Photo Recap of Summer 2009

As always happens with me, I get tied up doing one thing after another and don’t get to post as much as I’d like. I’ve decided to spend the last two nights working on getting photos online from the last 5 major events of the summer thus far. Rather than do my “12-page thing” where I talk on and on and on about every little detail, I’m just going to recap the highlights of each of the events here and let you see the photos for yourself if you’d like.

 

CompTIA Breakaway 2009

Vegas baby! What else needs to be said, right? CompTIA invited me this year to attend Breakaway in Las Vegas. Amy decided to take off work and fly out there with me, and together we got to experience a lot of “first times” together. First time I’d been to vegas, been to a casino, been on a vacation, gambled, etc. (Seriously, I’ve never taken a vacation really… this was really cool.)

They put us up in the Mirage Hotel and Casino from August 3rd –August 6th. I won’t even go into the horrible US Airways trouble we had… that would set a wrong tone for this post. I’ll just say that the event itself was great. I spent my days going to classes, meeting vendors, making new network connections. Amy spent her days getting nails done, toes done, hair done, trying on $800.00 worth of underwear,  just about everything “done” a girl can get done.  I got to meet Jenn Pyle in person, my Comptia rep. She’s a really cool person. It was great to see Nancy in person, meet Chris Rue, see Amy Luby from MSPSN again, and just an overall awesome experience. Jeff Bartow will always have a special place in Amy’s heart for making the trip fun for her. She was a little lost amidst the 1100 geeks and he gave her someone to laugh with who wasn’t in geek-network mode all the time… although I do think Jenn almost killed him when he kept making jokes during the governor’s speech!

The photos from the event are online at: CompTIA Breakaway 2009

 

Geekend 2009

Wow. Geek Week this year was amazing. This was the third (I think) but the first I’ve ever been able to attend. I really have to thank all the folks that made it possible. You’re all amazing. In short, since I was already going to be in Vegas in August and since Vegas is only 3 hours from Tim, James, Amy L, and Shak, they decided to host Geek Week around my trip, which made it much more possible for me to attend. (Thanks again CompTia for paying for the flights!)

Amy and I hung out at Tim and James’ house from Thurdsday August 6th until Monday August 10th. I had a lot more firsts while I was here. Let me see if I can think of them all:

First time I:

• Went to California
• Got to swim in the Pacific (that’s three oceans I’ve visited now)
• Drove a Mini Cooper (Thanks again Amy!)
• Drove the Sunset Strip WAY faster than legally recommended.
• Went to an off-broadway production. (I saw Hair with the gang. Thanks again whoever came up with that idea.)
• Got to meet all the gang I’ve been gamin with for the last 4 and a half years.
• Had… whatever that stuff Tim made for breakfast was.
• Hung out with 14 people and MY sexual preference was in the minority! (God, the stories I’ll never tell.)
• Went on Vacation with Amy.
• Went to the San Diego Zoo

It was an amazing experience I’ll never forget. Thanks so much to all of you who came. It was really nice to meet everyone, especially Guy’s daughter, Serafina. I’ve heard her in the background talking for years now but I’ve never met her until now. She’s an amazingly cute little girl and awfully sweet. (She definitely gets none of that from Guy.)

The pictures are online at: Geekend 2009

 

Warning: There were 4 cameras going non-stop for 4 days, so there are a LOT of pictures from the weekend. I’ve tried to remove as many duplicates and blurry ones as possible, but I might have missed some. If anyone has any they want removed, just let me know as usual… I’ll take them down.

Note to Flickr Friends: I haven’t tagged everyone in them on Flickr, so if anyone wants to help with that, by all means feel free. There’s about 2000 tags that need to be done but it’s taken me two days just to get them all uploaded and sorted out as it is.

 

Family Reunion:

There’s not a lot to say about a family reunion in the South… it’s basically like Christmas, but hotter. The whole family gets together and we eat lunch, catch up on each other’s lives, take some pictures, then we all head on home. It was great to see everyone, but I wish more had made it. There’s a few I haven’t seen in many years that I’d love to see again, but there’s always next year I guess…

The photos are online at: Family Reunion 2009

 

Hannah’s First MHS Ball Game

My daughter is in eighth grade this year, but along with two of her classmates she was invited to play with the high school band during marching season. It was so very strange to sit in the bleachers with Michelle, EXACTLY three rows higher than we used to sit all those years ago, and watch my child playing with the high school marching redskins. Talk about nostalgia… wow. She did great and so did the team. Manteo opened the season with a victory over the Currituck Knights, and I got to see Hannah’s first marching performance. Very very cool.

The photos are online at:  MHS Marching Band 2009

 

Other Photos:

There are a few more, but it’s not special event or anything. Well, at least it’s no more special than any other day I spend with Amy, which is to say it’s always special. Anyway, here’s some pics of what we’ve been up to at the house this summer:

Photos are online at: Summer 2009

Th-Th-That’s all folks!

Till next time!

First South Bank Facebook

Ok, yeah I tagged this article just for the Google search relevance. Do you know why this Google search brought you here? It brought you here because you’re one of the FSB Admins trying to see what your employees are saying about the bank on Facebook. Yeah yeah, we all know you have a “you can’t talk about the bank on facebook or you’re fired” philosophy. How lame guys! You have an awesome bank and great customer service within your branch locations, but a really really horrible Nazi-esque executive management team.  And yes, you know who you are. Go find something better to do than clog up my server logs with traffic. lol. Don’t you have something more… executive to be doing?

Technorati Tags: First South Bank,Facebook

Windows Vista: Can’t Create New User Account (Fixed)

I ran across this problem the first time ever tonight, so I thought I’d post the fix here in case it can help anyone else.

Problem:

I just got a new laptop and don’t want that “Owner” account. I’d rather create an account for myself, wife, children, whomever. When I click Create New Account, nothing happens.

Why:

There seems to be a glitch with your administrator permissions on your new account. You ARE an administrator but the system isn’t granting you the priveleges you need to perform certain tasks, such as adding new users.

Fix:

Add the new user account manually. RELAX. It’s EASY! It will take you less than 30 seconds.

---

 How:

Step 1:

Click the Start button. You see that little blank box you can type in? Type this command:

netplwiz

Press Enter

---

Step 2:

On the following screen, press “Add” to start creating a new user.

---

Step 3:

Enter the basic user information you want for this user. The only important field is the Username. If you want your user’s folder to be called John’s Documents, then just type John.
Hint: to make it easier if you ever do any advanced network sharing, stick to a one-word username. Something like “The really cool computer dude” is just going to annoy you later down the road.

When you’re done, press Next.

---

Step 4:

Enter the password you want for your new user.

You can choose not to enter a password by just leaving it blank. This means you won’t be prompted to enter your password every time you come back to the computer.

Press Next when done.

 

---

Step 5:

Choose your level of access.

If you’re creating this account because you can’t access the Create New Account feature in the first place, then be SURE to choose “Administrator.” This basically means the new account your making has the permission to do whatever it wants to do. Standard User accounts can’t do certain things because of permissions. If you’re creating this account for your younger child or a guest, then you might want to keep it as Standard User. This means advanced computing features will still need your permission.

Press Finish when done.

 

Now you can log off your computer and log back on as the new user, with all your proper administrative rights restored.

HINT: If, as this article is intended for, you had to do this because you couldn’t perform these actions with your regular admin account, I suggest logging back into the control panel using your new account and DELETE the old owner account you had. You’re never going to use it and it’s broken anyway, so save your computer some headache and get rid of it now.

 

Hope this guide helps someone. Leave a comment if you found this information useful!

 

Technorati Tags: Microsoft,Windows Vista,UAC,User Account Control,Create New User,Create Account,Add User,Can't,Cannot

Methodist vs Baptist

(Let me start this by saying that I don’t believe for one moment that there is an issue about “methodists versus baptists” in any warlike or affronting sense. I chose the title of this article simply because of the Google Search relevance.)

 

Introduction:

The foundations for me writing this article are too many to list and might would offend some, turning them away from the content and focusing them instead on my personal beliefs. Rather than explain them here I’m just going to begin by saying the discussion has come up lately often between “Flavor 1” and “Flavor 2” of Christianity and rather than speaking out of turn on something I’m not educated in, such as Lutheranism, I’ll just voice my thoughts on the flavors I DO know.

Why this is important to me:

A friend of mine, who recently got saved, was talking to me about Christianity, asking questions, and just generally discussing the concept. (this is before he got saved.) In his questions, he mentioned that he had recently been talking to a person about it, talked to that person’s pastor about it, and he was starting to form opinions on the matter that I felt might solidify into concrete beliefs that just might shape the future of his Christian life. Anyone who is familiar with me knows that I am opinionated anyway, overly much so, and because of that I was hesitant to say anything, but the conviction of my feelings on the matter convinced me to speak up and be sure he understood the true meaning of salvation, of being a Christian, of what it involves, what is expected, etc. As I thought about it I was suddenly worried that if I didn’t take the time to tell him right then what I thought he needed to know, that he might instead accept the other things he was hearing as “gospel” and form a belief structure around them that would be (pardon the phrase) incorrect.  If there is one thing you don’t want to get wrong, it’s the eternal status of your immortal soul. God doesn’t give us a do-over. We don’t get to try it again or pick door number three if we get it wrong in our lives.  We have the manual (the Bible) and we’re instructed to read it and follow its teachings.

So, it all began with “Well, Tommy, what IS the difference between your religion and Methodists? Oh no.. here we go I thought. The Carolina baptist redneck is going to have to explain christianity and as soon as I mention the word Baptist, all credibility is going to go out the window. The truth is, many people I’ve spoken to stop at the word “Baptist” and start thinking snake-charming, Bible-beating, unorthodox heathen rednecks. This of course offends me.. as it would you were your religious beliefs summarily cast into a melting-pot of others that had so recently come under fire from media in recent decades.

Rather than tell the whole story here, I’m going to instead outline the differences in what I believe and what Methodists believe.

 

What am I?

I am a fundamental independent Baptist.

What does that mean?

Skipping the entire history lesson, it means two things:

1. Fundamental: We believe the Bible. All of it. Cover to cover. We believe it is the unadulterated, infallible word of God.
2. Independent: We are part of no coalition, no group of churches, and our pastors are elected by the congregation and God alone.

These two things separate us from the other flavors of Baptist that have spread throughout recent history.

Why is the distinction important?

The distinction of Fundamental Independent Baptist is important because there are many flavors of the Baptist faith that are so far removed from the original new testament doctrine, that they might as well change their name to Methodist, or some other variation, rather than call themselves Baptists at all.

 

So, what separates Baptists from Methodists

 

Doctrinal Discipline:

Methodists: The Methodist religion tends to have a more “loose” translation of the Bible and from that tend to practice some things that baptists wouldn’t.

Baptists: Tend to believe the Bible exactly and without altering the meaning to what they feel is more accepted in modern society. Example: Methodist churches tend to have women preachers, where Baptists usually won’t. They will have women teachers, but not preachers. (This particular practice is something you won’t ever seen in a Fundamental Independent Baptist church, but in recent years has become accepted in some Baptist churches.)

 

Security of the Believer:

Methodists: Believe you can lose your salvation.

Baptists: Believe in once saved, always saved, often called “Security of the Believer.”

 

Baptism (the process):

Methodists: practice baptism by immersion, sprinkling, and immersion.

Baptists: practice only immersion.

 

Baptism: The meaning

Methodists: They baptize ay infancy and then later in life as an adult. They baptize infants to protect them and assure they enter heaven if they die young.

Baptists: Only baptize once and it’s usually only confession youth or adults. They believe a person must know what baptism symbolizes and choose to do it of their own will as a profession of faith. The death of a young child is covered under the idea of the “age of accountability” which is a completely different subject altogether.

 

Structure:

Methodists: Their preachers are sent from a governing board to direct a church, not elected by the church. They answer to others, to bishops, and to a governing body.

Baptists: Their preachers are usually selected by the congregation; the belief being that God will send them the right man to lead their church and they’ll know it when they’ve found him. (I say usually here because some Baptists are fundamental but not Independent. The “independent” means there is no other governing body over a church except God, meaning no conventions or other affiliations through which practices are outlined or defined.)

 

A personal thought on preaching differences:

I can’t vouch for this from any reference in scripture or doctrine of either religion, so understand that this is only my experience. Compared to some I’ve experienced much while against others I’ve experienced very little, so take this with a grain of salt. My biggest complaint against some religions (and I include Methodists in this, not as an offront, but only as what seems to be factual based on my experience) is that they only preach God’s Love. I haven’t ever seen anyone come out of a Methodist sermon feeling “talked down to” or scolded, or angered. They tend to preach all the wonderful parts of God and leave out the uncomfortable parts they don’t like. (They are not at all alone in this. Many religions do this same thing, some baptist churches I’ve been to seem to be this way too.)

Baptists (most of ‘em) tend to get the opposite reaction, often being called “Fire and Brimstone” preachers because of the veracity of their sermons. Baptists DO preach God’s love, but it is my understanding that we are to use the Bible as a rule-book, an instruction manual, and if you can spend your entire Christian life without ever learning that you’re doing something wrong, then you’re not hearing ALL of the word of God. You’re not hearing the things you’re doing wrong, not being taught what is right. It’s like taking a test and always making an “A” because they take off the questions that you didn’t like and got wrong.

We all make mistakes, and it has been my experience that Baptist preachers seem much more like a father, and less like a jovial uncle, which is what I tend to relate Methodists to. Everyone likes the jovial uncle. He gives you gifts, tells you what a good boy or girl you are, and pats you on the back for your good deeds. The father figure loves you just as much, but has to be stern when you’ve made mistakes. It is the job of a pastor to teach and to guide and in doing that they are GOING to offend you from time to time. Happens to me all the time. I often get reminded of the things I do that I’m not supposed to do. That’s how it’s supposed to be. If I’m never told it’s wrong, how will I know not to do it? When is the last time YOU got scolded at church? If you’ve never been scolded then you’re not hearing ALL the Bible, just the feel-good parts that people want to share… something to think about I hope.

 

Technorati Tags: Christianity,Baptist,Fundamental,independent,methodist,united methodist,religion,doxology,dogma,rules,practicing,faith,differences,catholic,church.

Roman Road to Salvation

I was amazed when I started searching this for a friend that the Roman Road wasn’t online in any concise location I could find. So, here is it, for those who want it:

The Roman Road

Romans 3:23

Romans 6:23

Romans 5:8

Romans 10:13

Romans 10:9,10

 

The Entirety:

Romans 3:23   For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;

Romans 6:23   For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord

Romans 5:8   But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

Romans 10:13   For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

Romans 10:9   That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.

Romans 10:10   For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

 

What IS the Roman Road?

I am neither a bible scholar nor a preacher, so I’ll lay this out only in the simplest of terms. The roman road is NOT the “way” to salvation, for only God’s grace provides salvation. The roman road is a set of verses set down in the book of Romans in the new testament. The verses provide a roadmap for HOW to be saved; they tell you the things you have to understand, believe, and do to be able to receive the gift of salvation.

Basically they provide you with the most fundamental building blocks required for you to be saved.

Romans 3:23: Understand that we are all sinners and none of us deserve heaven, no matter what we “do.”

Romans 6:23 Understand that we are all bound for hell and only through Christ can salvation be attained.

Romans 5:8 Believe that A) Christ is the holy son of God, perfect in all ways, and that B) He was sent to die as repayment for all the sins we may ever perform in this life on earth.

Romans 10:13 That to receive salvation you have to Ask God for it.

Romans 10:9,10 You have to confess to God all these things and BELIEVE it in your heart.  The last verse is a reminder: Your heart HAS to believe it, and your mouth HAS to proclaim it. (Also called the Profession of Faith in some churches.)

 

Other Reference Material:

If you’re looking for a good bible search engine, check out the following two sites:

KJVBIBLE.NET – Online King James Bible (searchable)

GODSVIEW.COM – Online King James concordance (see every time a word or phrase is mentioned in the bible.)

 

Technorati Tags: Christianity,Salvation,Bible,Christ,Jesus,God,Roman Road,Path to Salvation