10 December, 2006

Kyle and Irina's wedding pictures

IMG_8211

Saturday I attended my friends' wedding. 430pm ceremony in downtown Moscow "Central Baptist Church." The preacher performing the ceremony was Oleg Shevkun, who was translator at Moscow Bible Church for Ronnie Stevens in the early to mid 90s. Kyle the Texan married Irina the Volgogradan. (Volgograd was previously named Stalingrad in Soviet times and was the center of action in the recent sniper-vs-sniper movie, "Enemy At The Gates" with Jude Law and Ed Harris. Volgograd features this famous Soviet statue, The Motherland Calls. )

It was a lovely ceremony and I got a high perch so I could look down on all the action. There were already several ground level paparazzi so I ventured up top for the bird's eye view. Enjoy the slideshow!

07 December, 2006

Scary 'Mary Poppins' Trailer

this is what YouTube has come to! hosting Scary Poppins! too funny!

30 November, 2006

Why I didn't vote this year...

It would have been nice to vote in my country's election this year. I did not abstain from voting or stay home because I did not want to make a choice. I think that's for sissies who don't want to make a difference for the future of my country. It was yet something else. I did not receive my absentee ballot in time. It was post-marked September 19. It arrived to Russia on October 9. It hit my post box on November 13, a full-week after the election! Oh well, I don't think my vote would have mattered considering the margin of difference was about 10 million...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_House_election,_2006

18 November, 2006

Google world takeover conspiracies

Google just introduced the ability to connect you to local businesses on the phone. To do this, you look for a business using Google Maps and then you find the one nearest you and click the call button. After entering your phone number, they call you and connect you to the business. Sounds great especially since they are the ones paying for the long distance charges.

But this is where I think it could go: pre-call advertising. Google exists to sell ads and having a person on the phone before a phone call is a whole new audience! Before being connected to the local "Google map-dialed florist" in your area, you could hear ads from other florists. And they will already know your Google maps search history so they can target their pre-call audio ads even better.

Sound interesting? They have already been buying blocks of print ads in newspapers, selling space in those blocks to the highest bidder.They are doing the same thing with radio ads. They also are working on technology to recognize a song or a movie based on a partial audio clip of that piece. Imagine recording audio clips of your voice, analyzing them for content, and using that to target ads on the abovementioned Google map phone calls ads. Combining their ad-generating genius with old media (news, radio) and new media (web), who knows where it will end? They sky's the limit for them!

Disclaimer: I am a Google fanboy. I love their innovation and that they keep other businesses on their toes. They have the capital to pull it off and are making the industry think better and faster about how things are done. They think outside the box and it is paying off for them. Now I only wish I had bought some of their stock when it went public...

24 September, 2006

Granny was 102!

Granny-portrait

On September 1, my 102 year old Grandmother went home to be with the Lord. Here is her obiturary as given in the Jackson Clarion-Ledger newspaper on September 4, 2006:

Daisy C. Thompson

Jackson

Daisy Conerly Thompson, 102, passed away in Memphis, Tenn. at the home of her daughter on Friday, September 1, 2006. The funeral will be held on Tuesday, September 5, at 11:00 a.m., at St. Luke's United Methodist Church, 621 Duling Avenue, Jackson, with visitation at the church beginning at 10:00 a.m. Burial will follow at Lakewood Memorial Park.

Mrs. Thompson was born on April 16, 1904, in Knoxo, Mississippi, the youngest of three children of Herbert and Aletha Conerly. She was a graduate of what is now known as Copiah-Lincoln Community College in Wesson, Mississippi, where she perfected her skills in English and was a member of the basketball team. She moved to Jackson as a young woman and attended business school in preparation for her career. She was a secretary for the GM&O Railroad and served as a member of the Know Mississippi Better train tour in the western United States She met the love of her life, Herman 0. Thompson, at Capitol Street Methodist Church where they both sang in the choir, and they were married there on Sunday, June 30, 1935, in time to attend Sunday School and church that morning.

Mr. and Mrs. Thompson had four children, and after giving them her loving care and attention at home until they were all in school, she returned to the work force, serving first as business secretary for St. Luke's United Methodist Church, then as personal secretary to Mr. E.P. Rawson and the Mississippi State Department of Education, and finally as Executive Secretary/Receptionist/Dietician at the Mississippi Hospital School for Cerebral Palsy until her retirement which necessitated the hiring of three people to replace her.

She was a long-tine member of the Ladies' Bible Class at St. Luke's, and shared with her friends her love of flowers and gardening as a member of garden clubs She also enjoyed membership in the Opti-Mrs. Club. She offered active parental support to the schools her children attended: Duling Elementary, Bailey Junior High, Central High, and Murrah High School. As an avid sports fan, she always kept her television tuned to the best contest of the day, particularly in baseball and football. One of her best-loved activities was rooting for her children and grandchildren in their athletic endeavors, particularly Little League Baseball. She was very accomplished in sewing and needlework, and often took her knitting along with her to sporting events to "help keep her occupied". She won numerous blue ribbons through the years for her submissions to the Mississippi State Fair in crochet and knitting. She was known for her hospitality, good cooking, and her inimitable gift for making pecan pies and shrimp gumbo.

Mrs. Thompson was the consummate wife, mother, mother-in-law, grandmother, great-grandmother, sister, aunt, great-aunt, cousin, and friend to many. She lived her faith everyday and was indeed "the wife and mother of noble character (Proverbs 31:10-31).

She was preceded in death by her beloved husband, Herman 0. Thompson, her parents, her brother and sister, and her daughters-in-law, Betty Davis Thompson and Onnie Guarnieri Thompson, and her son-in-law, John L. Lipscomb. Her survivors include her son, Herman 0. Thompson, Jr., and his daughters Sheila Thompson Weaver, Isabelle Thompson Brisendine, and Heather Thompson Orozco and their families; her daughter, Colleen Thompson Lipscomb and her children Pam Lipscomb Holler. John Lipscomb, Michael Lipscomb, and Daisy Lipscomb Hamm and their families; her son Richard C. (Dick) Thompson and his sons, Scot Thompson and Brett Thompson; and her son Clifford C. Thompson and his wife Cheryl, and their children Ted Thompson, Jim Thompson, Ben Thompson, and Nan Thompson Katsaboulas. In addition to her thirteen grandchildren, she is survived by fourteen great-grandchildren and numerous nieces and nephews. She also leaves behind two dearly loved sisters-in-law, Mrs. Norine (Nena) Thames of Jackson and Mrs. Isabelle Parker of Natchez.

Memorials may be made to Campus Crusade for Christ and mailed to Campus Crusade for Christ International, 100 Lake Hart Drive, Orlando, FL 32832, in the name of her grandson, Michael Conerly Lipscomb, staff account number: 6209551, who is in the Lord's service in Russia.


12 July, 2006

Facebook me!

The Facebook. A Facebook? I'm not quite sure what all the hubbub is over this site. It's seems like a nice, polite Myspace.com. It connects people. Well, the group I am in already socially connects many different people all the time. In person! Just what I need. Another site to waste time on. I already waste enough time as it is with Flickr. If there was a button that added all the friends of my friends, the machine would overload. Not because I have a lot of friends but because my friends do! And what if you add some people but not others? Do they feel slighted because they are not a facebook friend? Does Facebook have a blog so I can just blog there from now on? And a Flickr site? What I want is a Flick-Blog-Book that does it all. So I don't have to keep goofing around on all these different sites.

Here's the Whoops of the year award: at one point, some major company [whom I have forgotten] was in the market to buy facebook but balked. Now it's probably worth up to 2 billion. Supposedly, now Google is in the market to buy Facebook. Hmmm, getting juicier. All this to compete with Myspace. Egads, what a horrible site THAT is.

I just can't wait until Eric R. joins up! Once he starts networking, it'll connect me to like 4500 other people. And that's a conservative, 6-degrees of Kevin Bacon estimate.

Oh well.... Facebook me!

27 June, 2006

Snakes on a Plane

Without a doubt, this has to be the best movie title I have heard in a long time. I do not fear snakes nor planes. But combining the two, I think I could be frightened. Of laughing to death, that is.

http://www.movie-list.com/trailers.php?id=snakesonaplane

When I was growing up, I had to encounters with the reptiles. My first snakey time which I remember involved some old dude who must have lived/worked nearby our house. I think he worked for the local cement factory which ground up rocks excavated from a nearby mountaintop. He had caught some rattlesnakes and put them in a 55 gallon drum. My Dad and he did a little show and tell. That was about all my 5 year old brain needed.

My second snakey situation involved the TV. I think I was sick with the flu or something I remember watching some movie on TV. I think it involved a Charles Bronson prsion break or the EMT show Emergency. Anyhoo, this helicopter pilot was flying around and this giant snake was onboard and got him. I don't remember if Sir Hiss crashed or flew the helicopter after that. Maybe it was just a delirious dream. I do remember being scared though and I think the chopper pilot was sweating up a storm.

Just to make fun of it all, the 21st century welcomes our new blog buddy:

http://www.snakesonablog.com/

I hope you waste as much time as I did enjoying the trailers and collection of celluloid, reptilian drivel that I do.
 
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