I have a few domain names that I bought on behalf of other people and they no longer want, and I don’t want them. Leave a comment or send me an email if you’re interested in buying one (or all) of them.

• LegalCorruption.org
• Desire2Succeed.org
• ScrewBeingSingle.com
• Pirana0.com
• CentervilleCarWashDetail.com
• CentervilleCarWashOnline.com
• 1MoreRound4Britt.org
• NVMDayton.org
• bbTeesMore.com
• ISAP-INT.com

Admittedly, some of them are junk, but I think someone might find the first few useful, and hey, one man’s trash is another mans treasure, so who knows..

I’d also be willing to part with misticflame.com if someone really wants it…

Short Version:

I’ve noticed that several sites block the mailinator.com service, so I set up the dns for misticflame.com to point to mailinator for email. This means that if you send an email to anyaddress@misticflame.com, the email will appear in the inbox for anyaddress@mailinator.com.

Long Version:

If you’ve never heard of mailinator.com, it’s an awesome throwaway email service. When some business asks you to signup with with “a real email” and they send you an activation link to prove the email is real, what you do is give them a mailinator.com address instead of your own. Then you login to that address at mailinator.com (there’s no password) and click the link. After that you use the website without worrying about being spammed.

A few websites have caught on to this and started blocking mailinator.com email addresses. This is where my trick comes into play. I set the DNS for misticflame.com to send all website traffic to my web server, but send all email traffic to mailinator’s server. But the other sites can’t (easily) tell this.

So if you give them a misticflame.com address, you’re actually giving them a mailinator.com address, but they don’t know it ;)

This was in a recent CFF newsletter. This is what I’m expecting for Erin and I.

Made in Heaven

God made marriage for the believers.

A marriage where…

God is first
The Word lives
Christ leads and intercedes
Commitment unites
Love binds
Kindness thrives
Trust grows
Faithfulness abides
You want to come home
Touch is healing
Both seek to bless
Comfort is found
Courage is given
Peace keeps the heart
Truth endures
Joy bubbles
Patience abides
Hope brightens
Gentleness soothes
Compassion compels
The minds are renewing
Forgiveness abounds
Pain is eased away
Cares turn to prayers
Light hearts laugh
Leaning is allowed
God provides
Miracles are everyday normal

… is a marriage made in heaven.

By Marte Haggerty February 2007

Another good one from Rick Rohl:

A member of a certain church, who previously had been attending Services regularly, stopped going.

After a few weeks, the preacher decided to visit him.

It was a chilly evening. The preacher found the man at home alone, sitting before a blazing fire. Guessing the
reason for his preachers visit, the man welcomed him, led him to a comfortable chair near the fireplace and waited.

The preacher made himself at home but said nothing. In the grave silence, he contemplated the dance of the flames
around the burning logs . After some minutes, the preacher took the fire tongs, carefully picked up a brightly burning ember and placed it to one side of the hearth all alone then he sat back in his chair, still silent .

The host watched all this in quiet contemplation. As the one lone embers’ flame flickered and diminished, there was a momentary glow and then its fire was no more. Soon it was cold and dead. Not a word had been spoken since the initial greeting.

The preacher glanced at his watch and realized it was time to leave. He slowly stood up, picked up the cold, dead ember and placed it back in the middle of the fire. Immediately it began to glow, once more with the light and warmth of the burning coals around it.

As the preacher reached the door to leave, his host said with a tear running down his cheek, ‘Thank you so much for your visit and especially for the fiery sermon. I shall be back in church next Sunday.’

We live in a world today, which tries to say too much with too little.

Consequently, few listen.

Sometimes the best sermons are the ones left unspoken.

Be sure and read all the way to the bottom.

Three New Navy Ships

USS REAGAN

Seeing it next to the Arizona Memorial really puts its size into perspective…… ENORMOUS!

When the Bridge pipes ‘Man the Rail’ there is a lot of rail to man on this monster: shoulder to shoulder, around 4..5 acres. Her displacement is about 100,000 tons with full complement.

Capability

Top speed exceeds 30 knots, powered by two nuclear reactors
that can operate for more than 20 years without refueling

1. Expected to operate in the fleet for about 50 years
2. Carries over 80 combat aircraft
3. Three arresting cables can stop a 28-ton aircraft going 150 miles per hour in less than 400 feet

Size

1. Towers 20 stories above the waterline
2. 1092 feet long; nearly as long as the Empire State Building is tall
3. Flight deck covers 4.5 acres
4. 4 bronze propellers, each 21 feet across, weighing 66,200  pounds
5. 2 rudders, each 29 by 22 feet and weighing 50 tons
6. 4 high speed aircraft elevators, each over 4,000 square feet

Capacity

1. Home to about 6,000 Navy personnel;
2. Carries enough food and supplies to operate for 90 days
3. 18,150 meals served daily;
4. Distillation plants provide 400,000 gallons of fresh  water from sea water daily, enough for 2,000 homes
5. Nearly 30,000 light fixtures and 1,325 miles of cable and wiring 1,400 telephones
6. 14,000 pillowcases and 28,000 sheets
7. Costs the Navy approximately $250,000 per day for pier side operation
8. Costs the Navy approximately $25 million per day for underway operations (Sailor’s salaries included).

USS BILL CLINTON

The USS William Jefferson Clinton (CVS1) set sail today from its home port of Vancouver , BC .

The ship is the first of its kind in the Navy and is a standing legacy to President Bill Clinton ‘for his foresight in military budget cuts and his conduct while holding the (formerly dignified) office of President.

The ship is constructed nearly entirely from recycled aluminum and is completely solar powered with a top speed of 5 knots.

It boasts an arsenal comprised of one (unarmed) F14 Tom cat or one (unarmed) F18 Hornet aircraft which, although they cannot be launched on the 100 foot flight deck, form a very menacing presence.

As a standing order there are no firearms allowed on board.

This crew, like the crew aboard the USS Jimmy Carter, is specially trained to avoid conflicts and appease any and all enemies of the United States at all costs.

An onboard Type One DNC Universal Translator can send out messages of apology in any language to anyone who may find America offensive. The number of apologies are limitless and though some may seem hollow and disingenuous, the Navy advises all apologies will sound very sincere.

In times of conflict, the USS Clinton has orders to seek refuge in Canada .

USS  BARACK OBAMA

Don’t ask.

These two churches face each other across a busy street:

[Found in an email from Rick Rohl]

I’ll be 22 on Aug 1st. I don’t think I’ll be throwing a party, so I’m not really expecting all that much as far as presents go. BUUUUT if you wana get me something, I have a list in the works here:

http://nfriedly.backpackit.com/pub/997778

Cold Hard Cash is always acceptable too ;)

–

Side note, this is the first post I’m doing with the wordpress myspace crossposter plugin. instead of having to put up with myspace’s horrible formatting bs and let wordpress copy that, I now get to use wordpress and let the plugin deal with myspace.

(This is something I’ve wanted for about 2 years, so it’s a great birthday present!)

Update: The original author of the story, Michael Towers, contacted me to provide a corrected version of the story and let me know about his book which contains this and several other stories: Heart Touchers: Life-changing Stories Of Faith, Love, And Laughter

This first came to me in an email from Rick Rohl.

——

The Boys of Iwo Jima
(From the book: Heart Touchers “Life-Changing Stories of Faith, Love, and Laughter)

by Michael T. Powers

Each year my video production company is hired to go to Washington, D.C.
with the eighth grade class from Clinton, Wisconsin where I grew up, to
videotape their trip. I greatly enjoy visiting our nation’s capitol, and
each year I take some special memories back with me. This fall’s trip was
especially memorable.

On the last night of our trip, we stopped at the Iwo Jima memorial. This
memorial is the largest bronze statue in the world and depicts one of the
most famous photographs in history — that of the six brave men raising the
American flag at the top of Mount Surabachi on the Island of Iwo Jima, Japan
during WW II. Over one hundred students and chaperones piled off the buses
and headed towards the memorial. I noticed a solitary figure at the base of
the statue, and as I got closer he asked, “What’s your name and where are
you guys from?

I told him that my name was Michael Powers and that we were from Clinton,
Wisconsin.

“Hey, I’m a Cheesehead, too! Come gather around Cheeseheads, and I will
tell you a story.”

James Bradley just happened to be in Washington, D.C. to speak at the
memorial the following day. He was there that night to say good-night to his
dad, who had previously passed away, but whose image is part of the statue.
He was just about to leave when he saw the buses pull up. I videotaped him
as he spoke to us, and received his permission to share what he said from my
videotape. It is one thing to tour the incredible monuments filled with
history in Washington, D.C. but it is quite another to get the kind of
insight we received that night. When all had gathered around he reverently
began to speak. Here are his words from that night:

“My name is James Bradley and I’m from Antigo, Wisconsin. My dad is on that
statue, and I just wrote a book called Flags of Our Fathers which is #5 on
the New York Times Best Seller list right now. It is the story of the six
boys you see behind me. Six boys raised the flag. The first guy putting the
pole in the ground is Harlon Block. Harlon was an all-state football player.
He enlisted in the Marine Corps with all the senior members of his football
team. They were off to play another type of game, a game called “War.” But
it didn’t turn out to be a game.

Harlon, at the age of twenty-one, died with his intestines in his hands.
I don’t say that to gross you out; I say that because there are generals who
stand in front of this statue and talk about the glory of war. You guys need
to know that most of the boys in Iwo Jima were seventeen, eighteen, and
nineteen years old.

(He pointed to the statue)

You see this next guy? That’s Rene Gagnon from New Hampshire. If you took
Rene’s helmet off at the moment this photo was taken, and looked in the
webbing of that helmet, you would find a photograph. A photograph of his
girlfriend. Rene put that in there for protection, because he was scared. He
was eighteen years old. Boys won the battle of Iwo Jima.
Boys. Not old men.

The next guy here, the third guy in this tableau, was Sergeant Mike Strank.
Mike is my hero. He was the hero of all these guys. They called him the “old
man” because he was so old. He was already twenty-four.
When Mike would motivate his boys in training camp, he didn’t say, “Let’s go
kill the enemy” or “Let’s die for our country.” He knew he was talking to
little boys. Instead he would say, “You do what I say, and I’ll get you home
to your mothers.”

The last guy on this side of the statue is Ira Hayes, a Pima Indian from
Arizona. Ira Hayes walked off Iwo Jima. He went into the White House with my
dad. President Truman told him, “You’re a hero.” He told reporters, “How
can I feel like a hero when 250 of my buddies hit the island with me and
only twenty-seven of us walked off alive?”

So you take your class at school. 250 of you spending a year together having
fun, doing everything together. Then all 250 of you hit the beach, but only
twenty-seven of your classmates walk off alive. That was Ira Hayes. He had
images of horror in his mind. Ira Hayes died dead drunk, face down at the
age of thirty-two, ten years after this picture was taken.

The next guy, going around the statue, is Franklin Sousley from Hilltop,
Kentucky, a fun-lovin’ hillbilly boy. His best friend, who is now 70, told
me, “Yeah, you know, we took two cows up on the porch of the Hilltop General
Store. Then we strung wire across the stairs so the cows couldn’t get down.
Then we fed them Epson salts. Those cows crapped all night.”

Yes, he was a fun-lovin’ hillbilly boy. Franklin died on Iwo Jima at the age
of nineteen. When the telegram came to tell his mother that he was dead, it
went to the Hilltop General Store. A barefoot boy ran that telegram up to
his mother’s farm. The neighbors could hear her scream all night and into
the morning. The neighbors lived a quarter of a mile away.

The next guy, as we continue to go around the statue, is my dad, John
Bradley from Antigo, Wisconsin, where I was raised. My dad lived until 1994,
but he would never give interviews. When Walter Kronkite’s producers, or the
New York Times would call, we were trained as little kids to say, “No, I’m
sorry sir, my dad’s not here. He is in Canada fishing. No, there is no phone
there, sir. No, we don’t know when he is coming back.”

My dad never fished or even went to Canada. Usually he was sitting right
there at the table eating his Campbell’s soup, but we had to tell the press
that he was out fishing. He didn’t want to talk to the press. You see, my
dad didn’t see himself as a hero. Everyone thinks these guys are heroes,
’cause they are in a photo and a monument. My dad knew better.
He was a medic. John Bradley from Wisconsin was a caregiver. In Iwo Jima he
probably held over 200 boys as they died, and when boys died in Iwo Jima,
they writhed and screamed in pain.

When I was a little boy, my third grade teacher told me that my dad was a
hero. When I went home and told my dad that, he looked at me and said, “I
want you always to remember that the heroes of Iwo Jima are the guys who did
not come back. DID NOT come back.”

So that’s the story about six nice young boys. Three died on Iwo Jima, and
three came back as national heroes. Overall, 7000 boys died on Iwo Jima in
the worst battle in the history of the Marine Corps. My voice is giving out,
so I will end here. Thank you for your time.”

Suddenly the monument wasn’t just a big old piece of metal with a flag
sticking out of the top. It came to life before our eyes with the heartfelt
words of a son who did indeed have a father who was a hero.
Maybe not a hero in his own eyes, but a hero nonetheless.

Michael T. Powers
HeartTouchers@aol.com

Copyright © 2000 by Michael T. Powers

Write Michael and let him know your thoughts on this story!

Michael T. Powers, the founder of HeartTouchers.com and Heart4Teens.com, is
the youth minister at Faith Community Church in Janesville, Wisconsin. He is
happily married to his high school sweetheart Kristi and proud father of
three young rambunctious boys.

He is also an author with stories in 29 inspirational books including many
in the Chicken Soup for the Soul series and his own entitled: Heart Touchers
“Life-Changing Stories of Faith, Love, and Laughter.” To preview his book or
to join the thousands of world wide readers on his inspirational e-mail
list, visit: www.HeartTouchers.com

Most importantly, Michael believes that life is not about religion, but about a relationship — a relationship with Jesus Christ.

——

God Bless You and God Bless America

REMINDER: Everyday that you can wake up free, it’s going to be a great day.

PS . If you look at the statue very closely and count the number of “hands” raising the flag, there are 13. When the man who made the statue was asked why there were 13, he simply said the 13th hand was the hand of God.