I was born on Fathers’ Day, and every so often my birthday falls on Fathers’ Day again. It did last year.

It was the Queen’s Birthday a few years ago (the date the UK celebrates, not her actual birthday which is in April).

I share my birthday with MC Escher, Newt Gingrich, Mohammed El Baeredai, the former Mayor of London Ken Livingstone, Erin and Diane Murphy (Tabitha Stephens from Bewitched), Venus Williams, Barry Manilow, Greg Kinnear, Jason Patric, Thomas Hayden Church, Bobby Farrelly, Mark Linn Baker, Ralph Bellamy, Joe Piscopo, Kimber Eastwood (Clint‘s daughter), James Shigeta, George Clinton, Kami Cotler (the Waltons – Goodnight Elizabeth), Will Forte (SNL), and more.

I also share my birthday with Twitter friends @onefinejay and @littlebytesnews!

Set your clocks ahead one hour before you go to sleep tonight. It’s Daylight Saving Time.

Of course, if you’re up, you can set them to 3:00 am when the clock strikes 2:00 am.

Many clocks in your home will change automatically, the cordless phones, the cable boxes, computers.

Don’t forget your programmable thermostats, microwaves, stoves, coffee pots and other appliances when changing the clocks.

Don’t forget your vehicle too.

Change your clocks and you won’t be an hour early to church.

Now is also a good time to change the batteries in your smoke detectors and carbon monoxide detectors.

Spring is just around the corner!

The full video is now available at YouTube.

This is so sweet. I saw it at the theater before Wreck-it Ralph last November and I was very moved by it.

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

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.

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:

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)

Wishing every one a happy, healthy, and prosperous New Year!

I’m hoping for more business in 2013. I’d like to be able to finance a family vacation. We haven’t been on one in many years.

Schratwieser Consulting

Armistice Day, Veterans’ Day, Remembrance Day

The 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month…

In Flanders Fields

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe;
To you, from failing hands, we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

Written by Lt-Colonel John McRae (1915)

Can we get a GOP with sound economics and a commitment to individual liberty?

I hope so. We need fiscal responsibility along with liberty. We need to drop “special” rights for anyone. We need to do away with affirmative action. We need to do away with legislating “health” such as Bloomberg is trying in NYC.

We need freedom to choose in everything – schools, health, everything.

Stop telling insurance companies what they must cover and allow people to buy insurance that covers what the person wants covered. My mother has no need to cover maternity or prostrate issues. Why should she be paying for coverage for those things?

Allow people in New Jersey to buy insurance from a company in North Dakota if they wish.

Divorce health insurance from employment. Allow us to purchase it like we do our auto, home, and life insurance. Let us bundle it with auto, home, and life if we wish.

Make health insurance actual insurance again, not the pre-paid health it is now. When I was a kid, we paid the doctor when we went (or had a payment plan). One had insurance for catastrophic and hospitalization. You know you’ll get sick – that’s something you plan for. The hospitalization is what you’re insuring against.

I should also be able to choose the level of deductible that I want. Government shouldn’t set deductible levels. If I would choose a $5,000 deductible for lower premium payments I shouldn’t be limited to a $2,500 deductible with a higher premium because the government doesn’t think I should (could) pay that much out of pocket.

Health Savings Accounts (and health reimbursement accounts) should be available to everyone without a use-it-or-lose-it aspect. If I don’t use all my health care savings in one year, I should be able to carry it over to the next. Maybe next year I’ll have more illnesses than I did this year.

Being able to save this way can allow one to have the money in the health account when it’s needed as one gets older.

All pensions need to be defined contribution rather than defined benefit. One has control over how much to contribute to retirement, one can’t know that there will be a certain amount available in 20 years…