Been Busy…

So I have been pretty busy over the last few months.  Doing many different things and I have honestly had little time to devote to blogging.  This saddens me as I enjoyed it and enjoyed hearing your comments.  I will attempt to make more frequent posts to this blog and hopefully keep current content on it.

My next post will probably be a “Best Of…” post showing the best Free Mac software solutions.  I tend to be a cheap bastard and don’t pay for software.  That said, I don’t use illegal copies of software, I simply opt to use Open Source/ Freeware/ Shareware versions, even if only in their limited use forms.  While I have found several pieces of software I would really like to get full functionality out of, none have had functionality that was a necessity for me.

I really like finding cool Open Source software that allows me to create a customized build of the application for my machine and Operating System.  If you know of any let me know!!!

Well… stay tuned for my “Best Of…” posting!

How to get a soccer partner

Granted, this method will take some time. But this kid knows more than he lets on.

YouTube – How to get a soccer partner

V-Day Poem for my Wife

The world… what is the world?
A spherical shape,
or a sphere of influence.

The world, your world, is all that one knows.
Many things make up this world,
people, places, experiences.

The most important is people.
The people that you spend time with,
the people you know and know you

The most elite of these are those you love,
and those that love you back.
The essence of your being.

Very few people, usually not more than one,
get to influence you more,
get to know the true meaning of “you”.

There is life in your world.
There is life in your being.
There is life in your loving.

Life is not worth living without that person,
that person who keeps you sane,
the one that keeps you honest.

The purpose for which you wake each day.
The breath you breathe all day long.
The love of your life.

This person to me is most important,
not a day would I survive without.
The one who makes my soul completely whole.

She, yes a girl, a woman, in fact,
is the love of my life,
the object of all my affections.

The one that makes me smile,
even over the simplest of things.
The one I would do anything for.

I could never express my complete feelings to her,
because there are not the words in any known language
to do them justice.

She is my wife, the perfect Companion.
The Beauty I strive(d) to save.
The Battle I had to win.

My life is all because of her,
without her I certainly would be lost.
She is my muse.

Kate, you are the love of my whole life.
The one who always has been or ever will be,
the expression of perfection you are to me.

Today, a day to pour out my love.
A day dedicated to love.
Is a day to tell you…

That you are my world
and
I … LOVE … YOU!

Happy Valentines Day.

Love, Scott

5 Things Not Known About Me…

 

Since Matsu so gently “tagged” me I guess I am next in line to reveal 5 things most people don’t know about me. 5 things are a lot of things. Let me see…

1. Growing up I had aspirations of becoming a chef, and even to the day I enjoy cooking.

2. I stood on the medals podium at the Athens 2004 Summer Olympic Games. I even have proof.

 

a. One subnote: I have been at the last 3 Olympics, and have seen the last 2 Opening Ceremonies and the last 2 Closing Cermomnies

b. Second subnote: My wife and I lived in Greece for 4 months as a result of my work with the Olympics in Athens.

3. I have seen, sat next to, (shh) and even touched (on accident) THE Stanley Cup.

4 . I was homeschooled starting in 5th grade all the way through High School.

5. My father, brother and sister, as well as my uncle and grandpa all attended the same College.

So now that is over… I think I will tag… Chris, Ben, Peter, and Dean (because you were all on my blogroll, lucky you)

Creation Museum and Family Discovery Center

The 50,000 sq. ft. Creation Museum located just outside Cincinnati, OH will proclaim the Bible as supreme authority in all matters of faith and practice in every area it touches on. Set to open in 2007, this “walk through history” museum will counter evolutionary natural history museums that turn countless minds against Christ and Scripture.

The Answers in Genesis organization has been building a new facility in Northern Kentucky, just south of Cincinnati, OH.  AIG is a science organization that believes that the origins of our Earth are as depicted in the Bible.

Here is what AIG says on their website about themselves:

Answers in Genesis is an apologetics (i.e., Christianity-defending) ministry, dedicated to enabling Christians to defend their faith, and to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ effectively. We focus particularly on providing answers to questions surrounding the book of Genesis, as it is the most-attacked book of the Bible. We also desire to train others to develop a biblical worldview, and seek to expose the bankruptcy of evolutionary ideas, and its bedfellow, a “millions of years old” earth (and even older universe).

AiG teaches that “facts” don’t speak for themselves, but must be interpreted. That is, there aren’t separate sets of “evidences” for evolution and creation—we all deal with the same evidence (we all live on the same earth, have the same fossils, observe the same animals, etc.). The difference lies in how we interpret what we study. The Bible—the “history book of the universe”—provides a reliable, eye-witness account of the beginning of all things, and can be trusted to tell the truth in all areas it touches on. Therefore, we are able to use it to help us make sense of this present world. When properly understood, the “evidence” confirms the biblical account.

For an elaboration of AiG’s presuppositional thrust check out our Q&A page—for example, learn how the Bible offers the best explanation of the world’s geology, anthropology, and cosmogony.

I would also encourage you to visit the site to learn more about what this organization is doing.  Regardless of your viewpoints on the topic, there is some compelling findings that they have uncovered over the years.

Creation Museum and Family Discovery Center

BD’s Mongolian Now Open In Lexington, KY!

BD’s Mongolian Barbeque has finally opened a store here in Central Kentucky.  I first tasted their wonderful offerings about 5 years ago and have craved to have a restaurant close by.  While I lived in Michigan for a short time, there was one a couple hours away which my wife and I visited on a couple occasions but have  missed since moving back to Central Kentucky.

Red for our Heroes

(Original source unknown)

Last week, while traveling to Chicago on
business, I noticed a Marine sergeant traveling with
a folded flag, but did not put two and two together.
After we boarded our flight, I turned to the
sergeant, who’d been invited to sit in First Class
(across from me), and inquired if he was heading home.

No, he responded.

Heading out I asked?

No. I’m escorting a soldier home.

Going to pick him up?

No. He is with me right now. He was killed in Iraq.
I’m taking him home to his family.

The realization of what he had been asked
to do hit me like a punch to the gut. It was an
honor for him. He told me that, although he
didn’t know the soldier, he had delivered the news
of his passing to the soldier’s family and felt as
if he knew them after many conversations in so few
days.

I turned back to him, extended my hand, and said,
Thank you. Thank you for doing what you do so
my family and I can do what we do.

Upon landing in Chicago the pilot stopped short of the
gate and made the following announcement over the intercom.

Deficit Spending and Social Security

The quoted portions of this post is directly taken in its entirety from Congressman Ron Paul’s website, a US House Representative from the 14th District of Texas.

I found this article interesting as it seems to lay out the problems and the foundations of our country’s Social Security program. It shows good understanding of different sides of the debate surrounding it with a sound resolution to the problem.

October 9, 2006

During a speech in Washington last week, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke warned that the coming retirement of the Baby Boomer generation will place tremendous strains on the nation’s budget and economy. He stresses that Social Security and Medicare must be reformed sooner rather than later, because demographic trends make the current system unsustainable over time. In future decades there will be too many retirees and not enough younger taxpayers.

Still, the problem seems vague and faraway for most. Today’s seniors hope the system will hold together for the remainder of their lives, while younger working people hope government will somehow fix things before they retire. Not surprisingly, Congress doesn’t want to face the problem until it becomes an acute crisis. It’s hard to sell voters on austerity today to avoid a relatively distant problem. Politicians usually operate on the opposite principle, by promising great things now and leaving the bills for others to pay later.

The only honest solution to the future insolvency of Social Security is for Congress to stop spending so much money. When Congress outspends federal revenues, it raids Social Security funds to cover the difference. Unless Congress makes real cuts in spending– and stops spending Social Security taxes on completely unrelated programs– millions of Americans simply will not receive even a fraction of the money they paid into Social Security. Ignore the rhetoric about tax increases and cuts in benefits, as though you are to blame for the problem! All Social Security obligations could be met if Congress did not spend so much on other things.

Congress can begin addressing the problem immediately by cutting at least 5% from other areas of the federal budget every year for the next five years. The budget has nearly tripled just since 1990; surely Congress can find 5% worth of fat to cut each year. When members of Congress vote for bigger and bigger appropriations bills each year, they threaten the very solvency of Social Security. That’s why I vote against every wasteful appropriations bill.

Social Security contributions are supposed to be set aside from general revenues and placed in a trust fund. The truth, of course, is that your contributions are not put aside. Over the decades Congress found itself simply unable to sit on a big pile of money, so it began treating Social Security contributions as general revenues to fund the ever-growing federal government. Today your Social Security account is nothing more than a ledger filled with IOUs.

I introduced legislation to end this terrible practice. Under my bill, HR 219, your Social Security contributions are set aside in an interest-bearing account and cannot be spent. In other words, your Social Security account would be treated as YOUR account and not a slush fund for Congress. This is the simplest approach to Social Security reform, and it has the added benefit of making it harder for Congress and the administration to mask the deficit spending that is the real cause of our problems.

I would greatly encourage a discussion to be started about this topic because there are multiple factions of people who have opinions about this topic and quite honestly I am sick of hearing all the complaining. We need to make it known to Washington that we are sick of all this CRAP! and want it resolved AND that we want our hard-earned, yet willingly contributed money back when we retire.

The one big gripe I have about this whole topic is senior citizens who are complaining and belly-aching that they are losing money or not getting what they were supposed to, or that they can’t live on what they are getting. TOUGH LUCK!! is all I have to say. Currently my generation will not see a single penny of the social security monies we have paid in. The system needs to change! LIKE IT OR NOT!

One other thing, if you banked on Social Security being enough money to retire on alone you are just plain stupid. The Social Security program was NEVER intended to be a retirement program, but an assistance program for retirees, and a worthwhile program, though flawed. Plan for your own retirement and if you are already retired and neglected to plan and set aside your money in a retirement plan or pension, TOO BAD…SO SAD!!! Responsibility is the privilege we have in the US and you have to earn it, it is just not going to be given to you.

Responses on this problem are MOST welcome! I am sorry if I offended anyone, but honestly this is a seriously sore spot for me and my generation. Think about it, respond, and lets let Washington know that we want things to change.

As stated on his website here is a bit about Ron Paul:

Congressman Ron Paul of Texas enjoys a national reputation as the premier advocate for liberty in politics today. Dr. Paul is the leading spokesman in Washington for limited constitutional government, low taxes, free markets, and a return to sound monetary policies based on commodity-backed currency. He is known among both his colleagues in Congress and his constituents for his consistent voting record in the House of Representatives: Dr. Paul never votes for legislation unless the proposed measure is expressly authorized by the Constitution. In the words of former Treasury Secretary William Simon, Dr. Paul is the “one exception to the Gang of 535″ on Capitol Hill.

I’m Finally back

After the weekend away… then getting back to work, I was out sick yesterday.

However, I am feeling a bit better today and I am anticipating getting more content posted for your reading pleasure.

Pause in Postings…

I want to let you all know that I will be “offline” for a couple days over the weekend, but I will be back next week and will try to keep up and keep you informed.

Thanks for visiting, please come back and tell your thoughts.

Changes to the Mole’s categorization

Some new categories have been added to this blog. I have added the categories “Mac Tips and Tricks“, “Rumors” and “New Product“, these will both be primarily sub-headings under the Technology and “Apple Macintosh” category. I noticed over the last couple weeks that the focus of many of my posts have been Tech related and I felt that there needed to be more clarity of the content that I put in this category.

The new “Mac Tips and Tricks” category will be for the occasional new tidbit of advice and things I come across that I find useful and informational.  And hopefully worthwhile to you as well.

I hope the new organization will make it easier for you as readers to keep up with things, so if you have a comment, good or bad, please let me know. I would also welcome any constructive criticisms you may have in regards to the content, my theme, my posts, or anything in general about this site.

Thanks for visiting and please come back often and comment. I am always interested to hear others viewpoints.

Would you like to hear this Presidential Speech from a US President?

I received the following content in an email forward. I typically have a strong distaste for forwards, however this one seemed to strike a different cord. I am not saying that I agree or disagree with the following but found it interesting and worth passing on to you all.

I would greatly appreciate to hear your comments about it. This is essentially a good combination of what the American people are looking for, at least it would seem so if you listen to our media. And on that note, any media personnel or journalists who read this, I beg you to comment on this to get your perspective. As I see this bearing a lot of weight on the work you do.
*********************************************

Back again…

I need to make a mention to my loyal visitors. I have been away on vacation for a few days, without access to email, internet and the like. Thus the reason for not posting anything new recently.
I am back and will be back to a “normal” routine starting on Wednesday, and will hopefully continue with new postings as the news pushes forward.

If any of you are interested in contributing to this blog and keeping up the focus that I am striving for then write me a line and perhaps we can work something out. I would be very interested to have another perspective on the current happenings, as well the newest updates to rumors and the like that are out there.

Thank you to all my loyal readers and I will strive to keep the site as active as possible.

Hope you have a wonderful day today, and everyday.

A new day is dawning…

I have heard a few commets about the fact that I have not been writing recently and I apologize.

As some of you may know I work in IT at a Higher Ed institution and, well, August and the first of September is a really busy time. We have had some headachs and frustrations and a rather large and still increasing workload to keep up with. It is starting to slow down a bit and I will hopefully have more time to write in the coming weeks.

I have applied for a new position where I work and it is into a managerial level position. One I am really interested in and excited about. I had my interview for this position on Thursday and I am waiting to hear whether or not I got it. There were a few other candidates for the position but I am not really sure where I stand amongst them. I should know soon.

Anyway… I wanted to let you all know that this blog has not gone by the wayside just to collect dust. It will rise again, and I am looking for record numbers. So start referring friends, family, acquaintances, whomeever…. This past summer I hit 1200 hits in one day, though I am not looking for those kinds of numbers everyday, but I good steady number would be good

Thank you to everyone who has stayed faithful to watching and reading this blog and I will do my best to keep it going. If anyone is interested in contributing their own thoughts and comments on the topics I talk about, let me know. I might be interested in expanding the scope of this site.

Thanks again and take care

The Fall is such a special time…

As those who have read some of the other posts may have picked up on, I work in technology at a higher ed institution.  It is fall once again and that means back to school like it is for most a part of the education world in some facet.

For me it not only brings about the start of a new semester and prepping campus technology for the upcoming educational year, but also the wonderful oppportunity to wear a noose around my neck, while I am at work.  I am not complaining about the fact that I have to wear a tie, I honestly don’t mind the tie.  What gets to be frustrating is trying to do work with a tie, and particularly working with computers, a tie can be somewhat cumbesome and at times, almost dangerous.

I have more than snagged my tie in a computer case, or got it caught on a desk when trying to crawl underneath it to get a computer out, or just having to fumble around trying to carry something with a tie getting in my way.

Oh well, it just part of the job I suppose.  Another year is on the way today, wish us luck!

Life and you…

There is a point, or perhaps several points, where one’s life catches up with itself.  Life is one of those crazy things that alwasy tends to happen either when you least expect it or worse, when you do and just can’t do anything about it.

My life right now is doing just that.  At work, as I work in Higher Ed, we are ramping up our efforts to be sure that campus technology is ready for this upcoming school year.

This is the reason my posting has been slow lately and will most likely be the next week or so.  I will resume, I promise.

So todays word to the wise…  Watch out for Life, it is probably just around the corner.

McLaws is right on Windows Vista ship date

For those who are not previously familiar, the author of the Scobleizer blog is a former Microsoft employee and evangelist. In a recent post concering Windows Vista and its long rumored and changed release date said the following:

If this ships in October, I will recommend not installing it and waiting for the first service pack. There’s no way the quality will be high enough to trust it if it ships early. I hope Microsoft takes the time to do this right.

If they don’t Apple will have far more market share at the end of 2007 than it will if Microsoft ships a great release.

Speaking of Apple, they are readying a dizzying amount of new products. I wish I could camp out at an Apple store during the World Wide Developer Conference on August 7th. I wish I could say more, but that’d get me sued by Steve Jobs and I don’t need that kind of heck right now.

Scoble is connected very well to the tech community, he even has a relative employed by Apple.  So what does this information mean?  This sounds like a good few months to come in front of us.  Bring it on Apple, we can take it!

Link to blog

Will all software go open source?

Will all software go open source? | News.blog | CNET News.com

This is really interesting article about open source software.  The author proposes that there is no reason that more software couldn’t be open source.  It will only improve the product by making the source available to be improved upon.

Wendy’s : New ‘Vanilla’ Frosty

Link to article here 

Finally something NEW at Wendy’s.  But don’t get me wrong I like Wendy’s but they certainly don’t seem to add new and exciting products to their menu.

I am really excited for a Vanilla frosty.  I love the chocolate flavor, but I am certainly more of a Vanilla person.

Starting in August 2006, the frosty vanilla goodness will arrive!

That Girl Emily

Blog post about my post here and the pic below

Well I guess he deserves this…but it is rather extreme. Though really, really humorous.

Honey… I LOVE YOU!!! Don’t worry you won’t have to do this. I promise!

Life, Love & Happiness…

It’s what we all want. The perfect life, the perfect relationship and perfect happiness. Why does it seem so unattainable at times? And yet at other’s seems so easy and so right, you can’t imagine why or how it ever goes wrong.

What makes it all so perfect is the beauties, the joy’s, the fullness of life, and the vibrance of another’s person’s interactions with ours. All of it is tied up in one relationship that stems all the others in our lives. My relationship and interaction with God has become more apparent over the last couple months with the many things I have gone through, particularly the things I experienced at Ichthus this year.