Experience




I have been blessed over the years to have had some great teachers, from Mrs. Morrow in kindergarten to Dr. Willis in grad school. But I believe that my best teacher, by far, is Experience.

Experience is the most persistent of teachers, always providing opportunities to learn and advance my understanding. S/He lets me know there are things I can do and must do. S/He has shown me that there are things that I cannot do and need to depend on others. Experience teaches me dangerous things to avoid, as well as beautiful things to pursue and embrace.

Experience has helped me get jobs and taken me to exotic places. S/He has given me confidence that I could accomplish and achieve. S/He has brought me disappointment when I did not reach a goal, but also brought great satisfaction when a job has been done.

Experience has introduced to a vast number of people. S/He has brought me into contact with people that are the greatest joy in life, and taught me to love them. Experience also has taught me that there are some folks with whom I will have no positive interaction. Experience has taught me how to endure them, at times even honor them.

Experience has helped me realize a lot about life and how to handle the ups and downs. Through Experience, I know that when I am having a mountaintop moment, it will not be long till I have to go back down into the valley to continue my journey.

And when life has dealt me a severe blow, Experience reminds me that it is another hurdle to be overcome, but that the sun is still shining behind the clouds.

Christian Fiction Shop!



Reading is one of the favorite activities of our family, for everyone from 3 to 83. We read a lot of non-fiction, but we all love a good story. We enjoy murder mysteries, and western novels, and fantasies, almost any story will suit us.

For perhaps the past twenty or twenty five years we have read a lot of biblical/historical fiction. These works are centered on events recorded in Scripture, but building stories about the characters of those events. There are some really compelling works in this genre.

A year or so ago my wife and middle daughter decided to create a website that would promote Christian fiction. The site is Christianfictionshop.com. Among the features on the site are reviews of quite an assortment of Christian works of fiction. This allows readers to get an idea of whether or not to pick up a copy of a particular work.

Also there is a place on the site that allows readers to submit reviews of their favorite authors or books. If you are interested in Christian fiction, I hope you will take a moment and investigate the Christian Fiction Shop.

OLD TIMER BLOG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have begun a new blog that I am calling Old Timer. I will be writing mostly about baseball and other sports, with perhaps a few thoughts about various forms of recreation and entertainment. If you have any interest in such topics, I hope you will come by for a look and maybe a few ideas of your own regarding the issues surrounding the teams and games.

NEW BOOK CLUB FORMING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



A good friend of mine has decided to put together a
Book Club gathering of bloggers each month. She will post a book for any one who is interested in participating to read by the 25th of the month. Then each participant will post his or her report on the book on their own blog, with a link to the book club site. My friend will include links back to the various posts so that the participants can peruse the other posted reports.

The book to be read for the month of April is To Kill A Mockingbird. I have not read it since high school, so I will pick up a copy at the library and give it a reread.

The whole idea sounds like fun to me, and of course, the more the merrier!

MOTHER GOOSE & GRIMM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!





I have daily home delivery of the Houston Chronicle. Except on Sunday, I like to start my day with the paper, but I usually only read the sports page and the funny papers. One of the comics I check every day is Mother Goose and Grimm. It often has a new twist on old thoughts or phrases. I often laugh. Today was one of those. I thought you might enjoy the laugh and start reading the funnies, if you are not in the habit.

IZEA RANKINGS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

IZEA, parent company of Pay Per Post, has developed a ranking system for blogs. The Real Rank is intended, at least in part, to help establish value for advertisers using PPP to promote their products. Google has decided that any blog posting links to an advertiser somehow diminishes their strength, so they removed all page ranks from such blogs. It has resulted, at least for the blogs I had that were very productive now receiving almost no offers. I am trying to get the Izea Rankings to work for me, so I can do more work for them. I am anxious to get back on a better footing with the advertisers.

CARNIVAL VICTORY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


My wife and I took our seven and eight year old grandsons on a seven day cruise of the Eastern Caribbean on the Carnival Victory. We sailed out of Miami, making ports of call in San Juan, Puerto Rico, St. Thomas, and St. Maarten. We had a very comfortable balcony suite that slept four on the Upper Deck level. We had late seating in the Pacific dining room, and had wonderful waiters; Clarence from St. Vincent and Adrian from Indonesia. They were especially kind to the boys.

The food was good and there was lots to do on the boat when we were at sea, includnig Camp Carnival sessions for the kids at no extra charge. The boys most enjoyed the 80 foot water slide!

Dragon Speak!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My computer has been down for the last few days, and when I got problems figured out, at least most of them, I could not launch my voice recognition software. I went to nuance.com, who produces the software called Dragon Speak. I found out if there is a problem between Windows XP and Dragon Speak. The fix was very quick and now I am testing the software and it seems to be working fine again.