Sleep the final frontier

It is hard to believe it is already Tuesday morning at 2:18 am. I seem to remember that I just went to church and then went out to lunch and went to work 3 pm to 11 pm Sunday evening. Then I went back to work at 7 am until 3pm on Monday morning. That was yesterday and here it is after 2 am in the morning on Tuesday. It is a good thing that I dont have to go to work until 3 pm today. Maybe Sammy the mutt will let us sleep past 4:30 am today. Yesterday morning after going to bed at 1:30 am he went out to leave his mark on the neighborhood and when he came back inside he decided he would start barking at Angel to see if she would wake up and play with him. That plan backfired on him because he wound up waking up the Boggy Creek Monster who came into Kristina's room and descended upon him in an attempt to change his mind with regards to barking at 4:30 am. Apparently the Boggy Creek Monster likes to sleep undisturbed during that time of the day. Sammy the mutt was unable to dodge the first two blows that bounced off his body but he did dive for cover next to Kristina who awakened and came to his defense in the nick of time. The Boggy Creek Monster having made his point clear enough to Sammy the mutt retreated back to the creek and attempted to go back to sleep.

As we fast forward to around 8 pm last night you will note that I decided to make a run to Wallyworld to locate a TV antennae for our television. We have not had cable TV now for about 2 months which also means that we were not getting local TV channels either. That means that I have been several quarts low on Jay Leno monologue. My trip to Wallyworld was productive in that I found an antennae and a DVD movie of interest and came back home to install said antennae. I am not sure IF Jeff Foxworthy has a line in his book called "You must be a redneck if" with regards to TV antennas. If not, I can happily add this one to his ever growing list. You must be a redneck if you spend 20.00 on a TV antenna and the only way you can get it to work in your double wide trailer is to throw it outside on the porch. LOL... That is right. This high powered antenna would get a signal but not much of one. I figure that while the metal in the double wide trailer is not much with regards to keeping in the cool or keeping out the cold it certainly can keep out all matter of TV signals. I guess that means that I dont have to worry about people sitting outside with parabolic mics listening in to our conversations.

In the past I tried this same manuver in an attempt to find a signal. In my desperation the next step became the mother of my newest brain child which was to toss the stupid antenna outside. That required a couple of extension cords and a 20 foot piece of cable and a splitter that allowed me to throw it out on the porch. Lets not forget the special enhancement that I added when I wrapped a couple of pieces of aluminum foil to each rabbit ear. That seemed to REALLY do the trick.

Pressing forward towards the Prize....

I utilized my Ipaq to take notes this morning and I was touched by this morning's message by Doug Dickerson who filled in for our pastor Tom Glisson. Doug Dickerson has preached at our church on several occasions and were happy to hear what God said through him this morning.

Doug picks up the sermon in Phillipians chapter 3 verses 12-14 as the apostle Paul is speaking....

Grace Fellowship Church
Sermon 7/11/04- Doug Dickerson

Phillipians 3:12-14

Phi 3:12 Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.
Phi 3:13 Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead,
Phi 3:14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

Are we preserving or progressing in the Lord with our relationship?

Preserving is maintaining
Progressing is to move forward to the prize or pressing on

Are we content in living in what used to be?

Moving out of our comfort zone takes risk

God can not do anything new until we shake off the past and our comfort zone.

Do we place our comfort over commitment?

The tradition of the past hinders God from moving us into the future.

God does not change but we can be changed by God.

We can not be content in just our Godly heritage

We have not arrived.

There is always something new to experience and gain in our relationship with God.

Bad Attitude that hinders growth
Yesterdays experience was sufficient and can not be exceeded.

We are dependent upon God today.

Spiritual pride keeps us from experiencing God in a new way. We should not live in the past and our accomplishments with God.

Preserving is a defensive hold on the past.

Progressive is moving toward the future.

The 7 deadliest words for a church = We never did it this way before...


Paul was passionate abut knowing Christ. To move on with God we must become passionate about who God is and what He wants for us.

Fear of new things paralyzing us and keeping us from what God wants for us.

Fear paralyzes our dreams and hopes.

Lay down those (the) sin(s) that so easily entangles us

Three challenges for us today.


Believe that God wants to exceed our expectations

To keep our eyes on Jesus and not our circumstances

To keep pressing on towards the goal to win the prize

Picture of driveway between the county office building downtown Charleston and the Hibernian Society shown on the left.  

From the left, Kristina, Erin, Justin , Rossi and Cameron in background. Kids enjoying swimming pool at neighbors house on hot sunny afternoon.  

Rainbow Row on King Street seen from above the County Parking garage in the afternoon. This row of buildings is part of the historic downtown Charleston SC taken with the Pentax IQZoom 115 camera.  

The pool at the Mills House Hotel on Meeting Street in Downtown Charleston SC.  

Unknown Historic landmark on Meeting Street near County Office buildings and across from the Hibernian Society in downtown Charleston SC.  

Photo taken with my Pentax IQZoom 115 camera on top of the county parking garage looking towards I-26 going away from downtown Charleston 

All I want for Christmas is the 1932 Ford Tudor that you see in the picture below....

Hey, if I am going to dream, why not dream BIG. How about dreaming the impossible?? LOL... Well, who knows, if we figure out how to play the lottery on a regular basis we will have a 1 in 5 million chance of hitting it big just like everyone else that plays. Short of that happening this Christmas wish will probably remain a dream. LOL...

I downloaded this image as my desktop this morning from Webshots. If you are like me you do not like to stare at the same ole boring desktop day in and day out. As for me, I use Webshots to refresh my desktop image every single day.

As you can see mother nature dumped buckets of water on us yesterday evening. The storm was so bad Katy and I grabbed the dogs and headed for the center of our tin box. Yes, living in a double wide trailer is NO FUN when you are listening to the lightning cracking all around you and watching debris fly by the windows when the wind kicks up a notch or two. Living in the midst of a bunch of trees all around you also does not make things nice when the lightning starts to zing all around you. I guess the only plus about the trees is that hopefully the bouncing electricity will hit one of them before it hits the trailer. Then again, if it hits a tree close to us that tree will possibly land on top of our tin can causing a large dent. All you can do is hide , squint and pucker and hope the storm passes by without killing you or the neighbors...



Katy just advised me that Justin and Kristina's neo pets were starving and that she had to go online to feed them.
I said "say do what??". Katy is playing some sort of game on Neopets so that she can accumulate enough points to buy food for the neopets so they dont starve. Gosh, I wonder if we can do that for the REST of the zoo around here? LOL... I am thinking, "dont we have enough critters to feed around here without having to have NEOPETS to tend to?" @@ I guess it goes to show you that there are just not enough pets to go around....


My 18 year old son in Houston Texas (actually Richmond/Rosenburg Tx outside of Houston) started his first year of community college at Wharton University. Wharton University is a community college close to where Jeremy lives with is mother and step father. Mark, Jeremy's step father, has been working hard at making sure Jeremy got registered in college so now Jeremy can make the educational leap from High School into community college. Way to GO Jeremy !! Study hard son, you will reap the benefits of the hard work later on in life. I was chatting with Jeremy just the other day on Hello telling him that I was hoping that he would NOT make the same mistake I did. When I was his age I had the opportunity to get my RN degree at El Centro in Dallas Texas and because I THOUGHT I was smarter than my parents I decided that I would drop out (idiot) and be a real man and just make it on my own. After all, my parents were incredibly short sighted and stupid and what did they know about real life? Well anyway, there is more to that story than meets the casual observer here but the important lesson to be learned is to get that degree while you can.


I changed my imood this morning from blessed to SICK. Yuck and double yuck. My blood pressure spiked yesterday at work so I wound up coming home at 2pm to rest. This morning I felt better in that regard but I spent most of the morning talking to mother nature. I have been speaking with her so much this morning I feel as if I have a special relationship that will NEVER end. I am hopeful that this ongoing conversation will eventually end. I called my boss at Goodwill and told him of my predicament and that I would try to be at work by noon today but if not I will be there in the morning to greet all of our eager beaver retail shoppers as they rush through the door looking for used computer junk to carry home. (Cough)....

I am happy to announce that my friend John Searcy in Houston Texas wrote me an e-mail telling me that he has started a new blog. John told me that something I said to him when we were all together for a JC reunion caused his creative juices to get flowing. You can read his blog at John Searcy Bloghttp://iamnotgod.blogspot.com/ You can read Jeremy's blog at Jeremy Moffitt Bloghttp://germ_e.blogspot.com/ as well. You can read my friend Bill Berry's Blog at Bill Berry Bloghttp://elderberry.blogspot.com

Now I know what I want for Christmas this year.... 

another shot of the rising water 

another shot of the rising water 

Response to fellow Blogger

A fellow blogger that I found through an index called Blogs4God wrote the following.

"I'm convinced that my blog readership would increase greatly if I
worked in a bar or a pornography establishment. Or, perhaps, if I
were gay. It seems that sex and alcohol are the primo subjects to
blog."


I tried to post my response to his comments section but I was too long winded to fit it all in there. So I told him to come here , to my blog , to read my comments in their entirety.


You are correct. If you were posting comments from the viewpoint of the world then your readership would increase ten fold. Then again we as Christians are not of this world. We are different. Atleast that is what my bible tells me. We have been redeemed and restored. We are to be the salt of the earth and light of the world.
We are not supposed to be like everyone else. We are supposed to bring flavor to those around us and we are to intrigue others because of our lifestyle choices. Sometimes that intrigue turns out to be something that repels people instead of attracting them. Nevertheless God uses who He is in us to reach out to the community that HE has placed us in. We might think that we are just a common Joe with common lives that no one is interested in. Take heart and know that people are watching and see the real you even when you are not watching. When we gave our hearts to God and said "I will follow you" we rejected the things of this world and embraced the kingdom of God. That means that the things of this world really do not have an appeal to us anymore. Amen? Do we really want to be a part of the worlds social scene any longer? Of course not, those things are temporal and unfullfilling. The reason for that is because there is very little value. Gosh, I feel as if I am preaching here and that is not my intent. I just want to encourage you to know that your life makes a huge difference in the grand scheme of things. You may not be in lights per say and your blog readership may be minimal. Its not who we are or what we can accomplish or who can notice us but rather what God can do through us. When we are weak and inadequate that is when HE can do his perfect work through us. Keep on Keeping on for Christ my brother.







James Moffitt
http://www.jesus-connect.net/jcmoffitt
moffittj@bellsouth.net

Fourth of July 2004 Audio Blog

Another Fourth of July 2004 Audio Blog

Moffittcam is up and running... If you use Yahoo IM and you want to see if you can catch me near the web cam then plug in moffittcam as a Yahoo IM id and if I am broadcasting you will see something. Currently I am at work at the PC Repair shop here at Goodwill until 5:30 pm.

Later

Find out my name and use it folks!!

I was at work yesterday at Goodwill and this lady called on the phone. I sold her a computer this last Saturday. She said "Is the heavy set guy there that sold me the computer Saturday?"
When I asked her to clarify who she was looking for (in what department) she apologized for describing that person (me) in that way but she did not get his name. She told me that the heavy set guy sold her a computer. I finally confessed that I was the FAT BOY that sold her the computer. LOL....

I get SO tired of people saying "Hey BIG Guy" and describing me as "Heavy Set". Sometimes when a small person says "Hey Big Guy" I sometimes respond by saying "Hey Tiny Dude". LOL. I guess they get the point when I do that.
Good grief people just call me by my name or just dont speak to me at all. Am I the only person that gets tired of being labled because I am a BIG GUY?? I get sick of shallow people who have nothing better to do than to highlight the fact that I am a FAT BOY....

When I get depressed and/or ANGRY I sometimes think "oh what is the freaking use people???" But, that emotion usually does not last that long and I just figure the truth hurts and get on with living. ;)

This FAT BOY will be getting on the Cross Trainer this morning for 25 min before I meet a friend for breakfast and some war driving with my Ipaq. Instead of being depressed and angry about the problem I am going to chose to do something about it one day at a time.

God bless

War Driving and Accessing data on a corporate LAN reviewed

A dear friend of mine sent me the following article which outlined their findings with regards to how easy it is to hack your way into a corporate network to steal data via their unsecured Wireless Access Point. Here is the article. from Red-M which is a Wireless Security Company.


According to a report from global wireless security company Red-M, most global businesses are at risk because they have not secured their wireless infrastructures.

The six-month study of 100 companies across the globe, including large multinational corporations covering a range of industry sectors, found that 80 per cent of corporate networks are accessible from outside their buildings.

Two thirds of banks, 60 per cent of financial services institutions and all education institutions leaked data, the study claimed.

Karl W Feilder, chief executive at Red-M, said in a statement: "Most businesses have not yet grasped the fact that once there is any sort of wireless device on their premises - and today you have to presume there is at least one device in your company - it acts as a point of insecurity by broadcasting company information over the airwaves.

"Sitting in your parking lot up to 300ft away from your building with a laptop and an inexpensive piece of software, an outsider could easily see the information being freely broadcast.

"They could receive network traffic, and could wreak havoc by exposing confidential and sensitive company information and manipulating data."


This is my response to that report...

I will certainly concur that a LOT of businesses and home users have not grasped the concept Network security and data integrity. The sad thing is that all they have to do is enable WEP and change the default admin ID and password on the Wireless Access Point (WAP).

From a technical point of view here are a couple of observations about the comments from the article you just sent me that was put together by Red-M. There is a difference between individuals that represent a company that deals with Network Security Threats vs some Tom Dick or Harry user who is just out war driving. People from Red-M are going to be security experts who understand how a computer network works and how to hack their way into company data. In other words they know how to try and compromise Firewalls, Switches, Routers and then the company file servers to access data. If they get through the first three devices listed above then perhaps they will be able to access the data on the file server. This is assuming that the company in question has NO security enabled whatsoever on the file server or the internal routing devices listed above. That would mean that they just plugged in these devices and left the default administrative passwords in place. I realize that Network Administrators are over worked and under paid. However, I can almost garuntee you that these same Network Administrators are painfully aware of the importance of data integrity and security and they are NOT going to put Firewalls, Routers and Switches in place without setting up security. It is just not going to happen. When it comes to their data depending on the type of network , peer to peer or client server, there is going to be authentication happening either at the SHARE level or DOMAIN level which means you will have to have a user name and password to gain access to the data. That means that if the administrator id and password are difficult enough they will have to know a valid user id on the network and the password to get access to the data. The chances of that happening from anyone just sitting out in the parking lot is going to be slim to none.

A wireless access point (WAP) acts just like a gateway to your internal network. Before wireless came along employees of companies if they wanted access to a corporate network would either have to dial in to a corporate gateway (DUN Account) or tunnel in via pptp (point to point tunneling protocol) utilizing a user name and password to get on the network. Once the user is logged onto the network you can still limit what resources they have access to on the LAN by limiting what they have access to via Share level access or Group level access on the domain. So, just because a person can actually hack their way into a network does not mean that they have full access to everything on the file server. They are still limited by the internal network security that is in place.

So, with all of that in mind I do not think that the security threat is as bad as the security industry would want us to imagine. One reason they are yelling foul so loudly is because they want the companies in question to be aware of their need to lock down their networks AND they want these same companies to use their exertise (for a cost of course) to implement these measures. Just changing the default user id and password on the WAP will make it exponentially difficult for someone to hack into the network. If you do not have the user id and password you just simply will not gain access.

I also believe that their claims that you can sit in your car within 300 feet of the establishment and gain access to a corporate LAN and compromise their data security is a bit far fetched. Just in my short experience with war driving I have found it difficult at best to even acquire and KEEP a wireless signal long enough to TRY to log on. I was standing at the front door at the Mills House the other night and I was getting a signal strength of about 20% at the very best and that was not enough for me to get an IP address from their DHCP server much less try to logon to Thinkspots network.

There is a huge difference in being able to sniff out a wireless signal via war driving vs being able to authenticate to the data source and steal information as readily as they are saying you can. In other words there is no mechanism in place where the file server is connecting to the WAP and transmitting corporate data out into the parking lot. LOL.... You have to gain access through the front door (WAP), authenticate to the file server (network security) and then grab ahold of the data and tell it to be copied back out across the LAN to the WAP over the wireless signal to your laptop.

I am currently at Just Fresh on Rivers Avenue in Charleston using their wireless network and enjoying a cup of coffee.
I was able to successfully connect to the Thinkspot network with my Ipaq and send out several emails. I was able to configure my Outlook software on the Ipaq to send and receive my Bellsouth.net emails. I am not able to chat via MSN Messenger which is built into the Microsoft Mobile OS on the Ipaq which I find puzzling. I will have to research that soon. I am using the laptop to connect and send this blog before the battery on this thing dies. :(

Well, I am happy that I FINALLY made that magical wireless connection with the Ipaq. I also learned that while you can certainly war drive and walk and find stray wireless signals you have to find one that is STRONG enough to enable you to make the network connection and keep it or you will never make the trip successfully to the Internet.
That means that you need to be atleast within 50 feet of the front door of the establishment that is broadcasting a wireless signal if not inside to get a good enough signal.

Well, that is about it folks, hope you have a good evening and a good day tomorrow!!

USB Challenged

As usual I spent most of my day in the computer service department hiding from the retail customers tinkering on this and that. My boss finally gave me the go ahead to configure a couple of machines for us to use in the shop which means I wont have to use the laptop anymore to get on the Internet and do my job. OH YEAH!! Go Goodwill , LOL.... I had a volunteer named Dave who came in to help all day Saturday which was nice. Dave is sponsored through a program called Americorp which is the American alternative to Peace Corp which is International. Dave told me that he lives in Michigan and that he spends a period of time traveling around the US doing volunteer work. When he is finished he will have 5,000.00 put into a college fund. Dave lives in Michigan and will be going home for the first time since Christmas of last year. Dave was an EXCELLENT worker who helped me completely clean up the shop and many other things. I found myself wishing that our work experience people were half as helpful as Dave was. Oh well.....

On another unrelated note I found myself fighting with my Pocket PC , USB and MS Active Sync last night. I could not get my Pocket PC (Ipaq) to synch with my computer. They just would not connect. Grrrrrr. So, for an hour last night I kept rebooting my computer, switching USB ports, uninstalling and reinstalling the MS Active Synch software. To no avail. I finally thought "I wonder if I need to do a soft reset on my Ipaq to see if that will help". Sure enough, did a soft reset on the Ipaq, plugged it into the cradle and it was a USB marriage made for success. MS Active Synch did its thing and I am once again united with updated information from Outlook 2003. Wahooooo....