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Well, the next in the line of Windows operating systems, Vista, is set to release to the general populace next Tuesday, January 30th. I’ve heard that Windows Vista is the most anticipated and talked about OS ever and according to Microsoft it will revolutionize the way we use our computers. Despite all the buzz, I wonder how many people will actually run out and buy it immediately, especially given the fact that many of it’s touted features are available as free downloads to incorporate the functionality into Windows XP. Those programs unclude: Internet Explorer 7, Windows Media Player 11, and a desktop search utility. Many of Vista’s improvements are behind the scenes but in terms of user experience Vista does have a sleek new desktop interface and Start menu and some cool performance enhancers. One is called Superfetch which actually keeps track of often used programs and preloads them. Another cool feature is ReadyBoost which lets you plug in a flash drive to supplement system memory. While Vista has some cool features, it is still a bit buggy and I’ll probably not adopt it at least until the first service pack comes out. Since I was involved in the Beta testing, I received an invitation to a pre-release celebration on January 29th. Apparently this will be a major event at the Best Buy in Bellevue with DJs, special offers and NFL player appearances. Perhaps I’ll stop by to get my picture taken with Shaun Alexander! Wonder if he’ll buy Vista while he’s there!!

It’s been a while since the last baby update. As far as we can tell, she’s doing great. Her kicks and punches are quite powerful and many times you can actually see as she pushes out. Her due date is still 2/28 but we’re thinking she may be a couple of weeks early and possibly be a Valentine’s baby. Jenn is doing fine as well, despite the obvious and increasing discomfort, she can’t wait to see the little person who’s been doing all of the acrobatics in the middle of the night!! Thanks to God for a wonderful friend at church providing us with several bags of girl’s clothes. With everything we already have from the others, we should be pretty well prepared.

Ok, enough whining about the Seahawks and on to a worthwhile post.

I’ve been listening to the new Incubus album, “Light Grenades” and I have to say I’m pretty impressed. Their last disc, “A Crow Left of The Murder” was a disappointment to me, aside from the politically-charged, “Megalomaniac” and “Talk Show On Mute” tracks. As a result, I’ve been eagerly anticipating their next release, since their acclaimed Morning View album, which happens to be my personal favorite. Without a doubt one of my favorite things about Incubus is that they have resisted conforming to any one musical genre and they have a great ability create very diverse peices of music…good music. This ability is ever-present in their latest release. In fact, Incubus’ guitarist Mike Einziger told MTV “It sounds like 13 different bands playing 13 different songs…”
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Well, the Seahawks season just ended with a loss to the Bears. Unlike last week’s game (and surprisingly to me) they should’ve won this one, but gave it to Chicago. One drive in particular comes to mind. Tied at 24, the Hawks are 1st and 10 in Chicago territory (thanks to 2 great carries by Alexander), and Hasselbeck wastes 2 downs. The first I guess was die to miscommunication as I believe Hasselbeck just downed it off the snap. The 2nd down he threw a bomb that was nowhere near catchable. I believe they had about a minute left and were about 10-15 yards from field goal range. Oh well, just needed to vent a bit. Thanks to Hawks for another exciting season!!

Woohoo!! It’s Seahawks Friday for us Washingtonians. Hope the Hawks stomp on da’ bears.

I still can’t believe it myself but the Hawks have survived the first round of the postseason. I say “survived” because, by all rights, they should’ve lost Saturday’s game against Dallas. Hasselbeck’s performance wash shaky and Alexander was largely ineffective, aside from a couple of good carries. On a positive note, Stevens did a much better job of holding onto the ball, with 2 TD receptions. A sequence of events in the 3rd quarter, pretty much sums up the match-up. After a laborous and eventual scoring drive by the Hawks, Dallas imediately responds with a 93 yard kickoff return for a TD. Though it pains me to say it, the truth is, the Hawks didn’t beat Dallas, Dallas beat Dallas. Key blunders such as the Dallas’ fumble in the endzone (resulting in a safety for the Hawks) and of course Romo’s game-losing bobble on the field goal attempt gave the Hawks the win.

While I am elated that the Hawks won (especially with the bonus of keeping T.O unproductive), their shoddy performance worries me especially with their upcoming game against Chicago. The Hawks are a good team and when they are “on” can definately beat the Bears, the problem is, they haven’t been “on” as a team for much of the season. Any chance at all is still a chance. Go Hawks!!

As I was driving home the other night I drove past a church I noticed the message board had nothing more than the word: “Immanuel” on it. Knowing that the word is used a few different times in the bible, in reference to Jesus, it intrigued me enough to do a web-search on. I found an article on Wikipedia that talked about it’s meaning and origin. It literally means “God with us”, which I had heard before (but obviously didn’t retain) but even more interesting was that it consists of 2 Hebrew words (”El”, meaning God and “Immanu”, meaning with us). I have heard of other names for God (El Shaddai, God Almighty, etc.) where the “el” comes at the beginning and it is two words but it never occured to me that there are words with it at the end. Not being a linguistics specialist, this comes as no surprise. Anyway, as I was sitting there, re-growing some braincells, it occurred to me that my name, Nathaniel (which I’ve known meant gift of God) follows this same convention. In realizing this, I guess I felt a certain sense of pride that my name actually contains the word God in it. It also makes me feel a bit shameful when I look back at my teenage years where I didn’t like my name and thought it was the least cool name in school, partially due to being teased. At that time in my life, I began going by Nate, and though, in growing up, I’m no longer concerned with the coolness of my name, I still go by Nate. All my friends and family are accustomed to it and it’s just easier and quicker to say. I find it ironic how I used view it as an uncool name and now feel proud to have such a name. In closing, I found a list of other such names that refer to God. It’s interesting to peruse the list and see all the names of people I know.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_names_referring_to_El

Christmas morning was much what we expected as Jenn and I were awoken by the excited voices of Nick and Taylor, stating “Santa came here! Santa came here!” I must say I was surprised to look and see that it was after 8am, instead of 5:45 or something. Anyway, we couldn’t resist their urging for us to get up any longer so we arose and Jenn went to wake up Sam. (more…)