If You're Gonna Donate to Something

As everyone knows, some of the southern states got torn apart by the latest hurricane - Katrina.

I'm not a supporter of donating to foreign lands, but I do believe in donations to help in your own country. While I know noone in the affected areas, I will donate to them. They are our fellow countrymen, our neighbors.

I ask of you all: please buy a gallon of water to donate, or some other form of usable clothing or perishable - money is no good to people with no place to spend it.

Beautiful Women

I pulled guard duty for about an hour and a half today. While there, this very thin young woman came walking in with a person I believe is her mother. I've gotta tell ya about this girl.

She looks about 23 - 26 years old, 5'7" to 5'9" (sometimes 6', if she's in heels), Pam Anderson blonde hair, some Pam Anderson similarities in the face (which clearly is not natural), very thin legs, very thin torso, and I must say she's very thin. Tammy Faye has nothing on this girl, when it comes to make-up. Most strippers wear more clothing than her... while on stage. I'm sure most trailer-park-whores have more (better) fashion-sense. The 'bitch' attitude exudes from her and follows in her wake, like her memories of entertaining the high school football team and not being asked to the prom are always on her mind.

Who is she? I do not know. Nor do I wish to know.

Do women believe this physical description is what men want? I'm not gonna lie to ya, many of us enjoy looking at a woman that looks like a living Barbie doll. But that's about the extent of the damage. If you're an average (or larger) sized gal, don't sweat it.

You are beautiful and desired the way you are.If you're single: wait for a man mature enough to see that. If you're not single: your mature man loves you as you are - or you'll be single soon and he'll be bangin' the blonde chick noted above.

*walks off quietly rapping*
"I like big butts and I cannot lie..."

Fire At Will!

A friend of mine called me up the other day and informed me of the foul intensions of some preacher that owns a website called:
www.g- o- d- h- a- t- e- s- f- a- g- s.com (without the hyphens and spaces)(I'm not linking to this site, because it would only give his site added help).

This worthless piece of fecal matter has the audacity to (attempt to) denegrate our troops. As if it is not bad enough that he is disrespecting his own country's military, he's throwing nasty names and slanderous remarks about America's fallen soldiers... at their funerals. This prick is making a tour across Tennessee, to as many of the military funerals as he can.

Now, I'm all for a person's right to free speach and the right to peacefully assemble, but come on. I believe the spouses, parents, children, and friends of everyone have the right to bury their dead in peace. They should also have the right to shoot assholes like this guy on sight.

I have opined. More facts can be found (HERE). This link is not the Knoxville News Sentinel - you need a membership to view that, but this person's site has a copy of the article.

From Gmail

Testing once again.

This test brought to you by our sponsor.

Trying to see if it works. Or doesn't.

Thanks Harvey

Redundancy

Workplace announcement of the day.
(I've heard this one before.)

"Attention Shoppers:

We will be distributing and handing out free gifts in Household Chemicals, today.

This is our last and final call."

Not kidding. They really said it. Just. Like. That.

Test2

I have many email accounts, but no gmail.
Yes Harvey, I'd love to try that gmail thang.
Thanks

--
___________________________________________________________
I had to cut the tag off of this post, post posting.
mail.com adds their own stuff too

Free Parking...

...too bad gas isn't.

The prick mentioned in my previous post is still parked in the same place. Apparently, noone knows who or why this is. It's a nice Durango. Needs a new set of tires. Clean. Hmm... Maybe I'll put a Post-It note on there, and if there's no reply I'll just take it.

Maybe not. Too much of a gas hog. Maybe they left it there because they couldn't afford gas and they ran out. Serves them right. SUVs are tools of the devil.

Even my in-laws are getting rid of one of their SUVs. 3/4 of a tank is costing them about $75 right now (OUCH!) - that's near Atlanta.

For those of you that are up north or out west: I feel for you.

Elitist Parking

I saw Johnny - Oh! in the store today.
Him being the elitist that he is... I thought this was his ride, until I saw his "elevated" van out front.

So since this wasn't him: what kind of prick parks in the middle of the loading zone?

Testing Testing

1, 2, 3...

Yeah. I can count.

 

Trying out this e-mail thingy.

 

Should I use it for ease?

Or is it too sloppy looking?

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
http://mail.yahoo.com

Quite Ridicilicilous

Let me start by saying: What The F***?

We have everyone and their "lover" telling us to be politically correct.
We have half of those people telling us what politically correct is.
Too many people hiding behind the first amendment just so they can get some trash talk in / or so they can get their faces in front of a camera and have their 15 minutes. (I must agree with Rush Limbaugh on this: "You have the right to say what you want, but you do not have the right to be heard.")
Too much talk and too many laws to make life fair for everyone in the U.S., while the talk is all lies and the laws are only to benefit certain people.
Tolerance for being stepped on and a lack of balls to knock the piss out of the stepper - a lack of balls due to being politically correct.

So what is it that set this post into motion?
I was watching Tom & Jerry this morning. Seriously - that's it.

I remember watching this cartoon when I was a kid and thinking it was great. I remember watching other shows and thinking how wonderful they were, and they were family (child friendly) oriented. Most of the cartoon violence was so outlandishly ridiculous that even a child knew this was not something that could really happen.

As I got older I liked the newer things and shows. Kung Fu with David Carradine as Kwai Chang Caine - some violence, but with explanation and a good message - showed very few death scenes and was entertaining. Night Court with Harry Anderson as a magic loving judge and John Laroquette as a horny prosecutor after Christine Sullivan. Sure there were sexual innuendos, but the language was clean. All in the Family was a good one, Archie Bunker was over the top racist and provided a good example of what not to be - as a kid I could see that the things he said and did were wrong and that made it that much more important that I not act that way. I believe the older, less politically correct shows were a better influence on children than the more politically correct shows of today.

My children read a great portion of the time. It's not that my wife or I force them to do so - they enjoy it. I am very proud of them for that. But, ya know, they are allowed to watch television. The only times they are not allowed to do so is when they are being punished - perhaps a t.v. rule was broken. I believe kids have just as much of a right to watch t.v. as adults. It's not like tobacco or alcohol - or driving. It is a form of entertainment that has no age limit and is available in your home.

I remember a time when the more adult themed shows would come on later at night, when the children should be in bed. Wait... don't they still do that? The Shield, Adult Swim, South Park... I thought so. So why am I flipping channels in the morning and early afternoon hours and hearing words that are clearly adult oriented? I know, kids hear these words any way, right? Not in my house. Shit, Fuck, Asshole, and GD are not a part of the vocabulary in use while speaking to or around my children. If I will not use these words in the company of my kids, and I don't think anyone else should either.

When the older shows were on, they didn't need colorful language to be entertaining. Look back at their popularity - think of the shows you watched as a kid, and how many people did you know of that watched them, AH! wait, here ya go... did they have a lunch box made after them? And how much bad language was there? ...yeah.

I know I am not going to change anything about the shows that are on, but I don't have to watch them either. If you don't like what's on... change it. But while you're changing it, you shouldn't be able to not get away from it.

V-chip? Parental Controls?
I use parental controls on my kids' computer. I shouldn't have to on a t.v., and television manufacturers shouldn't have to make these options available for concerned parents. Consumers shouldn't have to pay for these features in a t.v. either. If the t.v. has to have a chip or anything else to allow the parent to control the settings... the companies producing the television shows should have to pay the added expense of those televisions. I bet the language factor would drop then, huh? I have more on this, but I've a headache at the moment.

I think I'll listen to the radio for a while. Maybe even take a nap. Don't wake me unless Cindy Sheehan has been shot - I don't want to miss the party.

Back to School

The kids are back in school and college classes resume soon.

I was looking at the classes available for the coming semester and I got a bit pissed. There are several classes I would love to take this semester, but they weren't offered in the past and I don't have time for them now. Figures.

I got one of my textbooks in the mail today. I took a quick skim through it - I guess it ain't bad. It covers a bit more GIS history than I really needed to be reading about. I've been going over the same things in GIS history for a few years now. I don't see what we have to learn from its history - except for the mistakes and successes. I take the time to learn it any way - I try to be a good student.

Three classes this semester and that's it. Graduate. Let's hope I can pull off as much project creation and management as I have in the past. Otherwise, I'll be watching my GPA slip away. Project creation and porject management are the only things that have kept my GPA up so far - test grades may not go my way, but I perform excellent with real projects.

I guess I need to talk to my lead professor soon. He said something about trying to get me a job by the time I graduate. We'll see how that goes. Well - I hope.

Confederacy Love and Hate

I read an article in a local paper that was based on the Confederate Battle Flag, and discussed this area's history in regards to the Civil War. This particular article had been written because of some opposing views about one of the local high school mascots and their flag... the Rebels and the Confederate Battle Flag. Over the summer, this battle has been waged and there have been more than the usual number of shirts with the Confederate Battle Flag on them.

Now I'm a born and bred southerner - conceived in Georgia, born and raised in Tennessee - but that doesn't mean I'm a redneck hick. Yeah, I've been looking at a few of those shirts and thinkin', "I like that," or "that's funny." One of my favorites reads: "If this flag offends you, you need a history lesson." I like it because it's true. But I wonder how much history the shirt owners have bothered to learn. No, I do not own a shirt depicting this historically and educationally abused flag, but I do have a certain respect for that flag. As I do the old flags of America's first years (Don't Tread On Me). Ya know, at one time those were seen as the flags of Rebels. And as Americans, how many of us are not proud of our great flag and the country we have become? I dare ya to doubt the pride of a Brit. Or to say that the Union Jack is offensive, because the religious oppression your ancestors endured and finally fled.

About that Confederate flag history... Well, the history lesson you get all depends on who you're talkin' to, or which books (or websites) you read. I like stories that get to the point and this website gets right to it: http://www.infoplease.com/spot/confederate3.html

Although hate groups have perverted this flag in the eyes of so many people, there are still those that love this flag and have respect for what it stood for and stands for in their hearts. The majority of those that understand its meaning are much older than I, the majority of those are southern, and most of those people come from Scottish and Scotch-Irish ancestry. How 'bout an example?

My wife's grandmother is an active Daughter of the Confederacy. She is the daughter of a Confederate soldier. She is as southern as a person, place, or thing can be. Ask this woman about the history of the Confederate Battle Flag. I'm sure there would be some factual information thrown in there... somewhere. But more than that. You would understand that this symbol has nothing to do with racism, oppression, hate, or any of the other horrible things that have become associated with it. On the other hand, if you were to ask a woman who watched as her father was killed by a hate-group that used this flag, I'm sure you would get quite a differing view. In both instances, people are drawing on their education and the experiences that educated them and formed their views. To one, it is a symbol that holds a dear history of country, family, ideals, and childhood memories. To the other, it is a symbol of hate, fear, loss, and all the horror involved with these.

"If this flag offends you, you need a history lesson." But if you can't understand how someone can be offended by it, you need a lesson in ethics and/or compassion. And how many of us can see both sides of the fence? I know I've had a problem doing that, at times - and I still do, at times. But I never claimed to be perfect.

I'm not entirely a religious man, not exactly free of a bias point of view, I don't like all people (let alone love them), I have as much prejudice in me as most people do, I'm too serious when I don't need to be and not very serious when I should be, I don't call my son or my mother like I should... and the list goes on. So, as you can see, I'm not casting any stones toward anyone for their point of view (this time). But I am saying that some things are misunderstood. And without knowing the whole story behind each individual person and their reasoning: it is impossible to know what offends them, what they know, and what are their limits for compromise. In today's world, it's the same thing as trying to be politically correct with everyone while trying to "be one of them."

As the addage goes: you can't make all of the people happy all of the time.

Everyone needs education. If they don't think so, it's probably because they have no need for education...

History lesson? Ethics? _________? Yeah.

That too.

Cheeseburger in Paradise

Took the family to Chimney Rock Park in Chimney Rock, NC. This place should be a.k.a. Million Stairs. Everyone's legs were a bit shakey by the time we left there and headed to Asheville, NC.
Interesting note for Johnny-oh: The elevator at Chimney Rock Park was placed via blasting through granite (26 stories).

Since we were in the mood for some grub, we decided to head on over to Jimmy Buffet's place. It was not as easy to find as one would think (maybe I'll post a better map for it than is provided on Jimmy's site.

The food: it was pretty good.
The margarita (original - frozen): great.
Best drink: Tooter Topper - coconut (tequila shooter topped with coconut).
Price: pretty cheap.
Service: good.

The ride back to Knoxville: zzzzz.