Dog House Dojo

• Death is as light as a feather, but duty is as heavy as a mountain (Japanese saying)
• Most suffering in the world comes from wishing that the world is a way that it is not (Buddhist saying)
• A thousand mile journey begins with the first step (Chinese proverb)
• Easy does it (Alcoholics Anonymous)
• Suffer in Silence (Japanese saying)
• If you want to get love, you have to give love (Steven Stosny)
• It explains it, does not excuse it (Unknown)
• ‘Denial’ is not just a river in Africa (Gavin DeBecker)
• If you do not think something will happen, you will not take any steps to prevent against it (Gavin DeBecker)
• Casinos are places to go with you do not need money (Unknown)
• All living creature and organisms only have two modes of being - either improve or degrade - no pause button. If not improving then you are degrading (Steven Stosny)
• The brain has two modes - focus or scan (Steven Stosny)
• Habits cannot be changed of modified, but you can make new ones (Unknown)
• Every good guy needs a bad guy (Unknown)
• Don’t search for a light switch in the dark (Gavin DeBecker)
• Only you can make yourself feel lovable (Steven Stosny)
• The more a diamond is cut, the more it sparkles (Unknown)
• The greatest virtue in life is moderation (Aristotle)
• Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional (Buddhist saying)
• Courage is overcoming fear (Unknown)
• Don’t tell me that worry doesn’t do any good. I know better, the things I worry about never happen (Unknown)
• Whatever you are trying to avoid won’t go away until you confront it (Unknown)
• Fall down seven times, get up eight (Japanese saying)
• If a nail sticks up, hammer it down (Japanese saying)
• The more you tell yourself to not do something, the more you will do it, do something else instead (Unknown)
• If you are patient in one moment of anger, you will escape one hundred days of sorrow (Chinese proverb)
• The best way to feel good is to do good (Steven Stosny)
• Begin running when you like, and finish when you like (Dodo Bird)
• Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck (Daila Lama)
• Efforts to fix one’s problems, often makes them worse (Anna Freud)
• Because you can do something, it does not mean that you should (e.g. I can drive my car into a tree) (Unknown)
• Let me know what I am saying so I know what I think (Pugu)
• I have met the enemy, and the enemy is me (Pugu)

Matt Cassidy’s Unit mailed a thank you card to those individuals who contributed toward their Christmas gifts that Bob Cassidy organized, purchased and shipped for the holiday. You can see their signatures in the picture of the card.

Let’s celebrate the names of the soldiers in his unit below… After all this time, through Christmas, through the New Year, through Easter, and now during Spring, they are still away from their families, serving us and our country in Iraq. God bless them!

Sgt Van
Cpl Kelly
Cpl Acosta
Cpl Hayden
Cpl Richardson
Cpl Cassidy
Lcpl Gonzolas
Lcpl Whatton
Lcpl Canterburry
Lcapl Reeves
Lcpl Kennedy
Lcpl Stover

Just got a call from Matt this morning. The troops received the 12 gift boxes that we sent 12/6.

They are all so happy and grateful for not only the gifts but the support it shows. As a very proud Dad I would like to thank all those who have contributed with both their generosity and prayers.

One of the troops requested a hammock. That seemed a bit strange to me. I asked myself where the heck would you hang a hammock. When I asked Matt he laughed and told me it is hanging inside their vehicle (25 ton truck) and when they are out on operations he sleeps in it. Now they all want one. How funny is that.

Matt said it is getting very cold and they are all so grateful they all got Body Armour long underwear and hoods.

I will be posting the gifts that were sent and the names of the contributors soon.

Thank you again for all the support.
Bob Cassidy

Welcome back to the Dog House Dojo.

Since the first version of the website which was based on PHP Nuke, I’ve been evaluating different content management systems and blogging applications. I’ve finally settled on WordPress which has a very elegant and intuitive interface (supported by different themes). I first found WordPress when 24fightingchickens.com came back online — they use it too. Since then, I’ve noticed more and more sites using it — there is a large community of users blogging with it.

Now, WordPress by itself does not provide us with everything we want on DHD, so I added Gallery2 to manage our photos and integrated it with WordPress using the WPG2 plugin. This makes it much easier to embed photos into blog posts that are already part of our photo gallery. It also provides us with the random image in the sidebar of the main blog page and keeps our user accounts in WordPress synchronized with Gallery2. This is something that was an issue in the past with Coppermine and PHP Nuke.

For those of you who are familiar with RSS, WordPress supports RSS feeds on the articles in the blog and comments. So, you won’t need to regularly visit DHD to see if there’s anything new, you can just continue using your RSS reader and new messages will appear as they are posted on the site. But we’d still like to see you visit once in a while!

The Gallery2 plugin within WordPress allows us to create albums and add photos from within WordPress, but the interface itself is a little cramped because the entire Gallery web application is embedded within a WordPress page. Those who find themselves doing a lot of album viewing or editing may prefer to go directly to the Gallery2 web application: http://doghousedojo.com/gallery/. You will see all the same albums and photos, but won’t go blind trying to read the small print. I also put a link to it in the Blogroll sidebar, labeled “Album”.

Hopefully, folks will find it easy to post messages on the site with WordPress, and we will see more activity, share experiences and stories, and keep in touch more. I’ve already migrated the user accounts from PHP Nuke to WordPress and Gallery. If you find you don’t have enough permissions to do something, send me an email (webmaster@doghousedojo.com) and I’ll adjust accordingly.

I’ve also adjusted the site so it is no longer password-protected. This means our posts are out there for the whole world to come and see (if anyone is looking). If you want to post something that should only be visible to the group, please let me know so I can help you post accordingly.

Thanks and enjoy the site!

-Forrest