Monday, July 31

Immediate Call for Cease Fire

Have just read and signed the petition: "Immediate Call for Cease Fire"

Please take a moment to read about this important issue, and join me in signing the petition. It takes just 30 seconds, but can truly make a difference. We are trying to reach 1,000 signatures - please sign here: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/595232472

Once you have signed, you can help even more by asking your friends and family to sign as well.

HOW TO INSTALL A HOME SECURITY SYSTEM IN THE SOUTH

HOW TO INSTALL A HOME SECURITY SYSTEM IN THE SOUTH
 
 1. Go to a second-hand store and buy a pair of men's used size 14-16 work boots.
 
 2. Place them on your front porch, along with a copy of Guns and Ammo and your NRA magazines.
 
 3. Put a giant dog dish next to the boots and magazine.
 
 4. Leave a note on your door that reads: "Hey Bubba -- Big Mike, Slim, Tiny and I went for more ammunition. Back in an hour. Don't mess with the Pitbulls. They attacked the mailman this morning and messed him up pretty bad. I don't think Killer took part in it but I locked all four of them in the house. Better wait outside"

Letters, MIB, and Tomb Raider 1

Haven't been doing Jack Schitt, because, well, he's not my type. LOL. Anyway, the weather here, like so many places, has been too hot to doing anything of substance outdoors, so I haven't been. It's all I can do to feed the chickens and ducks and fill their water holders. *sigh* No, I'm not asking for sympathy, simply stating the facts, ma'am (or sir, whichever you identify with). LOL.

Decided to do something "old fashioned" as far as communicating with friends in the 21st century goes... I wrote a letter. Not to my mom like usual, but rather to a friend who has been too busy for email (cancer). My wife and I were talking about how we hadn't heard from her when my wife said, "Send her a letter, everybody likes getting letters". So I thought, hmm, that's true. Perhaps it'll make their family happy that I consider them enough like family to take the time to write a personal letter... ON PAPER! *smile* So that's what I did. Sent it out on Saturday, so they should get it today or tomorrow.

Other than that, I've been playing computer games, like MIB and Tomb Raider I. TR1 was originally designed to run on Windows 95, and up until yesterday I hadn't been  able to get it to run on Windows XP. I went on line and googled, and came up with this site, that gave me everything I needed, like patches and installation instructions, and now I can play TR1 on my XP computer. YAY! I love Laura! *grin* The last time I played, I was killed by bats in the "City of Vilcabamba". As for my level on Men In Black (MIB) *grin*, I can't get off the stairwell without dieing once I climb out the window after disarming the bomb and killing the 2 burglars. LOL. I did manage to pick up a "large medi-pack" in the apartment, but that doesn't do you much good if the building blows up while you're in it, or you jump from too high on the stairwell. LOL.

Rambleman

Sunday, July 30

CHINA DRILLS 50 MILES FROM KEY WEST

CHINA DRILLS 50 MILES FROM KEY WEST

By Jon Christian Ryter

July 26, 2006

NewsWithViews.com

If the United States decided to drill for oil 50 miles off the coast of China, we would be embroiled in WWIII overnight. Thanks to wacko environmentalist Congressmen and Senators using the Environmental Protection Agency [EPA] to stymie drilling along the continental shelf of the United States, oil that rightfully belongs to American oil companies is now being drilled by Canada, Spain and Cuba—with help from both China and India. With only modest energy needs and no drilling expertise or money, Cuba's government-owned oil corporation, CubaPetroleo—with money and expertise from China's national oil company, Sinopec—is now "exercising its option" in the Straits of Florida. China, according to reports, is slant drilling. Slant drilling is what oil companies do when the oil they are trying to tap is on someone else's property. China will try to tap into reserves on the "American-side" of the Florida Straits that legally belongs to the United States in a 2-year renewable treaty negotiated with Cuba and signed by then-President Jimmy Carter in 1977.

Surveys done by the Department of the Interior suggest the outer banks of the Straits contain more than 115 billion barrels of oil and 633 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. The oil reserves in the Florida Straits would cover America's oil and gas needs for approximately 16 years. The government of the United States and the Seven Sisters have been aware of the existence of these oil reserves for over two decades, yet they have all continued to insist there's a severe world oil shortage—as the price of crude continues to climb and oil storage facilities all over the world bulge from surpluses of crude the nation's refineries can't handle.

The Carter-Castro treaty drew an imaginary line through the middle of the Florida Straits, ceding all oil rights south of the line to Cuba and the balance to the United States. Cuba's drilling plans have been "on hold" for many years due to lack of financial resources—and fear of the United States. Being this close to the American coastline is seen as doubly beneficial to the Chinese since it now gives them "radar eyes" along the East Coast of the United States as well as their spy station at the former naval yard in Long Beach, California. Every two years, the treaty expires. Every president since Ronald Reagan has renewed it. I is important to keep in mind that, in the late 1970s, the treaty was largely one that protected a country's fishing rights. Today, the commercial interest is oil and natural gas.

George W. Bush renewed the treaty in December, 2005 against the strong objections of Sen. Bill Nelson [D-FL]. Nelson has proposed legislation that will prevent Cuba from drilling in the Florida Straits. The Nelson legislation would seek to prevent Cuba from producing energy within what is termed by the treaty as its own territorial waters in the southern Gulf of Mexico. "It's one thing for the distinguished senior Senator from Florida to focus his efforts on controlling and, in my view, undermining the national energy policy of the United States," Congressman John E. Peterson said in a press release. "As a US Senator that is, I suppose, his right. It's something altogether different for him to attempt to control the national energy policy of Cuba. It's simply a waste of effort." Peterson said that Nelson's latest gambit is tantamount to throwing a grenade into the fight over oil drilling rights off Florida's coastline. Peterson added that he didn't see how the United States could enforce a ban on Cuban drilling for oil or natural gas in the Florida Straits—particularly since Bush renewed the treaty last December.

And, where Nelson wants to block anyone from reaping the harvest of what appears to be the second largest oil reserve in the United States, Peterson wants to open drilling along the continental shelf and tap into the bonanza that he feels will solve the energy crisis in the United States. (Peterson is just one of a long list of Congressmen and Senators who don't understand that our energy "crisis" is a manufactured dilemma—created by the Seven Sisters and their oil allies in the Mideast, and fanned to crisis level by the environmental activists Big Oil funded. There is no oil shortage and never has been. There is a deliberate shortage of oil refineries in the United States, caused by EPA regulations that shut over 80% of them down during the Reagan-Bush and early Clinton years. The price of gasoline at the pumps is determined not by the amount of oil pumped from the ground, but the number of gallons of gasoline refined and delivered to the filling station down the street from your home. As long as shortages of refined gasoline exist, the price of oil will continue to rise—and so will the price you pay at the pump.)

The rapidly escalating price of crude at the wellhead—based on oil company maneuvering to manipulate prices rather than there being actual oil shortages—have now made deep sea drilling extremely profitable. Believing, or at least promulgating, the "peak oil" myth, half of the lawmakers in the US House and Senate are blocking any new oil exploration or the construction of any new refineries. The other half are complaining that America can no longer afford overly protective EPA regulations against offshore drilling, since high oil prices are now damaging the nation's economy. The Florida Straits treaty allows foreign oil companies to come within 50 to 90 miles of the American coastline to drill for a bonanza of oil that is second only to ANWR in sheer volume on the North American continent. In addition to oil, the area Carter ceded to Cuba contains up 232 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. The oil and natural gas farmed from the Florida Straits by China and Cuba will not be sold to the United States. It will be sold to those nations who oppose the dictates and diplomacy of Washington and London.

At a recent trade conference in Mexico City, Cuban trade officials invited American drillers to bid on the oil leases they were selling to China, Canada and the European Union nations. However, the US-Cuba trade embargo prevented American businessmen from doing business with the Cubans—even drilling for oil and natural gas within the 200 nautical mile economic enterprise zone that legally belongs to the United States. Paying $2 thousand a head to attend the trade conference were executives from several American corporations including Exxon-Mobil and Valero Energy Corporation (the nation's largest oil refiner, which is now part of the Seven Sisters). Which, of course, explains why Bush renewed the Carter-Castro treaty.) If I was a betting man, my money would be on the Seven Sisters owning a piece of the Canadian or Old World drilling companies profiting in the Straits of Florida—which is why, up to this point, that the eco-alarmists have been quiet on the potential environmental damage to the coastline of Florida by the foreign drillers.

For the past decade Republicans in Congress tried to open the continental shelf for oil exploration. But the environmentalists from Florida and California, aided by lobbyists from the tourism industry, proved to be too much for the GOP controlled Congress. Both argued that potential oil spills would be devastating not only to the ecosystem but the tourist industry as well, and could cost the State hundreds of millions of dollars.

As a result, environmentalists, aided by liberals on both sides of the aisle, successfully legislated a national ban on new offshore drilling up to 100 miles. Even with perceived shortages of oil, legislators—pushed by environmentalists who were largely funded by the oil industry—are now urging Congress to extend the offshore drilling ban to 250 miles—which is 50 miles farther than they can legally go. According to the UN's Convention on the Law of the Sea, every nation with a seacoast has an "Exclusive Economic Zone." Under the Law of the Sea, every nation has the exclusive sovereign right to explore and exclusively exploit the natural resources in and under the sea within 200 nautical miles of their shoreline.

Cuba divided its side of the enterprise zone into 59 parcels which it is now leasing to oil-starved nations—all of whom now have the legal right to come within 50 to 100 miles of the American coast and drill for oil. Thus far, Cuba has sold only at least 16 leases. Those nations are now building deep sea platforms off the coast of the United States. Those who slant drill will be able to tap into oil reserves under sovereign American soil—or at least, under the North American continental shelf. Canada, which has been the recipient of Cuba's largess, is now drilling in the Florida Straits. Canada has been drilling off the shores of several northeastern States for several years. But drilling in the Florida Straits is like fishing in a barrel full of fish.

Canadian oil driller Sheritt International and Pebercan, Inc. are pumping approximately 20 thousand barrels of crude from offshore oil fields in the Strait about 90 miles from Key West. Spain's Repsol Oil Company recently announced that they struck "quality oil" in the same region.

When Cuba parceled its section of the economic enterprise zone, Sen. Larry Craig [R-ID] railed against letting the People's Republic of China drill for oil off the coast of the United States. Addressing his peers on the Senate floor, Craig said: "Red China should not be left to drill for oil within spitting distance of our shores without competition from US industries."

Peterson—who has already collected over 160 cosponsors for a bipartisan bill to open the coastal waters around the United States for natural gas development—said his fear "...is for the future of America. We have a natural gas crisis, and its the biggest threat we have to the American economy." Opponents of drilling in US coastal waters for either natural gas or oil argue that drilling poses environmental risks, and undermines long term conservation. They added that the modest amount of oil under the continental shelf around the United States won't impact gasoline prices in the United States because oil is traded on a world market. Proponents of ending the ban on drilling along the continental shelf said it is unfair to allow China and India to capture oil and gas so close to the US shoreline and that American companies not be allowed to compete.

Peterson's bill is only one of several dealing with opening the coastal waterways for oil and gas exploration. Congressman Richard Pombo [R-CA], Chairman of the House Resources Committee, plans to introduce a bill that will cede control of the first 125 miles of offshore water beyond the coastline to the States. Business executives, angered that Cuba and China are profiting from American gas and oil that we need, lobbied Congress for a repeal of the decades old regulation that prevents Americans from harvesting American oil and natural gas. John Paro, the CEO of CPH Holding Corporation, a petrochemical company in Chicago summed it up best: "It's such an easy fix. We have the supply. And, it's close. I just wish the public would recognize how easy this problem is to deal with.",_.___

Saturday, July 29

Visitors. MRI results. Mom.

You probably didn't notice, but I haven't blogged for a few days. And the reason was because I was feeling like I didn't have anything to say. That's not entirely true, because we got a visit from someone who used to just be an e-friend on my homeschooling list, a few days ago. Now that we've met her and her family in person, she's a friend without the 'e' prefix. *smile* They are really, REALLY cool. We talked for hours while her two kids and our two kids ran back and forth swimming for a while, then jumping on the trampoline for a while. Then when they came in the house they played in the kids' bedroom, and also played video games. They all wore each other out! *smile* Fortunately, they forgot some of their stuff here, so now we have a good reason to show-up on their doorstep. LOL. Can't wait to see them again!

Other than that visit, we haven't been up to much. Just the day-to-day things like going to the store and back. Nothing all that exciting in the grand scheme of things.

Oh yeah, we did get the results of last weeks MRI in the mail. Didn't understand much of the technical shit, but we did understand the conclusion. And it was... I have MS. Can you believe it? What a shock! (not). Still need to make an appointment to see the neurologist to discuss what all the medical jargon meant. If you remember, we were supposed to go in last week but had to cancel the appointment due to the heat. Then they were supposed to call me this week to let me know when the new appointment was, but never did. Well, I decided to call yesterday and set that up, only to be told that the "appointment lady" was on vacation and would be back on Monday, and I'll be called back then. *Sigh* So, I suppose I'll probably have to call them back.

I do have some other news, now that I think about it. I called my mom to wish her a happy birthday on the 25th of July. She told me that she had fallen the day before, but was just sore. If you remember, she had hip surgery about a month ago. She had been home about a week before she fell. Well, she had to go back to the hospital so they could make sure nothing was damaged. Then she'll be in the nursing home for a couple of weeks to a month, depending on how quickly she heals. My sister told me that in her opinion mom wasn't ready to go home. Apparently when the nursing home sent mom home, she couldn't walk on one of her legs, and was told to just 'hop' on the good leg while hanging onto the walker. What were they THINKING? You don't tell a 65 year old woman who you know doesn't have good balance to start with, that's just had hip surgery, that she's going to have to hop while using a walker! *sigh*

Rambleman

Tuesday, July 25

Join the Aug. 16 "National Day of Education" to question: "Is the U.S. war and occupation of Iraq illegal?"

Join the Aug. 16 "National Day of Education" to question:

"Is the U.S. war and occupation of Iraq illegal?"

On August 17, U.S. Army First Lieutenant Ehren Watada will face a pre-trial hearing for refusing to deploy to Iraq. “It is my conclusion as an officer of the armed forces that the war in Iraq is not only morally wrong but a horrible breach of American law. The war and what we’re doing over there is illegal,” explained the first military officer to publicly take such a stand.

On August 16, the day prior to the hearing, The Friends and Family of Lt. Ehren Watada are calling for a “National Day of Education” to pose the question, “Is the war illegal?” This day can also serve to anchor a “week of outreach” leading up to the pre-trial hearing.

Prior to the U.S. attack on Iraq, over a thousand U.S. law organizations and professors explained that an invasion, without a new U.N. Security Council Resolution, would constitute a crime against the peace and a war of aggression. Since then, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan has unequivocally confirmed that the U.S. war “was illegal.” And documents such as the “Downing Street Memos” make clear that the war and occupation was planned and initiated as an illegal war of aggression in violation of the U.N. Charter. By treaty, these international laws become domestic law.

Yet, does it matter? Some would argue that President Bush’s power should be nearly limitless. Others simply believe the military victor decides right from wrong. Yet, Lt. Watada has found the courage to stand up for the obvious truth and in the process has issued a challenge to us all.

Five years in prison for speech?

The Army has formally charged Lt. Watada two counts of making “contemptuous words” towards President Bush. In short, Lt. Watada has expressed his opinion that “our government led us into war based on misrepresentations and lies.” This is the first known prosecution of this “criminal violation” (Article 88 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice) since 1965. Could it be that because this opinion is so widely shared, that it is so threatening?

The Army charges that these same words also constitute “conduct unbecoming and officer and a gentleman.” As such, Lt. Watada now faces over five years in military prison for his opinions alone.

It is Lt. Watada’s outspoken stand for truth that has most angered Army brass. Even before he refused to board an Iraq-bound aircraft on June 22 with the 3rd Stryker Brigade, he was already under investigation for expressing his opinions about the war.

Teach-in's, house parties, and outreach

On Wednesday, August 16 – the day prior to Lt. Watada’s pretrial court hearing – we are asking friends to organize house parties or larger public gatherings to look at the facts. Students and teachers in summer session can hold campus and classroom teach-ins using Lt. Watada’s stand as a catalyst for discussion.

Topics to cover include:

  • Is this a war of aggression as outlined by the UN Charter, the Geneva Convention and the Nuremberg principles?
  • Has the U.S. military’s conduct in Iraq amounted to war crimes?
  • Does the war violate the U.S. Constitution and the War Powers Act?
  • Do military personal have a right to refuse illegal orders?

Protest at Fort Lewis, Washington

In addition to education, people will also be taking action of August 16. At the Interstate 5, Exit 119 bridge at the entrance to Fort Lewis, Washington supporters will gather at 4:00pm with a 6:00pm rally.

Friends across the country are also encouraged to use this opportunity to stage a rally, vigil or freeway bannering as well. This is another step towards a mass mobilization at Fort Lewis during Lt. Watada’s court martial in the fall.

Help Lt. Ehren Watada put the war on trial!

Your donation toward Lt. Watada's defense is urgently needed.

Friends and Family of Lt. Watada
www.ThankYouLt.org

Monday, July 24

Terminally ill hospitalized patients and medication

I've heard stories of people with a terminal condition in the hospital not being given medicine because "they might become addicted". So what if they do, who cares? What does it matter? They're going to die anyway, there's no reason why they can't be comfortable before they die. I believe it's an embarrassment for this country (U.S) to make people suffer needlessly just because they might/could become addicted to the pain medication while they're dying. Same goes for medicine that is considered "illegal" that some people say makes their disease easier to tolerate. Whether it actually "fixes" anything or not, they should be allowed to use it, whether it's illegal or not, simply because it makes them feel better. Even if it's just a psychological "fix", if they have a bona fide disease, let them have the "medicine".

Rambleman

Sunday, July 23

Life, The Universe, and everthing

Live this life as best as you can, knowing the next life is going to be great. Because you'll know better choices. You'll also have the chance to atone for whatever you feel guilty about right now.

Or

Another thought may be that this life is so sucky because you chose to live it for the experience of experiencing the life of the one you hurt the most. The secret is... Forgive Yourself and All's Well in the end, or the next beginning.

Rambleman

Police aren't perfect

Police aren't perfect, but this cop comes close to winning the ingenuity award.

A driver did the right thing, stopping at the school crosswalk even though he could have beaten the red light by accelerating through the intersection.

The tailgating woman behind him went ballistic, pounding on her horn and screaming in frustration as she missed her chance to drive through the intersection with him. Still in mid-rant, she heard a tap on her window and looked up into the face of a very serious police officer.


The officer ordered her to exit her car with her hands up. He took her to the police station where she was searched, finger printed, photographed and placed in a cell.

After a couple of hours, a policeman approached to the cell and opened the door. She was escorted back to the booking desk where the arresting officer was
waiting with her personal effects.

He said, "I'm awfully sorry for this mistake. You see, as I pulled up behind your car while you were blowing your horn, flipping the guy off in front of you, and cussing a blue streak at him, that I noticed the "What Would Jesus Do" license plate holder, the "Follow me to Sunday School" bumper sticker, the chrome plated Christian fish emblem on the trunk and the "My Boss is a Jewish Carpenter" decal on your back window.......  Naturally, I assumed you had stolen the car".

Debts

Yes, you can fly!

For a different mental image of "debts", think of each one has a weight hanging from the ceiling, holding you down. As you pay-off each one, a little less weight is holding you down. By the time you cut the last string, you can fly. Fly to what, where? That, my friend, is one thing you'll have. More time to think about how it is you want to fly.

Rambleman

Friend. Things done. Appointment.

I just called the friend I mentioned who hasn't answered my emails, the phone is busy. Guess I'll try again later, or tomorrow, which I guess is technically later, huh?

I got a few things done that I wanted. I got the trash barrel that we use to burn our trash, emptied. Then of course got the trash from inside the house taken out, put in the barrel, and burned. I also got some saplings dug out of the ground that were around the edges of the house, and one next to the pool. There's one more by the pool that I need to get out, but it's right next to the power-supply box, so I have to be more careful. I did it so no roots would grow under the foundation of the house and cause cracks, or under the pool and cause tears in the liner. While I was out there, my arms started itching uncontrollably almost, I assumed it was because of my MS. In the past when I've used them to do fairly intense stuff, my arms have gotten really bad in the itchy feeling department, so I thought this time was no different. That was until my wife looked at my arms closer and noticed mosquito bites. Yep, I had 5 of the damn things. They got me but good (for them). My wife rubbed some Chigger-X on them and the itching started getting less intense. After they were calmer, I took a shower  to get the mosquito spit and sweat off of me. When I got out I rubbed some Chickweed Salve on them, and right now they're not itching, thank the universal powers that be.

We decided to do some grocery shopping last night because when we went to feed the cats we noticed we were completely out of cat food. So, rather than make them suffer all night with growling tummies, we went shopping. The kids bought us supper at McDonalds. We do have to pay them back on payday though. Anyway, the store wasn't too crowded, so the shopping wasn't stressful at all, which was nice.

As you know, I had an MRI done last Monday. I was scheduled to look at and discuss them with the doctor last Thursday. Well, we cancelled that appointment on Tuesday because of the heat that was forecast for Thursday, and asked them to re-schedule us. She told us she'd call us back on Wednesday with the new appointment, but she never did. I called her on Thursday to tell her we wouldn't be coming. She said, "I never did call you about another appointment, did I?" I told her no, and she said she'd call me back later on Thursday, or Friday. She didn't call either day. Maybe she'll call me tomorrow, but I won't hold my breath. *sigh*

Rambleman

Off-line blog writers and pictures

I personally like Qumana for the ease of formatting the fonts and paragraphs. But for pictures you have to put the picture into your post, then you need the exact URL to the picture (online) before it'll show-up in your blog (online).


With Zoundry the formatting of the text and paragraphs is kind of weird, but it does allow you better control of the pictures with what they call a "media repository", which *I* haven't figured out yet. Supposedly you can get an account at a site that will host your pictures for free, and then set-up Zoundry to automatically link from that site to your blog without you having to manually put in URLs for the pictures (I think).


So there you go. You need to examine them both to figure out which one YOU prefer. Also, you can do a search for "free off-line blog writers" and find others.

Saturday, July 22

Cooler weather, best friends, and stuff

Here I am again, with not much more to contribute to the on-line world than I did yesterday, or the day before, etc., etc., etc. Although, I did contribute some pictures, and they say pictures are worth a thousand words. If that's so, then I was extremely prolific yesterday.

As some people have noted, it was, or at least it seemed, much cooler yesterday than it had been earlier in the week. It was in the 80's instead of the high 90's or 100's. So you might be wondering if we got a lot more done since it was a bearable temperature to be working outside in, and the answer would be no. I did get the ant-killer bomb set-off in the attic, above the bathroom window where the carpenter ants are being the most destructive. It's a little early to tell if it's done any good. Well, actually it's not, I just haven't checked. Other than that, about the only thing I did outside was swim (no, I didn't get to skinny-dip because the kids went swimming too) and feed the birds. Don't have gas for the mower, so can't do that. I would like to empty the trash barrel so the stuff on the bottom (when we put stuff in it) will burn better and more complete. Might do that today sometime. Haven't decided. *grin*

I'm trying to decide if I should continue to post to this blog AND my Live Journal. Those of you who read my LJ, would you be willing to read the same thing at Blog*Spot if I stopped posting on LJ? The thing is, is that it's a *little* bit of a hassle to make Qumana post the subject/title to LJ. I have to edit the XHTML so there's a subject for the LJ blog. It's not a huge deal I suppose, it's just easier (DUH!) to not do it. And I prefer Qumana over Zoundry because it's easier to format the font and paragraphs without having to do each paragraph separately. So, whattaya think?

If anyone cares, I did shower and shave yesterday. *smile*

I'm a little sad that a good friend of ours who's going through a cancer ordeal hasn't answered my private emails. I suppose I'm going to breakdown and telephone her, as that seems like the only way to find out how she's doing. I don't mind calling, it's just that we're still in heavy "penny pincher" mode, especially now that we're no longer using the credit cards for anything. We didn't use them to pay the phone bill anyway, but since we're not using credit to buy groceries, we don't have as much money to pay the bills. I think we can afford the phone cost for a call to one of our best friends though, so I'm going to do that today. Then on the 25th I'm also going to make a call to my mother because it's her birthday.

I guess that's all I've got. Talk to and read you later!

Rambleman

Friday, July 21

(pictures) Big kitties, and Tae'

Picture Site, or click on the pictures

Rocky

Celebi

Tae' (tay-uh)

Kilala

It's my turn! or Tag, I'm it!

OH! MY! GOSH! I guess nobody else is going to write a blog for Rain to read, so I'm just going to have to fulfill that need for her. LOL. By the way, to all of you whose blog I read, they were good ones today! Read what I read at Whimsperations blog, or at Chasing Dani's.

 I watched The Price Is Right! with my son shortly after I got up. The old woman won.

After that I watched about 30 minutes of news. Normally I watch the entire hour, but today I decided it was just too depressing, so came to read some email instead. To watch the words of live humans, instead of visions of bombs killing innocent ones. It's a sad time in the world right now :-(

It's a lot cooler right now than it was yesterday at this same time. Right now it's 82*F, according to Weatherbug. Yesterday it was in the high 90's. So, as of right now, I'm glad to say I'm fairly comfortable heat-wise, especially with a fan blowing on me. *smile* I may or may not go for a swim today, I will be taking a shower and shaving though. So, since I'm obviously going to get wet at some time today, I might as well start in the pool, don't ya think? I mean, it's not like the water is exactly cold. In fact it's about the same temperature as the water you'd run for your child's bath. It still feels good though. Maybe I'll go skinny dipping, ya never know what someone like me is likely to do. I'm a wild and crazy guy, or something like that. *grin*

Rain and my daughter are now awake, and are fairly coherent, meaning I can talk to them without getting my head bit off. Nah, they rarely do that. Later.

Rambleman

Wednesday, July 19

Pool cleaning, excessive heat

Well, I braved the heat and got the bottom of the swimming pool vacuumed. Couldn't get it as clean as I would've liked, but it does look better than it did. I got in the pool with the kids yesterday and just scrubbed it, to loosen up as much of the algae as possible, then hoped that a lot of it would be filtered out. When we got out of the pool, the water looked liked pea soup, really gross and green. Ew! I added a small bottle of algaecide and  then left the pump running all night. After I was done with the vacuuming this afternoon, we added a bag of "shock it" to hopefully kill more algae and sanitize the water. I let that recirculate for a few hours and just a little bit ago added a small bottle of clarifier. Hopefully by tomorrow, when the temp is supposed to be above 100*F, the water will be at least mostly clear and clean-ish and we'll be able to cool ourselves off.

Going to get up early tomorrow and drive into town to visit the feed store, and  pick up a couple bags of chopped corn for the chickens and ducks. We're going early so we can be back home before it gets too hot. Tomorrow, until 7 p.m. we'll be in an "excessive heat warning". Which we take to mean that if you don't have to be out driving around in a vehicle without air-conditioning, then don't be. So, we won't be except for very early, like, out of here by 7:30 a.m., and back by 9 a.m. Other than that, not much planned.

Rambleman

Pool cleaning, excessive heat

Well, I braved the heat and got the bottom of the swimming pool vacuumed. Couldn't get it as clean as I would've liked, but it does look better than it did. I got in the pool with the kids yesterday and just scrubbed it, to loosen up as much of the algae as possible, then hoped that a lot of it would be filtered out. When we got out of the pool, the water looked liked pea soup, really gross and green. Ew! I added a small bottle of algaecide and  then left the pump running all night. After I was done with the vacuuming this afternoon, we added a bag of "shock it" to hopefully kill more algae and sanitize the water. I let that recirculate for a few hours and just a little bit ago added a small bottle of clarifier. Hopefully by tomorrow, when the temp is supposed to be above 100*F, the water will be at least mostly clear and clean-ish and we'll be able to cool ourselves off.

Going to get up early tomorrow and drive into town to visit the feed store, and  pick up a couple bags of chopped corn for the chickens and ducks. We're going early so we can be back home before it gets too hot. Tomorrow, until 7 p.m. we'll be in an "excessive heat warning". Which we take to mean that if you don't have to be out driving around in a vehicle without air-conditioning, then don't be. So, we won't be except for very early, like, out of here by 7:30 a.m., and back by 9 a.m. Other than that, not much planned.

Rambleman

Israel/Palestine conflict

http://rambleman-1.livejournal.com/#entry_23809

Rambleman

Monday, July 17

Trippy, Spot, MRI, pool, and kids

Trippy and Spot seem to be about 99% all better now. We're so happy! :-)

Just got back from Springfield not long ago. Had to have an MRI done. It only took about half an hour of lots of pinging, clunking, vibrating, and grinding sounds. Luckily, they gave me ear-plugs, so the noise wasn't too bad. *smile*

Still need to clean and vacuum the pool. Probably do that tomorrow after we get back from the bank in the morning, and after Rain takes her nap because of getting up too damn early. *grin*

The kids have been playing Tomb Raider on their Playstation 2, and doing quite well. Although, they did have to look up some hints on-line last night, which is cool. Glad they know how to do that.

Rambleman

Sunday, July 16

Sick Trippy, AC, Shopping

TrippyThis is Trippy. We named him this because, well, he's just such a trip. Always in a crazy mood, darting all over the house when he's feeling rambunctious. He was feeling that way, and being a "wild kitty" just Friday morning. But by the afternoon he'd become listless and started having dry heaves :-( We originally thought he was coming down with the same thing Spot has (she's almost all better, by the way), but now we're not sure. I mean, it just came on so QUICK. Yesterday and the day before we gave him some infant decongestant medicine. He doesn't seem to be trying to throw-up as much, but other than that, no change. Please cross your fingers that he recovers soon. He's one of our favorite cats.

Having the AC in is helping me a lot. I don't feel quite so drained during the hottest part of the day. Plus I've also been wearing the gel-filled, refrigerated neck-wrap, and that helps as well. Even wore it outside yesterday when I was refilling the chicken/duck waterers. Also when I was tossing the ol' rubberskin around with my son. I call it "rubberskin" because it's a football made of rubber. *smile* Footballs made of leather are often called "pigskins".

Got our weekly grocery shopping done today. Got some algaecide and  clarifier for the pool. Now all I need to do is get the leaves off the bottom of the pool, and vacuum it. Gunna need wife-help to do that. Right now her and my DD are taking a nap, because they got up early this morning. Actually, I did too, which is why it's my turn next, after they get up.

It was nice, traffic-wise in town today. Sunday's always are, which is why we've decided Sunday is our best day to shop. While there we also got a twin-fan for the kids bedroom window, so that should keep it a bit cooler in there. YAY! Not really a big deal until it's time to read their bedtime story and nearly faint do to the heat, especially when they forget to open their window once the sun moves to the other side of the house.

That's all I've got, for now. Try to stay hydrated and cool as much as you can stand.

Rambleman

Saturday, July 15

Just bored

Well, I don't really have anything "mind blowing" to write. Why, because I'm sure nobody wants to read what I've been doing... that's why. Okay, why not? I read a couple of articles. One about 9/11, and another about "The Bible". Probably most would say are *just* "conspiracy theories" anyway, so I'm not going to "get into it" with anyone. Suffice it to say that I pretty much agreed with both of them. *grin*

After that, while waiting for email to maybe come in (I don't really count on it much anymore, as I've usually got blog updates to read anyway), I chatted with my big Sis in Colorado for a while. Found out mom is doing okay, still in the nursing home but scheduled to go home "with supervision" in a week or two. She's quit smoking, but I doubt it'll take, but it could. Anything's possible. She's been a 2-pack/day (minimum) smoker of Camel non-filter shorts since the age of around 13-16, and she's now 65. My sis says that mom hasn't "bought in" to it, so... *crossing finners*. My parents bought a used (1993 Buick Century) with 193K miles for $200, a couple of days ago (which means my dad bought it, technically). MissySis is taking care of their dog (mini Schnauzer), and says that they weren't taking good care of her, because they were sleeping until 4 or 5 in the afternoon, while the dog was crated. She's (the dog) been vet-anized twice for bladder infections, probably because she spent so much time in the crate. So, sis won't give her back until mom can walk well enough to take the dog out, which won't be for a couple of months. Other than that, I guess everyone in Colorado is doing alright. *smile*

Mostly I've just been sitting in front of this monitor all day... so far. Up until about 10 minutes ago, everyone but me was asleep, including most of the cats. It's, in my opinion, too damn hot outside to do anything, there's nothing really interesting on Saturday TV, and I'm (still) not in the mood to actually read a book, so it's the computer (and you) that are getting my attention. I don't think it'll be much longer though, because since my wife hasn't read any email since last night, more has came in (a lot of them mine. *grin*), she gets the computer for most likely the rest of the afternoon. Although, she does read faster and respond A LOT less to emails than I, she'll probably be done in a couple of hours - max. *grin*

So without further adieu, I bid you farewell... for now. *evil grin*

Rambleman

Friday, July 14

Town trip, AC, window gardens

Today all we did was drive into town and get a couple of lottery & powerball tickets for Saturday Night's drawing. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know, I know, but like they say, "You can't win if you don't play". We don't obsess about winning anymore, but we do like to keep our chances alive. *smile* We also picked-up some glazed doughnuts for the kids and I, and some chocolate doughnut holes for Rain. We've already eaten them all, and they were DELICIOUS! *drool*

After we got home and recovered from the drive in the hot weather, we finally broke down and put the window air-conditioner in. We decided to do it last night when we were sitting in the living room sweating profusely. That and I was feeling nauseous because of the heat, just like I was when we got to the store. I walked in there feeling nauseous too. *sigh* I've been toughing it out all summer, but last night and today I just couldn't deal with it anymore. I know it's going to raise our electric bill, but it's my health, man. Right? Remember that window fan we had in the window behind me? Well, since we've got the AC in the living room window now, we moved the twin-fan into our bedroom. That should help keep it cooler while we sleep (much better than the singe, oscillating fan we had in there, which is now on the shelf behind the computer, on the room divider pointing at me/us).

And last but not least, because so many people are showing pictures of their gardens, I thought I would do the same. Though our gardens are not really *ours*, it's Rain's. And they're not outside, they're in the bedroom and bathroom windows. Here's what they are: Stevia, Raspberry, Money tree, Miniature Rose, Spider plant, and Pineapple plants in the bedroom window. In the bathroom window there's: An "Arbor day" tree and Date Palm in one pot, Grapefruit tree in one, and an Avocado tree & 4 Orange trees in the other. And one hanging plant: Pothos (we think).

Bedroom window gardenBathroom window garden

And now that it's taken me about 45 minutes to write this, because I had to break to eat supper (pork burritos), I guess I'll go ahead and send it. *smile* Plus I have some laundry to finish.

Rambleman

Thursday, July 13

Chores and pictures

Chores and pictures

Yesterday afternoon I got the pool partially vacuumed, and the porch hosed down. Today it was HOT... again! At one point I saw my wife wearing a wrap you put around your neck to keep cool. It's filled with some sort of gel (I think), and you can put it in the fridge to cool it, then when you put it on, awww. *smile* I wore that a few times this afternoon.

Other chores that got done, but my 13 year old DD (yeah, it happens. lol) was the loading, running, unloading of the dishwasher, the vacuuming of the living room & the room with the table that has cat food bowls on it, and she cleaned the littler boxes. She's a good girl. Although I'm not sure how to feel when she says things like she said today, "You know I probably wouldn't be doing all this if I weren't getting paid for it". Sigh. But, I guess that's the way she has to think when she works. I think they call that, eek, capitalism. *smile*

The only other thing I got done was building a picture page/site for 5 pictures that my DD took after climbing to the top of a tree in our yard. You can see them here.

Rambleman

Wednesday, July 12

New Neurologist, junk-food binge, cat medicine

Went to the new-to-me neurologist yesterday. He seemed like a really nice man. I was standing in the doorway to the room they had us waiting in for him, when he *finally* got to us. I told him I was waiting in the doorway because I was just about to go ask someone if they had forgotten about us because we had been waiting in the room for an hour. He apologized and asked if we'd rather see another doctor because he was late. I told him no, that I was just bored because it had taken so long. He apologized again and said there's just too many patients and too few neurologists. Which makes me wonder why the hell they schedule appointments so close together if they know that it takes longer than 15 minutes per patient once they get to the patient's room. *grr* This happens *every* time we go see *any* doctor. They take us to the room to wait, on time, but the doctor never comes into the room on time. Very annoying! It's like their time is so much more important than their patients. You know, I've seen signs in waiting rooms, before you're taken in to wait in the other room for the doctor, that say, "If you're more than 15 minutes late it's assumed you're not coming and you'll have to reschedule your appointment". Yet it's okay if they make you wait an hour or more for the doctor AFTER they take you back. I think if THEY are more than 15 minutes late, than your appointment should be free, or severely discounted, unless they had a true emergency. Maybe then they'd make more of effort to see you at your appointed time.

Brain scan showing lesians from Multiple SclerosisAnyway, I am scheduled for an MRI next Monday to see if I have more, less, or the same amount of POL (points of light -aka: scar tissue) in my brain. Other than that, we just talked and he did a few routine checks on my balance, walking, eyes, reflexes, etc. The picture on the left is not a scan of my brain, just a picture that I googled to show an example of lesions caused by MS.

Once we got back to Buffalo, we stopped into Woods (grocery store) and bought a bunch of junk food. And that's what we had for supper last night - cookies & cola. We did get some M&Ms and Mini Peanut butter cups, but haven't opened those yet. Seems like we do that after doctor appointments for some reason. Maybe it's because we've de-stressed and feel we deserve to be spoiled. I don't know. *grin*

We had bought some infant drops for the relief of nasal and chest congestion on our way out of town to the doctor, for Spot. After we got back from Springfield we gave her a little bit, and then 4 hours later gave her a tiny bit more. She does seem less congested, and we even saw her eating and drinking plenty of water. So, it appears as though she continues to get better, albeit slower than we'd like, but progress nonetheless.

Rambleman

Monday, July 10

DSL and rain

I knew it wasn't true. Damn! Of course customer service told me that we still can't get DSL here, but that she put a "very specific note" in my file to let me know ASAP when it is. Guess that'll have to do.

We FINALLY got some rain! I don't know how much, nor do I care, just glad we're getting it. We REALLY need it. In fact, it was raining just a few minutes ago, and is threatening to do it again. Bring it on! LOL.

Rambleman

Sunday, July 9

Wikibirthday to you.

Wikibirthday to you.

"Go to Wikipedia and do a search for your birthday (day and month only, exclude the year).
Post three facts, two births and one death on your blog including the years."

3 Facts:

  1. 1786 - Peter Leopold Joseph of Habsburg-Lorraine, Grand Duke of Tuscany, promulgates a penal reform making his country the first state to abolish the death penalty. November 30 is therefore commemorated by 300 cities around the world as Cities for Life Day.

  2. 1804 - The Jeffersonian Republican-controlled United States Senate begins an impeachment trial against Federalist-partisan Supreme Court of the United States Justice Samuel Chase. (let's hope this happens to GWB this year)

  3. 1999 - In Seattle, Washington, United States, protests against the WTO meeting by anti-globalization protesters catch police unprepared and force the cancellation of opening ceremonies.

2 Births:

  1. 1719 - Augusta of Saxe-Gotha, Princess of Wales (d. 1772)
  2. (my birthyear was 1964, but this is as close as they had) 1965 - Ben Stiller, American actor and writer

1 Death:

  1. 1718 - King Charles XII of Sweden (b. 1682)

Rambleman

Spot update. Chickweed. Summer leaves. Centurytel DSL?

Update: Spot seems better. She's been drinking water on a regular basis, and probably eating too. Haven't actually seen her eating, but she must be since she's still alive, although she's looking pretty skinny. She's breathes exclusively through her mouth. We assume that's because she has a cold and her nose is clogged. Poor thing. So, hopefully in a few more days she'll be mostly all better. *crossing my fingers*

Chickweed. Click to see enlargement.When I went out with my daughter to feed the chickens and ducks this morning, I saw a pretty big area of the back yard with a whole bunch of chickweed plants flowering. They were really beautiful. This picture was taken this afternoon. They're still pretty, but were much more so this morning. Clicking on the picture will let you see an enlarged view.

Small view of SUMMER leaves falling. Click for enlarged view.Once again, click for the larger picture. Anyway, while outside cleaning all the leaves out of the pool this afternoon, I got to looking at all these leaves. Looking at the amount of them on the ground, it looks like it must be Fall. Well, it's not, it's just the BEGINNING of Summer. It's been so hot and dry that the Poplar trees are heat-stressed so much that all their leaves are falling off. There are four of these trees around the pool. We think that the guy who lived here before us probably planted them because they're fast growing and good for shade. He probably didn't think about the fact that heat and/or high winds cause them to drop all kinds of their leaves. Not only on the ground. A lot of them end up in the pool and clog the filter basket if you're not watching closely. *sigh* But they are pretty when they're green and not stressed-out. *smile*

Here we go again. I haven't seen CenturyTel put up any new towers, but maybe they've put in or upgraded a junction box. I don't know, but when I go to their web site and check to see if we're able to get DSL, it says, "DSL is available in the your area but manual qualification is required. Please contact a customer service representative at 1-800-201-4099 to complete your DSL sign-up. Thank you for your interest in CenturyTel DSL-High Speed Internet." I'll definitely be calling them in the morning, but I'm not expecting this to be true. It said the same thing a few weeks back, but after I got my order in, it was cancelled a few days later :-(

Rambleman

Friday, July 7

Our cat Spot_KFC "famous bowl"

Spot - our sick kittySpot is doing better, I think. She's not sneezing at all, and only coughs occasionally. It sounds phlegmy, so we're thinking she may have a respiratory infection. I need to look that up on the Internet and see if there are any natural antibiotics for cats with that problem, since we just can't afford to take her to the vet. And it looks like she might also have a swollen lymph node (or something) on the right side of her head (left looking at this picture), but we're not sure. As you can see, her eyes look okay, so that's a good sign. Also, this morning she walked towards the room with the table that has cat food bowls on it. We have another cat (Tea' - pronounced: Tay-uh) that has something that looks similar, that she broke open in the same area, that appears to be healing, although it still looks kind of gross.

Here's another picture of Spot (click to enlarge)

 Spot again. Taken this morning.

The road to our house has now been oiled and has a new layer of gravel on it. They call it "chip and seal". We went to town today to buy gas for the van, lottery tickets, lunch, cigarettes, and meat. Obviously we drove on the "new" road surface on the way out - smooth. *smile* I imagine eventually there'll be virtually no dust from the road in the air. Even now there's very little.

Rain got the dish from Taco Bell that's been advertised on TV that she thought would be really good. Well, all she said after she was done eating was, "Now I know what NOT to have the next time. It wasn't very good". It was called the "KFC Famous Bowl"

Question: If NASA can communicate with a robot on Mars, why can't someone make DSL available if you're further away then 3 miles from the connection point?

Rambleman

Thursday, July 6

Roadwork, chores, sick kitty

Just like they said a couple of days ago, the road crew is now laying oil and gravel on our road to do the chip and seal thing. Let me tell ya, the odor is NOT pleasant. Ew!

Rain and I talked with the kids yesterday afternoon about doing their chores for money. Not much, like a dollar or two, depending on the chore, for certain things. We'll also be paying them for working for a certain amount of time in their workbooks, and also a small amount for reading in a book of their choice. When they work in a workbook or read in one of their books, they have to do whichever for at least 30 minutes for it to count. We had be very hesitant to do something like this because we wanted them to do these things simply because it was helping run the family household. Well, after watching them only do certain things when asked many times, we decided to try the capitalistic approach and offer to pay them. They got busy last evening doing as many of the things on the list as they could. LOL. Hopefully when it comes time to pay them, we'll actually have the cash. If not, I suppose we could give them IOUs

Below is the schedule we came up with for now. Hopefully, if you click on it you'll see a larger view. *crossing fingers*

Not much else to say. One of our cats (Spot) doesn't seem to be feeling well. A couple of days ago she started sneezing. Then yesterday she started coughing. And today she's just laying on a dresser sleeping all the time. I've pet her and she is somewhat responsive, but is obviously not feeling well. Please keep her in your thoughts.

Rambleman

Wednesday, July 5

July 4th. Wine. Ants. Exercises.

Good afternoon, y'all! Here it is the 5th of July. That is a surprise to me because I thought yesterday was the 3rd and today was the 4th. When I woke-up this morning when Rain came to get me, I was thinking that either we would or would not be going to watch the fireworks display at the park tonight. After she had woke me up she told me it was the 5th. When we went shopping Monday we bought a 4 pack of wine coolers. I didn't drink any of them yesterday because I was saving them until today. Well, guess I should've been drinking them yesterday afterall, huh? So I just got one out of the fridge and will open and start drinking it in a few minutes (or less). In fact, I think I'll do that now. Uh, not too bad, tastes like wine. It's Gallo - White Zinfandel - 9% alcohol by volume. The bottles are small. I can't find where it says how many ounces they are, but since I have to guess, I'll say somewhere between 8 and 10 ounces.

About celebrating the 4th of July. I'm kind of ambivalent about it. On one hand I understand that it's supposed to be a celebration of independence from the British rule of 200 years ago. On the other hand, it kind of feels like it's become a celebration of war, to me. Now, I guess if it was a celebration of freedom from our own government, then it would make more sense. But these days it seems as though the Bush administration is working hard to turn us back and get rid of as many constitutional rights as they can. They're using the lie of the "war on terrorism" to usurp as many rights as they can. That's why the other day I thought to myself, "Maybe we SHOULD celebrate this year because it may just be the LAST year it'll be allowed". Unfortunately, I totally forgot what days of the month it was and missed it. LOL. Just as well I guess.

Didn't do much yesterday except watch the clouds hoping for rain, and TV. We never did get any rain. All the storm went south and east of us. Darn! We really need some rain. All of our grass is starting to turn brown and ugly. Oh, there are still plenty of green areas, but they are a dull green, and will just continue to get duller and browner the longer we go without the wet stuff falling from the sky, as you can imagine.

My wife did spray the ant killer around the back windows and around the base of the house, and into the holes where the rivets were missing. Plus she sprayed the inside of the bathroom window because ants were creating a lot of wood dust where they were chewing. Hopefully she killed enough of them so that we'll get a break and the house will stand for a while longer before turning to a pile of dust.

I also burned the kitchen and bathroom trash. That's pretty much all we did yesterday. Just another typical country day on the homestead. The kids worked out on the exercise machine. They're taking a break today because their legs are sore. My daughter printed a whole bunch of workout sheets this morning so they can keep track of the exercises they do each time.

Rambleman

Monday, July 3

No email, didn't quit smoking, Wal-Mart shopping, road work, title to subect in LJ

I suppose all my friends and e-friends are either preparing for, or having Independence Day BBQ's or parties, and THAT is why they're not writing and then sending email to the lists I'm on with them. Makes me feel like a friendless, boring kind of guy. Well, everyone I know who I could invite here for a BBQ lives 45 minutes to 2 hours from here. The one I know who is only 45 minutes from here is not home anyway, her and her family are spending this week camping out of town. The 2 families I know who are 2 hours from here can't afford to get here because of the stupid high gas prices. We can't afford to go see them either, because of the same reason.

I had every intention of quitting smoking today. That was until we were shopping at the Wal-Mart Supercenter with hordes of people getting on my nerves. I swear, every time I stopped to look at something, there was someone standing right behind me as if I were in the way. I could feel them thinking, "Get the hell out of the way!" I was just nerve wracking! We went shopping for a few "necessities" on Sunday morning. That was NOT stressful, because most people were either at church or home, leaving the store clear for us to shop at our leisure. If our payday would've been last Friday, we would've done our main shopping on Sunday, but payday wasn't until today. *sigh*

A man from the road crew working on doing the chip n' seal on the road out from here, came by a little while ago to tell me that on Thursday they'd be putting oil on, and then the chips to seal it. He just wanted to tell us that if we had anywhere to go on Thursday, that we should do it early. Not a problem - I think we're going to be home until at LEAST Friday anyway.

As you know, because I've mentioned it, Qumana's "title" doesn't transfer to LiveJournal. It just posts the body of the entry and leaves the subject at LJ blank. Well, I tested one way to get a title from Qumana to LJ, by putting <title>Subject line</title> in the 'source view' part. I haven't tried it with text, other than my name, in the body, but I don't see why it wouldn't work, at least until Qumana can edit/update the code in the program. If you go to my LJ site and see a subject, then you'll know it worked.

Rambleman

Sunday, July 2

No More Credit Cards! Multiple Blog posting. Supreme Court ruling

Okay, I'm trying yet another way to post to both of my blogs. Huh? Well, what I'm going to do, since I can email-post to ramblemans.blogspot.com, I'm gunna do that. Then, since the choices for LiveJournal posting are with Zoundry, or posting at the blog site, I'm going to use Zoundry for LJ and O.E. for Blogspot. I could use Qumana for blotspot and Zoundry for LJ, but if the writer won't do both blogs, I'm not going to use it as much as before. Makes sense, right?
 
The other epiphany we had today is about credit cards. Since this is the third time we've got in trouble by over using them, we're going to quit using them altogether. Not even going to carry one for "emergencies" that inevitable become more and more frequent. Apparently we have trouble determining the meaning of "emergency". LOL. Not funny, when you really think about it, huh? Cold-turkey, just like we're going to quit smoking in the near future. It has worked on the smoking for me a few times, so perhaps it's the key to stopping credit card addiction. This is where we are right now BECAUSE of our addiction (2 : an urgent need for assistance or relief). This feeling will be dealt with very soon (bankruptcy for the second and last time). As the Universe as my witness, this WON'T be NECESSARY again, for us!
 
And now for the news... The Supreme Court ruling about Wartime Detainees. But does this really mean anything to a leader who has already broken so many laws already? To him this is probably just one more that he feels doesn't apply to him.
 
 
Rambleman

You may not always get what you want, but you'll always get what you need.
- RS'

Discovery channel/crocodiles. Shopping. Comforters. Qumana vs. Zoundry (again)

Good morning, at least here it is. Just got through watching on The Discovery Channel. I can't remember what the name of the show was, but I do know it was about Crocodiles in Costa Rica, but I can't find a link directly to the show we just watched. Anyway, it was pretty interesting, and my son got a bit of education about them and their plight.

About an hour and a half ago, we got back from Lebanon. Yes, we did a 40 mile round trip just to get 2 packs of cigarettes, 4 liters of cola, a box of chocolate covered glazed donut's for breakfast, and some chips. We're bad, bad sugar, chocolate, and nicotine junkies. LOL. Though we plan on quitting smoking starting tomorrow.

There are two comforters off of the kids beds that are laying over there by the wash machine, and have been since last night. Probably should get those washed sometime today, especially since one of the cats (Celebi) peed on one of them this morning, and then he was immediately tossed. The jerk!

I mentioned yesterday that Qumana's blog writer doesn't transfer the 'subject line' of the blog to LiveJournal, and I sent them feedback letting them know...again. Got a message back from them this morning saying, "Livejournal does not support sending a blog title right now - it's something they have not enabled for offline publishing (for Qumana)." Notice what they put in parenthesis. That's because they know the the Zoundry blog writer's subject line does transfer correctly, because I told them it did a couple of weeks ago. Hence why I'm writing this morning's blog using Zoundry, even though I like Qumana better, mostly because you can choose the actual font size, unlike Zoundry where you get the choices of "Normal, Large (16pt), Larger, Largest", and of course the smaller scale in the other direction. So, if you want smaller than 16pt, you have to manually edit the XHTML, for each paragraph. By the way, Zoundry has made it so you can 'justify' the paragraphs with the push of a button. You no longer have to edit the XHTML to do that. Not sure what the font size is going to be once I upload this. I didn't change it from the default setting, I'm not even sure what the default size is. Guess we'll just have to wait and see.

Rambleman

Saturday, July 1

Heat, computer stuff, and TV programs

It's been a hot day, no doubt about that. Even the wasps that are usually flying around, aren't. They're probably hanging out in a nest somewhere keeping cool and out of the afternoon sun. I wouldn't think the "guard" wasps would get a break though. But even they're staying out of the heat.

As you can imagine, I haven't gotten a lot done today. Didn't have many emails already downloaded this morning for off-line reading. I couldn't get on-line to check for more because my DD beat me to it. Really wasn't a big deal though, because all of the e-lists I'm on have been extremely slow. So, I played a game of "Bounce-Out". Made it to level 22, and had over 2 million points. Pretty good really. However, I still didn't make it onto the high-score list. My wife is MUCH better, and holds nine out of the ten high scores. You guessed, I'm in the number ten spot, but probably won't be there for long, as my highest score is WELL below her's. Then again, she plays it more too. Still, my ranking is respectable. *smile*

I took a 2.5 hour nap. It went really quick though, but I did feel a little less tired than I was before I laid down. Once I woke-up and ate lunch (actually breakfast, although I hadn't eaten anything and it was 2:30 in the afternoon), I slowly but surely became coherent and semi-active. That activity included getting up off of the sofa to flip my burger, put it on a plate, and take it to the living room to eat. Then I watched FSTV for a while (about Michael Moore's invitation to speak at a Utah college). It was called, "The Divided State". Boy, talk about different opinions about him, from the left AND the right. *grin*

Then there was a thing on about War Resisters going to Canada for asylum. The "people" welcome them, but the Canadian government worries so much about hurting Bush's feelings, so they're NOT as welcoming. Sad really, and interesting. It was called, "Let Them Stay". Also on FSTV.

Watched Forensic Files for an hour. And now "Mansquito" is on. Which I'll be watching after I send this little ditty.

Right now I'm using Qumana 3.0 to write this. However, when I need to send this to LJ, I'm going to get to cut and paste this into the Zoundry blog writer. Why? Well, because for some reason the SUBJECT line in Qumana, doesn't get transferred to Live Journal. Also, there's no way, that I know of, and I've searched, to make Live Journal not insert line-breaks in addition to your writer's. If you know of a way to change the default setting, please tell me. I know you can turn it off at the site, but that's all. But this, I think, is a LJ problem, not Qumana's. Other than that, it's got everything I need. It's got a way to choose your font, with a click. Your font size with a click, and you can justify the paragraphs with a click. No more having to go into the code and modify it. It's just that because it doesn't get the subject line into LJ, I have to go on-line and edit my entry from LJ. Usually not a problem because out connection fast enough (48 kbps), it's it defeats the purpose, in my mind anyway, of using an "off-line" writer. So I have to adapt and just use both for now. I did send that problem to Qumana, but haven't heard anything back yet. I've emailed with them before about it, so they know the problem. I mean, a lot of people are going to say, "IT'S FREE", and you STILL expect perfection? Get real!" Actually I don't, I just like feeling like I'm helping them become aware of the issues. If they don't know about them, they can't fix them. Right? While I'm at it though, there needs to be more font styles added, like VERDANA for instance. I really like that one. *grin* But like you say, it's free, so whatever.

I would like to thank Whimsperation for all those articles. I plan on commenting on a few, just not right now. This is weird, I feel like I'm in one of those movies where two people communicate through newspaper ads. I guess it's a way to say, read at your leisure, like I have to tell you that. *shy smile*

Rambleman