I am happy to say that I have heard from my son Gabe. He was no where near the bomb, but the email he had sent me never got to me. To all who offered prayers, thank you.

CNN.com - Transcripts - Bombing at Marriott in Jakarta
My son is to be married this Saturday in Jakarta. Please pray for him and his fiance, they are there as her family is there and we have not heard from him. I will post more information here as I here about it.

WorldNetDaily: Inmate requests 2 extra days in prison:

"According to a report in the Marion Star, Willie Chapman could walk out of Marion Correctional Institute a free man on Aug. 11, but he didn't want to miss the event hosted by the Christian men's ministry. "

Wow, would I do the same that this man is doing. What a statement for him and his stand for Jesus.

Yahoo! News - Microsoft Warns About 'Worm' Virus:

"The worm spreads through e-mail if recipients open an attached zip file — used to condense information so it can move faster over the Internet — then open an HTML file inside the zip file, the bulletin said. "

Keep your updates updated, and practice safe hex. Oh, and keep your antivirus up to date.

BBC NEWS | Technology | Cut down web for digitally deprived
I do not understand why we have had to develop this technology. We have Lynx already. Lynx is a text only browser and their are versions for most operating systems out there. Want to see what your page lookls like to a blind person? Go to the Lynx Website and download it and have a look at the web in a whole new way.

I have put this post off for a couple of days now. I keep finding something else to do so that I can prevent looking at my own mortality.
Monday I put my son on an airplane. By now he is in Jakarta Indonesia, half way around the world, and I am here in Tulsa. When he comes back, though he will still be my blood, he will not be my son. A young lady has taken him away from me in a good way, she will be his wife and he will be a husband. Was he a man before he left, by outward appearances, yes, but to my eyes he was my son. Now he will have another person to go to for advice that he should listen to, another person that gives him a hug when he is down. Gabe and I will no longer share that bond, that belongs to Jemema now.
Am I upset at that, no. Everyone needs to grow and mature and do these things. Anything not moving is dead someone once said. But still, this step in time is a big change for me. I am no longer the young man that I used to be. I am aging, and todays invitation to join AARP in the mail did not help things either.
Gabe, some lessons I may or not have taught you. First one I know I did not teach at all:
When the going gets tough, stay put
It is so tempting when problems come into a marriage to walk away from it. Do not, stick it out as long as you can and then a bit more. There is always some hope. But when you loose that hope, do not do what I did. I lost hope in and ran from God. You know that too well, and for that bad example, I will never be happy in what happened afterwards. Yes I stayed as part of your life, but not like I could have. Trust me, work it out. Do not give your 50%, give it your 110%
Stay true to God
No matter what, God loves you. It may be hard to see some time, but He is there watching over you. He sees what you do, you can not lie to him. I used to tell you that you can lie to me but you cannot lie to God! Know what, you may have thought it was a guilt trip, but in reality, it is a truth that can not be changed. God sees it all. And when things go wrong between you and Mema, and you are tempted to fib, He will know, even if she does not.
I guess that is all the advice I really have.
Jemema, you take good care of him, and more important, the only thing that I can give him that will last, take care of that Morton name. It has been bashed around a bit over the years, but it is still all that can ever give Gabe besides his faith, and though I may have helped him with that, he has kept it going himself when I was weak in mine. Protect his Morton name, and please try not to weaken his faith in God.
Gabe, Jemema is to be your wife, your help-meet. She is to walk beside you so you can protect you, not behind you like a servant. Turn to her for advice as you used to turn to me. But, you are the man, and God's responsibility for her is on your shoulders. You are the one to make the decisions, make them with her guidance, but make them.

I guess I have said enough. I wish I could be there. I love you both. Take care of yourselves and I will see you soon.

Dad

CNN.com - Bob Hope dead at 100 - Jul. 28, 2003
All I can say is "Thanks for the memories"

Freedom Bid in Floating '51 Chevy Truck | Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage:

"But no one remembers anyone attempting the 90-mile crossing of the Florida Straits in a floating flatbed truck with 55-gallon (250-litre) drums strapped to its sides, tires still in place, a propeller attached to its drive shaft and a driver behind the wheel."

I laughed hysterically when I saw this on the countdown tonight. Two things I was sad about:

1. The fact that they blew the Chevy up at the end and sank it to the bottom (saw it on the TV)
2. The fact that one of the most creative attempts to get out of Cuba ever, and they had to go back to Cuba. It is too bad they could not have made an exception in this case.

Headline news from Sky News - BURGERS ARE 'DEVIL'S FOOD':

"'And God populated the earth with broccoli and cauliflower and spinach, green and yellow vegetables of all kinds, so man would live a long and healthy life,' the article reads.

'But Satan created MacDonald's (sic). And MacDonald's brought forth the double cheeseburger. And MacDonald's said to Man, `You want fries with that?'

And Man said, `Supersize them', and Man gained pounds.'"

Love it... too bad people can not take it in the manner that the vicar pulished it ment. Truth with a little bit of humor.

"Hold Up!" : Articles : HEARTLIGHT® Magazine:

"We had driven for 6 or 7 hours on all sorts of highway surfaces. Some of them were smooth and uncluttered. Some of them were full of cracks, holes, lane closures, and traffic re-routing. To my utter amazement, however, we reached the best surface of the day -- freshly resurfaced, perfectly striped, and in perfect condition. There was only one noticeable problem with the surface; we had to drive 20 miles with one lane closed and the speed limit reduced by 20 mph for no apparent reason. There was even a highway patrolman using radar to stop folks who fudged on the speed limit! Traffic backed up as the trucks had a hard time keeping up speed on the hills and all of us had to drive well below what should have been the legal speed limit on the best paved, striped, and shouldered highway of the 1100 mile trip! "

Love it and the comparison to us Christians.

One day when eating lunch with my son Carlos, then an adolescent, I asked him how it was that he was able to maintain his healthy self-esteem. He said he knew he was a good artist, and that one thing kept his self-esteem untouched.
[from"The One Thing" : Articles : HEARTLIGHT® Magazine]
Why is it so hard to find the one thing that we are good at.

CNN.com - Study: Kansas is flatter than pancake - Jul. 21, 2003
Your tax dollars at work. Did we really need to know that Kansas is flat as a pancake.

Vanessa Bryant shouldn’t stand by her man:

" Again, adultery is going to be Bryant’s defense, so his attorneys need Vanessa to go along with it, saying she supports him. Perhaps that’s why he was on the stage, that’s why a press statement by her was released."

You know people who are not Christians should not write about things Christian. Kobe asked forgiveness of his wife and God. To me that is all that matters. Why is this jerk making like this is a big show. She believes in her man, her fallen man, and is forgiving him, and helping him. Was she a victim - YES! Will she stay a victim - NO! She is doing what she can to help herself - forgivness, and to help her man. Did Kobe assult the woman, I do not know, but she has chosen to forgive him, and is standing by him. I think it is great that she is standing by him and forgiving him for what he has done. I know someone that has not forgiven me for what I have not done.

'Naïve' Bookkeeping - Christianity Today Magazine: "Christian Research Institute Accused of 'Naïve' Bookkeeping"
While I respect this man and intelligence, for years I have questioned privately why he would attack other ministries that did not believe like he did (Charasmatic/Word of Faith mostly). I always heard in that still voice inside me, God will take care of it. Well, for the one who has been attacking the others, he has been attacked from within, and found not to be so squeaky clean with his money. I take no pleasure in this, what he did was wrong. I only hope and pray that his message may now be tempered with the fact that he and his ministry have imperfections also.

Well, she finally did it. Annie, my sweet young 6 year old daughter has gotten my UNO crown away from me. She now holds the Morton Family crowns for Chinese Checkers and UNO. I guess I am getting to old to be champion any more (ha-ha). I am sure that one day, I will get these crowns back from her, but till then, she lets me know just who is the champion. Annie, I love you! Even if you are the champion.

I have found a new tool for blogging and will have to see what it does and kick the tires a bit. I found it through Sharp Reader, which I use to read through some RSS feeds once in a while. (RSS feeds are collections of links to stories, blogs, etc). That is how I get the unusual content that I do so many times. This will allows you to blog all your stuff off line (say on a laptop, or just you want to think about it before posting it, and maybe change it).
The program is called w.bloggar and has some WYSIWYG type functions to it so it looks like it would make some things that I do by hand easier. It also allows you to edit templates (the way your blog looks). Give it a try. (OH just found the spell checker... 2 more points!)

Man uses cell phone to ask police to end chase |DallasNews.com | Dallas-Fort Worth | Latest News
New twist. Hey man, stop the chase, meanwhile I will keep driving. Got to be a case of the gene pool is definitely cleaning itself.

::: XPLANA.COM ::: Exploring how we can learn and teach with technology: "How to Measure Time for Online Activities and Courses"
Being an online student, I found this article quite interesting and explains why I feel at a loss in on line classes many times. I think it should be required reading for all on-line instructors. and since I have been one, I know to some degree what I am saying.

New Scientist:

"A computer program that hijacks the personal computers of ordinary home users in order to pass on pornographic web pages has been discovered by US researchers."

May be time to update the antivirus software, but from what I have read it may not do any good. Most do not have the code to study it yet. Not on a high percentage of machines, but it is on a lot of AOL machines (yuck yuck).

Yahoo! News - Greenspan Says Fed Could Cut Rates Again

I actually watched this on CSPAN2 and understood what he was talking about. Of course I just finished a summer class in Macroeconomics also. The article is kinda whitewashing. Many democrats verbally atacked Mr. Greenspan, and many Rebulicans tried to gloss over the problems. Oh Well. This is where our economy is going.