Middle America's Worldview

I had to get up early early today, say 2 a.m. local time for work. I am not on-call this week, but there is some server work to be done effecting 2 facilities. Once the servers are back online, I will assist the person on-call to bring the interfaces back up and online.

I have taken the advantage in time to fold laundry, ect. Yeah, exciting stuff.

Kel came to bed around midnight after hearing the OK from our friends daughter surgery. Seems she was literally in surgery all day over 12 hours operation time. Unreal. I am sure the mother has 2-3 ulcers at this point.

There is alot of firestorming over the company taking over the U.S. port security. I have to admit, I am really not feeling easy on a Arab company taking conrol of it. I hear Bush is digging heels on pushing for them to do so. I understand the buisiness aspect, as far as not to allow discrimination. However, it just doen't give me a fuzzy feeling. I wouldn't feel comfortable with any foriegn country taking over our areas of security, regardless of the country.

Time to get some coffee. It's been 2 hours already and the servers are not back up yet.

I am enjoying the weekend off. I actually have 3 days this time, sharing it with the kids. Our company actually has Presidents day as a official company holiday.

Todays church service was a good one. It spoke of King Hezekiah request to live longer. God granted him an additional 15 years. I found it fascinating the request to prove it was to have the shadow move back 10 degrees. I did a little Google and there is some discrepancy on whether it's really true or an urban myth. Irregardless, Hezekiah did exist.

Today, I will enjoy a Clue game with the kids and wife. Kel gave me the game for Valentines Day. We have been enjoying it since. I wanted the kids to adopt a skill while playing. You have to use deduction on the game.

We rented a pretty good movie last night called Zathura. I was pleasantly surprised. The movie was much better than I thought it would be. Having seen the Jumanji movie wrapped around Robin Williams, I was expecting the same genre. Yes, it was definitely a kids movie, but a twist I had not expected at the end. I will say, there were a couple of words, the kids say in the movie I found a bit in-appropiate considering the audience. However, it probably is just the way it is, if not worse out there. Irregardeless, I give it a thumbs up. Our daughter fell asleep before it came on, but our son stayed up and focused on it throughout the movie. We will be keeping it an additional night and be watching it again.

I went ahead and put some money in the foot bath website. The freebie I was utilizing bit the big one. I was really aggravated. According to the postings, the guy running the server lost his internet access privileges. So it appears he was unplugged. Since I am actually dedicating some time in this, I bit the bullet and invested in it.

The weather was definitely crazy this weekend. On Thursday temps were up to 78, Friday it was high of 42. Saturday brought us hail, snow, rain and cold winds. We expected the same today, but at this time, only a high around the 30's with no additional snow, sleet, ice.

I realize this is a bit old now, but I ran across this article while surfing the blogs.


RIAA Bans Telling Friends About Songs
November 30, 2005 | Issue 41•48

LOS ANGELES—The Recording Industry Association of America announced Tuesday that it will be taking legal action against anyone discovered telling friends, acquaintances, or associates about new songs, artists, or albums. "We are merely exercising our right to defend our intellectual properties from unauthorized peer-to-peer notification of the existence of copyrighted material," a press release signed by RIAA anti-piracy director Brad Buckles read. "We will aggressively prosecute those individuals who attempt to pirate our property by generating 'buzz' about any proprietary music, movies, or software, or enjoy same in the company of anyone other than themselves." RIAA attorneys said they were also looking into the legality of word-of-mouth "favorites-sharing" sites, such as coffee shops, universities, and living rooms.

In the digital age, where you can acquire 2 gig memory cards that you can fit on your keychain, I understand the ease of acquiring software, songs, ect. It can be a nightmare for any programmer or artist. But, looking into the ability to sue over word of mouth? I recall when the big issue when the movie "Hulk" hit the theaters. News of the movie leak hitting the biztorrent and then word spread like wildfire shortly after the movie release of how much it sucks. The entertainment industry blamed technology of cell phones, txt pages ect. Crying word of mouth was just too fast anymore with today's tech. Not that the issue was the movie itself. Sigh.

Having the wife down this week, I have utilized the famous crockpot. I have to say, I have earned a new respect for it. By mixing my food ingredients and using the Slow cook liners, I have the perfect suppers with no messy cleanups. I tell you, it made my week alot easier.

I recall when I was a kid, we really didn't use ours that much. When your single, it's a bit harder to cook for one person, but it beats steak and rice all the time.


History of the Crockpot.

CROCK-POT'S DEBUT
The first slow cooker was introduced in the early 1970s by Rival, under the trademarked name Crock-Pot. Today, two models of this appliance exist on the market: multicookers and the original slow cooker. Multicookers can be used to deep-fry, steam and slow-cook.

The crockery is an excellent insulator and keeps the cooking temperature even, so it doesn't require constant attention. Because multicookers heat from the bottom, food must be watched carefully and continuously stirred to prevent scorching. Slow cookers, which range in size from eight ounces to six quarts, have a crockery insert that may or may not be removable. The insert rests in a metal housing unit that heats from the sides.

Rivals history of the cooker.

10 Crockpot stew recipes.

An ultimate crockpot recipe site

I have always been fascinated with the hacker community. You have your white hat hackers that live only to learn, understand and report their security findings. Then you have your black hat hackers that utilize those same found insecurities for their own gain.

Michelle Malkin has a very interesting post regarding Islamic hack attacks on the net. I shouldn't really be surprised considering there is a increasing war cry physically. Now it's becoming obvious a digital war is occuring.

Considering the continued issue of identity theft (new Harrison Ford movie, Firewall coming out on the same subject) on the rise, this takes the Jihad in a whole new realm.

There have always been a net turf war since the boom of the web. Personally I recall when the web was only in text mode, using Delphi to gain access. Now you have a broad range of scripts, html, xhtml, graphic, java, ror, IM's, to utilize.

Once I read Michelle's blog, I had to do a search on this same issue. I found the following links below. Interesting to say the least.

Almost 1,000 Danish websites have been defaced by Islamic hackers ...

Muslim hackers blast Denmark in Net assault

Anti-cartoon protests go online

Will Malaysia Emerge as a Pro-al Qaeda Cyber Terrorist Haven?

It has always been thought you are faceless in the digital realm. Your handle was your identity. At least that was back then when I use to cruise the IRC's ect. I haven't been online chatting in a long time, due to no time to randomly surf anymore. I wouldn't really call them "Muslim" hackers. They are simply black hat hackers. But then again, I haven't been in that scene in quite awhile.

I am reading a fascinating book called The Politically Incorrect view of American History. It points out something I havent really thought of, The Tenth Amendment.

So what is the Tenth Amendment, other than part of the Bill of Rights?

The Tenth Amendment is stated as such....

"The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."

So what does it mean exactly?

"The Tenth Amendment guaranteed the states' rights to self-government. If the states had not delegated a particular power to the federal government, and if the Constitution had not forbidden the power to the states, then it remained as a resevered to the states or the people. For Thomas Jefferson this was the cornerstone of the entire Constitution. .....
Since the states existed prior to the federal government, they were the source of whatever power the federal government had. Thomas Jefferson determined the contitutionality of proposed legislation on this basis: If he did not find the power spelled out in Article I, Section 8, then it remained reserverd to the states." From the 'The Politically Incorrect view of American History'

Wow, so that means, if its not in this Article I, section 8, the states have control over it. So what's in the Article I, Section 8? It's a bit long.

Section 8.

I found this to be interesting. You can see more information in the AIG site.

A: Evolutionists have taught that the stratified fossil record of dinosaurs and other creatures formed slowly over millions of years. And most people have this idea that it takes millions of years to turn bones into fossils as well.


But creation scientists believe that most of the fossils—including most of the dinosaur fossils—formed at the time of Noah's Flood, only about 4,500 years ago. This means that fossils must have formed rather quickly.

So, is there any evidence that fits with this?

A museum in New Zealand showcases a petrified ham, which formed after a volcano covered a village in ash in 1886 (see Tarawera's night of terror). And a museum in Tasmania features a petrified hat. It was left in a mine, and after fifty years it had changed from being a soft, felt hat into a hard hat! (See 'Fossil' hat.)

No, it doesn't take millions of years to make fossils.

Can we know, then, when the fossil record was formed? The answer's in Genesis: most of the fossils were formed during the Flood of Noah's day, just a few thousand years ago.

I say a look at it as opposed to analyzing the movie. The simple reason is because there just is'nt much there.

OK.
First I would like to say in the extra's within the DVD, Disney pats itself on the back for being "able to make something many thought we could not", hence a sequel to the beloved classic. But, did they really create anything other than a rubber stamp of 2 on it?

Looking at the DVD timer, I only showed the movie lasting about an hour. Yeah, an hour. So it's short.

What characters did it have? Basically the following:
1) The expected Bambi (who looks really feminine as opposed to the rival).
2) The rival deer. It was some bully that pestered Bambi throughout the movie, but turned out to be a momma's boy. Remember the first movie where Bambi fights the unknown deer for the female doe? Could be the same one.
3) Thumper was in it. There was about 5 minutes of the same scene with his mother asking what his father told him.
4) Thumpers sisters. Same as the first movie, pestering Thumper.
5) Flower the skunk was in it. Yeah, the skunk still likes the flowers. The funny thing with him was his angry face to make him throw stink.
6) The female doe. She is probably the same as the original movie as well. Similar scenarios occured where the rival deer is fighting to have her attention as the first movie.
7) The grumpy porcupine. Recall the badger in "The Fox and the Hound"? Same character but a porcupine. I mean, really, same character.
8) The owl was in it. A bit younger looking, but he flew in a couple of times.
9) Bambi's father. He was basically the only new character in the whole movie that had much cameo. They posed him as a dad with the wrong priorities. However, he learns the son is the priority.
There may have been a doe or butterfly here, but that's the characters involved.

That's it. Basically there were no creation really involved in it. They used similar, if not exact, scenes from the first movie. Throw in a character from another classic movie and you have it. The storyline was basically the dad deer accepting Bambi as opposed to throwing him off on another doe.

I was personally disappointed but not surprised. Brighton had it right from the previews. The movie was nothing more than a rubber stamp to make more money with no new ideas. No meat at all. Sigh.

Your kids will love it. Not because it's necessary good, but because it's Disney and Bambi.

Then again, it's my own opinion on it.

I found this rather interesting. It appears NBC had attempted to put a show called "The book of Daniel". The show depicted a suppose christian family with serious issues. A dad that is a priest hooked on vicodin, a gay son, and a daughter is dealing marijuana to raise extra cash. Sounds like your regular family, right? I have to say I never watched this nor did I have a desire to. But I did receive the emails and heard others talking about it.

Here comes AFA calling to arms to contact the sponsors. Low and behold action was taken and NBC drops the show due to groups coming against it. The reason for the action to remove this show from christian and conservative groups?

"Conservative Christian groups condemned the depiction of Jesus as blasphemous, accusing the writers of portraying Christ as tolerant of sin in talks with the priest. Seven NBC affiliates refused to air it"

Now since NBC lost the revenue and probably pissed off about it, here comes a segment within Will and Grace. The story of Will and Gracehaving a segment having Brittney Spears as a conservative who hosts on a Christian TV network a cooking segment called "Cruci-fixin's."

Interesting enough, the conservative christian groups catches wind of it and again started to call on the sponsors. Now NBC is trying to say, they didnt know anything about it. Yet, everyone else caught wind of it and even played it on SNL during the weekend update.

Note the conservative christian groups means to show their dislike in a blasephemous view toward their God and Saviour? A simple to call to the sponsors. It had immediate, non-violent action and a impact that stopped the shows.

Now compare that to the muslim response to the caricatures.

It's became so bad that Danish Prime Minister Andres Rasmussen responded today to the
increasing Muslim violence over cartoon caricatures of Muhammad by saying,

We are now facing a growing global crisis. It now is something else than
the drawings... Scary.

Gary Bauer had a piece..."Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, is, naturally, blaming Israel. According the Associated Press, Khamenei said, 'The
West condemns any denial of the Jewish holocaust, but it permits the insult of
Islamic sanctities.' He then went on to declare the cartoons a 'conspiracy by
Zionists who were angry because of the victory of Hamas." For the record,
Hamas’ election victory occurred at the end of January; these cartoons were
first published in September of 2005."

Now, I agree there are a billion muslims and not all of them are going crazy over this. But you have radical islams taking this and attempting to rage their followers and recruiting riots. Unfortunately, it's working. I just don't see any other religion waving swords, decapitating heads, committing suicide bombings other than the the religion of peace.

In short there are many forms of power. I personally would prefer the power of voice, rather than the power of terror.

I am amazed at times to hear how many dads are unwilling to spend time with their kids. The wife had the opportunity to go out for a while last night with some girlfriends. This is rare and I am glad she actually can do it. Nothing like the Vegas commercials (that I am aware of wink wink), but some time away for adult conversation and girlie stuff. So when the girls go out to play, dad's are left home with the kids, right?

I personally enjoy the times alone with the kids. I rented a movie for the 3 of us, planned to play games and kids stuff, have snacks ect. I pulled the office mattress in the living room and made a pallet, ect. You know.

Then I hear what the other dads are doing. Take our friends for one (the ones I watched the kids nearly all bloody week). They had a skate party for their son, going on 5 that same Saturday. I asked the dad, what's the plan for you guys? He went into the spill of cleaning the sons room, putting bunkbeds together, ect. OK.
I then learn later from the wife he and his wife was fighting. Seems he was giving her a guilt trip for going out. He really doesnt like her going out to have fun, so creats projects on the same day of her going out and trys to guilt her in having fun. Hmmm, and what of the kids? I am sure they are in the middle of it. He seems not to like having to watch them.

Then another couple, I learned. Seems a dad simply doesnt know why he has to watch them while the wife is out. So, the grandparents take them.

Evidently another one received some fun time for the trouble of watching the kids.

What's with these dads anyway? Their your kids. God knows time is flying faster than a airplane on crack. I bitch about it enough. So, I say take a chill pill and enjoy what little time you have while they are young. Before long, they will be too old (in their own minds) to play with the parents.

Well that's my gripe for today.

Being up I scanned my daily reading of blogs and see the Islamic world is in an uproar over caricatures (one panel cartoons) within Denmark. Unfortunately, for all their crying they are only bringing more attention to the caricatures. How long will it be before more are produced.

What I thought was really interesting is the radical retaliation they are proposing.

Note attempted kidnappings(seems terrorist enjoy kidnappings), call for boycotting oil. Places are being sacked and graffitied.

"Protests have included street demonstrations, flag burnings, death threats, bomb scares and a crippling consumer boycott of Danish goods by businesses in several Gulf states."

All this and probably more not told over caricatures (cartoons) over the religion of peace. I think of liberals trying to purge United States of any mark of Christiantiy and am curious what would happen if christians retaliated in the same way as these muslims? I don't think it would be tolerated.

Here in America, we recently had an outcry over a caricature depicting wounded soldier in Iraq in the attempts to take a stab at Rumsfield. There was a backlash on the cartoonist but I don't recall anyone attempting the same things these muslims are.

Someone on the radio called for no more caricatures depicting in these ways. The host countered and said that wasn't the answer. His proposal was to allow them to continue to publish whatever they want, but for those wishing not to buy that publication, would be more appropiate. So in a way a boycott on those publications on a individual basis. I guess it's a good thing neither one called for a international day of anger over the sensitive caricatures depicting our troops harmed.


I say, iF you removed everything that offended someone, we wouldn't have anything to look at, much less a severe restriction in freedom of speech.

Does this all seem silly to some? Perhaps. However, don't take this anger in the Muslim world lightly. They will simply use these caricatures as a pretext for revenge.

Recall when the Islamic terrorist cried provocation against America for the Abu Ghraib prison scandals(among other things in the past)? The jihadist were fighting long before Abu Ggraib, Iraq, Israel, or American Independence.

1:30 a.m. local time and I can't sleep. Unreal. This week seems to be a frat party for kids. We had 2 kids over Monday evening, 2 kids (different) over Tuesday evening and night, I think we were spared Wednesday since Kel had to run them all over the place all day. We had 2 kids over last night and I will keep the same two all day Friday. Yeah, the night over on this one was up to me, but my point is we had 4 kids to deal with nearly every day and/or night this week. Kel has her surgery scheduled for next Friday.

Friday's plan. I will have the kids at home with me till around 1-2 p.m. Mine will go to their Nana and Papa's for the night. The 2 friends will be picked up accordingly around the same time, if not earlier. Kel has a lunch thing to go to around 7 p.m. for church. I plan to go to my Dad's for the hour. I haven't seen him in a long time and sit down discussion alone even longer. After that, the wife and I will have actual private time (on-call aside). Can't wait.

I think this week I have been missing adult time. Other than work and politics at home, I haven't really had time to sit down and just talk to other adults. I am looking forward to visiting with my Dad tonight and some quite time with the wife. I will still be on-call, but I look forward to the age bracket above 8 yrs of age.

I bought Avatar the last Airbender today as it came out on DVD this week. I was surprised no local movie rentals had it nor Walmart of all places. I found it at Best Buy and grabbed it. It was actually pretty good. I have seen one or two of the shows on Nickelodean. I watched it last night with the kids.

Not much else, I figured I better blog while I could. I have couple of things I am analyzing and will post them later, since I have put up any new analyzing post in quite some time.

I woke up with a splitting headache this morning. I think it has to do with stress in the political arena. Small town BS that is going down and I can only see it getting worse. We have a couple of teachers trying to put pressure on their peers to convey something they do not believe in.

When I attained School Board, I didn't think I could change the world, but at least make a significant improvement. However, I have and still learn, there is only so much one can do. I pull in all information on any given issue and try to find the means to enhance it to make it better. In this type of arena, information and good analytical discussion is crucial. You have to not only know all the facts avaiible but be able to convey those facts in a way to promote the best interest. Sounds simple, but it really isnt. You can speak to two different individuals on a given topic and each will tell you what they really believe, leaning on their way of thinking. Then when you have someone that is trying to stifle that information, it only makes it more difficult. Some of these individuals are hell bent just to make it harder for those that are only trying to make things better. If one steps back to look at the whole scenario, it becomes pretty obvious. But, some are only caught up on feelings rather than facts.

I seen the link to the Democrats not clapping for our President and I feel really sorry. I feel sorry for the President in the fact the dimwhits are making it harder on him than is required. By their actions based on feelings rather than facts, they are only hurting themselves (making them look like asses) and ultimately hurting this nation. Yes, I agree everyone has the right to convey their disagreement and voice accordingly. However, there is a time and place to do such things. When the world is watching the President of the best Country in the world speak of utilizing tools to our people in order to protect this Nation, it is not time to cut eyes and sit on your hands. Don't they really get it? I have been laughing at the Dems for their outragious behaviour, but I am not laughing anymore. By them sitting there in unsupport, they have shown the world their decision against this President and this Nation. Some may argue, "oh but they clapped for the troops and support them." Their actions speak differently. How can they support the troops without providing them the necessary means of survival against our enemies?

A simliar tactic is being used in our small town politics. We have certain teachers saying they are for the kids, yet their actions speak differently. They have only shown up on meetings when it concerns money in their general account. You see, they can say whatever they want to say. However, their actions show their priorities, whether it's a elected Dem or a simple individual in your small town.

Keep up the good work for those laboring for enhancing your areas.

Stop the ACLU link

Expose the Left has the video

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Show me if my state has Pro-life Plates

State Pro-life news

Choose Life Store

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

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

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

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

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

So could you actually read the above?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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


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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sigh, I am glad tomorrow is Friday.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Mark Pryor

The River Market

500 Clinton Ave

Suite 401

Little Rock, AR 72201

Phone: (501) 324-6336

Fax: (501) 324-5320

Blanche Lincoln

Little Rock Office

912 West Fourth Street

Little Rock, AR 72201

Phone: (501) 375-2993

Fax: (501) 375-7064

Governor Mike Huckabee

Governor's Office

State Capitol Rm 250
Little Rock
Arkansas 72201

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

Here is my response to this letter above.

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Address:
Honorable Edward J. Cashman

Addison District Court

7 Mahady Court

Middlebury, Vermont 05753

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

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

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

Daughter: Dad, have you ever been in jail?

Me: (paused) No.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Daughter: and D) I love you?

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

Fortunately we arrived home at after that.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I have added a new link on my blog called Jessie's Angels referring to promoting Jessica Lundsford Act. I also wrote to both Governers of Oklahoma and Arkansas imploring them to push for this type of legislation. I guess it may be no more than a 'make me feel good' letter from my civic duty. However, if I don't call for it, who will?

In addition, I also was informed of S1086 still not going through the Senate. So, in my feeling of being politically activated this week, I fired off letters to my Oklahoma Senators in addition to the Arkansas Senators. I will let everyone know if I get any replies.

Also I want to inform everyone on the HR2679 Hostetters Bill. Please contact your Senators and Representives about this important Bill. This would amend the "Civil Rights Attorneys Free Act of 1975., U.S.C. Section 1988". ACLU is making millions from the states on their crazy sueing practices. Hence, your tax dollars are being taken to push their agenda. With Hostetters Bill, ACLU would still be able to sue and attempt to push their agenda, but without the states being forced to pay for their work. Please, please look into this and contact your Representives to make them aware of and support it.

From Gary Bauer..
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Muslim Groups Slam Radiation Program

Major U.S. Muslim groups are furious about reports that homeland
security monitors have been checking the air for unusually high radiation
readings outside mosques and other sites in at least five U.S. cities.
The purpose of the monitoring is to detect the possible presence of a
"drty"nuclear bomb, which Al-Qaeda and other groups are known to want to
smuggle into the United States. Two groups have actually filed Freedom of
Information Requests demanding to know which sites were monitored.
Ahmed Younis, national director of the Muslim Public Affairs
Council said, "The problem is...it further gives the Muslim community a sense
they are suspect, they are under the gun." Mr. Younis doesn't get it.
If anyone is "under the gun" it is the United States. We know that 24 hours
a day co-religionists of Mr. Younis are working feverishly to bring to us
another day of sorrows, death and destruction like the one that we
experienced on 9/11.
Arsalan Iftikhar, legal director of the Council on
American–Islamic Relations (CAIR), said that his group wanted to protect "our
nation's borders" but "we are not willing to give up our guaranteed
constitutional and legal rights in order to do that."

It sounds like Mr. Iftikhar learned his lessons well at whatever
left-wing law school he attended. No one from the U.S. government has
entered a mosque without a warrant, and no one is hauling Mr. Iftikhar off
to a detention camp. There is no right in the Constitution that
prohibits appropriate authorities from measuring for dangerous levels of
radioactivity in the middle of a war with an enemy that has
repeatedly stated its goal is to detonate such a weapon on U.S. soil.

Let's briefly review the facts again. After 9/11 there were
strong reasons to believe that Al-Qaeda wanted to hit us again just as we were
trying to recover from their first blow. In May of 2002, Jose Padilla was
arrested on suspicion of planning an attack using a nuclear device.
Documents discovered in Afghanistan indicated our enemy planned to use a
U.S. mosque to store such a device. In other words, the government was being
prudent in taking the step that it did.

Wouldn't it be wonderful, when one of these controversies broke
in the news, to hear one of the spokesmen for the U.S. Muslim groups
say something like this: "We are not happy that our community has come under
additional scrutiny, but we understand the necessity to permit it. Vicious
fascists, operating in the name of our faith, have declared war on the
U.S. As loyal Americans first, we are prepared to make sacrifices to ensure
our adopted nation is safe. On the morning of 9/11, the enemy killed
Christian, Jewish and Muslim civilians who simply went to work at the World Trade
Center. Like all Americans, we don't want to see another day of such
horror in our homeland. We will fully cooperate with the FBI to make sure
that no Muslim site is exploited by Al-Qaeda to attack our fellow Americans."

Now, that statement would be a Christmas miracle!
--------------------------------------------------

Let's get a fact straight. They are not imposing on the civil rights. They are checking
on public ground. I have said it before, and I will say it again. Not all Muslims
are Terrorists, but all Terrorists are found to be Muslims. Get a freaking
clue people. Same thing with this wiretapping the Demo's are trying to get a
rise out of people. I like what I heard on the radio to the other day on this topic.
"Do people really expect the Government to search out those possible terrorist outside of
the United States but ignore those within the United States communicating with them?"
I probably didn't get the exact wording but the meaning is still there. I would think
we would be more harsh on those possible sleeper cells within the United States. We are
in a war (regardless if it's not officially called that) and unfortunately there are
those among us who would do us harm.

The 4 day weekend was tremendously fun. We survived another event with both inlaws, no bloodshed was cast, only some aggravation.

I enjoyed one of my movies, Left Behind 3, and Farscape season 3, last night. Overall of all the movies ect. I enjoyed more of the home movies we are converting over to DVD. It is soooo cool. Plug in the VHS tape and dub to DVD-r. Man how we all have changed in the past 3 years alone.

My beloved wife tricked me on this Christmas. She not only acquired season 3 but season 4 of Farscape is on it's way! Unfortunately the series only lasted 4, but now I have all of them! This is a tremendous gift indeed.

Believe it or not, we pulled down the Christmas decorations, tree yesterday. I still have to get the lights and Snowman out from outside. Kel is working on putting the house back together prior to the Holidays (excluding New Years).

The kids, Kel and I actually sat in the floor and played old maid, go fish, war and crazy eights. It was nice to just sit and play a non-electric game. We kept laughing like crazy as the kids held onto the Old Maid.

Had to be back in work today. I start on-call tomorrow night. Yeah, the weekend was a true treat, but back to work.

Christmas did indeed start early this year, say around 3:30 a.m.

Kel and I exchanged our gifts last night and as I pat myself on the back, I actually was able to surprise her on some stuff.

Kel was up around 3:00 a.m (prob earlier), and by 3:30 was jingling bells in the hallway trying to wake the kids. LOL. They were up and atem, pretty quickly. Let's just say Santa was good to them.

The presents were torn through by 5 a.m. Thanks were given and as my wife said, it looks like Toys R Us exploded in the living room.

Her parents will be coming over around lunch. We are all in our new pajamas and enjoying our new toys.

I wish all readers and bloggers a Merry and Safe Christmas.

One down and one to go. My family hit us last night, today is Kel's family. Prior of picking my mom up yesterday to bring her here, I picked up two boxes of Excedrin Quick Tabs. I figured with both inlaws over the weekend, Kel and I will probably need them. I already popped one this morning. : )

Last night went pretty much as expected. I brought my mom over early so we can have some time together. I never noticed till last night, how much she is not a conversationalist. There were more than one time of silence. I guess we have grown so different over time. It was still nice to have her over. Dad ended up coming over early as well. Each one had tried out Kel and the kids goodies before they ate supper. My brother and crazy was late as usual. It kindof aggrevated me, considering everyone changed to late Friday for her needs. Oh well. It was all over by 9:30 p.m. I didn't get to talk much with my brother. I did a better job to keep crazy from dragging Kel alone. She normally tries to corner her and piss and moan to her.

The kids big present last night was a Nintendo Gamecube. Too cool. I am impressed with the graphics and quality of the games. I had to run to Walmart last night to grab a Gamecube memory card. Talk about nuts last night. I again spent more time in the self-check out lane than grabbing my 6 items. I picked the self-checkout with the younger couple rather than the older thinking it would be going faster. Bah. How do I get behind the technically challenged? The guy made the statement "I guess this is the most stupid thing they created." I felt like saying "no dumbass only the user" but I held my toungue. The gal finally was finished and asked out loud.."do i get a receipt?". I did inform her it was on the right side of the machine. (shaking head) oh well. Perhaps people will get use to them.

I had to play with the kids a bit last night with the new game cube. It came with Pokomon XD and we let them open another gift, Nicktoons Unite game. This allowed the three of us to play at the same time. I can't help it. I really enjoy playing with the kids, working together on the games.

This morning, my 3 kids. Yes, Kel included wanted to open up the presents between ourselves. We opened the kids presents to us (Kel and I) and let the kids open the ones between each other. They have to wait till tommorrow to open our presents to them. Kel and I will exchange our presents between each other tonight. Anyway, I received the Chronicles of Narnia book. It has all of the books combined, a ornament and Golden Corral coupon. : )

We are also going to read the real story of Christmas tonight to the kids. The presents are fun, but the true meaning of Christmas is real.

I received this in my email and wanted to share it.
===================================================================================

A young man's perspective , we all have heard of him ..read below excellent read!



A university professor challenged his students with this question.

"Did God create everything that exists? A student bravely replied "yes, He did!" "God created everything? The professor asked.
"Yes sir", the student replied.
The professor answered, "If God created everything, then God created evil, since evil exists and according to the principle that our works define who we are then God is evil".
The student became quiet before such an answer.
The professor was quite pleased with himself and boasted to them;

Students that he had proven once more that religious faith was a myth.

Another student raised his hand and said, "Can I ask you a question, professor?" "Of course", replied the professor.

The student stood up and asked, "Professor does cold exist?"
"What kind of question is this? Of course it exists.
Have you never been cold?"

The students snickered at the young man's question.
The young man replied, "In fact, sir, cold does not exist.
According to the laws of physics, what we consider cold is in reality, the absence of heat. Everybody or object is susceptible to study when it has or transmits energy, and heat is what makes a body or matter have or transmit energy.
Absolute zero (- 460 degrees F) is the total absence of heat; all matter becomes inert and incapable of reaction at that temperature. Cold does not exist. We have created this word to describe how we feel if we have no heat.

The student continued: Professor, does darkness exist?"
The professor responded, "Of course it does". The student replied, "Once again you are wrong sir, darkness does not exist either. Darkness is in reality the absence of light. Light we can study, but not darkness. In fact we can use Newton's prism to break white light into many colors and study the various wavelengths of each color.! You cannot measure darkness. A simple ray of light can Break into a world of darkness and illuminate it. How can you know how dark a certain space is? You measure the amount of light present. Isn't this correct? Darkness is a term used by man to Describe what happens when there is no light present." Finally the young man asked the professor. "Sir, does evil exist?" Now uncertain, the professor responded, "Of course as I have already said. We see it every day.
It is in the daily example of man's inhumanity to man. It is in the multitude of crime and violence everywhere in the world. These manifestations are nothing else but evil."

To this the student replied, "Evil does not exist sir, or at least it does not exist unto itself. Evil is simply the absence of God. It is just like darkness and cold,
a word that man has Created to describe the absence of God. God did not create evil. Evil is not like faith, or love that exist just as does light and heat.
Evil is the result of what happens when man does not have God's love present in his heart. It's like the cold that comes when there is no heat or the darkness that comes when there is no light."

The professor sat down.
The young man's name --- Albert Einstein

Ok, 4 days and counting, technically.

At our house the present opening will begin Friday night. My family will (in case they change their mind again) be coming over to our house Friday night to celebrate Christmas. We can exchange those presents among ourselves. This is actually cool, because the kids will get the Nintendo gamecube that night. This will allow us, I mean them to play it all day Saturday. LOL

For some reason it doesnt feel like a normal week of work. Yes, we are still extremely busy. Yes, we keep moving along, but there is definitely Christmas in the air.

I am scheduled off this Friday and Monday is considered a Corp. holiday. This allows me 4 days off without on-call (I have it again starting next Wed.). I am so looking forward to it.

Yeah, this year, it's not just the kids asking "Is it Christmas yet?"

This has been by far one of the better Monday's I have ever had in a long time. Work wasn't out and out crazy and even though I was on support, it didn't kill me.

The movie Skeleton Key was actually pretty good. It had a storyline (unlike most anymore) and it kept my interest. I was close to the knowing what the ending would be, but it didn't all sync in till after the movie. This to me, makes for a really good storyline. I enjoy the ones, I have to think about sometimes. Plus, it wasn't a spin/rip off of another movie.

Can you believe only 6 more days till Christmas? Unbelivable. Fortunately, for me, I have all mine done. I am now only waiting to see their excited faces as they open them.

In addition to renting Skeleton Key, we rented Star WArs BattleFront 2 for the PS2. The kids absolutely loved it. So much we are keeping it an extra night/day. I have to admit, I have been playing it with the kids. Its a max 2 player game, unless you have online gaming. We only have been playing the split screen games. We havent even started the actual storyline game, but it kicks butt.

Since Kel and I both were out this evening we met at the Chiro with the kids and ate out. It was a nice treat to sit at a booth with the kids.

God not only abliged me one night, but 2 nights of rest. Sweet!

Friday burned through like a hot knife in butter. That night, our friends came over and we played a game called "Disney Scene". It actally was pretty fun.

This morning, Kel had to go into work early. Yes, early Saturday morning. We let the kids sleep in. Our daughter slept till 9:30 a.m. Our son was up around 8 a.m. A all time record for them. I managed to paint our son's room and we cleaned up the house. I then took the kids with me to pick up lunch and we headed to Kel's work. I helped Kel moved some equimpment around, install some software, put up a new computer ect.
She took the kids straight home, while I hit the library, picked up a movie/pizza and headed home.

I found the "Skeleton Key"to watch later tonight when everyone else goes to sleep. I also found a game and a scooby doo cartoon for the kids.

This evening Kel put the remaning wallpaper up allowing me to finish the painting in our son's room. Now that's done, we can put up the trim tomorrow.

Needless to say, our Saturday flew quick.

In short, yes.

Here is the deal. I had a hell (its not over yet) of a on-call week so far. Monday night I was called every 2 hours and early Wednesday morning (3 a.m our time) I was called due to a UPS. Basically the power went out of the Corp. datacenter again. Everything went down including Corp. ability to call out on the lan lines. Sigh.

I was up from 3 a.m till around 9 p.m. That morning, after the fallback, I had to take my mom to see the doctor (around 8 a.m.). I then hit Walmart, Sonic (more caffeien!) on the way back home. When I left the doc visit with my mom, we ran by the pharmacist for her script, it was closed till 9 a.m. Sigh. In short, Up since 3 a.m., worked till we resolved all 16 facilites interfaces that were down. Ran my mother to the doc, hit a closed pharmacy store, dropping her home. I had two calls while at the doc's visit. One from work and another FYI'ing me some parent went to highschool and kicked a teachers ass. (I guess I will be hearing about this one)

I then proceeded to Walmart. I was efficient in grabbing all the PTA items until I hit the paint section. We are re-doing our son's room now with camo and new paint. No-one in sight. It took 2 request to call overhead before someone showed up. After 10 minutes of them creating the paint, I wheeled off to the checkout. Unbelievably, I had the chose of old checker to older checker. There were 3 carts lined up in the 6 availble old ladies checkers. This is super walmart for crying out loud. I stood there in obvious hurried look until I could stand there no longer. I went to the self-checkout lady and asked if I can write a check in this lane. She replied "uh yeah, but I would have to take it." Fine. I immmediately swung the full cart (6 gallons of tea, nearly 7 2-liter soda's, paint, 2 bottles of salsa, worcestire sauce, 4 cans of mushroom soup and other items) to the self-check out. Thank God for them. I can haul ass on those. I beeped every item through, wrote my check and then paid cash separately for the paint. I was through that bad boy faster than the original cart could make it to the checker in my prior lane.

I then headed home, calling my boss-boss to give her an update on the mornings UPS fiasco. I hit sonic and ordered 2 route 44's. My wife was awaken with me on my 3 a.m. wakeup call. I finally made it home around 10 a.m.

Once home, I proceeded to again catch up on my work email, IM's ect. It finally slowed down around noon. I wanted Kel to have a full day home. She managed to get all the Christmas items out of the garage hiding holes and wrapped them accordingly. I managed a few without serious damage to the eyes.

I took our son to Speech that same evening. During that time, I grabbed my mothers script and ran them to the same pharmacist. Unfortunately, he did not have that particular drug in. He made some concoction in the back (suppose to be the same effect as said drug). It took freaking 30 minutes to create 11 pills. I was on edge all day, feeling behind and this didn't help any. I did make a proposition and if it works out, I will blog on it later.

I finally was able to leave and grab our son, heading home again. Kel had supper ready and we ate in peace.

Last night, I fell out around 9 p.m. praying to God no calls from work and he abliged.

I woke up this morning at 4 a.m wide awake. I guess the exhausted 7 hours of sleep was enough.

They say time is relative and is contained within our physical, moving world. Well, I swear the world is moving faster. This year is nearly gone and even on those rare occasions to sit and watch a full movie, seems to be done before I finish my snacks.

I also knew this week would be going fast, and it hasn't turned out wrong yet. Monday at work went by way too fast. I had a school board meeting last night, taking my son to speech therapy, taking our daughter to the library, it was 9 p.m. at night before I could stop.

I have already been on the phone 3 times and worked on/completed 2 projects this morning before 9:30 a.m local time. It appears today will also be a runner. We have basketball practice tonight and I am resolving myself to butt out of the undisciplined kids running haywire.

I did acquire a new Christmas present this morning online for my wife. I am excited this year. I hope I can pull in some surprises for her. Normally, she has already tagged everything. ; )

Welcome to the 2005 Holiday Edition of Getting to Know Your Friends!
Here's mine................
1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate? Eggnog. It's the only time of the year I can drink it. Not too much, though.

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? Our Santa has them non-wrapped in separate piles for each kid.

3. Colored lights on tree/house or white? Our current tree is prelit with white lights. Love the plug and play.

4. Do you hang mistletoe? When we can find one. Never had it over our bed before. Maybe I will try that this year. ; )

5. When do you put your decorations up? As soon as my dear wife makes me. She normally cannot wait till the day after Thanksgiving.

6. What is your favorite holiday dish (excluding dessert)? Is there another favorite holiday dish? I would say the appetizers (cheese, crackers) that sit out during the day. I keep going to them.

7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child? The excitement as a kid early in the morning. The snow is 5-6 inches thick, cold outside but a fire in the house warming us. Looking back, we really didn't get that much, but we were happy.

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? Yes with my parents. Kel and I also exchange our gifts to each other when the kids are in bed. It is a special time with just the two of us sitting on the floor under the lighted Christmas tree. I look forward to it every year.

10. What kind of cookies does Santa get set out for him? Last year was cookies and a pepsi. This year it will be milk, since our daughter want's him to have strong bones.

11. Snow! Love it or Dread it? I don't mind the snow and enjoy it during Christmas. I just hate the ice.

12. Can you ice skate? I never have tried.

13. Do you remember your favorite gift? The unexpected one.

14. What's the most important thing about the Holidays for you? Watching my wife and kids face lit up when they open the presents. The warm feeling and thankfullness of each year.

15. What is your favorite Holiday Dessert? Love Pecan pie.
16. What is your favorite holiday tradition? Hearing my wife explain all the special ornaments to the kids when we decorate the tree. She has a iron clad memory and can explain each ornament on when and where we acquired them.

17. What tops your tree? This year is a snowman's head.

18. Which do you prefer Giving or Receiving? I won't deny I love the gifts. I am a big kid too. But I love giving them to Kel and the kids. Something about the gratefullness in the ability to give gifts to the family.

19. What is your favorite Christmas Carol? Cheech and Chong explaining how reindeers can fly. ; )

20. Candy Canes! Yuck or Yum? Blahh. I hate sticky candy. I don't care for them.

I will add one. One thing I hate is the continuation of others taking the religion out of the holidays.

I came in from Pennsylvania on Saturday evening. Needless to say, that whole day for the weekend was shot. Sunday, we decided to stay home from church. It was nice to get a partial time to rest. The sleeping in ones on bed is a luxury missed. Having a wife to hold and snuggle with is pleasure in itself.

Monday, the blog was down. For some reason I could not look at my blog page, so no updates were given. Basically, the day consisted of work and errands. It was 9 p.m. before I knew it.

Last night the kids had their first basketball practice. This time, they are on different teams. Our son's practice starts at 5:30 and ends 6:15. Our daughters practice picks up from there and ends 7 p.m. This puts Kel and I at practice for 1.5 hours.

I can see some improvements need to be made in having them practice already. BUt it was the first day. Everyone had to give shirt sizes, name their teams, ect. I was trying to recall how Upward Bound was teaching them in throwing the ball, ect. One guy kept screaming at his grandkids from the sideline "Don't throw that ball like that. Throw it right. Use both hands." blah blah. I finally said, you should teach the kids. He only replied in their too young for me to teach. I felt like saying shutup then. But oh well.

When the 1st grade was done, our daughters time was up for practice. This time I stayed to the side and tried to play hall monitor. There were alot more people in the gym by this time and some kids were running everywere on the sidelines. Initially when it was requested to use the gym, it was understood the school did not want a bunch of people running the halls or poking around in the building. Stay in the gym or to the restrooms, ect. I kept having to tell kids not to run in the bleachers, keep them out from under the bleachers. Once I helped some small kid to the restroom, and 3 teens came out of a dark teachers lounge. I asked them what are they doing. They replied, "uh, just talking" Yeah, get on out of here. I spoke with the parents that were in 'charge' of this event. (I felt fortunate I wasn't actually the one running this one). I tried to convey the fact, I wasn't wanting to be a hardass, but I was worried these kids were going to get hurt running helter skelter, while their fat ass parents didn't seem to give a care of anything. They tried to tell the parents to keep an eye on their own kids. Guess we will see what becomes of it. I told Kel last night after we all settled home, the next time I am just going to watch my kids and the hell with the others. It doesn't do me any good to harp after the other kids, playing babysitter while the fat ass mom's sit there on the bleachers and read a book or flap their jaws with other mom's without a care in the world. Yeah, I am griping but it burns me when I see parents that see this event as free babysitter time.

I found this article very interesting and wanted to share it.

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Conservatives Make New Push on College Campuses
Posted by Bobby Eberle
November 30, 2005 at 7:13 am
>> Printer-Friendly Version

It has long been known that left-wing thinking dominates the environment of America’s college campuses. In poll after poll, professors have identified themselves in overwhelming numbers as "liberal." Now, one group is stepping up to counter the liberal indoctrination with a dose of conservatism.

As covered in the Agape Press's story Delivering the Conservative Message to Combat Campus Liberal Bias, a new group known as the Network of College Conservatives "vows to expose and combat liberal bias on university campuses."


The Network of College Conservatives has been launched to provide a voice for students who are being harassed, intimidated, or even shouted down on campus because of their conservative or "right-wing" beliefs.

Christopher Flickinger, the founder of the Network, says its goal is "to help those students get a well-rounded education" because, "they’re certainly not going to get it from their professors in the classroom."

Flickinger needs all the help he can get. According to a story earlier this year in the Washington Post, "College faculties, long assumed to be a liberal bastion, lean further to the left than even the most conspiratorial conservatives might have imagined, a new study says."

By their own description, 72 percent of those teaching at American universities and colleges are liberal and 15 percent are conservative, says the study being published this week. The imbalance is almost as striking in partisan terms, with 50 percent of the faculty members surveyed identifying themselves as Democrats and 11 percent as Republicans.

The disparity is even more pronounced at the most elite schools, where, according to the study, 87 percent of faculty are liberal and 13 percent are conservative.

Another study sponsored by the American Enterprise Institute in 2002 found that today’s college campuses are not "diverse" places. "Quite the opposite: They are virtual one-party states, ideological monopolies, badly unbalanced ecosystems. They are utterly flightless birds with only one wing to flap. They do not, when it comes to political and cultural ideas, look like America," concludes the study.

Liberals outnumber conservatives 18 to one at Brown University. At Cornell University, the number is even higher, with liberals outnumbering conservatives more than 26 times. Penn State displayed a bit more balance, with the ratio of liberals to conservatives being six to one. Even the smallest disparity, at the University of Houston, had a ratio of three liberals to one conservative.

Despite this stark imbalance, liberal groups, driven partly by fear and partly by outrage that conservatives are now starting to make inroads, are stepping up their funding. Earlier this year, Howard Kurtz, in the Washington Post, noted that one liberal Washington think tank was "funneling money to universities to encourage liberal journalism." Kurtz asks, "Isn't that a bit like pumping sand into the Mojave Desert?"

"We're not winning the battle of ideas on campus," says David Halperin, who is running the project for the Center for American Progress. Conservatives "have this insurgency mentality, even though they run the world."

Hmmm… liberals overwhelmingly dominate the two major institutions of academics and the media and yet conservatives "run the world." If it were only true! The fact is that conservatives need to step up their efforts to reach college students. This is a crucial time in a young person’s development, and liberal professors and interest groups have a virtual monopoly on what is being fed to these young and inquisitive minds.

Our other peer showed up for work yesterday. She in turn did the Briggs Myer online test. This of course began a similiar conversation regarding her thoughts on life and such. I was surprised of her beliefs.

You may have seen those small booklets regarding the kid going friend to friend asking each 'what is the meaning of life'. These booklets attempt to have each friend cover every religion possible. I have seen the booklets out there, but it is quite something different when you are actually seeing individuals embarking on all those diverse beliefs.(especially in one room together)

Oh well. As opposed to the new guy yesterday, she has the belief life is a test. She believes in reincarnation, this is hell, her god could never have a literal hell. Basically she was all over the map. Once she stated, when you die, you go to god. Yet, then said some people do not know they die and they are trapped here on earth. This is opposed to new guy who simple doesn't know so doesn't have an opinion on the matter. Some of their ideology was different, but a lot of similiarities. Primarily both believed in good works to enhance their lives.

I also found it fascinating neither one of them, yesterday nor today, asked me of my opinions or thoughts on the subjects. I simply asked this and that and they were more than willing to answer. I was asked by the peer to go to lunch today to finish out the conversation. I wonder if she will ask me today? I guess I will see.

One other thing I found interesting. Both did not believe in the death penalty. Each valued life so much that it was not man's place to kill anyone. So that pedophile or mass murderer will rot in jail the rest of their lives but not be executed. When asked about abortion, each had a different opinion. She, absolutely no-one will tell her what to do with her body. He, does not believe in it, but did not know when life begins. I inquired to both, "ok, i agree with the body, but common sense would say, a womans egg mixed with a different man's sperm would create a separate dna, hence a new entity. So wouldn't that not be actually a part of your body?" She just kept saying it was man's laws made against women and no-one will tell her what she can and cannot do with her body. If they take that, then they will take away her means to vote next. (shaking head) He simply said, yeah, but when does life actually start?

All in all, I found it was very fascinating and this was the best Kumbaya I ever attended. It was a fresh breathe of air. We actually learned a little about each other, (well they talked about themselves) and I actually belive it helps.

As I said to each of them, I personally think each individual has their own worldview, based on their beliefs and up bringing. Everyone bases their actions on their own worldviews. If you have an understanding of their beliefs, ect. it helps to understand where they are coming from in their thoughts and actions.

So,is it really true as they say and agree on? It's all about love. No-one knows and we must learn from our life, doing good works and being nice to all?

I agree, no-one really knows. Creation... Evolution...no-one really knows. It takes faith either way on your belief. Life after death? Who knows, but it is fascinating to me on everyone's thought on the matter.

I think in a age of technology and information, we are still so unsure of it all.

I am reminded of a cork bopping in a large lake or ocean with no idea of the land where it originated or any idea of the land ahead. It just bops and moves alone with the wave or tide. Surely, we should have more of an anchor.