Jason Powell - Church IT and Other Musings

Guess the Tire Change Winner!

Congrats to John Stark for the closest guess on when I'd change to my snow tires ... Actual time was Monday 8:03am and he guessed Saturday 10:37am.

John now joins an elite group of humans who have been blessed by Bonus Points :-)

So the snow tires are on once again ... this makes the 4th season on the same set.  The fronts are still in great shape, but this is the last year for the rears ... they are almost to the wear bars (courtesy of exuberant driving).  And yes, snow tires make such a huge difference over even the best all-season tires.  I actually look forward to driving in snow.

The tire on the left is one of my sweet-o max performance Falken Azenis RT-615's (on 17x9 rims) for daily commute and occasional racing (autox) ... tire on the right is a 4 year old Blizzak WS-50 snow tire on an OEM front rim (17x7).  Back when I used to race a lot I had yet another set of rims just for non-street racing tires :-)

... and here's the racing tires I used to get ... Mmm Mmm sticky!

Guess the Date

Wow!  It's been forever since I've offered up any bonus points ... that changes today.

Here's your challenge - guess the date and time that I will swap my max performance summer tires for snow tires on my car.  You get only 1 guess ... make it a good one ... and you have to submit your guess by noon Friday.

Hint (well, sorta): I always wait until I anticipate/hear there will be snow accumulation on the road the next day.  Any accumulation and I literally can't drive my car without changing tires.

What's up for grabs?  1000 Bonus points, your name listed on my blog for the world to see and thus the envy of all your peeps!  You know you want 'em.  Don't pretend you don't.  Consult your nearest weather oracle and submit your guess ASAP!

Current Leader Board:
Marcus Monroe 3000 (2000+1000)
Chris Marsden 1000
Shelley Templin 1000
Mike Utech 1000
Dave Marks 1000
Steve Lavey 500
Darrell Jordan 500

Void where prohibited by law.  Bonus points are bogus and will remain the property of jpowell.blogs.com and may not be used in conjunction with bonus points, bogus or non, from any other website, product, vendor, or individual.  Cash value of bonus points = $0.00  Any attempt to counterfeit bonus points is punishable by death or mostly death to be determined by casting lots during the next harvest moon.  Odds of wining are 1 chance in some large numerical term.

blog load speed much improved

Several people have recently commented on my blog taking forever to load ... the culprit was some technorati script ... it's now gone and load speed is back to speedy.  Of course my blog is still in major need of a design overhaul, I just don't have the time.  I think it's time to see out farming design work to someone else.

I also missed putting Mike Utech on the bonus points leader board for his winning guess here last Sept ... sorry Mike.

New Bonus Points Winner

Congrats to Darrell Jordan for being our newest winner of JPowell Bonus Points!

After a number of excellent guesses from many people ...

Stryper, Metallica, White Heart, Guns-n-Roses, Deliverance, Def Leppard, Poison, Dokken, Whitesnake, Lynch Mob, Twisted Sister, Judas Priest, Megadeath, Ratt, Iron Maiden

... he correctly identified my favorite metal band back when I was in high school ... RATT. Yup, I was a huge RATT fan closely followed by Dokken then Def Leppard. I used to cruise the streets of Peru, IN every weekend cranking RATT as loud as I could in the family blue 1977 Ford Pinto :-)

A quick google reveals that RATT, Poison, and White Lion are touring this summer. Oh man, talk about a trip down nostalgia lane! July 17th in Chicago ... hmmmmmm

It wasn't until I started college (Taylor University) in the fall of '88 that I was fully introduced to "Christian" metal courtesy of Whitecross. I was blown away. Whitecross combined the gritty sounding vocals ala RATT with most excellent guitar licks ala Dokken and gave it in-your-face Jesus lyrics ... I was hooked! It might sound corny, but Whitecross played a huge part in my early spiritual formation into a Jesus Freak.

Petra was my first "Christian" rock concert ... at Taylor Univ ... Beat the System tour anyone? It wasn't until college that I got into Stryper despite hearing "Honestly" played to death on the radio prior. My first major rock concert ever was the Stryper "In God We Trust" tour at the Fort Wayne Colosseum ... White Lion opened for Stryper which was also very cool. Vitto Bratta is/was an amazing guitarist.

Well, enough trips down memory lane for now ... here's the updated Bonus Points Leader Board:

Marcus Monroe 3000 (2000+1000)
Chris Marsden 1000
Shelley Templin 1000
Mike Utech 1000
Dave Marks 1000
Steve Lavey 500
Darrell Jordan 500

What is it winners

Congrats to Dave Marks of Northwoods Community Church for correctly identifying the recent "What is it?" item as an 18mm wheel spacer (info on why I have this to follow).  Dave is the now the proud owner of 1000 bonus points and the newest member of the exclusive JPowell Bonus Points Club.

Also congrats to Steve Lavey for most creative entry ... I agree it does look like a communion cup tray :-)
Steve nets 500 bonus points and joins Dave in the fantastical Bonus Points Club.

For those playing at home here are our current winner totals:

Marcus Monroe 3000 (2000+1000)
Chris Marsden 1000
Shelley Templin 1000
Dave Marks 1000
Steve Lavey 500

Crud ... I just realized that I never awarded any points to this old Novell&Microsoft post.  My bad dudes.  I'll try to get that squared away next week.  No points have been awarded so it's still fair game ;-)

Watch for future chances to play and maybe you too can be a winner!