I just updated the site to the new WordPress 3.5 along with the plugins. But, that’s not why I wanted to write to y’all. It’s because I’m so thankful for people like you.

My life hasn’t been easy and though I’ve had many adventures others can only dream of, it has left me with post traumatic stress disorder in a big way. I’ve been fighting it for years. Until one day I learned, because of this church and my Grandfather, that fighting was the last thing I should be doing.

I accepted myself, as I am, for the first time in my life. And, I felt better instantly.

Now, I’m now sure if it was Chester’s amazing presence or words that inspired me or if I had been on a gradual incline towards this truth. But, I know that having y’all accept my family into your loving arms made a difference.

Also, I’d like to share with y’all the insights I’ve recently had into our humble existence via NASA and a handful of researchers.

I think they’ve discovered Heaven. They just don’t know it yet. Here’s what I mean.

Scientists admit that apparently 90-99% of the known universe is “dark” matter and energy. And “dark” is a horrible word and reflects in lack of imagination in most scientists. All “dark” means is that our 3D universe, the part we can see, does not interact with this “other side” in any way. It is there but it is not.

That’s why I believe they may have discovered heaven and it’s another universe, part of ours maybe, but much more…. it’s the rest that we can’t see. And, this reality, the entire universe we can see, amounts to little more than 1-10% of reality.

Is that awesome or what?

I love all of you and I thank you for the opportunity to learn with you.

Merry Christmas!

-Mark

PEACE IN MEXICO   “A Call for Peace and an End to the Drug War in Mexico” The Caravan for Peace spoke out against the violence in Mexico at the WPC Adult Forum on Sunday, August 19^th.  The Caravan, led by poet Javier Sicilia and the Mexican peace movement, consists of 60 Mexican human rights leaders and representatives of indigenous communities, artists, youth and churches for peace, were in Santa Fe, traveling from San Diego to Washington DC.  The Caravan addresses the U.S. role in the violence that’s afflicted so many Mexican families, including global drug consumption, gun trafficking, the denial of immigrants’ rights, and money laundering.  At the heart of the Caravan will be testimonies of victims of violence, who are bearing the human cost of these policies and calling for change.

Is your in-box getting on your nerves? Is your email piling up like some sort of imaginary stack of junk mail a mile high and still growing, with no end in sight? Do you dread the thought of even looking at your inbox?

You, my friend, are missing out on one of the best advances in modern life, not to mention missing the whole point of email; it’s fast and easy.

But, that’s the problem with email too; it’s fast and easy. So, everyone does it. A LOT. And, if you don’t manage your account you’ll soon end up buried in junk.

The good news is that the same modern advances in computing that brought us things like email, also bring us a whole host of tools with which to manage it.

That said, nothing beats common sense, like not giving your personal address to businesses. But, I’ll get to that in a minute.

First, I’d like to tell you a little story about my Mom. She lives in Kansas so we don’t see each other often. Years ago she was the absolute worst at checking her email. She’d give her address to everyone that asked, get buried in junk mail and never even see all the messages from her kids, some with photos she missed.
Finally, I sat down with her and showed her a couple little things she could do to manage her inbox. I’m happy to say that these days the problem is no longer a problem and Mom is just as connected as anyone can be. In fact, now that she’s been using an iPhone for years, I think she’s maybe more connected than me!

Here’s what I told her that helped her lift the dreaded inbox off her shoulders and put it to work for her like the tool it is supposed to be.

1. Don’t go to your email, make it come to you. Just because you signed up at hotmail.com or gmail.com doesn’t mean you have to go to those sites and log in every time to get your email. Use an opensource program like Thunderbird to manage your email via POP and SMTP. When you install software like Thunderbird, you get all your email in one place. Whether it is from your domain or gmail or wherever you have an email address, it all goes to this one place, this one program. You can also use other programs. (But, I’d avoid Outlook or anything by Microsoft as they’re often the targets of hackers and viruses.) You can set up folders for certain types of emails and filters to automatically place emails in the correct folders, or do other things with them, like delete them if they’re from a certain domain. You can prioritize by color coding emails and much more.
2. Use more than one email address and reserve each for it’s intended purpose. For example, I have a personal email address that I only give to family and close friends. That’s it. I tell my friends and family when I give them this address that this is a private address, no sharing.
   Then I have my business email address which I only share with clients and colleagues. I do get some spam in there and that’s unavoidable so I use filters and the junk mail filtering in Thunderbird to manage it. It is rarely bothersome.
   Finally, I have a third email address dedicated to junk mail. I use this address anytime I’m browsing and some pushy sales script wants an email address before it’ll do something or for when you need to subscribe for something to work. This inbox I never check (unless confirming a subscription) and let Google worry about it piling up. They apparently don’t care.
3. Make checking your email easy/fun. Thunderbird makes it easy if you use a laptop or desktop computer every day, and it’s free. You can also use plugins for browsers like Firefox that notify you when you have email. There are also desktop applications that will put it right on your desktop. Then there is Baydin’s Email Game – an add-on for the Chrome browser that turns email processing into a fun game by setting a time limit for dealing with each message in your inbox and awarding points for each message you handle.
   But, what if you don’t even use computers? Well, my Mom went with the iPhone. And, I have to say it really works. She can take pictures now and send them in an email to me in a flash, not to mention she can just send a quick reply or email anytime. She also checks her email as if it’s her phone, which it is, I suppose. It’s fantastic and we all stay in touch a lot more now. We don’t live close, but we’re a lot closer now that she checks her email.

So, if you’re email inbox seems to have the upper hand at the moment, an iPhone might be a great addition to get caught up. Or, maybe try Sanebox. But, I’ve only just heard about it and it’s not free, like the iPhone.

For the average computer user though, who wants to whip that inbox into submission, following the free tips above alone will help immensely.

Happy Emailing!

Genesis 1:1