Big Brother Comes to Beaumont...

Well, at least a loss of freedom in a sense. Beaumont city council has voted to impose a 100% smoking ban in restaurants, bars, public buildings, 25 feet of buildings, etc. What happened to citizen voice in this? Maybe it would have been nice to put this to a popular vote.

Now, I do know the arguments about second-hand smoke, but, really, smokers should have a right to have their cigarette, pipe, or cigar after their meal or with their drink at least in specially provided areas. Having smoking sections was working pretty well. The local businesses are feeling quite infringed upon because some of them are just now getting over the Hurricane Rita hurdle and now will have to worry about losing patrons to perhaps out of town restaurants where folks will be allowed to have their smoke. Probably the next step will be as I've heard some places do is to ban smoking in parking lots and parks and all public grounds. This is just wrong.

I noticed in the exceptions they listed "private residences." WOW!! How generous of them!!

No, I don't smoke. I used to smoke. I loved my cigarettes! But I quit in 2000 after smoking for over 30 years; and that was my choice. So, personally, this will have no bearing on me at all. But I can just imagine how enraged I would be if I were still a smoker.

Well, here's the article from the Beaumont Enterprise. I realize there are just as strong opinions that this is a good thing as there are that it's not. And I can see that point of view, of course. But personally, I think it's taking too much control over individual rights. Maybe if they had offered this issue to popular vote, it wouldn't have been so offensive to me.

Interestingly, there was a just report about how much crime is going on in our parks. Here's an article that was run yesterday. People can't go to the park and enjoy a quiet picnic or a nice walk for fear of thugs and gangs, prostitution, perverts. Why doesn't our esteemed city council worry about cleaning up that garbage rather than worrying about policing law-abiding folks who are simply trying to have an enjoyable meal or a social evening in a club! They had their designated areas to spare the nonsmokers. What's wrong with this picture!

Weekend report

Well, the whole weekend was pretty much a wash. It seems that things are moving at a snail's pace around here - very low key all weekend. Trying to get up any kind of entheusiasm for anything was a completely wasted effort. No work came in and that's a worry. It's got to pick up soon!

"Fooled Again" Book Notes video is out...

On April 9th my post dealt with a book by Mark Crispin Miller, a program called Book Notes where the authors are given a chance to talk about their book and answer questions. There was one today, Mark Crispin Miller; his book: Fooled Again: How the Right Stole the 2004 Election and Why They'll Steal the Next One Too (Unless We Stop Them). You can now see this on video on line. I promise you, it is very much worth your time to watch it! I won't elaborate my commentary again, but since the video is out, I wanted to post the link to it and urge you to see it.

Friday log

Nothing much of any consequence today -- all seems to be fine on the home front and politics are as usual. So, will keep it short. Seems like I don't even have any major opinions today. At one point I tried to take myself a little nap -- had that miserable feeling of being sooo dang sleepy but just couldn't fall off to sleep.
Weekend is upon us and we sure can't ever get any news on the weekends. There's still no work; so maybe I can get my paperwork done.
Well, I'll be back tomorrow. Just nothing to rant about today.

Embarrassing - or Funny?

My whole day was a total wash -- did nothing constructive whatsoever. Even the news was boring - well, except for the fiasco our esteemed government put on trying to impress the visiting Chinese President, Hu Jintao.

Of course they put on the red carpet treatment - - well -- they played the freakin' wrong National Anthem -- geez! How embarrassing is that! There's no excuse for that kind of stupidity, not for such an event. Guess they just saw the word "China" and that was close enough.

Then there was poor lady protester/reporter. How could they possibly let a protester in! She's facing arrest and serious charges! Ah-em -- freedom of speech? She spoke out?

Then I even heard that there was a CNN reporter who also got himself removed from a photo op because he dared ask a question.

If all this wasn't enough, Bush grabbed the dude's arm -- check out this photo:
Well, yes, I think there was a little Photoshop going on. Too funny.

Then to add insult to irreparable injury -- get a load of our most esteemed Vice-President and Secretary of State during the meeting with our honored guest!

It's just too funny to be sad! Wouldn't you love to be a fly on the wall to hear President Hu Jintao when he gets back home!

No wonder Scotty's got such an ear to ear grin on his face!

"I'M SOOO OUTTA HERE!!"

McClellan sacrificed -- who will be new press secy?

Now, I'm no fan of most, if any, Republicans -- but Scott McClellan has never irritated me the way a lot of them have. He didn't have that smug arrogant persona that Ari Fleisher had, for example. In fact, I would really feel sorry for him sometimes because of the lies he would have to tell and the horrendous predicament the Administration would put him in. Apparently, they'd lie to him so, mercifully, he wouldn't be "lying" to the press; he would only be passing on what he was told to pass on.

But nonetheless, he's history. Why he didn't just quit on his own as protest makes me wonder a little about his own credibility and honor, but it's not the messenger, stupid -- it's the message!!!

And now I hear they're thinking of putting Tony Snow in his place! OH, MY LORD! Well, he sure is perfect example of a controlled voice for the White House -- so, what would you expect! Just to give you an idea of what we'll be in for if he gets it -- he was on Bill O'Rielly show last night (no, I didn't suffer through it but it's posted on the Internet) and "Snow was trying to counter the public perception that we're getting gouged by the oil companies. After noting that a gallon of gas costs the same as a gallon of milk Snow commented,
'A gallon of milk has lower production costs than a gallon of gas. Does that mean we're getting gouged by cows?'"

Doubtful they'd offer the job to Helen Thomas!

Shuffling around these people is the silliest thing I ever saw. How can this country ever maintain any dignity or respect in the rest of the world when our leaders are so -- well, sometimes just plain - SILLY is at least one word for it -- yet, very seriously and sadly, they're the ones running things. No matter what the public or generals or anybody says - they ignore it. It's an insult to the population and the world to watch these "leaders of the free world" play musical chairs in the pretense they're doing something and never address the REAL problems.

With all that said -- here is who I would recommend they put in Scotty's place. He would be perfect for the job, and I wish we could all sign some kind of petition somewhere!

I hereby nominate Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf, the former Iraqi minister of Information, a/k/a "Bagdad Bob"

In case you need a refresher...
Here are some of the All Time Greats!

Tommy had another rough day...

This morning Quincy woke me up about 6:30 and I realized Tommy had never come to get me to let him outside -- which he does usually about 5:30. So, I immediately went to see about him, and sure enough, he was ill. Very lathargic, very weak, turned his head away when I offered him his food. Poor Tommy. I had stopped giving him his antibiotics because he had fully recovered from the abscess. But I still had some, so I gave him a dose. He laid around all day and even at one point crawled up under my day bed to lay down. Ohh, that's not a good sign!! But eventually he started coming out of it and by late evening, he was ready to go outside for a little bit, lay on the patio and get some air. I gave him his 2nd dose, and by nighttime he was feeling pretty good again.

I sure wonder what it is that makes him do this. It happens periodically and I do know he's getting old. But as of now, I think he's out of the danger zone.

He pretty much monopolized my day and my thoughts. I did have a very little work to do. Wasn't much going on in the news either. So, it was a pretty boring day -- as it seems a lot of them are.

Monday's log...

Today was a pretty lazy beginning, got coffee, email and so forth, picked up Mom to go buy cat food and get something off to Sarah -- my precious, beautiful, baby girl granddaughter for her Big No. 1 Birthday! Wow, already a year old! How amazing is that!!!

Anyway, then we had to decide where to eat lunch, and my aunt has said for months she wanted us to go to Olive Garden for salad and breadsticks. So, we called her and sure 'nuff, she could meet us.
We go there maybe 30 minutes before she did, and the restaurant was busy enough that we had to take a number -- and let them pass us while we waited. That was fine. We were just lounging there in the lobby and watching people as they came in and left.

What really struck me was I'd say 3 out of 5 people who passing to and fro were at least 250 pounds plus. In fact, I might be being generous to give it that much proportion. With all the talk about the children and the population - not only here but in the world I guess - I'm convinced, totally and thoroughly convinced that something is going on in our food supplies that is doing it to people. To say that all these people are obese simply from pigging out and couch potato lifestyle in my opinion is a way over-simplification.

I don't know what it is, of course. I'm not a scientist. But think about the chemicals that they use in our foods, both spraying the produce, the preservatives, the steroids they give to the animals, and even, heaven forbid, the cloned animals. One day, mark my words, they will discover this -- if they don't know already and don't want it to be public.

I'm sure that there is some overeater factor, but I'll bet you a dollar to the proverbial doughnut that it's something way more to it that's changing the body chemistry.

Okay. So much for that soapbox. We had a nice lunch, nice visit. I don't get to see my aunt very often. She's, sadly, a strong Republican - so I tend to have to bite my tongue sometimes if we get off on politics. She seems convinced the disaster that everything is in now is all the Democrats fault and the storms and tornados are God's punishment. Well, it's easier to just grunt a little, but I did have to say I really didn't believe that. Still thank goodness, the whole conversation wasn't dominated with that touchy topic, and it was a pleasant outing.

By the time I got back home, I was really sleepy and wanting a nap in the worst way. However, a friend IM'd me, and my mouse just quit working. So, that put me in a frantic frenzy of trying to get it taken apart and cleaned; but to no avail. So, I had to go over to Computer Shak real quick and buy a new one. By then I was over that sinking sleepy spell, and never got my nap.

Well, that was pretty much my day. I will be getting a job in tomorrow, but TC said it's very small. Here we go again.

Easter Sunday

While most people were going to church, all dressed up in their new Easter clothes, having the Easter egg hunts with the little ones, and big family barbecues -- it was just me and Mom at her house. We ate gumbo and basically just took it easy.

I went through her photo albums and scanned some pictures. Our old pictures are all ruining with lines across them from the plastic of the album pages and they're fading or yellowing. I'd like to eventually get them all of the digitized, but that would be a monumental task between her collection and my own. However, from time to time, I'll do scanning, but haven't gotten them in any type of presentable formats yet.

We decided we wanted a banana split to satisfy a sweet tooth. Dairy Queen on Washington Boulevard has never reopened after Hurricane Rita and Sonic was closed for Easter. So, we just rode out to the Sonic on 11th Street, and it was open. So, we sat there in the van and ate our banana splits, then called it a day. Such was Easter.
Here's a couple of pictures I scanned....


Mar 28, 1948 -- 58 years ago!!!
My First Easter, practically speaking,
considering I was only 7 months on my real First Easter.
More than half a century ago! Yup -- that does make one feel old!

Live Nesting Eagle & Easter

First, my cable was out all day and last night, briefly came back on if you read the comment section in yesterday's post. But when I got up this morning, it was fine and has been running strong all day! Who knows!!!

Now, about the bald eagle, according to the site where I learned of this link, they say the new baby will arrive around the April 27th!! So, save the link and keep an eye on her. http://www.infotecbsi.com/wildlife/

I've been watching her some tonight, and she keeps hearing something and looking around, staying very alert to what's going on around her. Once she even hollered out. This is waaay cool!!!
Here's a couple of screen shots of her.

Also, I've been watching the Easter services being broadcast live from Rome. It's Pope Benedict's first Easter as Pope. He has a kind, gentle face. Since it is the most holy of our holidays, I wanted to get at least give some kind of proper reverence to the day other than just the Easter bunny. My, they do put on the pomp and circumstance! But I do like that.

They're confirming some people who will be taking their full communion and baptism. Last summer I had started RCIA classes and the hurricane interrupted them. After we returned from evacuation, I didn't go back; but I doubt that I would have completed to the point of converting because there were several things my Protestant faith conflicts with. But I would have been confirmed tomorrow, also, had I finished it to completion. I still might go back to visit. I loved mass and St. Anthony's! Watching this makes me think I'd like to visit again. (actually it's 1:20 a.m. while I'm watching this -- and writing my blog -- but I'm dating the time stamp to before midnight since this is actually Saturday's entry)

An Internet friend sent me this poem, said her son brought it home from his CCD classes. I emailed it to a few folks, but I wanted to post it here because it's such a simple little poem, but such an insightful way to look at the jelly beans. Hope you enjoy -- and hope you have a great Easter.

THE JELLY BEAN PRAYER

Red is for the BLOOD HE gave.

Green is for the grass HE made.

Yellow is for the sun so bright.

Orange is for the edge of night.

BLACK is for the SINS we made.

WHITE is for the GRACE HE gave.

Purple is for HIS hour of sorrow.

Pink is for our NEW tomorrow.

A bag full of Jelly Beans colorful and sweet,

Is a prayer, is a promise, is a SPECIAL treat.

May the Joy of Christ's resurrection

Fill your HEART and BLESS your LIFE.

Woe is me-- Cable modem on the blitz!!

Woe is me!! Woe is me!! I checked my email this morning, lost my connection and my Roadrunner is dead, dead, dead!! I called them, and she put me on hold -- wait -- wait -- then she comes back and said "he" said I have a very weak signal coming into my modem. Nothing can be done till Monday!! ARRRGHH!!!! All weekend -- no Internet!! This is worse than withdrawal!

I have dial-up -- I pay AOL $9.95 a month purely for this reason, so I can have a dial-up as a backup. However, something is screwy with it, too, because I know dial-up is worse than molassas but I really think this is totally not right. I've managed to check messages a couple of times on MySpace and my camera group and was able to get a message out that I am out of commission; but I haven't been getting all my mail, though I'll try again. Some people are still living with dial-up; but this is NOT liveable. This plan gives me 10 hours of dial-up a month, and at this rate, I've probably used half of it today waiting, waiting, waiting.

Then they've got this message that keeps popping up on my screen saying my ISP does not support Modem On Hold. Should it answer incoming or not -- well, hell, I don't even have call waiting. And that message comes up ever 3 seconds. That works!!

MSN messenger doesn't want to work, and I've only been able to get Internet Explorer to load a page just a couple of times -- usually get Page Not Found. AOL and MSN don't get along at the best of it. I suppose that's at least part of the problem.

I did get my laptop out and it too had no signal. But I think I will check it afterwhile and see if the dial-up is as slow as this PC. Something tells me next week I'll be doing that hard drive recovery I've been putting off.

Well, since I'm writing this on Word Pad before I get online, it will probably take an hour to get Blogger up, logged in, and cut and paste and post even this much, I guess this is it for today. Some Good Friday -- I worked on a job and had almost a nervous breakdown over the frustrations of this Internet connection.

Happy Easter!

PS Just for fun, I am finishing this at 8:40 pm and will begin the process of trying to post this on my BlogSpot. So, let's see how long it takes.

Duke U, Justin Berry, and South Park

Oh, I'm slipping! Didn't get my diary entry done yesterday. Most of the day was spent doing dreadful paperwork, checking and rechecking numbers, and pretty much mundane stuff. I did look around on the Internet for something really cool to put on my blog without another long dissertation on politics since I really don't want to turn this into a political blog. But there wasn't really anything that caught my interest. Then I visited with a friend on the phone till late and just didn't ever get around to making my post.

Today was errands day -- bank (long line to wait), Wal-Mart (lanes closed on Interstate and snail's pace traffic), circled through the post office mailbox and with a prayer, dropped off my tax check, ate lunch, took flowers out for Daddy's grave for Easter -- home -- exhausted!! In fact here it is after 9:00 and I still haven't finished putting the groceries all away.



Good Friday is tomorrow. I don't expect to do anything special. In fact, since I've been so preoccupied with my taxes I'll probably work on a job I have here. Maybe I can get it done tomorrow and Saturday; and then Sunday just relax and enjoy being off. Maybe watch some kind of Easter service on TV or something.

Re: Lacrosse Duke University Rape case:
Well, maybe I will rant on one thing -- they've been playing so much about this Lacrosse team rape case at Duke University. Sometimes I wonder if they don't just try to find the most graphic words they can, hardly short of verbal pornography. Where are the days when they would use more modest language. Everybody knows what happened. They don't have to spell it all out. I really like what her brother said -- he said she's a woman, she's a mother -- wish I could find the quote; but he was trying to get the woman some dignity. It's not going to happen! Rush Limbaugh - gentleman that he is, called her a "ho" today!!! Why is that blow-gut still on the air!!
To be honest, I haven't followed this case too much, but every time they're talking about it, they're using as graphic language as they can think of on what is supposed to be the news! It's like the news is turning into verbal porn!

Re: Justin Berry - the teenager who testified on Capitol Hill about his horrid experiences in the child porn rings.
They did the same thing with that boy. As far as I'm concerned, they continually re-violated that boy by showing it over and over and over ad nauseum --- talking about how awful it was -- well, it was -- but --"Let's watch it again -- I know we just showed it 5 minutes ago, but let's see it again so we can talk about it again." Maybe some secret fantasies going on???

Re: South Park show -- Now this one really makes me furious! And to be on Easter Week just compounds it! I just heard about it on Scarborough Country. I never watch South Park and never will. It shouldn't even be on the air! I really, REALLY hope Christians all over the world will rise up and DEMAND some respect, an apology, and to shut the show down. It's so vial, I won't even write it. They wouldn't show the segment on the show. Good for them. If you don't know what this is about and you really want to know -- you can read about it at CBS News Entertainment (entertainment???) But personally, now I have to go watch something else to get that filth out of my head.

Tax Time...

Finally -- I think they're done. I finished up work this afternoon, made myself a pot of coffee, and stalled as long as I dared - you know, water the plants, oh, yes, feed the cats, clean off the desk -- take a deep breath, and dig in. In the morning I'll go over my numbers and be sure everything is in order and (shudder) write my check. I read somewhere that 40% of our taxes are going toward that God forsaken war! Talk about adding insult to injury!

Well, I'm brain-dead - once again. Sure glad to have this just about finished!

Camera back in the shop

This is the 2nd time I've had to send it off. But yesterday I found all the pertinent paperwork and e-mailed Mack Camera and got my authorization number. Among my many, many breaks today, one of them I took my poor little Konica Minolta Dimage Z2 to the Mail Room, paid $21 for the postage and packaging and insurance -- it's that awful!! $21!! And they won't even get it till next week! Plus I had to give Mack Camera $10 to process it.

I really hope they'll give me a new camera this time. If write me back saying they're going to fix it, I'm going to complain pretty loudly that they should give me a new one. After all, I think I only took about 115 pictures, if I counted right from when they fixed it the first time. Didn't last too long!

However, I don't think I'll want another Z2 - not now. Konica Minolta stopped making cameras at all. Sony took over some of their technology but won't be making cameras under the KM name. I have no idea how they'll do this -- probably offer me another Z2 -- which the Z6 was the last one they made - and will be the last, period!

Besides the camera and the pitiful effort at trying to do this little, but nevertheless, awful job, I got so many phone calls today - the 1-800 or unidentified, or caller blocked. They call me every night while I'm trying to hear the news and I usually just let it ring, but it's so distracting.

So, today I decided to answer them all and tell them to take me off the calling list. Well, one was Bank of America and one was MBNA Bank - and I told them both - take me off the list. I swear, I got three more calls from MBNA and two more from BofA! HOW RUDE! One of them told me it could take 30 days.

I gott this in the mail the other day -- maybe I should have tried it out...


Revenge on Telemarketers

The phone rang as I was sitting down to my evening meal, and as Ianswered it. I was greeted with "Is this Karl Brummer".

Not sounding anything like my name, I asked who is calling.

The telemarketer said he was with The Rubber Band Powered Freezer Company or Something like that.

Then I asked him if he knew Karl personally and why was he calling this number.

I then said off to the side, "get some pictures of the body at various angles and the blood smears",

I then turned back to the phone and advised the caller that he hadentered a murder scene and must stay on the line because we hadalready traced this call and he would be receiving a summons totestify in this murder case.I questioned the caller at great length as to his name, address, phoneNumber at home, at work, who he worked for, how he knew theDead guy and could he prove where he had been about one hour before he made this call.

The telemarketer was getting very concerned and his answers were given in a shaky voice.

I then told him we had located his position and the police were entering the building to take him into custody, at that point I heard the phone fall and the scurrying of his running away.My wife asked me as I returned to our table why I had tears streaming down my face and so help me, I couldn't tell her for about fifteen minutes. My meal was cold, but it was the best meal in a long, long time.,

"Fooled Again"

If you have C-Span 2, then you're aware they have a program called Book Notes where the authors are given a chance to talk about their book and answer questions. There was one today, Mark Crispin Miller; his book: Fooled Again: How the Right Stole the 2004 Election and Why They'll Steal the Next One Too (Unless We Stop Them).

(quoted from the review of the show linked off C-Span website - but the link doesn't work anymore)
Miller argued that the outcome of the 2004 election, in many states including Ohio, was manipulated to favor George Bush and the Republican party. He discussed the evidence he has for this charge and talked about the reaction that Sen. John Kerry had when presented with the evidence. Professor Miller also argued that the Republican Party has been taken over by religious fundamentalists who see their opponents as evil and whose ultimate goal is to bring about Armageddon.

Of course we all know that the election was stolen. Why John Kerry caved in so quick is anybody's guess. But the last sentence of the review is where it's really at!! This guy zinged right in on something that my gut has been telling me all along. He was able to put it to word and it's so clear. It's the motivation!
Granted there has been voter cheating since the beginning of time, but this is more than just cheating. It's more than to get power, or corporate greed or oil. It's an agenda, a paranoid agenda of "We've got to get them before they get us" mentality. How can I explain it in a few words. The Right thinks the Left is total evil and in the mind of the Right, if the Left has any power, they will surely put all on a road of destruction and evil -- and so forth. This is paranoid thinking. So, they feel they MUST maintain the power, no matter what they have to do to "save" - who? - the world? - the nation?

He explained how this was the motivation in the Crusades and many other horrific conflicts throughout history, not allowing a view of differences of opinion to approach solving problems, but as an extreme "good versus evil" mentality. I know I'm not explaining this very well. I strongly suggest you read his book to get a good handle on this. He also said something about a plan to enact the Constitutional Restoration Act, which virtually would make any rulings from a court non-overturnable if they were ruled on by basis of the Bible! That is the real danger of the Supreme Court as it is being "stacked" - not so much the Roe-v-Wade. But even that, he said it's not so much that they are advocating right to life (which I am by the way) but no contraception, period! An extreme religion doctrine that they want to impose in their controlled world they're trying to build. Now I believe in the Bible, you can't get hardly two people to interpret the Bible the same way. He brought up Leviticus as an example I don't think we want to live by the guidelines as set out in Leviticus! This is far more serious than Republican and Democrat. We're all Americans. We are losing the very things we think we're fighting for.Well, my apologies for not being more articulate, but I hope I've given you at least a tangent on which to direct your own thinking. People have GOT to start looking at what is really happening. It's almost too late. It is sooooo dangerous for our beloved America that is being destroyed before our very eyes.

Before you declare this is all tin hat stuff, just read the book.

Let's Pretend

I found this video today on the Malone Zone and thought I'd share it here. It's just too good not to share!

All my greatest ambitions to get housework and all those awful chores done - well, I didn't do them. I did very little as a matter of fact. My amarillis has already bloomed, and I took my Dimage Z2 outside and tried to get some pictures of it.

My camera was telling me it was low on batteries; and I did get it unloaded. But then it froze up. I replaced the batteries - nothing. I recharged the batteries, nothing, used some fresh batteries - nothing. So, dang it!! That's the same thing it did in October when I had come back from the evacuation and had to send it off to Mack where I have the extended warranty. It took till December to get it back if I remember right. And I've hardly even used it since then since I haven't even been fooling much with photography. So, now I'll have to go find all the instructions on where to send it, get ahold of them and tell them it's coming. I hope they'll give me a new one this time. As a matter of fact, I hope it's still under warranty!!!
It's so depressing! But I still have my little HP Photosmart, which will do. But it's just a point and shoot. I'm trying to learn settings and f stops and all and was making some headway when that hobby pretty much took a backseat. But now that things are getting where I could play with it again - this happens. Dang it!

Tomorrow I hope I can be more self-disciplined and get these mundane but necessary things done -- and check on my camera warranty!


Well, here's my first flower of all the planting I've been doing. The photogaphy isn't great but I'm out of practice and my camera was -- lol -- dying!

Keeping it short...

Going to make it short tonight. I'm dead tired. I finally finished that bloomin' awful job! Two weeks of trying to get through with that bugger. Of course there were a couple of times I had to put it aside to do something else, but man. These kind of jobs are not worth it. There's no way you can charge enough to cover the time it took to do it. The best thing you can do is hope the next one will be one that you can zip right on through and not have to fight it so hard.

I haven't heard what's waiting in the wings to be done. I have one more job here, a small one. But unless there's a time crunch on something I'm not aware of, I'm going to take off tomorrow -- if you want to call doing housework, bookkeeping and taxes taking a day off. lol I don't! But it's at least not stuggling through a transcript. So, it feels like being off.

Time to call it a day. See you tomorrow.

An Inconvenient Truth

An Inconvenient Truth

Starring: Al Gore
Director: Davis Guggenheim
Opens: May 26, 2006

What the Movie's About: This captivating documentary chronicles former Vice President Al Gore's career-long crusade to raise awareness about -- and stem the tide of -- the potentially catastrophic effects of global warming.

Here's the Buzz: The positive hype surrounding 'Truth' has caused something other than the climate to heat up, namely Gore's political career. Although Gore officially retired from politics in 2000, pundits are already speculating that the ex-Veep could ride the film's coattails into the 2008 Presidential race. Nothing 'Inconvenient' about that.

This is a link to Laurie David interviewing the Director, Davis Guggenheim, on the movie and Gore.

(edited 4/8: trailer and interview evidently have been taken down; so links don't work. I replaced the Title link with a synopsis of the movie. I never got to see the interview. Shoot.)

(I haven't watched the interview yet, only checked to see if it would work. It's about 10 minutes. The movie trailer didn't work at first; and I changed the preferences from 7000 bps to 350 bps and it worked fine.)

At first I was going to elaborate about the man who questioned Bush today in North Carolina and how smug and arrogant Bush was in response. The crowd was such an obviously hand-picked crowd. He had that sarcastic grin on his face when the man was trying to express he concerns and -- just so typical of Bush. It makes me wish I could just slap his smart-alleck face! Here's a MediaPlayer video of it -- I'll just leave it at saying, Boy, does Pink's song ever say it! On second thought, almost wonder if the guy had heard her song - lol. Does Bush feel shame -- ha! judge for yourself!

But I came across this trailer. I've heard about the movie almost in passing because the media doesn't dare want to promote anything Al Gore does, so I was happy to see the trailer. Going to the movies is not something I do often -- or hardly at all! -- but I definitely want to make a point of seeing this one. I sure hope the pundits are right that it will give him enough boost to run in '08! He's by far my first choice! Nevertheless, this is a must-see movie - at least as far as I'm concerned.

My own uneventful life? Well, since you asked -- TC called, said they were calling on a job we haven't started yet; so again, had to put this nightmare job aside and to the one they wanted. Thank goodness it was short and I got it done by about 1:00 and she came by to pick it up.

I walked over to the now vacant house to see what all was left behind, and in the back was a stair stepper, only a little rust on the bottom where it's been outside, but it works fine. So, I drug it home. I put it on my patio. Let's see, I have a treadmill I never use. I have a bicycle that's in my shed. I have one of those things you push the handlebars and and feet and sort of rock -- don't know what it's called. Do I do any of them?? Ever?? HA! But I have good intentions! Does that count?
I got some joke pictures in e-mail; but I think maybe I might put them on my refrigerator.
My first thought was, "Umm, maybe exercise does work!"

Rubber stamp day..

You ever feel like your whole life is just a rubber stamp, day after day; or else the sensation that you're just pretty much hanging out there like this poor little guy? It's been one of those days. Guess that's not all bad -- because it's nothing earth shattering going on, but it's so redundant. Work, walk outside to water my little plants, let Tommy in, let Tommy out, watch the news with only half an ear or else get the screaming heeby-jeebies at either what they're reporting or the spin at which they report it. And eat -- eat, eat, eat. Definitely there's a direct correlation with boredom and food.

I'm still struggling with this job that is driving me nuts. I did get my bills paid this morning, though I still haven't brought my Quicken records up to date. I think one was due yesterday - that sucks. Probably slap me with a $40 late fee or something.

My neighbors moved today. The neighbor adjacent to me left a couple of months ago, and this one is next to them. Their double-wide is still there. I have no idea if they sold it or not. I tend to think not, but maybe. So, that's two potential new neighbors. Then there's the space that emptied out across the street that is in my immediate area. So, I hope all will turn out okay. Not that it really matters. I'm very much a loner and don't mix with neighbors - and luckily folks out here don't mix either. Everybody pretty much minds their own business and that makes it nice. Still it leaves you feeling a little unsettled till you know who will be moving in.
Oh, well, keep smilin' and it will all be okay.

Monday, Monday...

Absolutely nothing much to even talk about today. Work - this job is driving me crazy. The witness is nervous and stammers around and pauses long pauses; and she really is getting on my nerves. I can only tolerate listening to her so long and have to get away from it. And the job is going slow at the best of it. Will I ever reach the end! Today is already the 3rd, and bills and IRS taxes are awaiting. I had thought I would do them today; but I will in the morning. That in itself is an all-day job; but maybe I can at least get the important ones taken care of. They'll be calling for this job soon, I'm afraid.

Good news in the news - Tom DeLay is quitting! Umm, where's that big ol' smile you had in your mugshot, Tom!

Scary to think what they might put in his place since the crazy Republicans in his district still voted for him! Even he knows he ain't got a chance!!!

Talk about craziness, the Houston Traffic Court decided to put technology to "good" use and spent $13 million on a computer system. The morons didn't teach the judge or the lawyers how to use, I guess, and the poor people had to wait like 7 hours to pay some minor traffic ticket - kids crying and they didn't even have the sense to let folks go home and come back. Oh, boy, can you imagine! Talk about running the blood pressure up! Click2Houston has a video of the news clip; or you can just read it if you're interested.

Garden report: I planted the nasturtium today; they were getting some nice little roots on them; and I planted most of the rest of the zinnias. Just about all my seeds are coming up, though very slowly. They're still way too almost microscopic! -- to put in the ground yet. No doubt I'll run out of garden room and have to make another one. Good luck to me on that one! The new seeds I bought of the morning glories -- let me tell you about them. I read the directions - (fancy that); and did what they said: scored each tiny seed and soaked them in water for a few hours; then put them in the little containers, watered good, covered, and it said to leave them in a dark place till they germinated. Wow, they were sprouting up by two days! I'm learning! Wonder if all these others would have done likewise? Oh, well, they're doing okay. My amarillis getting close to putting out a bloom. It's fun watching them. Of course, it's more instant to buy all these already established, but that would be missing this phase. Waiting and nurturing makes you appreciate them that much more!

God bless the folks in Tennessee. All this weather destruction makes me wonder what we'll all be in for come hurricane season, which is fast approaching.

Daylight Savings Time...

I really do hate it! If I were in charge, we wouldn't ever change the time. My philosophy is it was going just fine all by itself. Leave it alone! It will take me a couple of weeks before I make the necessary adjustments. But so be it. The only clocks I've reset so far are the computers -- and that's because they set themselves - lol - but they're about all I use anyway. I'll get them all done eventually.

By the way, if you didn't get my email about this today - this is so neat -
on Wednesday of next week, at two minutes and three seconds after 1:00 in the morning, the time and date will be 01:02:03 04/05/06. Obviously, a phenomenon that will never ever happen again!

Tommy was ecstatic to go outside today! He was so cute. He would go out the door, then turn around and look at me and sit down, saying, "Bring my food out here," or "Come out here and sit with me." I'm so glad he's getting better. I'm still giving him his antibiotic, but I think a goblin is coming in at night and refilling the bottle because it just doesn't seem to ever go down. At least giving it to him isn't traumatic anymore. Holding the scruff of his neck works wonders!

Today was pretty much spent sitting in this computer chair trying to get some headway on my job. I only walked outside a couple of times to check on all my little plants to be sure they were still alive and water them if they needed it. I did fool with my MySpace blog a little bit, and added pictures to My Heros section. It's pretty tricky - you have to find the picture, then since I don't think you can add pics from your computer, you have to upload them to an online album. There's a free place called Photobucket I signed up for so I could put them there. All this is exposing me to HTML coding and tags, and I'm really wanting to learn this stuff. I'm picking up tiny bits and pieces, but it fascinates me and I want to get time to learn it -- at least to do a little more than the most simple things.

Oh, and I'm finding out that the entertainers have pages - well, I don't know if it's really theirs or a fan's or exactly what that's all about. But I stumbled on Tom Jones' page!! So, I sent a message to his page requesting to add him to My Friends, and of course, I'll be in his list of friends, too!

Otherwise, that's it for today.

Where are you -- politically speaking?

Since I'm pretty intense about most of my political views and since I can lean from extreme left to even (shudder) extreme right, depending on the issue, I decided to take a little test that I came across, a little quiz that will tell you where you fit in the political spectrum. What's nice about this test is it doesn't just put you on a horizontal scale but a grid, and then it has various famous people and where they fit on this grid of political leanings.

Would you just check this out!!! Dang!! Just in case you can't see (ah-hem), my spot is blue - and it's right next to Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, and close enough to the Dalai Lama!

Did I ever miss my calling! Had I known I was in such great company I would have brought about world peace when I grew up!

You can take the test at PoliticalCompass. It's six pages of questions, makes a statement, then you choose Strongly Agree, Agree, Disagree, Strongly Disagree. It's a little more comprehensive than most.
Maybe you'll surprise yourself, too!

Well, so much for that fantasy! Back to reality -- Tommy has been pacing the floor all day wanting to go out. I did go out with him for a few minutes and let him walk around a little; but he was too weak to leave him alone. If he needed to get out of the way of danger fast, he'd never make it. But as the day has passed, he's gotten stronger. I think by tomorrow he'll be able to go out a little bit. Other than that, the day was status quo, work, Internet, breaks, wash dishes -- lol -- alas, not saving the world!