Is there really anything more else I need to say at this moment?  Rhetorical.  Some of you have been here and the comfort is that all you young whipper snappers WILL join me… eventually.

Been around three decades and all I got was This lousey t-shirt!   Wisdom now etches my newly forming laugh lines… *cough*…  Now I can sit back in my rocker and curse at the top of my lungs “Hooligan!” and “Pull up your pants!”  *hack* .  Of course the one I’ve been waiting to say all my life “When I was your age….”  “… there was no Wikipedia!  We had to go to a library and look up books with the Dewey Decimal System!”  Now don’t get me started if you don’t know what that is… go Google it!!!

Lots to look forward to, Depends, walkers, Prune juice; it’s just to bad it also means becoming deaf, dumb and blind.

Yeah, this is what you get to look forward to, son…..  Don’t say I didn’t warn ya!

It wasn’t what I had expected but then again I am sure it never is for women who are pregnant for the first time.  I suppose technically I had been in labor since 10 am yesterday but the contractions did not get regular until about 5 pm.  It was funny because I argued with my Mom on whether or nor I was actually having contractions.  I didn’t think I was.  My Mom (who took me to the hospital) was a in bit of a panic.  In truth I was also.  We had to turn around once because I had forgotten I had the only keys to our “family” car and my hubby had taken the two seater to work.  When I realized it we were about half way to the hospital in my Mom’s minivan.  So we turned around and dropped the keys off and set out to the hospital once again.

As we arrived at the hospital, I fretted over how I did not have my birth plan with me and how had not even gotten it approved by my Doc.  Truth be told after a few hours of painful contractions my “natural” birth plan flew right out the window.  I’ve been through gallbladder attacks and an ectopic pregnancy, both of which is supposed to be one of the most painful things a woman can go though.  Let me vouch that the contranctions were the most excruciating pain I have ever gone through.  I surrendered and conceeded to an epidural.  Yeah, yeah I’m a weakling but let’s see how you’d fair.

Let me tell you, legs eagle spread for all to see was very uncomfortable to say the least but as labor went on I quickly lost all modesty.  I just wanted my baby out quickly and most importantly,  safely.  It is difficult to explain, time went both quickly and slowly.  I remember my heart skipping a beat everytime the baby monitor moved and I could no long hear the reassuring, “Beep….Beep” of the baby’s heart.

The last time I remember looking at a clock it was nearing midnight.  My water had broken somewhere around here.   Then before I knew it about three hours had passed and the nurse and doctor were getting concerned of the increased heartrate of the baby and the fact that I had a temperature of 102°, which meant my baby did also.  Whatever was left of trying to adhere to my birth plan went right out the window with the risk of this little one’s life.  I told the Doc to do whatever was necessary to ensure the health and wellbeing of my child.  They lessened the meds they were using with the epidural so I could better feel when to help out with pushing.  Then they gave (can’t remember atm what it was called) me a med to strengthen the contractions and move labor on more quickly.

All I remember from this next stage of the labor was that I thought my head was going to explode or I was going to pass out for lack of oxygen because I was pushing so hard and I had to be reminded to breathe.  I knew I had to work hard as I could muster so my baby wouldn’t be in distress for longer the absolutely necessary.

I was a bit dazed when my baby boy was born.  For a second I couldn’t figure out why I couln’t hear my baby’s cry.  I remember frantically calling out, “Is he ok?”, “Is he crying?”, “I can’t hear him crying!”  Finally, after what felt like an eternity, I heard a very weak cry.  I burst into tears.  I barely got to see his face before they wisked him away to better clear his lungs and manage his raging fever.

As a safety measure, they put him on antibiotics for the fever as well as a preventitive measure for his kidney, but he is doing well.

I’ll write more as my new job of being the best Mommy I can be, will allow.  ;-)

Pic’s should follow soon also.  So stay tuned!

I feel a huge responsibility weighing down.  I am terrified I will fail my little boy.  It is almost agonizing.  I know that he will deserve better than to have me as his mom.  I wonder if other parents to be go through this.

You see I am been attempting to write him a little letter in spirit of what my husband has already written but I haven’t been able to do it.  With all this fear and doubt in my ability, how can write him anything?  I feel guilty that I dont have one of those fairytale stories to tell my son like my mother told me.  She was so sure,  nothing but unbounding joy and love from the beginning.  It was destiny.  It even sounded magical.  I wish I had that to give to my son.  He deserves it.  I did care more right fromt he beginnning than I ever thought I would.  I do know I will love him with all of my heart.  But things have been pretty shaky from the start.  I am conflicted.  I am so afraid.  It sounds so horrible but there are times where I wish I could just run away from this and hide.  How cowardly is that!?  At the end of the day though I almost  always realize I would do anything for him without hesitation.  Does that make up for my cowardice?  I dont think so.

Yesterday evening I noticed the little one seemed to be kicking in rhythm.  I thought it a bit odd.  It lasted about three to five minutes.  There were no other symptoms.  The tapping feeling was slightly below my belly button and very light.  So light infact I thought that maybe it could be my own pulse I was feeling but no, my heart was beating a bit faster than the rhythmic feeling in my belly.  So I went back to the idea it was the baby.  I feared something was wrong.

I did the only thing I could think of.  I googled it.  I tried a few search terms.  Nothing.  Nothing good, nothing bad, just no information on anything happening like this.  I kept an eye on the clock and tried a few more pages in.  After some digging I started to find some women who had gone through the exact same thing.  Everyone said it was hiccups.  I didn’t even know it was possible for my unborn child to get the hiccups.  It seemed a little strange.  Then I stumbled across a site where a certfied nurse explained to a woman going through the same thing that it nothing to worry about the baby had just a little case of the hiccups.

Hiccups!  That’s insane.   I will of course confirm this with my OB at my next visit.  I just wanted to record the moment so I would never forget.

At 17 weeks I started feeling him kicking.

At 26 weeks pregnant my unborn baby boy had his first bout of hiccups.

I really should setup a timeline with this stuff.  Wish I would have recored more things as they happened earlier. :’(

1. A desktop version of Flickr’s built-in photo manager.  -  This is a really good start but there is still a few things missing.
2. Manage/edit my photo’s metadata (xmp, iptc exif).  -  The ability to add custom fields to the metadata would be a plus but really not that necessary.
3. Remember all tags, sets, and collections currently up on  my Flickr account.  -  This would negate the problem of creating multiple tags, etc, for a group of photos where only one is needed  (i.e. “CedarPoint” and “Cedar-Point”).
4. Lastly, added ability of Flickr’s own uploader.  -  Setting privacy permissions, batch uploading, etc.

I had thought this would have been an obvious list for most people too, but it must not be because I have yet to find a solution that fits the bill.  I’ve Googled, downloaded and tried everything I could get my hands on that even remotely seemed like there was a chance that it might work.  I guess I was hoping someone might stumble across this with a solution I could stomach.

**crosses fingers and waits expectantly**

I found Dean Koontz’s “Odd Thomas” to be a quaint and lovable story that wins you over with it’s refreshing simplicity and genuine honesty. Though Dean Koontz has quite a talent of making the dark and twisted supernatural seem almost mundane in “Odd Thomas”, it has an innocence that even a “Harry Potter” book could not touch upon.

I am currently in the middle of writing a series of articles about my experiences of the first weeks of pregnancy.  There are currently two articles up. Check them out if you feel froggy.

The Start of a Pregnancy – Part 1 – Revelations

and…

The Start of a Pregnancy – Part 2 – Validation

Enjoy! :D

I lived in this small town that was very pretentious.  On the surface it looked the very picturesque meaning of quaint.  An outsider standing in the middle of the downtown area could easily believe that this was a place that could feel like home.  Every one was part of your extended family.  A place of peace and acceptance.  A place that made you feel like you had a big fluffy blanket wrapped around while you were sipping hot cocoa on a cold stormy late Autumn evening.  Of course that was what they wanted outsiders to think.  It was a tourist trap.  But as soon as the tourists went home from their little mini vacation a completely different atmosphere appeared.  And the true town’s personality emerged.  The people were not so well adjusted, nor excepting.  I always saw the town as a form of Broadway stage during tourist season.  When the lights went down and everybody went home – the makeup and costumes came off.

Then late at night the circus freaks emerged. Mostly during their beloved Halloween season.  October was their time to show their true form and come out and play.  The city officials and those who ran the town hated them.  Hated their existence.  They thought it was a blight on their perfect little town.  This little group of circus freaks were twistedly talented volunteers of the local haunted school house.  And I was one of them.  A proud member in fact.  I cherished my part in smearing the towns perfect little exterior.  All of us at the haunted house did, I think.  The town wanted to hide it’s imperfections.  Shoving them in the basements under lock and key.  October was the only time we could escape and show our deformed faces and non compliant revolutions.  It was mostly innocent of course.  We never really did any visual damage.  We were hooligans but we were not criminals.  This was my first true realization of home.  My first place of refuge.  Empowering, we were all royalty there.  Not the vagabonds the town branded us as.  Plus there still is nothing like scaring the pants off a guy twice my size.

I then lost it.  You can’t stay in one place forever though.  You must move forward on your path wherever it may take you.

I didn’t find another home until a few years later.  And oddly enough it took its form as a MMORPG.  It’s insane but in a lot of ways it filled the gap in my life that the haunted house made when I departed from it.  Once again I was able to be a more projected version of the things I wanted to be and liked in myself.  I put on the skin of a Twi’lek and played my grandest role yet.  That of a little blue Tyrenanian Twi named Xie ‘lanthia.  In actuality I found it terribly easier to be comfortable with being me under the guise of lighthearted silliness of a cantina than those of your everyday “real life” scenarios.  With SWG I found true social happiness.

The truth be, I am a bit of a social reject.  A self proclaimed hermit.  Even my husband scorns my antisocial tendencies at times.  He has dubbed me socially challenged and he is most definitely correct in his view of me.  In some ways it is something that is beyond my control but mostly I find contentment and even a bit of honor at being a mob of one.  It fits me.  I do love socializing with people once you get through the BS but unfortunately I found that a large majority of people are entirely made up of BS.  I actually should rephrase that.  I hate people.  I love persons.  The easiest way to get rid of me is to play at one of the mindless drones.  It does it every time.

By now as you can guess, SWG is gone for me also.  The truth being the game changed way to much and that caused a different type of people to become attracted to the game.  Sadly, it also chased away the type of “persons” that helped make me fall in love with SWG, so eventually I left also.  WoW, EQII, and all the other MMOs fall tragically short of the splendid social sandbox that was once SWG.  So, in a moment of weakness I very seriously think about renewing my subscription to SWG, even though I know full and well that the fix I am longing for I will never get again there.

Five years ago it was annoying. In today’s world it is down right unacceptable!

I am talking about a few Utilities Service companies refusal to transition into 21st century technology amenities. Simple things like being able to pay your bill, check your account online; pay by phone with check or credit card; and the worst one… excepting credit/debit cards as a form of payment. Yes there are still a few utility companies who do not have these services available. Can you believe it. In this day and age it seems almost unimaginable.

It does get worse though. Most of the time we as customers do not have the luxury of shopping around for a better price and service from these companies (e.g. garbage disposal service, phone, gas or whatnot) because there is no competition. There is only one company that will handle said utility service in the area you live. We are stuck with what they give us and we are expected to be happy about it. Cause if we are not and we happen to speak out against these atrocities, they will most certainly make sure to inconvenience you to almost the point of harassment. Ever wonder why when they tell you they’ll be at your house between 12pm and 5pm sometimes you come home, on time mind you, only to find a note on your door timestamped at 11:45am – sorry we missed you, please call this number to schedule. They’re teaching you a lesson that’s why. They are smug about it too because they know they are not going to lose your business. If you want electricity or water you’re stuck with them and boy do they know what power they have over you. They seem to enjoy rubbing it in your face every chance they can get.

I’m going to buy a plot of land out in the middle of nowhere. Built my house with my own bare hands. I am going to make it completely self sufficient too. I won’t need to rely on these bastards any longer. Ah, what a dream!

I never was one for a mass display of intoxicated gluttony.  It is true though that I have been involved in my fair share of them.  One of them was a SciFi-Fantasy convention my friends affectionately dubbed the annual drunkin’ orgy fest.  I took part in the drunkin’ portion of the fest for four years in a row.  Two of those pivoting moments, where joy and pain became one happened here.  This is the reason they are so beautifully precious to me.

The fucking worst thing about remembering these moments is that in part because of them, I realize that I have shut out, closed down any possibility for any future memories to be made and cherished.  I have built up a wall around me preventing anyone from touching me, connecting with me.  This is my own personal purgatory and I lay in the bed that I have made.

To quote from the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

A towel, it says, is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitch hiker can have. Partly it has great practical
value – you can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble-sanded beaches of Santraginus V, inhaling the heady sea vapours; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world of Kakrafoon; use it to sail a mini raft down the slow heavy river Moth; wet it for use in hand-to-hand-combat; wrap it round your head to ward off noxious fumes or to avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (a mindboggingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can’t see it, it can’t see you – daft as a bush, but very, very ravenous); you can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough.

More importantly, a towel has immense psychological value. For some reason, if a strag (strag: non-hitch hiker) discovers that a hitch hiker has his towel with him, he will automatically assume that he is also in possession of a toothbrush, face flannel, soap, tin of biscuits, flask, compass, map, ball of string, gnat spray, wet weather gear, space suit etc., etc. Furthermore, the strag will then happily lend the hitch hiker any of these or a dozen other items that the hitch hiker might accidentally have “lost”. What the strag will think is that any man who can hitch the length and breadth of the galaxy, rough it, slum it, struggle against terrible odds, win through, and still knows where his towel is is clearly a man to be reckoned with.

This year I actually remembered. Yay! Usually I am a few months to late. Which kind of sucks because this is one of the few ‘holidays’ I really get into and look forward to. It is such an amazing way of celebrating Douglas Adams’ life and his wonderful creations. It’s astounding that something as beautifully silly as “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” has touched so many people. It makes me bubble over with happiness just thinking about it. Well almost. I am not quite the bubbling personality type. It is something that I can only dream of that I would one day I would get such an awesome tribute to my life as this.

The origin of the towel joke

The full version of this story was first found in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy: The Original Radio Scripts and reprised in The Salmon of Doubt, but the short version is as follows: Adams had gone on holiday in Greece, but every time he had decided to go to the beach with his fellows, he discovered that his towel would disappear, and could be found only after hours of searching.

After the holiday had ended, he decided that anyone who really had their life in order would always know the location of such a useful item, hence the fictional aphorism “A hoopy frood always knows where his towel is”. He had no idea that this towel joke, which first appeared in the seventh radio episode, and subsequently in the first book, would catch on so thoroughly.

He assumed, after learning that so many people liked and understood the joke, that he was not the only one with such an experience. After his death, Towel Day was established on May 25 as a tribute (two weeks after the date of his death).

Happy Towel Day Everyone! And remember, don’t forget your towel!! ;-P

Earlier I posted “I think I just killed my N810″. Creeva came and rescued me from my ineptness and offer up the suggestion that I remove the battery. Yeah you guessed it. It was that simple.

Well, at the cost of a little bit of pride at least I learned something. When confronted with a problem it is more often than not, a simple solution. I guess this is proof of how I tend to over complicate the situation.   /sigh

Shortly after I awoke this morning I sat down to check my email with clawsmail. As I was browsing through I hit the toggle button for fullscreen/windowed mode. Didn’t work but I didn’t think to much of it. I switched to xournal to jot a few things down. Tried to open a saved file on the micro sd. Couldn’t access it through xournal. So I shut the program down. Found I could access it through file manager. I decided to pull out the micro sd and reset it just in case something was funny. I had a pain of a time getting it out but I was careful(I think/hope). Still couldn’t read it. I thought maybe it supposed to read the external memory. So I went to my browser to google it. That’s when I found out none of buttons were working. I shut it down and charged it. I walked away from it for a few hours. Now I can’t get it to turn on at all.

At this point I don’t know if it was my screw up because I pulled the micro sd while the N810 was on or something else entirely. I did check the quickstart manual that came with the N810 and  it said you can pull the external memory when the device it on as long as it is not in use. It shouldn’t have been in use by anything. I just added it last night so it was pretty much empty and no programs were open.

I don’t know what to do. I don’t even know for sure if I can return it since I did get it refurbished through amazon.com.

I am hoping it is something little and stupid that I overlooked. Which is usually the way things go for me. Just my F’ing luck!!

Since this would be my first post on the n810, a little background for you.

I received my n810 about a week ago. I had returned the n800 I previously owned. The primary reason for the return was the lack of a built-in keyboard. This made interaction with the device slow and a little on the annoying side. There were a few other perks also. The n810 had a brighter more vibrant screen , a built-in GPS and 2gigs of internal memory. I chose to wait a few months until I had the cash in hand to buy the n810. So far the $150 price difference has been worth it.

Well it’s been a week and I still don’t have it set up exactly the way I want but it is mostly to do with the learning curve involved. Not that I really mind. Though I have to say if you don’t like getting your hands a little dirty, the n800/n810 is not for you. If you do have a little curiosity and a lot of patience, this device transforms into a most invaluable tool in your hands. With regards to the amazing open source community surrounding this impressive little device, of course.

Today, I arrived at a road block. I had paired my n810 to my T-mobile KRZR K1 but when I had finally come around to testing bluetooth I had found I could not gain access to the internet. It had paired seamlessly. No problems at all. Though when I attempted to connect I would get a “connection failed” message. I had deleted the connection with my KRZR and re-paired it several times. No change. Finally I noticed that the n810 was indeed talking to my KRZR. So, it wasn’t a connection problem between the two devices.

After a little searching on the inter web, I found out that my data plan with T-mobile was the problem. Officially, my $5.99 plan was to be only used for phone internet browsing. I have to upgrade to the $19.99 plan to get it to work. This gets you a much faster connection, no port restrictions and your phone can be used as a modem. Now I don’t know if the $5.99 data plan is working as T-mobile intends. Seems pretty ridiculous to me to forcibly limit how a customer uses it considering that there is an advantage to getting the $19.99 package. It does offer a faster connection. I really don’t like to be told how I can use a service that I am paying hard earned cash for. That was after all why I had chosen to pay that extra bit a month. This annoyed the hell out of me.

Thanks to the wonderful community at internettablettalk.com I found a solution. It turned out to be fairly simple. All that needed to be done was to setup the proxy settings manually.

Here’s what needed to be done. Copy and pasted from the link below. Post #6 has the walkthrough.

http://www.internettablettalk.com/forums/showthread.php?p=93176

To set up the tmobile connection, you need to go to Tools/Control Panel/Connectivity, click “connections”, and “new”. Use these settings:

Type: gprs
APN: wap.voicestream.com
Dial up #: *99#
Click “Advanced”
Use Proxy: yes
http proxy: 216.155.165.50
port: 8080
https proxy: 216.155.165.50
port: 8080

in “other” tab/Supplemental AT commandsEnter the following:

at+cgdcont=1,”IP”,”wap.voicestream.com”

click ok, then finish

That did it. After I set everything up, it worked like a dream if not a little bit slow but then again, I do have the lesser data plan. No complaints here. :)

Even more relevant than when she said it in 1961. Substitute “Islamists” for “Communists”
Hopefully, we will see in our lifetimes a realignment of the GOP in favor of reason and individual rights and away from faith and tradition. Religion is a private matter.
With the respective candidacies of Giuliani and Huckabee the split has become even more glaring: the pro-freedom Giuliani (pro-choice, socially liberal, capitalist, anti-regulation- who respects profit and achievement) vs the christian socialist Huckabee (pro-tradition, anti-gay, anti-abortion, anti-reason, anti-capitalist, pro-regulation altruist)
Interestingly, in Rand’s 1957 novel Atlas Shrugged (celebrating 50 years in publication) the President is the folksy “Mr. Thompson” – a deal-making insincere lobbyist type who believes anyone’s open to a deal. Interesting coincidence that we have Fred Thompson this year, huh?

From: XCowboy2

Digg’theists, MySpace aficionado’s, and Twit enthusiasts have found the secret to ultimate happiness and complete well-beingness and they are taking a step away from their computers long enough to share it with the rest of the world. This is bleeding edge D.A.T therapy (Data Aggregation Treatment Therapy).

After 9 years of faithful appointments to my therapist, we agreed to try this D.A.T therapy as a sort of last ditch effort to bring happiness and contentment into my life. I am so ecstatic with the results and success – with the permission of my therapist – I would like to share this treatment with everyone, as I believe it can change peoples moods, outlooks and beliefs on life and how they interact with the world around them.

- First step, sign up for and obsessively use every web 2.0 service you can find. Del.icio.us, Twitter, MySpace, Facebook, Tumblr, and All consuming to name a few.

- Secondly, and this is crucial, find a blog platform you are comfortable with and create your very own blog. I recommend WordPress or Blogger – you have the most customizability with these I think.

- Thirdly, aggregate all your data form those web 2.0 services that you signed up for through plug-ins, rss/atom feeds and widgets, etc. straight into your blog.

- Lastly, blog about everything, to the most mundane timestamped lists of your bathroom breaks to epiphanies about the number forty-two.

Now all of this may seem a bit trifle at first but let me assure you that all the time and effort you are going to put into this will be worth the results ten-fold. After the months and months of setup and tweaking I did it took only about 3 months for me to finally see the change in myself and my life. I hope it does the same for you.

Please feel free to leave a comment or question straight on my blog. Or if you’re a little embarrassed you can contact me privately through my contact page. I’ll try to help out any way I can.

-Cosmo, from the movie ‘Sneakers’

  Lost and long ago...
I dreamed of violet skies,
And luscious fields of green.
         All is lost,
         All is gone.
 It seems so long ago...
I whispered in the evening winds,
Of treachery bound deep inside.
         All is lost,
         All is gone.
 What must have been a lifetime ago...
The world was new, conjecture excepted,
Unquestioningly, contently - bewitched by time.
         All is lost,
         All is gone.
 A shadow of time long, long ago...
In the innocent twilight of my youth,
I slipped on memories - vast seas of hope betrayed...
     Forever lost and long ago.

President Bush Addresses CENTCOM Coalition Conference

“Our main enemy is al Qaeda and its affiliates. Their allies choose their victims indiscriminately. They murder the innocent to advance a focused and clear ideology. They seek to establish a radical Islamic caliphate, so they can impose a brutal new order on unwilling people, much as Nazis and communists sought to do in the last century. This enemy will accept no compromise with the civilized world. Here is what the al Qaeda charter says about those who oppose their plans: ‘We will not meet them halfway, and there will be no room for dialogue with them.’ These enemies have embraced a cult of death. They are determined to bring days of even greater destruction on our people. They seek the world’s most dangerous weapons. Against this kind of enemy, there is only one effective response: We must go on the offense, stay on the offense, and take the fight to them.”

President George W. Bush
May 1, 2007

Al Qaeda and its affiliates resemble Nazi Germany in the last century, do they? I have to disagree. I am beginning to think our own U.S. Government more closely resembles Nazi Germany these days. Here is an example why:

Fact Sheet on FISA Modernization

The Problem

• The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) was drafted almost thirty years ago, for the purpose of establishing a process for obtaining a court order to conduct foreign intelligence surveillance in the United States.
• However, as a result of revolutions in telecommunications technology since FISA was passed, FISA now often requires the Government to get a court order to collect information on terrorists and other foreign intelligence targets located overseas.
• It makes no sense to require the Government to obtain a court order to collect foreign intelligence on foreign targets located in foreign countries. This requirement impairs our intelligence capabilities, and diverts scarce resources that would be better spent safeguarding the civil liberties of Americans, not foreigners who wish to do us harm.
• As the Director of National Intelligence has reported, as a result of this outdated law we now are “missing a significant amount of foreign intelligence that we should be collecting to protect our country.” This is unacceptable at any time-but it is intolerable in the current heightened threat environment.

The Director of National Intelligence Has Proposed A Reasonable Solution

• The Administration proposed a comprehensive FISA modernization bill to the Congress several months ago. However, Congress has made it clear that they will be unable to act upon the Administration’s full proposal before the August recess.
• In an effort to address this critical intelligence gap, the Director of National Intelligence has proposed a significantly narrowed proposal focused on the current, urgent need to protect our Nation.
• This new proposal would substantially enhance our capabilities to collect intelligence on targets located overseas. It would also preserve a role for the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court in reviewing the Government’s procedures for collecting intelligence on these overseas targets. This is an effort to balance court review and our urgent need to close the current intelligence gap.
• The court review procedures would not stand in the way of starting collection of foreign intelligence immediately. The Government would have 90 days after collection has started to submit its procedures to the court for review. If the court found any deficiency, collection would continue during any and all court review processes.

What Is Not Acceptable

• • Some have proposed that the Government must obtain pre-approval from a court before it conducts critical surveillance of targets located overseas. This is unacceptable. The Government must be able to act immediately, particularly in the case of national security emergencies, to protect the Nation.
  • Some have suggested that FISA must be reformed, but only to permit collection against certain overseas threats like al Qaeda terrorists. This is unacceptable. There are many threats that confront our Nation, including military, weapons proliferation, and economic, and we must be able to conduct foreign intelligence effectively on all of them.
  • Some have suggested that we must wait to modernize FISA. This is unacceptable. Congress must act now to give our intelligence professionals the tools they need to uncover plots in time to protect our homeland.
  • Some have suggested that a court order should be necessary before our intelligence professionals are able to gather any information about a foreign target who happens to contact someone in the United States frequently. This is unacceptable.

According to this, our government believes that ‘foreign’ people somehow have less rights than the U.S. citizens in the grand scheme of things. Or at least that seems to be the message, otherwise why would they feel the need to underline ‘foreign’ so frequently. This piece is obviously meant as a scare tactic. To frighten American Citizens into believing that any non-U.S. born citizens are to be immediately distrusted. As if ALL non-U.S. born citizens are out to hurt and destroy not only The United States of America itself but are also out to personally hurt every individual U.S. Citizen. As U.S. Citizens we MUST support this modernization of FISA at the very least and anything less would cause every U.S. law abiding citizen to be under eminent danger. Sounds kinda like propaganda, huh?

Giving the government a 90 day grace period to report any foreign intelligence gathered to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court and the ability to continue gathering foreign intelligence, even after this court calls the validity of such actions into question, removes any checks and balances inherited in the system, and has no place in a country where personal liberties are held in such high esteem.

I guess the question I ask is this really in our best interests? Is the false sense of safety really worth personal liberties in trade? You could say, “How does this affect me? I am an U.S. raised and born citizen?”. So take a minute and put the shoe on the other foot. How would this affect you if you weren’t an U.S. Citizen? How could this be used to harm others, innocents? Not to mention giving our U.S. government more control, more power in the long run.

Anonymity online is on the rise, allowing people to write, lie and manipulate data without feeling responsible for it. But who’s doing all this hiding? Hint: It’s not angry, pajama-wearing bloggers.

And now the public can see all if they visit Griffith’s Wikiscanner site. Turns out that all the anonymous propaganda and lies on Wikipedia aren’t coming from basement dwellers at all — they’re coming from Congress, the CIA, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and the American Civil Liberties Union. Somebody at Halliburton deleted key information from an entry on war crimes; Diebold, an electronic-voting machine manufacturer, deleted sections of its entry about a lawsuit filed against it. Someone at Pepsi deleted information about health problems caused by the soft drink. Somebody at The New York Times deleted huge chunks of information from the entry on the Wall Street Journal. And of course, the CIA has been editing the entry on the Iraq war.

Proof of why we should always question the validity of every bit of information that passes our way. Research the information from multiple sources until we become educated enough to have an opinion. And long before we pass that information on to someone else.

On Freenode: #ronpaul at irc.freenode.net On Efnet: #ronpaul at irc.servercentral.net On Undernet: #ronpaul at us.undernet.org

-You can use several different programs to connect to IRC. One good free chat program is called pidgin (formerly known as gaim) which can be downloaded at: http://www.pidgin.im/

More Speeches and essays by Ron Paul can be found at: http://www.house.gov/paul/legis.shtml

For even more info: http://www.house.gov/paul/ http://dailypaul.com/ http://ronpaulpresshub.com http://groups.google.com/group/electronpaul «

The winds howl in the black shuddering night
Holding you in her arms is Pandora’s delight
A carnival of hearts
A festival of amusements
Her wicked grin in reply to you commandments
The Devil, she entices
You can keep no secret, she knows all your vices
A wicked grin erupts from her blood stained lips, sinisterly she cackles
Stalking and circling like a pack of jackals
She knows the battle of your soul she has already won
You’re lost alone within a fiery sun

I wrote this a little over three years ago. This was inspired by one of my favorite SWG toons, Xhyanne ‘lanthia, and it is written in her point of view. At the time she was a very hot headed, stubborn little BH. Eager to take her place among the elite BH’s in the Intrepid galaxy, as well as prove her worth in her mother’s eyes. I hope you enjoy. :)

After coming back from a long hunt I decided to step into the local cantina to rest my weary bones for a few moments. I slowly walk to the back of the cantina and take a seat in one of those private alcoves. As I listen to the band play I relax and close my eyes letting my battle fatigue melt away. I quickly notice a musician playing the same few notes over and over again. Like a broken record..no flourishing…no nothing.

I get up figuring it was a new musician just starting out. Maybe I could help steer the guy in the right direction. My mom was, after all, in the famous band “The Def Stars”. As I walk up to him I realize that I was wrong. He was not a novice…he was a master! He was AFK and not even macrotaining. To my utter astonishment I realize I recognize this guy – it was someone the founders of DEF were considering for membership.

I stare in total and complete shock at his face. The world around me comesinto sharp focus. All I see is his cold blank stare with a deafening “Whooornal!……Whooornal!” from his playing Starwars1 on the chi horn. The sound itself was driving me insane. It was like nails on the chalkboard. Then when I think I can’t take it anymore…..

SNAP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I grab him by the scruff of his neck and drag him out of the cantina. I throw him face first into a nice big pile of torton poodoo. He so conveniently becomes ATK at the best possible moment! Yeah you guessed it, when his face was buried in that huge mound of juicy…Ok I am getting a little carried away…

“What the hell is wrong with you ?!?” he screams.

“Did you really think you would get away with it ?” I said calmly.

“Away with what?! WTF?!” he yells.

I stare at him silently

“….I was only AFK for a moment!” he argued as he flailed, “if that!!”

I slowly and methodically pull out my LLC and point it at him. Fear was etched on his face. “So… do you want to do this the easy way,” I said evilly, “…or the hard…” A look of terror comes over his face. He turns from me and bolts. “…I was hoping you’d say that.” I said in a dark voice.

He was running for his life, but little did he know it was pointless. I already had him. For a moment there was no sound. Then….BOOM!!!…CRACKLE!!!…the first shot goes off. His whole body freezes for a split second and then he falls to the ground with a thud groaning all the way. I casually walk toward him. He scrambles to his feet slipping several times. He was trying over and over again to runaway, but he is slower this time.

Still walking towards……silence….BOOM!!!…Crackle!!..shot two goes off. His body jerks and convulses a little but he is able to stay on his feet this time. He slowly turns to face face with a pleading look on his disgusting face.

But it’s too late. BOOM!!!…..CRACKLE!!….hiss…..

A student at Eagle Rock Junior High won first prize at the Greater Idaho Falls Science Fair. He was attempting to show how conditioned we have become to alarmists practicing junk science and spreading fear of everything in our environment. In his project he urged people to sign a petition demanding strict control or total elimination of the chemical “dihydrogen monoxide.”

And for plenty of good reasons, since:

1. it can cause excessive sweating and vomiting
2. it is a major component in acid rain
3. it can cause severe burns in its gaseous state
4. accidental inhalation can kill you
5. it contributes to erosion
6. it decreases effectiveness of automobile brakes
7. it has been found in tumors of terminal cancer patients

He asked 50 people if they supported a ban of the chemical.

• Forty-three (43) said yes,
• Six (6) were undecided,
• Only one (1) knew that the chemical was water.

Since I don’t know how to be anything but honest. I find I am having a hard time coming up with the inspiration required for me to write. That is one of the main reasons to start a blog. I need to get back into the routine of writing regularly. Pen and paper journaling just doesn’t do anything for me anymore. With a paper journal I have no audience except myself and that makes me care less for structure and proper wordage. Ever since a few years ago, I was angry with myself and my writing ability, I haven’t been able to write anything with substance since. That night I took everything I had ever written and threw it into the fire. A huge mistake. Something I’ll be kicking myself for the rest of my life. All that blood, sweat and tears I poured out on paper is gone, it’s existence snapped out of memory, forever.

It shouldn’t have mattered that I was a far cry from Shakespeare. I am not sure Shakespeare was enough of a Shakespeare for Shakespeare(if that makes any sense) as it is under speculation on how many of his works were actually written by his hand.

Part of me is struggling with the whole self worth issue. When an idea sparks in my head with a possible subject to write about I clam up and the bully in my head ridicules me for even thinking I might have something of value to write about. I know that if I adhere to this long enough I have a chance at retraining the way I think and in turn will eventually silence that bully once and for all.

You see I am what they call a Constitutionalist or least that is what I consider myself to be. The second amendment is very near and dear to me. For me it is the very essence of freedom. So I pretty much shrugged off the idea of blogging and sharing my thoughts, feelings – my life, as “not for someone like me”.

Until one day something clicked. It was one of those days where I was ranting and raving at some new horror I had just discovered that existed in MY world. I felt helpless. Like I had no voice. I felt as if could scream and scream until there was no more breath in me and not a sound would part from my lips. It is quite a little nightmare of mine. Anyway, I was once again feeling like I was in the minority with my seemingly unpatriotic views. I realized that no matter how I personally rebelled against the injustices of the world. No matter how long I stood ranting and raving in my living room, it wasn’t constructive. It wouldn’t change anything. It wasn’t doing me any good. Except for an unhealthy spike of my blood pressure. That’s when it dawned on me that by not taking full advantage of the technology that is available to me today, I was in a way, denying myself my first amendment rights. That and I was running out of excuses to tell Creeva why I couldn’t give it a try.

So my hopes is that by channeling some of my anger, fears and joys into this little space and time, I can flush out ideas, opinions and evolve as a person. And maybe… just maybe… one day I’ll actually get up the nerve to share some of these pages with all of you.

 
First Commercial Cellular Network NTT

The Sony Walkman Introduced Sony

- Year End Close Dow Jones Industrial Average 838

- Interest Rates Year End Federal Reserve 15.25%

- Average Cost of new house $58,100.00

- Average Income per year $17,500.00

- Average Monthly Rent $280.00

- Cost of a gallon of Gas 86 cents

- Sony Walkman $200.00

- Jox Trainers $14.99

[YouTube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVHhg67RVd4]
YouTube – Life of Brian (1979) Trailer

[YouTube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ah1KVJOvZ8o]
YouTube – Broadcast Yourself.

[YouTube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpZXP5tigQs]
YouTube – News at 545 with Leonard Parkin (1979) Part 1