Doug Van Pelt

Sweet Dreams ... and Windows shortcuts ... and reminders

Today was a sense of deja-vu. About a year ago I was driving to work blasting Marilyn Manson in the car and I passed a schoolbus load of guys in cowboy hats standing by the side of the road, ready to be shown the latest technology in weed control and fertilizer (or something like that). It seemed like an odd juxtaposition of culture to me at the time. Well, today, of all days, I was jamming out to Manson's greatest hits and ... wouldn't ya know it, there was a school bus parked on the side of the road next to a big, flat healthy field of corn, with several signs at the end of each row. And about 50 to 75 farmers -- clad mostly in cowboy hats, lined up (and almost lined up from the crops out into the street as if they had no sense) and I drive by, waving with my windows rolled up but the Manson metal blaring loud enough to hear outside anyway as I passed. What are the odds of that happening twice?

I had an internet problem today. I've been wanting to work on my novel and one of the things that keeps me doing busy-bee HM work is just keeping up-to-date with email. I could probably do nothing all day but hover over my inbox, responding to emails as they come in. I get that many questions that seem important enough to answer. So, the internet is down. Maybe it's a good circumstance to drop what I'm doing and write some. But I didn't. I noticed that another website opened. It was the hm server that was out of commission for an hour or two. That was a drag. I practiced something I believe but have gotten rusty at today: I chose joy. I praised the Lord out loud and with the occasional twitter tweet message. I think of the verse that says "The joy of the Lord is my strength." I believe that like a faith healer and it really changes my attitude. That's a nice thing, because anything that can alter my mood from bad to good is looked at with at least a little bit of favor. I'm still working on a "definition-in-progress" of the identifying characteristics of a believer. One of them might be, "clinging to the statement of Scripture like a word-of-faith practitioner." I'm not sure I like that, but I'm crafting a multi-faceted definition that borrows characteristics from many angles (some of which are crooked), but it's not so I can define my theology for a fellow Berean-like disciple that wants to "test me," but instead a definition that sparks the interest and common experience of an outsider. It's like painting with words and poetry, when I bring up "having a reverence for elders like an Iroquois" or something, it might make someone that doesn't respect Christ more interested in my faith than if I was to say, "I respect the elders in my church, because they've walked with God a long time." A fellow believer can relate to that, but a non-believer that's been hurt emotionally by some old stuffy church deacon might get turned off by that statement. I'm still working on this thing and promise to share it someday in this blog.

I was reading the new issue of Computer Shopper and came across the following cool shortcuts for Windows XP or Vista users:

Windows key + E: opens Internet Explorer with one quick keystroke.

Windows key + M: minimizes all of your open windows, leaving just the desktop exposed. This is good for all those slackers goofing off instead of working if/when their boss is strolling through the office. Or will shut down PhotoShop and Microsoft Word and InDesign if you're designing a surprise birthday card for the person that enters the room.

To open multiple websites at once: Go to tools > internet options and then type in as many addresses as you want (on individual lines) in the "home page" field. I might start doing this, so I can open hmmag.com and twitter.com when I click on the ie icon.

Tab shortcuts: Hit Ctrl + T to open a tab so you can visit a new site without opening a new window; and browse opened tabs without taking your hands off the keyboard by hitting Ctrl + Tab.

Nice, huh?

Posted by Doug Van Pelt at June 17, 2008 09:46 PM