I sometimes listen to a local AM news station during my morning drive to work, primarily for traffic information. I got really amused the other day when their lead story wasn't a story at all, yet they had nothing else so they refused to let it go. They built it up -- "Fire in a Senior Assisted Living High Rise in Dallas". They kept us in suspense. Yet when they finally got to the story, it was nothing. One guy had gone to sleep in a chair with a cigarette that had burned some of the upholstery and made a little smoke. He was fine. There was no evacuation - nothing. But it was their lead story, so they had to make us think something terrible had happened.

Do you know that about the media? They feed on sensationalism and controversy. They want to get you upset AND often they want their message told, whether it's true or not.

Take the Iraq war. All the news about it is bad. Yet those of us who have friends or family members there receive all kin ...

I make my living with computers, so it's all right for me to hate them sometimes, okay? Last weekend, probably Sunday night, somebody hacked our servers and took our websites down with a worm. It couldn't have been easy. We're in a professional hosting environment with all the latest security measures in place, and we don't use email servers, or allow any posting by unauthorized people

Fortunately, I had current backups. To make sure we had eliminated any of the threat, we rebuilt two of our servers. It's never so simple as reloading the software, then reloading the data. Over the course of several years, there's a bunch of customized software and settings that goes into place. We have client logins, server SSL certificates, special dll's to perform certain tasks and who knows what else. Sometimes we don't catch it all until a customer complains about some feature not working. I know, I know, we should know and keep up with all of that stuff, but you try it and let me know how to ...

It was cold last night. When I got home, the house was dark. A box of books had arrived from UPS that I needed to autograph and ship to the bookstore in my hometown.

When I went out to greet the dog, I noticed a pile of firewood on the deck. "What a nice night to build a fire, sit at the table in front of it, sign books, then do some of my computer work on the laptop," I thought. So, I built a fire, hauled the books into the kitchen and opened up the laptop. Except for the fact I wasn't drinking coffee and don't look like a TV model, it was a scenario worthy of a TV commercial.

Except:  It took all of five minutes to sign the books, even with me trying to be careful and sign my name legibly. The laptop power cord wouldn't reach any outlets and within 10 minutes, the 6 hour, fully-charged battery was drained and the screen was telling me to save my work or else.  Then the wife came home. "Wh ...

It was my birthday. Saturday night, 1/5/2008, we were at Nathan's house, sitting at their dining table eating pizza using paper towels for plates. The table is one of those heavy, rustic jobs with benches instead of chairs.

There was a motion at my left side. Grandaughter #2, Abby, who will be two next month, was scooting her paper towel, with a slice of pizza and her spillproof cup sitting on it, inch by inch toward me so she could SIT CLOSER!!!

She wasn't doing it to be noticed, because nobody was really watching. She really wanted to be closer to Grandaddy. Talk about capturing a grandaddy's heart!

I was talking with daughter-in-law, Joanna, later about the seven grandchildren. I love seeing the differences in their personalities. From the oldest to the youngest (ages 8 to 2), they all have distinctive personalities. Great kids with great parents.

I turn 60 this month. It doesn't feel like I thought 60 would feel. My mind is still young and full of ideas for the future. My body has a hard time keeping up, but that's because I've abused it more than because of age. Getting back into shape is sure a lot harder than staying it shape. I should have paid more attention years ago.

One of my favorite authors, Donald Miller, wrote something about aging. He said if your life was a book, when you get to a point where you realize there are more pages in your left hand than in your right, you start paying more attention to the pages that are left. And you become very conscious of not wanting the story to end. In some ways I'm like that. I can look back and of course I have a few regrets, but all in all, it has been a pretty good ride. I look ahead and there is still so much I want to do, I don't even think about if I have enough years left or not. I just plan to keep on doing as long as my mind and body will let me.

The first copies of Oxpatch and the Hill - Dixieland Memories are shipping this week. We didn't make it in time for Christmas, but at least we got them out during 2007. This book has been a long time in the making. I think I first started making notes about it fifteen or twenty years ago. When it did come together, it wasn't without a lot of help. I won't review the acknowledgements here--they're all in the front of the book--but I am grateful to a lot of people.

Now, I'm on with more projects. Eagle Behind the Curtain is a novel I wrote back in 1995, but didn't publish. It's a story about a retired super-spy, now in business, who embarks on a mission into Soviet Russian in a stealth airplane to bring out a doctor who has discovered a remarkable and effective cure for cancer. The story explores Soviet culture during the last days of communism. It has plent ...

I was praying and thinking during my long drive home tonight on a dark, rainy night about the hurts we experience in life. One of my sons is experiencing the heartbreak that comes with the unexpected end of a treasured relationship. Others close to me are experiencing disappointment for a variety of reasons. Most of us know at least some of that emotional pain that is at times more intense than physical pain.

As I contemplated the pain we all experience at various times during our lives, most often the result of people betraying or disappointing us, I thought of the scriptures that tell us "All things work together for the good of those who love God: those who are called according to his purpose." (Romans 8:28)

I thought about the many times in history when something that seemed bad was used by God to bring about something good, and I wondered. What if we could come to the realization when we're in a painful circumstance that it's something Go ...