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There are days where I want to rename this blog “Tragedy and trials du jour” So Mom’s back in the hospital for tests…she has some sort of “lesion” on her liver. She just had her gallbladder out back in July, but had continued pain during her recovery. I’d really like to list the litany of crap that’s going on in my life right now, but that’s not going to do me much good. I feel like an over-saturated sponge (appropriate, considering), and I’ve lost the ability to internalize anything. ...

Sponges grow in the ocean. That just kills me. I w… Jeff Roberts - Oct 5, 2007 Sponges grow in the ocean. That just kills me. I wonder how much deeper the ocean would be if that didn’t happen. – Steven Wright It is hard I know. If you need anything or just to talk call me or e-mail. I will pray for you all. ...

I know I know…where are freakin’ pics? Well, it’s been crazy at home, and I haven’t had 10 minutes on the computer to upload (insert excuse #2 here….insert excuse #3 here) Summary: She is amazing. We’re massaging lotion into her new skin over the burns 4 times a day, and the areas are pinking right up. She’s learned to locomotor on all fours the right way, and she can blitz across the living room anytime she sees something shiny. She’s one smiling amazing baby girl. ...

Praise God, so glad she’s doing well. Jeff Roberts - Oct 2, 2007 Praise God, so glad she’s doing well.

Wow, if I just throw sex in there, we’ll have all three taboo topics in one, n’est-ce pas? Response to my post yesterday has been overwhelming (well, for me. I’m no Dawn). I think my wife put it best: “Jesus wouldn’t have been [Republican or Democrat]. He was a-political.” Let me say this right up front–Christianity is tremendous. To me, it is Truth personified, the Creator of the universe reaching out to us as lovingly as He can, trying to reconcile the ultimate divide (sin) between Himself and us. ...

I was trying to find a way to word something simil… Jeff Roberts - Oct 2, 2007 I was trying to find a way to word something similar yesterday. Jesus did indeed stand apart from the government - one of the reasons the Jews rejected him was they were looking for a king and that’s not why he came. He didn’t downplay the fact that there were commandments, rules, laws and consequences, and he didn’t say that right and wrong are in the eye of the beholder, or changing at the whim of the culture. ...

Flash of insight I received during the sermon yesterday: Jesus was a Democrat (or, more appropriately, a ‘Liberal’). More specifically, I don’t see any way I could call Him a Republican or a Conservative. This all spills out from our current sermon series on the book of Mark. Mark is (probably) the first gospel to be composed, and it was likely written by John Mark, a disciple of Simon Peter, the guy of whom Jesus said “Upon this Rock (literally Petra == Rock) I shall build my church”. Mark is all business–this is what Jesus said, this is what it means. If something seems unclear or too Judean, he explains it in a parenthetical note. Mark’s the Cliffs’ Notes for Christ. ...

Aww, man! And he might have helped the Samaritans… Jeff Roberts - Oct 1, 2007 Aww, man! And he might have helped the Samaritans sneaking across the border, too! Certainly, there’s “…if any would not work, neither should he eat” (2 Thess 3:10) and other verses that seem Republican-ish. And the far left seems awash in moral relativism at best, whereas God is clearly serious about rules and consequences. ...

(Blathering description of how a device was probably broken, but if it was I had a magic way to fix it ’temporarily') My colleague: “You’re into all that nerdly stuff, arencha?” Yes. Yes I am.

I had some really bad chili Wednesday night at church and…well, let’s just say I won’t be eating chili again for awhile. Maybe ever. I awoke around midnight and began a 36 hour nausea bender, combined with weakness, muscle aches, and general exhaustion. Yep, I was sick. So, Thursday and Friday pretty much didn’t exist, and Saturday. Well, Saturday was hard. No excuses, just…I was not my normal, loving self; I was abnormally self-loving, and that wasn’t cool. ...

disagree. I think Jesus would be a liberal conser… Whitney - Oct 1, 2007 disagree. I think Jesus would be a liberal conservative. Saying “democrat” has no meaning for most of the world, and means something different NOW domestically than it did 100 years ago….but go on…. ‘Liberal conservative’…is that like a ‘drunken teetotaler’? Yeah, I debated saying ’liberal’ or ‘Democrat’, but thought Democrat would have more meaning. ...

I write this in hopes of saving you some time, if you’re looking at MSFT’s new RegisterForPrintAsyncNotifications API (new in Vista and Server 2008). At first glance (and second, and third) glance, this API doesn’t seem to work. It promises to provide asynchronous notifications of state changes to the print objects in the spooler, but how the $#@^ does it work? Let’s look at it more closely. (It’s defined int he file prnasnot.h, if you’ve got your sdk handy. ...

I am using the AsyncUI sample code provided with t… Sangeeta - Apr 4, 2008 I am using the AsyncUI sample code provided with the printer samples. The AsyncUIMessageBox displays correctly on the server when the printer is installed as the local printer on Vista. I cannot get the message box to appaer on the client PC though. The RegisterForPrintAsyncNotifications function on the client PC never returns when a remote printer name is passed to it. The documentation(http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa506182.aspx) suggests that a local/remote printer or server name can be passed to this function. ...

Had to steal this from the whiteboard in my old building. “Potential Mottos for the family crest” Why does this keep happening to me? Again?! Recidite, plebes! Duty, honor, payment We don’t know what’s broke or how to fix it The next one will be normal, you’ll see! Fabricati diem too lazy to work, too nervous to steal we don’t have clue one What, me worry? rex cloaca! Probably our fault ...

Nearly a week on and no update on my daughter. Sorry! As is typical with me, no news is good news–Maria’s Aquacell bandages (think big synthetic scabs) have fallen off, and her torso is healing very well. It’s trending more towards a healthy pink away from the angry red that it was. We’re not so pleased with her leg. Her wound there is still seeping in two places; we’re calling the Dr’s for opinions on that. ...

Just sat through Karl Schoemer’s “The New Reality” seminar. Schoemer, an Indiana-Weslyan University grad (Woohoo!), teaches a tough-love seminar on recognizing change, dealing with your responses to it (Shock, Denial, Identity Crisis, and Search for Solutions), and recognizing positive and negative behaviors associated with it. The overall message is: “Old reality” is dead. The social contract of selling your soul to a company, working there for 30 years and retiring as a good “company man” no longer exists. Each person is responsible for his relative contribution, attitudes, and responses to change. It’s never going back to “the good old days”. Stop having this familial, parent/child attitude towards work. They owe you nothing, aside from a paycheck. ...

Try this Leave it to compsci guys to take all the fun out of “Six Degress of Kevin Bacon”

First of all, let me thank everyone for the outpouring of support we’ve been given! Family, church, friends, and mere acquaintances have all written, emailed, called, and visited. If it takes a village to raise a child, then our real and virtual “village” has closed ranks like I’ve never seen. Maria seems to be getting better. She remains comfortable during dressing changes, and her outer dressings are no longer “dirty” when we change them. Honestly, I think she’s more concerned with eating and playing with toys than her burn at this point. She’s even gotten up on her hands-and-knees to crawl for short distances. ...

At 11am Saturday, while she was out enjoying breakfast at Cracker Barrel with Whitney and her Grandmother Cathy, my daughter Maria was scalded over 10% of her body by a carafe of boiling water. The waitress sat the water too close to her, and she reached out and pulled it onto herself. She was seated in a highchair at the time, and the boiling liquid burned her from the center of her chest to her waist, and the upper part of her right thigh. A nurse behind Whitney directed them the administer first aid, and an ambulance took her directly to the University of Kentucky hospital E.R. ...

Poor baby! Give us a yell if you need anything! Jeff Roberts - Oct 1, 2007 Poor baby! Give us a yell if you need anything! I am so sorry to hear about Maria being hurt. Let me know if you need anything. Update: She’s had a pretty good day today. She’s in pain, but she’s eaten a couple of times and we’ve changed her dressings without causing her too much pain. ...