Mobile Posting

Well, this my first foray into mobile posting from an Android phone, and I must say that so far, I'm quite impressed!  If this works,it will be just another post under the manifold writings that where Blackberry doesn't, Droid DOES!

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Facebook 101: Editing Your Friend Lists in the NEW Facebook

Hey, if you're like me, then you like organization and sorting everything into its proper pile.....at least online, anyway!  So here's the skinny - its quite basic: in order to literally EDIT and SORT your friends into lists on Facebook, as you did under the old FB,

1.  Click on the ACCOUNT link in the top right corner of the page (right next to "Home" and "Profile")

2.  Under that menu, click on EDIT FRIENDS.

3.  Voila!

Happy Friday.
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Happy Monday to all and sundry.

Today, I have a complaint. I want to complain that I am tired of hearing (or rather, reading) other people complain that they are tired of reading/receiving unwanted Facebook Applications.

Today, I would like to empower you with a simple thought: YOU actually do have the power to end your misery, rather than to simply complain about it. Facebook has provided you with the tools to solve this problem, but to know that, you would have to have read the fine print. And I understand - clearly fine print reading is not something that everyone can be bothered to do - specifically not when they are supposed to be "having a good time." No. We'd rather complain. But, as the adage clearly states: "the Devil is in the Details." So, I'll give you a quick crash course - do pay attention!

1. REMOVE APPS FROM YOUR NEWS FEED

a. At the top of your home page, make sure you have clicked NEWS FEED. (See Example 1)

b. After you've changed your home page feed to NEWS FEED, scroll to the very bottom, and click EDIT OPTIONS. (See Example 2)

c. When your EDIT OPTIONS screen opens, it should resemble EXAMPLE 3. (See Example 3) If it does not, it means you are still in the "LIVE FEED" and you need to scroll back to the top and change over to your NEWS FEED and try again. If you have not blocked any person or application before from your news feed, this box will appear blank. As you can see, I have blocked numerous applications and some people (we wont even delve into the "persons" I've blocked). You will not see this unless you have already blocked someone or an application (and you have no need of this note!) At the top of the box simply switch between Friends or Applications to re-add the applications or friends back to your news feed.

d. The business of actually hiding applications (or friends) from your NEWS/LIVE FEED is thus: when you see the hated application (or person's status), simply mouse over it, and click the "HIDE" icon that pops up to the right of it. You will be prompted to confirm that you want said status or application hidden from your future news feed. (See Examples 4 & 5)

e. Voila! Pat yourself on the back you maestro of Facebook minutia! The next time you check your EDIT OPTIONS at the bottom of your NEWS FEED, you'll see that you, too, have blocked applications. Breathe deeply, my friend - that's the smell of an App Free News Feed. (The apps you want to stay, stay, of course!)

2. BLOCK UNWANTED APPLICATION INVITES

a. This one is easy peasy. In small print, directly below the application invitation, there is a link that says: BLOCK THIS APPLICATION or IGNORE ALL INVITES FROM THIS FRIEND. Click the appropriate link. (See Example 6)

b. At this point, you see the confirmation screens as shown in Examples 7 & 8. Simply click whichever works for you. (See Example 7 & 8)

Done, and done! Now, instead of being inundated with apps, you can literally DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT. And because this is a one-sided fix on your end, you needn't even let your friends know you are annoyed with their pesky applications - you simply fix it, and no one is the wiser. Always a win-win solution! ;)

Enjoy your day!

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The Hat Confessional No.2: The Souvenir Hat

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The Hat Confessional No.1: Cubs v. Bears

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And the #1 viewed JolietChurch Youtube video so far is....

clocking in at 1,976 views since posting - for a home brewed christian video - NOT TOO SHABBY!




with Number 2 clocking in at 1,111 views, its


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Another Free Scoreboard!

By the by, was browsing around on the topic again before our church's annual New Year's game, and found yet ANOTHER free scoreboard program. 

The link is at

http://www.zenbasketball.com/news/stories/2009_02_17_scoreboard.html
 
This scoreboard is great as well, because it is Flash based, and allows you to operate it with the MOUSE, and not with keystrokes. This is huge positive, because I have found that for me the gameplay goes so fast that I occasionally have to remind myself what keys go with what function for the program, and god forbid, sometimes I hit the wrong key and give the wrong team a foul or point, and end up having to correct it! Im hoping that with the mouse interface, this sort of delay and error will cease to be a problem.

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A (Bad) Sonnet to 30

Oh, 30. How do I loathe thee? Let me count the ways. 
I loathe thee to the dark and deep and dank 
Place in my life: the utter reaches of life's other bank 
That marks the end of Youth and Innocence. 
I loathe thee without recompense. 
Yet on thou cometh, and hope rising, sank. 
I loathe thee with resignation, as I walk the Aged Plank. 
I loathe thee with regret, as men wish for more time. 
I loathe thee with the impulsiveness untamed In my youth, and with a laundry list of things To Do Before 30. 
I loathe thee with a fear so common, yet unnamed 
That I'll be this forever - I loathe thee for catching me unready 
To pass this watermark! - and if God be blamed For time? 
I shall try to not fear thee so.

based on EBB's Sonnet from the Portuguese #XLII

http://www3.amherst.edu/~rjyanco94/literature/elizabethbarrettbrowning/poems/sonnetsfromtheportuguese/howdoilovetheeletmecounttheways.html
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Free Scoreboard Software

Ran across this thread in my search for scoreboard software last weekend. I do the web page for my church, and recently, began announcing the basketball games. Our scoreboard died, so I decided to project a scoreboard from my laptop onto a larger monitor. I could find nothing free last weekend, so I paid for the Golasso Basetball Scoreboard 2009. (about $50)

Then, I continued searching, because I wanted to modify the program, and ran across these 2 free Scoreboard programs that made me wish I had waited before spending my money! Hope someone is able to benefit from them.

1. http://www.acahoops.com/ (They have a program called Laptop Scoreboard v. 1.4)

2. BaileyVision Scoreboard for Windows -(http://download.cnet.com/BaileyVision-Scoreboard-For-Windows/3000-7427_4-10738114.html) this program is AWESOME! and free. I just found it today and will be using it next weekend. The nice thing I like about it as opposed to Golasso and the Laptop Scoreboard is that it has the Shot Clock and Time Out buzzers and game ending horn integrated into the program so i dont have to press a separate button. This one is just the most versatile of the free programs. Thank the Lord!!

There's also a free JAVA one I found, but I didnt have time to fully familiarize myself with it. I may later. Its here:

3. JAVA Scoreboard: (http://java-scoreboard.sourceforge.net/)

And finally, there's a several others that are not really up to par or for basketball per se, but an experienced programmer may be able to modify them.

4. Yahoo Scoreboard Widget: (http://widgets.yahoo.com/widgets/scoreboard)

5. ScoreMaster 2: (http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/mkellytecy/488186)

I hope this helps shorten someone else's search. I looked for days.

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Congressman John Lewis & Elwin Wilson: Real Salvation Should Remove Every Vestige of Racism

Just saw the story of Congressman John Lewis and Elwin Wilson on Yahoo. Amazing! Apparently, Wilson got saved.




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Fellowship is a Signal Fire: Light the Darkness!

Thanksgiving was outstanding! I totally do not jest. I have to say of all of the Thanksgivings I've had over the last few years (and they have all been great), this Thanksgiving has literally taken the cake. My family is always with me, so I always "feel" that safety, comfort and the love of home. However, this Thanksgiving, the feeling was almost tangible. I lay awake one night trying to conceive of a way to explain it, and it came to me: I felt a level of safety, security and restfulness that I had when I was a child.

You know those days when all is right in the world? Like that. In addtion to that we enjoyed a wonderful weekend with the saints in both a Singspiration and Dedication of our new Church Building. The houses were packed to the brim (and it was probably a fire hazard!), but it felt like it did when I was young. It felt right. It felt right that people - souls - should pack into the House of God. This. This is how God's House should be.

It really touched me, as a person who has watched people who are close to me backslide from (and some return to) Christ. It is very true that salvation is a personal walk with Christ, and each one of us has to be very convinced that the going back of others does not cause us to lose our stedfastness. However, it is also true that there is a communal knowledge through the Holy Spirit - a fellowship that is beyond words. It is an unspoken brother/sisterhood, a silent and shared understanding and bond that exists between saved people. And when someone leaves God, they break that bond. The closer the person is to you, the greater the loss.

We mourn the loss of each one, and though we continue, there is a sadness there - a desire that that person who left God will return to share with you again the joy of living saved and worshipping God. It is not a sadness of being shaken yourself, but more the sadness that comes with saying goodbye.

When people leave God, they are by association leaving you, because God lives in you. And though from an outward perspective things may seem to remain the same, the truth is, inwardly they have chosen a path that you will not take: and so your pathways diverge. You travel on without them. They travel on without you. You may even meet at later destinations and find that you hardly know or recognize them anymore.

The heart mourns for that realization long before it actually happens, because you know deep down inside that the island you're drifting on, and the island they're drifting on will in years to come take you worlds apart.

And so, in birth from these necessary melancholy thoughts, is the joy of coming together again with those you love in God's House. The joy of fellowship is a satisfaction in a way that I cannot explain.

To me, a paramount joy in my life has been to worship God with my mostly saved family - to know that someone, somewhere is saved, and understands me. Each of us has to endure that hardship of being alone in the world, and facing the great darkness of a sin-sick world with just ourselves and God. We all have to go through that. We all have to experience being a lone candle, flickering against the enveloping darkness.

And we stand. And we stand. And we stand. But you know what is awe-inspiring? When you're standing there, all alone out on that limb, bravely flickering against the Darkness with Jesus, and suddenly you begin to see respondent pinpricks of light flashing out into the night. And suddenly you see that the night is bright with fires, and the soft glow of candlesticks are stretching out into Darkness. THAT is a wonderful feeling.

And so, I meant to say many things in this post but what I want to say now to any saint who needs it is that whereever you are, YOU ARE NOT ALONE.

And what was so awesome about this Thanksgiving is that it reminded me of this scripture:

Psalm 133:1 :
[[A Song of degrees of David.]] Behold, how good and how pleasant [it is] for brethren to dwell together in unity!

It's good to fight the battles and stand alone with Jesus in your dark day (see 1 Corinthians 3:13), but its also good to worship God together in unity of the Spirit - and its good to know that you are not alone.

I've always been a fan of John McCrae's poem In Flanders Field, but I've been wanting to revise it to fit my thinking for some time. This time, I've made an attempt:


in gods house the holy few
fill the building pew on pew
to mark their passage; and outside
the solemn battle rages wide
scarce heard, scarce seen to naked eyes.

we are the saved. short days ago
we were lost and did not know
that we were loved and now we stand
in gods house.

take up our quarrel with the Foe:
to you from pilgrim hands we throw
the torch: be it yours to hold on high.
if ye break faith with Him who died
we shall go on, though you go
from god's house.

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U.S. Space Program Defunct?

A pal mentioned to me that the Space Program was defunct - and as usual, I hadn't been paying attention. Recently however, I saw an article regarding the Endeavor, and looked it up - sure enough, all the scary details are there. This episode touches on the subject.



Addition: Obama was first elected Senator in 2004.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/06/science/space/06gap.html?_r=1&fta=y

CRS Report for Congress: Overview of Bush's 2004 "Vision For Space Exploration"

CRS Report for Congress: The ISS and the Iran Non-Proliferation Act
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Hobby vs. Area of Expertise

Ok - here is the second episode of the AudioJournal or ALog! Its only 5:28 minutes this time, and the discussion is about the difference between a Hobby and an Area of Expertise. Thoughts?


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What About Eternity?

Ok, so this morning I had the idea of doing an AudioJournal - kind of podcasty sort of a thing. So here it is. Its somewhat long, but its the first attempt since the old days, so bear with me while I edit myself!! :D


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Republican Comments I Liked - All Things Considered with Sen. Sam Brownback

I was driving home yesterday listening to NPR blather on about the election, and this story on All Things Considered really caused my to sit up and pay attention. Very well done.




or you can listen to it directly from NPR.org here:
http://www.npr.org/templates/player/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=4&islist=true&id=2&d=11-05-2008


just click on the story: For the GOP: A Time For Reflection.
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My Sickness, My Hair, and the Great Physician

I'm writing this because I feel I should - both to glorify God, and to quell any worry about my new look! :D

As many of you know, in late September, I went to San Diego on vacation with my mom and sis (you can see the pics in my Photo Albums). I was normal then - how I miss me! However, little did I know that God had chosen a physical test for me that was beyond any I have yet faced.

Now. Don't get me wrong - I have been seriously, hospitalization-time ill several times in my life, but never in this fashion. Never like this. As you may have imagined, I am happily saved, have been since I was 4 years old, and have not taken medicine, regardless of the severity of the illness, save for the times when my unsaved father made me, which was like twice, once when I was 10, and the other time when I was 16, had an allergic reaction, and my entire face stopped working. My dad took me straight to the hospital then and stood in the room with the doctor as she gave me some shots.

I endured a strange illness of my feet during law school, and refused the medicine. I was scared and alone away from my family, but since, as we all know, feet are in shoes - it was easier to trust God, look away from how it looked - not talk about it with anyone, and keep going on. God healed my feet. I then endured a severe illness with a portion of my face (my lips) that same year. This was horrific to me, because at the time, I felt disfigured and seriously ill. I could not hide this illness from anyone, because it was on my face. I talked with the doctor about it, and she handed me topical medicine, but suggested that oral medicine was the only way. In fear and in some resignation, I took the medicine from her, and once I got home, I realized that I would never feel good about myself for trusting in man after years of trusting in God, and threw it away.



That illness took me months - perhaps an entire semester - to recover from. My close, religious-yet-unsaved school friends made fun of how I looked to my face. They did it, not in spite, but because they did not know I was ill, and that I was trusting God. They thought I had made myself look the way I did on purpose, and teased me about it incessantly. I went to school every day looking disfigured, and far from being concerned about how it looked - I was more concerned about how it felt, and whether it would ever end. At some moments, I thought I would live like that forever. My family and friends knew that I had dark days, and when they came to visit from Joliet, they made me feel better by teasing me about it and helping me to be able to laugh about it. We all knew that I was doing the right thing. The up side is that I came to a place where I told God that if I did have to live with it forever - I would, and I didnt care. No medicine for me. Then one day, I looked up, and he had healed me.

I endured another, even more severe illness with with my feet a few years back, when I was in Florida. I contracted the same illness in my feet that my mother had in previous years. When she had it, her doctors had wanted to amputate her feet. I refused to even talk to her about it, because I was working, and I knew that if I listened to her, I would not go back to work, and I couldnt afford not to be working. She and my sister Liz constantly told me: "Marilyn, you are SERIOUSLY ill!" and begged me not to go to work, or to put on shoes. I constantly ignored her. I knew in my heart she was right, but I felt like I had to go to work. I told God that he would have to handle it, and I refused to think about it. Months went by - I endured horrible pain at work, and every day that I was able to hide it from my co-workers and bosses was a victory for me. It got so bad I would spend my entire lunch breaks in the car park, almost crying, mending my feet - using various different pairs of socks and shoes, etc.

They finally stopped talking to me about it. I would come home from work only to discover that my family in Florida was fasting for me, and spending hours in prayer while I was at work. They would go on fasts for entire weeks, because they were so worried. And despite the pain, I knew deep down inside that God was going to make a way somehow. And one day, I looked up and my feet were healed.

Now, upon occassion, my family went back to Joliet for months on end, while I stayed in Florida and worked. Often, I would be in Florida in the house alone. One day, I was alone, and I felt a tingle in my feet. I was really scared, because I had this sinking feeling that the condition was coming back on me by God's design, and this time, there would be no family waiting to encourage me when I got home. I looked at those four walls and told God that I would endure it. I've been alone before. I've endured alone before. And that sickness came on me suddenly and full blown. And I kept on going, and trusting God. And he healed me. Again. Only this time, it was quicker.

Many months later, I moved back to Joliet, and was staying with my family, and again, I felt a tingle in my feet. I said, "Oh God, Please Not Again!" And God, said - "Yes. Again." And I said, "ok." And he healed me. This time, even quicker.

Now here we are. Years have passed in relative quiet for me - quiet from serious illness, I mean. And even though I've been unemployed, since April this year - I remember thinking - "this whole unemployment thing seems too easy right now - something's GOTTA be coming down the pipe!"

How right I was.

The moment I hit San Diego, the very first night, I felt a tingling in my lips, and deep down, I knew it was bad. From that moment, I sank into a severe allergic reaction to something I ate (it tasted really good!). And, as I predicted, I went from allergic reaction to severe, potentially life-treatening infection. It was on my face! Pastor prayed for me - my family prayed for me, but inside, I was panicking - outside, I was trying to keep my cool for my mom and sister, so it wouldnt completely ruin their vacation. I flip-flopped from serious panic to complete calm acceptance. I could not sleep. The nights were the worst - deep, dark and scary. I would sit in the dark room while everyone slept, and pray, or try not to think morbid thoughts. Then day would come, and I would manage after some time to bounce back emotionally and go out in the afternoons.

It helped that I knew God was in this, and that he would bring me through this. It helped that I knew all things work together for good to them that love God - to them who are the called according to his purpose. It helped that my mom and sister prayed for me nightly, and at random intervals during the day. And much in the same fashion as the feet illness, I snuck many a spare moment in the car, administering to my face, almost crying in pain, while my family was doing something else.

I was afraid to go outside. I was afraid to go to the airport to go home, but I desperately wanted to go home, because in my mind, I felt that if I could just get home, I would be ok. I sat up the entire night before our flight staring at the clock, willing the day to come. It was worse that I flew home alone. However, in the airport, something miraculous happened: I was in the bathroom "administering" to my lips, and they came completely off!

I kid you not. This is what needed to happen, because my mouth was abnormal - but in the airport bathroom, 5 mins before I boarded, I scraped them completely off. I felt almost human, and it was like a light had shined in that dark place, just to encourage me. I knew then that God had ordained this for me, and at any time, any place, any moment - he could save me from this. Or leave me in it to continue suffer.

One of the hardest parts was yet to come. Driving home from the airport, I had this joy - this great joy, because I thought it was OVER. I thought I was done - that I had come through something horrible, and it was done. But I was wrong.

God had only just begun. He allowed me one day of comfort. I should have slept that night I returned, because it was the only night I would have slept for weeks. I stayed up the entire night on sheer adrenaline and happiness. The very next day, to my horror, I tingled all over my lower face. It worsened all day until my entire neck, mouth and face were covered in boils. I could not sleep, because I knew what had happened to me, and I was terrified that I would spread it over my entire body. It worsened, and the boils burst and oozed infectious pus all over. This happened all day, every day - with no subsiding. NONE. It never stopped.

Somewhere in all this, I must have stopped talking. It was because I had nothing to say. I knew that I was in the hand of God, and I knew he could heal me, and I knew that I was going to have to see just how far he was going to take me. I felt that surely he would step in before this went too far. I was very confident.

But I kept getting worse. And I thought: "any day now God!" And I got worse. It didnt help that I looked it up on the internet, and it was proven that even the doctors really couldnt help, and that at its worse, the condition is life threatening. This is how I spent my nights because I couldnt sleep. I hated the night. I would try to distract myself until the morning, because the old art of making yourself tired wasnt working for me - I could not sleep, and hadnt for over a week. Sometimes I would marvel that and tell God - "are you keeping me awake? how am I surviving? this is unnatural!" My sister Liz would stay up all night with me to keep my company, and it made the night easier to bear.

And just when I thought "I can get thru this," I got worse. My head began to swell. My entire head, to the degree that I did not even regonize myself in the mirror. I knew it was bad when my own family got quiet and refused to even comment on it - they would just look at me, and pray. I only knew how they felt when something they said at church would get back to me. Their comments to others, and not to me, scared me. My head swole beyond what I thought it capable, and I would stand for hours looking at myself in the mirror and asking God: "when God? when are you going to come?" And God reminded me that the scripture says that "He that shall come, will come and will not tarry."

That thing encouraged my heart. Sometimes I wondered if I was going to die, but I was comforted with the thought that I'd rather die now, than live and go to hell. I found later that my sisters thought I might die as well.

One morning I felt at the end of my rope. I had constantly refused my mother's administrations and suggestions of what to do - more out of habit, than out of any real disagreement, because I felt her ideas were too radical - and I was too lazy to implement them. And I had been getting consistently worse. A few times, I had discovered that she was right, and I told myself that I would listen to her next time. For the past several days, my entire (swollen) face had frozen, and I was unable to open my mouth. Liz had been feeding me smoothies thru a straw. However, in addition to it being frozen, it was weeping pus from my mouth non-stop. Literally. Non-stop. It would not dry, and nothing I could do would make it end. I felt like I was dying somehow, but I did not know what to do.

Nothing satisfied me, and as ususal I was pacing my house holding my face in the wee hours of the morning. My mother met me in the hall, and told me to submerge my entire body in Hydrogen Peroxide, to kill the bacteria, and stop the weeping. I was initally resistant, but on second thought remembered that I had decided to listen - and I did it.

The first time we did it - things got even worse. Then my mother called Pastor Hodges and Sis Linda, and they came over in the middle of the night to pray for me. That moment was a ray of hope and encouragement. I NEVER knew how much sick people need encouragement. I continued taking Hydrogen Peroxide baths, and from that moment on, every bath I took attacked the illness like it was waging war. The next day, my face had decreased in size. The next day more, the next day more, etc., etc. The Illness - as if it had a spirit, began to fight back, and spread into my scalp, and over the rest of my face, but it was fighting a losing battle. I felt in the depths of my soul that no matter how much it spread or fought back, I should believe that it was dying. I took confidence in that, and took strong hold of it. The Illness got madder and began itching so bad I spent the next weeks wanting to tear my face and scalp off - nothing helped, not calamine or cortizone.

My hair began to be noticeably lighter (I hadnt even known that submerging myself in Hydorgen Peroxide to kill the bacteria and alleviate the itching was lightening my hair). After I noticed, we cleared it with our Pastor. However, I began to try to "end" my illness, and call it done for myself, because I like my hair. I kept telling God - "Please god - I LIKE my hair color," and everytime I did, the illness would seem to spread further into my scalp, forcing the necessity of submerging all of my hair in the Peroxide.

As a side note, I absolutely HATE my hair color now. However, in the depths of my sadness and thinking that it is the absolute worst thing that could have happened to me, my family reminded me that they were almost to a place where they thought they would have to have it all cut off in order to address the scalp. This gave me perspective, and I began to thank God that I still HAVE hair - though I have lot a lot of it in this process.

Everytime I would think it had calmed down, I would stop taking the baths. Everytime I stopped of my own volition, and attempted to "get better" or go outside, I would have a relapse, and further spread of the illness. Finally, I just gave up fighting back, and submitted that I would be housebound and faux blonde until God stepped in and delivered me.

And a few days ago, he encouraged me to take courage and go outside, despite the fact that the illness is still there, and I am still sick. That very day, I was contacted for a job interview, which, whether or not I get it, I felt was confirmation that God had released me to go outside, and stop taking HydroPeroxide baths.

So now, here I am. I'm still sick from an outward perspective, but I am fully persuaded that God is healing me, and that from his perspective I need to take courage that it will be done. I am very uncomfortable, and if these last few days were any indication to me, it was probably God reminding me to slow down and not overdo it, because yes, I am still in recovery. I cant keep up like Im physically fine, but I can go slow and one day I'll look up and I'll be healed.

The fear is gone. Because I know without a doubt that he that shall come, will come, and will not tarry.

And if the worst I have to deal with after is that I look a HOT MESS (to myself, at least), and I hate it, - if nothing else, it will always be a reminder to me - a Memorial Stone of what God did for me, and how he carried me through a very dark night, and brought me safely out the other side.

This. This is why I love my Saviour. He's my Father. And he brought me through.

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A Minor Point About the Bush Administration

Now the gentlewoman from Illinois, made a comment about gay marriage and abortion under the Bush administration. I have seen these stats other places as well, and am convinced that these are hailed as talking points by the Democratic Party. But let me point out. STATES are legalizing gay marriage. One of the founding principals of the republican party is the concept of STATES RIGHTS. Therefore by not pushing for a constitutional admendment banning gay marriage Bush is adhering to his Republican roots.

I AM interested to note that Republicans are allowed a moral lapse, so long as it adheres to "State's Rights" - which is correctly characterized as a long held bastion of Republican governance policy.

The flaw in that logic (the logic being that a "state's rights" policy allows gay marriage, thus a republican president is not to blame for it happening), is that it suggests that Party Policy is exempted from moral responsibility.

I dont have a problem with the argument, but since it's the argument being made: doesnt it also apply to Democratic Policy?


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First Jolie, then Pitt. Posturing or Sincere on Afganistan and California Proposition 8?

Ok, so in my trolling of random celebrity gossip rags (you know - the ones that jump out at you on yahoo's first page?), after clicking through random links, I was very intrigued by a video of Angelina Jolie in her official "Ambassador" role in Afganistan. The punchline was that she cried over their plight.



The video was very well done, but then, she is an actress by day. And not to appear irreverent, but the comments following the video were less than convinced of Ms. Jolie's sincerity - in fact, some accused her of making the visit as a concerted action to secure an Oscar.

I reserve judgment about that. Oh wait. No I dont. Anyone who marshalls millions of dollars to save and enrich the lives of others (I dont care how many nannies they pay, or if the nannies end up being her rainbow tribe's actual "mothers" for lack of a better word) is doing a large part in making the world a better place, if only for those few lives they intervene in. So adopt away Angelina, legally, anyway. AND, visit 3rd World and embattled countries to raise awareness to your hearts content - even if your actions are contrived in some way. You're still making a difference, if for the wrong reasons.

Now lets move on to Brad Pitt.



FAR more interesting is the fact that it appears that the LA Times announced in September that Bradd Pitt recently donated $100,000 to combat California Proposition 8, which states simply:

PROPOSITION 8
This initiative measure is submitted to the people in accordance with the
provisions of Article II, Section 8, of the California Constitution.
This initiative measure expressly amends the California Constitution by
adding a section thereto; therefore, new provisions proposed to be added are
printed in italic type to indicate that they are new.
SECTION 1. Title
This measure shall be known and may be cited as the “California Marriage
Protection Act.”
SECTION 2. Section 7.5 is added to Article I of the California Constitution,
to read:
SEC. 7.5. Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized
in California.

you can read it yourself here.

Here's the kicker - Rueters says that Pitt's donation is the largest single donation by any celebrity to defeat the proposition, and it is reported that Pitt said something along the lines that he would not marry until gays could marry.

Hmm. It has already been pointed out that this will be a hard bar for him to measure to, seeing as he already married and divorced Aniston. But one could argue that is nitpicking.

Still, what was most humorous and heartening to read here was that the Knights of Columbus, National Organization of Marriage, and other Christian interest groups donated in excess of $1 Million, tipping the balance in the fight back in favor or proponents of the Proposition:

The financial fight over Prop. 8 has been fierce, with gay marriage supporters taking an early fundraising lead. But last month, a $1-million contribution by the Knights of Columbus, followed by infusions of cash from other gay marriage opponents, tipped the balance in favor of those who believe only a man and a woman should be able to marry.

Again - it is suggested that Brad Pitt made the donation as a PR move the same week his movie Burn After Reading debuted at the Box Office - and wowzers!! - guess what? His movie debuted as No. 1, so it may have been a good PR call by his agent.

So. I guess if I'm honest, what's good for the goose is good for the gander, and if I give Angelina a pass for being shallow and using 3rd World babies and Afgans to ply her trade - how can I judge Pitt for being shallow and using the gay agenda to ply his trade as well?

I cant. But I can disagree on the issues, and be very glad that the Connecticut Knights of Columbus came through with CASH DOLLARS in crunch time.
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Voter Fraud Allegations....Already!

As I susggested, there are already allegations from McCain's campaign over voter fraud. Check out this article:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20081024/pl_nm/us_usa_politics_fraud


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TEST Post on Expandable Posts

Here is the beginning of my post. You have no idea how long I worked on this - prolly because I'm a dunce. . . And here is the rest of it! Anyway, it super nice to finally get it right!!! Thank you JESUS!!

there a lot of tutorials out there, but here is the page that was the greatest help to me:

http://betabloggerfordummies.blogspot.com/2007/02/expandable-post-summaries.html

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