Well, I finally decided to do it! I got my own website. So, now comes the challenging part of moving it all to the new site.
So, please update your feeds and bookmarks to:
http://stephen.digitaleagle.net/
And, if you have any suggestions on how I can make it better, please comment. I apologize for the inconvenience.
Kent has been doing great at learning his letters. One of the cool tools that we have found is to use letters that you can color. Kent loves his new scissors that he got for Christmas so he cuts the letters out when he finishes coloring them. Then, we arrange the letters in different combinations and practice sounding them out.
Here is where I found all of the letters:
In going through my email, I found this link to Awana’s website. I enjoy both the Awana clubs and VeggieTales. We have watched most of VeggieTales movies, and I found Phil Vischer’s book Me, Myself, and Bob very interesting, which led me to wonder what Jelly Telly was all about.
On the other side, I have gotten into the Awana clubs at church. The organization is impressive in many ways: quality materials, contagious vision, etc. At the beginning of last year, I saw the Awana at Home program for the first time. Ever since then, I have been
I ran across this link the other day:
If you need a song, try looking here!
What I think would be cool is to use this with software like Lyricue or something like that, but that research is for another day.
On Veteran’s Day, this song came on the radio on the way to work. I did a quick Google Search and I found it here.
Or, you can just listen to it here:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QklqKkegbfA]
I did a little poking around on the author’s web site, and it looked pretty interesting. He has a series called Bathroom Sessions.
This week our lesson is about the Fiery Serpents by the Red Sea. You can find the story in Numbers 21.
The context of the story starts with the rejection of Edom, in which Edom rejected the Isrealites’ request to travel through their land. This forced the Israelites to travel around their land in a much more difficult route. This brought them again to complaining and wishing they were back in Egypt.
The biggest question in understanding this story is what is this “fiery serpent”. Here are some thoughts.
Wikipedia’s article on Fiery Flying Serpents offers some thoughts. The three options offered are a Pterosaur, Seraph, and Saw Scale Viper. The Pterosaur is an interesting thought, which I had never heard. The article about the Ropen lends credence to the possibility that such an animal may have existed. The reptile part fits the serpent description and the bioluminescence fits the fiery part.
The Seraph is another option that could fit. Remember that in the garden of Eden, Satan did take the form of a snake. This wouldn’t be the only time that God has released permission for demons or Satan’s servants to afflict human-kind.
The Saw Scale Viper is an option that fits well too. Wikipedia has an article that explains more about the snake: Echis. The flying description as found in the Isaiah passages might refer to the powerful strike of the snake: “These snakes are very aggressive and will strike vigorously from the position described above. When doing so, they may overbalance and end up moving towards their aggressor as a result; most unusual behavior for a snake.” These snakes are very deadly: “Bites from Echis species result in more human fatalities than from any other venomous snakes.”
The Bible Encyclopedia’s article about the Fiery Serpent offers some more ideas. The Heie Sursurie and Heie Thiare were options that I couldn’t find information on, but the naja haje was very interesting.
The naja haje is one of my favorite options. It is the Egyptian Cobra. The Bible Encyclopedia describes it as a “swift-springing, deadly snake”. Wikipedia has a nice article on the snake: Egyptian Cobra. A section of the article talks about the significance of the snake to the Pharaoh. I think is only fitting to have this snake punish the Israelites who were wishing they were back with the Pharaoh!
The Horned Viper was another option to which I saw references. Although I can’t find the referring article again, Wikipedia has an article about them: Cerastes.
No matter what the option, one point is definitely clear: the result was no fun. All of the snakes I read about had a bad bite. The symptoms were things like rotting flesh, bleeding, vomiting, diarrhea, convulsions, etc. The Bible says that many died. I believe the point is that God takes complaining seriously especially when it comes to forgetting and disbelieving God.
As always, God comes to the rescue with His mercy. God tells Moses to make an image of these snakes on a pole. When the people have the faith to look at the pole, they are mercifully healed.
Wikipedia has an article about the Nehustan that talks about this image. I think it is neat that the EMS uses the Star of Life as its symbol. It has the Rod of Asclepius at its center, which I thought was Moses’ serpent, but the Wikipedia article lists the primary source as a Greek god.
Lorraine saw this story on the news today, and we had a good laugh about it:
Laptops Can Cause Toasted Skin Syndrome, Cancer
So, the next new product is mood changer pants that change color based on heat. If your pants are white, you need to take a break from your laptop. Or, maybe pants with built-in hot pads on the upper leg.
We came home from vacation to find a puddle in the driver’s side floorboard of our RX300. So, I did a little searching on the Internet to see if I could find a solution. Believe it or not, it sounds like a common problem.
Apparently, the sun roof has like a drain pan to catch leaks. The pan has two drains to let the water drain out without causing a problem. Well, one of our drains was clogged with dirt, and that was causing it to leak out inside the car rather that through those drains.
To fix the problem, I opened the sun roof and located the drains. I will post pictures below, but it was pretty obvious. Ours had dirt/mud blocking the opening so I knew that was the problem. I used a paper towel to try to wipe up as much of the dirt and stuff around the area, but then I used a toothpick to clean the mud away from the opening. Finally, I slowly dumped a cup of water into the pan to make sure the water flowed out the drain. I did it on each side and found a puddle of water by each of the front tires.
I read about people using compressors to blow the blockage out of the drains. I didn’t need to go that far.
Here are the posts that helped me solve the problem:
Here are the pictures of the drain:
Here is a closer picture so you can see it:
While reading The AppsLab, I came across this article:
The Wall Street Journal: Does the Internet Make You Smarter?
I agree with Jake in that this was an interesting article. One of the other patterns that I saw in Clay Shirky’s examples is that the technology breaks monopolies. The printing press helped break the monopoly in the church world. Now, we have the freedom to choose the church or Denomination that we think is correct. We are not longer to restricted to only the ideas of the Catholic church.
The same is true with telephone service. When I was younger, we had only one option. For us, it was Verizon. When they would bill us for the first half of the month ahead of time and make adjustments for the next month, we had to put up with it. Then, as cellphones became more mainstream, people began to use them instead of their main telephone number at home. Next, IP phone services such as Vonage and Skype came into play. Now, we have a number of options. First, I can either choose Verizon or Brighthouse and include phone service with our Internet or Cable service. Or, I can simply use my cell phone all the time. Or, I could sign up for Internet service only and use one of the IP services to call over the Internet.
I like what Clay said about the training part. We had to train our children to read and take advantage of the books. The same is true with the Internet, telephone service, or any technology. We need to train our children to use these tools correctly. I believe the key is family. Schools, churches, and organizations can take some that training task, but the family is the most effective. We should do all we can to support families and make them effective in providing that training.
To me, the fun part is seeing what all that innovation brings. Thinking back on my grandparents’ lifetimes and the changes in technology they must have seen is amazing. I have already seen a good number of changes in my lifetime, and I am excited to see more. Maybe I will even get the opportunity to influence some of those changes.
On Moody Radio this week, they did an interview about iMom’s Operation Summer. I browsed their site quickly, and it looked like it had a lot of great resources. We signed up for the Operation Summer emails so we’ll see how it is.
Digital Eagle 