Bwahahaha!!

See this story from BoingBoing. Quite unfortunate English translation, indeed.

When Oscar comes a' knocking...

Things ain't a' rocking. Check out this story about Oscar the Cat. He can predict death. He will only curl up in the bed with terminally-ill patients within a few hours of their deaths. Apparently, he's so accurate that the hospital staff has taken to calling family members of patients who Oscar is seen cuddling with. It's amazing!

Of course it wouldn't be as tender a story if it turns out that Oscar is killing the patients. I kid, I kid.

Story: [CNN.com]

A Parent's Worst Nightmare

The loss of a child is the greatest tragedy known to mankind. So the grief of a parent who loses a child due to the parent's own negligence has got to be immeasurable. A few times per year we hear stories of parents whose children have died because they were left alone in cars during the summer. I can't even think about it for longer than a moment without becoming dizzy.

The most recent case was reported this morning out of Concord, California. It sounds similar to the typical story of a father having his routine changed one morning, and taking on the task of dropping the child(ren) off at daycare. He got the baby strapped in to the car seat and as soon as he got behind the wheel and began driving, he probably immediately became consumed with all of the things that awaited him at work. He drives straight to work, completely forgetting that his son is still in the backseat waiting to be taken to daycare. This type of story never ceases to bring tears to my eyes and leave my heart hurting for a long period of time. God, please bless this family.

Story: [KCRA.com]

R.I.P. Tammy Faye Messner 1942 - 2007

Her precious soul is in Heaven. I truly believe that she held on for long enough to reach out and let the world know about her trust in and love for our Saviour once more before letting go. Please keep her husband, son, and other family and friends in your prayers.

Stories:
[CNN.com]

[MSNBC article about Tammy's fight]

Avoid the internet, HP fans

There's irony in my title, huh? You're visiting the internet in order to read this. Avoid the internet after you finish reading this post. All kinds of killjoys are trying to ruin the intense surprise and enjoyment that comes with reading a Harry Potter book. There are spoilers everywhere. And no, you can't just avoid them my staying away from Harry Potter related sites. Here's an example:

A couple of years ago before I began reading Harry Potter books at all, I started getting heavy into Myspace. Most of the students at my church had accounts and invited me to join, so I obliged. One of my friends created a Myspace page and added me as a friend. In her Top 8 was one of her friends whose screen name was "BLANK kills BLANK" (substitute blank for the name of two primary characters in Book 6). Again, I had never read Harry Potter books at that point; this was about a year before I read Book One.

Of course, by the time I picked up Book One and began reading, it didn't take long before I learned of both characters mentioned on my friend's myspace page, and I remembered instantly. Talk about being TICKED!

So if you don't think it's that serious, haphazardly click and drag away as much as you like. But for the rest of you HP book fans reading this, don't say that I didn't warn you. :-)

Busy, busy, busy

Who isn't busy these days? EVERYONE I know is just completely slammed with one thing or another. As for me, I don't even know where to begin.

I've been having a blast with my kids. They are growing up before my eyes. My son is becoming extremely self-sufficient and I've gotten better at learning what makes both of my kids tick, for the most part. Content kids usually equals a content household. My daughter and I put together a jigsaw puzzle of the continents, seas and oceans. Well, she handed various pieces to me while I put them into place. :-)

My hubby might as well be writing up some billable hours at the law firm where he works. He went to court today, and the entire case was built around his research, and suggestions he made to the defense attorney throughout the trial. The case appears to be in their favor, and the attorney told his client that Chris is the man to thank for all the hard work. How exciting!!!

I hung out with my sister, niece and nephew this afternoon. We had a great time together. We went to Lenox Mall and walked around for a little while, and then grabbed lunch from Wendy's. It was such a relaxing time. Of course, I had to return to work after our time together which was not so relaxing. :-)

I've really been on a roll with boosting my technology expertise. I've got a LONG ways to go before I reach my goals, but they don't seem so far-fetched anymore. That's definitely progress. I've been tasked with some projects that are giving me a real challenge. Hopefully, I'll rise to the occasion.

I just wish I could stay off of the internet all together. I'm starting to think that it's REALLY driving me insane. I've been stressing over avoiding HP: Book 7 spoilers, but the world is so full of DEVASTATING events that it's hard to even think about. It makes my head and heart ache.

I'm off to bed for about 6 hours. I usually look forward to the weekend, but I'm on-call for the first time in about 3 months. Boo.

Harry Potter & The Order of the Phoenix

I had a great day today! I got to hangout with the kids for a few hours longer than normal this morning. The weather is really nice in the mornings. I wouldn't know this because I'm usually holed up my cube at the bottom of my work building. If you know me well, you know that I love my job, but I'm just saying. Right now I'm inside of Atlanta Bread Company surfing and typing away. The interior of this place is SO cheery. Makes me wonder what it would (or will) be like to be able to dial in and work from a place that this more often. Just a fleeting thought.

I made it to the 12:10pm showing this afternoon as I planned! I had a great time. The crowd in the theater was my kind of crowd. Everyone was thoroughly engrossed in the movie and completely silent the entire time. I need a "Silence is Golden" t-shirt. There were a few times that we giggled or shrieked quietly, but otherwise this movie experience was amazing (and a rarity)! I'm sitting here trying to organize all of my thoughts about what I've just seen.

There were plot-holes a'plenty people! If you have never read the books, you will not even notice, let alone care about all of the story lines that Rowling covered brilliantly that go completely unmentioned in the movie. If the words Hufflepuff, whomping willow, or Dumbledore don't mean anything to you, quietly exit at the side and rear doors of the cabin please. For the rest of you, here's all that comes to mind immediately:

No mention of Ron being the Gryffindor prefect. It's been about a year since I read the book so I barely remembered this until reading another website a little earlier.

Percy Weasley is present, of course, but NO mention of his voluntary estrangement from his family. If I only watched the films, I would be quite curious as to why the uptight, yet encouraging Percy was now taking Minister Fudge's side over Harry and his friends (including Percy's own brother and sister!)

Hagrid is present for all of, like, 10 seconds. Listen, I understand that there's no way to cover the entire 900 or so pages in 2 hours and 20 minutes, so it made sense to me to gloss over this one. Still, it would have been nice to see a little more of Hagrid and hear at least a mention of his continued relationship with Olympe Maxime.

Mr. Weasley's attack was glossed over as well. I'm forgiving of that though; at least it got a mention.

No Quidditch this time. Very disappointing, as Ron’s position as keeper didn't get covered on film at all.

Also, in the book Cho Chang's friend (Marietta Edgecombe) was the person who spilled the beans against Dumbledore's Army to Umbridge and the "Inquisitors". The movie gives us Cho Chang herself as the rat. I guess the writers felt it'd be a waste to spend too much time covering an entirely new character that won't be developed very much throughout the series.

And the number one most irritating element of the book left out of the movie is...drum roll please...barely any mention of the prophecy!! The prophecy only gets mentioned near the end of the film at the climax. The movie does not go into who made the prophecy. Also neglected is the fact that Neville is a strong consideration of who the prophecy is actually about! Neville is focused on in the movie mostly to show how vast his improvement becomes, but based on the movie alone you'd think this was mostly due to vindictive feelings toward Bellatrix Lestrange and her role in his parents' deaths.

Despite my whining, this was a nice refresher for Book 6, which no, I STILL have not even begun reading! Yes, I know I only have 9 days. Leave me alone.

Next few days

I'm not even sure what to do with myself...I'm off Thursday, Friday, and Monday of next week. And I have NOTHING at all planned. My only plans include hanging out at Borders all day to FINALLY read/complete "...Half-Blood Prince" and checking an early afternoon showing of "Order of the Phoenix". Oh yeah, and I may sleep a little too.

In other news, Michael Moore is still an annoying jerk. As if you need proof of this, here is a CNN news story on his complete waste of film entitled "Sicko". Dr. Sanjay Gupta rocks my world, by the way.

Update: Corporal Sergeant David Emery Jr

Remember the story of the young soldier I told you about 3 months ago? He was fighting for his life after a suicide bomber attacked his platoon in Iraq back in February. His wife was also pregnant with their child and due at any day.

Here is an amazing update! God truly hears and answers our fervent, sincere prayers.

One Very Courageous Marine

Give with love...trust His love

I was REALLY craving cereal and milk last night. I've been eating very healthy over the past month, but I've been avoiding a lot of essential dairy food items that I love, namely milk. As most of you know, my family is living on one income while my husband completes law school. It's been going well financially, but every now and again we get down to the last few dollars and have to stretch them between pay periods. Yesterday was one of those days when I realized we had gotten to that point.

So I can't knock the cereal craving, and I hop in my truck and drive to Publix. I pull into the parking space and notice an older model pickup truck in a parking space across and to the right of mine. I sit there and primp for a few minutes with the car still running (yes, I primp even before I go into the store...sad). I notice that a man gets out of the passenger side of the aforementioned truck. After I turn off my truck, I glance over again and notice that he closes the door behind him and crosses his arms. He is wearing sunglasses and appears to be staring directly at me. He is who people that I know, both white and black, would see and immediately refer to as "redneck". His arms were covered in tattoos, his clothes and even the truck fit every stereotype, especially in my little town of Douglasville. I walk briskly out of the parking lot into Publix, setting the alarm on my truck as I walk.

I buy my milk and cereal and walk back out to the parking lot. The guy is still standing in front of his truck. I unlock my truck about 15 feet away from it, and I soon as I get to it I unlike the door, toss the bags in the seat, and jump in ready to crank up and roll. The guy starts walking in front of my truck waving at me and smiling. I'm a woman all by myself in a quiet parking lot, and for whatever reason I didn't feel threatened in the least. I get out of my truck and smile back and say, "Hi, what is it?" He explains that he is very embarrassed to have to ask me this, but he and his girlfriend have been driving on E for the past few miles and realize that they won't make it to their home without running out of gas. He jingled a couple of nickels and quarters in his hand and said that it was all they had. I said, "Oh okay, you need some money for gas?" as I checked my wallet and realized that I had NADA. He says that he would really appreciate it if I could help, and reemphasized how embarrassing this was for him. I assured him that he had nothing to be embarrassed about, and told him that I would be right back.

Now, I knew when I first arrived at Publix that I only had a couple of dollars to spend on the cereal and milk because our account is near depleted due to a bunch of unexpected expenses. But something in my heart couldn't leave that young man and his girlfriend in that parking lot without trying to do something. I went to the ATM machine outside of Publix and withdrew cash. You're forced to withdraw at least $20, so I went inside of the store and got change made. When I got back outside to the parking lot the couple was sitting inside of the truck. The young man got out as I approached, and I handed him $10. He told me that I was a lifesaver and was more gracious than any person I had ever met in that type of situation. My heart felt very full, and I smiled back waved at his girlfriend in the driver seat and said "Glad to help!". I wished them both well and jumped back in my truck ready to roll.
As I drove home, I said out loud to the Lord, "I know that I just gave away what amounts to pretty much all we had left to get through the next few days, but I trust you Lord." When I got home, I didn't have the heart to tell my husband, because I didn't want to stress him out.

This morning while lamenting over our bank account we realized that our debit card had been "double charged" this weekend. OUCH. We had even less than I thought. I cringed but just kept quiet, and said silently "Lord, I trust you!" I really meant it, too. As soon as I stepped foot into the CNN Center to work, I got a call from the daycare that my daughter was running a fever and had been inconsolable all morning. My hubby went to pick up our daughter, and I left work and drove straight to the store to get medicine. As I entered the store, I started trying to figure out how I was going to get the supplies to help my daughter's fever and cold with the few dollars I had left.

Then a light bulb went on. My company gave us gift cards last week for all of our hard work on the big relaunch task. Gift cards worth a very large amount. I had completely forgotten about that card!! All I could do was shout "Thank you, Lord!" as I bought medicines and other things for my daughter. Isn't He is SO faithful ALL of the time?! We've got plenty of money to get through this week and even a little extra. I don't even need to say anything else. I think that nothing else needs to be said except what a mighty God we serve!

Never Learn...

Update (7/10/07)

I got to work this morning, and had just enough time to connect my laptop to the network to see if it would boot up. I was able to log into Windows with no problem. I immediately uploaded ALL of my photos and videos to one of the network servers!! That will buy me sometime until I am able to get everything downloaded to CDs and online photo sites. How awesome is that?? I'm completely ecstatic!

======================================================

I just never learn. I don't like to talk about this because I am still partially in denial, but a little over a year ago I lost something very valuable. When I quit my previous job, I went into the office on the last day and turned in my laptop. Before doing so, I had the network engineer place all of my pictures from the hard drive onto CDs. I kept the CDs safely tucked away in my bedroom bookcase. A year later (2006), our bedroom became full of clutter due to my packrat tendencies, and my hubby couldn't take anymore. He began cleaning out every item on the shelf and either putting it in it's proper place, or completely throwing it away if it was useless.

Somewhere between the beginning of his cleaning spree and a few subsequent months, the CDs went missing. To be completely honest, they may have been missing even before his cleaning spree...there was so much clutter that I just can't be sure. But over the past few years, I have not seen these valuable CDs that contain pictures from my son's birth, his first birthday party, my daughter's birth and all of the cute little moments in between. We got a new digital camera by the time my daughter turned one, so every picture on my current laptop is from that point forward. We're talking about a year worth of precious moments (including videos) captured on my current laptop. At least I have those, right?

So here we are two years later. I went to open Firefox on my laptop about an hour ago...nothing. The mousepad wasn't responding. I attempt to use the appropriate keystrokes but the keyboard isn't working either. ??? After ensuring that scroll-lock isn't activated, I turn off the computer. I attempt to turn it back on...NOTHING. I cannot get the blasted thing to turn on. I remove the battery pack and plug in the AC power supply. VOILA!! It turns on!! As soon as I start doing my happy dance, my desktop appears, all of my desktop icons appear, and I click Firefox to immediately subscribe to a Yahoo group and get my pictures OFF of my laptop and online somewhere. NOTHING. The mouse and keyboard don't work. I hear the fan inside of the laptop churning, but I can't actually DO anything.

It's dying. SOMETHING is dying. Either the harddrive is fried, or the motherboard. I'm going with the motherboard, because the desktop wouldn't be appearing if the harddrive was dead or dying. Plus, I've had a similar scare with this same laptop a year ago...I was so sure that my laptop was dead and that I had lost all of my memories (albeit only a months worth at the time). I had the harddrive removed while the motherboard was replaced and everything was hunky dory. I've been so lackadaisical about these precious memories, and this recurring event is proof of that. If I get one more chance to grab these pictures, I'm placing them all online so that I can access them from my home computer (which has a CD/DVD burner, unlike my laptop) and going to load all of these pictures onto CD. I'm so exhausted even thinking about this anymore; I can't do anything about it until Monday morning when I get back to work and around some hardware experts.

.:Sigh:.

And I'll gladly stand up...

Most of the people that I spent time around while growing up would cringe to hear me utter anything closely resembling pride at being an American. When you are a young person and around the same ideas and conversations 98% of the time, you don't generally question anything you hear. You just accept it. I never thought to question why the people making the dissentious remarks about this country didn't fly off to, I don't know, say England, for example and take up residence there. When everyone around you is saying the same thing all of the time, it tends to become a part of you.

That is, until you are able to expand your horizons and hear different things. After I got married and began to build my own life as an adult, my perspective was broadened and I discovered that the mindset I had was completely unfounded. And based on the current state of my life, I would be a complete hypocrite to pretend that I was not completely ecstatic to be living in the US of A instead of some place else. I am only one person, and I can only speak for myself. I have been an American for 32 years. I have been afforded the same opportunities as all others of my age, gender, and lifestyle. I have always lived in a home, and grew up with two parents who have been happily married for almost 36 years now. I was able to take piano, ballet, and swim lessons throughout childhood. I was able to participate in every extra-curricular activity that I desired. I made excellent grades in high school and thus, was given the opportunity to go off to college. I chose to only attend 3 full years of college...just long enough to get all of the knowledge I needed to jump start my career goals. According to the State Census Bureau, my income alone is twice that of the average household. I waited to get married before moving in with my husband and having children. I have a job that I like very much, and a family that I absolutely love. They're called CHOICES. Most of the people that I know and hang around can say the same. Don't get me wrong, I've made a heck of a lot of bad choices as we all have, but the result of these bad choices are my own fault, and have nothing to do with this country or any oppressive tactics put forth.

What other country could I live in and be given such opportunities? Where else could I live in this world and not only pursue happiness, but with a little extra effort and elbow grease, actually be happy most of the time? I know that many people do not feel that they were given these opportunities, and for me to venture a guess as to why this is the case would be judgmental and out of line, I think. But I don't think that there is anything so special about me that gives me the opportunity to live the American dream. Again, they're called "choices" and making the rights ones most of the time will get you very far. So yes, I'm very proud to be an American and gives thanks and honor to God for all of the men and women that defend and protect our freedom everyday.

And there go the fireworks outside, almost on cue! There ain't no doubt I love this land...God Bless the USA.