I have one – an iMac. you know, the bright colored, all-in-one computers with no data transfer hardware*? I’ve got a teal one in the trunk o’ the Honda. =)

I’m excited – I’m a total computer nerd, and I haven’t ever had prolonged access to a Mac. once I get a 256MB chip and 4MB video RAM, I’m good to go. a friend from church, Sarah (the one with her tongue IN her nose – that’s right, folks), bought a skid of iMacs for the church at an IPS auction. half of them work, but only a couple of people even know how to use them, let alone refurb them. so I want to learn.

friend Dave showed me how to access the guts and how to do a firmware update. once I have the RAM, I can install OSX (10.3).

this is practice for me. if I decide that I love using a Mac (although a slow old one), my next computer will be a PowerBook.

* these machines don’t have floppy drives or cd burners – when they first came out, there were no thumb drives. aside from having access to a network, how were users supposed to transfer data?

click it

I have taken over a large table in the corner of David’s office. this week, Nussbaum 201 is Tara’s base o’ operations. it’s quiet here, and if I’m in the mood to get work done, this is a good place to be. and when I’m ready to go, I just turn around and say, “Dave, let’s go.” =) I miss you, though, Chalupa.

am very much enjoying this weather… gray and misty/windy/rainy… this goes perfectly with Orff’s Carmina Burana, which I’ve been listening to for the last hour or so. it’s some great stuff. what could follow it? right now, I’m really wishing I had my Little Women the opera cd’s. they’re both 20th century, which means a little less tonal than most folks like, but *I* think they’d complement each other.

grr. I have to keep pressing the pause button to reset the audio buffer – iTunes is a resource hog, and I only have 256MB of RAM in this laptop. the result is a song and a half or so, then the crystal clear audio (through my nice headphones, not through the laptop speakers) turns into a crackly AM-style sound. thankfully, this pausing solution is only temporary. thanks to Mike, I just was able to order double that for $25 – go to NewEgg.com for cheap RAM, kids.

speaking of rain, guess who decided to go grocery shopping last night, right in the middle of the biggest downpour we’ve had in weeks? =) that’s right, the young Aukermans. we thought we had a party to go to tonight, so we were going to go pick up a few things and get the necessities (like milk and toilet paper and mascara). it poured the entire time we were out without letting up.

oops – turns out the party’s on for NEXT Friday, not tonight. still had fun shopping, though. it was like being back in college – do you remember running to the store late at night when no one sane shops and playing the games on the shelves (WalMart has a nuveaux-Atari thing sitting out)? it’s fun shopping with David, even though I normally hate shopping. thanks, D.

burritos tonight… mmm. until then, though, I have to get back to work. adios.

look! you can be as famous as a president, or even Elvis!

> > PhotoStamps.com < <

WATCH THIS NOW!

this little movie is the funniest thing I’ve seen in a while. =) It’s called grocery STORE WARS… it’s worth the download time, I assure you.

http://www.daskeyboard.com/

I want one of these. =)

…

in other news, I’m going to be like a truck driver this weekend – living on the road. tonight, I have to drive to Anderson for a wedding shower. tomorrow I go somewhere called Rising Sun, Indiana (far away, I hear, but I know nothing other than that) for a conference for work. tomorrow night, I drive to Pennsylvania for bridal shower weekend extravaganza. then, Jim and Jessie are driving to see US after we drive around and run errands on Friday. then, Sunday, we’ll drive back to Indiana.

WHAT IS THE G8 AND WHY IS IT SO IMPORTANT?

The G8, or the ‘Group of Eight’ Summit is an annual gathering of leaders from the world’s eight wealthiest and most powerful countries (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States). This summer, these leaders will gather in Scotland to decide the fate of an entire generation living on less than ONE dollar a day. On July 6th – 8th, President Bush and other G8 leaders will discuss the major social, political and economic conditions that leave nearly ONE billion people living in extreme poverty – nearly half of whom live in Sub-Saharan Africa. With your support and voice, President Bush and other world leaders will know just how important these issues are, and together as ONE, we can Make Poverty History this July.

In America, more than 3 quarters of a million people have come together under ONE: The Campaign to Make Poverty History to lend their voices to the fight against global AIDS and poverty. Aided by Hollywood celebrities like Jamie Foxx, Brad Pitt and Kate Hudson; artists like Bono, Jewel and Michael W. Smith; and faith leaders like Pat Robertson and the Reverend Frank Griswold, our voices are being amplified.

When the G8 leaders met in 1998, 70,000 people formed a human chain, encircling Birmingham, UK where the leaders met, calling on the G8 to drop the debt of the world’s poorest countries. These advocates put debt relief on government agendas and led to pledges of debt cancellation. When we stand together as ONE, we can make the difference. If you’ve never been part of a big campaign event before, 2005 is the year to do it! And if you have – this is the year to get your friends, family and colleagues involved.

WHAT WE ARE ASKING FOR:

• MORE AND BETTER AID
• CANCEL THE DEBT
• TRADE JUSTICE

By taking three simple actions at their meeting on July 6th, President Bush and other G8 leaders can lead a generation out of poverty and put an end to the AIDS pandemic. President Bush must go to Gleneagles, Scotland ready to join with the leaders of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United Kingdom in delivering a historic deal to make poverty history.

As ONE, we call on President Bush to:

• Build on existing US commitments to the poorest people of the world with more and better assistance at a cost equal to just ONE percent more of the US budget on a clear timetable
• Cancel 100% of the debts owed by the poorest countries
• Reform trade rules so that poor countries can earn sustainable incomes

CLICK HERE TO TAKE ACTION!

there are two links in my sidebar over there -> that I want you to take the time to look at. it’s important.

take back the web

so, some of you know that I’m a big fan of firefox, and of safe (and standards-compliant!) browsing in general, but I wanted to point out to the rest of you that I have a link on the right. and in the last sentence. I want you to go there, download firefox, use it, and make my job easier.

my job is web design. I spend more than half of my “design” time kludging my way around internet explorer. microsoft REFUSES to follow the rules and process simple code correctly, so I waste hours and hours coming up with ridiculous work-arounds.

here’s how you using firefox will make my life easier: the more people that turn from the crap that is internet explorer, the more likely 1) they will actually start paying attention to standards, or 2) (even better) firefox will become the standard internet browser.

but I digress. here’s something that matters a whole heckuva lot more in the grand scheme of things…

one

I read about this in a magazine, then came across it again and took time to think about it. I’ve decided that it’s important for you to go to this website and watch the video.

all this drama going on at Taylor is … drama. how is it that I know all about it? I don’t have ANY regular contact with Taylor. it’s such a drama for the school and the students, but I have to say that I agree with Liz. it’s just not that big of a deal.

when I was at Taylor, I took campus life with a grain of salt. I enjoyed my time there, but I was always careful not to take things too seriously. I always thought that Taylor took itself too seriously.

I really think so now. prayer walks? fasts? come ON. sure, there was immaturity. sure there was irresponsibility. but no one was hurt. the most expensive “vandalism” was the missing nativity pieces… has student development forgotten that bits of it go missing every year? it was just a series of pranks. students streaking (in the dark!) and messing with Campus Safety – rude, but not a “dark” something that requires “healing” and “restoration” like the university propaganda-man says:

“As dark as things might seem, there is a hope that the healing process can begin and that those who committed these acts will experience a restoration process, through discipline through love.”

lighten up, Taylor.

I’ve been thinking a lot about what Justin is writing. a LOT.

he posted a comment to one of my entries, simply saying “hi, Tara.” from his name, several of my friends (and I) have accessed his blog and read about his experiences with Taylor University. now, in various groups of which I’m a part, there is a lot of discussion about his situation and his entries.

right off, let me say that I choose to take him at his word. I believe that things happened the way he says they did. I’ve known of, over the course of my years at Taylor, a few others who’ve had similar (in that they were so negative as to be scarring) experiences, so to hear people saying “it’s just one person’s conspiracy theory” rubs me the wrong way. while my Taylor experience was a very, very positive one, I certainly don’t believe that was the case for everyone.

Justin’s right. people, myself included, find it hard to admit that Taylor could do wrong – we never experienced these kinds of things first-hand. we believe that if there was a wrong, the school (and therefore the faculty) would go out of its way to fix things and own up to its mistakes. after all, we were taught BY Taylor that transparency and responsibility were key to developing good, lasting, meaningful relationships.

but… Taylor is a human-made institution. yes, it’s faith-based. yes, it’s Christian. but the institution is only as “Christian” as the people it employs will act. so many churches and Christian organizations are concerned about maintaining an image that may or may not even be real… people don’t buy that Christians are perfect – none of us are, and the more we (“we” individuals and “we” churches & organizations) try to pass ourselves off as perfect, the more everyone else sees only our hypocrisy. Christian living isn’t about covering up past wrongs, but about making them right and moving on to do better in the future.

which is why I hurt for Justin. he was wronged, but more than that, he was dehumanized.