The Next Window

Yesterday, I had lunch at one of my favorite Chinese restaurants in Baton Rouge, King Buffet (http://www.kingbuffet.biz). At the end of a lunch consisting primarily of sushi rolls, fried shrimp, shrimp &amp; broccoli and shanghai shrimp, I had the traditional fortune cookie.<br />
<br />
My fortune was not a "fortune" per se, but it was a shrewd saying "We learn most when we are teaching."<br />
<br />
That simple stated fact is a major reason why I like to teach workshops and lead special interest groups at the Cajun Clickers Computer Club.<br />
<br />
While I can (and do) attend other workshops and SIG meetings, I find that I learn more when I am teaching. This happens in three ways. <br />
<br />
<br /><a href="http://www.thenextwindow.com/index.php?/archives/112-Teaching-and-Volunteering.html#extended">Continue reading "Teaching and Volunteering"</a>

"Our goal is to make sure that every child, in every parish, who doesn't have a uniform, receives one," says Gerry Malone, with St. Vincent De Paul, talking about the <b>Uniforms for Kids</b> program she leads. Utilizing thousands of hours of volunteer labor, and money and old uniforms donated by individuals and companies, the Uniforms for Kids program tries to provide two sets of uniforms to every needy child in the public schools. Volunteers repair old uniforms, after they are cleaned by Kean's Cleaners. Money is used primarily to buy new uniforms.<br />
<br />
Throughout the year, teachers and guidance councilors are the main contacts for obtaining uniforms. During the summer, Uniforms for Kids has a phone system where individual parents sign up for appointments <i>and find out what proofs they need to bring for proving their income and child-rearing responsibilities.</i> That way, the process of verifying their need and supplying them with appropriate uniforms can go very smoothly.<br />
<br />
Since its inception eight years ago, Uniforms for Kids has grown from providing uniforms for 2,000 needy children in one parish (Louisiana calls them "parishes" — the rest of the country calls these "counties") to over 11,000 children in 12 area parishes.<br />
<br />
Of course St. Vincent de Paul can't do this by themselves, they need your help. With a donation of 10 dollars, you will provide a brand new uniform to a child in need. If you can't donate money, donate your child's old uniforms, they need those as well.<br />
<br />
"When folks give $10 for uniforms, all those dollars go towards the purchase. There's no administration, there's no fund raising," said Michael Acaldo, with St. Vincent de Paul. <br />
<br />
Please make a donation to Uniforms for Kids and help the needy get school uniforms. St. Vincent de Paul will accept donations by mail at the following address:<br />
<blockquote><br />
Uniforms for Kids<br />
c/o St. Vincent de Paul<br />
P.O. Box 127<br />
Baton Rouge, LA 70821 <br />
</blockquote>

Is anyone else as disgusted at this year's Battlestar Galactica as I am?<br />
<br />
It's terribly disjointed and repetitive and repetitive. How many times are we going to visit the same team stuck on Caprica? How many times to we have to see Gaius Baltar's hallucinations about his Cylon baby? Or see Boomer's boyfriend moaning about being fooled by his girlfriend, who turned out to be a bad-guy Cylon?<br />
<br />
<br /><a href="http://www.thenextwindow.com/index.php?/archives/110-Battlestar-Galactica-going-downhill-fast.html#extended">Continue reading "Battlestar Galactica going downhill fast"</a>

BBQ — Memphis is <i>the</i> BBQ town — Memphis is well known for its BBQ. It's all pork BBQ here, none of that beef BBQ stuff — and none of that "cooked in sauce" or "heated in the sauce" stuff, either. With Memphis BBQ, you see the meat. If you want to add sauce, you can. Sandwiches are served with cole slaw <i>on the sandwich</i>. If you want your slaw on the side, you better ask for it that way — but try it on the sandwich; you'll discover why it's there!<br />
<br />
Of course, our BBQ favorite in Memphis famous <u>Corky's BBQ</u>. We only make it to Corky's for ribs and "pulled pork" once or twice (preferably twice) during each visit to Memphis. <br />
<br />
Not nearly so well known, <u>Jim Neely's Interstate BBQ</u> is on South 3rd St near Interstate 55. Good ribs, fine pulled pork, tasty slaw and yummy beans. It's not fancy, just good eatin'. <br />
<br />
For steaks, seafood, their Greek specialties and their sinfully rich desserts, we like <u>Jim's Place East</u> (<a href="http://www.thenextwindow.com/exit.php?url_id=539&amp;entry_id=109" title="http://www.jimsplaceeast.com" onmouseover="window.status='http://www.jimsplaceeast.com';return true;" onmouseout="window.status='';return true;"> http://www.jimsplaceeast.com</a>). Jim's Place is on Shelby Oaks Drive, off Summer Road, just east of Memphis. If you miss it, go back and find it — you'll be glad you did. I've been there for several private dinners and the food and service were superb.<br />
<br />
Read more in my <a href="http://www.thenextwindow.com/exit.php?url_id=540&amp;entry_id=109" title="http://www.terrystockdale.com/misc/memphis_tennessee.shtml" onmouseover="window.status='http://www.terrystockdale.com/misc/memphis_tennessee.shtml';return true;" onmouseout="window.status='';return true;">Memphis Tennessee Restaurant Favorites</a> web page.<br />

I just finished reading an article in the <a href="http://www.thenextwindow.com/exit.php?url_id=533&amp;entry_id=108" title="http://www.wsj.com" onmouseover="window.status='http://www.wsj.com';return true;" onmouseout="window.status='';return true;">Wall Street Journal</a> entitled The Silicosis Sheriff.<br />
<br />
This <a href="http://www.thenextwindow.com/exit.php?url_id=534&amp;entry_id=108" title="http://online.wsj.com/article_email/0,,SB112129552607885138-IdjfYNhlaV4opyuaYCHaKqGm4,00.html" onmouseover="window.status='http://online.wsj.com/article_email/0,,SB112129552607885138-IdjfYNhlaV4opyuaYCHaKqGm4,00.html';return true;" onmouseout="window.status='';return true;">article</a> is about Judge Janis Graham Jack, a Federal court judge in Texas, who actually dug into the nearly 10,000 silicosis claims presented to her as a class action suit — and how she stood up and said "No." Last month, she released her 249 page verdict. Not only did she throw out most of the claims, she came down hard with sanctions on the plaintiffs' lawyers involved <i>and</i> she ordered them to pay the legal defense costs of the defendants.<br />
<br />
This is not to say that there are not legitimate cases of silicosis, asbestosis, lung cancer and other serious diseases that can come from exposure to occupational exposures or even recreational substances. The article does not make any such claims.<br />
<br />
The article is about abuse and fraud in our "class action" (also known as "mass tort") legal system and the Judge who was willing to "kick the tires" instead of accepting the claims at face value.<br />

When I go to Houston, Texas, there are some restaurants that almost always get a visit.<br />
<br />
For Mexican food, my favorite is Cafe Adobe, near the corner of Westheimer and Shepherd. There's a terrible story there — my family used to go to the BookStop on S. Shepherd about once a month, but we didn't know about Cafe Adobe, which was maybe 800 feet away. Once we found it, Cafe Adobe became one of our favorite stops. Their fajitas were fantastic, both chicken and beef, their chips nice and thin, the salsa outstanding — not too spicy, but plenty of tomato or tomatillo, cilantro, onion and black pepper. Their flour tortillas were freshly made. My son learned to eat refried beans at Cafe Adobe, along with his favorite cheese enchiladas.<br />
<br />
Our other main choice for Mexican in Houston is Pappacito'a chain, which is run by the Pappas family, who also have Pappas Seafood, Pappadeaux's (Louisiana-style seafood), a BBQ place, an Italian restaurant and a couple more. Pappacito's has great fajitas, hot, freshly-made tortillas, among other goodies. Their weekend special is barbecued cabrito — let me tell you that there is cabrito and there is cabrito. Lots of Mexican restaurants try, but Pappacito's got it right.<br />
<br />
For steaks, of course, you can not go wrong at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse. I also enjoy The Old San Francisco Steakhouse on Westheimer, especially for their huge blocks of aged swiss cheese and their prime rib. However, my favorite steak restaurant in Houston is the Taste of Texas, which is at the southeast corner of I-10 West (Katy Freeway, as it's known to Houstonians) and Beltway 8 West.<br />
<br />
Read more in <a href="http://www.thenextwindow.com/exit.php?url_id=535&amp;entry_id=107" title="http://www.terrystockdale.com/misc/houston_texas.shtml" onmouseover="window.status='http://www.terrystockdale.com/misc/houston_texas.shtml';return true;" onmouseout="window.status='';return true;">my article</a> on <a href="http://www.thenextwindow.com/exit.php?url_id=536&amp;entry_id=107" title="http://www.terrystockdale.com" onmouseover="window.status='http://www.terrystockdale.com';return true;" onmouseout="window.status='';return true;">TerryStockdale.com</a>.<br />

I'm glad to see <a href="http://www.thenextwindow.com/exit.php?url_id=961&amp;entry_id=105" title="http://www.terryscomputertips.com/powweb.html" onmouseover="window.status='http://www.terryscomputertips.com/powweb.html';return true;" onmouseout="window.status='';return true;">Powweb</a> bring back their special offer from a few months ago! I continue to be amazed at the phenomenal deal on web hosting at my webhost. At that time, I renewed my package for 2 years.<br />
<br />
They have been offering a fantastic package that included <b>5GB storage</b> and up to <b>10GB throughput <i>per day</i></b>. Compare those numbers to the ones you see from other web hosting companies. <br />
<br />
Their package includes FrontPage Extensions, email (POP3, SMTP and Webmail, and up to 650 email accounts), Perl, PHP, MySQL, daily backups, and a lot more. All this for the average price of $7.77 per month ($93.24 per year, prepaid). <br />
<br />
The special deal is <b><i>with purchase of 1 year's web hosting, you get 6 extra months of free hosting. With the 2 year package, you get 14 extra months free hosting. </i></b>You even get your domain name free for one or two year period, depending on which length package you buy.<br />
<br />
There is also a "coupon code" that you can use in addition to the extra months special. Type <b>"take5" in the coupon code field</b> of the signup form to get $5 off your web hosting purchase at <a href="http://www.thenextwindow.com/exit.php?url_id=961&amp;entry_id=105" title="http://www.terryscomputertips.com/powweb.html" onmouseover="window.status='http://www.terryscomputertips.com/powweb.html';return true;" onmouseout="window.status='';return true;">Powweb</a> .<br />
<br />
Check out <a href="http://www.thenextwindow.com/exit.php?url_id=961&amp;entry_id=105" title="http://www.terryscomputertips.com/powweb.html" onmouseover="window.status='http://www.terryscomputertips.com/powweb.html';return true;" onmouseout="window.status='';return true;">Powweb</a> for their great deal on web hosting. Don't put up with the size, speed and functionality limitations of your free account at your ISP any longer. <br />
<br />

It sure is nice of the Sci-Fi Channel to use a totally different "season" than the broadcast channels. Actually they do an interesting style season – they split in half and effectively have two mini-seasons each year.<br />
<br />
Tomorrow, Friday July 15th, is the start of a new season (the first mini-season of the year) for Stargate SG-1, Stargate Atlantis and Battlestar Galactica.<br />
<br />
Stargate SG-1 (Season 9), Stargate Atlantis (Season 2) and Battlestar Galactica (Season 2) return to the Friday night lineup. Warm up your VCRs and get your tapes ready. If you've got a <a href="http://www.thenextwindow.com/exit.php?url_id=550&amp;entry_id=106" title="http://www.terrystockdale.com/htpc/htpc_1.shtml" onmouseover="window.status='http://www.terrystockdale.com/htpc/htpc_1.shtml';return true;" onmouseout="window.status='';return true;">home theater PC</a>, get ready to record.<br />

Routine last minute checks of the Shuttle resulted in a cancellation of today's launch of Space Shuttle Discovery. No announcement yet on when Discovery will be scheduled to take off. It could be as early as tomorrow.<br />
<br />
The problem was a faulty fuel tank sensor — a low-level cutoff switch — was diagnosed during the routine pre-launch testing. This was one of the standard checklist items for pre-launch. <br />
<br />
Of course, we all want the launch, flight and recovery to go well. While the delay is disappointing, I am completely comfortable with delaying the launch for an identified problem.<br />
<br />

Liftoff of Space Shuttle Discovery on NASA's Return to Flight Mission is scheduled for 3:51 p.m. EDT July 13.<br />
<br />
There was surprise and worry today when a window cover fell off the Shuttle and struck a panel 65 feet lower on the Shuttle. Workers quickly located a replacement panel and installed it. <br />
<br />
Although the event slightly delayed the rollback of the pad's Rotating Service Structure, there are no additional delays expected.<br />
<br />
NASA is featuring extensive launch day coverage of the Space Shuttle Discovery's Return to Flight mission (STS-114). The prelaunch webcast, schedules and mission coverage are available on the Web at: <a href="http://www.thenextwindow.com/exit.php?url_id=499&amp;entry_id=103" title="http://www.nasa.gov/returntoflight" onmouseover="window.status='http://www.nasa.gov/returntoflight';return true;" onmouseout="window.status='';return true;">http://www.nasa.gov/returntoflight</a>.<br />
<br />
Live launch coverage begins at 10 a.m. EDT, July 13. NASA will update its Virtual Launch Control Center during launch countdown coverage. NASA portal coverage of the mission includes webcasts of all NASA TV coverage, updated status reports, features and personality profiles. The media resources section contains detailed information about the mission, including safety improvements to the Shuttle.<br />
<br />
You can watch NASA-TV live on the Internet. You can access this coverage from <a href="http://www.thenextwindow.com/exit.php?url_id=500&amp;entry_id=103" title="http://www.nasa.gov/ntv" onmouseover="window.status='http://www.nasa.gov/ntv';return true;" onmouseout="window.status='';return true;">http://www.nasa.gov/ntv</a>. RealPlayer or Windows Media Player are needed for the streamed NASA-TV.<br />