Joecrazy to enter

2005-10-21T00:04:00.000-04:00

Photo Credit: Reuters/Mian Khurshee, courtesy of Alertnet.org

International aid organizations:
- Direct Relief International
- UNICEF (United Nations Children’s Fund)
- United Nations’ World Food Programme
- Medecins Sans Frontieres / Doctors without Borders (donate!)
- CARE International
- The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies

UK/Europe:
- Disasters Emergency Comittee (DEC) - comprises a raft of aid agencies, including the below and others
- British Red Cross
- Save the Children UK

North America:

Anders Jacobsen: How can I donate to earthquake disaster victims?

Eliot Landrum: International aid needs you!

Blogging for Christ

2005-07-25T23:28:00.000-04:00

A friend at my church has started a blog ministry http://www.weblogministry.org/ . Since this blog is now syndicated at yellowproject I thought I would share it and ask people to get involved. With fulltime ministry over at http://www.faithcycleministry.org/, he is looking for help to organize the blogging ministry as well as people to take part in the ministry. They are mostly focused on xanga sites but they want to spread the ministry to other blogging sites too.Pray about it. I know I am.

Contact Mike

Get along home...

2005-07-25T23:23:00.000-04:00

Well I went home for the first time since I began working full time in the middle of no where corn country. It was almost like I didn’t leave at all. Parents were still the same. Sisters were still the same. Church was still the same. Somehow this was comforting. I did go to my Aunt’s wedding and saw the extended family. Unfortunately the wedding was only family and the groom didn’t have a whole lot of family come. We must have out numbered them 5-1.

POST

2005-07-20T21:32:00.000-04:00

It has been so long since i have had a post. so i guess i'll keep this nice and quick

the one person who reads this thing i emailed already today.
Yeh i guess that covers it all.

The Greatest American?

2005-06-06T15:09:00.000-04:00

The discovery Channel has compiled a list of the top 100 greatest Americans. The list was created by people submitting via internet, and snail mail a 150 word paragraph on why people deserve to be nominated. 5 people could be nominated per submission. These were the top 100 America chose.

Abraham Lincoln
Albert Einstein
Alexander Graham Bell
Alexander Hamilton
Amelia Earhart
Andrew Carnegie
Arnold Schwarzenegger
Audie Murphy
Babe Ruth
Barack Obama
Barbara Bush
Benjamin Franklin
Bill Clinton
Bill Cosby (William Henry Cosby, Jr.)
Bill Gates
Billy Graham
Bob Hope
Brett Favre
Carl Sagan
Cesar Chavez
Charles Lindbergh
Christopher Reeve
Chuck Yeager
Clint Eastwood
Colin Powell
Condoleezza Rice
Donald Trump
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Eleanor Roosevelt (Anna Eleanor Roosevelt)
Ellen DeGeneres
Elvis Presley
Frank Sinatra
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Frederick Douglass
George H. W. Bush
George W. Bush
George Lucas
George Patton
George Washington
George Washington Carver
Harriet Ross Tubman
Harry Truman
Helen Keller
Henry Ford
Hillary Rodham Clinton
Howard Hughes
Hugh Hefner
Jackie Robinson (Jack Roosevelt Robinson)
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis
Jesse Owens
Jimmy Carter
Jimmy Stewart
John Edwards
John Glenn
John F. Kennedy
John Wayne
Johnny Carson (John William Carson)
Jonas Edward Salk
Joseph Smith Jr.
Katharine Hepburn
Lance Armstrong
Laura Bush
Lucille Ball
Lyndon B. Johnson
Madonna (Madonna Louise Veronica Ciccone)
Malcolm X (Malcolm Little)
Marilyn Monroe
Mark Twain (Samuel Langhorne Clemens)
Martha Stewart
Martin Luther King Jr.
Maya Angelou
Mel Gibson
Michael Jackson
Michael Jordan
Michael Moore
Muhammad Ali (Cassius Marcellus Clay, Jr.)
Neil Alden Armstrong
Nikola Tesla
Oprah Winfrey
Pat Tillman
Dr. Phil McGraw
Ray Charles
Richard Nixon
Robert Kennedy
Ronald Reagan
Rosa Parks
Rudolph W. Giuliani
Rush Limbaugh
Sam Walton
Steve Jobs
Steven Spielberg
Susan B. Anthony
Theodore Roosevelt
Thomas Edison
Thomas Jefferson
Tiger Woods
Tom Cruise
Tom Hanks
Walt Disney
Wright Brothers (Orville & Wilbur Wright)

Any Comments? Do you even know everyone on that list? Who belongs? Who doesn’t? Any notable omissions? Say like one painter or architect? How about Hemingway, Miles Davis or Louie Armstrong?

What have you been doing?

2005-05-27T16:22:00.000-04:00

Well I haven't posted in a while. I guess I could blame it on being too busy, but that is just not the case. I've been out and about.

I Graduated May 7th.

When I got home among other things to do, (like mow the lawn twice a week), I new I had to get a new (to me) car.

I couldn't get just any car. I wanted a car that was cool like this Model A

I also wanted something fast like this 2005 Porsche Carrera.

Plus I needed it to be cheap like my old 1984 Ford Thunderbird. (I paid $50 bucks for that car)

The compromise was the new to me, 1995 Chevy Camaro. With only 100K on it and a friend of a friend price tag, I just couldn't resist it. Good thing Iowa has one of the lowest gas prices plus it does get 29 mpg on the highway.

Enjoy that movie

2005-04-19T23:56:00.000-04:00

What an interesting month. At first it seemed like I was King Midas, but instead of everything turning to gold it all turned to @%#@$ (oh sorry for the typo, I meant to say) everything turned to mud. First it was my car. The radiator sprung I leak (I think). Yes, it is still busted because I don't have the time or money to fix it. Then my computer broke. The power supply went kaput and in return 10% of my hard drive decided to go bad. I lost about four weeks of senior design work. Putting in the double digit hours to get back on track has been loads of fun. No more complaining. I just wish graduation was both farther away and over.

Now for the title of this post. "Enjoy that movie" is a message to whom ever it is that is stealing the blockbuster movies I rent online. Currently blockbuster’s version of netflicks is having a free two week trial. So I said what the heck, and signed up. These movies that are sent to me via regular US mail. They come in bright yellow envelopes. About half of the movies that are sent to me are intercepted by someone before they get to me. I only received the address label with no DVD. If it is a movie the person likes, he keeps it. All nerdy titles like LOTR, Stargate, and Alien vs. predator are taken. Movies like Manchurian candidate and Ray pass through no problem. The idea of a nerd thief cracks me up. Oh, don't worry I’m not responsible for the "lost" or "stolen" DVDs. I just thought I would share the story.

The Search is Over

2005-03-28T10:54:00.000-05:00

Spring break was not totally fruitless. I found out were i will be living. The Apartment has four rooms and lots of appliances including a washer and drier. Construction is scheduled to be finished May 1st. Split three ways the rent is pretty cheap too.

Here is an interactive floor layout. You will have to install shockwave to view it.

The Liberty Flames Defeat the Blue Demons

2005-03-23T11:13:00.000-05:00

How 'bout that little liberty team. They were coined a "Cinderella" team yesterday after being only the second 13th seed in woman’s NCAA history to make it to the Sweet 16. Next they play a top ranked LSU team that has demolished everyone they have played. Good luck!

Japan Subs Found

2005-03-21T00:25:00.000-05:00

I remember reading about these Japanese subs and wondering what ever happened to them after the war. These subs had fold up bombers in them.

An I-400 and I-401 were captured at sea a week after the Japanese surrendered in 1945. Their mission -- which was never completed -- reportedly was to use the aircraft to drop rats and insects infected with bubonic plague, cholera, typhus and other diseases on U.S. cities.
When the bacteriological bombs could not be prepared in time, the mission was reportedly changed to bomb the Panama Canal.

Spring Break

2005-03-14T17:22:00.000-05:00

Cedar Rapids is so much better than a mission trip to Mexico. Well, not really. Cedar Rapids is so much better then Colorado. Well, not really. Cedar Rapids is so much better than sitting in the apartment and fretting over E-Lab 3. Well, i guess that is true.

Was Constantine Great?

2005-03-11T02:07:00.000-05:00

The last movie I saw in the theater was Constantine; ok the last two times to the theater was to see Constantine. I admit I found it to be a pretty good movie. The is the synosis from the movie’s website.

John Constantine has been to hell and back.

Born with a gift he didn’t want, the ability to clearly recognize the half-breed angels and demons that walk the earth in human skin, Constantine (KEANU REEVES) was driven to take his own life to escape the tormenting clarity of his vision. But he failed. Resuscitated against his will, he found himself cast back into the land of the living. Now, marked as an attempted suicide with a temporary lease on life, he patrols the earthly border between heaven and hell, hoping in vain to earn his way to salvation by sending the devil’s foot soldiers back to the depths.

But Constantine is no saint. Disillusioned by the world around him and at odds with the one beyond, he’s a hard-drinking, hard-living bitter hero who scorns the very idea of heroism. Constantine will fight to save your soul but he doesn’t want your admiration or your thanks – and certainly not your sympathy.

All he wants is a reprieve.

When a desperate but skeptical police detective (RACHEL WEISZ as Angela Dodson) enlists his help in solving the mysterious death of her beloved twin sister (also played by Weisz), their investigation takes them through the world of demons and angels that exists just beneath the landscape of contemporary Los Angeles. Caught in a catastrophic series of otherworldly events, the two become inextricably involved and seek to find their own peace at whatever cost.

With such an interesting topic I thought I had to see it. What brought me back was its intriguing analogies and interesting symbolism. I thought the movie truly represented what a secular humanist might imagine spiritual warfare to be like. Now remember this is NOT a Christian movie. I would not suggest deriving your worldview or theology from this movie. Like many things, this production did have some interesting nuggets of truth. Some things to take away from this movie are: Hell is a terrible place to be avoided at all costs, you can’t earn your way into heaven, spiritual warfare is a real and overlooked by most people, plus many more. This is the only secular movie I know that actually gives the gospel message in it. With that in mind, it does miss one important truth, Jesus. Jesus defeated his enemies when he died on the cross and rose from the dead three days later. There is not a “balance” between Heaven and Hell.

So what is my suggestion? I say, round up a few Christian friends and maybe a few non-Christians and see this movie. Plan before you to go to meet right afterwards for dinner/lunch/snack to discus what you thought was interesting. Correct any mistakes made by the movie and ascertain the things the movie got right. Don’t forget to bring your bible to back up what you think with verse. This movie is quite the conversation starter.

Note: The movie is rated R. There are not any sex scenes. There is some pretty graphic and violent deaths and some over all creepiness. (I closed my eyes for a moment). There is also some language.

Function Before Art

2005-03-06T04:20:00.000-05:00

I was going for something this extreme but i got a little lazy. Linix blog kernel. That is just nuts!

Tonight I spent most of my time adding a little more function to the site. I added about 3 more "blogger hacks". I had hoped to add one more but these added functions tend to step on each others toes and break each other. It takes forever to modify them so they are friendly. I gave up on the last one. I think I’m mostly happy with the function of the site now. The only thing I’m going to fix for now is that after commenting it still takes you to blogger's stupid "congrats you just posted" pg. I haven't found or thought of a way to skip it and go back to the item pg. Leave a comment and you will know what I mean. I’m tired, good night.

Take that to the bank.

2005-03-05T02:15:00.000-05:00

Most of my friends know I worked through high school at McDonalds. Actually it wasn't as bad as most people think it would be. I enjoyed it. I worked with colorful people. Plus, I was high enough on the local cooperate ladder so that I didn't have to clean the bathrooms.

I am often asked if I still eat at Mickey D's. I do when it is a clean McDonalds. Yes I can tell if a store meets the minimum requirements from afar. For example, The store in south Longview does not pass but the store on the north side of town on the loop does.

Anyway, what about the quality of the food? This is how cheap McDonalds meat patties are. The difference between a cheeseburger and a double cheeseburger is one patty of meat. The difference in price between a cheeseburger and a double cheeseburger is one nickel. That is right $0.05 for one patty of meat. Maybe I will not eat there any more.

I now have Titles

2005-03-03T03:45:00.000-05:00

I guess it was time for a change.

I have also switched over to bloggers free commenting system because you no longer have to sign up with blogger to leave a comment. If you don't have a blogger account just select "Other" and fill in your name. I even have a recent comments system too.

Don't worry the old comments have been saved i just can import them into blogger yet.

2005-02-27T15:21:00.000-05:00

Everyone remembers that Simpsons episode where Todd Flanders and Bart play Billy Graham's Bible Blaster. Ever wonder where they get such funny ideas? Evidentially Bible Blaster is only a First Person Shooter version of the old Nintendo game Spiritual Warfare.

Spiritual Warfare is a role playing game. Basically it is an unintentionally funny, nock off, Christianized version of Zelda. One might think of it as Zelda goes to Church.
Zelda goes to church.

The game play:
You go around collecting fruit of the spirit. Then take these fruit and hurl then at your foes.

Watch out for the Pear of Rightousness

The people cry when they get hit with flying fruit.

Ouch that Hurt!

Then they are saved.

Please, No more fruit lord!

Funny Game. After they repent you collect little their little Souls. Oh what fun!

encyclopedia obscura has a pretty funny commentary.

2005-02-22T13:48:00.000-05:00

Hurra, I found a link worth noting. It even has an artsy fartsy theme. I'm almost as cool as the mighty Eliot and his bizarre links. Just don't be smoking the weed while looking at this one.

Hit the Flash Link on that pg. That is the coolest way to view it. I would hotlink but they said they would get all angry.

2005-02-19T15:24:00.000-05:00

Well I guess its official.

I will not be unemployed when I graduate.

On 6/23/05, I will be in Cedar Rapids

2005-02-16T22:22:00.000-05:00

Big expenses after I land that big job (in no particular order)

New to me Used Car (I'll need a car)
Apartment (I like sleep)
High Speed Internet (I refuse to live on dial up)
Roomba Robot (Need to clean that apartment and I’m not going to do it)
New Clothes (Got to look spiffy for that new job)
Eh i guess that's it (I'm just too cheap to buy anything else)

2005-02-09T23:13:00.000-05:00

But where was the love?

Today, I watched Wife Swap ABC's latest reality show where two families, as the namesake hints, swap wives for two weeks. The first week is spent following the Host families set of house rules. The second week is spent following the visitor mom's rules. This is the little blurb describing the episode off of ABC's website.

"In the most controversial swap yet, an ultra-conservative Texas mother who believes gays are "depraved" trades places with a liberal lesbian mom from Arizona."

As expected, the choice video clips of the houses reinforced the various stereo types of the Conservative Republican Christian and Liberal Democratic Lesbian. Talk about a clash of cultures. There were video clips of the Christians having family devotions together and the lesbians going to a gay restaurant. Get the picture?

Time for the swap. The Lesbian at the Christian house tried to add a little pizzazz to the boring uptight house. They had a big party sleep over and all chores were canceled. Basically she brought a little fun to a basically uptight and formal setting. (Nothing practically "gay" was done with the Christian Kids). The father did go to a gay ball room dancing class with his "new" wife. He was a pretty good sport. He danced with other guys. He also looked pretty freaked out by the experience, but I don't blame him. Generally he was polite, respectful and note rude. When asked about the homosexual life style, he did speak up and say that he felt that it was immoral. I give kudos to this guy. He took a situation ripe for controversy and made peace without tolerating or participating in something immoral. I wish his wife scored as well.

At the lesbian house hold, the Christian was bent on spewing fire and brimstone. There was no love in her words. Of course the selective clips made the Christian wife really look like a monster. Sad.

At the end of the two weeks the two couples met to rehash what happened and give advice to each other. The Christian wife spewed her fire and brim stone once again. Sad, the one lesbian said that she just wanted to learn more about Christians, their life style and how they act. But she said she was turned off because the wife was so mean and ugly.

The situation could have been an opportunity to show that Christians care about people. That we show love and show Christ in our lives.

Jesus went to Zacchaeus's house. This act of love inspired Zacchaeus to repent. Gay people know that being gay is wrong even though they might like to deny it. They don't need to be screamed at.

I know this is a "serious" post and therfore generally not commented on but please do anyway.

2005-02-07T02:26:00.000-05:00

Commence the mourning. Jeez, this one was tough. It is one thing if the patriots simply dominated and deceitfully defeated the Eagles, but it is a totally different thing when the Eagles shoot themselves in their own foot. After listening to all the talking heads for two weeks assure viewers that after beating Indianapolis and Pittsburg the patriots were invincible, I really wanted the Eagles to win.

The un-beatable patriots were beatable last night. The Eagles did not take advantage.

Till next year.

Fly Eagles Fly

2005-02-01T03:33:00.000-05:00

"The Eagles have won three NFL championships in 72 years, but none since 1960. The 76ers have won three titles in 56 years. The Flyers have won two Stanley Cups in 37 years, but none since 1975. The Phillies have won just one World Series (1980) since their inception in 1883, and have lost more games than any team in sports.

Fans in Boston and Chicago can sympathize. The Red Sox went 86 years without winning a World Series until last October. The Cubs haven't won a World Series since 1908 and the White Sox last won it in 1917.

But, the Patriots won two Super Bowls in the last three years and the Celtics won numerous NBA championships over those years, giving Boston fans plenty of reasons to celebrate. And, Chicago fans have celebrated the Bears winning the Super Bowl and six NBA titles for Michael Jordan and the Bulls in the last two decades."

We are sooo due to win one.

2005-01-31T11:48:00.000-05:00

Two questions that I am sick and tired of.

1) Will Terrell Owens play in the Superbowl?

2) When will American troops pull out of Iraq?

The answer to the first question is… we will find out during the Superbowl duh!

I wish one of talking heads would finally say that America will never pull its troops out of Iraq.

Still have a sizable number of permanent troops in West Germany/Germany? Yup.
Still have a sizable number of permanent troops in Japan? Yup.
Still have a sizable number of permanent troops in South Korea? Yup.
Still have a sizable number of permanent troops in Cuba? Yup.
Still have a sizable number of permanent troops in Kyrgyzstan? Yup.
Still have a sizable number of permanent troops in Somalia? Yup, oh wait not any more
Still have a sizable number of permanent troops in Kuwait? Not really

Lets think this through…

North America- check.
Central America- check
Asia- check check
Europe- check
Pacific Islands-check
Africa-nope
Middle East-nope
South America-nope

So will American troops ever leave Iraq? Nope. A permanent presents will calm down the region and discourage aggressive moves by the country the base resides in and any neighbors.

North America- Stable
Central America- Stable
Asia- Stable
Europe- Stable
Pacific Islands-Stable
Africa-not stable
Middle East-not stable
South America-semi-stable

2005-01-24T01:27:00.000-05:00

How 'bout them Eagles!

2005-01-01T15:16:00.000-05:00

I’m not sure what is worse, the devastation from the actual Tsunami or the people who try to benefit their own personal agenda at the sake of the people who really need help.

Honestly, I haven’t followed the Tsunami story as much as I would have had it not happened over the holiday. But I did see a picture that I thought was truly disgusting and gave a glimpse of what people caught in the terror have to endure. It was a picture of the thousands of people that had been pulled out to sea by the tsunami and had return to land as corpses when the ocean tide changed. My heart and prayers go to the families that have lost loved ones.

What has disgusted me more then the destruction are the people who are using this natural disaster the further agendas, gain political clout and apply international presser instead of helping the people in need. It just angers me when I hear environmentalist blame the Tsunami on global warming, which is just ludicrous. Or when I hear idiots from France, UN and EU call America stingy instead of giving more to the effort themselves. Or when I read that Israeli’s offers of expertise in disasters and their help beyond an extremely minor role is rejected because they are not nice to the Palestinians.

Help the people. Further agendas, gain political clout and apply international presser later when the work is done.

2004-12-31T13:25:00.000-05:00

... 2 years
... exactly 100 posts
... millions of spelling and grammar errors

(enter witty and smart answer here)

Priceless

2004-12-27T01:51:00.000-05:00

Good Day

1. A forcast of flurries turned into 5 inches of snow
2. I actually did very well in Fields and Waves
3. Get to go skiing tomorrow
4. None of the Christmas Gifts i bought for family will be returned (a first)
5. just an overall good day

2004-12-23T17:58:00.000-05:00

A dangerous and deadly profession... being Joe's RA.
Of the 3 total RAs, 2 have met their maker.

On a lighter note, they are both in a far better place.
Chillen up in the clouds and gone to see Jesus.

Wise Words...
Mortality is a permanent condition.

2004-12-23T17:57:00.000-05:00

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a fat belly.

2004-12-05T01:56:00.000-05:00

Jon 2004
Dave 2005
Josiah 2006
Me 2007
Ryan 2008
Eliot 2009
Marcus 2010

Well that is my vote.
Everybody hitched by their 5 year reunion

So far I’m 2/2.

Congrats to Dave and Lyz!

Good people and good friends.

2004-11-08T20:39:00.000-05:00

For a while on campus I have notice these Terror Alert Cards laying around in lounge areas. Today I actually picked one up and read it. I couldn't help but laugh as a scrawny counter strike playing nerd walked by and met half of the card's qualifications.

Here is a scan of the card. (click to make bigger)

2004-11-07T03:58:00.000-05:00

Should the un-saved have the liberty to be sinners?

2004-10-11T02:33:00.000-04:00

Save the Environment, vote for George W. Bush.

Say what? Big Business Bush? The same guy who opted out of a global warming treaty? Believe it or not but the statement "Save the Environment, vote for George W. Bush." is based on logic.

I have always said that despite what the political organizations of Greenpeace and the Serbia* Club would let you believe business is pro-environment and pro-safety. People do learn from historical mistakes. Hunters don't over hunt because then there is nothing to hunt. Unsafe products are super risky and expensive; businesses don't want to make any. Loggers don't over log because then there will be nothing to log. If something is over regulated a black market will develop. Black Markets are worse then legitimate organizations. I guess only Al Capone would disagree with that statement.

2004-10-10T04:31:00.000-04:00

If you thought this was worth a laugh or two.

This is a barrel of laughs

2004-10-06T19:41:00.000-04:00

Way to go SpaceShipOne on winning the X-Prize.

They can get to space twice in a week but they can't come up with a better name? What is up with that? The name reminds me of something a programming nerd would come up with.

Sad thing is the next name will be SpaceShipTwo or SpaceShip 2.0

2004-09-30T14:01:00.000-04:00

Quotables:

All generalizations are false.

Moderation is good as long as there is a whole lot of it.

2004-09-27T11:47:00.000-04:00

Ah crap, I can't blame Twinkies for making me a fat as a kid. Junk food may not be as bad for you as the taste of that "healthy" food. Hmm what to blame for those extra pounds? It certainly can't be bad habits or lack of discipline.

2004-09-19T17:18:00.000-04:00

GO EAGLES!

2004-08-19T09:18:00.000-04:00

I love reading Lyz’s blog. Today I read an interesting entry about the poor in our society. Among the discussion I came across some interesting commentary on wealthy elite and NASA. I was really shocked that no one understood the real purpose of NASA.

NASA is the modern-day version of the Manhattan project but instead of building bombs they build rocket ships. My point is, NASA engineers and scientists are some of the USA’s best and brightest. Often times the best go were the money is but sometimes the best go were the prestige is. NASA is still an esteemed organization.
Amidst the commentary in the blog it was mentioned that NASA’s recent goal to send a man to mars is crazy and not worth the money implying that going to mars brought no real benefit to people within the USA. The counter argument was that eventually the USA would mine foreign planets for minerals and NASA is just the start. Both arguments are totally wrong. NASA and its goal to send a man to mars has more to do with the USA today then mars in ten years. The real reason NASA should be going to mars is because the NASA culture of the best and the brightest needs a challenge and flagship program that will bring prestige to itself and intern to its members. People don’t work at NASA for the money. They work because of the intellectual stimulation of the project and some times simply to say “I am a NASA rocket scientist” What NASA does for the every day person is not invent bigger and better rockets but is to simply invents stuff. While during the creation of big bad relatively useless rockets NASA invents thousands of other useful things along the way. NASA makes inventions from everything from bed mattresses to fire resistant fibers and communication satellites. Most of the inventions of NASA do not turn into full-scale products but are bought by corporations to great better products or they turn into standards for industry to use. In recent years I think one of NASA’s creates contributions has to do with fuel cells. Fuel Cells have the potential to revolutionize the world and reduce a huge chunk of pollution made today by engines. In a push to mars NASA could invent all sorts of useful things. Perhaps to protect the astronaut from radiation bands on his trip to mars NASA will invent a new type of radiation shielding. This shielding could be used from protecting our armed forces to lining the walls of a nuclear power plant. Maybe in an attempt to keep the cramped astronaut healthy during they learn how to better treat asthma patients. I possibilities are endless. NASA is going to mars to keep NASA people interested, and the country interested in science and engineering. Which in turn improves the life and conditions of the average American.

2004-08-18T16:28:00.000-04:00

When people hear information, what makes people decide if the information is true or not? Sometimes experience plays a part but what about information that the person has no previous experience what so ever? For example, many people including myself were ready to believe that humans only use 15% of their brains. How about the common belief that it wasn’t until about the seventeenth century that man discovered that the world was round? Why do so many people think the big bang went boom?

All of these examples at close inspection appear to be ludicrous. Nonetheless, so many people (including myself at one time) take them at face value. These “facts” make it into text books and popular magazines and entertainment. Why do people believe in such things? Why are humans so gullible?

The “latest” informational “fact” that has spread in the last couple of decades is that religions by definition are friendly wholesome and good to people. It is the extremists of the religions that distort the “true” friendly nature of a religion. Only “man made” political creations like Nazism and Communism can have a evil sinister core. This is of course is ludicrous. A religion can be as dark and sinister at its core the same as any ideology.

This belief has manifested itself within the last five years in reference to Islam. At its heart and core Islam is an evil, totalitarian, and intolerant belief system. The extremists do not distort Islam. They are the Muslims that are following on its behalf.
I would like to clarify that there can be nice people that follow Islam in the same way as there can be nice, Atheists, Wiccans, or Communists. The average Islamist will not die for their ideology in the same way the average capitalist or person who live in a democracy or republic will not die for capitalism, democracy or republic beliefs.

2004-08-16T14:35:00.000-04:00

What a pair of weekends. Lets start with good joke, my family. Last Sunday was a crazy. I went upstate to see the family. My adopted church up there was having their “Big Day.” Big Day is an out door church service followed by some good ol’ country cooking. It commemorates the day when the little country church was founded by roaming bands of Bible tauten preachers. This year is the church’s 200th anniversary. There was a big hullabaloo.
The preacher was energetic and actually looked like he was happy to be up front doing his thing. He message dealt with faith. For examples of good faith, he used Sarah and Noah. To make his points a little more realistic he searched out the eldest lady in the crowd. This of course was Gram, my 93-year-old great grandma. “Could you imagine having a baby at 93 years old?” the preacher asked. Gram quick witted as ever replied, “I think it would hurt”. To address and include the men of the church the preacher rhetorically asked, “Men, can you imagine being a father at 100?” “Is anyone up to the task?” To the dismay, horror, laughter and bladders of all in attendance an 80-year-old man stood up and said “I am up to the task”. I have never seen a preacher go speechless on the pulpit before. It was so funny. It took all the church members almost 15 rotations of the second hand to calm down. That truly was the Funniest thing ever!

This weekend was spent spending money in order to make money. I went out and got a new suit, ties, shoes the whole works. In the hopes they might be useful in any interviews. I also, due to a work discount, got a … cough cough… cell phone.

2004-08-13T12:28:00.000-04:00

I just might have a new favorite website. Junkscience.com is a great place to check out before buying into the various environmentalist “theory” out there. This sight certainly has a refreshing anti-environmentalist theme but it is not a pro-corporate medium. In that sense it is a equal opportunity offender. It tries to simply do the research and debunk the various theories out there that are more interested in making a profit then improving the environment.

Personally, I think God has entrusted the earth to humans. The earth should not be destroyed for the sake of materialism. On the other hand, earth is not more sacred then human life or the welfare of humans.

2004-08-10T14:55:00.000-04:00

I guess it is my turn now.

As graduation finally begins to appears on the distant horizon it is time to prepare for what lies beyond the formal academic grave. Besides not being able to get a student discounts anymore it is time for decisions. Where to work? What kind of work? Where to live? Do I want to travel? Do I want money or do I want security? Family? Is living near them a major priority? How about a family of my own? Oh geez… Will I be patient enough and quiet enough to hear where God wants me to be? Will I receive a clear direction from God? I was directed to LeTourneau. While sometimes frustrating, it has been a rather pleasant experience. God’s direction to go there has been confirmed thousand fold.

Over the next few weeks before I go back to school I will have a few interviews for positions from various managers in different departments at my current job. Decisions are quickly approaching.

2004-08-06T09:38:00.000-04:00

Over the years the English language has certainly changed and evolved. Words have been created, destroyed and changed. Sometimes the new words are functional like “spheroid”. Sometimes they are little more than pop culture like “nerd” (Its etymology goes back to good old Doctor Seuss)

Either way, there have always been words considered taboo. These curse words have become more acceptable to common language over the years. Curse words fall into three different categories, Damnation, Vulgarity, Racism. I bring this up because …

Last week during church the pastor had an interesting quote on his PowerPoint presentation. Yes he uses power point expensively. At least he doesn’t talk to the screen or read from the PowerPoint. The presentation usually consists of pictures (often times it includes Greek or Roman art and all the nudity that implies to the disapproval of a majority chunk of the congregation). Any who, last Sunday he had a quote (not from the Bible) that included the D-word that beavers are synonymous with. It sparked an interesting debate about curse words.

When are curse words so taboo that they shouldn’t even be quoted from? More specifically was quoting the D-word wrong? How about a quote that had the S-word or the F-word? Does the setting matter on whether using the word would be wrong? How does taking the Lord’s name in vain apply to curse words? What about words that fudge the issue by being a direct audible replacement for a taboo word? I have not developed my opinion on this issue as of yet. Any ideas?

2004-08-04T12:17:00.000-04:00

A backfire worthy of making the News

Over the years the conservative movement has complained about “liberal” media being biased and even lying. In the same way, the “conservative” media has been blamed for being biased against liberals. Usually the latter criticism is towards Fox but all the networks have been accused for being too conservative at one time or an other. There is certainly evidence of there being bias in the media. Some authors and talking heads have even admitted to personally leaning one way or the other.

People that feel that the media is biased on way or the other are boycotting the networks they don’t like. This is dangerous. It is essentially polarizing the viewership. All the conservatives watch the “conservative” media and all the liberals watch the “liberal” media. This traps the networks into reporting what the audience wants to hear instead of reporting the truth due to the fear that their audience will leave because they don’t like what is said. What happened to the days where the difference between the networks was usually because one network got to the scene of the news faster then the other? When the news was more about “that’s the way it was” instead of this is the way it should be. Perhaps such a news organization never did exist and is only a figment of my nostalgic imagination. Either way, News should be about what happened instead of a pulpit that curtails to the whim of the public.

2004-07-29T16:48:00.000-04:00

One of my favorite characters on Stargate SG1, Janet (Teryl Rothery) was killed off at the end of last season. Not to worry, Janet is reappearing as Linda for a reoccurring role on Dead Like Me. How weird is that?

2004-07-27T16:23:00.000-04:00

Nerds of the world unite!

There are only two currently running TV shows that I regularly follow. Well I guess two and a half. Usually I hide the name of these shows from my adoring public because of there nerdish appeal. They are… cough cough…

Stargate SG1 has truly evolved over its seven-season history. The Egyptian and ancient (such as Baal from the bible) god warlords called Goa’ulds dominated early plots. Now they are one of many alien races encountered, some nice other not so nice. Currently running it’s eighth season, tying X-Files as the longest running Sci-Fi show, it seems to be winding it’s self down for the final season. If its actors were immortal the show would certainly keep running (it has the fan base and its reruns get a 20% increase in viewer ship every time they air them) but Richard Dean Anderson (the guy from MacGyver) is umm getting old. MGM and the Sci-Fi channel want a 9th season but RDA doesn’t seem too interested. No one is sure if SG1 will have the same pop without good old RDA. Not to worry, Stargate Atlantis has started. This spin-off seems to have the plot power and story flexibility just like SG1. Its first episode blew all of the sci-fi channels records out of the water. It was the most watched cable show during its time slot and the most watched show among some of the 20-40 demographics. Oh, and 3x more people watched SG1 reruns last night then the DNC.

The other show I watch would have to be the Justice League. I guess I really this show because I have always a Batman fan ever since watching Batman the Animated Series as a kid. I never got into the comic books but I always enjoyed the cartoons. (This fact usually gets sneers from the purer nerds that attend the DC comics conventions) My favorite characters in Justice League have to be the Flash and of course Batman. Flash is totally hilarious. Batman is super cocky and has a total ego trip all the time. I love it. Batman the only guy without super powers but he is usually the one that saves the day. He trusts no one and is often to “busy” for the other members. One of the best scenes is when Superman is trying to interrogate some squirmy little street urchin and is not getting anywhere. Batman walks in and after a 5 sec chat, the criminal is crying for his mommy and spilling his guts.

2004-07-20T14:49:00.000-04:00

So where do your favorite sports/entertainment/movie vengeances rank on ESPN Page 2 vengeance ranking. It takes a while to get through them all but I think it is well worth it. For a week or so the author received various vengeance stories from readers and ranked almost all of the received stories from 0-10. My suggestion of “The newspaper kid on the bicycle screaming "I want my two dollars!" (from "Better Off Dead")” got a whomping 1.7 on the ranking. (it beat out the Mike Tyson biting the ear of Holyfield at 1.5)

Some notable vengeances would be…

2.8        Brad Pitt killing Kevin Spacey after being handed a box with his girlfriend's (wife?) head in it (from "Seven")
3.4        Danny Ocean ripping off three casinos because his wife started dating someone else (from "Ocean's 11").
4.8        Inigo Montoya vanquishing Count Rugen in "The Princess Bride" -- "My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die."
6.1        Van Damme going after Chong Li in "Bloodsport”
8.9        Jesse Owens winning four gold medals in Berlin (in front of Adolf Hitler)
9.0        Lorena Bobbit incident
9.7        Edmund Dantes seething in a French prison after being framed for treason in "The Count of Monte Cristo."

2004-07-14T17:59:00.000-04:00

Some times the media just cracks me up. Today on CNN i found this quote...

“Experts say nearly half of all people with HIV are women, and their infection rates in many regions are climbing much faster than men's.”

So I guess CNN is saying that more men have aids then woman but the women are starting to catch up. So what does that prove? HIV is not a sexist? I guess the media is not supposed to know what makes good arguments, like useful facts.

2004-07-12T16:40:00.000-04:00

Bored out of my mind again, (bored out of my mind, sounds like my mind fell out my ears or something. “oops I sneezed,” there goes my brain)

Anyway, last weekend was spent out doors. I went up state and went hiking. I just left. Packed a one-man tent, some food, a compass and my GPS with extra extra batteries. Took off from my aunt’s house Friday at 4:00pm, straight over the mountains to get some Saturday dinner at a friends house. I walked all the way over to church right in time for the morning service. (don’t worry the pig farmer smelled worse then I did) and then went home.

No not really, I didn’t go on any hike. I wish I had. I miss the outdoors, such as the woods and, the creeks (c-r-i-k-s). I miss catching animals and killing the ones I can’t catch (umm just kidding). I miss damming up the “crick” to flood out the dog tied to the doghouse. I miss flipping rocks and catching whatever critter climbed out. If crocodiles grew up here I would have been the first crocodile hunter.

I went from wanting to be a forest ranger to being a vitamin d deficient, computer dependent albino living in a cubical environment. What happened? I’m so out of here.

2004-07-09T10:08:00.000-04:00

Bored out of my mind, I decided to poke around the attic In search of some long lost treasure of old. I found my old Nintendo but I didn’t find any games. I also found my Gameboy games but no sign of the game boy. grrr….Besides running into some crazy 1970’s clothing of my parents that I quickly filed under black mail, I ran into a bunch of my grandfather’s junk. I guess before the computer was invented all nerds were chemists because boy o boy my grandpa was a nerd. I found rock collections and fossil collections, I mean really, what kind of person stores rocks in the attic for later use? Then again I found my broken beat up remote airplane up there too. (trust me this thing will never fly again). The real kicker was the leaf and bug collection. Most of the leaves and bugs had turned to dust after decades of 100-degree summers and freezing winters. I also saw his army uniform and the commendation he got for helping create the chemical propellant used in the flamethrowers. I found a bunch more of his books on everything from “Hitler’s doctor” to “how to grow roses”. The Hitler book looked interesting enough. I would read it but the dust and mildew smell that emitted from the crusty pages gave me a headache. There was tons of baby junk up there too. I guess mom is saving that for the day when …cough cough… I guess she will have to learn patience. The jewel of the dust expedition was I found my grandpa’s old bowling ball. It even had my initials on it. (Who would have guessed?) According to the case the ball was in, it must be at least 50 years old. I’ll have to take it down to the alley and try it out.

2004-07-02T11:20:00.000-04:00

Recently in Pennsylvania *motorcycle* bikers just got a law changed that allows them to ride without a helmet. That brings up my next topic of discussion within one week.

Should the Government be allowed to ticket people for not wearing a seat belt?

Personally, I would say no. What is your answer?

2004-07-01T14:33:00.000-04:00

Funny story,

Rt. 13 is a major thoroughfare in and around Philadelphia. Speed limit is I think 55 but most do 75. Anyway, what seems like ages a five mile stretch of it has been under construction. It is now one lane with cement barriers on both sides. I was driving down the road when this little Honda two cars up slams on its breaks. I was driving my dads F-250 with about 1000lbs of pig iron in the back. Thank God for anti-lock breaks. I look up and open my eyes to find the Honda crawling no more then 5-miles an hour. The line of cars quickly queues up behind me. I’m like what in the world is going on. The Honda was still working it looked normal and all it was just going 5 miles an hour. Being in a tall truck I finally see what the problem was. There was a goose running down the road. It didn’t look hurt or injured it was just taking a morning jog down the middle of the road. Weirdest thing I ever saw. Naturally my macho man bravado kicks in “Me in Big Truck quash little Bird” Muhahaha. My sister and a friend ran past the two cars in front and tried to catch the bird. I couldn’t help to laugh as this goofy bird waddled faster then my sister and friend. When they gave up a half a mile down the road. I parked the truck on the highway, got out and told my sister to drive. Took off my shirt, threw it on the bird, jumped over the cement barrier let it go and it flew away. I wish I had a camera. It was so strange. The car back up made the news but they said it was a large truck parked in the highway as the reason for the backupt. Talk about Bird Brained.

2004-07-01T11:52:00.000-04:00

Here is a work around for the character limit on the comments. Type your comment in notepad, word... (I suggest notepad so there are not any font issues) and then paste it into the comment box. The character limit does not seem to be a true memory limit on the server. It is an annoyance that tries to make me buy the super service. (I’d like to stick to the free service)

*EDIT* New commenting service. Does not have character limits. Use the new comments from now on please.

*EDIT 2* Nevermind, the old service will have to stay. I didn't realize it made you create a blogger acount to use the comments.

-Wilson and the other shadowcouncil people what do you use for comments? I like your setup.

2004-06-29T18:27:00.000-04:00

What are your answers?

Is the prime function of schooling is to equip the future generation to find jobs?

Are businessman and the manufacturer are more important than the writer and the artist?

My answers are yes and yes. I'm sure there is a psychology major out there who disagrees. What are your answers?

*EDIT*
To still say Yes/Yes i will have to modify the questions slightly.

1: *Should* the prime function of schooling *be* to equip the future generation to find jobs?

2: Are *"real" jobs such as plumber/ encyclopedia writer/advertisement artist/Engineer* more important than the *Entertainment such as Script Writer/musician/actor/novel writer/set builder*?

Gah, I still don’t like that second question. It is still too ambiguous. Is “important” in terms of culture, economy, basic welfare of people, society, or is it in terms of God? Who knows? I don’t think I will address the second question any more. But still feel free to debate it.

Does anyone change their stance?

2004-06-22T12:59:00.000-04:00

Digital Finger Prints. Maybe it’s just the conspiracy person in me but I often wonder what people can find out about me on the Internet. With a simple google search what can the average stalker learn? What about my various pseudonyms? Can a stalker link them to my real name? How about the police? I think everyone has half a dozen digital pseudonyms. Gee I think I have at least that many in AIM accounts alone. Hmm let me see. I guess I got about 22 active pseudonyms and about 5 or so that have had their account closed. Hmm I wonder what the Internets most popular pseudonym is. It’s probably Jedi or hobbit, something nerdish I’m sure. Ha, nerdish is a real word at least Webster says so. Who would have thought?

2004-06-09T10:04:00.000-04:00

I sure hope NASA can do math. September 30th look to the sky for Asteroid 4179, Toutatis (1989 AC). It will be coming pretty darn close to earth, about three times the distance to the moon. This big chunk of rock if it ever hit the earth movies like The Day After Tomorrow would almost be legit. So how close will this thing be? Put it this way, if the earth was only one day farther in its orbit or if Toutatis was one day slower in its orbit we would be sending cowboys with nukes to go visit. Then again if NASA has their Gigameters mixed up with micrometers……

2004-06-02T12:24:00.000-04:00

We live in a society of special people. I don’t know about you but growing up I must of heard “your special” from half a dozen people, whether it be parents, teachers, Big Bird or Mr. Rodgers, a week. Despite the being told “everyone is equal” in the same sentence, this idea of “I’m special” and “I’m the best” is super until you grow up and stop watching Sesame Street. This is when sane people learn the depressing fact that they are not the best in anything they do, (someone is always better). By the time Big Bird is just a big bird, the insane majority of people developed what I like to call “Oprah Ego”. People that have this disease feel that the world was made for them. It is these people that get extremely upset anytime they are told they are wrong or their way is not the best way. They never think they are wrong. If they are proved wrong they have a million excuses. If they loose or are overlooked for something the contest was rigged. They say things like “that’s racism” or “that’s affirmative action.” You know what I’m talking about. We have all met these people. I submit that we are these people to some extent. So why did I write this? I don’t know. I had a reason when I started. But before everyone gets all mushy and Oprah on me I’ll finish with this, everyone in the world is special and equal. This is true not because of what we have done but because what God has done. God has created and died for everyone and that by default makes everyone special. Maybe we just need to eat a humble pie antidote for Oprah Ego. I know I do. I think in general the world does too.

2004-05-26T13:21:00.000-04:00

I should really eat dinner before going to night school. With out food I tend to get a little cynical and grumpy. Poor teacher. I had forgotten how much different High school is from LeTourneau. The demographics of the community college I go to is very similar to how my high school was. Besides me there are about 35 students, maybe one or two bible believing Christians, 12 or so atheists/agnostics, 6 or so who are only “Christians” by namesake leaving about 15 who don’t believe anything at all. The last group mostly follows popular culture. Finally, there is the teacher. I haven’t pegged this guy yet. Everything he says is very deliberate and slightly ambiguous. I can’t tell if he is putting on an act or if he is genuine. Twice already he has purposely leaned to one side of the religious/political spectrum so that students (usually from the don’t believe anything group) would give answers slanted to that side. After he received a sufficient amount of answers he would change the story/analysis to the other side of the spectrum, thus teaching us that it not good to judge or it’s all about perspective or some other Oprah idea of the day. Don’t know what he is for certain. He might be new age. I’m sure he isn’t a popular culture/trendy guy because is seems to be to well thought and learned for that kind of gullibility. Nonetheless, I’ll find out tonight.

2004-05-25T09:14:00.000-04:00

I have been demoted. Due to the lack of hits/links/usefulness and because of added stupidity/boringness/retardedness of my site google has decided to demote me on the list when “joecrazy” is typed in. Some other website last updated in 1999 is beating me. Joecrazy to enter is now number two on the list after an eight month reign on top.

Due to this new development I am debating on whether to turn this site into (with the help of some free online space I don’t use) a more traditional non-blog site. Basically I would make it into a electrical engineering link page. A website to accumulate all those websites found over the years that explain things better than the teacher does. So if you need a digital chip and you don’t know the name of the 74 series chip you need, this place will have a link that will tell you and so on and so on…

Since the debate is still raging in my mind feel free to influence me. Oh, stay tuned because if I do change this site I will be asking for links to add.

2004-05-24T11:44:00.000-04:00

Ever heard of an air powered rifle watch? I’m about 20 miles outside of Chicago Midway air port going home after the weekend. The airplane is at about 25000 feet and is still climbing up to its cruising altitude of about 40000. (I know this because I had my GPS with me) I have a whole row to my self and after a little drink (soda not liqueur) I was looking forward to a nice nap. At this very moment my watch decides to shoot me. Yes I said shoot me. The dial on the watch that allows you to change the time pops out of the watch and hits my wrist. After a yelp in pain I probably said something like “suck a duck” or one of the various other nonsense things I say. This thing had some pop. The bruise I developed makes it look like I got shot with a beebe gun on the back of my wrist. If I was able to command the watch to do this, it could become a fancy little murder weapon. Amazingly I found the knob, which turned out to be a little metal stick, and replaced it in the watch, to my surprise the watch is still fully functional. Air powered rifle watch used for assassinations go on sale tomorrow. It gives a beating and keeps on ticking.

2004-05-18T18:07:00.000-04:00

Man I thought I was done with analog circuit theory for a while. I spent the whole day (not really but it seemed like it) reading up on Radar reflection or Radar Cross Section (RCS) theory. My brain hurts. I need a nap. Maybe some Ice Cream too. Two days before I leave for Minnesota. Yay.

2004-05-17T13:53:00.000-04:00

Ahhh there he is again!!! I was minding my own business perusing the electronics section of Wal-Mart, as usual when all of a sudden, William Hung Appears on thirty TV screens in front of me. Hung, famous for his rendition of “She Bang” on “American Idol”, is now a spokesman for Wally Word TV. He was singing and dancing with the Wal-Mart yellow dot. Thank goodness the audio was turned off. (Most likely by a worker there sick of hearing Mr. Hung all day.) If I wasn’t sickened by the vision of a nerdish chubby guy dancing with a yellow dot that has arms and legs, it would have almost been funny. Personally, I think Hung should be a spokes person for that karaoke revolution game. Now that would be funny.

ADDITION 5/24/04

Hung sighting at Spencers. This time he is on a visor or some sort of hat.

Where have you seen HUNG?

2004-05-14T13:53:00.000-04:00

Kudos to all those people out there that can efficiently, gracefully and articulately express their ideas on paper. It is a skill I lack. It is a skill I am afraid to work on too much in fear I will have to admit defeat.

2004-05-13T17:40:00.000-04:00

As you most likely did (not) notice I have never mentioned anything about the war in Iraq or the US actions in the Prison.(The closest i have gotten was the Kerry Thing) The lastest development was the decapitation of the American just a few days ago. I downloaded the video thanks to IRC. Lets just say I wish I hadn’t.
I have just a few things to say… As an American, I have always felt on at least national level morally superior then any other nation in the world. America always tried to do the right thing. Don’t get me wrong; I’m not saying America hasn’t done bad things. I’m just saying we usually had good intentions. When Germany and Japan had their respective concentration/death camps, America gave food and water to their POWs. Japanese and German soldiers for the most part went home healthy, while many of our soldiers, especially from Japan spent months and years recovering physically and decades recovering mentally. America was always the good guys. Even in Vietnam we thought we were doing the right thing. Good intentions often go awry.

With that said…
What the *@#@$# were those soldiers thinking parading those prisoners like that?
What the *@#@$# were the media thinking blaming this on things like “lack of training”?
What the *@#@$# were people thinking trying to justifying the soldiers?
Two wrongs DO NOT make a right!

America is no longer morally superior. We are simply technologically superior which makes us even more dangerous. I hope and pray I’m wrong.

God, Bless the USA we need it

2004-05-12T08:10:00.000-04:00

This is getting ridiculous! I have said in the past that the prom at my high school is a big deal in my area. I guess it is getting national attention now. First it was the book I mentioned in an earlier post, which wasn’t that big of a deal really. (I’m sure a whomping five none locals will buy that trash). The latest new in the hoopla is in the latest Readers Digest. They have a list of “America’s Best” including the best prom. They even have a picture of one of my sister’s friends in it. If that wasn’t enough reportedly MGM has paid a hansom little sum to have the rights to the 2005 Prom. When questioned on the value of the sum the principle has reportedly said, “What color should we paint the new building?” Supposedly MGM wants to make a Drive Me Crazy/Perfect Score type movie that a prom similar to ours in it. Since both of those movies drove me crazy and were perfect trash, I’m not making a bid deal out of the movie thing.

Some towns have Crawdad festivals or tractor pulls that bring out the whole town. Here in we have the prom. I just think its kind of interesting that it is getting national attention. Supposedly we actually have tourists that travel to see this thing every year. How dumb is that! Why in the heck would a tourist visit my town I went to Texas to get away.

2004-04-15T01:28:00.000-04:00

What is up with Texas and its burger joints? At home we got the usual McDonalds, Burger King and a few Wendys sprinkled in but in texas there must be ten different burger joints located on one street. Amazing.

2004-02-29T16:37:00.000-05:00

After reading an article by Lyz, I decided to go look up this John Kerry. Since the election seems so far away, I had not bothered, until now, to see what the half a dozen democratic candidates for president were all about. A quick search on google took me to Kerry's own website. Since I didn't want to read the "Make your life happy, vote for ..." mumbo jumbo I went straight for the "issues" page. Up till now I had a fairly open opinion about Mr. Kerry, especially since I didn't know anything about him. On the "issues" page is where I learned that Kerry is not a visionary but simply a critic. On the main issue page eight major issues are listed. Every single paragraph followed this form. Bush caused this or that to happen. I will not let this or that happen. Kerry is simply a critic. Any smuck with one leg and two teeth can say, "When Bush was president, America lost jobs, if I was president I would make jobs." He said he plans to accomplish this feat by taking money for the rich to give to the poor. One of the other ideas Robin Hood has is to not give money to greedy big companies but instead give it to companies working on new technologies. Ever wonder why the names of the good or bad companies are never mentioned? Kerry's ideas sure do play to my emotions but they lack logic, rational or any original vision. All I know my dollar in the bank is still worth a dollar, a terrorist group has been wrecked, a tyrant has been pulled from a spider hole and the economy seems to be on the rise. Unless someone shows that they are a better alternative to Bush instead of being simply a critic of Bush I will have to give Bush a second go. Hmm... maybe if Kerry promises a national hoagie day that might change my mind.

2004-02-27T02:04:00.000-05:00

You know you’re at a new low when:

The ageless wonder known as Dr. Graff puts his hand on your shoulder as says, "Joe, you need a girl" ...slight pause... "to help proof read your assignments."

Boy i must look terribly desperate. What a loser I am. For all those female English majors out there, my assignments are free Friday night.

2004-02-26T12:26:00.000-05:00

The Teeth of the Tiger, by Tom Clancy

If i could sum this book into one word it would be "better". It wasn't the greatest Clancy (Jack Ryan Series) book ever but it was an improvement over his last book, the Red Rabbit. The unofficial "Jack Ryan Series" follows the world of the reluctant James Bond and family man, Jack Ryan. The only novel that does not follow the life of Jack Ryan directly or indirectly is Red Storm Rising a non-nuclear WWIII cold war scenario. The Red Rabbit was supposed to be an unofficial end to the unofficial series. To my surprise, this book dealt with Jack Ryan?s son thus continuing the 'ryanverse'.

I give this book a 4/5. It wasn't great but it was much better than some of his recent duds. I think it lacked any innovative details about new technology among other things. It's worth the read if you are a Clancy fan or if there isn't anything left on the shelf.

2004-02-06T00:01:00.000-05:00

I tried to tell people that the Prom at my Highschool was huge. No one would listen. I usually got a little ho hum "yeah yeah, my prom was big too." Now i say, "do they write books about your prom?" Don't believe me. Check it out for yourself. Click here! or here for an Description of the book

2004-01-31T18:52:00.000-05:00

Stay tuned, another Tom Clancy review up next

2004-01-31T18:46:00.000-05:00

create your own visited states map
or write about it on the open travel guide

2004-01-19T00:36:00.000-05:00

Another Year, Another Disappointment

2004-01-09T03:14:00.000-05:00

I have been playing the trumpet since fourth grade and I am still a novice. I still go out and listen to groups and am totally awe struck.

I guess the first trumpet player I ever idolized had to be my father. Despite never practicing he can still pick up his strad and play some very tasty things.

The second Trumpet crush I guess would be Brian Reichenbach. I actually took lesions from brain in middle school. Brain at that time was the star trumpet player at a local but rival high school. He went to Neshaminy High school and had a graduating class of about 1200 slightly larger than my Pennsbury High School class of about 1000. I'm not to sure what he has been up to lately but he is still teaching at some pretty big northern music summer camps. Watch out for this guy is it is just a matter of time before he really takes off.

After Brain went out to college I went on to listening to the traditional greats. This of course included people like Louie Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie and many more.

Years later and buying enough CDs for Days worth of trumpet listening I found Maynard Ferguson. Maynard truly is a timeless wonder. He will be turning 76 this year and after playing professionally for over 60 years he is showing no sign of slowing down. He has over 35 concert dates setup between now and June. By the way he will by stopping by Tyler, Texas in February. I'm so there! This guy has played everywhere and done everything except giving me his autograph.

Today I found another Trumpet great. Arturo Sandoval. I can't believe I haven't heard of this guy before. I have even played some of his tunes in high school. Crazy he even has a couple of Grammies under his belt.

2003-12-23T14:52:00.000-05:00

No more Dynamics!!! Hurray I passed.

2003-12-19T01:41:00.000-05:00

Well it is Christmas Break Yay!

Time for rolling over and for a mid hibernation potty break.

So what has my Christmas break been so far? Not much really, yet. So far I have watched a lot of mid afternoon TV. blah blah that was boring. Then on Wednesday I butchered my first deer. That was kinda fun. Wait a sec I need to back up a little. How did I get a deer? Well actually my dad umm found it. He was driving home and a bunch of people had pulled over on the side of the road. Here in the middle of the road was this deer. I guess it had gotten hit by a car or something. This deer was flopping all over the place. People were trying to get all close to it to put blankets on it and load it into a car to take it to a vet. Stupid city folk. Anyone who knows anything about animals knows that a hurt animal will totally wreck you up. Yes even a deer will clean your clock. Luckily for them my dad was there to discourage their stupidity. (Secretly wishing he had a camera to video tape one of these tree huggers getting their world rocked) here little bambie take my jacket so you can stay warm...bam... one kick later the dudes in a coma. Well one little lady called 911 because the "deer was hurting" even though my dad repeated no cop was going to "save" the deer. Finally a cop came thinking someone had nearly died from the entire ruckus this deer had caused. The cop, despite the yelps and screams and crying of the tree huggers, shot the deer to put it out of its misery. (Which could have been done with a shovel 30 min earlier) Now on Sunday for my birthday dinner I’m going to have a big ol thick juicy venison steak. Ummm yummy.

Learned an interesting statistic at the game warden (where we legally reported our catch) that based on deer permits and other statistics, the number of people out in the woods on opening day of deer season in Pa is greater than any standing army in the world. 2nd place is china. I believe it. I'll be way out in the boonies on family land on opening day and it will sound like a war zone with a rifled fired within hearing range every 5 minutes or so. That’s right over a million deer hunters. Wow, forget the don't mess with Texas. How about don't screw around with Pa.

Now I’m tired
time for bed

2003-09-17T20:26:00.000-04:00

The CAR IS SOLD!

2003-08-28T19:48:00.000-04:00

CAR FOR SALE!

REAL CHEAP

$700 or best offer

Details:

1984 Ford Thunderbird

98,000 miles on frame

76,000 miles on engine

A picture is on the side

currently sitting in Longview Texas

Leave a comment if your interested

2003-08-25T23:31:00.000-04:00

With a calculator in my pocket, a pencil between teeth, a pen behind the ear, a book bag breaking my spine and caffeine running through my veins. Caffeine is a fruitless attempt not to sleep in class. Ready or not, school is about to start a new semester. As the frequency of posts decline don't believe the rumors that I hate all you people in cyber space. I just have to go make the grade if you know what I mean. Stop by when you can. I will try NOT to forget you too much.

2003-07-29T12:59:00.000-04:00

I know everyone has been patiently waiting: Here it goes.

I wanted to write something about my mom. Write about something that i think makes her special and unique.

Besides being a super mom, my mother is quite the athlete. Only 5'2" tall she relied on her quick speed and agility. Her favorite sport was baseball. During college she practiced with the men's baseball team. (There wasn't a woman’s softball team back then). Interestingly enough the only guys that objected to her practicing with the baseball team were the guys that were inferior baseball players my mom says recalling the events. Following graduation she played in a semi-pro softball league. She traveled all over the Americas playing many of the national Pan-American and Olympic teams.
Yup you guessed it my mom is a tom boy. You wouldn’t know that unless you saw her on the field. How many kids can say they saw their mom "accidentally" hit a homerun during little league practice. She is always competitive and aggressive on the field but she is never aggressive off the field. Along with hitting homeruns, she cooks, she is an accomplished actor and she still likes the occasional sappy chick flick.
She is my mother.

2003-07-23T09:09:00.000-04:00

Requests:::
Georgia--->

Georgia, hmm let me think. Aha I got it. Georgia, land of the peach or so the new state quarters say. I wouldn't know. I've never been there. Georgia is on the list of eleven states that haven't been blessed with my presence. Someday I’ll road trip to Maine and knock off five or six more states. Georgia on the other hand is just a place I have no desire to go to. Sorta like North Dakota for that matter. I've been to Florida; they have Orlando (Disney world and such...). I've been to South Carolina; they have Myrtle Beach (cool place despite being in the south). Tennessee I spend 8 hrs of my 24hr ride to school. Oh wait, I totally lied. I drove through Georgia once. I went my freshman year when I drove home from school with Dan. Dan wanted to visit some family on the way home and we ended up taking this weird wacked out route all the way over to Atlanta before heading north.

Next up: My Mom.

2003-07-18T09:44:00.000-04:00

I'm running out of ideas to write about. I am now taking requests

2003-07-18T08:48:00.000-04:00

Book review.
In honor of Eliot's fantastic books reviews I shall attempt one of my own.

Red Rabbit by Tom Clancy
This book is the supposed end to the "Jack Ryan" series. Here is where this book falls in chronological order with the other books.

Patriot Games
Red Rabbit
The Hunt for Red October
The Cardinal of the Kremlin
Clear and Present Danger
The Sum of All Fears
Debt of Honor
Executive Orders
The Bear and the Dragon

In this series readers have seen Ryan go from unsuspecting tourist to President of the United States. Along the way, Tom Clancy has given some unique perspectives of where the US and foreign nations are going politically and militarily. Some of the more notorious prophesies are in The Sum of All Fears where an alqueda like Muslim terrorist group blows up Mile High Stadium in Denver with a nuke during the Super bowl and at the end of Debt of Honor where the leader of a foreign rogue fraction flies a 747 into the capital building killing everyone inside. His books also did things like predict the extensive use of reconnaissance UAVs.
Just like the last few Clancy books, the title gives away the plot of the book. Red is Russia and Rabbit is slang for a person who is defecting their country. So naturally this book is about getting a defector out of Russia. Since this book was placed into the middle of the series chronological order it was hard to keep interested in the book because I knew what happened in the next book. Overall this book was not Tom Clancy's best work. As a stand-alone book I don't think it would do well because of the constant reference to people in the other books both past and future. The only time i would recommend reading this book is if you are just starting to read the Ryan series and you read it in the order listed above. Overall this book was a disappointment to a die hard Jack Ryan fan. I would give it 2 out of 5 stars in a series that is still 4.5 out of 5 stars.
UPDATE
There seems to be some misunderstandings of what I mean by a Tom Clancy book. There are many series and books out there with the Clancy name on it. If you bother to read the title page you will notice most of these books have other authors other than Clancy. Some would say that most of these books are not even written by Clancy at all. He just places his name on it insuring a whole bunch of sales. The books above with the addition of Red Storm Rising, a cold war non-nuclear WWIII scenario, are the only books supposedly written by only Clancy.
The book list above is not in order of when they were released.
Disclaimer:
If you don't like reading about how technology could be used or about military strategy and tactics or even the political relationships between nations, you most likely will not these books.

2003-07-16T16:17:00.000-04:00

This is to all Minnesotan viewers out there. In Minnesota you got them twin cities right? What kind of rivalry is there between the two metropolises? I know Minnesotans are not known for their outward aggression (Gee whiz the scariest thing they could come up with for their baseball team was a "Homer Hanky". At least the Monkey could bite you or give you a disease or something) thus there aren’t any street riots between the two cities but maybe there is some hidden animosity. I know here in Philly we regularly pick on all the surrounding weenie cities. Except of course NYC but that is because we have a mutual understanding for each other. NYC used to think they were tough until our eagles whooped them bad the last five or six years. Anywho.. Give me the dirt! Minneapolis/Saint Paul. Who is the best? Oftah!

Experiment #3

2003-07-14T09:45:00.000-04:00

My Home church went all high tech and unveiled a new Website recently. Good Job Mrs. Neno the website looks fantastic! Check the side bar if you want to check it out.

Even though i call this my "home" church it is hard to say i regularly attend. I spend more then half the year in Texas and half of the summer i spend upstate at a little country church. (75 total members or so). My home church is doing things i like but sometime i think it is going places i don't like. But bla bla bla who wants to here that? I did grow up in that church and i guess that makes it special.

Oh FYI, i will not be continuing my 4th of July Weekend segments because of the recent hostility towards them. Either that or i waited to long and now i forget what else i did that weekend. You choose which version you want to believe.

Experiment #2

2003-07-07T14:07:00.000-04:00

Segment #1
The 4th of July Weekend.

This is the first of few segments describing my crazy weekend.
My ribs rumbled and my lungs vibrated. I was so close I was tempted to cover my ears when they shot off. My eyes squinted through the smoke and dust. There were flashing lights and waving flags. I saw hot laps, Heats and features. I was mud covered and smiling. I spent my 4th out at the races! Friday and Saturday night was a blast. Friday up at Penn Can was a mud fest. Chunks of mud the size of your TI-89 and 92 were flying into the pits from the track. Flying mud can really hurt. Saturday was at the always ruff Lake Mock-A-Tec speedway. This place is great. There is always a drunken bar fight and some fantastic smashes. Alex, the guy I helped in the pits with his 358 Modified, didn't qualify for the feature race at Penn Can. he did qualify for the feature up at the rock though. Three wrecks later the he was kicked off the track. The roar of engines is a beautiful thing.
They race Modified, Late Models, Super Stocks, Pure Stocks, Sportsman up at Penn Can and 358 Modifieds, Sportsman, Street Stocks, Pure Stocks, 250cc Micro Sprints at Lake Mock-A-Tec speedwayUPDATE A friend who shall remain unnamed emailed me the question "what the heck is a modified"? I just figured i would relay this to all lay racemen and racewomen. Well.... it all depends where you go. Here are some general rules. Stock cars look like regular "stock" cars you can buy on a lot. Of course just like NASCAR stock cars, a stock car isn't very stock. A modified is like a dirt racing car and there many versions and crosses between the two. You really need to go and see for yourself. There are many tracks around. Check your state. There is even one in Kilgore Tx, the Lone Star Speedway. I'll have to go sometime. Prices are usually somewhere around $10 to get at most tracks in unless its a special night like fireworks or a special race or something then they charge extra. Some general rules about tracks, the larger the track the faster the speeds. If the track is banked there are even faster speeds. Oh, i almost forgot, don't mess or make fun of a guy who wrecks his car because his drunken pit crew well beat you up. Racing is a big deal to the people who are into it. Don't disrespect them unless you are looking for a fight.

Experiment #1

2003-07-03T21:02:00.000-04:00

Hurray! Once again Joecrazy is blogging away from the comfort of his sleeping quarters aka Abigail my sister's bedroom. All I needed was a little itty bitty dll and registry fix program and I’m connected. Hopefully this will be the last tech post in a while. If anything, I will stop the tech posts for Lyz's sake. UPDATE Well its kinda working. For some reason still unknown to me I loose the Internet after 30 min or so online. I don't mean I loose connection. I'm still connected to my isp's network but when I try to reach a website or something like that nothing comes in and nothing goes out except periodic checks by the modem to make sure the connection is still up.UPDATE2 a couple driver updates and reboots and my computer is back up and running.

2003-07-03T15:35:00.000-04:00

Computer frustration!!!!!!!!

First it was the Java thing mentioned below. Now I messed up my computer and its all adware 6.0's fault. adware screwed something up with my tcp/ip junk. No Internet for JOE! First I tried to uninstall tcp/ip and reinstall it but that I found is impossible in XP. Luckily, I’m not alone; I’ve found 8 accounts online where the same thing happened. Unfortunately, 6 of the 8 had to reinstall the OS. Basically new writers of adware, the virus not the program, are attaching their files to Internet necessary things. When Adware 6.0 deletes them or fixes them it screws all sorts of things up. It’s an attempt by writers of adware to discredit anti-adware software. Update to the latest build before trying adware 6.0 again. I still am hoping that I am one 25% that don't have to reinstall their os. I'm leaving to go try! Wish me luck!

2003-07-02T10:46:00.000-04:00

It's official I hate Java. True the language has many useful features like the way it organizes memory. I don't know how many times i forgot to close things in C++. Even the online help is ten times better. But now i have a problem. Java does not have a short type, a two-byte number. I have a data file full of two byte and three byte numbers and by the way yes these are signed numbers. If you are curious (which i doubt you are) here is the military spec of the data file. You can even down load thewhole DTED 0. If a 800MB download is too big (don't worry it is extremely compressed and it eventually expands out to like 3.5 gigs). If it is too big you can download only portions of the globe in various non-military standards. Any ideas on how to get a two-byte number into Java? I guess worst-case scenario I will have to take a humbling walk over to one of the software guys and hope he knows how to do it. UPDATE: After a slow walk back to my desk. Maybe i should understand Java more before i become a Java Hater. UPDATE2: AHA! I figured out what is happening. The left most bit in the data file is the sign bit but...... the data file is not 2s complement. Java is reading the 16 bit number as a 2s complement gah....

2003-06-27T13:39:00.000-04:00

Why does a CD cost somewhere between $15 and $20? Don't tell me that artist put $14.99 amount of work into each and every CD he sold. Gee whiz these people are just tempting me to download them from the net and burn them to my own CD. The second scenario including, electricity’s, ISP fees and the blank CD would cost me about a quarter. Why is it the more popular the CD the more their CD's cost? The more CD's sold translates directly into lower cost of making the CD.
Imagine if no one bought CDs for a whole month. Music big shots would blame piracy rather then face the fact they are producing bad product for high prices.
CDs are not a novelty item anymore. Many people don't even own a tape deck. If anything, remember this fact. Every time you buy a CD majority of it between 60-90% goes directly to some rich guys pocket that is buying his third summer home on your hard earned cash.

2003-06-24T08:55:00.000-04:00

Entertainment Follow-up-
That post started as a particular quest against poetry certainly deviated away into something else. I usually don't go back and reread any of my posts after I post them but this time I made an exception. That last post was way to vague for my taste so I will try again. This time I will be more specific.
My sister had a graduation party Sunday and a couple of the guests brought their little kids. One girl, Ambrea or something like that, wanted to pet and play with the dogs. I went over also to make sure freddy the puppy didn't get to excited and jump on her. Anyway, I asked her what she wanted to be when she grows up. (Typical question I know but little kids scare me. I'm always afraid I will break one.) Her answer was "I want to be a idol". The mother translated this for me to mean the American idol show. This little girl wanted to be a "rock star". Tyler another little terror came over about that time and said he also wanted to be a music player. This really got me thinking. In my parent’s generation, these answers would have been drastically different. They would have been something like fireman or policeman. Maybe even the president or a missionary. I know at that age my answer would have been baseball player. What has changed? Why does everyone want to be an entertainer? An entertainer has no real product. They don't make anything or save lives. A song can't really fix anything. They are kind of like Rolaids, temporary relief.
What has change is the emphasis we place on entertainment. How many hours a day do we spend entertaining ourselves? I know yesterday I watched a little over an hour on TV. I read a book for an hour and a half. I shot some hoops for about another hour and a half plus countless other hours spent just messing around. I easily spent 25% -50% of my waking hours on entertainment. If I didn't work between 8-10 hours a day that figure would be far higher.
Rolaids are good they can really get rid of heartburn. Rolaids on the other hand are not candy. If the source of the heartburn is never dealt with, it will always return. President Lincoln I think put it best when he said, Ford's theater is a temporary relief where for a short time I can focus and concentrate my activities so when I leave I can make a bigger and better difference. Lincoln certainly had reason for heartburn. He took his Rolaids but he didn't make his Rolaids more important then the main course, real life.
Hopefully this time it made more sense.

2003-06-23T16:08:00.000-04:00

How much to artists affect culture?
Does a song change how you think? Does a painting or poem give you brand new ideas? I was listening to some guy talk about his poems and how poetry has changed human culture for good. This guy would let you believe that with out poetry, African Americans would still be slaves, Nazis would have won WWII and we would all be communists. All good things in the world are due to poetry. I think that is a whole bunch of bunk. Since when did entertainment become a noble vocation? Building a product, providing a service is noble. Feeding the world, defending a country these are also noble. Artists on the other hand, whether they are musicians, painters or poetry masters are a product of the society and culture that allows them to exist. They are not the cause of change. They are a product of change. Sure art can be a medium to express ideas and be a catalyst to there spread. There was so much more to the winning of WWII than just a poem. Then again maybe I'm wrong. Maybe especially in today's “pop” culture art and entertainment does drive today's culture. That is a scary thought. That means a small minority of people, many of which that have lost connection of true work, is driving us. I am a musician. I know what being an artist is all about. At one time I even planned on making it my vocation. I've done gigs and hung out with people who do make entertainment their life. I make an informed decision when I say entertainment is an extra nicety we can all live without if forced to. A song no matter how amazing won't fill a stomach. A poem no matter how moving can't build a house. I think I will spend less time and money on entertainment and more on truly noble acts. Plant a tree, help a friend, don’t waist too much time on the arts. Yes art make life more livable but without art doesn’t make life unbearable. This is all in moderation, of course. The arts do have a niche in culture and life but they shouldn’t be the limit of your culture and life.

2003-06-19T23:16:00.000-04:00

[Once upon a midnight dreary while i lay there weak and weary.]
Well it's not midnight but it is terribly dreary. Rain Rain Rain every weekend I’ve been home it has rained. I thought i left the terrible weather state behind me. (Stop!) (You promised not to rant on today’s entry.) [i know but ranting comes so easily. Fine, I’ll stop ranting now]
Class was interesting today. It was poetry night and my friends and I in the class, well...scoffed and laughed at the poetry. Perhaps it was so fun because I was so tired. (Working 40 hours in 4 days can really wear you out) [No kidding, i'm beat] No big rant to speak of, therefore i leave it to silly gimmicks to get e-ttention. (I'm out of here) [Me too] adios till next post.

2003-06-13T07:56:00.000-04:00

New Jersey takes the cake. Not for being the smelliest place, or making people wait for 17 till driving. Not even for being the home of the NY Giants. Yes even the Giants, (who play in New Jersey) don't want to be associated with them. New Jersey is the land of thugs and morons. It totally cracks me up when New Jersey state officials get on the news to tell people how wonderful the state is. For example, New Jersey sued visa for a local commercial that said something to the fact of. "Win a trip to the Bahamas! Where else are you going to go? New Jersey? HaHa Ha". The truth is the Bahamas are a better place to vacation. Anyway, New Jersey takes the cake today for having the nations worst drivers. I'm serious these people are terrible. Some facts: New Jersey has the nations highest car insurance rates. It is so bad here; back in the 70's they invented the idea of "no-fault" insurance. Which means that no matter whose fault it is your insurance will pay for your car. So this means if someone rear-ends you while sitting at a red light, the guy that hit you will pay for his car and you will have to pay to get your car fixed. This stuff just breeds stupidity.
Today, after driving across the Burlington Bristol Bridge, leaving the sanity of Pennsylvania, a much superior state to NJ I must add, a moron pulled out in front of me and made me slam on my brakes narrowly avoiding an accident with my super driving skills. I can totally understand maybe pulling out in front of someone like that if you didn't see them coming or something but I drive a fire engine red F250 (for those who don't know cars, a F250 is a really big truck). If the story ended here, I wouldn't have written this. But…… After briefly honking at and avoiding the person I deem stupid. The man turned all the way around taking his eyes off the road and flipped me off. No big deal right? Here is the kicker. After getting my 7000lbs (3 1/2 ton) truck back up to 60 mph this idiot in his 1500lbs nova decided to slam on his breaks (He’ll show me who’s boss). No way in the world I’m going to stop in time before I go right over top of this guy and crush him. Luckily for him, anti-lock breaks and quick reaction time let me get me speed down to about 20 mph in only a few feet where I just hopped over the curb drove down the sidewalk and passed this super moron on the right. Thank God there wasn't any signs or people on the sidewalk (I did look before I performed the maneuver) because I would have hit this guy who had come to a complete stop at about 20 mph. I would have gone right up and over him probably killing him.

NJ certainly takes the cake. I've driven in probably half of this country's states and have not found a worst state. Maybe Delaware should take NJ over. They are small, and could use the extra room. Not to mention Delaware doesn't have any sales tax. Sales tax is evil.

2003-06-11T12:45:00.000-04:00

Some days are just better then others. Today for instance, I ate lunch with two eagle cheerleaders Micki and Nicole. (Yes, Micki is her real name. I asked). Anyway, I ate with them and the mascot from the Kix (A Philadelphia MLA soccer team). Well this is how the story goes. I had to eat an early lunch today; I had a meeting at 12:30 at a different plant (about 20 min away). So I ate lunch today at little after 10:00. Today was also tenant appreciation day, the building I work in is leased by Lockheed-Martin, and the real owner was throwing a little picnic for the people working in his building from 10:00 to 1:30. So let me backtrack. I had to eat at 10:00 and the party/picnic started at 10:00. You see, no one else eats lunch at 10:00. When I showed up, all the cooks and entertainment and such were ready to go except there wasn’t any people to feed or entertain, just me. So the cheerleaders and I had a bite to eat while they waited for more people to show up. No one else came until almost 11:00. A whole hour we just wasted time munchen on our food. (Nicole could really pack it away) (I wonder if she purges?) I doubt it. I’m sure they check that kinda stuff before they let you join the cheerleaders and visit little kids all day when they’re not at the football games. Not to mention they were giving away hourly prizes, which of course I won because I was the only one there (Two tix to a local minor league baseball game). I asked Micki if she wanted to go with me. (She laughed) Oh well, it was worth the try. As I left after talking for an hour, and said goodbye and such, Micki said, that I should show up at some club down at Penn’s landing. When I asked if they card at the front door, she was like, why? Its not like you’re under twenty-one. I just smiled and said, “um yah sure what was I thinking?” and walked away. Like I said, someday are just better then others.

2003-05-29T16:34:00.000-04:00

Hmm, What to write about?
"Huh Waz up? yeah, you don't say whatcha doen?. Sweet. dude? crazy! your da lucky bomb."
A conversation I over heard my sister say on the telephone.
Don't you just love that Philly charm?

2003-05-28T14:03:00.000-04:00

It's been a month. Well, almost a month. I've been working for two and a half weeks. I'm in the same systems engineering group I was in last year. They got me doing many of the same things as last year. I get to play on Unix and VMS severs running programs that test other programs. New this year, I've been working with Microsoft Project ironing out scheduling conflicts with our counterparts in software. Basically, our group comes up with requirements, which we pass on to software to start coding. The problem that arises, when the software group wants to start working on the coding before we finish writing the requirements. The other new thing this year is I will be making an informational website on the local intranet for new employees and such to learn how to run our simulator. When they keep me busy it's loads of fun. Unfortunately, because most of my work is dependent on information from other people, I usually get some lag time that is terribly boring.

On a lighter note, don't you just love it when you know God has you in the right place? Most places at work, when I wall in a room the average age drops 10 years. So its hard making friends with people older then my father. So I eat many of my lunches alone. This is not a big deal really, usually by lunch I'm sick of people and want to be alone, plus I usually read a book. The book at the current moment is the Bible. No particular reason why just reading the historical books for fun. 90% of the historical books are Sunday school stories about Israel. Anyway, some people have notice and have asked me some interesting questions. Maybe I could get one of these guys to bring in a Bible and we could do a mini lesson together. Who knows? Well God knows, but I kind of excided about the possibilities. The other crazy thing that happened was last night. Last night was my first day of summer classes, ick, 6:30 to 10:30 two times a week. Last year at bucks (school nick name) my teacher was this extremely interesting atheist who liked to blow red smoke when he got mad. When he wasn't mad he was a good-natured man who was fun to listen to and fun to talk to. Anyway, back to the topic. This year my teacher is a Christian. I recognized her from the church she attends. (I've played my trumpet at her church half a dozen times). Come to find out, during the day she teaches a PBU (Philadelphia Biblical University) full time. (I used to play in the concert band there) crazy huh? The best part though was not the teacher. We were let out in the middle of class to go buy our books (don't you just love community school). While in line, (I the blabber mouth) struck up a conversation with the girl in front of me. Like me she was just taking some credits at bucks to transfer over to an other college. She's goes to Harding University. Ring a bell? I get about 30 minutes away from it on the way home from LeTourneau. It's a Christian school in Arkansas near Little Rock. She even has some friends down at LeTourneau that she visits at least twice a semester (I forgot to ask for the names). We got to talk a little during the breaks about the differences between the northeast and the south, the terribly long drive from there to here. We even both complained how all or at least most of our friends are down there and how during the summer it gets really board. She is loads of fun. I hope we get to hang out a little. Most of my Christian friends here are so wrapped up in their girl or boy friend. (Who wants to be a third wheel?). The ones that are not hitched are too annoying to hang out with very long (Yes Dave, Cinderella falls in that category). So not only does it sound like I'll have cool teacher, so maybe squeeze the gospel into class discussion (I miss that challenge from high school). But maybe I'll make a new friend is this class friends to assuage the long and sometimes boring summer days.

2003-05-19T07:57:00.000-04:00

I'm sore, I'm tired and did I mention my legs hurt. Yet, I have no regrets. Bunch of guys got together at the church last night and played basketball last night. I think we started playing at 7:00 and we didn't stop till the clock struck 11:00. No breaks, no time outs, just four on four basketball until we could not play anymore. This morning, walking down the steps was so painful. So after getting to bed after midnight, I got up before 5:00 to take my dad to the airport. He gets to "work" in New Orleans for a week or so. I guess I'll get a phone call on when to pick him up. It better not be 5:00 again, Philadelphia's morning rush hour is not to be desired especially in a 2 1/2 ton diesel truck. (The car is in the shop and the van exhaust system brackets broke causing the muffler and such to fall out of the bottom of the van. To make the van drivable the exhaust system is currently strapped to the bottom with coat hangers and duck tape) Nonetheless, it's almost 8:00 and its time to start work.

2003-05-05T07:30:00.001-04:00

Happy Cinco de Mayo!
What are you supposed to do on this holiday? Beats me I’m not Mexican.
Oh what a morning. I got to go to the old neighborhood. My sister still has a paper route over there. Usually my mom does it but with both of them and my dad visiting colleges in the Midwest, the task was left to me. That’s ok though. The paper route used to be my old paper route. Not much has changed since I last did the paper route. Oh gee, that was over two years ago, yet it seems much longer ago.
It is such a beautiful day. The birds are chirping the kitties are out walking around. They are probably walking around because it’s freezing. I think the temp was like 45 when I left. Nonetheless, It was fun to talk to the old farts sitting on the stoop, waiting for their paper. Most had their coffee in hand or on the way. People can be so funny before they have their coffee. One guy actually said “good morning Donna” (my mom’s name). how anyone can confuse me and my mom is beyond me, not only do we look nothing alike but our physical size is so different. My mom is 5”2’ dark hair and 115 lbs. Gee wiz, I’m 6”0’ and over 200 lbs.
I almost miss getting up this early, (5:00). It’s like having a head start on the day. I even got to use my new Ka-bar knife. Hah, the doggies follow me every where I go. I think they miss me just as much as I missed them. (One is licking the bottom of my foot. Ick it tickles). There is nothing like having a puppy sleep on your toes at night.
It was funny seeing all the other paper boys out there as I left. Some could barely open theirs eyes. If I said hi all I think I would get would be a moan. It’s not good to laugh at other’s misery but those kids sure were funny looking. I’m sure someone once said the same about me when I was 12 doing a paper route before school.
Well, I stayed awake until my sister left for school. Getting up early is great, but I’m tired and I need a nap.