Isn't patience the most amazing attribute and blessing? Being surrounded by patient people is one of the greatest blessings I have and I really do try to be patient myself. It is really interesting that patience is so closely related to charity and that charity is the most important of attributes! These remarks by Elder Robert C. Oaks of the Presidency of the Seventy are very insightfull.
The Book of Mormon provides insight into the relationship between patience and charity. Mormon, after pointing out that if a man "have not charity he is nothing; wherefore he must needs have charity," goes on to name the 13 elements of charity, or the pure love of Christ. I find it most interesting that 4 of the 13 elements of this must-have virtue relate to patience (see Moroni 7:44–45).
First, "charity suffereth long." That is what patience is all about. Charity "is not easily provoked" is another aspect of this quality, as is charity "beareth all things." And finally, charity "endureth all things" is certainly an expression of patience (Moroni 7:45). From these defining elements it is evident that without patience gracing our soul, we would be seriously lacking with respect to a Christlike character.
Next time something tests your patience - and if you're like me that is at least somewhat often - try to embrace patience which is one of the most important attributes that we can embody. To those people who show so much patience for me, thank you.
So I have been searching for a long time for a replacement for MSN Messenger and it now MSN Live Messenger. My issues with messenger? It is too big and bulky, it doesn't look nice (UI is bad), ads (I really hate these), and all the extra stuff that I don't need.
So I tried a few different alternatives such as GAIM, aMSN, and Instan-T Messenger, before I found an alternative that I liked. I should say that I found Kopete for Linux (that is the app I use in Linux) that is really nice but it doesn't work on Windows.
Gaim and aMSN both had pretty old looking UI's as well so I was not all for those. Instan-T was pretty good but file transfers had problems and I kept getting invitations from strange people.
Finally I thought about how much I used to like Google Talk when it first came out. I stopped using it because it didn't have file transfer capabilities and none of my friends used it. Bummer.
I recently heard that Google Talk had added file transfer support so I decided to look into it again and see if I could get my msn contacts in Google Talk. I'm happy to report that Google talks UI is even better than before. GTalk is small, simple and elegant in use. It is easy to configure and doesn't a ton of other stupid stuff like games. It is just a chat client that doesn't get in my way. I'm even happier to report that there is a way to get any chat protocols contacts in GTalk. Yeah!!!!
I have found this to be so cool that I decided to post the instructions here for everyone to use if they want some of the same things that I was looking for. I must warn you that it is not super easy. It is a little tricky but I think I have put together a pretty good little guide.
First of all, GTalk is based on the Jabber Open Source XML technology that is mainly used for instant messaging. So there are like a million different jabber clients that can be used for instant messaging. The problem is that many of the other IM clients use other languages or protocols or whatever - they just don't work together.
We need to use a transport sever that can convert the messages from one IM system to another. So using a transport sever we can now use any of the jabber applications for msn, yahoo, or whatever other type of messaging system we have friends on. Very cool!
So here is the hard part, we need to locate a transport sever for the sevice that we want to transport to google talk and then we need to configure it to work with google talk. This is a little more difficult because google talk does not have an interface to configure a transport. We have to use another jabber client to accomplish that step, but it isn't too hard.
So to get started, download and install both Google Talk, and Psi. So I did like Psi as well so if you end up liking that one I recommend it. Launch Google talk and login. So if you already have gmail accound then you already have a login and password for google talk. Otherwise you can set one up through google talk.
Now to configure Psi and set up the transport. Launch Psi and see the instructions here to configure it for use with google talk. A couple of the menus changed so let me know if you have any questions about that part.
Now to setup a transport. You need to decide how many you will need. For instance if you only have friends on msn, then you just need a msn tranport. If you have them on other systems such as yahoo then you will need another one to work with yahoo. This part will make or break you experince. These transports run on servers that anyone can set up. So some work better than others. You can set up your own if you want!! Here is a list of some available transport servers. I have tried a few and I have now found one that seems to work pretty well which I will share with you soon. More to come so stay tuned!!
So we have those one-piece plastic inserts for both of our upstairs bathrooms. I didn't think that I was heavy enough to actually crack the bottom of the tub but it has happened in our master bath. What is up with that! So here we are scrabbling to replace the plastic crap with a real tub, tile on the backsplash area and floor, and do some painting as well. If anyone would like to offer a hand, I could really use some help for some parts of this remodel. I'll be doing this over the thanksgiving weekend starting Friday. If anyone would like to help then drop me a line.
Much to our amazement, our son took his first steps today! We are so proud! Julie was conversing with her sister who said, "when is he going to start walking?" Julie thought to herself, "he still has a ways to go." Then Julie turned to look at Nate and he was walking towards her! Holy Cow! That is so amazing and we are so proud of him. He thinks that walking is super cool and he always smiles while doing it. Julie thinks that Nate was waiting for the perfect moment to show off. Can you believe that?
Today is election day. Remember to do your civic duty and go vote. Most candidates have webpages which makes it much easier to gather information on them. Some don't however and it is really frustrating!
Let's be sure not to vote for a democrat or a republican just because that is what we do. That doesn't work anymore and there is too much corruption on both sides. We must look at each candidate and make a specific decision based on their platform and value set; not on their party.
So you might be saying, "why is forwarding email using cc such a big deal"? Well it is a big deal and I'll tell you why. When you forward an email using cc your email address becomes part of a chain that will go from person to person for a very long time. Eventually that email may get to a person who is a dirtbag and may sell all the email addresses in the list to spammers!! Now if you don't care about getting tons of junk mail then you don't need to worry about this.
The big problem is that the sender of the mass email using CC is also exposing everybody else's email to the possible spammers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Whenever someone puts me on there forward list I promptly ask them to remove me from the list or to use BCC. There are some exceptions to this that I have adopted at my discretion but as a rule I remove myself from such lists. And, I also get no spam which makes my life very nice.
So as a public service announcement, !!!!!NEVER FORWARD EMAIL TO MULTIPLE RECIPIENTS WITHOUT USING BCC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It has been quite some time since I've written about Nate. I can't believe how quickly he can grow and how much he can learn from one day to the next. So what is he like these days? It is pretty strange but for 30 to 60 minutes at a time he actually likes to spend some time on his own. He needs to know that mom and dad are close by but he doesn't need as much interaction anymore. He has learned to wave hello and it is sooooo cute! He still loves to click his tongue by himself and when mom and dad do it too! Nate keeps turning more and more into a little boy instead of a baby. Now he just wants to keep playing instead of falling asleep. It is so cute to see him fight off sleep! He laughs and smiles like crazy!!!!! I always wonder what he is thinking and I want to talk to him soooo bad. He is my little boy and I love every second that I get to spend with him.
Have you ever heard anyone complain that Hollywood does not produce an good natured films? I have heard so many people complain about stuff like that. Anyway, I had heard a lot of good things about a film titled, Akeelah and the Bee. It has been in our blockbuster online queue for quite some time and finally came the other day. Well, all I can say is that Julie and I loved it. You must see this film.
Does anyone have a computer that they are not using any more? I'm looking for something to convert into a linux box and start messing around with that operating system. I eventually want to make my laptop dual-boot windows and linux but I need something to practice on before I do it to my own computer. Let me know.
So when I was a kid my dad told me that when the continents were all connected that it was called Gondwanaland. I thought that I was pretty cool and smart. Years later in elementary school the teacher asked what the name of the land mass was when all the continents were stuck together. I was so excited and I raised my hand and said, "Gondwanaland!" Much to my dismay the teacher said that was incorrect! All the kids laughed at me and I was really embarrassed. I mean let's face it, it does sort of sound funny! I was like no it's not! Anyway, I was troubled by that experience for some time.
So the other day Julie was doing her homework for one of her classes - Natural Disasters - and she said to me, have you ever heard of Gondwanaland. I was so excited when I heard her say that! So I asked her what it was and told her that I had definitely heard of it! So Gondwanaland is actually the name of the southern supercontinent after Pangea split. For your information the northern supercontinent was called Laurasia.
I was reading a post over at the Bad Astronomy Blog where Phil mentioned that some pretty cool developments have occurred in the area of dark matter and energy. He referenced a very good article on the new developments at the CosmicVariance site. It is pretty compelling and well explained.
It is a good thing this kid put goggles on his goat!!!! This kid is looking at the solar eclipse that the other side of the planet was blessed with today. That would have been soooo cooooool to see. Anyway, I just couldn't help sharing this picture with you guys. Enjoy!
Recently Julie and I were discussing what types of phrases we should stop using because we are too old to use them. This was really sad because I don’t want to change my vocabulary just because I’m old. This also sucks because it is a reminder that I am getting old!!
After church we had a family luncheon at Julie's parents' house. There was great conversation, excellent food, and a killer Pick-Up-Stick competition in which Elizabeth was the ultimate champion. Congratulations to her!
We have uploaded some pictures that were taken at the luncheon. You can navigate to them by following the Snow Family Photos Link in the sidebar or follow the link below to see a slideshow.
Julie took some really good pictures of the some of our nieces & nephews holding Nate. You have to check these out!!!