America is the only nation in the world that is founded on a creed. That creed is set forth with dogmatic and even theological lucidity in the Declaration of Independence;

G.K. Chesterton, What I Saw in America

Yay!

On December 5 and 20, fum, fum, fum!

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Fum \Fum\, v. i.
     To play upon a fiddle. [Obs.]
     [1913 Webster]

           Follow me, and fum as you go.            --B. Jonson.
     [1913 Webster]

From The Jargon File (version 4.4.7, 29 Dec 2003) [jargon]:

  fum
   n.

      [XEROX PARC] At PARC, often the third of the standard {metasyntactic
      variable}s (after {foo} and {bar}). Competes with {baz}, which is more
      common outside PARC.

Am I awake a world of miracles?

Let others complain that the age is wicked; my complaint is that it is wretched; for it lacks passion.

Kierkegaard

Madness does not come by breaking out, but by giving in; by settling down in some dirty, little, self-repeating circle of ideas; by being tamed.

Innocent Smith, in Manalive by G.K. Chesterton

If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God

1 Corinthians 3:18-19

What was wonderful about childhood is that anything in it was a wonder. It was not merely a world full of miracles; it was a miraculous world.

G.K. Chesterton

Men are that they might have joy

2 Nephi 2:25

The whole order of things is as outrageous as any miracle which could presume to violate it.

G.K. Chesterton

All things denote there is a God

Alma 30:44

What a great reminder. I am to be awake to the glories around me. All is animated by the love and wisdom of God. The sacrifice of Jesus Christ enables my rejoicing in the reality that nothing is to be held back. All that the Father hath, He offers. What a gift! What an existence! What a future potential!

Inspired by Living in a World of Declawed Souls

The options today as they ever were, observed by Washington.

It appears to me there is an option still left to the United States of America; that is in their choice and depends upon their conduct, whether they will be respectable and prosperous or contemptible and miserable as a nation.

George Washington

How we interpret history determines how we interpret life.

The interpretation that one makes of history determines to a large degree the direction of one's life. No one can escape history, and no one can avoid interpretation.

William H. Amstrong, in "Study is Hard Work"

Bugs? Impossible!

Fred: A glitch? No, that's not possible. I programmed it myself. It's perfect.

Mars team: Not exactly. Your program keeps miscalculating our orbital entry trajectories. Here's the data.

Fred: Well there's the problem. Gary's been running his hone and transfer equations to include gravitational effect, bearing as the inverse cube of the distance.

Mars team: I'm a decorated astronaut. I don't make those kind of mistakes!

Fred: Well, now wait a minute. I'll show you. I'll add to the same calculations, using what we like to call "the right way"...

Fred, Rocketman movie

Sweet swirlin onion rings...

It reminds me of a French Canadian... Tennis racket stuck to the back of a... Bubbling out of my sister's... Brazilian Donkey. I don't think I can make myself any clearer.

Fred, Rocketman movie

Scenario: Create digital composition with photo and text, print as a photo at Walmart for about $0.15/card. Get the print back from Walmart and run the photo through a home printer to put text on the back and make it a card.

Consider: It's fun to make things by yourself. There are challenges to solve. $.15/photo vs. $.55/ea. for a front/back Christmas postcard at Walmart. $0.35/ea difference isn't much to have them handle a good piece of this process. There goes the fun... and the challenges... and the growth. Wait, that $.35 is mine! And the experience!

Problem 1: First print after changing to 4x6 paper orientation, printed with card top on right side of input paper. Afterward, showed the 4x6 in landscape preview, text still fitting. It printed the card top on the left hand side of the paper for the rest of the time.

Solution: Pay attention to print preview orientation. If portrait, prints top on right side. If landscape, prints top on left side. Feed photo into printer accordingly.

Problem 2: Too much ink. It smears. It's too heavy, gets blurry.

Solution: Use Courier New, as lightest font. Use Printer Media - Glossy Paper. Use Printer Quality - Best.

Problem 3: When printing the back of the card, the last little bit will shift the card in the printer, smearing and offset-printing the last few columns of text.

Solution: Make the right-hand margin bigger (about 2 in total) so that it's not trying to print that close to that edge of the paper.

Final fun suggestion: Use mail merge and print the names and addresses of your Christmas correspondents on the envelopes. Fun and efficient.

I'm grateful for the ideals of self government. Our Creator has endowed each of us with the desire to be free, as so we should be. Free to serve Him.

"The issue today is the same as it has been throughout all history, whether man shall be allowed to govern himself or be ruled by a small elite"

Thomas Jefferson