a poor excuse to keep paying for this domain
Everyone puts in a dollar and at the end of the week whoever completed the activity goal everyday gets the money. If more than one person get all seven days compare the total number of rings from the week. Whoever has the most wins that week. If that is also a tie the person with the higher calorie goal wins.
When you get the weekly review on Monday of the next week screen shot the results and send them to the group chat. If Apple suggests a new calorie goal accept it.
Dear Oklahoma Gas and Electric (OGE),
I know you guys are ‘busy’ so you can skip through the bold parts.
I recently transferred from my service from one residential apartment to another. I did this over the phone and was told everything was in order.
Yesterday, October 3rd, I came home from work to find my power turned off. I had already paid both bills for the old apartment and the new apartment and had no reason for my electricity to be turned off. I get home around 5:30 so I called to report an outage, filled out an outage report online and then continued to call and fill outage reports every hour. I never received any word back from anyone in your company.
I woke up this morning (still no power and no contact from your company) and came to work early. Since I knew I would be making phone calls to OGE I wanted to get some work done early to make time for those calls. Once 8:00 A.M. rolled around I called the OGE customer service line repeatedly trying different menu configurations trying to find out why my electricity was turned off without any notice.
After around 30 minutes of talking at your robot answering machine and getting nowhere I managed to reach someone by telling the robot I needed to transfer service. I told the living human being my power was turned off and I needed to know why. Evidently, At some point during the transfer my account was marked as missing photo id and a copy of my social. I never received a call, text, or email letting me know there were any problems with my account. I informed her that I transferred service and that those items are in her records. She replied yes I see those here, I’m not sure what happened, please hold. After a second extended hold I was informed that her supervisor would be fixing the issue and my power would be turned back on. I asked when I should expect power to be turned back on and she replied should be in the next hour.
I understand that you guys service a large area and the robot probably keeps people from asking your Customer Service crew a lot of useless questions that can be found online. The problem is your robot is out of control. That automated system means I spent an entire night without electricity which I paid for because the robot couldn’t look at my account and see that it was asking for something that I had already given. Even worse your robot couldn’t look at my account and see that I had never been informed that you wanted information that I had already given. It took two minutes for your actual human being to see that my power should have never been disconnected, but it took two days and spoiled groceries to get a hold of that human being.
I understand that you have a monopoly on electricity in Central Oklahoma. You have no reason to try harder because everyone in this area has to pay you anyway. I implore you to raise your standards because its the right thing to do.
In the mean time, who do I send the bill to for my missing services and the spoiled groceries?
Get it together,
Trevor Utley
I’m moving! Not really all that far from where I live now, but still moving. From the south side of Norman to the north side of Moore. Its less than twenty miles between the apartment I occupy now and the apartment I will live in tomorrow. I’m moving because the twenty-five minutes it takes to get between these two locations will cut my current commute to work by around half. Also because there are a ton of spiders in the stairwell of my current apartment and I just don’t want to deal with it. There are other benefits like I’ll be closer to church and my aunt and uncles house, but mostly the commute and the spiders.
The apartment I’m moving to is nice. The parking lot is gated, the stairs to my apartment will be indoors instead of outdoors and the two bedroom two bath was somehow cheaper than the two bed one bath option, so bonus bathroom for guests.
I have not mentally processed this move in any way shape or form. I have run from one thing to the next since spring and while I did at one point decide moving closer to work was something I should do and at some other point looked at and picked this apartment to be the one that I want to live in next, I have not taken any time to think about what that means. Since I’m moving tomorrow I really don’t have time to do that now either, but I’m going to.
I’ve lived in my apartment for three years. If you ask me while I’m at work why I moved to Oklahoma three years ago I will probably tell you I followed a job. That’s the short answer I give when I don’t want to go into all the detail. In reality that was a very small part of my original thought process for moving. I moved here because it was the right thing to do at the time. If it was only because I followed a job I would not have ever lived in Norman and worked in Oklahoma City, the commute is awful. The truth is I moved here to run away from Arkansas for a while and to do anything I could to help my family in Norman.
My aunt, uncle, cousins and Nana all lived in Norman when I took the job in OKC. I didn’t know why, but every time I came to visit I felt like I was needed in Norman. This feeling is how I’ve ended up everywhere I’ve been in life so far. Thats another story for another time, but things have always worked out better when I followed that calling. Thats how God works I guess. The reason I was running away from Arkansas is a great example of me ignoring what I knew was right because I wanted something for myself that wasn’t supposed to work out for me the way I wanted it to. That door closing was rough and I was more than happy to get away from all that. Again thats another story that I wasn’t trying to get into.
I moved here in August of 2013 and immediately heard wonderful things about LifeChurch.tv. There was a campus in South Oklahoma City and while they were in the process of building in Moore that campus wouldn’t open till late December. It’s like a 35 minute drive to the South OKC campus from Norman, but we went and we loved it. My aunt and uncle had some different opinions about churches in the past. They grew up in two different denominations and worship is something that is hard to agree on even if everyone grew up in the same church. This church made no sense for either of them to like. It was loud, there was a light show and everyone was jumping around on stage like they had no sense. To me it was exactly what I expected because that was what we were building in Jonesboro while I was in college. SIDE NOTE: If you are in or around Jonesboro, AR go to Journey Campus! It’s amazing there! Amazingly everyone pretty much loved it. It was maybe a little too loud for my uncle, but he figured out that he could sit outside in the lobby area and drink a tea and still hear the music at a volume he could enjoy it at and then come in and enjoy the sermon with us. The sermon that was delivered by video…
These crazies in this church were talking to the screen like Craig could hear them through it somehow. He would say repeat after me and these people would do it even though they were talking to a projector screen. It took some getting used to, but despite having never seen Craig in person he always managed to bring a sermon that was perfectly what we needed to deal with. Now we have joined the crazies in talking back to the screen because.. honestly I have no idea why… I guess agreeing with your pastor verbally is more for you than him.
My family was excited to go to church every week and we were super disappointed if something came up that prevented us from attending. Sundays became top priority for all of us. We went to church and spent the entire rest of the day together eating, watching community on Hulu and falling asleep all across my aunt and uncles house.
Eventually the Moore Campus opened and me and the cousins started Switch. Switch is LifeChurch’s student ministry. I started serving, leading a high school small group. It was easy since I had been leading groups since I was a student. My youth pastor was awesome and let us take on leadership roles at an early age. My cousins got plugged in and pretty quickly had a ton of influence in Switch and later in the Moore campus as a whole. Ok well technically Allie was living in Arkansas getting homeschooled by my Mom for a year because that’s where God had her for that time, but Nolan was getting super involved and when Allie came back the next year she got super involved too.
When I say they got super involved I mean it. The entire staff knew my cousins and they got nominated to go to a leadership camp thing that only the best of the best from each campus’ student ministry got to go to. They started serving in LifeKids (children ministry) on the weekends, and eventually both applied for internships. Allie was technically too young to be an intern, but the staff at Moore Campus insisted that they interview her anyway and Central Campus listened for some reason. Nolan quite playing baseball to make time for serving on Wednesday’s and Sunday’s which was a huge deal. Baseball had been a huge part of his life since before he was even born. Both my cousins got to intern this past summer and thats awesome! That interview process was intense and for good reason. The internship expected a lot of them. If your church doesn’t have an internship please talk to someone at LifeChurch about what that needs to look like because they are doing something amazing with this.
Nolan is now in his freshman year at OU and he and his roommate co-lead a middle school switch group. His girlfriend also leads a middle school switch group which is awesome. I’m still leading my high school group with a co leader that was one of the oldest guys in my group when I started leading here.
A lot has changed in three years, but for now I’m pretty sure I’m still supposed to be in Oklahoma. This apartment in Moore should work better as a centralized place for LAN parties and board game nights. Having a spare bed and bathroom means more people can come and not have to drive home late at night. When I first moved here it was obvious that I was here for Nolan and Allie, but now they’ve got it figured out and I’m not sure exactly where I’m needed next. I know I’m in the right church and in the right location so all I can really do is keep influencing as many people around me as I can. Till God pulls me somewhere else, I guess I’m here.
I’ve started a Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) campaign in my apartment because I’m embracing my nerdom.
Because I’m a techy nerd we have been looking for good software to manage our campaigns. We have used Map Tools in the past, but with Java being the worst we decided we wanted to try and move away from that. So we have tried some different options.
We started out looking at Fantasy Grounds which is available on Steam. We found out rather quickly we weren’t rich enough to use this software. After spending forty dollars through steam to download the software we found paywalls. We also found out that at least one other person would have to buy a forty dollar license to gain access to the player side of the game while the DM ran the story on his system. Theres another payment option you can do but the price beyond ridiculous. It would allow the DM to play one price and let everyone join. There were also plenty of DLC packs with maps and prebuilt characters. None of it seemed worth the price they were asking so we quickly got a steam refund and called that a wash.
Next we decided to try Roll20 which just recently gained officially licensed content from Dungeons and Dragons creators Wizards of the Coast. You can use a good chunk of the Roll20 website without purchasing anything. They have subscriptions available which add additional features like a Character Vault and some more detailed mapping features. The Character Vault seems cool, but we have a shared google drive with PDF’s of each character so we didn’t see a need for the subscription at this time.
Since we are still new to D&D we decided to buy The Lost Mine of Phandelver setup to get us rolling. It is a beginner campaign and has all the maps built out with enemy’s already in place. This will give our DM time to figure out the system and see how a campaign should be setup within the software to make it easier to work with. It also helps since our DM is still finishing his masters in engineering and doesn’t have a ton of time to write campaigns.
Roll20 is really nice since it is browser based, meaning anyone who can access the internet can create an account and join the game. When using Map Tools in the past we quickly became frustrated with the old fashioned join by IP. It was manageable since majority of us know how port forwarding works, but still a pain to explain to our less nerdy party members. With Roll20 I can send a link to everyone who wants to play and they can create a Roll20 account and instantly jump in to the campaign. We had one party member that was on vacation out of state, but decided to join us via Skype. He was able to join in and move his own character around the board. The DM could manage the view for our characters. There is a built in audio option in Roll20 which we didn’t want to spend the time to mess with. It seems pretty easy to use, but we already had Skype up and running.
Roll20 also has built in dice that can be rolled within the chat window by issuing really easy commands. It can even do the basic math for you and save everyone a little time. Some of our party members haven’t gotten around to picking up dice and now if they don’t want to they don’t have to. Personally I prefer the old fashioned dice, but it was great for our vacationing member to be able to roll even though he left his dice at home.
This has been one of the best tools for our D&D campaign. Everyone has placed character sheets, player icons they want to represent their characters in Roll20, and even character journals to help us keep track of all the names and locations in the game.
Personally I keep a copy of the character sheets and pictures of the important pages of the player handbook related to my character in Good Notes. I have this on multiple iOS devices and my MacBook so its always accessible and it works great with my iPad Pro and Apple Pencil.
We are all sharing a players handbook and our DM is using the monster manual and DM guide all 5th edition.
We each have our own computer or tablet to open up Roll20. Since its all browser based we don’t have to install anything special to connect so it’s platform agnostic. I’m using AirPlay on my MacBook to show the map on my Apple TV for anyone who’s on a smaller device to be able to see.
I have a Yeti Pro on a Rhode PSA1 using the Radius II mount. Admittedly this is overkill, but it works great for picking up audio for the room full of people scattered across my living room. I already had all of these things from other projects otherwise I would have just picked up a Snowball mic made by the same company. These mics are plug and play with Mac so quick easy setup.
I purchased my dice and a Wyrmwood dice tray and vault at PAX South over the summer. We are using the dice tray and box lids right now for places to roll dice since the glass coffee table sounds terrible. Some cheaper alternatives to the Wyrmwood dice tray would be a desk tray. Basically just anything to roll on that does not sound awful. That said the Wyrmwood kits are super nice.
Now may not be the best time to buy a console, but it is a great time to own one. Because different groups of friends buy and play different games I tend to rotate between two or three during an average week. Right now the three I’m playing are Overwatch, Battleborn and Rocket League and right now I’m getting my money’s worth out of all three.
Overwatch is Blizzards highly polished and larger version of Team Fortress 2. An objective shooter with no campaign, twelve maps to learn and twenty one characters to master at launch may seem underwhelming for the sixty dollar price tag at first. Where this game thrives is gameplay and character design. It’s different from most games in that you can switch characters at any time in the game by heading back to your teams base or picking at spawn. This means your team can constantly change composition as needed, and it will be needed. Every character has strengths and weaknesses and finding unique combinations that work well together or counter each other is half the fun. Since you can constantly switch you are not heavily punished by trying different strategies, just remember to switch quickly as your plans fall apart.
Battleborn by Gearbox is often compared to Overwatch because of the similar visual style, but that’s really where the comparisons stop. Battleborn is most easily categorized as a first-person MOBA. The primary multiplayer game mode (incursion) has many elements taken from MOBA’s like League of Legends. Your team of five locks in their characters at the beginning of the game and levels the character to unlock more powerful tools per match including unlocking a powerful ultimate attack. You fight another team of five to gain ground and eventually take their sentinels (comparable to turrets in League). You can collect resources to buy turrets and healing stations to help your team push forward and you can also hire mercenaries by killing them (jungling in League). The game ends when the thirty minute timer goes off or when a team takes the enemies second sentinel. Most evenly matched games will last till the timer, unless you have someone who doesn’t understand the objective or drops out of the match. There’s also a campaign mode which pits you and your friends against a stream of AI minions and bosses. You can unlock more characters by reaching specific levels or complete challenges attached to multiplayer play or campaign objectives. These matches are longer and since you are locked into your character for the duration it’s better to plan your teams carefully. If you’re friends are fans of the MOBA genre you may want to learn some of the terminology associated with it as they will expect you understand the expressions.
Rocket League has been out on Xbox for a while now and I’ve been playing it consistently since release. It’s a game where you play soccer (or basketball) using RC cars with rocket boosters. It’s a game that’s simple to learn and extremely difficult to master. Matches last around 5-10 minutes, usually on the short end of the spectrum, and it’s a perfect game to pick up while you and a few friends wait for the rest of your team to show up to play Battleborn or Overwatch. This game is highly addictive and even more frustrating as you rank up and face more skilled opponents, but unlocking a new car, paint or topper makes it all worth it.
If you don’t have an Xbox yet wait until after the E3 announcements to decide on one to get. If you already have one, see you on one of these games, I’m probably playing a support role cause no one else wants to.
I listen to a lot of music. Anytime I’m in the car (which is often) I’m listening to Spotify. When I’m working I’m listening to Spotify… Or podcasts. When I’m playing video games at home I’m still listening to Spotify. I get my moneys worth from that subscription service. I listen to the new music Friday and discover weekly playlists religiously. I’m constantly listening to random albums I browse across and related artists has been one of my favorite features ever. As I’m listening anything I find that I enjoyed and would like to listen to more gets saved and then added to That’s a good idea (Spotify). This playlist is constantly growing and has no real order or criteria to meet. It just has to be music that I want to hear again from any genre or artist.
I do have some personal rules I stick to when adding music. If I’m listening to an album and come across more than one song I enjoy I try to break them up with other music so I don’t get to a section that is exclusively one artist while I’m listening. Keeps me from having to skip a lot of songs in a row if I’m not in the mood for a particular artist. With one of my previous playlists I didn’t bother doing this and planned on using the shuffle feature, but the shuffle feature is an awful experience. Most of the time it ends up playing the same songs over and over. So now with this playlist I’ve been careful to shuffle as I go. It doesn’t always work out that way, but I do try to mix it up. Most of the time If I like an entire album it doesn’t get added to this playlist and I just save it to my music to listen to separately. Eventually I might pick a few songs to add, but most of the time they never make it in. The Lumineers latest was listened to for a few weeks solid and none of those songs ever made it in the that’s a good idea playlist because they didn’t need to.
Sunday I spent the day preparing for May the fourth. If you weren’t aware May the fourth is Star Wars day you were probably hiding under a rock or have no interest in pop culture, either way skip this post. You’ll have no idea what I’m talking about. If you do end up reading this anyway I’m adding a dictionary for some of the terms I use.
Since Star Wars day happens to fall on a Wednesday this year we will be celebrating at church. Yeah, my church friends are cool like that. To celebrate I’m cosplaying Poe Dameron. Not the orange pilot suit Poe Dameron, but the Poe Dameron with the jacket from the beginning of the movie. Here’s a picture.
I followed a guide from http://carboncostume.com/poe-dameron/ which is also where I borrowed the picture from.
The jacket I actually already bought for Poe Dameron Day. It was the most expensive part of the outfit, but it’s also super nice. The brown pants I already had from just having brown pants. For the shirt I went to Target and grabbed a tan henley. It is not quite as thick or fancy as the one in the picture, but I’m on a budget here.
Sadly it is March so the boots were a bit more difficult to find and the whole on a budget thing means not just ordering some from online. I may decide to do that if I end up taking this cosplay somewhere people will nitpick it like http://fanexpodallas.com, but it doesn’t really seem necessary for a Wednesday night youth group situation. That said I decided to go with some shoes I can wear more often than special events where I want to dress like the best pilot in the resistance. I ended up going with some Reef shoes. They aren’t boots, but the toe at least looks similar enough.
I also took this opportunity to buy that really neat BB-8 toy. I’ve been looking for a not so great excuse to get one for a while now and this was just the not so great excuse I’ve been waiting for.
Turns out I probably didn’t need the dictionary. The only nerd term I used was Cosplay, so as promised, definition below.
/ˈkäzˌplā/
noun
the practice of dressing up as a character from a movie, book, or video game, especially one from the Japanese genres of manga and anime.
I’ve taken the Myers Briggs test three times now and I never remember what the letters are or what they mean. Every time I’ve taken it someone has told me ahead of time what my letters are and by the end of the test they are always right. The only reason I remembered the letters this morning is because there was an email yourself button at the bottom of the quiz I took, available here if you’re into taking quizzes. https://www.16personalities.com/
Myers Briggs is intended to help you figure out how you interact with others in team scenarios. If you know your own personality type and the personality types of the people around you it can inform how to approach interactions with your teammates. The site with the quiz has more information about the different personalities and how they interact. There are of course other sites where you can find your celebrity personality counterparts or figure out what type of person you should marry. I’m not sure how they got Mark Twain or Walt Disney to take this quiz, but supposedly they were both ENFP’s too.
I’ve never really payed much attention to it before, but after some conversations with different personality types last night I actually found it interesting the way people react to things differently. We had a ton of… no of course I don’t remember the actual letters, but they were all more detail oriented people than me.
The room was mostly filled with introverts, which is a phrase I’m quite sure has never been said before. I’m pretty sure we had at least four ISFJ‘s in the room and they all were meticulous list makers. Thats something they all agreed helped them relax, if they could not be working on something at the moment at least they could make a list for it and plan a course of action.
Maybe next time I should write down everyones letters so I can study up, but honestly, theres not many people in the world I can’t get along with alright. For the most part everybody is chill enough and if they aren’t I’m chill enough for the both of us. Its cool to know a little bit more about someone else’s thought process, but not enough to take the time to study and memorize what each letter means and how each combination sees the world slightly different than I do. That could just be the ENFP talking though.