Camp was awesome! The whole week was great. I had an awesome Bible study group with an awesome leader. Eric, our Bible study leader, just had a different way of thinking about concepts and a great personality. I am really going to miss Eric and my Bible study group even though I only knew most of them for a week.

One thing that the Lord really taught me this week was the concept of unity. There were only two 11th and 12th grade Bible studies, Egypt (mine) and Zimbabwe, both of our leaders were named Eric. Sometimes during rec, we would compete against each other, but after that we would all get together and talk about what we had just learned. It was also awesome how both of our Bible studies would cheer for each other as one, so we became Zegypt. Each day after rec, a 'Spirit Cup' is awarded to a Bible study in each grade set (7th and 8th, 9th and 10th, 11th and 12th, College, and Adult). On the last day of rec Zegypt won the Spirit Cup as one. For me, that was one of the coolest things that happened throughout the week.

Here's another cool thing about unity I learned, and this is coming from Eric. He said, it's always awkward the first night when our Bible study got together the first time with almost no one knowing each-other. On the last day we got together at the same spot and everyone is so close after only a week of being together.

Camp has just been an awesome week and having an awesome camp pastor doesn't hurt either. This year the pastor was Will Snipes, he was the camp pastor two years ago and was really awesome. Will has a unique way of preaching. He likes to always have a key word that his sermon centers around. The first night's word was Cure, that's what Jesus is, the cure for our sin. The second night's word was Repentance, that's what we need to do, repent of our sin and run from it like it's a burning building. The third night's word was Victory, we have to defend what God has made ours. And the last night's word was Feet, if we don't go and spread the Gospel, who will?

I have learned so much at camp this week. I has been so awesome.

For some pictures check out my Flickr

July 12 was my birthday. I am now an adult. Kind of weird. At least I can put Google Adsense on here now.

For my birthday My parents gave me $300 to put toward whatever I wanted. I bought myself a 320GB hard drive for my MacBook because I had filled up my 120GB drive. I managed to find a Firewire/USB enclosure for my old hard drive so I purchased that as well. My hard drive has been great so far, and I am loving my Firewire enclosure, it’s so much faster than USB.

Today I purchased a new iPod. I had filled up my good ol’ 30GB 5.5 generation iPod to the brim, so I thought I’d by a new one. I went with a silver 80GB iPod Classic. I’m really happy with it so far. The new UI is very slick and the whole metal case makes it feel like a rock solid device. Eventually I’ll post a write-up similar to the one I did on my new MacBook a while back about what I’m loving and hating with my new iPod.

Later days!

- Justin

Recently my family purchased a digital SLR. Needless to say, I love messing around with our new Nikon D60. While I was over at Pismo Beach two weeks ago I went on a little hunt for some scenes that I thought would make great HDR photos and came up with two great looking pictures.


I personally love the HDR entrance to Pismo Beach. It looks very creepy to me, but that’s why I like it so much. It is currently the wallpaper on both of my monitors.

I do like the HDR trees as well, but it isn’t my personal favorite.

To download the full size images to use as your wallpaper just click on the image you would like to download and save the full size images that load.

The second GB of RAM has come in for my MacBook. I have installed it and OS X recognized it just fine, the way it should. My MacBook is noticeably faster than before especially when I'm multi-tasking with Photoshop CS3 and iTunes open playing a video.

On Thursday, April 3, I received my new MacBook. I sold my old one to a good friend and I bought myself a refurbished MacBook. The Specs are as follows:

• 2.2 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
• Intel X3100 GMA graphics
• DL SuperDrive
• 1 GB of RAM (soon to be 2GB)
• 120 GB hard drive

It's not the newest MacBook but it was sure quite an upgrade from my old 2.0 GHz Core Duo MacBook. All in all, I am very happy with my new machine, and I'm very happy with the condition that I received it in.

When I ordered refurbished I expected my new MacBook to look slightly used with a few scratches. Imagine my surprise when I took my new MacBook out of the sleeve it was in and saw that it looked practically new! I was very happy with that and I'll definitely buy all of my Macs refurbished for now on. Another plus to buying refurbished (besides the price) is that you don't feel obligated to keep the beautiful packaging that Apple is known for. Refurbished products are just shipped in a plain brown cardboard box so there's nothing pretty to keep.

Now for some things that are different from my old MacBook:

The most noticeable difference is the new keyboard layout. It's the same layout that Apple is using on their new desktop keyboards. When I first saw it introduced I hated it, but I am now beginning to like it after using it for only a few days.

Let's start off with the function keys: I really like having the volume control keys on the left. Because of the volume keys being on the left, they are a lot easier to find in the dark. The new media keys aren't too bad either, but they weren't anything I was missing because I had been using programs like CoverSutra that would let me set system wide hot-keys for iTunes. Also, the media keys only seem to work with iTunes which can be seen as either a feature or a bug. Another change is how the text is printed on the function keys. Functions such as adjusting brightness and volume are now centered on the key and the F1, F2, F3, and so on are now in a small type in the bottom right. The escape key text is also centered and something (I still can't figure out what) is different with the eject key. Those last two changes drove me nuts.

Another difference between the two keyboards is that Apple has done away with the useless num lock function. I never used it and not having the numbers printed along with the letters on the right half of the keyboard makes it look a lot cleaner.

Now for the modifier keys: The  (Apple logo) is no longer present on the command key. It just says 'command' and has the Swedish Campground Symbol. This change saddens me dearly, but it can be seen as good for the new Mac Users. Especially when you tell them to press 'Command so-and-so' and they ask "What's the 'command' key?" Also the 'enter' key next to the right 'command' key has been changed to an 'option' key which is very nice because that 'enter' key was quite useless. The 'control' key is now completely spelled out instead of just saying 'ctrl'. It sure did take me a while to get used to that change.

Finally, the arrow keys: They no longer say 'page up', 'page down', 'home', or 'end' on them, making for a much cleaner look while still performing the same task.

The second thing I noticed was that the fan grill is designed differently. The fan grill used to be very busy and actually looked quite nice with all of the vertical bars. Now the fan grill is more sparse, and I assume Apple made this design change to improve airflow and cooling.

The third thing I noticed is that the iSight is no longer centered vertically in the bezel above the screen and it seems to be a bit smaller. I'm curious to why Apple made that change.

That's it as far as changes I've noticed. Check out some unboxing pics to hopefully clear up what I was talking about.

We left Bakersfield at 4 am Friday morning. When we arrived in Bridgeport we reserved our room and then took off riding to Bodie around noon until 4 pm. It was a great day of almost go anywere riding.

On Saturday, we started riding around 10 am. We took off toward Ricky Peak and ended up dropping down the back side toward Sonora. If there was more snow, we would have been able to make it back to the truck, but there wasn't so Robbie caught a ride 14 miles up the road to come back to us with the truck and trailer around 4pm. It was another awesome day of virtually go anywhere riding.

Sunday, we rode Sonora starting around 9 am to about 1 pm. This was the worst day of riding, but the scenery was sure beautiful. All in all, it was a great trip full of lots of laughter and fun.

All of us can't wait to do it again next year.

View the picture galleries.

On Saturday, I was out at the fairgrounds with my friend Bryan watching my brother play in the XPSL paintball tournament. When I pulled into the parking lot earlier that morning, I thought to myself, that it would be an awesome place to spin some doughnuts, and I was right. So, here's Bryan and myself in my s10 spinning some doughnuts.

I was bored and decied to make a wallpaper. Three different versions to be precise:

The first version has Justin Allard dot com with a deep internal shadow and quotes around my quote.

The second has a light interal shadow on Justin Allard dot com and quotes around my quote.

The third, which is my favorite, has a light interla shadow on Justin Allard dot com and no quotes around my quote.

I'm pretty sure nobody will use these, but hey, I just thought I'd share them with the world.

My clear marker lights came in for my truck today, so I installed them. It was really easy, just two torx screws and the lens slides out and the bulb twists out. I had to get some amber bulbs since it is illegal to have clear bulbs and clear lenses. So after I picked up some amber bulbs from an auto parts store I installed the new lenses. I think they look a lot nicer and cleaner than the amber lenses. I've got some new pictures up of them in my truck gallery.

I've finally gotten around to taking some pictures of my truck and putting the up on the net. Go check them out in the Images section.

Merry Christmas everyone! Just wanted to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas today. I hope everyone has a good one, and just so you guys don't forget the really meaning of this wonder holiday, here is the Christmas story.

And it came to pass in those days that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This census first took place while Quirinius was governing Syria. So all went to be registered, everyone to his own city. Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed wife, who was with child. So it was, that while they were there, the days were completed for her to be delivered. And she brought forth her firstborn Son, and wrapped Him in swaddling cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid. Then the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger.”
And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying:
“ Glory to God in the highest,
And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!”

So it was, when the angels had gone away from them into heaven, that the shepherds said to one another, “Let us now go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has come to pass, which the Lord has made known to us.” And they came with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the Babe lying in a manger. Now when they had seen Him, they made widely known the saying which was told them concerning this Child. And all those who heard it marveled at those things which were told them by the shepherds. But Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart. Then the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told them.

- Luke 2:1-20

Just in case anyone is interested, here is what I've received this year:

• White Wacom Bamboo Fun graphics pad (it's really awesome, and small so it can fit nicely in my Brenthaven MacBook case)
• True Power battery for my MacBook (it's currently charging at the moment, and is a nice match to the original MacBook battery)
• Griffin iMic
• PGR4
• Money for some fog lights for my truck
• a catalog to pick out a tool box for my truck
• and various gift cards for Starbucks and Sonic

Merry Christmas everyone!

I got a new LG Venus today. So far I am liking it. The bluetooth isn't crippled like most of Verizon's phones, so I can transfer pictures and videos to and fro and supposedly music as well, but the first time I tried it didn't see the song I added. So far I am enjoying it.

I apologize to anyone who does not want this little insight to my personal life, but I just have to get this out of my system, so be prepared when reading this I am in full on rant mode at this point in time. I HATE BEING THE TECH GUY!!! There, I said it, I hate being the tech guy. Everyone wants you to do crap for them and it just gets to be annoying as hell.

At my high school, the majority of the administration and even some of my teachers know that I am good with computers, and technology all around, therefore I'm always being asked to do crap for them. I was sucked into running MediaShout during chapel. And guess, what, I do run it and I really hate it for many reasons.

One reason I hate it is because I'm always being asked to do a three hour task in Photoshop about five minutes before chapel starts. I'd be fine with it if I could have know what they wanted done on Monday (chapel is on Wednesday), but when someone wants me to do something for them in Photoshop five minutes before the whole school piles into the gym it just pisses me off.

Another reason I hate being know as the tech guy at school is that the administration feels that it's just fine and dandy to pull me out of my study hall when i am happily reading comments on Slashdot to do a task that a trained frickin' monkey could do. For some reason there are only a select few that know how to pull a cart with a computer on it out of a closet, roll it to the other side of the gym, turn on a projector, press a button to put the screen down and plug the computer into the wall, and run a 100 foot VGA cable 3 feet. I guess I'm the tech guy and they feel that I should do this stuff, either that or the administration is just too darn lazy to learn how to do that.

A third reason I hate being the tech guy at school is that for some odd reason the administration (once again) feels it is just fine and dandy to ask me to attend an event so I can run the computer. I guess it's just soo hard to press the arrow key to advance a PowerPoint presentation or hit the space bar to go to the next cue in MediaShout that they have to have me do it.

Things may be a little different if my parents weren't paying through the nose for me to go to a private Christian high school. And things would definitely be different if I were being paid for doing what I do. Hell, even a simple "Thank you for all you've done Justin" would be nice to hear every now and then.

When I'm doing tech at church (usually running the sound board and getting the band all wired) it is just totally different. It feels that people have more respect for what I do there, and they know that if they didn't have me they couldn't get anything done.

I am sorry for anyone that read that and didn't need to know about my personal life, but I just had to get that rant out of my system.

I am the proud owner of the MacUpdate bundle that had a bunch of good apps in it worth over $650 for $50. A pretty good deal if you ask me, even if I'm not going to use all of those apps.

It rocked. But, I have to say, it sure seemed like Bungie left room for a Halo 4.

I finally paid off my copy of Halo 3 that I've had pre-ordered for a year. I'm getting the Legendary Edition and looking forward to it. My EB Games is having a mid-night release, it should be somewhat fun. There is supposed to be a band, food, and a Halo 2 tournament.

Two more days baby! Just two more days.

I'm back from Hume lake. I had a really awesome time up there just hanging out with friends a getting to know some of the school's staff better.

I also got a sub and an amp installed in my truck. It sounds really nice.

Hey guys (the few of you that read my blog), I'm going to be out of town at Hume Lake with my school from Tuesday morning until Thursday evening. So, if you're wondering why I haven't been updating my blog, that's why.

As I stated in my last post, I may end up changing out my PSU in the soon to be torrent box that I have named Blade.

Well, I did change it out with the under powered PSU from THRESHOLD, my gaming desktop. While I'm on the topic of names, my MacBook's name is Brink. That PSU is a lot quieter than the one that was in Blade, and it also 100watts more powerful at 350watts. 350watts just wasn't enough power for THRESHOLD, not after I put in the GPU.

So, once again, I am that much closer to having a torrent box!

I ordered a 60mm, 90mm, and a 120mm fan from Newegg last night. I am now that much closer to having a torrent box. The computer is going to be my old desktop which I wanted to use as a server, but never got around to finishing it. I need to mod the front of the case for 120mm fan, but the rest of the fans shouldn't require any modding of the case. I may end up changing out the power supply in it with another PSU I have, only if the other one is quieter.

As you can tell I'm going for a quiet box so hopefully it won't bother me when I try to sleep. Currently that computer sounds like a jet taking off.

I'm replacing the 80mm intake with a 120mm, the 80mm exhaust with the 90mm, and the 50mm heat-sink fan with the 60mm. You will not believe how the fan is attached to the heat sink. Basically it just has two long screws screwing into the fins.

I'm selling my black 5.5G 30GB iPod. I want to sell it for $230. It is in very good condition. I have had it in an iSkin eVo3 case since the day I have gotten it, and there is not a scratch on the front, and very little on the back. I have the original box, and I'll throw in the iSkin case with it. The only thing I can't find for it right now is the original sleeve that came with the iPod in the box, but with the iSkin case, you don't need it. If you want to see a bunch of pictures of what you're getting, check out the iPod Gallery. If you are interested, you can email me or leave a comment. Act quick, or this may end up on ebay soon.

Monday, school starts up for me. I'm kind of looking forward to it, This year shouldn't be too bad, at least the first semester shouldn't. Since students are allowed to have laptops at school, and in class, I'm looking forward to being able to use iWork '08. I especially like making Keynote presentations, everyone is always in awe at what I can do with that program, they just don't know how easy it is to do that kind of stuff with Keynote is.

I'm also hoping that my photography teacher will let me keep my photos in an iPhoto library, I'd really like to get to use iPhoto, I'm just not a big picture taker. I also hope he will let me use Photoshop CS 3, I know that in the past the school has used Photoshop Elements.

So, I'm kind of looking forward to school, at least the first semester, and then again, I'm kind of not. I wish summer was never ending.

I just got a new 40GB 4G iPod today. I got it at the MacSuperstore in San Louis Obispo. I've been wanting an older iPod to use in my truck, one that I wouldn't have to worry about as much as my 5G iPod. I got this one used for $30. Not a bad deal at all considering that when this first came out is was about $400.

Yahoo Pipes is pretty darn cool. I know that it's been around for a while but I have just now given it a chance. I usually am not a big fan of what Yahoo does, I'm usually more of a Google guy, but they have done this very well.

For those of you that don't know what Pipes is or does it is an interactive data aggregator and manipulator that lets you mashup your favorite online data sources.

Pipes is a nice way to mash up rss feeds from multiple sites or a site with multiple feeds, like the Engadget blogs. I mashed up Engadget, Engadget Mobile, and Engadget HD. Pipes is also handy for filtering content that you don't want in a feed; for example, I found a pipe that filtered any posts about the iPhone from The Unofficial Apple Weblog feed.

All in all, I'm pretty impressed with Yahoo Pipes.

My family finally purchased a HDTV. It's a 47" Vizio LCD. Very nice. My new favorite channel is Discovery HD Theater.

The other day I rented a Segway. It took a while to get used to tell your body that you aren't going to fall over even that you know you won't. After about a minute or two you can get the hang of it and feel comfortable on it. They really are a blast to ride. What surprised me was how well the off road one that I had went on the soft sand. You just have to take it easy and be prepared to stop your self, but it will just crawl along. They go uphill really well, you just have to lean forward farther. They also go downhill really well too, and you just have to lean back a little. I would sure love to have one if they weren't over $5000. Here's a little vid of me on the Segway.

My dad had recently gotten a bunch of firecrackers for the Fourth of July, so I, my friend Bryan, and my brother, decided that we should blow up something. We settled on blowing up a potato. Go watch the video.

I got a new cable modem today. For the past few months my internet has been very slow. We finally called in to tech support to find out what the problem was. Tech support diagnosed that the cable modem was hurting our speed. I was only getting half a mbps down when I should be getting about 7mbps down. Today I went and exchanged our old cable modem for a new one, and viola! Fast internet!

Also, last Friday night I ordered some Spy KGB sunglasses. They were on sale for $30, a price that is hard to beat considering that they regularly cost $140. They arrived this afternoon.