Did I mention I was a geek?

Okay, so a little break from what I just posted and what I have in the works for my next post to talk about something I'm quite passionate about; electronics (And with that 90% of the people who read this leave). Hear me out :p In the many years I've had a surround sound system set up in this house I have had an on going battle with getting everything to work with a single remote. And not just a single remote, on no! A single remote that allows a user to sit down and with a single click of a button watch some television. There is no desire in this house to have to push 5 buttons to get everything turned on and set correctly.

For a while I've been exploring the universal remotes with the nice little LCD screen that lets you choose with electronic device you want on, but all of those cost in the $100 minimum range making them assuredly a non-option. Other options I researched were turning a PDA into a remote, a plan that was scrubbed because any PDA of sufficient capabilities would end up costing as much as a universal remote, and using an iPod, which turned out to be extremely limited and rather useless.

Thus it was, as I researched various solutions, that I happened upon a remote that advertised macro buttons. Turns out that there are a large selection of very modest remotes that have the very feature that all the fancy remotes advertise so well. (A macro button sends multiple commands with the push of a single button). And while that is cool enough on its own, the really interesting part started after I found this remote. (for those interested it is the URC-8910 and I've found it for as little as $16 + a few dollars for shipping and handling)

As I read user reviews on this remote I kept seeing people mention this mysterious JP1. Now, to me JP1 means Jumper 1. I see this on every motherboard for every computer I've every dealt with, but no where could I find what JP1 meant to these people. All that anyone ever said was, "but using JP1 quickly fixed that problem!" After several searches I finally found the right combination of phrases that lead me to a forum that had a link to what JP1 was.

Here is what JP1 is. On certain remotes (especially those of radio shack and One for All) there is a 6 pin connector located in the battery compartment with a small JP1 printed on the circuit board next to it. Someone discovered that you could create a custom cable to connect your computer to your remote using this so-called JP1 connector. Then other people realized that you could download the contents of your remote and replace it with custom signals to make your universal remote TRULY universal. Check out the cable that connects the remote to the computer via the serial port (a more expensive usb cable was offered as was a parallel cable)



No more will people have to settle for a remote that mostly works their equipment. These people have THOROUGHLY documented every piece of remote controlled equipment they can get their hands on and relish finding the right signals to get new equipment to work. I'm excited to get my cable in the mail so I can start programming the remote to make it the ultimate universal remote! I actually encourage anyone who reads this to make sure the next remote they get is JP1 capable and learn how to modify the remote to stream line it (or ask me to come do it for you :P ).

Now here's some linkage for you!
Buy the URC-8910 remote at home depot (out of stock last I checked, but maybe you'll get lucky)
Google listings of URC-8910 remote sellers(I just typed URC-8910 into Google search)
Good place to get the JP1 cables
Learn more about JP1 over at this sub-culture's forum!
Good list of current and past JP1 remotes (It's a forum post, click on the download button under the post)

Did I mention I was a geek?

A (not so) modest proposal?

I had an interesting thought the other day and as I followed this train of thought through, I considered the practice of killing infants. I'm going somewhere with this, I promise. In the bible, there are two major accounts that stand out in my mind, the first, and most well known, is when Herod gathered up all the male children two years old or younger and killed them (found in Matthew 2:16-18). The second is not a reference to actual infanticide. In Ezekiel 16:3 and following, God describes Israel as a baby girl who is left in the open on the day of her birth to die. This is making reference to a well known practice of exposing a child. If for any reason a child did not find favor in the eyes of the father, it would be left outside of the city to die. Other forms of this involved throwing the child off a cliff, drowning, and various other things

Now, I'm sure that to the modern reader, this seems atrocious, hideous and disgusting to leave a baby to die outside a city or even worse to murder a child with your own hands, but it was a fully accepted practice among the Greeks, Romans, Babylonians, Chinese, Japanese... well you get the idea. Infanticide was beyond common, it was as humdrum an affair as buy groceries. They held no self delusions that it was not murder since the child could not support itself, they did not pretend that if they just left it outside it wasn't like they were killing it. They knew they were killing a baby and it was okay because they didn't like it. It was too ugly, it was a girl, it looked scrawny, whatever, they didn't like it, they killed it. But what if I talked about abortion? Would you be able to hold onto that feeling of disgust you just had? Or would you just get mad at me and call me conservative?

I read one author who argued that the reason infanticide was universally illegal in the world today is thanks to Christianity, and he gave some wonderful points that certainly would seem to prove his case, but he sadly fails to grasp the horrible truth that infanticide hasn't stopped, it's simply become refined. We've traded the brutish, uncivilized method of killing babies and adopted a pristine, painless, classy way of doing it. We've stopped killing them when they are outside, and started killing them while they're still on the inside. And sure, we try and justify it, as if it were okay since it could not survive outside the womb, but if we take that stance, why not legalize the murder of children? I mean, have you met a 5 year old who could survive on its own? Psh, I've met 20-year-olds who wouldn't fit that definition of alive!

Modern science has removed the veil of mystery about the development of a fetus and proved how quickly a child it by all accounts alive. Now I must admit something that will shock many people, I am pro-choice. It's true! I believe that a woman has the full right to choose whether or not to engage in activities that may result in a human life being conceived. But after that? After that to forcibly end child's life is murder.

Fun fact! Congress recognizes unborn children who die when the mother is assaulted as alive and therefore the attacker is guilty of homicide (Unborn Victims of Violence Act of 2004 (Public Law 108-212) signed by President Bush on April 1, 2004) . Further fun fact! The act of assisted suicide got Jack Kevorkian convicted of second degree murder (non premeditated murder). So the question becomes, why wouldn't a "doctor". I'm sorry, I put that in quotes because a real doctor has to do that Hippocratic oath thing where they promise to do no harm, and even if they didn't, the whole point of being a doctor is to make people better. Not... you know, kill babies. So, as I was saying, the question becomes why wouldn't a "abortion clinic guy masquerading as a legitimate doctor" be guilty of second degree murder also? I mean, congress recognizes that a fetus in any stage of development that prematurely ends is in fact a full fledged loss of life and the justice department clearly finds "doctors" who assist their patients into death guilty of second degree murder so... yeah, it doesn't take a genius to put one and one together.

Not that any such anti-baby killing law will ever come into affect mind you. Just like prostitution will never be illegal. These two things go back forever in earth's history. We like killing our children. People find comfort in the knowledge that they can live however they want and not have to worry about those pesky consequences.

Hmm... I'm sure some people who are legitimately pro-choice would find offense at me saying "baby killing". So if you do find offense at that, please re-read the post, but kindly substitute "abortion" anytime you see "baby killing". Those ancient societies didn't kill their children, they simply didn't have all our fancy medicine so they "post-utero aborted" that's all. And hey, just like that, that feeling of disgust is gone right?

I'm gonna wrap things up here with an interesting little fact. The other day I was speaking to a friend of mine and Amy's who I take Chinese with. She's off in another part of the world and I got to wondering what time it was where she was and I came across this little gem.

http://www.poodwaddle.com/clocks2.htm

It's a clock that calculates the current number of many things. Of most interest to me, was the death page. It breaks down into category the number of people who have died by a specific cause. Of particular interest is a little footnote at the bottom that says "abortion is not counted in the total number of deaths". And hey, it's a good thing it's not because if it were, the number of deaths would almost double. At the time of this writing, the total number of deaths, as calculated by them and they have a very nice page describing how they get these numbers, is 28,540,000. Total number of abortions? 19,464,000. If abortions were included in the total number of deaths, it would count for 40.5% of all total deaths! We may cry for the atrocieties happening to children in Africa right now, but what about the genocide we're waging against our own unborn right here in America?

A (not so) modest proposal?

Not the end of the story yet.

You thought you'd get the end of the story or at least an awesome commentary on modern events. Nope! All you get is this video from Monty Python's Flying Circus. This is the spam video that the sin video from the last past was based on. Oh, and to turn off that amazing song by Regina Spektor look over on the left and hit the pause button on the little mp3 player just below the blog archive lister.



Oh, and I'll get the end of the story up sooner or later. I won't leave the protagonist on the edge of that cliff forever.

Not the end of the story yet.

Daniel inspired video day

Daniel's videos led me to the following gems

I hope you've seen the Monty Python's skit about Spam on that one



You too can save a starving Christian.



Mr. Seeker-sensitive Mega church guy



This guy may have broken my anti-seminary stance

Edit 2011: So I had a video here where a pastor had a slip of the tongue. Turns out I didn't hear him right and he was actually saying something quite naughty. Needless to say when my wife and I were playing through these and she caught it, we decided to take it down. Does this count as a slip of the ear?

This one isn't funny at all, but it is a good look into how people are viewing Christianity from our own emotion centered church services.

Daniel inspired video day

Hitch Hiking Addendum

As a point of mild interest, I should not that the week following my nighttime hitch hiking adventure, two people were murdered on the street next to my college and several others have begun to be stalked as they drive down the road. I admittedly find the latter stories suspect as I go to a school in the middle of absolutely nowhere so the fact that if someone actually ends up behind you on that long, one lane road, odds are they're gonna be going the same place you are.

These recent events are especially of interest to myself as a few semester ago I was verbally abused by some of my fellow DBU students for voicing the opinion that female students should get to park up top and the male students should park down below and hike back to the dorms. One person in particular almost cussed me out and called me an idiot for thinking the school might be unsafe. Well guess what? It's not! HA! DBU is located on all sides by low-income and high-crime areas (not saying those two always go hand and hand, just that they do in this particular instance). A wimpy, easily bypassed fence is not gonna keep them out if and when they decide that a particular girl looks especially inviting. Though feminist may take offense at my stance that the women on campus should get that added protection of parking up top, the fact of the matter is that in this fallen world, women are more likely to be singled out for assault then men.

Not that it matters since DBU will do what they want to when they want to without consideration of us :p (how you liking that nature trail to that new chapel commuter students?) Oh, one last tid bit, I currently live in the only dorm who's front door doesn't lock and hasn't for over a year now. Is fixing a lock really that much out of budget? Maybe if you stopped siphoning all our money to the town homes you'd actually be able to afford some basic repairs to us lowly dorm students.

Hitch Hiking Addendum

Shaved head, hot lips, and hitch hiking fiascos

Okay, first off hot lips is not referring to my kissing ability, just a funny story that happened to me today. Also, sorry for never finishing the story, I'll do that in the next couple days here.

So first the hitch hiking fiasco. On my way back to DBU after a wonderful spring break, I arrived at the intersection next to my school at around 2 hours after the sun had set. I sat behind this car who's blinker was on to turn left, but they weren't moving despite there being no oncoming traffic keeping me stuck behind them wanting to turn right on this little two lane road. Suddenly, this hand pops out of their window and waves me past them indicating something is amiss. Being the good ol' Texan boy I am, I pull up next to them and roll down the window to inquire if they need a hand.
Now, as I've mentioned I'm returning from spring break and the car is filled to the gills with my stuff PLUS a very nice couch in the bed of the truck that I had purchased from Craig's list for $25. The guy in the call asks if I can drive him down to a gas station. I have no problem with this and agree expecting one person to jump in and have me drive them to the closest gas station. Instead, however, two guys hope out and climb into the truck. These two guys were, in a word, gangsters. They explained that they were headed to a show to perform in a contest as rappers. I had picked up a couple of rapper gangsters. No worries, I'll drive them down the nicely light highway, stop at a well attended gas station, and return them to their vehicle.
Such was not to be the case. They ask me to go down this road that might best be described as desolate. After a minute or two I stumble across their two gangster rapper buddies who hope into the bed of the pickup with the couch. It gets better. The road hits a detour and I go from desolate to beyond desolate as I enter dirty Dallas. I finally arrive at a gas station, let them get some gas, and hop on the highway rather than drive back down nowheresville. Some good came from this situation that could have been extremely bad, however, I did share the gospel with them a little. They politely listened and promptly dismissed it, but at least they got to hear it.

They say that pride comes before fall, but no one ever mentions that pride comes also before hot lips. After my Chinese class today, a friend of mine stops me on my way into the dorm and claims to have a challenge for me. He tells me that in the take out box in his hands are several pieces of chicken that are incredibly hot. He warns me not to get too close to the box as he opens it least the smell makes my eyes water. Well, with such a challenge I reached in the box without hesitation the moment it was wide enough to get my hand in and took a big old bite from a piece of chicken! I told him it wasn't too bad as I took another bite. His friend stood awed by my tongue of steel and told me that he found it so spicy that he hadn't been able to take a full bite and his voice had been cracking ever since. I laughed and proudly declared I was from San Antonio and such a piece of chicken was merely slightly spicy.
Meanwhile, in my mind the words "SHUT UP! SHUT UP! STOP TALKING AND LET ME PUT OUT THE FIRE THAT IS NOW MY MOUTH!" were racing through my mind. But upon hearing such praise from this guy I never met I just finished off my chicken wing with a final bite and proudly deposited the remains in the closest garbage can. I calmly walked to my dorm room and ripped the door off my fridge as I scrambled for water. Unfortunately, the water had frozen in the back of my fridge and I grabbed a slim fast praying that the milk like properties it contained would sooth the fire and brimstone off my tongue. It did nothing to assuage my torment. Yes, TORMENT. I have never felt such burning agony in my mouth before. Not even when I had that bad habanero pepper. Frantically I scoured my roommates desk looking for the loaf of bread he had pilfered from the cafeteria. At LAST I found the bread and with a single slice erased all suffering from my lips and mouth. Pride surely comes before hot lips.

Finally, and of most notable interest. I have entered into an arrangement to raise money for a friend's missionary trip this summer. The deal is for each week I stay a certain way people promise to pay a certain amount of money. So, I chose to shave my head. And each week I keep it shaved hopefully people will pledge to support me. Here's some before and after shots.

A full head of hair

Buzz Cut!

A close shave!

The final product!

Shaved head, hot lips, and hitch hiking fiascos

A quick break from the blog

Hey guys just taking a quick break to tell you about www.Memorysuppliers.com I just bought some memory for my mom's laptop and they sent me an e-mail saying I'd get 15 bucks back if I put a link to their website on my blog. Um... awesome? So in all seriousness, if you need some memory sometime soon, they're worth a look. Modest selection, free shipping, pretty cool.

www.Memorysuppliers.com

A quick break from the blog