Wed, 31 Mar 2004

Mar 31, 2004, 23:35 [home/journal]
Finally Have a Shower Again!
Well, I’m done… mostly. I’ve got all the pipes hooked up, and I’ve tested for leaks, and there are none, and my back is killin’ me, and I’m done.
Except for patching all the holes I made in the plaster.

Anyone know a good drywaller? I feel like paying somebody to finish this.

And since a picture is worth at least a thousand words, I’m attaching one.

~Jason

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Mar 31, 2004, 18:10 [home/journal]
Bathroom Job Under Way

Things are approaching a conclusion in the bathroom — thank God!

I had to remove more of the ceiling so I could get at the pipe. I cut out some wood here and there and in so doing accidentally severed part of the tub drain. The good news is that I can fix it, and might have had to cut it there anyway later on.

I’ve traced it down and know exactly where the leak was, and have removed all the related pipe. The next step is to put pipe BACK, which I think I can manage. And then the part I hate: re-drywalling.

I’m just waiting for dad to get back to me on the next steps. I emailed him some photos of the area so he can give me an informed opinion.

Ain’t home ownership fun?

~Jason

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Tue, 30 Mar 2004

Mar 30, 2004, 10:11 [home/journal]
Home Repairs Are Causing Headaches

I’m shaking my head over the stuff that’s been going on lately.

We had just about finished our bathroom rennovations— all that remained was a little paint touch-up and the ceramic-tile floor which is going in this summer. We were enjoying the whirlpool baths, the long showers, it was great.

The main reason for replacing the entire bathroom was because of a little ‘drip, drip,’ in the basement whenever people were having a shower. I thought we had fixed it when we put in the new tub, but tonight I realized the water was still there, and in fact had graduated to a constant stream.

Oh how I longed for the days of drip, drip.

So I called good ol’ dad. He’s a plumber, and a pretty smart guy, and he said to cut a hole in the wall at the stack, and try to reach up and find the leak.

Two holes later and I was cutting the floor out of our nice bathroom. Thank GOD I didn’t put the ceramic tiles in yet.

We had a plumber take a gander at it this morning and he said we’d have to rip it all out! Rip out Seth’s hardwood. Rip out the bathroom floor. Rip out the ceiling downstairs. Rip it all out.

Rip out my heart.

Agg. So I called our insurance agent. She’s gonna get back to me, but I’m afraid.

If the insurance won’t pay for this job then I’m going to fix it myself. I’ll just rip out the ceiling in the downstairs bath. I really don’t think the plumber knew what he was talking about. (No offense, if you ever stumble onto this page).

Oh how I long for the days of drip, drip. I can deal with drip, drip.

~Jason

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Sat, 27 Mar 2004

Mar 27, 2004, 15:49 [home/curiosities]
So Tired of SPAM- Spambayes to the Rescue!

I finally gave in today and decided to snoop around for plugins for Outlook/Outlook Express which would handle spam for me.

I’ve been using Outlook Express Inbox Assistant to handle spam fairly successfully for the last five years or so, but it’s just getting harder all the time.

With probably 500 messages a day, 460 which are spam, I need more efficiency!

You’re gonna love what I found! It’s a free, open source (I think) software program called Spambayes.

It’s not really easy to set up if you use Outlook Express, as you need to feel comfortable forwarding ports and mail servers through Spambayes. Outlook is a cynch though. But if you can patiently work your way through it, I think you’ll be pleasantly suprised!

What it does is analyze everything about the email— all the content including body and headers, and establishes a probability based on past email you’ve received. It decides the likelyhood of your email being spam, or (the opposite,) ham. You can even show it folders of saved emails to teach it the about the type of email you like.

In the beginning you need to patiently direct it— teaching it right from wrong, and it learns based on what email you want to get.

Neat eh?

So if this doesn’t help me deal with spam, then nothing will. After it’s taught nicely, I’ll disable the bizzilion filters and conditions Outlook Express is using to sort my mail.

Spambaye to the Rescue! Goodbye spam,

~Jason

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Fri, 26 Mar 2004

Mar 26, 2004, 20:36 [home/journal]
Download a Bionicle Font

Well, in the spirit of strange languages, I decided to make a Bionicle font for Lucas. I scoured the Internet for such a font, only to find search-engine spam and popups, so I think it ca be safely assumed that such a font does not exist. If you want to download the font and let your kids use it (or you for that matter!) then click here. It’s zipped, so you’ll need to unzip it and place it in your Windows/Fonts folder. ~Jason

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Mar 26, 2004, 10:32 [home/journal]
Jasoneeze

Move Over Tolkien

No, Jasoneeze isn’t some new way of describing my sneezes, it’s a phonetic languages I created in college. Tonight I downloaded a shareware program and made a font for it’s characters.

It’s amazing the things I can do to waste time!

~Jason


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Thu, 25 Mar 2004

Mar 25, 2004, 09:04 [home/journal]
Computer Impants

Definitely not news (this is from last November), but something my sister Melanie made me aware of and I thought worthy of mentioning.
Credit Cards Implanted Under the Skin
Most of the stuff written about this information is by over-reacting Christians and pseudo-Christians. I did locate a few un-spiritualized articles and found that privacy advocates are saying this will never catch on as it violates too many privacy issues.

Some even mentioned that this is too reminiscent of the Bible’s prophecy of ‘666’, in which no one will be able to buy or sell in the future unless they have a mark on their head or wrist. If you google the phrase credit card microchip mark of the beast you’ll see what I mean.

So what do I think? I have two approaches. On one hand, this may be prophecy fulfillment, and if it is, that’s good news for those of us who are awaiting Jesus’ return. Why are we scared? Bring it on!

On the other hand, it doesn’t seem undebatable to connect the prophecy to this: there is no ruling that we must have the impants to buy and sell, and it’s not three sixes, it’s a microchip.

Christian’s are disliked by western society, second only to car salesmen! But this same society is very curious about who Jesus is… so what are we doing wrong?

There may be many things— and we could all stand to live our lives more like him— but we certainly don’t help the cause when we carry big placards around and sit in judgement of those around us.

It’s interesting, isn’t it? I know, I’m not getting the implant. I’ll sit back and watch and see what happens. This is one instance when I’m better safe than sorry.

~Jason

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Wed, 24 Mar 2004

Mar 24, 2004, 21:44 [home/church_work]
Charted Three Irish Songs Today

Today I charted Danny Boy, Irish Eyes are Smiling, and Take You Home Kathleen. On Friday the seniors at the church are having “Irish Day” and I’ve been asked to play the piano for these songs, play my penny whistles, and tell about my journey to Ireland a few years ago.

I’m actually quite looking forward to it; I love to tell the funny stories about our trip around the coast of southern Ireland. I’ll have to censor parts of it I think.

~Jason

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Mar 24, 2004, 21:26 [home/journal]
I Feel Like A Doltz

I got to the church after a meeting this afternoon, recorded my mileage, and stepped out of the car. As the door closed behind me I half-noticed the “ding, ding, ding,” of the alarm bell. It was too late to do anything about it now; I’d locked my keys in the car, and I had locked myself out of the church.

I ran to the church door as rain drops like water balloons exploded around me. As I ran, I looked back at my betraying vehicle and saw the lights were on too. Great.

I stood outside and buzzed the bell wetly three times. Finally the latch released. Inside, Matt wasn’t too helpful.

“You did what?”

“I locked my keys in the car— I just wasn’t thinking and closed the door without grabbing the keys. Doesn’t that ever happen to you?”

“I’ve never done that.”

He gave me a hanger and I went back to the torrent. Passers-by looked blankly at me, high school students jeered. “I can get in there for you— with a hammer!” Cool. Really cool.

One guy stopped to help me— his cigarette hung from the lip and bits of ash dropped, leaving mud patches on his coat. “Call a tow-truck,” he said, giving up.

I decided to dry out a bit, and Google the Internet for directions on breaking into a locked car. Not much luck. I went back out to the rain determined to win this time.

Another passer-by stopped. He tried for a while. “You lock your keys in the car or something?” he asked, stooping down to look at the car’s ignition.

“Duh”, I thought. I looked in at the ignition and dropped my jaw like a draw-bridge. The keys weren’t in the ignition!! “They must be on the seat,” I thought. I was too embarrassed to let on— I waited for him to give up, and then checked my pockets.

The keys were in my pockets. Forty-five minutes later, a soaking jacket and wet feet, and the keys were in my pocket.

Inside, I confessed to the other staff. Lane smiled, “That’s a great sermon illustration!” he laughed.

Wonderful.

~Jason

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Mar 24, 2004, 07:31 [home/movies]
Open Your Eyes (Abre Los Ojos)

The problem with watching late night movies on television is that I’m laying down, I’m sleepy, I start thinking I can close my eyes during commercials, and ultimately MISS the ending.

This much was true last night as well. I drifted off just before the interesting parts of Abre Los Ojos, the original “Vanilla Sky” story.

Which is really too bad, because from the spoilers and reviews I read this morning, this movie is much better than Hollywood’s Vanilla Sky.

Apparently it includes one crucial scene which Vanilla Sky chose to leave out. This scene turns out to be the distinguishing feature between the films.

I guess I’m going to have to rent it.

~Jason

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Mon, 22 Mar 2004

Mar 22, 2004, 23:43 [home/movies]
Monkeying Around

I just rewatched Twelve Monkeys, with Bruce Willis and Brad Pitt. I’d seen it about ten years ago I guess— and loved it all over again.

The whole notion of time travel is fascinating. If you go back and make a change, that change could lead to you not being able to go back and make a change… is that bizarre of what?

Of course, this is a paradox and so that leaves three options to deal with time travel: either no one can ever go back, or no one can ever make a change if they do. Most time travel movies seem to play with the last idea: going back happened in the past already, so travelling in time is inescapable; to not do so would cause a paradox.

I love this stuff.

After the movie was over I was curious about the last scene, so I jumped on the Internet to do some reading. I seemed to stumble on a lot of negative reviews— why is that? This movie is fun! It’s twisted and weird and makes you think. I love this stuff.

So if you still haven’t seen this film, rent it. But wait! My telling you that may have caused a new paradox!



~Jason

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Fri, 19 Mar 2004

Mar 19, 2004, 22:21 [home/church_work/web_site]
Blosxom Finally Working!

It took three months to get it to work, but finally the Blosxom dilemna has been solved!

The Inside newsletter at getChurch.org uses Blosxom to display articles. I’m excited about getting the bugs out, including RSS feeds etc.

~Jason


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Thu, 18 Mar 2004

Mar 18, 2004, 19:10 [home/journal]
Return of the New Bathroom

Wow. I’m EXHAUSTED. Did I even spell that right? I’m too tired to invoke spell checker. I’m weary. I’m ready for a snooze. I could SO sleep.

Every time we tore something out, we found rot, mildew, and more rot. The tiles around the tub virtually fell off the wall, and under the plaster was crumbling to the touch. Underneath the plaster the insulation was thin and soaking. We had some BIG TIME water damage.

So everything’s new now, thanks dad. He and mom just left to tackle rush hour traffic through Toronto.

It’s a good thing he’s a plumber and jack-of-all-trades. Together we removed the tub, the floor, the plaster. We installed a nice new tub, double-shower-heads, toilet, vanity, lights, re-drywalled, taped and ‘mudded’, sinks, taps, shut off valves…

I still have to put up the tub surround, do some more taping and mudding, painting, hanging the mirror, connecting the electrical, and laying of the new ceramic tile floor… but I’ve got to take a break. I’m missing my virtual world.

~Jason

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Tue, 16 Mar 2004

Mar 16, 2004, 15:22 [home/webdesign/perl_scripts/up_and_coming]
MP3 Database Script

I’ve written a MP3 database script much like the service that used to be available to artists at MP3.com. It manages streaming, downloading, song history, and hopefully soon I’ll add features like automatic purchasing via PayPal.com, a ‘play all songs on this album’ feature, radio station options, and more.

I haven’t actually packaged this script for sale yet, as it’s been used only on JasonSilver.com for my own personal recordings. I’d be interested in hearing feedback from potential users of this script as I consider adding it to the list at Intelliscript.net.

~Jason

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Mar 16, 2004, 12:53 [home/journal]
Funny

Funny, I’ve felt pretty uninspired to blog lately. Sure, lots of stuff gets me riled up— like learning that a multi-sex-crimes-reoffender is moving into a halfway house next door to my church— or the fact that terrorism is alive and well all over the world, and despite anything we do, there will always be terrorists— or the fact that I worked my butt off yesterday scraping paint, sanding, and sticky with goo-that-used-to-be-paint and now I’ve got a tired back— or that it’s snowing (strike that) STORMING outside and winter doesn’t seem to want to go away.

But other than that I’ve got nothing to say.

~Jason

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Sun, 14 Mar 2004

Mar 14, 2004, 21:01 [home/books]
Wuthering Heights

I decided to pull out another old classic, and found Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights dusty, and hiding in a file folder on my pocket pc.

I’ve breezed through four chapters of elegant Victorian and am smitten.

~Jason

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Sat, 13 Mar 2004

Mar 13, 2004, 11:44 [home/journal]
New Bathroom

Well, we spent the morning stripping out the bathroom upstairs. I ripped the tiles off the wall, used the heat gun to remove the glue, sanded, removed the toilet, took down the medicine cabinet, stripped paint…

…and there’s still so much to do!

We bought a new whirlpool bathtub, toilet (our old tub and toilet were green and yellow!) vanity, sink, fawcets, counter top, light, tub surround, and are planning on repainting. It’s about time! The old bathroom was so disgusting!

My dad is a plumber and he’s coming up on March break to help us install everything. The neighbour across the street, John, is an electrician and he’ll help with the wiring for the tub.

I can’t wait to relax my aching muscles in the Jacuzzi!

~Jason

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Fri, 12 Mar 2004

Mar 12, 2004, 14:08 [home/journal]
Working from Home

Well, Joanne’s sick again, so I decided to be a good husband and work at home today to help out with Seth. Virtual networking was especially slow today… must be Internet congestion. Or maybe it was Barnie singing in the background

I’m annoyed with Bellnet.ca too. They change our IP address whenever I make changes to the router… or maybe it’s the router doing it… I don’t know, but it’s annoying. Fortunately I wrote a program to detect these changes and email me the results so I can still network from home.

Wasn’t an extremely fruitful day. Wrote a new database report for Lane, messed around with getting Blosxom to run on getchurch.org WITH NO LUCK yet. How annoying. Finalised the details for Sunday’s services, answered some email, tried to tunnel through the network with my Pocket PC to no avail.

Oh ya! I saw Passion of the Christ again last night. Joanne and I went with Jay and Amy Forderer. I picked up all kinds of little nuances this time around that I didn’t see round one. This is a phenomenal movie— a real heartbreaking tear-jerker.

Joanne was scared to death to see it, but said this afternoon that she was glad she kept her eyes open. The people behind us didn’t know anything. They kept whispering to each other, “is that Jesus?” “Which one is Jesus?” “Who’s that?” “Why are they doing this?” etc. I was glad they came, though slightly annoyed that they were whispering so loudly. About halfway through, you could hear a pin drop. The whole theatre was silent, listening.

I wonder if there will be a sequel? On one hand, we’ve seen the most important part of the story— but on the other, so many people don’t know why Jesus died, why Christians are so happy he died. It’s all so confusing. A prequel or sequel would really fit naturally— many who have seen this would come back to hear the whole tale. I wonder.

For now,
~Jason

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Thu, 11 Mar 2004

Mar 11, 2004, 09:43 [home/politics]
Freedom To Do What

[UPDATE] Another karate chop to freedoms in Canada.

The Hamilton Board of Education here in Ontario, Canada has recommended that Christian groups can meet— but only if they agree to have other faiths represented for alternate perspectives. Leaders and speakers from other religions must come and address the students in these faith groups, to gain his or her perspective.

Faith-based or religious clubs will be permitted during the school day under the following conditions:
- They must not be indoctrinational
- They must not give primacy to any particular religious faith
- They must be open and accessible to all on an equal basis
- They must be monitored by a teacher advisor