I don't usually pay much attention to these, but here's a pretty good look back at 2004 from an Arkansas point of view.....even if it was written by a leftist liberal. You'll have to scroll down a bit to get past the Bushitler-like intro, but the list is mostly worth it. Example:
WORST fire safety
En route to a fire-safety demonstration for children in October, the Magnolia Fire Department accidentally set fire to a residence, seriously damaging it and killing the occupants’ dog.
And let's not forget our dear Gov.
WORST choice of words
When several states approved gay marriages early in the year, Gov. Huckabee said Arkansas would not follow suit. “We’re not going to let states like California and Massachusetts push this down our throats,” he said.
Or how about this one:
WORST reply
After the Saline County prosecutor wrote to Gov. Huckabee in January to suggest that the governor might want to alter his clemency-granting procedure for major felons to make that procedure a little easier on victims and their families, the governor’s deputy legal counsel, Cory Cox, fired off this response: “The governor read your letter and laughed out loud. He wanted me to respond to you. I wish you success as you cut down on your caffeine consumption.”
Finally, make sure you don't miss this one:
BEST names
Barley Buckeye Oates was charged in a prescription drug fraud case in Fayetteville in February.
Ulicious Glymp Jr. was charged in a Grant County battery case in January. He died later in the year. [It cracks me up to know there's a Sr. out there somewhere]
Weather’by Dot Com Chanel Fourcast Sheppard was the subject of a custody and proposed-name-change hearing in Washington County in April.
There's plenty more where those came from, so go enjoy.
There's a pretty white cat that's been hanging out around our house for the last couple of days, as it does from time to time. I suspect its owner(s) leave it outside when they go out of town, because every time it shows up, it is constantly squalling like it has lost its best friend.
Which is really annoying at 5 a.m. So this morning I stepped outside to see if I could lure it close enough to pet.....or something to make it shut up. It wouldn't let me get very close, and it finally ran around the corner of the house. I sat down on the front porch step and tried ignoring it. It peeped around the corner for ages, and finally crept out & settled down in one of the flower beds, still crying.
I'd noticed that even though it looked fairly healthy, it was looking a little gaunt so I came inside & got a bowl of cat food for it. I sat the bowl down a ways from me on the step, and kept ignoring the crying kitty. It ran a wide circle around me, and crept up from behind me towards the food.....sat there for a few minutes and ran back to the flower bed.
Ok, so I went back inside so it could come up & eat undisturbed. It stopped wailing, so I peeped out the window expecting to see it eating. No cat in sight. Food not touched. It hasn't been back.
I guess it just wanted something to ignore.
Typical cat.
A young man in Milwaukee recently found out Mama don't put up with much. (link via Fark)
Police Officers Shawn Burger and Curt Charles were assisting other officers in a car crash about 7 p.m. in 3300 block of N. 1st St. when the suspect, Thomas Smith, began yelling obscenities and racial comments at them as small children looked on, said Inspector Steven Settingsgaard.
When Burger and Charles walked over to Smith to issue him a citation, he ran into his house, Settingsgaard said. Seconds later, his mother pushed him back out the front door.
"She said she didn't need that in her house," Settingsgaard said.
Good for her. Too bad more parents don't make their children accept responsibility for their actions. The result of doing otherwise can be quite nasty.
Take, for example, one of my uncles. 8 kids, and nothing they ever got into was their fault according to him. And they got into a lot, believe me. Let's see if I can remember most of the major stuff.
See what I mean?
I'm pleased to announce that Matt and Vicki's church's tsunami relief effort is off to a good start. It really is for a good cause, so please consider making a donation. It doesn't have to be much.....Fr. Leo reports that they can feed a child for a month for about $10. And c'mon, you shell out more than that in a day for a couple of mocho-latte crappachinos.
One of the recipients of your donations will be an orphanage that was completely destroyed by the tsunami....an orphanage that housed around 1,000 children who are now without a home, clothing and food. And all donations will be hand-delivered by Fr. Leo, to insure that those who need them will actually get them.
Give a little to help those who now have nothing.
A Little Rock circuit court judge has struck down the state ban against gay foster parents.....but not on equal protection grounds.
Fox's ruling is instead based on the separation of powers clause. He said the Arkansas Legislature gave the Child Welfare Board the power to promote the health, safety and welfare of children, but he commented that the ban does not qualify under those legal obligations.
Fox said the rule at issue seeks to regulate "public morality" -- something that the board was not given the authority to do.
The Arkansas ACLU chapter is saying this is a big victory with nationwide implications. I hate to break up their happy dance, but I'm not so sure about that. Those are some pretty narrow grounds, and there's the implication from the judge that if the ban had been implemented in a different way (say from the legislature), it would've passed constitutional muster.
The judge acknowledged that the ban was discriminatory against gays and lesbians. But he concluded that homosexuals are not protected as a class, such as women and ethnic minorities.
And as far as I know, he's correct. Generally, the courts have not given homosexuals the same constitutional protections as women or ethnic minorities. Not saying that's good or bad, just that that's the way it is. For now anyway.
It'll be interesting to see if the judge's ruling holds up on appeal. (I haven't been able to find his opinion online so far, but I'll update if I do.)
As I'm sure Keith could tell you, most attorneys are technically incompetent around computers. Even those of us who know a little about them sometimes do really dumb things. Like this poor attorney. (Link via Fark)
I gasped, realizing that I was presenting probably the first-ever ABA seminar for which the speaker could be indicted.
You gotta read it to believe it.
(As a side note, notice who helped this poor guy track down what had happened, James Calloway of the Oklahoma Bar Association. The OBA staff is one of the few exceptions to the rule that attorneys are techno-idiots. As am I, of course.)
Like the rest of you, I've been following the horror of the tsunami disaster in Asia....60,000+ killed and the count is still growing. The tragedy is almost unimaginable in scope. It would break my heart if I had one, and according to some officious little UN toady, I don't.
Despite his claim of being "misinterpreted," a review of the transcript of Mr. Egeland's initial press briefing confirms that he asked reporters at the United Nations why Western countries are "so stingy" and specifically cited the United States as an example of a country whose citizens want to pay more taxes so that foreign aid can be increased.
I watched a clip of that press briefing, and there was nothing that little jerkwad said that has been misinterpreted. (You can watch his entire December 27th press conference here)
And there's lists of relief organizations to which you can make your 'stingy' private donations at Michele's and at Scott's.
I reckon 'stingy' in this context means "money the UN can't get its sticky fingers on".
UPDATE: Matt's provided a link to his church's relief site, if you'd like to contribute locally.
The website that supposedly let viewers control Christmas lights is a hoax.
A man who boasted to reporters around the world that his Web site allowed strangers to turn his outdoor Christmas lights off and on admitted Monday it was an elaborate hoax designed, he said, to spread holiday cheer.
Alek Komarnitsky, a computer specialist, said he started the site two years ago to see if he could use computer tricks to make it look as if the thousands of lights adorning his house in Lafayette were blinking on command.
Not only did he fool website visitors (more details on how he did it here), he also fooled many media types, including the Associated Press....who apparently didn't investigate his claims too closely. Imagine that.
I never was really asked any "hard" questions, but once I started talking X10/Ethernet/Wireless/etc. their eyes would glaze over. None asked to see the webcam ... and at the time, there was actually NOTHING in the "tree" across the street - I subsequently tossed a goofball contraption with lotsa duct tape up there, with extension cord going to a neighbors house.
Good one, Mr. Komarnitsky! And thanks for the biggest laugh I've had in days.
It also raises other questions. Like if this is how poorly the media investigates their fluff pieces, how well do they really investigate their serious stories?
Or why should we believe anything they report?
We had a very Merry Christmas, all 4 of our kids managed to stop by at some point during the day. WildChild was all about Santa, who he's decided is the coolest guy in the world. At one point, he warned his dad about telling my daughter to "Shut up!" (typical siblings, they still fuss & argue). "Daddy!" he said. "You not tell my [aunt] to shut up. Santa will not bring you any presents."
He was sooooo excited by all his presents, even the inevitable clothes (Oh boy! A new t-shirt!)....which I'm sure will change in the next couple of years. But we're enjoying it while it lasts.
But now everyone's gone home, except my son who's staying until mid-January. And the house is quiet again....which is nice too.
Always glad to see them arrive....and almost equally glad to see them leave.
Pumpkin pies are done; carrot cake is cooling. Stockings are ready to be hung....even the dogs have stockings. But not the cat. The cat woke me up this morning by standing with both front feet on my trachea, cutting off my air supply. She already received her Christmas present. She's not dead.
Merry Christmas to all!
Our family has always had a tradition of "Christmas Eve gift". The first person to say that to someone else is supposed to get a small gift, though in our family it's devolved into a fierce competition just to 'get' each other. The gift is optional. It's more like a verbal game of tag these days, and some of us take it fairly seriously.
My dad is worse than a little kid about it, doing things like calling me at 5 a.m. or answering his phone with "Christmas Eve Gift!" Not that I'm any better. I've done the same to him. The best one I got on him was a couple of years ago when I waited until late afternoon on Christmas Eve before I called him. He thought I'd forgotten, see, so he just answered the phone like normal. Gotcha, Dad! He thought that was pretty funny.
It wasn't until I'd gotten older that I discovered not all families followed this tradition. (Mike thought I'd lost my mind our first Christmas Eve morning together when I shook him awake yelling "Christmas Eve Gift! Haha! I got you!") And I've always wondered where it started.
I've done a little Googling this morning, and it seems to be a Southern thing.....though I did find one person who reported his grandpa, who had reportedly been raised by Davy Crockett, always followed the Christmas Eve gift tradition. It's apparently so old that no one remembers why or from where it came. Everything I've found says pretty much the same thing. "We do it because that's the way we've always done it."
So. Any of y'all follow this tradition or know its origins?
A US dating service for liberals & a Canadian one have merged.
The newly announced merger between the District-based ActForLove.org, and its Canadian counterpart, MarryAnAmerican.ca, is designed to achieve "politically motivated matrimony" between "hot, sexy liberals" on both sides of the border and counter "four more years of cowboy conservatism" under Mr. Bush, MarryAnAmerican says on its Web site.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Now that's a match made in....somewhere isn't it?
Additionally, [Mr. Hlinko] said, ActForLove has partnerships with influential groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), NARAL, and the Environmental Defense Fund. For example, singles who follow the ACLU's recommendation to fight the USA Patriot Act can get free credits with the dating service.
I'm sure they have interesting dates, with much earnest discussion about how to save the world.
Mr. Hlinko said he doubts many activist American singles will be deterred by the distances involved in dating a Canadian.
Before his marriage, he said, "I've run across the country for a date, especially if she was really cute."
I'm sure the natural resources expended were a justifiable sacrifice for The Cause, right?
Sounds to me like one of the two underlying reasons for 'The Movement' hasn't changed since the 60's.
It's still just another way for guys to get laid.
Another gem in our local newspaper, this time from one of the town's mail carriers:
Doherty took the postal exam after finishing his military career and became a clerk for two years, as is the requirement. "The postal exam mainly tests your memory and how well you can transpose numbers," he said.
That certainly explains a lot, doesn't it?
Yesterday WildChild & I made a Frosty Family with his Play-Doh. Today he wants to go outside & make a real one. But since it's 22 degrees & dropping and there's not yet enough snow on the ground to make a decent snowball, I don't think that's an option.
I realized this morning that I would be spending the entire day trapped inside with 3 ADHD males, all hyped up about the snow but all too sick to go outside.
God help us all.
Since the big snowstorm was predicted (and that so far hasn't materialized), the local news has been full of reports about the 3 new trucks the city bought for snow removal. The trucks have a tank & sprayer mounted on the back, which sprays the streets with a 23% salt solution before the snow falls....the theory being that this will make the snow easier to remove. Or something like that.
In years past, salt and chat trucks have been used to create traction, but according to Field Operations Supervisor Bryan Hobbs, the city of Fayetteville has purchased three pickup trucks, with water tanks and sprayers in the back, that will pump a 23 percent saltwater solution onto roads before the snow falls. "It’s supposed to rain before it snows, so we have to wait until after it rains to spray the streets, or else the salt will just get washed away," Hobbs said. "When the snow combines with the salt, it creates heat, which melts away ice."
Well I'll be damned. All these years I thought salting your driveway worked because the salt solution lowered the freezing temperature of water. Must be some of that new science they teach in schools nowadays.
I bet if we covered our roof with a thick layer of salt, we wouldn't even need the furnace during the cold spell they're predicting for the next few days.
Assuming it actually snows, of course.
--Hard to believe there's a snowstorm on the way. Right now it's sunny & 48 degrees. But my joints (and the forecast) say that's going to change in the next 12 hrs.
--Like a lot of folks, we did some of our Christmas shopping online this year. One gift arrived last week; two more are in transit for delivery this week. Assuming the snow doesn't get too deep. I always feel sorry for the postal & delivery guys in bad weather. That can't be fun this time of year.
--I've been looking for airline tickets for the end of the month, and stupid Yahoo Travel (and another site I can't remember) refused to let me search for flights leaving in December. At all. Why? Because it won't let you book flights for December 2005, which it assumes any December flight is.
Mike heard me swearing at the computer and asked what was wrong. "Someone wrote the date validation code so that it would automatically block any searches for a December flight date instead of checking first to see if the December date was in 2004 or 2005" I said through gritted teeth. "They did it that way because it's easier than doing it the correct way, which would be to first check today's date & see if it's before or after December 31, 2004, then if it was before, check to see if the flight date requested was in December, 2004 or December, 2005. That's just freaking lazy."
Ack! I'm starting to think like a programmer.
Like my brain needs to be any more warped.
Whew! It's been a little hectic the last few days. My son made it here late Thursday night; WildChild has been here since Friday afternoon. Due to conflicting work schedules, we had Christmas at my parents' on Saturday.
A fun kind of hectic but still. I've barely had a chance to sit down. And when I did, I fell asleep.
Some WildChild gems:
I can't wait!
If you want to buy the Clinton's old house, you better hurry up and get in line.
The University of Arkansas plans to acquire the former Fayetteville home of President Clinton.
An offer from the UA to purchase the house at 930 California Blvd. was in the works Wednesday, said Don Pederson, vice chancellor for finance and administration.
I'm sure that's a wise use of taxpayer funds and tuition fees.
I still think $300,000 is way too much for a 1 bedroom, 1 bath house that was built in 1931 and that needs an estimated $75,000 in repairs....no matter who shacked up there in the past.
I-40 is a major east-west artery for drug runners, and as the cops working along it in Oklahoma and Arkansas have learned, drug runners hide their cargo in some very strange places.
Two men were arrested Wednesday in eastern Oklahoma for allegedly transporting caskets full of drugs.
The Oklahoma Highway Patrol said the men were pulled over for speeding near Sallisaw. When troopers searched the 18-wheeler, officials said, they found 610 pounds of marijuana.
Guess you really can't take it with you.
"Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, chocolate in one hand, martini in the other, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming "WOO HOO what a ride!"
I'm not sure why this is so surprising. (Link via Fark)
Alexander Graham Bell's invention of 1876 never reached Mink, a onetime trappers' paradise in the Kisatchie National Forest in west-central Louisiana, although neighbors just down the road on Highways 117 and 118 were wired for telephones in the 1970s.
The telephone also never reached the hundred families of Shaw and Black Hawk, hunting and camping communities across the state along the Mississippi River, some of the few and untabulated places around the country lacking telephone lines. Yes, the telephone is not everywhere. In fact, televisions are more common in American homes today.
Doesn't surprise me at all. There wasn't a phone at my parents' house until I was a teenager, around 1974 or so. It wasn't because we couldn't afford it. The local phone company refused to run a line about 2 miles from the nearest hookup just to service the 6 or so families that lived on our ridge. Refused that is until some of us did what these folks did, collared a state rep during an election year & gave him an earful.
We got our phone line alright....and all 6 families were on the same party line. That was interesting for the 2 or 3 years that lasted. Then they split it into 2 party lines, which was a little better, but not much. I don't think my parents got a private line until well after I was grown & gone.
It wasn't as bad as you might think. See, that was during my wild teen-age years, when I was supposed to call home if I was going to miss my curfew. So if I hypothetically say, got so messed up I forgot to call, I had a perfect excuse.
"Daddy, honest, I tried to call for over an hour but I couldn't get through. Aunt Edith must've left the phone off the hook again."
Not that I ever did that. Much.
*ahem*
Networking final is behind me. Final project for Web Programming finished & turned in today. C++ final in a few hours.
And then I'll be done for this semester.
Woo-hoo!
I can hardly wait!
A couple of Harrison attorneys made the big time....one of their bankruptcy cases was recently argued before the US Supreme Court.*** (Registration req'd, sorry. Use bugmenot, bugmenot.) All this kinda went to the head of one of the attorneys, until his partner gave him some good advice.
"I hate to say it, but for a little while I felt that maybe I was too important to deal with the everyday cases that make up a practice," Jones said.
"That only lasted until T.R. reminded me how we got to the Supreme Court - we lost the case every time we argued it."
I see a lot of attorneys around in the public eye who should also remember those words of wisdom.
The case is Rousy v. Jacoway, and you can read their petition for certiorari here if you're interested. Respondant Jacoway is Jill Jacoway, a local attorney who's been our Federal bankruptcy trustee for ages, and is a pretty sharp cookie.
Here's your chance. The house Bill & Hillary lived in when they taught at the law school here in Fayetteville is for sale.....for a price.
Real Estate Consultants appraised the 1,790-square-foot home at $199,000 -- $40,000 less than other appraisals of the home, according to the Greesons who want $285,000 to $300,000 for it....The structural assessment said the house is functional but needs about $75,000 in improvements, including repairs to a separation wall in the basement that is dislodged and strengthening the floor framing.
A little steep for a 1 bedroom, 1 bath house, but c'mon. Bill & Hillary were married there.
Mayor Dan wants to buy it & turn it into a museum (never mind that there's no parking on that street) but he can't get city approval in time. So he's pushing the University to buy it & work 'in partnership' with the city to turn it into a museum.
If I had the cash lying around, I'd buy it and burn that sumbitch to the ground.
A researcher is claiming that the loss of the ability to smell certain scents is the most reliable indicator of impending Alzheimer's.
Strawberry, smoke, soap, menthol, clove, pineapple, natural gas, lilac, lemon and leather: People with mild cognitive impairment who cannot identify these scents will develop Alzheimer's disease, according to research from the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology.
It's not that Alzheimer's patients can't smell these things, but that they can't identify what they're smelling. The theory behind the study is that the nerves responsible for perceiving & recognizing odors are the first to be affected by Alzheimer's.
Interesting.
In case you needed any further indication of Hillary's plans for the future, Hillary's mom is selling her Little Rock condo & moving to D.C.
Hmmm.
Think the judge has the balls to downgrade it to Life w/o Parole?
It is California, after all.
I've added Charles of dustbury.com to the blogroll because he writes posts like this that make me giggle for hours.
Though I have to admit my limited exposure to that type of movie makes it difficult to imagine just what the dialogue might sound like. My ex brought one home once, and I watched for a few minutes and asked Spock-like "So guys really like this? Fascinating."
A few more minutes & I can't help myself. I'm LMAO, and doing a running commentary. "48....49....and 50. Ok, everyone change positions. No, no, no not there. Your flabby ass is blocking the shot."
My ex got pissed & turned the projector off. Apparently that was not the reaction he was anticipating.
He should've known better.
I was taking advantage of a few minutes peace yesterday while WildChild was playing with Play-Doh to study for my final Tuesday night. (A written, comprehensive C++ final. Yuck!) WildChild noticed I was reading and asked what I was doing.
"I'm studying for a test in my class," I said. "So I have to read this book."
He didn't quite understand what a test was, but he knows I go to school just like he does (headstart a couple of times a week. Him, not me). He has a crush on his headstart teacher, like most little boys, and is just fascinated that I have more than one teacher.
"When you see your two teachers Ma?" he asked.
"I will see one of them Tuesday night when I go to class to take my test" I tell him.
"No," he said firmly. "You go to class and play with toys."
Which is logical to him because that's mostly what he does in his class, but it still cracked me up.
"No," I tell him. "There are no toys in my class."
He gasped and eyes wide with horror asked "There are NO TOYS in your classroom Ma?"
"That's right. We have no toys in my classroom."
"You just have to DO YOUR HOMEWORK?" he asked shocked.
"Yes. We have no toys, but we do have computers in our classroom," I said.
"Oh," he said, but he kept giving me these sympathetic looks that made it obvious that he thought computers weren't nearly as good as toys.
A classroom with no toys.
Unthinkable.
A local man was killed while cutting firewood.
Billy Head, 45, was cutting firewood at about 3:30 p.m. in a field near the New Prospect Church on Gann Ridge Road when the accident happened, said Doug Gay, the Benton County Sheriff's Office public information officer.
Head cut partially through a tree with a chain saw, and the tree split and began to fall. The bottom portion of the tree trunk swung upward and struck his head and threw him 12 feet, Gay said.
Cutting timber with a chainsaw is dangerous work. I had a great-uncle who died from a similar incident when in his 70's. I don't remember the exact details, but he had a tree split on him something like that, and it kicked back and basically pounded his head into the ground....repeatedly hitting him in the back of head so hard that it knocked all his teeth out.
Actually he survived that, but while in the hospital for an extended time recovering, he caught pneumonia and died.
Uncle Jack was a pretty tough old bird.
Santa visited WildChild's headstart class yesterday, and in a complete reversal of the usual, WildChild made Santa cry. Santa asked him what he wanted for Christmas, and WildChild replied "I want you bring my daddy to come 'n see me."
Surprised, Santa asked WildChild's mom what the situation was, and she explained that my son is in the Navy & has been stationed overseas for a long time, but that we were expecting him home late next week.
Ok, Santa said. So is there anything else you want for Christmas, WildChild? "Yeah," WildChild said. "I want to grow up & be big 'n strong just like my daddy."
WildChild's mom said by this time everyone in the room had teared up, including Santa, who had to take his glasses off & dry his eyes before he could continue.
Awwww.
Maybe I should stick a huge bow on my son's head when we go to pick up WildChild next weekend.
When the big, inflatable Christmas figures first came out, I wanted some for our Christmas display. Not any more, not since I've seen what happens to them when it's windy. They sometimes.......make unintended motions.
Like this one that's at the off-ramp intersection by my college. It's a group of snowmen, a dad and a mom snowman that's holding a baby snowman between them. The other night I was waiting for the light to change, I noticed the wind was blowing dad's hand around making it look like he was repeatedly smacking the baby in the head. Hard.
It's not just the Christmas ones, there's also a big inflated Ronald on the top of the McDonald's over by the mall. I was sitting in traffic one breezy day, and noticed one of Ronald's hands had gotten loose. It was moving vigorously up & down and let's just say that he wasn't waving at passersby....and there was a reason he was smiling so broadly.
I started laughing so hard I could barely drive when the light changed.
So, no thanks.
Not in my yard.
Hey, didja know you can vote online in the People's Choice Awards? (hat tip Charles) Why do you care? Well I'll tell you.
Guess whose so-called 'documentary' is up for the Favorite Movie award?
None other that Mr. Lard Ass himself.
BTW, Team America is up for the Favorite Animated Movie award too, so don't stop on the first page.
Longtime readers may remember this post about a kid who went on a shooting rampage in Sallisaw, Oklahoma a couple of years ago.
The shooting spree began after someone criticized Daniel Hawke Fears' driving ability. Fears, who was an 18-year-old senior at Sallisaw High School at the time, then went on a shooting rampage that started in a Sallisaw neighborhood and continued until authorities arrested Fears on a nearby highway.
His attorney argued at trial that Fears was schizophrenic, but the jury convicted on 2 counts of first-degree murder and 15 assorted felonies.
He was sentenced today to life in prison without parole.
My son called last night***, and he & my daughter were so proud of me because I managed to use 3-way calling to include my daughter on his call without accidentally disconnecting anyone. Hell, I hardly ever use the phone let alone any of its special features. So it's understandable that I don't know how to use it very well.
And I try to keep that in mind when dealing with my parents, who are postively hopeless with any new technology. A few examples: my mother disconnected the VCR we'd gotten them from the tv during an electrical storm, and now they can't get it reconnected. Now I know VCR setup can be tricky, but this is the simplest model we could find. It only has one cable running to the tv; the tv only has one connector that will fit the VCR cable. But they still can't get it reconnected & working.
Mike & I bought them a satellite clock for Christmas last year, and Mike set it up for them before we went home. All they had to do was to mount the wireless temperature gauge thingy outside. We found out a few months ago that they never got it to work either.
Now, for some reason I don't understand, my mother is convinced that my cell phone is connected to my computer, and if I'm using my computer she can't call my cell phone. No matter how many million times I've told her that our computers have nothing to do with my cell phone I still have conversations like the one yesterday morning.
My mom: "I tried to call you earlier but I got your computer and it said it was too busy for my call so I figured you were working on your school work."
Me: ??? (Thinking WTF is she talking about?)
After some patient questioning, I figured out that she got a recording from the cell phone company which told her that all their circuits were busy. I try to explain this, but she just doesn't get it. Even after I tell her that it works just like a busy signal on a regular phone. Finally, exasperated, I tell her "Mother, my cell phone HAS NOTHING TO DO with my computer. I can use my computer & talk on my cell phone AT THE SAME TIME. I DO IT ALL THE TIME."
Her response? "Oh. Well I just thought you were busy doing your schoolwork on your computer and ....."
*sigh*
I gave up at that point.
And Mike wanted to fix up a computer for them for their Christmas present last year. Nothing fancy, just something they could use to e-mail my kids. No I said. Not just no, but hell no.
I shudder to think about the tech support calls we would've gotten from them.
"This computer doesn't have an 'Any' key. What's wrong with it? Why didn't you get us one that had an 'Any' key? Do those cost a lot more?"
Sheesh.
***he was calling to tell me that he would be arriving here on the 16th for 30 days leave. So Yay! A Very Merry Christmas is in store this year.
Some Massachusetts corporations are dropping their insurance coverage of 'domestic partnerships' since the state's Supremes upheld same-sex marriage.
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court's Goodridge decision, which legalized same-sex "marriage" as of May 17, "leveled the playing field," said Candace Quinn, vice president of Baystate Health System, which employs 90,000 people.
The Goodridge decision changed everything for same-sex couples, she said, and because Baystate doesn't offer domestic-partner benefits to unmarried heterosexual couples, it created an unfair situation for them.
Logical, yes, but some activist groups aren't too happy.
"There is no reason to terminate domestic-partnership policies immediately," Boston-based Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders (GLAD) said in a report.
Many homosexual couples have good reasons not to "marry" — tax liabilities, potential job losses if they are in the military, potential rejection as adoptive parents — said GLAD, whose lawyers won the landmark Goodridge case.
Funny, except for the last one, those sound like the same reasons some heterosexual couples have not to marry. And I'm not so sure the 'potential rejection as adoptive parents' is a legitimate concern. One of the factors judges look at when making an adoptive placement is the stability of the existing familial relationships of the potential adoptive parent(s). Therefore, married couples generally have a distinct advantage over single parent placements. (Though I can certainly understand if one lives in a state that generally doesn't allow gays to adopt, one certainly wouldn't want to advertise one's sexual preference.)
But I digress. I really don't see the reason for the complaints about the insurance coverage. I support the right of homosexual couples to receive the same rights as heterosexual couples. But they are only entitled to the same rights, not more.
If you say you want to be treated like everyone else, then don't complain when you're treated like everyone else.
While some of us have been traipsing around avoiding jury duty, I had the interesting experience yesterday of being called as a witness in a visitation hearing....not as an expert witness per se, more as just a general witness testifying about certain things I'd observed personally.
I don't feel ethically comfortable describing the hilarious details of my testimony, even though it was in open court & presumably a matter of public record. But I would like to make the general observation that, as opposing counsel, it's usually a bad idea on cross-examination to attack the credentials of someone testifying as a general witness when you obviously have no freaking clue what they are....and thereby establishing their credentials to testify as an expert witness on the matter in question.
Attorneys have an unwritten rule about those kind of fishing expeditions. Don't ask questions of a witness to which the attorney does not already know the answer. Sure, sometimes a fishing expedition in unknown waters can serve up a nice, tasty trout upon which one can feast. But it also can serve up a big, nasty shark that will rip one's ass to shreds and leave one lying on the courtroom floor in a spreading pool of one's own blood.
I'm just saying.
After one of my finals on Sunday, the instructor very nicely told me that she'd accept an late assignment if I could e-mail it to her as soon as I got home. (Long story short: it was late b/c the school's network is agonizingly slow. I tried to upload 2 assignments--1 made it, 1 didn't. The homework site shuts off 1 nanosecond after the due time expires, and won't accept anything. Nice, innit?) Anyway, I was all in a rush to get it emailed to her, since the assignment was prolly going to make a letter grade's difference in my final grade.
So you can imagine my horror when driving up the street to our house, I observed what appeared to be the phone line lying on the ground. I ran in the house in a panic. Mike says "Hi, honey. How was the final?" And I yell "ISTHEFREAKINGDSLWORKING? IHAVETOEMAILSOMETHINGVERYIMPORTANT! RIGHTNOW! ISITWORKING?"
Happy ending: Yes it was, and I got the email off in time. And the cable guys just now got the cable put back up. Yeah. It was the cable line, not the phone line, that was down. So I freaked for no reason.
Yes, I'm a little overly stressed out right now over finals.
How could you tell?
Not much is forgotten in small towns, especially murder. Down where I'm from, they're fixing to prosecute a guy for multiple murders he allegedly committed 30 years ago. (Registration is regrettably required for these links. Sorry.)
Thirty years ago authorities said Davis had left the John L. McClellan Memorial Veterans Hospital in North Little Rock two days before traveling to Searcy County, where he bought a. 38-caliber pistol. Davis then went to Dennard and shot his mother and father, Shirley Virginia Davis and Dale Davis, authorities said. Afterward, they said, he went across a field and shot his grandfather, Ward Samuel Davis.
Then he stabbed and shot his uncle, Oren D. Davis, before driving to Harrison to kill Bill Martin, the former state trooper who owned the motel, authorities said.
While a state trooper, Martin had arrested Davis on an alcohol-related driving offense, according to a State Hospital report.
More details can be found here, including that Davis' mental problems became apparent after he was discharged from the military....during which time he served as a 'tunnel rat' in 'Nam.
I bring up this sad story to show that being found incompetent to stand trial, as this man was, isn't the 'get out of jail free' card as it's often portrayed. This guy has spent 30 yrs. confined to the State mental hospital after being charged with the murders. Now, after all that time, he's still facing prosecution for them.
Will he be found not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect? Prolly so, but that doesn't mean he'll be free to go. If I were a betting man, I'd bet he'll get sent right back to the State mental hospital for the rest of his natural life.
Justice of a different sort.
A lot of what I've read lately, which admittedly hasn't been much since finals started Sunday, has been about the 'doping' scandal in professional sports. Now we can argue until the cows come home about its effects on sports and players.....IMHO it's one of the side effects of greed destroying what sports is really all about. The love of playing the game.
But this statement kinda caught my eye this morning.
Scott Gottlieb, a former senior policy adviser to the commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, notes: "There are plenty of people with [multiple sclerosis], Crohn's and Colitis and rheumatoid arthritis and lupus and other diseases who are on much higher doses of chronic steroids. Certainly they have a lot of side effects, but they don't drop dead of [heart attacks] so easily."
Maybe some of my more medically astute readers will correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't there a world of difference between anabolic steriods, a synthetic version of testosterone, and cortical steriods, a version of adrenal gland hormone, that sick people take? Cuz I'll tell you, I've taken several versions of the latter and it's never pumped me up. Well, actually it did, but it wasn't with muscle tissue let me tell you.
Though granted, they can both have the side effect of 'Shitllkillya'. Which is one of the reasons the latter is available by prescription only, and the former is illegal.
Am I wrong, or wasn't that an extraordinarily stupid statement for a former FDA policy advisor to make?
A column in today's NYTimes is further evidence, as if we needed any, that its author ain't got the sense God gave a goose. Buried in her whining about the stressful Christmas season is this gem:
(In our traditional Irish household, women slaved and men were waited on.)
If one ever gave it any thought, this tradition isn't sexist at all. In fact, like many traditions, it has a very practical, pragmatic basis. In a primitive agrarian society, who does most of the work to feed the family?
The husband.
And if the primary breadwinner (literally) isn't well-fed, sickens and dies, what happens to the rest of the family? If there isn't a male child old enough to take his place in the fields, or the mother isn't able to find another man to replace him, the entire family will very likely die. Or at the very least, they will suffer substantial hardship to survive.
So taking care of your man, as my grandmother always called it, isn't sexist at all. It's a survival trait, left over from our pre-industrial days. Now you might argue that this tradition is no longer necessary, but traditions often persist long after their reason for existing. ***
Me, I think that the primary family supporter still deserves some FREAKING respect for what he does. So even though the necessity no longer exists, I will continue to follow the family tradition of serving Mike first. It's really no different than the way I expect him to always open doors for me. Traditions that reflect mutual respect between partners. That's what it's all about.
Maybe if Ms. Dowd understood that, she wouldn't be spending Christmas alone with her dog.
***I'm sure we all remember the story about the woman who always cut the end off her roast before putting it in the pan. Why? Because that's the way her mother always did it. Why did her mother do it? Because that's the way her mother always did it.
When questioned, the grandmother says "My roaster is small, so I always cut the end off the roast because that's the only way it will fit."
We took WildChild to the Christmas Parade in Bentonville last night. It was great...a real Christmas parade with umpteen floats of all kinds, including several from local churches. There was even a group of pugs all dressed up (accompanied by their owners of course) which cracked WildChild up. He kept yelling "Look! There's Sollie! And another Sollie! And another Sollie!" He also started screaming at the top of his lungs when Santa came by and waved at him. "I LIKE PARADES!" he would say repeatedly the whole time we were there. I believe he does.
It was nice to see that there are still some places in the world where it's ok to sing Christmas carols....secular and non-secular. Where it is ok to celebrate our own cultural traditions as well as that of others. I was brought up to enjoy our traditions, and to respect the rights of others to do things differently.
So-called 'multiculturalism' has destroyed that in most places.
But not all.
UPDATE: It was, in fact, a lot like a parade in Mayberry.
XML was designed by a sadistic, severely anal-retentive OCD type person.
Schema that.
And how's your day going?
No pics of the old hussy cuz she's still on my list, so you'll have to settle for a cat story instead. One day when WildChild was first learning to use the potty, he'd gone into the bathroom to do his business....not noticing that the cat was hiding behind the bathroom window curtain as she likes to do. All of a sudden, I heard him scream, and he came running down the hallway with his pants half-down, crying that "Kitty hissed at me! Kitty scared me!"
So go hiss back at her, I told him.
"Huh?" he said, stopping dead in his tracks, tears forgotten.
"Kitty hissed at you, so you go hiss right back at her" I said.
He thought that was pretty funny, but he wasn't brave enough to return to the bathroom alone. So I went with him, and pulled the curtain back to reveal the cat, who hissed at him again right on cue.
"Now hiss back at her" I urged, and he did. The cat cowered, then jumped down and ran away. WildChild thought that was just the coolest thing.
And Kitty doesn't hide behind the bathroom curtain anymore when he's here either.
I think they both learn some important lessons.
The Kelley Blue Book editors poetically conclude Santa would drive a Lexus LX 470.
As if.
Any fool should know that Santa & all his reindeer would be driving a convoy of double-trailered Peterbilts to haul all those presents. Except Rudolph. He always runs interference up in front in a new, shiny red Mustang.
Duh.
I had to lie down for a few hours this afternoon (yeah I'm still sick), and Sassy kept coming in there trying to make me get up. Finally I scolded her & made her go lie down so I could get some rest....but I was thinking "What is wrong with that stupid dog? Can she not see I don't feel well?"
I finally got up, she wouldn't stop bugging me, and let her out. Later, when I was getting Sollie a dog biscuit to go with his supper, I found out what Sassy's problem was.
See this****? It has a snap-on lid that closes very tightly. She figured out how to open it today. She ate the all remaining dog biscuits except for two. Which was, I dunno, 30 or so dog biscuits.
And they apparently weren't agreeing with her too well.
Serves her right.
BTW, we buy these buckets at Sam's for like $5. Not $14.
I have several job search scouts running that report every morning about jobs in which I might be interested....and this morning I think one's found the perfect job for me. Benton County is looking for a project/database manager. The pay's not too good ($11/hr + benefits), but look what I'd get to do:
Design logical data bases, responsible for data entry records. Monitor and research homeland security grants, maintain WMD and county inventories. Formulate procedures for systematic retention, protection, retrieval, transfer and disposal of records. Also need to be able to analyze and organize office operations, procedures and keep up with changes in laws, codes, programs, policies and/or procedures.
I mean seriously, who's better qualified to maintain Benton Co.'s WMD inventories than I?
*evil laugh*
I'll get you my pretty....and your little dog too.
It's prolly a good thing I started the antibiotics yesterday. When I came home from class last night, our cat was on the porch squalling to be taken back inside. It was about 26 degrees out, so I picked her up even though I had my arms full of my school stuff. When I opened the door, the dogs were there doing their meet 'n greet thing, which totally freaked the cat out.
The old hussy bit me on the face, right above my upper lip. Twice....once hard enough to draw blood. Nothing serious, but damn it sure stung.
Ingrate = cat.
