I am beginning a new chapter in life, the "Writing Chapter." I have always wanted to write and record life in literature and now I am at the point in my life where I am ready to begin. I have two books coming in right now which I am very excited to read:
Writing Life Stories, by Bill Roorbach
Courage and Craft, by Barbara Abercrombie
I want to teach myself to write and be able to bring life to memories and life events, and these books should be able to help me do that. Hannah's mother has Courage and Craft and I have read the introduction and part of the first chapter and the author mentions that the first part of writing is finding literary inspiration through reading and encourages the budding writer to begin their journey by sitting down and reading and reading and reading. Now I have been reading a lot recently, but the books I have been reading are books dealing with politics and the Bible, not narratives. So I am very excited and after I finish my current book I am going to dive head-first into some novels. It has been years since I have read any, so it is about time I sit down and appreciate some good narratives. Hannah tells me I am not allowed to read any novels until I have read the entire Narnia series (yes, I admit, I have never read them before) so I am going to start with those. I love C.S. Lewis' writing style, so that will be fun. After those I am going to read Safely Home by Randy Alcorn. I have heard lots of good reviews of his work and have always wanted to read this book. Then I am going to read some of Hannah's favorites, the Mitford Series. Those books present life and events exactly how I would like to be able to present them myself. I would love to write my life story and have it read like a Mitford book.
So having read those novels, I will probably proceed into Bill Roorbach's book to work on my writing skills and then go into Courage and Craft which gives specific steps to putting your life onto paper.
I am very excited :-)
Saturday, July 19, 2008
Friday, July 18, 2008
ChaCha!
Hannah joined ChaCha a few days ago to make a few bucks, so I decided to join too. I was accepted and just finished my simulator test. I should hear within the next two days whether I passed it. Hannah has already passed it and is making money! She makes 15 cents for every question she is asked but after she has answered 1000 questions and worked for thirty days she will graduate to the regular rate of 20 cents per question.
ChaCha is an answer service where people can text message any question to ChaCha (242242) and a ChaCha "guide" will find and send the answer back. That is what Hannah is doing and I will be doing. It is fun and easy and a way to make a little money. I think of it in groups of 100 questions, because for every 100 answers I make $20. Each question takes one to three mintues so it is definitely a way to make at least a little money, and like I said, it is fun too :-).
Hannah was asked the question today, "If you eat a mermaid, is it considered cannibalism?" Hannah answered, "Only if you are a mermaid yourself."
Nyuk, nyuk :-)
ChaCha is an answer service where people can text message any question to ChaCha (242242) and a ChaCha "guide" will find and send the answer back. That is what Hannah is doing and I will be doing. It is fun and easy and a way to make a little money. I think of it in groups of 100 questions, because for every 100 answers I make $20. Each question takes one to three mintues so it is definitely a way to make at least a little money, and like I said, it is fun too :-).
Hannah was asked the question today, "If you eat a mermaid, is it considered cannibalism?" Hannah answered, "Only if you are a mermaid yourself."
Nyuk, nyuk :-)
Thursday, July 17, 2008
My Short Testimony
A friend asked for my testimony, this is what I wrote him:
I was the firstborn of five into a Christian home. My parents taught me well and at age six years after hearing the Gospel told during AWANA, I prayed in my bed and told Jesus that I believed in him and wanted to spend eternity with him. Then I prayed it many more times over the next couple weeks, just to make sure that Jesus completely understood me :-). We were living in Pennsylvania when God spoke to my father and told him it was time he left his job and become a missionary. So we packed up and left home in faith with almost no money in promised support. God provided for our every need over those years. My dad is a computer programmer for New Tribes Mission and by God's grace has designed software which is now used by many missionaries around the world to help bring the Gospel to unreached tribal groups. I left home after graduating high school and returned to Pennsylvania to get my Bible degree, and halfway through the year God spoke to me one night and said, "I want you to marry Hannah." Now Hannah had been my best friend since age four, and the thought of being in a romantic relationship with her was quite shocking to me. I called her up a few days later and told her what He had said only to find He had been preparing her heart for it. She was the first girl I was ever in a relationship with, and we got married less than a year later. Now I work for a company manufacturing electronic church organs, am still married to my godly wife, and am experiencing the joys of fatherhood with my nearly 7 month old daughter. God is good and God is faithful. I owe everything to Him. All praise and glory and honor be to Him forever and ever. Amen.
I was the firstborn of five into a Christian home. My parents taught me well and at age six years after hearing the Gospel told during AWANA, I prayed in my bed and told Jesus that I believed in him and wanted to spend eternity with him. Then I prayed it many more times over the next couple weeks, just to make sure that Jesus completely understood me :-). We were living in Pennsylvania when God spoke to my father and told him it was time he left his job and become a missionary. So we packed up and left home in faith with almost no money in promised support. God provided for our every need over those years. My dad is a computer programmer for New Tribes Mission and by God's grace has designed software which is now used by many missionaries around the world to help bring the Gospel to unreached tribal groups. I left home after graduating high school and returned to Pennsylvania to get my Bible degree, and halfway through the year God spoke to me one night and said, "I want you to marry Hannah." Now Hannah had been my best friend since age four, and the thought of being in a romantic relationship with her was quite shocking to me. I called her up a few days later and told her what He had said only to find He had been preparing her heart for it. She was the first girl I was ever in a relationship with, and we got married less than a year later. Now I work for a company manufacturing electronic church organs, am still married to my godly wife, and am experiencing the joys of fatherhood with my nearly 7 month old daughter. God is good and God is faithful. I owe everything to Him. All praise and glory and honor be to Him forever and ever. Amen.
Jed Babbin Quote
"Going to war without France is like going deer hunting without an accordion."
This made me laugh :-)
This made me laugh :-)
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
My Conservative President
This is a snippet from a press conference the President gave today. His answer is dead on. Conservatives believe in freedom and free markets while liberals/socialists believe in control and restriction. He defines the difference so well.
Q Mr. President, understanding what you say about energy supplies being tight and the debate over energy, which has gone on for years and will continue long through the campaign and into the next administration -- one thing nobody debates is that if Americans use less energy the current supply/demand equation would improve. Why have you not sort of called on Americans to drive less and to turn down the thermostat?
THE PRESIDENT: They're smart enough to figure out whether they're going to drive less or not. I mean, you know, it's interesting what the price of gasoline has done, is it caused people to drive less. That's why they want smaller cars, they want to conserve. But the consumer is plenty bright, Mark. The marketplace works.
Secondly, we have worked with Congress to change CAFE standards, and had a mandatory alternative fuel requirement.
So no question about what you just said is right. One way to correct the imbalance is to save, is to conserve. And as you notice my statement yesterday, I talked about good conservation. And people can figure out whether they need to drive more or less; they can balance their own checkbooks.
Q But you don't see the need to ask -- you don't see the value of your calling for a campaign --
THE PRESIDENT: I think people ought to conserve and be wise about how they use gasoline and energy. Absolutely. And there's some easy steps people can take. You know, if they're not in their home, they don't keep their air-conditioning running. There's a lot of things people can do.
But my point to you, Mark, is that, you know, it's a little presumptuous on my part to dictate to consumers how they live their lives. The American people are plenty capable and plenty smart people and they'll make adjustments to their own pocketbooks. That's why I was so much in favor of letting them keep more of their own money. It's a philosophical difference: Should the government spend their money, or should they spend their own money? And I've got faith in the American people.
Q Mr. President, understanding what you say about energy supplies being tight and the debate over energy, which has gone on for years and will continue long through the campaign and into the next administration -- one thing nobody debates is that if Americans use less energy the current supply/demand equation would improve. Why have you not sort of called on Americans to drive less and to turn down the thermostat?
THE PRESIDENT: They're smart enough to figure out whether they're going to drive less or not. I mean, you know, it's interesting what the price of gasoline has done, is it caused people to drive less. That's why they want smaller cars, they want to conserve. But the consumer is plenty bright, Mark. The marketplace works.
Secondly, we have worked with Congress to change CAFE standards, and had a mandatory alternative fuel requirement.
So no question about what you just said is right. One way to correct the imbalance is to save, is to conserve. And as you notice my statement yesterday, I talked about good conservation. And people can figure out whether they need to drive more or less; they can balance their own checkbooks.
Q But you don't see the need to ask -- you don't see the value of your calling for a campaign --
THE PRESIDENT: I think people ought to conserve and be wise about how they use gasoline and energy. Absolutely. And there's some easy steps people can take. You know, if they're not in their home, they don't keep their air-conditioning running. There's a lot of things people can do.
But my point to you, Mark, is that, you know, it's a little presumptuous on my part to dictate to consumers how they live their lives. The American people are plenty capable and plenty smart people and they'll make adjustments to their own pocketbooks. That's why I was so much in favor of letting them keep more of their own money. It's a philosophical difference: Should the government spend their money, or should they spend their own money? And I've got faith in the American people.
έκλεκτός
I have begun a word study on έκλεκτός, which in English is translated "elect" or "chosen." I see too many instances where the word "elect" in the New Testament is talking about the nation of Israel, but people (specifically those who believe Covenant Theology) confuse them to be talking about the Church. So I am beginning to dig in and find out exactly how the word is used in the New Testament. We will see how this turns out! I will definitely post my findings.
Monday, July 14, 2008
Why Government-Run Healthcare Is NOT The Answer
From http://www.biggovhealth.org/stories/#lindsaymc
Lindsay McCreith
Lindsay McCreith, 66, was told he had a brain tumor but that he would have to wait four and a half months to obtain an MRI to rule out the possibility that it was cancerous. Unwilling to risk the progression of what might be cancer, Mr. McCreith obtained an MRI in Buffalo, which revealed the tumor was malignant. Even with this diagnosis in hand, the Ontario system still refused to provide timely treatment, so Mr. McCreith had surgery in Buffalo to remove the cancerous brain tumor in March, 2006. In Ontario, Mr. McCreith would have waited eight months for surgery, according to his family doctor. Eight months is enough time for a cancer to worsen, spread and progress to an irreversible stage. Had Mr. McCreith not paid $26,600 for immediate care, he might be dead today.
Lindsay McCreith
Lindsay McCreith, 66, was told he had a brain tumor but that he would have to wait four and a half months to obtain an MRI to rule out the possibility that it was cancerous. Unwilling to risk the progression of what might be cancer, Mr. McCreith obtained an MRI in Buffalo, which revealed the tumor was malignant. Even with this diagnosis in hand, the Ontario system still refused to provide timely treatment, so Mr. McCreith had surgery in Buffalo to remove the cancerous brain tumor in March, 2006. In Ontario, Mr. McCreith would have waited eight months for surgery, according to his family doctor. Eight months is enough time for a cancer to worsen, spread and progress to an irreversible stage. Had Mr. McCreith not paid $26,600 for immediate care, he might be dead today.
Ed is back!
Finally after 6 weeks out, Ed is back! He had quadruple bypass surgery in June... fun stuff. But he is doing great and is back to work! We needed him really bad. Bill was trying to keep up with at least some of Ed's work... but even that did not work. It took him 1000 times longer to do anything that Ed did. Then I would get yelled at for not having something ready in time and I would point out it was Bill who would not finish what we needed to do only to be told, "Don't be so hard on Bill." What? You holler at me but when you find out Bill is the problem you just shrug it off? I do not understand that, but now that Ed is back things will get done and we will have the parts we need and I will not get in trouble for Bill taking too long to do Ed's work.
We had Chocolate Fudge Cake from Bethlehem Diner this morning (Glenn brought it in) and I brought in ice cream and we had a small party. It was great :-)
We had Chocolate Fudge Cake from Bethlehem Diner this morning (Glenn brought it in) and I brought in ice cream and we had a small party. It was great :-)
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