Kestryl's Quiet Little Spot

Well, it’s been a while since I’ve posted….  The main reason for writing this post is so that the first thing that you seen when visiting my blog won’t be the picture of a woman breastfeeding a tiger (scroll down for that fun).

I guess I should give a quick overview of what I’ve been up to since my last post….

Work was busy for a while, as we were working on re-certifying our support center.  Then I had some classes that I took for work that kept me busy for a while.  Nothing too exciting there, so I see no need to elaborate.

Beyond that, we’ve been getting ready for Christmas… buying gifts, decorating the house and such.  We actually got decorated in record time, without any major issues.  Almost done with Christmas shopping, but I’ve still got a few more things to buy so I’m going to brave the malls this weekend to finish up.

Last, but not least I have signed up for some classes at the community college that will start in Jan.  I’m trying to finish up my Gen Ed classes so I can move onto getting my degree.  Not sure how long this will take right now… but the longer I wait to get started, the longer it will take…

So that’s the quick update of my life….   I’m not sure when I’ll be posting again, as I have been neglecting my other pages even more than I have neglected this one… so until next time…. Enjoy!

Breast-fed tiger cubs die of dehydration

May 12, 2005

YANGON, Myanmar - Two Bengal tiger cubs breast fed for weeks by a Yangon housewife have died of heat and dehydration, a Myanmar newspaper reported on Thursday.

The black-striped, orange-brown cubs drew worldwide attention when Hla Htay, a mother of a baby boy, answered a plea for help from Yangon’s zoo and fed the cats three times a day after they were rejected by their tigress mother.

But the cubs -- a male and female born on March 17 -- did not take well to human milk and they grew weaker as temperatures soared in the hot season.

The male died on May 3, six days after his sister perished.

"The main causes of death were scorching weather and lack of milk from the natural mother," Dr. Khin Maung Win of the Yangon Zoological Garden told the Myanmar-language Interview Journal.

"We did all we could to save them. They were kept in an air-conditioned room, but their livers could not accept human milk," he said.

Three cubs were born at the zoo, but their mother killed one and refused to nurse the others. After bottle feeding failed, the zoo put out a call for breastfeeding mothers.

These baby tiger cubs died because they could not get the one thing they could not live without, their mother's milk. Many people went out of their way to try and find a 'substitute' for tiger's milk for the cubs, but in the end they could not find a substitute for the real thing.

We all have things we feel we cannot live without. For me it's my Internet connection and my TiVo. However, if those things were to disappear tomorrow would I really cease to exist? No. I would certainly miss those wonderful 'distractions' that I once had in my life, but I would go on living.

However, many people live their ignoring the one thing they truly cannot 'exist' without, God. Some choose to completely ignore Him, others pay lip service on Holidays or Sundays, and some even try to 'make' God into what they want Him to be... when in truth it has always been the other way around.

We all need to be thankful everyday for what God has given us. Our lives, our friends, the plants and animals around us,... even the Internett and Blogging! Without God's gift of life to all of us..... there would be nothing.

Spend some time talking to God, thanking and praising Him for all that He has given us. Spend even more time listening to God letting Him use us in the way 'He' sees fit. On a daily basis, let God be the one thing that you truly cannot live without.... let God be your "Tiger's Milk".

Well, I haven't been blogging for the past couple of days, due to the fact that I have decided that I have been neglecting my other web sites. Yes, like a true geek, I have more than 1 web site out there. This blog started out as nothing more than a place to rant about stuff that I didn't want to put on my web site, and then evolved into more of a personal diary where I would write about the fun of my daily life (and a few top 10 lists every now and then).

My first site is my most loved.... http://www.kestryl.com. This is my homepage, family web site, or what ever you want to call it. I have owned this domain since July of 2000, and it has gone through many changes. It started off as a very basic site, which has evolved into what I like to think is a very organized professional looking site. For the tech geeks out there; I started off building the site in notepad, then moved onto a FrontPage created site, and now I am using Joomla (previously Mambo) which is a great open source Content Management System.

What I am most proud about on Kestryl.com is my on-line photo album. I currently have over 2500 family pictures available on my site. This is my version of scrapbooking... There you will find pictures from the last 5 years of our family life. The all the vacation pictures are my favorite.

Kestryl.com does require registration, and approval from me, before you can see the articles and photos. With that much personal information about my family on the web, I decided that it was important to keep it safe from strangers.

My other site is http://www.waltsdisneyland.com. For those of you who know me well, you know that I have a great love of Disney, and especially Disneyland. Because of that, me and my good friend Tom (who has the same love for Disney/Disneyland) started Walt'sDisneyland.com, which has been running for just over a year now. This site has been greatly neglected in the last year, and is in need of some major work. Within the next few weeks we hope to have new articles, and new pictures available on the site for the public to enjoy.

Walt'sDisneyland.com is open to the public, however to comment on articles, download desktop pictures, or post in the forum, you are required to register. With Walt'sDisneyland however, you do not need approval from me to access the site, all you need is to verify your email address through an automated process.

I promise, that I will keep on blogging, however for the next few weeks you may see less posts from me, so I can focus more time and energy on my other sites. For now, visit my other sites and take a look around. Just trying to look through the 2500+ pictures on Kestryl.com can keep you busy for a long time. Also, please send me your suggestions for either site. I am always looking for new ideas on how I can make the sites better.

Nothing to write about today… but I’ve become addicted and need my fix of blogging anyways.

The past couple of days I’ve been listening to a new Podcast by Cory Doctorow.  I got interested in his work when I found a book entitled Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, and of course I just had to read it.  It is a futuristic Sci-Fi novel where everyone is free to do whatever they want, no one has to die, and the only wealth in the world is judged by how much a person is ‘liked’.  As if that alone isn’t twisted enough, it is set in the Walt Disney World of the future and deals with the struggle of keeping rides “classic” or updating them with the latest technology.

Anyways, the Podcast that I’m currently listening to is Cory’s own personal Podcast, where he is currently reading the current story that he is working on.  This is yet another futuristic Sci-Fi story loosely based off of the siege of Leningrad (now St. Petersburg).  So far I’m pretty hooked. It will be interesting to see where he ends up going with this story.

One of the things I like most about Cory’s work is that he puts out all of his work under the Creative Commons License.  What that basically means is that you can copy, reproduce, and distribute his work without having to get permission.  In fact, he has ASCII copies of his books available on his web page for download, free of charge.  If you don’t like ASCII… convert them to any format you like, just leave the license text in the document and you’re OK.  Personally, I like to convert them to a .lit format, and then read it on my Pocket PC using Microsoft Reader.

Back to the Podcast.... What I like most about Podcasts is the fact that I have something other than music, news, or boring talk shows to listen to on my drive into and back from work.  Before the season ended, I enjoyed listening to the Podcast for the new Battlestar Galactica, which was given by Ronald D. Moore who is the Executive Producer of the show.  I could do an entire blog entry on how great that show is, and how it’s basically the best show on TV today, but that will have to wait until January, when they start the 2nd half of Season 2.

So I guess I had a lot to say even though I had nothing to write about.  Enjoy!

Well, here in SoCal today it is raining... and raining pretty good. Now even though traffic sucked and I got to work a hour and a half late because of it, I love the rain. So what better than a rainy day top 10....

Top 10 reasons I love the rain.

10. I live in SoCal... rain dosen't come often. I enjoy it while I can.

9. Rain is the the best smog removal tools. Yes, wind works too, but I hate the wind.

8. I don't have to pay to water my lawn.

7. For a least a few days the hills and mountains become green, before returning to their lovely brown color.

6. Who needs reality TV when you have "Live at 11, swift water rescue in the LA River"

5. Always a chance that I'll get to see a rainbow.

4. The kid in me (you know... 99% of me) still likes splashing in puddles.

3. For a short time, I actually get to see a river. (My wife still refuses to admit that there is a river in Simi).

2. Thunder and Lightning is always exciting.

1. The sound of rain on the roof is a wonderful sound to fall asleap to.

I've spent too much time posting serious issues lately, so today I'm going to do one of those infamous Top 10 lists. Seeing as how it is currently Saturday and I am currently at work, what better than

The Top 10 reasons we should really only work 4 days a week.

10. Sudies have shown that on an average we work more hours than people 2000 years ago. We're moving in the wrong direction people... time to get some free time back.

9. You usually spend an entire weekend day cleaning the house, doing laundry, etc. Which leaves us with only 1 day of rest.... and we really need at least 2.

8. Being a US. Citizen means that we only get an average of 2 1/2 weeks of Vacation a year, The UK citizens gets appx 5 1/2 weeks a year and Italians get 8 1/2 weeks a year. Even the hard working Japanese get 5 weeks a year. We are seriously lacking here.

7. Nobody currently likes Mondays, so give us that day. We'll be much happier on Tuesday.

6. If Mondays are too important to you, give us Friday. Don't worry about work not getting done, because we already don't do any 'real' work on Friday.

5. I'm still upset about the Vacation Days issue (see #8)

4. With the kids in school, us parents would get some time alone without the kids. Note: To kids & teachers, I'm sorry you have to work in my plan, but hey... you get 3 months a year off that I don't!

3. We'd actually be able to take weekend 'trips'. As it is right now you spend all day Saturday driving to get somewhere, and then all day Sunday driving just to get back!

2. You're telling me that Italians really get 8 1/2 weeks of vacation a year?

and the #1 reason

1. Even God needed 1 day of rest. Am I arrogant enough to think that just 1 more day than God gets is good enough for me? No, I'll will make the effort to humble myself and admit that I need at least 3 days of rest.

Ok, so it wasn't that funny, but you have to agree.... it's a good idea.

One thing that I've noticed recently is that most people have an issue with rules. Everyone speeds on the freeways, or makes California Stops (you know S.T.O.P - Slightly Tap On Pedal), or downloads what they like to call 'free' music, and so on. But they justify themselves by following the 'big' rules; They don't kill, they don't really 'steal', etc.

The problem is that they want to take this same attitude with God. They like to stick to the idea of "I'm not perfect, but I'm good enough". The problem with this is... none of us are "good enough", we are all flawed, make mistakes, get angry, and sin.

That is why Jesus is so important! He died for our sins, he did what we cannot do, provide a perfect, sinless sacrifice;

And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, "Drink of it, all of you; for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins."
Matthew 26:27-28

Now many people close to me are Christians, and believe that Jesus is the Son of God, and our savior. However, when it comes back to the 'rules' they like to go back to the 'good enough' theory. They say "Yes, I believe in God, and in Jesus, but I don't think that Christianity is the only way." They like to believe that it doesn't matter what you believe in, as long as you are 'good enough', you will get to heaven. I hate to bring this to your attention, but that isn't an option.

Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by me."
John 14:6

You have a choice; Looney, Liar, or Lord (thank you Fr. Rich). Jesus didn't leave us with many options. If you say that you believe in Jesus as the son of God and our Savior, but you don't 'have' to believe in him to get into heaven, then you're calling him a liar. If you like to believe that he was a great teacher who had a lot of great things to say, but don't believe he is the Christ, the Son of the living God... well I'm sorry you are putting him in the looney category.

"For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me;"
John 6:38

"Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority; but the Father who dwells in me does his works."
John 14:10

You can't pick and choose what you like and discard what you don't like. You are not the one making the rules.

You have to read, study, listen, and open your heart and follow, not what you believe is right, but what God wants of you, and all his children. Someone said that they believe that there are many paths through the forest of life that lead to heaven, and when I think about it they are both right and wrong at the same time. As stated above, there is only one path to heaven... however there are many paths that lead to the one true path. There are many forks in the road, and many paths to get lost on along the way, but God has given you a map (The Bible), and put many signs along the road (the many Christians in the world), and has even provided a guide (The Holy Spirit), it's just up to you if you want to listen to the guide.

One quick note before I go... to those of you who don't believe as I do or do not believe in anything at all, please do not read this and judge me or even worse, worry about me judging you. I will not come to your house to beat you over the head with a bible, or tell you how you are going to hell. I just read my map, follow the signs, and listen to my guide. I'd love it if you came with me along the journey but I'm not going to try and drag you, kicking and screaming. I just hope and pray that when you come to a fork in the road, I might be one of the signs helping to point the way.

Turn on the lights, fill the oil, put on the vestments, light the candles.

Start saying the evening prayer, getting nervous, at one point start reading the wrong Psalm.

Then something comes to mind.... it's not about me. If I say the wrong line, or stumble on a verse or a word, that's not what's important.

It's the Word of God that's important. It's the gathering together of people in his name. It's the praise of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

It's not about me....... it's all about him.