This is due to be posted on the Official Lord of the Rings site sometime today, but I managed to snag this one of many mirrors that is up. The Return of the King trailer (to download it, right-click on the link and choose Save Target As …).
A Reasonable Offer on Our House
Subject to change without notice: After a week of haggling, some interested buyers have made what is a reasonable offer on our house. This was unexpected, as the original offer was very low.
Now, of course, we face the home inspection, and, even more important, we need to find suitable housing in Nashua or Hudson. Keep praying.
Traffic
[doug]It took me 2 hours and 15 minutes to get to work today. I didn't get past second gear until I had already passed Needham. Yesterday it was an hour and 45 minutes. Last week as another 1:45 trip. I guess I should be glad the ride home is only taking 1:15 to 1:30, typically, but even there the traffic has been unusually heavy. :: sigh :: It will be nice to live closer to work.
Oh, That Lord!
This Is a bit dated, but yesterday’s post about David brought this to mind:
[david]From July 2002: All our children are big fans of J.R.R. Tolkien's works, but we hadn't realized what a large impact the recent DVD release of The Fellowship of the Ring had on our youngest son David, who is 3½ years old.
While supervising a group of children, one of our fellow church members asked him, “Are you thankful for the Lord?†He stopped what he was doing, looked up in careful contemplation, and then asked her, “The Lord of the Rings?â€
Yikes! I need to post something.
[david]We have a policy of 1 hour of computer or video game time per day on weekdays for the kids (they get 2 hours on weekends), but they can earn extra time, which they sometimes do, by working on educational software or activities, such as typing for Isaac, writing for David, and Web design for John). One of David’s time-earning activities is to run the Virtual Fish Tank, an online version of the full-size exhibit (once part of the Computer Museum) at the Museum of Science in Boston. Last night he was watching me work (well, play Star Trek Voyager Elite Force II) on one machine, and asked me to call up the Virtual Fish Tank for him. He then said, “I can earn game time just by leaving this running—I don’t actually have to play it, right?†For a 4-year-old, he’s getting much too good at trying to “work the angles.â€
Old House / New House (We Pray)
Today we placed an offer on a house in Hudson, New Hampshire, that we really fell in love with. This would place me only 18 miles from work, instead of 50—a big difference, especially considering the need for more family time.
We will know tomorrow (probably) if our offer is accepted, and it is, of course, contingent on our selling the house in Brockton. Today we had five showings, and have had one or two a day for the past three weeks. We reduced our price a little bit, as our realtor recommended, and are really praying that this “whole package†works out.
In other family events, the kids are getting ready to go back to school (here for a month or two), and Naomi is due in 8 1/2 weeks! Wow.
Lies, Darned Lies, and Marketing
I’ve come across this new breed of popup ad a few times in the past couple of weeks:
Yet again we have an attempt to prey on the gullible and less-than-well-informed computer users. What infuriates me most about this—even beyond the desire to trick the user into thinking his or her computer has a problem (much like the “Your Internet connection is not operating at full speed†garbage ads)—is that the ad site claims the user’s computer is infected, regardless of the fact that the user’s computer (like mine) might be patched or firewalled and completely invulnerable to the RPC worm.
I wonder how many people have been duped by this scheme? This makes me very angry indeed.
Folks need to learn to differentiate between a scam advertisement and a real security threat, and this sort of schrecklichkeit is abominable.
And a Final Rant Is Due: Look, if you’re going to have a computer connected to the Internet, or even just receiving e-mail of any kind, you must install some good antivirus software and keep your machine updated with the latest security patches (which means running the Windows Update service for most people). Do not use McAffee because it stinks—you’re much better off with Norton Antivirus. Do update your virus definitions at least every week, and run a full scan that often as well. If you can’t afford Norton AntiVirus, try one of several free alternatives, such as BitDefender, Avast, AntiVir, or AVG Anti-Virus.
A Cool Word
The German language has some fascinating words, some of which have made their way into accepted use in other languages.
Schadenfreude: The pleasure one gets from talking about catastrophies; delight in another person’s misfortune.
I came across this in the short story “Thomas the Proclaimer,†by Robert Silverberg, published in his novelette collection entitled Sailing to Byzantium. (Thanks to Kevin Miller for the loan of the book.)
Happy Birthday to Me
I know it’s a bit odd to announce one’s own birthday, but, hey, I turned 35 years old. This makes me exactly halfway through a normal lifespan, according to Moses:
The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away. (Psalm 90:10)
Yesterday seems to have gone unnoticed by virtually everyone. Even my mother had to be reminded by my brother Aaron!
Nichelle had a tough day, and wasn’t able to do much, although I believe she is scheming up something.