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Wife and kids made it to Portland okay. I slept for 6 hours today, and feel somewhat better...

Got the oil change off of my To-Do check list. I had never changed the oil on this car before. I tried a year or two ago, then changed my mind and decided to have a pro do it. The oil filter on a 93 Buick Regal Gransport is kinda wedged in between the axel, the engine, and the automatic tranny, so it is a real engineering feat to get in there. To make things worse, the easiest way to reach it, leaves your body laying directly below it, so you get an oil shower if you succeed in removing it. After some contemplation I found an awkward contortion that allowed me to reach the filter and lay clear of the fallout. I am not sure you could get an oil filter wrench in there if you wanted to, Luckily mine came off with a firm grip and a prayer. I did get a black dot on my Boomsday voluneer shirt, but I have never loved this one too much anyway.. I will get a new model in May.

I failed to eat. I started to make ramen noodles but wound up aborting the attempt after noticing that all that was left of my water was calcium deposits... Believe it or not, I got sucked into watching CSPAN which is usually highly discouraged under my wife's rules. (My wife doesn't enjoy being bored as much as I do)

Posted by Josh Reighley at 4:32 PM | Permalink | Comments ()

I plan to start a new "Regular feature" on this website. I am a weird guy, and I like a lot of weird stuff. I am going to work on writing short reviews about once a week about off-the-wall things I have tried.

I started out today, bantering about my experience sleeping on a buckwheat pillow for the last 9 years.

Cash is short, I have hosting bills, and my experience tells me that chatting about niche interests is the best way to generate revenue. People looking for really specific items tend to wander across my blog, and the ads tend to be exactly what they are looking for. I think these topics will be fairly entertaining for most folks. I used to make 50-100 dollars per quarter off of my Bat House website. It still earns about 10 dollars per quarter, and I haven't updated it in 5 or 6 years. It really wasn't much more complicated than a blog entry with a few pictures.

We started Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University last week. We have been struggling pretty hard for the last 9 months or so, as my software business has had its volume drop substantially. Hopefully things will pick up soon. In the mean time, we are going to start watching the flow of each dollar.

My wife and kids are traveling tommorow. They will be gone for a week. I should be busy. I have 2 software projects to wrap up, taxes to file, and a couple of bible studies I am doing right now. Oh, also my car badly needs an oil change. Hopefully I will remember to eat. Oops, that reminds me, I have to lose a bunch more wieght.

Enjoy my weirdness!

Posted by Josh Reighley at 11:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

So, I have been sleeping on a Buckwheat pillow for about 10 years now. I don't particularly love it, but pillows are a hard habit to break.

The nice thing about the buckwheat pillow is that it is fairly moldable. You can kinda dig in it with your head, and when you stop digging it keeps it's shape.

The pillow is rather hard to the touch, but it is plenty comfortable when you head is resting on it. It makes a funny noise when you shift around. My cats have absolutely no interest in sleeping on it, which makes me happy.

My head never gets hot when It is on the buckwheat pillow. There is a lot of space between each buckwheat hull, so the heat circulates pretty easy.

I have been using my buckwheat pillow for about 9 years, and it has held up well. Originally my wife bought a couple Sobakawa pillows off an infomercial.. They where way too small. I called them Sock-it-to-me pillows. I liked the concept enough that I ran out to the store and bought a regular sized pillow.

Posted by Josh Reighley at 11:07 PM | Permalink | Comments ()

Luke Clausen, a kid from my neighborhood won the Bassmaster Classic:

Bassmaster Classic Index

The Spokane media is going crazy, oddly enough, because I don''t think I have ever seen them care about fishing before.

This kid graduated from my high school, in my youngest sister's class. He is the youngest Champion ever, and the first from the West.

I doubt the School counsolor's carreer assement was correct... How many folks get to make a living Sport fishing???

Posted by Josh Reighley at 3:58 PM | Permalink | Comments ()

Over the years, I have always noticed that sometimes there are immense pools of untapped talent. Some of the brightest minds I have known have been working on an assembly like somewhere, content with their modest lifestyle and their steady paycheck.

As a result, stories like these always make me happy:
Autistic Teen's Hoop Dreams

Posted by Josh Reighley at 5:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Blog post not to miss:

Jungle Pop: Sometimes Theology's Like This

Posted by Josh Reighley at 4:53 PM | Permalink | Comments ()

Here is a really cool app that generates Suduku puzzles using images setected randomly by flickr tag.

sailplane sudoku

If you are clever you can get it to use really pretty pictures instead of numbers:

bendelaney sudoku

Posted by Josh Reighley at 4:17 PM | Permalink | Comments ()

Bush faces split with key allies over UAE port deal - Yahoo! News

The government should not be able to squash transactions in the capital markets on a whim. Dubai Ports World is a reputable company that operates ports successfully throughout the world. They have agreed to conform with US laws. Their personnel will have to go through the same immigration and security screenings that the current British ownership does. I doubt there will actually be much change at all as this is a merger.

The main reason for this firestorm of opposition is racism. We don't like the color of the skin and the country of origin of the applicant. It is egregious in my opinion. We allow European and Asian, and Chinese interests to buy all kinds of commercial ventures in this country. China is our biggest military rival on the planet. UAE is a longtime ally.

From the State Department website:

U.S.-U.A.E. RELATIONS
The United States has enjoyed friendly relations with the U.A.E. since 1971. Private commercial ties, especially in petroleum, have developed into friendly government-to-government ties which include security assistance. The breadth, depth, and quality of U.S.-U.A.E. relations increased dramatically as a result of the U.S.-led coalition's campaign to end the Iraqi occupation of Kuwait. In 2002, the U.S. and the U.A.E. launched a strategic partnership dialogue covering virtually every aspect of the relationship. The U.A.E. has been a key partner in the war on terror after September 11, 2001. The United States was the third country to establish formal diplomatic relations with the U.A.E. and has had an ambassador resident in the U.A.E. since 1974.

That is the way I see it.

Posted by Josh Reighley at 7:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

It is pretty bad when your agent has to pull out this defense:

Governor Gregoire gets some points in my book. (For the first time ever)

KREM.com | News for Spokane, Washington | KREM Top Stories

Washington's Lottery will not continue earlier plans to market itself to young adults after an order from Gov. Chris Gregoire, officials said.

The lottery, which reports $13.7 million in annual sales to 18- to 20-year-olds, said in its 2005-2007 business plan that it planned to advertise to that age group.

I absolutely despise the lottery's "It's good to play" campaign. This is a humongous lie, and a fraud that the state is peddling on its citizens.

We have 2 or three generations now that have their hopes tied up on the miracle windfall. No longer to we dream of serving our fellow citizens to gain a living. No longer do we dream of creating new valuable products. Those are unglamorous dreams, discouraged by every one of the state's lottery ads.

Most people who play the lottery lose. They give up their heard earned money, and get nothing in exchange except for a covetous heart, and false hope.

The state should be in the business of creating and encouraging hard work and success. Instead, they are in the business of creating as many losers as possible.

The lottery is basically a tax on those without hope.

Gregoire is doing the right thing. She needs to go much, much further.

Posted by Josh Reighley at 3:15 PM | Permalink | Comments ()

Here is another game I play with my kids...

I smell the left foot. " Wow, That smells like a rose garden!:
I spell the right food. "Eek, that smells like burning tires:

I smell the left foot. "That smells like fresh baked bread"
I smell the right foot. "That smells like fermenting patatos:

Repeat until your brain freezes up.. This a good practice for your own creativity.

Posted by Josh Reighley at 8:18 PM | Permalink | Comments ()

Kid: Daddy, I have to go to the bathroom.
Daddy: Oh, it is through the kitchen, Take a left, and then immediately take another left.
Kid: Grrrr... I KNOW DADDY!

Daddy: Touch my nose.
Kid: moves finger in the direction of daddy's nose.
Daddy: Jerks his head and says, No, that is Daddy's chin!
Kid tries again, no, that is Daddy's ear. Kid tries again. No, that is Daddy's forehead.

I am sure there are a lot more that I am missing!

Posted by Josh Reighley at 7:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I finished reading the The Heavenly Man yesterday, and I was quite impressed with the book.

The book is about Brother Yun, a Christian house church evangelist in communist China. The book reads a lot like the Acts of the Apostles, with Brother Yun traveling from one church community to another evangelizing, teaching and encouraging the believers as the government chases him. Several times, he does get caught, tortured, and imprisoned, but Brother Yun's witness is consistently strengthened by his suffering.

After the whole James Frey fiasco, every time you read a book like this, you have to wonder about the truthfulness of the story. Of course anyone who claims that God does miracles today is going to be challenged by certain factions within the western church. A quick internet search confirms the controversy. I believe Brother Yun is truthful. His arrests are well documented as are the conditions of the house church movement in China. God's method of aiding his suffering church is well documented in the Bible. Many of us in the west are not privileged enough to suffer, so we begin to doubt. The God that we read about in Acts is alive and well, and has not changed. Paul Hattaway has a detailed rebuttal of the criticisms on the asiaharvest website.

Brother Yun's teaching is biblical, challenging, and inspirational. In the west we have so much. I have 5 or 6 bibles at home, several more available on demand 24/7 through biblegateway.com. In Spokane, I can scan my AM/FM radio dial and find pastors preaching on 3 or 4 channels pretty much 24 hours per day. I have hundreds of churches I can choose to go to, and can find services at a time that is convenient to me. Brother Yun and many other Christians in China often have none of this. They have the ability to pray. If they are very lucky, they can get their hands on a bible. They can covertly meet with other believers, at the risk of imprisonment and torture. Despite this massive imbalance, I believe that their faith is often much healthier than ours.

Brother Yun describes how well meaning churches sent literature along with bibles into china, and their denominational teachings caused a great rift between the different house church movements. Sometimes less is more. "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." - 2 Corinthians 12:9

There are some very admirable things about Brother Yun's character exposed in the book. Whenever he was able, he would memorize a chapter of the bible every day. When he was in prison, he had a massive collection of God's word available right in his heart.

In every situation, he was looking for a way to be a witness for Christ. He rejoiced in his suffering, and his cellmates and other people that he was in contact with took notice.

He acknowledges his failures in the book as well. When he wasn't in prison, he would work until he was totally burnt out. He would neglect his family. He is thankful for the suffering that God used to remedy his disobedience.

Because of disobedience and disrespect for the Lord, my wife, and my co-workers, I went to prison for a second time. The Lord saw I was exhausted in the ministry, so he graciously allowed me to rest in him behind bars for a while and learn about inner spiritual life.

I highly recommend this book. It is quite an inspiring and challenging.

Posted by Josh Reighley at 12:55 AM | Permalink | Comments ()

Enough Cheney shotgun jokes already, but wait..

I bet the liberals will be changing their tune about Justice Scalia hunting with Cheney.

Posted by Josh Reighley at 7:35 AM | Permalink | Comments ()

One of the amusing things about having a blog is looking at your stats, and seeing what people are searching for when they find you..

MSN Search: traditional churches and wife spanking Off the top of my head, the answer is NO!

enjoyed watching childhood spankings - Google Search Yikes! Some of the links on that page scare me!

intp schizoid - Google 搜索 The great firewall committee must have determined that It's citizens will not be corrupted by the fact that I am crazy.

Sado Masachist I am afraid to even open this one.

I sure am glad I mispelled sudoku... I get about 80% of my traffic from people who spell it my way.

Posted by Josh Reighley at 5:27 AM | Permalink | Comments ()

Well, Idaho has a new head football coach.

It has been pretty funny to watch all of the media around here. It is kinda like Dennis Erickson is riding into Moscow on a donkey, and the media is lining the streets with the palm branches and singing Hosanna.

Erickson says he is in it for the long haul. He has said this several times before, and usually these words are pretty meaningless. At Oregon State, he was scolding reporters fore reporting that he should consider leaving one day, and he was at a press conference announcing he was the new 49er's coach the very next day.

There is no doubt tha Erickson is a top notch college coach. If he sticks around for 4 or 5 years, perhaps he will rebuild some of his credibility.

Posted by Josh Reighley at 6:57 PM | Permalink | Comments ()

I am getting hooked on Flickr.

There are thousands and thousands of pictures out there to browse through. Some really good artists have photos available. You can also browse the photos by tag. Every page you can generate seems to have an RSS feed that you can subscribe to with your feed reader.

I subscribed to feeds from several Sailplane pilots (My current infatuation) and Ben Delaney a photographer that likes to take photos around my hometown.

Posted by Josh Reighley at 10:02 AM | Permalink | Comments ()

Okay, I am sick of hearing all of the whining about the Superbowl referees. I am a Seattle fan, but the fact of the matter is that the calls that are in question where marginal, not egregious.

If I where a referee, and I saw a receiver push the defender take two steps away from him in the opposite direction and catch a Touchdown pass, I would throw a flag. The rule is no pushing after 5 yards.

If the ball breaks the plane by a millimeter it is a touchdown. It doesn't matter how far back the player is shoved back after breaking the plane. Roethesburger's touchdown was marginal, but the refs gotta call it like he sees it. He was within a few centimeters of the plane, one way or another.

Matt Hasselbeck was penalized 15 yards for a bad block. It was argued that the block was incidental. I don't think it matters. You can't selectively enforce the rules. If Hasselbeck hit the guy below the knees, and hitting folks below the knees is against the rules, it seems a bit much to ask the ref to lift the flag because it was an accident.

If the Seahawks had played just a little bit better all of these calls would be trivia..

Posted by Josh Reighley at 12:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

My freind Russ is building a waste oil burning furnace.

The concept is pretty cool. It uses a Babington Ball to vaporize the oil so that it can be burned. Basicailly they pour oil onto the top of a metal ball, the oil turns into a film as it flows around the ball. The ball has a microscopic hole in it that is leaking 10 Psi air through it. The wind evaporates this film and creates a burnable oil/air mixture. The rest of the oil drains into resevior, and is then pumped repeatedly until it encouters the microscopic hole and is burnt off.

I set up a blog for Russ to describe his project, and he seems enthusiastic about blogging, so watch and learn!

Russ's Babington Ball furnace bloghttp://www.chaotic.info/russb/

Posted by Josh Reighley at 4:19 AM | Permalink | Comments ()

Check it out: My AFC title game post ranks number one on a google search! Welcome Steelers fans!

cowher's prayer - Google Search

Posted by Josh Reighley at 1:28 AM | Permalink | Comments ()

I am cheap, and only pay for limited cable. This gets me channels 1-30. Basically the televised channels, Discovery channel, Regional news channel, Cspan, and public access TV.

The filters are not perfect, so I also get channel 31, and some in the 60-70 range (Bravo, E! and a few others that are rarely worth watching)

When we first signed up, channel 31 was ESPN.. About a year ago, Comcast moved ESPN to channel 33, and put Outdoor life on 31. Bullriding was fun to watch for a few weeks..

December 29th, Comcast moved ESPN to channel 11. This made me quite happy. I don't think my wife was too thrilled.

Today, A cable guy rang our doorbell and said he had to do some work on the pole out back.. When I woke up. Channel 11 was gone.. They sent a guy out and up a 20 foot ladder just to take away ESPN. All of the rest of my channels still work. I wish I could see the cost benefit analysis on that project.

Posted by Josh Reighley at 4:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)