Animal Channels

Post contributed by Josue Durham
I can't believe all the science channels that are on our Direct tv. My son loves all the animal shows that teach all about some exotic animal. He goes around telling everyone all these random facts about some bat that lives in Africa and how it decides what to eat on how it smells. My favorite was this show my husband and I watched the other night about how the mind works. It was an interactive show where you got to actually test what they were teaching you. They had these dancers on a stage and we were told to focus on there feet and count the number of times their feet stepped in the circles that were on the floor. My husband and I were determine we would be able to focus and count the correct number of times. At the end of the dance, we had counting correctly and we were patting ourselves on the back proud of how attentive we are to details. Then the host said, “you may have counted correctly, but did you notice the giant panda bear that walked across the stage?”. What! There is no way that we missed that detail! Then they played it back and plain as day a giant panda walked across the stage! We had totally missed it because we were so focused on the dancers' feet.

Everything's Bigger

Authored by Raymond WhitneyMy husband and I started a woodworking business last year in Houston and have been busting it to make the big time ever since. Well, not the big time. Is there even a “big time” in woodworking..? We’re just trying to pay our bills. It has been a tough road, but we have finally graduated from a table saw in the dining room to having our own – albeit teeny – shop downtown. We thought we needed a place to show and sell our works since few people were being exposed to the finished products except at art shows. So, we got a real estate agent, found a place, tried to shopelectricityratestexas.com for the best prices since we use LOTS of electricity running power tools, and made the move to finally rid our apartment of saws, drills, and wood glue. It was the best decision we could have made. We have more foot traffic in one day’s work than we had in a month’s worth of craft fairs. People are finally asking for our pieces by name. It’s true what they say, all things – even businesses– are bigger in Texas!

The Hindu Kush.

This is the poem that hubby wrote when he was in Afghanistan. I thought I would share it here.

The Hindu Kush

Hoplites, Tommys, Cossacks, soldiers all,
And now us; our boots, our sweat, our blood, our tears
Challenged the landscape of the Hindu Kush
A century now, perhaps two
Others will come, soldiers all
To harden their youth
And the wind will call in spring,
down from the mountains of the Hindu Kush.

Hard grubbed sparkles;
Rubies, emeralds, sapphires, tourmaline's.
Beneath the solders path now silent of booted echo
Mountains, eternal so
Commenting not on a transit soul
Jealous land, hard bitten and hard bite
Burns bright in summer time,
wind, hot, dry breath
down from the mountains of the Hindu Kush.

Cool winds hint of autumns change.
Flash of fire, echoed thunder not of natures work.
Medics call, tender hands lift broken friends.
Soft cries from those still living.
Carried by the winds from the mountains of the Hindu Kush.

A helicopter came,
The commander’s solitary walk to greet his soldiers.
We in formation, attention, others standing, pausing in the days work,
Just this morning time, my wish, this day to hurry to its end.
Engines shut down , now quiet.
No worries about time coming home from those mountains.
They left the helicopter one by one, carried by their comrades and place upon a flag draped truck.
Quiet.
Except for the wind that comes down in winter from the mountains called the Hindu Kush.


K.W. Pearce 2006/2010

Walking.

It has been awhile since we start walking as one of our healthy family habits. It seems our day would not be complete without it, especially after a cold day. This is one thing that I thought will give us more fun time and bonding as a family. The children will ride their bicycles or scooter and we enjoyed the walking for 30 minutes to 1 hour. It's quite enough.

Daddy is always bringing some treats for the kids like; suckers, candies, water and such just in case one complains. . . you know how kids are, they are easily get tired and bored and with one bribe they will stop whining and keep going. The fun part though is when we stop by a lake and look and feed the ducks and enjoy the beautiful scene and the cool breezes that nature can offer. Along with the greetings of people you meet on the way makes you remember how beautiful life is.

Spring Cleaning

SPRING CLEANING 2011. Last Week I threw out worrying, it was getting old and in the way. It kept me from being me; I couldn't do things God's way. I threw out a book on MY PAST(Didn't have time to read it anyway). Replaced it with NEW GOALS, started reading it today. I threw out hate and bad memories,(Remember how I treasured them so)?Got me a NEW PHILOSOPHY too, threw out the one from long ago. Brought in some new books too, called I CAN, I WILL, and I MUST.Threw out I might, I think and I ought. WOW, you should've seen the dust..PRAYER, HOPE, FAITH and LOVE,Yes... I placed them right on the shelf.
I picked up this special thing and placed it at the front door.I FOUND IT- it's called PEACE. Nothing gets me down anymore.Yes, I've got my house looking nice.Looks good around the place.For things like Worry and Trouble there just isn't any space.It's good to do a little house cleaning,Get rid of the things on the shelf.It sure makes things brighter; maybe you should TRY IT YOURSELF.

BE BLESSED AND BE A BLESSING TO SOMEONE ELSE!!!!
May the Lord open the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing thatyou will not have room enough to receive it all.May the Lord bless you exceedingly abundantly above all you could everhope for. Keep the Faith!!!
Via-Email

Environmentally friendly office transition

Guest post written by Bryan Reeves

When I got the office memo (via email) that our office was finally going to start going green, I was really excited. Most office memos were still sent around on pieces of paper, which was really behind on the times, and I was glad to see that the email said that all memos were to be sent via email and not on paper from now on. At least that's one step in the right direction.

That got me thinking about all the other things that the office could to as a means to be green. While I was checking out some ideas online, I came across some green energy service plans, found one that would work for my home and decided to check it out.

I'm really l! ooking forward to see all the other adjustments that are going to be made at work to make it an environmentally friendly office. I'm expecting more rules about printing and limiting the use of disposable cups and silverware in the break room.

Binangkal Recipe.

It has been a while since I have made a binangkal. Yesterday, my friend came over and we have a great time. We ate lunch and we have a good conversation, remembering memories of our childhood days. It was fun reminiscing our old days when we played, using sticks and rocks.
A memories that we always treasured in our hearts.

Anyhow, we made a binangkal as our snack and we enjoyed every bite of it. A Filipino snack and
I can say it is one of the favorite pastries that we never forget. Yummy! I thought I would share the recipe here since most of my friends like binangkal(ChineseDoughnuts).
Have fun and enjoy.

Ingredients:

3 cups all purpose flour

1 cup sugar

1/4 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. baking soda

2 tsp. baking powder

3 tbsp. oil

1 egg.

1 cup milk (evap. milk)

1 cup sesame seeds

Oil for frying

Procedure:

- Sift all dry ingredients and put in a mixing bowl.

-Add the oil and rub the mixture with fingers.

-Add egg, milk and stir just until blended.

-Form into small balls and coat each with sesame seeds.

-Let stand for 15 minutes and fry in a deep fryer in a moderately hot oil , until golden brown.

-Remove from hot oil and drain on paper towel.

Ice Cream Cake.

Our internet connection was down all day, it seemed like it’s the end of the world. This is one of the technologies that you can’t live without. Luckily our TV is not dead, so I just watched a cooking show. It was a 30 minute meal show by Rachel Ray. I haven’t been watching her show for a long time and this episode interests me. Lately, I am in a mood for cooking, making a dessert, only if my family will eat. :-)

I love watching food network with my family, the only show that makes us sit in our comfy couch. Anyway, Rachel was on her way of making a dessert and it struck me. It was so easy and looks yummy. Her show gave me an idea of what dessert to make for our friend’s party on the next day . I did made one and it was out of this world.

Final Project

Guest post by Jewel Cole

My final project in my recent development class was to create a website from start to finish. It was actually a really practical application of all the knowledge we’d acquired since much of my professional work was sure to focus around developing websites for my clients. The first thing I did was research available hosting packages and domain names at www.networksolutions.com, then I got to work on the design. That was the fun part! I had Flash animation installed on the intro page which I knew was sure to impress. I set up the site with an e-commerce function, great if my fictional business had wanted to complete transactions online. I rounded the whole thing out with a blog page for the fictional owner t! o post updates – a nice touch! My teacher was thoroughly impressed at all the thought I’d put into the site and gave me a solid A. It was nice being rewarded for all the hard work I’d poured into my site at the end of the semester and I felt more ready than ever to venture out into the world as a web developer.

KUTSINTA RECIPE

It was one afternoon when I thought of making a dessert. KUTSINTA is one that comes up in my mind. This kind of dessert is one of the Filipino delicacies that is mostly eaten as a snack.

An easy recipe that makes you want more. My husband has tried it and I’m glad he likes it and also my kids. I put a little twist and modified the recipe as I always do in all my cooking.

You can eat with them with or without grated coconut on top. My husband and kids are not fond of coconut. They’ll eat theirs without grated coconut and it is still yummy. It is only depends on what you prefer but, the original Kutsinta has grated or shredded coconut on top.


½ cup all purpose flour.
½ cup rice flour.
1 cup brown sugar.
1 1/2 cup water.
½ cup evap milk. (optional)
½ tsp. melted butter.
½ tsp. vanilla.
1tsp. lye water.
Freshly grated coconut.

Cooking Direction:

-Mix all the dry ingredients in bowl. (except the grated coconut.)
-Slowly add the liquid to the flour mixture.
-Mix it well and make sure that the mixture is smooth and free of lumps.
-Pour into an individual molds, half full.
-Steam in a steamer and cook for 20-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
-Remove from the steamer and cool it down.
-Serve it with a freshly grated coconut.