Rushing water
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
Friday, February 26, 2010
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Friday, January 29, 2010
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Making adjustments
I finally made the call to Comcast the other day and told them to drop our digital subscriber package which included digital cable, high speed Internet and digital telephone. I have been putting this off for way too long. With the econony being where it is and the fact that gizmo is not gainfully employed still is forcing us to make some tough decisions. We have hopes that gizmo will get a job with the Census bureau in March since she has gone through the testing phase and passed. I am not sure how long that job will last but at least it will be some sort of extra income coming into the budget. In the mean time we have to make whatever adjustments that we can to make my pay check stretch as far as it can. I know that I am not alone in this journey because we are all in the same boat in one way or the other. We were able to keep basic cable and we had to keep our Internet access because we are all doing online school. We reduced our bill down by about 65% which is good.
The other budget killer which is as equally hard is eating out. I do not think that we eat out that much until I sit down and look at how much we do spend in that category in our budget. I do not care what anyone says, it is much cheaper to eat at home than eat out. Yes, it is more hassle to have to cook and clean up after one self but the fact is it is cheaper and can be healthier. We have been looking at our spending habits with regards to groceries and we were under the perception that buying food at Walmart was the cheapest place to get food. Thanks to my wife doing some research we discovered that Sav a Lot can save you a lot of money in the food budget. We still have to get some things at Walmart like paper products and personal hygiene stuff and meat but our food dollars seem to go much further. Another thing that can save you some food bucks is using coupons. Using cupons over the long haul can save you a TON of money if you are diligent in doing it. I know this because I had the opportunity to sit down with a friend of a friend at Ryans Steak House on Rivers avenue. When I listened to this lady talk to me about the process that she goes through to find the coupons and go to the different stores to save this and that I was amazed. Using coupons is a lot of work but like this lady showed me on her receipts you can save a lot of money over the long haul.
The other thing that is killing our budget is our housing expenses. I love living where we are and the fact that I am 15 minutes away from the office. The truth of the matter is there are cheaper places to live and before our lease is up in May we are going to be looking for a cheaper place to live that is halfway between Goose Creek and Kiawah. We will probably be looking for something in West Ashley. Not only is our goal to find a cheaper place to live but we also need to get our teens out of the Johns Island/James Island school districts. Charleston county schools here are very poor quality and thanks to that we have been forced to do home schooling again. Our teens desperately want to move back to Goose Creek to go back to those schools and be with their friends but I do not want to drive 2 hours per day back and forth to Kiawah so we are going to have to compromise.
Despite the struggles that we may be facing financially life is pretty good. We are all relatively healthy and we are not facing and life changing events at the moment. When we hear about the tragedy in Haiti we realize just how fortunate we really are. Our poorest people in America are filthy rich next to these folks. I can not fathom the desperation and hopelessness that those people must be experiencing. The loss of life and property is staggering to comprehend. I am hopeful that all of the money that has been raised and all of the help from all around the world will be put to good use. I hope that the people of Haiti are much better off once the dust settles and they are able to get back to life as normal as possible. It will take years of rebuilding and some changes will have to be made by the Haitian government to allow those changes to happen. It is good to see how the world is responding to their needs.
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Volunteering is important
Good morning fellow readers!!
I saw something on Twitter that has set me off this morning so yes this will be a bit of a rant. J
North Charleston is suggesting that some of us volunteer to pick up trash on the side of I-26 and make our roads beautiful.
Before I go any further I do pick up trash along with the rest of my co workers on Bohicket road just outside of Kiawah Island. I am not happy about doing it however it is a requirement of businesses on Kiawah to provide this community service.
I believe that volunteering our time in the community is important and that all of us should try to do that when we can and our schedules permit. On the other hand I believe that there are a lot of things that need to be done in our community and are not getting done because there either is not enough people to do it or not enough money to pay the people to do it. I am sitting here wondering why our city and state governments do not utilize the manpower that our tax paying dollars are supporting. I am talking about the thousands of inmates that are incarcerated in our city and county jails. I vote that while we are feeding them and providing them with free medical care and room and board that we establish a program that puts them all to work for 8 hours per day doing community service such as picking up trash on the side of our freeways and other things that they are certainly capable of doing.
While I am thinking about it how about all of the welfare recipients in our state that are either unable to find a job or even worse have decided that they are too lazy to work and would rather milk the system for anything that they can get. No, I do not believe that all welfare recipients are lazy people who do not want to work but I will bet you there is a small percentage of them who do. I vote that while we are supplementing their income that we provide them with an opportunity to give back to the same community that is helping them. I have a feeling that some folks that receive city, state or county assistance would be more than happy to lend a helping hand and for those that decide they do not want to do something in return for the assistance might be motivated to stop getting assistance and go get a job.
Ok, rant over… Back to my regularly scheduled tasks…
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Antivrus Live
Good morning
Antivirus Live spyware is a “profile specific” program that only affects the logged on user. A “profile” is what is created when you log on to a Windows XP workstation with your user id and password. All of your computer desktop and application settings are stored in that profile which is located in c:\documents and settings\username.
Antivirus Live does NOT infect the entire machine. To cure this problem all you have to do is save your MS Office data to a backup folder on your hard drive and then delete the profile that is infected. You also need to turn off System Restore so that your machine is not re infected when the new profile is created. Turning off System Restore DELETES all system restore points and therefore gets rid of any infected files that might be in there.
Antivirus Live is transmitted via a website AD that you might click on. The AD contains a picture file that gets infected and then gets uploaded to the web site web server. At this time there is no known way to detect that an AD on a website is infected. All we can do is our best to keep our network and machines as clean as possible and do due diligence by doing regular scans and keep the AV and AS definition files up to date.
I am telling you all of this so you will be aware of what is happening and so that you can also be better prepared to protect your home or office computing environment as well.
Saturday, January 09, 2010
Emailing: Jerseypcs (11)
not sure what look this is but there ya go...
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Emailing: Jerseypcs (10)
Go Dallas
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Emailing: Jerseypcs (8)
Go Dallas
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Emailing: Jerseypcs (7)
Go Dallas- blanket keeps me warm...
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Go Dallas!!
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Emailing: Jerseypcs (1)
Dallas Cowboys jersey. Go Dallas
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Tuesday, January 05, 2010
Friday, January 01, 2010
Starting over in 2010
A dear friend of mine sent me this and I thought that it was a good way to get refocused and start out the new year with a new resolve and determination. Let me share it with you in the hopes that it will help in some way.
When you've trusted Jesus and walked His way, When you've felt His hand lead you day by day, But your steps now take you another way … START OVER. When you’ve made your plans and they’ve gone awry, When you’ve tried your best 'til there’s no more try, When you've failed yourself and you don’t know why … START OVER. When you’ve told your friends what you plan to do, When you’ve trusted them but they’ve not come through, Now you’re all alone and it’s up to you … START OVER. When you’ve failed your kids and they’re grown and gone, When you’ve done your best but it turned out wrong, And now your grandchildren have come along … START OVER. When you've prayed to God so you’ll know His will, When you’ve prayed and prayed but you don’t know still, When you want to stop cause you’ve had your fill … START OVER. When you think you’re finished and want to quit, When you’ve bottomed out in life’s deepest pit, When you’ve tried and tried to get out of it … START OVER. When the year's been long and successes few, When December comes and you’re feeling blue, God gives a January just for you … START OVER. Starting over means victories won, Starting over means a race we run, Starting over means the Lord’s “Well done," … so don’t just sit there .. START OVER. --- Woodroll Kroll
I am glad that 2009 is finally over and that I have the time to look back at the trials and tribulations that we went through both individually and as a family. I have to remind myself that while there were failures and bad decisions that I must not spend too much time beating myself up. Instead of doing that I will do my best to start over and make better decisions in 2010.
I have not made any new year resolutions because I have always been horrible at actually keeping them during the new year. Like most folks I start out very serious and determined about the resolution and I really do want to be successful at keeping them. Somewhere along the way life happens and for whatever reasons the resolutions get left in the dust somewhere never to be picked up again. Instead of a resolution this year I have several goals that I will continue to work towards each day in 2010. Here are some of those goals.
A. continue to lose 1 lb per week in 2010 - If I can lose more than that is great but 1 lb per week is the goal.
B. to continue being self disciplined to study in the evenings and make good grades in my classes at Trident Tech.
C. to face our finances and make sound financial decisions that will enable us to live with less - this will require living by a budget and cutting out unecessary spending.
D. to be thankful for what we have (each other) and be content - this includes not comparing ourselves (our family) with others. To do the best we can do with what we have and not worry about what others think about it.
E. to be genuine in our walk of faith both within our family our church and community. To focus more on the vertical relationship with God and let Him work out the details in our horizontal relationships with others in the community he has placed us in.
My prayer and hope for all of us is that 2010 will be a year where we can start over in our lives in the areas that we need to. No matter how big the failure or disappointment there is no better time to start over than today. Lets learn what we needed to learn from the mistakes and look forward to a brighter and more positive future. All we can do is live one day at a time and make the decisions that need to be made and do the best we can with what we have. I want to focus less on the negatives and the things that I have no control over and focus more on the things in my life that I do have the power to change and to keep a positive mental outlook on life.
Happy New Year
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Justin Moffitt
This is Justin Matthew Moffitt, my 14 year old son playing computer games.
James Moffitt
http://www.lightourworld.com
chiefpropellerhead@comcast.net
Sunday, December 27, 2009
Thursday, December 24, 2009
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Sunday, December 20, 2009
Saturday, December 19, 2009
I have to brag a little bit
Most of the time when I go to the mailbox I am greeted by the dreaded bills or junk mail. It is not very often that I am the recipient of something positive or encouraging. Today is the exception to the rule. When we went to the mail box we did not find any bills but we did find some christmas cards and a letter to me from Trident Technical College. I figured that the letter had something to do with financial aid or the spring semester in 2010 so I did not think much about it. When I opened the envelope I was pleasantly surprised. The letter states that I have been nominated to the Deans list for academic excellence for the Fall 2009 semester having had a 3.5 average and completing 12 credits.
I remember how scared I was of going back to school and wondering how I was going to work a full time job and keep up with my school work. The first three weeks was the hardest as I fumbled around trying to figure out how to get organized and worked out a game plan for how I was going to do this. Once I got past the 4 week point the panic started to ease up and I knew what I was going to do and how I was going to do it. The important part of the plan was that I had to be disciplined enough to get the work done. Most of my assignments were due on Sunday which meant that for the most part I had 6 days to get the work done in all four classes. Once I figured that out I was able to schedule the appropriate blocks of time in the evenings and weekend to get the work done. My dear wife having been in graduate school is a pro at this sort of stuff so she helped me get a jump start on the organizational part of things and told me to go for it. I am thankful to my wife for her encouragement and telling me that I can do it. I also appreciate Steve Berry taking the time out to walk me around the campus that first day back in July and giving me the short cuts I needed to get registered for the Fall semester. Steve was successful at motivating me to "just do it." The time for talk was over and it was time to put my plan into action.
I realize that I have only completed one semester out of many. The academic journey will continue and I am determined to my very best because I know that my doing this not only will help me in the future but I also want to be an example for my two teenagers. I am telling my teens that if they hope to have a chance at a bright and sucessful future that will include getting good grades now while they are in high school but they will need to use those good grades to spring board into college so they can get a solid education.
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Monday, December 14, 2009
Big companies losing sight of customer service
I was reminded yesterday of how large monopolies have lost sight of customer service. I make a living at supporting technology and I was appalled at the lack of timeliness with regards to giving me support. AT&T is our vendor of choice who provides us with the communications links that connect us to the outside world. I received a call from AT&T MIS notifying me that one of the links was experiencing problems. They advised me they were going to do some tests on the link and wanted to know when a repair person could access the site in case it was determined a repair person needed to be dispatched. This call happened around 9 am Sunday morning as I was driving to church with my family. I advised the person on the phone I would be available for on site from 2 pm until 10 pm on Sunday if they deemed it necessary to fix the problem. At that point I forgot about it because there did not appear to be any problems that were affecting the network. At approximately 7:30 pm AT&T calls me back telling me the same thing. Your data link is bouncing around and we need to do some testing. I was sitting there wondering what AT&T did for the last ten hours? I was told that they were going to do intrusive testing from 9 pm until 1 am and then let me know if there was really a problem. I advised them that we pay good money to AT&T for telcom services and this level of support was not acceptable. We use these data links to provide us with connectivity to the outside world and manage our business websites and other services this way. We can not afford to be down especially when we have known that the data link has been bouncing around for 8 hours before my intial notice. I notified AT&T operations contact and asked them to escalate the ticket and get something done in a more timely manner. This contact did everything they could to escalate the ticket and a repair truck was on site at 8 am Monday morning. We were without Internet access and e-mail for 2.5 hours this morning because AT&T decided to take HOURS and HOURS to decide there was a real problem. I am sorry AT&T that is not acceptable customer service. That is absolutely pathetic customer service and I am not happy about it. I will be sending a letter to our customer support team notifying them of our experience and I hope that they will be able to make some adjustments accordingly.
Saturday, December 12, 2009
Using technology responsibly
I just read a disturbing article about how people are using Twitter to "tweckle" (heckle) key note speakers during a conference. It reminds me of the articles I have recently where couples are at the altar about to make a life time committment to love one another and the ceremony is interrupted by one or both of them whipping out their smart phones to tweet about the event. I find myself sitting here thinking "are people really doing this?" Apparently people are doing this and I find myself wondering if we might be taking this to an absurd level. When I spoke to my wife about this she told me "I could see you doing this". I told my wife absolutely not. I believe that there is a time and place for technology and at the altar is not it. I understand that we want to share those special moments in life with our loved ones. That is why invitations are sent out well in advance so that those folks that can make it to the event to share it with us first hand can do so. The other folks who did not come or could not come will have to watch the video afterwards or look at the picture album.
I think that it is sad that people would use Twitter to take pot shots at folks who are holding a speaking engagement. I understand that people have expectations of what they will experience at a public event. I also believe that we should hold ourselves to a higher standard and perhaps extend a certain amount of flexibility and civility towards those who are trying to provide the message. I am thinking that if we are at a public event and we are there to listen to what someone is saying then using a cell phone to have a verbal conversation or to type out messages to our friends can be viewed as distracting and somewhat rude. If the shoe were on the other foot and we were trying to engage the audience in the content of our message and all we see is people who are not paying attention because they are too busy tweeting (tweckling) how would we feel? I am thinking that we would hope that people would put away the electronic gizmos and pay better attention to what is being presented.
I believe that with the advancement of technology and the ability to publish what we want when we want comes a new level of responsibility. The spoken word no matter how it is published is very powerful. I believe that we are should be responsible and accountable for what we say. What we say can encourage or discourage others. Our words can either build up people or tear them down. What we say can leave a lasting impression on others. Once the words are spoken or written down they are there and you can never take them back. We need to train ourselves to try and find the good in people and situations instead of always finding the areas where people are lacking. I am hoping that we can find a healthier balance the next time we feel like using our blogs or twitter to take a shot at someone.
Friday, December 11, 2009
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Wednesday, December 09, 2009
Tuesday, December 08, 2009
Repeating the December tradition
The Dallas Cowboys went to play the New York Giants this last Sunday and lost. Despite the fact that I am a die hard Dallas fan I was afraid that the turn out would be Dallas losing the game and I was correct. For whatever reasons Dallas has gotten an ugly reputation as being a team with a lot of talent and potential that falls apart right around play off time. During the first half Dallas went up 10 to 0 over the Giants and they looked pretty decent up until the fumble by Marion Barber which equated to a touchdown from NYG. It seems to me that Dallas lost their wind and their running game pretty much ended at that point. Marion Barber loses the football and we quit? It seemed that we were running the ball pretty well up until that point. Why did Dallas turn into a one dimensional football team going to only the pass? As for the passing game Tony Romo did an awesome job of connecting with Jason Whitten and Roy Williams. There were two things that nailed the lid on the Dallas coffin in the second half. The first one was the pass to the NYG running back who outran all the Dallas defenders for 74 yards and a touch down. There is no way that our coverage should have been so out of synch that we could not have tackled this guy. The other thing that killed Dallas's hopes of coming from behind was the punt return for a touch down. That was the 14 points that put the game out of reach in the fourth quarter. There was another thing that killed Dallas and that was the fact that the NY Giants were emotionally charged up and ready to play the game. They did whatever it took to win. I rarely ever see that level of enthusiasm out of the Dallas Cowboys. I almost forgot about the stupid move Flozzel Adams made at the half when he locked horns with one of the NYG team mates. I am sure that will cost him a pretty penny for that move. Lets see some of that emotion during the game play and not on the side line with the opposing team Flozzell.
Dallas is still in the lead in the NFC East but they have a very tough schedule for the rest of the season. I am hopeful that they will keep their poise and stop quiting when they run into a turn over. Mistakes are made and all you can do is learn from them and go on. You have to hold on to the ball and realize the defense is going to come after it. We must get the running game going and we also need to air the ball out down the field and loosen up the opponents defense some. If all you do is throw short passes to Whitten and you never air one out that is going to give the defenses secondary the confidence to play man to man coverage and play up close which makes it almost impossible to run.
Donating Blood on Kiawah yesterday
I really do not want this to come off the wrong way so before I begin I want to say that the American Red Cross does an awesome job at disaster relief all around the world. I personally appreciate the help and assistance that this organization provides both here and abroad. One of the services that they provide is to have blood drives and collect life saving blood for accident victims and sick folks that need it desperately. I was told that giving blood could save three lives. I was recruited by a co worker to do this several weeks ago and I must admit that the 10 gift certificate was very tempting especially since funds are so low. I made the committment and even though I hate giving blood I went through with it. I was one of the first 35 people to sign up and I figured that since they were taking appointments that the procedure would be fairly quick and hopefully painless. I was suprised to find out that while the procedure was mostly painless that it was nothing close to quick.
My appointment was at 1 pm yesterday so I arrived at 12:50 pm and I finally got out of the donation bus around 2:20 pm. I am glad that they screen people as closely as they do to make sure that they are getting a good supply of donated blood that stands a good chance as being usable. The first thing I had to do was get in line with three or four other people who were waiting and read a 14 page book that did its best to talk you out of giving blood especially if you are sexually permiscious or have traveled outside the country to different regions for any length of time. Luckily for them and fortunately for me I was not in any of the risk categories that would disqualify me for giving blood. The next step was to go into this tiny cubicle and have the volunteer ask you all sorts of questions, take your personal information and then ask you 49 questions that you have to answer either yes or no. The whole process with interruptions takes about 60 minutes.
I had several moments where I had to fight the urge to run out of the bus and get out of there. I was a big boy and stuck to my committment. Once I got on the donation couch and lay down I was out of there in about 15 minutes. The gentleman that did the procedure was very professional and answered all my questions and did his best to make me comfortable. The person taking the blood and those assisting seemed to have better people skills than those folks that were taking care ofthe pre donation phase of things. There were a couple of moments that I wanted to just go MOOOOO because I felt like I was in some sort of meat packing plant standing in line waiting on someone to whack me between the eyes with a ball pean hammer.
I woke up this morning and my arm looks like I have needle tracks. As a matter of fact when we had our luncheon at work today all of the co workers with me that donated looked the same way. The book I mentioned earlier warned us that this might occur. It has been a long time since I gave blood so I do not remember if this happened before or not. All in all I am glad that I overcame my fear of needles and endured the long process but I am hoping that the American Red Cross will find a better way to do this. Certainly the process can be shortened or optimized in some way so that we do not have to wait for 90 minutes. One of the things that was mentioned is that we believe the team that was there from the Red Cross was not expecting the turn out they got. Perhaps if they would have had a couple of more volunteers and an extra donation bus they could have processed more people quicker.
The important thing is that we donate if we can. This is the season for giving and there is nothing more precious than life giving blood that could save a life.
Friday, November 27, 2009
Auto Dialer Hell (rant)
I am taking a break in the Happy Birthday mood that I was in to share my experience with what I will call "Auto Dialer Hell".
As we all know the economy sucks and I am like most folks in that I find myself over extended with more bills than money. This has irritated my credit union to the point that they have entered our account information into their nifty little auto dialer which dutifully calls us every single day.
I do not have a problem with the credit union calling me to make payment arrangements with me on the auto loan and the personal loan I have with them. If I am late and I have not communicated with them then I certainly expect letters in the mail and phone calls. The only problem I have with them is the mindless auto dialer which totally ignores any and all arrangements that I have made with the credit union personell. I thought that payment arrangements were made in order to keep the relationship between the creditor and myself in good standing and to satisfy the terms of the loan. I guess the auto dialer hell that has been imposed upon me and my family is designed to punish us for being slackers and not paying our bills on time. Obviously we are doing this on purpose because we are dead beat consumers who really dont care about our bills and would go out of our way to hoard our money and not pay the bills.
This morning auto dialer hell connected with us once again and I spoke to this poor lady who is only doing her job. The conversation started out like this. "Hello I am calling you about your past due loan sir." The conversation went pretty well up until the lady told me that we had not kept our payment arrangement with the credit union. I asked her to please read the notes on the account and tell me if I had not made arrangements to pay on the 30th of November. "Oh yes, I see that now but you have not made a payment yet." I told the lady that I had two problems with that. It is not the 30th of November yet and I did make the payment on the 24th in person at one of the branches. The lady told me , "no sir you did not make a payment yet." At this point I am over my Happy Birthday mood and I got grouchy with her. I asked her, "are you calling me a liar?" "Oh no sir, absolutely not" she replied. Again, I tell the lady I DID make the payment on the 24th AND it is 6 days BEFORE the 30th. Does that not fulfill the arrangements I made with the bank? All of a sudden this lady finds the information on her computer screen and acknowledges I made the truck payment per our arrangements with the bank. Now the lady wants to know why I have not made the payment on the personal loan yet. I asked her again, is it the 30th of November yet? At this point she totally dismisses the fact that I did keep the arrangment and continues to tell me that despite my conversation with the bank EVERY DAY and the copious amount of notes on the computer that they will continue to use "auto dialer hell" to irritate me to the point that I want to throw the phone over the fence in the back yard.
I understand the need for the credit union to make every effort to communicate with their customers and work out arrangements to get the payments due on accounts. At some point once the credit union has made arrangements with the consumer and the consumer is fulfilling the said arrangements I believe that this should earn a measure of trust and the bank should remove people from auto dialer hell up to the point that the consumer breaks the arrangement and it is necessary to pester the living crap out of them to bring them back into compliance. I do not think that is an unreasonable thought. Ok, thanks for listening to this rant. I had to get it off my chest. I am now going back to my Happy Birthday mood and I am going to unplug the stupid telephone and let the dog bury it in the back yard.
Fetch Willie ---------wheeeeeee Pictures to follow....
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Thanks Giving
I am pleased to see that I have 10 subscriptions to my Posterous blog. My hat is off to each of you and I hope that I can continue to say something that is worthy of reading.
We are coming up on Thanksgiving Holidays 2009 and while I am looking forward to having some time off from work and spending a quiet holiday with my family I am painfully aware of the fact that there will be folks all around me that will not be having a good time. I am painfully aware of this fact because I use to be one of those people. In 2001 we lost our Jessica Ann who was ten years old to cancer. It has been 8 years since her passing or "going home" but the holiday seasons since then have not been the same. Jessica could light up a room with her smile and it was so easy for me to get her to laugh and giggle. I can still hear her voice saying "oh daddy" when I would do that. It gave me great joy to be able to do that with her. Yes, I have a lot of bad memories of the last 14 months of her life running through my head but I also have many happy moments of her life to cherish as well.
When I gave the title to this blog as "Thanks Giving" it was not a typo. During the Thanksgiving holiday we should give thanks. For many of us that is very easy. We all have our lists of things we have in our possession and our families, our relationships and our jobs. There are many things to be thankful for and like most of us I am very aware of them. I am thankful for good mental, spiritual, emotional and physical health. I guess some would argue with me on the mental health comment however I don't think I am any crazier than the next person. I also am thankful for the struggles and pain in my life. Remember that I said that some would argue with me about the mental health. I am thankful for the struggles and pain because it reminds me that I am alive and gives me the opportunity to grow in grace, maturity and knowledge. I am like the next person in that I too get weary of struggling with finances, raising teenagers, taxes, politics , religion etc. We all struggle with a little bit of the above and then some. Life is not a bowl of cherries and every day can be a challenge or struggle depending on how you look at it.
As we enter in to the Thanksgiving and Christmas season in 2009 it will not find our family involved in the mad rush for materialism. Thanks to the economy and my wife not having a job for the last several years we have been slowly but surely coming to the realization that less is more. Not only is less more but life is so much more simple when you think about it. Do we really have to have all the stuff? Do we really have to have all of the electronic services and subscriptions? I believe that in our society and especially in America that we are being led to believe that we must have the fanciest clothes, the nicest home and car and we must keep up with the Jones's in order to be happy.
Like most people I have allowed myself to get sucked into the madness. The only problem with getting sucked into the "I gotta have it and do it" mentality is that I have allowed extra stress into my life because I just can not afford it. I have allowed my wants and needs to get all fuzzy. I need a roof over my head and I need to eat. I need water, sewer and electricity and trash pickup and clothes. I need the basics of life and that does not include all of the frills. It all goes back to less is more. Less stuff, less services, less bills and less stress. We (my family) needs to learn how to let go of it. We need to let go of it until we can afford it again. It is ok not to have everything or to be able to do all the things that we see others doing all around us. We must live our lives more efficiently and in a less costly manner and learn how to be more frugal in this economy.
The other day I spoke to a gentleman about our current political situation in America. I did not know this person and I did not agree with everything he had to say but I gave him the ability to speak his mind. We all have opinions and perspective that is unique to who we are and where we have come from. One of the things that he said I agree with. He said that Americans feel as if we are entitled. We believe certain things in our American way of life to be rights when in fact they are a privilege. He used the ability to drive on the roadways as a right. Driving on our roadways is not only a privilege but it is also a privilege that we pay for every year through taxes. He also reminded me that while we are all consumed with being entitled and believing that certain things are a right that we are only focusing on our lives and the things that are right in front of us. We have the "it wont happen to me" mentality. The only time that we care about something enough to do something about it is when it directly affects our little worlds. Yes, I am thankful to be an American. I am thankful because I was born in Germany and my sister and I were both dumped in an orphanage. Had it not been for my adoptive parents bringing us to America my life would not have been as blessed as it has been. I do not take kindly to burning the flag or bashing our soldiers or the freedom for which they fight for. One thing that I am not thankful for is the fact that our elected officials in Washington have lost sight of the fact that they are in office to serve the common good of the people who elected them. I am not a political analyst and there are way more things that I do not understand about politics and probably never will.
One thing I do understand however is that we elect men and women to public office because we believe that they are men and women of integrity and that they are the best qualified individuals to be our representatives in whatever level of government they are in. We are looking to them to be our voice, our ambassadors in government and to make sure certain things do happen and certain things do not happen. At some point in our history we have allowed big business and special interest groups to pollute the fabric of our government to the point that our politicians have lost site of what our fore fathers started when our nation was founded. I am not thankful that our governor in the great state of SC is on the news almost every evening because of his total lack of integrity both in his professional life as well as his personal life. Every day we hear stories of our leaders in government who have been caught with their hands in the wrong places or doing and saying the wrong things.
When will enough be enough for us? How long will we allow the madness in Washington to continue? I like what the gentleman said the other day when he said that it is going to take everyone in America to stop thinking that we are entitled. We need to quit being so self centered and consumed by our own security bubbles and learn how to look around us. United we will continue to stand but I don't think that what is going on can be construed as our being united. What is the saying about when good people stand by that evil will prosper? I think that there is a lot of truth in that.
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Shocked and awed that Dallas squeaked by the Redskins
I could not figure out who was the most pathetic team on the field today when the Cowboys and Redskins managed to squeak out 13 points in four quarters of play in Arlington Stadium. In the first quarter the Dallas offense seemed to show some promise as Marion Barber and Tashard Choice as they ran through the middle of the Redskins defensive line. All of our hopes were dashed to the ground when Marion Barber manages to get hit and coughs up the ball and Tony Romo was forced to take down the defender who then knees him in the back. It seems that just as soon as that turn over happened it was a calamity of errors. All of a sudden the Dallas offense was all thumbs and could not manage to get close to the red zone. During one of the sacks of Tony Romo he gets desperate and just lobs the ball up to where the Redskins were able to pick it off during a fourth down and two yards to go. I am not sure why the Dallas offense decided to run a play pass on 4th and 2 when it was obvious that Dallas could run straight up the middle.
At the half time Dallas was ZERO and the Redskins where 3 when it should have been Redskins 6 and Dallas 3. Both field goal kickers missed very easy field goals which was sad. I wound up missing the only touchdown of the game from Dallas when I had to take my teens to church. Yes, as a Dallas fan I am glad that Dallas managed to limp out of this game with a win especially since it looks good on the stats. When Dallas meets up with the Oakland raiders on the road I hope that they decide to come to the game with the attitude of winning by playing the game the way they should be. Dalls has a Championship football team with a lot of depth. Dallas has the players and those players have a lot of talent. What Dallas does not have is cohesiveness. They do not play like a team and they are sputtering out of the gate way too late in the season. In my opinion Dallas is in deep trouble. I do not know what the answers are but I am hoping that someone in Dallas figures it out very quickly.
Saturday, November 21, 2009
Dallas Cowboys 6 wins and 3 losses face the Redskins
Last week the Boys faced the Packers in what should have been a fairly easy win for Dallas only to find themselves shut down by a fierce Packer defense. I have read some articles just now about how Dallas lost the game because they only had a one dimensional football game in where they ran the ball 11 times and tried to throw passes the rest of the game. I will agree that Dallas needs to find more balance in their offensive game calling. I also believe that Dallas walked into that game thinking it was going to be a cake walk and they were not ready for the game mentally. It was painfully obvious to me sitting in front of the TV that the Packers were passionate about beating the Cowboys on that day. Once again I did not see very much passion or desire to win from the Cowboys. Every time the camera would pan over to Wade Phillips all you could see was the look of disbelief on his face. I really do not understand how he can be so emotionless and dead pan when it comes to some of the stupid antics and penalties that the Cowboys committed in the game against the Packers last Sunday. I really think that Dallas believed that they were not going to have to work hard to win this game and they showed it in their half baked lazy game play. I was embarrased to admit I am a Cowboys fan. My hat is off to the Packers for being the best team on the field on that day. They came out of the locker room believing they could beat Dallas and they played with a level of intensity that Dallas needs to figure out how to adopt.
I understand that Dallas has a lot of things to be proud of. They have a rich history of being one of the best teams in the league and being 5 time Super Bowl champs. Lets be proud of that and lets get back to the basics of running the ball and passing the ball at the level we are capable of playing. Lets do what it takes to get the job done Cowboys. Our team has a lot of depth and a lot of talent that can go a long way but it will take much more than Tony Romo to accomplish it. I noticed that when Tony makes a mistake and throws an interception or a bad pass he has not been standing on the field with a stupid grin on his face as if it just all fun and games. I can not tell you how irritated and angry it makes me to see him do that. I understand that he needs to manage the stress of the game and stay loose and be a leader to the offense. I also understand that he IS an professional football player and the QB of the Dallas Cowboys which is not small matter. I would like to see a maturing process to start to happen and for this young man to take his leadership of this team more seriously. Tony has a lot of potential and I am glad that Dallas has him as the QB however he is still somewhat of a rookie in the grand scheme of things.
I like what I see out of Roy Williams and Miles Austin this year. Roy Williams pulled some bonehead moves last week in the Packers game and missed several passes that were in his gloves. One pass went right through both hands and binged in him the head and bounced off his helmet. I understand that it is easy for me to be an arm chair QB and make cagey comments about his missing those receptions but come on folks. When you are the WR and the ball is delivered into your hands you sort of need to catch those passes. When the ball is put in your hands there is no way that we can fault Tony Romo for a bad pass. I am thinking that Roy was thinking about how to out maneuver his opponent and turn it up field after the catch. I have seen that on more than one occasion over the years. Lets just settle down and get the job done on Sunday. Despite their pathetic performance against the Packers I am thinking that Dallas will have learned from their experience and will do better agains the Redskins. The rivalry between the Redskins and the Cowboys has been going on for decades so hopefully Dallas will be ready. I can garuntee you that the Redskins are coming to play some football and would love nothing more to embarras the Boys in front of the home team crowd and the HUGE multimillione dollar TV hanging above the field in Arlington Stadium.
Go Cowboys !!
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Increased Threat Condition to level 2 by Symantec
Good morning
I sent this out to my co workers this morning and I want to share it with the rest of my friends.
Good morning Symantec has raised their worldwide Threat Condition to level 2 last night thanks to new threats and vulnerabilities. There have been 7 reported and confirmed Viruses, worms or Trojans and there are 9 Microsoft Office vulnerabilities that have been exploited this month alone. Here at the office we are protected but you need to be aware of these dangers so you can also protect yourself at home. Here are some simple guidelines for protecting your personal data. Have a good day!!
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