~We Have Moved~

For the last year I have been using Blogger to run Blue Collar Blogger. Not any more. The name is changed and so has the host. I have chosen to switch due to the features that WordPress offers over Blogger. Even with the New Blogger Draft that hit a few months back it is still too limited. I like options. Plain and simple. Blogger offers easier blogging but that does not mean that WordPress is not easier. You are able to configure and monitor your blog more like an administrator. Blog of a Geek is still Christian. The more we grow the more we know. The more we know the more it shows. If you are a regular visitor then you know that over the last year my writing has gotten better. I hope that you will find this new site to be fun, thought out, and written so that anyone can understand what is being said. It is a blog for everyone!

72-272 Down!

This morning started off somewhat rough. I had an interview that seemed very promising. The interview ended in my history taking out the opportunity to work for this particular organization. So have a great interview I was shut down. I cannot lie, I was in shock for the next 30 minutes or so.
No time to soak in sorrow though. I had to go take my 72-272 exam in about and hour. So I drive to the test site and and sit in the car for about thirty minutes doing a quick cram of info. The whole time I was taking the interview I knew that I was about to fail exam. My confidence was rattled. This is the time that I prayed for help with my thoughts. Not to help me pass the exam but to not badger myself over the interview.
I was pleased to find that I passed the exam! While I am fully capable of doing PC maintenance and repair it is nice to have paper behind you to back up what you say. To be able to say that I am an MCP is truly great! My next one is already scheduled for the 18. Great things are coming.
The company that interviewed me is also still looking for a career for me. So with in a few months things could be be better of financially.

Great Week So to Speak.

One of the recent post talks about a week that was not all that great. This week has been almost the exact opposite of that. So far this week the following have happened.....

1. My wife received her stimulus check
2. I went to Alabama to meet my grand-pop-in-law, the man is brilliant.
3. Got a job interview for help-desk support.
4. Got two Microsoft Exams to scheduled. I get free retakes on both if I fail them.
(Second Shot is a thing of beauty)

Take all of these and add to them the fact that I have a great family. I have a great life.

Vista, Vista, Vista

I learned something new about Vista this weekend. I am complete unable to access Vista's Recovery Console. Now I try to explain to people why it is so very important to keep all the software that comes with their PC's every chance I get. I tell them that for the very reason that I wish I had mine. One day you will need them. It is not that I lost my Boot CD. I never had it. I was lead to believe that Sony had built the Recovery Console into the comes hidden partition. I should have known better. The partition actually has recover data, restore c(I lose all my data-ALL OF IT), Hardware Diagnostics, and System Restore. That is about as useful as potato chips to a thirsty man lost in the desert.
I managed to mess up badly while in Alabama this weekend. I choose to go to Ubuntu 7.10. 8.04 is a little too new(Windows got me with the hype, no one else will). I started to receive a couple of error messages that all were addressing Beryl. No biggie. After oking a few things I began to fly though the windows. When I was about to the last Windows I noticed that the error had the following words in it... boot and grub. Too late. I had clicked to fast.
After the installation claimed to fail, I restarted to find that it had upgraded. However no Windows. All that was left was the loader. I can see the NTFS file partition in Linux but cannot access it. So what is my solution. Maybe bye bye Linux. Has much as I had to say that I may just run a virtual box. My solution to the issue is to download Windows Vista Recovery Console. You can do it here. I recommend it.
I just got through with the download so now it is time to run FIXMBR and kick the Grub. Once I can access to Windows format the partition that is FAT32 to NTFS and be satisfied.What a mess huh? If you need to get Vista's Recovery Console you can get it at "The NeoSmart Files" for free! This is a very handy tool if you work on any PC or Notebook that needs restoration! It is also available in 64 bit!Good stuff here guys!

Tough Week So To Speak

This week started out just perfect. A score of 97 on my A+ Software Final, my daughter learning to laugh, and just all around fun! Then they tapered. I was sold the wrong part by Digitek and when I asked about was kicked out, my 70-272 final was average at 79, and work is a litte slow. However it all went good.
I now have the parts, a couple of new vendors, and an A on the 70-272 class.
My week may not go planned. But God still lives! Good or bad times he is still there for us !

Finals Week

Finally! After 10 weeks it is time. Tonight I took my first final of this term. I took my A+ Software final and passed with a 97. That gave me an overall 98 for the class. I have to more to go this week before moving onto to a horrible term. A term filled with Spanish, Business Math, Written Communication, and a little light with Network +.
I was at school two hours early tonight. I saw all my friends who looked so afraid of failing their finals. They were so stressed out. I myself was stoked. Pacing until it was time. I was ready. I had studied up! All my ducks were in a row. I couldn't understand how everyone was so nervous about what was about to happen. They new it was coming why were they not ready?! It was at this point that I had a realization.... These people remind me of the lost.
People have known that Jesus will return for around 2000 years. Yet people are not ready. Not just the lost but also the saved who are not ready. The ones you would never think would slack do. Now the day of the finals people are freaking out. Be ready people. I hope that I can get excited about Jesus like I do the finals. I have to do three things to be ready....

1. Be Saved- This is given. It is hard to be excited about Jesus if you are not walking with Him.

2. Understand Him- This means to read His Word, pray, and look at influence that He has on everything.

3. Wait for Him- This is the same concept that kids have on Christmas Eve. Want to see Him. Wait for His arrival everyday. Getting excited comes with time. The closer it gets the more excited we get!

I want to get a passing grade fro Jesus when the "BIG FINAL" comes around. Do you?

Live is Moving......

You may have noticed that BCB is going somewhat slow with the postings. We are in the middle of doing some things that are life changing. Alot of things are changing for us and we are blessed for them. In the last month we have had to get another car, felt as if we have lost two good friends, faced disappointed with in our church(I am not attacking the church just hoped things would go a different way), found myself studying to get my first certification with-in the next 3 weeks (A+ here I come), and just little things that have swayed our course. We are blessed for all of the obstacles and blessing that life throws at us.
A good friend of mine is stepping down from teaching Sunday School. Today was his last day. It has been fun learning from him and growing with him. Today he delivered his last message as my teacher. He taught on what many know to be his favorite verse in the Bible. Revelation 3:16. While me and the wife were late as always, which lead to my being called aside for not being in my place at the door again, God had us come in at the right time. God does not always want you to hear everything. He does not always want you to see everything. He wanted me to come at the exact moment.
My friend was talking about flickering. As in candles that flicker. We as christians are called to be the light. He spoke of a friend of his that has all the right answers in church but once his friend was in the world you would never know. While I don't think he was talking directly about me I know that he was talking to me. I am flickering. At times I fear that I am dying. My faith is truly weak. Do I still have faith that God is supreme and has a plan for my life? Yes. I have never doubted that. Do I doubt that I am able to be what I am called to be? No, I believe that if I am called to be something I can be. I fear that I will fall and fall to no end. It seems hopeless at times. I see my sins and they haunt me. They push me to the point that I am ashamed to pray. I tell myself "Guess I have to go before God and confess this same sin again." I get this image of God shaking His head at me while mumbling,"Here we go again."
I have those days where I am not ashamed. Those are the days when I lift my hands in the car while listening to DC Talk. Not caring if anyone knows that I am praising God. Other days I would want to rip my bumper stickers off because I am ashamed that people will know I am Christian. Not because of what God has done but because of my failures. I hear them saying that I am just like all those other Christians. A hypocrite! Even more painful is the fact that they are right. I talk a good talk to some people throughout the week but I walk a drunken stumble. I am not saying that I drink but my walk with Christ is not a straight one. It must resemble that man who walks by the tracks. Swaying from one side to the other. At times falling down . Yet he gets up. Knees bloody, palms scoffed, and hoping that no one saw.
I don't want to flicker. I want to shine. No matter who you are at one point you have to realize that you will flicker. Everyone will have those days when their faith feels completely distant and strange. At the end of those days we have to make a choice. We have to pray for strength. Asking God to lead us in the right direction. Not looking back at the roads we have walked. To heal our bloody knees and to smooth our rough hands. God will do it but only if we put forth the effort. Make every effort to shine in the dark. If not it is a slippery slope that you will fall down until you do make the choice to reach for God.

Tips to Lockdown your PC!

Do you have trouble sleeping at night for fear of hijackers, keyloggers, and other little nasties that could cause damage? Well here before you are a couple of tips to get your PC as tight as a whistle.

1. Strong Password- Don't go over kill. At one time it was believed that passwords resembling B10g$p0t (Blogspot) were the perfect passwords. I beg to differ now. A great password would be a phrase that is 15characters long. Put a number in there somewhere. Here is an example of a very strong password....
Idrivea4doorfordexplorer
Do not use spaces. Just run them all in together. This is stronger than the Blogspot password above. Try it out and see. Also if you have a phrase it takes less time to search the keyboard for uncommonly used numbers and you are alot less likely to forget the password than the manipulated word.

2. Use a limited account- Do not sign on with an Administrator account . It is simple. The more access to a system that a hijacked account has the more damage can be done. The most significant reason to using limited user accounts is that you cannot do certain things. Download, download malicious software, download...... you get the picture. If you trust a site and you want to download something then log onto as administrator. Malicious programs can download in the background with out you ever knowing it. Using a limited user account keeps this background software from downloading. Do you see now!

3. Get good AV- Anti virus protection is not created equally. You will want to find an AV program that uses Hijacker Prevention Technology. Do not be confused onto thinking that Prevention and Detection are the same. detection will tell you when you are hacked. Prevention will help to stop the hijacker from entering. Lets say some one is breaking into you house. All you have is an alarm that will sound but not notify the police. That alarm doesn't help. Get AV that use Prevention so that when the intruder cracks a window open the alarm sounds and the police are on the way. This is the way to go!

For more tips on security leave a comment. Use your Firewall, AV, passwords, and for crying out loud don't go to site that you shouldn't be at.

No time to proof read! Look over the typos!

We are Flowers!

Christian should realize they truly are like flowers! We are this seed that is placed in the ground by God. God placed us where we are so that we will grow and blossom. Like flowers we should lean toward the light! We should try to reach Jesus! Soak up all the Jesus you can get! Also we must remember that we are like flowers because we cannot move from where God has put us! God put us in our places so that we grow there! We cannot switch spots no matter how hard we try. We are were we are and we are there for a reason. Be you! Be proud! Be the flower that you were meant to be!

Credit Up Credit Down!

The last couple of months I have become serious about rebuilding my credit. While I do not pay a professional to tell me who to send my money too I am using freecreditreport.com(which is only free for about two weeks) to keep track, dispute, and control my credit. So far I have made some progress. My credit did show a score of 563 and in just two months I have pulled it to 575. In Tennessee 580 gets you approved for a bank loan of small numbers. I write this not to brag but warn people.
ANFI Inc is a collection company that will sock it to you and do so illegally. In early 03 I had a debt with AT&T for about 137 dollars. I managed to get it squared away but today when I checked on my credit I saw that a bill for 137 was there from ANFI INC. I owed no body that little! SO I researched then company. Google their title name once and scroll down to see how this company operates. Four pages comments from victims who received hits to their credit due to bill that the knew nothing about. This company buys out 11 year old debts and then tries to make people pay it. Wrong as can be but it is happening. So keep up with your credit and know what you owr and to who you owe it.

Limited for a Bit

Hi! You have reached Blue Collar Blogger. If you are reading this message you know that I am temporarily away from blog. Probably a combination of family, school, and God have pulled me away for a while. Hopefully I will be back before long. Please pray for me and family! I will do the same for you! Thanks!

Why Should You Listen To God?

Because he is God!
He is Holy,
He is righteous,
He is just,
He made you,
He can break you,
He blesses you,
He lets you learn,
He is trustworthy,
He is all powerful,
He is safe,
He is friendly,
He is all knowing,
He is Everywhere,
He is Vengeful,
He is mighty,
He always as been,
He is,
He always will be,
He gave Jesus,
His Word says to,
He made the law,
He is the judge,
He is the jury,
He loves you,
When you listen to Him to you will hear Him and your life will be what it is meant to be.

Liking Blogger Draft

For about the last week I have been playing around with Blogger's new features. I enjoy the subscribtion link so that you do not have to use third party code, I love the "In this day in history", and I like the pre-post feature so that on days that I have time to blog I can put three or four post on a time release schedule that will release a new post on a set time and day. Nice!
My only knock is that we have yet to get any new templates. I would love to see at least three new templates with some new colors and formations. I guess we take what we are given and enjoy what we have!

Is it Not Ironic?!

Today is April 15! Tax day. Millions of people dread this day. It is like the end of the world for some. People can spend all year complaining about this day. So I decided to research this day and see just how it as come to be the infamous day that so many despise; other than the fact that it is tax day here are two reason some people can April 15…..
On this day in the year of 1912 the Titanic sank. This resulted in the loss of over 1500 lives. The accident could have been prevented if the largest passenger ship in history had hit the iceberg head on. This would have simply breeched the first two compartments. When hit from the side it breeched 7(I believe I remember that number right). Hence the ship filled with water, rose straight up into the air, broke in half, and sank. You can now take a family tour of the beauty under water. How morbid does that seem?
In 1865 The American president Abraham Lincoln is assassinated while watching a play. Some have said that this happened on the 14th others say the 15. John Wilkes Booth was a successful actor who Lincoln had seen many times. Lincoln had stated his approval for Booth’s work. Booth was distraught at the Civil War and made plans to assassinate Lincoln and several other political leader. At one play Booth yelled out his line and pointed in the direction of Lincoln. Lincoln unaware that these actions were more than lines later went back to see Booth preform. On April 14 Lincoln was attending a play. Booth came behind Lincoln and shoot him in the head. Booth then jumped over the balcony railing. He broke his ankle in the process. Lincoln died the next morning(hence the dispute). Booth fled. He was shot and killed two weeks later by Union solders.
So it is safe to say that 15th as brought some bad news. However it as also brought some good news. Like….
James Ross discovers North Magnetic pole. Hence compass sales soared.1800
Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space, is awarded the Order of Lenin.1961
First English language Dictionary Printed.1755
In Hartford, Conn. the first school for the deaf was opened.1817
Nazi concentration camp Bergen-Belsen was liberated by Canadian and British forces. 1945
With the good comes the bad. Hey, Jesus lives! Tax day is not all that bad now is it.

Windows Tip!

System not running to well? Have your tried everything in your freeware ability to fix it but just don't know where to turn now? Once you have tried Search and Destroy, AVG, CCleaner, and all the other great stuff you have downloaded over the few years, then lets see if maybe something is wrong the OS files. This could cause a number of things to go wrong. If you are sure that your system is messed up yet you do not know where to look then this could give a start.

In XP

Open the START MENU>

Click on RUN>

Type in CMD>



In Vista

Open the START MENU

In the SEARCH BOX type CMD and hit ENTER>



Now you should have the Command Prompt window up.Now do the following

Type SFC hit ENTER
Type sfc /SCANNOW
This process may take a little while to work its way through. Once it completes you will see a list off results. From this screen you will be able to tell what is wrong and/or Google an error to see what the best solution is. Just because a file is corrupted does not mean that you have to reinstall the OS. Get out your Windows boot disk and put them in the disk. From here you will be walked through the process of going into the recovery console and fixing the issue. Easy as pie!
Now that you know how to go into the Command Prompt go to Microsoft Tech Net where you will find commands for diagnosing and repairing Windows issues.

Student Given an F for Religious Art.

This day in age students have to watch what they express when dealing with religion and their beliefs that accompany them. A student at Tomah High School was given an F for their work when drawing a landscape. The assignment barred three things...
1.Blood
2.Violence
3.Sexual Content
4.Religious Icons and such.
Let me establish this, I agree that he should not have been given an A. To be completely honest the F was probably the right call. However this is in black and white. There is a grey area that needs to be addressed. Why was this student given an F when the students who doodled the other two pictures above were given an A? I am expecting someone to say, They could just be fantasy creatures which would mean that they are not religious. The assignment was suppose to be of a LANDSCAPE! How are these other two drawings of landscapes? These two kids were given an A! There is no way to argue with that. These two students also deserved an F. Not an A.
Second off I have to ask why religion is not a personal choice? It is put into the same category with blood, violence, and sex? Blood, violence, and sex can be offensive if done without any form of expression. It can also be art. Art sometimes offends people. Get over it! John 3:16 and a cross should not offend anyone. If it does then maybe you should ask yourself if you are too sensitive. God loves you and send His son to die for you so that you can live. I am failing to see how that offends people.
Third,we do have rights to practice and display our religious views. This could a be violation of it but I would say that it was more of the student being a little too stubborn. I would love to see prayer in school, creation taught, and understanding of religious beliefs from everyone. However I see no reason that this kid could not have just drawn the landscape. Do your assignments. That goes for everyone. Atheist, Christian, or what ever you are. This issue could have been handled alot better by the student and the teacher should have been none biased to this issue.
Finally in all fairness. The teacher gave the student the chance to redo the assignment and the student refused. I find no reason why the student could not do this. Suppression of religious beliefs is wrong and more so when it only applies to specific beliefs. The big issue should be that the teacher allowed A's to be given to other students that who disregarded the assignment but failed another who had at least had some landscape involved.

More Free Software That I Love!

If you have ever stopped in from time to time you may have noticed that I am big on Open Source Software. I am even more fond of it when it is a replacement for a mediocre or just a down right bad service of Windows. So I will be providing you with four great apps and an OS that you could be some what familiar with. So a total of five great open source software/OS's that you should check out.

1. Security Task Manager- Windows actually makes a pretty decent app with Task Manager but this software goes beyond the call of duty! It not only lets you view actions, programs, and errors but also lets you remove malicious apps or entries. If you are not sure that is safe to remove the issue this app has a Google button so you can learn what is going on. It digs deep into your system so that it access the hives and tells you if you have malicious registry entries. Give this one a download and you will not regret it!

2. Helix- If you do any administationyou will want this app. You can boot into a customized Linux environment or Windows to wirk with this app. It includes customized Linux kernels, excellent hardware detection and many applications dedicated to Incident Response and Forensics. If you have a problem this will solve it! Lose you log on password? This can recover it!

3. Mozilla Firefox- Yes I often tell you guys about this one. In fact the download at the bottom of my blog will start you on the road to better browsing. For those of you familiar with IE7 you will think that Firefox ripped off IE. Wrong! Microsoft did what they do best! Rip off something great and then make it worse! It's the Windows way! What is Mozilla? A web browser! Where is it from? Co-founder of Netscape, Marc Andreessen, was the original developer of Netscape's popular Mosaic browser. Marc like any great developer decided that Mosaic could be better and must die. Hence you get Mosaic Killer aka "Mozilla". The rest is history! Firefox will eventually replace IE as the most popular browser. In fact it is used by over 55% of my visitors! You get more security, faster browsing, constant updates, more themes, and better add-ons then with IE! Better browser hands down!

4. Foxit PDF Creator- Adobe you make me ill! Why must you charge so much for a service that is free?! Open and create your own PDF files with this freeware! Cannot say much more besides this..."Anything with the word Fox in it seems to rock!"

5. Linux Ubuntu- This is the OS I was telling you about. Linux is getting easier to use. People who are trying it out are walking away saying WOW(which Vista as failed to do to people)! I fully believe that Linux will one day be the OS of the future. Not convinced by such simple words? How about these words...Free, Free, Free! Everything about it is free. Well if you pay for direct customer support you pay but why bother when you have forums all over the net that are written by Linux lovers to help you have a brilliant experience with Linux! Guys not only is Linux free but so is the software! If that doesn't catch your eye then I don't know what will. The greatest thing about Linux the customizing that you can do. If you use Linux you will learn it, love it, and make it personal.
This OS is RELIABLE! Since Super Bowl Sunday I have been dual booting and not once have I had a crash or a freeze(cannot say that about windows). Not sure if it is for you? Down load it and put it on a CD to make a Live CD. That means put it in your CD ROM and take it for a test drive. You can boot from the CD anytime you choose and never install it!Dig that!

Trying Something New. AGAIN!

Many woes have come to me due to the fact that I am fickle! I can and do move on from activity to activity like it is going out of style. I guess that is one of the reasons that I have welcomed the internet into my life with open arms. I am able to go from site to site and do very different things with ease.
So what is my new fix?
Working Windows!
This forum is designed with the intention to help myself learn common and not so common issues with Windows and to help people get their issues resolved! So pray that I take alot if this new site and am not too quick to move on! Thanks!
Feel free to come and tell about the common problems that you may have or had with windows so that we can build up our forum to help more people do more things.

I finally picked my candidate.

The primary race that we have watched unfold in front of us this year has been unbelievable! I am very pleased to have been able to see such a tight and hard fought battle. Democrats have been beating on each other in a way that reminds me of how Rocky used to punch meat in the factory freezer. I have seen enough now to know which way I will go.

You see, I like the fact that our economy seems to due better under the Democrat party. I am not a big fan of their standards on abortion and being so easy on drug dealers but I am in favor of the economy growing. This race has been tight. I tried not to pick a candidate in an ignorant manner and I believe that I have done a pretty good job of researching and looking past the media. The media is favoring Obama and I mean big time. I believe that they should remain neutral but that just won't happen. So I have looked past them as much as possible.

With the smoke that the Democrat race has supplied it was not easy to look for the proper candidate. After reading statement after statement, watching video after video, and reviewing voting records throughly I have come to the conclusion that I must switch my political view, at least for this race, and endorse McCain.

I feel that McCain is not the best man for the job but that he is the best candidate running in this election. The choices are not to great. I waited as long as I could hoping that one of the Democrats would pull me in their direction but that never happened. This one came down to morals and beliefs. While I feel that our economy would be better off with a Democrat I cannot endorse Hillary or Obama with any confidence that they are going to lead us in the right direction.

I now know!

I am the worst writer in the world! I can proof read something 3 times(like I did the previous post) and still not spell right or still leave words out or leave letters off. It's okay. I normally notice it a couple of days later though! :)