Bill it is not us…
April 13, 2008 | Uncategorized | No Comments
I tried another picture and it is not me…there is nothing that says insert into post. I can find my picture in the gallery but nothing says insert into post after it is downloaded. It says that before downloading. I went to settings and it said you had to be “administrator” to configure posts. Login under my name on a different computer and you will understand.
Lainie…Is your Log Cabin still in Reserve?
April 13, 2008 | Reunion 2008 | Comments [12]
Are you still holding the Log Cabin? Where is it located? I’m assuming you’ll have Casey with you, if only she can go. And I would think that Ben and Julie would be the next best occupants. Ben needs to make up his mind, if that’s okay with you…or and unless you’ve already cancelled it, or made other plans.
Ben?
Dad has already cautioned me about trying to situate everybody. Now, here I go again.
Lainie….Is Casey going to be TWENTY on the 17th?
April 13, 2008 | Uncategorized | Comments [1]
Just making sure. I have her card ready to go. I just need to make sure I congratulated her on the correct birth date. There are just so many, but not so many as Faye Walker. They’re sprouting them out right and left. Last I heard was 37 and counting. And the Great-grands haven’t even started yet.
What a marvelous Patriarch and Matriarch Danny and Faye have been.
I’ll try and see if the photos attach this time
April 12, 2008 | Uncategorized | Comments [3]
the last time I tried to post a picure it showed up in the gallery but didn’t attach. I will try again. nope it shows up if you click on “manage”, and look in gallery, but still won’t attach. I think buddy said he tried to post a picture and I don’t see it either.
Liar Liar Pants on Fire
April 11, 2008 | Uncategorized | Comments [3]
What am I thinking? I’m not, because it’s after 11:00 PM, and I’m exhausted, and looked at totally wrong paper. I didn’t get nearly to step 5. I got no farther with the Gallery thing that when the browser window came up. I was supposed to add the future files I wanted, and I had no idea how to do that, or what to do next, or anything else about it. “pftt-t-t-t” I think I’ll just stick to looking at the photos that you and Lainie post. Or somebody else who came figure it out.
Dad’s Ideas
April 10, 2008 | Reunion 2008 | Comments [6]
Luis and I talked about the business of renting a room, and having a dinner served one evening….and the liklihood of that being very expensive.
As usual, he isn’t in favor of anything being costly, mainly because most of us can’t afford it. So….
Why don’t we simply wait until we’re all there, and we’ll know then exactly how many we’ll be. Then…we decide which night we would like to go to the restaurant for a nice meal together (not have to reserve anything). We’ll order what we want, enjoy our dinner, and then…..
For our talent show, we can go to one of the cabins, probably a log cabin because they are bigger. Bill and Buddy have enough equipment between them to set up a good band. Then we can proceed to sing and dance and recite poetry and do whatever else in the way of talents that we want.
Lainie has already seen the inside of the log cabin. Lainie, is it big enough to have our talent show?
What does everybody think? We won’t have to shell out much extra money for anything.
Okay, Family! Let’s Play: WHAT THE HECK IS IT!?!?!?
April 10, 2008 | Items of Interest | Comments [30]
Any guesses?
(Buddy, you can’t play until at least three others have tried to guess).
Genetic Genealogy
April 10, 2008 | Uncategorized | Comments [3]
I happened across THIS WEBSITE advertising a service whereby you can submit a DNA sample, and get back…well, perhaps your ancient history:
Genetic Genealogy allows us to trace the path of our ancestors and find out who they were, where they lived and how they have migrated throughout the world. Order a participation kit and begin a journey of discover to trace your deep ancestral origins and pursue the origins of your surname. Login to your control panel to use Genebase tools and view the progress of your projects, conduct your own searches, and generate professional research reports.
I may try this a little later. I’m not sure why you have a choice of tracing Paternal -OR- Maternal DNA. I assume you may do both so long as you cough up the bucks. If I did the test for both Maternal and Paternal, and, say, Brenda did the test for Paternal, we ought to have a pretty interesting report to give.
Maybe we can do this in time for the Reunion. That would be pretty fascinating, eh?
(Brenda, you can do it as your “talent”. “Yeah, I stuck my finger and put the test strip on here like this, and then I deftly put it in this plastic container…” 
)
2 Page Philosophy
April 9, 2008 | Items of Interest | Comments [3]
I have refrained from delving too much into philosophy and the secrets of the universe the last couple of years. It just rather depresses me as life is in a predictable cruise and anything outside of the box disrupts my immediate functions:) Work, Provide, Parent, Sleep… I knew there was a reason we should have children at a young age… Just trying to enjoy them with what little energy I have at the end of the day.
I have compressed my Franklian macro view of this life’s philosphy down to 2 pages. It’s the most I can deal with these days. I archive them here lest I forget them:)
Time only goes in a single direction. Obviously…
The gift of time from one person to another is a gift that cannot be exchanged but is a permanent expression of human potential.
The meaning of human existence is based upon time’s irreversible quality.
An individual’s responsibility in life must therefore be understood in terms of temporality and singularity.
Life is temporary, yet each life is unique.
Living TWICE in a sense is great therapy and preparation.
Live as if you were living for the second time and had acted as wrongly the first time as you are about to act now.
As an individual understands the full gravity of time, he or she will recognize the full responsibility for living.
Life, then, is a journey that reflects the experience of time.
To face life only to reach the end of the day, the end of the task, the end of a journey is to live for the goal of dying.
The focus of Life should be on the experience so that each event or task in life can become meaningful.
Regardless of the situation, life has meaning that can never be taken away from the individual.
Only the individual can lose meaning.
When this happens, the individual suffers feelings of meaninglessness that Frankl has identified as “existential vacuum”.
For life to have Meaning, one must look for the experience of transcendence.
The most meaningful experiences in life are those that transcend the individual and offer caring moments with others. These become Joyful experiences.
The human spirit can also be experienced in the form of Suffering. Frankl notes that meaning can be found in suffering by transcending the moment to understand the fullest impact of the experience.
Life can be made meaningful:
(1) by experiencing something — or someone ( what we choose to receive)
(2) by creating a thing or doing a deed (what we choose to give)
(3) by the attitude with which we answer Life’s questions (how we choose to perceive suffering, etc)
In regards to Death, existentialists like Heidegger’ dwell on death as humanity’s final boundary. Clearly death is a reality for all human beings and poses a challenge to humans’ coping skills.
Viktor Frankl’s logotherapy, unlike other existential systems, is basically an optimistic, future-oriented system, focusing on human freedom and the multitude of possibilities for human beings to find meaning. Logotherapy emphasizes the transitory nature of life and points to the meaning of the journey, thus avoiding the more negative aspects of existentialism by injecting hope, meaning, and values into the therapeutic dialogue.
Below is a quote from James Ellor:
(http://www.deathreference.com/En-Gh/Frankl-Viktor.html):
As a person faces mortality either in his or her own death or that of a loved one, the first thing he or she experiences is the story of the person. Each person’s story reflects both who she or he is and what she or he has done. A funeral eulogy is a time to tell the “story” of the person. However, the task of grief, according to Frankl, is twofold: The first aspect is to find meaning in the story. What is it about the story of this person that offers meaning to the person articulating the eulogy? Meaning is often found by asking the question, What is it about this story that would be important enough to you to want to share with someone else? Frankl notes, “This leads to the paradox that man’s own past is his true future. The living man has both a future and a past; the dying man has no future in the usual sense, but only a past” (Frankl 1984, p. 127). In the hearts of friends, the stories of the person’s life reflect shared meaning. In this way there is a future, even after the death of the loved one. Paradoxically, the real hurt in grief is the fact that stories have endings. Yet when the story is understood in meanings, there are no ends, only meanings that can be passed on from generation to generation.
The second task of grief is to understand the responsibility that is called for by the loss of a loved one, particularly in incidents such as a car crash where one person lives and the other dies. Frankl suggests that to honor the life of the deceased is to move beyond survivor guilt, which often accompanies this type of situation. Frankl suggests that there should be no such thing as survivor guilt, but only survivor responsibility. Each person has responsibility to transcend the circumstances of the incident and cherish the memory of the deceased.
The work of Frankl offers a way of thinking about life as well as a therapeutic approach to being with persons who are dying and their loved ones. The goal of this process is the search for meaning. In meaning all of the transcendent life forces come together to offer more than mere existence as a human being. [JAMES W. ELLOR]
Gallery Feature
April 9, 2008 | Uncategorized | Comments [2]
I like the new “Gallery Feature” of the software. You can see it displayed in Lainie’s post about her visit to check out De Soto Park.
Someone else might want to try it out, but you have to follow these steps:
1) in “Write Post,” just above the editor window toolbar there is an area called “Add media:”. Click on the first little icon (the TipTool says “Add an Image.”)
2) Click the button that says “Choose files to upload.”
3) A browser window comes up. Browse to the picture files you want to add. NOTE: You don’t have to worry about the picture size; the software will “crunch” them down to what they need to be – this is cool. (UPDATE: Or maybe not. For some reason it didn’t work in the example I published below. Perhaps the “error” message means that it failed to CRUNCH the photos. That means you’ll have to do it yourself before you upload, at least for now. It seems to choke on photos above a certain size, but I’m not sure what that is. More research needed).
4) Select the files and click the Open button. The files will begin to upload. NOTE: Sometimes you may get an ERROR message; this appears to be a bug. Don’t worry about it, the files WILL upload.
5) After this is done, click on the tab at the top of the window that says “Gallery”. Make sure these are the pictures you want. If you want to add more, click the Choose File tab again, and select more file(s). NOTE: If you mess up, and upload the same file TWICE, it will show up twice. Click on the Media Library tab. You’ll see “All Types,” “Images,” and “Audio.” Click “Images”. You should see all your photos up there at the top of the list. Click on the photo(s) you don’t want, then scroll down a little. You should see a link that says “Delete” (next to “Insert Into Post” button). Click the “Delete” link. The unwanted picture will go away.
6) Click the “Gallery” tab again, and make sure the pictures you want are listed. Click the “Insert gallery into post” button. A little tag that looks like this: {gallery} will appear (except with SQUARE brackets). Make sure that tag is placed in your post were you want it (usually at the very end).
7) That’s all there is to it. When you PUBLISH the post, a neat little array or gallery of photos will appear in your post!
Here is an example following ALL the steps above (I uploaded one of the files more than one, and had to delete it as described). (This is You-Know-Who at the Astros-Braves game last September):
Talent Show
April 8, 2008 | Reunion 2008 | Comments [8]
I just thought of a talent I can do. One of my poems received Honorable Mention in Writer’s Digest several years ago. “What Did Ronald Rabbit Find?” I can recite this little children’s poem, and have Teyla and Jordan do a little skit with it. Now, the next thing is…..if I can find the poem somewhere. I’m sure it’s in the computer, hidden under something that I’ve forgotten about.
Since you say you got the pictures fixed..
April 8, 2008 | Uncategorized | Comments [5]
I uploaded 12 pictures of Desoto but they didn’t show up so I can’t tell you much about them.
Synchronize our Watches
April 8, 2008 | Uncategorized | Comments [4]
Or, in other words, let’s make sure that we understand exactly when “stuff” should be happening.
Dad and I will check in to our Chalet at 4:00 on Sunday afternoon of July 27th. We will be there having a great time until we check out on Sunday morning, August 3rd about 8-11 AM.
We should reserve a diningroom for our “formal” (in other words…nice) dinner on Saturday evening of August 2nd. Following that, we will have our talent show.
I was thinking about reserving the softball field on that Saturday of August 2nd for the “big game”, but will that be pushing it to have everything that day? When should we have our ballgame?
How many of us will have to be busy setting up for the dinner and talent show? about HALF OF US., most likely. I wonder if we could get the ballfield on Friday evening. It would be cool then, and maybe most everybody could be there by then. Yes. I’m brilliant. How about that? How about having the ballgame on FRIDAY EVENING?
So, Beth and Brenda. Since you two are going to make the trip up there soon, how about seeing about reserving the ballfield on Friday evening of August 1st.
That is….if everyone agrees. Maybe somebody else has a better idea.
KNLL Rookie 7 Astros @ Giants 04/08/2008
April 8, 2008 | Kid Brag | Comments [8]
On the way to the ballpark, Ethan said On the way to the ballpark, Ethan said “oh, I hope they don’t make me be catcher! I hate playing catcher, ’cause the glove is too big!”
And so of course:
END OF FIRST INNING:
Astros 0 2 0
Giants 0 2 0
(I have to speak to our coach/Ward First Counselor about this. I know the coach’s prerogative is that “coaches kids bat high in the order,” but that’s not actually fair since over the course of the season, if you have kids batting consistently higher in the order vs. lower, those higher will get more total at-bats. And [SMUG WARNING*SMUG WARNING*SMUG WARNING] Ethan is just TOO GOOD a hitter to be “robbed” of those at-bats!)
END OF SECOND INNING:
Astros 0 2 1
Giant 1 4 0
Ethan struck out.
END OF THIRD INNING:
Astros 0 3 2
Giants 3 7 0
(Ethan’s getting to where he catches about every other ball fair and square, and stops almost all the othes. Great throwing arm, too – Oh, he just grabbed a little dribbler in front of the plate and almost threw out the runner on First!)
FOURTH INNING (FINAL):
Astros 5 11 2 (Inning Ended w/Max. 5 runs)
Giants 3 8 0 (Ethan Struck Out)
(Ethan got clipped on the shoulder by a pitch – the machine’s mostly “throwing” inside to Righties – but he’s toughin’ it out!)
Test Posting of Photos UPDATE: IT’S A BUG! UPDATE 2: FIXED!
April 8, 2008 | Kid Brag, Meta | Comments [2]
UPDATE: 04/08/2008
The problem was an incompatibility between the WordPress software (which is PHP-based — Beth, Buddy and/or Ben can tell you more about it than I can, although *ahem* guess who figured out the fix?) and the Apache web server software that the hosting service runs. There’s a “plug-in” or “mod” for Apache called mod_security that helps make sure bad stuff doesn’t happen to your website. I had to apply a little work-around script describe ON THIS PAGE, and *voila!* everything now seems to work.
ORIGINAL:
Lainie, I also tried to post, but got an error. That may not be the fault of the software, but of the website. I’ll try again later and see what I can discover. UPDATE 04/08/2008 3:40 PM CDT Okay, it looks like it’s a bug in the new version of WordPress, the software that powers the blog. One workaround appears to be using Internet Explorer instead of Firefox. Lainie, I’m not sure which you’re using, but according to the Support Forum, some report that the pictures DO upload, but there is an error message anyway. I’ll try it using IE in just a little while, and see what happens.
OKAY, OBVIOUSLY I FIGURED OUT A WORKAROUND. I’LL GET LAINIE’S PICTURES FIXED, TOO.
BTW, the above are Maddie Bounds, Amaya’s friend from Church, Left, and Amaya herself, about to go onstage to do their “Doggie In The Window” number in their Dance recital last year.
Some pictures of Desoto
April 8, 2008 | Uncategorized | Comments [3]
Bill I tried to post the pictures that I took at Desoto. But with your new software I can’t post pictures, it says “upload failed”. Maybe you can tell me what I am doing wrong.
I will say this, you can’t go wrong renting a chalet or cabin. They are both really nice. I like the outside of the Chalet better because it has a screened in porch and seating around the outside of the porch. I like the inside of the cabin better because it HUGE. There is a porch but not screened in on the cabins, but the cabins are very child friendly with a kitchen bar for kids to sit and eat on.
The motel is in the middle of the cabins and chalets somewhat. there is a horseshoe area in the middle. The cabins and chalets are mixed together and each cabin and chalet has about an acre of land around it. On the property of the chalets and cabins there is a picnic table and a stone circle for building fires with logs, also a grill as well.
To get to the country store, hiking trail, picnic area, pool, playground and softball field its down the mountain about 1/4 mile. you could walk or drive.
I am buying a net for volleyball and badmitton to use at Buddy’s this weekend and ya’ll can take that with you and set it up at someones cabin or chalet.
The lady told me this morning that most likely the family will be at the end of the road in the cul de sac (all the cabins and chalets are off one road) In that cul de sac there is; a new log cabin, and four chalets in a circle. The other new log cabin she said we will have is down the road 50 yards or so and it is kind of like an entrance house and it is next to the motel. I am sure whatever Beth and Brenda plan will be fun.
There is also an outlet grocery store as you get off I-59. Fort Payne is at the bottom of the mountain and you just drive up the mountain to the park. To get to little river canyon you need to drive about ten miles but it is still up on the mountain.
There is a restaurant 5 miles aways that carries all you can eat seafood specials everynight. Thursday night is all you can eat frog legs, that sounds good. The day they plan a picnic by the playground I really hope they can reserve the softball field. It’s a nice field surrounded by trees and we should have a blast playing softball Pagan vs Polhemus’s. They might have us in youth though.
Anyway, once you let me know how to post the pictures, I will post all of these things I just described. Walking around there yesterday it really reminded me of the boy scout camp. I felt like I was back there again. Oh yes, there is also a nice view from the back porch of the restaurant.
Okay, What About The T-Shirt Design Choices?
April 7, 2008 | Reunion 2008 | No Comments
So, I’ve set it up where we can put up the T-Shirt Designs, and then vote for them. Sadly, until and unless I can figure out a way to keep folks from voting twice, it might turn into a free-for-all…
…Except for the vaunted HONOR SYSTEM! (Yeah, that’s the ticket!) When (or “if”) we finally get T-Shirt designs (or anything else for that matter) that we can vote on, everyone will be on their “best behavior” and not vote more than once. Even I, who have already demonstrated the one-man-many-votes phenomenon – good thing I’m NOT a registered Democrat.
So, Lainie, Brenda, Carmen, whomever…where are the designs we have to vote on? We can put ‘em in a single post, and designate ‘em, and then set up the poll for voting (HONEST voting).