Middle America's Worldview

It is hard to believe this week is already nearly half over. I began on-call again this Monday for this week. I will be on it for 7 days and then off 6 then on again for another 7 days. Gotta make that extra buck an hour.

My brother-in-law brought a laptop to me yesterday to have me look at it. I don't know where he is getting all these, and I don't ask. This one looks like it only has DOS on it with no windows installed at all. The CD is not recognized but interesting enough, you can slide in/out the CD and Floppy as an adapter. Oh well. I will see if I can install XP on it.

My son is sick this morning. He acted fine the first day in school. Yesterday during 4-H he bounced around, but by yesterday evening he became sick. My wife has to take him to a couple of Doctor's appointments today anyway. Just makes it hard.

Took my daughter to Basketball practice last night. I can see she enjoyed being back in the game after our 2 week out of state excursion. The couch showed her how to properly pass the ball and shoot the ball. He kept looking back at the stand to me as if 'Don't you know this stuff?' I thought to myself, 'nope, that's why I bring her to you.' Oh well. She enjoys it and I think she will get there.

Since Yu-Gi-Oh is pretty dark and has as many cards to read and learn as Clinton's excuses, we will look into the Pokemon card game. The kids love Pokemon and I plan to see if it's a bit lighter than Yu-Gi-Oh. I been trying to play the online Duel Monsters that Mark introduced me to, but I basically get my butt kick on the ones I played. Oh well, it's a nice break and I am glad Mark introduced it to me.

I will be traveling to Corp the second week of March. I plan to leave Saturday the 5th and return home Friday the 11th. They are already setting up conferences, ect. while I am down there.

The last 2 nights I haven't slept worth a flip. On-call hasn't been bad, knock on wood. But I seem to have a hard time getting to sleep and finding rest.

We finally made it home Friday evening around 4 p.m. central. We made two stops near home. One was a goldmine find for organic, non-toxic store in a hole in wall place. We spent way less in this store than the stores in Amarillo (gathering organic foods, ect.) but acquired nearly double items. The other stop was to grab cat liter, I knew we would need it. Yeah, exciting stuff, eh?

Saturday I ended up running to Fort Smith for errands and such. Today, however, I refuse to go anywhere. The whole family was a-sleep by 8:30 p.m. Friday night and didn't get up till at least 8 a.m. the next morning. Total exhaustion. We spent Saturday cleaning the house, unpacking, and getting some stuff together, (the wife moreso than I). Today, we finished up some cleaning, had some friends over for lunch and I am already ready for a nap.

Nixon has an interesting article regarding ramifications of bloggers in regards to posting about their jobs. When I have time, I would like to do a experiment to see how much info, I could actually acquire off of someone, via the net. Anyone have any suggestions of a good person to try it on, let me know.

Well, we survived Mesa, Arizona. Survived the Doctor's, 4 wall apartment for a week, ect. We are now at the Grand Canyon. We decided to drive here this afternoon, then off to Amarillo, Texas tomorrow. The Grand Canyon was only 45 minutes off our path and it would be a shame not to see it. So we are in a hotel nearly one mile away from it. It was cold and windy. It amazed me to see desert and 5 foot cactus in Mesa, snow covered peaks across the mountains to Flagstaff and snow on the ground here at parts of Grand Canyon. It was definitely a diverse in terrain from point to point.

Tomorrow will be the killer drive. It will be 11 hours from here to Amarillo. I am dreading it, but once we get there, only 6 hours more to home. I look forward to get home.

My thoughts on one of the 7 wonders of the world? The Canyon was indeed beautiful. Looked more like a canvas than a view. It's pretty obvious the only thing surviving out here buisiness wise is off the tourist that come. 2 restruants, 2 gas stations (2.49 per gallon), and maybe 3 gift shops? Yeah, I expected more.

The weekend was a nice break of the 4 walls. We hit the Phoenix Zoo today. I wasn't impressed. 40 bucks to get in, 12 bucks to ride the train. A lot of empty cages and there wasn't a good pathway to walk through. It seemed to be all over the field.

The kids were tired today, but should only be here 2.5 more days. We plan to leave Wednesday midday. I am taking a 1/2 day Wednesday and taking off both Thursday and Friday. We plan to go to the Grand Canyon on the way back home. It's only 45 minutes out of the way. We are so close, it would be a shame to miss the opportunity to say 'we been there'.

Yesterday we went to a 'swap mart'. I found the kids Yu-Gi-Oh starter decks for 3 bucks a deck. 2.50 if you buy two. I let them pick out a deck a piece and then went back to get me one. When we went to another mall I realized how cheap they really were. 12.95 per deck! Unreal. I was soooo tempted to go back and grab all of them to sell on E-bay.

We also did laundry here again. Should be the last time before leaving. The kids and I actually played in the outside pool today. Nearly 80 degrees here. We are just really ready to go home.

We are watching the SuperBowl here in the hotel room. So far they are tied, 7-7, half-time.

Yesterday evening, we had our first time to enjoy the trip. While my wife took a nap, the kids and I went to the Southwest Museum. I must say I was impressed. On one side was 3 stories, the other contained 2. They refer to the museum as the Dinosaur museum and rightly so. There were many Dinosaur skeletons. There was also a display of acutal dinosaur eggs. Evidently this was not a standard display for the museum rather a temporary one. It was a treat to walk around and view the ancient indian artificacts, dinosaurs, and the kids were able to pan for gold (pyrite). They found more water on themselves then gold, but they loved it. I took many pictures and absolutely loved it.

When we returned, we ended up taking the kids to Golf Land. They commercialize having more than 200 games in the arcade, but when you see 2 or 4 of the same game, it dwindles in difference. I have yet to find a holographic game in these big city arcades. Again, the kids loved it. Of course I had to play some games as well. (smiling). It was a bit pricey but a hotspot in the evenings and night. As it grew later, more and more people arrived. This place also had a laser tag arena, bumber boats, mini-golf, and a go cart racetrack.

Since my daughter seems to be getting more interested in Yu-Gi-Oh, I figured I better analyze it.

As a former Magic Card player (more than 10 years ago), I can see similarities. The Yu-Gi-Oh, has some distinct differences that, I believe, helps drive its continued success. There is an actual storyline where the kids or adults follow. This is propelled mainly in the cartoon but also in comic and books. Since I have not read any printed material on this game, I can only base my analysis on the cartoon aspect of the subject.

The creator of the Yu-Gi-Oh phenomenon was created by Kazuki Takahashi.
Some history of Kazuki Takahashi can be found here.

The cartoon is 30 minutes in length. However, if you take in consideration the following it’s more of 20 minutes. The first 3-4 minutes comprise of a recapture of what happened in the prior cartoon, commercials, ect. Also I noticed a lot of verbage or talking in the cartoon. So I suspect the story line is only roughly 6 minutes per episode. The main theme is comprised of the duel. There is at least one major duel per episode (from what I have seen). This does too things; brings action to the game and introduce new cards to the audience. This is a great marketing tool for Bandai.

The card game itself is a strategic game, similar to chess. The two opposing foes battle it out by the cards in their deck (which they themselves create by buying the different cards) and how they play it. However, unlike chess, this is more of a visual battle with many many possible sentries. Note also rather than the king on the board in chess, you play the king and your life points pulls you into the game more so. There is a feeling of the player being more part of the game. One of the chief things I see where Bandai did right compared to the Magic cards is the strength of the cards. I noticed that Magic cards continued to go upwards in strength. After awhile the buyer gets tired of the race for newer and stronger cards. There is only so much you can reach. Bandai, however, limits the strength, but expands the cards horizontally. They create more cards for the buyer, but in such a way to allow more strategy in play, rather than power and strength. Note this is also a statement from Yu-Gi-Oh, in the cartoon as well. “There is more in the cards than strength and power.”

I have not played the game myself. This is only a brief synopsis of a dad trying to understand what drives my kids in this subject.

Conclusion: Yu-Gi-Oh’s drive is two fold. It has a storyline that pulls you into the subject and there is an element of power when you strategically beat an opponent in this game.

You can purchase Yu-Gi-Oh from Amazon.com here.

This is the third day for sons treatments and test. We had really good news and seeing some positive results. My poor wife has been n the Doc office nearly all day every day we been here. My poor daughter has been stuck with me most of the day in the hotel as well. Me? I been doing as I normally do, stuck on the PC working away. Unfortunately we will be here till next week. I have alreay spoken to the hotel and extended our stay. Luckily they knocked off 10 bucks a night on the extended days.

I plan to actually stop on time tomorrow night. Hopefully our family can have some quality time and enjoy some time together.

We drove into Mesa, Arizona from Flagstaff this morning. We stayed till my 11 a.m. est confernce call was over. Fortunately we made it here in Mesa safely. Our son's first apppointment was Tuesday at 3:45 Mountain time. Kelli and he was in there for 3.5 hours. My daughter and I stayed at the hotel, not knowing how long it would be. We caught up on the laundry, while she did homework, I read Wired magazine.

When my wife and son returned it was nearly 7 p.m. (felt like 8 to us) and everyone was hungry, not eating dinner yet. We drove around trying to find some kindof mall around here to no avail. Finally resolving to pulling into a 7-11 asking where is a local mall or restruant around here was told 4 miles up. So it's nearly 5 miles to a mall. At least we now know. Sitting across the table in an actual restraunt (lived on the road the past 2 days, it was a nice change), I couldn't help to see my wifes enthusiasm. It appears our son has mercury poisoning. The Doctor told her, he was a bit intimidated to know we are traveling 1600 miles to have him see her son. But after seeing our son, he said he's not worried. Our son can be fixed. Bold words from someone seeing him in less than 3 hours. I won't go into detail just yet, primarily because I simply don't have it. I will meet the Doctor myself tomorrow (now today). I was impressed he actually gave my wife his cell number and changed his next few days pt's around to see our son twice a day while we are here.

He also called us while we were out to ask if we had the chance to discuss and asked how our son was doing after the first treatments. This also impressed me. I spoke with him on the cell myself. He asked if I had any questions, ect. I will get a CD from him tomorrow with 'more information than I wanted' on some of my inquiries. Kelli already made him aware I work with computers, so he knows I am a bit analytical. I guess if he can speak my terminology, I can feel better about all this. Granted I would do anything for my family. It is just easier to understand why we will be doing it.

We have no idea how long we may be here. I reserved the hotel till Saturday morning, but we may be here next week as well. Sigh. Glad I brought the kids DVD's, wished I had brought some of mine.

We left shortly after Sunday School and drove to Amarillo, Tx. We made it there around 7:30 p.m. and crashed around 9 p.m. Didn't sleep worth a flip all night. We were up around 5 a.m., got up at 5:20 a.m. and drove all day to FlagStaff, Arizona. Talk about a long drive. It was beautiful country through New Mexico, but man was it long. We drive into Mesa, Arizona tomorrow.

Friday was so busy, I almost needed a catheter with a bag attachment. I think I was on the phone nearly 6 hours of the 8. This combined with IM's, email's and working at three things at once, made one fast hard day at work.

As stated before, Kelli made the calls that morning. Interesting enough out of two sources, both pointed to the same place; Mesa, Arizona.

We acquired more information during the day. Seems there is a week of testing. However, the Doctor speaking with Kelli seems to have an idea on the issue already. Of course he doesn't say this, but it is becoming apparent with the specific questions and discussion being made.

I couldn't sleep last night. I watched Troy (good movie) and turned the tv off around 1 a.m. I then woke up at 3:30 a.m. tossing and turning. The church wants me to speak Sunday prior of us going to the clinic. We plan to leave after church tomorrow. I finally got out of bed around 4 a.m. and looked up directions, locations via mapquest and google. The plan is driving to Amarillo, TX (6 hrs) and spend a night with one of Kelli's aunts. From there we will drive to Flagstaff, AZ (9 hrs) and stay Monday night. Then it will be a little over 2 hour drive into Mesa, AZ.

We already have hotel reservations made in Flagstaff and Mesa. We really do not know anything beyond the initial testing. We will be staying in Mesa till Saturday morning at least. I have already made arrangments to be off Monday, but work out of the hotel Tuesday-Friday. If I have high-speed internet access, I can work. It is one of the privileges of being a remote employee. My boss-ladies were understanding. I busted my butt getting everything I could in order, including newbies projects done on Friday. I then spent 30 minutes to just update my supervisor. This was done in case anything came up Monday in my absence as well as just an FYI. Those in the Corporate knows what I mean.

I had to get an oil change this morning. Kelli has a good friend with kids the same class as our daugter come in town for the week. The only spare time we had this weekend was 10 a.m. today and lunch. We still have packing, ect. todo.

Gotta start getting my work stuff ready for the week.

I had some exciting, yet nervous making news yesterday. It all came down shortly after my quote unquote end of day. As I had stated before my wife was fed up with Childrens Hospital. They were not providing any answers and it became a political move on their side. Rather than looking at our son to find answers it became, less cover our own peoples asses. So she began calling around yesterday morning. I have to say it all fell into place yesterday evening.

On two different sources both led to Phoenix, Arizona. She acquired contact with a branch off the Mayo Clinic. They spoke with my wife and went as far as faxing some local hotels in the area. They also booked him Tuesday through Friday next week to perform tests. The interesting thing is the statements and questions the Doctor posed to my wife on the phone. He identified what Childrens did and had posed for our son. The last statement elated her. "I can help your son." You have to realize this is the first time a Doctor had made such a direct statement to us. It's always been "I think" or "Let me try".

As with anything in my life here lately, nothing is timely. Now we are running to figure out how we can leave Monday and be there by Tuesday's appointment. Fortunately I can work out of any box, as long as it has an internet connection. That puts most hotels on the map. So here we are, trying to catch-up on both of our works (which is laughable at best) and making directions to get there. We will probably stop midway in Amarillo, Texas due to it looking like an 18 hour drive to Mesa, Arizona.

The implication is great. The possibility of our son being rid of his staring out and speech delay is wonderful. We cannot afford not to try this. We have attempted everything else and we have broken milestones with him. I, like my wife hope and pray this is the end of this ride. However, I fear to put all my hopes up, yet again.

My wife and I still plan to have a night out, while the kids are at Nana and Papa's but our minds will not be at ease, I fear.

Just another day in the neighborhood for me and mine. I am glad it's Wednesday due to being closer to Friday night. My wife and I planned on going out to get some quality quite time. However, seems we have our friends that will be crashing our party. Yes, it will be good to go out with other 'young adults'. Is mid to early 30's still considered young anymore? To me the crowd all seems to be younger than I remember.

I managed to create templates for my projects via the Microsoft Project last night while watching my daughter at the Basketball practice. Work coninues to be an overload, but it sounds like everyone's is.

Had some continued bad news on our son's health yesterday. My wife at her wit's end on it. I just don't know what to do. We struggle with the Doctors, because due to their delibitating knowlede on what to do, their basically crossing of "lets try this" list. Yes, we have resolved some physical issues, but the overall problem remains. Its like fighting a non-entity with physical weapons. It's just not working. We have a good spiritual support group, but after 5 years, its time to get some answers for resolution.

Yesterday was a good Monday to start with, Yes, I was on support after a weekend of on-call. However, no bombs or surprises were dropped. That was a relief. My bosslady liked my Microsoft Project template, she suggested an object link on my question on a one view of my interface. I will try that later.


I went to the Chiro yesterday evening, to get adjusted and get some information on the website they want. As normal I asked the specifics, most they hadn't thought of. It's easier to ask, 'do you know of a website you like the format?'. This allows me to see what they like and use as a template. They gave me a website they like. Last night I checked the site and pulled down the source to see how they arranged it, javascript they use ect. Most sites have a few comments to identify who created the page, where some scripts come from ect. Well, low and behold this one also did. So I thought I would check the guys site out by copying and pasting it in the address bar. 'No site found'. Hmm interesting. So I removed the "index.shtml" from it and hit enter again. Low and behold a site produced, but not one that I expected. Rather than a 'Hey I am so and so, these are the sites I created, contact info if you want a site built,ect.' I see a simple one color page with a bunch of links crammed in the middle. What links in this pink background with pink links you may ask? Porn sites. Hardcore porn sites not intended for the naked eye. I couldnt believe it. Here is a supposedly dedicated Doctor, that must be pretty good, with a porn site embedded in his website. I will have to ask Chiro who created this site for their friend.

Wow, Saturday went awfull fast. There is a Angel Ministries near us that has a great deal on meats, ect. Basically around 27 bucks you can purchase the deal. It's not a bad deal. You pay them month by month. No setup or requirements necessary. This is the second month we have tried them out. I have already purchased one for next month. Anyway, this morning, I went to grab the meat, vacuumed out the cars. When I ran back, my wife went to an errand at 10:30 a.m. I cleaned the carpets and around the house. When she returned, she took our daughter to have her Upwards basketball pictures taken. While they did that, my son and I had our haircuts done. Yes, she commented on how my hair was more greyer than the last cut. Sigh. Then we met the women at the Basketball game. Whew, busy morning. But there-after we just relaxed. My favorite part of the weekend, resting with the kids and wife.

I tried my hand in Microsoft Project today. I normally put all my projects in Excel because I am comfortable with it and it's easy for me. But the bosslady mentioned to use Microsoft Project to provide our vendors and peers outside of the interface group. So I played with it this afternoon. The application wasn't hard to grasp, but I don't like the ability in not able to see that whole worksheet at one glance. Any Project users out there know how to get the ability to view a worksheet within Project, please post it. Thanks in advance.

I haven't been able to revalue all my FTP address's back in my PC yet. I am thinking of creating some sort of access database of them. This would allow me to have a quick view off line on my connections. But I don't like the idea of having duplicate information, one in the FTP app (that got wasted) and one in Excel or some other app.

Nothing planned for tomorrow but Church. The kids are already laying down and my wife and I are in the office catching up on work (real party animals).

For such a busy week, it has been a long one. I continued to work diligently regardless of email. Yesterday, I actually was able to move forward on my projects. I set 2 more interfaces, conference calls, ect. I noticed I can still function but on a linear level. Normally I can muli-task well, with firing out emails, IM's answering in turn, while on the phone and working on tickets ect. Without my email and sametime, I can only work on one thing at a time. Makes me realize how much I do on hand and my addiction to online communication.

I have to share this. I received a Voicemail yesterday evening as I picked up the kids from school. "Matt, I just heard you lost your laptop. I sent emails the past two days and haven't heard from you......(pause) If you cant move those files for (facility name)can you call me tomorrow? "

Yeah, call you tomorrow.

Later as I was speaking to my supervisor asking her how support was today (I am on-call) while she turned it over to me, I mentioned this. She stated; "oh yeah I heard about that. I would think if it's important and if she doesn't hear from you by email she would had followed-up with a phone call."

Yes, my fellow bloggers. In a world of instataneous electronic email with quick satisfaction, if your fellow correspondent does not reply within 24 hours by email...call their A$$. Oh well. You can only do what you can do.

I had 2 interesting comments made to me yesterday as well. One from the Sr. Analyst and the other from the Supervisor on separate phone calls. Both are behind on their projects as well. It's not just lonely me.

I wanted to watch The Apprentice last night. They have coined it book smarts against street smarts. I figured the street smarts would win. I am interested how they will film this particular Apprentice. I know they will play most of it up, but realistically in a world of corporation the degrees, diplomas, continueing education counts for something. It's called justification for rate of pay. But personally if I had the choice of someone with OJT compared to someone from a classroom, I picked the OJT.

I went through Radiology to get my R.T. way back then. I recall one girl transferring to our hospital program from college. She has the knowledge on paper, but she couldn't take a simple chest x-ray while everyone of us was knocking out extremities. My point is, the paper knowledge is good, but it doesnt get much accomplished compared to someone out there busting their butt on the floor accomplishing the job.

Today was chaotic to say the least. Since I do not have a laptop with my nice Lotus Notes, Sametime, FTP, ect. software for my easily accessible crap I check and work on every day; I had to be on the phone aalllll daaaayyy long. I called for an update, leaving a voicemail. I call another person to give them an update. I call on a conference call. I call my bosslady to give her updates as the day progress's. I normally can just IM her as I go but not today.

I start the morning as normal (for this week). I get my daughter to school, come back in the office starting my second cup of coffee. I was thinking this would be a simple day to allow me to update on some of my interface building. Yes still trying to catch up on those precious projects. But to no avail. I finally was able to install VPN in my home pc to at least get access to OPENLINK. I did, finally. I then get baraged with phone calls concerning issues. It ranged from facility issues to a follow-up on an old project that a peer never followed up. Regardless I was on the freaking phone all day. I was surprised when bosslady finally cracked this afternoon. She was on vacation all last week and Monday. She missed the batch charge file fiasco last week. She told me 'what is going on with all these issues? I can't work on my projects, due to all these issues that keep coming up.' Yeah, welcome to the jungle.

On a lighter note. I was able to eat out with the family tonight. After taking the son to therapy this evening; daughter, son and I met my wife to eat. No-one felt like cooking tonight. It was nice to do something different.

Oh get this. The 100 gig harddrive I sent with my Laptop? It's not happening. Seems the HP laptops can only handle up to 80 gig harddrives. So, the guy had to pull a brand new PC harddrive out (40 gigs) and slam it in mine. No, they wouldnt give me a new PC. I probably won't get the laptop back till Friday. Bummer.

Last night on-call wasn't bad, fortunately. This morning, I took the kids to school came back had a good 2 cups of coffee and kicked butt at work. I was jamming this morning. I updated all my tickets, resurrected my projects and fired out emails for updates ect. Yes, this morning was good for me.

My brother-in-law came by for a surprised visit. A buddy had acquired a PC and wanted me to check it out. I set it up (it was only the base_no monitor ect.) and cranked it on. "No OS found". Hmm, maybe the harddrive is clean? I thought. The following converstation went like this;
I asked my brother-in-law, Where did your friend get this?

"Uh a friend of his was raided by the police and tried to take the harddrive out. He said it was still good. He owed him money but gave him this instead."

As thoughts of child porn, drug smuggling secrets in PGP on this pc ran through my mine I just shook my head. "OK"

I checked CMOS and it showed to be good. He left it for me to play with and I did for a while. Ironically, it began working. Cool. Must be a loose cable. I scanned through the harddrive and it was clean. Nothing my imagination had drummed up.

I then began to get back to my work. I had to reboot my work pc and then it happened. I get a black screen "Non-system disk or disk error" Oh crap. To no avail by harddrive had crashed. What the? Long story short I had to purchase a harddrive at Best Buy to fedex with my laptop to Corporate for them to set me up. I had to acquire a harddrive because they don't have any harddrives on hand. Million dollar company but not harddrives on hand. OK. I should get it back Thursday. Best Buy only had one availible, a 100 gigabyte drive for around 200 bucks. I will have to send in my receipt for reimbursement. This was ironic. I fixed a computer as mine went down.

Monday is over and the weekend was a blast! We basically stayed home with the exception of our daughters basketball game and church. The kids and I played PS2 most of the weekend and it was nice to just chill with the family. Today at work wasn't nearly as bad as last Monday either. A sigh of relief, indeed.

Received an interesting email concerning Roe vs Wade today. I figured I would share it to everyone reading.
====================================================================================

On January 18, the U.S. Supreme Court will begin a process
that could overturn Roe v. Wade!

Because you have stood with the Center for Reclaiming
America on pro-life issues, I wanted to alert you to
this news.

On January 18, Norma McCorvey (the original "Jane Roe" of
Roe v. Wade) will file a legal appeal with the Supreme Court
to have Roe v. Wade reversed. I will be in Washington, D.C.,
on that day to stand with our friends at The Justice
Foundation in support of this case.

The Justice Foundation has invested thousands upon thousands
of hours in this case. They have gathered an enormous body
of evidence to support Norma's case.

Matthew, this is a powerful opportunity to
refute Roe v. Wade!

Here is how you can help.

First, notify your friends. Forward this message to everyone
you know. We simply must get the word out.

Second, please pray for Norma and the team at The Justice
Foundation. Set aside time on January 18, specifically,
to pray.

Third, find out more about this case and how you can
impact The Justice Foundation's efforts here:

http://www.operationoutcry.org

Thank you!

====================================================================================
I shared the email to my father-in-law this afternoon as he drove through. He kindof grunted and stated, it shouldn't go back to the days of abortions in the back alley. I replied, that would never happen. However, I was intriqued of this email. I heard a snippet of this news but nothing as significant as I would expect considering the ramifications it could bring.

Another interesting website I was introduced with is Psalm 139 Project. This is from the Faith and Familywebsite.

I will add the two links to my blog on the side.

I took my kids, age 6 and 5, to see Shark Tale last night at the dollar movies. My kids enjoyed the movie but I had some reservations on it.

The movie is definitely about acceptance. The theme acceptance is looked on two levels; using two of the main characters. One is a loud mouth fish wantabe and the other is a shark born different than the other sharks.

On one a fish named Oscar always dreamed of being on the top reef with the other 'rich fish'. He is a whale cleaner with big dreams but doesn's recognize what he already has. A girl fish that loves him and many friends who "accepts" him as the way he is. The movie ends on him accepting where he is and what he has. This is the individual acceptance level showing him to accept who he is and where he is at.

On two a shark named Lenny is the son of a mafia family of killer sharks. But Lenny is born different than the other sharks. He is a vegetarian and doesn't like harming much less killing anything. This character depicts one as not born as he should be. Note the mental characterization is different not a physical difference is defined. The movie ends on his Dad accepting the way Lenny is born, rather than trying to change him into something he is not. This is the group acceptance level, where everyone else accepts and loves who he is and how he was born.

While my kids thought it was pretty funny, with the exception of Lenny's brother dying (this propelled the movie). I was a bit disturbed by its theme and obvious message. This is a Liberals movie come true. On the surface it appears as a cartoon movie, but once the movie starts, it's pretty obvious what it's about. But how can I a parent speak about this in such a way to a 5-6 year old? This is the other reason I am uncomfortable with the movie. To a child, it's just a movie. To an adult it is devised as an obvious message that may not be agreed upon.

If you want to purchase this movie from Amazon you can through this link.

I wanted to blog before I even get into the work this morning. Basically this week boils down to the following.
I am behind on my projects (creation of new interfaces).
Charge batch issues suck and time consuming to research.
Not on call but felt like it.
Should be able to leave early or on time each day but couldnt.
Charge batch issues suck.
Everyone thinks the interface team can resolve the issues.
No-one wishes to take the responsibility but hand it out.
Charge batch issues suck.
It seems to take forever to resolve something.
Once you fix a problem, your the owner of similiar future problems.
Did I mention the charge batch issues suck?

Other than work, the home life isnt bad. Seems my brother still doesn't want this second wedding. He came over yesterday evening (surprised the hell out of me). I asked whats wrong and I hear Kelli in the office saying she knew why he was here. Kelli had created and printed out the invites for them. She was going to bring them to their house today, but I guess they couldnt wait 12 hours. My brother had turned his truck in for a newer one. This one having 4 doors rather than the prior having two. I went out to check it out. I noticed the wife in the front feigning sleep with a sleep mask over her eyes. What a loser.

I complimented his new rig and asked how are things going, being outside and from earshot. He barely audibly said ok. I then inquired if he was still wanting this ceremony. He only replied with that look and "see you later". Yeah, ok.

I am hoping this weekend goes well and the family enjoyes it before the next week springs into action. I start on-call again next Monday. Just never slows down.

Interestingly the batch charge file issues continue. Yesterday we identified where some of the missing batches were in one facility. Note the other two facilities batches are still believed to be delayed not missing. I reran the batches through and they appear to have been accepted. Weird. We have another facility (separate issue) where the batches were rejected due to out of sequence errors. I found and resolved that yesterday as well. In addition another facility (yes another separate issue) stated they had charges that were doubled. Looking into that issue, I see it appears the charges were entered in the 6th and 10th. Yeah, charge issues this week.

Time got away from me yesterday evening. After my son and I returned from his therapy it just seemed to have flown. A neighbor let me borrow the movie "The Village". I watched it last night when everyone else went to bed. It wasn't a bad movie. The movie was definitely different. I was expecting a scary movie, from the previews. Yet, it really wasn't. The theme shifted in the middle of the movie. I would call it more of a mystery movie. I will say this; the movie is set in a colonial setting. However, it's actually in the current era.

I was really hoping to get some of my 20 something projects worked on today since I am not on support. Well, that didnt work out. Not only was I replying requesting emails, but phone calls all freaking day. The IM's (Sametime Instant Messages) swarm like flies. Get this. The charge issue from the weekend resurected again today. I thought the vendor analyst would be taking care of this, since it is the vendor analyst charges. Hell no. She dumps it on me. I scramble around 1:30 p.m to find the answers everyone is asking. I managed to pull in the information and it looks like we may not have missing batch charges, rather they are only late. This would make sense due to the way networks work.

Think of it this way. You have a waterhose attached to a hydrant. The hydrant is the first server. The waterhose is the interface and the bucket your putting the water is the second server. When the waterhose (interface) is interrupted (like the routers going down) the water (batches) remain until the interruption is cleared. Hence when the routers comes back up, all the batches are delayed but now can go through. Make sense?

Anyway, we will confirm it tomorrow. Just pisses me off everyone seems to be shoving the responsibility around, but unwilling to take it on.

This evening I was able to again wrestle and play with the kids. I was also able to take my daughter to basketball practice. It was nice to have some time, just the two of us. She is going to a program called "Upwards" that also has bible teachings with good basketball practice, teaching. Looks like my little girl will be in Basketball for some time. She enjoys it and actually is getting good. : )

On a downward note this evening, I think I screwed up. I was suppose to call in some petifores for a Teachers bridal party tomorrow. My wife off handly said thanks to me for calling it in. I had that deer in the headlights look. "I don't recall ever getting a hold of them, honey." Oh that wasn't good. I do recall calling twice that day but never remember anyone answering the phone. So no loving tonight and I will probably be dead in the morning when the verification is in effect.

Another manic Monday at work today. Speaking to others, I wasn't alone. Basically we had an issue at Corp that a lot of the charge batches did nto come through. Hence the facilities recieved their charge credit reports not showing the charges. Yeah, it's a mouthful. Basically no charges, no revenue, everyone screams. In addition I was on support today so everyone was IM'ing me and asking this and can you look at that. sigh. I barely had time to pee. Fortunately my on-call ended this morning so I was able to quite and there was light on the end of the day. heh heh

I see Wacky Southern Housewife put her site on the Blogarama to be reviewed, so in like course I have done the same. The link is on the right of the screen. You can review my site on Blogarama if you so desire

We had a PTA meeting tonight that lasted less than 30 minutes. It went very smooth with no bumps. We had a lot of discussion but after the minutes, ect. Plus my wife had to get back in time to watch the Bachelorette tonight. Yes, we are watching it as I type this up. : )

Have to tell you this quick story. Last week I was on-call and I was pretty much dead in the beginning of the week from no sleep. I have began wrestling with my kids in the evenings for the past 2 months during commercials in the evenings. We started this and it has now become a Dad and kids time. We watch Digimon and then wrestle between the commercials.Unfortunately I was way too tired. By Wednesday night I started to wrestle with them and of course I get a call for work. Anyway, you get the idea. Well when I was able to actually wrestle the screamed "Daddy's back" as if I been gone for a week. Sigh. I love my kids and I would not trade them for the world.

I was trying to find some more interesting blogs out there in the internet. Interesting, meaning some of the dark underground type. But alas, I was unable to. During my search I came across BlogDex and Globe of Blogs. These two blog search engines also allows you to add your site to their search engine for free.

Later today, as I was called to recycle some interfaces, my wife had read Jays blog. So we had to take the myers briggs personality test as well. My wifes results nailed her right on. She was shown to be a ESFJ. I tried mine twice and neither one actually hit me. The two had some similarities. I pulled a ISJT first and then ESFJ the second time ( when my wife helped me answer them ). I figured she had a better reflection (keep me honest) since we been together 10 years. Regardless it was interesting to take the test online. You need to check out Jays page to acquire the other website for a more fuller detail in the personality definition. I don’t want to hack his links.

I started up the second season of 24 on DVD last night. Now I have to finish it. I dont think I will actually watch season 4 on TV. I wont because quite frankly I will get pissed if I miss an episode. I am hooked on the storyline as it is. I can’t imagine missing it and getting lost on the viewing of the show.

I will be starting some informational articles soon.

I got sleep last night, Yeah!

I am always in pursuit of interesting blogs out there. Some blogs I have listed on my sidebar to grant me easy every day access. Some blogs I simply have in my favorites to read on occasion. I guess like everything, blogs tend to come and go. When I first started blogging, I was introduce to the idea of other people actually putting their life out there for others admiration or shock value. As I learned of more blogs out there, I now typically see two formats. One type of blog is for social and the other is for informational. Some blogs have a little of each. I find myself falling into the latter category, a little of each. I will actually be producing more info in the future.

I suppose each of us bloggers tend to look at other blogs and incorporate the cool new app or design into their own. I recently changed my template during the New Year. I wanted a 3 column template with easier colors on the eyes, and I think I found the one I like.

I still have some ideas on my blog, so you will be seeing some more changes in the future. Hopefully nothing as drastic as the initial template change.

I will be removing On Donkeys mind from my sidebar list. Unfortunately the site has not been touched since last November. I enjoy reading other points of view, contrasting to my own. But I guess since the election, Donkey really doesn't have anything to say. Blogs come and blogs go.

I actually acquired sleep for the last two nights! I had to work on VPS Anyque routes last night till 11 p.m. It was a lot longer than I wanted, but it had to be done.

Just glad it’s Friday. Hope everyone has a good Friday today and a great safe weekend.

Second and last day of support today. Yes, it was again a crazy day at work. I could whine and moan in the unsuccessfull attempt to have one feel sorry for me. But you know, I have a job and it could be worse. So I won't gripe and whine today, but I rather blog about something else while drinking my wine.

I thought to drink a beer (I can only stand Corona) last night but decided not too. I wish I had. I don't know why, but I could not sleep worth a flip last night. I watched X-play till abou 10:30 and turned the tv off. I laid there for an hour and could not even rest. I got up and figured I try PS2. I didn't want to get on the PC due to already tired of it. I plugged in Max Payne. My dad let me borrow the first one. I bought the second one used at Hastings. I am trying to work my way through the first one. I made it to Part 3 chapter 2. Man this game is long. But I am hooked on the story line now and want to see it play out. It was after 1 a.m. before I quite and went back to bed. Good game.

I didn't want to take some tylenol p.m. due to being on-call this week. I cracked open the wine for tonight. : )

Weather wise, it rained all day today and yesterday. Looks to get down to 20 degrees tonight and cold cold tomorrow(teens).

I will get a break tomorrow during the day. I am not on support. I should only have to deal with my own tickets rather than all issues.

Found a new site to add to my list. Reasons to Believe. I will add it to my link list. For those bored, check it out.

Today was another b&tch of a day at work. I am on support today and tomorrow. Add that to my on-call this week and it feels like work 24 hours a day. sigh. Last night they liked to kill me. An issue of our group access to OPENLINK was fried so I couldn't gain access till 1 a.m., that's 2 a.m. EST. The ticket they had never did say what the resolution was. In the mean time, I had a vendor's server that was using 100 % percent of the processor usage, I.E. everything stalled. So a call to that vendor, resolves it.

My problem is once I am awake; it takes me a good over an hour to get back to sleep. With calls every other hour last night, I guess I made around 2.5 hours of sleep. Fortunately the two issues are supposedly resolved. Hopefully the remaining week will be quite. Sure didn't start out that way.

My brother called me today. I was half expecting it. Without going into specifics, my brother is married to a whack job of a girl. I call her a girl, because she hasn't grown up yet. With two kids and a wife that is unwilling to view anything outside of her own bubble and unable to do anything, he lives in Hell. He is also unwilling to leave her, so not much I can do. Anyway, he asked me to be his best man for his re-wedding. They are already married. They married without telling anyone in our family or asking anyone to be an attendant. I was a bit miffed due to him being my best man on my marriage. They have been married for 5 years as of February.

They really cannot afford it. No-one seems to understand why they are doing it, with the exception of an attempt to capture something they missed before. My brother had stated before this will not happen (another exchange of vows in marriage), but she's been set to do it for the last 3 years. So I guess he caved in. I stated and asked him, I thought you were not doing this. He only replied meekly that he guesses he will do it. The only thing that is getting me through this shanagen is for him and the idea that perhaps they see it as a new beginning. Maybe one will grow up and the other will stand up.

I appreciate the comment Wacky Southern Housewife. My wife pointed it out as well. I had an issue of the right panel overlapping the middle column.
Interesting it was only for Internet Explorer.

This morning I worked on it while on a conference call for work. I was frustrated because by the time my preview looked good and I saved it. The page could not be displayed. Guess I took too long to get my crap together on the page. I checked it again with my wifes Internet Explorer and it appears to be in good order now.

I continuely appreciate everyones input on this new view. : )

Q: When a giraffe lowers its head toward the ground, wouldn't you expect the blood pressure to increase so much that its brain would explode?

A:It's true that the giraffe's blood pressure rises so much that it might cause its brain to explode. But, this doesn’t happen because the giraffe has a series of incredible features. This includes reinforced artery walls, bypass valves, as well as pressure-sensing signals that all work together to maintain the proper blood pressure.

But then comes the real trick. As the giraffe raises its head, the same systems used to reduce the pressure when the head is lowered, also act to increase the pressure as the head is raised (so the giraffe doesn't pass out).

The problem for evolutionists is this. How many giraffes blew their brains to pieces when bending down - how many passed out as they lifted their heads, becoming food for the lion - until the special features somehow evolved?

It's obvious that the very first giraffes had to have these special features right from the beginning. If not, they wouldn't have survived to pass them on to their offspring! Of course, this is not at all surprising to those who believe in a Creator.

We attained a foozball for the kids for Christmas. It was the perfect size for the kids to play. Just happened to find it in a yardsale some time back and grabbed it for 15 bucks. Santa brought it for the kids. ; )

Each evening my 7 year old daughter has challenged me to a game. Each evening she kicks my butt in it. Noothing more humble than a 7 year old kicking your A** in foozball. At first it was humble, now its nothing more than just plain humility. This morning I felt confident with 3 cups of coffee down me. She challenged me again and I actually won! It was tough. She is just good at the game. I told her she is still champion due to the fact I only won one out of 5? Oh well. I enjoy it and she is so competitive, I enjoy watching her concentrate on it. heh heh

Last night we had the friends come over and we first played Bratz game (reminded me of chutes and ladders) with the kids. Then we pulled out the Trivia Pursuit 90's version. Needless to say I lost big time. I got maybe 2 pieces of pie. Came in dead last. Utter defeat on my part.

Each New Year brings on new beginnings, new promises and new resolutions. Like a broken record we make promises to ourselves or others, this year will be different, better.

Well, I truly hope whatever you strive for, comes true. Unless it's a bad thing to others. heh heh

I wanted to change my blog look as well. I searched and searched to find the one template that I wanated. For those that read my blog, hope you enjoy the new look.

Tonight, we have friends over to play games. Yes, its the same couple that we watch their kids. I hope the kids can play good and allow the adults a good game with adult conversation. Kelli picked up Trivia Pursuit 90's. The hope is we actually know some answers. On the way home, Kelli asked some questions out of it (to see what were up against). Needless to say, she knew the answers and I didn't know squat. Oh well, perhaps I will win in a spade game.

Just finished cleaning up the house and finished off the new blog template. I will make the kids lay down for a nap. Kelli is already ahead of them. : )
Hope everyone have a good safe New Year'.

Not to diminish the Tsunomi in anyway nor the massive, massive lost of lives, I need to bring up two arguments.

1) With the world's attention focused on the earthquake/tsunami that has claimed tens of thousands of lives in at least 10 countries that surround the Indian Ocean, media organizations like Reuters are pinning part of the blame for the catastrophe on "global warming."... Like something out of ‘The Day after Tomorrow’ movie, over 62 thousand death toll, from the devastating earthquake and tsunami rocks Asia. It seems unbelievable that such devastation could occur so quickly and seemingly from nowhere. According to the news the undercurrent crashed through 500 miles an hour. No way anyone could had escaped that rift. I recall when the Day after Tomorrow movie premiered and the global warming tree huggers had been screaming it is a truthful movie and without America changing its ways it would occur and of course it would be our fault. Now it appears regardless of the lost of lives and devastation, some media organizations and the global warming tree huggers are using this to further push their ideology.

2) Jan Egeland calls Rich Countries are being ‘stingy’. Hmm, I wonder who this U.N. voice was referring to? Considering U.N. is still reeling from the Oil and food scandal that stole billions from the Iraqi population this seems to me to be a stupid remark. Surely they are not referring to the United States who alone provided 40 % of all world relief alone. Our Nation has provided more relief, support, funds, peace than any other Nation. That says a lot considering this Nation is considered to be the youngest.

Just google to find more info on the above.
I wonder if this occurred to the United States if the other parts of the world would be so willing to assist us?

I haven’t blogged for some time due to the holidays. Looking at my blogs of interest, I see most others are the same.

We celebrate each Christmas pretty much the same way. My parents and immediate family comes over to our house Christmas Eve morning. Kelli’s parents and immediate family comes over to our house Christmas Eve afternoon. Christmas Eve night Kelli and I swap our gifts while the kids are in bed waiting on Santa Clause. Christmas day we stay home and the day is pretty much for the kids, asking anyone to come over for lunch.

The morning went as expected. My brother and crazy wife was late as usual. My dad called before coming over to ask if anyone was there, who was going to be there, ect. As if I hadn’t told him 3 times already. It went smoothly without a fight, but the crazy sister in law kept telling Kelli how proud she was by not having to spend any money on my parent’s gifts. Yes, while they sat in the next room. Sigh. I will say they stayed longer than expected. Normally my family is in and out within 1.5 hours. So that was a nice surprise.

That afternoon we actually went to Kelli’s parents rather than them coming to us. It was nice and as usual, I snacked and tried all appetizers, ect. While we were leaving the palms of my hands began to itch like crazy. I asked what it meant when your palms itch. I had always heard it was dependant on which one. One would be your getting money, the other you’re going to lose money. I never could recall which one. One the way home, my stomach boiled and my bottom lip started to become numb.

When we arrived home, it was pretty obvious I was having some kind of allergic reaction. I popped 2 benadryls, (my wife had me too immediately). Probably due to the fact I was getting red all over. Both my lips were now swelling. I itched all over. It wasn’t pretty. Since, I had popped the benadryls; I really didn’t stay up later than I wanted to. We did get a chance to prepare Santa’s arrival with the gifts from Santa and Kelli and I swapped gifts. But that was about it. I crashed. Benadryl and Tylenol P.M. are two things that just kick my butt. By morning I was doing ok. No red rash as before and no swelling. It was weird.

Christmas morning was very nice. This year it wasn’t a free for all. We had our son and daughter open one at a time and actually enjoyed the time in it. It was also nice the fact they said thank you after each one. I wasn’t really looking for that one. Normally it the Tasmania devil times too blitzing through the packages.
The day went nice. Kelli’s immediate family came over for lunch. They ate and basically everyone but the kids and I took a nap. Sure went by fast though.

We hit a couple of stores for the day after Christmas sells the next morning. We came home and played with our new toys. We then went back to town and checked the remaining stores that were now open. Hastings had a sale on their used PS2 games. You buy 2 and the 3rd one is one penny. I grabbed ‘Hitman Contracts’, ‘Max Payne 2’, and ‘Simpsons Road Rage’. I also grabbed a Digimon game for the kids in another store. That was the hit game.

Sunday afternoon I watched the kids play the new Digimon game for nearly 2 hours. I finally had to get in on the action. It was a blast. We all had a really good weekend.

Monday was back to work. No-one was hardly at Corp. so we expected a slow day. I put away as much of the Christmas decorations and tree ornaments as possible throughout the day. I had already removed the outside lights, ect Sunday. I managed to finish most of it by the time Kelli got in from work. I then was able to get everything up in the attic before I took my kiddos to the therapist.

Two things are the absolutes during the Christmas for me. 1) I always manage to break a teapot either putting up or bringing down during decorating. 2) There is always a HMF (heavy mother f**ker) of a Christmas box. No matter if you break the stuff out to 20 boxes to put up, there is one that fills like its lead plated.

The HMF tricked me this time. I had about 12 boxes in total to put up in the attic. Now picture this. I have a 7 foot ladder and a 3x3 hole in the garage ceiling to work with. These boxes are your standard 30 gallon or 60 gallon Tupperware. Of course you have to fill these bad boys up. We purchased a couple more to help the load. I pushed a heavy one up there and thought that was the HMF. But the 3rd to the last was the true HMF. I had already done some amazing things to get these boxes up there without falling back down with a box on top of me. But when I hit this one, man it was tough. I got it half way up the ladder and it came right back down. ‘OK, you’re going up there.’ I made it but it was a job.
I have just come to accept the absolutes. Like the fact there is a creator, the fact you always can find 5 Philips sitting in your tool chest when you’re looking for a standard screwdriver.

Tonight, we have 4 girls and 2 boys at hour house. Our girl is having a sleepover with 4 girls and one of their brother.

Yep, the fun never stops around here.

Ever seen those pics of Hiroshima, the mushroom cloud?

I received an early Christmas present the other day. It was a small air compressor. Pretty cool. Today I officially used it. Since the day was a bit slow at work, I took the opportunity to clean my office. Looking over at our home P.C. it desperately needed a cleaning. My thought was ‘ahh yeah, the compressor’. So I grabbed it and plugged it in.
I aimed and fired the glorious stream of air at the dusty P.C. A cloud of dust spewed out as if St. Helens itself belched. “Great Scott, this is dirty.” It’s a wonder it worked. I then proceeded to the back of the P.C. and proceeded in my duty. The fan belched more of the filth. “How the heck did this thing breathe?” I called my wife to see how filthy this thing was. She looked from the hallway and informed me she could tell from the dust in the air. I turned up and around and seen the air was indeed dusty. I then turned on the ceiling fan. It was unbelievable. We vacuum every other day, but I wouldn’t think so much dust could be in a 3 yr old machine. I will definitely have to put this on my list of to-dos.

Tonight we opened the ‘family present’. It’s a PS2 for the kids. I was thinking I would be able to play it after the kids and wife goes to sleep, but I think they will have a sleep over in the living room. Oh well. It will keep till I can get to it. : )

I got the chance to watch Farenhype911. Even though the election is over and the 3 million margin winner already declared, I wanted to see it. I found it in a Blockbuster bin for 6.99, if you can believe it. I couldn't find it anywhere less than 15 bucks or online and now about 20 of them can be acquired for 7 bucks a piece.

The show was about 80 minutes in length. Basically it seemed to be nothing more than allowing those on farenheit911 to speak freely. This consisted of statements such as, "I didn't even talk to this Michael Moore, I was talking to and then I find out later they took the footage and used it for their film." Either that or showing the false statments and claims in the farenheit movie by rebutting it with facts or clarification. What I would had liked to see in the movie is some continued education on the topic of Soros, Democratic party, Republican party and the Saudis. All in all, it was an interesting documentary and pretty much puts farenheight in a disdainfull view.


Tonight the family and I went to the park and viewed all the lights. Each year Creekmore puts up many lights. Among them can be found the nativity, santa in an airplane, gingerman doing a cartwheel, ect. We drove back through some residential areas and viewed other light wars going on. Some were impressive. I looked at them, thinking first wow check that one out. Then I thought, someone had some time to kill with the setup.

We stopped over to my dad's house and visited a little while. Well, my wife visited while my son mauled me on the chair. He let me borrow Grand Theft Auto III and Max Payne PS2 games. I will have to blog my thoughts on them when I can check them out. I played GTA III on the PC before and seen my dad play the Max Payne. I look forward to both.

I figured I better give an update on my exciting life.

First off, Monday was a true blue Monday. It doesn't sound like I was alone either. During the day two individuals in separate facilities had bad days as well. I had also called my dad yesterday evening during my son's therapy and he 'informed' me nearly 15 minutes of his suck a%% day. Oh well.

Regardless, my Monday ended with a bang. I had the opportunity to go shopping for stocking stuffers for the wife. After giving the kids showers I took a lone trip. I hit about 3 stores and it was nice to get out and about. One part I enjoyed was the ability to look at the new games and consoles. Readers know we are giving our kids a playstation 2 this Christmas. Yeah, it's true I am psyched for it too. I am an old gamer at heart, but just don't have the time to play. Well, I plan to put this gift to use when the kids and wife are in bed at night. Anyway, looking at the consoles I was asking this guy about cheat codes used in PS2. I wondered how they differ than the old Nintendo game genie. I found out not only does the PS2 contain USB's, the newer cheats come in USB and memory cards. Seems you can jack the cheat in, play the game and then switch to your saving memory card. So now I know. I am curious if you can download cheats off the net onto a regular USB storage and then use that in the PS2. I will have to test that. It may be a specific format on the cheating device.

The old gamer was reignited in me; looking at the cool games and actually speaking game. The guy asked 'where have I been' and my only reply was trying to catch up. I must had sounded like I bunked with Bin Laden in a cave for the past 2 years. sigh.

Today at work wasnt nearly as bad, Thank God. I had time to run an errand during lunch which is not usual anymore. I actually was also able to campain for School Board a bit.

I also started watching the second season of 24. Man, it's a good show. I am not going full blown, staying up in ungodly hours. I don't think I will be watching season 4 when it starts in January. I I just can't seem to be able to keep up with an actual show. Usually something comes up not allowing me to see it or time gets away from me and I miss the shows.

We are having to watch the friends kids tomorrow. Today is the kids last day in school before Christmas vacation. Lucky dogs. Anyway, seems we are watching them tomorrow all day. I am sure I will be locked in my office. Guess I can't go pee with the bathroom door open tomorrow.

I can't help but notice the kids doing comparisons on each other. Take for instance my daughters friend. She came in yesterday for a little bit (the girls are in the same class together). My wife does a newsletter and she has a card exchange within it. This along with friends and family, we acquired a few cards on our wall. She likes to display them, giving us that much more a Christmas cheer. Anyway, the other girl comes in and immediately says, wow you have alot of cards. We have alot too, we have 23 already. Then proceeds in counting ours. sigh. Just one example. I guess it's in all of us to do some type of comparison or evaluation. I heard everyone does it. Regardless what you think, in the first 2 minutes of initial contact with someone, you subconsciencly do it.

Yesterday afternoon, I finally figured out what was wrong with the stupid VPN. The PCLan dude had given me the wrong group. Basically it allowed me to Corp but not as the interface team, hence no access to my desirable stuff. Crimey. I acquired the proper group and password and boom, asterburners on. I kicked in overdrive and worked that night as well, trying to catch up.

Friday I was on support and it was busy. Seems everyone only finds charging issues on Friday afternoon. I won't go into detail but by 1 p.m. Friday everyone seems to slow down and do not return your email nor voicemails.

Looking at the other blogs of interest I tried to give Jack instruction on creating a link within his blog. But the blasted thing kept screwing up. So I figured I would try to spell it out in today's blog.

Basically it is done like this.

(a href="http://middle_americaworldview.blogspot.com/") Your description here(/a)

Lets break this out.

First off, you do not use the parentheses. Rather they are lesser than and greater than symbols.
I had to use them simply to show the whole descriptive link.

Hence, "(" would be the less than sign the one above the comma and replace the symbol ")" with the greater than sign the one above the period.

Ok hope that's not too confusing.

A href= this is the equivalent of the link itself. Also called an attribute.

" gotta have the quotes

http://middle_americaworldview.blogspot.com/ This is the website the link will be using

" gotta end it with the quotes.

/a This ends the link.

Note the Your description here would be the only value showing up in the webpage.

Example:

(a href="http://middle_americaworldview.blogspot.com/") Your description here(/a)

is viewed as Your description here.

Hope this helps and it doesn't sound too confusing.

Finally received the VPN software I need to get back online with Corporate using my cable internet access. Still trying to get it properly installed. Suppose to be a simple uninstall/install function. Yeah, ok. Currently cannot get into Lotus Notes. Doesn't seem to be my week to get anything done right.

I am figuring it's the VPN not being configured. Bummer man.

I heard on the news today in Florida, an individual won in the supreme court the ability to display a nativity scene in public, by other religious displays. What's the deal with America around Christmas anyway? We are suppose to be tolerent with the exception of Christ's celebrated birthday, that also happens to be a federal holiday? Talk about bias. A friend sent me an interesting email I will post below.

Take Your Christmas and Stuff It

"Christmas with the Kranks" is not only the name of a holiday movie this
year, it is also a national trend. Once again, Christmas is under siege by
the growing forces of secularism in America. Put these facts in your
stocking:

* Federated Department Stores, which includes Macy's, has suggested that
managers avoid displaying "Merry Christmas" banners and have ordered
employees not to talk about it.
* In Denver, a church was banned from the "Festival of Lights" parade
because it wanted a religious theme to its float.
* The Maplewood, New Jersey school board has banned all religious music
from "holiday" concerts. (Would somebody please tell me exactly what holiday
this is?)
* And New York City Mayor Bloomberg insists that the lighted tree outside
City Hall is not a Christmas tree, it's a "holiday tree." (What holiday,
Mr.
Mayor?)
Surveys show that more than 90% of Americans celebrate the Federal holiday
of Christmas, signed into law by President Grant in 1870. Despite that
overwhelming number, the tradition of Christmas in America continues to get
hammered.

The anti-Christmas forces say it's all about diversity, protecting the
sensitivities of those Americans who get offended by the mere mention of the
birth of Jesus. Somehow, I haven't been able to locate any of these
people--folks who find a baby in a manger so off-putting, it ruins their
day.

So the diversity excuse is a bunch of bull. What's really going on here is a
well-organized movement to wipe out any display of organized religion from
the public arena.

The secular-progressive movement understands very well that it is organized
religion, most specifically Christianity and Judaism, that stands in the way
of gay marriage, partial birth abortion, legalized narcotics, euthanasia,
and many other secular causes. If religion can be de-emphasized in the USA,
a brave new progressive society can be achieved.

It has happened in Canada. Once a traditional religious country, Canada has
become like Holland in its embrace of the secular movement. Some facts: In
1980, 79% of Canadians said that religion was important to the country. That
number has now fallen to 61%, according to an Environics Focus Canada poll.

In 1971, less than one percent of the Canadian population reported having no
religion whatsoever; now that number has risen to 16%.

The fall of religion in Canada has corresponded to a change in public
policy. Unlike Americans, Canadians have legalized gay marriage and any kind
of abortion. Also, the age of consent for sex up north is just 14 years old.
Can you imagine American adults being allowed to fool around with children
that age? I can't.

Even drug legalization is close to being a reality, as the city of Vancouver
is developing a heroin give-away policy, and pot has been largely
decriminalized across the country.

The Canadian model is what progressive Americans are shooting for, and so
religion must be dealt with. Since Christmas is the most demonstrative
display of organized religion, the strategy of minimizing the birth of Jesus
makes perfect sense.

I know this sounds kind of conspiratorial, but it really isn't. Most of
those marginalizing Christmas have no idea about the big picture I've just
presented. They simply think they're looking out for the minority of
Americans who don't celebrate the birth of Christ.

But committed secularists in the media, in the courts, and in the education
system know exactly what's going on. And now so do you. Merry Christmas!

Although I have not seen it much in the news, new information has been produced regarding the Matthew Shepard case. If you recall Matthew Shepard was murdered in 1998 brutally. It brought big news due to Matthew happened to also be a homosexual. The gay activity groups used Matthew Shepard as an icon for the hate crime bill. With the activity group pushing to add homosexuality on the hate crime bill, the news of Matthew Shepard murder helped facilitate it.

I seen a snippet on 20/20 with new knowledge proving the Matthew Shepard case was not a hate crime. Although this is significant, I do not believe enough news has been given to it.

I recall a book I once read where a character had setup a church to look like a terrorist organization. The character understood once the FBI had done an investigation, it would show to be a setup. However, the character also knew by the time the truth was unfolded, no-one would really care or recall the truth, rather the big lie__the church was a terrorist organization.

This same scenario was done with the Matthew Shepard case. The gay activist took this unfortunate activity and wields it to their own use. Now we have the truth, the case was not a hate crime. However, he was used for another purpose and agenda. Recently Focus on the Family has requested Katie Couric to retract her anti-Christian statements after the Matthew Shepard story. NBC had refused to do so. I will post the full article below.

I condemn the act against Matthew Shepard; I also condemn the gay activist to take his murder and use it for their own personal agenda.

NBC Stands Behind Couric's Anti-Christian Comments
By Jimmy Moore
Talon News
December 14, 2004

COLORADO SPRINGS, CO (Talon News) -- A network executive with NBC News sent a letter to conservative Christian group Focus on the Family last week refusing to comply with their request that "The Today Show" host Katie Couric apologize for her anti-Christian comments during a broadcast just days after a so-called "hate crime" was committed against Matthew Shepard.

Copyright © 2004 Talon News -- All rights reserved.

Felt like crap all morning. I called in the 8:30 weekly team call for work like normal. However, only 2 of us decided to show up in it. Throughout the morning, it was apparent he and I was the only ones online. Around noon, I picked up our friends son again. The preschool teachers informed me they been trying to get ahold of his parents because he has over 100 temp. sigh. "Come on bud." I took him home and gave him some motrin. Poor kid looked like I felt. I sat him in the living room with a soda and a cartoon on the boobtube. The parents were finally contacted by my wife and came to get him. He will not be attending preschool tomorrow.

Around 1 p.m. today I lost my internet connection. Totally failed on me. I called Cox, worked with tech support (after 45 minutes on hold waiting for them to answer). Tech support and I worked on it for quite some time, but to no avail. Frustrated I made a decision and took the modem to the local Cox in Fort Smith. I told them to take it. I went to buy a new one at Best Buy. Came home and recalled Cox support to give them the inner details of the new modem. It took an addtional 2 hours ( not kidding ). I was on hold initially for support for another 40 minutes. Once I acquired someone (must been the first techs brother), he started to setup his side for the new modem and then had to transfer me over to the conversion department, since they have now a faster net than what I had. I waited around 25 minutes for her. Once the lady in there answered, she set me up. She then had to resend me back over to tech support to finish setting up the modem. Yes, another 30 minutes waiting till I get another guy. He set me up and we were underway. Whew.

Supposedly the faster speed is called 4 meg. I can actually tell a difference.

Bottom line....must been 4 people working in tech support at Cox today, Cox had upgraded to a faster net but didn't inform those on the slower one, and now I have a Cox bill 10 dollars less per month due to owning my modem as opposed to renting theirs.

I started to get my voice back a bit this afternoon. Feel better than I did this morning, but still not 100 percent.

I also finished the buttermilk. Retched stuff. I had to hold my nose to chuck it and then continue to hold it eating or drinking something else before I could let go.

Saturday morning, Kelli decided to run to town and grab some items. She ended up coming back and we had lunch at Olive Garden. It was nice to just sit with the immediate family.

The remaining afternoon consisted us taking showers and relaxing. I managed to wrestle in the floor with the kids for over 2 hours. Then between commercials. They wore me out. At one point I started to get up from my knees and my right knee wouldnt bend. It was a bizarre feeling. So this is what old age feels like? Crimey.

Sunday morning we went to church. It was a full house today. Some kid had hit my son right in the spot of the procedure. This caused our son to seize for 70 seconds. We took him home early. Yes, I wanted to beat the hell out the snot. But on the other hand, the kid doesn't have any parental guidance at all. I recently heard he and his sibling had already been kicked out of all the other local churches. So with respect of understanding the situation, I just wish someone had a better handle of him.

Our son took a nap and felt much better afterward, fortunately. sigh.

Other than that, my wife seems to be getting sick and I am losing my voice. Just need more mending, I guess.

Thursday, we basically drove all day to home. We arrived home around 4:30 p.m. and man I am glad of it. Fortunately we cleaned house prior of leaving. It is always nice to come home to a clean house. Unfortuantely it didnt last long due to unpacking and the beginnings of 5 loads of laundry. We did our ritual of returning from a trip by grabbing a pizza for the night. The kids wanted a sleepover in the living room, so we laid out the pallet for them.

I crashed early, having to get up early and head into Little Rock.

Friday, getting up around 5 a.m. I shower and head off. I had already prepared myself by laying out the chlothes, lunch ect. the night before. By 5:40 I was already well on my way with a full tank of gas.

It took about 3 hours to get to my destination. I was in early enough for my registration and twiddling my fingers to get this going. It was a Fred Pryor Seminar on presentation and clarity. I found it interesting and useful. The day went along fast enough. The only thing was the hour long lunch. I never get an hour lunch, so within 20 minutes, I am ready to get back in there to go. Kelli had purchased me the second Tim Lahaye book on cd. It was "The Secret of Ararat". It wasn't a bad book. I was appreciative of her getting it.

The seminar ended at 3:30 p.m 30 minutes less time than expected. I quickly gave my respect to the instructor and was well on my way. As I drove home, I was thinking I put in 20 hours on the road this week. I don't see how those driving for a living actually do it. I was exhausted and quite frankly sick of it. I drove 7 hours Monday to Amarillo, 7 hours back home Thursday and now 3 up and 3 down Friday for Little Rock.

I stopped into Fort Smith and chatted with my Dad on the way. He had to show off his new bird, computer, ect. It was nice to just sit and relax. For one afternoon I only received one call for work (still on-call ). It was only a FYI for the weekend. So no interruptions.

I arrived home nearly 7 p.m. already stopping for gas as well filling the tank. I ate my hotdogs, chips, watching Digimon with the kids.

I guess the little sleep and all the driving has worn down my system. I feel a cold coming on. I had a pimple Sunday. I told Kelli, I cant believe I am breaking out, must be the stress. You would think at 33 you wouldn't have to deal with that crap anymore. But it broke out to a cold sore. Great. The one week of seeing everybody in a facility (some not in 7 years ) and a seminar, I have a cold sore that feels like mount olympus on my lip. sigh. Oh well, what are you going to do. I been treating it since Thursday with medicine. I will take the plunge and drink buttermilk tomorrow. I have heard it will get rid of them quickly. My dad also swears by it. I will have to hold the nose and drink quickly.

The reason I am blogging at nearly 3 freaking a.m.? I call from work of course. I was called at 1 a.m. paged the vendor to recycle their side. I waited an hour and then called again. Finally resolved it. Yes, now I am awake and figured I should blog.

Going to bed now and try to sleep in till at least 8 a.m. Wish me luck..

Is it really Wedndesday? Well, I came into the command center it was pretty obvious they had not did a maintence on the circuit last night. The morning update meeting informed us not only did not bring down the circuit but they did not know when they would. So you had over 26 facilities prepare for downtime around midnight for no reason what-so-ever. Not good.

I had only a couple of request during the day. They were easy revisions. I was able to work on a couple other projects and resolved a Medquist issue at another facility.

I finally was able to leave due to everything cool fro interfaces. I was able to rest for a bit once back in the hotel. The family and I went out to 'On the Border' meeting with Kell's aunt and uncle again. I had two calls during the dinner. So much for 30 freaking minutes. The kids and I came back to the hotel while Kelli went to the stores with her aunt. After resolution of issues, the kids and I hit the pool. I enjoyed playing with them in the pool. We had the whole pool to ourselves.

Now it's night and the kids are already in bed watching Teen Titans. We plan to leave early in the morning heading home. My son doesn't have to see the doctor in Little Rock. It looks like I will be taking that trip alone Friday.

My son's procedure took literally 12 minutes. I was so glad to hear this. It went well and other than a slight fever yesterday eve, he was none the wear. Kelli and the kids went to see the Incredibles. She said it seemed a bit long, but all enjoyed it. They plan to go to Mr. Gattis today.

Yesterday was more of twiddling fingers than actual working on the live. I ended up catching up on all my other tickets and projects. OPUS OM was down till around 3 p.m. due to printer issues. Since they could not resolve the printer issues, everyone remained on downtime. Another issue that was occuring; with only around 40 people on the system, it dragged it down to lag. This was a big concern ( and the reason we were suppose to be moving over from 03 to 06 server). I never did hear why they had not done that. With the obvious issue of processor speed (affecting 3 other facilties too) they decided to move it around 4:30 p.m. This was accomplished shortly after 6 p.m.

I was able to leave around 4:45 p.m. since there was literally nothing I could do until the system was back up. I had already changed the IP's over to the 06 server. I was able to eat with the family and Kell's aunt and uncle at Logans Steakhouse. I recieved 3 calls during my meal, buy that's just the way it was.

I expected to recycle all facility interfaces last night around 2 a.m due to Corp taking down a circuit for maintenance. However, I never received the call. I woke up 4:30 a.m. and checked the interfaces, all remained up. The email was explicit of the time, perhaps a miscommunication?

I was up and around by 6:20 a.m. and went out to get some Krispy Kreme's. mmmmm

Well, here is hopeing for a good day.

The Monday rush wasn't as bad as I feared it would be.

I had to turn in my chance to run for school board Monday morning. It opened at 8 a.m. Fortunately, they gave me the papers prior to. That allowed me to fill them out and have it already notarized by 8 a.m. I was in and out in 10 minutes and we then could get on our way to Amarillo.

I made contact with my supervisor around 10 a.m while on the road. I told her I wasn't very comfortable on a number of things, no-one seems to have this project in control one of them. She basically agreed and acted like she was also disturbed there seems to be no clear direction. So much for guidance.

We drove pretty much straight to Amarillo, stopping only on 3 occasions. We arrived around 5 p.m. It rained in Oklahoma City and in Amarillo. While we loaded in the hotel in Amarillo it started hailing like crazy. Fortunately it passed over quickly and we didnt have to drive in it.

I made my calls after we unpacked and then we went to eat at Joes Crab shack. When we came back in the hotel I started support. I had to basically go through every facility and check for any connections to be recycled. I had no less than one and no more than 6 in every stinking one. It took over an hour to get them all recycled. Note this was for support not the live NWTH was going through.

Fortunately I was needed for the order system live going on. I will be going to the hospital soon and be point of contact for the interface team. So my fear of being there for 36 hours straight wasnt a reality. My supervisor isn't here in Amarillo either. I will be acting as the interface team alone. Oh well. I was hoping my wife and she would meet in person but it's not going to happen on this trip.

This morning my son has his procedure. It sounds like it will be done within 30 minutes upon startup. Praying all goes well and this is indeed the last one.

The weekend was one of activity and rest. Friday evening we went out to a Seafood buffet. It was my wife's mother and aunts birthday celebration. For you nothern readers, the buffet consisted of salmon, catfish, crawfish, shrimp, ect. It was pretty good. I filled my self too much though, but heh it was all you can eat. : )

The kids wanted to stay over night with their nana and papa (wifes parents). So after everyone ate the kids went to their house. This allowed my wife and I some time alone to do some running. We hit the Office Depot (supplies), Kholes (wife had 20 dollars in coupons), Walmart, Books A million and Hastings. Kelli was able to find some books for our long drive to Texas, Monday. We came home around 10:30 p.m. drinking a hot chocolate for her and a Mocha for me. That night while still awake on mocha I watched 24 till around 3:15 a.m. Yeah, I know crazy.

Our kids had basketball games pretty much all day Saturday. The games were strung out, 30 minutes each and we had some time in between. We left for home around 12:30 p.m. Took a nap and Saturday night went out to look at Christmas lights around town. I was impressed with on particular drive. There were about 10 houses; in each yard a part of the 'Night before Christmas' story was told. Definitely some group effort there.

I was able to finish the remaining season one for 24. Whew, I wanted to finish it before I left Monday and was able to accomplish it. Man, it was really good. I would suggest this one to any and all. My wife didn't watch it with me, but I told her the plot each morning as I viewed them.

Today, Sunday, we are going to Church and then dropping the dogs over to Kelli's aunt. She is watching them for us as we are away. We also had planned on cooking hotdogs over a fire at her parents house. Currently, that does not look to happen considering its been raining all morning.

A: According to evolutionists, the oldest fossils ever found are a blue-green algae that lived along the coast of Australia and South Africa. These fossils have been dated by them to be 3.5 billion years old. But when they examined these fossils under the microscope, they found that they were identical to the blue-green algae that are still living today.

Dr. William Schopf, a leading evolutionist, says that this presents a tremendous problem for evolution. You see, evolution is based upon change, and yet these algae don’t appear to have changed at all in their supposed 3.5 billion years.

If evolution is based on everything changing, why do we find these oldest fossils to be identical to the living algae today? And it’s not just the blue-green algae—scientists continue to find many living animals that appear to have hardly changed at all compared to their fossils that are allegedly millions of years old.

The answer is in Genesis. God made all living things—including blue-green algae—only thousands of years ago. They’ve always reproduced after their own kind, as commanded by the Creator.

I th0ught I would post a quick blog before I started work today. I had a chance to read other blogs on my list and add a new one. I still find it rather fascinating some blogs are dedicated to ones life, while others are purely for information.

I didn't mention this yesterday but my daughter ( now 7 going onto 21 ) brought a note home today to show me and my wife. It was a love note from Daniel. Some boy in her class. It basically read 'I love to Brittney'. She was all excited stating he took his snack time to write this for her, but didnt have time to write from Daniel. sigh. These kids are in 1st grade for crying out loud. Hell, looking back in my old photos and notes, I think I had a crush for my 1st grade teacher, but love notes to other classmates? I don't think so. I can only see trouble for my ulcer and more grey hair for my future.

The kids had a basketball game last night at school. It was one of those class A against class B types to help raise money for a field trip. I caught this guy sitting behind me on my right hollering 'Go Daniel' as my daughters class played. I asked the dude if his kid was Daniel. He replied 'yes' somewhat enthusiastically. I mentioned his son gave my daughter a note today waiting to see if he gave a shit. He really didn't raise an eyebrow. Oh well, discussion closed. Watching the boy on the court I couldn't help the feeling this will be one of those preppy kids in school. I mentioned the guys reaction to my wife when we where home last night after the games indicating he seemed to be non-sociable. Kelli informed me the mom's snotty. Great. These are the types I detested while growing up in my small school. Yeah, it's only 1st grade and I really shouldn't be thinking of this crap right now. However, I look around and realization keeps reminding me its' a different world then when I grew up.

Where are those tums.

Yesterday at work I pretty much dedicated the whole day to finish a grid. Basically data entry on routes and route assignments. Talk about a time killer, but it was necessary. I been putting it off for far too long. At least it was completed.

Today I was on support. Pleasantly it wasn't that bad. I had only about 5 tickets from support today. I will be on it again tomorrow but heh its Friday.

The auditors finish scavenging our company and put out what they expect. In a nutshell, more documentation. Open a ticket on every project, task, request and be darn sure to include any update, change, discussion, email, documentation, fart in that ticket to cover all areas. sigh. Yes, we live in a world where in court, if its not documented, it didnt happen. We keep hearing about trying to go to a paperless society, but do we really have to replace the paper with a thousand lines of data? I am all for CYA but now it's coming down from the top.

Next week will be very busy for us. The family will be driving into Amarillo, Texas Monday. I will be working at a facility site doing an Order system update. Our son will have a procedure Tuesday in Amarillo. We will remain there till we drive back home Thursday. Then on Friday we have to drive into Little Rock, Arkansas. I have a work seminar to attend, while my family takes our son to another Doctor visit there.