O-Dark-Thirty

I’m finally that guy. “Well,” I said to Darling as I walked into the living room from being outside. “I’m finally that guy .” I have to admit I was grinning from ear to ear. She just looked up from the book she was reading on the iPad (shameless plug;it was the Kindle app). “What guy? The guy who finally published a book ?” I shook my head. When we moved into this house I noticed that we were the old people on the block. Up and down the street are young families with small children. “Ha!” I said to Darling right after we moved in. “I’m going to be the old guy on the corner yelling at the kids to get off my lawn.” Let me be clear here. I didn’t yell at any kids to get off my lawn today. However… I have to give you a little background. When we moved into this house our first month’s water bill was over $200. I’m thinking maybe I’m paying for catching up the bill or for some extreme water usage as we were making the needed repairs to move into the place. The ...

  Your first payroll check in January, 2013 will be two percent less. Actually, the amount the government takes out could be considerably more than that, but the 2% is practically assured. Did you know that? There’s more. A few weeks ago Darling and I attended a prophecy conference where we heard the term “fiscal cliff” from Joel Rosenberg . I’d heard the term before, but hadn’t really considered what it meant to us. Darling and I were concerned and started doing research. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of web sites that discuss the fiscal cliff, the inevitable financial crisis currently facing the United States. I read hundreds of these sites and compiled information from them. After a few dozen sites they started saying the same thing, repeated in different orders with a different emphasis (depending on the site). I read dozens of other related sites, many of them I would consider “survivalist” sites. Some of the information was good, some of it was radical ...

Yeah, I'm drooling and if I had the money I'd run out and refresh my entire personal computer line. I'll just have to be satisfied with drool for a while. I was talking to some of my buddies at work about the new line-up that Apple™ just announced. One of the guys just looked at me. "Oh, you're one of those. Like my son. An Apple™ guy." "Yeah," I said. "I used to be a hard-core PC guy; built them and everything. You know when I switched? When everything in my house got networked. I got tired of trying to keep all my computers linked to the home network without errors. It was too much maintenance. Then a buddy of mine said 'Hey, you should try a Mac.' I brought his into the house and it beeped at me, asking if I wanted it to connect to the network." He nods. He's seen the same thing, I'm sure. "Don't get me wrong," I said. "The Mac is still not a great gaming machine." Maybe that changed to...

Pastor Ron Hindt covered the Beatitudes. I’ve read them many times before, but (as usual) Pastor Ron brought some clarity and revelation to the verses. He covered verses 5-12 today, and I missed last week at Calvary, so I didn’t hear what he had to say about verses 1-4. Here are the relevant verses though. Matthew 5: 3-12 (NIV) 3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 4 Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. 5 Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. 6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. 7 Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. 8 Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. 9 Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. 10 Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 11 “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all k...

I thought I wrote about procrastination in my blog when I first started writing it. It was certainly a major topic on my list of potential posts. I guess I never got around to doing the post. Around here the saying "If it weren't for the last minute, nothing would get done" is eerily accurate. As diligent as I am at work and even with my little project plans to manage some of my major tasks, the activities seem to expand to fill the allotted time. Inevitably as I approach my deadline there are one or two minor things that need to get wrapped up. Why is that? There really is only one answer: procrastination. A lot of people think that means I sit back and stare at the ceiling and put off doing my job, but it doesn't. What usually happens is that I procrastinate by doing work . Apparently a lot of people do exactly the same thing. Gretchen Rubin wrote an excellent article titled Working: One of the Most Dangerous Forms of Procrastination and it hit me right b...

I originally posted this directly on Google+ on February 27, 2012. Darling and I talked about them again last night while eating dinner. We will never know how it turned out for the young couple. As my Darling wife left MD Anderson she encountered a very young couple sitting on a bench outside. They were obviously distraught. The young wife and mother was just told she probably has only a year to live. My wife stopped and talked to them, prayed with them and told me this through tears as she drove home. She told me their names, and I wrote them down. We know a woman who was given three months to live over thirty years ago. Cancer did not emerge a victor in her life. We know another young woman who died after only a few months of Cancer, long painful months where it slowly destroyed her body. We don't know why. She left a husband and young daughter behind. We believe that PEOPLE can make a difference. Out there, somewhere, may be the person who can find the cure. Many, many...

Sir Richard Branson Sir Richard Branson, Founder of Virgin Group and a space pioneer, recently posted his first blog post on LinkedIn. The article lists his five top tips for starting a successful business. While I read them I thought of my Mom and many of the lessons she tried to teach her four boys. Many people I know don't belong to LinkedIn. I do. I have a profile there instead of on Facebook. I used to think of LinkedIn as a professional Facebook, but it has changed over the years and become more social. I don't know when they started the blog posts, but if anyone has something interesting to say, it is Sir Richard Branson. Here are his tips: 1. Listen more than you talk. Okay, my Mom used to tell us that one and it still applies. More than that, though, you have to learn from listening. Oh, that's the tidbit I might have missed! 2. Keep it simple. Wow, Mom used to tell us that also, usually when we were trying to find a good excuse for not doing our cho...