Linux Wireless Nightmares

I am sad to say that while Fedora Core (RedHat) Linux installed just fine on the Toshiba Satelite laptop I still had issues with it. The first issue that I had was that I was having problems downloading all of the updates from the RedHat repositories. Perhaps they were just busy and that is why I kept having to start all over again with multiple downloads. The major issue that I was facing with regards to using Linux as the primary OS for my laptop was the wireless network card configuration nightmare that faced me. Lets just say that everything that I read about how to make this happen is not for the faint hearted. As a matter of fact I would go as far to say that your typical Windows literate computer users would not be able to figure this out on their own. Here are a couple of reasons why. First and foremost Linux does come with its own version of a GUI desktop such as KDE in Ichthux however it is so different that you can easily get lost. The GUI interface easily avails the user to the familiar Internet related applications such as Firefox, Email, IRC, IM programs etc. The fly in the ointment is that when you get ready to do any basic maintenance or try to install any software you are in for a treat. That treat is called the terminal window or command prompt. That is where the real nightmare begins and your excitement of using a new OS ends. The second reason that most folks would run screaming from Linux is that the install procedure for applications is no where near as intuitive as your typical windows software. There is a program built into Linux called Adept which allows you to download new updates for the OS Kernel and other applications that come with that particular distribution of Linux. Those packages seem to install ok however the gotcha with that is if you install a program that will conflict with another one of the apps already installed it could potentially corrupt the whole install of Linux and render it useless. Do you remember what Spy Assassin did to the first install of Ichthux the other day? Now lets say you are out surfing the web and you want to download a program off the web that is Linux compatible. Lets take Firefox for example. You download it just fine but then you get to take a trip down nightmare lane in the terminal program where you have to figure out how to extract the compressed fine, change directories to the location of those files and then try to install it. Good luck on that one. The third reason that folks would give up on Linux on the laptop especially is the difficulty level of installing your wireless adapter. Fedora Core did not recognize the Linksys Wireless adapter that was plugged in to the pcmcia card slot. The BIOS recognized its presence through card and socket services and provided the needed power to the device but Linux certainly did not see it. I wont bore you with all of the gory details of what it entails but lets just say that what I read about HOW I needed to get it to work was enough to make me say " Is all of this really worth running Linux on my laptop??" Sadly enough the potential migrane caused me to change directions on what OS I would use on the laptop. One other thing that you seriously need to consider about playing around with Linux is that you really do not want to try to dual boot this OS with a Windows Operating System. The reason I say this is because you can delete the partition that Linux is on but you will have a lot of fun getting rid of the GRUB Boot Loader that Linux installs in the Master Boot Record. Thanks to my inexperience with Linux boot loaders and my not changing the Adminstrator password on XP I found myself just using the recovery cd to wipe the drive and start from scratch. POOF. All my software configurations were gone AGAIN. LOL...

James Moffitt
http://www.lightourworld.com
http://moffittjc.blogharbor.com/blog
james.moffitt@comcast.net

Out with Ichthux and IN with Fedora on laptop

Ok, for now I am done with the Ichthux distro on the Toshiba laptop. I learned , much to may chagrin, that I was not able to remove the Linux partitions (GRUB boot loader) without trashing my ability to boot to Windoze. I had four partitions, one of them NTFS where Windoze resided of course. The active partition was on partition 1 where the GRUB boot loader resides. Windoze does NOT like it when it does not have control over the MBR (Master Boot Record). So, when I used 98 Fdisk version to remove the partitions and changed the Active partition to the one that had NTFS it would no longer boot up. I tried to boot to an XP install cd and select R for repair but it wanted the Administrator password. The last time I recovered my laptop with the recovery cd I forgot to set a password for Administrator. That means NO repair of the MBR, atleast not with keeping the existing install of XP. So, since I am going to have to do the recovery cd AGAIN one of my buddies at work told me to try Fedora Core on my laptop and see how well that works. Since I am in rebuild mode anyway, I say why not!!!!! It will be interesting to see if I can get the wireless functionality to work with Linux. That will be the ultimate in success if I can make that work. I sure am glad that I have all my data on cd and USB jump drives so I can restore it if need be.














James Moffitt
http://www.lightourworld.com
http://moffittjc.blogharbor.com/blog
james.moffitt@comcast.net

Ichthux Version 6.10 update

I got home from bowling last night and was eager to mess up my laptop one more time. LOL... Ok, I was NOT eager to mess up my laptop however I knew that my adventuresome spirit might get me into trouble again. When it comes to technology I guess that I dont worry about things getting messed up because when that happens you have to LEARN in order to fix the mess. I plugged the laptop in and thanks to something I found on a user group yesterday afternoon I knew to plug in the laptop to the hardwired network. Once that was done I started the install process and it worked like a charm. For whatever reasons Ichthux likes for you to be connected to the Internet so that it can go out to the data repositories and get the latest and greatest code. The install process took all of 15 minutes. I rebooted my laptop and was greeted with the new boot manager screen which gave me a choice between Linux and XP Pro. I chose Linux, it booted up to a nice pretty blue screen. Version 6.10 looks a little bit different than 6.09 but not anything major. I put in my user id and password that I had set up during the install procedure and guess what? I could not log on to save my life. Go figure sports fans. Now I have a new OS on my laptop that I want to tinker with and I can not log on. LOL... Luckily for me the laptop works fine with XP Pro so I am not crippled too badly. I have joined several Linux support groups and left a message to see if someone can help.









James Moffitt
http://www.lightourworld.com
http://moffittjc.blogharbor.com/blog
james.moffitt@comcast.net

Linux registered user 441766

I have been playing around with Ichthux which is a Linux distribution for Christians. I am on a steep learning curve since it has been ages since I missed around with RedHat years and years ago. I guess I am dating myself a bit huh? So, anyway, without further ado I am officially a registered Linux user. I am not sure what that really gives me other than association with the Linux user group but I think that is cool in and of itself. I have a cool graphic that I can add to my web pages as well which I will start to use. Neat stuff if you ask me. I am running the 6.09 distribution kernel and have it installed on two computers at home. My main Gateway machine is dual booting XP SP2 and Linux and my kids computer has ONLY Ichthux installed. I am not winning any popularity contests having done this so I guess I need to figure a way to get a spare computer other than theirs to play with Linux on. I can not get Linux to run on my Toshiba laptop and I wont be trying that install process any time in the near future. It really is a pain in the keister to have to install everything from scratch when you blow up a hard drive partition with Windoze loaded on it.

My next learning task will be to learn how to connect to Windows Network shares and a network printer. Wish me luck!!


James Moffitt
http://www.lightourworld.com
http://moffittjc.blogharbor.com/blog
james.moffitt@comcast.net

Join my new Frapper Map

Go CARTA GO

Good morning Charleston!

I am happy to announce that I am very pleased with my experience thus far riding the Carta Express from the Super K Mart in North Charleston to downtown Charleston. Typically I get on at 7:19 am and arrive downtown around 7:46 am. This morning I rode at 6:49 am and arrived downtown at 7:14 am. The rides have been comfortable and the drivers have been exceptionally polite, courteous and knowledgeable. I have spent some time riding buses in Houston Texas back in the 80's and I can garuntee you that the bus drivers there were no where near as nice as the ones I have experienced thus far on Carta Express. So far customer service from the Carta Express route I am on deserves a big thumbs up! When you get on the bus you will be greeted by other passengers and a free newspaper. The driver greets everyone as they get on the bus and he lets everyone know what time he will be leaving the parking lot. When the driver gets downtown he announces each stop before you get there so there is no need to ring the bell to get his attention. I have been riding the Carta Express since last Thursday and as time goes on it appears that more and more people are taking advantage of the service. Now is the time to try it because it is free for the first two weeks of service. Once those two weeks is up there is a nominal fee for riding back and forth to downtown. I can garuntee you that you will save a lot of wear and tear on your vehicle , your nerves and your pocket book. With the prices of gasoline still hovering around 2 bucks per gallon I think that all of us could use that money somewhere else other than our gas tanks. On top of all of that when you get into the parking lot there is a catering truck there that has hot coffee and breakfast items. What else could we ask for other than for the bus to come to our houses and pick us up? LOL... The bottom line is this Charleston. We need to use it so that we do not lose it. Amen?



James Moffitt
http://www.lightourworld.com
http://moffittjc.blogharbor.com/blog
james.moffitt@comcast.net

Fortune City gets reprieve and apology

Our domain , Lightourworld, is back online. I found out this morning that what killed it was that my domain expired on 1/25/07. Fortunecity told me that they automagically send out renewal notices to the e-mail account that is registered within the domain name registration portion of my account. I had changed my e-mail address after we registered the domain and I had gone into the Fortunecity billing website and changed my information but I had not gone into the domain services website and change it there. Therefore all the e-mail notifications that I was being sent bounced back to them. OOOOOOPS.... My apologies to Fortunecity for jumping the gun and being a tad bit peeved about loss of service. It appears that my forgetfullness caused our website and e-mail services to go offline for the weekend. Luckily for us we were not hosting an ecommerce site and I did not lose potential sales. I need to remember to register that domain for several years so that I can be ahead of the game from now on. I will also say that instead of the domain being down for another 24 to 48 hours that it has reappeared within several hours instead. Thanks Fortunecity....





James Moffitt
http://www.lightourworld.com
http://moffittjc.blogharbor.com/blog
james.moffitt@comcast.net

Introducing IMSAFER

I am writing this to tell you about a program called "imsafer" Go to www.imsafer.Com to read more about it. Basically speaking it is free for now and it flags any potentially dangerous conversations going on between your children's existing IM accounts on the computers that you install this software to. The program includes monitoring of MySpace IM as well which I am interested in the most. You must have administrator rights to install the program and even if your youngster is computer savy enough to try and uninstall the program they wont be able to. They have to know how to log on to your monitoring account via the web and click the link that allow for the uninstall. If they don't know your email address and password they wont be able to uninstall it.

Katy and I installed it on the two computers that are hardwired on the network at our house and used all of the existing IM accounts that we found under our kids logon profiles. We used some of the conversations that are supposed to trigger the alerts and it works great.

If your kids use Myspace or Yahoo, AOL or Yahoo IM I would encourage you to give this a test drive.

James C. Moffitt Jr.
james.moffitt@comcast.net
http://www.myspace.com/jcmoffitt chiefpropellerhead.blip.tv
jcmoffitt.blogspot.com
843-460-4006




James Moffitt
http://www.lightourworld.com
http://moffittjc.blogharbor.com/blog
james.moffitt@comcast.net

Fortune City Sucks

If you are looking for a website and e-mail hosting provider be sure to NOT use Fortune City. My credit card that was on file with them has expired and they could not get their monthly subscription fee. They sent me an e-mail today and then promptly disabled my website and my e-mail. They did this on Friday and I wont be able to pay the subscription fee until Monday at 9 am. Fortune City sells web services yet they are only available to their customers between the hours of 9 am and 5 pm Monday through Friday. You can send them an e-mail but dont hold your breath waiting on a response. I will be sure to pay for one more months hosting so I can make a backup of my website and then I will be moving my site and e-mail to another provider.



James Moffitt
http://www.lightourworld.com
http://moffittjc.blogharbor.com/blog
james.moffitt@comcast.net

Bam Bam needs access

Bam Bam is one of my sons, the younger one in fact. Justin was nicknamed that when he was a couple of years old. He seemingly could wreck an iron ball if left on his own for about 10 seconds. I guess all kids are that way to a certain degree. Justin has been sick most of this week after spending the night at Paul Bunyon's last weekend. Wednesday we decided that he was not getting over whatever bug that he has and decided it was time to call in the big guns to solve the problem. The doctor looked him over and listened to his lungs and pronounced that he would take an xray of his lungs to verify that he probably has pneumonia. Sure enough, the xrays came back and he has it. The doctor gave him an antibiotic booster via hyperdermic needle and bam bam was very excited about that. Katy told Justin that if he did not get better soon that they might have to send him to the hospital. Justin proved that he is indeed our child and addicted to the Net when he pronounced that he did not care if he had to go into the hospital to get better but they had better have high speed Internet access. Katy just about split her side laughing at that one. LOL...


James Moffitt
http://www.lightourworld.com
http://moffittjc.blogharbor.com/blog
james.moffitt@comcast.net

The Five Guys

This is a picture that was taken of the Jesus Connect Five in 2005. I had flown to Houston to see my son Jeremy graduate from High School. I then went over to Reynold's house where we all gathered to talk and share stories and fellowship. John Searcy is seen here standing next to the gentleman with crutches and has glasses hanging around his neck.

James Moffitt
http://www.lightourworld.com
http://moffittjc.blogharbor.com/blog
james.moffitt@comcast.net

In loving tribute to my friend John Searcy

AKA "Grouchy Old Man"

I supposed there is never a good way to find out that a loved one has passed on from this life to the life beyond. The Internet gives us instant gratification with regards to information at our finger tips. E-mail can be a blessing or it can be a curse. So goes it with my dear friend John Searcy. I found out from my friend Reynold DeGuzman that our friend John went to sleep last night and never woke up. I have known John Searcy for atleast 15 years back to 1991 or 1992. Technology was one of the things that we all have in common. I either met John because he was friends with Reynold or I met John because he logged onto either Jesus Connect BBS or Cross Connection BBS. Back then Reynold Deguzman had a computer in his home and he hosted Jesus Connect and I had a computer in our townhome in Houston and we hosted Cross Connection BBS. People would dial our modems and log in. Several years later the World Wide Web took off and Reynold jumped on the cutting edge of technology and moved the BBS onto a web page and programmed a custom website with message bases that we could all communicate on.

John, Reynold, Don Chapman and myself all were technology junkies and we all have Jesus Christ as a commonality that brought us all together as friends. I lived in Houston Texas with my family between 1981 and August of 1997. During this time I became pretty close with both John and Reynold. We would get together at one of our homes and brain storm on how we could use Internet technology to reach the world for Christ. One of the things that John Searcy and I did was we would spend hours on end hosting IRC chat channels on several different IRC networks. Internet Relay Chat clients like MIRC and PIRCH would enable someone to log on to an IRC chat server on either Dalnet, Effnet or Starnet IRC networks. John was real passionate about how Christ had changed his life from his old hippie days to the days after when Jesus had changed his heart and made a new man out of him. I remember how we would be sitting in a chat room and some heckler would come in to create havoc and disrupt the chat room. Brother John would be all over that and would not allow them to get away with being disrespectful.

I will never forget all of the times that brother John would come up with catchy little phrases that would enable him to share his faith in Christ.

One of the fondest memories that I have of my friend John is that he was nicknamed GOM or Grouchy Old Man and he nicknamed me GOMMIT or Grouch Old Man in Training. It seems that John and I always got along great in person or on the telephone but when John got into his chat persona he would act like a grouchy old man. I used to give him a lot of grief about that and it turned into part of his legacy as my friend.

I remember when John worked at Compaq Computers close to 290. He was a sales person working on their sales floor. I used to go visit him while he was at work. I think that he was helping to refurbish compaq computers and then resell them. John had a unquenchable thirst to learn about technology. He and I both learned alot about personal computers way back when.

I wish that I had been able to see John one last time but I did talk to him on Yahoo IM several weeks ago. I know that John was probably in his later 60's and maybe even in his early 70's but as far as I knew he was in relatively good health. I know he kept active with his wife as they managed self storage businesses in the Houston area.

John's wife lost a wonderful husband and the "five guys" from the Jesus Connect Ministry days have lost a dear friend. Rest in peace my friend, we love you very much.

James Moffitt
http://www.lightourworld.com
http://moffittjc.blogharbor.com/blog
james.moffitt@comcast.net

Out with the old and in with the new

We are 10 days into 2007 and life is pretty much the same in our pond. We live at the bottom of a hill and thanks to the copious amounts of precipitation I feel as if I should be called rain man. Luckily for me I have a four wheel drive vehicle that sits up high enough to overcome the mud and water. We have been having some unseasonably warm weather in Duck Ditch. Speaking of ducks my neighbors quackers have been unusually quiet lately. I wonder what Paul Bunyon and clan had for Christmas dinner.

I found out last week that my contract for my job in downtown Charleston was renewed until June of 07 so I am pretty pumped up about that. All of my creditors will be happy to know that I can continue to pay my bills. Some day I pray that I can find a REAL job that is full time with benefits. I am happy and thankful for the employment that I do have however having benefits would be sort of nice.

Katy is working through her second year of the PACE program at Charleston County School District. I am really starting to wonder why anyone would want to be a teacher. Katy works 8 hours during the day and then she comes home and works and studies for another 5 or 6 hours before she goes to bed. I am so very proud of my wife for being the type of person that she is. She is a wonderful teacher, wife and mother of our children. Go Katy Go!!!!

The Dallas Cowgirls self destructed last Saturday evening and ended their football season with a 9 win and 8 loss record. I think that was their record last year. Tony Romo is the one shining star of the season even if he did screw up with the place holding on the field goal that was attempted at the end of the game. Had they pulled that off Dallas might be in the playoffs. My dad told me something a long time ago. If if's and buts were candy and nuts we would have a mighty fine christmas. As far as I am concerned the next game to watch will be the Eagles and Saints game where I hope the Eagles are soundly defeated. I have some guys at work that hate Dallas and love the Eagles. LOL

James Moffitt
http://www.lightourworld.com
http://moffittjc.blogharbor.com/blog
james.moffitt@comcast.net

A deeper walk with Christ in 2007

As we find ourselves at the beginning of 2007 I wanted to take the time to share from my heart. I hope that you will think about these things and then join me in 2007 as I try to develop a stronger relationship with Christ in my life. These thoughts are primariy focused towards those of you who have identified with Christ and claim that He is your Lord and Savior.

My hope and prayer for myself and for all of my brothers and sisters is that we can find the things of this world that are choking out Christ in our lives and find a way to diminish the presence of those things and replace those things with Jesus. There is an old saying and it says something like this. The Bible will keep you from sin or sin will keep you from the Bible. There is so much truth to that.

As I look at my life and the process of sanctification I know that I know that I stand in His way of that perfect work more times than not. We are to be in the world but not of the world. The only problem with that is we are so deeply entwined in the things of this world on a daily basis that it is sometimes difficult to distinguish the two. The only thing that will enable us to see clearly (as through a stained glass) is for us to get a better picture of who God really is. The only way we can do that folks is to pursue HIM in a personal relationship. We can do that through reading of His word. We can do that by experiencing true koininia with our bretheren. Through that fellowship we will see God working in the lives of other believers and in turn the Jesus in them will reach out and touch our lives. We can experience God in a closer more personal way by spending time in prayer and listening to what God is telling us in the still quiet places in our hearts. We must purpose in our hearts to get still and quiet before God shut our mouths and listen. If we can not hear his voice how in the world will he be able to reach us?

My pastor said this statement on Sunday. Christians today try to be self sufficient and do everything themselves and then when they are at the end of their resources and things are all messed up then we go to God and ask him to fix our messes. Proverbs 3:5 and 6 says this. Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding;6 in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight. Trust in God with ALL your heart and in every aspect of your life. That includes but not exclusive to your relationships,finances, talents, dreams, hopes, desires, career, marriage.... The list is endless. Instead of always trusting our gut instinct we are instructed to see what the Lord would have us to do. We are promised by God that if we will trust every aspect of our lives to the will of God that He will put us on a straight and narrow path that is PERFECT in His eyes and for our lives. We have to die to ourselves daily and crucify the flesh and the things the flesh so desperately desires in order to truly trust in Christ. We have to purpose in our hearts every single moment of every single day to not allow our flesh to take control. Our flesh left to its own devices will do one thing and that is drive you to the pits of hell trying to satisfy it. Our flesh is never satisfied and our enemy knows that and works over time trying to tempt us to do that which is not of God.

The next thing that we can do that will enable us to have a more personal and rich relationship with Christ is to find a way to invest ourselves in service. My pastor says that people get out of God what they put into him. People have this Burger King mentality in which they want to come to church and get whatever it is that they think they need. When they do not get whatever that thing is then they start to whine and say that they did not get anything. The reason for that is because they are using God and the church as a fast food restaurant picking and choosing only those things from the menu that will make them happy. The problem with that is that God is not in the business of making us happy. God is in the business of loving his creation and pursuing us and trying to have a closer relationship with us. We have to remember that God chose us first and that He is God and we are not. Amen? We serve Him as Master and King not out of fear but because He first loved us and died on the cross that we might have eternal life OUTSIDE of HELL. That alone should make us want to serve Him. We all deserve HELL, none of us deserve Heaven.

One of the best ways that I know to experience God in a deep and personal way is to quit focusing on all of my problems, leave them to God to handle and then find out how He has equipped me to serve him. Every single one of us has talents and skills that can be used in the local church to further his kingdom. All we have to do is find out what those skills are and find out where to put them to use. If you do not know what you are good at go to your pastor and say, Pastor I want to serve God but I am not sure how I can do that here in this church. Trust me when I tell you this. After the pastor is revived because he fainted he will be happy to lead you in the right direction of service. Amen? How many churches are filled with Burger King minded people who are seeking to be made happy and completely missing the purpose of the local church? The local church is a hospital that is filled with sick people (us) who desperately need Jesus to fix all of the junk and damage in our lives. Some of us are more healed than others but none of us have arrived. For those of us that are more mature in the faith then we are commanded to help those in our congregation that are not. In a spirit of meekness and fear we are to go to them and minister to them through the power of God in our lives in those areas that the Holy Spirit shows us. Amen?

Are you doing these things mentioned above? Most of us are probably doing some of them but not all of them and that includes me. My desire is to get out of the way so that God can do His perfect work in my heart and change me more into his likeness every day. Our world, our local church, our local community, our schools, our work places, our lives will be better off because of it.

May God bless you richly in 2007

Detroit 39 Dallas 31

Is this season over yet? It is amazing to me that my team actually made it to the play offs with the type of pathetic performances they have shown me in the last three games. I actually paid 2 bucks to get in to watch the game at a local sports bar. I want my 2 dollars back. LOL...

There are several reasons why Dallas lost this game. The first reason was five turnovers by Dallas. How many turnovers? Lets count them. FIVE.... I think that Detroit capitalized on three of those turnovers by either scoring a touch down or a field goal. You can not win a football game by constantly giving it over to the opponent and then not playing defense.

The second reason Dallas lost is because their secondary keeps playing off of the opponents receivers by five yards or more. I saw three touch downs by Detroit where a Dallas defender was not any closer than 3 yards or more. You can not make a play on a ball being thrown to a receiver unless you are close enough to go after the ball.

The third reason Dallas lost is because they have a rookie quarterback in Tony Romo who is inexperienced and is trying to force plays that are not there. How many times did Tony Romo drop the ball today? I lost count and sadly enough he turned the ball over to the opponent several times when he did that. You can not fumble the ball , throw interceptions and run down the field holding the ball like it is a loaf of bread and hope to win the game. If you are going to run the ball tuck it in and hang on to it. It is ok to get sacked vs throwing an interception or having it knocked out of your hands.

The fourth reason Dallas lost the game is because Dallas defensive coordinators refuse to adapt their defense in order to stop their opponent. They are going to play the 4 (3) defense even if it means that they are going to lose the game anyway. If you are not willing to realize that there are teams out there that study game day films and figure out to overcome your defense then you will never get to the point where you are able to make some changes.

The fifth reason Dallas lost the game is because their heart was not in it. The score was 13 to ZERO in the first quarter. Dallas could not get one single first down. They were at a dead stand still. In the second quarter when Marion Barber ran in for a one yard touchdown is the first time we saw signs of life from Dallas. Marion Barber kicked and clawed his way into the endzone on an offensive play that showed some heart. In the third quarter Dallas came out of the locker room and ran a play action pass that had the full back throwing the ball back to Tony Romo as he completed a pass to Terry Glenn for about 35 yards or more. Dallas drove down to the red zone and then Tony coughs up the ball again. So much for momentum boys.

Dallas was beaten by a team that had a 2 win and 13 loss record... Say do what ? Dallas got their behinds kicked AGAIN in their own stadium. This is starting to get old cowgirls..... I think that if you had put your second string in that you might have had a better chance to win. I hope that Dallas puts Drew Bledsoe back in as quarterback against the Seattle Seahawks. Drew Bledsoe is a veteran quarterback and at least we will not have to worry about him dropping the ball every other down or trying to force a play that is not there. I also think that Dallas needs to come out playing aggressive offensive football. This next game will be there last if they lose again. So, this is for all the marbles kids. Time to quit being timid and giving the ball to Julius Jones for the umpteenth time so we can watch him get stopped at the line of scrimmage or the paltry 2 yards per play he might get.

All in all Dallas Cowboys are in the play offs and have one last chance to show the world that they are world champion material and deserve to be there. The good thing about all of this is that Dallas will not be playing at home. For some reason Dallas just absolutely sucks when they play at home. Maybe , just maybe Dallas can pull off another win and stay in the playoffs.

James Moffitt
http://www.lightourworld.com
http://moffittjc.blogharbor.com/blog
james.moffitt@comcast.net

Starting over

I am starting over today with counting calories. I made the mistake of stepping on the scales yesterday and I gained 10 lbs. I was off work for six days and so my activity level decreased and I probably ate about the same amount of food which equals to gained weight. I can also tell that I feel worse because of the extra weight I am not used to carrying.

I had Katy get me a six pack of slim fast and fruit for me to eat for breakfast. Thus far today I have had 660 calories between breakfast and lunch. My problem has always been at night when I am sitting in front of the TV or my laptop and I get the munchies late at night and think I need to eat. I also need to motivate myself to go to the gym once per day and do 20 to 30 minutes on the treadmill or elliptical trainer. Any exercise vs no exercise is beneficial. I need to do this for my health. I spent 3 months at the gym this year and lost 20 lbs and then I guess I over did it a little bit and my knee and shoulder started hollering. The pain kept me away from the gym for the rest of the year save a trip or two.

My goals for 2007 are simple. To take one day at a time and keep counting calories and getting exercise and try to eat the right things. We are also going to continue on working on our credit and increase our FICO score so we can eventually buy a home of our own. Phillipians 4:13 will have to be our battle cry as we put our noses to the grindstone and take these goals on one step at a time. We can do all things through Christ who gives us strength. Help us dear Jesus to make a committment to do those things we know we should and give us strength and perserverance to make the right choices one moment and one day at a time.

James Moffitt
http://www.lightourworld.com
http://moffittjc.blogharbor.com/blog
james.moffitt@comcast.net

Dallas Cowboys SUCK

I can not believe how horrible the Dallas Cowgirls played tonight against the Eagles. I am sorry, I need to revise that statement. I can not believe they showed up for the game and acted as if they forgot how to play the game.

The first sign of their demise was when the Eagles took the ball on their very first possesion and marched it all the way down the field for a touchdown. It was as if the Dallas secondary players were napping. It did not matter what the Eagles did whether it was running the ball or throwing it they had very little to no resistance from Dallas.

The second sign of the Cowgirls pending doom was Dallas's pathetic attempt to punch the ball across the goal line from the one yard line. How many times does the Dallas Offensive Coach need to run the ball straight up the middle to learn that it was not happening tonight against the Eagles. Can we say play action pass coach? If you run it up the middle two times and you are stopped cold what makes you think the Eagles were going to just let you walk into the end zone?

If that were not bad enough we need to turn our attention to the circus clown wearing the numbers 81. Good grief Grady, here we go again. Our special million dollar receiver could not catch the ball because he has a pulled tendon in his hand. There is your sign Dallas. Your star (cough) circus clown (receiver) is injured and has to try to catch the ball without using his fingers. Maybe he should have sat on the sideline vs running around and making a complete circus side show out of himself and his team members. I could not believe that he had the gall to sit on the bench and SMILE after he dropped several passes. He did not even act like there was any sort of anger or remorse on his part for doing that.
There is your sign....

Just before half time Tony Romo and TO actually connected in the end zone. Then Dallas turns the ball over to the Eagles with less than 2 minutes remaining on the clock and the Dallas defense lets the Eagles march down the field 15 and 20 yards per play so they could punch a field goal across just before the half time making it 13 to 7.

One of the sports commentators said it best when he told the watching viewers this. Coach Reid with the Eagles told his team when they were 6 and 5 that they needed to step it up a notch both as players and coaches and that they were playing cautious football. It was evident to me that the Eagles had a singular purpose tonight and that was to beat the Cowboys at home and that is just what they did.

Dallas knew going into this game that they were in the playoffs no matter what the turn out of this game was tonight. It was almost as if they really did not care one way or the other. My wife and I went and watched the movie "We are Marshall" this weekend. One of the statements from this movie is very applicable here. In the end the only thing that people remember is not how you played the game but that you were winners. If you play the game but not good enough to win then it really does not matter. Tonight people will remember that the Eagles won the game and they played hard enough to earn the win.

Now that Dallas is not in first place in the NFC they wont be hosting a play off game. Considering how badly Dallas sucks at home in Irving stadium maybe that will be a good thing. They seem to play much better on the road than at home. Dallas will have to win the next 3 games in order to get to the Super Bowl. Dallas might have to play the Eagles in Philedelphia for one of those games. Dallas plays Detroit in Irving stadium on December the 31st. Maybe they will actually decide to play football. If I were a betting man I would bet in favor of the opponet at this point in the season.



James Moffitt
http://www.lightourworld.com
http://moffittjc.blogharbor.com/blog
james.moffitt@comcast.net

This is Christmas Eve 2006 and before you know it the new year of 2007 will be upon us. I have been off of work since last Wednesday and I can tell that I will probably be ready to go back to work this coming up Wednesday. I am not used to having this much free time on my hands and quite frankly my family is probably not used to having this much quality time with dad. Last night I exchanged gifts with one of my best friends who just happens to be a propellerhead just like myself. My propellerhead friend always manages to come up with the most surprising cool gizmos to give me for Christmas. Last night I got the following cool toys...

A. AirDesk laptop stand for my laptop. This is one of the coolest toys of all. Before I got this neat gizmo I was using a utility table for my laptop when I am in the living room. The problem with the utility table is that it was big and bulky and always in the way of someone else wanting to watch the tv. It also was not the right height to be used while reclining. The Airdesk laptop stand solves all of those problems with its unique patented design. I know, this is starting to sound like a commercial but I can not help but be excited about the new ability to use my laptop in exactly the position I need it and then when I need to get up I can just swivel it out of my way.

B. Emergency escape hammer. This gizmo is designed to break out my window in case I find my Durango suddenly turned into a submarine and I want to breath real air vs water. Everyone should have one of these.

C. Keychain glow stick and flash light. Both of these gizmos will help me to find my keys in the dark as well as stay out of the dark.

D. Power Center. This cool gizmo allows me to organize all of my messy wires associated with all of my electronic gizmos like my pocket pc or cellular telephones. It allows you to hide the actual ac adapter and wires in a plastic housing and then leave the business end of the charger hanging outside while you clamp your device on top of the charger housing. For now I am using this for our cell phones.

E. Special rubber duckie radio antenna for the Durango. In September we bought a 2006 Durango and we love everything about our new SUV. One of the things that I had to give up however was the OnStar antenna that was on the Pontiac. This particular antenna connected me to OnStar and it also allowed me to put my carmate M and M dudes on the end of it. The antenna on the Durango was so slim and tall that the M and M dude kept bending the antenna over and slapping the side of the truck. This new antenna bends but it is much thicker at the base and therefore the M and M Dude rides just nicely.

F. Utility knife that allows me to open packages much easier

G. Gorilla tripod that allows you to attach your digital camera and stand it or attach it to other objects.

I am very pleased with all of the very functional goodies that Santa has brought me this year. Thanks Santa!!!

Blane Mosmeyer

This is Blane Mosmeyer at the age of 9 months... Katy is his great aunt and can not wait to see this fella in person.

James Moffitt
http://www.lightourworld.com
http://moffittjc.blogharbor.com/blog
james.moffitt@comcast.net

Our friends in Arizona

I finally got the time to scan in the picture post card that Kimerbly and Mark sent us from Arizona. Kimberly was the Happy Days Camp counselor for our Jessica Ann back in July of 2001. Jessica was very sick and required a lot of attention. Kimberly had never been a camp counselor so this was her first experience. Kimberly has a special place in our hearts and we have adopted her as our own. Kimberly is now married to her husband Mark who works for the US Border Patrol and is stationed in Arizona. Mark and Kimberly are expecting their first child soon.

James Moffitt
http://www.lightourworld.com
http://moffittjc.blogharbor.com/blog
james.moffitt@comcast.net

Blogging in the rain

Rain Rain go away, please come back some other day. It is raining , it is pouring the old man is blogging. No, I think it was supposed to be "the old man is snoring". Well, I am neither old nor am I snoring at 12:36 pm. It is supposed to be Christmas day in 3 days and we have a forecast for rain until then. Katy and I spent the entire day yesterday playing Mr and Mrs Claus. I am excited to report that all the creditors got something in their stockings but so did the kids. The last couple of Christmas seasons have been sort of bleak in our house thanks to income issues but thankfully we are able to put something under the tree this year. Don't get me wrong, you do not have to purchase gifts in order to celebrate Christmas. Heck, there are people out there in this world of ours that are not celebrating Christmas. I guess it all depends on your personal tastes and upbringing. As for my family we are aware of the reason for the season. Jesus being born to Mary , wrapped in swaddling clothes and no where to lay him. The nativity scene all reminds us of how important Jesus was and still is to our world. Of course that thought requires a bit of faith and belief that Jesus Christ is more than a mere teacher or prophet. Jesus is the primary reason that we celebrate Christmas in our household in December. It has nothing to do with the tree, ornaments, lights and all the gifts. All of those things are fun things to do and we can enjoy doing them as we enjoy the holiday festivities and being close to loved ones. However that is not what Christmas is all about. To me, Christmas is about reflecting on those things that are most important to me. Yes, I am like most folks in that I find myself getting caught up in the "spirit" of Christmas which is all around us as we run around buying this gift and that gift and listening to Christmas carols playing on the radio. What is important to me is that I am able to enjoy the Christmas season. I can enjoy Christmas because of a God who lives in me through the power of the Holy Spirit and the gift of Grace at Calvary. I can enjoy Christmas because I am in relatively good health and I am not in the hospital. I can enjoy Christmas because I have a family that loves me and I love them and enjoy spending time with them. I can enjoy Christmas because I have good friends that bring quality and quantity to my life and I love being around them as well.
This time of year is always a difficult time of year as we look at the names on the stockings hung near the entertainment center. They are supposed to be hung by the chimney with care in hopes that old Saint Nick will be there. Since we don't have a fireplace the close proximity to the Christmas tree will have to do for now. Our Jessica has long since left this world and is now in heaven. Her stocking still gets hung right along with the rest of them. Our Jessica is our sunshine and will always remain an important part of our family. There are folks all around us that suffer from grief, depression or other things that keep them from having a time of joy during this season. I hope that all of us can be reminded of that and that we can all find a way to reach out to others that are not as fortunate as we are. There are many ways to do this and some are more personal than others. Our church took up an offering and we all brought can good foods and clothes for a family that is located at a homeless shelter here in the low country. Some of you give to the United Way and that organization and others that support it do things like providing a hot meal on Christmas Eve for homeless people who otherwise would not be able to get this. The thought that I am trying to get across here is that we are all connected in some small way whether we believe it or not. No, I am not related to a homeless person and they are not in my immediate family. I could very easily just turn a blind eye to all that I see around me and just be selfish and keep all of my "riches" to myself and hoard them exclusively for my family. Can we individually reach out and help everyone that needs help? Of course not and I am not advocating that if you are having a good Christmas time and buying presents for loved ones that we should feel guilty about not helping all the homeless people. Everyone one of us can and should find a way to connect with one other person or family if we can and do what we can. Whether we are related to them is immaterial. They are fellow human beings that are just like us in that they are trying to scratch out an existance the best way that they know how.
You might be thinking that it is so easy for me to sit here typing these words on my laptop while I am elevated and protected and ignorant of what it is like to be homeless or in prison or sick. For those of you that know the "real" me you know that I was adopted alongside of my sister from an orphanage in Aschofenburg Germany. You know that I have been homeless and spent several days living under a bridge in Houston Texas with three plastic bags that had all of my life's treasures. I spent 45 days in a street rescue mission learning what it is like to have no family , no loved ones to turn to. I know what it is like to sit in a county jail cell in Texas looking down from my confines at people walking around in stifling temperatures wishing and praying that could be me. So, as you see, I have been where most of you would not care to be. Part of the reason of why I was there was my fault and partly because of the environment and situations that I found myself in. The important thing is that I am a better man because of it. When I share these stories with most folks they are amazed at what I have been through and that I can have a positive attitude about life and that I can wear a smile on my face. Most people are amazed that I have a good sense of humor and that I can laugh about most of the junk in my life vs. being angry at the world. My ability to do this has primarily been because of the life changing work that God has done in my life. Jesus changed me from the inside out. Jesus traded out the heart of stone and gave me a heart of flesh that enables me to be sensitive and caring about the world and people around me. I am also a better man because of my sweet selfless wife Katy. Over the last 17 years Katy has taught me how to be a real man. A man who loves his family and is not afraid to be committed to her and the children no matter how tough things are. Katy has taught me how to share my things as well as my heart. Katy has shown me that it is possible to not react to the children in anger like my earthly father used to and that I can exercise love and mercy towards them. Katy has taught me that it is ok to spoil the children despite my insatiable desire to teach them how to be tough and to survive in this world. Katy has taught me that it is ok for kids to be kids and that they are going to make noise and mess up the house. Gosh, I guess that is what children do huh? Katy has taught me that while I am very hard on myself and sometimes have a difficult time loving myself that she can overlook my faults and problems and love me despite of me being a scrooge and grouchy sometimes. It has become much easier for me over the years to extend grace and mercy and forgiveness to my wife and children and others because I have watched God and family and friends do the same thing for me even though I don't deserve it.
My hope and prayer is that you and your family and/or friends can find a way to relax and enjoy this Christmas season and that you are doing it for the right reasons. I hope that you are using this time to step back and remove yourself from the mad rush that is all around us and to appreciate and enjoy the simple things in life. I hope that every child gets exactly what their heart desires under the tree. I know that I will enjoy watching my kids as they excitedly rip the wrapping paper off of their presents on Christmas morning.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year in 2007 from our family to yours.




James Moffitt
http://www.lightourworld.com
http://moffittjc.blogharbor.com/blog
james.moffitt@comcast.net

New Look and New Feel for Blogger Blog

I can see that Blogger has been very busy in 2006. I have been using the blogger interface online now for several years and have not experienced the slightest problem with regards to posting to the blog or other people finding it. Several months ago I started a new blog for my Chief Propellerhead network and I chose to use the BETA version of Blogger. I liked what I saw then and I love what I see now. Big Kudos to Blogger for improving the look and functionality of Blogger. I feel like they gave us bloggers a Christmas present just in time.

One of the things that you will notice on the right side of my blog is my links section. I have put our church website, Low country Today and other sites of interest. Feel free to view them at your leisure. Gosh, I just remembered that I left out the Dallas Cowboys Website link. I would be remiss in leaving that out I suppose since I am such a HUGE Dallas Cowboys FAN.

I am happy to say that I am off until next Wednesday. That means six days of NO work. Whoopee. If I wanted to be I could be off from work until the 2Nd of January. I decided that my budget could not afford my being off that long without pay and managed to find something to do for Wed , Thursday and Friday of next week. That will equate to my paycheck not taking as much of a hit as it would have. I am still working as a temp at the college and until I become full time or find full time employment elsewhere when I don't work I don't get paid. So, if you are off for the holidays AND you are getting paid for it be so very thankful, not all of us are that fortunate.

It is five days until Christmas morning. I can not believe how fast 2006 flew past us. Where in the world did all of that time go? The year of 2006 has been pretty good to our family. Katy and I managed to stay gainfully employed this year and that has helped the budget tremendously. We are still suffering from some financial setbacks thanks to the 2001 - 2005 drought but hopefully in 2007 we will be able to see more daylight at the end of the debt tunnel.

We do not have any major plans for the holidays. We had wanted to go back to Texas to the Houston/Seguin area of the state to see family but we decided that we would be better off to just save what little funds we have and stay put this holiday season. We are talking about four days of driving just to get to Texas and back. That does not include all the driving we would be doing in the great state of Texas.

From our house to yours may you experience a blessed Christmas holiday and a prosperous New Year in 2007.


James Moffitt
http://www.lightourworld.com
http://moffittjc.blogharbor.com/blog
james.moffitt@comcast.net

Dallas 38 Atlanta 28

It was like watching the shootout at the OK Corral. Dallas and Atlanta provided NFL fans with a lot of entertainment as they provided a lot of excitement and tons of points. Dallas jumped out in the lead 14 to zip after a defensive interception and touchdown. In the second quarter Michael Vick led the Falcons on several scoring drives that put them ahead 28 to 21 at half time. Atlanta became frustrated in the second half and were penalized several times for personal fouls for unnecessary roughness. Dallas scored 17 unanswered points in the second half which ultimately won the game for them. The Dallas secondary seemed to be emulating swiss cheese until about the 4th quarter when they were able to stop some key receptions between Vick and his receivers. All in all Dallas played a much better game today against Atlanta which was a huge difference from the disasterous loss against the Saints at home. The next test will be Christmas day when Dallas plays the Eagles at home. Go DALLAS!!!!!

Who is dat ?

That is the sign that I kept being shown during the Dallas Cowboy and New Orleans Saints game last Sunday night. People in the stadium were holding up Who is Dat signs every time the Saints would make another touchdown in their 42 to 17 romp over the Cowboys.

I dont know about you but I was absolutely stunned to see the Cowboys play as pathetically as they did. I thought the GIRLS played (sorry girls) pretty badly during the NY Giants game and the only reason they won that battle is because the Giants sucked as bad as Dallas did but just a little bit worse. Dallas won 4 straight games and beat a couple of difficult opponents such as the Colts and the Giants. Does that mean that we can allow our heads to swell to the point that we think that we are untouchable?

The run by Julius Jones for 77 yards into the end zone was the most exciting and ONLY exciting play of the entire game for Dallas. The touchdown by TO (circus) Owens was a freak accident which should have been an interception. I guess that it is good the defender had his entire hand wrapped in tape and could not hold on to the ball.

I am starting to wonder if there are any other field goal kickers out there that could be signed? Last week the kicker kicked a really long field goal , not sure exactly how long but think it was 45+ yards, yet he missed one within 30 yards as he pulled it to the right of the goal post.

I hope that the COWBOYS (not the girls) actually show up in Atlanta on Saturday night ready to do battle with the Atlanta Falcons. At this point in the season no game should be considered a game that can be lost or that the opponent is a push over. If you are a Dallas fan of old like myself you KNOW that you know that most folks HATE the Dallas Cowboys and look for every opportunity to defeat them.

If Dallas plays like they have the last two weeks Atlanta will have a very easy win to add to their statistics. If Dallas plays at the level they are capable of playing then Atlanta could have their hands full. I guess we will know more on Saturday night after the fat lady sings.




James Moffitt
http://www.lightourworld.com
http://moffittjc.blogharbor.com/blog
james.moffitt@comcast.net

Gee, what lives under here guys??  

Justin and Rossi next door on trampoline having a blast...  

Katy hates it when I get out the camera. You go girl!! 

Katy doing her lesson plans...  

Kids outside playing in front yard at Debby's house during Thanksgiving day 

Hungry bear cant wait for dinner. LOL 

Food people, dig in!!! Thanksgiving feast 

What a beautiful table setting for Thanksgiving at Flash's home in West Ashley 

Flash (Debby) holding one of her canines, Murray 

Katy and Flash giving each other a hug.  

Beautiful candle in Debby Stehpenson's home.  

Debbie Flash Stephenson in her kitchen fixing Thanksgiving feast for 30+ folks 

The birds got me again!!!

I have a story to tell. It has to do with something I have heard since I was a small child. What goes around comes around. Here is another good one. Paybacks are hell. Today I spent some time with my sweet wife and after I took her home so she could get a nap I decided to spend some time washing the Durango. Most of the time I would just feed the ATM machine 5 bucks and sit in the truck and enjoy listening to some music or chat on my cell phone while the machine works its magic. Today I decided to be cheap and at the same time give the Durango the personal touch by using the WAND. After about 20 minutes and 2 bucks later I was done with the wash job. I jumped in the Durango and off like a flash I was on my way to the bowling alley. I need to go by the bowling alley so I can practice. My average is horrid on both leagues therefore I need to practice all I can. I drive up to the bowling alley and get out and lovingly dry my Durango with a towel that I had acquired when I dropped Katy off at the house. I squirted some tire shine junk on the tires and admired my handiwork. Now that the Durango was nice and shiny I could put my attention on the bowling pins once again. I ate lunch at the bowling alley and worked my way through 3 games. First score was 182, second game 149 and the third and final game was 120. Trust me, after that last score I put the ball back in the bag and quietly left the bowling alley. I think that I did figure out some things that I can try to increase my bowling score and hopefully my average in 2007. As I rounded the corner I admired my bright blue Dodge Durango in the sunlight and anticipated getting up into the cab and settling down into the comfortable seat. As I neared the truck I noticed something on the hood. I thought to myself, surely these are leaves that just blew on to the hood and stuck to it. The only thing wrong with that idea is that I did not see any leaves on the ground around the truck and the stuff on the hood was beginning to look whiter the closer I got. In horror my suspicions were confirmed as I viewed the apparent bombing run by several birds while I was bowling. Two things occurred to me immediately. Well, ok, several things occurred to me. The first thing that occurred to me is that washing a vehicle to keep it nice looking is sometimes a futile action. The second thing I learned was that I should never wash my truck before I go to the bowling alley because that apparently attracts the nearby birds for a potty break. The third thing that came to my mind was that these birds could be distant cousins to the birds that I am guilty of killing when I was a young boy who got the proverbial Daisy BB gun for Christmas.

You probably thought that had to be the end of this silly story but hang on to your seats, it gets weirder. I jump in the Durango complete with bird droppings and headed out to leave the bowling alley and stopped at the first car wash I could find. I put 1.00 into the coin operated wash and was greeted by NOTHING coming out of the wand. As I watched the time just whiled away while I desperately switched the knob trying to get something wet out of the wand. The only thing that worked in this particular bay was the brush that had pink soap gurgling out of it. Knowing that I would never see my dollar again and that the bird doo was still on the hood I got busy scrubbing it off. I went to the coin changer to get more change to discover that both of the coin changers were out of order. First the bird doo, second the washing bay machine was not working and then the coin machine. Do you see any sort of pattern here? I felt like I was in the twilight zone or something. Feeling like an idiot by this point I walked across the street to the gas station and purchased a Diet Doctor Pepper so I could get the lady behind the counter to open the cash register and get me some change for the car wash. Yes, I shared the entire story with the clerk and she had a good laugh.

I have spent the last three days fighting an ugly cold and I am about ready for this mess to be over with. I am thankful to be in pretty good health and most of the time I do not have the minor irritations of a common cold. Having had to put up with this junk has made me appreciative of this good health. We actually have an infirmary here for now. My daughter (princess) Kristina needs to have two root canals done which will require me to either rob a bank or win the lottery. Katy has a headache she can not seem to get rid of and Justin managed to stick half of the porch under one of the fingernails on his left hand. I tried to do minor surgery on his hand but Justin just could not deal with the pain and would not let me do further surgery.

Next to the sailboat was a Pelican. This was a very nice replica.  

Nice sailboat in the restroom in some restaurant I was in at Myrtle Beach 

My sweet wife Katy.... What a beautiful smile.  

Another view of bird doodoo on my freshly washed truck. Blog story to follow, trust me. LOL 

The Birds up to their old tricks in the parking lot of the bowling alley 

Cardiac Cowboys defeat Giants 23 to 20

I can hardly breathe after that close call. I also can not believe that the cardiac cowboys actually pulled this off. In my opinion both teams played a sloppy penalty riddled game from start to finish. Being a die hard Cowboy fan I am happy that they won but I am not looking forward to the game between the Cowboys and the New Orlean Saints. I do not think that they (Cowboys) can afford another performance like the one tonight. The advantage that Dallas has next Sunday is that they have the home field advantage. I also hope that these wins whether close or not are not going to their heads and pumping their egos out of perspective. I really believe that if Dallas had missed the field goal in the last 2 seconds of regulation play and NY had won the toss during overtime that Dallas would most certainly have lost that game. Then again, that is all speculation on my part. Luckily for Dallas the game clock ran out and Dallas comes up with a win. GO DALLAS.....

Happy Birthday to me, Happy Birthday to me

Once upon a time I did not celebrate my birthdays. My birthday was just another day to live through and most folks just ignored it. Perhaps most folks just did not know that it was a special day for me. In my childhood my birthday was forgotten as a way to punish me for being bad. The thought process went something like this. If you do not do what you are told and dont live up to my expectations then I will exclude you from any birthday parties or gifts. I will also give you switches under the christmas tree and no gifts. I will also abuse you mentally ,emotionally and psychologically until you bend to my will. Ok, so that was not much of a childhood. I have said this before and I will say it again. If it were not for Christ in my life I would probably be a serial killer, alcoholic, drug addict or prison inmate or all of the above.

I turned 29 AGAIN yesterday. LOL.... It just keeps happening over and over again, that magical time of the year when I can thank God for one more year of life. I actually try to take the time to thank God every day for life and good health. Amen? I think that in the hustle and bustle of life being surrounded by our families and our junk we get preoccupied with the non important things and forget the basics. So, I am happy that I turned 29 all over again. SWEET!!!!

We had a four day weekend so I could enjoy some time off from work and of course my being a temp meant NO pay. Oh well, the time off from the rat race and being with my wonderful family was worth it. I was treated to ANOTHER Dallas Cowboy victory over the Tampa Bay Bucaneers which moved Dallas to the top of the NFC East pile at 7 wins and 4 loses. The NY Giants lost which helps Dallas even more. I am thinking that I need to find a way to get one of those large white flags with the blue star on it that they race around the end zone after Dallas scores points. I want to stand on my Dodge Durango and do a dance while I am whirling that thing over my head.

One of the reasons that I am able to appreciate my birthdays at this semi advanced stage of life is that I have a family that appreciates me and good friends who do as well. A dear friend of mine took me out for a seafood dinner on the water in Mt Pleasant SC. This was a very nice restaurant with very good food and a superb hostess. This friend also gave me the coolest birthday present which is a Ferrari clock. What makes this so cool is that it does many things. Here are the things it does

A. projects the time with the Ferrari emblem on the wall
B. The projector portion of the clock swivels so you can put the time almost anywhere
C. It has multiple time zones
D. It has a remote sensor to tell you what temp it is outside
E. It auto synchronizes with the Atomic Clock somewhere out there...
F. It has an alarm clock
G. It has battery backup
H. It has a weather section that tells you if it will be rainy or not
I. It is RED and cool looking
J. It tells time in multiple languages which you can chose from

Ok, I might have missed something but it is just so cool. I figured out after some trial and error that you have to select the correct time zone. The clock kept losing three hours and I could not figure it out until my friend reminded me to "RTFM". LOL... Gosh, what a waste of time that is huh??

We spent Thanksgiving at our friend Flash's house in West Ashley. There were about 30 people who showed up and there was more than enough food to eat and take home afterwards. We all had a good time chatting, eating and then afterwards Charlie and I settled down to watch the Cowboy game. GO DALLAS!!!! Katy and I took some time to be alone and went to see DaJavu which is a new movie with Denzel Washington. That is a very cool movie. We also took the kids to see Happy Feet and Katy and I opted to watch Santa Clause Escape Clause 3. That was a pretty funny movie with Tim Allen. I dont think I heard one curse word the entire movie. No one got killed and there were no sex scenes either. It is amazing that in this day and age that Hollywood actually made a movie without the R rated garbage having to be in it. GO HOLLYWOOD. Less violence and more family values PLEASE.... If we need violence , gore and general crap we can turn on the evening news and get our fill 7 days per week. Amen?

Katy is almost done with year 2 of 3 with regards to her PACE program she is in. I have to say that from what I can see the PACE program is not for the faint hearted. Katy works 8 hours at school with the kids and then she comes home and spends another 6 to 8 hours doing something called an IEP and LESSON PLANS. Teachers are GROSSLY under appreciated and under paid. You would not believe that garbage that they have to put up with in the class room much less the horendous paper work and high standards that they are held to. I do not understand for the life of me how South Carolina schools can be doing as badly as they are with all that Katy has to go through. Maybe they just did not have standards at all way back when and that is why we are surrounded by ignorant stupid people. LOL.... I am amazed at how hard it is for some of my co workers who can not write a simple sentence. Has anyone heard of spell check lately? Here is your sign.... If you work in an office and have to use a computer to write something then you can cut and paste that into MS Word and use this nifty tool called "spell check". This feature in MS Word will allow you to fix spelling and grammar errors in your writing. Then, like magic, all is correct and you can send it to all of your other co workers who will not be the wiser that you do not know how to complete a simple sentence.

I understand that not everyone is good at writing or spelling. I do not understand how someone can be so lazy that they do not care enough to check their work before they send it out as a business communication to either a co worker or customer. (rant mode off)

Well, I think it is time for my first cup of coffee and time to get some work done here at the office. Thanks for listening to me drivel for a spell. It has been entirely too long....

Have a MERRY CHRISTMAS and please remember that the season we are celebrating is not about Victoria Secret but Jesus Christ who died on the cross for the sins of the world and gives us the wonderful gift of GRACE. I know that this will not sit well with some of you but I believe that Jesus is the reason for the season.

God bless


James Moffitt
http://www.lightourworld.com
http://moffittjc.blogharbor.com/blog
james.moffitt@comcast.net

Undefeated were defeated by the Cowboys

There are days that I just HATE being a Cowboy fan. Today is not that day folks. The Colts showed up in Irving Texas looking to continue their undefeated record in Dallas. They showed up at the wrong stadium and played the wrong team on the wrong day. There is a saying that goes like this. Any given team can beat any given team on any given day. That rule was played out last night when Dallas beat the Colts 21 to 14. I do not believe that anyone in their right mind truly believed that Dallas WOULD beat the Colts. Notice I said WOULD vs COULD. Dallas is very capable of beating a lot of teams IF they actually show up with the intention of playing football. There are days that Dallas is very inconsistant and you never know which team will show up.

The first quarter of play was unbelievable as both teams coughed up the ball a total of five times. Dallas went into the locker room behind by 7 to zip. The second half was a different story as Dallas scored 14 unanswered points in the fourth quarter. GO DALLAS!!!!

Thanksgiving Day Dallas will host the Tampa Bay Buccaneers so we will see how they fare against that team. Tampa has a record of 3 wins and 7 losses so hopefully Dallas can pull off a victory on this game. I am used to Dallas and Washington playing on Thanksgiving so this will be sort of weird.


James Moffitt
http://www.lightourworld.com
http://moffittjc.blogharbor.com/blog
james.moffitt@comcast.net

Idiot drivers

Just this morning I am minding my own business and driving to work like I always do. I am in the far left lane, the fast lane, going up 526 getting ready to get onto I-26 to go downtown. We are zooming along around 60 to 65 mph when all of a sudden the lady in front of me puts on her right blinker to move over. Then the same lady starts putting on her brakes so she can slow down and get over two lanes. The problem is that there were cars right next to her going the same speed. That means that I went from 65 mph to around 45 to 50 mph within about 15 seconds while I waited for her to find the room to get over. If I had been not paying attention my SUV would have made her Honda Civic a snack. I was pretty upset about it so I blew my horn at the lady and then watched her as she exited the freeway. That caused her in turn to flip me the bird on her way down the ramp. Isn't that special?? I guess she has never heard about being courteous to other drivers. That means that if you miss your exit due to heavy traffic or poor planning or not paying attention do not make the rest of us have a wreck because you decide to slam on your brakes so that you can make a hole for yourself in traffic.



James Moffitt
http://www.lightourworld.com
http://moffittjc.blogharbor.com/blog
james.moffitt@comcast.net

Back to the drawing board

I found out today that the job that I had applied for was not mine. They gave the job to someone else. Can you imagine that? Well, I am disappointed in some ways but I am not surprised. I am going to have to go back to the drawing board and see what I can do to find something else. The hard part about not being a permanent employee somewhere is that it is so easy to get rid of you. We have enjoyed working with you and we wish you well in your new endeavours. We really do not have anything else for you to do. Thanks. I can not tell you how familiar I am with those words. Corporate America loves out sourcing and hiring temps for temporary assignments because they do not have to pay any benefits. Once your usefullness to them is gone they can throw you out like a piece of trash.

So, with that in mind, time to start digging through the newspaper again on Sunday. I can not wait to do that. I love taking my magnifying glass and reading glasses and gaze through all the tiny micro print reading all of the many jobs that are listed. The million dollar question is this. Are the jobs that are listed really an actual job or are they just trolling for available candidates to keep their resume database full? I know for certain that recruiters love to do that on the Internet on the supposed job boards. That means that all you can do is throw a million and one resumes into the Cyberwind and hope that one of them is an actual job and someone contacts you.

I remember job hunting in the old days when you drove to the business, filled out the application and could speak to someone about the hiring process. You could call back later and talk to someone in HR to find a status. In those days there were very few businesses that would accept a resume online via the web and most of the time they wanted a fax. With the advent of the Internet the hiring managers can put a form out on a website and you can fill out all your information there and then if they like you they call you for a phone interview. If they do not like you then you wont hear a thing. Sometimes there is not even a phone number to call or a contact to check status with. It is faster and easier for the employer and also much more impersonal to boot.

I think I need to win the lottery soon so I dont have to go through finding another job all over again.



James Moffitt
http://www.lightourworld.com
http://moffittjc.blogharbor.com/blog
james.moffitt@comcast.net

Bad technology

Some days are better than others and yesterday was not one of my better ones. I went to work feeling fine and then around 9 am my blood pressure went through the roof. Go figure... I was feeling dizzy and that is because the blood pressure was 181/110 and climbing. I had some slight chest pain and a small tightness in my chest but that only lasted for a couple of seconds. Co workers called Public Safety and they in turn called EMS. I can not tell you how embarrasing it was to be carted out of the building on a stretcher. Anyway, we get into the ambulance and that is when things get interesting. The EMS personnel were very courteous and professional however they ran into some technical glitches. Imagine lying on a stretcher feeling dizzy and listening to the paramedics talk about nothing is working right.

The first thing they did was to try and transfer the oxgyen from the bottle on the stretcher that they took into the building to the oxygen source in the ambulance. That did not work so they had to stick me back on the bottle. The next thing they had to do was try to figure out how to attach the leads to me for the EKG machine on the ambulance. I think that they knew how to attach the leads in the correct order but the EKG machine was not cooperating. I heard the paramedic say that he could not tranmit the telemetry correctly because it looked all messed up and was not right. At this point I am thanking Jesus that I was only a little dizzy and not really having a massive coronary event. The next thing that happened was that the person sitting behind me nearest the driver said that he could not contact the hospital ER because the radio did not work properly. I was starting to wonder if they would be able to get me to the hospital without the engine falling out of it.

Within an hour my BP went down to semi normal and after two hours I was starving and wanting to walk out of the ER and to Hardees for a thick burger. Just writing this makes me hungry enough to do that right now. LOL... Anyway, I was there about 2 hours and then they cut me loose. Katy drove me back to work so I could scoop up my laptop bag and truck keys. I stayed at work about 90 minutes to help out a co worker and then I went home and tried to get some rest before bowling.

I hope that the ambulance staff are able to work out the technical kinks that they were having so that if they really do have a heart attack victim or someone that is really ill that they will be able to provide a better service to them. Luckily for me I was only 5 minutes away from the hospital and did not have to depend on the technology at hand.



James Moffitt
http://www.lightourworld.com
http://moffittjc.blogharbor.com/blog
james.moffitt@comcast.net