Some Blog Site

I set my phone screen to lock so that it won’t rotate. I know people put effort into the fancy sensors and software so the phone can have that feature, but it needs one more enhancement before I’ll use it.

Here is my use case – I’m lying on my side (on a couch, in bed, whatever) and I’m holding the phone. What should the phone do?

Here is the feature as the phone companies tout it (look! the phone screen knows which way is up!):

But here is how it works for me:

As you can see, when I lie on my side, the screen no longer matches me. Now I have to tilt my head awkwardly. Or disable screen rotation so that the phone doesn’t think it is smarter than I am (no, trust me – this is what you want, even though you don’t want it).

My proposal: Use the secondary camera match the screen orientation to the user, not to gravity

The new phones these days have cameras that can see the user. And they have facial recognition algorithms that should be able to know the angle of the person’s head. If the phone is tilted and the user’s head is tilted the same amount and direction, then don’t rotate the screen.

Bryan Logan, make it so.

P.S. – see about a NASA grant, because this technology would also apply to zero-gravity situations when the phone’s sensor can’t tell which way is up.

It was around this time a few years ago that I sent my first guest post submission to Jon Acuff. I titled it “Classifying Church Names”. Jon was positive in his email reply, but it never was published. After about 40 months of waiting for it appear on Stuff Christians Like, I am giving up on it and am publishing it here for you, dear reader. Enjoy!

When looking for a church, they key element to get right is the name. After all, a good name is to be more desired than great riches. But what makes a name good? As with many issues within Christianity, there are two camps on church names: descriptive or aesthetic.

The descriptive names include either the denomination or part of the doctrinal statement (or both). Some people say that the descriptive church names are bland and restrictive, but at least you know what you are getting when you go there.

And you know it’s a church. You don’t see businesses with traditional church names, like “Calvin Reformed Flower Shop” (specials on tulips!) or “Freewill Baptist Golf Course” (so that’s why the ball never goes where I want it to go…)

The aesthetic names include either a geologic feature or a direction (or both). But sometimes you need to do a little research before visiting the aesthetically-named church, in order to find out what kind of church it is and, more importantly, if it is a church. To help SCL readers hone their church-detecting skills, I present:

The Church Name Quiz

I took a sampling of names in my local area. For each name given below: what type of establishment is it?

1. Oak Pointe
A. Church
B. Subdivision
C. Restaurant
D. Mall

2. NorthRidge
A. Church
B. Subdivision
C. Restaurant
D. Mall

3. North Point
A. Church
B. Subdivision
C. Restaurant
D. Mall

4. The Father’s House
A. Church
B. Rehab center
C. Restaurant
D. Bookstore

5. Stillwater
A. Church
B. Subdivision
C. Restaurant
D. Mall

6. Woodside
A. Church
B. Subdivision
C. Restaurant
D. Mall

7. Brookside
A. Church
B. Subdivision
C. Restaurant
D. Mall

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Ricky assembled a team of bloggers to compete against the team of bloggers that Rob picked.

The official competition is at Rob’s site, but don’t forget to visit Ricky’s post about our team.

Here is my description of the teams, based on a current movie which applies quite nicely to this situation (for those unfamiliar with Monsters University, Roar Omega Roar is the fraternity for the assumed winners, Oozma Kappa is the fraternity for the underdogs).

Team Rob is Roar Omega Roar:

• Johnny Worthington = Rob.
  He’s the ringleader, so that’s an obvious choice.
• Javier Rios = Jon Acuff.
  He looks like he wants to punch fear in the face.
• Reggie Jacobs = Stephen Haggerty.
  He’s the hairiest of the crew.
• Chip Goff = Knox McCoy.
  He’s the second-hairiest of the crew.
• Chet Alexander = Carlos Whittaker.
  He has bigger arms than the other guys.
• Randall Boggs = Wes Molebash.
  Process of elimination.

Team Ricky is Oozma Kappa:

• Mike Wazowski = Ricky.
  He’s the ringleader, so that’s an obvious choice.
• Terri and Terry Perry = Bunmi Laditan.
  Is our team member Bunmi Laditan or Honest Toddler? Those two heads count as one for this team.
• Don Carlton = Daniel Carman.
  The names are close enough, I think.
• Art = Jan Moyer.
  Both fit in well in the kindergarten scene.
• Sully = Bryan Logan.
  The hairiest member of the team.
• Squishy = Some Guy.
  Process of elimination.
  No, seriously.

Go vote for OK! I mean, Team Ricky!

(And fellow team members, let me know if I assigned you the wrong person. Whom would you rather be?)

I went to Nevada earlier this year. It was my first time there, and also my first time to go to a certain restaurant, about which I have heard people rave. Maybe this blog post could inspire a new marketing campaign for them.

After my experience, I composed a song. Remember that it was the spring, so there was a slight wind and it was not too hot yet. We visited the restaurant after driving back from some attraction. Picture that it is late, after the sun went down.

Without further ado, here is the song. I hope you like it

On a dark desert highway, cool wind in my hair
Warm smell of carnitas, rising up through the air
Up ahead in the distance, I saw a shimmering light
My head grew heavy and my stomach thin, I had to stop for a bite
There it stood in the strip mall, it could my hunger quell
I was thinking to myself, “This could be heaven or something else”
Then she asked for my order and she showed me the way
There were voices behind the counter, I thought I heard them say

Welcome to the restaurant called Chipotle
Such a yummy place (such a yummy place)
Such a yummy space
Plenty of food at the restaurant called Chipotle
Any time of year
You can find it here

There are more verses to write. I don’t have them all down yet, but here are some of the phrases that should go into the song:

• her rice is cilantro-twisted
• some eat to remember, some eat to forget
• so I called to the cashier, please bring me my lime
• and she said, “we are all just customers here, of our own device.”

Now if only I could find a good tune to go with the words… Someone contact the Eagles and see if they can help.

And from what I hear from people near a Chipotle, once you start frequenting a Chipotle, you can’t stop. To put it another way, you can check out any time you want, but you’ll come back later.

Or something like that.

We celebrated the end of the school year with a trip to a waterpark. A nearby county park (Independence Lake) had spent a few million dollars on a glorified sprayground and we decided to see how it compared to a real waterpark. A real waterpark has areas to swim, or at least submerge one’s self. This place keeps prices down by not having any standing water – liability costs are lower and the “lifeguards” do not have to have any certification.

What exactly does Blue Heron Bay have? The best answer for that is a panoramic photo:

Now for the tour. First up, welcome to Blue Heron Bay.

Lots of spray stuff:

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Yesterday I took the older kids to see Monsters University. We got tickets to an advanced screening – excuse me, screaming – of the movie thanks to my wife’s friend.

When my wife called me and asked if I wanted to take the kids to see the movie, my first response was to check the usual review sites to see the appropriate age range and if there is any objectionable material.

The sites I like to check are Common Sense Media and Kids in Mind. Those two sites give reviews that are helpful to concerned parents. But… they review movies after they are out. Since this was June 18th and Monsters University doesn’t open until June 21st, all I got from one site was the synopsis provided by Pixar (and nothing from the other site).

So I had to go off movie critic reviews.

Those were not helpful. Mostly they lamented that, although not a bad movie, MU just didn’t live up to the expectations of previous Pixar releases. They gave the storyline and some other tidbits, but none of them told me the things I cared about:

• how scary are the monsters in this movie?
• any inappropriate material?
• it’s set at a college, so how is the frat party handled?

I’ll try to fill in those blanks so that parents who are wondering those things can have their answers for opening weekend.

The monsters (and settings) are slightly scarier than Monsters, Inc., and I did not see any inappropriate material.

My 9-year-old was eager to go and liked everything in the movie. My 7-year-old was not as eager to go, but he said he liked the movie. I was glad I did not take my 4-year-old, because it would have been too scary for him.

I’d recommend a minimum age of 6. That’s based on my family – your mileage may vary.
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Transcript:
NSA Employee #1: So, people don’t want us spying on them, huh?
NSA Employee #2: That’s right, there are some troublemakers who don’t like us doing our job…
NSA Employee #1: We’ve got to find out who they are so we can thwart their efforts.
NSA Employee #2: What are you going to do, ask for their names?
NSA Employee #1: Exactly!
[online stop-spying petition]
NSA Employee #2: Brilliant!

In summary: You don’t want your information in some list? Great, just put your information on this list and we’ll take care of it. Thanks.