Kevin: April 2003 Archives

What a mess! As some of you may have noticed, our website and email have been flakey since last Friday. The good news is, things should be back to normal now (although Jill still cannot send emails from home yet).

A little background:
Up until about a month ago, Jill and I hosted our websites and email service using a local server and a DSL connection from our home. Things seemed to work pretty well! <pat on the back> Then we decided to cut some costs, and got rid of the DSL line. We set up our web/email with a hosting company called Cornerhost out of Atlanta, GA, with the actual servers colocated with two other companies (Rackspace and ServerBeach) in San Antonio, TX -- so the level of service is now out of our hands.

The one good thing is that the owner of Cornerhost is very involved with keeping everyone updated when problems occur, so I was able to read about what was going on. The bad part was, I couldn't do anything about it. Michal, from Cornerhost, is giving everyone a free month of hosting, which is a nice gesture for the trouble.

I'm just sorry if we lost touch with any of you this weekend via email. Jill and I will wade through our Inbox'es and get back with you ASAP! Thanks for understanding.

I ran across this quote from Chris Rock via Evano Dickinson's website.

You know the world is going crazy when the best rapper is a white guy, the best golfer is a black guy, the tallest guy in the NBA is Chinese, the Swiss hold the America's Cup, France is accusing the U.S. of arrogance, Germany doesn't want to go to war, and the three most powerful men in America are named 'Bush', 'Dick', and 'Colon'. Need I say more?

I was considering waxing ecstatic about the truth in this quote, but there is no need. Change is one of the things in this world you can count on.

Sorry for the interruption of any email or visits to the website over the past week. We have switched to a different host, and it took a little time to migrate. Everything should be back to normal now -- the calendar and news pages will take another day or two.

Let me know if you have any problems with the site by commenting below.

Perhaps this should be filed under the sad-but-true category. I stumbled upon a website listing the Top 100 April Fool's Day Hoaxes, all in one place. Reading through the list, I can say this: One man's hoax is most certainly another man's left-handed Whopper!

17: The Left-Handed Whopper
In 1998 Burger King published a full page advertisement in USA Today announcing the introduction of a new item to their menu: a "Left-Handed Whopper" specially designed for the 32 million left-handed Americans. According to the advertisement, the new whopper included the same ingredients as the original Whopper (lettuce, tomato, hamburger patty, etc.), but all the condiments were rotated 180 degrees for the benefit of their left-handed customers. The following day Burger King issued a follow-up release revealing that although the Left-Handed Whopper was a hoax, thousands of customers had gone into restaurants to request the new sandwich. Simultaneously, according to the press release, "many others requested their own 'right handed' version."

Hope you all made it through another April Fool's Day without being duped to well.

I learned a little about what it is to be a Christian today, by reading the news. The following is from ABC -- the Australian Broadcasting Company.

US soldiers in Iraq asked to pray for Bush They may be the ones facing danger on the battlefield, but US soldiers in Iraq are being asked to pray for President George W Bush.

Thousands of marines have been given a pamphlet called "A Christian's Duty," a mini prayer book which includes a tear-out section to be mailed to the White House pledging the soldier who sends it in has been praying for Bush.

I am proud to be an American, and a Christian. Not because the soldiers might pray for our leadership, but because our leadership recognizes that with God's grace all things are possible. It reminds me of a banner I saw at Church Sunday night, which read: If God is for you, who could be against you?

War is a horrible thing; there is no doubt. But our men and women are laying down their lives to protect a nation -- a nation that stands with liberty under God in a world full of turmoil. I applaud our county's leadership for putting what they can into the Lord's hands.