Vox Lucens

I tend to be too cheap to be a real gadget geek. I’m more about making things work than just getting whatever’s the latest rage. As an example, I’ve taken lots of flack for the boombox I used to carry in the front seat of my car. It looked weird, I’ll give you that, but it sure worked nice–I could listen to lectures in the boombox and music through my car audio. And that car audio was generally fueled by a Dell Axim Pocket PC that I used as my cheapo mp3 player.

Sometimes, though, that changes. It changes when it comes to travel, because sometimes when traveling it just has to work. Here’s my collection of electronic travel essentials.

It goes without saying that all travel electronics starts with the laptop. This, however, is not the laptop I’ll be taking to Sudan–that one’s getting minor changes like a formatted hard drive before I take it on the upcoming trip.

I love active noise reduction. I’m not sure I can say it better than that. Before I was given this set of headphones as a gift, I was skeptical of what they could do, but now I am a believer. The one thing that keeps them from being perfect is that they really only work for background noise like plane engines–a baby crying in the row behind you doesn’t qualify as background noise, and the headphones don’t work as well. But hey, perfection aside, I try to never travel without these babies.

A more recent addition to my travel regimen, I was blown away by the quality of the connection using Yahoo Voice on my last trip to Thailand. There was no delay, the quality was crisp and clear, and I paid a whopping penny a minute (plus exorbitant hotel internet fees, of course). And this VOIP headset plugs right into my USB port and works admirably. I’m not quite sure just how valuable these are going to be in Sudan, to be honest, as that will depend on what internet connections I can find, but I’m taking them along just in case.

OK, so it isn’t a piece of equipment used exclusively for travel, but travel is why I purchased the Nikon D-40. I have goofed around with it so far, but I can’t wait to put it through its paces overseas.

There comes a time, many hours into travel, where the only thing you want to do is throw yourself from the emergency exit of the plane cruising at 35,000 feet. Music helps calm that urge, so yesterday I bit the bullet. While I’m still too cheap for an IPod, I decided it was time for something–and this is what I ended up with. Bar review lectures, watch out, for you too are on the sync list!

And then there are all of the accessories that make it all work…

But travel does not end the jerry-rigging. Sometimes it enhances it. My latest exercise in “making it work” came with the ANR headset, which has a very narrow input jack for audio:

Most 1/8 inch cables are far too wide to fit:

The set came with the manufacturer’s custom cable, which has died. The manufacturer has been less than helpful in replacing it, and I don’t have time to deal with them, so I’ve traveled all over the tri-county area trying to find an electronics store that has a cord that would work. No one does. I’m leaving in a matter of days, and need this to work, so, being desperate, I bought a normal 1/8 inch cord, pulled out my pocketknife, and trimmed it down:

So far it works. Hurray for jerry-rigging!

One thing that a large fundraising banquet produces is paperwork. And turning all of that paperwork into usable digital data is an incredible chore. Reminds of my intern days at PFI, where I spent many a long hour turning anti-gambling petitions into a database of incredible size. Perhaps the most vivid memory is the tendonitis it caused in my forearms, which at some points was so bad that I took to typing with my forearms rested on ziploc bags of ice to numb them a bit. I’m grateful that the tendonitis hasn’t returned during this foray into the world of data-entry, but it has given me some time to think, and now you get to read a few ramblings based on that thinking.

Over the last couple of months, I have lived life wildly out of balance. That may sound like a big admission, but I’m afraid it really isn’t–I knew my life was out of balance, and I would imagine anyone that talked to me over that span also knew it.

But looking back–and looking ahead to crazy times to come–I would have a hard time saying that these periods of imbalance are wrong, or even bad. There is something to be said about having a cause that is worth giving everything to.

But that begs the question, I guess–what is a balanced life? I can think of a million–more or less–things that need to be balanced. For instance, one must balance diet, exercise, and rest in order to be healthy. One must balance work, study, and recreation in order to avoid burnout. One must balance the things of this earth, necessary to survival, with the things of eternity.

Going a little deeper, then, let’s classify all these different types of balance into two broad categories: “inner” balance and “outer” balance.

I’ve found that inner balance, quite simply, requires a life grounded in God’s truth and God’s spirit. There are a million other things that go on in the inner man–thoughts, plans, knowledge-seeking, emotions, who knows what else–and they all compete with each other, and the only thing that brings sanity into the mess is the truth of God’s Word.

And when the inner is balanced, the outer makes much less difference. When pursuing things of God, His strength can bring a balance where there otherwise would be none. That being said, getting adequate rest and exercise can contribute to the balance of inner turmoil.

So as I begin to dare to think about *gasp!* life after law school, here are a few initial observations:

First, balance is not a matter of allocating equal amounts of time. While one hour a day of exercise may bring that facet into balance, one hour a day of sleep would not. And all time is not equal; an hour in half-asleep reverie late at night is not the same as an hour of coffee-inspired diligence (to use a horrible example).

Second, balance is a matter of priority. There is simply too much “good” out there that needs to be done to fit it all in one lifetime. And God’s calling includes different things at different seasons of life. Sometimes, for instance, we simply must throw ourselves wholeheartedly into preparation. Law school finals come to mind: very little practical benefit in and of themselves, but a necessary preparation to future service.

Third, a balanced existence is ready to handle stress and challenges. When the imabalance comes, when sleep is hard to come by, when food is eaten quickly or not at all, being grounded in God’s Spirit makes it worth it, and makes it doable.

May my life be ever so grounded.

From the vast, frozen tundra of the wasteland called Overtime, he emerged victorious, triumphant, or at least, semi-lucid. And tired; tired as though the very tundra actively sucked the soul from the rest of the weary.

But the time touring the tundra was not a total loss. The emergent semi-lucid conqueror brought with him friends. Mere acquaintances going in, these friends will from hence be a source of constant companionship, for now, they are known by their nicknames. A friendship forged in the extremest of conditions on Mount Excel, each nickname holds a special place in the physical memory of my fingers. Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V, and especially Ctrl+Z, to you, dearest friends, shall be granted the keys to the kingdom.

–From A Pointless Oral History of One of Mankind’s Dimmest Luminaries

God is good, my friends, and actively pours out His blessing in ways that we can only imagine. Out of despair, He can work His mighty plan.

While more will come, hopefully in the near future, suffice it to say now that the banquet is over and I have only begun to dig out from the mounds of paperwork that success dumped upon me. The sheer amount of data entry has boggled my mind. But after a weekend in Pennsylvania with my family, I feel almost ready to tackle it.

What a joy to watch the doors open.

(The next post will be less cryptic, I promise.)

***UPDATE***

I forgot to mention that the Charleston Post and Courier did a little write-up on the banquet (it’s at the bottom of that page). That will help give you a little bit of the background I haven’t gotten around to mentioning here…