Thanksgiving

All is Fare in Love and War

This Thanksgiving weekend was one of the most violent weekends to date for
Doug Dellow and myself.
We managed to play 5 games of Empire Earth.
Thousands of pixels died painful deaths at the hands of our civilizations.
There was great rejoicing – our villages celebrated by eating Turkey.
Doug and I even stayed up until 4:00AM Thursday night/Friday morning – my
army got whooped, but Doug stuck it out and won.

Doggone Traditions

Thursday morning we got up and were watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving day
advertisement, I mean parade.
But in between floats, balloons and bands there were commercials – and those
commercials involved a pitch for the Purina Traditional Thanksgiving day
dog show.
What!!?
When did that become annual?
When was watching judges feel all over dogs that have been spoiled worse than
most teenagers in Incline Village (Nevada) a family tradition on the day
we’re supposed to be thankful for what God has blessed us with?
It was surely never a tradition in our house.
We watched part of it anyway.
Lame.

Wave the Dead Bird

We ate lots of food that day, part of which included the grilled turkey and
whine.
The kids provided the whine while Doug and I provided more pixels with death.
Oh, I mean wine, we had wine with Thanksgiving dinner/lunch.
It was good food, good clean fun and we were stuffed.
Millions of American’s gained millions of pounds this week, collectively.

The problem with Turkey, however, is that it dries out.
It takes a lot of self control to not mention microwaves in front of the
turkey, because if you do, your turkey will dry up into turkey jerky.
Sometimes walking by a microwave with a bit of turkey will cause it to just
shrivel up.
Day old turkey soon becomes a sinewy mess of meaty strips.
Don’t talk about microwaves with turkey present – its just not pretty.

Fry Day

Friday was the annual ‘Glutton for Punishment Day’ where shoppers done their
stupid hats and show up at stores as early as 4:30 AM to get a good price
on items that are being sold for cost or less by retail giants.
They use three ploys: 1) Use rebates that will take 3 months to fulfill or 2)
carry one of each super cheap item so that they will be out of the special
offer and 3) create such a tiny window of opportunity that only 6 people in
a metropolitan area could possibly manage taking you up on it.
Most stores use all three tactics.

Jessica and Amanda went out and were our family representatives for the
holiday post turkey shop-a-thon.
Twelve hours of cash blowing fun, lines and caffeinated bliss.
We had to take multiple trips out to the car to get the gifts that were
purchased.
Some nations around the world have a budget smaller than the amount of money
spent in the Dallas/Fort Worth area on Friday.
I’m glad we could contribute to our economy.

Thinking Outside of the Box

Saturday Doug and I (with assistance from our wives periodically) put the
cabinet doors up in their kitchen (we’ve helped in the remodel process).
This was pretty cool, the kitchen still needs the countertops, but its
looking really nice.
I can’t wait to see it done, unfortunately since they’ll be out of town for 2
weeks near Christmas and Doug has to work in Tulsa every other week, it
may not be done until next year.

My’s Boyfriend

My sister Becky (sometimes called “My”) has a boyfriend, Kurt Katzorke.
He’s been in Colorado since Tuesday (he arrived sick, what a bummer) and
they’ve been spending time together, which is great.
Unfortunately he leaves tomorrow and so Becky will have to be down for a
couple days.
But I’m sure that they’ll resume their incessant text messaging, emailing,
phone talking ways within about 4-5 minutes of Kurt’s arrival back into
Carson City.
Maybe sooner as once he lands he can start using his cell phone.

Resting in Him,

Randy “Pixelator” Peterman

Gollum was a Victoria’s Secret Model Once

We bought the Lord of the Rings: Two Towers DVD set a week ago and I
was watching how they used computers to tweak a real person to look like
what is rendered as Gollum.
This is not too different from our ‘cleaning up’ images of models for
advertisements, pornography and publicity shots.
This sort of thing cracks me up.

Anyway, the extra stuff on the DVD set is really neat and I was impressed
with all of the work that went into making the movie as cool as it was.
If you haven’t bought the set, you may consider doing so, its worth your
money.
We enjoyed the extended scenes and we are enjoying the extra material.

OK, that’s all for now.

Happy Thankgiving Tomorrow!

Pnang.

Resting in Him,

Randy Peterman

Move Over Bob the Tomato

Having gone to Colorado I have developed a big ego.
Not because Colorado does that to you, but because a 10 year old girl
(Kailey) approached me after church and told me that she named a tomotoe
plant after me.
How cool is that?
If each person on earth gets 15 minutes of fame, I feel like I’m getting
overtime.
However long that plant is alive, I’m famous.

Friday

We flew out of Dallas at around 4:00 PM central and made our way (slowly but
surely) to Colorado.
Slowly because we were on a plane designed for moving possibly 20 people, but
they had so engineered it to have seets that gave the appearance for a
greater amount of accomodations.
It was a 2 and 2 set up so that Jessica and I ended up sitting on different
rows, Abby stayed with Jessica.
The fellow that I sat next to was nice and talked with me for some of the
time, and part of the time I read I and II Timothy.
The fellow was the manager of six steakhouses in Oklahoma City called Santa
Fe Steakhouse.
Upon arrival in CO we made our way to the baggage where they informed us that
our suitcase had popped open at some point.
Samsonite.
Becky and my Dad picked us up at the airport and upon departing we called mom
and she met us at the Cheesecake Factory for dinner.
Not just any dinner, but for Anniversary Dinner.
It was my parent’s thirtieth anniversary!
I said it then, and I say it again now, Happy Anniversary!

Dinner was good, but after waiting for over an hour to get in, we were
starving.
The place was so busy that the service was a hair less than normal, but it
was good over all.
The waitress was trying to wait on too many tables and the kitchen was
working really hard to keep up.

Saturday

Saturday we went to the children’s museum.
It was small by most standards, but Abby had a good time (and that is why we
went)
The Exploratorium in San Fransisco is cooler, and the one in Indianapolis is
excellent (thanks John for taking us there).
It was snowing by the time we left for the museum, and when we got there it
was really starting to accumulate.
Abby played in a room designed for children 4 and under – she loved it and it
was fun to see her play.

We got home in time for lunch and ate some.
But shortly after that Becky had to leave to go work at her Starbuck’s store.
My dad and I went out and got the ingredients for the
World’s Best Chili
(we add beans to this).
It turned out to be a spicy treat and my dad and I really enjoyed the heat.
We rented Bend it Like Beckham for Jessica and my mom to watch (we
guys watched part of it).

That evening my dad and I went out to help Becky get home as the roads had
iced pretty bad.
She had talked about spending the night at Starbuck’s which caused us to
laugh.
On the way home I saw a taxi driver spin 270 degrees and wind up in the
oncoming traffic turning lane.
I would have dismissed it as slick roads if he had not immediately floored it
and nearly slid into the curb while trying to turn back around.
Not the kind of taxi I’d like to be in.

Sunday

Sunday we went to church and it was good to listen to good sound teaching.
Between the Sunday School class and the main service I gave a copy of my
favorite web development book (Designing with Web Standards) to
the fellow in charge of the church’s site.
I hope he reads it because it is a great book, and also it would allow the
church’s site to be viewable to more people.
The main service was on Phillipians 4:8-9.
Dad laid it out and I sucked it in.
I miss being in a weekly service with meat.

I have summarized verse 8 in pseudo-code (some what likeprogramming code):

function shouldIThinkAboutThis(aThing)
{
	if(aThing.isTrue || 
		aThing.isHonorable || 
		aThing.isRight || 
		aThing.isPure || 
		aThing.isLovely || 
		aThing.isOfGoodRepute || 
		aThing.isExcellent || 
		aThing.isWorthyOfPraise)
	{
		// think about it is a function you define ;)
		thinkAbout(aThing);
	}
	else
	{
		// send for garbage collection
		throwAway(aThing);
	}
}
	

After the service I got to talk to several neat folks: Brian White (whom I’d
met before), Brad (no last name in memory banks) and Craig Kaes (who works
on Jabber).
After we had time to fellowship we headed to a Mexican restaraunt called ‘La
Loma.’
Over all it was a good meal, but the clencher was Abby saying, “Hi,” to the
gals at the table behind ours.
This was the first time she’s said that.
Later on in the day she started saying, “Uh-Oh.”
That will be cute, until the day she breaks something and then says, “oh-oh.”

Leaving in the evening was sad – it didn’t seem like enough time.
However, as time moves forward I can look forward to eternity with my parents
and the other saints in Heaven.
The flight that we had tickets for was cancelled and we had to take a flight
that was an hour later.
We got home only 20 minutes later than our original flight because the
American Airlines flight we had was on a larger plane.

Five Iron

Last on this list was the disappointment of missing the Five Iron Frenzy
concert that was last weekend.
The disappointment is in the fact that it was their last concert and we
didn’t get to go.
Not going was rooted in the fact that we had wanted to go to their show here
and missed it, and then thought, “wouldn’t it be cool?”
But both dismissed it because there would be no way we would be able to be
there on that weekend.
We were, we missed it, and we pray for the Lord’s blessing for the members of
the band.

Speaking of prayer pray for our health and well-being, Abby and I are
fighting colds, and Abby has an ear infection.
Thanksgiving is in a couple days and I don’t want to be sick.

Resting in Him,

Randy Peterman

Going, Going, Gone!

Tomorrow (Friday) we’re leaving to go to Denver, Colorado.
We’re going to my parents’ where we’ll see them and Becky.
It’ll be for my parent’s 30th anniversary, which is cool, but I know that its
going to be fast and we’ll be sad its all over when its all over.
I have cool parents, the kind that you see on television that are all sappy
and still romantic.
Yeah, that’s them.
The parents that are still in love and grow more and more in love over time.
The kind of parents that are rarer than evidence for evolution (mostly
because there really isn’t any – though my parents do exist).

Ed

Congradulations go out to Ed, my brother, who managed to quit being a
mechanic to be a Nevada State Employee.
This is something he’s talked about, and as long as he doesn’t get involved
with politics, I’m glad for him 🙂
May the Lord bless him with safety and may he be a light in a very dark
place!
Also, may he get plenty of time with his family and get to have his schedule
changed so he can go to church with them.

Counting

I’ve had over 652 hits this month, and its not over.
While this is not as many hits as some months, I’m glad.
I’ve gotten hits from search engines that used to not point to me, and I
apparently rank pretty high in some of their results for various search
terms.
Whatever the number of people that come to this site I’m hoping that I’ll be
able to shine for Christ and to make this a funny, weird, entertaining and
cool place to read about most things Peterman.

Resting in Him,

Randy “Makes His Bosses Scared” Peterman

November 2003

Abby and The Dellows and The Nuzzis 🙂

Cute Pumkin Girl
Cute Pumpkin Girl
Three Kids Distracted
Three Distracted Chillins
Diapers again.

Diapers?


tnuzzi kissing dnuzzi

Tony Kisses his son Davis – cute.

bathtime

Water!

pajamas and hat

Cute Girl in Pajamas – and Hat!

sweatshirt sweetheart 1

Guess where Grandpa Peer lives.

sweatshirt sweetheart 2

These are just too cute.

dress to help mom

Dressed to help mom clean the house 🙂

Zone with Nolly and Manda

Zoming with Amanda and Nolan – Sheesh, I’m getting tired.

Nolan loves ranch

He may not listen to country music, but he loves his ranch (dressing).

Abby and Josh

Abby and Josh – good little friends.

Abby Loves the Door

Abby loves the door. It leads outside.

Matthew 22:15-22

15 Then the Pharisees went and plotted together how they might trap Him in what He said.
16 And they *sent their disciples to Him, along with the Herodians, saying, Teacher, we know that You are truthful and teach the way of God in truth, and defer to no one; for You are not partial to any.
17 Tell us then, what do You think? Is it lawful to give a poll-tax to Caesar, or not?
18 But Jesus perceived their malice, and said, Why are you testing Me, you hypocrites?
19 Show Me the coin used for the poll-tax. And they brought Him a denarius.
20 And He *said to them, Whose likeness and inscription is this?
21 They *said to Him, Caesar’s. Then He *said to them, “Then render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s; and to God the things that are God’s.”
22 And hearing this, they were amazed, and leaving Him, they went away.[1]

Who were the Pharisees?
The Pharisees were separatists (Hebrew ‘persahin’ from parash, ‘to separate’).
They wanted to be separate from the pagan/gentile type practices that were
being adopted in the culture since Israel was no longer a free nation.
There were two other major parties at the time: The Essenes and the Sadducees.
The Essenes were similar to the Pharisees, but were more mystical in their
approach to theology.
The Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection and would only believe
doctrines from the Pentateuch.

It is obvious that they were against Christ, but major reasons would be:
Continue reading

Designing With Web Standards

This is the title of a book.
Not just any book, but a book that has changed my life.
Not as extremely as the Word of God, but its a good book by worldly standards.
In fact, I recommend it to every web developer I meet.
At work we’re working on a new version of our website and the company that is
doing the graphics and layout design,
Holmes-Millet,
got that book recommendation today.
I hope that they read it and learn a lot, its a fabulous book on how to
design web pages.

I suppose that most of the folks who read this care very little about web
standards on the surface, but I would point out that web standards are
what make your browsers work.
But without getting all philosophical, let me just say that I’m glad that
you’re reading this, and if some day (if not already) you find yourself
working on a web page, check out the book, its the way to go.

Oh, and one more thing: I got some more pictures of Abby that I will try to
put up ASAP, some even tonight.
Just check out the Media pages.

Seated with Christ (Colossians 3),

Randy Peterman

LOTR: The Four Hours

We got the ‘Two Towers’ DVD
last night.
We in no way could attempt to watch all of the content on the video.
It’s something like 10 hours of video(that’s a guess).
The movie itself is almost 4 hours long.
Four hours.
That is like half a days work watching a movie.

To put it in perspective, I could probably fix up to 5 bugs in that time at
work.
I might be able to go to dinner and a regular length movie in that time
period.
I could wash one of our cars and clean it all out and start on the other and
maybe finish it in four hours!
And to top it all off, Jessica suggested we watch the movie last night.
So we started it but only watched about 30 minutes.

Speaking of which, one of the worst special effects parts is when they
approach the burning pile of orcs and there is an orc head on a spear.
The orc’s head has its tongue out as if its making a face.
True, heads usually make faces, and heads aren’t much without a face, but
still it seemed rather out of place.
It was as if Bozo the clown had stepped in while Peter Jackson wasn’t looking
and tweaked it a little.
It makes the paranormal tracking of Aragorn seem a little silly with that
face out in the open as it is (I listen to rocks for clues of things going
on miles away, but don’t pick up on horses going after the same group).

Anyway, I won’t pick it to pieces as it is a fun movie and heck, I could be
one of millions of people who bought the movie making Wingnut and Jackson
just a little richer.
You do realize that they’ve made enough money from the first movie
to cover mostly all of the expenses so whatever profit there is from #2
and #3 is profit.
They should make The Chronicles of Narnia next.

Resting in Him,

Randy “Orc Head Critic” Peterman

Colorado Calling

We’re going to my parent’s this weekend to see them and my sister My
(AKA Becky).
This is a good thing overall and I’m greatful for the oportunity to see them.
What is so spectacular is this: it is their thirtieth anniversary next week.
¿Can you believe that?
It’s cooler than a Denver Christmas.
Speaking of cooler in Denver its suppose to be a high of 27°.
That’s approximately two-thirds less than what we’re used to here in Texas
right now.

Trader

I’ve also been learning somewhat about a new trading strategy using the
CCI.
I’m not completely familiar with how it works but using that with some
filters my uncle and dad have both had zero (0, none, zilch, nada) losses
with their option trading.
Oh, and they’ve not just traded once each.
I actually turned a 15% profit as well.
As I learn more about it I might write some articles about it here.

Sick Sweety

Jessica was not feeling well tonight but was a good sport.
I did my best to help her be able to rest, but Abigail is sure a busy body.
I love both my ladies and am glad that I’m maried to one and a Daddy to the
other.

Resting in Him,

Randy “Great Bowels of Fire” Peterman