Have you ever noticed certain people with the same name being similar in character? I have. I have also notice that how their name is pronounced or spelled sometimes makes a different, or at least seems to. For example the name Lisa or Liza or Leeza or any and all variations.
I have often wondered if a person's name has helped form their personality. Is it that their name give them a certain sense of self? or do people treat people with certain names a particular way that helps form who they become.
I guess it is just one more facet to the jewel of who we are. No one person is exactly like another. our life experience make us each a different a unique being, with many many facets, one of which is just our name.
Well I still do not have my car back from the shop. I guess that is one good thing about being unemployed. I do not have to have my car 'right now'. It is still very odd to look out to my driveway and not see my car.
I have to be even more diligent about remembering to ask my roommate to pick things up at the store, on her way home from work. Living the rural life I am already used to planning errands based on when I will be town, or when my roommate will, simply because it is more efficient. It is not like living in town when you can just pop over to the store when ever you realize you are out of something. Living 25 minutes from the nearest store/post office/doctor, you learn to plan ahead. Being unemployed and living 25 minutes away you plan even more because you take advantage of (at least in my case) someone else driving to and from work to cut down on your trips, but you still sometimes make your own trips. Being with out a car, unemployed, and living 25 minutes from town, well then you really have to remember to ask your friends to pick things up for you, because you can not go get it yourself if you forget.
The original estimate on the time frame for my car to be worked on was 5-7 days, after the parts arrived. So my accident happened on a Sat, the part were ordered and work was started on the next Thursday. Well then one of the body shop workers ended up being out sick so that put them behind a day or two. Then while tearing things down so that they could start the rebuild, they discovered additional damage that required more parts. Those parts had to be ordered and they were slow to arrive so that added another couple of days. The part are finally in and it looks like I might get my car back tomorrow (well of course that is if I can find a way to get there to get it).
I know I am luckier than some, but still 3weeks without my car is a long time.
My humble and sincere thanks to all veterans who have served to keep my country and my liberties safe. My heart goes out to all of you, especially to those who have made serious sacrifices. While I go about my daily business and snuggle down safe and sound in my bed, many of you are guarding a wall, battling with the enemy, or rescuing people off rooftops during a natural disaster. Some of you are tipping your last-call glasses of beer down in the halls of the American Legion or the Veterans of Foreign Wars. Your time of service has passed, yet a part of you lives always in the men and women who now serve. Some of you are praying, alone or in groups, that all sons and daughters, wives and husbands, brothers and sisters, and parents are home by the next Veterans Day. You know He can grant your prayers, but it's unlikely given the evil in the world.
Many of you will march in parades -- some of you will be escorted in your wheelchairs -- and be either encouraged by the numbers of people who gather and wave flags along the parade route or disappointed by the numbers, which seem to dwindle more each year. But you should know that the intensity of pride and sincerity of gratitude from just a few who gather are much richer, fuller, and sweeter than all the speeches, blog posts,and five-minute clips on the late news hours.
Some of you are homeless. We can argue about whether you are crazy or on drugs or a victim of the recession or whatever it is that makes you chronically without shelter, but I am at a loss as to how this could happen in my country. With the billions of dollars we borrowed from the Chinese to give to banks and companies who turned around and thumbed their noses at us while they got massages and played golf at an exotic resort, we couldn't spare a couple or three to shelter people who, conscientiously or not, went and stood in the way of bullets when others did not? I apologize to you, for both looking the other way and not being sincere enough to promise you I will not do it again. But I know that you sacrifice to this day for what you did for your country and I live in the grace of your sacrifice.
Some of you are recuperating in a hospital, trying to recover physically, mentally, or spiritually. Some of you are being taken care of by people who care about you, and some of you were forced to endure deplorable conditions at a military hospital, where people were supposed to care for you and try to make you whole as possible, in the name of the American people whom you served. I cannot understand this breach of faith and I'm angered by it, as I believe other Americans were, but like other government-run horror shows it appears to have been easy to sweep under the rug.
I am one of those people who get a lump in their throat when they see an American flag backlit by the sun's rays. A sucker for icons, I get it when anyone plays the national anthem, even though I love "America the Beautiful" a thousand times better, or a color guard comes out onto a baseball field, or some jets fly over a memorial. The arresting sight of a string of motorcycle guards heading to a funeral to protect a grieving family from a bunch of evil nutcase protesters from a Topeka church makes me want to pull in line and follow them to their destination.
But I get downright weepy when I walk through the tombstones of Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery, whether they mark the graves of Civil War soldiers, entire crews of planes shot down in World War II, or soldiers from other conflicts. And, even though some of the graves are for World War II and Vietnam vets from my own family, the the saddest to me are the newer graves of people who have died in recent wars.
I mourn those men and women who kept the wolf at bay.
And thank those who today still keep it from my door.
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Northeast Intelligence Network
By Douglas J. Hagmann, Director
9 November 2009: According to an intelligence source speaking to the Northeast Intelligence Network, forensic analysis of Nidal Malik HASAN’s computer and other media determined that HASAN had routinely visited al Qaeda and Islamic terrorist web sites in months and weeks leading to last week’s massacre at Fort Hood. According to this investigative source, HASAN also downloaded material from the web site operated by former Dar al Hijrah mosque leader and terrorist facilitator Anwar Nasser al Awlaki. As reported here, al Awlaki was an imam at the Dar al Hijrah mosque in Fall Church, Virginia in 2001, where he advised and facilitated two of the 9/11 terrorists in the months prior to the attacks. Al Awlaki also counseled HASAN during that same period.
The information obtained from HASAN’s digital files reportedly shows a “pattern of deliberate and willful planning to conduct some type of attack against the U.S. military prior to his deployment” [to Afghanistan], stated this source who requested anonymity as he is not authorized to speak publicly. “The motive behind the massacre appears to be rooted in his ideology, an ideology which was emboldened by online activity,” added this source.
As indicated by a ABC News Online article, intelligence sources reportedly had a level of knowledge that HASAN was in communication with al Qaeda assets abroad. The source speaking to this author confirmed that report but went further, stating that this and information similar but not directly related to such communications became a “political issue” between government agencies and officials “at the policy making levels” of the administration.
According to this source, the now infamous pre-9/11 walls erected within government agencies have returned, “but this time they are higher and stronger.” “There is an unwillingness to address ‘delicate’ intelligence and security matters by sharing information outside of the beltway, and that directive comes right from the top. That’s all I’m going to say right now,” stated this source.
Based on the information provided
during this interview, it would appear that intelligence officials were
well aware of not only HASAN’s prior associations with known Muslim
terrorists, but his current sympathy with anti-American, pro-jihad, al
Qaeda ideology and his views about the U.S. military engaging the enemy
on Muslim soil.
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Two things happened this past week the left me kind of sad. First, my oldest son, who is seventeen, swam in his last swim meet. He made the regionals which were held in Tallahassee and we were holding out hope that he would make state, but even though his times were good, they just weren't good enough to move on.
My wife and I have known that it was going to be a sad day ever since the swim season first started. We've been going to his meets for the past three years and we have made some pretty good friends with the kids and their parents, not to mention the coaches as well. Donna took tons of pictures and we cut out every article that was in the paper, but when the last meet was finally over it left us feeling empty knowing that it was all done.
Now, he is playing soccer. Again, we are going into it with excitement, but with trepidation too, knowing that it is his senior year. I'm just not ready for another one of my kids to graduate high school.
The second thing that happened was more on a personal level for me. The regional swim meet was on Friday, so the team went to Tallalhassee on Thursday to spend the night. My wife got the day off and went with the team (I couldn't get the day off, but managed to leave work around 2:00 and get there for the finals). This left me and my youngest son, who is thirteen, at home by ourselves on Thursday night.
Every time in the past when my wife had to go somewhere overnight my son would be all excited because he could sleep with me. To be honest, I like it too. I know he is growing up and to have him ask to sleep with me somehow makes me feel like he is still little.
Anyway, when bedtime came around he didn't make mention of sleeping with me. It sounds selfish, but a part of me was crushed over that. In an instant I suddenly realized that my youngest child was no longer... well, a child. When I went to bed that night I went with a heavy heart.
My kids are growing up and I can't do a thing to stop it.
Pastor Andy Deane will teach attendees 10 different Bible study methods during this one day seminar. Come and learn how to study the Bible personally with such a variety of methods that keep you excited about studying the Scriptures. Avoid the rut that routine can sometimes bring by learning new ways to study the Bible.
WHEN: Saturday, December 5th from 9am to 2:30pm.
Session 1 - 9:00am -10:30am
15 minute break
Session 2 - 10:45am - 12:15pm
Lunch - 12:15pm - 1:00pm
Session 3 - 1:00pm - 2:30pm
WHERE:
Calvary Chapel Montclair
46 Park Street
Montclair, NJ 07042
REGISTER:
Please call (973) 783-6001 or email office@calvarymontclair.org to pre-register. Arrive at 8:45am to register in person. Visit http://www.calvarymontclair.org for directions to the church.
COST: Free
ABOUT PASTOR ANDY:
Pastor Andy is an associate pastor at Calvary Chapel Old Bridge and recently authored a new book titled LEARN TO STUDY THE BIBLE that teaches readers 40 different Bible study methods. Visit http://www.LearnToStudyTheBible.com to learn more.
VIEW THE FACEBOOK EVENT PAGE:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=170374481767#/event.php?eid=170374481767&ref=mf
Yeah I am lucky enough that my car is not going to be totaled. It will take 5-7 days to repair, once they finally have the parts. So hopefully I will get it back by the end of next week.
