I Love Snow!

What was left of the snow when I got home
Well this is our first snow of the year! I’ve asked my wife to take pictures, but hopefully it will still be around when I get off. I’ll get photos up then, but until then you can watch something close to what I’m seeing live yeah removed cause it’s not snowing now! 🙂 ha ha . . .

🙂

  • This is the live web-cam of our Student Center Construction on campus
  • . We are just beginning dirt and preparation but they plan to open the facility in the Fall of 2009. . . 🙂
    Until then let it snow let it snow let it snow!

    Updated Snow Picture from earlier in the day! (for my Northern sugar doubters! 🙂 )
    Snow in Marshall March 2008

    Glenn

    Design Bliss and WPDesigner Win a Free Theme Club Membership!

    Hello! Well some of you may have noticed but probably not, since I haven’t said anything about it, but I really digg WPdesigner.com and I have been following his new Theme Club and had decided I really would like to join the club.
    In fact I have had fun reading his Critiques and fun musings on themes and the WordPress community as well as using his themes on several of my blogs at one time or another! Well he recently ran a promotion and has been allowing other sites to use promotional give aways to the new Theme Club which is already outrageously inexpensive at $5 annually. But I signed up for one of these contests at www.designbliss.com incidentally an excellent design blog with great icons, graphics and commentary by Brian Pate. I hadn’t subscribed to the site before, but after reading that they were an affiliate and were giving away Theme Club memberships, I had to check it out!
    I am very happy to have won a membership in the contest and want to thank Small Potatoes and especially Brian Pate, for hosting and giving this one to me! I’ve already downloaded and applied one of the themes to this site and will be making some updates but was very thrilled to see that nearly all of my code and sidebar information was handled seamlessly in the new WordPress Customized Widgit bar feature!
    That just about sums it up, but I’d encourage anyone to sign up for Small Potatoes Theme Club at wpdesigner.com and to check out Brian’s great site at www.designbliss.com!
    Glenn

    Newgate – Bringing new Hope to Broken Lives

    I recently had the privilege of accompanying my Sunday School class to Newgate Mission in Longview, TX. It had been a long time since I had been to rescue mission/homeless shelter, and I wasn’t at all disappointed by what I found. While it is always staggering the amount of grace and love that abounds in such places, it really shouldn’t be a surprise at all, considering the example and life of our Lord Jesus Christ. As the director Kent McKeever preached on the Samaritan Woman at the well, I found myself both in awe and transfixed by the simple message of love and grace in action. Also on point and something I hadn’t ever considered was “why was the woman at the well around the 6th hour? (that’s Noon for all of us in the US as the Jewish day started at 6:00AM approximately. This would have been an unusual time to be drawing water at the well, it was mentioned that custom and convenience would have seen the community come to the well around 9:00AM before the full heat of the day had struck. It would seem that this particular Samaritan was not only an outcast from the Jewish people but also her own community, at least that is one possible explanation, although we just don’t know for sure.
    What we do know is that Jesus crossed those barriers and spoke to her heart, not only transforming her life but the life of that community.
    John 4:42 They said to the woman, “We no longer believe just because of what you said; *now* we have *heard* for ourselves, and we *know* that this man really is the Savior of the world.”
    Transformation from the inside out. . . Newgate is about that type of transformational hope and love spoken into broken lives. . .
    Have you served at your local mission? If not check out these in East Texas and Shreveport Louisiana
    http://www.newgatemission.org (Newgate Mission Longview, TX) http://hiway80mission.org (Highway 80 Rescue Mission Longview, TX) http://www.sbrescuemission.org (Shreveport Bossier Rescue Mission Shreveport, LA)
    In His Service, Glenn

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    A Guest Post by April (An April Fairy Tale)

    Princess

    An April Fairy Tale:

    Once upon a time in a land not so far away whose sky sparkled with glittering diamonds at night and whose mornings were filled with techno colored sunrises and sunsets, there lived a princess. This princess’ focus was divided between the pursuit of truth and maintaining her kingdom and caring for its inhabitants. Life was calm and peaceful when she ruled wisely and chaos immeasurable when she grew lax.
    One day while doing her routine maintenance check on the castle itself, she came across an imprisoned frog. It was the color of new blades of fresh spring grass. It eyes were like amber cat’s eye marbles. It’s gaunt belly as white as new fallen snow.
    Frog Singing

    The frog was kept by the king and the house’s wizard, she assumed for the study of it’s’ song. When the princess looked in, the living conditions of the amphibian were far less than adequate. It was in need of so many things- food, water, light. It couldn’t sing because it was in great need. The princess being unsure of what to fill the needs of the singing frog sent a courier of light to the king who was out on the field of battle. “What, sire, do I do to meet the needs of the imprisoned singing frog?” Apparently, the king was in the midst of a harsh battle and could not promptly respond.

    A Busy Knight

    The princess felt the need of the frog weighing on her heart wearily. He was part of her kingdom. He was living. He needed. So she went to the wizard’s study and began research. It would appear that a distant relative of the frog lived imprisoned near him in the study. It was a slim anole who changed color like the grey sky before a prairie storm to a shiny green of English ivy. It licked its small black blinking eyes. Its egg shell colored belly was plump and it was absorbing the warmth of an artificial sun. The princess could hear the mimicry of violin songs from its food source Cricket Chirpingstill waiting to be found. The princess reasoned that if one amphibian at that food, surely its cousin could as well.
    Carefully, for king and country, the princess lifted the lid of the prison. The frog weak as it was barely flinched. Taking a deep breath, having never handled a frog like this before, she slowly, speaking soft pleasant musical words explained who she was and her intent. She told the frog of the wondrous place he was to be relocated to and the milk and honey lifestyle he would soon enjoy as opposed to the puny ivy, cold potting soil, and lack of resources he now found himself in. She asked him if he wouldn’t love to relocate to another portion of the kingdom prepared for him and his kind where there would be abundance and a chance to sing again. She looked kindly into his small yellow black eyes. Reaching toward him, she gingerly took him in her hand. He was icy and slightly sticky. He did not move or fight. She took him out of his chamber and lifted the lid to the lizard’s apartment and carefully began to lower the frog inside.
    Then he peed all over her hand A frog is just a frog afterall picture of Princess and a frogand she dropped him into the tank and dropped the lid running to the bathroom to wash her hand! It was beyond disgusting.

    A No is Still a No Ich says Tigger Welcome to my world!You can not have tons of compassion for musical frogs apparently.
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    Kermit at the Doctor

    Yeah and you thought you were Desperate

    (I thought this was absolutely hilarious and thought it would be a nice change of pace. . . If you like it stick around, leave a comment. . . I’m attempting to convince her to blog full time on her own site too! )

    BTW: This is an excepted written work all rights are reserved by the original author or authors:

    Adsense and Earnings with a Niche 5 Steps to $100

    Hi There! Well I haven’t written much or actually nothing about this but I’m an Google Adsense Publisher. I accept Google ads on this site mainly in the 404 but some refer els are around, and run Contextual Ads on my Niche site www.findwirelessinternet.info I began to accept Adsense as an experiment to see if I could re-coup the domain cost and a part of my hosting. And so I began tentatively and slowly in March 2007. I found it to be really rough going at first, a kinda black hole of expectation. Every day, sometimes multiple times a day browsing over to adsense.google.com and looking to see if I had any earnings. But for a time almost nothing. . . Ahh but patience, research and a good niche make up for a lack of well . . . anything. But I kept plugging away. Here are some of the steps I took to break the $100 barrier, it took a quite a while for me but there it is:

    1. Signup for Adsense, if you don’t have an account Click At the Top of this Post!
    2. Read the Adsense Blog http://adsense.blogspot.com/
    3. Read the Program Policies https://www.google.com/adsense/support/bin/topic.py?topic=8423 (this is the don’t get banned warning FAQ)
    4. Create great content that appeals to readers and provides something they want. Quick Primer http://www.improvetheweb.com/quality-content
    5. Keep it up and wait . . . and Nine months later you too may have a $100 dollar check in the mail from Google! 🙂

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    One Laptop Per Child Give the Gift of Connectivity and Learning

    Hello to my friends and readers who may have stumbled upon my blog. I wanted to write about the OLPC (One Laptop Per Child) project. This project is headed by Nicholas Negroponte the author of ‘Being Digital’ Being Digital, which is one of the several sources for the project’s mission.
    The Goal as related from http://www.laptop.org/en/vision/index.shtml


    “Our goal: To provide children around the world with new opportunities to explore, experiment and express themselves. read more”
    So why do I agree with this assessment and project, because I believe people matter. I believe people of every nation tongue and tribe deserve to be empowered and encouraged and have the opportunity to educate themselves. This project isn’t about the technology or the laptop, the laptop is a doorway to interconnectedness and amazing opportunities for these young children around the world to find a way to learn, grow and play that they probably have never experienced before.
    Do I believe technology is a cure all? (Absolutely not!) Do I believe that these children will be completely immune to the dangers inherent in an interconnected life? (Unfortunately Not! Human nature lends to exploitation and evil far to often Rom 3:23) Do I believe the potential benefit outweighs the costs and potential dangers? Absolutely, there is something about connectedness and learning that opens the mind to possibilities unimaginable before. This technology isn’t about the computer, although it is amazing!
    Did you know that each one of these laptops doesn’t even require an electrical outlet? ( A foot powered pedal provides power without the electric outlet) In addition their built in Mesh Networking device allows interconnected Laptops to piggy back off each other and connect to the Internet from any other connected laptop!
    Well that’s about all for OLPC for now, why don’t you check it out and if you are ready to give or to get goto http://www.laptopgiving.org/en/index.php
    🙂 Glenn

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    Could You Survive a Digg Storm with WordPress and a Shared Host?

    Photos from a Storm

    Have you recently found yourself the center of attention? Did Stumbleupon, Technocratica and Delicious all tag your blog as a mecca of information for the masses. Did your traffic spike beyond levels that would make any reasonable server and host pull out their hair?

    Here are 3 easy tips to help get you out of this mess!

    1. De-activate ALL other plugins! (If you can get to the WordPress Plugin Control Panel choose the “Deactivate All Plugins” from the options at the bottom. If you can’t get to the control panel but can still access FTP, you can move your plugins to a new subdirectory, this will deactivate them in WordPress.

    2. Re-enable or Install WP-Cache2 (Preferably before the Storm)

    3. Call Your Host and Ask for Mercy! ( 🙂 ) All joking aside if you see you are spiking from an article and Digg and other Social Media are catching on, contact your host, and try to avoid the dreaded “THIS ACCOUNT IS SUSPENDED!” Message.

    Hope this has been very useful information. This may help in your case or it may not, but it is definitely worth a shot, in any case! Don’t try to go it alone. If you find yourself in the middle of a storm and would like some advice feel free to email glenn@interfaithnetworking.com!

    Thanks for the tags and keep blogging. . .

    Glenn

    Gift Card Ban! Top 10 Reasons I will Join Clark Howard in Giving Cash if I was going to Give a Giftcard

    🙂 I had to post this link. http://clarkhoward.com/ads/clark/nogiftcards.html
    First, It cracks me up just looking at Clark Howard’s Smile! (In a Good Way! :))

    Second, this is really something I agree with. There is nothing more irritating then finding some limitation or other gotcha on these gift cards! Not to mention the exorbitant fees some of them charge! Just last Christmas, I got to pay $5 bucks for the privilege of giving a AMX gift card to my brother! Oh brother I say, but the other cards weren’t any better and he couldn’t use them at any other stores! Yikes. . . Third, this is a great way to say hey I forgot about you till the last minute, but at least I cared enough to go to the bank and get out cash for your Christmas present, instead of swiping my debit card in the store. . .
    Fourth, life is full of surprises, having cash on hand may come in handy in those sticky situations.  oh . . .oops I only came up with 4 well they are 4 really good reasons.  If you can think of more please post in the comments!  🙂 link love is appreciated!

    C

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    Thankfullness

    I just wanted to say thanks! Misty and I received a very precious homemade card from our College group yesterday. It came at just the right time. Things have been very crazy and it seems for the past 2 months we have been back and forth to the doctor, either for myself, Misty or Chase. . . wow. . .
    But the card was very sweet, it came with scripture and anonymous thank you notes from the group! It even included original artwork portrayals of Misty and I, I have to say I haven’t been sketched before, but I was impressed, much better than I could have done myself. I’ll have to scan in a picture after I check with the artists, you know those artists can be particular, even if you are the subject of their work!
    Anyway. . . one of those verses that was in their was . . . do not grow weary in well doing”
    Galatians 6:7-10
    7Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. 8The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature[a ]will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. 9Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. 10Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.
    Yeah, we needed that. . .
    Thank You God, Thank you to the group!
    I’m glad to be serving here with you. Glenn

    Religion and Jesus

    Subject Thankfullness
    I just wanted to say thanks! Misty and I received a very precious homemade card from our College group yesterday. It came at just the right time. Things have been very crazy and it seems for the past 2 months we have been back and forth to the doctor, either for myself, Misty or Chase. . . wow. . .
    But the card was very sweet, it came with scripture and anonymous thank you notes from the group! It even included original artwork portrayals of Misty and I, I have to say I haven’t been sketched before, but I was impressed, much better than I could have done myself. I’ll have to scan in a picture after I check with the artists, you know those artists can be particular, even if you are the subject of their work!
    Anyway. . . one of those verses that was in their was . . . do not grow weary in well doing”
    Galatians 6:7-10
    7Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. 8The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature[ a ]will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. 9Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. 10Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.
    Yeah, we needed that. . .
    Thank You God, Thank you to the group!
    I’m glad to be serving here with you. Glenn