Yeah, it is late again. So sue me. Seriously, I am sorry to anyone who was anxiously awaiting QOTW #12. But it is finally here.

Do you get a lot of junk mail of the postal mail variety?

Yes! More than I even want to think about. Some really junky junk — the kind I've never requested anything to do with. Lots of Mac Mall, Dell, Hello Direct and PC Connection catalogs. Those stupid Internet Domain Registry of America fake billing mailers. Even some magazines I didn't request that I now receive but don't read.

On the other hand, I get some neat stuff too — CDW once sent me a “Tech Answer Wizard” (a computer problem lingo version of a Magic Eight Ball). Sun Microsystems once sent me some popcorn. AOL even sent something nifty — a AOL CD in a metal tin perfect for holding stuff.

On a side note: I haven't forgotten about the Christian spam registry… I'm hoping to put that online very soon.

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Assuming you watched some or all of the Democratic National Convention last week, did it leave you with a different perspective on Kerry? How about anyone else?

On Kerry, no. The only thing that provided a different perspective was the revealing information that Kerry's recorded “war scenes,” including those used in his introductory movie, were reenactments made by a young Kerry who was already planning to get in politics while in Viet Nam. Matt Drudge's quotes reveal that some soldiers joked, at the time, that Kerry left Viet Nam not because of his third injury but because he had collected enough film footage for his campaign. Does that count?

Barak Obama did leave me with a different (and, I'll admit, positive) impression of himself. I've already covered that in one of my posts from last week.

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What's the farthest west you've been (relative to where you are from) and when did you go there? North? South? East?

West: That would be the State of Washington (farthest point: the Pacific Ocean and the Olympic National Forest). I went there once in 1997.
North: That would be Minneapolis, Minnesota, also in 1997.
South: Eureka Springs, Arkansas, some time in the early 1990's (can't recall when for sure). I've been down that way a few times since.
East: Shelbyville, Indiana, in the mid-80's. I've been that far numerous times since then.

I was suppose to make it to Florida, Puerto Rico and and several Caribbean islands in 2001, but family medical complications prevented me from making it to that trip. I'm aiming to go to Canada some day soon.

How about you? Post your answers below or post a link in the comments to the answers on your blog.

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If you could be God for about 5 days, what things would you try to change or accomplish with your life in your 5 days? (this excludes trying to save the world, stop hunger, etc etc. Basically you are God with powers to control your own life and destiny and not be able to change history or fix it before it happens).And if you want, give a brief explanation why you chose the accomplishment or change.

1. Omnipresent
2. Omnipotent
3. Omniscient

With those in mind, I'd probably use my time much more wisely. Arguably since God created time that would mean that if God handed me His powers for five days I'd also be able to step outside of time and get more done. But, that's aside the point.

So what would I do? Probably cause the clouds to rain properly translated copies of the Bible to all of the people of the earth. I'd also do some miraculous type signs (maybe the sun wouldn't come up one day or the seas would turn to blood one day) to get people's attention. Then I'd use a booming voice to tell everyone to read the book that had hit them in the head to figure out what was going on. Perhaps I'd even provide a few pointers while on the “megaphone.”

Of course, that goes back to that omniscient characteristic. If I truly had the qualities of God, I would do just what God is doing right now because God already knows what is best to do.

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The QOTW is late again, but hopefully I will get it up tomorrow. Sorry for the spree of short posts…

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Okay, so I still have my hard disk torn up, but I hope to have my old e-mail archive assembled next week and will present David's question then. For now, let's do another one from me.

What's your canon in the canon? (That is, if you could only pick one part of the Bible and make it “yours,” what book or section of books would it be?)

Mine is most definitely the Epistles of the Apostle Paul. I'm very Pauline. On the occasion that I get the urge to rant about a theological issue, I often find myself thinking of Paul and arguing Paul's points. Paul's arguments on the distribution of Grace, issues of legalism (or the needed lack thereof), soteriology in general and everything else rings so fresh and so strongly today. Paul's arguments are wonderful in that they are paradoxically very simple to get the gist of and very complex below the surface. While I don't feel any book(s) of the Bible ought to take precedence over the others — that is, all of them fit together and are necessary — I love the fact that Paul goes right to the heart of the matter and lays everything out. I love his fiery defense of Christian doctrine against heresy and his amazing dedication.

So, it is definitely Paul for me. (If I couldn't pick Paul, I'd probably pick the Eschatological books of Daniel and Revelation).

How about you? Post your pick below or post a link to your blog if you answer there.

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Well, the computer that has David's suggested question on it is presently “in the shop” (not literally, but I do have all of its software torn apart for a project rendering my old email archive inaccessible). Until I get it back together in the next few days, you'll have to live with one of my questions instead. As always feel free to reply below or on your own blog.

If you were going to eat something right now, what would it be?

It would be a Papa John's thin and crispy style pepperoni and onion pizza with the Papa's special garlic dipping sauce and some red pepper sprinkles. Of course, a pepperoni pizza from Papa John's goes well with a second original (thick crust) the “Works” pizza… Anyone want to join me for a late night pizza?

It's weird. I'm a big Pizza Hut fan (my favorite pizza is Pizza Hut's Pan Pizza), and I love the authentic Italian pizzas St. Louis is famous for, but I get a craving for Papa John's every so often… sort of like I do for White Castle. White Castle sounds pretty good about now too. Especially some jalapeno cheese burgers and an order of cheese fries. Yum!

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Ok, so I haven't been very good at keeping this up once again… but I'm gonna keep it going. Hopefully, I'll get the QOTW back to Monday next week with a question contributed to me by David McGlone. But this week, I'm going to base it on a question Flip asked me about my computers. As always feel free to answer below or perhaps take this question and use it for a meme on your own blog.

What names do you have for your computers?

Well, not all of them are still in service, but I'll order the ones that have been named from the oldest (built in 1997) to the newest (purchased last week). Prior to '98, I didn't network systems, so it wasn't necessary for such names to be employed in my case.

Fred: A Pentium 100 long retired. One of only three systems without some connection to Dilbert.
Dellbert: My first Dell, and a play on the name Dilbert.
Lapbert: My first networked laptop.
Sneakers: I wasn't planning to upgrade when I did, so it “snuck” in… thus sneakers.
Catbert: the Ruby iMac.
Wally: the Shuttle XPC… shiny sort of like Wally's bald head in Dilbert.
Cedar: This one is the server you are reading this off of. Since it is offsite, I decided to start a new naming convention for it. If and when I need a new server some day, it might be “pine.” It's domain is cedar.serverforest.com.
Albert: The G5 (Aluminum + bert = Albert).
Hapbert: The PowerBook… I thought about apbert (Apple + bert) but that didn't sound so good, so it is officially “Happy APple BERT.” Pathetic, I know.

Were's Dogbert? I'm glad you asked. That's my wifi network.

I may try to go a bit more orthodox and revise these. Here's a thought on more proper Dilbert naming:

Dellbert = Dilbert.
Lapbert = Bob.
Sneakers = Wally
Wally = Ratbert
Albert = Alice
Cedar = Elbonians
Hapbert = Dogbert
Dogbert = Asok

Waddya think? Post your own naming conventions below, if you'd like. Do you follow the popular trend of using Greek mythological characters? Perhaps you too use Dilbert?

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Assuming you like at least one of them, which is your favorite tea or coffee? What kind?

Personally, I really enjoy both, but I'd probably miss coffee the most if I had to give one up. Plain, old black coffee (or with a little cream) would be the variety I would probably hate giving up the most, although I also enjoy a Latte from Starbucks or an I.C. Mocha from St. Louis Bread Co. (a.k.a. Panera Bread) as well as various other varieties.

On the other hand, at dinner, at a restaurant, I will usually order iced tea. No sugar and no lemon. Despite my preference for plain old tea, I usually prefer tea with sugar and lemon if it is bottled tea (unless it is really good bottled tea, such as the unsweetened Nestea I finished a little while ago). Arizona Tea Co. has a good bottled sweetened tea. I also occasionally enjoy peach or lemon tea, such as that offered by Lipton (either bottled or mix) or Snapple. But overall, I'd rather have plain old tea.

In fact, if I had the opportunity to drink as much tea or coffee, and those where the only two things I could drink, I'd probably drink more tea than coffee. Yet, I'd miss coffee more, weird, huh?

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It is a bit late (and will probably have to cover next week too, since hopefully I will be in Branson this upcoming Monday), but here is the question of the week. Feel free to respond here or use this as a meme on your blog (please post a link to your entry).

Do you have a digital camera? Do you use it in lieu of a traditional film camera? How many pictures have you taken with it? Do you stick to the highest possible quality or do you lower the quality to get in more pictures?

Yes, I do. I have a Sony Cybershot DSC-S72, which is a 3.2 megapixel camera with manual adjustments (shutter speed and aperture). It has, for all intents and purposes, replaced my little Kodak APS (Advanced Photo System) camera, not only because it has more features, but also because I can take as many pictures as I want without development costs.

I'm not sure how many pictures I've taken, but I wouldn't be surprised if it is over 5,000 in the last two years. On a trip, I might take 700 or more photos, only stopping when I fill up my four 128 meg memory cards (obviously, yes, that means I don't take pictures at the full rated quality most of the time… I usually opt for 1280×1024 res.). That leads me to my one complaint with the camera. Sony seems to have decided that Memory Sticks have hit the end of the road and the company is now only creating cards larger than 128 megs in the new Memory Stick Pro format, which is incompatible with older Sony cameras. This means I can't get a 256 or 512 meg stick that would truly allow for convenient use of the 3 megapixel CCD.

Overall, though, I love the camera. Only Sony's prosumer V series cameras come in the same heavy duty, SLR sized form factors now, so I'm glad I got mine while they offered it. I like the little compact cameras, but there is something satisfying about holding a decent sized camera that fits one's hands just right. The other big advantage to the full sized camera is that I can screw on an adapter to fit on standard 52” lenses, etc., you can't do that with Sony's heir to the S72.

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