Results matching “Test” from Westhoff.Net

For the past two weeks we’ve had a small LDS service each Sunday here at the 21st CSH. Our chaplain is not LDS but she’s been very helpful in putting out meeting times, providing space, complementary LDS edition scriptures, etc. Our first meeting was run by a national guardsman who had been set apart as a servicemen’s group leader. The following week, an LDS chaplain from the Utah Guard stopped by and led us. Both meetings were spirit filled and were attended by about a dozen or so soldiers and a handful of civilian volunteers and contractors. This week neither were available and while we had priesthood holders we couldn’t hold an officially sanctioned meeting as none of us been set apart as a group leader—a problem we will all rectify before we deploy to Iraq. It’s interesting how it works, you can read more about it here.

We bought a house! The photo is not from the greatest angle, but you get the idea--more later.
Click the photo for an enlarged view.

Hi. As you noticed I haven't made a post in a while so I am making up for it right now. I realy like kindergarten. I had a realy hard spelling test with words like snake and I had to draw a picture of one, it was fun. Every other wendsday I get to bring lunch to school thats one of my favorite thing's about school. I will try to keep posting as much as I can.

(B. Harish, Bhilai)

People in general tend to use the two words interchangeably. But I understand that there is a difference between the two. A "lawyer" is someone who knows the law and has been admitted to the bar. He advises his clients about their legal rights and often pleads their cases in a court of law. In the strictest sense an attorney need not be a lawyer; in other words, he need not be someone who practices law. An "attorney" is someone empowered to act in a legal capacity on someone's behalf. For example, when you give the power of attorney to someone, you are authorising the individual to act on your behalf. This individual need not be a lawyer; he could be anyone - your brother, husband or friend. If you wish to use the word "attorney" to mean "lawyer", then the correct term is "attorney at law". Remember the famous Perry Mason? He was an "Attorney at law".

S. UPENDRAN

Apparently Zach's class has to write a sentence for each spelling word. Some time ago, Zach took it upon himself to fit all the words in as few sentences as possible while making the whole thing make sense. The excersice has yielded some impressive writing. Here is his latest (remember, first grade folks):

A wakeful bat, that hung beneath a tree, swooped down and flew to the ridge of the granary. Then when the bat went back, it swooped at a snake but the snake slithered away. Then the frosty ground glistened in the moonlight.

I have to wonder if "granary" wasn't a list word as well and he just forgot to underline it. I can't imagine he came up with granary all on his own... ) Then again, you never can tell with Zachy.

Yesterday we got out of the megatropolis of Tokyo and visited the woodland realm of Nikko. The above picture was taken at a famous shrine there which also serves as the tomb of one of Japan's greatest Shoguns. I don't recall his name, but his relationship with a shipwrecked Portugese sailor was the basis for the book and movie "Shogun." You can see Dunnington in a white t-shirt climbing the stairs. The outstanding feature of this shrine is that it is much more ornately decorated than any building we had seen previously. This is very un-Zen, but apparently that was the Zeitgeist. The building pictured is actually just one of the gates in the complex.

Hyrum is a year old! I can hardly believe it, my baby is a baby no more.

Ten is a big birthday for an Army brat--it means Dunn gets his very own ID card. For that reason, I remember turning ten very well. Rachel made the cake to Dunn's exact specifications, with a little help from our neighbor and friend Liz Nielson.

“It is December 19th, and yes, that is a bit late to be writing a Christmas letter. Those less affected by holiday cheer might have thrown their hands up by now and admitted defeat. But I, being filled with perennial mirth (and having years of experience with procrastination), am not the least bit intimidated by the fact that some of you may very well receive this letter post-Christmas. So all pretense of celerity be darned—a very Merry Christmas in any case I say, and such associated well wishing as may be appropriate to you and yours, given your respective affiliations, etc, etc.”

Adapted from a draft of the never-finished “Westhoff Family Christmas Letter 2002”

There are quite a few perks when Santa is your Grandpa. Like how you get to go to the mall and get your picture taken with Saint Nick and you don't even have to pay for them! You can also get them done a week before Thanksgiving when they are testing out all of the equipment. Santa also always thinks you have been nice no matter what his son has to say.

'Great Escape' PoWs shot on Hitler's orders

Richard Norton-Taylor
Thursday April 20, 2000
The Guardian

The execution of 50 allied prisoners of war, most of them British, in 1944 - immortalised by the film the Great Escape - was personally ordered by Hitler against objections from senior officers in the German army, according to MI5 documents released today at the public record office.

They contain a graphic account of how Hitler and key figures in his high command, including Hermann Göering, head of the Luftwaffe, Heinrich Himmler, head of the SS, and Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel ordered the captured escapers to be shot, dismissing out of hand suggestions it would be in breach of the Geneva convention.

Interrogated by British intelligence officers after the war, General Major Adolf Westhoff, the German officer responsible for prisoner welfare in the camps, described how an "excited and nervous" Keitel summoned him after the break-out of prisoners - including 76 RAF officers - from Stalag Luft III on the Polish-German border in March 1944.

Just a quick note to tell you all how enraptured I am with my latest little heart throb. He is beautiful and getting filled out and chubbier every day. Already his little bottom and legs are losing that "froggy butt" look and are starting to plump up and look infanty. He is a good natured baby and is never unhappy as long as there is a binky or breast nearby. He sleeps fairly well for someone who's only nine pounds big and seventeen days old. He is a wonder and I am truely a blessed woman. Tomorrow I will take some pictures of him and post them for your viewing pleasure.

Today mom, the boys and I went into Springfield to have some fun at the biggest Bass Pro-Shop there ever was. Boy did we have a good time. Mom ran into a guy's fishing pole and almost lost an eye. It was so funny, I couldn't stop laughing! She didn't even know what was going on at first, she was just freaking out like a fish on the line trying to free herself. Harker also tried to get into the action by throwing an orange hunting hat into the turtle pond.

Last Friday Dunn, Zach and I took the bus from Tacoma to Seattle’s downtown area on a field trip of sorts. I hadn’t realized it but this was the first time they remember ever being downtown in a big city (they had heretofore been left at home for obvious reasons).

Check out Dan's Westhoff.net page. Note that the latest content from mywesthoff.com is now syndicated and available directly on his westhoff.net page! Does that not freakin' rock!?! Yes, it doth indeed rock greatly!!!

Hyrum is really starting to get the hang of smiling. His personality is really starting to come through. One thing we have learned is that he is not that fond of Brad. I will hand him off to Brad and he will start screaming. Then, as soon as I take him back he will stop. It is not even that he is hungry or tired. It is pretty funny at times but a pain when I need to get things done. I think Brad likes it most of the time as it gets him off baby duty but at times it is frustrating because his baby no like him!

Last week on our campout we hiked a three mile boardwalk to the ocean. When we got to the ocean, the first thing we did was take off our shoes and shirts and run to the water. We were expecting sand, but got rocks. We went in the water anyway to test our skill. When I decided to go back on the shore to dry I noticed that my foot was cut in two places. Dad was pretty sure that it was going to get infected and I kept on asking him if I was going to die. It was a miracle that it healed fine, but it sure did sting.

Grant Gross, IDG News Service\Washington Bureau
March 13, 2003, 12:40

A congressional hearing on the links between terrorism, organized crime, and the illegal trading of copyrighted material produced more complaints about college students using peer-to-peer (P-to-P) networks and other governments sanctioning copyright violations than it did evidence of nefarious connections.

Witnesses and representatives at the U.S. House Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet and Intellectual Property hearing Thursday did express fears that profits from widespread copying of movies, music and software outside the U.S. were being funneled into terrorist organizations, but the hearing produced no concrete examples of that happening.

The "peace" movement is so...peaceful. Read this excerpt from an official notification I got from work. Lovely. Let's attack retirees, military spouses and children of servicemen because we hate Bush and they happen to have DoD stickers on their car. Just lovely.

"In the dreams of the anti-American left, every war is Vietnam. That conflict was their greatest--indeed, their only--triumph of the 20th century. A divided America lost its will to fight, and the people of South Vietnam lost their chance at freedom." [James Taranto]

Dan has posted a funny photo on his site.

I was a naive fool to be a human shield for Saddam

...I was shocked when I first met a pro-war Iraqi in Baghdad - a taxi driver taking me back to my hotel late at night. I explained that I was American and said, as we shields always did, "Bush bad, war bad, Iraq good". He looked at me with an expression of incredulity.


As he realised I was serious, he slowed down and started to speak in broken English about the evils of Saddam's regime. Until then I had only heard the President spoken of with respect, but now this guy was telling me how all of Iraq's oil money went into Saddam's pocket and that if you opposed him politically he would kill your whole family.


It scared the hell out of me. First I was thinking that maybe it was the secret police trying to trick me but later I got the impression that he wanted me to help him escape. I felt so bad. I told him: "Listen, I am just a schmuck from the United States, I am not with the UN, I'm not with the CIA - I just can't help you..."

Shocked Back to Reality

A group of American anti-war demonstrators who came to Iraq with Japanese human shield volunteers made it across the border today with 14 hours of uncensored video, all shot without Iraqi government minders present. Kenneth Joseph, a young American pastor with the Assyrian Church of the East, told UPI the trip "had shocked me back to reality." Some of the Iraqis he interviewed on camera "told me they would commit suicide if American bombing didn't start. They were willing to see their homes demolished to gain their freedom from Saddam's bloody tyranny. They convinced me that Saddam was a monster the likes of which the world had not seen since Stalin and Hitler. He and his sons are sick sadists. Their tales of slow torture and killing made me ill, such as people put in a huge shredder for plastic products, feet first so they could hear their screams as bodies got chewed up from foot to head."

OpinionJournal - Best of the Web Today

"The 'Great Satan' has invaded Iraq but students at Tehran University seem pleased at the prospect," the Guardian reports from Iran's capital:


"It will be a good thing to have American troops in Iraq. Perhaps that will bring change to Iran," said Namin, a lanky engineering student strolling to class.
"Maybe that will put more pressure on the regime here." Unlike fellow Muslims in the Middle East or their predecessors 23 years ago who seized the United States embassy, students today are not seething with anger against America and are unmoved by the government's daily references to "the enemy" in Washington.
"I think only about the consequences of a war. If the war has good consequences, let it be," said another student, Mohammad. "We're not protesting like European students. We don't have a democratic government like they do. We're not acting like them because we're not in European shoes."

I don't know who perpetuates the myth that little boys are more rambunctious than girls. Lies, I tell you! Of all my children I am certain Emma is the most mischievous! Here is the evidence.

Check out my latest project, the Rackham Family Fitness Challenge.

The following narrative is dedicated to my Father-in-law, a marathoner and the only person who complained that my e-mail account of the Mississippi race was too short.  The text was extracted and adapted for a general audience from a 28 April 2002 letter to my sister, Mary Westhoff, currently serving as a missionary in the California Long Beach mission. 

There is an excellent commentary on the anti-war movement on the Wall Street Journal's OpinionJournal: Best of the Web Today.

"Just because a million Frenchmen believe a foolish thing doesn't mean a thing isn't foolish"

"According to the news reports, al Qaeda captured one of our soldiers in the latest fighting and promptly executed him. We're being called barbaric while letting our well-fed and well-tended prisoners wear turbans and chat with government provided clerics." [National Review]

Geek stuff. "Everyone hates slow modem dial-ups and never-ending waits for pages to load. During those long dark nights of your ISP's soul, it's natural to wonder whether you might be better off with another provider. Visit eTesting Labs: U.S. ISP Ratings...and take a look around. Find out how competing ISPs compare on connection speeds and how they stack up on those all-important Web download times. There's no time to waste." [YIL]

Lest you thought prostesting capitalism was all work and no play, CNN reports on the scheduled World Economic Forum protests: "The carnival-like atmosphere the activists hope to create is meant to show that protesting can be fun." What is all the fuss about? "Oh, just one of these big get-togethers for international capitalists, politicians and assorted muckety-muck economists and journalists. In other words, it's precisely the kind of group the anti-globalization left holds responsible for all the evils of the world:" the worst kind of irony.

The Truth Beyond Memory: Tolkien’s Conservatism. By John J. Miller, NR national political reporter, from the December 31, 2001, issue of National Review. "The proclamation of any novel as the greatest of the 20th century is as much a burden as an accolade; it sets up the book for all kinds of sniping, lots of it undeserved. Yet it is impossible to deny the extraordinary fondness millions of ordinary readers have shown for The Lord of the Rings over the last five decades, and very difficult to disagree with the simple judgment of W. H. Auden: 'If someone dislikes it, I shall never trust their literary judgment about anything again.'"

In the Shadow of Perfection: The new Lord of the Rings movie. By Jonah Goldberg, NRO editor. "Yes. Yes, it's cool. Yes, it's as loyal to the book as a movie can be. Yes, it's loyal to the Tolkien spirit. Yes, the Orcs are awesome. Yes, I will be seeing it again. And, yes, it's cool. Or did I say that already?"

This is a test post.

Welcome to my homepage, this is a weblog; more specifically, this is a test entry of a weblog.

Beloved Ones,

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…maybe that's a bit melodramatic but there's no denying it: we're living in Arkansas, and we're starting to like it. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Dear Family and Friends,

Merry Christmas and Joy to you all!!! The big news in the Westhoff family this year was the advent of Zachary Rackham Westhoff, little brother of John Dunnington Westhoff.