I think I’m allergic to the Sahara

I’ve been having bad headaches as of late and my sinuses are causing me some trouble. Usually means that my allergies are acting up. But the problem was we couldn’t really see what was causing my allergies as the flowers are blooming around here but that doesn’t normally affect me. When the barometer changes, that affects me but the flowers, not so much.

Then the other day, Krista was taking Alex to school and looked at our car. Now it had rained the night before but our car was just covered in this dirt. I had just washed the car last week (and looks like I will be this week too). She at first thought that maybe a truck with dirt had come by and covered all the cars on the street with dirt and it stuck to the cars because they were wet from the rain the night before. Except as the day went along, we noticed all the cars in town were covered too. So I decided to research this a little bit.

What I found out was that the rain storms we have been having are storms coming up out of Africa, crossing the Mediterranean, and coming up to our part of Europe. The storms collect dust and sand coming up over Africa, draw up the water over the Med and then dump them on Europe when it hits our hill/mountains. So the dirt on our cars – it’s from Africa. Kinda weird to think about.

Quick stop in Vienna

On my way home from some travels, I had a layover in Vienna for about 5 hours. Having not really seen Vienna (but flying through their airport all the time), I decided to take the quick 16 minute train ride into downtown Vienna (also known as Wien). I didn’t spend much time and it was a Sunday afternoon so nothing was really open. The only thing I knew to do was visit their Dom (another name for really old church). So I made my way over to it and took a few pictures with my small camera (not my good one, sorry.) I also went through the park and watched everyone relax in the sun before heading back to the airport to catch my flight home.

Check out the Photos in the Photo Album.

MacHeads

Ok, I know I use a Mac but that doesn’t mean that I’m a MacHead. While I enjoy the use of my Mac and the ease at which I can do various things, I don’t think that Steve Jobs ranks up there with St. Peter or that he has some special powers. I don’t think that Apple is “The Ultimate!”. While their integration of hardware and software is quite good (but not perfect), it’s because they keep everything proprietary. Talk about a company that is wanting monopolies and integrates their software to infringe on user’s rights! How many people using a PC that had iTunes all of the sudden got a new web browser (Safari) through the iTunes “Updater”?!?!? Because Apple knows best for you and knew that their stuff is superior they forced the download on you. I’m on a Mac and I don’t use Safari (unless I have to make sure a website I’m doing works with Safari).

Now I know I’m going to stir up some controversy and will probably get some MacHeads complaining that I’m not a true member of the “Apple Community” but hey, with the upsurge in Apples being bought, soon users like me will out number the MacHeads in the Apple Community. It’ll be an interesting day when the realization of all that hits the MacHeads.

Now what brought up all of this is that there’s a new documentary coming out called “MacHeads”. Check out the trailer

Oh, to see another guy who feels my pain at times (oh, and the very last line is the ultimate for me!)–

WordPress & Permalinks on a Windows Server

Problem: WordPress was designed to run on Apache and not on the Windows IIS server. However, my hosting is a Windows server and I want to use WordPress (which does basically work on Windows IIS) but I also want to use Permalinks (nice URLs, not those “?page=23″ type URLS). I’m on a shared hosting plan and my provider has PHP/MySQL but is not going to load a ModRewrite software package.

Basic Solution: I used a php.ini file, a customized 404 Error page, and modified a little bit of WordPress code.
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It’s that time of year again: Eurovision

The show that gave us ABBA, Eurovision is back this year and ahem, better than ever? I mean, this is only my second Eurovision but I have to think that not everyone takes it seriously (see the video below that is Spain’s entry). I mean, one of the band’s lead singer is a puppet (check out the Dustin the Turkey video)

However, this has been a tradition in Europe since 24 September, 1956 and seems to still be going strong. In a way, its really cool as you hear the different songs (some in English, some in their native languages). I mean, I have no clue as to what the representative of Israel is saying, but the music did speak to me. In the end, I’ll probably stay up until 1 AM to find out who wins. This ain’t no American Idol, the results are done the same night. Votes are telephoned or SMS’d in and tallied right then by country. Then each country announces their top three (each level is a different amount of points). Once each country has announced their top three, then the winner is announced and the winner gets the honor of hosting the contest next year. I’m probably going to be rooting for either Germany or Ukraine. Not just because there are the two countries in Europe that I feel most at home but their music is a little bit more my style.

Well, enjoy the video of Spain’s, um, entry – :

[Update: Russia came in first with a really pretty song called "Believe". Ukraine came in second (yeah!) and Greece came in third with a Hannah Montana sounding song.]

Scary & Funny at the same time

OK, what do you make of this headline – Driver naps while drunk passenger steers on Autobahn. Kinda scary but it does make you a give one of those nervous laughs. If you read the whole article, you’ll find out that it was two French guys. Figures. Kind of defeats the whole reason for a “designated driver”.

Anyway, I would just like to know what the thoughts were of those that went past this guy in the driver seat with his head back obviously sleeping. My first thought probably would have been something of laughter and then realization that we didn’t want to be driving by them.

I bet you some people just thought they were British. (because the steering wheel is on the other side of the car!)

Prayer Time for Europe

As a mission, we are spending the next few days praying for Europe. Europe is a dark continent spiritually speaking. We ask that anyone who has a heart for those who do not know Christ in an intimate way here in Europe to pray with us over the next few days. To help you understand the needs that need to be prayed for, Greater Europe Mission has put together prayer sheets for each of the 49 different countries here in Europe and some for various people groups within Europe. You can check them out at http://www.gemission.org/Prayer/Devotional_Nations_Download.asp

Thank you for praying with us.