The Soothe Sayer's Sad Future Outlook

Well the Browns won, again for the 7th time this season. My prediction of 9-7 might be way off (in a good way), but I 'll take it as long as they make the playoffs. Anyway the sad future outlook isn't for the Browns, actually they look pretty decent and Romeo is actually making some good calls as coach. When they were facing that forth down in the last minute of the game and rather than have the QB run around and fling it out of bounds or something he gave it to Jamaal Lewis and he GOT the first down and they won. I think he is finally starting to feel comfortable and he has got his players and they are finally starting to play his system. Anyway good job Browns. Now for the bad news - I think the Steelers might be in for a couple of lean years in the up coming future. This isn't just a knee jerk reaction to the Steeler's crushing, demoralizing defeat at the hands of the 2-8 Jets. No, I think they are in good position to make the playoffs and stand to do pretty well. But after hearing their new coach Tomlin in a press conference I realized that he has all of Cowher's old players and is just kind of managing them. Then he started talking about personnel in the league and I just kind of got the impression that he was gonna make some huge mistakes when it comes to drafting people. Maybe they'll make a splash in the free agent market, but that is really not the Steeler philosophy. I just have a feeling, and maybe I'm waaaaay off, but in a few years the honeymoon will be over with Tomlin and the Steelers will be looking for a new coach again. Look at Cincinnati. Besides the law of averages is against him staying for 15 years.

A side note: If you want to make a Steeler fan mad, just tell them that the accident that Big Ben was in last year was a set-up so that he could have a nose job. I can't take credit for that though, that is all Sophie. She said after he was in that accident his nose looks a lot better. And really if you think about it, a marketable player needs to look good if he is really going to cash in, but a football player can't get a nose job. No he was in a motorcycle accident and he was hit by a car and didn't have a helmet on and ... Hey wasn't Kellen Winslow in a motorcycle accident, by himself. He didn't even get hit by a car and he was out the whole season getting multiple reconstructive surgeries on his knees. But not Big Ben, he is out a couple of weeks and then he looks fantastic. Except that he had to go back into the hospital a couple of weeks later for a tummy tuck, er I mean an appendicitis. Maybe he really did have an appendectomy, think of it as karma for his earlier 'accident', think about it.

Giving Blood

I had the opportunity to give blood seven times in '07, but due to untimely illnesses and travel I will only be able to give 6 times. So far I have given 26 times total, which may or may not sound like a lot, but I have only been giving blood since 2001. I remember when I started it was right after 9/11 and Sophie and I both went and by 2:00 PM they had met their quota of 60. That was the last time I was ever turned away because they had met their quota. The first time I actually gave was November 11th 2001, and I just happened to be off work that day when they called. So I went to Stuebenville and gave blood, ate a snack, and passed out. When I came to it kind of seemed surreal and I told them to put the blood back in, but they never did, I was joking anyway. For a time after that they didn't call, and I thought maybe I was 'black listed' from giving since I passed out, but eventually they called and now I try to give blood every 8 weeks or 56 days, which ever comes first. I wanted to start giving blood before I did, but I just couldn't make myself do it. My dad got a lot of blood when he was fighting cancer and I remember being real grateful for the people that were giving their blood, and now I just feel like maybe I am doing some good in somebody else's life. Maybe someday I'll need blood and thanks to someone who was willing to give a little bit of themselves I'll be able to take it and not feel bad about it in the least. You just have to hope that in the end you were able to give more than you take. I am sure wherever my blood ends up that the people are pretty happy and probably a little more energetic. See I don't drink or smoke and I always have a little Mountain Dew in the old system so when they get that blood I bet they get a little kick in the pants too. If only there were some way to market my blood like an energy drink... or if someone got my blood and they were grateful they could give the ads a click then we could call it even, yeah that'll work. Anyway giving blood now is just like going to visit with some old friends I know Sis and Blanche and they always give me some extra snacks to bring home for the kids, and one of the nurses is a Tony Stewart fan, so you know you've got good people there. Anyway I am going to try to give as long as I am able and I encourage everyone else to do the same. Happy Holidays, 'Tis the season for giving.

Talk with my sis

Talked with my sister today. That doesn't sound like that big of a deal but when it comes to being a real close-knit-talk-to-everybody type of person I really am not. It wasn't that it was a hard thing to do I just normally talk to Mom and she fills me in on what is going on and that seems to be good enough and then I'll see everyone else at the next big family get together. But this time was different and I'll try to keep checking in on her because she has cancer. She is taking the chemo now and will likely have surgery after the first of the year, but I really hope she does well and is able to just beat this thing right into submission. She sounds like she is doing really good with it right now, she gets her chemo stuff done on Monday and then a white blood cell shot on Tuesday and then works the rest of the week. Sometimes routine is a good thing in life, because you don't have to focus on the big picture all the time and you can just keep meeting goals day by day and the next thing you know your a half year down the road and you've managed to meet your main goal. Anyway I guess she has lost her hair already and she said she had been mistaken for a guy twice. Once by a guy at the bank and another from a woman she was helping at work. I told her that after the woman said 'thank you sir' and she said 'no, I am a ma'am', that she also should have told her that she had cancer, that would've really made that lady feel bad. She figures most people understand that she is bald because of the treatment for the cancer, but I reminded her that there are a lot of freaks out there, a lot, and people may mistake her for one. Then we discussed the possibility of her getting a Tony Stewart tattoo on her head, but I don't think she think is going to do it, (pause) yet. Actually she kind of laughed but I think if me and my brother Stevie work on her we just might be able to make it happen. She also says that she is doing well with the white blood cell count and that is pretty important I gather, as she is not having to take blood, but if she does don't worry I will continue to give as long as I am capable. It is actually kind of disappointing to think of all the people who are physically capable of giving blood, but don't for whatever reason. Oh well hope things continue to go well and I will continue to pray for my big sis.

Playoffs in College Football

This is a two part post for playoffs in college football, why they need 'em and why they are still about 2 or 3 years away. First this season has been a terrible mess. As I write this there are still 2 undefeated teams in college football, Kansas and Hawaii. Everyone else has at least 1 loss and half of the top ten has 2 losses. Hawaii is still at 15, and likely will move up since Texas lost but they had the weakest schedule out of 119 teams so they likely won't suddenly vault into the top spot, but they are definitely better than some of teams that have lost 2 games in front of them. If Kansas can win out it will actually make things look pretty decent for the BCS, but if they lose then in all likely hood there will be 2 1-loss teams in the championship game. The idiot John Saunders said this is great for college football and really shows that it doesn't need a playoff, 'because every week is like a playoff'. How Dumb! This is the same old diatribe from playoff haters ever since the idea has been put out there. Every week is not a playoff or else Hawaii and Kansas would be teeing it up for the championship. It still all comes down to voters and subjective feeling about who should be in the game or at the top of the polls. The computers don't really do anything other than possibly screwing a team out of the championship. But does it really matter what 'people' think? Just put all of the stats into a computer wins, points, margin what have you, and let the computer figure out who should be in the game. Throw the polls out because they are too subjective. Now why won't that happen? Because bowl games are worth too much money. All the tie-ins with different conferences and sponsors, it is really too much to get into, but until someone suggests that they only do about 8 teams and make the first round all tied to the bowl games then they can have secondary sponsors for the next round and then another sponsor for the championship. Now about timing. Last year Ohio State was off for 50 days before being pounded in the championship game by Florida. That is over 7 weeks! You could play 7 rounds worth of playoff games in that span, so timing shouldn't be a problem, really. What needs to happen is that the 6 conferences that have BCS tie-ins should all have a championship game. Throw out the silly rule about only conferences with 12 teams having a championship and let all the conferences have a championship game. That is essentially the first round of the playoffs. The Big Ten can play their game in Indianapolis at the RCA dome. The PAC-10 can play at the new Cardinals stadium and the Big East can play either at Syracuse or Philadelphia or something. Then you play the first round major bowls the week of Christmas. The second round games the week of the 1st and the championship game the next week. That way all of the conferences have a shot and there are still 2 at-large spots for the 'poll' teams that have done the best. But until some of these schools start getting screwed out of their shot at the title nothing will change. I have a feeling that after this year there is going to be some major league yelling. So thanks John you had a good run, enjoy the end of it.

A side note: the BCS was created to bring the big ten and pac-10 into a unified championship game should one of the conferences have a top 2 team and in turn the Rose bowl would host the championship once every 4 years. Probably a lot of people hated the idea when it first came out, but the BCS did its job, it got all of the people that were enamored with the Rose Bowl to give up coveting the match up of the PAC-10 and the big ten (not much of a Match up really). After the BCS completes its third 4 year term it should be voted out in favor of what I proposed above. Don't worry about the playoffs, eventually everyone will forget why they hated the idea in the first place anyway.

McFadden for Heisman

After watching the LSU Arkansas game last night I gotta give the nod for the Heisman trophy to Darren McFadden of Arkansas. He scored 3 TD's threw for another and ran for like 200 yards. He basically directed the offense and beat the number 1 team in the country at their own place. Did I mention he is only a junior. No doubt in my mind that he won't be back next year and I know what Tebow in Florida has done (20+ TD's running and passing), but he didn't beat LSU and he'll definitely back next year so give the Heisman to McFadden and give the one next year to Tebow.

The 100th Blog - A Heroic Milestone

Hooray, Number 100. Well to celebrate this monumental occasion I have decided to make a Hero's Fountain and post some pictures and my first video. That's right we're going all out here for the 100th entry in the old blog. This maybe one of the cheapest Hero's fountains ever put together in the history or the world, total cost $0 (I borrowed the stoppers and tubing from work and used 3 old milk jugs).


The basic idea is once you prime the top cup and start the water flowing into the bottom jug, the water will fill it up forcing the air out and into the second jug, once the pressure in the second jug overcomes the head pressure in the pipe running back to the top cup, voila the water will flow, at least until the middle jug runs out of water. If there was just some way to transfer the water back from the bottom jug to the middle jug and the air back to the bottom then you could have perpetual motion. Well maybe I'll work on that for the 200th blog entry.

Enjoy and Happy Thanksgiving.

Ranking the Energy Drinks

During the recent turn around I had the need for a little pick me up and I decided to use an energy drink or two or three. I have decided to rank the energy drinks according to my preference.
#1 - Full Throttle
#2 - Full Throttle Unleaded - Kind of like the original a little less kick.
#3 - Monster Energy Khoas
#4 - Monster Energy
#5 - Full Throttle Blue Demon
#6 - NOS - tastes pretty decent, but doesn't really deliver a pick me up
#7 - Monster Energy Low Carb
#8 - Rock star Energy drink
#9 - Amp from mountain dew <- nothing like mountain dew.
#10 - Full Throttle Fury - Orangish garbage
#11 - Full Throttle Mother - Fruit drink, leaves a real funny after taste. Unranked - Full throttle blue berry or whatever it is (Rank #5 - 1/19/2008). - Red Bull - the original energy drink, but hardly worth $2 for half as much. - the Sobe drinks - I had one once, once. This is a list of all that I have had ever, I think you just have to go a long way to beat the full throttle. Amp was absolutely terrible, sorry Jr. fans, even if it will be his sponsor next year. Which is kind of ironic because my beverage of preference is Diet Dew, but that Amp just tastes nothing like mountain dew. Alright well this is the 99th post of my blog and I'm going to go have a full throttle and hopefully do something special for the old number 100. While your waiting go ahead and click on an add. Thank you for your support.

The F**T Locker

No this is not an endorsement by any means. As a matter of fact I was actually very disappointed in the old F00T Locker during my last visit. Number 1, I hate shopping. Number 2, I hate shopping for shoes. I don't do it very often and now that I am not in school and stuff I don't know when to buy them. Plus if I have a pair that works then I'm good and I can go over year without even looking for shoes. But it has been a year since I have had any new shoes and Sophie said we should get each other something that we need for Christmas rather than spend money on something frivolous. Which sounded fine to me, so I decided that Sunday we should go out and look at shoes and take our time, er my time. So we hit up every store in the mall and Gabe's before finally deciding to go to the old F.L. Well I picked out a pair of Nike's and Puma's to try on and the guy goes in the back and looks for my size, but they don't have either one. So I picked out a different pair of Puma's and they had 'em but they didn't really look right, and then I asked for a different pair of Nike's but they didn't have that size either. Then they tell me that I can order the shoe and it can be delivered right to the house. So I try on a pair of Nike's in a color I don't like to make sure they are alright, then I go up and order the pair in a different color. Well I would have except when I get to the check out she looks at the computer and tells me that they don't have any of that shoe that they can send. Needless to say I didn't feel like "settling" for a pair of lesser shoes, so we walked out. I kind of looked at the shoes in Sears on the way out, but they didn't really have what I wanted. They actually had a decent looking pair of shoes, but of course they didn't have them in my size. Tonight Sophie took me to the new JC Penny in the highlands and I got a pair of Sketcher's for good and a pair of Asics for running and balling and stuff. I hope I don't have to look at shoes for another year.

On a side note we got Peach a puppy while we were out. It is a little white poodle, with a pink leash and C batteries. What you though we got her a real dog, sorry I like dogs too much to subject one to the abuse of a 2 year old girl. She does really like it, plus she through a major fit when we put it back. Sophie said I was a big sucker but sometimes I like to buy stuff for the kids especially when I feel like I didn't see them for about 3 weeks. Her face really lit up when she got that puppy, maybe someday we'll get a real dog.

The flying spaghetti monster

A while back in the great state of Kansas, there was a debate over whether Creation should be taught in the classroom with equal time as evolution. One parent said they believed in the "flying spaghetti monster" and f.s.m.'s creation of the solar system and the universe and that the time should be split 3 ways between all 3 ideas in the class. If I was there I would ask if his religion or belief had over 1 billion followers like the most of the major religions. Then after he responded "no" I would of asked how many people have died for their belief in the flying spaghetti monster or how many crusades had been fought under the sign of the flying spaghetti monster. Which the answer would be - NONE. Then I would say even though you have your own individual belief as to the nature of the universe, since your ideas and not excepted outside of your own household, and they have no following or documentation there is no need to spend anytime covering this idea in the classroom. Thank you for your time and please check yourself into the nearest mental institution.
That was how it should have been handled, but somehow the spaghetti monster legend has reached a cult following (pun intended). Is it a good argument of why creation shouldn't be taught in a science classroom? No. If you are even a little religious, you have to subject yourself to all kinds of ideas that your religion isn't right or the idea that there isn't a God, so isn't it fair that science be subjected to the same type of examination. Being a scientist myself I think it makes it easier to understand math and chemistry and physics because everything has its place in the grand scheme of things and these disciplines make it possible for human beings to understand how things in our world work. After 10,000 or so years of conscious and collective thought only now are we realizing and explaining how things fit together and work. But any scientist that brings a theory forward has to be able to explain it and in my mind before it can be accepted it has to be proven beyond any reasonable doubt and then it should be widely accepted. However, the big bang theory has never been proven beyond a shadow of doubt, and even though evolution makes a ton of sense, it still doesn't answer all the questions. Let's assume for a second that creation is right. From a scientific perspective is in unreasonable to assume that when the Earth was formed that it was such an anomalous event that carbon dating or using some other type of half-life dating method would be inaccurate because of the extreme circumstances that surrounded the formation of the material. The other argument would be that, "Hey, God had to make the Earth out of something didn't he." I mean maybe all he had laying around where rocks that were 4 billion years old. How old do you think God is anyway? Man I should be a science teacher. Anyway, back to my original point I do not believe in the flying spaghetti monster, but I do believe that the big bang theory should be challenged because it is not widely accepted and when these young scientist go out into the world and start putting forth theories of how things work they need to be able to defend their work. Also they need to be able to challenge the work of their peers in an intellectual manner, especially if the other work is flawed. If kids are only taught one thing, and aren't taught to challenge ideas then they will not be good scientist and that is really the goal of the classroom turning out good thinking scientist. But I will make one more point. If science is right and there is no God, then when we die we are dead and that is the end. If creation is right, then there are going to be a lot of scientist in Hell.

The Soothe Sayer

Hey didn't I predict that the Browns would beat the Ravens twice!!!! You know it, and the way they tied it up had never been done before. If you didn't see, well you really have to see that field goal as time was expiring. The ball hit the upright went through took a funny bounce off of the strut that holds the goal post up and bounced back through the uprights into the end zone and the referees ruled it no good at first. But after about 5 minutes the referees ruled the field goal good and then the Browns beat the Ravens in overtime. I can't think of a better way for that team to lose, I mean think you win then 5 minutes later find out the game was tied, have to play some more and then lose in overtime. It kind of reminds me of that opening game at Cleveland a few years ago when they played Kansas City and on what should have been the final play the K.C. quarterback heaved a pass to a running back or tight end or something as he was being pulled to ground by Dwayne Rudd and Rudd thought the game was over after he tackled the QB, so he got up and took his helmet off and got a penalty for taking his helmet off on the field during the game. So KC got a chance to kick the game winning field goal and they ended up winning. Yeah it was kind of like that only wayyyyy better. And it made my prediction come true. Go ahead check it out, it was right after the draft when I said they would go 9-7 and make the playoffs, somethime in April. Man maybe the Sporting News should hire me to write for them.

Coming Soon

Cecil's Blogs of Note. The blogspot already has some blogs of note but I am going to add some blogs to the old side bar that might be worth hitting up if you have loads and loads of time and you've already read everything on this blog and you've already clicked on some of the ads.

Hold my beer and watch this!

Monday Sophie and I took Peach to eat while Sampson was in school. We went to Grecco's for the Pizza buffet, which I highly recommend, and when we got home Peach still had her root beer. I got her out of the car and she handed me her root beer and walked off. I was trying to get her car seat out of the car and I turned around and she was climbing up the grass bank between the car and the house. She got to the top and says,"Looky me, looky me." I told Sophie that was the 2-year old equivalent of 'Hold my beer and watch this!'

J.K. Rowlings' Announcement

Recently, ok it wasn't real recent but I've been busy, J.K. Rowlings, of Harry Potter fame, announced that once of the characters was not of the heterosexual persuasion. The only reason that I can figure for the announcement was that the books had already maxed out sales to the core followers of the story and this was just a was to maybe draw some h*m*sexual sales. That's it, nothing more nothing less. I don't think she is a closet g-y or anything, but from a literary perspective this revelation has absolutely no bearing on the story. Especially since it was Albus Dumbledore and for the entire series he had no intimate relationships with anyone, even in flashbacks. But Sophie said when he was recounting his relationship with Grindewald, she thought he might have been g-y. I didn't notice it at all, but now I don't know how to respond. I mean I am already pot committed sort of since I have read all the books, but does it change my outlook or how I convey the story to my children or do I not even tell them at all? I mean it gives a whole new meaning to him being headmaster at Hogwarts. Sorry couldn't resist that one. I really think the whole thing was motivated by money though, I mean she could have picked anyone out of the story to be h-m-sexual, what about Hagrid and his pink umbrella? or Snape, after all he was a self proclaimed "prince". It would be like the creator of the Sopranos saying that "yeah, Tony was shot in the last episode, by a h-m-sexual." It would make no sense and have no bearing on the story. I mean what does the actor do now, play Dumbledore g-y? They have already shot 5 films, it is a little late to change now. It just didn't make any sense to me and I didn't really care for the announcement in the manner in which it was done. Sorry H.P. fans, but I will never look at this series the same. Greedy J.K. just greedy.

Sophie Wins - Again

Well Sophie has won this year's game of Survivor pick 'em. You see every season we pick someone from the opening credits of the first show and who's ever player lasts longer is the winner. Seems pretty simple, but I have yet to win, once, ever. I have only had one player make it to the merge and twice I have picked the person voted out first. This year it came down to me picking either Sherea or Chicken and if you follow survivor you know that Chicken was voted out first, so I barely avoided the kiss of death and I thought that maybe I had picked someone that could make it, but noooo. Sophie picked Eric who conveniently hasn't made any noise in the game and the team that was dominating the game and could have picked her guy off at the merge but has turned to infighting, so likely her pick will make it to the finals. This is pretty much how it plays out every season, I'll make a beautiful strategic pick, like the strong guy or the good looking girl (the good looking one always makes to the merger right? - except last year when I picked her and she went home first) and that will be the year that it is the exception to the rule. I should have realized by now that no matter who I pick they aren't going to make it. The very first time we played this little game was the Australia year and I picked Mike, who was the leader of his tribe - he even killed a boar in the wild with a homemade spear. He was going to make it to the merge, hadn't received one vote when his tribe had gone to tribal counsel and his tribe had the numbers advantage at 6 to 4 until he fell into a fire. He was just setting there tending the fire and he fell asleep and fell into a fire and had to be air lifted out of the game. Mean while Sophie's guy ends up third. For clarification HE FELL INTO A FIRE. The next season I picked Seth (I really don't know how I am able to remember all of these people) and Sophie picked Ethan. Seth was in prime position to go to the merge and win the individual immunities, but in true survivor form he ends up getting picked to go to the other tribe in a 3 member swap before the merge where is quickly voted out at the next tribal. That is kind of what happened this year with Sherea she got picked by the other tribe to come over with Frosti while the tribe she was on picked the two strongest guys from the other tribe. It made absolutely no sense for them to pick Sherea. Sophie's guy was the obvious one to pick from the tribe, but they didn't do it and do you know why? Because I picked her to win it is the only logical explanation. Anyway congratulations Sophie and if anyone is going to appear on Survivor you can send me a couple bucks so I don't pick you, or click on one of the ads.

O-H-I-O

Ohio vs. Akron. In the first 6 minutes both teams are on pace to score 100 points. In regulation.

Ohio just got stopped on 4th down. So no triple digits tonight.

Sophie's trip to the store

Today Sophie spent an hour and a half at Kroger trying to get a deep freeze. See if she used the Kroger card and bought $25 dollars worth of Kroger's food she could get the deep freeze for $99, which is a good deal as we have been pricing freezers for a while. However, she proceeded to the check out not knowing that only 'frozen' foods were eligible to count for the $25. To which she responded that that logic didn't make any sense, because you are just now buying the freezer and by the time you got it home and plugged in and running below freezing all the food would be thawed out. This was the first attempt at checking out so she told them that since she didn't have the eligible amount she didn't want to check out yet and they would have to restock her stuff from this trip to the check out since she was going to have to go back and get 'frozen' foods. (side note: this is funny because of the checkout post I just did. I showed it to Sophie, but she didn't think it was funny.) So she goes back and now gets 'frozen' foods and checks out 90 minutes after entering the store. She asked me if I wanted to trade days, let's see...

At about 8:30 this morning the foreman left for his mother's surgery, so I filled in, at which point we started making non-standard and had to go to the road. So I had to get the relief to the road and had to watch oil trucks until somebody else could go down. Meanwhile, we made changes to get the grade out of the road and right when it was good we plug the pulverisor and had to shut down. Then we lit off the reject pulseair collector and had to re-bag it. And I mixed up a new tank of potassium for unit 4. Also found two things that needed re-ranged on the DCS and did the daily production. Still wouldn't have traded Sophie for her day.

So many blogs so little time

I still have a lot I have been wanting to blog about, but our plant is finishing up a two week turn around and we have just about got the new DCS installed. I have been working 12 and 14 hour days this week to keep the install on schedule, and will probably have to work this weekend, but then we will be done with this phase. We started making black again on Unit 3 today, so that was a big milestone. Once unit 4 is up and running everything will be done, except for dressing up the graphics, I hope.

One note for anyone installing a Siemens APACS system or the new PCS 7 system with IEM's, make sure you test points on both systems in a redundant system. This will make sure that similar modules are going to similar marshalling strips. Otherwise if the cables aren't going to the right spot and the system switches you could have a catastrophic failure. We didn't, but you could.

Got a give a shout out to God, for giving me strength and helping to keep everything going well. I just pray that the last couple of days go well, because this whole time everything we do takes an extra 20 to 30 minutes, even on loops that are checking out.

Oh well, that will do for tonight. 3 more days. 3 more days.

Rain sensing wipers

There was a commercial just on for a car with rain sensing wipers. How dumb. You are in the car, you have to look out the wind shield to drive, you have to see the rain, people can't turn on their own wipers now. I guess people are too busy putting on make-up, talking on cell phones and eating to turn on those wipers. Hey how about working on something that automatically activates the blinker, oh and also turns the steering wheel.

Rules to Check-out by

While I was checking out tonight at the local Kroger, I came to several different realizations, actually I have had the realizations before but never put them down.

1) People who are going to write a check to pay for their groceries never start writing the check until after the cashier tells them the total. It's like 'hello, you know you aren't whipping out a $50 bill and paying with cash, start writing the check when all of the stuff is out of the buggy. It isn't like they are going to tell you the total and you are going to say you changed your mind.' Ohh that is too high I'm not going to buy that, I am sooooo glad I didn't waste a check here.
1b) or use the check writing machine, just sign your name and they scan it through, simple.

2) What ever lane I get in will be the longest possible wait. It never fails, there will be a lane with 8 more people in it and the person that walked up after me will get checked out before me.

1c) use the U-scan and take all the time you want to check out and write a check.

3) The faster you want to go the longer it will take. Guaranteed.

After these realizations I have developed a few rules to follow to help speed up the old check out process.

Rule #1) Avoid the older cashiers. Unless you want to set there and think 'I could grab their hand, wrap it around my stuff, and swipe it before they could.' Also they will want to talk to you and discuss everything your buying, 'Getting a box of wine huh, that should be fun. I remember the time I bought a box of wine once ....'
#1b) Always go to a cashier that is younger than you. Look for the youngest most well groomed male. If he has gel in his hair, you are going to get out of there quick. If there aren't any guys it can be hit or miss with young girls. Don't go too young though, you don't want somebody handling your Karo syrup going 'What's this for?'. Mid 20's to early 30's for women, after that it is a needle in a hay stack.

#2) Avoid the line with the mom and kids. She has coupons, and she will always catch something that didn't scan right or at least she will argue for a few minutes before conceding that the sale on bananas doesn't start until tomorrow and now she doesn't want them. I know this from shopping with Sophie.

#3) Get in the line with the most single guys. These guys use cash or credit cards, have one or two things, and never want to talk. They got way too much going on to spend too much time in a store.

#4) Don't get in line behind me. Refer to realization 2.

Hope this helps speed up your next shopping trip or at least you can laugh about it when you are in line and you think 'man, I should have paid closer attention to what was on that blog.'

Halloween Check-up

Good bye Rockies' colors hello old color scheme. I sure hope Rockies' fans don't blame me for that "display" in the World Series. I called it, there was a sweep alright. I think I am going to start rooting for the team I want to lose, but if I announce that I am doing that will it still be effective?

New Layout

Check it out a new layout. Clicking on the "customize template" button at 10:30 on Sunday night is not a good idea. Now I have to figure out how to get my Google search bar back. Hey how 'bout some Rocky colors.

Wood Cutting Party

By golly when my Mom's neighbor throws a wood cutting party she throws a wood cutting party. There was 5 or six chain saws and two trucks running pretty steady for 7 or 8 hours. I only caught the last 5 hours or so, but all told there was about 19 loads and there is still more left. Unfortunately I don't use wood, but my mom does so I was glad to help out. Happy Birthday Mom.

Note: I really don't know if you should call that a party or not. I also had an epiphany there: You really shouldn't bring an axe to a wood cutting party where everyone has chain saws.

The Red Suks

Well if you saw game 7 you know that I am now rooting for the Rockies to win the World Series. And I swear that if Bill Simmons, "the sports guy" writes one thing about the red sox come back from 3-1 I'll quit reading my ESPN the magazine. Seriously. I hope the Rockies get up 3-0 and there is all kind of media about how they have come back from 3-0 and 3-1 deficits in a 7 game series and then the lose the fourth game.

Is it just me or are the Red Sox over taking the Yankees as the most hated franchise in Sports. I mean the only way a franchise from that area can win is either trade away all their youth, buy players or cheat. I hope the Sox get Swept. IT'S ROCKY TIME NOW!

I guess I can let Peach out of her room now... unless it will help the Rockies....

Shout Box

I'm going to add the shout box to my blog. It should appear on the left hand side. You might have to scroll down a little to see it, but go ahead and give me a little shout out. I saw it on the 60minuteartist blog and thought it was a must have. But if you think it is really cool go ahead and give one of the old adds the clickety click click.

Game 7

OK it's 3-1 Red Sox but Peach has been put in her room for the night and she is OFFICIALLY in time out until the end of the game. Even if she fell asleep early it is still time out.

Universal Health Care

It really sounds like a great idea on the surface, "everyone can go to the Dr. whenever they want and they'll get treated and not have to pay anything." Which would be great except someone has to pay for it at some point, meaning tax payers. Now if you don't pay taxes or just enjoy the heck out of paying taxes then this poses no problems. But of the proposals brought forth by the presidential candidates on this issue the most conservative of estimates is $90 billion dollars. Now divide that by 300 million people and the average cost is $300 dollars per person. Hey that doesn't sound so bad, but kids can't pay for that, people already on gov't assistant aren't going to pay, and seniors won't pay because they already have medicare. So let's say half of the people will foot the bill, then the cost only goes up to $600. Well that's still not that bad especially if you can drop your family coverage at work.

Let's look at a socialistic system that is already in place in the UK. The UK's system is one of the most nationalistic available, meaning that everyone in the general population can go to a state run hospital and see a state sponsored physician at no additional costs than what they pay in taxes. The annual costs in 2000 was 104 billion pounds which would convert roughly (and I mean very roughly considering the dollar's current weak position) to US$147 billion. OK so that is a little more than $90 billion but still less than double so that would be like $980 per person. Well that isn't that great, but if you were spending over $100 /month in premiums then it would still be better than $1200 per year. But wait the UK only services 60 million people not 300 million so you need to multiply that number by 5 to get a closer approximation to what the service would cost in the US, $4900. What?!? Yeah that is a little bit of sticker shock but probably more closely approximates what the actual cost would be to individuals here in the US. Plus the US would have to set up an entire infastructure to support and track the new system, which would take some additional up front money. The US currently spends, on average, $7,000+ per person and that is with "limited" health care coverage. The United States spends more per person based on gross domestic product (GDP) than any other country in the world and the health care that people receive is on the top end as far as quickness to get seen and quality. The problems with the US system are 1) that the bottom 1/4 of the population has very limited access which will bring down the average when compared to other countries, 2) Prescription drugs are out of sight and it seems like the more "medicines" someone takes then they have to take another "medicine" to counter act the deficiency created by the primary medicine. My mom, Rose, takes a water pill for her congestive heart failure, but then also takes a potassium pill because the water pill cause her to lose too much potassium. 3) Little or no regulation in what hospital's or physicians can charge for services, $5,000 for a PET scan or $1,000 for an MRI sure that sounds reasonable. 4) Even if you have insurance, if your doctor or the insurance won't go along with a certain procedure or test that they feel you don't need, which is rare, your only option is to pay for the entire thing out of pocket and the free market hasn't caught up with the hospitals when offering diagnostic tests, like a PET scan.

The solution - Socially there should be an obligation to help the bottom of the scale, but where exactly does that solution start. If a plan is put in place to help the lowest people on the income scale then it will have to be subsidized by people on the upper end of the scale, which would not make the plan beneficial to them because there would be no benefit. So here is what needs to happen 1) Give Hospitals and health centers and any other facility that does something in the health field a total break on property tax, and other local city charges like water, sewer and trash under the agreement that they will lower their prices by a similar amount that way their bottom line won't be affected. 2) Put a waiver in on taxes for employees at these facilities. Not for the total tax but some percentage so they don't have as much taken out, then have the facility adjust their wage so that their take home pay is unaffected (i.e. they still clear the same amount), but the hospital will improve their bottom line and in turn will lower prices. 3) Impose regulations and set a target for prices on services to be reached in the next 5 years and 10 years. This will force the industry to become more stream line and look for the most cost effect solutions to treating patients. If new technologies are to be tried they will be done at the hospital's expense or the company with new technology not insurance. 4) End frivolous law suits against doctors. Only in cases where there is severe negligence can a person be sued, you know like operating on the wrong leg or arm or something. As long as the doctor was trying his or her best to help someone they shouldn't be liable, after all we are looking to them for help. 5) Limit the amount of money that can be spent on advertising prescription drugs. Any amount that is spent over the limit is treated like a luxury tax in sports and the company will be responsible for paying additional taxes to the government. Take this access and set up a fund for the poorest 1/4 of Americans so that they can get treatment.

OK, well thanks for reading all that and I hope that your eyes don't need any treatment after reading it.

Child Punishment

Is it wrong to extend the punishment of your child (i.e. timeout) because the Indians are scoring runs like crazy and rather than curtail the punishment and risk stopping the runs I had to let the punishment persist until the end of the inning just to make sure?

I didn't think so either.

Oh she hit her brother in the face with a play dough container.

You know your having a bad day when...

This post is inspired by my aunt Georgia and uncle Luke who recently made a trip back to Ohio from Colorado.

You know you are having a bad day when your plane starts making noise and you tell your wife to start looking for places to land. Then you land and find out that your plane needs parts, but you can't fly to get the parts, now you have to drive about oh 700 miles round trip. Then you get the parts back and realize that you left wallet back where you got the parts. You go pick up the wallet, but now the plane is making noise again. You land in Illinois to get the plane fixed and then decide to drive the rest of the way about 550 miles. That takes another day, but hey it was all worth it in the end right. Right? I mean you did get mentioned in my blog. That should be worth at least one click on the old ads. Anyway, sorry, hope the trip back is less eventful.

Presidential Candidates 2008

Check out the link below to see which presidential candidates most closely match your views on the issues. You may be surprised.

htttp://www.wqad.com/Global/link.asp?L=259460

Sophie found out that some of her ideals didn't line up with the candidates she thought she liked. Rudy being pro-choice did not set well, also we like us some tax breaks. Sophie says she'll vote for Tom Tancredo if he gives a tax credit for stay at home moms. Nothing wrong with that, Hillary wants to give away $5,000 for any 'new' babies. Kind of like what Russia did when they handed out 10 grand, and gave people the day off to go home and ... well you know. Nothing though if you already have the kids. Hmmm, I wonder if

Whoo Hoo the Indians win game 3 4-2 thanks to Sophie's Shirt.
Me and the kids were waving out shirts for the final out, not Sophie though she's not allowed to take the shirt off until after the game is over.
IT'S TRIBE TIME NOW!

Sports Predictions

So I have been reading my Sporting News about a week late and it really is interesting to see how the "experts" picked games versus how they actually turned out. In the last two weeks Matt Hayes has correctly predicted 14 games out of 24. A svelte 58%. Not bad for someone who gets paid to watch sports all day and then write about sports. Oh and in this week's article he all but crowned the Cal Golden Bears the national champs, which they then promptly lost to Oregon State. The bad thing is he picked USC twice to win (Actually 1-1), Notre Dame twice to Lose (1-1), and Cal to beat an unranked team. News flash, I want the games between top 25 teams picked and any top 25 teams that are going to be upset. That's it, I don't really want to know if you think Kansas can hold off Baylor, or Boston College can pound Notre Dame, that is pathetic. But what is really pathetic is picking USC to beat Stanford by 41 and they actual lost by 1. But the most pathetic thing is that someone can actually get paid the same amount without any repercussions for a terrible job. I guess the real pathetic thing though is that I am still reading sporting news... for now (see the Browns' record).

Early Season Rules for Browns' Victories

Well the football season is under way and even though I am not superstitious, I have developed a few ground rules on who is allowed to wear what on game day so as to assure the Browns the best possible chance for victory.

Rule 1: Sophie is not allowed to wear any official Browns clothing. None, nada, zip, not even a T-shirt. Although she can wear clothing with brown in it, but no orange.
#2: I must have a Jersey on before kick off and can not take it off until after the game is over. Also I can not take off said Jersey if a NASCAR race has started. The race must be finished before the Jersey can be taken off, otherwise I will put Tony Stewart at risk, see blog on Kansas race.
#3: If the game is going to be watched, the children must have their Jersey's on BEFORE kick off. If the Jersey's are not on them when the game starts then the children must not be allowed to put their Jersey's on.
#4: If the game is not going to be watched or is not televised locally the children do not have to wear their Jerseys.
#5: Jerseys must be clean. We don't do lucky stink.
#6: Sophie must wear an Indian's T-shirt for every other Home game during the baseball playoffs. There is currently no evidence that this will effect the Browns, however this phenomena will be studied more closely during the ALCS.

Well that's it for now I will update this as needed. Currently the Browns are 3-3, so according to "The Sporting News" they will lose their next 10 games. If not the "The Sporting News" will lose one subscriber.

An Apology

Let me begin by offering an apology to Peach who I earlier accused of tossing my remote in the trash. Recently the remote has resurfaced in the house, so I can no longer accuse her throwing it away. However, the remote only resurfaced after some work was done on the television, so it is entirely possible that the repairman had a remote with him and accidentally left it. Even though I can neither confirm nor deny that is what happened, either way I feel obligated to apologize.

Sorry Peach. . . for now.

Because the next thing that shows up missing you will definitely be blamed. Count on it.

The worst race in NASCAR history

Yesterday's Kansas race was pathetic for a multitude of reasons. First Tony should have won the race on a gamble for fuel and rain which had him leading when the race was red flagged. But 2 hours later the geniuses decided to try and finish the race, only now it was going to get dark before they finished so they shortened the race to 210 laps. Which begs the question why not just leave the race a rain out? Idiots! Then after the race restarted there was a big wreck (surprise), in which Tony got caught up in other people's junk and knocked in the left front of the car, consequently causing a tire rub that would flatten his left front tire just at the right time for Kurt Busch to come up and nail him into the wall. In the process of crashing Tony took out Carl, who seemed to understand the situation pretty well. Tony had to try and stay out and at one point I thought he could drive the car and keep it together, but no. Then at the end of the race Greg Biffle was leading and Juan Montoya Montoyaed himself with four laps left, but rather than even attempt a green white checker, NASCAR lets the race end under caution. Not only that but Greg's car runs out of fuel near the start/finish line and a couple of cars pass him, but the field was already "frozen" when the caution came out. Terrible NASCAR, terrible.

Turning 30

Well a lot has happened since I last blogged, both good and bad. I turned 30 (bad, although hardly noticeable) and Sophie through me a surprise party (good). She got me pretty good with that one. I was in such a zone concentrating on work and she told me that we were going to go to a movie and when I got home my mom and neighbors, in-laws, and Bo and Ashley (my bro and sister in-law) were there. I was completely surprised. I actually didn't turn 30 though until Saturday and on Sunday when I am usually tired I actually felt pretty good. Until Sunday night at about 11:00 when I got sick and threw up, and then I threw up again at about 5:00 in the morning. Needless to say I was a little late for work, but I did finally make it in about 2:00 P.M. That started 12 days straight of meeting with corporate people and started the first cut over for the DCS. Everything with the cut-over went surprisingly well (good) and I keep expecting something to happen. We may have found something today with the flare stack, but we should have an opportunity to fix it. Sophie also lost her uncle Tom to a heart attack. It was very sudden and unexpected, he was 58, and died while at work on a Sunday (very bad). The funeral was one of the saddest I have every been to and I felt extremely bad for the family. There was over 250 people at the funeral and it was to hard to not cry. Sorry Uncle Tom you will be missed.

September 11

Today marks the 6th anniversary of the September 11th attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, as well as the failed attempt with flight 93. It was a terribly sad event both for the reason of the lose of life and the realization that we could be attacked at home. Today we should all take a moment and really appreciate what we have here. We Never Forget, and I don't think we should either. I will always remember that day, like it was last week. It was a Tuesday, like today, and on the way to work I remember the radio saying it was national 9-1-1 day because of the date, and I thought that was funny because today would probably be the least used day of the year for 9-1-1, but boy was I wrong. I remember hearing about the first plane when I was setting in a QS9000 meeting and one of the people from the other plant who had come for a prep meeting got a phone call from his Mom saying that we were under attack. We kind of blew it off at first because we didn't have all of the details. Then she called back and said both of the World Trade Centers had been hit. It didn't really sink in and what happened next was kind of a blur until I walked into my trailer/office and saw the TV set up and it showed the towers falling and I said 'Oh my God they fell'. And there were two people in there watching and they just kind of nodded, because they had already seen the footage several times. My heart kind of sunk because you knew it wasn't a real 'accident' but you didn't know what kind of attack it was going to be. I remember standing in the desulf control room at about 2:30 PM and the lights went out and I said 'we are under attack', and I really thought a power plant or lines or something had been taken out. Unfortunately we just had an inconsistent power supply at the coke plant, and within a few minutes or seconds the power was back on, and we were trying to sort out what happened. I don't remember exactly what failed, but I remember being there late that night and checking on the coverage that was playing in the conference room and later they showed bombs being set off in Afghanistan. I remember seeing them show the people in that general geographic location celebrating what had happened on American soil earlier in the day and I was anxious to see us retaliate because I didn't really know the extent of the attack on us, but it did kind of feel like we should be fighting. I hate that our children will never know what it was like living in a world before 9/11, you know going through the security at the airport with your family and them staying at the gate with you watching your plane take off, but after 6 years I'm not sure I really remember what it was like myself. I think people will always give up some personal freedom or time to feel safe, but I don't know that anyone will ever be totally free and totally safe ever again.

Another Bathroom Update Again

Finished.

NFL Pick 'em Week 2

Did I say the Browns would go 9-7, I meant 7-9. Yeah that's it. Ok last week I was way off about the Rams and now Orlando Pace is out for the season so they probably won't be as good as I thought. Good news though for the Browns as they play the Rams in week 8. Last Week's record was 3-2, not bad for the 1st week, especially with the redskins winning in overtime and Denver winning on literally a last second field goal. Here we go week 2:

Cincinnati over the Browns. What I'm realistic. I hope the Browns will win, and if they do then I could pick them to lose every week and they will win. Bwah hah hah (evil laugh).
New England over San Diego.
Tennessee over Indianapolis - (Upset)
Bears over the Chiefs
Dallas over Miami
Carolina over Houston

Bathroom Update Again

The toilet is installed, but the water line was a little short. I'll pick one up tomorrow after work. I decided to use an extra large wax ring to make up the difference of the tile rather than use one of the kits that has the gasket system because when I put it in and set the toilet on it I didn't really feel like I could trust it. I talked to my brother today and he said the same thing. The rubber can wear and breakdown later, but wax, well wax lasts forever.

Family Tree

Spent some time with my Aunt at the Cemetery today. She told me a lot about my family and I now know who my Great Grandparents are.

Mom's side: Lucetta (Claus) and Charles Mann
Racheal (Matz) and Jacob John Christman
Dad's side: Jane (Pittman) and Sedrick Smith
Sevilla (Headley) and Leon Mobley

We all have 8 Great Grandparents do you know who your's are?

'Fantasy' Football

The Browns win their opener, barely. After surviving an early 17-0 deficit the Browns turned to their future star Brady Quinn to lead them on 3 scoring straight scoring drives opening up the second half. The Steelers managed to score again putting them up 24-21 mid way through the last quarter. On the next drive, Quinn led the Browns down the field and on the strong legs of Jamal Lewis, the Browns were able to score from 2 yards out with less than 2 minutes remaining. On the subsequent drive the Steelers' QB Ben Rothilesberger threw a pick to Leigh Bodden and Quinn was able to assume his first victory formation, as the Brown secured their first victory of year. . . .

Whoa, what happened there, I dozed off at the keyboard for a second. No No No the Browns didn't really win, but honestly how long do you have to be loyal to QB's that have guided you to a 4-13 record over the last 17 games. I mean really your best shot is with the unproven rookie that other teams haven't prepared for. And he is the best mix of the talent you have anyway. Frye is mobile, although he took six sacks, and Anderson can throw, but Quinn can do both and better. For Romeo's sake he needs to be good, if he plays early. If he waits to play him, then he needs to stink too, so Romeo can say he really didn't have much of a choice. I mean between Frye and Anderson they have 2 years experience, and most of those weren't meaningful games. Just put the rookie in, let him hand off a lot and make throws when he needs to, and let him get some experience so you can win games in two or 3 years. This isn't like Green Bay where they draft that Cal quarterback and he is still on the bench because Favre, a 3-time league MVP, is still there. Frye and Anderson haven't even been in the league for 3 years. I think Quinn is mentally strong enough to take losing if he is gaining experience. He QB'd at Notre Dame for 4 years, so he is not a one-shot draft-cash-in like Ryan Leaf (that will be Jamarcus Russell) instead Quinn is more like Manning. I'm not saying that he has the talent of Manning, but he is more of that mold, especially more than Frye and Anderson.

NFL Pick 'em Week 1

Ok, gonna try my hand at sports for a bit. I thought the Browns could go 9-7 without even looking at their schedule and after looking at the schedule I still think they can go 9-7. The Gurus at the sporting News say 3-13, so we will see who is right. If I hit it right on, I am canceling my subscription. They were so close to winning 4 or 5 more games last year and I think they have up graded at enough positions to put themselves over the top. So I'll be like a lot of other sports folks pick 4-5 cake games and then an upset. Alright here we go;

- Browns over the Steelers. (upset) although mild since Tomlin makes his debut for the Steelers. Do you realize that Brian Bilick is now the lone white coach in the AFC Central. Just an observation. L
- Denver over Buffalo W
- Washington over Miami W
- Green Bay over Phili W
- Rams over Panthers (could be another mild upset, but the rams could score more points than any team in the NFL this year.) L

Bathroom Update Again

No I'm still not done. The toilet will get attached Saturday. Have been busy at work with the DCS install. Siemens is here this week and they are configuring the control room. So far so good. I told Sophie not to wait to make dinner for me until the install is done. Yeah, that's the kind of week it has been.

Bathroom Update

Just a note Sophie finished the grout on the floor, YEAH!!!! So I cut the trim behind the toilet with my Father's Day gift, a miter saw, so she could stain it. Tomorrow the toilet goes on. If I am lucky. Also thinking of starting a family tree in Excel. I'll let you know how that goes.

Number 14 Finish

Finished my two weeks of finishing things. Ha. Bet you weren't expecting that. Oh well, this 'labor day' weekend has likened to killed me. You are supposed to be taking the weekend easy, celebrating the fact that you are normally laboring, but no, not this weekend I swear my arms hurt so bad Saturday night I could barely get to sleep. It reminded me of what my arms felt like after setting carbon for about a week straight, and all I did was try and remove the linoleum. Feeling better now, hey just in time to head back to work. There are still some things to finish in the bathroom. Sophie laid the tile today, she'll grout tomorrow or Wednesday (Oh yes, Sophie does the tiling), and then I get to try and put the toilet back on. Home depot says expect to take about two hours for toilet install. Ha. The Home Depot's got nothing on me. If they knew me they'd say you better take the day off work or plan on a Saturday for install. We'll see Home Depot, we'll see...

Number 13 Finish

Hey, Finished laying the cement board floor in the bathroom yesterday.

Historic Start for The Big Ten Network

Doh! That is the sound heard from the people running the Big Ten Network today. It looked like a good idea on paper, let your preseason top 5 team start the season out on your network to showcase the true powerhouse capability of the Big Ten as Michigan pounds away on poor 1-AA Appalachian State. Except you know Michigan gets beat... at home... by the 2-time defending 1-AA National Champion Mountaineers of App. State. Did I mention that Michigan had a chance to put the game away twice in the last 3 minutes, but both field goal attempts were BLOCKED. Missed I could understand, but how do you give up two blocks in less than 5 minutes. That was terrible, and oh by the way this was the first time a team from the division formally known as 1-AA (it is the Bowl Sub Division now) has ever beaten a team in the AP top 5. Congratulations Big Ten Network on making history, I can't wait to sign up and watch the highly competitive Big Ten lose to non-conference foes. 'Next week on the Big Ten Network Wisconsin takes on a Pee-wee football team from Eastern Wisconsin.' I'll have to record that, I don't want to miss history again.

Number 11 & 12 Finishes

Finished taking the toilet off yesterday so we could tile the floor (#11). Finished taking off the linoleum today (#12). Hopefully I'll get the backer board down soon. This was a lot harder than I thought. I kind of knew it was going to suck going in, but remember those Old Milwaukee ads where they said 'It doesn't get any better than this'. Well I found the opposite, 'It doesn't get any crappier than trying to redo your bathroom' (pun intended). Alright well I gotta get back to it. Did I mention this is the first Saturday of the College Football season? What was I thinking doing this stuff this weekend? Oh well, it is months that are really busy that make you appreciate the slow months when you can relax.

Something For Sophie

Sophie had me reserve a book for her at the Library, "I was a really good mom before I had kids". I told her she had to write a review when she was done. That reminds me I can write a review for "Harry Potter: and the Deathly Hallows" now. Not tonight though, NCAA football start, big brother is on, and so is "Who wants to be a Super Hero" on the Sci-Fi channel. I think that show will be hilarious, I'll let you know.

Number 10 Finish

Finished the testing on unit 3 sprays today. No short accomplishment. Now it's up to Dr. J. Irvin to analyze the data. He is a Ph.D. from Atlanta, so no worries. I might look at the data if I get a chance between now and the DCS installation.

Number 9 Finish

Finished testing the spray tip for unit 4 at work. Also made Sophie spit milk out of her nose. That has absolutely nothing to do with finishing anything, but when someone is brought to spitting milk out of their nose that is funny. I was tickling Samson while he had a Reese's Cup in his mouth and Sophie could she it, she though it was going to come out of his mouth and make a chocolaty mess on me, but it didn't. Disaster averted. Except for the milk.

Sophie Says

Greetings. Just wanted you to know that Sophie said that last blog had 'tool' written all over it. I don't know what she is talking about, I didn't even mention tools. Some people just don't appreciate good blogin'.

A little Math

Hi all. Just did a little math to project my potential earnings at the current rate of return for the old AdSense. At the rate I am currently raking in the dough, I will reach a Million dollars in about 26 years. Oh wait I forgot to carry the 7 ... 200 years... oops forgot that four there, let's see ... 2,000 years, oh wait decimal is in the wrong spot ... 200,000 years. What!?! That's terrible. Crap a remainder... 260,416 years! Comm'on people I don't think I can hold on that long. Please...click... ads... fading... fast... dreams ... hope....

2007 Miss Teen USA

Apparently in the pageant the contestant from South Carolina was asked 'Why one-fifth American couldn't find the United States on a map?'. Her incoherent rambling reminded me of Billy Madison, but at the end of her rambling the moderator, Mario Lopez, said 'good answer' instead of 'May God have mercy on your soul', or 'we are all now dumber for having listened to your incoherent ramblings'. I mean I have done some dumb stuff, but not like that. She said, "I personally believe that US Americans are unable to do so, because, is that some people out there, in our nation, don't have maps, and I believe that our education, such as South Africa, and the Iraq, everywhere like, such as, and I believe that they should, our education over here, in the US should help the US, or um should help South Africa and should help the Iraq and the Asian countries, so we will be able to build up our future, for our children." Apparently the reason 1/5th of America can't find the United States is because they spend too much time getting ready for beauty pageants. I don't normally bet (see my gambling entry), but I would bet this girl couldn't find the U.S. if you spotted her North America. The real answer may be that as a specicies we are de-volving at least on the outside. I'll leave it at that for now, but look at all the people who are surviving things that they never would have been able to before thanks to medicine. Some of the effects of diseases or even the drugs/medicine could have long lasting effects that haven't been accoutned for. Perhaps some people are impared from being able to even just remeber things, not necessarily that they are stupid, but if they pass that along to their children and the effect is magnified imagine the effects on generations to come.

Number 8 Finish

Finished attaching my downspouts via a screw. Man this is a weak one, but today was pretty hectic at work. There are two people up from Atlanta and one wants to work on the DCS system, Siemens APACS w/ PCS7, and the other one wants to work on yield. I felt like a guy on two different dates at the same restaurant. You spend time with one in the morning, then you'd go and see the other one 'til lunch, then try and split time in the afternoon. We did get a lot done with yield, set up the new test stand with an air flow meter and did some hard core testing in the afternoon. Good news, only 2 more days of that.

Mike Vick and Sno-Biz

OK. I know what you are thinking, how could something so bad end up in the same blog as something so good. (Good = Sno-Biz) I know there have been a bunch of articles written lately on Mike Vick and him killing dogs, but I guarantee this is the only one that mentions him and Sno-Biz. Go ahead look it up at http://www.google.com/ or something. Anyway I feel I should talk about this matter even though I am not sure where I stand. Oh of course I think it is deplorable to kill animals, especially by drowning or electrocuting the poor things, but honestly what do people think happens to all of the animals that end up in the pound and never get adopted. They end up meeting a similar fate although not as gruesome, still the same end. What is most disappointing is that someone who is set to make $130 million dollars over 10 years, feels compelled to do something like this. I mean for one your Mike Vick, so who wouldn't want to buy the dogs off of you. For two your going to make ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY MILLION DOLLARS. Just let that sink in for a moment. That is more than some people win in a lottery and this is payable over a ten year period not 20, plus a $22 million signing bonus. All you have to do is not be stupid and end up in jail or something. And this doesn't even touch his endorsement money. This whole story is just sad, dogs get killed, $130 million+ is taken away, and Mike ends up in jail. It all could have been avoided if he DIDN'T DO something. Just DON'T get into illegal competitive dog fighting and DON'T go directly to jail. How hard is that? But this isn't the first time Vick has had trouble saying 'no'. Remember when he got caught at the Miami airport with weed in his water bottle. SNL did a funny skit on the news called 'Really!?!' when it came to this matter. "Didn't think to throw the weed in the trash before going through security, Really? Didn't realize you couldn't have a bottle larger than 3 oz. on the plane anyway, Really? Didn't realize weed was illegal or something? Really!? ...." Let me tell you what the solution to this problem is - Sno-Biz. Sure it sounds simple, but if all that money that was spent on the dog kennel, the fights, the betting, the lawyers to fight the incarceration was used to buy kids or even adults, let not rip the adults off here, sno-biz, think of the possibilities. If you have never experienced sno-biz then go to http://www.snobiz.com/ and check out a local vendor. I recommend the peach cobbler with cream, just ask for it even if it is not on the menu. Trust me the last thing on your mind will be killing dogs. And as far as the Falcons go, Bobby Petrino should send Mike a gift basket for making his job so much easier, now Petrino won't have to worry about Vick costing him his job like his two predecessors. Hey Bobby, why not put a couple of gift certificates to sno-biz in that basket while you're at it. Trust me.

Oh look, Joey Harrington has thrown 2 touchdown passes already in the first half of the preseason game tonight. Maybe he should send a basket too.

Number 7 Finish

Finished hooking up my DVD player to my TV today. What? It's hard coming up with stuff everyday. It was disconnected for a while and I just never got around to hooking it back up. Plus I had to get a different cable than the one I was using before. If you are wondering why it was out of action I place the blame squarely on Peach and Samson. You just can't have anything nice with kids, and then when they get to an age where you could have something nice you don't have the money cause they gotta go to college or need shoes or a prom dress or something. Oh well.

Momma Helfensfelder

So my mom checked out the old blog today. Said she liked it, but she didn't click on any of the ads. I was like what!?! Come on Mom, the old ads are what give me a little kick back, and here I thought I was your favorite. After all that she asked me to give her an alias. Sure mom right after you click on one of those ads.

Number 6 Finish

Finished chopping the logs by where the old shed used to be today. There maybe a few straggler logs on the top flat part of the hill, but other than those nothing left but the really big stuff.

Vital Stats Clock

Check out the new vital stats clock that I put on from http://www.poodwaddle.com/. I don't know if that is supposed to be pood-waddle.com or poo-dwaddle.com. Oh well it is still pretty neat. I may add some of their other cool flash stuff later. If you like it just click on the link and it will take you there. If you really like it then click on one of the adds and that help me out.
Thanks.

Number 5 Finish

Finished my left over yard work today. Finished trimming the grass (problem with this is the trimming will never really be done) for this week, put wood up that I had cut earlier, and put my fallen rocks back up that were next to the street. They weren't in the street they had just kind of fallen over, but at least they are back up for now. For the future, I would like to tear that whole stupid wall out, but that project will have to wait for capital fundage.

referral Ads

I signed up for a referral ad with Sony, because everything I own is pretty much Sony. Sony TV, computer etc... so I thought it would be a good idea to pimp them a little on my blog. But apparently the code I put in there is going to some other stupid links. thanks a lot adsense.

I am also going to try and get the world clock on my blog from Poodwaddle.com I think I know how to do it now.

Number 4 Finish

Finished updated the links on my grade summary sheet at work. Somebody move all the files into a different folder when I was on vacation. I was going to do it eventually, but now it is done.

Number 3 Finish

Finished filling in a hole in the backyard from this summer's French drain project. Oh well it is done now. We are going to use the area next year for Sophie's garden. She is going to see if she can get 20 tomato plants in in a 4 x 4 area.

Mining Accidents

There was a mining accident in Utah on August the 6th. In the United States this accident received much coverage and probably many prayers. It looked hopeful at first, digging through the old access, drilling holes to find the miners, air in the mine was quite life sustaining. Then things started to change. Last week the rescue effort to go through the mine was stopped because the mine collapsed again, this time killing 3 and injuring 9. From then no more effort would be taken to reenter the mine in the same manner. Slowly the air in the mine itself was now not livable and somewhere around the two and a half week period hope was beginning to fade. At the service for the brave miners who died during the rescue effort, the owner of the mine Mr. Murray was confronted by an unnamed gentlemen and the man shoved a dollar in Murray's face saying that here was some more money that should be spent on the rescue effort. Murray allowed the dollar to fall to the ground where his son retrieved it saying instead in would be donated to church. Unfortunately the miners likely will never be retrieved from the mine, most likely they never survived the initial collapse, but most regrettably we will probably never know. The mine where they went to work that Monday in all likelihood will become their final resting place. There is still hope right now, but eventually there will be a period where hope will be lost. Lord I pray for those miners and their families that they will have closure.

Now let's look at how a similar situation is taken care of in China. Over the past weekend a mine was flooded in China due to very heavy rains and a levy that broke. The result was 172 miners being trapped. That's right 172. It would have taken 9 accidents and rescue efforts of the US event to be close to this number. The coverage by the state run news service was minimal at best. The men have not been declared lost yet but it could take weeks to remove the water. The fault of the event was not given to natural disaster - no under those condition the families of the dead miners would receive no compensation. This way the families can at least receive something for their loss, 2 and a half months wages. That's about $265 each, for a total of $45,580. Due to them because the mine should not have been operated under such rainy conditions. I wonder which country will do more to revise their laws, inspections, safety practices and recovery capability after these respective accidents. The US or China. Realistically the ceiling for mine safety in the US probably can't go much higher. After the Sago accident where 12 miners were killed and one badly injured major changes were made. In China on a daily basis they lose 13 miners. That is 13 a day, essentially 6 would be a major improvement. For the U.S. most likely the results from this latest accident will probably be to end any type of retreat mining or mining in any mine where retreat mining has been practiced. It probably is the safest thing to do, but there will always be inherent danger in mining. My father and 3 of my brothers were miners, and I really count myself lucky now for everyday that they were able to come home. Everyday there is risk in that job, probably more than policemen or firefighters who may not have to face death every singly day, but there is no escape for the miner. They venture into the dark abyss, check fear at the gate when they punch in, and have to function in a manner that will keep them from losing their job and most importantly their life. They are completely dependant on everyone who enters with them and those who have entered before, that they have not or will not do anything that will put them in harms way. But they also have to depend on nature, on the Earth, that what they have taken out will not cause hundreds of feet of Earth to come rushing in upon them or that water will not trap them deep below the surface. No, I do not envy the life of a miner, but I do admire what the are able to do and have done for so many years. I admire their strength, courage, resolve, ability and am proud to say that I am the son of a coal miner. God bless Coal Miners and their families!

Number 2 Finish

Finished Motor Storm for the PS3. I only had two races left, but now it is done.

Purpose

I wanted this blog to be for my children and their children at least, but anyone of course is welcome to read it (and click on the ads). I just wanted to document my feelings as things unfolded in my world. Sometimes it is hard to look back and remember exactly how you were feeling, this way I won't have to. It should be an interesting Journey.

Number 1 Finish

I finished reading Miles Levin's blog on care pages today. I started yesterday and from my previous posts you can see that it has had quit an impact on me. I would recommend to anyone to read his blog from the beginning as it is extremely well written and just very emotionally driven. I challenge anyone to read what was written by Miles and his family and not truly feel for them, even shed a tear if you will.

Two Weeks

In honor of the memory of Miles Levin, I will attempt to finish something everyday for the next two weeks. No real connection to what he went through just felt I should do something to honor what he did.

Miles Levin

(this is my response #7893 on Levinstory on carepages. This is posted 2 days after cancer victim Miles Levin finally ended his struggle with Rhabdomyosarcoma cancer.)

Dear Miles and family,
Thank you for sharing your journey with us. You did not really know where it would end 26 short months ago. Actually all of our ends are the same, it is the journeys that make us unique, and your journey came to end much to quickly. Two days ago I had no idea who you were, but tonight I finished reading every word you so gracefully and kindly shared with the rest of the world. Thank you for sharing your wonderful gift of the written word, I wonder if it was only the gift or more the purpose that seemed to give your words and thoughts such meaning. The roller coaster that was the last two years for you and your family was truly inspiring to read. I want to be a better person for my family and for my children. The letter from your father was especially touching, because I have shared moments like that in the morning with my 5 year old. I had to stop reading there last night because of the emotion that overcame me. That level that your family shared, that was open for us all to see was ... there are no words to describe the impact. We ask 'why' but G-d uses us for His glory not for ours. I will remember your story and share it with my children when they are ready. I compare it to 'Tuesdays with Maurie', but he had lived, and seen many things and gave us a glimpse into his struggle, but your courage for someone so young really is incredible. To your mother I would say continue this blog, after all it is Levinstory, not milesstory. I think he knew that all along. 80% of mother's with children, who have this horrible cancer, will come to the same place you are and they will need to know day to day how to deal with their grieving. My gift (as Miles asked what we were good at) is seeing what others are good at doing. You are stronger than most, the strength you prayed for shows, I will continue to pray for you and your family. Though Miles journey is complete here, yours are not, it is important for you to continue onward as people look to his story for strength they will want to see it most in the people who were closest to him. May G-d bless you in the rest of your days.
Thank you,
Cecil Smith

Global Warming

OK here it is my thoughts on global warming. Eventually the Earth is going to crash into the surface of the Sun when the Sun turns into a red giant so it will probably get pretty warm here then. Don't worry though, that probably won't happen for another 4 billion years or so. In the mean time is the Earth really warming up? Well yeah, probably, but does this mean we are in some rapid heat up stage? I don't think so. At least not to the point that we can curb or reverse the very mild warming trend that "Experts" are expecting. Even the models that are being put forward are suggesting 1°C increases by the end of the century. So in a little less than 100 years the average temperature will rise by a little over 2°F. Is that really all that bad. All this global warming hysteria is political. It is just a scare tactic to try and get people to vote for those "who are going to do something about it". But what exactly are they going to do - Fly around in there private jet telling people they need to conserve, recycle, buy carbon credits. There is a whole litany of problems with these types of people. Should we recycle. Yes, I do it, it isn't that hard. Instead of just throwing all of your cans in the trash you put them in a different bag. The energy used in recycling aluminum is about half of the amount of energy it takes to create new aluminum from ore. This is due to the fact the Al2O3 -Alumina-is converted to aluminum by the Hall-Heroult process at about 1700°F, while aluminum can be remelted at about 1220°F. Anyway recycling saves us energy, being smart about using electricity and natural gas saves us energy, but is not doing this what is leading to the trend called "Human induced global warming". To fight "Human induced global warming" we are supposed to do something to become carbon neutral so that the amount of carbon we burn into CO2 gas will be reconverted into regular old C and O2. In order to be "carbon neutral" you are supposed to buy credits according to how much fossil fuel you are responsible for burning. But only when it comes to your car and electricity in your house. What about the energy used to make the tires for the car, or the plastic used in your water bottles, or the trees that had to be cut down to make your house, apparently you don't have to account that. And the people willing to take your money are completely unregulated, so you can pay $5 a day to be "neutral" or $50/day depending on who you go to buy credits. Al Gore has taken the liberty of setting up a carbon credit store, which he pays himself for flying in his jet or using $20,000 worth of electricity at his house. So if he pays himself $80,000 a year he'll be carbon neutral, yeah that makes sense. Then he can plant some trees or flowers and feel good about himself. I mean everyone on the planet puts out CO2 when the breath, maybe if we stop breathing so much the earth will cool off. Well maybe if people like Al quite putting so much hot air out there too. Yes, you could send me $1 a day and I will hold my breath 1 minute of every hour so that you can feel good about driving your SUV or turning your A/C down to 65°F. Anyway I think that the "human induce global warming idea" is junk. If the Earth is heating up maybe we should look to what is heating the Earth, no not Al, the Sun. You see one of the problems with global warming is that the Earth is very dynamic, it has been around a while and adapted to different things, and the data set of temperature that we are looking at is from the last 100 years or so. Do you think they had all of these fancy trending and recording devices back in 1900. Hmmm, probably not. All they had then was some guy who would go and look at a thermometer every hour or once a day. Anyway the point is 100 years ago they didn't have the same capabilities as what we have now to measure the temperature accurately and using data from before that point is even less accurate. Not comparing apples to apples so to speak. The Sun accounts for roughly 99.999999% of the Earth's heat. Take it away and we will all meet a quick end. Now if we want to see if what we are doing is the problem we should be able to look at other planets and see if their temperature is heating or cooling. We have probes on Mars and satellites and I am sure that we can infer temperatures on some of the other planets. Let's just agree that in 20 years we aren't going to be that much worse off, and lets monitor these temperatures on different planets and determine exactly what the effect is so we know if the Sun is getting hotter. If the Sun is the major factor then it won't matter how many carbon credits you buy because we will all be in trouble. In the mean time, lets be better stewards of the Earth, do a little more recycling, a little more conserving, and maybe plant a tree or two on your own. Just don't hold your breath waiting for people to quit talking about global warming, I'll be holding my breath for everyone, you can just go ahead and click on the old adds.

A Profoundly Emotional Dance

Greetings. I was moved to write tonight because of the Mia Michaels' dance on So You Think You Can Dance. It was supposed to be a dance of her and her father or at least what it would be like if she could dance with him again since he died of lung cancer. I thought it was very emotional because I have lost my father, almost 10 years ago to colon cancer. I thought it was extremely brave and something you just don't see people do, remembering there lost parents like that especially someone in that position. I normally don't get her dances, but I understood this one. The reaction of the kids afterwards though you could kind of tell that even though they did a great job of telling the story I don't think they fully understood exactly what they were saying. It would be difficult to understand if you hadn't lost someone, but if it had be me dancing after I performed I think I would have had to go and give Mia a hug. Thank you Mia you did a great job. Your father would be very proud.