The Heart-Shield Bible: A WWII Artifact

The inside front cover reads: “The Heart-Shield Bible – Fit’s Snugly in Uniform

God's Weapon

Pocket – The Engraved Gold-Plated Steel Front Cover Protects His Heart”. Definitely my favorite heirloom of my great-grandfather’s. The gold-leaf, steel cover, now fading from years of evident use, has the words “God’s Weapon” stamped into it.

 

My great-grandpa, Virgil Manuel, served in the infantry, in active duty during World War II. This New Testament was his constant companion during his tour in Germany, and for years to come. I get goosebumps when thinking of all the places this little book has been. It was with him when he left his girl-friend Anna at home. It was in his pocket when he traveled across the Atlantic Ocean. It was there when he lost friends, and comrade’s that once ate, slept, talked, shared, and fought by his side.

The vocal point of this New Testament is the front cover, which is supposed

A Message From the President

to shield the soldiers heart in battle. The other thing i found interesting in here is a short message from Franklin Roosevelt to his soldiers. It states this following message:

As Commander-in-Chief I take pleasure in commending the reading of the Bible to all who serve in the armed forces of the United States. Throughout the centuries men of many faiths and diverse origins have found in the Sacred Book words of wisdom, counsel, and inspiration. It is a foundation of strength and now, as always, an aid in attaining the highest aspirations of the human soul.  Signed: Franklin D. Roosevelt

Another valuable heirloom I found in the Bible was a picture of my great-grandpa, and future. It’s easy to imagine him being in the heat of battle, or resting in a fox-hole, on a starry night, and pulling out a picture of “his girl”, Anna.

Virgil & Anna

I’m not really an antique collector, or history/WWII buff, but this is a truly invaluable little piece of history, that anyone can appreciate it. The most important thing to me is that my Grandpa wanted me, specifically, to have this important possession of his, when he died last Christmas at the age of 92. Imagine being that old. He’s seen the first plane, the first moon-landing, the first computer. There’s a lot of knowledge to be learned from history, and those who made it. Learn as much as you can from them, don’t take them for granted, and spend time with them while you still can.

I Adopted a MacBook Pro

 

I did it, I finally did it. I went and bought myself e MacBookPro. I’ve been lusting after it for a long time now, the only thing that stood in the way was money. So I saved a little, borrowed it a little, and 20% of it is payment for a project. So, it was a pretty good deal.

I decided to get the 13″, 2.26Ghz, MBP. It comes with 160Gb of storage, and 2Gb RAM. Has the NVDIA Graphics card, as do all the MacBook Pro’s. I am happy to say that I am quite pleased so far. Not only by the performance of the machine, but by it’s overall design, and engineering. Some of my favorite’s are the backlit keyboard, (which I am using right now, coincidently, as I type this post in the dark), also the Multitouch Trackpad is very, very, cool. I took it out of the box, used the trackpad, and didn’t ever want to touch my PC again.

Now mind you, I’m not a Mac virgin. I’ve had three apple COmputers in the past. And this computer truly does surpass the last three, in every aspect of a good computer. But, I’m coming from a Compaq Presario with 1.7Ghz of processing power. Imagine trying to edit video in there. It’s nigh unto impossible. And it takes the fun out if Graphic Design.

MacBook Pro 13" 2.26Ghz

The last straw for me was rcently at an event thatwe were showing a video project at, my Windows Laptop crashed 3x on me 5 minutes before we were sheduled to play the video. The band had to play two extra songs. Whilst I was paying a loop of the American Flag waving animation for the National Anthem (the event and video was for Senior Recognition Soccer Game) Windows Media Player screwed me over, and the animation wouldn’t loop, instead it gave me an error message.

It’ll be especially nice using a Mac for video projects, since the other main video producer/editor, also uses a Mac, which will eliminate a lot of cross-platform compatibility issues. Of course, since this is only a 13.3″ display, I’ll be using an external display for Video, and Web Projects. Hopefully a 27″, maybe even a 32″.

What are your favorite things about your Mac, and what are your favorite apps that you would reccomend to a new user? Feel free to comment below.

 

Windows 7 Ultimate Signature Edition

Windows 7 Ultimate Starting at $219.99

I recently attended one of Microsoft’s house launch parties. It was interesting, to say the least. It was hosted by a friend of mine, P.C. Smith (he’s a PC). The launch event, which took place in a local hotel conference room, was about six hours long. Of the forty-plus people who RSVP’d, only about fifteen showed up; this was a minor dissapointment, but the party was still a success.

The majority of the people who showed, were geeks, or gurus. But there were also the usual crowd of soccer moms, and senior citizens. We tested, and demonstrated Windows 7 on a regular desktop, a 17″ laptop, a “net-top”, and an Acer Aspire One.

I gave a short presentation, covering the new GUI, and desktop setup. The coolest thing is, this sunday my friend who hosted the party, decided to bestow upon me the Signature Realease of Win7 Ulimate which came with the party box, (it’s signed by Steve Ballmer himself, and Microsoft only distributed 25,000 of them). I was thrilled to say the least, and will install it soon. Even though I’ve been testing an RC of 7 ultimate for the last month, and a half, it’s nice to have a legal copy, and one that’s Ballmer-christened.