Tom Squared

This is the mantra that goes through my head for 45 minutes straight each Tuesday evening (we TiVo it so I watch it a day late and have no commercials). If you’re not watching it, watch the old episodes and watch it religiously. It is easily my favorite show right now (and I do love Doctor Who (and long term it will always be my favorite), Heroes and Psych a LOT) I repeat it to Erin multiple times, though tonight I’m giving it a break and repeating it to the rest of the world. If you don’t know what it is, Chuck is a TV show on NBC essentially about a Geek Squad guy (the computer tech support from Best Buy ) who gets all of the CIA’s database in his head. Hilarious show with some decent plot and great character development (for the main characters anyway). Set your TiVo or DVR now! I Love Chuck I Love Chuck I Love Chuck I Love Chuck I Love Chuck I Love Chuck I Love Chuck I Love Chuck I Love Chuck I Love Chuck Peace, +Tom

I’ve been starting to use Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) and XAML lately for developing. I still love the Web, but there’s something nice about what I expect is going to eventually supersede HTML in Web Browsers. And no, I don’t believe the browser will go away within the next twenty years, it will merely evolve until we no long user desktops for anything. So, in searching out a problem I came across this great poem. I am definitely not an engineer when it comes to… well… anything. A Poem on XAML We programmers, as you know, have malformed brains. Most of the time we tend to think like engineers, but if you give a regular engineer a new tool, the engineer will say "Thank you for this interesting tool. I will keep it in mind if a problem arises that seems to require it." A programmer, on the other hand, given a tool like XAML, starts to think: "This is very cool. I wonder what I can do with this in t...

Yesterday I finally cut the cord after almost five years. We dropped two of our XM Radios, and are keeping one mainly because of the great deal from XM when we planned to cancel it as well. It’s also because Erin can’t easily get an external music player to play in her Yukon. So, what possessed a die-hard cutting edge guy to drop XM? Honestly, part of it is that XM is nowhere near cutting edge anymore. I really loved having a comedy station, 80’s, Mix, whatever available on the same station anywhere I went. I also liked the new Sirius offering so I could listen to a football game, but, alas, the salesman who said it would be a 50$ difference after our credit was off…  by about $500. And no, his number wasn’t high, so we dropped that when I found out. The real turning point though was that I tried out Pandora Radio again. If you don’t know, Pandora is a free online music service where you pick an artist (say Bon Jovi , because that should be everyone’s first choice) and it pla...

My friend Rob tagged me for a meme. It’s been forever since I’ve done one, mainly since I really don’t like them much. Generally I think that people would find out about me based on what I write in general or in hanging out together. In any case, here’s the meme: Link to the person who tagged you. Post the rules on your blog. Write 6 random things about yourself. Tag 6-ish people at the end of your post. Let each person know he/she has been tagged. Let the tagger know when your entry is up. 1) My favorite season is sweater and turtleneck season (sometime around mid September or October) 2) I’m realizing that I’m an incredible hypocrite, hoping people will live one way without being willing to step out in faith and make drastic changes to my life (and my families) to help people in need 3) I like carrots. Not a little bit, but a lot. Almost every night for the past few years I’ve eaten one or two carrots a night (un peeled) with salad dressing to dip ...

I was having an e-mail conversation with a good friend of mine the other day. Now, e-mail conversations are never good because you only get one side and dialogue really doesn’t exist. We were talking about excess and whether it’s right to spend money on things which a lot of other people would never get. I firmly believe that I should support small businesses, even if it costs more, than the larger chains whenever possible. At the same time, I’m frequenting these places to sustain a lifestyle that is far above what 99% of the world live by. Do I keep buying raw food for my dog because it’s a little bit healthier so I can support the business owner that I like? Do I begin buying more espresso and ices cream because I want to see the owners of the store down the street succeed? I would think things like my fishing trips are more an extravagance than a necessity, and you would be better served by supporting that guide through paying for people who have little resources to go and ...

In college I found a real “relationship” with Jesus. I remember feeling alone and a bit down and was out walking on the beach during a campus ministry retreat. I felt someone’s hand in mine, and we walked together for a while. I could scream about how hard life is, how hard it is to believe in Him, and still feel comforted with the arms around me. From that point on I’ve always recognized that Jesus is my best friend, and always there even if I ignore him for a while. I’m always the most important thing to his heart, just as each of us are. I also recognized, and continue to figure out, what friendship means. If we are best friends, then I really need to make him proud of me, just as I’m proud of him. I need to change my life in a way that people know who my friends are, and why. So, I loved coming across this quote from one of my previous students, but more importantly, my friend, Kate : It suddenly struck me today how personal of a friend Jesus is. Because, okay, I knew he ...

In church today Anne, our priest, made an interesting point about our church during her sermon (her big long talk in between music). When she was determining whether to join us as assistant rector, she called the bishop. The bishop is essentially the representative for our region, kind of like the House representative for your state. He responded that St. Matthew’s gives more to missions, per capita, than any other church he knows of. That in itself is wonderful. We had at least 100 people go on mission trips this year, not to mention the people who worked to organize and make it happen. But it got me thinking about what made this happen. Our missions program happened because one person was passionate about the program and the entire church supported him in that passion. Leaders put money into it and individuals volunteered weeks of their year, again and again. My own role at St. Matthew’s is a great example here. I love teaching and leading. Changing and molding lives i...