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Old House / New House (We Pray)

From this ...    ... to this!

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.

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Lies, Darned Lies, and Marketing

I’ve come across this new breed of popup ad a few times in the past couple of weeks:

Brought to you by the evil folks at ZendMedia and the vendors of ComputerShield (http://ad1.zendmedia.com/ad-rpc.php?id=ad46) ...

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.

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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.)

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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.

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::: Sigh :::

[doug]Well, today was not a day without some importance. Our new realtor came by to look at the improvements on the house and give us a market estimate. The reality of moving left me a bit panicky for a while, and then rather sad. I’ve never done well with big changes, and this move will separate me from where I’ve lived most of my life.

Ultimately, I need to grasp firmly the idea that we are in God’s hands, that it is He who (unquestionably) provided the job in Chelmsford, and that my wife and children need me at home earlier and need me closer to home when I’m at the office.

Nashua provides a quick commute, a good church and school[s], and affordable living. In a day or so, I’ll get through this emotional transition, but it’s a pain, and there·s still a great deal to pray about.

Onward …

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Jeffries Tubes

Film/TV art director Matt Jeffries died from a heart attack July 21 at age 81. He was best known for designing the original Starship Enterprise for the “Star Trek” TV series—and remembered for the “Jeffries Tubes” in the ship, where the guts of the mechanics are.

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Greetings from Mexico!

[doug]I’ve been much too busy to keep the BLOG (or even the Mexico site) updated while in Mexico, although there is dial-up access – other things seem much more important.

Of course, the hard part is being so far away from Nichelle, but I had been homesick for Mexico for a couple of months.

I will post details of our missions trip soon, but one funny thing that has happened is that two girls have started fighting over our son John [john inline], just from seeing his picture. ¡Valgame Dios!

For Nichelle: LYMZ, TDS.

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Old Enough to Drive, Old Enough to Drink, Old Enough to Vote, but Apparently Not Old Enough to Think!

Harry Potter Fan's Magic Attempt Sets House Ablaze
Thu July 10, 2003 10:59 AM ET

MADRID (Reuters) – A woman set her Madrid home on fire as she cooked up a potion in an attempt to imitate the fictional wizard Harry Potter, emergency services said.

The 21-year-old was rescued Wednesday by firemen and treated for minor injuries, but half her home was destroyed.

The ambulance service said she had told them she was trying to emulate the boy magician, hero of the books by J K Rowling that have been a sensation among adults and children alike.

For want of more magical ingredients, the woman cooked up a potion of water, oil, alcohol and toothpaste, local media reported. It was unclear what spell she was trying to weave.

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Tish Hinojosa

I’ll post more narrative later, but last weekend Nichelle and I went down to hear the hauntingly beautiful, often plaintive, voice of Tish Hinojosa (more on that later) at the New Bedford Summerfest 2003 folk festival.

Here are a few images (yes, KI, I finally bought my own digital camera):