Dart Test

A young lady named Sally, relates an experience she had in a seminary class, given by her teacher, Dr. Smith. She says that Dr. Smithwas known for his elaborate object lessons.

One particular day, Sally walked into the seminary and knew they were in for a fun day.

On the wall was a big target and on a nearby table were many darts. Dr. Smithtold the students to draw a picture of someone that they disliked or someone who had made them angry, and he would allow them to throw darts at the person's picture.

Sally's friend drew a picture of who had stolen her boyfriend. Another friend drew a picture of his little brother. Sally drew a picture of a former friend, putting a great deal of detail into her drawing, even drawing pimples on the face. Sally was pleased with the overall effect she had achieved.

The class lined up and began throwing darts. Some of the students threw their darts with such force that their targets were ripping apart. Sally looked forward to her turn, and was filled with disappointment when Dr. Smith, because of time limits, asked the students to return to their seats. As Sally sat thinking about how angry she was because she didn't have a chance to throw any darts at her target. Dr. Smithbegan removing the target from the wall.

Underneath the target was a picture of Jesus. A hush fell over the room as each student viewed the mangled picture of Jesus; holes and jagged marks covered His face and His eyes were pierced.

Dr. Smithsaid only these words... "In as much as ye have done it unto the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto Me." Matthew 25:40.

No other words were necessary; the tears filled eyes of the students focused only on the picture of Christ.

This is an easy test; you score 100 or zero. It's your choice.

If you aren't ashamed to do this, please follow the directions.

Jesus said, "If you are ashamed of me, I will be ashamed of you, before My Father."

Not ashamed ... pass this on.

Ashamed ... delete it.

Isn't it funny how simple it is for people to trash God and then wonder why the world's going to hell.

Isn't it funny how we believe what the newspapers say, but question what the Bible says.

Isn't it funny how everyone wants to go to heaven provided they do not have to believe, think, say, or do anything the Bible says. Or is it scary?

Isn't it funny how someone can say "I believe in God" but still follow Satan (who, by the way, also "believes" in God ).

Isn't it funny how you can send a thousand jokes through e-mail and! they spread like wildfire, but when you start sending messages regarding the Lord, people think twice about sharing.

Isn't it funny how the lewd, crude, vulgar and obscene pass freely through cyberspace, but the public discussion of Jesus is suppressed in the school and workplace.

Isn't it funny how someone can be so fired up for Christ on Sunday, but be an invisible Christian the rest of the week.

Are you laughing?

Isn't it funny how when you go to forward this message, you will not send it to many on your address list because you're not sure what they believe, or what they will think of you for sending it to them.

Isn't it funny how I can be more worried about what other people think of me than what God thinks of me.

Will YOU pass this on? ... I did

Have bandwidth to spare?

This is a very cool way to use it

Windows Error Messages

As a Windows admin for the last 16 years I've seen lots of them. These are most interesting.

We're not worthy!

Thing1 and I watched Waynes World Sunday before heading off to the pool. In it Wayne and Garth get to meet Alice Cooper backstage at a concert in Milwakee. There is a scene where Alice gets into a deep conversation - so unlike his concert persona.

Last night, while waiting for Thing2 to come out to watch a movie, Thing1 had a MTV show on with Metals 40 worst moments. Alice Cooper playing golf was one of them.

And today, via a link on Arthur Chrenkoff's blog (someone you should be reading), I find out Alice is, gasp, an involved parent and a conservative who voted for W? So very cool. Always liked his music. Nice to know my money supported one of the good guys.

Gunner Palace

When I first saw the trailer for this movie I was sure it was going to be a antiwar flick in the tradition of Michael Moore's Farenheit 911. The editing style just looked the same to me. Not too long after that I came across Blackfive's review of the movie and he made it clear the movie was neither pro or anti-war. He was also clear that the movie should be seen.

So I waited for the movie to show up in the theatres anywhere near home. It never did. Not too surprising but a little sad. I checked the whats new page on my Netflix account over the weekend and saw Gunner Palace in the new releases section. It seemed to have sneaked its way in. With any luck it'll show up at home on Thursday.

Gunner Palace will be available on Tuesday June 28th, 2005. It'll be interesting to see if any of the local stores carry it.

Update - I've seen it at the local Wal-Mart (one row buried in the new releases) and visitors have reported it at Target and Best Buy. I'll wander in to the local rental places today and see if its there. Netflix delivered it yesterday so I'll be watching it today or tomorrow.

Update #2 - The DVD is for sale at the local Target. Not at Sam's Club.

A peaceful way to deal with annoying pamplets

We came, we saw, we shredded

Carnival of Cordite #19

Available for your reading pleasure.

Take your daughter to work day

Where I work that was today. And sons were invited. Thing1 used to come when he was much younger. Thing2 never wanted to miss school. And now that it was held when school was out - well she wanted to sleep.

I enjoy it as I get to see the little kids. One of my group members brought her 5 (almost 6) year old daughter in. We had a wonderful conversation. Later in the morning a little girl toddled by my office door. And walks in. Right up to me and holds up her arms to be picked up. Her mom arrives and tells me its ok. So I got to meet a sweet little girl. She was ok with me till she saw the crackers in Mom's hand. Lost her instantly.

An Apology?

Senator Durbin issued an apology today. I saw parts of it on Fox News and it seemed a bit fake - right down to the tears. It seemed more like he was sorry that he didn't get away with it. I can't find any evidence that he requested his orginal remarks be stricken from the record so Al Jazeera has a permanent propaganda source.

Thanks Dick.

Illinois Base Closings

Isn't it interesting that the same Dick Durbin, you know the one who compared the interogation at Gitmo to the millions killed under Hitler, Stalin, and Pol Pot, spent today in front of the Base Realignment and Closure committee arguing that that Illinois bases should be spared. One has to wonder if he has any credibility with anyone even remotely connected with the military.

Gitmo

I live in the state of Illinois. Yes the state that has the Honorable Richard 'Dick' Durbin as it's senior Senator. You may have heard about him. He's the one who, on the floor of the Senate, compared the US Military to the Nazis, Stalins Communists, and Pol Pot. How does that stack with reality? Not well. Rowan Scarborough at the Washington Times did a little research.

" About 9 million persons, including 6 million Jews, died in Hitler's death camps, 2.7 million persons died in Stalin's gulags and 1.7 million Cambodians died in Pol Pot's scourge of his country.
No prisoners have died at Guantanamo, and the Pentagon has acknowledged five instances of abuse or irreverent handling of the Koran, the holy book of Muslims. "

Nice comparison Dick!

What may be even more frightening than Senator Durbin comments? His inability to apologize? Nah. Those of us that live in Illinois didn't expect him to as that would require character. Something that Senator Durbin lacks. It may be a Democrat thing as not one, to my knowledge, Democrat has condemmed Durbin or even asked him to apologize. The MSM has glossed over this issue for the most part. The hopelessly clueless that inhabit the left leaning blogs have jumped on this issue - attempting to convince themselves that the US military is the same as the Nazis, et al. Chris Muir, of Day by Day, clears things up quickly.

Want to know whats really going on in Iraq?

If you're like me and have become disgruntled (what does it mean to be gruntled?) with the MSM with regards to Iraq - well there is hope. His name is Michael Yon. He's there and there are no editors in the way to 'spin' the story.

Carnival of Cordite #18

Ready for your enjoyment at technogypsy.

Be sure to check out the video submitted by SondraK. And the shirt she has a pic of.

A Very Active Two Year Old

Happy Birthday BlackFive!

Matt's blog was the first MilBlog that I came across. While I read a lot of them now his is still my favorite. If you aren't reading BlackFive today would be a great day to start.

Relay for Life

Thing2 is a child of God. She just wants to help. Never seems to ask for any payment or fame or recognition - just help out. She came home one day from church with a permission slip to walk in the Relay for Life on one of our assocate pastors team. PJ, our associate pastor has lost a friend at age 21 to cancer and has been involved with the relay since. Carrie is why she walks. Carrie's Choir is her team.

PJ talks about the walk with her confirmation small group every year which is most of her team. This year some of her former small group members joined up as well as a mom and our Junior High youth leader.

Thing2 didn't really want me there but the wife (who conviently had a root canal that morning so she couldn't go) decided I should be there. We had some time to burn so PJ bought us some sidewalk to decorate. The kids (ok I helped but I'm a kid at heart) went to work with chalk and put together a quick reminder of why we were there.

The event started with the Carol Stream Police Department Honor Guard

and a nice rendition of the Star Spangled Banner as well as prayer. A short update from a local doctor and some words of inspiration from survivors. Now it was time to start. The first lap belonged to the survivors. It may have been the only lap that night for some of them but I don't think anything would have kept them off the track at that time.

While I wasn't an official member of the team I walked (PJ was connected enough to get me a shirt). Sometimes with the kids and sometimes just laps to get rid of the stress from a long week.
Relays have all kinds of side events to keep people motivated. The first event was the 'Mr. Relay' contest. A group of men, dressed as women, had 30 minutes to collect as much money as possible.

The winner, with over $700.00 collected, was a Carol Stream Firefighter. He's fourth from the left in the aqua colored sleeveless dress. Together this band of merry men collected almost $2000.00 in 30 minutes.
As the night progressed lumaria were lit. Hope and Cure filled the bleachers.


We didn't stay the whole night as PJ had to prepare for Vacation Bible School the next morning. I'm not sure Thing2 would have been too happy after midnight either. Before we left there was a presentation of the names of the all those who had sucumbed and all who had survived that were related to the walkers. It was a very quiet, moving experience.

We'll be back with Carrie's Choir next year. Maybe we'll even spend the night.

Wear Red on Fridays

I'm in for this. And Red is one of my favorite colors. I'll think I'll start out next week with this.

A story about teaching

From the Nation of Rifleman forums

If you care about education read this story

30 Days

From the man who gave us Super Size Me; Morgan Spurlock. For those unfamiliar with SSM he spent 30 days eating nothing but McDonalds. The results cut back my trips to McD's from rarely to next to never.

30 Days will look at a person or persons doing something different. In the first episode Morgan and his fiancee (good to see progress - in SSM she was just his girlfriend) Alex go to Colombus, Ohio and live on minimum wage for 30 days. No credit cards or savings to lean on. Just his license and ACLU membership card. (Yes - Morgan is a card carrying liberal)

It was an educational show. While I agree that minimum wage is not a living wage I don't think it was ever intended as something that a family could be raised on. I had always thought it was the entry level wage for an unskilled worker. If people choose to start a family while making minimum wage - well thats where personal responsibility kicks in.

Enough of a minor rant - great show. Watch it. Rent Super Size Me if you havn't.

Runaway Bride

So now a Katie Couric interview with the 'Runaway Bride'. I can only think of one thing to say - Who cares!

Jury Duty - The End

Jury duty ended last night at 7:00 pm. Got home at 9:00 pm. Long day. Sat for 1.5 hours waiting for court to start just to hear one witness and closing arguments. Finally went to deliberation around 5:00 - just in time for dinner. After lots of arguing we reached a verdict, gave it to the court and got to leave.

Being on a jury is educational. I learned way more about police procedure and the equipment used that I really wanted to. Except fot the huge delays in jury selection and the 1.5 hour delay every day to start the process is interesting and worth being a part of.

And I got to read another book that had been sitting around, Remote Control by Stephen White. Decent read. The ending is iffy but some of the technology presented is cool.

Jury Duty

Thats where I've been so far this week. Selected for a trial at 6:10 pm on Monday (the summons advises you to be prepared to stay till 4:30pm). Taking the train into the city every day - yuck. Two hours every day gone. Hopefully we'll finish up on Wednesday and life will return to normal. Ha - thats funny.

Sitting on a jury can be educational. I think everyone should do it at least once. This is the second time for me. This particular case has had a few laughs. The clerk fell asleep while court was in session (nice loud snoring) and a witness pointed out to one of the lawyers that there was a finger over the lense obscuring the photo.

On the other hand I've read Ice Station by Matt Reilly and Four Blind Mice by James Patterson. Both decent books with technical flaws (silenced revolvers anyone?)

Ice Station is not for anyone that needs to hold on to reality. A fun, entertaining read that passed the time on the train and waiting in the jury room quite nicely. Four Blind Mice was slightly closer to reality. It was the first Patterson book I had ever read and it will not be the last.

Carnival of Cordite #17

Nothing like the smell of gunpowder in the morning. Well virtual gun powder.

Over at grumbles.

HIV,Ebola to help CF?

Ran across this article on Drudge. A scientist from Pennsylvania University has added a protein component of Ebola to HIV.

"Tests on monkeys have shown that a safe hybrid of HIV and Ebola delivers corrective genes to the lungs better than any other method."

Since Thing1 lives with CF (no lung involvement at this time) I sent him the story. His response was interesting:

Let's not sign up until ..... never

Sounds like good advice to me!

A sad day in DVD land

Lightening UK, the developer of an excellent tool called DVD Decrypter, received a cease and desist from an unnamed company and has given up development of the tool. More at Slashdot and cdfreaks.

Carnival of Cordite #16

Over at Gullyborg. Take a few minutes and read.

Carnival of Cordite home

Dogtown and Z-Boys

I think I was in Junior High when the Hobie Skateboard Team came to JC Penny's in Woodfield mall. One of the neighbors moms drove us there so we could watch. It was mostly freestyle with a bit of ramp riding. When I was14 I wanted to skate like Jay Adams. I looked more like Tony Alva (even had a Alva board) but Jay Adams was just so cool. At least according to the pics in Skateboarder magazine...

We had a group of us here is Northern Illinois that skated on wood ramps and blacktop roads with curved walls but never in a pool. Given that most of them around here are above ground that would have been a real challenge. :-) Still we had fun. No major injuries for any of us. We didn't really have the talent of the Z-Boys either.

Thanks to netflix Thing1 and I watched Dogtown and Z-Boys Friday. The Z-Boys were so far ahead of their time. It was most interesting to see where they are now. Alva and Stacey Peralta seem to have done the best of any of them. It was kind of depressing to see Jay Adams in jail. If you used to skate - watch this movie. The Lords of Dogtown will tell the same story but this one is in their own words.

I've paid less for a computer

A very 'rich' blue.



The original

Army Spam?

Everyone has heard of the Nigerian spammers. The following is the first for me from someone pretending to be in the 1st Armoured Division.

Subject: From:Sgt.Terry Ray
Date: Wednesday 01 June 2005 04:53
From: "Sgt. Terry Ray" 
To: "terryray009@wanadoo.es" 

From:Sgt.Terry Ray
Important Message
To President / Managing Director..

Good day,

My name is Terry Ray, I am an American soldier, I am 
serving in the military of the 1st Armoured Division in 
Iraq, As you know we are being attacked by insurgents 
everyday and car bombs.We managed to move funds 
belonging to Saddam Hussien's family.

We want to move this money to you, so that you may 
invest it for us and keep our share for banking.We will 
take 50%, my partner and I. You take the other 50%. no 
strings attached, just help us move it out of Iraq,
Iraq is a warzone. We plan on using diplomatic 
courier and shipping the money out in one large 
silver box, using diplomatic immunity. If you are 
interested I will send you the full details, my job 
is to find a good partner that we can trust and 
that will assist us. Can I trust you? When you receive 
this letter,kindly send me an e-mail signifying your 
interest including your most confidential 
telephone/fax numbers for quick communication 
also your contact details.This business is risk free.

Respectfully,
Sgt.Terry Ray.

I can only hope that the scum doing this runs into some real members of the 1st Armoured some day...