White Screen of Doom

My blog is finally up and running again, thanks to Stephen, who is about the third person to try and fix it, but was the only one who could.

Many thanks also to Susan, who also offered up her husband’s assistance, but I felt that since my son’s “friends” were already working on it, it would be hard to start all over and may have been unethical, if you know what I mean, and that white screen terrified me! I was sure that I had lost everything – all my blog posts, friend comments etc. forever.

We migrated hosts last Friday and all of the posts on the front page weren’t working, and all of the back end stuff wasn’t working. You could see it, but it wouldn’t work because it had all of the old user names throughout the code and also in the data base prefixes. Then my son deleted that account and created another one with the same user name as the old account and one of my sons’ freelancers migrated it all over again. While we were changing hosts, I couldn’t even publish your comments because they wouldn’t have been there when we updated hosts.

AAArgh! Floods of tears! Everything was working but there was a white screen of doom when we tried to log in to the admin page. This afternoon Stephen came to the rescue and it’s all fixed – I’m not changing servers ever again!

How Aussie are You?

Ruby from Mumma’s Place just posted this Australian Meme, and I thought that it would be fun to see how Australian I really am.

(compiled by Dee from Downunder)

1. Been dive bombed by a magpie Yes, on my way home from school, as a child, although my brother was more frequently targeted.

2. Have seen a crocodile. Yes, I have even held one at Dundee’s in South Australia.

3. Have seen a snake in the wild. Yes, too many since we have been here. I HATE snakes, and anyone standing near me will tell you that my voicebox certainly gets a good workout when I see one.

4. Been bitten by a snake or other Aussie wildlife. No, they usually flee a million miles an hour in the opposite direction when they hear me scream.

5. Patted a koala – YES – in the Cleveland Wildlife and Conservation Park, although I noticed when I visited Dundee’s site that you can now cuddle a koala there, for a fee of  $5.00 per person,  too.

6. Seen a kangaroo in the wild. Yes, we have lots of them, and they even sometimes come and graze in our front yard.

7. Climbed the Sydney Harbour Bridge. No – I don’t like heights!

8. Climbed the Story Bridge in Brisbane. No. Same as above.

9. Visited the Sydney Opera House. No. It seems that I could do with some cultural edification.

10. Swam at the beach . I used to live at the beach as a child, but these days I’m more content to swim in our swimming pool.

11. Had fish and chips on the beach. No – I led a deprived childhood.

12. Been stung by a jellyfish. Yes, and they burn horribly for hours afterwards.

13. Had sunburn that peeled. Yes – I was so stupid as a teenager!

14. Camped under the stars. No – I like my creature comforts, such as running water, shower; soft, comfy bed and inside toilets.

15. Visited Uluru . Yes, and climbed up to Chicken Rock.

16. Driven the Great Ocean Road in Victoria . Yes, in the days when my husband and I travelled around in a caravan.

17. Seen the penguins on Phillip Island Victoria. Sadly, no, but I would love to!

18. Had an outdoor BBQ with Friends . This is our main entertaining method.

19. Played backyard/beach Cricket . No.

20. Watched a live cricket match. No.

21. Bet on the Melbourne Cup. No, I don’t gamble.

22. Attended the Melbourne Cup Live from Flemington. Same as above.

23. Attended a live Aussie Rules or rugby football game. No, I don’t like football – does that make me a bad Aussie?

24. Ridden a Melbourne Tram. No – we always have our own transport.

25. Snow Skied in the “high country” of NSW/Vic . Yes – well I attempted to ski, although I spent more time on my bottom than on the skis, and it was on our honeymoon.

26. Visited the Great Barrier Reef. No, but I would love to one day.

27. Been to Kakadu . This is also a place that I would love to visit one day.

28. Crossed the Nullarbor by road . No – there’s too many kilometres of nothing in between towns.

29. Gone down the Murray River on a paddle steamer . Nope – there sure do seem to be a lot of no’s here!

30. Survived a cyclone. Yes, but not in the eye of it – I was terrrified.

31. Survived a bushfire. No, thank fully.

32. Experienced a big flood. Yes, as a child in Blanchetown. My nanna’s home was inundated with more than a metre of water, but what I remember the most is the mess.

33. Know who the Wiggles are. Yes, although our children know them more.

34. Know who Humphrey the Bear is. Yes, I do – that’s telling tales, now isn’t it?

35. Watched Play School as a kid or mum of a kid . I watched it as a child.

36. Watched Skippy the Bush Kangaroo. Yes, I spent many hours watching Skippy and the park rangers.

37. Own an Australia Flag. No.

38. Know the words to Advance Australia Fair. Yes, most of it.

39. Eat Vegemite . Yes , I’m a happy little Vegemite as bright as bright can be!

40. Drink Milo . Yes, it’s one of my favourite drinks, even as an adult.

41. Know what lamingtons are . Yes, although they are not my favourites.

42. Know what Pavlova is . Yes, but not something that I eat – too sweet.

43. Know what Tim Tams are. Yes, but they’re too sweet.

44. Eaten a meat pie. Yes, we frequently have Pie Floaters.

45. Gave or received a “dead arm” . No, I don’t play games that hurt.

46. Have owned an Akubra hat. No – too expensive.

47. Own/owned an Australia Cattle dog. Yes, when I was a child.

48. Been to a B& S ball . No, I lived in the city.

49. Drive a ute. No.

50. Say G’day. Not usually, although my son does frequently.

51. Can cook damper .  No.

52. Can make billy tea . No, it sounds as if I truly have led a sheltered life, doesn’t it?

53. Supported a sausage sizzle . Yes, sometimes.

54. Own John Williamson CD/Music. No.

55. Owned backyard chooks or know what chooks are. Yes, we have all sorts of chooks – bantams, Rhode Island Reds and Isa Browns.

56. Call the toilet “the dunny” . No, not now nor ever.

57 . Wear thongs (on your feet…). No, although my husband and son do. I wear Masseur sandals which are much more comfortable for me.

58. Support Aussie Music. Yes, Christian Aussie music.

59. Enjoy a beer. No – yuck, I don’t even like the smell of it.

60. Swallowed a fly. No – the thought of it makes me feel queasy.

Well, I did consider myself to be a dinki-di Aussie, but my answers indicate that I have lots to do and see to class myself as a True-Blue, Dinki-Di, Dyed-in-the-Wool Aussie!

I’m with Ruby – this post took quite a while to answer all of the questions, but if you have the time, sit down and reflect on just how Australian you really are – the results may surprise and even shock you!

Image from Here.

The High Cost of Selfishness and Self-pity

This essay is my son’s report on “The High Cost of Selfishness and Self-pity”, for his Christian Growth, PACE 136, and it is a subject that is at the heart of many broken marriages and failed friendships. I hope that you enjoy reading it.

The cost of selfishness and self-pity is very high. Selfishness and self-pity lead to many problems in the home. These include domestic disputes, anger, divorce, violence, and affairs among many other things. Selfishness has lead to many unhappy marriages even between committed Christians. Selfishness harbours resent; even though the person may not see the situation as unfair, it may just be their outlook that makes it feel that way. Selfishness is a sin, and sin can take many forms. 2 Corinthians 11:14 says, “And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.” Sin may appear as if you have been wronged, but that is the way that Satan wants you to see it. He likes to disguise sin and deceive Christians with that sin. And [Satan] shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, (Revelation 20:8). It must really grieve God to see His children deceived by the Wicked One.

When marriages end in divorce, it is usually because of selfishness in one or both of the couple’s hearts. What may start out as a trivial matter will then be dwelt upon and fester up inside of one or both of the couple and then grow into resent, which is really selfishness or self-pity in disguise. They will continue to dwell upon the resent until it becomes such a great burden that they explode and the once happy marriage will end in divorce. Satan loves to see marriages fall to pieces as it means that his tactics have worked yet again inside of a happy, successful marriage between two committed Christians. If only married couples realized that resent is really selfishness, and selfishness is really a sin, then many marriages could be saved before they ended in a divorce.

Self-pity has many the same symptoms as selfishness. It can disguise itself just the same under a cloak of “Poor me!” or just like an affiliate link that has been cloaked, it is still self-pity, no matter what disguise it takes. It still takes you to the same endpoint whether it is seen or disguised. If it is disguised it may just take a little longer to get to the same end. Just like an affiliate at the end there is a cost. The cost with self-pity is always high, no matter whether it is “cloaked” or not. It may be a friendship that someone has broken, it may be a marriage that has ended in divorce, or it may be a business venture that has ended in failure.

If you are suffering from selfishness or self-pity, then pray to God that He will help you to find the source of that selfishness or self-pity. Then either remove the source from your life, or ask God to help you overcome the thing that is causing this problem. If you ask God, He will surely help you to overcome that thing in your life – all you have to do is ask.

Original image from here.

Follow-Up Comments & My WordPress Blog

I ♥ my WordPress blog, although I’m still working some things out, but it’s true what people say – You’ll love WordPress, as there is so much more that you can do, and it’s easier to use than most. To Susan, thank you for introducing me to WordPress – I truly do ♥ working with WordPress!

Ruby commented today that she wasn’t receiving the follow-up comments even though she had ticked the receive follow-up comments box, and I truly do thank her for letting me know. My son has fixed the problem tonight, and hopefully you will all receive the follow-up comments, now.

To those of you who commented and didn’t receive any follow-up comments, I am truly sorry, as I answer every legitimate comment placed onto my blog. I have tried a couple of test comments, and apart from going into my spam folder, it worked fine.

Edit to Add: Our follow-up comments are now working fine, thank you to Ruby.

Special Gift

The bookmark, above, was given to me by my friend, Gwenda a few years ago, and it is very special, not because of what the bookmark is, nor because of the Bible verse specifically, although Psalm 103 is a beautiful Psalm, but because it was given to me by a special friend who took the time to choose this bookmark and Bible verse specifically. It speaks of the love that it took, and the time that was taken to choose this particular Bible verse just for me.

Of course, the most precious gift of all was the gift that God gave us, in the gift of His precious Son, so that He could restore fellowship with God, the Father. The gracious gift of God is eternal life with Him, and there is nothing that we can do to deserve it, for our righteousness is as filthy rags. [Isaiah 64:6] Christ died for our sins and rose again for our justification. What an awesome gift! [Romans 6:23]

Do you have any gifts that you consider really special from a friend, and why do you consider them special? Are the gifts of sentimental value, or is it the love behind the gift, or perhaps it is simply because it is hand-made?

Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift. 2 Corinthians 9:15