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| Killing Time |
| 03.16.04 (8:39 pm) [edit] |
I execute watches.
Analog
Digital
I think I even managed to topple and crack my grandmothers sundial.
Its not on purpose and I hate the fact that I seem destined to destroy my chronomiters. But because of my regular and systematic destruction of the time pieces I now only wear what's available for $6.00 and under.
I do have one relatively ''nice'' analog Winnie-The-Pooh which I only wear on rare occasions seeing as how it was a birthday gift, one of my favorites, and as stated above, I kill watches.
I bang them into walls.
I let them drop into water when they aren't water resistant.
I lose them in cans of paint thinner.
I run over them in cars (accidentially)
The point of all this sharing is that I was making tea tonight as the weather here is wretched, and when I went to pour the hot water into the pot, I spilled it and scalded the back of my left hand.
Not badly, the tops of my fingers are tender and typing makes the skin feel hot, my guess is that the epidermus is irritated and damaged and the stretching of the skin is making it harder for the light burn to heal.
However the hand is healing: my watch however is not simiarly fix-able. And I had splurged and bought an $18.00 watch this time too, figuring that it would take the abuse I seem to dish out and keep on ticking. Or flashing or glowing or whatever it is that it does.
The hot water apparently boiled away and cooked alive the digital works of the clock.
First time I've killed a watch that way.
Guess I can now add
"Boiled one to death making tea"
to the list of ways I have killed time.
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| YAHHHHH TBLOG IS BACK! |
| 03.15.04 (9:51 pm) [edit] |
Its amazing how much you take something like t-blog for granted until it's taken away: abeit for a good cause and seeing as how it's free there's nothing really to complain about. But I so missed this yesterday. Probably cos I was surrounded by family at my brothers party (which was fine) but I don't know there's something about your younger sibling hitting the milestones first that's a little odd.
He's married, been married actually for nearly 5 years (YAHHHH).
Is looking to buy his first home
has one brand new car and one very nice used truck.
has graduated.
Now I've done other things but I've not reached any of those milestones.
AND HE IS YOUNGER THAN I AM.
*deep breath*
but that's okay.
It is.
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| Wooo I'm bushed folks. |
| 03.13.04 (7:40 pm) [edit] |
Gosh I'm sure I had a witty and insightful thought to share but I'm pretty sure it fell asleep at the keyboard.
I'm going to go now so I don't do the same.
Oh, and seeing as tomorrow's by brothers b-day I doubt I'll have any time to type anything meaningful in here.
Woooot.
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| Woooo Dragons! :-D |
| 03.13.04 (7:22 pm) [edit] |
Your a wind Dragon! Hey, you, the smartest dragon
of the branch. You love reading and writing,
but are quite shy. Your IQ is probably sky-high
and your stories can win trophies. Your not
very good in sports, or maybe you are, and just
not inrested.. You are very wise, smart, and
kind.
What elemental dragon are you?
brought to you by Quizilla
Ohhhh dragons. Somehow I'm not surprised by this. ;) After all, people tell me all the time that I'm full of hot air :-D
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| Heros Among Us: Are You a Memorial? |
| 03.12.04 (8:06 pm) [edit] |
I got to thinking about that title this afternoon as the History Channel was featuring a program on Raoul Wallenberg. This is someone I'm slightly familiar with as I did research on the Righteous Gentiles and am facinated with the stories that I find about ordinary people doing extrodinary things often for total strangers.
Here was an unassuming individual with no real physical prowess, no handsome features to lure Hollywood into making a movie of his life as they did with Oskar Shindler, and yet by taking the oppertunity to shuffle papers and issue Swedish Immunity passes from his diplomatic post in Budapest this man was able to save [i]100, 000 [/i] Jewish lives during Hitlers Final Solution.
One man, saved 100,000 lives. On the Yad Visham in Israel there is a engraved plaque that reads "To save a person is to save a family". I'm sure that there are so many others too that risked so much for others that we don't know about.
Case in point: My mother worked for a time at an Assisted Living center as a "Life Enrichment Coordinator" and knowing my love for the stories of the Righteous Gentiles she brought me this tale home as it was related to her by one of the residence there.
There was a family (the father and brother had been conscripted into the army during the last desperate attempt to keep the allies out of Germany) consisting of a mother and her daughter (the resident in the Assisted Living Center) who were hiding a Jewish mother and her teen-age daughter on their farm. The girls were of like age and the woment too were closely linked in their years. The Germans apparently had a neighbor ''inform'' upon them that they were 'hiding' Jews and officers of the S.A. were dispatched at once to check this story out.
At this point, the two Jewish women, mother and daughter were taken by their German hosts out to the barn and hidden above the pig-pen in the barn. The S.A arrived as the Germans got back to the farm house and there they were vigorously questioned by the two men. Finally in an act of outraged frustration they took the mother and her teen-aged daughter to the side of the barn ( remember that the other mother and daughter are hiding in the loft above the hogs) and they backed the young girl against the side of the barn and had her spread her legs.
The officer asked the German mother where they were hiding the Jews.
She told them, weeping and choking, that they weren't hiding Jews.
The soldier shot between the daughters legs with his riffle and the ground there shattered and flew up into the young girls face.
Again, the officer asked the mother where they were hiding jews.
She fell on the ground, at his feet, sobbing that they weren't hiding Jews.
Again the rifle's report sounded and again the earth stung the teenagers face.
And again.
And again.
Until the SA were convinced that the mother was telling them the truth. And left.
After some time, the mother and daughter who had been hidden, came out to comfort and hold those that had hidden them. There were tears of relief and of disbelief and they clung to each other.
"Why" the Jewish mother asked, as soon as words were able to be spoken "Why did you lie for us, I know that you are a devoute Catholic. . .why do you lie to save us and sin?"
"Oh" said the other mother "Oh but I didn't lie," she grabbed the arms of the woman she had been willing to risk so much for.
"You aren't a Jew. . you and your daughter are Jew[i]esses[/i] and . .more than that .. .you are my friends .. "
Amazing, where you can find heros. Mom found this one in a Assisted Living Center, far away from the public. When she dies there will be no marker of stone or glass, no memorial. I was saddned when I thought of that, and of all the other people living and dying and doing great and heroic things that lack markers and memorials. And then the thought came: If I remember her, and her story and I tell it to others, then in the remembering and in the telling I become a living reminder of her heroism.
I have purposed to become a memorial.
Will you?
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| And I Thought Barking Was For the Dogs |
| 03.10.04 (7:26 pm) [edit] |
It really makes customers *JUMP* when the clerk says 'suse me' and then turns her head and coughs so violently that she nearly doubles over. I know this because that clerk was myself today.
There are dry tickling coughs, and there are the hacking coughs, and there are the tee-hee coughs of supermodels. And I'm sure there's a whiney-farm boy cough too. I mean he was breathing bacta for a while and it's got to come out somehow and I just pray for the sanity of the other SW characters he coughed it up. I don't want to think about the other ways he could have. . .too late.
Anyway, back to me. My cough is none of the above. It's this semi-sentient thing that roars in my throat and drowns out all logical thoughts, it brings tears to my eyes and I have once or twice refered to it as ''prelude to hacking up internal organs''
This has lead to a barage of well intentioned advice given to me by the customers.
"Lemon tea and honey"
"Cough drops"
"Lavender and hot water in a steaming bowl. Put it under your head and inhale the vapors while holding a towel over your head so the vapor doesn't excape."
(Yes, I can see me doing this now while trying to find the green book about God for the customer on the phone.)
The long and short of it is, that while I have this unsettling cough everyone in the world seems to think that I need to get rid of it.
But what if I like it? Mmm? Maybe it has world domination plans of its own; prehaps the cough and I have formed a symbotic relationship and I realise now that I will one day
RULE THE WORLD
due to the fact that my cough distracts the key leaders long enough for me to sieze control. . . .
Nahhh.
That's got to be the cold medication talking.
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| Writers Delight Is Also Writers Headache |
| 03.08.04 (6:42 pm) [edit] |
The good news is that I have someone interested in a piece that I am writing, along with my mother who is also a writer, about flags, banners, the history and symbolism therein as it pertains to worship in the churches today as well as in times past.
Utterly marvelous.
The bad news is that all the free notes research etc have to be in a compelling format by this Friday.
Not impossible.
:shock:
I keep telling myself that its not impossible.
:shock:
Now, I just have to believe it.
:shock:
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| DECIDE LUKES FATE *UPDATE* |
| 03.07.04 (11:45 am) [edit] |
New Decide Lukes Fate Banner Images Available Upon Request.
Also, for premium Participants *special* ''hidden'' page of facts and factoids about the character I love to hate now available.
E-mail me @ the site for more details.
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| Some Thoughts On Aragonelessar's Thought Pertaining to Purpose Driven Life |
| 03.07.04 (9:05 am) [edit] |
It's probably the writer in me that asks the question "What was this authors goal when she/he wrote the book?" and then "Did the authors intent get taken out of context or marred by the audience?"
With [b]Rick Warrens [/b][i]Purpose Driven Life[/i] I can say with some measure of confidence that the answer to the first question is something along the lines of the [b]intent[/b] was the same as Robert McGee's [i]Search For Significance[/i]. That is, to enable those asking themselves the question "What am I here for? Is there more to my life's destiny than this day-to-day plain vanilla exsistance?" to set out along a path to the answer "Yes, there is more."
Like most journies of this kind the searcher has to begin and for the most part stay alone. Not that fellowship isn't a nice thing to have in fits and starts along the way but to really understand the reason you are here, at this time and in this place, you have to draw aside and listen to yourself and to Christ. There can't be your pastor and your parents and you best friends and you little brother and sister tagging along.
Why?
Because in the multitude of voices you aren't going to be paying attention to the two that matter; yours and His.
So Rick Warren's intent was not that this become a ''group'' exersise but rather a solitary walk of faith where by in coming together there is encouragement and building-up of one another but no pressure to be on the same page at the same time.
Great idea. Wonderful idea. You can tell by the sales of the book that has consistantly been on the New Your Times Best Seller's List for over a year that it has struck a chord in the hearts of the public.
But like every great idea, the merchandisers get a hold of it and say "Look, if we make this a Bible Study and a Small Group event and we market it as an 8-week sermon course then we can 'reach' a greater audience and at the same time pocket even more $$$."
The slight problem that the [i]Purpose Driven Life[/i] was never [b]intended[/b] to be a group exercise. But for the sake of ''reaching'' more people and making more money it has become a church/religious clique'.
Like all cliques the danger is that those not wanting to participate are branded as not-quite-up-to-par or less-than-holy. [i]The Purpose Driven Life[/i] has become a dividing line, seperating those that ARE doing the program (which wasn't suppose to be a program) and those that ARE NOT.
A house divided against itself can not stand.
It was meant to unite an individual more closely with their Creator, and instead of that unity it is bringing division into the church.
Don't blame the author.
Blame the sin nature.
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| SpyWare and AdWare Rants |
| 03.06.04 (8:41 pm) [edit] |
I thought that some individuals were being rather overly protective about their computors when they talked about the ''spyware'' that certain sites put on your machine.
Okay, I know 90% of you out there are grinning and thinking ''what a rube'' but hey, I was naive', trusting, and really just so totally un aware.
Anyway this is really just a 'for those as naive' as myself' FYI and site reccomendation.
Spyware are programs that certain sites download onto your computor (sounds rather invasive and annoying but sorta like cookies; but they are not) This type of program records your every mouse click, every site you visit (Big Brother is INDEED watching you) and then sends the information across the 'Net to the companies that put them on those sites to begin with. Once they have this private information of yours they begin sending you SPAM.
And not just any spam, TARGETED spam and things that you might not ever want to have information on either. Wind up on the WRONG website by being silly enough to try typing the address in brouser bar and WHOOPS you never meant to go there! But the spy ware program is allready downloaded from that site to your personal pc and sending that company lists of where you go and what you click on and you are overwhelmed with offers for things you are quickly wishing you never knew exsisted.
Like giraffe flavored denture adhesive.
The second problem is adware. Adware works on the same general principle as spywhere but instead of watching where you go it acts like a parasite, triggering ads from its host-client whenever you enter or leave a site.
Both steal your bandwidth while doing this, making surfing for dial up users slower than normal while also taking up room on the hard drive and for those connectiong via DSL or satellight taking space on the hard drive and even reconfiguring home page settings to those that are ad-driven.
Not even symantic has an adquate defence against these dual annoyances, but thankfully LavaSoft DOES.
Not only is the program an armor against burroughing and bandwidth steeling adware, it is FREE. That's right, FREE. Follow the link I've put up and download from their page and then follow the instructions and you will free yourself of annoying pop up windows and SPAM. I have noticed a decrease in it immeadily.
I also had 152 that's right 152 ad-programs on my hard drive that Lavasoft's Ad-Aware deleted.
For the spyware problem I reccomend highly the free program ''spywareblaster'' which works like the ad-aware. I don't have the link to them at the moment but I will put it up tomorrow.
Hope that helps some of you.
I know it helped me.
Thanks 3DZealot for the ''enlightenment''.
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| Back from the Dead. . .or Atleast Temporarily Available Due to Cold Medications |
| 03.05.04 (8:24 pm) [edit] |
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Ooh someone missed the Luke rants. Well there's another one fermenting (along witht he cold medication) in my head. But for now, go and DECIDE LUKES FATE, it's all-new-all-updated and all-far-too-much-fun. As was that illegal use of dashes. My English 215 Prof would lob my hands off for this entire paragraph. Quasi-paragraph. Okay, Am going now.
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Thanks to Aragorn Elessar for the kick-ass background and header.
See?
Giving the gift of plastic Orlando Blooms does have its rewards.
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