THIS LITTLE STONE
by Daniel Pitner

This Little Stone
It wades in the river.
The Water rushing across its surface
Making it smooth, and refined.

One day, scooped up from its bed,
It’s tossed against the waves;
Bouncing against the current-
No control and blind.

—

A storm is brewing,
And the heavens begin to circle.
Darkness falls
And rain pours down.

Lightening crashes
Against the water.
And into the water this little stone sinks
To the river’s lowest ground.

—

This little stone,
So little and frail,
To no avail it waits
In the deep dark water.

So deep that
No light can reach it.
It sits in the abyss
Where it’s colder than hotter.

—

On the surface it’s chaos,
But in the deep it’s still.
The Blackness is empty,
Yet peaceful and tranquil.

Fathoms below where the sky touches the water,
This  little stone abides.
Safe from the tides and winds above.
Here time seems unreal.

—

But once upon a time,
Maybe eons later,
A lone fish scavenges for  food;
Eating in mass.

It scoops up algae,
Along with dirt and gravel.
This little stone trades dark water
for the belly of a bass.

—

The fish carries the stone
Higher and higher.
Against some force
The fish tried and fought.

But this little stone’s time in the water
Was coming to a close.
The fish arose out from the water.
By a fisherman it was caught.

—

He takes his catch home,
This fisherman,
Thinking about how he
Might prepare his dinner.

Unaware of
This little stone’s troubles,
Or that it was even
In his tenure.

—

And so he filleted his catch
With experienced  skill.
Still, this fisherman noticed
Something is odd.

What’s this?
A rock?
A little stone
Buried in fish and sod.

—

He pulled out the rock,
This fisherman did; cleaning off all the muck.
The slime, the grime, the filth and dirt.
He washed this little stone over an old bucket.

And as he scrubbed and polished
His eyes could not believe the sight.
This wasn’t some ordinary stone,
But a bright gold nugget.

—

What could he buy, this fisherman wondered.
He was richer than the day before;
Pondering all the many things,
All the  possibilities he had in store.

So he put this little stone
In his shirt pocket,
Where it was dark like the water;
Unsure what is would be used for.

—

So this fisherman went back to the river
to catch the new day’s meal.
This little stone sat quiet in his pocket
As he caught many more fish.

Day after day in the dark,
This little stone traveled with this fisherman,
Wondering what would become of it.
With this little stone this fisherman could buy a big delicious dish.

—

As time passed on this fisherman grew old,
But never did he spend the gold.
Within his pocket it rested,
Between his heartbeat and stitches sewn.

Safe in the dark of soft linen,
Where it would never again be alone.
It was much too precious to this fisherman to sell,
So he kept it all his days, this little stone.

© 2010 Daniel Pitner. All Rights Reserved.

Daniel Pitner is now 100% open for business. In light of the recent demand for my work, I have decided to begin taking design requests. Hurry though to get your name on the list, as it is growing on a weekly basis.

If you, or someone you know has a business in need of web presence or maybe just wants a personal website, tell them to go to http://www.danielpitner.com where I will be happy to make their web dreams come true.

Hope to hear from you soon!

I would like to take just a moment to spell out my ever-evolving beliefs I find to be the most pressing in my life currently.

CHRISTIANITY I believe in God the Father, The Holy Spirit, and His Son, Jesus Christ who came and shed his blood for the remission of my own sins, as well as the worlds. It is as much a personal thing as it is universal.

THE HOLY BIBLE I believe in the stories told from the beginning with Adam and Eve clear through to the book of Revelation. I believe all of it. I also believe there are misinterpretations peppered throughout the Protestant movement. This isn’t said to discount those things, but merely to say that there are portions of the Bible that are subject to a person’s interpretation.

(more…)

W3C is investigating if a font embedding solution for the Web is possible that is compatible with ‘@font-face’ and based on EOT. This report summarizes the discussion so far.

Source: http://www.w3.org/

Quick Preface
Those who know me, know that I could never claim to be perfect, or even close to perfect. However, I do believe in God. I do believe that Jesus Christ died on the cross for our sins, and I have accepted and acknowledge Him as my savior.

(more…)

In celebration of the new look and feel of the blog I figured I should write up a post to kick it off right; a post about aliens. Now I know this can be a touchy subject with Christians; are they real or not? But, since I was a kid I’ve always been fascinated with extra-terrestrials and the big budget Hollywood flicks about them. My first “alien” experience was of course ‘Star Wars‘. In this timeless classic there are more alien races to keep up with than there are pages in the script. And since that summer in 1977 the Star Wars universe has expanded beyond even Lucas’ imagination (which honestly isn’t all that great nowadays). Each race and species has its own unique qualities, and their temperament is no exception either. From the barbaric wookie down to the odd desert dwelling Jawas. Aliens are thoroughly seasoned in the Star Wars universe, hostile, friendly and everything in between.

(more…)

She called all of her Democrat neighbors together and said, ‘If we plant this wheat, we shall have bread to eat. Who will help me plant it?’
‘Not I,’ said the cow.
‘Not I,’ said the duck.
‘Not I,’ said the pig.
‘Not I,’ said the goose.
‘Then I will do it by myself,’ said the little red hen, and so she did.   The wheat grew very tall and ripened into golden grain.

‘Who will help me reap my wheat?’ asked the little red hen.
‘Not I,’ said the duck..
‘Out of my classification,’ said the pig.
‘I’d lose my seniority,’ said the cow.
‘I’d lose my unemplo yment compensation,’ said the goose.
‘Then I will do it by myself,’ said the little red hen, and so she did.

At last it came time to bake the bread.
‘Who will help me bake the bread?’ asked the little red hen.
‘That would be overtime for me,’ said the cow.
‘I’d lose my welfare benefits,’ said the duck.
‘I’m a dropout and never learned how,’ said the pig.
‘If I’m to be the only helper, that’s discrimination,’ said the goose.
‘Then I will do it by myself,’ said the little red hen.

She baked five loaves and held them up for all of her neighbors to see.  They wanted some and, in fact, demanded a share. But the little red hen said, ‘No, I shall eat all five loaves.’
‘Excess profits!’ cried the cow. (Nancy Pelosi)
‘Capitalist leech!’ screamed the duck. (Barbara Boxer)
‘I demand equal rights!’ yelled the goose. (Jesse Jackson)
The pig just grunted in disdain. (Ted Kennedy)
And they all painted ‘Unfair!’ picket signs and marched around and around the little red hen, shouting obscenities.

Then the farmer (Obama) came. He said to the little red hen, ‘You must not be so greedy.’
‘But I earned the bread,’ said the little red hen.
‘Exactly,’ said Barack the farmer. ‘That is what makes our free enterprise system so wonderful. Anyone in the barnyard can earn as much as he wants. But under our modern government regulations, the productive workers must divide the fruits of their labor with those who are lazy and idle.’
And they all lived happily ever after, including the little red hen, who smiled and clucked, ‘I am grateful, for now I truly understand.’

But her neighbors became quite disappointed in her. She never again baked bread because she joined the ‘party’ and got her bread free. And all the Democrats smiled. ‘Fairness’ had been established.
Individual initiative had died, but nobody noticed; perhaps no one cared…so long as there was free bread that ‘the rich’ were paying for.

EPILOGUE
Bill Clinton is getting $12 million for his memoirs.
Hillary got $8 million for hers.
That’s $20 million for the memories from two people, who for eight years, repeatedly testified, under oath, that they couldn’t remember anything.

IS THIS A GREAT BARNYARD OR WHAT?

Here’s a topic to just put out in cyber-space; Self-Destruction. I find myself at times quite self-destructive in my day-to-day. What is self-destruction? How does Webster define it?

Self-destruction
Self`-de*struc”tion\, n. The destruction of one’s self; self-murder; suicide. –Milton.
Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.

But I’m not talking about suicide here. I’m talking about decision-making, behavior, actions, cause and result. Doing, saying, thinking, or all of the above, and it leading you further down the path of self-destruction. Again, this brings us back to what self-destruction is. It seems to me that there are several variables that must be considered in order to determine one’s level of self-destruction.

• Do I believe in God or a higher power?
• If not, where do I inherit my moral compass?
• Do I have a moral compass?
• If so, what is it that is compromising my direction?
• Do I want to get better, or do I choose to self-destruct?

I think this is a good list to get one started on the journey of trying to figure out if you are indeed on a path of self-destruction. Allow me to approach each question one at a time. (more…)

Thanks to the coaxing of Jefrey at work, we decided to take our lunch break and drive over to the Knox St. Apple Store so I could purchase the new iPhone. When we got there at approximately 1:30 pm there was a line wrapping around the building. Needless to say that brought the spirit of the trip down a notch or two. So we got in line out in the Texas heat at around 100ºF. Eventually we called Sarvin at work and, after driving down a one-way street, finally made it and got in line. Jefrey already had his phone so He decided to head back to the office. When it was all said and done we had waited in line nearly three hours!

So I got the 16GB white one, and it is amazing. I drove home yesterday and used the GPS built in and watched myself drive all the way from Dallas to Waxahachie. It tracked me the whole way. You can add as many apps as your heart desires and the new Mobile Me functionality makes keeping track of contacts a cinch. I guess my favorite feature is the fact that it comes with a key to get the SIM card out. I love this because I gave Mary my other iPhone and all I had to do was pop her SIM card from her other phone in and activate it via iTunes.

With the new firmware comes vast improvements such as the overall volume of the phone, the ability to bulk edit/delete contacts, and so on. I’m extremely happy with it, and would definitely recommend this to anyone and everyone. It’s almost like having a Mac in your pocket. Who could resist that!?!

So I was at the Mac store at Knox St. getting my new iPhone 3G when I saw the SPORE Creature Creator for only $9.95. It’s actually just the starter kit so you can start building your creature for the full release coming in September of 2008. I got it home and absolutely loved it! You can create your creature with so many options it seems almost endless. Body style, height, width, tails, eyes, legs, “graspers”, feet, hands, feathers, flowers, weapons, mating calls, and texture; the possiblites are endless!

This game has been at least five years in the making and comes from the famous creators of the SIMS franchise. It’s of course, published by the big EA and Maxis. You can learn more about it by going to www.spore.com.

It’s amazing with all of the FPS and Third-Person Shooters out there that I’m so fond of such as Halo, Metal Gear Solid 4, and the whole Tom Clancy franchise, that I am really enjoying this sim. Even though all you can do so far is create, animate, and share, it’s still worth the ten bucks. It’s rated E for everyone so I think every home with a computer (preferably a Mac, but that’s just my opinion) should own this title. It’ll get the creative juices flowing in you and your kids.

Jemima - Mary helped me with this one

This is Spardica