Tuesday, December 25, 2012

On This Night Before Christmas… One Thought For Us All

‘Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the net Not a blogger was blogging, nor a tweet was to be found

As all were too busy tracking Santa around

 For ‘twas said it was he who brings gifts to the world on this night

 But while Santa’s a wonderful tail for the us all to enjoy

Santa’s certainly not the true reason to remember this season

As its Christ coming that brought us glad tidings and joy

And it’s His love and salvation that’s our precious gift from above

So share your toys and trinkets and gadgets galore as alway before

But never say Santa’s the real reason to share in this season

Nor think that things of this world are all we should seek and enjoy

As neither like Jesus brings salvation nor peace and love to this world

So remember the story of Santa is fine as a fable

But Christ is the one who was born in the stable.

Written December 24th 2012 by Frank Woodman Jr

Monday, November 05, 2012

On the Eve of the Election.. One Christian Man's Look at What it Means

At a time of great crises for our country we see hate, division, and anger as never before. And the voting public seems more lost and confused than ever as all the misinformation, lies, and trickery take their tole on us all. But the saddest part is that people just don't get what the problem really is. And it's not our choice between Obama and Romney that we have to fear. It's the very deterioration of who we are as Americans and what we stand for as a people. It's going to take a real movement back to some basic principals that we've lost over the last 20 yrs or so before things get better. We need a movement back to relying on hard work, honest effort, and moral decency. That can only happen when we as a nation again find our way to the simple principals we were founded on. IMO that can only happen when we as a nation find God again. For this election only points out the problems that any electorate will find when they have strayed from faith. What we need is people to demand of those we elect that they have principals and conduct themselves properly and do what what's best for the country as a whole. I guess the issue is; are there enough people left to vote who have "Biblical" values to affect the outcome of the election. Sadly I'm not sure that there are. For most of our problems come from the peoples move away from both the Bible and Christ centered lives not from our leadership. Leadership in a country of open elections as we have only reflects the people's wishes and views. And one has to only see what is shown on TV or read a few comments or posts on social media to realize that Christ isn't in the forefront of the majority of peoples lives anymore. We now have an apathetic non caring worldly based voting majority. As long as that is true the majority of our elected officials will share those views and the selfish self-centered nature that they create. That means that no one race be it president or any other will effect our countries direction. So those of us who still value and keep such a Christ based life must pray for our country for as it is now no matter who gets elected the true problem will remain... the people have lost their way and have turned from Christ and his teachings. No president or elected official can "fix" that problem it's that our roots are rotten not that our branches are damaged or broken that means that the tree of freedom will most likely be up rooted. We as Christians can only try to brace it up and hope that the rot hasn't gone so far as to kill the tree. God Bless America

Sunday, October 21, 2012

Obama or Romney Makes no Difference Financially

No matter who wins this election the truth is that taxes will go up for most working Americans and potentially drastically so for those with children as of January 1st, 2013. And the current talk by both presidential candidates about taxes is only a political smoke screen to woo voters with buzz words and empty promises. For when the current tax credits expire taxes will rise for working class Americans and that’s not a maybe or a possibly that’s a definite fact! Remember among the credits expiring are the tax credits for EIC, the Child Care Credit, and the Child Tax Credit to mention only a few. And it’s going to be Congress that will decide the tax and budget issues before this country at that time not the president. And this is a Congress that will largely be the same Congress that failed to pass a federal budget, failed to reach a compromise on budget reduction, and put off all discussion or voting on any tax legislation until AFTER the election. When that sinks in you realize that whoever becomes president, Obama or Romney, they will have to work with a totally dysfunctional Congress. This current Congress has done absolutely nothing to address even the most basic of our financial issues and shows no signs of changing any time soon now or after the election. So IMO gridlock will result in the failure of Congress to act. If that happens everyone loses as we will effectively face financial disaster! A financial meltdown unlike anything we've experienced since World War II will result For if history is any indication our Congress will again fail to address our budget, tax legislation, or jobs creation in any meaningful way. Our only hope is that everyone wakes up to the fact that what’s important for the financial future of our country is who’s running for Congress and how we can put pressure on Congress after the elections to truly address our financial mess. And I don’t see either Obama or Romney’s winning the presidency effectively making any difference in our tax and financial problems as Congress has shown that it isn't interested passing any real effective legislation. So while the direction of our country in many matters will hinge on who wins the presidency, Obama or Romney, when it comes to our financial quandary neither will have any impact.

Saturday, August 11, 2012

Are You Getting the Internet Speed You’re Paying for?

Recently I’ve seen an unusual number of clients complaining that their computers are running many of their browsers based online programs very slow or even having them freeze up and fail to respond along with increased problems with programs and requests being timed out by servers. As in the past these problems have been traced in every case to poor internet speeds from their ISP’s. With some of the speeds as much as 60% to 70% less than those promised. And in every case once the provider was contacted repairs were made and speeds were restored to the ISP’s promised speed. Sadly problems with consistent internet service speed seems to be an ever increasing problem as rising costs and reduced budgets have hit ISP’s hard. Throw in the ever increasing demand caused by a customer base that uses more and more data resource intensive web services like video and SAAS and you have a recipe for terrible ISP speeds. Anyway if you’ve had any problem with your internet response recently be sure to do a speed check on your ISP connection. Luckily this isn’t something that requires any great skill as there are many good sites and services that will check both your download and you’re upload speed quickly, easily, and for free. Remember you should run these tests over several days and at different times as speeds often vary greatly through the course of the day and you want your ISP’s stated speed all the time not just part of the time. Also the download speed will be much faster than the upload speed for almost all ISP’s so be sure to find out what your upload speed should be and watch it as well as your download speed. And be aware that due to some technical issues, you won’t get exactly the speeds your ISP states but your results should be well within 10-20% of your promised speeds. So do yourself a favor and check your ISP’s download and upload speeds and be sure you’re getting what you’re paying for. Two sites Megapath internet speed test and Speedtest.net are the ones that I recommend most often. So give them a try and let me know how your tests come out and if you have a favorite internet tip or tool to share please post it in the comment box below.