Your fired!

Maybe New Orleans should hire Donald Trump for a few weeks. At least they'd get some good press out of their police depts mishaps. If you didn't see the video of the police officers helping to conduct the looting in a local wal mart store, then you missed what was up. (Go to google and search for it.)

I'm sure there are some well meaning and excellant officers in the NOPD. However, with corrupt leadership, everyone suffers. Even the good guys.

En guarde!

Well, what do you say when challenged? The bloggers of the internet are already hated by the main stream media because they try to make them fair about their jobs. So what would be different about a main stream magazine doing the same thing? Oh, somebody is making my life miserable because they challenge my way of thinking. waaaaaaa. Grow up.

I turned on the tv this morning and Forbes was on FoxNews whining about bloggers. His magazine has taken the stance that bloggers shouldn't be protected by anonymity. He wants to be able to sue them if he can. Like he doesn't have enough cash now.

He seems to be forgetting one important thing. His very appearance on that tv show at that time is the result of the same thinking that got the bloggers the ability to be heard in the first place.

When leftist controlled media outlets are never challenged, and no one seems to know what to do, along comes Fox News Channel. How did that happen? How did his whiny butt end up on there?

Hey Steve! There's a life outside that little office door. Go catch it.

The art of selfishness

I can be selfish. Extremely selfish at times. Like not wanting to share the last bite on my plate with the dog, which is drooling all over the floor into a sizeable puddle. Or not wanting to let my brother take my boat out for a spin after I rode around in his car with him. Or not letting my wife have the tv remote. I mean we can all list little (or big) things we've done over the years to recognize selfishness.

First of all, I'd like to apologize for those little fits of selfishness, if the appropriate parties will accept them.

Then I'd like to move on to a seriously big problem I know we've all experienced. No, not the people who drive slow in the fast lane, or take 42 items in the 12 items or less lane, but mostly just liberal democrats.

On the one hand they claim to be trying to help people when they are simply patting themselves on the back for making people think they're helping. They encourage selfishness. It's a really big shame too.

I had to work on one of the guys computers in the office, so I walked over and sat down to work on it. I had been in this area before and experienced liberal leanings and usually ran them off by asking simple questions that messed with their logic. (And I'm in their work area!)

Today was no different. Someone got on a whim to gripe about the presidents war efforts. "He lied to every American on the planet"...."He's dumb..I can't believe people elected him...I believe anyone that voted for him is dumber than I can imagine"...."Yeah, he's dumb"..."I wish he'd thrown out of office because he's using our tax money for his war"...you've heard them all before I'm sure.

Anyway, it kept on it's downhill slope until someone started griping about how the war was progressing. They thought we should've all but nuked the place. (I kinda agree, but have my doubts there.) So, I asked why do you think the war has only progressed as far as it has?

"I don't know" was about the only answer I got. Not even a "because he's dumb". I was mystified by the fact that no one had even thought of this, even though they continuously griped about it. So, I let them flounder a bit.

Then, my answer was because he's trying to fight a war and be politically correct about it. Otherwise, there would be more dead terrorists and less dead soldiers. There might be a few more dead civilian Iraqi's.

Quickly, the conversation turned to travel and one person got up and left.

Some of the conversation prior was directed at not wanting their tax dollars used for his war. "Just look what he's done to us!" So, I asked yes, let's look at what he's done to us. He lowered taxes and he's kicked some terrorists butts because they tried to kill us. "Yeah but where's Bin Laden?" My reply was he's probably under a pile of mountain rubble if he wasn't smart enough to exit Pakistan before the earthquake.

I think it's funny that when liberals are confronted with the reality of the war on terrorism, they mistakenly believe that means the war on Osama and that's all they can see. They're tremendously upset that tax money is being used to fuel our side of the war. I guess I'm missing something because they believe that if they simply sit down and talk to the terrorists, they'll leave the poor saps alone.

They really don't see that our imperialist view of the world (as they call it) is simply to preserve peace and harmony. Sure we can use the oil, but if they really believe that is what the war is about, then they are sadly hoodwinked. I know one thing they really hate: If we try to be peacemakers and brokers, then that means we might have a leg up on fairness, right and wrong. This drives left wingers nuts.

They don't want to see things as right and wrong though. That would shoot holes in their selfishness decrees. Not to mention scare the bejesus out of them if they think they might not actually have a clue to what right and wrong really are.

They totally miss the idea that there are some things that are more important than their own little worlds. Without the peace and freedom provided here by defeating terrorism everywhere else, what good is it to live even in their shielded little worlds? Without a government leader with backbone, how long will it take for someone to remove the freedoms we have?

Every hates having to admit they were wrong. I do. The look on anyone's face tells you they do too. Liberals don't even have this word combination in their vocabulary or thought process for that matter. If you try to convince them that they MIGHT be wrong, they start experiencing computer brain crash symptoms...does not compute...thrash violently...run away. This is just like a small child throwing a selfish fit because he can't have a candy bar in the checkout line at the grocery store.

I think this is a perfect picture of lefty selfishness. They want to be the champions of the little guy, but won't make good on thier war on poverty promises. They want to be the purveyors of perfect human harmony, but continue to demean anyone and everyone who might disagree with them. They control every major media outlet except for Fox news and the internet. Guess which media outlets are the thorns in liberal's sides?

...does not compute...thrash violently...run away....

I think I worked there too.

Essential additions for the workplace vocabulary:

BLAMESTORMING: Sitting around in a group, discussing why a deadline was missed or a project failed, and who was responsible.

SEAGULL MANAGER: A manager who flies in, makes a lot of noise, craps on everything, and then leaves.

ASSMOSIS: The process by which some people seem to absorb success and advancement by kissing up to the boss rather than working hard.

SALMON DAY: The experience of spending an entire day swimming upstream only to get screwed and die in the end.

CUBE FARM: An office filled with cubicles.

PRAIRIE DOGGING: When someone yells or drops something loudly in a cube farm, and people's heads pop up over the walls to see what's going on.

MOUSE POTATO: The on-line, wired generation's answer to the couch potato.

SITCOMS: Single Income, Two Children, Oppressive Mortgage. What yuppies turn into when they have children and one of them stops working to stay home with the kids.

STRESS PUPPY: A person who seems to thrive on being stressed out and whiney.

SWIPEOUT: An ATM or credit card that has been rendered useless because the magnetic strip is worn away from extensive use.

IRRITAINMENT: Entertainment and media spectacles that are annoying but you find yourself unable to stop watching them. The O.J. trials were a prime example.

PERCUSSIVE MAINTENANCE: The fine art of whacking the crap out of an electronic device to get it to work again.

ADMINISPHERE: The rarefied organizational layers beginning just above the rank and file. Decisions that fall from the adminisphere are often profoundly inappropriate or irrelevant to the problems they were designed to solve.

404: Someone who's clueless. From the World Wide Web error message "404 Not Found," meaning that the requested document could not be located.

GENERICA: Features of the American landscape that are exactly the same no matter where one is, such as fast food joints, strip malls, and subdivisions.

OHNOSECOND: That minuscule fraction of time in which you realize that you've just made a BIG mistake.

WOOFYS: Well Off Older Folks.

CROP DUSTING: Surreptitiously farting while passing through a cube farm, then enjoying the sounds of dismay and disgust; leads to PRAIRIE DOGGING.

Are you getting implants?

Some of us are. Even if we don't need them.

I've already lost it

Have you heard of this study yet? It says there's a study showing internet users are losing trust in/on the internet. Shucks, I lost that a long time ago. It still doesn't stop me from using it.

I even thought of some of the ways I could combat identity theft on line. One of the ways the Mrs. & myself followed up on this was to get a separate credit card to use just on line and put a low credit limit on it, like 500$. Worse case, if it got stolen, I'd only have to argue with the credit card company for about 500$, not something much larger.

Don't let anyone fool you about this. That was a wasted effort it would seem. You see, our normal credit card we used for every day things like gas purchases, going out to eat, Christmas gifts etc, was never used on line. We only used it in brick and morter joints.

The reality of it was if the brick and morter joint also did business on the web, then your credit card is subject to getting stolen on line. This happened to us. Fortunately, my wife was bouncing from credit card to credit card trying to get those freebie things with rewards, so she'd switch cards every 3 or 4 months. Because this one card had an exceptionally high credit limit on it, she kept it active, but we just didn't use it for about 8 months.

She gets a call at work from the bank that sponsored the card asking her if we had started to use the card again. Strange, that they'd call us like this. Anyway, my wife asked why and they said someone had attempted to purchase music equipment and computer equipment on line the previous evening and after several missed attempts, they had finally guessed the expiration date and made a successful purchase of about 800$ with it. My wife wasn't sure, because if I had suddenly went willy nilly with the credit card, music & computer stuff would've been where I spent it at the moment!

Turns out the bank had cancelled the card and were calling make sure we didn't make the purchases as they stopped it thinking it was stolen. Since they caught it so quickly, they didn't make us pay for the fraudulent purchases either. That was a nice blessing.

I still buy stuff on line and I still use a separate card for it. The low credit limit keeps the on line guys in line too as they can't put a bunch of incorrect charges on there before maxing the card out. At least we haven't had to test that. Thanks for the good work guys!

So, have you lost trust in the internet?

The great pumpkin

Welcome Carnival of Comedy viewers!

I guess old Charlie Brown & Linus lived in the wrong state. Every Halloween these 2 poor saps would sit out in the garden waiting on the great pumpkin. Everyone made fun of them and they eventually fell asleep and who knows what other mischief they got into that got edited out.

They could've been cleaning up the yard and still keep an eye on the pumpkin patch. Maybe rake some leaves up and not tell Lucy. Nope. Just sat there.

Well, I'm here to tell you I saw the great pumpkin. He had a home, or actually a farm, but he had a place in Clarence NY. I had to stop just to take pictures...

Looked like a fairly decent commercial establishment if you ask me. I mean the signs are very professional and polished. High quality.

And the place is laid out just like a supermarket. Here you have your shopping carts:

Here's the produce Isle:

Then you know how when you go to the market, there are always those annoying little stands with grabber things to just suck the money out of your wallet? I'm not sure what the proper name for these little teasers, but they had plenty at this store! For example, here's your castle teaser:

Here's your gazebo grabber and teepee grabber:

I will note that I seen one of these gazebo displays in a supermarket in Orlando Florida about 3 years ago, so maybe that's not so exciting.

But you have to expect some unusual grabbers so your establishment is unique. Take this one: The outhouse teaser:

I think it's a 2 holer.

And of course, my favorite: The OMG pyramid of pumpkins:

Ok. I guess you've probably seen similar things during your travels in this great country of ours. But think about this. You're driving along with the 2.3 kids in the back of minivan and they've dozed off into parent loving bliss, with their little heads leaning on the window, drooling down the side panels. You see this up ahead and you wish to treat the little tykes to something different, so you pull in and park. Right next to the great pumpkin himself. You wake them up by yelling HEY KIDS..CHECK THIS OUT.

Your 4 yr old wakes into a half stupor because he was really into his dreams and this is what he sees:

Do you think the poor little guy isn't going to freak out and scream his little guts out to the point you can't hear for 3 days?

Add these guys to the list.

I had previously touched on don't buy from Office Max, so now I'm going to place another name on that list of prestigious companies.

The new one is Renovators Supply. They're a mail order company that sells plumbing fixtures and hardware for the home that is made to look like the old antique styles from yesteryear. I stupidly bought my plumbing fixtures from them for my house when we built it 10 years ago. They're supposed to come with a lifetime warranty against defects.

Each one of the bathroom sink sets has developed problems. The first set, develped a bad leak in the cold water spigot. I called Renovators and they sent me a replacement valve. The 2nd set cold water valve got really tight to turn and one day twisted in half to soak the bathroom for me. Finally, the third set developed a leak that wouldn't quit so I called them again. This time, they wouldn't send me a replacement without a 50$ charge to my credit card.

So, if you're planning on building a new house or remodeling your current domicile, do yourself a favor and completely ignore Renovator's Supply. They'll gladly overcharge you for their products and then valiantly not stand behind their warranty.

Fabulous!

Signs and wonders

Sunday, at church service, we had a special guest speaker from the country of Ghana, in west Africa. Sammuel Addo has been a long time friend of our church family and we've been supporters of his ministry for many years. He has quite an evangelism ministry in his country now and whenever he visits, he always has many fantastic stories of God's miracles and saving grace.

Last year, he invited people from our church to come visit him in his country and the pastor and one of the elders went and participated in some of the crusades they conducted in several cities. They saw many people give their lives to Christ and brought back videos to show us how things went there. It was fascinating to see and hear!

When pastor was asking for support to go on this trip, a gentleman from up north somewhere (I don't know exactly where, nor do I know who he is) made a very generous contribution for them to go with. A couple of weeks before Sammuel came back to our church, the pastor got a letter from this gentleman with a very sizeable check to give to Sammuel's ministry to help build an orphanage.

The interesting thing is that before pastor gave him the check, Sammuel got up to tell us of his new projects and one of them was he was going to build an orphanage in his city. He was going to start working on see what all he'd have to do in order to get started. Then the pastor gives him the check and it about floored everyone.

What an amazing God we serve!

Hope this brightened your day, as it did mine and many others! Bless you!

If you'd like to donate to Sammuel's ministry, contact the pastor at church and he will have instructions on how to do so.

Where have all the good guys gone?

Just finished up reading Bernard Goldberg's Arrogance. Definitely worth the time to read. His prior installment, Bias, was just a warm up. You really must read both of these if you watch tv, read newspapers and/or magazines. This book will help you understand what your mind and conscience is up against. If you don't believe the leftist media is out to destroy this nation as our founding fathers intended, then you're definitely missing the bigger picture.

It's not that I'm some big conspiracy theorist. Quite the contrary. I don't think the newspaper publishers are in cahoots with film producers, or in cahoots with school teachers, or in cahoots with big politicians, er well maybe some of them. (I'm leary of anyone who gets support from George Soros and moveon.org.) These are just small pieces compared to the bigger picture.

In order to understand the bigger picture, you must understand Christianity. You know, Christ died on a cross to save us from our sins as the ultimate sacrifice. Well, if you're not a Christian and truly open minded, then this begs the question: Why must I be saved from my sins? (Hint: Sinners don't get to go to heaven)

Well, a long time ago, Satan was actually an angel in heaven. Not just any angel, but the head one. He was the most beautiful and had everything an angel could ask for there. By the way, his name was Lucifer at the time. Anyway, Luc gets the big head and wants to become God himself and overthrow the throne and take it over. He gets a posse of his fellow angels and works them up into a frenzy to do this overthrow deal.

God's not having any part of this, so he kicks Luc out onto the earth along with his buddies. So, now Satan begins his great revenge. He starts out by fooling Adam and Eve in the garden, thus resulting in the first sin. This changed the rules God had first laid out for them and thus began the ritual of blood sacrifice to atone for man's sins. (This went on for thousands of years by the way.) Adam & Eve get booted from the garden of Eden. (Do you see a pattern here?)

So, God puts a new plan in place to allow for a way for man to atone for his sins without all this bloodshed. He will allow for his own Son (Christ) to become a man on the earth as flesh and blood. He will eventually be put to death and his blood shed, then rise again to overcome death.

This doesn't set well for Satan. Remember, he's on a revenge path. His revenge will be to destroy man to get back at God for throwing him out of heaven. So Adam and Eve have a couple of sons, Cain & Abel. Satan causes Cain to be jealous of Abel so much so that he kills him. Satan's thinking this will foil God's plan because the 2 heirs are not in line to bring Christ into the earth as they are either dead (Abel) or a seriously bigtime sinner (Cain). So, in order to overcome that Adam & Eve have another son, Seth.

I go into that detail to show you that God always has a way around Satan's evil plans. I also go into that to show you that Satan means business when he's out to destroy mankind.

OK, let's fast forward to the other end of the bible. (You can read all of this in there, I'm not making it up). In Revelation, Satan is ultimately defeated and thrown into the Lake of Fire with all his followers and everyone he managed to fool over time to be burned in there forever. You want a conspiracy theory, there it is. Satan knows the ending of the book too, so you can bet he's going to go all out to stop anyone and everyone he can in order to get back at God.

Think about that for a bit, then let's go back to Bernie's book for a moment. I agree with him where he says the media elite really believe what they're doing is right. They've been convinced that their politically correct lives are what is right. So I beg the question: Are these people fooled by Satan's plan to destroy as many lives as possible? No, they're not trying to destroy people's lives (unless you're a conservative) and if you ask them, they are most definitely not a pawn. But, as I contend, if they're hoodwinked by the master, then how can they possibly determine that they're not a pawn?

I was reading a particular chapter where a younger news producer was upset that the news media was playing a story wrong. When I read this, I interrupted my wife's tv show because I jumped up and said I knew it! The story was the sex scandal in the Catholic church. All the news outlets were playing the story as pedophilia when it was actually homosexuality. There's a big difference!

Currently, the media is trying to convince everyone that homosexuality is ok, when this news story (had it been broadcast correctly) shows it's definitely not ok. It's damaging to people, lives, families, and ultimately the church. Satan gets to chalk up another success story. And the media are unwittingly being his pawns in the process.

Need more info to pry your eyes open? Read these 2 books by Bernie Goldberg, then read Ann Coulter's Slander and Treason. At least you'll see a big picture pattern.

Now, go tone down your arrogance and have a great day!

My other car is a piece of crap too.

Ever see that bumper sticker? Funny one, even if it's helping to hold the bumper on.

But that's only my lead-in, and you'll see why in just a moment. My real topic is car companies ability to not think ahead of what they do marketing-wise. Case in point: Toyota. They make some neat looking cars and well running cars. A lot of people buy them and like them. I don't personally buy them because they're Japanese cars, but to each his own I guess. (I'll not go into that rant now.)

Anyway, most all the big car companies have racing development of some sort going on inside. Toyota is no different. They have produced some fine equipment worldwide. No doubt. However, when it comes to the American market, they need to consider some very important naming techniques.

Have you seen their logo on the side of mostly 4wd pickups. Toyota Racing Development. TRD. Who in thier right mind puts a sticker on the side of their brand new pickup with a name like "turd"?

Picture this...you're coming out of the office and one of your co-workers is going to grab a ride with you and wants to know which car to watch for when you come curbside to get him. "Uh, yeah, I drive the silver Toyota turd. You'll know it when you see it!"

Maybe some marketing dept has a sense of humor that escapes the Japanese corporate officers.

Who knows? Well, gotta go fill up the tank in my Saturn sphincter...

My first blog problem

Today, I attempted to post an article to the blog here and it kept erroring out. It's a javascript timeout error is all I see. I'm still new and don't understand. We'll see if this posts or not.

Tried changing the post title but that didn't work. Oh well. Not like it's life endangering...

Patent problems

It would seem a small company is trying the Darl McBride/SCO tactic of making some sort of bottom line. How can you patent the transfer of data in nuetral forms? There must be politicians involved in this. I'm certainly in favor of an overhaul of the patent system, but as long as there are people that support some of the silliness that has erupted out of the patent process lately, I don't know if it can be successfully fixed or not.

Can I get fries with that?

I think everyone experiences the after trauma of coming back to work after a vacation and all the things you didn't do while you're gone are still waiting on you when you get back. My job is no different. I've come to expect it and not be overwhelmed by it.

However, being the network admin for my company has some drawbacks in this area. It's a 24hr a day on call type position you just can't hide from. I do try sometimes tho. An easy example is where I live there is no cell phone reception. (ARE YOU LISTENING VERIZON???) So in order to call me you have to call the land line and hope I'm in the house.

Anyway, the sales dept performs a surprise move and promotes one of our salesmen and then hires a replacement for him. Nobody tells me this is in the plan. However, I did find out 4 days ahead of time when I checked my email from my motel room and seen the msg announcing his hiring to the ranks. Also in this msg is a note to me to get him a laptop.

Well, gee, I keep those in the trunk of my car and I'll whiz one right over. From New York. Yeah right. (remember they're in Cincinnati and I'm on vacation in NY)

So, I get back from vacation and immediately the push begins to get this guy a laptop. When can I get it? A week I tell them. We gotta have it by 10am Wed. Let's not forget it needs to be set up. Laughter is seeping out now.

So begins the search for a laptop of the brand I normally get. None to be found in town. Decent usable units can't be found at any of the major stores in town. (I don't use certain brands and no name ones. I learn the hard way and keep that in mind for future use.) Phone calls and web seraches reveal that Office Max has one that I will consider with all the proper hardware in it. So I order it off the web site as the store guy is clueless. The web site tells me it'll be here the next day.

Tuesday rolls by and I've checked the web site several times to see if it shipped yet, but no indication. I call them at 2:30pm to see where it is at. Oh that doesn't come from us it's from a partner company that ships in 3-5 days. The satirical laughter changes to futile laughter. I tell them to cancel the order and laugh, once off the phone for 2-3 minutes.

I took vacation for this.

I'm now just finishing up configuring an old service tech's laptop so he'll at least have one to use. He's already whining about it because it's not new. He didn't seem to care that I got 0 (that's zero) days notice of his employment with us.

Morals of the story:
Make sure other people are aware of your dept policies.
Don't buy computer equipment from Office Max.
/whining off

It wasn't me.

Did you ever see Disney's movie Rocketman? Great bunch of laughs with a bunch of silliness and slapstick. Not much intellect, just some laughter and a few tears from laughing way too much at the scene where someone's air hose get's cut. Hmm. I'm laughing at someone's misfortunte. How inconsiderate of me.

Well, anyway, if you ever wanted something and then got it only to find yourself in over your head, then this movie is a good one for you. That analogy gives me poetic license to relate this story.

I believe it was 1998. I worked for this large manufacturing corporation. I drove about 75 minutes to work and then home again. (Yep, I guess I was a glutton for punishment. But that's another story, although similarly related.) My boss at the time, who worked in another facility in another state, told me he thought the company was going to close our facility down and that I should begin to make preparations for the worst.

So, I polished up my resume and lo and behold, there appeared an opening in a new facility that the company had just bought almost right along the same path I took to and from work every day and it was 15 min shorter drive. The opening was a sysadmin at this facility which the main responsibility would be to begin incorporation of the company systems and email.

This was a typical small company that pinched pennies in all the wrong places, especially with their computer hardware. To make the story short, thier systems were very unstable. They ran an exchange server on nt4 with everything else on the same server, except for an old novell 3.1 server they did their file directories with and to top it off, they used microsoft's tool to map a drive to the novell server and share that connection. They also ran proxy server on this server, a DOS financial program off the novell server, thru the nt server and some other mixed up things. (Just so the the other IT guy knows, this wasn't his fault. He did the best he could under the circumstances)

The company first wanted me to get them on the corporate WAN and then get the company's home grown ERP system and order processing system on line. That was a joke, as it was written to run on nt4 only and these guys still were running Win95 and a few DOS stations.

So, began the fight with the small company mgmt to spend money on *gasp* hardware. For some reason this was the only corporate buyout where the bigger company didn't immediately dump the local mgmt. Because they didn't, the locals still ran the place as if they owned it. They could not comprehend that the corp std was in place and that's what you bought, not the stripped down crapola from the local discount store.

It had been owned by 4 brothers and several silent partners. The youngest brother was in charge, with the other 3 occupying prominent positions. One brother was my boss, the IT manager. He was a yes man if I ever met one. Whatever the brother in charge said, this guy almost killed me and the other IT guy still there trying to get it done the day before. It was comical to say the least.

These attempts to kill us with impossible projects came between the frequent server crashes, user problems and constant requests from corporate as to why these systems weren't operational yet. It was a zoo.

About 2 months into my new position, we were experiencing one of those in house vacation days (where the boss is off) and things were going fairly smoothly (for a change) and the big boss brother called the IT staff to his office. (me and the other guy)

We had no clue as to what it was about because our boss was out, so we went to see. As soon as we sat down, big little brother commenced into a rather ugly tirade. The bad part was it took me 20 minutes into the tirage to figure out what he was raving about. (He was known for these outbursts, I just had to get my turn I guess)

So, I asked him if I understood him right by acknowledging the fact I didn't carry around a Franklin planner. The tirade started as soon as it stopped for my question, but it had a few yes type comments, so I must've figured it out. I then stopped him again and asked why he thought we needed planners. The tirade began again about how stupid we were and how could we manage to figure out how to do a days work without it.

Well, by now I'd had enough insults. So, I asked as innocently as I could if he was trying to get me to plan for the next server crash so I could give him a courtesy call about 5 minutes ahead of schedule so he could save his letters. (You'd have thought I just had rammed one of the nails in Jesus' hand-because I was just witnessing him getting warmed up).

My collar was starting to get a little damp from steam. I stopped him and stood up. I asked why my boss and/or HR wasn't present for such meeting. I wanted to know exactly what was required for me to make sure this meeting never took place again. Because such behavior is not professional and I'd expect a little better treatment from a vice president and I left.

The next day, my boss brother called me to his office to reprimand me for being rude to the vp. I laughed at him and left his office too.

I don't recommend this type of behavior as an employee of any company, but sometimes you're left with no alternative. My meeting was by no means unique. There was this black guy in the tech service dept that had been sent on a job where things didn't go to plan. I wasn't sure who really screwed up, but the customer was mad and called the vp brother and let him have it. Well, he had to pass it on to the tech guy. During his meeting, the vp called him "boy" a couple of times.

After that, these impromptu meetings declined substantially...not to mention vp brother's employment. Apparently, he and the corporation came to the agreed upon conclusion that the vp brother needed employment somewhere else.

So, after all these problems, I can safely say..It wasn't me.

A brief history

Just got back from my vacation trip to Niagara Falls and it was a lot of fun. One place we visited was old Fort Niagara. Built by the French initially in 1678 and then rebuilt bigger and better in 1728. The British took it away from them in 1729. They in turn gave it up to the Americans in 1796. They took it back in 1812, then gave it up again permanently in 1813.

This pic below is of a guy wearing the British uniform of the time, demonstrating loading and firing of his musket. Notice the unique way in which these soldiers got suntans.

As you walk around the fort, you see signs and hear stories of all the related events and things surrounding this history. You see different pertinent things to each nation as you read the signs and listen to stories throughout the fort. Even in the gift shop, there's things in there to reflect things about each country.

That's why I was so much entertained upon entering the fort, you see 3 flagpoles in the center prominade, each pole at first glance containing the flag of these 3 countries. The center, slightly elevated flag, being a US flag, then a British flag and of course the French one.

Have a great day!

Back to work!

Oh well, vacation's over now. Bummer. I was getting used to spending all that time...not working. The last couple days at the motel ended up being a pain for computer usage tho. DNS didn't work on Thursday and Friday was spent packing, so I ignored the blog for that time. I'm back to annoy someone now! Could it be you?

Have a blessed day!

The pinnacle

Well, today we went to Niagara Falls. If you haven't been here, forget all the corny jokes and movies you've seen, just come and see it. It is a delight to see and marvel over. Another of God's great creations that man just hasn't figured out how to discredit.

I'll post some pics once I get home. For some reason I can't publish pics out of this motel room. I'll try again later tho. Who knows, might get a good one thru. Have a wonderfully blessed day, today and tomorrow!!


Don't forget, say a prayer for the families of the USS Cole as today marks 5 years since that tragedy.

Whoa, this is amazing!

Someone should patent this vacation idea! Get up when I wanna. Go to sleep when I wanna. Eat when I wanna. Drive where I wanna. It's like, um, I'm not at work!

Drove up to Youngstown, NY today to see the Old Fort Niagara. That was cool. I took a really cool pic that I have to publish, but for some reason it won't ftp out of this motel room, so it'll wait til I get home.

There are lots of orchards and vineyards here. Stands to reason we'd see a winery or 2. Passed one that had a big sign up that said wine tasting today. Plastered on top of it was another smaller sign that said help wanted. (I wish I had taken a pic of that)

What a country!

Another vacation day!

Wow! I've had several of these vacation days in a row. This could be a habit. One I like! Nowhere did I say continue to afford, you'll notice.

Anyway, we went to Lockport NY today and then up to the coast of Lake Ontario. Watched them work the locks for a bunch of boats on the Erie Canal, but couldn't get the wife to take a ride in the tour boats.

Went up to the coast to see the 30 Mile Point Lighthouse. That was really neat. It would've classed a little better had it been open. And not raining. And not foggy. There was a light drizzle in the fog with about 250' visibility. Not even worth firing up the candle. Couldn't have seen it if you wanted.

It was still pretty neat tho. Enjoyed just running around the countryside visiting all the locale. You should come visit sometime. Preferrably when the sun is shining.

We're here to help you!

Microsoft says you, their customer, is their number one interest. I beg to differ.

Jerks. Why don't they fix the broke stuff first? Look at all these revisions they've released over the years and windows 2.0 still doesn't work.

Vacation time!

Friday was a hectic day at work. I had to rush to get everything done I had planned because I'm taking a week off to go run around and spend tons of money on gas. Me & the Mrs. decided to go visit Niagara Falls. Haven't gotten there yet tho. We just got to Buffalo and found our motel.

We stopped in Erie PA last night and ate at a resturant called Safari Grill. I assumed it was supposed to be dishes prepared as if we were in Africa. Nope. Although they called it their house specialties with an African flair, it was pretty much like Lone Star Steak House.

Now that I'm not complaining about because I like Lone Star, but to be in a resturant that specializes in African dishes and have an item on the menu called Chilean Sea Bass, and marked as a house specialty, well, just ruins the ambiance for me.

Did I miss something in geography class?

Help desk question

I got a call from one of my users, because apparently, she was having trouble loading a web page.

"Is there something wrong with the internet?"

I started laughing uncontrollably.

"Ask the U.N."

What are your answers to the question?

Immigration test

I couldn't help it, I just got this email and I thought this was hilarious....

Mujibar was trying to get into the USA legally through Immigration. The Officer said, "Mujibar, you have passed all the tests, except there is one more test. Unless you pass it you cannot enter the United States of America.

Mujibar said, "I am ready."

The officer said, "Make a sentence using the words Yellow, Pink and Green"

Mujibar thought for a few minutes and said, "Mister Officer, I am ready."

The Officer said, "Go ahead."

Mujibar said, "The telephone goes green, green, green, and I pink it up, and say, 'Yellow, this is Mujibar.'"

Mujibar now lives in a neighborhood near you and works at a Verizon help desk and with AOL tech support.

Where did all the good guys go?

Just finished reading Bernard Goldberg's Bias. Good read. I'm surprised he wasn't castrated. On air. The networks, especially See-BS, had to have their panties in a wad over that one.

I've got his next book, Arrogance, on que for my reading while on vacation next week. Looking forward to reading that as well.

Anyway, I think Bias should be required reading for journalists, and particularly news anchor chairs as a guide for how NOT to do the news. Although Bernie could have cleaned up the language here and there, I think everyone should read this book to see just how easily we are manipulated by television news programs.

A typical liberal action/reaction is where Bernie makes this quote:

Dan Rather, the man who assured me "we were friends yesterday, we're friends today, and we'll be friends tomorrow," hasn't spoken a word to me, either.

I guess Bernie ended up being a useful idiot. Until he wised up at least.

Don't be one yourself. Keep an ear out for little clues that you might not be hearing the exact truth from all the proper angles whenever you watch the news. Any news. Local, cable or national. It's a pretty sure bet that any news sourced from news agencies outside of the US can be considered biased, after you read this book you'll know it when you see it/hear it.

Power in the blood...

One thing I really like about my church is my pastor doesn't just preach a sermon and pat us on the back and send us on our way for the week. He gets up and tells us what we need to be doing to be followers of Christ then he tries to get us involved in the process. He teaches us how to pray and how to interact with one another by Godly standards, not worldly standards.

One of those things is that he lets members of the congregation handle the communion portion of the service. Yesterday was my turn. It's truly an honor to get to do this, not an obligation. It's also pretty cool to see how different people see what communion means to them and how it fits into their daily lives. The pastor doesn't tell us how to do it. He gives us guidelines as to what means what and let's us speak in our own words. Absolutely cool I think.

To those pharisees who beleive that the pastor and elders should be doing this, all I can say is your missing out big time. I've heard some wonderful comments, mini sermons, thoughts and the like from several people. It helps people to learn to not be afraid to speak publicly, and more importantly, about Christ.

I, being the musician I am, decided we needed to sing a song and we sang the old hymn "There's Power in the Blood". I related it as the bread represents the bodily sacrifice that Christ made and the juice represents His blood that was shed. The body was the ultimate sacrifice. Christ did it so we wouldn't have to sacrifice animals for our sins any more. We only had to acknowledge and accept it. The blood has power.

2 Peter 1:2-4 (New King James Version)

² Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, ³ as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, ⁴ by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

This divine power is something we as mortal men cannot comprehend. Man is only after physical power. He is mesmerized with power. It's very addictive. But as Christians, we must not succumb to this temptation. God's authority usurps physical power.

Zechariah 4:6

Then he answered and spake unto me, saying, This is the word of the LORD unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the LORD of hosts.

So, if God's spirit trumps physical power, and there is power in the blood as the song says, then it must be spiritual power. The verse above from 2Peter says He has given us all things through His divine power. Christ demonstrated this power on the cross when he died.

Matthew 27:50-53 (New King James Version)

⁵⁰ And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit.
⁵¹ Then, behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth quaked, and the rocks were split, ⁵² and the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised; ⁵³ and coming out of the graves after His resurrection, they went into the holy city and appeared to many.

The veil of the temple ripped in half from top to bottom. The earth quaked and rocks were split apart. Then dead saints were raised.

Now that's POWER!

I may be able to rip a piece of material in half, or even split some rocks with a sledge and a wedge, but I personally can't raise dead guys. So, if I have been given all things that pertain to life and godliness thru God's spirit, then I just might see the dead raised.

That would be cool.

Work related.

I just got a phone call from one of my users asking what to do when she gets the message of her virtual memory is low.

Again, trying to be helpful, I told her to simply raise it up a little.

Her reply of attempting to raise me up sounded a bit on the harsh side.