Chris Poch

Unbelievable. He finished at 9pm tonight. One more video still to come.

http://www.angryman.ca/monkey.html

A Florida judge has ordered two lawyers to play rock-paper-scissors to settle a dispute. Unfortunately, all that was settled was who would pick the location for the deposition. Even still, I think it’s a great caricature of American society.

See the full story at CNN Money.

Last night, I took a detour through downtown DC on my way home from work. Even though it was one of the heaviest traffic nights I can remember, I had a good time downtown. I had dinner at Ben’s Chili Bowl on U Street in the jazz district. Ben’s Chili Bowl has probably the best hot dog I’ve ever had, and you can make it a chili dog with fries and a milkshake for even more eating enjoyment.

After dinner, I drove to West Potomac park, pulled my bike out of the trunk, and enjoyed the national mall and the memorials at dusk. I took several great pictures of the Washington Monument, some of which will likely make the Chris’ best pictures of all time gallery when I get that up. I also enjoyed walking through the FDR memorial after dark. It’s my favorite memorial, and it’s best to see it on a ranger guided tour once it’s pitch black outside.

It was a wonderful evening.  Partly cloudy, but no noticable rain, low humidity, upper 70s.  The only thing that could have been better is if there had been no oak pollen in the air.  Since I realize that my time in this great city may be limited, I’m trying to get the most out of my proximity to the city while I can.  There’s so much that I love about this area, but I don’t know if it’s where I’ve been called to spend the next part of my life or not.

²⁷Why do you say, O Jacob,
and speak, O Israel,
“My way is hidden from the LORD,
and my right is disregarded by my God”?
²⁸Have you not known? Have you not heard?
The LORD is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He does not faint or grow weary;
his understanding is unsearchable.
²⁹He gives power to the faint,
and to him who has no might he increases strength.
³⁰Even youths shall faint and be weary,
and young men shall fall exhausted;
³¹but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength;
they shall mount up with wings like eagles;
they shall run and not be weary;
they shall walk and not faint.
Isaiah 40:27-31

It’s much easier said than done. Honestly, I’d rather do things my way instead of God’s. I’d rather do things when I want to do them, not when God says it’s time.  I have to keep reminding myself that God’s plan is infinitely better than anything that I could imagine, so even if it doesn’t look like it makes sense at the time, I’ll be better off choosing God’s plan.  Think about that today: are you choosing your comfortable plan or God’s adventue?  Even though the right choice is not the safe choice, God will provide for all your needs along the way.

Hope you all had an opportunity to celebrate national doughnut day. I celebrated by bringing Krispy Kreme in to work for breakfast today. Mmmm Krispy Kreme. Okay, I admit it. I’ve had four today.

Yes, I’ve read the book.
No, I haven’t seen the movie (yet).
Yes, I enjoyed it–I’d even recommend it.
No, it’s history isn’t very accurate (including the facts page).
Yes, I tried to write a longer version of this post and the browser crashed (twice).
No, I’m not going to expose all the inaccuracies of the book.

Here’s a really interesting link about why people find The DaVinci Code fascinating.

The DaVinci Code is fiction, but a lot of people believe its inaccurate historical claims. The best look at the claims of the DaVinci code with response that I’ve seen was done by Ken Baugh at Frontline in late 2003. Go here and scroll way down (3rd from the bottom) to the “Beyond The DaVinci Code” series for responses to many of the claims made by the book. Also, if you have specific questions about The DaVinci Code and related topics, feel free to leave a comment and I’ll do my best to answer them.

Tonight, our house’s central A/C unit froze up.  I noticed just after 8pm that it was really hot upstairs.  I checked the thermostat on the first floor, which was reading 80 degrees.  It was set to 72.  The A/C was running hard, but the air wasn’t coming out cold.  I looked downstairs and all the refrigerant lines were iced over.  Even the outdoor valves were iced over.  Quite a feat when it was still close to 90 degrees outside.  After three hours of thawing, I let it run for 25 minutes to see if it was working again.  The temperature was 80 when the time started and still 80 when it ended, so we’ll have to get someone out here to look at it.  It looks like we either have a very dirty indoor coil or a refrigerant leak.  Not fun with the current forecast.  I’m going to sleep in the basement tonight where it’s about 74 degrees at the moment.

I just finished a redesign of the vtONE site. Take a look and let me know what you think. And yes, I borrowed extensively from the recent redesign of this site.

This past weekend, my extended family took a trip to Virginia Beach. Vicki and Jim, my dad’s cousin and her husband, and their daughter Jessica opened up their beach house to my grandpa, my parents, my sister, one of my best friends Michael, and myself. We enjoyed a quick weekend of beach activities with perfect beach weather. It had been years since I had been down to the beach house, which was once my great grandparents’ home, so it was fun to see the old place and get a chance to swim in the beach. I went to the beach last summer, but in my opinion, California beaches are much too cold for swimming.

I also enjoyed getting the chance to spend time with Michael, since I hadn’t seen him since the semester ended.  We took turns burying each other in the sand, like you can see in the picture above.  I still need to get my sister to send me the pictures of Michael buried in the sand.

I need to become more decisive.  I can make big decisions, but I have a very hard time making little decisions and it tends to pull me down and drag me through the mud.  If you catch me being very indecisive, please call me on it.  It’s past time for me to do something about it.