Llama and Lamb

Minimalism is the opposite of the standard blog layout. Blog authors tend to link everything on every page to every other page. I’m trying to reject the 100 person blog roll in the sidebar attitude for something simpler. For the last week, I’ve been burning the midnight oil to consider changes to the Rachel and Stephen blog. I’ve listed some features a blogger might want to add (Twitter mini-blog, expanded footer) and some features he or she might want to remove (sidebar). Discretion that is the essence of design. Read more »

We are waiting on graduate school admissions to decide whether to buy a house which will determine when we are going to Netherlands/Germany for one or two weeks this summer or fall. We really like our missions focused church and have made many friends there –although almost all of them are married with kids so they aren’t able to come over and play board games and such. We are overwhelmed with discussing marriage (at a home group and a church group) and have had arguments created by marital aid books.

A few weeks ago, we had another murder in our apartment complex–but I guess that’s what happens when 50 people party in the street at midnight blasting gangsta rap. My job is going well. I haven’t been super busy recently –which is nice. At night, I’ve been able to work on Rachel’s art website. However, I still don’t have 20 of her college works up on the site. This Saturday I’m doing a presentation for about 20 people on CSS/HTML at BarCampIndy (an adhoc gathering/free seminar). The idea got started by some friends of mine at IndyChristianGeeks.

Much of the popular music that I listen to is art. It may show a perspective often foreign to me: abuse, a yearning to seduce a girlfriend, romantic jealousy, or some sort of conflict. Most art and literature has conflict and thus it is easy to see how popular art has conflict. Recently, I’ve began to realize that some people can relate to the music and that is why it is popular. From a young age, these stories of conflict were just that “stories.” Myths that artists and writers dreamed up–after all I have taken artistic license and thought up many conflicts in my poetry. Some people may not only view it as an object to digest, critique, and learn about a different perspective. This person has conflict in his or her life similar to the content of the song. Women have actually been seduced in the back of cars and men have actually been cheated on by their girlfriends.

A few weeks ago, one of my co-workers said that she was attending the second shotgun wedding of a high school friend at the age of 26. I scoffed and said, “You know there are ways to prevent that.” She replied, “Yeah, get on the pill” when I was referring to abstaining from sex entirely. Is that such a foreign attitude to the masses? I’m not being sarcastic here.

I can respect non-religious couples for not marrying and intending on having long term committed relationship. Why have a religious service if you aren’t religious? What I can’t imagine is wanting to have sex without intimacy–with someone you don’t want a long term relationship with. How can you be attracted to someone that you don’t want a committed relationship with?

I’ve always seen one night stands were accidents, a bi-product of drinking, drugs, or venting for stress (e.g.- “I’m going to distract myself from my problems with this guy”). I can understand (albeit, not condone) how someone can want to view pornography can be for educational purposes–curiosity while they are still sexual virgins. But why would you want to after you have began having sex? I guess that maybe there are people that want unattached sex. That attitude seems highly irrational and it’s hard to imagine that it’s anything more than just fun and pleasurable.

As of January 2008, the most open field for presidential candidates in many, many years–especially on the Republican side. So you have been browsing around YouTube watching presidential candidates debate? A few years ago, I never thought I would get “news” through YouTube. Of course, I’m hesitant to call political debates news. News it seems should be more objective/factual and less about charisma and being well-spoken–not that people in charge of “nu-clu-er” weapons shouldn’t be well-spoken.

So if you are trying to past the he said/she said (hey, I can actually say that now) and base your vote on consistency (what politicians were saying and voting for before they were running–yes, I know some of you may say that some candidates were always planning on running this year), I recommend issue oriented websites. One of my favorites is OnTheIssues.org. It’s been around since 2000. Actually, coverage of the 2000 election and a large amount of information on the 2004 election is still on the site. The conclusions and scale/chart at the bottom is a little over the top as if a vote on one issue makes one +/- 3 points on a scale.

Do you have a better political issue comparison web site to recommend? How do you get around the political rhetoric without letting the candidates or interest groups influence you?

Citi’s Thank You Network: All credit card reward points are not equal

Not that you don’t already know that credit card companies are sneaky. I generally prefer Chase over Citi for their rewards. Why?

First of all, I can get a $50 check for my 5000 reward points at Chase.

Second, a $50 gift card at citi’s ThankYouNetwork is 6000 points. That means if you currently get 1% back, you aren’t really. You are getting less than one percent back in rewards. You are getting 5/6ths of a point every time you pay a dollar on their credit card, because its costs 6000 points to redeem a $50 gift card.

Is there anyway around this? Yes, only redeem your points for gift cards that are in the 1/100 dollar/point ratio:

Thank You Network Gift Cards with 1/100 dollar/point ratio:
1/100 dollar/point ratio

• $100 WaldenBooks’ Gift Card
• $100 Macy’s Gift Card
• $100 Eddie Bauer Gift Card
• $100 Sears Gift Card
• $100 JCPenney Gift Card
• $100 Dillard’s Gift Card
• $100 Overstock.com Gift Card
• $100 Chili’s Grill & Bar Gift Card
• $100 Bennigan’s Gift Card
• $100 Romano’s Macaroni Grill
• $100 Applebee’s? Gift Card

You can even get a discount on the $100 Lands’ End Gift Card and the $100 L. L. Bean Gift Certificate, they are only 9,000 points each. If you go with a lower amount, you aren’t getting your full points worth.

I really wish the $50 Panera Card was 5000 points or that there was a $100 option. Chase has the $50 Panera Card for only 5000 points.

Rachel and I are both small bargain shoppers–no, not small-bargain, we are actually short and have small stomachs. Whenever we eat out, we spend less than $15. We often split an entree and both feel bad for our servers, because if we were bigger, hungrier, less frugal, we’d spend $30 to $40. Which leads me to ask the question. . . can people actually afford to buy alcohol with their meal? Do they just make more than us or are they in credit card debt? Maybe they only eat once in a blue moon and only twice in a purple one. I just don’t know. And who orders appetizers? Are our over-sized first-world heaping platters of food and unlimited bread not enough for some people?

Today due to the weather, Rachel and I were the only guests in a server’s section–at lunch–on a Saturday–before Christmas–in front of a mall. I felt bad, so I tipped 30%, but that’s still only a few bucks on two orders of soup and salad. So if you are a server and have served us, we’re sorry that we are gluttons and we didn’t spend more and therefore tip more.

You could ask (and feel free to, just do it quietly if there are people around) is the problem actually how much Rachel and I eat? Or is the problem the tipping method we use? Should there be a minimum tip? What if only one people was eating out?

Rachel has had headaches and sinus congestion for over a week. On Friday, I started having cold symptoms. Saturday was full of sneezing, tissue, and that trickle down your nostril feeling that makes you shake like a wet dog–and oh was I a wet dog while doing errands. I took Mucinex and six or seven Sudafed tablets with an hour of each other. Not much effect. On Saturday night, I remembered that in high school I used to take NyQuil instead of Sudafed. My symptoms went down that night, thankfully. Now, I’m just congested all the time.

An E-trade Complete Savings account has an APR of 5%. That’s practically a CD rate right now. A typical money market account is probably 3% to 4%. One percent of $5,000 (a typical money market account’s minimum balance) is $50. That’s fifty more dollars a year in interest. If you are considering keeping your savings in one bank and checking at another, the thing to remember is how much electronic transfer (ACH) you can make daily or monthly. My banks limit is $5,000 daily and $25,000 monthly. Like any savings account you are limited to

E-trade is running a promotion on their savings accounts $25 bonus on new accounts with a deposit of $1.

“The night sky is an infinite viola and the milky way is a bow and the universe is a carousel of flowing manes and fiery eyes”

The above is from this delightful and mentally delicious nugget commenting on this Christmas season from Over The Rhine. Over the Rhine is a wonderful wife and husband band that straddle the sacred and the profane. Rachel and I have been listening to their 1996 Christmas release, The Darkest Night of the Year. Rachel asks me a few questions about the album, and I found the commentary above. I would repost the entire letter, but it is a graphic.

By the way, they also have a new Christmas album out, Snow Angels.

By now, you’ve heard of Mama Bell’s upgrade to DSL called U-Verse. I-verse must have been taken. I had originally called AT&T to downgrade from Comcast cable to Yahoo! DSL in order to save $350 a year, but the salesman said there was a $150 cash back rebate for new subscribers to U-verse–without a contract. That was too good to resist. so I’m not paying five dollars more per month than cable internet for a slower connection of 1.5Mbps, but with $150 in my pocket. After all, I can always cancel and go back to cable for a $30 installation.

As a side note, they always ask me how much TV I watch–which I chuckle at and say, “I can’t remember the last time I watched TV and when I do it’s usually C-SPAN/Book-TV.”

On a separate note, I just got this notice today. E-trade is running a promotion on their savings accounts $25 bonus on new accounts with a deposit of $1. I love getting mail. . .