Make a Neon Sign

The graphic is free and it can be copied. Neon Central will also actually make the sign - for a fee - but just getting this cool graphic with any words you want on it - is fun.

I know I can do this in Photoshop, too. Here's the tutorial - and here's my first attempt at it:

Hey! I just learned how to actually create a gradient - yay! I always wondered that.

Evolution of Man

Lil S. passed this funny one along to me (thanks, Lil) from Funnies.com. If you missed the beginning, it keeps cycling through.

My Brother Jeff - Update

Thanks to everyone for their concerns and wishes for my brother Jeff (pictured here in happier times). Jeff was in intensive care for a long time in the hospital. He just recently went home. The details have constantly changed on his condition and we've been back and forth on this a lot so I won't bother with complete explanations.

But the final result is that he does not qualify for a transplant due to being diabetic (these types of transplants usually fail in diabetics).

Jeff is being given an experimental medicine (offered only to terminal patients since it is still very new) that has opened up his lungs and lets him breathe without needing much oxygen. Right now, he feels normal again. It is wonderful. This is expected to work only a few months, but it gives Jeff a chance to live at home and get his affairs in order. He has a wife, 4 children of his own, ages 5,6,8 and 9 years old plus an older stepchild - all dependent upon him.

We are glad that he has time to prepare and say good-bye, but sorrowful that it has come to this. Our prayers and best wishes are for him and his young family. We hope the medications will work much longer.

Catch Up on the Comics

Here's a site that shows today's comic strips (selected ones). This must be a foreign location. My husband noticed that sometimes, the version which shows up in our local paper, varies slightly from the one that is printed here. It's interesting to see the editing that goes on.

We've read that cartoonists have to produce an different version of their work for some papers. For example, we saw a Dilbert with a porpoise sticking out of a lawyer's back. In the edited version which appeared in our paper, it was just a hole in the lawyer's back with an implication that the porpoise had made it.

I am a Total Cat Slave

This is true in our household. I don't know why, but I love being owned by 3 cats. They take good care of me and, in turn, I obey them. When a cat is settles down on my lap and purrs in contentment, I suddenly cease wanting to move or disturb him. I even let my legs get pretty sore before I try to shift position. I am a total wimp. I can relate to this recent Pickles cartoon.

Google Maps Site Visitors

This is so cool. You can get a Google map of the most recent visitors to your site. You can even switch to their satellite images and look at the neighborhood where the visitors originate -- amazing ... speaking of no privacy on the Internet anymore.

Here's the most recent visitors to this site from North America. I also had one wonderful visitor from Denmark. You can keep a check on my most recent 20 visitors, too, if you wish. Just click here.

Movie of the World at Night

Here's a moving view of the entire world at night - of course made of composite images. It's amazing how many dark areas are in Africa and the center of South America. What a special place our world is.

The Entire World at Night

Weighing in on Environmental Issues

I thought I would gather some courage and state my views - this is a blog, after all -- even though I prefer not to be controversial with any but my best friends and I prefer to keep this blog light-hearted. Mostly, I have few conclusions and a lot of gray area when it comes to this. There's much I don't know.

First, I believe in a clean environment. I joined the Alabama Rivers Alliance some time ago. I love the little creek where I walk nearly every day. It is teeming with fish and wildlife even though some folks think of it as a drainage ditch more than a pretty little creek. There are many pollutions on the earth that we need to make better and I am putting my money where my mouth is.

Second, we set out our recycling bin faithfully and participate in the city's recycling program. We even have a large compost section in our backyard. Some weeks, when I look around the street, we are the only ones I can see with a bin outside, but we keep doing it.

Is there global warming? Much debate has been given over it. There are good arguments for both sides of the issue, in my opinion, but I do believe the earth is warming. With volcanoes and a hot molten core, it has always undergone drastic changes. Maybe we are just in a warm cycle with weather. Maybe throughout the history of the earth, we've had spells of more hurricanes in a season [just heard on the news that we had a hurricane season worse than this in the 1930's]. Then again, maybe it is not a normal cycle. I just don't know how, but I know the earth is changing.

Is man causing this? Certainly to some degree. Are drastic changes needed in the way we do things? Should we send tens of thousands to the unemployment lines to make these changes? I am not sure whether or not we need to be drastic about it (involving massive job loss and recessions), but I do believe in gradually helping to remove pollutions.

About recycling - I saw a TV show (and I know TV is not gospel truth, but it made me wonder) about recycling. They said aluminum cans should always be recycled - no debate about that, but they suggested that plastics might take more energy from the earth than energy being saved - an intriguing thought. Definitely, in certain areas, there is no room to do anything but recycle - but taking the earth as a whole, are the processes involved in recycling plastics more draining that just creating new plastic and using landfills? Again, I don't know - but it was something to think about. Since I have no definite conclusions, I still put out my recycling bin.

I received an interesting e-mail the other day stating that India, China and Russia were the world's biggest polluters. I never knew. Then again, almost anything sent around in an e-mail is false. I did a Google search for the "world's worst polluters" and found someone who says China is about to become the worst. Another report says Australia ranks worst in greenhouse gas emissions per person. Yet another says Canada has the world's worst coastal polluters.

We obviously have a long way to go. Some people are not sure it is a drastic problem. Others are sure it is. Those who are sure, might have great fear and worry that it is too late -- so this is a touchy issue. I can not blame them for being afraid. But, after being told throughout my childhood, that the earth was chilling; we were entering a global ice age (and what a scare! It was even taught in our schools that we were entering a second ice age) and now, hearing the opposite tune, I am more cautious about what to get alarmed over.

It sometimes seems like people go around being alarmed all the time over things. Remember when we used to see books about a giant economic crash coming? Those books came out in the 70's and 80's and it hasn't happened to a drastic degree so far. Remember when various groups gave a date for Jesus' return and hid out in a cave? Remember the Y2K bug scare? ... so many alarmist issues that never happened.

The environmental debate goes on and I have no solid conclusions as to all of the drastic steps needed -- thought I am irked about those who control the oil supply. I'd like to see economical and safe ways to run cars without reliance on foreign oil.

I eat meat, but I want animals to not be raised in torturous conditions. I want a cleaner earth, but not a giant economic fallout - yet we need to have some kind of constant improvement going on. I don't think President Bush is a giant evil weenie. I don't think Gore or Kerry would have done a better job with problems of our country, although I am not too fond right now of that FEMA director who had lousy job qualifications. Who recommended him in the first place? Why didn't they check his resume more closely? How could they have hired him with the poor record he held? Well, I can guess the reasons...

With all the past false alarmist issues that went around and keep going around (especially in e-mail), I am not sure what aspects to believe or not. I want to stay willing to listen to all sides of an issue. So, I will still continue to put out my recycling bin, try to improve conditions for the little creek I live by, not be complacent about my physical health (plenty of folks don't eat right and get enough exercise) -- and keep an eye on that car which uses battery power.

Asian Beef & Noodles

My daughter just made this recipe from a beef industry website and IMed over to me how good it turned out. I am hungry right now -- this looks mighty delicious. Maybe I should drive the 20 miles over to her house .... but, no, it will likely be all gone by the time I get there. Rats.