Bloggin' on down the Rogue...

Devos for Governor

You can help now by joining the Team for Change

Every day as I travel the state people ask me how they can get involved in our campaign. The answer is simple - become a leader in our Team for Change.

We are currently working to select energetic supporters in every city, township and county across the state to lead and direct our voter contact efforts. If you believe Michigan needs change, there is a place for you on this team!

To learn more, I invite you, your friends and family to attend an upcoming informational briefing happening near you. What better way to shake off those winter blues than to get out of the house and get fired up for the DeVos for Governor campaign!

If we are to be successful, I am going to need you working along side me in the trenches throughout the next 9 months. On behalf of the entire DeVos for Governor campaign, thank you for answering the call to action. We look forward to seeing you soon!

With appreciation,

Dick DeVos

Regressive Obstructionist Democrats

The ONLY state that continues to lose jobs (that hasn’t been hit by a hurricane) is the ONLY state with a Governor named Granholm and Senators named Stabenow and Levin?!? Two of the three are up for re-election, but lets change that to removal by electing Republicans in their places.

Michigan is officially a BLUE state until you look at it from a county by county party majority basis. Then it becomes a RED state with a narrow blue tail that wags the state. This tail runs along a corridor from Detroit to Saginaw. This is the Michigan Blue Corridor. It could also be called the UAW corridor, but with plant closings, they are losing a lot of clout. Once all the heavy industry moves out of Michigan, we will be left with Meijers, K-Mart, Walmart/Sams Club, McDonalds, Burger King, and Wendys as the major employers. It looks like this is the aim of Jennifer Granholm. The really weird part is the UAW support for all of this. Go ahead Big Union, cut your own throats! Your members can become burger flippers or move south to follow the jobs. Hey, want to kill the burger flipper jobs too? Demand a raise of the minimum wage. Then we can all have a Burger King regular size combo meal for a bargain price of only $10.50. What??? You don't think they are going to pass along the cost of raising the minimum wage?

If you want to do something useful, check into how business today only use temps from temp services. Just try to find any local small/medium-size business that actually directly hires. Where I work right now, my whole shift on the plant floor (1st shift) are temps (me too). This means no benefits, vacation pay, instant replacement. The boss says $#!+, you ask where, how high, and what color and texture. You want to work? Go to the temp service! Don't like it? Quit and go to another temp service... The companies are trying to encourage employees to leave so they can be replaced by temps. The companies are using the temp services as their HR departments. They look to get rid of a lot of headaches such as workers comp, unemployment insurance, health care insurance, keeping empoyee records, etc. this way. They will keep a temp for a short period of time and then bring in a replacement to train before the other becomes eligible for any sort of benefit. Then the trainer temp gets fired/released by the company and is placed as a new employee/trainee at another company. Vicious cycle. The ONLY way I see to break out of this is for each temp to start his own business. Never happen.... So...

Last one out, turn out the lights!

New Server Hardware Soon

I have a new computer that I will be putting into service as my new web and blog server. Over the next couple days, I will be copying the Apache htdocs directory and assorted other important directories and files to the new server and shifting the feed over to it. It will still be here, just relocated to my ham shack so I will have ready access. It is located behind my router so the other computers in my home intranet LAN will have some features not available to the rest of the world on the internet.

Ahhhhh! It doesn't get any better...

1) Judge Alito handily whipped the Socialist Democrats on the committee. They all came out of it looking like jackasses. Kennedy sounded like a drunk jackass. His charges about the Princeton Papers are FALSE! An apology should be demanded of that liar, Kennedy! Never happen. Some consolation though, Kennedy did take a public ass-whooping yesterday from the chairman after Kennedy made a power grab. Lets just hope the RINOs can restrain themselves long enough to confirm Judge Alito.

2) Yesterday, at the end of the shift, my boss called all of us together for a quick meeting. He said that we were out of some parts and that he was giving us a long weekend (Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday)... ALL RIGHT!!! I was hoping for good weather, planning and plotting!

3) Air temps here in my area reached up to the low 50s today, and we went golfing... in Michigan... in January! Right now there is no snow anywhere around me. The nearest snow in Michigan is over 100 miles north. When I saw the weather report this morning, I started thinking golf and it was contagious. My phone rang. One of my golf buddies had a hardcore golf jones going. There is a side joke here too. His last name is Jones. When I answered the phone all I heard was a voice softly repeating "...golf...golf...golf" and I said "Hi Brian, where is an open course?" He already had the info. The Rogue River Golf Club (I think they just call it The Rogue now, and we jokingly refer to it as Mosquito Creek Links!) was open with carts, $14.50 for all the golf you could stand. We did 27 holes and it was wonderful. I refuse to reveal the scores. Brian is a LONG hitter and he was pretty consistant at just a shade over 300 yards on his drives. Me, I was driving straight but struggled to get past about 220 yards. I had a terrible time with my second shots (fairway woods, I can not hit long irons), and then my wedges were hot and the Ping putter was smokin'.

4) I whipped up some SOS for supper tonight after getting home from golfing. If you do not know what is SOS, ask someone who was in the service. It was my all time favorite breakfast. I would go back for third servings. It just sounded good to me tonight.

Tonight all feels right with the world, in my little piece of it!

---

(SOS, also know as Creamed Chipped Beef on Toast)

Hearns faces charges after altercation with teen son

Hearns faces misdemeanor assault, battery charges
>
> by Associated Press
>
>SOUTHFIELD, Mich. -- Former boxing champion Thomas Hearns has been accused of striking his son during an argument and faces misdemeanor assault and battery charges.
>
>Police in this Detroit suburb said they were called to Hearns' home by his wife on Sunday...

Hearns faces charges after altercation with teen son

This is more of Dr. Spocks interference in Father-Son relationships and parental rights to discipline children. And before you get on your high and mighty, I DO know who Thomas Hearns is and was!

Fascism of the left trumps civil rights

Momentum continues to build for a noisy showdown over racial preferences in Michigan.

Fascism of the left trumps civil rights

Sunday, December 18, 2005

Thomas Bray

Fascism of the left trumps civil rights

Momentum continues to build for a noisy showdown over racial preferences in Michigan.

Just how ugly the issue could become was demonstrated last week in the state capital. The state's Board of Canvassers, a four-person body split by law between Democrats and Republicans, was deciding whether to certify for the 2006 ballot a referendum that would ban the use of race in state hiring and admissions policies.

But no sooner had the meeting started than a mob of mostly black students from Detroit schools, led by a radical national outfit calling itself By Any Means Necessary (BAMN), stormed the building, overturning tables, jumping on chairs, stomping their feet and yelling "They say Jim Crow -- We say hell no."

When a black Democratic member of the board dared to suggest that he might have no choice under the law but to approve the measure -- as a Michigan Court of Appeals panel has twice ordered -- he was shouted down: "Be a black man!"

Cowed by this show of force, the board once again failed to muster the three votes to let the initiative go forward. In the end, few observers doubt the courts will approve the measure.

The state's rigidly nonpartisan Bureau of Elections has certified that the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative, as it is called, received 465,000 valid signatures, 150,000 more than necessary. And the appeals court panel that ordered the Board of Canvassers to put the issue on the ballot included two judges who are widely viewed as left of center.

If matters get that far, the state Supreme Court is considered highly likely to agree. It recently barred the use of race, color, sex, religion or national origin in jury selection, adding that "discrimination during voir dire for the purpose of achieving what the court believes to be a balanced, proportionate or representative jury shall not constitute an excuse or justification for a violation" of its rule.

Not that the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative is a cinch to win voter approval. While BAMN and other radical groups provide the shock troops, most of Michigan's business, labor, religious and political leadership, including the likely Republican candidates for governor and the U.S. Senate, is against the measure -- as the same groups were in California in 1996 during the fight over Proposition 209, a similar measure.

But Californians, understanding that businessmen and politicians hate to risk being portrayed as racist even when a legitimate cause is at stake, voted 54 percent-46 percent to approve the measure. And polls have consistently showed even stronger support in Michigan for ending racial preferences.

A string of recent debates on the issue also suggests the difficulty that supporters of affirmative action are having in trying to mount a reasoned defense of such policies.

In a recent debate with Ward Connerly, who led the successful California fight to end preferences, the dean of Wayne State University's law school asserted that race-based admissions is a "civil right." That left even the veteran Connerly slack-jawed, ignoring as it did the language of the Constitution and a century of efforts to define civil rights as equality -- not inequality -- before the law.

Had a mob of student conservatives invaded a meeting of state officials, it would have been denounced as fascist. The fascism of the left tends to be excused as a case of overwrought idealism. But voters may not be so easily fooled.

---

ed: Thanks Tom. That was so well said that I can not think of anything to add to it!

Michigan Representatives Tied to Abramoff Scandal

http://WWW.freep.Com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060104/NEWS07/601040302

Michigan Representatives Tied to Abramoff Scandal

Contributions to Michigan congressional members (all since 1999):

Camp, $35,500; Rep. Dale Kildee, D-Flint, $19,000; Stabenow $5,000; Carl Levin, $2,000; Rep. Sander Levin, D-Royal Oak, $4,000; and Rep. John Dingell, D-Dearborn, $2,000

Other contributions: Carl Levin: about $5,000 from Abramoff's former employer, Greenberg Traurig, LLP. The funds weren't connected to Abramoff or casinos, said Tara Andringa, a Levin spokeswoman.

Rep. Peter Hoesktra, R-Holland, $2,000 from Greenberg Traurig. Hoesktra has said he never got money from Abramoff. In 2000, Hoesktra got $5,000 from the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians, one of Abramoff's clients.

http://WWW.helenair.Com/articles/2006/01/04/national_top/a01010405_01.txt

---

ed: Thanks to Saul Anuzis, Chairman of the Michigan GOP for the note!

Looks like Pete is in at least to his ankles. It doesn't surprise me to see the Democrats so well represented especially from Dingell-berry.

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2006 (almost)!

I just finished cooking and serving our New Years Eve supper here and it came out particularly well. We had:

Ham with a pineapple glaze made with a couple table spoons of honey mustard, a dash of tabasco sauce, juice from 1/4 lemon (fresh), 1 cup of brown sugar and 1/2 cup of molasses, just a pinch of Chinese 5 spice (any more overpowers everything else), and 1/4 cup of Open Pit Mesquite barbecue sauce, and just enough red wine for a smooth consistancy. It is brought to a boil and then simmered for 15 minutes or so. I make some extra because everyone likes to spoon more of this yummy glaze onto the ham on their plates.

Bread stuffing made on the stove and some mashed potatoes (peeled, boiled, mashed) with brown gravy,

Beet greens with bacon crumbled in and a little bacon fat,

Three bean salad,

and we finished up with apple pie (store bought, I cook but I do not bake) and some ice cream.

I enjoy cooking. One gift I got this Christmas was a new spice rack from my kids. They Know!!!

My drink of choice tonight for when the ball drops at midnight... a Manhattan (Kesselers whiskey, sweet vermouth, Angostura bitters, and a maraschino cherry). Right now I am sipping a double shot of Southern Comfort to top off this fine supper. Brandy is ok but I like SoCo better. My youngest daughter (23) just brought me a fresh brewed cup of Folgers coffee with a little Baileys Irish Cream to lighten it. YUMMM!!! A little later I will be drinking a couple Coronas while we throw darts and play cards. We decided that this year we would not go out. A few good friends, good food, good music, good drinks in moderation, good entertainment... It doesn't get any better than this!

I hope you all had a great, happy, and holy Christmas and for our brothers of the Jewish persuasion, Happy Hannukah! Always remember, Jesus Christ was a practicing member of the Jewish faith. Our Isreali brothers may not yet recognize him as the Messiah, but that will come in time.

See you on the other side!!!!

"If you drink, don't drive, do the watermellon crawl" (as that country song goes)!

AT&T/SBC up to the old tricks...

I received an E-Bill from SBC recently informing me that my phone bill is unpaid and I have until Dec. 31 to pay... here is my reply:

http://www.sbc.com

Just because I registered here does not mean that I want to pay my bill here. If you do not send my bill in the US mail I will not pay it... PERIOD!!!!!!

I did NOT request that you stop the paper bill.

I refuse to do any E-Commerce with you because you refuse to bring DSL service into my area! I am not located out in the toolies!

I REPEAT! I WILL ONLY PAY MY BILL IF YOU BILL ME VIA US MAIL!

PERIOD

END OF DISCUSSION!

Signed,

A Retiree after 31 years of service to SBC

---

I guess the purchase of AT&T by SBC has given them a big head and now they feel they can bulldoze people.

I will be using a cell phone as my home phone if they decide to play their brand of hard ball. Before I retired we had an employee gab session with someone in upper management without our immediate 1st, 2nd, and 3rd levels present and my comment at that time was that the cell phone was the most immediate competition. Looks like they did not take what I said seriously. If they choose to ignore me again and rebill via email, it will be ignored and they can KISS MY ASS for a payment!

Blogs, Hackers, and Worms

I have noticed a recent increase in scans from worm infected computers. Tonight I spotted a bunch of pings from computers in various RIPE, LACNIC, and APNIC (net 220, 221, 222, 223, 224) served areas that would normally have no interest in my blog. I suspect that these are hackers checking to see if their IP block is affect by my ban. I have been ACTIVELY banning blocks of IPs from these areas as they send a worm scan against my server if the worm originates from Russia or one of the oriental APNIC areas. Trying to get a message to the abuse address, if they even have one, for these ideas is next to impossible. In some cases they do not seem to have thought that far ahead there.

Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)

Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)

Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)

---

Here is a music video from VideoCodes4U.com If you do not like popups, be sure to have you power popup blocker turned on because that is the source of their revenue. I provide this link because I like the music! AND this is CHRISTMAS holiday time! The libs would just say happy holiday.

Music Videos, An Idea

I just posted a message to a web site called www.VideoCodes4U.com about programming a video jukebox...

I was sleeping, and this idea woke me up... as an additional service or page here, design a page to work and look like a Juke Box, lower part of the page where you select first by letter then just push a left-right button to move page to page with selection listings. along the bottom you have letter and number buttons. So you look at the selections and want to play the one that is in the A list number 30 you would hit the A followed by 3 and 0 and it would activate the video screen at the top to play the music video. As an addition (or premium) you could have it accept a queue or playlist just like a jukebox when someone puts in multiple quarters to make more selections. This service alone has the potential of making the web service to implement it into another Yahoo© or Google©. Why, because many people would want this and it could be added or linked to from any web site, so it could be made a pay service just like a regular jukebox. Thus you could have the VideoCode Jukebox site as a pay site to be linked to as a package deal, and you can still provide this video by video free (with popups and pop unders) for individual singly linked-to videos. Did I state my idea ok or am I still sleep fogged and didnt quite get it out right? It is 2:50 AM right now and I am going back to bed. G'night!

I am placing it here to document my idea date and time! A Web Jukebox... hmmm! there are music players but none with the type interface that I suggested, like the old ROCKOLA© jukebox that used to stand in the corner at the soda fountain or burger joint.

I claim the idea for a streaming web graphic interface Music-Video Jukebox as of 2:50 AM Friday December 30, 2005.

Some spelling errors corrected: 4:12 AM December 30, 2005

Flavors of Linux - Try UBUNTU Linux

The resurrection of two dead computers

I have been rebuilding old computers around here lately. Seems to be about the time for all the planned obsolesence parts to be crapping out all together. I have had 2 hard drives and a 3 year old Sony DVD R/W drive crap all at the same time. The motherboards of the two computers I worked on were so-so but were also very SLOW. One had an AMD K6-2 450 processor installed and the other was faster but the onboard/built-in video card died and a took the USB and a few other things with it. So 2 new 32 bit ASUS motherboards and an assortment of other parts... two working computers added to the network. One is back in service as my wife's game machine for downloaded games like Ricochet Reloaded and Chainz. The other is the cause for my topic of this note...

Checking out LINUX

I am checking out Linux. I downloaded SUSE 9.1 and installed it. Everything went as planned during the install. No error messages. I log in and it looks ok but I never get to a GUI. I try to invoke KDE and GNOME and neither seem to be there or something is missing. No clue what. I am a Linux Newby. Well, I decided to cut the messing around and went to Walden Books. I bought SUSE 10 Linux For Dummies and installed SUSE version 10. Now when I log in, the monitor goes into shut-down mode. Not just black screen. THIS SUCKS! I next went on the net and looked at various other distributions (known in the circle of penguin heads as distros). I just downloaded Ubuntu Linux, installed and GUESS WHAT! It WORKS! Right from install to log in, to getting on the net using FireFox, which is what I use on my Windows boxes. I might take another look at another distro once I get familiar with Linux, but for now I recomend UBUNTU LINUX. I may be setting up a torrent feed for it on my server to help others discover it too. Time now to learn how to set up a firewall and things like that on Linux...

Lawmaker Wants Bush and Cheney Censured

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., called Tuesday for Congress to censure President Bush and Vice President Cheney, saying they misled lawmakers on the decision to go to war in Iraq....

Lawmaker Wants Bush and Cheney Censured

Conyers deserves to be hung (by his toes). God damned terrorist sympathizing LIAR. He knows the truth and is deliberately violating the oath of office he swore upon becoming a congressman! He is one of the co-participants in the Democrat BIG LIE scheme to try to rewrite history, hoping that everyone will think that it started with the new millenium. This is another of the socialist AP propaganda pieces. They have the research people but refuse to do the research from the archives or print the truth.

He's BAAAAaaaack!

Actually the little fat man dressed in red has already been here and is gone. The grandkids will like the looks of all the wrapped packages Santa left under the artificial tree in the living room Time to get a little sleep before they wake us up at about 4:30 AM. I ought to go lock their bedroom doors until the wife and I can get a little sleep. But no, we will let them have their fun and then get some sleep later in the morning.

I just did a quick sweep around some of the big LIBBER sites on the net and it looks like CHRISTMAS does not exist to them. Sometimes I feel so sad for someone who is so soulless that they can not participate in something like Christmas. If they make a stab at it, it might be XMAS, but mostly they just refer to is as the holiday (in lowercase or even smaller point lettering). As if to further diminish its meaning...

Over at MoveOn.org they had a slide show of some of their supporters... it was interesting looking into the faces of the damned just to see what Satan's disciples look like in the flesh. None were celebrating Christmas or even Xmas. So from me to them and all soulless libs...

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas

 

Dear James,

As we celebrate the holidays, I wish you a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukah, and Happy New Year from all of us at the Republican National Committee. We hope the spirit of Christmas remains with all of us throughout 2006.

We are especially grateful to the men and women who serve this country so courageously overseas. These American heroes, far from home, are fighting the enemies of freedom and keeping our country safe at home. We recognize their sacrifice as they help win the War on Terror. We hope they know how proud we are of them.

During the holiday season we take the time to reflect on an historic year of accomplishment. The strength of our cause is built on the dedication of each and every Republican across this country, and we look forward to another great year ahead. May the joy of the season bring you renewed happiness on this day and everyday throughout the New Year.

Merry Christmas!

Ken Mehlman

Chairman, Republican National Committee

---

Thanks Ken and I appreciate being a small part of an organization that can say Merry Christmas, unlike the people who are so amoral and politically correct that the nearest they could come is to print Merry Xmas or just say Happy Holidays. To them, Islam is just a divisive tool to try to remove everything Christian here in the USA. They do not have a religion as such. It must be terrible to believe that when you die you just go into the great void.

Winter Property Tax Bills - Michigan

The winter tax bill hasn't arrived yet. I am looking for it, but not looking forward to it! Last summer the first 1/3 of the winter county tax was collected EARLY which our 2004 Michigan house and senate approved in a late night lame duck session hoping no one would notice. I have the names of all the guilty parties posted here. Look in the sidebar links for the Lame Duck Tax Increase. It was a bi-partisan tax INCREASE this last summer though they played the semantics game saying it is only an EARLY collection of these taxes. LYING TAX AND SPEND BASTARDS! It is still a tax INCREASE when you collect these taxes on an accelerated EARLY schedule! Next summer 2006 they collect 2/3 of the winter county tax to spend early. AND the following summer of 2007 the entire winter county tax becomes the WINTER COUNTY TAX COLLECTED SIX MONTHS EARLY, which is a fact that they dearly hope you will forget. They are already spending it! This leaves a hole that our tax and spenders at the state, county and local level are salivating at the prospects of filling with some other juicy tax or fee (which is just another tax)!
Some of these Tax and Spenders were term limited out and moved on to new elected positions while others have taken patronage jobs offered by their political parties for services rendered. Rather than force you to go looking for the names of the guilty parties, here they are once again:

the Michigan house tax and spend bastards

Accavitti(D), Adamini(D), Bieda(D), Brown(D), Byrum(D), Caul(R), Clack(D), Condino(D), Dennis(D), DeRoche(R), DeRossett(R), Elkins(D), Emmons(R), Farrah(D), Gaffney(R), Gieleghem(D), Gillard(D), Gleason(D), Hart(R), Hopgood(D), Howell(R), Jamnick(D), Rick Johnson(R), Koetje(R), Kolb(D), Kooiman(R), Lipsey(D), Meisner (D), Meyer(R), Minore(D), Murphy(D), Newell(R), O'Neil(D), Palsrok(R), Phillips(D), Plakas (D), Pumford(R), Rivet(D), Sak(D), Shackleton(R), Shaffer(R), Sheltrown(D), Shulman(R), Stallworth(D), Steil(R), Tabor(R), Van Regenmorter(R), VanderVeen(R), Walker(R), Waters(D), Wenke(R), Whitmer(D), Williams(D), Wojno(D), Zelenko(D)

the Michigan senate tax and spend bastards

Allen(R), Basham(D), Birkholz(R), Brater(D), Clarke(D), Emerson(D), Garcia(R), George(R), Hammerstrom(R),Hardiman(R), Jacobs(D), Jelinek(R), Johnson(R), Kuipers(R), Leland(D), Olshove(D), Prusi(D), Schauer(D), SIKKEMA(R), Stamas(R), Switalski(D), Thomas(D), VanWoerkom(R)

Blatant Advertizing... ;^)

I just renewed my Dynamic DNS service through TZO (www.tzo.com) because they have been so reliable, and have excellant customer service. Having this service has enabled me to run my web and blog pages from my own server. Many people go the route of using a free blog and free web page on an external server owned by some other entity, but that is so limited. They have no idea what they can really do until they experience the freedom of having your own server with hundreds of gigabytes of space to expand into! If you are on a broadband connection and want to host your own web page like I do, check out TZO. Their web client even has a mini-web server built in so you can get your feet wet with running a web page. After that it is up to you whether you replace it with a full blown Apache Webserver installation as I did here!

Links in the side panel/Weather/Safety

In addition to the links to the rest of my web page, I just added a direct link to my knife making/Bladesmithing section. I have some pictures of a few of my knives. Looks like we picked up a little snow overnight and they are saying it is slippery on the roads so I guess I will leave a little early for work today. Have a safe day out there today! It is my gaol to be able to walk back through my door tonight with all arms and legs intact! You be safe today too!

New Blogskin

I just changed the blogskin. I like this one better than the Matrix look I had before. Still getting settled in with this new Thingamablog program. I had to fall back to v1.0.2 because I could not access the config panel in v1.0.4.

Thingamablog seems to have a small learning curve but it is mostly pretty intuitive to use. I have been checking my Apache access.log and it looks like I have been pretty effective against the blog-hackers. I am not afraid to file abuse complaints and have been following up on them. The more I use this the better I like it.

At work... we are working six days again this week so I will have another fat check. I expect that I will be sending a little support to the programmers of this fine program.

Last Night I was listening to Sean Hannity on his radio show. He offered to do some camapigning for Joe Lieberman, and I agree... here is a decent man and how he can be a Democrat in this day of the Socialist DNC is beyond my understanding. The days of the party of Jack Kennedy are over. The Dean/MoveOn.org communists are firmly in control, leaving no wiggle room for the likes of Senator Lieberman. Joe, we DO have room for you over on this side of the aisle!

I listened to Rush for the full three hours today whle working. I have to start taking notes because there were some things I wanted to comment on. Mental block... oh well, I guess it was not that important. One thing to note though, on the web site RushLimbaugh.com there is almost no content available to the public beyond what you see on the index page. A click on any link brings up a log-in screen, so using Rush as a reference is worthless unless you take notes during the show. I google for everything and also look to Sean Hannity, Michael Savage, Laura Ingram, and others.

One Day Weekends

We have a new automated line installed at work but they are still trying to work out the bugs. This means that our production is behind schedule so we are on a 6 day production and even then we are not making all the parts as far as I can tell... these one day weekends are getting old real quick! Time to get ready for bed. 'Night all!

Weird Weather

The Weather

The weather sure is strange. It was warm enough (close to 60 and rain) to get the golfing sticks out and take a few swings in the back yard today after work. My home course is closed for the season, plus with all the rain today it would be too wet anyway. It was fun hitting a few drives into the pine trees out back though! All the snow of the past week is GONE, but the weather guessers say their weather ouija boards predict more snow real soon now! I wish that the Prize Patrol would get itself unlost and show up at my doorstep with that fabled "Big Check"! Then I could afford to head south somewhere and get away from all this cold stuff!

The Day After Tomorrow

I bought a copy of the movie "The Day After Tomorrow" and just watched it again last night. We sure turned the tables on Mexico in that movie, crossing the border into Mexico as illegal immigrants! I guess what they say about turnabout and all that happy BS...

War of the Worlds

I forgot to comment after watching the new Tom Cruise movie, "War of the Worlds". Tom Cruise is Ray Farrier, a machine operator at the ship yard and a typical union man. He is a brash smart ass and likes to go speeding around in his new 2005 Mustang. He also doesn't have enough sense to get out of the rain, let alone away from the lightning, and the alien tripod machines. He stands around with his jaw dragging on the ground and portrays a fairly spineless weenie until late in the movie where he is forced to remove a real nutball, Harlan Ogilvy (Tim Robbins), who refuses to shut up while the aliens are close by.

For the action, graphics, and story line, I give this a  ...

The daily grind

Hi - Ho, Hi - Ho, Its off to work I go...

...to the daily grind. I had trouble getting to sleep last night so I feel like I had a short night and definitely need my morning kick start of strong coffee.

OOPS! Almost forgot my daily meds. Coreg, Lisinopril, and my vitamins... having to take blood pressure meds at least helps keep me going. This was no holiday weekend for me. A ONE DAY WEEKEND, but not for the bosses. We need a labor law that states if a boss is going to require weekend work that he/she must be present for said work shifts... that might cure a lot of forced overtime! Oh well, just a fantasy after all. Who listens to a middle aged dreamer like me?

I am considering the addition of a new feature for the web and/or the blog, but have to research it a bit first. I will let you know....

Bye for now. Time to head out the door. It is 6:01 AM.....

S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y NIGHT!!!

(...queue the driving beat of the Bay City Rollers, I AM a boomer!!!)

We worked today and it was a joke. The line was shut down for lack of parts that have to be shipped from elsewhere, not something we produced for ourselves. We still got in 8 hours making other parts. Oh well, it fattens the paycheck. They are actually letting us have Sunday off!

Time to kick back with some chips and dip, and a cold brew. I'm gonna watch the new Tom Cruise - War Of The Worlds I just purchased on DVD. After that I will decide what to pop into the player.

Check out: http://www.waroftheworlds.com/

They have some cool downloads, wall paper and such!

Long weekend? Not here!

I have been semi-retired since I left my long term employer (SBC) 2 years ago. I had 31 years of service and decided that was enough. I have taken winter jobs to have something to do other than staring at the four walls all winter. This winter is no exception, and my employer is making us work the Friday and Saturday after Thanksgiving. No long weekend for the wicked I guess. Maybe "No Weekend" and work Sunday if our production is not up tomorrow....

Yesterday was Prize Patrol Day for drawing 1055 (The million). I wonder who was the lucky one???

Well, after all the hype and building of hopes, the Prize Patrol once again went elsewhere! Your chances of being struck repeatedly by lightning are better than the chance of being selected to be graced by the presence of Dave Sayer and crew.

Wow... It is really true! I did not win the Publishers Clearing House Sweepstakes once again!

More than 20 years of raising and dashing hopes!

(ed: I just looked at the PCH web site. Here is the info: $1,000,000.00 WINNER: C. Madden (Gwy. 1055) of Wooton, KY)

Doin' the turkey...

We fry our turkies. I just finished deep fat fryingthe first and it smells YUMMY! I have the fryer set up out in the garage with the door open. This way the neighbors get to enjoy the aroma too. One neighbor last year decided to try it out. He brought a bird over and we drop[ped it in after mine was done. This year he joined up and has his own fryer. The bird comes out golden brown and crispy. NOT GREASY!!! We are doing two turkeys for the clan here this year. My 5 kids and 4 of the 6 grand kids are here. Full house but anyone who leaves this house hungry... its their own fault. My wife found me some cranberry relish for my meal. No one else here likes cranberries so I have it all to myself. Stuffing, mashed potatos and gravy, asparagus, some greens (spinach or collard, not sure which the wife bought), pumpkin pie and banana creme pie, topped off with some brandy and a little 12 year old scotch. This should be a great Thanksgiving. I hope you are all celebrating this year too. Now for the Christmas holiday...

Do I sound like I am rushing things? Summer went bye bye so quickly that I want winter to do the same so I can get back to playing golf!

Changing seasons!

We are under a winter storm warning through Thanksgiving Day. I was playing golf just a week or so ago even though the temps were in the 50s and low 60s. Where did the summer go? I want to protest that it was too short! My golf league partner from the Michigan Bell Mens golf league will be making the snow bird migration after Thanksgiving to his winter roost in the far south tip of Texas. If by some freak luck, the Prize Patrol should happen to show up at my door, I will join him or at least check it out along with some other warm climate retirement locations.

New Blogging Program (at least to me!)

I am now using Thingamablog to write and update my blog page. As always, this is hosted on my own server, so I have more latitude and control over its operation and content. I use Apache v2.0 web server on my WinXP Pro powered server, and run the blog page from the web page. I watch the access.log and it is entertaining to see where all the blog hackers are from and the gyrations they go through to try to post to my blog page. After I do a WHOIS on the IP, I usually post an abuse complaint and then ban the whole block of RIPE, LACNIC, or APNIC assigned IPs. Germany, Russia, and China have been the most prolific hacker nations that have been banned so far.

Note to the Black Hats: This is not an IIS Server so those exploits do not work and only serve to identify you and your zombies. Once identified, I notify the appropriate abuse addresses just before banning the IP (or whole block of IPs). So you get only one shot before you are banned.