Mr's Blog

You might be wondering why I haven't written anyithing here for a while. Well, so have I - but that is another story.

Last Monday I found out that I have more health issues than the one I already knew about - apparently it's Hyperthyroidism (overactive thyroid). And I've been kinda down since then.

Actually, I re-read some of that post just then, and it reminded me about Dad, and that I shouldn't loose focus or hope. I have a good, loving God - and that he doesn't allow things to come up against us that we can't handle with His help... And I have loving and supportive family and friends.

Hmmmm, it's funny. Reading my own blog helped me. Lol. I can only hope that it eventually helps someone else too.

So, it seems that I might have forgotten to tell my Mum about this website.

Either that, or she had forgotten.

I mean it's only been going on since I was at university. And it was one of the main forms of bulk communications I had when I was in Japan. So, I can see how she might forget something so inconsequential.

Speaking of which, I wonder where those backup files are... I should add them back in.

Anyway - Hi Mum. Love you, good to have you back.

(Oooo! Gotta go, Kevin Rudd is on Good News Week now.)

It may surprise you to know, but Red hates shopping. More than most men. Whist my feelings towards it rely on external forces - time pressures, hunger, child aggravation quotient etc. Red's is basically 90% over the whole thing prior to arriving at the shopping center.

So, to combat this, we make lists. You see, lists equal mini-goals that are probably achievable. And today, was a great example of this in action. We left home - later than planned - and arrived at the local Westfields to find the place crawling with shoppers & their cars. A quick check of Red showed no signs of steam venting from her head. We were off to the best possible start.

All of a sudden (3 hours actually) we were done. Hooray! We all toddled back to the car and headed off.

It's the only way to shop. In and out in the shortest time humanly possible.

I know that nobody has posted here for a long while, but we are all still alive. Lizzie & I are both quite sick however.

Anyway, I just thought I'd let you know.

(Ps: Check out Google's next step in Internet / world domination)

Feel pretty 'meh' today. Work is giving me the cranks for the 2nd time ever. Before you say "You work with clients, say no more", I know they can be a pain, a handful, and just down right rude - but the ones giving me pain at the moment are in that realm of nice clients, that agree to something, but that something grows and morphs in their head, as they talk amongst themselves. Then get narky when you inform them of the price involved in their new vision - when they say that it is what we've already talked about. *sigh*

It's scope creep of DOOM! (Heh, well - at least that made me mini-lol.)

Now providing people with a whopping Coronary. What are these people thinking? "I know, we'll KILL the people who like Windows 7?"

... maybe this was released by some anti-mircrosoft group.

-- edit --
I just did a search on "Anti Microsoft" and there are lots of hits, but it seems like there isn't a single web designer to share between them. Ironically, one of them says that MS is holding back innovation - but that site looks like it was designed by a primary (junior) school student.

If you have found this post by way of Anti Microsoft searches & are looking for alternatives, have a look at these... OpenBSD, FreeSpire, Mandriva & Ubuntu. (& Yes, they're all based around Linux)

I've been told by MuttonGrass that there are people in Twitterland that follow others purely for the "follow-back". I don't understand. What circles do people operate in where the most followers wins? What is the prize? Who hands out the prizes (& what is their twitter username )?

While I'm not one for chopping & changing, I've always felt oh-hum about mrred.info as a domain name. (It has served it's purose though.)

So, tonight, I registered a *new* domain name.

What is it? Well that is a closely guarded by me and my keyboard. But it is something memorable, something fun, and most importantly - something I like

So I've finally sucumb to the idea that perhaps a twitter account is something that might be useful. Not just for people to follow me & read my thoughts, but as a source of information. MuttonGrass tells me that she gets all the interesting stuff from the people & businesses that she follows. Anyway, I've brought myself to a place where I can live with having a twitter account.

Two problems with this.
1. Is this a slipery slope to being inundated with social networking / media sites usernames & memberships? Red is on Facebook, but I've never wanted an account, even though I have about 15 outstanding invitations (thank you for keeping a tally Facebook... ?!?)
2. I can't find a username that is free! Obviously I could pound the keyboard for a few minutes an MAYBE get one that isn't used. Like "kae54hkughe", "o384thiruhgdsrg", or "k3u4thei74thgai7w4gtiwerbsugbrgsrg". But really, what would that mean to me. Any who on earth would remember it!

*sigh* Any suggestions?  I realise this would be easier if I'd finished the comments function for this site... but deal with it. I have email. 

-- edit --
Ok, I've released the ability to comment upon the world. Not sure how it will go, so we'll see. (I didn't realise how far ahead I was)

Noooo!!! Sitepoint: Microsoft re: IE 6

Oh well, at least we can get people to do this: Sitepoint: Google Chrome Frame

I love this image (from the last link). Chrome eating IE wonderful!

I'm sure we all know that the current trend is to find a technology or service & jam it into a mobile phone / keitai denwa / cell phone or hand phone (depending on where you're from).

Bucking this trend is Samsung, and Engadget gives us a glimpse of what they're attempting here. It's certainly a different tact.

Mr: "1 Omnitech please."

Splosion Man

That's an awesome concept.

I heard today that Marvel Comics was bought out by Disney (Alt). I'm not sure what this will do to my favorite superheros, and really, I'm not sure what to think. There is speculation going in both directions that this is the dawn of a new era for the Marvel created characters, and conversely some people firmly believe that this will be the end of the characters we know and love.

I've grown up with X-men (plus all their variants), Batman, Spiderman & others, and I would hate to see them change. But... could Disney actually make them better - would they dare try, or will the bottom line just turn them into pale imitations of what they once were?

~  Wonders where all his X-men comics are...

There isn't a single word to describe just how enraged I am about the ordeal that I've just been though. I've just tried to book flights to Melbourne using the wonders of the internet. Prior to my attempts to book, I thought "oh yeah, booking online, thats convenient". Now however, I think "Oh yeah, booking online, I'd rather eat my own face".

Apparently, the Jetstar website has flights showing that aren't available. Regularly. It appears they only update their site when someone calls the call center. Also, discernable English isn't a prerequisite. And because the Virgin Blue prices were SO Much higher than the Jetstar & Tiger Airways, I thought'd I'd go wrestle with a Tiger. Then the problems started.

After figuring out which times / days (vs cost) I was prepared to pay, and after realising that Tiger Airways is the only Airline in existance that I know of which makes you pay for an infant to travel (1.5 hours) - I put in my payment details and was away. NOT!

The first two times I tried to book these tickets, I was thwarted. Page time outs, page contains no data, SSL certificate not issued by someone important etc. Two phone calls to Melbourne (which was Singapore on Skype - Interestingly, she spoke better English than the Jetstar lady.)

Finally it all went through... and it was then I saw the taxes & fees.

• Seat fees - What on earth is this for? You want a seat? Sorry, that's extra.
• My Infant Fee - This was actually more expensive than an adult with luggage!!
• Convenience fee - "We save money by having less staff - so we're going to have to charge you for it."

I don't hate to fly, just the ordeal of getting to the gate.

~ Frustrated, tired and edgey.

So since news broke on Thurday that Lizzie started walking, she's been taking small groups of steps semi frequently.

Mostly this ends up with her falling over. But the thought is there.

Hooray for advancements!

Let me start by saying, she isn't dead. She's just on medical leave. (Something about a broken leg, phft...)

Anyway, I didn't realise how much of my day to day working life was reliant on her and the info in her head. Something as simple as "Could you send through those wire-frames please", becomes a time consuming ordeal. *sigh* 

MuttonGrass, what would we do without you? I'm praying I'll never find out.

For those of you who have no idea what JQuery is, it is "a fast and concise JavaScript Library that simplifies HTML document traversing, event handling, animating, and Ajax interactions for rapid web development. jQuery is designed to change the way that you write JavaScript" (JQuery website). In short, it is an awesome interface between finicy Javascript, and the developer. We've been using it for a while now at work, and it never ceases to amaze me just how good & wide spread it is.

Just thought I'd share.

As a tech, I have all my OS's set to show system files. This is fine, and I don't mind seeing them. The only thing I hate is that Windblows always asks me if I want to move, delete or overwrite Thumbs.db when ever I do anything file related. I minor to medium annoyance.

Anyway, I have this Burberry jacket that I was given just recently. It's a sort of a grey colour, and I have found that it is quite hard to figure out what clothing to wear it with. So today I thought that it was passable to wear with my jeans & white shirt. Everthing was fine, I felt good, it looked good enough.

I was doing some file clean up on an old server here at work, and walked away thinking "Ha! That'll keep you busy for a good while", and went back to my desk. [Enter Thumbs.db] "Do you want to delete this system file"... Yes, of couse I do you dumb computer. *sigh* I got up to go and press... *RRRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIPPPP*

[Dead silence]

CRAP! 

Thumbs.db hates me, and it seems it also hates both halves of my jacket.

-- edit --
'Laer Arwen' wanted to know how on earth I ripped a jacket on an office chair. It has a split up the back of it a little way, and a button. The button got caught on the back of the chair where you adjust the tilt.

For those of you that know me personally, the stretch from 'normal' to 'nutter' isn't much of a stretch. It's more of a gentle lean than anything else - but this is beside the point.

Recently, a friend & colleague (see "Router Upgrade! Hoorah!") has moved overseas, and the resultant hole that he has left at work is, well, quite obvious. Scheduling, something that I used to think of as a necessary evil, has now become essential (Even if I'm out by a few hours here and there - apologies L).

Anyway, trying to fit the 100% of my work, plus the 50% of my long-distance friend's, and the normal day to day distractions support of clients that don't understand email is, is starting to drive me nuts.

*sigh* It's Friday. Things'll look better on Monday... Won't they?

Today, at 12:34 and 56 seconds, a moment in time passed that will not be seen for a while.

12:34:56 7/8/9

Granted, you have to remove the 0's, but you get the idea.

A work colleague & friend of mine has plans to move to Indonesia, and as a parting gift, he gave me his ADSL router. Praise God! I'm finally able to ditch this hellishly annoying Netcomm NB5. I mean, as far as free routers go, it has done ... semi-ok. (As long as you call resetting it every 32 hours or so, "ok".)

However, if you're planning on actually purchasing this model, you should have your head looked at. I don't know if it was it was a woeful firmware version, if they've shipped their manufacturing to some hole in the middle of nowhere, or if Netcomm is wreaking it's terrible vengence upon me for some undisclosed reason.

Not to sound paranoid, but I'm fairly certain it's the last one.

-- edit --
I've just been told by another friend that his NB5 has worked perfectly for over 3 years.... I knew it was the 'wreaking terrible vengence' option!!

-- further edit --
This new router has not skipped a beat since I set it up 16 days ago. Good work Billion!

Over the weekend, I went to a friends bucks day. Go Karting. It was great! Just like Mario Kart.   I had no idea that screaming around on a glorified lawn mower could be so much fun! It was a really good idea for a bucks day - even better than paintball!

Anyway, since that day, I have been paying for it. The pain that I have been experiencing from that first race, not knowing how the finer points of karting, is just ridiculous. I can see why drivers always look so fit!

Now that by birthday has passed, and I sit on the wrong side of 30, I think of all the things that people usually think about when they have a milestone birthday. Things like, "How the heck did I get all the way here?", "I wonder if not exercising for the last 4 years has been a bad choice?" and "If everyone around me tells me that I'm old, or 30 is old, does that make it true?" I'm sure everyone asks themselves those questions sooner or later.

Anyway, I'm reasonably bad with resolutions. So I resolve not to resolve anything about the above questions. Perhaps then I'll actually do something about them.

~ Tired & possibly old.

The primary carrier for telephony in Australia is Telstra, and they don't have the greatest name when it comes to service. And try as the might from the top echelons of the empire, the will always fail while the Telstra employees are doing things like this.

Today, while talking to a client, my manager was disconnected mid sentance due to a Telstra technician wanting to "test the line". According to him, our building has faulty lines coming in, and he needed to test it. Beats my why he had to disconnect us to do it, when I've seen other techs test lines, the leave the wires in.

Sheesh.

You know those people who ask you questions that you can't possibly answer? If you're like me, you just want to scream I AM NOT A SEARCH ENGINE! .... no? Well, if you do, you can now use this wonderful instructional tool, 'Let me Google that for you'.

All you do is send the person to a link that you've constructed. For example, http://lmgtfy.com/?q=capital+of+Tanzania

Simple huh?

A Canadian Muso has written a great song about his guitar being smashed up pre-flight after being ignored and fobbed off by the US Airline United.

His song 'United Breaks Guitars' was effective too, I believe that he's managed to get the airline to make financial amends.

United Breaks Guitars on YouTube

Read the story on the Authors Website (or on www.news.com.au)

I'm sure you've all heard by now. The news has ricocheted around the globe. Michael Jackson is no more. However, his memory lives on here...

www.eternalmoonwalk.com

So, I think I'm over the stomach bug. I did the acid test.

Lunch: Chicken & gravy roll + chips

Dinner: Chicken cacciatore on rice.

I figure if I can eat all that without loosing it, I'm good.

I haven't been sick like this for a long time. I wont bore you (gross you out?) with the details, but I puked 6 time in 5 hours in the wee morning hours of today. Quite nasty. And now I ache, oh how I ache.

Anyway, to distract me, I'm going to work on the website. So if there are crazy things that are written or things that don't make sense, just be happy that normal services will resume tomorrow.

(Mmmmm, dry toast. )

I live in a house, a house with a letterbox. No surprise there for most.

However, out of the 1000's of letter boxes on my road (it's a long road), my letterbox is unique. For it is the whipping boy of all the drunken louts & all the dumb teens that want to "Uhg. Me BASH!" things. You see, previously my letterbox was... well, it was a letterbox. But today, it is completely flat. It's like someone has ironed my letterbox.

Still, the post that it is on is intact. This has happened before you see. So a friend of mine and I put in a 6 foot, galvanised pipe - 60mm in diameter with diagonally crossed bolts through it. Oh, and we cemented it into the ground. So, now to break out the next sacrifical letterbox.

Oh yes, we take our letterboxes very seriously here in Australia.

So today I, or rather work signed up to Twitter. As anyone who has the slightest knowledge about SEO would know, inbound links count, especially from well regarded websites. And so, as much as I have avoided the social web, there I was, Twittering with frantic abandon - you see, I had real work to do too.

Having now written, I can see the slight excitement that is felt by Tweeting something, and having people start following you. You get a warm, fuzzy sense that perhaps what you're saying is important to someone. Maybe that person that has added you to their follow list is actually someone who has the same thoughts, feelings and ideas that you have! You could be moments away from having a Friend!

Of course, auto-following based on a keyword isn't really an indication of that. And anyway.. I already have friends.

So, as you might have guessed from the title of this post, I'm not dead.

So many things have been going on in our lives, that I've not had any real time for development, or even writing. My appologies.

Having said all that, I've been playing tonight, looking at two sites that have sparked my imagination. www.kawasaki.com.au and www.masterchef.com.au. The break-out backgrounds are great. I wish I had seen these earlier!

Wikipedia has a lot of interesting facts. For instance, I did not know that the childrens song 'Alouette' was as crazy as this...

Skylark, nice skylark
Skylark, I shall pluck you
I shall pluck your head
(I shall pluck your head)
And your head
(And your head)
Skylark (Skylark)
etc etc...

What a loving song. Still, I guess it's better than;

Rock-a-bye baby, in the treetop,
When the wind blows, the cradle will rock,
When the bough breaks, the cradle will fall,
And down will come baby, cradle and all.

So you thought nothing was happening? Well, you were wrong. I'm not typing in my very own wysiwyg editor. Hooray!

Now I have a lot more freedom. I can finally just plop images in the text where ever I want. Now, the plan from here is;

1. Remove the righthand column that I've been using for ad-hoc images & expand this center content section,
2. Put in some labels so that we can assign themes & topics to each post,
3. Upload some more photos so you know we haven't been totally ignoring you
4. Put some feedback ability in as per M4cey's requests demands,
5. And find more reasons to use ordered lists.

Sorry you're so far down the list M4cey, but at least you can't flame me on my own site about it! HA! 

My, how far we've come. This Google Classic reference really does show how far mankind has progressed in 60 years. :)

This might just be the best website of all time. http://www.omglasergunspewpewpew.com/

I stumbed upon this post while at work today. It's somewhat old, but I think it hold good advice for those programmers out there.

*Tada!* Here is the proof that I haven't (totally) been slacking off when it comes to this site. What I'm working on now is a forum. :) Because every site needs a forum, right? .... no, but we'll see how it goes. I'm still tinkering with the styles and the new look at the moment, so bear with me. Enjoy!

--- update ---
Yeah, no. Forum on hold. Working on adding / editing functionality. Possibly more important than a forum that nobody will use.

So, you may have noticed that there hasn't been any movement on this site in a little while. Well, thats because we've been flat out with all sorts of stuff. Mainly baby related and social. Having said that, I've been trying to work on the site here and there. *Someone* has also been on my back to put on a response facility. (Which is coming! I promice)

Anyway. You'll see it when it arrives. (Congratulations to Steve and Kat on their marriage!)

Over the last two days, I've made the leap from having all the posts on this site coded directly into the page, to having them back into the database. Which is a sign of major progress for me.

Initially, this site was supposed to be a place for me to play with PHP, but alas, I had to move servers, so all my code had to be shelved. I guess it makes sence for me to write this in ASP though, since I do write in ASP all the time at work.

Anyway, back on topic, each post you see now is now being typed straight into the database. So I really should be working on the administration side sometime soon, but hey. I'm the scribe for this whole site anyway, so what is a little direct database manipulation between friends?

-- edit --
Now with bonus smiles!

So tonight I was able to find some time to work on the site. I've put up all some of our old posts :) Yay! I hope you find them enjoyable. (It's been so long since I've read them, I don't remember what they say!)

This video of the new baby pygmy hippo is SO cute. Red & I plan to go visit at some point in the future. So stay tuned for photos.

This website has to be the WORST I have ever seen. (As of 19 Nov 2008) I work for a webdesign company, and this has made the whole office cry. We try so hard to make things on the internet pretty, useful, functionl and cool. This has none of those things. I'm torn between wanting to keep the site up for a laugh, and wanting to tear down the entire building that it is hosted in.

So, I bet that people are wondering just what it is that this site does. Well, if you've been checking back at all recently, you'll know that what it does at the moment is precious little.

When it was just Red & myself, I thought that home stuff, work and church related things were keeping me too busy to finish building this site. I have a 14 week old baby in the house now. I didn't know what I was talking about.

Anyway, its not all bad. :) Lizzie is wonderful. She's smiling, talking & singing now. It's great to watch her develop.

Since Lizzie can't write, I think I'll use her page to list developments and photos of her. That way you can all see how cute she is. :)

This photo has made my day.

Following the problems in the sub-prime lending market in America and the run on HBOS in the UK, uncertainty has now hit the Japanese banking sector.

In the last 7 hours the Origami Bank has folded, Sumo Bank has gone belly up and Bonsai Bank announced plans to cut some of its branches.

Karaoke Bank is up for sale and will likely go for a song, Kamikaze Bank were suspended after they nose-dived, Samurai Bank is soldiering on following sharp cutbacks and Ninja Bank is reported to have taken a hit, but they remain in the black...

Furthermore, 500 staff at Karate Bank got the chop and analysts report that there is something fishy going on at Sushi Bank where it is feared that staff may get a raw deal.

One of the guys I work with made a classic mistake today. He got Osama bin Laden's and Barack Obama's names mixed up and came out with - in all seriousness - 'Obama bin Laden'.

Bwaaaahahahahahhahahahahahaha

I wonder if my colleague is related to GWB?

I've learnt something in the last few days. I've made an equation to help everyone understand too.

Coffee into Mum = Coffee into Baby = No Sleep

I hope we've all learnt something from this.

Red was holding Lizzie the other day as she discovered that it is herself in the mirror.

All I could think to myself was... It starts so young... (13.5 weeks old infact)

Well, we're home. Finally. The machine that is the hospital system never ceases to amaze me. We began the "going home" process at about 2pm, and finally drove out at almost 6pm. But, we made it.

Red and Lizzie are sleeping soundly. Me? I'm heading there in a minute but I know Lizzies adoring public want to see more of her. So, here is a photo of what she is doing right now.

We've taken lost of photos, and I will keep my promise. They will be up online in short order. However, for now, I will go and join my family in slumber.

Oh, and for those of you who want to pray... My cat, Trinity, has begun a trying time of adjustment. I'm sure she'd love your prayers. :) ... and while you're at it, feel free to pray for us all. It's wierd feeling bringing an entire person home who you've never met before...

So, here I sit, at the beginning of a new phase. I think I'm especially thoughtful at the moment because last night I saw something that has changed my life. I saw the birth of my first child. A daughter whose name is Elizabeth, has come into my world, and changed it forever.

I was planning on using the next 11 days till the actual due date to finish this site, so that it could start with the announcement...

It's a Girl!

However, it seems that little Lizzie was as anxious to meet us, as we were to meet her.

My Blog. It comes again. Please remain calm.

Who would have thought it. As you may know, I now work for a web development company, and I have been working on websites for months. But who would have thought, that I didn't want to work on mine in my spare time!

Anyhow, I have the bug again! I think I'll be working on it again soon. But for the short term, I have to move it. My current host has been great, granting me a super deal on hosting. But their services had to come to an end in that area, so I must find another. Anyone know any good web development companies?

Will post back again in the near future.

~ Feeling excited again ~

For those of you who regularly visit this website, I have two things to say to you. Firstly, I am amazed that you are still visiting since nothing has happened in the last two months. And secondly, thank you for your persistence.

An update:

• I have started my new position at a web design company as a web programmer. [*grin*] Hooray!
• I have been sick and been back in hospital again. (Boo!)
• and I don't like the drugs that I've been put on.

~ Feeling a little more like normal for the first time in about a month ~

As an IT professional, there are certain things that I expect in my career. These are things like; at some point or another, the move to the Sydney IT Corridor is inevitable. At this point let me say that God has a sence of humour.

During my time working for my current employer, there have been times where I''ve asked God if He really still wanted me to stay there. I had since forgotten about this, but a recent turn of events prompted me to ask once more. And for the first time, I had the feeling that my time here was winding up.

Red just happened to look in the local paper, and stumbled upon the only IT job in there. So, on somewhat of a whim, I applied. The only application I sent out. And now, I''ve just accepted a job as a web programmer.

Now for the ''God has a sence of humour'' part. It''s five minutes from my house, in the IT industry and more money ~ something that I never thought was really possible.

Hooray for God''s plans and timing. I''m glad He''s in control.

I've rewritten this entry a number of times now. And they've all been vastly different. The only common theme running through them all was apologising for the lack of blogging.

What is the reason for my apparent absence? That would be due to the week that I spent in hospital (and the weeks of illness leading up to that). I was told that for someone who doesn't drink, doesn't smoke or take any kind of illicit substances, my liver was very very sick, and that there was more than likely a reason (other than "it was something you ate") for the 8 weeks of diarrhea.

Anyhow, I was swiftly taken down to the Emergency Department of the local hospital, and admitted reasonably quickly. It took them 5 days to figure out what they believe is wrong with me, it's something called Chronic Ulcerative Colitis. They also tell me that it's something that I'll have to be on medication for, for the rest of my life.

"You have a Chronic Bowl Disease, but it's managable" weren't the words I was wanting to hear. However, I'm told that it's better than Crohn's Disease and the host of other things that look & feel similar.

My Dad had a chronic disease, Athritis. And seeing him go through life constantly afftected by that wasn't fun (especially for him). But, I did see him win over it, not physically, but certainly mentally ~ and I've decided, I'm not going to settle for this. I know that God can heal me completely, and I'm going to fight this thing.

I'm not going to just accept this outcome as final. I will allow God room to move.

I hope that you'll find time to pray for me.

When Red called me and told me that I should check our website, I was really excited! Had she written something on her blog? Had she spontaneously turned into a web developer and over hauled the entire site? Had she figured out how to ftp her photos up?

While the last two things are a little less probable, I was still quite optimistic.

And here we have it. Red''s very first blog, her first thoughts displayed on the net. Hooray!

Good work! (This is almost inspiring and motivating enough to get me to finish the photoBlog section. And by finish, I of course mean start.

I was looking through my PDA last night, and I happened to bump the SMS button. This held the last message SMS conversation between my Dad and me. I read them, remembered, and cried. I miss him.

Red hugged me till I regained my composure, and prayed with me. Which of course brought on more tears.

As the mood lightened, I flipped through my bible with one hand, and stuck my finger in saying in jest, "This is what God's saying to me." It landed on Psalms 119:75a. "I know, O LORD, that your decisions are fair;" It went straight to my heart. I knew that it was referring to Dad, and that even though I miss him heaps, that the decision to call him to heaven was God's alone, and it was fair. It was after all the release from debilitating arthritis that I, and many others had been praying for.

My eyes next caught the verses 76,-77a. "Now let your unfailing love comfort me, just as you promised me, your servant. Surround me with your tender mercies so I may live..."

And then, you guessed it... more tears.

God knows where you are at. A reminder for me ~ perhaps hope for you.

There once was a man, who was living with his fiance. He says that he desperatly wants to get things right with God, and that he knows that what he's doing is not right in the eyes of God. He constantly revisits the phrase, "When we get married, it will all be alright in Gods sight. Then we can be forgiven for our sin, there's only X amout of months left. But I won't move out, and I won't break up with her."

So, he knows what he's doing is wrong, and he feels that, once he gets married, everything can be forgiven. But, if he's not actually sorry for what he's done / doing, then is he really repentant?

There was once a lovely older lady, and she doesn't want to know what God has planned for her life anymore. She is happy to sit around with her cat and read for the rest of her life. "Every time I have stepped out in what I believe God wants me to do, I've been hurt." And therefore, she no longer wants to do so.

The scary thing about all this is, I see parallels to these stories in my life. (Obviously NOT literally.) But as minor as my parallels appear to be in relation to the man and the lady mentioned above, don't most things start small? I tell God, "Everything for you, Lord", when really I seem to be acting, "Everything for you, Lord, except the way I drive". Or, "Anything for you, Lord. Just not those DVD's that came from Shanghai, without a case. I mean, they were a gift after all."

Compromise starts with one step in the wrong direction. But where does compromise end? In the act of trying to ignore God prompting, and ignoring your own conscience, what happens to your heart or your spirit?

I think I see now ~ they fossilise

I don't think that I mentioned this here before now, but I'd like to take this time to publically fairwell my Dad, who died in Feb 2006 and my grandfather, who died yesterday.

They were both great men who loved me and our family as much as someone could.

Thanks Dad, thanks Pa. I love you both.

Hooray! The New look site is up and .. "looking".

If you remember earlier, I was praising CSS? Well, because I went to the trouble of doing everything in CSS, it was _real_ easy for me to change the look. So again, Hooray!

I should pause at this point in time to note that not all the blogging that will occour here will be technically related. I have plans and ideas to make this a realy diverse site.

I hope you enjoy the ride once its fully released.

I know what you're saying to yourself.. "How on earth could this site need a new look, it hasn't even been released to the public yet!" .. Well, I guess you're right.

However, a new look it is. I decided that the top banner/title-y thing was taking up too much real estate.

You may have noticed, Red hasn't blogged a thing yet. This could be due to the lack of motivation stemming from the all to obvious fact.. that nobody is reading this site.

Isn't that depressing.

Well here I am again, blogging as sparatically as my previous site. (How unfortunate)

I have been bogged down with work related things for ages now. That, and I went away for two and a half weeks.

Anyhow, I'm back now. I am up to my arm-pits in 'real' work at the moment, so development and posting may be somewhat, well, sparatic.

This is the first site that I have written where I have hardly touched tables, and gone for as much CSS structure as I can. And I have had a mild success today! Hooray! Would you believe that a little matter of having a "float:bottom" in there (which, by the way, doesn't exist), messed up my entire layout? *sigh*

Ps. God told me something awesome last night, I'll see if I can't post it up here sometime soon.

As of the 15 Dec, this site has unofficially been launched in its Beta stage. What I have managed to put together so far is:

• Mr & Re's Blog pages
• The backend with which to blog
• The Secured Area (Which is only really to say that I have one, and therefore can create one.)

I'll let you know about anymore developments as they happen.

You may have been wondering why this site hasn't been changing much. Well, thats easy. It's because I've been working on the "back end" of things. I can write everything directly into the database via SQL everytime.

I haven't set a release date for this site, because the time that I get to work at it is so... so.. well, random really.

G'day, This site is in development, and as such has one (1) page. Should you desire to see more than this page, please return here frequently till it is ready.

For all those who wish to give me ideas for this site, please come tell me directly, or email them to not@realemailaddress.com