Rain, rain. Go Away!

I'm sure there are many farmers in my area who would agree with this; I'm sick of rain!  All spring and now into my vacation time it's rain.  I wonder what it was like in a pre-fallen world when we didn't have rain?  That's right, no rain.  There's a popular theory that before the flood, the world was a tropical greenhouse with thick moist air to nurture plants and no rain; and the first rain would have come during the flood.  Sounds pretty cool to me!  Rain is good for growing things, but it's often inconvenient sometimes; like when you're having an outdoor wedding, a vacation, or washing your car.  We wouldn't have people's homes flooded out.  We wouldn't have water sources contaminated with flash floods.  The only good thing about rain is how it develops a trust in God.  People pray lots to God for rain; to make it stop, to water their plants.  Kind of like how sin in general makes people turn to God.  In the next world there will be no rain, but until then I will cope with the rain here.  At least I have a God to turn to with that.

Computer Programs designed to make you spend money

Recently Rachelle and I each purchased a program for our different line of work; Rachelle bought a card program for photography and I bought a overhead program for the church.  Both these programs are great! The church is now singing all our songs from the screen upfront; and Rachelle can offer thank-you cards etc. to her clients.  The thing that gets me fuming about these programs is that they are really designed to make you a customer of their highly, over-priced related products.  For Rachelle's program, she has to buy backgrounds of different colors or pattern, and I do mean she has to, no importing her own.  For the church program, I don't know where to start.  This program was advertised as having a large database of hymns and songs, which is true, except there is nothing that was written in the last 30 years. Then they have a store with various backgrounds and videos; the backgrounds are like $5 for a simple background I could easily find on the net, and the video clips are priced at $20.  That's right, $20 for 2 minute clips; and a lot of them are not originally produced material, many of them are from Bluefish tv for $2.  The point is when did computer software programmers become drug dealers?  They get you with one fix and then keep you coming back for more, dumping out your money until you are broke.  This can be said of many things in life; for example, cars.  The average car is not built to make it past the first years so you keep buying new.  How come you can't sell a product that will last a long time and the customer never has to make another transaction with you?  You know who's someone I respect; Sorel boots.  Sorel boots were made so good that they went out of business; people would buy a pair of boots and they would last for many years, instead of buying new ones year after year. I know, I know.  I just answered my own question, you need to sucker customers so you can continue to make money.  Live the big dream.  With computer programs like the ones recently purchased, it is no wonder people are pirating software all the time.