Author: bill

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The Battles Hymn of the Blogger

The Battles Hymn of the Blogger

If your blogging becomes a chore,
Something you dread to do.
Be slow to blame the blog
Because maybe it’s just you.

This doesn’t happen to everyone
But maybe you’re battling Blogger’s Block
Stop trying to strike gold with each post
or you’ll find yourself losing to the clock.

Maybe you fear nobody’s reading your stuff,
They’re there – if not today in the morrow
Write as if you’ll always touch someone
Stop wallowing in self-sorrow.

The best way to Manage Your Writing
Is pen to paper, finger to keys
Once you get a rhythm
You’ll find yourself posting with ease

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Expert: 40 Percent of World of Warcraft Players Addicted | TwitchGuru

Expert: 40 Percent of World of Warcraft Players Addicted | TwitchGuru

An expert in computer, Internet and video game addiction believes that 40 percent of the more than 6 million subscribers suffer from a clinical addiction to the game and wants warning labels on the game boxes similar to the Surgeon General’s warnings on cigarettes. TwitchGuru has the interview.

I know that my son is addicted. He says that he is getting bored after playing it for the last couple of weeks so I am hopeful for the school year. Parental controls is always an option. I have used it once in the past and my son decided to regulate his play time. One of his school friends who also is a WOW player tried to give me some grief over using parental controls. I reminded him that I knew his father’s phone number and was more than willing to explain to him how this boy’s father could implement parental controls to control his son’s play time. That boy is so respectful now!

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Random Thoughts about the war between Israel and Hezbollah

There are many opinions floating around about this war and I have my own. Here are some of them.

  1. War is Hell! The US is the only country that believes it can fight a perfect war. Everyone else understands that they cannot fight a perfect war and that collateral damage is going to occur. It is a natural outcome of wars like this that both sides are losers!
  2. Israel knew that Hezbollah was stockpiling missiles and it was not for a 4th of July celebration.
  3. Nasrallah made a strategic error. His pride deceived him. If he really believes that Israel would attack Hezbollah between September and November as indicated here, he should have left Israel alone and completed his stockpiling. His attack and kidnapping of the Israel soldiers unified the people of Israel in a war against Hezbollah. From my vantage point I do not believe Israel would have approved an operation of this size without a trigger like a Hezbollah attack on Israel soldiers.
  4. Israel is attempting to destroy not only Hezbollah’s military capability but also its entire social structure. My guess is that all Hezbollah towns are being bombed into rubble. This will make these towns inhabitable for several years as they rebuild infrastructure. The Shiites will be beholden to the other Lebanese factions and international supporters for food, housing, and medical services for the next couple of years. This will create a new dynamic in Lebanese politics. It will be interesting to see how this plays out since certain Hezbollah officials have threatened the leaders of these Lebanese factions.
  5. The Hezbollah soldiers have impressed everyone with their fighting ability. The Israel artillery and air support will guarantee Israel will be the victor. If you believe that this article maybe indicative of how the battle is going then Hezbollah needs to stop beating their chests and negotiate a truce while they can still claim they are the winner. My guess is that the IDF thinks Hezbollah is on the ropes and wants to finish them off before diplomacy saves Hezbollah.
  6. Hezbollah needs the rest of the Shiite world to stop encouraging them to fight on. Hezbollah soldiers are probably being killed at a rate of about three to four to one Israel soldier. Hezbollah is a much more potent political force in Lebanon if their army is intact. No army + no social services = no political power.
  7. If Hezbollah wants to force a cease fire, they should unilaterally stop firing missles at Israel and let international diplomacy force a solution on Israel.
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Like a long, slow movie

Last week I came in from turning out horses and my wife was crying again. Earlier she had a falling out with a friend who happens to be both a business client and competitor. This friend was going through some difficult times. Over the last eight years our friend had made a series of bad personal and professional decisions and the chickens were coming home to roost. Earlier this year she had announced to everyone she was closing her businesses and moving back home. That was the easy part. She wanted to escape her life! Her problem is that she did not see that escape was going to be very, very difficult. I think the poet, Kay Ryan, says it best:

“The chickens are circling and blotting out the day. The sun is bright, but the chickens are in the way. Yes, the sky is dark with chickens, dense with them. They turn, and then they turn again. These are the chickens you let loose one at a time and small, various breeds. Now they have come home to roost, all the same kind at the same speed.”

I am sure our friend did not think that closing the businesses and parts of her personal life could be this hard. Initially she encouraged her clients to leave and most had already left. However she was much more successful at cutting revenue than costs. She was still a long way from being able to move home. The longer it took, the more trapped she felt. When my wife told her that a mutual client wanted to move over to our facilty, the falling out between friends had finally begun.

Earlier in the evening when my wife had come home from the falling out, my wife had wanted to call her friend up and talk some more. My wife was upset and she wanted closure. My wife felt she was doing the right thing for both the mutual client and her friend. The mutual client wanted to move to our facility and thought it was the right time. My wife felt her intentions and actions were honest to both her friend and client. She dearly wanted her friend to believe her! Although I hope and pray for a better life for our friend and her family, I told my wife that closure with her friend was not going to happen. If you call her it will be about making you feel good. She will not feel good about this reagardless of what you say. Your friend has a lot more suffering to go through and there is nothing you can do about it. When you think about your pain, it is only a small fraction of what your friend is going through. Forgiving her will be your only solace. Like a long, slow movie our friend is going to suffer a predictable series of unfortunate events until she hits bottom. Our friend had ignored a lot of simple advice over the years and is even less likely to follow our advice we offer now. More than ever she is trusting her own judgement. It is unlikely that she will believe in the very core of her heart that she needs to make personal changes until she finally sees that she has hit bottom. Until that time she will indiscriminatingly blame her problems on her husband, children, friends, and clients. It is not going to be a pretty picture. Watching a friend suffer is never easy. Having the patience to wait and watch for things to work themselves out will be very difficult.

Assuming that our friend survives the bottom, we may be involved in the growth and healing process. Then again, we may not be involved. Healing is both very hard and easy. Learning to enjoy the simple things done with great love makes a person and a family more fully alive. This part is so easy yet so hard. The key is letting go of the things you cannot control and never were very important. The prospect of our friend and her family making the transition to a family fully alive is a very appealing goal. In my heart I remain open to the process even though I dread it. The part we will have to give of ourselves to help them grow and heal will be painful.

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Everything Exploded

Everything Exploded

In case you missed it the first time, or if (like me) you feel like re-reading it, exactly three months ago I published Everything Could Explode at Any Moment from the Lebanese/Israeli border. That piece feels heavier now than it…

An amazing piece!

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RE: Braden Files

Dog Pack Kills Alligator In Florida
At times nature can be cruel, but there is also a raw beauty, and even a certain justice manifested within that cruelty.The alligator, one of the oldest and ultimate predators, normally considered the ‘apex predator’ in its natural eco-system, can still fall victim to implemented ‘team work’ strategy, made possible by the tight knit social structure and ‘survival of the fittest pack mentality’ bred into canines over the last thousands of years by natural selection.See the remarkable photograph attached, courtesy of Nature Magazine. Note that the Alpha dog has a muzzle hold on the gator preventing it from breathing, while the remainder of the pack prevents the beast from rolling.
Beware! This is not for the squeamish!

Click here ONLY if you are ready to view image….

Texas Facts
Nobody asked for them, but here are some little known Texas facts:

  • Beaumont to El Paso: 742 miles
  • Beaumont to Chicago: 770 miles
  • El Paso is closer to California than to Dallas
  • World’s first rodeo was in Pecos… July 4, 1883.
  • The Flagship Hotel in Galveston is the only hotel in North America built over water.
  • The Heisman Trophy was named after John William Heisman who was the first full time coach for Rice University in Houston.
  • Brazoria County has more species of birds than any other area in North America.
  • Aransas Wildlife Refuge is the winter home of North America’s only remaining flock of whooping cranes.
  • Jalapeno jelly originated in Lake Jackson in 1978.
  • The worst natural disaster in U.S. history was in 1900 caused by a hurricane in which over 8000 lives were lost on Galveston Island.
  • The first word spoken from the moon, July 20, 1969, was HOUSTON.
  • King Ranch is larger than Rhode Island.
  • Tropical Storm Claudette brought a U.S. rainfall record of 43″ in 24 hours in and around Alvin in July 1979.
  • Texas is the only state to enter the U.S. by TREATY, instead of by annexation. (This allows the Texas flag to fly at the same height as the US flag. The Treaty also provided that Texas can split itself into 5 States, if it wants. And the Treaty also provided that Texas can secede from the Union, if it wants.)
  • A Live Oak tree near Fulton is estimated to be 1500 years old.
  • Caddo Lake is the only natural lake in the state.
  • Dr Pepper was invented in Waco in 1885. There is no period after Dr in Dr Pepper.

Texas has had six capital cities:

  1. Washington-on-the-Brazos
  2. Harrisburg
  3. Galveston
  4. Velasco
  5. West Columbia
  6. Austin
  • The Capitol Dome in Austin is the only dome in the U.S. which is taller than the Capitol Building in Washington D.C. (by 7 feet).
  • The name TEXAS comes from the Hasini Indian word “tejas” meaning friends. Tejas is not Spanish for Texas.
  • The State animal is the Armadillo. (An interesting bit of trivia about the armadillo is they always have four babies! They have one egg which splits into four and they either have four males or four females. Well…I thought it was interesting anyway!)
    The first domed stadium in the U.S. was the Astrodome in Houston.

THE TEN COMMANDMENTS – TEXAS STYLE

People here in Texas have trouble with all those shalls and shall nots in the Ten Commandments. Folks here just aren’t used to talking in those terms. So, some folks out in West Texas got together and translated the “King James” version into “King Ranch” version:

Ten Commandments, cowboy style.

Cowboy’s Ten Commandments posted on the wall at Cross Trails Church in Fairlie, Texas.

  1. Just one God.
  2. Honor yer Ma & Pa.
  3. No telling tales or gossipin’.
  4. Git yourself to Sunday meeting.
  5. Put nothin’ before God.
  6. No foolin’ around with another fellow’s gal.
  7. No killin’.
  8. Watch yer mouth.
  9. Don’t take what ain’t yers.
  10. Don’t be hankerin’ for yer buddy’s stuff.

That’s kinda plain ‘n simple don’t ya think?

Via the Braden Files

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Cilantro Carrots with Cumin

Cilantro Carrots with Cumin

Cilantro Carrots with Cumin

This recipe looked interesting. The recipe idea and photo come from the Too Many Chefs website which is linked above. It took me sometime to look up the recipe at epicurious.com. Here is the link, http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/recipe_views/views/1058.

For those who want the ingredients here they are:

2 pounds carrots, each cut into 2-inch-long pieces, then quartered lengthwise
6 tablespoons water(or orange juice)
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons ground cumin
2 garlic cloves, pressed
2 tablespoons minced fresh cilantro

It is simple to prepare this dish. Cook the carrots until crisp tender in either water or orange juice. Drain off any excess water and transfer to a new bowl. Make a salad dressing with the rest of the ingredients except the cilantro. Toss the carrots with the dressing and let cool. Add cilantro before serving.

I made this yesterday to bring to a 4th of July cookout. The flavor is strong but interesting. The folks ate it without any prodding.