the obligatory catch up post
Posted by jaked | Filed under just4fun
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aloe blacc – good things
so i figure instead of how i usually put what album i’m currently listening to at the bottom i figure i’ll post one of the songs from said album and hopefully you’ll be able to read the entire post before the song is done. that should keep me from rambling on for far too long. so feel free to hit play (it might take a sec to load) and enjoy the tunes while you read. (also for this time it’s a song that i’ve had stuck in my head for a while, don’t read too far into the lyrics and what i’m talking about ok?)
ok now on to business. i realize that i haven’t been doing a good job at keeping up with posting… anything… in way too long. i’m greatly embarrassed, see this is my embarrassed face.
oh also on the way down i totally had the chance to see the sun rise over the grand canyon. it was one of the coolest God moments that i can remember. seeing the sun rise over one of God’s coolest creations was pretty freaking amazing.
after a brief stint in arizona i headed up to colorado for our bi-annual staff conference. it was a pretty great time of fellowship, learning, and not sleeping. i felt like a student again (partly because i was sleeping in a dorm room). late nights talking and just hanging out with fellow staff; days filled with learning, worshiping, and fellowship. the organization announced a name change. (if you’re wondering why i’m not dropping the name it’s because i’m planning on living in some “sensitive” or closed countries where i’ll basically have to, at least from an outside perspective, have nothing to do with un-said organization)
to end off the fun little weekend my very good friend and boss shana and my other good friend (and very first supporter ever) tyler tie the proverbial knot. probably two of the coolest people i know (sorry everyone else, but if you know both of these people… you know). it was a beautiful wedding and lots of fun (as most weddings are).
over the last week or so it’s been back to raising support, making calls, and trying for appointments. i know i’m running long and the song is probably about to end… or you’re at least kinda getting bored, so i’ll wrap up with this… i’ve launched a new ministry website… it’s a tumblr blog and is therefore easy to post pictures to, write short little things, and easily post things i’m reading or hear. i’ll try and update it regularly… it should be easy…er the web address is www.himynameisjaked.tumblr.com
take care and God bless!!!
EPIC WIN
Posted by jaked | Filed under just4fun
i don’t know about you but i’ve had about enough of all this “winning” nonsense. charlie sheen is bat-crap crazy and i just wanted to get that out of the way.
now on to some winning (doh!) of my own. as i’ve written about before, i have a problem. i am an achiever. i love achievements, badges, stickers, and goals. although i have completely given up foresquare (mostly because well really other then getting badges, there really didn’t seem to be much of a point.) i continue to strive to check boxes, get achievements, and get points that really don’t matter. i mean i’ll sit and play the same stupid angry birds level for 30 min just to get all 3 stars.
why is this? i think most of it is kind of a personality thing. i really am goal orientated, it’s just setting goals that i struggle with. google apps and my iphone has been very helpful while i’ve been in the process of raising support. mostly because i haven’t had a computer since august. (until recently) between google docs, google calendar, and evernote i’ve been able to manage meetings and contacts with relative ease. but we could always do better right?
this is where epic win ($2.99 apple appstore) comes in. epic win is an iphone app that turns productivity into a game. and believe me, most days i’d choose playing a game to checking things off my to do list in a heartbeat. in the vein of role playing type games, (like fallout 3, mass effect, final fantasy etc.) epic win takes my to do list and transforms each task into either a feat of strength, a feat of stamina, a feat of intellect, a feat of social, (jury is still out on if this is really a feat) or a feat of spirit. when creating the “quest” you set the level of epicness which in turn determines how many experience points i receive upon completion.
a cool feature that the app has is that it will sync with your google calendar. turning events, meetings, and due dates into tasks and quests. you only have to sync and then update the item with the level of epicness and category. a nice feature. so i know you’re probably thinking “if you spent as much time just doing things on your list as entering them and messing around with silly apps like this then you’d probably get more things done.” to that i would say “nuh uh!” but that’s just me.
as you complete items on your to-do list or quests your character simulates little battles and levels up, unlocking loot and furthering your journey. so probably to most people they feel enough pride in being able to check or cross off something from their list but there’s just something about filling up a progress bar and leveling up that motivates me. only like 3 people are going to get this reference but leveling up in halo 3 really didn’t matter to me at all… but when they instituted that progress bar in halo reach i did challenges and whatnot just to fill that stupid little meter.
so i probably haven’t used the app long enough to determine if this will be helpful in the long term (my character is jake the masculine, a level 2 stooping dwarven nerd-do-well) but i see this as being a fun, nerdy, way to assist me as i get things done. now i’m going to go cross off writing a blog post and get a little closer to level 3. see a game trailer below.
UPDATE: apparently a similar minded app exists on the windows phone 7 platform called noborizaka.
currently listening to:
the devil and God are raging inside me by brand new
obligatory i’m getting older post
Posted by jaked | Filed under just4fun
this cake isn’t a lie…
so here it is… i’m another year older, the wiser thing… i guess we’ll see. so today i am officially old… i’m not talking…
but sometimes it feels like it. so instead of regale (how do you like that use of a thesaurus?) you with stuff about me and how great i am i wanted to take a look at other (more important, probably) things that have happened on december 2nd than my birth.
- december 2nd is the 336th day of the year (337th on leapyear)
- 1981, birth of britney spears…
- 1983 birth of green bay quarterback aaron rogers…
- 1348 death of japanese emperor hanazono…
- 1963 death of famed circus… guy john ringling of famous ringling bro’s circus fame…
- 1993 death of famed colombian drug cartel leader poblo escobar…
- today is international abolition of slavery day
- national day in the uae from uk control in 1971
- uk launch of the xbox 360 in 2005
- 2001 enron filed for
- in 1942 the manhattan project (responsible for the atomic bomb) initiated the first self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction…
- 1927 the ford model a car is introduced
- 1976 fidel castro takes control of cuba
that’s probably enough of that…
one thing that’s been really cool is i got a present (sorta) from a stranger. so this morning the ups man came to my door with a package from someone who i didn’t recognize. i signed for it and took it inside to open it. i figured it’s my birthday, maybe somebody sent me something… it was a small box and when i opened it to my surprise there was a bunch of wadded up newspaper and an iphone… but not just any iphone, it was the one that was pick-pocked from me on the 4th of july while i was down in orlando. along with the phone and newspaper was a piece of folded notebook paper that had one word written on it.
sorry
i have no idea where it came from, i looked up the address on the box and it’s made up and the name doesn’t really pull up any info either. all i can do is thank the mystery person who returned it… whoever you are. i’ve since replaced my phone and at this point don’t know what i’m going to do with this one (are they still selling iphone 3gs’ on ebay?) but i really never thought i’d see this little sucker again.
so anyway i hope you’re having a great december 2nd…
oh yeah, one thing i do have to look forward to today turning 25 is that my car insurance is going to go down woo hoo!!!
