My Experience as Youth Pastor

So this week I am officiating my first wedding. I am really looking forward to this but I'm also very nervous. I really want the couple to work out but there isn't any way for me to ensure that beyond counseling and Godly encouragement and prayer. Having done all of that I think the most important thing is to geek out the rehearsal and revel in the geek wedding that could have been.

First and foremost you must know that I was asked because of who I am and not the title I hold. Any happenings that happen will be done with utmost respect to the sanctity of the union and the couple who will be joined in marriage.

That said, I will be reenacting the wedding scene from the Princess Bride during the rehearsal. This is a must. If you are not familiar with the scene please watch the clip. If you are familiar with it you will want to watch anyways because it is amazing.

Now that is about geek level one. It isn't enough. I'll be meeting with the bride today to discuss the vows and order of service. I'm hoping she'll go with some of my suggestions. Let me know what you think?

Star Wars

DC Comic

Gamer

Klingon

All out Geek

Labels: Geek Alert, Geek Facts, geeky

A couple weeks ago I bore witness to a dream of geek culture in a merger of science and art in one t-shirt.

A couple years back the guys at Think Geek created a prank product for April Fool's day (a day I truly love) called the "Personal Sound Track" shirt. This prank gained a huge fan base and so they made this shirt a reality. Thus the interactive sound shirts were born. From this came the "Electronic Drum Kit" shirt. Certainly everyone who has ever sat in church beating out mad drum rolls on the seat in front of them would desire this shirt, but some of us need more. Fortunately Think Geek has come through. Witness the guitar shirt.

Labels: Geek Alert, Geek Facts, geeky

Yeah so I am just all over the place right now. Fridays I was trying to bring a little more geek, but sadly I started a new series last week instead of the geek because I'm feeling lazy. So now I bring you the geek update on Tuesday. Getchergeekon. (seems like there is probably a convention out there with this name. If not I call dibs because there needs to be one)

I recently, as in last night, found out about a really frigintacular music resource called Groove Shark. Basically it is a music database much like what you might have in the form of your personal music collection. The difference is this system has way more songs than I do and can find new music based on what I am listening to. I've used a few other resources like this but generally they start making recommendations that are nothing like what I want to listen to.

So far this has been a much better engine for finding new songs than other resources I've used in the past. As you add more songs to your listening queue and rate them gets smarter with the "you might like" songs it plays.

It also has some other nice features. There is an online community where you can find and follow other users and shape your listening based on their choices too. It also integrates with various other social networks. You can share what you are listening to via twitter, for example.

The best thing is it is free. They have a small ad banner but whatever. You can also pay $3/month or $30/year for VIP status which gets some extra benefits and removes the ads. This is a really good price if you can't stand even a small add banner and want some of the extra features like first selection of new songs and extra themes.

I'd like to see a few other options, but right now it is clean and works well so I'm not sure if it is a good idea to try and make many changes. One of the things I really think that someone needs to figure out is a mood based play list. I can do it manually but I want to have something a little more intuitive. Basically a way of saying what kind of mood I'm in and then the system noting what songs I start selecting and then making recommends based on that. Next time I select the same mood it should know what I'm interested in listening too and make it happen.

I'd also like a preview of some of the VIP features to see if it is worth my money, but over all I'm really happy with the service, so check it out.

Labels: Geek Alert, Geek Facts, Geek Friday, geeky, Music

Hey, if I'm going to be talking about all things geek then I need to make a few things clear right up front. Geek culture is vast. I am generally a techno-geek but I'm also a language geek, a comic geek, a film geek, and several other categories of geek. Generally you can be a geek in almost every niche of culture by fully investing in that niche. However, for the purpose of this blog I will be using a more mainstream version of the term, so geekiness is measured by the technology invested or referenced as well as the potential for science. Science Fiction would fit in this category as well even if there is no basis in real science because I am not so concerned about real science, just potential for science.

Now that we are all on the same page, how does a geek cook? There are the old standby geek meals, which include pizza (frozen or delivered), microwave burritos, ramen noodles, and energy drinks, but many geeks want more. I, for one, believe that geek food can be good food. To that end I am gracious for Good Eats with Alton Brown. He brings geek chique to the Food Network. You can tell the difference between standard cooking and geek cooking because of the science and the tools used. In most episodes processes are described in science terms as well as anthropology and other useless information for actually making the meal. Useless to any non-geek but for the geek elite it is as precious as the food that nourishes us. Beyond that the tools used are impressive and diverse. It is nice enough that there are plenty of standard tools, but the geek code holds that if you can make something better to do a job then don't buy something to do the job. Alton often builds pretty amazing devices to do his cooking and also finds ways to incorporate power tools, which is a win.

Of course, geek cooking doesn't end with a single show. There are a multitude of gadgets out there for the geek in us all. There are fridges with tvs in the door and amazing new technology like the anti-griddle. These might be a bit out of the budget for your average geek, but that doesn't mean we have to go without. The nice thing about being a geek is the sheer volume of useful but no longer used gadgetry in the world. For example, I have a dead laptop with a perfectly good LCD screen. A little bit of dremel work, soldering, and hacking can result in a refrigerator with a TV in the door. If I have a serious need for an anti-griddle I could rig of something pretty quickly with an aluminum plate, and a modified window air conditioner.

Geek cooking is about the technology but also about making things happen and that is why I'm proud to be a geek. I'm feeling inspired to turn my fridge into a tv right now, I wonder if my wife will let me?

Labels: Geek Alert, Geek Facts, Geek Friday, geeky

At some point in the past I was posting 6 days a week and had a nice theme going for each day. Then the summer happened. Now I'm trying to recover a bit and start my regular posting again. I could go back and see what Friday is all about but I decided that I'd rather start something new. I have claimed to be a geek, even using it in my name, but I spend so little time showing off my geek. Ok sure the Fellowship of the Travelling Smarty Pants crew knows of my geek-fu as I have handled many fixes for them, but it is time to let the geek make regular appearances. In that vein I will be trying to highlight some specific piece of geekdom each and every Friday.

Instead of picking a specific gadget or software today I think it would be great to point to one of the best sources of geekitude on the internet, Think Geek. This website has some of the best geek apparel and gadgets. I have a few items and a wish list a mile long. Some of the offerings can be enjoyed by anyone regardless of their geek-belt degree, but many of the items couldn't be understood without fairly advanced geek-fu. A great example is a shirt I love which reads "There are 10 kinds of people in the world, those that understand binary and those that don't." Now if you have a sufficient geekabulary then you will get the shirt. If you are my mother-in-law you will laugh because you think you get it, but the joke is not, "only 10 people in the world understand binary." Since I am in the category that understands binary I get the shirt and I also get the binary clock that is sitting on my entertainment center.

I hope you will find this merchant of geekery as enjoyable as I do.

Labels: Geek Alert, Geek Facts, Geek Friday, geeky

I just found my next geek project (after the t-shirt cannon). I have some of the components already and I'm really interested in getting the other pieces for this. If all goes well I'll have a 32 gig solid state hd to run linux off of. It will be nice and portable as well as cheep and fast.



Not into geeky stuff? You'll have to excuse me then because ... well I am a geek.

Labels: Geek Alert, hard drive, mod job

I like the show Chuck. It is funny and geeky. If that isn't your cup of tea then why are you reading this because that is what I aspire to be. The show, like another of my favorite shows Psych makes regular 80s references, but unlike Psych they are often pretty subtle.

Last night Chuck, who is an accidental spy, is pretending to be a Dr. while checking out a patient who is believed to be a member of a terrorist group based in Afghanistan. He meets the patients personal physician and goes through this "Doctor, Doctor, Doctor, Doctor, and Doctor" sequence that is almost identical to the one in Spies Like Us. More than just the line is the concept. He is told to operate on this terrorist, which he can't do, at one point just like the movie. Also in the movie it is a member of the Taliban, which we all know now are terrorist (freedom fighters depending on the side you are on) in Afghanistan.

Anyways, to top it all off Chevy Chase is going to be on next week's episode, so I'm feeling very much like I picked up on some very intentional and subtle writing. Yep I'm a geek, but if you are shocked and surprised ... then again I ask, why are you here?

Labels: Geek Alert, Geek Facts

A month ago I posted a geek alert about multitouch surfaces. In one of the comments I said, "With a little tweaking you can combine ir sensor technology and a projector to create this kind of interactive surface on any wall. With a little more work you can make those interactive surfaces follow you from room to room and rotate to any wall in whatever room you are in. You could even "send" you screen around the room by passing it from one person to another."

I have seen the various kinds of technology that would be required to make this happen but today I have seen them combined. Below is the video on this. I"m not saying my comment gave someone the idea, but it is really cool that I mention it about the time they are filming this. Anyways, this kind of technology is right around the corner and the ways that these things can and will be used are very exciting. Like I said above, imagine using it to pass notes around when brain storming. You could write on a piece of paper then pull that paper off the pad and make a pass gesture and everyone in the room will get your completed idea. School use will also be incredibly useful allowing for each student to have displays that can be wirelessly moved up to the board or turned in. Fill out a scan-tron and when you are done the computer automatically computes your score before you leave the class.

Enjoy

Labels: Geek Alert

I just posted on an article I read so I'm scheduling this one for tomorrow because Katdish can't keep up. (Happy now kat?)

SciFi is changing the name of their channel. It will now be SyFy (yeah you thought the Fy was for something else. Dirty dirty minds need to be cleaned with soap and a pressure washer). In this article they say that the name SciFi is too geeky.

I have several problems. First this is the age of the geek. Look at the most popular shows on TV right now. Geeked out TV. Look at the increasing market for video games and comic based movies. Geek culture has taken over and the flag ship is turning from its geek heritage? Someone needs to fire that PHB (Pointy Haired Boss from Dilbert) before they run the entire channel into the ground. (Yep I held that metaphor till the end. You didn't think I had it in me did you?)

My second complaint is, if anything, SyFy is more geeky because it embraces the web 2.0 look and feel. They are trying to feel more like iPod which is yet another example of the supremacy of geek culture. The problem is that geeks will see that they are abandoning them in their statements and be less forgiving in the reality that the new name is even geekier (holy freak my spell check accepted geekier as a word). If you don't believe me read the comments on this article.

Remember the geek shall inherit the earth. Or something like that. The regular Wednesday follow-up post will come later in the day.

Labels: Geek Alert, Geek Facts, geeky

I don't know if you've seen the 30 second bunny movies but they are hilarious. They remake movies in 30 seconds with animated bunnies. You'd think the title would have given that away but lots of people don't see ti coming. He killed me with a sword, ow weird is that?

Anyways, there is something else I love. Yep Chad Vader. If you didn't watch the first season go find it on YouTube. I could give you a link but I'm being lazy right now and think it will help you build character to find it yourself. Just like when I was a kid and didn't know the definition of a word so my parents made me look it up in a dictionary. I wonder if kids still do that or if they jut type it in Google?

Wow I better post this soon before the ADD takes over completely.



Oh look a hummingbird.

Labels: Geek Alert

An update on how awesome my daughter is. She has recently started using the computer. We got a Charlie Church Mouse Kindergarten program form my mother-in-law and decided to let her start playing it earlier this week. She watched me start it one time and now we have to watch her because she will hop on the computer and start the game whenever she feels like it.

Now she is browsing the internet. I mean as I type she in cruising around Disney online. I put her on the page then went to get something before trying to find something she could do and a minute later (maybe less) I walked back in and she was in Pixie Hollow. I had to setup her account because she can't spell (she is only 5 after all) but then she started making her own fairy all by herself.

Yep, she is my mini geek. Now I just need to go find her a mini geek tee-shirt.

Found it

Labels: Geek Alert, geeky, My Kids