Archive for October, 2008

Vanity

CaseyP| October 27, 2008 9:44 am

Solomon said it best when he said all in this world is vanity. Little means much, and there’s little that you can truly control in life, besides your own ability to work to the best of your ability, and enjoy the fruits of your labor, such as they are. It’s God who builds up and tears down . . . and anything you do or don’t have in life, otherwise, is up to him. (Ecc 3).
That being said, I’ve not posted much here in quite some time because I set out on what was a relatively popular string of posts on the Financial Crisis, and the economy. I quit because it got a bit depressing. Here’s where we’re at: Despite Obama and McCain calling each other socialists…our country just took the first giant leap into socialism, when Bush allowed the Fed to buy up portions of the largest banks in our country. We will more than likely continue into a worsening economy, despite reports that you may be hearing to the contrary. (However, I bought gas for $2.42 yesterday! YAY CRISIS!) No amount of meddling by the Government will stop the laws of market from working, and oil (and the market in general) was overbought, so a price correction is needed.
Obama will probably win the election, and no amount of my moaning and groaning on this blog will stop that. God can stop it, as it is God who sets up the rulers of nations. I feel that, in addition to God’s will being worked out (and perhaps his judgment, hat tip to Lincoln Adams here), there are other nefarious forces at work . . . although I hesitate to use the word “conspiracy,” that are propelling Obama into power. Even Biden himself has referred to some group with the ability to manufacture a financial crisis, and has suggested that they will use this power during Obama’s first year in office:

“It will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy. The world is looking. We’re about to elect a brilliant 47-year-old senator president of the United States of America. Remember I said it standing here if you don’t remember anything else I said. Watch, we’re gonna have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy.” (emphasis mine)

If this is true, and if we’re already being warned by Joe that things will look bad, I can’t help but believe that this is a power play to take over America, and rip the remaining shreds of our free market away from us.
As you can see, my thoughts on these things aren’t exactly cheery. So, I’ve decided to go back to writing about things I like. I believe Jesus is going to return soon, and with the small audience my blog has, perhaps I can encourage Christians to go out and witness, and make a difference in this world. Also, I do this at my leisure, and because I find it enjoyable. So…if writing about something isn’t enjoyable, I’ll write about something that is.
What does this mean for TheLimitless.com? It means that you should expect from here on out, some thought provoking Biblical posts, and some geeky tech posts, with some online gaming stuff mixed in. I may continue to blog about politics occasionally…but I think I’ll steer away from it for now.
Now go out and enjoy the life you have…it’s not getting any better until you do!

DSLR of Choice?

CaseyP| October 24, 2008 1:53 pm

Nikon D40

Nikon D40

I’m considering getting the Nikon D40.  Does anyone have any experience with this camera?  A recommendation for a better entry-level DLSR that has a decent selection of lenses?

Friday Features

CaseyP| 12:03 pm

I’ve been on a bit of sensory overload…what with the financial crisis, the apparently shoe-in victory for Barack Obama, and preparing for a trip to the most magical place on Earth.  However, I’ve found some really useful and interesting things that I’ve been incorporating into my life recently.  I’m a gadget junkie, but even more, I’m addicted to “productivity tools.”  I love simple things that make life easier…even if they’re not all that simple.

For instance, IWantSandy.com emails and text messages me reminders to pay bills when they’re due, so that I don’t forget them.  Apparently Sandy can do lots of other awesome things…but who has the time to figure this crap out?

And so today, I bring you several things I’ve found useful, and a few not so useful things.

  • Microsoft Live Mesh - this is something that borders on revolutionary . . . but isn’t quite there yet.  (I think that’s Microsofts mission statement -”Almost, sorta, kinda, New and Awesome, but not quite.”)  It’s a “Tech Preview,” which I assume means that it’s actually buggier than Vista on release day.  The remote desktop features don’t work with Mac yet, but the online storage is accessible from a Web Browser.  Basically, this is like DropBox (which I use and love) with social networking features built in.  I can see this being useful in business as well.
  • In the online storage world, I’ve been looking for a solution for backing up pictures online.  I’ve fallen in love with Picasa.  The desktop app is great (way better than iPhoto on Macs) for organizing and doing basic edits.  To me it’s much simpler to use than Flickr, which I still can’t figure out.
    Seriously . . . a lot of these things are supposed to save us time, but it ends up taking more time to work with than it’s worth.  I’m still trying Flickr . . . but I think I’ll be staying with Picasa for now.
  • Ubuntu 8.10 is coming out in 6 days, and has a lot of new usability features built in, with a supposedly much less confusing installation, especially if you are partitioning your hard drive for a dual-boot situation.  I highly recommend.  This website is run off an ubuntu server, by the way.  Check out my series on setting it up.
  • Skype - This is old . . . but I’ve just begun using, and plan on featuring it in a blog about business tech and cost cutting ideas.  It’s a great way to keep up with friends and family who are away…and a great way to save on long distance calls in general ($2.95 per month for unlimited!)

Most of my finds are typically courtesy of Lifehacker.  It’s one of my first reads everyday.  However, Mashable tipped me off to Wigix.  Wigix is awesome, let me say.  It’s like a stock market for things you own or want to buy / sell.  Just like the market, there are buy and sell offers on the table for tons of things, and you can take one (execute) if you want to buy or sell at that price.  If not…put your own buy or sell order out.  As an ex-con -broker, this makes great sense to me, and it’s got an MLM feature with it too.  If you are the first to add an item or category, you make money off all of that product’s sales.  You also make money on referring other people.  So go check it out, and get a good glimpse at the ground floor of the company that will destroy eBay.

Christian Carnival CCXLV

CaseyP| October 8, 2008 10:49 am

Welcome to the Christian Carnival, CCXLV, which a handy Roman numeral converter tells me means 245!  Wow, I should learn Roman some day.

Before I get right to the posts, I want to thank you all for the honor of hosting the Christian Carnival here at my little site.  I’ve participated, off and on (mostly off), in the Carnival since 2004, but this is my first time hosting.  So, today I’m very pleased to present the following submissions, in no particular order:

And that wraps it up for this week!  Some great reads.  Unfortunately, a crazy week at work prevented me from submitting my own post this week, and also weighed in on the time it would take to properly categorize the postings.  Thanks for stopping by, and enjoy your Christian Carnival!

Welcome to the U.S.S.A.

CaseyP| October 3, 2008 1:17 pm

October 3rd, 2008 will be a day that lives in infamy, for the last few free-minded people in the world, and a day lauded by the liberal socialist wannabes, the rich, and the powerful.  Today the house passed an even WORSE version of the bill they turned down on Monday.  Looks like we all should’ve saved our angry phone calls for today, because at least we would’ve had less pork-barrel spending, and government insurance scams (read FDIC insurance hike), on Monday.  Today marks a turning point in our history, as a free-market, capitalistic republic, to a socialist, appeasing, government run, welfare state.  America, welcome to global economic irrelevance.  Welcome to the United Socialist States of America.

Oh.  And “SALE ON TOY WOODEN ARROWS!  AISLE 5!”

Buy and sell on Wigix.
The community-driven online
marketplace.