Penelope (“Penny”) Joy Seitler
born June 17th, 2009 at 1:09pm
weighing 9 lbs, 4 oz and measuring 20 inches long
More to come later, but for now? We rest. 
Penelope Joy Seitler is born!
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Author Archives: Travis Seitler
Where are the Trillions Going? Support the “Audit the Fed” bill (HR 1207) to find out.
Neither Congress nor the Inspector General knows anything about what the Fed has done with $9 trillion in off-balance sheet transactions, or anything about the profit or loss from $2 trillion in on-balance sheet transactions. Check this out:
In the clip above, Rep. Alan Grayson (FL-8) asks the Federal Reserve Inspector General about the trillions of dollars lent or spent by the Federal Reserve and where it went, and the trillions of off balance sheet obligations. Inspector General Elizabeth Coleman responds that her office does not know and is not tracking where this money is.
The Federal Reserve Transparency Act of 2009 (HR 1207) would require an audit of the Federal Reserve. The map below shows which Representatives (by District) have cosponsored the bill as of June 16, 2009:
(Map created using a public domain image available at Wikimedia Commons and the Library of Congress’ list of cosponsors.)
So now I learn that the Federal Reserve is actually seeking to hire a lobbyist to fight against this (and similar) legislation. And I’m left wondering, “if you don’t have anything to hide, then what’s the problem with an impartial audit?” Our children, grandchildren and now great-grandchildren are going to be saddled with enormous debts as a result of this massive inflation (that is, an increase in the money supply). If such spending is truly justified, then it’s a painful hardship we’ll have to deal with. But if it’s not justified, then it needs to stop!
If your Congressional District isn’t lit up yet, send a message to your Representative and Senators telling them you want them to support the Audit the Fed bill (HR 1207 in the House, S 604 in the Senate). Then show your neighbors the YouTube clip above and get them to write your Representative and Senators, too.
Out and About in Columbus, OH
We moved to Columbus back in November, which really isn’t the best time to move to a city in the Northern US. Cold, cloudy and usually raining or snowing, we basically wanted to stay indoors. It wasn’t bad (Nicole and I are both computer geeks), but we didn’t really acclimate to the city.
But as the weather started getting nicer, we came out of our hibernation! Memorial Day weekend in particular was beautiful, and we were all over the place. On May 21, we made our first visit to Graeter’s Ice Cream in Bexley.
Then on the 23rd, we drove out to see what they had at the Worthington Farmers Market. We didn’t really buy anything, but we browsed a lot.
The next day, we went to the 2009 Asian Festival at Franklin Park. The kids loved it:
After such a crazy weekend, Nicole needed a little “pregnant momma” time to recuperate. But after hanging out with the Grace Central crowd this past Sunday, I was able to convince her that it’d be a great idea to swing out to The North Market for lunch!
Nicole got a Greek Salad from Firdous Express, I got Lamb Curry from Flavors of India, and the kids picked off of both. Afterward, I picked up a downright amazing Buckeye Latté from A Touch of Earth! Seriously, I’m not kidding: peanut butter, chocolate and coffee all together in a single cup? YES PLEASE!
Hey Zen Cart: What the heck are these attribute option flags all about?
I’m working on a Zen Cart installation for a client, and I was just asked about the various flags for “attribute selector” options in the Admin interface.
As you can see, the Zen Cart team hasn’t bothered to be very descriptive about what these flags actually do. So I pulled up a few resources, hazarded a few guesses and put together a brief summary of each. After sending it to my client, I thought it might prove helpful to others… so here it is. Continue reading
Scam alert: Check your phone bill! (Twitter, expanded)
Katie to Joshua, about a play gift card:
This card only has five dollars, and after that you can’t buy anything anymore. # But Daddy’s card is plugged into the bank, so he *always* has money! #
If only, Katie… if only.
Well, I fell victim to what the telephone industry calls a “crammer”: basically, due to deregulation phone companies are required (by the FCC, or the FTC… something like that) to add other companies’ bills to your phone bill if those companies tell them to. It’s supposed to make it easier to get your long-distance bill from Company B tacked onto the end of your local bill from Company A. The problem is it’s rife with abuse. #
Case in point: someone set up an account with “Email Discount Network, LLC” using my phone number, so their $15/month membership fee was charged to me on my phone bill. # I didn’t pay attention last month and paid it; this month I noticed how high the bill was and discovered this little gem.
So I followed the instructions on my phone bill, and I called “Enhanced Services Billing, Inc,” who then redirected me to EDN. Continue reading
Littlestown, PA Crossing Guard Reprimanded for Attracting Drivers’ Attention
Larry Douthwaite is a pastor in my old hometown of Littlestown, PA. He’s also spent the past fifteen years serving the local public school district as a crossing guard. He can usually be spotted at the corner of North Queen and East Myrtle streets, and he usually is spotted… because he has a propensity to wear some pretty crazy hats.
Not only does this help drowsy drivers pay attention to the school crossing in the morning, but seeing him in some zany headgear had a way of cheering even the grouchiest commuters.
All that may be changing, though, thanks to borough manager Linda M. Hess.
ZOMG, Bil Keane’s finally lost it!
Now in Family Circus: kids handling dead animals… it’s funny?
Apparently the years of inane, almost-funny strips… it was all an act! In the course of a single 1-panel comic, Keane has pwned all the haters. He has shown just how dark and twisted he can really be.
I mean, having the star of the strip carrying around a dead pet, implying through his question that maybe… just maybe… his sweet kitten isn’t dead after all? Ooh! Bravo, Mr. Keane. You have successfully shown us all that you can play demented with the best of ‘em, while at the same time making us feel guilty for ever wanting to see it in the first place.
Could it be that we’re on the cusp of seeing Family Circus walk down paths blazed by Lynn Johnston’s For Better or For Worse Gouge Your Eyes Out and Tom Batiuk’s Funky Winkerbean (Remembers Dead Loved Ones Over A Pint Filled With His Own Tears)?
Please, good sir, bring back the schlock tomorrow! I don’t think our hearts could take little Billy’s reaction when he realizes that “DED KITTEH… IZ DED.”
(At least, I could wish this was the intended meaning behind the strip. Nicole thinks it’s something more… inane. One can hope, though…)
What sort of speech is “good for building up”?
I wanted to take a few minutes and share my thoughts on a passage from the Bible that’s been on my radar lately:
Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. — Ephesians 4:29, ESV
Y’know, I think there’s a world of difference between what Paul was thinking when he said this, and what people today tend to think when they read it.
This verse marks the last of four times in this epistle where Paul uses the same word (Gr. oikodome, but your translation probably says something like “good for building up,” or “edifying”). Even so, when I’ve heard pastors preach on this topic they’ve typically focused in on an understanding of the word that’s informed solely by the verse itself, and divorced from other passages where Paul’s usage could shed light on what he means by it. This sort of thing always bugs me: if pastors are trying to build a true understanding of what Paul’s telling us to do here, then at the very least they ought to point us to those previous instances of the word. Right?
Because let me tell ya… it certainly helps it all make sense!
Here’s all four appearances of oikodome as they’re translated in the ESV. Continue reading
I love making broken things work!
More than creating something brand new, I’m (re)discovering that I love to take something broken and fix it, making it work again.
I’m in the middle of a project that just isn’t going smoothly. We’re dealing with version incompatibility issues between the main app and an add-on module, weird MySQL bugs, endless template hacks and multiple reinstalls.
And I’m eating it up.
Now don’t get me wrong: we do have a deadline and I am stressing out about that. But the actual work of cleaning up the mess itself? That, my friends, is downright invigorating.
Happy Monday!
The Battle
This is another of rediscovered writings from 1999. I actually read this over the air during one of WJTL’s Youth Group Nights. “Radio Friend” Phil Smith let me read it on-air without looking over it first… and he seemed a bit unnerved when I was through.
A chilling darkness fills the sky,
a cold and sinister screen.
Grotesque, demonic shapes fly ’round
with eyes of glowing green.