I Am Concerned...

People keep leaving Mary birthday wishes and saying something like 'we hope David does something nice for you'. What do you folks think of me? Did you think I would just forget or something? Geeesh....

For your information, over the weekend I gave her a nice gift and tonight I took her out for dinner.

Apparently I am not as thoughtless as I get credit for being...

For My Fellow U2 Fans...

Irish rockers U2 have revealed they picked a space-age circular stage for their world tour — kicking off spectacularly tonight at Barcelona’s giant 97,500-capacity Camp Nou stadium.

Bono & co’s 100-date, £90m U2360 tour will arrive in Dublin next month.

U2’s small central set, tipped to rotate, is beneath a giant, four-legged construction dubbed the “Claw” measuring a world-record 50metres high, 58m wide and 47m deep.

Based on Los Angeles Airport’s Theme Building, the Claw is so big that roadies first arrived four weeks ago to build it.

The tour, the band’s first since 2005’s Vertigo, is their most expensive in their 33 years together, in which time they have been touted as the best live act on the planet.

Full BelfastTelegraph Article

Thanks To Keith at BagOfNothing

A Challenging Quote From Jim Elliot

A friend shared the quote below on her Facebook page this morning. I had never read it before, but I found it incredibly challenging.

"We are so utterly ordinary, so commonplace, while we profess to know a Power the Twentieth Century does not reckon with. But we are "harmless," and therefore unharmed. We are spiritual pacifists, non-militants, conscientious objectors in this battle-to-the-death with principalities and powers in high places. Meekness must be had for contact with men, but brass, outspoken boldness is required to take part in the comradeship of the Cross. We are "sideliners" -- coaching and criticizing the real wrestlers while content to sit by and leave the enemies of God unchallenged. The world cannot hate us, we are too much like its own. Oh that God would make us dangerous!"

Quote by Jim Elliot, 1927-1956

Thanks To Ronne Rock at Adventures Of A Christ Stumbler

It Is My Bride's Birthday!

Today is Mary's birthday. Since she is not on Facebook you will have to leave any birthday wishes in the comments area below.

Poignant Father's Day Note From Garron

Mary and I met my parents in Brenham over the recent Father's Day weekend. After touring the ice cream Mecca (Blue Bell plant) we headed out to Washington-on-the-Brazos State Historic Site (a trip every Texan should take).

At the end of our visit we had a few minutes to walk around the Star of The Republic Museum. Part of the museum has exhibits setup especially for children. Since this was Father's Day weekend the museum staff had placed a notebook out for the children to write in. Each page of the notebook had three fields that included a place for the child's name and the statement "My father is a hero because". The children were then given a space to write their own comment.

While thumbing through the pages Mary and my mother came across the page shown below. The first and last entry are the types of things you would expect to read on Father's Day, but the middle one was heart breaking. Click on the picture below to blow up the picture so you can read what Garron had to say.

Fall Down, Go Boom

Very interesting photos of a building that fell in Shanghai. It fell like a book that was upright, and then on its side.

Click on the image below to see the entire gallery.

Thanks To Keith at BagOfNothing

You Call That a Strike?!

In the seventh inning of a recent game between the Red Sox and the Braves, Atlanta’s Peter Moylan fired a two-strike fastball to Kevin Youkilis. Although the home plate umpire called it a ball, Braves fans could’ve been forgiven for thinking the pitch nipped the outside corner. Viewers in Boston, however, knew the ump made the right call.

This difference of opinion wasn’t the result of home-team favoritism. Rather, it stemmed from differences in the local television broadcasts. The Red Sox telecast on NESN is one of only three in Major League Baseball that places its main camera directly behind the pitcher in straightaway center field. The other 27 clubs, including the Braves, put the camera off-center, about 10 to 15 degrees toward left field. That offset angle means the vast majority of baseball fans get a skewed sense of the pitcher-hitter confrontation, the matchup at the very heart of baseball. For fans of the Braves and most other teams, judging balls and strikes is a matter of guesswork.

Read The Full Slate Article Here

Thanks To Keith at BagOfNothing

Pictures From The International Space Station

The Boston Globe has another amazing series of photographs. This set is from the International Space Station. Click on the image to see the full series.

Earlier this week, NASA released an amazing photograph of an eruption of Sarychev Peak Volcano, taken by astronauts aboard the orbiting International Space Station (ISS). Seeing that great photo prompted me to dig into the archives and see what other imagery I could find from recent NASA archives. Collected here are a handful of photographs of Sarychev Peak Volcano, and more, taken by astronauts aboard the ISS over the past few months. (35 photos total)

Jamba Juice BOGO

Jamba Juice has a buy one smoothie, get one smoothie free coupon.

Click the image to the left to get the coupon.

You Might Want Cash for Your Clunker If...

The Cash for Clunkers program passed Congress last week, providing rebates for people who trade in old cars and purchase new fuel-efficient vehicles. Participants can receive vouchers worth as much as $4500. Of course, we’re advocates of DIY mechanics—car owners who tinker with their vehicles until the car’s last faint, faltering breath. This is the truly economical (and environmentally friendly) way to treat vehicles. A true clunker, by this reasoning, is one that is beyond even our capable hands. Here, then, is how to tell if your beater is a real clunker—beyond help and ready for a government bailout.

• It’s wearing three (or more) different sizes of tire.
• Your bowling ball keeps falling out of the trunk, even when the trunk lid is closed.
• You need to add oil more often than you need to add gas.
• Dogs don’t bark and chase after it.
• You can only get country and western stations on the radio.
• There are mushrooms growing out of the rear-seat carpeting.
• You’ve gotten in the habit of leaving the jumper cables permanently attached to your battery.
• There’s more than one bumper sticker holding the rear bumper to the car.
• The color listed on the title is “Duct Tape.”
• Your pine-tree air freshener is a twig from an actual pine tree.
• When your CHECK ENGINE light comes on, you know from experience that you need to actually check to see if your engine is still there.
• Your ignition key also works in your lawn tractor.
• Driver’s seat upholstery is for sissies.
• Your seatbelts are made from leather.
• Your make, year and model isn’t even listed in the Blue Book.
• Your teenager doesn’t want to install an iPod dock.
• Your dog hides in the back seat instead of sticking his head out of the open window.
• Parking valets tip you to park it.
• Yugo drivers flip you off.
• You never throw out a clothes hanger; you might need it to hold up your tailpipe.

Link To Article Here

From Homeless To Harvard?

Student hopes to go from homeless to Harvard.

"I would love to be able to say that I graduated from Harvard University with a PhD in medicine and be able to share my story," he says. "I have to dream because obviously my reality is horrible."

Read The Full Article Here

Watch The Video Here

Free Shipping & Free Ammo For Your Kids

Ok, that is a little misleading. It is free Nerf ammo, but it is still a good deal. Follow the link below to see what you can get...

Go To CheapCheapCheap.com For More Details

Volcano Eruption Viewed From Space

n the pantheon of awesome images of explosions, this has got to rank pretty high. Astronauts floating high above earth in the International Space Station snapped this shot of Russia’s Sarychev Peak volcano in the Kuril Islands busting through the atmosphere on June 12 (click image for full-size).

As NASA scientists M. Justin Wilkinson writes, conditions had to be perfect to get this shot — there must be almost no wind for the plume to shoot so high into the atmosphere undisturbed.

The white stuff at the top of the ash cloud is probably condensing steam. And that halo of clouds surrounding the eruption is what happens when a powerful explosion rips into the atmosphere — the shock wave literally pushed the cloud cover out of the way.

Source

Thanks To Keith at BagOfNothing

The Firefighter's Fire

An emergency call for firefighters to respond to a traffic crash ended in a cautionary tale for everyone who cooks food when the firefighters got a second call to put out a fire — back at their own station house in Waipahu.

Read The Full Article Here

Thanks To Keith at BagOfNothing

Buzz Aldrin Raps With Snoop Dog

I never thought I would live to see this.

Making of Buzz Aldrin's Rocket Experience w/ Snoop Dogg and Talib Kweli from Buzz Aldrin

Thanks To Keith at BagOfNothing

A Happy Sad Story

HUNTINGTON BEACH – Colby Curtin, a 10-year-old with a rare form of cancer, was staying alive for one thing – a movie.

From the minute Colby saw the previews to the Disney-Pixar movie Up, she was desperate to see it. Colby had been diagnosed with vascular cancer about three years ago, said her mother, Lisa Curtin, and at the beginning of this month it became apparent that she would die soon and was too ill to be moved to a theater to see the film.

After a family friend made frantic calls to Pixar to help grant Colby her dying wish, Pixar came to the rescue.

The company flew an employee with a DVD of Up, which is only in theaters, to the Curtins’ Huntington Beach home on June 10 for a private viewing of the movie.

The animated movie begins with scenes showing the evolution of a relationship between a husband and wife. After losing his wife in old age, the now grumpy man deals with his loss by attaching thousands of balloons to his house, flying into the sky, and going on an adventure with a little boy.

Colby died about seven hours after seeing the film.

Read The Full Article Here

Thanks To Keith at BagOfNothing

Now That Is Bat Control...

I have enough trouble hitting a ball with a bat and this guy can do this...



Thanks To Keith at BagOfNothing

Taylor Swift Is A Thug...

Funny...

Thanks To Keith at BagOfNothing

Crazy Foodie...

A friend recently started a blog. I have known she had many gifts, but I am just learning that one of them is as a writer. Even though the focus of the blog is about food & cooking, Crystal does a great job weaving stories around her "second love".

This morning she did a post about her late mother. I thought it was so well written that I wanted to pass it along.

If I live as long as my mother lived, I have about fourteen years left on this planet. Just fourteen years. What should I do with those fourteen years? What should I not put off? What do I want to accomplish? What if I only have slightly more than a decade to spend with the people I love? If you had 14 years to live, what would you be doing differently right now? Would you be living life differently? Would you be procrastinating less?

Read The Full Post Here

The Secret Life Of A Crazy Foodie

I Am Debating A Career Change

Disaster City

The Outdoor Channel filmed 10 episodes of its survival show, "The Best Defense," in College Station recently.

The series explores several disaster situations ordinary citizens could be confronted with, including pandemic events, localized weather, economic collapse, earthquakes, fires, chemical spills and terrorism, said Emmy award-winning executive producer Tim Cremin.

Read Full Article Here

The Sincerity Test

If you have read this blog much then you know that Mary and I are involved with Crown Financial Ministries. Crown is a 10 week small group Bible study that teaches Biblical financial principals. One of the 10 weeks covers the subject of giving.

Today Vince Antonucci posted a blog entry about giving that I think is worth reading. In this post he offers an observation that I have missed over the 10+ years of leading Crown.

"we're challenged to excel at giving. Not just to give, or even give generously, but to excel at giving generously, to be great at it."

He goes on to say that

"And the scary part, for those of us who don't excel at giving, is that we're taught that this is the test of whether our love for God and others is sincere"

Now, I firmly believe that you should start by giving generously to your local church, but you should not stop there. If you have a problem with giving to 'religion' then you should start giving generously to something or someone in need (and you should work to find a church that you can give generously to).

Does your bank statement show that you excel at giving (1 Timothy 6:18-19)?

Read Vince's Blog Post Here

"Crown Financial Ministries®, founded in 1976, is an interdenominational ministry dedicated to equipping people around the world to learn, apply, and teach biblical financial principles…and help ignite True Financial Freedom around the globe."

ImprovEverywhere Is At It Again...

It is a a six-minute video, but it is pretty interesting...



Thanks To Keith at BagOfNothing

Is Mutton Hollow Chevy more powerful than God?

Stuff Christians Like has figured out how powerful God is.

Considering that this is probably a question philosophers and theologians have struggled with for thousands of years, that’s pretty nice of me. Who knew one day a random blogger would figure it out and share it for free. What can I say? I’m a giver.

So here it is:

God is slightly less powerful than Mutton Hollow Chevy.

Read The Full Post Here

Do It Yourself Father's Day Gifts

Did you forget about father's day? Do you not have enough money to get your dad a special gift. Don't worry, Popular Mechanics has your back.

In 10 DIY Father's Day Gifts You Can Make This Week PM provides you with gift ideas that are sure to please dad and save you money (well, they might please dad).

• Solar Lawn Mower
• Homemade Jerkey
• Custom Speakers
• Bent-Wood Birdhouse
• Woodworking bench
• Minnow Plug Bait
• Wooden Coffee Table
• Digital Picture Frame
• Tipping Flower Pots
• Electric Canoe

Building An Aircraft Carrier

Click Image To Enlarge

Popular Mechanics has posted an article about how the new Gerald R. Ford class of aircraft carriers are being built.

Supercarrier 2015: How to Build the World's Most Powerful Warship

Wikipedia: Gerald R. Ford Class Aircraft Carrier

US Navy Presidential Ceremonial Honor Guard at Norway

The US Navy Presidential Ceremonial Honor Guard Drill Team performing in Norway.



Thanks To My Father-in-law for forwarding

Fallen Princesses

This picture is from a series of photographs titled The Fallen Princess. All of the pictures are interesting, but I thought the one above was especially moving.

These works place Fairy Tale characters in modern day scenarios. In all of the images the Princess is placed in an environment that articulates her conflict. The ‘happily ever after’ is replaced with a realistic outcome and addresses current issues.

Click on the picture to see the full series.

Thanks To Keith at BagOfNothing

Unusual Canned Foods From Around The World

These are real canned foods from around the world. Some of these items are gross. I mean just thinking about them makes me queasy. The idea that I might see some of these at my local grocer is enough to make me gag. So, click on the picture above at your own risk.

Thanks(?) To Keith at BagOfNothing

Art Studio Or Taxi Cab? You Decide

Imagine that you are faced with the following situation: You have a sudden urge to create art, but you also have a cab at the curb waiting on you. How do you resolve this dilemma? Well, if Fabio Peralta is your cab driver you do not have to choose.

Fabio Peralta has turned the back seat of his yellow cab into an art studio for his passengers, and has commissioned thousands of works.

As soon as a passenger hops into his Crown Vic, Peralta, a 40-year veteran hack, hands the rider a pen and a stack of computer paper.

Read Full New York Post Article Here

Thanks To Keith at BagOfNothing

Does "The Costliest Storm" = "The Most Damaging Storm"

Hurricane Ike struck the Texas coast on September 13, 2008. The damage from that storm was estimated to be $20 Billion. That is called the costliest hurricane ever to strike Texas, but does 'costliest' equal most damaging? In other words, if the 1900 Galveston storm were to strike today, how would it compare to Ike?

The SciGuy blog on the Houston Chronicle's website did a post based on this very question. It was interesting to learn that when you factor in how much damage past storms would cause if the made landfall today Hurricane Ike is only #3 on the list.


Read The SciGuy Post Here

Best And Worst Cities To Live In

This is a bogus list since it does not include Fort Worth on the Best Cities List...

See Best And Worst Lists Here

Thanks To Keith at BagOfNothing

Should You Let Your Neighbor's Brother's Uncle's Friend Design Your Logo?

Most of those that read this blog know that Mary has been in the world of marketing and advertising for as long as I have known her. In that time I think a little marketing knowledge has rubbed off on me. One of the first things I think I picked up is the importance of a good first impression for a business. Well, apparently a number of businesses have not:

YourLogoMakesMeBarf.com is intended to be a humorous look at what can go wrong when an unskilled person (your neighbor’s brother’s uncle’s friend anyone?!) designs a logo. Good logos require time and involve great forethought. A good logo should be a financial investment but also something that will benefit the long term growth of a company.

So leave the designing to the designers and browse through some of these fine examples of what not to look for in a logo. Barf bags recommended.

Link To YourLogoMakesMeBarf

Thanks To Keith at BagOfNothing

Better Start Working On My Fielding...

Is This What Visiting Church Is Like?

This is an interesting perspective...

Thanks To Aaron at AHolyDiscontent

Missionary, Salesman...Or Both?

Pinnacle Security is recruiting Mormon Missionaries for their Door-to-Door sales force. The article linked below is an interesting read.

Managers at Pinnacle Security, founded in 2001 by a student at Brigham Young University, the Mormon Church-owned school, say missionaries simply have the right stuff. Many speak foreign languages learned in the mission field. All have thick skins from dealing with the negative responses that a missionary armed with a Book of Mormon and a smile can receive.

Read The Full New York Times Article Here

41 Celebrates 85 With Number 7

Former President George H.W. Bush celebrated his 85th birthday Friday by doing what has become his tradition — making a parachute jump.


Link To Full Article Here

Do You Qualify To Sing The Blues?

A while back my cousin Tim was kind enough to provide me with some music education. I thought I would pass this along to the blog-o-sphere so others could benefit from this knowledge. So, with no further delay, I bring you "How To Sing The Blues - A Primer"

1. Most Blues begin, "Woke up this morning..."


2. "I got a good woman" is a bad way to begin the Blues, unless you stick something nasty in the next line like, "I got a good woman, with the meanest face in town."


3. The Blues is simple. After you get the first line right, repeat it. Then find something that rhymes...sort of: "Got a good woman with the meanest face in town. Yes, I got a good woman with the meanest face in town. Got teeth like Margaret Thatcher, And she weighs 500 pounds."


4. The Blues is not about choice. You're stuck in a ditch, you're stuck in a ditch - ain't no way out.


5. Blues cars: Chevys, Fords, Cadillacs and broken-down trucks. Blues don't travel in Volvos, BMWs, or Sport Utility Vehicles. Most Blues transportation is a Greyhound bus or a southbound train, blues NEVER go on the northbound train. Jet aircraft and state-sponsored motor pools ain't even in the running. Walkin' plays a major part in the blues lifestyle. So does fixin' to die.


6. Teenagers can't sing the Blues. They ain't fixin' to die yet. Adults sing the Blues. In Blues, "adulthood" means being old enough to get the electric chair if you shoot a man in Memphis.


7. Blues can take place in New York City but not in Hawaii or any place in Canada. Hard times in Minneapolis or Seattle is probably just clinical depression. Chicago, St. Louis, and Kansas City are still the best places to have the Blues. You cannot have the blues in any place that don't get rain.


8. A man with male pattern baldness ain't the blues. A woman with male pattern baldness is. Breaking your leg cause you were skiing is not the blues. Breaking your leg 'cause an alligator be chomping on it is.


9. You can't have no Blues in an office or a shopping mall. The lighting is wrong. Go outside to the parking lot or sit by the dumpster.


10. Good places for the Blues: a. highway b. jailhouse. Bad places for the Blues: a. Nordstrom b. gallery openings c. Ivy League institutions d. golf courses


11. No one will believe it's the Blues if you wear a suit, 'less you happen to be an old person, and you slept in it for the last 6 months.


12. Do you have the right to sing the Blues? Yes, if: a. you're older than dirt b. you're blind c. you shot a man in Memphis. Not if: a. you have all your teeth b. you were once blind but can see c. the man in Memphis lived d. you have a 401K or trust fund now


13. Blues is not a matter of color. It's a matter of bad luck. Tiger Woods cannot sing the blues. Sonny Liston could. Ugly white people also got leg up on the blues.


14. If you ask for water and your darlin' give you gasoline, it's the Blues. Other acceptable Blues beverages are: a. muddy water b. nasty black coffee. The following are NOT Blues beverages: a. Perrier b. Chardonnay c. Snapple d. Slim Fast


15. If death occurs in a cheap motel or a shotgun shack, it's a Blues death. Stabbed in the back by a jealous lover is another Blues way to die. So is the electric chair, substance abuse and dying lonely on a broken down cot. You can't have a Blues death if you die during a tennis match or while getting liposuction.


16. Some Blues names for women: a. Sadie b. Big Mama c. Bessie d. Fat River Dumpling


17. Some Blues names for men: a. Joe b. Willie c. Little Willie d. Big Willie


18. Persons with names like Michelle, Amber, Debbie, and Heather can't sing the Blues no matter how many men they shoot in Memphis.


19. "Make your own Blues Name" Starter Kit: a. name of physical infirmity (Blind, Cripple, Lame, etc.) b. first name (see above) plus name of fruit (Lemon, Lime, Kiwi, etc.) c. last name of a President (Jefferson, Johnson, Fillmore, etc.) For example: Blind Lime Jefferson, Pegleg Lemon Johnson or Cripple Kiwi Fillmore, etc. (Well, maybe not "Kiwi.")


20. I don't care how tragic your life: if you own even one computer, you cannot sing the blues. If you are reading this on a computer - maybe you cannot sing the Blues - but you sure can listen to it…

Thanks To My Cousin Tim at BetterLivingThroughMusic

An 'UP'-Lifting Movie Review

Breakpoint did a review of the new Pixar movie UP in their commentary today. Sounds like a great movie to take the family to.

In recent years, Disney’s Pixar Studios has been something of a godsend for parents looking for wholesome, high-quality entertainment. With great films like WALL-E, The Incredibles, and many more, Pixar has provided family films with heart, films that tell genuinely good stories and avoid the crassness that’s so prevalent in many children’s films today. And their films, without being “message movies,” usually provide plenty of food for thought for both kids and adults.

Listen To The Commentary Here

Read The Commentary Here

Free Events In & Around Fort Worth This Weekend

There are all kinds of free things for you and your family this weekend...

Read About Them At Frugal In Fort Worth

A Day In Baseball History

How many teams does it take to play a baseball game? I know most readers would say two (and some would say, "what is baseball"), but would you believe there was once a game between 3 teams?

1944: Baseball supports the war effort with an unusual exhibition game at the Polo Grounds. Presented by the War Bond Sports committee in connection with the Fifth War Loan, the game among the Dodgers, Giants and Yankees swells New York’s quota in the current bond drive by $56.5 million.

The crowd of 50,000 contributes $5.5 million to attend, while the Bond Clothing Co. pays $1 million in bonds for an autographed program. The overwhelming majority of the money comes from the city of New York, with Mayor Fiorello La Guardia purchasing $50 million worth of bonds.

As for the game, each team bats six times, plays defense six times, and watches six times in the nine-inning game. It takes a professor of mathematics at Columbia to figure out how to accomplish this. The Dodgers win the three-cornered game with five runs, while the Yankees score one run and the Giants are shut out.

Read ESPN's June 26 Post Here

Thanks To Keith at BagOfNothing

Presidential Pardon For 10 Year Old

Okay, I am not a big fan of many of the things President Obama is doing. That being said, I do like how he is able to connect to people so well. Yesterday in Green Bay, WI he became aware that a 10-yr-old student was skipping school to attend a town hall meeting. Watch the video below to see what happened...

Link To Full CNN Article Here

Thanks To Keith at BagOfNothing

New York City has General Worth. Should we ask for him back?

We live in Fort Worth. We LOVE Fort Worth! If you have never visited Fort Worth you owe it to yourself to spend some time and money here. We think it is the best city in Texas. And, since Texas is the best state in the Union, Fort Worth is the best city in the United States.

Well, NPR did a story back in May that reminded me that our namesake is not buried in Texas. As a matter of fact, William J. Worth is buried in New York. And not just in New York, he is buried in General Worth Square located at the northern end of Madison Square, on an island bordered by Broadway, Fifth Avenue and 25th Street.

Think about it, Broadway & 5th Ave in New York are some of the most famous streets in the world. This is where they chose to bury General Worth. Not only did they bury him there, they also built an Obelisk and a park in his honor. Worth's monument was one of the first to be erected in a city park since the statue of George III was removed from Bowling Green in 1776, and is the only monument in the city except for Grants Tomb that doubles as a mausoleum. Even they realized what a great man he was.

Well, I propose we start a movement to bring him back back to Texas. Who is with me?

Listen To The 5 Minute Report Here

Read The Report Here

Customer Service: Halls of Fame and Shame

MSN Money conducted a survey to identify the companies that offered great customer service...and those that did not. Click the links below to read the articles, but I will give you the top and bottom 10 her for quick reference.

2009 Hall Of Shame

1. AOL
2. Comcast
3. Sprint
4. Capital One
5. Time Warner Cable
6. HSBC
7. Qwest
8. Abercrombie and Fitch
9. Bank of America
10. Citigroup

2009 Hall Of Fame

1. USAA
2. Trader Joe's
   
3. Netflix
4. Amazon
5. Nordstrom
6. Publix
7. Whole Foods
   
8. Apple
9. Costco
10. Southwest Airlines
    

The 2009 Customer Service Hall Of Shame

The 2009 Customer Service Hall Of Fame


Thanks To Keith at BagOfNothing

100+ Portraits Of Iconic People Of All Time

Today we bring you a great collection of portraits of the most iconic people throughout history.

Portraits explore the relationship between the subject and the photographer or artist and usually continue to impress the viewer years after they have been created.

The common thread running through all of these portraits is superlative design. Each is a masterpiece in its own right, from the medieval painted portraits right up to the most current photographs.

This collection is arranged in alphabetical order and is by no means complete. We encourage you to post comments as to which portraits we’ve missed, that you feel should be part of this collection.

We hope that this collection inspires you, makes you gasp and even smile. We want you to come away with a sense of what made each portrait unique and memorable, and incorporate these concepts into your own portraits.

Click on the picture above to see the images.

Thanks To Keith at BagOfNothing

Nice Recovery

This doesn't look like a ride I want to go on...



Thanks To Keith at BagOfNothing

Should You Get A Credit Protection Plan?

Chuck Bentley at Crown Financial Ministries thinks they should be avoided. On his MoneyLife broadcast he gives three reasons they should be avoided.

Listen To The Broadcast Here

Read the Transcript Here

A Foot Race Against Terrorism

On June 4, 2009 I posted a blog post titled Does Our 'Charitable Work' Help Fight Terrorism?. In that post I referenced a blog by Michael Yon.

Today Mr. Yon posted a new entry titled "Green Beret Loses Race and Wins a Battle". It is a great look into how our troops do so much more than "break things and kill people". I highly recommend you take a few minutes to read it.

God & Money

Mary and I have been involved with Crown Financial Ministries for over 10 years. This morning Crown posted an article that touches on some ways God uses money in our lives. Click the link below to read the article.

How God Uses Money in Our Lives

“Crown Financial Ministries®, founded in 1976, is an interdenominational ministry dedicated to equipping people around the world to learn, apply, and teach biblical financial principles…and help ignite True Financial Freedom around the globe.”

Sweeping The Streets (Luke 19:17)

I just read a great post by Brent Minter...

“Most people spend all their time and energy trying to find a way to get to the table of influence and power. Don’t worry about the table. Sweep the streets and do it with excellence. You will eventually be asked to come to the table.”

Read The Full Post At Worshiply

Budgeting for stupid!

I follow Dave Ramsey's column online. Today someone asked this question:

Dear Dave,
Do you think it would be a good idea to budget a little money each month for playing the lottery? I spent $10 on scratch tickets the other day and won $100. I think it might be a pretty good idea to save $90 and put the other $10 toward more tickets.
Edward

I REALLY liked Dave's answer:

Dear Edward,
Here's a thought. Just stuff ten bucks down your garbage disposal each month and save the cost of driving to the nearest convenience store.

Really, now, you can't be serious! The lottery is a tax on the poor, and on people who can't do math. I'm not riding a moral high horse. Research shows that people from lower income brackets, folks who can't afford to be throwing their money away on some ridiculous game, spend four times as much on lottery tickets as anyone else. Rich people don't mess with this garbage, because they know the lottery isn't a wealth-building tool. When was the last time you saw a line of BMWs and Mercedes' pulled up to your local convenience store to buy lottery tickets?

The only winners in the lottery game are the students who get scholarships, but in reality they are riding to school on the backs of the poor masses who gamble away their grocery money. Lots of people think winning the lottery will mean life on easy street. The truth, however, is that it rarely works out that way. Did you know that 65 percent of Lotto winners go bankrupt in less than 15 years? Your chances of winning big are about 125,000,000 to 1. You're more likely to be bitten by a snake, or die in a car accident on the way to buy the stupid lottery tickets!

If you've got money to throw around, do something smart with it, like get out of debt! Do you have an emergency fund? Are you investing for your retirement, or your kid's education? If you've done all of this, give it to someone who's hurting, or invest it in your community. Don't waste it on something as dumb as the lottery!
- Dave

Dave Ramsey Says...

Wanna See A Bible Verse In Action?

Proverbs 16:18

First pride, then the crash—
the bigger the ego, the harder the fall.

Thanks To Brent Minter at Worshiply

Google vs. Yahoo vs. Bing - Which Is The Best Option For You?

My default search engine is Google. I rarely use Yahoo, and I cannot remember the last time I used something other than these two. I choose Google because it is the best. Right? Isn't it? I mean, why should I even THINK about changing?

Well, someone with too much time on their hands has created a Search Engine Test. Go to BlindSearch, enter your search parameters and you will be presented with three columns of results. Look at the columns and determine which one you think best matches your query and then click the 'Vote For This Search Engine' button at the top of the page. This will reveal which search engine generated which column. I did two tests, and Google was not the best result for either of them. Maybe I should consider changing...

Thanks To BagOfNothing

Presidential Food Tester

I have heard about food tasters from "the olden days", but I did not know they still existed. According to this article by the Agence France-Presse the US Secret Service has one that travels with the President.

PARIS (AFP) — A US “taster” tested the food being dished up to President Barack Obama at a dinner in a French restaurant, a waiter said Sunday.

“They have someone who tastes the dishes,” said waiter Gabriel de Carvalho from the “La Fontaine de Mars” restaurant where Obama and his family turned up for dinner on Saturday night.

“It wasn’t very pleasant for the cooks at first, but the person was very nice and was relaxed, so it all went well,” he said on the Itele news channel.

Asked by AFP to comment, the restaurant confirmed the report.

The US Secret Service has always refused to confirm that US presidents travel with a food “taster”, in line with their policy of discretion on all security related issues.

But it is known the Service goes to great lengths to scrutinise the source and the preparation of food served to US presidents whenever they eat out of the White House to ensure it is not tampered with.

Thanks To BagOfNothing

A Balanced Map?

The US Census Bureau has been holding a census every decade since 1790. On the map below this data has been used to calculate the mean center of US population. According to the US Census Bureau, the mean center is

“the point at which an imaginary, flat, weightless and rigid map of the US would balance perfectly if weights of identical value were placed on it so that each weight represented the location of one person on the date of the census”.

The map below shows how the mean center has been slowly moving west and south for each census period. Click on the map to see more information.


Thanks To BagOfNothing

Best Buy 10% Off Printable Coupon

Frugal In Fort Worth has information on Best Buy 10% off coupons. Click the link below to find out more.
Frugal In Fort Worth

Stethoscope

Thanks to my mother-in-law for forwarding this...

The Big Picture: Mercury and Messenger

More incredible pictures from The Big Picture. Click on either of the pictures below to be taken to the full 20 photo collection.

The planet Mercury is the smallest of the inner planets (4,880 km/3,032 mi in diameter), and the closest to the Sun (58 million km/36 million mi - or 3.2 light minutes). It was visited by the Mariner 10 spacecraft twice in the 1970s, and about 45% of the surface was mapped. On August 3rd, 2004, NASA launched a new mission to Mercury, the MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry and Ranging probe (or MESSENGER). MESSENGER is now in the last stages of multiple gravity-assist flybys of Earth, Venus and Mercury, en route to an insertion into orbit around Mercury in March of 2011. In just two flyby encounters, MESSENGER has already greatly increased our knowledge about Mercury's surface features. As you look at Mercury in the new images below, keep in mind that it has minimal atmosphere, gravity about 1/3 of Earth's, and surface temperatures ranging from -183 C (-297 F) in some polar craters to 427 C (801 F) at high noon (Mercury's solar day lasting 176 Earth days).

God Stalker?

Vince Antonucci had a great post this morning. In a nutshell, he says we should all be God Stalkers, but not like a psycopath. He proposes that we should all be like a "Jr. High girl who has gone way overboard with her first crush".

Read The Full Post Here

Quiznos Coupons

Hungry? Want a good sandwich, but don't want to pay full price? Well, Quiznos has a couple of coupons online just for you.

• Coupon one is for buy one Toasty Torpedo sandwich, get the other 50% off
• Coupon two is for $1 off a Regular Sub, Large Sub or Chopped Salad
  

The coupons expire on June 30.

Quiznos Coupons

Go over to Frugal In Fort Worth for more money saving ideas.

Free Family Movies

Frugal In Fort Worth has posted information on a couple of summer family movie programs.

Harkins, AMC, Cinemark & Studio Movie Grill

Regal Theatres

Free Donuts On Friday...

What is better than donuts? How about FREE donuts! They will be available tomorrow. Read About It at Frugal In Fort Worth