Celebrity New Year’s Resolutions

Celebrity New Year’s Resolutions
Charter Oak-Ute NEWSpaper — Schleswig Leader, Thursday, December 28, 2006 – Page 3

This year I resolved not to make any resolutions. Instead, I decided that I should share my perfect, inerrant correctness with some of the many people in this world who are not as right as they could be.

Here are some of the resolutions that other people need to make:
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez resolves to not be such a nut. And to not call other world leaders “Satan” while speaking at the U.N.

Former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. resolves not to not bully subordinates anymore and not to serve at institutions which he doesn’t believe should exist in the first place anymore.
Retiring U.N. General Secretary Kofi Anin resolved to not try to solve other people’s problems anymore. From now on, he’s just going to let people have to slug it out.

Vice President Dick Cheney resolves not to shoot anyone in the face anymore, at least not while drinking beer or hunting quail.

John McCain resolves to go back to being his own man and a real, traditional conservative, instead of always kissing up to the Neocons in the Bush White House and/or the radically ultra-conservative religious-right of the so called Republican “base.”
North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il resolves not to test any more nuclear weapons, and to stop going to Don King’s hair stylist.

Pope Benedict resolved not to call any more irrational, violent, Muslim Fundamentalist “irrational, violent, or fundamentalist.”

Muqtada al-Sadr really needs to resolve to work for the stability and security of Iraq, instead of just perpetuating chaos, anarchy and anti-American terrorism.
Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad should resolve to stop denying the holocaust, grant his own people the freedom of speech he demands for anti-Semitic nuts like himself and KKK Grand Wizard David Duke.

Russian President Vladmir Putin resolves not to poison anymore people who suspect him of trying to re-establish a Stalinist regime in the former Soviet Union.

Former Vice President Al Gore is already doing good on his resolution to give up political office and pursue a life as a Hollywood star and environmental crusader.

Katie Couric resolves to be less sweet and perky now that she’s taken over the CBS Evening News.

Ex-President George H. W. Bush (Sr.) resolves not to try to push off anymore of his numb skulled sons on us for President anymore.

Nebraska businessman Pete Ricketts resolves not to spend more than a million dollars on negative campaigning against Democrats who may as well be Republicans again.

Ben Nelson and Joe Lieberman resolve to caucus with the Democratic Party, even though they’re both basically moderate Republicans.

Former Florida Congressman Mark Foley resolves not to try having cyber-sex with teenage boys anymore, at least not while serving as chairman of the Congressional Missing and Exploited Children’s Caucus.

Former House Speaker Dennis Hastert resolves to pay more attention.

Rev. Ted Haggard resolves not to by meth from gay prostitutes anymore.

Mel Gibson and Michael Richards (Sienfeld’s “Kramer”) resolve to attend cultural sensitivity and anger management workshops.

Virginia Senator George Allen resolves not to call people “Muccaca” (slang for “little monkey”) and just be racist in private and not on camera in front of hundreds of potential voters.
Angelina Jolie and Madonna resolve not to buy anymore children at bazaars while on vacation overseas.

Dallas Cowboy Terrell Owens resolves to stop being such a massive egotistical idiot and just play football.

Bill Callahan resolves to listen to his inner-Tom Osborne and try using a ground game a little more often so the Huskers can actually win, instead of depending so much on his little “West Coast-Offense.”

President George W. needs to resolve to listen to people like Jim Baker and Lee Hamilton as opposed to being so stubborn and unable to admit when he’s really screwed up.

Pluto resolves to try harder, work out more and try to bulk up a little so that it can be considered a real planet again someday.

Fruity tree huggers

O Tannenbaum, wie grün sind dei-ne Blätter
Or: Merry Christmas, fruity tree-huggers
Charter Oak-Ute NEWSpaper & Schleswig Leader, Thursday, December 21, 2006 Page 3

Our Pastor, Richard Merrill gave me the idea for this column with a couple of his sermons during Advent. He was explaining the history and symbolism of the Christmas tree. No doubt, all of the readers in Schleswig, Ute, and Charter Oak who are of Germanic decent will take great pride in the fact that Christmas trees are basically a German invention.

It all really began almost 1,000 years ago when Saint Boniface. He was sort of to Germany, what St. Patrick was to Ireland, the first Christian missionary to Germany.

He came across a group of druids worshiping an oak tree. Druids were a pagan tribe that believed that trees were lived in by gods and spirits. Boniface, angrily ordered the oak tree cut down. Miraculously, a young fir tree sprung up from the roots of the oak tree. St. Boniface took this as a sign, confirming the Christian faith. As St. Patrick used the three-leafed shamrock to symbolize the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Boniface did the same with the triangle shape of the fir tree.

Don’t feel left out if you’re German, but not Catholic, Legend has it that Martin Luther was the first to bring a Christmas tree inside his house and to put lights on it. One crisp Christmas Eve, around 1500 A.D., he was walking through snowy woods and was struck by the beauty of a group evergreens. Their branches, dusted with snow, shimmering in the moonlight. When he got home, he set up a little fir tree inside so that he could share this story with his children. He decorated it with candles, which of course drove the fire marshal crazy, so as soon as they could, Americans started working on electric light and smoke detectors.

The tree is used through the Bible. First Adam and Eve ate of the Tree of knowledge of Good and Evil and were banished from the Garden of Eden so that they wouldn’t also eat from the Tree of Life and thereby live in sin and separation from God.

Apocryphal legends suggest that the wood the Romans used to make the cross on which Jesus was crucified was from the tree of knowledge. One story claims that it was a dogwood tree and that is why dogwoods never grow very large- so that no one can ever be hung on one again, and it is also why dogwoods bloom so beautifully around Easter time.

Abraham pitched his tents under the trees of Mamre at Hebron where God visited him with angels to promise that he and his wife Sarah would have a baby, Isaac.

Psalm 1 says that the person who meditates day and night on God’s Word “is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither.”
Jesus warned that you can always tell a tree by it’s fruit in Matthew 7:15-17,
“Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thorn bushes, or figs from thistles? Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.”

This Christmas, and as New Year’s resolutions, perhaps we should all remember how in John 15, He told us that He is the vine and we are the branches, if we stay connected and rooted to Him, we will produce good fruit. I take that to mean that if we bother to spend time with Him in prayer, spend time reading His Word, and place our selves in a community of believers such as attending Church or Bible study, then our lives and our character will show it.

Christmas is His birthday after all, why not offer Him the first fruits of our harvest? Oh sure, you may think that means more money, but I suspect that what He really wants is a different kind of fruit.

Galatians 5:22-23 describes the fruit produced by trees planed by streams of living water: “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.”

Who wouldn’t want more of that in their life? Who wouldn’t want more of that in this world? Who knows, maybe if there was more of this fruit, there would also be a lot more peace on Earth.
So this Christmas, and afterward, when you pack up that dried out tree and put the ornaments away, remember to BE a tree and to ask God to help you to be more fruitful. That’s what the world needs now, more fruitcakes. Even if you think you’re “half-baked” and a little nutty, that’s okay, as long as you’re fruity!

Testing

Can I actually "cross-publish" posts from Blogger onto Multiply?

Multiply

Visit my Multiply Page at http://tmal.multiply.com/

We'll see how this goes

It seems that Multiply can Cross-Publish my blog entries- from all 5 of my blogs! We'll see how well this works. If it does, this will be your "one-stop shopping" place for my commentary and writing on the web.

We'll see how this goes

It seems that Multiply can Cross-Publish my blog entries- from all 5 of my blogs! We'll see how well this works. If it does, this will be your "one-stop shopping" place for my commentary and writing on the web.

Holy Family

11 X 14 tempra on paper, 1995
NFS
Here's a little ditty I did for Christmas of '95. It's mostly tempra and some guache (or whatever that's called). I was hoping for kind of a luminesence (is that a word?) where you don't really get to see the baby Jesus, but he is the light sourse that illuminates mainly Mary and also Joseph behind her. Very splattery, lots of home made glazes made from glue and water washes. It was fun. My 7th graders hate Jackson Pollack and Mark Rothko so I'd bet they'd HATE this, but my wife and mother-in-law both like it and they're pretty hard to please.

Merry Christmas web-surfers!

Portrait of the Artist as a Young Woman

And here we have a fantastic self-portrait of Miss Ellen, created in honor of her recen retrospective.

Young Artists

Miss Ellen receives a portrait of herself as a gift.

More young artists. Annamarie is an emerging abstract-expressionist.

Here we see Ellen working in her studio on on eof her latest creations

Miss Grace is both an adept impressionist and an expressionist in her own right.

Budding new artist

Above, top left "Mouse," middle "I love Fall," and lower left "I love you, Ellen."

Ellen explains one of her many materpieces at "Gallery 403" in Charter Oak. The Artist recently celebrated her 5th birthday with a retrospective.

Being of modest stature, the artist needed to climb onto a chair to explain some of her more important works, which included "SpongeBob," (see yellow and blue work at top right)

McClatchy Washington Bureau | 12/15/2006 | Clashes between groups of Palestinians raise fears of a civil war

At least its good to know that the unrest in the Mid-East isn't all Arabs agains Israel. Say (Mark), didn't I say something about how many different sects of Islam there are? Last summer in a column. At the time it was about how we shouldn't have gone after Iraq for 9/11 because they had nothing to do with Al Quaeda, who were in Afghanistan. Now of course, Iraq has become a civil war, and Lebenon is on the verge too, now it seems like Palestine is too. Oh, and if you hadn't heard, some Iranians are protesting their psycho president.

Ever feel like you're Yosemetie Sam or Elmer Fudd or Wyle E. Coyote or somebody and you were chasing a rabbit or a road runner into a cave and it got all dark so you light yourself a match so you can see, only to discover that you're in the middle of a store room full of TNT? I wonder if President W and his homies in the NeoCon clan ever feel that way...

Clashes between groups of Palestinians raise fears of a civil war

By Orly Halpern, McClatchy Newspapers

RAMALLAH, West Bank - Palestinian police officers allied with the Fatah political party attacked a small group of Hamas supporters in Ramallah on Friday, a rare confrontation in the West Bank that ratcheted up tensions and fears of civil war.

Four civilians were critically injured. Also Friday, masked members of the Islamic militant group Hamas waged a short gun battle with Palestinian police in the middle of Gaza City.

Read the whole story: McClatchy Washington Bureau | 12/15/2006 | Clashes between groups of Palestinians raise fears of a civil war

Bakker, Brown: What the hell happened to Christianity? - CNN.com

Bakker, Brown: What the hell happened to Christianity? - CNN.com

NEW YORK (CNN) -- What the hell happened? Where did we go wrong? How was Christianity co-opted by a political party? Why are Christians supporting laws that force others to live by their standards? The answers to these questions are integral to the survival of Christianity.

While the current state of Christianity might seem normal and business-as-usual to some, most see through the judgment and hypocrisy that has permeated the church for so long. People witness this and say to themselves, "Why would I want to be a part of that?" They are turned off by Christians and eventually, to Christianity altogether. We can't even count the number of times someone has given us a weird stare or completely brushed us off when they discover we work for a church

Mallory's Home Page

Mallory's HOME Page
At last- I think that I have the whole thing ready

Boyer Valley Community Schools - Yearbook I: Newspaper

Boyer Valley Community Schools - Yearbook I: Newspaper

Anyone interested in what I teach my Newspaper class can check this link out. Any of my Newspaper students may want to visit this link because copies of all the notes are right there for you to download, just in case you'd like to study for your final.

Annual Exclusive

Annual Exclusive
Thursday, December 14, 2006- Charter Oak-Ute NEWSpaper & Schleswig LEADER

8:30 or so last Thursday night I sat down in a booth in the bar in Charter Oak to visit with a very old friend.

“Merry Christmas Ted.”

“Merry Christmas Chris. You know, even though we’ve been doing this for a few years now, I still can’t get over the fact that you can spare the time to grant a virtual amateur like me an interview like this.”

“Ho, ho,” he chuckled, “Well, not to discourage or disparage you at all, but I’ll admit that the biggest reason I do is so that I can thank all the good folks in the commercial clubs and community clubs of the towns that these newspapers serve for all the hard work and resources that they commit when they invite me to visit the kids in their towns.”

“Well, thank you for coming to town,” I told him, “My own girls certainly had a ball. They loved taking their picture with you, the devoured the treats in the goodie bags and they were thrilled with the door prizes they won. I know I appreciate the turkey my wife won!”

“Ho, ho, well, you know it takes a lot of volunteers and businesses to make those Santa Nights happen. I don’t mean to play favorites, but I think they’re far better than just coming to see one of my stand-ins at some big mall in a major suburb.”

“I’ll say, not just the meal and all the friends and neighbors but you get to take your own picture or pay just a buck for Polaroid as opposed to dropping fifteen or twenty bucks into a photo package.”

“Think globally, shop locally!”

“You know, you must really love kids and you sure have to have tough knees. Something I’ve always wondered, did you ever have kids of your own? And if you do, do you ever bring them along on your long trip?”

“Ho, ho, no, no… you’re forgetting, I’m a man of the cloth, married to the Lord and the work He gives me. Sure, I love kids, but could you imagine taking them along on a 24 hour road trip? How many bathroom breaks? How many times would I have to listen to ‘are we there yet?’ No thanks. One of the perks of my job is that I get to drop in, spread some joy and then the kids go home with their parents while I get to go home, put my feet up and enjoy the peace and quiet. I’m sort of like a grandparent that way.”

“All the movies and TV specials show you with a Mrs. Claus,” I protested.
“Myth is more powerful than truth. People believe what they want to and America especially has gone out of its way to reinvent me into a Grandfatherly role. People in this day and age aren’t comfortable with a bachelor cavorting with children, understandably so, I suppose.”

“But don’t you ever wish you’d met that right woman?”

“Too busy for too many years.”

“So you don’t even date?”

“I still keep busy, besides, when you’re over 1,500 years old you don’t worry about your libido very much.”

“How do you do it? To what do you ascribe your incredible longevity?”

“I guess the Lord’s not done with me yet. There’s still plenty to do.”

“Wow… say, people are going to want to know, how exactly can you make your trip all in one night anyway? What is the magic?”

“Just that, no big secret, just Christmas magic. Of course, not everyone celebrates Christmas, not everyone who does still believes in me, and not everybody celebrates Christmas on December 25. I’m Greek Orthodox, you remember, then there is plenty of folks who celebrate St. Nicolas day separate from Christmas… and of course it’s not as if I do it all at the stroke of midnight- there are time zones, you know. Midnight here is only ten o’clock on the West coast.”

“Don’t you have trouble with governments for violating restricted air space?”

“My cruising speed is about Mach 3, even the U.S. and Russian Air Forces have a hard time even spotting me on their most advanced radar. Besides, I have a long standing relationship with the boys at N.O.R.A.D.”

“Still, hat if some hostile nation tried firing a SCUD missile at you or something?”

“Fruit Cake.”

"I beg your pardon?"

“You’ve heard of potato guns? My sleigh is equipped with R.P.F.C.- Rocket Propelled Fruit Cakes.”

“You have GOT to be kidding me!”

“Hey, listen, your own General Washington once used them when he ran out of cannon balls during the Revolutionary War. What else are you going to use them for? Door stops?”

Progress on Ellen

Here is some more progress on my daughter's birthday painting...

Stage four- added some yellow glaze to make things look more alive, had to be careful to avoid making her look jaundiced.

Step Five- Added some umber and some pink- her favorite color! I'm a little frustrated that the pink turned out so orange, but it does seem to match. I decided to take some artistic license and trade the morning glories for gerber daisies, or some vague pink daisy looking flower. She's a fun, silly, high energy kid, so why not go with whimsy over realism? But she 's starting to look sort of sad...
Step Six- As she is so bold, I decided to increase the contrast with some black and white and threw in a little purple while I was at it to help tie the pinks and blues together. I'm SO close but I'm not sure what it needs. I know that the right eye needs work, the glint doesn't quite look natural. Several students have been making comments; unfortunatly they're not all positive. One thinks she looks too old. The black and purple do kind of suggest eye liner and shadow. Another thought she's too brown/dark. One thought that the eyes are too big and with the black, they look like Japanese Anime. They are a little too big, but I reasoned that it added to the child-like feel so that's okay.

Here's a larger view. At right is a photo of the painting I did last year for her older sister. It didn't help, I wasn't able to match the styles so I just went in a new dirrection. At left is the photo I used for inspiration. If this was a project by a student, I'd probably give them grief about how the eyes are angled, like in the photo, but the nose and mouth are straight like in a head-on portrait. I had the same problem a couple of years ago on a watercolor that I tried to do of Benjamin Franklin. I just hope that in five or ten year when she's a teen/adult she doesn't hate it and feel embarassed by the goofy painting her dad tried to do of her when she was five.

Scroll down a ways to see how this painting started (steps 1-3) last week.

Click here to see and read about her sister Grace's painting

Norad Tracks Santa 2006

N.O.R.A.D. Tracks Santa 2006
Just in case you had any questions as to Santa's whereabouts.

Mallory's Milieu - CARTOONS

Mallory's Milieu - CARTOONS

I've wanted to be a cartoonist since about 5th grade. I drew cartoons for my High School and College newspapers and now for my local small-town newspaper. Here is a collection of some of my favorites.

When you go to this page, bookmark it to your favorites because I add to it almost every week. Tell your friends about it, forward the web address around if you enjoy them. Who knows, maybe you can create a buzz for me or a web-following so that eventually I could sell my work to bigger papers, magazines, or best yet, get syndicated. Don't get me wrong, I love teaching, but how cool would it be to get to actually make a living drawing funny pictures.

Anyway, take a look, either luagh or get angry, but either way, enjoy.

Mallory's Milieu - CARTOONS

Mallory's Milieu - CARTOONS

I've wanted to be a cartoonist since about 5th grade. I drew cartoons for my High School and College newspapers and now for my local small-town newspaper. Here is a collection of some of my favorites.

When you go to this page, bookmark it to your favorites because I add to it almost every week. Tell your friends about it, forward the web address around if you enjoy them. Who knows, maybe you can create a buzz for me or a web-following so that eventually I could sell my work to bigger papers, magazines, or best yet, get syndicated. Don't get me wrong, I love teaching, but how cool would it be to get to actually make a living drawing funny pictures.

Anyway, take a look, either luagh or get angry, but either way, enjoy.

ClustrMaps - map of visitor locations - zoom map

ClustrMaps - map of visitor locations - zoom map
Hey, how about this, 1000 visitors. Not many in Blog terms these, days, but it's still a milestone. And check it out, at least 30 of those 1,000 visitors were in Europe and a few accross Asia, even one in South Africa and one in Alaska!

Hey, if you liked this blog, highlight and copy the web address and email it to a friend. Let's see how long it takes to get to 2,ooo and how much further accross the globe we can get.

Hope you like my are. You can see a TON more of my art at
http://tmal.multiply.com/photos

I'm a HIgh School Art teacher in Iowa and an aspiring cartoonist as well- you can see my cartoons at
http://tmal.multiply.com/photos/album/2

Happy Surfing!

What ever happened to childhood?

What ever happened to childhood?
Charter Oak-Ute NEWSpaper — Schleswig Leader, Thursday, December 7, 2006 – Page 3

Last summer a reader gave me a suggestion for a column, but I hedged on writing it because I wasn’t quite sure how to approach it. I’m still not sure.

The reader was concerned about how over-scheduled kids’ lives have become and how everyone’s lives in the community seem to be dominated by school sports.

When the reader gave me this idea, the C.O.U. Lady Bobcats were on their perennial march to the state softball tournaments. I didn’t want to look like I was trying to criticize their Coach and Athletic Director or any of the players or their parents.

I was afraid that some people would think that since I’ve served as a church youth group counsellor I was just having sour grapes about having to compete for kids’ time with “open gym,” sports and play practices, 4-H, FFA, band, work etc. Sure, it does make it a chore and plenty of people miss the days when Wednesday nights and all of Sunday were off-limits, but that’s not the real problem either.

By waiting till now to address the issue, I certainly don’t want it to look like I’m complaining about my own A.D. at Boyer Valley about how many basketball games we have to deal with (I coach cheerleading).

I never have understood why they get a season done in ten or eleven games in football, but basketball takes more than 22. I really feel sorry for kids who play JV and Varsity and the people who serve as Assistant Coaches for Varsity who are also basically the head coaches for JV- these people end up having at least 30 or more games total.

But please understand that I’m not complaining about or blaming either of these school’s athletic directors. And even if I wanted to, scholastic sports scheduling isn’t something that’s done unilaterally. There are conference, district, regional and state levels of guidelines and planning.

No, this reader who thought I should write about how thinly-stretched kids’ lives have become wasn’t only worried about high school kids anyway. If I read them right, they were worried about all ages of kids.

The reason I finally decided to write about it here is that are two articles that I recently read in the Chicago Tribune.

One story from the Associated Press sites several child development experts who report finding more and more physical and behavior changes happening to 8-12 year-olds, “tweens” that used to occur during the teen years.

The other story told about the American Academy of Pediatric’s concerns that children are being over scheduled and need more time for unstructured play.

The first story explained that many 8-12 year olds go on dates, have their own cell phones, listen to sexually charged music, view R-rated movies, play mature-rated video games and spend time gossiping on MySpace.

They’re dressing and talking in more adult, sexually suggestive and casual and disrespectful ways.

But then, didn’t adults say that about is when we were kids?

When I was 8-12 we were still riding our bikes, playing cops and robbers, building things with legos, or making up stories with our Hotwheels cars or our Star Wars action figures. We explored wilderness areas near our homes or built forts and tree houses.

Among other things, peer-pressure, technology, consumerism and an accelerated pace of life are eating away at our childrens’ innocence.

The second story suggested that many parents hope to occupy their children’s time because parents aren’t always available or willing to supervise their kids’ free time. Other parents mistakenly assume that overloading their kids is the best way to insure that they will achieve.
But while we pour time and money into these activities or transportation to and from them, we may be sacrificing something far more precious.

Some children are suffering depression, exhaustion, anxiety, irritability and loss of sleep.
Meanwhile, not having time to fantasize, daydream, act out imaginary activities or just horse around deprives youngsters of a lot of cognitive, social, emotional and physical development.
Experts recommend limiting kids to no more than three extracurricular activities. For example: one sport, one music or fine art and one youth group.

Of course, if you’re like us, you have two or three kids, so that’s still six to nine activities to fit into a seven day week.

Good luck.

Starting a new painting

Tuesday Dec 5- a very basic underpainting

December 6- adding some white areas- students made comments that it looked good- but ghostly with the empty eyes

Day 3, Thursday December 7- Some burnt umber for the hair and eyes, some flesh tones- making progress. Ellen's birthday is Decmber 14 and we'll probably celebrate on the 16th or 17th, so I have a little more time, but then again it is oil so it may be messy.

Other People's cartoons

Maybe I love this one because I like baseball. This is the thing, it's all about preception. Maybe Bush is a "half-full" guy and I'm just too "half-empty," or maybe he sees what he wants to see. Theologions might say he uses the isogetical method rather than the exogetical one. Basically he comes to any problem with preconceptions that he refuses to surrender, even in the face of a mountain of evidence to the contrary. Classic Denial.Tell me again why they appointed this guy in the first place? Sure, like other critics I have a problem with his history of harassing and bullying his subordinates, but my real hang up was that he had on numerous occasions stated that he did not believe that the U.N. should even exist nor that the U.S. needed to recognize their legitimacy. WHY would you make someone our representative to the UN who is opposed to its very existance??!
Which leads us to other Bush Administration appointees. We already have heads of EPA and the Department of Ed. who don't believe that their positions should even exist, and of course Bolton, now these. How is that Republican? Did Lincon say "of the corporations, for the corporations?"

Substitute Teacher to the world

Listen to this guy's comparison to the U.S. to a substatute teacher. I
think he's a Republican, but it was really funny:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6567190

__________________________________
http://ted.mallory.googlepages.com/home.html

"The gospel is meant to comfort the afflicted and afflict the
comfortable." ~Garrison Keillor

2 flags and 3 sisters

Is this a keen retr0-styled Christmas photo or what? All about childhood and sisterhood. And here's a couple of patriotic pics of the flags at our local Legion Post's Veteran's memorial too, just to add to the whole family/tradition/small town Midwestern theme. Enjoy

Harvest

Say thanks to the Armed Forces in Iraq

Something cool that Xerox is doing

If you go to this web site, www.letssaythanks.com , you can pick out a
thank you card and
Xerox will print it and it will be sent to a soldier that is currently
serving in Iraq. You can't pick out who gets it, but it will go to
some member of the armed services. The cards are really cool.... they
are artwork done by children.

How AMAZING it would be if we could get everyone we know to send one!!!
This is a great site.Please send a card.
It is FREE and it only takes a second.

Wouldn't it be wonderful if the soldiers received a bunch of these?
Whether you are for or against the war, our guys and gals over there
need to know we are behind them...

Life is the Coffee

Leslie Brown, a former student and yearbook editor of mine sent me this and I thought I'd pass it along. Important lesson for coffee lovers like me.

LIFE  IS THE COFFEE
  
A  group of alumni, highly established in their careers, got together to visit  their old university professor. The conversation soon turned into complaints  about stress in work and life. Offering his guests coffee, the professor went to  the kitchen and returned with a large pot of coffee and an assortment of cups -  porcelain, plastic, glass, crystal, some plain-looking, some expensive, and some  exquisite - telling them to help themselves to the  coffee.

After  all the students had a cup of coffee in hand, the professor said: "If you  noticed, all the nice looking expensive cups were taken up, leaving behind the  plain and cheap ones. While it is but normal for you to want only the best for  yourselves, it may also be the source of your problems and stress. Be assured  that the cup itself adds no quality to the coffee. In most cases, it's just more  expensive and in some cases even hides what we drink. What all of you really  wanted was coffee, not the cup, but you consciously went for the best cups.? ...  and then began eyeing each other's  cups.
  
Now  consider this: Life is the coffee, and the jobs, houses, cars, things, money and  position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain life,  and the type of cup we have does not define nor change the quality of life we  live. Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee  God has provided us."
God  brews the coffee, not the cups . . . enjoy your coffee.
  
"Being  happy doesn't mean everything's perfect; it means you've decided to see beyond  the imperfections."  
  
Live  in peace and peace will live in you.  


__________________________________
http://ted.mallory.googlepages.com/home.html

"The gospel is meant to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable." ~Garrison Keillor