John Kerry explains that he made the statement, "I actually did vote for his $87 billion, before I voted against it," which makes little sense (just like all of his flip-flops), because it was late at night and he was tired. Then, there's how the media reported the event when it actually happened (as read in this article from the Washington Post). Here's is a quote from the article: "'I actually did vote for his $87 billion, before I voted against it,' he told a group of veterans at a noontime appearance at Marshall University" (emphasis added).

Well, I guess it was midnight somewhere at the time...

Well, I can answer that question in a myriad of ways. Instead, I opt for a short synopsis:

• I got my new PPC
• We went to Chicago-land
• We had the car repaired
• We rented a Penske truck and loaded it up
• We drove said Penske to South Dakota and had it unloaded
• We then drove the Penske to Iowa to drop it off
• After a Sunday of two church services, we went to another town for an installation of their pastor

Let me introduce you to Tryphaena. She is a Toshiba e805. She can do amazing things that Trophimus was never capable of doing. Besides having Windows Mobile 2003 on her (Trophimus had Windows CE 3.0 for PocketPC 2000--CE stands for "Compact Edition"), she is also loaded with memory; she has 128 MB of RAM onto which programs can be installed and which programs use as swap memory to run. She has 64 MB of of flash ROM, 32 MB on which the OS resides, and 32 MB which is used as extra storage space that will not be lost following a hard reset. On top of that, she has two expansion slots--a Compact Flash slot and a Secure Digital slot--as compared to Trophimus' one slot--CF only. But it doesn't stop there, she also has 2 MB of video memory.

What? Video memory? YES!! The Toshiba e800/e805 is the first series of PocketPCs capable of VGA display. In other words, as you can see from the image below (or to the right depending on your window size), I can turn the display on its side and double the resolution, allowing more information to be displayed on the screen, though smaller in view. PocketPC coolness!

Well, our adventures began from there. We spent about 9 hours driving Interstate 90 to get from home to my wife's mother's place. This "vacation" was meant to gather the rest of her belongings, which we had intended to move last summer, and complete the move to South Dakota.

Well, as we pull off of Interstate 290 in the Chicago-land area, the engine is making a whining sound. So she gives Saturn a call and sets up an appointment (which we later would change). Having a thought as we leave a friend's house that evening, I begin unplugging some devices that are connected to the two power outlets, thinking that the alternator is going bad. Sure enough the sound dies down. Catastrophe avoided, I thought. As it turns out, the belt tensioner was about to go; had that busted while we were driving around town, we would no longer be driving. It's a good thing we got it fixed when we did. Oh, and the "good folks" of Saturn of Sioux Falls could learn a thing or two about service from the really good folks of Saturn of Oak Lawn.

That done, we went the the mounds of stuff in my wife's mother's second story. We must have thrown away two dozen plus 30 gallon garbage bags, packed a ton of stuff to give away, and still had a ton of stuff we were going to take, not included the furniture which we REALLY wanted.

Anyway, Thursday came, and it was FINALLY time to load the truck. You know, God bless Penske for their terrific service. If you ever have to do a self-move, don't ever rent from U-Haul! A terrific crew of my wife's friends showed up at her mother's house, and we had that thing loaded in under two hours (well, maybe about three). It felt good to be done, for after all the packing and lugging the bags and boxes of garbage and books (respectively), my body was aching (and it is still somewhat sore and bruised today). Friday morning came all too quickly, so it was time to drive to South Dakota.

I really hate the governor on the truck. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate the job that it does. It's good to keep a larger-than-normally-driven vehicle from going to fast (because I'm not used to driving something so bulky), but to jerk me (and my cargo) as if the engine is failing every time I slip just over the magic speed limit is a bit annoying (especially when I'm driving through two states whose speed limits are or are above the magic speed limit). Twelve plus hours after leaving Chicago-land, we were finally back in South Dakota...back in the midst of friendly people (though we must have met the friendliest person in Chicago at Brown's Chicken...cordially held the door open for us as we left). A terrific group of youth and one adult from the church had that thing unloaded in about half an hour the next day...what an excellent group of people!

Well, after everyone left after unloading the truck, it was time for another hour to hour and a half in the truck, driving it to Sioux City to drop it off. You know, it would be nice if Penske would open a place in South Dakota where that could be done. After getting home, the feeling of finally being done with the move hit us...with the exception of unpacking.

Of course, today, we were in no mood to do much of that. The usual Sunday routine of going to two church services, of me leading two church services, is enough to zap both of us. On top of that routine though, it was a privilege to participate in the installation of a new pastor in my circuit, so that cut out a large chunk of time in the day.

Now, bed time quickly approaches, and tomorrow is my day off. Perhaps, aside from a prenatal doctor's appointment, we'll use the time to relax and unwind from our vacation.

I've updated the photo albums. I've added 9 pictures to the Butterfly House album.

For some reason, I was trying to send mail back and forth between one of my accounts to another. That's when I found this out:

The original message was received at Thu, 9 Sep 2004 16:30:13 -0400 from freenet3.afn.org [128.227.163.13]

----- The following addresses had permanent fatal errors ----- <stingray at freeshell.org>
(reason: 550 5.7.1 128.227.74.44 blocked according spamcop.net:see http://spamcop.net/bl)

----- Transcript of session follows -----
... while talking to smtp.freeshell.org.:
>>> MAIL From:<wgeo @ #####.com>
<<< 550 5.7.1 128.227.74.44 blocked according spamcop.net:see http://spamcop.net/bl 554 5.0.0 Service unavailable

It seems that afn.org's mail server is being blocked. It will receive mail, but is not being allowed to send any (as judged by that line in parentheses above--128.227.74.44 is an IP address for ufl.edu, University of Florida, where AFN is housed). How I have my mail set up is that anything sent to stingray at afn.org will forward to stingray at freeshell.org (which is why you see the freeshell.org address up there).

The layman's summary of all this is if you are trying to send me mail (as once before), I ask that you send it to stingray at freeshell.org.

Sorry...

It kind of makes you think, does it not? Who would our enemies vote for (assuming they could vote)? Why?

Perhaps it's because he wants to bring in a "coalition" that supports our enemies (ahem, France).

Perhaps it's because he would act reactively to terrorist acts instead of taking the fight to them...you know, keep them occupied off of our soil!

Perhaps it's because they think he's a nicer guy; well, I hope they don't like our president since they are our enemies.

Perhaps it's because they'll assume that, if in power, he'll do more for their cause than they could back home (cf., his post-Vietnam testimony before Congress and the effects it had on the Viet Cong torture of his "comrades" back in country).

Do you get the feeling that John F. Kerry as president sickens me?

Hurricanes Charley and Frances have devasted much of my former home state. I still have close ties to Florida, as much of my family still lives there. This may go down as the most expensive one-two hurricane punch of all time. Charley's abnormal course and Frances' slow movement aided in this.

What concerns many people, including myself, is that a third punch is waiting in the wings. Hurricane Ivan is in the Atlantic and is projected to make its way toward Florida. By the time it reaches the Peninsula, the experts predict it will be a category 4 hurricane. It is predicted to impact the Bahamas and Florida at about the same places as Frances has/is.

There's something we can do to help. Cleanup and repair cost money. Housing the homeless victims costs money. Feeding those who have no power costs money. You can donate. Please, find a way you can lend your aid. If you're in the area or close, pitch in with some man hours, if you can spare some. If you have the financial means, donate through whichever organization you wish. In any case, lend your moral support and pray.

My suggestion for financial support should be directed to LCMS World Relief's Hurricane Charley Fund. Information in that link will give several options for sending money in order to aid Bahamans and Floridians in relief and recovery from these two (three?) storms. Please consider a donation if you are able.

I'm going to preface this by saying I'm white and I DON'T hate blacks; what I hate is racism...across the board.

What is sparking this? How much the media has gone ga-ga over Mississippi State's hiring of Sylvester Croom as their football coach. He broke the "color barrier" in the South Eastern Conference; he is the first black head coach in SEC Football history.

Because of that, the media is painting him as MSU's savior. I'd even go so far as to say they've painted him the SEC's savior. Now, personally, I wouldn't say the SEC is in need of saving. MSU's football program, on the other hand, needs to be turned around. But to say Sly Croom can do it simply because he's black is flat wrong.

I have nothing against Sly Croom. I have nothing against the fact that he's black. What I don't like is the fact that the media is playing the race card--he will resurrect MSU because he's black. I've never heard anything more rediculous! The only way he will be able to turn around MSU's program is on his coaching merits. According to his creditials, he has coaching merit; I wish him luck at MSU, but I'll be rooting against him when Florida visits Starkville later this year. Okay, so his being black may aid him in recruiting (I want to play for the first black head coach in the SEC), but that shouldn't be long-lived. In a few years, he'll just be another SEC head football coach (the fact that he's black won't even be referenced).

Others may hail his hiring as a victory. To some extent, I can concede that it is. If I could meet Sly Croom, I would congratulate him on being the first black head coach in the SEC. Good, it's done! But again, the media has to play a race card: "Now, blacks have finally infiltrated the SEC. BWAHAHAHA, they can't stop them now!" Sheesh, leave it alone! Okay, so those aren't their exact words, but the way they report on this certainy seems like that's the message they are trying to convey. Did the other schools shy away from blacks merely because they were black. It's a possibility, but I doubt it. When hiring their coaches, they went for the best man available; in those cases, the best man just happened to be white.

The good in all this is that Sly Croom is trying to downplay it all, or so it seems. He just wants to coach. Wake up, media, and let him do just that. Judge him on whether he wins or loses based on his coaching ability and not the color of his skin!

This kind of thing is what irks me about affirmative action. The best qualified person for a job should receive the action that says, "Affirmative, you got the job!" Who the hell cares if he's black, white, asian, hispanic, or native (or whatever)? If he can do the job the best (as judged by application, résumé, and interview), he should be the one hired. You want to know how cares? "Special interest" groups like the NAACP (a group as racist as any white supremacist group...all disgusting).

Of course, this has spilled over into other facets of sports. NFL teams looking to hire a new coach, must interview at least one minority (read, one black person) for the job (um, what if there aren't any available). NASCAR and the NHL look for their "token black" drivers and players. It's sickening. Let the teams hire the best people!

If the best person is black, good for him, hire him! If the best person is white, good for him, hire him! Don't feel bad about hiring a white guy over a black guy; likewise, don't gloat over hiring the black guy over the white guy!

</rant>

I've ordered a Toshiba e805. You can view my purchase here.

Now, I wish to poll what to name the computer.

It has been a convention of mine to take a name from the Bible that begins with a T and use that for my computer(s). My first computer (that I was able to name) I called Tychicus. When I got my first PocketPC, I called it Trophimus (the two names are almost always seen together when they appear in the Bible). When I got my Sony computer, I named it Thaddaeus, after one of the Apostles. Finally, our laptop was named Tryphosa, in honor of an early deaconess of the Church. Now, I need a name for my new PocketPC. Here are the choices (please, vote):

(0 votes) Tertius is a Latin name that means third. This would actually be the third PocketPC or PocketPC-like device I have owned/will own. He is the amanuensis of Paul in writing to the Romans (Romans 16.22).

(2 votes) She is also a deaconess of the ancient Church. Tryphosa (the computer) is a Toshiba, this PocketPC is a Toshiba, so why not, right (Romans 16.12)?

(3 votes) The 'i' in Tidal is short (as in Tigger). It means "great son." This "son" of Trophimus is greater than his father... (Genesis 14.1, 9).

(1 votes) This name means "God is good." I guess I just sought an excuse to get a new PocketPC; I got one in needing to replace a busted PocketPC (Isaiah 7.6).

(0 votes) I've added this one because it means "intelligent." I've often referred to my PocketPC as my brain, and I don't intend to stop when the new one comes (1 Kings 16.21, 22).

So, there you have it. Which one is your favorite? Who knows, I may go with the one that has the most votes. Just remember, I'll name it as soon as I get it; which should be some time between September 11 and 14.

Trophimus is dead.

Okay, its backlight is dead.

My PocketPC, which I have often referred to as my brain, and which has served me well for over 3 years, no longer functions properly. Sure, in the correct light, I may be able to see what my screen shows. When connected to my PC, I can run a program that displays my PPC screen on my desktop. But as for the purpose for which I originally bought it, it no longer works.

There may have been a day a couple of years from now when I would have replaced it anyway. At that time, my wife would have gotten Trophimus; she has asked for it. But now, no one will be able to use it unless I can get the backlight fixed/replaced cheap.

Now, the type of PocketPC I am looking at to replace Trophimus is a Toshiba e750/e755 or e800/e805. I'll be able to use the CompactFlash cards I already have. The e800/e805 has 4 times the memory (while only two times more on the e750/e755). They both have two expansion slots, so I could use SD Memory, too, if I wanted to. What's more, both have integrated 802.11b, so they'll be able to connect to our home network and share the internet connection.

I'm going to miss Trophimus, though...