It's happening...(story attempt)

I know I'm right...and nobody believes me. The facts have been written, for all to see, for over 2000 years. All that was needed was the key, which came to me in a VERY strange dream. In the dream, I was given information that allowed me to research the Bible as well as other sources and help to unlock its secrets...It allowed me to figure out the time frame of the Bible. Apparently, I am the only one to have cracked the code.

The Bible has many references to fantastic things, such as flying rolls, angels coming out of the sky and people living for hundreds of years. in Zechariah, chapter 5, there's a reference to a "Flying Roll". in Genesis, chapter 17, Abraham was 100 years old and his wife Sarah was 90 when they had their son Isaac. In many entries, both in the Old and New Testaments, Angels come out of Heaven to teach us or to warn us.

In every culture I had ever heard of or studied, there are stories of "little people", the Fae, Brownies, Elves, Dwarves, Goblins and the like. In 1917, there is a documented case of a Gnome photographed in England and to this day, people in Argentina are convinced that Gnomes are real.

Based upon my research of the Bible and other sources, coupled with the information gleaned from my strange dream, I am convinced that the Elves (and the other creatures from mythology) exist...and they lived for THOUSANDS of years, rather than hundreds. They appear to have bred with human stock in the hopes of creating in their image but with the resistance to common ailments that humans have been able to survive. This would explain the way that some people have what can only be described as "Elven features", "Dwarvish features" or "Troll-like features". They also apparently had space travel, which was written in the Bible as well, in the book of Ezekiel. In doing my research, I was able to determine that there would be signs of the return of Jesus, who I am convinced was the King of the Elves. I did a lot of calculating and think I have come up with the very hour that Jesus will return. At 10PM tonight, the King of the Elves will be returning "to judge the living and the dead". Looking at the current events, there can only be one thought through my mind. We're screwed.

Of course, knowing that the end of the world was coming didn't keep me from heading to the University where I work...I guess it really didn't hit me. On the way in, I let Rene drive, as usual. She was so busy with the radio and singing off-key that she hardly listened to my fears that an Elven Jesus was about to pop into our lives...

After trying to say something out loud, I realized how nutty it sounded, so I gave up and read my book...after all, it's not like I can get everyone in the world ship-shape in just a few hours!

By the time we got off of the exit, I woke up from my doze, like usual...apparently this whole "end of the world" thing didn't affect me like I thought it would. My work day started off pretty much on par...except for the fact that it was Judgment Day. I attempted to talk to Dave and the rest of my co-workers but they weren't even as kind as Rene was...they simply came out with it and said I was nuts...and Dave said I should go home, thinking that maybe I had some sort of reaction to my stomach meds or something...who knows, maybe he's right.

No, I KNOW I am right...I have checked and double checked my notes. I even threw them into my home PC and ran the calculations, even allowing for the Gregorian Calendar changes...we should be right on time tonight...at 10PM. Now, I am getting a bit nervous and have Rene come get me...of course, it takes me 3 tries to actually catch her at her desk. She finally realized what I was trying to tell her this morning and rushed over to pick me up and we headed home...irrationally, we wanted to get the lawn mowed and the house picked up...like Jesus really cared what our house looked like. I guess it was just our way of coping...set everything out as if we were having a very important guest over for dinner, which I guess is kinda true.

After finishing the mowing, I went over and took care of my sister's house and then checked on Mom's. Stress is starting to get to me, now...could I have been a better person? Will it really be like in the Bible where people disappear and planes go crashing? I read that in the "Left Behind" series and it kinda freaked me out.

I called Mom, my sister and brother and asked them all over to the house for 8PM. I told them that it was critically important but wouldn't tell them what it was all about. It's now about 5PM, so they are going to stress for about 3 hours...not very nice but I didn't think it could be helped.

In the meantime, I helped Rene clean the house and did the trim...then, because Rene doesn't know what else to do, she baked. She does that a lot to help relieve stress. If anyone saw her around Christmas, you would think she was the most stressed person on the planet! I must have told Rene I loved her a hundred times over the last several hours...she was so concerned, she didn't even respond with her normal "No, you don't." I think that is what worries me more than anything else...at this point, the house was as clean as possible and we still had a bit of time before Mom and the others were due to show up. With anything else happening, I would love to use that time to fool around but the stress of what's to come is a tremendous libido killer.

Instead, Rene and I sat in the sun room on the futon and held hands. Neither of us felt like talking much and the looks we gave each other were of fear. Fear of the unknown. We know we have been good people, working hard, volunteering for the ambulance corp., donating time and money to various charities and becoming more involved in our local church. Being so new to "the Faith", we still weren't overly comfortable with the praying thing, though we did the best we could under the circumstances.

The sun went down outside and it became rather dark. We didn't want to put on the lights but knew that it was necessary to let Mom and the others know that we were home.

"Ding Dong!", we jumped. We weren't expecting anyone for at least another hour...of course with the little bomb I dropped on them, I should have expected them to come over as soon as they could get away. With a final nervous look at Rene, I headed to the breezeway to let everyone in.

Durham Fair woodcarving entry...

I submitted one of my woodcarvings to the Durham Fair this year, just to see how I would do. I had done it in 2006 with "Skip" and received a 1st place and Judge's Special rosette. This year, I put in my Santa christmas ornament and to my joy and surprise, I took a 1st AND a special memorial award...

Cheryle M. King Memorial
Crafters Award
A special award will be given for a craft voted on
by the Craft and Collections Committee.
In Memory of Cheryle M. King, Assistant Superintendent
The award will be a Special Ribbon and a Plaque with the winners name permanently displayed in the departments “Best of the Best”

This was TOTALLY cool...the ribbon looks incredible and I even got my photo taken with the plaque and ribbon (though with the rain, I probably looked awful!) :-)

The Durham Fair is an incredible time here in Connecticut and the folks that work it are just wonderful (Rain or Shine!). It's going on all this weekend...check out the website for more information: http://www.durhamfair.org

I do have some pictures of my woodcarvings at http://picasaweb.google.com/n1wgkpics, including the Santa ornament and "Skip" the handyman. I am already planning on a better carving for next year...we shall see... :-)

Holy Cats! Yesterday, everything seemed to go wrong!

Okay, so yesterday was one for the memory books...er, blog...

It started with my heading to work on the motorcycle...late. It was 147 degrees below zero.
En route, I got caught in traffic...twice, then I realized I NEEDED gas...
I stopped and tanked up ($15 for gas on a MOTORCYCLE?)
I was still cold, since I don't have a windshield yet on my new bike...so I went inside to...
BUY A COFFEE...(idiot move, did I mention I was on a motorcycle?)
I figured I was close to work, so I could balance it in my lap on one of those trays. I was wrong. The darned thing tipped over just as I got onto the road again...so I had to pull over. I poured out the entire thing on the side of the road, put the cap back on and drove to the next gas station. I then proceeded to clean up the bike as well as I could with paper towels.
Finally, I made it to work, though I still didn't clean up all of the coffee...
I get in the door and all Hell breaks loose...I had a webserver that wasn't responding, I had a fileserver that took 20 hours to copy a single 20GB file as well as issues with our Police Department. I can't even remember all of the problems I had all day...
I was supposed to leave at 12:00PM and ended up staying until 5PM, so much for my getting out early to wash the bike and go to the gym...
I do have to say, the ride home ALMOST made up for my awful day...

Spec out laptop notes

Spec out Laptop
There are lots of options, as I am sure you are well aware, if you have been looking at machines lately. I realize this is long but this is exactly what I go through whenever I spec out a machine for someone. Of course, this is MY opinion and what I say may not apply to everyone.

In order to be able to make a more accurate solution, I would need to have some parameters, such as dollar amount, screen size, etc.

In order to help you maybe make your own decision, I would suggest the following, assuming the user doesn't want to go to a Macintosh:

Screen size: If the user's going to have this laptop as a "desktop replacement"
and not really carry the machine around all day long, a 17" screen would be great. A 15" screen is a good all around machine, if you want to carry it around a lot. The 12" screen is awesome for carrying around but you would probably go nuts if it were your only machine and you didn't have an external monitor to hook up to it.

Memory: Minimum, 1GB RAM, 2GB strongly recommended. Remember, upgrading a laptop is typically more expensive because you usually have to throw out both memory sticks, so get as much as you can afford for the machine. Even go down on the processor speed and increase the memory, if you have to.

Going from a 1.8GHZ processor to a 1.5GHZ isn't a huge difference but going from 1GB to 2GB makes a big difference since software and operating systems are becoming more memory intensive.

Processor: Dual core processors (also known as Core Duo) are better (and Quad Core are better yet), since the computer thinks it has 2 processors rather than one (and 4, for the Quad Core). The speed of the single core processors will be higher but that's okay...I would suggest a dual (quad?) core at least 1.5GHZ but I would go as high as you can afford, of course...as long as it doesn't take away from the memory you purchase.

Hard Drive: If this is going to be the only machine, I would suggest a larger hard drive. Drives are getting larger but not so much in the laptops.

The 60-80GB drives are still around. If you can afford it, get a 120GB or larger. Another option would be to go with a 60-80GB drive and purchase an external USB 120+GB drive for backup and extra files. I would recommend an external drive in any event because hard drives sometimes fail and if there's a backup of the documents, it would be very helpful. This having been said, however, it's critical that the user actually back up the critical documents, such as papers.

Removable drive: DVD-RW, no question. Once again, I would recommend an external USB drive, 120GB or larger, for backup and to store large files.

Operating System: I would suggest Windows Vista Home Premium or Vista Ultimate (as opposed to Windows XP or Vista Home Basic). Vista Home Premium and Ultimate includes Aero, which is the "Vista interface experience", which Basic doesn't support.

Network connector built in:
RJ45 100 megabit connector minimum, 1 gb connector becoming more common.
Wireless: 802.11g minimum. 802.11n is the newest standard but still quite costly.

Productivity pack: Microsoft Office 2007, student edition if it's available, otherwise whatever includes Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel.

Other: These items aren't critical and can be purchased afterward but if the user will be doing a lot of papers, they might want to consider this:

External 17" monitor - If you go with the 12" screen for portability and there's not a desktop machine, consider having an external monitor.

External USB keyboard - Same reason...it would help with typing.
Upgrade: wireless keyboard.
External USB mouse - Same reason...it would help with manipulation.
Upgrade: Wireless mouse.
USB Hub - Usually, laptops only have one or two USB ports and it's common to need three or more with all the devices out there.

USB Headset - For running the sound up but not disturbing the neighbors.
Also includes a microphone for being able to talk such as through Skype or playing games. Upgrade: Wireless headset.

OTHER HINTS:
Look at www.dealsofamerica.com for some wonderful deals including for Dell.
Keep in mind my suggestions above when determining which machine to go with.

If you decide to go with a Macintosh computer, I would suggest talking with someone from the Apple Store and remember many of my suggestions will still apply.

To carry around the laptop, most companies offer suitcase looking cases with a shoulder strap. I have found (through LOTS of experimentation) that I prefer a laptop backpack for comfort (and I also use it for all my paperwork and books, too). Make sure you get one designed for a laptop because it usually has a "shock resistant" pocket for the laptop or at least a foam container to hold onto it.

Woodcarving competition

I am entering one of my woodcarvings into the Durham Fair this year...it's the Santa ornament. Total carving time, approximately 19 hours...total painting time, approximately 4 1/2 hours. Obviously, too slow to actually make any money at this... :-)

picasaweb.google.com/n1wgkpics and you can check out my carvings...the Santa carving is in there.