Latter-day Village Square

Why does the Internet have to be so hard?

I may have reached the point where my brain functionality has reached a peak with respect to what it takes to master the internet.  To tell you how I reached the conclusion, I have to go back a few days.

Recently our dedicated web server saw in increase in attacks from malicious internet sources. They could be the Russian Mafia, Romanian teenage cyber-thugs, or just a rogue internet thief looking to score some personal data.  Whatever the source, the attacks were giving our old security setup fits.  (NOTE: If you don’t believe your computer is under attack when it is connected to the internet, you are WRONG.  Look at your software firewall log and you will be SHOCKED at everyone trying to compromise your computer. Imagine how much harder they try to get into known internet web servers.)

We experienced this once before; our Linux web server was compromised, however, no personal data was stolen or damaged; the perps simply used it to send out gobs of spam.  At that time we elected to place our dedicated web server behind a hardware firewall, a device that filters and traps only allowed internet traffic through to the actual server machine itself.  This really helped, but even then we had configuration issues in getting all of the services to run correctly behind the firewall.

So dejavu all over again; we asked our data center staff to ‘harden’ our web server to increase data security.  Linux servers by default only have login password security; some have software firewalls running at installation, ours does not.  Hardening increases web server data integrity by decreasing the ways and methods of getting to that data. This protects the system from hostile network traffic, Denial of Service (DDOS) attacks, and security breeches. It includes many steps that we will not outline here; why give you enemies your game plan?  The hardening was done by our data center staff, but was not 100% error free the first run through.

I am only going to list here two problems we encountered along with their results. I do this to inform our users about times they were not able to take full advantage of our services. Of course we would have preferred a 100% error free procedure, but the long-term server hardening benefits we gained will far outweigh these short term disruptions.

1.      After a reboot, the server did not load the correct IP information. Internet traffic getting through our firewall did not reach the server as it did not have the correct configuration. This resulted in a several hour ‘outage’ very early Friday morning. After I reported this to the data center, they fixed the problem and all of our web sites were again operational.

2.      Email service for latter-dayvillage.com was down beginning at this same time.  New security measures meant that name addresses (DNS) information for LDV’s email server was not updated properly. This is really a good thing, meaning a hacker should be able to maliciously change these settings.  It took our data center staff a while to pinpoint and fix the problem (I provide mail server log information).  Late Friday afternoon our assigned system administrator realized what the problem was and fixed it.  Email service into LDV, including our email lists, was down for about eight hours on Friday.

There. Debra and I are feeling much more confident in our system security, and I have much more faith in our data center staff; they were very responsive and provided the information I needed to understand this upgrade process and its effects.

Yes, the internet is hard sometimes; harder than you would think to run an internet business. We are learning and getting better at it every day!

FYI: if you would like some technical details on Linux server hardening, see this list for an idea of the changes required.

We’ve gotten lots of requests for the 4th Quarter Lesson Handouts for the YW 3 Manual - and AT LAST they are in our store!

As usual, Courtney White has done an excellent job creating these beautiful lesson handouts with her gorgeous photography and sensitivity to the needs of our youth.

This particular collection has 2 lessons about general conference. There is a Conference Companion handout included.

Each year I design a set of Scripture Mastery images that we use on our posters, clip-art and stickers.  This year we added a new product, New Testament Scripture Mastery Shrink Charms - with the New Testament SM designs.  This shrink plastic product has all 25 designs on one sheet that you cut out, hole punch and bake to make sturdy little charms that you can use in a number of ways.

• Give a key ring, zipper pull, chain bracelet or necklace to students and as they “master” each verse, they earn a charm to add to their key ring.
• Life applications - students earn charms as they can share with the class how a scripture mastery verse applied to some aspect of their lives.
• Use for games!
• CRANIUM - Use a Cranium game board and die to play.  Instead of using the cards, use the charms- players choose a charm from a can, or have them laid flat, face down on a table.  The team member must use a variety of ways to get their team to guess what the verse is, such as charades, drawing a picture, modeling clay etc. - the same idea can be used for Pictionary etc.
• MEMORY - Use two sets laid flat on the table top and have students try to find pairs.  When they make a match they recite the verse to earn the charm.
• BUTTON BUTTON - like the old childhood game, lace one set of charms onto a long length of yarn and tie the ends together - students sit cross-legged on the floor in a circle and hold on to the yarn - pass along the charms while music is playing - whenever the music stops they must stop passing the charms.  Teacher has a can with another set of charms in it, and pulls one out.  Whoever has the mate to it has to recite the verse or give an life application etc.  For fun, add a button to the yarn, and whoever has the button when the music stops must leave the circle
• BURIED TREASURE - fill two plastic tubs with sand or wheat and hide a set of charms in each tub.  Place the tubs on a table at one end of the room.  A timer calls out every 15 seconds and have two teams send one member at a time down to dig for buried treasure.  Each 15 seconds the digger stops and another student runs down to dig.  Have a grid with five rows and five columns on a piece of cardboard.  Put a keyword in each square.  When the diggers turn is up he/she takes all the charms they unearthed and places them on the matching square.  They only have 15 seconds to correctly place them or they have to throw their charms back in the tub.  The team with the most charms at the end of a certain length of time, or the team that gets all the charms correctly placed on the grid first, wins!
• BINGO - make up BINGO cards with keywords scattered on each square.  Pull out charms from a can and players place candies on their BINGO cards to form horizontal, vertical or diagonal lines to earn a BINGO.  When someone gets a BINGO they must choose one of the verses in their bingo line to recite correctly to actually win.

TELL US HOW YOU USE THE CHARMS!

~Debra

We have added a new Sunday School download subscription for the 12-13 year old Sunday School teachers!  Lesson Supplements by SuZan Brown is now available to subscribe to.  The manual for 2009 is “The Presidents of the Church.”  This manual was especially written for this age group, and with SuZan’s supplements to assist you, teaching this course will be so much easier!  She has done all the hard work of preparing posters, handouts, word strips, games and so forth for you!  SuZan has selected pertinent articles from the New Era, Friend and Ensign to update and add pizzaz to your lessons.

You can check out the first lesson supplement FREE!

FREE SAMPLE

This is a three month subscription for only $5.95!

Be sure to tell your friends about this new resource available for Sunday School Teachers!

2009 Resources are now available in the Primary Knowledgebase to help you prepare for the new year!  I have added several already with many more to come.  Currently you can find:

• 2009 Primary Weekly Planner
• 2009 Sunday Planner
• 2009 Talk/Prayer/Scripture Assignment Chart
• Talk/Prayer/Scripture Assignment Cards
• 2009 Theme Birthday Postcards
• 2009 Primary Bookmark
• Class Presentation Sharing Time Reminder
• 2009 January Newsletter Template

Also included is the font used in these resources that you can install on your computer if you want to use the editable Word document versions and keep the look and formatting of the original!

I did the logo you see here and this is part of a whole collection of 2009 Primary Clipart that will soon be available in our store and will also be available as stickers and rub-onz and shrink charms!

2009 PRIMARY SONGS - one of the songs to be taught in 2009 has just been published in the October Friend magazine - “The Family Is of God” and you can listen to the song as an MP3 file at lds.org

There are two months in 2009 when the song is not specifically chosen for you, instead you can select your own favorite song - Song of your choice about Jesus Christ from the CS, Hymns, Friend or Liahona - in April and July.

APRIL THEME - Jesus Christ made it possible for me to live with my Heavenly Father again.

JULY THEME - I will strengthen my family.

The outline only suggests songs through August that will be included in the CSMP.  Two of the songs I have written that are now in the Primary Music KB would be PERFECT for the following monthly themes:

OCTOBER THEME - “The Family: A Proclamation to the World” teaches me about families.  My song - “The Family, Our Destiny’” was written about the Proclamation!

DECEMBER THEME - My family is blessed when we remember Jesus Christ. My song - “He Came” touches on the weekly gospel principles included in the outline for this month.

CSMP 2008

I have to mention that I am the first counselor in my ward Primary, and was in charge of the CSMP this year.  I adapted the script by Linda Whitlock that is in the Primary KB.  She had suggested using the song “I Wonder When He Comes Again” in the script, and I substituted “He Came” in it’s place.  There was a boy who had just turned 12 who so wanted to participate in the CSMP and sing a solo, and he and a wonderful 10 year old girl sang a duet with him.  The CSMP was rough in practice, as is typical, but on Sunday with angels in attendance, the program was so lovely!!!!!  Thank you Linda for that wonderful script.  I cried the first time I read it and little realized I would be using it in my own ward!  All the music was wonderful, including this little duet - just the way I dreamed it would be, but was a bit nervous about till the program.

OCTOBER 2008 RESOURCES

I’ve added new sharing times, lesson supplements, posters, newsletter templates and more for October!

Scripture Mastery (SM) is the one area of a seminary teacher’s responsibility that is not covered very well in the teacher manuals. However, Latter-dayVillage.com carries many different SM teaching resources to help you turn students into scripture masters. If done correctly, this one single area of seminary instruction can become the most lasting memory imprint from your teacher efforts. Many of us still remember the scriptures we memorized even 40-50 years ago; in fact for this write, knowing the SM verses was a powerful missionary tool. I was able to quote prophetic scripture on the door, the street corner, and in our investigator’s homes. In every member missionary situation, having an instant library of God’s Word available to use, will benefit students and teacher alike.

In the next few Seminary News Flashes, we will focus on one of our SM resources, as well as listing much of what we offer. This Flash our attention turns to Scripture Mastery Resources! from Ken Alford. Bro. Alford, a long time seminary teacher has just joined the BYU Dept. of Religion faculty after retiring from military service. His resource packets are designed for quick duplication with using a copy machine; his CD’s are packed with images and activities proven to help with SM passage familiarization and memorization.

New Testament. Volume 1 - The activities in this basic New Testament packet include:

• Games
• Handouts
• Inspiring Quotations (called “Glue Quotes” or “Glue-Ins” each one refers to a specific scripture and they’re all just the right size to glue into scriptures or journals)
• Memory aids
• Instructions and Ideas
• Many, many other features, too many to list in this space. Click here to see the entire product description.

New Testament. Volume 2 - This second activity packet does not duplicate first packet resources, but adds a wide range of New Testament teaching resources:

• Jewish Holiday information (through 2005)
• Scripture Mastery Anagrams activity
• New Testament Tidbits (lesson “attention getters”)
• “Who Wants to be a Zillionaire” New Testament game (complete with speed round questions, lifelines, and game questions)
• Table of Contents (with all packet pages numbered)
• Scripture Mastery Logic Puzzle (and solution)
• As with the previous packet, there is to much to list here. See
  the product page for a complete list of New Testament teaching aids.

ALL 100 Scripture Mastery CD - On this CD, designed for all four years (good scripture mastery involves reviewing previous year’ memorization),  you receive:

• 400 SCRIPTURE MASTERY PICTURES
  • 100 pictures with keywords and scripture references
  • 100 pictures with references but no keywords
  • 100 pictures with keywords but no references
  • 100 pictures without keywords or references
  • These beautiful pictures can be used in handouts, activities, talks, games, flash cards, etc.
• 100 scripture mastery computer jigsaw puzzles
• 48 computer screensavers
• 100 computer background pictures
• 4 computer slideshows
• 4 scripture mastery guides

Picture Clues - The Picture Clues packet provides match the Picture Bingo clues from the Seminary Scripture Mastery Resource Volume 1 packets. Each Picture Clues packet contains:

• 4 Student Handout pages, which each contains all 25 scripture references, keywords, and picture clues from one Seminary year.
• 100 full-size picture clues (8-1/2 by 11 inches). These images are perfect for game/chase clues or classroom visual aids.

All Seminary Scripture Mastery Resources! - The activities in this packet cover the Book of Mormon, Doctrine & Covenants, Old Testament, New Testament at the same time! Review and preview all four Seminary years during the same activity.

• 100 new pages!
• New Games and Activities
• Ideas and Instructions
• Crossed Words Game
• Seminary Mumble Game
• Scripture Mastery Cover-Ups and a whole
  list of other useful Games & Activities.