If I was to get a cat, it would be a Bengal Cat. I was talking to my mother about this and told her I'd put up a link.

Right now I'll be sticking with my fish and snakes. At least they don't need constant attention.

I'm still liking Spam Weasel. I added a few more addresses to the friendly address page, but that's what you need to do to get it set up. It works great! I don't know if it will work with AOL. it depends how you get your mail.

And I used dBPowerAMP to make mp3's from some Elvis cd's I have and burned them to a cd in mp3 format. It works like a charm!

Since today is the Sabbath, here is a verse for the day:



Matthew 5:17-20
17 Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.
18 For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.
19 Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
20 For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.

Thanks to the Maximum PC magazine, I found a free program to stop spam. It's called Spam Weasel. And it works as advertised! Right now I have it marking the spam but letting it go to my inbox so I can test it and make sure it doesn't get rid of mail I want. When it marks something that shouldn't be spam you can add it to a list of safe addresses. It only happened once so far. I'm impressed! When I'm confident all the good stuff is getting through I'll let it trash the spam. Follow the instructions carefully to set it up so it can route the mail through itself before going to the inbox.

And if you need a peer to peer networking program (P2P, file sharing, like the old Napster, downloads MP3's) I found Shareaza. It is not ad supported and has no spyware. Most of the poular P2P programs include alot of junk programs you don't want on your computer! Some of them I would even consider viris programs. They are set up so you cannot delete them unless you really know what you are doing. You delete the program and it comes right back! Frustrating and those people should be in jail! Anyway Shareaza has none of that and is safe. It works good and it looks great too. You really should buy the music you like, but this is great for finding music you didn't know you liked.

It rained alot here last night, got that lake effect going on. Lucky we are on a hill. James doesn't like sleeping when it's raining. He's afraid of lightning and hates when the lights go out! Welcome to Florida!

Today I installed my old CD player in the computer and now I have CD ripping with dBPowerAmp. And it is working great, I should have had both players in all along! You really should open up your computer once in a while and carefully clean it. (Unless you have no idea what you're doing!) I have 2 fans in the front with a filter and it was still a mess. BTW, if you're building your own computer, Lian-Li aluminum cases are awesome! Roomy, cool (temperature wise), well thought out - top quality. A little noisy though.

Story of the day:

The only survivor of a shipwreck was washed up on a small, uninhabited island. He prayed feverishly for God to rescue him, and every day he scanned the horizon for help, but none seemed forthcoming. Exhausted, he eventually managed to build a little hut out of driftwood to protect him from the elements, and, to store his few possessions.

But then one day, after scavenging for food, he arrived home to find his little hut in flames, the smoke rolling up to the sky. The worst had happened; everything was lost. He was stunned with grief and anger. "God, how could you do this to me!" he cried.

Early the next day, however, he was awakened by the sound of a ship that was approaching the island. It had come to rescue him. "How did you know I was here?" asked the weary man of his rescuers.

"We saw your smoke signal," they replied.

It is easy to get discouraged when things are going bad. But we shouldn't lose heart, because God is at work in our lives, even in the midst of pain and suffering. Remember, next time your little hut is burning to the ground -- it just may be a smoke signal that summons the grace of God. For all the negative things we have to say to ourselves, God has a positive answer for it.

You say: "It's impossible"

God says: All things are possible (Luke 18:27)

You say: "I'm too tired"

God says: I will give you rest

(Matt 11:28-20)

You say: "Nobody really loves me"

God says: I love you (John 3:16, John 13:34)

You say: "I can't go on"

God says: My grace is sufficient (2 Cor. 12:9, Psalm 91:15)

You say: "I can't figure things out"

God says: I will direct your steps (Prov 3:5-6)

You say: "I can't do it"

God says: You can do all things (Phil 4:13)

You say: "I'm not able"

God says: I am able (2 Cor. 9:8)

You say: "It's not worth it"

God says: It will be worth it

(Romans 8:28)

You say: "I can't forgive myself"

God says: I forgive you (I John 1:9, Romans 8:1)

You say: "I can't manage.

God says: I will supply all your needs (Phil :19)

You say: "I'm afraid"

God says: I have not given you a spirit of fear (2 Tim. 1:7)

You say: "I'm worried and

frustrated"

God says: Cast all your cares on ME (I Peter 5:7)

You say: "I'm not smart enough"

God says: I give you wisdom (I Cor 1:30)

You say: "I feel all alone"

God says: I will never leave you or forsake you (Heb. 13:5)

You say: "I don't have enough faith"

God says: I've given everyone a measure of faith (Romans 12:3)

As you pass this on, you never know whose life may be in need of it today. There are some weeks that we all feel our huts are burning.

I mailed the video tape today and there was no line at the post office. I thought it was closed at first! Got a prescription refilled, did a little food shopping; very little. Went home and let James watch Shrek for the hundreth time. He's learning some words from that movie and he likes to fight when Shrek fights. Took a nap for about an hour and a half, woke up, picked up Joshua from school. Then I stopped to get a couple of tires for my car, found out I had a bad (very bad) tie rod end. So I went to Discount Auto and bought one, went home, installed it, got my hands very dirty. James and Joshua had fun running around outside at the shop. I just took a shower and I'm ready for bed, but I can't for another 2 hours. That's my day today. See ya!

I've known about the Kissimmee Warbird Museum for some time and I knew you could get rides sometimes, but I just found out about THIS! The P-51 Mustang is about the coolest airplane that ever existed and YOU can fly it! I am terrified of heights and don't like flying in large aircraft, let alone small ones, but I would ALMOST do this! Stallion 51 is the website to check out if I've piqued your interest. If you are not afraid of flying, this is a must do once in your lifetime experience! Also see Warbird Adventures at the same airport in Kissimmee. Wow! Sorry, but this is the aeronautical equivalent of getting to drive a Ferrari GTO or Porsche 917. It just doesn't happen. Well that's my tip of the day. Hope you like it!

An update on dBPoweramp from a previous post. It seems it doesn't properly support my CD Writer, so I'll have to dig out an old CD player I have to rip cd's with. Still love it for converting files though. Will keep you informed.

One more thing for Mom, Just finished a tape of James and will (probably) mail it tomorrow. Of course you won't read this till next week but, hey.

And Happy Birthday to my brother, Bob!

Happy Birthday to Marianne Gilmour! Miss you!

I wanted to say in the post below that dBPowerAmp also converts to Ogg vorbis and Monkey's Audio but for some reason it keeps leaving it out. So there you go.

Irma took the kids to Jacksonville yesterday and I didn't have to work last night, so I spent a little time downloading some new programs to check out. I want something to rip cd's, convert mp3's to wav files and back, and I wanted to find an mp3 player I used to have but haven't used since my old computer burned up. I noticed the Zinf player had a problem with the seek within a track function: it doesn't work. So I found the Audioactive player I was looking for and it works great and sounds good. But I had downloaded an mp3 of Bic Runga - Sway - and it didn't work in the new player. ?! Audioactive has a program to convert mp3 to wav but it didn't work with this file. The song plays but there is no sound. I started looking for a program to convert it. I found a tried and true old friend, RightClick MP3, but it doesnt work with Windows XP. It's not easy finding a good program, there is so much junk out there! I downloaded two programs that couldn't use my cd player. (a TDK) Finally! With the help of the Pricelessware website, I found dBPowerAmp and so far I love it. It also converts to Monkey's Audio among many others. Anyway I converted the mp3 to wav and back to mp3 again using dBPowerAmp and now it works fine! So, the winner so far is dBPowerAmp. but I will keep testing it. The Audioactive player works great if you just want a simple, great sounding player.

And now for something completely different :Redneck Neighbor

I have to mow the lawn. I would rather do almost anything else. Everytime I look at it I think of this:

"Cursed is the ground for your sake;
In toil you shall eat of it
all the days of your life.
Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you
And you shall eat the herb of the field.
In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread
Till you return to the ground.
For out of it you were taken;
For dust you are
And to dust you shall return."


Genisis 3:17-19
But Iron Chef is so much more interesting than mowing the lawn. Oh well, better go do it!

No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven. John 3:13

Since the Pledge of Allegiance and The Lord's Prayer are not allowed in most public schools anymore because the word "God" is mentioned... a boy in Arizona wrote the attached NEW School prayer.


We liked it....



Now I sit me down in school

Where praying is against the rule

For this great nation under God

Finds mention of Him very odd.

If Scripture now the class recites,

It violates the Bill of Rights.

And anytime my head I bow

Becomes a Federal matter now.

Our hair can be purple, orange or green,

That's no offense; it's a freedom scene.

The law is specific, the law is precise.

Prayers spoken aloud are a serious vice.

For praying in a public hall

Might offend someone with no faith at all.

In silence alone we must meditate,

God's name is prohibited by the state.

We're allowed to cuss and dress like freaks,

And pierce our noses, tongues and cheeks.

They've outlawed guns, but FIRST the Bible.

To quote the Good Book makes me liable.

We can elect a pregnant Senior Queen,

And the 'unwed daddy,' our Senior King.

It's "inappropriate" to teach right from wrong,

We're taught that such "judgments" do not belong.

We can get our condoms and birth controls,

Study witchcraft, vampires and totem poles.

But the Ten Commandments are not allowed,

No word of God must reach this crowd.

It's scary here I must confess,

When chaos reigns the school's a mess.

So, Lord, this silent plea I make:

Should I be shot; My life please take!

Amen


Taken from The Intercontinental News. This is their homepage.

I got another e-mail from Microsoft and it did the trick! Finally got my updates! I had to rename CATROOT2 in the system32 folder and it worked. It created a new CATROOT2 folder, so I'll just delete the old one.

I just discovered that Musicmatch MP3 player sends personal info to the company even after you uncheck the box giving them permission. Don't ask me how I know. So I uninstalled it, I won't use a program that does that. I tried Winamp a couple of days ago and uninstalled it the same day, it was terrible, it didn't play sound good at all. The music broke up alot. Plus it had alot of extra junk I don't want. I decided to use a program I had installed a long time ago and used only once in a while because it doesn't rip cd's. It was called Freeamp but they changed it to Zinf. And it works beautifully, I like it alot, it's just a simple mp3 player, none of the frills of the big players. To rip cd's I downloaded CD'n'GO! and it seems to work just fine, but I'll keep testing it. Both are Freeware. Got to go for now, James won't let me continue. Bye.

I got my reply from Microsoft. They said that happens when the Cryptographic service is turned off. So I did as they suggested but it was already set to automatic as they said and it did not solve the problem. I'll let you know what happens.

A new editorial has been posted at the GTA website about the weather. This is my favorite website. Most people don't care though, but that's OK.

If you have alot of passwords to keep track of, try Password Corral. I use it and it can be a lifesaver! And it's free!

I've been having a problem with my critical updates lately. It seems they download OK, but when they start to install it stops because the program I'm trying to install has not been Microsoft approved or some such thing. But Microsoft is providing them so it doesn't make sense. I looked around windows yesterday and found alot of interesting stuff. I found a certificate that had expired and it seemed like it had something to do with it. I found a way to bypass the certificate but it didn't help with the problem. I looked all through the microsoft site, but could find nothing related to this problem, so I decided to e-mail microsoft to ask about it. They promised a reply within 24 hours and I got one, but it just says they received the e-mail and a windows update professional will be in touch. I'll let you know what happens. I want another computer to run Linux on!!

Anyway, nothing much else. It rains every afternoon and it's keeping the ground soaked, so I hate taking James outside , he gets so dirty. I took him out today though. The neighbors moved the cows from next door and put 2 horses there instead. It's a nice change but James is afraid of them. He's so funny, he calls them over and when they come, he runs away. See ya!

  I was just talking to someone who is having a hard time with "spyware" on her computer. She said the computer would try to dial the internet on it's own and she saw a program called comet cursor install itself on her computer. Also, she informed me, it wouldn't let her uninstall it! This is one of my pet peeves, I can't stand these programs and I won't use any of that "adware" that's available, with the exception of the Opera web browser, I've found that very safe and a great program. Be very careful what you download, there is some malicious stuff out there.

  Now my tip to rid yourself of this stuff. Go to lavasoft.nu and download Ad-Aware. It will seek out and allow you to remove this junk. Please be advised you may be using a program that will no longer work without the spyware, so go to nonags.com and find a program that will do the same thing for free and won't have the spyware.

  After you get rid of the spyware, go to Zonelabs.com and download the free version of Zone Alarm. Zone Alarm will warn you if any programs try to access the internet without your permission and your computer will be invisable to hackers.

  I have links to these sites on my links page. Do yourself a favor and get these programs. And one more thing, if you don't have an anti-virus program, go to grisoft.com and dowload the free version of AVG Anti-virus. You NEED this. The link is on my website. Be careful out there!

This site doesn't work too well in the Opera web browser. I'll have to use IE to post. Opera works OK to read it though.

Trying out this blogger service, let's see how it works.