Drug Free in Six Quick Steps
Allen November 16th, 2004
Have you even wanted to kick your drug habit in six easy steps?
Just check out this time-lapsed photo spread from the BBC.
Any questions?
Archive for November, 2004
NaNoWriMo Update
Allen November 15th, 2004
Update on Jericho: 7229 words written. 7225 of them probably trash. But it is still fun to try to get this done. I’m kind of discouraged about what I’ve written. I recongize that I probably wouldn’t read this drivel, but that’s really kind of what is so liberating about NaNoWriMo.
50,000 words in one month? You’ve got to be kidding!!?! This will be crappy writing!
Exactly!! I’m allow to write bad stuff because I’m so constrained for time.
Finished up the first chapter a long time ago. Still not sure if I’m going to post the whole thing. Probably will do so in my NaNoWriMo blog. Just finished up with chapter two. I have a mini-goal of finishing chapter three before tomorrow night at 10:30pm. I have a Boy Scout Troop meeting so this may not be doable.
I’ve noticed that the hit counts on my blog have fallen off lately. Probably because of the elections being past and partly because my posting activity has gone down.
Still have lots of draft posts up. Perhaps I can knock a few out tomorrow morning.
As noted earlier, I use Feedemon to peruse the RSS feeds of the blogs listed on my blogroll (to the right). I’ve about decided to pare down my Feedemon (Feeddemon?) to two blogrolls: A daily that I will try to read every day and a weekly that I will try to check on weekly. I’ll probably keep my main blogroll blended, but will try to read only my dailies, uh, daily.
Just simply spending too much of my spare time reading and not enough writing. I’ve always been a "word hound" and love to read.
Well, need to load up TurboLister on the family computer so my wife can start selling on eBay again and then head to bed.
Passing Beyong The Great Barrier
Allen November 15th, 2004
Captain’s Log: Stardate 2004115.1748 Signals from the USS Clueless indicate that it has passed beyond the Great Barrier. Like the S. S. Valiant before it, it left only a disaster record-marker, called Chizumatic.
No survivors were found.
Protestations of Grief
Allen November 15th, 2004
Heard on NPR coming in this morning that some gunmen attempted to assassinate Mahmoud Abbas fired into a mourner’s tent set to house PLO leaders.
Didn’t know that firing weapons at targets was an expression of grief.
In related news, Marines and soldiers stationed in Fallujah continue to vent their feelings of grief and anguish over Kerry’s loss.
NaNoWriMo Update: 5800 words. Way, way behind my word count.
A Busy and Lazy Day
Allen November 12th, 2004
Sigh…
Tried this once already. Firefox crashed on me when I was about to post, so this is a shortened version.
Decided early this morning to not go into work today. Spent time with the kids as today was teacher conferences. My wife went while I took my daughter to church. She practiced her flute for the upcoming Youth Sunday while I worked on my NaNoWriMo novel. I’m currently up to 4700 words. I’m starting to catch up, but still have a long way to go.
Went to go see The Incredibles at a matinee showing. Excellent movie with a great storyline and words that we as a society should ponder. We shouldn’t strive for mediocrity.
Went later to my son’s swim meet and he did pretty good. Still haven’t qualified for state, but he’s moving closer to getting there. Of course, having competition spurs his performance and the group from Bryan Texas was quite good. Heard from another swim parent that the state qualifying times in Texas are lower than ours — in other words, you have to be faster. Yet further proof why competition is not a bad thing. It spurs performance in the individual and society and we all end up richer and more satisified because of it.
We’ve got another swim meet tomorrow and an OU football game. I’ll try to take the laptop to the meet so I can work some more on the novel.
C-Span has the burial of Arafat looping. Good riddance. I’m sure that there are those that loved him, but I thought he was a cold-blooded murderer and a thug who stole from his own people. I’m guessing those are not blanks that they are firing off. Somewhere in the Middle East, someone’s house is getting bombarded with bullets as they fall back to Earth.
Perhaps now we can have a real peace in the Middle East.
Perhaps now a pet monkey will spring out of my butt and finish writing this novel for me.
Allen November 11th, 2004
The Episcopal Church that our family attends has a Youth Sunday every year. While the youth serve in numerous capacities during the year, this Sunday in particular stresses the services they perform for the Church.
This Sunday my 17-year old son will give the sermon. I strongly recommended that he incorporate the text from the daily lectionary. I’m generally pleased with his sermon.
Coming from a Baptist background and once considered being a pastor myself, I am stunned to read this Sunday’s text. I certainly don’t remember this passage from Paul’s epistle to the Thessalonians:
2 Thessalonians 3:6-13
Now we
command you, beloved, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to keep
away from believers who are living in idleness and not according to the
tradition that they received from us. For you yourselves know how you
ought to imitate us; we were not idle when we were with you, and we did
not eat anyone’s bread without paying for it; but with toil and labor
we worked night and day, so that we might not burden any of you. This
was not because we do not have that right, but in order to give you an
example to imitate. For even when we were with you, we gave you this
command: Anyone unwilling to work should not eat. For we hear that some
of you are living in idleness, mere busybodies, not doing any work. Now
such persons we command and exhort in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their
work quietly and to earn their own living. Brothers and sisters, do not
be weary in doing what is right.
So apparently there are apparently three great commandments:
- Love you God with all your might and all your soul and all your mind.
- Love your neighbor as yourself.
- Get up off your lazy @$$ and get a job already!
Allen November 11th, 2004
The Episcopal Church that our family attends has a Youth Sunday every year. While the youth serve in numerous capacities during the year, this Sunday in particular stresses the services they perform for the Church.
This Sunday my 17-year old son will give the sermon. I strongly recommended that he incorporate the text from the daily lectionary. I’m generally pleased with his sermon.
Coming from a Baptist background and once considered being a pastor myself, I am stunned to read this Sunday’s text. I certainly don’t remember this passage from Paul’s epistle to the Thessalonians:
2 Thessalonians 3:6-13
Now we
command you, beloved, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to keep
away from believers who are living in idleness and not according to the
tradition that they received from us. For you yourselves know how you
ought to imitate us; we were not idle when we were with you, and we did
not eat anyone’s bread without paying for it; but with toil and labor
we worked night and day, so that we might not burden any of you. This
was not because we do not have that right, but in order to give you an
example to imitate. For even when we were with you, we gave you this
command: Anyone unwilling to work should not eat. For we hear that some
of you are living in idleness, mere busybodies, not doing any work. Now
such persons we command and exhort in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their
work quietly and to earn their own living. Brothers and sisters, do not
be weary in doing what is right.
So apparently there are apparently three great commandments:
- Love you God with all your might and all your soul and all your mind.
- Love your neighbor as yourself.
- Get up off your lazy @$$ and get a job already!
NASA online VLF receiver
Allen November 11th, 2004
Tired of mindless trivial pop music? Then listen to the NASA online VLF receiver. Now you can listen to the sounds of the universe played in real-time.
If you save the stream as an mp3 and play it backwards, you can hear God saying "Let there be…". The only problem is that the playback loop is approximately 20 billion years long (popup alert).
[Via WebZen]
For Liberty’s Tree They Toiled
Allen November 11th, 2004
To all veterans, living and dead, I give you my heartfelt thanks for all that you have done. We live under the protection of Liberty’s tree because of your work and sacrifice.
If you are looking for ways to honor the veterans, may I suggest:
- Donate some money to the Spirit of America.
- Adopt a soldier over at Soldiers’ Angels or support one of their charities.
- Take part in a Veteran’s Day activity.
- Take part in an activity that gives to veterans on a day other than Veteran’s Day.
- Read about the veterans’ experiences in their own words.
Any honor we can bestow is a pale shadow of the honor you rendered to us with your service.
NaNoWriMo Update
Allen November 10th, 2004
Just a quick update on NaNoWriMo — I have 3100 words. Still behind my goal.
Also blogger that I know is working on NaNoWriMo: Mike Horshead. Hoorah! Mike’s site now offers RSS feeds.
Believe it or not, those on my blogroll I actually do check fairly often. However, I use FeedDemon and RSS feeds to check on their site.
Blogger who I don’t check as often I would like simply because they don’t offer an RSS feed: Lilekes (spelling?) and Powerline.
What can I say? I’ve got to feed by FeedDemon.