We can live life pretty well without prayer. Even as a Christian, I can do just about everything without asking for God’s help. I have no urgency to pray. When there is a crisis – health problems, major decisions, a special need such as a job – then the need for prayer is apparent. But […]

27
Jan

I lost my mother-in-law at Walmart today. The people in Walmart paged her twice. Then they allowed me to speak into the phone and page her in Chinese! In case if you were at Walmart Chino at 12:30pm and heard some Chinese announcement over the intercom, that was me 🙂 The checkers at Walmart were […]

Jim Rohn: “Most people overestimate what they can do in their first year, and greatly underestimate what they can do in five years.” A year ago I made 5 goals to accomplish before I turn 50. My birthday is in 2 days…if I don’t sleep for 2 days, I might get one of them completed… […]

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21
Jan
stored in: General

We were playing our own version of Scattegories around the dinner table last night: Name a Japanese food that begins with the letter B. Mike: B special! Too much Tokyo Lobby…. 🙂

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I read this: The stock market took a beating yesterday, and investors were sorely disappointed as the excitement surrounding the historic swearing in of Barrack Obama as the nation’s 44th president was greeted on Wall Street by the worst inaugural stock market performance in the nation’s history. Investors ran for the hills as the Dow […]

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Never thought a ‘fact’ about Chuck Norris could fit in a sermon, but our pastor somehow got it in there this past Sunday… Jesus can walk on water, but Chuck Norris can swim through land!

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19
Jan

This is Orson Scott Card’s newest book in the Ender’s Game series. We are fortunate enough to have found a copy in our local Walnut library. You have to read Ender’s Game to make sense of the later ones in the series. Once again, Ender Wiggin does not disappoint. He is super smart, out-maneuvers everyone, […]

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War of Gifts is short story by Orson Scott Card using the setting and some of the characters in Ender’s Game. The story is somewhat humorous, aggravating, sad, and thought-provoking. And it had a good ending, so I liked it. Card is so clever in weaving a story while dealing with the  difficult real life […]

Saw this on IndianaGrain.com: Craigslist has been accused of single-handedly killing the newspaper industry by conditioning people to pay as little as zero for classified ads. The traditional lifeblood for newspapers for your used car is being drained dry by this international classified ad network and by slightly-more-expensive-and-more-complicated auction services like eBay. You can’t blame […]

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Working together with people with the same mission and vision is the way friendship is often built. I made friends in college when studying together, working on presentations together, and promoting department events together. My roommate and I were never good friends even though we got along. We didn’t have any common projects to work […]

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09
Jan
stored in: General

“OH, I think It’s an earthquake! An earthquake is happening right now!” I was talking on the phone with someone in Riverside. In the middle of our conversation, he said his house was shaking. I didn’t feel anything, about 60 miles away from him. Then about 15 seconds after he felt the earthquake, I felt […]

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I just made a couple of donations to Christian organizations that I love. In light of our current financial situation, I did not expect to be able to give beyond what we normally tithe to our church. But the generosity of some great friends at church gave us the opportunity to give more. With what […]

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I read on a blog that this was a good book. I have to rush through it because it’s due back at the library today. Good To Great for the Social Sector by Jim Collins is a monograph to accompany Good To Great. Collins brings out 5 issues and how the social sectors apply them […]

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03
Jan

On Monday, we went to Mountain High to ski. I skied vicariously. I can’t remember when I last skied. I am sure I have not skiied since I had kids, which would be at least 21 years. So on Monday, I experienced skiing again through my children as they skied for the first time. I […]

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Is it bad to make a new year resolution and not keep to it? Is it better not to make resolutions at all? There are  the “should” kind of resolutions – “I should lose some weight.”, “I should stop smoking.” Those are not real resolutions. Those are merely words to appease your guilt of abusing […]

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