Middle America's Worldview

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..
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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!
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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.
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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.

I flew into Pennsylvania fine last night. The plane touched down around 6 p.m. I grabbed a orange beetle type car (first one I see of these) from National Aisle and took off toward King of Prussia. It was 20 miles an hour on I-95 and ten on North 476. There was a wreck on 476 that caused the slow crawl. Still don't understand why 95 was so backed up. I basically hit an ACME and then the hotel. I reached the hotel around 8 p.m. and stayed there.

I ate a sandwhich last night, that I picked up from ACME and read more of the Robert Jordan book. I actually am enjoying it. At first I thought, another fantasy tale. Yet, as it actually started, it became interesting and is easy reading. After I blog tonight, I plan to read some more. The book kept my interset till 11:30 last night, before tiredness took me.

Today at work, we played kumbaya at midlevel. The whole interface team was suppose to gather in the same conference room all day today and tomorrow. We also had Siemens to give us a development show. This was scheduled at 9 a.m.
I was able to get a PCLan guy to setup the hub and I had the projector out and ready by 8:50. Nobody showed up from my team till after 9 a.m. Siemens all showed up 9:05. Unreal. The guy that lived the fartherest (me) was at Corp 7:30 a.m .in the freaking morning and everyone else half hazardly showed up nearly 2 hours later. Oh well. I don't plan to get there till after 8 a.m.

I finally met face to face with our new team member. He is based out of Chicago. They never look as you would picture them on the phone. He seems nice enough. We took a online Myers Briggs test this afternoon. I scored a INFJ. Funny how it pegged me. My super scored a INTJ. If you decide to take it yourself, post your result. I would be curious. I always found psychology fascinating. The 3 of us (super, new guy and myself) was alone for awhile this evening (boss lady and 2 other peers were out today). We had a deep casual conversation between us, bounced off from our results. I found it totally fascinating on the new guys ideology. He scored a ENFJ.

Oh well. We are definitely all different. I enjoyed the kids pics kel emailed me and I picked up the kids surprise this evening on the way to the hotel. I grabbed Sky High on dvd. I think I will be looking forward to watching it as much as the kids will, when they see it as their surprise.

I grabbed Tostado Nachos for supper and watched my "Last Boyscout" on dvd. I plan to brush my teeth, get under the covers and read my book.

I cannot believe it is already Sunday evening at the end of my vacation. I look back and see I basically ran most of it. Oh well, I did manage to do a couple (yes probably 2) of things I needed to or wished to do, before the end.

Yesterday we primarily stayed home. It was nice to just stay indoors without running somewhere. We cleaned the house up and that was about it.

Today, we spent lunch at Olive Garden together. We had enough left over to have it again for dinner. ; ) The kids finished up on their homework and managed to play a little bit of Playstation 2. I know, hard to believe.

We only hit a few places to finish up on some Christmas shopping. I also picked up "The Eye of the World' by Robert Jordan from the library. 2 of Kel's cousin told me, on different occasions, that the Wheel of Time series was very good. I thought it was odd 2 cousins (one in Texas and one in Oklahoma) on separate end of the poles as far as peronality told me about this series. We were not even speaking about books. So I managed to find the first book of the series at the library. It must be pretty good considering out of 6 copies, the library only had one. The others were noted as lost in the database. I plan to read it on my travels tomorrow to Pennsylvania.

We did our footbaths early today. Each of us does one, once a week, normally on Sunday night. We already gave the kids their showers, in their pajamas and ready for bed.

I went through all my work email this evening. I did good. I didn't check it all week during vacation. It was harder than I thought. I really had the urge to check in, last Tuesday.

I have a meeting with the interface team and the CIO tomorrow morning. I fly out around 11:30 tomorrow to Pennsylvania and will be at Corp. till Friday. I get to go home Saturday. I will be trying to get the PTA stuff done tomorrow morning at schooll as I take the kids to school. I normally always kindof look forward to the 2-3 days alone time on these trips. However, this time, I just want to be home only. I am dreading this one, even though, I know it will be going fast.

Well, it's already 7 p.m. this black Friday and it was a pretty good day. Yesterday for Thanksgiving we went to Kel's Aunts house for a feast, played games and planned the sales day out. We played the horse racing game again with about 8 people. This was the same one we bought Kel's dad while we were in Arizona. It was pretty fun. I left with less quarters than I came into the game with. : (

The kids, their papa and I played on their four wheeler for awhile as well. Kel's parents had it gassed up and ready to go. The weather yesterday was around 71, if you can believe it for the end of November. Unreal.

The kids stayed at Kel's parents house for the second night, last night. Kelli wasn't feeling well so she and I headed home around 6-7 p.m. We finalized the path for our money saving trip the following morning. Nearly every store was opening at 5 a.m.

Kel fell asleep pretty fast. I was jacked up from drinking coffee and soda's nearly all day. I popped 4 melatonin's to no avail. I didn't even watch cable tv. I popped in my Farscape from Kel. She gave me the second season early (yes I am spoiled). I am glad she did. I have enjoyed it immensely this week. I watched a couple of hours and popped an additional 3 melatonin's. I finally fell asleep around 11:30 p.m.

We woke up before 4 a.m. without an alarm. Kel's mom came to pick me up 4:30 a.m. and we headed to Walmart. She and I have been a team of this for the last 4 years. Not much was picked up there. Only one admatch was found. We were in line to get out longer than we were grabbing the items. A lady 3 people up ahead of us made some people curse. She and her husband had a large basket (top and bottom) filled to the rim. She had tried 4 credit cards that would not go through. She then went to her check book and did not have a single check in there to write one. Talk about unprepared. We changed lanes and moved on. How embarrassing. The bargain I found was two dvd's (The last boyscout and Swordfish) for 3.44 apiece.

We then met up with Kel at Kohls. Talk about a freaking crazy store. I went in there and basically went straight into the line. It was already throughout the whole store around 2 corners of it. Kel shopped while I stood there holding her findings. Again, it was basically for everyone else, not our stuff. Oh well. I did manage to sneak a couple of items from there for Kel's Christmas. ; )

We then hit Old Navy and found some really nice clothes for Kel and the kids. We also found some polo shirts (10 bucks a piece) that allowed me to match our son. Cool.

I left Kel and her mom to go to Hastings. It didn't open till 8 a.m. I purposely wanted to grab 2 dvd sets to get the free dvd stand. I wanted to acquire the first season of Full house for our daughter and one for Kel. While i stood there for 20 minutes I found out I wasn't so hard core. Some dude ahead of me was talking about being up 16 hours. He was in front of Best Buy since 10 p.m. the night before? Seems there was a computer on sale, with no mail in rebates. I had to ask if actually got it. He said "Oh yeah, I was the 16th in line". Wow, 16th at 10 p.m. the night before. He had a cot, sleeping bag and hot cocoa. Best Buy had sent out free wifi so they could browse the net for free while being out there all night. Crazy, man.

I didn't find the initial dvd sets I went for. However, I did grab 2 of them and 2 dvd's Kel's cousin had wanted. I grabbed the dvd set, season one ane two, the original scooby doo. I barely found it. I snagged the dvd stand. Yeah.

We gathered together at IHOP to eat breakfast together and then everyone departed their own ways. Kel, the kids and I went home. Looking at our sacks of sales, I see we only had clothes, my two dvd's. I was kindof surprised to only find primary clothes for our discomfort and no sleep. Oh well. Our daughter and I wrapped Kel's presents and now we have something under the tree.

We did manage to get a nap in today. We plan to do nothing but rest tomorrow. Only 2 days of my vacation left. Drat.

I haven't blogged in awhile, but it wasn't due to inactivity. I have also been enjoying being unplugged for awhile.We made it to and from Amarillo safely and with good results.

It amazes me how our son bounces back so fast after his surgery. It is a laser surgery on the brain. Although he had a couple of conflicts and giving his mother a few grey hairs, he bounced back the following morning after as if nothign had occurred. Truly amazing and a true miracle in itself. Yes, things could had gone far worse, but it had not and we cannot dwell on the 'what if'.

During our stay (Wednesday night through Sunday morning), I was able to walk over to NorthWest hospital to vist an old friend. It was nice to see face to face again and catch up on everything, work and family. Plus it allowed me to grab a mocha. Man, I love mocha's. It was a nice break and I did acquire some usefull information, I will have to followup on when I go to Corporate next week.

Our son's procedure was done on Thursday, and my daughter stayed with me during the time it took. She played on her mom's pc as I worked on mine. We took a break to walk the hotel, but there just wasnt much there. Friday, the kids went to watch 'Chicken Little' with the mom as I worked during the day. This was the day I snuck over to the hospital. The kids didn't speak too much of the movie, but seem to like it. Kel didn't come back into the hotel room with the same crazed look speaking gibberish as she had done with 'shark boy and lava girl', so it must had been feasible to sit through. (smile)

Saturday, I was able to take the kids to the 'Discovery Center' with their papa. It was a cool place and alot of hands on stuff for the kids to do. It also had a 9 hole putt putt that was included in the package. We went through the facility and then hit the hotel again for enough time to allow the kids to swim in the pool. The hotel doesnt have much, but it does have a warm swimming pool inside. We met the girls (kel and her mom) at the nearby mall and had a barbeque lunch. The platter was Texas size and very good. That night we had our 'Christmas' in Texas, exchanging gifts with Kel's side of the family down there. The kids received a gift from everyone, you thought it was Christmas. I was able to learn and play a new game. You use quarters and bet on which horse would win. I can't recall what the name of it is. Kel will have to comment it. We bought it for her dad when we were in Arizona, during the summer. It was actually pretty fun.

Early Sunday morning we split (around 5 a.m. ) and arrived home at a decent hour. Exhausted we immediately started laundry and started to diverse the stuff out to each room.

We finished the laundry yesterday, Monday, and put up all the Christmas stuff in the house. Yes, we have the tree up and ready as of yesterday. We plan to have Christmas pictures taken Wednesday for Christmas cards. A lady will come into the house and take them for us. We had her do this last year and was very pleased with the results.

This morning, I put up all the outside lights and front yard stuff. A large blowup Snowman, candy canes and changed the front lightbulbs to red ones, decorating them with reefs. So we are pretty set now. We are waiting on kel to get back from her work today and head over her Aunts house. I will weed eat and change a front door lock. Kel will do some additional work in Poteau while the kids and I clean her Aunts house. Thanksgiving will take place there and Kel plans to have everything ready for it. She doesn't want her aunt to have to do anything.

I only have about 5 more days to be on vacation and it's going fast. I fly out to Corporate Monday after my interface team meeting with the CIO. I hope to grab War of the Worlds today. I really want to see it.

the wife and son are off to the procedure. We had our time of prayer prior of them leaving. The daughter is already on her mom's computer and watching cartoons. We are in a suite at the hotel, so plenty of room on this trip. I am not really in the mood to work today, as my concentration will be elsewhere. Googling around I found another quiz on someone else's blog.

You scored as Moya (from Farscape). You are surrounded by muppets. But that is okay because they are your friends and have shown many times that they can be trusted. Now if only you could stop being bothered about wormholes. Moya (from Farscape) 94% Serenity (from Firefly) 88% Millennium Falcon (from Star Wars) 69% Bebop (from Cowboy Bebop) 63% Nebuchadnezzar (from The Matrix) 56% Enterprise D (from Star Trek) 50% Galactica (from Battlestar: Galactica) 50% SG-1 (from Stargate) 50% Your Ultimate Sci-Fi Profile: which sci-fi crew would you best fit in? (pics) created with QuizFarm.com