An Update:

The other day I told you the story of Shaquanda Cotton, a 14 year old black teenager, who shoved a hall monitor at Paris High School in a dispute over entering the building before the school day had officially begun.

The judge in this case had sentence Shaquanda to 7 years in the Texas Youth Commission for this heinous crime. ( I remind you that the 58 year old White Teacher was not seriously [if at all] injured. ( This young black girl got this ridiculous sentence, while a white 14 year old girl who burned down the family home got off with probation.

Shaquanda after much public outrage over this vastly harsh sentence, was released today nearly a year after her ordeal began.

Frankly, we fully expect Shaquanda's mother to sue. I hope she wins, perhaps it is time that the city of Paris, Texas wakes up and joins the 21st Century. Giving someone a harsher sentence or a lighter one because of their race is not something that should be tolerated in this country, today.

Are they out of their Freakin' Minds?

Yes, believe it or not I am actually writing the real blog fairly early for a change. Some may even say it's amazing that I am even remembering to write it at all!



Okay this one has been on my mind ( according to Sue I don't have one but what the hell!) We saw an item in the paper the other day, and of course the story is up on the internet as well. Relatives of Harry Houdini (Real name Erich Weiss ) who died on October 31, 1926 believe he may have been poisoned...



Okay, so what if he was? This was over 8o damn years ago! I am reprinting the story that was posted on MSNBC.COM: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17741602/



Read the story and form your own conclusion...



NEW YORK - Get ready for “CSI: Houdini.”
A team of forensic experts will pore over the exhumed remains of renowned escape artist Harry Houdini to determine whether he was murdered more than 80 years ago, the head of the investigative team said Friday.
“Everything will be thoroughly analyzed,” said James Starrs, dean of the disinterment dream team of pathologists, anthropologists, toxicologists and radiologists. “We’ll examine his hairs, his fingernails, any bone fractures.”


"It needs to be looked at," said Houdini's great-nephew, George Hardeen. His grandfather was Houdini's brother, Theodore. "His death shocked the entire nation, if not the world. Now, maybe it's time to take a second look."
Legal paperwork necessary to dig up Houdini’s body from a New York City cemetery will be filed Monday to get the process started, said Joseph Tacopina, an attorney representing Houdini’s family. It could take months before the body is exhumed, although the process should move faster because the family and cemetery officials support the plan, he said.


Houdini died at age 52 on Halloween 1926, days after the athletic magician was repeatedly punched in the stomach by a college student testing the performer’s abdominal muscles.
Spiritualists seen as likely suspects His death certificate listed him as a victim of peritonitis from a ruptured appendix, but no autopsy was performed. When the death certificate was filed on Nov. 20, 1926, Houdini's body — brought by train from Detroit to Manhattan's Grand Central Terminal — was already buried in Queens, along with any evidence of a possible death plot.
Within days, a newspaper headline read, "Was Houdini Murdered?" A new biography, "The Secret Life of Houdini," raised the issue again and convinced Hardeen and others that poisoning was a real possibility.


The likeliest murder suspects were a group known as the Spiritualists, which became Houdini's bete noire in his final years. The magician devoted large portions of his stage show to exposing the group's fraudulent séances; the movement's devotees included Sherlock Holmes author Arthur Conan Doyle.


In the Houdini biography, authors William Kalush and Larry Sloman detail a November 1924 letter from Doyle that smacks of professor Moriarty-style malevolence: Houdini, it said, would "get his just desserts very exactly meted out. ... I think there is a general payday coming soon."
Two years later, Houdini — by all accounts an extraordinary physical specimen — was dead before his 53rd birthday. Kalush and Sloman noted that "the Spiritualist underworld's modus operandi in cases like this was often poisoning" — possibly arsenic.


The biography additionally detailed the injection of "an experimental serum" into Houdini by one of his doctors at Detroit's Grace Hospital.
While Houdini took the Spiritualists' repeated death threats seriously, he traveled without the security trappings now de rigeur for celebrities — no bodyguard, no entourage, often just his wife Bess.


Strange details on death certificate

"If someone were hell-bent on poisoning Houdini," the authors wrote, "it wouldn't have been very difficult."
The team working on the exhumation includes internationally known forensic pathologist Dr. Michael Baden, and Starrs, who has studied the disinterred remains of gunslinger Jesse James and "Boston Strangler" Albert DeSalvo.
Baden, who chaired panels reinvestigating the deaths of President Kennedy and civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., pointed out a pair of oddities in Houdini's death certificate: It noted his appendix was on the left side, rather than the right. And the diagnosis of appendicitis caused by a punch was "very unusual."

AP Legendary escape artist Harry Houdini is shown in chains in this photo circa 1899



Starrs said he was long familiar with the story of Houdini's death, and believed the fatal injury was the result of an accident. Details contained in the Houdini biography convinced him otherwise.
"My eyebrows went up when I read this book," Starrs said. "I thought, 'This is really startling, surprising and unsettling, and at bottom, suspicious in nature.' "

The exhumation plan received support from a surprising source: Anna Thurlow, the great-granddaughter of "medium" Margery, whose husband Dr. Le Roi Crandon was one of the Spiritualist movement's biggest proponents — and one of Houdini's most virulent enemies.
During a 1924 "séance," Margery channeled a "spirit" named Walter who greeted Houdini with a threat: "I put a curse on you now that will follow you every day for the rest of your short life."
While the spirit was imaginary, the prediction of a short life was all too real. Thurlow believes there may be a connection.
"With people that delusional, you have to question what they're capable of,'" she said. "If there's any circumstantial evidence that Houdini was poisoned, we have to explore that."


Okay me here again. Now my biggest question is WHY? What possible good can come out of this? The man died 81 years ago, and even if he was poisoned, what is the plan? Dig up the bodies of these Spiritualists and put the remains on trial? This is about as ridiculous as digging up the remains of President Martin VanBuren a few years ago to determine if he had been poisoned. (He wasn't) All I can say is: What a world, what a world!

Friday Movie Guide

Here is the cheap & Easy Blog for Friday... The Movie Guide
New releases this week
Click on the film's title to read a full review.
Meet the Robinsons
Disney 3-D film about a time-traveling boy inventor takes a while to find its bearings, but eventually does.
Blades of Glory
Comedy about the first all-male championship skating team never transcends its limited premise.
The Lookout
Bank heist caper is a beautifully drawn character drama that manages to balance subtlety with suspense.
Nomad: The Warrior
Tale of nomadic Kazakhs' hope for a leader to unite their tribes feels like an old-school American Western.
Journey From the Fall
Sprawling tearjerker about a war-splintered family from South Vietnam compiles details seldom seen on screen.
More movie reviews
Read about all the movies now playing in local theaters.

Ready to kill...

As you may recall we planted some trees in the front yard a few weeks ago. Over the last few days, I have noticed that a couple of them had been broken off halfway down. The first one we shrugged off. Then the next one was done the other day, and I looked and could see that it had been broken intentionally, because you could see that there was a spot torn on the broken piece.

Yesterday we were heading to go pick up Sandy from school at around 6PM. (She stays late several days to get extra help with her homework) and Sue spotted 2 little boys about 7 or 8 years old, looking very intently at the Golden Raintrees in the front median strip. When we came home they had yanked them out of the ground and left them there. One was missing the roots, and is likely not going to make it although I suck it back in the ground... The other one has roots on it, so we are going to try to re-plant it in the back yard.

It just galls us that we cannot plant trees in our own front yard because parents do not supervise their kids. We obviously can't prove it was these two delinquents in training, but it is a pretty good circumstantial case.

It makes Sue and I about ready to put up an electrified fence in the front so we can have plants that we want to have go unmolested. If I see these little brats so much as step one foot in our yard, Sue and I will find out where they live and go have a few words with their parents. Not that that will do any good. I have a feeling that considering these two brats run around all day without any parents in sight, that the parents are likely to be the types that will say "Oh no, my kid wouldn't do that! These kids by the way are not brothers. This much we know for a fact. So we have two sets of parents we would need to confront.

I have half a mind to put in some cacti in the front. Let the little bastards grab hold of that!

Tribute to a Fallen Hero

Tonight I would like to take a moment to honor a hero. I'm not talking about a movie star, or a baseball player or a rock singer. I am referring to a man who performed a job that is thankless, unsung, and dangerous. This fallen hero was a Dallas Police Officer. On Friday, March 23rd, Senior Corporal Mark Nix was attempting to arrest what officers thought was a murder suspect, who had led them on a chase across town. When Officer Nix attempted to break open the window of the suspects car, Wesley Ruiz opened fire, hitting the officer in the neck. Other police officers returned fire, wounding the suspect. Fellow officers took Nix to Parkland Memorial Hospital, but sadly it was too late.

Officer Nix was engaged to be married. He served as a Navy Corpsman in Iraq prior to joining the Dallas Police Department


Ruiz, the suspected killer had a record of drug arrests, and is a known gang member. Ruiz was released from the hospital today and has been charged with Capital Murder, four counts of aggravated assault on police officers and drug possession. More than likely he will face the death penalty.

Dallas Police Senior Corporal Mark Nix
1973 - 2007.
Rest in peace.

Justice or Racism?

The following is a story that has been getting airplay in the Dallas/Fort Worth area recently. Read the story, and if possible, I would like your comments on this extreme case of injustice.
*************************************************

14-year-old girl shoves hall monitor and gets 7 years in prison
Published on Monday, March 26, 2007.
Source: Chicago Tribune - By Howard Witt

PARIS, Texas -- The public fairgrounds in this small east Texas town look ordinary enough, like so many other well-worn county fair sites across the nation. Unless you know the history of the place.There are no plaques or markers to denote it, but several of the most notorious public lynchings of black Americans in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries were staged at the Paris Fairgrounds, where thousands of white spectators would gather to watch and cheer as black men were dragged onto a scaffold, scalded with hot irons and finally burned to death or hanged.

Brenda Cherry, a local civil rights activist, can see the fairgrounds from the front yard of her modest home, in the heart of the "black" side of this starkly segregated town of 26,000. And lately, Cherry says, she's begun to wonder whether the racist legacy of those lynchings is rebounding in a place that calls itself "the best small town in Texas."

"Some of the things that happen here would not happen if we were in Dallas or Houston," Cherry said. "They happen because we are in this closed town. I compare it to 1930s.

"There was the 19-year-old white man, convicted last July of criminally negligent homicide for killing a 54-year-old black woman and her 3-year-old grandson with his truck, who was sentenced in Paris to probation and required to send an annual Christmas card to the victims' family.

There are the Paris public schools, which are under investigation by the U.S. Education Department after repeated complaints that administrators discipline black students more frequently, and more harshly, than white students.

And then there is the case that most troubles Cherry and leaders of the Texas NAACP, involving a 14-year-old black freshman, Shaquanda Cotton, who shoved a hall monitor at Paris High School in a dispute over entering the building before the school day had officially begun.

The youth had no prior arrest record, and the hall monitor--a 58-year-old teacher's aide--was not seriously injured. But Shaquanda was tried in March 2006 in the town's juvenile court, convicted of "assault on a public servant" and sentenced by Lamar County Judge Chuck Superville to prison for up to 7 years, until she turns 21.

Just three months earlier, Superville sentenced a 14-year-old white girl, convicted of arson for burning down her family's house, to probation.

"All Shaquanda did was grab somebody and she will be in jail for 5 or 6 years?" said Gary Bledsoe, an Austin attorney who is president of the state NAACP branch. "It's like they are sending a signal to black folks in Paris that you stay in your place in this community, in the shadows, intimidated.

"The Tribune generally does not identify criminal suspects younger than age 17, but is doing so in this case because the girl and her family have chosen to go public with their story.

None of the officials involved in Shaquanda's case, including the local prosecutor, the judge and Paris school district administrators, would agree to speak about their handling of it, citing a court appeal under way.

But the teen's defenders assert that long before the September 2005 shoving incident, Paris school officials targeted Shaquanda for scrutiny because her mother had frequently accused school officials of racism.

Retaliation alleged
"Shaquanda started getting written up a lot after her mother became involved in a protest march in front of a school," said Sharon Reynerson, an attorney with Lone Star Legal Aid, who has represented Shaquanda during challenges to several of the disciplinary citations she received. "Some of the write-ups weren't fair to her or accurate, so we felt like we had to challenge each one to get the whole story."Among the write-ups Shaquanda received, according to Reynerson, were citations for wearing a skirt that was an inch too short, pouring too much paint into a cup during an art class and defacing a desk that school officials later conceded bore no signs of damage.

Shaquanda's mother, Creola Cotton, does not dispute that her daughter can behave impulsively and was sometimes guilty of tardiness or speaking out of turn at school--behaviors that she said were manifestations of Shaquanda's attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, for which the teen was taking prescription medication.Nor does Shaquanda herself deny that she pushed the hall monitor after the teacher's aide refused her permission to enter the school before the morning bell--although Shaquanda maintains that she was supposed to have been allowed to visit the school nurse to take her medication, and that the teacher's aide pushed her first.

But Cherry alleges that Shaquanda's frequent disciplinary write-ups, and the insistence of school officials at her trial that she deserved prison rather than probation for the shoving incident, fits in a larger pattern of systemic discrimination against black students in the Paris Independent School District.In the past five years, black parents have filed at least a dozen discrimination complaints against the school district with the federal Education Department, asserting that their children, who constitute 40 percent of the district's nearly 4,000 students, were singled out for excessive discipline.

An attorney for the school district, Dennis Eichelbaum, said the Education Department had determined all of the complaints to be unfounded."The [department] has explained that the school district has not and does not discriminate, that the school district has been a leader and very progressive when it comes to race relations, and that there was no validity to the allegations made by the complainants," Eichelbaum said.

Not so clear
But the federal investigations of the school district are not so clear-cut, and they are not finished. In one 2004 finding, Education Department officials determined that black students at a Paris middle school were being written up for disciplinary infractions more than twice as often as white students--and eight times as often in one category, "class disruption."

The Education Department asked the U.S. Justice Department to try to mediate disputes between black parents and the district, but school officials pulled out of the process last December before it was concluded.And in April 2006, the Education Department notified Paris school officials that it was opening a new, comprehensive review to determine "whether the district discriminated against African-American students on the basis of race" between 2004 and 2006. Federal officials say that investigation is still in progress.

According to one veteran Paris teacher, who asked not to be named for fear of retribution, such discrimination is widespread."There is a philosophy of giving white kids a break and coming down on black kids," said the teacher, who is white.Not everyone in Paris agrees, however, that blacks are treated unfairly by the city's institutions."I've lived here all my life, and I don't see that," said Mary Ann Reed Fisher, one of two black members of the Paris City Council. "My kids went to Paris High School, and they never had one minute of a problem with the school system, the courts or the police."

A peculiar inmate
Meanwhile, Shaquanda, a first-time offender, remains something of an anomaly inside the Texas Youth Commission prison system, where officials say 95 percent of the 2,500 juveniles in their custody are chronic, serious offenders who already have exhausted county-level programs such as probation and local treatment or detention."The Texas Youth Commission is reserved for those youth who are most violent or most habitual," said commission spokesman Tim Savoy. "The whole concept of commitment until your 21st birthday should be recognized as a severe penalty, and that's why it's typically the last resort of the juvenile system in Texas."Inside the youth prison in Brownwood where she has been incarcerated for the past 10 months--a prison currently at the center of a state scandal involving a guard who allegedly sexually abused teenage inmates--

Shaquanda, who is now 15, says she has not been doing well.Three times she has tried to injure herself, first by scratching her face, then by cutting her arm. The last time, she said, she copied a method she saw another young inmate try, knotting a sweater around her neck and yanking it tight so she couldn't breathe. The guards noticed her sprawled inside her cell before it was too late.She tried to harm herself, Shaquanda said, out of depression, desperation and fear of the hardened young thieves, robbers, sex offenders and parole violators all around her whom she must try to avoid each day."I get paranoid when I get around some of these girls," Shaquanda said. "Sometimes I feel like I just can't do this no more--that I can't survive this."

Warning Anti-Bush rant contained within!

I place the warning as there is one occasional reader who is a fan of Shrub. I don't happen to agree with her opinion of him, but as I have said in the past, I will defend to the death her right to have a favorable opinion of him.

That said, I shall proceed with the aforementioned rant.

Today Congress approved the Iraq War spending package, adding to it a deadline to begin troop pullouts. (Hmm, pull out, that doesn't sound very manly!) Ahem! Any way, Bush very angrily stated that if that hit his desk by George ( or Dick, or Karl... ) he would Veto it. Way to go Shrub. You show those idiots in Congress, the majority of the American people, and the rest of the civilized world just how stupid they are and how you are the only one in the entire world ( just about) who understands that we have to "STAY THE COURSE" and "GET THE JOB DONE" no matter how many American soldiers and Iraqi peoples lives are sacrificed.

What is it with this guy? Why is it that he just plain cannot or will not see the forest for the bloody trees? I have to wonder if his daughters were serving in the military he would feel the same way. DO you suppose he would so cavalierly throw lives away? Both ours and the Iraqis?

What really scares me is the scenario I can just about envision. Let's say that he does Veto this bill. ( He will) Let's then say that Congress manages to pull together enough votes to override the Veto ( they won't) I can see Shrub declaring the suspension of congress due to the "emergent situation" I can see him becoming the first American Dictator, and suspending the next election. Paranoid? I hope I am. I truly hope I am. Something to think about folks.

Kaplan University - The story continues...

If you read what went on yesterday in Sue's blog and the brief mention about the whole debacle in mine, you are up to speed on how this university made some major boo boos.

On of which was sending us information that belonged to another applicant ( including his name, address, email, and worse of all - Social Security Number). I will get to that one in a moment.

This afternoon, we got a phone call from the Director of Admissions. He had seen the flurry of emails that went back and forth yesterday, and last evening, and was calling to find out what had gone wrong. We told him what had happened, how they Assistant Director of admissions was high pressuring us, and how Dwight had sent the information belonging to another applicant to us. He listened to what we had to say, then he apologized profusely for these actions, and indicated that he fully intends to look into this. He assured us that this is NOT acceptable to him or to the school. He is, like we are at a loss to understand why they went into this high pressure deal last night, wanting everything done in one day. He was also not happy that the Assistant Director had sent us a scathing email.

He let us know that if we would like to still come to Kaplan we can go through him. He makes the decisions as to what students are accepted. We let him know that we would still need to have the $95.00 admission fee waived. He said no problem just follow the procedure that we had been asked to do last night, and far as writing a 250 word essay, and then send everything to him. We asked if we could have some time to think it over, he told us that was not a problem. We are thinking and praying about it. We still want to get an education, and up to all of the crap that happened last night, we had thought Kaplan was the place we wanted to go. We still may.

Last night I sent an email to the gentleman who's information had been sent to us by mistake, and informed him about that. I then followed up this morning with a phone call. I left a message on his voice mail about the screw up. This evening we got an email back from him, thanking us for advising him of the fiasco. He is understandably, quite angry. He has decided not to go to Kaplan, and may even take legal action. I can't say that I blame him.

At any rate that is where everything sits at the moment.

Wasted day and Evening

What a crappy day!

Why was today a crappy day? Well Sue is going to go into detail about this fiasco. Let's suffice it to say that I wanted to spend today getting through the rest of my studying for West, the California Bee Newspaper certification I have told you about.

This morning, I let Sandy use my computer to do some research on Wolves, which is the subject she is going to give her eight minute speech on for ROTC. So the morning was shot. By this afternoon we got the call we had set up from Kaplan University about going back to school. The rest of the day and a good portion of the evening was spent doing all the preliminary stuff for that. As Sue will tell you in detail, that went up in flames. What a disaster.

I guess God is telling us that now is not the time to go back to school. Oh well. We will go back to school at some point. When the time is right. God's time, not ours.

I will get my butt back to work and finish my training so I can get to work in the next couple of days. In the mean time, may God's peace and love be with you.

And a fun time was had by all!

We managed to get out to see "Eragon" today. Sandy had gone with our friend Mary the other day and seen 3 movies at the cheapie movie theater in Lewisville. One of the ones she saw was "Eragon" based on the book by Christopher Paolini. We had been wanting to see this movie ever since we read the books, and found out the movie was being made. Alas, we were not able to swing it with other things going on, so we figured we would end up buying it on DVD.

Well, Mary told us that on Tuesdays, this particular theater has seat for $.50 all day. We figured that for $1.50 ( actually it worked out to $3.75 because buying the tickets online adds a $.75 surcharge - oh well) it would be worth it to get to see the movie in a theater before watching it on our TV.

We didn't tell Sandy what we were doing, or where we were going until we got to the theater. She guessed we were going to see "Eragon".

The movie was not bad. They made some changes from the book, but that's pretty much the norm. The changes they made for the most part worked, and were necessary to advance the film. They did a scene where Sephira( the dragon in the story) grew from a hatch-ling to full size in a matter of moments. Considering in the book, this growth took over 6 months, it would have been nearly impossible to show this in the film. Overall, they did a pretty good job with it.

Good news for a Good Friend

We heard via messenger from a good friend of ours in Australia tonight. She has been fighting with the DVA there ( the Australian military version of our social security) for disability. After being denied several times they have finally granted her 3 years back pay for the spinal injury she suffered as a member of the Australian Air Force, and a monthly amount as well.

We are very happy for her, as she has been fighting for this longer than I did for my disability. She really needs this, has been depressed off and on with all of this. She like Sue, is really able to understand what I go through on a daily basis. She lives it.

She is a really sweet lady, lives about 45 minutes south of Australia Zoo ( Steve Irwin's Zoo)in Brisbane. She often sends wildlife cards to Sandy, Tara, and Elisa, and other things like that. She is a fellow writer which is how we met as a matter of fact. She is on a couple of the same writers boards we are on.

She has always prayed for us in things we need, and we have always done the same for her. She is married to an expatriated American from Georgia who visited Down Under, and decided to stay. Way to go Nean, and many more good things come your way now!

Training, Health Fair, and other stuff!

Did you miss me? I missed blogging for a couple of days here. I did the cheap and easy movie guide blog on Friday, fully intending to come back later and write a real blog later that day. Well, I got sidetracked... So I never got back.

Yesterday I was doing some more training on the California Bee newspapers. I am now half done with that certification training. I got a 90 on the second test. After a bunch of swearing and freaking out. I was in the middle of the test when the computer started to act funky... What else is new! Oh well, I managed to pass it tho.

As Sue mentioned, we had the Health Fair at Covenant yesterday. It went pretty well, there were a lot of people that came. In fact, I think more people were at the Health Fair than made it to church today...

Kurt Booth, one of my fellow bloggers, came up with a very interesting idea this morning. We have a Church Newsletter called "The Challenge". He suggested that we set up a blog for The Challenge, and post it all on line. Everything we put in the monthly newsletter could go online in the Challenge Online. I kind of like it. It would be a matter of setting it up, and getting the information that goes into the printed version up on the net. I think it could work.

Well, that's about it folks. More news when it becomes less available.

Friday Movie Guide (Cheap & Easy Blog)

Here ya go, the cheap and easy one. I will post a real blog later. Or maybe I won't it's been that kind of a morning already!


New releases this week
Click on the film's title to read a full review.
I Think I Love My Wife
Director Chris Rock takes a paint-by-numbers approach to this tale of a happily married but bored man.
Dead Silence
A widower returns to his hometown to search for answers to his wife's murder in this creepy thriller. This film was not screened in advance for critics.
Premonition
The promise of great twists and turns makes the unsatisfying conclusion and epilogue all the more annoying.
Le Petit Lieutenant
French police drama underlines the reasons why impeccably made crime stories do so well on screen.
Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon
Horror spoof has more cleverness than violence, and its breakdown of clichés is vivid and witty.
More movie reviews
Read about all the movies now playing in local theaters.

Don't get cocky!

Remember in Star Wars after Han, Luke, and Princess Leia escape from the Death Star, and the Empire sends those four TIE Fighters (also known as "Laser Fodder") after the Millennium Falcon? Luke nails one and triumphantly yells, "I got him! I got him!" Han replies "Great shot, kid...Don't get cocky!"

I had one of those moments a little bit ago. I was doing the training for the California Bee Newspapers, and got to the point where I was ready to take the first of four tests. I thought I had all the answers down, first I got started into the test and the computer, or the web server from West screwed up and I lost the screen. Fortunately, I have gotten into the habit of copying these tests, and pasting them into Notepad. Then I can leisurely look for the answers and pass the tests. Yeah I know, cheating a bit, but what the hey...

Well, I let West know there was a screwup and they reset the test. I took it, and thought I had all the answers right. Didn't need to double check. I knew I had all of them right, or at least wouldn't get more than on wrong. I got 3 wrong. It was a 12 question test. Oops. I got cocky!

Fortunately West gives us two chances on each of these test, plus they tell you what you got wrong. So I was able to find the correct answers and passed the test with a 100%.

One down 3 to go. The moral: Again, Don't get cocky!

Some more opportunities heading this way

As some of you may remember, I am in the process of starting back to work from home, for the company I was with last year.

The first thing I trained for was a bit called: "Direct Response". This is a catch all type of certification. If you're watching late night television and a product comes on with an 800 number, chances are when you call one of those "operators (who) are standing by" you'll get a Direct Response agent. On the surface this seems like an okay gig. Unfortunately in practice, it's a pain in the arse.

Thus far when I have signed on, I have not been able to get any calls to work properly. I did get a couple of calls, but the software interface I am using doesn't want to work properly. I follow what the screen tells me to do, and nothing happens. I am unable to move on to the next screen. Oh well, this is the way things usually go with West.

I had also trained in Pro Flowers, not realizing that the only time I would get any hours was around Valentines Day, Mothers Day, Easter etc... SO much for that one too.

Howsomeever, things may be looking up. I discovered there were several opportunities opened up for me, so I jumped at several. I got notification that I could accept Sears Home Care, and the California Bee Newspapers. I accepted the Newspapers gig. Then I discovered that as I had accepted that one, it locked me out of the Seas gig. Apparently they figure we are too stupid to train at more than one certification at a time...

Oh well, I figure I will work my butt off on the training for the Paper gig, then put in for the Sears one all over again. I will keep you informed.

Greening up the Yard!

We planted the rest of our trees this evening. It was a bit easier going tonight. We had torrential rains this afternoon, and I mean torrential! We had a pretty nasty thunderstorm system come through, and dumped a bit over three inches of rain on us, in the space of a hour or so.

Like I said the rain helped make the digging a bit easier. Last night after we got done with the three trees we had time to plant, we stopped across the street and talked to some of our neighbors. We told them about the trees, and they jokingly said if we had any we didn't want they'd be happy to take them off our hands. Sue and I knew they were just kidding, but we immediately decided that we wanted to share

Sue and I talked, and decided that trying to plant ten trees on our small lot was going to be a bit much, so we gave four of them away to our friends. As I get older I try to be more of a giving person, both figuratively and literally. We knew that we really had too many tree seedlings, and the idea was to get them planted in the ground soon, so why not share what we had.

We did place a Crabapple Tree in the back yard in such a way that it will provide some shade over our air conditioning unit. We are going to do our best with them, and hope they grow. We are going to keep a positive thought, but even if only one or two make it we will still be ahead of the game.

We got Trees!!!

A few weeks ago, Sue got an offer in the mail from the National Arbor Day Foundation. For $10.00, they would send us ten trees to plant, as part of our membership. So we duly sent in the ten bucks.

Today, the trees arrived. They are seedlings, about 12 to 14 inches high. We got two each of five different varieties of trees, and one free president. I mean shrub. We soon realized one slight problem. We don't have a shovel. So off we went to Wally World. We found a shovel for $3.99, and a garden rake for the same price. Not a bad deal.

We managed to get two of the trees, and the free president.... I mean shrub planted today. We will get the rest tomorrow. We are likely going to give some of the trees away. Ten trees in our yard, might be just a bit much. Hopefully we can get them to grow. We sort of have what you might call, brown thumbs. We managed to kill a cactus, when we lived in Arizona. We will let you know how these do.

In the ground... for the moment...

In todays paper it mentions that James Brown, The Godfather of Soul has been temporarily buried. Temporarily you say, why? Why indeed. It seems that they have placed him in a crypt until a brand new one can be built for him. Kind of makes it sound like they tossed him into a used one... Ewwwww!

Seminole, Florida cops have apparently discovered new evidence in the Anna Nicole Smith case, that has caused Medical Examiner Joshua Perper delay his autopsy findings... Hmm. Does this mean they will be digging her up again?

Meanwhile a woman dressed up in hospital scrubs and walked out of a Texas hospital with a 4 day old baby. They activated the Amber Alert system, and fortunately the infant was found in Clovis, New Mexico today apparently safe. The woman and a male accomplice have been arrested. My question is, where in the hell was hospital security? They had an electronic bracelet on the baby, but the woman just cut it off, and put the 5 lb baby in her purse, for crying out loud! So much for the Department Store tag system for new babies... Hmm, maybe they need to re-think that one?

I gotta wonder about people in this world. I suspect that more people were interested in the latest on Anna Nicole, or what happened at Elizabeth Hurley's wedding, or what celebrity is sleeping with what other celebrity, or who is going into rehab, then were interested in the Amber Alert for the missing infant.

Hey Newt, Can you say Hypocrite?

It is all over the news that Newt Gingrich, who led the witch-hunt, sorry impeachment against Bill Clinton for lying to a Federal Judge about playing slap and tickle with Monica Lewinsky, has now admitted to having an affair of his own during this time.

What a freakin hypocrite! Not that I condone a married man having an affair outside of marriage, frankly if I did it Sue would hang my balls on the wall, and use them for target practice. However, Clinton's affair was no ones business except Hillary's. Word has it that she now keeps Bills balls in a jar by the door, but that is neither here or there.

At the same time it's not really anyones business that Gingrich was doing the horizontal mambo with a woman not his wife either, however he admitted it. What really gripes me is that the son of a bitch made like he was the moral compass of the entire country when he led the call for the impeachment. The impeachment made our country look like a laughing stock. I didn't really like Clinton, but I gotta admit that the country was in a hell of a lot better shape during his eight years in office, than in the 5 years since Shrub has been the pres.

I have pretty much decided to vote for Hillary unless she does something really stupid or disgusting. Like boinking Newt Gingrich.

More news when it becomes less available!

Friday Movie Guide (Cheap & Easy Blog)

Here is the Friday Movie Guide...

New releases this week
Click on the film's title to read a full review.
300
Bloody action and virtual backgrounds turn Frank Miller's graphic novel into a fast-paced, visually enchanting tale.
Believe in Me
Period tale of a new coach who reluctantly leads the girls' basketball team carries hefty emotional clout.
The Host
A freakishly large, angry, mutant fish wreaks havoc on Seoul in this monster flick with a wicked sense of humor.
The Ultimate Gift
The lessons in this Fox Faith parable make it worth considering regardless of your religious bent.
Lions 3D: Roar of the Kalahari
Savagely beautiful film tells the suspenseful story of an ambitious young lion moving in on an older king.
Starter for 10
Story of a teen heading to college in 1980s Britain is unabashedly nostalgic for the oeuvre of John Hughes.
Puccini for Beginners
If Woody Allen were a young, attractive gay woman, he might make something like this, but funnier.
Maxed Out
Scattershot documentary about America's debt problem raises a few more issues than it knows how to handle.
Gray Matters
Siblings Heather Graham and Tom Cavanagh fall for the same girl in this homage to 1940s screwball comedies.
More movie reviews
Read about all the movies now playing in local theaters.

Stuck in traffic Again!

Today, I dropped Sue off at church and went to a food bank in Lewisville where we go once a week to get some extra food. Believe me, this helps, especially with a teenager in the house. Going over wasn't a big deal. Coming back... That's another story! I got stuck in traffic again. What the heck is going on here? Two days in a row, I get stuck in traffic. At least today wasn't quite as bad as yesterday.

Of course on the way to the church, several cars turned against traffic right in front of us. Do we have a target on our car? Not that i am aware of.

I was approaching a traffic signal, and the light changes to yellow. I decided to stop. The car to my left decides he is gonna go for it. However, the light turned to red a good ten seconds before he got close to the intersection. SO he basically ran a dead red light.... I mean it's one thing if you are part way through the intersection and it changes to red, but this guy ran a dead red light. Where is a cop when you need one!

Traffic, but with a silver lining. And a Rant.

I attempted to go to the VA Hospital today to see my doctor, and got caught in a traffic jam. This was even before I was able to get onto the flippin' freeway! I finally gave up and got off at one of the cross roads, after spending about 40 minutes in bumper to bumper. I will have to call tomorrow to make a new appointment.

The silver lining? I don't have to do this every day!

Here is the rant:
I am listening to the news, and they are talking about how there was a mortar attack. The soldiers go into the area where the attack was launched to see if they can find out who might have done it. No one will help. Why? They asked a Sunni man and through a translator, he said, "The Americans are responsible for all of this. I am not safe in my own neighborhood, because of them. They have brought death, destruction, and now a Civil War. Why should I help them?"

He y, Shrub! Get a damn clue! The Iraqi people do not want us there, the majority of the American People do not want us there. You are just about the only one who wants us there. Wake up and smell the coffee. Get our troops out, Adding 20,000 more is not the answer.

I don't expect he will listen to anyone though. He doesn't listen to his generals on the ground, he doesn't listen to the Congress, he doesn't listen to the American People. Shrub is beginning to remind me of the fictitious Senator Palpatine of the Star Wars Saga. He kept declaring more and more powers, "because of the War" till the time came when he declared himself Emperor. Are we going to let George W. Bush do the same thing here? Sometimes I have a chill feeling that he will find a way to suspend the 2008 election so he can hang on to power.

What a waste of *&@#ing Time!

This morning we had to take Sandy in to see the doctor that prescribes her Adderall. We have to go see the doctor once a month, because some rule she has that she has to actually see Sandy before she can prescribe the meds. I am not sure if this is her rule, or something set down by the State of Texas, or what. At any rate we get there and I needed to use the rest room.

I come walking out to find Sue and Sandy standing at the front desk, Sue with an expression that shows she is ready to eat nails and spit rust, as my Grandma used to say!

The doctor wasn't in today. The idiot at the desk had the gall to say to Sue, "What?You mean someone didn't call you?" Sue had to restrain herself from responding with something like: "No you silly ass bitch, we just love nothing better than to waste our morning, and our gas, and pull our daughter our of school to come down here and look at your stupid face!"

I had to restrain myself from going over the counter, when the silly ass bitch tells me that they didn't call because our phone number was no good. WHAT??? This is the same number we have had since we moved into the house almost a year ago. No it's more like the idiot didn't bother to call any of the Doctor's patients that were affected.

On the plus side, I called and left a message with the Doctor, and she called back and is going to mail a prescription.

On to other news:
Lewis "Scooter" Libby has been convicted in the CIA Blame-Gate scandal. He says he is going to appeal. Yeah he plans to appeal his nick-name, other wise I can see it now:

He gets into prison, and some guy that makes Sly Stallone look like Richard Simmons will look him over and say:
"Scooter? Yeah, get on over here, Boy! I got something to scoot up your ass!"

Things you hear on FM radio Morning Shows

We listen to KZPS Fm 92.5 quite a bit. This is a Classic Rock format. The morning show is a couple of crazies, Bo & Jim. Bo Roberts, and Jim White. The are on from 5:30am to 10:00AM Monday thru Friday. They have several regular features they run daily, such as one they call, The Freakin' Fool File. They relate stories that show that people in general are Freakin' Fools.

Example:
A guy was arrested wearing latex and handcuffs, after checking into a Motel with a mule. Bo read the story and commented that the guy had apparently been in therapy and had been told he needed to get out and meet people... What that had to do with being in a motel room doing ...you know... at this point Jim interrupts with "Well what the hell, a piece of ass, is a piece of ass!"

Here is the website for the Bo & Jim page on the KZPS site:
http://www.kzps.com/pages/boandjim.html

They also have introduced some strange "musicians on the show. This one you have to see for yourself. This is the site of Unknown Hinson. The guy looks like a cross between Slim Whitman and Dracula. He sings a country style music. You gotta check him out. Here's the site fort Unknown Hinson (He says he was named after his daddy... Supposedly on his birth certificate the space for Father says... you guessed it, Unknown!
Here he is in all his...glory?
http://www.unknownhinson.com/

Stuff I am thinking about

As I sit here, trying to come up with a blog subject I have come to the simple realization that I haven't got a damn thing to blog about. SO I guess I have to fake it.

Let's see, today we managed to make it back to church. My back is still really hurting quite a bit. As much as I hate to admit it, ( and if I don't Sue gives me a WG {Wife Glare}) When we got to church we were not exactly mobbed, but it was evident that people had missed us. TO be sure we got quite a few calls during the last couple of weeks that we missed going. The first week we got there, and as we sat through Sunday School, Sue could see that my back was really bothering me. SO she convinced me to go home. The following week, she was really wiped out after taking care of me for the week. The next week we didn't go because Sandy had been out of school for a few days with a nasty cold. It was nice to be missed though.

My back, a continuing problem. I had a little scare this afternoon. Sue and I attempting to take a nap, I woke up and went to get out of bed, and had my left leg go out on me. I found myself on the floor. I later told Sue, but she had felt the bed move when I slipped. See what I mean? I can't even remotely think of trying to tell her I am okay when I'm not. Crap!

Anyway, that's about it for now. My back feels like there is a guy with a Roman short sword jabbing the damn thing right at the base of my spine. One of these days I am gonna take an UZI to that bastard!

All over but the DNA

Well the Blond Bimbo is in the ground... They finally buried Anna Nicole Smith. Pink was the theme from what the media reported. Of course now the father of her son, Daniel, wants to have his body dug up and re-buried in Texas. The story that never ends Good grief. It took 3 weeks to bury the poor woman. Well at least she is finally buried, we are heading into 3 months for James Brown.

It has been a busy day. We got paid, and had to do some running around. I am pretty much wiped out now. So I am going to finish this blog, and relax for a while. And that's about it. Have a great weekend!

Friday Movie Guide

Here are this weeks Movies:


New releases this week
Click on the film's title to read a full review.
Black Snake Moan
An old blues man chains a sex-crazed Southern girl (Christina Ricci) to his radiator to cure her libidinous itch.
Zodiac
Low-key, straightforward film tells the real-life story of a serial killer who terrorized the San Francisco Bay Area.
Days of Glory
Powerful story tells of North African soldiers who got little or no credit for their heroics in World War II.
Full of It
Complications arise when a math whiz lies to fit in at a new school and the lies begin to come true.
Wild Hogs
Incredibly lazy film with a big name cast looks as if it was more fun to make than it is to watch.
The Dead Girl
Disparate figures are connected to a murdered junkie prostitute in five well-acted, intertwined stories.
Two Weeks
Sally Field turns in a convincing performance as dying selfless mom in this earnest, poignant film.
More movie reviews
Read about all the movies now playing in local theaters.

One down, one to go!

Anna Nicole Smith is finally getting buried. The former Playboy Playmate will be buried beside her son Friday in a custom-made gown after an extravagant, private and "very pink" memorial service bringing together the three people battling for custody of her baby daughter. All I can say is it's about freakin' time! The woman has been dead for 3 weeks now.

Now all they have to do is bury the Godfather of Soul. (65 days above ground now) I am glad that there won't be any kind of argument over where I am going to be buried. Mainly because I am not going to be buried at all. I want to be cremated, and have my cremains ( that's what they actually call it) used to plant a tree in my name.

How's this for outrageous. A school teacher in Milan, Italy is under criminal investigation for allegedly using scissors to cut the tongue of a second-grader for talking in class, Italian news agencies said Thursday. The 7-year-old boy, who has not been publicly identified, needed six stitches in his tongue from the Feb. 20 incident. Now I have a big mouth, I admit I talk a lot, but damn!

Well, my back is starting to hurt bad, so I am going to have to stop the blog here. Sorry to quit in mid-rant, but what can I say! See you next time.