Pat Boone, Bono and Others Thank Billy Graham

U2's Bono introducing the Thank You Billy Graham tribute song by Pat BooneThe long-forgotten Thank You Billy Graham tribute has resurfaced, thanks to Pat Boone’s final hurrah. The tribute originally surfaced in July 2001, but quickly faded away (I think lack of support from Billy Graham himself and possibly legal issues with the Association were to blame, but I don’t really remember). Nice timing that it resurfaces just before what could be Billy Graham’s final Crusade in New York.

The “Thank You Billy Graham” song, which features a spoken intro by Bono and singing from LeAnn Rimes, Kenny Rogers and others, will appear on Boone’s upcoming gospel album, Glory Train, which will be available August 9.

Until then, you can check out the video, complete with old-time footage of Billy Graham.

6 out of 20 Formula One Cars Race

Formula One car sitting on pit roadFormula One is supposed to be the world’s most popular racing series. But when the elite worldwide series came to Indianapolis Motor Speedway they weren’t so popular. 14 cars pulled out of the U.S. Grand Prix on Sunday, leaving a meager six cars to fight for the victory. Fans booed, threw debris on the track and many left early.

The 14 cars pulled out over safety concerns with their Michelin tires. Michelin informed the teams that their tires were unsafe for the track but a compromise couldn’t be reached before the start of the race. So the six cars on Bridgestone tires has the race to themselves.

Michael Schumacher, the series’ champion for the past five years (that’s right, can you say dynasty? I’ve also heard that Schumacher is makes more money than any professional athlete in the world) won the race, though he didn’t exactly stick around to celebrate.

And you thought NASCAR was weird.

My Dog Makes More Money Than You

Speak's Target Ad DebutMy dog, Speak, has made his professional debut. You can check him out in this week’s Target ad. It’s a small picture on the bottom of the second to last page. And yes, he is wearing a pink dress and pearls. You’d be surprised what someone will do if you paid them enough.

Though he looks awfully depressed in the picture. I’m surprised Target even used that picture. The picture was taken the first few days we had Mazie, and he had swallowed a greenie practically whole, so he wasn’t exactly feeling well. OK, I guess that was a different shoot. But it was really hot in the studio and he just wanted to lie down. But then you couldn’t see his pretty dress. That and he’s wearing pink. What a trooper.

High Water on the Mississippi

High water on the Mississippi RiverYesterday I went for a bike ride and noticed just how high the Mississippi River has become. Thanks to all the rain we’ve had, the water is creeping up the shore, covering paths and docks and leaving trees and shrubs submerged.

I can relate. I’ve been pretty busy myself. Not eye-twitching busy, but I’ve still had a lot going on. And it’s not just work. I’ve found that working at home the work comes and goes and it can be fairly stressful, but just because you meet a deadline doesn’t mean things let up. They just keep rising.

And if it’s not deadlines rising, it’s something else. Like bills or laundry or dishes or grass or dog poop.

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Back in the Traffic Game

Thoughts trafficI realize I’m totally jinxing myself by saying this, but I think I’m back in the game. If you check my traffic for this blog, and most of my other blogs, you’ll notice a sudden upsurge in the past two days. We all know I haven’t been posting more (though I am breaking quite a posting slump today), so I can only guess that Google has returned my site to its search rank glory. Or something like that.

My referrals are packed with Google results again, and my server stats show Google just soared past Yahoo for search engine results, something that is usually the natural order for my site, but it hasn’t been that way all month. I still don’t have much of an explanation for it.

At any rate, my Google AdSense income is up again, to the thrilling height of shiny silver coins per day, instead of dull copper. That’s always cool. For yesterday and today anyway. That and the graph of my traffic is fun to look at. The traffic graph will probably get more dramatic as the day goes on, but I grabbed a shot of it for posterity.

Billy Graham’s Last Crusade Ever

With the New York Billy Graham Crusade quickly approaching the media buzz is increasing. AP interviewed Graham, asking if NYC would be his last crusade:

“In my mind, it is,” he said during an Associated Press interview at a Long Island hotel where he’s resting up for the event. “I wouldn’t like to say ‘never,'” the amiable evangelist added with a chuckle. “Never is a bad word.”

Every crusade for the last decade has been Billy’s “last,” but I don’t remember Graham himself giving that impression before. It’ll be interesting to see what happens. Not to be morbid, but I think it’d be ideal if the man died in the pulpit. There’s hardly a more fitting place for him to breathe his last.

Choosing a Digital Camera

Par for the course, I’ve got a big wad of money and I can’t decide how to spend it. Today’s my birthday (yes, happy birthday to me) and the cash is rolling in (or still rolling in some cases… I hope). I’ve got my eyes set on a new digital camera. By “new” I mean my very own. Abby has a 1.3 megapixel camera that we’ve used since 2001, but I’ve had a love/hate relationship with it.

Right now I’m trying to decide between three Canon PowerShots: the A95, the SD200 and the A510 (by the way, the one thing I hate about technology is when we have to give every product an incomprehensible product name; they do it with cars: XL, XLT, LX, SL, GL, GLS–what the hell does it all mean!?).

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Why Not Blame Koran Rioters?

I should start by admitting I’ve hardly followed the story of U.S. military Koran abuse in Afghanistan that didn’t really happen as Newsweek reported, but still touched off riots in the Muslim world that killed several people. I know enough to know that it happened, that it’s another blow to the credibility of journalists, and that it’s touched off another abuse scandal in the U.S. military.

But I was talking to a friend the other night about the issue, and he wondered why everyone was so quick to blame Newsweek and the U.S. military. Surely some of the blame belongs there for irresponsible reporting and potential abuses, but neither Newsweek nor the U.S. military killed anyone. Why hasn’t anyone blamed the rioters?

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