Middle America's Worldview

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.