Middle America's Worldview

I commented about one of my birthday gifts, 3 months of free Netflix in a prior post.

Now the 3 months is coming to an end, we are brought to a decision, should we keep Netflix?

We probably will. I normally do not rent that many movies. I have spells, where I will grab two or three movies within the month, if time allows me on a weekend. That is also dependent upon anything decent is out.

So if I don't rent that many movies to begin with, why is Netflix so cool?

1) The ability to view movies online, anytime. Netflix refers this as "Instant viewiing". I would like to see more options of the tv series for online viewing. I have been able to view many shows, I normally would not have seen. Namely, MI5, Sleeper Cell, documentaries such as Super High Me, ect. What's really nice is the ability to view without waiting. I must say, this particular function of Netflix has spoiled me. The normal turnaround of movies is 2 days. However, one you begin using 'Instant View', those 2-3 days seem longer. This has also provided a means to introduce me to great viewings, I wouldnt have otherwise known or been interested in spending money to "try". Normally at a video store, you put out the money to "try" a title, only to be disappointed with it. Whereas, on instant viewing you try out titles and if it sucks, you only wasted some time on it.

2) Search functions for movies. No more calling up the local video store or trolling through the store for a movie. Netflix boasts to have over 100K titles. That sounds good, but realistically for each individual, they are not going to want to watch them all. So each individual would need to view his/her interest within Netflix's database. I find the search easy for Netflix.





You can simply look for any title, via the search function or Netflix actually has a cool "More like this". This tab shows similar titles of interest upon the one your currently viewing. It's a great means to see a title you may not had known, but falls in the same genre of your interest.

3) One monthly balance. When I was running to the video store, the cost was dependent upon how many titles I chose. Whereas Netflix, you know how much your monthly cost of video renting will be. It remains the same, dependent upon your choice of programs. This may seem silly, but in the long run and on budgets, it worthy to be noted.

4)The rating system. Regarding the personal rating system, I am sure it has more implication on the movies Netflix offers than I am aware of. What's nice is the option 'not interested'. This immediately flags certain genres that you do not want to clutter your screen upon browsing for interested subject material.



Netflix continues to try to get you to "rate more movies". I suppose this is to help streamline those possible titles that interest you. It's a great idea. However, what I would like to see is 'family rating' and 'individual rating'. Each household would have different likes/dislikes and it would be interesting to allow up to 4 (for example) household members to rate. This would allow each individual within the home the means to narrow down and possibly open up additional options of viewing.

I wanted to share something today. In this past year, we have struggled with our insurance company to pay the co-pay on speech therapy. Last year, we had to fight up to December to get them to pay the full year co-pay. They did, eventually.

This year, we were pro-active in setting each thing they requested before the year started. However, again, we have been fighting throughout the year, with no end in sight.

Note, we have been paying cash for each visit since January. Needless to say, its added up.

Now, my wife and son are on their second trip to Austin for doctor visits. Again, paying out of hand, then have to submit the bill to the insurance. Last month’s submittals haven’t been processed by the insurance yet.

My wife called this morning, conveying the initial test was more expensive than last months, and they want additional test, we hadn’t foreseen.

OK, you get the picture and backdrop. What to do?

In comes the blessing. I had seen last week online our insurance finally paid back to the speech therapist a month (not the full year yet). So I knew it was heading their way. This uphill battle looked to be over. I received a call today first from my wife then from the speech therapist secretary. Not only did the insurance pay the co-pay, but more than expected. We have some money coming back to us. ( Since we were paying up front for all those visits).

So not only does the speech issue looks to be resolving, but with the money returning to us, we can pay for the extra test!

I am here to say God does provide blessings, even in this day and age.

My wife and son headed out early this Labor Day to Austin. A followup of doctor visits. God willing they will be back by Thursday night safe and secure.

My daughter stayed with me this time, so we have some quality time together.

We ran all day on Labor Day. We hit about 8 stores, played putt putt golf, and watched Star Wars Clone wars. I wont say who won the putt putt, but I did get two coupons for my birdies (wink).

All in all, I had a blast, enjoying not only the fun times but also my quite time in the car with discussions. I continue to grow amazed at the concept my young daughter has on certain events.

Regarding the movie, my favorite character has to be the new Padawan.
Not only is the character cute, but plays well with the young Skywalker.

I been watching Sleeper Cell off and on, when I was able at night (normally when everyone else is asleep). Last night I finished the second series.




The show was very intense showing not only subplots but very heavy character driven.

I found the behind scenes (online) interesting to learn the writer was indeed Muslim. The goal was to show not only the impact of terrorism in the world, but the struggle of the Islamic faith within the religion. The battle is two-fold. The obvious killings in the name of Allah by the radical thinkers and the battle of interpretation within the religion of the Holy Koran. I found it very fascinating.

What's also interesting to note is the banned books relating to Islam.
Recently, two books have been banned, Bangkok Post relating to the women in Islam.

It happens in Russia as well.

As well as Australia.

Pretty much around the world.

The Sisters in Islam created a site to promote the knowledge of censoring the freedom of speech/writing.

It sure is nice being home. I arrived Friday evening and slept like a rock in my own bed. It was nice to catch up with the family.

Fortunately, this time, when I left no-one got sick. Before, it would never fail, when I leave someone within the family would get sick.

However, the sickness turned to drama on my absence.

No details, but it seems everything regarding School Board, my side of the family, ect. had things occuring. Although, I wouldn't wish this type of drama for anyone, I am glad my family stayed healthy.

I found a free printable calendar online. The site is called Keep and Share. It allowed me to write out the family schedule and more importantly print it out, by month. Now I have the rest of the year on the refrigerator with an overview of what's coming up. I have included everything from speech to my on-call dates. It was a good find. You can also mark it so the calendar doesn't go public, online.

I had intended on mowing when I returned, but it keeps raining. I will have a jungle to deal with now.

One other thing, I had not realized I was scheduled off this following Monday. I had to use a number of vacation days, or lose them. So, it looks like I will have an extended weekend. This will make it nice since my last weekend was shot for work.

After my initial ACME run on Sunday, I grabbed these for the week. I think I am getting hooked on the AMP. They didn't have cherry (frown).





Here is the car I picked out this week from National.

I didn't get my nap Sunday, so my sleeping was shot.

I tried to sleep after the server upgrade (around 6 a.m.), but from text pages (no I am not oncall), phone calls, and the housekeeper banging on my door, I gave up and got up.

I walked the King of Prussia Mall to get some exercise as well as work out some soreness from the day before. I grabbed some food from TGIF's on my way out back to the hotel for both lunch and dinner.

I was able to watch some Netflix online shows, mainly Sleeper Cell, from Showtime. Talk about an intense show. I have grown to really like it.

Then I fell out, pretty much around 7:30 p.m. Sunday night.

This of course had me up at 4 a.m. wide awake.

I went into work early (I like it alone there). I was able to see some peers I hadn't seen in quite awhile. Hear the stories, between the cubicles and everyones fears.

I actually split at 5 p.m. that Monday night. Grabbed my staple TGIF and went to the hotel. The internet was pretty much dragging so watching Sleeper Cell was cut short.

I crashed early again Monday night.

Tuesday morning, I slept in till 6:30 a.m. head to work and had a busy day. I actually feel like I was able to get some work done Tuesday, as opposed to Monday. However, one of the guys commented I was quite and I looked intense. "Yeah buddy, its called working."

I love seeing everyone up here, but how they get anything done with the interruptions is beyond me.

Since the whole interface group is in town, we are all in a auditorium room together. It's nice to be together, but distracting for me. I have grown spoiled with my single room working alone (in a quite atmosphere).

Since a 5 hospital facility was upgrading their server (brand new one), I remained at work till after 7 p.m. I ran to a store to get my kids a surprise then some food on the way to the hotel. I made it in after 8, nearly 9 p.m. tonight. I already have my 5:30 wakeup call set.

I will be at Siemens 1/2 day tomorrow.

I want to see and speak to everyone here, but also miss my family.

I had to travel during Saturday evening. So, I wasn't able to view the full discussion forum of Obama and Mccain by Rick Warren. I was able to catch maybe 10-20 minutes.

I found a site that has the full discussion posted, via youtube.

Obama - Mccain at SaddleBack

Personally, I thought it was good means to simply ask the same questions to two different guys. Obviously, there will be different answers, but what is important is their answers to these questions. Hopefully, a) they were not given the questions prior and b) they can get through many of the questions.

If you don''t have time to view, below is a link to the transcript.
Obama-Mccain Saddleback transcript

Started up in Tulsa around 6 a.m. Watched Kel do the 5K. I attempted the 1K with the kids. Drove home, no time for a nap. Unloaded, and enjoyed some time with the family. Then off to the airport.

Now I am in PA. It was an interesting flight in.

I arrived at the nearby airport (early as usual). The ticket lady asked if she can help. I said I had a flight through Dallas to PA. She named me right off the bat.

Uh, yeah, how did you know it was me.

I was the only paying customer on the flight. Yeah. I was it. Crazy. So from Arkansas to Dallas, Texas I had a quite ride.

Yet from Dallas to Philly, I (among others) got to hear the screaming kid in the back.

I arrived in Philly and waited for the rental driver to pick me up. Fortunately, it wasn't a hassle to get a car and on my way to King of Prussia. So at 2 a.m. I made it to the hotel safe.

Now in 3 hours, we should have those servers upgraded. Then I can sleep for awhile.

Very interesting.

The U.S. may have captured one of the most important terrorism suspects yet -- a mother of three with a degree from one of the top universities in the nation, and ties to al Qaeda.

Until her capture last month in Afghanistan, Aafia Siddiqui was the only woman on the FBI's list of most wanted terrorists. She is believed to be a top agent of al Qaeda.

"We've been looking for her for a long time, and we knew she's been involved in a variety of nefarious activities," former CIA officer John Kiriakou explained.

Siddiqui was a neuroscientist, schooled in America at MIT before her return to Pakistan.

Her captors found on her information on chemical, biological and radioactive weapons. She was also carrying maps of New York City and its subway system, Times Square and the Statue of Liberty, as well as the nearby Plum Island Animal Disease Center, home to many lethal pathogens.

"They found someone who is highly educated, who's very capable and who's willing to do the research," Kiriakou said.

The FBI said Siddiqui also possessed a computer thumb-drive storage device loaded with emails to potential terrorists. They hope it's a roadmap to terror plots in the works.

Siddiqui is now in custody in New York City, where friends and family have been protesting her innocence.

She's charged with trying to shoot the agents and soldiers who captured her, a fight in which she was shot.

The FBI is now trying to track down some of Siddiqui's classmates from MIT.

CBN News Terror Analyst, Erick Stakelbeck, says it's very significant that she was educated in the U.S.

"This is exactly what al-Qaeda wants. They want to place operatives in the U.S. who are westernized, who are fluent in English," he said. "Aafia Siddiqui fits both of those qualifications. And not only that, she's very, very intelligent."

Enterprise Security has an interesting article relating to modern day hacks. Long is the day for a simple phone call asking for a password into the mainframe.

I have taken some of the article below with comments, but it is a good read.

Want to break into the computer network in an ultra-secure building? Ship a hacked iPhone there to a nonexistent employee and hope the device sits in the mailroom, scanning for nearby wireless connections.

How about stealing someone's computer passwords? Forget trying to fool the person into downloading a malicious program that logs keystrokes. A tiny microphone hidden near the keyboard could do the same thing, since each keystroke emits slightly different sounds that can be used to reconstruct the words the target is typing.

Hackers at the DefCon conference here were demonstrating these and other novel techniques for infiltrating facilities Friday.

Their talks served as a reminder of the danger of physical attacks as a way to breach hard-to-crack computer networks. It's an area once defined by Dumpster diving and crude social-engineering ruses, like phony phone calls, that are probably easier to detect or avoid.

As technology gets cheaper and more powerful, from cell phones that act as personal computers to minuscule digital bugging devices, it's enabling a new wave of clever attacks that, if pulled off properly, can be as effective and less risky for thieves than traditional computer-intrusion tactics.

Consider Apple Inc.'s iPhone, a gadget whose processing horsepower and cellular and wireless Internet connections make it an ideal double agent.

Robert Graham and David Maynor, co-founders of Atlanta-based Errata Security, showed off an experiment in which they modified an iPhone and sent it to a client company that wanted to test the security of its internal wireless network.

Graham and Maynor programmed the phone to check in with their computers over the cellular network. Once inside the target company and connected, a program they had written scanned the wireless network for security holes.

They didn't find any, but the exercise demonstrated an inexpensive way to perform penetration testing and the danger of unexpected devices being used in attacks. If they had found an unsecured router in their canvassing, they likely would have been able to waltz inside the corporate network to steal data.

To keep the phone running, the researchers latched on an extended-life battery that lasts days on end. But they only really need a few minutes inside a building to test the network's security.

Eric Schmiedl, a lock-picking expert and undergraduate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, outlined several surveillance methods long used by government intelligence agents that have become more accessible to garden-variety criminals because of the falling price of the technologies.

After hearing about how important work is, I was given the OK to provide a Fall Co-op class! I had been wanting to provide some form of computer class to the kids, but the Co-op always fell during the day, where I was unable to. However, this year, I had some vacation time I could use. So I am taking 1/2 days for those Thursdays, during Co-op. I will give two classes, easy / not so easy regarding computers/internet ect.

Now that I have the go ahead, I can move forward with the planning. I am a bit excited and there really seems an interest in this group for such a class. It will be only for 6 weeks. Now the work begins.

I thought this was rather interesting. As ACLU constantly mis-reminds us the interpretation of church/state, buisiness's are moving toward appeasement of religious holidays. I know, I know, government and buisiness are different. Yet, I couldn't help raising my eyebrows on this one.

SHELBYVILLE, Tenn. - Workers at the Tyson Foods poultry processing plant in Shelbyville will no longer have a paid day off on Labor Day but will instead be given the Muslim holiday Eid al-Fitr as a holiday.

According to a news release from the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, a new five-year contract at the plant included the change to accommodate the hundreds of Somali Muslims who work at the plant .

Eid al-Fitr — which falls on Oct. 1 this year — marks the end of Ramadan, the Muslim holy month of fasting.

Union leaders say implementing the holiday was important for the nearly 700 Muslims, many of them Somalis, who work at the plant that employs a total of 1,200 people.

The Shelbyville Times-Gazette newspaper quotes union spokesman Randy Hadley as saying the negotiating team felt this change was "extremely crucial, since this holiday is as important to Muslims as Christmas is to Christians."

The newspaper also quotes the union as saying two prayer rooms have been created at the Shelbyville Tyson Foods' plant " to allow Muslim workers to pray twice a day and return to work without leaving the plant."

Yawn. I didn't want to get up this morning or yesterday morning for that matter. For some reason, with the kids and wife home, I become lazy. I seem to not be able to focus as much nor do I get anything accomplish around the house.

Perhaps it's due to me being more relaxed and comfortable knowing their safe at home.
I like to think that anyway.

I was checking out my new feedjit on my blog to see where some viewers are at. Then checking out Google maps, out of curiosity. Understanding the pictures are old (from Google), I am still amazed of the detail you can see.


Below two pics are Ottawa, Ontario.




This is about as close as I can get to the streets of Ottawa, Ontario.



Below two pics are Fort Smith, Arkansas.



I can get it this close, viewing some cars.



Seems, many have already started to incorporate this map utility.


Google maps with Geocaching
Web-Based Epidemiological Reporting System

I would think using the Google Map API in your projects would be pretty much limited to only your imagination.

My family returns tomorrow and I am glad for it. The wife and kids been gone all week, as of last Friday.

The time away, allowed me to get some home projects done, as well as catch up on some guy movies. Yet, I am glad to see them returning.

I guess the most difficult of the home projects was actually the weatherstripping in the door. Seems, I could never find the exact same fit as the builders of the home. I managed to rig something up, but that little gem took 3 trips.

The one project I kept putting off was redoing the cement rings around the trees. I don't mind yardwork, but when its still 90 degrees after 9 p.m., its a bit of a pain. I mowed our yard before work the other morning around 6:30 a.m., just to hit it before the heat was up. It's been ranging anywhere from 101 to 107, not counting the index around here lately.

All in all, I managed to do the most of the list with some additional items I had not originally planned for. So, I hope the family will be satisfied.

I had heard a special fox report regarding "honor killing in America". I have it recorded, but haven't watched it yet.

Stop the ACLU has the special on their website. You can see it here.

Of course we are speaking of the Muslim faith, regarding Honor Killings. I noticed the commercial I seen for it, didn't mention the religion, rather the killings.


Of course, this is nothing new in other countries. Yet, we are shocked in America. Why? Because some muslims are willing to be acclimated in our country, others are not.

Since the family is away, I been getting some things done around the house.
I've already managed to get half of my honey-do list done, and a couple of extra things I wanted to do.

I finished off the remaining 5 lb hotwings tonight. My dad has invited me to dinner tomorrow night. I plan to go over there. It will be a nice change. I think he was really surprised I said yes.

I've been watching the first season of Lost. I never seen it, and now see why the show was such a hit.

I miss my kids and wife, but glad to get some things done here.

This evening, my evening runs became this.

1) Return weather strips to a store
2) Grabbed some duct tape, reusable unit filter for the house
3) Ran to the alarm systems to pick up a new battery (from our 2 a.m call)
4) Ran to mother-in-laws work to pick up item
5) Run to bank to cash a check from the weekend
6) Run back home to finish my hot wings

I was able to put in the new filter and replace that battery tonight.

This is pretty staggering, or is it? It is estimated 8.5-9 billion web pages on the Internet now, indexed only. Index means what Yahoo and Google has in their database to search, not necessarily the number that exist. There is probably never going to be a true idea of existing sites as it changes per minutes.

Taking that in perspective, does this news seem so staggering?

"EVERY five seconds, a website falls prey to hackers and gets infected with malicious software. This puts visiting
surfers at risk of having their computer systems infected.

That startling figure is from a recently published report by IT security and control firm Sophos.

The half-yearly report, which was released last Thursday, documents the latest trends and figures on Internet security and cyber-crime within the first six months of this year.

According to Sophos, an average of 16,173 malicious webpages are discovered each day, and a whopping "90 per cent of these webpages are legitimate sites which have been hacked".

Surprisingly, these sites are prominent and esteemed ones.

The website of Cambridge University Press was hacked in April, and the website belonging to the Association of Tennis Professionals a month later. According to the report, even government agencies are not spared."

Full article here

Another awesome movie, called "The Kingdom".



I was able to watch this yesterdsy, simply awesome. The last 30 minutes was simply full of action and awesome! From start to finish action and drama.

Synopsis:
"When a deadly bombing attack targets Americans in the Middle East, a counterterrorism squad is dispatched to find the culprits. Once they arrive in the desert, the U.S. agents (an ensemble that includes Jamie Foxx as the group's leader) learn that in these parts, they are the true enemy. With their investigation hampered by local bureaucracy, the team realizes they may be the terrorists' next target. Jennifer Garner and Jason Bateman also star."

Talk about a cool movie! I watched it last night, while alone and it was a great guy flick.



Premis:
"Based on a true 1971 event, this thriller tells the story of Terry (Jason Statham), a car dealer who becomes involved in a London bank heist only to find that the contents of the bank vault will draw him deeply and irrevocably into the city's criminal underbelly. Murder and scandal abound in this tale of corruption populated with a surprising mix of offenders, from low-level thugs to government officials and all the way up to the royal family."

It has MI5,some nudity, drama, intrique and just all around great movie.

I realize Miley C. is on a bad train leading to the pits with her actions. However, I am more interested in the hack of her Gmail.

After getting to bed nearly 11 p.m., I was awaken by a siren going off in the house.
Man, was it loud. I jumped out of bed and did a dash like I was 18 again to the alarm system. I am not sure I even opened my eyes. If there was a robber, I would had sacked him like a freight train trying to get to that system.
After about 5 tries, I finally shut it off. The wife was asking "what the h###". I checked the doors, ect. and all were still locked up tight. Better call the alarm people to ensure I don't need the cops. Although, that would had made for some interesting conversation for the neighborhood.
So I called them and they asked what does the screen on the system show. The lady on the phone didn't realize it took me 4 minutes to find the right keys on the phone through my blurry eyes.

I checked the screen and it mentioned "low battery". This thing has a battery?
Evidently it does. It must use the battery, when the electric is out. Obviously, that's not the case. I wonder if those Cable guys screwed something up the other day?
So when there is light outside and I have more than 3 hours sleep, I will be crawling in the attic to check/replace the battery. Then do an alarm test. (at this point I am suspecting she didn't even know our alarm went off)

During all this drama, the kids remained asleep or non-moving. How they can manage, I have no idea. Even the dog was spinning like a top during that world war 2 siren.

I just read a very interesting article regarding the new step for internet users.
full article here.

It uses GovTrack.us as the example.

A full implemented website that harnesses all the current tech on the net.

Think of the site Tauberer has created as a virtual news fetcher, bringing all the relevant info right to your PC. No more need to surf around the Internet or plow through wordy government sites. It all comes to one spot, his Web site.

Such Web-service sites are just starting to catch on, thanks to technologies such as the Extensible Markup Language (XML), which is sort of a lingua franca for Net programmers, and Rich Site Summary (RSS) feeds, which make it possible for sites to easily share data. It's not a stretch to say they could revolutionize the way content is delivered.

This is what I been waiting for. It will remove the need for searching, to a great extent. Rather going out there looking all the time, you can bring the subject to you.

Other sites hope to use Web services to grab a chunk of the classifieds market. In March, LinkedIn.com, a social-networking site for 1.8 million professionals, will begin using a Web service to collect job ads from all over the Internet on its site.

Through the site's social network, a LinkedIn.com customer interested in a listing will be able to find out if the recruiter is a friend of a friend, and if so, get a referral, says Konstantin Guericke, LinkedIn.com's vice-president for marketing. LinkedIn.com is working out an agreement with sites like Feedster.com to post their jobs data.

It's only the early days of information Web services, of course. But the potential is huge. Consider this: Just 10 years ago, businesses were tiptoeing to the Web, trying to figure out if they could make money on it.

Today, the question isn't "if?" It's "how much?" Ten years from now, savvy business folks will be asking the same of informational Web services.

Awesome. Now we need the information to create our own personal "All in one' sites to really get going.

I am on the edge of like/dislike. The acting, action is great. The special effects were phenomenal. However, the message of the movie was bleak.




I understand they wanted to convey the horrible tragedy going on in Burma. This is akin to Darfur. Freaking Genocide. Yet, it would had been nice to see one lost soul saved by the christian group.

Over the past week (more like 2), I been delving into the online tutorials, book on PHP/MYSQL.

Ideally, I want to be able to pull the information from a database, and have it viewed on a configured, concise layout, via the web. This would allow me to simply update the database, and not to have to re-configure the webpage so much.

The hardest thing is getting the construction down. I am getting close in the understanding, but man it's time consuming.

The way I normally work, is take a existing working project. Unravel it to see how it works, then try to apply those same means in my own desired format.

I already pulled some scripts down from the net and going through them. I already have a PHP/MYSQL book I bought for reference. Yet, there is nothing the same as writing and testing your own code.

Currently Resource for the Christian is using an existing script/sql I had found. Yet, I want to do more with it, rather than being a hack.

I have another free site I am using to simply test out on.

I keep saying the mantra in my head, "Once you get the basics down, you can do anything with it". I truly believe this. I am just working on getting that initial "aha" to come through.

I have to give a shout-out and say, I am really proud of my wife. She has continued to run after her first 5K. She really seems be loving this.

This morning she did 5 miles. I find that to be estoric. So a shout-out to my wife to say way to go!

Yesterday marked my 13 years of marriage. Looking back at the old pictures, we were just kids. The best gift I received? A wonderful full year with my wife of course.


Yesterday, during a work break, I figured I would walk with the kids. Our area is made out, where if you walked from end to end 3.5 times, it equals out to a mile. My kids been doing this with my wife for some time now, but me, not so much. My daughter said, "lets run to the end". Sure, why not. By the time I was at the stop sign (1/2 way), my heart was screaming 'what the hell'.

I kidded with my daughter (after I regained my breathe and composure), my heart was asking me 'why are we running, is there a twinkie down there?' She thought it was hillarous. But in the end, I managed to walk the remaining mile.


Last night, the homeschool group had the water park to themselves. Needless to say, I played like a kid. Rather, I tried to keep up with mine. They had some neat slides we had to go down way more than once. However, you had to walk up bloody four stories to the top. The first 2-3 times were not bad, after the eight time up, I was not only feeling it, I was getting slower. My son the ever energizer bunny kept baiting me "Comeon slowpoke, old man". Sigh, I was feeling it. I am feeling it more this morning.

Irregardless, I think we all had fun.

So, with all the physical exertion I am not used to, I am feeling it this morning.

Not as young as I use to be

We had a relaxing weekend. Too bad, these times are the ones that seem to run faster. But these days, everyone seems to be running out of time.

From relaxing weekend to yet another busy week. All remote employees from my company should had received a call by end day last Friday. I know of 2 groups that are indeed effected. One a really good friend. The burden of choice is not so much as, where does my friend go from here. I hope the company realizes many families simply cannot leave their current locations. Perhaps they do realize it, or perhaps they simply don't care.


For this week I have a board meeting Monday night and 13 year anniversary on top of my regular schedule of events.

My wife and I finally watched "Defnitely, Maybe" last night. It was a cute movie. Worth renting.

I came across this interesting video where the news reports T-Rex soft tissue was found.



You can see additional videos at Resource for the Christian

T-Rex soft tissue found

More good news came my way yesterday. My dad's doctor appt. came in saying everything was good. He was obviously happy last night informing me. Yesterday, my wife's doctor appt. also came in good.

After being on stress alert, with all this good news coming in, I can't help being excited yet speculative. Isn't that like humans, always pessimist.


On another note, my 13 year anniversary is next week. I can't believe it's been 13 years already. Then I look at my kids and realize how far we have really gone. During our 7th year anniversay we joked about the "itch". Supposedly around 7 years, couples tend to get the itch to split. Obvioiusly, this had not occured for us.

I was told this morning, most men break the union around year 15 or 17. Guess, mid-life hits and they need that young blood to make them feel younger. Irregardless, we were mentioning the excrutiating things that would happen to me, if that had ever occured. Jokingly of course, ahem.

Although, unless I had the money by then, I am not sure what the young blood would want. Surely I will be fatter and with less hair by then, given my dilemma at this point.

Never fear though, if a dull knife doesn't scare a guy, this will. My wife works for two lawyers. Think a one room apartment with no weekend money sounds like a drag, think of a cardboard box instead. But I digress.

Fortunately for us, I really don't think any of that will happen. Personally, I have no desire to ruin such a good relationship. Everyone (including ours) has it's ups and downs. However, when I see the alternatives, there's no challenge there.

I had posted a bit of stress in the past. Part of the burden has been lifted. As my fellow 4-5 readers know, radical changes have been occuring in our company. We has an updated meeting early this week, indicating 25% of the IS Dept was remote and 25% were working one or two days at home. They felt this was unacceptable having 50% (at times) of the work force not working within the corporate building. So, the first phase was requiring all local employees to drive to work, removing the ability to work at home. Yes, that sucked for most, considering 4 bucks a gallon and traffic in PA pretty much bites. If hit wrong, 35 miles can take 1 to 1.5 hours to get to work.

The second phase was to pull in 1/2 of the remotes back to corporate. We were informed 16-18 remotes will be effected. All remotes will be given "the call" to inform them if they are indeed affected by this. If so, your two options were some assistance to move in, or some assistance to move on. Most thought the our team would be ok, but as I said before and still believe, you only know what is told to you.

Irregardless, I received the call yesterday informing me my position and team was not effected. I had to ask if the company plans to re-evaluate the remotes a year from now, as they are currently. I was told no. So at this point buisiness as usual. I am scheduled to go up to PA in August for a week.

It was a huge stress relief, to say the least. Everyone at work kept asking if I will have to go, will I go, ect. I couldn't answer. I really didn't know.

Now I am thankful that part is over with. I still feel sick for those who are effected. It sucks. They were hired as remotes, but now that's being changed.

Yesterday I had to go to the doc. I had another bad headache. So, if I acquire another one, my job was to call the doc. Note: I never use to get headaches. In fact, I rarely get sick, knock on wood.

So, I called them to inform them as I was chewing down 3 tylenols. They called back and said they happen to have a cancel, 'why don't you come on in'. Sure. Why not, what else do I have to do but work.

The doc suspects it's migraines. The uni-lateral (one sided) pain, more than one day, yada yada. Take this freebie drug and see if that helps. So I took it then and there, sense I was still having tension.

This morning it's better. At first, I didn't think it was going to help out yesterday, but the pain later subsided. However, having 85 mg/500mg running through me, I felt like a deadpan. So I wasn't much into conversation.

I kept conveying to the doc, I never use to get headaches, but no answer was found. Simply, let's try this.

Hmm, why might I be getting them now? I know my eyes are OK, I had them checked. I suspect stress.

My wife and kids are leaving for out of town in less than two weeks.
My son is having a procedure on the brain.
I am fighting with the insurance to cover what shouldn't be questioned.
My company is radically changing with little communication.

Hmm, yeah, some things going on.

Below is a full article regarding a UK school forcing the students to practice religion during class.
Although, this is the main part of the story, notice the last two paragraphs. It indicates Britain will soon see Sharia Law being put in place. To me, this is the more pronounced story.

---------
'If Muslims were asked to go to church on Sunday and take Holy Communion there would be war'
Posted: July 04, 2008
6:15 pm Eastern

© 2008 WorldNetDaily
Two seventh-grade boys were given detention and their classmates forced to miss their scheduled refreshment break when the pair refused to kneel and pray to Allah during a religious studies class.
Outraged parents called the punishment of the boys for not wanting to take part in the practical demonstration at Alsager High School near Stoke-on-Trent, UK, of how Muslims' worship Allah a breach of their human rights.
"This isn't right, it's taking things too far," parent Sharon Luinen told the London Daily Mail.
"I understand that they have to learn about other religions. I can live with that, but it is taking it a step too far to be punished because they wouldn't join in Muslim prayer. Making them pray to Allah, who isn't who they worship, is wrong and what got me is that they were told they were being disrespectful.
"I don't want this to look as if I have a problem with the school because I am generally very happy with it."

Last month, WND reported Principal Robin Lowe was reassigned after staging a mandatory lesson in Islamic religious beliefs for nearly 900 students at her Houston-area school.
The controversy erupted at Friendswood Junior High when students were diverted from a scheduled physical education class and taken to a special assembly.
In the 40-minute session, representatives of the Houston office of the controversial Council on American-Islamic Relations, an organization critics link to terrorist groups, presented a lesson in the religious beliefs and requirements of Islam.
The CAIR representatives instructed students that Adam, Noah and Jesus are prophets; announced "there is one god, his name is Allah"; taught the five pillars of Islam; told students how to pray five times a day; and gave instruction on Islamic religious requirements for dress.
The assembly had not been authorized by the district, officials confirmed.
In May, officials at a Minnesota charter school, housed in the same building as a mosque, attacked a television news crew investigating whether the publicly funded institution had complied with a state order to stop accommodating Islamic prayers and religious programs.
The investigation followed revelations by a substitute teacher who observed children being forced to participate in Islamic prayers.
In the Alsager School incident, the religion teacher, who was not named, made the class wear Muslim headgear and watch a short film. Afterward, she took prayer mats from her cupboard and said, "we are now going out to pray to Allah," parents claimed.
"I am absolutely furious my daughter was made to take part in it and I don't find it acceptable," said parent Karen Williams.
"Not only was it forced upon them, my daughter was told off for not doing it right. They'd never done it before and they were supposed to do it in another language."
"My child has been forced to pray to Allah in a school lesson," the grandfather of one of the students said. "It's absolutely disgusting, there's no other way of putting it. My daughter and a lot of other mothers are furious about their children being made to kneel on the floor and pray to Islam. If they didn't do it they were given detention.
"I am not racist, I've been friendly with an Indian for 30 years. I've also been to a Muslim wedding where it was explained to me that alcohol would not be served and I respected that. But if Muslims were asked to go to church on Sunday and take Holy Communion there would be war."
Keith Plant, Alsager's deputy headmaster, said with summer break, many of the staff was unavailable and he could not comment fully.
"I think that it is a shame that so many parents have got in touch with the press before coming to me. I have spoken to the teacher and she has articulately given me her version of events, but that is all I can give you at the moment."
Cheshire County Council issued a statement telling parents "inquiries are being made into the circumstances as a matter of urgency.
"Educating children in the beliefs of different faith is part of the diversity curriculum on the basis that knowledge is essential to understanding. We accept that such teaching is to be conducted with some sense of sensitivity."
Revelation of the incident follows this week's pronouncement by the UK's top judge, Lord Chief Justice Lord Phillips, that Islamic sharia law should be used in the UK.
In a speech to an East London mosque, Phillips said, "Those entering into a contractual agreement can agree that the agreement shall be governed by a law other than English law.'
"Those who are in dispute are free to subject it to mediation or to agree that it shall be resolved by a chosen arbitrator. There is no reason why principles of sharia law or any other religious code should not be the basis for mediation or other forms of dispute resolution."
Phillips signaled approval of sharia principles as long as punishments – and divorce rulings – complied with the law of the land.
In February, WND reported Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, chief of the 70-million-strong worldwide Anglican Communion, advocated the establishment of Islamic law in Britain.

The weekend was an enjoyable 3 day weekend. We had some friends and family over for the fourth. All very comfortable and peaceful.

Now the architect part of my new site, Resource for the Christian is put in place, I am simply adding more and more vids to it. Hopefully, it will become a pretty good resource, as intended.

I watched a very good dvd entitled 'Exodus Decoded' last night. I would highly recommend it. The preview is on my Resource site, under Biblical Archeology.

This coming Tuesday, we should hear the interpretation of working remotes and their future for our company. All remotes I know are basically waiting for this ball to drop. This has become such a topic, the son's owner is coming down to discuss it with the IS department, along with HR to help him. Our new CIO is holding this one close to his vest. I guess we will see tomorrow.

Other than that, another 5 day week, a tremendous headache and 2 weeks before my family goes to Texas. Sigh.

Standardization is hard for most. Your use to doing something in a particular way, then along comes someone to force you to do the same outcome, differently.

We are having this pain in the company I work for. So the stress is high. We just moved over to our new ticketing system, and believe me, I fumbled through my first one.

They have it setup for you to "acknowledge" it. This sounds simple enough. Yet, simply adding comments or putting your actions in the ticket does not "acknowledge" it. You have to go through a certain pathway to change the status to "acknowledge" it. Grr. To compound things, a text page is sent to you initially, then another one in 5 minutes, if you dont "acknowledge" it. after 10 minutes, the page goes to the whole group informing the others this ticket has not been "acknowledged". Within 15 minutes, it hits the team and the supervisor. Yeah, no stress. Just go in there and "acknowledge" the da*n thing. What's absurbing is you cannot text an "acknowldegment". Ahh progress.


Don't get me wrong, I understand the concept. You have everyone doing the same thing, thereby everyone understanding the process, yada yada. This is pretty much where the company is heading. The writing is on the wall, so to speak. Bringing everything in house, rather than outsourcing contracts. The technology is there, so why not utilize it to it's fullest potential?

Same thing for websites. First HTML was pretty much the standard. Then scripting came in to jazz it up. Now PHP/MySQL is reigning. The technology is there for everyone, you just have to go with the flow. Note, you can't keep up with the demand, so you just try to keep up with the requirements.

This is where the other part of the stress at work is having on the employees. No-one knows what the next ball will be. Everything is changing. For some, way too fast for their comfort zone.

Personally, I don't care how you want me to do it. The outcome is the same, the means is whats difference. Just train me to do my job. I don't even care to read those 50 dollar books on my own time.

Another thing which would be a no-brainer, but fails in most levels is communication. People perceive things differently. So, when the gaps are not filled with direct communication, everyone fills them in with their own insecurities. Yeah, you can see what that causes, more stress.

Well, this post turned from a meaningful thought to a rant, unintentially.

I am sharing this full story for STOP THE ACLU.

Seems Washington Post is after the Free Republic.com.


"The Washington Post published a June 28th piece geared to protect Barack Obama from the nagging rumors that he is a secret Muslim, rumors that have been circulating since 2004. The Post’s Matthew Mosk penned an attack on Free Republic, based on an Obama flak who claims she has somehow discovered that Freepers are to blame, if not initially responsible, for floating the Barack-is-a-Muslim chain email that so many millions of Americans have found in their email boxes over the last four years."

Here is the hit piece at Washington Post.

I know I whined in the past, but when you plug 10 bucks in the tank and get less than 3 gallons, it's disappointing.

We are the cheapest in the U.S., so I am told.

A bad glare, but that is 10.04 for 2.602 gallons.

Linked-IN has to be one of the more interesting sites, I have come across. The idea is basically to put up your job experience, but more importantly to link to other professionals you had dealings with.



When your searching around, the site also shows 3 things on the side. The picture above is a snapshot of a random individual. It shows 2 to indicate she is a 2nd degree contact to me, 1 recommendation, and has 35 contacts in her profile.

The site also provides a easy way to ask others to join your 'network'. You do have to choose a means of association. Whether that be a prior company, collegue ect.

I always had heard everyone is 7 degrees of connection, but this particular site is proving it.

If your a part of Linkedin, fire me a comment.

I had already returned the Netflix movies yesterday.

I plan to mow the yard today (if it doesn't start raining again).

I continue to enjoy the new location of my desk. I feel like I have more privacy. The office was right by the front door. So I would basically hear all the action. In the back of the house, it's rather quite. Next is just figuring out a means to move my office phone. I may purchase a new personal phone for that.

Regarding work, we had another meeting yesterday. Clarification was brought in on the new cellphone policy, telecommunication and remote policy. Sigh. I guess we will see what else falls from the shaking tree.

My wife's birthday is in 7 days. I have already made arrangments, ect as of Monday. However, there is still alot to do before next Thursday.

So the plans for today:
On the personal side.
Continue to clean the house.
Mow the yard.
Make some personal phone calls.

On the work side.
I have 4 conference calls already scheduled.
Continue on my 15 projects.
Give a webex on the new change order forms.


Doesn't sound like much, but yesterday I had only 2 conference calls. Yet, each one was over an hour and half long. Pretty much kills your day.

The 3 initial Netflix movies arrived Tuesday. Kel noticed they were sent out from Oklahoma City. I was impressed how quick they arrived.

It was a bum day yesterday at work. Busy, alot of changes at the corporate office, and the morale seems to be way down up there. I head up there in August. Seems information isn't flowing up there, any better than to the remotes. Everyone is keeping their head down and doing their own work.

I will be submitting my work phone back to corporate this month. A new policy for all cell phones, ect. was put in place. Everyone that has, had a work phone, will need to either put that number in their own name, or use their personal one. We get a monthly stipend to assist in our phone usage. I had the work phone for nearly 5 years. However, I knew it was going to this, hence my recent purchase of a blackjack 2.

Yeah, it will kindof be a downer to have my electronic dog collar on all the times, but realistically, corporate had all my numbers anyway.

On another scale, I moved my office desk last night. Having the kids growing up fast, we decided to change the office to a homeschool room. It was way past time to do this move. I moved my desk to another location, which will be a nice change for me, and the kids will have a dedicated educational spot. We are all excited about it.

Regarding work in itself, I read an interesting article called No way to be a programmer expert. It touched base on the fact, we now live in such a fast pace world, with technology changing too fast to keep up. There is simply no way, one individual can be an expert on any given programming language. Rather, the programmer is required to be knowledgable and capable of learning many small bits of many languages. I am finding the same thing at work. We are at a point now, where, yes it's good to be an expert in one particular area. However, the worker needs to be good at 're-learning', as the company changes and moves in different directions.

My only statement is, "I don't really care what direction the company moves toward, just train me to allow me to keep my job."

I have been enjoying one of my gifts from this weekend. A 3 month unlimited Netflix account. I can have up to 3 dvd's at one time. I opened the account Saturday and began strolling the huge database of availible movies/tv shows/documentaries Netflix provides. Not only am I really impressed with the massive amount of choice, but there are quite a pick from their "watch now" shows.

I have been digging MI-5 as of last night. The one question Kel had was, can you choose dvd's not released yet, or find those true new releases. Seem's you can. The love of the internet is, chances are someones already found it or created it for online.

I found a posting from a search on Netflix hacks showing all new releases. Here is the link.

Choosing movies couldn't be easier. Netflix has what they call "Your Queue", which allows you to choose an unknown number of desired dvd's. For me, they fire out the top 3 availible on the list. I can continue to build my queue, and then move my more desired dvd's to the top of the stack.

Not only that, but they also have the 'watch now' queue, where I can create a list of those as well. No need to push them to the top. Simply hit play when I am ready to view. The kids already watched Kangaroo Jack on the PC. I so far seen a Ben and Teller, and 4 episodes of MI-5.

Interesting enough someone already found a means to copy the 'watch now' videos. I read it, but it sure seems alot of work to me. The link is found here.

Next, I am looking to see if it would be feasible to keep Netflix, if I continue to use it to its full potential. I am also looking to crop down the cable, removing those higher channels we really don't watch. Maybe it will work out to being the same rate. (I doubt it though).

The only other thing I can think of is having a PC to TV cable to view/listen to the streaming movies on my living room TV. Yeah, that would be cool.

The big drawback I can currently see is Netflix is a big diversion. You find yourself spending alot of time, simply looking for stuff to watch. Personally, I am interested in those titles, not availible in my area.

We should be getting our first 3 dvd's in today. The queue tells you when your items are shipped and expected time of arrival.

I may post a followup as I learn more about it.

So a Clinton-Obama ticket this year?
Now that Obama looks to be the Democrat candidatefor this years presidential race.

Gee, I thought this would occur around January, sigh. I guess it was fodder for the news outlets.

Maybe now we will learn more of Obama on his stances, like anti or prowar, ect. I would like to learn more from him, rather than these preachers everyone is flocking too.

Recently, a new video emerged showing Obama is anti-Israel.

AMY GOODMAN: Ali Abunimah, I wanted to ask you about the candidates in the United States. You’re speaking to us from Chicago, so let’s start with Barack Obama. The stances of the presidential Democratic and Republican candidates on the Israel-Palestine conflict. I can’t remember when in a debate they were asked about the mounting crisis there.

ALI ABUNIMAH: I don’t know if they’ve been asked in a debate, but whenever they have been asked, they have all gone out of their way to express full support for what Israel is doing. Barack Obama is not distinguished from the rest of the pack, except by for how far he has moved to try to appease AIPAC and pro-Israel movements.

I remember, Amy—I knew Barack Obama for many years as my state senator—when he used to attend events in the Palestinian community in Chicago all the time.

I remember personally introducing him onstage in 1999, when we had a major community fundraiser for the community center in Deheisha refugee camp in the occupied West Bank. And that’s just one example of how Barack Obama used to be very comfortable speaking up for and being associated with Palestinian rights and opposing the Israeli occupation. And just yesterday, he apparently sent a letter to Zalmay Khalilzad, the US ambassador at the UN, to urge the US not to allow any resolution to pass criticizing Israel and saying how Israel was forced to impose this barbaric medieval siege on Israel.

None of the other candidates in the mainstream have spoken out for Palestinian rights. The only ones who have taken forceful positions opposing the current US strategy are Dennis Kucinich on the Democratic side and Ron Paul on the Republican side. The mainstream are all perfectly comfortable with the war crimes that Israel is committing, no matter how much they talk about human rights elsewhere.

I haven't posted in awhile. I had a great time this weekend with the family. Due to me being oncall during the weekend (not Memorial Day), we stayed close to home. Yet, it was nice to spend quality time together.

This 4 day work week will go by fast.

I will be assisting our TeamKids church tonight by actually doing a class alone. Half of our teachers will be out tonight, gone on a camp trip.

Last night, we went to the local Rodeo. I actually enjoyed it. However, due to sinuses my head feels like an anvil being way-layed on this morning.

This morning while reading up on my "sites I actually read", I came across some Mozilla Addons I haven't acquired. So, I downloaded these babies to try out.



This weekend we will be going camping for one night. My wife has a family reunion we will be attending. Yeah camping!

The wife and I have 2 nights to ourselves. The kids are at their grandparents. We already cleaned the house up during the day, and did not have to really run anywhere Thursday night.

So what did we do? Enjoyed the peace and quite. LOL

My wife watched the season finale of Grey's anatomy while I purused the net while watching "An Inconvient Truth". I grabbed if from the library.

I think Al Gore did a great job. I was a bit surprised he even remarked the Revelation of the bible. After seeing the documentary, it became obvious (to me) he merely stated the facts. However, other groups are utilizing those facts toward their own view of the 'why'. I would recommend the dvd with an open mind.

I also came across an interesting site called Prophet.tv. If you have some time on your hands, check it out. Thus far, I only seen this one. Each video is about 70 minutes long. Like I said, if you have the time.

I also updated my Resource site by adding a page showing some exorcisms.

This is a bit concerning. I like most love what Google produces. Let's face it though, they are the Microsoft of the internet. Their hand sweeps pretty much everything out there.

New articles are showing Google canceling a sites adsense account, not because of the sites breaking the term of usage, rather by Googles choice.

The site is called Enturbulation and it puts the light on facts against Scientology.

Enturbulation received this from Google.

"While going through our records recently, we found that your AdSense account has posed a significant risk to our AdWords advertisers," read Google's letter to Enturbulation, a kind of home base for the now famous Anonymous movement. "Since keeping your account in our publisher network may financially damage our advertisers in the future, we've decided to disable your account."

I personally find this disturbing. Now you have the spotlight on the internet giant, dismissing accounts, not due to the enduser's actions, but simply of their own pick and choosing.

Masable

The Register

A very cool video. You need to watch the whole thing.

An interesting read, from a view of a Jew.

Evangelizing Jews by Ravtovia

I was so impressed with the Narnia, Prince Caspian movie. Yes, it did not flow as the book had, but it had alot more enriching scenes in it.

The book based more on the faith of Aslan, and trusting that faith.

The movie touched on this, but not as much. However, the movie did touch on the question of 'follow myself' or trust and wait. There was a bit of a possible romance as well.

In all, I was very impressed, and the kids totally enjoyed it. I highly recommend this movie!

The son and I made it the first night as bachelors. LOL
We had our own sleepover in the living room together on the floor.

We ended up with two games for the WII.

Marvel Ultimate Alliance
Medal of Honor 2

We ended up playing Marvel most of the evening. I admit, it was pretty cool.

We stopped the gaming about 9:30 and watched SpongeBob till we crashed.

Around 12:15 a.m. I woke up shivering to find my son and the dog with more cover than I on the living room floor. I grabbed another blanket from the hall closet.

This morning, I am trying to convey too him, as bachelors we should eat cold pizza for breakfast. He's not buying it.

Tonight, my wife and daughter hits the outdoors for a Girlscout camping trip(2 nights). So that leaves the son and I the house alone. What does my son want to do while the girls are away? Party of course.

His party consist of sleeping in the living room and gaming. He acquired a new game, Lego Star Wars:The complete saga. I know will be hitting that game first. I tried to see online if there were any co-op war games, he and I can fight together. However, most seem to be single player or online multiplayer. Oh well. We plan to hit a blockbuster to go look this evening. I found a 10 dollar blockbuster gift card that been burning in my wallet now anyway.

So as the girls are roughing it, I will be in a warm house playing away on the game console. I am sure potato chips, snacks will be involved.

Saturday, the kids and I are going to the theaters to watch Narnia 2 Prince Caspian!
I am excited to see it. I have been reading the book with the kids during the evenings and we just finished the Prince Caspian story last night.

OK. I have added a ton of new stuff to my Resource for the Christian site.

I have added videos, external links, freeware, ect.

Check it out.

I am constructing a new site ( yes another one ). This one will allow me to pool in all resources regarding biblical and christian knowledge.

The site is called Resource for the Christian

I hope it expands to ssomething useful.

Want a clean 25 bucks? Check out Money Exchange.
They will provide you your first free 25 dollars, upon signup. The sign up is free. Looks like they will compete with Paypal, by not charging you for transfers, ect.

In addition, if you refer anyone else (hint hint), they will give you 10 bucks per referral, up to 500 dollars.

Today my youngest turns nine. Hard to believe, but time does truly fly. I recall when he was so small in my hands, but now he gives me a run for the money on video games.

I love my kids to death, but it's hard at times to see them grow up so fast.




-------------------Recap of the weekend----------------
Over the weekend, I was able to get some things accomplished. We finished up our son's room before Kel left Friday morning.

I had the Friday night with the kids alone. I realize alot of dad's don't really enjoy these times, but I absolutely look forward to them.

We rented 2 new games at blockbuster to play. We also went out to Olive Garden (I t was nice just the 3 of us). After dinner, we ran to see my brothers first son Kindergarten graduation.

The kids out lasted me in the Friday night party. I was able to figure out the wireless on their DS game, as they took turns playing their rental's. Munching on chips, I lasted till about midnight and then had to crash.

Per their request, I pulled in a small tent into the living room. I know they crashed shortly after me.

Saturday, I had my parents over to spend time with the kids. I think everyone enjoyed the time (at least each of them said so). We also broke open the St. Martin Rum.

Kel returned around 4:30 p.m. from her trip. She was greeted with alot of "I missed you" and hugs from the kids. You think they were bored without her or something.(frown)

Sunday, we went again to the new church. I am constantly encouraged with the pastor's message and amazed of the way this church grasp technology.

At at time of high cost gas and now a food shortage in America, The Hill took a look at earmark (Home state projects or Pet Projects) request for this year on projects.

It is reported Clinton requested a massive 2.3 billion (yes a B) dollars for this years earmarks.

Most seem to be going toward security, but the report states much of the request is broad.

This surpasses last years earmark "$837 million" where Sen. Thad Cochran, a Republican, "of Mississippi" secured.

Barack Obama has spurned earmarks, seeking no funds for pet projects in the upcoming fiscal year.

John Mccain has always looked down on earmarks, calling them a Washington waste and has also not seeked any pet projects for the new fiscal year.

Each are in the limelight for Presidential wantabee, one must ask why she is doing this? Some speculate, in case she loses the Presidential nominee, she can fall back on New York as Senator.

Last year, Obama took in $91 million, Clinton secured $342 million, while McCain earned nothing because he did not request any projects, according to Taxpayers for Common Sense.

In a 2006 press release, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi claimed that Democrats had a common sense plan to bring down skyrocketing fuel prices. The average price for a gallon of gas when Democrats took control of congress that November was $2.25 - a price that Pelosi and other liberals claimed amounted to "price gouging". The average price of a gallon of gas today is now up to a record $3.61, and in Speaker Pelosi's home Congressional district in the California bay area, the price tops $4 a gallon.

Despite the price going up $1.36 per gallon (that's 60%!) since Democrats took control of Congress 15 months ago, an out-of-touch Speaker Pelosi and Congressional leadership have still not released this so-called common sense plan to bring prices under control. Just last week in an interview with Larry King, Speaker Pelosi cited the national average as being only $2.56.

Rising fuel prices don't only raise the cost to fill our gas tanks, but they affect the prices we pay for almost every other product - including necessities like food, and Congress is doing nothing to alleviate the strain on Americans' wallets. Click here to see just how out of touch Speaker Pelosi and Congressional leaders are. Then call Speaker Pelosi's office at 202-225-0100 and remind her that America does need a common sense plan to bring gas prices under control.

Sincerely,

Joe Eule
Chief of Staff
Freedom's Watch

Check out this video to "Help Autism" !


Autism Speaks!

Thought I better share this.

Aztlan Civil Liberties Union

As I was getting a haircut 2-3 months ago, I was asked my thoughts on the election then as well. At that time, I stated "Obama will eventually win the Democratic primary, then Mccain will run away with it on election". Now 2-3 months later and after Hillary won Pennsylvania, I still think this will happen.

Last night while catching up on the news, I seen in the bottom tickler, Oklahoma Governor Brad Henry supporting Obama. Irregardless, the state voted for Hillary in the primaries, Brad is tipping his hat to Obama.

The question most would ask, Why?

It appears when your in the room with Obama, he is very charismatic. Add that to his seemingly youth, and continuing mention of "change", and most wish to be on his side.

I heard one talk radio host comment, "It's a pecking order. Hillary thinks she 'earned' the right to be the Dem nominee. Yet she is seeing the Democratic party has lost favor on her and has picked up Obama." This comment was regarding within the Senate.

Let's face it, both parties have moved to the left.

I see the candidates this way in regards to their actions.

Obama - Socialist
Hillary - Radical Liberal
Mccain - Democrat

I had to filter through 1000 emails yesterday at work. No really, I did. Most were old news (by now) and updates, but still. It was a bit time consuming.

Back to my projects again, sigh.

We also had a IS department meeting yesterday, and the hammer was smashed by our new CIO. Seems all local IS personel will now be made to work within the Corporate offices. What I hear is those within a 75 mile radius. What has occured in the last 5 years or so, many (if not all) could work from home one or two days at a time, rather than the drive every day. This will be a huge adjustment for the IS department. The new "remote" policy will be given to us within 2 weeks. Not much telling what new criteria will be on that one.

I also was called twice last night regarding school board stuff. One was an inquiry, and the other an update. Didn't take long before that piece of my life resurfaced, either.

Everything from the trip have been removed from the suitcases. All the laundry has been caught up. We are already working on the new 'dirty' clothes. Amazing how fast to reality, it is.

Back home as I entered last night. Here is the actual vacation itenerary we had. As I said before it was awesome. I will cover them in more detail later as time allows.


Wed 9th
Holiday Inn
Albany GA 31707


Thursday 10th
Nickelodean Hotel
Orlando Florida 32821


Friday 11th
Nicelodean Hotel

Saturday 12th
Cape Canaveral
We were on the Disney Magic, Room 7008

Sunday 13th
Out at Sea

Monday 14th
Out at Sea

Tuesday 15th
St. Maarten Island

Wednesday 16th
St. Thomas Island

Thursday 17th
Out at Sea

Friday 18th
Castaway Cay Island

Saturday 19th
We landed back in U.S.
We checked out the Space Kennedy Center
Stayed at a Best Western

Sunday 20th
Drove to Birmingham AL
Stayed at the Sheraton

Monday 21st
Drove on into Little Rock AR stopped at a Mardel's.
Then arrived home around 5:30 p.m.

Whew, it's nice to be in your own bed.

Home again. It was an awesome vacation. I am off tomorrow as well. I will be running errands tomorrow to catch up my being away.

In the Nick hotel. We drove about 16 hours Wednesday to get to Albany GA. We made a pit stop in Atlanta to pick up a Sony multi-cable for our camera. After driving in Atlanta and nearly getting hit, I was in bad need of a good drink. However, I had to get to Albany.

We hit a Holiday Express in Albany. I was able to use my points to get a free night.

We drove on into Orlando yesterday and hit the Nick hotel. It's also owned by Holiday inn.

I had fun with the kids in the pool and water slides. We made it in time to get the slime as well.

Now this morning, my back is sore and I am in need of a mocha. LOL

Today and tomorrow. That is what I was thinking this morning, as my head was getting together.

I jumped into work early (real early) so I can get some things done. Considering I have technically 16 hours of work left before my vacation. I say technically, but as any salary worker can say, your always on the clock with the companies eyes.

I have my books picked out for the trip and my lovely wife already has us packed. We look at the 6 suitcases each night before bed.

On another side note, I have been investigating cell phones. Eventually, I will be required to upgrade to a pda/data phone. I was leaning toward a blackjackII till I learned you cannot modify documents with it. Over the weekend, on a revisit to a different Cingular store, I was shown the Motorola Q. After playing with it, and hearing its options, I am now leaning toward it.

For my wife, I have been looking at the I-phone. I would love to provide one for her. However, I hear by June, they should have the 3g I-phone out. 3g means the connection to the internet will be as fast as if your on cable or dsl. (rather than modem speed).

Ahh, it's nice to window shop.

5 days, 16 hours, 45 minutes. The seconds and milliseconds are running. That's what my Magical Disney Countdown shows me this morning. Sigh, amazing the now 2 year wait has come down to less than a week. Time truly waits for no man.


It may drive me to drink, but I am ready for the trip. With stress from my work, having an OCD wife (which I love and actually is beneficial on these occasions), to the kids being ready, seems we are all looking forward to it.

I am creating additional documentation out the wazoo for work, trying to cover everything before I leave. I know if I don't, it will remain on my mind. Quite frankly, work is the last thing I want to be thinking about on this trip. This will be the first true planned vacation my family has had. This is a big one. We are going on a Disney cruise for 7 days. Not only that, but we took off before and prior to it. So we will be traveling and vacationing for 2 weeks. This is the longest duration I have ever taken off in one time. I can't help but worry a bit of how work will be when I return. Yet, it will be so nice to just r-e-l-a-x.

It is nice to hear some of my peers at work say ' I deserve it '.

My poor wife has more on her plate than anytime in the past (feast of famine). So she is up a 2 a.m. and crashing around 11 p.m. trying to get everything under wraps, before we leave. Sigh. She makes me tired watching her.

5 days, 16 hours, and 36 minutes to go.