wouldn't you like to know

It has been a few days now since the last time I blogged and those who will read this in post-blogdom will realize Christmas has come, gone, New Years is next, and that will go also. Read Ecclesiastes. Go read the whole book in the Bible even if you are not a Christian because it would perspective on situations that we as humans encounter on a daily basis.

Listening to oneself can be insightful

Introspective has its place and time. When you want to change/modify that behavior of yours that bugs the begeebbers out of your friends and family, turning inward is good. Before pointing out the faults of others, introspection is good also. But One should move on and listen to oneself or that still small voice inside. Questions pop up, "Am I where I want to be?", "Am I caring to others around me?", and any other question should have a person realize, What am I really asking, who, what, purpose, etc. Listen to your heart and soul. Then one may realize that listening to others' insight about you may help along with listening to oneself.

Christmas time is for believing

I was thinking back to when the Moon had the two planets next to it and the weather people were saying to see because we won't see it for another 44 years. How many people really took the time to view this? How many people really take the time to view the ordinary and come to realize the design and purpose on which they occupy this Earth. The more simple things I see, the more I see God and his creative touch on this Earth. We have a purpose. Believe it or not, Ripley.
There are some people who look up at the stars and wonder. Others look down at their feet crunching through the snow. The busy-ness of this life distracts us too much from the things we were meant to accomplish. The purpose of this life is too important to ignore and brush off to the side. The intent for us through God the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit is too great to just say, "Hey, I am here." Don't end your sentence like that!! Why waste the creativity that the Triune God has given us on this Earth!! Why go through the motions? Worship Him in your daily lives through living the life we were meant to live. Yes, physical actions reflecting how we are to treat people and act towards others with Love(Agape) is worship. Respond or fade. Hardliners would claim to say Turn or Burn.
I am softy and think that is taking it too far. Meaningless, Meaningless. Find the meaning that turns to believing through the facts already laid out for us as God's creation on this Earth. -Nuff Preaching, preacher man. Okay. Enough for today.

Christmas, synopsis for the last 3

Not knowing what to really say. I have to say something don't I. Christmas. Some people would a catchy phrase to respond to that word. I thought of one in my head and that is as far as it will go.

Every year now, for the past 3 years, Some things have never changed about Christmas. My sister-in-law's husband messing with the traditions of her family to appease her husband(separated now for 3 1/2 years). Our Chevy Astro Van breaking down and getting fixed for about $500 to $1000 (still cheaper than payments). Playing in the snow with the kids or without.

The family tradition with my wife's family goes like this. For the past 5 years, (yes I have been married that long) My wife and I host a Christmas Eve get-together. Around 3:30, We have arranged the living room to fit 12-13 people. Appetizers, Church service, Supper, desert, White Elephant gifts. The five separate families (My wife's parents, her brother and wife, her brother's wife's parents, Ours, and her sister's.) Appetizers - each family brings one appetizer- we make 3 more. Chairs are out to sit and snack. They go to Church service while we re-arrange the living room to fit 13 people at 2 tables and make it look nice. Floating candles, salad, plates, bread, sparkling juice(My wife's dad's family are alcholics, he loves them but hates alcohol because of his childhood memories, one is: being left in the car while his dad drinks and passes out at the local bar during winter time. ) pork or chicken, chocolate covered bowls for ice cream and raspberries for desert. Every one manages to bring a recycled gift for the White Elephant game. Everyone grabs a gift opens it up and we alternate people to exchange to see who gets stuck with what gift. An individual pizza slice server set has floated around for 5 years now. That and a creepy looking Santa doll.
Now the downside to this lovely affair. My brother-in-law (my wife's sister's husband separated but still there-to put it's complicated is not an overstatement) will waffle whether to come and push my wife's sister to not come to either the Christmas Eve and Christmas morning. That includes the kids (2 nephews-fun but troublemakers-Boys!!) missing out on the Love. I do mean it. My in-laws are the embodiment of Love. They help when they can no strings attached with whatever. Me learning a new thing to fix in my house from (father-in-law). Helping pay for our van bills. Later with that. Christmas morning for My wife's family has happened the same for about 28-29 years. Her parents ask everyone to show up at the butt crack of dawn (6:30-7). Have a great egg bake, caramelized rolls, Flavored coffee, cocoa, cookies, (yeah you got full just reading). Opening the huge socks(hope to add a picture or two) full. These things are 3 feet long and could fit 2 infants or a 7 year old. Exchange gifts and be back home by 9ish. Crazy, fun, crowded, love it. My brother-inlaw thinks his own family needs traditions to supplant these events instead of working around them. Grab the E-Rolodex, file under Bitterness, Resentment, Feelings Hurt.
The Van. It has something go wrong, Alternator, Distributor cap, spark plugs, battery, wiring. Enough said. GRRR. God provides the help when we need it. See File, Love from In-Law parents.
Now with my favorite activity. Playing in the snow. See pictures when they are added. Until then picture in head, Fun, snowball fights, sculptures, forts, sledding. Go to Cold Stone and Order this size, LOVE IT!!! :}

aimless procrastination

you looked at this blog now get back to doing something useful. No, really! If you choose to continue to read this blog, you come to the basic understanding I had when it was wrote. I am procrastinating and aimless wandering the blogs, the web, and other social networks, and the usual stops at the library website, email, emusic, etc... So this will end and I will go back to where I should be doing something that is deemed productive by somebody. Maybe you will also. Read this twice. Nice.

newspaper clippings 3

U.S. urged to refine its nanotechnology study
Associated Press
Updated: 12/10/2008 11:11:03 PM CST

WASHINGTON — The government needs a more comprehensive plan for studying the risks of nanotechnology, the National Research Council said Wednesday.
Although the committee that prepared the report did not evaluate the safety of nanomaterials, it was critical of research efforts into its health and environmental safety.
Nanomaterials are made of extremely tiny particles — some thousands of times finer than a human hair — which have come increasingly into use in recent years, often in products such as skin care and cosmetics.
Consumer advocates and others have raised questions about potential risks from these materials and the National Nanotechnology Initiative was set up to coordinate safety research.
But the research council report said the initiative plan fails to provide a clear picture of the current understanding of these risks or where it should be in 10 years.
In addition, the plan does not include research goals to help ensure that nanotechnologies are developed and used as safely as possible. And though the research needs listed in the plan are valuable, they are incomplete, the report said.
It called for a new plan going beyond federal research to include research from universities, industry, consumer and environmental groups and others.
"The current plan catalogs nano-risk research across several federal agencies, but it does not present an overarching research strategy needed to gain public acceptance and realize the
promise of nanotechnology," David Eaton, professor of environmental and occupational health sciences at the University of Washington and chairman of the committee that prepared the report, said in a statement.
The National Research Council is an arm of the National Academy of Sciences, an independent agency chartered by Congress to advise the government on science and technology.

Circle of Failure or failure cycle

________ (insert your own self-deprecating remark) It is the start of one's spiral downward to the circle of failure or otherwise known as a failure-cycle. Living up to the standard of our purpose is a difficult task for any of us. We struggle with it all the time. We don't want to commit a certain act that may cause personal harm or harm to another in some form or another (psychological, physical, emotional...). But we do. I do. Taking ownership is only a step in the right direction. Blaming others for failure when one knows everything was not done to prevent the failure is the wrong direction. One needs to recognize one cannot prevent everything from going wrong. Introspection only goes so far. Cleansing from within must occur in some degree in able to go beyond looking inward.
"Moving on" requires looking outward, onward to the purpose set before us. Humans are not perfect. I am not perfect. Humans cannot control everything. I cannot control everything or most anything at all. I can aim for self-control. Really, that is what this topic is about, isn't it? What can I do to stop actions that hurt myself? What precautions must I take to not get into situations that cause me harm? What can I do to help others, be kind to others. Here's a goal to start on: Do something Selfless. It might help one get out of the circle of failure and into a path for which is the purpose of this life.

After the dust settles

We all have had that reeling feeling of life is moving way to fast. I ask the question, what steps am I taking to slow it down? I try to watch less media, my wife says i'm addicted to facebook. I probably as an effect never post another status update again. This will in effect cause those who are my facebook friends to not look at my profile. but whatever, If they truly are interested, the link is still there as a facebook friend. This blog is my outlet to express what things are impacting my life and ask the questions even if no one reads (maybe you are in "post-postdum"- definition- reading this post after the original post. How does one reconnect with those around them and add new people without the feeling of being busy? My questions are true even if the answers are not written or obvious. Situational answers to differentiated lives. I'll add that to the George Dictionary.
So after the dust settles on your current situation, will you start anew? Willyou... or Canyou waitthatlong?

If you want to learn to be a Christian...

maybe i should start with something witty but I am never able to do that deliberately. If you want to learn about how to be a Christian, then go to someone who does not claim to be one. Whether or not you are a Christian, you know this to be true. Those who claim to be a Christian usually don't live up to the hype. I have

found the best way is to live it. I won't live up to the hype but I will be real. Isn't that what people want anyway? By my own admission, I cuss (don't want to, trying to quit) There's a biblical lesson for you in Romans for that. "Thanks, preacher man/hypocrite" How many times does one have to repeat the same sin before one just says, "Screw it, I'm done." and then they stop repeating the sin. It can't be that simple, can it? I'm sure there's a step in a 12 step program to explain that away. What does it really mean to live the life? I am not the ideal husband and i fail most the time. Chalk it up, human one. perfect zero. Slap that bumper sticker on.
Be humble. Listen. Help others. continue on...

Newspaper clippings 2

Are whales and other mammals victims of Supreme Court decision?11:18 AM, November 13, 2008
What do you think of the Supreme Court ruling in favor of the U.S. Navy regarding the use of sonar, at the risk of harming whales and other mammals?If you're fond of cetaceans and dolphins, you probably heaved a sad sigh after hearing about Wednesday's decision, which immediately lifted restrictions on exercises being conducted 12 miles beyond Southern California.A new set of exercises is planned for February, which is when Pacific gray whales will still be passing by en route to Baja, California lagoons.If you're worried about evil-intentioned crews aboard silent submarines getting the upper hand on U.S. forces, you may have applauded the decision and cheered the Bush administration for placing national security above all other concerns.
Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. wrote, "The Navy needs to train its crews to detect modern, silent submarines, and it cannot be forced to turn off its sonar when whales are spotted nearby."Roberts, as cited in a story in today's L.A. Times, also questioned whether sonar is in fact harmful to whales.Environmental groups claim studies conducted around the world have proved that sonar is harmful; that it has caused whales to dive to dangerous depths or even beach themselves to try to escape the effects of high-intensity sonar.And people complain about ringing of the ears.Certainly, the Navy does not mean to harm marine mammals, and cannot be compared to, say, Capt. Charles Melville Scammon, who with exploding lances once turned the Baja lagoon that now bears his name red with the blood of gray whales.
But it seems unlikely, and call me naive, that the U.S. would be any less safe if the Navy were forced to operate under restrictions previously imposed by U.S. District Judge Florence-Marie Cooper, who imposed a 12-mile offshore boundary and ordered the Navy to turn off its sonar when a marine mammal is spotted 1.2 miles or closer to operations.As The Times story says, though, the issue is far from settled, as the incoming Barack Obama administration will not be bound by the Bush administration's policy.--Pete Thomas

newspaper clippings

An insight might emerge from these micro black holesThe search for a "Theory of Everything" is looking for evidence of extra dimensions.By JOHN MANGELS, Newhouse News Service Last update: November 6, 2008 - 9:15 AM

The quest to make micro black holes at the $8 billion LHC springs from physicists' attempt to solve a profound mystery. Of nature's four fundamental forces, three operate at roughly the same strength: the strong force, which binds the restless bunches of quarks in an atomic nucleus together; the weak force, which enables nuclear decay, and electromagnetism, which keeps electrons locked in their frenzied orbits.But the fourth force, gravity, is the weakling of the family. It might seem powerful when you're trying to get off the couch, but it pales compared to the abilities of the other forces.Physicists call this vexing disparity a major speed-bump on the road to a Theory of Everything. In 1998, a trio of physicists proposed a radical explanation for gravity's apparent wimpy-ness.Maybe gravity is weak, they reasoned, because it's diluted. Maybe, unlike the other forces, it extends into extra dimensions beyond the three we inhabit.

If our 3-D universe is the top of a stack of pancakes, gravity is the syrup that dribbles over the flapjack's edge, down the sides and onto the plate below."If there are extra dimensions, you almost can't stop gravity from spreading out into them," Starkman said. "You imagine that gravity spreads out for a while, then stops. It could stop spreading if space wasn't infinite in those extra dimensions."Physicists have worked out different scenarios in which extra dimensions vary by size, number and even shape. One large extra dimension, or several smaller ones, could account for gravity's diluted strength in our own universe.If, if, if. How could anyone test for the existence of extra dimensions and leaking gravity? Black holes and the formidable particle-slamming power of the LHC suggested a way.You know black holes, right? Those fearsome cosmic quicksand pits that swallow everything, even light?They're the unhappy consequence of exhausted stars that collapse in on themselves. The resulting maw seethes with gravity so powerful it can rip apart anything that strays too close.Given such a nasty disposition, why would scientists want to try to create black holes on Earth? And not just one, but lots of them -- miniature black holes belched out as often as once per second like exploding popcorn kernels by the just-activated Large Hadron Collider (LHC), an underground machine so colossal it straddles two countries, Switzerland and France?Because of the remarkable things they would reveal about the universe, physicists say."It's the biggest experiment in human history," said Nima Arkani-Hamed of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, N.J., whose theories helped lay the groundwork for the black hole hunt.

If the LHC succeeds in a long-shot effort to make so-called micro black holes -- which experts contend would vanish harmlessly in less than a trillion-trillionth of a second -- that would provide powerful evidence of extra dimensions.It would illuminate astounding new properties of gravity and perhaps aid physicists' search for a "Theory of Everything" knitting together all of nature's particles and forces in one seamless explanation.Many news accounts of the LHC's September start-up (an electrical failure has since idled the collider until next spring) focused on the doomsday scenario, portraying black holes as the offspring of an experiment run amok, an unintended byproduct of smashing protons into protons. But physicists like Glenn Starkman of Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland have been methodically planning (and hoping) for their production.Starkman is a kind of black hole profiler, anticipating what properties a stealthy micro black hole should have and how to spy it among the blizzard of exotic particles the LHC will produce.The quest to make micro black holes at the $8 billion

LHC springs from physicists' attempt to solve a profound mystery. Of nature's four fundamental forces, three operate at roughly the same strength: the strong force, which binds the restless bunches of quarks in an atomic nucleus together; the weak force, which enables nuclear decay, and electromagnetism, which keeps electrons locked in their frenzied orbits.But the fourth force, gravity, is the weakling of the family. It might seem powerful when you're trying to get off the couch, but it pales compared to the abilities of the other forces.Physicists call this vexing disparity a major speed-bump on the road to a Theory of Everything. In 1998, a trio of physicists proposed a radical explanation for gravity's apparent wimpy-ness.Maybe gravity is weak, they reasoned, because it's diluted. Maybe, unlike the other forces, it extends into extra dimensions beyond the three we inhabit. If our 3-D universe is the top of a stack of pancakes, gravity is the syrup that dribbles over the flapjack's edge, down the sides and onto the plate below."If there are extra dimensions, you almost can't stop gravity from spreading out into them," Starkman said. "You imagine that gravity spreads out for a while, then stops. It could stop spreading if space wasn't infinite in those extra dimensions."Physicists have worked out different scenarios in which extra dimensions vary by size, number and even shape. One large extra dimension, or several smaller ones, could account for gravity's diluted strength in our own universe.If, if, if. How could anyone test for the existence of extra dimensions and leaking gravity? Black holes and the formidable particle-slamming power of the LHC suggested a way.

Sitting Here

Many of you are doing exactly what I am doing... sitting here. Yes, in front of the new idiot box reading the lastest mode of what has been deemed...the source of misinformation. Not that my post will misinform you but the internet is such a wonderful trap sucking us all in including me from actual interaction with other real human beings. Even right now, an actual human being is trying to talk to me but Im distracted trying to write something here worth reading. The choice is always in front of us. So someone is trying to talk...2 minutes later... 1 more minute later...5m later. I hope you make the choice to stop the tv from talking, stop looking up time-wasting internet things, and start interacting with people away from the media that addicts us all. The first step is admitting you have a problem. I am addicted and so are you. But what are we suppose to do? Make the better choice.. I am right now

Purpose of This

What is the purpose of this? To talk about purpose, what is on my mind. On my facebook account, I created a group called On My Mind. I may or may not repost the first attempts of blogging from there to here. Rambling on. To relieve the tasks that burden us in the forms of stress or frustration. To consciously and carefully and hopefully concisely aftr all everyone can
view this for infinitum) write ideas and discuss topics of my world and the world's influence on me. A voice in a noisy room may or may not be heard but the choice to speak is mine. Evolve myself to a better self. After all, I have a purpose for this life and I intend to live it. Failure may occur creating some setbacks but trod on, I will to the purpose of this life that I am living out each day.