Monthly Archives: January 2013

Great Song

We sang this song at church last week and again yesterday. I love it.

Roadside Memorials

I’m sorry you lost your loved one to some kind of accident. You and your family have my condolences.

But that’s it. I don’t know who you are. I don’t know who your loved one was. I don’t know the circumstances of the accident. I don’t know when it happened. All I know is that some time in the past someone’s loved one died nearby.

I don’t know if the deceased was old or young, male or female, married or single. I don’t know if she was a mother or he was a father. I don’t know if the children left behind were young or adults. Maybe this person was a beloved uncle or aunt. Had just started college or just finished. Finally had that dream job. Just got married. Just found out the family would be growing.

I also don’t know the circumstances of the accident. Was it a single- or multi-vehicle crash? Was the driver responsible drunk or high? Had she just broken up with her boyfriend and was driving angry and with tears in her eyes so she didn’t see the oncoming car? Were the road or weather conditions dry and clear or wet, icy or slippery? Was it night or day?

I don’t know any of this from a roadside memorial. I might see a cross. I might see it covered with limp balloons, dying flowers, and rotting stuffed animals. All that it tells me is that someone died there.

It doesn’t help me avoid whatever caused that accident.

If you must buy a teddy bear or other stuffed animal, take it to the police station, fire station, or a local hospital or emergency room. Put a note on it to say who it’s in memory of. Police and Fire personnel can give it to a child who is need of comfort. Maybe their house just burned down. Or there’s a domestic or criminal issue going on and the child needs to be removed for his or her own safety. Maybe a child’s been in an accident and brought to the emergency room. Her parent is hurt as well. Other adults in her life can’t get to her right away. A teddy bear can help comfort her or keep her company while she waits. A stuffed animal can help a child in chronic care in the hospital too. The nurses will know which child would be best served.

The child can be told that the gift is from an angel in heaven. And it will be.

Dear Senator Kirk

I sent this to Senator Kirk today via his website contact form:

Senator Kirk,

First, congratulations on your return to the senate. I am very glad you are better.

The paper today said you were in favor of an assault weapons ban. Please reconsider. There is no such thing as an “assault” weapon. The previous ban under President Clinton, did absolutely nothing. It made certain weapons illegal based entirely upon cosmetic aspects of the weapon that had nothing to do with how the weapon fired or its rate of fire.

Full automatic weapons have been illegal since the 1930’s. Semi-automatic sounds scary, but those weapons can fire one shot per trigger pull and no more. Even 20 years ago in the US Army, my M-16 had one shot per trigger pull or a three-shot burst – and I had to set the weapon for the three-shot burst. The civilian AR-15 version of the M-16 doesn’t have that capability. As a member of the military, I thought you’d be aware of this.

We don’t need MORE gun laws. We don’t need to further restrict law-abiding citizens from their Second Amendment rights.

Criminals will obtain weapons illegally no matter what. They are criminals. They don’t care about laws. Look at Chicago. Weapons are pretty much banned and gun violence is through the roof. Gun crimes go down when the law abiding citizenry is free to have weapons. Criminals don’t know who might be able to fight back which deters them. On the other hand, knowing that a victim can’t fight back only encourages them.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Twitter Clients

I am looking for a Twitter client for Windows 7 that will allow me to monitor multiple Twitter accounts at once and have an option to remain static until I refresh it. I hate it when I’m reading something and it disappears because it’s auto-updated.

I went to Seesmic and Tweetdeck today to check out their browser-based and desktop-based options but I am having issues with both of them. I have accounts with both because I used to have them both installed on an old computer.

When I went to Seesmic I tried to log in with my email address and password. It said I had incorrect credentials and to try again. So I clicked the <Forgot your password?> link. I put in my email address and it came back with: “Something went wrong, or we could not find the email in the database”. Then when I tried to sign up, it told me my email address is already in the database, use another.

When I went to Tweetdeck I had a similar problem. I tried to log in with my credentials and it said to “Please check your password.” So I clicked the <Forgot your password?> link there too. The screen flashed for a moment, but nothing else happened. No confirmation that the request was received, no notification that an email would be sent, nothing. A short while later I received an email with a link to change the password. I clicked the link and entered the new password twice as required. Then it told me I hadn’t requested a password change – or I had clicked the link twice. Nope. I hadn’t clicked it twice.

I just tried again and got a notice that an email was sent., but it’s been half an hour and I haven’t received the email.

Tried again and received an email. Clicked the link, entered the new password twice. Received this:

Password Reset

Sorry, xxxxx@xxxxxx.xxx, it seems that there’s no record of you requesting to reset your password.

It’s probably because the password reset link that you clicked on in your email has expired or isn’t valid anymore (meaning, you’ve already clicked on it once).

Please request a new one.

This is all very frustrating.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

Update: Finally got logged in to Tweetdeck. Still no luck with Seesmic. (01/03/13 10:50 pm CST)

 

mm-5