I saw this on Mimi's blog and it sounded fun: (notice I have troubles choosing just one thing)

A-Available or married?
Married.

B-Best Friend?
I am so lucky to have more than one best friend: My brother, my wife, Andy R, Rozetta, Ken.

C-Cake or pie?
My mom’s homemade Lemon Pie (her German Chocolate Cake is not too bad either)

D-Drink of choice?
Diet Dr. Pepper, Diet Root Beer, Sprite Zero, Crystal Light

E-Essential item?
Computers (notice it's plural)

F-Favorite color?
Dark Purple

G-Gummi bears or worms?
I hate all things gummi because they stick to my teeth. I eat sugar free York Peppermint patties and coconut chews.

H-Hometown?
St. Louis, MO

I-Indulgence?
Taking dangerous adventures either by or confronting things or going places I shouldn’t.

J-January or February?
I really do not like either of these months but if I must choose one then it will be February; only because it is a shorter month and closer to spring.

K-Kids and names?
I have one son named Nick, a straight-A, 15-year old freshman. He is already taking classes as a freshman in high school which I took deep into college.

L-Life is incomplete without?
My family and friends.

M-Marriage date?
October 31, 1998

N-Number of siblings?
2 younger brothers.

O-Oranges or apples?
Actaully, I prefer peaches (in season) and grapes.

P-Phobias/fears?
Death of a loved one and losing my freedom.

Q-Favorite Quotes?
Life is not about the number of breaths you take but the number of moments which take your breath away.
Love in the past is a memory, love in the future is a fantasy, only here and now can we truly love.
Men have two heads but only enough blood to run one at a time.

R-Reasons to smile?
My family and friends.

S-Season?
Fall

T-Tag 3 people?
Instead of a tag how about an open invitation to participate. Just leave a comment so I know you are doing it.

U-Unknown fact about me?
I have a superman complex in which I like to save people. This is probably why I like dangerous adventures.

V-Vegetable you hate?
Raw onions (my Kryptonite)

W-Worst habit?
Retreating into my dungeon to write and do research for many hours.

X-X-rays you have had?
Leg, more specifically the knee. I eventually had surgery.

Y-Your favorite foods?
Imo’s Pizza with meat and provel cheese toppings, preferrably pepperoni(A St. Louis thing)
Hostess Snowballs (which I rarely eat anymore)

Z-Zodiac sign?
Leo

The past couple of days have been very surreal for me. I have seen people in an ICU before but when I visited my friend AndyR I was completely horrified by what I saw. I remember when my grandmother was in the ICU she seemed so calm and relaxed. They had her under several blankets and her head was propped up on at least three big pillows. She was sleeping and seemed very happy.

Andy was lying with only a small rag covering his chest and groin. He still had blood all over his body along with this yellow substance, looking like he was just out of a war. A large tube with several smaller metal tubes was protruding from his neck surrounded by dried blood. His eyes were half open causing a “blank stare” effect with wet gunk along the edges. He was also bloated and stone cold. There was no movement or activity at all.

I talked to him but there was no response. I had to fight back the tears welling up inside of me at seeing one of my oldest and dearest friends looking like he was a cadaver. I am glad he was out because I can only imagine the pain he would have been in if her were awake. He had a nurse at his bedside watching him, because he was still at risk for dying. I found out he had two open heart surgeries because after the first the bleeding was not stopped. So they had to open up his chest again.

Another good friend was there and after he saw him he commented when would Andy’s ship finally come in? He is a very hard working guy, who is a faithful friend but he never seems to get a break. This was finally going to be his year as he was getting out of debt, his business was finally on the verge of taking off and then this happens. He has had only one girlfriend in his life because he works so many long hours (and that was a short term thing) but she was an abusive bitch and treated him like shit.

Seeing this makes me realize just how fragile life can be. At any moment the icy hand of death can swoop down from the skies and squeeze the life out of us. It makes me appreciate the little things in life like laughing with a friend. If you hold off doing that thing you want to do, you might not be alive tomorrow to do it. So live everyday like it is your last. When I see stuff like this it is also hard for me to believe in a God. Because if there is a God what kind of justice is this? What did this guy do to deserve this? Sorry for venting but this really pisses me off.

Ahh! The New Year is finally here. Out with the old and in with the new but in our case it’s out with the old and in the old again. It just seems like that anyway because I don’t make any stupid promises to myself. Oh sure, I would love to make a New Year’s resolution to win the lottery, lose about 10 pounds, grow more hair and screw Kate Beckinsale but that will not happen (maybe next year though, LOL).

People are flocking to join gyms to lose weight quickly to fulfill their empty-headed attempt at a New Year’s resolution. But the reality is, they will go the first couple of weeks and then pay the gym for nothing but sitting at home (or at the bar) on their asses. How foolish is this? If there is something you should be doing then you should be doing it already. Why do you need a new year to start?

I never have understood this stupid ritual. People think, “I gotta do this but I’ll put it off until next year, do it for a few weeks and then back to the same old shit. But at least I tried.” Yea right. Everybody eats a little more cake, cookies and pie during the holidays because it’s there. It’s usually not there the other months. But we should not need a new year to start eating right again; you should just do it.

A New Year’s resolution is one of those empty promises like the “American Dream”. What is the American Dream? To most people or if you listen to what the media tells us, it’s simply obtaining a mortgage. So you find a house, give it to a bank and then work the rest of your life trying to pay it off. So now you are a slave to the bank working for them. And then when the house is finally paid you’ll be paying at least triple of the original price on the house. That sounds more like an American Nightmare to me. The American Dream should be at least to OWN the home. (NOTE: owning means not paying for it or having paid it off.)

My idea of the American Dream is a little different from everyone else’s. I want to work less while earning more. If I average 50 hours of work for $50,000 last year, then I want to average 40 hours of work for $55,000 this year, and so on. That is my goal every year and if I do that, then everything else will work itself out.

I am one of the lucky ones. I have no debt other than my mortgage: no credit card, no car payments, no child support or alimony; just the house. I do use the credit card but at the end of the month it is always paid in full. Also, 10% of our total salary goes into a 401k and 25% into an interest bearing savings account. You should always pay yourself first before paying your bills. But then you have to make sure to keep your bills at an affordable level. This translates into living within your means. Translation, you cannot live like a rock star on a janitor’s salary.

I read someplace the average American carries $10,000 of credit card debt (at 12% or higher interest). They also spent $1.10 for every $1 they earn. How stupid is that? Living the way I do requires discipline but it is worth it not to be a slave to the creditors. I can’t imagine paying a $10,000 loan at 15% interest or higher.

Most people get themselves in financial trouble by buying a home they cannot afford. They think, “Well the bank says I can afford this and they wouldn’t lie to me, would they?” Yes they would. I remember shopping for a loan on the new house a few years back and the creditors telling me I could afford this enormo-house payment. I remember them saying, “Darth! You should buy a bigger house than that, you can afford it.” To which I would reply, “Just give me the freakin’ loan for this amount…..idiot!”

According to their calculations you can afford a house payment which is 25% of your salary. Well you can do that but its financial suicide. You still got to have money to live and you can’t do that when 25% of your gross income goes to the mortgage company. Our house payment is less than 10% of our salary.

For those of your shopping for a loan for a first-time home remember this. Do not listen to the bank or the real estate agent. Do your budget and buy a home based upon your calculations, not theirs. They aren’t the one who must pay off that enormo-loan. The only thing the real estate agent cares about is making their commission and the bigger the commission, the better. The only thing the bank cares about is getting those payments every month and the bigger those payments, the better. They don’t really care about you at all. And they don’t care about you at all with a BIG smile on their face.

Something has been troubling me for quite a while and I decided to get it off my chest today. Is it possible for men and women to retain their friendships after one gets married? I don’t think so.

At one point in my life I used to have more female friends than male friends. But over the years I have lost touch with every female friend of mine except two, while retaining a relationship with almost all of my male friends. Well one of the two I used to be very close with but the last ten times (at least) we have made plans to do something she has cancelled at the last minute for a variety of reasons. We talk on the phone at least once a week and have for many years but when we plan to go to a movie or out to eat dinner she cancels every time.

She is still single and never wants to get married. We were friends long before I got married and my wife does not have a problem with me seeing her. I told my wife all about her before we got married and she does not feel threatened in any way. There is no animosity between the two at all either.

I feel like there is some secret code in which women will not hang out with married men or married women will not hang out with other men period. As soon as women get married it appears as they disappear from the face of the earth. I have run into other people which have known close female friends of mine who got married only to claim once they got married they never saw them again. Is marriage some strange cult to women? They must abandon their friends because of marriage and child rearing?

With this one in particular we used to go everywhere together. We would talk on the phone several times per day planning various activities, then at night we would go to parties or movies and afterward grab a bite to eat and debate various topics for hours. Then she got a boyfriend and we stopped spending time together and then I got a girlfriend and eventually got married while she broke up. I still made time for her but after I got married she acts like I have the plague or something.

I really don’t understand this and was hoping somebody could set me straight. Unlike most men, I actually enjoy the company of women and I don’t have to be screwing them to be enjoying myself. Maybe I’m getting too naïve in my old age or something.

If you are looking for a good news story for Christmas time, here is a good one. It's so disgusting I have absolutely no comment on it and it happened right here in good ole St. Louis.

Chana recently made a comment that got me thinking about some things that I wanted to share with everybody. My response to her was: “I'm just a man trying to be the best husband and father I possibly can. I’m trying to learn from my mistakes and trying not to make the same mistake twice. If I can accomplish that then everything else is gravy.”

Below are some of the principles that I use to guide my life. This is a work in progress and is always subject to changes or revisions. My primary goal is to improve my life while enhancing the lives of everyone around me. I openly welcome all suggestions, criticisms or comments.

Accept responsibility for your mistakes and don’t make excuses for them.
This is the most important principle and why it was listed first.

Learn to apologize when you hurt others or when you make mistakes.
The second most important principle is to make amends for your mistakes. Not only do you want to apologize, but you should do it quickly and sincerely. Apologies are NOT a form of weakness like so many believe but a form of leadership and character which is missing from our society.

Listen to others before striving to be heard.
This is probably the best way to become a leader; by listening to others you gain power and respect. People who are always too busy talking and never listening make terrible leaders.

Never repeat a mistake.
The definition of insanity is repeating the same action while anticipating a different outcome.

Hold others accountable for their mistakes.
This is aimed at parents and is a contributor for instilling the ‘it’s not my fault” attitude from many within our society. Hold your kids responsible for their mistakes and, most importantly, make them pay for their mistakes. If little Johnny breaks a window don’t blame the window for being in the way. Also, make him earn the money to pay for the window.

Even in business, you must hold both your bosses and underlings responsible for their actions. I am not a big fan of giving free passes because they promote mediocrity. If excellence is to be properly rewarded then incompetence or failure must not be ignored.

Always follow through with what you say.
Always keep your promises; your words should always be the ultimate truth. Only when you are trusted will you be fully respected. When I tell my son he is going to be hit he either modifies his behavior or braces himself for impact (he almost always modifies his behavior - it only take a couple of times before they learn).

Don’t get locked into one way of thinking.
It is alright to accept ideas from a variety of ideologies. Whether you are liberal or conservative it is NOT alright to accept every item on the agenda. Likewise, it is alright to accept ideas from the opposing agenda. This principle is what made America a strong country and what is contributing today into making us a weaker country.

Allow opposing ideas to be heard within your family or group.
As a leader, whether it comes from my workers or my son, I openly accept and encourage criticism. This challenges me to be the best I can be and allows everyone to have input into situations. Remember the more ideas you get the faster and more efficiently you can resolve problems.

Always help people in need.
One of your primary roles in life should be to remove the obstacles which obstruct people from obtaining their goals. If you want to be an effective leader then you should also provide a healthy, nurturing environment for the people who follow you or work for you.

Never allow stupid, petty rules limit your options.
Always reward creative thinking even if long standing rules are broken. My son knows if he has a good reason for breaking the rules then he is allowed to break them as long as he is not deceitful and lets us know about what happened right away. This promotes free thinking and teaches a child to evaluate every situation as it materializes. I don’t ever want my son to be locked into one way of thinking nor do I want him following ridiculous rules just because they are the rules.

Accept your limitations but try to improve on them when necessary.

It is alright to say ‘no”.
I learned a long time ago that sometimes the best decision is “no”.

Learn to prevent disasters and when they occur learn damage control.
Speeding down the highway while talking on your cell phone and eating your lunch is probably going to result in an accident. It seems as if no one in our society ever thinks about their actions or the consequences of their actions.

Attitude will often get you farther than talent.
As an IT manager, I only hire people with a positive attitude because I can always teach the technical skills. A negative attitude, however, can kill or sabotage the morale of the entire team. If I am interviewing two people: one with a very positive attitude but with average technical skills and another with outstanding technical skills but a negative attitude. I’ll hire the positive attitude every time.

Surround yourself with quality people.
Life is too short to spend it with assholes; enough said.

Always give your best effort in everything you do.
People might question your level of talent but never your heart or your desire. You should be able to live with that.

For years people have been telling me I was too conservative. Conservatism, as I understood it, always favored the preservation of American values like a strong family, a strong work ethic, American made, meat and potatoes. The Constitution was revered and almost worshiped. I always believed that I was conservative until the past several years when the worst President in history took over and changed everything. Now people are always telling me I’m too liberal. How could that be?

This all prompted me to write Conservatism Under The Microscope last month in which I explained how the conservatives of today actually worship the liberals of yesteryear. And, if you really boil it down, many of the greatest people and ideas in history were liberal. Well I wanted to expand and enhance those ideas in this post.

In that last post I explained the definition of conservatism which means resistant to change and wanting to preserve the ideology of the past with strong traditions. Well the conservative of today is nothing like that. The recipe for today’s conservatism translates into protecting wealth with an artificial flavoring of Christianity. It is ridiculous how conservatives of today and Christians have joined forces because both ideologies are complete opposites. I’ll explain more about this later.

I listen to Rush Limbaugh almost everyday and he is constantly hammering the Democrats for being soft on terrorism because they do not support the Patriot Act or the Military Commissions Act. Both of these new laws contradict the Bill of Rights which has existed for centuries. So I would think conservatives by their very nature would want to protect the constitution, more specifically the Bill of Rights. It should be the liberals wanting to change things, right? How did this get so screwed up?

My conservative roots tell me the Constitution should be the fundamental dogma of all Conservatives, so why would they even hint at changing this sacred cow? The Bill of Rights is my fundamental dogma by which I lead my life. The majority rules unless the majority conflicts with the Bill of Rights, in which case the Bill of Rights will trump the majority every time. That is conservative ideology at it finest so why do they consider this ideology liberal?

My conservative roots tell me the family is the most important thing in my life – this should be another staple in the ideology of all conservatives. Instead, they want the needs of corporate American put ahead the needs of American families. Whenever laws are proposed that favor people or families versus corporate America, Corporate America always wins because of heavy conservative favor. Why? Because, again, conservatives of today are not really conservative anymore, they are pro big business fascists disguised as Republicans.

My conservative roots tell me the elderly are sacred and should be protected. So why do conservatives want to end Social Security or at least limit it when so many seniors are dependent on it to survive. Conservatism, especially if they are Christian as they claim, should believe that poor people come first before the needs of the rich or specifically the needs of corporate American, right? This is exactly how Jesus would want it; the needier should be protected and helped by those whose can provide (help your brother in need). This Christian ideology has existed long before the corporation was created but conservatives forgot about it. Actually they did not forget about it, they are just showing their fascist roots again.

If we apply the new conservative rules to Christianity then the Christian ideology is very liberal. Putting the needs of the poor before the needs of the rich is very liberal according to today’s conservatives. Jesus existed and served the poor people of his time. I don’t ever remember Him walking into Caesar’s palace and giving him wine or fish. Nor do I remember him promising a place in His kingdom if the correct contribution was made. I also don’t remember hearing Jesus speaking out in favor of war; He was a man of peace. So how Christianity and conservatism aligned is still a mystery to me.

My conservative roots tell me marriage has never been defined in our culture so wanting to now define it as only between a man and a woman and limit it is a very liberal idea. Conservatives should want to leave the law alone (remember earlier, resist change) but instead they want this unnecessary and sweeping change to marriage. This is only wanted to preserve their false Christian image. Republicans don’t really give a shit about this.

My conservative roots also want to protect American jobs. For some reason the conservatives of today are against this. I realize the market changes and jobs must change with this pattern but what I am against is when jobs are eliminated only to secure more wealth and higher profits. Conservatives, by their nature should also want to “conserve” American jobs. Whatever happened to the “Made in America” conservative image of a couple of decades ago? I’ll tell you what happened to it, it was outsourced for cheaper labor. Conservatives should be against outsourcing to protect American jobs and preserving the “Made in America” values of the Reagan area, but why aren’t they?

Today’s conservative is only concerned with protecting the wealth of the few at the expense of the many, with legislation designed to give an advantage to the few. I think I just defined apartheid. Anyway, the whole idea of a corporation exists only to protect the wealth of the investors within the company. Investors wanted a way to reap the benefits of profits without any risk. Hence the corporation was born. Now if a corporation goes bankrupt, the investors and the executives escape with no penalties or liabilities, leaving the employee behind to foot the bill with their pensions. A true conservative would want to stop this and help the working families but not the new fascist conservatives. The new bankruptcy laws are another example of corporate America being favored over American families.

Today’s conservative only uses Christianity as a “smoke and mirror” show to herd the mindless horde and trick them into believing they actually care. American’s today are too stupid and gutless to actually dig into the facts and discover what is actually happening. They willingly submit into the “Matrix” because it is safer there. It’s definitely more comforting than to accept what is really happening to them.

It happened again. For the third time this year, hundreds of thousands of homes in the St. Louis area lost power for more than three days (many are still out) as a another mediocre storm was again mistakenly classified as “one of the worst ever”. The only disaster was NOT the couple of inches of ice but the performance of Ameren, as they proved again incapable of handling the electricity needs of a large metropolitan area. If this utility cannot get customers back on the grid within 24 hours of a small storm, then the state of Missouri should find a utility than can.

This past July an average thunderstorm transformed St. Louis into a Stone Age town, last Thursday it was a small ice storm. What would happen if a real nasty storm hit St. Louis? I am talking about tornadoes or a blizzard with a few feet of snow, not some measly ice or a typical thunderstorm. What would happen is the St. Louis area would be without power for weeks and possibly months. How come none of the St. Louis politicians are calling Ameren out on this issue?

To further complicate the matter, Governor Matt Blunt calls a state of emergency. I can understand in Jefferson City where they received up to 16 inches of snow but why in St. Louis were all we got was a couple of inches of ice. The only thing I can think of is because Ameren could not restore the power within an adequate length of time so he had no choice but to get help for the people who could have frozen to death in their igloos. If he called for the state of emergency because of a corporate screw up, then he should state that but he is too much a corporate guy to ever call Ameren out in public.

Ameren claims to have 1500 electrical crews available to hang lines after a storm. What they fail to tell us is this 1500 covers a large area in Missouri and Illinois and not just the St. Louis area and they count the tree cutting crews as part of this 1500. How many tree cutters are included in this 1500? It is hard to say but it could be up to 50%.

At one time Ameren had almost 500 electrical crews working in the St. Louis area alone but fired them when they bought out Union Electric as a cost cutting action. So now when any precipitation falls in the St. Louis area we are all at risk to loosing power for days just so Ameren executives can take home a fatter bonus.

To compensate for the loss of those employees Ameren hires crews from neighboring power companies on a project by project basis. These mercenaries can take up to two days to arrive or longer if the roads are blocked due to snow or other hazards. My family freezing to death in my home is seen as just a “project” by Ameren, nothing more. If the amount of Ameren crews is not brought back up to acceptable levels then they should be forced to bring in the mercenaries BEFORE the storm so they are in ST. Louis and ready to go at a moment’s notice.

This is why Matt Blunt, who is in bed with big business, keeps up the charade by calling for a state of emergency after a thunderstorm and a mild freezing rain storm. What should be done is an investigation into the business practices of Ameren and discovering why they cannot respond faster to outages. City Governor Francis Slay is just as guilty by doing nothing. This is yet another example of our politicians not looking out for us by siding with big business over the people.

We were without power for three of the coldest nights of the year. What was even more frustrating was calling into the Ameren (no)customer service lines. First of all, the number was busy for the first 36 hours. Then when I finally did get through I was not even given a date when my power would be restored. Ameren had over a week lead time before this storm hit so there is no excuse for them not being prepared with CSR’s to answer the phones or crews available to fix the downed lines. At the very least they should have had the mercenary crews already in town and ready to go.

While on the phone with them I totally freaked out and had a "Clark Griswold" moment. The echoes of “f bombs” and GD’s are still resonating within the walls of my house. I almost smashed the phone when I slammed down the receiver. I was so bad I later apologized to my wife and son for my idiotic behavior. If there would have been an Ameren truck anywhere close to me at that moment I could have picked it up and threw it because I was so pissed off.

My particular case was different from the average downed power lines because the tree limbs pulled the weather box and meter from my house. Those are the responsibility of the home owner so I had to get an electrician to fix my stuff before Ameren could even reconnect my lines. Well, I had that finished the same day just in case but I was still out three days.

I’ve had enough of this crap; we are looking for a natural gas powered generator to keep our entire house powered in the event of another outage. When we moved into this house we were hoping not to need such a thing because we live in a large metropolitan area but our asshole power company can never restore our power within a reasonable time frame so now we have to get one. Maybe I’ll send Ameren the bill.

The Democrats released their agenda for the first 100 hours of Congress and the issues they want to address:

• We will start by cleaning up Congress, breaking the link between lobbyists and legislation and commit to pay-as-you-go, no new deficit spending.

• We will make our nation safer and we will begin by implementing the recommendations of the independent, bipartisan 9/11 Commission.

• We will make our economy fairer, and we will begin by raising the minimum wage. We will not pass a pay raise for Congress until there is an increase in the minimum wage.

• We will make health care more affordable for all Americans, and we will begin by fixing the Medicare prescription drug program, putting seniors first by negotiating lower drug prices. We will also promote stem cell research to offer real hope to the millions of American families who suffer from devastating diseases.

• We will broaden college opportunity, and we will begin by cutting interest rates for student loans in half.

• We will energize America by achieving energy independence, and we will begin by rolling back the multi-billion dollar subsidies for Big Oil.

• We will guarantee a dignified retirement, and we will begin by fighting any attempt to privatize Social Security.

Very impressive! Now let’s hope that they stick to the plan and actually do something. Maybe it’s just my nature but I am waiting for gridlock or something else to prevent any of these from being accomplished. It hasn't happened in my life time yet, so I remain cautiously optimistic.

I also heard rumors of a deadline to get the troops out of Iraq. Under the circumstances I think we have to pull out. If we are not going to send adequate troop levels to safeguard the lives over there, then what it the point? My gut still tells me that we need some type of presence in case the violence spreads to the neighboring countries.

You should also notice a change to the blog. At the bottom of all posts there are now labels. If you click on any of them they will link to all postings within the category. For example, if you wanted to view all of the paranormal writings then find an article with paranormal writings as a label and click on it. You should get a list of all postings with paranormal investigations as a topic. I have added many different categories so you can search for specifics and get results. Labels include: creative writing, love stories, pictures, paranormal investigations, politics, religon, my life, sports, baseball.

As a follow up to the Charter Scum posting, AT&T cannot install a satellite dish on my house because of the trees. I have no choice but to stay with Charter so my email address will not be changing. I did keep the call notes service on my phone though.

Last Friday I finally joined the cell phone club. I have been resisting because I believe cell phone users are the rudest people on the face of the Earth so I did not want to join their crappy club. My boss tempted me with a new Treo 700w, complete with email and Internet access. He truly is the devil!! I accepted his offer and signed away my soul.

This phone is incredible and I now have a ticket to free, unending rudeness!! I can now ignore people all day long. At the store when I checkout I can make a quick call and force not only the checker, but also the people behind me, to wait while I chat aimlessly.

When I drive I can occupy my time with Internet access and dart in and out of lanes without looking. I don’t even see when people flip me off because I am staring at the phone and not the road. Stop signs and street lights don’t even exist to me anymore. The other drivers have breaks and they should learn how to use them. Besides, they should get out of MY way and the sooner they learn this, the better life will be for all of us.

Eating dinner with the family is also better now. I can ignore them and just talk with other people the entire time. The same holds true when I eat out at a restaurant, especially if I am there with only one other person. This is really fun as I can talk on the phone and leave the other person with me just sitting on the other side of the booth looking dumb. LOL!!!!!

I can walk down the street chatting on my blue tooth wireless headset. While I may appear to be talking to myself; I’m not. This helps with the whole ignoring thing too. I can talk even louder when I’m in a group and I don’t even see people give me dirty looks because I don’t give a shit.

I can’t wait until my first theatre experience so I see how well the phone works; it’s going to be fun to talk in the dark. I might have to talk a bit louder especially if all of the dimwits around me are chewing on popcorn and sucking on sodas. If I don’t get any calls, I can at least keep checking on the phone every couple of minutes. That small screen is very bright in a darkened theatre. Hopefully the movie will not be too loud because the sounds my phone makes as I turn it on and off are very audible if the theatre is quiet.

WOW!! In fact, my whole attitude has changed for the better! The world IS truly all about me now. Somebody should have told me a long time ago how much fun it is to have a cell phone.

Well I finally blew a cog and switched all of my services away from Charter. When I received my recent bill and saw it went from $86.23 to $114.92, I finally reached a breaking point. Considering two months ago the same thing happened and it took me an hour on the phone being transferred between departments until finally I said that I wanted to cancel. Then I was transferred to a department that took care of me.

It only took Charter two months to screw it all up again. This time, the guy told me for the past two months they were giving me a special discount because my previous package expired and since I complained they did not want to loose me as a customer. I have been a Charter customer for the past ten years and I have never been late on a payment. I would have continued to be a Charter customer for another 10 years but they had to fuck with me over and over again. I understand you have to raise rates but $114 for TV and Internet is unreasonable. They have to at least remain competitive, which they are no longer anymore.

Charter Internet service 3MB: $45.93
AT&T Internet service 3MB: $24.95
Charter cable television (approximately 60 channels plus HBO): $68.99
AT&T cable television (approximately 120 channels plus HBO): $40.99
Those are not promotional rates from AT&T either; those are the normal rates. The promotions are just freebies and temporary discounts I got from switching from a competitor which I'll explain later.

Anyway, when I saw the bill this month I finally snapped. This is not something I ever wanted to do. I am quite comfortable with my email address. I have had it for several years so everybody knows how to reach me. I had to pull the trigger because of Charter’s continuous lack of customer service, and constantly raising of my rates to unreasonable levels.

I called AT&T and bundled phone, satellite, and Internet for $107. So I will save about $50 per month if you include the phone service and long distance. For the $107 I get every local phone option including call notes and caller ID, unlimited long distance, 3MB Internet and 120 television channels plus local channels and HBO. I also finally get a DVR and a true HD hook up to my big screen TV. Now I can finally watch football in high definition. No more shittty picture quality from Charter. Their dumb ass DVR has at least a three month waiting list and it costs an extra $10 per month.

Since I switched from a competitor I will get three months of Internet for free and they will also knock $10 off my satellite bill for the next ten months. So I will only be paying $72 for the next three months and after that $97 for the next seven months. When all of the discounts settle down the bill will be $107.

I have been getting screwed by Charter for years and only just realized it because they decided to get even greedier. So Charter can kiss my hairy white ass!!! They are CANCELLED effective friday!!!!

PS: Don’t forget to vote today. Even if you are some sort of weird conscientious objector, drop the negative attitude and exorcise your right as an American citizen. If you don’t want to vote then move to Cuba or North Korea; you'll fit right in with either of those countries.

I took a trip to the Garden Ridge men’s restroom on Friday night and finally realized I am surrounded by morons. The bathroom was a wreck. As if the graffiti on the walls wasn’t enough, some idiot carved curse words into the actual toilet seat. The toilet paper holder was knocked from the wall, the coat hanger was ripped from the back of the stall door, someone attempted to rip the door from the hinges, and it appeared somebody took a hammer to the wall, door and everything else in the stall.

So I started thinking about what it takes to be a complete moron and I realized it takes extra effort. You could just walk into the bathroom, do your business and leave. But a complete moron takes extra time to carve curse words into the toilet seat, a complete moron puts in that little extra effort to rip the coat hanger from the door and then try to rip the entire door from its hinges. A complete moron must also put in a little extra effort to kick the toilet paper, soap and towel dispensers from the wall. By putting in this extra effort the person has established themselves to be a complete moron.

I just read an article stating the US population eclipsed some huge number which I cannot remember or find, and the population increases by another moron every 17 seconds. Has the human gene pool been completely saturated so the moron count increases while intelligent people are becoming extinct? Why are there so many more morons in the world today?

One reason could be because we have created too many safety laws which might be keeping too many idiots alive when, by the process of natural selection, they should be perishing. Like I have written many times on this blog; I am a believer in social Darwinism but when we pass dumb ass safety laws we interfere with Mother Nature.

You want to ride your motor cycle with no helmet while speeding at over 100 mph with your kid tucked within a backpack; then go right ahead. You want to shoot 1000 milligrams of cocaine into your veins per day; then do it. You want to chain smoke twenty packs of cigarettes per day; go for it. You want to drive with your newly born infant on your lap; don’t let me stop you. You want to try to climb the Arch and parachute off the top; go for it. All of these activities will trim the mentally inept from society and make life easier and better for the rest of us.

One day I was returning a movie to Family Video and this old pickup truck comes speeding into the parking lot and slams into a little concrete parking curb. Out pours this guy wearing a VERY dirty white tee shirt, reeking of alcohol with a cigarette hanging out the side of his mouth. While yelling obscenities at his wife he flicks the smoldering butt into the middle of the parking lot, and then manages to stumble into the video store with about 10 kids under 10 years old following him and his wife (or significant other). No car seats or seat belt on any of the kids, they all squeezed into the front seat of the truck. Never once did either parent pay attention to any of the kids to make sure they were safe while walking from the truck into the store.

One of the younger kids wearing only a diaper was picking up rocks and throwing them at the parked cars. If some car had pulled into the lot there was no way they could see this small child and would have definitely hit him if he had not finally walked into the store. But I started thinking, it probably is a good thing this family does not have car seats because in 15 years I don’t want this kid breaking into my house, stealing my car or raping my wife. My only point with this story is to show how natural selection has been squelched with these stupid safety laws. It would be a very good thing for society if this family was downsized, starting at the top with daddy.

Before we leave this story, let's look at the mom for a minute. Does she actually think being with this guy is good for her or her kids? Does she actually lie in bed at night thinking, “Boy I sure am glad he is here, I can't wait to get him in between my legs tonight. Maybe we'll get lucky and I'll get knocked up again.” What is the thought process in dating or marrying a loser like this? At one time, was she actually thinking, “I cannot wait to have kids with this guy, he is a real keeper?” So if not, we must assume she is just as big of a dumb ass as her man. I just wonder if she makes him shower and brush his tooth before screwing him.

You might be thinking, but Darth these kids are innocent and they should be protected. No!!! Dumb ass people have dumb ass kids. The acorn does not fall far from the tree. If they are not intelligent enough to keep their kids safe, then their kids are not going to be responsible in protecting their kids either. Let’s just end this whole mess with one swiftly moving truck containing seatbeltless, drunk, smoking, dirty, meth-munching morons and one concrete barricade or cliff.

Enough about morons now lets move on to cheaters. I believe the little things define a person and their moral fiber. If I get into a person’s car and it’s filled with trash and a thick layer of dirt on the inside of the window, I know this is a dirty person. They might be dressed in a suit and tie but they are still dirty because if their car is dirty, I’ll bet their home is also filthy.

Looking at the baseball game last night, it was discovered Kenny Rogers had pine tar on this pitching hand. What should have happened was his immediate dismal followed by a ten game suspension as stated in the rulebook. Instead the umpires told him to wash his hands. What is happening with baseball?

I’ll tell you what is happening, baseball players, coaches, managers, and umpires condone or at least turn their heads and allow cheating. This has never been clearer than last night. They allow cheating with human growth hormones and now they allow pitchers to use pine tar with no penalties. My first question would be to ask why Tony LaRussa did not say anything. The answer is he and Jim Leyland are good friends. I’m positive if LaRussa knows which Tigers are cheating then Leyland knows which Cardinals are cheating too. So by exposing Kenny Rogers he would then be exposing his own team. That is why none of the Cardinals would say anything on camera, I’m sure LaRussa instructed them to stay silent.

The bigger picture, however, would show baseball as covering up and allowing cheating because the umpires should have thoroughly checked Kenny Rogers, his glove and his uniform. Instead, they send him into the clubhouse to wash his hands thereby giving him a "get out of jail free" card, thus allowing the cheating to continue. As Tim McCarver put it, "It's like catching a bank robber and telling him to put the money back and all will be forgiven." Anyone who has ever played baseball knows the pine tar on the hand comes from the glove. So even though he washed his hands, the glove still had an ample supply.


Even more evidence of cheating was in the first inning when the home plate umpire asked for the ball because the Cardinal hitter complained it was dirty and Ivan Rodriguez quickly threw it into the Tigers dugout. More evidence came before the start of the second inning when an overhead camera clearly showed a group of Cardinal’s players gathered around looking at a pine tar covered baseball and then one of the coaches quickly stashed it into his jacket pocket. Then after the game when Kenny Rogers was interviewed and asked what the umpire said about the “dirt” on his hand, Rogers claimed the umpire never even said anything at all about it, which is clearly a lie. We know this is a lie because in another interview, the chief of the umpires told the home plate umpire to tell Rogers to wash his hands. Why would Rogers lie if it was truly only dirt on his hand? Rogers then lied a second time during the press conference as did Jim Leyland when he was asked about it too.

The most damning evidence of all is when the umpire tells Kenny Rogers to wash his hands. If the substance was not illegal then why require him to wash his hands? And, again, if the substance was not illegal then why did Rogers comply.

Remember me saying earlier the little things define a person’s character. Well if Kenny Rogers has a cheaters personality by putting pine tar in his glove then he would also take performance enhancing drugs too. This explains why at 41 he is able to pitch better than when he was 21. But baseball clearly does not care. They have turned a cheek to steroids and now they are turning their heads and allowing blatant cheaters a safe haven. They also sent a clear message to all the kids watching the game last night, it is alright to cheat.

This has nothing to do with being a Cardinal fan either. I respect the game of baseball and this issue is larger than any one player or any one team. If Jeff Weaver had been caught with pine tar on his hand I would have wanted him and expected him to be thrown out and suspended too. I would also have expected afterward for the Cardinals to give Weaver his walking papers. Our society is ripe and filled with rampant cheaters and baseball is only reflecting this. It makes me sick and it should make you sick too.

Blogger was having fits the last two days of my vacation so I could not post anything. The last two days were spent visiting Graceland and the Memphis Zoo. Graceland was too expensive and over hyped. The Hermitage was more beautiful, older and cheaper. Graceland was not what I expected and the over commercialization only added to the frustration. While I am glad I went, I will never go back again.

The Memphis Zoo was a hidden gem as it contained two adorable pandas. LeLe and YaYa are only allowed together a couple of times a month and usually ignore each other. However, on this day they were playing together. So I was lucky to take pictures of two pandas playing and wrestling together.

I like my vacations to be an adventure and a learning opportunity. So with every vacation I like to reflect on what I have learned. This vacation I learned the Stones River Battle was an important win for the Union army. Before this battle the Confederates were winning but this battle changed that. The first monument to the Civil War was erected on this battle field, only six months after the fighting stopped. There are only a few Civil War battlefields preserved, this being one of them.

I learned the home and distillery of Jack Daniels is located in a dry county. They have a special permit to sell sealed bottles of whiskey from the gift shop only but none can be consumed in the county. Also Jack Daniels kicked his safe out of anger and later died when the broken toe turned into gangrene. I took a picture of the safe. The water used to produce this whiskey is collected from the mountain; it is from a stream running through the distillery.

I also learned much about Andrew Jackson and his home. I found it interesting he was a strict disciplinarian but often disobeyed his superiors. He owned 150 slaves and although it hurt his personal finances, he still fought to free the slaves. After the Civil War, many of his slaves elected to stay on the farm; one was buried in honor right next to the former President.

Tennessee was a beautiful place and the people were very friendly and made my vacation very enjoyable. All pictures will be available on my Flickr page shortly.





Graceland

We actually went back to Nashville, which is where we are tonight. Today we saw Raccoon MTN Cave, Jack Daniels distillery, the Chattanooga Choo Choo, Russell MTN Cavern in Alabama and various old buildings along the way. During this trip I discovered that I am not a small town man. I cannot stand dry counties and when everything closes at 4pm. Because of these reasons, we went back to Nashville to see Andrew Jackson’s house, and the Sam Davis Home before traveling toward to Memphis.

We would like to see more State Parks and historical sites in southern Tennessee but when everything closes at 4pm, it makes it difficult to see everything. I don’t want to end my day at 4pm; I stop when the sun goes down. This is the first state that closed so early. I am not sure if this is a Southern thing or just a Tennessee thing but it sucks.

The Eerie Green Ivy

According to our tour guide through Raccoon MTN Cavern, the eerie green ivy is called Kudzo. Kudzo was brought from the orient a while back to combat some problems. But the problem it created far outweighed the problems it fixed. Since there is no natural enemy for Kudzo in the US it grows unabated; as much as one foot per day. Now we can’t get rid of it and it seems it is here to stay.

See you again tomorrow, hope you enjoy these pics:



Site of General Bragg’s Confederate Headquarters in July, 1862. Chattanooga Tennessee



The ceiling in Raccoon MTN Caverns.




A rare rock formation called a shield found in Raccoon MTN Caverns. There have only been five known found in the US.



This is a picture from the tour of the Jack Daniels distillery which is located in a dry county, so we could not sample the whiskey. Thank God for the Baptists.



Clowning around.

Day three of our vacation leaves us in a little Days Inn in Ridge, TN. We drove through the Smoky Mountain and the Appalachian Mountains; the scenery was incredible. Our only problem was the road constriction on Highway 441 which made the final eleven miles unbearable. As a result, we missed Clingmans Dome which was closed. Thanks Tennessee!!

We drove through Tennessee, North Carolina and Georgia and saw two National Forests: Nantahlia and Chatahoochie. The strange thing I noticed was the eerie green ivy growing over the forests like the Martian Red Weed from War of The Worlds. It covers the grass, blankets the trees, crawls up utility poles and along power lines, and engulfs abandoned cars and buildings. It makes the trees look like huge bulking green ghosts. I don’t know what this crap is but if it is not stopped, I can see it doing much damage to the forests.

Word to the warning: stay out of Gatlinburg, TN!! It is nothing but a tourist trap. We wanted to eat lunch so we stupidly went to Gatlinburg but had trouble finding a free place to park. If I am paying to eat at your restaurant, I’ll be damned if I am going to pay to park. I have standards. I don’t pay a cover charge to enter a bar either. Why would I pay to enter a bar and then pay them for drinks too? I will never understand why idiots pay cover charges. If nobody pays they will have to let you in for free.

Anyway, enough of my ranting; I hope you enjoy these pics from today’s adventures.



A slow running stream.



The Great Smoky Mountains





The eerie green ivy



The beautiful "Burning Tree"

BTW: I fixed the broken links from yesterday, so you can now click and view all the pictures at full resolution. Sorry about that.

Day two of our Tennessee odyssey and we made it as far as Lenoir City, TN. Tomorrow we will travel down Highway 321 and see the Smoky Mountains. Today was awesome, we visited,: The Carter House, Carthon Plantation, and a Confederate Cemetery and two of the oldest cemeteries in Tennessee (Rest Haven and the old City Cemetery) in Franklin TN, Stone Creek battle site from the Civil War, and Fall Creek State Park.

First of all, we did not see any ghosts in any of the cemeteries. I did not bring my PVR so I did not even get a chance to record any EVP’s. The ghost hunting has been a bust but Tennessee is a beautiful State and we are enjoying every minute of it.

Also, thanks to everybody for the awesome comments. I do not have time to respond but I appreciate all of them.



This is the exquisite Carthon Plantation, home to the McGavock family. John McGavock dedicated a plot of his land to the biggest private Confederate Cemetery in the country. It is still well maintained to this day.



Fall Creek Falls, a breathe-taking 296 foot waterfall.



City Cemetery in Franklin, TN. I would like to come back here at night with my PVR-this place really gave me the creeps. Most of the graves dated from the early to mid 1800’s.



Our rental car dragging some TP (typical)

I have noticed a couple of things about Tennessee. Many of the towns end with "ville"; we drove through a dozen "villes" today. Where is the Second Baptist Church? We found plenty of Firsts.

See you all tomorrow. Hopefully, I will have some shots from the Smoky Mountains.

We made it to Franklin TN, which is where we are staying for the night. We managed to see Adams, TN where the infamous Bell Witch haunted and eventually killed John Bell. Then we drove to Nashville where we saw the Country Music Hall of Fame and ate an awesome BBQ dinner at Jack’s on Broadway.


This is the oldest documented haunted house in America.


A wall of gold records.


A picture of me at the historic Bell Witch marker.


The Nashville skyline near the Gaylord Center where the Predators play hockey.

Tomorrow I should be checking in from fucking Knoxville.

Well, I’m on vacation in Tennessee. We just arrived at the Comfort Inn in Clarksville, Tennessee. Tomorrow we tour the Bell Witch Cave and then we are off to the Smoky Mountains. As usual, I will keep a daily journal of activities complete with pictures. This is all dependent on if the hotel has Internet access but that is a requirement for me.

Hopefully tomorrow I might capture a ghostly image from the Cave.

I returned from lunch on Friday to an urgent email from a friend. It only said to call immediately for urgent news. So I called immediately and discovered the wife of an old dear friend was in the hospital and very sick; she might only have 24 hours to live. Then I called my brother and told him.

“I have some bad news,” I said.
“Oh you head about Uncle Norman?”
“What?!! Hell no I was calling about Ann! What happened to Uncle Norman?”
“He had a stroke last night and he is in the hospital. What happened to Ann?”
“She is in the hospital with a liver disease; she might only have 24 hours to live.”
“Shit!” we both shouted.

So my friends and I gathered at my house on Friday night to ponder the events that were unfolding. “We’re too young for this shit,” was the theme. Then came the phone call in which we were advised she would definitely not make it though the night.

We left to have dinner and a couple of beers. It was quite the “Big Chill” moment. We all had a couples night out in March in which Kevin and Ann attended and Ann looked good. After the bar closed she did not want to go home and invited us all over to her house to keep partying. She was quite an awesome woman to be around; always smiling and laughing.

None of us could possibly imagine what Kevin (her husband) was going through. We tried but we could not travel down that imaginary hell of a mine shaft. We finally parted ways. It wasn’t more than twenty minutes after we departed when I received the phone call, “Ann died a few minutes ago.”

Friday night the wife of one of my oldest friends died of liver disease. She was only 42 years old and had much life left in her. She was loved dearly by many and will be missed. Please keep Kevin, husband of Anne in your thoughts and prayers.

I am constantly amazed at the level of stupidity I run into on a daily basis when I am out in public. It never ceases to entertain and appall me. When I encounter the lowest of the low, I plan to write about it here.

So I am in line at the QT waiting to pay for my tea. It’s a big line and I’m in the rear but at the front is this heavy set woman holding a baby with her husband standing next to them. She has a gallon of milk with various different flavors of baby food in front of her and he has four large beers in front of him. The cashier was getting ready to ring up the beer with the baby food when the husband stops him. “Dude, no I am paying for that separately!”

She paid with a credit card which was denied. So she asks the cashier to run the card again which he does but it is still denied. She was getting ready to put the food back when another guy (who was not with her) either felt sorry for the baby or grew restless waiting and paid the eight bucks for the baby supplies. The husband then pays for his beer with cash, which he didn’t have enough so he had to put one beer back. The husband magnanimously says, “AAHH dude, shit!”

I guess the baby did not rate high enough for him to give us his precious beer. I find it sad this guy offers no support for his wife and kid (if it is his kid). These days

Of the three, I really felt sorry for the baby. This baby does not have a chance in hell with two parents like this. We either have to hope the parents’ loose custody and the state takes over or when this kid gets older, it gets locked up before it kills one of us.

Social Darwinism is sometimes our friend but sometime it fails us miserably.

Life is a series of peaks and valleys. All you can hope is that the peaks last longer than the valleys and you can rebound quickly from the valleys. For the past several months I have been riding a peak but I sense a change. Forces are at work and I can feel the valley just around the corner.

I often think I should just dive right into my hell and confront the demons. What type of change? The type of change that can take your family, your house and everything. The type of change that forces a man to start over.

I received some horrible news on Monday which is why I have not posted much this week. This horrible news has caused a ripple effect throughout my life and so the descent has begun. As usual, this news was created by the greed of corporate America but only negatively impacts innocent, hard-working people just trying to earn a living. When things around you are already fragile, this ripple effect acts like a devastating tsunami destroying everything in its path.

The last tsunami struck in 2002 when I was fired from my job for no good reasons. My projects were successful and I never failed to deliver a quality service. This time someone close to me is in danger of losing their job or at least losing much compensation even though they have been successful and worked hard. The tsunami from this situation could destroy everything around me.

I still remember 2002 when my confidence was shattered. My paradigms were permanently altered. Depression consumed me and ate away at my attitude. From a little boy I was raised to believe hard work transcended into success. So I worked hard but I was rewarded with a lay off during the worst recession in years. And it particularly hit the IT industry the hardest.

Just when I thought I would drown in a pool of depression, I was lifted to safety by a ray of sunshine called education. As I finished my degree I discovered I was right and they were wrong. But I learned their religion anyway; the religion of the depraved.

The religion of the upper class is capitalism. Money is more important than family, profit margins are more important than people. This religion has no conscience, patience or justice. It is unforgiving and can be wielded as a justification for atrocities, such as, destroying towns, families and lives. Capitalism really is not evil but they have taken it to an extreme level where it is evil. Just like the communists took socialism to an extreme and evil level.

This religion has a different set of rules for us and them. Although the corporate monster is allowed unlimited profits, our wages are capped and limited. So a company can demand 25% growth in profits and demand all personnel double their hours but only give 3% (or no) raises to compensate. This religion is revered by the upper classes because it sucks the life from the lower class and delivers the blood directly into their pockets. It also allows the “old boys club” to justifiably and legally behave like little Hitlers.

These Hitlers do not use guns to kill and destroy, they use ink pens, keyboards and memos. Instead of Nazism they use economics but they both have the some result. Globalization is a term which realistically means middle class genocide but we are told this is “good for the economy” even though small towns are destroyed, homes are lost and families are separated.

Lower class religion is socialism. We help each other when we need it. We provide food when people are hungry. When the power goes out we check up on our elderly neighbors to make sure they are alright. We donate time and energy to help homeless people and abused animals. We have a hard time understanding how oil companies can earn tens of billions of dollars in profit each quarter but the government finds no wrong doing. Meanwhile people have to choose between gas in the car and medicine for sick children. Yet we are taught in business and in the media that socialism is wrong. In the fifties it was considered treason even though most of Americans were socialists. How did it get to this?

I have found refuge from the slime that is corporate America but it could be ending soon. I could be forced to again support a system of destruction while wearing a mask of smiles and a costume consisting of a suit and tie. This blog is my also mask and I often hide behind it to speak candidly. Otherwise, I feel like I would be persecuted for my opinions.

As I brace for the impact of this tsunami, I feel helpless. It is times like these you realize how insignificant your life is to the powers that be. I have no idea upon which shore I will wash up but I hope and pray we will somehow endure.