The wisdom of Veggie Tales

This morning, my 3 month old daughter and I were watching Veggie Tales on television and I was reminded of the simplicity of the real message. I think we often over complicate things for one reason or another when the truth is, it is simple enough for a child to understand - probably better than most of us adults.

We came into the episode underway. There was this little creature who climbed a large mountain to get away from others who were not being nice. He encountered a wise and gentle man who turned out to be the creator. They had some dialog that built the message of love and tolerance, and ultimately, the little character asked the age old question we have probably all wondered about at one time or another. "If You created everyone, why didn't you make them all obey you all the time and be nice?".

The answer was so simple - essentially, "If I made them love me, it would not be love. Love can never be forced, it has to come of free will". Some of the elegance of the response is lost in my retelling, but you get the idea I hope.

MS Office "Save as PDF"

If you use Microsoft Office 2007, you need this add-in: Microsoft Save as PDF or XPS

This download allows you to export and save to the PDF and XPS formats in eight 2007 Microsoft Office programs. It also allows you to send as e-mail attachment in the PDF and XPS formats in a subset of these programs. It was a part of the standard functionality until Adobe got a little tweaked with Microsoft stepping on their toes. Even with it a separate download, it's still pretty painless except the Windows Genuine Annoyance confirmation.

Get it now

A changed life

In a recent series at the church we are attending the focus has been in 2 Peter. I have been bumping these verses around in my head, trying to figure out what they mean. I think in the end, I have had a pretty good idea the whole time; I just have been hesitant in picking up on it. My fear of being a part of the “old guard” has built a resistance to frameworks of rules. I believe that the key is in balance and understanding the basis for the directives outlined in this passage. If we follow the first and greatest command - to love - we will desire a changed life. These guildlines / directives are simple a manifestation of this changed life growing out of the new creation.

Slipping on the bannana peel of life

I find that in the desire to find the truth, I have started to slip a bit on the banana peel of life. I find myself unwittingly being defined (at least in my own mind) by what I am not, or do not want to be, rather than being defined by what I am. I need to invest time in firmly establishing what I am, just as I have spent so much time determining what I am not.

Dev Links

I have a few links to some good blogs and resources that I got from MS Devs or from my own research so I figured I would post them here to share and keep as a reference.

• Sijin Joseph's blog - Dev Resources


• Scott Guthries blog - an MS Dev


• MSDN Blogs


• Brian Goldfarb's Blog


• JrzyShr Dev Guy
  Peter Laudati's bits + bytes from exit 117...


• .net DEvHammer
  Just what IS a Developer Evangelist, anyway?

Microsofts open source projects

While attending the HLS Devcon today, I heard one of the sweetest sounds I have yet heard from a Microsoft conference... In a session on Ajax, the presenter spoke about the technology, what it could do and how it worked. Then came the punchline... by the way, it works with PHP, Java, on Apache, whatever you want. Not the party line about the language of your choice being available in the VS IDE, rather this was talking about using a Microsoft technology to help devs build their php sites. Well done Microsoft.

Also a topic of conversation was the codeplex resource. This is a Microsoft repository for open source projects. In their own words, "CodePlex is Microsoft's open source project hosting web site. You can use CodePlex to create new projects to share with the world, join others who have already started their own projects, or use the applications on this site and provide feedback."