Welcome to The Red Bank

Finally Stimulated

Posted by Tony on 06.Jun.2008 | general article

well after months of waiting we finally received our government stimulus deposit and are ready to go waste our new found money like everyone else. The smart thing to do would be to save this money for a rainy day but we have never been accused of being that smart so like everyone else we will waste one more opportunity to do the right thing.

The State of the Christian Church Part II

Posted by Tony on 30.Apr.2008 | general article

I made this part of an open discussion on a web board and now my eyes are wide open to the denial and greed that truly exist among or brothers and sisters in the Christian faith. I guess I just did not want to believe it but it’s there and so abundant to make one sick. The excuses that are made from Solomon’s Temple to how Jesus was a rich man. I don’t know what Bible they are reading, it leaves one in a state of disbelief at how anyone can be so blind to the truth.

200,000.00 dollar salaries for pastors, 100,000 dollar salaries for song directors. Doesn’t anyone think that is excessive ? Apparently not as it is becoming more and more the norm.

I have often wondered how the Christian community has gotten so far off track and now I have my answer, simple greed. Not much more to say on the subject except that I don’t think every Christian church has fallen into this, it’s just the majority and that is a real shame.

The State of the Christian Church

Posted by Tony on 27.Apr.2008 | general article

This will no doubt be controversial among the Christian community but over the years I have seen a pattern of selfishness within the churches of the Christian faith. They all seem to be overly concerned with growing the member base so they have more money to expand the building project they have going, to add a library or recreation facility. Now don’t get me wrong they do spread the word but when it comes to being a real help to the community, they fall short. I had an Aunt that gave every week of church and in her elder years she needed medical help and had little money but the church she had gave so much too was no where to be seen except to say we will remember you in our prayers. They could have helped her but didn’t and this is just one case where the church fell short of living up to it’s potential.

We have a church on ever street corner and yet we have people starving to death. The church is all engrossed in wealth these days but for the wrong reasons in my humble opinion.

I’m not saying every church is this way but I am saying the majority are. I know the churches do some good work but on the other hand do we really need 1000 dollar windows when we could use that money to help the members of the church who really need it? Old people eating dog food because they cant afford groceries, it’s a real shame.

It takes more than one person to make a difference, we have so many Christian churches and if they concentrated on helping rather than building, wouldn’t we as a society be better off?

I Hate The PT Cruiser

Posted by Tony on 10.Apr.2008 | general article

Back in 2004 we bought a 2003 PT Cruiser out of desperation. Our Hyundai SUV had been wrecked and we had to have transportation immediately and it had to be something our low budget would afford. If I knew then what I know now things would have gone much differently. We had been driving a 2002 Hyundai Sante Fe up until the wreck and we loved it. From the day I dove off the lot in the midget hurst errr PT Cruiser I hated it. This car has no redeeming qualities whatsoever. I truely wish I could say one good thing about the Cruiser but there just isn’t anything. From the cramped quarters with your butt sitting at ground level to the underpowered 4 cylinder engine, this Mexican made piece of crap is one to stay away from.

2006 Suzuki Grand Vitara Owners Review

Posted by Tony on 13.Mar.2008 | general article

Luxury Edition

The Suzuki Grand Vitara Luxury edition defines the meaning of the words “sweet ride” in every way. As a former owner of the Hyundai Sante Fe SUV with all it had to offer it came no where close to the handling and style of the Grand Vitara. I have been most impressed with the keyless SmartPass system that lets you open, lock and crank the vehicle without ever hunting for or even touching a key.

The heated seats and the 6 cd xm ready radio are just a couple of the little extras this quality packed family car has to offer. The quite but powerful 6 cylinder engine will get you where you want to go with no fuss and with 24 city and 30+ highway the gas pumps won’t get you down. I have been very happy with my experiences this far and am becoming more spoiled by this gem each day.

The only bad point I have been able to find on this vehicle is the cost of a spare transponder. $113.00 for the transponder ( Smartpass ) and $37.00 to program it. Oh yes and if your dealer says they don’t make a physical key for this SUV that is a lie, I know because I have one I had to go through a lot to get it but it is possible to get a real key that works without the smartpass and as a matter of fact you can’t program a new smartpass without the physical key.

SUZUKI SMART KEY KEYLESS ENTRY REMOTE FCC ID # KBRTS003 (KBRT5003) IC # 2111B-TS003 MODEL # TS006 (T5006)

Our New Ride

Posted by Tony on 09.Mar.2008 | general article

We had a 2003 PT Cruiser which has been having problems for a while now, about a week ago while I was driving my wife to work it just quit and would not start again. I have an old 1985 Chevy Blazer so called someone to pick us up and take us home got the blazer and towed the PT home.

Took my wife to work and she told her co-workers what happened. During the last week we have been struggling to find ways to get my wife to work because we work different hours and she can’t drive the blazer because it’s well old and hard to drive and she isn’t that good at driving a piece of shit that has to have the gas pedal pumped during start and hills.

Ok so we are screwed for a bit. Three days ago, Thursday my mom comes by my workplace because her car is acting up and she wants to trade it. She is test driving a car and wants me to drive it and see what I think about it so I do and it seems fine. She is going back to the dealer to discuss terms and wants me to come along. I am just getting off for lunch so I go with her.

While we are talking to the salesman about her new ride I tell him I would love to have a deal like this because my car just went kapoot and so he ask what I am looking for. I want an SUV but I dont have a lot of money to play around with so I need low payments. They had just got in a 2006 Suzuki Grand Vitara that day that someone else had traded and bingo bammo I got a sweet ride that is well within our budget.

I still can’t believe it, the next day one of my wifes co-workers that she was telling about our PT cruiser said her parents wanted to buy the Cruiser and do you know that Yesterday morning I sold them the car?

Some people might call that a sweet run of luck but I think there is more to it than just luck, we are not the best most well behaved children God has but he continually looks out for us and I believe that’s what happened here. There is just way to much coincidence to just dismiss it as luck.

Anyway that’s what I think, I don’t mind giving God the credit even if it was just luck cause he has done so much for us in the past but I really believe this was a gift from heaven.

I will post some pictures as soon as I take them.

The Real Red Bank Up Close

Posted by Tony on 03.Mar.2008 | general article

Great News ! I found out yesterday that my Mom’s best friend still owns the property where the red bank is so I am going by there to take some pics as soon as I can. I can’t wait to go over there and get some really great close up shots and maybe even find a spoon

How to start your own web site

Posted by Tony on 25.Feb.2008 | general article

Have you have ever wanted to have a web site of your very own complete with domain name but had no idea where to start? The very first thing you need is the web space then the domain but if you follow my advice you can buy both at the same time from the same place.

Just go to http://godaddy.com and search for the name you want to use. During the registration process you will be asked if you need web space to host your new domain. The domain name will be about 8 bucks a year and the web space will be about 5 dollars a month for the least expensive.

The next thing your going to need is an FTP client to upload your html pages that you have created for your site. You will need to upload an index.html page as a minimum. That’s the first page that is loaded on a web site when you pull it up with your browser. If this sounds complicated it is, it is at this point your webmaster earns his keep. You can do this yourself if you have some html programming skill but if your a total beginner I would suggest an alternative.

Go to http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/webhosting and get your hosting and domain there. They have a web builder that will assist you is building your site with no html knowledge. It’s point and click all the way. The cost for the space is about 12 dollars a month. The only downside is they don’t allow multiple domains on your space. Your limited to one domain. If this isn’t a problem for you then Yahoo is probably the better solution for you.

About The Theme

Posted by Tony on 14.Feb.2008 | general article

The Red Bank’s theme is my own handy work using my moderate programming skills to hack an existing theme. I took the credits off of the theme because in it’s current form it has been hacked so extensively it no longer resembles the original authors work. I don’t want anyone thinking they could just go download that theme and have it appear the way this one does now. If you want a copy of the original without the modifications you can get it at wordpress.org.

I edited the stylesheet file to conform to my current highlighting, colors and decorations. I edited every file changing a great deal of the php code, also the sidebar and images to produce this version. I can’t call it completely mine but it is now one of a kind. It may not be perfect but it serves me the way it is. I don’t have any plans to continue hacking it further but you never know. In it’s current form I can’t make it available for download because much of the imaging and links are hard coded specifically for my site.

Oh the Joy

My New Playground

Posted by Tony on 12.Feb.2008 | general article

Welcome one and all to my cyber playground. The reason for the name goes back 40 years ago to a little town called Laurel, Mississippi. I talk about that in greater detail in the ABOUT section so if your interested please go read. I’m a 47 year old computer geek and spend a great deal of my time hacking code on the internet. There was a time when I thought I wanted to work in this field but soon realized if I did that it would take the fun out of it so I try to keep the internet and work separate.

I have had dozens of domains over the years and frankly I am a bit tired of trying to maintain them all with current content so it has come down to a point of what domains to keep and which ones to let go. I am seriously thinking of letting every one of them go but this one and perhaps one other. I would regret letting netgems.org go because all of my rick and bubba archives are on that site. I could move them here but it would take a lot of work to get the search engines pointing here for those files. I have a couple of months to decide before the name expires.

If you would like to chat with me you can find me on gwall.org under the username of “gowron” .