Middle America's Worldview

Yes it works ! This is what I felt last night as I finally got a script to run correctly at work. It was a FTP interface using a script. The script allows me to pull a file within a time period as opposed to just polling for it every x amount of time. It felt good to get it going, correctly.

I was able to see most of the RNC last night on FOX news and it definitely seems Rudy G. received the spotlight and amazingly so he was pumping up the current president. I hear this morning on the news radio a lady from talk radio is going around stating the RNC is sending a subliminal message of 'Christianity' to the public. There is also news that the so-called peacefull protesters are actually not from New York anyway. These are leftist radicals who support John Kerry. I don't recall hearing radical rights burning crap in the DNC and I am pretty sure the media would spotlight that. Only day one and a dichotomy already seems present from the would be and incumbent.

My poor wife had to go to the dentist for a root canal. She has been hurting for over a week now and our regular dentist didnt want to do it or couldnt for some reason or another.

I need to mow mine and my neighbors yard today. This should be the last time on the neighbors yard then it will be the new residents responsibility. She is suppose to be moving in within 1.5 weeks.

I had to link the actual video track of last nights VMA show where the daughters received more boo's than cheers. (you have to scroll down a bit.) One person said it well. It was like going to a party and someone asked to do math homework, we didn't come to do homework but to party.

http://www.dailyrecycler.com/blog/2004/08/mtv-crowd-boos-kerry-daughters.html

Hey gang, I just signed up on the AudioBlogger to test this out during lunch. When you set yours up, it basically shows below.

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OK! You are ready to Get Your Voice On!




Alright, now all you have to do is call that number to make FREE audio posts to your blog.

1. Call the number

(Listen very carefully to the Voice Prompts)

2. Enter your Primary Number

3. Enter your PIN, press #

4. Record your post, Press #

5. Press 1 to post, 2 to review, 3 to re-record.

6. Check your site!
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The site to signup for free is http://www.audioblogger.com

Sunday night. Guess no Deadzone watching tonight unless its by DVD. I have season one and season two. Nearly done with Season two viewing. Last weeks season finale was very good. Seems the question will be sacrifice Johnny's new love attraction or keep the future the same. I thought it was very cool the way he paired with his future self in the end. Nice touch.

Site update: I have added a couple of blog sites on the side.

Yesterday my wife and daughter went to see 'Princess Diaries 2' while my son and I watched 'Yu-GI Oh'. Yes, I can now officially pronounce the blasted thing. The ladies said their movie was cute and romantic. We will probably try to get Princess Diaries one and two on DVD when the second one comes out. I will see it then. Yu-Gi Oh is another whole ball of wax. I can officially say it was interesting. It brought the whole background, what it is, ect. into play. There were alot of little boys with one dad or mom there. Anyone recall the card game Magic the Gathering? I tried it, like...10 years ago. I found it similiar but extreme. Of course my 5 year old didn't get the jest of the gaming itself, but the visual art is what captivated him. I asked him part way in the movie if it was good. He replied 'yeah great movie dad' as he slurped more soda down. If this continues I see alot of card acquiring. I already checked online and was amazed of the fan based for this.

Today before church, our daughter woke up stating she was feeling sick at her tummy and head. My wife gave her some meds and she also felt a stomach ache coming on. We feared it may be the stomach virus that is going around. I went onto Church, which I was glad I did since it was a good sermon I needed to hear. When I was leaving church I called my wife to check on her, I was heading to do some errands, and she informed me not only did our daughter lie to us in regards of feeling bad, but our son also stated 'it was ok, because I lied last sunday so I wouldnt have to go.' Needless to say, it pretty much infuriated her as well as me. When I got back I had a long discussion on lying and why we do not lie to each other, because then we wouldnt be able to trust each other. Plus the fact giving our daughter medicine when she is pretends to be sick can make her sick. This after my wife already spoke to them and disciplined them. ahh the joys of parenthood. Amazing one day we all have a great time and it was a true treat to go out to the movies with them. Then this happens.

I began call this morning and will have it till next Saturday. Here is crossing my fingers.

I had to make an additional addition this morning's blogging. While perusing through my list of blog reading I could not help be fascinated by this post.

http://www.danegerus.com/weblog/Comments.asp?svComment=5846

Raining down on Saturday. Thursday the heat index hit 110 degrees. Then Friday was supposed to be hottest of the year. However, cooler weather is upon us this Saturday morning.

Friday I was on support and it was actually busy. Normally it consists of a couple of recycles here and there. But for whatever reason, it wasn't as simple. It did make the day go faster though. I also received my review Friday and the review was very positive. So, I am glad of that. It was only 2 months behind. My supervisor had her evaluation as well and it was 6 months behind.

Friday evening, I went to help my brother move some of his furniture, ECT. During this same time, our slumber party hit off with about 8 other kids, totaling nine with ours. There were 7 6-yr old girls and two boys. I have to gripe just a bit on the moving. I arrived there after work and his wife was gone with the truck. I tried to get some boxes in my van to get going but he wanted to wait upon her return to see what they wanted to move. She came back in 15 minutes with one box of diapers. She plopped on the couch saying they needed to get some food for the kids (he has 2 little ones) after the first load. I asked my brother why she didn't get the food along with the diapers and his reply was she didn't think about it. I asked what could we move? Of course the answer was the boxes. so I filled the van (Ford Windstar) up with as much as I can put in it, as well as his truck with a large chair, ECT. We unloaded and came back. Then she left again with the van. She was gone nearly 50 minutes to get a Wendy burger and some fries. Of course we had the two little ones. I filled the van back up during this time and asked my bro for the key to unload while we waited for the truck. You guessed it. "I don't have the key, she does." I hate to gripe but they are the most unorganized movers. I feel for my brother because, from what I can perceive, I am not really impressed with his mate. But it's his life and choice. The heaviest item was the fridge. Once we finally were able to get it out the door, we were not manly enough to get it in the truck. Man, it was heavy. I called upon my friend (the one kicking off 4H), who was at my house kind of waiting on me to assist. Fortunately he did and we were able to haul it over to the other apartment. I am feeling it this morning.

I didn't make it back to the house till nearly 9 p.m. and the slumber party was still going on strong. My wife was exhausted already and her helper was remained sitting on the couch leafing through an LTD catalog. Around 9:40 p.m. a couple of moms came and picked up their kiddos. That brought it down to 4 girls and 2 boys. A bit more do-able. We finally put them down and started a movie. They crashed a bit after 11 p.m. We only had two wakeups during the night with the smallest boy.

We are hoping to go watch movies today. My wife still wants to take our daughter to 'Princess Diaries 2' while I watch 'Yu GI GO' with our son. I have a hard time keeping 'Pokeman and Digimon' apart and fear this will only add to it. : )

Site update: I have added 'On Donkey's mind' to my blog list of viewing. He happened to find my blog and posted. I checked it out find it thorough and worth looking at. Thanks Donkey.

Week is going going going.....

Already Wednesday this week. Geez

Monday night we had a successfull first PTA meeting. Kelli did well. We cut through the long agenda in 30 minutes, I clocked it. But of course afterwards it was an hour to B.S. It was the most time I seen my wife speak with the Elementary Principle and both leaving in one piece.

Did Tuesday really happen? I think it was a blur.

My schedule this week been basically, taking the kids to school, picking up the PTA first fundraiser, organizing it there. Replacing sold cards with new ones. It doesnt take too long though. I have a system now. I then return home to work, meetings ect. then at noon I or my wife transport our friends kid from headstart to a babysitter, due to them at work all day as well. So needless to say, it continues to be busy.

Today wasn't such a bad day at work, so far. I did speak with a friend of mine working in Mcallen Texas facility. I was a bit surprised she is still indecisive of who to vote for in Nov. 2 this year. I basically told her my view and will send her some weblinks to review. Basically ended it with, "I am not saying who to vote for but you really need to get educated, because this is an important vote." I did find it interesting when I asked her simply, "what do you find appeasing in Kerry?" and she stated she really didnt have any idea and there were none. I think Bush and the team needs to really gear up to what he accomplished to create a dichotomy of his decisivness, resolve, and accomplishments as opposed to Kerry's indecisivness, flip-flop, 19 years of liberal votes within the Senate, and non-accomplishments for our country.


Today I managed to find the time to deposit the money/checks for the last members and the fundraiser. We had kicked off the first fundraiser Friday and we have 2 weeks to do this in. I am hoping it will go well. From what I can see, it is far more organized than the past year. But I guess we will see how it turns out.


My coffee machine broke yesterday morning, so yesterday and today - no coffee in the morning. Bummer man. But I seem to keep functioning. : )

Criminy the weekend is flying. Friday was not too bad of a day in regards to work. It was a quiteness prior of next week's coming. We will be down to 3 working in our group. One is going on vacation and I get to test her projects in her absence. So she gave me the low-down Friday in regards of contacts, place of testing, ect.

My CIO contacted me Friday as well. She received my request to discuss Thursday and had some time. I was able to convey to her my perception of what was going on. It wasn't easy but it was needed. She was very receptive and evidently she also seen some things she was concerned about ( yeah, perhaps the fact she hasn't hit a 5 day week yet ) and spoke to her on it. Evidently she ( the peer ) will be back to work on Monday. Guess we will see. Since she was out all week and last Friday, next weeks support has been split up between the 3 of the remaining team. I have Tuesday and Friday for support.

On Friday night we didnt rent any movies or anything. In fact I cannot recall what we even watched. We spent the evening taking the kids to the first 4H meeting (I ended up entertaining 6 kids on the side while my wife got the low-down) and then to Gymnastics. Only one more week of gymnastics and I think we will be done with that round of experience. Since there was an 1 hr and half between, we ate out at a place known as 'The Barn'. A buffet of fish, chicken, shrimp, ect. It's always good but I get a cotton mouth afterwards. Must be due to the salt on the fish. It all tastes homemade and is ran by an old friend of my wifes and her parents.

Saturday, I managed to finish up on the PTA website by adding a couple more pages. Kell's Dad came by and picked the kids up to hang with him during the day, since her parents hadn't been able to see them all week. This allowed Kelli and I to get our PTA stuff organized, partly ready for our first meeting this Monday night, and paint some of neighbor's walls, ect.

Saturday evening, we went to her parents house and had some smoked ribs, chicken, tenderloin, with baked beans. There is a couple of guys that comes in town every other weekend and smokes meat throughout the weekend. Talk about good. Man, not only can you smell that good smoke smell for a block away but everything we have tried taste excemptionally well. The guys are making money hand over fist with it. They literally cannot keep up with the demand. The have a huge smoker planted on a trailer bed that they pull into a local grocery store. You can see them pushing a cart of rack of ribs, whole chickens, pork chops, tenerdloins,brisket, ect. smoking them till they run out. This is what we had Saturday night. I also had a good talk with her Dad and we enjoyed their company. Our daughter ended up spending the night and our son came home with us, not wanting to spend the night. Which totally amazed me, because both kids normally always want to stay there. While I was over there, I also setup their speakers and installed the kids games on their P.C. ( Just seem not to ever get away from this contraption.) Later that night, while at home our neighbor brought over 'Kill Bill, Volume 2' for me to watch. I thought it was better than the first one. It's a conclusion of the Volume 1. I enjoyed seeing David Carradine playing in a movie again. I hadn't seen him since the new KungFu series was attempted ( the one where his cop son was from the Shaolin Temple ). Its been awhile since it was on.

I was listening to a new talk show on the A.M radio that I hadn't heard before, called 'The Rusty Humphries Show'. His website is Talk to Rusty. Com. He had John Kerry's Citations on it that was interesting. I printed this off to give to Kell's Dad to look at. He was in the service for quite sometime and knows it more than I could. I look forward to his feedback.

I am planning to watch the DeadZone special 2 hour Season Finale, tonight. Also for those Farscape Fans, I seen the season 3 box set is coming on sale in the Best Buys Sunday Paper for 95 bucks. All 22 episodes in it.[sigh]

Nearly 10 p.m. already and the day once again flew like crazy. This morning started out pretty good. My wife took the kiddo's to school on her way to work, thus I had a bit of time prior of work. As stated I was on support today but did manage to work on a issue I been meaning to and follow-up on other tickets I had opened for awhile at work.

I placed a call to our CIO and requested some time with her ( spoke with the secretary ) but didn't get a chance nor heard from her. But I really didnt expect it. First day back you know she's booked solid with meetings. That's what I hate up at Corporate when I go there. "Oh your in town, can we do a meeting to discuss.. or review..." and then your basically in meetings all day and cannot get anything done.

I didn't even listen to the radio today in the background and yet it managed to fly by.

Last night after I wrote my review on GodSend, I took two tylenol pm's to wind down and thumbed through the tv channels and happed upon the end of 'The Deadzone'. Cool, I was able to finish it. I noticed I hadnt missed much of it but at least I was able to get to see all of it now. This Sunday is a 2 hour special end season. Has it been a season already? Crud, I didnt think it's been running a full season yet.

This evening, my wife and I put together the prizes the school kids will win on the fundraiser kicking off tomorrow morning. PTA is selling discount cards, those that stores/resturants/ect. will take a percentage off. Supposedly more stores are on this years fundraiser than the year before. This is our first one and we hope it goes well. Guess we will see.

I finished the PTA Website Wenesday, if you want to check it out, its at here. I pulled a template down and then revised it accordingly. Yes, I eventually will put the officers pics on there as well. And with me being treasurer, I guess those reading this blog will actually see my mug. : )

I am heading off to watch Orielly Factor. I haven't been able to see it much at all this week. It rained today and is quite cooler down here. Nixon, I wish I could push some of this cool rainy wind your way.

Page update I added a new blog and removed an old one that apparently died.

Well, finished the movie and it had some spooky parts in it. I jumped about 4 times during the movie. Basically the theme is parents loose their only son, who just turned 8, by an accident. They are in pain during their loss and Dr. comes to them saying he can help. This Dr. happens to be a genius in genes and promises to clone their loss child, everything perfect down to the hair on his head. They have 72 hours to make their decision, due to the genes stability.

Well, at first the husband says no-way, while the wife is willing. Then the husband agrees. They do it and the birth gives them a scare, but they have their son again. The Dr. relocates them, giving them this big mansion as opposed to their current apartment, new job, ect. Basically paying them for the experiment, but the story doesnt say that.

Something goes wrong. The Story fast forwards to the boys 8 year birthday. Shortly afterwards, he has these night terrors. Old memories of another boy emerges and the story begins of another identity coming through. I wont tell the end nor how it goes from here but the storyline basically is after the boys original death, new genes are awaken, hence the night terrors, memory, recognitive comes out.

So what we have here is a story about genetics that retain previous memories, slash life, that is resurfaced. Sound familiar, how about evolutionary thinking. The thought that life continues to improve, ie we get smarter, ect. Or life orientated, our make-up, thoughts, the way we act, say, do is all built in our genes and we cannot help ourselves in who we are.

But this is just a story right? Maybe at 11:15 p.m. I am reading to much into a movie. Oh well, I cannot help but analyze things and this story to me touched something.

I personally do not believe in Pre-ordained, ect. Because I think we are able to make decisions, and choose that which we love, eat, enjoy, ect. But there are those out there that believe in Pre-Life (you had many lives before this one and that's why you fear certain things, ect.) or the belief in soul-mates (the thought someone is your soul mate due to a previous life, you were married, loved each other) and you find each other again. It doesnt matter if your man-woman, man-man, woman-woman, because you will continue to reborn. But that logic doesnt really hold for me, becaue if that was the case, my luck my soul mate was the cow that was slaughtered for my McDonalds burger.

Anyway, you see my point. It's a scary story of what if and the possibility of a pre-life re-emerging, given the chance. The chance was due to cloning. The bummer of it was it happent to be a Psycopath kid with Pyromaniac tendencies. I will have to say the kid played a good part. He gets this glazed empty look in his eyes that nailed the character.

So, in short, not a movie for the kids. It had some scary stuff in it. But you pretty much knew what was going to happen as the story unfolded.

Well, hump day is over or soon to be. It is nearly 9 p.m. and the kids are in bed.
The kids had a good day at school today and that's always a plus.

Since my wife had to run our son to therapy at 4:30 p.m. and I had a trip to make to the Chiro at 5:30 p.m. We ate out for dinner. I left work early to drop off the movies with my daughter and hit the doc. I was out by 5:20 p.m. We ended eating at Panera in Fort Smith. Never been there, it had free wi-fi, so it must be hip, right? Well, it was a bit expensive and not really the place to take kids to eat. None-the-less we tried it out. I didn't think it was too bad. If I was single with a pretty good job, I can see hanging there, but my wife wasn't impressed at all. I would like to try their mocha sometime though.

I received an email today at work that our peer will be out all this week, due to health. Don't know the details, but I will be on support again tommorrow. I hope she makes it to work next week. I guess I will still make that call to our CIO tomorrow. I hate to give bad news about anyone, but we are hurting on this one. We have 4 people supporting, building, doing for 26 plus hospitals not counting outside interface projects. Considering there are a good 20 interfaces per some facilities, your looking at quite a load. Every consultant I have spoken to stated our company is the fastest paced, most worked place they ever worked in. There are suppose to be 5 in the team, but this chic hasnt been in a full week yet, and another peer is on vacation all next week. OK I will take cheese with the whine now.

On another note, I plan to watch 'GodSeed' tonight. A buddy of mine let me borrow his copy. So I will probably write about it in my next blogging.

Yesterday evening was pretty good. My wife had to bring our friends daughter over, due to them going to a 4-H leader meeting. No big. But it was a bit aggravating when they called around 7:00 p.m. from Walmart checking on her. Our kids were crashing out around 8:10 (around their bedtime) and they still hadn't came to pick her up. We finally put our kids to bed, note we already given them showes ect. as usual. My wife was in the process of asking our friends daughter if she wanted to take a shower so she didnt have to when she got home. Fortunately her parents came shortly after that. Perhaps I shouldn't be aggravated at something so insignificant but I also don't want it to become a habit.

On a side note afterwards, I was able to sit outback with my wife with a bottle of wine and relax under the stars. It was very relaxing to get a chance to unwine. Much better than tylenol pm and flipping through the tv. I am going to have to make it more of a routine getaway for us.

This morning started out with a bang. Getting the kids up and taking them to school was chore. They were dragging. Once I hit the school I caught the superintendant in the teachers lounge to try to get some feedback on the papers we sent her Monday. She was more than willing to discuss in her office. Interestig how everything was hunky dory and she just wants everything to go well this year. This same super will not spend time with my wife but attempts to be nice to me. Guess we will see where it goes. I played politics before, but don't like it much. However, if I can get more action out of her than my wife, so be it. At least it keeps things moving.

I grabbed the PTA mail and headed out. I was also able to speak to my son's teachers and aid as well as 3 other teachers, nurse on my way out. All this without finishing my first cup of coffee.

I proceeded to get home and correct a problem at work right off the bat. I am on support today and do not see getting much accomplished other than that. I was asked by a peer where is other group member( the one I mentioned yesterday's blog) and I didn't have a clue since I just logged on. Seems she is MIA again today.

Another day another dollar, so they say. I was able to get my yard done last night as well as the neighbors. So at least that was accomplished. I had to do it after the kids were down and I finished last nights blog. I stil need to get my weedeater running to finish up the edges though.

Late last night around 12:30 a.m. pacific, my daughter came into bed saying she spilt water on her bed. I blame myself, probably didnt have a tight enough lid on it. So we changed her bed out and by the time it was done, I was awake. I am normally a light sleeper anyway. I got up and started on the PTA officer webpage. When I went back to bed, I had a restless night. Go figure.

I took the kids off to school this morning and put some gas in the van on the way back. I plan to take our son to therapy this afternoon. I am looking at 2 scheduled conference calls today. I received a call from my supervisor yesterday and was asked a favor. To speak with our CIO of IS concerning a peer. She hasn't been in a full week since she started and moral of the team is down. She was out last Friday, I didn't know of it till Monday's morning call, which she was out Monday as well. When you consider everyone's plate if full working nearly 10-14 hours a day and she doesn't even care enough to call into her boss to say she's absent. That's gotta stink. Since she is not making deadlines her projects our put upon us, in turn we get even more overwhelmed with the crap we have to do. So I told her I would make a call this Thursday. This is when she returns. I needed to talk to her anyway. My evaluation hasn't been completed yet by her. It was done and turned in nearly 2.5 weeks now. We are supposedly waiting on her (CIO)anyway.

I already went through my coffee till it was cold and have my pepsi by my side. About to turn on Swordfish soundtrack and get going. On another note, I learned yesterday evening John Edwards was in Fort Smith today, speaking. My wife chides me saying I wouldn't attend that one, but I actually would had liked to go, if I had more notice. I would be intererested in what he has to say.

Well, Monday is over with and as usual fast and furious. I was able to get some things done today at work. One of the conference calls was changed to Wednesday so that bought me another hour today.

After work, I was able talk to my wife a bit. She is overwhelmed. She is working for 3 lawyers, PTA president (trying to organize a previous non-organized unit ), and our kids school activities along with the kids antics and therapy, ect. Not to mention secretary for her Aunt's Nursing stuff. I listened and offered my services in anyway possible but there is not much I can to assist in alot of these. I am hoping things will get calmer if not more manageable before long.

I finished getting supper ready and ran to my Chiropracter while the kids and wife came back in from their running. The doc told me he didn't have to work to much this time and my 2 times a week will be cut to once a week after next week. Which is good for me. So it must be getting better. Again, I never put much faith in these guys but I must admit my wrist haven't hurted since I started and I felt better. Oh well, whatever works, right?

Kids already ate and finished their homework when I returned home. PreK and 1st grade having 30 minutes of homework, geez. And it's only the second week.

It was suggested to have our son do at least 30 minutes of excercise in the evenings to get him on a better schedule. OK so I grabbed a timer and told the kids we are going to do some excercises before their showers tonight. "Excercise with Dad, wow". They were excited. I started to set the timer for 30 minutes but my wife said let's start them at 10-15. "OK" I figured for them to get into it. So my wife was frantically trying to catch up on the computer while I get the kiddos in the living room to excercise for 10 minutes. We start out with situps, 10 of them, then some waist excercises then bicycling. "OK kids, lets do some excercises." "Yeah!" they cried joyfully. "one, twooo, threeee, (grunt) fourrrr, fiivvvveee, no Braden like this (that bought me some breathing as I instructed my 5 year old), siiiiixxxxxxx, (more grunts), ssssseeeevvveeennnn, (turning red), eeeeiiggghhhtttt (turning to bob the tomatoe from the veggie tales), nnniiiinnneeee, ten (long sigh). Dad's out of shape kids." Of course during this my 5 year old son is flopping like a fish out of water and my 6 year old daughter is knocking them out like a piston. We manageed to finish it of with some head-waist-toes and 10 minutes came in quick. "Whew, ok kids let's get your showers done."

Anyway, after showers I was able to read some books to them and they are eating their snacks watching tv now. My poor wife is on the phone trying to decipher her R.N. Aunts notes, ect.

Web Update:I found a little script called "chatango" and added it to my blog. Suppose allow online chat if both parties are on the page at the same time. I will try to setup a date/time to chat online. Anyone have any preference let me know.

Drinking in the coffee this morning, looking over today's schedule. I have 3 meetings (conference calls) scheduled for today, first one in 25 minutes. Kelli and the kids have already gone off to work/school. House is cleaned up and I am listening to the Swordfish soundtrack to get me into the mood.

I fell asleep last night watching Deadzone. What a bummer because I really like the show. At least I only had one call last night for support. I am off on-call till next week. The group has decided we only have one day per week to do support during that day. This has helped out tremendously on the assigned projects. Consider this, trying to get a handle of your todo's while supporting over 26 hospitals with possible issues, recycles, ect. It can be stressfull. This will allow us to dedicate at least 4 days on our projects. At least we can move along. My dedicated support day this week is Wed.

I guess I will go ahead and remove the 3 links from my previous post. No-one seemed to know or answer my inquiry on them. I noticed this morning Blogger is having issues with allowing you to post comments and update your templates. Perhaps someone is trying to answer and getting the same issue I am. I have also added a couple of moblogs on my side as well. I enjoy X-play on G4TECH.TV when I get a chance to watch it. I also have seen The Broken and find it fascinating. They will be on G4Tech.TV tonight and I plan on trying to catch it.

I guess I will be getting ready for work. Had to update the blog. I plan on creating a test blog and working with it as well. I noticed others doing the same. This will allow us to manipulate and modify without fragging our prod one.

When I initally started blogging, I really didnt know what the deal was. I made contacts of other bloggers, either through similar interest or another link from that blogger. Once you start a line of communication, you become somewhat acquanted. However, then the blogger seems to suddenly give up on the blog or rather no further updates on his/her life. So with that I wonder what became of

The Skoop on Skassy

,

Lisa is trying to figure it out

and

Just Blog me

? Must be part of the dying blogs.

One blogger I continue to converse with is

Nixon's Memoirs

. Although I haven't had the pleasure of meeting him personally, I find alot of similiarities. My wife had a friend online that she communicated for nearly 5 years prior of actually meeting her on a vacation. It was interesting, as the friends husband was telling me and my wife a story, ect. afterwards, Kelli (wife) would say, I already knew that due to email, ect. Just seems interesting people may be more willing to open up online rather than conversing with someone face to face.

So, if anyone knows where these dying blogs stand, can they let me know?

Well, they put a temp fix on the instability network issue yesterday. Seems they first thought it was a misconfigured router in Lakewood facility down in Florida, and was unable to get to it due to the storm. Then another email was put out stating it was actually a phone system that was messing up the WAN, effecting some of the other facilities. Geez, with simplicity for the users comes complexity on the system and sensitivity for changes.

Last night we watched most of the movies, yes, I nearly cried when Optimus Prime died on the Transformers movie again. For awhile I was a kid again. The 'our lips are sealed' Mary Kate and Ashley movie was ok but pretty cheesy. We also managed to put in a 'Pokemon the movie' in, is there any other parents out there having to figure this out? oh well. I am envisioning many cards to be purchased and figuring out how to play these games.

I been fighting a sinus cold all week. Allergies are crazy down here in Oklahoma and I am not the only one. My wife was hit with it full swing yesterday, started day before. She took some benadryl and crashed for awhile ( can't hold up to it ) heh heh

So the plan for the weekend is R and R. We been running like crazy all week and its time to rest.

Well, Kelli's friend wasn't able to spend the night here before leaving. She left out this morning. I did get a chance to discuss with her during dinner last night. I was fascinated with her knowledge of the Iraq war and her thoughts on it, as well as the Euro, ect. It was a short discussion but an intersting one. Essentially she thinks the German chancellor Gerhard Schröder made a mistake in not assisting and it was not the same view as the German people. She also mentioned the burdening taxes, ect on the German economy.

I was on support last night and it was a booger. I had continued calls up till after midnight, then it tapered off. The only reason was the facilities gave up and put themeselves on downtime. The network was unstable and we continually recycled the connections only to have them drop again. Siemens is working on the issue with our Network group. Hopefully they will resolve this with ATT, or its going to be a lone weekend.

I plan to rent Transformers the movie and a Mary Kate / Ashley movie for the kids tonight. Popcorn and movies at home. Looking forward to it.

This week, my wifes friend from Germany has come over the states to visit. Initially she attended a wedding in Texas but this week she is staying close to here. I was fortunate to meet her Tuesday, and visited again last night. She is an interesting individual. She has gone to school/college most of her life and can speak 5 languages. She has a hard accent and at times has that confused look as to what your trying to convey to her, but you can also see she is definitely a warm, well knowledged person.

I was able to speak with her a bit during lunch Tuesday, about the main dichotomy of here and over seas. She said society in whole, school system and just from one town to the other as differences she see's. Their main means of transportation is by train or bicycle. Gas is horribly expensive, and with only the short distances of travel, they mainly cycle it.

I am on support starting tonight throughout the weekend. The family will be able to go out to dinner with her tonight and I hope to be able to discuss with her again. I find it fascinating to hear first hand of others view. My wife was able to spend some time with her during the week. But I feel she could have more time with her, were it not for her Aunt's hoggging her friend.

I will ask my wife to see if we can have her spend the night prior to her leaving.

I miss the days of Dragnet. I recall the same plea over and over again. "Just the facts ". When I went to school we had a bad ass English teacher that drilled it in our heads, just the facts, just the facts. I hated English, as you can see in my grammer. But as I grow older and notice the news, mags, and stories, it seems their English teacher did not have the same adament desire.

If you noticed the 'news' are more of ideology than facts. Its not how it is, rather than how it is perceived to be. This is something I learned the hard way while I debated online. Regardless of how many facts you throw at some people, they still choose not to accept it. What the hell. You can lead the horse to water but cannot make that horse drink it.

So in debating, I come to the simple conclusion. The opponent will not change my view, I will not change the opponent's view. I may find more information from the debate, but the major outcome will be those on the sidelines listening in on the discussion. The kicker is which opponent has the most information on the subject as well as the resources to back it up. The problem is the side-liners probably will not take the time to go look at those resources, if given, rather take whichever sounds the best or fits into his/her own ideology. This is what I am finding more and more of. There is so much spin on the same subject matter you can lean left or right.

Where's the days of facts? If either debator addresses their view of the facts, they generally leave some of it out or word it in such a matter of their view. I guess I am just ranting tonight but does anyone else see my point here?

Drop, crash. As I began working this morning, both my kids and wife was still in bed opening their eyes. I heard an unmistakenble drop, crash. My first thought was a picture must had fallen off the wall (happened before). I looked down the hall then in the other rooms. Nothing unusual or obvious. Then it struck me. The ice machine in our new fridge. The new fridge we acquired yesterday has a water and ice machine in it and I am not use to the sounds.

On another note this morning, I read the following in an email article and had to pass it on.

"Kerry for President camp just handed me the kind of story I can't keep away from. The new "religious advisor" to Senator John Kerry previously joined the lawsuit filed by atheist Michael Newdow to remove the words "under God" from the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag! Kerry's new "religious advisor" - Rev. Brenda Bartella Peterson - was one of thirty-two clergy members to file an amicus curiae brief in behalf of Michael Newdow. This is the woman that John Kerry plans to send to America's religious groups as his representative. Polls show that almost all Christians and the vast majority of even non-Christians in America, do not want "under God" removed from the Pledge. So what religious groups is she going to represent John Kerry to? Gay Unitarians? "

Kids are back safely from their trip, and I am so glad. It's amazing how much I missed them bugging me. It's like being a week at Corp., first couple of days were nice but then I was ready to have them back. It sounds like they had blast and was spoiled like crazy. Kell's mom and dad (nana and papa) had to tell me the story of them at a biker bar. Seems they had picnic tables there and sat outside watching all the bikers drive in and out and the food was excellent (or according to nana -to die for). My son loves motorcycles. But everyone made it home safe. Still washing their dirty clothes. : )

In addition to the kids coming home, Kell's parents brought back a freezer, refrigerator, couch and love seat. We get the refrigerator and her brother will get ours. We were told we would acquire it, which will be nice since this one has a built in water/ice. I never had one of those before, so we are looking forward to having it. Ours is a bit smaller but its the perfect size for her brothers place, as he does not have on yet. ( he moved out recently ) So it works out well.

Yesterday, all day my wife and I just shopped. We were looking for calendars/organizers to buy the teachers, from the PTA. No luck. Seems to be the wrong time of year. We will probably have to order them online (internet) for them. In looking for them, I think we hit 20 stores. MOstly we browsed around while in them but it was nice, the fact we didn't have,"I want to go home", after ever other store. So we spent most of yesterday evening out and about.

During the weekend we also managed to clean out and rearrange our garage and today I deep cleaned the floors. Even took out all the rugs to beat and hang in the sun. Kelli and I worked on getting geared for the PTA this week. We will have a member drive during open house Tuesday night. Unbelievable to think school starts this Wed. My daughter will be in 1st grade and my son in Kidengarten. Man time flys.
I mentioned I had started on the PTA website and the site is located here.

I can't recall if I mentioned us putting on a lay-a-way for Christmas while they were out. Well, we put on a PS2. Yeah, its as much for me as them. : )

I haven't updated all in awhile so I thought I better do so. The kids have gone with their nana and papa to Texas for a wedding. That's right, Thursday, Friday night and Saturday without my precious. We feel lost without them. But as much as I miss them, I am really enjoying time alone with my wife. Thursday night we ordered pizza (didn't have to have pepperoni) and watched 13 going on 30 all before 9 p.m.! yeah, you might think, 'wow, what party animals'. But it was nice to be able to sit watch and relax before anyone else was in bed.

Friday's work day was pretty good. I was able to accomplish alot and felt like I was all over the place. I worked on 2 projects, on 2 conference calls, assisted 3 people, and was able to update some documentation. All in all a productive day. I am still seeing the Chiropracter, had a visit at 8 a.m. before work today. Same thing, keep up the excercises and see my twice again next week. But I have to say my wrist has not hurt at all since I been going. So something is working right.

Friday evening my wife and I enjoyed the evening out. We ate out at LoneStar steakhouse (I had a peppercorn steak and my wife ate steak and shrimp) yes it was good. We then gathered some supplies, cookies, soda for PTA. Did I mention my wife is PTA president and I was voted Treasurer this year? Can't recall if I did. Oh well. We grabbed the stuff. I also grabbed two movies to watch, Swordfish (seen it before but wanted to again) and Hart's War(haven't seen that one), both for 1.99 each so couldn't pass renting those. We also were able to leasurely walk through Walmart, so we put on a Christmas layaway for the kids. Have to start on it due to being around the corner and the fact I get paid once a month.

Anyway, the evenings have been really nice but we continue to call the kids to check on them. They are being spoiled rotten as usual and enjoying time with their grandparents. School starts on the 11th here. The school has an open house on the evening of the 10th. PTA will furnish the refreshments, hence the soda's and cookies. We will also have a member drive that evening. Another exciting event is my buddy will be starting up a 4H here in Pocola, which they have not had before.

The other best thing, is the spontaneity my wife and I can have without the kids. I will leave that to you imaginations. : )

Dick Cheyney in Fort Smith today, 8-3-04 

Very cool. I had the chance to take an extended lunch to go see Dick Cheyney in Fort Smith today. I stood in line for nearly an hour to go through security. It was held in the Fort Smith Convention Center. Cheyney was a bit late arriving and spoke for about 35-40 minutes. I was able to tape nearly all of the speech and of course taking as many digital pics as possible. I am posting one of the better ones of him. I was able to shake his and his wifes hand. I am grateful to have a good job to enable me to be able to escape for such things. Of course I will put in that same time if not more but I cannot gripe. I figured this would be the only chance to actually see him in person.

He spoke very clear and was very articulated. I was very impressed with his speech.

Per request, I found the speech on the Bush Cheyney Website. It is here.. http://georgewbush.com/News/Read.aspx?ID=3164