Middle America's Worldview

This is pretty staggering, or is it? It is estimated 8.5-9 billion web pages on the Internet now, indexed only. Index means what Yahoo and Google has in their database to search, not necessarily the number that exist. There is probably never going to be a true idea of existing sites as it changes per minutes.

Taking that in perspective, does this news seem so staggering?

"EVERY five seconds, a website falls prey to hackers and gets infected with malicious software. This puts visiting
surfers at risk of having their computer systems infected.

That startling figure is from a recently published report by IT security and control firm Sophos.

The half-yearly report, which was released last Thursday, documents the latest trends and figures on Internet security and cyber-crime within the first six months of this year.

According to Sophos, an average of 16,173 malicious webpages are discovered each day, and a whopping "90 per cent of these webpages are legitimate sites which have been hacked".

Surprisingly, these sites are prominent and esteemed ones.

The website of Cambridge University Press was hacked in April, and the website belonging to the Association of Tennis Professionals a month later. According to the report, even government agencies are not spared."

Full article here

Another awesome movie, called "The Kingdom".



I was able to watch this yesterdsy, simply awesome. The last 30 minutes was simply full of action and awesome! From start to finish action and drama.

Synopsis:
"When a deadly bombing attack targets Americans in the Middle East, a counterterrorism squad is dispatched to find the culprits. Once they arrive in the desert, the U.S. agents (an ensemble that includes Jamie Foxx as the group's leader) learn that in these parts, they are the true enemy. With their investigation hampered by local bureaucracy, the team realizes they may be the terrorists' next target. Jennifer Garner and Jason Bateman also star."

Talk about a cool movie! I watched it last night, while alone and it was a great guy flick.



Premis:
"Based on a true 1971 event, this thriller tells the story of Terry (Jason Statham), a car dealer who becomes involved in a London bank heist only to find that the contents of the bank vault will draw him deeply and irrevocably into the city's criminal underbelly. Murder and scandal abound in this tale of corruption populated with a surprising mix of offenders, from low-level thugs to government officials and all the way up to the royal family."

It has MI5,some nudity, drama, intrique and just all around great movie.

I realize Miley C. is on a bad train leading to the pits with her actions. However, I am more interested in the hack of her Gmail.

After getting to bed nearly 11 p.m., I was awaken by a siren going off in the house.
Man, was it loud. I jumped out of bed and did a dash like I was 18 again to the alarm system. I am not sure I even opened my eyes. If there was a robber, I would had sacked him like a freight train trying to get to that system.
After about 5 tries, I finally shut it off. The wife was asking "what the h###". I checked the doors, ect. and all were still locked up tight. Better call the alarm people to ensure I don't need the cops. Although, that would had made for some interesting conversation for the neighborhood.
So I called them and they asked what does the screen on the system show. The lady on the phone didn't realize it took me 4 minutes to find the right keys on the phone through my blurry eyes.

I checked the screen and it mentioned "low battery". This thing has a battery?
Evidently it does. It must use the battery, when the electric is out. Obviously, that's not the case. I wonder if those Cable guys screwed something up the other day?
So when there is light outside and I have more than 3 hours sleep, I will be crawling in the attic to check/replace the battery. Then do an alarm test. (at this point I am suspecting she didn't even know our alarm went off)

During all this drama, the kids remained asleep or non-moving. How they can manage, I have no idea. Even the dog was spinning like a top during that world war 2 siren.

I just read a very interesting article regarding the new step for internet users.
full article here.

It uses GovTrack.us as the example.

A full implemented website that harnesses all the current tech on the net.

Think of the site Tauberer has created as a virtual news fetcher, bringing all the relevant info right to your PC. No more need to surf around the Internet or plow through wordy government sites. It all comes to one spot, his Web site.

Such Web-service sites are just starting to catch on, thanks to technologies such as the Extensible Markup Language (XML), which is sort of a lingua franca for Net programmers, and Rich Site Summary (RSS) feeds, which make it possible for sites to easily share data. It's not a stretch to say they could revolutionize the way content is delivered.

This is what I been waiting for. It will remove the need for searching, to a great extent. Rather going out there looking all the time, you can bring the subject to you.

Other sites hope to use Web services to grab a chunk of the classifieds market. In March, LinkedIn.com, a social-networking site for 1.8 million professionals, will begin using a Web service to collect job ads from all over the Internet on its site.

Through the site's social network, a LinkedIn.com customer interested in a listing will be able to find out if the recruiter is a friend of a friend, and if so, get a referral, says Konstantin Guericke, LinkedIn.com's vice-president for marketing. LinkedIn.com is working out an agreement with sites like Feedster.com to post their jobs data.

It's only the early days of information Web services, of course. But the potential is huge. Consider this: Just 10 years ago, businesses were tiptoeing to the Web, trying to figure out if they could make money on it.

Today, the question isn't "if?" It's "how much?" Ten years from now, savvy business folks will be asking the same of informational Web services.

Awesome. Now we need the information to create our own personal "All in one' sites to really get going.

I am on the edge of like/dislike. The acting, action is great. The special effects were phenomenal. However, the message of the movie was bleak.




I understand they wanted to convey the horrible tragedy going on in Burma. This is akin to Darfur. Freaking Genocide. Yet, it would had been nice to see one lost soul saved by the christian group.

Over the past week (more like 2), I been delving into the online tutorials, book on PHP/MYSQL.

Ideally, I want to be able to pull the information from a database, and have it viewed on a configured, concise layout, via the web. This would allow me to simply update the database, and not to have to re-configure the webpage so much.

The hardest thing is getting the construction down. I am getting close in the understanding, but man it's time consuming.

The way I normally work, is take a existing working project. Unravel it to see how it works, then try to apply those same means in my own desired format.

I already pulled some scripts down from the net and going through them. I already have a PHP/MYSQL book I bought for reference. Yet, there is nothing the same as writing and testing your own code.

Currently Resource for the Christian is using an existing script/sql I had found. Yet, I want to do more with it, rather than being a hack.

I have another free site I am using to simply test out on.

I keep saying the mantra in my head, "Once you get the basics down, you can do anything with it". I truly believe this. I am just working on getting that initial "aha" to come through.

I have to give a shout-out and say, I am really proud of my wife. She has continued to run after her first 5K. She really seems be loving this.

This morning she did 5 miles. I find that to be estoric. So a shout-out to my wife to say way to go!

Yesterday marked my 13 years of marriage. Looking back at the old pictures, we were just kids. The best gift I received? A wonderful full year with my wife of course.


Yesterday, during a work break, I figured I would walk with the kids. Our area is made out, where if you walked from end to end 3.5 times, it equals out to a mile. My kids been doing this with my wife for some time now, but me, not so much. My daughter said, "lets run to the end". Sure, why not. By the time I was at the stop sign (1/2 way), my heart was screaming 'what the hell'.

I kidded with my daughter (after I regained my breathe and composure), my heart was asking me 'why are we running, is there a twinkie down there?' She thought it was hillarous. But in the end, I managed to walk the remaining mile.


Last night, the homeschool group had the water park to themselves. Needless to say, I played like a kid. Rather, I tried to keep up with mine. They had some neat slides we had to go down way more than once. However, you had to walk up bloody four stories to the top. The first 2-3 times were not bad, after the eight time up, I was not only feeling it, I was getting slower. My son the ever energizer bunny kept baiting me "Comeon slowpoke, old man". Sigh, I was feeling it. I am feeling it more this morning.

Irregardless, I think we all had fun.

So, with all the physical exertion I am not used to, I am feeling it this morning.

Not as young as I use to be

We had a relaxing weekend. Too bad, these times are the ones that seem to run faster. But these days, everyone seems to be running out of time.

From relaxing weekend to yet another busy week. All remote employees from my company should had received a call by end day last Friday. I know of 2 groups that are indeed effected. One a really good friend. The burden of choice is not so much as, where does my friend go from here. I hope the company realizes many families simply cannot leave their current locations. Perhaps they do realize it, or perhaps they simply don't care.


For this week I have a board meeting Monday night and 13 year anniversary on top of my regular schedule of events.

My wife and I finally watched "Defnitely, Maybe" last night. It was a cute movie. Worth renting.

I came across this interesting video where the news reports T-Rex soft tissue was found.



You can see additional videos at Resource for the Christian

T-Rex soft tissue found

More good news came my way yesterday. My dad's doctor appt. came in saying everything was good. He was obviously happy last night informing me. Yesterday, my wife's doctor appt. also came in good.

After being on stress alert, with all this good news coming in, I can't help being excited yet speculative. Isn't that like humans, always pessimist.


On another note, my 13 year anniversary is next week. I can't believe it's been 13 years already. Then I look at my kids and realize how far we have really gone. During our 7th year anniversay we joked about the "itch". Supposedly around 7 years, couples tend to get the itch to split. Obvioiusly, this had not occured for us.

I was told this morning, most men break the union around year 15 or 17. Guess, mid-life hits and they need that young blood to make them feel younger. Irregardless, we were mentioning the excrutiating things that would happen to me, if that had ever occured. Jokingly of course, ahem.

Although, unless I had the money by then, I am not sure what the young blood would want. Surely I will be fatter and with less hair by then, given my dilemma at this point.

Never fear though, if a dull knife doesn't scare a guy, this will. My wife works for two lawyers. Think a one room apartment with no weekend money sounds like a drag, think of a cardboard box instead. But I digress.

Fortunately for us, I really don't think any of that will happen. Personally, I have no desire to ruin such a good relationship. Everyone (including ours) has it's ups and downs. However, when I see the alternatives, there's no challenge there.

I had posted a bit of stress in the past. Part of the burden has been lifted. As my fellow 4-5 readers know, radical changes have been occuring in our company. We has an updated meeting early this week, indicating 25% of the IS Dept was remote and 25% were working one or two days at home. They felt this was unacceptable having 50% (at times) of the work force not working within the corporate building. So, the first phase was requiring all local employees to drive to work, removing the ability to work at home. Yes, that sucked for most, considering 4 bucks a gallon and traffic in PA pretty much bites. If hit wrong, 35 miles can take 1 to 1.5 hours to get to work.

The second phase was to pull in 1/2 of the remotes back to corporate. We were informed 16-18 remotes will be effected. All remotes will be given "the call" to inform them if they are indeed affected by this. If so, your two options were some assistance to move in, or some assistance to move on. Most thought the our team would be ok, but as I said before and still believe, you only know what is told to you.

Irregardless, I received the call yesterday informing me my position and team was not effected. I had to ask if the company plans to re-evaluate the remotes a year from now, as they are currently. I was told no. So at this point buisiness as usual. I am scheduled to go up to PA in August for a week.

It was a huge stress relief, to say the least. Everyone at work kept asking if I will have to go, will I go, ect. I couldn't answer. I really didn't know.

Now I am thankful that part is over with. I still feel sick for those who are effected. It sucks. They were hired as remotes, but now that's being changed.

Yesterday I had to go to the doc. I had another bad headache. So, if I acquire another one, my job was to call the doc. Note: I never use to get headaches. In fact, I rarely get sick, knock on wood.

So, I called them to inform them as I was chewing down 3 tylenols. They called back and said they happen to have a cancel, 'why don't you come on in'. Sure. Why not, what else do I have to do but work.

The doc suspects it's migraines. The uni-lateral (one sided) pain, more than one day, yada yada. Take this freebie drug and see if that helps. So I took it then and there, sense I was still having tension.

This morning it's better. At first, I didn't think it was going to help out yesterday, but the pain later subsided. However, having 85 mg/500mg running through me, I felt like a deadpan. So I wasn't much into conversation.

I kept conveying to the doc, I never use to get headaches, but no answer was found. Simply, let's try this.

Hmm, why might I be getting them now? I know my eyes are OK, I had them checked. I suspect stress.

My wife and kids are leaving for out of town in less than two weeks.
My son is having a procedure on the brain.
I am fighting with the insurance to cover what shouldn't be questioned.
My company is radically changing with little communication.

Hmm, yeah, some things going on.

Below is a full article regarding a UK school forcing the students to practice religion during class.
Although, this is the main part of the story, notice the last two paragraphs. It indicates Britain will soon see Sharia Law being put in place. To me, this is the more pronounced story.

---------
'If Muslims were asked to go to church on Sunday and take Holy Communion there would be war'
Posted: July 04, 2008
6:15 pm Eastern

© 2008 WorldNetDaily
Two seventh-grade boys were given detention and their classmates forced to miss their scheduled refreshment break when the pair refused to kneel and pray to Allah during a religious studies class.
Outraged parents called the punishment of the boys for not wanting to take part in the practical demonstration at Alsager High School near Stoke-on-Trent, UK, of how Muslims' worship Allah a breach of their human rights.
"This isn't right, it's taking things too far," parent Sharon Luinen told the London Daily Mail.
"I understand that they have to learn about other religions. I can live with that, but it is taking it a step too far to be punished because they wouldn't join in Muslim prayer. Making them pray to Allah, who isn't who they worship, is wrong and what got me is that they were told they were being disrespectful.
"I don't want this to look as if I have a problem with the school because I am generally very happy with it."

Last month, WND reported Principal Robin Lowe was reassigned after staging a mandatory lesson in Islamic religious beliefs for nearly 900 students at her Houston-area school.
The controversy erupted at Friendswood Junior High when students were diverted from a scheduled physical education class and taken to a special assembly.
In the 40-minute session, representatives of the Houston office of the controversial Council on American-Islamic Relations, an organization critics link to terrorist groups, presented a lesson in the religious beliefs and requirements of Islam.
The CAIR representatives instructed students that Adam, Noah and Jesus are prophets; announced "there is one god, his name is Allah"; taught the five pillars of Islam; told students how to pray five times a day; and gave instruction on Islamic religious requirements for dress.
The assembly had not been authorized by the district, officials confirmed.
In May, officials at a Minnesota charter school, housed in the same building as a mosque, attacked a television news crew investigating whether the publicly funded institution had complied with a state order to stop accommodating Islamic prayers and religious programs.
The investigation followed revelations by a substitute teacher who observed children being forced to participate in Islamic prayers.
In the Alsager School incident, the religion teacher, who was not named, made the class wear Muslim headgear and watch a short film. Afterward, she took prayer mats from her cupboard and said, "we are now going out to pray to Allah," parents claimed.
"I am absolutely furious my daughter was made to take part in it and I don't find it acceptable," said parent Karen Williams.
"Not only was it forced upon them, my daughter was told off for not doing it right. They'd never done it before and they were supposed to do it in another language."
"My child has been forced to pray to Allah in a school lesson," the grandfather of one of the students said. "It's absolutely disgusting, there's no other way of putting it. My daughter and a lot of other mothers are furious about their children being made to kneel on the floor and pray to Islam. If they didn't do it they were given detention.
"I am not racist, I've been friendly with an Indian for 30 years. I've also been to a Muslim wedding where it was explained to me that alcohol would not be served and I respected that. But if Muslims were asked to go to church on Sunday and take Holy Communion there would be war."
Keith Plant, Alsager's deputy headmaster, said with summer break, many of the staff was unavailable and he could not comment fully.
"I think that it is a shame that so many parents have got in touch with the press before coming to me. I have spoken to the teacher and she has articulately given me her version of events, but that is all I can give you at the moment."
Cheshire County Council issued a statement telling parents "inquiries are being made into the circumstances as a matter of urgency.
"Educating children in the beliefs of different faith is part of the diversity curriculum on the basis that knowledge is essential to understanding. We accept that such teaching is to be conducted with some sense of sensitivity."
Revelation of the incident follows this week's pronouncement by the UK's top judge, Lord Chief Justice Lord Phillips, that Islamic sharia law should be used in the UK.
In a speech to an East London mosque, Phillips said, "Those entering into a contractual agreement can agree that the agreement shall be governed by a law other than English law.'
"Those who are in dispute are free to subject it to mediation or to agree that it shall be resolved by a chosen arbitrator. There is no reason why principles of sharia law or any other religious code should not be the basis for mediation or other forms of dispute resolution."
Phillips signaled approval of sharia principles as long as punishments – and divorce rulings – complied with the law of the land.
In February, WND reported Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, chief of the 70-million-strong worldwide Anglican Communion, advocated the establishment of Islamic law in Britain.

The weekend was an enjoyable 3 day weekend. We had some friends and family over for the fourth. All very comfortable and peaceful.

Now the architect part of my new site, Resource for the Christian is put in place, I am simply adding more and more vids to it. Hopefully, it will become a pretty good resource, as intended.

I watched a very good dvd entitled 'Exodus Decoded' last night. I would highly recommend it. The preview is on my Resource site, under Biblical Archeology.

This coming Tuesday, we should hear the interpretation of working remotes and their future for our company. All remotes I know are basically waiting for this ball to drop. This has become such a topic, the son's owner is coming down to discuss it with the IS department, along with HR to help him. Our new CIO is holding this one close to his vest. I guess we will see tomorrow.

Other than that, another 5 day week, a tremendous headache and 2 weeks before my family goes to Texas. Sigh.

Standardization is hard for most. Your use to doing something in a particular way, then along comes someone to force you to do the same outcome, differently.

We are having this pain in the company I work for. So the stress is high. We just moved over to our new ticketing system, and believe me, I fumbled through my first one.

They have it setup for you to "acknowledge" it. This sounds simple enough. Yet, simply adding comments or putting your actions in the ticket does not "acknowledge" it. You have to go through a certain pathway to change the status to "acknowledge" it. Grr. To compound things, a text page is sent to you initially, then another one in 5 minutes, if you dont "acknowledge" it. after 10 minutes, the page goes to the whole group informing the others this ticket has not been "acknowledged". Within 15 minutes, it hits the team and the supervisor. Yeah, no stress. Just go in there and "acknowledge" the da*n thing. What's absurbing is you cannot text an "acknowldegment". Ahh progress.


Don't get me wrong, I understand the concept. You have everyone doing the same thing, thereby everyone understanding the process, yada yada. This is pretty much where the company is heading. The writing is on the wall, so to speak. Bringing everything in house, rather than outsourcing contracts. The technology is there, so why not utilize it to it's fullest potential?

Same thing for websites. First HTML was pretty much the standard. Then scripting came in to jazz it up. Now PHP/MySQL is reigning. The technology is there for everyone, you just have to go with the flow. Note, you can't keep up with the demand, so you just try to keep up with the requirements.

This is where the other part of the stress at work is having on the employees. No-one knows what the next ball will be. Everything is changing. For some, way too fast for their comfort zone.

Personally, I don't care how you want me to do it. The outcome is the same, the means is whats difference. Just train me to do my job. I don't even care to read those 50 dollar books on my own time.

Another thing which would be a no-brainer, but fails in most levels is communication. People perceive things differently. So, when the gaps are not filled with direct communication, everyone fills them in with their own insecurities. Yeah, you can see what that causes, more stress.

Well, this post turned from a meaningful thought to a rant, unintentially.

I am sharing this full story for STOP THE ACLU.

Seems Washington Post is after the Free Republic.com.


"The Washington Post published a June 28th piece geared to protect Barack Obama from the nagging rumors that he is a secret Muslim, rumors that have been circulating since 2004. The Post’s Matthew Mosk penned an attack on Free Republic, based on an Obama flak who claims she has somehow discovered that Freepers are to blame, if not initially responsible, for floating the Barack-is-a-Muslim chain email that so many millions of Americans have found in their email boxes over the last four years."

Here is the hit piece at Washington Post.

I know I whined in the past, but when you plug 10 bucks in the tank and get less than 3 gallons, it's disappointing.

We are the cheapest in the U.S., so I am told.

A bad glare, but that is 10.04 for 2.602 gallons.

Linked-IN has to be one of the more interesting sites, I have come across. The idea is basically to put up your job experience, but more importantly to link to other professionals you had dealings with.



When your searching around, the site also shows 3 things on the side. The picture above is a snapshot of a random individual. It shows 2 to indicate she is a 2nd degree contact to me, 1 recommendation, and has 35 contacts in her profile.

The site also provides a easy way to ask others to join your 'network'. You do have to choose a means of association. Whether that be a prior company, collegue ect.

I always had heard everyone is 7 degrees of connection, but this particular site is proving it.

If your a part of Linkedin, fire me a comment.

I had already returned the Netflix movies yesterday.

I plan to mow the yard today (if it doesn't start raining again).

I continue to enjoy the new location of my desk. I feel like I have more privacy. The office was right by the front door. So I would basically hear all the action. In the back of the house, it's rather quite. Next is just figuring out a means to move my office phone. I may purchase a new personal phone for that.

Regarding work, we had another meeting yesterday. Clarification was brought in on the new cellphone policy, telecommunication and remote policy. Sigh. I guess we will see what else falls from the shaking tree.

My wife's birthday is in 7 days. I have already made arrangments, ect as of Monday. However, there is still alot to do before next Thursday.

So the plans for today:
On the personal side.
Continue to clean the house.
Mow the yard.
Make some personal phone calls.

On the work side.
I have 4 conference calls already scheduled.
Continue on my 15 projects.
Give a webex on the new change order forms.


Doesn't sound like much, but yesterday I had only 2 conference calls. Yet, each one was over an hour and half long. Pretty much kills your day.

The 3 initial Netflix movies arrived Tuesday. Kel noticed they were sent out from Oklahoma City. I was impressed how quick they arrived.

It was a bum day yesterday at work. Busy, alot of changes at the corporate office, and the morale seems to be way down up there. I head up there in August. Seems information isn't flowing up there, any better than to the remotes. Everyone is keeping their head down and doing their own work.

I will be submitting my work phone back to corporate this month. A new policy for all cell phones, ect. was put in place. Everyone that has, had a work phone, will need to either put that number in their own name, or use their personal one. We get a monthly stipend to assist in our phone usage. I had the work phone for nearly 5 years. However, I knew it was going to this, hence my recent purchase of a blackjack 2.

Yeah, it will kindof be a downer to have my electronic dog collar on all the times, but realistically, corporate had all my numbers anyway.

On another scale, I moved my office desk last night. Having the kids growing up fast, we decided to change the office to a homeschool room. It was way past time to do this move. I moved my desk to another location, which will be a nice change for me, and the kids will have a dedicated educational spot. We are all excited about it.

Regarding work in itself, I read an interesting article called No way to be a programmer expert. It touched base on the fact, we now live in such a fast pace world, with technology changing too fast to keep up. There is simply no way, one individual can be an expert on any given programming language. Rather, the programmer is required to be knowledgable and capable of learning many small bits of many languages. I am finding the same thing at work. We are at a point now, where, yes it's good to be an expert in one particular area. However, the worker needs to be good at 're-learning', as the company changes and moves in different directions.

My only statement is, "I don't really care what direction the company moves toward, just train me to allow me to keep my job."

I have been enjoying one of my gifts from this weekend. A 3 month unlimited Netflix account. I can have up to 3 dvd's at one time. I opened the account Saturday and began strolling the huge database of availible movies/tv shows/documentaries Netflix provides. Not only am I really impressed with the massive amount of choice, but there are quite a pick from their "watch now" shows.

I have been digging MI-5 as of last night. The one question Kel had was, can you choose dvd's not released yet, or find those true new releases. Seem's you can. The love of the internet is, chances are someones already found it or created it for online.

I found a posting from a search on Netflix hacks showing all new releases. Here is the link.

Choosing movies couldn't be easier. Netflix has what they call "Your Queue", which allows you to choose an unknown number of desired dvd's. For me, they fire out the top 3 availible on the list. I can continue to build my queue, and then move my more desired dvd's to the top of the stack.

Not only that, but they also have the 'watch now' queue, where I can create a list of those as well. No need to push them to the top. Simply hit play when I am ready to view. The kids already watched Kangaroo Jack on the PC. I so far seen a Ben and Teller, and 4 episodes of MI-5.

Interesting enough someone already found a means to copy the 'watch now' videos. I read it, but it sure seems alot of work to me. The link is found here.

Next, I am looking to see if it would be feasible to keep Netflix, if I continue to use it to its full potential. I am also looking to crop down the cable, removing those higher channels we really don't watch. Maybe it will work out to being the same rate. (I doubt it though).

The only other thing I can think of is having a PC to TV cable to view/listen to the streaming movies on my living room TV. Yeah, that would be cool.

The big drawback I can currently see is Netflix is a big diversion. You find yourself spending alot of time, simply looking for stuff to watch. Personally, I am interested in those titles, not availible in my area.

We should be getting our first 3 dvd's in today. The queue tells you when your items are shipped and expected time of arrival.

I may post a followup as I learn more about it.

So a Clinton-Obama ticket this year?
Now that Obama looks to be the Democrat candidatefor this years presidential race.

Gee, I thought this would occur around January, sigh. I guess it was fodder for the news outlets.

Maybe now we will learn more of Obama on his stances, like anti or prowar, ect. I would like to learn more from him, rather than these preachers everyone is flocking too.

Recently, a new video emerged showing Obama is anti-Israel.

AMY GOODMAN: Ali Abunimah, I wanted to ask you about the candidates in the United States. You’re speaking to us from Chicago, so let’s start with Barack Obama. The stances of the presidential Democratic and Republican candidates on the Israel-Palestine conflict. I can’t remember when in a debate they were asked about the mounting crisis there.

ALI ABUNIMAH: I don’t know if they’ve been asked in a debate, but whenever they have been asked, they have all gone out of their way to express full support for what Israel is doing. Barack Obama is not distinguished from the rest of the pack, except by for how far he has moved to try to appease AIPAC and pro-Israel movements.

I remember, Amy—I knew Barack Obama for many years as my state senator—when he used to attend events in the Palestinian community in Chicago all the time.

I remember personally introducing him onstage in 1999, when we had a major community fundraiser for the community center in Deheisha refugee camp in the occupied West Bank. And that’s just one example of how Barack Obama used to be very comfortable speaking up for and being associated with Palestinian rights and opposing the Israeli occupation. And just yesterday, he apparently sent a letter to Zalmay Khalilzad, the US ambassador at the UN, to urge the US not to allow any resolution to pass criticizing Israel and saying how Israel was forced to impose this barbaric medieval siege on Israel.

None of the other candidates in the mainstream have spoken out for Palestinian rights. The only ones who have taken forceful positions opposing the current US strategy are Dennis Kucinich on the Democratic side and Ron Paul on the Republican side. The mainstream are all perfectly comfortable with the war crimes that Israel is committing, no matter how much they talk about human rights elsewhere.

I haven't posted in awhile. I had a great time this weekend with the family. Due to me being oncall during the weekend (not Memorial Day), we stayed close to home. Yet, it was nice to spend quality time together.

This 4 day work week will go by fast.

I will be assisting our TeamKids church tonight by actually doing a class alone. Half of our teachers will be out tonight, gone on a camp trip.

Last night, we went to the local Rodeo. I actually enjoyed it. However, due to sinuses my head feels like an anvil being way-layed on this morning.

This morning while reading up on my "sites I actually read", I came across some Mozilla Addons I haven't acquired. So, I downloaded these babies to try out.



This weekend we will be going camping for one night. My wife has a family reunion we will be attending. Yeah camping!

The wife and I have 2 nights to ourselves. The kids are at their grandparents. We already cleaned the house up during the day, and did not have to really run anywhere Thursday night.

So what did we do? Enjoyed the peace and quite. LOL

My wife watched the season finale of Grey's anatomy while I purused the net while watching "An Inconvient Truth". I grabbed if from the library.

I think Al Gore did a great job. I was a bit surprised he even remarked the Revelation of the bible. After seeing the documentary, it became obvious (to me) he merely stated the facts. However, other groups are utilizing those facts toward their own view of the 'why'. I would recommend the dvd with an open mind.

I also came across an interesting site called Prophet.tv. If you have some time on your hands, check it out. Thus far, I only seen this one. Each video is about 70 minutes long. Like I said, if you have the time.

I also updated my Resource site by adding a page showing some exorcisms.

This is a bit concerning. I like most love what Google produces. Let's face it though, they are the Microsoft of the internet. Their hand sweeps pretty much everything out there.

New articles are showing Google canceling a sites adsense account, not because of the sites breaking the term of usage, rather by Googles choice.

The site is called Enturbulation and it puts the light on facts against Scientology.

Enturbulation received this from Google.

"While going through our records recently, we found that your AdSense account has posed a significant risk to our AdWords advertisers," read Google's letter to Enturbulation, a kind of home base for the now famous Anonymous movement. "Since keeping your account in our publisher network may financially damage our advertisers in the future, we've decided to disable your account."

I personally find this disturbing. Now you have the spotlight on the internet giant, dismissing accounts, not due to the enduser's actions, but simply of their own pick and choosing.

Masable

The Register

A very cool video. You need to watch the whole thing.

An interesting read, from a view of a Jew.

Evangelizing Jews by Ravtovia

I was so impressed with the Narnia, Prince Caspian movie. Yes, it did not flow as the book had, but it had alot more enriching scenes in it.

The book based more on the faith of Aslan, and trusting that faith.

The movie touched on this, but not as much. However, the movie did touch on the question of 'follow myself' or trust and wait. There was a bit of a possible romance as well.

In all, I was very impressed, and the kids totally enjoyed it. I highly recommend this movie!

The son and I made it the first night as bachelors. LOL
We had our own sleepover in the living room together on the floor.

We ended up with two games for the WII.

Marvel Ultimate Alliance
Medal of Honor 2

We ended up playing Marvel most of the evening. I admit, it was pretty cool.

We stopped the gaming about 9:30 and watched SpongeBob till we crashed.

Around 12:15 a.m. I woke up shivering to find my son and the dog with more cover than I on the living room floor. I grabbed another blanket from the hall closet.

This morning, I am trying to convey too him, as bachelors we should eat cold pizza for breakfast. He's not buying it.

Tonight, my wife and daughter hits the outdoors for a Girlscout camping trip(2 nights). So that leaves the son and I the house alone. What does my son want to do while the girls are away? Party of course.

His party consist of sleeping in the living room and gaming. He acquired a new game, Lego Star Wars:The complete saga. I know will be hitting that game first. I tried to see online if there were any co-op war games, he and I can fight together. However, most seem to be single player or online multiplayer. Oh well. We plan to hit a blockbuster to go look this evening. I found a 10 dollar blockbuster gift card that been burning in my wallet now anyway.

So as the girls are roughing it, I will be in a warm house playing away on the game console. I am sure potato chips, snacks will be involved.

Saturday, the kids and I are going to the theaters to watch Narnia 2 Prince Caspian!
I am excited to see it. I have been reading the book with the kids during the evenings and we just finished the Prince Caspian story last night.

OK. I have added a ton of new stuff to my Resource for the Christian site.

I have added videos, external links, freeware, ect.

Check it out.

I am constructing a new site ( yes another one ). This one will allow me to pool in all resources regarding biblical and christian knowledge.

The site is called Resource for the Christian

I hope it expands to ssomething useful.

Want a clean 25 bucks? Check out Money Exchange.
They will provide you your first free 25 dollars, upon signup. The sign up is free. Looks like they will compete with Paypal, by not charging you for transfers, ect.

In addition, if you refer anyone else (hint hint), they will give you 10 bucks per referral, up to 500 dollars.

Today my youngest turns nine. Hard to believe, but time does truly fly. I recall when he was so small in my hands, but now he gives me a run for the money on video games.

I love my kids to death, but it's hard at times to see them grow up so fast.




-------------------Recap of the weekend----------------
Over the weekend, I was able to get some things accomplished. We finished up our son's room before Kel left Friday morning.

I had the Friday night with the kids alone. I realize alot of dad's don't really enjoy these times, but I absolutely look forward to them.

We rented 2 new games at blockbuster to play. We also went out to Olive Garden (I t was nice just the 3 of us). After dinner, we ran to see my brothers first son Kindergarten graduation.

The kids out lasted me in the Friday night party. I was able to figure out the wireless on their DS game, as they took turns playing their rental's. Munching on chips, I lasted till about midnight and then had to crash.

Per their request, I pulled in a small tent into the living room. I know they crashed shortly after me.

Saturday, I had my parents over to spend time with the kids. I think everyone enjoyed the time (at least each of them said so). We also broke open the St. Martin Rum.

Kel returned around 4:30 p.m. from her trip. She was greeted with alot of "I missed you" and hugs from the kids. You think they were bored without her or something.(frown)

Sunday, we went again to the new church. I am constantly encouraged with the pastor's message and amazed of the way this church grasp technology.

At at time of high cost gas and now a food shortage in America, The Hill took a look at earmark (Home state projects or Pet Projects) request for this year on projects.

It is reported Clinton requested a massive 2.3 billion (yes a B) dollars for this years earmarks.

Most seem to be going toward security, but the report states much of the request is broad.

This surpasses last years earmark "$837 million" where Sen. Thad Cochran, a Republican, "of Mississippi" secured.

Barack Obama has spurned earmarks, seeking no funds for pet projects in the upcoming fiscal year.

John Mccain has always looked down on earmarks, calling them a Washington waste and has also not seeked any pet projects for the new fiscal year.

Each are in the limelight for Presidential wantabee, one must ask why she is doing this? Some speculate, in case she loses the Presidential nominee, she can fall back on New York as Senator.

Last year, Obama took in $91 million, Clinton secured $342 million, while McCain earned nothing because he did not request any projects, according to Taxpayers for Common Sense.

In a 2006 press release, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi claimed that Democrats had a common sense plan to bring down skyrocketing fuel prices. The average price for a gallon of gas when Democrats took control of congress that November was $2.25 - a price that Pelosi and other liberals claimed amounted to "price gouging". The average price of a gallon of gas today is now up to a record $3.61, and in Speaker Pelosi's home Congressional district in the California bay area, the price tops $4 a gallon.

Despite the price going up $1.36 per gallon (that's 60%!) since Democrats took control of Congress 15 months ago, an out-of-touch Speaker Pelosi and Congressional leadership have still not released this so-called common sense plan to bring prices under control. Just last week in an interview with Larry King, Speaker Pelosi cited the national average as being only $2.56.

Rising fuel prices don't only raise the cost to fill our gas tanks, but they affect the prices we pay for almost every other product - including necessities like food, and Congress is doing nothing to alleviate the strain on Americans' wallets. Click here to see just how out of touch Speaker Pelosi and Congressional leaders are. Then call Speaker Pelosi's office at 202-225-0100 and remind her that America does need a common sense plan to bring gas prices under control.

Sincerely,

Joe Eule
Chief of Staff
Freedom's Watch

Check out this video to "Help Autism" !


Autism Speaks!

Thought I better share this.

Aztlan Civil Liberties Union

As I was getting a haircut 2-3 months ago, I was asked my thoughts on the election then as well. At that time, I stated "Obama will eventually win the Democratic primary, then Mccain will run away with it on election". Now 2-3 months later and after Hillary won Pennsylvania, I still think this will happen.

Last night while catching up on the news, I seen in the bottom tickler, Oklahoma Governor Brad Henry supporting Obama. Irregardless, the state voted for Hillary in the primaries, Brad is tipping his hat to Obama.

The question most would ask, Why?

It appears when your in the room with Obama, he is very charismatic. Add that to his seemingly youth, and continuing mention of "change", and most wish to be on his side.

I heard one talk radio host comment, "It's a pecking order. Hillary thinks she 'earned' the right to be the Dem nominee. Yet she is seeing the Democratic party has lost favor on her and has picked up Obama." This comment was regarding within the Senate.

Let's face it, both parties have moved to the left.

I see the candidates this way in regards to their actions.

Obama - Socialist
Hillary - Radical Liberal
Mccain - Democrat

I had to filter through 1000 emails yesterday at work. No really, I did. Most were old news (by now) and updates, but still. It was a bit time consuming.

Back to my projects again, sigh.

We also had a IS department meeting yesterday, and the hammer was smashed by our new CIO. Seems all local IS personel will now be made to work within the Corporate offices. What I hear is those within a 75 mile radius. What has occured in the last 5 years or so, many (if not all) could work from home one or two days at a time, rather than the drive every day. This will be a huge adjustment for the IS department. The new "remote" policy will be given to us within 2 weeks. Not much telling what new criteria will be on that one.

I also was called twice last night regarding school board stuff. One was an inquiry, and the other an update. Didn't take long before that piece of my life resurfaced, either.

Everything from the trip have been removed from the suitcases. All the laundry has been caught up. We are already working on the new 'dirty' clothes. Amazing how fast to reality, it is.

Back home as I entered last night. Here is the actual vacation itenerary we had. As I said before it was awesome. I will cover them in more detail later as time allows.


Wed 9th
Holiday Inn
Albany GA 31707


Thursday 10th
Nickelodean Hotel
Orlando Florida 32821


Friday 11th
Nicelodean Hotel

Saturday 12th
Cape Canaveral
We were on the Disney Magic, Room 7008

Sunday 13th
Out at Sea

Monday 14th
Out at Sea

Tuesday 15th
St. Maarten Island

Wednesday 16th
St. Thomas Island

Thursday 17th
Out at Sea

Friday 18th
Castaway Cay Island

Saturday 19th
We landed back in U.S.
We checked out the Space Kennedy Center
Stayed at a Best Western

Sunday 20th
Drove to Birmingham AL
Stayed at the Sheraton

Monday 21st
Drove on into Little Rock AR stopped at a Mardel's.
Then arrived home around 5:30 p.m.

Whew, it's nice to be in your own bed.

Home again. It was an awesome vacation. I am off tomorrow as well. I will be running errands tomorrow to catch up my being away.

In the Nick hotel. We drove about 16 hours Wednesday to get to Albany GA. We made a pit stop in Atlanta to pick up a Sony multi-cable for our camera. After driving in Atlanta and nearly getting hit, I was in bad need of a good drink. However, I had to get to Albany.

We hit a Holiday Express in Albany. I was able to use my points to get a free night.

We drove on into Orlando yesterday and hit the Nick hotel. It's also owned by Holiday inn.

I had fun with the kids in the pool and water slides. We made it in time to get the slime as well.

Now this morning, my back is sore and I am in need of a mocha. LOL

Today and tomorrow. That is what I was thinking this morning, as my head was getting together.

I jumped into work early (real early) so I can get some things done. Considering I have technically 16 hours of work left before my vacation. I say technically, but as any salary worker can say, your always on the clock with the companies eyes.

I have my books picked out for the trip and my lovely wife already has us packed. We look at the 6 suitcases each night before bed.

On another side note, I have been investigating cell phones. Eventually, I will be required to upgrade to a pda/data phone. I was leaning toward a blackjackII till I learned you cannot modify documents with it. Over the weekend, on a revisit to a different Cingular store, I was shown the Motorola Q. After playing with it, and hearing its options, I am now leaning toward it.

For my wife, I have been looking at the I-phone. I would love to provide one for her. However, I hear by June, they should have the 3g I-phone out. 3g means the connection to the internet will be as fast as if your on cable or dsl. (rather than modem speed).

Ahh, it's nice to window shop.

5 days, 16 hours, 45 minutes. The seconds and milliseconds are running. That's what my Magical Disney Countdown shows me this morning. Sigh, amazing the now 2 year wait has come down to less than a week. Time truly waits for no man.


It may drive me to drink, but I am ready for the trip. With stress from my work, having an OCD wife (which I love and actually is beneficial on these occasions), to the kids being ready, seems we are all looking forward to it.

I am creating additional documentation out the wazoo for work, trying to cover everything before I leave. I know if I don't, it will remain on my mind. Quite frankly, work is the last thing I want to be thinking about on this trip. This will be the first true planned vacation my family has had. This is a big one. We are going on a Disney cruise for 7 days. Not only that, but we took off before and prior to it. So we will be traveling and vacationing for 2 weeks. This is the longest duration I have ever taken off in one time. I can't help but worry a bit of how work will be when I return. Yet, it will be so nice to just r-e-l-a-x.

It is nice to hear some of my peers at work say ' I deserve it '.

My poor wife has more on her plate than anytime in the past (feast of famine). So she is up a 2 a.m. and crashing around 11 p.m. trying to get everything under wraps, before we leave. Sigh. She makes me tired watching her.

5 days, 16 hours, and 36 minutes to go.

The family was in Oklahoma City this past weekend. During the time, Kel and our daughter walked from store to store in this certain area.

My son and I went to grab the car to move it in the parking lot. While driving by the ladies (wife and daughter), I happen to holler out the window, "hey ladies, need a ride?"

My son's reaction?

"Dad, stop trying to act cool."

Trying?

Where does one start to convey a full week, yet not create a long boring post?

To answer, I won't go into the full (last) week. Rather some thoughts on last nights dream.


I normally don't put much in my dreams. However, I had one the other night that stayed with me.

The initial dream (of 2) I was exorcising demons. The second one my teeth were all falling out. I had to look them up.

I found this page showing the falling teeth

I thought, in conjuction with my first dream, this perspective was interesting.

A scriptural interpretation for bad or falling teeth indicate that you are putting your faith, trust, and beliefs in what man thinks rather than in the word of God. The bible says that God speaks once, yea twice in a dream or a vision in order to hide pride from us, to keep us back from the pit, to open our ears (spiritually) and to instruct and correct us.

Co-op is officially done. We had our Co-op presentation last night. Other than a few hiccups (mine), I think all went well. They reported it to be the largest group in quite some time.


My week was crazier than usual.

Not counting my busy work days on the regular job....

Monday evening - School Board meeting (this lasted till 10 p.m.)
Tuesday evening - School Board training ( this lasted till 10 p.m.)
Wednesday evening - I took 1/2 day off work to help my wife and grab the kids. We didn't make it home till after 8 p.m Totally missed church.
Thursday evening - The Co-op presentation. (We made it home nearly 10 p.m.)

Which brings us to Friday. Glad of it. The plan is to spend some quality time with my wife. I will also be renting Hitman, as I dig the game. (wink)

Finally home. I arrived yesterday evening around 4 p.m.

I was up by 3 a.m. est (2 central). Hit National, then the airport in good time.
My initial flight was to be 7:30 a.m. This was delayed till 9:19. Not by snow in Dallas, rather some regulations the pilots had to have an X amount of time off.

So I roamed the airport and tried to finish my book.

I made it to Dallas, with an hour before my next (re-scheduled) flight home. I was able to finish my book, Hostage to the Devil by Michael Martin. I recommend it.

There was about a 20 minute delay from Dallas to Fort Smith. So, I made it home around 4 p.m. central.

A long day. Yet, I ran with the kids and picked up two movies to watch together.

We watched one last night and will watch the other one Saturday.

I crashed hard in my own bed. Although my poor honey was sick, I enjoyed being home.
No place like home.

I made it to my hotel around 11:30 p.m. Sunday night. I then ran over to ACME to grab something to snack on and drinks for the week.

My first day at corporate wasn't bad. It actually went faster than expected. I ended up with more conferences, but expected that. It was nice to simply walk over to a few of them. It was also nice to see those faces I haven't seen in quite some time.

I am staying at Holiday Inn express. The room is small but adequate. As long as I have a shower, bed and wireless internet, I am good to go. (smile)

No snow or bad weather, thus far. I have only seen a few snow piles on the bigger parking spaces.

I am heading out to Philly today. ( currently sitting at my first airport)

I couldn't help notice this time, I am more sensitive to the families needs before I leave. I managed to vacuum and shampoo the carpets before I left this morning.

Those light bulbs that's been dead for over a week? Changed out.

That table to be setup in the garage? No problem honey. Done.

Needed the two half christmas boxes put together and placed up in the attic? Doesn't matter they where there since December. Done before I split.

I also can't help but wonder; who will make sure the dogs fed. Hope they remember the trash Wednesday morning. Simple things, really. However, it's those things I tend to do.

I know they can manage without me. Yet, I couldn't help think of those things needing done, in my absence.

I came across two great sites for freebies.


Right March is a conservative talk show. I never heard of or this, till today. I am currently listening to the Intelligent Design discussion (downloaded the mp3).

It speaks of Ben Steins movie Expelled; No intelligence allowed. I will have to try to see this movie, after listening to the show about it.

The other site is a page from Biblical Archeology. BAR Extras provides additional information from the current monthly magazine. The slideshow of Jezebel was interesting.

Seems the family is finally getting over all this crud.

I am having to head out to Philly on Sunday and will be gone for four days.
I will get to see the new building at Corporate. Suppose to have new security, ect. So a new badge will be given, ect. I am kindof looking forward to seeing the group again, up there.

I am still reading "Hostage of the Devil". I should finish it up next week.

Not much, other than work-eat-sleep. I am just glad we are all seem to be getting over this flu.

And you wonder why the average American isn't fed up with politics.

America, by the inaction of the U.S. House of Representatives, has been weakened substantially in fighting terrorism.

As I reported last week, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D.-Calif.) and her left-wing allies decided to leave Washington without voting on the bipartisan Senate bill that would have extended key provisions of the Protect America Act, a bill that is essential for America's ability to quickly and deftly track terrorist communications overseas.

This abdication of responsibility by such a high-ranking member of our government has been the most amazing anti-national security action by Congress in decades.

This is not a partisan analysis.

The vote in the House Democratic caucus reportedly had some 20 moderate votes opposed to leaving without voting on the Senate bipartisan anti-terrorism bill.

Sen. Jay Rockefeller (W.Va.), the Democratic chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, has said this failure to act has weakened our ability to intercept and stop terrorists.

Director of National Intelligence Michael McConnell (a career military officer) and Atty. Gen. Michael Mukasey, in a letter to Rep. Silvestre Reyes (Tex.), the Democratic chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, stated plainly, "We have lost intelligence information this past week as a direct result of the uncertainty created by Congress' failure to act." (View the complete letter at PowerlineBlog.)

I urge you to call your representative today and demand that they pass the Senate bipartisan Protect America Act bill (which got a filibuster-proof 68 votes in the Senate) immediately. Every day that passes is a day that America is more vulnerable.

I actually had a 3 day weekend. I wasn't aware of it, till last Thursday.

So the plan was to do some shopping (getting things acquired, ect), spend some time with my honey and kiddos. Maybe, watch a couple of movies, ect.

Unfortunately, my wife was sick the first part of the weekend, starting with not feeling well Thursday night to fever and aches Friday. By Sunday morning, she was really tired, but felt somewhat better. Then Sunday afternoon/evening, my son came down with it.

With him, if he gets sick, a new onslaught of issues can arise. So Sunday evening, I had my wife and son in the same bed, as I stayed on the couch. I checked them around midnight Sunday, before I crashed. Unfortunately, it seemed they were up at 12:30, 2:30, ect. Sigh.

So as I sit here, about to hit my week of work, I think back on my oh so fast 3 day weekend. It wasn't really as we planned it would be.

Why am I coughing? Maybe this coffee will quench the tickle in my throat.

This is an awesome free 1 hour 20 minute video online.

The HOPE

The Hope is the the whole story, creation through Christ.



The HOPE is a dramatic motion picture presentation of God’s redemptive story as revealed in 36 Biblical events from Creation through the Second Coming of Christ. It includes some of the most beautiful cinematic presentations of the Bible ever filmed. With a high priority on quality, The HOPE was produced on 35mm film (same as hollywood movies). It contains numerous digital effects. Nearly 4 years in the making, The HOPE was produced by mature and respected Christians who have produced effective evangelism films for over 20 years - used of God to lead thousands to Christ.

I had the chance to watch Untraceable last night with my brother. It was just the guys out, kindof thing. We had intended to watch "I am Legend", but it no longer was showing.

Anyway, the movie was actually pretty good. There were some political undertones in it. Specifically referring to net neutrality and online freedom. There is also reference to NSA unable(or unwilling) to assist the FBI, due to the wall between federal and domestic.

The basic premis is someone creating a website to ask others (the online viewers) to join in the murder. The more online viewers the faster the murder takes place. Needless to say, the time speeds up as news of the site grows online.

I won't provide any spoilers, but let's say the structure of the story is typical.

1)Two main characters (the hero ((main female character)) and the killer)
2)Mystery of who can it be
3)The mental game of will
4)It ends well

I will say, at least this movie had a pretty good storyline. It did provide the "why" in the end.

I recall at the end of the movie, my statement to my brother was "That's messed up".

I would recommened the movie.

Trying to catch up from the weekend, rolling over into the week.

Since no on-call for me this weekend, we went to the new church again. I was really impressed with the message. We went to the earlier church (8:40 a.m.) to check out the format. The songs were much more upbeat than what I am use to hearing. Yet, not too hard for my wife(wink). It's interesting when you have something to actually compare to. Most people are unwilling to change, to have the experience of contrast.

I noticed the pasture "taught" rather than "preach". Yes, there is a difference. Rather than on the pulpit to speak about Christ and the bible, he provided background and history to capture the era of time on the why. This, to me, makes a vast difference in the message. I once mentioned to our TeamKids (church on Wednesday nights), you guys are taught to do this, but "why do you do this?"

This is the failing of the church, in my opinion. Rather than simply saying you need God, often it's not defined as to why you need God. Think of it this way. If someone would say to you, you need this medicine. You would obviously ask, "why?" Which reply would you rather have. The reply of "because its' good for you" or the explanation of symptoms and diseases and the medicine would save your life?

This is the difference in teaching and preaching. Teaching provides the background and understanding. Preaching simply conveys you need to do this.

This site Newseum (the interactive museum of news) shows all the front pages in the papers around the world.

You can check out what the titles of each newspaper is per day. I think it's an interesting idea. I haven't checked the full site out. However, if you want to gleam the headlines of the major papers, this is a fast way to roam.

I think we can all attest the lack of sleep wrecks havoc on our thinking skills.

Sleep has been called temporary death, but there's so much that goes on
during that time of repose. While visiting that other world one might walk,
talk, grind teeth, and sometimes dream.

Your brain is more active while you're asleep than when watching television.
And that's even when you don't walk or talk in sleep. No wonder our
language is rife in sleep-related idioms. You can sleep in, on, out, around,
with, and over. You can lose sleep over things.

You can go without food for a while but you can't cheat on sleep. It demands
its dues. According to a report, you would be 25% less alert on just an
hour's loss of sleep.

Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian.

I been waiting for it, and it will be here May 16th! Sweet.

Superbowl Commercial for it.



Official Trailer

Voz Me is a interesting online app to allow you to "hear" your articles.

You might have noticed the new addition I placed on my blog earlier this week.




Its a freeware that allows you to post the html on your blog (wordpress or blogger). The audio is in mp3 format, and you can listen to it via java, or download the file.

I had my wife listen to it, and she says it sounds weird.

I came across a "look whos searching for you" site. I thought it looked interesting till I seen the results.




Yeah, like I am going to sign up for a application that can't count.

The kids seem to continue to enjoy Taekwondo. We went again last night and I enjoy watching them with the trainer and other kids. I am impressed with the teacher, he works well with the kids. I can't help notice which kids are there to learn and those there to simply to be there. I guess that is everywhere.

I am on-call again this week for work. Knock on wood.

The new church wasn't too bad. I received more out of the sunday school. This one seems to keep focused on the study, more so than our current one. I liked that.

The 'contempory' church service was different. The message was awesome. The young pastor was articulate in such a way to bring the message to meaning. The young band was the most different. Some of the songs I recognized from Air One, a radio station I primarily listen too. Others, I had never heard.

I think it was bit much for Kel. We will probably check out the more traditional service next Sunday.

The church breaks up a traditional service early (around 8:20) and the contempory service at 11. The message and teaching are the same, but the format (namely music) is different.

I have heard more and more churches are breaking out to 2 separate services on Sunday. The thought is to draw in different crowds or provide different times for those busy people. I find it interesting.

Another aspect I found of interest was the availible sunday school classes. Seems they have their regular classes, but also provide 6 week courses in different subjects of interest. The appear to have alot more availible in the teaching department.

I like the fact, if you miss a service, the recorded service is availible on CD or MP3 (welcome to the 20th century). Evidently you can also download them from itunes, all free of charge. They also have a pretty impressive website.

The current only questionable thing is the kids classes. I didn't hear from the kids much other than 'awesome'. I would like to know more of what they are teaching them, rather to think it's just a daycare.

I guess time will tell.


Here are some things I look for at a church.

1) Go at least 3 times to observe what is being teached
2) Is the church teaching the bible is the infallible truth
3) Is the church teaching Jesus is the only means of salvation
4) Where is the church on Evangelism
5) Does the church teach Jesus Christ is God in human flesh
6) Is the purpose of the church, glory to God
7) Do they teach ministry is by the empowerment of the Holy Spirit

check out this link called maps of war, showing all the empires over history. It lasts about 90 seconds, but well worth watching.

This tiny hex editor is a great tool to view the transactions.

I actually use this when trying to identify the control characters on some of the transactions.

I want a new church. I need some meat (regarding spiritual growth). However, I am in a dilemma. I like our current church, with the exception of the non-meat.

I would still like to do Team-Kids, since I feel obligated.

Kel remains obligated for Sunday School. Yet, no-one else seems to step up to assist her. They have ideas, but are unwilling to put those ideas in place. Seems most want others to do, rather than do themselves. I learned this a long time ago, the famous 80-20 rule. 20 percent do 80 percent of the work.

Anyway, how can I expect us to move forward and not feel guilty of our current obligations?

I would welcome ideas. Yes, I been praying about this for some time.

This week has been a crazy week. Seems a redundant statement, but it's already Thursday and I have been falling asleep before 10 p.m. every night. This is not usual for me.

I haven't blogged in awhile. This week, if I jump on the computer, it is to work. Once I start working, I don't get to stop, till I force myself at end day. Here lately, that's ran over to "my time" as well. So, when I pull myself away, I am tired of sitting in front of the PC and essentially don't want it anymore.

I think our daughter is getting a cold. She has been coughing the past couple of days. I been giving her Zyrtic, ect, but it doesn't appear to be working. I guess I will have to beef up the vitamens and cold medicines.

Since the kids wanted to try out Karate, that has limited our free evenings down to 2.

M-Karate
T- Free
W- Church
Th- Karate
F- Free

Activities are nice for the kids, but time consuming for parents. We have changed our son's speech therapies to occur during the noon time. This helps in respect of relieving our evenings, but also now takes our lunches. Sigh, I think we just replaced our evenings with something else. Oh well. Their only kids once.

I have 3 calls to return already, and freaking 13 projects running at once for work. This doesn't include those projects on hold, waiting for someone else.

Never enough time in the day.

The movie, 27 dresses, was cute (for a chick flick ). I was glad to see it wasn't the stereotypical woman finding her self-reliance, yet choosing to be with someone.

The characters actually had some depth. I thought Katherine Heigl played an excellent role. The movie centers around her and this girl can really act. I admit, I only seen her on some Greys Anatomy shows and 'Knocked up'. But in this movie, she was absolutely beautiful in some scenes. I hadn't realized how gorgeous she was.

Jane's cynical friend, played by Judy Greer, was just enough in the movie to make you giggle, but not overly done to roll your eyes at.

The very good looking sister is played by Malin Akerman. Her list of movies are not much, but she looked good in this film.

Yes, you pretty much know what's going to happen, due to the synopsis. That part is pretty cliche. Yet, the movie flows well, and they pull it off.

So for you guys out there rolling your eyes, when the wives ask to go to see it, go for it. There are some funny parts in it, and the story line is decent.

I think I will start a new Friday's download each Friday. All of the Friday's download will be freeware of usefull (or non-usefull) tools.

Today's Friday download will be PDF Creator.

PDFCreator is a free tool to create PDF files from nearly any Windows application.
Key Features:

Create PDFs from any program that is able to print
Security: Encrypt PDFs and protect them from being opened, printed etc.
Send generated files via eMail
Create more than just PDFs: PNG, JPG, TIFF, BMP, PCX, PS, EPS
AutoSave files to folders and filenames based on Tags like Username, Computername, Date, Time etc.
Merge multiple files into one PDF
Easy Install: Just say what you want and everything is installed
Terminal Server: PDFCreator also runs on Terminal Servers without problems
And the best: PDFCreator is free, even for commercial use! It is Open Source and released under the Terms of the GNU General Public License.

I had heard there was a quiz out there to show which president wantabee best aligns with your way of thinking. Thanks to Kel I was able to take it.

The site can be found at here. If you want to take it yourself.

However, in my opinion, what the candidates believe and what they can actually achieve can be a dichotomy. Still it's an interesting quiz.

Here are my results.

We have a local non-blockbuster rental place that has good deals on the rentals. Namely Monday nights are one dollar rentals (that includes new releases).

Another great thing is their TV series. They started to rent these full box series together, cheap. If the set contains 1-3 disc, it's 3.99 for 5 days. If the set is more than 3 disc, it's basically 5 bucks for 5 days. What makes it really nice is you get the full season, without having to rent individual disc for 2-3 bucks a pop.

Awhile back, I snagged the first season of "Heroes". I had never watched it, but heard plenty about it.

I was immediately hooked on the storyline.

Unfortunately, the store didn't have season two. However, perusing the net, I came across this find. It's the full season 2 of "Heroes" online.

Can you really believe this January has already hit mid-month? Didn't we just have New Years? Sigh.

I came across a cool free application to calculate your BMI. Not only does it provide your Body Mass Index, but informs you what your ideal weight should be. Can we say, lose 15 pounds?



You value your height and current weight. It calculates the rest.

A bit narrow victory for Clinton. During yesterday morning, nearly all the news were discussing a Obama victory. The early reporting of the polls would seem to have suggested that. However, by a narrow margin (39% to 37%), Clinton pulls it in at the last. A much needed, if nothing psychological, boost for the thought to be political mongul.

On the Republican side, it's Mccain over Romney (37% to 32%). A bit more than the Democratic side.

New Hampshire Democratic results
39% Clinton
37% Obama
17% Edwards

New Hampshire Republican results
37% McCain
32% Romney
11% Huckabee



South Carolina is next.
The Republican Primary is set for 1.19.08.
The Democratic Primary is set for 1.26.08.

I was surprised of the margin of Huckabee's winning last night. I feel the same way regarding Obama.

Republican outcome
34% Huckabee
25% Romney
13% Mccain
13% Thompson

Democratic outcome
38% Obama
30% Edwards
29% Clinton

I was actually expecting Romney to win. Especially since he poured in millions of dollars to win Iowa.

I wasn't really expecting Clinton to be so low, regarding who she is. I guess the media push for her didn't work. Also, looking at Obama with so little experience in politics to be so high in the polls, is a surprise to me as well.

Next is New Hampshire to choose their primaries on the eight.

I didn't watch the new much yesterday, but from what little I seen, it was mostly about the Presidential race in Iowa.

If you listen the the news, you would think it's already down to 4 candidates, 2 on each side.

For the Republicans, Mitt Romney vs Mike Huckabee.
For the Democrats, Barack Obamba vs Hillary Clinton.

Yet, a recent poll from Fox News shows Ron Paul winning Iowa. Not hearing much about him in the news.






Honestly, I haven't looked into Ron Paul. Yet, I know in a nearby Arkansas city, there were alot on the corners holding up signs for him recently.

I guess I will have to turn on the tv, now and then to see what becomes of Iowa.

As part of the new year, we (as the family in whole) agreed to eat healthier. My wife had purchased the book “Deceptively Delicious” to give it a whirl. We spent a full evening pureeing alot of vegetables.

This morning, I started off by making scrambled eggs with puree cauliflower I noticed there seemed to be more eggs than usual, due to the added 1/2 cup puree cauliflower. I will see how the kids like it. I have already tried it, and do taste the cauliflower in the eggs, yet I do not see any difference in the way the eggs look.

I scrambled 4 eggs with 1/2 cup puree cauliflower.

Find more recipes at Get Rid of Toxins.com.

I also have a bowl of organic trail mix on the table for snacks today.

My wife and I watched "The biggest loser for couples" last night. I admit, I never seen any of these shows before. However, I found it interesting. The stats regarding obesity were staggering (to me). One of the things I found interesting on the show was the discussion of detoxification with Water. They do not use herbs, products, ect. Rather drink, water, water, water. That and work your a$$ off. So, it's time to start hitting that water again. I will probably pee my brains out, but I guess that is what it will take. (wink)