Rome Day 1

Cyndi, Lydia, and I have journeyed to Rome for a weeks vacation.  I won’t have time to blog about everything…but I’ll try to keep everyone up to date.

We’ll have to organize pictures…but you can check out our flickr page to see them until then.

Our first day, we saw:

The Colsseum
Circus Maximus
Palatine Hill
Roman Forum
Trevi Fountain
The Mamertine Prision

[Update 03-24-2009 20:22:21] Here is a link to pictures we took on our travel day (22 March) and our first full day in Rome.

Google Voice and Google Calendar

One of the new features of Google Voice is SMS forwarding (I guess that’s what you call it).  In addition to sending phone calls from people to wherever you want, they’ll send SMS messages on too.  Wow…that’s kinds cool, I thought.  See, I have Google Calendar set up to SMS reminders and notifications to me.  Why not replace my phone number there with my Google Voice number…then, I can start using my “one phone number for life” places.

So, I tried it.  But, lo and behold, Google Calendar didn’t think I had a valid number.  Shazbot!

[Update 09-01-2009 09:20:51] I was fiddling around on Google Calendar and decided to see if this worked today.  Sure enough, it did.  See this post for more information.

March 24

Usce119zo

Dates.  Sometimes they mean something and sometimes they don’t.  Sometimes dates just need some context to make sense.  Below is a list of dates…what do you remember about each of them?

November 22, 1963
April 4, 1968
December 7, 1941
June 5, 1968
May 7, 1945
August 15, 1945
November 11, 1918
September 11, 2001
August 2, 1990
February 26, 1993
January 28, 1986
March 24, 1999

Ok.  Let’s see how you do.  Here are the answers:

November 22, 1963 – Pres. Kennedy is shot and killed in Dallas
April 4, 1968 – Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was shot and killed in Memphis
December 7, 1941 – Pearl Harbor was attacked by the Japanese in WW2
June 5, 1968 – Bobby Kennedy was shot and killed
May 7, 1945 – VE Day – WW2 ends in Europe
August 15, 1945 – VJ Day – WW2 ends in the Pacific
November 11, 1918 – WW1 ends
September 11, 2001 – The World Trade Center in New York is destroyed in a terrorist attack
August 2, 1990 – Iraq invades Kuwait
February 26, 1993 – The World Trade Center in New York was attacked by terrorists
January 28, 1986 – The Space Shuttle Challenger blows up on launch
March 24, 1999 – Operation Allied Force begins.

That list should help prove my point.   For some of these, I remember where I was and what I was doing (Sept. 11, 2001 for example).  Others, I remember only because because they were important in history (the ends of WW1 and WW2 for example).  However, the ones that I remember the most were the ones that impacted me personally.

So what’s my point?  Well, I really was looking for a way to write about the last one–Operation Allied Force–and thought I could tie it in by just talking about dates in general.  Why did I want to blog about Operation Allied Force?  Well, because once a week or so, we are reminded by people here that they remember the bombings.  Sometimes the person talks about how they had to move.  Other times, the person talks about it in general.  Sometimes the people can talk about knowing some people who died.

March 24th is the 10th anniversary of the NATO attacks on Serbia. If you want to learn more, follow the link above to the Wikipedia article.  The “main takeaway” is to remember the people of Serbia on 24 March.  Many were impacted and the day means something to many people.

By the way, the picture is of the state TV station building in Belgrade.  I found it in the Wikipedia article on Operation Allied Force.  I thought I had some pictures of the building today–it still exists–but I can’t find them.  If I ever do find one, I’ll post it here.

Google Voice — Yes

Well, today is the day!  My Grandcentral account has been upgraded to Google Voice.  Below are some screenshots I took of the process.  For more on how I ended up with here, see these two posts.

20090319_GrandcentralScreenshot GoogleVoiceUpgrade01
The upgrade message in GrandCentral Step 1: Choose the google account to use
GoogleVoiceUpgrade02 GoogleVoiceUpgrade03
Step 2: Provide additional information.  I didn’t have to do this…probabaly because I used an existing google account. Step 3:  Wait.  About 30 sec or so.
GoogleVoiceUpgrade04 GoogleVoiceUpgrade05
Step 4: Accept T&C for voicemail transcription.  Step 5:  Don.  If you look close, you can see I was given $1 worth of credit to use.  I guess this is to call international numbers.  Calls within the US are free.

GrandCentral Update (sort of)

Yesterday I was griping that my GrandCentral account hadn’t been upgraded.  Today I logged in and saw a slightly different message:

“Your account will soon be available for upgrade to Google Voice. Thank you for your patience”

 What does that mean?  Don’t know.  To me, it means the same thing as the previous message.  I went to the blog–as suggested–no additional information there.  I guess it means that 1) sometime in the future I’ll have a google voice account and/or 2) someone got tired of fielding all the e-mails asking “when…when…when” so they decided to change the status message to tell everyone “soon.”

[Update 03-18-2009 09:24:35] As I was updating my previous post to point to this one, I thought I should add something.  I understand why they didn’t do it all at once (heck, just the processing time to migrate everything would take some time to run).  But, it would be nice to have a better error status message than your account is not yet ready.  Why not make a blog post stating that this group goes first, this other group goes next, etc….?  Then, they could have nipped the complaints in the bud–everyone would have known when they would be upgraded–and not had to answer tons of questions.

Now, if they just add in the ability to call it with SIP I would be set!

[Update 03-19-2009 08:24:13] I’ve got a google voice account now!

GrandCentral…When will my account be upgraded?

It has been several days since the announcement that GrandCentral will become is becoming Google Voice.  All accounts are supposed to be upgraded then the public rollout will happen.  My account is still showing “Your account is not yet ready to be upgraded.”  When oh when??

20090317_GrandcentralScreenshot

[Update 03-18-2009 09:23:42] See this post for my newest grand central status update.

[Update 03-19-2009 08:24:13] I’ve got a google voice account now

To Think About

 Yesterday, several of us met to study the Bible.  The passage we read was Mark 6:45-52 (Jesus walking on the water after feeding the 5,000).  Today, while I was reading in my quiet time, I was struck with some irony.  See, one of the things we talked about yesterday was how the disciples had just seen Jesus feed 5,000+ people.  On top of that, previously, they had been given power to do miracles when they were sent out (Mark 6:7-13).  AND, they did something with the power (Mark 6:13 says they actually cast out demons and healed the sick).

Why were they like this?  Verse 52 tells us why:  their heart was hardened and they did not consider the miracle of the loaves.  In short…they had just come off a high, were in a real rough place, and didn’t remember what had happened in the past.  We’d never be like that, would we?  Would we?

What about the Israelites?  How about when they came out of Egypt and were looking at the promised land?  They–excelt Joshua and Caleb–said the people were too great .  They ignored the fact that God had 1) given it to them and 2) had worked a great many miracles in the past (manna, parting of the Red Sea, etc…).  Those goofy Israelites…how could they not remember?  I’m glad we aren’t that way.  Or are we?

What about Christians today who ignore things God tells them to do–myself included–for all manner of reasons?  How about voting?  Do you vote for the person God wants you to vote for, or do you pick a lesser of two evils?  Do you take the step and give as he tells you or do you not trust Him to provide?  How many times do we shirk from our responsibility to witness and pass it off?  See…it is easy to be hard on “those” disciples or “those” Israelites because “they” aren’t us.  But, we have a record of a huge number of miracles done by God…but what do we do??  They are ignored for whatever reason.

So, while it’s easy to blame “they” we need to constantly look at “me” and “now” to make sure we aren’t the pot calling the kettle black.

Thanks to docman for the picture.

Obama, Promises, and Bush

 About six months ago, many of my conversations here centered around politics.  What did I think?  Who was I going to vote for?  What did I think of Obama?  Isn’t Obama great?  My general answer to all of these questions centered around the following thoughts:  No, I won’t tell you who I will vote for or who I voted for…I don’t even tell Cyndi; I’m always hopeful that the person who wins will be honest and stick to his word; BUT, I have seen too many politicians promise huge lists of stuff and in eight years nothing on that list gets done; and I’m sure they have their reasons–the primary one is that they couldn’t know so many things while they were running for office–but they should have taken that into consideration when they made the promises because a promise is a promise.

Well, it looks like my general skepticism of politicians is bearing fruit.  What was one of Obama’s biggest promises?  Change .  Change everything.  Well…here are just a few of his promises he has already broke (from this WND article ):

  1. Sunlight Before Signing
  2. Capital gains tax elimination
  3. New American jobs tax credit
  4. Hiatus on 401(k) penalties
  5. No jobs for lobbyists
  6. Earmark reform
  7. Bring troops home in 16 months
  8. Sign Freedom of Choice Act
  9. $4,000 college credit
  10. Transparency 

Now, some of these, like the Sign Freedom of Choice Act, I’m glad he hasn’t done.  Others of them were missed outright–the Porkulus Bill for example.  Some of them were neat–like the open government and giving people the opportunity to review things before they were made law (but what does it matter then?  The time for review and comment is in the law making process.  The President can’t do anything once he gets it.  We need to tell our representatives and senators about issues before they are passed.  Has everyone forgotten basics?)

ARG!

By the way, if you think WorldNet Daily is biased, how about looking at this article.

Thanks to Steve Rhodes for the picture.