Links-R-Us, Vol. 20

Once again I find that Link-Friday has snuck up on us.  And, ironically enough, it has chosen to fall on Friday.  I’d like to take this time to thank everyone who voted in last week’s Link-Friday competition.  Your winning link for last week was...  None!  Nobody voted.  Who knew?  Maybe we’re just getting off to a slow start.  Or, maybe the links were too boring.  Or, maybe this is really a silly idea on my part.  Unfortunately, I really don’t have an answer for which of the above it is.  So…  We’ll try it again this week to see if there are any takers…  Thanks in advance for giving it a shot.

Here is lots of info from great people about talking to your children about tragedy.  Sure this information came out in response to the Newtown shootings, but it is relevant to all tragedies.  Our thoughts and prayers continue to go out to all effected by this tragedy.

Links-R-Us, Vol. 19

Welcome to another addition of Link-Friday.  Ok, so this one comes at you on a Monday.  Hopefully it will bring a few smiles to your faces – we could use more of that in this world…  I’m also doing something a bit different with this edition to see if you like it and if it is worth doing.  I was thinking that maybe I should have you vote in the comments below as to which link is your favorite.  Then, once every now and then, I could do a battle of the weekly winners to see which link “reigns supreme” (gotta throw in a little Iron Chef there).  And so, without further ado, here are this week’s contenders:

Our first link is a commercial for a new cable station in England – Sky Movies 007 HD.  This commercial includes car chase scenes involving every James Bond actor to date.  Oh, and the plug is pushing their channel that plays nothing but Bond 24 / 7.  Yup, you heard me:  Bond all the time.  How lucky can the English be?

Newtown, CT

As a parent, my heart aches for those that are and will be affected by the senseless and horrific violence that occurred today in Newtown, CT. at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

I won’t lie – I haven’t read a single story about what has occurred.  I read the headlines with the quotes of how many beautiful children have had their lives cut short so tragically and intentionally stayed away.  I have a seriously hard time dealing with things such as this as my mind flashes to the “what ifs:”

• What if it was my child / children?
• What if it wasn’t them but they were the ones who survived?
• What if I something else happens and I never get to hug or hold my little ones again?
• What if, what if, what if…

I don’t have answers to any of those questions, but they will paralyze me if I dwell here too long.  So, I will avoid the news until such time as I will be able to actually sit down and work thru each of these questions – until I can bawl my eyes out from the pain – until I can hug and hold my children in safety once again tonight.

But until then I will pray.  I will pray that these children and their families are comforted by our Savior Jesus Christ today and always.  I will pray that my children come home safe to me once again.  And I will pray for one more chance to do things right for them.

So tonight, hug and hold your little ones and other loved ones a little closer and pray for those who can’t.

Skyfall: My First James Bond on the Big Screen

Yup, you read right. Until last weekend I had never watched a James Bond movie at a movie theater. You might say that I have been missing out all of these years. You know, you'd probably be right...

Now don't get me wrong... It's not that I haven't wanted to... It's not that I haven't been able to... It's not that I don't care for Bond (having seen every Bond film ever made makes typing that seems so heretical)... It's just that I haven't done so.

Links-R-Us, Vol. 18

I’m sure that at some point or another we have all felt that life gets in the way of us doing things that we want to do.  That seems to be my life right now.  I always wanted to start and maintain a blog that was kept up to date and regularly posted to…  Unfortunately, life has gotten in the way of that…  So, to get back into the swing of things, I bring you today another Link-Friday.

Our first link is to an article about a man who took some thieves for a ride.  When Noah Magram received a phone call telling him that his computer had an infection and he needed to download some software to fix it, he had a better idea.  You see, Noah is a computer security expert.  This story is about a computer scammer being scammed by the scammee.  It also gives some interesting information about how these groups work.  Enjoy!

Links-R-Us, Vol. 17

Welcome once again to Link-Friday.  It’s been too long since last I posted a blog entry, but I am grateful for all of you who loyally continue to follow me despite my short-comings.  Thanks for being there.  And now, on with the links…

Once again it’s that time of the year when Forbes magazine publishes it list of the top fifteen wealthiest fictional characters.  Yes.  You heard me.  The magazine that’s famous for its lists of wealthy people making a list of wealthy fictitious characters.  You would think that with the challenging economic times we live in that they wouldn’t waste time with fluff and produce something a little more substantial that might assist someone who is struggling financially.  But, then again, if all you report is stuff about how bleak the economic horizon looks I guess you could use a moment of joviality to lighten the load.  In either case, I think that my rant is way too long and really serves no purpose…  Just sit back and enjoy their attempts to bring a smile to your face.

Hunger Date Night Games 101

Recently my beloved wife and I were blessed that our eldest daughter was available to babysit the younger children.  So we took advantage of sneaking out for dinner and a movie.  There were a couple of things that made this particular date night great and there was one thing that made it less than thrilling.

Links-R-Us, Vol. 16

Welcome to another Link-Friday.  It’s been a while and some of my links are a little dated but hopefully they’ll bring you some enlightenment or enjoyment.  With that disclaimer in place, here’s this week’s links.

Our first link is bitter-sweet.  I am a huge fan of America’s space program.  I have been EXTREMELY upset ever since President Obama canceled the human space program when he first entered office.  (Granted, he did a little back pedaling and chose to reinstate some of it when the political backlash – Florida’s electoral votes come in pretty handy – seemed to become quite severe.)  I won’t lie:  I was looking forward to President Bush’s plan to return to the moon.  I was way too young to remember the last time we went to the moon and I really was looking forward to us going back while my children were still young enough that it might inspire them and their career path.  But, enough nostalgic ramblings…  Oh, wait…  Everything about this link is a nostalgic rambling.  Anyway, Space Shuttle Discovery was turned over to the National Air and Space Museum this week.  Here’s a link to the blow-by-blow account of the gutting and destruction of Discovery so that she will never be able to fly ever again.  Every time I hear of a beautiful flying machine that is intentionally injured in such a way that it won’t fly again it really hurts my heart – especially when the ship has many years of life left in her.

Storms and Stress

Storms are something we all have to deal with in our lives.  They come and they go – sometimes destroying things and sometimes inspiring us with the renewal that they bring.  The old adage “April showers bring May flowers” fits as a description of our lives as well as weather.

Links-R-Us, Vol. 15

Once again I find that my Link-Friday queue has filled itself up long before I have finished a blog entry filled with things of a little more substance.  For this, I am sorry.  Sometimes external factors related to ones’ own survival take precedence over the more cerebral items…  (Don’t take that wrong – nobody is trying to kill me and my family – we just seem to be putting out fire after fire after fire after fire after fire…).  There are a few thoughts that I have been working on for a while that I hope to turn into actual blog entries soon enough, but for now Link-Friday will need to surfice.

Our first link is to a PCMagazine article about RPG computer games of the 80’s.  Having played at least half of these games myself, the article really took me back to a more carefree time where my biggest stressor was related to what to do after school / work.  Enjoy.

Links-R-Us, Vol. 14

Once again Link-Friday is upon us.  After the last few months of extremely depressing news, it’s good to be finding things that are uplifting and inspiring to post (despite being so long between posts).  And, on that note, here we go…

The following link talks about how the state of Nevada has just authorized cars to be driverless.  Hmmm…  Driverless cars…  That’s actually one “Science Fiction” item that will be pretty cool to have.  How many of us would love to be able to do something other than watch the road while driving the 700+ miles to get to Aunt Bertha’s house?

Links-R-Us, Vol. 13

Welcome to another Link-Friday.  The type of news that I like to post has been pretty tame as of late so it has taken almost three weeks to come up with my standard five links.  I know that there really has been plenty of news occurring, but all of it has been rather depressing and that’s really not the purpose of Link-Friday in my mind…  My vision for Link-Friday has always been semi-comical and thought provoking without being depressing.  So, on that note, let the clicking of links begin!

The following link is one that is sad, comical and befuddling.  The link is to a story of a 70 year old father that shoots his 50 year old son for singing a Kenny Chesney song.  It’s really confusing and sad that this happened…  But, it really makes me laugh to think that I can empathize with the father due to the son’s selection of music.  Go figure.

Blog Post #25

Greetings Programs!  Ok.  Please forgive me – I’ve always wanted to say that.

Over the last few months my blog has been putting together a tiny glimpse of me and what makes me tick, so to speak.  I once heard that if you listen long enough when someone is talking that eventually they will accidently let something slip that you can use…  “Use?” you might ask?  Ok, I have to admit that the above theory was stated by a fictional character on a TV show – Michael Weston on Burn Notice – but that the theory really is sound.  Let’s use me as the example…

Links-R-Us, Vol. 12

Welcome to another Link-Friday.  I recently had an epiphany concerning Link-Friday.  Historically as I have stumbled across articles that I have found interesting I have just copied the link to a holding area and moved on.  Well, this week I tried something totally different.  When I found a link I also wrote the blurb concerning the link at the same time.  When I gathered five links a new Link-Friday post was born.  So, now that I have increased my efficiency, I can honestly say, “What took me so long to think of that?!?”

Everyone who has read my blog knows that I check LifeHacker fairly often for tips and tricks about everything from tech stuff to improving ones household.  With that being said, a link on LifeHacker recently led to the following blog and its’ entry concerning uncluttering your house.  Based on this article I think that I will be adding this blog to my personal follow list.

Thank You Mr. Lucas

“All the heroes and legends I knew as a child have fallen to idols of clay.” – Styx

We all have heroes from our youth.  Ok, let me rephrase that.  We all categorize the people that helped to create who we are into some form of hierarchy.  We have the true heroes who put their lives on the line such as soldiers, astronauts, firemen and police officers.  We have more cerebral heroes who teach us to strive to become more than we are such as Jesus Christ, Lord Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell, Captain Moroni and my son Royce.  And we have the heroes and legends from our youth such as friends who did legendary things (i.e. Benny “The Jet” Rodrigues), teachers who helped us grow, and movie makers that changed our perspective on life as they awed and wowed us with their movie magic.

Links-R-Us, Vol. 11

Welcome once again to Link-Friday!  Today’s selection of links has once again returned to the standard five after last week’s Link-Friday Clearinghouse.  These five links are the last of the links that I have managed to store up over the last little while; and unfortunately I have not come across any more links that have really sparked my interest enough to be included in Link-Friday…  So, this may be one of the last Link-Fridays for a little while.  Keep your eyes open, because you never know when the next Link-Friday post will once again pop up.  And, on that note, here are the links!

Our first link is to a fun video that was on one of the local news outlets.  This link leads us to a man who made a “Star Wars” type video based on him playing music from the Star Wars movies on his cello.  The article that accompanied the video brought up a good point that I wish to repeat – would Darth Vader actually do something that silly?  You be the judge.

Links-R-Us, Vol. 10

Welcome to another Link-Friday!  I was looking at the list of links that I keep on the back burner and noticed that the list is, like, huge!  When I first started to compile links for Link-Friday I would always have a hard time coming up with five (why I chose five I will never know…).  Now I’m having a hard time whittling the list down to five.  So, welcome to our first Link-Friday Link Clearinghouse!  So, I’m going to spit out as many one or two liners and links as will fit in this little post.  So, with luck on my side, here goes…

Our first link is one I wished that I had known about for the holidays – making home-made candles out of citrus fruit.  Here are a couple of links to it:

Heros, Part 1

Today I want to talk about one of the most amazing people that I know:  my son Royce.

Since birth, Royce has been plagued with various problems.  “Problems” is probably the wrong word to use – challenges would probably be more like it.  When Royce was born his bilirubin values were abnormal and ultimately went up to dangerous levels.  We were having him tested every day for nearly three weeks (his poor heals were so sore and he hated anyone touching his feet for the longest time after that) and spent almost a week with him under the “bili-lights” to bring his jaundice levels down.

Links-R-Us, Vol. 9

Thanks again for tuning into another episode of Link-Friday.  May your day be better for the visit!

Welcome once again to another Link-Friday!  Looking back on previous posts I have discovered that almost half of the Link-Friday posts have missed the mark by at least one day.  So, I am officially declaring any day that a Link-Friday post comes out is an honorary Friday.  And with all that being said, on to todays links.

My first link is to a story I had not heard about.  My brother who stayed with us for Christmas told me about this one.  Apparently Bank of America tried to foreclose on a couple that had paid cash on their home and did not have a mortgage.  After hearing the case, the court sided with the couple (becuase they had never had a mortgage with Bank of America) and it ordered BofA to pay for court costs.  Well, when BofA did not pay up the couple’s attorney showed up with the sheriff and foreclosed on the local branch – seizing all the assets of the bank.  Movers were standing by with the sheriff and his deputies until an hour later the manager gave the couple a check for the amount owed.  The couple’s next move is to sue for their legal fees.  This really seems like poetic justice in the aftermath of all the improper foreclosures we’ve read about. The link includes the story as well as a video.  Enjoy:

New Year's 2012

“It wouldn’t be New Year’s if I didn’t have regrets” – William Thomas

Hmmm…  Another year has come and gone.  It is my prayer that this next year will bring more happiness, stability and kindness to each of our lives.  Everyone could do with a little more of each of those items in their lives.

Christmas is for Children

This year has been quite a trying year for us.  Everything that you could imagine going wrong pretty much has.  Lenora Mattingly Weber put it best when she said, “Christmas is for children.  But it is for grown-ups too.  Even if it is a headache, a chore, and nightmare, it is a period of necessary defrosting of chill and hide-bound hearts.”  This year, our Christmas was for our children.