What an interesting day!!

It is 7:31 pm and I am holed up at church with my family. The church is a refuge in many ways for us. One way that it is a refuge is that we come here during bad weather events. Currently we have a string of thunderstorms heading up the East Coast so we are playing it safe and hanging out at the church. We are under a tornado watch and there could be hail and high wind. The reason we are hanging out at church is because I refuse to be in the double wide trailer that we call home when bad weather hits. How many videos have you seen where tornados have touched down and there were no trailers that got hit during the storm? I rest my case, there is almost always a trailer park that gets nailed. Call me chicken little or whatever, I am going to error on the side of caution. LOL....

My son Jeremy has a blog and you can find that at the following URL. http://germe.blogspot.com/ I really enjoyed reading what Jeremy had to say so give him a visit and say something if you want. I am so proud that he is in Junior College and doing so well. I am also proud that he is taking steps to taking off some extra pounds. Jeremy and I have that in common. I too need to watch what I eat, eat less of it and get more exercise. In the last couple of months I have really struggled in that area. I just have not had the mental energy or will power to get on the elliptical trainer. I am happy to say that I have been able to maintain the same weight within about 10 lbs. One week it comes off and I will leave it off and then two weeks later if I am not careful about what I stick in my head it is back. Grrrrrr
Anyway, lets see, what did I do today. This morning was pretty routine at the office. Our admin lady was out having outpatient surgery so the guys were pretty much on their own. Dave (sales dude) got to the office around 8 am this morning. We ate breakfast, chatted and generally had a pretty easy morning. For the last several months I have been working in the shop area since we had our senior engineer on site. However, Jerry has moved to the Greenville area and his office is now vacant. For the last couple of days I have been using his old office so that I could be closer to the other folks that work there. I get tired of having to walk from the front of the office to the back of the office multiple times per day especially when I am the only person there and the front door opens. Anyway, I decided that I did not like sitting in Jerry's old office so I went into the other side office near the front, cleaned it out, moved the desk and brought my stuff out of Jerry's office into it making it my own. I still have some things to do in order to get it where I want it but it is much cosier than sitting in the shop area where the desk is so darn small.
I went to lunch with a dear friend in Mt Pleasant and then went back to the Town of Summerville to check on a back up and talk to the town administrator about up coming tasks on their network. The weather started to get bad this afternoon around 4pm so when I got off of work around 4:30 pm I headed back to Mt Pleasant and had an early supper with my friend. I made it back to Duck Ditch USA around 7pm and the weather was about the same as it was in Mt Pleasant. Lots and lots of rain. So, here we are sitting at church waiting for the weather to settle down so we can go home.

On HOLD again....

I am sitting here on HOLD waiting for someone at Laptop Parts to help me with the price for a DVD writer for an IBM Thinkpad 2652. I have been on the phone for the last hour with both IBM and Laptop Parts and I am not getting anywhere. I want to pick up the phone and throw it out into Ashley Phosphate Rd and watch the traffic destroy the phone. Do I have PHONE RAGE or what? LOL... Then there is the MUZAK you get to listen to and the female voice that originates from phone hell that tells you that they appreciate your patience and to please continue to GROW OLD while you wait for a human to show up on the line. My question is this. When the human does show up will they give me the information I NEED or will they just send me on another worthless wild goose chase again.
Lets see, what have I done today thus far. I had someone bring in a Compaq Presario computer with video problems which I fixed by going into SAFE MODE and then System Tools and the restore function. I restored the pc to last Wednesday , rebooted and walaa the video was fixed. Imagine how easy that was... The customer picked up the machine and said that he tried that and it did not work for him. Hummmmm Maybe he was not holding his mouth just right?
Oh goodie Laptopparts sales is now on the line, maybe I will get lucky this time. hahahahahaha

The Jury is still out

if you go to http://moffittjc.myblogsite.com/blog you will see that i am playing around with the following new blogsite.

I am currently deliberating IF I want to really use this web site for my blogging needs. There are pro's and con's I suppose. One of the things that I like about this website interface is that it gives you a LOT of bells and whistles which in turn allows you to have a more interactive experience with your readers. That could be good or bad depending on how much WORK you want to put into your site. The nice thing about Blogger is that you use your bloggar application to post a simple message to your Blogspot.com website and you are done. No fuss , no muss. One application does it all. If you want to post pictures however you have to use an application by Piscea called Hello. You use that app to upload your pictures to your blog and it takes care of all the formatting etc. Presto, it is done in a snap which is pretty nice.
The downside to all the bells , whistles and options is that you find yourself doing way more WORK than you wanted to in the first place JUST to have the ability to notify people that you have posted a message to your blog. The flip side to this problem is for me to BEG people to embrace RSS and the appropriate RSS feed reader applications and just have them plug in my RSS syndicated feed and then they could get notice of new posts that way. The problem with the RSS reader app is that you need to use an RSS service or application that will put an app in your system tray that will notify you of new posts. Bloglines.com does just that.
This interface does allow you to import all of your past blogs into your new one here. However, it will take me about 30 minutes to completely reconfigure my blogger blog to make this happen and then I have to change everything back the way it was when I am done. I have over 400 messages so that would take me forever. NOT....
Well, there ya have it in a tiny cracked little nut shell. Bells and whistles and lots of work just for the ability of someone getting notified that I have driveled one more time in my blog. As I said in the article title here, the jury is still out on this....

ok, so here is the deal pickle. Yes, i am talking to YOU. You are the one that reads what I babble about so I am going to want to hear your input or feedback. Please look at the new blogsite and let me know what ou think. Do you like it better than Blogger because of the photo album, ability to subscribe and be notified via email etc. if only one person gives me feedback about this then I will not really know what you think so PLEASE take the time to reveiw both my main blogger here and the new blogsite at the url above and then leave me a comment either here or at the new site. Thanks so much for your assistance in this matter.

Handling Life's disappointments

URL: Managing your Disappointments

Yes indeed, life is full of disappointments isn't it? I am 43 years old and even though I try not to compare myself to others around me I can not help but feel like somewhat of a failure. How said is that? I am my own largest disappointment. I know that other people have disappointed me on occasion. However, I have no control over what other people do other than the occasional opportunity to sway folks one way or the other with regards to decisions that affect your life. What I do have control over is decisions that I make and how I react to those things that happen to me. Life happens and not all of it is pretty you can rest assured of that. How we respond to what life throws at us defines who we are and how successful we are in being victorious in our endeavours. I guess that you could sum this up by saying that as I reflect on the past and where I am now I am disappointed in the fact that I am not in a better place or a better person. I wish that I could have applied 10% of the knowledge that I did have to my life and I would have been in a better place or a better person.
I suppose that all of us can find fault if we look hard enough. There is always someone smarter, cuter, healthier ,stronger, more popular than us. So, what do I do? I try to learn from my mistakes and look to the future to other opportunities to do the right thing and make the right choices. I have to give my disappointments over to God and ask him to forgive me for being such an oaf and to help me to overcome the consequences of my bad decisions in years gone by. I have to learn how to be content in HIM in the mean time. When I compare myself to you or the rest of the world it is easy to see what a miserable failure I am. However when I understand that God is not finished working on me I understand the true meaning of mercy and grace. In God's eyes I am not a failure. I am a workmanship that is in progress. God is my creator, molder and strength. I will chose to leave all of this in his capable hands.

Frustrated parents are us

I have two children who live with me and my wife. One daughter who is 12 turning 13 soon and one son who is 9 working on 10. I seriously doubt that either one of them are going to make it to the next year. LOL... KWIM??
No matter what I do or say my children have decided that they are going to do what they want. When they are confronted about this or that they lie about it. For instance, last night my wife and I come home from date night and I know that someone was sitting at my desk because the keyboard to the computer and the phone are all out of place. I asked them why they could not keep things in their place when sitting at my desk and they both begin to lie about not having been anywhere near my desk. I wanted to kill them both. Why are they lying about such a simple thing. I told them that I did not care about them using the computer because they both have been using it with our permission. However I do expect them to leave my area the way they found it and not messed up. I dont think that is an unreasonable expectation.
The other day Katy, my wife goes outside and calls the children. They are no where to be found. We start calling the neighbors and find out they are across the street in her house. We get the children back home and we tell them for the one millionth time that they are NOT supposed to go into someone's home without asking our permission and letting us know where they are going to be at all times. Our expectation is that we will know where they are at so that we can be aware of what is going on at all times. For whatever reasons our kids just do not seem to care what we say.
I have tried everything that I know to try to communicate to the children that obedience is expected. They know that they know that if they insist on lying to me or their mother that they will be punished. I know that I am not alone in these struggles. How do you deal with lying and outright disobedience? I told my wife the other day that I need to get a prescription for Prozac or something that will just keep me happy all the time and not care about what is going on anymore. It would be so much easier for me to be like a lot of parents that I see that just ignore what the kids are doing and let them just have a free reign in the home. However, I just can not tolerate their decision to just do what they want despite our having set up simple rules and expectations here in our home.
Our desire is that our children will grow up to be responsible, God fearing (respectful), obedient, productive members of society. I think that every parent desires this and that we are not alone. We ask our children to do chores around the home like most parents. One reason is so that they can learn responsibility and another is so that they can contribute some help to our family unit since we both work three jobs between the two of us. Why do we constantly have to stay on them to get them to do the simplest of tasks?

This is me hiding behind the new sound booth at the back of the church while the Pastors wife tells me something. We will be putting a covering over the outside of the booth this week so it will look better.  

Grace Fellowship Church Goose Creek SC, a picture of our new sanctuary.  

Those BLASTED FLYING TEETH 

Flying TEETH are BACK

It is apparent to me and several places on my hands and arms that the blasted "Flying TEETH" are back. Well, that is what I call the dreadful insects that are as tiny as a flea. Flying teeth that look as small as a flea but can fly. The following URL will give you a look at the "noseeums" that I am talking about here.
www.marsci.uga.edu/gsg/Noseeums.html


The blasted Flying Teeth are BACK. I discovered this FACT when I stood outside talking to my partner tonight and felt that irritating sting that accompanies the arrival of the BLASTED FLYING TEETH. I managed to make it back indoors where I am safe for the time being.

My friends, the FLYING TEETH are alive and well because the weather is no longer FREEZING and things are warming up a bit. I was just commenting to someone about how NICE it would be for things to warm up around here. Well, that is what I get for thinking folks. Bite marks and lots of em.

Today has been absolutely gorgeous outside today. It was around 70 degrees with very little humidity and the winds were not ripping through the state either. This would have been a PERFECT day to walk the dogs , take the family to the beach or just about anything you can think about. Of course, if you do think about doing this you NEED to remember the BLASTED FLYING TEETH. LOL... Just remember that Skin So Soft by Avon works wonders. Those little monsters HATE the smell of that stuff. I tell you what, you put that stuff on and you stink for a coons age but atleast the BLASTED FLYING TEETH leave you the heck alone. LOL My next door neighbor , Troy, aka: Paul Bunyon LOVES it when he and I are outside together. No, this has nothing to do with the fact that I might be excellent company or that I might be able to be of any help to him in his many "real man" adventures. He likes the fact that I am a walking insect attraction. I walk outside and the entire insect world thinks that a FREE chinese buffet on stilts has just entered their sector and they all converge on me at once. I can not tell you how many times I have FORGOTTEN about the BLASTED FLYING TEETH and the blood sucking mosquitos that SURROND my house and I will be talking to Troy (Paul Bunyon) and look down at my legs to see that they have turned into a vertical runway for the BLASTED flying teeth.

Today at church I found out that I had FORGOTTEN to ADD about 8 scriptures to the Song Show Plus program that I had built for projection. The pastor was reading off of the back screen and things were going along just fine when he says "Ok, I see that we just ran out of scriptures, let me go to my hand written notes while they work out the technical problems in the back." OOOPSIE... Imagine my surprise when I compare the SSP program scripture list with the MS Word document and found out that indeed there were several scripture left out. If you go to www.songshowplus.com This software allows me to project multimedia content to two digital screens on both ends of the sanctuary. One screen is for the viewing pleasure of our congregation and one is for the viewing pleasure of the pastor and praise team so that they can see information on the back wall of the church. Yes, you could say that I am in technogeek heaven back in the sound booth. Toys toys and lots of toys to play with. Wahooooo, my propeller is starting to rotate faster just thinking about this. LOL.

Song Show Plus allows you to create Slide Shows for announcements and you can also project songs, scripture, video and more. You can also import and use other application data such as MS Powerpoint etc. During our first service in which we used this new software I just created several different MS Powerpoint slides to project on the "Big Screen". As time has gone on I am getting more comfortable with the software and now I know how to use the slideshow creator to create the announcement slide shows etc. We are using Online Bible at www.onlinebible.org and the NRSV translation which our pastor likes to use when he is preaching.

Are you reading this ? LOL. Sitemeter delivers to me via email a status report of how many hits I get on my blog , when folks are reading, how many times per hour and how long they stay. The report in and of itself is pretty nifty because I know that I know that someone is peering at what I am babbling about. However I am noticing that folks are only reading for about a minutue or less and then they are moving on. That tells me that I am not keeping your interest. Hummmmm What to do and what to say now. What can I say other than I am who I am and what you see is what you get. I will try to be as interesting as possible, well as interesting as someone can be who lives in Duck Ditch USA and has FLYING TEETH to contend with.

Liquid Gold

There is something to be said to supply and demand folks. Good grief, how high ARE the gasoline prices going to go? Just the other day I WAS paying 1.72 for a gallon of gas and now it is ALMOST 2.00 per gallon for REGULAR unleaded. If you use medium octane or high octane you are paying OVER 2.00 per gallon for gasoline. Are we motivated to car share yet? What about taking the bus to work instead? Can we say telecommute? Our friends at OPEC are sitting in a very nice place. They hold their finger on the pulse of how much oil leaves the middle east and depending on how tightly they are holding on to the spigot depends on how fast our collective wallets empty out. I put 10.00 worth of gasoline in my car this morning and got a half of tank of gas. I paid 1.91 per gallon for unleaded gasoline. How sad is that people?

How about those HYBRID cars that are coming out now folks? Gasoline engines with electric power plants that suppliment the type of energy source that is available to the engine. Can we say 29+ miles to the gallon for a mid sized passenger vehicle? How many years did that take to happen? If you ask me it took way too long. When will planet earth run out of OIL? What will we do then? I think that it is high time that we spend some of our hard earned CASH on figuring out how to solve some of our social problems here in America and quit throwing it away on worthless endeavors. Yes, I think that it is cool that we can explore the galaxies and spend billions of dollars on computerized telescopes that can view planets that we have never dreamed existed but at what cost to humanity here on earth? Would those billions of dollars be better spent on figuring out how to feed, clothe and house the homeless people here in America or perhaps taking care of veterans of foreign wars perhaps?

Well, that is my rant for the day. If you feel the same way I do feel free to leave a comment. Heck , even if you disagree with me feel free to comment about that too. I certainly do not have all the answers but I do feel that WE collectively should do SOMETHING about this and that. If enough people make enough noise and vote with our resources (cash) then perhaps changes can be affected for the good of humanity.

Check out browster

Check out browster I installed it today and I love it. Instead of having to click on a link you run your mouse over the lightning bolt and it pops up a cached version of the web site so you can preview it. it keeps you from having to hit the back button on your web browser or having to close multiple windows all the time.

Go away old man winter

Dang, it is freaking cold here in the deep south. i am getting tired of this 32 degree weather. Someone needs to find that ground hog and ship him to Michigan or Alaska or somewhere that is stays cold. That way the silly ground hog can see his shadow all the time... LOL...

Ok, now that I have that out of my system i can continue. I have been busier than a one armed man in a paper hanging contest in a wind tunnel. Would someone PLEASE turn off that fan? LOL.... I am sitting here on the couch realizing that in 4 minutes CSI is coming on and it happens to be one of my favorite shows. At 10 pm ER comes on and Katy and I like to watch that as well. I hope that they are not reruns. LOL...

My oh my Katy's kitchen smells awfully good tonight. I can not wait to wrap my gums around the delicious goodies that are going to be coming out of there shortly. Yum Yum....

Ok, that is a wrap for now, i will blather in here more later.

American Family Assocation Online

American Family Assocation Onlinehttp://www.afa.net/hbobillmaher.asp

The above link will take you to the original article that was posted by Donald E Wildman who is the Chairman of the American Family Association. If you subscribe to their newsletter alerts they will make you aware of things that are happening all around us that have an impact on the family and the christ centered beliefs that we hold.

When I read Bill Maher's comments they REALLY got my blood to boiling. Does Bill REALLY think that just because we have FAITH in a higher power (Jesus Christ) that we are all a bunch of blithering idiots? LOL.... You have to love freedom of speech folks. Actually, the freedom of speech is a double edged sword in that it cuts both ways. I have to say that I watch Jay Leno late at night for the pure entertainment value. Some of you are probably raising an eye brow at that because as you know Jay Leno certainly says things and promotes things of the world that certainly do not support Christ centered family values. As a matter of fact Jay Leno thinks that sexual jokes and pornography are an important part of the American lifestyle.

Anyway, back to Bill Maher. I have seen Bill on Jay Leno's show on many occasions. I actually like Bill Maher's style in that he shoots straight from the hip and he does not mince words. He calls the shots as he sees them. There are several guests on the Jay Leno show that are the same way. Dr. Phil is one of those other guests that I like to listen to. Just because I like to listen to what these folks have to say does not mean that I agree or endorse everything. It is like the old saying that goes like this. Pick off the meat and throw the bones away. It is sort of like when you are reading books that are written by authors who have written books on religion. In other words you can go into your local Christian Bookstore and find books on subjects and by authors that do not necessarily reflect the viewpoints of the main stream religions or denominations. If they are deemed or categorized as "religious" then you will probably find them in the bookstore. Does that mean that these books do not have anything of value just because they do not happen to reflect your specific theological viewpoint? Of course not, every author has something of value to say , you just may not agree with it at that time. I think that it is important to state here that our theological viewpoints may change from year to year as we are growing in maturity and understanding.

My hope is that millions of Christians will repsond to the comments Bill Maher stated and my hope and prayer is that they will respond with tact and grace. I hope and pray that we do not collectively come across like a pack of rabid dogs that have just had their tails stepped on. But rather I hope that we can share our faith without all of the religious dogma and christianese blather that we are guilty of babbling at people. I hope that people respect the person of Bill Maher while they are disagreeing with his viewpoints of who we are and why we believe in Jesus Christ. I also hope that Christians take the time to pray for Bill Maher , for his spiritual life, for his mind , for his soul. My prayer is that God would use the comments that are made through these e-mails to illuminate WHO Jesus Christ is and that God loves Bill Maher too. Gods word says that THEY will know us by our LOVE one for another. I hope that as we speak our words of truth to Bill Maher that it will be done with a spirit of humility and love.

Gayle and Anthony Keech, friends of ours in Easley SC. This is a nice picture of them that Gayle shared with me recently. 

Singing a country and western song on stage at recent talent show 

Kristina Moffitt at talent show at Sedgefield Middle School. This is a wonderful "real" smile that I just had to share... 

Kristina having more fun blowing on prop... Cheap entertainment. LOL 

My friend Patty gave me a hat that says "Chief Propellerhead" and has a computer on top with a prop that spins. Kristina is having fun trying to blow on the prop here in this picture 

animal wildlife expo

I am sitting here at work watching all the people drive by rushing into the parking garage so they can attend the wildlife expo here in charleston today. here I sit and there they go. lol oh well some folks get to have all the fun I suppose. I wonder how much text the treo will allow me to type before it runs out.... so far so good. I hope the weather is as beautiful where you are because it is gorgeous here. time to make a round so I will sign off for now

happily connected

I am posting to my blog from my treo 600 pcs enabled cell phone. I wonder if this will work right

Out with the old and in with the new

A friend of mine introduced me to Incredimail last year. Last night while using it I ran across a stationary called Celtic Myst which is brown parchment paper and the default font is "Black Chancery". Well, I immediately fell in love with the font. I think that it looks VERY classy to say the least. LOL.... You may be asking yourself the question "how does one fall in LOVE with a font". Well, I dont have the answer to that but all I do know is that I LIKE it so very much. So, Verdana, it has been fun and we have had a long and fruitful relationship but you are out and your replacement is Black Chancery. My friend Patty also told me that when she created a MS Word document using this font that she was unable to use "apostrophes" while using this font in MS Word but here in blogger it seems to work. I also noticed that this font is not listed in the list of fonts but when I type it in under font choice manually it shows up.

I have not written anything in my blog since I passed the A+ exam.... Maybe I have been experiencing some brain fry and have not felt creative enough to babble in here. I told my friend Jorge at work yesterday about Blogs and he said " what in the world is a blog". LOL... I told him that a blog is a web log or sort of like an "online diary". Jorge sort of cocked his head to one side, raised his eyebrow and gave me a "what in the world are you talking about dude" look. He asked me why would someone want to do something like that for the whole world to read? I told him that not everyone has their blog wide open for the general public and that you can lock them down to where only certain folks have access to it. Well, anyway, I guess that was where we left it.

Speaking of blogs, I am still waiting for a certain "someone" to start their blog..... I am not mentioning names here but YOU know who you are dont you???? LOL.... Get to creating that blog and write in it atleast once per week. PLEASE..... Speaking of writing in your blog KATY dear, you have not written much lately either have you?

I guess there is not much more to report here from Duck Ditch USA. Life goes on as usual in that we are doing the daily routine of eating , sleeping, fighting with the kids, going to work and starting the routine over and over again each day. I have not had a day off since we came back from the Happy Days camp on the 15th of last month so that it getting kind of old. We owe we owe off to work we go is our song that we sing each day. We are slaves to debt I guess. As Suze Orman would say there are two types of debt, personal debt and institutional debt. Some debt is good and most debt is very bad. I am like most of us in that I have some of both. My only regret is that I wished I would have read books like hers 20 years ago so that I could have kept from making some pretty stupid financial decisions in the past. Well, you know the old saying and how true it is. Knowledge is power. When you gain knowledge you can move out of the darkness of ignorance into the light and begin to do something, anything to correct past mistakes and stop making the same old errors and having to live through the consequences of those errors. There are nine small books in the series that Suze Orman wrote about finances and I am on the first book that talks about debt. Most of it has to do with Credit card debt etc.. which does not really apply to me but it is GOOD information for those of you out there that do have lots of credit card debt that you are trying to manage.

I am working on my Network + curriculum which I am hoping to accomplish between now and the end of February. I read through four chapters yesterday and I am hoping to go through another four chapters today at work between 3 Pm and 11pm. My goal for 2005 is to have all three of my Comptia exams passed and atleast 3 or 4 Microsoft exams passed. That will give me the A+, Network +, Security + and MCSA. At that point I will have increased my marketability in the IT industry 10 fold. Recruiters and employers apparently love to see certifications taken and passed. It tells them that you know what you are doing. What it really means is that you know how to study and take tests. LOL.... It does not necessarily mean that you will know how to take that knowledge and use it successfully in a real world environment.

Have a great day and a good week....

A+ Certification Complete!!!

I am HAPPY to report that I passed BOTH exams. Whew, I am so glad that is finally over. Now, with that certification and 25 cents I might be able to get a cup of coffee. LOL. Actually, entry level service technicians in the IT field are EXPECTED to have this minimal certification. Anyway, onward and upward. Now I will work on my Network + and Microsoft Windows 2003 server tests. Hopefully I can sit for one of those exams in the next four weeks. The whole idea here of course is not only to increase my knowledgebase and marketablity but also to command a larger paycheck. Can I hear an AMEN ?? LOL

I took the hardware exam first and thought that I did very well on it. I was surprised to find that out of a 515 passing score I make a 560. On the OS exam where I needed to have a passing score of 515 I made a 737. I thought I did much better on the hardware exam and much worse on the OS exam. The important thing is that I did pass. Thank you JESUS!!!!

It has been a LONG time since I took that kind of a test so this will give me the self confidence that I need to KNOW that I can study for the coming up exams and pass them. It sort of takes the FEAR out of studying and passing the exams. KWIM? I guess some folks are just better at taking exams than others.

Have a GREAT weekend!!

A+ exam in one hour....

Ok folks the time has arrived for me to see if I can remember enough of this stuff to pass the REAL tests this morning. I have been cramming for this thing for the last 6 weeks. Yesterday I took several test exams for both the hardware and OS and passed all of them so hopefully that is a good indicator that I will do well today. Each test is 85 questions long and I think that they give you 90 minutes to take the exam. I am taking the hardware exam first and then the OS exam second. I am scheduled to take both exams at two different times this morning. I hope that when I get finished with the hardware exam that they will just let me continue straight into the OS exam without having to wait. Once I am done with this and have my A+ certification I will need to dive into the Network + materials and Microsoft Windows 2003 Server test. That should keep me busy for the next 6 weeks.

The weather here for the last couple of days has been cold and rainy. I guess you could say that this is a typical Charleston SC winter. Thus far we have dodged any ice or snow storms which is nice. People barely know how to drive around here in good weather much less inclimant weather.

Yesterday was pretty easy at work, had one computer to finish up in which I had to add a new modem and configure a Dial up Networking icon for the desktop so that the customer could dial up bellsouth and get on the Internet. I spent most of the day yesterday studying and studying and studying some more. I went to lunch with my favorite bride at Cracker Barrell and then I had an appointment to work on a HP Color Laserjet 4550. Boy was I in for a surprise. The address was in a neighborhood off of Ashley Phosphate rd and Dorchester road. The customer was a couple who are real estate agents that work out of their home. When I got there and was showed into the living room or work area the HUGE HP 4550 was under this tiny computer desk with NO room whatsoever to work. I already knew in advance that it would have to have a good cleaning since I had learned that the Magenta toner cartridge had been dumped all inside this printer. I guess they got ahold of a defectice toner cartridge somehow. When I opened the printer up I was greeted by solid blue toner all over the inside of the printer. The customers house was very beautiful and there was NO WAY I was going to attempt to clean this printer on their living room floor. I could just see the blue toner getting all over everything. When I mentioned this to the wife who had initiated the service call she started to holler and shriek at a loud tone of voice about how they had just spent 400.00 to have this thing fixed and how the last person who worked on it was a bumbling idiot and apparently did not know what he was doing and on and on she went. Then the husband and wife started to fight about the fact that they did not have a place for me to work on the printer and why in the world would I even expect them to have such a place in their home when all they had was nice furniture. Imagine my surprise as I stood there waiting for the high pitched argument and whining to stop so we could figure out how we were going to get the printer moved to a safe place as to save their carpet. We finally managed to scoot the printer on a piece of cardboard through the living room and the kitchen out the door to the garage where it was about 40 degrees. I have to tell you this. I love working on technology and solving problems all day long BUT when you run into customers like these that is when my job becomes a job. Whew.....

Such is the life of someone who serves the general public and provides hardware and software and networking support on a daily basis. :)

Cactus Car Wash online

I am waiting on my car to get cleaned after this NASTY weather weekend I just endured. Cactus Car Wash just happens to have two Broadband connected computers in the lobby. So, guess what, here I am whacking away at the keyboard once again. I am headed out to St Stephen from here which is about one hour from N. Charleston where I will deliver and install a PC that I picked up about 2 weeks ago. Once I am done out there I will probably be done for the day since it will take me an hour to get back home.

I was shocked, amazed and thankful that our long time website appeared again this morning. Whew..... I need to download that website and burn it to CD ROM immediately in case it decides to go away for another extended visit. LOL.... We will develop something unique for lightourworld.com but not sure what at this point. Probably have something to do with regards to Jessica Ann and our Saviour and Lord Jesus Christ. Our family and our relationship with Christ are the top two things that do "Light our world" which is the reason for the domain name to begin with.

The weather here is GORGEOUS. Did I tell you that earlier? There are no clouds in sight and it is about 45 degrees outside. A wonderful day for a drive out in the country. LOL...

I am doing very good with regards to my calorie intake today. I am up to 950 calories for the day. My total is 2756 so I am trying my best to severly limit how much junk I cram into my face. I need to get out and walk my 1.6 mile trail this evening when I get home. I will let you know if I keep my promise to myself to do it. Hey honey, you in the mood to walk the dogs tonight when I get home? LOL....



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

Lightourworld domain is born

time flies when you are having fun aye? It has been 8 days since I have blogged a thing. Goodness gracious folks it is not like me to be this quiet. LOL... We have been living in a winter wonderland here in the deep south. our temps have been hovering near freezing for the last week. We are paying dearly for the tropical weather we had a couple of weeks ago. Luckily for us though we have dodged the "ice storm" bullet that our upstate neighbors were not able to dodge. The upstate of SC, NC and Georgia all got nailed with some pretty harsh winter weather.

We owe we owe off to work we go has been our song as of late. i am working 7 days per week as usual and Katy has been busy doing long term sub assignments which has really been a big boost to the budget. We have been waiting for the state of SC to send Katy her temporary teaching certificate to find out that her fingerprint cards were rejected by the FBI so that means we need to get her finger prints done all over again. We also found out that she needs to get an official transcript from the University of Texas. Katy thought that part of the 75.00 fee was to pay for the offical transcript but now we find out that it is not. You have to pay for that seperately. Katy did get a call from MUSC just this last week and they are interested in her for the Activities Coordinator position in the STAR program at MUSC. Katy is hopeful of landing this position since it would be full time with benefits working with children which is what she loves to do. Hopefully she will be interviewed again for a second interview some time this next week.

Lightourworld.com has been launched but for now it is still in the infancy stages. Our long time family website is offline for now thanks to the lack of DNS registration issues. Katy is going to be working on the process of uploading our files to the new server in the next week or two so please be patient while we rebuild. I will be FINALLY taking the dreaded A+ exam on next Friday at Trident Technical college. So, if you think about it on next Friday around 9 am say a prayer that I will have a clear mind and that pre test jitters dont cause me to have brain freeze. LOL... I have been studying for this exam now for several months so I am either ready to ace this thing or I am not. Once I pass this i will be working on my Windows 2003 server exam. My hope is to have my MCSA status by no later than the end of this year. i can do it, I CAN DO IT.... LOL... I feel like the little train that said " I think I CAN, I think I CAN...."

Well, enough drivel for now, time to hit the shower and make myself presentable for church this morning and then it is off to the county office building for my 8 hour tour as usual. Have a NICE day no matter what you find yourself doing today.

Jesus Connect.net Domain is down for now

Once again it has happened to us. Katy called me yesterday stating she went to our website to make a change and found that the DOMAIN Jesus Connect.net has expired. SIGH... This is not the first time this has happened. So, our family website which was part of that domain and has been for years is once again VANISHED. Katy and I think that it is time for us to register our own domain and then we can have our own website with our own domain name again. Most domain names give you website space, email and FTP access and it is getting cheaper by the year. So, stay tuned for our announcement in the very near future.

This week continues to be a good week with regards to our health. I am eating under 2000 calories per day and Katy and I both walked 1.6 miles on Monday and Wed. We are walking one day, resting the next. Four days on and three days off. I will be working in the County Office Building which means I will be making rounds in the parking garage which will count towards my exercise count. I can not wait until this Saturday. I get to work a double shift from 7 am until 11 pm. Wooooohoooooo sounds like fun filled excitement. hahahahahahah NOT....

We are having a heat wave today since it is up to 31 F. I think that I will go outside and get a tan today. LOL

Hammer and nail anyone?

Have you ever used a hammer and nail to fix a computer? LOL. Well, I came pretty close today. Actually I wound up going to the VA Hospital in downtown Charleston this afternoon to fix one of their many MED carts. There is a manual locking mechanism which is installed to lock the cart just in case the electrical/computerized system were to fail. Somehow the thumb lever and the metal plate it rides on vibrated loose and fell off. I wound up spending two hours this afternoon figuring out how to disassemble the cart , fix the problem and then reassemble it to make sure it works. I had to use the hammer and nail to drive out the plastic gromets that were holding the four corners of the top of the med cart to the rest of the cart. I was standing in the storage room beating on the nail wondering if a doctor or nurse would walk in and ask me what in the world I was making all the racket for. LOL. Luckily that never happened.

I spent 3 hours today upgrading Timberline software at one of my client sites. I had to upgrade the server first and then I had to reinstall the updates to all the workstations.

Thus far , as of 7 pm I am at 810 calories. That will give me approximately 750 calories for me to consume for dinner and that will keep me well under 2000 calories for the day. Yeah me!!! I am going to rest tonight and walk tomorrow before church. Katy looked at me and said, there is NO WAY I am walking again in this cold. LOL.... Poor dear. I do hope that she gives in to my incessant whining and goes with me anyway. It is starting to look like we are both going to have a whine session tomorrow night to see if one or both of us is going for a walk. LOL

Caring Bridge Website

This is our Caring Bridge Website that I put up yesterday evening. I am not finished with it yet so please come back often to see what we have changed. The url is

http://www.caringbridge.org/sc/jessicamoffitt

Please visit this website and share it with your friends and family. Pray about helping Happy Days and Special Times as they are in need for funding for 2005 for all of the special events that they do for children with cancer and events that the siblings and parents can attend throughout the year. You can donate online at http://www.happydaysnspecialtimes.org in memory of our Jessica. I know that I know that she would appreciate your support. Thanks!!

A new day to make the right decisions

Good morning folks! It is a nice crisp 22 F here in the deep south. LOL... I am so happy that I purchased a car cover for our new chariot so I dont have to worrry about scraping ice off the windshield. I am also glad that the heater does not take 30 minutes to finally kick in. Speaking of that I wonder if I should go out and crank the engine so that when I do get in it will be nice and toasty when I get inside.

I decided this weekend that FAT BOY is going to DO SOMETHING about the weight problem. Sigh.... I gained 9 pounds over the Christmas holidays and I can really tell a difference. I am also wondering if my not taking my blood pressure medicine which was a diuretic has caused me to put on some extra weight. That is a question that a doctor is going to have to answer I suppose.

Well, anyway, not only did I gain 9 lbs but I also have not done any regular exercise either. Having the new job working 8 to 5 sitting in front of a computer most of the time did not help that. What walking that I was doing in the parking garage has been diminised down to two days on the weekend. So with that in mind I am going to do my best to walk atleast 3 or 4 times per week. I got home last night after work and my right ankle was sore since I stood up most of the day. I almost used that as an excuse not to go but I managed to bundle up and go outside to walk. I also managed to talk Katy into walking with me. Boy oh boy girlfriend did NOT want to walk in the cold. Can you say cheese with that whine honey? LOL... Thank you Katy for coming with me so that you could motivate me to do what I need to do. We both know that we both really need to try and do this together so we can support one another when one or both of us want to get lazy and stay at home and be couch potatoes. LOL....

In the calorie department I ate around 2400 calories. I guess I sort of blew it in that area. I need to get that down to under 2000 calories today. The formula is simple. Less calories and more exercise. The key is aerobic exercise I might add. Exercise that gets your heart to pumping at a specific rate which is designed to burn those FAT calories. Just thinking about how much work is necessary to lose ONE POUND or 2000 calories is almost depressing.

Baby steps. Tiny little baby steps. I have to keep reminding myself that I did not get this way over night and that it is going to take determined dedication to attack this problem one moment at a time and one day at a time. Tomorrow is gone and now I have today to make the right decisions and do the right things. Personal planning means that I need to DO SOMETHING and be proactive and NOT just let life happen to me and wind up being REACTIVE and doing damage control.

Maybe my new motto needs to be "Embrace The Tiger". Maybe that will help me to understand that my weight problem is the tiger in my life and that I need to face this monster (tiger) head on and not let it overwhelm me to the point that I feel helpless and hopeless. I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength. I need to also remember that. I am not alone and I have the power of God within me to dig down deep and do what I need to do. I just need to decide to tap into that power and put it to work every single day.

Today is God's gift to me and what I chose to do with this day will be my gift to God. Pray that I will make the right decisions today with regards to how much food I stick in my mouth and that I will continue to exercise atleast 30 min every day. Also remember to pray for the Tsunami victims in Asia and for our troops who are over seas fighting in a horrible war. Pray that our troops will come home safe and sound to their families. Pray for peace. Also pray for Happy Days and Special Times that they will continue to find the funds that they need through donations and other events through the year so that they can continue to bless children with cancer with all of their FREE activities to them and their families

Renissance Weekend Myrtle Beach South Carolina

Katy and I spent the weekend at Myrtle Beach at the Ocean Reef Hotel. When we arrived Friday evening around 6:30 pm the temperature was around 45 F. Before it was all over the temperature dipped down to around 34 F with a wind chill factor making it around 28 F. Now, I know for you snow birds up in Michigan or Iowa or wherever you might be building snow men this is a regular hot flash for you. However us beach bunnies are freezing our tails off with this weather.

Happy Days and Special Times sponsors the Renissance Weekend for parents who have lost children to cancer. I can not tell you how wonderful this organization really is. Not only do they minister to the needs of kids with cancer but they do not forget the siblings and parents AFTER the child is either recovered OR passes on. During the yearly weekend we come together as a support group and we comfort one another and we have the unfortunate opportunity of welcoming newcomers to our group.

This year we had three or four new couples that just recently lost children to one form of cancer or the other. As one person said we are all unwilling members of a horrible club. Friday evening we all gathered around and did introductions and got settled in to the hotel and ate Pizza around 9 pm. Saturday morning we had breakfast, two grief counseling break out sessions, lunch , free time between 1:30 pm and 4 pm and then we all gathered at Chuck Steak House for steak dinner compliments of Happy Days. After dinner we all piled in to our respective chariots and headed down to the Alabama Theater and enjoyed a Tribute to Patsy Cline radio show. I am not much of a Patsy Cline fan but I have to say that the entertainment and talent was absolutely amazing. After the show ended around 10:30 pm we all came back to the hotel and piled into one of the conference halls for more desert, coffee, soda pop and more informal conversation.

Sunday morning consisted of a breakfast, more informal conversation within the group of parents and then John Evans spoke to us. You can visit John Evans on the Web at http://www.johnevansspeaker.com/. John is a motivational speaker that just blesses our socks off every time we hear him speak. As a matter of fact I wish that we were able to spend more time with him than we do. John handed out a motivational brochure that was entitled Embrace The Tiger with a picture of John kneeling next to a huge Siberian Tiger. John Evans also told us all about a website called Caring Bridge at http://www.caringbridge.org. On this site you can register a web page and set up a memorial page for your loved one and let people know how they are doing etc. Check the site out for yourself. I plan on setting up a site there to let folks know about our Jessica and the impact that Camp Happy Days and Happy Days and Special Times had on Jessica and continues to bless our family today. My hope is that folks will be touched by the incredible genioristy and spirit of giving and volunteerism and will be moved to help support Happy Days and Special Times. Once all the events were over we all went outside on to the beach and proceeded to stand around like a bunch of frozen popsicles while we waited for everyone to show up for our balloon releasing ceremony. We take the white balloons and we put our hopes, fears, dreams and wishes and we then release those balloons up to God so that He can minister to those things within each of us. We also release them in honor of our children who have gone on before us. Our hope is that one day we will see Jessica again.

Back view of Pontiac 

2003 Pontiac Grand Prix SE 

January 12, 2005

It has been five days since I have written in my blog. My how time flies when you are having fun. Are we having fun yet?
LOL... Well, let me see, what is going on..... The reports are still coming in and the number of Tsunami victims keeps growing and growing and growing. I think they are up to 155,000 dead or missing. How depressing is that folks? The experts are predicting that the numbers could raise to as high as 300,000 IF the survivors of this natural disaster do not receive drinking water and food in the very near future. Not only is there a lack of food and water but there are also problems with the survivors having to deal with diseases that have set in since this disaster struck. Like I said, it is just too overwhelming to fathom. What can we do on the other side of the globe? We can do two things. We can donate money towards the relief effort and we can pray. I can only imagine that this event has folks thinking about their mortality especially with the death and destruction all around them. Just the other day someone at church had mentioned that they watched some sort of show on TV that stated that we are not immune to this sort of event happening off the East Coast of the U.S. Apparently there is some sort of fault line near us out in the ocean or an underwater volcano that erupts every several hundred years. If that event were to take place the wave that would hit the East Coast would be far worse than what hit Asia. Now, there is a thought that catches your breath huh?

It all boils down to this one thing. We are not in control. No matter how much money, technology and elbow grease we throw at mother nature when nature does what it does all we can do is sit back and wait for it to finish, whatever IT happens to be. No matter what I believe that God is in control. God knows all, we do not. All we can do is to be living our lives as if today is the last day of our lives and be ready to meet our maker. None of us are garunteed a tomorrow and just because we were not victimized by the Tsunami does not mean that the next time we get into our cars that we wont be in some sort of accident that might take our lives. Actually, if you think about it the chances of being in a car wreck far outweighs our chances of being hit by a huge tidal wave.

The year 2005 marks the year of out with the old and in with the new. Katy upgraded her car from a 1983 Chevy Station Wagon to a 1993 Ford Escort station wagon. The Ford Escort is 10 years newer and gets wonderful gas mileage compared to the gas guzzling tank that we have been driving around for the last 4 years. My 1994 Caddilac was eating us out of house and home with all of the maintenance repairs that were absolutely wrecking our budget. So, with much prayer and with help from a dear friend we were blessed with getting a 2003 Pontiac Grand Prix SE. I can not tell you how nice it is to have a car that has less than 50,000 miles and has an AC and Heater that actually works. Everything was falling apart on the Caddy and it had over 221000 miles on it so it was time for it to retire. I think that the last time I drove a car this new was back in 1981. That has been a LONG time folks. I will share pictures here via Hello in a moment.

As of Friday this week I will be scheduling my A+ exam. Hopefully I can get a slot early next week and get this test completed and passed. If I can pull this off it will be the first step towards getting some much needed computer certifications. Lets see, I have read two different A+ books and studied over 1500 different test questions. If I am not ready for this test then I dont think I ever will be. LOL... Once that is completed then I will be off to the races to study for the MCSE exams. There are 8 of those so if I can do one per month I have 8 months before I get my MCSE. Of course, one per month for taking a test is a really agressive schedule so I will be content if I can pass half of those exams between now and December of this year. If I can do that my income will go up and I can start doing more computer engineering work vs being a hardware technician. Speaking of being a hardware monkey I have been getting a crash course on fixing printers. OH MY GOSH. You thought your computer was persnikity. Good grief Grady. Printers are a major pain in the keister.

Our church sanctuary is finally being dismantled and the carpet and sheetrock and other fixtures are being ripped out and replaced. The schedule is to have the sanctuary completely renovated by the end of January. We will have all new pews, carpeting, sound equipment with the addition of a computer and digital projector. Say bye bye to transparencies and hello to 21st century technology. Wahoooooo. Of course with all of the changes with how we are going to use technology on Sunday morning brings me the added responsibility of evaluating worship software to determine what we will eventually pick to display text, song lyrics, bible scripture , video etc.

This weekend we will be taking our annual jaunt out to Myrtle Beach SC as Happy Days and Special Times sponsors another Renissance Weekend for parents who have lost children to cancer. For the last couple of weeks the weather has been very nice with temperatures in the middle 70's. Now that the Myrtle Beach weekend is coming up the weather is turning colder and raining. It happens like that every year. LOL...

Prayer request

PLease pray for my friend Kimberly who is going through a very difficult time right now. Her husband has some sort of cancer and they are experiencing some severe financial difficulties because he is not able to work. Kimberly's relatives are not offering her much support at this point which is really upsetting to her. Thanks in advance for the prayers for healing for her husband as well as financial needs that they have.


God bless

The New Year first day

Our day started out around 7:30 am today when the phone rang next to the bed. US Security called and said "Arent you supposed to be at the County Office Building this morning James?" Groggily I said " not that I know about". The voice on the other end of the line says " He (as in Capt Bassett) wrote your name in the schedule this week" . I responded by saying that Capt Basset usually calls me and asks me if I want to work Saturdays since my only scheduled day is the 3 to 11 shift on Sundays. If they had called me and asked me if I wanted to work New Years Day I would have probably said no anyway. Thanks to the way the holidays fell this year with most of them falling on a weekend I really did not get any time off during the holidays. So, with that in mind I had already determined that I was not working New Years day.

I spent most of the morning installing software back on the home computer and configuring the computer some more. I installed Adobe Photo Shop 7, Mozilla Firefox, Pluck and Metacafe. I spent some time online chatting with friends via Yahoo and AOL IM. Katy and I ate breakfast out on the porch this morning while we waited on Kristina to come back from the youth getaway in Greer SC last night. At about 10:30 am Heather rolled up and dropped off Kristina so we spent time talking to Heather and her mom for about 30 min out in the driveway. They are doing such a wonderful job with the youth at our church. We have approximately 35 members in regular attendance and about 10 to 12 of those 35 are youth who are from the ages of 9 to 15. Heather is working on teaching the youth how to do drama and recently spent about 6 weeks getting ready to do a drama presentation for the church just before Christmas. Kristina was involved in the activities and I must say that she not only puts her heart and soul into what she is doing but she seems to be very talented in this area.

I had to stop what I was typing there for a second thanks to one of the C17 Transport carriers from the airport flying directly overhead. It seemed as if the darn monster plane was right on top of the treeline. Whew, that was TOO close for comfort and for some reason it seemed WAY TOO LOW for my comfort. I was puckered up waiting to hear the sounds of ripping metal as it tore our double wide trailer apart and carried us over into Chucks yard or whatever. Luckily for me and for the pilots they managed to clear the tress and now I can relax and continue with my thoughts. Where was I?

Oh yes, what we did today. Once the Glisson duo left the end of the hill down here in slumlord haven Katy and I headed over the Regal Cinema 18 theatre and watched Meet the Fockers. OMG that was TOO FUNNY. hahahahahaha I told Katy when we left the movie that I wonder how many families are somewhat like that one in a lot of ways. If you want to see a good movie that will make you laugh go see it. You wont be sorry.

We have landed back at the house and plan on snuggling up next to the TV to watch Law and Order Criminal Intent for the next two or three hours and then hopefully get a full nights rest where Katy nor I will wake up every two hours because of either the darn dogs or my cough that I can not seem to kick.

I hope you had a relaxing day today and that your new year started out peacefully.

God bless

The Christian Working Woman - Today's Broadcast

The Christian Working Woman - Today's Broadcast

For you working ladies out there that love Jesus...

Pluck: Search, Retrieve, Organize & Share the Web

Pluck: Search, Retrieve, Organize & Share the Web

This is a VERY cool tool that I found the other day. Check it out!!

My Daddy My Hero - Flash Presentation

Homeward Bound

A friend of mine sent this to me. I was told to have a box of Kleenex standing by and I have to say it will probably get to you.

AGB North America - Qtek 9090 (known as the Imate PDA2K)

AGB North America - Qtek 9090 (known as the Imate PDA2K)

Gosh, its ONLY 899.00 OMG... You can buy a laptop for less people... LOL..
Maybe by Christmas 2005 this baby will be more reasonable.

New Years Eve 2004

Well, this is the LAST day of 2004! Time flies when you are having fun and guess what folks? Out with the old and in with the new year. We can put our failures from this year behind us and look forward to using our lessons learned to practical use in 2005. This year was not one of our best financially speaking but as of October things started to get better. Hopefully things will stabilize nicely in 2005 and we can spend this new year playing catch up.

Our home computer is up and running without any problems. We still have some software to install but other than that it is very fast and running nicely. One of the things that XP does that W2k does not is that you can switch from one user profile to another without having to log off the first user. I sort of miss that but oh well.

Our plans for New Years eve is very simple. We are going to stay home with the family and just enjoy the fact that we have a place to live and that everyone is healthy. We have a LOT to be thankful for. Everytime I get on the Internet or listen to the news I am reminded of how much tragedy rages all around us. Most of us know about the tragedy that is happening half way around the world in India where 125000+ folks are missing or dead. The number just keeps rising. I can not even begin to fathom the depth of their grief and despair. It is nice to see that there has been a global response to the needs though. Hopefully life will be a little bit easier for the victims because of it. Life certainly will never be the same for them.

Our goals for 2005 are simple but they are not resolutions. You know how long new year resolutions last right? They last about as long as it takes you to break them. LOL...

Our goals to work towards are simple. Managing our finances better. That means to actually live within our budget and paying off some debt. Maintaining full time employment for both of us and getting stable. Katy is waiting on her emergency teaching certificate so she can pursue full time teaching positions in SC and I am working on my certifications so I can ultimately make more money in the long run. One of my goals personally is to lose some blubber through better eating habits and more exercise. Another one of my goals is to work on getting our mens ministry at church off the ground (out of the basement LOL) and doing something other than nothing.

Well, that is all for now. I pray that you have a safe new years eve and that you will have a prosperous and blessed new year in 2005.

Bring our Men and Women home from Iraq!!

How many men and women must die in this war? We (Americans) have sons, daughters, wives, husbands, fathers and mothers who have been committed to fight a war. Not only do Americans have a stake in this war but there are other countries that are involved. How many countries are unknown to me but I know that there are several allies that are there investing blood, sweat, tears and lots of money into this effort. My question to you is this. Is this turning into another Vietnam? I am starting to feel as if YES this is starting to turn into another political fiasco. No, I am not the type of person that is going to blame our men and women who are serving their country. However, I do feel that our government has made its statement, whatever that is and now it is time for us to come home and let the Iraqi's figure it out. I am not sure what IT is other than perhaps how to get along with one another and not be a host to teorrorist organizations who need a place of refuge or a place to train killers who will go all across the globe to slaughter innocents.

September 11, 2001 was a tragic and horrible event in the history of the world. Over 3000 men and women lost their lives in the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center. I understand that the US of A needed to respond in such a way to exact a penalty upon that person or people who committed this attrocity againgst humanity on our own soil. I think that we have given the terrorists of the world something to think about. If you kill our people on our own soil we will hunt you down like a rabid dog and we will kill you. Should we be killing innocent men, women and children at the same time we are hunting down those that are responsible? I guess that some folks would say that innocent lives being taken during war is just a casulty of war. I do not necessarily buy that mentality folks. How is it we have the technology that we have at our disposal yet we can not find one man? Why is it we have not found this Bin Laden character? I wonder if there are CNN reporters out there that could not find him? LOL Of course we can find him if we really want to. We have satellite technology that can take pictures of your dogs nose hair but we can not find one man who is known all over the world. Hogwash people, how stupid do they think we are anyway?

Lets surgically erase the problems we have in the middle east and then lets bring our troops and hardware home so that they can get back to the business of defending our soil and get back to their families where they belong. Amen ??

Good morning Sunshine

Ok, here we are all snug in our office chairs strapping ourselves in getting ready for another wonderful Monday morning at the office. NOT.... If you are like me you noticed that the roads were pretty empty this morning which means a LOT of folks are still on Christmas vacation. I for one am like the rest of the minority who have to make a showing at the shop/office/cubicle etc. Things are pretty dead here so I have time to completely start over on my home computer fiasco. Sigh.... Ready SET GO!!!! Deep breath...


Step 1, hook up PC and turn it on -Pray
Step 2, hook up 160 GB USB external Hard drive
Step 3, back up D drive data to external drive - should take several hours
Step 4, back up data on C drive to external drive - not as much as D drive
Step 5, insert Win98 System disk and reboot system
Step 6, blow away partitons on both C and D drives
Step 7, create new partitions on C and D drives
Step 8, format C and D drives with Fat32
Step 9, Insert Windows ME CD into cd drive and reboot
Step 10, install Windows ME on C drive with Fat32 partition - Pray
Step 11, verify all hardware is recognized and working
Step 12, use Microsoft Security CD and install all security updates since Feb 2004- Pray
Step 13, using Windows Update install any newer security updates- Pray
Step 14, install Anti Virus software and scan drive C - Pray
Step 15, begin installing necessary software - pray extra hard here
Step 16 restore data from external hard drive back to D drive
Step 17 configure MS Outlook with proper PST file for Katy - Pray
Step 18 configure MS Money with correct data file - Pray again
Step 19 if steps 1 through 19 blow up in my face despite prayer take PC CPU out to Ashley Phosphate rd and let multiple cars and trucks destory it beyond repair
Step 20 If I had to resort to step 19 figure out where I will live after Katy kicks me out of the house because of no Internet access

Back to reality again

I know that it is time to get back to reality because I am at my part time job working security here at the County Office Building in DT Charleston. It is REALLY cold here but atleast it has stopped raining. Last night we were under a winter storm advisory because a cold front was coming through and there was a trough of moisture coming from the gulf of Mexico and racing up the eastern seaboard.
Luckily for us the roads did not ice over here in the lowcountry but I am sure in the upstate of SC near the mountains or north of I-95 that folks saw some sleet, ice and some snow. When that happens here in the deep south the entire state just shuts down. People rarely know how to drive safely in good conditions much less when the roads become hazardous. I think that last week atleast two days of the week I 26 was shut down for several hours due to multiple car wrecks where folks turned their cars or trucks upside down on the freeway.

I have not heard back from either Bloglines or Blogger about the lapdance.com posts that Patty found. I am hopeful that someone can delete that garbage from my blog. Imagine the horror when Patty told me last night that I was advertising porn in my blog and I did not even know it. LOL... How scary is that folks? Its one thing when someone wants to advertise that sort of thing or talk about it but its quite something else when you are promoting christian/family values. Speaking of that I hope that you are not in the dark with regards to Internet porn. Just the other day at the shop a lady had brought in her laptop computer to be worked on. The laptop wound up getting spyware and other malware installed and was eating up all the system resources. When the customer came by to pick up her computer it was late in the afternoon and I was the only one in the office. We were standing at the front counter where I was checking the machine out and the customer was paying the bill when she asked me if she could ask me something but that it might make me mad. I told her to go ahead and ask the question because I doubt that I would be angry about it. The customer tells me that her daughters husband is involved in surfing porn on the Internet and that her daughter knows something is up because every time she walks past the computer he switches the screen to something else on the computer. In other words he is hiding what he is doing from her. The daughter has approached the husband and asked him to talk about it and of course he is in denial. Over the last 10+ years I have worked with several Intenret based ministries that work with men and women who are either addicted to porn or have become victims of this addiction through their relationships with someone that is.

Internet porn is a billion dollar industry and you no longer need to go searching for it , it will find you in the form of either spam mail OR an innocent web search via Google, Yahoo or whatever search engine you are on. There are porn sites out there that use meta tags that have the word Bible, God, Jesus and church. So, if you or your children are searching for something innocent and non adult in nature you might be surprised to know that the wrong result could pop up on your computer screen. So the question is not IF you run across porn on your Internet connected computer but WHAT you will do WHEN it happens. One of the problems with Internet porn OR gambling is that you can do these activities from the privacy of your own home behind locked doors and no one will be the wiser as to what you are doing. These types of activity become secret sins. Even for those husbands, wives, sons or daughters that are extremely alert they wont recognize credit card charges for porn or gambling because those companies disguise the charge to a company name that is very ambigous. That credit card charge could be something bad or it could be something innocent.

The problem with Internet porn and gambling is that it becomes an addiction. When the problem starts it could be very innocent and compeletly coincidental. In other words the son or daughter goes through the house and finds videos or magazines that they should not find and before you know it they have been introduced into a world that they should never have been invited into. We lock up our guns and unload them from our kids right? Why would you leave something laying around that our kids could get into that will cause them to start down the road with an ugly addiction. I dont care what it is folks. It can be Playboy magazines, cigarrettes, gambling , snuff, whatever. If you have it in your life and you are not careful before you know it your loved ones could get sucked into a very tangled web that can lead to major problems down the road. Like I said earlier, people become curious through different channels and for different reasons and they do not intend to become addicted but it happens. Web sites will offer you a TASTE of what they have to offer for as little as 1.00 to get you sucked in and before you know it you are paying a monthly service fee to get MORE and MORE and MORE of whatever it is that you are addicted to. If you are reading this and you are thinking OH MY perhaps there is a problem somewhere within your family there is HOPE and there are solutions available to you. The first thing you have to do is find out what is going on. Drag the behaviour and activities lovingly out into the light. You might have to exercise some tough love to get to the truth but nevertheless I encourage you to do it. There are online resources and offline resources that you can tap into that will educate you on what you need to know about whatever you are going through. So, do not feel alone or as if you are in a helpless or hopeless situation because you are not. If you have questions or need direction in these areas feel free to send me e-mail at moffittj@bellsouth.net and I will do everything that I can to point you in the right direction.

Well, today is the day after Christmas and before we know it we will be back to reality. The 9 to 5 grind will start up and we will find ourselves in bumper to bumper traffic with the rest of humanity.
We spend so much time getting ready for Christmas ( well some of us do I suppose) and then when it is all over we almost find outselves feeling a bit depressed that it is gone. Why cant Christmas last 11 months out of 12 anyway? Our pastor preached on this very topic today and he spoke about the Christmas story of the Grinch that stole Christmas. He compared Herod in the old testament with the Grinch. Both of them were not happy about others having fun and being festive. Both of them decided to do whatever it takes to KEEP people from experiencing joy and happiness because they were either threatened (Herod and the Christ child at birth) or did not want people to have fun (the Grinch). The moral of the story is that we can keep our focus on the reason for the season 356 days a year and we can have Christmas every day of the year. We can open up our hearts and let Jesus in and allow Him to be the Lord of all or we can be our own lord and become all wrapped up in the world around us and pursue the things of this world that are only temporal. How much money will make us happy? How many parties does it take to make us merry? How many or much of this or that will it take for us to find true peace, joy and happiness? I can assure you that there is a temporary attraction and fun with regards to the things of this world but once the newness has worn off and the consequences of engaging in these activities hits home the fun will end. I hope that there was a Christ in your Christmas season and that you spent some quality time with loved ones and remembered how awesome it was that Emanuel was born and placed in a manager with swaddling clothes.

Here is another thought for you while I am banging away at the keyboard. Are you going to live forever? We all assume that we will go to bed tonight in our own beds and that we will wake up when the alarm clock goes off in the morning. Tonight at work I was rudely awakened AGAIN to the fact that life is very precious and it is very temporary for us. I found out that a young lady that works for our company was involved in a motorcycle accident last week and died. I worked with this lady one shift and have only seen her one other time in passing in the parking garage during shift change.
This young lady was either 20 or 22 years of age. Her life was ended just last week, the week of Christmas 2004. She is gone, never to return to us in the life that we know now. I do not even know what her religious affiliation was or if she even attended church. So, of course, I find myself sitting here wondering about her eternal resting place hoping that Christ was her Lord and Savior.
Just this year I lost a friend of mine to cancer who worked over at the Historic Court Building. Carol Holland was younger than I am and she is gone. This morning at 7 am people in Asia were surprised by a 8.9 earthquake which produced a Tsunami tital wave that was 20 feet high. They are still counting the bodies but we are up to 11000 now. How many folks lose a loved one in the many wars that are going on over our entire globe? Gone , never to return. How tragic is that? Well, the point of all this is that none of us know when our time is up and when we will exit out of the life that we know now. I am not bringing all of this back to your attention because I am trying to be morose or morbid but I want to make sure that YOU and your loved ones are ready for that eventuality. Yes, I know, you are in good health and you do not engage in any behaviours or activities that will endanger you. Do you drive to work? Do you fly from one city to another? That list can go on but there are many ways in which our life can end and there is no way that any of us can figure out a way to keep the inevitable from happening. No matter what get smart and be ready. Be ready to face your creator every single day of your life and thank HIM that He has seen fit to give you that life to live. What is the saying? Life is Gods gift to us but what we do with that life is our gift back to God.

Happy Holidays

Windows XP SP1 Nightmares

Santa Claus has delivered the toys under the Christmas tree and is on his way back to the North Pole. The kids have just opened all their presents from under the tree and I am glad it is over. LOL... They were about to drive mom and dad crazy as they bounced all over the house yesterday in anticipation. I guess I have forgotten what a big deal it is for kids on Christmas. HoHoHo Merry Christmas to one and all. Now, lets talk about MY Christmas gift that the Grinch left for me last night.

Remember I told you that I was going to wipe the hard drive on the family computer and start all over from scratch? I started the process at 1 pm and it should have ENDED around 6pm. From the time I used FDISK to kill the original partition to installing all of the software. Well thanks to the Grinch (who else can I blame ?) he stole my Christmas JOY by causing me to have to work on the blasted computer up until around midnight. How special.... LOL

Lets see, the last time I babbled about this I had formatted the drive with NTFS version 5 and was installing XP Professional Service Pack 1. I managed to get the OS installed with no problems and ran all of the MS Security Updates from the Windows Update website including Service Pack 2. I installed the Anti Virus software and then noticed that I did not have any sound. We cant have that so I dove in with both feet and elbows and remembered that I need to install the correct driver to make the speakers work. That is when the hardware nightmare began.

At this point I did not realize that my motherboard chip set and plug in cards were not going to work with XP SP1. After fighting with the sound card drivers for 2 + hours and multiple reboots and BSOD with the sysaudio.sys error I finally decided to blow the partition away and start all over again. That was around 7 pm that I decided that. I figured that would be the fastest way to fix the problem. When I tried to install XP with SP1 on a fresh partition I was greeted by multiple BSOD's AGAIN. At this point I gave up and took the sound card out and tried the install on a fresh partition which resulted in a BSOD so I tried to disable all sound on the MB which caused another BSOD. I finally went to the Internet and searched on the sysaudio.sys error with XP SP1 and was greeted with numerous nightmare stories of how XP SP1 just does not play well with some hardware. Well folks, guess what? Such is the case in my computer. I finally installed Microsoft ME on the computer with NO problems. I have Internet access, sound and the whole works. I also was able to install Microsoft XP Home and have it in a dual boot configuration. Everything BUT sound works on XP Home. Go figure... I think that it is time to buy a new home pc that will enable me to use XP Pro and Service pack 2.

I guess it was about 12:04 am when I looked at the laptop and noticed that I had lost wireless connectivity. Sigh... I thought, what the heck is wrong now folks? LOL... Sure enough I did not have Internet connectivity and then I found out that our entire phone service was down, no dial tone no nothing. I called Bellsouth and of course they determined that I REALLY did have a problem on the line and that it would be Monday before someone could come look at it. At this point I just turned everything off and went to bed. What else could I destroy anyway? This morning when we awakened the dial tone magically had come back on the phone. I guess the Grinch left the building and took all the gremlins with him. Thank God for that. LOL...

Now that the christmas gifts are opened and the children have calmed down some I can focus on reconfiguring our home PC with all of the software I need to install and I need to put together a bicycle together for Justin. I just hope I dont destroy that as well. LOL

So, anyway what is the moral of this story you ask? If it is NOT broken, dont fix it. LOL

Merry Christmas....

The unthinkable

Yes, I just did the unthinkable or is the word unthunkable? LOL... I am spending my FREE time wisely this weekend since I have several days off and not much else to do. I blew away the partition on my hard drive , formatted C and reinstall XP Professional. Two years ago I did an upgrade on my system in which I went from a 866 mhz Gateway Motherboard/cpu and put in a 1.1 GHZ Celeron CPU and motherboard. I found out that when service pack 1 for XP came out that I could not install it because Microsoft found that my product key was not legitimate. That is right, the software running on my PC was considered pirated by Mickeysoft. Sigh.... So, obviously when service pack 2 came out I could not install it nor could I install some applications like PERCH which demands you be running a minimum of Service Pack 1 for XP. Service Packs are pushed out to the public by Microsoft so that WE can update their buggy software and hopefully be safe from the latest and greatest security holes that are being found each and every day.
Now that some of you have Service Pack 2 there are folks out there that are finding more and more security holes in Mickeysoft OS XP. Go figure.

So, thus far I have used FDISK to blow away the non dos partition and recreated a primary dos partition. I booted to the XP OS cd and let it format the primary partition NTFS5. NTFS version 5 allows you to encrypt your files and compress them which are the two extra attributes that NTFS version 4 did not allow you to do. NTFS5 formatted fine and the OS is up and running. I entered in the correct VALID OS Product Key and registered online with Mickeysoft without a problem. Now I will spend the next 6 hours installing ALL the other Mickeysoft Security Updates including Service Pack 2. Luckily for me I have the wireless laptop fired up so I can drivel what I am doing in my blog to keep me from falling asleep and give you something to do other than to eat that other cookie or potatoe chip that is in your hand. JUST PUT IT DOWN OK?? You dont need it. hahahahahaha

Once all the security updates are done I can do a fresh install of Microsoft Office XP and the other LIST of software that I can not live without like Microsoft Activesynch for my Pocket PC and Anti Virus software which is a must have for anyone running broadband which is ALWAYS ON.... Heck, even if you are not on the Internet you should have Anti Virus software and Spybot Search and Destroy installed on your computer.

Happy Holidays!!!

So much for pictures....

I just took some digital pictures to share with YOU but of course my HELLO application and bloogerspot has decided to take the day off and not cooperate. I have grown quite lazy with regards to sharing pictures on my blog because this app makes it quiet easy. I will be waiting for Hello to fix itself before I post the pictures. I doubt that I have the ability to post pictures here on Bloglines....

Well, here we sit, just hanging out, watching the lights on the tree blink and listening to Christmas music. I took the kids and the dogs out for a 2 mile walk in the freezing weather. Gosh, that was SO MUCH FUN... LOL NOT... I am catching up on some much needed technoid reading in some of my magazine subscriptions that I rarely have time to read. I will be sharing any choice things that I find later so stay tuned.

I am thinking about taking the kids bowling this afternoon to keep cabin fever from setting in. I have not been off of work from either of my two jobs for the last 16 days so this will be nice...

Perfect gift for your favorite couch potatoe

I saw this advertisement on TV tonight and almost fell over. If I had not been sitting on the floor already I would have probably wound up there as I was laughing. How about buying a Black and Decker Jar Opener for your favorite couch potatoe. I had flash backs of Jay Leno saying " How FAT are we Americans....." Have you seen the new Hardees Monster Burger commercial? I think that this burger has 4000 calories in one burger. Now we have Black and Decker Jar Openers as well? Does that mean we are REALLY that lazy now? LOL... God help us...

Bloglines Blog

Ok, for those of you that want to keep up with my BLOG here but do not want to figure out RSS readers etc I have started a new BLOG at Bloglines that will mirror this one. When I publish here and I have time I will publish it over at Bloglines as well. You never know, I might blog different content to both blogs just to keep you on your toes. LOL...

http://www.bloglines.com/blog/jcmoffitt

Merry Christmas



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

Christmas 2004 is almost upon us....

I am trying to get into the Christmas spirit and for some reason it is just not working.
I am not sure WHAT the "christmas spirit" is supposed to be per sae or HOW to find it but I feel that it must have something to do with a feeling of JOY and PEACE and HAPPINESS.
One of the things about growing up into an adult is that you find out that Santa Claus really is not the magical fellow that the weatherman always finds on weather radar each Christmas Eve as he is making his way from the North to the South giving the hope filled children a reason to go to bed. Now I know that the reason that the parents want the children to go to bed is so that they can put together all those hard to configure toys and finally go to sleep themselves before being awakened by the kids bouncing off the walls.

I suppose that since the magic is gone for me that atleast my children can enjoy as much of the Christmas season that is possible. Justin at the age of 9 and Kristina at the age of 12 understand that there is no St Nick and that mommie and daddy had a rough year financially and thanks to Food Lion they will actually have a Christmas gift under the tree.
I am glad that this is possible but I HATE the fact that our kids are getting Christmas because of HDST and Food Lion. I am hopeful that mom and dad can have a much more propserous New Year in 2005 and that we can find ourselve able to play Mr and Mrs Claus next year.

I am very thankful that while I might not find myself eaten up with the Christmas spirit I still have a lot to be thankful for. I am thankful that God is still God and that He is still in control of our ultimate destiny. I am glad that our family is in good health, together under one roof and that we are able to enjoy the basic needs of life which is a roof over our heads, clothes on our backs, food for our stomachs and a place to lay our heads at night. Once you get past the basic needs everything else is icing on the cake. Unfortunatley we live in a day and age that determines our worth and our happiness by how much junk we can accumulate and how much fun we can have. We find ourselves comparing one another with one another and falling miserably short in some areas and feeling like failures. If you never compare yourself to your neighbor or co worker and wonder why you have not achieved what they have or dont have what they have or look like they do then you are doing better than most folks. I sometimes find myself doing just that and it only causes me to be down in the dumps and feeling puny. So, instead of looking without I will chose to look within and just be thankful for where we are at.

The first two quarters of this year sucked financially but somehow we managed to survive it. October finds me with a better job in the I.T. industry which certainly took a LOT of pressure off the budget and still playing a major game of catch up. The year 2005 will find me filling my tiny little brain with semi useless computer jargon, acronyms and technology tidbits so that I can obtain little pieces of paper that show folks that I know NT stands for Nuclear Tomatoe. LOL... In the month of January I hope to take my A+ certification test and hopefully pass it the first time. The Network + will follow and then I will be diving off into the world of Citrix and Microsoft Server 2003. I just hope that I do not fry the last brain cell I have left. LOL...

Katy and the kids are on vacation until afte the 1st day of 2005 and I will probably plug along and not get any time off thanks to most of the holidays falling on the weekend anyway. The nice thing about that is that things have been a tad bit slow for me at work which has allowed me to catch my breath and do some studying.

My hope, wish and prayer for you is that you will take the time in the next four days to sit down and appreciate where you are at in life. If you have family take the time to reaquaint yourself with them. Sit down and talk to them, hug them and let them know that you appreciate them for who they are. Get in touch with long lost relatives and wish them a Merry Christmas. Yes, I know, people are not perfect and we all have to deal with our good and bad side. Just figure out a way to overlook the bad and highlight the good in the folks around you. Everyone will want to feel loved and appreciated this season and as I have said before this is not a happy time for everyone. There are folks out there that do everything that they can just to survive the holiday season. So, if you know someone that needs a friend and for someone to show that they know they are alive try to be that someone.

Happy Holidays and God bless

Wi-Fi Networking News: R.I.P. W.E.P.

Just when you think your Wireless Network is safe. How many of us take out the wireless access point, turn it on and have the mind set of "set it and forget it"? Some of us even go to the length of actually turning on WEP. This article shows us where that functionality while better than doing NOTHING does not mean that someone can not gain access to your data. How scary is that folks?
The good news is that even with WEP enabled there are things that you can do on your wireless network that will make it much more difficult to gain access to your wireless network.




Wi-Fi Networking News: R.I.P. W.E.P.

Zafi worm variant hides behind Christmas cheer - Computerworld

BEWARE of the WORM.... LOL...

Read this article, good stuff. Be aware of receiving this in your inbox and be sure to DELETE it and DO NOT open it.


Zafi worm variant hides behind Christmas cheer - Computerworld

How COLD is it??

It is 28 degrees F here in Goose Creek SC. Good grief Grady what the heck is going on? The Eskimos left the freezer door open and I cant google their e-mail address to REMIND them to close it. Brrrrrrrrrrrr

I have 6 minutes before West Wing comes on and we watch our favorite TV president and staff do their thing. The TV president has MS and in this next show it will show his symptoms accelerating to the point that he is almost paralyzed. Then there is something about a HUGE asteroid headed for earth. Say do what?? Oh, never mind, its only TV. LOL...

Not much new going on here. Work, eat , sleep, FREEZE, thaw out, work, eat sleep, FREEZE , thaw out. LOL...

Happy Holidays from our family to yours.