Katy has her very own BLOG!!

Ok sports fans, my wife has her very own BLOG located at http://katymoffitt.blogspot.com
So, with that in mind, add it to your favorites and check it out. I believe that there is one post there already from May 16th 2004. I also added Katy to our main Blog so she can post there as well.

God bless

Good morning Folks!!

In two weeks I will be flying to Houston to spend time with my son
Jeremy and other friends for four days. I am so ready to take 4
days off in a row. I have not had two days off in a row since the
end of March when I started working part time for Goodwill. I was
speaking to a friend of mine (ex employer) who told me via IM the
other day that he is going to provide me with a hotel room for the 4
days that I am there so that is a HUGE Praise the Lord. That means
that I will have my own bed to sleep in and some privacy when I need
it. :)

I was thinking the other day about how good God is to me and my
family. With regards to this "need" or "desire" I never petitioned
God for it. I never prayed and asked God to provide this for me.
Apparently someone in this group did and thanks be unto God he moved
on the hearts of several people and now I am going to Houston. How
wonderful is that? It just goes to show ME that God IS interested
in every detail of my life. I thank God every day for his provision
for our family. He continues to provide us with our needs and some
of our wants every single day.

Summer break is almost upon us folks. YIPES!! That also means Camp
Happy Days is almost upon us. Kristina and Justin are counting the
minutes for this event. :) Isn't that amazing? In this world when
you lose a loved one after the funeral everyone goes away and life
is supposed to go back to normal for everyone and you and your
family are left to deal with the grief pretty much on your own.
Thanks to the loving support of HDST we are never alone. We are all
part of one big family. All we have to do is stand up and holler
about whatever it is that we need to holler about and someone will
respond in some way. I am so thankful that my children have Camp
Happy Days to attend each year and that they are going to witness
and be a part of such a wonderful organization and the annual event
that takes place for kids with cancer and their siblings.

On a different note personally I have been trying to watch how much
I eat, what I eat and getting more exercise. This week I walked 1.6
miles 4 times or 6.4 miles. I have a path that I walk in the
mornings. I drove my car around and found it was approximately 1.6
miles and I usually walk it in about 30 minutes. The first couple
of times were tough. Now that I have done it for several weeks in a
row I have gotten to where I miss doing it. I have found that I have
more energy during the day and it helps me to deal with the stress
of life as well. I spend this time walking down the country roads
in my neighborhood and talking to God. I also try to shut up and
listen to HIM and I don't spend the whole time asking God to meet
this need or that. don't get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with
asking God to meet our needs or asking for a particular want.
However it is good practice to spend time quietly at HIS feet and
try to listen for HIM to instruct us and to encourage us in our
daily journey. Prayer is very powerful and I can say for a fact
that if I did not have quiet time with my Lord through prayer ,
reading of His word and fellowship with other believers that I would
be in dire trouble. These morning walks have enabled me to draw
closer to him and to separate myself temporarily from the garbage of
this world. So, with that in mind pray that I
will continue to walk as often as possible and to NOT stick so much
junk into my face. I need to excercise more and eat less. A simple
concept that is hard to do when you are so used to having the habit
of doing just the opposite.

Katy is studying for her exam that she will take in June. I will let
her tell you all the gory details but basically she will be able to
get her emergency teachers certificate in SC if she passes. The
test has been paid for (thank you Jesus) and the study materials
purchased. Pray that Katy will be able to retain this information
well enough to pass the exam.

On next Thursday I am going by GSP off of Rivers Avenue. It stands
for Good Source (P???). LOL, whatever. Anyway, this is a training
facility implemented by Goodwill industries. They offer all sorts of
technology training. They have a 5 week PC repair course. They have
all sorts of software application training, A+ certification and
MCSE certification training. I spoke to the office manager about my
needing to pursue my MCSE so that I can find a BETTER job in this
current market and she told me that my cost as an employee of
Goodwill would be around 1000.00. Currently the cost of an MCSE
cetification IF you go to a classroom setting is around 4k. So, the
fact that they offer it for 2k or 50% less than most training
facilities is awesome. The fact that I can get 50% off of that is
even more awesome. Then again, having 1000.00 might as well be my
having 1 million at this point in the game. Nevertheless I am going
to go check out the facility and see about financial options and how
I might be able to get some sort of funding to get this badly needed
certification. I have 15 years of experience in this field and now
I cant find a job partly because of no certification. Yes, this is
a need and a prayer request so please pray for this. :)

Well, enough babbling from James. I need to get away from this desk
and go for my walk. I did not walk yesterday so I need to go this
morning before church. :)

Spreading the LOVE.....

Have I told you how much I LOVE retail customers? If I have not please allow me to share some of the LOVE... LOL

Do not get me wrong, customers are NOT an interruption to my day, they are the REASON I am here. Customers are usually ALWAYS right no matter how WRONG they might be. As you can imagine, that thought process can always mire you down in a lot of silliness pretty quickly...

This morning I was reminded of why I prefer to work in the service department vs the sales room. Guess who reminded me of this fact? You got it, a customer.... I walked into the sales room because one of my employees told me that he needed help because he was too busy. So , I walk in and offer to sell a customer with their comptuer selection. I was told that they did not want me to help them but that they would rather wait on my employee to help them instead. I graciously asked them if I could assist them since my employee was assisting another customer and they told me pointedly that they did not need my assistance and that they would be happy to wait.

Gosh, I felt loved and appreciated after that comment. LOL... NOT




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

Blogrolling

So you are asking, "what the heck is blogrolling?"

I am just now learning myself so be patient while I make a weak and slightly ignorant attempt at explaining this.
I have had our Blog now for almost 2.5 years. Our Blog is listed in several Blog databases that are searchable.
The problem is this. Even though our Blog url is listed in the database and is searchable it does not do me much good if no one knows that I am alive and that they can search for me.

So, with that in mind the next step is to take this Blog thing to the next level. Technorati is in the Beta stages of tracking over 2 MILLION Blogs. Once their Web Spider comes to my Blog url and verifies that I am who I say I am ( the author of the Blog) then they will validate my Blog Authorship and put me in their Technorati database and in turn I can keep track of whomever adds my Blog url to their Links Page.

Is that clear as mud yet? LOL.... Like I admitted earlier, I am still learning about Blogrolling and how it will give me some sort of advantage. Once the web spiders have done their thing you can click on the Technorati Profile link above the Contributors Text on the right side and it will take you to my custom Technorati Profile on their web site.
What that will do for me is beyond my comprehension at this point. What I do know is that I have fulfilled all the prerequisites that I needed to do in order to have a membership with their service. The FREE service does not allow me to have all the "bells and whistles" but its a start.

As I learn more you will hear about it.

Happy Blogging folks!!!

Blogger received a face lift!!!

My goodness, I posted something to my blog from work this afternoon and was forced to use the web interface at blogger.com and was pleasantly surprised by the NEW LOOK. Wow, I am VERY impressed with what Blogger has done with the new web site and user interface for us Blogger junkies. :)

I selected a NEW template and I turned on comments for new comments. That means I "expect" for you to say something back to me. LOL... Keep it clean and try to be nice because I will have the ability to (cough) delete any nasties someone might try to leave. Please forgive me, my lawyers made me put that little disclaimer in should one of your comments wind up in the recycle bin. :)

Anyway, nice stuff. The only thing I do not understand is why my picture is not showing up next to our "Contributors" section on the right hand side. I will have to mess with that functionality some more until I have success. I also noticed that the pics from Kristina and Jeremy REALLY messed up the template formatting and shoved all my archive and contributor information all the way to the bottom. For now I just put links to the pictures on our server. That way folks can just open up a new browser window and look at the pictures there.

Wahooooo Thanks Blogger!!

Through the rain!!

I have received this before in e-mail and it is so good that I wanted to put it on my blog. When is the last time you ran through the rain and just enjoyed getting wet?? I think that the next time it rains that I am going to try it out with my kids and see if they pass out. LOL...


A little girl had been shopping with her Mom in Wal-Mart. She must have been 6 years old, this beautiful red haired, freckle faced image of innocence. It was pouring outside The kind of rain that gushes over the top of rain gutters, so much in a hurry to hit the earth it has no time to flow down the spout. We all stood there under the awning and just inside the door of the Wal-Mart.

We waited, some patiently, others irritated because nature messed up their hurried day. I am always mesmerized by rainfall. I got lost in the sound and sight of the heavens washing away the dirt and dust of the world. Memories of running, splashing so carefree as a child came pouring in as a welcome reprieve from the worries of my day.

The little voice was so sweet as it broke the hypnotic trance we were all caught in "Mom, let's run through the rain," she said.

"What?" Mom asked.

"Let 's run through the rain!" She repeated.

"No, honey. We'll wait until it slows down a bit," Mom replied.

This young child waited about another minute and repeated: "Mom, let's run through the rain,"

"We'll get soaked if we do," Mom said.

"No, we won't, Mom. That's not what you said this morning," the young girl said as she tugged at her Mom's arm.

This morning? When did I say we could run through the rain and not get wet?

"Don't you remember? When you were talking to Daddy about his cancer, you said, 'If God can get us through this, he can get us through anything!"

The entire crowd stopped dead silent. I swear you couldn't hear anything but the rain. We all stood silently. No one came or left in the next few minutes.

Mom paused and thought for a moment about what she would say. Now some would laugh it off and scold her for being silly. Some might even ignore what was said. But this was a moment of affirmation in a young child's life. A time when innocent trust can be nurtured so that it will bloom into faith.

"Honey, you are absolutely right. Let's run through the rain. If GOD let's us get wet, well maybe we just needed washing," Mom said.

Then off they ran. We all stood watching, smiling and laughing as they darted past the cars and yes, through the puddles. They held their shopping bags over their heads just in case. They got soaked. But they were followed by a few who screamed and laughed like children all the way to their cars.

And yes, I did. I ran. I got wet. I needed washing.

Circumstances or people can take away your material possessions, they can take away your money, and they can take away your health. But no one can ever take away your precious memories...So, don't forget to make time and take the opportunities to make memories everyday. To everything
there is a season and a time to every purpose under heaven.

A friend sent this to me to remind me of life. Hope you enjoy it.

I HOPE YOU STILL TAKE THE TIME TO RUN THROUGH THE RAIN.

They say it takes a minute to find a special person, an hour to appreciate them, a day to love them, but then an entire life to forget them. Send this to the people you'll never forget and remember to also send it to the person who sent it to you. It's a short message to let them know that you'll never forget them.

If you don't send it to anyone, it means you're in a hurry.

Take the time to live!!!

Keep in touch with your friends, you never know when you'll need each other -- and don't forget to run in the rain!


God makes everything but unbreakable hearts.






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

Possums, Bluetooth, Anniversaries, walking , meditation and whatever else comes to mind....

I like to write when I am inspired to say something. When I do not write does that mean that I am not inspired or that I just don't have time to capture my thoughts and share them with you my reading audience? Maybe a little bit of both. Can you tell that I struggled with the "title" of todays drivel? LOL.... I always ask myself, "ok, what is the title for todays thoughts??". Today I just gave up and put keywords that I will probably write about and left it at that.

Today marks day two in which I got off my lazy behind and did something other than sit in front of my 21" NEC monitor and fight pop up ads and dodge the other myriad of marketing ads that assail me each day. I wonder if the marketing geniuses will ever figure out that we really do not care to KNOW about ALL of their products nor do we care to give up every single red cent that we work hard for just so we can say that we have this and that. I am sure that marketing is a numbers game and the more you get the message in front of US the more chances that we will open up our check book or give out our credit card numbers online. I guess I just get tired of the constant marketing blather. I am quite happy with how long or short my body parts are or are not. LOL... Really people, I understand that this is the age of coming out of the closet but I still think there are things that still belong there. KWIM?? There are things that REALLY ought not be a part of normal conversation between friends. Some things are just too private. Those things are to be dealt with between myself, God and perhaps the family doctor on occasion. No one else needs to know about it. The folks that create television ads and the sponsors that pay millions of dollars annually to talk about it during prime time TV are still clueless. Do we really want to hear a conversation between two grown adults about how they have overcome the stresses and trials of having genital herpes? I for one do not...

Anyway, I just chased a huge rabbit around the room and finally down the hole from whence it came from. :) Back to the exercise comment at the top of that paragraph. Yes, I walked with my wife yesterday and then I got up this morning at 7 am and walked again. Two days in a row and 3.2 miles later I managed to torture my body and forced it to do some exercise. In the war of overcoming obesity I understand that two days of victory does not mean that I have won the war. What it does mean is that for two days straight I have been victorious in the battle for two days to do what is right. The goal is less food intake and MORE exercise. Preferably aerobic exercise but for now the morning walks will have to do. I have not checked my pulse rate and I am not sure it goes up to 120 bpm but I am sure that it is much higher than what it would be if I was sitting here in front of the computer playing High Stakes Poker on Pogo.com. Runt ro, I just let it slip. Yes, I love to play poker on pogo.com. Play money folks, just play money for those of you that are wondering how in the world I can afford that. LOL... Everything is FREE other than the high speed Internet connection. No, that is not going anywhere if I can help it. Thus far today I ate honey nut cheerios and a banana for breakfast along with 2 cups of decaf coffee and for lunch Katy and I had a cup of rice and chicken soup and a Philly Cheese Steak sandwich. For supper I will have a can of Slimfast and a Slimfast bar.

I have found that walking and driving are excellent times for prayer and meditation and talking to God. It is also a wonderful time to listen for God to talk back and communicate to me something back. It is so easy to make demands and be greedy during prayer. It is yet another thing to take time to shut up and to listen for the voice of God. When you are driving your prayers are always interrupted by a need to ask God to protect you from the rest of the maniacs driving all around you. KWIM?? During my morning walks all I have to contend with is the messages being sent from my knees, ankles and feet and the sound of mother nature all around me. When was the last time you took the time to admire the leaves in a tree, the sounds of the different birds or the antics of frolicking squirrels?
We live such a high impact, high stress , task filled life. There are more things to do and demands on our time that we fail to take time for the things in life that are more important. The peace that passes all understanding and the Joy of the Lord does not happen when you are running at mach 2 with your hair on fire. The only way that we will enjoy or experience Joy or Peace is by taking the time to reconnect to Abba Father. You can do that in the 30 minutes that it takes to walk around the block or run on the tread mill. Maybe you ride a bicycle or go swimming. Whatever it is that you do that gives you an opportunity to connect with your creator I would suggest you try doing it on a regular basis. God will bless you by making himself known to you in the still quietness of your heart and He will bless you by manifesting himself all around you. When you tap into the power of God and His purposes for your life all of your task lists will diminish greatly and all of a sudden you will wonder why you have been allowing the junk of life to stress you out.

Today as I walked off of Riverside Drive onto Old Backriver Rd I encountered a possum. This particular possum did not make the nocturnal trip from one side of the road to the other. I am not sure what distracted him but it is obvious by the look on his face that he had something meet him in the middle of the road that he was not expecting.
This surprise encounter happened to end his life. I stood in the middle of the road for a few moments with my hands on my hips and took in the scene. I was reminded that life is but a season. Our lives are but a vapor. We are here today and gone tomorrow. I was also reminded that sometimes on the road of life we find ourselves just like the possum, this mornings road kill. We stand in the middle of the road with our mouths open and our eyes affixed on something we should not be looking at or thinking absent mindlessly about something that is not even important. I guess you could say that we are either running headlong into danger or we are sitting in neutral when we should be doing the exact opposite.

Life is full of road blocks. Life is full of pot holes and land mines that will do nothing more than to blow off your toes or wreck your little red wagon. How we navigate, how fast we navigate and how skillfully we navigate will determine our level of pain and success in crossing the road. I can see some of the possum in me. Only by the grace of God has God picked me up and closed my mouth and gotten my attention and put me back on the straight path. God has a way of focusing our minds on those things that are important and showing us how frivolous the tiny things of life really are. Things and entertainment are not what is important to God. God owns all the things and we all have more of those then we can manage already. God does not mind our being entertained from time to time but he certainly did not create us for the purpose of being mindlessly entertained. God created us for a purpose and that purpose is to worship Him in all that we do and say. Have you heard that our life is Gods gift to us and what we do with our life is our gift back to God? Think about the many opportunities we get during a day to give back to God and his creation all around us.

Tomorrow marks 14 glorious years of marriage to my wife Katy. It is hard to believe that through it all we are still together despite the challenges, trials and tribulations that we have endured. It is evident to me that Jesus must be in the center of our marriage because if it were up to me or Katy this marriage probably would have blown apart years ago. The power of God in our lives individually and as a family corporately is the glue that has held us together.
I thank God daily for my family. They are such a wonderful blessing to me. I would not want to imagine what life would be without them surrounding me. They increase the quality and quantity of my life exponentially. Thank you Jesus for my family and for my life that you have given me.

Wireless at LaSt....

My first day off and what do I do? I have FUN, that is what I do. I spend time with my sweet wife Katy and we go do all sorts of stuff. Well, not really, but we are having a nice day off doing what we like the most, spending time with one another. The children are at school and mom and dad are running the streets of Charleston.

I recently purchased a SanDisk Wireless 802.11b wireless CF card with a PC Card adapter for the sole purpose of wireless Internet connectivity with my laptop and/or Pocket PC. Last night I surfed one of the WiFi websites and searched for businesses with WAP (Wireless Access Points) or Hotspots in Goose Creek. Guess how many businesses have this? A big fat ZIPOLA!!! Not a one. Oh well, Charleston has about 15 hot spots so we chose to drive down 526 to Sam Rittenburg to visit our new found friends at Drogo Coffee at 2048 Sam Rittenburg. The ladies gave me my coffee, my access code for 30 min Internet connectivity and off I went to my new digital adventure. I am noting on my watch that I have 11 minutes of online access before I have to PAY for more. Gulp.... Nothing is free folks. Not even wirelss Internet access. Well, if you pay for the goods they do give you some free Internet time to access your favorite Internet web site or check your email.

I will say that while the Pocket PC did gain access to the WAP at Drogo's much faster than the laptop that the TINY Internet Explorer screen was VERY frustrating. After spending 10 minutes of moving the scroll bar horizontally and vertically several dozen times to navigate a simple web form I was all but DONE with that experience. So, with that said, if I need to get on the WEB to do anything it is not going to happen via the Pocket PC. As for downloading my email perhaps that would be a quicker method than firing up the laptop. One thing that I am noticing is that this is no different than being logged on to any other LAN in that you can receive e-mail via Outlook but you can not SEND e-mail via Outlook. You are forced to use a web based email client to SEND email. That is because the Systems Administrators that run the Email gateways have gotten smart and no longer allow their email servers to be email relays which is an open gateway for spammers. In other words you have to be logged on to the ISP's network in order to send mail from their email server. I also noticed that I can not use my w.bloggar application to post to my blog. Never fear , the web browser interface at www.blogger.com works just fine. :)

Well anyway, so much for this techno drivel. I will expound upon the technical problems I experienced later this afternoon or evening after we get back from the movies. I will be warping out of here to the land of www.fandango.com to see the movie listings now. See ya later aligator!!!



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

DSM Tapes

DSM Tapes

Duane Sheriff Ministries is out of Oklahoma. I met a truck driver the other night while working security at a truck lot in Mt Pleasant. This truck driver was a believer in Christ and gave me four tapes that he orders. This man gets 200 tapes per month or thereabouts and when he is driving over the road he listens to these teaching tapes. I can not tell you how blessed I was just after listening to one of these tapes on Faith. I want to encourage each of you that are reading this to think about blessing yourself by filling your mind and soul and spirit with the teaching ministry that this man has to offer. God bless

The gift that keeps on giving.....

I came home today after a LONG day in MODEM HELL thinking I would curl up in my recliner with a Corona and some chips and cheese dip. A tiny reward for not killing anyone at work nor throwing any computers through the service window. LOL...

I stopped at the Kangaroo Mart on Redbank and gave away some life blood to the great GAS gOD who immediately reduced my checking account by 21.01. Have you ever tried to stop one of those pumps right on the .00 mark? It is not as easy as it looks. At 21.01 I stopped and figured that if I run out of gas I can always leave the car on the side of the road and hitch a ride with someone else if I am out of money. It does not take long for that to happen does it? There is ALWAYS more month than there is pay check. Our cost of living continues to rise yet our wages remain the same or get smaller. Atleast that is how it has been working for me in the last 2 years. I try to console myself to the fact that atleast I am not in Iraq being bombed as I whine about this. LOL... I guess THAT could put things in perspective.

Oh yes, the GIFT that keeps on giving. I wandered over to my desk to put my laptop bag down and remove the extra weight of the key ring in my right hand. As I turned around to turn on our computer I noticed a familiar and disgusting smell. At about the same time my nose was curling inward I noticed that there was what appeared to be a "mud pie" sitting close to the computers in amongst several wires that run from this computer peripheral and that. Imagine my instant surprise, revolt and disgust that hit me all at the same time. I was like "and what the HE** is this kids?? Of course, that was pretty idiotic for me to ask that when my nose and eyes had already delivered the message to my brain that a COW had delivered an unwelcomed surprise to my computer area. OH MY GOSH....

As you can imagine my brain started looking for a culprit to pin this on as well as involuntary labor to ASSIST me in listening to my excessive belly aching as well as removal of the toxic waste dump. Kristina and Justin were the lucky participants in that game called "oh my gosh, its time to plug our nose and pick up the doo doo....." Yes, we bonded in this moment in more ways than one. I think that as I write this that my blood pressure is now returning to normal.

There are seveal reasons why this transpired today. Shall we examine them one by one?

A. Mother Moffitt flew the coop and went out of town to be at a weekend long crop
B. A typhoon of some type camped itself on top of Duck Ditch USA and unloaded untold amounts of water all day long therefore leaving the MUTTS to their own devices with regards to potty trips.
C. the Moffitt children have a problem understanding WHY we are taking the dogs out for a walk to begin with.

Now lets examine items A,B and C in more detail.

When Mother Moffitt flies the coop for whatever reason for whatever amount of time the environment of peace and tranquility and all sense of normalcy implodes in on itself. Regular routines, chores, and whatever else you want to call it begins to unravel at a high rate of speed. Its a good thing Katy does not leave for any EXTENDED length of time, she might come back to a huge gaping hole in the ground where the trailer used to sit.

When it rains buckets the dogs have a case of Parkinson disease and they forget that their daily duties have not been permanently put on pause. They eat drink and beg for more food from anything that has some and then do more and more of that until they are NEEDFUL of a trip outside. You guessed it. The containers are only so big. After a while when you put too much goo in the bottle something is bound to escape. :)

Kristina and Justin view taking the dogs outside as a drudgery which is entirely designed to punish them and rob them of an opportunity to otherwise have fun entertaining themselves with some other mindless activity. They forget how important it is that the exercise is one that is PRODUCTIVE with VISIBLE results. But DADDY, we DID take the dogs out. I always ask them, did you take them out for longer than 25 seconds this time or did you run them around the yard and bring them back inside thinking that something had escaped both hounds through the process of osmosis.... When I ask IF they SAW the dogs DO anything I always get this incredulous stare as if to say, OH you want is to WAIT for this process to happen even though the dogs think they have an ETERNITY for it to happen? You get the picture here. We beat the dogs for any unwelcomed treats left that we dont want so they in turn return the favor by becoming mindless blogs of hair, nails and teeth when they get outside knowing full well what is expected of them. When you try to manipulate them into moving the process along sometime in this millenium they look up at you as if saying " you KNOW you brought this upon yourself so do not EVEN start this whining crap with me."

Oh yes, back to MODEM HELL.... I think that HELL is going to be full of Microsoft Windows products and broken hardware parts for a typical IBM capatible computer. Today I think that I gained atleast one more grey hair.
Modem HELL opened up its gates wide at about 2:30 pm in one of our customers (Goodwill PC Recycling Center) came back with one of the prize computers he purchased from me last weekend. This was an IBM computer and the modem was not working. The customer told me it was not working because he could not get online. By this time in the day I was by myself in the service center and anyone else with half a brain had the good sense to jump in their cars, mopeds, bicycles, pogo sticks or flying carpets and long since left me in their vapor trail. So, here I am with my MR Customer Service hat on with the good intention of fixing this problem quickly.

I fired up the IBM which is loaded with ME (Microsoft Millenium) and went into the control panel looking for the modem icon to see what was ailing our "modulater/demodulator" device. When I arrived I found the modem sitting in his room quietly watching me approach not having a care in the world. When I clicked on the modem and went to the diagnostic tab I found that the modem was talking back to the given AT commands. At this point I am thinking "the modem works but the customer does not know how to configure his Internet Software DOH...." I hook up the phone line to the modem and guess what. The Internet software did not get a dial tone from the modem. The OS saw the modem but the modem apparently had its mouth wired shut because no dial tone from Ma bell was making a trip. At this point we are about 25 minutes into this quick fix.

When I realized that the modem was a deaf mute I pulled it out and started the nightmarish process of plugging in other modems and at the same time getting the computer on our local area network so I could visit my favorite place of all times " www.driversguide.com". Do you think that the NIC card in this IBM would cooperate or do you think I had to fight with that for ANOTHER 5 to 8 minutes ? You guessed it, whatever was ailing the modem had crept into the NIC. One new NIC later and 4 minutes of fussing and I had that IBM howling on our LAN. Three USED modems later and about 30 min I looked at the customer and said. If you want this to happen today BEFORE 6pm you will need to go to Wallyworld and buy a NEW modem, bring it back to me and I will THEN be able to get you out of the door within 10 min.

In 20 minutes my customer returned after swimming down Rivers Ave to Wally World and being 32.00 poorer handed me a brand new US Robotics Internnal V.92 modem. I again told him, you will be AMAZED at how fast this process is going to be and you will be on your way with a fully functional computer that will get you on the Internet. There is an unspoken rule when working on computers. NEVER replace an item and then put the lid on and screw it down. You will ALWAYS forget something and even if you dont the hardware KNOWS that it has a mind of its own and it will FORCE you to open the case up again anyway. You also NEVER brag to anyone about HOW easy this is going to be and how FAST you are going to have them out of the door. Just as soon as you do that you will have more distractions and problems than Carter has liver pills.

Anyway, the NEW modem installed, ME recognized the modem, gobbled up the appropriate driver off the CD ROM. When I go to the modem applet in control panel to do the diagnostics number there are two com ports but NO MODEM installed. I get an error message that says something to the affect that " the modem is not installed correctly and the inf file is corrupt. Please remove this modem and reinstall it again." I did that numerous times and finally just gave up on it thinking that this is a bad computer. I went into the sales room and grabbed one of the PII 300 mhz machines that was for sale and put the NEW modem in it thinking, something must be bogus with the IBM, I will just jam this card in here and have him out in another 10 min. NOT... Same process, same error message.
Can you believe that through this all I have not cursed once nor have I thrown the computer or MODEMS through the glass window of the service department. Can you believe that the customer lived out in Walterboro and had been up all night and decided to wait this entire time for me to fix his computer so he would not have to come back. He also never raised his voice nor did he once holler at me or the computer. Kuddos to this cool cat !!

It became painfully apparent to me that this was just NOT going to happen no matter how I held my mouth or howled at the moon. I finally grabbed the last good computer off the sale room floor and tested the modem in it which appeared to be working normally and told the customer that he was getting a FREE upgrade. He went from a PII 266 to a PII 333 with a bigger hard drive and more RAM. IF the modem works for him when he finally gets home then he will possibly be a happier camper. If NOT someone (probably me) will be praying to the modem midgets (wherever they reside) asking them to make this situation fix itself quickly BEFORE I go screaming out the back door of Goodwill. LOL....

Everest Home Edition

I thought you might find this application handy in the future. I use this on a daily basis in my job as a PC Technician at Goodwill. Check it out! Freeware!!

Everest Home Edition Software

The product is Everest Home Edition which is free. Download it, install it and check out all of the system information that it gives you. :)

In the past I used an application such as Aida32 which is from the same programmer that is now writing Everest products.

Enjoy

Kristina Lynn Moffitt and Superstars Concert

Last night we went to Sedgefield Intermediate School to watch the Super Stars perform their end of year concert.
Here are a couple of pictures of Kristina both on stage and with her music teacher.

http://www.jesus-connect.net/jcmoffitt/Kristina/Kristinateach.jpg

http://www.jesus-connect.net/jcmoffitt/Kristina/Kristinastage1.jpg

Jeremy Moffitt 2004 Senior Prom Pics

Here are some pictures of Jeremy and his date for the Terry High School Senior Prom that happened this month.

http://www.jesus-connect.net/jcmoffitt/Jeremy/Jerandkacee2.jpg

Time marches on....

April 14th Jeremy turned 18

April 24th Jeremy goes to High School Prom

May 4th is Kristina's Birthday and she turns 12 this year

May 6th is Justin's Birthday and he turns 9

May 9th is Mothers Day

May 12th is a wedding aniversary for James & Gizmo.... (14 GLORIOUS years...)

May 21st Gizmo gets one year OLDER....

May 27th Jeremy graduates from Terry High School




I am sure that the women in my life will correct me if I just screwed up on those dates. The important thing is that these events are happening which is very cool. :) Gosh, I have an 18 year old graduating from high school. Does that mean that he will be graduating college, getting married and presenting me with grand children before I know it?
Yipes.....

Thanks to Happy Days and Special Times I will be able to fly to Houston Texas so I can drive to Richmond Texas and see Jeremy graduating in person. I am so excited about the possiblity coming to fruition. Thank you Happy Days and the businessman who made the funds available so I can do this. :)

I have been working 60 hours and 7 days per week for the last 2 to 3 weeks so I have been too busy to drivel in my favorite blog. I need to find the time to do it though since I enjoy doing it so much.... Thanks to US Security scheduling too many people down at Charleston County Office building I wound up taking yesterday off and going bowling on the last night of the winter bowling league at Marrington Lanes. This league is finally OVER!! Yeah, I am SO happy about that for sure. I think we wound up in 7th or 8th place.

Yes, on June 18th I will be joining the Travlers Bowling League which will be a summer league at the Royal Z Lanes in Goose Creek. I shall NOT bowl at Marrington Lanes on a league ever again. Why you ask? Its simple. They have synthetic lanes and for some reason I just can not bowl above a 130 average. I seem to do much better on traditional bowling surfaces. Last night I bowled a 122, 86 and 160. What in the world happened on the middle game?? Whoooo boy.... That gave me a whopping 122 average for the night.... Oh well...

I surprised myself by prying myself away from the computer, put on my walking shoes and took a stroll in the neighborhood. I walked 1.6 miles in 37 minutes which was a nice brisk pace for me. I even broke a sweat which is a good thing. Myself and about 6 other men over at Battle Plan Ministries are holding one another accountable to eat LESS and excercise MORE. That means that FAT BOY needs to eat LESS and exercise MORE starting today!!!
That also means 3 meals per day and NO SNACKS when I get home at 11:30 pm. It also means smaller portions.
I also need to get a new set of bathroom scales. I found a nice bathroom scale that will handle up to 400 lbs and costs 40 bucks. NO, I do not weigh 400 lbs. LOL.... I do weigh a tad over 300 though so that means I need scales that will tell me my true weight and not have to guess on our current scales that tend to spin like a propeller when I get on them.... LOL... Poor scales...

Speaking of propellers I am still trying to find a full time Information Technology job in the Charleston area. I am currently working part time as a PC tech at a Goodwill Industries Outlet store in Charleston to make some extra mula and to keep my skills better than dull while the search continues. This last week I saw 3 or 4 different positions in the Sunday paper. Hopefully I can land one of them and trade my Security uniform (gorilla suit) for civilian clothes and some ethernet connectivity. LOL...

Christian Question and Answer Epistles

Christian Question and Answer Epistles

We just celebrated Good Friday and Palm Sunday. Easter is on April 11, 2004 and as you know there will be people going to church on this day that do not choose to go to church any other day of the year. Why is Easter so important that people buy new clothes and go to church on this day? Perhaps buying clothes is not the issue but we all know that there are people that will go to church to show off their new duds. Well, anyway, Easter is coming and it is VERY significant to those of us that identify ourselves with Christ by saying HE IS the LORD of LORDS and KING of KINGS.

We have all asked the question. Should christians participate in pagan holidays such as Easter and Christmas or Halloween? This question was posed and answered and I thought the article was good enough to share with you.

When you click on the URL I posted above you will need to scroll down past the dialog box where you can ask a question. You will see a list of "past" questions posted. The question I am talking about is the FIRST question. Click on that link and you will be taken to that article. Thanks



God bless

Spring has sprung in Duck Ditch USA (quack quack)

Howdy from Duck Ditch USA where the trees are turning green and the
pollen (cough) is choking the life out of me. hahahahahah

For the last week I have been fighting a combination of allergies
and a head cold. How much fun this has been. NOT... I am ready to
be done with this thing..


Spring break is upon us and Kristina and Justin are off from school
which means that Katy is also taking a break. So, its almost as if
we are on vacation with everyone being at home at the same time.
Wahoooo.

I am still working Security Sunday through Wed and Goodwill Thursday
Friday and Saturday. I have my doubts with how long this Goodwill
gig is going to last so I am trying to work as many days as I can
with US Security so when the Goodwill gig finally dies all I will
have to do is get one more day back for my schedule with US
Security. So, I am working two part time jobs and Katy is working
her sub job for Berkeley county and we are surviving. I keep
reminding myself that while life sucks in general I have things to
be thankful for. Let me list them below so I can be reminded of
these POSITIVE things again...

Our family is together and healthy
We have a place to stay
We have food to eat
Our cars are still running and we can get around
We have a church home to attend who cares about us
We have a place to serve in our church home
We have an extended church and cypberspace family who cares about us
We have angel and sammy (family dogs) who bring us joy and happiness
We have our two birds who drive me crazy at times (LOL)


The bottom line is while it could be MUCH better for us it also
could be MUCH worse. I always try to remember the positive things in
life. God is the author of LIFE and while I have the ability to hear
my lungs draw in breath and feel the pulse of my heart beating I am
to be thankful for everything in my life, both good and bad. I am
reminded constantly that bad things do happen to good people. It is
so easy to get depressed about the garbage in our lives and if we
focus on those things all the time then we find ourselves deep in
the pit of depression and despondency. I know this because I
experience it.

I choose to live life above the levels of depression and despondency
that I speak of. I choose to focus on the positives and try to let
God handle the negative garbage in my life. I try to learn the
lessons that I am supposed to be learning and allow God to change my
heart and mind from the inside out. I know that through these things
in my life my faith is being tested and I am being molded more and
more into his image. Sometimes that molding requires trips to the
furnace where the garbage can be burned off and God can come shining
through to the surface. The furnace gets awfully hot and the heat
can be painful but in the end I know it is for my own good and that
God receives the glory , honor and praise that HE is worthy of.

My son Jeremy who will be 18 years old on April 14th is graduating
from high school this May and going off to college. Jeremy managed
to get some band scholarships which is going to help tremendously
with the financial side of things. I doubt that I will be able to
make the trip to Houston Texas on May 23rd to see Jeremy graduate
which really sucks. In order to get cheap tickets for the flight I
need to be buying those tickets last month. Oh well, he knows that I
love him and I try to reach out to him in e-mail and through e-
cards. This is an exciting time in his life and it is a shame that
I am not there to be a part of it.

God bless

The attack of the pollen

I am not sure if I am suffering from allergies, an ugly head cold or both. I do know that "pollen is in the air" since our vehicles now stay a bright yellow. Winter is officially gone yet it still remains a tad bit cool outside. I suppose that once Easter has come and gone this year that the warm weather will finally set in. I think that I am ready for the pollen to stop doing whatever it is doing and for the warm weather to arrive. I have had enough of this cold weather to last me the rest of this year.

I started a part time job with Goodwill last week. They were looking for a PC Technician that can work part time doing refurb/repair/service and sales. I work primarily on Saturday during the day doing sales and then a couple of two or three days during the week part time. The money is certainly better than my security job which is a huge boost to our budget which seems to stay in the red most of the time. Katy and I now have 3 jobs between us so hopefully we can manage to stay afloat from one 2 week period to the next. It is disheartening to get paid every two weeks and then be broke 6 days from the next payday. I know that we are probably not the only people that live from payday to payday. Actually, I would like to get back to that point where we can live from payday to payday. LOL....


I forgot to tell you how I found this job. I was working 7 am until 3pm last Saturday down at the County Office Building in Charleston and my co worker Jorge told me about how I could go to Goodwill on Rivers avenue and purchase parts for computers at a reasonable rate. I was looking for a pci video card for my kids game machine. The integrated sound card was a 1mb video card but that is not adequate to play most games. So, I headed down to the Goodwill and purchased a used video card for 5.00 and it works fine. I plugged it in and Windows 98 Operating System recognized the chipset and automagically installed the drivers for it. So, thanks to a tip from my co worker I found out that Goodwill is looking for a part time pc tech. I immediately went across the street and applied for the position and one week later I am working. Wahooooo! Well, maybe not all that excitement but atleast it is EXTRA income for the time being. I am not sure how long this position is going to last but I suppose as long as Goodwill keeps receiving computer donations I will have something to refurb/repair and sell. When that supply dries up I am sure that my part time job there will vanish.

If you go to Cooper River Bridge Run you will see that today is the day in 2004 when THOUSANDS of people run, jog or walk in the Cooper River Bridge run. This is an annual event that has been going on for 27 years. I thought about doing this the other day then I had a cool drink of water and the urge went away. hahahahaha However, I admire those people who are physically able and have the courage and stamina to enter the race and finish. I am thinking that there are some brothers from Kenya that enter this race every year and usually win. Does that really surprise us? LOL....

I am so excited that we lost an hour to day light savings time last night before I went to bed. Instead of it being 11:30 pm when I went to bed it was actually 12:30 am. Who in the world invented day light savings time anyway?
Daylight Savings Time. Well, I am glad that I just researched this website because now I REALIZE that I was not supposed to change the clocks until 2 am SUNDAY morning and not 11:30pm Friday night. DOH...... I just cheated myself of one hour unnecessarily. Whaaaaaaaaa. Yes, now I am changing back my clocks. BRB.... Thanks to blogging I realized my boo boo and now I fixed it back. Now, I wish I could go back to bed and get that hour back but of course I am wide awake now.

On April 14th Jeremy turns 18 and on April 24, 2004 my son Jeremy will be going to his senior prom and then on May 23rd he will be graduating from high school. Terry High SchoolIt is hard to believe that this much time has passed and Jeremy is going to be going off to college soon. From what I understand he was able to obtain some band scholarships which will help him financially which is a good thing. I believe that Jeremy's goal is to become a teacher and I am proud of that. If Jeremy does this then he will be following in his stepmothers footsteps.

Jesus Connect Ministries: People do not care how much you know until they know how much you care!

Jesus Connect Ministries: People do not care how much you know until they know how much you care!

Life with Christ and multiple Blogs

For now I think that I will utilize Life with Christ for a Jesus Connect Ministries Blog ONLY. I will do that for exposure to the christian community there. Hopefully some of those folks will check out what we are doing on our website and participate.

Until then I will do the personal weblog on Blogspot and Jesus Connect there. Who knows, I might play with having multiple blogs on blogger.com instead. Hopefully it will be a bit more seamless and less of a hassle. I certainly appreciate all of the hard work and effort that Jeremy has put in to that website for Christians to use.

Posting ONE MESSAGE to multiple Web Logs with w.bloggar

Do you feel like MY guinea pig YET?? LOL, you should.... Ok , I think I have this figured out even though I am not happy with the results. It appears that I can have multiple blogs on one service provider and I can post and publish to multiple blogs. However, it appears that I can NOT post a message to my blogspot & lifewithchrist Blog at the same time. I have to create the message, cut and paste it into memory, post and publish to one account and then change accounts and post to the other. I will demonstrate that in my next post so you can see what I mean jellybean...... :)