First To Find

We ran to grab two new caches today before picking up Amanda from school. The one Brooke is holding was her first FTF (first to find)!

Lost in the Land of Linux - November 9

Well, the quest continues. I am still lost a goose, but something about Linux has me hooked and I'm determined to give it a try. My friend Jason, ever so kindly, commented on my last blog and suggested that I look for "Linux for Dummies" at Barnes and Noble. Well, Jason, I'm even smarter than that...I looked for it at the library. It was not at my branch, so I settled for Moving to Linux: Kiss the Blue Screen of Death Goodbye. I got to start reading it already...but I'm getting ahead of myself.


After helping Amanda finish her homework tonight, I headed out with two cards...my library card and a $25 Best Buy gift card. I was going to the library to look for a Linux book and to Best Buy to see if I could find a wireless network card to that will work on a Linux laptop. Although I'm lost, I do have this Linux laptop up and running with Ubuntu, and I can stretch out the network cable and blog from this computer in my living room. I thought it might be nice to do my blogging or Linux Googling without being tied to the network cable, so I decided to look for the wireless network card. When I asked the guy at Best Buy about a card for a Linux laptop, his only answer was "Let's ask the Geek Squad" that is set up there at the store. They showed me to a Buffalo card they said would run on Linux even though the box did not mention it. The card was $29, so using my gift card, I only paid $7 with tax.

When I got home, the first thing I did was go to Buffalo's web site and see if the card did indeed run on Linux. I saw no mention of it, so I called the 24 hour support line. During the 45 minutes that I waited to speak to a person (!), I did some research online and determined that the card does run in Linux. I also had time to start reading my Linux library book.

At Best Buy and now at Buffalo tech support, I found out just what a small crowd this Linux group is. Tech support told me that the card would run in Linux, but they don't offer Linux support. As my friend Meagan would say, "Sorry for your luck!".

So I read what I could online, found nothing I could understand and finally decided to plug the thing in and just see what would happen. The short answer is NOTHING!! Right now, I can't even get the power light to come on the card, let alone try to figure out how to configure the thing. I'm not even sure if Ubuntu/Linux is reading my PCMCIA slot.

I've had about all of this I can take for the night, at least as far as the network card goes. I may read a bit more of Moving to Linux, but then I'm putting that down too and relaxing with A More Elite Soldier (a book my friend Stan bought me which I am enjoying and hope to finish this weekend). So I'm preparing to leave the Land of Linux and will keep you updated on my journey.

The Watchmaker

click picture

Her Grief Has Knocked Her Off Her Rocker

Cindy Sheehan, sometimes given the title "Peace Mom" continues to stray further from what is best for America. As angry as she makes me sometimes, I can't minimize her loss. She lost a son in a war she feels we should not be fighting. Her loss is tragic (as is the loss of each and every American soldier), and I'm sure it is compounded by her belief we should not even be fighting this war. But I believe her grief has knocked her off her rocker...her attempts at "peace" would do nothing but erode our country's security and any chance for peace.

Case in point. She was just arrested in Washington DC trying to deliver petitions, supposedly signed by 80,000 Americans, opposed to the use of military force to resolve the dispute over Iran's nuclear program. I guess that she has not heard Iran say they are willing to share their missile systems with other nations, including those who would aniline the US if possible? Does she honestly think that her son, a member of the US armed forces, would support the US sitting this one out while Iran sells/gives this dangerous technology to terrorists?

NYC Wants to Choose: Boy or Girl

NEW YORK - The city wants to make it easier for transgender New Yorkers to switch the sex listed on their birth certificate even without undergoing sex-change surgery, putting the city at the forefront of efforts to redefine gender. Read all about this thinly-veiled step toward gay marriage. "Hey, my birth certificate says I'm a girl, therefore, you can't stop me from marrying this guy." Blucchk!

Professor Forces Students to Support Homosexual Adoption Class Project

The lawsuit, Brooker v. The Governors of Missouri State University (MSU), was filed on Oct. 30 by the Alliance Defend Fund on behalf of Emily Brooker, a student in the university's school of social work. The ADF, a Christian legal group that advocates religious freedom, accuses tax-funded MSU of retaliating against Brooker because she refused to sign a letter to the Missouri Legislature in support of homosexual adoption as part of a class project. Full story here.

Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday

This was Sunday afternoon. Amanda spent Saturday night and Sunday morning with GeaMa (pronounced Gee-Ma) and PaPa D. I picked her up after lunch and we went to Boulder Park to find a few caches.

The cammo shirt was new and Amanda thought it would be appropriate for geocaching.

Three finds in this park and they were all ammo boxes.
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So that was Sunday afternoon. We only got three caches (we found 3 out of 4 we were looking for), but we had a great time just being together. Not two minutes after we got back to the car it started raining.

Monday
I've been trying to figure out what to do with the turtles since the weather finally seems (er...seemed) to be turning cool. Little George has been dug in for almost a week, so I figured he may be ready to hibernate. Grumpy has been hiding under the log pile and Grace has been hiding in the hole in one of the cinder blocks. Since it is getting down into the 40's at night, I dug a little hole for Grumpy and another one for Grace, put them in it and covered their shells with a shallow layer of dirt. Since Little George was already dug in, I covered him with a rug from the garage and then put a larger one over the area where George and Grace were placed under the log pile.

Well, the warm weather Sunday and rain/thunderstorms Sunday night brought the turtles back out. On Monday I picked up up their carpet pieces and hung them out to dry. Amanda and I made a trip to the pet store to buy some fresh grub in case they were hungry. By the time I got around to feeding them, Little George had dug back in, Grumpy did not want to eat and Grace ate two night crawlers! I hope they know what they are doing as far as hibernating for the winter goes because I sure don't!

Tuesday
I'm busy at church with all the normal stuff, plus I'm beginning to get ready for our first in-house pictorial directory. Right now, I'm just inputting data. This time around I will learn how to use the photo directory software we got as well as some new PDF software we need to get so that the directory can be secure online. I also hope to learn how to put all of this info into Microsoft Access. I took a beginning Access class a couple years ago, but I never did anything with what I learned, so I forgot most all of it. I'm taking off the entire week of Thanksgiving, so I hope to spend some time then reacquainting myself with Access.

And then tonight I went for a swim...figuratively. Imagine not knowing how to swim and deciding to wade into a 3 ft. deep fountain to practice swimming. Now imagine just jumping off the diving board into the deep end. And now imagine being thrown from a ship into the middle of the ocean, the Artic ocean...during a storm no less, to learn how to swim! That's what I felt like tonight as I gave Linux another shot. I've got Ubuntu loaded onto the computer and so I can surf the web and use the office suite, but that's about it. I can't get media to play and I certainly can't install anything I download from the Internet. I felt like I was trying to learn to swim in the middle of a storm in the Artic Ocean. I've had about all I can take for now, so I'll let that computer sit for a while and then give it another try this weekend or something.

Wednesday

Amanda has a CD called Crazy Praise. It's got all kids of great kids' praise songs. Amanda loves them and I love them. I've got one of the songs stuck in my head, so I'll must make it my theme song for the day - Someone Around You:

Someone around you needs to know God's love
Someone around you needs to know God's love
Take it upon yourself to show God's love
Someone around you needs to know God's love

A Strange Feeling

So I mentioned a while back ago that I was trying out Unbutu, a Linux desktop operating system. I was looking for a computer that I could install the operating system on and try it out. Well, I have a computer a friend asked me to look at, but I am waiting for them to get me the original software before I can fix it, and they are using another system. So I've installed Ubuntu and trying to learn a little about Linux.

I got the new operating system installed and running. One of the first things I did was go online, and the browser they had installed was Firefox. Since I knew a newer version was available, I downloaded it and tried to install it. Two hours and MUCH Google-ing later, I still could not figure out how to install the file I had downloaded. I finally found an IRC chat channel where I could get help (for the uninitiated, IRC chat is similar to chat rooms where people gather to discuss various topics). I could not find anybody to help me with my Linux issues, but they did point me to a web page that helped me.

So now I've downloaded and installed two updates. I am still a major newbie, but I feel like I learned a few things tonight. But it was a strange feeling..I am the person most of my friends turn to when they have computer questions because I'm the computer geek. I guess Linux is the domain of the uber-geek!

www.ObsessionTheMovie.com

Oops!

USAF Settles With NJ Elementary School Accidentally Strafed by F-16
Click the picture to read the story

This Says It All

Dead Democrats Vote More Often Than Dead Republicans in NYC

Yes, that is correct. You can read all about it here! Of course, the article lists an excuse why dead voters are 4 times more likely to be Democrat than Republican, but see if you think their argument holds water.

If you're dead, click here to register to vote in this election!

A Sunday Without Volunteers

At the Vine Fellowship, we know we could not fulfill our purpose as a church if it was not for our volunteers. This past Sunday, October 29th, we celebrated our second annual Volunteer Appreciation Sunday. As a small token of our appreciation, we had a special dinner for our volunteers on Sunday night where the staff and Advisory Team served. It was very difficult for the volunteers to just sit and be served (some rebelled and tried to work!). Gary Chapman would have been proud of us, though. I think we were able to communicate our deep appreciation for our volunteers by speaking their love language...acts of service.

It seemed impossible to list everything our volunteers do to help the church fulfill the vision, so rather than try and do that, we took a slightly different approach. We came up with a humorous video that asked the question, "What would a Sunday morning at Vine Fellowship look like if we had no volunteers?"Click here to watch, A Sunday Without Volunteers.

Fried Coke

"Gonzales ran two stands at the State Fair of Texas and sold up to 35,000 fried Cokes over 24 days for $4.50 each -- and won a prize for coming up with "most creative" new fair food."
Click on the picture for the whole story.

More On Michael J Fox and Stem Cell Research

Just a few links for you:

• The Weekly Standard - Spin City:Michael J Fox isn't telling the whole truth about stem cell research in those ads
• One couple trying to buy a constitutional amendment by supporting Missouri Proposition 2 with a $25 million "donation"
  
• Comparison chart of the benefits of embryonic stem cell research {kills the embryo} to that of adult stem cell research {no embryo sacrifice necessary}. Tell me again why embryonic stem cell research is so important to Democrats?
  

Your Toilet on Auto-Pilot

Here's the link to the "automatic toilet" story at Endgadget. The basic idea is walk up to the toilet, it figures out your "intentions" and lifts the appropriate seat(s). Some interesting comments from readers at the end of the article such as: "what if it misreads my 'intentions' at night when it's dark and I can't see?" and "when will the glow in the dark version be available?"

Guess He Doesn't Take the "History" Questions When Playing Trivial Pursuit

Mexico's president-elect Felipe Calderon is not happy about the Secure Fence Act of 2006 calling it a "huge error" on America's part. The act, signed by President Bush today calls for a 700 mile fence to be built along the US/Mexican border in an effort to slow the flood of illegal immigrants and potential terrorists along our southern border. It seems the president-elect is not much of a history buff as he made a comparison between this new fence and the Berlin Wall. I thought the Berlin Wall was built to stop emigration {leaving}, not immigration {entering}. President-elect Calderon isn't building the fence, is he?

Minutemen Project Brings High-Tech Security to Arizona Border

There Is a Reason It Is Pushed

You may have seen the ad...you can find it on Youtube. I'm still trying to figure out Proposition 2 in Missouri that all of the hub-bub is about. Claire McCaskill says that the bill is about allowing stem cell research and that her opponent, Jim Talent, wants to make this illegal. Others say the this is ridiculous because stem cell research is currently going on in Missouri and is not illegal now. Leave it politicians to muddy the waters.

But you've gotta admit...it is a cheap shot to bring out the victim of a disease and have them say "so and so does not want my disease cured...they want to stop the only that that will find my cure." The issue behind all of this is embryonic {requires the life of an embryo} stem cell research. While researching this issue, I came upon this article that talks about how adult stem cell research offers overwhelmingly more hope in the treatment of disease.

So why is embryonic stem cell research being pushed so much more? Is this just a front for abortion? I guess that sounds like a conspiracy theory...or maybe just politics. But read the article again. Continuing to push the embryonic stem cell research over adult stem cells does not make sense. There must be a reason it is being pushed.

- Rob

We're Going to the Zoo

This past Friday, Amanda's class (actually, the whole second grade) went to the zoo for a field trip. Parents were needed as chaperons, so Brooke and I volunteered. Brooke volunteered because she really gets into the super mom thing at school. I volunteered because I was "supposed to". Well, what I mean is, I want Amanda to know she is important to me, and she wanted me to go. Plus, I know there are a lot of kids at the school who do not have a positive male role model, so I knew I "should" go. In case you haven't figured it out, I'm not all that into kids (except my own!).

I came back Friday afternoon knowing why I was "supposed" to go...knowing why the Lord wanted me to go on this field trip. Brooke and I were assigned five boys and three girls while at the zoo (pictures below). On the way there, one little boy broke my heart telling me how many times he had moved and how he now lived with his grandparents. He was afraid of moving again because he said he would then be put up for adoption. His mother's past boyfriends had abused him and his siblings, so they no longer lived with her. If it didn't work out with his grandparents, he would be put up for adoption. Like I said, I am not into kids, but all I kept thinking was "no kid deserves this". We hit it off and he seemed comfortable talking to me. He kept holding my hand as we walked through the zoo.

Another boy told Brooke he lived with his mom and grandmother because his Dad was in jail. He obviously needed a positive role model in his life, too. By the time we got home, I was ready to get off the school bus packed with noisy kids and my stomach was a bit queasy from the long, bumpy bus ride, but my heart was touched. Sure am glad I did what I was "supposed to" do. I felt like I got to be a little bit of Jesus in a couple kids' lives.

Amanda and two friends

Our "gang" for the day

The gang with a Komodo Dragon

Mrs. Hurt and the Posse

No Thanks, We're Stupid

I'm a conservative Republican. If you are a fellow conservative, I don't know how I feel about this guy being our next presidential candidate, but I personally don't like it much. I've been thinking how I would vote if he were "our" candidate. I didn't much like the idea, but I was throwing it around nonetheless...should I not vote or vote for a 3rd party candidate just to make a statement to the Republican party "this is not who I want us to be"? But then I thought, "if a lot of us do this, a Democrat will end up in the White House and that (obviously) is not a good thing."

I choose to vote Republican because, as a party, they come closest to supporting issues that I believe in such as being pro-life, the privatization of Social Security, (I used to think) immigration, pro-marriage (meaning between a man and a woman...how did this even become a question?), tax cuts and a strong military.

If you believe what the media says (if you do, I'll tell you my story about meeting the tooth fairy), a number of conservatives are having this same thought regarding the November elections. I ran across an interesting editorial in the Washing Times regarding this issue. It's entitled, "No Thanks, We're Stupid". It helped me clear up my thinking. Here's just a portion of what the article said, but if you're a conservative wrestling with this issue, you ought to read the whole thing.

Here are some tell-tale signs of the sort of person who would vote (or not vote) to cause the election of a party which would act to defeat every value and interest he holds dear (merely because the party that will at least try to advance most of those issues has not done as well as he might have hoped):

1) When offered by a car dealer 25 percent off on a car, he insists on paying the full factory recommended retail sticker price -- because {he will not accept} 25 percent when he deserves 30 percent off.

2) When the prettiest cheerleader asks the nerd to take her to the prom, he turns her down -- just because he can.

3) When stopped for doing 70 in a 65 zone, he tells the trooper that's not possible because he had the cruise control set on 90 -- he just resents being falsely charged.

4) When diagnosed with a serious illness, he promptly cancels his medical insurance -- in order to save the cost of premium payments to help pay for the upcoming hospital stay.

A conservative would have to be just that stupid to stay home on Nov. 7.

(read the rest of the article)