Chris Loehmer Kincaid's Blog, page 139
January 30, 2015
Flashback Friday - Speak for Yourself
I was wondering what picture from my past I could share with you today. It seemed like an awful lot of work to find a picture in a photo album and scan it. Instead I looked through the few pictures I already have scanned into the family archives of the computer and came across this gem. Ok, so it’s not very pretty. It is a newspaper clipping from 1979 so it didn’t scan very well. I tweeked it and edited it as much I could, but I guess you will just have to use your imagination. A few years ago, when I found this clipping amongst my aging high school memorabilia, I was struck by the connections I still had with these people.
I lost track of Kathy, my best friend from high school, until a few years ago, when her dad passed away. Then, thanks to the internet, it has been easy to keep in touch again. I was in Bible study with Pam for a while and still work with her husband. Laura’s brother was also in Bible study with me for a long time. A few others I still run into on occasion.
Except of course for the token male of the group. Who knew at the time that Jay would take off for the big lights of Hollywood? And who would have ever guessed that he would die so young?
Crazy how much I remember about these people, and how little I remember about forensics. (I do remember the sweater I was wearing was my sister Pat's.) But the craziest thing is that I was in forensics at all, considering how ridiculously shy and introverted I was.
January 27, 2015
Wildlife Wednesday - just a little rant
Without a doubt, every single creation that God put on this Earth has the right to live, breed and thrive. God didn’t make any mistakes. Every species of animal that was put here was put here for a reason. And yet, one creature give me the willies and I can’t help but wonder. Sometimes I ask, “why?” and sometimes I just can’t even come up with a question. I just have to walk away, shivering.
Insects? No, there’s not a one I have met who has really turned me off. I’m not thrilled by wood ticks. Anyone who lives where I live knows the feeling that seems to hang with us from early spring until late summer. That crawly feeling of a wood tick looking for a place on your body to go after a meal. I can live with wood ticks.
Spiders? Really? They are our friends. They are predators who catch a great deal of mosquitoes. And speaking of mosquitoes, I don’t want any bats in my house, but they are definitely a friend to have in your backyard. I read somewhere that a bat can eat up to 1000 mosquitoes an hour.
And what about those mosquitoes? When they buzz around your ears and attack every piece of open skin they can find? I think it’s all in your head. I ignore them. Sure, they bite, but freaking out about it doesn’t help. Swat the ones you can, but let the rest be (unless you are in a malaria region). You have enough blood and if you just don’t itch, you won’t swell up or anything. Or build a bat house.
Snakes? My only beef with snakes is that they suddenly seem to be there, underfoot or hanging from something. If I know you are there, Mr. Snake, you don’t bother me in the least, just don’t sneak up on me.
On the other end of the spectrum, here where I live, there is a big wolf controversy. People say that wolves are so mean and torture their prey to death. And that they attack dogs and other domesticated animals. The wolves were here first. Is it any different from the African tribes who kill the lions that attack their cattle? Here in America we think that is wrong, but it’s not wrong to kill wolves. I don’t know. I think the predators have as much right to their lifestyles as the prey does.
All of that being sad, there is one animal that makes me squirm. They are so disgusting. I just can’t help it. I don’t even think I can post a picture of one here.
And yet they have a right to live too and not be eaten by those Chinese officials who made the news last week over this. Really? The Giant Salamander is a delicacy in many parts of Asia and eating it is thought to promote long life. Really? How can anyone eat such a horribly ugly creepy-looking animal? Even when I have come across those little black salamanders with red spots in my woodpile, I freak out. They are just plain gross. I don’t care how big or small they are.
But I wouldn’t eat one! And I wouldn’t want to see any of their species wiped off the planet. We need to just leave alone enough dank swampy places all over the world, and just let them do their thing. And keep them away from me.
Actually if you go to this website, you will see that most amphibians are rather creepy, except maybe for this Hewitt Ghost Frog.
(Hewitt Ghost Frog picture from http://www.edgeofexistence.org/amphib...)
Ok, now I will get off my soapbox and go about my usual life.
Insects? No, there’s not a one I have met who has really turned me off. I’m not thrilled by wood ticks. Anyone who lives where I live knows the feeling that seems to hang with us from early spring until late summer. That crawly feeling of a wood tick looking for a place on your body to go after a meal. I can live with wood ticks.
Spiders? Really? They are our friends. They are predators who catch a great deal of mosquitoes. And speaking of mosquitoes, I don’t want any bats in my house, but they are definitely a friend to have in your backyard. I read somewhere that a bat can eat up to 1000 mosquitoes an hour.
And what about those mosquitoes? When they buzz around your ears and attack every piece of open skin they can find? I think it’s all in your head. I ignore them. Sure, they bite, but freaking out about it doesn’t help. Swat the ones you can, but let the rest be (unless you are in a malaria region). You have enough blood and if you just don’t itch, you won’t swell up or anything. Or build a bat house.
Snakes? My only beef with snakes is that they suddenly seem to be there, underfoot or hanging from something. If I know you are there, Mr. Snake, you don’t bother me in the least, just don’t sneak up on me.
On the other end of the spectrum, here where I live, there is a big wolf controversy. People say that wolves are so mean and torture their prey to death. And that they attack dogs and other domesticated animals. The wolves were here first. Is it any different from the African tribes who kill the lions that attack their cattle? Here in America we think that is wrong, but it’s not wrong to kill wolves. I don’t know. I think the predators have as much right to their lifestyles as the prey does.
All of that being sad, there is one animal that makes me squirm. They are so disgusting. I just can’t help it. I don’t even think I can post a picture of one here.
And yet they have a right to live too and not be eaten by those Chinese officials who made the news last week over this. Really? The Giant Salamander is a delicacy in many parts of Asia and eating it is thought to promote long life. Really? How can anyone eat such a horribly ugly creepy-looking animal? Even when I have come across those little black salamanders with red spots in my woodpile, I freak out. They are just plain gross. I don’t care how big or small they are.
But I wouldn’t eat one! And I wouldn’t want to see any of their species wiped off the planet. We need to just leave alone enough dank swampy places all over the world, and just let them do their thing. And keep them away from me.
Actually if you go to this website, you will see that most amphibians are rather creepy, except maybe for this Hewitt Ghost Frog.
(Hewitt Ghost Frog picture from http://www.edgeofexistence.org/amphib...)
Ok, now I will get off my soapbox and go about my usual life.
January 25, 2015
Back to Acceptance
Sorry that I don’t have an inspirational blog to share this Sunday. Well, maybe you will find this inspirational. It may inspire you to never give up, never surrender. And that the experts aren’t always the ones who are going to get you the help you need.
If you read yesterday’s blog, you know that my internet connection died. As I was posting that, however, I was confident that my internet would be back up and running on Monday, and that I would survive until then.
When I got home from town yesterday, there was a voice mail from my internet server, someone named Dan, reporting to me that my issue had been resolved and my help ticket had been closed. Hmm? Earlier in the day, when I had ended the hour-long conversation with some marginally helpful woman, it was my understanding that a technician was coming to my house on Monday to fix my problem. To me, that didn’t mean my issue was resolved.
I called back to the help desk and got someone young man named Juan, or something like that. I told him that I just wanted to make sure that someone was still coming to my house on Monday to fix my internet. He wanted to know what the problem was. I told him about the long conversation I had had three hours before and what the resolution was. He told me to go to my computer and try typing in – when I interrupted him. Could he just tell me if someone was coming on Monday?
He put me on hold (oh, and by the way I was on hold for fifteen minutes before I got Juan in the first place). When he came back on the line, he sounded confused but was convinced that no one was coming to my house. I asked him why. He said the issue had been resolved. I asked him who did that. He said someone named Mark. Who is Mark, I wondered, but before I could ask, Juan asked me again to go to my computer and type in some IDP number or something.
I told him again that I had spent an hour with some woman typing in two hundred different numbers, letters and messages and the problem was not resolved. He just kept talking and wouldn’t shut up. I started out kindly trying to get him to stop, but it kind of escalated until I was yelling at him, “shut up, shut up, shut up!” I was so loud that the dog started barking.
Finally he quit talking long enough to say, “don’t yell at me”. I said I was sorry and that I would try something else, and I hung up.
I called back a few minutes later, was on hold again for 15 or 20 minutes, before I finally got through to Keith. I told him what had happened and that I had lost my temper with the last rep and I was sorry about that, but I just wanted someone to listen.
Keith patiently listened and when I was done, he said, “there are a few things we could try, but I think that you have already tried everything possible. I think we should just send you a new modem. The request won’t go in until Monday, but you should have it by Wednesday.”
Wednesday? Ok, I can deal with this until then, I just need to know that this will work. I was pretty sure it would, coz we have had problems with our external modem in the past and all it takes is getting a new one set up.
Throughout the day yesterday I would check my connection just for fun. The computer just kept saying, “No internet connection”. I could check email and stuff again every day from work starting on Monday. I would survive.
When we went to bed last night, I decided to turn everything off and unhook all the internet connections and just let the whole thing sleep overnight. I got up this morning, and also just for fun, I unhooked the other end of the cables, turned them around and plugged them back in. Just for fun.
The icon in the bottom right hand corner glowed, “internet connection available”.
I don’t know. I guess some days are diamonds, some days are stones. I don’t think this connection will last, but it is what it is. Maybe only a rhinestone, but I’ll take it.
If you read yesterday’s blog, you know that my internet connection died. As I was posting that, however, I was confident that my internet would be back up and running on Monday, and that I would survive until then.
When I got home from town yesterday, there was a voice mail from my internet server, someone named Dan, reporting to me that my issue had been resolved and my help ticket had been closed. Hmm? Earlier in the day, when I had ended the hour-long conversation with some marginally helpful woman, it was my understanding that a technician was coming to my house on Monday to fix my problem. To me, that didn’t mean my issue was resolved.
I called back to the help desk and got someone young man named Juan, or something like that. I told him that I just wanted to make sure that someone was still coming to my house on Monday to fix my internet. He wanted to know what the problem was. I told him about the long conversation I had had three hours before and what the resolution was. He told me to go to my computer and try typing in – when I interrupted him. Could he just tell me if someone was coming on Monday?
He put me on hold (oh, and by the way I was on hold for fifteen minutes before I got Juan in the first place). When he came back on the line, he sounded confused but was convinced that no one was coming to my house. I asked him why. He said the issue had been resolved. I asked him who did that. He said someone named Mark. Who is Mark, I wondered, but before I could ask, Juan asked me again to go to my computer and type in some IDP number or something.
I told him again that I had spent an hour with some woman typing in two hundred different numbers, letters and messages and the problem was not resolved. He just kept talking and wouldn’t shut up. I started out kindly trying to get him to stop, but it kind of escalated until I was yelling at him, “shut up, shut up, shut up!” I was so loud that the dog started barking.
Finally he quit talking long enough to say, “don’t yell at me”. I said I was sorry and that I would try something else, and I hung up.
I called back a few minutes later, was on hold again for 15 or 20 minutes, before I finally got through to Keith. I told him what had happened and that I had lost my temper with the last rep and I was sorry about that, but I just wanted someone to listen.
Keith patiently listened and when I was done, he said, “there are a few things we could try, but I think that you have already tried everything possible. I think we should just send you a new modem. The request won’t go in until Monday, but you should have it by Wednesday.”
Wednesday? Ok, I can deal with this until then, I just need to know that this will work. I was pretty sure it would, coz we have had problems with our external modem in the past and all it takes is getting a new one set up.
Throughout the day yesterday I would check my connection just for fun. The computer just kept saying, “No internet connection”. I could check email and stuff again every day from work starting on Monday. I would survive.
When we went to bed last night, I decided to turn everything off and unhook all the internet connections and just let the whole thing sleep overnight. I got up this morning, and also just for fun, I unhooked the other end of the cables, turned them around and plugged them back in. Just for fun.
The icon in the bottom right hand corner glowed, “internet connection available”.
I don’t know. I guess some days are diamonds, some days are stones. I don’t think this connection will last, but it is what it is. Maybe only a rhinestone, but I’ll take it.
January 24, 2015
And I'm Down til Monday
I had a totally unexpected glitch in the system yesterday. My internet connection went out on me. It has been funky and unreliable for the last few months. We blamed it on the fact that there is just too much information out there, too many YouTube videos, too much noise in the airwaves, and the antique (isn’t anything a couple years old an antique nowadays?) phone lines that our internet enters my house via (though my internet server says it is broadband or high speed or something) just cannot keep up. I think that it is kind of like our brains. I know my brain can only handle so much before it starts to shut down.
I just spent an entire hour on the phone with customer service. She made me type in twenty-nine hundred different things and the whole time I kept telling her, but it says I have no internet access, I don't think this going to work. She answered with, but all the lights are blinking on your modem so the internet is getting into your house just not into your computer.
Well, I do have to admit that I know next to nothing about this, but I do know that my problems have never been solved by sitting on the phone with customer service for an hour.
So someone's coming out on Monday.
So I drove into my place of employment this morning and borrowed their internet to post this, just so I can get this posted, as well as take care of two other things in my ebox that shouldn't wait until next week.
I'm trying not to have a meltdown. I start to go into the DTs when I am not connected to the internet every few hours. I know, that is a bad thing and I need to disconnect more often for longer periods of time. And I will, but just not right now, when I have a bunch of deadlines coming up. Ok, granted, they are deadlines in my own head, because if I don’t give myself deadlines, I pretty much don’t get anything done. Isn’t everyone else the say way? The problem is that none of my deadlines can be met without internet excess. Snail mail? Yea, that’s not going to happen and if it did, guess what? I need to look up the addresses on the internet first anyway.
I suppose this should teach me a lesson. Just like my cell phone. I don’t know anyone’s phone numbers anymore, all I do is look up their phone number on my cell phone, even if I am going to call them from my landline (because I don’t have cell phone coverage at my house in the woods), I look up their number on the cell first. I have a couple physical addresses in my cell phone too, but just tonight, I said, enough of that and I did write them down with pen on paper and stuck the paper in my paper address book.
I was thinking about running into town again tonight and tomorrow to go online and take care of stuff, post blogs, check Facebook, etc. But you know what? I am just going to disconnect until Monday. It may do me some good. See ya then.
I just spent an entire hour on the phone with customer service. She made me type in twenty-nine hundred different things and the whole time I kept telling her, but it says I have no internet access, I don't think this going to work. She answered with, but all the lights are blinking on your modem so the internet is getting into your house just not into your computer.
Well, I do have to admit that I know next to nothing about this, but I do know that my problems have never been solved by sitting on the phone with customer service for an hour.
So someone's coming out on Monday.
So I drove into my place of employment this morning and borrowed their internet to post this, just so I can get this posted, as well as take care of two other things in my ebox that shouldn't wait until next week.
I'm trying not to have a meltdown. I start to go into the DTs when I am not connected to the internet every few hours. I know, that is a bad thing and I need to disconnect more often for longer periods of time. And I will, but just not right now, when I have a bunch of deadlines coming up. Ok, granted, they are deadlines in my own head, because if I don’t give myself deadlines, I pretty much don’t get anything done. Isn’t everyone else the say way? The problem is that none of my deadlines can be met without internet excess. Snail mail? Yea, that’s not going to happen and if it did, guess what? I need to look up the addresses on the internet first anyway.
I suppose this should teach me a lesson. Just like my cell phone. I don’t know anyone’s phone numbers anymore, all I do is look up their phone number on my cell phone, even if I am going to call them from my landline (because I don’t have cell phone coverage at my house in the woods), I look up their number on the cell first. I have a couple physical addresses in my cell phone too, but just tonight, I said, enough of that and I did write them down with pen on paper and stuck the paper in my paper address book.
I was thinking about running into town again tonight and tomorrow to go online and take care of stuff, post blogs, check Facebook, etc. But you know what? I am just going to disconnect until Monday. It may do me some good. See ya then.
January 22, 2015
Hubby's Man-Cave
I’m sitting here tonight wasting time watching “Rehab Addict” on HGTV. It is one of the few shows I watch, and most of the other shows I watch are on HGTV as well (House Hunters, Fixer Upper, Property Brothers). You remember that I am pretty much as boring as they come.
So I watch those shows, and think, “how I wish I could remodel my house like that!” Instead, the extent of remodeling I do is to paint. Or let the hubby paint.
The first week of January, which I talked the hubby into taking off with me, I managed to leave him home while I went to Michigan with my daughter. He was pretty happy to see me go so he could paint his man-cave by himself.
All that was left for me when I got home was to put the room back together.
Before the room was painted in black and white checkerboard, it actually was Packer green and yellow. I was too lazy to scan those pictures tonight, but I promise to some day break out the old photo albums and scan all the before, during and after pictures of my house from the last 24 years.
Someday, we will also put a ceiling in this room and hopefully I will be able to talk the hubby into taking the fiberglass insulation out of the windows and let me hang curtains.
So I watch those shows, and think, “how I wish I could remodel my house like that!” Instead, the extent of remodeling I do is to paint. Or let the hubby paint.
The first week of January, which I talked the hubby into taking off with me, I managed to leave him home while I went to Michigan with my daughter. He was pretty happy to see me go so he could paint his man-cave by himself.
All that was left for me when I got home was to put the room back together.
Before the room was painted in black and white checkerboard, it actually was Packer green and yellow. I was too lazy to scan those pictures tonight, but I promise to some day break out the old photo albums and scan all the before, during and after pictures of my house from the last 24 years.Someday, we will also put a ceiling in this room and hopefully I will be able to talk the hubby into taking the fiberglass insulation out of the windows and let me hang curtains.
January 21, 2015
Wildlife Wednesday - the Saola
I had two other ideas for my post today, but then this adorable little creature came back into my head and said, “pick me, pick me.”
Over the weekend I was looking up something totally unrelated, when I discovered the saola on the World Wildlife Fund’s website. Only first discovered in 1992, the elusive saola lives in the Annamite Mountains of Laos and Vietnam. None have survived in captivity for long and no one is sure what their numbers in the wild are. Estimates range from a few hundred to less than twenty. Scientists have only positively identified the saola in the wild four times.
The word saola (pronounced: sow-la) means “spindle horns” in Vietnamese. The animal is named such because of its two parallel horns which can reach 20 inches in length and are found on both males and females. Their coloring is chocolate brown to deep red with distinctive white markings on its face. They can weigh between 175 to 220 pounds and average 32 to 35 inches tall.
Often called the Asian unicorn, they are most closely related to the cows, though they look more like they should be in the deer or antelope families. I don’t remember that much from high school biology, but I do remember trying to memorize certain class-order-family-genus-species of certain animals and that there was a reason each animal went in each group.
But back to my beautiful little saola. They are so critically endangered because they only live in a very limited habitat, one which is shrinking from deforestation and development. Many are caught and killed in snares which are set up by the local people to catch other species. It has been through the locals, however, that the most information about the saola has been gleaned.
(Pictures from the WWF website. Please click here to learn more about this critically endangered animal.)
_David_Hulse_WWF_Canon.jpg)
Over the weekend I was looking up something totally unrelated, when I discovered the saola on the World Wildlife Fund’s website. Only first discovered in 1992, the elusive saola lives in the Annamite Mountains of Laos and Vietnam. None have survived in captivity for long and no one is sure what their numbers in the wild are. Estimates range from a few hundred to less than twenty. Scientists have only positively identified the saola in the wild four times.
The word saola (pronounced: sow-la) means “spindle horns” in Vietnamese. The animal is named such because of its two parallel horns which can reach 20 inches in length and are found on both males and females. Their coloring is chocolate brown to deep red with distinctive white markings on its face. They can weigh between 175 to 220 pounds and average 32 to 35 inches tall.
Often called the Asian unicorn, they are most closely related to the cows, though they look more like they should be in the deer or antelope families. I don’t remember that much from high school biology, but I do remember trying to memorize certain class-order-family-genus-species of certain animals and that there was a reason each animal went in each group.
But back to my beautiful little saola. They are so critically endangered because they only live in a very limited habitat, one which is shrinking from deforestation and development. Many are caught and killed in snares which are set up by the local people to catch other species. It has been through the locals, however, that the most information about the saola has been gleaned.
(Pictures from the WWF website. Please click here to learn more about this critically endangered animal.)
January 20, 2015
Guess Who? then guess what
You haven’t heard from me in a while. That is a good thing, though, coz I usually only write Mom’s blog for her when she has a headache. She is very sad coz she has had this headache for two days and it really bugs her. She says she has too many things to do and that she doesn’t have time to lay around waiting for her headache to go away.
I think she just needs to spend all day cuddling on the couch with me when she has a headache and that would make it go away sooner.
Anyway, now that I have the computer, I wonder if you would like to help us out. Everyone always asks what breed I am, to which Mom answers, “Mutt”, and I am totally ok with that, but we do just wonder sometimes what my real mom and dad might have been.
I know you have seen lots of pictures of me, but here are some more. Also they say I weigh about 60 pounds and I come up just past Mom’s knee.
If you want to take a guess at which champions’ blood I have running through me, let us know. It would make Mom very happy.
What else do you need to know about me which might help you out?
I love to run.
And I love to swim.
I even love being in a pontoon boat just looking at the water.
I love my cats.
But mostly I think they love me more.
But what I love the most is my whole family!
I think she just needs to spend all day cuddling on the couch with me when she has a headache and that would make it go away sooner.
Anyway, now that I have the computer, I wonder if you would like to help us out. Everyone always asks what breed I am, to which Mom answers, “Mutt”, and I am totally ok with that, but we do just wonder sometimes what my real mom and dad might have been.
I know you have seen lots of pictures of me, but here are some more. Also they say I weigh about 60 pounds and I come up just past Mom’s knee.
If you want to take a guess at which champions’ blood I have running through me, let us know. It would make Mom very happy.
What else do you need to know about me which might help you out?
I love to run.
And I love to swim.
I even love being in a pontoon boat just looking at the water.
I love my cats.
But mostly I think they love me more.
But what I love the most is my whole family!January 19, 2015
Let the Anticipation Begin!
My husband and I are horrible home-bodies. We each come home from work and never leave the house (or yard) until we have to go to work next time. Saturday nights we do venture to church and once in a while we go out to eat afterwards with some church-friends. Other than that, my husband goes grocery shopping once a week and I go shopping or to see my daughter every couple weeks. There’s the occasional road trip or a day trip, but that’s mostly in the summer.
Sure I make plans for vacation every year. This year, in addition to our daughter’s wedding in August, we have two other out-of-town weddings to plan for. Sometimes, though, it just feels like we never do anything.
So this weekend I made plans. Yes, my word of the year – anticipation – has come into play. I’m so excited. My husband and I talk about doing this kind of stuff all the time, but it just never happens. So Saturday afternoon, I was on the internet, I found what I wanted to do, and what I was positive the hubby wanted to do, checked his schedule and found that he was off. And just like that, I ordered us some tickets.
Hotel California, here we come!!!!
Sure I make plans for vacation every year. This year, in addition to our daughter’s wedding in August, we have two other out-of-town weddings to plan for. Sometimes, though, it just feels like we never do anything.
So this weekend I made plans. Yes, my word of the year – anticipation – has come into play. I’m so excited. My husband and I talk about doing this kind of stuff all the time, but it just never happens. So Saturday afternoon, I was on the internet, I found what I wanted to do, and what I was positive the hubby wanted to do, checked his schedule and found that he was off. And just like that, I ordered us some tickets.
Hotel California, here we come!!!!
January 18, 2015
Not up on current events, but . . .
I don't follow the news as much as I should. I just can't stomach all the senseless violence. Instead of one anti-christ, it seems as if there are 30 of them out there, terrorizing innocent men, women, and children around the world. Then they have the gall to say that these killings are in the name of their god. Exactly who would follow such a god?
Because I don't stay on top of current events, I can't comment much more than that about what I see going on around me. All I know is that it is getting pretty bad, and according to the Bible, is going to become even worse before it is through. But these mindless killings occurred even during Biblical times.
Day 27Herod, when he realized that the scholars had tricked him, flew into a rage. He commanded the murder of every little boy two years old and under who lived in Bethlehem and its surrounding hills. (He determined that age from information he’d gotten from the scholars.) (Matthew 2:16)
Several times in the Bible, a king ordered the extermination of all young boys. Back in the Old Testament book of Exodus, Pharaoh, king of Egypt, commanded that all baby boys be drowned. He wasn’t afraid of any one boy in particular growing up and threatening his power. Instead, Pharaoh saw all Jews as a menace. Because they were such a strong people, he feared they would one day arise and conquer Egypt. To prevent this from happening, he ordered that the baby boys be killed, but he left the baby girls alone because he didn’t see them as a threat.
Wouldn’t it be horrifying to live in a time when such things happened? Are you thankful that you do not live in a society where that could occur? Surely you have heard on the news where countries around the world are currently killing babies and children. Is abortion in this country any different?
(From "The Early Life of Jesus in 40 Days", available through Life Sentence Publishing, Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble and of course me.)
A very sick baby from my first trip to Kenya. All babies should have the same chance at life.
Because I don't stay on top of current events, I can't comment much more than that about what I see going on around me. All I know is that it is getting pretty bad, and according to the Bible, is going to become even worse before it is through. But these mindless killings occurred even during Biblical times.
Day 27Herod, when he realized that the scholars had tricked him, flew into a rage. He commanded the murder of every little boy two years old and under who lived in Bethlehem and its surrounding hills. (He determined that age from information he’d gotten from the scholars.) (Matthew 2:16)
Several times in the Bible, a king ordered the extermination of all young boys. Back in the Old Testament book of Exodus, Pharaoh, king of Egypt, commanded that all baby boys be drowned. He wasn’t afraid of any one boy in particular growing up and threatening his power. Instead, Pharaoh saw all Jews as a menace. Because they were such a strong people, he feared they would one day arise and conquer Egypt. To prevent this from happening, he ordered that the baby boys be killed, but he left the baby girls alone because he didn’t see them as a threat.
Wouldn’t it be horrifying to live in a time when such things happened? Are you thankful that you do not live in a society where that could occur? Surely you have heard on the news where countries around the world are currently killing babies and children. Is abortion in this country any different?
(From "The Early Life of Jesus in 40 Days", available through Life Sentence Publishing, Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble and of course me.)
A very sick baby from my first trip to Kenya. All babies should have the same chance at life. January 17, 2015
Frustration
I spent the day yesterday with my daughter Val working on our nonprofit organization. The better part of two hours we slaved over our business plan. Neither one of us has any clue how to do this and are just winging it from sample business plans we have found on the internet. Val has asked a few “experts” but hasn’t been able to get a straight answer from them. The one guy just keeps sending her documents. We have enough documents; we can pull more from the internet. What we need is someone to go over the business plan we have and say, “yup, you are on the right track” or “boy, maybe you should scrape this and start over”.
Simple enough. Feedback. That’s all we want. Why haven’t we been able to get any???
Next thing we worked on was social media. Tumaini Volunteers is already on Facebook and has a website. I thought that LinkedIn would be an appropriate place to get connected, so we tried that. After typing in our organization’s name, they wanted the work e-mail address of the person (me) who is the designated contact. We thought that the organization’s email address should be the one to use, which is tumainivolunteers@gmail.com. And LinkedIin can’t accept gmail accounts as a business email. Why would that be? It is the truth. That is our email address. So that went nowhere.
Next I set us up on Twitter. That actually worked out okay. I found a bunch of other nonprofits to follow who all either work with Kenya or orphans or clean water. Now they all just have to start following us. Except that I really don’t get Twitter anyway. I think that there is just too much going on. The goal, I suppose, is to have lots of followers, but the more followers you have the more Tweets start popping up and there is no way to read all of them.
On my personal Twitter page, I can get a hundred Tweets coming in within a few minutes. And often times there isn’t even anything to read. All that comes up are random numbers, letters and hash marks, which I know are all links to websites, but when there are four or five of these in each Tweet, which link do I even want to go to?
Arggh! Is there anyone out there reading this who can help us with any of these issues? We would so much appreciate it.
Thanks so much and have a great weekend. My goal is to have a weekend without frustration. Which may mean unplugging.
This is little Monica. Her father had abandoned her and her mother. When her mother couldn't take care of her child anymore, she hung herself from a tree outside their home. A neighbor took Monica to Agape Hope Center orphanage. This, believe it or not, is a story with a happy ending as Monica is now being taken care of. Thousands of children in Nairobi end up living on the streets - or worse - when their parents are no longer in their lives.
Simple enough. Feedback. That’s all we want. Why haven’t we been able to get any???
Next thing we worked on was social media. Tumaini Volunteers is already on Facebook and has a website. I thought that LinkedIn would be an appropriate place to get connected, so we tried that. After typing in our organization’s name, they wanted the work e-mail address of the person (me) who is the designated contact. We thought that the organization’s email address should be the one to use, which is tumainivolunteers@gmail.com. And LinkedIin can’t accept gmail accounts as a business email. Why would that be? It is the truth. That is our email address. So that went nowhere.
Next I set us up on Twitter. That actually worked out okay. I found a bunch of other nonprofits to follow who all either work with Kenya or orphans or clean water. Now they all just have to start following us. Except that I really don’t get Twitter anyway. I think that there is just too much going on. The goal, I suppose, is to have lots of followers, but the more followers you have the more Tweets start popping up and there is no way to read all of them.
On my personal Twitter page, I can get a hundred Tweets coming in within a few minutes. And often times there isn’t even anything to read. All that comes up are random numbers, letters and hash marks, which I know are all links to websites, but when there are four or five of these in each Tweet, which link do I even want to go to?
Arggh! Is there anyone out there reading this who can help us with any of these issues? We would so much appreciate it.
Thanks so much and have a great weekend. My goal is to have a weekend without frustration. Which may mean unplugging.
This is little Monica. Her father had abandoned her and her mother. When her mother couldn't take care of her child anymore, she hung herself from a tree outside their home. A neighbor took Monica to Agape Hope Center orphanage. This, believe it or not, is a story with a happy ending as Monica is now being taken care of. Thousands of children in Nairobi end up living on the streets - or worse - when their parents are no longer in their lives.
