Well it would appear from all accounts that if the primary season didn’t end Tuesday night, it will officially end tomorrow as Hillary Clinton gives her support to Barack Obama.
In case you missed it, NPR has a great “highlight reel” with some of the top sound clips from the campaign season.
Category: misc
Zac Browser
This is a cool example of finding a way to make things work – when there’s not (many) other options available.
From USA Today:
John LeSieur is in the software business, so he took particular interest when computers seemed mostly useless to his 6-year-old grandson, Zackary. The boy has autism, and the whirlwind of options presented by PCs so confounded him that he threw the mouse in frustration.
LeSieur tried to find online tools that could guide autistic children around the Web, but he couldn’t find anything satisfactory. So he had one built, named it the Zac Browser For Autistic Children in honor of his grandson, and is making it available to anyone for free.
The browser is geared towards kids with autism but looks like it could be a good way for other kids to learn the web and computers as well.
National Doughnut Day
Today is National Doughnut Day. Didn’t realize this, but National Doughnut Day honors the Salvation Army “Lassies” of WWI. It is also used as a fund raiser for needy causes of the Salvation Army.
The original Salvation Army Doughnut was first served by Salvation Army in 1917. During WWI, Salvation Army “lassies” were sent to the front lines of Europe. These brave volunteers made home cooked foods, and provided a moral boost to the troops. Often, the doughnuts were cooked in oil inside the of the metal helmet of an American soldier. The American infantrymen were commonly called doughboys. Salvation Army lassies were the only women outside of military personnel allowed to visit the front lines. Lt. Colonel Helen Purviance is considered the Salvation Army’s “first doughnut girl”.
On National Doughnut Day, look to see if your local doughnut shop, or other organizations, are offering free donuts to solicit donations for the Salvation Army or for another needy cause. If you find them, please be generous.
Microsofts Big A table
My buddy Brian played with Microsoft’s new Surface product a couple weeks ago in Seattle. He said it was way cool. I don’t see the benefit yet – and neither do these guys:
simply living simply pt.2
Well I promised I’d try and share some of the things Laurie and I are currently doing to live simply.
I’m not sharing this list because I want to brag about what we do, or because we’ve got it all figured out and we do it right all the time. I’m just sharing this list because they’re some things that we’ve found that work for us (as in – “Hey! We can do this!”). Laurie may have some additions to this list (I hope she does).
Invest in others – Laurie and I are both involved in several groups where community and relationships are built. We are both part of a community group that meets each Tuesday night in the home of friends and we share life and God. Laurie also now meets weekly with several friends on Thursday night to just spend time building those relationships and I’m involved in a Bible study/discussion for men on Wednesday morning (the men’s What-a-Study) and typically meet with one or two other guys at different times during the week.
Recycle – we’re not doing near enough yet (in my opinion) but we’re doing a lot more than we used to. We recycle our aluminum cans, plastic and glass thanks to city recycling program. We should probably add cardboard and paper to the mix – but we haven’t taken the time to store and deliver paper products to a recycling site (mental note: add that to the goal list).
Utilizing public transportation – I’m a big fan of public transportation, especially good systems like DART. Granted, the old joke remains, “The thing I hate about public transportation is the public.” Sure there are days when folks can annoy you and get on your last nerve – but we save a great deal of money on gas and parking each month with my monthly DART pass. On top of that, it gives me an opportunity to actually be in fellowship with others rather than tuning the world out as I climb in my truck all by myself.
Using CFLs – We’ve switched all but just a few lights in our house to new CFL or LED bulbs. We need to find some good CFLs that look good above our bathroom mirrors, but otherwise I think all of our lights have been changed to money saving CFLs.
Utilize an automatic thermostat – This is one of those ways we’re easily putting technology to use to try and save money and automate our air conditioning/heating needs. We also utilize ceiling fans in our main rooms of use (including a brand new one I installed in our office today). While this may be too warm for some folks, we keep our thermostat at 78° F while we’re home and at 85° F during the day. We just discussed the possibility of lowering that day time temperature to 80 or 82 so our AC doesn’t run as long in the evening to cool the house off again. We haven’t found any substantial evidence as to which is best for efficiency, cost and wear and tear on our AC. While our winter bill was a bit higher, we’ve had 2 months of spring/summer electric bills of $70 or less!
We’ve discussed other areas we can improve on or start doing including:
- starting a garden
- starting a compost pile
- recycling paper
- eating more organic foods
- eating out much less
- having friends over for dinner on a more regular basis
Well there’s you a starting point. Any thoughts, ideas or suggestions?
Be sure and check out Shaun Groves’ latest post to see some of his goals as well.
simply living simply
Kevin has shared some thoughts on living simply.
I think everyone wanting to live simply has different reasons for doing so, Kevin says, “Part of my motivation is money: Spending less on stuff makes our adoption more affordable. It also makes it easier to help others and be more generous.”
Kevin points to two recent posts by Shaun Groves who writes that his desire for living simply is: “To free up resources which should be spent on those presently in need. To prevent need. To invest in personal health – mental, spiritual, relational and physical.”
These things resonate with me deep in my soul. Yet I struggle with simply giving up my wants and desires in order to simply live a simple life. Things like having my own car (truck) to take me where I want when I want, having the AC/heater on at the exact temperature I want it at, eating what I want, when I want or even living in a “suburb” away from the big city. These are things (along with others) that I want control over – but seem to go against the idea of living simply.
Some other things I think are important to living simply (that Kevin and Shaun didn’t specifically mention) are taking full advantage of technology when and where its affordable and practical. Probably one reason I’m a big fan of sites like Lifehacker.com and even social networking sites. I’ve always sent prayer requests to people via txt messaging and e-mails but now with Twitter and my BlackCrackBerry those processes are even faster and easier. There is some additional cost along the way – but to me, for what I do its well worth it for some of the technology (but maybe these are areas I should work on as well). Of course when and where I can use open source – I’m all for it.
I think ultimately I have several reasons for wanting to live simply and both Kevin and Shaun have included them in their reasons – but off the cuff here are some of mine…
- Investing more in others rather than myself. The more I spend on myself, the less I have to give away. God may choose to bless me and Laurie, but I believe he blesses people so that we in turn can be a blessing to others. I also think this carries over into investing personal time and such with people as well. If I share my dinner with friends and family, not only am I giving to them financially, it offers opportunity to give and share relationally.
- Being a good steward of ALL that God has given us. We hear this a lot in our churches, but I think we tend to only apply it to our tithe and finances we give back to the church or other causes. I think this also includes being a good steward of the world around us – i.e. living green, recycling, etc.
- Living simply = less stress. Let’s face it, the less you have, the less opportunity you have for things to go wrong. Sure some of those things may happen and stress may still occur but if I become dependent on things – it becomes a lot more stressful when those things don’t work like they should.
Well those are the basics. Be sure and read Kevin’s post as well as Shaun’s to see what they’re doing. Maybe a little later I’ll share some of the simple things Laurie and I have started doing to try to simply live simply.
In the meantime, how, why and where do you live simply?