City-Data Is a Great Source of Local Information

Just discovered City-Data.Com, a web site that contains forums organized by your city or town, and within that geographic umbrella, has all sorts of forums where folk ask questions and get answers from their neighbors in the community.

For example, today I was surfing around, investigating where hotels sell the furniture they don't want any longer.  (Yes, I'm still on my search for the Perfect Reading Chair.)  I stumbled upon City-Data's San Antonio forum on "furniture" -- and I learned about a scratch-n-dent for a local furniture store that I may check out this week. 

I also spotted:

Favorite Hole in the Wall Restaurants (San Antonio, Austin, etc.)
Where to Go for Hair Styling
Finding a Holistic Doctor in San Antonio
Low Budget Wedding in San Antonio

There's tons and tons more.  Folk relocating, people looking to chat about stories in the news, people asking for help in dealing with neighbors, all sorts of stuff.   And, it's free.  Check it out!

How to Pray Effectively? Check out Germaine Copeland's Prayers That Avail Much

In one way, it fascinates me when I'm asked how I pray. For me, I'm not sure when I start and stop, it flows through my life in such a constant flow. I just talk with God - about everything. Isn't this what everyone else does too? (Fine. I admit to fighting against self-absorbsion as a hobby, even an art form.)

So, okay. Maybe different people pray differently, or maybe some folk don't pray much at all. I'm going to share some of my experience, because that's all I've got to give you. I don't think that this is being self-absorbed (at least I hope not) ....

Bottom line: prayer helps me, and that's the truth. I'm happier for it. I find peace through prayer. Praying makes my fear go away, it restores and revives me. I'm amazed and thankful that I'm allowed to do it - communicate with God. Awed by it. But that's another post, for another day ....

Living a simple life in this materialistic culture isn't the easiest road to travel, and if you're doing it, then you know what I mean.

Help! and Thanks! are two of my biggest prayers (and I hope that Thanks! is beating Help! in the tallies, but I'm not confident that this is true.)

However, it's not like this is all I do. It's not like I'm some prayer-savant or something. I read the Word a lot, I pray from what I find there, I recite prayers that I read there, and yes, I study the prayer that Jesus gave us all as an example of how to pray.

One other thing that I do is I follow Germaine Copeland's Prayers That Avail Much series -- not only do I search for prayers she's written on specific topics, but I also pray the prayer that she shares with anyone who asks in a daily email message.

Not only are her prayers wonderful in how they've been collected, organized, and shared, I also appreciate how Mrs. Copeland has incorporated so many scriptures into her prayers. I like praying the Word itself. I think it's important.

So, for today's Sunday Inspiration for Simple Living, I'm sharing Germaine Copeland's Prayers That Avail Much series.

You can buy the books online.
You can search her database for prayers dealing with a particular issue.
You can read the blog.
You can get the prayers emailed to your inbox.
You can listen to her prayers on audio, examples include prayer to live from worry, peace in the family, and handling household finances.

And yes, one of the things I pray is thanks to God for the gift of Germaine Copeland. I'm hopeful you'll find her work as much of a blessing as I have.

More Free TV Shows Online: IMDb Has Tons of Free Stuff to Watch

If you read my tweets, you know that I'm addicted to watching the reruns of Miami Vice -- in no small part, to see all the famous folk who show up in the episodes (long before they were famous).

Last night, for example, there was a very young Chris Rock with a pretty big role, but you know all the hoopla at the time was for guest star James Brown. Yes, that James Brown.

It was a great show - a real hoot - tho serious MV fans have labelled this episode ("Missing Hours") the worst of the series. Go figure.

And, when I was surfing around this morning to make sure I was right -- that young kid with the bad hairdo really WAS Chris Rock -- I discovered that you can watch a lot of old TV episodes for free at IMDb.com.

There's over 93 episodes of Miami Vice there for the watching at IMDb. I'm in ReRun Heaven.