Whoa!

I just finished watching the introduction by Senator McCain of his running mate, governor Sarah Palin of Alaska. And Jiminy Christmas, she is impressive! (She has an 80% approval rating among Alaskans.)

I had only heard of her vaguely before today, but she is a huge breath of fresh air -- and a powerful speaker and communicator. A married mother of five, her fifth baby was born last April as a Downs syndrome child. I remember reading lately about how she laughed off advice to abort the baby, etc. Their oldest son is headed to Iraq in the Army in September, then three girls from high school down to grammar school age, then the new baby boy. Husband looks like a nice guy -- former commercial fisherman, now a manager in the oil fields in Alaska. (He's popular in Alaska where he's known as the "First Dude.")

The irony is that this woman has more experience managing "government" than Barack Obama! And I have a feeling that she would like nothing better than to go nose to nose with Joe Biden when it comes time for the debates. She has been an ethical reformer in Alaska and told the feds "Thanks, but no thanks" when it came to a decision to build the infamous "bridge to nowhere" in Alaska that was part of the huge (bogus) Highway Bill a couple of years ago. She told them, "If we need a bridge built, we'll build it ourselves." She's in the process of returning billions of dollars of windfall oil taxes to the residents of Alaska. Very interesting woman.

The Republicans have scooped the Dems when it comes to "breaking the glass ceiling" in Washington. She came onstage in a business suit (skirt), not a pants-suit, ready to do business. She's everything the Women's Lib movement could ask for except she's not a liberal! And the Republicans found her! Amazing.

Well, this has suddenly become interesting. Maybe I'll look at her and McCain differently after we learn more about her, but for the moment, I'm impressed.

Best Friends

I copied this picture and caption from the Dec 06/Jan 07 issue of Backyard Poultry magazine:

Best Line of the Convention

From the observant pen of Peggy Noonan:

"By the way, the best line of the convention so far? Ted Strickland of Ohio, when he echoed the 1988 Democratic convention joke about George H.W. Bush, that he was born on third and thought he hit a triple. Strickland said of George W. Bush that he was born on third and then stole second. It didn't get much attention in any of the commentary, but it's all people were talking about in the bars of Denver that night."

Last New Book

This new book by David Jeremiah just arrived this morning so I'll put it up -- and that will be all the books for a while. This was a sermon series preached by Pastor Jeremiah recently and I was able to supplement the text with further research, etc. Very interesting since it had a lot to do with current events vis-a-vis a biblical premillennial view of past, present, and future events. (Again, a nice "thank you" from Dr. J in the "Acknowledgements" section.)

Another New Book

Due out on September 2 is this book by Mark Sanborn, a corporate trainer and leadership consultant. I worked with Mark on the manuscript of this book last fall.

New Book

Over the last year or two I've written more than 500 short devotional "readings" for Turning Point Ministries (David Jeremiah). The ministry has used them in a variety of ways (audio CD's to listen to in the car, etc. -- I even hear them while on hold when talking with folks by phone at their ministry office in California -- to me, more interesting than listening to music).

They took around 150 of them and put them into a new book, along with an accompanying Bible verse for each daily reading: 1 Minute a Day—Instant Inspirations for the Busy Life. While the book is published by Thomas Nelson, one of the biggest Christian publishers, I don't see it on Amazon, etc. I think Turning Point is using it only as a gift book for donors within their ministry.

Anyway, nice to see one's efforts being put to good use (as Turning Point does with everything I write for them). (Since I've been asked various forms of the "writing credit" question, credit is given on the copyright page: "Special thanks to William Kruidenier for assistance in writing 1 Minute a Day.")

Do You Have a Personal Farmer?

New post today on the YardFarms blog.

I.O.U.S.A.

Today (August 21) a documentary will be shown in select theaters around the country called I.O.U.S.A. It's a documentary on the failing state of America's financial situation vis-a-vis the federal deficit and national debt, the credit crunch, etc. The web site for the film is here, and a list of theaters is here. It's a 2' 45" event -- the movie followed by a live broadcast of a discussion with Warren Buffett and others.

Here's the trailer:

Candidates Conversation

SATURDAY the 16th: Pastor Rick Warren (Saddleback Community Church) will host a two-hour conversation (not a debate) with John McCain and Barack Obama this coming Saturday at Saddleback Church in California. Rick Warren is probably the only pastor in America with enough clout to get both the candidates to participate in what is being called a "Civil Forum" on the issues in the campaign.

It will be from 5:00 - 7:00 pm (PST) and broadcast on FOX News and CNN. There will also be a live webcast of the event online from the Civil Forum website.

SUNDAY the 17th: Warren is going to deliver a sermon titled "Making Up Your Mind: Questions to Consider Before the Election" at his church on Sunday. It is supposed to be streamed live over the web though there is nothing posted yet on the Saddleback site as to time, etc. This is their webcasting site so I'm thinking this is where it will show up, but have no idea what time. If I find out I'll post the details.

Given Rick Warren's levelheadedness, I'm posting this info assuming this "Civil Forum" will indeed be civil and therefore productive.

Apple Most Valuable

Apple, Inc., is now the most valuable company in Silicon Valley, overtaking Google. The rise in its stock price, due to sales of recent popular products like the iPhone 3G, has pushed its market cap (shares x price per share) to $158 billion, overtaking Google's $157 billion value. Pretty amazing for a company that many said was dead just a few years ago. Read the story here.

Vegetable Garden at the White House?

The founder of Kitchen Gardeners International has started a movement to get the next resident of the White House to maintain a vegetable garden on the White House lawn. Hey -- it's our lawn -- should be our decision.

Elevated

Fun meeting today with Steven Furtick, founding pastor of Charlotte's Elevation Church (three locations). Started less than three years ago, it has exploded in growth and impact in the city. (They've baptized over a thousand people in the last two weeks. Here's a link to the video testimony of one of the guys that got baptized -- first time Elevation has had to bleep out part of a salvation testimony -- I love it.) Met with Steven to discuss an upcoming book project.

Pictured are (L > R) Lori Black, Steven's assistant; Steven Furtick, and Chunks, the church's exec pastor:

Why Macs Are Better

Bob Levitus is a long-time Mac columnist in the computer world, author of over 50 computer books. In this article he lists 12 reasons why college students should take a Mac to college instead of a PC. Whether you're going to college or to Starbucks, the reasons are still valid for anybody looking to buy a computer.

TIme Warner Road Runner PowerBoost

For those who have TW Cable Road Runner Internet Service, it just got faster again -- this time for free -- sort of. If you are a Road Runner Turbo subscriber ($10 a month extra), you now get the new add-on called PowerBoost for free.

Following is the copy that came in the email -- sadly, almost two weeks after the PowerBoost debuted, so I've been without it SINCE YOU HAVE TO POWER OFF YOUR MODEM AND RE-POWER IT ON FOR THE POWERBOOST TO BE ACTIVE. Once done, I could tell a significant speed bump in the way pages pop onto the screen.

Read the following and take advantage if you have RR Turbo service already:

Dear WILLIAM:

As part of Time Warner Cable’s commitment to provide the latest in technology and innovation, we are pleased to announce that effective Tuesday, July 29, we enhanced Road Runner Turbo with PowerBoost™. Now when bandwidth is available, on our Advanced Fiber Network, Turbo customers will experience faster download speeds (up to 16 Mbps)!

PowerBoost will last for the first few seconds of a file download. Once the PowerBoost burst is complete, your download will continue at your normal blazing-fast speed. PowerBoost will jumpstart a large file download and automatically reduce the overall download time.

PowerBoost activates automatically when network capacity is available and is FREE with Road Runner Turbo!

To ensure that you receive the full benefit of this new enhancement to your Turbo service, you may need to "re-boot" your cable modem by unplugging and re-plugging your equipment.

Sincerely,
Time Warner Cable Customer Care

Men's 4x100 Relay Video

Thanks to Priscilla for this link to the final leg of the men's 4x100 free relay that was so exciting. It's only the last leg, but there is a nice analysis portion at the end showing how the splits came off. I'm posting this for those who have PowerPC Macs instead of Intel Macs. The videos still won't play on the NBC site if you have a PPC Mac.

Best Relay Race in History

I'll try to find a YouTube video to post tomorrow, but if you missed the last race of the night on tonight's Olympic broadcast, you missed what everyone is saying is the best swim relay in history.

It was the men's 400 meter freestyle relay. Michael Phelps was on the team and they needed to win gold for him to keep alive his hopes of winning a record eight gold medals in one Olympics -- but the French team was favored to win. The French, in fact, had said they were going to "smash" the American team: "It's what we came here to do." Phelps swam the first leg and gave the Americans the lead, but it evaporated in the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th leg -- until about 15 meters to go. The American swimmer had been gaining on the French guy slowly over the last 25 meters, drew even in the last 5, then out-touched him by .08 of a second, setting a new world and Olympic record.

It was amazing! The neighbors probably wondered what all the yelling was about I was yelling so hard, and crying when they won. And Phelps and the other guys went nuts on the deck. I'm sure someone will put this on YouTube and I'll try to post it tomorrow. (To watch videos on the NBC Olympics web site with a Mac, you have to have an Intel-based Mac -- how ridiculous is that?)

Here are the winners -- Phelps is on the left and the guy that saved the day on the fourth leg is on the right:

Salute Update

Noticed in the men's 400m IM swim awards ceremony in which the US took gold and bronze that both Michael Phelps (gold) and Ryan Lochte (bronze) "saluted" the flag during the national anthem. So at least we know there is no rule against doing it. (Not that I thought there was.)

Where Are the Salutes?

I see this happen throughout society, of course, but it deserves mention (complaint) when it happens at the Olympics. The first medal ceremony I saw this morning was for women's fencing in which the USA swept all three medals -- an amazing accomplishment, and hats off to these three talented young women.

But when they played the gold medal winner's national anthem (in this case it represented all three winners' country -- the US) none of the three girls placed their hands over their heart during the playing of "The Star Spangled Banner." (See the last photo in the series of photos at the link.)

I don't think most young people today realize that the American tradition is that every U.S. citizen salutes the flag during the playing of the national anthem. There are two kinds of salutes: one for persons in uniform (military, police, Boy Scouts, etc.) and one for civilians. The uniformed salute is what we typically see military people do -- hand raised to the hat visor or eyebrow -- but the civilian salute is the hand placed over the heart.

In the case of Olympic athletes, excuses like, "Well, I don't really respect America" seem out of place. They are personally entitled to that view, of course, but by representing the US at the Olympics you would think that respect for country and flag is a given. If a civilian in another non-representative context chooses not to salute the flag, that is their Constitutional freedom-of-speech right, which I respect.

The three young fencers almost looked like they had been told not to salute the flag with their hand over their heart -- they looked like they were doing something official since not one did it. So maybe there is some new Olympic rule that podium placers are excused from this show of respect. I don't get it if there is, but I say it just to acknowledge that I may be wrong about the lack of respect shown by the fencing winners.

These young women were very polite and well-spoken about their pleasure in winning a medal for their country, so I assume no disrespect was intended. I think they're just like a lot of young folks today who have inherited a waterered-down tradition. But having been a Cub Scout, Boy Scout, and member of the military, I've been saluting the flag all of my life in and out of uniform. Just not sure why that respectful tradition shouldn't continue.

Parasitized Tomato Hornworm

Summer and tomatoes wouldn't be complete without the familiar tomato hornworm. When the systems of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) are working as they should, the hornworm, which is destructive of tomatoes, will be parasitized by a tiny wasp that lays its eggs on the back of the hornworm. As the eggs become tiny cocoons containing wasp larvae (the little white objects) they draw sustenance from the body fluids of the hornworm, eventually sucking it dry and killing it. So, no spraying is necessary to control the hornworm as long as the little wasps are present to do their thing:

New Source for Rain Barrels

I was driving near my house this week when I saw an elderly gentleman putting gas in his pickup at a quickmart -- and he had three barrels just like the one above in his truck. I whipped in and asked him where he got his barrels and he told me he paid $2 apiece at the AutoBell car wash on Monroe Road -- but he got the last three they had. The car wash receives their soaps, etc., in these barrels.

I came home and contacted the parent company of AutoBell in Charlotte to see if they had any barrels that had not been filled with chemicals. They didn't, but said to check with individual AutoBell locations for used ones. On my way back from Waxhaw this afternoon I passed a new AutoBell that has opened there, so turned in and the manager had two barrels he offered me for free. I had my bike in the trunk so could only fit one barrel in the car -- but that's really all I need for the moment so I can connect one more barrel to my existing one. Thankfully it's white -- identical to the ones Daniel got from Pepsi, so it will match the one I have perfectly. (It's all about the look, right?)

So -- car washes are a source of barrels on an ongoing basis. The manager said that all of AutoBell's chemicals that come in the barrel are "eco-friendly and nontoxic to the environment" -- so I'm hoping that if I give this one a good wash it will be okay for catching rainwater.