Family

It is important to be kind to people. Today, I ran across a site who says that they are trying to get people to do just that. I am a little unclear as to what UnexpectedThankYou, LLC actually it. They have a contact page to ask for someone to come and speak, but why would I want him to? I don't know who he is.

The posts are good though. Some great thoughts to keep us motivated. Although, he could lose that awful snow fall that so many sites are using these days. It makes it so hard to read.

thought I'd share some winter time pictures. And a video.

Emma dancing.

A rose.

Lilac.

The Tired Gardener's Front Yard.

I love reading, but what with school and all, I have so little time to sit down with a dead tree and really enjoy the smell of paper, the curve of the letters, the sound of the pages rubbing together. I prefer to read it, but if I am to get my fill I need to find other methods to get it.

One such way is audio books. Through my volunteer work with Project Gutenberg and the Distributed Proofreaders, I found out about Librivox. Basically Librivox takes old books (must be in the public domain) and reads them so that you and I can download them and listen to them. I've done a little work with them as well, but again, lack of time has kept me from doing much. I read a couple of chapters before I started my Masters and I started a couple of projects with them. One of which I expect to be done in 5 years.

I'm not the only one who has trouble finding time. Justin says "I have come to love the audio book medium better than reading the books manually." I can't agree with that. I don't like the feel of headphones. I might listen while driving, if I drove more, but it doesn't quite work out listening to 1 chapter over 10 trips to the store.

If you have time, it would be awesome if you could volunteer with Librivox and get your own voice down. Some of the stuff of there is better than much of the commercial stuff. Others are.... not. If you have some time, they can use you. If you can read, do so. If you can edit, that is needed too. If you can manage, there is space for that. At the least, check them out and download a book or two. Maybe you can even do a reading for The Scarlet Pimpernel for me.

Today is World AIDS Day. 20 years ago World AIDS Day started to increase awareness of the epidemic that has ravaged the Earth since it was first discovered in the 1970's. World AIDS Day has increased awareness of the disease and most people are now aware of it and how damaging it can be. Most people know how it is transmitted and how to protect yourself. Blood banks are very careful, so that transfusions no longer infect people. But there is still a lot of work to do.

Millions of people are still becoming infected with this disease. Like most viruses, HIV/AIDS does not care what kind of person you are. It does not care what kind of works you have done. It does not care if your a saint or a murderer. It just cares that you are a host for it to grow and hopefully reproduce and find another host.

Most people that know they have HIV are doing everything they can to make sure that the virus stops with them. They don't want to have the spread of the disease on their minds. They don't want to live with that. But what about those that don't yet know? Would you want to live with the fact that you had the disease and spread it unknowingly? A simple test can check for it. Protective measures can be made to protect against it.

Abstinence is the best protection. I highly recommend not having sex outside of marriage. It makes it so much better when your with your partner if you have that connection. I lost out on the ability to know what it would be like to have just the one partner. In the moment, I enjoyed my promiscuity, but looking back, it was dangerous. Not only is it dangerous in regards to the STDs you could get, there is a lot of emotional scaring that you could incur or cause. I know I have a lot of emotional scaring because of my exploits and I am sure I hurt a lot more that I would have liked. It was never my intention, but it happened anyway. Abstinence will help keep some of these pains from damaging you.

If you cannot abstain, at least invest in condoms. You do not even have to buy them. Go to any planned parenthood or most college medical clinics and you can get a handful. I realize that many religions do not believe in using condoms. I think that is great, the Bible says we should have children and condoms stop that from happening. However, the Bible also says that we should not have sex outside of marriage. If you are going to have pre-marital sex, use a condom. Then afterwords, ask forgiveness.

Now, don't think that I'm saying that it is OK to go fool around and if you use a condom your will be fine. Condoms are not 100% effective. They are better than nothing, but abstaining is much better. Many people have caught STDs, including HIV while using condoms. Many have become pregnant. Know what you are getting into. Protect yourself and your partner.

Do you like the classics? The Mary Tyler Moore Show is a classic show that many people loved in the 70's. If you love the cast and crew of WJM-TV or would like to get to know them for the first time, this is the contest for you.

To enter, leave a comment below. Your comment should include your fondest television memory. Were you ever on TV? What did you do? What show do you remember most from your childhood? Why is it such a fond memory? You don't have to answer all the questions, they are just to get you thinking about your entry. Your entry must include a valid email address for me to contact you if you win. Contest ends December 31st, 2008.

What do you get? One brand new, unopened copy of the entire third season of The Mary Tyler Moore Show from 1972-73.

• Contest is by random draw and will be processed using random.org.
• Entries must be time stamped by midnight on the date the contest ends.
• Spam entries will not be accepted and may be deleted by administrator.
• One entry per person. Multiple entries will count as one.
• Email addresses must be included with entry so you can be contacted.
• Email addresses are not public and will never be used for any purpose other than to contact you related to the contest you entered.
• Most likely only the winner will be contacted. If you want to see who the winner is, you can revisit the contest and it will be posted as a comment.
• Winner will have 48 hours to respond or another name will be drawn.
• If no one responds within the time allotted, prize will either be offered as another prize, or donated to charity.
• If no entries are made, prize will be donated to charity.
• Winner can choose to have item donated to charity instead of shipped to them.
• Administrator can choose to invalidate entries if they are determined, in the administrator's mind, to be spam, cheating, or otherwise unethical.
• Non-US Entrants will need to pay actual shipping costs if they win.

We have been looking for a church we like since we moved here. Alright, the look has been half hearted. We spend a few weekends looking a couple years ago, but mostly we have not really looked at all. We liked our church in Gresham and always seem to have other things going on on Sundays.

We have been so richly blessed with our wonderful daughter, this nice little home, the ability to have Elizabeth stay at home and my go back to school. We feel like slackers by not going to church. We need to be filled with God's Spirit and we need the community.

One thing I've been thinking about that might make it a little easier for us is an on-line church. I'm a little mixed on these though. I like them in concept, because they make it easier for some of us to worship. Part of church though is the social aspect that I'm sure is missing from an on-line church. You can't shake hands, hug, or even share a meal. I might try it, just as a way to get my family thinking about church again. It might even work on for the better for us. But I think I really want that social aspect and a congregation I can touch.

What do you think? Do you know any on-line churches or have any comments about them? Please use the comment form below and tell us all about your thoughts.

I'm always working on little projects to make the house a little better. I've added cabinet space in the kitchen, replaced some electrical and lighting, painted, added a closet and more. Now I'm making a big communication center for us. We had a big window looking out onto our carport. We have no reason to be looking out there, so I took the molding off, and added a peice of plywood over it, leaving the window there, but covering it. I'd like to have removed it, but that would have been a lot more time and a lot more money. I'm short on both.

I've primed and painted it the same color as the walls. Now I need to paint half of it in chalk board paint. The other half is going to have some small shelves for knick knacks and CDs and DVDs. We will be using the communication side of it to write up the menu, to do items and chores. We think it will make communicating household needs easier and more compact. I have a lot of hope for it and will post pictures when it is finished.