A line drawn from pencil to paper makes a dot. It’s a dot upwards through space that begins on the paper and travels to the tip of the pencil, but because paper and pencil meet so closely, the upwards projection of the dot from the paper is very slim.

On Sunday we talked about the fact that there are things we should appreciate as we consider all that God has done in sending Jesus as we celebrate the 4 weeks of Advent. One of those was that we should appreciate the problem that we and God face. The popular view is that sin made us “not good enough.” The reality is our problem is much bigger and much more personal hen that. When we say we aren’t good enough in many ways it takes some of the blame off of our shoulders. It’s easy to just throw up your hands and say, “I’m just not good enough.” The truth is that we have to realize just what state we live in without Jesus and take responsibility for our actions. The truth is that in choosing to walk our own way we reject God’s way. That realization echoes an Old Testament commentary found in Genesis.

Today I encourage you to recognize just where you have been and are and how amazing God truly is.

18 You neglected the Rock who had fathered you;
you forgot the God who had given you birth.
Deuteronomy 32:18 (NLT)

Tuesday, Sept. 29
Team 12—Viewers Like You: “Birthers” movement.

Team 13—Questionable Ethics: Same-sex marriage

TH. Oct. 1—In class presentations
Team 1—Numero Uno: President’s address to school children

Team 6—Cooper Nation! Obama’s Health Care Reform.

Team 8— Big A Team: Gays in military

Team 11: Never Back Down, the Cobras
Environmental Issues/Global warming

TH. Oct. 1—Out of class presentations. You may earn extra credit quiz points for attending these afternoon team presentations. In order to receive credit, you must be present for THREE team presentations and sign in/out when you arrive and leave. If you decide to participate in this extra credit opportunity, please do NOT come in the classrooms during presentations. Wait until you hear the applause at the end of the team presentations.

Please note new times—Meet in AgSci 302
1:30: Team 4—Cuatro—Health Reform
1:50: Team 2—Voice—Same-Sex Marriage
2:10: Team 16—AKA’s—Health Care Reform
2:30: Team 3—The Stepmothers—Health Care Reform

Meet in Old Main 304
3:00: Team 15—Insert Name Here—”Birther’s Movement”
3:20: Team 10-The Destroyers—Gays in Military
3:40: Team 9—The Shopaholics—Health Care Reform
4:00: Team 15—The Michael Scoot Paper Company—Same Sex Marriage
4:20: Team 5—THE Original Team—Same-Sex Marriage
4:40: Team 7—Pizza Feasters Unite—Immigration Debate

We had some persistent mould in our house, and finally got a professional to have a look at it. We received the following advice:

1. Vacuum the area with a HEPA filter vacuum cleaner, using the small brush.

2. Wash the area using a mixture of 80% Anchor white vinegar and 20% water. Use three buckets, two filled with clean water to rinse your cloth in-between.

The off the shelf products on the market contain mostly bleach, so it will appear as if the mould is gone, but the spores may still be present. Try not to wipe in big strokes – otherwise you’ll just spread the spores. It’s best to use a micro-fibre cloth over a board and do a small area at a time.

“But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days.  People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy,  without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— having a form of godliness but denying its power.  Have nothing to do with them. ” 2 Timothy 3:1-5

Wise words from the Apostle Paul spoken to a young minister years ago still apply to us today.  The company we keep has a profound influence on our actions.  Real men and women know what they believe and stand for and don’t waste their time and energy trying to be like their misguided peers.

Maternity Pants Tutorial

Sample Pants From The Tutorial

What you need:

A pair of pants

Stretch knit material

A sewing Machine

Sew it yourself. Maternity Pants are very expensive and unless you are planning on having a LOT of kids you probably won’t be using it much. I can usually fit my old clothes for most of my pregnancy so I don’t start NEEDING maternity pants until later in the second trimester. In this tutorial you learn how to turn regular pants in to comfy maternity pants. Adding much more variety to your wardrobe for much less. She suggests buying a few cheap pairs of pants at a thrift store so you don’t turn all your regular pants into maternity ware, after all you will need clothes after baby is born. I’ve tried this tutorial and it is simple and pretty easy. I love the pictures.  I always need pictures. She obviously uses a Serger to do her ends, but I used a traditional home sewing machine and alternated between straight and zigzag stitches. So far I’ve transformed two pairs of old pants and it turned out great with minimal frustration

Simply Recipes

Christmas Cookies from SimplyRecipes.com

This is a great cooking site with a wonderful collection of simple recipes for home cooked meals for the family. I believe home cooked meals can definitely save a family money. The problem is What to cook? I often get bored of the same old dishes and when I try to find new recipes they are much too fancy for my skill level and require ingredients I’ve never heard of. The recipes on this site are easy to follow have a short prep and cook time, and are absolutely delicious. I’m going to try the cookie recipes for Christmas Gifts this year.

Make your own Modeling Wax Tutorial

Modelling Beeswax sold on Etsy

I saw some modeling wax on sale at Etsy. It’s a fun alternative to playdoh. The great thing about it is that is never dries out. Yay! I was pretty hard to find a tutorial about it but I found one here at naturenest.wordpress.com. I haven’t tried it yet and I wonder if it will turn out like the ones sold on Etsy. I’m also not sure where to look for these ingredients, lol.

But if you don’t want to make it you can always buy it on etsy. Aren’t the colors beautiful?

More Tutorials and Pictures to Come

Gifts you make yourself are really more special than store bought ones. Loved ones appreciate not only the thought, but the time and effort you put into making something just for them. On Monday, December 7th at 6 p.m. the Bead Lady will be visiting our library to give instructions on how to make several beading projects. You can make as many beautiful creations as you want. Kathy Shomo, a.k.a. The Bead Lady, will provide instruction and materials. You only pay for what materials you use.

Kathy has ten years of experience as a teaching artisti and is the author of the book Anyone Can Bead! Easy Techniques for Making Jewerly. The Bead Lady delights in her work and offers encouragement along with skilled training. You don’t want to miss this class!

Registration is required. Click this link http://www.eventkeeper.com/code/ekform.cfm?curOrg=MOON&curMonth=12&curYear=2009&curID=21025&tEvt=1522777 to register now. This class is intended for adults and students 12 years of age or older.

“wash and make yourselves clean.
       Take your evil deeds
       out of my sight!
       Stop doing wrong,

 learn to do right!
       Seek justice,
       encourage the oppressed. 
       Defend the cause of the fatherless,
       plead the case of the widow.”  Isaiah 1:16-17

Throughout the next four weeks we are going to be looking at the tradition of Advent. Advent is simply a time of preparation to worship in anticipation of Jesus birth. Simply put you can’t appreciate just how amazing the fact that Jesus showed up in Bethlehem unless you understand the circumstances surrounding his arrival. This includes our need for a savior, God’s grace and mercy, the intricacy and timing of God’s plan and the way that he weaves his plan through the lives of faithful people.

During this first week of Advent we are contemplating the glimpses that God provided, through the Old Testament, of his plan. We call these glimpses prophecy. In spending time prayerfully considering just how God worked through the ages it is appropriate to respond in humble worship of our amazing God.

Today I encourage you to read back through the initial prophetic scriptures that we looked at in our lesson on Sunday and begin to piece together the story.

Beginning

15From now on, you and the woman will be enemies, and your offspring and her offspring will be enemies. He will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” ~ Genesis 3:15 (NLT)

Initial Promise

…“Leave your country, your relatives, and your father’s house, and go to the land that I will show you. 2I will cause you to become the father of a great nation. I will bless you and make you famous, and I will make you a blessing to others. 3I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you. All the families of the earth will be blessed through you.” ~ Genesis 12:1-3 (NLT)

Greatness

10 The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from his descendants, until the coming of the one to whom it belongs, the one whom all nations will obey.  ~ Genesis 49:10 (NLT)

Family Redeemer

14 And the women of the town said to Naomi, “Praise the LORD who has given you a family redeemer today! May he be famous in Israel. ~ Ruth 4:14 9 (NLT)

Among Us

8 When you ascended to the heights, you led a crowd of captives. You received gifts from the people, even from those who rebelled against you. Now the LORD God will live among us here.  ~ Psalm 68:18

New readings will show up at midnight each day so check back tomorrow to follow along.

Birdhouses are so cute, aren’t they? Little homes for little critters. Someone’s mamma thought so, too, so he asked me to make one in cake-complete with critter. Armed with wild ideas and a Wilton house pan, I set forth to create mamma’s passion in cake-despite the horrible heat and humidity and a great lack of central air. The last part’s gonna be important. Remember it and be kind, k?

You can find the pan here:

http://www.wilton.com/store/site/product.cfm?id=3E3191DF-475A-BAC0-53BA3BD42B6F8C98&killnav=1

I made 4 houses and skewered them mightily to a double layered covered foam core board base. Yes, 4 houses. I wanted it to be square shaped and that takes 4 houses. Now you know why they were skewered mightily. So great did I skewer that the delivery sheet included a diagram for removal.

Everywhere there’s an arrow, there’s a skewer and they were all inserted at an angle and had to be pounded into the board below, with the exception of the one in the birdhouse door. Don’t put the birdhouse door skewer in just yet, though. We’ll do that later. Each house was torted and filled with cream cheese icing, and then the houses were glued together with more cream cheese icing. The whole shebang was then iced in cream cheese icing. Do you get the feeling cream cheese icing is important to the tale? That’s ‘cause it is.  Back to the cake:  I think that’s all you need to know before we get started on the décor. If not, holla’.

Once the cake is upright and sturdy, find a round object the size that you want the “hole” to be and press it into the cake to mark the area. Dig it out as much as needed.

From here, we start with the fondant. You will need white, teal, yellow, orange, and lilac fondant.  I made a mistake which I often make when adding gum-tex to fondant. I added it when the fondant was in the liquid stage instead of kneading it in once all the powdered sugar is added. This creates clumps. I dunno why, but is shore do. However, no problemo for this cake. It just adds to the authenticity of the wood look I’m creating. If you don’t like that look, add the gum-tex at the proper time.

Roll out the white fondant. Cut a circle the approximate size of the hole you created and stick it in there. It will get messed up, but do it anyway. I hate to muck up something alone. When that’s ready, compare your pan to the actual cake to check for size and then cut out 2 pieces of white fondant for the front and back using the pan as a guide. Mark the top and bottom edge of your pieces for even lines. Using a straight edged something that’s food safe, press board lines into the fondant. Now it’s ready to be applied to the cake. Expect the fondant to stretch. Just get it onto the cake the best you can and trim as needed. Press the fondant into the bird hole and smooth ‘til pretty.

Measure the sides of the cake from the bottom edge of the roof line down, cut 2 pieces of fondant, make the board lines again, and stick those onto the sides. Once those are on snugly, go ahead and put in the birdhouse door skewer.

I know you’re asking, “Why is the frosting so lumpy?” No air conditioning and cream cheese icing, that’s why.  Try not to obsess about it. Not a thing I can do about it but hope it doesn’t show thru the fondant so let’s move on to the fencing, huh? Cut out 4 more rectangles- each the width of the side where you will be placing the fence. The height is up to you. Cut these rectangles into boards- each the same width. Now you have sticks and they need turned into fence boards. To do this, cut the tops of each one at an angle like so:

The boards need joined, so cut rectangular strips to go across them once they are on the cake, measuring the circumference of the cake so you know how much you will need. You will need this amount twice. Apply the boards and then the joins to the cake like so:

As you can see, my fencing stops at the door. It was a height thing. Your results may vary.

Front, back, sides, fencing: it must be time for the roof. Wad up the rest of the white fondant, and seal it in a baggie to keep it fresh and soft. Roll out the teal fondant and cut circles- approximately a crap ton.

These will be applied similar to real shingles. Start at the bottom and work your way up.

Part way through, I realized it would work better if I also put shingles along the side before working upwards. This helped me plan the spacing. As you can see, you are going to work your way across the roof, placing the next row of shingles between the shingles of the previous row. Otherwise, it will look weird. Go ahead, go outside and check your own roof. The seams are staggered. They should be the same on a cake house, too.

Again, like a real roof, you have to cap it with a row of shingles:

While you have the teal out, go ahead and cut out the flower box. Roll out bits of white, yellow, and purple, and using a flower plunger cutter thingy, cut out flowers. Arrange all to your liking on the front of the house. Repeat for back, if desired.

So far, it’s been fairly simple: cut and apply, cut and apply. Now we’ll get down to the harder part: the bird. My bird is wacky, but that’s what the client asked for so that’s what he’ll get.  First the picture, then the explanation; at least as much as I remember. I used a picture to guide me and I found it on cakecentral in the galleries. Here he is in progress:

Roll one square teal oval for the body and head. Use the non-pointed end of a skewer to make his belly button.

Roll 2 white fondant balls for the eyes and cover those partially with teal for the eyelids.

For the feet, I used orange fondant and a flower cutter and removed the extra petals.

The wings were created from a rectangle. I rounded one end then used a pointed fondant tools to push in 2 areas on the other end to make it look similar to a wing.

The tuft of hair was created with a clay gun. I made a thin round strand, cut it in pieces, and then joined them together by squooshing.

The beak is 2 triangles of fondant. Before placing one triangle on top of the other, roll teeny balls for the teeth. Place the teeth on top of the bottom triangle, then place the top triangle and lightly press the whole shebang together. Press the non-pointed end of a skewer lightly into the beak to create the nostrils. After that, let it dry with 1/3 of it hanging over a low edge so it dries with a slight curve.

When all that is complete, mark the pupils with a black food marker and join all the pieces with piping gel. Keep the extra hair tufts in case of breakage. Let the food marker dry before you put it all together or you may be giving your bird the bird if it smears.

All that’s left now is put your wording on the board and place the bird. Ta-da! Not exactly a Rockin’ Robin in his ‘hood, but it’ll do.

To answer your remaining questions, the weather played a huge part in the pain-in-the-behind-ness of the creation of this cake. The frosting made everything slide. The fondant stretched out of shape and didn’t want to stay put. It was cream cheese frosting so I had to be very aware of how long it was out of the fridge, too. I kept putting the cake in the ‘fridge to harden, take it out and work on it for 5 minutes, repeat ad infinitum. It took a lot long longer than it should have, it became and stayed shiny, and I never did get it to look as professional as it should have looked. The weather is totally beyond my control. I have no idea what the weather is going to be when I agree to make a cake, so it’s a crap shoot. Nice clients understand this. Not-so-nice ones get their cakes from someone else. :) My client, and his mother, was very happy with the cake, and in the end, that’s all that counts. That doesn’t mean I won’t harp on getting central air, but it does show you that sometimes all you can do is all you can do, and no amount of complaining is going to make it perfect or make it take less time.

Happy Dry Cool Weather Caking!

Hey everyone! Once you have your Xbox 360 connected to the internet with Xbox live Silver or gold, lets take Halo 3 Forging to the next level! (If you don’t know how to connect your Xbox 360 to Xbox Live click here) Yes, you can forge your own stuff and make your own games. Or, you can select millions of maps that other people have created and download them straight to your Xbox 360! Here is a picture of where you can download the games from:

All the boxes you see are maps that you can download! Simply click download and you will have the map. Not to mention you may also download gametypes! You can have hours of fun by just a click of a button! But how do you do this? I will show you.

1. Go to the following URL:  http://www.bungie.net/online/communityfiles.aspx?tags=&filefilter=4&sort=1&page=0
2. This is the bungie site where you can make your account to download the maps!

1. Select Sign Up Now! and follow the onscreen insturctions.

Your done! Simply log on to your account, and click the download button fro any map varient, gametype varient, picture, video or any other content you want donwloaded to your system. Because your account is connected to your gamer tag, the content you downloaded will be available to you the next time you access Halo 3 or Halo 3 ODST. It will take a few minutes for the content to be availiable. It will tell you on your T.V screen that the content is donwloaded. Then you will obviously beable to use it! Enjoy! 

Once again, the URL for downloading the maps is  http://www.bungie.net/online/communityfiles.aspx?tags=&filefilter=4&sort=1&page=0

If the male in your life has ever attempted to put together kit furniture of any kind, and you found yourself standing over him after 6 hours of waiting for the two shelf bookcase to be completed, then this is would seem a reasonable question to ask. You would be wrong. Men feel we should have the inherent ability to construct anything from a simple shelf to a fully functional log cabin in the woods using nothing more than a pen knife and some string. The television programme MacGyver is used as proof and reference for this statement. Having to admit that we might need assistance with any form of construction/ task is felt to be disrespectful to what we consider to be genetically implanted man knowledge handed down over the ages. Besides, it was usually, a man wrote the instructions, and therefore, there is an unspoken bond that should negate the need to ask.

Santa may even come early this year if you tempt him with these cookies (and if you’ve been really, REALLY nice) …

Ingredients: 1 1/2 Stick of Butter, 1/2 Cup of Sugar, 1 Egg Yolk, 2 Cups of Flour, 1 Teaspoon of Vanilla, and Jelly

Instructions: 1. Cream butter and sugar 2. Add a bit of flour and beat 3. Add egg yolk and remaining flour and vanilla 4. Pinch off and roll into balls 5. Press indentations with thimble and fill hole with jelly 6. Bake at 300° for 30 minutes on a slightly greased cookie sheet

EQB

Hey, Pup320 posting. The new Club Penguin Great Snow Maze is here! I’m very excited because there is 2 new free items. The new Blue Snowcap located at the Ski Hill. Waddle over to it and you can pick it up. Obviously, it’s a Head Item, so go to the Head Items part of your inventory to put it in.

Now that you have got the new Blue Pompom Toque, it’s time to do the Great Snow Maze. Go to the Ski Village to see the map. You should see a small hut near the point where you go up to the Mountain. Hover your mouse over the big, red button, which will then open up and turn green. Click it to see the map. Then click another red button that says ”Show Map”, the map will appear.

To finish the Great Snow Maze follow these instructions:

1. Left
2. First up
3. Straight
4. Straight
5. Straight
6. Left
7. Left
8. Right
9. Straight
10. Right
11. Left
12. Up

Don’t want to use the walkthrough guide? Well you can use the one Ninjinian created below. It’s joined up with pictures to ensure a good waddle. The follow have been copyrighted with CPP’s watermark (newly designed), so you can use them, but with credit to CPP – linked. If you try removing the watermarks on these pictures – shall your website be prosecuted! Enjoy!

Now lets start! Once you have followed the directions, it should have lead you right to the Yeti Cave, also known the Finish Line, Yeti Room, Prize Room & Maze Finish. WOW, a lot of akas, right? Now when your in the Yeti Cave. You should find a Yeti Costume box. Waddle over to it and you can collect your prize – the Yeti Costume. While you are in the room, here it is what the tour guide automatic messages say:

Here we are in the Prize Room! Help yourself to a Prize! Thanks for coming on my tour. Race you back to the start!

Hope you enjoyed everything! The walkthrough was worked on a lot, especially. Remember that if you want anything, credit to Club Penguin Pins, and link us! I had some technical difficulties with the pictures – however, Ninjinian replaced them with new ones. Sorry about the slow updates going on. Enjoy the Great Snow Maze while you can – members. Atleast non-members got the Blue Pompom Toque.

Those of you who read this blog regularly know we have a “Thankful Thursday” every week but today is especially a day to pause in our hurried lifes and remember to give thanks.  It’s Thanksgiving Day in the United States. 

Sunday I was surprised to learn the origin of this becoming a nationally celebrated holiday in our country.  Our pastor told the story of the lady who made appeals before 3 Presidents before she got one to declare a special day set aside every year to offer thanks in our country.  The last Thursday in November was officially chosen.

Can you guess which President granted the holiday?  President Abraham Lincoln!  Does that amaze you as it does me?  He lived through one of the most trying times our country has faced – dealing with a civil war – and yet he realized the importance of thankgiving!  Wow!

Do you have any idea the lady’s name who campaigned for this national holiday?  Her name was Sarah Hale – better known for the popular poem she wrote entitled “Mary Had a Little Lamb“. 

Greatful am I for this lady who had the perserverance to see her goal accomplished.  She was wise to understand the importance of recognizing blessings… to understand the powerful affect thankfulness has on our inner strength.  So today amid so many, many personal blessings I am thankful to my heavenly Father for providing, I also say, “Thank you, Father, for Sarah Hale.”

“Let us come before Him with thanksgiving and extol Him with music and song” Psalm 95:2

如要加頭像…

如果大家想要頭像，原來好簡單，

 STEP 1）只需去到 http://www.gravatar.com 用你常用的email登記，然後跟住指示做，加入你想要的頭像。

 STEP2）回來goomusic blog，進入一個post，用你剛才register的email來留言，你剛剛選的頭像就會自動顯示。

(from HOCC blog: www.goomusic.com.hk/blog)

Today Yoville added CAMERA SHOTS, it is in testing mode so not everyone got it… This feature will allow you to take pictures of you and your friends in YoVille. You’ll also be able to earn coins playing the photogame.

When you go to visit friends every day you will see PHOTO CAMERA icon…

you have to be quick and react the minute you see the ICON of the camera on the screen it comes after you do any action….

in my case when I go and visit my friends I send MESSAGE after that this kind of icon appears…

if you do not press it quickly first time,  it will say that you were too late YOU BLEW IT… so just click on it and start snapping pictures when you are ready for the right pic… when you start snapping you have 5 seconds to make as many shots as you want but from experience I must say do it ONE but good one… it will give you the same as 10 of them, the picture will give you from 5-15 yocoins…

then you will get the screen when you can chose picture you want for YOCOINS

the more ITEMS you will get on the pic and the best if you have your FRIEND and YOU also on that picture, the more yocoins you will get…. I have two different pic one where I snap the most items…

in this case as you see on the picture 17 of items… when you go to my place snap my Christmas tree that will give you a lot of items… I will make sure there is more in there…

the second pic shows that it is worth to have a friend and yourself on the picture… too

so it looks like I got 100 for myself and 250 for a friend…so if you can ask friends to join the room you are going to,  you will get 250 for every friend you get on the picture…and it will make more coins for that…

Look closely at the pic there is a bonus for fun stuff, the two shots and few other things… like you can see ANIML bonus action bonus… you just need to try things and find out..

If you can combine all those things in one picture you might get a lot of coins… I went through 35 profiles minding that I lost few shots because I was not quick enough, and I got coins… so try to not gave up after 25 people try few more they will not give you yocoins for visiting, but it will give you yocoins for shots. At the end of yocoins it will show this sign

that means you are out of luck for today and I think that one might come in 24 hours again, unless it is done differently… when I get to know how it works next I will tell you

The Camera icon will replace the Water Balloon icon, which will now be found in the Actions category.

When you click on the camera icon, a photo box will pop up and allow you to take pictures of the room that you are in.  You’ll receive more points for having your friends in the picture, catching action moves, and a few other things that you’ll have to figure out by playing!

It takes a little bit of practice to figure out the formula for a perfect YoVille picture! The more points you get, the more coins you earn. You’ll also earn XP points for the awesome pictures that you take.

You’ll receive 5 rolls of film a day (per 24 hours), but you can earn a lot more film by taking pictures of your friends!

Your pictures can earn you between 5-15 coins each, depending on how good they are. These coins are not related to the 200 coins that you can earn a day playing other games like the Speedway, TTT, Rock Paper Scissors, or Fishing. These are bonus coins!

If you do use each of the links for the three branches, make sure you start with the Executive Branch first. The others have been shortened to cut out parts that are reduplicated from the Executive Branch. This is about 4 minutes worth of material. The Legislative and Judicial Branch will skip this comprehension in their respective videos. However, adapt as you please. As always, provide me with anymore suggestions you may have.