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Archive for July, 2007

Long time readers of BON and my old blog will remember a college friend of mine named Eric who is an officer in the U.S. Army.  I was on his email distribution list when he was in Iraq and I and posted all of his letters on my two blogs.  He was actually injured by a car bomb back on Aug 1, 2005 and was sent home to heal.  Here’s a picture of him after the car bomb.

I actually have a picture of both of us together when he had a layover at DFW, but for the life of me I just can’t find the darn thing.

Well, I just got word from him that he’s heading back to Iraq.   As he writes, I’ll make sure to post his letters as soon as I get them.  His first letter is after the jump.

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Well, they decided to you my pic afterall:

Hi Keith,I am delighted to let you know that your submitted photo has been selected for inclusion in the newly released third edition of our Schmap Dallas Guide:

“I said, ‘Uncle, what’s this?’ And he said, ‘That’s for my telephone.’ That’s when I realized he was still leasing his phone from AT&T,” she said. “He got that phone in 1952, and he’s paying $4.42 a month for it, every month.”

Right away, she said, she picked up the gold receiver and dialed the customer service number on the bill to cancel the service. The friendly operator on the other end attempted to dissuade her, offering her uncle a 20 percent discount off his monthly rental fee and reminding York of the benefits of leasing.

“She said that if something goes wrong with that phone, they’d have a new one here the next business day,” she recalled. “I was thinking to myself, ‘If something goes wrong with that phone, I’ll go to Wal-Mart and get one the next day.’ But I didn’t say it.” She just told the representative to cancel the lease, and then she drove to a local dollar-discount store and bought her Uncle Lloyd a new wall phone for $7. It plugged right in to the old connection and worked like a charm.

York said it troubles her that elderly people like her uncle get taken advantage of. The monthly lease doesn’t seem like a lot of money, she said, but it adds up.

Attempts on Friday afternoon to reach AT&T’s corporate headquarters in San Antonio were unsuccessful. A call to the company’s leasing service headquarters in Florida resulted in several minutes of listening to a recorded on-hold message explaining the advantages of leasing a telephone. These included the next-day replacement service cited by York, as well as assurances that a leased phone will have “a real bell ringer” and be hearing aid-compatible. In addition, said the recording, “You can be assured that your lease supports jobs right here in the good old U.S. of A!” There is also a “lease rewards card” that offers discounts on prescriptions and hearing aids.

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The iMultiMix 8 USB is a sturdy, compact all-in-one tabletop mixer and recorder that features 100 studio grade 28–bit digital effects, a built–in limiter to avoid distorted recordings and an integrated iPod dock with control wheel transport controls for fast, easy direct–to–iPod recording.

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Then don’t watch this:

Dedicated to HeyJules.

In 1970, U.S. CEO’s were paid 28 times more than the average worker.

In 2005, U.S. CEO’s were paid 465 times more than the average worker.

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You can use this to make this:

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According to this source, it’s 646 calories per slice.  Here’s the breakdown for the whole pizza:

Developed with Microsoft, Ford Sync offers a new level of communications and entertainment convenience. Sync lets users control and personalize their electronic devices in their vehicle.

In short, a Ford vehicle can sync with your iPod, cell phone, or whatever else.

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The small cottages designed to replace FEMA trailers after Hurricane Katrina are popular, so popular that Lowe’s has decided to offer them in their stores.

“We had so many requests that the company decided to make them available nationwide,” said Chris Ahearn, spokeswoman for Lowe’s at the company’s Mooresville, N.C., corporate office, told the Contra Costa Times.

Katrina Cottage plans can be purchased from Lowe’s for $700, with the lowest priced “building kit” starting at $17,000. The kit includes all the materials needed for the construction of the cottage. More upscale customers can choose more upscale finishes.

The cottages are cute and come in a variety of styles and sizes from 1.5-5 bedrooms. Lowe’s says people have been using them as vacation homes, guest houses, and, yes regular homes, too.

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An artificial big toe found on the foot of an ancient Egyptian mummy could be the world’s earliest functional fake body part, UK experts believe.

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Here’s a first: someone managed to attach a working camera onto this gun. That’s not all, users can swap out the lenses for ultra zoom shots.

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Note:  Not everything is a dollar. 

For instance, this talking Jesus will set you back $11 and this Christian monster truck will set you back $15.

http://view.break.com/337464 – Watch more free videos

We thought it might be fun to experiment with some new, grass-roots, technology-enhanced “word-of-mouth” advertising techniques. Thus… we’re having a “Cheesy YouTube Video Contest” for our fall kick-off this year. This year’s fall kick-off is happening September 9th

Here’s how it works:

Make a video that promotes the Vineyard’s September 9th service in some way.

Submit your video to our YouTube group

Get lots and lots of people you know to watch and rate your video (YouTube has a built in rating system of 1 to 5 stars).

This is a REAL contest with REAL prize money! If your video winds up with the highest rating, then you could win $500!

Prizes:

1st Prize – $500
2nd Prize – $300
3rd Prize – $200

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