X and M Class Solar Flares Headed Towards Earth

Posted by Lorren on September 6, 2011

Solar Flare by dilbert627

About a year ago, I wrote about Sunspots and Global Cooling. For the previous few years prior, I had witnessed cool temperatures like I had never seen before in my life. For the first 18 years of my life, I lived in Western Washington, and it had never snowed on Christmas. The last couple of times I’ve visited my family over Christmas, it snowed. My daughter thinks that it always snows there. I even witnessed graupel (which is a little like snow, a little like hail) here in Phoenix over the past winter.

Looks like things may be changing. The solar flares look like they might be kicking up again. Over the last day or so, we’ve had two M-class solar flares and one X-class solar flare (the largest kind), all headed towards the earth.

Other than the fact that it could alter the Earth’s temperature, these solar flares could affect us in other ways in the next couple of days. If you remembered the height of the last solar cycle in the 1990s, there were times when satellite service would be interrupted and television or cell phone service would have problems. Of course then, people weren’t as dependent on their cell phones, or even the Internet.

Over the next few days, you don’t want to have to rely on your cell phone, GPS, or even television service. There may be interruptions caused by these solar flares. Hopefully it won’t come to much, but it is something to watch for.

 Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Part 2?

Posted by Lorren on September 4, 2011

Last year, I read Gibbon’s History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire – at least the abridged edition. It’s a difficult book to read, but it covers some important history (I suppose if I ever get the time I will read the entire unabridged history).

In it, Gibbon describes how Rome went from this powerful society with the most advanced roads and technology on the planet, to being a society which we know of as Medieval Europe. I personally don’t even think we know the half of Rome’s greatness at its height. We are still discovering some of the things they did. Medieval Europe was just so low that nearly everything was lost. The people were so desperate (or something) that they would tear apart the old structures of Rome in order to rebuild their own buildings. The Colosseum at one point was used as a garbage dump.

Rome declined gradually, but I’m sure that the people felt something. Where once the army was practically invincible, it starts getting defeated on the battlefield. While the road system once allowed people to travel from one end of the empire to another, the paths started to crumble. The aquaducts that carried fresh water started to break down, and the sewers started to back up.

Today, America seems to be in decline, just like in Gibbon’s history. Shows like Inspector America and The Crumbling of America talk about how America’s infrastructure is breaking down. I witnessed it myself a couple of years ago as I drove up the California coast. Our educational system is flawed, and our politicians are corrupt. We aren’t winning our wars in a decisive manner like we did in World Wars I and II. America no longer supports a space shuttle program.

The rest of the world isn’t off the hook either. Riots abound nearly everywhere. Famines plague some of the poorer countries. Europeans are having a self-inflicted energy crisis just like the United States: countries are closing nuclear plants and don’t want to use coal or fossil fuels, so Germany and England may face blackouts. We may abandon the International Space Station because of problems with one of Russia’s shuttles.

Although we live with technology that makes our lives better, the society that we live in is fragile. We need educated people to keep things running. We need energy. We need people to work in all of the industries that we depend on for our lifestyle.

I do believe that the Lord is coming back soon, but if he didn’t, then I think that we would see a serious change in the way that we live.

 Forcing Kids to Hike Wrong?

Posted by Lorren on September 2, 2011

Last night, I saw an article about a grandpa who was in some legal trouble for forcing his grandkids to go on a hike at the Grand Canyon. My first thought was, “what’s wrong with that?” I made my kids go hiking while we were on vacation.

There’s a little more to the story than the headline mentions. First, it was an 18 mile hike. That’s a little excessive for unwilling participants. I personally think that many kids can go on 18 mile hikes, but unless the kids’ family is hiking all the time, that’s a little much. Secondly, it was 108º outside. I like to hike, but I personally would pass on an 18 mile hike in that kind of heat.

The story doesn’t end there. The grandpa wasn’t giving the kids food or water on the hike. I don’t care if it’s 58º or 108º outside, if you’re hiking for 18 miles, you need to have something to drink. Plus, grandpa was hitting the kids with towels or something.

So it makes a little more sense that people would be upset that grandpa would force his grandkids to take a hike.

 Zazzle Now Has Free Shipping Program!

Posted by Lorren on July 25, 2011

I’ve written before about how much I love Amazon.com’s Prime program. My husband was able to get it because he’s in law school, and they offer free shipping to students. I order from Amazon all the time as a result. I love knowing that whatever I order from them will come in two days, for free (the shipping part at least).

Anyway, Zazzle has it’s new Black program. You can get a year of free standard shipping for $10, or a year of free 2 day shipping (similar to Amazon’s Prime program) for $39.95. They offer a free trial too.

Shipping can always be a big cost when you order something, so I love this new program. You can get some great Zazzle products (like this wolf poster by DRCrafts), buttons, stickers, etc. I know that it seems far away now, but the end of the year will come up sooner than you know it, and custom calendars are very cool gift ideas. I did one for my family with my kids pictures in it quite a while ago.

If you’re somebody that already designs for Zazzle, then I’m sure that you already knew about the Zazzle Black program, but if you’re not a Zazzle designer, then you might not have known. I personally will be more likely to order from Zazzle if I know that I can get the reduced shipping costs. The “World’s Greatest Grandma” shopping bag that I ordered for my mom’s Christmas present seemed to be of really excellent quality, and sometimes I think about ordering things but the shipping always keeps me from ordering something small.

 It’s a Wonderful Life

Posted by Lorren on

I think that most of us care at least a little bit about what kind of impact that we’ll have on the world around us. Most of us don’t get to see what the world would be like if they had never been born, like George Bailey on It’s a Wonderful Life, but sometimes we do find out, years after the fact, that something small that we did really did affect someone else (and hopefully in a good way). When I was a kid, I was a little too mean to my brother, so it’s nice to know that I did have something of a good effect on people.

The closest thing that I could ever think about that happened in my life, George Bailey style, was one summer at our family reunion when my cousin Henry was in the pool and was struggling. I picked him up and carried him over to the side of the pool. There were other people there that day; I’m sure if I hadn’t been in the pool at the time, somebody else would have saved him.

I got to see my cousin Henry over the weekend. I hadn’t seen him in a very long time; probably not since I graduated from high school. Over the years, he hasn’t spent too much time with my family; he’s actually the son of my uncle’s ex-wife, and I guess that some people in my extended family (which used to be pretty close, it’s a shame it’s not like that any more) hurt his feelings or something. It was good seeing him again. He said that he always thought that I was pretty cool, but I was a lot older than him so we had never really gotten to know each other. He also mentioned me carrying him out of that swimming pool. I guess that if I had ever been in a situation where I thought that I was going to drown and someone pulled me from the pool, I might remember it, but I was surprised that he had remembered it.

We all do small things every day, and occasionally we do a big thing. We don’t have to pull somebody out of a swimming pool or give up our dreams to save a small town’s building and loan, but if we do the right thing, we might find someday that we did affect somebody’s life. We may not hear about it for years, or even in this life, but we’re all here to do something. Some day, we may find out that we had a wonderful life after all.

 Farm Freedom – A Topic that Should Unite Right and Left

Posted by Lorren on June 23, 2011

I Support Farm Freedom
Make a Magnet at zazzle

Ever since I became interested in real-food nutrition about a year ago, I’ve noticed that a lot of people that are interested in health often seem to be supporters of the Democratic party. Not all, of course. Some would like the government to pass laws to tell the unhealthy masses what they can and cannot eat.

I do not support that, of course. If you have read much of what I write, then you would probably guess that I’m conservative. I’m not a Republican; I consider myself a Constitution Party member (I voted for the Constitution party Candidate in 2004, in fact). I do support much of what the Tea Party supports (although it’s not a real party). While I don’t support passing laws telling us what we can and cannot eat (I prefer education), I do think that there’s something that both real-food advocates and conservatives can agree on: farm freedom.

While large-scale agriculture doesn’t seem to have a problem with governmental regulations (many of these companies help influence the regulations), small farms are increasingly the target of governmental raids. Amish farms have been raided for selling raw milk. One person was fined over $90,000 for selling rabbits (making about a $200 profit before the fine). Another person was fined thousands of dollars for giving food away. In some ways, we’re not much different from the Tunisian fruit vendor that set himself on fire because he was tired of the government interfering in his life and making it difficult for him to earn a living.

I don’t care if you like to eat healthy, clean foods, or love to eat Ho-Hos and Coke every day at lunchtime. If you’re an American, I hope that you can at least agree that small farmers should be free from excessive governmental interference. If there’s a true health hazard, then perhaps the government might want to warn us; however, in many cases, there is no reason to take away a farmer’s livelihood. I’d prefer freedom, even if it means there is a little risk involved.

 Teachable Moment at Jack in the Box

Posted by Lorren on June 17, 2011

Today we were out shopping and I needed to get some lunch for my kids, so we stopped at Jack in the Box. They now have apple slices as a choice in their Kids’ Meals, and they don’t offer a toy. The manager explained to us that the changes were because of legislation that was passed in California. In some locations, it is illegal to give a toy to kids with a meal that has over a certain amount of calories, and this includes most “Happy Meals”.

The kids weren’t very happy that they couldn’t get a toy with their meal anymore. We don’t go to fast food very often; I’d rather get food at home most times. Even this past week, when we had to go straight from gymnastics to Vacation Bible School, I made my own “fast food” at home (one night I made fried chicken with carrots as a side; another night we had homemade Subway sandwiches with a peach as the side). I explained to them that the reason why they couldn’t have a toy with their food was because some people in government thought that they knew better than us and decided to make it illegal to give out a toy with their food. They thought it was stupid; I told them that when they get older and could vote, it was important to know who you were voting for, because votes have consequences.

If you have children and run into this new toy policy, when they ask why there is no toy, you can use it as a way to teach them that voting is important, and they need to pay attention to what attitude the people that they are voting for have towards “We the People”.

 Such an Annoying Ad…

Posted by Lorren on June 13, 2011

I keep seeing this ad pop up on my Facebook sidebar:

“ARIZONA: HUGE companies are giving out free baby stuff to moms with baby’s aged 0-4 years. E-mail required. Limited supplies. Act now!”

Seriously? Baby’s? Baby’s what? Which baby?

I realize that this ad is probably just someone writing this out of their home, or at least I hope so. The horrendous grammar really annoys me. I’m okay with really bad grammar or spelling mistakes in a message board post, but I know that someone is paying money to send me this ad day after day. You would think that if the author knew that they didn’t know much about grammar, that they would at least have a friend look at it? Perhaps not.

 I Stand With Israel

Posted by Lorren on May 20, 2011

I spent most of the day away from the news today. I had school to teach, then I made dinner, went to church, and was asked to visit a friend. When I did sit down to catch up on the day’s events, I found out that Barack Obama announced that he believes that Israel should go back to their pre-1967 borders. These borders would exclude places like the Garden of Gethsemene, Jesus’s tomb, and other sites that are important to Christianity – not to mention that it would leave Israel virtually indefensible.

I need to be clear here: I know that some nutjob says that the rapture is going to occur in two days, but he’s wrong: the Bible says that no man will know the day nor the hour of the rapture, and if it was on that day, that would make God a liar (I have a longer article on May 21 at Associated Content); however, the events described in the book of Revelation are near. I have a video that I need to review in the next day or so – it’s amazing, I’ve been a student of the end times for 15 years or so, but I still need to review the specifics every now and then. The events described in the Bible are being set up today.

The other thing that I think that it is important to point out is that God will not abandon Israel. Obama may think that he’s stamping out colonialism, but he’s really spitting in the face of God. God will not let the Jews be wiped out. In the book of Esther, the king signed a decree allowing people to wipe out the Jews on a certain day. Mordecai, Esther’s cousin, asked Esther to speak to the king, her husband, on behalf of her people. Esther was afraid to approach the king, because doing so uninvited could result in her death. Mordecai’s response was that she needed to speak up; if she didn’t tell anybody that she was a Jew, she would not escape unharmed. He added “For if you remain completely silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish.” (Esther 4:14)

Those words ring true today. We cannot remain silent. I’m certainly no Esther. God has not called me to be a princess; I’m not famous or powerful. The only thing that I do have is this small voice. I will what little I can. I will warn the few people that will hear. God will deliver the Jewish people. The Arabs may look like they have the upper hand, but anybody that opposed God is a fool. Just like God delivered the Jews in Esther’s day, he will deliver the Jews in our time. We can either be for them, and God might spare us, or we can be against them — if you are against them, and you do not feel the repercussions in this life, be sure that you will receive them in the eternity to come. Even if you are saved and on your way to Heaven, you are not off the hook. Even Christians will gain or lose rewards based on what they do in this life.

I stand with Israel. I trust that God will protect them, even if he has to rain down a miracle to do so. I expect to have more on this in the future, after I look more into the subject. It may be in the form of an article; but I’ll post a link here.

 It’s Funny What You Remember…

Posted by Lorren on

I like the movie Forrest Gump. Towards the beginning of the movie, he remarks that “It’s funny what you remember…” He doesn’t remember being born, but he remembers his first pair of shoes. The saying is true though.

May 18 was the anniversary of the Mount Saint Helens Eruption. Now, my mom remembers the eruption as the day that we were pouring our sidewalks outside of our house. I do remember pouring the sidewalks, but I don’t remember the eruption on that day. We did pour the sidewalk that day; it was written in the cement.

What I remember was coming back from school after a field trip to Seattle with my Kindergarten class. We were at my Aunt Kathy’s house, and she mentioned that Mount Saint Helens erupted that day. When I told that story to my mom before, she reminded me that we poured the sidewalks that day.

Not so fast. While the big eruption occurred on May 18, there were some smaller eruptions that occurred prior to the big one. One of those occurred on May 7th. That day was a Wednesday. The eruption that I remember occurred in the beginning of May. That is the eruption that I remember.

Five year olds don’t pay attention to big events in the news. On May 18, the highlight of my day was pouring the sidewalks in our front yard. On May 7, going to Seattle was a big deal, but for some reason, my Aunt’s announcement also became attached to the memory of that field trip.

It’s funny what you can remember.