gid

March 31, 2005

a sick man in a sick world

Schindlers' spiritual advisers said the couple had been at their daughter's besides minutes before the end came, but were not there at the moment of her death because Michael Schiavo did not want them in the room.

"And so his heartless cruelty continues until this very last moment," said the Rev. Frank Pavone.

Posted by gid at 11:15 AM | Comments (0)

March 30, 2005

mini family reunion

We got back on Monday night from our short stay in Maggie Valley. We had a great time. It was really nice to see all of my family. Since Leslie and I did not make it back to Louisiana for Christmas this year it had been a while since we had gotten a chance to see everyone.

The weather was perfect. It was cloudy, rainy, and about 40 degrees. I just love that type of weather. Weather like that really brings out the beauty of the Smokey Mountains. The only other thing I could have asked for was snow.

The car ride up was rough. Elliot had not been in his car seat for more than 30 minutes at a time before. At the 30 minute mark Elliot started crying, which made John David start crying, and it all headed down hill from there. The car ride was rough for everyone. We were so glad to get there. I hope the boys start to like long road trips being that long road trips are one of our favorite types of vacations.

I am working on getting a page together with some pictures of the trip. I should have it up in the next day or so. It is really nice having the digital camera. I always hated having to wait for Leslie to get her pictures developed and then having to scan them in.

Posted by gid at 01:52 PM | Comments (0)

March 25, 2005

elliot

elliottummytime.jpg

I have been meaning to post a picture of Elliot for a while now but have not gotten around to it. Leslie has taken some really good pictures of him but I can?t get them up because I still have not hooked up our scanner. Here is a picture of Elliot getting some of his well loved tummy time.

Posted by gid at 07:50 AM | Comments (0)

family time

momandjohndavid.jpg
Mom and John David

This weekend the family is headed up to Maggie Valley North Carolina for a mini family reunion. All but two of my immediate family will be there. It should be fun. Though, there are going to be 18 people in one rented home and considering that 8 of the people are under 6 is should be very loud.

The place we are staying has a den and living room on different floors so we should be able to split up those loud activities from the quite ones....I hope.

Oh yea my parents have been at our house the last two day. It has been really great. It is their first time seeing Elliot.

Posted by gid at 07:31 AM | Comments (0)

March 22, 2005

terri's death

Here is a link on death by dehydration from the Catholic Educator's Resource Center.

Excerpt:
"A conscious [cognitively disabled] person would feel it just as you or I would. They will go into seizures. Their skin cracks, their tongue cracks, their lips crack. They may have nosebleeds because of the drying of the mucus membranes, and heaving and vomiting might ensue because of the drying out of the stomach lining. They feel the pangs of hunger and thirst. Imagine going one day without a glass of water! Death by dehydration takes ten to fourteen days. It is an extremely agonizing death."
Update: If you have time, then go over to Palm Tree Pundit and check out her Terri post. It is very good. Make sure to follow the link to Doctor NOS.
Posted by gid at 06:54 AM | Comments (0)

March 21, 2005

my history

I intended to do this post a few weeks ago when it was still cool but I think I might have missed the boat. Oh well, here?s my history: Thanks Sozo and TulipGirl.

Bolded states I have been
Underlined states I have lived in
Italicized state I live in now...
Alabama / Alaska / Arizona / Arkansas / California / Colorado / Connecticut / Delaware / Florida / Georgia / Hawaii / Idaho / Illinois / Indiana / Iowa / Kansas / Kentucky / Louisiana / Maine / Maryland / Massachusetts / Michigan / Minnesota / Mississippi / Missouri / Montana / Nebraska / Nevada / New Hampshire / New Jersey / New Mexico / New York / North Carolina / North Dakota / Ohio / Oklahoma / Oregon / Pennsylvania / Rhode Island / South Carolina / South Dakota / Tennessee / Texas / Utah / Vermont / Virginia / Washington / West Virginia / Wisconsin / Wyoming / Washington D.C /
Go HERE to have a form generate the HTML for you.
Posted by gid at 01:49 PM | Comments (4)

March 18, 2005

firefox stuff

One of the super aggravating things here at work is how tied we are to IE and everything Microsoft. I really hate it. Here at work we use SharePoint portal server as a document repository, not ideal, but it works. Up until this point I have always used IE to retrieve document from the portal because I hated having to log in every time I access the portal through firefox.

This is what I learned today.

If you go into the about:config (type about:config in address bar) section of firefox there is a setting that can be changed, which will remedy the login issue. Go to network.automatic-ntlm-auth.trusted-uris key and add the name or names of the servers that SharePoint is sitting on. So, if you have three servers then add the names of the servers separated by commas. The finished product should look like this. 
network.automatic-ntlm-auth.trusted-uris   "server1,server2,server3"

It?s that easy! Love it.

Posted by gid at 03:50 PM | Comments (1)

March 16, 2005

firefox plug-in

coolness.JPG
chattanooga weather

If you are a weather geek like I am and you are running firefox like you should be then check this out. It is a nifty plug-in that shows all kinds of customizable weather info. I have mine showing today?s and tonight?s forecast. Oh yea, it shows more than just US weather.

Posted by gid at 06:15 PM | Comments (1)

March 14, 2005

MSDN Event

Tomorrow there is a free MSDN event here in Chattanooga. I am planning on being there. Let me know if any of you geeks out there are going. Here is a link to sign up.

MSDN Event

Tuesday, March 15, 2005 1:00 PM - Tuesday, March 15, 2005 5:00 PM (GMT-06:00) Central Time (US & Canada) Welcome Time: 12:30 PM Language: English-American

Theater - Regal Hamilton Place Mall

2100 Hamilton Place Mall Chattanooga Tennessee 37421 United States

General Event Information Products: .NET and Visual Studio.

Recommended Audience: Developer.

Session 1: WinForms - Produce, Extend, Enhance This session will school you in several powerful aspects of WinForms development that you may not already know. By using new techniques and best practices, you?ll gain more control over the user interfaces you create and save valuable time when developing your applications.

Session 2: ASP .NET ? Fixing that last bug in your Web App. In this forensics session you?ll learn best practices for how to effectively troubleshoot an ASP.NET application - for both Web Forms and ASMX Web Services. You see techniques for debugging, working with tracing, and using event logs.

Session 3: Visual Studio Team System ? A Technical Tour This session will detail an end-to-end lifecycle scenario that not only demonstrates major components of Team System, but also illustrates the value of having a customizable integrated process in breaking down information silos and providing friction-free flow of data between team roles.

Posted by gid at 10:52 AM | Comments (0)

March 07, 2005

the greenway

john david green way.jpg

Yesterday Leslie and I had one of the best times together that we have had in a long time. After John David?s nap the weather was perfect, so we decided to go down to the greenway for a walk. It turned into the closest thing we have had to a date in a couple of years. What made it even better was that we were able to enjoy that time with the two little ones around. We just spent the time slowly walking while talking about some of our hopes and dreams for the future.

We also enjoyed watching John David run around and explore. Well, as much as a two year old can explore. John David was very cute. At the point where we had probably walked ? of a mile, John David just stopped, stuck his arms straight into the air and said "help, help", which is his way of saying "pick me up". We had a great time, John David on my shoulders and Elliot in the sling with Leslie. It could not have been a better time.

I forgot to empty the memory stick on my camera before we left, so I was only able to take two pictures. Here is one of John David with him looking a bit serious.

Posted by gid at 02:14 PM | Comments (3)

March 03, 2005

bubble wrap

Duffy had a link to this in his most recent post. Check it out: Bubble wrap
Make sure you click on the "Fresh Sheet" button.
Posted by gid at 10:04 AM | Comments (0)

March 01, 2005

barna report on parenting

Barna just came out with a bit of research on parenting. You can read it here in full.

Parents Describe How They Raise Their Children
You might expect that parents who are born again Christians would take a different approach to raising their children than did parents who have not committed their life to Christ ? but that was rarely the case,? Barna explained. ?For instance, we found that the qualities born again parents say an effective parent must possess, the outcomes they hope to facilitate in the lives of their children, and the media monitoring process in the household was indistinguishable from the approach taken by parents who are not born again.

For me this was one of his most interesting findings:

One of the most startling observations, according to Barna, was how few born again parents indicated that one of the most important outcomes parents needed to help their children grasp was salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. ?Only three out of ten born again parents included the salvation of their child in the list of critical parental emphases,? he noted. ?Parents cannot force or ensure that their kids become followers of Christ. But for that emphasis to not be on the radar screen of most Christian parents is a significant reason why most Americans never embrace Jesus Christ as their savior. We know that parents still have a huge influence on the choices their children make, and we also know that most people either accept Christ when they are young or not at all. The fact that most Christian parents overlook this critical responsibility is one of the biggest challenges to the Christian Church.?

The most important outcome I hope and pray for in my kid's lives is that they will know Christ and enjoy him. I have to admit that I have not thought a lot about how that would happen. I guess I just see it as being a work by him in their lives. I do expect to be used in that work, but ultimately it is between Him and them individually. I think Deuteronomy 6 is a good place to start as a parent.

6 These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. 7Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.

For me I think it is going to be difficult to know I am doing what is right. What I do know is that I hope not to reproduce the kind of dangerous salvation that was force-fed to me as a child. The kind that originates out of a fire and brimstone sermon and how much hell should be feared and that you need to become a Christian or else you will burn in hell forever. Those sermons never lead me to Christ, but instead lead me into a circle of hundreds of non-repentant prayers, none of which ended in my salvation.

It was not until I was 19 and had been actively running from God for several years that I realized that this lover of my soul was pursuing me to have a relationship with me. It was at that time I gave my life to him. Hell and a fear of hell was nowhere in the picture. It was all about a relationship.

I guess my thought after reading this poll is, how are other Christians working to lead their children to Christ? Is it haphazard or do you have a plan? Should you have a plan? I?m not sure.

Posted by gid at 02:09 PM | Comments (1)