Carol Rutz’s Annexe

Blessings on your birthday, from one Carol to another.

This week, I’m whipping up a Dreamweaver 9 template for my class project. The time is spent nesting containers within containers…and wondering when things will work together and look decent when the dust is settled.

The Annexe blog will not be perching on the main page, but will be under a subsection. Will be keeping the blog format, though.

Stay tuned.

Friday’s performance of Video Games Live was wonderful, despite the flaws of the Heartland Choir during the Sonic Medley and that sound interference during the Civilization segment.

What really stole the show was that Mario Brothers piano solo. Very talented guy that really deserved those two standing ovations.

I wish that they can do Bubble Bobble, which is one of my favorite games when I was growing up. I would make up those five letter codes in an attempt to earn more lives or skip several levels. More likely than not, it leads me to the final level with the “bad ending”.

Someone has taped a game play of the pirated version of Bubble Bobble. You can tell that it’s pirated…”Bobble Bobble”! If you have a lunch break, watch this and have a good meal.

You know…you are beyond help if you recognized that the guy playing the guitar is wearing a Threadless shirt.

Been working at my Java and Dreamweaver assignments, plus been following with the Paul fanboys. It has been a busy busy week!

After Super Tuesday, Preggie and I were talking about the election, and we came to the conclusion that regardless of the outcome, this is only Chapter 1 of the r3VOLution. It begins with the individual and it extends up to communities and larger bodies. After all, Dr Paul subtitled his book “A Manifesto”. He knew that after 2008 there is much more work to do, and he’s leaving us instructions.

This thread at Ron Paul Forums is quite good with an analysis of what we could have done better. The hard-core fanboys were snippy and downright vehement at the idea of such a thread; I respectfully disagree with them. It is a sign of maturity to regularly take a hard look at ourselves and the campaign and focus on what we can do in the future.

Betty asked me about the upcoming Video Games Live concert, and I realized that I forgot the description! Sorry.

You take an orchestra, and they play the themes from various video games from the earliest to the most recent. Add video clips from the games and add lots of light and bunch of geeky stuff. That is what Video Games Live is about.

Better yet, here is a promo video that fully explains it better than I can:

Imagine my joy in finding out that the Fort Wayne Philharmonic will be doing this, for one night only at the Embassy! I get my geek fix, and the Prediger gets to go to the Philharmonic.

The Prediger wanted to attend a concert by our local philharmonic one of these days. “Good idea”, I responded. The question became: What’s available and worth attending? Yesterday, I have found my answer, when I picked up my espresso and looked at the local weekly events paper.

Got our tix already!

From the bowels of Fark and the Independent of Ireland, this article from Mr O’Connor.

Mr O’Connor’s idea of responsibility is a myth, and an self-aggrandizing one at that. All of his hard work will merit bupkis in heaven. Obviously, he expects a reward because he is not like the other youth who do play video games and remained at their parents’ home due to one reason or another. Surely, he already got his reward.

Procreation and getting hitched does not mean guaranteed responsibility; anyone can rub two… errr, organs together and produce a sprog. Getting married to the WRONG person is always a BAD idea. Going over in financial debt because of starting out is not swell. I can tell you about one of my sibs, who after her graduation with a BA in social work…got an offer to work for 8 dollars per hour…in Los Angeles, where you are lucky to get a halfway decent apartment for 900 dollars per month.

For a while, she remained with her family, helps pay for the food and rent, and got a more decent job with better pay. She saved up and is now independent. Is what she did irresponsible and a mark of a “fairly developmentally retarded” human being? As a family, we believe in being financially secure, carrying each other’s burdens until one is ready to take upon the task, and to love each other, improving our lives. To hell with Mr O’Connor’s anemic concept of “responsibility”!

Today is Quinquagesima, the Sunday right before the start of Lent. The Epistle reading, 1 Corinthians 13, has something to say regarding one’s motivation:

If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

The human being has only two true responsibilities: To love God and to love his neighbor as much as himself. Upon this Great Law hangs everything else. And such love is a gift from God, never scrounged up from ourselves. It does not answer the specific preferences of music, the arts, and how a family unit deals with financial challenges.

To Mr O’Connor, I can only offer this lyric from Hank Williams:

Mindin’ other people’s business seems to be high-toned
I got all that I can do just to mind my own
Why don’t you mind your own business
(Mind your own business)
If you mind your own business, you’ll stay busy all the time.