Instead of judging others, try to help. This is a great message about opening your eyes to what is really important and watching for signs.
Popularity: 17% [?]
Here’s an awesome song. I think I want this played at my funeral. It’s a superb message about the fact that death isn’t a sad thing but rather a celebration! God only cries for the living because they’re left to carry on…
Popularity: 7% [?]
Proof that Christians can be normal and that all Christian music DOESN’T sound the same. Barlow Girl is awesome and always impresses me with the quality of the music and the positive message.
Popularity: 7% [?]
This is a triumphant video about a son asked his father, ‘Dad, will you take part in a marathon with me?’. The father who, despite having a heart condition, says ‘Yes’. They went on to complete the marathon together. Father and son went on to join other marathons, the father always saying ‘Yes’ to his son’s request of going through the race together. One day, the son asked his father, ‘Dad, let’s join the Ironman together.’ To which, his father said ‘Yes’ too.
For those who don’t know, Ironman is the toughest triathlon ever. The race encompasses three endurance events of a 2.4 mile (3.86
kilometer) ocean swim, followed by a 112 mile (180.2 kilometer) bike ride, and ending with a 26.2 mile (42.195 kilometer) marathon along the coast of the Big Island . Father and son went on to complete the race together.
What you’re about to read is directly copied from ESPN at http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/news/story?id=2631338 .
KAILUA-KONA, Hawaii — When Rick Hoyt developed cerebral palsy at birth in 1962 after his umbilical cord became wrapped around his neck, cutting off oxygen to his brain, doctors suggested to his parents that he be institutionalized. But Dick Hoyt and his wife refused, insisting that their son have as normal a life as possible.
Although some might question whether running nearly 1,000 marathons and triathlons over 27 years is normal, the Hoyts think it is. On Saturday, Dick and Rick will attempt their fifth Hawaii Ironman Triathlon World Championship.
The normal life saw Rick, who cannot talk or walk, graduating from a public high school and going on to Boston College, where he earned a degree in special education. After teaching for one year, Rick turned to his interest in computers, and helped Boston College develop the “Eagle Eyes” computer system that uses eye and head movements to help him communicate.
While attending a college basketball game, he heard an announcement about a benefit run for a cross-country runner who had become paralyzed in an accident.
Dick remembers his son coming home and saying, “Dad, we have to do something for him. I want to show him that life goes on even though he is paralyzed.”
“It was Rick who was the motivation,” for their racing career, Hoyt said. “He asked me to race.”
That first race, in 1979, was a five-mile run with Dick pushing Rick in a two-wheel running chair.
“We started building up to marathons, and entered our first marathon in 1981,” Hoyt said. Their list of racing accomplishments includes 64 marathons, a distance of 26.2 miles, including 24 consecutive Boston Marathons.
“We did our first triathlon in 1985 — a one-mile swim, 40-mile bike ride and a 10-mile run,” Hoyt said.
In 1988, they attempted their first Ironman race, featuring a 2.4-mile ocean swim, a 112-mile bicycle ride and a full marathon. They had to drop out when Dick became nauseated during the swim and failed to make the cutoff time. They returned the next year and finished the race. In 2003, they crashed at the 85-mile mark of the bicycle ride and spent five hours in a hospital emergency room. But they finished again in 2004.
They also completed a triathlon over the Ironman distance that was not sanctioned by Ironman. That race, in 1986 at Cape Cod, Mass., gave them their best finish time of 13½ hours.
“Rick loves sports,” his father said. “He really looks forward to the Ironman and gets very excited. He is getting the same benefits I get. His adrenelin really gets going.”
During the swim, Hoyt tows his son in a 5-foot-long rubber inflatable boat, with a tow line attached to a belt around his waist. Rick sits in a seat in front of the specially built bike, and in a three-wheel chair for the run.
“The chair has been updated to make it lighter,” Hoyt said.
The long bicycle ride takes athletes from the pier in this seaside village over barren lava fields to the rolling ranch lands at the northern end of Hawaii Island.
“I don’t mind the hills, but the winds can be brutal,” said Hoyt, who pushes a total of 365 pounds during the bike ride.
“I don’t know how much longer I can do this,” said Hoyt, 66, adding that this will be their last Ironman-distance race. “But we’re not giving up on triathlons.”
He said he and his son, now 44, plan to compete in the new Ironman 70.3 series of races, which cover a distance half that of the regular Ironman course.
Now retired from the Massachusetts Air National Guard after 37 years, Hoyt spends much of his time traveling extensively as a motivational speaker. He also promotes the book he wrote during the first six months of his retirement. The book, “It’s Only A Mountain,” book chronicles how Rick’s parents “went about raising him,” and “is selling all over the world,” the father said. “It was recently translated into Korean and is in the process of being translated into Japanese.”
The Hoyts also are featured in two DVDs, including one called “Team Hoyt Ironman” with “My Redeemer Lives” as background music that Hoyt said is “very powerful.”
Their impact is evident when they walk down the street here and are constantly stopped by fans who wish them well, thank them for their inspiration and ask to pose for pictures.
Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press
Popularity: 7% [?]
Here’s a song by Agonist called Business Suits and Combat Boots. It’s killer…
I’m not sure of the statement they are trying to sell- perhaps they’re socialist anti-war vegetarians? It’s hard to understand what they are screaming into the mic but the instruments are phenonominal!
Popularity: 9% [?]
Microsoft on Friday confirmed it will issue no more beta releases of Windows 7 and will instead move directly to a single release candidate (RC) and then the final release. The company offered no guidance on when we can expect the Windows 7 release, however.
“The next milestone for the development of Windows 7 is the Release Candidate or ‘RC,’” Microsoft senior vice president Steven Sinofsky confirmed in a blog post. “We’ve released the feature complete Beta and have made it available broadly around the world. The path to Release Candidate is all about getting the product to a known and shippable state both from an internal and external standpoint.”
Sinofsky notes that the RC version of Windows 7 will be “Windows 7 as Microsoft intends to ship it” and will place the OS on a fast track towards RTM (release to manufacturing), when the code is literally completed, and general availability (GA), when it is made available to the public. No timeline for the RC, RTM, or GA were provided. “The answer [to the schedule questions] is forthcoming,” Sinofsky added.
“We are taking a quality-based approach to completing the product and won’t be driven by imposed deadlines,” Sinofsky claimed. “We’re promising to deliver the best release of Windows we possibly can and that’s our goal. Together, and with a little bit more patience, we’ll achieve that goal.”
It’s pretty clear that Windows 7 will, in fact, be delivered well before the 2009 holiday and back-to-school seasons, which are key sales bump periods in the consumer market. Insiders Expect to see the RC version of Windows 7 in April alongside Windows Vista Service Pack 2 (SP2), and the RTM release by mid-2009.
Popularity: 47% [?]
In February Microsoft will announce its plans for the various Windows 7 product editions it will sell when that OS is released to the public sometime this year. The announcement was eagerly awaited because of the confusing and broad range of Windows Vista product editions, with their overlapping feature sets.
Unlike with Vista, where Microsoft crowded the market with lots of versions of Windows, Windows 7 will ship in just a handful of common-sense product editions. And also unlike with Vista, these product editions are all supersets of each other, so there are no overlapping feature sets (which is good) and simpler upgrading (which is even better).
For this version of the OS, Microsoft and its PC maker partners will market just two mainstream product editions, Windows 7 Home Premium–the recommended choice for consumers–and Windows 7 Professional, which is aimed at enthusiasts and IT professionals.
Here’s how the complete product line breaks down (where each product edition is a superset of the one before it.)
Windows 7 Starter. This version will be sold only through PC makers to users in emerging markets. As with previous Windows Starter Edition products, it is limited in some ways: You can run only three applications at once, you don’t get Windows 7′s full mobility capabilities, and you can participate in but not create a Home Group.
Windows 7 Home Premium. The volume Windows 7 offering for consumers builds on Starter and includes Mobility Center, Aero Glass, advanced windows navigation features like Aero Snap and Aero Peek, and multi-touch, as well as the ability to both create and participate in Home Groups. Home Premium will be sold at retail and be included with new computers.
Windows 7 Professional. This version builds on Home Premium and adds features like domain join, Group Policy controls, location-aware printing, advanced backup, EFS, and offline folders. Pro will be sold at retail and be included with new computers.
Windows 7 Enterprise. As before, Enterprise is aimed at Microsoft’s Software Assurance (SA) volume-license customers. This time, however, Enterprise is a superset of Professional and adds much-heralded Windows 7 features like Direct Access, Branch Cache, BitLocker, and BitLocker To Go.
Windows 7 Ultimate. For those few customers who simply must have everything, Windows 7 Ultimate offers all of the features from Enterprise but loses the volume-licensing requirement. So you can think of Ultimate edition as Enterprise for consumers (and other retail customers).
So you may be looking back over this list and thinking, well, hold on a second there: That’s five product editions. Are they really simplifying anything? Yes, they really are. Microsoft and its partners will focus most of their efforts selling Home Premium and Pro to the retail and consumer markets, and Enterprise to volume licensing business customers. Ultimate and Starter are, by definition, niche products that are available only to address low-volume but important markets. But what really makes this work is the “Russian doll” structure where each version is a true superset of the one below it. With Windows Vista, Home Premium had some features that Business did not and vice versa. That made choosing a product edition difficult.
A few other product edition notes: It will be possible to electronically upgrade from any Windows 7 product edition to a higher-end product edition, and to do so quickly and easily. So even a Starter edition user will be able to upgrade all the way up to Ultimate if they so choose.
Vista users will face simple upgrade choices: You can go from Vista Home Basic or Home Premium to Windows 7 Home Premium or any higher product edition, for example. XP users? They can only “upgrade” by performing a clean install of Windows 7–Microsoft will not support an in-place upgrade–but there will be utilities to smooth the process and get data transferred over easily.
This info comes from Paul Thurrott with the Windows IT Pro magazine. Read the article at http://windowsitpro.com/article/articleid/101416/microsoft-details-windows-7-product-version-plans.html
Popularity: 3% [?]
The bright blue sky
was as beautiful as me
The sky is the limit
by, shay rule age: 12
Popularity: 29% [?]
When Windows begins to run slowly (and it will..) what you need is a Windows Tune-Up! This is a guide to those Essential Applications to keep Windows running like new.
I’m going to focus on Windows XP since the target audience of this article is those individuals that know better than to run Windows Vista. No seriously, most of these applications will run on Vista and since Windows 7 is based upon the same architecture they should work on the next version of Windows as well.
There are four main aspects to tuning up Windows- removing unnecessary and temporary files, optimizing file structure and location, removing ready-state programs, and removing viruses and spyware.
Step One- Remove Junk Files
Any time you have a problem with an Internet application the first thing they tell you to do is to delete the Internet temporary files and history. This is a good tip too because Internet cache or temp files can easily exceed 1 GB on current computers. These extra files will not only slow down Internet usage, but disk reading as well. It’s easy enough to delete the private data in Internet Explorer or Firefox or Opera or whatever web browser you use, but that doesn’t remove any of the resident Windows temporary files that are left over after installing software or Windows updates or even during daily use. To do this easily you need an application. I suggest a little jewel I’ve used for years called Windows Cleanup. This is a very small program written by Steven Gould. I’ve tried all sorts of cleanup programs from Xclean to Advanced System Care and none are as simple and work as well as Windows Cleanup for deleting unneeded files. The current version is 4.5.2 however I am a bigger fan of 4.0 because it doesn’t ask you to donate after each run. Oh, and this application is so good that it shouldn’t be free… but it is. Download it from http://www.stevengould.org .
I also noticed Steven is running a website powered by Joomla and I’m a big fan of that as well. But that’s another story.
Step Two- Fix those fraged files
Ok, so we’ve deleted all the junk files from the computer. Our next step is to defragment the hard drive. The internal defragmenters in all versions of Windows really blow chunks so we need a better application for this as well. If you are in a real bind and can’t download this next tool, running the builtin defrag tool will work better than not running it. I’ve tried all of these tools as well on every version of Windows since Windows 3.0 and Windows NT 3.51 on both the server and workstation flavors. The ones I’ve tried are PerfectDisk, Diskkeeper and others. Yet for all the thousands (literally) of dollars I have spent on these commercial applications none have performed as well as IOBits Smart Defrag. Oh, and did I mention that this tool is FREE as well?? This is another one of those tools I would tell you to buy, but it’s free. Gotta love that! Download Smart Defrag from http://iobit.com/iobitsmartdefrag.html.
IOBit also has another exceptional tool for the average computer user that needs an all-in-one system care package called Advanced System Care. They have a free version but for the true all-in-one software you will need to buy it. Buying it bundles Smart Defrag into one interface and all levels of system care are handled with just the push of a button. This is ok for some, however I believe following the steps in this document results in a better tune-up and doesn’t cost anything. It does however take a little more time but I think it’s worth it.
Step Three- Remove unwanted startup items
Our next step is to get rid of the “ready state” applications that run in the background and hog system resources. Don’t get me wrong. I don’t hate all applications that run in the background. But when there are so many running it really does become a pinch point on system performance and can severely slow even the most powerful system. I haven’t found any good software packages that take care of this aspect of a Windows Tune-up and that’s because each system is so different in the software that’s installed.
Performing this next step is not for the faint of heart nor for the computer layman. You should have a pretty darn good understanding of how Windows works before you attempt this one. For this step we’ll use the built in tool msconfig. Click start and go to Run and type msconfig.
MSConfig has lots to look at but we’re only going to focus on two tabs, the Startup tab and the Services tab.
First click the Startup tab-
This will show you all the items that start when Windows starts running. Most of these items happen in the background and most are not needed. There are a few essential items here that you do not want to uncheck- make sure any antivirus software is left to run.
In my case here I would not uncheck VMWare tray or VMWare user because those are essential items that are needed for my version of Windows running under VMWare on my Mac.
In this case I could uncheck qtask which is the Quicktime quick launcher and Reader_sl because that is also a quick launcher for Adobe. And I could disable the CorelPhoto Downloader. This is the utility that allows Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo to see a digital camera and allow it to do the downloads through it.
See what I mean about needing to know what you’re doing here a bit? For the most part removing all the items here will not hurt anything and you can always run them manually after starting Windows or run msconfig again to re-check those items.
Secondly you will want to go to the Services tab-
Make sure first that you check the “Hide all Microsoft Services” check box otherwise this tab is very intimidating. Now your list is much shorter. The next thing to do is make sure you remove all non-essential services from starting. Once again, leave your antivirus software and other essential services.
Once you complete this task click on the Ok button and the System Configuration Utility will ask you to reboot the system so the changes can take effect. You can now or later but be aware that you will see a message upon the next restart from the System Config Utility telling you that some startup items have been disabled. There is a check box to NOT show the message again. Check it!
Next we can move on to our next step- removing Spyware and Viruses.
Step Four- Removing spyware and viruses
The number one cause of a slow PC is spyware. The number one cause of a slow PC is spyware. No that’s not a typo- it’s that important! Spyware slows down your computer because it affects all of our three previous steps and removing it is like a double bonus! There are lots of good spyware applications our there and most antivirus software even catches the worst kind now, but to cover yourself the best for the least amount of money keep reading. Spybot Search & Destroy is by far the best free spyware removal tool. It’s so good that you SHOULD donate to the cause because it’s that good! It can be downloaded from http://www.safer-networking.org/en/download/ . Ocasionally you will get some bad little buggies that Spybot doesn’t have the latest and greatest definitions for and in that case I suggest you get MalwareBytes from http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam.php . This is another EXCELLENT choice and they have a version you can buy although I never have so I can’t even tell you what the difference between the free and commercial version is.
If you use Spybot make sure you imunize after downloading the latest definitions because this will help prevent spyware! What a concept!
As far as antivirus is concerned, be very picky. The big commercial named software isn’t always the best. I’m a big fan of AVG Free Antivirus because it’s… well… it’s free. AND it works very well especially for the price 
! You can downlaod AVG from http://free.avg.com/ . I’m not a big fan of McAfee, Norton, or Trend Micro. Sophos is ok although I would suggest F-Prot because it is the by far the best and most lightweight antivirus software out there! We ran it on the network for years before being talked into one of the “name brand” packages. I have regretted it ever since and can’t wait until our contract expires so we can go back. It is so light weight that you cannot tell it’s running on a 1 ghz machine running XP with 265 mb of ram. Keep in mind however, you will need to buy F-Prot. Visit them here http://www.f-prot.com/.
Armed with these four simple tactics you will be able to revive the weak and struggling PC back to good health! Along with these steps make sure you are keeping Windows updated by running Windows Updates and even better opt into Microsoft’s newer Microsoft Update which updates all the MS software like Office as well as Windows critical updates.
Leave comments of email me and I will be happy to take or make suggestions!
Popularity: 4% [?]
Haiku is very fun
Most haiku does not rhyme period
Haiku fun to write
By Shay Rule age: 12
Popularity: 28% [?]
The weather this winter has been extremly odd. We have swung from temperatures in the arctic cold to VERY warm for this time of year. At first I thought it might only be here in the north western part of Colorado, but upon further observation I realized that the same thing is happening in Denver and on the Front Range as well.
Temperatures for the past week have been in the low 70′s for Denver and surrounding areas and up as high as 76 in Pueblo. While at the same time the temperatures here have been cold. We have been getting down to an average of 17 below zero and up to as much as 9 degrees during the day. This was happening at the same time that Denver and company were in the 70′s. That seems odd to me.
Earlier this year we were unseasonably warm here while Denver had the Arctic blast with wind chills down to 30 below zero. At this time we unseasonably warm getting into the low 50′s. This is the first year I remember such an odd temperature difference between the two sides of the mountains and such extremes.
I am moved to write about this since yesterday the temperature was -19 when we left for school at 7:30 and this morning at 7:30 it’s raining at 32 degrees. The weather patterns are certainly changing, there is no doubt about that.
Popularity: 8% [?]
“Ewww” I can already smell everyone’s stinky feet. They may smell good but I know that I don’t want to smell any of them!
For one of our writing prompts this year, we had our chose of partners (So I picked Meghan) and we were asked to compare each other’s shoes and write a paragraph about what we observed.
Meghan and I live in the type of country that’s real rugged, and it would be very difficult to live the way we do if we didn’t have cowboy boots. We ride, walk, compete, and go on cattle drives with our boots.
The only purposes of our boots are: so that you can enjoy them, ride in them, and compete in them. The reason I wear boots for these events is because if you need to get off your horse fast, like if you were doing Goat Tail Tying and need to jump off you can because the bottom of my boots are slick witch makes it possible to get off without getting drug by your horse. Plus if boots had strings on them then you might get the shoe strings caught on something. So because boots have slick bottoms and no shoe laces they prevent you from being drug or any other dangerous stunts, except for if you fall down on the ice.
When I think of what kind of boot that I want to have, I think about what I’ll be doing so that I’ll know what to look for in a boot that will suit me , like: barrel racing, pole bending, cattle driving, having fun, going through mud, and just about anything you can think of. My boots appearance may not satisfy you, because my boots are old, dirty, and just about worn out. Their cracked on the outside, and the bottoms are caked with mud and cow manure. Though they’re now clean because of the snow you can still smell the aroma of their true sent. It’s wild and no one can make out the exact sent of the boot, but that doesn’t matter to me. My boot is old and worn, and they have holes inside and a few on the outside. My boots are suppose to be as black as the midnight sky and are suppose to have a pattern of mystical animals fighting in the sky. I know that I have a wild imagination about patterns and stuff like that but I try my best. But Meghan’s shoes are very different from mine. They have lots of zigzagging lines on them.
When we talk about age between my boots and Meghan there’s a three year difference. She’s only had her boots for a month and mine are three years old. Though they do look like there 100 years old!
But all in all Meghan’s boots have way more differences then similarities.
Popularity: 19% [?]
“Too Much Homework” sounds familiar don’t you think so. These are three words often used by kids. But kids don’t just say them so that they can get out of doing their homework.
Many schools around Colorado don’t understand that the more homework you give your students, the more stressed out they get. Plus, it hurts kids academically as well. Kids also don’t have all the time in the world to do their homework, because lots of parents (like mine) want to go do fun activities with their children; and since global worming has been going on, recycling is also very important and homework is a waste of paper.
In Canada I researched that they took surveys that would tell them if homework really does apply stress, and if it hurts young children’s self confidence. I personally think that it was a good call on their part, because many children have these problems.
Lots of kids tend to worry about when they will be able to have time to do their homework. If they aren’t able to turn in their homework on time and do it right, they might get the idea that their not good at anything; and that will cause their self confidence to go down the drain. But having more than four pages, affects kids of all ages and a lot of the time it gets worse as they get older. If they only had one or two or maybe not any homework at all; they might have higher self confidence and they won’t have to find an extra hour just to work on their homework, and they probably won’t be able to have any help from their parents. But with no homework the schools scores will most likely improve by the hundreds!
Kids need more freedom throughout their lives and they can’t have that privilege because their always working on a homework assignment.
In our school (West Grand Elementary School and Middle School) we start school at 8:00am and end school at 4:00pm. The middle schoolers have at least 5 pages of homework a day, and the girls have basketball practice right after school which is at 4:00pm until 6:00pm and sometimes all the way to 6:30pm. No one has any time to do their homework that’s one of the main reasons everybody dislikes their homework, including parents as well.
Many websites on the internet are trying to fight against making kids (like me and my friends) do homework. They know that kids get stressed out and that they don’t have enough time to do their homework.
All of these reasons that I stated are true, and I’ve spoken to many kids like me about this matter and they all agreed, so I hope that you will to.
Popularity: 19% [?]
