Feast & Fast

Thank Omoikane It's Friday!

"Trump and Clinton? Are you freaking kidding me???"

Happy Birthday!

On July 29, 1958 Congress passed the National Aeronautics and Space Act, creating NASA as an independent executive agency dedicated to the peaceful application of space science.

As I was growing up in the early 1960s NASA fired my imagine through the Mercury and Gemini programs. Just as I was reaching maturity the Apollo program made it seem as if space travel would be an integral part of humanity's ultimate destiny.

"Well, those days are certainly over."

I'm not so sure they are...

Fasting and Prayer

Archbishop Georges Pontier, President of the Bishops' Conference of France, has designated today as a day of prayer and fasting to honor the memory of Fr. Jacques Hamel, the 86-year-old Catholic priest who was murdered by an Islamic terrorist as he celebrated Mass at Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray on July 26.

Dipping a Toe

"I'm awesome! Trust me."

Today is supposed to be the last day to accept Microsoft's "free" upgrade to Windows 10. My life experiences with Microsoft rollouts have not been stellar, so I have been resisting their daily nags ever since they began almost a year ago.




I finally decided to give the thing a try on my desktop system, a Hewlett-Packard Pavilion P6540f tower PC running an AMD Phenom II X4 830 quad core 64-bit processor with 8GB of RAM.

We'll see how it goes, but the desktop is not my primary computer, so my anxiety level is fairly low...

"That's good, now you can spend all your time worrying about the MLB trading deadline!"

Actually, I'm mulling some trade offers for a new wingman, so watch yourself...

Feast Day

St. Martha, by Giambettino Cignaroli

Today is the feast day of St. Martha of Bethany, one of the more significant women mentioned in the New Testament.

In particular, she witnessed the resurrection of her brother Lazarus, one of the most famous of the miracles Jesus performed. That miracle is recounted in John 11:1-44.

Martha also figures prominently in Luke 10:38-42, when Jesus visits her and her sister Mary in their home in Bethany. In that story she learns that the Word of God is more important than anything else.

Martha is the patron saint of cooks and servants.

Google Relationships^TM

From the droll comic strip Zits, by Jerry Scott and Jim Borgman, which you should read every day, as I do.

Until Next Time...

On July 29, 1966 Martina Mariea Schiff was born in Sharon, Kansas, a tiny town near the Oklahoma border. Martina developed an affinity for singing and performing at an early age. In 1988, she married studio engineer John McBride and the couple moved to Nashville to pursue their interest in musical careers.

John wound up becoming an engineer for country superstar Garth Brooks, and in 1991 Martina began opening concerts for Brooks after signing a record contract with RCA Nashville Records. Recording and performing as Martina McBride, her popularity with audiences took awhile to build, but her beautiful voice eventually broke through, and she would win CMA Female Vocalist of the Year honors four times, and ACM Top Female Vocalist three times. Her work has received 14 Grammy Award nominations.

McBride's 1995 album Wild Angels did not climb quite as high on the charts as her previous album, but it still received a platinum certification by RIAA, and it produced her first Billboard No. 1 Country Single, "Wild Angels."

At the time of the song's release, I was newly separated from my wife. The song's lyrics, which focus on a troubled relationship and the "wild angels" that the narrator believes are helping the couple stay together, resonated deeply with me.


In the end, though, even wild angels weren't enough in my case...

Today's send-off is the official music video of the song, from her VEVO channel. Enjoy...