Thursday, 11 December 2008

Tuesday, 23 September 2008

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    Yay for Linux!  Puppylinux, to be exact.  My laptop, in the last few months had slowed to a crawl despite the many defragments, disc cleanups, spy-bot removal etc. I had constantly performed.  According to my techie brother, XP was probably almost too much for my aging system to handle anyway, so........XP is no longer with us.  "With the all-new Puppylinux operating system, my laptop has gone from an agonizingly slow 4-5 minutes startup time, to an amazingly fast 50 seconds!  I can surf the internet, open programs, and perform regular computer-related tasks in less than half the time it took me with XP!  Thank you, Linux! (and Collin :)"  

    For my fellow bloggers in XangaLand, I shall now confess to 'owning' a Facebook.  To my fellow Facebookers, well.....you probably can figure this out all by yourself.  I've said all that to say......umm.. nothing important, I guess.

    I'm very absent-minded sometimes, but sometimes.......I even surprise myself.  Like today, when I happened to glance at my arm while waiting on Mom in the Mall restroom.  On my arm was hanging a black, short-sleeve, $2.66 t-shirt from Sears.  I had forgotten it was there.  And unfortunately, it was still Sears' property.  I turned red right there in the Mall restroom with no one to see me,.  As far as I knew, I hadn't been caught, yet.  So the logical thing would be to take it back to Sears and pay for the thing.  But what if they did?  I spent most of the half-mile walk back to the department trying to decide how to talk myself out of this if I should be questioned. "Honestly, Sir, I just completely forgot it was there..." I watched apprehensively for security people.  I didn't see a one on the way there, though I saw three on the way back.  But I just smiled and kept walking, since the shirt, in its bag with its receipt, was now rightfully mine.

Sunday, 13 July 2008

  • Currently Reading
    The Fallacy Detective: Thirty-Six Lessons on How to Recognize Bad Reasoning, 2nd Edition
    By Nathaniel Bluedorn, Hans Bluedorn
    see related

    I've finally been able to get copies of the pics I took (with Trina's camera) at Mark and Kaelyn's wedding.  Unfortunately, I uploaded them to Facebook thinking I would then be able to post them on xanga.  <sigh> 

    Here's the link to view the album on Facebook...Mark and Kaelyn's Wedding

    Edit:  I've been so engrossed with facebook that I'd forgotten how much fun xanga was!!  Here's pictures!

    Aeroplane at the airshow


    Sharing a Coke

     

    My darlin' brother.  Hain't he han'some!


    "You guys!  When this black mark comes off, we'll all have little white spots where it didn't get TAN!"

    Melody and I waiting for the fireworks to begin.


     

Sunday, 15 June 2008

  • Last week I went north to teach VBS for a week.  On Wednesday night the youth had a Nerd/Clash party.  I didn't know very many of them very well...and the people I did know didn't look the way I'm used to seeing them,    but it was fun. 
    I'm not feeling all that loquacious right now, so we'll skip the lengthy descriptions.  (A photo's worth a 1000 words, anyway.)

    Marsha with her cute braids

    Jessica

     

    Anybody wanna guess how Alicia kept her hair up?

    Mark, the crazy vet, and David, the man in charge.

    Kara,  voted Queen Nerd, and Marsha, and Me

      

    Me and Tabitha.  (Her family allowed me to stay with them for the week.  It was fun getting to know them)

     

    Another shot of David, with Michael and Alicia in the background.

    Kita (sp?) the runner-up queen nerd, and Ashley.

Sunday, 01 June 2008

  • A few weeks ago, I heard someone give a girl the advise to "just give the guy a chance," (you know, as in, "try him, you might like him"?) It set me to thinking. Have you ever wondered why some people think it necessary for the girl to give a guy a chance if she's not really interested in him? " "But it takes a lot of guts for a guy to ask a girl out; why shouldn't she give him a chance." I believe that it does take guts to ask her, but who does the guy get up the courage to ask out? Someone he is attracted to or interested in and who he actually wants to date. How many guys are asked, "Why don't you give ------- a chance? You might really like her!" (Referring only to situations where the guy has already expressed disinterest in the recommended girl.) Possible a few. But generally, (in Christian circles) a man asks a woman out because he is attracted to her looks, personality, and character. So I guess it comes down to this: Should or should not the woman be given the option to accept or refuse his offer based on her own attraction to him, or lack thereof?
    (Having stepped out on the limb slightly beyond my comfort zone, I shall sit down and shut up.)

Friday, 30 May 2008

Friday, 16 May 2008

Wednesday, 07 May 2008

  • Most conservative minded individuals will be quick to say that the liberal media twists the truth to make it appear the way they want it to be.  I'm sure this is true; it seems to be a human tendancy. And conservatives are just as human as anyone. 

    Many of you, I'm sure, have come across this e-rumor somewhere on the internet:

    These are some rather eye-opening facts. Since the start of the war on terror in Iraq and Afghanistan,
    the sacrifice has been enormous. In the time period from the invasion of Iraq in March 2003
    through today, we have lost over 3,000 military personnel to enemy action and accidents. As tragic
    as the loss of any member of the US Armed Forces is, consider the following statistics:

    The annual fatalities of military members while actively serving in the armed forces from 1980 through 2006:
    1980 ........... 2,392 (Carter Year)
    1981 .......... 2,380 (Reagan Year)
    1984 ........... 1,999 (Reagan Year)
    1988 .......... 1,819 (Reagan Year)
    1989 ........... 1,636 (Bush, George HW Year)
    1990 .......... 1,508 (Bush, George HW Year)
    1991 ......... 1,787 (Bush, George HW Year)
    1992 ........... 1,293 (Bush, George HW Year)
    1993 .......... 1,213 (Clinton Year)
    1994 ......... 1,075 (Clinton Year)
    1995 ......... 2,465 (Clinton Year)
    1996 ......... 2,318 (Clinton Year) Clinton years (1993-2000): 14,000 deaths
    1997 ............ 817 (Clinton Year)
    1998 ......... 2,252 (Clinton Year)
    1999 ......... 1,984 (Clinton Year)
    2000 ......... 1,983 (Clinton Year)
    2001 ........... 890 (Bush, George W Year)
    2002 .......... 1,007 (Bush, George W Year)
    2003 .......... 1,410 (Bush, George W Year)
    2004 .......... 1,887 (Bush, George W Year) Bush, George W years (2001-2006): 7,033 deaths
    2005 ............. 919 (Bush, George W Year)
    2006.............. 920 (Bush, George W Year)

    If you are confused when you look at these figures, so was I. Do these figures mean that the
    loss from the two latest conflicts in the Middle East are LESS than the loss of military personnel
    during Mr. Clinton's presidency; when America wasn't even involved in a war?

     

    Now, look at the actual facts, taken from American War and Military Operations Casualties: Lists and Statistics.

    The doctored data were from the Clinton and George W. Bush years so that is the focus of this comparison.  The discrepancies are in red: 
     

    Year eRumor
    Figures    		 Actual
    Figures    		 Presidency
    1993 1213 1213 Clinton
    1994 1075 1075 Clinton
    1995 2465 1040 Clinton
    1996 2318 974 Clinton
    1997 817 817 Clinton
    1998 2252 827 Clinton
    1999 1984 796 Clinton
    2000 1983 758 Clinton
    Totals: 14107 7500  
    2001 890 891 George W. Bush
    2002 1007 999 George W. Bush
    2003 1410 1228 George W. Bush
    2004 1887 1874 George W. Bush
    2005 919 1942 George W. Bush
    2006 920 1858 George W. Bush
    Totals: 7033 8792  
     
    truthorfiction.com

     

Wednesday, 30 April 2008

  • Aggravation!  I hate being confronted with a seemingly simple problem whose answer eludes me!  The first is this:

                   A man can paint a house in 5 days.  He and his brother can paint the same house in just 3 days.  How long would it take his brother to paint the house by himself? 

    It's one of my sister Lenae's algebra problems.  I looked at the score key and found the answer, but I don't understand the process.  Grr..

    The second annoyance is trying to take apart a sewing machine.  One would think that the removal a few screws would allow the cover to just drop off.  But nooooo....  I've taken out every screw in sight on the back of the silly thing but I can't get...it....off!   Next step:  Google "how to dismantle a White Jeans Machine"

Friday, 18 April 2008

  • Earthquake!

    WEST SALEM, Ill. (AP) - Did you feel something? A 5.4
    earthquake just after 5:30 this morning was centered in
    southern Illinois but shook homes as far away as Ohio. There
    were no immediate reports of injuries or serious damage. 
    msnbc.msn.com

    You know, I never thought I'd actually get to feel an earthquake, at least, not in my own territory, but I've always wondered what it'd be like.  Now I know! I wish I would  have been a leetle bit more awake, because my sleepy brain was having a reely hard time trying to comprehend why my bed was shaking.  (My first thoughts were that something really bad had happened causing Dad and Mom to run around downstairs.)  But I'm super glad for once that I am a light sleeper; man, I would have been definitely and thoroughly aggravated had I missed such such a...shocking experience...