University chaplain squeezes Christmas sermon into text message

University chaplain squeezes Christmas sermon into text message

And an interesting message it is, take a look.

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The 5 Rules of Black Friday

The 5 Rules of Black Friday

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From the article:

Black Friday can be scary. Children and small men often get trampled by large women rushing to score special deals. Parking lots are filled with NASCAR drivers and everyone is hopped up on coffee and Red Bull. The best thing to do is sleep right through it, but if you must shop, please be nice.

Smile at the cashier. He doesn’t want to be there and hates you for perpetuating the tradition. Smile at other shoppers too because you are all in this together. If you must shove someone out of the way to grab the last $79 GPS at Radio shack, do it gently.

Please pay attention folks, the sanity you save may be my own. 

Psalm 109:8 bumper stickers -- a wrong-hearted prayer for President Obama? - Faith & Reason

"Pray for Obama."

A kind and generous statement.

Or is it?

A crop of bumper stickers and T-shirts emblazoned with that call to prayer for the president have appeared for sale recently online through make-it-yourself outlets such as Zazzle.com and CafePress.com. And most of the "Pray for Obama" slogans are accompanied by a scripture reference: "Psalm 109:8.

"In the New International Version translations, that verse reads;

May his days be few; may another take his place of leadership.

Aha! So, they're praying for Obama's tenure to be a short one. Fair enough. But what does that really mean?

Psalm 109:8 bumper stickers -- a wrong-hearted prayer for President Obama? - Faith & Reason

Take time and read the rest of the verses in context. It is an eye opener what these people are asking for. While I do not care for the politics of Mr. Obama, I would never wish this stuff on him.

reBlog from converstations.com: ConverStations

I found this fascinating quote today:

Let's not get caught up on 21st Century Skills being [about] using a computer, social network, or mobile device. Two decades ago, Twitter wasn't a twinkle in our eye -- now it's everywhere.  At the end of this century, Twitter may not be a 21st Century Tool, let alone a 21st Century Skill.converstations.com, ConverStations, Sep 2009

You should read the whole article.  As a computer educator and geek it is a very interesting read.  We do not need to teach Word for example but teach how to do Word Processing.  We do not need to teach Twitter but how to communicate. 

The safe browsers are safe no more…

From ZDNet

 

Security researchers have intercepted a fake Flash Player update creating a Firefox add-on that spies on a target user’s Google search results.

The malicious Firefox extension, called “Adobe Flash Player 0.2,” injects ads into the user’s Google search results pages and even has the capability to monitor the user’s browsing activities, particularly Google search queries using the Firefox browser.

It then sends the information it gathers to a hacker-controlled server.

 

Do not get Flash from any place but the Adobe site. What used to be safe, the alternative browsers, like Firefox, are now becoming methods of attack.  Be aware…..

 

Psalm 119:64“The earth is filled with your love, O LORD; teach me your decrees.” Brought to you by BibleGateway.com. Copyright (C) . All Rights Reserved.

O.C. residents sue Facebook | facebook, information, beck, county, orange - News - OCRegister.com

The other two plaintiffs are Orange County children – Xavier O., 11, and Chris C., 12 – who reportedly opened accounts without their parents' permission. Since Xavier posted information about having swine flu, "his parents have been unable to learn where the minor's medical information may have been stored, disseminated or sold by Facebook," the complaint states.

O.C. residents sue Facebook | facebook, information, beck, county, orange - News - OCRegister.com

If this had been my kids, I would not be suing Facebook, I would be spanking their buts. Responsibility, teach it to your kids please...

Why I would like to learn to fly someday

A picture by NASCAR driver Kyle Petty as he was flying to one of his stops...

dumpr.net

Help I am traped in a Rubik's Cube and get not get out
Create your own Rubik's Cube

Pew Research Center Poll: 64 Percent Think There's Too Much Coverage Of Michael Jackson's Death - wbztv.com

LOS ANGELES (AP) ―Nearly two in three Americans say news organizations have given too much coverage to the death of Michael Jackson, but half say the media have struck the right balance between covering the pop star's personal life and musical career.

In a Pew Research Center poll published Wednesday, 64 percent of those surveyed said Jackson's death last week in Los Angeles has received too much coverage, 29 percent said the story received the right amount and 3 percent said the story got too little attention

Pew Research Center Poll: 64 Percent Think There's Too Much Coverage Of Michael Jackson's Death - wbztv.com
Put with the 2/3 group.  A week later and they seem to make up stories about things.  Please can we let the story go.  A lot of people have died this week.  Some are true heroes.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

A marked man...

Mayfield said outside court Wednesday he would travel to Daytona, but wasn’t sure in what capacity. His suspension covered both his roles as driver and owner of his car, and he wasn’t sure he could put something together in time.

Larry Gunselman and Tommy Baldwin, two owners who potentially could have given Mayfield a ride, said they weren’t considering him for Saturday night’s race.

“Whether he’s right, wrong or different right now, he’s marked,” said Baldwin, “and that’s going to hurt him probably for the rest of his career.”

Mayfield not at Daytona when garage opens - NASCAR - Yahoo! Sports

It is a shame that it has to be this way. I am not a Mayfield fan, I think in someways he is a jerk, but I think NASCAR was wrong and have defended him. The 3 ring circus that NASCAR set up for drug testing was an exercise in stupidity. That being said I must agree with Baldwin here. He is going to have a hard time getting any car he drives/owns through inspection much less being noted for infractions on the course. NASCAR has effectivly killed him.

Mayfield Wins against NASCAR ... or does he?

The Brighter Light

Notes from my pastor's (Pastor Bob Yandian) sermon called the Brighter Light are available on my Sermon Notes Page.

What and Idiot

Why I can never be a Kyle Bush fan. No respect for what he won or what went into the making of it.

NASCAR – The Big Bully?

From Nascar.com

 

LONG POND, Pa. -- NASCAR has filed a countersuit in federal court against driver Jeremy Mayfield and denied each of the suspended driver's arguments why his failed drug test should be overturned.

NASCAR spokesman Ramsey Poston, speaking Friday from Pocono Raceway, says the countersuit was filed against Mayfield for willfully violating NASCAR's substance abuse policy, breach of contract, and defrauding NASCAR and its competitors of earnings.

Among the claims of the lawsuit are that Mayfield knowingly participated in NASCAR competition using a combination of drugs in violation of the substance abuse policy and violated his contracts with NASCAR and the standards of care he owed fellow drivers and spectators.

Mayfield was suspended May 9 for failing a random drug test conducted eight days earlier at Richmond International Raceway.

The bolder text is what I want to emphasize here. I love NASCAR. Some may think it is as boring as watching paint dry but if you watch it you see the high speed chess match that it is. Should a driver take 2 or 4 tires, do we have enough Gas to go the distance, and any of a lot of other questions.

And yes, they should have a substance abuse policy.  By all means.  When you are going near 200 MPH you need to know that the guy next to you is not on some trip.

But how could Mayfield what drugs are on the substance abuse policy?  No driver has been told that.  NASCAR, IMHO is acting like the big bully here.  Mayfield started this team with barely any money and he just wants to race. He has not been a ‘start and park’ car, he is actually trying and was having a bit of success.

NASCAR, tell us all, or at least the drivers, what they need to watch out for.  Revise it as necessary. But do not tell the drivers not to take any drugs at all.  He says he took Claritin and a prescription. Tell us what he took or let him race.  This has gone on long enough.

I guess some people have not enough to complain about!

From FOXNEWS.COM:

 

A social services accounting clerk wants compensation for missing his lunch break on April 3 during a horrific upstate New York immigration center massacre that left 13 dead plus the gunman.

James Kauchis, a government employee of the Broome County Department of Social Services, confirmed that he filed a formal complaint last week seeking the pay, according to the Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin.

But he wouldn't discuss it with the newspaper.

"That's a matter between me, the administration and the union," Kauchis said.

How can this guy complain when so many lost their life that day.  What a shame.

1 Corinthians 15:55-57“Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?" The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Brought to you by BibleGateway.com. Copyright (C) NIV. All Rights Reserved.

April Fools

Today was an interesting day. I did my usual teaching and went to work. I was aware of it being April 1, April Fools day, but no one had tried to pull an obvious joke on me so I was not thinking about it.

Driving to my real job I was listening to a talk show on local station KRMG, the Neal Boortz show. I usually listen to him as I do not agree with everything he says but it is interesting. He started to describe during his Government outrage segment how Obama had told GM and Chrysler that if they wanted any more money they would have to withdraw their participation in NASCAR. Boortz was upset! He cannot tell them how to advertise.

Needless to say I got to work and started to tell a co-worker about it. We both agreed it was the wrong thing to do. I figured I would blog about it so I started to search about it. Seems that the Internet was abuzz about it. One article said Obama and NASCAR was the biggest Google News search for the day, and it all started with an article at the Car and Driver magazine web site. Well Car and Driver meant it as an April Fools joke but it seems that it took on a mind of its own. Some places have not retracted the statements yet either.

So while I did not get hit directly, I guess I got it indirectly.

Of course my stepdaughter got it. She got a Facebook message that said Obama and her were second cousins and clicked the link.

Obama was the subject of a lot of the jokes today. Hope he does not mind.

One of the reasons that I do not like unions...

From Fox News

 

A bill working its way through Congress that changes how employees can create and join unions is facing tough criticism from workers who say it gives unions the green light to use aggressive tactics to get them to sign up.

The Employee Free Choice Act -- known in Congress as the "card check" bill -- calls for an easier system to allow employees to form, join, or assist labor organizations. Under the bill, employees can request blank cards from existing unions that employees can sign to express interest in joining the union. If 30 percent of employees sign the cards, companies can hold secret-ballot elections to decide on unionization.

But workers at the Dana Corporation Auto Parts plant in Albion, Ind., say the card check process has nearly torn the 50-person plant apart after harassment and intimidation from the United Auto Workers union forced them to a secret-ballot vote.

A union organizer came to the plant two years ago to ask employees to join the UAW because the company had signed a neutrality agreement with the union.

The meeting, however, did not go well, according to plant employee Larry Guest.

"He was using real rough language -- cursing. It didn't go over well with the women at all. There were a couple that just got up and left," Guest told FOX News.

Employees said union representatives approached them in the break room, at the plant doors and even followed them to their cars.

"He was just like an itch that you couldn't scratch. He just wouldn't go away," said employee Rita Murphy.

"After a while we realized he was going to be here morning, noon and night until he got his numbers that he needed," said Betty Pop.

We will miss you....

From Fox news (and I am sure many other places)

 

Paul Harvey, the news commentator and talk-radio pioneer whose staccato style made him one of the nation's most familiar voices, died Saturday in Arizona, FOX News has confirmed. He was 90.

Harvey died surrounded by family at a hospital in Phoenix, where he had a winter home, said Louis Adams, a spokesman for ABC Radio Networks, where Harvey worked for more than 50 years. No cause of death was immediately available.

Paul, I knew when Angel died you would not last much longer as you were so in love with her.  I will miss your voice and you doing the news. 

 

No one, and I mean no one, can replace you in the industry.  We will miss you.

 

Psalm 73:25-26“Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.” Brought to you by BibleGateway.com. Copyright (C) NIV. All Rights Reserved.

Boy am I in trouble......

I'm an embarrassment to Barack!


I only scored 18 on the Obama Test

From the no good deed goes unpunished department

WBZ TV Watercooler web page reports:

 

DENVER (AP) ―  A good Samaritan who helped push three people out of the path of a pickup truck before being struck and injured has gotten a strange reward for his good deed: A jaywalking ticket.
Family members said 58-year-old bus driver Jim Moffett and another man were helping two elderly women cross a busy Denver street in a snowstorm when he was hit Friday night.
Moffett suffered bleeding in the brain, broken bones, a dislocated shoulder and a possible ruptured spleen. He was in serious but stable condition Wednesday.

Kind of reminds me of a few years ago, a good Samaritan was helping people here in Tulsa that got stuck in the snow by towing them out of the drifts and got a ticket

Just when you think that the younger generation has gone to Hades...

From ESPN.com

 

Two missed free throws, ordinarily the cause of a coach's headache, became the symbol of sportsmanship in a Milwaukee boys basketball game earlier this month.

Milwaukee Madison senior Johntell Franklin, who lost his mother, Carlitha, to cancer on Saturday, Feb. 7, decided he wanted to play in that night's game against DeKalb (Ill.) High School after previously indicating he would sit out.

He arrived at the gym in the second quarter, but Franklin's name was not in the scorebook because his coach, Aaron Womack Jr., didn't expect him to be there.

Rules dictated Womack would have to be assessed a technical, but he was prepared to put Franklin in the game anyway. DeKalb coach Dave Rohlman and his players knew of the situation, and told the referees they did not want the call.

The referees had no choice. But Rohlman did.

"I gathered my kids and said, 'Who wants to take these free throws?'" Rohlman said, recounting the game to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. "Darius McNeal put up his hand. I said, 'You realize you're going to miss, right?' He nodded his head."

McNeal, a senior point guard, went to the line. The Milwaukee Madison players stayed by their bench, waiting for the free throws. Instead of seeing the ball go through the net, they saw the ball on the court, rolling over the end line.

"I turned around and saw the ref pick up the ball and hand it back to the player," Womack said in the Journal Sentinel. "And then [McNeal] did the same thing again."

 

 

Romans 8:35,37“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.” Brought to you by BibleGateway.com. Copyright (C) NIV. All Rights Reserved.

If you can not trust a parking ticket....?

So that you do not have to worry about things to worry about...  From the BBC

 

Drivers found the following message on the yellow ticket on their windscreen: "PARKING VIOLATION This vehicle is in violation of standard parking regulations".

The ticket then instructed drivers to visit a website, where drivers could "view pictures with information about your parking preferences".

The website instructed users to download a tool bar containing a virus

According to internet security watchdog The SANS Institute, the website then had photos of cars in various car parks around Grand Forks and instructed users to download a tool bar to find photos of their own vehicle.

 

When you invent a better mouse trap, someone invents a better mouse I guess. 

Giving back to what got you there

From SceneDaily.com

 

Hamlin said during Thursday’s 2009 Media Day at Daytona International Speedway that he will give away the tickets on his official Web site, DennyHamlin.com.
“They can sit in my seats each and every week at every single race track we go to,” Hamlin said. “Basically, they just enter in there, and we’ll choose a handful to be sitting in my seats each week.”
Hamlin said he will give away a minimum of four tickets per race, with more tickets available at some tracks. They won’t be bad tickets, either, he insisted.
And you don’t have to be a Hamlin fan, either.
“That’s not to go out there and try to get more race fans,” Hamlin said. “It’s not [just] for Denny Hamlin race fans; it’s for everyone. It doesn’t matter if you’re going to be there in your Dale [Earnhardt] Jr. gear or your Carl Edwards gear. It doesn’t matter to me. I just want to help the race fans out that don’t have the means to or have gone for the last 20 years and now aren’t able to because of financial reasons.”
Hamlin estimated that the tickets have cost him between $75 and $150 apiece, and he isn’t getting any discounts or favoritism from tracks.
“They’re coming out of my pocket,” he said. “And it’s actually been a pretty big hassle, but it doesn’t matter.”
The economy has hurt race fans, Hamlin said, and everyone in the sport needs to be aware of the struggles of the fans.

 

Thanks Denny.  I may try to get tickets for Texas or Kansas, as they would be the closest to me, but I probally will not.  I cannot afford to take the time off from work to go.  I have never scene a race live, only on the TV, I would love to go.  

What I appreciate is that you, like most NASCAR drivers, know what got you where you are and appreciate the fans.  This however, is a step above and beyond.  Thanks again.

Did you have to make your point that way...

From Fox News

 

"Malaria is spread by mosquitoes," Gates said while opening a jar onstage at the Technology, Entertainment, Design Conference — a gathering known to attract technology kings, politicians, and Hollywood stars.

"I brought some. Here I'll let them roam around. There is no reason only poor people should be infected."

I guess that it was a way of making a point, that there is need for all people to live in safety from disease.  He assured the audience that they did not contain malaria.  But what about other disease they could have had.

Forget about that, what about what someone next to me had.  The mosquito bites the person next to me, maybe they have aids.  Then it bites me. I now have their blood mixed with the bugs and injected into mine.

I wonder if Bill Gates is as smart as he things he is.

30 Seconds in to the future

From the Journal Now (Winston-Salem Journal)

 

In 1987, the science-fiction satire Max Headroom depicted a media-obsessed future in which television commercials were reduced to one-second bites.

Welcome to the world of tomorrow. During Sunday's Super Bowl, Miller High Life will show a series of one-second commercials. But let's hope they don't have the same effect as the "blipverts" on Max Headroom, which over-stimulated sedentary viewers and caused them to explode.

Since Budweiser is the official beer sponsor of the Super Bowl, MillerCoors had to go to individual NBC affiliates to buy airtime. Hank Price at WXII confirmed that the ads would air here, and that MillerCoors had bought four seconds of airtime. He said that the station does not discuss the rates it charges advertisers, so we don't know if they paid 4/30th the going rate or more.

 

OK, so I do not have my jetpack that I was told I would have when I was a kid (40 years ago), but stuff from 20 years ago is now coming true....  this is weird.  Here is hoping that those watching will not explode!

what a neat photo of the inauguration

From David Bergman a picture of the inauguration taken over several minutes.  You can zoom in on the picture with remarkable clarity.

What do these 10 songs have in common?

1. Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life - Eric Idle / Monty Python

2. Cabaret - Liza Minnelli

3. Wish Me Luck As You Wave Me Goodbye - Gracie Fields

4. My Way - Sid Vicious

5. They’re Coming To Take Me Away, Ha-Haaa - Napoleon

6. Fame! I Want To Live Forever - The cast of Fame

7. We’ve Gotta Get Out Of This Place - The Animals

8. Going Underground - The Jam

9. Spirit In The Sky - Dr and The Medics

10. Enjoy Yourself, It’s Later Than You Think - The Specials

 

 

Find the answer.

 

John 4:24“God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.” Brought to you by BibleGateway.com. Copyright (C) NIV. All Rights Reserved.

Follow the Inaguration with Twittervision

Do not mess with a good thing NASCAR

I do not know where NASCAR thinks they are helping the sport when we read from Fox Sports the following piece of information that will help reduce cost (supposedly):

 

When the truck series first debuted, the series was able to limit expenses by having teams pit once at halfway under a competition caution and have fewer men over the wall.

A similar plan could be in the works that would bring trucks down pit road according to the order on the track. Teams would be allowed to pit and the trucks would then return to the track in the same order, similar to a TV time out in football or basketball.

One of the things that attracts me to NASCAR is the high speed chess match that takes place each week.  Do we pit now, do we wait to pit, do we take two or four tires?  All of these effect the results.  Do just do a competition caution would increase the yawn factor about 75%.  So much can be gained or lost in the pits.  No NASCAR, do not do it.  I realize it is the TRUCKS and that is a testing ground of sorts, but leave this stuff to your minor leagues or the ARCA Remax series.

Do not listen to the soundbytes and talking heads...

 

Listen to what the man says himself. It is amazing what you hear versus what he said.

From the Dept. of taking back what was not yours to give in the first place....

GREENFIELD, Calif. — Police have arrested a Greenfield man for allegedly arranging to sell his 14-year-old daughter into marriage in exchange for $16,000, 100 cases of beer and several cases of meat.
Police say they only learned of the deal after 36-year-old Marcelino de Jesus Martinez went to them to get his daughter back because payment wasn't made as promised.

FOXNews.com - Man Allegedly Tries to Sell Daughter Into Marriage for Cash, Beer and Meat - Local News | News Articles | National News | US News
I thought that we had passed the era when woman were slaves about 1000 years ago or so.   Lock this guy up and throw away the key (providing that he is guilty - hard not to be when he admits he did something wrong so he can get his money back).

Finding Osama Bin Laden

Twitter Hack

From Mashable.com comes:

 

Twitter is being blindsided today by a new wave of attacks, this time involving the takeover of the accounts of prominent users. Barack Obama, Britney Spears, CNN’s Rick Sanchez, Fox News, and Facebook’s official accounts are amongst those that have been targeted thus far, with each sending out an obviously fake message ranging from explicit comments to ads for online scams. Here’s what the Fox News account looked like earlier today:

 

 

I wonder why they did not go after my account.  Maybe cause I just am not important enough.

 

Isaiah 1:16-17“wash and make yourselves clean. Take your evil deeds out of my sight! Stop doing wrong, learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow.” Brought to you by BibleGateway.com. Copyright (C) NIV. All Rights Reserved.