Vacation photo's # 2

Titanic exhibit

Henry J outside of 50's diner

Starlight theatre

Steve Green (my cousin)

Fish hatchery

Fish hatchery

Truman birthplace (Lamar, MO)

Beatles tribute band

Vacation photo's # 1

Condo:

Back from Branson

We arrived home from vacation at 6:30 tonight. We ordered pizza in and now are relaxing. I took a lot of pictures but need to upload to Photobucket before I post any.

Here's a summary of our trip:

1. We had a 2 bedroom / 2 bath condo. While we only used one bedroom the spaciousness of the condo was nice.
   
2. We attended 5 shows:
   
   
   
   1. Andy Williams
      
   2. Spirit of the Dance
      
   3. Lost in the 50's with the Platters
      
   4. Johnny Cash ... a Tribute
      
   5. Liverpool Legends
      
   
   
3. We toured The Titanic
   
   Other:
   
   
   
   1. Just like last year, I was called (cell phone) about a work issue. I called my boss and passed it onto him
      
   2. We had discounted tickets to all of the shows - only spent $ 142 total on show tickets
      
   3. I endured 2 time share presentions (how we got discounted tickets) and managed to NOT buy! NO NO NO!!! (You have to practice this in front of a mirror before a time share presentation!)
      
   4. We ate most meals at the condo ... saving $$$
      
   5. We had some car issues ... I think the alternator is going bad. Also the transmission shifted funny multipl times today. Both will have to be looked at
      
   6. We worshiped at Branson Bible Church last Sunday
      
   
   
4. We visited the The Veterans Memorial
   
5. We visited Eureka Springs
   
6. We connected with my cousin, Steve Green, in Mena Arkansas.
   
7. We drove over 2000 miles
   
8. I read most of the books that I took along
   

Missionary dating

A Match Made on Earth: When Christians date outside the fold.

I could be considered the beneficiary of "missionary dating". Back in 1969 I met and dated Brenda, later attended her church, and in the Fall of that year was saved.

In retrospective, it was not a healthy relationship. It was not a Christ honoring relationship. My conclusion: "missionary dating" is an oxymoron!

Excerpt from the article:

For evangelicals who want to pair up with others of the same faith but don't manage to do so in their early 20s, trouble lies ahead, particularly for women. Evangelical churches now typically have a 60-40 split between women and men, which means that there are many more single evangelical women out there than their male counterparts. As Ms. Cockrel explains, "I have friends who wanted to marry a Christian guy, are still single, and are more and more open to dating non-Christians as they get older. They're tired of waiting."

Margaret Nagib, a 35-year-old single psychologist who lives outside of Chicago, sympathizes. "Sometimes it's just nice to go out on a date." Ms. Nagib was seeing a non-Christian for three months earlier this year. She talked with him very early on about her faith and even told him that she would "never consider being serious with someone who wasn't Christian." Ms. Nagib says that when he told her he was agnostic, she could have ended it right then, but the two "clicked really well." He went to church with her and read a book on Christianity that she recommended, but ultimately the two broke up. He asked how her faith would affect their relationship if they got married. "When I think of our wedding ceremony, I want it to glorify God. And when I think of marriage and obviously children, they should glorify God."

------
But pastors regularly remind their flocks to avoid dating outside the faith. Lee Strobel, formerly a teaching pastor at Saddleback Church in Southern California and the author of "Surviving a Spiritual Mismatch in Marriage," tells people that "conjugal evangelism" doesn't work. "If you're feeling like if I just marry this person, I'll be able to influence him toward God, it's self-deception." He notes that "the nonbeliever is more likely to pull the Christian away from his faith." This is a contention, by the way, that sociologists, like Brad Wilcox at the University of Virginia, generally support. Mr. Wilcox explains: "Evangelicals who marry nonevangelicals are typically less likely to remain as or become as devout as those who marry within the fold."

Vacation

We are packing up and leaving tomorrow for Branson, Missouri.

We've never been there and so we don't know what to expect. We have a condo rented for the entire week commencing on Saturday.

What I hope to do:

1. Read. I am taking 3 Mac OS X books, the DBTS journal, The Truth War: Fighting for Certainty in an Age of Deception, Holy Habits: A Womans Guide to Intentional Living (Kathee's book), World War IV: The Long Struggle Against Islamofascism, Reclaiming The Center: Confronting Evangelical Accommodation In Postmodern Times, and Becoming Conversant with the Emerging Church: Understanding a Movement and Its Implications (which I've half read).
   
2. Not work or think about work!
   
3. Not use the Internet
   
4. Take some photos
   
5. Worship somewhere I've never been on Sunday (to be determined)
   
6. Eat BBQ in Independence MO (tomorrow night I hope!)
   
7. Take in 2-3 shows at Branson (to be determined)
   
8. Visit Titanic exhibit in Branson
   
9. Visit Eureka Springs, MO
   

Work:

1. Another stressful week at work but I am going to close my eyes in sleep tonight and not think about it
   
2. I left with ZERO emails in my inbox
   

Other:

1. I got the MAC ICAL application to subscribe to 4 Google calendars that I maintain. I was having a hard time figuring it out and was on the phone with Apple for 2 hours. They couldn't figure it out either
   
2. After taking an hour break, I subscribed the New York Yankees calendar ... saw how that worked and then followed that path with my Google calendars. EZ. Sadly I wasted 2 hours of my time and an Apple technicians time when it was (as we call it in the business) "probable user error"
   

Roger is watching the house, mowing, feeding the cats, changing cat litter, watering plants, picking up the newspapers and the mail.

Praise: Last October when we left on vacation my back was bothering me. I've had back pain for most of the last 11 months (including pain stepping with left foot, and weakness in my left leg). About August the 15th it stopped. My left leg is stronger. I'm not sure why the change, but I give God the glory and the praise for it.

So blog readers ... I'm signing off ... and won't be back until Sunday 9/23!

ATM fees

Bank of America raises ATM fees to $3

Excerpt:

Bank of America Corp. has raised surcharges for non-customers at most of its ATMs nationwide to $3 from $2.

The Charlotte-based bank, which has more than 17,000 ATMs, made the change in most markets in July and August, spokeswoman Betty Riess said.

Bank of America (Charts, Fortune 500) has the largest ATM network in the United States and the higher fees could affect millions who do not hold consumer banking accounts there.

Comment: Ingdirect has a product called Electric Orange that has free ATM's

Fudging attendance numbers

I'm not talking about churches who claim to have untold numbers in Sunday School (think "World's Largest Sunday School!").

Check out these two reports from a Major League baseball game:

After 12 Innings, Nats Left Feeling Vacant Grueling Day In Desolate Park Ends With Loss: Marlins 5, Nationals 4

Excerpt:

The loss, Washington's second straight to the Marlins, left the visitor's clubhouse at Dolphin Stadium nearly as silent as the stadium had been much of the afternoon. There were perhaps 400 people in attendance. Players seemed both exasperated and exhausted by the fruitless performance that barely anyone was there to see.

"It looked, actually, like an extended spring game," Nationals Manager Manny Acta said about the crowd at the stadium, which seats 75,000 fans for football games. "It was so sad, but we still got to play the game. [Linden] just hit the ball perfectly -- the only place he could hit it in the infield and beat it out."


MLB Boxscore: Florida 5, Washington 4

Official MLB attendance: Att: 10,121.

Comments: Of course the answer is the the official numbers are the "paid attendance". The picture in the Washington Post article is stark! 400 folk in a 75,000 stadium!

Peace for all ... except Israel!

Ahmadinejad: Israel "cannot continue its life"

Excerpt:

Iran wants "peace and friendship for all," the country's president said Wednesday while again denying Western assertions his nation is pursuing nuclear weapons and trying to destabilize Iraq.

But Mahmoud Ahmadinejad took a hard line against Israel, calling it "an invader" and saying it "cannot continue its life."

Previous Madman alerts!

News you can't use!

Earth Might Survive Sun’s Explosion

Excerpts:

About five billion years from now, astronomers say, the Sun will run out of hydrogen fuel and swell temporarily more than 100 times in diameter into a so-called red giant, swallowing Mercury and Venus and dooming life on Earth, but perhaps not Earth itself.

----

Dr. Silvotti said that the results showed that a planet at the Earth’s distance “can survive” the red giant and he hoped the discovery would spur searches for more like it. “With some statistics and new detailed models we will be able to say something more even to the destiny of our Earth (which, as we all know, has much more urgent problems by the way),” he said in an e-mail message.

Comment: Glad we pay these scientists for this hard work! Nice to know that 5,000,000,000 years from now the earth will survive!

Now what's really going to happen:

2 Peter 3:10-13, "But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells."

Shrinking kilogram

Official prototype of kilogram mysteriously losing weight

The 118-year-old cylinder that is the international prototype for the metric mass, kept tightly under lock and key outside Paris, is mysteriously losing weight -- if ever so slightly. Physicist Richard Davis of the International Bureau of Weights and Measures in Sevres, southwest of Paris, says the reference kilo appears to have lost 50 micrograms compared with the average of dozens of copies.

"The mystery is that they were all made of the same material, and many were made at the same time and kept under the same conditions, and yet the masses among them are slowly drifting apart," he said. "We don't really have a good hypothesis for it."

Comment: For me the masses are slowing coming together!

Fetch FTP and Unix commands

Tonight's MAC projects:

1. I downloaded and installed Fetch FTP and tried it out with my jrpeet.com site. Works fine. I may still by CuteFTP as I like that interface a little better.
   
2. I received Learning Unix for Mac OS X Tiger today and scanned through it. I will be taking this on vacation with me.
   
3. I was unable to register the ICAL (calendar) product. I intend to call Apple support tomorrow night (must call before 8)
   
4. Roger showed me how to enable the right mouse click with the Mighty Mouse.
   

Much still to learn!

Two people today (a coworker and my Son) asked me how I would compare / contrast Vista with OS X Tiger. I have been using Vista at work for 6 months. Almost all of my daily work is done on Vista so I have a lot of experience with it. I think that OS X Tiger has it all over Vista. There is no comparison! The transition from XP or Vista to OS X has a little bit of a learning curve, but OS X is much more intuitive and friendly. I love it.

Also, my MACBook runs significantly cooler than my Dell / and is quieter!

Challenge to Global Warming

Challenge to Scientific Consensus on Global Warming: Analysis Finds Hundreds of Scientists Have Published Evidence Countering Man-Made Global Warming Fears

Excerpts:

More than 500 scientists have published evidence refuting at least one element of current man-made global warming scares.
-------
Despite being published in such journals such as Science, Nature and Geophysical Review Letters, these scientists have gotten little media attention. "Not all of these researchers would describe themselves as global warming skeptics," said Avery, "but the evidence in their studies is there for all to see."
-------
"Two thousand years of published human histories say that the warm periods were good for people," says Avery. "It was the harsh, unstable Dark Ages and Little Ice Age that brought bigger storms, untimely frost, widespread famine and plagues of disease." "There may have been a consensus of guesses among climate model-builders," says Singer. "However, the models only reflect the warming, not its cause." He noted that about 70 percent of the earth's post-1850 warming came before 1940, and thus was probably not caused by human-emitted greenhouse gases. The net post-1940 warming totals only a tiny 0.2 degrees C.

The historic evidence of the natural cycle includes the 5000-year record of Nile floods, 1st-century Roman wine production in Britain, and thousands of museum paintings that portrayed sunnier skies during the Medieval Warming and more cloudiness during the Little Ice Age. The physical evidence comes from oxygen isotopes, beryllium ions, tiny sea and pollen fossils, and ancient tree rings. The evidence recovered from ice cores, sea and lake sediments, cave stalagmites and glaciers has been analyzed by electron microscopes, satellites, and computers. Temperatures during the Medieval Warming Period on California's Whitewing Mountain must have been 3.2 degrees warmer than today, says Constance Millar of the U.S. Forest Service, based on her study of seven species of relict trees that grew above today's tree line.

Singer emphasized, "Humans have known since the invention of the telescope that the earth's climate variations were linked to the sunspot cycle, but we had not understood how. Recent experiments have demonstrated that more or fewer cosmic rays hitting the earth create more or fewer of the low, cooling clouds that deflect solar heat back into space-amplifying small variations in the intensity of the sun.


Major points:

1. Natural moderate 1,500-year climate cycle has produced more than a dozen global warmings similar to ours since the last Ice Age
   
2. Modern Warming is linked strongly to variations in the sun's irradiance. "This data and the list of scientists make a mockery of recent claims that a scientific consensus blames humans as the primary cause of global temperature increases since 1850," said Hudson Institute Senior Fellow Dennis Avery.
   
3. Sea levels are failing to rise
   
4. Our storms and droughts are becoming fewer and milder with this warming as they did during previous global warmings
   
5. Human deaths will be reduced with warming because cold kills twice as many people as heat
   
6. Corals, trees, birds, mammals, and butterflies are adapting well to the routine reality of changing climate.
   
   

Comments: Book looks interesting. My book queue is full right now so I probably will not immediately order it!

Another reason I don't use aftershave!

Wisconsin man sues when aftershave ignites

Excerpt:

According to court filings, Lewitzke was burned while camping with family members on Memorial Day in 2004 in Wisconsin Dells, a popular resort area outside of Madison.


He washed and shaved in a bathhouse on the camp grounds and applied Brut lotion to his face, neck and chest with his hands. He also used the aerosol deodorant. He then went to a fire pit to cook breakfast.


His face, neck and chest ignited while he was starting the cooking fire, his lawsuit says.


Lewitzke's attorney, Michael Hanrahan, told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that his client suffered burns on 30 percent of his body and underwent three skin grafts.


He claims in court documents that the Brut products and their packaging were the direct cause of Lewitzke's injuries and were defective because they were "unreasonably dangerous.'' The suit also says the products' labeling was unsafe because it should have warned about the danger of fires, and the manufacturers should have tried to minimize that risk.


Brut's manufacturers and companies selling the products should be held liable for Lewitzke's injuries, medical expenses, and the pain and disability he has suffered, the lawsuit argues.


"Our view is there is no warning that after you apply it, you remain flammable for some period of time,'' Hanrahan told the newspaper. "You aren't thinking, 'I'm still flammable.'''

Comment: The other reasons: 1.) It stings; 2.) I don't like the smell; 3.) Seems like a waste of money!

Saving the General Store

Struggling to Save a Main Street Mainstay

Small Business
Struggling to Save a Main Street Mainstay
By STACEY STOWE
Published: September 9, 2007
Sounds romantic, but running a general store is anything but.

Excerpt:

THE newspapers for sale in the window were 10 days old, and the shelves were largely bare but for a few boxes of cake mix and saltines. Established in 1812, the Colebrook Store is the oldest continuously operated general store in the state. But since mid-July this nostalgia-soaked spot across from town hall, where the coffee is hot and the gossip lukewarm, has been closed for vacation.

To the dismay of many of its neighbors, it is on the market and may be closed for good.

“It is the center of town, as far as I’m concerned,” said Jerry Rathbun, the first selectman in this postcard-perfect town of 1,500 in the state’s northwest corner. “Without it, the whole place kind of dies.”

General stores are gradually vanishing, victims of changing economics and consumer habits. In Connecticut only a handful remain, leaving many towns with fluorescent-lighted gas-station quick marts instead.

In Colebrook, signs in the window of the general store said: “Closed for Vacation. Be back July 17.” Two days later, the door was still closed. Joan M. Durant, the town assessor’s clerk, said: “I don’t think it has ever been closed for vacation. Now everyone is waiting to see if it will reopen.”

Dennis Spector, a college professor who lives in town, was standing outside wondering where to get his coffee. “There’s no Starbucks,” he said.

When reached later that day, the owner, Lora C. Murphy, 53, said that, as a mother of two, including a daughter with special needs, she could not afford to continue running the store at a loss. Ms. Murphy has owned the place for about two years. Customers may rave about the éclairs and like the idea of running into neighbors when they buy the newspaper, she said, but that’s not enough. “It’s really hard because the local community sees it as a novelty.”

Comment: I'm not sure they are worth saving! One of my favorite childhood memories was the general store in Alto Michigan. Alto main drag is virtually a ghost town now. The hardware store is gone (that was a cool place, you could just walk in and buy BB's!). The bank is gone. So are most of the stores. I think there is still a bar there. Not news ... but people want quality at a reasonable price. In my teen years (perhaps my last visit to Alto's general store), the goods were dusty and the whole place had a certain dank spell about it.

Doctor Says Bills’ Everett Will Walk Again

Doctor Says Bills’ Everett Will Walk Again



Sports / Pro Football
Doctor Says Bills’ Everett Will Walk Again
By MATT HIGGINS
Published: September 12, 2007
One day after doctors described his condition as potentially life-threatening, Buffalo Bills tight end Kevin Everett was moving his arms and legs Tuesday.

Excerpt:

The doctor who performed surgery on Everett, Andrew Cappuccino, said Everett’s condition had “improved.”

Another doctor, who has consulted with Cappuccino, said Tuesday that Everett could eventually walk out of the hospital.

“Kevin Everett is moving his arms and legs, his legs stronger than his arms,” said the consulting doctor, the neurosurgeon Barth Green. “He’s moving them both to a point, to a degree that he will end up walking. He will walk out of the hospital.”

Comment: Encouraging news.

Deseret Morning News reviews Mill City Museum

Milling around — Minneapolis' Mill City Museum pays homage to the flour industry

Excerpt:


Some people might question the wisdom of building a museum inside a flour mill that exploded once and caught fire twice. But, as real-estate agents say, it's all about location.

It's fitting that Minneapolis' Mill City Museum is housed within the ruins of the old Washburn "A" mill — the forerunner to General Mills — because it helped to make Minneapolis the "flour milling capital of the world" from 1880-1930.

And it's fitting that the museum is located next to St. Anthony Falls — the only falls on the Mississippi River — because it supplied the mills with water power to grind wheat into flour.

And it's fitting that the museum offers a view of the old Pillsbury "A" Mill across the river — another major mill that helped give Minneapolis the "Mill City" nickname.

The numerous mills that sprang up along St. Anthony Falls industrialized flour production and had a major influence on how Americans got their daily bread. The surrounding Great Plains grain belt supplied up to 175 railroad cars of wheat a day, to be made into flour and shipped all over the world


Mill City Museum


View Larger Map

Comment: Where we take out of state visitors. We've been here 4 or 5 times.

A bad day at the bank

Frisco Wells Fargo mistakes customer for a bank robber

Excerpt:

A man from Little Elm, Derrill Ewans, visits a Wells Fargo bank in Frisco in order to get a car loan. After carrying on as a normal human would with the loan officers, a bank teller observing the activities decides that he looks suspicious and calls the police. The teller calls the police a second time to report that Ewans had a gun. After police swarmed the bank, in addition to handcuffing his girlfriend who was waiting outside in the car with their three-year-old daughter, they took Ewans and made him lie down on the pavement while they held guns on him. After finally allowing him to sit up and holding him for 30 minutes, they realized that he did not have a gun on him, much less a desire to do anything in the bank but get a car loan.

Map Frisco, TX

Comment: He might go to Lending Tree next time!

Mac HTML editor

Taco HTML editor

Because I do some web work, I need both an HTML editor and a FTP client. I've used Edit Plus for over 10 years (and still use it at work!). I really like this editor. I also use it to edit Cold Fusion code. But alas, Edit Plus does not work on the Mac.

An Apple support person recommended Taco and I downloaded it today. It does not look as full featured as Edit Plus but I think it will work for me. It is also free! Hard to beat free!

I still need a FTP client. I'm going to wait until after I get back from vacation before I address this need.

9/11 Tribute site and victims list

This site is dedicated to the victims of September 11, 2001 tragedy

SEPTEMBER 11, 2001 VICTIMS

Numbers:

CONFIRMED DEAD:	2948
REPORTED DEAD:	24
REPORTED MISSING:	24
TOTAL:	2996

Comment: I hope you visit the site!

The importance of savings

Save, Save. Don’t Splurge on a Piggy Bank, a Tin Can Will Do

Save, Save. Don’t Splurge on a Piggy Bank, a Tin Can Will Do.
By SHIRA BOSS
Published: September 1, 2007
Saving money may not be the sexiest financial move, but it’s probably the most important.

Excerpt:

Saving money is not the sexiest financial move, but it’s probably the most important. So start squirreling. Even if it’s the change from your pocket. Start incubating a nest egg, which is not just for retirement. A cash account may be for a flatter television set, a vacation, new clothes, a period of unemployment, a down payment on a house, car repairs or whatever treat you can dream up.

I know, times are tight and 7 out of 10 Americans report living paycheck to paycheck, meaning there never seems to be enough left over for savings. In 1985, Americans were saving $11 for every $100 they brought home; now the savings rate is around zero, and debt is at a record high.

-------

It is a widespread and harmful myth that one needs to make more money to save some of it. “We’ve met people who can save on a salary of $30,000, and people who have not a penny in savings and a salary of over $300,000,” said Manisha Thakor, co-author of “On My Own Two Feet,” a personal finance primer for women. “Saving is about a mind-set and a commitment, not a level of salary.”

When I was most stressed financially, I forced myself to put 5 percent of every check into an emergency account. It built up surprisingly quickly and ended up paying for surprise expenses that otherwise would have gone on a credit card. Now I’ve worked up to putting some cash from every paycheck into envelopes marked Goody Bag, which I dip into for luxuries like a nice teapot. That definitely makes earning money — and spending it — more fun.

“The powerful thing is that saving is not about deprivation, saving is actually all about spending,” Ms. Thakor said.


Comments: I thank my wife for having us on a conservative fiscal policy for the 33 years (will be 33 years in December) of our marriage. Interent banks have automatic savings plans (eg. ING Direct).