Techie Titans …

Source: In Memoriam: 9 Tech Titans Who Died in 2012 | Wired Enterprise | Wired.com. He was just one of several tech titans who died over the past year. None had the name recognition of a Steve Jobs — who passed in 2011 — but they may have moved our world in bigger ways. Among those that passed in 2013 are the IBMer who invented the bar code and the Zenith engineer who devised the first wireless TV remote — not to mention one of the physicist who helped built the atom bomb dropped on Nagasaki. Click on the images above … Continue reading Techie Titans …

Giving Up the Mouse…..

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Dexter, our cat has been chasing a mouse around the house for the last few winter days. When he does he gets Beulah our sixty pound basset hound all excited and involved in the chase. It is funny to see Beulah with her tail wagging a mile a minute sitting next to Dexter staring at the bottom of the refrigerator where a mouse is currently hiding.  When I started this post that picture came to mind but that is really not the topic at hand. Instead it is about giving up my computer mouse.

I started out my computer life with a Radio Shack TRS-80 computer in the 1980s. It had no mouse or graphical user interface (GUI for all you techies). Everything had to be typed in on a keyboard and I spent hundreds of hours on doing just that.  I was hooked from the very beginning.

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You Either Write or Live

  Some time ago I came across a blog from a Romanian blogger named Cristian Mihai that got my attention. On many of his posts he seems much too mature for his twenty-two years.  But then other times he seems to fit right in to that bracket.  He is an ambitious young man who has totally conquered English as his second language. He is also a self-published author. Below is one of the posts that seems almost profound to me. He is talking about what it means to be a writer: Source: You either write or live « Cristian Mihai. You … Continue reading You Either Write or Live

You Are Punished By Your Anger, Not For Your Anger…

  You will not be punished for your anger; you will be punished by your anger. Let a person overcome anger by love. Hate is never ended by hatred but by love. — Buddha — These words could just as easily come from the mouth of Jesus as from Buddha. But in reality Buddha lived on this earth several hundred years before Jesus. It amazes me how similar the reported lives of Jesus and Buddha are. Here are some of those similarities as found at Wikipedia and other sources:  Buddha is actually a title which means “the awakened one”, his … Continue reading You Are Punished By Your Anger, Not For Your Anger…

You Are Punished By Your Anger, Not For Your Anger…

You will not be punished for your anger; you will be punished by your anger. Let a person overcome anger by love. Hate is never ended by hatred but by love. — Buddha — These words could just as easily come from the mouth of Jesus as from Buddha. But in reality Buddha lived on this earth several hundred years before Jesus. It amazes me how similar the reported lives of Jesus and Buddha are. Here are some of those similarities as found at Wikipedia and other sources:  Buddha is actually a title which means “the awakened one”, his name … Continue reading You Are Punished By Your Anger, Not For Your Anger…

Following Their Principles…..

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RooseveltIt seems we hear a lot about how the Republicans say they can’t vote for this or for that because they must “follow their principles”.  The trouble with all this is that they don’t want any government so blowing up the system IS following their principles.

Their hero told them that “government is the problem”. But what is a country without government?  That condition is called “everyone for themselves”. Is that what we want for our country? I think not; at least for 99% of us.

Is there really anything except shutting down government that can pass through a GOP controlled house of representatives now days? Are they really so head strong on eliminating their own jobs? That would be a first for any government employee wouldn’t it?

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Home for the holidays: Fewer US troops are absent this year…

  Source: Home for the holidays: Fewer US troops are absent this year – CSMonitor.com. When President Obama and first lady Michelle Obama issued a special holiday greeting over the weekend to US troops fighting overseas, they were addressing the smallest deployment of combat troops in at least five years…. Then, as Mrs. Obama emphasized in the video greeting, there are the 2.4 million veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, and their families, who will continue to require services beyond holiday acknowledgments from the president.  Even though I don’t have any friends or relatives in harm’s way now, this is … Continue reading Home for the holidays: Fewer US troops are absent this year…

Grover Predicts….. And So Do I….

Source: Norquist: Tea party resurgence if no “fiscal cliff” deal – Political Eye – CBS News. Grover Norquist is predicting that President Obama will be the political target of tea partiers if a deal on averting the “fiscal cliff” fails to materialize. No this quote from the article is not a joke.  But it sure should be. As if the tea partiers will suddenly love the president if he averts the fiscal curb. We will see pigs fly before that group has more than four letter words for our president. Grover seems to want to predict the future and so do … Continue reading Grover Predicts….. And So Do I….

Mary Dyer….. Heretic… Quaker….

I am a regular reader of a Quaker blog called Quaker Quaker. On a recent posting  by Mac Lemann I learned a little about Mary Dyer. Here are some of his words from that post: I had recently re-learned, at Pendle Hill from Marcelle Martin, the story of Mary Dyer and the other Quaker martyrs hung on Boston Common. Mary was a follower of Anne Hutchinson (see the Antinomian Controversy) who preached that every Christian believer could read, interpret, and preach the word of God and that the Grace of God is freely given. Mary was later convinced by George Fox … Continue reading Mary Dyer….. Heretic… Quaker….

The Right Tool….

I am a tool guy. I have had many of them throughout my life. My barn is stuffed with specialized tools I purchased when I had a cabinet making business. I am also a firm believer in the old phrase The Right Tool for the Job That is you don’t use pliers when the job really calls for a socket wrench.  In that regard when I looked out on our 150 foot driveway covered with over fourteen inches of wet snow I knew I didn’t have the right tools for this job. My Craftsman garden tractor is the top of … Continue reading The Right Tool….

Being A Contrarian….

Being that we are coming upon the end of another year I am in a self-reflections mode. I admit that much of what I post about is the result of reading a post or article about something and thinking that there is more to the story than is written. Sometimes it deserves an alternate view. Sometimes it needs expanding to attain its full meaning. And sometimes it’s just wrong, at least in my view. :)  I write to fill these gaps.  While I don’t like others putting me in boxes, particularly those that don’t really fit, I do sometimes try … Continue reading Being A Contrarian….

White Out in Indiana….

We have a white out here at the homestead so I will be hunkering down with a picture puzzle and a keyboard today but not at the same time, I don’t believe in multitasking. :)   We knew it was coming but don’t really believe it until we see it.  We are kind of like our Missouri neighbors in that regard. I stayed late after the Christmas meal at the soup kitchen and shelter yesterday to make food for the guys there through the next few days so they should be ok. My tractor plow is harnessed up and ready … Continue reading White Out in Indiana….

Happy Holidays….

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Being a Christian I was taught to be very much offended when I ran across the words “Happy Holidays” as that somehow diminished the real meaning of the season. But after I came across a blog post recently I have changed my opinion on those words. I wish I had kept the explanation as I’m sure the original author explained it much better then I can but since I can no longer find it I will have to do the best I can in justifying his idea.

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The Pro-Scrooge Christmas Story….

Source:  Conservatives urge GOP leaders to be bold, prepare to go over cliff – The Hill’s On The Money. “I think Obama is very mindful of his legacy and is horrified of going over the cliff,” said Andy Roth of the Club for Growth. “Going over the cliff might be a signal that needs to be sent to the president, that he needs to play ball.” He argued that President Clinton was forced to become a less liberal president after Speaker Newt Gingrich shut down the government in 1995. “Clinton would not play ball with Newt until Newt shut the … Continue reading The Pro-Scrooge Christmas Story….

Turning back….

  “We all want progress, but if you’re on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; in that case, the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive.” — C.S. Lewis C.S. Lewis is my favorite non-theologian theologian. That is he like me was not trained in a seminary or such place. But his book Mere Christianity had a great impact on me and millions of other lay people. I think it is the number one theological book sold. He just seemed to understand things about Christianity that all those trained … Continue reading Turning back….

NRA Solution to Gun Violence — More Guns

Source:  NRA press conference: Put armed guards in schools (+video) – CSMonitor.com. Mr. LaPierre offered the NRA’s assistance in putting together safety programs in schools that include arming security personnel. Very  the long-awaited response from the NRA relative to the Newton Conn. massacre is more guns.   With the American flag on one side and the NRA flag on the other the NRA’s executive vice president, Wayne LaPierre also said that it was the media’s fault that guns are so misunderstood in the country today. I was really hoping that this would be a crack in the armor and that … Continue reading NRA Solution to Gun Violence — More Guns

The Words of Jesus….

This is a continuation of the previous post about the words of Jesus taking front and center in Christian living.  Last time we talked about  how the red letters came about in our Christian bibles and about an organization dedicated to putting them back in their proper place in Christianity.  This time I want to tell you about a couple of books that put the red letters front and center. The first is a book by Phyllis Tickle entitled The Words of Jesus. This book which was published in 2008 was the first time I have come across something dedicated … Continue reading The Words of Jesus….