Refugees, Not Just A Word

We rudely discovered after our own Katrina disaster that refugees is not just a word. Today, Bloggers Unite are blogging about refugees. First, you don’t want to be one. Imagine losing your home, running in fear, watching your family disappear, too horrific to contemplate? Thousands of people daily go through those emotions, not just victims of genocide, but victims of natural disasters as well as political incompetence.



If blogging about an international problem can jump start some caring, then let’s blog away. Take some time, click on some of these links, maybe you will discover that Refugee isn’t just a word.

UK Refugee Services
http://www.redcross.org.uk/TLC.asp?id=81617

Lutheran Refugee Services
http://www.lirs.org/

Aotearoa-New Zealand Refugee Services
http://www.refugeeservices.org.nz/

United States Committee for Refugees and Immigrant Children
http://www.refugees.org/

Church World Service Immigrant & Refugee Program
http://www.churchworldservice.org/Immigration/index.html

Women's Commission for Refugee Women & Children
http://www.womenscommission.org/

Additional Links/Resources
http://www.unhcr.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/protect?id=3b8265c7a

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refugees

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statelessness

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/static/in_depth/world/2001/road_to_refuge/default.stm

Where Should You Host Your Website?

My other blog is Money Saving Tech Tips and Philosophic Musings. Since there is often a distinct dichotomy between book lovers and geeks, I doubt many of you are cross over readers. However if you are here you are definitely a reader and maybe a blogger. You may want to have a web site. How do you know where to go and what to do?

Webhostingreport.com is a site that ranks host companies. Host companies are the people who have the server on which your web site will reside. There are thousands of them so it helps to have a site like Webhostingreport.com to sort things out. What is particularly nice is that they have multiple categories which let you identify what you plan on doing with your site and provide the hosts that do that the best and with the best price. Comparison of host to host enables you to make a good decisions. Below is a sample table comparing hosts.


I also like the resource section. You should read the Beginners Guide to Web Hosting even if you don’t do another thing on the site. Overall the site should help you make good decisions on where to host.

A Voice of the Retired, Labels Don’t Fit.

Retired still has a connation of old. I may be retired but in no way do I think of myself as old. In some ways I am physically challenged, I can no longer dunk a basketball. Realistically, I was never that good at basketball anyway. Retired means unemployed to me, not old.

Senior, to me, still means of high school. Somehow I have difficulty ascribing that term to myself. Age wise I may qualify but mentally, not a chance. It may be genetic. When my 93 year old mother was rehabbing with her new hip she declined to eat in the dining room because she didn’t want to hang out with those “old” people. I would guess that she was the oldest person on her floor by at least 10 years.


If neither senior or retired is a label I can accept, what is? I have no clue, I answer to old guy, poppop, hey you and other nom de plumes but I think we have to accept that labeling is in so many ways demeaning. Look at Jacqueline Smith, does that look senior to you?

Admittedly I have little interest in going out to play football or even to shoot hoops anymore but decrepit isn’t in my vocabulary. Let some hoodlum with ill intent address my grandchildren and he would no doubt be surprised at the successful violent reaction of an old guy who lifts and works out 7 days a week.

So for you “young’uns” who most likely are the only folks, who are reading blogs, keep in mind that if you want your voice to be heard, you may want to listen to the voices of others, regardless of age or label.

Who Can Make Change Happen?

Enter your name to get the REAL Washington story! First Name: Last Name:

This Alien Shore by C. S. Friedman

This book appears to be a logical extension for the computer geek fantasy. A future in which the ability to interface with the computer is limited only by your willingness to accept a level of intrusion commensurate with your desire for cyber immersion. It is also a though provoking piece on inclusion or exclusion based on differences. If you saw the premier of Amanda Tapping’s new show Sanctuary, she give a clear explanation as to why we need to accept those how may appear different and perhaps frightening. I found my self struggling to get into this book. It certainly doesn’t grab you and pull you in, you have to persevere to get hooked. I generally go between 50 and 100 pages before I cry uncle on a book. I struggled through over 150 pages before I was sufficiently intrigued to finish the book. If I hadn’t absolutely loved her Coldfire Series; Black Sun Rising (1991), When True Night Falls (1993), Crown of Shadows (1995); I wouldn’t have bothered to persevere. I enjoyed the book, I did not find it as compelling as the Coldfire series.

Body of work of C. S. Friedman

Review: http://www.existenceiswonderful.com/2007/12/book-review-this-alien-shore-by-cs.html

Web site: http://www.csfriedman.com/