Today I’ll be driving across the beautiful state of Tennessee and then down in to South Carolina for my great grandma’s funeral.  Last night I got the most restful night of sleep I’ve had in at least a month, thanks to some very kind and generous friends here in Nashville.

If you missed the Square Peg Alliance show last night, you missed much fun.  There were new tunes played, and they were good.  Specifically, Andrew Peterson sang a song he wrote as a sequel to Andy Osenga’s “Kara.”  It was a rough version since he had just finished it, but the continuation of the story had me leaning forward in anticipation wondering what would happen with those two fictional characters.

Billy Cerveny sang a tear-jerking rewrite of Peterson’s “Family Man” during the round of cover songs.  “I am a can of spam” was the first line.  I wish somebody was recording that, because it was just great.

I bought 2 of Billy’s CDs for the trip today.  I figured that if I’m driving through Tennessee, I should be listening to country music.  I’m new to his stuff, but what I’ve heard so far has been really good.  My brother-in-law told me about him and said that I would hate him because he would make me like country music.  So far that’s been an accurate statement.

It’s time for me to hit the road.  I’ll post again tonight if I can.

“Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints.”
Psalm 116:15

My great grandmother went home today. She was 98 years young.

It’s unfortunately rare these days for a boy to know his great grandma, but it’s a special thing when that boy is grown with children of his own (who get to know their great, great grandmother) before she passes away.

I got to see Grandma for the last time on my birthday this summer. She was recovering from a heart attack at the time, but she still had her sense of humor. We asked her if she remembered when she was 29. She said “No.” Then with a smile, she said “I remember when I was 98.” I realized then that I had inherited some of her sense of humor.

Tonight I’m not really sure what to feel. Half of me is torn apart, wishing that I could stop in for a visit just once more (and get another bowl of her banana pudding). The other half of me is thrilled that she lived such a full life of loving people and is finally able to go home.

I’m happy she’s home now, but I sure could eat a bowl of that banana pudding.

I’ve never been a regular viewer of The Daily Show (mostly because Jon Stewart is a crazy liberal). I watch once in a while, but I think that’ll change soon. I was browsing through clips of Jon Stewart over at YouTube.com the other day and found his “we’re back” speech after the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center.

It’s almost 9 minutes long, but it’ll be 9 minutes well spent. The video is here.

I give up. I’ve been using that Tag Body Spray for a while now, and not even one hot girl has tackled me. The Tag Body Spray commercials led me to believe that beautiful women would jump all over me if I wore their body spray. Nope, that never happened. Those marketing liars!

If you’re thinking of trying it, I say don’t bother. Take those few dollars and go buy something that will make you happy. What makes you happy for $3?

In an attempt to be like Andy Osenga, I’m posting a list of things that made me happy yesterday.

• Waking up to “good marning” cuddles from a little 2 year-old monster
• Excedrin Migraine Geltabs
• This video
• Finishing mowing the side yard 3 seconds before the heavy rain came
• Losing a game of Uno to my little girl (no, I didn’t let her win.)
• Aurthur Alligood’s new CD “Under the Gray”
• Watching the new “How I Met Your Mother” with my wife
• Falling asleep on the couch watching “Family Guy”

I’ve spent more time than I’d like to admit on MySpace.com lately. It’s like drugs to an addict; I just can’t stay away. The strange part about that for me is that I’ve been one of those people who resisted the whole MySpace movement. Sure, I’ve got a profile out there, but it’s been mostly just to support the artists whose music I love.

No matter how much I resist (or resisted) the movement, there are some things they are doing right, and it’s only fair to point out the good before pointing out the bad:

1. Community - Building a good online community isn’t easy. There are good circles of friends out there (high school friends, college friends, friends who like similar music), and MySpace makes it easy for anybody to build community.
2. Independent Music - The times, they are changing. The music business isn’t what she used to be, and it has never been easier for an independent musician to make music than it is now. MySpace gives good resources to that truth and allows artists to post songs in a flash player so people can hear the music and get to know the artist.
3. Personal Profile - So many message boards and “community” sites have no room for pictures, videos, or other information about a user. Some of this information is a little bit excessive; for example, do you really need to know that I’m heterosexual, or that my Zodiac sign is Cancer? Most of the profile information circles back to community. “You like C.S. Lewis, too?”…and a connection is made, and the circle of friends grows larger.
4. Event Planning - Music cafes can send messages to their “friends” to let them know about who will be in concert, event times, and other details. A musician can send a message to fans in a given area to let them know that he will be in concert locally.
5. Finding People - There are those people you went to high school with who you never thought you’d see again. You do a Google search, but never find them. You call your school, but they have no address on file. There are, of course, people you went to school with who you would never want to see again, but for those who you do want to see, MySpace makes it easy to find them.

MySpace sounds great so far, right? Well, they are far from perfect. Here is my top 5 things of what is wrong with MySpace:

1. Porn Spam - In the name of all that is holy, could somebody please stop the porn spam? They come all the time as messages from MySpace saying “Tricia would like to be your friend.” You think “Tricia?…is that the one I went to school with 20 years ago?” So you click to see who she is to find that she is just some bimbo who wants you to see her naked.
2. Advertising - If you ever have a web site with a link that has a “skip this advertisement” link, you have too much advertising. Period.
3. Too Much “Stuff” - Movies, web searches, video clips…God gave us Google for a reason. MySpace is a community site; they should stick to community. Watching video clips of stupid people do stupid things is better reserved for Google’s video site (or even YouTube).
4. Popularity Contest - Every profile you visit has the statement “[username] has x friends.” The bigger the number x is, the more popular you are. This leads to “be my friend” spams, similar to the porn spams already mentioned only without the nudity. It ends up being a competition to see who can have the most “friends” in their network. Blah.
5. Page Layouts - Customizing a page is a good idea. It adds personality to a profile. The problem comes when you put a picture of New York at night as a background image on a page with dark text. It makes the whole MySpace idea look cheap and unprofessional.

Head over to MySpace.com if you’d like. You might find that friend from 20 years ago. You might find people that want you to see them naked. Hopefully, they won’t be the same people.

It only seems appropriate that I post some blurb about the 5th anniversary of the day the members of the “religion of peace” stole planes, blew up buildings, and killed thousands of innocent people.  The only problem is that I’m not sure what I should say.  I’ve been thinking all day about what words are appropriate, but I’m still pretty much at a loss for words.

I was sad to have to miss an Atlanta concert this weekend. Matthew Perryman Jones was in town and was probably just awesome. I’ve seen him a few times now, and I really am getting into the music. I picked up his newest CD “Throwing Punches in the Dark” when I was in Nashville for Andy Osenga’s CD Release party, and I like it a little more every time I play it.

I think my favorite track on the CD is “Refuge.” Behold the chorus:

take me to a place where love can mend these wounds
where mystery can dance with truth
and a broken soul finds refuge

Good stuff, indeed. You can hear “Refuge” (and 3 other songs from the CD) over at Matthew’s MySpace page. You can also order the CD, become his friend, and find out when you can go see him in a venue near you.

I’ve been instructed at work to find out about “Application Routing” and how using application routing might help us with some issues we are having.  The problem is that all we can find about application routing seems to be theory and absolutely zero practical use examples.

I’m looking a little bit at Microsoft’s ISA 2006 product, but, to be bluntly honest, trusting my network security to Microsoft scares me.

Has anyone out there done anything with application routing?  I’d love to hear an opinion from someone who actually knows something about the concept.

If you have equipment that must remain online 24/7, you can plan ahead knowing that the equipment will fail on a holiday weekend.

Stupid server.