Wednesday, July 30, 2008

A jar of marbles?


Things to think about
There is more to do in the world than we can or even really want to do. This came across my desk about two years ago and then again last week. I’ve edited the story to condense it slightly:

I overheard an older fellow talking about "a thousand marbles." I was intrigued and stopped to listen to what he had to say,

"Well, Tom, it sure sounds like you're busy with your job. I'm sure they pay you well but it's a shame you have to be away from home and your family so much. Hard to believe a young fellow should have to work sixty or seventy hours a week to make ends meet. It's too bad you missed your daughter's "dance recital" he continued. "Let me tell you something that has helped me keep my own priorities." And that's when he began to explain his theory of a "thousand marbles."

“You see, I sat down one day and did a little arithmetic. The average person lives about seventy-five years I know, some live more and some live less, but on average, folks live about seventy-five years.

Now then, I multiplied 75 times 52 and I came up with 3900, which is the number of Saturdays that the average person has in their entire lifetime. Now, stick with me, Tom, I'm getting to the important part.

It took me until I was fifty-five years old to think about all this in any detail", he went on, "and by that time I had lived through over twenty-eight hundred Saturdays." "I got to thinking that if I lived to be seventy-five, I only had about a thousand of them left to enjoy. So I went to a toy store and bought every single marble they had. I ended up having to visit three toy stores to round up 1000 marbles. I took them home and put them inside a large, clear plastic container right here next to my desk.

Every Saturday since then, I have taken one marble out and thrown it away. I found that by watching the marbles diminish, I focused more on the really important things in life.

There is nothing like watching your time here on this earth run out to help get your priorities straight.

This morning, I took the very last marble out of the container. I figure that if I make it until next Saturday then I have been given a little extra time. And the one thing we can all use is a little more time.”

Why are we here on earth?
God put us here on earth to make a difference. In Genesis, it is written:

And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.

And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.


God gave us the earth and all that is therein with the charge that we should go forth being fruitful, subdue it and have dominion over it. What then is our charge, our commandment, our instruction?

To make a positive difference in this world, our world, more importantly God’s world, which he left in our charge. So our priorities are:

1 - If you are parents, your first priority is to make sure your children go to heaven;
2 - Your second priority is to be there to meet them;
3 - Your third priority is to prepare your children to meet the challenges of this world;
4 - Your fourth priority is to provide for the needs of your family;
5- Your fifth priority is to be of positive use to your friends
6 - Your sixth priority is to have fun doing the first five!

You have to take care of your country, so that your family will have an environment from which to get to heaven. You have to help your neighbors to the extent you can. Recall Jesus’ summary of the law:

THOU shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

If what you are doing is in conflict with what you are charged to do, change what you are doing. Eternity stretches from the past so far we cannot see it and into the future so far we cannot fathom it. Only today, the present, where the Hand of God touches the timeline to eternity, can we exist. While we remember yesterday and hope for tomorrow, today is where we live. Always. Yesterday was, tomorrow may be, but today is. Act today. Your actions will affect your today if tomorrow comes.

So, what are you doing and how does that fit into the plan? Do you need a jar of marbles to focus your life?

Sunday, July 27, 2008

HughesNet - Hughes Net - hughes.net - Does not matter what you call it, it doesn't hack it!


The day Hughes Net has a product that doesn't suck will be the day they market a vacuum cleaner. (Not original, but Microsoft isn't the only company that sucks)

What kind of speed can you look forward to with your Hughes Net Satellite Service. Well, we have the Small Business Professional Plan and the DW7000 router, this gives us blinding speeds. Most of the time we get an uplink speed of around 4 - 5 Kbps and a downlink speed of around 14 - 15 Kbps. Tonight, the downlink is about 750 bps (no K, less than 1 K per second).

Now, there is a downside, if you do a major software update and exceed your daily limit, or if they think you might exceed your daily limit, you are put on restricted access due to the aptly named Fair Access Policy. Then you are limited to 128 Kbps maximum download speeds. Of course, you never get that speed ever. But the limit is there.

The only place Hughes Net is used is where you cannot get any other form of service. We live in the country and dial up is 14 Kbps maximum.

In the event cable, DSL, ADSL or fiber optics ever get here, Hughes Net can go to the dumpster. That DAY.

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Mac OSX 10.5.4 Leopard Evolis Pebble Drivers that work!


You can download a BETA Pebble Driver package that worked on my MacBook Pro Intel machine running 10.5.4 here:

http://www.descansorodents.com/pebble_osx10.5.4_drivers/

The drivers are courtesy of Darcy Ryan of Australia who prevailed on www.interactcard.com.au to send them to me. Thanks Darcy!

I am so happy that I can use my Pebble again!

Thanks!

Sunday, July 13, 2008

Mobile Me SUCKS and SO DOES APPLE


Due to Apple's Ego Centric renaming of the DOT Mac Service to Mobile Me (how me-centric can you get), they cannot renew my membership because of their own programming ineptitude. So, what to do? They will cancel my account and delete all the information in three days, if I do not renew. Of course, I cannot renew because their programmers are up and locked. Oh, yes - And I cannot even figure out how to sign in to my own account now. Great website, Steve O. What a bad joke. User friendly? If I wanted this kind of support, I would call Bill Gates!

They are AFU and I am supposed to lose my e-mail and web pages. There is no phone number, no e-mail address, no nothing. For this I have been paying $100.00 per year?

In the event my site goes down, I have already instructed our legal department to file suit. Let Apple get a taste of its own medicine!

First Memo to Steve Jobs - I find Mobile Me to be a very insulting name.

Second Memo to Steve Jobs - GET A JOB!

Wednesday, July 09, 2008

Women in the Priesthood and Bishopric


Today we hear the Mother Church of Anglicanism, the Church of England, is to allow the ordination of women bishops. This is not surprising to any with intellect and memory. The CoE has ordained women priests in violation of biblical direction, why not bishops?

Please read the following from the First Book of Timothy, Chapter One, Verse Five:

thou shouldest set in order the things that are wanting, and ordain elders in every city, as I had appointed thee: If any be blameless, the husband of one wife, having faithful children not accused of riot or unruly. For a bishop must be blameless, as the steward of God; not selfwilled, not soon angry, not given to wine, no striker, not given to filthy lucre; But a lover of hospitality, a lover of good men, sober, just, holy, temperate; Holding fast the faithful word as he hath been taught, that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers.

Those who are in communion with the CoE are not in communion with the Bible. Your choice.

The Truth shall set you free!

Monday, July 07, 2008

Pebble 3 Card Printer and Problems with Mac OSX / OS X Leopard 10.5.1 and 10.5.2


Since we upgraded our computer system to Leopard 10.5 and then 10.5.1 we have not been able to print directly to the Pebble 3. We could print through another computer running 10.4 Tiger. After upgrading to 10.5.2, that no longer worked. We need the printer. Evolis has been ZERO help. Our card program operates in Filemaker, so we are going to try the Windows version under Parallels. Will post results.