horace_ling's Xanga

24 Hour Prayer at BCEC March 6-7, 2009

Thu, 26 Feb 2009 13:26:24 GMT

I'm organizing a 24 hour prayer event at BCEC....check out our blog.

The Bird (by MNL)

Thu, 12 Feb 2009 09:51:57 GMT

The Bird

A bird sits down on a garden wall,

standing poised, straight and tall.

It looks as if to say,

"Don't you welcome the warm Spring day?"

Down in the heart of Winter

There is Spring.

Yesterday the temperature reached almost 60 degrees, so Matthias wrote these two poems. Actually he wrote a third poem, but that was about the crusades and much more violent...so we won't share that one

Spring by MNL

Thu, 12 Feb 2009 09:47:14 GMT

Spring

Little one, never fear.

You know that Spring is near.

Think of the roses bright and red.

Think of the birds flying overhead.

Yet it is time for your hearts to burn bright,

to welcome in the April light.

Yes Spring is near little one, spring is near.

Friday, January 30, 2009

Fri, 30 Jan 2009 19:30:18 GMT

Here's a video from where I work - some of you may be wondering what I do....

Sunday, January 25, 2009

Sun, 25 Jan 2009 00:29:58 GMT

Continued from the last post...

His protection gone and killed, FireEye hid himself in a large burrow. Years passed. Fire Eye grew to be a large juvenile. he loved soaring over moantains,back again, and down. But what he liked most of all was to hunt.He had carefully marked out his hunting grounds and patrolled them every day to make sure that no dragon was in his territory.Autum came. leaves whirled down from the trees and Fire Eye loved batting them back into the air again. He never forgot the day his Mother died. He would avenger her death. Somehow he knew his revenge would come, and it would.

The next morning Fire Eye went out to hunt. He noticed distinct prints in the ground and charred trees. That was all he needed to assume that Dark Shadow himself had hunted in his territory. Star flew over the border of his hunting ground into other dragon's hunting grounds to tell them about the prints. "Dark Shadow is attacking our hunting grounds" he roard as a warning. A cry of distress came from below. "I have an idea - combine hunting grounds then we may stand a chance of defense against this terrifying dragon". There was a murmur of consent "Good" said Star "Meet me under the willow tree tomorrow." On the way back to his hunting grounds he was stopped by Fire Eye. "If we combine hunting grounds, won't we be easier to spot from the air?" he asked. "We will post sentries to guard" said Star. There was no arguing. Star was a natrual leader. The dragons met under the willow trees. They made plans by drawing in the dirt. The dragons burned trees and piled them on the roots to slow Dark Shadow down. "What if Dark Shadow never comes?" said Brave Heart a large dragon. "Then we will go to him" roared Fire Eye. "We have lands to save and we will fight for them".

Fire Eye...the book

Sat, 17 Jan 2009 23:43:53 GMT

In my many travels to different lands, I met many interesting people. One of the most

interesting was a young boy named Nathaniel Glinn. Nathaniel has a very active

imagination and is an avid writer. He's begun writing a fantasy novel called Fire Eye.

He's given me permission to put a few chapters a week of his book onto this blogg and

see what people think of his writing. I will intersperse my own blogging with his writing

and we'll see if it makes for good reading. Warning....his writing is unedited and he's

about 9-10 years old, so bear with us.....

Fire Eye

Prologue

Deep in a large crevice in the valley of the rocks, a baby dragon was born. His parents

named him Fire Eye, for he had the brightest red eye any dragon had seen. But,

nevertheless, he was a normal hatchling dragon. But little did he or his parents know that

one day he would fight in the largest battle in Shadowland against the ruthless dark

dragon Dark Shadow and his allied dragons.

Fire Eye looked around. Everything was a blur. He shook his head, causing him to come back

to his senses. He nibbled at a piece of egg shell. His mother was the first thing he saw.

She nuzzled him. He playfully rolled into a ball, rolling around the cave at a fast speed.

He was rolling when a shadow caught his eye. It was one of Dark Shadow's dragons. The

soldier came nearer, smoke billowing from his nostrils. His mother attacked the dragon.

The claws and teeth were clashing. Fire was everywhere. When the fighting stopped, Fire

Eye looked around. The other dragon was nowhere to be seen. His Mother was dead.

To be continued....

Friday, January 09, 2009

Fri, 09 Jan 2009 01:59:09 GMT

THE YEAR 1908

This will boggle your mind, I know it did mine!?

The year is 1908.?

One hundred years ago.?

What a difference a century makes!?

Here are some statistics for the Year 1908 :

************ ********* ********* ******

The average life expectancy was 47 years.

Only 14 percent of the homes had a bathtub.??eeeeewww!?

Only 8 percent of the homes had a telephone.

There were only 8,000 cars and only 144 miles

Of paved roads.

The maximum speed limit in most cities was 10 mph.??still beats?today.?

The tallest structure in the world was the Eiffel Tower

The average wage in 1908 was 22 cents per hour.

The average worker made between $200 and $400 per year .

A competent accountant could expect to earn $2000 per year,?

A dentist $2,500 per year, a veterinarian between $1,500 and $4,000 per year, and a mechanical engineer about $5,000 per year.

More than 95 percent of all births took place at HOME .

Ninety percent of all doctors had NO COLLEGE EDUCATION!

Instead, they attended so-called medical schools, many of which

Were condemned in the press AND the government as 'substandard. '

Sugar cost four cents a pound.

Eggs were fourteen cents a dozen.

Coffee was fifteen cents a pound.

Most women only washed their hair once a month, and used

Borax or egg yolks for shampoo.

Canada passed a law that prohibited poor people from

Entering into their country for any reason.

Five leading causes of death were:

1. Pneumonia and influenza?

2. Tuberculosis?

3. Diarrhoea?

4. Heart disease?

5. Stroke

?wow no cancer?

?The American flag had 45 stars.

The population of Las Vegas , Nevada, was only 30!!!!

Crossword puzzles, canned beer, and ice tea

Hadn't been invented yet.

There was no Mother's Day or Father's Day.

Two out of every 10 adults couldn't read or write.

Only 6 percent of all Americans had graduated from high school.

Marijuana, heroin, and morphine were all available over the counter at the local corner drugstores. Back then pharmacists said, 'Heroin clears the complexion, gives buoyancy to the mind,regulates the stomach and bowels, and is, in fact, a perfect guardian of health.' ( Shocking? DUH! )

Eighteen percent of households had at least

One full-time servant or domestic help.

There were about 230 reported murders in the ENTIRE ! U.S.A. !

Now I forwarded this from someone else without typing

It myself, and sent it to you and others all over Canada?& U.S.A

Possibly the world, in a matter of seconds!

Try to imagine what it may be like in another 100 years.

IT STAGGERS THE MIND, EH??

We invade Harvard for the Christmas Party

Wed, 24 Dec 2008 03:07:59 GMT

Well even with the economic slow down the Kennedy School threw a nice Christmas party. No alcohol, but plenty of soft drinks, passed hors deurves. I think we were the only family that brought kids and parents to the party. Here I am with Vivian's parents. There were actually some Chinese speakers at the party too so they had a chance to talk with some people. The kids fell asleep in the car on the way there and were a bit 'dazed' at the party. Actually all the kids that I saw at the beginning of the party were kind of lifeless at the start, but as with most kids, once they meet each other and start socializing and running around, they have a great time. It just takes a warm up period.

Here's Vivian with Amory and a new friend ( a colleagues daughter). I like parties. Not only a fun time, but also a good time to find people you normally can't get in touch with and I find you get more 'work' done at a party than at two or three meetings. There's a saying that I like - never have a meeting without food and never have food without a meeting. This party started at 4 and went to 6. We were among the last to leave.

I decorated my office with some Christmas lights that we happened to find in a filing cabinet. I like it - it is a bit different from the other offices in our area, which are sparsely decorated.

As you get older, you get more and more 'trophies' the items hanging on the walls are all trophies from previous jobs and existences - mostly from my Air Force positions. Also a couple of Matthias' "works". Normally we don't even turn on the florecent lights and work in the light of the Christmas lights.

James Baker Uncensored and off the record...well it's in a book

Wed, 17 Dec 2008 13:21:35 GMT

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to hear James Baker, former Secretary of State, Secretary of Treasury and Chief of Staff for several past Presidents. He ran 5 presidential elections and won 3. Also Chaired the Iraq study group and was in charge of the Bush side of the 2000 election recount in Florida. He was a very engaging speaker and hit on a range of issues from what to do with the financial crisis to what is happening in Iraq. The most interesting thing that he talked about was some of the anecdotes from his relationships with various presidents.

Here's my paraphrase of one of the humorous things he shared - he said that this is in his book. Reagan had a very quick wit and when he had just been elected president, one of the first places Reagan visited was the UK and Baker was trying to think of a way for the president to meet the queen and make it a nice photo op for the press. So they settled in on horse back riding since Reagan had a ranch with horses and the queen had a stable and was also interested in riding. So after the big photo op with all the press and photographers taking pictures the queen and president and the entourage went riding through the grounds of Windsor Castle, with the Queen leading the way and President Reagan right behind. After a little while, the Queen's horse let out a huge fart that was loud and long and President Reagan was right behind. She turned and said - "I'm sorry Mr. President", to which Reagan quipped - "Your Majesty, I thought that was the horse."

Pretty funny. He also said that the president elect called him within a week of the election to talk about foriegn policy and Iraq. I thought that was a good sign that a democrat was calling a republican to talk about important issues of the day.

Cancun Vacation

Fri, 12 Dec 2008 05:58:48 GMT

We took a week vacation just before Thanksgiving...seems like a long time ago. Cancun the week before Thanksgiving is a good deal because with 20,000 rooms and few tourists that week every hotel is seeking to fill space. We got tickets and hotel for $425 pp - for the 4 star Marriott Casa Magna hotel. We enjoyed the 80 degree temperature and went to beach just about everyday. Took an excursion into town and bought as much food as we could carry...actually a little more than we could carry. We had to make Amory walk and put stuff in the stroller.... We also rented a car and drove down the 'Mayan Riviera' to Tulum, which is the site of some Mayan archeological ruins situated right on the coast. Beautiful scenery. The turqoise water makes me think about the trip we took to Australia at the end of 2005. We spent a few hours there and the big attraction for the kids were the iguanas that seemed to be lurking under bushes every few hundred feet. Large ones about 3 feet long would be sitting right next to the path motionless. Since they are so well camoflaged you don't realized they are there until you almost walk on top of them. The kids seem to be able to see them much more easily than adults. They look more dangerous than they are. I don't think they would bite you unless you threatened them. Unfortunately, both kids got sick during the trip and we were somewhat curtailed in what we could do, so we took this trip at the last day we were in Cancun. We squeezed just about every minute out of this vacation - leaving Boston at 5:45 AM and arriving at the beach at around 11AM local time. The beach there is not really that swimable, with strong currents and large rocks. I saw one woman who was knocked off her feet on the beach, and I was actually knocked over a couple of times. The kids had a great time digging and throwing sand in the water. Amory says she wants to emigrate to Mexico. She says it's because you just have to go down the elevator to go to the beach. It definitely pays to speak a little Spanish, although just about everyone in the tourist zone speaks English. The last night after our trip to Tulum, we went to a restaurant called Pericos, which has a sort of ongoing variety show while you enjoy the food. It was very touristy, but lots of fun too. The think that was a bit disturbing was that they had a bunch of Midgets (small people) who were walking around the restaurant - kind of like a circus. They were dressed in strange costumes and you wonder if the restaurant is exploiting them. Then again they may not be able to find work elsewhere too. All in all a very fun and interesting vacation.