Category: misc

It’s been a day

Well what a day it’s been. My goodness. I don’t think I sat down at my desk for more than 30 minutes today.
Three long meetings with a lunch meeting thrown in for good measure.
I think the lunch meeting was the only one where I felt like I actually accomplished something.
“Sounds like someone has a case of the Mondays.”

Prayer request

Please be in prayer for the friends and family of Jerry Diffee. Jerry has been the associate pastor of Metropolitan Bible Church since 1964. It’s the church I grew up in and both he and his brother, Pastor Charles Diffee, made a major impact on my life, my Christian faith and walk.
Jerry collapsed Saturday afternoon while visiting one of his sons in Frisco Little Elm.
His heart stopped and (I believe) his son Jason performed CPR and was able to revive him before paramedics arrived.
But he has not regained his consciousness and an EEG last night showed very little brain activity.
The family decided that today at noon they would remove the life support systems that have been helping Jerry the last 36 hours or so.
Jerry is an amazing God and loved Him and His people.
In fact his brother Charles told me a story of his last three days that was just typical Jerry.
Thursday morning after a breakfast meeting Jerry spotted a disabled man in the parking lot.
He walked over and introduced himself and offered any assistance he could give. He also gave him his cart and told the man to call anytime he needed anything.
The next day, the man called.
He said he didn’t need anything other than someone to listen.
So Jerry did. At the end of their conversation Jerry offered to take the man to breakfast Saturday morning.
The two met and over breakfast Jerry led the man to Christ. My eyes water and I get chills just to type that.
Less than 12 hours later Jerry was in ICU at a Frisco Hospital.
The Church will likely lose a man after God’s own heart today. Please pray for God’s will to be done. Pray for comfort and peace for his family and his extended church family.
Pray for Pastor Charles Diffee as he will be losing a brother as well as his partner in ministry.
And pray that through it all God’s glory will be shown.

Starting all over again

So back in March of 2005 I decided to start a blog.
I researched, I did lots of reading and decided Blogger was my best bet. And for nearly two years it has served me well.
But recently Google decided to make some changes to their software. They made some updates. That’s fine I said. I was excited to see where they would go with their new system.
I tried to migrate over to Blogger Beta right away.
But I was denied. I was told my blog would have to wait.
Sure it was frustrating, but I’m not going to pout. I just kept on keeping on.
I even made some changes to my template and changed my blog, Stranger in a Strange Land, (which will now be referred to as SSL 1.0), from a two column template to a three column template.
Then I get word that “Blogger Beta is dead. Long live the new Blogger.”
Ok. Great, now I can switch to the new Blogger.
Not so fast I was told.
We’re still not ready for you. Ok. I’ll keep pushing along using the old Blogger.
But then Friday morning, everything changed.
I went to login and was told I had to make the change. All right I thought. They’re making me change, they must be ready for me to use the new blogger.
Fat chance. I was still told they weren’t ready. The worst part of it is — they won’t let be back to my old site or login.
Sure its still there floating on the Internet, but I have no way to access SSL 1.0.
So, thus begins SSL 2.0 Beta.
I have none of the old posts (yet), but I have a new domain, new look, new feel and maybe a new direction.
Some have told me they only want to read “personal” entries. Some have told me they only like keeping up with politics on my blog. Others have told me they like the technology. But thanks to a new “back-end” powered by WordPress 2.1 there are categories on the right hand side of the screen and you can pick and chose what you want to read about.
It won’t hurt my feelings if you skip over certain posts.
Really. I’m being honest here.
But to be sure you’re up to date, please update your bookmarks with the new URL for SSL 2.0 Beta: www.casadeblundell.com/jonathan.
For those of you who have paid attention and subscribed to our RSS feed, powered by feedburner.com nothing changes for you — unless you want to take a look at our new site and watch the progression as SSL 2.0 Beta moves into completion.
Also within the next month we expect to launch casadeblundell.com with a new website for mine and Laurie’s wedding. We’re also considering a new blog and site for Laurie at: www.casadeblundell.com/laurie — but more on that later.
So for now, sit back, relax and be thankful that you subscribed to our RSS feed or someone was nice enough to tell you where we moved to.
Let me know what you think. Drop me an e-mail to my new address: jonathan (at) casadeblundell (dot) com.
Take care and God bless.

Oh and shameless plug here: This transition has been about as smooth as it can be. A new domain, spam filters, hosting, FTP and everything else I need less than $200 a year. Zip me an e-mail and I’ll let you know how you can get the same setup.

Wacky uses

Mike Mc found a wacky use website today while doing some research.
Here’s a couple wacky uses on the site:

  • Clean a toilet bowl. Pour a can of Coca-Cola into the toilet bowl. Let the real thing sit for one hour, then brush and flush clean. The phosphoric acid in Coke removes stains from vitreous china, according to household-hints columnist Heloise.
  • Condition hair. To give your hair a great shine, pour a can of Coca Cola into your hair, working it in well, then rinse your hair with water.
  • Kill slugs or snails. Fill jar lids with flat Coca-Cola and set in the garden. Slugs and snails, attracted by sweet soda, will slither into the jar lid and be killed by the acids in the Coke.
  • Repulse deer. Drill a hole in a wrapped bar of Irish Spring Soap and, using string, hang it around crops. Deer mistake the smell of deodorant soap for humans, and flee.
  • Lubricate furniture drawers and windows. Rub Irish Spring Soap on the casters of drawers and windows so they slide open and shut easily.
  • Soothe a sore throat. Add a tablespoon of Smirnoff Vodka to glass of warm water and gargle. The alcohol helps numb the sore throat.
  • Remove grass stains from clothes. Rub the stain with a clean cloth soaked in Smirnoff Vodka, then rinse thoroughly.
  • Attract fish. When sprayed on fishing bait, WD-40 covers up the scent of human hands on the bait to better lure fish, according to USA Today. The WD-40 Company receives hundreds of letters from consumers confirming this use, but prefers not to promote WD-40 as a fishing lure since the petroleum-based product could potentially pollute rivers and streams, damaging the ecosystem.
  • Prevent grass clippings from clogging up a lawn mower. Spray WD-40 on the underside of lawn mower housing and blade before cutting the grass.

    • Ok… you’ll have to visit the site to read the rest.