Sunday Roundup

COMMUNITY YARD SALE
I don't think we could have asked for a better day yesterday. Over 40 neighbors took advantage of our offer for free space in the church parking lot. The Covenant Village people set-up their craft faire in the Fellowship Center. Thousands of people showed up. The weather was great. People were friendly. They cleaned up after themselves. They bought lots of hotdogs from our high school group (CHIC fundraiser). Lots of good conversations with neighbors. My pedometer said that I walked nearly 12 miles in all of my back and forth smoozing and helping. My legs still ache.


FREE WI-FI
Google has offered to blanket San Francisco with free wireless Internet. If they can do it in the City, with all of the hills and highrises, they'll be able to do it anywhere. Is the city going to bite? Stay tuned.


RED CARDS
Our daughter Betsy is in her fourth season as a soccer referee -- and she's never had to red card anyone -- until yesterday. Two players started shoving each other and both got the card. A red card means that they'll be suspended for several games -- to be determined by the league representatives who review the write-up she has to do.

It says a lot about how the game is played here that she has gotten this far before having to remove a player.


THE $299 COMPUTER
AMD is going to start selling their low-cost computers originally designed for use in developing countries, for $299 at Radio Shacks in the US.

However, for about $30 more you can get an E-Machine (street price), which is a very decent computer these days, and which has a lot more flexibility and power. The AMD machine operates on the slimmed down Windows CE system -- which is a definite limitation. If per chance they wanted to sell their computers for $99-$150 it might make some sense.


EXTREME MAKE-OVER
A mainline Australian denomination, gasping for air, is telling some of its congregations that they need to give-up traditional church buildings and worship in pubs, living rooms, and shopping malls -- at times other than Sunday mornings. The Uniting Church's NSW moderator, Jim Mein, has urged the church to sever the "umbilical cord" to religious imagery and language to regain relevance.

It sounds like he thinks that changing the window dressing will fix the problem.


MORE SONGS
I've added two more of Cheryl's songs to her website. Now available for download are The Heavens Declare and Give Us a Vision of Your Glory.