The Love Universe » Journal

If you’ve seen Inception…prepare to be amazed once again

Nate — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 00:20:20 +0000

“Spoiler Alert”….maybe? I don’t think it really matters if you haven’t seen the film.

Get a free Amazon Prime Membership with valid .edu E-mail

Nate — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 18:29:58 +0000

This is an amazing deal that every student should know about.

As long as you have a valid .edu E-mail address you can sign up for a free Amazon Prime membership.

What does this get you?
The biggest perk is unlimited free 2 day shipping on most items with no minimum order size. An Amazon Prime membership usually costs $79.00.

Just wanted to share the good news!

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The best summary of the Gulf Oil Crisis I’ve read so far

Nate — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 01:46:49 +0000

My wife directed me to this Roger Ebert blog post that eloquently summarizes my feelings on the current environmental crisis with no end in sight. I highly recommend reading this. I’ve always enjoyed Roger Ebert’s writing, even when I haven’t agreed with it. In this case I think he really hit the mark.

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Quitting Church

Nate — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 17:27:30 +0000

Over at the God’s Politics Blog, Becky Garrison interviewed Julia Duin about her new book “Quitting Church: Why the Faithful Are Fleeing and What to Do about It”.

“I really think people need to find a church that meets their needs. If a particular church isn’t meeting your needs, then feel free to leave.” -Julia Duin

I don’t know what to think about Duin’s general attitude towards “church”. Lord knows my church wandering over the years leaves me very little room to talk, but I’ve always been extremely uncomfortable with the idea of “church shopping”. To what degree (if any) should church be viewed as a consumer good or service? Who’s to say we even know what our needs are anyways? Are there some needs that are a given amongst any and every believer?

If those given needs aren’t being met, then I think Duin makes a valid point when she suggests that perhaps churches need to look at themselves when people start to leave. “People want to change the world and not simply start another ministry program.”

“People will crave church when the Holy Spirit is so evident in the body.” This sentence might be the most profound idea of Duin’s. But as a follow-up I have to wonder how a church can foster the work of the Spirit if everyone is itching to leave and find the next best thing. And if “quitting church” is a nationwide trend, then what is the alternative and how does it further the Kingdom of God? I admit that I have not read this book so I apologize if any of these questions are unfair.

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Sarah Silverman interviews the creators of LOST

Nate — Fri, 21 May 2010 20:00:20 +0000

Just in time for the series finale.

Sizzle Alert: LOST with Sarah Silverman! from Sarah Silverman

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dog on trampoline

Nate — Tue, 18 May 2010 01:21:20 +0000

Amazing Dog’s Skills

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Putting all my HTML & CSS to use- My Final Project

Nate — Wed, 05 May 2010 19:59:12 +0000

This week marks the end of my spring semester of Library School. My final project for Internet Fundamentals was to create a website on any topic of our choice to showcase the coding that we have learned over the semester. If you follow this blog you’ll remember that I posted a link to my first ever HTML exercise. Well, after ten of those exercises this is what I came up with for my final project.
The content comes from a paper I wrote in undergrad on the portrayal of Jesus in film. It translated easily into a website and allowed me to focus more of my energy on coding as opposed to trying to fill the site with content.

I’ve already started using what I’ve learned. I’m in the middle of redoing Gather Round The Mic.

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Steady Progress

Nate — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 22:41:04 +0000

So my last post was my first HTML page I had ever written from scratch. That was back in January and I have been doing HTML exercises weekly for class. I’m now on Exercise 7 and I’d like to think I’ve made some progress. I’ve learned all sorts of new goodies and tricks and I’m also incorporating CSS now. Here’s what I put together this weekend.

Exercise 7 – And if you’re really into seeing what I had to program you can right click anywhere on the page and “view page source”.

And the CSS code can be found here.

As you can tell from the page I’m a huge LOST geek. So far I’ve enjoyed this season. Can’t wait to see how it ends.

Also, if you’re into all this Web2.0 stuff, I discovered an awesome life-changing site called Netvibes this week. I’ve used it to create my own homepage, a lot like what you can do with iGoogle but so much more. I even created a netvibes page for work (Warren High School). The students do a lot with current events so I thought “why not just build a netvibes page where they can see numerous news sources at a glance. And with Netvibe’s customization features I was even able to create the site with the same design colors as the WTHS homepage. You can see the page for yourself here.

So, I’ve been really busy with school which means I’m learning a ton, but on the other hand not doing a whole lot of recording. I look forward to summer when I will have a little more time to put into my other passions. The Broken Bones are doing well and I’m so glad I get the opportunity to keep playing music even though I’m bogged down with school. I also tried out mandolin for the church worship team last week (something I thought I’d never do again) and it looks like I’ll have that as another musical outlet. Things are good and Lent is upon us which means spring is coming along with Easter, the celebration of my Lord’s resurrection, and all the transformation and rejuvenation this preparation period brings.

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Look What I Did!

Nate — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 15:24:03 +0000

So, I’m taking an online course for my Library Science degree called Internet Fundamentals and we have to do these html exercises which are finally forcing me to learn the basics of html and css. I’m really enjoying it so far. I feel like I’m learning something extremely practical and useful. Its kind of surprising how little I know considering how much I use WordPress and how many sites I have hosted on the world wide web. So far I’ve gotten by on the skills of my friends.

Anyways, I finished my first exercise and I’m so proud of it that I just have to share. Here it is, my first web page designed completely from scratch from yours truly:

http://www.theloveuniverse.com/LIS_753/exercise01.html

She ain’t much to look at, but she’s all mine.

A few other related observations
1. Bluefish is an awesome open source text editor for writing code.
2. The history of the internet is surprisingly old and fascinating. If you’re at all curious you should deifinitely check out the video below.

A few unrelated observations
1. I thought Coco’s last show on Friday was surprisingly joyful and touching. His remarks on cynicism have really stuck with me the past few days. He will be missed for the next seven months.
2. The band I’m currently playing with (Zach Pietrini & The Broken Bones) is playing The Elbo Room this Friday.

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I’m Taking A Stand For Something!

Nate — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 17:02:08 +0000

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