My Blogging Tool of Choice

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I use a nifty blogging utility called ecto. (I use the Mac version, but they have a Windows version, too.) The Wordpress interface makes it pretty easy to create and edit posts with a browser, but there are many advantages to using a full-featured blogging tool like ecto.

ecto is inexpensive ($17.95 for either version) and you can use it for a couple weeks before you buy to make sure you like it. The developer is constantly updating it and is very responsive to support questions, etc. If you do a lot of blogging, take it for a spin. Highly recommended!

iTunes is currently playing: Something To Talk About from the album Luck Of The Draw by Bonnie Raitt.

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haiku for a rainy day

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THE JERSEY SHORE

torrents fall on house.
cats run in all directions
dreaming of L.A.

Kathy Hand
9/13/03

iTunes is currently playing: I Think It's Going To Rain Today from the album Guilty: 30 Years Of Randy Newman (Disc 1) by Randy Newman.

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Well, the flowers got water, didn’t they.

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During an interview with CNN, Brian Schiavo [brother of Michael] called the Rev. Frank Pavone, a Catholic priest and close friend of the Schindler family, "a poor excuse of a priest, I'll tell you that. ... He made a comment that said the flowers in Terri's room were being treated better than she is."

iTunes is currently playing: Cold, Cold Heart from the album 24 Greatest Hits by Hank Williams.

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I grew up in Northwest Indiana …

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... but I never knew that Kendallville, a small town in the northeast section of the state, was the WINDMILL Capital of the world! Read about it here (courtesy of CNN).

iTunes is currently playing: Only Way Home from the album A Drop Of Water by Keiko Matsui.

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Fun Web Sites

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I have found a number of web sites where you can add your own text to an image of a sign or some other object to create a personalized image for your own use. Some sites offer you the opportunity to buy magnets made from your images. Here are some examples. Visit and enjoy!

THE ACME LICENSE PLATE MAKER

CA License Plate

THE ACME HEART MAKER

Candy Heart Maker

THE ACME LABEL MAKER

Acme Label Maker

ATOM SMASHER'S ERROR MESSAGE GENERATOR

OSX ROCKS!!

CHURCH SIGN GENERATOR

The Church Sign Generator

iTunes is currently playing: Getting Some Fun Out Of Life from the boxed set Portrait (Disc 4: Past Perfect) by Billie Holiday.
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That about sums it up.

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Reuters quotes a gentleman outside Terri Schiavo's Pinellas Park (FL) hospice shortly after her death:

"Well they got their way," said a grizzled New York City man who gave his name as "Lifeboat" and knelt clutching a wooden rosary. "We've become barbarians. We've lost our humanity in this country."
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Cool Earrings

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I really like the software (WordPress) that I am using for this web site. In my quest for "plug-ins" (WordPress enhancements) that I can use to make the site even spiffier, I stumbled upon the web site of ScriptyGoddess, a young lady named Jennifer who is a php/WordPress script writer extraordinaire.

In addition to her programming prowess, she is also an artist. She has an online business called Above The Fold that sells beautiful handmade origami earrings, among other things. I ordered the butterfly earrings shown below, but she also makes lovely crane earrings. Click here to visit her store.

Visit AboveTheFold.org for lovely handmade origami earrings.
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If starvation is so painless …

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... why is Terri Schiavo on a morphine drip?

Schindler family attorney David C. Gibbs III said on CBS' "Face the Nation" that "They've begun giving her morphine drip for the pain.", according to the L.A. Times.

According to another article in the L.A.Times , some experts claim that "dying of starvation and dehydration is a peaceful end for the ill."

A third L.A. Times article says the following about a woman who allowed her son's feeding tube to be removed: For six days, [the mother] sat by her son's bed, watching him die. Blisters pocked his mouth and tongue. His frail body shook with muscle cramps. It was agonizing, she says now: "gruesome, prolonged." (This mother, incidently, believes that her decision to discontinue tube feeding was the right one for her son.)

Maybe the truth is that some people suffer horribly when deprived of food and others don't, and we won't know how a person will react until we stop feeding them.
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Sometimes it seems as if …

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... the Catholic Church WANTS to chase people away.

From ABCNews.com: Like many Catholic children, Haley Pelly-Waldman, 9, had looked forward to her first communion. ... Four years ago, the New Jersey girl was diagnosed with a rare digestive disorder called celiac disease, leaving her unable to eat wheat — not even the tiny amount in the wafer at the communion table. In order to accommodate Haley's medical condition, her priest substituted the wheat wafer with one made of rice. But ... the Diocese of Trenton, said, "Bread, to be valid matter for the eucharist, must be made solely of wheat." The local diocese ruled that Haley's first communion didn't count, and reprimanded the priest who gave her that rice wafer. [Read the complete story here.]

So a priest has the power to turn bread into the body of Christ during Mass, but not if the host is made of rice? If we want to get picky here, a host (even one made of wheat) isn't really BREAD, is it? It sure doesn't look like any bread I've ever eaten.

Where did these flat little wafers come from, anyway? Hundreds of years ago they didn't use them, right? So at some point, they switched from bread to wafers. And someone chiseled in stone that the wafer had to have wheat in it?

Is it just me or does it seem utterly ridiculous to exclude this devout little girl from experiencing the sacrament of Communion but to allow someone like Terri Schiavo, who is pretty much unaware of her surroundings, to partake?
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