March 2007 Archives

What's up with this anyway. When I saw this story I was like "Man, this guy is a sick asshole". He cut the balls off of a kitten. I know I like to save a bit of money, but I think ball cutting is best left to professional ball cutters personally.

Anyway, I go on to read about how he left the Navy after cleaning up human remains after the '98 crash of SwissAir flight 111. No link between the two (at least in the story). I think we are supposed to infer that the two go together.

Two paragraphs down it says that the judge recognized that he suffered from post-traumatic disorder. She must be a psychologist in her spare time. This is 2007 - the crash was in 1998. I understand that it was very stressful and all that but crap, it was nine years ago.

Later on in the story we learn that he was on a tremendous amount of pain medication following a robbery. It doesn't say if he was the victim or the perpetrator, but at this point I don't think it matters. Obviously this dude has some issues. It must suck to be the doped-up-post-traumatic-kitten-ball-cutter.

I wonder if he ate them? Kitten 'nads just might be a delicacy in some parts of the world.

Bad stuff happens everywhere, but I have a few acquaintances in the Orlando area, mainly bloggers and people that work for PPP so it makes this story even more scary. Apparently a guy shows up at this Orlando daycare looking for his girlfriend (or ex-girlfriend) and starts shooting into the windows. The good news is they were bulletproof. AND the entire thing was caught on video. Needless to say he is being held without bond.

Thanks to the wonders of scheduled posting with MT, I am able to post this whilst imbibing. I honestly wasn't even aware that Movabletype could do this until I saw this entry over at Instapundit. That's why he makes the big bucks. Then Leesa mentioned something about it when she offered to guest blog. I had never even seen the option because normally I post through an external editor rather than the MT interface. Very cool.

We are taking the girls to an easter egg hunt this morning, and folks should start arriving here at 4 PM or so for the beerbecue. I have no idea who is coming though. Anyway, I hope you enjoy the guests. Travis certainly keeps with the theme of things around here. That comic was pretty damn funny. You can check out his site, Howtokillpeople.com but be ready to laugh. Not at him, at the site

I am a fast reader. I read lots of blogs, and when I saw on shadowscape the call for guest bloggers, I immediately emailed and said, "Pick me."

What I did not do was read the one line, "You just can't trash the place too bad." I mean, I read the line, but I thought it was sort of a dare, meaning, don't worry what you write about because you can't trash this place too bad. But then I started thinking about a double meaning in this and thought to myself, "What if he means that I need to be careful not to trash the place too much." I sort of leaped at the opportunity because I wanted to try to trash the place, but you know, now that I re-read the line, I am not really sure what he meant.

I mean, I wanted to post pictures of upskirts and have a contest to see which one was Britney Spears, though from the looks of things (no pun intended), people have become experts at spotting Ms. Britney. But really, if I was famous at 17 or whatever, was making tens of millions of dollars each year, had to "play the part" of a teen with the media, how different would I be? Please pass the assorted drugs, and I'll hike my skirt up. That's what everybody expects, anyway.

I just learned today that John McCain has a MySpace account. John McCain, presidential candidate, has a MySpace account. This completely baffles me. I mean, I know John McCain is running for president in 2008, not 1976, but still, I can't quite get my head around the fact that a 70-year-old presidential candidate is on MySpace. So you can be virtual friends, PM and whatever, with someone who wants to be the most powerful leader in the freekin' world. I am so sorry, but knowing that McCain is a war veteran and having him in the same type of environment with teens picking each other up or showing their bodacious ta-tas seems incongruent with the universe I know.

Actually, I learned most of the stuff I know in public school, and this information – for instance, how the government runs – seems similarly inconsistent with what I hear in the news or read in the newspaper. I thought the electoral colleges were designed to help pick the best candidate from each party, but if you look at outcomes (well, we did not really go into outcomes and performance in school – you see, those things were of little consequence) – if you look at outcomes, perhaps the current electoral college system in place does not pick the best candidates.

Now I could continue this train of thought, but let's face it, you are just searching for titillating words and I am actually mildly disturbed by the prospect of enduring another round of primaries next year. Good news is that they will end sooner. More good news, is that I have run out of steam and have lost most of the eyeballs that started reading this guest spot.

Let's see, what I have I forgotten about? I mentioned what an honor it . . . Er, no, I didn't.

Let's start over. It is an honor to be a guest blog on Shadowscape, and I, Leesa, am blessed to have this opportunity to share my views with you. My views are not necessarily the views of this blog or the shell company which backs this blog financially. If you want to read more of my spastic drivel, I can be found at Leesa's Stories. And, no, I don't have pictures of Britney on my site.

Er, I just added John McCain as a friend on MySpace. Does that mean I have influential friends now? What is this world coming to? Geesssssss.

Hi, for those of you unfamiliar with who I am: My name is Travis and I'm the asshole who runs How To Kill People (dot) Com. Go Ahead, click the link, you'll like it. Now I'm not here to talk to you about the fact that I love pro-wrestling or that I'm fairly certain that once Britney's hair grows back and she accepts the fact that coccaine actually is her best friend; she'll be doing gang bang clown porn. No no no good readers, those things are all foregone conclusions. Nor am I here to pimp out my website, my blog or my comic strip. Though personal advertising is a hobbie.

click for large version

I'll be using this opportunity as a guest blogger - which is an interesting concept - to bring to you a warning.

This world that we live in is a scary place. It is full of uncertainty. We - both as a people and a species - are constantly under the threat of a great enemy that sits just over the horizon. There is an unstoppable force that will, someday, descend upon us in an attempt to snuff out the human race. What is that threat you ask?

Zombies

Yes, Zombies are possibly the greatest threat that exists to mankind because they know no fear, they have few weaknesses, they never sleep and they hunger for the flesh that covers my oh so precious bones. I've grown rather fond of my intact, flesh covered, bones.

I'm pretty much at a loss for words tonight, and that seems to be a rare thing lately. I think I am just worn out. I worked outside from nine this morning until about eight tonight and I am bone tired. My brother called about an hour ago, he and the kids are about three hours away. I don't think I am going to wait up for them tonight.

I even checked out a couple of sites and went to comment, had nothing to say and closed the tab thinking "man, this is rude". I guess tonight is going to just be a surfing kind of thing. I may see if I can put something down and try to use the scheduler with MT for tomorrow. I know there will be at least a couple of surprise guests, so maybe they will keep us entertained for awhile.

...I need it badly. Like a real smart guy I skipped breakfast. After spending the last couple of hours outside I decided that I need to eat. I've spent the last couple of hours spreading mulch as well as having fixed my waterfall pump and swapped out about 25% of the pond water.

I think I am going to go out this evening and get a few more goldfish for the pond as well. I still have several left, but their numbers have dwindled over the last couple of years, mainly due to predators.

I have a big old ant bed next to the pond as well that I washed away. I'm sure 90% of it is still there, but I have to be real careful with pesticides over there because of the fish and all the plants that I have. I don't know what it will do so better safe than sorry.

I fixed up a simple lunch. Hot Pockets and a Dr Pepper. Talk about eating healthy. I needed to get something quick in my stomach though, and that'll do the trick.

I came in about 11:30 or so and it looked like my Internet access had been down for a couple of hours. Damn. I went ahead and ate quickly and went back out to work. It's about 12:40 now and I figured I would check again. Nope. Called 411 to get Charter's number and of course they gave me the sales number. It took about 9 seconds for them to answer the phone, and then they transferred me to technical support. Of course they don't care about serving their existing customers as much as they do getting new ones, but we all know that.

...Actually it is. I am heading out to work in the yard and will probably spend most of the day out there. I still have a ton of stuff to do both in and out of the house before tomorrow.

I only read a couple of auto blogs, it's something I am just not into that much, but Dustin has started two new sites at http://low-rider-car.info/ and http://low-rider-truck.com/wordpress/. I particularly like the Low Rider Car blog, now if he would just make that picture of the chick in front of it a tad bit bigger...

Technorati : Auto Blog, Low Riders

That was weird. Something happened to this post. Hopefully deleting and reposting will fix this. I apologize, if you commented or sent a trackback prior to 3/30 at 10 PM they were deleted along with the original post.

I am going to be slightly busy on Saturday (cleaning, then cooking and getting toasted) and am looking for a few guest bloggers to attend to the site and lend their particular dysfunction. If you are interested, send an email to me at rmiles at shadowscope dot com and I will set you up. It's a good way to get a bit of linkage back to your site as well. You just can't trash the place too bad. If you are NOT coming to the beerbecue on Saturday this can be your way of attending. Just sit down and have a beer or eight and post something. Works for me.

I normally only do open track-backs on Saturday, Sunday and Monday but this is an open track-back post.

Trackposted to Outside the Beltway, The Virtuous Republic, Perri Nelson's Website, A Blog For All, The Random Yak, basil's blog, Stuck On Stupid, Cao's Blog, The Bullwinkle Blog, The Amboy Times, Jo's Cafe, Conservative Cat, Conservative Thoughts, LaTogaStrappata®, Diary of the Mad Pigeon, Allie Is Wired, Right Celebrity, stikNstein... has no mercy, Blue Star Chronicles, Overtaken by Events, Pirate's Cove, The Pink Flamingo, Dumb Ox Daily News, CORSARI D'ITALIA, High Desert Wanderer, Right Voices, makimaki page, and Gone Hollywood, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

I posted about Kathy Sierra recently, and the death threats that she received recently on the Internet. It's a pretty sad thing when our flames or rage get out of control and hurt someone. I've had one awful troll here last year (or maybe the year before, I don't really remember) and it was pretty nasty. I reported it to law enforcement but they basically looked at me like I was some sort of dumbass. Fat lot of good that did. I ended up going through the dude's ISP and filing a formal complaint with them.

Anyway, it's pretty distressing, even Zonker got in on the act and posted twice. In the same day. You know it's a big deal then. First I check USA Today, then I check Thunder and Roses :)

Anyway, from what I have been reading Tim O'Reilly is calling for a Blogging Code of Conduct. Oh HELL NO. Something that we can pledge is one thing. I will be happy to join in as long as it's simple and doesn't threaten what I post. We already have laws to take care of terroristic threats, and apparently Kathy Sierra is making use of those. Thats a good thing. A blogging code of conduct that is administered by law (as was brought up by O'Reilly) is a step toward censorship.

Technorati : Blogging Code of Conduct, Kathy Sierra, Tim O'Reilly

President George Bush attended the yearly Radio and Correspondents' Association dinner last night, and as usual it was light hearted and he managed to poke fun at himself as well as others.

The highlight of the dinner was Karl Rove's rap with the cast from Whose Line is it Anyhow? The video is over at CNN and it is hilarious.

I don't know where my head is at. I put this in my client last night and never hit "post". Well, no big deal, it's not exactly a particularly interesting post anyway.

Since my friend Madame Foo won't open up her comments (hint, hint) I broke down and created a Livejournal account just so I could go over and comment on the nasty ass vegetable burgers and piss everyone off :)

There's always one in a crowd, might as well be me.

Thanks to Beth at Blue Star Chronicles I ran across this petition at John McCain's web site tonight. He is right on the target with this. Here is the body of the statement itself:

• The supplemental appropriations bill that passed the Senate on March 27, calling for a date certain withdrawal from Iraq, is nothing more than a guaranteed date of surrender.
  
  
• It is a refusal to acknowledge the dire consequences of failure, in terms of the stability in the Middle East and the resulting impact on the security of all Americans, whether home or abroad.
  ,
  
• Democrats have chosen the politically expedient position of failure rather than putting aside the small politics of the day in the interest of our nation and the values upon which this nation rests.
  
  
• We the undersigned remain steadfast in our support for the war against terrorism and mindful of the consequences of failure in Iraq, even if Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid refuse to acknowledge those consequences.
  
  
• We support our troops and the new strategy and believe it should be given the opportunity to succeed. American national security interests are directly at stake. Success or failure in Iraq is the transcendent issue for our foreign policy and our national security. People say they want to defeat the terrorists, but if we withdraw from Iraq prematurely, it will be the terrorists' greatest triumph.
  
  
• If we leave Iraq based on an artificial timetable, al Qaeda will be free to plan, train for and conduct operations from Iraq just as they did in Afghanistan before 9/11.

If you feel that you can support this go read it again and sign it to send a message to Congress now.

Technorati : Congress, Iraq, John McCain, Nancy Pelosi, Terrorism
Del.icio.us : Congress, Iraq, John McCain, Nancy Pelosi, Terrorism
Ice Rocket : Congress, Iraq, John McCain, Nancy Pelosi, Terrorism

I spent a couple of hours at the hated Wally World this afternoon getting various foodstuffs for the weekend. I need to run to the liquor store in Carrollton tomorrow or Friday for beer and perhaps a few other sundries. I also need to get another load of mulch, but I am pretty much finished other than that.

Whilst I was wandering the aisles of the wondrous warehouse attempting to avoid large asses with cartloads of screaming curtain climbers and rug rats I came across the EASTER CANDY AISLE. Of course I had to get some Ferrero Rocher chocolates. While perusing I ran across nothing other than a chocolate cross, in white and milk chocolates of course. I never could find the chocolate Jesus to go with it. I am assuming that they sold out and that's why there was still such a glut of Easter Bunnies there.

Maybe come the holiday season at the end of the year I can pick up a chocolate nativity scene. With all the folks that are usually in the Nativity, I could spend a week or two eating the little buggers.

...the Boy did anyway. He will be sworn in as a United States Marine on Monday morning. He still has to finish out the year, but that's only a few weeks away. He graduates on May 26th, then will ship off to Parris Island in June.

He and a bunch of his buddies are going camping in Louisiana next week for spring break. I suppose it could be worse. He could be hanging in Panama City with a bunch of drunks getting someone pregnant and staying drunk. He and his friends ordered a few airsoft guns this morning. They should be here by tomorrow via overnight. Maybe I will get a chance to play with them before he gets home.

I spent the day working in the yard cleaning up more of the winter junk. Put some fresh mulch down in the front and I need to get another load delivered. I misjudged how much I am going to need. I probably could use about three times what I got. oops.

I am seriously considering moving the blog to Wordpress because of some of the plugins and the management. Anyone out there that has run both MT and WP that has an opinion?

Maryland State House has passed a bill 81 to 57 that allows illegal immigrants to pay in-state tuition at state colleges. Currently they have to pay out-of-state tuition. My concern is this; if they are illegal immigrants, why are they even allowed to attend in the first place? The are NOT "undocumented" immigrants, they are illegal. Since they are not here legally, the opposite of that would mean that they are here Illegally. Why is that so difficult for people to understand?

Don Surber has an interesting article up called Tax Cuts for the Poor that you should go read. It is brief, but the few comments it has so far are getting interesting.

I have already paid several thousand dollars in taxes through payroll deductions, and now (when I get around to filing) I am going to have to cut a check so that it too can be redistributed amongst other people. Revenue neutral people, revenue neutral is the way to go.

I don't have a problem with helping out lower income families, but the Fairtax plan is the way to go on this.

Technorati : Fairtax, Tax Cuts

There are some things I have always wondered about but how spontaneous human combustion works has just not been one of them...until now. And now we all know.

Apparently the Chiang Mai Zoo in northern Thailand has been showing "panda porn" to Chuang Chuang the panda in hopes that it will help him mate.Hey, it works for me...

Back a year or two ago (I honestly don't remember when unless I look through my archives) I had that issue with a troll that started spamming me and even IM'ed a veiled threat against my children. When I reported it to the Temple PD along with chat log and copies of his IP address and the fact that I had been in touch with his ISP they looked at me like I had snakes in my damn head. Some of that is changing now, as Glenn Reynolds noticed.

Apparently Kathy Sierra has been getting death threats and is even canceling some plans as a result. The police are taking this very seriously thank goodness. Not cool at all. Just because you THINK that the Internet is anonymous does not make it so.

I am glad to hear that the guys are alive. I had actually heard about this, one of my cooks was late for work the other night because one of his nephews is one of the firemen.

Apparently (as Rusty Shackelford has pointed out) there is a Terror Supporter and Anti-Semite teaching at Dalton State College (in my state). Check out his story for more information.

Nothing at all is wrong with differing opinions and I certainly don't agree with the notion that people should be locked up for treasonous opinions. I have the right to say and think what I want, BUT supporting murderous terrorists who have no regard for the lives of their own children is going a bit far.

Go read "Peace Through Superior Bodily Functions".

Back when the whole deal about Elian Gonzales (sp?) was happening the actions of our elected government officials sickened me. It was awful. Apparently right now we have a similar (but different) situation playing out. So how are we going to handle it this time?

Technorati : Cuba

I occasionally write about my kids, but I don't seriously consider myself a "daddy blogger". I didn't even know they existed until I started visiting the Zero Boss awhile back. One of my favorite sites is MetroDad. I don't visit often enough, but when I do I am always pleased. I enjoy the way that he writes. It is very entertaining and you can feel the love he has for The Peanut in his writing.

...you just might get jizzed upon.

Thanks to Vo for the link.

...It looks like my niece has posted a story over at my brother's web page. I suck at remembering birthdays but just guessing I would say that she is about six. I really need to put that stuff in Outlook.

Via Tobacco Joe I found this article by Molly G and why medicating kids for ADHD is not necessarily a bad thing. The key for me though is that it should be a combined decision made by the parents and a psychiatric provider, not educators, administrator, or parents too lazy to deal with kids that might not need it.

As a child I probably could have benefited from some type of medication. I might have stayed in High School and skipped some of the experiences that I had. There sure were some colorful people to hang with though. I was that dirty stoner guy in the eighth grade and it took a bit of work to move away from that.

The Autopsy is done. Apparently the Broward County medical examiner has had the report ready since at least March 7th, but wanted to make sure that none of the investigation changed it. Apparently they all agree that she died from an accidental drug overdose. According to the ME she was taking nine different medications at the time of her death including some sleeping pills.

Maybe now this will lay a lot of it to rest and all we have to worry about :) is who gets the money, I mean, who gets the kid. That is what all the hullabaloo is about isn't it?

CNN Link

Technorati : Anna Nicole, Anna Nicole Smith

I really need to go through my blogroll and update it. There seem to be quite a few defunct sites there. No point in linking to a site that is no longer there. Just wishful thinking I suppose.

I post about shit...and vomit...Of course not.

Stopped by Dean Esmay's place this evening, one of my daily stops, and I came across this post with that said:

How true.

I have certainly considered hanging myself after having to spend time in an AOL chatroom, but damn this is sad.

In all actuality, even though I may make light of this, it is a terrible thing. I really feel for the guys two children.

I wrote this little blurb last night and forgot all about posting it, but now there are links to the screen capture here. I thought long and hard about whether to post them here or not (about 30 seconds) and now they are below in the extended entry. DON'T CLICK IF YOUR ARE EASILY OFFENDED OR HAVE TROUBLE LOOKING AT DEAD PEOPLE. DON'T SAY I DIDN'T WARN YOU.

I'm going to spend at least the next couple of hours outside. The wife got a burn permit and printed it out, so now I am going to burn some stuff in my backyard. Lighting things on fire is indeed a fun way to start my vacation. I think I am going to save some of the larger stuff though, as the Boy wants to dig (he wants to work?) a fire pit for the beerbecue next weekend.

More power to him. I will watch and drink beer. That's what management is for isn't it?

...at least where some things are concerned. My dad called me earlier yesterday afternoon and said "we are coming out and just wanted to know if we needed to bring anything?" Huh? After we had talked for a few minutes I realized that they are coming out today for an early dinner and a visit that my mother and wife set up. The wife says that she told me, and I believe her but I seem to be developing selective hearing. When my dad had explained about today I just told him that I don't make plans, I just follow them.

Thanks to the Zero Boss I found this shot. Looks like someone misjudged the size of the body bag. Someone is handy with photoshop anyway.

Technorati : Anna Nicole, Anna Nicole Smith

It doesn't officially start until 5AM tomorrow morning but barring one of my third shift people getting stupid (not that it ever happens) I am on vacation. Just got home a few minutes ago and I am tired as hell. I think my people were ready for me to go. I am two months overdue and the last week or so I have been turning into a real asshole. I am exhausted. Anyone that has ever worked in the restaurant industry can tell you it ain't no picnic.

When I return in eleven days I will have a new boss, or my direct boss will have a new one anyway. I tried to call my current boss today and invite him out for a beer, but he hasn't called back. For all I know he is taking it easy and just not working this weekend. He and I have had our issues over the years, but I have worked for/with him for fourteen years now and he sort of grows on you.

I just did a check over at weather.com and so far it looks like Saturday the 31st is going to be sunny and 75. Sweet as long as it holds. I have had a few folks get back in touch with me and I will be emailing directions and addresses on Monday afternoon. As far as I know, Eric and his lovely wife are going to try and be in attendance, Denny thinks he has the weekend free, nothing definitive yet, Tobacco Joe and his family are going to crash the party, Yabu doesn't know if he's going to be in the area or not (he may still be trying to get to Claxton), T1G is probably heading home by then, and RSM is going to be having more fun than all of us put together rappelling out of helicopters with Rangers.

You know, as I told him via email, I just see no good reason to leave the perfectly good ground.

Anyway, I think we are expecting 20 or 30 non-bloggers as well (should be a strangely appealing mixture). My brother is coming with his son and of course my lovely wife is the hostess. McGehee might see if he can make it, which is very polite if he can't, and Libby emailed me and is supposed to let me know. That's a bit of a drive for her as well as Eric and Yabu so we shall see.

Anyway, I figured everyone likes linky love so that's enough for an enjoyable evening of reading.

This is also my weekend open trackback post via linkfest.us

Trackposted to Outside the Beltway, Blog @ MoreWhat.com, Perri Nelson's Website, The Virtuous Republic, The Random Yak, 123beta, Adam's Blog, basil's blog, Stuck On Stupid, The Bullwinkle Blog, Cao's Blog, LaTogaStrappata®, sissunchi, third world county, Faultline USA, Woman Honor Thyself, stikNstein... has no mercy, The World According to Carl, Pirate's Cove, and CORSARI D'ITALIA, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

Technorati : Beerbecue, Blogmeets

I was over at Jimi Morrison's Head and came across this report of a Central Islip, NY teacher who is claiming she was fired because she is a witch. Obviously this has some connotations of possible discrimination but other than that I think the entire thing is stupid.

As I commented over at his site this is a non-issue for me. I recently had a girl who was about nineteen working for me that I fired last month. She very prominently dressed in Goth clothing, claimed she was a witch, and let everyone know that she was a lesbian. Other than the fact that she was obviously trying to garner as much attention as possible I could care less. The FACTS were that she worked like a slug, was not friendly, and not a single week went by that she didn't call in at least once.

Her last week she called out four days out of five. She didn't have to worry about it after that because I gave her plenty of free time to do whatever she felt was necessary for her personal sanity.

What makes the story of Lauren Berrios (the teacher) interesting is that she filed a $2 million federal lawsuit. According to Cnews:

Not to make light of it but that is probably the more truthful explanation. I am sure that there is at least a bit of truth on both sides as well as lies, but damn.

Apparently the Britons had boarded a vessel suspected of smuggling cars in what is claimed as Iraqi waters. The sailors were preparing to leave an re-board their warship when up to six Iraqi Navy ships surrounded them and took them into custody.

The British government has demanded their release and has summoned the Iranian Ambassador to explain the incident.

More information can be found over at CNN.

...at least it was at 8:45 this morning. I was at work at the time, so it is news to me. Got this email from CNN:

Once I have had the opportunity to see what's up I will post more.

Technorati : Iran

Pete has been busting my butt recently about turning her web site into a blog. I made a comment to her about doing it at one point or another and she has really latched on to it. I am very seriously considering it as I wouldn't have to add her stuff by hand to the page any more.

My biggest issue with it is the spam, and the fact that I don't particularly want Web roaming pedophiles leaving comments on her site. I suppose I can password protect it and filter all comments until I have looked at it.

Anyone have any thoughts on this?

Rape-X. Not much else to say is there?

* Updated - I have seen a couple of articles about this, but what made me want to post my answer was the entry that the Zero Boss posted earlier. I trackbacked it and forgot to link to him. How fucking rude of me.

Technorati : Rapex

I've been using these two (mainly the one without horns) on mybloglog, and everywhere else.

and and at blogger I use

Which one do you guys prefer? It matters slightly. Bottom line is that I'm going to use whichever one I most feel like, but it's nice to hear other people's opinions occasionally. Maybe I should wait and see what kind of pictures I can have taken at the beerbecue or I could always use the picture of my ass that I posted awhile back. WAIT! Don't go scurrying for that search box quite yet....

..OK, now you can go.

I probably shouldn't use that one as I might get banned from some of the forums that I frequent.

Whatever. Maybe I should start using Tuco...

My nine year old daughter wrote out this little story for her homework tonight.

Kind of cool. She doesn't do it very often, but Pete likes to write stories. Hopefully there will be more soon for me to put online.

...and blogroll. Blogroll is contained below the fold.

The Wife got a bunch of the basement cleaned out this weekend in addition to the other stuff that we managed to get done. I took three milk-crates of books up to work for anyone that wanted them and managed to get rid of three old monitors as well. It just seems like there is a ton of stuff to get done.

Got an email from Joe Tobacco last night, it looks like he and the family will be making it to the beerbecue. We should have a pretty darn good time. It will be nice to meet some folks that I haven't had the chance to yet.

I think that I am just going to take the rest of the evening off. I have so much stuff that I need to do I feel like I am in over my head. 'When the going gets tough...the tough take a nap'.

Actually the Boy picked up Casino Royale and I am dying to see it. I wasn't even aware that it had been released on DVD until he walked in the door with it.

5 more days...and counting.

My day. You guys need to get your minds out of the gutter.

It's been an extremely long day and I am getting ready to hit the sack. I actually got to sleep in a bit this morning, then the wife and I cooked breakfast. That was kind of nice. With the vacation starting next week, I get three Sundays off in a row. That's almost unheard of for me.

After a bit of time surfing the web we spent the great majority of the day playing in the yard with the chainsaw. The kids got away too quickly for me. I suppose I am just getting too old. I did cut down a bunch of small trees and underbrush though, as well as got the pond cleaned out a bit more, trimmed a bunch of the dead stuff from my flower gardens, cleaned part of the basement, and just generally had a pretty good time.

I grilled up some rib-eyes for dinner. They just totally kicked ass. Rib-eyes, corn on the cob, green beans, and rice to round it off. I'm not sure what it is, but I just can't bring myself to eat steak as rare as I used to. I'm going to have to start cooking mine a bit longer.

30 entries on three blogs this evening. My fingers are tired, but even with the usual bullshit I posted I figure I made a little bit tonight.

Apparently that video over at RSM's site is a table for a yacht and runs about $50k. Damn. I guess if I had that kind of money to throw around I would. For $50k it would have to come with a hot chick lying on top of it or something for that spin action though.

I have six more days until vacation starts and I am counting every minute of it.

Time to go until tomorrow. Later days and better lays.

As I was saying a couple of days ago we are still looking for a decent bedroom set. I ran across a place tonight that sells Powell furniture. From what I have seen so far, their furniture is well made and fairly stylish. I particularly liked a Sarasota headboard and foot-board that I came across. I don't usually like girly stuff. I'm a brick and wood kind of guy, but these are pretty nice and they don't cost too much. That's always a bonus when it's time for me to part with my money.

I know over the last couple of months I have written about several drug treatment centers and given links to several of them, as well as talked about addiction in general. One of the things that I haven't really talked about much is prescription drug addiction.

One of my former employees has been on prescription pain killers for several years. She doesn't see it as a big deal because it's legal, and her doctor prescribes the stuff for her. When you are taking prescription drugs and run out in half the time, that should be some kind of wake-up message that you need help. That's just one of the reasons that I don't take much in the way of medicines, particularly pain killers. It would just be too easy to get addicted.

This girls would get something like a 30 day supply and go through them in a week. She ended up buying more pain killers from another employee. When I found out I ended up terminating both of them for violation of our drug and alcohol policy, but she just moved on down the road to another restaurant where she could make quick cash to pay for her drugs. I hate to think what her life is going to be like in ten years.

It's almost time to renew my auto insurance policy, and in looking around at rates and getting different quotes I ran across Insureflo.com today. It's pretty easy to get a good car insurance quote and only takes a second or two. It only takes about five minutes to go through and have it done. Enter your first name and zip code, and then on the next page all of the pertinent information. I just ran through and it took me four minutes to fill out the form and submit. Pretty nice.

I had not heard about this story until I ran across it over at CNN. Apparently a Boy Scout has been missing from his campsite near the Blue Ridge Parkway since yesterday. It has been pretty darn cold the last couple of nights, so I hope he is OK and found soon. Searchers found his mess kit about a half mile from camp, and they have also found footprints that match his shoes.

It's time again for Supahstar Saturday. It has slipped my mind the last two weeks and I have not participated. Mainly I was just busy at work.

This weeks blogger is Cass of Midlife Musings. I have 'seen' Cass around from time to time since I started doing paid posts and she has several blogs. She is also a very active mother and loves to knit. This is about her and Midlife Musings though, so let's get into that.

Cass writes well, and what I have seen so far is interesting to read. I also like her site template. Most of the time I really hate re/pink combinations, but this is well presented and everything is nice and neat like it belongs there.

Down at the very bottom of her main page is a recipe she has for Enchiladas. I realize that this is a pretty boring subject for most people but I read it and YES, she uses CORN tortillas. We just had enchiladas the other night, and of course I was out of corn tortillas so even though I knew better, I made them with flour tortillas. They sucked. Big time.

One thing that I think is very nice is that she is very obvious about her faith, but not overbearing. Whether I believe in God or not is not the point here, but the fact is that I am NOT a religious person and don't make any bones about it. I don't have any problems with anyone who is or isn't until they start to try and shove it down my throat. Cass doesn't do that. She goes about her business (the part I see, blogging) and lives by example. In other words from what I see she walks the talk.

I read through a couple of pages of her site, because I haven't been over there for more than a few seconds in the last week or so, and the post that most caught my eye was Janey and the Jello. Sometimes it's the stuff that isn't said that tells us the most.

I sure do wish I could hit a happy medium as far as the comment and trackback spam. Since I started doing the open trackback stuff awhile back I opened up one category to accept trackbacks from everyone, but for some reason it still flags them. Some just get marked for me to publish when I check, but others are completely listed as spam and I have to go in and authorize them before they get deleted. It's a pain in the rear becuase I am getting like 750 trackbacks a day minimum and have to go through and decide what to delete and what to keep. Some blogs I don't ever even receive trackbacks from at all when they are sent. Mostly those are wordpress blogs and it is a known issue, but since they are 'competitors' nobody seems to be in a huge rush to fix it.

RSM has located the table that I need for my son's hands the next time he is late without calling :)

Technorati : Child Discipline, Furniture

I was over at Lisa's site yesterday and saw that she was taking her blog down. Sad to see it go. It was really nice to meet her in Helen last year. I'm not linking to the page because it's already been taken over by ad spammers and forwards to a page about Bacterial Endocarditis links.

Hopefully we will see you online soon Lisa. It's always sad to see a blog that you have been frequenting go down.

I ran across an old friend of mine tonight from my teenage years. She and I correspond off and on thru chat and I see her once every few years. We used to be roommates and pretty good friends. She told me some news about another acquaintance of ours that I saw at my friends funeral last year. Check this out...

Apparently the dumb son of a bitch was running a gambling ring out of his house. Now I'm not one of those people that think that gambling is evil or anything. As a matter of fact I think it should be completely legal as well as a lot of other stuff, but for now it IS illegal, so you can't be running a gambling house unless you expect to be arrested at some point.

I used to live with this guy when I was 17 or so. His parents put up with several of us living in their house in Roswell for several years.

I found a link to the news clip here and a thread from back in January talking about it here. I must say this really sucks.

Also found this article from the Gainesville Times.

Spent most of the afternoon working in the yard. I must say it looks a great deal better now. I cut the grass and the wife blew most of the leaves back into the yard so that I could mulch them with the mower. I pulled a few weeds, but there are quite a few more to work on tomorrow. We moved the plants from the basement where they have wintered, out into the end of the driveway, and watered them.

I also cleaned a ton of leaves from the goldfish pond and turned the waterfall pump back on. My nice one is shot, I will have to get another later, but it's enough to send a small stream through the filter and help clean it out. I probably swapped out about a third of the water. I'll do more next week once the crap has had time to settle.

Tomorrow we are going to clean out some of the underbrush out back and burn a bit of it. I'll be wanting a fire at the beerbecue, so will save the larger stuff for that.

I posted a bit yesterday or the day before about savingsaccounts.com and decided that I would check back over there again. There are even more sites listed with high interest yielding savings accounts than there was yesterday. The highest is still 6% but they are all exceptional rates, from big-name banks such as mine. I am looking into this, as my current savings account with them is only getting about a .5% rate.

I just feel like it is so important for people to know that they could be making more money than they are now. This isn't a site like BankRate or CNN Money or any others that you need to be a financial adviser to read and understand.

One thing I found today that I didn't read too thoroughly before is that they have a pretty good resource center with helpful articles such as 'Teens, Young Adults Need Money Skills'. Oh yeah, I can agree here. I only wish I had something this easy to get to when I was 20.

Technorati : investment, savings

Some how I have actually managed to get the weekend off. This might be my first St Patricks Day off in 20 years. It's particularly weird since I start my vacation NEXT weekend.

Before we had that great historical text known as the bible christians still had saints and traditions that were handed down. Found this by way of Dean's World:

Happy Saint Patrick's Day everyone. Now go get you some green beer and keep it down otherwise that other saint, the great porcelain god, will grab your ass and have you heaving into it's altar.

This guy hid 25 vials of cocaine and a crack rock in his six year old's jacket, then tried to go to the school to get it back. Not cool. Don't you know it's supposed to go in their book bag?

Thanks to Snark the News for the link.

I am done for the evening. Got a bit of work done, surfed the web for awhile, wathced watched a movie. I'm not even making much sense to myself so it is time to go hit the sack for a couple of hours at least. Thanks god for spell check. I'm going to be an jerk when I wake up tomorrow with so little sleep. Who needs beer when you can just stay up for a couple of days. Better hallucinations, less hangover effect.

Joining another blogroll, the Review Bloggers Blogroll.

The blogroll itself is below the fold.

Why not? It certainly sounded cool. I actually ran across the tag line a couple of years ago at one of the sites participating in EATAPETA DAY (EATA is for Eat a Tasty Animal). That's right. It's today, March 15th. Used to be called 'Eat an Animal for Peta Day" but EATAPETA is much cooler.

I'm not particularly for animal cruelty, but we ARE at the top of the food chain after all. Hopefully the nice juicy pork chops that I ate for supper tonight were not treated too cruelly before they made their way to my frying pan. Just in case, I ate a double burger about 1 PM today. Tasty yummy cow flesh. Eat more chicken indeed. If I still had my leather jacket I would have worn it while munching as well.

Technorati : EATAPETA Day, Eat A Tasty Animal for PETA, Peta

Small Business Mavericks is a company that helps managers and small business owners by teaching them how to successfully market their business locally on the Internet. The use easy to understand terms, and help fight through the common misconceptions about advertising on the Internet.

I used to run a sole ownership corporation, and I would get emails and offers constantly from marketing firms and advertising salespeople trying to pitch their wares. It was expensive, and certainly would not have helped me out at all.

Small Business Mavericks have recently released a downloadable marketing book called "How to Get Massive Publicity for Your Local Small Biz - Even on a Shoestring Budget". It's $39 and at $113 pages is packed full of valuable information and success stories. Some of the content of the book includes:

The lessons in the book are very simple and effective. Small Business Mavericks really cares about the success of small businesses and is knowledgeable in ways to provide information to succeed online.

They are positive that you will find what you need in the book, and are offering it with a 30-day money-back guarantee.

LoudLaunch - Compensating bloggers for their unbiased opinions, reviews, and analysis. View the LoudLaunch campaign release this post was based on.

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has suggested that peer to peer file sharing might harm children AND threaten national security. Just another move by 'big brother' to take control of something that have no control over. By turning it into a threat on national security you might just be the next person to sit in jail for terrorism. All because you had to have that copy of These Arms of Mine.

I will be the judge of what is harmful to my children thank you very much.

Technorati : File Sharing, National Security
Del.icio.us : File Sharing, National Security

It's official. We've decided to have a beerbecue on the 31st. I am looking forward to getting the chance to relax a little and just hang out. I have the feeling I will have plenty to do for the week and a half I am on vacation though, with the yard being in the condition it is.

That and if I am going to have company I will want to maybe clean something around the house. Maybe.

Just don't bring any rattlesnakes.

Technorati : Beerbecue

It's kind of interesting. I have a little box where I save 'weird' change and bills. It's not that the money is really weird or anything, but it's not in circulation anymore. As a matter of fact, it gets snapped up by collectors, collected by the U.S. Treasury, and either melted down to make 50 times the amount of money, or hoarded like I do. Silver coins minted before 1965, Gold dollars, I even save worthless junk like the $2 bill. Obviously the $2 isn't quite worthless, but compared to the coinage it is.

Back when my parents were teens, 25 cents would get you a gallon of gas at the gas station. Nowadays it's $3-4 in some states. It's almost $3 here. The same amount of silver that was in that quarter from 45 years ago will still buy a gallon of gas. That's the problem. It's REAL money, and we don't use it. Inflation isn't that the cost of living has gone up it means that the value of our paper money has gone down. That's a very simplistic way of putting it, but it's the truth. A Silver dollar minted in the 1880's will still buy the same amount of tools, groceries, clothing that it would 127 years ago, maybe even more.

You don't hear about investing in silver (or gold) quite as often as other stuff nowadays. Mostly it's the stock market, mutual funds, that 401k, 403b, 529, DPP, stock ownership. Silver is solid and will always be worth a great deal more than the paper money that made our society go around 20 years ago, and the electrons that do the same thing now.

Since 1967, over a hundred thousand investors have purchased billions of dollars in the countries largest coin dealer, Monex. They are the biggest coin dealer with the most experience in the business. They will let you do an outright cash purchase and have it delivered to your door, or they will even finance your purchase with a minimum 20% down payment. That's a pretty good deal.

I'm not some survivalist nut, but what happens if the economy crashes to a halt? What if it does so for a long period of time? Obviously barter and trade goods would become much more important, but so would solid REAL money. Probably not a bad idea to have a bit stashed away in that emergency box in your basement that has food, water, and batteries. You do have one don't you?

...one of which is to try to go down the embankment on a boogie board. Need I say more?

The video sucks, it was done quickly on a cell phone in low light. You don't need to see much more anyway.

Technorati : Parenting

Picture day was a short while ago, and they came in today. There's one up at the wife's site. Damn, these guys think A LOT of their work. One 11x14 and a couple of sheets and it was like putting a damn down payment on a car. Come to think of it, I only paid about $25 more for my first car.

Maybe I should get back into photography. I know that equipment and processing is expensive, but with the advent of digital photography half the expense is gone now. I figure the 11x14 had about 300% markup.

I knew I had found someplace interesting when I read this...

Damn, if only Rob could be here now. The comments after the article are even better...if you can imagine.

Barbecue was wonderful tonight too oh by the way.

Have a lovely evening.

Technorati : How to Wipe Your Ass

You can now add the Recent Readers widget to a myspace page, which is pretty cool. I have always mainly used myspace just to keep track of my son, and I occasionally post there when I can't get here.

Now if we can just get someone to write an MT plugin for comments and mybloglog then I will get rid of the crappy gravatar stuff that doesn't seem to work 90% of the time.

Last one for today anyway :)

I didn't manage to make it past the last round. There were a bunch of votes cast though, so thanks guys. Anyway, rather than dragging it out for six more weeks, Leesa decided to take the 16 blogs that were left, and put them up for a vote. This poll will last all week, and there are some really good blogs left to vote for, one of them being the Straight White Guy himself. Some of the folks that have been visiting here recently don't know who Eric is, but they need to go check his site out and then go to Leesa's blog and vote for him.

Don't let the fact that he is a jarhead scare you off. Once you have read his blog you will realize that occasionally 'military' and 'intelligence' CAN be used in a sentence together at the same time. Occasionally. Once in a very great while.

I can't give him too much shit about being a grunt, as my dad is a U.S. Marine, and my son is leaving for Camp Lejeune in June. The three of them together could kick my butt and you would never find the body.

BTW, for you guys that know me (and even some that don't) I think we are putting together a beerbecue here on the last day of March, Saturday the 31st. Email me if'n you want to join in on the festivities. I'll be in the middle of my vacation so can spend a couple of days nursing a hangover.

I will post more information about the party later. Since it's a weekend, we will have plenty of space for people to pass out have a nap if needed and there are hotels within seven miles as well. Nothing particularly special, but it's about time for a damn party and I am still pissed because I couldn't get down to Savannah for the drunk fest Claxton to see the Rattlesnakes.

I'm going to make this one an open trackback as well, get a couple of folks over to vote.

Trackposted to Outside the Beltway, Blog @ MoreWhat.com, Perri Nelson's Website, Mark My Words, Big Dog's Weblog, basil's blog, DragonLady's World, The Bullwinkle Blog, Conservative Cat, Conservative Thoughts, third world county, Faultline USA, Wake Up America, stikNstein... has no mercy, The World According to Carl, Overtaken by Events, Pirate's Cove, The Pink Flamingo, High Desert Wanderer, and Right Voices, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

Technorati : Battle of the Blogs, Straight White Guy

For some reason my comments pop-up looks screwy, I will try and fix it this afternoon. I have someone else's website to still fix if I get the chance today first. Also, I had a couple of people tell me that it took awhile to figure out which nifty icon to use for comments, so I just added the word back in to make it easier.

It's back to work again after a couple of days off, so I haven't a clue as to when I will get off this afternoon. With the time change I darn sure didn't want to get up this morning.

Sunday is the last day to vote in the Battle of the Blogs, at least for this round of voting. There will be one more round next week for the sixteen blogs that make it through tomorrow. The last time I was over there was at about 2 AM this morning, and The Yellow Duck Pond was leading me 35-27 votes. That's quite a few votes cast. If you haven't had the chance to vote yet, head on over to Leesa's Stories and vote.

While you are there, check out some of her archives. She is a pretty good writer of erotic fiction.

...once again. I don't know why or how I do it to myself, but I was up until about 2:30 this morning, and have been up since shortly after 7. The oldest girl spent the night at a friends house, and this morning I was all in the mood for a bit of extra-curricular activity when the four year old climbs up on the bed just a grinning. Oh well, now we are out front watching Higglytown Heroes or some such nonsense. Oh well, sleep is just a cheap caffeine substitute anyway.

The county is doing their "drawing" to see who gets into pre-k this year. My daughter's school has 40 open slots, and at least 70 kids on the list to get in. The wife and a couple of friends are going to drive down to the Board of Education this morning to watch the drawing and make sure all goes well. Even if she doesn't get in, our day-care also has a state-sponsored pre-k as well, and since she already goes, she is guaranteed a spot. It would just be easier for her to attend school with her sister, and after-school care is cheaper as well, and more convenient for us to pick them up at the same place.

While they are gone I will probably end up going grocery shopping. My check sucked balls this week, so it's going to be a tight two weeks to come.

The Boy had to go to another eye exam yesterday. His vision has actually improved quite a bit, and we should know this week if his waiver is OK. If so, they will swear him in by the end of the week. Damn, it's coming fast.

I've been meaning to blogroll Ben Spark's site for awhile, haven't gotten around to it until now. Anyway, he has posted his 700th Photo a Day. He's got a pretty cool sidebar thing you can add to your blog sidebar as well.

I doubt very seriously if we are speaking about the same meeting of bloggers, as mine involves rattlesnakes and booze, but I know just how Samm feels this weekend.

I am not a huge fan of expressionist art, but having my grandmother and both aunts as painters I am familiar with art and how it speaks to us of the painters dreams and visions. Viktor Lysakov has been painting for over twenty years, and even before that he knew that art was his destiny and where he could put his particular vision.

For the first time, his paintings are know available to the American public for their collections. They are vibrant, almost jumping off the canvas to grab you. What I find striking is that each print is accompanied by a story as well, capturing the artists imagination and giving us a glimpse inside his soul.

Each of his prints that are offered for sale are replicated in giclée format and are reprinted digitally on UV-resistant, museum quality archival canvas.

Lysakov Art Company opened in Pacific Grove California in February 2007. Viktor Lysakov came from Moscow as well to partake in the opening and introduce himself to the prospective collectors who attended.

For now, there are only 40 of his select paintings that have been released. They range in size from a small 14x14 print all the way up to 58x50. The edition size itself is small as well, numbering only 395 signed and numbered, and 30 giclée canvas prints. Giclée is a process where a digital printer sprays millions of tiny drops at a time on the canvas, resulting in the next best thing to an actual production piece of art

By the end of the year 2007 Lysakov plans to partner with at least 20 other galleries around the U.S. who will be able to purchase and display his art.

Russian Artist Victor Lysakov also has an online web presence where you can preview his art and learn about his history, as well as purchase limited edition hand-signed prints. My favorite is probably the 'Bow and Arrow Angel'.

LoudLaunch - Compensating bloggers for their unbiased opinions, reviews, and analysis. View the LoudLaunch campaign release this post was based on.

Apparently Sweden has been tapping people's phones for decades, and just now legislators are trying to get laws passed to make it legal. Why bother?

Federal agents arrested a construction company's president and some of the employees on Friday after they raided it. Apparently the company was using illegal aliens and used lookouts to watch out for INS agents.

They arrested eight illegal aliens on Friday and said that 30 others had been picked up prior to that during the investigation.

Companies all over the U.S. know the laws, and they have all had plenty of time to make sure that they hired U.S. citizens or legal immigrants, so there is just no excuse for it other than greed.

Technorati : Illegal Aliens, Immigration

This can't be good for the food producer, ConAgra

Technorati : ConAgra, Food Poisoning, Peanut Butter

I've posted before about drug treatment, and some of the problems in finding the right one. Addiction is something I deal with on a daily basis at work. Drugs as so prevalent among the people that work for me and their children that it is amazing. I can see kids without the proper direction getting mixed up in junk that they shouldn't, but these are supposedly self-respecting responsible adults that should know better. At least on the surface.

Drug addiction is just a symptom of other issues though. Normally there are underlying issues that need to be dealt with, but first you have to detox the addict and get them to the point where they WANT to work on themselves and deal with the issues. 1-800-NO-DRUGS is a drug treatment referral service that is free to use and helps people with substance abuse problems find an effective drug treatment program that will help to get them straightened out.

drug rehab is a huge decision; once you have made that choice there are countless thousands of treatment centers around the country, and actually knowing where to look can be a issue you can get help with by calling.

Apparently a government audit released Friday says that the FBI seriously misused National Security Letters, which agents send to third parties to request personal and business information about people (such as financial, phone, and internet records) without court orders.

This is all part of our wonderful Patriot Act.

The review examined improper and illegal misuses of NSLs and identified 26 possible intelligence violations that occurred between 2003 ans 2005. 26 Doesn't seem like a lot unless you happen to be one of the people that information was delivered to the FBI about.

The report also shows that the FBI under-reported requests for NSLs by 20%. They issued more than 19,000 letter, asking for 47,000 individual requests on personal information. How many fucking terrorists do they think we have here anyway?

IN a two to one decision, the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for Washington D.C. held that the 2nd Amendment applies to individuals, not just militias as a D.C. law stated.

This is the first time that an appeals court has ever struck down a gun control law on second amendment grounds.

I haven't checked to see if Steve Huff has blogged about this yet, I was unaware of it until I ran across the report over at time.com via CNN a few minutes ago. If he has, I am sure he has gone into much greater detail than I ever will be able to.

Apparently 17-year-old Bryan Grove allegedly stabbed his girlfriend's mother to death in her Denver home. He and his girlfriend, Tess Damm, 15-years-old, hated her mother because of her drinking.

When police arrested the two of them three weeks later, they found the body of Linda Damm crammed into the trunk of a car after they had received an anonymous tip.

What Time is calling extraordinary is that the two teens documented their feelings about the entire thing on their myspace pages several weeks before and after the murder.

They have both been charged as adults, and Bryan has been charged with 1st-degree murder and is under suicide watch.

Bryan's myspace page is here and an earlier one is here. The first one is the usual myspace garbage templates that people put up, and it looks as if all incriminating entries have been pulled from the site. It's amazing that it's still there at all. According to Time, Tess's page is still active as well, but I couldn't find it.

Updated - Sure enough, Huff has gotten a bunch of pertinent info and relevant links, as he usually does, here. Now I'm going over there to read it. Go as well, if you are interested. I did find the link to Tess's page over there as well.

Technorati : Bryan Grove, Murder, MySpace, Tess Damm

...even though Kroger says she can.

Apparently Kroger's policy is to supply it's customers with the Morning After pill, even if pharmacists refuse to supply it. That doesn't seem to do Carrie Baker of Rome, Georgia any good since she was denied the pill at the Kroger located there. Kroger responded by 'reiterating it's policies on the matter.

Exactly what the fuck is that supposed to mean? Reiterated. It doesn't say that they shitcanned the pharmacists for not following company policy, now does it? Which leads me to believe that they are wishy-washy on the whole thing and don't really give a crap about their customers.

I don't know if things have changed since the early '80s, but I was employed by Kroger, Co prior to the company where I have worked for the last 20 years and I tend to agree with that last assessment. They care almost as little about their employees as they do about their customers.

Of course this was just my experience with the one store and one manager, it certainly doesn't suggest that the entire company is like that.

Technorati : Kroger, Morning After Pill, Pharmacy

...at least for the adults. The Wife went out with a couple of friends of ours. They are going to a place called Gabe's which is supposed to be VERY good. Wish I could go. I'm not particularly interested in hanging with the girls, but good food is always nice.

I'm spending the evening with MY girls, as well as one of the ladies children. Pizza just got here, and I figured I would post for awhile before getting back to work.

I spend the great majority of the morning working out in the yard while RePete rode the scooter. I mulched a bunch of the leaves, and cut the really ugly part of the backyard. I pulled a few plants from the basement. It's almost time to get the rest of them out as well. Just a couple more weeks.

I still have several things to do this evening. Once I have put up a couple of posts and finished eating I will get around to those.

Still have to finish fixing a website for Kat that I worked on last week. There were a few overlooked items that I want to make look a bit better. I have to balance my checkbook. Haven't looked at it in a week or so, so that will take a few minutes, then I will work on those PCs and finish taxes for somebody else. I may boot up the computers and let them run for awhile, as they can run while I am doing other stuff.

...and more stuff. I have another ladies taxes to do, a laptop to look at, a PC to fix and need to pay some bills. First I am taking RePete outside to ride a scooter for awhile though, so it may be this evening before I get the opportunity to post anything.

...digitally anyway. I knew it would happen sooner or later. There's quite a bit of voting going on over at the battle of the blogs. Between YellowDuck and myself we have managed to garner 54 votes. Unfortunately he has 31 of them, so if you haven't voted, head on over.

Technorati : Battle of the Blogs

I got a letter home from Pete's school yesterday. It's an 'unexcused tardy/early checkout notification' from her school. She has been tardy three times and had three unexcused early checkouts. This year. The entire fucking year. Guess what asshole, I AM EXCUSING THEM.

That's one of the things that I really miss about private school, not having to deal with bullshit like this. I think one of the tardies is because we really were late. It was pretty recently actually. I just don't do late, but the Wife and RePete were sick and I had to take the Bot to the hospital that day, and it was my day off. We slept in.

What pisses me off is that the letter says that if she has any more it will be referred to the principal. Well refer the fuck away jack and mind your own business next time.

I understand that there are a lot of kids that are probably consistently tardy and this has to be dealt with, but unfortunately this letter is a result of their poor record keeping as two of the three tardies were excused. I get to go down to the office and deal with it on Friday, that should be fun.

...so that you TOO can be like Al Gore. Brought to you by way of Scooter's Report. I am only posting a couple, you need to go to Scooter's Report to really laugh your ass off.

Anyhow. Go check it out. It's about time for me to hit the sack. It's been a long day and tomorrow isn't going to be any easier.

Now that I have had a bit of time to read, I found that John Couey was found guilty of murder, kidnapping, sexual assault, and burglary in the kidnapping and death of Jessica Lunsford.

The jurors only had to deliberate for four hours before coming up with the guilty verdicts. They will be back in there Tuesday and decide whether to recommend he be sentenced to life in prison or the death penalty. Too bad they can't recommend a slow torturous burning one limb at a time while being dismembered. Maybe that sounds a bit bloodthirsty, but his is the worst kind of crime in my eyes.

Technorati : Jessica Lunsford, John Couey

Holy cow. I do a little bit of gaming on my iPaq, but mainly stuff like solitaire and jawbreaker. I have always saved the really graphic games for the PC because most of the games for the pocket PC just suck, at least the graphics do. Clickgamer.com has an exclusive english version of Siberia 2 for purchase right now. This has the best graphics of any VGA game designed for the pocket PC that I have seen yet. Check out these screenshots.

Remember, this is a POCKET PC game. I am used to seeing little 2D representations in games that I download for my iPaq. This is amazing.

Here are some more to check out.

This might change the way I game. It'll sure give me something to do at work when I am bored. Well, maybe not, but it's a nice thought.

The premise of the story is that Kate Walker sets out with Hans Voralberg to find the last of the rumored Syberian mammoths at the center of a long forgotten universe in this sequel to Syberia.

The game has an original storyline that will suck you in. There are puzzles that test your skill throughout the game, and sound for a completely immersing experience.

Check out clickgamer.com for more information about Syberia 2 and Pocket PC requirements.

LoudLaunch - Compensating bloggers for their unbiased opinions, reviews, and analysis. View the LoudLaunch campaign release this post was based on.

A full month after Lisa Nowak drove 900 miles to kidnap a love rival NASA has finally terminated her employment. Maybe they were trying to offer her a one-way trip to Neptune over jail?

Just in case you forgot about it, here's that nifty song dedicated to Lisa Nowak

Maybe all of those people that hate the constitution and constantly complain about free speech and our right to use it (on BOTH the right AND left) need to go spend some quality time in Turkey and see that censorship is not all it's cracked up to be.

Technorati : Censorship, Turkey, Youtube

It's that time again. I haven't posted anything about web searches and how people are getting here lately.

Tonight it seems to mostly be about Jessica Marie Lunsford 9 out of the last 20 searches have been for her since the news about Coueys conviction was released.

Still getting boring old youtube porn searches.

I get about 20 hits a day searching for 'easter dresses'. That's cause I did an ad awhile back for easter dresses. I deleted the post because the reviewer decided that my blog was not about parenting or business. No big deal, but you don't get any free links out of it.

My favorite search of the day though has to be...

....

Wait for it....

Actually it's going to be CHILI again. That batch I made the other night was too damn hot to eat. I like spicy food, but I couldn't even eat this stuff. I have made up another batch tonight with NO cayenne and combined the two. Hopefully I won't kill anyone in the process. It tastes much better. RePete won't touch the stuff, so I will make her sandwiches or something and just let the chili simmer for another hour or so before I eat it. Pete and the Wife are at softball practice until 6:30 or 7 PM so I can wait for them to eat. It will be even that much better by then.

In that ad I did a little while ago, I mentioned our friend that is going through a divorce. Apparently her soon to be ex got involved with some folks that bought and sold drugs. Actually he has probably been involved for quite awhile, I did a little bit of computer work for him over the last three or four years and there was always someone of disreputable quality hanging out at the office.

Apparently he got a settlement or something and rather than giving it to the client, either spent it, or gave it to these other bad people. The client is pretty pissed off and complained to the Bar Association (duh, like that wasn't coming) and the attorney has been arrested. He ALSO owes these drug people money, so they DON'T want their attorney friend in jail because he cannot make any money there.

What a fricking drama. Sometimes bad things happen to good people. I have made quite a few bad decisions in my life, but for the most part I try to do the right thing, and things in my life just keep getting better. When you constantly make bad choices and do stupid evil shit, then stupid evil shit is going to happen to you.

That was the first thing that came to my mind when I took that opp, but it certainly wasn't appropriate for that kind of post.

Doing some laundry upstairs (bet you thought I was going to talk about that attorney's dirty laundry dintcha?). The wife is going to shit pickles when she figures out that she doesn't have to do laundry tonight. Yeah, it is for purely selfish reason, but it's getting done nonetheless (is that really a word?). Since the Boy has started working for us, he sneaks in my closet and gets my work slacks and wears them. And leaves them on his damn floor so that they don't get washed and I run out of clothes in the middle of the week. Nothing is nastier than having to wear the same pair of pants two days in a row. It would be different if I were still working in an office, but I cook all day for gods sake.

I think that when I get paid Friday I will go to the hated Wally World and get a new pair of slacks.

John Couey has been found guilty of murdering 9-year-old Jessica Lunsford in Homosassa Springs, Florida. I will try to post a bit more when I have some more information.

Technorati : Jessica Lunsford, John Couey

I was checking out Leesa's site when I got home from work this afternoon, and there has been quite a bit of participation. Between myself and YellowDuck we have garnered 40 votes (at least to me it seems like a lot). I am leading slightly by about 10% right now which is four votes for those like myself who are not mathematically inclined.

If you haven't voted yet, get on over there. The voting ends for this round on Sunday night. Originally she was going to let it go the full six weeks, but I think decided that everyone would get tired of it, so next week she is going to put the sixteen 'finalists' up and let everyone vote their favorite. I know I am not good enough to win that, but it would be nice to get into that vote anyhow. There are a lot of really good blogs that I have found through the contest, which was the entire point of the whole thing.

Here is the link to go vote. I am the third game down the page.

She doesn't post quite as prolifically as some unnamed bloggers around here, but when Chou posts something good MAN can she write. Go check this out and see where my reference to the Duke of Perversion came from (it certainly wasn't me that coined it).

...I don't know where my mind is at today. I shot out of work at 2:10 or so, picked up RePete and raced home figuring that the wife could get Pete on her way home. I am a dumbass. I just realized that she (the wife) has a 4 PM doctor's appointment. Guess I need to get off my butt and go get Pete. She has art club today anyway so won't be finished until five or five thirty so at least I am not late.

Senior night was February 6th, and I posted about it as well as some pictures, but I was over at Youtube for the first time in a few weeks, and realized that I had shot a short video with my phone and sent it to youtube. Here it is, what there is of it.

Since both the wife and I dropped out and ended up getting our GEDs before going to college, Chris will have been the first to make it through High School since his grandparents. I am very proud of him.

Fuelmyblog has been updated and these nifty buttons have been added. I put it over on the sidebar somewhere. There are a ton of good blogs (as well as some not so good) listed over there on the wall. Either way, it is a pretty cool directory

Technorati : Fuel My Blog, fuelmyblog.com

It caught me unawares, but the Carnival of Snark #27 is up over at Electric Venom. Go check it out for extreme stupidity and snarkiness.

Technorati : Carnival of Snark

I find it interesting that the wife took to blogging and enjoyed being around them as well (even when the turds came out of the punchbowl). I know I post prolifically, but most of it is rants, or stuff I find amusing, or stuff I am getting paid to post, but very rarely will I post something quite from the heart like this. Made me cry for awhile (don't fucking tell anyone).

I really had not expected to stay in quite this long. Right now I am leading 16 votes to 14, VERY close. We still have until midnight Sunday evening, so it could go either way. I haven't checked to see how SWG is doing today, but I am sure he is doing very well. Since he's such a quality writer (and might sneak up behind you and cut your throat for voting against him) he is bound to do very well. Anyway, if you haven't voted, WTF are you waiting on?

I am so wanting to go down to Claxton this weekend and check out the rattlesnake roundup (or at least the drunk blodgers that will be there). While I am there I can always pick up a fruit cake or two. I need to find out what day they are going. As I am off on Friday and Saturday this week AND it's payday, I might be able to swing a trip down on Friday. Don't want to do it Saturday because I won't drive home drunk and I hate working with a hangover. Not that that is a guaranteed thing, but it is a pretty safe bet that there will be a good deal of hooch there.

All of these guys are going, so I know it's going to be a damn good time. When that bunch gets together, just watch for the cops (and don't make any illegal u-turns).

...that oughta get some damn links, hahaha.

This is why I like hanging out over at Pointless Drivel...

Man, anyone that can post this shit is just as crazy as the Jawja Bloggers out here. He is just south of us, after all.

Technorati : Paris Hilton

I'm not sure what came over me, but I submitted the site for review here and here on the same day. I guess I am a glutton for punishment, and after having read the review that was done on Elisson, I just figured that any linkage is good linkage or something along those lines.

I am actually supposed to be reviewing another blog, that's what got me to thinking about this. Get to it dude. We now return you to your abnormal programming.

This has nothing to do with the post or subject at hand, but it just sprang into my head. I just took my vitamin and noticed, apparently for the first time that they are gray. What's up with that? GRAY vitamins. Maybe they are out of date. Either that or it's the whole soylent green thing coming back to get me.

Anyway, I like all the doodads, gizmos, and gimcracks that I put on the sidebars but for all you guys that make them and want to host them on your own server, get a fatter fucking pipe. It took like 40 seconds for the Zoom Cloud thing to load this morning, before the rest of my page would even load. I don't know if they were having server issues or a lot of traffic or what, but that lagginess is the reason that I won't host blogrolls from blogrolling.com on my main page. I will put them in an entry and then link to that but that's it. That's why the stickam player, and twitter, and whatever that chat thing was are gone. I don't expect my site to load instantly, but I do expect it to load within a few seconds.

...before I have to go to work. I was checking out the "On this Day" thing again this morning, as my previous stuff can actually make for some pretty good blog fodder and I came across this one. In the post is a link that takes you to a page at Pushback and includes a few quotes from environmentalists. I decided to include them here this time. I always need a good laugh in the morning.

I've got a bid old pot of Chili cooking up right now. I love chili and cornbread, unfortunately I neglected to buy cornbread and I don't have any corn meal so the kids are going to have chili...and chili. Hey! It's got meat, vegetables(onions, corn in the masa flour), and fruit (tomatoes). What else do you need?

I am using this template over at Technobabble and really like it so I figured I would swap out for awhile. You guys let me know which one you prefer.

The Carnival of Posties is up over at Amy's place and this week's theme is Music!. There are a bunch of blogs in this week's carnival, so go check it out.

Technorati : Carnival of Posties

Round two of the Battle of the Blogs is up over at Leesa's Stories. SWG and I are still in the competition. Just scroll down the page till you find the proper place to vote and check out some of the other blogs still in the competition. This round will also last for a week, so get on over and vote for your favorite blogs.

So far Eric has two votes to zero, but of course this round just started today. For those that have memory like mine, he is competing in the Southern Bracket, and I am in the Eastern. Right now I am losing :( by one vote. That of course can be corrected.

I am competing this week against the Yellow Duck Pond. From his blurb over at the contest:

I checked out his blog, and like me it is pretty much a general blog about whatever strikes his fancy. He's got a pretty good post up today about the Iranian issue that you might be interested in reading.

Some of the blogs that I like are:

Miss Britt - As soon as I read the line, "ANYway...last night, my husband and I were having some kind of conversation about his penis" I knew I would have to read more. Another to add to the huge ass blogroll.

What makes it difficult to vote is that she is competing against iGoddess who I also found pretty cool. Damn, I'll have to ponder that one for awhile.

There are plenty of other blogs to keep your ass busy for awhile, so go check some of them out.

This seems to be going around everywhere I look, so not to be a member of the sheep her or anything, but I am a member of the sheep herd tonight.

You Are 48% Texas

At first, you seem Texan... but just because a chicken has wings don't mean it can fly.

I missed this article back in January, but I was somewhat aware of some rumors about this. Ron Paul had apparently formed an exploratory committee for a run at the Presidency in 2008. Now THAT would be very nice. Ron Paul is a serious constitutionalist. He believes in small government. No, he REALLY believes in small government. He was originally a Libertarian candidate for President, but he switched parties and has served as Corpus Christi's congressman for 18 years.

I would seriously love to see him in the White House and he can count on my vote should he decide to run.

He has a lot to say (and write). You can find a bunch of his writings and opinions here.

Damn, I've just been sidetracked. Gray pubic hairs (not mine). That is all.

Technorati : 2008 Election, Ron Paul

...for awhile anyway. Seven months ago I posted a very short article entitled Al Sharpton is a Moron. It dealt with a story from last year where Sharpton said that blacks that are successful in in the business world should not turn their backs on the civil rights leaders (meaning himself) and groups who helped open the doors for them. Basically I agree to an extent, but I feel like people such as Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson are holding that door half open and slamming it shut on anyone who gets too close.

Anyway, this idiot decided to stop by today and proceeded to leave this comment:

Of course, the original comment in the entry has been edited to included his email address and IP address, not that it matters since he posted from the library. So here's the deal Bobby Miker from Queens, NY. You are a friggin' idiot. You need to learn how to spell. You need to learn a bit of grammar. You also need to understand that when you type in all caps, it means you are shouting, or perhaps you use ONE word to emphasize something. I am far from having perfect grammar, and a few well placed epithets are always called for but using racial slurs generally is not. If you really are black, as you claim in your rambling lunacy, then you need to understand that it is people like YOU (there's those damn caps again) that give black people such a bad rap amongst the rednecks out here (like me).

Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately as the case may be) I seriously doubt you are truly African-American or any other minority. You are probably just some fat old redneck (like myself) who is so stupid and ugly that you haven't had any pussy in 15 years (unlike myself).

If you insist on returning here and commenting with any more of your witty banter, please be aware that I reserve the right to edit those comments, and to post them here for everyone to look at and laugh at.

Have a nice day asshole. If I were like Denny and had the AOTW, it would have to be you.

Technorati : Al Sharpton, Asshats, Morons, Racism

Sometimes I wish that there weren't quite so many blogs that I like to read. Normally I spend mornings writing whatever I am going to post for the day, saving a few spots for later, and then I visit places form my blogroll in the evening.

I just really haven't had much to say this morning other than that last rant about work, so I went down through the list and visited a few sites. Didn't feel much like commenting, but it was nice surfing. The only problem? Not enough time to go through the entire list.

I guess if that is the only problem that I have today it will be a great day.

This post over at Elisson's place got me to thinking about something I have not eaten literally in years. Peanut butter and cream cheese. This is one rocking sandwich. Luckily I have both in my kitchen so I immediately got to work on my sandwich. It's better on bagels but wheat bread would have to suffice.

RePete wouldn't even try it, but Pete took a bite and it came out of her mouth about as fast as if I had given the dog a carrot. Meaning it barely made it in before being spit out. These damn kids just don't know a good thing when they taste it.

As I do every couple of days since I put that "On This Day" thing on the sidebar, I check and see what I have posted on this day in the past.

Last year I had seven posts up, which was a lot at that time. I had post #1000 on this day last year. It was nothing particularly groundbreaking, but what I find interesting is that at that time the blog had been in existence for almost three years, at least in blog format. I wrote 1000 posts the first three years. I hit 2000 last month, and am up to 2123 with this post. I am definitely posting more. Three times as much since it took me less than a year to hit that second thousand. Most of them have probably been in the last four months, although I'm damn sure not going to count to find out.

I also did a bit of shit-blogging on this day. Nothing quite as amazing in this one I suppose. I also attempted to take a picture of myself shaving my head, but it didn't quite turn out as well as these latest pics.

In 2005 I only had one post, something to do with blogrolls and php includes. Nothing particularly interesting. I didn't post anything at all in 2004. That's something else that is a bit different. My posts are longer, and I don't remember the last day that I actually skipped. I have had a few where I didn't post anything at all besides "I don't have anything to post today, but that is about it.

If you have read this far you must be incredibly bored out of your mind right now.

This has been a pretty bad week for some folks, so I guess all of us that are here need to be pretty damned grateful. When I was sitting in the outpatient waiting room at the hospital yesterday waiting for the Boy to get X-Rays of his wrist I guess CNN was on, so there was the live report about that bus from Bluffton University that went over the wall in Atlanta killing six people and injuring the other 29, some of them pretty seriously. It sounds like the bus took an HOV lane exiting at the top of the expressway and just didn't stop. There weren't and skid marks and it sounds like they just didn't know where the hell they were going, Our thoughts go out to everyone involved and their families. That just pretty much sucks.

The news is saying something line nine people died as a result of the snowstorm that blanketed the Midwest this week. Flights have been canceled, cars and trucks are just sitting there stranded. All kinds of people are without power. Damn. That's the second storm in a week, so it's got to be pretty tough out there. Global warming at work I am sure.

All in all I would guess that getting up and going to work this morning isn't so bad after all when you look at the alternatives.

This is my weekend open trackback post for March 2nd-4th. For some reason I have had some issues with Wordpress blogs pinging me. I'm not sure yet whether or not I can fix it. Also, some of the pings are being caught as spam. I do check, so if you ping me through the Linkfest and it doesn't show up right away, I check the spam box when I get home from work and will activate it. If anyone knows what the problem actually is with WP and MT and has a solution, please let me know.

Trackposted to Outside the Beltway, Perri Nelson's Website, Is It Just Me?, The Virtuous Republic, Stuck On Stupid, Leaning Straight Up, The Amboy Times, Rightlinx, third world county, Woman Honor Thyself, stikNstein... has no mercy, The Uncooperative Blogger ®, Pirate's Cove, Overtaken by Events, Renaissance Blogger, The Pink Flamingo, Dumb Ox Daily News, Right Voices, Random Dreamer, A Blog For All, 123beta, Adam's Blog, basil's blog, The Bullwinkle Blog, Phastidio.net, Cao's Blog, Conservative Cat, Jo's Cafe, Conservative Thoughts, Faultline USA, The Crazy Rants of Samantha Burns, The World According to Carl, and Blue Star Chronicles, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

I finished the sidebars last night (or early this morning anyway). I like having the short sidebars with all the stuff hidden, but I think I may swap the two sides. All the stuff on the left bar loads first, and it takes longer than the rest of the page. I don't now. I keep messing with it but am just not satisfied with the design at all.

I have probably changed it 50 times in the few years that I have had it up, and really liked a few of them. I may go back to one of the older setups anyway, apparently I am still having problems with IE 6 users and the right sidebar getting thrown to the bottom of the page. If I switch to something with static tables (which I hate) that may fix the problem. I don't use any graphics in the page setup itself so I should be able to tell it to only take up a certain percentage of the screen for each area.

That's a project for another day off though. I am going to finish this other site tonight and then work on taxes for someone. I just haven't had any motivation whatsoever today.

RePete still isn't feeling very good so after dinner I set her up in the bed and went to put something on the television for her. Giada De Laurentis was on the Food Network so I watched for a second, changed the channel and went back in the kitchen. I made a comment that Giada needed to come cook my dinner.

I'm just sitting here waiting not so patiently. The Boy's appointment was at 10:40, so we got here by 10:15 as this is his first visit to the new doctor. Since he is eighteen now, he can no longer see the doctors that he has been using for fourteen years. It's kind of sad actually.

They finally called him back shortly after 11. I hate coming to the doctor's office just because of the wait. We are supposed to be at the high school by 1PM to pay his senior fees, but may not make it. The wife may have to go up and take care of it for him. They have to be paid or he can't graduate, which is pretty much bullshit.

Since he has hurt his wrist, they may end up sending us next door to get X-rays taken.

Speaking of doctors, we have had to get his eye doctor to write a letter stating that his nystagmus does not keep him from performing anything, he had to also write a letter stating the same, and sign a waiver. The doctors are trying to disqualify him from serving, but it's ok for convicted felons to get waivers and join. More bullshit.

Well, we are sitting and waiting at the hospital now. There's no telling how long this is going to take.

They finally took him back. Maybe this won't take all day.

I really need to get a bluetooth keyboard.

I put RePete to bed right after I posted that last one, and I must have fallen asleep. I've been up for about an hour now and can't get to sleep. This sucks. I managed to finish cleaning up the sidebars and figured I would post for a little while. If I can't get back to sleep in the next hour or so I will go ahead and make some coffee and get to working on that other site I mentioned.

The Boy has a doctor's appointment at 10 AM this morning to look at his wrist, so hopefully I will get some shuteye between now and then. I have several things I need to do today, including taxes for one of my waitresses. That's $50 that I will find useful, and she needs her money.

I am in the process of finishing up the sidebar cleanup. To access anything, just click the words that have a plus sign next to them. After that I need to work on someone else's site, so I don't know if I m going to be doing any more posting tonight. Also, I have decided to cut down to only one day of posts on the front page. With all of that junk in my sidebars, it will speed up loading time.

I think I will leave some of it for an hour or so and get back online laster. It's RePete's bedtime and I am going to read her a story before bedtime.

Since my cable was out most of the day I am going to delay doing the drawing until tomorrow morning and will upload the video to youtube as well. That and the fact that Charles, Kat, and Mr. Fabulous are the only ones showing up for me at Alexa right now. Will get over there this evening to check it out.

Apparently we are under a tornado watch at least until 9 PM tonight. It has stormed off and on all day, and it's starting to pick up a bit more again. Just a bit of lightning, which is always the bane to my network. I've replaced two routers and a cable modem, along with about five or six nics and a motherboard over the last six years. Can't afford any more fun storms.

I love thunderstorms, and watching them, but they are too expensive where my equipment is concerned.

Updated - I think I will leave this one on top as well until tomorrow evening. About 20 minutes after I posted this, I paid a visit to Mr. Fabulous, who is aksing asking (duh spellcheck) the same thing. Only thing is, he is doing a sort of contest. He is having a drawing for a $30 gift certificate to Amazon.com, iGourmet.com, and Honeygifts.com

OH YEAH!!. Mine is bigger than your is, so there.

Actually, I though that this was a great idea and am going to 'copycat' you. Anyone that does a review of my site (preferably not like 1 star or something) will get $30 gift certificate at either the iTunes store, Amazon.com, or I can just send you the money via paypal. Don't use any of the three? I hate it for you. Join the 21st century.

I figure I have made enough from posting the ads that I can afford to blow $30. I will do the drawing (AND VIDEO IT!!) on my next day off, which is Thursday the 1st. Oh BTW, Kat and Charles have done reviews over the last two or three days for me, so I will throw them in as well. Just leave me a comment here that you left a review and I will verify it and throw your name in the hat.

Actually, since I couldn't go for a couple of days and then started feeling better, I never did take my poop to the hospital, so maybe we can draw your name out of the poop bowl.

Now if that's not objectionable material I don't know what is.

Originally Posted at 3:10 PM on 2/24/07

Anyone that has a spare minute or two AND has an Amazon.com account, please go over to Alexa using that link and review the blog. Good, bad, or indifferent, I would appreciate it. That would go a long way to improving my Alexa score. If you do, leave me a comment here and I will return the favor. Alexa is owned by Amazon, which is where the reviews are kept and also why you have to have an account there.

RePete decided that she wanted NO part of napping today, so we are just sort of hanging out. Pete gets off the school bus in about twenty minutes anyway, and I am expecting a letter from UPS as well. I had to order RePetes birth certificate so that we could enroll her in the four year old program for this next year, or rather enroll her in the lottery to get into pre-k. It sort of sucks that there has to be a lottery to get in, and I wish that the Montessori had not moved locations, but there is nothing I can do about that.

Once Pete gets home i will put her and her sister to work finishing up the house cleaning. I have a few dishes to do while they are picking up toys and stuff anyway. That will keep them out of my hair while I finish.

You know, I could get used to this house husband stuff. If I could just start making about 50k per year for hanging out at the house I would jump on it.

Not sure how I feel about this one...

I have always had a major problem with banks, credit card companies, and physicians using my social security number as an identification number. I have a SS# for one thing only, and that is to receive social security when I retire. My employer needs this info so that they can send the government my money which will be re-distributed among people I have never met and I will be lucky if I ever see a dime of it when I retire.

When I go to the doctor I used to leave that field blank. Same thing at the bank, until they insisted that they wouldn't do business with me. My SS card is not a Federal ID card and should not be used as such. It is an invasion of my privacy. I wouldn't have a problem with federal ID cards though, and as I get older I see the need to use my SS#. It proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that I am a United States citizen, as long as I have a picture ID to go along with it. I require anyone that comes to work for me to bring both. If you don't have both, you don't have a job.

Bank of America is trying out a deal where they will give you a credit card if you are an account holder with no overdrafts for three months. Without a social security card. A couple of years ago, I would have jumped with joy at this news but now it just fills me with worry, and anger. It means that illegal aliens that pay a fee (it sounds like a secured card) can get a credit card and start developing a credit history. That's just not right.

I am pretty pissed off at how the entire illegal immigration thing is being handled, both in the press AND by our government.

If you are from another country you fall into one of several 'classes' for lack of a better word.

You are here on a Visa or work permit (green card) - Legally. Good deal. If you decided you like it, apply for citizenship and go through the proper channels.

You are a legal immigrant. You went through the proper channels and are now a United States citizen. Good for you. This is how out country will continue to grow and compete. We NEED new blood in order to stay competitive in the global markets.

You are an illegal alien. You came her legally and stayed past your time, or you just snuck your ass in. You are not an "undocumented immigrant'. You are illegal and need to get your ass out. It's simple. You are breaking our laws and since you are not a United States citizen you have NO rights under our legal system.

I don't think that our system or laws are perfect by any means. The tests required to become a US citizen are ridiculous and I defy 99% of the American Public to take the citizenship test and actually pass. It ain't gonna happen. Change needs to happen, but it needs to happen legally and lawfully. Obviously we all immigrated here at some point over the last 300 years and immigrants have always been at the forefront of advancement in our country. Kowtowing to a bunch of people that are here illegally and a bunch of socialist pansies by changing the laws to ignore the fact that they are breaking the law is not the way to handle it. You don't change the rules just because you don't want to follow.

The problem is that the American public is happy to let the government run their little sheep lives and this includes most of the conservative AND liberals out there. You are all quite happy in letting the government take all of your money and redistribute it among people that didn't work for it. You are all happy to let them tell you that you can drink your asses off but you can't smoke pot, which is probably much less dangerous. You are all happy for them to listen in on phone calls (as long as it's not your's). You are all happy to let them tell you where you have to go to school, even if it means moving you out of your neighborhood. You are all happy to let them tell you that you can't take a drink until you are 21, but it's OK to kill people, drive, and vote. Just can't have a beer afterward.

You are all happy to let the government tell you whether you can have an abortion or not, when this is an issue that is between you, a doctor, and whatever god you happen to believe in. There will always be opposing views and fights over this, but the majority of the American public doesn't give a shit and will abide by whatever rules big brother sets.

You are all happy to let the government take your hard earned cash by gunpoint and give it to people that can't earn anything, and in some cases don't want to because they know that they can keep on getting that welfare check. Why improve yourself when you can get a free ride. You don't give a shit as long as you don't have to deal with it. Let the government handle it. The majority of Americans think it would be OK for the government to withhold even more taxes if it meant having to make less decisions. Like health care. Retirement. Interest Rates. School Testing. Art. Music. Telling you your kids are too fat. Whether you can smoke or not and exactly where. What you can and can't drive. Fucking socialists is what you are. Move to Cuba if you want socialism. With their wonderful government mandated EVERYTHING you should love it there. Just look at how successful and well off everyone there is.

So why is everyone up in arms about illegal immigration now when you are the ones that let the government think they have the right to make these decisions for you. Fuck you. You don't deserve freedom or liberty as long as you are OK with the government making all the decisions until they come to one you don't like. Oh hell now. That's not the way it works, but as long as the sheep are in the majority it will continue to work that way.

So are you a sheep or do you believe in Life, Liberty and Property?

Technorati : Illegal Aliens, Immigration

I kept the youngest girls home with me today. That's one of the things that I have enjoyed doing here lately. My oldest daughter only partially understands. She would love it if I would keep her home once a week, but she needs to keep up attendance at school. RePete is only four, and in day care, so it actually does some good to spend the day with her.

It's just really nice to be able to spend some of my day off with one of the kids. The boy has a doctor's appointment tomorrow and will be staying home with me. At 18 it's not like he's going to hang out though. He will most likely stay upstairs playing the Xbox until it's time to go. I will be lucky if I see him twice tomorrow.

RePete and I read books, watch a little TV, run around the house, and generally just have a good time. We are getting ready to take a nap together here shortly. I got up much too early considering the time that I got home and went to bed last night. I didn't hit the sack until after midnight again.

...He reveled in the way the blood was still running down her warm body. At first it had gushed out in a torrent of warm red rain, but now it was coming our more slowly. She had struggled for awhile and he had to hold her tight as he slid the hunting knife across her throat just under her Adam's apple, but she relaxed under his caring grip and was reclining on his lap as a lover. He grew excited as the warmth seeped into his clothing. He had to wait for that. Not here. Save it for later when he could relive it over and over again.

Technology was a wonderful thing. It was amazing what you could do with wireless cameras and a laptop these days. He would be able to watch it again anytime he wanted. First he had to get cleaned up and get out without being seen. Then he could take care of the video at his leisure...

Still no connection. Maybe we should just nap or something.

I've reset and provisioned the modem several times now. After I get a little cleaning done I may call Charter tech support. Haven't sat on hold for an hour in quite awhile.

I have managed a few posts though, just cannot upload them.