Personal on Rinsland's Corner

Changing Traditions

Fri, 21 Mar 2025 14:10:55 -0500

This is from a facebook post I made, and posting here for posterity.

A couple of you have probably seen this coming for a little while, but last night I did something I never actually thought I’d do. I had a lengthy one to one, face to face meeting first with the Pastor and then the Associate Pastor of my church, to let them know I was leaving the Baptist Tradition, in favor of the Anglican Tradition.

A Fishkeeping Saga Part 1: Beginnings

Mon, 29 Jul 2024 20:43:20 -0500

Since the beginning of this year I discovered and was smitten by Aquascaping. I stumbled across some videos by people like MD Fish Tanks and was absolutely blown away by what they could do. To me, whenever I thought of fish aquariums, it was always the basic clear box with a top and a bright light shining in on glass rocks, treasure chest that emits bubbles, and some tacky decorations and fake plants, with a betta or some goldfish in there. Pretty much whatever you see in a big pet store chain. And while I’ve always loved fish and the water, it just didn’t appeal to me because the aquariums felt like a lot of work for something that looked pretty tacky overall. However, when I saw these beautiful ecosystems, with their myriad of plants, substrates, and natural set pieces, it felt like I was looking at a piece of living breathing art. And I had to try my hand at it.

Meet Baja

Mon, 04 Dec 2023 10:58:10 -0600

We bought at Mexican Black Kingsnake yesterday, her name is Baja. We’ve been planning for her for a couple months, and have been spent the last couple weeks setting up her enclosure, and she loves it.

Baja exploring her new environment

Information about her:

Scientific Name: Lampropeltis californiae nigrita
Family: Colubridae (commonly known as Colubrids)
Age: 6 months, and Mexican Black Kingsnakes can live up to 30 years.
Weight: 22grams, and will weigh up to 3lbs when she reaches maturity.
Length: a little over a foot. An adult female can reach up to 6′, but will usually average around 4′.
Diet: other snakes, mice, eggs, lizards, and birds. In captivity, she will be fed mostly frozen mice, with the occasional quail or egg for enrichment.
Primary Range: Sonoran Desert, Northwestern Sinaloa, Mexico, and occasionally Arizona
Natural Habitat: Rocky areas and places lush with vegetation
Ideal Temperatures: Her basking spot is 85-90 degrees, with a cool side of 75 degrees, though these snakes can tolerate a wide range of temperatures so long as they can effectively self regulate.
Fun Facts: Mexican Black Kingsnakes are resistant to the venom of snakes found in its primary range, and juveniles often have white or yellow speckles underneath that will disappear as they age.

I Bought A House

Tue, 07 Nov 2023 16:15:00 -0600

Finally, after many years, I have managed to get into a good enough financial situation to become a homeowner. I had originally intended to start looking for one near the time that my rental lease for our townhome was ending, however a few things happened that made us bump that up a lot. Namely, our laundry machine broke, and it took well over a week for someone to even come out and determine it was broken, and then it was another couple of weeks before it was replaced. Which meant we had to use the local laundromat. AND THEN, we had decided to get a snake. The pet policy said we only had to get permission from the office before purchasing a pet, and we thought they’d wave it right through being as snakes are, well, not as likely to destroy things as say, our cats or the dogs our neighbors had. But nope, flatly refused, and no explanation as to why. Funnily enough, that wound up being the proverbial last straw and we started looking around to see what kind of rates we could get and what the market looked like.

The Updating is Finished

Tue, 17 Oct 2023 12:28:28 -0500

We now have a new look, updated and streamlined content, and a faster, more responsive blog now that all the old bloat is gone. I deleted a lot of stuff. Copied most of the data over to the other site and ditched a few outdated things. Like the attempt at a wiki, files from the D&D campaigns that are now meaningless. Found a lot of empty pages lurking around as well that I got rid of. Lots of housecleaning for sure. But hey, new theme, new name, new look. All my personal content and posts should still be here. All the posts related to D&D, worldbuilding, and my campaigns, should be over at Solethania now.

Types of Artist

Wed, 22 Mar 2023 12:48:12 -0500

I saw a post somewhere about there being four different types of artists.

Those who do it for the money
Those who are in it for the attention
Those who do it because they like the process,
Those who do it for for the results. There’s definitely a venn diagram for these, but the differences go a long way to explaining why some artists have an issue with AI Art while others don’t.

If you’re in it for the attention, you probably have a massive issue with the average person being able to create things they spent years learning how to do, nevermind the time spent and carving out their own niche in the community, and it’s in your own best interest to gatekeep the art community to avoid losing your supposed power and influence.

2023 Scuba Trip to Roatan

Sun, 29 Jan 2023 22:15:43 -0600

After getting scuba certified last year we had a goal of getting out to the ocean to experience the wonders of coral reefs. We did some digging around and found that Roatan Honduras was not only a premier location for diving, but also beginner friendly, and absurdly cheap -especially booking through a scuba specific travel agency like padi travel.

A Response to JoJoes Art

Tue, 27 Dec 2022 08:19:26 -0600

I am responding to a post he made on his facebook page here, his words are in italics.

Is this the future we want for art? AI art tools like Lensa App, Midjourney or Stable Diffusion have recently taken the world by storm. It’s impressive what these applications are capable of but most people aren’t aware of the very worrisome implications this trend has for the future of art:

SCUBA Certified

Mon, 22 Aug 2022 15:19:09 -0500

Finally getting around to updating the blog with the important news: My wife and I got officially certified as Advanced Open Water SCUBA divers right at the end of July. We haven’t been able to go visit anything other than the local lake, but it truly is a whole new world and experience, and I am quite enamored with it. The amount of stuff I had to learn was daunting, and I hadn’t had that much study since college. But it was one of those things where I really wanted to make sure I got it, because not understanding something could mean literal injury and/or death. There were written tests, then pool swims, and then finally the dives out at the local lake to get our Open Water Certification, and then additional study and dives to get our Advanced Open Water certification. Our “local lake” was Beaver Lake, Arkansas. We are certified for conditions “equal to, or better” than what we did. Which means I can dive in pretty much any visibility, because, especially on our first dive, visibility was awful. However, we had a ton of fun, and when not doing things directly involving training, we saw a bunch of fish, mostly sunfish, perch, and a bass. There was a platform, boat, car, and many other things intentionally sunk in the area to be a ‘dive park’ for scuba divers.

Omaha Beach

Mon, 06 Jun 2022 19:51:19 -0500

June 6, 1944

May, 2022

An Old Friend

Mon, 04 Oct 2021 07:36:26 -0500

Let me tell you about James.

James is probably the oldest close childhood friend I had, and probably one of the most influential. I’m pretty sure the first good friend I had that wasn’t a family friend (that is, my parents weren’t first friends of their parents). He introduced me to one of the greatest JRPGs ever made: Golden Sun. I bought a Gameboy advance just to finish the game, and I only ever owned three games on it: Golden Sun, Golden Sun: The Lost Age, and LotR the Two Towers. And yet I still consider that little handheld console to be one of my favorite purchases. It even it still works…barely.

2021 Road Trip: Grand Tetons

Tue, 28 Sep 2021 16:34:09 -0500

The final part of our trip was driving to Jackson, WY and having morning rafting experience down the Snake River, followed by a hike into the Cascade Canyon Trail. The drive down was beautiful, the Grand Tetons are absolutely grand, and they dominate the landscape. Every picture I took of them seemed like something out of a painting.

2021 Roadtrip: Cody, WY

Mon, 27 Sep 2021 11:55:53 -0500

We didn’t spend any significant amount of time in Cody, we drove from Island Park, Idaho to Cody through Yellowstone, stayed the night and then drove to Jackson, Wyoming the next morning. Our entire purpose of visiting was to go to the Cody Firearms Museum. And it, like everything else we did on our vacation, was absolutely worth it. The library of guns is absolutely life goals.

2021 Roadtrip: Yellowstone

Fri, 24 Sep 2021 09:57:06 -0500

We stayed a couple nights in Island Park, Idaho during the time we explored Yellowstone proper. We arrived in Island Park with enough daylight left to do the Box Canyon Campground to Rosie’s Waterfall hike, which was very pleasant and refreshing after a long day of driving.

We started the next morning at Running Bear Pancake House in West Yellowstone, and then proceeded to have one of the greatest experiences I’ve ever had with the outdoors. Yellowstone National Park is one of the most incredible places on earth. The weather was perfect in the high 60s, low 70s, and crystal clear skies. We did the big Upper Geyser Basin and Old Faithful trail first, followed by the Mystic Falls, Fairy Creek, and Little Firehole loop, and finally Fountain Paint Pot Trail. I think people can spend their entire career trying to capture the feeling of this place, and consider it a success to be able to pass along just a sliver of the emotion and wonder this place generates. It’s one of the top five most popular national parks in the world, and every reason was on full, glorious display. We saw six geysers go off: Old Faithful, Grand, Lion, Sawmill, Solitary, and Grotto. Of these, the Grand Geyser was, well, the most grand. We waited an hour and a half into its expected eruption time window, and it was absolutely worth every second. I did get a fantastic picture of Solitary though, that is in the images below. During the walk along this trail (I hesitate to call it a hike because it’s mostly paved or wood paths) we unexpectedly got very close to a wild bison. Bison were everywhere in the park, we also saw a few elk, a bear, and a wolf. It was surprising just how much wildlife we saw considering how busy the park is.

2021 Roadtrip: South Dakota

Wed, 22 Sep 2021 22:31:27 -0500

My wife and I had originally planned on going to Europe this year (well, for the last two years), but Covid craziness had other plans. So we decided to turn the time we had originally set aside for it into a road trip to Yellowstone instead, and it was one of the best decisions we’ve ever made. Along the way, we decided to take a brief stop for a day in the Black Hills of South Dakota, and then overnight there again on the way back. Initially, the main attraction was Mount Rushmore, but we discovered so many other cool things to see there, that we felt it is definitely worth its own trip.

Personal Update 4-18-2021

Sun, 18 Apr 2021 11:31:57 -0500

I sprained my back last Sunday, and had to visit the doctor to make sure it wasn’t anything more serious like a spinal issue or something. Got sent to get an x-ray, was given some strong meds, and told to stay flat in bed for a couple days. I’m feeling much better now, aside from some slight soreness, and I’ll probably begin some limited exercise next week. Unfortunately I had planned on moving a bunch of stuff around the house and reorganizing things, and all that is going to have to wait.

Hiking the Colorado National Monument, Day 2

Tue, 16 Mar 2021 12:37:17 -0500

This is the second day of my visit to Grand Junction, Colorado, and my hike through the Colorado National Monument. Today, I had crepes at the Dream Cafe. They were light, but filling. Perfect way to start the day on a long hike.

Very strawberry. Very filling.

I chose to do the full route of the Monument Canyon Trail, which is 6 miles one way. I started on the east side and hiked in, but did not do the steep climb up to the road at the very end because I am woefully out of shape as it is and that probably would have done me in in terms of actually making it all the way back in any reasonable amount of time.

Hiking the Colorado National Monument, Day 1

Thu, 11 Mar 2021 12:47:23 -0600

Last week I had the pleasure of visiting Grand Junction, Colorado and then hiking around the Colorado National Monument for a couple days while my wife got a tattoo done.

I hiked the No-Throughfare trail, and the Devil’s Kitchen trail the first day, and then the entirety of the Monument Trail and back the next. I started the day at the Dream Cafe, with the largest pancakes I’ve ever seen. They were absolutely phenomenal, and the perfect thing for a long day hiking.

Life Update

Thu, 02 Jul 2020 13:53:06 -0500

So amidst all the craziness of 2020, I finally got in to get braces installed yesterday. If all goes well, I’ll have to wear them for 28 months. I get two upper teeth extracted on the 7th, followed by another visit to the orthodontist to finish up on the 14th.

As of two weeks ago I started learning Latin, with the goal of eventually being able to read The Aeneid by Virgil in its original language. I started now because I realized Duolingo offered it as a course. I’m doing a combination of Duolingo and Memrise to help me learn faster, with the idea that these two apps are fairly complementary.

Willful Ignorance

Fri, 07 Feb 2020 07:29:50 -0600

I will never understand the willful and loud ignorance of athletic sports, usually by people immersed in ‘modern geek culture’. If sports aren’t your thing, that’s ok. But to revel in and be proud of it by telling anyone who will listen (especially on Social Media) is straight up stupid, you look like an idiot, and most importantly: nobody cares.

Monster Energy Drinks are Evil?

Thu, 19 Dec 2019 08:58:48 -0600

I pulled this from a post I made on Facebook a year or so ago because I think I’m going to pull all my noteworthy posts from there as part of my efforts to eventually drop the site entirely.

I’ve been around ultra conservative Christians all my life and this is a new one. Apparently Monster Energy’s logo is the Mark of the Beast. Someone, somewhere made the claim that the scratch marks are actually the Hebrew Vav (the number 6). Which, if you squint a little bit, yeah maybe?

Some Clocks Were Cleaned NFL Week 1

Mon, 09 Sep 2019 11:00:01 -0600

Here are my thoughts as of the end of Sunday, September 9, in regards to the NFL.

Lamar Jackson and the Ravens put on an absolute beat down of the Miami Dolphins, to the point some Dolphins players reportedly contacting their agents and asking to get them out of there. Final score: 59-10.

Patrick Mahomes had an injury scare as he limped around a bit with a potentially sprained ankle, Tyreek Hill got injured, and Sammy Watkins had the game of his career as the KC Chiefs looked really good form against the Jaguars. Who lost Nick Foles to injury, and was replaced by the surprisingly solid rookie Gardner Minshew. Final Score: 40-26

Personal Update August 2019

Mon, 19 Aug 2019 12:00:51 -0600

I had my wisdom teeth pulled last Thursday. After surviving a week beforehand hearing every nightmare scenario everyone else had about the procedure, mine went exceptionally well. The only pain I had was when the pain medication wore off on Friday, and as of Monday morning, everything is back to normal aside from still only eating soft foods (which I’ll do until this Friday, just to be safe).

Pawns and Pints

Sun, 22 Apr 2018 22:04:51 -0600

We went down to Pawns and Pints today to see what it was all about, and to try to hop into an Adventurer’s League D&D game. Unfortunately all the seats for the D&D game were full. However, my wife and I had some great drinks, and cracked open few random board games. Like Star Wars Stratego and the old classic Battleship. We decided we really need to make this a regular thing, because it was a ton of fun all around. Maybe we’ll actually even schedule ourselves into one of the D&D days.

Photos from WWII

Sun, 11 Feb 2018 21:32:32 +0000

When I was with family this last week we went through a ton of old family photos. Of special interest to me were these images involving Harold Bergstrom), nobody was sure the relation but they were fantastic. I didn’t realize until I got back home that there’s a google app that will actually scan images in better quality than just taking a picture of them.

Enter the Void

Thu, 20 Jul 2017 14:17:42 +0000

And the Void is hungry, as far as a two month old kitten can be.

Poem of a Fractured Mind

Sat, 13 May 2017 18:14:03 +0000

Here’s a poem I wrote from a darker time in my past.

It’s makeup. A mask that covers the broken soul, *A shivering beauty looking out through cracks and fissures hidden in unsubtle coverings.*Attempts to conform or portray, show a measure. To distract through pearlescent hues the emotions of a being hardly held together. The voice crying for attention, duplicitous in its dealings, becomes the audible mask. Coy and soft to world outside, screaming pain and insecurity the being hidden cries.