Prayer Requests

January 26, 2009 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Life, Religion 

I’ve got a few prayer requests.

  1. For the van der Wal family, on the death of Gooitzen’s father (who is also Elsa’s grandfather)
  2. For my church, facing budget difficulties in this economy (mainly caused by individual difficulties)
  3. For reconciliation and the ability to debate without insult – the church at large (national mostly) is failing at this.
  4. For everybody who has the flu – either the head or stomach variety.  It’s a nasty year.

Amen.

Found Money – Savings Bonds

January 22, 2009 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Life 

If you are of a certain age, you probably received a gift of a US Savings Bond at some point in your childhood.

These paper bonds were sold at 1/2 or 3/4 of their face value, matured to their face value in about 5 years, and continued to mature until they were 30 years old.

Today I went through my bonds and discovered that I had 3 bonds older than 30 years.  They were all $25 bonds.  They’re now worth almost $350 now that they’ve stopped earning interest.  The next time I go near the bank I’ll cash them.

Check your old files and sock drawers.  You might have some bonds that have stopped earning interest.

An easy way to check the value of the bonds is at Treasury Direct Savings Bond Calculator.

WordPress users – favorite widgets/plug-ins?

January 21, 2009 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Admin, Web/Tech, Weblogs 

I know that I have a few WordPress users among my readers.

What are your favorite widgets or plug-ins?  Are there any that you think I should be using?

Welcome to the New Site

January 21, 2009 by · 3 Comments
Filed under: Admin 

As of today, I have moved this blog from the old TypePad address to this new WordPress installation on my own hosted server.

The new URL is:  https://marktime.org/

Please update any blogrolls or links within your sites.  I will be using Google to find links to the old site and I will contact you if I find an old link to ask you to update it.

Thanks, and welcome to the new home!

Presbytalk Grand Opening

January 16, 2009 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Religion, Web/Tech, Weblogs 

I am pleased to announce the Grand Opening of the Internet’s newest Presbyterian Discussion Forum:  Presbytalk.

This new forum is intended for discussion and community-building for anyone connected with a Presbyterian church (of any denomination).  The site is free to users.

Come and join us!

An interesting observation

January 13, 2009 by · 1 Comment
Filed under: Religion 

On the way to the Board of Deacons meeting last night, I made an interesting observation.

I’ve been heavily involved in church twice in my life – once as a teenager through early college, and now.

In both cases, my heavy involvement in church preceded a very bad time in my life.

I’m not sure what the causal chain looks like there.  Was the bad time caused by my church involvement?  Was the church involvement needed to sustain me?  Is it just coincidence?