Happy New Year.

The fireworks went off about half an hour ago, so apparently I survived until 2008. New Year just doesn't mean a hell of a lot any more.

I'm sure a lot of that is my age. At 52, even discounting the first few that I was too young to be aware of, I've over 45 of them under my belt. The novelty is gone. That could be part of why the holidays in general are so much of a drag any more.

Another part is that my new family just doesn't celebrate in the sense my family did. Even with the depressive episodes (or maybe because of them) the holidays were always big deals with my family. Filling the larder for the Thanksgiving and Christmas feast always began weeks before the actual holiday. Cooking began several days before with poppy seeds soaking and bread drying for dressing, cookies and pies baking, on good years the Divinity (a white fudge popular in parts of the south) being make and set out, holiday candies set in dishes around the house. All the holidays had their own signature food for dinner. The turkey and dressing, sweet potatoes, corn, cornbread, the usual assortment of veggies, both cooked and in the raw veggie tray to snack on between meals and an assortment of pies (mince meat, pecan, apple, pumpkin maybe more) and cakes (white with chocolate frosting ana a lemon bundt were almost always represented, and sometimes more) graced both Christmas and Thanksgiving. New years was the black-eyed peas and ham, also with cornbread. Not has much deserts for new years, but probably something.

Now, while we do have turkey for Thanksgiving (usually 2 since I do a smoked and my mother-in-law does a roasted), and dressing (but it's a white bread dressing I don't care for), that's about it. Someone usually brings brownies, and there is usually a Mrs. Smiths frozen pumpkin pie. The frozen corn on the cob or potato cassarole aren't even garanteed, though usually present. I probably start cooking first since smoking is pretty much slow cooking by definition, so I usually get up around 4 or 5 in the morning to start the turkey. Other than cleaning the smoker and thawing/seasoning the turkey the night before, no food prep occurs before the day we eat. Christmas is even less. Christmas eve we usually have ham and potatoes. When I first moved here they did Chicken and Dumplings as a Christmas day meal, but that went away. No one else felt like cooking it, so I took over for a couple years, but apparently no one liked my rendition. Now it's up for grabs from year to year. New Years they don't even do a family meal, so we just eat pretty much what we do every other day. I tried making the Black-eyed peas and ham a couple years, but I was the only one to eat it, so why bother.

I wonder if it's because my wifes family isn't partiers? While my parents didn't go out and shut down the bars that often, I've seen both of my parents after they had too much to drink. It was a safe bet that there was something with alcohol being passed around New Years (my parents weren't big champagne drinkers, but sometimes they popped a bottle), and any guest that dropped in over the holidays was offered a drink. We don't have guests. In our case, the house is to big of a mess to let anyone in, and if we did, there's not a clear spot for ME to sit in the living room, much less extra people, and my bed is usually still spread on the couch downstairs (since I don't current fit on the bed with all the junk). My mother-in-law has a couple friends she sees from time to time, but as far as I can tell, they plan their meetings. I've never heard of anyone just dropping in. A difference between north and south? Difference between big and small cities? Difference between social and asocial?

My first drink for New Years wasn't until I sat down to write this. Jose Cuervo straight. I prefer it with Pepsi or orange juice, but we're low on Pepsi and have no juice, so it's straight with an instant iced tea chaser. Aren't I the wild one!

Speaking of wild, and kind of tyeing in with the "another year passing" thing. I think I've found the thing that bothers me most about getting old. While my hair is turning gray and my skin is getting the lovely "biscuit dough" complexion, my mind still wants to be tubing down the river , climbing the cliff face, digging the bands at the bars, and in other ways having fun! Yeah, some of it I could still do, but most of the people I know my age (and few they are) are wet rags, don't party at all! The younger ones don't want to spend their time with and old fart like me, and even if they did, I'd just be the joke, the old guy trying to party with the youngsters. It's a no win situation. Especially being the only one in my family that likes outdoor or drinks! A family tubing trip would be a journey into the gates of hell with this family! "Dirty water!, BUGS!, SNAKES!!!, it's hot, the waters cold! My DS got wet!"

And of course, a lot of the stuff I just couldn't do anymore. Climb a cliff? I get winded climbing a flight of stairs! If I tried, I might be able to get in shape again, but it's a lot harder now than it was when I was 20. And any minor accident? I would guess the bones will go a lot faster now, and heal a lot slower.

So I watch another year go and a new one come, trapped in a body and life that's boring me to death. People say I'm cynical when I wish even one a happy fucking holiday!

Holidays suck.

I grew up in a family with manic depressive women. No judgements, they were all clinically diagnosable. With the stress and expectations of holidays, it was always almost a game to guess who was going to meltdown and get suicidal first. Is it any wonder I always volunteered to work the holiday shift?

When I first met my wife and her family, I was amazed. even with the discussion of religion and politics (the kids were democrat, pro-abortion, atheist/Buddhist/jew, and Mom was a devout catholic republican) there was never a meltdown. It's probably hard to understand for someone from a "normal" family, but to me a holiday with out anyone running to their bedroom in tears threatening to kill themselves was quite a novelty!

Unfortunately, a novelty that was short lived.

This year we had a scene remenescient of my family in my wifes family. It was al started by my son, or maybe my wife or maybe me. Without going into a lot of detail, let just say my son open his mouth about crap that should not have been a topic of discussion, my wife over reacted, and my mother in law tried to tell my wife how to run her family. Things went down hill from there.

Right now, on the 26th of December (actually it's after midnight, so I guess it's the 27th) I'm sitting here half drunk, (don't worry, by the time I finish on the computer I'm sure I'll be the rest of way!) wishing I had to work this holiday.

Maybe it's just me. I'm not Christian, maybe the Karma is telling me I shouldn't piggy back my celebration on other peoples. Solstice was over days before Christmas. Maybe I should just ignore Christmas and focus on holidays with more personal meaning. Maybe I should just blow off the holidays all together. What ever it is. most of my life seems to have been spent dreading Christmas and other major holidays and tiptoeing around during the holidays like a soldier in a minefield.

Whatever it is, it sucks, and I'll actually be glad to go backl to work at a dead end job. Reminbd me next year to avoid taking vacation around teh holidays, and be sure to volunteer if they need anyone to go in for a few hours over the break.

Life sucks, then you die.

I grew up in a time and place where there was a right and wrong. I usually did what was right. People said I should get work experience, so in high school I got a job, and except for a couple of short stints while I was going to college full time, I've work pretty consistently for the last 37 years. I went to college and got a degree. I never got caught doing drugs or driving under the influence. I even avoided piercings and tattoos that might keep people from judging me fairly.

Now, at 50+ years old, I decided my life has been a complete and total waste. There was so much I didn't do because I didn't want to risk my future, and now that I'm living my future, it sucks. I'm bankrupt and can't answer my phone because I don't want to deal with the collection agents that start calling at 7 or 8 every morning.

The fun toys I have accumulated are being repossessed or in danger of being liquidated to pay credit card bills.

People with lower education and less experience that me are being offered promotions they don't apply for, while I'm blown off for what I do apply for.

My house if a health department nightmare and a house fire waiting to happen, and no one in the family will pick up a single piece of trash or even put a piece of dirty clothes in the laundry basket. I haven't even been able to sleep in my own bedroom for months, sleeping instead in the basement. Friends that knew me years ago would be surprised to learn that at the moment my bathroom is the cleanest room in the whole house!

I have to wonder what I bothered for. What good did the school do me? Did I benefit from not having a criminal record? If I were covered in tattoos would my job be any more of a dead end than it is now? At 52+ years old, is it even worth trying to to do anything, or should I go buy a ki and get high...fuck the drug tests. What the hell do I have to look forward to!!

New blog system

Linux is still on the desktop. Not much has changed. I've been trying to come up with some way people can give me feedback on my blog entries. One option was to switch my blog offsite, maybe to Live Journal or maybe Google blog. Instead, I'm trying using Blogger (Googles Blog system) to publish to my web site.

If anyone does read this, feel free to comment and give me some feedback.

Old Blogs

The following are old blog entries that were written in the web page. Here I'm moving them to blogger.

My New Site

Blogg

Friday, Feb, 23, 2007

Well I think Linux is on the way out. I may leave it on for a while to play with or maybe even try a different flavor, but I've about decided that for my computer use Linux isn't ready.

I think I mentioned before that most of the software I need is I savailable and even for free for Linux. Well I've been fighting for days now to get my phone connected on Linux. I've found software, but most of it I've been less than succesful getting connected. Even if the phone is detected, it is either not always found or it gets lost during use. Also, much of the software only deals with sending messages and such. While there is software that claims to do what I need, I haven't yet got it to work
I've also had problems with my printer. My printer doesn't have a Linux driver available, so I've been forced to use a generic Epson driver I found. I think I have had it work, but like the phone, it's a crap-shoot.

While there is a certain game or puzzle like enjoyment to making the stuff work, there is also a major level of frustration when there's something you need to do and you have to spend hours getting everything working. I do have a computer from my mother-in-law that I'm planning on setting up for the kids. When she bought the computer someone convenced her to buy a custome built machine, and the windows was installed on it. Either bad software or viruses have corrupted the registry and while it still runs, the performance is seriously degraded. She wanted to reinstall windows, but either she never recieved the original Windows disks or had lost it, so she didn't have the disks to reinstall. I have the options of trying to repair the installation, attempting to do a reinstall from an unauthorized disk (downloading one from the internet since all my Windows disks are brand specific), paying hundreds of bucks for a new disk, or using an alternative OS. At the moment I can't afford to buy another copy of windows, and with the way Microsoft protects their software, I'm not sure a pirated copy would work, even though we are entiltle to a copy and have a valid, paid for license. Since the main thing we see the kids using the computer for is Internet and possible word processing, I may very well end up with Linux on that machine.

Sometime in the near future I'll try and post a bit more specific review of what my results are, and at least for a while I'll keep the Linux on the hard drive to play with.

Friday, Feb16, 2007

Linux continued...

The editing done so far has been with NVU. It has some rough edges compared to Dreamweaver, but with it's smaller footprint I think I'm going to keep with it for a while. This is the first entry written on the Linux OS.

I did get the sound card issue fixed. I have no idea what I did though. I later tried to play a sound file with the XP OS and the sound was screwed up there too. I unplugged some things amd reinstalled the XP driver (which as far as I know should not have effected the Linux) and when I got it working in XP I went back to Linux and it was working there also. Go Figure.

My current headache is getting file and print sharing working. Since Linux is on the desktop computer, that's the one with the printer and the external hard drives connected. I need to be able to access the printer and those drive over the network from my laptop. I did manage to get the connection to work where I can access the laptop from the desktop, but still having troubles going the other way.

Saturday, Feb 10, 2007

Different topic sort of. I wrote the preceding blogg entry with NVU (another OPENCD program) While it was open I was looking at the source files of some of my web pages. Houston- I see a problem.

Since I've had this page up (3 or 4 years?) I've used a number of web authoring tools. Off the top of my head, Front Page, Dreamweaver, CityDesk, and parts of it were originally written with the software for various free web sites and the code just copied and pasted. Each of these programs left some signatures in the code. It's also tended to make the site a bit messy.

I've gone in and done some manual clean up, but I think the best bet might be to redo the website. I thought about loading Dreamweaver back up. It's my favorite of the web authoring programs I've used, but mine is an ancient copy. The obvious choice to use (since it's on my computer) is NVU. Unfortunately, NVU, like many open source and GNU software choices, has some rough edges. One of the most annoying is lack of frames.

I also don't see an easy way to make an off web copy of the web site to edit. Oh well, I am trying. If the site disappears, that's probably what's going on. Stay tuned and eventually it will be back

Friday, Feb. 9, 2007

Geeze it's been ages since I wrote anything here. Oh well, I don't get paid for it or anything!

I've been thinking about Linux for some time now. Recently, I had to reinstall Windows XP on my desktop. One of the problems I've had with every version of Windows I've ever used is that if you download/install many pieces of software (which I do) it will eventually crap out and need reinstalled. The big pain in this is that all of your software need reinstalled also, so you need to dig out install disks and manuals you haven't seen in ages!

At any rate, since I was reformatting the drive anyway,I decided I'd install Linux. If you've never heard of Linux, it's a free operating system. You probably use it since it's stability and cost make it popular in devices like cell phones, video recorders, and other computer controlled devices, not to mention many of the servers you go through when surfing the Internet. Among other things, it is free and readily available.

One of the things that has always kept me from Linux is the lack of a graphic interface. Now don't get me wrong, I was one of the latecomers to graphic interfaces. I hung on to the nice friendly C:\ prompt as long as I could, until it got to where there just wasn't the software I wanted that would run in DOS. But the point and click has me spoiled. A year or so I came across Ubuntu. (I actually came across it as part of the OpenCD project, which was also my introduction to much of the software mentioned here! and well worth a visit, though they no longer include Ubuntu as part of the CD) Ubuntu is a Linux package that has a windows like graphic interface (Gnome), come with a decent starting assortment of software, and is aimed at the non- technophiles.

Now a bit of background. Even though I have gotten lazy, I've involved in computers since the days when Jack Trammiel was working on becoming Bill Gates with the Commodore 64. I have programmed in Basic as well as 6510 Assembly language and played a little bit with "C". I've taught computer classes and even been involved in several areas of hacking. Besides "PC"s, and the Commodores I've also used a number of mainframes and worked with Apple IICs and Macs. I may not be a super user or great programmer, but I am probably well above the average computer user as far as skills. While I don't work in the IT department, I'm the guy people in the office ask how to do things when they don't want to wait for the IT department.

That said, My first issue was in trying to get the disk properly partitioned. To be fair, I was being cheap and trying to use free software. Unfortunately, free software is often lacking in documentation, and since I haven't tried to set up a dual boot in years, I wasn't sure about the steps I needed or the formats I needed. But then again, I would guess the average user also hasn't had much experience in this. Eventually, I gave up and used commercial software to partitian my drive. To reach this point though, I reinstalled Windows and Linux at least 8 times. Each time having to go through over an hour of Windows updates since Microsoft won't let me save the updates to install later.

Shortening my ordeal by days, I did eventually get both Linux and Windows XP installed on my desktop! Now if you are considering using Linux, keep in mind, you may not be dealing with a dual boot system. If you are setting up a Linux system, while screw with Windows?

So, since I have Linux installed, how does it stack up? Let's look at the claims made by the Linux supporters. They claim it's stabile, easy, versatile, and using software like WINE you can even run Windows software! My experience....

Ubunto installes easily, so long as the partitions are there. The included software works fine, for the most part. My first problem is when I tried to watch one of my downloaded videos. The video was an *.rm file (Real Video). The default video player didn 't recognize *.rm files, which was no surprise. The default Windows video player can't deal with the Real proprietary format either. No biggy. I went to Real and looked, and sure enough, there is a Real Player for Linux. A few minutes to download the *.bin file, then I hiot a problem. What the hell do I do with a BIN file? Clicking on it gave me a message that Linux didn't know what to do with a *.bin file. Checking in the Ubuntu documentation, you install software with it's "easy software installer". The installer looks in various repositories for software that will work with this build (version) of Linux, and when you select it, automatically installs it. GREAT! One minor problem though. The only version of Real Player listed is an older (obsolete) version. When I try to install it, I get an error message that the file couldn't be found! This sucks!

Now I suspect that a *.bin file is a file that needs to be compiled to run. Unfortunately, I can't find instructions on how to do this. Can Linux itself do it? What software do I need to compile it? While I don't find that info in my quick search on the Internet, I do find out that software needs to be compiled for the particular flavor of Linux you are using, so a program compiled for SUSE or Redhat Linux might not run on Ubuntu or Debian (which is what Ubuntu is based on).

I eventually find a copy of Real Player that will run on Ubuntu. I didn't find it on the Real website or Ubuntu or even on any of the big Linux support sites. I find it on someones personal website. It's not a current version, but it works, sort of.

Now I go on a search for the other software I need for my usual computer use. One big advantage to Linux is that a lot (most) of the software is is availble under the GNU license, meaning it's free. Software can easily cost more than a computer. Especially if you start tossing in a couple high dollar programs like Microsoft Office which can hit $500 and even the cheapy versions hit $150. Another $50 to $100 for a virus scanner. $100+ for a decent graphics program. The more you want to do, the more it costs you. Open source software, or software under the GNU license, or other quality free software can really help defray the cost.

Evaluating how I use my computer...

Web site authoring, not often, but I do it. I also don't know all the HTML language, so I need a easy program to do this. The one I started out using years ago was Dreamweaver (another one of those high dollar programs). Even though the version I have is old, it still works well enough for what I do, but it's not a Linux program.

Music. Mostly listening to MP3s, but I also convert my new CDs and even albums and tapes into MP3 format to load onto my iPod. Meaning I also need software to load music onto my iPod.

Videos - I like watching various videos I download online, and I also capture and edit videos from my camcorder. Videos I currently have (gigs of them) are in a mixture of AVI, RM, MPG, and WMV. I realize that WMV is a Windows proprietary format, so it might be difficult, but I don't have many in that format.

Pictures - I'm into digital photography, so I need software to view, edit and print my photos. I also need the drivers to get the photos from the camera. My camaeras use JPG format, which is cross platform so I'm not expecting a problem.

Of course, surfing the web, usenet news groups, email, etc. I do quite a bit of binary downloading from the news groups, so need a reader that likes binaries. On Windows I use Agent. Web surfing I use Firefox, which is included in the Ubuntu package so that's no problem. Thunderbird, my Windows mail reader, is plugged on the Firefox website, so it should be easy to find.

Once again, not often, but I do occasionally use word processors, spreadsheets, and on rare occasions even a database. I sometimes need to read power point presentations also.

I'm still in the process of rounding up software, so this is still just starting.

On my Windows I've been using Open Office (another one I found on the OpenCD) which is included with the Ubuntu. That takes care of the word processor, spreadsheet, database, and power point. While it's not quite as polished or well documented as Microsoft Office, but like MS Office it has more features than I'll ever use, and the price is great!

Videos - I've already mentioned the fun with Real Player. Ubuntu includes a video player, so I try to open the other video files. Every file I try to open tells me I need a codec. I've found codecs for my Windows video players, but if the easy software installer has codecs on it they aren't named anything I recognize. I do a quick search and while I don't locate the codecs, I find a number of programs that say they will play various file types. I download some of these, but so far I haven't had much luck. This could be a major problem!

Music. Some of the players I've downloaded will play MP3 audio, so at least that is already taken care of. There is also Audacity (yet another OpenCD find) which is available for many Linux builds. and (I'm not on Linux now so I can't check, but it might have even been part of the Ubuntu distribution.) A problem is that the sound uality SUCKS! While my installation did pretty good at recognizing hardware, apparently the soundcard was either not recognized correctly or the driver is just bad. Once again, I search the net and find some tips, but so far nothing that seems to work to improve my sound quality.

As I mentioned, my Linux installation is a work in progress. Hopefully I'll get around to updating this as I go. I also have another computer to play with.

My mother-in-law upgraded her computer. It was a forced upgrade since she was having problems with Windows and couldn't find a Windows disk to reinstall with. My computer is a Gateway and came with all the peripherals installed, which may of maynot be proprietary and might be causing some driver issues. Her old computer was a built from the ground up model, so MAY be easier to locate drivers for. We'll see.

By

Wednesday, April 28, 2004

5/17/04 It's war - Deal with it.

OK, I am and always have been against the war in Iraq. I was even against the war in Afganistan, but at least saw why we were there. But Iraq? Even Bush never claimed that Iraq had anything to do with 9-11. Al-Queda was suspected of escaping into Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, not Iraq. Why the hell were there? They kept talking about Saddam being a threat to America, but let's think about this. BEFORE we liberated Kuwait by knocking out most of the technology in Iraq, Saddam couldn't target a missle on Israel that was right next door. How the heck was he going to bomb us, send it UPS???? Bush and his supporters kept talking about Saddams stockpile of WMD (Weapons of Mass Destruction). Well we've been "in control" of the country for quite some time and guess what. No Weapons of Mass Destruction!! I don't know whether to be impressed with GW's honesty for not fabricating something, or impressed with his stupidity for not fabricating anything. Even if we did find something, is that wrong? I might point out that EVERY country with a reasonable army has some type of WMDs. Korea, Former USSR, India, Pakistan, Germany, probably even England and Japan have (or had) programs to develop nuclear, chemical, or biological weapons. Most have scaled back or stopped (due to economics, not morals) but have the plans and equipment to scale up in a heart beat. Are we going to wage war againt them too?? The other arguement for the war in Iraq is the serious human rights violations under Saddam. Hey, the photos I saw from the prison didn't look like a celebration of dignity and freedom. We may not have been as deadly as Saddam, but at least some of the rumors say there were deaths and rapes in the prisons over there. And how does Saddams body count compare to the death toll from our emancipation of the country? All of that said, anyone that thinks wars are about human rights are fools. Any modern war and probably all of the ancient wars involved torture, rape, incarceration, loss of dignity, and loss of freedom for someone. At least through the VietNam war (and I suspect even today) the military had courses where soldiers were taut to torture people. The rationalization was so that if soldiers were captured they would know what to expect. Now I sure that the people trained in how to torture someone were told to never use it one their enemies, even though they were frequently trained by torturing other American soldiers (this came to light when several torturers got carried away leading to permanent injury and even death of some of the "victims"). The only difference this time is the existance of digital cameras and magnetic video recording. During the Viet Nam war if you took picture you had to get them developed. Usually the only place to do this was the PX or Commisary where pictures of questionable activities frequently "didn't turn out" or "got lost". In other cases people were talked to about their choice of subject matter. If the picture did manage to get developed, it was hard to get copies made and was easy to spot in peoples belongings so it could get "lost in transit". Frequently film mail home undeveloped got there fogged beyond any hope of recovery. Now we have digital media. Anyone with access to a laptop (or even some MP3 players) can copy the images. Disks with hundreds of pictures can be copied in minutes without ever leaving the barracks. The digital media itself is small enough hundreds of pictures and minutes of video can be carried behind the ID card in your wallet. As a result, picture of SOME of the stuff got out. I would be surprised if any of the bad stuff was photographed. It's one thing to let someone take you picture while to are teasing someone, it's another thing all together to let someone take your picture while you are killing someone. On the subject of killing..... Someone is sure to bring up the beheading. I found the video online and watched it (since the media decided I shouldn't see it, the net was my only choice). There were some things I found a bit odd. I knew very little about beheading, but as chance would have it when I was searching for the clip I came across a couple sites that talked about it in some detail. The Middle east is about the only place it's still commonly carried out. The executioner, using a scimitar (a curved traditional type blade), hacks the head of usually in one chop. Sometimes an executioner isn't very good and it takes several, but it is a chop to hack the head off. One of the differences between the middle east executions and the older european executions was that in Europe the victim was head down or fastened to a block on the ground and in the middle east the victime kneels with the head up and the head is chopped off. For those that didn't see the video (I'll try and not be too graphic).... The victim was held down on the ground (no block) while the executioners used what looked like a butcher knife to saw his head off. There was no kneeling, no sword, no hack... Wouldn't a group of people that had grown up with beheadings tended to follow a more traditional method? Especially if they are doing to support their culture (the speaking on the video supposedly says they are doing it for the victims of the abuse in the prison). One of the conspiracy journals (yeah, those people are nuts, but they do sometimes make you think) claim that no pictures of hostages of mideast groups have ever been shown with metal handcuffs, yet this man was wearing not only metal handcuffs (their video must have been clearer than mine) but also an orange jump suit very similar to what prisoners at most military jails are issued (don't know about military jails, but it sure looked like what they wear at out local jail). I also find it disquieting that the last big batch of pictures of the prison abuse was the day BEFORE the video of the execution was released. When the video was rleased IT became the lead story and suddenly the spotlight is seriously dimmed on the prison abuse. Even after the beheading faded from the news, the prison abuse never made it back to the spotlight. I'm also a bit concerned when I find out that the victim was supposedly involved with several groups that are outspoken in their critism of teh war and GW Bush, and when I read that he was held in custody of the US Army just days before his beheading. I'm not going to accuse anyone of anything, but if I were writing an action movie I think some covert government agency with 3 letters for a name would probably be involved here somewhere. Now today, just 6 weeks before we are supposed to turn the reigns of "power" back to the Iraqis, the head of their new government is killed? I'm not a master strategist, but I think if a weak government was due to take over in a few weeks and a substantial part of the army currently in my country ws expected to leave shortly there after, wouldn't it make since to wait for the big guns to go home then overthrough the puppet government rather that carry out an action that is almost garanteed to keep the big army there for months longer. On the other hand, if some mysterious initialled organization wanted a justification to stay longer, or some power hungry politician wanted the "victory" to fall closer to a November election, this might be a scheme that could work. Oh well, this entry was a downer and somewhat depressing with the abuse and beheading and paranoia, so next time I'll try and be more upbeat. In the mean time remember..... Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean that people aren't out to get you.

Wednesday, April 28, 2004 Trying a blog on my web site. This is an experiment and the articles here might be tongue in cheek. I'll know for sure when the voices in my head tell me.....

Sunday, 23 November 2003

God and Teletubbies Note: I'm not a christian and some of the content of this post might be offensive to christians, at least the ones that take themselves seriously. If this is something that might offend you, skip the rest of this entry. I don't know if you have any small children in the house. If you do, you're probably familiar with the Teletubbies. If you don't, check out the PBS listings and check them out. It's a TV show targeted towards infants that has managed to raise the ire of several big name religious types. Having a small child (whom all parents know has the uncanny ability to control the remote control while not even being allowed to touch it) we were watching the Teletubbies the other day. There is one repetitive skit thing where the Tubbies are staring at a valley and the valley fills with water so 3 ships can sail around it in a synchronized ballet of sorts. One nice thing about shows like this, you don't really need to concentrate on the show, so your mind is free to wander. It dawned on my why the religious leaders are so concerned with this program, it's competition. While the God of Christ could flood the entire earth, in the process killing off all the life on earth except for a handful bobbing around in a boat, the Tubbies have the ability to limit their destruction to one valley. Even more amazing is that the valley shows no sign of destruction and devastation when the flood recedes in just a few minutes. That's pretty miraculous for a flood of such proportion that ships could float in it! On further thought it dawned on my that maybe the Teletubbies were telling the TRUE STORY OF THE FLOOD. As I'm sure you're aware, the common story of the flood has Noah building a boat (named "The Arc") and loading pairs of animals on it to survive the flood. When the water recedes, the only life left on earth is Noah's menagerie. But our cultures are all loaded with animals and peoples that don't exist today. As I said in a previous entry, one of my beliefs is that a widespread belief probably is based on some thread of fact, so maybe Elves, Fairies, Unicorns, Dragons, and sea monsters did exist! The Teletubbies are giving us a hint as to the REAL story of THE FLOOD. Now onto my enterpetation of the story.... Actually God had several Arcs built. Man was not the only creature in Gods image, after all, she is a God and can have several images. In addition there were the Elves and Fairies and goblins and other creatures of our mythologies. Not all of these creatures got along well, just like the animals of the forest don't always see eye to eye, So god, loving all his creations equally, approached each and instructed them in the preparation of a craft. Like the godlike creatures, some of the animals of the earth didn't get along well, one being food for the other, so each craft was to carry a grouping of animals. The Dragons and dinosaurs would be kept separate from the unicorns and pheonix and each creature would travelwith those most like unto itself. Of course the creatures of the sea didn't need the boats, for there world was to expand! The flood came and each race loaded their designated animals in pairs aboard the boats and cast off to drift until the flood receded. Unfortunately, before the floods finally went away, the sea monsters destroyed 2 of the ships, and ate the precious cargo. Now a few might have escaped, and scattered by the seas been left alone to slowly die out, such as the Sausquatch, but most perished over night. God, angered by what the sea monsters had done, smote them, all but a few. Those few curse to live alone and immortal as long as any of the creatures that survived the sinking of the ships still walked the earth so the sea monsters could share their anguish. So Nessie, being one of the few surviving seamonsters, must suffer her lonliness as long as bigfoot roams the earth. Once the last of the creatures from these sunken ships die, Nessie and her sisters and brothers in various waters where they were stranded by the receding floods will at last be able to rest. Amen. November 23, 2003

OK, I'm not ready to say I believe in UFOs, but.... I was watching the Sci Fi Channel today and they were running a thing on Kecksburg, Pa. A place where apparently about half the town witnessed an event that might have been a UFO back in the 60's. This started me thinking (always a dangerous event). My theory is that if a lot of people claim to see something, be it ghosts, flying saucers, Nessy, or Bigfoot, over a long period of time there is probably SOMETHING there. Maybe not what people think, but something. For those that didn't see the special or haven't heard of it, a ball of fire supposedly came down in a "controlled" crash. People who went out to investigate were turned away by state police, military types, and the infamous Men In Black (though the program called them "Men in Suites"). Of course the government denies that any troops were there. Now what would make a large number of people make it up? Yeah, 2 or 5 people might be able to play a practical joke and keep it secret, but half a town? Someone would have laughed and said "Boy we had you goin'! You shoulda seen the look on you face!!" sometime between 1965 and now. And not just there. UFO's have been reported through history and even prehistory (OK, I'm not writing a scholarly treatise here, I'm pontificating. I haven't actually seen the evidence. I have neither the time, money, or language skills to travel the world and look at diaries and artifacts, so I'm relying on what UFO authors have written, mainly in popular press. Maybe they're just pulling my chain? ). US Astronauts (or at least one of them) claim to have seen UFOs, and these are people that are trained to make critical observations in the most stressful of situations. What are these people seeing? Secret aircraft? The early sightings were at times when manned flight wasn't even thought about yet. Quite a few of the sightings have been by people that should be able to identify experimental aircraft (test pilots, US AirForce Pilots). Even if it was experimental aircraft, what technology did the government have in the 1960's that would still be worth hiding today? Why wouldn't they release the info just to stop people from nosing around? Swamp Gas? I've been in the desert. There ain't no swamps. Especially in the New Mexico Mountains which have been a hotbed of activity in the past years according to the people who watch these things. Almost any atmospheric event that has been blamed is limited to one or another type of environment. The sightings are from all over the world!! Government cover up? Hmmm, we couldn't keep the Bay of Pigs a secret, a toy company was selling plastic model of the blackbird and Stealth before the Government announced the existence. Nixon and company couldn't even sweep the Watergate breaking under the carpet, but they are managing to keep the existence of UFO's quiet for years?? I have a tongue in cheek theory (I say it's tongue in cheek so if an Men in Black are reading this they know I'm kidding and don't come erase my mind, but on second thought, there are some things that would probably be best forgotten, like that time on the cabin cruiser....). I think aliens are here among us. We see them every day, and we even comment on them, but at the same time never notice. They say the best hiding place is right in the open. A few of the well known and powerful aliens.... Dick Clark - Everyone comments of how he never seems to age. For generations he's looked the say as he's influenced countless kid in the music and dances they do. There are those who believe that messages and suggestions can be hidden in music. There is a multi-million dollar industry in subliminal suggestion tapes to make you smarter, help you loose weight, stop smoking, etc. Has Dick been using alien technology to do it for years? Strom Thurmond - When Dick Clark finally ages, this is what happens. George Bush Jr - "Dad" was the head of the CIA and in contact with alien intelligences. As part of a cooperative effort and to help bring the two races together (at least that was the official explanation) George Sr took an alien/human hybrid and raised him as his own (Barbara might have been the mother, which would explain some things). Now, afraid that America might become too powerful and influential, the part alien George JR is on a campaign to make America loose credibility and support among our allies by waging groundless wars on third world countries. Hillary Clinton - The aliens have a strong grasp on human politics and are aware of the 2 party system, so have their operatives in both camps. Ask yourself, If your spouse found out you were chasing the whitehouse interns and playing kinky games with cigars, and further, it was broadcast on every TV station for weeks, would she stay with you? (Ladies, imaging it was your husband playing around this way, would you stay with him?) Of Course not, UNLESS it was important to your mission to stay close to him to keep him under control, and possibly use him as a catapult into a seat of power to more efficiently push the alien agenda! Don King - See the hair? Nuff said. Look around you and I'm sure you'll see more. Bosses, coworkers, the lady down at the convenience store, all those people that are just a bit too strange to be human.... May be they're not..... Or maybe it's all a hoax and those people are just strange. Back to the UFO stuff though. The US government has taken the UFO stories seriously enough to undertake at least one full scale project - Project Blue Book which is now for the most part public information. Less known but talked about in several UFO books and documentaries are several others. If the government really has not been hiding or working with Aliens, then why don't they come clean and open files and answer questions. Surely nothing classified in the 1950's and 60's is still national security. At most it could embarrass people, and maybe those people need to be embarrassed. After all, whatever they did was done while they were PUBLIC SERVANTS of the people. If they abused the public trust, then embarrassment is the least they deserve. On the topic of UFOs, if they DO exist, am I the only one to find it interesting that as the technology to take nice easy video and pictures has increased, the number of sightings has decreased? Back in the 50's a camera that could work in low light situations was carried in a suitcase and took minutes to set up. The cost kept it out of most peoples hands. Today a motion picture video camera is not only within the financial grasp of almost anyone, but they are small enough many people carry them in their car in the hopes of getting footage they can sell to a news station. Still cameras that not only work in low light are cheap and you can even see the result of your efforts immediately on the LCD screen. But now that it would be so easy to document the UFOs, they aren't dropping by or crashing into the earth. Granted this could just be that the aliens have gotten on a safety kick and upped the licensing requirements for Flying Saucer Licenses. Raised the flying age to 85 or something, banned interstellar phones while driving. Maybe we're just not considered as desirable of a vacation getaway as we once were, the pollution makes it harder to tan or something. Or maybe the people that see something can now look closer at the tape and see what it is. But then on further thought, if we did have the answer to the flying saucer question the SciFi writers would loose a standby story line. Spielberg would be unemployed, and Springer and company would run out of guests, so maybe it's better the way it is.

Trying Blogger

This is a test post. I'm trying to use Google's Blogger to create my blog.