Aftermath

My power continues to go on and off. They'll probably be weeks fixing the power grid here in Baton Rouge. Every time I get angry about the fact that houses all around me have power but I don't, I meet another refugee from New Orleans. I am reminded that I may not have electricity but I do have a place to stay and I do know where my family is. It makes me ashamed for ever feeling angry to begin with.

The hurricane was worse than anything they could have predicted. The city continues to sustain flood damage. They are trying to plug the holes in the levee but who knows if they will be successful.

I get very angry over the fact that they knew this could happen. I've seen a documentary within the past month that said if a CAT 4 ever hit New Orleans the city would be under water. It did and it is. It seems as if, instead of trying come up with a solution to fix the problem, they instead gambled and hoped that it wouldn't happen. I hope that when they rebuild the city they figure out a way to raise the land to a decent level. It just doesn't make any sense to build in a coastal area that is below sea level.

Farewell Katrina

Baton Rouge didn't get hit too bad. I have been without power for over 12 hours but it finally came back up a short time ago. New Orleans didn't do as well however. They say it could be weeks before all the power is restored in that area. Still, it could have been worse. Even though they took too long to order the evacuation of New Orleans they got the majority of the people out of the area. They did order the evacuation of the areas outside of New Orleans a few days ago. Many people still didn't heed the order. Many of them are sitting on their roofs waiting for rescue crews to pull them out. Right now the death count for the Gulf Coast is 55. The number will probably rise when they start searching the flooded neighborhoods.

Theories About Fred

I have wondered how someone like Fred Phelps of the Westboro Baptist Church could harbor such hate towards homosexuals. A hate so deep that anything he doesn't like suddenly gets labled as a "Fag." Warren J. Blumenfeld may have the answer to this. He refers to it as Internalized Homophobia. A self denial of ones own sexuality can lead to an unhealthy hatred for people who openly call themselves homosexuals. Mr. Phelps may be a self hating "fag." (Please note that fag is Mr. Phelps' favorite term for anything or anyone he does not like, not mine.)

He may even decide to act out his fantasies of homosexual contact with other human beings by going out into the world disguised as a female AKA a transvestite. The only way to know for sure would be to ask the good people of Westboro. Have you seen someone resembling the person in this picture? This person may go by the name of Fredda and even claim to be some distant relative of the hateful preacher.

This warped mindset might even explain how he could call his protests at Service Members funerals as "Love Campaigns." Perhaps if he were to take some Prozac or Lithium he might be able to come to terms with his issues and learn to love himself and others.

Katrina

Here's the scenario: There is a category 3 hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico. It appears to be heading directly for your city, New Orleans. The storm is predicted to increase in strength at least to a CAT 4 and your city is an average of 9ft below sea level. What would you do?

To me a mandatory evacuation would seem prudent. This didn't happen until this morning, roughly 24 hours before the storms eye is predicted to make landfall. The storm is now a very powerful CAT 5 storm with sustained winds over 170 MPH. Not smart. The highways are starting to clog up fast. Hotels cannot be found for hundreds of miles from New Orleans. People are going to have to go well into Texas to find a place to rest.

I'm in Baton Rouge. We are on the good side of the storm so I am not evacuating. Hopefully I will not regret this decision but for now the winds are supposed to be about 50 MPH with gusts of 80. I just need to find a place away from the trees to park my car and I should be good.

Sold Out

Me, I sold out that is. I traded my Jeep Wrangler in on a Honda CR-V. I haven't owned a foreign vehicle since 1994. I've had 6 cars/trucks since then. Gas prices finally made it necessary to look for a more economical vehicle. My Jeep only got 15-18 MPG. (City/Highway) Why can't American car companies make an SUV that can get good gas mileage? That's what I want to know. There is the hybrid Ford Escape but they are not overly available. Maybe this year they'll smarten up and produce more.

PETA

I was looking through the entertainment news this evening and I noticed that Alec Baldwin is getting an award from PETA. (People for the ethical treatment of animals.) I got to thinking what Hippocrates these freaks are; They are like Nazi Militant Animal Rights crazies. You might wonder how this makes them Hippocrates, right. They get a bunch of celebrities to act as spokespersons for their causes. They complain about the fur industry, how chickens are kept at KFC owned farms and a whole bunch of other things. Then they turn around, about a month ago, and obtain a whole bunch of dogs from the local animal authorities in Virginia and killed them. When they were done with the bodies they dumped them in a dumpster. How many, you ask? Approximately 31. Read about it here. Its OK for PETA to off animals and dump them in the trash but not for someone else to kill them and eat their meat or use their fur?

Stagnant Water

In 7th grade science I remember being introduced to this tiny one celled organism. A little blob of an animal that can't be seen without a microscope; The amoeba. What they failed to tell us is that some of these creatures can be very dangerous to humans. They can be responsible for diseases such as
dysentary. They can also be very helpful. They eat tiny bits of decaying plant and animal matter. They are also an important link in the food chain.

Many other disorders can be cause by these little beasties. In Hawaii, one species was supposed to cause a slow, progressive blindness. Other species can cause death. Its a good practice to avoid stagnant water. Many of the deadly amoeba thrive in these environments. Just a friendly health warning, don't listen if you don't want to :)

Changes

I hate them and love them. What do I mean by that? Well, I really want to retire. I'll have enough time as of next month. At the same time I'm nervous about it. What will I do when I get out? Where will I live? These are fears everyone faces.

I tried to hedge my bet some. I had a plan. Now I'm not sure if its the best plan. I had the plan to buy a small house in the Tampa area. I was going to start paying on it now and continue over the next year. When I retired I was going to go to school and maybe get a degree in teaching. After I went through all the hassles of looking for a house and ran into some walls as far as financing goes I am unsure about this plan now.

My bank doesn't want to finance me for the loan because I don't live in the area yet. Other banks will finance the loan as a second house but that requires money down, PMI, higher fees and higher interest rates. (Second home? I don't have a first one yet. )

Then there comes the teaching thing. I'm one class away from my associates degree in Business Administration. If I do want to be a teacher I will need to find someone who is willing to accept the maximum number of credits possible and then I will have to start filling in the missing courses.

I'm really not even sure if I'll like teaching. I volunteered for the Junior Achievement program this fall. I guess that'll give me a better idea if that is what I want to do.

I don't want to wait and see but I also don't want to act too early. I'm not sure if I can find a job in the Tampa area. I'm not even sure I'll like the area. My brother's family lives there and my Mom may someyear move there. That's the biggest reason I want to go there. I'm writing it out like this because I think that will help me to see the problem more clearly. I'm not exactly sure why I am posting it online. Just because I guess.

Cadaver exhibit

I was visiting Tampa, FL earlier this week and I saw a news clip about an exhibit featuring human cadavers. They were sliced up, diced up and preserved in various poses. Some group called the Florida Anatomical Board was trying to block the exhibit from opening. They believed that the relatives of these corpses didn't know that they were being put on display. This is probably true since the bodies came from China and were supposedly unclaimed. Never-the-less they opened the exhibit two days ahead of schedule. All the press that they got from the controversies will probably make this feature much more popular than it would have been otherwise. Even bad press seems to be good press sometimes.

Missiles Fired at U.S. Navy Ship

Can you believe these idiots? They can't hit the side of a barn, or in this case a very large Navy vessel. Its no wonder why they resort to suicide bombs. But then again they'd probably get the wrong address. I believe Darwin was way off though. It seems, in this area, when one idiot kills themselves another comes along to fill the void. We need to find and blow up the idiot factory.

Toad Licker

Have you ever heard of licking toads to get high? I was having a conversation with my brother earlier, he was telling me that his Housing Association in Tampa put out a flyer about these toads that were giving dogs seizures. I thought I remembered something about people actually licking some type of toad to get high so I looked it up on the Internet. Sure enough there are a number of people who have been licking hallucinogenic toads to get a buzz. There appears to be at least two varieties of this toad living here in the States, the Cane Toad AKA bufo marinus. and the Colorado River Toad AKA bufo alvarius. The toad gives you an intense but short lives trip into Never Never Land. The only problem is its poisonous. One website said that you can get by the poison by drying the venom and smoking it. I would not recommend trying it though. Not unless you have someway of proving that the poison is gone. The only thing that I want to know is who thought this up? Who said, "Hey, dude, there's a toad, lets lick it?"

Jerk-O-Meter

Beware of the Jerk-O-Meter! Does anyone else think that this is a bad idea? A machine/software that measures how engaged the person on the other end of the phone is. What if the software isn't 100% accurate? What if the person on the other end is ticked off or preoccupied with something else? All this is going to do is present another avenue for misunderstandings. (Do you smell a sitcom?) Will it be able to accurately judge people from other cultures? Too many what ifs here if you ask me. I don't think a psuedo-lie detector is in anyone's best interest.

Reverend Fred Waldron Phelps AKA Satan

Matthew 24:14 "And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come."

Mark 13:10 "And the gospel must first be preached to all nations."

Acts 8:25 "When they had testified and proclaimed the word of the Lord, Peter and John returned to Jerusalem, preaching the gospel in many Samaritan villages."

Again and again in the bible we read of the Apostles preaching the Gospel. What is the Gospel? The Strong's Concordance tells us the word gospel in Greek is Euaggelion. This translates to glad tidings of the deeds, death, sayings and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

What's this got to do with the not so good Reverend Phelps? He is the founder of the Westboro Baptist Church in Kansas. This man's hate campaign against pretty much everyone has taken a rather appalling turn. This man's idea of preaching the Gospel is to spread hate speach against many different groups; Jews, Blacks, and Fags to name a few.

He runs a website called Godhatesfags. Despite the name of his website "Fags" are not the only target of his hate. Lately he has targeted veteran's funerals. He and his followers picket the funerals with signs that say things like "Thank God for IEDs" (IED = improvised explosive devices) and "Thank God for Dead Soldiers." What right has this nut case have to picket the funerals of these men and preach this vile anti-Christian message? What is wrong with this man and his followers?

To Mr Phelps (I refuse to call you Reverand you pig) and his followers:

You are no better than the Islamic extremists that are spreading their hate throughout the world. The soldiers that you picket gave you the right to freedom speach, they also gave it to me. I am exercising my freedom of speach to tell you that your acts are so unChristian that it makes me sick. What will you say to God when you stand before him on Judgement day and he asks you, "What have you done to Further my Kingdom?" Will you tell Him that you turned people away from the Christian message with your atrocious attacks on his people? Will you tell Him that you accused everyone who did not believe as you do of being a "Fag" and condemned them to hell? Will you tell Him that that instead of comforting the grieving parents you stood out there in full view of everyone and used the Lord's good name to slander their fallen loved ones. May you have eternity to see see the enormity of your SIN. Fags may burn in Hell but I believe that they will have company. When you do finally pass from this existence, if I were you, I'd ask them to bury me with some good sun block. You might need it.

Michael Moore

I despise this man. I don't trust him, I think he is a master manipulator and his documentaries are bogus pieces of pseudo truth. Why do I bring this up? Tonight on the O'reilly Factor it was alleged that he has been involved in the manipulation of Cindy Sheehan. Cindy lost her son to the war in April of 2004. According to the O'reilly Factor she did an interview with a California paper praising the President after meeting with him last year. Since then she has gotten tied up with Mr. Moore and her story has turned 180. I'm not sure how true this is. I can't find the article, I'd love to be contacted if someone else knows of the article.

I'm not mad because I have absolute proof that Moore is at the center of this change of heart. The reason I am ticked off is because given Mike's unscrupulous past I find this alleged manipulation to be highly likely. Michael makes money by preying on people's fears. He did it with Bowling for Columbine and again with his Bush documentary. He is guilty of some of the same crimes that he accuses Bush of. By that I mean manipulating the public with 1/2 truths and profiting from the fear that he causes.

Love ya Mike! Call me :p

Peter Jennings

Weird, I didn't know he was 67 and I had no idea that he had cancer. I remember all the ruckus with the fake document scandal against President Bush. After that I really didn't pay attention, even when the media tried to blow it out of proportion. Now, you won't here that mentioned. Nothing but the good times. I guess that is a good thing. I've always been told its impolite to speak ill of the dead.

Its a bit strange; when I here of a celebrities death. I feel like I knew them. Its as if they were a friend of a friend or something. I feel a little bit sad. Some of that sadness stems from the fact that his last real big story was full of scandal and false documents. We cannot let that story overshadow what was an outstanding career as a journalist.

RIP Peter...

Céad Míle Fáilte

One hundred thousand welcomes...

Today is a day that the Lord made. Rejoice and be glad in it! (Psalm 118:24)

It's a hard thing to do sometimes. I can't always say that I manage. I think the important thing is that we try.

Little tiny sweaters...

Hand knitted 8 ply wool 1 pair No. 11 needles (old measurement) 1 pair of No. 9 needles (old measurement) 1 set of No. 11 needles (old measurement)
Cast on 36 stitches using No. 11 needles.
K1, P1 to end of row. Repeat this row 7 times.
Change to No. 9 needles and K2, P2 rib. Work 4 rows increasing at each end of every row. (44 sts)
Continue until work measures 15 cms.
Decrease 1 st at each end of every row until 28 sts remain.
Decrease 1 st. in middle of next row (27 sts.)
Leave on needle.
Make second side the same.
Transfer the 54 sts from both pieces to 3 of the set of 4 No. 11 needles.(18 sts on each.) and work a round neck in K1 P1 rib for 10 rows.
Cast off.
Stitch up sides to decreasing to 27sts (opening for flipper). Add elastic to the top and bottom to prevent the penguins getting out of them. Top: 15cm of elastic; bottom 17 cm (knots allowed).

"What is this," you ask? It is actually a pattern posted on the internet by a Tasmanian Conservation group for penguin sweaters. They use the sweaters to help a species of penguin that lives in that area when they are threatened by fuel/oil spills. They put out an internet call for help in the hopes of getting a hundred sweaters to be stored for future use, in case of a spill.
They got 15,000; Ah, the power of the internet. I guess the moral of this story would be, "Be careful of what you ask for..."

Penguins

I HATE SPAM

If this isn't one of the oldest sentiments on the internet. The better we get at fighting SPAM the better they get at sending it; All the little dirty tricks from spoofing e-mail addresses to getting an overseas ISP so that you can't track down the people who own the servers that they are using .

It must be profitable for these ad companies though because it keeps getting worse. The only way to fight it is to make it less profitable. Don't buy anything that is advertised through SPAM. Wishful thinking. For every ten people who delete it there is probably 1 person who buys whatever they are advertising.

SPAM doesn't get near the same hate factor that things like Adware get. Probably because it is just a nuisance and not a potential threat. I know that these people need to get the word out to get their product sold. I just wish that they wouldn't be able to do it so indiscriminately and so deceitfully. If they would stop pulling tricks to get past the SPAM filters that would be a significant step in the right direction.

Lately I've been getting a lot where they have purposefully mispelled words to get around the SPAM filters: IE a$$ instead of Ass. You get the idea. Enough venting for now. I for one will do my part and boycot SPAM advertisers.

Oompa Loompa

This is my sister Pam or should I say this is what she would look like if she were an Oompa Loompa. :) She'd be really mad if she knew this were here.

I haven't seen the new version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory yet. Someone made the comment to me about Johnny Depp reminding them of Michael Jackson in the movie and I just haven't been able to bring myself to see it since :) He kinda does though, doesn't he.

They had one guy, Deep Roy, play all of the Oompa Loompas in this version of the movie. As if there weren't too few roles for midgets and dwarfs to play to begin with. What roles have they had recently; Mini-Me from Austin Powers, Wee Man from Jackass and the Oompa Loompas. Someone should sue someone.

Knights if the Old Republic 2

I started playing this Starwars game the other day. It is very similar to the original Knights of the Old Republic but definitely harder. They've even made it harder to use cheat codes. The console is invisible. So if you do enter a cheat code you can't see if you are entering it right until you hit enter. Plus they tend to get these side stories going where your weaker characters are put up against much stronger foes. Over all it is a good play but it can be very frustrating at times.

Another Sad Day

My brother's father passed today. He seemed like he was doing well for a while but... I guess that's the nature of life. We are all born dying. He had a good run at it. I believe he was close to eighty. Rest In Peace Ed.

OBIT:

Of Brockton, Aug. 2, 2005, Edwin E. Wild Sr., 76 years, loving husband of Jean L. (Soucy) Wild. Funeral service in the Conley Funeral Home, 138 Belmont St. (Rte. 123), Brockton. Monday at 12 noon. Burial in the Massachusetts National Cemetery, Bourne, at 1:45 p.m. Visitation one hour prior to service, 11 a.m. to 12 noon. For condolences and directions, www.conleyfuneralhome.com.