I don’t think it’s stopped raining for about 2 weeks now – except while I’m at work of course.
That figures though, The backyard pergola is about 80% done and we haven’t been able to put out or new patio furtunature…
Where’s the sunny days?
Going to go find my Hyperstatic Union CD and listen to Song 6 – “Praying for Sunny Days”
It’s not pretty – but it sounds great. 
Jonah, our dog, passed away a few weeks ago.
He was 13 and less than a week from being 14 – and acted like he was 2. He was a puppy jumping around with me the day before when I had him all worked up throwing toys all over the house – after chasing snow balls.
You were a great dog and we miss you Jonah!
Here are some of the photo’s I have of him-
Jonah with his favorite toy
Jonah with his Christmas Present (2008)
Jonah's Christmas Present (2007)
Waiting for the toy to get tossed! I'm pretty sure that he was barking and Angie was yelling at me to toss the toy...
OpenDNS is a free service that perofmrs and action many people end up paying for – internet filterting.
How it works:
When you type in a web page, like “www.google.com” you are actually typing in a shortcut to a place on the internet. Your internet provided has a a DNS (Domain Name System) server that then tells your computer the real address of the webpage – 208.69.36.230 for our example of www.google.com (click on it if you don’t believe me!). Google paid for the web shortcut of “google”, just like I paid for www.markpappas.info.
Your internet provider has that DNS server – but you can override it. Here’s the slimplicty of OpenDNS. You set your computer or router to look to openDNS instead of the one your internet provided has. OpenDNS then gives your computer the real address of the webpage. However – once you have an account with opwnDNS you have other options.
When a new web page is added to OpenDNS it is catagorized in up to 54 different catagories. With your account at OpenDNS you can selectively block any selection of them in addition to a few other features.
This means that with a simple click of a mouse button in your settings window you can block Pornography.
Here are the current categories OpenDNS has-
One stop internet filtering. And it’s free.
On a side note, I love stumbleupon, specifically the photography catagory.
I didn’t like the people that submit nude photos under the ‘photography’ catagory.
OpenDNS has solved that issue for me. I now end up looking at a generic OpenDNS page stating that the website was blocked for being catagorized into XYZ catagories which have been blocked by your network administrator.
I’ve been using it now for over 6 months without any issue.
Did I mention it’s FREE? OpenDNS
This weekend I attended the wedding of one of my cousins at a Catholic Church in Milwaukee on Saturday, the following day I attended Sunday services at the nondenominational Christian Elmbrook. In most aspects Elmbook is just about the same as Appleton Alliance Church – only larger.
The differences between the 2 (“Catholic” and “nondenominational Christian”) are incredible, being reminded of that fact is even more humbling. I grew up in the Catholic tradition and until college had no idea of anything but the Catholic tradition.
The first major item I noticed was that the Catholic church still has Jesus nailed to the cross. Front and center was a massive cross – with a Jesus body nailed to it.
Every non-Catholic church I’ve been in, that I can recall, just uses a plain cross. I’ll avoid any discussions on why, but it is a nice transition to the next major difference I observed-
The Catholic church lacked life! The towering walls of stone were dark and cold. The singing we garbled and mumbled. People simply followed along, everything was as it always has been – a routine. It seemed … dead.
The Christian church, on the other hand, was bright and vibrant. The singing was loud and impressive. People were happy to be there. The Pastor told a joke or two. The message was alive with reason and clear instruction – and application. It was Alive!
I thought it was an interesting item to notice – that in one place it seemed dead, and indeed – Christ was still dead nailed to the cross.
In the other it was alive – and so was Jesus, as a body, was nowhere to be seen.
I’d rather be alive!
So it’s about time I updated the site a bit with current happenings.
I’ve been spending some time in my basement building my workshop/”man cave”.
So far I’ve;
And thats just the basement area alone. I’ll get photos up someday hopefully!
Around the rest of the house I’ve been working on smaller projects and tasks-
Starting to get a list of projects to do this summer too.
Anyhow, always a list of stuff I’d like to do, Angie has a completly different list of hewr own for me!
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