Well if you ask me...

Am I the only one?

Just finished watching a piece on ABC’s NightLine about lobbyists Jack Abramoff and Michael Scanlone. Abramoff was paid millions of dollars by one native american tribe to protect its interests in DC. He used some of that money to hire Ralph Reed to stop a native american casino in Texas. Then when the casino was shut down, he moves in at the last minute to offer his ‘services’ to them. Am I the only one who thinks this a classic technique of organized crime? This is despicable. Follow the story at Indianz.com

The Only Winning Move is Not to Play

While doing laundry, I noticed that my shorts and tees are wearing out badly. Later, while reading some of my favorite feeds, I found this. Thanks for the tips. I will absolutely pick up the SQL shirt and M.A.D. I’m going to shop for more too. Keep an eye out for my wishlist in the sidebar.

Aplogies for Michael Schiavo

I’v seen a few posts, including this one, regarding the results of Terri Schiavo’s autopsy and the appropriateness of an apology to her husband. This was a sensitive issue and I don’t pretend to know what the right things to do and say are, BUT I think many people owe this man an apology regardless of what the autopsy ‘proves.’ Am I the only one to think this way?

The Bible Online

In 1999, I was all excited about using online tools to read and study the Scriptures. It was part of my daily routine. I quickly gave up on this for the convenience of using ‘a real Bible.’ In the last couple years I have shown my students where these tools are and how to find them, but I don’t really use them myself. Another teacher (who is not a hacker by any means) shared during devotions one day about how she uses her WebTV to hear the scriptures read to her, but it didn’t really push me to get back into it. My father-in-law was here about ten days ago and he asked me what I knew about online Bibles and bible study. I told him what little I knew, but had to admit that I know very little. His question nudged me to look into this again for a couple of reasons.

1. I want to give him a report of some things I find
2. I have been thinking about introducing him to RSS for some time now, and even mentioned to him the possiblility of podcasting his sermons
3. I have been planning on researching these and other Christian resources for another project I thought of when my Dad passed away.

Anyway, I found these to start with.

If I read his name one more time…

When Doug Brien missed two field goals to blow our game against the Steelers this year I was quick to defend him. After all, you can’t blame a whole game on the kicker. Can you? It is his job to kick that ball between the posts, right? Anyway, my daughter got me this great Jets desk calendar for Christmas. It’s the kind with a little rip-off page for each day. I love it, but…I am officially sick of Doug Brien.

February 11

Doug Brien was named the AFC’s special-teams player of the week after kicking 2 field goals, including the game winner in overtime, in the Jets’ 27 – 24 victory over Oakland in week 10 of 2003.

May 2

While with San Fransisco in 1994, kicker Doug Brien recovered a fumbled kickoff that helped the 49ers forge a big first-quarter lead over Dallas in the NFC title game. San Fransisco went on to win that game, then the Super Bowl.

May 14/15

Kicker Doug Brien’s 105 points in 2003 fell just 1 short of his career best. For what team did he score 106 points in 2000? *Ans: * – New Orleans

June 2

In what two games did Doug Brien kick 3 field goals in 2003?

I could not care less!!!

Belief Quiz

I found this belief quiz very interesting. Twenty multiple choice question you can answer and rank importance for. The first time I took the quiz, I scored a follows:

1. Orthodox Quaker (100%)
2. Mainline to Conservative Christian/Protestant (92%)
3. Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (88%)

This seemed about right, although I consider myself leaning toward the liberal more than conservative. Then I had an idea. Answer the questions the same but click High for importance on all issues. I had a suspicion this would raise my score as a conservative, and I was correct. Then another idea. Answer the questions about creation/evolution in a more liberal fashion. Sure enough, that raised my liberal score, dropped my conservative score and my quaker score dove. One more thing. Change my answers on questions 13 – 16. These are the questions about abortion, gay rights, gender roles, and divorce. I found it very interesting that this had a large impact on my scores. (It brought my *conservative * score to 100%.) I’m not sure that should be.

Happy Birthday Dad

Yesterday was dad’s birthday. Mom decided the kids should do something special in memory of him. We all got some flower seeds to sprinkle in the yard or garden. We also got some helium balloons to ‘release.’ It was very nice. We all arranged to do it at about the same time since we could not all be together. Becky drew a smiley face and wrote “Happy Birthday Pop-Pop” on one of her balloons (and one of Billy’s). She said that would let PopPop know that we were saying “Happy Birthday.”I miss you very much, Dad. We all do!

All Work and No Play…

I am so sick of meetings, conference calls and tech support! I’ll get over it by tomorrow.

Quite A Weekend

You may or may not know that I’m not really a handyman. This weekend I had the opportunity to do some things I don’t normally do.

1. measure trim
2. hammer nails
3. go to home depot

Havin’ fun.

Missing You

I never like being away from the family. I can go to work for 12 hours and not really mind, but as soon as I leave to go do something that’s not really work (especially if I have to spend the night away), I miss them. Love you guys. See you tomorrow.

Babysitting

Right now I’m sitting in the parking lot at Home Depot. The kids are watching a muppets DVD. Brian and Jennifer have to pick something out. There happens to be a wireless network in range here called ‘orange’ and the key is ‘depot.’ Interesting. I couldn’t obtain an IP addy though. I wouldn’t do such a thing anyway, so I’ll post this later.

The Book-Smart Agenda

Saw Tana today (fri) on MSNBC talking about how ‘they’ had an agenda on to hire a book-smart candidate. She claimed she was the clear winner etc. IMHBAO, this is just more evidence that the Donald made the right decision. Good work Mr. Trump!

Famous Dave’s

Finally paid a visit to famous Dave’s for some St. Louis ribs. Fantastic stuff! Can’t wait to take Billy. He’s a big fan of ribs. Maybe if Billy comes with me to help Mom move.After the ribs, we went to Circuit City to get a router and card so we can set up the wireless for Mom at Brian’s.

You’re Outta Here

Coach was thrown out of the game today. I got there after the fact and noone seemed to know why. One parent made a comment that he probably had just been doing what he did every game. His style may be a little rough around the edges but I think he did a fine job this year. Thanks coach.

Good To Great

My boss gave me an assignment related to the book Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap… and Others Don’t He didn’t tell me I had to read it, but maybe I should pick it up. [

Where’s Soistmann?

Haven’t posted in a while. Things finally settled down at work a little, but May is a hectic month and Billy is playing baseball (did I mention that?). So, we’ve been busy. Billy had three games this week. In game three the boys played very well. In the second inning we were down 4-0 with the bases loaded and two outs. All of a sudden the coach yells, “Wait, wait, where’s Soistmann?” He called time and made sure he got Billy to pinch hit. Wow, pinch hitting. Good stuff Bill. See Billy in action here.

Another Garage Sale

No need to break precedent now. I’ve posted about every one of our garage sales, so why not now. Today’s sale was not the event the others were. Our community has these twice a year and the kids love the chance to make some cash. They actually did very well this time. We did buck tradition some though by using the earnings to buy lunch instead of dinner. Lunch is cheaper!

Don’t Panic

Went to see Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy last night with Brian. We were all at his place for a little birthday get-together for Terri (4/12) and Jennifer (4/28). I mentioned that we should see it and 25 minutes later we were in our seats with popcorn and soda. It was very funny. Brian had never read the book and he still found it funny. I thought they did a good job translating that kind of written humor to a film. If you’ve never read the book, you should. If you don’t know where to find the book, Don’t Panic!

Justice Sunday

When I heard about “Justice Sunday” I didn’t know what to think. Frankly I am tired of talking about this whole issue. I wish I could get more Christians to understand my point of view. If you’ve been reading my blog since the old days, you no doubt have read more than one post on faith in politics. I lost all of the posts from my old blosxom blog, but I still have some from the Blogger days. Maybe someday I’ll move them over. While I am just too tired to put my thoughts on this matter into writing one more time, I wanted to post a link to this article by Jim Wallis. I don’t agree with Wallis on every issue, but I think he’s right on with this.

I have no objection to Christian leaders expressing their faith in the public arena – it’s a good thing that I do all the time. The question is not whether to do so, but how. As I heard more and more about “Justice Sunday,” it felt to me like it was crossing an important line – saying that a political issue was a test of faith.

Couldn’t agree more, Jim!

What Must I do?

I’ve really been thinking about the pastor’s messages from the last two Sundays. I realized today that Mom’s conversion is a testimony to the things I’ve been thinking about. When I was very young we moved to Atlantic City so Dad could get to work without a car. Not long after we moved just outside the city. I’m not sure if we had a car by then, but that is not important right now. Anyway, Brian was very young and Mom knew she wanted to have him baptized. She looked in the phone book for a church. She had two “needs” at that time. One, she wanted a Methodist church. Two, she wanted a church with air conditioning. She found such a place and went to visit. The pastor’s message was exactly what she needed to hear. Paul was in prison. An earthquake came and Paul was released. A prison guard asked Paul, “What must I do to be saved?” The pastor pointed out that Sunday morning that this guard may not have been asking how to be “saved,” but rather how to be saved from the earthquake. BUT, the answer is the same either way. “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved.”It doesn’t matter what we think we need. We need Jesus.