Genesis - and the Finish Line
In the summer of 1985, my work in Boston (actually Sudbury), MA was coming to an end. With the cut back of the SDI program budget, many of my co-workers were getting laid off. The development of this program, as I mentioned previously was eventually terminated altogether Later that summer I went on a job interview in Texas, all expenses paid. When I arrived in Dallas and proceeded to have my interview, I was directly interviewed by a department director who was just promoted to the company VP. His name was Larry J. I was ctually scheduled to see several department managers, but after that one inerview, I was told that he wants me there, and to just name a time that I wan to move. Needless to say, instead of having an all day interview, I was back at the Dallas airport just after lunch. My return flight to Boston was supposed to be at 5 PM, but somehow I lost track of time, and by the time I realized it, my flight has departed for over an hour. And I was sitting at the gate! The ticket counter person was amused, but they finally managed to get me on to another flight that departed around midnight. To this day, I have no idea how I missed my flight home.
It took me several weeks to decide, and I finally told my future company that I cannot be there until the beginning of the next year. I told them that I was needed by my present company to train my replacement. They agreed, and also after some negotiation, they agreed to ship our two cars, belongings, and paid for our family to fly to Dallas instead of moving ourselves. That was the last move for our family. We moved in January 1986, and have been in Texas since then.
The rest is history, and most of yall know most of it.
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Saturday, November 29, 2008
November Twenty Nine
Genesis ... Part Four
When we moved to Fort Wayne in 1977 for my stint at the second company, we wanted a house with a basement, but, alas, it seemed that all the newer houses they built there were built on slab. So we started talking to the Realtor about wanting to built one with a basement. We were discouraged from doing so, saying that the clay ground in the area is just not the right kind of dirt for basements. Well, we actually managed to get a two story colonial style house built with a basement. The builder put in a french drain outside the foundation, and inside the basement there is a well with sump pump running on the electric power. This was a nice change from our old house in Michigan. The basement pump worked well as long as we had power. One day, we lost power for an extended amount of time, and the water table started to rise in the basement, and without any power for the pump we had flooded basement for a while until the power came back.
Several times a week, one of my co-worker named Harry T. would come over after work and we'd have a ping-pong game in the basement. He was actually the one that later got me interested in playing tennis. I think that was the time that Prince came up with oversize aluminum racquet with the green plastic trim. And Vic Braden had a weekly tennis program on TV called "Tennis for the Future". Fort Wayne was a good place to raise a family, and we were blessed to have been there and be involved with the church family that we belonged to. We played softball ( I broke my collar bone after colliding with the second basement in an attempt to retrieve a pop up), help with sandbagging during one of the flooding that occurred periodically in downtown Fort Wayne, and enjoyed the many fine produced planted by the Amish communities around the area.
In 1982, I was offered took a job in the Boston area. I went there first, leaving the family behind, and lived in an apartment for a while. As in Fort Wayne, we looked for a used house, but ended up with a brand new house, in Milford, Massachusetts.
During my years in MA, I was involved with another goverment program called Milstar, a system similar to the one called GPS now, and also with one called SDI (strategic defense initiative). I don't remember what became of Milstar, but the SDI program eventually died. The only remnant of it is the missile shooting capability recently demonstrated when the US fired a missile to blow up a failing satellite that was about to re-enter the earth carrying dangerous hydrazine fuel. As a family, every time we had visitors from out of town, we'd go to downtown Boston to see Faneuill Hall, the Boston Aquarium, and sometimes tour the old wooden ship that is moored in the Boston Harbor. When we first moved to the neighborhood in Milford, we were quite isolated, and to us it seemed that the people there are quite reclusive, so we held a neighborhood party to get to know our neighbors. One of them, the Revzin family became our best friends. Kathy ran with P almost daily, including the Boston Marathon once, and D and I did a few things together, such as driving to New Hampshire to buy our first ever IBM PC with green monochrome monitor. Soon after, Apple Computer introduced the Macintosh, and I was enthralled by it and ended up with one that has a meager 128MB memory with no hard drive, but it could do word processing, drawing, and spreadsheet using user friendly interface instead of the Lotus 123 command line entries. A friend of mine and myself at work started a company Macintosh User Group called RMUG. Ed King, if you ever come accross this blog, do you remember me?
To be continued.
When we moved to Fort Wayne in 1977 for my stint at the second company, we wanted a house with a basement, but, alas, it seemed that all the newer houses they built there were built on slab. So we started talking to the Realtor about wanting to built one with a basement. We were discouraged from doing so, saying that the clay ground in the area is just not the right kind of dirt for basements. Well, we actually managed to get a two story colonial style house built with a basement. The builder put in a french drain outside the foundation, and inside the basement there is a well with sump pump running on the electric power. This was a nice change from our old house in Michigan. The basement pump worked well as long as we had power. One day, we lost power for an extended amount of time, and the water table started to rise in the basement, and without any power for the pump we had flooded basement for a while until the power came back.
Several times a week, one of my co-worker named Harry T. would come over after work and we'd have a ping-pong game in the basement. He was actually the one that later got me interested in playing tennis. I think that was the time that Prince came up with oversize aluminum racquet with the green plastic trim. And Vic Braden had a weekly tennis program on TV called "Tennis for the Future". Fort Wayne was a good place to raise a family, and we were blessed to have been there and be involved with the church family that we belonged to. We played softball ( I broke my collar bone after colliding with the second basement in an attempt to retrieve a pop up), help with sandbagging during one of the flooding that occurred periodically in downtown Fort Wayne, and enjoyed the many fine produced planted by the Amish communities around the area.
In 1982, I was offered took a job in the Boston area. I went there first, leaving the family behind, and lived in an apartment for a while. As in Fort Wayne, we looked for a used house, but ended up with a brand new house, in Milford, Massachusetts.
During my years in MA, I was involved with another goverment program called Milstar, a system similar to the one called GPS now, and also with one called SDI (strategic defense initiative). I don't remember what became of Milstar, but the SDI program eventually died. The only remnant of it is the missile shooting capability recently demonstrated when the US fired a missile to blow up a failing satellite that was about to re-enter the earth carrying dangerous hydrazine fuel. As a family, every time we had visitors from out of town, we'd go to downtown Boston to see Faneuill Hall, the Boston Aquarium, and sometimes tour the old wooden ship that is moored in the Boston Harbor. When we first moved to the neighborhood in Milford, we were quite isolated, and to us it seemed that the people there are quite reclusive, so we held a neighborhood party to get to know our neighbors. One of them, the Revzin family became our best friends. Kathy ran with P almost daily, including the Boston Marathon once, and D and I did a few things together, such as driving to New Hampshire to buy our first ever IBM PC with green monochrome monitor. Soon after, Apple Computer introduced the Macintosh, and I was enthralled by it and ended up with one that has a meager 128MB memory with no hard drive, but it could do word processing, drawing, and spreadsheet using user friendly interface instead of the Lotus 123 command line entries. A friend of mine and myself at work started a company Macintosh User Group called RMUG. Ed King, if you ever come accross this blog, do you remember me?
To be continued.
Friday, November 28, 2008
November Twenty Eight
Genesis ... Part Three
While I was still at Calvin College, I have not yet became a US citizen, and my Indonesian passport needed renewal for me to maintain my legal status. I communicated with the Indonesian consulate in the US, and received a passport renewal request form, as well as a name change form with an explanation. If you have been around a long time, you might remember that in 1965 (just before I left Indonesia) there was a big revolt going on there. The founder and lifetime, one and only president at the time, President Sukarno was overthrown by the military, led by General Suharto. Sukarno, with the support of communist Chinese government was attempting to wrestle absolute power from the military, and it back fired on him. He was then put in house arrest until he died several years later.
The fact that the China supported this attempted coup d'etat, and that in general, most Indonesian of Chinese ethnicity are economically better off than the natives caused a lot of jealousy. Many big riots, house burning, killing, and discrimination occurred between 1965 and the years since. At that time, Indonesian of Chinese ethnicity still used their Chinese names, including me. If you are my family, you know what my initial T.H.L. stand for. Anyway, the name change was "suggested" to minimize the race discrimination problem that I might encounter. Someone told me what my Chinese name meant, so in the process of renewing my Indonesian passport, I went ahead and changed my legal name to a commonly used Indonesian name. The Indonesian word "rahman" means "grace" in English. Nowadays, many Indonesian Chinese have picked common Indonesian name, thus on paper, even I cannot distinguish whether they are native Indonesian or Indonesian of Chinese ancestry. I'll leave it to you to guess how my first name Julius came about? Because this name change was encouraged by the Indonesian authority, some of my siblinsg and relatives also changed theirs. Unfortunately, we all picked different last names, thus my brother Budi ended up with Kabcdefghij.
Since my college graduation, I have worked for 5 different companies, everyone of them involved mostly with government related contracts. Towards my last year at the first company, I started doing computer design, and embarked on a design for my home personal computer. At that time, you cannot buy a PC or Mac as you can do now. The only computer systems that exists are home brewed by electronic hobbyist, and most of them used the just created computer microprocessor chip called the 4004, followed by 4040 (4-bit computer chips) then the 8008, 8080, and Z80 (8-bit chips). My design was based on the Z80, and I built by own chassis (aluminum box), with power supply, and toggle switches for inputting data and memory address. It has a grand total of 8 kilobytes of memory, and no hard drive. Every memory instructions have to be entered one memory address, and one memory value at a time. Do a wikipedia on "microprocessor" to get more detailed information. Isn't it amazing how much computer technology has progressed since then? For me, as an engineer I have been able to see and appreciate the leap frog improvements and enabling technologies that were involved in their development to date. It is an experience that most people have benefitted but not realized how amazing it is to see what we've been able to accomplish now with these tiny silicon pieces.
Steph and Jen were born in Michigan, and later we moved to Indiana for my second company. Mel and Brian were born there. We moved there in late summer, and I remember Kathy who was then pregnant with Mel walking around the Three Rivers Festival hoping that Mel would come early, as she was very uncomfortable. But Mel was carried to full term like the others. I also remember the first heavy snow we had there. At that time we were still living in an apartment while our house was being built. It snowed and snowed, and by the time it stopped, the snow accumulation was about half way up the windows.
While in Indiana, I was involved in the computer system development that process data from the first ever CAT scan system (computerized axial tomography) being manufactured by Phillips Medical System. At that time, Philips and G.E. were racing to be the first manufacturers of this new medical imaging system. At that time the data from a CAT scan was recorded on a spool of magnetic tape the size of a big serving platter. We then process the data on a DEC PDP-11/34 machine, and it would take several hours to produce the slice images.
To be continued.
While I was still at Calvin College, I have not yet became a US citizen, and my Indonesian passport needed renewal for me to maintain my legal status. I communicated with the Indonesian consulate in the US, and received a passport renewal request form, as well as a name change form with an explanation. If you have been around a long time, you might remember that in 1965 (just before I left Indonesia) there was a big revolt going on there. The founder and lifetime, one and only president at the time, President Sukarno was overthrown by the military, led by General Suharto. Sukarno, with the support of communist Chinese government was attempting to wrestle absolute power from the military, and it back fired on him. He was then put in house arrest until he died several years later.
The fact that the China supported this attempted coup d'etat, and that in general, most Indonesian of Chinese ethnicity are economically better off than the natives caused a lot of jealousy. Many big riots, house burning, killing, and discrimination occurred between 1965 and the years since. At that time, Indonesian of Chinese ethnicity still used their Chinese names, including me. If you are my family, you know what my initial T.H.L. stand for. Anyway, the name change was "suggested" to minimize the race discrimination problem that I might encounter. Someone told me what my Chinese name meant, so in the process of renewing my Indonesian passport, I went ahead and changed my legal name to a commonly used Indonesian name. The Indonesian word "rahman" means "grace" in English. Nowadays, many Indonesian Chinese have picked common Indonesian name, thus on paper, even I cannot distinguish whether they are native Indonesian or Indonesian of Chinese ancestry. I'll leave it to you to guess how my first name Julius came about? Because this name change was encouraged by the Indonesian authority, some of my siblinsg and relatives also changed theirs. Unfortunately, we all picked different last names, thus my brother Budi ended up with Kabcdefghij.
Since my college graduation, I have worked for 5 different companies, everyone of them involved mostly with government related contracts. Towards my last year at the first company, I started doing computer design, and embarked on a design for my home personal computer. At that time, you cannot buy a PC or Mac as you can do now. The only computer systems that exists are home brewed by electronic hobbyist, and most of them used the just created computer microprocessor chip called the 4004, followed by 4040 (4-bit computer chips) then the 8008, 8080, and Z80 (8-bit chips). My design was based on the Z80, and I built by own chassis (aluminum box), with power supply, and toggle switches for inputting data and memory address. It has a grand total of 8 kilobytes of memory, and no hard drive. Every memory instructions have to be entered one memory address, and one memory value at a time. Do a wikipedia on "microprocessor" to get more detailed information. Isn't it amazing how much computer technology has progressed since then? For me, as an engineer I have been able to see and appreciate the leap frog improvements and enabling technologies that were involved in their development to date. It is an experience that most people have benefitted but not realized how amazing it is to see what we've been able to accomplish now with these tiny silicon pieces.
Steph and Jen were born in Michigan, and later we moved to Indiana for my second company. Mel and Brian were born there. We moved there in late summer, and I remember Kathy who was then pregnant with Mel walking around the Three Rivers Festival hoping that Mel would come early, as she was very uncomfortable. But Mel was carried to full term like the others. I also remember the first heavy snow we had there. At that time we were still living in an apartment while our house was being built. It snowed and snowed, and by the time it stopped, the snow accumulation was about half way up the windows.
While in Indiana, I was involved in the computer system development that process data from the first ever CAT scan system (computerized axial tomography) being manufactured by Phillips Medical System. At that time, Philips and G.E. were racing to be the first manufacturers of this new medical imaging system. At that time the data from a CAT scan was recorded on a spool of magnetic tape the size of a big serving platter. We then process the data on a DEC PDP-11/34 machine, and it would take several hours to produce the slice images.
To be continued.
Thursday, November 27, 2008
November Twenty Seven
Headaches ...
Tonight's blog will be short, and it is a sidetrack from the previous blogs. We went to the Denver International Airport early, anticipating large crowds. Sure enough, the economy parking lots are already closed and full. We ended up at a more expensive lot called Wally Park, but we have no choice.
Previously, when Jan made the ticket reservation for our flights, she booked her flight and my flight on two internet transactions because she will be staying longer in Dallas for various appointments. After doing her's she tried mine, and after some internet work found a flight that is different from hers on the outbound flight. All that time she was wondering how come my flight departs later, but gets to Dallas earlier. I thought that maybe she just booked a flight that has a stopover, and though nothing of it.
At the AA counter we asked the lady there if I can change my flight to be on the same one Jan is in. She said, there is no such flight number out of Denver. So Jan pulled out her printed reservation, and she laughed. She said, my reservation is for Dallas to Denver, and back to Dallas! That explains why my flight times differences with hers!
Luckily, she was able to correct the wrong ticket by canceling that one, gave us credit for it and issuing a new one, at an additional cost of $60.00 We grab that, and we made it home to Dallas safely. Happy Thanksgiving everyone. May our Lord Bless you always.
Tonight's blog will be short, and it is a sidetrack from the previous blogs. We went to the Denver International Airport early, anticipating large crowds. Sure enough, the economy parking lots are already closed and full. We ended up at a more expensive lot called Wally Park, but we have no choice.
Previously, when Jan made the ticket reservation for our flights, she booked her flight and my flight on two internet transactions because she will be staying longer in Dallas for various appointments. After doing her's she tried mine, and after some internet work found a flight that is different from hers on the outbound flight. All that time she was wondering how come my flight departs later, but gets to Dallas earlier. I thought that maybe she just booked a flight that has a stopover, and though nothing of it.
At the AA counter we asked the lady there if I can change my flight to be on the same one Jan is in. She said, there is no such flight number out of Denver. So Jan pulled out her printed reservation, and she laughed. She said, my reservation is for Dallas to Denver, and back to Dallas! That explains why my flight times differences with hers!
Luckily, she was able to correct the wrong ticket by canceling that one, gave us credit for it and issuing a new one, at an additional cost of $60.00 We grab that, and we made it home to Dallas safely. Happy Thanksgiving everyone. May our Lord Bless you always.
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
November Twenty Six
Genesis ... part two
While going to Calvin, I managed to buy my first ever car, a used 1962 Plymouth Valiant. At the time, Plymouth with their 6-cylinder slant six engine was a pretty good company, and had no viable competition from the Japanese car manufacturers. I really like cars, and I had a successions of several used ones throughout my lifetime. Never bought brand new cars until later after I married. In my last year at Calvin, I moved in to a house lived in by a retired school teacher named RL. She was an orphan in China, and was adopted by an American missionary that went to China in the early 1900s. She was very good to me and took me in as if I was her son. She herself adopted two orphan girls from China and raised them herself, but, by the time I moved in to RL's house, the girls were already gone and have family of their own. I lost touch and contact with them and now I don't even remember their names. RL passed away sometimes during that time, but my memory is fuzzy on the exact time. In the summer of 1969 (I think) my Mom and the rest of my siblings immigrated to the US and we rented a house in Grand Rapids from a church member named Mr. K. He was an older guy, and he was a widower that just married one of the neighbor, and his house became available. We spent that summer together, I took them to picnics at a favorite lake about 30 miles away called Gun Lake. We would pack up our food and portable grill, and while there we would cook typical American food; hot dogs and hamburgers. It was an idyllic summer. That fall I packed up my meager belongings and moved to Ann Arbor, to begin the final leg of my college education.
That summer was also the summer that I met Kathy. She was just 16, and lived a few houses down from where we lived. She and her sisters would come to our house and hang out with us, Chinese/Indonesian boys. I am not sure what got them interested in us, since we spoke funny English, and to them probably funny customs. Her mom and dad are very traditional Dutch American family from Iowa, and thus pretty much a meat and potato kind of family.
I've never dated anyone, and that summer Kathy, her sister and I went to see Paul Revere and the Raiders and the Carpenters. I don't remember which one was the main billing. After that Kathy and I started to become more than just friends. During my years at UofM, I went home almost every weekend to spend time with her. That's about 300 miles round trip for two years. On one of those weekends, I was on my way back to Ann Arbor on a Sunday night in the middle of winter, and I hit a patch of ice on the highway, spun 360 degree, and kept on going. I can only remember one weekend that I spent in Ann Arbor. On that particular weekend, I went home, brought her back to Ann Arbor, went to the UofM game against Ohio State, and brought her back to Grand Rapids, and then went back to school. It was a crazy time. All the the times I sold my football ticket allowance for extra spending money.
I graduated in the Spring of 1972, interviewed with one company and was offered a job at Lear Siegler Inc., in Grand Rapids, Michigan for the huge salary of $10,800.00 I was hired as a hardware design engineer where I designed electronic circuits for the F4 Phantom aircraft. It sounded glorious, but the piece that I worked on is the weapon delivery control panel, principally a little box that has push buttons, and these buttons then send signals to the weapon computer to release whatever ammunition is commanded. For those that don't know, when a physical switch is switch is pressed, little do you realize that the contact points bounced around for a few fractions of a milliseconds, thus sending the computer a signal that says close-open-close-open etc. until it stabilized. This is normally a bad thing because the computer would get confused and could malfunction. My job/design was to make sure that the first instance of closed contact stay closed electronically. That same year, I proposed and marry Kathy. We bought used furnitures, and bought an old house for a mere $7,500.00 Some of that furniture are still at the house in Rockwall.
To be continued.
While going to Calvin, I managed to buy my first ever car, a used 1962 Plymouth Valiant. At the time, Plymouth with their 6-cylinder slant six engine was a pretty good company, and had no viable competition from the Japanese car manufacturers. I really like cars, and I had a successions of several used ones throughout my lifetime. Never bought brand new cars until later after I married. In my last year at Calvin, I moved in to a house lived in by a retired school teacher named RL. She was an orphan in China, and was adopted by an American missionary that went to China in the early 1900s. She was very good to me and took me in as if I was her son. She herself adopted two orphan girls from China and raised them herself, but, by the time I moved in to RL's house, the girls were already gone and have family of their own. I lost touch and contact with them and now I don't even remember their names. RL passed away sometimes during that time, but my memory is fuzzy on the exact time. In the summer of 1969 (I think) my Mom and the rest of my siblings immigrated to the US and we rented a house in Grand Rapids from a church member named Mr. K. He was an older guy, and he was a widower that just married one of the neighbor, and his house became available. We spent that summer together, I took them to picnics at a favorite lake about 30 miles away called Gun Lake. We would pack up our food and portable grill, and while there we would cook typical American food; hot dogs and hamburgers. It was an idyllic summer. That fall I packed up my meager belongings and moved to Ann Arbor, to begin the final leg of my college education.
That summer was also the summer that I met Kathy. She was just 16, and lived a few houses down from where we lived. She and her sisters would come to our house and hang out with us, Chinese/Indonesian boys. I am not sure what got them interested in us, since we spoke funny English, and to them probably funny customs. Her mom and dad are very traditional Dutch American family from Iowa, and thus pretty much a meat and potato kind of family.
I've never dated anyone, and that summer Kathy, her sister and I went to see Paul Revere and the Raiders and the Carpenters. I don't remember which one was the main billing. After that Kathy and I started to become more than just friends. During my years at UofM, I went home almost every weekend to spend time with her. That's about 300 miles round trip for two years. On one of those weekends, I was on my way back to Ann Arbor on a Sunday night in the middle of winter, and I hit a patch of ice on the highway, spun 360 degree, and kept on going. I can only remember one weekend that I spent in Ann Arbor. On that particular weekend, I went home, brought her back to Ann Arbor, went to the UofM game against Ohio State, and brought her back to Grand Rapids, and then went back to school. It was a crazy time. All the the times I sold my football ticket allowance for extra spending money.
I graduated in the Spring of 1972, interviewed with one company and was offered a job at Lear Siegler Inc., in Grand Rapids, Michigan for the huge salary of $10,800.00 I was hired as a hardware design engineer where I designed electronic circuits for the F4 Phantom aircraft. It sounded glorious, but the piece that I worked on is the weapon delivery control panel, principally a little box that has push buttons, and these buttons then send signals to the weapon computer to release whatever ammunition is commanded. For those that don't know, when a physical switch is switch is pressed, little do you realize that the contact points bounced around for a few fractions of a milliseconds, thus sending the computer a signal that says close-open-close-open etc. until it stabilized. This is normally a bad thing because the computer would get confused and could malfunction. My job/design was to make sure that the first instance of closed contact stay closed electronically. That same year, I proposed and marry Kathy. We bought used furnitures, and bought an old house for a mere $7,500.00 Some of that furniture are still at the house in Rockwall.
To be continued.
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
November Twenty Five
Genesis of the Rahmandar Clan
I was born in Indonesia in 1946, and came from a large family of 11 children. I don't remember very much of my early childhood years, except for a few things that I will mention here to prevent scammers and identity theft from getting too much info about me. They are so prevalent nowadays.
When I was just a young boy, I remember that we were a poor family relative to some of our friends, and much better off when compared to the Indonesian villagers. By poor I meant that we have a mortar and brick house, but we do not have telephone or refrigerator, even till the time that I left the country for the US in 1966. My mom was the primary bread winner, and she earned her living by making embroidered shirts called "kebaya". She was married twice (one of them was my dad), but they both died fairly young. I remember my mom would hurry and finished an order, then she would sent me or my brother to the customer and collect the money so we could have the money for food or other needs. We used to hate doing that chore. It was so embarrassing. Our daily food ingredients were bought fresh from the open market, and leftovers just sat on top of the stove until they are fully consumed or went bad. Having chicken for a meal involved buying a live chicken, slitting its neck, draining the blood, and then letting the bird flutter for a few minutes till it died. Then its time to pluck the feathers. We did that by dunking it into a boiling water for a few minutes, then the feathers just slides off the skin.
Ever since I can remember, I have always made my own toys and kites. I made wooden tops with cut off nail as its spike, soccer ball made up of a balled up small stone wrapped in layers of newspaper and plenty of rubber bands. Remember those lamps with lampshade that rotates around an inner one with pictures of fishes swimming around the lamp as if they are in an aquarium? I made one of those too. I made my own kites using bamboo frame and thin crepe paper. One of the fun or naughty(?) thing I used to do was to capture big male crickets, feed them hot peppers, and then I would get together with my friends and let our crickets fight each other inside a shoe box. On occasions I would go to a nearby Zoo, and I'd try to find a hole in ground and lasso a scorpion using home made lasso made out of grass.
During my teen years, I had a small motorcycle, Zundapp with 50 cc engine. I worked on this bike almost all the time, and once I took everything apart and managed to put it back together, just for grins. I have always been the go to man when my mom's sewing machine broke. Her sewing machine is the treadle kind with a belt as the drive mechanism, and this belt is made of leather that breaks every so often. I also remember having a small shortwave radio, and I listened to Radio Australia English language broadcast almost everyday. I would probably still recognize the sound that they used to play at the beginning of their broadcast hour, the sound of a kookabura bird chirping.
I left Indonesia when I was twenty. Imagine how scary that time was for me. I have never left the place of my birth until that time. The furthest I had ever been at that time was perhaps 150 miles. I know very little of spoken English, but can read and understand some. Of course as you read this, you probably noticed that I have bad grammar. Indonesian language does not use any grammar whatsoever, thus I have a hard time using the proper tense, gender, the usage of singular/plural expressions in English. My mom scraped enough money for me to survive in the US for a year, but the rest was up to me. At that time, I have no idea what America is like except for Hollywood images. I remember arriving in San Fransisco airport, and had a phone number of my mom's friend who imigrated to the Netherlands, and later to the US. Since I have never used a tepehone in my life, I had to ask a stranger to call this family. I was so scared then.
Luckily someone there answered and they later picked me up at the Grand Rapids, MI airport.
The G family, although from Indonesia originally are pretty much an all American family. Their children all grew up in American school so they looked at me as "fresh of the boat" type person. I spent that summer with them, and they enrolled me at Calvin College in the fall of 1966. I lived in the dorm for the next couple of years, and sometimes when everyone had gone home for the holidays, I remember spending that time alone in the dorm as I had no place to go. I was lucky that they let me stay in the dorm for the holidays. Once my money ran out, I was able to obtain a work permit from the INS, and I worked everyday while working my way through school at a place called Keeler Brass. I had scheduled my classes so that they mostly in the mornings, and I'd go to work during the second shift. Needless to say, I didn't study much, and my grades suffered, but I managed to keep a passing grade. I spent three years at Calvin, and finished my pre-engineering degree there, and was accepted to continue my education at the University of Michigan School of Engineering. To be continued.
I was born in Indonesia in 1946, and came from a large family of 11 children. I don't remember very much of my early childhood years, except for a few things that I will mention here to prevent scammers and identity theft from getting too much info about me. They are so prevalent nowadays.
When I was just a young boy, I remember that we were a poor family relative to some of our friends, and much better off when compared to the Indonesian villagers. By poor I meant that we have a mortar and brick house, but we do not have telephone or refrigerator, even till the time that I left the country for the US in 1966. My mom was the primary bread winner, and she earned her living by making embroidered shirts called "kebaya". She was married twice (one of them was my dad), but they both died fairly young. I remember my mom would hurry and finished an order, then she would sent me or my brother to the customer and collect the money so we could have the money for food or other needs. We used to hate doing that chore. It was so embarrassing. Our daily food ingredients were bought fresh from the open market, and leftovers just sat on top of the stove until they are fully consumed or went bad. Having chicken for a meal involved buying a live chicken, slitting its neck, draining the blood, and then letting the bird flutter for a few minutes till it died. Then its time to pluck the feathers. We did that by dunking it into a boiling water for a few minutes, then the feathers just slides off the skin.
Ever since I can remember, I have always made my own toys and kites. I made wooden tops with cut off nail as its spike, soccer ball made up of a balled up small stone wrapped in layers of newspaper and plenty of rubber bands. Remember those lamps with lampshade that rotates around an inner one with pictures of fishes swimming around the lamp as if they are in an aquarium? I made one of those too. I made my own kites using bamboo frame and thin crepe paper. One of the fun or naughty(?) thing I used to do was to capture big male crickets, feed them hot peppers, and then I would get together with my friends and let our crickets fight each other inside a shoe box. On occasions I would go to a nearby Zoo, and I'd try to find a hole in ground and lasso a scorpion using home made lasso made out of grass.
During my teen years, I had a small motorcycle, Zundapp with 50 cc engine. I worked on this bike almost all the time, and once I took everything apart and managed to put it back together, just for grins. I have always been the go to man when my mom's sewing machine broke. Her sewing machine is the treadle kind with a belt as the drive mechanism, and this belt is made of leather that breaks every so often. I also remember having a small shortwave radio, and I listened to Radio Australia English language broadcast almost everyday. I would probably still recognize the sound that they used to play at the beginning of their broadcast hour, the sound of a kookabura bird chirping.
I left Indonesia when I was twenty. Imagine how scary that time was for me. I have never left the place of my birth until that time. The furthest I had ever been at that time was perhaps 150 miles. I know very little of spoken English, but can read and understand some. Of course as you read this, you probably noticed that I have bad grammar. Indonesian language does not use any grammar whatsoever, thus I have a hard time using the proper tense, gender, the usage of singular/plural expressions in English. My mom scraped enough money for me to survive in the US for a year, but the rest was up to me. At that time, I have no idea what America is like except for Hollywood images. I remember arriving in San Fransisco airport, and had a phone number of my mom's friend who imigrated to the Netherlands, and later to the US. Since I have never used a tepehone in my life, I had to ask a stranger to call this family. I was so scared then.
Luckily someone there answered and they later picked me up at the Grand Rapids, MI airport.
The G family, although from Indonesia originally are pretty much an all American family. Their children all grew up in American school so they looked at me as "fresh of the boat" type person. I spent that summer with them, and they enrolled me at Calvin College in the fall of 1966. I lived in the dorm for the next couple of years, and sometimes when everyone had gone home for the holidays, I remember spending that time alone in the dorm as I had no place to go. I was lucky that they let me stay in the dorm for the holidays. Once my money ran out, I was able to obtain a work permit from the INS, and I worked everyday while working my way through school at a place called Keeler Brass. I had scheduled my classes so that they mostly in the mornings, and I'd go to work during the second shift. Needless to say, I didn't study much, and my grades suffered, but I managed to keep a passing grade. I spent three years at Calvin, and finished my pre-engineering degree there, and was accepted to continue my education at the University of Michigan School of Engineering. To be continued.
Monday, November 24, 2008
November Twenty Four
What to write today?
Wow, I sat in front of this laptop for the past few minutes thinking of what to write for today, and I drew a blank. I wanted to write something that would have a focal point, but it is not there. So, here's another rambling.
My MacBook is finally on its way to New York. It should be at the recipient's hand by this Wednesday. Let's hope he can fix it.
Lots of people from my work are gone for the week. Regular gasoline are now selling in the Denver area for as low as $1.679/gallon. If you have an iPhone (or try their website), by far one of the best free application is the Bible, and Pandora. This is on top of the default apps already included with the phone such as maps, weather, stoc, iPod, and YouTube.
The Bible is a neat application that allows you to select many translation to view, from KJV to The Message, and if you wish, there are even various language translation available for viewing. You can choose Bahasa Indonesia, Chinese, Korean, German, Dutch, Spanish, and many others. Some of the versions are available for download, so if you happened to be in an area with no cell phone coverage, you can still view the downloaded version. Oh, it also has a daily reading option, so you can read two chapters from the Old Testament, and one chapter from the New Testament. I use this option daily.
Pandora is a unique radio station like application. You enter a song name, or artist, and it will then play songs by that artist, as well as similar genre. If you enter Garth Brook, then it will play consecutively songs by him and the country music genre by other artist, e.g., Clint Black. Choose Irish Tenors, and you'll get a lot of old traditional gospels. Selecting Thumbs up or Thumbs Down refine your music selection for that genre. Its really kewl.
One other program worth mentioning is Shazam. This program listens to whatever song is being played on your radio, TV or whatever music is playing, and after a few seconds it will tell you the name of the song! Very kewl!
Wow, I sat in front of this laptop for the past few minutes thinking of what to write for today, and I drew a blank. I wanted to write something that would have a focal point, but it is not there. So, here's another rambling.
My MacBook is finally on its way to New York. It should be at the recipient's hand by this Wednesday. Let's hope he can fix it.
Lots of people from my work are gone for the week. Regular gasoline are now selling in the Denver area for as low as $1.679/gallon. If you have an iPhone (or try their website), by far one of the best free application is the Bible, and Pandora. This is on top of the default apps already included with the phone such as maps, weather, stoc, iPod, and YouTube.
The Bible is a neat application that allows you to select many translation to view, from KJV to The Message, and if you wish, there are even various language translation available for viewing. You can choose Bahasa Indonesia, Chinese, Korean, German, Dutch, Spanish, and many others. Some of the versions are available for download, so if you happened to be in an area with no cell phone coverage, you can still view the downloaded version. Oh, it also has a daily reading option, so you can read two chapters from the Old Testament, and one chapter from the New Testament. I use this option daily.
Pandora is a unique radio station like application. You enter a song name, or artist, and it will then play songs by that artist, as well as similar genre. If you enter Garth Brook, then it will play consecutively songs by him and the country music genre by other artist, e.g., Clint Black. Choose Irish Tenors, and you'll get a lot of old traditional gospels. Selecting Thumbs up or Thumbs Down refine your music selection for that genre. Its really kewl.
One other program worth mentioning is Shazam. This program listens to whatever song is being played on your radio, TV or whatever music is playing, and after a few seconds it will tell you the name of the song! Very kewl!
Sunday, November 23, 2008
November Twenty Three
Seven More days of NaBloPoMo
The first half was easy, but I too am running out of idea on what to write as the month progresses forward. So todays blog will just be random ramblings. Today I packed up my MacBook, and it will soon be on its way to the eBayer who claimed he can fix it. I also packed up my brother's Dell laptop after adding a Microsoft Office look-alike called OpenOffice ( openoffice.org ). This is a very good program, and in its setting you can configure the software so that it automatically open and save files as MS Office documents, so compatibility should be pretty good, and its free!
Today, I tried using AIM video to chat with Jen who just got herself a new Christmas present, a brand spanking new MacBook. Alas, AIM is NOT compatible with Mac's for video chat. She then downloaded the Mac version thinking it would work, but no dice. So I suggested for her to download Skype, and it worked the first time we tried it. Thanks Skype! So now we can do video chat using Skype, until I get my MacBook working again. By the time this took place, Owen is already in bed, so I didn't get to see him. Jen told said that Owen love doing video chat, so I hope he gets to do this with his cousins in Alaska soon. It would be fun to see him on it, especially since he was in Alaska not very long ago. I wonder what his reaction would be when he sees Jacob, Tobias, and Jamiee.
Yesterday we went to iMax Theater to see the show about "Alaska". The theater is inside the Denver Museum of Natural Science. It was quite dizzying when the camera mounted on an airplane(?) zooms down the mountainous valley. It felt like I am falling of the cliff. We also saw other parts of the museum that are currently exhibiting the dinosaurs. As I was looking at all these, I kept on thinking and wondering if the older grandkids like Jacob and Owen would love to see this exhibits.
On another room, there in an interesting exhibit
by a Russian artist that create human like sculpture or figurines using gemstones as the base material. Take a look at the sample picture and the description of materials that this artist use for his sculpture.
The first half was easy, but I too am running out of idea on what to write as the month progresses forward. So todays blog will just be random ramblings. Today I packed up my MacBook, and it will soon be on its way to the eBayer who claimed he can fix it. I also packed up my brother's Dell laptop after adding a Microsoft Office look-alike called OpenOffice ( openoffice.org ). This is a very good program, and in its setting you can configure the software so that it automatically open and save files as MS Office documents, so compatibility should be pretty good, and its free!
Today, I tried using AIM video to chat with Jen who just got herself a new Christmas present, a brand spanking new MacBook. Alas, AIM is NOT compatible with Mac's for video chat. She then downloaded the Mac version thinking it would work, but no dice. So I suggested for her to download Skype, and it worked the first time we tried it. Thanks Skype! So now we can do video chat using Skype, until I get my MacBook working again. By the time this took place, Owen is already in bed, so I didn't get to see him. Jen told said that Owen love doing video chat, so I hope he gets to do this with his cousins in Alaska soon. It would be fun to see him on it, especially since he was in Alaska not very long ago. I wonder what his reaction would be when he sees Jacob, Tobias, and Jamiee.
Yesterday we went to iMax Theater to see the show about "Alaska". The theater is inside the Denver Museum of Natural Science. It was quite dizzying when the camera mounted on an airplane(?) zooms down the mountainous valley. It felt like I am falling of the cliff. We also saw other parts of the museum that are currently exhibiting the dinosaurs. As I was looking at all these, I kept on thinking and wondering if the older grandkids like Jacob and Owen would love to see this exhibits.
On another room, there in an interesting exhibit
by a Russian artist that create human like sculpture or figurines using gemstones as the base material. Take a look at the sample picture and the description of materials that this artist use for his sculpture.
Saturday, November 22, 2008
NovemberTwenty Two
Virus, Adware, Desktop Hijacker
My brother in Michigan sent me his laptop because he could no longer access the internet, and his desktop has a splash screen overlaying the background saying: DANGER, you're infected by a virus! You must take action immediately!"
Needless to say he didn't know what to do with it, so he asked me to fix that for him. I started using the standard tools to disable most of the start-ups, but that didn't do the job. I tried everything to make an internet connection so I can download anti-spyware and virus tools, but it doesn't allow me to connect to the internet. Loading SpyBot S&D and AdAwareSE downloaded to another computer then install via a CD doesn't allow me to clean it up because, guess what, these tools need to download their latest detection rule files and without a connection to the internet, that's not going to happen.
So I backed up all his personal files, pictures, and documents that he had on to a DVD. Luckily for this laptop, Dell had partition the hard drive into two section, the second one being a PC Restore partition. That allows me to restore the computer to the state that it came in with when we first bought it. I then went into a Safe Mode boot, format the primary disk partition, and restore the laptop to its new factory configuration, and sure enough, all the virus and other malware are now gone.
I copied back all his files into the newly created disk, and I was then able to get on the internet. For future safeguard, I then downloaded AdAwareSE, SpyBot S&D and a few other utilities that I know he would use. These are: CDeX (a CD ripper that can rip into wav file or mp3), 1by1 MP3 Player, FastStone Image Viewer, VLC Video Player (one of the best video player that can play almost every type of video format), and CDBurner XP (a CD/DVD burner). These are all freeware.
Did you know that Microsoft Vista, in their stupidest wisdom, provided Windows Media Player with Vista, but when you insert a CD or DVD movie, it will not be able to play it. It would barf and say that I need to download some codec or something like it. How can a giant like Microsoft charge a few hundred bucks for the operating system and provide tools that cannot play a common, run of the mill commercial audio CD or video DVD right away? Aargh.
My brother in Michigan sent me his laptop because he could no longer access the internet, and his desktop has a splash screen overlaying the background saying: DANGER, you're infected by a virus! You must take action immediately!"
Needless to say he didn't know what to do with it, so he asked me to fix that for him. I started using the standard tools to disable most of the start-ups, but that didn't do the job. I tried everything to make an internet connection so I can download anti-spyware and virus tools, but it doesn't allow me to connect to the internet. Loading SpyBot S&D and AdAwareSE downloaded to another computer then install via a CD doesn't allow me to clean it up because, guess what, these tools need to download their latest detection rule files and without a connection to the internet, that's not going to happen.
So I backed up all his personal files, pictures, and documents that he had on to a DVD. Luckily for this laptop, Dell had partition the hard drive into two section, the second one being a PC Restore partition. That allows me to restore the computer to the state that it came in with when we first bought it. I then went into a Safe Mode boot, format the primary disk partition, and restore the laptop to its new factory configuration, and sure enough, all the virus and other malware are now gone.
I copied back all his files into the newly created disk, and I was then able to get on the internet. For future safeguard, I then downloaded AdAwareSE, SpyBot S&D and a few other utilities that I know he would use. These are: CDeX (a CD ripper that can rip into wav file or mp3), 1by1 MP3 Player, FastStone Image Viewer, VLC Video Player (one of the best video player that can play almost every type of video format), and CDBurner XP (a CD/DVD burner). These are all freeware.
Did you know that Microsoft Vista, in their stupidest wisdom, provided Windows Media Player with Vista, but when you insert a CD or DVD movie, it will not be able to play it. It would barf and say that I need to download some codec or something like it. How can a giant like Microsoft charge a few hundred bucks for the operating system and provide tools that cannot play a common, run of the mill commercial audio CD or video DVD right away? Aargh.
Friday, November 21, 2008
November Twenty One
Hungover?
Yesterday we left work early for a Happy Hour and Farewell Dinner to one of my co-worker who is transferring to another program. The dinner place is called Piccolo's, and it is a unique restaurant in that the served Mexican and Italian food. On the table were chips and salsa (Mexican), but also rolls with butter serving portions (Italian).
By the time Jan and I got there, most of my other colleagues were already there, and perhaps on their second pint of Fat Tire Ale. I ordered Osso Bucco with a side of spaghetti, and Jan ordered Pine nut breaded salmon with a side of fetuccine alfredo. The meal was so so, but we have a decent time socializing. My co-workers are all in the twenties and I am not sure if any of them are thirty yet. Needless to say, after the meal was done and we finished our beers, we left.
Today, I went to work, and those that came to the party barely showed up. Two of them called saying they have migraine headache, two of them came in for a few hours then left. I found out that after we left, they went to one of my co-worker's house which is nearby, and have another drinking binge. One guy left his car at the restaurant parking lot, with the intent of getting it back the next day. Well, he never did that and did not show up at work.
Yesterday we left work early for a Happy Hour and Farewell Dinner to one of my co-worker who is transferring to another program. The dinner place is called Piccolo's, and it is a unique restaurant in that the served Mexican and Italian food. On the table were chips and salsa (Mexican), but also rolls with butter serving portions (Italian).
By the time Jan and I got there, most of my other colleagues were already there, and perhaps on their second pint of Fat Tire Ale. I ordered Osso Bucco with a side of spaghetti, and Jan ordered Pine nut breaded salmon with a side of fetuccine alfredo. The meal was so so, but we have a decent time socializing. My co-workers are all in the twenties and I am not sure if any of them are thirty yet. Needless to say, after the meal was done and we finished our beers, we left.
Today, I went to work, and those that came to the party barely showed up. Two of them called saying they have migraine headache, two of them came in for a few hours then left. I found out that after we left, they went to one of my co-worker's house which is nearby, and have another drinking binge. One guy left his car at the restaurant parking lot, with the intent of getting it back the next day. Well, he never did that and did not show up at work.
Thursday, November 20, 2008
November Twenty
My MacBook is going to New York!
Without any technical data available, I have not been able to proceed beyond getting the battery to charge. Now whenever I push the power button to on, the unit turn's on briefly, I can hear the CD/DVD drive powers up for a short time, and then it immediately self shutdown. There is something wrong with the POST (power on self test, a process that most computer goes through before attempting to boot up) in that it detected an anomaly, and thus for self preservation it cuts down the power flow and shuts down. If POST was successful, the Mac then produced that familiar "boing sound" and proceed to the next step of finding a boot source such as the CD/DVD or hard drive.
I wish I know which part of the self test sequence this POST is doing, so I can correct that condition, but no dice. Scouring the internet produced no result. Interestingly, while doing so I found an Apple document that I am familiar with. Many years ago, when Apple was a young company they used to produce technical documents for their hardware and software. One of them is called Service Source. This is a document that describe how to trouble shoot a Mac computer, and how to take it apart.
This in itself is not a big deal nowadays as one website called ifixit.com often times have many take apart procedures available for most Apple products as web pages or downloadable PDF file, along with color photographs. Service Source however, is not readily available, and usually only certified Apple technicians have access to it. I found a copy for the MacBook Pro, but alas, none for my MacBook. In any case though, when I followed the Service Source trouble shooting procedure, it points to replacing the Logic Board. This is a 700-800 dollar item from Apple, and I am not willing to spend that much money. On eBay or ifixit, they are going for about 400-500, still way too much for me. So I am going to a last resort for now: I found a fella on eBay who claimed a 90% success rate in curing MacBooks with the above symptom. He claimed that if he can't fix it, there will be no charge except for the cost of shipping it back to me. Otherwise, he'll charge 200 dollars.
I am going to give him a try. His eBay feedback is 97% positive, so I am fairly confident that he is going to be ok. That's it for now.
Without any technical data available, I have not been able to proceed beyond getting the battery to charge. Now whenever I push the power button to on, the unit turn's on briefly, I can hear the CD/DVD drive powers up for a short time, and then it immediately self shutdown. There is something wrong with the POST (power on self test, a process that most computer goes through before attempting to boot up) in that it detected an anomaly, and thus for self preservation it cuts down the power flow and shuts down. If POST was successful, the Mac then produced that familiar "boing sound" and proceed to the next step of finding a boot source such as the CD/DVD or hard drive.
I wish I know which part of the self test sequence this POST is doing, so I can correct that condition, but no dice. Scouring the internet produced no result. Interestingly, while doing so I found an Apple document that I am familiar with. Many years ago, when Apple was a young company they used to produce technical documents for their hardware and software. One of them is called Service Source. This is a document that describe how to trouble shoot a Mac computer, and how to take it apart.
This in itself is not a big deal nowadays as one website called ifixit.com often times have many take apart procedures available for most Apple products as web pages or downloadable PDF file, along with color photographs. Service Source however, is not readily available, and usually only certified Apple technicians have access to it. I found a copy for the MacBook Pro, but alas, none for my MacBook. In any case though, when I followed the Service Source trouble shooting procedure, it points to replacing the Logic Board. This is a 700-800 dollar item from Apple, and I am not willing to spend that much money. On eBay or ifixit, they are going for about 400-500, still way too much for me. So I am going to a last resort for now: I found a fella on eBay who claimed a 90% success rate in curing MacBooks with the above symptom. He claimed that if he can't fix it, there will be no charge except for the cost of shipping it back to me. Otherwise, he'll charge 200 dollars.I am going to give him a try. His eBay feedback is 97% positive, so I am fairly confident that he is going to be ok. That's it for now.
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
November Nineteen
To be alone with no family to turn to . . .
Tonight was our last Divorce Care for the year, and we have one attendee who had been with us only for the last 2 weeks. She is a Japanese woman who was married to an American in Okinawa and then moved to the States. They were married for almost twenty years and divorced almost as many years ago. Because of her marriage to a non-Japanese, her own family in Japan disowned her. Because of her divorce from her Mormon husband, her ex-husband and her two children whom she raised disowned her. Her sons are now married and have children, but she has never seen her grandchildren. They don't want to have anything to do with her, and she said it has been almost six years ago since she saw her son. She doesn't even have their contact information, no phone number, no address.
How can anyone comprehend what is going through her mind? She buried herself in her work to survive and keep busy. Her language and social skills are not conducive to bring her into social circles that will help her thrive. She became a christian and have accepted Christ as her Savior.
Jan and I have befriended her, but we are concerned and don't know what to do. Today after the DC session she asked us what she can do on Thanksgiving day since she didn't want to spend time alone. She tried to volunteer at the the Denver Rescue Mission, but perhaps because of her language barrier or maybe they already have enough volunteer, she wasn't able to help them. They told her they have enough help for the day.
What should we do? We looked at ourselves, and realized how much the Lord has blessed us with EVERYTHING. Our spouses, our immediate family, our extended family, our jobs, and our friends and everything else that surround our lives. Please pray today specifically for her and other people you know that are not as fortunate and blessed as we are.
Tonight was our last Divorce Care for the year, and we have one attendee who had been with us only for the last 2 weeks. She is a Japanese woman who was married to an American in Okinawa and then moved to the States. They were married for almost twenty years and divorced almost as many years ago. Because of her marriage to a non-Japanese, her own family in Japan disowned her. Because of her divorce from her Mormon husband, her ex-husband and her two children whom she raised disowned her. Her sons are now married and have children, but she has never seen her grandchildren. They don't want to have anything to do with her, and she said it has been almost six years ago since she saw her son. She doesn't even have their contact information, no phone number, no address.
How can anyone comprehend what is going through her mind? She buried herself in her work to survive and keep busy. Her language and social skills are not conducive to bring her into social circles that will help her thrive. She became a christian and have accepted Christ as her Savior.
Jan and I have befriended her, but we are concerned and don't know what to do. Today after the DC session she asked us what she can do on Thanksgiving day since she didn't want to spend time alone. She tried to volunteer at the the Denver Rescue Mission, but perhaps because of her language barrier or maybe they already have enough volunteer, she wasn't able to help them. They told her they have enough help for the day.
What should we do? We looked at ourselves, and realized how much the Lord has blessed us with EVERYTHING. Our spouses, our immediate family, our extended family, our jobs, and our friends and everything else that surround our lives. Please pray today specifically for her and other people you know that are not as fortunate and blessed as we are.
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
November Eighteen
Jesus or Barabbas?
This question came into my mind last week, and although it bears little resemblance to the recent election result, the thought that came to my mind is "crowd/majority mentality". We as humans continue to use reason and logic based on personal thinking and many historical events that took place because of it.
In Jesus' day, the crowd got into a frenzy of wanting Jesus crucified, and they chose Barabbas. For what reason? Recent events (relatively), showed acts of violence against individuals in the presence and participation by a crowd. I think that each one of us looked at these and wondered how can one human being do heinous things to another human being. And yet, truthfully, we probably have done something like that, perhaps not in a grander or worse action. I would venture that we'd never do such thing, if we are alone, under the same circumstances. Peer pressure? Somehow our moral compass get sidelined under certain conditions.
Food for thoughts:
- the dragging of a black man by a group of boys a while back, I think it was in Lousiana
- the beating of a man by a group of policemen in California
- the beating of a downed helo pilot in by a crowd in Africa (BlackHawk Down)
- and many more like it
This question came into my mind last week, and although it bears little resemblance to the recent election result, the thought that came to my mind is "crowd/majority mentality". We as humans continue to use reason and logic based on personal thinking and many historical events that took place because of it.
In Jesus' day, the crowd got into a frenzy of wanting Jesus crucified, and they chose Barabbas. For what reason? Recent events (relatively), showed acts of violence against individuals in the presence and participation by a crowd. I think that each one of us looked at these and wondered how can one human being do heinous things to another human being. And yet, truthfully, we probably have done something like that, perhaps not in a grander or worse action. I would venture that we'd never do such thing, if we are alone, under the same circumstances. Peer pressure? Somehow our moral compass get sidelined under certain conditions.
Food for thoughts:
- the dragging of a black man by a group of boys a while back, I think it was in Lousiana
- the beating of a man by a group of policemen in California
- the beating of a downed helo pilot in by a crowd in Africa (BlackHawk Down)
- and many more like it
Monday, November 17, 2008
Sunday, November 16, 2008
November Sixteen
Mission for Christ
Today as a special Sunday for our church. We have the Rocky Mountain High Baptist Group cook a meal for us, as they did for the recent disaster relief team during the Houston hurricane. This group along with other group went down to provide meals, and several chainsaw gangs to remove fallen trees from houses. Unfortunately, by the time the we get to the food line, they were about to run out. I guess they underestimated the number people palnning to taste their food. During the service, they said that it was Jambalaya. Well, we we got to it, it didn't look like one. So this afternoon I scrounge around our fridge, and found we have everything we need to make our own, except for the shrimp. So, it is just finishing cooking, and soon we'll get to enjoy the real Jambalaya (my kind anyway!).
The sermon message was: seize the day. There are many opportunities everywhere to do the Lord's work, and the bottom line is don't wait for the "right" opportunity, but do it now with what you have been given. He used David in 1 Samuel 17 as an example. At that time, the Philistine was devastating God's people. Saul and his warriors could not defeat Goliath. Then David step forward saying he was going to battle the Philistine. They laughed at him and told him to go home. David was just a small scrawny boy, and even Saul doubts that David is the right person for the battle. Everyone was waiting for a big strong person with war skills.
You know the ending.
Today as a special Sunday for our church. We have the Rocky Mountain High Baptist Group cook a meal for us, as they did for the recent disaster relief team during the Houston hurricane. This group along with other group went down to provide meals, and several chainsaw gangs to remove fallen trees from houses. Unfortunately, by the time the we get to the food line, they were about to run out. I guess they underestimated the number people palnning to taste their food. During the service, they said that it was Jambalaya. Well, we we got to it, it didn't look like one. So this afternoon I scrounge around our fridge, and found we have everything we need to make our own, except for the shrimp. So, it is just finishing cooking, and soon we'll get to enjoy the real Jambalaya (my kind anyway!).
The sermon message was: seize the day. There are many opportunities everywhere to do the Lord's work, and the bottom line is don't wait for the "right" opportunity, but do it now with what you have been given. He used David in 1 Samuel 17 as an example. At that time, the Philistine was devastating God's people. Saul and his warriors could not defeat Goliath. Then David step forward saying he was going to battle the Philistine. They laughed at him and told him to go home. David was just a small scrawny boy, and even Saul doubts that David is the right person for the battle. Everyone was waiting for a big strong person with war skills.
You know the ending.
Saturday, November 15, 2008
November Fifteen
First Snow Fall
We have been in Denver more than ten months now, and the locals told us that we usually have had snow by this time of the year. Well, when I went to work yesterday morning, there were a thin layer of snow on the ground and rooftops, and my car in the car port was also covered with some snow. The road had black ice, but by noon everything had already melted. Up in the mountain it is a different story. The ski resorts have had plenty of snow, natural and man-made. I think the snow system that came down yesterday also dropped about 4 inches of new snow at the resorts. Skiing has begun at most resorts in the area.
Another ironic sideline is the news that these ski resorts now carry more variety of ski equipments for rent. They are speculating on the fact that airlines now charge ridiculous baggage fees, and the ski equipment rental places are banking that skiers will now be more apt to rent rather bring their own equipment, especially if they provide more name brand varieties. We'll see if their strategy pays off. By the way, on the way to our Sunday School class monthly dinner, we saw regular gas price at $1.89 a gallon! Who would ever thought gas price would go below $2.00 again.
Friday, November 14, 2008
November Fourteen
Constantly changing plans ...
As most of you know or have read in my previous blog, Jan and I were planning to be home for the entire month of December. Well, I just received an email from my Texas company management requesting that I extend my work here under the current contract till mid January. We have medical appointments, made plans to babysit Paddy, and a few other things, but that all is about to fall by the wayside.
So, in the last couple of hours we've been busy trying to decide what to do next. I think we will fly home for Thanksgiving, leaving on TG day, and go on with the plan to have TG dinner on Sunday. Then on Monday December 1, I'll see if I can schedule one of the doctor's appointment initially scheduled for December 3.
I think I am supposed to be sedated for the Monday procedure, so, we'll probably plan to fly back to Denver on Tuesday, December 2.
On Friday December 19, we'll begin our trek home (driving) for the Christmas holidays, and be in Dallas until January 2, driving back to Denver that weekend.
Wow, what a day. This "change" will impact many of your plans and I am so sorry for doing all this to yall, especially for you, Mel and Teddy.
As most of you know or have read in my previous blog, Jan and I were planning to be home for the entire month of December. Well, I just received an email from my Texas company management requesting that I extend my work here under the current contract till mid January. We have medical appointments, made plans to babysit Paddy, and a few other things, but that all is about to fall by the wayside.
So, in the last couple of hours we've been busy trying to decide what to do next. I think we will fly home for Thanksgiving, leaving on TG day, and go on with the plan to have TG dinner on Sunday. Then on Monday December 1, I'll see if I can schedule one of the doctor's appointment initially scheduled for December 3.
I think I am supposed to be sedated for the Monday procedure, so, we'll probably plan to fly back to Denver on Tuesday, December 2.
On Friday December 19, we'll begin our trek home (driving) for the Christmas holidays, and be in Dallas until January 2, driving back to Denver that weekend.
Wow, what a day. This "change" will impact many of your plans and I am so sorry for doing all this to yall, especially for you, Mel and Teddy.
Thursday, November 13, 2008
November Thirteen
Infomercial
I have no vested interest in this company, but I check this website everyday because of the interesting items they sell. They have everything from obscure computer parts to jewelry and weird stuff. This website sells everything with free shipping, and their prices are almost half the prices of same or similar items you can find elsewhere in the web. For example, the earphone shown cost me just $3.83 with free shipping. I bought this unit a while back, and it is a very good unit. On top of that, twice it went through a complete cycle of wash and dry in the washing machine inside my jeans pocket, and it is still working fine. When my iPhone HOME button quit working, I think I nicked the flexible printed circuit cable that was near the battery pack. Guess what, this website has a replacement piece for for just under $10. I bought it, but then I sold my iPhone for twice the price I got it on eBay. Se la vie. The iPhone 3G car charger shown above is only $3.69 Note that charger for previous generations of iPhones will most likely not work with your 3G phone because Apple decided to abandon Firewire pins charging (12V) and went with USB pins charging (5V) in their docking connector.
If only they also carry a MacBook logic board. I would have ordered it from them and get my MacBook working again. I think that's a bit to far infringement into Apple's proprietary stuff, huh?
Now you're wondering which website, right? Ok here's the link: http://www.dealextreme.com The only catch is that they are located somewhere in Hongkong or China, so it takes about 2-3 weeks to get your order delivered. I use PayPal to pay for my orders so they don't have access to my credit card. I've ordered several different things over a period of time, and they have always fulfilled my order satisfactorily. Now go shopping.
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
November Twelve
Divorce Care
We bought a new DVD from the Divorce Care organization called Surviving the Holidays. I remember how hard and difficult it was for me and everyone of my family members that were affected by my divorce to deal with the holidays. We had our meeting at the church today to present this program. I think it went well, especially since Thanksgiving is just around the corner. Many of the participants are just now realizing how their divorce or separation have changed their life immensely. To them Thanksgiving had been the one holiday where family gathering and relationships are usually celebrated and cherished, but now, they are facing a new and uncertain future.
Since completing the 13-week DC program last month, we have had requests to continue the weekly program with selective topic, and we have been led by the Lord to do so, and have been doing mini-DC sessions for the past few weeks. We will be doing this until its time for us to go home to Texas for the month of December. We are also making plans to start DC again next year, and today we have request from two more people whether we can also do a Sunday afternoon program. We are praying about this and if that is the Lord's calling, we'll be doing two DC sessions a week next year. Pray for us. Oh, one of our participants is "freshly wounded", and she also has a teenage son with disability. She is in a deep emotional stress and need our prayers.
PS: My Mac is able to charge the battery, but still will not boot. I am baffled, but will continue to try to get it running. Know if anyone wanting to get rid of a dead MacBook? :-) Maybe I can mix and match parts from it to get one working ....
We bought a new DVD from the Divorce Care organization called Surviving the Holidays. I remember how hard and difficult it was for me and everyone of my family members that were affected by my divorce to deal with the holidays. We had our meeting at the church today to present this program. I think it went well, especially since Thanksgiving is just around the corner. Many of the participants are just now realizing how their divorce or separation have changed their life immensely. To them Thanksgiving had been the one holiday where family gathering and relationships are usually celebrated and cherished, but now, they are facing a new and uncertain future.
Since completing the 13-week DC program last month, we have had requests to continue the weekly program with selective topic, and we have been led by the Lord to do so, and have been doing mini-DC sessions for the past few weeks. We will be doing this until its time for us to go home to Texas for the month of December. We are also making plans to start DC again next year, and today we have request from two more people whether we can also do a Sunday afternoon program. We are praying about this and if that is the Lord's calling, we'll be doing two DC sessions a week next year. Pray for us. Oh, one of our participants is "freshly wounded", and she also has a teenage son with disability. She is in a deep emotional stress and need our prayers.
PS: My Mac is able to charge the battery, but still will not boot. I am baffled, but will continue to try to get it running. Know if anyone wanting to get rid of a dead MacBook? :-) Maybe I can mix and match parts from it to get one working ....
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
November Eleven
The battery is now charging!!!!
Ok, here's the latest on my MacBook. I started taking apart the MacBook, all the way to the logic board. It seemed that there was sticky fluid near where the battery connector cable was plugged into the logic board. I carefully clean the dozen or so fine pins of the connector (the other end of the short pigtail battery cable that plugs into the logic board). I also cleaned the mating part, and put that back in after making sure that they are dry. I temporarily plug in the battery pack, and hook up the MagSafe power adapter to the logic board. Guess what, the LED on the MagSafe plug turn from green to orange, indicating it is now charging the battery.
Now I have to put everything back together again, and hopefully the logic board is not damaged and will boot up. Stay tuned!
Ok, here's the latest on my MacBook. I started taking apart the MacBook, all the way to the logic board. It seemed that there was sticky fluid near where the battery connector cable was plugged into the logic board. I carefully clean the dozen or so fine pins of the connector (the other end of the short pigtail battery cable that plugs into the logic board). I also cleaned the mating part, and put that back in after making sure that they are dry. I temporarily plug in the battery pack, and hook up the MagSafe power adapter to the logic board. Guess what, the LED on the MagSafe plug turn from green to orange, indicating it is now charging the battery.
Now I have to put everything back together again, and hopefully the logic board is not damaged and will boot up. Stay tuned!
Monday, November 10, 2008
November Ten
MacBook Repair
This weekend has been pretty much "wasted" with me searching and googling the internet on trying to find technical information on the MacBook. It seemed that there are quite a few people having problem with their MacBook refusing to power up, some due to water spills, and some that just never woke from the sleep.
I am looking for the battery pinout, and also whether the motherboard has a fuse. There is guy on eBay that claimed 90% success in restoring MacBook with the same symptom as mine for $185.00 That maybe the route I might take, but I haven't had the mindset to do that yet. Somewhere in the deep dungeon of the internet, someone may have posted a solution.
If you know the info, please let me know. I've tried all the Apple tricks including resetting the SMC, NVRAM, etc, but no dice. But I haven't given up on this yet.
This weekend has been pretty much "wasted" with me searching and googling the internet on trying to find technical information on the MacBook. It seemed that there are quite a few people having problem with their MacBook refusing to power up, some due to water spills, and some that just never woke from the sleep.
I am looking for the battery pinout, and also whether the motherboard has a fuse. There is guy on eBay that claimed 90% success in restoring MacBook with the same symptom as mine for $185.00 That maybe the route I might take, but I haven't had the mindset to do that yet. Somewhere in the deep dungeon of the internet, someone may have posted a solution.
If you know the info, please let me know. I've tried all the Apple tricks including resetting the SMC, NVRAM, etc, but no dice. But I haven't given up on this yet.
Sunday, November 9, 2008
November Nine
Adam and Jesus
I was hesitant a little bit about posting this subject as I am not a christian scholar, but Barry's blog ( http://texasquiver.blogspot.com/ ) got me going. This topic was actually intended for November One, and I had begun typing the entry in Notepad and it languished there till now. If you don't believe the Bible as the inspired word of God then this blog will probably not make much sense to you.
A few weeks ago during Sunday School we were studying the book of Romans Chapter 5. Incidentally, verse 8 is the closing verse of the movie Fireproof. That verse and class discussions got me to thinking of the similarities and differences between Adam and Jesus.
Adam was God's perfect creation, without sin. He was the first human created directly, by God through divine intervention, with free mind and will, not created to be an obedient robot but with independent thinking and action. He was to be God's companion. He was given free will, mind, and dominion over everything else that God created in this world for him. He had only one rule to obey, and that was the Apple tree rule. Adam disobeyed, lost that direct contact with God, sinned and died.
Jesus of Nazareth is God's perfect creation, without sin. He is the second human created directly by God through divine intervention. He is God's son with free mind and will, not created to be an obedient robot that do everything God wants. He is given free will, mind, and power over everything else that God created in this world for him. He had only one rule to obey, and that was to redeem our sins. Jesus faced many of the temptations, physical and and emotional turmoils that humans get as a result of Adam's sin but Jesus obeyed God the father. He did not use that power to save himself. He never sinned, idid not disobeyed God's wish and fulfilled God's wish by redeeming us from our sin, died and was risen to be with God again. He is our Lord Jesus Christ.
Side track: if you haven't seen the movie Fireproof, please make an effort to see it.
I was hesitant a little bit about posting this subject as I am not a christian scholar, but Barry's blog ( http://texasquiver.blogspot.com/ ) got me going. This topic was actually intended for November One, and I had begun typing the entry in Notepad and it languished there till now. If you don't believe the Bible as the inspired word of God then this blog will probably not make much sense to you.
A few weeks ago during Sunday School we were studying the book of Romans Chapter 5. Incidentally, verse 8 is the closing verse of the movie Fireproof. That verse and class discussions got me to thinking of the similarities and differences between Adam and Jesus.
Adam was God's perfect creation, without sin. He was the first human created directly, by God through divine intervention, with free mind and will, not created to be an obedient robot but with independent thinking and action. He was to be God's companion. He was given free will, mind, and dominion over everything else that God created in this world for him. He had only one rule to obey, and that was the Apple tree rule. Adam disobeyed, lost that direct contact with God, sinned and died.
Jesus of Nazareth is God's perfect creation, without sin. He is the second human created directly by God through divine intervention. He is God's son with free mind and will, not created to be an obedient robot that do everything God wants. He is given free will, mind, and power over everything else that God created in this world for him. He had only one rule to obey, and that was to redeem our sins. Jesus faced many of the temptations, physical and and emotional turmoils that humans get as a result of Adam's sin but Jesus obeyed God the father. He did not use that power to save himself. He never sinned, idid not disobeyed God's wish and fulfilled God's wish by redeeming us from our sin, died and was risen to be with God again. He is our Lord Jesus Christ.
Side track: if you haven't seen the movie Fireproof, please make an effort to see it.
Saturday, November 8, 2008
November Eight
Not much happening today. I began to take apart the MacBook, and inside the unit all looked pristine. No sign of water or dried up fluid at the logic board, keyboard, or optical drive. The bottom part of the hard drive have a little spot of dried up liquid, but not enough to cause problem, as far as I can tell. But in one spot of the inside near the battery contacts, there is this little circle dot that is red. This is how the Apple person can tell if the inside ever got exposed to water. This dot is normally white. I took apart the MagSafe DC-in board hoping to be able to find a telltale fuse, but this thing is so tiny. I cannot find anything that looked like a fuse. Will keep on trying.
Jan is now home after a few days visit in Charleston.
Jan is now home after a few days visit in Charleston.
Friday, November 7, 2008
November Seven
Got a fairly new MacBook (broken)
Yesterday I was surfing craigslist and found someone selling a broken MacBook. It says water damage, won't power on, good for parts.
Well, I've been keeping an eye for something like that, because I wanted to have a laptop that can dual boot, switching between MacOS and WinXP. I contacted the seller, and after some negotiation got it for a really really really low price. Check eBay and broken a unit like this cost several hundred dollars. So now I have a project to do: to get this Mac working again. I am hoping that it will be just a simple problem, but to get to the problem, I'll have to take the unit apart and find out and fix what is wrong. I know that at this point power is not getting to battery and it just beep beep beep when I tried to turn it on.
This is a fairly new Mac, the invoice in the box says it was shipped from Apple just a couple months ago. It has the complete CD set, the power adaptor, and even the original Apple box! I guess the previous owner didn't want to spend the money to get it fixed.
The Mac itself is a Core 2 Duo 2.1 GHz CPU, with combo drive, 120 GB hard drive, and built-in iSight. I am looking forward to get this thing working again.
Oh one other thing: remember my iPhone that I paid $100 for it? I broke it an attempt to fix the volume control buttons. I got that fixed, but the Home button broke after that repair. I was so bummed and missed my iPhone, so I got the new 3G version a couple of days later. After contemplating whether to fix the broken one myself (you know I can do it!) or sell it, I decided to put up the broken unit for sale on eBay. No one bid on it till the last 10 minutes. Then the bidding war began, and at the last few seconds, the iPhone was sold for $200!!!!! Hemh, that paid for my new iPhone 3G. I am so happy !!!
A man and his toys.
Yesterday I was surfing craigslist and found someone selling a broken MacBook. It says water damage, won't power on, good for parts.
Well, I've been keeping an eye for something like that, because I wanted to have a laptop that can dual boot, switching between MacOS and WinXP. I contacted the seller, and after some negotiation got it for a really really really low price. Check eBay and broken a unit like this cost several hundred dollars. So now I have a project to do: to get this Mac working again. I am hoping that it will be just a simple problem, but to get to the problem, I'll have to take the unit apart and find out and fix what is wrong. I know that at this point power is not getting to battery and it just beep beep beep when I tried to turn it on.
This is a fairly new Mac, the invoice in the box says it was shipped from Apple just a couple months ago. It has the complete CD set, the power adaptor, and even the original Apple box! I guess the previous owner didn't want to spend the money to get it fixed.
The Mac itself is a Core 2 Duo 2.1 GHz CPU, with combo drive, 120 GB hard drive, and built-in iSight. I am looking forward to get this thing working again.
Oh one other thing: remember my iPhone that I paid $100 for it? I broke it an attempt to fix the volume control buttons. I got that fixed, but the Home button broke after that repair. I was so bummed and missed my iPhone, so I got the new 3G version a couple of days later. After contemplating whether to fix the broken one myself (you know I can do it!) or sell it, I decided to put up the broken unit for sale on eBay. No one bid on it till the last 10 minutes. Then the bidding war began, and at the last few seconds, the iPhone was sold for $200!!!!! Hemh, that paid for my new iPhone 3G. I am so happy !!!
A man and his toys.
Thursday, November 6, 2008
November Six
Life goes on ...
Last night I moderated the Divorce Care session by myself as Jan is currently in Charleston, SC to spend some time with her mother. The topic was on anger, one of the many phases and consequences of divorce . Since being in Denver, Jan and I felt the need and God's desire for us to start a Divorce Care program at our church here in Denver. We were expecting maybe 3-4 people attending at the onset of the program this past summer. Many churches in Texas that offered this program usually take a hiatus in the summer months because of low attendance. But God knows best. We were blessed with an average of 12 people attending every week. It has been a much needed ministry, and we are so fortunate and blessed that the Mississippi Avenue Baptist Church staff have been supportive of this endeavor.
DC is bible based support group, and thus beside providing the much needed ministry of support group, it is also an opportunity to present the Lord's teaching to some that have never consider Him as the rock of their lives.
Last night I moderated the Divorce Care session by myself as Jan is currently in Charleston, SC to spend some time with her mother. The topic was on anger, one of the many phases and consequences of divorce . Since being in Denver, Jan and I felt the need and God's desire for us to start a Divorce Care program at our church here in Denver. We were expecting maybe 3-4 people attending at the onset of the program this past summer. Many churches in Texas that offered this program usually take a hiatus in the summer months because of low attendance. But God knows best. We were blessed with an average of 12 people attending every week. It has been a much needed ministry, and we are so fortunate and blessed that the Mississippi Avenue Baptist Church staff have been supportive of this endeavor.
DC is bible based support group, and thus beside providing the much needed ministry of support group, it is also an opportunity to present the Lord's teaching to some that have never consider Him as the rock of their lives.
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
November Five
The People have Spoken
I prayed this morning that our country will continue to be the greatest country in the world despite all the deficiencies that we as Americans perceived as lacking. As a foreign born citizen, I am very proud of our country and for what it represents, a country that stood for justice and freedom. I am sad that we as a country have moved away from the original foundation of Christianity and her moral values. I wonder what our founding fathers thought about us now?
The moment of fear when our little Sarah was discovered with congenital heart defect, and the subsequent surgery when she was a mere 7 lbs was almost unbearable were it it not for the comfort that our Lord have given us. Everyone that trust the Lord and have faith, prayed for her successful surgery and recovery. The Lord was gracious in answering our prayers positively and immediately, Sarah is now well and growing again. WE did that because we know her, have seen her, some have touched her, and all have loved her. The future may not be so fortunate for many of the unborn, un-touched, and un-loved, and un-seen child.
Side comments on Sarah Palin: Many people have a low opinion on her lack of experience. Put yourself in her position and consider the opportunities you were given by others who trust you before you took on ANY jobs or positions. I have been there when I first graduated from college. From the jobs I had. From being a parent the first time around. I had no experience in any of these life responsibilities. And yet, someone had given me that chance. She is a brave woman, and I hope that her future will be bright, and for her to show others of her capability as she continue to do great things for the people of Alaska.
I prayed this morning that our country will continue to be the greatest country in the world despite all the deficiencies that we as Americans perceived as lacking. As a foreign born citizen, I am very proud of our country and for what it represents, a country that stood for justice and freedom. I am sad that we as a country have moved away from the original foundation of Christianity and her moral values. I wonder what our founding fathers thought about us now?
The moment of fear when our little Sarah was discovered with congenital heart defect, and the subsequent surgery when she was a mere 7 lbs was almost unbearable were it it not for the comfort that our Lord have given us. Everyone that trust the Lord and have faith, prayed for her successful surgery and recovery. The Lord was gracious in answering our prayers positively and immediately, Sarah is now well and growing again. WE did that because we know her, have seen her, some have touched her, and all have loved her. The future may not be so fortunate for many of the unborn, un-touched, and un-loved, and un-seen child.
Side comments on Sarah Palin: Many people have a low opinion on her lack of experience. Put yourself in her position and consider the opportunities you were given by others who trust you before you took on ANY jobs or positions. I have been there when I first graduated from college. From the jobs I had. From being a parent the first time around. I had no experience in any of these life responsibilities. And yet, someone had given me that chance. She is a brave woman, and I hope that her future will be bright, and for her to show others of her capability as she continue to do great things for the people of Alaska.
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
November Four
Chili Contest
I found out yesterday that we're having a chili contest at work. So when I got home, Jan asked Steph for the chili recipe that Steph used and won at least a couple of time in Fort Yukon.
Last night I went shopping for the ingredients and a crock pot, since we didn't bring ours from Texas. I changed the recipe a little bit, omitting certain spices and added chopped green peppers.
Today was the judging, during lunch time, and I won second place. Not bad for a first time chili maker.
I found out yesterday that we're having a chili contest at work. So when I got home, Jan asked Steph for the chili recipe that Steph used and won at least a couple of time in Fort Yukon.
Last night I went shopping for the ingredients and a crock pot, since we didn't bring ours from Texas. I changed the recipe a little bit, omitting certain spices and added chopped green peppers.
Today was the judging, during lunch time, and I won second place. Not bad for a first time chili maker.
Monday, November 3, 2008
November Three
My thoughts today concern family. Exactly one year ago today my mom passed away after a short bout with lung cancer. She gave birth to 11 children, and left a legacy of love that her descendants continue to foster, despite the fact that some of us are from different fathers. To her, family is an important part of her life. I love you mom!
I pray that as you read this you will remember to touch someone in our family that you've neglected, lost contact, or just too busy to "get around to it". How many times I've rationalized in my mind that its not a good time to call, or I'll call later, or maybe its too late to call, or I'll call later when I have more time, or some other reason, when deep down, it is just our reluctance to do so.
Billy Graham in today's daily devotion said: "The family is the most important institution in the world. It was God's idea in the first place ... In the home character and integrity are formed, values are made clear, and goals are set. These last a lifetime. And if they aren't formed correctly, that, too, will result in patterns - bad patterns that last a lifetime, if God doesn't intervene."
Mom's legacy is family love. I grew up without really knowing my father, but I found God through Jesus Christ, and the Bible. I want that pattern changed and have tried to be there for my children, family, and love each one of them the same and as much as my mom loved hers.
I pray that as you read this you will remember to touch someone in our family that you've neglected, lost contact, or just too busy to "get around to it". How many times I've rationalized in my mind that its not a good time to call, or I'll call later, or maybe its too late to call, or I'll call later when I have more time, or some other reason, when deep down, it is just our reluctance to do so.
Billy Graham in today's daily devotion said: "The family is the most important institution in the world. It was God's idea in the first place ... In the home character and integrity are formed, values are made clear, and goals are set. These last a lifetime. And if they aren't formed correctly, that, too, will result in patterns - bad patterns that last a lifetime, if God doesn't intervene."
Mom's legacy is family love. I grew up without really knowing my father, but I found God through Jesus Christ, and the Bible. I want that pattern changed and have tried to be there for my children, family, and love each one of them the same and as much as my mom loved hers.
Sunday, November 2, 2008
November Two
I was going to post about something else today, but an event that happened so briefly last week dwelled in my mind quite a bit. It was just a phone call, lasting perhaps just 15 seconds.
In early October I had my two year follow-up check with my radiation oncologist at UT Southwestern. I asked the physician assistant and research coordinator to mail me a copy of the blood test when they get it, but after waiting for a couple of weeks, I never received it. So I sent them an email.
I received a phone call last week, and briefly AP ( initials) said that my PSA came back higher than normal, at 6.83. Until that news, I was on a downward trend from 14.48 to 4.1 ... since my treatment in February 2007. She said I got the phenomenon called PSA bump, and not to worry. This phone call was followed by an email reply explaining why I never got the mailed blood test report. AP's explanation was "I thought TT was going to mail it, and TT thought I was going to mail it ..."Perhaps neither wanted to be the bearer of bad news? I have researched about this phenomenon, but the radiation experts have not been able to explain this happen to some people. Dr. Critz from the Radiation Center of Georgia did a study, and saw this phenomenon in about 30% of his patients. There are no in-depth data to tell whether this is an indication of failure (generally not).
Saturday, November 1, 2008
November One
This year's presidential election has really gotten to me more then it ever had. Perhaps my greater awareness of Christ's presence in my life, and trying to base my life decisions to conform to my faith. Although I have elected mostly Republican presidential candidates in the past, once I did try to look at the person and what he promised during the campaign and voted for Jimmy Carter based on his promises and have regretted that decision. His lack of decisive leadership and his passivity have brought down our country to the brink of disaster. On the same vein, I voted for GW twice, and on hindsight, his second term has been a failure of leadership. So now we come to two candidates that I'd rather not make the choice, but given the cards that were dealt, I had chosen and voted McCain, for the following reasons:
- His stance on life, abortion, and gay marriage
- His life as a soldier, prisoner of war, and years of service to the country as a senator is well known.
- His wealth is not a sudden occurrence, and what he has is principally because of his wife's being a beer company heiress
- His patriotism and love for our country seemed genuine to me
- I believe the things he said, especially when he is not in the main public eye, and mostly I think he says what he believed, as opposed to saying what the people want him to say.
- His past records in congress shows that he is not shy from making decisions yea or nay, as opposed to avoiding responsibility by voting PRESENT
- I have read an analysis by a mathematician comparing taxes on families earning less than $100K during the Clinton and Bush presidential years, based on tax tables comparison, and despite all the rhetoric’s, the data showed that the people are better off during Bush's presidential term.
- My fear of the governance of this country with no checks and balance as congress heads toward a 'veto proof' majority
- A drastic change in the direction of the Supreme Court decisions
I could also list the reasons of why I did not vote for the other candidate, but that would be disingenuous since some of you have voted for him. On November Four, we will know the choice of the people whether it is McCain or Obama, and although many will then say that the Lord have chosen the president of the United States, this is NOT CORRECT. The Lord gave us the freedom to make choices, and whomever we elected as our president elect, that is us who made that election. There had been many examples in the Old Testament of the Jewish people choosing the 'wrong' King of their own, and the Jewish people at that time reaped what they sown. We too will experience the consequences of our choice, good or bad.
- His stance on life, abortion, and gay marriage
- His life as a soldier, prisoner of war, and years of service to the country as a senator is well known.
- His wealth is not a sudden occurrence, and what he has is principally because of his wife's being a beer company heiress
- His patriotism and love for our country seemed genuine to me
- I believe the things he said, especially when he is not in the main public eye, and mostly I think he says what he believed, as opposed to saying what the people want him to say.
- His past records in congress shows that he is not shy from making decisions yea or nay, as opposed to avoiding responsibility by voting PRESENT
- I have read an analysis by a mathematician comparing taxes on families earning less than $100K during the Clinton and Bush presidential years, based on tax tables comparison, and despite all the rhetoric’s, the data showed that the people are better off during Bush's presidential term.
- My fear of the governance of this country with no checks and balance as congress heads toward a 'veto proof' majority
- A drastic change in the direction of the Supreme Court decisions
I could also list the reasons of why I did not vote for the other candidate, but that would be disingenuous since some of you have voted for him. On November Four, we will know the choice of the people whether it is McCain or Obama, and although many will then say that the Lord have chosen the president of the United States, this is NOT CORRECT. The Lord gave us the freedom to make choices, and whomever we elected as our president elect, that is us who made that election. There had been many examples in the Old Testament of the Jewish people choosing the 'wrong' King of their own, and the Jewish people at that time reaped what they sown. We too will experience the consequences of our choice, good or bad.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
