Middle America's Worldview

There just not enough freaking hours in the day. I look up and it's already 7:30 p.m. local time. I did get up at 6:30 a.m right? So where's my 12 hours? Geez.

I grabbed the kids early today from school, less than 2 hours. We are watching some friends kids (different friends kids). Yes, another boy and girl. Yes, the girls seem utterly preoccupied in our daughters room with the door shut and the boys changing from PS2 to GameCube. I been stuck in my office doing work and making calls. Unreal.

I should have the whole house to myself tomorrow. The kids are out of school due to the dentist and chiro. The poor wife has to run 4 kids around tomorrow. God help her. She managed to sneak in her bedroom for a little peace time just now.

Get this, our boy woke up just fine and informed his mother, he will for now on not rush his work. So that parenting thing, sticking to your guns might actually work.
: )

Monday was another freaking blitz. Working like crazy. This time I had Skillet on in my office, LOUD, while I was working away. I was really cranking along this morning. I took off for lunch and met Kel at a barbeque place for a quick lunch. She was having a really crappy day and I wanted to at least be with her for a little bit. I also snagged some more Highlander the series on VHS tapes at the library on my way through. It was a nice break and a rare treat to have lunch with her.

I had to grab 4 kids(mine and two more) from school and hit speech. We then hit the house and I fixed spagehtti for the kids and a can of clam chowder for myself. The kids basically wolfed theirs down and went back to gaming and playing. I managed to read 2 pages from the 4th installment of Robert Jordan's Wheel of time series before I was interrupted. Oh well. Kel didnt get in till late that evening. By the time the other two (friends of our kids) were picked up, we barely had time for the kids showers and snacks.

Our son brought some bad grades in this week. So Kel and I had to figure away for some type of punishment for him. We really didnt want to ground him from running around since the week was so hectic with their friends coming over, ect. The kids smart, really smart. He just rushes through his stuff and doesnt really care like his sister of the grades. So we decided to have him go to bed tonight without a movie. The kids always get to watch a movie in bed every night. Oh man, did that hit him. So we found something that really was a detrimental blow. Needless to say, it wasn't pretty. I keep thinking, since it's detrimental, perhaps this will be the thing to have him focus. So our son has cried himself to sleep and our hearts are sagging as well. Shit, it's tough to be a parent sometimes.

I received a small pamphlet in the mail the other day and found some of the articles really interesting. One of them was for the choose life plates for Oklahoma.

I will be talking to the wife on this one. What's cool about this project is $20 bucks goes to a non-profit organization. According to the article, in 2005, a total of approximately $15,000 in the Choose Life Assistance Revolving Fund was distributed among five crises pregnancy centers. Some may say that's not much, but heh in this world every freaking nickle counts.

Some other things to note on this subject(per article). Despite legal challenges from anti-life opponents, it appears that the Choose life Plate Program is finding favor in the courts. In August, U.S. Chief District Judge Claire Eagan in Tulsa dismissed a lawsuit challenging Oklahoma's law, saying the federal court does not have jurisdiction. In 2002, the federal 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, based in New Orleans, dismissed a similar case from Louisiana. Although federal judges on the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals, which sits in Richamond, Va., found South Carolina's Choose Life Program to be unconstitutional, the U.S. Supreme Court later refused to hear the appeal.

Currently 16 states, including Oklahoma, off the special Choose Life Plate. Another 18 states, in addition to South Carolina, are actively involved in the process of creating similiar Choose Life License Plate programs.

I checked out the site and downloaded the application. In addition to the funds going to Choose Life you can actually have your funds deposited in the following accounts. Revolving Fund int ehState Treasury to be used by DHS, AGI the Classroom Education Fund, Child Abuse Prevention Revolving Fund, Choose Life Assistance Program, Attorney Generals's Revolving Fund, County of residence of the person purchasing the plates, Breast Cancer Act Revolving Fund, Okahoma Dept of Career and Tech Education Agriculture Revolving Fund, Heart of the Heartland Scholarship and about 5 more including a Childrens Hosptital Revolving Fund. So there seems to be more out there going for a good cause.

Now, I am not going to get into a discussion of Pro-life and Pro-death (I always thought pro-choice was a stupid synonim for choosing death. Realistically one can choose life of the child or not.). So keep those comments to yourself. I found this article to be for a good cause and wanted to share it. Check out your state to
see if they support Pro-life Plates. I did a quick search and came up with the following links.

Show me if my state has Pro-life Plates

State Pro-life news

Choose Life Store

I hope you found this particular blog of some use and tag it.

The passage below was emailed to me by a friend. I was surprised that I could actually read this and quick at that. Scary man.

------------------------------------------------
Olny srmat poelpe can.

cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg.
The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at
Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in
a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat
ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you
can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid
deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.
Amzanig huh? yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt!

if you can raed tihs psas it on
------------------------------------------------

So could you actually read the above?

Man, I am glad it's Friday. A big TGIF. I am counting the hours down now. I was busy busy this morning and looked up to see it was already 12:00, half way there.

Since we now have internet again, stable too boot, I been catching up on the blogs I normally read everday. Mongo I respect your decision on not posting verbatim stuff, but surely you have something to say? I miss the Neil Borz stuff. Cox Cable actually pulled through and did credit us for those inactive days, with no hassle. I couldnt help but hear a continued stream of cable commercials during the outage. I guess they were working hard for the PR.

I already started the fourth book in Robert Jordan Wheel of time series. Man, I am hooked on those. Fortunately for me, the library actually has them.

I am in the process of watching my christmas gift, season 4 dvd set of 24. I had to take a break midway due to the fact, if I started to watch them, I end up staying up half the night finishing at least one cd (4 hours). Unreal, but the show is soooo addicting.

Tonight, we plan to stay indoors with the kids and play games. Tomorrow we have the basketball tournament that will basically last all day. So our Saturday is already shot.

That's it for me. Work, Eat, and little sleep. I try to get in my addiction where I can.

I finally get to stay at home and work within my own walls. It's interesting how the little things, you miss so much. Yeah, fI know over dramatic for my 3 days. However, it was a stark reminder how much we utilize the net.

Things I missed while working in the coffehouse.
1) Able to work with no shoes on. (Silly but true)
2) Able to keep the laundry up. (Yes guys can do laundry)
3) Able to jump on the internet checking my personal email (while in vpn I am unable to get on the internet)
4) The ability to go pee without the worry of losing anything. LOL


I changed the template again. I am now on Book four of Robert Jordans "Wheel of time" series. I am officially hooked.

I find it frustrating on the kids getting around in the mornings. If I wake them, they drag worse than 10 weights on a fish line. If Kel wakes them, they are happy as a lark and around, ready by 7:30 a.m. giving them time to watch t.v.

This morning Kel was up at 4 a.m. again. I was going to wake the kids up around 6:40 and Kel said she would, so they would get around. Frustrated I let her. This time I observed (while not being seen) trying to determine what's the big difference.

I will put my way and kel's way to see if you can tell. I can't see what's the big difference.


My way
I knock on the door and open it gingerly. "Good morning, kids! It's time to get up. Let's roll. Up and atem." I am met with "Dad! I'm tired!".
Then they move like sloths.

Kel's way.
She sneaks in our daughters room first. She barely whispers, "Good morning beutiful girl. It's time to get up. Let's get up and around to show dad your a big girl." It looks like she is lying down with our daughter as she is whispering to her.

She then sneaks into our son's room. Again barely audible at the door. "Good morning my baby boy. Did you have a good nights rest." It looks like some snuggling going on. She then appears to talk some baby gibberish to him and I hear "Lets get around for daddy this morning."


Hmm, I didn't see any money being passed to the kids or promises of chocolate. Could it be a conspiracy?

It wasn't as fun the second day as the first. Sweetbay was much busier and many came looking in the room at my coveted dark corner.

I was still busy as 10 bees during work. I had 2 cups of coffee and then 2 mochas on top to help me along. Kel and I woke up the night before and could not sleep for nearly 2 hours. It was nice to just lay and talk for awhile.

I went home and found we could access one pc to the cable modem, if I renew the IPconfig.

I also received a call that night from Cox (first time they called back) to inform me it was definitely on their servers not at my location. Duh. I was reinsured all days of non-activity would be credited and it should be resolved in 18 hours, as of 7:30 p.m. central time. However, this morning check did not show it working correctly.

I can at least access it by one pc (work pc). This allows me to stay home today.

Our internet is out and no ETA on the resurrection of our beloved pipeline to the outside world.


Kel mentioned last night, I should go to Sweet Bay and work from there. Hmm, that's a hell of an idea. Mocha at my leasure and a new surrounding. The commercial of the poor guy in a chair trying to work while being bombarded by all the people, slightly entered my mine. It's not all that bad actually.

I called Sweet Bay this morning asking if they still had the net problem. They did not. I asked if I could squat there and do some work. The super basically said, yeah sure, we have people here all day at times. Sweet. Dropped the kids and away to the calling Mocha house.

I am squatting in a 'dark' corner in a simple room. A nice cubby hole with the monitor only pointing to me. The shops been slow today (the attendants were commenting to each other outside the room) and it's actually cozy. I think later in the future, I might have to do this again to just change the surroundings. The workers havent even came in here nor bothered me at all. I leasurely drank my Mocha all morning, the wife came over and we had lunch. I cranked out tons of work. Ahh, if it can only be this way everyday.

As far as Cox Cable, they did some kindof conversion Saturday night. We woke up Sunday morning and could not get our net fix. I called for an outage and was told a conversion had taken place, try later. At 3 p.m. central I called back and asked for a status, still no net. I was then told the conversion took longer than expected and it was done an hour ago. OK. I rebooted everything and still no go. It showed connection but no-go on the browser. Hmm. I called back and finally got ahold of someone else. "Yeah, we are showing everything good on our side, but no traffic on the backbone. Seems like your one of those areas still effected. The tech guys are on it and it should be done by midnight (day end)." Thanks buddy. I won't say what the other guy said but to make it short, it wasn't resolved. A 6 a.m. Monday call provided no fruit either, nor a 11 a.m call. The people answering the phones simply are not informed by anyone on the field. One guy ( I spoke to about 8 today) told me at least 20 other calls were in on the same issue in my area. Hence, it's not just us. This was after another one told me it wouldn't be till Thursday till a tech guy was availible. Unacceptable. I pissed and moaned till someone called their super and was then informed a tech would be in our area, if not our house today. Sigh, it sucks the Squeaky wheel gets the first turn.

I grabbed some Mocha today because I wanted to stay up and alert abit tonight. Since I am on support Friday, I took advantage by leaving for lunch today. I was able to drop some papers off here, Fedex there, pick up some items at Walmart and snag me a Mocha from the local coffehouse, SweetBay. Man, I love Mocha's.

I was also able to pull my 10 scattered papers together and compile them onto one page (front and back but regardless one) so I have all my todo's, projects in one location. Nice. This was done while I waited in the vehicle line to grab the kids. I was able to finish it at Speech.

I also updated my detox footbath site. It was sorely needed and past due.

I still have alot to accomplish at work tomorrow, but I feel half organized now at least. It seemed I was losing ground there in all my projects. It's pretty bad, when you have a team meeting givig updates on your projects and the other peers make statements like 'we knew that wasn't all' after your 4-5 project updates. Oh well, someone has to be the boyscout.

Sigh, I am glad tomorrow is Friday.

Hard to believe it's already Wednesday. Well, I finally was able to get the Pocket PC to work. I had to download the newer version for the Pocket PC and install it. Once this was done, it worked like a charm. Now I have wireless internet access through the Pocket PC. I have to say, I am excited. Now once Kel checks it out, I am sure she will want one. I have already read where some are utilizing Skype with their wireless pocket pc's. This would give you free internet calls via through your pocket pc. But that is another test/project for later.

I had a few minutes today (for once anymore) during work. So I was able to get the house picked up, vacummed, and the clothes, dishes caught up. Not to mention getting in touch with Dell and fixing the pocket pc issue.

I also let the dogs in after I picked everything up and vacuumed. The old lady, phoebe, didn't even want to come in. I guess she thought it was bath-time. Oh well, I wasn't in the mood to chase her down. The other two (party poodle and half chiahu/half something else) came in with excitement. After checking every room and inch of the carpet for something to eat they have settled down in the office with me.

Already 2 p.m. est. Need to get the kids in less than 2 hours from school. The plan this evening is too hit speech, library, fedex, toys r us, and grabbing them somethign to eat on the way back home. Kel will be late getting home today, so its just me and the kids.

I also put a WEP on our wireless router. It now requires you to put a password key to login. I wonder how long before Kel will say, what is this and why do I need to login for? LOL

This week at work was pretty much stress and High Octane. I played School Board member pretty much all day Monday with a very stressfull School Board Meeting Monday night. Fortunately for me, the expected fight and confrotation was met. However, the stress was still there, only deviated to another source. Sorry, can't be specific, but take my word for it, it was stressfull. After I came home, I had to have a drink, the hard kind.

All week, I been busting my butt in trying to get organized for work. This year we seem to be moving faster already with more and more projects piled our way. I have been informed the "other members" of our group cannot handle any other applications, and rarely anymore projects. I have been blessed with the ability to multitask (at work, the wife can't believe it) and my supervisor is utilizing it in every way.

So on Friday 5 minutes after my regular shift, I am completing my final touches on 3 projects, updating my weekly report and ready to get the hell out of here.

I acquired a new toy this week. My Palm PDA bit the big one awhile back. I have been maintaining my contacts, calendar through my PC, but the Palm simply would not turn on. I can't really complain due to the fact I had it for a couple of years and from what I read online that is do-able. Needless to say, any choice I made on a new one, would be an extreme upgrade. I went with a Del Axim V30 Pocket PC. I did the normal search and read the reviews. It's not the newest on the market, but was highly reviewed. I have to say, it looks pretty sweet (son's favorite new word). Unfortunately, I am manually transferring all my contacts, ect over to it. This will require alot of boring, time consuming evenings. However, the Axim comes with wireless and bluetooth capabilities. I have yet to get the crazy thing to pick up our home wireless router, but last night on our outing, I did get it to connect at a coffee shop. I know at least it does work. If I can get it to work at home, I am pretty sure my wife will beg for one as well. There are more freeware applications out there for a Pocket PC (9 out of 10) than a Palm. I shouldn't be bored anytime soon.

I was pleased to hear back from the office of the Arkansas Governor. However, I wasn't really pleased with the actual reply. I will like it below. Basically it sounds like 'we are looking into proposals with our task force' but they negate the actual current legislation in place for sex crimes. I sent another letter back replying to the letter. I will see what they say on it.

I would submit to all reading this particular post to contact Senator Blanche Lincoln, Senator Mark Pryor and Governor Huckabee expressing your view on this important issue. As in most Legislative offices, it helps more if you are a constituent within the same state.

Mark Pryor

The River Market

500 Clinton Ave

Suite 401

Little Rock, AR 72201

Phone: (501) 324-6336

Fax: (501) 324-5320

Blanche Lincoln

Little Rock Office

912 West Fourth Street

Little Rock, AR 72201

Phone: (501) 375-2993

Fax: (501) 375-7064

Governor Mike Huckabee

Governor's Office

State Capitol Rm 250
Little Rock
Arkansas 72201

Here is the response I received from Arkansas Governor's office, by John Brackin.

Here is my response to this letter above.

I haven't blogged in awhile due to it being consistently busy. We had our first game of Basketball with the kids last Saturday. I felt proud for our teams we been working on. Personally, I think they did well. Now our practices will only be on Tuesday nights till the tournament. This will at least free up our Thursday nights.

Of all the letters I sent out to our Representives and Governers, only one has replied thus far. Governer Brad Henry;s office (Nicholas Atwood, Agency Liaison and Public Policy Specialist) replied quickly informing me "on May 17, 2005, Govener Henry signed into law Senate Bill 631, also known as the "Jessica Lunsford Act".

I at least know the actual Senate bill for the Jessica Lunsford Act. I will post his response, excluding my name and address below. Now if I can get Arkansas to kindly reply, that would be good.

I seen on the last 2 episodes of the Oreilly Factor a major spotlight has been put on Judge Cashman from Vermont. I thought Orielly would had come through the screen and beat the Criminal Defendant and speaker for Massachesets bar association. Personally I think it's the bloggers that put the new lights on these dark actions. The media is just picking it up from the electronic outcry. I also sent a letter to Judge Cashman with the address I found, I doubt if I get a reply from him or his staff.

Can anyone believe the Sam Alito hearings? I am recording them off of C-span radio and what little I hear, seems to be the same spill Judge Roberts went through. I think they clocked one Senator rambling 12 minutes without a single question. The poor dumb liberal Senators can't help themselves. Do they not realize it continues to put a bad light on themselves? I guess it boils down to the fact, the liberal mindset is to take advantage of its own ideology. They know their liberal ideology can only be met by force at the bench (the American public will simply not go for it) by those creating laws and legislations as opposed to correctly interpretating those laws and legislations. By placing non-liberal ideologist that will not push their beliefs on the powers given to them, the liberal groups lose.


Here is that quick reply by Governer Brad Henry's office.

I had to post my thought on this idiotic choice by a Vermont Judge. Thanks to Scott for pointing this out.

A Judge Edward J. Cashman put a sex offender, Mark Hulett-age 34,in 'recovery' for raping a child many many times in a four year span. The girls horror started at age 7. Why would this Judge not put this child rapist in jail?

"..Judge Cashman explained that he is more concerned that Hulett receive sex offender
treatment as rehabilitation."

Is he serious? This is the same garbage Arkansas is trying to regurgitate in their child sex crimes. They are more interested in the why as opposed to stopping those that do it.

I'm personally fed up with our undeserving Judges and Politicians spewing this type of crap and ideology. I swear, if I had the time, I would create a dedicated website to post everyone of these individuals. I am sure the database would require a server it itself, but at least a light would be placed on these types of Judicial actions.

Way to go Scott on pointing a light on this guy.

Below is the bio and contact info for this Judge. I plan to send a letter to the office on this one.

Address:
Honorable Edward J. Cashman

Addison District Court

7 Mahady Court

Middlebury, Vermont 05753

Judge Edward J. Cashman's Bio from Judgicial Bios 2003.

Edward J. Cashman of Essex, Chittenden County. Appointed District Judge by
Richard Snelling in January of 1982. He has served as a trial judge in ten of
Vermont’s fourteen counties over the years. He is a graduate of Boston College
(1965) and the Washington College of Law (1968). He served with the U.S. Army
including a tour of duty in Vietnam (1969-1971). He married Gail Sylvester formerly
of Saint Albans in 1966. She worked as an emergency room nurse at Fanny Allen
Hospital for 25 years They have three children: Jeffrey, a pilot with Vermont
National Guard, Michael, a law student and faculty member at the University of
South Carolina, and Brooke, a graduate student at The American University in
Washington, D.C. Judge Cashman has served as an Assistant Attorney General for
the State of Vermont (1971-72); Chittenden County Clerk (1973-75), Commissioner
of Public Service (1975-1978), Grand Isle County State’s Attorney (1978-1982). He
has also held local government positions with the Village and Town of Essex as
Planning Commission member and Town Agent. He maintained a private practice of
law for ten years. Judge Cashman taught courses at the University of Vermont and
Johnson State College in Environmental Law and the Law of Zoning and Planning.
He presently teaches a course at Johnson State College in Constitutional Law. He
has taught at the National Judicial College on the topic of Restorative Justice and
Community Based Court Systems. He has held positions with the Vermont Dismas
House Board of Directors, the Saint Lawrence Parish Council and the Knights of
Columbus. He is a past president of the Vermont Trial Judges Association and the
Chittenden County Bar Association. He is a member of the Franklin County,
Chittenden County and Vermont Bar Associations. He serves on the Civil Rules
Advisory Committee. His mailing address is 29 Lamoille Street, Essex Junction
05452. E-mail is Ejc29@aol.com or cashman@chitdis.crt.state.vt.us.

Last week I had the opportunity to go alone with our daughter to basketball practice. On our way back home, we had the chance to chat. I love talking with my kids on a personal basis. Probably, because I didn't get much of it when I was a kid. However, the conversation was not as I expected, as the kids are always surprising me. Here was the short conversation. Keep in mind she is in 2nd grade.

Daughter: Dad, have you ever been in jail?

Me: (paused) No.

Daughter: Do you think I will go to jail when I am as old as you are? I don't mean to say your old.

Me: No, that is ok. I hope you wouldn't go to jail. Why would you think you would go to jail? (I was a bit surprised and had no clue where this was heading)

Daughter: Well, (slight pause) Dillon is my boyfriend and he's a bit wild. We were playing cars and he is always fast. I think he will be trouble later on and get a ticket going to jail.(She was so serious)

Me: Well, if you think he will be trouble, why would you marry him in the first place? (I think I made a 'he's an idiot' remark)

Daughter: Dad, (rolling her eyes she learned so well from her mother) we were only playing and I am still in school. (you see she first talks so seriously and when I return in kind, she goes to the 'Im a kid, duh' stance)

Daughter: (oh yeah, she goes on)And another thing Dad, A) you wont talk about my boyfriend that way. B)blah blah C)blah blah (I cant recall the list)

Me:Are you done? (with a tint of aggravation)

Daughter: and D) I love you?

Me: OK. A) I love you too and B) if your boyfriends an idiot I will tell you and him.

Fortunately we arrived home at after that.

My wife was better at the resolutions for the New Year than I already. We did our devotions with the kids last night starting the New Year off right. It really didn't take long at all and I sat there wondering why we haven't kept them from last year.

I wasn't going to post my personal resolutions, however, I guess if I did, I would then be more inclined to uphold them. Gotta love the accountability.

1) As Kel said, I want to be more active and tone up. She purchased a cool weight scale. The crazy thing actually shows body fat. I don't have any idea how it does it. 4 buttons allows you to put up to 4 individual weights, goals and progress of body fat loss (or gain). We have our's programmed in and I am scheduling myself to lose 20 pounds. Will it happen? Who knows. I plan to not get crazy, rather take it slow.

2) Take things slower. I have a tendency to jump in with both guns blazing when I want something or feel the need to do it. This year, I plan to actually plan out a progressive, realistic goals as opposed to just doing it within a week and then give it up.

3) Be more of an advocate for the healthy body. This will mean me being more active as well as pushing the whole family in a supportive way to be more active. I want to keep eating more healthy and push more for vitamens, holistic approaches ect. This may be aligned with my number one. I see number one as more physical, whereas number 3 will be more mental. I also plan to see if I can really make something out of the selling the detox foot baths.

4) Be more organized. This will please my wife greatly. I want to utilize as much time. I am already 1/2 way through my life cycle here on Earth and I want to use the remaing time as best I can.

5) Devote my time to my family and my God. I can't save the world nor our small town. I can only do that which I am limited to do. I need to accept that and more importantly act upon it. I plan to spend more quality time with the family and do more of personal devotion to God. Going to church is not the same as a personal devotion to God and I plan to not only utilize my remaing time here, but put it where it counts the most.

Well, there you go. I hope I do all the above, and maybe more. Those 5 things are on top of my mind as we enter into year 2006.