“The finest men in all the world are not to be found in the warm, genial climates, where the earth has only to be tickled with a hoe, and it laughs with plenty; but the strongest and the most enterprising spirits have been found at the back of the north wind, where there are frosts and ice, and long, dreary winters, and men have a hard struggle for a livelihood. They become really men under that stern training. Now, if there were no thorns and thistles, no struggles and no trials, should we have any brave Christians? Should we have any great and noble souls at all? When did the Church yield her best men for her Lord’s service? It was in the persecuting times, when they had to swim through seas of blood to hold fast the truth of Christ. These are silken days, and we have wretched specimens of Christians everywhere; but if the times of persecution were to come once more, with the rough winds blowing, and the whole sea of the world tossed in tempest, we should then find brave sailors who would put the ship’s head to the wind, and ride safely over the stormy billows in the name of the Eternal God.” Spurgeon, C. H.
From the Thorns and Thistles Sermon, Vol 39.
Family,Friday, August 31, 2007
Lately, Flickr disabled my account when I discontinued my SBC services. I paid for a year of Flickr services and it took many emails a couple phone calls and a final ultimatum that I would take my business elsewhere. After the ultimatum email they reinstated my account to it’s full status and gave a free month. That was a good recovery, but in the meantime I looked at Lombardi Spot gallery performance compared to Flickr gallery performance using an online performance monitor. According to this performance monitor, Flickr is around 7 times slower than Lombardi Spot simply because of all the images and fancy stuff Flickr puts on each page. On my side I can’t really tell much of a difference between Flickr and Lombardi Spot because I have a fast Comcast cable internet connection and Flickr servers are probably located here in San Jose. Besides, I’m not really the one viewing the online galleries, it’s you guys. So I’m curious which galleries provide a better experience for you. Flickr or Lombardi Spot.
As a comparison, visit the following links for both galleries. Pay attention to the speed it takes for the initial page to load and also for the individual photos when you click on them and move from one photo to the next. And also consider the overall experience.
Lombardi Spot Gallery Test
Flickr Gallery Test
When you are finished click here to place your vote in the forum. You might need to login to vote.
Announcements,Friday, August 31, 2007
The good old discussions that we had in the discussion forums are gone. When I updated the forum software I made a few mistakes in the updating steps and it caused a number of problems. I was barely able to get them working at all. We had a number of old discussions in there that are gone now, but everyone’s avatar and profiles still exists. I greatly simplified the discussion forum to just three categories since there really isn’t a whole lot going on there anyway. Feel free to start any topic you like.
Organics,Thursday, August 30, 2007
The raised awareness of the need for sustainable, locally grown, organic food has steadily risen and consumers are increasingly looking for ways to buy it. In my own personal experience our local farm, Live Earth Farm, is booked solid for the season. People at work are regularly talking about the subject in the lunch room. Organic grocers such as Whole Foods are opening in more and more locations. The largest Whole Foods in the country is supposed to open in 2008 only a few miles from out house. Local traditional supermarkets are featuring fruit and vegetables that are locally farmed and have a section for organic foods. There are definitely positive changes happening locally.
Nationally, the Boston Globe reports that there are more and more young people entering into the farming programs at the colleges. Half the young people didn’t even grow up on a farm. And there’s even people leaving careers to become farmers! This is very encouraging for the future of food in our country. Click here to read the entire article.
Family,Sunday, August 26, 2007
Here’s our butterball again. She in her “Sunday Best”. This time she practically all smiles. Click here to see the entire set of photos.
Organics,Tuesday, August 21, 2007
Everyone knows about the green house gas CO2. But there’s another ecological bad guy called “active nitrogen”. Cars put it into the air and agriculture puts tons of it in the ground, but both cause it to pollute the air, ground and water around us, resulting in changes to native ecosystems. Scientists are finding that plant and animal populations are disappearing in a variety of native habitats. Read the following article to learn more about the practical effects that have been studied on California Bay Area habitats. Click here to read the article titled “Nitrogen Overdose”
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