This is Alpha, the first-born, when he was 2YO.
This is Beta, the second-born, when he was about 2YO.
This is Gamma, the third-born, when he was about 18MO.
Dec
31
2015
This being New Year’s Eve and all, I hope you weren’t expecting much of a post.
We don’t have any particular New Year’s Eve plans. Now New Year’s Day, on the other hand, is filled with snacks and college football.
This month shall be the beginning of months for you; it is to be the first month of the year to you.
Exodus 12:2
Dec
29
2015
I tried a new food, and I’m going to pass it on to you. Consider this a belated Christmas gift.
Here it is:
Rice Krispy Treats made with Fruity Pebbles
Just make rice krispy treats like you normally would, but use Fruity Pebbles instead of plain Rice Krispies.
I would say they are about twice as good as the standard recipe.
It’s like rice krispy treats with flavor, not just sugar.
This variation is good, but my all-time favorite is still the rice krispy treats made with butterscotch and with a chocolate topping.
Therefore, when I have finished this, and have put my seal on this fruit of theirs, I will go on by way of you to Spain.
Romans 15:28
Dec
24
2015
This being Christmas Eve and all, I hope you weren’t expecting much of a post.
We’re doing our gift opening today, so by the time you’re reading this I’m probably going to be in the middle of assembling toys, installing batteries, or helping someone with Lego instructions.
Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel.
Isaiah 7:14
Dec
22
2015
Selfie sticks elicit reactions from people. General concensus seems to be disapproval of selfie sticks, but some people might find them useful.
But that is the reaction to using the selfie stick to take pictures of oneself.
What if the selfie stick were being used for a different purpose?
I propose that the derision the selfie stick provokes is not due to the stick itself but at the selfish nature of a person who takes many photos of himself. And a selfie stick used for a different purpose would not be scoffed at.
For example, given the number of injuries reported in the news this summer due to fireworks mishaps, people should be encouraging the use of lighter sticks.
That would keep fingers and such out of harm’s way when lighting fireworks. Any explosions would damage an easily-replaceable selfie stick and the person’s hand would remain unharmed.
Another example is wasp spray or bug killer or whatever. Yes, they have the cans that can spray a jet of fluid a good distance, but there are situations where those won’t work well. Or maybe you have a homebrew wasp or hornet repellent and you can’t get it to squirt that far.
Plus, the wasps would be so busy laughing at the sight of a selfie stick approaching them that they wouldn’t be able to form an attack.
Sure, there are already commercially available pest-control harness or snake tongs, but this item is more to upgrade the perception of the selfie stick in the mind of the general public.
I mean, who is going to mock someone who is carrying a Cobra Stick?
Any other suggested uses for selfie sticks?
But when Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks and laid them on the fire, a viper came out because of the heat and fastened itself on his hand.
Acts 28:3
Dec
17
2015
Based on the popularity existence of last year’s article predicting bowl games in haiku form, I present to you this year’s all-haiku bowl game predictions. Still America’s only all-haiku college football bowl game predictions.
These are listed in order of date (earliest first). Some picks are whom I think will win, and some picks are whom I want to win. I’ll leave it to you, the reader, to decide which is which.
(more…)
Dec
15
2015
We are about to send out our Christmas cards. I’ll try not to spoil anything here for those of you on our list.
We get them printed at a nearby printing/copying center (PCC). Last year, I had our Christmas cards printed by the PCC and they were fine. But we ran out, so I had to go back. I did not get the same employee at the PCC, and he did not do as good a job as the first one did. Here’s what happened then.
I produced the card as an image file (JPG, in case you’re wondering). I made it large enough that the resolution would be good when printed on a normal sheet of paper (8.5×11″). When the second PCC person loaded the files, he remarked how large my file was – “You have it set to be over 2 feet wide!”. He then informed me that he fixed it to fit on the size I wanted. He printed a test sheet and held it up. It looked good so we ran all the copies.
When I got home later and looked at the copies at a normal distance, instead of a dozen feet away, I noticed that the images were blocky/pixelated. I then realized what happened – he had his resolution set at 200 DPI instead of the 600 DPI I wanted. That made my image larger than expected. And rather that increase his DPI, taking advantage of the file size to produce a good resolution, he just reduced my file to a bad resolution.
Now fast forward to this year. I took my files to the PCC, one file for the front of the card and one files for the back of the card, just like last year. Determined not to make the same mistake again, I asked for the test sheet so I could make sure they didn’t mess up the resolution. They got the resolution right, so I was happy and gave them the okay to print the rest. I paid and left.
Then I remembered to check the orientation of the front against the back. To my chagrin, I discovered that the back was printed upside down. It would not have been hard to tell with the test sheet, but I was thinking only of the resolution and forgot about how it would look when folded.
So, if you receive our card this year and you think the card is upside down when you open it, you’re right. Just pretend the front of the card is the back and vice-versa and it’ll work out.
It stood on twelve oxen, three facing the north, three facing west, three facing south and three facing east; and the sea was set on top of them and all their hindquarters turned inwards.
2 Chronicles 4:4
Dec
10
2015
This is related to our vacation, which was recapped on this blog.
One of the problems was that, due to the fault of the hotel, we had a problem buying lunch at the amusement park.
When I was talking to the guest services representative during the problem, trying to figure out how to get lunch, one of her suggestions was that I could buy a packet of meal coupons and have it charged to my room. I thought, but did not say, that a place with good customer service would have offered me free meal coupons to make up for how they inconvenienced me.
Since they did not offer that, and I don’t know that she was high enough up to be authorized to give away anything anyway, we ended up paying full price for our lunches. Which was what we were trying to do in the first place, but good businesses try to please the customer. If the customer is not pleased, what is he to do?
So the next morning, since we got back so late the day it happened, I went to the front desk with the hopes of getting either the meal prices refunded, or coupons for a free upcoming meal, or something. When I complained to the front desk, the lady there fixed the issue, thought about it for a second, then told me to wait right there until she came back.
I thought she was going to get some authorization or something, but she came back with a gift basket. Of course, being Hershey Lodge, it was a basket full of Hershey products. Although I was hoping for a free meal, I forgot to be disappointed and couldn’t help but smile at the sight of all that chocolate.
I think that’s why they do that.
And I’m sure all that costs them less than the price of one meal, let alone the six meals that our family would have needed.
Here are the contents:
A nice variety of items, and all the large sizes. But what they don’t want you to notice is this:
Not to look a gift box in the mouth, but it looks piled high with chocolate when it’s full because the bottom of the box is about halfway up.
Still, I did enjoy the chocolate. But I don’t recommend relying on the hotel room key as your only money source when in Hershey Park.
Can I justify wicked scales And a bag of deceptive weights?
Micah 6:11
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