Tim and Naomi

So… the price of gas really has me thinking. Not about not driving, but driving less. It also has me thinking about the effects of it on the way we do business, live and play.

I am seeing an increasing benefit to living close to groceries, gas, church, recreation, other shopping etc. I didn’t mention work, but that’s only because I work from home 90% of the time. However, that other 10% is very expensive. Then there’s the areas with public transportation. I believe this is an area that will experience rapid growth over the next few years. Cities with poor transportation services will be forced to improve them.

Living far away from everything in Wilder, I have to wonder how long it will take before the cost outweighs the benefits. I see the cost growing litterally everyday. Everyday it seems I look at the pumps and see it climb.

Restructure.

That’s all I can say. Take life and re-organize it. For some people, it will mean getting rid of a car, cable tv or movie rentals. Others might need to move closer to the city, grow their own gardens and eat healthier (stop eating fast food). And the business world needs to evolve as well. Expect to conduct all of your business online. No more in – person meetings, buy more products online and make all of your phone calls using an internet phone. You already pay all of your bills online.

It might mean spending  more time at home, possibly cause people to look to their own communities for friendships and community.

Good times and good things often come about through hardship.

Things to think about….

During my morning devotions and thoughts today, I was presented with the renewed realization of the state of this world, as it never changes.

Here in America there is a lot of talk within the media that is creating a bit of concern regarding the current economic status of the Union. Some people in this country are very financially proud. The thought of a recession in any part of the market is troubling. The thought of their financial status and future is a big concern.

I can understand and even myself, I care for my family and their wellbeing. But when I look to the future and my retirement package, I should not be so short sighted.

You see, my retirement is not being built in this faulty economy. My retirement is being set up in a land far across the US borders. With or without knowing it, yours will end up there one day too. Unfortunately, there is only two basic retirement plans. One is constantly appreciating and gaining in value as you add to it. The other retirement option will by default be yours. The good plan needs to be elected by you, much like your current retirement plan. Not electing one, you basically are electing yourself to take care of it on your own. Naturally, we elect for the 401K or Pension plan, because our dollars are matched, or some plans put money away without you ever adding a dime.

So, let’s look at the two plans for a moment:

• The Elected Plan:
  Value increases daily by simply telling other people about the plan, they need not sign up for it, you just need to share the plan. The end payout is eternally better than anything your current employer is offering you.
• The Non-elected Plan:
  This is the default option, and will leave you wishing you had opted for the other plan. In fact, you will likely be tormented and consumed with that thought. Sure, there might be some friends of yours with the same plan, but “Heaven with your enemies is better than Hell with your friends”.

Given the choice between the two options, one would have to ask if I am being serious. Who would not choose the Elected Plan, if given the choice? Frankly, a lot of people don’t. They don’t think I’m offering them something real, or they think that they would be best at determining the outcome of their retirement. In fact, most Americans don’t even have a retirement fund of any sorts. Most of us live month to month, scrapping by, so we can have that new car and plasma screen tv.

The truth is, that my retirement is not even being stored here on earth, but in Heaven. No man-made government can steal it, no economic crash can destroy it, not rust, moth or thief can rob me.

If you are of The Elect, you have been charged as a sojourner in this land, passing through. If not, you’re still passing through. Without being of the Elect, your soul is not reconciled to God and not able to receive the benefits of being adopted and brought into His house. And if not His house, there remains only one other option, a house built for the Angels which rebelled against Him.

Go here to find out if you’re “good enough”.

If you are of The Elect already, ask yourself what your thoughts are filled with. Economic trouble? The next American Idol? Or those who do not yet know of our Lord, Jesus Christ? Christian, you are charged with one mission while sojourning here. Are you storing up riches in Heaven or building a larger Hell?

As I work in front of my window at my desk, I have the pleasure of watching the dogs at times when they are in the yard.

Today, our youngest dog, Ande, proved herself to be the smarter of our two border collies.

We have a large yard with a large willow tree in it. The dogs frequently chase the squirrels up it. They have never been very successful at catching them… until now.

I had been watching Ande, as she seemed to have the cunning of a cat, waiting intently for the squirrel to come down from the tree. She had the gaze of a cat, even. It had been in the tree in plane site for so long, I had thought about shooting it down. Mmmm, squirrel soup….

A couple of hours had passed when I saw a blur of fur being chased down the fence line. Ande seemed to be toying with it the way a cat toys with a mouse, pouncing on it repeatedly and batting with its paws it as it runs. She had it within her paws for about 3 or 4 yards as she played with it.

Ande’s older brother, Koda has had a few moments where he got pretty close to a squirrel, once nipped it’s tale, but has never come close to Ande’s cunning hunting skills.

So this weekend, I decided, it’s time to back up my Windows XP data on my laptop – which is used for work – and reinstall XP on it, just to make sure things keep running smooth.

This is a process I do once a year, at least, either as a precautionary thing or to repair a buggy Windows OS. I have been doing this sort of operation for years, and I am perfectly comfortable with it.

So this weekend, as I am using the recovery disk that came with my laptop from Gateway, I encountered all sorts of bugs and well over a hundred pieces of software that had to be installed on top of the base operating system. Now generally, I go through and uninstall all of the junk, because I don’t want things like McCrappy antivirus or BigFix slowing my pc down. (I use AVG for antivirus as it doesn’t bog down my system).

After a longer than usual wait, the OS Windows XP is online… sort of. I had to terminate a number of processes during all of the “extras” installing, one of which was an XP update. So I decided to scratch this install and do something different this time.

The time from when I decided to install Ubuntu Studio Edition to completion was less than 30 min. It only took that long because I was taking care of a baby at the time. Compare that to the time it took to run my Gateway Recovery DVD (Several hours). What a waste of a day.

So how do I intend to run my windows programs, you ask? With VirtualBox. I have previously tested it on this machine and it runs pretty well. Plus there is the option to freeze the OS, so that the programs and OS are frozen in a sate of functionality. Everytime one boots it up, it should work as it did the first time. Thereby eliminating the need to “Recover” or reinstall Windows. It is similar to Deep Freeze, an overpriced commercial product from Faronics.

I do intend to reduce my dependence on the Windows OS. There are plenty of great code editors available, but graphics applications are less developed than, say, Adobe’s Photoshop. I know all of you GIMP fans are screaming at me right now, but it’s true. There is no comparison for integration and ease of use, especially when it comes to web graphics. I have seen hope for Adobe, though, in beginning to develop software for Ubuntu and other Linux editions. I believe it is only a matter of time as the market is really beginning to open up to Linux.

I will follow up with this post at a later date to inform you of how well the process goes and works for me.