I took the plunge and ordered Vonage, to make calls over the Internet for much cheaper than a regular phone line. Our new phone number is (774)-490-7314, which we’ll be taking with us when we move to Charlton. However, since we don’t have the hardware for it yet, that phone number will just redirect to our regular phone line for the time being. The number is based in Sturbridge, so my parents and friends in the Charlton area will be able to call us as a local call, even while we’re still in Worcester. It’s pretty nifty.

The Southbridge Evening News reports that nobody has taken out nomination papers for the position of Town Moderator in the town of Charlton. The deadline for taking out papers is Wednesday, and the deadline for submitting them with 50 signatures on them is Thursday. If nobody officially signs up for wanting the position, I may submit my voter registration for Charlton and start a write-in campaign. I figure with my parents, brother, wife, and self I’ve got 5 votes, and I can probably get a few more with our other contacts in town.

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. — Hebrews 11:1 (KJV)

Background: pezzonovante took a religion quiz where he scored as an atheist, but in the discussion he said that “In belief I’m agnostic, like any good scientist, but I practice a more atheistic religion due to the lack of anything to hang my hat on (see also ‘Good Scientist’).” I replied further down that “It would be scientific to examine the evidence, and then come up with a ‘current working theory’ as to the existence and nature of God, which could of course change as more evidence is discovered and presented.” Then, rgfgompei was a little confused that I said that, saying:

I just spent a good chunk of yesterday evening and this evening setting up a wiki on cooperjr.name. Hopefully, this will make it easier for Jessi and I to edit it, and maybe we can have some sections for all our friends to edit if people are interested. I also added on a quotes page, porting over Jessi’s original “Welcome to Mass. Academy” page, as well as adding a few more quotes.

• Last week, I got notification that I’ve officially graduated from WPI.
• Yesterday, my car went past the 80,000 mile mark.
• Today, we had worship for the first time in the new expanded part of the church building.
• Tomorrow, we should hear back about the status of our building permit.
• Next Sunday, Jessi has a birthday.

Well, I’ve seen other people doing it, so why not follow the crowd for once. Here is a list of 10 things that I’ve done that you probably haven’t, in no particular order: I’ve

1. Scored an Out on my high school softball team from the position of Scorekeeper.
2. Become a level 1 Magic: the Gathering judge
3. Gone to Costa Rica 3 times
4. Enjoyed learning and using Scheme
5. Seriously considered purchasing a 26-port networking switch or two for my home
6. Itemized the deductions on my tax return
7. Completely reconfigured my home network, including replacing hardware, merely so that I could try running IPv6
8. Attended a rally on the Mall in Washington, DC
9. Got my name and picture on Microsoft’s web site
10. Started my three WPI projects in reverse order (MQP, IQP, Suff) and completed them in the correct order (Suff, IQP, MQP)

Just since there may be some programmers still out there who don’t realize this, I figured I’d throw up this Public Service Announcement for them: There Ain’t No Such Thing As Plain Text.

Background for those unfamiliar: In October 2003, Microsoft announced that they needed to organize their security patch release process, and therefore would release patches on the second Tuesday of every month. They somewhat recently added a little advance warning where they would announce what products would be being patched the prior week.

Microsoft just announced:

On March 8th, 2005 the Microsoft Security Response Center is planning to release no new security bulletins.

Some people are doing the interviewing-on-LJ thing again, as a way to learn more about people we know. If people want to ask me questions, fire away. If people want me to ask them questions, let me know and I’ll try to think of something.