What Is RSS? A Step-by-Step Guide to Google Reader

I've written about the goodness of RSS before (see here, here, here, and here), but thought you might like a tutorial from somebody else to throw you over the edge.

And if you start using a good reader like Google Reader, then you should also start screaming at those sites with frequent updates (or even infrequent ones that you want to see when they come) that don't have a feed to provide one, or they'll lose your business. I realize that some sites generate revenue by advertising impressions, but to be honest, those sites that don't provide a feed at all have lost my patronage anyway.

RSS has saved me from visiting hundreds of sites a day to find the ten items of interest I read a day, and has also substantially reduced the amount of bacn I receive.

Did You See That Game?

I mean, it was awesome! Please tell me you saw the game. Okay, I'm sure if you saw it, I would have seen you at the game, because there weren't that many people there.

In Kathryn's softball game yesterday, in the second inning, the Hurricanes (our team) had a runner on third and two out. Kathryn comes up to bat, taps a ball in the infield toward the pitcher but (just) manages to leg out the throw, so the Hurricanes are up 1-0. In the next couple of innings, we managed to get one more run (an inside the park home run), and the Wildcats (yes - with red and white uniforms - and the third inning stretch was a choreographed dance tune) had managed to get one run. In the bottom of the fifth inning we had gotten some runners on, moved one home, then had runners on 2nd and 3rd when Kathryn came up to bat. Kathryn again hit a ground ball between first and second that triggered the usual softball confusion. Kathryn managed to get to first, the ball was overthrown, so the runners are moving. Kathryn reached second, and both the runners scored. So now it's 5-1.

The Wildcats managed to get their four runs back in the top of the sixth and played good defense in the bottom of the sixth, so it ended in a tie. But for those of you keeping track, Kathryn had 3 RBI in a 5-run game, including hitting in the tying run.

Yeah - you bet she got a game ball.

SHORT: No Mowing

At a local park we went to last night, we saw a sign with the rules of the park. One of the rules (I believe it was #7) literally said:

NO MOWING

I've got to know - how many people wake up in the morning, and think to themselves:

Hmmm....what am I going to do with this day? Oh! I know! I'll pack up the lawnmower, go to a few parks, and just mow a few square feet at each one.

I've heard of random acts of kindness, but do you really think mowing is so out of hand at this park that they have to make a rule forbidding it?

Another w00t for a password database

Through a series of non-related events, we're having to rearrange our financial life for the next couple of months. Nobody did anything wrong here. In fact, everybody did everything right. But there's at least one great recommendation that can come from this.

Use a password database.

If you only use Mac, I *highly* recommend using the built-in Keychain. If you have to spend time on Windows, too, I recommend getting a thumbdrive and using Keepass and KeepassX. And what does that have to do with lost debit cards?

Actually, I've found my password database to be extremely useful for dealing with a "financial crisis" such as this one. When I underwent the effort to change all the online ID's and passwords I could, I included all the places we do online business with. I also decided to keep an IRL section on my password database for things like library card numbers. I need to do some rearranging now to have a section for "sites that take money from us", but even without it, I basically have a list of infrequently-used sites and the credentials I need to log into them. And it's safe. So just having the password database and keeping it up to date has given me the additional benefit of having a "list of things to fix when things go wrong".

Since the database is encrypted and I use a very long passphrase for it (the security people around me laugh when they watch me type in my passphrase and it takes four tries, each at 20 seconds apiece) I feel confident putting *other* sensitive information in there. For example, if my credit card actually is stolen, I have the phone numbers and credit card numbers in my password database so I can call right away to have them discontinued. (I'm still undecided about whether this is a good idea or not.)

So while we still have a lot of effort to undergo, I don't think it will be nearly so long to switch accounts around as if I didn't know all the automated places that take money from us.

Charlotteans, Unite!

Well, Charlotte last year (rightly) told us we couldn't water our lawns anymore, or wash our own cars. The drought was so severe that drastic measures had to be taken. The problem, however, seems to be that if people didn't use much water, the water utility didn't make enough money for people to sit around and play solitaire.

Well, there's great news on both fronts. They said last week it's okay for you to water your lawn once a week now. The most severe of the drought is over. And just in time, too! The city council tonight approved a 15% price increase for water. (Get it? They approve for you to use more water, and then approve themselves a 15% increase on that price).

For those who understand the economics at work here, I have an offer too good for them to refuse. Let's conserve water! For one week, *nobody* in Charlotte showers *or* drinks coffee! Then, we go down to the office and see how they feel about the price hike when 700,000 stinky, grouchy residents have something to say about it.

Who's with me? We'll need plenty of big clothespins.

Conversations with Old Friends

Maybe I'm too young. There are few people from high school or college that I keep in touch with anymore. Okay, I married my college sweetheart, but she's about the beginning and the end of the list.

I got an email from some very good friends whom I love to keep in touch with. This is later in life than college and high school, but some of the better people to know. Anytime we visit them, it breaks my heart to leave them again, and I'm shamefully poor at keeping them up to date with our stuff. We get emails from them all the time - they're very good about telling us all their exciting news and how we can be involved in praying for them. Today I received an email from one of them whom I've not talked to in awhile, and so I'll be thinking of them much more today than usual.

Mrs. At Home, I'm not sure it's time to pack our bags for good this time, but the next time we go, we might not be coming back...

What a Passage!

I don't like to say I'm a Calvinist because that would imply that I follow some man - namely John Calvin. However, those who have known me for any length of time know that I am unashamedly Reformed. I totally believe that God's primary objective in all that He does is to glorify His name - and there's nothing more important for us to do, and nothing more enjoyable! I also believe that just as He did in the Old Testament, God calls us to be His own, and not the other way around. All of us have heard hearts that have no want of God, so replacing our hearts and drawing us to Him is His work. But that's not the Gospel.

The Gospel is this: that although we're sinners (Ezekiel is written to Judah and is about their disobedience, but we're the same), God sent His Son Jesus Christ. Jesus lived a perfect life and died in our stead. And He gives us a new heart, not of stone (unresponsive to God), but a heart of flesh (sensitive to Him), He'll gather us from the nations, He'll put His (perfect) Spirit in us, and He'll sprinkle water on us (cleanse us from our sin). Our response to His work is to repent - to turn from our life of sin and to turn to Him. As the author of the post says, what a bargain.

And before you get too upset about God's motives (to glorify His name), think about this: what could possibly be more valuable? It's selfish of us to want to glorify our own names, but we're not perfect. We're not righteous, or just, or sovereign. For God to glorify His own name is only right - He has no alternative - there is nothing more valuable, more beautiful, or more deserving of honor. And the great thing is, we can spend our lives doing precisely what God spends his time doing - seeking to glorify His name.