Tybee Island

As I type this, Laura and I are in a beach house that looks out to the Atlantic Ocean, here on Tybee Island.

A Google map should appear above with our location. Our vacation started out a little dicey, but as usual, it turned out o.k. I was in Texas for my grandfather’s funeral (more on that in another blog). Because of that, Laura had to travel from Columbus all by herself! I left from Texas and we met in Atlanta, where we both changed planes. All was well, except, when Laura boarded her plane and pushback was eminent, she could hear the captain saying loudly, “No, no, NO!” Sure enough, there was a maintenance issue that caused her to be four hours late. So much for getting up at four a.m. to get to Tybee early.

I was in Atlanta waiting impatiently for her delayed flight to arrive. We had two first class seats waiting on us, and all we had to do was get on, but Laura wasn’t to be found. “Final call for Savannah.” The gate agent told me to leave her and head for the beach! I said that definitely wouldn’t work. I called her mobile phone, and it went straight to voicemail -- her phone was still off. Again, I called, and again, the same results. Five minutes to the closing of the flight to Savannah. Again I called, and again, straight to voicemail. I knew her flight was arriving in a different terminal, and if any of you have ever been to ATL (Atlanta) you know that plane changes in different terminals don’t happen like the rapture (in the twinkling of an eye). I knew our case was lost. The agents closed the flight, and it pushed back without us, and with it went two empty first class seats. Oh well, there was another flight leaving in a couple hours.

Five minutes later, Sweet Pea called me! Ah, the timing of us Clines. She was able to get first class out of Columbus, but we ended up in coach on our way to Savannah. No big deal -- it is only a 45 minute flight from ATL. Flying for free has its perks, however, in today’s climate of faltering airlines, open seats are harder to come by. We were just glad to get seats on the same flight, together.

Savannah is beautiful. The weather was nice when we arrived and we grabbed our PT Cruiser rental and headed for the beach house. 30 minutes later, I realized, when there was no beach in sight, that I had missed a turn somewhere. After 30 more minutes, and we finally arrived at the beach house.

We got to the beach house at around 5 p.m. and were hungry, so we ate at a local Applebee’s and did some grocery shopping for our beach house kitchen. We didn’t want to branch out at a new restaurant that night because we were both so hungry, that if the place was bad, we’d be in trouble. We also planned on cooking about half our meals to save money and enjoy the experience in the beach house.

The following day, Monday the 28th of April, 2008, it was supposed to rain, so we decided to skip the beach and do a few “tourist” things instead. We saw a lighthouse, bunker complex, and old fort, all from the 17th and 18th centuries.

It did rain, so we finished off the day eating at The Crab Shack (.com) and then taking in the movie Expelled, with Ben Stein. Both were very good. Laura doesn’t do seafood, so she ate from the “landlubbers” menu while I feasted on Snow Crab and shrimp.

Well, it’s off to the beach, so I’m outta hear, but we’ll upload pictures into our Photo Albums 2008 page when we get home.

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Butt Dust

A good friend sent along the following comments that should put a smile on your face. Yes, Butt Dust sounds a bit earthy, but it is not. Read on and see for yourself. God bless,
Jerry

What, you ask, is 'Butt dust?' Read on and you'll discover the joy in it!

These have to be original and genuine. No adult is this creative!!

MELANIE (age 5) asked her Granny how old she was. Granny replied she was so old she didn't remember any more. Melanie said, 'If you don't remember you must look in the back of your panties. Mine say five to six.'

STEVEN (age 3) hugged and kissed his Mom good night. 'I love you so much that when you die I'm going to bury you outside my bedroom window.'

BRITTANY (age 4) had an earache and wanted a pain killer. She tried in vain to take the lid off the bottle. Seeing her frustration, her Mom explained it was a child-proof cap and she'd have to open it for her. Eyes wide with wonder, the little girl asked: 'How does it know it's me?'

SUSAN (age 4) was drinking juice when she got the hiccups. 'Please don't give me this juice again,' she said, 'It makes my teeth cough.'

DJ (age 4) stepped onto the bathroom scale and asked: 'How much do I cost?'

MARC (age 4) was engrossed in a young couple that were hugging and kissing in a restaurant. Without taking his eyes off them, he asked his dad: 'Why is he whispering in her mouth?'

CLINTON (age 5) was in his bedroom looking worried. When his Mom asked what was troubling him, he replied, 'I don't know what'll happen with this bed when I get married. How will my wife fit in?'

JAMES (age 4) was listening to a Bible story. His dad read: 'The man named Lot was warned to take his wife and flee out of the city but his wife looked back and was turned to salt.' Concerned, James asked: 'What happened to the flea?'

TAMMY (age 4) was with her mother when they met an elderly, rather wrinkled woman her Mom knew. Tammy looked at her for a while and then asked, 'Why doesn't your skin fit your face?'

The Sermon I think this Mom will never forget...'Dear Lord,' the minister began, with arms extended toward heaven and a rapturous look on his upturned face. 'Without you, we are but dust...' He would have continued but at that moment my very obedient daughter who was listening leaned over to me and asked quite audibly in her shrill little four year old girl voice, 'Mom, what is butt dust?


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Jerry's Sermons

My dad and I have launched a new web site, Jerry’s Sermons. He has a lot of sermons that have been written out over the years. Instead of sitting on those hours of study and insight, why not share them with the world?

That’s exactly what he is doing. If you are a pastor, speaker, or just someone who wants to read some sermons for encouragement or enlightenment, visit his site, by clicking on his picture.

Sermons are being added all the time, and although there are only a handful of sermons online right now, we hope that number will grow to several hundred over the next few months. They are categorized by book of the Bible and by category. Check it out and enjoy!

P.S. If you use Google Apps, a free service from Google, you can build a website even better than the one we build -- for free!

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Software Updates

Dear Tech Support:

Last year I upgraded from Girlfriend 7.0 to Wife 1.0. I soon noticed that the new program began unexpected child processing that took up a lot of space and valuable resources.

In addition, Wife 1.0 installed itself into all other programs and now monitors all other system activity. Applications such as Poker Night 10.3 , Football 5.0 , Hunting and Fishing 7.5 , and Golfing 3.6.

I can't seem to keep Wife 1.0 in the background while attempting to run my favorite applications. I'm thinking about going back to Girlfriend 7.0 , but the uninstall doesn't work on Wife 1.0 . Please help!

Thanks,
Troubled User.....

______________________

REPLY:
Dear Troubled User:

This is a very common problem that men complain about.

Many people upgrade from Girlfriend 7.0 to Wife 1.0, thinking that it is just a Utilities and Entertainment program. Wife 1.0 is an OPERATING SYSTEM and is designed by its Creator to run EVERYTHING !!! It is also impossible to delete Wife 1.0 and to return to Girlfriend 7.0 .. It is impossible to uninstall, or purge the program files from the system once installed.

You cannot go back to Girlfriend 7.0 because Wife 1.0 is designed to not allow this. Look in your Wife 1.0 manual under Warnings-Alimony/Child Support . I recommend that you keep Wife 1.0 and work on improving the situation. I suggest installing the background application 'Yes Dear' to alleviate software augmentation.

The best course of action is to enter the command C:\APOLOGIZE! because ultimately you will have to give the APOLOGIZE command before the system will return to normal anyway.

Wife 1.0 is a great program, but it tends to be very high maintenance . Wife 1.0 comes with several support programs, such as Clean and Sweep 3.0 , Cook It 1.5 and Do Bills 4.2 .

However, be very careful how you use these programs . Improper use will cause the system to launch the program Nag Nag 9.5 .. Once this happens, the only way to improve the performance of Wife 1.0 is to purchase additional software. I recommend Flowers 2.1 and Diamonds 5.0 !

WARNING!!! DO NOT, under any circumstances, install Secretary With Short Skirt 3.3 . This application is not supported by Wife 1.0 and will cause irreversible damage to the operating system!

Best of luck,
Tech Support




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Cinderella

Steven Curtis Chapman is a five-time Grammy award winner as a singer/songwriter and recording artist.  More important to him than those accolades is being known as a great dad and husband.  His newest song "Cinderella" was inspired by a night where he wasn't such a good dad.

Click to play

She spins and she sways to whatever song plays,

Without a care in the world.

And I'm sittin' here wearin' the weight of the world on my shoulders.

It's been a long day and there's still work to do,

She's pulling at me saying "Dad I need you!

There's a ball at the castle and I've been invited
And I need to practice my dancin'"
"Oh please, daddy, please!"



So I will dance with Cinderella

While she is here in my arms
'
Cause I know something the prince never knew

Oh I will dance with Cinderella

I don't wanna miss even one song,

Cuz all to soon the clock will strike midnight 

And she'll be gone


She says he's a nice guy and I'd be impressed

She wants to know if I'd approve of a dress

She says "Dad, the prom is just one week away,

And I need to practice my dancin'"
"Oh please, daddy, please!"



So I will dance with Cinderella

While she is here in my arms
'
Cause I know something the prince never knew

Ohh-oh ohh-oh, I will dance with Cinderella

I don't wanna miss even one song, 

Cuz all to soon the clock will strike midnight 

And she'll be gone

She will be gone.



Well, she came home today

With a ring on her hand

Just glowin' and tellin' us all they had planned

She says "Dad, the wedding's due six months away

And I need to practice my dancin'"
"Oh please, daddy please!"


So I will dance with Cinderella

While she is here in my arms
'
Cause I know something the prince never knew

Ohh-oh ohh-oh, I will dance with Cinderella

I don't wanna miss even one song, 
(even one song) 

Cuz all to soon the clock will strike midnight

And she'll be gone

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Tulips

Click the picture above to see a few more very pretty tulips that came up in our yard last week. Spring is here, but unfortunately, so are my allergies.

I thought I would escape this year, as last fall didn’t give me any trouble. But, last week, my eyes started itching, and I’ve been sneezing a lot.

I think winter and fall are my favorite times of the year simply because of allergies . . .

I spent most of yesterday out in the back yard, re-raking the leaves. Last fall, I was very busy with interview prep and working. I raked most of the leaves up around our house, but the backyard got left behind. I figured (incorrectly) that those leaves would just become nutrients for the grass the next spring. I’d have a beautiful lawn!

Wrong!

Instead, because of my error, a quarter of our backyard is dead, underneath the canopy of wet leaves that sat over it all winter. Whoops! We may spread seed or sod, but something will have to be done. Raking yesterday was not like fall raking. In the fall, the leaves just go where they are swept. Now, in the spring, they are hard, damp, and stick in the grass like paper-mache. Yuck. Lesson learned.

Enjoy the weather and sun!

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Travels to Hong Kong

I will start training in Hong Kong for Cathay Pacific on July 7th, 2008. I am very excited, but a little nervous, too. It is going to be stressful, taxing, involve lots of studying, and I’ll be under the microscope. The whole training adventure will last between four and five months!

That’s a long time to be gone, however, Laura was able to get two months of time off from work (unpaid, unfortunately!) so she will be able to go with me for the first couple months. We are headed out the week prior, leaving from New York on June 29th. I wanted to get there a little early, to help with the 12 hour time difference from the East Coast of the U.S. I don’t want to start training groggy and exhausted.

Let me digress here, for one moment. I have had at least four or five different friends tell me that 12 hours of time difference is nothing: they’ve been to Australia, parts of Asia, and elsewhere, where the difference in time zone was 17 hours, or 14 hours, or 19 hours, or some other craziness. Nonsense.

How many time zones are there in the world? Asked another way, how many hours in a day? 24. There are 24 time zones on our wonderful planet. So, the worst time zone change can be 12 hours of difference, like traveling to Hong Kong from New York, because that is half of 24. If someone tells you that they experienced 16 hours of time zone change, they might still be suffering from jet-lag! Think of it this way: When someone travels from New York to Chicago, do they suffer from that huge and amazing 23 hour difference in time? No! It’s a one hour change. How about NYC-LA? Is that a 21 hour change or a three hour change? It’s three! Because the world has 24 time zones, then the worst shift can only be up to 12 hours, before it starts getting better again. Crossing the International dateline, out in the Pacific, means the date changes, but our bodies don’t care about what day it is, they care about what time it is. So, 12 hours stinks, but beyond that, it only gets easier . . .

Anyway, during that week of acclimation, we hope to go see some of the sights of Hong Kong, including Victoria Harbor and ride on a ferry across the water. I will be sure to update this site with pictures and tales of our adventures.



Also, our home number will stay the same, and you can call us at our regular number. That magic is brought to you in part by Vonage. Read about their benefits here. We will bring our Vonage router with us, so you can call us locally, we get free incoming calls, and we can call out for free. Good stuff.

More good stuff? God is good. Did you know that? If you don’t, read our Journey Home page. Trust me, He is simply amazing and I’m glad He’s on my side. Really, He’s on all our sides, if we let Him.

Cathay Pacific is flying me over for free, but they won’t pay for Laura yet, because officially, when I go over there, I won’t be employed yet. Her ticket is going to put us back quite a bit. Just the round trip from Columbus to NYC, where we’ll depart for Hong Kong, will be around $900 dollars. Now, I’m a pilot, but $900 bucks is outrageous! We found a much cheaper deal on the internet, but it would mean that she wouldn’t be able to travel with me; she’d be on another airline. Laura is brave, adventurous, and willing to do a lot of things on her own, at least more than anyone else in her family (many of which are too scared to even get on a plane), but that was probably asking too much of her at this juncture. She would do it to save money but she wouldn’t want to.

We were discussing it over a video iChat while I was in Toronto on an overnight trip for work. We knew what we needed to do to be prudent with our money, but our hearts wanted to go together. We ended our conversation with me saying, “I won’t buy the tickets tonight, I’ll wait until the morning.”

The next morning, the conversation came up between me and my flight attendant that we were going to have to buy tickets for Laura to get to NYC. She immediately offered to give us two of her buddy passes so that Laura could go, and go for FREE. That way, we’d only have to buy the ticket from NYC to Hong Kong! Isn’t God good? We could have bought those tickets the night before and been out over $900 bucks, but He knew our plight, situation, and financial situation.

It’s almost like God toys with us a little bit to see what we’re going to do. Are we going to trust Him? Are we going to go our own way? Are we going to give Him a chance to act in our lives? Are we going to march on in our own plans or are we going to allow Him space to maneuver us? He wants to help us, but we have to let Him.

Thank you God for getting us through this one, yet again!

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Thank God in advance

With all the life decisions and potential pitfalls that this new job is bringing into our lives, I’ve changed my prayer strategy. Tell me what you think:

Instead of asking God to help us in this matter or that matter, with full humility, I thank God in advance for solving our hurt, pain, struggle, burden, thorn, issue, or whatever we are dealing with. Why not? God can do anything, and He will act, and He will carry us through the day. He promises that. Even Job ended up better than when his struggles began.

In the book of Daniel, God, by way of King Nebuchadnezzar, places an impossible task on Daniel. He has to tell the King what he dreamed, and interpret the dream, or be killed. Impossible for any human to do, but possible with God. Daniel prays, and in a dream, the King’s dream is revealed to him, and the interpretation of it. Daniel gets up in the morning and thanks God for the revelation, for it will save his life, the lives of others, and prove that his God is the God of Heaven. Then he goes and interprets the dream to the King . . .

Did you catch that? He thanked God for solving his huge dilemma BEFORE he went in to see the king! It’s one thing to “think” you’ve heard from God, go tell the king your thoughts, have those thoughts be correct, and then let out a sigh of relief and say “thank you, God.” Daniel had the faith to say thank you before he even knew he was right.

I think God wants us to stretch and grow all the time. When things look dire, impossible, or worse, that is the time to trust Him, and say thanks for getting us out of this tight spot.

“God, thank you for the way you will provide for us in our time of financial need. Thank you for the way you will give us courage in the times that Laura and I will be 12,000 miles apart for many weeks. Thank you God, for the answers you will provide us on the questions I have on how I am going to make this commute to work happen. Thank you for solving our family issues we are having. Thank you for showing us the way to proceed in job questions. I love you Jesus and thank you so much for choosing to love me when I hated you. Thank you for our salvation and the way you meet our needs every day, as your mercies are certainly new every morning. In Jesus’ name.”

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Add a favicon to your iWeb, Google blog, or web page.

Depending on your browser, its settings, and how often you visit our site, you may have noticed a change. The picture of two hearts in the upper left corner of the web site address appears when at TobyLaura.com. It is a small version of the one at the top of this blog. On this page, it's a picture of yours truly. We added these bookmark pictures to make our site more personal and stand out. Also, if our homepage is bookmarked, it should also show up in your list of bookmarks.

It is called a Favicon and its file extension is .ico and here are some examples (just look at the image next to the ‘http’ part of the address in the address window.)

TobyLaura.com
Scattershooting
GreenExamPrep

They are fun to add and if you have a personal page or Google blog, they add a nice touch. You’ll notice that most companies have one, and large websites use them to attract attention, so why not add one yourself? Read on to learn how to do it. It can seem a little daunting at first, but take a deep breath, you can do it! If you need to, keep this window up, as well as the window you are using to make your adjustments, so you can easily get back to this page if you need help. Let’s get going.

First of all, you need a picture or drawing. If you know an animator, they can draw you a logo or some simple file like a flower, that will look good in such a small size. You’ll notice that the Favicons are very small, so a detailed logo or family group photo will not work. Something with just a few colors or a cropped photo of a face work well, like in my example links above.

Once you choose a picture, logo, or drawing, then upload it to this site here. It will format the image into an .ico file for you automatically, and then let you preview what it will look like in someone’s browser. Then, simply click the download button to put the .ico file on your hard drive.

Adding the favicon to your website or blog depends on how you host your site or blog. Google blogs and pages, iWeb for Mac, and standard sites where pages are published to a host via FTP are the most common ways to have something on the web.

If you publish to a host via FTP, you have it made in the shade. Just upload the picture saved in .ico format into your public directory and it will show up on each page of your website. It knows that a favicon file is the file for the address image, and you are finished.

Below, I’ll talk about how to add it to a Google page/blog and iWeb.

Google Blogs

Your favicon picture (formated into the .ico format as explained above) needs to be hosted, or viewable on the internet somewhere. Google can host an image through Pages, which comes with Google Apps. There are lots of image hosting options on the internet, but the image needs to have a unique web address that points directly to the picture. For example, you may put photos up on Google's Picasaweb, but the picture won't have a unique web url address. Google Pages will allow a unique web address for the image, like: http://www.tobycline.com/favicon.ico This picture loads in a page all by itself and is what you will need for this to work. Another quick and easy way to "host" a picture with its own direct web address is to post a picture into a blog entry.


Click on the picture of Elliot falling off the bicycle (funny!) and you'll have a picture on its own web page and it's web address in the url window, ready for you to copy.

Once your picture is online, where it can be seen on the internet, it is time to get it to appear where you want it. If you put your picture on the internet through the free Picasa option, click on the picture, and note its web address, or link. Then log into your Google blog and select: Customize>Layout>Edit HTML. You will see a window with all the html garble-di-gook that is your blog, in raw form. Find the code right at the top, that should look like this:



Make sure not to simply copy this exactly, but actually put your picture’s URL in, instead of the words ‘URL of your icon.’

The whole thing will look like this:



Click to save your new template and you should see the new icon (favicon) next to your address!

For Google Pages

Java script is used if you use Google to make your website with Google Pages. Open your Google Pages editor and on each page you want your favicon to show up in, click on either the header or footer, and click “edit html.”

Then paste this code into the html page:



Obviously, change the “URL of your image” to the actual url where your image is. For example, my url is: http://www.tobylaura.com/myicon.ico

Each page you create, simply paste this into the header or footer and you are all set.

Add a favicon to iWeb

Using iWeb can be a blessing and a curse. It is easy because all the html is hidden behind the scenes. However, when you want to knowingly manipulate the html code, it can be tricky. You kind of have to trick Apple’s iWeb to get it to do what you want it to -- and Apple won’t tell you how to do this kind of stuff. Bummer.

Upload your picture to this web site here. It will convert it to a favicon format. Now, download it to your desktop. Then, save the favicon.ico file in your iDisk folder. It needs to be saved in your root directory. So make sure you select: iDisk>Web>Sites. Drop it in that folder, where you will also see a folder with your website’s name. (Hint: anything you put in this folder will show up as: YourURL/file So my icon in that folder would have an address of: http://www.tobylaura.com/myicon.ico. It is your root directory.)

Now, for every page you want your favicon to show up in, you need to paste some code into your page’s html code. How do you do that? Open TextEdit or some other simple text processor like Notepad. DO NOT use a word processor as it can add extra spaces and characters that may mess up your code.

For this example, we'll assume you are going to change the home page: Home.html. In your files, you could have named this something else. So, in general, open any page that you have created by finding the page name followed by the .html extension.

In TextEdit open: iDisk>Web>Sites>yourwebsite folder>home.html. Important: Check the option to ‘ignore rich text commands' because if you don't, this won't work. Ignoring rich text commands allows you to see the html code of the page. This check box is near the Open and Cancel buttons on the dialogue box that appeared when you selected Open. If you forgot to check the "ignore rich text commands" button, you'll see your page like it looks on the web. If you correctly selected the button, you'll see a bunch of html code; how your computer sees your webpage. Now you are looking at the html code like you would in the EditHTML page in Blogger.

Find the top of the page where the code starts out with the head and meta name, near the top of the page:



Then, paste this code into your page in the space above the meta name code:



Here is a text selectable version so that you can copy and paste it easily and properly. Just remember to change your URL inside the quotation marks to your specific web address.

<link rel="shortcut icon" href="http://www.YOUR URL HERE" />

So all together, it looks like this:



Click ‘Save.’ Do this on every page you want your favicon to appear, and also every time you publish a new page. Each time you publish a page because of changes you made to it, this code you've entered will be deleted by iWeb. So, after each publish, reopen your iDisk and put this code back into the pages that you made changes to. This code will remain on all of your pages where no edits were made, but all the pages iWeb "Publishes" also deletes any code you've placed on those pages. If it gets to be a pain, I recommend just putting it on your home page, and then not making any changes to your home page, but do as much as you feel like you want to.

Good luck -- and let me know if you have any questions.

TobyLaura.com

The "high price" of Gas

It seems that all I hear today is complaining about the high price of gasoline in this country. Congress is demanding that oil executives lower the price of their product, people blame the sitting president for gas prices, and we act like we cannot afford gas at this price.

I know that in some industries, like my own, high oil is causing companies to go out of business. Truckers are especially hurting as well too. I think those industries have valid complaints. But for the average American, who happens to be the “average complainer,” please spare me your crying about high priced gas.

We drive around in our SUV’s, drinking our five dollar Starbucks or our three dollar Evian water (interestingly enough, Evian, spelled backwards, spells ‘Naive.’ Does that say something about someone who pays that kind of money for water?) We drive 80 miles per hour while talking on our $80 dollar-a-month-gee-whiz mobile phone, while shopping at Prada or Restoration Hardware, with our fancy hairdo and expensive makeup or tailored suite. We have cable, HD cable, highspeed internet, four cars (with two drivers!), huge homes, trendy this, instyle that, and bliss on tap. We in the U.S. want for nothing! Our poorest people are still the wealthiest 15% in the entire world. Go to GlobalRichList for more. Seriously, put in your salary and see where YOU rank -- it takes 7 seconds.

And yet we complain about $3.50 a gallon . . .

I drive 60 mph everywhere I go, because I’m trying to save my hard earned cash. While on the interstate, I’m passed like I’m standing still! Americans can (and will) complain about anything, including high gas prices, but they don’t really mean it, at all. If they did, they’d change their driving habits. They’d buy less Starbucks and iPods. They’d put money in the bank and Roth IRA’s, where their money belongs. But we as a nation don’t. Sigh, oh well, but spare me the complaining!

I don’t mind people driving fast. I don’t mind people driving Hummers. I don’t mind people owning 8 cars and 10 iPhones. I really don’t. To do so is simply envious -- and I like to think that I am above that. It only makes those who have less look terrible when they despise those who have more. Many people have lots and lots of money, and if they have 10 million in the bank, then go get five Hummers -- I shouldn’t judge. Just don’t complain to me about high gas prices. I know several people who have so much money, gas could be 10 bucks a gallon and they wouldn’t care. But they also aren’t complaining like the rest of us.

Slow down, straighten out priorities on spending, watch every dollar, and don’t despise the wealthy simply because they are so. Our blood pressure will thank us for it!

*****

Some perspective:

In the 1973 oil crisis, the Arabs decided to hold out on production. Back then, a barrel of oil was about $1.50 a barrel. During the embargo, a barrel of oil shot up to over $11 dollars a barrel. Long lines at the pump preceded. In comparison, if that size of spike happened today, the price of a barrel of oil would be over $1,100 dollars for one barrel of oil! So, things aren’t as bad as they could be.

*****

From MJ Perry’s blog:


After crude oil costs, gasoline taxes are the second largest contributor to the price paid at the pump. Together Federal and State excise taxes on fuel account for an average cost of approximately 62 cents per gallon. That's a combined tax of about 20% per gallon of gas.

The federal tax per gallon is 18.4 cents per gallon, see the history of federal gasoline taxes here, and the state tax per gallon varies by state, see the complete list of state gasoline taxes here.

Average profit per gallon of gas for oil companies: 10 cents according to the EIA.

Quote: The government collects far more in taxes on every gallon of gasoline than the oil companies collect in profits. If oil company profits are "obscene," as some politicians claim, are the government's taxes PG-13?

~Thomas Sowell

*****

And Finally, George Will sums it up best with his article here, on our historical price of gas. Hint: We are paying less for gas today than we were in 1981 . . .

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Airlines are dropping like "flys"

Aloha, ATA (American Trans-Air), Champion, Skyway, Skybus, and Oasis have all ceased operations immediately, or in Skyway’s case, will at the end of May. Frontier has filed for bankruptcy, but will continue to fly . . . for now.

That’s seven airlines in trouble, within the span of 10 days! What is going on? How crazy is all this? Well, for those who bought tickets on airlines like Skybus (a terrible name for an airline that likens it to a Greyhound) it is even crazier, when they were stranded and unable to get back home without spending many hundreds of dollars on last minute airline tickets with other airlines. Most airlines have networks, like Air France/KLM, or the now merged Delta/Northwest. They sell tickets on either/or. In Skybus’s case, they had no partners (cheaper, right?) so they had no network for their stranded passengers to transfer tickets. That costs hundreds of thousands of bucks for last minute travelers. Yikes!

It is sad to see airlines that have been around a long time slip beneath the waters of the violent sea of high oil prices. Aloha, Champion, and ATA had been around for years. Unfortunately, with oil prices high and ticket prices low, their demise was eminent. Champion flew chartered 727’s, which is the airplane that I started my career with, at Ryan airlines. Oasis is probably another one you may not have heard of. Oasis was a low cost carrier based in Hong Kong and had only been running for 17 months. They had arguably the best paint scheme of any airline, but pretty colors couldn’t keep them afloat in these troubled times. I personally am glad to see them go, as they are a direct competitor to my next employer, Cathay Pacific.

Customers want cheap tickets, I understand that. Laura and I are having to buy a ticket for her to join me in Hong Kong for a while during my new hire training, and tickets are expensive! However, based on dollar per mile, and services given, tickets are cheaper than dirt. Try driving from NYC to LA for less than a ticket on an airplane. Here’s a hint: you can’t do it! Traveling in style, non-stop across the country in a few hours has to be worth something, yet it is cheaper to fly than drive. What is wrong with that picture? Why is it that in 1975, NYC-LA cost about $200 dollars. Now fast forward to today, 2008. NYC-LA? Around $200 dollars. Ridiculous! Airlines cannot stay in business with prices like this.

Why is it, than FedEx, UPS, and other cargo companies don’t care what the price of oil is? It’s because they charge what it costs to do business. If oil, or wages go up, so do the costs of shipping a box. Simple. However, passenger airlines shiver, wring their hands, and cry every time oil goes up. Why? Charge what it costs to do business! There is certainly more competition at the passenger level, and the model and answer isn’t so simple, but on the whole, airlines need to consolidate and raise prices, or more than 100,000 airline employees in this country will be out of work.

We’re told that prices aren’t raised because the profit margin at an airline is around 1.5% That’s it! If they spend 10 million a month, they only make $150,000 -- if they’re lucky. Most of the time, they lose money. In the history of the airline industry in the U.S., the industry as a whole has never made a profit. Unbelievable! With that in mind, we still have worthless airlines like Skybus starting up and promising the moon to their employees, and then fail months later. There should be rules against reckless upstart airlines that use silly business models based on oil costing $60 a barrel. If they couldn’t survive on $120 oil, they should never have started. Shame on them and shame on investors of that airline: City of Columbus, Nationwide, Huntington Bank, and others, who threw public funds away, and investors money away on an airline that became the laughing stock of the airline world. Columbus is the laughing stock . . . thanks, Skybus.

Consolidation is the answer, because then there are fewer seats available on which to fly. Fewer seats means hotter commodity. Lucrative commodity means price increase. This, on the surface, seems bad for the customer. Price increases are actually a good thing: because then there will actually BE airlines to fly on in five years.

Delta/Northwest merged two days ago, and I feel that United/Continental will be announced soon. That would leave, American, Delta, United, USAirways, and piddly others like jetBlue, Spirit, Airtran, and Walmart: I mean: Southwest.

I do blame Southwest for a lot of these troubles because their model of cheap, low cost, no frills flying is popular with the public. However, when a large, international airline tries to copy that model and sustain itself, trouble arises, as we’ve all seen. The lucrative markets are now international flying (Cathay Pacific, International sides of Delta, AA, United, etc) and the losses are coming from the stateside flying. That is why there are so many regional jets flying around, like Chautauqua, because they can do it for cheaper.

The next few years will be interesting, and this is one of the main reasons why I am leaving for Cathay Pacific. I feel, in this turbulent time of airline restructuring, international flying based on an economy not tied to the U.S. airlines is as safe a bet as I can make. We’ll see.

So look forward to higher prices, but be thankful that the airline industry as a whole will survive!

To post comments and more, visit TobyLaura.com

Our new iMac

It was time to get a new computer for Laura. The days of fighting over one little laptop are now over, and I must say that I am pretty jealous. When I thought that my laptop screen was big and bright, now seeing the new iMac, I think my screen has dimmed over the last two years.

Setting up a new Mac is quite an amazing experience. It took me less time than it will take you to read this blog entry. It’s such a refreshing experience when everything just works. So much technology today is released before it is ready, but Apple, on the whole, is always ahead of the game.

The screen is 20 inches across -- larger than the TV we had growing up. Some of the features we can do with the two computers are amazing enough, I don’t know how we lived without them.

We primarily got the second computer so that Laura could use a computer while I was in training in Hong Kong. Now, it looks as though she will be spending around half the time I’m there with me! But, we’re still glad to have the new computer.

With two Mac’s, we can “share screens.” If I’m on an overnight trip somewhere, and Laura is having trouble getting something to work and changed (impossible with Mac) or she just has a question, we can share screens. I log in to her computer, and then her computer screen shows up as a new window on my screen. I can take control of the mouse and lead her through the issue!

Each Mac has a built-in web camera and microphone (they are built into the top of the screen and would be hidden behind an eraser head) so video chat is a breeze. Even if I’m in Hong Kong and Laura is in Ohio, we can see each other and talk, for free.

Time Machine is the best upgrade yet. We’ve plugged in an external hard drive so that it can be shared by the two computers. But Time Machine is a program that backs everything up to that hard drive, behind the scenes, all the time. When you find that you’ve accidentally deleted a document you needed, just open Time Machine. The desktop disappears and it shows you in outer space, with all your files lined up by date. “Rewind time” until you see your file, click “Restore”, and your missing files is instantly back where it should be! 

I encourage anyone thinking about a new computer, PLEASE at least consider a new Mac. Option for option, my Mac laptop was $300 bucks cheaper than an equivalent Dell. People only think Mac’s are more expensive because they don’t sell cheap versions of their computers. Anyone can by a $500 dollar Windows laptop, but it will be stripped down. Again, apples to apples (no pun intended) Apples are often cheaper, plus they work! With Mac it’s plug-and-play, but with Windows, it’s: plug-and-PRAY! Sharing files between the two Mac’s is simple, and if you are an unfortunate Windows user, there are simple file transfer procedures to move your files over when you buy your new Mac.



You don’t need expensive anti-virus software that slows your computer down, and you have to admit it: iMac’s are sexy! One Mac is great. Two are fantastic as they talk to each other. And two Mac’s, with high speed internet, is second, only to heaven.


To post comments and more, visit TobyLaura.com

Hubble Deep Field

Scientists set out to find the darkest point in our sky. If, in between all those billions of stars, they could find a place in the sky that looked completely black, what would be there? They wanted to know if anything was in that dark corner of the sky. Would there be more stars? Would there be simply darkness? Blank nothingness? Our universe is expanding, and the nothingness that it is expanding into might appear in our sky. Could that darkness be seen from Earth? Scientists wanted to know.

After lots of research and scanning the skies, a single point was found in our sky that had no stars in it. This point is so small, that if a grain of sand were held up into the night sky at arms length, the grain of sand you held would cover this point in the sky. Said another way, the angle of view in the picture was narrower than how the width of a dime would appear, 75 feet away. That’s a small point of space in our sky.

Hubble was aimed at these coordinates and several timed exposures were made. Later, these pictures would be stitched together to form a full picture that we could see. The scientific community held it’s breath. Would would come back in the picture? Stars? Darkness? Another planet, perhaps? The photo was blown up to a wall size and placed behind a curtain. The picture behind the curtain, when revealed in the press conference, would blow away everyone in the room. It changed the way we humans look at the heavens. The revealing of this photo made our world infinitely more grand. The scientific community was shocked. The year was 1995, and you may remember it.

Here is the picture of the darkest point in our sky, the Hubble Deep Field (HDF):



There are no less than 1500 galaxies in this photo -- not stars, but galaxies. There may be as many as 1800 galaxies visible. All behind a grain of sand held at arm’s length!

To help put this in perspective, here are some tidbits you’ll want to know:

The average galaxy has 100 billion stars.

Light travels at 186,000 miles per second. So in one second, light will be 186,000 miles away from where it started, or seven and a half trips around the Earth. That’s fast.

Our average sized Milky Way galaxy is 100,000 light-years across. Light, traveling 186,000 miles per second, takes 100,000 years to simply cross our Milky Way.

The Milky Way is 16,000 light years thick at its center and 3,000 light years thick at its outer edges.

The next closest star system to our Sun ( a group of four stars, called Alpha Centauri) is four and a half light years away from us.

The next closest galaxy to us is Andromeda, which is 2.5 million light years away.

Our local group, or the set of the closest galaxies to us, are spread out over 10 million light years across. That is just several galaxies.

Now go back to that picture of the HDF and think about the stars and distances involved. It is mind boggling and beyond comprehension.

. . . And yet. Like Pastor David Dykes has reminded his audience, Isaiah 40:12 says: The Lord has measured the width of the Universe with the span of His hand. Is there something you are struggling with today? Are you concerned about a decision you have to make? A situation that you think is impossible? Just remember that the same God who made the huge vastness of space and calls each star by name, is there for you, right now, this very second.

Laura and I are facing some unknowns in our life as we ready ourselves for a new job, and a trip halfway around the world in Hong Kong. Five airlines have gone under this past week, one, a competitor to Cathay Pacific: Oasis Airlines, based in Hong Kong. The airline industry is not the safest bet when it comes to having a steady job. The only way to live life with any certainty, is to look to Him for guidance and strength. We have to remember that the God of the Universe is also the God over tearful pillows, lost jobs, ruined dreams, and impossible odds. The same hand that marks off the heavens also holds our hand as we go through difficulties and holds us close to His heart. The One who created all we see, cares even for us!

When you look up at the stars tonight, and you ponder the vastness of space, think of the one who put it all together and be thankful that in all the universe, He cares so much for little old us.

**********


As a side note, the Hubble deep field has been outdone. In 2004, the Hubble Ultra Deep Field (HUDF) was introduced. It is an even deeper view of space, seeing objects over 13 billion light years away. The size of the HUDF covers one thirteen-millionth of the total area of the night sky. In it, are pictured over 10,000 galaxies! Simply amazing. It is pictured below and you can click on it for better detail.




TobyLaura.com

Science and Faith

A good friend of mine was talking to me about the Watchmaker principle. He talked about this book, which can be purchased by clicking above on its picture, and what an excellent read it is.

There is an example in it that talks about a man walking through the woods. As he is walking, he looks down and sees a Rolex watch. “Ah, what a beautiful and random collection of earth, wind, fire, metal, and glass!” Someone who believes in the Big Bang Theory or evolution wouldn’t come to this conclusion. No, that person would say, “This is someone’s watch.”

And yet. And yet it is so much more possible for nature to create a fancy $5,000 Rolex than create the world we live in, with atoms, DNA, cells, humans, and the like.

This book showed up in my mailbox today! My friend sent me a copy, just for being friends. Isn’t that cool? I will read this book and let you know what I think.

For more, visit TobyLaura.com!

Green Exam Prep

I want to give a shout out to the website, GreenExamPrep.

I know the group involved and the company that started it and am proud of their efforts, as it has helped many people pass their LEED test.  GreenExamPrep is a test prep website that prepares people for the LEED test. LEED stands for: Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design and is a green building certification offered by the non-profit U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). LEED is a building certification process that looks at various aspects of “green building” and awards recognition to buildings that meet certain standards.

To be certified, one must pass various LEED tests.  It is a very hard test to pass, and most who venture to pass on their first try, don't.  The website helps people study for and pass the tests by offering very helpful study material, with sample questions (320 of them), flash cards, and even a video tutorial that replaces sitting in an 8 hour class: for half the price and allows you to study at your own pace.  How good is the test prep?  Should people take a risk and pay the money to use this website?  The proof is in the results, and those results are amazing.  GreenExam is doing very well, and if you don't believe me, read some of the testimonials here. So if you know someone who is going to be taking a LEED test, point them to the Green Exam website, I know it will help.

For more, visit TobyLaura.com!

Are the circles moving?

For more optical illusions, and brain teasers, go here:

Optical Illustions

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Global Warming: Man-made?

I came across an excerpt from Michael Crichton’s prologue of Jurassic Park. It is a fascinating read from a secular scientist’s point of view. There is no debate that our planet’s average temperature is slowly rising -- a little bit. But, where the rub comes into play, is what is causing it. Is it man-made or natural? How one answers that question will place them on one side or the other of a huge divide in this country over global warming. Read Crichton and see what you think.

“You think man can destroy the planet? What intoxicating vanity. Let me tell you about our planet. Earth is four-and-a-half-billion-years-old. There's been life on it for nearly that long, 3.8 billion years. Bacteria first; later the first multicellular life, then the first complex creatures in the sea, on the land. Then finally the great sweeping ages of animals, the amphibians, the dinosaurs, at last the mammals, each one enduring millions on millions of years, great dynasties of creatures rising, flourishing, dying away -- all this against a background of continuous and violent upheaval. Mountain ranges thrust up, eroded away, cometary impacts, volcano eruptions, oceans rising and falling, whole continents moving, an endless, constant, violent change, colliding, buckling to make mountains over millions of years. Earth has survived everything in its time.

“It will certainly survive us. If all the nuclear weapons in the world went off at once and all the plants, all the animals died and the earth was sizzling hot for a hundred thousand years, life would survive, somewhere: under the soil, frozen in arctic ice. Sooner or later, when the planet was no longer inhospitable, life would spread again. The evolutionary process would begin again. Might take a few billion years for life to regain its present variety. Of course, it would be very different from what it is now, but the earth would survive our folly, only we would not. If the ozone layer gets thinner, ultraviolet radiation sears earth, so what? Ultraviolet radiation is good for life. It's powerful energy. It promotes mutation, change. Many forms of life will thrive with more UV radiation. Many others will die out. You think this is the first time that's happened? Think about oxygen. Necessary for life now, but oxygen is actually a metabolic poison, a corrosive glass, like fluorine.

“When oxygen was first produced as a waste product by certain plant cells some three billion years ago, it created a crisis for all other life on earth. Those plants were polluting the environment, exhaling a lethal gas. Earth eventually had an atmosphere incompatible with life. Nevertheless, life on earth took care of itself. In the thinking of the human being a hundred years is a long time. Hundred years ago we didn't have cars, airplanes, computers or vaccines. It was a whole different world, but to the earth, a hundred years is nothing. A million years is nothing. This planet lives and breathes on a much vaster scale. We can't imagine its slow and powerful rhythms, and we haven't got the humility to try. We've been residents here for the blink of an eye. If we're gone tomorrow, the earth will not miss us.”


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Mission Impossible!!

Contributing Author, Jerry:

I want to relate a story to you that is a magnificient story. It really happened. It has elements of a mission impossible, of fear and risk and faith and angels. It tells of courageous obedience and success and the priority of God's business.

And my guess is there is not one of us reading this blog who would not love to be able to tell this kind of story out of our own experience! Who wouldn't want to relate to others how we got to play a part in God's work in this world, how we got to be partners with an angel, how what we did shaped the course of history? So, what kind of person would we have to be to have this kind of life, to see God work this way on our behalf? Let me tell you the story first, then we can draw some conclusions together about what we can learn from it.

If you want to read this story I have in mind, you can turn to the first book of the Bible and flip over to chapter 24. I'll wait while you get the Good Book and read the chapter. (How does that Jeopardy tune go?) Or if you want, I'll just tell you the story...

A wealthy old man, Abraham, needed to find a wife for his very special son. He wasn't interested in any of the local young ladies; their customs and culture were far too coarse. Not a one of them had the values and family background that was important to Abraham and his wife (that is, if his wife was still alive. She had just died). This special son had a great future ahead of him, a future that would have an impact on the whole world (so God had said), and so he needed a special woman to be by his side.

The ole dad called his most trustworthy servant to the office and gave him the assignment of finding a wife for Son #1 from among his own family back in a far country where he had once lived and where his relatives still called home. Now the old servant was no one's fool. He hadn't been born yesterday, and he hadn't just fallen off the turnip truck. He wasn't the chief servant, the oldest servant, the one in charge of everything the old man owned because he was stupid and foolish. So of course he was reluctant to take on such a weighty assignment. It was risky, it was fraught with opportunity for failure. The servant tried to wiggle out of the mission, but, after all, he was a servant, and eventually he saddled up 10 camels, gathered up some helpers, and headed back to Mesopotamia.

When he came to the city of Abraham's brother, he put in place a plan that doubtless he'd been mulling over for days. He would ask one of the young ladies who came to the city well in the evening to draw water to give him a drink from her water jar. If she would offer him a drink and ALSO offer to water the ten camels, this would be the one. Now you ask, how did this servant come up with such a plan? More about that later, but for now you should know that before he even finished telling God what he planned and before he had completed his prayer asking for blessing, Rebekah approached the well. She is a va-va-varoom young lady ('very beautiful' according to the Book), single, chaste, and after going down to the spring, she comes back up with her water jar full.

The old servant springs into action. He runs to her and puts his plan in motion. "Please let me drink a little water from your jar." She does, and then she says the most amazing thing: "I'll water your camels, too, until they finish drinking." And she does!! Now we don't know how long it had been since these 10 camels had had a drink. And we don't know how much a camel can drink. And we don't know how many trips to the spring this maiden makes as she fills the water trough over and over again. And we don't know what the men who have traveled with the old servant are doing (standing around??) while Rebekah is working like a trooper. So many questions, so few answers! When the camels can't hold another drop, the servant rewards the young lady with a gold ring (for her nose! YIKES) and two golden bracelets. When he asks about lodging for the night, it just so happens that there is room in her family's home, and the family turns out to be the relatives of Abraham!!! How cool can that be? Talk about the proverbial needle in a haystack!! How does this happen? Coincidence? Happenstance?

To make a great story a bit shorter, the old servant asks the father if Rebekah can go back with him to her uncle's home and become the wife of the very special son. Dad agrees, and on the morrow, the caravan starts out on the long journey back to Abraham's place. If you have ever heard Sarah Brightman and Andrea Bochelli sing "Time To Say Goodbye", now would be a good time to enjoy that musical piece and think about Rebekah saying goodbye as she leaves home. The travelers do arrive safely home, and the young man and the young lady make a perfect match, and they live happily (almost every day) ever after.

So what would it take for you and me to have the kind of experience Eliezer had? What would it take to have a real story like that to tell out of our own life? What kind of person would we have to be to see God work this way on our behalf?

First of all, it helps to be a servant. The Big E can't turn down the assignment, he's a servant. Perhaps we don't see God work on our behalf because, in our independence, we turn down the Master's assignments! This week, starting today, become a servant in as many creative ways as you can. You'll make yourself a candidate for breathtaking experiences that will be stories you'll tell from now on. (You can see from the story in the Book that the servant told the story several times, and if I had to guess, I'd say he's in heaven STILL telling that amazing account of what God did for him.)

Second, take the assignment. Sure the Master's assignments look scary, risky, HUGE, and we know they are full of challenge. But if we want stories to tell, we have to sign on for the mission. Yes, we will be inadequate, and we will feel inadequate, but we can take it to the bank that God has a great plan in mind for us. We will be in over our heads! Any of us, perhaps young ladies, reading this blog want to water 10 camels? Remember, there was no faucet and hose to use. There was a jar, there were slobbering camels, there was mud at the edge of the spring... How many fingernails did Rebekah break that evening? If the Master calls, just take the assignment.

Third, pray and pray and pray. Eliezer prayed often on this trip. Count the times in the Book. Abraham had assured him that God would send His angel before him. And before he even finishes his conversation with God that evening at the well, Eliezer sees the answer to his plan unfolding before his very eyes. We want to ask again, where did the details of that plan come from? To ask a young lady for a drink is one thing; to expect that she would water the camels was quite another. Surely the angel of God, who was going before the caravan, had impressed these details upon the old servant. Eliezer concludes that "the Lord has guided me STRAIGHT to the house of my master's brothers." That sort of thing happens when we pray and pray and pray.

What a great story! Thanks for joining me in it. Rest assured that God will guide servants who are willing to take on great assignments. Courageous obedience on our part can and will shape the course of history. Say "YES" to God and work with angels. Say "YES" to God and you'll have a story to tell...for all eternity.

God bless,
Jerry

JerrySuzie.com


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Spring has sprung

I know a lot of people enjoy Spring time. The weather is warm, the sky is clear, and the thought of being outside after a long winter is very inviting.

I, myself, don’t mind spring, but my favorite times of the year are Autumn and Winter. I enjoy the cool air, the color, sweaters and pumpkin patches, hayrides and the thought of the holidays just around the corner. Being from Texas, I also love the snow. But my pessimistic side rears its ugly head in the spring.

With the snow and rain gone, the sun illuminates all the things that are wrong with my house an yard, and beckons me to finish the projects that have been started long ago. It’s my nature to take on more than I am willing to finish (except food -- I have no problem finishing there!). So today, as the sun came up, I took a gander at the back yard and saw nothing but troubles and projects.

Sections of leaves haven’t been moved from the fall,
No grass is growing in large section of lawn,
Landscape stones need to be placed around the trees,
Weed, fertilize, and mulch everything.

And then I see the projects that I have to do to be able to do other projects:

Fill in two basement windows with cement block so I can:
Backfill dirt around our foundation,
Gravel the muddy driveway with more gravel,
Plant bushes around the house.

Finally, there are the projects that need to be finished inside the house!

Finish the half bath,
Expose the brick behind the plaster on one wall,
Rerun some water pipe with larger diameter pipe,
Rerun some electrical wiring,
Add a light and fan to our “Blue room”
Finish the master bath,
Somehow get water out of the corners of our basement,
Finish the basement,
Tear this house down and start over?

I look around this old house and all I see are projects, as far as my eye can see. What is my response? Get started and get moving? No, sit down and blog!

I want them done before I go overseas, but I know (especially about the plumbing I have to do) that that is simply a pipe dream.

I think my life is tends to be very similar to my house. My spirit and soul are a work in progress. But I am not perfect, and never will be. My sin and my troubles will always be there. Winter is nice because all my faults and sins and mess-ups, and work that still needs to be done on me, can be hidden by the beauty of the snow, or forgotten about during the good times of the holidays.

But isn’t it always like God, to come in during spring, and once again illuminate the sin in my life? Those few extra pounds I need to lose, pure thoughts, humble attitude, a proper witness to others, truly loving my wife, living in this world but for a heavenly one. He is always there, ever the potter. Trouble is, I’m not always the clay. I get so stagnant in my Walk with Him, that I harden -- my heart and then my life. Hardened clay cannot be formed. Said another way, a prideful heart scoffs at change from the maker.

As I work on one thing in my house, something else goes wrong or breaks. Constantly. This is a perfect example of God’s grace on me. He puts one fire out in my life and I go and jump into another fire! Oh, what a patient God is He!

As I work on my house projects this Spring, I’ll remember that someone is also working on me.

For more, visit TobyLaura.com!

Blogger Tips

There are some really great websites out there that talk about all that can be done with a free Google Blogger account. Are you worried about privacy? Want your blog to look unique? Tired of the same layouts and templates that everyone uses?

If so, you may want to try these links and see what you think. If you ever need help, don’t hesitate to call or e-mail me.

Blogging Tips

Widgets for Free

And of course: Blogger Help

Good luck, and enjoy your blogging with Google!

For more, visit TobyLaura.com!

More Gmail options

Still not convinced that Gmail is the way to go? Some of the reasons I love a free Gmail account are the wonderful options and flexibility it provides. I’ve already talked about how to get your own custom e-mail address and more, but I’m always learning new great things about Gmail.

Two quick things that I’m excited about are email import and extra email addresses. These two functions are also available at places like Yahoo! and Hotmail, but usually not for free.

We as people get comfortable and the thought of change is usually never fun. Changing e-mail address sounds like a chore, so I can certainly understand the resistance to change. However, with Gmail, its easy! If you have thousands of email messages that you don’t want to lose access to, import them into your Google email and don’t miss or skip a beat. Google does it all for free, behind the scenes.

Also, people get a lot of spam (when they don’t have Gmail) often times because they must use an email address to sign up for something online. Once that happens, their address gets sold to a spam list. Yikes! Well, with Gmail, you can create as many “throw away” email address as you want, by adding a plus sign ( + ) and another word to your address. For example, lets say I want to sign up for a free software download and the website wants me to register my email address. If my Gmail address is toby@gmail.com, I could give the website my email address as: toby+software@gmail.com. Or, if I had to give Target my address, I could give them toby+target@gmail.com Google sees this address and still sends it to me, because Google ignores the ( + ) sign and anything that follows it. They become a tag for me to see later in my inbox. That way, if I start getting spam in my inbox, and it is sent to the address: toby+target@gmail.com, I can create a filter within Gmail to filter out all email sent to toby+target@gmail.com and have it sent immediately to the trash. Cool, huh?

If you get online bank statements or notes from your credit card, give them the address: toby+banking@gmail.com Then, you can create a filter to catch anything with +banking to be sent to a folder you have created called Finances, or whatever you want. That way, you never miss an important message from your bank, and they are all stored and organized into one, or as many convenient folders as you wish.

To find out more, read the official Gmail blog.


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Ignorance: Our most expensive commodity

Our Most Expensive Commodity

From the EIB Network, Rush Limbaugh:

“I keep telling people: The most expensive commodity we have in this country is ignorance, not gasoline, not rice, not wheat, not corn. The most expensive commodity we have is the ignorance of way too many Americans.  It is ignorance that allows liberalism to prosper.  Get this: "Three out of 10 US public school students do not graduate from high school, and major city school districts only graduate one out of two students, according to a study released Tuesday.  In a report on graduation rates around the country, the EPE Research Center and the America's Promise Alliance also showed that the high school graduation rate -- finishing 12 grades of school..." They have to even throw that in there because half the country reading the story doesn't know what it takes to graduate!  Can you believe this?

"The high school graduation rate -- finishing 12 grades of school..." They have to add that?  Really?  I thought you only had to get to tenth grade and you graduated!  "The high school graduation rate -- finishing 12 grades of school -- in big cities falls to as low as just 34.6 percent in Baltimore, Maryland, and barely over 40 percent for the troubled Ohio cities of Columbus and Cleveland.  And it said that black and Native American students have effectively a one-in-two chance of getting a high school diploma."  Now, stick with me on this, because while this is tragic and while it is horrible and while it is disconcerting, this is a French News Agency story, and it doesn't even bother to analyze why this is.  It doesn't even bother.  Let me give you the dirty little secret here.  America's Promise Alliance was a group founded by Colin Powell, and they looked at high school graduation rates at America's 50 largest cities.  In 17 of our 50 largest cities, not even half the kids attending high school finish.  That doesn't even touch on what the hell they're being taught while they're there.  


But I will guaran-damn-tee you it's not Economics 101 in a way that they could understand it. I will guarantee you that most of what they're being taught is a multicultural hybrid of hate America; America sucks. America's out to screw you. You don't have a prayer in America. Ronald Reagan sucks. George Bush sucks. Bill Clinton was fabulous. The Founding Fathers were racists, and they were atheists, and this country originally belongs to the Indians from whom it was stolen by evil white Europeans. This is what these people come out of school knowing, thinking.  "In large metropolitan areas, you may as well draw a target around the inner cities if you want to isolate this problem. In Baltimore suburbs, over 80% of the kids graduate.  Thirty-four percent who live in Baltimore's inner city graduate."  Suburbs okay, not great, 80%. We shouldn't even be happy with that.  There's no excuse for anything less than a hundred percent! It's basic.  We all talk about education. "We gotta educate our children. We need more money to educate our children." then how can we be happy with anything less than a hundred percent?

Anyway, by contrast, we're ecstatic about 80% in the suburbs of Baltimore, because the inner city is 34%.  In Detroit, about a quarter, 25% of the kids graduate. Twenty-five percent!  Indianapolis public school system, 30% graduation rate, Cleveland, 35%, inner city.  In response to the report, Secretary Powell said, "When more than one million students a year drop out of high school, it's more than a problem. It's a catastrophe."  It's worse than that, Secretary Powell.  Let's go back to Obama's big race speech for a second, shall we?  Obama like every other Democrat, talks about schools failing minority kids, but he never addresses how they got that way.  There's no question that inner city schools are failing minority kids.  Why do you think the biggest supporters of school vouchers are the parents of kids in inner city schools that will take the first chance they can to get them out of there and get them into a decent school?  These are primarily black and Hispanic kids in Democrat Party-run cities, and they are left to fail year after year, decade after decade!  Liberalism is giving us this problem, and it has for a long time -- and look at the billions that we are spending on education to boot.  You now throw that into the mix.

You talk about being mad about something? You talk about being mad at the high cost of something and getting nothing for it?  These kids are caught in a stranglehold, folks, of liberal politics.  Liberal politics is designed to keep unions strong, including the teachers, and minority kids underachieving.  I mean, to the extent that there's institutional racism in America, it is in these blue states, run by liberal Democrats for years. Their own kids are not even being disserviced. It's just criminal, the way they're not being taught and what they are being taught.  So I was asked, "How do we get this way where people don't understand we gotta go get our own oil to become independent?" They don't have the education; they don't have the information.  They've been taught that America is bad, that America is rotten, that America steals from the rest of the world. America deserves to suffer. America deserves to be hated by the rest of the world.  That's what they're taught.  So when Big Oil boys get calls up to Capital Hill, and get called on the carpet for these prices, "Yeah! Yeah! You stick it to them. You stick it to them, those big, fat white guys taking all the profits, just getting rich while I'm sitting here poor. That's right, you stick it to them!" The sad thing is that, actually, this is not a catastrophe, Secretary Powell. This is just liberal business as usual.

In all of this stuff, the education problems in the inner cities of this country, the problem's not the American people.  I'm still bouncing off Senator McCain's speech to the midshipmen at Annapolis.  The American people are spoiled and they're a little too cynical and they take their freedom for granted, blah, blah, blah.  Overall the problem is not the American people.  The problem is the government and how government manipulates people, how the government literally abuses people, and how the government uses them.  The problem, folks, is liberalism. Liberalism that controls most of the government and how it seeks to transform our society for the worst.  We can't run around and say the American people are great one day, that left to their own devices they'll succeed, but on the other hand condemn them or most of them or a lot of them.  This is an argument against liberalism and Big Government.  

Here's what liberals do.  Liberals say that people are too lazy, too stupid, and that they need to be managed.  Liberals have contempt for the average American. Liberals do not believe the average American can overcome obstacles in life. Our position is just the opposite.  We have the greatest faith in the world and in the American people.  We want a great nation.  We as conservatives do.  We want people to be the greatest they can be.  We don't want to hold anybody down and we don't want to give anybody any excuses.  And we don't want to make them victims of anything.  We don't want to treat them like children.  There are people out there like that, but not overall, but the liberals are out there trying to create as many of those people as they can.


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Big Gold?

It’s economics 101 and the general public doesn’t seem to know it. The price of things like gold or oil is set by the market, not by businesses. So why is it that Congress pulls the Oil Company CEO’s in to testify and resolve to lower the price of gas? How about calling in Jewelers to lower the price of gold? Here is Rush Limbaugh’s excellent viewpoint on it:

Big Gold

From the EIB Network, Rush Limbaugh:

I listen to people trash Big Oil. The very guys that are putting gasoline in your car are being trashed, and you are being conditioned to hate their guts while the guys on the Senate committee wouldn't know the first thing about putting gas in your car, have not done one thing to get gas in your car, and you think they are your savior. The price of oil is going way up.  You know what?  A lot of other things are going up.  How about the price of gold?  The price of gold's gone through the roof.  I want to know what the hell's going on with that.  Where is a congressional hearing to bring in Big Gold?  Have you looked at the price of jewelry?  You gonna go out there and get engaged, get married -- I hope not, but if you are -- are you going to go out there and buy diamonds?  Have you seen the price escalations?  The Senate should bring Big Jewelry in. Is $350 an ounce is about right? I just think they just ought to set the gold price at 350 bucks an ounce -- instead of close to a thousand, and make this "fair."  This kind of stuff is really frustrating to me.

No, I'm serious about this price of gold stuff.  You bring the Big Oil guys up. Those are the guys that put gasoline in your car.  If it weren't for them, you wouldn't have gasoline -- and yet they're the guys that get grilled.  Have you seen the price of gold?  Now, see, this is a good illustration.  I'm trying to make a point here, but I think that the point's lost, because I'm not being sympathetic or empathetic: that would be a better word.  It would be so easy for me to sit here and say, "Oh, gosh the price of gas! Man, it's so hard for all of us. I don't know what we're going to do.  I really, really know how tough it is for you."  That wouldn't change your situation any at all, but you'd think somebody cares.  This is what the liberals pull off.  The liberals make people think they care about their problems.  They think they have a kindred spirit working on solving the problem.  

Of course they don't.  Liberals don't fix anything.  All they do is break things! All they do is ruin things.  They don't fix diddly-squat.  But people think they do because they care, and if I were to sit here and go through this little bit, "Hey, why didn't Congress bring in Big Gold?  Have you seen the price of gold lately?  Why didn't Congress demand that Big Gold lower the gold price, why didn't Congress bring in Big Jewelry?  Have you seen the price of diamonds lately? It's skyrocketing; everything is! Pull out all the stops! Find out who's responsible! See who's cheating the little guy when it comes to gold and jewelry.  You know how much people have suffered who want to go out and get married or get engaged to have a decent anniversary present, maybe get that solid gold toilet they've always dreamed about?

"Now they can't do it because of the price of gold and the price of jewelry.  And where are Pelosi and where's Reid and where is Ed Markey, and where is Obama, telling me again that the price of gold will come down to make it profitable and yet affordable to me?"  Now, I could make that case. I don't know how many people would get what I'm saying.  I mean, "you people," don't misunderstand. You would.  I'm talking about people outside this audience. You all have above average IQs, above average education. We've done all the surveys. We know who you are, and you know who you are.  When I say "you," I'm talking about people that vote liberals, people that vote Democrats.  But, boy, I could say, "Well, I feel sorry for you. It's just so bad out there. I wish something could be done," and of course there's nothing I can do or anybody else can do, but if you think that somebody cares, then I guess you're less, what? Concerned, or at least more hopeful?  Yes! People are more hopeful that something might get fixed if somebody cares . . .

And why do so many think that a sympathetic Congress can actually mandate lower oil prices? Because of our Ignorance. Read about it in the next blog entry.

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