28 August 2003

This week

I was planning on an entry where I went off of all these little girls at Quassy with skimpy tops on their 2-piece bathing suits, but I just have not felt up to the whole big argument about their immodesty and what their parents are thinking. But I have not been up to it yet. Maybe another day.

27 August 2003

First Day of School!

Normalcy, or at least what passes for normalcy, returns. Yay! :-D

26 August 2003

Prayer Request!

Today I contacted Wal-Mart about a job in their Systems Department. I have an interview on Monday, September 1st at 9:00 a.m.. I would like to request the prayers of all of you, if you can spare a few prayers. Thank you VERY MUCH in advance!

25 August 2003

24 August 2003

Hello Autumn!

Today we received a wonderful gift from God. An early taste of Autumn! Nice 70 degree temperatures, nice cool wind. What a wonderful day to turn off the air conditioner (finally!) and open up all the windows and enjoy the fresh breeze.

23 August 2003

Behold the Game!

Parcheesi!

I changed the link to Parcheesi: The Classic Game of India to a link where you can buy the game online instead of the link to product description by Hasbro. Also, in this entry I am adding a link to the Parcheesi Deluxe Edition: A Royal Game of India by Milton Bradley for people that prefer the more traditional version. Personally I prefer the Hasbro version. As my daughter says, "It's cooler!"

22 August 2003

Recent Windows Viruses may be Terrorist Attacks?

Read here for all the juicy details.

Oops! There will be entries after all! :-o

Well we should have been at Lake Compounce all day today, but the over 90 degree, super humid, cloudy, foggy weather turned into severe thunderstorms by the time we got near the Lake. So as a consolation we went to Toys 'R' Us and spent a few hours looking at... well, toys! At the end of the day, I let Anastasia get one thing and convinced her that Parcheesi: The Classic Game of India would be a good choice. Fun game! :-D

Since we missed out on going to Lake Compounce's last open weekday, (and I never go to amusement parks on weekends in the summer, too much people traffic!) we are instead going to go to Quassy on Monday, God willing and weather permitting. We have been to Lake Compounce and Six Flags New England before, but never Quassy, so maybe this will be a better choice anyway!

Thank goodness Anastasia's school does not start until Wednesday, as I think the park will not be busy since many start school on Monday instead!

SORRY! No Blog Entry Today!

We should be at Lake Compunce!

20 August 2003

More delicious fasting recipes!

Tofu Lasagne and Tahini Spread for Wraps are 2 of the new fasting recipes posted today. Check them out here!

Argh! Still not working!

So let us try this exercise in keywords again! :-D

Free Russian Orthodox Church
True Orthodox Church of Greece
Russian Orthodox Church Abroad
Genuine Orthodox Church of Greece
Catacomb Tikhonite Church of Russia
Catacomb Josephite Church of Russia
Greek Old Calendar Orthodox Church
Russian Orthodox Autonomous Church
Genuine Orthodox Christians of Greece
Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia
Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia
Genuine Orthodox Christians of Greece
Russian Orthodox Autonomous Church
Greek Old Calendar Orthodox Church
Catacomb Josephite Church of Russia
Catacomb Tikhonite Church of Russia
Genuine Orthodox Church of Greece
Russian Orthodox Church Abroad
True Orthodox Church of Greece
Free Russian Orthodox Church

19 August 2003

Ugh!

I have talked too much about WinDOH!ze as now my ads on my blog (that auto-change by the most popular subject) are all for security for Pee Cees! I have got to do something to stop that!

Free Russian Orthodox Church
True Orthodox Church of Greece
Russian Orthodox Church Abroad
Genuine Orthodox Church of Greece
Catacomb Tikhonite Church of Russia
Catacomb Josephite Church of Russia
Greek Old Calendar Orthodox Church
Russian Orthodox Autonomous Church
Genuine Orthodox Christians of Greece
Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia
Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia
Genuine Orthodox Christians of Greece
Russian Orthodox Autonomous Church
Greek Old Calendar Orthodox Church
Catacomb Josephite Church of Russia
Catacomb Tikhonite Church of Russia
Genuine Orthodox Church of Greece
Russian Orthodox Church Abroad
True Orthodox Church of Greece
Free Russian Orthodox Church


That should help, I would think! :-D

Christ is Transfigured!

On Mount Tabor!

Happy Feast Day of the Transfiguration of our Lord God and Saviour Jesus Christ!

18 August 2003

Sources: Sabotage Cannot Be Ruled Out in Blackout

Monday, August 18, 2003

Although government and energy-industry officials have continued to state that Thursday's massive power blackout was not an act of terrorism, they are unable to rule out the possibility that a computer hacker plunged 50 million people into darkness, a source told Fox News Monday.

There were also reports that Al Qaeda had claimed responsibility for the outage, although U.S. officials said Monday that those claims should be taken with "a giant grain of salt."

Read more here

For the first time in 8 years ...

... I went to a dentist and had me teeth and gums cleaned, picked at, scraped, scrubbed, polished, etc. My teeth are now very shiny and bright, but oh man did it give me the mother of all headaches. I have been sleeping all afternoon in hopes of getting rid of it no no avail. Now I am doing the pain meds thing. (I could not take them earlier because of how you are not supposed to eat or drink for at least 1 1/2 hours after a deep cleaning like this) Ow!

Another picture from the OCnet get-together.


Pretty ordinary picture of the get together. The interesting thing you may notice is that Phil is the only one not eating his food. See, a secret came out during the OCnet get-together. See Phil is not really an Indian, but a ROBOT!!! It came as a shock to all of us.

Going to bed early tonight!

I mean, look, its only 1:15 am! That is like 45 minutes earlier than usual! Oy!

17 August 2003

Sick people, please pray

My daughter, Father George, Matushka Anna, and others are all sick, please pray. Details here.

Last night, same thing

Please pray that I get my sleep schedule straightened out soon. School starts next week and my body seems to be wanting to stay up later! :-(

16 August 2003

Unintentionally funny article.

A click on www.windowsupdate.com gives an invalid URL message when you click on it today, but that doesn't mean it's gone forever.

Microsoft said that the site had been subjected to a denial of service attack, according to Network World Fusion, but it wasn't anything to do with the Blaster worm or the power down in the US.


Yeah right! Trust Microsoft? I think not. Blaster was created to do a Denial Of Service (DOS) attack on www.windowsupdate.com today. Why lie?

If you have to use Windows, which I often affectionately call WinBlows, WinDoze or WinDOH!ze, be sure to check http://www.windowsupdate.com regularly to plus the millions of security holes and fix the millions of bugs that are rampant in every version of Windows. And make sure you update your virus protection AT LEAST every month. If you cannot set it to do so on its own to check weekly, do so manually. Its the best protection against viruses other than to never open attachments from people you do not know and never open .exe files that you get via email even if it is a trusted source. The person could simply be infected with a virus and inadvertently sending you a copy of said virus.

But, if you can afford it go to MacWarehouse Computer Stores and buy yourself a new Apple Macintosh Computer. You may miss the fun of constant virus scares, the blue screen of death and persistant crashing, but the simplicity and power more than make up for that inefficent fun of losing files that you will miss out on. :-P

I really need to ...

... stop staying up until 2am every night. I thought it was just supposed to my daughter with the messed up sleeping schedule? LOL!

15 August 2003

Interesting stats.

From http://www.euphrosynoscafe.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=5638
94% of Americans believe in God.
89% of Americans believe in Heaven.
86% of Americans believe in miracles.
83% of Americans believe in the Virgin Birth of Jesus.*
73% of Americans believe in Hell and the Devil.
58% of Americans believe it is neccesary to believe in God to be moral.
40% of Americans believe it is not neccesary.
28% of Americans believe in the Theory of Evolution.
13% of the French believe it is neccesary to believe in God to be moral.
*91% of Christians say they believe in the Virgin Birth, but so do an astonishing 47% of NON-Christians Americans!

How sickening! >:-(

Marriott victimizes young girl and boy
"We were all enjoying the film when about an hour into it, the screen instantly changed to hard-core pornography."
- Marriott guest, mother of young children
To make matters worse, the hotel manager refused to speak directly to the parents about the incident because he was busy and could "not be disturbed." He made a desk clerk deal with the problem, even though the parents tried several times to speak with the manager.

Is this an isolated incident? Perhaps. But the real problem lies in Marriott's corporate policy. The Marriott Hotel chain claims to be "committed to traditional family values," yet most of the corporately owned and franchised Marriotts sell "hardcore pornography" on televisions in rooms.

If you would like to write Mariot about this, you can right here.

Great article on the Big Blackout

Here is a small excerpt. You can read more at http://www.dondodd.com/caruba/alan.html which is from the site of Radio Free West Hartford.

Notes on the Big Blackout
By Alan Caruba 08/15/03
There's a fundamental reason for the latest blackout on the East Coast.  The United States of America needs more power facilities. I'm not talking about ten thousand windmills on the coast of Massachusetts or seventy square miles of solar collectors in Vermont. I'm talking about burning coal and using natural gas. I'm talking about hydroelectric plants and, yes, nuclear-based plants. All of them gloriously producing electricity.

‘SERIOUS’ LOOTING IN OTTAWA*

       Crowd control was a problem north of the border. Looting broke out in Ottawa after dark, Ottawa police said, as the power outage pitched much of Ontario into darkness.

       “There is serious looting going on,” said Ottawa police chief Vince Bevan, adding there had been reports of break-ins, smashed windows and theft in the Canadian capital. Ontario declared a state of emergency after the power outage left much of Canada’s most populous province in the dark.

*From the continuing coverage by MSNBC, linked below.

14 August 2003

When Orthodoxy (Church) and Confederacy (State) meet. :-D

Dormition Fast Begins

Today starts the Dormition Fast. Unfortunately because of the blackout I missed the Paraclesis service at our church to start off the fast. Thankfully there are 2 more during this "Little Lent".

Tonight, with it being a strict fast, we are having Yves* Veggie Chilli mixed in with egg-less pasta. If anyone is looking to get or share their own fasting recipes there is a thread full of them here.

*Yves Veggie Cuisine is one of the few vegetarian fake-meat companies that does not have dairy or eggs in most of their their products, so it is great for the Church fasts. Their Good Burger™ is one of the best tasting veggie burgers around as well! Much better than that thing Burger King puts out! YUCK!

Sad News :-(

I actually have been checking out the news sites since this blackout, and found the following story. I post an excerpt and a linked title to read more if you like.

France says thousands dead from heat
PARIS, Aug. 14 — France's worst heat wave on record has killed an estimated 3,000 people across the nation, the Health Ministry said Thursday, as the government faced accusations that it failed to respond to a major health crisis.

Update!

It now has spread from New York City to Toronto to Detroit! During Rush hour of all times!

CNN Story

MSNBC Story

Fox News, why are you not covering this yet???

What's going on?

It looks like the northeast is getting hit with weird blackouts. They've hit me a few times already today. Very odd, the power goes out and comes back really slow, with lightbulbs barely lit, fans hardly moving, etc. Read the story here!

The test failed. :-(

This blog is supposed to be UTF-8 Encoding, and the last post had both Russian and Greek writing which, at least on my browser, failed to appear. :-/ Oh well.

Test

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???? ????? ??? ???? ????? ???????? ???? ? ??????????, ???????????, ????? ? ???????.

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13 August 2003

Tired Days

I was doing things last night and caught a second wind, so I was up past 2:00am last night! I am paying for it this morning. Thankfully I am working from home for the next 2 weeks! :-D

12 August 2003

Tank Wars!

Today my daughter and I had a tank war. Before American Independence Day I bought a box of 12 little 3 shot tanks that roll forward when you light them. I also bought the mother of all firework tanks, the Black Cat M-85 Tank. That was my tank against Anastasia's 12 mini-tanks. I think I won, she thinks she won, so we called it a tie. This reminds me that I really need to get a digital camera. My landlady is just going to be mad that they seem to have scorched the brick sidewalk and stained it. Uh-oh! :-o

How in the world?

How did my post on needing prayers for a new job turn into a war of the states in the commentary section??? I am no fan of the area in which I live, and would have supported the Confederate States of America if I had lived in that era, but let us lose the hate. It is unChristian to hate someone for where they live, which is something, as adults, often we cannot control completely.

Haha!

I posted that link to the I Support Police Brutality Web Site on a message board and the deleted it because it was offensive. LOL! I just think it is funny.

11 August 2003

Step One

I just received a call from a company that I would really like to work for and they will be scheduling a first interview by phone with the manager of this center. Could I please ask the prayers of everyone who views this blog? I am sure this is just one step among many to get the job and I am going to need your prayers each step of the way. Thank you in advance!

09 August 2003

Just as I predicted ...

Tonight, doing evening prayers before the icon corner in my daughter's room (and stepping all over unpacked toys and clothes, in a room I had closed off all summer), indeed, everything felt right again. Thank God for daughters! I pray that I never forget that she is a huge chunk of why I am who I am today. Also thank you to all of you that prayed for her to have a safe trip back home.

Today I pick up my daughter from the airport ...

... and then, relatively, all will be well with the world.

08 August 2003

AARGH!

I am just going to vent. Please bear with me.

AARGH!

My mom just met with my ex-wife and picked up my daughter and it seems she slept the whole car trip from Colorado to Nebraska because my daughter has been sleeping days and staying up all night. So now I have to get her sleeping schedule back to normal for the sake of my work and her upcoming return to school. >:-(

Not only that, but for the 4th week in a row, they missed Liturgy. This time because "Their cat was going to have babies." Umm hello? Cats are animals, they do NOT need human help unless it is a vet. and there are 2 other adults living in the house along with another one visiting — none of which were going to Liturgy. (The visiting adult goes to Sunday atheist meetings where they talk about the Bible and God. LOL!)

Before that it was "We forgot", "Sunday morning we realized there were no dresses in her suitcase and no stores were open" (There were 2 packed) and then "We got lost just down the road from the Church". I wonder how she manages to get to work every day if she cannot get to Church once in 4 weeks! ;-)

I would love to go off on how my ex-wife works for a smut shop, and how wants to indoctrinate my daughter with liberalism and evolution, how her other daughter (NOT MINE!) at age 6 sneaks out in the middle of the night, their phones keep getting cut off, while their DVD and Playstation game collection keeps growing, etc. but I will not today. Neither will I go on about how my daughter maybe gets a call around her birthday, but otherwise until just before summer Sonya does not call to talk to her, write her or anything. :-P

Please pray for my daughter, Anastasia.

Fried Day

Tomorrow my daughter comes back home! Every summer she goes and visits relatives for 6-7 weeks. For a week or two, it is nice living the bachelor life — being able to do whatever I feel like any time of the day or night — but then I start missing her big time and just want her to be home. I am so ready for her to be back where she belongs! Please pray that she has a safe trip home.

07 August 2003

LOL! Black Bishop Paying White People to Come to Church

Fred Caldwell, Bishop of Greenwood Acres Full Gospel Baptist Church in Shreveport, Louisiana, is paying white people to attend his church; $5 on Sundays, $10 on Thursdays, when it "it might take a little bit more extra effort" to make it to a service due to work commitments.

CNN reports that Caldwell is hoping to diversify his 99.9% black congregation with these measures. And though it's already stirring up controversy, Caldwell thinks it's not a bad deal for a hour's worth of worship:

"$10 an hour is not bad. It's probably better than maybe McDonald's or Burger Kings would pay."

LOL! How funny is this?

Check out the Police Brutality Store at http://www.cafeshops.com/policebrutality. Do you think the police would just give you a warning if they saw this bumper sticker on your car? LOL!

05 August 2003

Fast Food Salads

As someone that frequents many a fast food restaurant, I found the following article interesting and thought I would share with the group. :-D

  • The Slate Reviews Fast Food Salads
  • 04 August 2003

    OCnet Summer Fest 2003

    Whew! It was an exhausting weekend. Let me try to run down what all happened as far as I can remember.

    Friday
    Wednesday I had very little sleep. Thursday night I got to sleep around 2am and had to get up at 6 to take my car in to be serviced before driving down. So not much sleep for me. Needless to say, I was tired.

    Not a bad drive down. I left at about 9 and got there around 2-3ish I think. The other guys who were there (Robert, Phil, Clint, Reader Anthony and Matt) got back from lunch and let me in to the vacant apartment we were staying at. (Thanks again Tom!) We bought some wine at the local store and had it with our Italian meal after Paraclesis at the GOA (St. Sophia) Cathedral. We also drove by the Vatican embassy and saw a guy with a sign saying something about Pedophilia being the worst of the Corporate Crimes of the Vatican.

    Later, I took a few of the guys for a grocery run and made a U-turn (at the urging of Robert and against the urgings of Phil). We got pulled over and after a few questions about where we were coming from, going to and then number of drinks we all had consumed, (I was the only sober one in the car!) I got off with a warning. (We were all doing Jesus prayers in the meantime!) We got back with the groceries and some pre-mixed White Russians that has St. Basil's Cathedral in Moscow on the labels and box and met Anastasios and his wife, Michaela. At some point when we were drinking White Russians I strangled Robert. But not too hard. No permanent damage! ;-) :-p It was all in good fun. We have made up over the transgressions that have taken place in the past. People had a few drinks and then we all went to sleep between 2 and 3am.

    Saturday
    The whirlwind of services continues as Phil decided we should go to the ROCOR (St. John the Baptist) Cathedral Morning Divine Liturgy, thus we woke up at 6am. The Cathedral was great and IMO blew away the Greek Cathedral in both externals and substance. This was an all-Slavonic service, but for the sermon the deacon translated in to English with a microphone that could be heard to via small short range receivers with earphones. (they are available at the candle desk) Great use of technology! I spoke with the priest and sent him my parish priest's greetings and well wishes. The starostra pulled Clint to the side and whispered to him know that hands in the pants pockets was not allowed. It was unintentional, and not meant in disrespect, but funny that he got pulled aside.

    During the hot muggy day, we had the picnic where I grilled kielbasa, chicken, hamburgers and hot dogs for everyone. We met Tom's wife, Nikki, and a married Anglican couple that visit OCnet and go by the names of Keble and Ebor. Phil gave me some gruff, in jest, of my separate praying before the meal.

    That evening we all, minus Tom, Anastasios and their wives, hit Vigil at the OCA (St. Nicholas) Cathedral, as no one ended up wanting to go to the ROCOR Cathedral with me and I did not know how to get from it to the St. Nicholas Cathedral to meet up with them afterwards. St. Nicholas is beautiful, but the Vigil was lacking IMO because of bad you/who translations, cut-outs etc. Matt Frobisher (Poor Matt was called Frobisher or Frobie by everyone all weekend!) said that he saw in me something that Serge needed to add to the "You Might Be a Russian Orthodox If ..." list — that, being the fact that walking out or going somewhere a short distance behind me during vigil I always walked backward so that I kept myself facing the altar. The Cathedral had General Confessions, but I waited outside with the other non-OCA folk. During this visit in saw the guy with a sign protesting at the Vatican embassy again. This time we honked and I waved at him and give him 2 thumbs up. He waved back with a smile that made it appear that we had made his day.

    We met back up with Anastasios and Michaela after they were done napping and we all went to dinner at some place located in the middle of a street festival. I had some delicious Goat Cheese Raviolli and discussed the error of Roman Catholicism with the Uniates that came. We went top bed around 2 or 3 am. See a pattern forming?

    Sunday
    I wake up at 6am, Pattern #2 of this trip! :D I say my goodbyes to everyone as some of them are going to an Indian Malankara liturgy and some to the OCA Cathedral and others to a Melkite liturgy. (Clint and Matt are Uniates) I had a 2.5 hour trip down to Staunton to attend St. Basil of Kineshma Church where Father Dionysi, who posts at the Euphrosynos Cafe Forum, is priest. I planned to leave for home after trapeza.

    Divine Liturgy and trapeza were both wonderful at this small ROAC church and I did not end up leaving until almost 6pm! During trapeza I was invited to sit at the table with Father Dionysi, Deacon Photios and Reader Jerjis (George in, I believe, Arabic) and we had wonderful conversations on the world political situation, world history, the Church, etc. Father Dionysi knew I was very tired since my eyes kept closing during the Hours, so he loaded me up with Mountain Dew for my trip home.

    I was on I-495, and suffering from a sore back and very tired, when I needed to fill up with gas and go to the bathroom — since I was by the apartment, I stopped there. The guys were surprised that I was back. We all decided to go out for Indian food as Phil's birthday was the next day. Excellent murg and lamb dishes were had by all. (Although by Monday morning, Frobie's stomach was not liking the murg anymore! LOL!) I was so tired and my back was sore that I decided to take some Tylenol PM with our wine and stay the night. I finally went to bed before midnight. Not by much, but I made it with a minute or two to spare!

    Monday
    I woke up at 10am, much later than I anticipated. I said my goodbyes again, (Phil thought I would be this uber-serious guy and said he was pleasantly pleased as to how "cool" I was, insisting that we hang out again soon! :-D) got on the road before 11am and hit a few traffic jams and thunderstorms, (the humidity on the east coast has been 90-100% all weekend) but I got home by 5pm, which was pretty good time, all things considered. I am still tired though and will be crashing soon. All in all it was a great time and a good group of guys.

    *All spelling, grammar and logic mistakes will be blamed on my extreme tiredness. :-)

    The Orthodox Scouter Allows Sharing Only with Attribution