutes
                      or
                        32,071 minutes
Minutes per mile:       95.37 min/mile
Minutes per gallon:     2564.94 min/gal
Ave. speed:             0.63 mph

Tank #28

2007-03-03T12:44:00.000-06:00


Time of fillup:         03/03/2007 1244
Odometer:               11,215 miles
Trip Odometer:          355.0 miles
Fuel input:             12.999 gallons
Price/gallon:           $2.539
Total Cost:             $33.00
Fuel Mileage:            27.29 mpg
Time since last fillup:
                        27 days, 20 hours, 39 minutes
                      or
                        40,118 minutes
Minutes per mile:       113.1 min/mile
Minutes per gallon:     3086.24 min/gal
Ave. speed:             0.53 mph

Snow In Chicago

2007-02-25T20:09:00.000-06:00

I'm in Chicago and it snowed all afternoon and evening!!! I don't know how well the picture shows it snowing, but you can see the snow. This is outside my hotel window.

I haven't seen this big a snowfall in years. Granted it is only a couple inches, but still it is snowfall.

I'm about to leave the computer and finish up part 2 of a very thrilling series of books I've been reading over the past 2 weeks. Written by Chris Walley the series is 'The Lamb Among the Stars'. The first two parts can be found in a combined volume titled 'The Shadow and the Night'. The third part has also been out for a year or two. The fourth and final book is due in the near future even though I haven't found a date for it yet.
So, what is it about? It is a novel with a very solid Christian premise and theology throughout. Its genre is science-fiction. Normally, a sci-fi / Christian combo would make me quite leery. Let's face it, most Christian fiction is not of the best literary or plot quality. A good majority are frankly quite cheesy in their portrayal of Christians and such. However, 'The Lamb Among the Stars' is an exception to the rule. The books are great quality sci-fi as well as being solidly Christian based without being cheesy. Every now and then orange/reddish flags pop up with semblances of theology that are a bit off, but by and large it is quite solid.
The story takes place in A.D. 13250 or so. A worldwide revival of sorts took place around A.D.2100-2200. Since then evil is basically unknown. The government/social/cultural/etc are all Christ centered and Biblically based. God has caused a world-wide peace to go throughout humankind. Man has colonized and terraformed over 1500 worlds around the galaxy. And all is well...or is it...?
Anyways, it is a great series and I'm thoroughly enjoying it. Not many books these days keeps me enthralled and reading for hours at a time, but this is one series that does.
To reading...

What to Do in Chicago?

2007-02-24T11:40:00.000-06:00

Quick! There's not much time left. I am headed up to the Chicago area tomorrow morning. I'll be there all week for work till I return on Friday.
Have any of you been there and know of places to go or things to do while there? I'll have Sunday afternoon/evening free as well as most evenings during the week.
If you haven't been there, have you heard of things or places that sound cool?

Today's Pearls

2007-02-18T15:02:00.000-06:00

I must say, I do so enjoy Pearls Before Swine. It is such a refreshing change from most comic strips. Every now and then, it has a beautiful play on words and today's was one of them:
Read each pane in order, don't skip to the end, you'll ruin it.

Atom/RSS Feed Changed

2007-02-16T22:56:00.000-06:00

Hey,
For any of you who might have me in your Feed Reader rather than actually going to the site, I'd greatly appreciate it if you changed the feed used to http://feeds.feedburner.com/schooby41 instead of the blogger one.

Thanks.

My Desktop

2007-02-16T16:49:00.000-06:00

How about this:

Isn't that cool or wrong (depending on your standpoint)?

That is a 100% real screenshot taken just moments ago. No altering at all. That is just downright cool.

If you have absolutely no clue what I'm talking about, take a moment to think about it. If nothing comes to you, post a comment and I'll let you know what is so cool about it.

Anyhow,
Carry on.

Tank #27

2007-02-03T16:04:00.000-06:00


Time of fillup:         02/03/2007 1606
Odometer:               10,860 miles
Trip Odometer:          387.0 miles
Fuel input:             12.747 gallons
Price/gallon:           $2.279
Total Cost:             $29.05
Fuel Mileage:            30.36 mpg
Time since last fillup:
                        16 days, 20 hours, 25 minutes
                      or
                        24,264 minutes
Minutes per mile:       62.7 min/mile
Minutes per gallon:     1903.59 min/gal
Ave. speed:             0.96 mph

Tank #26

2007-01-17T19:41:00.000-06:00


Time of fillup:         01/17/2007 1941
Odometer:               10,473 miles
Trip Odometer:          349.0 miles
Fuel input:             12.183 gallons
Price/gallon:           $2.339
Total Cost:             $28.50
Fuel Mileage:            28.63 mpg
Time since last fillup:
                     19 days, 7 hours, 5 minutes
                   or
                     27,784 minutes
Minutes per mile:       79.66 min/mile
Minutes per gallon:     2280.55 min/gal
Ave. speed:             0.75 mph

iPhone

2007-01-16T01:11:00.000-06:00

Just a quick note to satisfy my geek side. I just finished watching Apple's MacWorld Keynote that Steve Jobs gave a week ago. I, of course, had a live update website I read last week as it was given, but just now watched the video of it. You can download it and watch it via the web or iTunes. It is long, but oh is it sweet. If you haven't heard or seen anything about the iPhone that Apple announced that day, you must watch this video and be amazed at what they are going to do. The iPhone will turn the mobile/cell phone industry on its head and revolutionize it like they did with the iPod.
Yeah, I know I sound just like some obsessed MacHead who can't see reality for the haze of Apple's reality-distortion field. Yeah, other phones do pretty much everything the iPhone will do. But, no phone can do all that as easily, intuitively, gracefully, and beautifully as it appears the iPhone will.
Anyways, check it out. Either on Apple's website or via iTunes.
I'll, without a doubt, be buying one of these early in 2008. The planned release is June of 2007, but in the week since the announcement, reality has resurfaced. I would take this phone in a heartbeat if somebody gave it to me. But to pay $500-600 is steep, especially for the first generation. So, I plan on waiting till next Jan-March or thereabouts. By that time they will have released new models hopefully with more space (4-8GB is a tad small), many bug fixes/tweaks to make the software/user experience better, that sort of thing. It will be tough to resist the temptation in June/July, but it shall be done.
Anyways, have a good night. Or I guess it will be at least good morning by the time you read this. ---Oh and the 4 hour season 6 premiere of 24? A-mazing!!

10,000 Miles and Misc.

2007-01-12T23:38:00.000-06:00

I just realized today, that I had just driven 10,000 miles in my Golf in the last day or so. Which, today being the 12th of January, means that I did it in exactly 11 months. I could come up with all sorts of fascinating statistics regarding mileage, timespans, etc but I'm too tired to do so. So this will have to suffice.

<-That's a rather flattering photo don't you think? To ease your aprehension, in reality I haven't grown a big head. It is still just the normal size. But, it is an amusing way to make use of my iSight camera.

Yep, I've made the switch, seen the light, etc. I bought a MacBook Pro over Christmas after selling my previous laptop, a Dell, to my brother. An Apple has always been one of those wishes I didn't think would ever see reality. But, it has. The Dell was just too big and heavy and the fact that I could get a Mac and still run Windows was the kicker. I've had it for almost 3 weeks now and love it. I'm definitely a convert. In reality, I rarely use Windows, but it is always there if I need it. Oh, and just in case you're wondering where the segue between iSight and Apple is, all MacBook Pros have a built in camera above the screen. It is quite cool.

What else, Oh... I've put more of my library on LibraryThing. I'm about 40 books shy of the limit to my free account, but I've still got at least 100 or more to add. One of these days, I'll put the rest up. For now, feel free to peruse my collection. It really is a fascinating site in general for those of you who might be bookworms.

I think this is becoming some what of a catch up post.

I never did post anything about my trip to the West Coast in October. I took almost 8 days off work and spent a week and a half between L.A. and Seattle. I've got pics here on my online album. It was a most excellent trip. Awesome and amazing sites and a great time all around.

Links Updated

2007-01-03T22:12:00.000-06:00

I just went ahead and updated my links along the right. It is still representative of my current blogroll. A few links were removed as I no longer keep up with them and quite a few have been added.
Of most significant is the addition of a Photography section. I am most definitely not a great photographer, but I do love viewing photos of those who are. These photographers are from all over the world. Africa, Europe, Canada, US, New Zealand, etc.

Obligatory Happy New Year's Post

2007-01-02T08:48:00.000-06:00

It has been a few (relatively speaking) days since I last posted.
Ok, so it has been 4 months. Oh well. There's not much I will post. This is mainly to aggravate Johnny and the one or two other people who may subscribe to my RSS feed. You'll have a momentary surge of excitement as you realize there's a new post from me. Only to be disappointed by the relative lack of interesting content.

2007 did finish off quite well. I had an excellent Christmas break.

The most exciting recent development is:
I have made the switch to Apple. I bought myself a MacBook Pro over Christmas and have promptly not looked back. I'll have to see about a post or two regarding Parallels Desktop and the ultimate coolness of Coherence mode.

Oh, and finally, prepare yourself for a flood of new Tank posts. I've been slacking in the past 4 months and have 6 or 7 tanks to post. The Golf hit 10,000 miles on my drive back from Nebraska after Christmas. W00t!

Tank #25

2006-12-29T12:37:00.000-06:00


Time of fillup:         12/29/2006 1237
Odometer:               10,124 miles
Trip Odometer:          487.0 miles
Fuel input:             12.504 gallons
Price/gallon:           $2.499
Total Cost:             $31.25
Fuel Mileage:            38.9 mpg
Time since last fillup:
                        1 days, 3 hours, 48 minutes
                      or
                        1,667 minutes
Minutes per mile:       3.43 min/mile
Minutes per gallon:     133.4 min/gal
Ave. speed:             17.5 mph

Tank #24

2006-12-28T08:49:00.000-06:00


Time of fillup:         12/28/2006 0849
Odometer:               9,637 miles
Trip Odometer:          483.0 miles
Fuel input:             12.406 gallons
Price/gallon:           $2.539
Total Cost:             $31.50
Fuel Mileage:            38.93 mpg
Time since last fillup:
                        1 days, 20 hours, 8 minutes
                      or
                        2,647 minutes
Minutes per mile:       5.48 min/mile
Minutes per gallon:     213.36 min/gal
Ave. speed:             10.95 mph

Tank #23

2006-12-26T12:42:00.000-06:00


Time of fillup:         12/26/2006 1242
Odometer:               9,154 miles
Trip Odometer:          510.0 miles
Fuel input:             12.486 gallons
Price/gallon:           $2.659
Total Cost:             $33.20
Fuel Mileage:            40.87 mpg
Time since last fillup:
                        3 days, 15 hours, 51 minutes
                      or
                        5,270 minutes
Minutes per mile:       10.33 min/mile
Minutes per gallon:     422.15 min/gal
Ave. speed:             5.81 mph

Tank #22

2006-12-22T20:51:00.000-06:00


Time of fillup:         12/22/2006 2051
Odometer:               8,644 miles
Trip Odometer:          446.0 miles
Fuel input:             12 gallons
Price/gallon:           $2.499
Total Cost:             $29.99
Fuel Mileage:            37.18 mpg
Time since last fillup:
                        7 days, 3 hours, 27 minutes
                      or
                        10,286 minutes
Minutes per mile:       23.06 min/mile
Minutes per gallon:     857.25 min/gal
Ave. speed:             2.6 mph

Tank #21

2006-12-15T17:24:00.000-06:00


Time of fillup:         12/15/2006 1724
Odometer:               8,198 miles
Trip Odometer:          415.0 miles
Fuel input:             12.356 gallons
Price/gallon:           $2.469
Total Cost:             $30.51
Fuel Mileage:            33.6 mpg
Time since last fillup:
                        14 days, 0 hours, 4 minutes
                      or
                        20,163 minutes
Minutes per mile:       48.57 min/mile
Minutes per gallon:     1,631.84 min/gal
Ave. speed:             1.24 mph

Tank #20

2006-12-01T17:21:00.000-06:00


Time of fillup:         12/01/2006 1721
Odometer:               7,783 miles
Trip Odometer:          368.0 miles
Fuel input:             12.608 gallons
Price/gallon:           $2.499
Total Cost:             $31.51
Fuel Mileage:            29.13 mpg
Time since last fillup:
                        17 days, 0 hours, 7 minutes
                      or
                        24,486 minutes
Minutes per mile:       66.67 min/mile
Minutes per gallon:     1,942.18 min/gal
Ave. speed:             0.9 mph

Tank #19

2006-11-14T17:14:00.000-06:00


Time of fillup:         11/14/2006 1714
Odometer:               7,415 miles
Trip Odometer:          492.0 miles
Fuel input:             12.707 gallons
Price/gallon:           $2.499
Total Cost:             $31.75
Fuel Mileage:            38.78 mpg
Time since last fillup:
                        3 days, 23 hours, 34 minutes
                      or
                        5,733 minutes
Minutes per mile:       11.64 min/mile
Minutes per gallon:     451.25 min/gal
Ave. speed:             5.16 mph

Tank #18

2006-11-10T17:40:00.000-06:00


Time of fillup:         11/10/2006 1740
Odometer:               6,923 miles
Trip Odometer:          316.0 miles
Fuel input:             12.402 gallons
Price/gallon:           $2.459
Total Cost:             $30.50
Fuel Mileage:            25.41 mpg
Time since last fillup:
                        1 Months, 5 days, 3 hours, 41 minutes
                      or
                        47,740 minutes
Minutes per mile:       151.51 min/mile
Minutes per gallon:     3,849.38 min/gal
Ave. speed:             0.4 mph

Tank #17

2006-10-08T14:00:00.000-05:00


Time of fillup:         10/08/2006 1400
Odometer:               6,607 miles
Trip Odometer:          308.0 miles
Fuel input:             12.607 gallons
Price/gallon:           $2.479
Total Cost:             $31.25
Fuel Mileage:            24.46 mpg
Time since last fillup:
                        25 days, 16 hours, 25 minutes
                      or
                        36,984 minutes
Minutes per mile:       119.92 min/mile
Minutes per gallon:     2,933.61 min/gal
Ave. speed:             0.5 mph

Tank #16

2006-09-12T21:36:00.000-05:00


Time of fillup:         09/12/2006 2136
Odometer:               6,299 miles
Trip Odometer:          403.0 miles
Fuel input:             13.108 gallons
Price/gallon:           $2.689
Total Cost:             $35.25
Fuel Mileage:            30.69 mpg
Time since last fillup:
                        10 days, 15 hours, 59 minutes
                      or
                        15,358 minutes
Minutes per mile:       38.18 min/mile
Minutes per gallon:     1,171.65 min/gal
Ave. speed:             1.57 mph

Tank #15

2006-09-02T05:38:00.000-05:00


Time of fillup:         09/02/2006 0538
Odometer:               5,896 miles
Trip Odometer:          341.0 miles
Fuel input:             12.758 gallons
Price/gallon:           $2.939
Total Cost:             $37.50
Fuel Mileage:            26.74 mpg
Time since last fillup:
                        16 days, 11 hours, 52 minutes
                      or
                        23,751 minutes
Minutes per mile:       69.63 min/mile
Minutes per gallon:     1,861.66 min/gal
Ave. speed:             0.86 mph

Tank #14

2006-08-16T17:47:00.000-05:00


Time of fillup:         08/16/2006 1747
Odometer:               5,555 miles
Trip Odometer:          364.0 miles
Fuel input:             12.295 gallons
Price/gallon:           $2.969
Total Cost:             $36.50
Fuel Mileage:            29.61 mpg
Time since last fillup:
                        8 days, 23 hours, 34 minutes
                      or
                        12,933 minutes
Minutes per mile:       35.53 min/mile
Minutes per gallon:     1,051.97 min/gal
Ave. speed:             1.69 mph

Watch Out!!

2006-08-14T22:52:00.000-05:00

Soo...
It has now been two months since my last riveting update of Tank 8. Well, get ready for it...Tanks 9-13 are around the corner.
If you're devoted enough to actually still check this site every once in a blue moon, the chance that you'll actually get a non-diesel related post is slim to none, but you never know.
Anyways, I won't keep you waiting any longer. Here they are.

Tank #13

2006-08-07T18:13:00.000-05:00


Time of fillup:         08/07/2006 1813
Odometer:               5,191 miles
Trip Odometer:          321.0 miles
Fuel input:             12.503 gallons
Price/gallon:           $2.999
Total Cost:             $37.50
Fuel Mileage:            25.67 mpg
Time since last fillup:
                        15 days, 21 hours, 58 minutes
                      or
                        22,918 minutes
Minutes per mile:       71.40 min/mile
Minutes per gallon:     1,833.00 min/gal
Ave. speed:             0.84 mph

Nothing exciting here. Just Tyler driving.

Tank #12

2006-07-22T20:15:00.000-05:00


Time of fillup:         07/22/2006 2015
Odometer:               4,870 miles
Trip Odometer:          438.1 miles
Fuel input:             12.588 gallons
Price/gallon:           $2.939
Total Cost:             $37.00
Fuel Mileage:           34.8 mpg
Time since last fillup:
                        5 days, 8 hours, 39 minutes
                      or
                        7,719 minutes
Minutes per mile:       17.62 min/mile
Minutes per gallon:     613.20 min/gal
Ave. speed:             3.41 mph

Last leg of the Kansas trip along with 4 days of Tyler driving.

Tank #11

2006-07-17T11:36:00.000-05:00


Time of fillup:         07/17/2006 11:36
Odometer:               4,431 miles
Trip Odometer:          504.6 miles
Fuel input:             12.801 gallons
Price/gallon:           $2.969
Total Cost:             $38.01
Fuel Mileage:           39.42 mpg
Time since last fillup:
                        1 days, 1 hours, 45 minutes
                      or
                        1,545 minutes
Minutes per mile:       3.06 min/mile
Minutes per gallon:     120.69 min/gal
Ave. speed:             19.60 mph

The main leg of the Kansas trip. 500 miles on one tank!!

Tank #10

2006-07-16T21:51:00.000-05:00


Time of fillup:         07/16/2006 0951
Odometer:               3,927 miles
Trip Odometer:          434.0 miles
Fuel input:             12.649 gallons
Price/gallon:           $2.949
Total Cost:             $37.30
Fuel Mileage:           34.31 mpg
Time since last fillup:
                        6 days, 14 hours, 21 minutes
                      or
                        9,501 minutes
Minutes per mile:       21.89 min/mile
Minutes per gallon:     751.07 min/gal
Ave. speed:             2.74 mph

The last 3/4 of this tank was the first leg of my trip up to Kansas for my Grandma's 94th birthday. Thus the short timespan.

Tank #9

2006-07-09T19:30:00.000-05:00


Time of fillup:         07/09/2006 1930
Odometer:               3,493 miles
Trip Odometer:          307.1 miles
Fuel input:             12.773 gallons
Price/gallon:           $2.779
Total Cost:             $35.50
Fuel Mileage:           24.04 mpg
Time since last fillup:
                        27 days, 1 hours, 17 minutes
                      or
                        38,957 minutes
Minutes per mile:       126.85 min/mile
Minutes per gallon:     3,050.67 min/gal
Ave. speed:             0.47 mph

Other than the tank while my car was in the shop, this is the longest time between tanks thus far. Amazingly, I was driving my car the entire time. I just did not take any trips or drive much at all.

2006-06-14T18:37:00.000-05:00

Yes, I'm still alive.
No, I don't much of an excuse.
I have been fairly busy. I've moved from my apt. into a rent house with a friend. I am enjoying it so much. Being out of the whole apt. thing is excellent.
I also ran my Golf into a ditch. That was not a good evening. Thankfully, I wasn't hurt in any way, the airbags didn't go off, and I still had my Oldsmobile so I had transportation while it was being fixed. But it is as good as new again and other than the insurance jump, there's no difference.
Anyways, the next couple posts will catch you up on the fascinating stats of the last 3 tanks of diesel in the Golf. :)

Tank #8

2006-06-12T18:13:00.000-05:00


Time of fillup:         06/12/2006 1813
Odometer:               3,186 miles
Trip Odometer:          306.3 miles
Fuel input:             12.63 gallons
Price/gallon:           $2.869
Total Cost:             $36.25
Fuel Mileage:           24.25 mpg
Time since last fillup:
                        17 days, 22 hours, 6 minutes
                      or
                        25,806 minutes
Minutes per mile:       84.25 min/mile
Minutes per gallon:     2,043.23 min/gal
Ave. speed:             0.71 mph

Tank #7

2006-05-25T20:07:00.000-05:00


Time of fillup:         05/25/2006 2007
Odometer:               2,880 miles
Trip Odometer:          340 miles
Fuel input:             12.51 gallons
Price/gallon:           $2.759
Total Cost:             $34.50
Fuel Mileage:            27.18 mpg
Time since last fillup:
                        34 days, 2 hours, 8 minutes
                      or
                        49,088 minutes
Minutes per mile:       144.38 min/mile
Minutes per gallon:     3,923.90 min/gal
Ave. speed:             0.42 mph

The numbers are quite skewed this tank. I didn't drive for close to 3 weeks. I ran the car into a ditch and thus it was in the body shop for 2.5 weeks getting fixed.

Tank #6

2006-04-21T17:59:00.000-05:00

Here it is:


Time of fillup:         04/21/2006 1759
Odometer:               2,540 miles
Trip Odometer:          380.4 miles
Fuel input:             12.86 gallons
Price/gallon:           $2.799
Total Cost:             $36.00
Fuel Mileage:            29.58 mpg
Time since last fillup:
                        13 days, 17 hours, 0 minutes
                      or
                        19,740 minutes
Minutes per mile:       51.89 min/mile
Minutes per gallon:     1,534.99 min/gal
Ave. speed:             1.16 mph

I don't believe there was much special about this tank. It has been awhile though.

Changes

2006-04-10T00:13:00.000-05:00

I've made some minor changes to my blog template. It is a bit wider now, around 800 pixels instead of 600ish.

I also updated my links list. It now is current on all the sites/blogs I read on a daily basis. Do check them out as there are some real gems in the list.

Also, I've put the Articles for Further Review in a more prominent position. I've realized that the likelihood of my commenting on or discussing articles/topics I find interesting to be slim to none. So, as I come across blog entries I find especially interesting or ones I want to go back and look over later, I am starring them in Google Reader. That makes them pop up in that list on the right.

Tank #5

2006-04-08T00:59:00.000-05:00

Now I'm caught up with the stats. Number V is here.


Time of fillup:         04/08/2006 0059
Odometer:               2,160 miles
Trip Odometer:          369.7 miles
Fuel input:             12.51 gallons
Price/gallon:           $2.759
Total Cost:             $34.50
Fuel Mileage:            29.55 mpg
Time since last fillup:
                        14 days, 6 hours, 7 minutes
                      or
                        20,527 minutes
Minutes per mile:       55.52 min/mile
Minutes per gallon:     1,640.85 min/gal
Ave. speed:             1.08 mph

Misc. Stats:
Almost entirely Tyler/city driving. Made a trip to Longview for Hootenanny to finish off the tank.

Catch up

2006-04-06T23:37:00.000-05:00

It's been slow here lately. Thankfully, work has finally slowed down a lot. I've been able to leave work by 5:15 every night this week and only had to go back in the evening for an hour on Monday!!! I don't think that has happened since January sometime.

Tank #4 has long come and gone, but I haven't brought my receipt in to do the calculations and make the official post. Approx. milage was 35mpg. :) Tank #5 will soon be finished as well.

Johnny is visiting tonight and the next couple days possibly. A quick trip because of his work. It is great to see him again as it had been a couple years.

Hootenanny is tomorrow/this evening. I haven't been back to LU since last fall I think, so it will be great to visit again. Turns out it will be a veritable reunion of old friends from back in the day. Samantha, Johnny, Lynn, Abu, Aduma, and more I'm sure.

Johnny pointed me to a couple blogs of friends from LU I hadn't kept up with. This has ended up meaning I've discovered a good 8+ blogs I'm adding to my personal blogroll. I'll have to update my links on the right with all the sites I'm keeping up with (62!!). I'm debating if I should move it over to my Google Pages site as it is getting fairly long and a bit unwieldy. we'll see.

God is Good all the time, and All the time God is Good. I've come to realize again how screwed up my life would be if I tried to live it my way. I get so hung up too much of the time on when I will ever meet HER. She's out there (I hope), and I can't be patient enough to let God mold me and prepare me.

That's it for tonight.

Reason

2006-03-26T14:44:00.000-06:00

Galileo Galilei:
"I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use."

Right on! But it seems too often we do. I know I do.

You'll notice a new sidebar to the right. Google Reader now allows you to share starred or labeled articles on your blog. So, you can now see a list of articles I've starred for further reading and thought.

Tank #4

2006-03-24T18:52:00.000-06:00

This is quite a bit late, but here's number 4.


Time of fillup:         03/24/2006 1852
Odometer:               1,790 miles
Trip Odometer:          420.2 miles
Fuel input:             12.12 gallons
Price/gallon:           $2.599
Total Cost:             $31.51
Fuel Mileage:            34.67 mpg
Time since last fillup:
                        6 days, 20 hours, 25 minutes
                      or
                        9,865 minutes
Minutes per mile:       23.48 min/mile
Minutes per gallon:     813.94 min/gal
Ave. speed:             2.56 mph

Misc. Stats:
This was a fairly quick tank due to the trip we took to IKEA. We went from Tyler to Dallas/Frisco to Palestine to Tyler. It was around 300 miles total. Definitely shows the difference between city and highway driving.

2006-03-17T23:25:00.000-06:00

I'm tired, really, really tired. Not just tired as in lack of sleep, but tired mentally and emotionally and etc. Work continues to be busy and require a decent amount of extra hours in the evenings and weekends. I'm getting it all done, but it is really taking its toll on me. I long for a week where I will not have to feel guilty or the need to work after 5 or on a Sat. or Sun. But I am in God's hands and there is a purpose in this time of difficulty. I'm learning patience towards people and projects that aren't progressing on my timetable. I'm learning diligence in continuing to work when I have no desire to. I'm learning reliance on God for the strength I don't have to keep doing all this and not get burned out or downtrodden.

I've had on my mind for the past several weeks the idea of learning Truth and being taught Truth, God's Truth. Specifically, as it relates to church and what we are taught in church. I've been wrestling with the sermons/teaching at my church. I love Grace and thoroughly enjoy Thomas's preaching. I know that what he is teaching is truth and is based firmly in the Bible. But I've been wondering whether it is as meaty/deep as I would like it to be. I've been attempting to read a couple books by John Piper, Spurgeon, etc in addition to listening to some sermons online by Piper and John MacArthur. I've been struck by the depth of their stuff is and how incredibly full of just Scripture and such it is. I've realized I have a hunger for that deep, solid meat of Scripture and teaching.

Betsy, Robin, Grant, and I are headed to Dallas tomorrow for a day of fun. We're going to check out IKEA and swing by Central Market as well. I've been desiring to see IKEA for some time and am quite looking forward to it. I'm not really looking to get anything, but will probably look into or try out their mattress/bed sets. This whole sleeping on a normal spring mattress on the floor for the past 2.5 years is starting to take its toll on my back and ability to sleep well. But it will be awesome to get away and have a day to relax and get out of Tyler and spend quality time with friends.

Tank #3

2006-03-17T22:27:00.000-06:00

The third fillup has arrived.


Time of fillup:         03/17/2006 2227
Odometer:               1,370 miles
Trip Odometer:          334.6 miles
Fuel input:             11.93 gallons
Price/gallon:           $2.599
Total Cost:             $31.00
Fuel Mileage:            28.05 mpg
Time since last fillup:
                        13 days, 9 hours, 46 minutes
                      or
                        19,306 minutes
Minutes per mile:       57.70 min/mile
Minutes per gallon:     1,618.27 min/gal
Ave. speed:             1.04 mph

Misc. Stats:
Fuel economy down due mainly because all driving was done in Tyler. A trip to Dallas/Frisco and back via Palestine tomorrow should bump it up for tank #4.

Tank #2

2006-03-04T12:41:00.000-06:00

I just filled up the Golf for the second time.


Time of fillup:         03/04/2006 1241 
Odometer:               1,035 miles
Trip Odometer:          401.3 miles
Fuel input:             12.12 gallons
Price/gallon:           $2.559
Total Cost:             $31.01
Fuel Mileage:            33.11 mpg
Time since last fillup: 
                        10 days, 16 hours, 49 minutes
                      or
                        15,409 minutes
Minutes per mile:       38.40 min/mile
Minutes per gallon:     1,271.37 min/gal
Ave. speed:             1.56 mph

Misc. Stats:
Included round trip to Irving, Texas: ~150 miles of highway driving, ~50 city/Dallas driving. The rest of the tank was driving in and around Tyler.

New Testament Commands

2006-02-27T21:42:00.000-06:00

This is just cool. Someone has put together a list of all the commands found in the New Testament[pdf]. It is a pdf file, so you'll need Acrobat Reader or an equivalent pdf reader to view it. Adrian Warnock's post, Preaching the 800 commands of the New Testament, led me to it. He has a short, excellent commentary on it.
Read it, print it, and ask God for the desire and joy to follow His commands, not to be able to check them off and feel more holy, but from a desire to glorify and praise Him. It is only by His grace and gift of salvation that we are able to even want to please Him.

TV Shows

2006-02-22T21:37:00.000-06:00

TV Shows I keep up with from best to least best:
Battlestar Galactica
Lost/24
Stargate SG-1
Alias/Smallville
CSI: Miami/House
Prison Break/CSI
Stargate Atlantis
Criminal Minds

Tank #1

2006-02-21T19:52:00.000-06:00

This is backdated, but included for completeness and accurate statistics.
I just filled up the Golf for the first time.


Time of fillup:         02/21/2006 1952 
Odometer:               634 miles
Trip Odometer:          357.2 miles
Fuel input:             11.997 gallons
Price/gallon:           $2.459
Total Cost:             $29.50
Fuel Mileage:            29.77 mpg
Time since last fillup: 
                        N/A
                        ~10 days, 2 hours since acquisition of car.
Minutes per mile:       N/A
Minutes per gallon:     N/A
Ave. speed:             N/A

Misc. Stats:
Included one-way from Garland, Texas: ~90 miles of highway driving. The rest of the tank was driving in and around Tyler.

My New Car

2006-02-21T17:43:00.000-06:00

So here's a few pics of my brand spanking new car. I guess I haven't shared the news here yet.I had been talking with a sales rep at Rusty Wallis in Dallas for a month or so about the new Golfs to be released this summer. However, it started looking like they wouldn't be coming till June or later, and the TDI (diesel) that I wanted probably wouldn't be here till the end of the year if at all.
About 2 weeks ago, I decided to just grit my teeth, take the plunge, and see if I could still get a new 2006 Golf, but the current version, not the yet-to-be-released one.

Lo and behold, there were a grand total of 3 2006 VW Golf GLS TDIs left in all of Texas. I was quite extatic until I discovered they were all automatic instead of standard. Upon further investigation, the sales rep found one with a standard transmission in Arizona, which is a bit far. After further thought and prayer, I decided to just get an automatic that was in Austin.

This was on Wed. the 8th. Thursday, the sales rep had a driver go get the car from Austin and drive it up to Dallas. Sat. I got a ride to Dallas, took a test drive, and went through all the paperwork. After ~2 hours I drove away in my nice new car.

I've had it for a week and a half now and absolutely love it. It had 276 miles when I got it and since then I've put ~360 on it. On one tank of diesel (~12-14 gallons) :). I'll probably have to fill up tomorrow for the first time. Aside from being a cool car, I'm going to thouroughly enjoy the gas milage I get with it.

So, the specs/features:
2006 Volkswagen Golf GLS TDI
Cold Weather Package (Heated Seats, Heated Windshield Washer Nozzles)
Rubber Floor Mats
Tinted Windows
Sunroof
Electronic Stabilization Program
Reflex Silver Exterior
Black Cloth Interior

Those are the basics. I'll try to post pics of the interior soon.

2006-02-04T02:43:00.000-06:00

It seems like it has been forever since my last post, but evidently its only been a week.
My trip to London was fantastic. I was able to spend a good afternoon sightseeing in central London. Got to see Big Ben, Trafalgar Square, Parliment, The Millennium Eye, Westminster Abbey. On the way back to the hotel that night, I got to go through Harrod's and picked up some chocolate and some tea for Betsy (who was quite anxious for me to bring back some authentic British tea). The presentation for work went fairly well. We'll hear in a few weeks/month the outcome, but I was pretty pleased with it.

Work should be slowing down a little so I will hopefully have a little more spare time to just relax at home. I was accumulating a huge list of articles I was going to link to, but realized it would be too much work to put them all in. So I'm starting from scratch.

Oh, I bought the British version of the latest Harry Potter in the airport in London on my way back. I finished it about half way from NY to Dallas. Good book. Interesting twist at the end, but altogether a fairly enthralling read. It had been a while since I've done a good solid reading.

The Journey Begins

2006-01-28T09:19:00.000-06:00

I'm sitting in Tyler's airport waiting to go through security and start my journey to London. It has been a hectic, stressful, crazily busy week. I don't know if I've had more than 6 hours of sleep a night in over a week. I've been working a whole lot of overtime to get these two projects done. I've got a little bit left, just some documentation, but I can do that on my way to or while in London. Everything else necessary has been finished. :)
I'm pretty excited, I just hope I have a good afternoon or so to go sightseeing.

I had an excellent time last evening over at Buzz's. Robin initiated some excellent conversations over the course of the evening. We discussed the equality of decision-making in marriage from a personal and Biblical perspective. I think everyone had a pretty solid belief in the area that was grounded well in the Bible. I believe it is Biblical for the wife to submit to the husband, for the husband to be the leader and final say in decisions. However, all to often this is abused and the husband takes that as the right to be a master/owner and the wife to be an inferior follower/slave. That is wrong. I believe a marriage is a partnership between equals. The wife is not inferior, less important, or without influence or say in decisions. But, someone has to be the leader and make the final decision. Biblically, that is clearly the man. When I get to that time of my life, my wife will be extremely important in all decisions we make. I'm going to want as much input and such as possible, cause I can be pretty narrow-sighted at times. I could say more, but time is short now.

We also had at least one other good conversation, but the topic eludes me at the moment. The Puzzle Club (tm) finished our first puzzle, a Thomas Kinkade 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle. Those of us in the club were quite pleased at our accomplishment and immediately dug into a second puzzle, also of 1000 pieces. We are quite satisfied with our current four members, Buzz, Betsy, Chris, and I, although there have been several requests for membership by others. Thus far we are set on staying fairly exclusive as the criteria for membership is quite intense.

Fun Links

2006-01-19T23:08:00.000-06:00

Woot!!! The first huge deadline at work was today. There were some delays all week that had me stressing out, but things fell together today and we got our stuff working around 6. We've got a few little things to clean up in the morning, but we're still good. It is a huge relief to be done with that. Now I've got a week to finish up everything on the other project as well as do all the prep for my trip to London next Sat.

I've still got a ton of links I've accumulated over the past week. It has been so incredibly busy, I haven't had time to even read half of them. I'll probably put a few of them up over the weekend. For now though, here's a couple fun links rather than serious.

Mensa Test: This gets pretty tough. You simply have to fill in the missing words. You have at least the first letter of each word, but that doesn't necessarily help. e.g. 24 H of the D. There's 33, you're a genuis if you get 19+. I got 16 after about 10 minutes of study. I've yet to solve #s 3,6,8,10-12,14-17,20,26,28-31, and 33.
Harold Edgarton Atomic Detonation: A couple pics of the first few billionths of a second of an atomic detonation. These are incredible pictures.
100 Downloads: A list of "essential" free software and freeware. There's a bunch of good stuff. One of these days, I'll put forth a list of software and services I find indispensable.
Scott Hanselman's 2005 Ultimate Developer and Power Users Tool List: An even better list of software, albeit geared much more for the programmer. But there's still a bunch of solid gems for the average user or geek.

Ok, that's it for now. Now to decide whether to watch tonight's CSI or to just go to bed. Hrrmm.

Alive and Busy

2006-01-17T08:47:00.000-06:00

I'm still here. Work and everything else has been extremely busy for the past several days and will most likely continue that way for the next couple weeks. I've got a whole list of links I want to read through and link to here that keeps growing daily.

Two quick things:
First, my previous post was a bit more than I usually share. But that's alright. I had just found out that a really good friend of mine is moving to Georgia this weekend. It is a huge blessing for her and an awesome opportunity. She means a lot to me and it is going to be hard seeing her leave, but it is most definitely where God is leading her.

Second, on top of the enormous amount of work I'm slowly getting through, I found out Friday that I will be in London in a week and a half for about 3 days to give a presentation/demonstration of some of our software. I'm quite excited, even though it means another couple of days of extra work preparing for it.

Confusion

2006-01-12T21:04:00.000-06:00

I don't know what to write. I'm not sure what to think after the news I heard earlier. It was a pretty big shock and I don't quite know how to react yet. I'm incredibly happy and joyful for the news I heard, but I'm also really sad and confused too. I know this is good news and God is definitely orchestrating this, but my second reaction is that it sucks. I realize that this is a purely human and selfish reaction. Up here, (taps my head) I know it is something I need to give over to my God. But that is tough, really tough.

Optimus keyboard

2006-01-12T19:05:00.000-06:00

This was big news quite a few months ago. At the time, the general consensus around the net was that it wouldn't be possible to build anytime soon due to the power requirements and cost. However it looks like it might just be coming. An absolutely gorgeous looking keyboard where every key is made of a small OLED display. This allows for the ultimate in remapping a keyboard as well as being a work of art. 4It would most amazing to have one of these, although the cost would be most prohibitive. I've seen 600-800 tossed around as likely pricetags.

From the Blogosphere To Me To You

2006-01-10T22:21:00.000-06:00

I love reading. I just spent an hour or so of solid reading. It has been a while since I've done good, solid reading. I did a little while home at Christmas, but not alot. Hopefully, I can get into a good habit of reading regularly, on a daily basis even.

I was reading Velvet Elvis. I was a bit leary going into it, just with it being a pop-culturish type book. I'm enjoying it thus far. There've been several points that have given me pause and caused a red flag to pop up. But there've also been a bunch of good questions raised and issues brought to light. We'll see where it goes and what my final thoughts end up being.

The rest of the post is going to be another list of links, for the most part (but not all) to posts from some of the Christian blogs I keep up with. For some reason or another, they struck a cord with me enough to keep them for a second or further review when I have more time to mull them over. Without further ado:

Grand Rounds -
Best and Worst of 2005 -
When I Grow Up... -
Book Review - Velvet Elvis -
The Ultimate Human Judgment -
Calvin and Hobbes: Jan. 9, 1995 - Calvin and Hobbes is most excellent, I just wish the archive stayed online longer.
Pearls Before Swine: Jan. 9, 2006 - Absolutely excellent!!! I love this strip.
One step from losing the Gospel -
He who is Worthy -
Are you saved? - Response/continuation of The Ultimate Human Judgment above.
The Sovereignty of God and Prayer -
Looking forward to Jesus's return -
Sincerity and Assurance of Salvation -
Rick Warren on Fundamentalism -
Response to "To be continued?" #1 -

That's it. I want to comment on each as to why I posted it, but out of time tonight.

Links and such

2006-01-09T22:32:00.000-06:00

Braingle
Cool Sand "Game" (requires Java)
VW Gazette (one of several sites I've found pertaining to VW/Golfs)
Velvet Elvis I've been hearing alot about it lately. Seems to be in the vein of the emerging church philosophy and might be somewhat of a Christian pop-culture book. Amy and Jess really liked it, but I've also read a couple somewhat critical reviews. Hopefully I can pick it up in the near future and see for myself.
It was in the 70s today. !!!! AND it's been raining for the past couple hours. This is just about the oddest winter I've been through. So far, there's been barely 2 weeks of the fall and winter that has actually felt cold. It seems like it has been in the 50s-80s for the past 3 months.
Serenity and Firefly: Just finished watching the dvd. Saw the movie in theatres over the summer. Bought the series the other week and took about a week to finish. Excellent stuff.
Underworld: Evolution comes out in a couple weeks. Thoroughly enjoyed the original, although it was a bit bloody/violent at times. I guess that's what to expect of a vampire/werewolf movie. Hopefully this will be a decent sequel.
Regarding the VW link above. I've desired for several years (4ish I think) to eventually buy a VW as my first new car. I was set on a Jetta for a good while, but realized last year that a Golf is cheaper, a little sportier, and still has most of the features I'm looking for. So, I've been waiting for the 5th generation Golf to come out. From what little info seems to be floating around the internet, March-May is the timeframe finally. So, hopefully sometime in there I hope to purchase a nice new '06 Golf GLS TDI.

That should do it. I'm going to go try and get a bit read in one of the books I was given over Christmas. I'm trying to spend my spare time more profitably. My desire is to work up to an hour or so of Bible and other reading before bed. Also to cut down on the 45 minutes it takes me to get out of bed and spend it exercising/breakfast/reading/praying/etc.

Friday

2006-01-07T16:36:00.000-06:00

Drat, no posts yesterday. oh well.

Well, the work push is done for now. I was able to get what was needed done by 5. I realized on the way home that I hadn't even left for lunch at all. It didn't even cross my mind after ~10:30 that morning.

I've been coming across several new blogs that have been added to my blog list. I think I now have 50 different sites I keep up with. Most are on the right.

I finally had some sherbert last night. We all got icecream and fixings at walmart last night to enjoy while watching a movie. I bought some sherbert as it has been years since I've had it and none since I was dubbed with the Schurbert/Sherbert/Scherbert/etc nickname early last year. It was quite enjoyable.

Last night's Battlestar Galactica was a most excellent return of that great series. There are few series I've truly enjoyed more. Right behind Farscape and Firefly. Stargate SG-1 is probably right behind BG. (the early years and this current season. it kindof dived for a couple years, but this year is a pleasant resurrection.) SG: Atlantis is good, but I'm still not completely sold on it.

Outback for supper tonight. A whole slew of us are getting together to celebrate Buzz's birthday. Happy Birthday Buzz!

Sleep??? Someday

2006-01-05T22:46:00.000-06:00

9pm Wed - 9pm Thur:
Timespan: 24hours
Hours spent at work: 16
Hours spent sleeping: 3

But I'm making progress. I am hoping to get at least 5 hours sleep tonight.
As I've not done much but work, there's not much else to say.

The Texas/USC game was quite good. I haven't seen a game that evenly matched or well played in a while. A thoroughly good way to spend an evening.

english cut

2006-01-04T21:58:00.000-06:00

Here's the latest post over at english cut:
wedges, or, how "bespoke" is bespoke?

He hasn't been posting much of late, but I really enjoy when he does. Check out the link at the bottom of the above post. It is an excellent sampling of some of his posts.

Work is going to absolutely swamp me for the next couple days. I'm not quite certain how much sleep I'll be getting before Friday evening. I really should be there right now, but instead I'm watching the Texas/USC game over at Buzz's.

The vacation is over

2006-01-03T22:53:00.000-06:00

First official day back at work. I worked last Thur and Fri, but the office was technically closed. It wasn't too bad today. Got a good bit done on one of the two huge projects I'm in the middle of. Hopefully, I can finish up the code for that one this week which will give me a week and a half to do tweaks and such before it is due. At the same time, I hope to be finishing up the docs for the other project and as much testing as possible too.

I really, really need to go grocery shopping. I was about out of food when I went home for Christmas, and haven't restocked since I got back. I was going to do it tonight, but ended up hanging out over at Betsy and Amy's along with Buzz, Grant, and Jordan for a couple hours. We ended up walking around the neighborhood for a good while. For some reason, Amy decided to see how long she could walk and spin at the same time. 9m,30s later she finally stopped. It was quite amusing to see how difficult it was for her to try to walk around and all after that.

Maybe tomorrow I'll post some links of various articles that have caught my eye lately.

The Return

2006-01-02T14:07:00.000-06:00

I've come back to my old blogspot site. I don't know if or when I'll advertise that I'm back here. My previous attempts at reviving a blog have always been shortlived.

Of note:
The links on the right are just about all the sites I read on a regular basis using Google's Reader. There are a couple other sites such as Slashdot, CNN, and Digg.com which aren't too conducive to reading via an RSS agregrator.

My desire is to try and post something every day. Most of the time it probably won't be much, maybe just a link, but occasionally something mildly profound or interesting might show up.

Read Pearls Before Swine. I have come to thoroughly enjoy that comic strip. It has an excellent sense of humor.

2006-01-01T01:48:00.000-06:00

Good stuff: I know I too often live as if God is a hypothesis I think I believe to be true and try to prove to be true, rather than live life knowing He IS and reasoning and acting from that belief.
God is not a hypothesis: "By hypothesis, I mean some sort of explanatory guess that is justified (or at least attempted to be justified) through evidence and/or argumentation. I think the 'God as a hypothesis' belief is probably one of the most commonly held views by both Christians and non-Christians alike. It holds that belief in God is or should be a conclusion of reason. The hypothesis of God serves as an explanation for any number of things, including existence itself, design in nature, human reason, and morality, to name a few. This also implies that things like the existence of evil, the apparent silence of God, and others offer evidence against the God hypothesis. ..."

2004-10-29T20:37:00.000-05:00

So yeah...
Lots happening here.
It's been a while.
Even i don't come here but once every month or two.
Life goes on. Life's been good. I've been to Mexico. Almost to Berlin. Got a couch. Got a camera.
Anyways, this is a public notice for anyone who by some wild chance actually checks it because of the high frequency of posts.
I am pretty much shutting this site down. takes too much effort to keep up. That said, the next statement probably wont make much sense.
As a result of the whole Linux thing i mentioned last may or so, i've finally got a web server up on my machine here. So i put drupal on it and now have my own portal. my intention is to post stuff. and pictures i take and such. feel free to post stuff yourself.
i'm still working kinks out. such as people other than myself not being able to access the picture gallery. : /
also, if you can't connect, try again later. i'll probably take it up and down as i work things out. i truly do hope to make this a better effort than previous ones.
sooo... head on over to http://schooby.mine.nu and partake.
l8r
schooby

2004-06-04T21:45:00.000-05:00

I've made the switch to linux after years of hesitancy. I'd been in the mood for a while to overhaul my computer. i was thinking at the time of just reinstalling winxp and making everything fresh and such, but i also wanted to change something or other to make it new/different than it had been. i ended up realizing that how things were was the optimal setup for how i wanted windows to be. so that led to my decision to wipe it all and try linux once and for all. there is very little i do regularly that necessitates windows.
After ~3 days and around 8 false starts, i finally got Debian GNU/Linux installed and running properly. I've spent my time since then slowly installing the various things I'd like and configuring it. The fun thing is that it will take a long time to get everything configured and running and all that. But that is just fine with me. The one big downside to this point is that i have been unsuccessful at getting dual monitors running. my agp geforce4 is not liking being the secondary card i guess. oh well, i'll figure it out eventually.
Anyways,
I'm off to see Harry Potter 3.

2004-04-25T14:27:00.000-05:00

Hola! It is currently 2:30 on an overcast and wet Sunday afternoon. I am looking out my office window. Yep, I'm at work. For a while at least. But there are things that must be done and done soon. Anyways, I just signed up for a new email account. Not a terribly newsworthy item in and of itself, but nonetheless it is this time. I am now a betatester for Google's new Gmail email service. They are currently extending invitations to blogger.com users to test the thing out. We'll see how much i actually end up using it, but if nothing else, the idea of having 1GB of storage for emails and attachments is cool. Anyways, if you want to send me an email there the address is S!c!h!o!o!b!y!4!1!@!g!m!a!i!l!.!c!o!m. Just take out all the '!' and you'll have it. (sorry, i'm paranoid about spam and such.)

As to other news and such. Tomorrow promises to be a significant day. I shall finally enter new planes of existence in two different areas of life. I enter the realm of broadband internet access as my DSL will be activated tomorrow. I'm quite excited about that. Dialup is ok and I can generally do the basics just fine, but it will be nice to have highspeed internet. The second area is that my new cellphone should be arriving tomorrow. I've never been terribly keen on getting a cellphone, but ever since I graduated I've been thinking about getting one. I look forward to being able to communicate and keep in touch with people when I want to, not just when I'm at home. And plus, my boss recommended that I get one in case there is ever a work emergency and all that.
So, that is the big events for the next few days. I'd best get back to work for a while.

2004-04-11T22:52:00.000-05:00

First week down and I survived!! I made it through the first week at my new job and I still want to go back. :) I learned quite a bit although it was a bit overwhelming the first few days. It is good to be in a job using my knowledge and love of computing.

I'm working on unpacking and setting all my stuff up and arranging everything this weekend. I'm fairly satisfied with where things are at for the moment. But i'm on the lookout for a couch, dining set, end table, coffee table, and several tall, sturdy bookcases. If you know where I can cheaply aquire any of the above, let me know. Once everything's presentable, I plan on taking some pictures of the place and posting them online for your perusal.

I came across this page earlier. Some interesting things to think about on Google. GooOS, the Google Operating System.

2004-03-28T22:01:00.000-06:00

"The difference between 'involvement' and 'commitment' is like an eggs-and-ham breakfast: the chicken was 'involved' - the pig was 'committed'."
- unknown

"The use of COBOL cripples the mind; its teaching should, therefore, be regarded as a criminal offense."
- Edsgar Dijkstra

"C makes it easy to shoot yourself in the foot; C++ makes it harder, but when you do, it blows away your whole leg."
- Bjarne Stroustrup

This one is new to me, although I've always tried to live by it.
"Blessed is the man, who having nothing to say, abstains from giving wordy evidence of the fact."
- George Eliot (1819-1880)

"Black holes are where God divided by zero."
- Steven Wright

"You can only find truth with logic if you have already found truth without it."
- Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936)

"I have never let my schooling interfere with my education."
- Mark Twain (1835-1910)

2004-03-28T21:05:00.000-06:00

The previous post was delayed by a week since the first time i attempted to post it, blogger wouldnt publish it to the site. But it works now.
As an update, yesterday i went apartment hunting in Tyler. I checked 10+ different complexes over the course of the day before finding the ONE. It is in an older complex on the southwestern edge of Tyler. It consists of a two bedroom, two and a half bath, two story "townhouse" apartment. I'm really excited about it. It is on the corner of the building so I only have neighbors on two sides. 1100 square feet (400 more than my present abode), fireplace, big living room, big kitchen, etc. All for a fairly decent rent. Only ~5 minutes drive from work, 15 from church, and 2 from the mall, bestbuy, circuit city, Barnes and Noble!!. Almost in the country (there are horses in the pasture across the street) it looks to be fairly quiet. Provided the application and all gets approved I will be able to move in this next weekend, before I start at Genesis!
Every step of the way, it has been clearly evident that God is in control and working in every aspect of this. It is truly exciting.
Updates might be more regular from now on, but I'm not promising anything.

Quotes: Good Quotations by Famous People

2004-03-21T16:04:00.000-06:00

It's been a few days since i last posted anything. But, I suppose that news of this caliber is worthy of posting. On the off chance that anyone actually ever comes here anymore, I shall let you in on this news if you haven't heard already. I have now, 10 months after graduation, been offered and accepted a "real" job! On Apr. 5, I shall begin working at Genesis, a small software firm in Tyler, TX.
Their website is www.genesisworld.com. I will be maintaining and supporting their GenesisTrio software. It shall be a fulltime salaried position. I am quite excited about it and still recovering from the suddenness of it. It was quite literally just under 43 hours from the time I first heard of the opening to the time I was offered the position.
God works in strange, mysterious, and wonderful ways. I have seen that quite evidently over the past several months.
Being that I shall be working in Tyler, I will be moving there within the next month. It is going to be crazy trying to get everything taken care of and changed and moved and all.
So that is the news for the moment. l8r

2003-07-16T23:41:00.000-05:00

i just found this link. A digital sundial. I know you may think it's impossible, but it's not. If I had the extra money to waste, I would probably get one. It looks quite cool.

I heard about it while reading The Annotated Flatland. The geeks out there have more than likely heard of "Flatland" before. Written by Edwin Abbott Abbott (yes, there are two Abbott's in his name) in 1884, it details the experiences of A. Square an inhabitant of a two dimensional world. It has a lot of geometry/math in it, but it is also a satire of the Victorian way of life. I've tried reading it several times over the years, but haven't finished it yet. It's a unique, science fiction of sorts, book. I love math, which makes this all the more appealing to me. And the annotations are awesome. The editor has really gone to great lengths to supply interesting and enlightening annotations. I would say overall, there are more annotations than there is novel.

In other news, my work at IT is going really well. I have made a great deal of progress and am nearing the completion of all major features. Next up is debugging and adding error/stupid user handling so it doesn't crash when somebody does something wrong. For those of you lucky enough to still be going to LeTourneau, you should be able to see the product of my labor several times a week starting this fall. I might just go into more detail about it later.

Later

2003-06-10T23:50:00.000-05:00

wait, wait....no, it can't be...but it is...I'm actually posting something!!!
Tis true, it's another entry from your's truly.

My car has been fixed for about 2 weeks now!! Hooray! It all came down to being a bad gasket that was leaking. to make matters worse, it was a $3 gasket. :( so I wasted ~40 on a water pump i didnt necessarily need. But hey, now i know my water pump wont need replacing for a while. So that saga is completed successfully.

I am also half way through my second week of work programming for IT. It is going quite well thus far. I'm really enjoying coding on a daily basis. It should be a good summer in the work department.

Hmmm...in other news, i'm moving down to the apartments along with all the other summer residents this weekend. that will be nice. having our own kitchen instead of sharing one with the entire thomas hall.

On to bed, its late. Grr, its a sad day when i say its late and its not even midnight yet. But i guess work will do that to a person. L8r

2003-05-23T17:40:00.000-05:00

An update on my ventures in internet browsers.

I'm still very happy with Mozilla's Phoenix/Firebird browser. They came out with a new version (0.6) recently. I haven't noticed too many changes but a couple of the plugins i use work better now. I did have some trouble getting my bookmarks toolbar to show the links it was supposed to. But with a little help from the forums and a restart or two it worked finally.
As before once i install the "All-in-One Gestures" plugin, I have excellent mouse gesture support. Complete customization of all the gestures.
The "TabBrowser Extensions" plugin has improved quite a bit. Perhaps the most excellent improvement is that it now remembers what sites were open when i close the browser and reopens those sites the next time i start it up. It also does this when the browser crashes for some reason. This is a feature of Opera I missed quite a bit when switching to Firebird.
Another great feature that works really well is the popup ad blocking. I've never really had trouble with it blocking stuff i dont want blocked or not blocking stuff i want blocked.
I was just looking around their FAQ pages today and stumbled across an extremely wonderful section of code you can put in one of the config files. The result upon restarting the browser is that 99% of all ads never show up. That includes banner ads, and any other ads that are a regular part of a web page. It doesnt just stop the image of the ad from showing up, but effectively stripping the ad and its associated html code out of the page itself. The result is much cleaner and nicer looking websites. It's hard to know just how different it is as i never took much notice of the ads in the first place, but i definitely won't miss them.
This is definitely my main browser. It's got all the features I want in a browser, and very little I don't like.

2003-05-19T18:31:00.000-05:00

Now, on a not so great note. (If you want the good news first, skip down to the post directly below)

It turns out that my car is not fixed. The water pump was probably completely fine. However, now that i have replaced the water pump, I know exactly where the leak is coming from. I've got a couple options to fix it. Ranging from costing me nothing to costing me a fair bit i imagine.

The problem is this. At some point in the past, probably several years ago, the a/c compressor in the car developed a hairline fracture in its housing. Now normally this would only affect the a/c system. Unfortunately, this hairline crack occured at the base of a mounting hole/bracket/thing for the water pump.
The water pump bolts onto this mounting plate that bolts onto the engine itself. But one of the bolts on the pump bolts onto the a/c compressor. the way the drive belt is and all, the tension from the belt has slowly twisted the water pump ever so slightly away from the engine. Some time in the last couple months its become enough to break the bracket thing completely off the a/c compressor.
The leak in the coolant system is a result of all this. It's leaking between the mounting plate and the engine. this plate thing isnt actually a part of the water pump. But, the coolant is leaking out between it and the engine.
Hopefully I can just tighten the 3-4 bolts on this mounting plate and have it stop leaking, or slow the leak down a bit. Thats more of a temporary fix, but it would help until ive got enough extra money to fix it properly. If that doesnt work, I may have to find a junk a/c compressor at a u-pull-it place and put that in just so i can bolt the water pump to it and relieve the extra stress on the mounting plate part of it.
I guess thats a really long version of what's wrong and what needs to be done. I don't start work till next week, so hopefully i can fix it this week. Now that I have a job, my big prayer request is to get this fixed quickly and cheaply.

2003-05-19T17:54:00.000-05:00

Most Excellent!!!!!!!!!!

I just got a job today! It's not a permanent thing. Just for the summer. But I will be programming on two projects for IT here at LU. It is a real answer to prayer. It came pretty much out of the blue last thursday. I went in today for an interview of sorts and was offered the job. So at this point, I have a job till the end of Aug. I will still be looking throughout the summer for a permanent job for after the summer.

My day has therefore become one of much happiness.

2003-05-15T21:37:00.000-05:00

This is to satisfy all of you who by chance actually check now and then to see if I've written anything. I haven't stopped, its just been somewhat busy the last month and i never thought of anything to post.

I should say that, finally, I'M DONE!!!!!!!!!!! Sat. May 3 @ ~11-11:15 I waked across the stage, got my diploma cover, and shook Dr. Austin's hand. Evidently that signified my graduation from the fine institution known as LeTourneau. It wasnt until after i had returned my gown that i was able to make it official and pick up my diplorma a little after noon.

That was a good day. It still hasnt fully sunk in. I'm not sure when it will. Most likely when i finally get my own apartment someday in the future. For now, I'm stuck on campus, attempting to look for a job somewhere in East/Central Texas.

I replaced the water pump on my car today with help from Gump. Its the first thing i've had to do to my car since my parents gave it to me almost 2 weeks ago. :) It was a fun experience and thus far it looks like it's fixed.

I was Matrix Reloaded last night. Excellent movie. I shall have to see it at least 2 more times to get a really good idea of how i liked it. It was worth the 6 hours of waiting in lines for tickets and seats over the course of yesterday. However, the waiting wasnt all bad. Gump and I waited outside the theater from noon to 3pm to get tickets. He brought his chess set and we had a really really good game. It went long, maybe an hour. and fairly intense the whole time. Definitely the best game I've ever played even though i lost in the end. I've been playing chess quite a bit this past semester and this summer thus far. I really enjoy it. I do need to find a good chess game for the computer. I've tried Chessmaster 9000 before, but its too expensive to buy yet.

Hmmm, what else. hmmm.. nothing comes to mind. l8r

2003-04-16T18:21:00.000-05:00

Hmm, so its been a few days.

Let's see. Last week, Chad Melton, my RD, lent me a book of his to read. It's called "The Sparrow" and written by Mary Doria Russell. I like science fiction and Chad wanted to know what i thought of this one. my verdict? one of the best books i've read. It's science fiction pretty much only because it takes place in the future and the main characters travel and make first contact with an alien race. The plot as a whole is much more than that. the book is more of a moral, relational, religous, philosophical, theological book. It is a tough read, especially if you are someone that really gets into a book emotionally. But it is well worth it. I haven't read a book that avidly since Frank Peretti's "The Oath" came out like 8 years ago. And I read lots and lots of books. Not so much during school, but otherwise every chance i get.
It's not a "Christian" book per se, the author is a former Catholic, former atheist, now a Jew. as a disclaimer, there is quite a bit of profanity, no sex scenes, but some of the subject matter isnt for kids definitely. Nonetheless, i highly recommend the book and hopefully its sequel, "Children of God". From what i've heard it should be a really good read as well.

2003-04-11T21:15:00.000-05:00

Check this most excellent article out: MATRIX^2. Check out the newest trailer too at www.thematrix.com or if you are on LU's network check it out on my computer: \\jeffschubert\videos. This movie is looking to be excellent. I'm very much looking forward to it.

2003-04-11T21:09:00.000-05:00

"Like a midget at a urinal, always be on your toes" ~Anonymous

Another quote discovered on another old monitor. :)