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Our Daily Thread 4-13-13

Good Morning! 🙂

Happy Saturday!

On this day in 1782 Washington, NC, was incorporated as the first town to be named for George Washington.

In 1796 the first known elephant arrived in the United States from Bengal, India.

In 1860 the first mail was delivered via Pony Express when a westbound rider arrived in Sacramento, CA from St. Joseph, MO.

In 1870 the Metropolitan Museum of Art was founded in New York City.

In 1943 U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt dedicated the Jefferson Memorial.

1979 the world’s longest doubles ping-pong match ended after 101 hours. 😯

I can’t help but think I would have quit loooong before then. 🙂

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Quote of the Day

“My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government.”

Thomas  Jefferson

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One word. Smooth.

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Who has a QoD for us today?

I have one. Did you see that triple play last night? 🙂

Well in case you missed it……….

Awwwwww yeaaaaaaaaah!!!! 🙂

71 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 4-13-13”

  3. To answer Donna J’s question from last night about how my conference was –

    I got answers to some specific questions about using the computer programs. (The conference for users of the software that our college – and a great many others – use for student information, finances, HR, financial aid, etc.) I got handouts from sessions on end-of-term processing, so I can see what holes we may have in our processes, and fix some known issues. I got the email address of someone who is very knowledgeable about the table structure of the data and how to use sql to query it – and is willing to share his knowledge (as people tend to be when they work in higher ed).

    I’m not sure just how much I picked up in terms of general knowledge, but there is so much to the system that for a long time I will be filling in holes in my knowledge, so just about anything helps. I found it somewhat harder than I had hoped to meet people whose jobs are at all similar to mine. Many of the schools are huge university systems, where the systems are of course much more complex, so a lot of their issues are not ones I deal with. And the software vendor has multiple products (two companies merged last year), and it seemed that people with jobs more like mine (from other community colleges) had the other product, not the one we use.

    Mostly, I felt overwhelmed by the sheer amount of knowledge that I don’t have, and feeling very inadequate to the task of managing the system effectively. Which I already felt, but the conference seemed to increase that feeling rather than diminishing it, despite the help I got on specific issues. I am particularly worried about the matter of testing the system when we do upgrades – I need to develop a comprehensive testing plan, which will involve other departments and require their cooperation. I’m OK at doing testing myself, but I don’t have experience coordinating efforts of a number of other people. Just thinking about it scares me and makes me want to go hide in a hole where no one can find me.

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  4. Pauline, obviously there was something on your resume’ that made the people who hired you think you were right for the job. Quit thinking less of yourself. Cop and attitude and tell yourself you CAN do it.

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  6. Pauline, sounds like information overload, but I’m sure it’ll all be helpful. And it’s always nice to get contacts who can help via email when needed.

    We recently got a new computer operating system and there have been lots of bugs to work out of it. But at least I now (barely) know how to file a story. 🙂

    Doing anything beyond that remains shrouded in mystery and fraught with frustration.

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  7. Tychicus, I always thought penguins looked strange when they walked and very grateful in the water, but I had no idea they were that clumsy. And they keep getting back up after every fall. Probably some sort of message there.

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  8. I got up, finished my Bible reading, and prepared for my morning walk. Then discovered the guys were going to go to the men’s prayer breakfast so that canceled the morning walk. I usually take a couple with me, but leave the younger ones home as they are not yet up and he is there to care for them. Anyway, I was out getting some firewood when the boy who usually walks with me arrived. I explained we could not go due to the breakfast. He said, “What breakfast?” Then proceeded to go wake up the other boys so they could go. I took the liberty of waking up the younger two. Husband said, “What? I don’t want to babysit him during the Bible study!” I explained that boys need their dads and he would be fine with a couple of books from the church library. Husband agreed that would be fine. Last I heard, the six year old was helping the eleven year old make pancakes and the others were doing the rest. Should be fun for all.

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  12. Mmmmmmm….

    Pancakes…… 🙂

    Well I’m up to about 10 times now, and I can in fact confirm that it’s gonna be a long time til I get sick of watching that triple play. 🙂

    That may never get old.

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  13. I am about to go outside and perform the annual First Mow on the lawn. 🙂

    The first time is always fun, after that, not so much. But alas, it is neccessary.

    Maybe we should get a goat. My wife wants a goat.

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  17. We have already mowed twice and done lots of weed eating. Try to keep up, the real. Can you tell I only have four children at home? Silence is golden… Besides, it is house cleaning day so they are busy. Guess I will go read to the five year old.

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  20. AJ, my husband tells me that he did an unassisted triple header in Little League, about third grade, as the third baseman. It would be fun to have a video of that!

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  21. Mumsee, how have you already mowed twice? Our grass is just now greening up, this week. After the several inches of rain we’ve had, I imagine it will be growing and not just greening (and hopefully the grass we planted this week will be sprouting), but it won’t need mowing for a couple of weeks.

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  23. I learned a long time ago that if I do not take advantage of the opportunity to mow early, the grass and weeds get a huge head start as we will probably have rain or snow now until mid June and be unable to mow again. So, we take advantage of the few days of dry weather to get things in order for the coming rains. Today we have had sun, wind, hail, rain, sun, snow, sun, and now snow again. The grass will be growing. We planted our grass two months ago, while the snow was still on the ground, it is doing very well.

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  25. Well, we planted grass last fall. My husband told me that he hadn’t planted grass in many years, and I said I don’t know how they do it around here, but in Nashville we planted it in the fall. So we planted some. But apparently fall isn’t the time to plant it here. It came up (a little bit of it) but then seemed to die. So we went ahead and planted some more. It hasn’t had time to come up yet, but it has definitely been watered adequately. (About three inches of rain since we planted it earlier in the week.)

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  26. Cheryl: That would be “triple play,” not “triple header.” A “triple header” means three games in a row (back-to-back-to-back).

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  27. I think I might have made all three outs in a inning once. The problem is, we were the team up to bat. Sandlot game, five players each team. No fun to be the only one to get out.

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  30. I just got home from the event, Engage, which was a joint effort of Summit Ministries and World Magazine. At later dates they will be doing events in Minnesota, Texas (Dallas, I think) and CA (San Diego). It was an excellent event with a bag lunch from where else but Chick-fil-A. I got to hear Marvin Olasky and Warren Cole Smith speak on the journalism side of things, and Teetsel spoke on marriage and family. He is the young man hand-picked by Chuck Colson to lead the Manhattan Declaration group. Jeff Myers, the head of Summit Ministries also spoke and told about an atheist who attended their program determined not to change but when the whole student group and all the ministry had to move out of their buildings because of the Colorado fires and a church took in the whole group for a week, the student was so touched that he changed his mind about being an atheist. Another person who spoke was John Stonestreet who does the Breakpoint broadcasts. He did some of the emcee type work for the program and his ability to pack the words into a small amount of time was impressive. It was nice to be in a group of like-minded people. I did run into two people I know, and I think I saw one of my brother’s friends there, and I had lunch with a group from a nearby local church and met some more ladies I sat beside from Knoxville. It was really a good day. There were some other speakers who I did not get to hear, but I think the attendees will get their messages sent to us. They were trying to pack what they usually do in several days time into one day. If any of you have the opportunity when it comes nearby to where you live, I hope you will attend.

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  35. The other day I mentioned that Emily had posted this quote on Facebook…

    “I’d rather have a mind opened by wonder than one closed by belief.”

    And that I’d replied, “Ah, but everyone *believes* something, whether it be a religion or a scientific theory or in magic or aliens.”

    This morning Emily commented, “You seriously cannot put scientific theory in the same category as religion, magic, and aliens.”

    To which I replied, “I didn’t mean that they were all equal, just that we all choose to believe more strongly in one thing or another. And I don’t think that ‘wonder’ is limited to what one believes about religion or science, but I think the ability to wonder or the ability to see beauty in the world around us is a choice we make, no matter what our worldview may be.

    “IOW, *belief* doesn’t close one’s mind/heart to wonder, but can actually enhance one’s sense of wonder. It’s all in the perspective of the individual person.”

    Now I’m following her & another friend commenting elsewhere about our “rape culture”.

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  37. Yes, they have met in Idaho a couple of times. In the past they have gathered together and, because they have no rules or hierarchy, have trashed the National Forest. But the last few gatherings have been a bit better, with a crew staying behind to clean up. But they disregard the camping rules so do some damage to the areas. Nothing that won’t grow back in fifty years or so. Seems like there is usually a person or two who ends up dead or missing. Young people are drawn in and get in over their heads.

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  38. Rainbow Family — rings some kind of a bell. Today’s version of the hippies? 🙂

    Full day for me with the memorial at church followed by getting my car smog-checked (and getting a tail light replaced), stocking up on dog food and then going out for an early hamburger dinner with a friend before seeing “42” which is really excellent, BTW.

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  39. Donna, I commented this morning on yesterday’s news thread about the Christian journalists link you posted. Didn’t know if you’d seen it. I appreciate the work you do in your field.

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  40. Aw, thank you 6 arrows, I hadn’t seen it but will go back and read that thread. 🙂 There are a few of us, scattered here and there …

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  41. Yeah, the triple play was interesting. But not so impressive defensively as it was bad offense on the last runner’s part. Even Little League coaches will tell you not to run to second in that situation, or not to hesitate once you commit to running.

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  42. I remember some years ago (15? 20?) I made contact with the religion writer at a neighboring newspaper (we’re now sister papers but at the time were separate entities). She had “come out” as a Christian in some of her columns and I was toying with the idea at the time of establishing some kind of fellowship for Christian journalists.

    Anyway, we met for lunch and she was pretty adamant about inviting me to visit her church, which I did. But upon researching it, I realized it was a church that believed it had something of a lock on the truth (it was sweeping through college campuses at the time; it had a reputation of being semi-cult-like, arguing that other Christian churches were faulty, so I politely had to back away (she then began inviting me to a Bible study, etc.; told her thanks, but I was happy with the church I belonged to … )

    Anyway, she eventually went on to work for USA Today, but I lost touch with her after that.

    It was frustrating for me since I was so eager for a Christian journalist fellowship, but it turned into her trying to convert me to her brand of Christianity. 😦

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  46. Having been a member of the International Order of Rainbow for Girls it breaks my heart that the GLBT community took our flag, and that all sorts of nut cases have taken our name. Now I am hesitant to say that I was a Rainbow Girl. While there I learned to dress nicely, use my manners, get along with others, socialize but I also learned the lessons of Love, Religion, Nature, Immortality, Fidelity, Patriotism, and Service. Each represented in order by red, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and purple. I also learned the lessons of Faith, Hope, and Charity. Most of the ritual came from Genesis, Ecclesiastes, and the New Testament. Quite the tricky way to get girls to memorize Bible verses

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  49. Kim, I am friends with a Rainbow girl. She had a wonderful experience in learning all she was taught through them. It really seemed to give her a good set of leadership skills.

    An IMB missionary and his wife who are connected to our church and are living in Argentina did our sermon time this morning. He spoke from the last part of Jonah where the Lord shows His concern for the cities. It was a very good sermon and we learned that our smallish church would be considered a mega church in Argentina. Most people there claim to be Catholic but never attend church, never read their Bibles and do not know the stories about Jesus. Sitting on the row behind me were two ladies visiting from Nigeria. They were wearing the beautfful clothes and head pieces worn in that country. Down the pew from them was a young lady who I think is from Central America. So it seemed quite the melting pot at church today. We had low attendance at children’s Sunday School probably because this past week was public school spring break.

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  50. A funny comic I didn’t see in Friday’s Funnies.
    Obama sleeping on the couch. The caption said, “The President gets an entire night to ponder who the most attractive Attorney General is…………..”

    On the couch, a tag. “Bill Clinton slept here.”
    🙂

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  51. That’s a good one, Chas!

    Things are the same (good) here in Texas. Our church runs about 400 on Sundays but we had eight baptisms last week and seven this week. God has been good. Some of the folks being baptized were really big. I would say they averaged over 200 lbs even with three or four of them being children.

    Then on the way home I got passed by a mega-truck with a mega-sign that read: “Rocking F (picture of rocking f brand) Firearms”. The truck was going 95 mph. How do I know? I was going 80.

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  52. Gotta get those guns where they belong before they are outlawed!

    Speed limits are much higher in Texas. That is one thing I learned from taking that road trip out there.

    Glad to hear about all those baptisms, Ricky. That is super. I wonder if ever a rather small weight pastor has baptised a really large person who accidentally tipped the pastor over? Of course, I am talking about full immersion.

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  54. Chas, I think there is a technique. Our pastor is a pretty big, strong guy. However, the last two weeks’ baptisms were handled by our Associate Pastor who is really big and really strong. I was teasing him this morning about working out to prepare for this morning’s work.

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  56. The early Baptists did practice pouring. They were called Anabaptist because they baptised again. The major contention was not the form of baptism, but the belief in believer’s baptism. That is, baptism doesn’t occur until after conversion.

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  58. We hold our baptism services in the yard of the parsonage, across the street from the church. The people are baptized in the in-ground pool.

    Being that we are in New England, we do not baptize in the winter, obviously. 🙂

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  60. We’ve had a good day here. Church and a bit of visiting afterward, home for lunch and to watch Manchester United win (I didn’t watch the whole game) and then into town for “dessert” (Dairy Queen blizzards with a BOGO coupon). Then home and my husband watched the last couple holes of the Master’s on the TV. (He’s a golf guy, but he watches most of it on his computer and only puts it onto the big screen when they’re finishing up.) Saw a herd of deer grazing in a field on our way home from church. They looked like farm animals, the way they were out in the open feeding, and I looked expecting them to be goats, but they were deer.

    Meanwhile I worked on craft stuff most of the afternoon, including success at a project that looked hard enough that I left it until I could understand what I’m doing. And my husband practiced some parts of a piano piece he has been trying to learn, and did some drawing in ink (another skill he’s trying to learn). So we both had relaxing, “artsy” afternoons. I’m thinking of entering the stuff I’m working on in the fair this fall. I’ve never done anything like that, and it would be fun to enter something I’ve made. I have one sheet of paper on which I’m working on several projects: a card, a heart-shaped photo frame, a bookmark, and several miscellaneous flowers and butterflies–filling in empty spaces on the sheet of paper–that could be used on a card. I took a photo today of all of it still on the one sheet of paper, but it will come apart into individual elements for various projects. The photo frame and one card are very detailed pieces, and I’m pleased with both. The bookmark is one I’ve made before, but this time I’m not making the mistakes I made on the first one, so I’m very pleased with it too. (All from patterns, but with my own personal touches, and of course my own work to do it.)

    Today was a very nice oasis in the sea of my busy season work-wise. We had hoped it would be nice enough weather to take a walk, and it wasn’t. (I think it probably stayed 10 degrees shy of the 68 degrees they were promising, and with dampness and some drizzles here and there.) But spring is visibly on the way, and we’ll get lovely days yet.

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  61. Sounds like a beautiful day, Cheryl.

    What piano piece was your husband playing? It’s nice to hear of adults sitting down to play the piano for enjoyment.

    I bought the complete Piano Sonatas of Beethoven when I was in college, but only studied a handful of the 32 sonatas he composed. A few years ago I decided all that great music should not sit in my closet and go unplayed, so I began working my way through them, one movement at a time. I’d sightread a movement very slowly, then play through it again at a little faster tempo. Another day or week (or frequently more) later, I’d go on to the next movement. Not a quick way to proceed through the music, but slowly I’ve been getting through them. Sometimes I get distracted, though, enjoying certain sonatas so much that I just want to keep playing them for weeks or months before continuing on the trek through the sonatas. Number 17, commonly called “The Tempest”, which suits my personality quite well at times 😯 was one such piece. It was the last sonata in the first volume, and Number 18 I had already studied quite extensively in college (I performed it for my senior recital), so I kept playing No. 17 for a long time before going into the second volume.

    I’m on the first movement of Number 29 now (the “Hammer-Klavier” sonata), so one would think I’m getting pretty close to the end of the 32 sonatas. Well, Beethoven’s last ones got very long and involved. Just the first movement of #29 is 20 pages long! Furthermore, the four sonatas I have left total more than 165 pages in length!

    Like Donna always reminds us, Christmas is coming! Maybe I’ll be done playing through these sonatas before Christmas. 🙂

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  69. I’ve heard of Christmas in July, but never on April 15th! (that is about 30 minutes from now EST)

    I loved hearing about what Cheryl and her husband did for some relaxing time today. My husband use to play the piano, but now he spends his musical brains on transposing pieces of music he likes onto a computer program and playing it back, That is what he does for fun when it is not the busiest time of the year.

    This morning in children’s Sunday School the children had a choice of either making cards for the shut-ins or copying a comic strip type drawing of the story of doubting Thomas with Jesus. It sounds like from what Cheryl wrote that she would be having some really good crafts for children in Sunday School—at least the older children—if the crafts were related to the Bible stories. Are you interested in teaching children’s Sunday School, Cheryl?

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  71. Janice, I taught Sunday school for years. My church now has all the children (except nursery age) in one class taught by the fathers, who rotate months; I love that concept.

    In Chicago I lived in the inner city for seven years (the only white person on my street, except for when I had white roommates–my landlady, who lived upstairs, was Puerto Rican, and one of my three roommates in those years was too), and neighborhood children were free to come by. I kept stocked up on craft stuff–colored pencils, felt, glue, etc.–though glitter was a rare treat. (I saved it till we had a houseful, five to seven at a time, so that it was worth cleaning up after them.) We also had children’s books, and they liked braiding my hair or putting makeup on my roommate, or dancing with my roommate, or reading books with us. Sometimes we made cookies with them. But no videos and no TV. I used the craft stuff some with foster kids, too. But currently I live “out in the country,” and my neighbors don’t have young children.

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