DanLacher.COM

For those that know I have had a sorta love / dislike relationship with Verizon for 10 years now. I have been a Verizon customer since March of 2000, so I am by no means an original customer but they have been my only wireless provider since I entered the marketplace. In the past my only real complaint has been how they sell/subsidise phones that have had functionality crippled or turned off all together.

Now fast forward to December of 2009 when Verizon decided that they would push the Bing application out to all of their Blackberry users. Really, for a device that owned by the user and not the company and for a device that is password protected from application install I don’t understand how a company would make that move. Now I understand that it was not a full application push but a shortcut to install the application and until recently no apparent way to remove it… I don’t consider hiding the application icon a solution.

Move ahead again to February of 2010 when Verizon pulls the same stunt and pushed a shortcut install application for Slacker Radio out to my device.

WHAT! At this point I was out right pissed off. I called Verizon to find out what they heck was going on. After a discussion with the front line customer service member who clearly had no idea what I was talking about he informed me all he could do is file a complaint for me, which I did. The following day I received a follow up phone call on the complaint to gather further information and clarification and was told they were going to escalated the issue further along. I am still waiting to hear back from them.

The saga continues when I then connect up the Blackberry to back it up before installing OS updates. The backup went fine but I can’t say the rest did. My device is currently running v4.5.0.138. In the process of updating to v4.5.0.175 one of the main application Blackberry Messenger disappeared. Details of the applications showed it installed, so I tried all the combinations of reinstalling, uninstalling, installing… with no joy. So I decided to swallow my pride and go in to see if the techs in the Verizon store could help. Well that was a waste of time, they did all the sam steps I had all ready done and then concluded that a device wipe would fix it. Well it does not. The store also has no ability to reload the OS on a Blackberry device. So I venture back home, downgrade the OS back to v4.5.0.138 and Blackberry Messenger is back and fully functional. So they failed in understanding devices they are supporting and I am just glad I was able to figure it out to get the functionality back.

So while restoring my device and poking through some deeper options, specifically: Options, Advanced, Service Book I found Bing and Slacker Radio. So I figured what they heck, can’t hurt to delete them, the worst that happens is I have to restore like I just finished doing after the Messenger fiasco. I am glad to say that did the trick, no more application shortcuts on the device.

I have been so pissed through this process that I have been researching a switch of the Verizon network. The devices and networks out there that have my interest are the iPhone, Blackberry (not on Verizon) and the Google Nexus One.

The story is not finished yet, but I am waiting to hear back from them on their next move.

Today marks an interesting day, a time of transition shall now begin. My first post college career with Sun Microsystems (now Oracle) I made the choice to transition to new employment. Today the decision was made for me to transition into the next area of life. I have loved to serve at Messiah on staff for three years. In that time I had the privilege of helping to give birth to journeys, and bring the technology Messiah uses to reach the world and spread the message of Christ much further along.

I leave this post with a word from our Lord.

And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns. Philippians 1:6

Be Blessed
dl

I was asked to tape a message to place on the website of Messiah as a thank you for all of those that had joined us for the Christmas season and events. The script was fairly straight forward… after two days of taping of which the first day I was feeling dreadfully ill we ended up with a good video “thank you” message as seen below.

After that work was done someone got their hands on all of the footage from the two days and made an out takes video of the whole thing. I said that I would post it for all to see so here goes.

Be Blessed,
dl

This upcoming week my wife and I are taking a huge step forward in bringing a small dream that we have to the next level.  The full back story of the dream will come as the process moves forward.  So why write about it now?  A wise friend gave me this counsel:

When God gives you a vision for something you need to write it down and do something about it. Christians have walked away from God’s command to steward the whole planet, which is why so many people have picked up the call even though they don’t believe that God created it in the first place. Collaboration is important to sparking innovation. But innovation should not be slowed by pride (people wanting credit for the new ideas). There are business strategies that are creating the potential of unleashing opportunity like never before.

So we are taking the steps to write it out in legal form so that something can be done about and with it.  The glorification of this work shall not be placed on us but to the Lord, it is all about the Kingdom impact through a vision that has been given.

God Bless,
dl

This is the first recipe we have tried out of the Beachbody Power 90 Recipe Book. Delicious!

Vegetarian Curry

• 1/2 onion, diced
• 1 Tbsp curry powder
• 1 cup vegetable stock
• 3 oz tomato paste
• 1 small garlic clove, minced
• 1 cup chickpeas
• 1/2 cup tomatoes, chopped
• 1/2 cup cauliflower, chopped
• 1 cup cooked brown rice

Prepare brown rice according to package directions.  Saute onion and garlic in 1 Tbsp of stock until tender.  Add remaining stock, chickpeas, vegetables, and tomato paste; stir together.  Sprinkle in curry powder and mix well.  Simmer for 10 minutes or until cauliflower is tender.  Serve over rice.  Serves 2.

This is a re-posting of a story that was ran on journeys coffeehouse’s site about one of the amazing baristas, Sean Bartley, and his strides in helping to fight breast cancer.

For those of you that know Sean Bartley, one of the amazing baristas at journeys coffeehouse, you will know that Sean has always seemed to have this long hair that he loves. Just over a week ago now two of us were joking with Sean on shaving his head… the matter quickly came to that if we could raise $500 basically overnight he would shave his head and donate all of the money to breast cancer research. To all of our amazement we were able to raise not $500 but over $1000.

So today we gathered at journeys coffeehouse as well as online via a live streaming of the event to share in this amazing story. Sean has is hair dresser of many years, Kathy, come out to do the honors. We had several breast cancer survivors join us in person as well as on the live stream.

We just wanted to share the story and one man’s step in helping fight to find a cure. Please don’t let the fight end with just one event, keep on fighting for the cure.

For those that are on Facebook, there is a full photo collection here.

Sean, thank you for letting me play a small part in this awesome event and the fight for the cure. You are an amazing man and this was an awesome change.

It is blueberry season here in Michigan.  One of the ways that we like to enjoy blueberries is in the following blueberry muffin recipe.

Blueberry Muffins

• 1/2 cup butter
• 2 cups flour
• 1 1/4 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup milk
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 cups blueberries

Preheat the over to 350 degrees.  Sift together flour, baking powder and salt and set aside.  Cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Add the eggs to the butter mixture and blend well.  Add the milk and the flour mixture and beat until combined.  Fold in the blueberries.  Fill muffin tin sections 2/3 full and bake 25 to 30 minutes.  If you wish sprinkle a small amount of raw sugar on the top of the muffins before baking.

Enjoy and feel free to send some along.

This recipe has been requested by some friends at work, so here it is. … looks like a flop while you are making it, turns out awesome in then end.

Rhubarb Cobbler

• 4 cups chopped rhubarb
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 Tbsp butter
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 cup flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 tsp cornstarch
• 1 cup boiling water

Evenly distribute rhubarb on bottom of baking dish (8×8 in original, we used a 9×13). Cream together sugar (1/2 cup), butter, milk, flour, baking powder and salt. Pour mixture over the top of the rhubarb. Combine sugar (1 cup) and cornstarch and sprinkle over the stop of the creamed topping. Pour boiling water of the top of the whole thing and bake for 60 minutes at 350 F.

We it hot out of the oven with a little bit of ice cream.  This one originally comes from my dad, it is awesome.

A second in the new recipe posts, the chipolte slaw that I use to to some amazing fish tacos.

Chipotle Slaw

• 2 tsp chipotle powder
• 2 tablespoons honey,
• 1 tablespoon lime juice
• 3 tablespoons light mayo
• 2 cups shredded cabbage (1 cup white, 1 cup red is a nice mix)
  
• 1/4 cup fine chopped or thinly sliced red onions

This makes for an amazing topping to fish tacos along with some guacamole… that recipe is to come.  Enjoy all.

The first in what are going to be some new posts to post some of my and my families favorite recipes.  This first one of marinated tomatoes comes to us from our wonderful friend Jennifer.  They are simply a wonderful addition to a meal in the summertime when the tomatoes are at their peak.

Marinated Tomatoes

• 3 large tomatoes medium to thick sliced
• 1/3 C olive oil
• 1/4 C red wine vinegar
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp pepper
• 1 clove garlic minced
• 1 Tbsp basil
• 1 Tbsp parsley

Shake well & chill. Pour over tomatoes. Enjoy