Where do we draw the line????

As I sit here this morning, enjoying my coffee and thinking about my day, I see once again, the world has not disappointed me. I expect it to surprise me and astonish me... perhaps at times even disgust me and it has come through on all counts again. With Spring here and weather more perfect than I could ask for, I was prepared to sit and write about Spring. And then, something grabbed my attention that made my Spring write pale in it's presence.
Enter "Rapeplay."Yep, you read it right. THIS is the newest game to be introduced by the world. Japan has created and announced the animated game that allows you to be a rapist and in order to WIN, you must plan, attack, rape and then convince a woman to abort the child. If you do not complete every task, you are tossed in front of a train by your victim.
I sit an stare at the words I have written here and think "Really? Someone created a game of such vile disgust, a role play that promotes an act so heinous that we shudder at the very thought? I am reminded very quickly that the Bible says that in the End Days, anything man can imagine, he will be able to create. That Satan will be leashed on us and the anti-Christ will try to destroy all that is good and right. Do we need go much further than THIS!?!?!? IS it possible that we, as a people will truly allow a game that will teach our kids, some possible up and coming rapist and some that need only a little encouragement or Practice to follow through?
What we, as a people have the ability and the responsibility to do, one human to another, is to make certain that this game or anything even close to it, Never, Ever be allowed to be sold. Ban it and go to those that designed this game and take away their rights and ability to ever create another game. We must send a message that THIS is NOT O.k. And that we will NOT sit back and watch this game touch the lives of our people. I can not convey to you the depth of how my mind and heart feel, knowing that a game like this was even "Imagined", let alone that it was made.
We live today in a world that watches violence as a past time on our televisions. We seek out the worst horror movies and the scariest and filthiest movies, because we have become bored with the "you shoot, I shoot him" shows that are available today. We want MORE, More!!!! I am certain, beyond doubt, that if you had an arena, placed 3 or 4 randomly selected "Christians" in the center, added a lion or two and let the battle one another, you would fill the arena daily. Might even have to add a second show in the evening to accommodate all of the people that I Know would go to be a spectator. That is where the level of "what is hot" is today. If you think for one second that if Rapeplay is released, no one will buy it then you are sadly mistaken. It would sell and then, we would have people learning how best to Rape!
Ask yourself if you want your children, your brother or sister, your friends down- loading a game that will show them and allow them to hone up on their rape skills? Where do we draw the line as to what is going to be part of our world? What takes something to place that it is NOT Allowed? I hope your answer is This Game. I can only say this! Please just say NO to this disgusting game. Your mothers, daughters, sisters, friends will become the victims of this horrible game if it is allowed to surface! Do Not Allow this to happen. It might not be "just a game" one day.

Looking for extra income? I know right where to send you.

Survey sites that DO Pay!!!! My Proof...
Yes,yes, I know, you have tried them before and they aren't worth the time. Well today, I want to try and show you that it IS worth the time. I have been doing surveys a very long time. I have seen the Good, the Bad and the Oh believe me when I say... The Uglies! I spent many hours doing surveys, weeks of opening and closing and waiting to reach that "cash out" point only to find that the site was a scam.
"Oops, we are sorry, you "sneezed" wrong and so we are cancelling your account." OUCH!!! Through trial and error and good friends, I found a few that pay out and pay out nicely. Today, in a semi-self serving and reaching out to help moment, I am going to share some proof of a few sites that have helped greatly in my quest to do my Summer vacations and Christmas shopping. Now understand that if anyone reading this is a millionaire or even a "thousandaire" if that word exists, and simply doesn't need extra money, pleaseeeee, send it to me. ;)I can always use an extra 20.00 or 50.00.
Yessssss, I know... I could have just planted the proof and gone away but the truth is I love to write and take every opportunity to do so. So please, bare with me as i prove to you that this time next year, you could be blessing a lot of people with gifts that cost YOU nothing. That's a Christmas gift all in itself. As I post these sites, I ask only that you do one thing for me. Use the URL's that I add here to sign up under me. That way, we both get a gift from this. The Pics at the top of this blog show the proof. The Urls are down here. Please don't let this pass you by. What a blessing these sites were for me at this giving time of ">year.http://www.treasuretrooper.com/385263
This next one, the only way to get recognition for you joining under me is to add your e-mail to my referral. I will simply show you the payouts minus the name. If you wish to join, contact me, please.

Opinion Points Redeemed # Request Date Sent Points Redeemed Cash Value
1 12/8/2008 In Process 500 $50.00
2 11/24/2008 12/1/2008 100 $10.00
3 10/10/2008 11/3/2008 300 $30.00
4 09/6/2008 10/15/2008 50 $5.00

SurveySpot... There ARE more but for now, just imagine that these are only one month of pay and only for these three. Even at this amount per month, you would be putting nearly 70.00 away per month times 12 equals 840.00 at Christmas time. Can you use some of that? I hope so. Please check these sites out and get ready to have a "out of pocket free" Christmas next year. From me to you. Darrel

Strength in family...

This topic has been on my heart for many years and it is more important as well as potent than almost any matter we face today.
I can only write this by means of what I have been taught and learned over the years. Satan and the world has long sought ways to separate the family dwellings. The reason is, to take away the strength that is in the many. In order for the world to control us and Satan to reach each person, there had to be a separation of family ties. The strongest part of the family has always been the dinner table. It is where we find out what our children are doing and who they are seeing as friends. The world knew that if they could separate the family, they could gain control of the children and cause a gap in the ties that make a family strong.
The T.V. is said to be one of the greatest invention of our time. I say it was and remains the most destructive invention ever created. The T.V. tray became the place of choice to eat our meals. No longer were questions and conversations about what our children are doing asked. No more would we laugh together at our happenings or know what classes our children were taking, passing, failing. The conversation was replaced with the words "hush, I want to hear this part" or "I am trying to watch this show!" Our children follow our lead and when we get too involved in something other than their lives, they will take it elsewhere. The cost of t.v. taking the place of our children is immeasurable. The price is way too high and the loss too large to even imagine.
Strength is always more effective in numbers and as we watch the breakdown of our family ties, we are in fact witnessing the fall of our future. Satan is winning and we are losing the most precious gift of all. The computer has come to us amidst the already unstable structure of our families and added more separation. To have to walk into a computer room to have a conversation with our children is a sad state of affairs. It is just one more wall being built between us and our family. If we lose contact with our children and our family, then we lose everything precious to us. We need Discipline. We can take our children back. We can become strong as a family again. But first, we have to choose to do so. We must weigh the facts and find where we are lacking and then, shut the t.v. off or close down the computer if we are to regain our place as a family.
Can we reverse this fall? Can we become a family as it was meant to be? You would find, I believe, that your children would be most responsive to the change. They yearn for our attention and grow from our actions. We do have the power to make our family what it was before we had t.v. and computers. We must choose to do this because our home is not the only place that suffers for our separation from the dinner table. The whole country is truly at stake when we choose to watch a show over listening and talking with our family. No one will starve while waiting for the entire family to sit down. If a show is THAT important to you, record it and watch it after you have spent time with your family. You will find that you didn't miss a thing on t.v. And if you must turn the t.v. on then watch a family show that it is ok for your children to talk and ask questions during. You might learn something new about your kids AND yourself. It is up to You.

Balancing the Scale...

Spring has Sprung... I think. Sixty degrees when I went to bed and snow on the ground when I woke. Sounds like Spring to me. Well, at least in Iowa, U.S.A. So, I do the balancing act, as I do every year. I rush to get things done when it is nice and then huddle in the warmth of the house when the nasty weather rears it's head again. While thinking about this, I had another thought. Isn't that really what I do with my Life? Try and balance the good and the bad, while trying to process what makes me a good or bad person?
I look back through my life and try so hard to see the "good" man that many have tried to show me. As a youngster, I surrounded myself with those "less fortunate" than me. That is not to say I had More. It is writing of a time when I was my blind Brothers eyes and I made friends with kids that had any and every physical affliction one could imagine. My father was sometimes leery of opening the front door because he wasn't sure who would be standing there. Would it be the deaf kid from next door? Maybe it was the kid that was born without a nose, save the two holes that made up the center of his face. He might even find the boy that was born with one breast that grew like a girls while the other stayed flat like a boys. Whether they were blind, crippled, slower in thought or just Different in some way from other kids, they made up the group I hung with and called my friends. Money nor material things meant nothing to them. Friendship was the most valuable commodity and sadly sometimes, the most easily traded.
I played the balancing act in those days too. I would slip away to the river to meet friends that had No afflictions from time to time. But the two worlds rarely met and when they did, they simply were not compatible. I grew up following the same pattern. One side of my world, being a hero and the other side of the Spectrum, I was "freak" because no one could understand why I would hang with kids that were so unlike me. Was I a good kid or was I merely someone that felt more comfortable with kids that depended on me, looked up to me and appreciated me just for being there? I am still processing that one after 45 years.
Enter, present day. I think my father is still a little afraid to open my front door. He might still find someone standing there with afflictions that make them unacceptable or at the very least, avoidable by the rest of the world. Still trying to balance my life but now, it is for a different reason. I am trying to decipher of I am a good man or a not so good man that surrounds himself with reasons to look good to others.I want to believe so badly in my heart that the good and kind things I do today are because I simply have a good heart. I want to feel inside that I Have reached out to those "less fortunate" because of a love that was instilled in my soul many, many years ago and not because I am trying to find a balance in my life.
DO I Make any sense to you at all??? Welcome to my little world of Bipolar and uncertainties. Of black and white and Grey and Abstract thoughts. What truly gives cause to someone, anyone, calling me a good man? I have hidden from the world a often as I could. I have loved and left and have cheated on hearts that loved me simply because I was me. A confusing occurrence all in and of itself. Issues in my life that find me driving to the Lake, early on a calm, dark Spring morning, to sit, headlights on the river in front of me, and cry. To try and convince myself that I am worthy of the love and the friendships that are part of my daily living. To tell myself that I reach out and help people enough to balance the hurt and pain I cause those that choose to love me. Do the words "Good Man" apply to me, even though I have hurt so may over the years? For every wrong I do, making certain I do something that is right... Is that balancing or do the wrong always weigh more than the good?
I guess that I wonder... can one truly balance the scale once it is loaded with so much sorrow and remorse for causing someone to cry? I wonder...

Abductions and Until Death Do We Meet

Until Death Do We Meet and Abduction
Two powerful novels that will have you wanting to see the next page as quick as you can!!!

eroomservice.com...Modern Furnishings for a modern home.

You just purchased a new home. The beautiful outside says "Modern." Now, you want the inside to say the same thing. At eroomservice.com, you can have exactly that look. The store, located in Philadelphia, Pa has the furnishings you are looking for. Everything from Contemporary dining tables to the finest in authentic European design furniture, eroomservice.com has it all. Starting with your living room, a wonderfully crafted Sharpei Italian Sectional sofa will add modern elegance to your home. Made in Italy with a wooden frame and goose feather down, it's comfort and look will bring modern Italy to your home.
When thinking of your bedroom, you want the finest bed you can find. One that fits the decor of your home, while giving you a peaceful nights rest. The Luxor 905 Modern Bedroom Set is just one of many sets to choose from. This truly modern design even has an optional storage under the bed which is lifted by hydraulics so you can keep the storage hidden if you choose to. Made in Spain, it's unique design sets it apart from other manufactured bedroom suites. With more than fifty bedroom designs to choose from, you can find the suite that suites not only your taste, but the look and feel of your home.
A house isn't a home without a dining room set. Looking for a modern dining set that will accent any fine home, eroomservice.com has the table and chairs for you. Again, only one of many to choose from, the Brooklyn Italian Dining Set may be just what you need to fill out your beautiful home. Bringing warmth and the feel of today into your home, this design, made exclusively in Italy includes a wenge or walnut finished table. The sides fold down to make it fit your room and your needs. Easily lifted into the unfolded style, your table is made to accommodate your family. The chairs are made of sturdy metal for long time use and come in an array of 16 leather colors and two kinds of leather textures. It also comes with a choice of 5 glass table tops, designed to find it's own look that makes your home the "today, right now" Modern style.
For one more reason to shop at eroomservice.com, they also offer furniture at reduced prices. Furniture that is still the beautiful designs that you want for your home. Furnishing that meets and exceeds your expectations at a lower price. At a fraction of the price, you can have the modern feel and look in your home, without taking to much out of your pocket. eroomservice.com is your "everything you need under one roof" store for the modern design that sets your home apart from the rest of the houses. You can find it all right here, at eroomservices.com.

Remembering...

Four years... how quickly they seem to have passed. On this day, four years ago, my entire life was about to change in ways I could not imagine. Something would happen that I truly believed in my heart and soul that I myself would never see. After a long night of sleeplessness, I took my Sheila to the emergency room. Our doctor did all she could to make Sheila comfortable. Morphine was given freely. Hushed chatter was going on in the corner of the room. Still... my mind did Not go where I think so many other minds might have gone. Holding her hand tightly, I looked up at her Doctor. "I am going to send her to Mason City. I can not do anything more here, Darrel." Still, I simply nodded and got ready for the trip to Mason City Hospital as I had done more times then I could remember, over the past 24 years.
In Mason City, we waited for doctors to decide what they were going to do. Hour after hour went by and Sheila and I did what we had always done. We talked in between her drifting in and out from the medications they gave her to keep her from hurting. We talked about nothing and everything. There was no need to talk about anything final because I never, ever had allowed myself to believe that anything other than her getting better and coming home would happen. My faith and belief in God to watch over her was as it always had been. Total and un-wavering.It is how we lived our lives since she had gotten ill, one year after she and I were married. The strongest, most beautiful lady in the world was laying in front of me and I simply waited for the Doctors to say "Take her home... she will be fine."
Four years... It seems like a forever ago sometimes and yet, today, it seems like yesterday. It all comes rushing back to me and I realize that though I have now continued my life and have my family to finish out my life with, Sheila is Still so much a part of everything I have done with my life.
I live with the memories of her beautiful love and her smile that always said "It will be fine, good looking." I remember kissing her as she was wheeled into the operating room at 1a.m., on a windy but promising early morning. I remember seeing all the signs that Spring was peeking it's head in after a long cold winter. Leaves danced around my feet and swirled into the air, like a cat chasing it's own tail. A light jacket was all I needed to step outside and grab a quick smoke. And I remember NOT ever thinking that in an hour or so, Doctors would come to tell me she was going up to recovery and I could see her soon. I see myself, falling to the floor, begging through uncontrolled tears for the surgeon to tell me she was o.k. Asking him if he was sure about what he had just told me! I was certain that he must be wrong! She Always got better... Always. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Four years ago tomorrow, my whole world changed. Life as I knew it would never be the same. My daughter and I would get things together for the memorial. Plants and flowers and cards and people would fill our lives for the next little while. And when it was quiet, we would try to figure out what it was we were supposed to do now. I would begin a journey that would take me through the walk of "If I had taken a moment to think "What if...?" If I had thought for a second that maybe, just maybe, God was going to take away her pain and suffering forever by taking her to heaven to be with him. I live not with things said, but with the words that were Not said. I only said "I love you, forever." Was it enough? Did I show her for ever that I Would love her? Did she know that there was no one in the world that could take me away from her? Does she know that now? I have so much to tell her. I have so much to show her. IS she happy that I have finally moved forward and that love and life are mine to hold again? So many things I would have said and done if I had known that she would Not come home ever again. Can I tell her now???????????????
"I love you, My Sheila. I will always love you. Though life and love have found their way into my heart and life, You are and will Always be my First true love. The memories that are private and only yours and mine will live on forever in my soul. The tears I cry are bitter-sweet. They are for the Love that I was so blessed with for 24 years. They are for the moment you left this world and I realized that nothing would ever look the same in these eyes again. That Spring would burst forth as it always has, and yet... it would not ever feel as it did when you were here. A new Spring is coming. New life and new memories are going to hang on my wall. Laughter and smiles and discoveries will be plentiful. And You, my love, will watch them happen from heaven. Today, tomorrow and forever I love you, And I Miss you as I know I always will. {Just feel it...}"
I write today for memories and the beauty that was my Sheila. And I write for the therapy that it is to my soul. Thank you, to who ever reads this, for being patient and understanding. March 8Th, 2006... my world got a little smaller.

Repairpal.com...the right place to be.

Accidents happen. We all know they do. Finding a reliable auto repair shop that will take care of all of your needs doesn't need to be by accident. At RepairPal, they take the "accident" out of your Auto repairs. Repairpal.com can get you accurate and unbiased estimates for your repairs with just the click of a website key. With their expertise help, you can quickly and efficiently be on your way to having your vehicle repaired and back on the road.
With trusted auto repair shops throughout the San Fransisco area and across California, you can be sure all of your auto repair issues will be met. Repairpal.com/sanfransisco has listings for all of your auto repair needs as well as a list of comments from people just like you and me, showing how easily and professionally their vehicles were taken care of. http://repairpal.com/honda-accord-2001 gives a list of owners complaints and shows you what you should expect to pay for repairs by independent shops that give you up front and honest answers. See what's new at Repairpal.com. The list is fantastic.
Knowledge of the vehicle you drive and what the parts do can help you to understand why a repair is needed. At repairpal.com, you can find the answers to all of your vehicle questions. What does a timing belt do? What is a Valve job and Why am I replacing the water pump? All of these questions are answered for you by experts. Replacing your tires and knowing what to look for when buying them is important. More knowledge equals better price and better quality of the tires you put on your vehicle. Repairpal.com is the key to opening the doors to all of your repair needs and your gateway to a better place to have all your car repairs addressed properly. It is the place for people just like you and me who are looking for more quality in our lives.