Middle America's Worldview

I truly hope everyone has a safe New Year. I am off my main job, but I will be working for Pepsi tomorrow. Today with Pepsi it was busy, but not absolutely crazy. I am still amazed how much soda goes through the stores each day.

This morning, before 8 a.m. two guys were discussing which soda to use for mixed drinks. I guess they will bring in the New Year with a hangover. I am surprised how many actually plan for it. I heard 3 different individuals conveying as such. Not for me. I can do without the mental lapse and hangover.

Kel refilled the fridge and cabinets today with the grub. This time around, she grabbed only the healthy stuff. Starting on the second, I will be going on a detox diet. It will last 3 weeks. The major concern, is No Coffee! You can read my daily experience here. I will post my expectations and the reality of it. (Smile)

The family talked last night. We call them family meetings where we basically discuss what we are doing the following week, or if there is a decision to be made (make the kids part of it).

Last night we had a family meeting to discuss Friday. As we were discussing it dawned on me, this is the last weekend of the year. ( yeah, I know, duh)

I really didn't realize it was already here. So, I guess the New Year resolutions will start next Tuesday.

Christmas is over and in some way, I am glad. I like it, but it's also nice to get the house back in shape. Today, we cleaned house, and took all the Christmas stuff down. I was actually off today, making a 3 day weekend for me (had to work Saturday). I enjoyed being with the family.

We don't have the house tip-top yet, but the buisiness picking up the trash tomorrow will dread seeing our haul. There is a pile and a half of trash bags to haul off. Having my family over one evening and Kel's the other makes for a lot of wrapping paper and boxes.

We also hit the Christmas after sales today. We primarily go for the after shave, bath stuff, ect. We happen to hit Sears on a whim. While Kel looked around for any clothes on clearance, the daughter and I was checking out the exercise stuff. There was a treadmill just sitting there. A motor one, not a manual one. The manual one was priced for 100 bucks. This one didn't have a mark on it. On a whim, we asked. We pulled it over to have them scan it. Believe it or not, it scanned for 120 bucks. It must had been a mistake. Alas, mistake or not, I grabbed it. So a nice Christmas present to Kel. I spent a good hour putting it together While I was putting it together, Kel checked the net for the machine. It was priced 279 dollars at the lowest. Yes, a true find! So now we just need to use it. (smile)

It's back to work tomorrow, but at least it makes for a short week.

"I heard something." The cold hand moved away from mine as I jumped in my skin. " I heard something" was the statement again. It wasn't my wife. It wasn't even 2 a.m. yet.

My daughter stood over me with wideness in her eyes. I still had grit in mine. She heard something and thought it must be Santa. My wife and I tried to suggest we lay here in bed another 30 minutes. Both kids crawled in and there was no going back to sleep.

We came to find Santa had indeed arrived, leaving crumbs and a empty glass behind. We allowed them to open the bags. 30 minutes after that, with a cup of coffee in hand, we then proceeded to give them their gifts from us. The kids had a blast.

Kel crashed around 4 a.m. back to bed. I crashed on the couch as the kids continued to check out their loot. Later I tried Star Wars Lego 2 with them and the Guitar Hero. My fingers are already tired. LOL At least the Guitar Hero has songs from the 80's. (smile)

The living room looks like a explosion of toys.

Merry Christmas everyone.

I woke up around 2:30 a.m local time. I was troubled with the issues regarding my family. Not my immediate wonderful wife and kids, rather my family. In the beginning of the year, I had a foreboding feeling change was upon us. I mentioned it to Kel without realizing just how significant that change would be. Nearly the end of the year now and so much have been changed within our home and hearts.

I am having that foreboding feeling once again. I awoke with arguments still in my mind. This Christmas with my family will become a changing one. Not so much as a dreaded altercation, rather a past due discussion. I will not enlighten my readers on the issues, per se. However, I feel diplomacy has come to an end.

4 days till Christmas and 3 for the Eve. Unbelievable. I hope everyone has their stuff bought, ect. I spoke with a lady last night at church and she still plans to buy Christmas cards. Wow, I thought 'forget it' to myself at this point.

I looked all over our little area ( Fort Smith, Arkansas - Poteau, Oklahoma )to no avail for an item. I was kindof shocked not to find at least one. Crud, when I called a particular store, the lady actually said "oh, we get alot of calls for those, but we don't carry it". WTF? So we have a demand for it, but no suppliers. Welcome to the logic of my neck of the woods.

So here comes the internet to the rescue, yet again. I had found it online, called the store the following morning, requested it shipped out, and it came in last night. I had to sign for the thing to prove I acquired it. So, last night I rested easy, knowing Kel had another item under the tree. (smile)

Personally, I enjoy acquiring the gifts for the kids and Kel. It's the one time of the year, I actually buy something without feeling guilty. I never had much when I was a kid, and it makes me feel good to be able to provide those things to my family and others. Call it a selfish act on my part ( in some way ).

If I don't get around to blogging again, I wish my fellow bloggers and readers a wonderful Christmas and my joy, blessings follow you to the New Year.

Christmas = Christ should be first.

"I appreciate you working so hard." There were the words I heard at 5 a.m. this morning. These words were spoken by my wife as I rolled out of bed to my part-time Pepsi job. I work full time during the week on the primary job, and 20 hours on the weekend for the part-time. I don't mind really. Except some mornings are a bit harder to get out of bed than others, like this morning.

I was thinking about this today. I have a great wife who is supportive, trusting, great mother, and a true friend.

I am reminded of Proverbs chapter 31 verse 10; "Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies."

I feel my wife is my deepest treasure on this earth. I honestly do. I look at these other marriages (they mainly keep together for some other reason than love) and it's a continued reminder of how good I have it.

We have differences and we have arguments, but in the end, we still love each other. And somehow manage to go to bed together. (smile)

In reality, every time I go to work on the weekends, she works just as hard with the kids and house. So when she tells me again "I appreciate you working so hard." I will have to reconvey to her "I appreciate her work just as well."

I have to tell you this one. Dealing with interfaces, we pretty much move data around. Getting the data, massaging the data, and moving the data from point A to point B in the correct format.

Today, I had a facility reset their FTP connection, because it just wasn't happening. Once it was reset, boom, access and I was able to get the files and send them on their merry way.

Having to look on the server for those files (manually and to verify I have access), I happen to note a folder named "Pearl Jam". Hmm, that's a rock group. ( I always liked 'Rooster' ). I happen to check in the folder and to my surprise, 4 CD labels with files in mp4 formats. Ahh songs on the server.

I had to ask.

I asked the tech, via instant message, if he had a honeypot on the server. ( To explain, a honeypot is a tempting file for a hacker or someone lurking on a server. Once the trespasser attempts to pull the file, a log is kept and the lurkers IP is captured )

He didn't know what I was talking about, so I asked about the 'songs'. He promptly told me "it was put there for a co-worker of mine, who will remain nameless".

Needless to say, in about 3 minutes the files were gone.

Another week is simply flying by.

I had received my new laptop from work last week. As of yesterday, I have all my info and programs transferred over. So, my Christmas came early. (smile)

I will be sending the old one back, probably today.

I made some additional edits on my Get Rid of Toxins website. I placed a feedback form on it. I also created another article and submitted it to Hello Healthy. I guess we will see if it's accepted. I wrote about the increase in organic foods being availible in the market.

Work is still going like crazy. I'm trying to get some projects done prior to end year.

The family is doing well in health. Just crazy to get everything done.

Now I heard everything, almost.

BERLIN (Reuters) - German sex educators plan to launch a spray-on condom tailor-made for all sizes.

Jan Vinzenz Krause from the Institute for Condom Consultancy, a Singen-based practice that offers advice on condom use, told Reuters on Thursday the product aimed to help people enjoy better and safer sex lives.

"We're trying to develop the perfect condom for men that's suited to every size of penis," he said. "We're very serious."

Krause's team (spraykondom.de) is developing a type of spray can into which the man inserts his penis first. At the push of a button it is then coated in a rubber condom.

"It works by spraying on latex from nozzles on all sides," he said. "We call it the '360 degree procedure' -- once round and from top to bottom. It's a bit like a car wash."

Krause said the plan is to make the product ready for use in about five seconds. He said it would function more effectively as a contraceptive because it would fit better and not slip.

However, before the new condom can be sold in shops, the firm must ensure that the latex is evenly spread when sprayed, as well as optimise the vulcanization process.

Krause hopes the high tech condom, which will be available in different strengths and colours, will on the market by 2008.

He said the spray can would likely cost some 20 euros ($26) as a one-off purchase. The latex cartridges -- sufficient for up to 20 applications -- would cost roughly 10 euros, he said.

Krause said he had hit upon the idea when considering the difficulties some people faced using condoms, and drew inspiration from spray-on plasters now used in medicine

I am beat today. Pepsi was busy today. The day went quick though.

Last night was pretty cool. We drove to Muskogee to check out the Garden of Lights and the castle. There were tons of those blowup yard christmas things. I am not sure what they are called.

I have found all the ingredients of the Lemonade diet. I noticed the lemons at Walmart were 44 cents each! Un-freaking real. I will be waiting till they go on sale. I really cannot do it till after the holidays anyway. However, I was surprised to find the sea salt and pure cayenne pepper.

I have been busy on my Get Rid of Toxins website. I have added additional pages and created some video's to show the products.

I also created an article that was posted on Hello Healthy. You can check my article here if you want too.

I was scheduled off today and tomorrow. However, I seemed to have worked enough today that it didn't feel like I was off. I am looking forward to being off tomorrow.

We drove around tonight looking at the outside Christmas lights after basketball practice. A local church also had a drivethrough that was really cool. They do it every year and this makes the second one we went too. Tomorrow night we plan to drive to Muskogee to a castle. It suppose to have alot of lights, ect. as well.

The product is the compact fluorescent lightbulb, a quirky-looking twist of frosted glass. In the energy business, it is called a "CFL," or an "energy saver." One scientist calls it an "ice-cream-cone spiral," because in its most-advanced, most-appealing version, it looks like nothing so much as a cone of swirled soft-serve ice cream.

Check out this little fact on them.

One thing hasn't changed: the energy savings. Compact fluorescents emit the same light as classic incandescents but use 75% or 80% less electricity.

What that means is that if every one of 110 million American households bought just one ice-cream-cone bulb, took it home, and screwed it in the place of an ordinary 60-watt bulb, the energy saved would be enough to power a city of 1.5 million people. One bulb swapped out, enough electricity saved to power all the homes in Delaware and Rhode Island. In terms of oil not burned, or greenhouse gases not exhausted into the atmosphere, one bulb is equivalent to taking 1.3 million cars off the roads.

How it works.

A "normal light bulb" is also known as an incandescent light bulb. These bulbs have a very thin tungsten filament that is housed inside a glass sphere. They typically come in sizes like "60 watt," "75 watt," "100 watt" and so on.

The basic idea behind these bulbs is simple. Electricity runs through the filament. Because the filament is so thin, it offers a good bit of resistance to the electricity, and this resistance turns electrical energy into heat. The heat is enough to make the filament white hot, and the "white" part is light. The filament glows because of the heat -- it incandesces.

The problem with incandescent light bulbs is that the heat wastes a lot of electricity. Heat is not light, and the purpose of the light bulb is light, so all of the energy spent creating heat is a waste. Incandescent bulbs are therefore very inefficient. They produce perhaps 15 lumens per watt of input power.

A fluorescent bulb uses a completely different method to produce light. There are electrodes at both ends of a fluorescent tube, and a gas containing argon and mercury vapor is inside the tube. A stream of electrons flows through the gas from one electrode to the other (in a manner similar to the stream of electrons in a cathode ray tube). These electrons bump into the mercury atoms and excite them. As the mercury atoms move from the excited state back to the unexcited state, they give off ultraviolet photons.

The thing I find fascinating is on each package you see the output (60, 75, 100 watt). The amount of electricity for the regular bulb output is more than these new fluorescent bulbs. This is the main thing that sold me. Plus the bulbs last either 5 or years, dependant on what you buy.

Currently we changed out our office, living room and kitchen. Kel noticed the 60 watt bulbs having a yellow hue to them (I didn't notice). The 100 watts are Kel's favorite. We have them placed in the living room. I have 75 watts in the kitchen and office. Just be sure not to look straight at them. They are bright!

It was a nice weekend. We traveled to Hooker, Oklahoma to visit some of Kel's family. We made it rhrough Tulsa even though the "blizzard" went through Oklahoma the night before. Once we passed I-35, it was clear all the way.

Just the fact of having a sit down and nice talk with the family was nice. No stress. No 'have too' todo's. Yeah, it was nice. We played some spades and a horse racing game.

We made it back home today before 6 p.m. I told the kids, I had a movie for us to watch. I pulled out our 2001 Christmas video of the family Christmas. It was wild to see the kids so young. LOL

Check this out.

Highlights:

The court finds that 1) the appeals are not moot; 2) San Diegans for the Mount Soledad War Memorial and Mike Shelby are aggrieved parties for the purposes of the appeal; and 3) the transfer of the cross under Proposition A does not in itself violate the First Amendment establishment clause or the California Constitution…and the attorney's fees award has been reversed!

Full story found in this link,

http://stoptheaclu.com/archives/2006/11/30/great-mt-soledad-news/

This is actually my Friday. I am scheduled off tomorrow and the next day. I asked Kel if there was anything preventing us for sleeping in tomorrow (8 a.m would be a good sleep-in).

There are alot of stuff needing done today. The normal cleanup around the house, catchup on some work stuff, get the kids classes going, plus some extra class time since we are traveling Friday.

The kids have a choir thing on Thursday night where they will sing about 7 songs. Unfortunately, we simply didn't have much time to take them with the Texas trip ect. Even though I jotted down the notes and the songs to look them up for the words, I really don't see how they can memorize them all in such a short time.

The kids had basketball practice last night. I was reminded of it, that same evening. Sigh. Kel and Britt didn't even make it to the house. I met them with basketball shoes at the school. This is another one of those activities, I don't think we really have the time for.

We are traveling to Hooker, Oklahoma on Friday. Yes, it's a real location. We are meeting Kel's family up there for this years Christmas get together. We were going to have the kids create some gifts this year, but another one that we are running out of time for. Kel is going to pick the material up today on her way back home (she left before 6:30 a.m. local time this morning for work).

I need to accomplish some task before day end on my job as well. Being around the holidays, many are out on vacation and it's hard to get all the necessary parties involved.

So much to do, so little time to do them all in.

It's been awhile since I blogged. I better provide an update to my 5 readers. (smile)

Basically, we arrived home last Tuesday. Kel snagged a virus on the way home. She was pretty sick the better part of last week up to Sunday.

Our daughter got ahold of it late Saturday night. But it seems hers lasted 24 hours only, fortunately.

I worked for Pepsi for about 5 hours on Thanksgiving. I only had to babysit Walmart, and it was pretty much dead. For the most part, there were more Walmart employees than customers.

Friday morning we braved and survived the Black Friday sales. I took the kids with me, since Kel was grabbing the kids Christmas specials.

The kids and I hit only two places. All four of us were back home by 7 a.m. local time. The kids and I hit Walmart first then Best Buy. We were through the lines 26 minutes flat at Walmart. It was a first time record. Best Buy was a madhouse. We were in lines for an hour(the short line at that).

All in all, there really wasnt that many sales out this year, in my opinion. Nothing jumped out to us as a really good deal.

I worked my part time this weekend as well. Saturday, Kmart had a sale on 12 packs, 5 for $10. I was pulling 12 packs all day. More than once, I had simply transferred the soda from my cart to the customers shopping cart. Sunday wasn't as bad, since the ad was only for one day.

Monday- What can I say? It was Monday. Kel and our girl went to a Cheetah girl concert in Tulsa. That left the boy and I bach-ing it alone in the home. After speech we grabbed a cheese pizza on the way home. We played PS2 Lego Star Wars and then crashed watching Xiolin Showdown. I had a good time with him.

We made it home today, Tuesday. We drove all day, but we made it home around 3:30 p.m.
Kel had me up around 4:20 a.m. So I had 20 minutes more than expected. (smile)

None-the-less, we are home and looking forward to our own beds.

Unfortunately, after we had stopped at a Cracker Barrel and ate some breakfast, Kel got sick. We had to pull over 3 times on the way home. Not sure if it's due to the food. She is in bed and still pretty sick to her stomach. Probably, caught a bug.

We are leaving tomorrow morning. Yes, finally going home. We will leave when Kel gets up tomorrow. So, it will probably be 4 a.m.

My week with the family has gone quickly. We should receive confirmation tomorrow if/that we get to leave Tuesday. I will probably take another day off work to get us home. At least as early as a 10 hour drive can. I have enjoyed staying with Kel's Aunt and Uncle. I find it interesting, they have certain tv shows they watch each night. Many of which I never have seen. So we were introduced to some shows we would never had seen.

Kel received an email from the Doc's office stating his white blood cell count had increased. She is concerned we may have to stay longer, but I have faith we shall be heading home Tuesday.

I made it to Texas with no issues. It actually worked out really well.

The School Board meeting was better than I expected. No patron participation to drag on. That's all I can really say. We left at 10:30 p.m., which is the latest I have ever attended. However, it was well worth it.

I kept waking up all last night. I guess the anticipation of getting to my family. I was able to get sleep a little after midnight, but I woke up around 2 a.m. I then woke up around 3:30 a.m. and finally just arose around 4. I finished the last bit of packing (throwing my P.C., wireless router, ect in ) and headed out.

This was the first time I tried Southwest Airlines and was a bit impressed. There were no 'assigned seats' so you simply chose where you wanted. The plane wasn't loaded at all and I had an row to myself.

It's nice to be with the kids and Kel. Looks like I will be camped out here with them for some time. How much, is yet to be determined.

This is a must read for all.

Please click here regarding Dem's plan.

After tomorrow,I will be heading to Texas myself. I am looking forward to seeing Kel and the kids.

I was tired today. I had one of those days where I simply 'felt it'. I was ready for my shift to be done. I wasn't the only one. The Coke guy said he was tired too. He looked tired. Evidently I look like crap anyway. Last Friday, a friend of Kel's seen me and informed her, I looked tired and pale. Gee thanks. Oh well, the weekend is over.

I am glad to hear our son is doing good. It helps with the stress. I have the school meeting tomorrow. I am already stressing on it. I know logically, it's just a meeting. I have had 1000 of them. I just hope it goes well. I have to remind myself, as stressed as I am, the other members are as well.

I was going to pack tonight. But, it's not going to happen. I arrived home nearly 6 p.m. After a shower, clothes washing and eating, I pretty much melted.

I am currently watching a fascinating show entitled C.I.A. Secrets-Passing Secrets.

I will probably be hitting the bed before 9 tonight.

My week alone at the house went way to fast. It is already Saturday morning and I haven't accomplished nearly all I wanted to.

I did get some things done, like I wanted. But again, not all. I am about to go into Pepsi for my 10 hour day. It will also go quick.

I had my school board depositions yesterday. I will have today and tomorrow with Pepsi. Monday's work, school board that night and I leave early Tuesday morning to meet up with Kel and the kids. I have to admit the house is awful quite without them.

I know these next 3 days will fly even faster and then I will be with the family again. I will drive up to Tulsa and take the flight from there to Texas.

I have to personally thank God for some blessings He has already provided.

1) The good news of Bradens 90 percent chance this will truly remedy the issue.
2) Not really knowing how to handle the co-pay, a friend has provided the means
3) Out of the blue, I assisted one of Kel's employers secetary with her computer and the lawyer actually paid me the price of the Airplane fare to Texas.

I didn't expect any of this to occur, but God does have a funny way to provide the means. Even if the means is going to one such as undeserving as myself. With that, I will simply say, His grace and love shall always overshadow me.

I wanted to share these links.

Here is a 73 minute YouTube video entitled "23 minutes of Hell

23 minutes of Hell

Within the above video, he mentions Mary K Baxter. I looked up her webpage and she also has a means for you to download her story regarding Hell. It is in MP3 format.

Her webpage is found here.

I haven't listened to Mary Baxter's story yet. I am downloading it tonight.

One more YouTube video I found to be really good. It's less than a minute long.

This one is entitled Rapture are you ready?

I am having a hard time sleeping tonight. We received word yesterday morning on our sons results. In addition, the school board is coming up pretty quick.

Interesting, Kel and the kids left Sunday morning and technically as of Tuesday, they were gone less than 3 days. Yet, I miss them like crazy. I wanted to talk to the kids yesterday evening, but by the time I could, they were already in bed. Perhaps I can hear them today.

It's currently 3 a.m. local time. I have another 4 scheduled conference calls today. In addition, I need to run to the local town (about 15 minutes away) to work on someones P.C. This week has flown.

Last night I cooked myself Oyster stew. I was able to, since the wife and kids were not here. They can't even stand the smell of it. LOL

Today will be election day for the United States. Across the Nation the people will have their one chance to voice their opinions regarding who will or will not be held in office. A lot of people around here watch the football games with fever. I will actually be watching the news tonight to see what occurs.

Oklahoma will have the following on their ballot. Personally, I will be voting on both sides of the fence, both Democrat and Republican. As a registered Independent, this is the only one (other than the main Presidential votes) that I will be able to attend at the polls.

Governor
Brad Henry (D)
Ernest Istook (R)

Lietutenant Governor
Jari Askins (D)
Todd Hiett ( R)
E.Z. Million (I)

State Auditor
Jeff A. McMahan (D)
Gary Jones ( R)

State Treasurer
Scott Meacham (D)
Howard Barnett (R )

Superintendent of Public Instruction
Sandy Garrett (D)
Bill Crozierr (R)

Commisioner of Labor
Lloyd L Fields (D)
Brenda Reneau (R )

Insurance Commissioner
Kim Holland (D)
Bill Case (R )

Corporation Commissioner
Cody Graves (D)
Bob Anthony (R )

District 2
Dan Boren (D )
Patrick K Miller (R )

District Judge Office one
Danita S. Williams
Mariaon Daly Fry

State Senator No 4
Kenneth Corn (D )
Thomas E. Lannigain (R )

There are also 4 state questions and one proposition.
The proposition asks if a 50 cent tax can be placed on cell phone usage. I don’t see that passing.

These and 12 Judges up for election should make for more than a few to come out to vote in Oklahoma.

Kel called yesterday around 12:30 p.m. to let me know they made it to their aunts house safely. I was glad to hear it. In addition they went onto the hotel near the hospital around 7 p.m.

Now I wait with anticipation to hear the results of our son's procedure.

I know I will begin cleaning the house today as I work. I have free reign all this week and plan to utilize it to its fullest extent. Primarily, I will hit a room individually and do a thorough cleaning.

Yesterday evening, I took my dad over to Hastings. He wanted to look for a game. In my surprise I found the movie Target. I grabbed it for 11 bucks. I have been looking for it the past 3 months. Blockbuster nor the other rentals in my area hadn't even carried it to rent. So, I watched it last night. Great, great movie.

I should also have my evaluation from my primary job today as well. I have been waiting since July for it.

2 a.m. and both Kel and I are awake. She stayed in bed till 3 a.m. and was ready to go.
I filled the car with gas while she checked her email on my P.C.

The kids were awaken at 3:30 a.m. and all three are already headed out. I feel anxious and worried already.

We said a prayer before they left. Kel feels like this will be the last trip, where resolution will be found. She also feels it will not go as we expect it too. But then again, we find ourselves in a new world of alternative medicine and homeschooling. Something, I would never have dreamed of.

It has come upon this dad one of the fears of having a daughter. I shall explain.
Here is the conversation of my now (gulp) 9 year old daughter today.

daughter: Dad, I need to call my friend Rachel.

me: (on a conference call with mute) What? Rachel who?

daughter: My friend Rachel. She may have heard from Allie and Allie may not have my number.

me: Uh. I think your a bit young to be calling.

daughter: Dad. Allie had to have some blood work and I am really nervous about it. Rachel is my first homeschool friend and she is 11. Can I please call her?

me: (looking into this sincere 9 year old eyes. Man, she seemed to be a teen already).

I made the call. Explained to the mom on the other end and she allowed her daughter to speak to mine. I was still on the conference call and only heard a bit of the conversation. Basically it was, "have you heard from Allie" and my girl giving this other 'friend' our home number. Oh man, it's already begun.

Later this evening as we are leaving for church, she is looking in the hallway mirror and asked out loud..."Is that a zit? My first zit."

I looked in astonishment and it did look like a zit. Geez, shouldn't she be like 13?

Oh man, I am feeling old.

I had picked up two movies yesterday since I was off today. I rented Curious George for the kids and A America Haunting for myself. I knew I would be watching it alone when the rest of the crew went to bed.

First, I would say Curious George was a cute movie, as expected.

Second, the scary movie A America Haunting was not as I expected. The back of the movie stated it was based off a true story. The setting is back before the Civil War where a family is haunted by a spirit that actually killed a family member. It also stated the source of the curse. Well, nearly the whole movie was indeed intense. Supposedly this family committed usury over some land. The lady that had owned the land put a curse on the family. This led to the Bale Witch curse, ect. ect.

The story was written by a local teacher that witnessed the events that occured to the family.

Anyway, why I say it's a let down is througout the movie, it intense. The girl was persecuted by the entity, and the family could not stop it. When it wasn't attacking the girl, it attacked the dad. (the curse of the bale witch was primarily on those two of the family).

Nearly the whole movie showed what was occuring, then something odd happened at the last 12 minutes of the movie. It did a complete 180 degrees. It insenuated the attacks of the girl was made by the father. Kindof like a incest rape thing going on. The daughter had killed the dad, through meds, for payback.

Totally bizarre turnaround. It never explained all the other witness's view of the girls attacks, the voice everyone heard throughout the movie, ect. Made no freaking sense at all. What a let-down.

I pulled another weekend on my part-time job. Saturday, I just could not keep up with the customers. As soon as I fill the aisles with Soda, it seemed to disapear.

Walmart's 2 liters are on sale for 88 cents a piece. All Pepsi 2 liters. Needless to say, many took part of the sale. They simply moved and moved quickly. Crud, even the non-sale items seemed to be snatched up Saturday.

Saturday night,I had the pleasure to go out with Kel. After not seeing her all week, it was nice to go out with just the two of us. Tired or not. (smile)

Sunday was equally busy, but its over now. I managed to mow the front yard after I came in today. It needed it bad. I was hoping a cold snap would kill the grass, but no luck.

I am off tomorrow and the next day from my primary job. I look forward to it.

The plane arrived home about 1:15 p.m. local time yesterday. I was glad of it. Kel and the kids picked me up and we headed for some errands. Since Kel had a doc appt. I utilized the time to pick up the groceries with the kids. It was nice to be with them again.

Kel had a nice crockpot full of hot food cooking. The temp was around 53 with it looking about to rain. Nice chow for that type of weather.

Up early this morning to head to Pepsi. I have a couple additional errands to run during this day. I hope I don't forget them. (smile) The first one is to put gas in the vehicle. Not sure how Kel does it, she manages to always have the car on empty when I need it. (smile)

I continue to find it fascinating when I come to Corp. I look at the week I will be up here alone, thinking I have some time alone to do some personal stuff.

Yet, when I am up here, the time still flies and I have yet to open that magazine I brought to read. Unreal.

Now its my last night here and the week has literally flew. I didn't get to do those personel things I wanted to do. Oh well.

I tried to get to bed early tonight, due to having to get up around 4 a.m. I have an early flight and it always takes time to drive back to Philly, drop the rental, ect.

I crashed around 8:30 but awoke at 10:30, not able to sleep. I am watching the 100 scariest movie moments on T.V.

I am ready to go home. Crud, I am already packed and ready to go.

Why is Canada doing the right thing here, while United States seem to stall? Personally , I don't want to go through another voting fiasco. Either party will call foul when the tallies are in. It doesn't matter one way or the other.

While the U.S. mid-term elections are going full steam ahead with a myriad of maybe-reliable and not-so-reliable electronic voting systems in place, Quebec is pulling back from its adventures in e-voting, after the province's chief electoral officer Marcel Blanchet delivered a harsh report on the 2005 municipal elections. The voting machines were used in some 140 municipalities in the province last year but, according to the report, they went down like bad plate of poutine, suffering from blackouts and transmission errors, resulting in unreliable results -- although he adds that there's nothing that can be done about the results now except to move on. He also reported that the electronic voting machines weren't any faster or more economical than manual counting. As a result of the report, Quebec's Municipal Affairs Minister Nathalie Normandeau is accepting Blanchet's recommendation that the current moratorium on electronic voting put in place after last year's elections be maintained, apparently indefinitely.

Voting is about 2 weeks away and it's becoming all too obvious on the TV and radio. I bet the stations love this time of the year.

The problem I have is all the advertising posed by the candidates usually is anti-opponent. Rather than each candidate coming out to say, I voted for...., I supported x.... the groups trash the opponent. Come on people, let's not trash, rather promote what you actually have done to improve this country and it's people.

Realistically, you can find any little thing against someone else. It's not hard, and if you can't find anything juicy, they can simply lie.

I actually acquired sleep last night. It took 2 benadryls plus an extra green pill, but it worked.

My lovely wife snuck the movie Sneakers in my bag for my trip. I was wanting to watch it and she must have found a copy on Ebay or something. Thank you honey! I will probably watch it tonight.

Last night, I did my routine of hitting TGIF, grabbing a Tostado Nacho and heading to the hotel. I was exhausted from hitting the hotel the night before at 2 a.m. with little sleep, so I didn't walk too much of the Mall. I did notice the KBToys was finally out, replaced by another Cingular store.

I uploaded another vid on youtube. I find it just another portal for communication and sharing.

Today, I am looking at 4 scheduled conference calls, plus being on support. The norm everytime I come up here. But it is nice to see everyone again.

Am I reading this right? First North Korea, now Tehran, Iran is in the Nuclear arms race? If I am, then surely it's only a short matter of time, before the end.

Iran to EU: you will lose if you back U.N. sanctions

Wed Oct 18, 2006

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran's chief nuclear negotiator told European states on Wednesday they would be the losers if they joined the United States to push through a U.N. Security Council resolution punishing Tehran for its nuclear program.
Ali Larijani's comments to the semi-official Mehr News Agency came a day after the European Union backed limited U.N. sanctions against Iran for not halting uranium enrichment, a condition for starting talks on an atomic incentives package.
"If the other side (the EU) yields to American pressure, it is natural that the situation will become radical. The world will not end but it will affect all our cooperation, in which I think the other side will lose more," Larijani said.
He did not specify what cooperation would be affected, but Iran has in the past threatened, if pushed, to review dealings with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the U.N. watchdog that routinely inspects Iranian atomic facilities.
"Definitely, if a new resolution is issued by the Security Council, we will not be at the point that we are in now for the continuation of talks," he said.
One Iranian lawmaker was more explicit, however. "If any sanction against Iran is ratified, parliament will oblige the government to have minimum cooperation with the IAEA," Hamidreza Haji Babaie was quoted as saying by Mehr, adding that this would start with barring inspectors.

The West accuses Iran of seeking to enrich uranium to build atomic bombs, but Tehran insists it only wants to master the technology to make fuel for nuclear power plants.
The five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council -- the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France -- plus Germany have offered Iran political and economic incentives on condition Tehran first stopped enrichment.

But Washington has been pressing for moves toward sanctions as talks aimed at coaxing Iran to suspend the work dragged on.

"If it is imagined that it is possible to simultaneously use the policy of 'carrot and stick', it is an error in calculation," Larijani said.

The incentives package did not threaten penalties if Iran refused, but the failure of months of talks between Larijani and EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana prompted EU foreign ministers to back incremental measures.

"If the P5+1 really intends to reach a compromise, the joint effort with Solana has paved the way for that to some extent," Larijani said.

© Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved.

I had a late flight yesterday to Pennsylvania. It was scheduled on purpose due to my daughters 9 year birthday yesterday. Hard to believe that one.

Irregardless, the flight went well. We actually touched down to Philly 25 minutes earlier than expected. Once I hit the airport, I pick up a National car rental and drive to King of Prussia. Being 1:20 a.m. in the morning, traffic was light.

I arrived at the hotel near 2 a.m.




My home for the next 4 days.


Sleep is always an issue for the first 2-3 days. So by the time I adjust, I will be back home.

Corporate is low on cubicles. Normally we are assigned to whatever is availiible. Fortunately, for me, I have one dedicated cube for my 4 days here. Normally, you hop from one empty place to another.




Here is a shot of the cube as I am upgrading my Lotus Notes. Yes, a cup of supremo black coffee sits by it. A perk for physically being here is to be able to hunt down the people with the new software, ect.

The pics were taken by the work cell.

I would first like to say, this is simply my view.

I am seeing a growing trend in the way people are thinking. This trend is the concept of accepting all and everyones view. Whether that refers to religion, characteristics, philosophy, sexual behaviour,ect. The idea of accepting all views, in my opinion, is totally illogical. However, it seems to be spreading more rapidly in the past 10 years.

Let me provide some scenarios to explain my thoughts on this.

Religion is a sensitive subject irregardless of what view you share. However, when you have two opposing thoughts on it, IE evolution/creation, one has to be wrong. There cannot be two rights.

Sexual behaviour is another hot topic. Who is to say the love of a man to woman, man to man, woman to woman, man to boy (nambla), ect. is right or wrong? Can one person really dictate what another person should or should not have sex with? Realistically, no one person can say what the other person should love or not love. Personally, I do not go with the thought we are inherently born a certain way when it comes to our attraction to a certain sex. The reason I do goes two fold. On a evolution worldview level, this cannot be good for the species. The race would die out. So, if you take the evolution view, homosexuality would have already phased out. On a creation worldview, the bible makes it clear woman was made to be with a man. It still stems to two different worldviews. Back to the issue both cannot be right.

Irregardless of two opposing views, the idea to accept both views as equal halves or equally correct is simply wrong.

How can two opposing views be correct? In my opinion, you cannot. You can have two individual having different views, but that does not make those two individuals both correct. So the new culture idea is to give both views equal weight.

Anyway, what you have left is either to accept all views equally, or your labeled a narrow minded person. I am seeing more and more people willing to accept any and all views, as opposed to be looked at as a narrow minded person, irregardless if it's illogical.

This school of thought (accept all equally) is referred to as postmodernism.

*Truth does not exist in any objective sense.

*Truth whether in science, education, or religion-is created by a specific culture or community and is "true" only in and for that culture.

*All thinking is a "social construct". In other words, what you and I regard as "truths" are simply arbitrary "beliefs we have been conditioned to accept by our society, just as others have been conditioned to accept a completely different set of beliefs."

*Any system or statement that claims to be objectively true or unfavorably judges the values, beliefs, lifestyle, and truth claims of another culture is a power play, an effort by one culture to dominate other cultures.

With the election coming near and the Dems foaming at the mouth, I thought it would be beneficial to see who their speaker of the house is. CAn you believe she is 66?

Born on March 26, 1940 in Baltimore, Maryland she is the highest-ranking Democrat in the United States House of Representatives. She is the first woman to lead a major political party in either house of Congress.
Source

Famous Pelosi quote.."Why should we put a plan out? Our plan is to stop him. He must be stopped." ( Referring to George W. Bush, Fox News, 3/17/2005)"


"In this case, it was strictly political," Jefferson said of the caucus vote. "[Pelosi] believes that it gives her a political advantage in this set of elections. She hopes that out of this she'll be speaker of the House one day, if the Democrats can take charge." Source

She will drain the GOP swamp. What she will do the first 100 hours. Gee, what then.

On Project Vote Smart she is rated as Liberal.

Here vote record can be found here.

She declined to provide proof that the trip was paid for by Todo Puerto Rico con Vieques, rather than D.C. lobbyist Smith, Dawson & Andrews. when asked when it was shown a Washington lobbyist firm did not pay for a trip she and other Democrats took to Puerto Rico in 2001.

In May 2000, Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, a liberal Democrat, participated in a shameless attempt to stop public interest in the CIAÕs use and protection of drug-traffickers supporting the Nicaraguan Contras. Source .

She voted five times to appoint known pedophile Gary Studds to a committe head position. However, she is screaming for Foley to resign.Source

Newt Gingrich posed these simply themes.
Source.

1)Republicans are right on defeating terrorism, and the left is wrong in wanting to run and hide...

2)Republicans are right on cutting taxes and growing a better economy, and the left is wrong in their desire to raise taxes, ...

3)Republicans are right to favor traditional American conservative social values, and the left is completely wrong to put San Francisco left-wing values third in line to be President...

Some other facts on Pelosi.

* On Sept. 14, 2006, Pelosi voted against building a fence on the border to protect America from terrorists;

* Before 9/11, Pelosi repeatedly voted to cut intelligence (in 1993 by $500 million) and after 9/11 she has still voted to cut intelligence (in 2004 she voted to withhold 25 percent of intelligence funds);

* When you ask why we were not more prepared for 9/11, remember that six months before Sept. 11, 2001, Pelosi voted to decrease proposed defense spending by $65 billion;

* The next time you think about North Korean nuclear tests and North Korean efforts to develop an intercontinental ballistic missile to reach the United States, remember that in 2002, Pelosi voted for an amendment to the FY 2003 Defense authorization that would block FY 2003 funding for space-based missile defense programs;

* Pelosi led a faction of 124 House Democrats who voted against final passage of the Patriot Act's reauthorization;

* Pelosi voted against the $87-billion Iraq/Afghanistan supplemental that included extra money for body armor for our soldiers;

* Pelosi voted against creation of Homeland Security Department;

* Pelosi was one of only 33 members to vote against prohibiting U.S. citizens and companies from conducting any financial transaction with countries that have been identified by the State Department as active sponsors of terrorism; and

* In 2004, Pelosi voted against House passage of the intelligence overhaul bill, which reorganized 15 intelligence agencies under one Director of National Intelligence.

I realize not all Democrats are liberal nutjobs, but you cannot deny the ones in power, are highly liberal. I would caution you on this election, when you vote for your local Democrat, you are putting another feather in Pelosi's hat. Look beyond your region, and see the bigger picture.

I had to check out the situation with Islam and Canada.

Not sure when this was actually taped. It shows to be uploaded June 18, 2006.
The video is 10 minutes and 50 seconds long. The last minute or so, the video is a bit poor in quality.



"The religious face of Canada is changing, and cities such as Ottawa, Toronto and Montreal are becoming hubs of Islamic culture." This came from a article I found regarding Islam and Canada. It was posted back in 2004.

According to Answers.com, as of 2001, there were 580,000 Muslims in Canaada. That is 1.8 percent of Canada's population. This is a significant increase as of 1991 with only 253,260 , .09% of the population. In 1871, there were only 13 muslims on the roster for Canada. In 1938, when the first Canadian Mosque was constructed, 700 muslims were in Canada.

According to this source, the Canadian Muslim population is very diverse being drawn from across Africa and Asia.

According to this,
Islam is the second largest religion in Canada. This was back in 2003.

Jedwab said Islam is the fastest growing religion in Canada—expected to grow to around 1.4 million followers by 2017 from 2001’s total of about 600,000. (Check out Jedwab's link. The comments are interesting)

However, Canada isn't alone regarding that aspect. In the United States, it is also reported to be the fastest growing religion. By the year 2010, the number of muslims in United States is looked to be 10 to 16 million. The conversion rate to islam in the United States is estimated to be 135,000 per year.

It would seem the Islam religion is slowly taking over, period.

Check this article out. Please note the term "asians" are actually referring to Muslims.

It was towards the end of the program on Friday that this item was brought into my studio. A girls in Manchester, England was arrested and put in jail because she didn't want to be a part of a tutoring group that spoke a language she could not understand.

First .. the source of the article. It came from The Brussels Journal which bills itself as "The Voice of Conservatism in Europe." This website deserves to be bookmarked on your computer.

OK .. here's your story.

A 14-year-old girl, Codie Stott, was assigned to a six-student group to receive tutoring in science at the Harrop Fold High School. The girl had a problem with the group because all of the other five students were Asian and only one of them spoke English. Stott told the teacher "I'm not being funny, but can i change groups because I can't understand them." The teacher then told her that she was a racist and was going to get "done" by the police. She was put in isolation at the school for the rest of the day.

The teacher filed a complaint with the police officer assigned to the school. More than a week later Codie Stott was taken to the police station and placed under arrest. Her fingerprints were taken, as was a mug shot.

According to this article in the Daily Mail, Codie was then questioned of (now get this!) committing a section five racial public order offense. She was placed in a bare cell for three-and-one-half hours. Finally she was released without any charges being brought ... but the matter is still under investigation.

Yes .. it is getting this bad. The left has unleashed the monster of political correctness on our society, and every day we learn of a new absurdity. Sure, this story is about Great Britain, but how long before this type of nonsense reaches our own schools? How long hell!! It's already here! Just look at some of the so-called "free speech" codes that exist on many college and university campuses across the nation.

You can't say anything about it, though. To dare to speak up would, of course, make you a racist right along with Codie Stott! Source

I also heard an interesting discussion this morning on Talk Radio. The discussion was describing the difference between the war on terror for America and the war on terror for Europe. Where America is truly fighting the terror in war, Europe has more of a civil war occurring with the terrorist.

In addition there seems to be a book out there pointing out the fact that muslims in Europe are having 4 times the amount of babies then Europeans. Giving the numbers, it's just a matter of time before the muslim population simply out grow the old european descendants.

A Star Tribune article describes a current issue regarding muslim taxi drivers refusing to transport anyone leaving the airport with alcohol on ther persons.

It may seem insignificant to most, but this may have more of an impact then you might expect.

About three-quarters of the 900 taxi drivers at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport are Somalis, many of them Muslim. About three times daily, would-be customers are refused taxi service when a driver sees they're carrying alcohol.

What your looking at is nearly all 3/4 of the taxi services refusing to do their jobs in the name of their religion. From the reports, a taxi driver is in line(3 hours) to pick up a would be customer from the airport. You have a line of taxi's to pick up a line of customers. Currently, if the taxi pulls up to pick up the customer and the customer has any type of alcohol on him (most from duty free stores, ect) the muslim taxi driver refuses to transport them. The taxi driver must then go to the back of the taxi line for the next opportunity to pick up a customer.

Apparently, a would be solution would be to have some marker to help identify those willing or unwilling to transport the alcohol. The public came up in arms about this one and that attempt failed.

The issue is two-fold.

1)If you work for a company, should you not comply with that companies rules and polices.
2)If you work for a company, should you not be allowed to apply your faith/religious views with your job?

In fairness to the cab drivers...

The observant drivers object only to transporting openly displayed alcohol, said Ali Culed, a Somali Muslim who's been driving an airport cab for eight years. They won't search passengers or quiz them about what's in their bags.

But on the other hand, why should the cab drivers be able to discriminate?

One side is making it a customer service issue, the other is side a religious issue.

My thoughts in Italics. I was driving the two of us to speech. My son was playing his pokemon gameboy game, when this came up.

son: Dad, what does P I S S spell?
me: uh, what was that? where did he see the word piss?
son: P I S S
me: hmm, where did you see this at?
son: (raises his gameboy up to me in the back seat)
me: why would piss be on a gameboy game?
me: Can you spell that one more time? I can't see it from here.
son: Oh wait, P I Z Z.
me: Pizz? that spells pizz, but ...
son: Argh, Sena (his petname for his sister) named a pokemon this.
me: ahh

For the life of me, I couldn't think why the word piss would be on the game. Then when I heard she named a pokemon pizz. She was probably trying to spell out pizza for the pokemons name. I was thankfull she really didn't call a pokemon piss.

Evidently a electronic poll was done to the masses. The poll asked what they felt was the top 4 things the ACLU was attacking, regarding America's moral and culture.

Now, I will say up front the poll was biased in asking what as opposed to do you believe. Never-the-less the answers provide us some information the groups response.

Reading the information, it appears ten items were given in the poll.

The top five picks were clear:
(1) erasing America's Christian heritage,
(2) attacking religious liberties,
(3) silencing the Church,
(4) redefining marriage and family, and
(5) sexualizing America's children.

The poll was a means to promote a new book from Sam Kastensmidt, entitled Indefensible: 10 Ways The ACLU Is Destroying America

Bush signs Mexico border-fence bill
By UPI Staff
United Press International
October 5, 2006

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. (UPI) -- President Bush signed a bill in Arizona Thursday that provides $1.2 billion for fencing along the U.S.-Mexico border to curb illegal immigration.

The $35 billion homeland security bill also includes an overhaul of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

The overhaul will "help our government better respond to emergencies and natural disasters by strengthening the capabilities" of FEMA, Bush said.

The bill will also "deploy nuclear detection equipment at our ports of entry, raise security standards at the nation's chemical plants, safeguard American cities against weapons of mass destruction and stop terrorists seeking to enter our country," the president said.

Standing before Camelback Mountain in Arizona, a state with much debate over border security, he also said the legislation would "give us better tools to enforce our immigration laws and to secure our southern border."

Outgoing Mexican President Vicente Fox has called the barricade "shameful," comparing it to the Berlin Wall and saying it would hurt U.S.-Mexican relations.

About damn time. Now we need to barricade the whole thing. In addition put one on our northern border as well.

This morning was the first morning I woke up actually feeling like I received some rest. Perhaps it was the benadryls I took or just the fact I was so exhausted. Either way, I am glad to feel halfway like my old self again.

I checked out some more of You Tube after watching the Save the Internet piece on it. Most of what I found was basically garbage. 45 seconds up to 8 minutes of anyone posting their ramblings or attempt of shock value. There were some interesting tidbits out there. I can see this technology actually being beneficial. If you utilize it as a means of education or news, that would be cool. The main media or cable outlets can only inform you so much, at times bias. However, if someone was at a small town or an otherwise unknown location reporting, educating on topics of interest, that would be worthwhile. There is a search bar on the site, but I haven't found it to be that useful. I guess I will continue to look through the site.

Check out this You Tube video showing a clip from Save the Internet!

I had to share the one. Below is a excerpt of NBC's universal view over chrisitian statments.

NBC anti-Christian bigotry continues. This time NBC censored Bible verses and expressions of Christian love from the children's cartoon Veggie Tales being shown Saturday mornings on NBC.

NBC says comments such as "God made you special and He loves you very much" were offensive and censored them from the show.

In response to the outrage over the allegations that NBC was ordering the removal of any references to God and the Bible from the animated series, the network first issued a flat denial. As reported in Broadcasting & Cable, NBC said they had to "clip off the beginning and ending tags, which are Bible verses, but they were also arguably the easiest cut to make."

The creator of Veggie Tales, Phil Vischer, said NBC's excuse for censoring the Bible verses was not true. Vischer said, "Well, that's kinda funny, because as the guy required to do all the editing, I know that statement is false...The show wasn't too long, it was too Christian. The show was already cut down to the proper length, so timing had nothing to do with it."

NBC then backpeddled: "NBC is committed to the positive messages and universal values of Veggie Tales. Our goal is to reach as broad an audience as possible with these positive messages while being careful not to advocate any one religious point of view." Evidently NBC considers not being truthful as one of their "universal values."

Vischer said had he known how much censorship NBC would exercise, he would not have signed on for the network deal.

Censored were comments such as: "Calm down. The Bible says we should love our enemies." And "the Bible says Samson got his strength from God. And God can give us strength, too."

NBC says using Bible verses or referring to God is offensive to some non-Christians. But NBC doesn't hesitate to offend Christians by showing Madonna mocking the crucifixion of Christ. Neither do not mind offending Christians in their new program Studio 60 with a segment called Crazy Christians.

When I was younger, I was the prodigy of fixing the computer. No. I didn't know that much about it. I just happen to know more than the 'ahem' older generation. VCR's, cable setup, whatever it was, no match to my prowess of youth knowledge. During these times, it was simply commented "the kids these days know more than the adults". Yeah buddy.

Now I am the adult and ironically I find myself thinking the same dang thing. It started with the game StarFox. First off, the game rocks. The kids and I play together at the same time. Usually we war against each other. The last couple of weeks, simply put, the kids have been kicking my butt in the game. I use to knock them out or at least maintain a feasible battle.

Alas, the games now last a whopping 3 minutes 21 seconds maximum. The last 1.5 minutes is me running my A$$ off trying to get away. LOL

Today on our trip to Devils Den, we made a stop at Target. The wife's favorite store. We found the Game Boy Advance cable to allow them to link up the GBA's together. They have Fire Red and Green Leaf Pokemon games. Anyway, I'm looking all over the net trying to figure out how this is suppose to work. Connect them, they go to some location within their games and they are suppose to be provided a means to play "together". I couldn't find the specifics online. Most of my searches were cluttered with referrals to the GameCube link not the Game Boy Advance (GBA) link.

I then referred to the Green Leaf / Fire Red magazine, no go. At the end, my soon to be 9 year old daughter found the specifics adn proceeded to inform me how to do it.

Sure enough, the process worked. Now both are trading pokemon between games, battling each other. I am sitting here with thoughts of the past, where I was the kid outsmarting the adult. The tables are turning. Sigh.

Out of curiousity, I looked up the commands for netstat. Seems you can do a "netstat -n" from your dos prompt and it will show all your current IP's and ports in use. Think of the IP's as houses (pc's) and the ports as doors (ways in and out).

Anyway, I did this on my home pc. It came up to about 11 in use showing connected. Hmm, so what are all these foriegn IP's? Most were simply our cable provider. However, one came up as a RIPE. You see, I did a whois inquiry on some IP's. I didn't recognize that one. So I went onto their little link to do the IP inquiry again. The results are below.

Query the RIPE Database
Search for


Switch to the RIPE TEST Database


% This is the RIPE Whois query server #2.
% The objects are in RPSL format.
%
% Note: the default output of the RIPE Whois server
% is changed. Your tools may need to be adjusted. See
% http://www.ripe.net/db/news/abuse-proposal-20050331.html
% for more details.
%
% Rights restricted by copyright.
% See http://www.ripe.net/db/copyright.html
% Note: This output has been filtered.
% To receive output for a database update, use the "-B" flag
% Information related to '213.93.171.0 - 213.93.171.255'
inetnum: 213.93.171.0 - 213.93.171.255
netname: ROTTERDAM-CUSTOMER-CABLE
descr: Chello Rotterdam
descr: Cablemodems DHCP
country: NL
admin-c: HMCB1-RIPE
tech-c: HMCB1-RIPE
status: ASSIGNED PA
remarks: Contact abuse@chello.nl concerning criminal
remarks: activities like spam, hacks, portscans
mnt-by: CHELLO-MNT
source: RIPE # Filtered
role: Hostmaster Chello Broadband
address: UPC Broadband
address: Internet Services
address: Erlachgasse 116
address: A-1100 Vienna
address: Austria

The connection was on a very high port. Check out the address location (I bolded it)...Austria. No clue as to the who and the why. I did a simple Telnet onto the foriegn IP and that high port number. It connected right up. I don't know any Telnet commands. I just use it to verify ports are open for work. It wasn't connected for very long. The connection ended. I did another netstat -n command and low-behold, no more connection to that IP and high port from my home pc.

I just thought it was pretty interesting.

Today and tomorrow. That's the thought I have this morning. I am knocking out two interface lives today for work. I have church team-kids tonight. I will be apologizing for not going last Wednesday to the other girls. I guess I could whine about working but in reality, I could have pushed myself to do it. It's my fault for not going and I will have to own up to it.

We plan to go to Devils Den Friday. We initially considered to camp out Thursday night. Only 17 bucks will grant you a river bank spot. However, after consideration, we will only drive up to it Friday morning and do a hike. I am psyched to get out and do some walking in the woods. I haven't been to Devil's Den in years. My brother and I went when we were barely out of high-school. Just the two of us taking a brotherly drive. So long ago.

We had 30 percent chance of showers for tomorrow. However, drops are already falling outside. Thunder is rolling around as well. I have a couple of windows and the doors open enjoying the cool breeze.

Kel and the kids are having to go to Austin in about 3 weeks. I will remain home on this trip. I'm already planning on a couple of projects to do while they are away. (smile)

Today I thought I would run to the video store and grab Sneakers. I still wanted to watch it. I am just that type, get something going and want to run with it.

I caught the end National Geographics_Hollywood Science: Spy Gadgets. This only emphasized my desire to watch both Sneakers and Enemy of the State. Both great movies and both movies I do not currently own.

Anyway, I ran to the small movie place to grab the old movie, hoping to get the 5 movies for 5 dollars. But alas, no Sneakers. No way. I asked about it. They actually sold it. I guess it was in tape format. They did however have Enemy of the State. So tonight, I am watching it in the living room as my poor sick wife is already in bed with meds.

I can't help being fascinated with the idea of spy gadgets, hacking into other systems, ect.

Watching the movie Enemy of the State can scare the crap out of you. The actual possibilty is totally plausible.

As of 2002 Great Britain has installed more than 1.5 million video cameras in public places. That's alot of freaking eyes on the public.

Great Britain isn't the only ones going with the public video cameras. Check out
Public cameras accost privacy.

What's even more interesting to me is the fact there are probably more individuals out there with their phone cameras, ect uploading pics, videos ect on the net.

Kel and I went out Friday night without the kids. What does two wild and crazy kids do after 11 years of marriage on their own? Go Christmas shopping of course.

Actually, it was really nice. A slow walk down the aisles without the feeling of being rushed is a sad, but now enjoyable task.

We went into Toys-R-Us more as a why not then a actual dedicated store to hit. I am glad we did. Not only did we learn of the new Nintendo DS Lites, but we found a coveted movie, Lucario and the mystery of Mew.

Why is this blasted thing so hard to find? It was released September 19th. Being a Pokemon new dvd movie, I was expecting it to be everywhere. Or is my kids the only ones still hooked on these things like crack?

Last Thursday, I hit Blockbuster and picked up the new Barbie movie, but no Pokemon. The two girls (they are pretty much all girls anymore), had no clue what I was talking about, upon my inquiry. Walmart didn't have them. I went to my last resource in this area. I called up Best Buy. They normally have the et-all of animation. Nada. Not only did they not find it, but stated it was on backorder. They suggested I go online. Wow. So, we planned to buy it online.

This was one of those rare times my apathy paid off. I didn't buy it online immediately. When we were walking causaually walking through Toys-R-Us, I found the blasted movie.

This was found Friday night. I made the kids wait for me to watch it together last night. Yeah, I'm hooked on them too.

Gotta Catch them all
Consider this one caught!

One of the perks working for Pepsi is to grab some soda cheap. Their best deal involves their 20oz drinks. One case for $7.01. That's including tax. Below is 3 cases.

I am able to buy up to 3 cases per week. That's 24-20oz soda's for an easy $21.04. This is the first week I bit into it. I was expecting a plastic packaged type for the purchased soda. However, they came the same way I see them in the backroom.

Let me give you an idea of how much 20 ounce drinks Walmart churns out of those coolers by their aisles. I easily put in 5-8 cases in the mornings. I then put an additional 3-4 more before I leave that evening. This is one of their slow stores containing only 4 coolers. I kid you not. The biggest commodity in the store I merchandise? Mountain Dew, Dr. Pepper, Diet Dr. Pepper, and Diet Dew.

What's more is these babies are the most profitable in their soda selling venue. In this area, a cold 20 ounce drink goes for around $1.18. I can buy from the companies vending the same cold soda for .25 cents. Considering the giant industry probably contracted it for less than a quarter a piece, that's some major profit.

I was looking to watch Sneakers tonight. I looked all over the house for it, and could not find the blasted thing.

Sneakers was based off of the illustrous hacker Ian Murphy.
I didn't know Sneakers was based on the hacker Ian Murpy. Bummer, I was looking forward to watching it tonight.

I settled for Antitrust instead. I have it in dvd as well. Another great movie.

Man, yesterday I felt like doing nothing. I mean to really do nothing. I was just blah all day. I had woke up at 3 a.m. with the wide-a-wakes. I cruised the net for awhile and tried to get back in bed and have at least a couple more hours of sleep. No-go.

So yesterday, all day, I was in a blah. I fell out last night before 10 a.m., listening to the issue with Dog the Bounty Hunter. Unreal, that one is. Parts of our Government are pissing and moaning about listening in on terrorist, but a U.S. Citizen is forced out of our country because he is willing to "get the rapist", something is just wrong with that picture.

I'm not griping about the new job, yet. I actually love it. It's not brain surgery and it's providing me some excercise, without a beating. Kel and I was talking this morning and we counted up how many days I have worked since starting. It's been 28 days minus one (took that Labor day off), I have worked in a row. Wow. Time really does fly.

This morning, I am sucking down the coffee, trying to get these silver dollars out of my eyes. I have to make a run to grab my check, and some needed grocery items later today. That's the plan anyway.

I totally changed my template out. I grew tired of the old one and was seriously cruising the net today in the hope of finding one that fits my current mood.

This came to the closest I could find. I still need to tweak it a bit, but I am currently satisfied with it.

I kept most of the blogs I read daily, due to the fact, I simply read them. LOL

I removed a bunch of my links of interest and added different ones. I never really went into the old list. I will be converting this blog to a portal for my blogging as well as a spring board of my interest. So that will probabaly mean my list of interest will change more often.

If you have any links that coincide with my current new list of interest, please let me know.

Work, eat and sleep. This is the mantra I have heard all my life. Many times, I find myself repeating this same mantra when asked "how are things going". I kick myself when I catch it afterwards. I think life should be more than the ant. But then again, perhaps I am wrong.

I'm the personality type, I need to work for someone else. Meaning, if I was not married and alone, I could pretty much live in a apartment all my life with no real goals. However, having a wife and children, I push myself to further my career, work two jobs to not only acquire the house we are living in, but working to remove excess debt. In short, making a better living for the family in whole, rather than living day by day.

I see what the t.v. ads push. 40 is the new 20, ect. To me this only tells me people are still getting older, but this generation doesn't want too. You can be 50 and feel like 30 with that new sports car. Oh well. What else do you really expect from a franchise wishing to sale you anything and everything for a profit.

I am glad I chose not to push for the boyscouts in town. I would be the one running the thing. I simply do not have the time for it. In order for me to do something, I would want it done correctly for the maximum benefit. That's just the way it should be. I realize that by not doing something half way, you essentially do not even allow it to get off the ground. However, it seems in this town, if you don't ho the row to the end, it won't get done.

The weekend went as fast as normal. It was my first solo run on my route with my new part time job. I think I did good. I wasn't late and I was told, nearly everyone's first time, they are always late. I get tired, physically, but hey that's the breaks. It's a extra 150 bucks per weekend.

I had to purchase two new Nintendo Gamecube controllers. We had four. One had broken (toggle) in the past. Since normally it's just the kids and I play it, it didn't hinder us. However, yesterday I received a call informing me another one had broke. So I grabbed 2 during my lunch. I was speaking to the gamers in the store and it seems Final Fantasy 12 is coming out. I remember playing Final Fantasy on super nintendo. Now there are movies and number 12 coming out. wow.

I have to mention this. I spoke with a Walmart supervisor this weekend and the rumour of Walmart to stop lay-a-way is true. The last day to put on a lay-a-way is around November 15-18 this year. You must have it out by end of December. They will not continue it starting next year. In addition, it appears they will begin to have their associates (everone working for walmart is considered a associate) to wear uniforms. They must start wearing slacks. I wonder why the 'new professional look' is being devised.

I recall when I was a kid, we use to always say "Jinx you owe me a coke." Of course we always had drank Pepsi when I was growing up. Regardless it was the saying.

This of course happened when two people said the exact same thing at the same time. Whoever made the Jinx statement would get a free drink.

My two kids have learned this somewhere, not sure where. For the last two months (at least) I have continued to hear "Jinx! You owe me a soda!" from the two of them.

The statement has been changed to soda, but the concept is similiarly the same.

Here is what I hear at least 3 times a day now.

Kids make a similiar statement (to them it doesn't have to be the same).
Both at the same time screams "Jinks! You owe me a soda!"
Then both very fast babbles..."jinx, jinx, jinx, jinx, jinx, jinx,"
This goes on for a full minute.

Sigh. I recall this when I was a kid, but not over and over and over.

Looking forward to Friday. The kids are going to their Nana and Papa's tomorrow night. I am still working the weekends. Yet, the fact I have some alone quality time with my wife brings me joy. Even though, we may do no more than the fact of being together. There is just something about being with her. Even after 11 years of marriage, I find her company great.

I have to put a plug in for Bluebird

Autumn is my favorite time of the year, and it's just right around the corner. To celebrate the beginning of the season, I'm having a contest for 2 lucky people to win a totally free, completely customized blog design from Bluebird Blogs.

Information on how to enter:
- Send an email with your name and blog address to bluebirdblogs@gmail.com.
- Your name will be entered into the drawing.
- Entries will be accepted from 7:00pm EST on Thursday 9/15/06 until 11:59pm EST on Friday 9/22/06.

*Bonus* - Mention this contest in a post on your blog and receive 5 extra entries into the drawing!

The winner will be announced on http://bluebirdblogs.blogspot.com on the morning of Saturday, September 23rd, 2006 . Good luck to everyone!

Thanks so much,
~Susie

Anyway, I am giving the kids a spelling test at the moment. Britt and I just finished watching E.T. I kept conveying to them, "it's a classic". So the daughter watched it with me but the son didn't want to have anything to do with it. I had to rent it, when I seen it at the video store. A cool buck for 5 day rental. Fortunately we have a 5 movie-5 day - for 5 bucks deal at a local video store.

Is it me, or is life flying? We are hitting the middle of this month already and 3 months it's Christmas again. Sigh.

Wednesday morning at 3:44 a.m. local time and I am looking at the clock. Unreal.

For the lack of sleep this week, one would think I would not be looking at the clock this blasted early.


Last night, I met the kids and wife in Fort Smith to eat. I took the kids off to the library. It provides the kids and I some time away from the house to study and also allow Kel some time alone.

I noticed this mornign my Q and A blog is back up and running. So now I have one blog with 20 posts back up and another one with 2 posts. Sigh. What to do, what to do. Maybe, I will make one a missionary site and another one retain it as the Q and A site. I don't know yet.

Kel was really impressed with Blue Bird blog templates we are looking to upgrade her blog.

I am looking into creating a Visual Basic program. Yeah, like I have time. It provides me something to put my mind on that is different and perhaps have some self satisfaction when it's complete.

Guess I better get the trash out since it's trash day and move around a bit.

As I commented in my last post, I didn't see either docu-drama. Sunday night, I took the kids to watch Cars on the big screen. It was playing at a 2.50 Mall Trio. Monday night I had a school board meeting. It lasted till nearly 9 p.m.
I guess I will have to catch it on a re-run (if they replay it) or most likely rent it on dvd when it comes out. I am sure it will hit your nearest blockbuster soon.

Regarding Cars, it was a good movie. My wife took our kids to see it shortly after it originally hit the theaters. I wasn't able to go at that time. Since it was only 2.50 and I wanted to spend some outside quality time, we went Sunday night. It comes out in November and this one will be another Pixar Animation we will own. Disney cannot make any story lines of their own, so by utilizing Pixar it appears they are keeping themselves afloat in the movie buisiness. Personally, I cannot recall any new movie Disney actually have created on their own for some time. I don't call these spinoffs of their original movies creative. If you notice most of the other movies, like Chronicles of Narnia have been adapted from other sources.

Regarding work, yesterday wasn't too bad at my primary job. I was officially certified at Pepsi last Saturday and ran my new dedicated route Sunday. There were four routes open and I quickly chose the one where Saturday and Sunday ended at 4:30 p.m. local time. It takes me into Greenwood. Next weekend I will be running it alone. I am actually glad I have a dedicated route. Now I can just get these store floorplans down, and I will be good to go. However, what will be nice is the fact Pepsi pays every Thursday. If I am looking at this right, I should be getting a bit over 100 bucks a week. This part time job should be working out. I don't have to be up till 3 a.m. and worry about getting only 3 hours of sleep at night during my weeks.

As I mentioned yesterday regarding the Path to 9-11, Clinton and his allies are really putting pressure for ABC to cut some of the movie out. Mainly showing the fallacies of the Clinton administration regarding the Terror War. He was too busy with the affairs.

On the flipside, CBS is showing a profanity show titled 9-11. It seems there are so much cursing on the show many affiliates and stations have requested the cursing to be removed.

Congress recently raised the maximum fine the FCC can impose for indecency from $32,500 to $325,000. Some complain that will lead to self-censorship, since many stations can’t afford to pay huge fines. Apparently CBS is not worried about the fines.

Piette isn't worried about getting slapped with big fines. Warnings about potentially offensive language will appear before and during the program, he said.

So we have the democrats and Clinton raising hell to remove some clippage from a film due to the fear of showing them weak on terror. Yet, no worries for another offensive language movie to air. Quite a contrast of interest.

Added comment:
Wow,I had heard the Dems and Clinton lovers were all over this, but I just now read the actual letter to Disney and ABC from the Dems. Check this out. I wasn't even going to watch this show, but after reading the letter provided by STOP THE ACLU, I will now watch it.

What's up with all the so called docu-drama's?

First we hear of the BBC docu-drama on the assassination of President Bush. In this docu-drama Bush gets assassinated by a sniper. Not hit, killed. It was created by a British film company and will be shown on BBC channel 4. The show is suppose to be set in the future and looking back on 2007 when the assassination occurred. Evidently the film maker Gabriel Range modified existing film of Bush to make it look like an assassination took place. It goes on to discuss the "polarisation of America in all the events post 9/11".

I am not sure if it will ever be viewed in the United States. But with the ability of tech such as Torrent, peer to peer, it can easily be acquired.

Meanwhile here in the United States, a docu-drama on Clinton is in play. Well it's actually called A path to 9-11. However, it's supposedly leans to Clinton as being too engrossed in his playtime with Monica Lewinsky to thwart 9-11. It plays on ABC this Sunday night without commercial interruption.

Irregardless, I wonder why now the docu-drama's?

A not so new search engine was show to us this week. The search engine is called Blingo and it's ran off of the Google engine. The difference on this one is the fact you can register to attempt to win something on it. From what I can gleam, the win is not based on the amount you search. Rather, it's setup to provide a prize on any given moment. If you happen to search on that moment, boom you win. THe prizes range from a $25 Visa up to a Apple Ipod.

It seems the key to winning would be to have as many people to register under you as possible. If someone registers under you, ie Join link and wins, you win too.

So basically, if you want to search, try out Blingo since it utilizes the same engine as google, and a possibility to win something.

The only concern, I would have is the fact you register your email. Just another means to have someone track you on the net.

And yes, I shamelessly put the join link on my blogs. (smile)

Since the elections are coming up, I thought I would post this survey I found. I also noticed Sean Hannity has now been pretty much stating, the Republicans could very well lose the house this year. Seems, the babble of both parties are increasing as we draw near to the vote. I personally wonder if the nearing of the vote is the reason for the drop in gas prices.

I spoke with a Liberterian on his thoughts regarding the Republicans losing the house or even (gast) worse, the possibility of a Demo getting the Presidency. Interesting enough, he didn't think either will be the case. This screaming from the media, democrats, ect. is just that. The far left have more outlets to be noticed. I hope he is right. I don't want to say, pick the lesser of two evils. Although, there are some things, I am truly not happy about regarding the Republican party, but realistically we cannot allow the far left to come into full power.

Churchgoing tied to November elections

By UPI Staff

United Press International

August 31, 2006

WASHINGTON (UPI) -- White U.S. voters who frequently go to church are more likely to vote Republican in November than white voters who do not, a Gallup survey said Wednesday.

Non-white voters are more likely to vote Democratic, regardless of church attendance, the survey said.

The number of white registered voters who frequently go to church -- meaning those who attend church services weekly or almost every week -- make up one-third of registered voters, the survey said. They are more likely to vote Republican by a margin of 24 percent.

The half of registered voters who are white but attend church monthly or less frequently are likely to vote Democratic by a 17-point margin.

The 16 percent of non-white registered voters, regardless of church attendance, intend to vote Democratic by a 59-point margin.

The telephone survey of more than 5,000 registered voters was conducted between June and August. It had a margin of error of 3 percent.

Since starting working part time with Pepsi, I am fascinated with the so called soda war. It appears those, in management, working for one soda company is totally against the purchase of the other soda products. How bad is it? If a Pepsi employee is caught buying or drinking Coke products, while on work, will be fired. On the other side of the coin, Coke actually informs their employees they cannot even eat lunch at a Pepsi serving food place. The first comes to my mind is Taco Bell, ect.

To me, this sounds pretty drastic. However, I can also see the implications of a employee wearing one brand and drinking the other. It sets a bad image to those viewing this spectacle.

Even if I find this drastic, I am told one long term employee will not allow his family to even bring into the house the competiter's items.

Like I said, it's interesting.

I found this to be interesting. Note the scientist are having a hard time understanding how well preserved this carcas can be, if it's really 77 million years old.

Mummified Brachylophosaurus holds secrets millions of years old
By KIM SKORNOGOSKI
Tribune Staff Writer


MALTA — The absolute latest in technology is helping solve a forensics mystery that is 77 million years old.

Five years ago in the badlands north of Malta, paleontologists uncovered a mummified duck-billed brachylophosauruses so well preserved that much of its skin and soft tissue parts remained along with its skeleton.

In the years since, scientists have wondered — if the skin was still there, what about its organs and tissues inside?

Technology has finally advanced enough to take a peek. And this week, 20 experts in various fields are X-raying and photographing Leonardo the dinosaur, even parts buried beneath thick sandstone.

"This specimen could be as important to the field of paleontology as the day Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon," said Nate Murphy, curator of paleontology at the Judith River Dinosaur Institute.

With just one of at least three days of X-raying complete, Murphy wasn't ready Tuesday to reveal the secrets Leonardo was whispering.

But the potential is amazing.

His stomach was filled with the fossilized pollen from 33 types of plants, enabling the paleontologists to recreate the world 77 million years ago.

Tuesday morning the scientists looked at the keratin forming Leonardo's beak, which, like cartilage, is usually dissolved in time.

Bob Bakker, whose theory that dinosaurs were warm-blooded revolutionized and invigorated the field, was on hand in Malta to analyze the recorded images.

He noticed that Leonardo's nose was incredibly hard and sharp, indicating that he used it like a machete to cut leafy branches off trees.

"For 130 years, we paleontologists have had a case of veggiecide," he said. "We suspected these dinosaurs were plant-eaters, but we didn't have the smoking jaws, the smoking gut."

Much of Leonardo remains covered in rock, to protect the fossilized skin, fragile tissues and bones. Until now, the technology didn't exist to look at what was beneath the sandstone.

Starting Monday, scientists and industry leaders donated their time and equipment to advance the study. Over the next 20 months, the Discovery Channel is filming the process for an extensive documentary.

Non-Destructive Testing Group shipped in more than 600 pounds of X-ray equipment for the scans.

The Michigan-based company normally uses the equipment for industrial purposes, like checking vehicles' steering controls for safety flaws.

CEO Bob Bills said this is the first time it's been used to look at dinosaurs.

The rays emit as much as 300 kilovolts on Leonardo. Each time the X-ray was used, the scientists evacuated the building, which was roped off as radiation reaches 30 feet beyond the steel walls.

Because the rays only damage living tissue, Leonardo's fragile remains will be completely unharmed.

The X-rays were combined with advanced imaging technology from Eastman Kodak that is 10 times as sensitive as film. In one shot, the plate collected the same images that would take dozens of cameras shooting different speeds of film to capture.

The computer then sifts through the layers of data, and for that matter sandstone, skin and bone, to Leonardo's insides.

"We might not have to uncover any more to see what's in there," said Kodak's Steve Mango. "Of course, Nate and Dr. Bakker were a lot more excited because they know what they're seeing."

The pair of paleontologists excitedly pointed at the black and gray blobs on the screen at what looked like an enlarged row of TicTacs lying on a mesh-like net. The images showed the top of Leonardo's vertebrae and the soft tissue that is buried under a layer of rock.

"This is really interesting," Murphy said, leaning to get a closer look at the computer screen.

"Oh! I can see it," Bakker exclaimed pointing.

"It looks so soft," Murphy said. "The images are getting clearer and clearer and we're seeing odd things."

One of the most important things discovered so far are half-inch specks that Bakker is jokingly calling blebs. Blebs are basically iron deposits left behind by bacteria.

The blebs are randomly spread throughout Leonardo's insides, and nowhere on the outside.

"This is telling us we have a hermetically sealed sarcophagus," Murphy said.

The evidence goes a long way to justify what many paleontologists are having a hard time believing — that Leonardo is as well preserved as Murphy says it is and how, after millions of years, that is even possible.

Beyond the blebs, Bakker is most interested in studying Leonardo's stomach and digestive system and his unusually long arms.

Unlike most Brachylophosauruses, his arms were long enough to touch the ground, but the joints weren't strong enough to support the dinosaur's weight.

Bakker theorizes that the arms may have been used to communicate with a wave or a dance. Or perhaps its fingers were sensitive enough to pick up sound waves from the ground, allowing the creatures to communicate with others miles away by stomping.

In October, Murphy plans to present his findings at a medical imaging conference in Houston.

Before that, other tests will be done. In September, scientists will be back to use an element scan to break down each type of atom in the bones and the dirt around them.

Art Andersen, an imaging specialist with Virtual Services Inc., said the scans could be used to examine forensic evidence that normally was removed to get to the bone.

That dirt could show the outline of flesh and muscles, helping better piece together what dinosaurs looked like.

Murphy hopes the studies will build interest and funding for more tests — particularly CT scans that could take three-dimensional images instead of the one-dimensional pictures captured in the X-rays this week.

"A long, long time after I'm pushing up daisies, scientists will be learning from this specimen," he said.

Reach Tribune Staff Writer Kim Skornogoski at 791-6574, (800) 438-6600 or kskornog@greatfal.gannett.com.


Originally published June 21, 2006