I feel so sorry for the Michael Jackson family. There has been so much publicity about how and why he died, not to mention his children. So much of it is speculation and what I term gossip. I cannot imagine what the family must be going through. Being grief stricken is enough.

Many would argue that Michael Jackson is a public figure, and therefore the public is entitled to know much more about his personal life and eccentricities. Of course, to a certain extent this is true, but it seems that people thrive in gossip and speculation.

I have to wonder how those in the news media and online gossipers would feel if their private life became a public matter. Perhaps I’m overly sensitive about such things having been the neighborhood victim of such gossip and speculation, myself. By now, in my case, the gossipers have moved on to something or someone juicier; but I can tell you it was not a pleasant feeling knowing that people were talking about me behind my back. I even had calls from friends who had not called me in a long time. Some expressed Christian caring and concern, but there were those who just wanted to know if what they had heard was true.

My prayers are with the Jackson family and especially Michael Jackson’s children. They are really the innocent victims of this malicious speculation. I’m reminded of what Scripture says about gossipers. Gossip is a sin.

Blessings.

It's been a rather full day for me. I went out for breakfast this morning which was a nice change. Even got in a walk afterward before the weather got too hot.

This afternoon, I began reading The Marble Mask by Archer Mayor. I've read several of Mr. Mayor's Joe Gunther mysteries and find them very enjoyable.

I also listened to the June, 2009 FS podcast from Freedom Scientific. It was most interesting as science fiction author Robert J. Sawyer was interviewed. The time just flew by.

This evening, I caught up on e-mail and read some news stories I've been wanting to get to.

There are rain clouds in the air, and the temperature is dropping rather quickly, so I hope that's not indicative of severe weather, and for me, a migraine headache. My migraines are very much influenced by barometric pressure.

In any case, I'm off to bed soon.

On Friday afternoon, June 26, 2009, comprehensive legislation to ensure that people with disabilities have access to Internet-based telecommunications and video programming technologies was reintroduced. The bill, the Twenty-first Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2009 (H.R. 3101), will:

require that mobile and other Internet-based telecommunications devices be fully hearing aid compatible, have accessible user interfaces, and offer people with disabilities use of a full range of text messaging and other popular services that are currently largely inaccessible;

provide people who are deaf-blind with vital but costly technologies they need to communicate electronically, establish a process for the provision of real-time text capability, and clarify existing relay-to-relay, Lifeline and Linkup service requirements to ensure their relevance to the real world communications needs of people with disabilities;

restore the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC's) modest video description rules and unambiguously establish the Commission's current and ongoing authority to expand such regulations, require emergency announcements and similar information to be accessible to people with disabilities through audible presentation of on-screen alerts, ensure that video programming offered via the Internet will be both captioned and described, and call for all devices that receive and playback video programming to employ accessible user interfaces and allow ready access to captioning and description; and

strengthen consumers' ability to enforce their rights to communications and video accessibility through the establishment of a clearinghouse of information about service and equipment accessibility and usability, a meaningful FCC complaint process that holds industry accountable for their accessibility obligations, and judicial review of FCC action to ensure the Commission's own accountability.

I believe that this legislation is of monumental importants to people with print, learning and hearing disabilities, as well as the elderly. I encourage everyone to contact their Congressional Representative and encourage them to consider cosponsoring this legislative effort and to support its passage.

I know that there are some tough economic choices that have to be made. There is no doubt that this legislation is costly, but I believe it is necessary to provide greater inclusion of people with disabilities into the mainstream of society, especially as it relates to access to information and the use of technology.

The American Council of the Blind joined with the National Federation of the Blind by filing suit against Arizona State University in Federal Court, seeking to

overturn the institution's intention to require students to use Kindle DX e-book reader produced by Amazon.com to access class materials, if the program takes effect as planned in the fall of 2009.



The Kindle DX e-book reader produced by Amazon.com, is not a fully accessible e-book reader, and, as a result, blind or visually impaired students would not be able to access content independently, in the same way as their sighted peers.



The complain alleges that this is a violation of both Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 as amended, and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).



I'm very happy that ACB and NFB are joining forces to deal with this matter. It's great to see the two organizations representing people who are blind and visually impaired on the same page.



Although accessibility has made great strides in recent years, due to accessible technology, we still have a long way to go … but this joint effort on the part of ACB and NFB is another step forward for people who are blind or visually impaired. Way to go. *smile*

I am reading a fascinating book … Once Upon a Time: Behind the Fairy Tale of Princess Grace and Prince Rainier, by Randy Taraborrelli.

It’s very enlightening; certainly not a fairytale depiction of glamour and love at first sight.

Princess Grace, in my opinion, was an extraordinary woman, just as I believe Princess Diana was. I think one has to be extraordinary to live and survive in that kind of life circumstance.

It’s so easy to imagine that everything would be wonderful, glamour, sophistication, no financial or day-to-day concerns; but I don’t think the reality is anything glamorous.

Blessings.

For anyone using versions 10 of JAWS screen reading software, there is a new update available which was released yesterday.

I’m now reading The Inn at Eagle Point by Sherryl Woods, and am enjoying it.

We’re getting some rain, and there is a tornado watch in effect. Not much happening other than that. It’s Tuesday, so am looking forward to my Taco fix from Taco John’s.

Hello again.
I haven’t posted to this journal for many months. Much has been happening that I cannot write about.

My last entry concerned the Democratic National Convention last summer. Well, for the first time ever, I voted for a Republican presidential candidate. I shed many tears over this, and pray I am never mislead enough to do so again.

I wanted to say in a public forum, that in my opinion, President Obama is doing a fantastic job … especially given the magnitude of the problems he has had to address in the last five months.

I am reading as much as ever, and recently purchased a Victor Reader Stream, a Daisy, MP3, text to speech, and music player device for individuals who are visually impaired. I absolutely love my Stream because I am no longer tied to the computer when reading.

I am currently reading the Zion Covenant series by Bodie Thoene. This is an amazing series of historical fiction chronicling the happenings in Germany with respect to the Holocaust. I highly recommend it.

This week we have had a very stark and sad reminder of what hatred can do, and we must never forget the six million who died because they were Jewish.

Blessings.

It’s the middle of the night following presidential democratic nominee Obama’s acceptance speech. I didn’t watch it at the time, however, I was fortunate to see it when CNN later rebroadcast it.

Like so much of what is happening with our country, it brought tears to my eyes. He clearly “gets it”, as it were. Senator Obama understands what it is like for so many Americans right now … the loss of purchasing power, high priced fuel and energy costs, the loss of jobs, overwhelming debt, health care concerns, and a general hopelessness that things will not change.

This election is so very difficult for me. I am a life-long Democrat and have voted no other way since 1976, my first presidential election. However, I cannot ignore the democratic party’s stand on abortion and same sex marriage. Both clearly go against God’s law … that is made clear over and over in the Bible, God’s word. What do I do about that?

The Church teaches that not all issues are of equal importance. Life and the sanctity of it is paramount. I do believe that. I believe that until our nation puts an end to abortion, God will not bless our nation. We are killing some 40,000 unborn children a day. How can we ask God to bless that?

The flip side is that I know a vote for the Republicans is just a vote for the continuation of the same failed policies of the past eight years. I know George Bush is a man of faith. But I also know what he has allowed to happen … big oil and big money are having their day in Washington, and they have had an eight-year-run. If we don’t end this, we will cause calamity the proportions of which I don’t think anyone can comprehend.

So what do I do? How do I vote? It’s very upsetting. Can’t our wonderful Democratic party realize that to agree with abortion and promote homosexuality is to make the wrong choice in God’s eyes. My party that cares about workers and the disabled should care about the unborn. This had got to be such agony for other prolife Democrats.

block quote

AN ELECTION PRAYER TO MARY

O Most Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of Mercy, at this most critical time, we entrust the United States of America to

your loving care.
Most Holy Mother, we beg you to reclaim this land for the glory of your Son. Overwhelmed with the burden of the sins of

our nation, we cry to you from the depths of our hearts and seek refuge in your motherly protection.
Look down with mercy upon us and touch the hearts of our people. Open our minds to the great worth of human life and

to the responsibilities that accompany human freedom.
Free us from the falsehoods that lead to the evil of abortion and threaten the sanctity of family life. Grant our country the

wisdom to proclaim that God’s law is the foundation on which this nation was founded, and that He alone is the True

Source of our cherished rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
O Merciful Mother, give us the courage to reject the culture of death and the strength to build a new Culture of Life.

block quote end

Taken from EWTN's web site. Author unknown.

It's been quite a while since I've posted here...

Some of that has been because I've had nothing to speak of worth writing about. Secondly, I've had some suspected security issues with my computer. It looks as if everything is okay, but I had some scary things happening.

Needless to say, I encourage everyone to keep your computer's antivirus and security programs up-to-date. I have always done this, and even so, there's no guarantee.

I'm currently reading Stain Of Guilt. It's the second book in the Hidden Faces series by Brandilyn Collins. I believe there are three books in the series.

It was a very interesting and rather nerve-racking night of weather happenings, last night. I am not one who is afraid of storms. I believe that when the Lord calls me home it will happen in his timing.

This summer, we have had several nights of thunderstorms and severe weather. For the most part, it’s gone around us, though some communities in the State have been hit hard. Around midnight, last night, we received heavy rains and strong winds. We had no damage, but several parts of town did have damage to trees and buildings. Now we’re supposed to have a day or so of normal summer weather with storms to begin again over the weekend.

Last evening, we visited my in-laws. We decided to take Z with us. She rarely gets out, mostly to the Vet for her yearly checkup and vaccinations. We thought it might be good for her to come along. She likes being in her carrier, and we’ve taken her with us before. She was very quiet and relaxed on the drive over. We kept her with us while we sat on the front porch and visited. It was hot and humid, so we eventually moved indoors. Z just doesn’t realize what a pampered kitty she is…

As it turned out, we didn’t have any weather events until we got home, but I always feel better having Z with us if the weather might be stormy. She was happy to be home and out of her carrier. When the hard rain and wind started, she was calm, and didn’t seem particularly bothered.

My goal for today is to do some research in to CD rates. With interest rates so low, I’m not optimistic, but I’m going to call four financial institutions and see what kind of rates they’re offering.

I haven’t posted in a while because there’s not much to report…

My life consists or reading, housework, and sleeping. I’ve been staying up late reading. Oh, what did I ever do without Bookshare?

The weather has been hot and muggy. It’s definitely affected my headaches. This is nothing new. It happens every summer. Once it cools off, I’ll be feeling better.

I’ve been scanning books this past week. My first one, Summer At Willow Lake, has been added to the Bookshare collection, and I hope to have my second, Presumption Of Guilt, added soon. At least that’s some accomplishment…

I have letters to write and a grocery list to put together. I haven’t read any of the papers today, so don’t even know what’s going on in the world. Once in a while, I just need a break from the bad economic news, I guess.

RSS feeds make me even more of a news hound. After listening to a presentation from Freedom Scientific about the combination of RSS feeds and “tab browsing”, I’ve found it even easier to keep up with what is going on in the news.

I’ve subscribed to news RSS feeds that regularly update their content, and I no longer have to visit each web page, individually, to find out if there’s new content. To me, this is really fantastic. Thank you Freedom Scientific for making RSS feeds work so well with JAWS.

I’ve discovered the wonder of Excel… For a while now, I’ve been wanting to use some kind of a database for all of the book titles I have on my list to read, scan, or convert to MP3 format. I always thought that Excel would be too complex for me to master because I viewed it as only having accounting and mathematical applications.

Actually, it works perfect for what I want it for… I can categorize my books by title, author, synopses, location, read/unread, and genre, just to name a few. There are endless applications for this spreadsheet application. I’m just using it as a database without the need for formulas and such.

I’ve entered approximately 150 titles with oodles to go. Data entry is simple, but since I am adding a field for a synopsis for each title, it takes time to track one down. Sometimes, I’m unable to find a written synopsis and have to read several reviews to attempt to put one together. I’ll get there eventually. The nice thing about Excel is that once I have information entered, it won’t be difficult to keep it up-to-date, and if I make a change with respect to any data field, it’s easily edited.

Happy Fourth of July to everyone, and may God bless our country.

I received the following e-mail this morning.

Block quote
AFA calls for McDonald's boycott
Ed Thomas - OneNewsNow - 7/3/2008 7:30:00 AM

The founder of the American Family Association (AFA) says the McDonald's Corporation's refusal to be neutral in the cultural war over homosexuality has resulted in their declaration of a boycott against the popular fast-food chain.

AFA founder Don Wildmon says they went to McDonald's after learning several months ago that the company had joined the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce. And following a $20,000 donation to that group, one of McDonald's executives was placed on the Chamber's board of directors.

"We contacted McDonald's and showed them what they were doing -- that is, helping to support the homosexual agenda," explains Wildmon. "...[One of the primary purposes of the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce is to promote homosexual marriage."
After meeting with Wildmon, the corporation refused to withdraw their support for the Chamber. "...In fact, McDonald's strongly told us that they are reaffirming their commitment to -- they called it -- 'diversity,'" he continues.

Wildmon says that reaffirmation means throwing the corporation's full weight into the cultural battle on the side of homosexuality -- which is why AFA is calling for consumers not to help McDonald's do it with their dollars.

The American Family Association is the parent organization of the American Family News Network, which operates OneNewsNow.com.
Block quote end

When I posted information about this situationin April, 2008,, I said that I would address this subject again. I was praying that it was all a mistake and that AFA had been misinformed.

We’ll all have to decide whether or not this is important enough to change where we spend our fast food dollars. For me, it’s not a difficult decision. I simply stand on what the Bible teaches.

I haven’t posted lately because there’s really nothing new in my life worth mentioning.

I’ve been scanning some books which I hope to upload to Bookshare soon. Scanning is enjoyable, but when I’m reading a good book, it’s hard to put in the time on scanning.

Last week, I found out that I’ll be able to do some O&M cane travel work this summer. I’m happy about that. With my hearing loss, it’s more difficult to travel independently, mostly because of traffic concerns.

Now that I think about it, I do have one exciting happening… Last week, I received a summons for jury duty. I had such mixed emotions about this. On one level, I really wanted to serve, but with my hearing loss, I felt it was such a complication. First of all, just navigating in the courthouse and courtroom would be difficult, though I know that could be managed. Secondly, hearing the testimony would be a nightmare. I really would have to have all of the testimony in an accessible format (Braille). Anyway, I finally decided to request an exemption based on my hearing loss. Fortunately, it was granted with no problem. I plan to keep the letter I wrote and the letter granting my exemption for future reference. If this ever comes up again, I’ll be prepared.

block quote

Obedience

"God's will is the compass-needle which at every moment accurately points the way that takes us to Him. At the same time, this course is the path to our own happiness."

Francis Fernandez

block quote end

This quote was in the Women of Grace e-mail for today. I thought it especially instructive.

Often I think of being obedient in terms of having to do something that I might otherwise not have done. This changes my perspective.

At the end of May, my husband and I bought a new car. It was an exciting experience for both of us. Since we’ve been married, we’ve always had used cars, but decided to buy a new economy car this time so we could save on gas.

I have to say that I was very concerned about being able to sell our old car. It’s several years old, but well maintained. My husband’s brother put it on a local internet site. Less than a day later it sold for the full asking price. What an answer to prayer. I guess that goes to show you what a powerful tool internet advertising is. He had several phone calls on it. The first people who took it for a test drive bought it.

This weekend, I’ve been trying to finish a scanning project and read my book; Spindrift, by Phyllis A. Whitney.

Our weather has been quite warm and on Friday we had a bunch of errands to do, including having my text messaging deactivated on my cell phone. I don’t have an accessible phone and I didn’t want to receive text messages I couldn’t retrieve.

Tomorrow I have to get a hair cut, check on a couple of books at the used bookstore, and we’re having dinner with a friend.

My Terri Blackstock book, Presumption Of Guilt, has arrived. It’s the fourth book in her Suncoast Chronicles series. I’m looking forward to reading it. My list of books to read just keeps growing exponentially. I tell myself I should just stop adding to the list, but I think I’ll forget the names of interesting titles so I keep writing them down. I must have two hundred or so titles written down.

I’m also in the process of getting a couple more books ready to submit to Bookshare. Seems like there’s always something to keep me busy.

I received the following e-mail today. It both blessed and convicted me… My prayer is that it will do the same for you. Thank you J for sending it to me. Blessings.

block quote
Read only if you have time for God

Let me tell you, make sure you read all the way to the bottom. I almost deleted this email but I was blessed when I got to the end

God, when I received this e-mail, I thought...

I don't have time for this... And, this is really inappropriate during work..
Then, I realized that this kind of thinking is.... Exactly, what has caused lot of the problems in our world today.

We try to keep God in church on Sunday morning...

Maybe, Sunday night...

And, the unlikely event of a midweek service.

We do like to have Him around during sickness....

And, of course, at funerals.

However, we don't have time, or room, for Him during work or play...

Because.. That's the part of our lives we think... We can, and should, handle on our own.

May God forgive me for ever thinking...

That... There is a time or place where..

HE is not to be FIRST in my life.

We should always have time to remember all HE has done for us..

If, You aren't ashamed to do this...

Please follow the directions.

Jesus said, 'If you are ashamed of me, I will be ashamed of you before my Father.'

Not ashamed?

Pass this on ONLY IF YOU MEAN IT!!

Yes, I do Love God.

HE is my source of existence and Savior.

He keeps me functioning each and every day. Without Him, I will be nothing. But, with Christ, HE strengthens me. (Phil 4:13)

This is the simplest test.

If You Love God... And, are not ashamed of all the marvelous things HE has done for you...

Send this to ten people and the person who sent it to you!

Now do you have the time to pass it on?

Make sure that you scroll through to the end.

Easy vs. Hard

Why is it so hard to tell the truth but Yet so easy to tell a lie?

Why are we so sleepy in church but Right when the sermon is over we suddenly wake up?

Why is it so easy to delete a Godly e-mail, but yet we forward all of the nasty ones?

Of all the free gifts we may receive, Prayer is the very best one....

There are no costs, but wonderful rewards... GOD BLESS!

Notes: Isn't it funny how simple it is for people to trash God and then wonder why the world's going to hell.

Isn't it funny how someone can say 'I believe in God' but still follow Satan (who, by the way, also 'believes' in God).

Isn't it funny how you can send a thousand jokes through e-mail and they spread like wildfire, but when you start sending messages regarding the Lord, people think twice about sharing?

Isn't it funny how when you go to forward this message, you will not send it to many on your address list because you're not sure what they believe, or what they will think of you for sending it to them

Isn't it funny how I can be more worried about what other people think of me than what God thinks of me.

I pray, for everyone who sends this to their entire address book, they will be blessed by God in a way special for them.
And send it back to the person who sent it, to let them know that indeed it was sent out to many more.
block quote end