Barb’s Blog » Archive for August 2009
Embers 4 Ashes at the Recher Theatre
The band that Miquel sings with, Embers 4 Ashes, was invited back to headline last night at the Recher Theatre in Towson, the same venue that has hosted Alan Parsons Project, Bryan Adams, Cheap Trick, Disturbed, ELO, Joe Bonamassa, and so many others. Naturally this gave me a chance to plug up my ears with cotton (again) and take photos of the band. Here they are individually, Embers 4 Ashes Miquel Ryan Simeon Ben Doug … Read entire article »
Filed under: Personal
Intelligent Being Required
(or Johnny and the Garbage part two). Naturalistic biologists assert that life generated spontaneously from non living chemicals by natural laws without any intelligent intervention. Such a theory might have seemed plausible to a nineteenth-century scientist who didn’t have the technology to investigate the cell and discover its amazing complexity. DNA has a helical structure that looks like a twisted ladder. The sides of the ladder are formed by alternating deoxyribose and phosphate molecules, and the rungs … Read entire article »
Filed under: Personal
Johnny and the Garbage
Sixteen year old Johnny came down from his bedroom and stumbled into the kitchen to get a bowl of his favorite cereal-Alpha Bits. When he got to the table, he was surprised to see that the cereal box was knocked over, and the Alpha Bit letters spelled “TAKE OUT THE GARBAGE-MOM” on the place mat. Recalling a recent high school biology lesson, Johnny didn’t attribute the message to his mom. After all, he’d just been taught … Read entire article »
Filed under: Personal
Replace Entire Congress
Now here’s a headline to get excited about: 57% Would Like to Replace Entire Congress If they could vote to keep or replace the entire Congress, just 25% of voters nationwide would keep the current batch of legislators. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 57% would vote to replace the entire Congress and start all over again. Eighteen percent (18%) are not sure how they would vote. Overall, these numbers are little changed since last October. When Congress was passing the unpopular $700-billion bailout plan in the heat of a presidential campaign and a seeming financial industry meltdown, 59% wanted to throw them all out. At that time, just 17% wanted to keep them. I guess when it comes down to it, you would still be replacing a politician with another politician, … Read entire article »
Filed under: News Items
Facing the Giants
Got to watch Facing the Giants tonight! Get Your Copy! … Read entire article »
Filed under: Personal
Who Builds An Army For an Unidentified Threat?
Obama does. … Read entire article »
Filed under: News Items
Obama Wants Emergency Control of the Internet
From C-Net News Internet companies and civil liberties groups were alarmed this spring when a U.S. Senate bill proposed handing the White House the power to disconnect private-sector computers from the Internet. They’re not much happier about a revised version that aides to Sen. Jay Rockefeller, a West Virginia Democrat, have spent months drafting behind closed doors. CNET News has obtained a copy of the 55-page draft, which still appears to permit the president to seize temporary control of private-sector networks during a so-called cybersecurity emergency. The new version would allow the president to “declare a cybersecurity emergency” relating to “non-governmental” computer networks and do what’s necessary to respond to the threat. Other sections of the proposal include a federal certification program for “cybersecurity professionals,” and a requirement that certain computer systems and … Read entire article »
Filed under: News Items
Ocean City
I finally have finished uploading photos from our weekend at Ocean City CLICK HERE (Three pages) … Read entire article »
Filed under: Personal
UK: Surveillance Cameras In Private Homes
From Prison Planet The UK government is about to spend $700 million dollars installing surveillance cameras inside the private homes of citizens to ensure that children go to bed on time, attend school and eat proper meals. Now the government is embarking on a scheme called “Family Intervention Projects” which will literally create a nanny state on steroids, with social services goons and private security guards given the authority to make regular “home checks” to ensure parents are raising their children correctly. Telescreens will also be installed so government spies can keep an eye on whether parents are mistreating kids and whether the kids are fulfilling their obligations under a pre-signed contract. Around 2,000 families have been targeted by this program so far and the government wants to snare 20,000 more within the next … Read entire article »
Filed under: News Items
A Learned Emotion
“Psychologists, psychiatrists, sociologists, anthropologists, and educators have suggested in countless studies and numerous research papers that love is a “learned response, and learned emotion”…Most of us continue to behave as though love is not learned but lies dormant in each human being and simply awaits some mystical age of awareness to emerge in full bloom. Many wait for this age forever. We seem to refuse to face the obvious fact that most of us spend out lives trying to find love, trying to live in it and dying without ever truly discovering it.” Leo Buscaglia Do you agree? I never thought about it before, but perhaps he is right, it is indeed learned, something we can build on every day. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Personal
Look to the Heavens
After spending the weekend at the beach, looking at the heavens in the vast sky, and looking to the infinite sands of the beach, and knowing out to sea there was a tremendous force of nature (Hurricane Bill) not too far away, reminded me of God and infinity… The Bible tells us to “look to the heavens” if we want to get an idea of what God is like…David wrote in Psalm 19, “The heavens alone … Read entire article »
Filed under: Personal
Last Day Means Tattoos
Our hotel didn’t allow henna tattoos because they claimed that the ink makes a hard to clean stain on their interior. With that in mind, the girls decided on the last day they would get a tattoo. Laura’s…. Jenny got one with Miquel’s name… and even Donna got one! All three pose: And shortly after that, we headed home. Laura and I were incredibly blessed on our vacation. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Personal
The Morning After
The night gave us winds, crashing waves, thunder, lightning, and a LOT of rain. The morning was…calm and lovely. No sunrise as I was hoping for, but just lovely. But the BEST surprise for me, was to see DOLPHINS! Then the clouds parted, to reveal that yes, the sun had come up. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Personal
The Pier
I was sitting in the hotel room talking to John when my cell phone rang. It was the girls saying, “You need to hurry to the pier! The waves are hitting it!” The pier at Ocean City is reserved for amusement rides close to the boardwalk, and further into the water, a great lookout of the beach and even more out, a place for those who like to go fishing. Donna and I quickly dressed and rushed … Read entire article »
Filed under: Personal
Snack!
When someone says snack to you, what do you think of? I don’t know, but when Donna said she was stepping out of the hotel to get a snack, she came back with the most amazing confections like these from Wockenfuss… Snacks! … Read entire article »
Filed under: Personal
Storms and a Hurricane
In spite of the storms that have hit Maryland and a hurricane off the coast, we have had great weather so far. Today it became obvious that the two fronts, the storms and the hurricane, are soon to descend on us. The sky looking to the east. Storm clouds to the west. The sea was a fury and most stood along the beach watching. Others played around with the new formations that the waves were making in the beach. Around … Read entire article »
Filed under: Personal
Sunrise, Day Two
I woke up, looked at the clock, noted the time was precisely for sunrise, dashed out of the bed grabbing my camera at the same time, and managed to photograph a nice sunrise. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Personal
Nightfall, Bayside
After some rest in the afternoon, we went bayside for the sunset. There were too many clouds for a real sunset! However, it was real pretty anyway. Then it was back on the boardwalk for the night. We left Jasper and Dante at home, but someone brought their pet iguana! A bumpy night ride, the waves were very choppy. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Personal
A Day at the Beach
Today was our first full day at Ocean City. After watching the sunrise, we went out for breakfast. As it turns out, my favorite place in the world (The Dough Roller) to eat breakfast, Donna likes too! And now Laura is a convert too! The pancakes are simply the BEST. Mine were plain, Jenny got Pineapple and coconut, and Donna got pecan. Laura helped me with mine and loved them. They decorate the Dough Roller with carousel horses. Next we hit … Read entire article »
Filed under: Personal
Ocean City Bound
We got a wonderful invitation from Jenny’s mom and dad to go to Ocean City. We left today. Traffic on the Bay Bridge was strangely busy. But once through we were here in no time! The view straight out from our hotel. Our hotel is very close to the Kite Loft Laura and Jenny wave to Donna and I below. Our walk down the boardwalk… A walk in town. The view in the evening from our balcony. Jen and Laura model their new dresses. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Personal
Dance Recital at Downs Park
Britney and Heather were in a dance recital at Downs Park. I was excited to see them dance again, and have another chance to take photos. Britney on her toes. After the recital, Laura and Heather go to the beach. The tide must have been very high, there was only a little beach. Jenny and Miquel pause for a moment with the sun going down. Cameron, after seeing his mommy and auntie on stage, gave it a try. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Personal
Healthcare Elseware
Canada Thousands of surgeries may be cut in Metro Vancouver due to government underfunding. Vancouver Coastal Health Authority document shows it is considering chopping more than 6,000 surgeries in an effort to make up for a dramatic budgetary shortfall that could reach $200 million. U.K. Woman gives birth on pavement ‘after being refused ambulance’ A young mother gave birth on a pavement outside a hospital after she was told to make her own way there. Mother-of-three Carmen Blake called her midwife to ask for an ambulance when she went into labour unexpectedly with her fourth child. But the 27-year-old claims she was refused an ambulance and told to walk the 100m from her house in Leicester to the city’s nearby Royal Infirmary. Over 45,000 NHS staff call in sick each day Over 45,000 NHS staff call in sick every … Read entire article »
Filed under: News Items
Dirty Secret No. 2 in Obamacare
by Chuck Norris Dirty secret No. 2 is that Obama is not the leader of Obamacare. And neither is Congress. The one who has been spearheading the initiative behind the scenes is one who goes under the misnomer “adviser” to the Obama administration, Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, a bioethicist and breast oncologist and brother of White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel. And his bible for health care reform is his book Healthcare, Guaranteed. Dr. Emanuel has served as special adviser to the director of the White House Office of Management and Budget for health policy as far back as February, when he confessed to the Washington bureau chief for the Chicago Sun-Times that he was “working on (the) health care reform effort.” The first draft of Obamacare? If you want to know the … Read entire article »
Filed under: News Items
Basel, Switzerland, 1979
May 16th, 1979, I found myself in Basel Switzerland, joining another 30,000 Barça fans to watch FC Barcelona of Spain and Fortuna Düsseldorf of West Germany. It was the final match of the European Cup Winners’ Cup 1978–79 and the 19th European Cup Winners’ Cup Final. The final was held at St. Jakob Stadium in Basel, Switzerland. We went by air, bus, and train. I personally went by bus. It was an interesting and long … Read entire article »
Filed under: Personal
Narcissists and Their Children
As a child, my parents let me believe they wanted was best for me. I feel they were sincere. Never once did I think I existed to boost their ego or fulfil THEIR dreams. However, I have watched first hand a different type of parenting, a narcissists expecting to BE there for THEM, and THEM only. It’s interesting to read what I observed, but didn’t fully understand before, a doctor’s view on this kind of parenting. The Narcissistic parent regards his or her child as a multi-faceted source of Narcissistic Supply. The child is considered and treated as an extension of the narcissist’s personality. It is through the child that … Read entire article »
Filed under: Personal
When I Go
This is a live version of something Beth Ellen shared with me today. Loved the version she sent me, but here it goes, When I Go by Over The Rhine. it makes a difference when you walk through a room with that worrisome smile road weary perfume but this isn’t the place and it isn’t the time for this beautiful delusion that is robbing me blind i want to know i want to know will it make a difference when i go it makes a difference that i’m feeling this way with plenty to think about and so little to say except for this confession that is poised on my lips i’m not letting go of God I’m just losing my grip i want to know i want to know will it keep you guessing when i go what is a love if the love’s not my own this is not my home this is lonely but never alone i … Read entire article »
Filed under: Personal
New Roof
Our church recently got a new roof. Now I don’t think there is anything wrong with reconizing the effort that went into the new roof. However in today’s church bulletin, I couldn’t help a few giggles at the printed list: $135,000 – in savings to the church 67 “holy souls” (Volunteers) 24 “holey souls” 21 meals provided 130 sheets of plywood $25,000 in donated materials 1,480 hours of labor 15,000 sq. ft. of underlayment 140 meatballs 19,000 sq. ft. of sheet metal 720 cold cups 45 gallons of … Read entire article »
Filed under: Personal
Fun with Fotos
Heather on Facebook, introduced me to a very cute program called PhotoFunia. Look at some of the cute things it can do to any photo! A Chalk drawing effect. John and I in a puzzle. This one is an animation. That’s me in the sketch! Don’t know if the world is ready for Barb on a billboard. Try it out HERE, it’s fun! … Read entire article »
Filed under: Personal
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