wow. not surprising tho. On NBC news last night, they were talking about how the Chinese have been training for months how to appear to the public, and changing their image so they will present a good image of themselves. So they are changing how they dress, how they act, etc......which is just silly, because then the image all the tourists are seeing of the Chinese isn't even accurate. I don't get their thinking at all.

When I saw it, it was a short interview with Bob Costas. Bob's also had interviews with Bella Korreli (sp), the fencing team, other athletes, etc....I don't think interviews with Bush are taking away from the games.

I think it's nice that he is there. Like it or not, we need the Chinese. I wish there was some way we can get ourselves out of that situation. But until then, I think him going will speak volumes to the Chinese people. It probably doesn't matter to the Chinese Gov't if he was there or not - but to have the Chinese people look favorably on us, is good. Maybe that will mean that some chinese people will want to come to America someday and really open their minds to what we are and what we believe. The Chinese people are completely brainwashed. They were so shocked and surprised at the riots that broke out as the torch was going around. They have no idea why the world might be unhappy with them, and so if their gov't and news had chosen to make a big deal out of Bush not coming - that would have been much worse to breed that ill-will with the people. I'm reading a fascinating book right now called River Town, about an American teacher with the Peace Corps who lived in a chinese town on the Yangtze for 2 years. The level of brainwashing the students undergo is amazing. I don't think we have any idea how bad the situation in China really is for them. So for us to sit back and say 'our gov't should do this and this and shouldn't do this'.....I think we're forgetting about the 1.3 billion people who are being ruled by a government that really doesn't speak for them, and to try and punish that gov't, could make things worse for those people. We've allowed ourselves to get into a bad situation with China and it's going to take time to try and fix it, if we can at all. Did anyone watch the Inside China story ABC news did last week? I wouldn't be surprised if China starts trying to take over countries in a few more years and there won't be much anyone will do about it at first.

I think the actual live events are live in the Eastern time zone.

nbcolympics.com has a bunch of videos of everything. Video Link If you scroll down on the side of the video links and click 'most popular', the US men 4x100 comes up. If you click on 'medal ceremonies' you can also watch their ceremony. That was an awesome race. I just watched again even though I watched it live last night!

I know - we aren't watching them either. I don't care if it's 'beach wear'.....that much skin is not acceptable in this house!!

I agree. I read the Spiritual Disciplines book by Richard Foster a few years ago and it was so good! It was really neat learning about the ancient traditions and saints. Very inspiring and spiritual.

what is with that? We're all sick here, too. It seems like we've gotten it the past couple of summers - I don't ever remember getting sick in the summer before.

That definition isn't the same among Protestants, either. We are not in the OSAS camp, and still have a bit of company. But we're finding ourselves really drawing away from the 'pray this prayer to be saved'.....and it does feel a little bit lonely with that POV in protestant-land. I think 'being saved' is much more of a balance between works/grace than most protestants would like to admit. I think a lot of it has to do with the church using 'believe' in a passive form, instead of using the term 'becoming a disciple' or something similar. Believing in a set of historical facts does not make you a christian for the rest of your life. :001_huh: We really want to emphasize 'counting the cost' for our kids and if you are going to follow Jesus, then actually do it to the best of your ability, or don't bother. Be hot or cold - lukewarm christianity really is only good enough to vomit out. I don't know why I typed all of that out - just another bunny trail on the thread I guess :lol: Since I'm down the trail, I'm going to add one more thing :tongue_smilie: Earlier in the thread someone mentioned the real first thanksgiving and I just wanted to mention a book. I'm starting to find more unbiased factual information from regular non-fiction books than from textbooks. Even though, I'm sure the authors still have their own bias. But anyways - I just read A Voyage Long and Strange about 'American' history between Columbus and the Mayflower - it follows the spanish conquistidors and everything - very fascinating and enlightening.

I feel dirty :tongue_smilie: I have Flames of Rome and love it. The author teaches at our university and I got to meet him and he signed a copy.....I would love to take a class from him but it's so expensive even to audit it. I haven't read it with a kid in mind, since mine are obviously way too young. But I'm very, very cautious in what I read....I don't know if I'm just not remembering the bad stuff, or if it didn't bother me b/c it was so historically accurate or what. I can see parents not wanting their kids to read something like that, but I'm surprised at how many parents didn't like it for themselves. Like I said, I feel dirty :001_huh: and now I want to go read the book again :lol:

ditto to what everyone else has said! We spend nothing on anything extra besides bills - except for Netflix. We love it. We only have the 1 movie at a time plan, so that's kind of a pain, but they are so fast it's not too bad. They just have so many movies, it's amazing.

I am not into football at all, except for rooting for our poor underdogs, the Lions :D but I have avidly hated the Packers since jr. high..........and this has made me such a fan of theirs. Dh finds this very funny. I caught a snippet of sports radio a month ago and they were talking about the timeline of when Favre retired and changed his mind and changed his mind and changed his mind again and again, often within days of each other and how he strung the Packers along...........I think it is just awesome that they didn't give in to His Highness, the Ego, and stood their ground. I love it.

if you get firefox and the adblocker add-on, you don't have any ads on Facebook!!

I usually tear a brown lunch bag in half, so that it's open and use that. Parchment paper is a little pricey, I think.

I think it would be a great experience. I wish I would have been able to do it. I got to spend 2 weeks in France, and I wish I could have done a semester. My brother studied abroad a lot - Paris, Denmark, and traveled all over Europe. He just graduated college a year or so ago, and had such good experiences with studying abroad and planning his own way instead of using the way overpriced programs through the school, that he started his own study abroad company - Panrimo.

It was supposed to be today but it got bumped to tomorrow, Aug 6th. SCC blog

the majority of assaults on kids come from people they know, not strangers. I don't think having your kids ages on them is going to pose as big of a danger as the media would like to make us think.

what a great idea! I've wanted to do something similar with some of my art stuff and some of the kid's art projects on Moo cards, but could never find a good reason to buy them. Now you've given me perfect justification :lol:

that's what I was afraid of with this one. I read reviews of Rome, and yikes! I'll have to add JA to my queue!

oh yum! I'm so jealous that you have the space to store them! I'm dreaming and hoping for a space to have a chest freezer and a nice pantry...hopefully we'll get the house we want soon. It stinks having to buy frozen berries from around the world most of the year long :glare:

I've been interested in watching this, but have been wary since it's HBO - how is the content of the movie - sex, swearing???

firefox with adblocker. It's fantastic!!

although, once you get away from processed foods, your taste buds do adjust and real food does taste good and processed food, not so much. Although I still love me some chips and cheetos :001_smile: My dh does ask for the nasty store bought tomatoes. He says the real ones are so flavorful, they overpower his sandwich :lol: My kids were at the in-laws the other day and they made grilled cheese sandwiches, with the kraft individual slices. It was embarrassing - they didn't like it and made comments about how bready and yucky it was :glare: Which they got in trouble for :tongue_smilie: But I was secretly glad - they used to love those sandwiches. And now, we make them with real cheese, and they are so much cheesier. I was impressed to see their tastes changing already.

I agree. I think part of it, too, is that people don't really know much about nutrition. They don't want to or don't know how to take the time to learn, so when a cereal company advertises it's cereal as 'healthy' b/c they added omega 3's - they buy it thinking they are healthy, when really they are far from it, and could get their omega 3's from flax, easier and cheaper, and more of it. Magazines with their articles about health and nutrition and diets and recipes do not help at all. I think they make the problem even worse. And I understand their dilemma - trying to write an article on truly healthy food, while thier pages are filled with ads for fake food, is a delicate balance. It's just a shame people take all of this stuff for fact instead of digging in and doing their own research on what nutrition and healthy foods really are.

:iagree: Michael Pollan makes this point in his book In Defense of Food, as well. I think as time goes on and other countries start to adapt the western diet, they will be more diet/food conscious as well, b/c they get the same health issues. I think the biggest reason is b/c most of our food is fake and processed and loaded with chemicals and toxins, and people don't exercise anymore. People don't want to take the time to prepare and eat real food, so they're trying to be healthy without doing the hard work needed to truly be healthy.