Open Windows

As I write these blog posts I am peering through an open window in time and reflecting upon life. There are times when I reflect upon the things that happen to me or to my family and friends. Sometime I am directly involved in the activities and then there are times when I am a casual observer standing off to the side taking it all in. I told a friend of mine just last night that I love to write when I am inspired to write. I told this friend that I find it difficult to just write one paragraph and then stop. There are days that go by that things happen but it is not enough for me to blog about it. I like to allow several days to go by and then I can have a collection of thoughts to share with you as I peer through those windows of time where I have experienced life and seen how my friends and family are affected as well.
Just yesterday I was reminded that there are still good honest people that are living in this world with me. I was bowling over at Sandpiper Lanes to pass the time and to get in some much needed practice. I spent the time bowling and then when it was time to leave I had gone out to the truck hauling the 30 lbs worth of bowling equipment and decided that it would be a good idea to get a locker since that is the only place I will be bowling now.
I rented the locker and at some point before I left I discovered that I had misplaced my wallet. The search was on as I back tracked my steps to the different locations to see if I could find the wallet. The man behind the counter got a phone call from a customer when I was outside in the truck looking through it and they had found my wallet out in the parking lot. The customer had found the wallet and instead of coming back inside he drove home and tried to find my phone number in the directory. My number has always been unpublished so he was not able to find me that way. His wife told him that he should call the bowling alley which he did and then he drove back and gave my wallet back. While I was waiting I was having visions of someone helping themselves to a free tank of gasoline via my debit card or credit card. I was agonizing over how much of a moron I had been to lose my wallet in the first place.
The important point to that little drama is that an honest person found my wallet and returned it to me unharmed. Just when we think that we are living in a world full of bad people something like this happens to renew our hope in humanity. I wish that I would have remembered who the man was or what the name of the company was on the side of his truck so I could thank him personally. My hat is off to you my dear sir and I want to say thanks for doing the right thing and bring my wallet back to me.
While I was out bowling and losing my wallet my wife was out playing chauffeur to my daughter and her four teenage girlfriends as they were shopping for a prom dress. Katy and I got to watch our princess turn 15 this weekend and my son 12. The month of May is particularly difficult on the budget because we have three birthdays and a wedding anniversary to plan for. The last couple of years have been particularly interesting as I have watched my “alien” daughter go from the age of 12 to the age of 15. It seems as if they older she has gotten the more independent and secluded she has become. One day my daughter was a typical 10 year old girl who was happy go lucky for the most part doing her thing and interacting with her family somewhat and then she turns into this alien being that I have never met before. One day I looked at my wife and said, honey where did the alien come from? Not only have I not gotten a manual on how to raise my children through the teenage years but I also have not gotten anything on how to relate to a female alien at the age of 14. I am happy to say that the alien daughter seems to have grown through the seclusion stage and is now making her presence known more. The other day my princess came up to me out of the clear blue and said, “Daddy when you get paid next will you buy me a prom dress?” I have to tell you that I almost fell out of my recliner. I cannot tell you how many times I have told both of my children that it would make me very happy if they would interrupt me when they need something. Most of the time they just go talk to their mother and leave me alone. I told Kristina that there is something special between a father and his daughter and that if she was careful that she could wrap me around her little finger pretty easy. I told her that all she has to do is make more of an effort to include me in her day to day activities. I do not expect my children to greet me like Ginger does. Ginger is one of the family pets and for some unknown reason she loves me like there is no tomorrow.
Unlike most men I am not the strong silent type. I thrive on human contact and verbal interaction with other humans. I love to be the communicator. There is nothing more enjoyable to me than to sit down and have a deep meaningful conversation with someone whether it is one on one or via Instant Messenger on the Internet. I have also been known to write letters to my pen pal friend in Texas and numerous e-mails to my friends around the world. I like to open up a portal into my world and allow folks to peer in and see what is going on. I also like to be given the opportunity to do the same with others but most of the time that does not happen too often. Most folks like to keep things really simple and superficial.
This week Kristina will be going to her 8th grade prom and I will have to figure out how I can become part of the crowd so I can keep a fatherly eye on her and the BOYS without being too obvious. I wonder if there will be some sort of observation deck in the gym or wherever the dance will be held that has a two way mirror for parents to watch from a distance. Will this observation deck be equipped with small portals for the tranquilizer guns that we dads will be carrying just in case some boy gets too close to our daughters? There is something about knowing that she is growing up and will be exposed to the dangers of the world and I won’t be included in the activities. Before I know it Kristina will be getting a drivers permit and going to her senior prom in high school. Between now and then I am expecting that she will start to admit to liking the boys and wanting to have more and more to do with them which will include dragging them home to meet ma and pa kettle and asking for permission for the boys to take her out on a date.
Game plan A is that Kristina won’t go out on a date by herself until she is 25 years old. Game plan B should that fail is that I will use the Dodge Durango as a dual purposed tool. Kristina can get experience driving with her learning permit at the same time that her date is in the back seat two rows behind me and I am in the passenger seat next to her. That seems to be a very comfortable arrangement. Kristina gets to drive and have her date at the same time.
Justin “Bam Bam” Moffitt turned 12 years old just today. The day before he turned 12 he copped an attitude because his darling sister got her prom dress and new shoes and he was afraid that all the money was gone and he was not getting what he wanted at Game Stop. Being the communicator of the two I engaged Bam Bam in a conversation about his expectations. I told him that no father wants to deny his children what they want within reason especially on his birthday. However there are things that happen in life which qualify as reality that keeps dads and moms from fulfilling every want that a child might have. The reality of our situation is that bills have to come first. Not too long ago I would have probably said to heck with the bills and I would have just given in to the pleadings of the kids and gotten them what they wanted. Then I would have had to face the music of the consequences for not paying my bills on time. I explained to Justin that his expectation of what he wanted to get for his birthday and what I was able to provide might not be reality.
All in all the kids had a decent birthday weekend. It could have been better but then again it certainly could have been much worse. As a father I feel a bit better knowing that it turned out better than I had expected.
On May 12th Katy and I will have our 17th wedding anniversary and on the 21st of May Katy will turn 48. Someone special to me is creeping up on the BIG 50 mark. I wonder if gizmo will go from being considered OLD by the children to ANCIENT. LOL… That is ok honey I am not too far behind you. I am so fortunate to have you as my friend, wife and mother of my children. You are such a blessing to all of us. I pray that we are together for another 17 years.






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

esnips

My friend zoom zoom told me the other day that I had a TON of hits on my esnips page. I was like , say do what? Sure enough, I have had a lot of hits on this page and some comments were made. Guess what folks? When you change ISP's and your e-mail changes you can NOT change your e-mail address on esnips. Sigh.... So, I finally revisited my esnips account and realized how much I did miss it. I do have a lot of stuff on here. However, I am working with tech support to try and resolve this.

I was told the solution was to create a new site with my new email address. Then share ALL of my folders on this site have to be shared and then I have to invite this site over to the new site and PRESTO somehow all the data can be moved. It sound easy, it smells easy, it tastes easy but it does not appear to be as easy as they told me. LOL... I have everything shared on this site but I have no clue how to invite this site to visit my new site. I only see a way to invite a PERSON via their email account and if I do that then guess what. My old email account will not respond and if it does it will be because some other human has access to it on Bellsouth. I dont want to do that.



The other problem I have on my new site with the CORRECT email address is that I can NOT create a new folder. I do not care how I try to do it, I can not create a new folder. That means that the new site is all but useless. Anyone need a boat anchor? Ok, maybe it is too light to do that.



Now on to the OTHER issue I am dealing with. I tried to install the esnips toolbar add on to my laptop which is running Vista Ultimate and my Dell workstation at work which is running Vista Business. Guess what folks, it does not work with a flip... I know, esnips has never said that their product would work with Vista and IE7. I have living experience that will tell you not to waste your time. It was sort of funny at work because the dual core cpu's in my Dell pegged at 100% and the 2 gb of ram went to about 65% and then the esnips app would not connect. I thought at first that maybe it was being blocked by the networking group here at work but then again I had the same problems at home with my comcast high speed internet connection.



I LOVE you Esnips and I am waiting patiently and somewhat verbally for you to help me with my new account so I can get to saving all kinds of cool stuff.



Thanks


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

Who said nothing is for free??

This afternoon I grabbed my laptop bag, bowling ball, and wallet and ran out the door.  Katy was snoozing as she usually does on Sunday afternoon and the kids were scattered here and there doing their thing as usual.  My choices were to be the play thing for the new kitten OR go do MY thing.  I voted on the MANLY thing and ran out the door.  I washed the truck, wiped it down and ran the vacuum cleaner on the inside.  When I was done with that I found the nearest Raceway gas station near Sandpiper lanes which happens to have the cheapest petrol on this side of town.  I filled up the beast after robbing my checking account to the tune of 45.00 and then went over to Sandpiper lanes so I can get on the list to sub on the league tonight. When I got there I found out that there is a state tournament going on and therefore I would have to wait until 7:45 pm to get a chance to bowl. I figured what the heck, what a wonderful opportunity to go to my favorite blogging place and get a cup of coffee and free Internet access.

I drove across town and arrived just in time for a decaf half strength mocha. Unfortunately they had a sign on the register that said they were no longer able to fix hot drinks. I did not understand that at first and I thought that meant no coffee either. No, they had lots of coffee and because I wanted a decaf mocha the girl behind the counter gave it to me for free. I stood there thinking, wow, I actually got something for free and it came with a smile. I next decided that the decaf coffee that I had just received would not be quite as enjoyable without a banana nut muffin to go along with it. I pull out my money and said," May I get a banana nut muffin to go along with the coffee please". The same girl behind the counter gives me a bag with a banana nut muffin and a banana nut muffin top. When I asked what I owed she smiled again and said," I hate using that register so don't worry about it. I was like, hey are you sure? I was looking around wondering if it was some sort of trick but no she said she was not charging me. Now that I think about it this must have been a combination of the register is closed out because we are closing for the day and she was busy cleaning. Nevertheless I am blogging in front of my favorite place with my free goodies. As they say HAPPY Sunday to me. LOL… Did I mention that I am sharing this experience with my friendly and favorite female vampire bugs from hell? I guess I have sweet blood and they have zeroed in on me and are also enjoying their free meal. I guess one free meal begets another huh?

Yesterday I went out to eat with the men's group at church and then I took care of some errands. Once those were done I went back to the house and kidnapped my wife. I have to do that once per week at minimum so that she can take a break from the drudgery of being a full time mom, wife and school teacher. Not only does Katy work 40+ hours per week as a teacher she also gets to come home and prepare for the next day's lesson plans and the wonderful multipage IEP's. That normally takes her several hours and then in her free time she enjoys taking her online graduate courses. Did I say free time? I know that she will get a big laugh out of that one. So, our day was pretty good and we enjoyed each other's company immensely. Katy and I have been married for 17+ years but we are still like a couple of kids and it does not take much to amuse us. One of the things we like to do is we play "Punch Bug" while driving around town. You are probably guilty of playing the same retarded game. You see a VW Bug and you punch someone and say "Punch bug, don't punch back". If you don't say don't punch back guess what, you are open for the other person to nail you for the same VW Bug that is being seen. Take notes, these rules are very important if you are going to play right. Our day consisted of the normal things like paying bills, dinner and a movie. Once that was all done it was approximately 4:45 pm and I decided it was way too early to go home. My friend Patty has been telling me about a new Internet café that she had discovered somewhere on 17 A so I decided to take my kidnap victim and take a joy ride across the new bridge to go find it. I knew it was called "something" Loop. I had searched the Internet for The Loop and never found one here locally. My GPS was about as useless as a concrete block because it did not find it either. On several occasions Katy and I both would find a VW Bug and we would keep our scores tallied. I think at this point it was 5 to 3 and Katy was ahead. I pulled over at one point over on the Mt Pleasant side of the bridge trying to use the GPS to search to no avail. At one point I was on a side road and I drove right by a VW Bug lot and I started counting out all of the VW Bugs and yelling "Punch Bug DON'T Punch back". Katy was hollering foul and I was laughing myself silly at this point. Remember, I told you that it takes very little to amuse us. Katy told me that she was NOT playing anymore since I found it necessary to cheat. Hahahahahaha

I tried to call my friend Patty and did not get her on the phone. Luckily for me Patty told me she had visited this restaurant with our friend Peter earlier this week and so I called him on his cell phone. Peter told me how to get there and so off to the races we went. That was after burning a quarter tank of gas and driving back and forth across the new bridge. I am sure by this time Katy was breathless with anticipation.

If you visit http://www.looppizzagrill.com/ you will see the story behind this establishment and find the address to all of their locations. Katy told me that she was happy that I finally found the place because she was now most definitely hungry and ready to rest her worn out buns from riding in the truck for so long. We hop out of the Durango and collect my laptop bag and off we go. I walked into the restaurant and was greeted by a young lady behind the counter. I said to her, you have free Internet access, right? The young lady looks at me and say NO SIR. I think my jaw hit the ground and Katy said, maybe you found the wrong place. I did not see any free Wi-Fi signs when I entered the restaurant so I was starting to doubt myself at this point. At this point I inquired about the possibility of free Internet access and the employee said, let me get my manager but I am not aware of any Internet Access. At this point I remembered my hotspot finder in my laptop bag and pulled it out and turned it on. Sure enough it revealed several WAP's on location and by that time the manager came out with the WEP key phrase written down on a piece of paper. The manager told me that he most definitely had free Internet access for his patrons and would be happy for me to try it out. I beamed from ear to ear and Katy thought , oh boy, here we go again, I am hungry and all the Chief propeller head cares about is Internet access. Well, actually I wanted Internet access first and then I was willing to buy a burger to validate my need to be there. Katy and I both tried out the cheddar burger and onion rings and for dessert we had the chocolate shake to go. When we arrived around 5:15 pm the place was fairly empty with only a couple of customers. The establishment was very roomy and clean and every table that I could see had an electrical outlet for folks like me who have a need to plug in our laptops. I was very impressed with that indeed. The food was most excellent and there were plenty of employees to bus the tables and make sure our drinks were refilled. All in all this was a very good experience and I plan on going back with my friend Patty and anyone else that would care to join me. The physical address for this location in Mount Pleasant is 1109 Park West Boulevard in the Shoppes at Park West in Mt Pleasant SC 29466. Their phone number is 843-216-7107 and their email is mountpleasantloop@comcast.net. My hat is off to the owner and his staff and hope to visit again very soon.

 

Can I do this and still be a Christian?

Can I do this and still be a Christian?

If you go to the link http://www.worldviewtube.com/video.php/1825/ it will take you to a short 3.5 minute video where this minister attempts to answer an interesting question that goes like this. Can I look at pornography and still be a Christian? I viewed this video and found it to be very thought provoking to say the least. I am part of an online ministry called Battle Plan Ministries based out of Tennessee that helps people who are trapped in sexual addiction. Here are some of my thoughts after viewing this short video.
This video reminded me of an article that my friend and founder of Jesus Connect Ministries wrote entitled "Bunny Rabbit Christians". This was a hard hitting article that questioned the motivations for people in general who called themselves Christians but insisted on the path of addictive behavior with porn. Reynold posted it on several of the Usenet Newsgroups that offered binary downloads of pornography. As you can imagine he was bombarded with lots of hateful messages from people who were quick to call him a right wing conservative bible thumping jerk. More importantly though the Holy Spirit used this article to touch the hearts of men and women who were trapped in that world and were desperately wanting a way to get out but did not know how to do it.
Go with me for a moment….
Can I look at porn and still be a Christian?
Can I over eat and still be a Christian?
Can I use curse words occasionally and still be a Christian?
Can I take things from the office that are not mine and still be a Christian?
Can I not tithe and still be a Christian?
Can I lie to the IRS and still be a Christian?
Can I steal cable tv and still be a Christian?
Can I watch R rated movies and still be a Christian?
Can I drink beer or alcohol and still be a Christian?
Can I use pirated software and still be a Christian?

As you can see this list can be quite exhaustive. Just how far can we go with our actions and still be within the permissive will of God? What must you do to be considered a Christian to begin with? The list of questions assumes that you are a Christian already.
I am a parent and I have two children living in my household. One of them is a 14 year old daughter and one is a preteen son at the age of 11. Being a parent I am constantly reminded of the parent child relationship between me and my heavenly father. As my pastor told us in church several sermons ago he likened our relationship with our children as a basketball game. We are the coach and referee and our kids are playing a game called life. There are rules to the game and when the kids break the rules and get out of bounds it is our job as parents, coaches and referee’s to call the foul, instruct them on their infraction and kick them back in bounds so they can start the game again.
As I thought of the question being posed this came to me. When my son does something wrong or is openly rebellious to me or his mother do I no longer love him? Do I reject him and cast him out of the house and remove him from the game permanently? The answer to that is no. I would not do that because my son is my son and no matter what he does I will never stop loving him. I may not approve of his actions and I may find myself in one of the three different roles listed above.
I may have to be a coach that helps to train my child how to play the game of life through teaching of life skills. I may find myself in the role of a referee who has to call the foul and implement some sort of penalty for the action that has been committed or an action that was not performed. I may even find myself in the role of comforter or encourager should the gift of mercy need to come in to play. That is one of the challenges of being a parent. When our children do something wrong we have to ask ourselves several questions. Why did they do what they did? Where were they at when this incident took place? Who were our children associating with? Were our children outside of their normal environment? What were our child or children thinking and what was their motivation for doing this?
Lets go back to what we must do in order to be a Christian according to the bible. The bible says that we must confess that Jesus Christ is LORD and repent of our sins. There are no magical potions. It is very simple to become a Christian. We recognize that we are sinners and that without the GRACE of GOD which was demonstrated by Jesus on the Cross 2000 some odd years ago that we are lost and headed for hell. Jesus paid the penalty of the sins of the world past present and future. We all know John 3:16 that says “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whomsoever believeth in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life. “ I have that memorized in the Authorized version (King James) language and I love its interpretation the best. It says that WHOMSOEVER WILL believe shall not perish but have eternal life. Once we repent of our sinful nature and ask God to forgive us of our sin and be the Lord of our life we are enter in to a covenant with God that cannot be broken.
Now that we are a Christian is it possible for me to sin? Does becoming a Christian make me instantly perfect? The answer to the first question is YES it is possible for me to sin. The book of Romans says that “for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God”. The answer to the second question is no, we do not become instantly perfect once we become a Christian. When we become a Christian we are justified before God through the gift of Christ, his blood on the cross. In an instant we are justified but over a life time of living we work through our sanctification. 2 Corinthians 5:17 says “therefore if any man be in Christ he is a new creature: old things are passed away and all things are become new.” To me that describes the process of sanctification. Because of our position in Christ God sees no sin because of the blood that has been applied to our lives which wash us white as snow. Now we come to the struggle that all of us enter into once we become Christians. Our spirit is willing and wants to be obedient to the Father but our flesh is weak and wars with the spirit and wants to do its own thing. I love calling this attitude the Burger King mentality. That mentality says “Have it your way”. When we become Christians we give up the claim to our lives and turn over the reins to the Holy Spirit so that He can control us. We tell Jesus that we want to be subservient to HIS will and not our own. Why do we do that? Is it because we are hopelessly brainwashed in our local congregations? No, we do that because we realize through the Holy Spirit that lives within us that our lives were a wreck before Christ. Can I hear amen to that truth? If you can not admit to it I can.
What is the difference between someone that is a Christian and sin vs a non Christian and sin? Hopefully the Christian is struggling with what sin IS and is not. A Christian has the power of the Holy Spirit that teaches him right from wrong through the power of Gods word. The Christian begins to recognize sin and realizes that this sin separates them from God. I did not say that sin separates a Christian from the LOVE of God, I said that it separates them from his presence. Sin does damage to our relationship with our heavenly father. When we intentionally live in a lifestyle of sin we are living in open disobedience to the father and the bible says that at some point he loves you so much he will chasten you.
Someone that is not a Christian and therefore does not have the power of the Holy Spirit to guide and direct them, will not know what they are doing is sin and they will not be repentant of their actions. They think and believe that what they are doing is ok. If someone is living a lifestyle of sin and they are not being chastened by the Father then they are a child of the devil.

How do we know someone is truly a believer in Christ? We know because we will see the evidence of the fruit of the spirit in the life of the believer. Only God can judge the relationship however we can be fruit inspectors. The bible says that they will know that we are Christians because of our love for one another. So be careful that while you are inspecting the fruit on my tree that you be mindful of the fruit or lack thereof on your own tree. Amen??
Now we come full circle back to the original questions. Can I do this or that and still be a Christian. I think that we need to be careful in categorizing sin. If you want to know what God hates and consider sin you have to pick up his word and read it. To say that lust of the flesh (viewing porn) is more evil than murder or homosexuality reveals how fickle we humans really are. God defines sin in his word and he hates it all. God also has provided us forgiveness of sin and is a merciful and loving God. We also need to realize that while lust of the flesh or viewing porn might be our sin that we struggle with that your brother and sister might be struggling with something that is sin to them but is not sin to us. In other words drinking a beer during supper while out in public is not sin to me when I am with my family. However if I am with someone else outside of my family that struggles with alcoholism (their sin) then I am sinning by drinking because I become a stumbling block to them. Only the Holy Spirit of God can determine what is sin. The Holy Spirit convicts us of our sin, teaches us to bring that sin to the throne room of God and to confess it. The Holy Spirit forgives us of that sin, washes us, regenerates us and sits us back on the right path so we can go forward from that moment to lives according to his will.
If you are like me you do not need for someone to come up to you and say. Hey, did you know that viewing pornography is a sin? We already know in our heart of hearts that what we are doing is sin. We know it is a sin because the Bible tells us this. If we have never picked up the bible we have certainly listened to enough sermons on either tv or in person to know that we are not supposed to be lusting after someone of the opposite sex if we are not married to them. If we know that what we are doing is sin and we continue acting out that sin then we must realize that there will be consequences for our actions. One of those consequences will be our hearts will be heavy and we will not be at peace with God. Remember back to the garden of Eden when Adam and Eve sinned and did what God told them not to do. They ate the fruit off of the tree of knowledge. Before they did this they were at peace with God. After they ate from the tree they realized they were naked and became ashamed and hid from God. There is a saying that goes like this. The bible will keep you from sin or sin will keep you from the bible.
The good news is that we are not left defenseless in this world. We have the power of the Holy Spirit that lives within us to give us the strength to do what is right. The Holy Spirit teaches us what is right and what is wrong. We have the bible which is Gods word that gives us instructions on how HE wants us to live. He has given us many examples of how the saints before us overcame the enemies of this world. God has given us a new purpose and has redeemed us and promises us an eternal home in heaven with him.




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

KC Photo Album

Adopted Kitty

Photobucket Album

God is looking for ordinary people....

God is looking for ordinary people to do extraordinary work.

I had the opportunity to do street ministry in Houston Texas. I was called into street ministry early in life when I was in my 20’s. God taught me some tough lessons by allowing me to live on the street for a short amount of time. You could say I was stubborn, bullheaded and very rebellious. I had the Burger King mentality of having it my way. Trust me when I tell you that if you are a child of the king HE knows what motivates us and makes us tick. God will allow you to be your own person even if that means that you chose to live in rebellion to his word and purpose for your life. God will also chose to chasten you and get your attention. It took a 45 day visit to a county jail and 45 days in a street rescue mission to get my attention.

One of the things that I told God when I saw the street people sleeping in front of the Star of Hope Mission is that “ I am better than those men”. God showed me that I was no better than those men even if my issues were slightly different than the issues that they were facing. In other words what brought me to the side walk in front of the Star of Hope Mission was not alcoholism or drug addiction. What brought me there was my rebellious spirit and my desire to do my own thing. I kept asking God, why me Lord, what have I done to deserve this? God kept telling me that it was not what I had done but what I had not done. Once God drilled this lesson into my brain and spirit I was able to shut up and start listening to His plan for my life and to repent of my rebellious spirit.

I spent 45 days listening to God’s word three times per day and through the process of lots of prayer, counseling and talking to Gods people I came to the realization that God did have a purpose for my life and that He wanted to use even me. God taught me that He loves everyone and that includes the people that live on the street and the prisoner that is locked up behind bars. None of us are worthy of Gods grace and love. It is only because of His love do we have access to His grace and mercy. Our righteousness is like filthy rags in Gods nostrils.

I learned that God can and will use ordinary people to do extraordinary things. I am one of those people. God picked me up, spanked me, cleaned me up and gave me a new purpose. He filled me with His spirit and forgave me of my sins. He loved me despite of who I was and still am. He is not finished with me yet and I praise him for that on a daily basis.

One of the things that I constantly had to remind folks of when I was involved in street ministry is that God is not looking for us to be the next Billy Graham. I belonged to the largest Baptist church in Houston Texas that had a singles department with thousands of active singles. It took me 60 days in advance to find ONE single person who would take 30 minutes out of their schedule to tell folks what the bible means to them, what church means to them and what God means to them. One of the hurdles that I had to overcome with these folks is that they all felt as if they were not worthy of standing before some men at a street rescue mission and tell them how God has changed their lives from the inside out. I told them and I remind us all that God has created us in HIS image. He loves us and wants fellowship with us every single moment of every day. He has a purpose for our lives and that is for us to tell the people in our world of His wonderful life changing love for them. God wants us to tell people that there is something better than what this world has to offer. There is more to life than the finite time that we have to spend here on earth. Yes, God can and will use YOU to spread this message. He will take your life, clean it up and empower you to share your story with those that desperately need to hear it. Be encouraged today and know that you are special to God and that He has someone in your sphere of influence that you can share the good news with.

May God bless and keep you in his loving arms….




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

Keeping in Real

My life helps paint my neighbor's picture of God.

That is the quote at the bottom of my daily bread. I actually took time out to read todays morsel from God's word. Yeah me!! I am like you in that I get very busy with this and that here at work and life just seems to consume me.

Just the other day at work I characterized the waiters at LaHacienda as "bean burners" in front of my non christian boss and one of my christian co workers. I had eaten lunch at LaHacienda and got a tea to go as is my normal routine. Several hours later I looked in the bottom of my cup and found a rumpled up lump of something or the other. I fished it out to find out it was a receipt that had accidentally gotten thrown in there. I went back to LaHacienda and showed it to them and they promptly refunded me the funds for lunch and were pretty nice about it.

As I recounted the story to my co worker and my boss I did not need to label the waiters as "bean burners". LOL... In my mind I was not trying to be ugly or offensive however my labeling these workers in such a way was not very Christ like. My christian friend was sure to remind me of this after my boss left our presence and I realized how it sounded. I was not reflecting christ like values in my conversation which means that I was not filtering my conversation through Phillipians 4:8. The picture I was painting for my neighbor "boss" was not very flattering to say the least.

My life helps paint my neighbor's picture of God.

As we live our lives today ask God the Father to give us the ability to filter our actions, thoughts and deeds through Phillipians 4:8 which says

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things

If we can do that then perhaps our neighbors will see that difference in our lives that will not only attract them to the Lord but also bring glory and honor to Him whom we call Christ.

God bless






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

In Memory of Mr Bailey our cat

This is Mr. Bailey became a part of our family in April 2006. He was a kitten that was given to us by one of the next door neighbors. This weekend when we were in Myrtle Beach Mr Bailey went out on the town himself and unfortunately he never came back. Our next door neighbors young sons found Mr Bailey in the woods behind our house. He apparently fell prey to one of the foxes that roam the neighborhood early in the morning. Mr Bailey was given a proper funeral and will always be part of our family. Mr. Bailey used to love to get in Katy's lap and sleep with her. He also loved to suck on the frill of the blanket that used to be Jessica's blanket. We figure that since he did that all the time that he was probably weened a little bit too early. Mr Bailey grew up as a kitten right alongside of Angel and Ginger so they got along pretty good. Angel the lab just tolerated Mr Bailey but Ginger and Bailey both played all the time. On many occasions when I would watch them play I wanted to go get the digital cam corder and set it up. Of course by the time I would have gotten the camera set up play time would have been over with so that never happened. Katy had taken a couple of pictures with her Nokia picture phone so that is one of them up at the top of this article. I will see if I can find some more of him and post those as well. We miss you Mr. Bailey...

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

Happily Addicted to the Web

Today started out at around 3:30 am thanks to Ginger the hyper mutt wanting to go potty and the flashes of lightning and roll of thunder that was starting to shake the tin can we live in. If you know me at all you know that I do not appreciate bad weather so it takes very little to shake me from slumber. I managed to cool the muggy house down after turning on the AC for a spell and got to get some winks in my recliner after I noticed the radar was not showing any severe weather that required my staying awake. I woke Katy up around 6:12 am and then drove her to work. Actually, I wound up driving around in circles trying to find a quicker route to take her since the traffic was already horrendous at 7 am. I spent the rest of my morning packing clothes and junk to take with us in the truck. I also ran around town all morning taking care of errands, paying bills and getting my prescription renewed at the doctors office and Kmart. Those errands took most of the morning. At 1:30 pm I captured Katy from work and we went to Mt Pleasant to Atlanta Bread Company to grab a quick bite to eat and check email on their free WiFi. Some people are more concerned about the quality of food and environment but I am more concerned with whether or not the business has free WiFi so I can feed my growing Internet addiction. I know, sad but true.

The trip from Charleston to George Town was beautiful with hardly any clouds in the sky. As soon as we got between George Town and Myrtle Beach the clouds got thicker and darker. Then the bottom fell out of the sky and my once clean and shiny Durango was once again getting pelted by nasty rain water. That is what I get for washing my truck knowing full well it was supposed to rain. I guess that is another one of my addictions, having to have a clean vehicle. Thanks Mom and Dad for that one. I spent most of my childhood washing and waxing the family car and my dads truck. I even grew to hate it. You would think that as an adult that washing and waxing a vehicle would be on my most hated things to do list.

We got to Compass Cove Resort before 6 pm and there were 20 people in the lobby trying to check in and literally no where to park. I managed to park in front of the lobby and get in line with Katy. We got checked in just fine. They had already had our group pre registered with our folders and key cards already programmed. That was pretty cool considering the normal routine that the others had to go through. I was in and out in less than 20 min. We had to go back out into the rain and drive 50 yards down Ocean Blvd to the next building which is part of the resort. I think it is called the Pinnacle building. Once again I managed to figure out that there was little to no parking. There are three levels to the garage that holds approximately 50 cars. I went all the way to the top and there were four spots left. I took one of them and I don not plan on moving my SUV for the rest of the weekend. The other unfortunate folks will have to park across the street and walk across in the rain. I guess I am glad I got here early so I could get settled. Once we got into our room the first thing I did was fire up the laptop and check out the WiFi connection. Did you forget the Internet addiction already? LOL… I was pleased to see that I was able to get a connection however I was only getting one bar in the living room part of our room. I unplugged the power and brought the laptop into the bedroom section closest to the door and the elevator and now I have FIVE bars of signal. Wooooohooooo. That discovery also required me having to get my poor wife to help me drag the small dining room table out of the living room area, through the tiny kitchen into the bedroom. Poor dear was shaking her head the whole time. What can I say, Katy has her blow dryer, tons of clothes, her coca cola bottle we brought from home , I only need one bed, shower and the Internet to keep me pacified.

My stomach is calling and there is a meet and greet session down in one of the conference rooms next door so I must close for now. I will try to take some pictures later on this weekend if it gets prettier outside. For now it is rainy and ugly.

Connecting again with an old friend in Houston Texas

I was at lunch today when my cell phone rang. The caller id had unknown and I almost did not take the call especially being at lunch. Being curious I decided to answer it anyway and I was pleasantly surprised that I did. My long time friend from Houston Texas was on the line.

It was sort of funny because I had no clue who this person on the phone was. Casey Broussard finally identified himself and I almost fell out of my chair. Just the other day I was thinking about him and tried to use a Google Search to see if I could locate him.

Casey and I were roommates back in 1981 in Greenspoint which is suburb of Houston. At that time in my life I attended church with Casey over at First Baptist Church on Katy freeway where I eventually met my current wife Katy. I attended and graduated from the University of Houston Law Enforcement academy around August of 1982. I remember getting the marksman award for pistol shooting and they surprised me by giving me a small trophy. Casey's wife Amy at that time was wearing gloves and the trophy fell out of her hands and it broke in two. LOL... The important thing is that my friends were there to support me during this time of my life.

I remember how Casey used to like to go to Galveston Island and other little islands south of Houston to go surfing. It has been good to reconnect with an old friend and we are hoping to reconnect in person sometime in the next year or two. Thanks for taking the time to look me up brother Casey. May God bless you and your household.

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

Taking life one day at a time

Today has been a very beautiful day here in the Low Country of SC and I have been enjoying each moment to the fullest. I have been fortunate this last year and a half to have had an 8 to 5 job on a regular basis with weekends and holidays off. I can remember a time not too long ago where I had to work 7 am to 3 pm and 3pm to 11 pm at a security job while working another job fixing computers during the day. I worked seven days per week for months on end and we still struggled to make ends meet. I have friends that are still doing that drill so I know how fortunate that I am.

Every day is a gift from God. Our lives are special and they are interconnected one with another and they mean something. How much value and quality of life that we experience is partly up to us. Every day we have to approach our day with the right attitude and spirit. Life happens to everyone and sometimes bad things do happen to good and bad alike. How we deal with those events in our lives defines our core values and character.

One of the things that make my life enjoyable and complete is knowing that God is control and not me. If things were left up to me I would find some way to screw things up royally. Luckily for us God is in control and he has a purpose and meaning for our lives. I attend Grace Fellowship Church on a bi weekly basis and I rub elbows with other likeminded folks that are just like me. Living one day at a time and doing our best to build our faith in who God is in the world we live in.

My family also makes my life complete and they add substance and adventure to my life. Every day is an adventure in our household and you never know what might happen. If you do not believe that having a family can be an adventure then you are not the parents of a teenage son or daughter. That fact alone makes life very real for me in many ways. As a single person all I had to worry about is my needs. I can determine what I want to do and when I want to do it with regards to my free time. I do not have anyone to answer to nor do I have to consider their feelings. If I want to take off for a day and go wherever and stay there however long I would not have to worry about somebody worrying about me or being upset that they did not get to come along. When you take on the responsibility of being a parent your ability to do this gets tossed out the window. You may think that I am complaining about this but I am just trying to reflect upon the fact that single folks do enjoy some added freedoms that we married folks do not.

My family makes me complete because they are a part of me and I am a part of them. We are intertwined one with another in soul and spirit. Individually we are unique and separate people but together as a family unit we are a team with a single focus. We are responsible for loving one another and living in harmony with one another. That task in and of itself can be a real challenge when you have teenagers. As a family we are constantly growing and changing as people and therefore each day brings forth new challenges. I guess you could say that as our family grows older together every day could be a chapter in a book. As a single person in the family we write our own unique chapters as a family unit all of our chapters put together would make a novel or a series of books. My family makes me complete because I know that they love me. They care about whether I come home or not. They care about whether I am happy or sad. My family encourages me by affirming my position in the family as the father of my children and husband to my wife.

My family challenges me to live up to a certain standard. They need for me to be the best dad that I can be, the best husband I can be, the best provider I can be and the best leader that I can be. Sometimes when I think about all of this is sort of scares me and makes me feel inadequate. I wonder if my wife and kids are really getting everything out of me that they should be.

In years gone by the father figure was known as the guy that showed up at the end of the day and ate dinner with his family and then flopped down in front of the television set. This dad and husband was providing for the physical wellbeing of his family by providing a pay check and roof for everyone to live under. This type of dad was also mostly emotionally absent and not engaged in the life of his children much less the needs of his wife. This type of dad and husband did his part and then the rest of his time was his to do with whatever he wanted.

My son challenged me this weekend with regards to me being a dad. From Friday night on he started to beg his mom to take him to game stop. Justin wanted to trade in one of his games that he is bored with for something new for his game cube. Katy and I spent Saturday doing the typical things like paying bills, buying groceries for the week and then we watched a movie. We try to get together as husband and wife for one day a week to enjoy each other's company away from work and the kids. It is vitally important that couples do this because we sometimes forget that there was a life before the children came along. Justin wanted to get a ride to Game Stop and mom and dad wanted to collapse in their recliners and get some siesta time and be lazy. I took Katy home after our movie and snack and took Justin to the Game Stop. My desire was to dump him off at the front door while I remained in the truck in a semi horizontal and conscious state while he did whatever he was going to do. As luck would have it my son engaged me and told me that he would need for me, the adult, to go in and conduct the business of trading in his game and getting credit on the Game Stop Discount card. Before I knew it the commitment to be merely a chauffeur turned into much more. I was now engaged in helping him find the right game for the home computer. As a child I never really experienced being the child and having my dad want to be involved in what I was doing even if it is just for fun entertainment. I found that I was forcing myself to choose to enjoy the fact that I have a son that loves his game cube games. My challenge is to teach myself how to be interested in the things that make him happy. As a dad I find myself using a ruler to gauge everything as either safe or unsafe, wholesome or dangerous. Instead of analyzing everything that he is doing as a child I have to find a way to engage him in his world so that I can be a part of it. Once I do that I can learn what makes him tick and he will learn how to trust me and make me more and more a part of his life.

We chose the game of choice which turned out to be something less than I would have personally chose for him but I gave him the latitude to indulge himself and get the game anyway. So, I was chauffer, financier and also the software installer/trouble shooter when the game did not instantly work after loading five cds on our home pc. After it was all said and done, several hours later the game just would not work. We need a better computer with a much better video card to play this game. What is more important than the game at this point for me is that I did spend the time and I invested that time in my son. We were not successful in the end result of what he wanted but at least he saw his dad taking part in his world.

My daughter, the alien, challenges me on a day by day basis. My alien is 14 years old and I know that I know it is only going to get worse. One of the things that always comes back to haunt parents and make their lives a living adventure (hell…) is that our kids are always a chip off the old block. It has been said that familiarity breeds contempt. Our kids are unique individuals that are learning how to become adults but unfortunately they also have the same quirks and character traits that mom and dad do. You look at your child and recognize those things that drive you crazy about yourself. You find yourself eyeball to eyeball with yourself and it drives you crazy. My dear daughter seems to have many of my traits. Kristina Lynn is very smart, almost too smart for her own good. Kristina is definitely a strong willed child who likes to do her own thing. One of the things that Kristina loves to do is to challenge her boundaries and our authority as parents. My pastor likened parenting to that of a coach at a basketball game. The parents are the coach and the kids are the ball players. The game has rules and the kids are going to play ball (live life). Our job as parents is to set boundaries and when the child goes out of bounds or commits a foul our job is to lovingly yet sternly hold them accountable for the rules of the game.

I find it much easier to relate to my son Justin in his world. Heck, every man has a little boy living inside who loves to play and mess around with all of his toys. How does a dad get engaged in the life of a teenage daughter? I find it more than a challenge on most days especially since the teenage daughter seems more interested in doing everything she can to alienate herself from the rest of the family. I understand that she is coming into her own and becoming a young adult soon as she learns how to walk through adolescence. My challenge has always been to find a way to make her comfortable to talk to me and her mother. I am hopeful that between the ages of 14 and 18 she will figure out a way to develop her interpersonal skills and allow us to be a bigger influence in her life. All we can do in the mean time is to make ourselves available to her as much as possible.

One of the other things that make my life complete and gives me a lot of joy is all of my many electronic toys. OK ok, a little humor here. I do enjoy all of the toys that I have accumulated over the last several years however they do not give me the satisfaction that I receive from all of my friends. Toys come and toys go however there is nothing more important to me than good friends. I am so blessed to have good friends. I thank God for them each day and pray for them every chance I get.

Did I tell you that I love bowling? If not, I do. In the last couple of weeks I have been bowling my average and more. Last week I bowled a 145 average and tonight I bowled a 156 average which is very good for me.

Sandpiper Lanes

Most days when I go bowling I am just happy to break the 100 mark. That is because I seem to have a very difficult time bowling my average which is between 130 and 132 depending on what bowling alley I am at during league play. Tonight I am happy to report that I bowled my very first 200 game at Sandpiper lanes and a 166 average. Now that is something for me to be HAPPY about. Last night I bowled a 145 average which is excellent for me over at Marrington Lanes.

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

Slaying the Budget Dragon

All the flowers are beginning to bloom here in the lowcountry. The weather was absolutely gorgeous today with clear skies a slight breeze and 65 degree weather. I wish we had this kind of weather all year long. Starting last Thursday I had a three day weekend. I went home early and took Katy to Florence SC which is about 90 minutes from Goose Creek North on I-95. I was doing the speed limit the whole time and you would have thought I was standing still. That was the day that all of the storms that devastated Alabama last week came roaring through the state of SC. Luckily for us there were no tornados or much damage. It made for wonderful driving though. The trip was pretty uneventful and Katy took her mid term exam at Francis Marion University in Florence.

After I dropped Katy off at the university to take her exam I decided to go find a Starbucks so I could enjoy some of their delicious coffee and wireless Internet access. I did not know that this was possible but I found a Starbucks with no WiFi access. Is that even possible? Much to my disappointment I spent the next hour going from one book store to the next looking for Wifi access. I finally ran across an Atlanta Bread Company that did have Wifi. I had no sooner ordered a cup of coffee when my phone rang and Katy told me she was done with her test. That meant that I had to hop back in the truck and go 10 miles to pick her up. Once we did that we returned to Atlanta Bread Company and had a coffee and Wifi break.

Friday I was off and Katy went to work to tame the wild savages in her classroom once again. I spent most of Thursday night in the recliner keeping a wary eye on the weather radar just in case we had any surprise tornados. Luckily for me none showed up but we did have high wind and lots of rain. When the weather is bad I am like a caged animal. No rest for me during those times. Katy and the kids sleep like rocks , it does not matter what the weather is doing. I went to bed around 5:30 am and got up again around 10 am. Friday during the day I spent some time slaying the budget dragon. The budget dragon is that proverbial monster that causes you to have more bills at the end of the month than money. You know the drill if you have ever lived from pay check to pay check. It seems that you get paid one day and the next day it is gone. How does that happen? Very simply put it happens because we live outside of our means. We have champagne tastes and beer budgets. We live in a very materialistic world and most of the time we get confused with our wants and needs. We are surrounded by different types of media messages that continually tell us that in order to be somebody you have to dress this way, live in that neighborhood, drive that type of vehicle and wear those types of clothes. We get sucked into all the advertisements that beg us to spend our hard earned money on materialistic stuff that ultimately makes us miserable and causes us more debt than it is worth.

The budget dragon is no different than any other dragons that might be stalking the corridors of our life. Some of us have problems with weight loss, alcohol addiction, toy addiction, drug addiction, money management, relationships or whatever. If all of us are honest we can look in the mirror and recognize one or several of these dragons that need to be slain and put to rest once and for all.

The first thing I did was to stab the cable company dragon in the heart. I was able to reduce that bill by more than half. Do we have to have Digital Cable or is 99 channels enough? Do we have to have premium movie channels when all or most of the movies that they show have already been seen? The answer to those questions is absolutely not. I told the local cable company that all I want is the basic local channels which is approximately 11 of them. That took my cable bill from 58 bucks down to 11 bucks. The next thing that I did was to reduce my high speed Internet bill by removing the extra 2 mb of download speed which decreased it from 8mb download to 6 mb download.

The next budget dragon that I was able to maim our telephone bills. We got rid of Bellsouth almost 9 months ago and switched to Vonage. Bellsouth was costing us around 45.00 per month and with Vonage we were able to reduce it down to 15.00 bucks per month. That was 9 months ago. This week I will be getting rid of Vonage thanks to my being able to shave 40 percent off of my cell phone bill just by changing plans. We went from the more expensive unlimited plan to our family sharing 2500 minutes per month. From what we were told we only consume about 1500 minutes per month total between the four of us.

The next budget dragon was more difficult to slay and that is the transportation monster. Can you believe how much money it takes to drive the roadways in this day and age? First you have the payment on your vehicle which can run anywhere from 300.00 to 800.00 depending on what you drive but then on top of that you have to pay taxes on that vehicle if you live in SC , then there are insurance payments, gasoline and maintenance if it is an older vehicle. Gasoline alone can cost you and arm and a leg. I am happy to say that I was able to tame the gas pumps by beginning to ride Carta Express from N. Charleston to downtown every day vs having to drive and pay for the gasoline to do it. Just recently we purchased a new Dodge Durango. We went from having a 2003 Pontiac Grand Prix to the Durango because we thought we needed a bigger vehicle. The problem with our purchase is that the payments are twice as big. Not only that but the Durango costs more to fill up and the taxes at the end of the year are more too. While it is nice to drive this type of vehicle it was not the best decision we could have made. For now we are stuck with the vehicle until I can pay it down some and wait for the right moment to sell it.

The next budget dragon was the recurring Internet Subscription monster. That is the many little seemingly tiny and inconspicuous subscriptions for this service and that service that you can only get on the Internet. The problem with those is that all of these innocent little charges add up into one huge payment at the end of the month that can leave a surprise hole in your budget. It turns out that I was lucky recently because the credit card that all of these services had on file expired. Before I knew it I was getting that proverbial e-mail that said I needed to update my information online so that they could continue to empty my budget. The answer to that one is NO. No more charges for services that I would like to have because they are NEAT but are absolutely unnecessary.

The next dragon that will need to be maimed and eventually killed off is the eating out monster. How many of us LOVE to eat and like the convenience of just stopping by Atlanta Bread Company or Cracker Barrel for a quick meal. I know that Katy loves it when she does not have to cook or clean the kitchen after a hard days work. This dragon can slowly and surely drain your finances out of your account if you are not careful. Eating out is expensive and it also is not always the most nutritional way to eat either. We are learning to say no to eating out and eat at home more. Even with as expensive as food is these days it is still cheaper to feed your family at home than it is at a restaurant somewhere.

With time we are getting better at taming the budget monster and getting control of our financial future. This has been a long time in coming. Thanks to divorce, bankruptcy and several other unforeseen events in the life of our family our budget has taken a severe beating. There were days that I thought that there just was not any hope with regards to our finances or credit. Thanks to a dear friend of mine I learned that there is hope. Once I realized that I did have power over my finances and that I could take tiny baby steps towards a positive future then and only then was I able to change my mind and hearts attitude towards doing something vs not doing anything at all. The bottom line is this. Nothing happens over night. Credit ratings do not go down the tubes over night and they also do not get fixed over night. It takes several things to dig yourself out of a hole.

The first thing it takes is a change of heart and a positive attitude that things can get better. Ignoring the problem is the worst thing you can do. Ignoring bills and avoiding the issues only makes things much worse. The next thing that you have to do is develop a plan. Some people call it a budget and some people call it a spending plan. Whatever makes you happy call it whatever. The important thing is that you stay within your allotted funds for living and expenses. The next thing that has to happen is you have to make a commitment to be disciplined enough to do the right things. You have to set the plan in motion and follow it as closely as possible. Having a plan and not following it is like filling the car full of gasoline and then locking the keys in the trunk. Doing that gets you no where.

In closing I will say that it is never too late to start. Today is the day that you and /or your family can set an action plan in motion and work towards financial freedom. My friend told me that it took them almost 5 years to dig out of the hole that they were in because of bad spending habits and abusing credit. This friend has helped me to see that there is hope and a positive financial future on the horizon.

Blogging with Word 2007

This is the coolest font on the planet. I am posting this meaningless drivel to my blog from Microsoft Word 2007. This is so cool…

 

 

Cannon Molthan

Cannon Luke Molthan was born on February 10, 2007 at 5:04 a.m. He weighed 7 pounds 15 ounces and was 20 inches long. He is absolutely gorgeous and too sweet.

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

Cannon Molthan

Cannon Luke Molthan was born on February 10, 2007 at 5:04 a.m. He weighed 7 pounds 15 ounces and was 20 inches long. He is absolutely gorgeous and too sweet.

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

Cannon Molthan

Cannon Luke Molthan was born on February 10, 2007 at 5:04 a.m. He weighed 7 pounds 15 ounces and was 20 inches long. He is absolutely gorgeous and too sweet.

Kimberly and her family are very special to us. Kimberly was the counselor for Jessica Ann Moffitt in 2001 when she attended the Camp Happy Days camp.

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

Yes, I am a sucker for punishment. I figure that while I was playing musical OS's with my 40 gb hard drive on the Toshiba laptop that I might as well give Vista RC2 a spin. After RC1 turned the laptop into a clam shell on the last try I had pretty much given up on doing that again. My experience with Linux this week gave me enough reason to try this again. After all, what is the worst that could happen? I would have to put the dreaded Toshiba recovery cd back in and reboot and restore the laptop to factory defaults. How many times have I done this in the last 2 months? I have lost count. LOL
The first install of Vista locked up the laptop. I am not sure what happened so I turned the laptop off for several minutes, restarted it and gave it try number 2. Heck, you cant say you gave it a Boy Scout effort if you just give up when a computer freezes up right? In this case the second try was the charm. I left it running and went to church to attend the weekly praise team practice and left my son Justin watching the laptop as it installed the new OS.
As luck would have it the install went flawlessly and when I got home after practice I was greeted with the initial desktop setup screen which allowed me to set up specific user paramaters that would allow me to log on to the desktop. So far so good by this point. The install process rebooted the laptop several times and before you know it I was running with Vista RC2 without any major catastrophes. The first test for me was to insert the Linksys Wifi card into the same pcmcia slot and see what happened. What happened caused me to smile because Vista saw it immediately and started installing Broadcom wireless driver software for it. I dug around in the network setup section and figured out how to connect to my WAP here at home. I can not begin to tell you how happy I am that Microsoft has completely screwed up the networking configuration in Vista. Then again that is outside the scope of this article so I will visit that again as I learn more. I was very suprised that Vista identified the wireless adapter as a Broadcom and not Linksys which is the brand. The wireless Linux gurus at work told me that the Linksys card probably uses the Broadcom chipset and that is why that happened. I guess you learn something every day huh? I removed the broadcom drivers, reinstalled the Linksys Wifi manager and drivers and rebooted. Guess what? The wifi manager would not run and the drivers for the Linksys wifi card were not recognized by Vista. So, you know the drill, out with Linksys drivers and software, rebooted and let Vista work magic with its Broadcom drivers all over again. Heck , if it is not broke why fix it??
I am happy to report that over all I am pretty happy with Vista RC2. I have serveral hurdles to overcome and the immediate one will be to figure out how to do this and that in this OS vs XP SP2. In an effort to remove any and all security risks in the OS Microsoft has screwed the lid down on the pot so tightly that you have to pull out a screw gun and take all the screws loose so you can see what is happening under the hood. That probably did not make sense as far as word pictures go but hopefull you got that. LOL
My first software snafu came when I tried to install and USE Incredimail. For some of you that wont be a huge loss especially if you dont use it for email. However I am not so fortunate because a good friend of mine got me stuck on Incredimail long ago and now I feel creatively crippled when I can not use all of the cool stationary and animated gizmos that comes with this email client. The application installs just fine however when the app starts up and the notifier starts up to tell you that you have new mail the application locks tight as a drum. Vista now has a cool software widget that TELLS YOU the obvious. " Incredimail is experiencing a problem and will now be shut down. Before we kill the processes involved we will see if we can peek under the hood and fix it for you." So far all the widget really does is confirm the blantantly obvious fact that the app is frozen. The other thing it does is give you a handy dandy little link to the website of the software manufacturer. I bet Google is pretty hacked off about that functionality. LOL.... Hey honey, how can I figure out where to find the Incredimail website dear? How about www.incredi...... OH STOP IT.... LOL
Our next stop in the software discovery zone last night was in Microsoft Vista Widget land. Vista has a desktop application launcher like Rocketdock. However , from what I can tell you can only use Microsoft Widgets that they developed and I dont think you can drag normal apps in there to use. Please understand that I am still a rattle shaking toddler when it comes to this OS so I might be wrong about that. As of now I have the following widgets showing on my desktop along with my desktop icons which I will remove later if I can. At the top I have the Weatherbug widget , in the middle I have the analog clock widget and under that is the CPU/MEM system widget and at the bottom I put a calculator widget since I am always and forever figuring out how much moola I need to give away to the creditors. LOL...
My third stop in software discovery zone today happened to be with Symantec Anti Virus which is provided for free by the college where I work. I plugged my laptop into the work LAN and downloaded the latest and greatest version of Norton Anti Virus by Symantec. I spent at least 2 hours trying to get Norton Live Update to work only to find out that version 10.1 does not work with Vista but version 10.2 does. On my first install of the new version that is supposed to work with Vista Live Update did not install correctly and all of my pretty icons turned into white place holders. I was pretty excited about that developement, let me tell ya. I decided to reboot the PC thinking that maybe I needed to after a major install of an AV product even though I thought it was weird that it did not prompt me to do it anyway. When I rebooted the pc I was greeted by the dreaded recovery screen as if I had pushed F8 on boot up. I was once again reminded my Microsoft that there was a problem in software land and the OS was having a problem booting. Imagine that huh? I would have never known except for the pretty logo that was supposed to be there was GONE..... LOL
In a desperation attempt I clicked on the trusty and faithful LAST KNOWN GOOD menu selection and I was greeted by a pretty Vista logo and the logon screen. When I finally landed back on my user desktop GUI all of my icon place holders were once again pretty icons. Woooohooooo. Vista was happy but Norton Anti Virus was not. After several attempts I managed to get Live Update reinstalled and working. Live Update is doing what it is supposed to be doing however the definition file screen is not showing todays date yet. After researching the specific error on Google I was told to delete all the live update index files etc and that is supposed to fix that problem finally. I will play around with that tomorrow.
I have Microsoft Office 2003 installed with no problems and I installed AVS Video Tools on the laptop and I am converting some video files to .wmv format with no problems. I am noticing that AVS is a cpu hog as it has the cpu system clock pegged solid at 100%. I am pleased to say that out of 1 gb of ram on my laptop it is only using 33% of the available ram.

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

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