Tim’s thoughts on the big wide web

well, ok, not really that dramatic, but it does feel like an end of something significant - i shall be bidding goodbye to this domain that have hosted my thoughts for a few years now. instead, i have been hard at work (rather, procrastinating from the never ending college work) to set up the new domain http://www.hu.id.au; part of the transition to being a married man i guess

so adieu to you readers of this blog, and i hope to see you at the next one =)

decided to install MovableType4 on hu.id.au and give it a go, thinking that this might be a more stable platform to build on compared to Wordpress (this thinking is purely a perception thing, i have no data or experience to base this feeling on - could be all marketing driven for all i know).

however, upon installing MT4 (with some initial base-64 problems, with, of all things, tar!), i’ve realised what i initially suspected - it is a very nice, polished platform, with some nice features that WP doesn’t have.

BUT it is still a complex piece of architecture that doesn’t necessarily give MORE out-of-the-box than WP. for the things i would like to do, it looks a bit of tinkering is unavoidable. given that i’ve already traversed some distance on the WP learning-curve, i’ll be reverting back to what i know.

this is probably the first time i didn’t jump out of my seat wanting to go buy an apple when i saw the new iMacs. for some reason, i just don’t like the new brush metal frame; i think in comparison the previous all-white one looks nicer. although, i might change my mind if i saw one in real life.

i am rather intrigued by the new iWorks’08 though. will be very interesting to see how much functionality this suite have to challenge the mighty Office, given the new addition of the spreadsheet program.

tomorrow night on channel 10 will be the premier of a much publicised documentary by Titanic director James Cameron. the hot topic? The Lost Tomb of Jesus. the basic claim of this documentary is that they may have found the family tomb where Jesus was buried - the onus being that he is still buried there.

i think its rather easy for both Christians and non-Christians to form their opinions before watching this documentary - and rightly so because there is a fundamental difference in what the two groups believe: the resurrection of Jesus is at the absolute centre of Christian claims (1 Cor 15:3-4), and also at the absolute centre of non-Christian rejection (1 Cor 1:23).

however, fundamental differences aside, there is the claim of new evidence presented by this documentary to be weighed and discussed and reflected upon by both sides. so Monday (tomorrow) night, 9:30pm on Channel 10 - watch it with your thinking caps on.

disclaimer: in case anyone reading this thinks i hold a neutral position on this particular documentary, let me clarify:
(1) i have not watched this documentary, so i am honestly quite excited that its going to be on television (also, i love television as a general thing anyway =D)
(2) i have attended a lecture by professor Alan Millard (this guy has his own wikipedia page!) on this topic at Moore, who gave some convincing alternatives contrary to what the documentary claims.
(3) also, i am somewhat skeptical in terms of the evidences that this documentary may present after similar claims in recent times like the Da Vinci Code, which turned out to be based on loose interpretations of vague references in documents that no respectable scholar would date to anywhere near Jesus or his disciples.

all that happen in life leads to technological changes (maybe thats a bit exaggerated =D), but all the trimming i’ve been doing plus getting married prompted me to make some changes in tech behaviour:

its 1 months since we’ve been married! we’ve been occupied with some ‘trimming’. well, mostly me as i move into anna’s place - but she needed to trim before i do so that i have room to move my stuff in =) clothes and books are the big items of my possession, and both have been ‘trimmed’ to fit - which is good, because it forces me to get rid of unnecessarily items (i always think i might need something, thus never getting rid of anything …) i’ve still got a few more items to trim - lots of loose sheets from mts, documents from phd and basically a whole heap of miscellaneous papers like financial documents etc. and my hair needs a cut.

one thing i love about digital photography is the ease of getting good shots from various angles by different people at the same event.

if you’ve took photos that you like at our wedding (can be of anything - doesn’t need to have us in the photos), please please send them to me!

‘he’s coming down the home stretch with one exam, one assignment and one wedding to complete. will he finish unscathed? only time will tell’ - stay tuned!

in preparation for the wedding, i went to get a hair cut just then. why so early you ask? just in case the haircut is bad and i have time to grow it out. anyways, thats not important.

the hairdresser and i got chatting about the wedding, and he started asking me what does it mean to be a Christian. i know! perfect opportunity! but there i was making the biggest fumble in history - i just didn’t have right coherent words! after i finished, i thought ‘well, that’ll be the end of this conversation’, and so i just prayed that something good might come out of something so bad.

and it did. at the end of the haircut he said he wanted to have a look at what church is like - so he’ll be coming to MBF this friday. lessons learnt:
i) always be prepared to give a reason of the hope that we have,
ii) never to be so arrogant as to think my eloquence will convince people,
iii) pray, for it is God who works through the Spirit by the gospel of the Son.

congratulations to the newly weds kevin and mariah! =D

here’s the low down, picture by picture (ok, thats not quite true, i didn’t get to photograph all the way through - but close enough) http://unsync.com/photos/v/2007/kevinMariahWedding/

as usual, give me a yell if you want the high-res version. i have a few more that i didn’t upload, so ask me if you want a particular person/type - i can see if there’s more that fits.

my favorites are 3820, 3874, and the (blurry) action sequences of 3708 to 3711 =D