Monthly Archives: November 2008

How To Write a Christmas Wishlist

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If you’re like me then you get Christmas wishlist requests from various relatives.  Some of the folks want them to find inspiration, some of them want them to ignore, and others want them so that they can get you something you’d like.  Either way here are some simple tips on compiling the list:

  1. Figure out gifts at different price ranges.  With the economy being somewhat sketchy lots of folks are cutting back, by giving people several options in different price ranges you’ll be able to let people use the list.
  2. Take a walk through your house and see if anything you already have reminds you of something you’d like.  Do you have a DVD collection?  Do you have some things in your kitchen that are old but could be replaced?  Do you have some clothes that you really like but would love in different colors?
  3. Take a walk through your nearest big box store.  WalMart or Target could have hundreds of items for sale in all of the price ranges on your shopping list, run through one of the stores and make a list
  4. Find the items on your list on Amazon and if the list is in Word or HTML format provide links to the items there.  Amazon.com often offers other suggestions when you look at products, keep a lookout for those items.  You can also create a wishlist on Amazon.com – make a note of the link and send it out if it will help those needing the list
  5. Check, mark, underline, bold and or italicize things that are most wanted.  I can think of 100 things I might like for a wishlist, but there are only a hand full of things that I would really, really like.  Make it known so that the persons involved don’t feel lost in a see of too many choices.
  6. Make sure that there aren’t too many choices.  If you’ve only got 5 things in each category you’re more likely to get those things and help people make an informed choice.

WordPress 2.7

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I’ve installed WordPress 2.7 for this blog (and will be updating others shortly.  You shouldn’t notice too much different, but I wanted to alert users to the potential for change (and this has nothing to do with the Obama campaign).

Accidents with Purpose

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Our friends Mike & Louanne were in an accident 10 years ago today that could have been life ending or much more severely life altering.  They put up a blog post about it which you can read here.  The Lord has used Mike & Louanne in our lives over and over and reading this make me thankful all the more for our friendship. They have been instrumental in our well being emotionally, spiritually, and through my work with Mike at Alt-N, financially.  Go read this and be inspired and take a few moments to meditate on what really matters in life and how God may very well be trying to teach you something in the less than fun moments in life.

12 Steps for Food TV Addicts

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  1. Admit you are powerless over your Food TV addiction
  2. Believe that a power greater than Alton, Emeril, Paula and Rachel exists, and can restore your sanity
  3. Make the dish, I mean decision, to turn all authority over to God
  4. Make a fearless search of your pantry shelf self, morally
  5. Admitted to God and others, but not including Tyler Ramsey, the exact nature of yourself
  6. Be ready for God to remove the defects of your chiffon character
  7. Humbly ask God to remove your shortcakes shortcomings, and maybe break your TV remote on the Discovery channel.  Mythbusters is safer than Good Eats.
  8. Make a grocery list of all the people we harmed, maybe bake them an apology cake
  9. Apologize to them, include gift cake, also bring celebratory home made ice cream, unless they’re diabetic
  10. Continue to make ingredient inventory, and when you are wrong or unsure, buy extra
  11. Pray for God’s will in your kitchen and television, and all other areas of your life
  12. We try to carry this message across the internet to other addicts by digging it, stumbling it, or otherwise twittering it

Parallels Shaking My Skepticism

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I hate it when marketing junk floods out of the interwebs, television or radio [and magazine subscription inserts, but that's different].  It comes out as ‘change your world’ kind of stuff and then you buy the product and end up shoving pencils into your eyes because you don’t want them to see lies any longer.  After the expensive reconstructive surgery to your eyes you become a skeptic to all things marketing.

I am a marketing skeptic.  I hate most of the junk that gets thrust before me because it is so manipulative.  Turns out that the folks at Parallels are not lying and their upgrade for Desktop from 3.0 to 4.0 is actually faster.  Dang it!  I hate it when I can’t be a skeptic all of the time.  Thanks Parallels for making a solid release in 4.0, its worth the upgrade.

Cleanliness is Next to Godliness

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I finished installing the sound dampening accessories on our new dishwasher tonight. I had waited on the off chance of leaks from the new installation. No leaks meant silencers were to be installed. This washer is quiet now. The air gap which prevents backflow contamination is now louder when it’s draining than the washer is when it’s running.

I am going to say this: if you have a washer without a backflow prevention mechanism such as an air gap: get one. I can think of no other cheap installation that could be better for your home repair money. I could have possibly saved my old dishwasher from replacement had I known about the air gap. Installation took all of 20 minutes because I’m slow and wanted to triple check the connections.

So far I’m thrilled.

Also, I fixed a broken closet door tonight. Tip: don’t cut corners with “repairs”. The previous owner of this house did and I’m having to make up for it in dishwashers and wood and time :) . Not that I mind. After hours in front of a computer screen physical labor is refreshing.

Mc-Corn-alds, Corner King and Corny’s All Sell Corn Fast Food

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Recent research shows that almost every fast food item available at fast food restaurants contains corn [reference article].  For the record this isn’t entirely shocking.  Beef cattle are often raised with corn feed as part of their diet, corn is a thickening agent in various liquidy or faux cheese products, and its also a handy ingredient to have around when you want pizza to not stick to a heating/cooking/baking rack.  Its syrup is renowned for its smoothing abilities in sweet goods like caramel sauce and candy.  Its a cheap (in part due to government subsidies) for sweetening soda, and its also got coloring abilities.  You can’t beat corn’s versatility down, it does come with a lot of skills.

Some research has linked it to diabetes, obesity, and allergies of various sorts.  I am allergic to corn myself, so having it is not a good choice for me.  I just though I’d let you know that if you’re allergic to corn, too, most fast food places could be a bad place to get your food from :)