Grocery Store Security

While I was at the grocery store this evening I saw some poor woman being run through a bio-metric gauntlet. She had to have her picture taken and multiple fingerprints scanned in order to cash a check. I didn't see any retinal scanners, or voice print identifiers, but perhaps she'd already passed those. Anyway, please don't mention this stuff to the TSA; it's already a major inconvenience to fly.

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MissionFish

With all the news about the Tsunami and donating, I thought I'd jump on the bandwagon and post a link to Mission Fish.

Mission Fish is a non-profit organization that works with e-Bay (through their e-Bay Giving Works program) to help sellers donate to charity, and to allow charities to sell on e-Bay in a manner that the buyers can be sure that it is a real donation, and not some scam or gimmick.

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Calendar Updated

I have updated my calendar through April, for those who are interested. Pretty much everything beyond X Games in January is tentative.

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A Tacklebox

In Matthew 4:18-22, Mark 1:16-20, and Luke 5:1-11 Jesus called Peter and Andrew to follow him and become fishers of men...

Likewise we are called to follow him and become fishers of men, as the candy-filled tacklebox (pictured above) reminded my dear friend Stephanie, who then gave it to me.

For a more effective tacklebox, try BibleGateway.com, e-Sword, or any of the many other Biblical sources on the Internet. And don't forget to read it! :-)

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Isaiah 40:28-31

Do you not known? Have you not heard, that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, is not faint, neither is weary? There is no measuring of his wisdom.

He gives power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increases their strength.

Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall:

But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.

~Isaiah 40:28-31

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The Christmas Story (part 2)

In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that the whole empire should be registered. (This registration first took place while Quirinius was governing Syria.) So everyone went to be registered, each to his proper town.

And Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family line of David, to be registered along with Mary, who was engaged to him and was pregnant. While they were there, the time came for her to give birth. Then she gave birth to her firstborn Son, and she wrapped Him in strips of cloth and laid Him in a feeding trough--because there was no room for them at the inn.

In the same region, shepherds were staying out in the fields and keeping watch at night over their flock. Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, "Don't be afraid, for look, I proclaim to you good news of great joy that will be for all the people: today a Savior, who is Christ the Lord, was born for you in the city of David. This will be the sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in strips of cloth and lying in a feeding trough." Suddenly there was a multitude of the heavenly host with the angel, praising God and saying: Glory to God in the highest heaven, and peace on earth to people He favors!

When the angels had left them and returned to heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let's go straight to Bethlehem and see what has happened, which the Lord has made known to us." They hurried off and found both Mary and Joseph, and the baby who was lying in the feeding trough. After seeing them, they reported the message they were told about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. But Mary kept all these words in her heart, and gave much thought to them. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had seen and heard, just as they had been told.

When the eight days were completed for His circumcision, He was named Jesus--the name given by the angel before He was conceived.

And when the days of her purification according to the law of Moses were finished, they brought Him up to Jerusalem to present Him to the Lord (just as it is written in the law of the Lord: Every firstborn male shall be called holy to the Lord) and to offer a sacrifice (according to what is stated in the law of the Lord: a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons).

There was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon. This man was righteous and devout, looking forward to Israel's consolation, and the Holy Spirit was on him. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he saw the Lord's Christ. Guided by the Spirit, he entered the temple complex. When the parents brought in the child Jesus to perform for Him what was customary under the law, Simeon took Him up in his arms, praised God, and said: Now, Master, You can dismiss Your slave in peace, according to Your word. For my eyes have seen Your salvation. You have prepared it in the presence of all peoples-- a light for revelation to the Gentiles and glory to Your people Israel. His father and mother were amazed at what was being said about Him. Then Simeon blessed them and told His mother Mary: "Indeed, this child is destined to cause the fall and rise of many in Israel and to be a sign that will be opposed-- and a sword will pierce your own soul--that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed."

There was also a prophetess, Anna, a daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was well along in years, having lived with her husband seven years after her marriage, and was a widow for 84 years. She did not leave the temple complex, serving God night and day with fastings and prayers. At that very moment, she came up and began to thank God and to speak about Him to all who were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem. When they had completed everything according to the law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth.
~Luke 2:1-39

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The Christmas Story (part 1)

Many have undertaken to compile a narrative about the events that have been fulfilled among us, just as the original eyewitnesses and servants of the word handed them down to us. It also seemed good to me, since I have carefully investigated everything from the very first, to write to you in orderly sequence, most honorable Theophilus, so that you may know the certainty of the things about which you have been instructed.

In the days of King Herod of Judea, there was a priest of Abijah's division named Zechariah. His wife was from the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. Both were righteous in God's sight, living without blame according to all the commandments and requirements of the Lord. But they had no children because Elizabeth could not conceive, and both of them were well along in years. When his division was on duty and he was serving as priest before God, it happened that he was chosen by lot, according to the custom of the priesthood, to enter the sanctuary of the Lord and burn incense. At the hour of incense the whole assembly of the people was praying outside. An angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing to the right of the altar of incense. When Zechariah saw the angel, he was startled and overcome with fear.

But the angel said to him: Do not be afraid, Zechariah, because your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you will name him John. There will be joy and delight for you, and many will rejoice at his birth. For he will be great in the sight of the Lord and will never drink wine or liquor. He will be filled with the Holy Spirit while still in his mother's womb. He will turn many of the sons of Israel to the Lord their God. And he will go before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of fathers to their children, and the disobedient to the understanding of the righteous, to make ready for the Lord a prepared people.

"How can I know this?" Zechariah asked the angel. "For I am an old man, and my wife is well along in years." The angel answered him, "I am Gabriel, who stands in the presence of God, and I was sent to speak to you and tell you this good news. Now listen! You will become silent and unable to speak until the day these things take place, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their proper time."

Meanwhile, the people were waiting for Zechariah, amazed that he stayed so long in the sanctuary. When he did come out, he could not speak to them. Then they realized that he had seen a vision in the sanctuary; because he beconed to them and remained speechless. When the days of his ministry were completed, he went back home. After these days his wife Elizabeth conceived and kept herself in seclusion for five months. She said, "The Lord has done this for me. He has looked with favor in these days to take away my disgrace among the people."

In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man named Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin's name was Mary. And the angel came to her and said, "Rejoice, favored woman! The Lord is with you." But she was deeply troubled by this statement, wondering what kind of greeting this could be. Then the angel told her: Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. Now listen: You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will call His name JESUS. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and His kingdom will have no end. Mary asked the angel, "How can this be, since I have not been intimate with a man?" The angel replied to her: The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore the holy One to be born will be called the Son of God. And consider your relative Elizabeth--even she has conceived a son in her old age, and this is the sixth month for her who was called barren. For nothing is impossible with God. "I am the Lord's slave," said Mary. "May it be done to me according to your word." Then the angel left her.

In those days Mary set out and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judah where she entered Zechariah's house and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the baby leaped inside her, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. Then she exclaimed with a loud cry, "You are the most blessed of women, and your child will be blessed! How could this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For you see, when the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby leaped for joy inside me! She who has believed is blessed because what was spoken to her by the Lord will be fulfilled!" And Mary said, "My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord, and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior, because He has looked with favor on the humble condition of His slave. Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed, because the Mighty One has done great things for me, and His name is holy. His mercy is from generation to generation on those who fear Him. He has done a mighty deed with His arm; He has scattered the proud because of the thoughts of their hearts; He has toppled the mighty from their thrones and exalted the lowly. He has satisfied the hungry with good things and sent the rich away empty. He has helped His servant Israel, mindful of His mercy, just as He spoke to our ancestors, to Abraham and his descendants forever." And Mary stayed with her about three months; then she returned to her home.

Now the time had come for Elizabeth to give birth, and she had a son. Then her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown her His great mercy, and they rejoiced with her. When they came to circumcise the child on the eighth day, they were going to name him Zechariah, after his father. But his mother responded, "No! He will be called John." Then they said to her, "None of your relatives has that name." So they motioned to his father to find out what he wanted him to be called. He asked for a writing tablet and wrote: HIS NAME IS JOHN. And they were all amazed. Immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue set free, and he began to speak, praising God.

Fear came on all those who lived around them, and all these things were being talked about throughout the hill country of Judea. All who heard about him took it to heart, saying, "What then will this child become?" For, indeed, the Lord's hand was with him. Then his father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied: Praise the Lord, the God of Israel, because He has visited and provided redemption for His people. He has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of His servant David, just as He spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets in ancient times; salvation from our enemies and from the clutches of those who hate us. He has dealt mercifully with our fathers and remembered His holy covenant-- the oath that He swore to our father Abraham. He has given us the privilege, since we have been rescued from our enemies' clutches, to serve Him without fear in holiness and righteousness in His presence all our days. And child, you will be called a prophet of the Most High, for you will go before the Lord to prepare His ways, to give His people knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins. Because of our God's merciful compassion, the Dawn from on high will visit us to shine on those who live in darkness and the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace. The child grew up and became spiritually strong, and he was in the wilderness until the day of his public appearance to Israel.

Luke, Chapter 1

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Life is full of soccer balls.

Yesterday evening, as I was walking Husky, we happened past a soccer ball lying in the parking lot. It was beside the sidewalk, in a parking space. It would have taken but a moment to have reached down and moved the ball to the safer side of the sidewalk...

How many soccer balls do we pass every day? Lord, grant us the wisdom to perceive the soccer balls in our life; before they become weighted down by the cars of this world.

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Nothing is happier...

... than a husky-mixed mutt once the weather reaches 0°F. This morning the temperature is a nice cool 11°F with a wind chill of -2°F. This must be good training for Aspen Colorado.

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Psalms 100

Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all ye lands.

Serve the LORD with gladness: come before his presence with singing.

Know ye that the LORD he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.

Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name.

For the LORD is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations.

~Psalms 100:1-5

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Silly e-mail scams.

This is a new twist on the "Nigerian Letter Scam". The ones I usually get are e-mails claiming that an oil company executive and his family were killed in a tragic car crash. Of course it is always a bank employee who doesn't want their government to sieze the unclaimed assets and is willing to split the cash.

Don't let greed cost you. The people who send this type of e-mail are trying to get your bank account number so they can empty it, or other personal information so they can "steal" your identity.

MR CHEUNG PUI
Hang Seng Bank Ltd
Sai Wan Ho Branch
171 Shaukiwan Road
Hong Kong.

Good Day,
Let me start by introducing myself. I am Mr. Cheung
Pui director of operations of the Hang Seng Bank Ltd.
I have a obscured business suggestion for you.
Before the U.S and Iraqi war our client Major Fadi
Bassem who was with the Iraqi forces and also business
man made a numbered fixed deposit for 18 calendar
months, with a value of Twenty Four million Five
Hundred Thousand United State
Dollars only in my branch. Upon maturity several
notice was sent to him, even during the war early this
year. Again after the war another notification was
sent and still no response came from him. We later
find out that the Major and his family had been killed
during the war in bomb blast that hit their home.
After further investigation it was also discovered
that Major Fadi Bassem did not declare any next of
kin in his official papers including the paper work of
his bank deposit. And he also confided in me the last
time he was at my office that no one except me knew of
his deposit in my bank. So, Twenty Four millions Five
Hundred Thousand United State Dollars is still lying
in my bank and no one will ever come forward to claim
it. What bothers me most is that according to the to
the laws of my country at the expiration 3 and half
years (3yrs, 6months) the funds will revert to the
ownership of the Hong Kong Government if nobody
applies to claim the funds. Against this backdrop, my
suggestion to you is
that I will like you as a foreigner to stand as the
next of kin to Major Fadi Bassem so that you will be
able to receive his funds.
WHAT IS TO BE DONE:
I want you to know that I have had everything planned
out so that we shall come out successful. I have
contacted an attorney that will prepare the necessary
document that will back you up as the next of kin to
Major Fadi Bassem ,all that is required from you at
this stage is for you to provide me with your Full
Names and Address so that the attorney can commence
his job. After you have been made the next of kin, the
attorney will also fill in for claims on your behalf
and secure the necessary approval and letter of
probate in your favor for the move of the funds to an
account that will be provided
by you.
There is no risk involved at all in the matter as we
are going adopt a legalized method and the attorney
will prepare all the necessary documents. Please
endeavor to observe utmost discretion in all matters
concerning this issue. Once the funds have been
transferred to your nominated bank account we shall
negotiate our sharing percentage and agreed on it.
Should you be interested please send me your full
names and current residential address and I will
prefers you to reach me on the email address below
(cc_pui003@primposta.com) and finally after that
i shall provide you with more details of this
operation.

Your earliest response to this letter will be
appreciated.


Kind Regards
Mr. Cheung Pui

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A Few Things I've Learned This Week

Just because I'm not out on the road, doesn't mean that interesting things arent going on. :-)

A free haircut is worth every penny!

And

Not everyone truely appreciates a green wool felt hat. :-)

Furthermore an exaustive (10 min) web search does not prove a thing doesn't exist. I still cannot find a USB/RS-232 combo card on the web, but these guys supply them with some of their computers.

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eBay item - NEC LAPTOP Computers Excellent Price

eBay item 6729845556 (Ends Dec-23-04 11:04:19 PST) - NEC LAPTOP Computers Excellent Price

Anybody need a thousand laptops? Only $45 each! What amazes me is the very inexpensive shipping (check out the shipping calcualtor in the lower left of the page).

One can find interesting things while Christmas shopping on eBay. :-)

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If we aren't supposed to eat animals,

why are they made of meat?

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For those who need evidence

Project Censored 2005 - Story #11

The media, can, does, and even believes it has a "vested interest in" lies.

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Thoughts For All Ages

PBS Kids - Mister Rogers' Neighborhood: Thoughts For All Ages

Don't let the "PBS Kids" thing fool you, these thoughts really are applicable to all ages, and some are aimed directly for adults. It is worth your time to peruse them. Mr. Rogers' wisdom is impressive.

Well? Are you still here? Go!

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Ezekiel 16:48-50

As I live, saith the Lord GOD, Sodom thy sister hath not done, she nor her daughters, as thou hast done, thou and thy daughters. Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. And they were haughty, and committed abomination before me: therefore I took them away as I saw good.
~Ezekiel 16:48-50

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Buggy Lexmark software

My company has purchased several Lexmark Z35 for employee use while out on the road. While it seems to be a decent printer, its software is *very* unfriendly. I nearly locked up my computer when XP's built in firewall kept it from communicating (without my knowledge or permission) to presumably Lexmark. So, I uninstalled the software (I had previously dropped it as a printer due to it's buggy driver) but a quick search revealed quite a few left over files (even after the reboot to clean of files in use). I highly recommend against purchasing/using a Lexmark printer after this experience.

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Geocaching

This looks interesting, one of the guys at work is involved in this hobby. Basically, people hide little boxes with fun stuff in it, then post the location on the internet. Then other people go find it and swap items out, meanwhile they post notes and pictures on the Geocaching website. There are many variations on that theme, and there are thousands and thousands of caches in more than 200 countries. I'm definately going to try this out. :-)

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Mea Culpa

I had mistakenly posted that the United Way does not support the Boy Scouts of America. I did that based on hearsay... That's what you get when you believe hearsay. Anyway I did a little reasearch and came up with this.

In a nutshell, only ten local chapters of the United Way chose to stop supporting the Boy Scouts in their area. These local chapters are San Francisco, Santa Clara and Santa Cruz, CA; New Haven and Branford, CT; Santa Fe, NM; Fall River, MA; Portland, ME; Somerset County New Jersey; and Providence, RI.

If you live in one of these communities, you might consider contacting your local United Way chapter (the links above go to the United Way contact page for each chapter) and perhaps even consider supporting local charities directly.

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Next Event

I have my flight information for Winter X Games IX in Aspen Colorado. The dates are in my calendar. Should be fun, perhaps I should learn to ski before I go to one of the country's premier ski resort areas. :-)

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Off Target

Target (sometimes pronounced "tar' jzay") a.k.a. the world famous French department store ;-) has misguidedly decided to stop the Salvation Army from collecting at their stores. Target claims that they have a general no solicitation policy, here. Perhaps they need to rethink this position... just as concerned people should perhaps rethink their shopping itinerary.

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Name Change

The name Life and Times of Me :-) was appropriately self centered, when I started this blog. Perhaps it still is, but I feel the need to change the name anyway. A Daily Walk is similarly lacking in creativity as a name for a blog, it'll do for now. ;-)

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Cosmic Dog Walk

As I walk my dog, early in the morning, I can't help but see reflections of my own reality. He struggles and pulls trying to go his own direction. The leash is an anchor, stopping him from chasing a squirrel on the other side of the busy road. "It's running, it must want to play! Who cares about those big fast moving metal things, they can't hurt me!"

I can only imagine, as he is caught up short trying to reach a cast out chicken bone or a bit of moldy bread, "Why is this so hard? I only want so little!" Sometimes he reaches the chicken bone, only to have it wrested from his mouth and watch it be, once again, cast out of his reach. Other times he eats the moldy bread, and becomes sick. He doesn't understand, in either case.

Of course, analogies always fail. I can't say that I see my reflection in my dog's desire to go out on our course. If he laid down and forced me to drag him from the house... Nor can I see a reflection in my dog's desire to pull me along the path in the proper direction, between his moments of distraction. No, I have many distractions broken up by moments of hanging back, not wanting to go forward.

There is much to be learned from a dog.

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