Guitar sold

I sold my Yamaha APX guitar. It was a sentimental time for me, as I have so many memories wrapped up in it. I bought it in the summer of 2000 at Mars Music for $850. That is the last time I paid that much for an instrument.

But the Yamaha has become my less favorite guitar in the last two years. The sound technicians and band have preferred my Alvarez, which has a bigger body, even though it is not as nice as the Yamaha. And I have preferred the bigger sound as well.

I was having a tough time with it, but I have nowhere to place the guitar in the house. And I haven't been playing it lately. (But it was still tough to let go!) So I'm glad that God brought along the right buyer. This man hardly looked me in the eye, but told me how he hasn't played guitar for 6 years because of a wrist problem. But he got good insurance and has a new wrist. He only plays guitar for worship. And he lives just a couple of blocks away from our house. The fact that he was dead set on worship was comforting, because my only purpose for the guitar was worship as well.

An interesting thing is that he never picked up the guitar itself, never asked if it had any defects. I'm pretty sure he would have bought it in the case, without ever looking at it. He just was absolutely positive that this was what he wanted.

Best of February 2010

Again, the best of two months ago!

Pic of the month: From the Indianapolis Museum of Art.

Best Movie That I Saw for the First Time: Murder on the Orient Express

Best Book I Read for the First Time Cosmos

Best Restaurant Dined in for First Time Genghis Grill

Best online video I watched for the First time: Loop the loop stunt

Movie Review: Avatar 3D IMAX

This is the 2nd movie we saw in the theaters in 2010... Shattering our trends from the last two years. Which were 1 and 0 times. We kinda wanted to see Blind Side as well, but didn't get around to it.




I'm not competely sure if IMAX is much better than a regular screen, but we thought we'd go for the best.

I enjoyed all of the special effects of Avatar. Sometimes I felt like I could reach out and touch the things that were seemingly right in front of my nose.

The story of Avatar is quite ridiculous. Spoiler alert! The modern world for whatever reason have become evil, hungry for resources, and not at all interested in cool looking aliens. They have devoted incredible scientific resources to making and training alien clones to learn about the alien culture. However, the aliens are already distrustful of the clones because the clones obviously don't fit it. This whole time, they were just going to blow up the aliens anyway, so I'm not sure why they went through all of that cloning effort. Anyway, a clone ended up falling in love with an alien, and vice versa, but betrays her anyway, and then he becomes their savior and betrays humans. The humans are evil except for the scientists.

I appreciate the movie and hope it opens up the door for more great movies, even ones with plots that make sense.

Book Review: The Worst Hard Time

This was Courtney's birthday book for 2010 - I read this book for her birthday.

The Dust Bowl is considered to be the worst natural disaster in American history, according to the book. It lasted several years, and also happened in the midst of the Great Depression.

The problems with the land were mostly due to a wheat boom in the late 20s, where the land was ripped up for farming. Then the ecosystem that took thousands of years to develop was thrown off, and Indians who knew how to survive on the Plains were driven out.

Most people actually stayed on the Plains during this time, because they could call the land their own. But if they left, they would have nothing. But they should have left because the dust caused a health problem called dust pnemonia, and the land would not produce anything for years.

Huge dust storms came, cattle died from dust inhalation, and then swarms of grasshoppers came and ate every living plant. Pretty much when they thought times were at their worst, something worse happened, such as scorching heat and no rain.

The New Deal gave people hope (but also paved the way for Big Government - not in the book!).

This book follows the lives of 4-5 families and how they made it through the tough times.

I liked it.

Restaurant Review: Indianapolis

Our restaurant choices were driven by what was gluten-free-accomodating. Old Spaghetti Factory - NICE, NICE that they include ON THE MENU PERMANENTLY a choice for gluten-free pasta on any of the spaghetti dishes. They used to have one of these in KC. The interior is made to look like an old fashioned place, I know that is vague but whatever.

We tried to drive there, but there was a Pacers game going on downtown, and parking was $10-20. So we went back to the hotel, and then walked over half a mile in the winter cold. It wasn't too bad.

Naisa - Asian spelled backwards. The lady in charge of continental breakfast also had a gluten allergy and told us about this place. Jeff and Louise were also excited to go. Even though they had gluten-free notes permanently on their menu, I didn't think the gluten free selection was that great . And service was kinda slow.

Adobo Grill - Fancy Mexican cuisine downtown. They had a gluten free menu available by request. I thought this place was really tasty. Honestly it was the best restaurant we went to, but the price was higher as well.

Anniversary State IV: Indiana

We went to Indiana for our 4 year anniversary trip in February. The reasoning for February was that travel would become much more uncomfortable as the pregnancy progressed, and would become more difficult when we have an infant. The reasoning for Indiana was that 1) Jeff and Louise live there and 2) driving distance 3) If we are going to go somewhere in February, might as well be somewhere where museums and restaurants are the only thing to do.

Highlight 1: we stayed in a brand new hotel that opened the previous day. It had some bold colors and designs. Indianapolis is building hotels to go with their indoor stadium for the Super Bowl in 2012.

Aye Caramba Carpet

Highlight 2: Indiana State Museum

We viewed maps indicating where Indiana was throughout the entire evolution of the universe. And saw some old stuff. And we learned about famous Indianaians such as Michael Jackson

I got a big kick about how the TV in this thing is tiny, but the container is huge.

Attraction 2: Eiteljorg Museum of Indian and Western Art

This included a show of artistic guns, "a strange blend of art and violence"







Attraction 3: Indianapolis Museum of Art (No pictures allowed in modern art section, which is the best section)



Attraction 4: Jeff and Louise (my cousin)

They are a fun couple. We dined together a couple of times, went to the Indianapolis Museum of Art. And we hung out and talked. Very fun to talk to people during vacations. I have relatives everywhere. Jeff is studying at IUPUI.




Attraction 5: Restaurants. Will blog about that later.

Attraction 6: Stopping by St Louis on the way back, and seeing our sister, bro-in-law and two nieces.

Book Review: Professional Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Administration

Yes, I did read two of these 800 page books to study for my certification exam.

Having taken an exam now, I think one book would be sufficient, and then have a very focused review on concepts that might be in the exam. But this time, my philosophy was to read large books. It actually became difficult to retain everything.

Anyway, Courtney and I call these books the "stalker books", because of the pictures on the front. The people are creepily photoshopped together to make it look like they are in the same room, and there they are staring back at you.




This idea originated with this lovely picture on a different one that I read:

Seriously, if you are doing a photo op for a book cover that will be shipped worldwide, wouldn't you think you would make some kind of effort to look nice?

I really like the inside of these books though. Since the chapters are written by various people, some of them are better than others. But compared to the other book I got, the pace is much slower and there are more diagrams and extended explanations of the reasons you would use various options. So I really like these Wrox books, and this one was good as well.

Best of January 2010

I'm not sure if I will ever blog again about things that have happened recently. Here is the best of two months ago!

Pic of the month: Courtney painting. I thought she looked cute. It's crazy how much we've accomplished, and how much remains. It doesn't help the stress that I need to get a car. Anyway, I digress.

Best Movie That I Saw for the First Time: Young Frankenstein

Best Book I Read for the First Time SQL Server 2008 Administration

Best Restaurant Dined in for First Time Stone Canyon Pizza

Best online video I watched for the First time: Speedcubing (Rubix cube champions)