Thursday, July 22, 2010

Life or Pancakes?


Love this little exchange in the movie, Stranger Than Fiction, after Dr. Hilbert (played by Dustin Hoffman) has just told Harold Crick (Will Ferrell) that his impending death is inevitable so Harold should go and do some of the things he's always wanted to do until his certain demise takes him. Harold's first thought, of course, is that he wants to live.

Dr. Jules Hilbert: Hell Harold, you could just eat nothing but pancakes if you wanted.

Harold Crick: What is wrong with you? Hey, I don't want to eat nothing but pancakes, I want to live! I mean, who in their right mind in a choice between pancakes and living chooses pancakes?

Dr. Jules Hilbert: Harold, if you pause to think, you'd realize that that answer is inextricably contingent upon the type of life being led... and, of course, the quality of the pancakes.

Truth of the matter is, much of the time, I may as well be eating the pancakes. Now, I'm not saying that I, or anyone else for that matter, need to be running down a daily/weekly/monthly to-do list, and certainly not someone else's to-do list, to fulfill some nebulous life productivity requirement. That's just spinning wheels... well, a lot of the time it is. Often times, the right thing to do might be to... take a nap, complete a Sudoku, or be still and know that God Is. However, way too much of my time seems to be spent just making the hours go by until it's finally time to do that one thing I've been waiting to do. In the meantime, I miss so much.

There were several times when I was younger and even more recently, I promised myself, "I'm going to stop taking so much for granted. This is life. Live it." Broken promises. Some things, sure, I throw myself into - at least when I'm of that mindset. But there's always so much else i could be doing.

I always say I want to be writing novels, songs, shorts -- yet I'll go weeks without writing.

People I love and care for have asked me to pray diligently for them -- I'll go days or weeks without praying.

I want to fish more -- but I don't ever go fishing.

I've sworn I'm going to learn to play that guitar in my room -- but I hardly touch it.

I've got friends -- but they reach out to me far more than I reach to them.

I say "I love you, God" -- but keep Him at arm's length.

Now, I've gotten pretty good at some video games, and I can probably win a few television trivia contests. And please, quiz me on Dolphin football, Reds baseball, or Auburn sports. In and of themselves, all of those things are alright - and some uniquely part of me. But here's a confession - since I was divorced, I moved into a house in a neighborhood and have lived there almost two years... and I can't tell you the name of one other person (except the last names of the neighbors to my left because their name's on their mailbox and sometimes I get their mail) in the whole dad gum neighborhood. Well, maybe one or two of the kids - but that's it. We're to love our neighbors -- and everyone's our neighbors -- but hell, Rich, your neighbors are your neighbors!!!

That stack of pancakes is starting to look awful good.

In the end, I guess I can sum it up in a famous one-liner from another great movie:

Andy Dufresne: Get busy living, or get busy dying.

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Thursday, July 15, 2010

Unidentified Flying Object Over China

Starting with: If videos are legit --

--something weird happened in China, "they" say. Here are more words and video links regarding the mysterious vessel hovering around the skies over the Xiaoshan Airport, shutting the airport down and stopping flights for an extended period of time (about an hour). There're all kinds of Internet stories on this one - just Google "UFO Over China 2010" and you're there.

A couple of other statements should be made here:

Trust No One

Believe Nothing

Smile!

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Trying to Invent Our Own Party Game

Through the years, at all of our family get-togethers, reunions, and such, we've done the party game thing with games such as Trivial Pursuit, Taboo, Apples to Apples, Wits and Wagers, Scattergories, Pictionary... the list goes on and on.

A weekend or so ago with all my family in town, we went out and procured three relatively newer ones: Loaded Questions, Pass the Popcorn, and Would You Rather... All were fun in their own ways and got us laughing, joking, and poking at each other... and then it got me to thinking -- I need to come up with one of these games. How hard can it be?

Brainstorming, my first and probably best thought - MUSIC!!! - I wasn't aware of any party game out there using music as its focus. Many of us go online and play the 80s or 90s or 2000s music trivia quizzes and that's fun, but how about rolling all that into a party game? And then, there used to be the game show "Name That Tune", and why not steal some elements of that. And then on the 101 station (DirecTV), I flipped across a quirky little game show: Rock and a Hard Place, where the Bay City Rollers were taking on Leif Garret and cronies in a new little game show. One of the interesting things they did there was give one contestant a kazoo, and he had to play a relatively famous song with the little instrument for his other team members to guess. Something like that to throw in a party game would be really cool, fun, and would really garner the guffaws. Think about it! Your crazy cousin blowing on a kazoo to some Dionne Warwick, Ten CC, or Rick James tune at which everyone could guess and mostly get wrong. Everyone'd be rolling in laughter all the while punching the cousin for his utter lack of musical talent!

So maybe you could have cards where contestants guess at songs with four to six categories (i.e Lyric Snippet, Song Facts, Kazoo Tune, and we'd have to think of a couple more), and you'd have a color-coated board path corresponding with each of the categories. You could have cards, or better yet - game versions, with differing types of music (i.e. classic rock, pop, country, alternative, etc.). The board would have a path to the Grand Stage where we'd need a cool final game twist for a person to win -- we'll have to think about that.

Alright, so I've gotten the ball rolling. Can anyone help me out here? Or maybe you have a better game that's not about music at all. Use your imagination. I am looking for board games, for the most part, rather than something like bouncing-a-quarter-off-a-tabletop-into-a-shot-glass-else-you-drink type of fun and frolic. And I'll keep at it, too.

Surely... surely, we can come up with something fun and ingenious! Then, we'll patent it, and anyone who responded in the comments can become millionaires along with us when the game sales royalties start waterfalling in. Here we go!

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Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Wanda Said the Blog Was Languishing!!! Quick Robin! To the Bat Blog!

Of course, Wanda made that comment back in late June and now it's mid-July. And the last post was in April. Ugh. Maybe it's worse than languishing. Maybe, it's just plain dead.

But that's okay. We'll be Zombieblog.

Just a few tidbits:
  • No idea where Ken is at this moment. For all I know, he's ZombieKen.
  • There is no worse food trifecta than mayonnaise, Spaghettios, and sugar beets. Good luck trying.
  • Toy Story 3 & Despicable Me were both very cute and worth seeing, although I have to say, taking a family to the movies is no longer a fiscally reasonable thing to do. I do it anyway, but it's cheaper, for instance, to go see a pro baseball game. That said, I'm gonna be seeing Inception very soon.
  • Speaking of baseball, the Cincinnati Reds are in first place at the All-Star Break! Go Reds!
  • And sportswise, the Miami Dolphins open training camp in less than two weeks - HURRAY!!!
  • Psych, Season 5, starts... TONIGHT!!!

We'll just see where blogging takes me here in the next few days, weeks, and months. It sure would be nice to be disciplined about something, so there you go!


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Monday, April 26, 2010

Eyjafjallajokull Volcano

Just thought I'd share a link someone shared with me with pictures of the Eyjafjallajokull volcano eruptions. The power of nature as created by God - these pictures are awesome, terrible, cool, amazing, scary, and wonderful. Prayers, hope, and goodwill to all, especially the Icelanders and Europeans, affected by these eruptions.




http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/04/more_from_eyjafjallajokull.html?


Hope you like the pictures.

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Thursday, April 15, 2010

Church Sign: Death and Taxes

A local church here in Huntsville has a sign up that reads:

Death and Taxes - Are you ready for both?

My answer to that is: only for death. It's April 15th, and I still need to finish my taxes. Hopefully, all you mature, independent, patriotic citizens of these United States are a little better off than me in those particular pursuits (maturity, independence, patriotism, etc.).

For what it's worth, here I am blogging at midnight. I have to laugh because there just aren't any good excuses.

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Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Dorkman-Related

Not that it matters much over here at the Realm, but Ken was good enough to (re-)lay-out our sister-blog, The Dorkman Cometh, as we're hoping to get more author visits and spread the word about our fine, ingenious and socially-relevant novel on a larger scale than it has been.

Also, today and tomorrow we will have been at ALLA, the Alabama Librarians Association conference held here at the Von Braun Civic Center in Huntsville, AL. In case you passed by, Ken was the one with the "DORK" shirt!!!

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Monday, April 05, 2010

Merlin

Has anyone else watched or been watching any of this little BBC show called Merlin?

One of my son's really into fanstasy stories, and I told him about Merlin a few months ago while watching the show last year Sunday nights on NBC before football started. Since, NBC has dropped the show, but the SyFy Channel scooped it up. Anyhow, he watched his first Merlin show last Friday and really loved it.

The premise is essentially a reboot of the King Arthur legend beginning when Arthur and Merlin were in their teens a la Smallville and the Superman saga -- in fact, the show's producer commented that Smallville was quite an influence for Merlin. In the show, King Uther Pendragon, has outlawed all sorcery in Camelot. Meanwhile, Merlin is a magical being serving a snooty but good-hearted Prince Arthur for the good of Camelot that comes under all kinds of attacks that are going to take some of Merlin's magic to defeat. The building of the Arthur/Merlin friendship is a key part of the show. Also, Camelot regulars Guinevere and Morgana are invloved, and guest appearances by Lancelot, an imprisoned magical golden dragon, and some of the other figures in the Camelot legends should be expected.

I haven't watched too many episodes, but each one I've seen has been really entertaining and totally family-friendly -- unless you're just dead-set against the "magic" issue, which I realize some people are or you're very hard core on limitations to the Arthurian legend because this one takes its liberties. Also, most of the actors and actresses in the series are newcomers, so you're seeing them essentially as the role they're playing, which is cool.

Also, for anyone interested, Year One of Merlin comes out on DVD beginning April 20th. I ordered it for my son for Easter here at Amazon. If you're looking for a fun, family-friendly show, check out Merlin - Friday nights at 9:00 p.m. CST on SyFy. I recommend it!

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Sunday, April 04, 2010

Happy Easter!


Sunday comes! Jesus lives! The Resurrection and the Life. Believe!!!




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Saturday, April 03, 2010

Where I Fall Short

Just a very, very few of the areas where I fall short:

Love for others. Honesty. Hard work. Friendliness. Loyalty. Faithfulness. Personal discipline. Pridefulness. Anger. Parental guidance. Spiritual discipline. Listening. Broken vows. Dietary concerns. Being a neighbor. Hard-heartedness. Prioritizing. Competitiveness and fair play. Showing grace. Boundaries. Stewardship. Following through. Foul language. Sympathy. Lustfulness. Kindness. Self-indulgence. Bearing others' burdens. Protecting my own heart. Prayer. Apathy. Love for God.

So I confess, work on, and pray about those things where I'm the one holding the hammer and driving the nails. On the Saturday between Good Friday and Easter, those sins haunt me. But for all those things... Jesus died. And Easter Sunday's coming.

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Thursday, April 01, 2010

Groovesharkin'

After receiving my message from management of having my Pandora music cut down to 40 hours per month, I was informed by oft commenter and pal, Douglas, about Grooveshark. It's sort of the next step up from Pandora, in my opinion, as listeners can create their own playlist. It's like having my own Ipod at work. Bannerman! I've got one ninety [*edited - now up to 111]songs long right now, and I'm gonna list if for you -- in order -- and see if you can get a little list going that's better than mine. It certainly doesn't have to be as long as mine. Also, you're welcome to flame me for some of my poorer choices.

1. Burden, The Connells
2. Slide, The Goo Goo Dolls
3. Bare, Matt Nathanson
4. The Lust, the Flesh, the Eyes, and The Pride of Life - 77s
5.Pickin' It Up - Hot Hot Heat
6. I Was Wrong - Social Distortion
7. Nod Over Coffee - Mark Heard
8. Love Your Mind - The Choir
9. Suspicious Minds - Elvis Presley
10. Train in Vain - The Clash
11. Just Like Heaven - The Cure
12. Deep End - 77s
13. Shimmer - Fuel
14. Mr. Tambourine Man - The Byrds
15. I Don't Like Mondays - Boomtown Rats
16. The Best of Jill Hives - Guided by Voices
17. When the World Gets Weak - Warren Zanes
18. Since Your Gone - The Cars
19. Where the Streets Have No Name - U2
20. Don't Forget to Dance - The Kinks
21. The Waiting - Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
22. That Ain't Right - Pete Droge and the Sinners
23. Where Do the Children Go - Hooters
24. Dulce Et Decorum Est - Matthew Ryan
25. Hold on Hope - Guided by Voices
26. Wither, I'm a Flower - Whiskeytown
27. I Must Be High - Wilco
28. All These Things That I've Done - The Killers
29. Bent - Matthew Nathanson
30. If You Don't Love Me (I'll Kill Myself) - Pete Droge
31. I Don't Love You - Lost Dogs
32. Middle of the Road - The Pretenders
33. Bizarre Love Triangle - New Order
34. There She Goes - Sixpence None the Richer
35. Breathe - Michelle Branch
36. The Adventure - Angels and Airwaves
37. What's My Age Again - Blink 182
38. Lurgee - Radiohead
39. Time After Time - Cyndi Lauper
40. Hard Luck Woman - Kiss
41. Can't Help Falling in Love With You - Lick the Tins
42. It Could Be Worse - Matthew Ryan
43. Waiting to Derail - Whiskeytown
44. Left of the Dial - The Replacements
45. World Class Fad - Paul Westerberg
46. Truth Is - Sister Hazel
47. Jam - Toad the Wet Sprocket
48. Easier - Glen Phillips
49. When You Say Nothing at All - Allison Krauss
50. Does Your Mother Know - ABBA
51. Wolfgang - Pete Droge and the Sinners
52. Mr. Brightside - The Killers
53. Big Brown Eyes - Old 97s
54. Fallen World - Altar Boys
55. The Sunny Side of the Street - The Pogues
56. Camera One - Josh Joplin Group
57. That Much Further West - Lucero
58. Disappointed - The Connells
59. Saturday Night - Bay City Rollers
60. Nearly Lost You - Screaming Trees
61. Thunder Island - Jay Ferguson
62. That Thing You Do - The Wonders
63. Wedding Day - Rosie Thomas
64. New Madrid - Uncle Tupelo
65. Garden Days - Jolene
66. I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend - The Ramones
67. Basket Case - Green Day
68. Superman's Song - Crash Test Dummies
69. Alcoholiday - Teenage Fanclub
70. Ain't That Enough - Teenage Fanclub
71. Stone Cold Yesterday - The Connells
72. Always Saturday - Guadacanal Diary
73. Compositions of the Young and Old - Bob Mould
74. Girlfriend in a Coma - The Smiths
75. Vacation - The GoGos
76. Bonzo Goes to Bitburg - The Ramones
77. I Know You Know - Friendly Indians
78. Offer - Vigilantes of Love
79. Now as the Train Pulls Away - Bill Mallonee and Vigilantes of Love
80. Sing Me Sweet - Matt Nathanson
81. Welcome Back - John Sebastian
82. Do You Believe in Magic - The Lovin' Spoonful
83. All She Said - Toad the Wet Sprocket
84. P.S. - Toad the Wet Sprocket
85. Angels We Have Heard on High - Sixpence
86. If She Knew What She Wants - The Bangles
87. It's Raining Again - Supertramp
88. Brim Full of Asha - Cornershop
89. For Blue Skies - Strays Don't Sleep
90. Back into Your World - Son Volt
[*edited to 111
91. Feel the Pain - Dinosaur Jr.
92. Competition Smile - Gin Blossoms
93. To Call My Own - Golden Smog
94. Speed of Sound - Coldplay
95. Sick of Myself - Matthew Sweet
96. A Little Is Enough - Pete Townsend
97. Do It for Love - 77s
98. You Know That Is Nothing New - Vigilantes of Love
99. In a Big Country - Big Country
100. Build Me Up Buttercup - The Foundations
101. December - Collective Soul
102. Accidentally in Love - Counting Crows
103. The Things We Do for Love - 10cc
104. Blue Jean - David Bowie
105. Secondhand News - Fleetwood Mac
106. Surrender - Cheap Trick
107. Don't You (Forget about Me) - Simple Minds
108. Back on the Chain Gang - The Pretenders
109. Save It for a Rainy Day - The Jayhawks
110. First Date - Blink 182
111. That Thing You Do - The Wonders
okay, I'll stop adding - at least to the post - now :) ]

I list all these, not so you know what a goober I am with my musical choices, but rather so that you can see that Grooveshark's catalog of songs tha you can choose through is extensive. And all types of music are available. You want classical, R&B, soul, rap, country, Christian, metal... they're all there. You want 1950s, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, 2000s... all there. Like Pandora, there's a "Radio" button you can hit, and it has some kind of formula that tries to see what your tastes are and add songs that are similar. Actually, there are a lot of features as I'm just getting started. Anyway, wanted to let everyone know.

Let me know what I should add to my list as well.

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Monday, March 29, 2010

Spamania

Interesting how much spam we've gotten in our comments that I rejected since we took off from blogging. I just deleted at least twentysomething ridiculous spam-ments.

Alright, I should be back blogging here in the next day or so. Stay tuned. All one of you.

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Saturday, January 23, 2010

Picture of a Tornado Over My Church

A tornado touched down here in Huntsville a couple of days ago about a mile from my old house. Someone caught this picture of the tornado with my church (First Baptist - Huntsville) in the foreground. Really cool picture, but a little disturbing, too. What do you think?




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Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Headlines

These have been making the rounds on the Net (some of them are old), but they're funny enough that I thought I'd post for those who haven't seen them. I took out a couple. Even some of the ones I left in are a bit crass... but then, they're funny too!


















































































































































For the record, if police are arresting folks with crack between their buttocks, I had to shower at the gym after playing basketball yesterday, and I'm here to tell you: there are A LOT of criminals down there! Hope you enjoyed these! If there are any "Headlines" you think are funny and are willing to share, post them in the comments. Please and thanks!

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Tuesday, January 19, 2010

2010 Is Rucking, Rhaggy

Can someone PUUUUUUUH-LEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAZZZE beat the New York Jets?

Let me just say that if both the Crimson Tide win the National Championship, and the Jets win the Super Bowl in the same year, my head is gonna explode like that guy from the movie Scanners. No. That's a calm understatment of what my head will do.

Somebody wake me please and tell me it was all ONE BIG NIGHTMARE!

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Friday, January 15, 2010

Haiti - E-mail from a Missionary

Was forwarded this e-mail from my cousin's wife. It's from my Aunt Dorothy, who is a missionary in Haiti, working with orphans and children whose parents cannot afford to take care of them (heavy emphasis on children with HIV/AIDS). She works for Christian Light Foundation, which I'm linking. A minute ago I was thinking what a disaster it was that I didn't have anything in my fridge to eat tonight when I go home. Then, I read this. Puts things in perspective and sums up what's going on down there. Even though I don't know anyone else she references, I don't need to add anything; I get the picture. Here's a copy of the e-mail:

Jan 15 2010

We survived the earthquake, all of us. PRAISE GOD!!!!!!

Amanda, Natasha and I were just arriving at Sacred Heart Hospital (CDTI) near what we think was the strongest area of the quake. Jesula, our nanny who had been with Poutchino at the hospital, was collapsing on the ground outside, in shock. Natasha ran inside for Poutchino. We parked the car. A man carried Jesula to the car. She was frozen with fear.

Hospital patients were brought outside, injured people came in thru the gate. All hospital personnel worked thru the night and next day with barely a break. Amanda and I took turns holding a flashlight for a surgeon stitching wounds and gradually learned how to do more. Natasha had to stay in the car holding Poutchino.

Some people were beyond help: the doctors gave them medicines for pain and treated those they could help. I counted about 40 people who died during the 24 hours we were there, all ages. Security manned the gate, only letting in the injured people that the doctor felt they could help.
Generators lit the parking lot. It seemed like a scene from hell with all the moans and screams and cries for help and the ground covered with injured people and blood. People panicked at every aftershock. Burns were the worst injuries but thankfully few.

Communications were cut off -- no one could find out about the rest of their loved ones. We had to try hard not to imagine the terribles thing that might have happened to our children and staff. Rumors trickled in about the buildings that had crashed. A rumor started that a tsunami was coming and we had to leave.

Heroes were everywhere. Groups of people sang and prayed and praised God for sparing so many. Doctors and nurses barely stopped to rest thru the night and well into the next day. Pain pills and shots were given freely. Every injured person got a shot of ampicillin. I gave shots, too. The hospital emptied its shelves, giving everything they had to help people. The strong carried the weak. Everyone comforted everyone else. People walked around praying for others. Two people scoured the streets for anything that could be used as splints. I am still amazed and glad that I had donated blood just that morning! We saw God working in us and all around us.
We finally were able to leave the hospital Wednesday afternoon, bring Poutchino with us. Collapsed buildings, wrecked and crushed cars, blood and bodies were everywhere. Coming home was such a blessing! No one was injured, the house was intact! Hallelujah! sweet relief!

Praise God we had just received new supplies of antibiotics. We gave most of them plus a lot of gauze and tape, tylenol and ibuprofen, needles, and IV sypplies to a clinic set up in our neighborhood. We had a little bit left over to give to Healing Hands this morning, and sent home some gauze and soap with a nanny for her injured grandmother.

Poutchino definitely had meningitis but there was no more infection by the time the CSF was tested. Considering the chaos at the hospital we brought him home with us. His abdominal pain is completely gone. He can eat again. I give him 1 gram of ceftriaxone every 12 hours hoping to keep the meningitis from returning. Infection could be hiding in his shunt. An operation to remove the shunt would be difficult to get now.

For those of you who know our staff, Claudia's leg is broken and her house destroyed. Jesula and her family are safe but their house was destroyed and they are staying here. Leonne's home was destroyed and she is staying here. Eva's house was destroyed but she has another place to stay. Suzette's house was destroyed: she can't come to work. Rosemanie is fine. Bb was thrown from a truck during the earthquake and was injured but is doing okay. She was on her way to work the overnight shift. The other ladies who were here took care of everything. They worked very very hard. Our staff is fantastic!

Both of our usual grocery stores, Caribbean and One Stop, were destroyed. We haven't heard what happened to the people inside. Those were the only places we could cash checks. Gas stations arent open yet. We heard that Sherrie Fausey's building partially collapsed and one child was killed. Sherrie and Julie are fine. Karen Bultje and her kids are fine. Nikki, who went to live with Roberta, was killed by a falling wall. Roberta and all other children are okay. Pastor CJ came by this morning to see if we were okay. He said Pastor Leny and his family are okay. Pastor Genada called. They were in Port au Prince during the quake and a block fell on his daughter's leg. They had to go all the way back to Gonaives to get help for her. Karen Bultje is still being an angel of mercy for as long as her diesel fuel holds out: she brought us several cases of pop tarts so we have breakfast for a while. Dottie was temporarily trapped in her house but is okay now. Nickson and Ivens and their families are okay. Deedee, the Boyers and the Olssons are okay. Barb Lataillade's foot was nearly amputated. The U.S. military got her out to Jacksonville, Florida for care.. Our pediatrician called to check on us.

Phones are starting to work again but not yet normally.. Helicopters are flying overhead all the time, and small planes. The U.S. military is running the airport now. Civilian flights are all canceled. UN police are in charge of security. Not much is seen of Haitian police, I don't know why. I expect, hope, that relief supplies will come in soon. Our biggest concerns at the moment are cooking fuel and water.

We all are fighting shock, trying not to be overwhelmed with grief and horror. I am trying to plan without being overwhelmed with worry. PRAYER AND PRAISES REALLY WORK TO KEEP SPIRIT UP! Remembering what God has already done in protecting and providing for us reassures me that He will continue to provide for our needs. I am so thank Natasha and Amanda were with me at the hospital and that Natasha can stay here for a while to help.
I have heard that maybe 100,000 people died. I can believe it based on what I have seen. I heard that the earthquake was 7.3 on the Richter scale. We need news from outside but please keep emails strictly to news. We have to use our precious supplies of gasoline to get online. Since we have no place to cash checks I have to work with Christian Light Foundation to find a way to get money to us.

Please pray for all of us in Haiti and for all those sending and bringing help.

Dorothy Pearce

"And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love." I Cor. 13:13

Faith-Hope-Love Infant Rescue
http://dorothypearcehaiti.blogspot.com/

Donations:
Christian Light Foundation, Inc.
P.O.. Box 23881
Jacksonville FL 32241-3881
Memo: For D. Pearce, Haiti

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Saturday, January 02, 2010

Lists Rich Doesn't Make -- Reprised

Once, a good while back, I claimed on this blog that I wasn't a list-maker. In general, in life, that's true. I don't make many, and my life certainly isn't governed by them. However, blogging being what it is, Ken, our semi-resident Diabolical Genius, pointed out how many times I had posted lists here in The Realm of Possibility just to show me the humorous irony of my words.

Well, guess what?! It's the New Year. What's that mean besides the fact that I'll be receiving my W-2 within the month and get to start dreading tax returns? It means RESOLUTIONS, of course. In an effort to try to maintain some semblance of truth here on the blog to my claim of not being much of a list-guy, I'm going to keep my resolutions short and sweet this year. Without further ado, they are:

  • Spend more time with God. Just time. Presence. Prayer. Bible Study.
  • Write. Plot and write. Get back in sync with Ken in our writing efforts.
  • Learn how to play the guitar. That's right. I'm 43. It's time I knew.
  • Curb my television watching.
Short list, but for me, believe it or not, it's tough. Very tough. Each one of those requires self-discipline, which is one life requirement of which I'm sorely lacking. The root of so many of my personal ills. Without it, though, I feel like I just skate through life without much meaning. And that's the mark of too much of my life.

New Year, new beginnings, however, and all that good stuff. So cheers.

Alright. Your turn. New Year's resolutions anyone?

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