Well, last weekend certainly was exiting. It all started Friday around 8:30 AM. I was at work and didn't find out until my wife called me around 9:00. She was heading to a friend's house to help her haul off some junk. Since I am convinced that this double wide trailer was willed into existance by this huge pile of junk to shelter it from the elements, I think this was a loosing battle, but my wife loves a challenge. Anyway aparently The Cow, her older sister and arch nemesis, (who for some reason has been being nice to us lately), knocked on the door and asked if she could crash there. She had spent the last three days working in another state and had left her children in the care of her bi-polar, meth using, live in boyfriend/psychopath. She told my wife she couldn't go home, because he wouldn't leave her alone and let her rest, and she had to work that night. Well, my wife left her there, and when I got home at 5:15 PM she was still there, getting ready to go.
That seemed the end of it until 11:00 PM Saturday night when she knocked on the door again. She was near hysterical and crying and said she couldn't take it, he wouldn't leave her alone, they were fighting. He was driving around in her Ford Ranger, drunk while she was gone, was drunk now and trying to take the truck. Wife helped her hide the truck, then offered to put her up for the night, but she insisted on calling the cops to do a welfare check on the children. Now the kids were with pyschomethhead the alcoholic bipolar mental patient, who isn't baby-daddy to any of them. So he tells the deputy that he isn't responsible for them. Deputy comes over and starts questioning sister-in-law idiot. She tells him as little as possible. Deputy leaves to make a cell call or 12. Then he returns and tells her that psycho meth brain doesn't want to be responsible for the kid and she needs to do something, because he won't leave them there.
Now, she moved methman in, so it is his residence. He can't be forcibly removed, he has to be evicted, which takes time. He isn't father to any of the demon children, so he can't be held responsible for them. She's hummed and hemmed and hawed around until the deputy thinks she is on drugs. She finally lets slip that idiot boy has been carrying a ball bat around and now the deputy thinks she is in danger. He is in a bind. He can't leave the kids in the house with bipolar the boy binge drinker, because he doesn't want to be responsible for them, and the cop is not legally liable for them. He can't let her go home, because he has heard enough to think the situation might be dangerous, and is legally liable. So the only choice is for her to go get the kids and take them somewhere.
Now my sister-in-law, The Cow, has been through this more times than I can count, and knows how it goes. She isn't willing to take out charges on Bipolar Boy, but she doesn't want to get the kids either. I think she let the situation get too far out of control, because she now has no options, so she agrees to go get the kids and heads out the door. It is cold out, and she is wearing pajamas. I think she is going to get in either the cop car or my wife's car. The deputy stops to talk with me a little, then goes out and The Cow is nowhere to be seen. We look, he radios in, then follows my wife to where the truck was left. I get my flashlight and check the barn, backyard, and chicken coop, then go in, arm myself, and head out in the car. I go up the road to the church, but don't see her. I notice a car on the road behind me as I go back to the house, but pay little attention, pulling in the driveway behind my wife.
She reports no sign of her, but that the deputy had called for help and was watching the truck. She asks me to go down the road toward Tanya's house. I take the wife's car, which is warmer, and head toward Tanya's. At this point she has been missing about 15 minutes at most. I figure she would have made it maybe to the stop sign if she was really booking. No sign of her. I find her at the other church, almost half-way to her house. She is talking to FatBastard, the former friend of the family who is no longer allowed anywhere near my home or wife, and may not be allowed near her youngest sister, or any other member of the family my father-in-law has any control over. She is outside the car talking through the window, and he takes off when he spots me. She gets in the car and I head back to where the deputy is waiting. She tells me she was going home to get her kids, like the deputy wanted. She is acting really weird and the next thing I know I have 2 sheriff's cars behind me. I pull over and get questionned. I explain what is going on and where I was headed. I now find the DCS has been called because of her disappearing act.
After much talking, and me sweating a little because there is a .45 auto under the jacket, it's legal, but still.... I end up driving her to her house, where she tries to load the girls into her Dodge pickup, which MethMan flattened a tire on and the police won't let her take, because the trip to the store would be too dangerous, she loads them into her car. Then she asks one of the Deputies to get her cell phone and the ball bat. Well the cell phone was easy, but Psycho denied knowing anything about a bat. At this point, the demon children spoke up about where it was. The supervisor searched for it but did not find it. She leaves and I make a statement and get to go home.
Apparently he moved out semi-voluntarily Monday. She is trolling the internet looking for another man as you read this so beware. If you aren't a bi-polar, alcohol drinking, meth-taking, psycho nut case now, you will be after a few months of her. Not that it's over with Idiot Boy, this is go around 3 or 4 with them, I've lost count. For a little more info on The Cow check out http://weakmindsthinkalike.blogspot.com/2007/03/history-of-modern-cow.html. I've compressed many years into a few paragraphs, but you will get the idea.
Friday, March 09, 2007
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Let's Play Catchup
I was heading to a small town to take pictures of a sex-offender's van last week and pondering deep and philosophical thoughts when my mind turned, as it so often does at moments like these, to Southpark. I came across what seems an inconsistancy in the underlying messages of the show and it bothered me. You see, I feel South Park is a pretty good gauge for the way the population of the U.S. is leaning on any particular issue. I am not saying the makers of the show agree, often they don't, but by watching the show you get a good feel for not only what the issues are, but how the general population feels on the issues and how the show's creators feel. Well, I remember the Underwear Gnomes issue in which the owner of a small coffee shop manipulates the boys into swaying town opinion against a giant corporations attempt to put a competing shop in town. The boys learn the important lesson that corporations become large because they get very good, (or at least efficient) at something. Then a few seasons later we get an episode in which the boys fight the scorge of a large box store coming to town and taking over. This seems inconsitstent. I mean on one hand they are saying large coffee franchises are good and on the other they are saying big box stores are bad. It could be a simple as they like Starbucks but hate Walmart. Why are we mixing signals. Then I finally after about 2 hours decided that I was misinterpreting the anti-Walmart message. It isn't necessarily that they think Wally-world is bad, it's that they are saying if you don't like them, and there are many reasons not to, then stop supporting them. If you hate Walmart, then don't shop there. If enough people do that, then eventually they will go away.
On the home front, one of my collegues told me one of his clients was in jail and couldn't make bail, so the guys girlfriend takes a job stripping to raise his bail money. She had to quit though, after getting raped one afternoon in the parking lot.
Stupid news about famous people:
Okay, two recent examples seems to prove that the white trash gene breeds true.
Lindsay Lohan checks herself into an in-patient addiction treatment program. They agree to let her go to work each day, although it decreases her chances of successfully completing the program. She then treats the program like a vacation resort, going and coming as she pleases. Then when she is released from the program, she celebrates by going to a nightclub.
Britney Spears proves she is a fit mother by having a crying jag, going into a hair salon, asking them to shave her head, then shaving it herself when they refuse, crying some more, then driving to a tatoo parlor and getting some ink done. Yes, I want her raising my children. She did all this after checking herself into a treatment program and then leaving before it started. Not like she has shown much common sense in the past, but this chick is really loosing it and fast.
Guess it just goes to show you can take the girl out of the trailer park, but ya can't take the trailer park out of the girl.
On the home front, one of my collegues told me one of his clients was in jail and couldn't make bail, so the guys girlfriend takes a job stripping to raise his bail money. She had to quit though, after getting raped one afternoon in the parking lot.
Stupid news about famous people:
Okay, two recent examples seems to prove that the white trash gene breeds true.
Lindsay Lohan checks herself into an in-patient addiction treatment program. They agree to let her go to work each day, although it decreases her chances of successfully completing the program. She then treats the program like a vacation resort, going and coming as she pleases. Then when she is released from the program, she celebrates by going to a nightclub.
Britney Spears proves she is a fit mother by having a crying jag, going into a hair salon, asking them to shave her head, then shaving it herself when they refuse, crying some more, then driving to a tatoo parlor and getting some ink done. Yes, I want her raising my children. She did all this after checking herself into a treatment program and then leaving before it started. Not like she has shown much common sense in the past, but this chick is really loosing it and fast.
Guess it just goes to show you can take the girl out of the trailer park, but ya can't take the trailer park out of the girl.
Tuesday, February 06, 2007
February Fools
Sorry, it's been a while. Of course, noone is reading this so who cares, it's more a form of therapy. Anyway, 2 things.
Thing number one, I have been moved to a specialized and highly active caseload based in a larger county. The shift kept me working my ass off the last couple of weeks, but it is mostly done. I still pick up a few things from the old caseload.
Thing number two. I went to court in my old home county yesterday and they brought out a violation on another caseload. The judge was quizzing her about her failures to report for the last 2 months and she claimed it was because she had been incarcerated. He wanted to know why, as in did she have new charges that would also violate her probation. She claimed that she had been in carcerated in one county in December and a second county in January. Neither county was the one she was presently in court on. One incarceration, the one in January, she claimed was for a failure to appear in court. The second incarceration was on a misdemeanor probation violation out of a general sessions court case for failure to report to her officer. The judge was very curious as to the length of both of these incarcerations. Apparently they were both 10 days long. She could not report to her state probation officer because she had been locked up for 10 days. She couldn't explain why she could not report on the days she wasn't locked up. The judge then asked her what she did for a living and she told him she was employed by H and R Block. The judge took a long serious look at the young woman who was on probation with the state for a felony, on probation in one county for a misdemeanor, unable to meet the terms of either probation, and unable to appear in court when she is supposed to and stated "I can't tell you how much confidence it gives me to know that YOU are giving people advice about their income tax." She then asked him to set her a bond.
Thing number one, I have been moved to a specialized and highly active caseload based in a larger county. The shift kept me working my ass off the last couple of weeks, but it is mostly done. I still pick up a few things from the old caseload.
Thing number two. I went to court in my old home county yesterday and they brought out a violation on another caseload. The judge was quizzing her about her failures to report for the last 2 months and she claimed it was because she had been incarcerated. He wanted to know why, as in did she have new charges that would also violate her probation. She claimed that she had been in carcerated in one county in December and a second county in January. Neither county was the one she was presently in court on. One incarceration, the one in January, she claimed was for a failure to appear in court. The second incarceration was on a misdemeanor probation violation out of a general sessions court case for failure to report to her officer. The judge was very curious as to the length of both of these incarcerations. Apparently they were both 10 days long. She could not report to her state probation officer because she had been locked up for 10 days. She couldn't explain why she could not report on the days she wasn't locked up. The judge then asked her what she did for a living and she told him she was employed by H and R Block. The judge took a long serious look at the young woman who was on probation with the state for a felony, on probation in one county for a misdemeanor, unable to meet the terms of either probation, and unable to appear in court when she is supposed to and stated "I can't tell you how much confidence it gives me to know that YOU are giving people advice about their income tax." She then asked him to set her a bond.
Monday, January 29, 2007
Update
Well, my wife found the Bersa, fell in love with it and took it away, so now I have to find a new summer carry gun. A local dealer has a Polish Makarov for around $170, and another is carrying a few of the FEG Makarov knockoffs, which actually have a good reputation. What I need to do if I go that route is to save up and when the gunshow goes through in March, pick up one there. Last time noone had a Makarov, but several of the FEG-63's.
Monday, January 22, 2007
Trying Times
Well, after taking my class, I gathered my money and took a stroll over to the THP driver testing station to apply for my permit. It was a 3 hour wait. And to make matters worse, when I finally got up there, they didn't couldn't enter the application as either a new app. or as a renewal. Apparently letting the old one lapse in 2001, resulted in frying the state systems brain. It took an additional 30 minutes to straighten that one out. Now I have to be finger printed. Luckily the company the TBI uses has an office in Cookeville. Unluckily they only do it on certain days and at certain times. And I have to make an appointment 24 hours in advance. They do it tomorrow, but I have court. It shouldn't take all day, only 4 pages on the docket, but they may surprise me.
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
Well I done it.
Well, I finally started something I have wanted to do for a while now. I went and took the class I needed to get my carry permit renewed. I don't exactly know why I want the permit, I can't carry at work, so that means night and weekend carry only, but I want the legal right to again go armed.
The first time I did this was in 1994 or 1995. I had just bought a Ruger KP90D .45 auto and fired maybe 100 rounds through it. I decided to take it to the test. The live fire part of the test consists of two 50 round courses, in which you have to score good hits with at least 36 of 5o rounds. I did a 47 and a 48. 15 of the 50 are done weak handed.
So this time I have 3 choices on what to take to the class. I have a Hi-power, I have fired about 50 rounds through, a Bersa Thunder 380 that has had maybe 25 rounds through it, and a Raven 25 I fired 5o rounds through and haven't done anything other than clean in many moons. I picked the Hi-Power, but took the Bersa for emergencies. The Hi-power did fine. I scored a 45 and 46. Toward the end I did have one failure to eject on a spent cartridge, so it was getting a little dirty, I need to clean it good before storing.
Now I have to take a copy of my birth certificate, an application, a copy of the certificate of completion of class and $115 over to the THP driver's testing station and they will take forever to finish the application and send me somewhere to be finger printed. Then in 30 to 90 days, I will get a card in the mail saying I can carry a handgun, except where I can't.
The first time I did this was in 1994 or 1995. I had just bought a Ruger KP90D .45 auto and fired maybe 100 rounds through it. I decided to take it to the test. The live fire part of the test consists of two 50 round courses, in which you have to score good hits with at least 36 of 5o rounds. I did a 47 and a 48. 15 of the 50 are done weak handed.
So this time I have 3 choices on what to take to the class. I have a Hi-power, I have fired about 50 rounds through, a Bersa Thunder 380 that has had maybe 25 rounds through it, and a Raven 25 I fired 5o rounds through and haven't done anything other than clean in many moons. I picked the Hi-Power, but took the Bersa for emergencies. The Hi-power did fine. I scored a 45 and 46. Toward the end I did have one failure to eject on a spent cartridge, so it was getting a little dirty, I need to clean it good before storing.
Now I have to take a copy of my birth certificate, an application, a copy of the certificate of completion of class and $115 over to the THP driver's testing station and they will take forever to finish the application and send me somewhere to be finger printed. Then in 30 to 90 days, I will get a card in the mail saying I can carry a handgun, except where I can't.
Thursday, January 11, 2007
Academy Awards for Tennessee
Well, it's been a while and I have news. First, for the job. I am being moved to another county. They are moving me to the larger county where the office is located. This is a much larger county and has a lot more court. Fortunately for my sanity, they are giving me a transfer caseload consisting mainly of cases transferred from out-of-state, which means Tennessee courts have no jurisdiction. These cases are annoying in many ways, but now I will have a chance to get good at the endless paperwork involved in them. I will also get intra-state transfers, which means while I won't be in local court a lot, I may end up running to other county courts for individual cases, which is a pain in its own right. For instance, I was just in Court Tuesday on a single case. I was there from 8:30 AM until 3:45 PM for a single case. Sigh. More about that next.
Okay, in my present county, I have to stay in court as long as it is in session, but in other courts, I can leave once my case is heard. The county our office is in is large, court is often, and the dockets are large. My person's last name began with Y, which is bad when dockets are done alphabetically. Also the ADA didn't want to do a deal, the person really didn't deserve a deal, but is really good at appearing sympathetic, so I was there all day.
Several interesting things happened though. First, there was the guy that had been in court so often in the past, that they couldn't appoint him an attorney. Everyone in court, and there were about 15 defense attorneys including the public defender's office, had a conflict or a connection to the underlying case. Then there was the chick that took the stand in her own defense on a probation violation and cried for the court about being seperated from her 4 year old child because of the 21 days she had already done in jail. It was not an award winning performance, you could see she was forcing the tears and the probation officers in the jury box were so busy grinning and sniggering that we distracted the judge, who is a former ada and was more amused by us than the witness. She went to jail. She didn't have a good explanation about why she wasn't worried about her 4-year-old while she was doing the marijuana and cocaine that got her violated on her probation.
My client was very worthy of an award, however. She is a victim of throat cancer, and this allows her much sympathy. It also gives her access to drugs. She is under suspicion of manufacturing scripts to buy meds and selling these but that hasn't been proven. She did however pick up new charges and plead guilty to them, disappear for almost a year to avoid the investigation of the drug stuff, then get picked up on both my warrant and the warrant of the probation officer on her new charges. Now the local jail doesn't want this woman. She is taking all kinds of cancer meds, and keeps them scared by talking about all her upcoming surgeries, which could be true or could be b.s. One of the charges she is on probation for is perjury.
She shows up in court and things don't seem to be going her way, so at lunch, she goes home and brings her baby back to court. She also brings a lady that sits across the room from her and is pretending not to know her, but she later gives the baby to this lady. Anyway, it works and the big, tough ADA ends up making her case for her, so she gets moved to house arrest and electronic monitoring and extended for a year rather than going to special need prison. Oh well, out of what's left of my hair anyway.
Okay, in my present county, I have to stay in court as long as it is in session, but in other courts, I can leave once my case is heard. The county our office is in is large, court is often, and the dockets are large. My person's last name began with Y, which is bad when dockets are done alphabetically. Also the ADA didn't want to do a deal, the person really didn't deserve a deal, but is really good at appearing sympathetic, so I was there all day.
Several interesting things happened though. First, there was the guy that had been in court so often in the past, that they couldn't appoint him an attorney. Everyone in court, and there were about 15 defense attorneys including the public defender's office, had a conflict or a connection to the underlying case. Then there was the chick that took the stand in her own defense on a probation violation and cried for the court about being seperated from her 4 year old child because of the 21 days she had already done in jail. It was not an award winning performance, you could see she was forcing the tears and the probation officers in the jury box were so busy grinning and sniggering that we distracted the judge, who is a former ada and was more amused by us than the witness. She went to jail. She didn't have a good explanation about why she wasn't worried about her 4-year-old while she was doing the marijuana and cocaine that got her violated on her probation.
My client was very worthy of an award, however. She is a victim of throat cancer, and this allows her much sympathy. It also gives her access to drugs. She is under suspicion of manufacturing scripts to buy meds and selling these but that hasn't been proven. She did however pick up new charges and plead guilty to them, disappear for almost a year to avoid the investigation of the drug stuff, then get picked up on both my warrant and the warrant of the probation officer on her new charges. Now the local jail doesn't want this woman. She is taking all kinds of cancer meds, and keeps them scared by talking about all her upcoming surgeries, which could be true or could be b.s. One of the charges she is on probation for is perjury.
She shows up in court and things don't seem to be going her way, so at lunch, she goes home and brings her baby back to court. She also brings a lady that sits across the room from her and is pretending not to know her, but she later gives the baby to this lady. Anyway, it works and the big, tough ADA ends up making her case for her, so she gets moved to house arrest and electronic monitoring and extended for a year rather than going to special need prison. Oh well, out of what's left of my hair anyway.
Thursday, December 28, 2006
After Christmas
As an undate, the gift from my inlaws were towels. We each got a bar of scented soap, a large towel, a hand towel, and a washrag. On the plus size they are very soft over-sized towels from J. C. Penney. Mine are green and the wife's are purple. My middle sister-in-law got us each an ornament for the tree we almost never put up. I didn't get sick until after Christmas this year. That's a mixed blessing. I hope I can shake the head cold enough to party at least a little this New Year's Eve.
Liquor.
I am not a big drinker. I don't really like beer. Wine coolers are okay. Smirnoff Ice and Bicardi Breezers are very acceptable. Wine doesn't really do it for me either. Liquor on the other hand. I like some mixed drinks. Rum, Ameretto, and Vodka are my mainstays. I am not that sofisticated of a drunk. Make it sweet and I will probably like it. My old favorites were Pina Colodas, Dakaris, and Sex on the Beach. Later I graduated to Wiskey Sours and Tom Collins. Then my wife intoduced me to Ameretto Sours, which I loved, and Long Island Iced Teas. I also have been fond of Peppermint Snapps. She introduced me to Goldshlager and Afterburner, both of which are cinnamon snapps. She prefers Goldshlager, which I think is a little hotter and stronger, but I preferred the sweeter flavor less hot Afterburner. I recently discovered Mohitos, a minty rum drink and my brother-in-law introduced me to Apple Martini's. These are currently my favorite drinks. I also occasionaly use rum or amaretto instead of vodka in the apple marini's. The rum gives it a little less bite than the vodka. The amaretto makes it a very sweet drink with little alcohol bite. Since the proof on all three liquors is identical, I guess this is perception rather than reality. My wife has taken up with tequilla, especially Jose Quervo. I have tried a fee shots and this stuff has a strong smoky flavor when done with salt and lemon.
Liquor.
I am not a big drinker. I don't really like beer. Wine coolers are okay. Smirnoff Ice and Bicardi Breezers are very acceptable. Wine doesn't really do it for me either. Liquor on the other hand. I like some mixed drinks. Rum, Ameretto, and Vodka are my mainstays. I am not that sofisticated of a drunk. Make it sweet and I will probably like it. My old favorites were Pina Colodas, Dakaris, and Sex on the Beach. Later I graduated to Wiskey Sours and Tom Collins. Then my wife intoduced me to Ameretto Sours, which I loved, and Long Island Iced Teas. I also have been fond of Peppermint Snapps. She introduced me to Goldshlager and Afterburner, both of which are cinnamon snapps. She prefers Goldshlager, which I think is a little hotter and stronger, but I preferred the sweeter flavor less hot Afterburner. I recently discovered Mohitos, a minty rum drink and my brother-in-law introduced me to Apple Martini's. These are currently my favorite drinks. I also occasionaly use rum or amaretto instead of vodka in the apple marini's. The rum gives it a little less bite than the vodka. The amaretto makes it a very sweet drink with little alcohol bite. Since the proof on all three liquors is identical, I guess this is perception rather than reality. My wife has taken up with tequilla, especially Jose Quervo. I have tried a fee shots and this stuff has a strong smoky flavor when done with salt and lemon.
Monday, December 25, 2006
Merry Christmas
This is a meandering catch-up post and a rant. Working for the state government is cool this time of year because we get lots of time off. Unfortunately we have exactly the same amount of work to do, just fewer days to do it in. If you count the days off plus the three, count 'em, three, days I've spent in court, I lost 7 full days this month. That's a lot of days to try to make up. Add to that, a few of the really stupid people I work with and it is really a hell of a month.
We had Christmas at my parents on Saturday, because my sister, her husband and the kids were up. Yesterday several people came by and gave us gifts. So far this Christmas bites. Half of her family don't give us squat. I know her oldest brother sent nothing, even though we got him a really nice gift. It's not that he can't afford it, he makes a hell of a lot more than we do and his job includes an apartment and free meals if he wants to eat on the estate. The younger brother is coming up next week and it sounds like he is bringing gifts. The older sister and the youngest didn't bring us anything. My parents gave me a pair of dockers, a sweater, and my wife a Walmart card. They also gave us a $100. My sister gave me 2 shirts and my wife 2 shirts. I picked up a $10 Cracker Barrel gift card and a business card holder at work. We haven't opened the gifts from her parents and the middle sister yet, but it looks like more clothes.
Now, I know I am sounding gift greedy, but the truth of the matter is we don't have a lot of money. I spent a big chunk of my last paycheck and my travel reimbursement check, and part of the $100 from my parents on gifts for these people. For the last 3 years, most of them haven't given us squat, but my wife insists on buying for them anyway. There are six members in my family to buy for. All of them give us something except for the 6 and 2 year old. There are 20 in her family. Of them maybe 5 give us gifts. Anyway, I have about $40 bucks to make it till Friday on so I have to be careful.
Anyhow, we ate Christmas Eve dinner out. Chinese. Nothing like Mongolian pork and Cream Cheese Wontons for Christmas dinner. Wifey is on the outs with her parents, so it is doubtful that we will be doing the Christmas dinner with them today. I am planning on roasting a chicken, doing sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, gravy, carrots and green beans. Maybe that will make her feel better.
New family editions: Okay here is a run down of the current zoo.
Saint Bernards -- Missy and Baker. Roxy passed away in October and I miss my girl.
Chickens -- About 30 mostly Polish, Cochin, and Silkies.
Goats -- Giselle and Angel
Bird -- Sweet Pea the Cockatiel
Snakes -- Leroy and Bertha the Ball Pythons
Cats -- Ninja, Noodlehead, Nana, Nella, and Ladybug, (Cooked Ear the stray Tom counts a half)
Rats -- Veronica, Jane, and Weevil, Plus 9 little buggers with hair and as of yesterday 11 little pink hairless additions. (Apparently we didn't get Weevil out in time and he rebred Jane. There were 16 in the first double litter, but only 9 survived.)
Pekingese -- China, Latest addition She is an older dog we adopted after her owner passed away.
Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays whatever you celebrate, don't let the season drag you down, enjoy it.
We had Christmas at my parents on Saturday, because my sister, her husband and the kids were up. Yesterday several people came by and gave us gifts. So far this Christmas bites. Half of her family don't give us squat. I know her oldest brother sent nothing, even though we got him a really nice gift. It's not that he can't afford it, he makes a hell of a lot more than we do and his job includes an apartment and free meals if he wants to eat on the estate. The younger brother is coming up next week and it sounds like he is bringing gifts. The older sister and the youngest didn't bring us anything. My parents gave me a pair of dockers, a sweater, and my wife a Walmart card. They also gave us a $100. My sister gave me 2 shirts and my wife 2 shirts. I picked up a $10 Cracker Barrel gift card and a business card holder at work. We haven't opened the gifts from her parents and the middle sister yet, but it looks like more clothes.
Now, I know I am sounding gift greedy, but the truth of the matter is we don't have a lot of money. I spent a big chunk of my last paycheck and my travel reimbursement check, and part of the $100 from my parents on gifts for these people. For the last 3 years, most of them haven't given us squat, but my wife insists on buying for them anyway. There are six members in my family to buy for. All of them give us something except for the 6 and 2 year old. There are 20 in her family. Of them maybe 5 give us gifts. Anyway, I have about $40 bucks to make it till Friday on so I have to be careful.
Anyhow, we ate Christmas Eve dinner out. Chinese. Nothing like Mongolian pork and Cream Cheese Wontons for Christmas dinner. Wifey is on the outs with her parents, so it is doubtful that we will be doing the Christmas dinner with them today. I am planning on roasting a chicken, doing sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, gravy, carrots and green beans. Maybe that will make her feel better.
New family editions: Okay here is a run down of the current zoo.
Saint Bernards -- Missy and Baker. Roxy passed away in October and I miss my girl.
Chickens -- About 30 mostly Polish, Cochin, and Silkies.
Goats -- Giselle and Angel
Bird -- Sweet Pea the Cockatiel
Snakes -- Leroy and Bertha the Ball Pythons
Cats -- Ninja, Noodlehead, Nana, Nella, and Ladybug, (Cooked Ear the stray Tom counts a half)
Rats -- Veronica, Jane, and Weevil, Plus 9 little buggers with hair and as of yesterday 11 little pink hairless additions. (Apparently we didn't get Weevil out in time and he rebred Jane. There were 16 in the first double litter, but only 9 survived.)
Pekingese -- China, Latest addition She is an older dog we adopted after her owner passed away.
Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays whatever you celebrate, don't let the season drag you down, enjoy it.
Friday, December 08, 2006
Crap!!! In more ways than one.....
I didn't make it very far on my fast. I think around 32 hours. Around thirty hours I discovered what explosive, uncontrollable bowel movements are all about. Right in the middle of work. Best discription, very liquid and very bright yellow. I managed to sneak off for an early lunch, go home, and change clothes. Not dignified or fun. I should have researched a little more. If I'm going to do this thing, then I need to have at least a long weekend to get past this stage. I have been careful on what I've eaten since then sticking to salads and lots of water. Bowel movements are not yet back to normal, but I felt really, really good most of yesterday. Today, I woke up feeling like crap. I think I am running a low grade fever. Of course, we are having 3 hours of mandatory training this afternoon, so I am stuck and can't go home.
Tuesday, December 05, 2006
Happy Holidays, I want a sandwich
Okay, I hate this time of year. Christmas always stresses me and this year is just as bad as last year. Money is tight and my wife thinks she has to buy everyone in her huge family a gift. I have a mother, father, sister, brother-in-law, and 2 nieces. That's 6 people. Seven when you add my wife. She has a mother, father, 4 sisters, 2 brothers, 2 brother-in-laws, 3 nephews, 7 nieces, and me. That's 20 people. Now I realize that this isn't the Christmas spirit, but 4 of my six people will give us gifts. Based on the past, we might get gifts from her parents and her brothers. None of the sisters will get us a thing, they never do. Yet she thinks we have to buy them all something. She is only working 1 day a week, so my overstretched salary has to overstretch again. The only thing that got us through last year, was that my dad gave us money and we used it to buy gifts.
By the way, when did being fat constitute being disabled. You know those little motorized carts, some stores keep for disabled people to drive around in? I was in redneck heaven (Super Walmart) the other day and two unbelievable large people tried to run me down on those. It was a morbidly obese man and woman. Each of them was riding one of the carts, as I doubt that a single cart would have held them both. I am overweight, and not a small person anyway, but either of them was twice my size. Now there may have been something other than fat wrong with them, but there was no indication of such. My personal opinion is that if you are so fat you can't walk through the store to get your food, then maybe Someone is trying to tell you something.
Okay, I went nuts and decided to start something I probably can't finish. It's called the Master Cleansing Fast, or lemonade diet. I have felt like shit for quite a while and I am not having much luck losing weight, so I thought I would kickstart off my new weight loss program with a 10 day fast. Actually, I read up on this and it sounded reasonable, although I don't know if I can make it 10 days without food. Everyone claims that you don't get hungry, but I really like my food. Anyway as of now I have been on it for 5 hours and 2 minutes, my stomach is growling and my head feels weird. First time it has been without caffine in years I imagine. The idea is to detoxify the body, lose a little weight and gain a lot of energy. I will keep anyone reading this posted as to my progress or regress.
By the way, when did being fat constitute being disabled. You know those little motorized carts, some stores keep for disabled people to drive around in? I was in redneck heaven (Super Walmart) the other day and two unbelievable large people tried to run me down on those. It was a morbidly obese man and woman. Each of them was riding one of the carts, as I doubt that a single cart would have held them both. I am overweight, and not a small person anyway, but either of them was twice my size. Now there may have been something other than fat wrong with them, but there was no indication of such. My personal opinion is that if you are so fat you can't walk through the store to get your food, then maybe Someone is trying to tell you something.
Okay, I went nuts and decided to start something I probably can't finish. It's called the Master Cleansing Fast, or lemonade diet. I have felt like shit for quite a while and I am not having much luck losing weight, so I thought I would kickstart off my new weight loss program with a 10 day fast. Actually, I read up on this and it sounded reasonable, although I don't know if I can make it 10 days without food. Everyone claims that you don't get hungry, but I really like my food. Anyway as of now I have been on it for 5 hours and 2 minutes, my stomach is growling and my head feels weird. First time it has been without caffine in years I imagine. The idea is to detoxify the body, lose a little weight and gain a lot of energy. I will keep anyone reading this posted as to my progress or regress.
Monday, November 20, 2006
decisions
Well, I guess I need to write something, since, it's been almost a month, but I don't know what to say. Trying to get a job tutoring kids on the side. I found an add a month ago and emailed a resume. They sent an application and I filled it out and didn't hear anything else until last week when I got an email. I replied to the email and they wanted me to take a tutorial online and take some tests. Well, I did that this weekend, it took about an hour or so. I finished it with no problems and got another email saying I needed to fill out some more paperwork. I downloaded the pdf file and emailed it to work as I have no printer ink at the moment. They also said they needed proof of my college degree, so I brought a copy of my degree with me. There had been some mention of a background check, which is no big deal as my record consists of 2 speedding tickets 5 years apart and 10 years back. Well, when I read the contract agreement, I have to pay for the background check. I have to go through a particular company and it costs about $60 bucks. Now what this company does is sends the info to the TBI who does the actual check.
Now what sucks is that anyone can request a background check with the TBI. It costs $25.00. So this company is basically pocketing $35.00 to take a set of fingerprints. What really sucks is I could poke my head into the sheriff or police department and probably get one of them to print me and run the NCIC and fax the info to the company for FREE. I would owe an investigator a favor, or a bottle of booze, but not a $60.00 bottle of booze. For that matter, my prints are on file because I have a carry permit and worked for the IRS for a short time, and work for the state board of probation and parole. Each of these things resulted in a background check.
So I have to decide whether this part time job, which is subcontract with nothing held out for taxes, will generate enough income to justify the expense. It has the potential, it pays from $17.50 to 25.00 per hour. You get to say yes or no to clients, and the scheduling is flexible as long as you get the required hours in, usually from 12 to 16 hours per client monthly, so 2 clients could get me an extra $400 a month for a few hours work per week. Only I don't know how many clients are around here. There must be at least 1 or they wouldn't have emailed me.
Now what sucks is that anyone can request a background check with the TBI. It costs $25.00. So this company is basically pocketing $35.00 to take a set of fingerprints. What really sucks is I could poke my head into the sheriff or police department and probably get one of them to print me and run the NCIC and fax the info to the company for FREE. I would owe an investigator a favor, or a bottle of booze, but not a $60.00 bottle of booze. For that matter, my prints are on file because I have a carry permit and worked for the IRS for a short time, and work for the state board of probation and parole. Each of these things resulted in a background check.
So I have to decide whether this part time job, which is subcontract with nothing held out for taxes, will generate enough income to justify the expense. It has the potential, it pays from $17.50 to 25.00 per hour. You get to say yes or no to clients, and the scheduling is flexible as long as you get the required hours in, usually from 12 to 16 hours per client monthly, so 2 clients could get me an extra $400 a month for a few hours work per week. Only I don't know how many clients are around here. There must be at least 1 or they wouldn't have emailed me.
Monday, November 06, 2006
TV
Okay this is a 2 part post. First off a bitch, then second off a plug.
This is part one. I live in a rural area and for the most part, I like it. Big cities are fun to visit occasionally, but I doubt I would like to live in one for long. Well, cable TV is not an option where I live. I would like digital cable, but they stop about a mile before our road and won't go any further at this time. As a result, I have dish network. Now the sucky thing about dish is that unless you get a receiver with tivo installed, you cannot tape one channel while watching another, so if you have 2 shows on at the same time, you are sunk. The way I have gotten around this for about the last 7 years is to pay extra for west coast feeds. In other words I get local networks and I also get networks from the west coast which run 3 hours later. So if I want to see both CSI and Grey's Anatomy I can watch one at 8:00 PM and the other I can watch or tape at 11:00 PM. Sweet huh. Well, it is now illegal. Apparently watching networks other than local networks leads to horrible crimes like sheep molestation and nun beating. Actually apparently it is illegal because cable providers apparently can't offer that service. I don't get it.
First, why can't a cable company offer the service. If I can pick up the signal, than the cable company can. They don't want to pay the cash to broadcast the extra networks, and they don't need to, because with cable I could watch CSI and tape Grey's with my old fashioned VCR. But cable won't provide me with service because they don't feel there would be enough new customers to justify running the cable down my road, even though there are 2 subdivision on the road and every single house, trailer, building has either a dish network or direct TV satelitte attached to it. This sucks. Now I either have to miss shows, pay for a tivo capable satelitte receiver, or install a second receiver in the bedroom and hook a vcr to it and pay for 2 receivers. All because cable is bitching about competition they wouldn't have if they played their cards right.
Next, why aren't you all watching Veronica Mars. Watch it. This Week. Right Now. Mark your calendar. Tomorrow. It is cool. Best show ever.
This is part one. I live in a rural area and for the most part, I like it. Big cities are fun to visit occasionally, but I doubt I would like to live in one for long. Well, cable TV is not an option where I live. I would like digital cable, but they stop about a mile before our road and won't go any further at this time. As a result, I have dish network. Now the sucky thing about dish is that unless you get a receiver with tivo installed, you cannot tape one channel while watching another, so if you have 2 shows on at the same time, you are sunk. The way I have gotten around this for about the last 7 years is to pay extra for west coast feeds. In other words I get local networks and I also get networks from the west coast which run 3 hours later. So if I want to see both CSI and Grey's Anatomy I can watch one at 8:00 PM and the other I can watch or tape at 11:00 PM. Sweet huh. Well, it is now illegal. Apparently watching networks other than local networks leads to horrible crimes like sheep molestation and nun beating. Actually apparently it is illegal because cable providers apparently can't offer that service. I don't get it.
First, why can't a cable company offer the service. If I can pick up the signal, than the cable company can. They don't want to pay the cash to broadcast the extra networks, and they don't need to, because with cable I could watch CSI and tape Grey's with my old fashioned VCR. But cable won't provide me with service because they don't feel there would be enough new customers to justify running the cable down my road, even though there are 2 subdivision on the road and every single house, trailer, building has either a dish network or direct TV satelitte attached to it. This sucks. Now I either have to miss shows, pay for a tivo capable satelitte receiver, or install a second receiver in the bedroom and hook a vcr to it and pay for 2 receivers. All because cable is bitching about competition they wouldn't have if they played their cards right.
Next, why aren't you all watching Veronica Mars. Watch it. This Week. Right Now. Mark your calendar. Tomorrow. It is cool. Best show ever.
Friday, October 27, 2006
Just Ducky!!!!!
Okay, the powers-that-be are all excited because they just spent some taxpayer bucks and set up some video conferencing equipment so now we can have parole hearings hopefully without having to transport inmates much or spend money paying travel expenses for the officers. Now the kicker. For the most part, my office doesn't have that many parolees. We are a field office serving 15 counties. To use the equipment, the only rule so far is the officer must travel over 100 miles to get to the hearings. Now most of the prisons are over 100 miles from the office, so that sounds good. However, we didn't get any equipment, so if I set up a hearing, I would have to travel to an office that has the equipment, the nearest of which is about 100 miles away.
One of my fine Americans was picked up recently. He was a probationer who had disappeared 10 years ago. He was recently picked up by federal marshals. His wife and mother wander in wanting to know what is up. They claim they thought this was all taken care of. I point out that he had an 8 year suspended sentence from 1991. He moved without permission in 1994 and had not seen a probation officer since.
"Well, he wasn't really guilty, he was set up."
He pled guilty in court.
"But a friend gave him the money. He bought the cocaine for a friend."
Apparently it isn't a crime if you break the law for a friend.
"Wait Your Honor, you can't convict him of murder, a friend asked him to chop that man's head off."
"Oh, if a friend asked him to do it, it is alright."
"Officer, I wouldn't have raped that woman, but my best friend, Charlie, asked me to."
"You're free to go."
One of my fine Americans was picked up recently. He was a probationer who had disappeared 10 years ago. He was recently picked up by federal marshals. His wife and mother wander in wanting to know what is up. They claim they thought this was all taken care of. I point out that he had an 8 year suspended sentence from 1991. He moved without permission in 1994 and had not seen a probation officer since.
"Well, he wasn't really guilty, he was set up."
He pled guilty in court.
"But a friend gave him the money. He bought the cocaine for a friend."
Apparently it isn't a crime if you break the law for a friend.
"Wait Your Honor, you can't convict him of murder, a friend asked him to chop that man's head off."
"Oh, if a friend asked him to do it, it is alright."
"Officer, I wouldn't have raped that woman, but my best friend, Charlie, asked me to."
"You're free to go."
Tuesday, October 24, 2006
Sometimes life just sucks
Okay the week started good, but then kind of went downhill. First off, my wife sold some of her prize chickens. She got rid of 20, 14 of them just chicks, and was paid reasonably well for them, but the lady who wanted them lives on the other side of the state from us, so we ended up agreeing to meet them roughly half way. If you've never ridden in a compact Toyota car with 14 peeping chicks and 6 caged chickens taking regular craps on the cardboard you've put down just for that reason, on a cold day with the car heater going, you need to try it. Course we were paid and we needed the money, so I count this as good, except for the smell of roasting chicken turds of coarse.
On the way back we stopped at an outlet mall so my wife could spend part of the chicken money. Then we were stopped by traffic. About 30 miles from home a wreck on the interstate stopped traffic for over an hour. This is bad. After about 20 minutes we managed to get to a turn through and went home the back way. Autumn is in full swing and the trees are beautiful here, and this was a very scenic drive, even if longer and out-of-the-way. So I guess this is good.
Then she had to tell her father that we were going to be close so we had to stop and I had to remove some spyware from his computer. Should have hid for the rest of the week I think. Most definitely not good.
I found some sort of virus on my computer despite the 312 different anti-virus, anti-spyware, and firewalls I have installed.
Monday, I had court in a county so small and poor that the courthouse doesn't even have indoor bathrooms. The DA got his wires crossed on my case and instead of getting a new date and leaving at 11:00, I was stuck there until almost 3:00. On the way there, the bank calls and someone has attempted to charge over $100 onto my debit card. Fortunately my overdraft protection is not included on my debit card, so when the money runs out the card doesn't work, so only 1 purchase went through. Apparently from the virus I found. I was able to get a promise of a refund on the purchase of a webcam site membership, but if I ever find Mike with a g-mail account, look out. Anyway I cancelled the debit card and credit cards. New cards with new numbers will be issued but I won't get them until the middle of next week. I get paid by autodraft, so I never have any cash. Now I have no cards, and I am waiting for them to put money back into my bank account. This sucks.
On the way back we stopped at an outlet mall so my wife could spend part of the chicken money. Then we were stopped by traffic. About 30 miles from home a wreck on the interstate stopped traffic for over an hour. This is bad. After about 20 minutes we managed to get to a turn through and went home the back way. Autumn is in full swing and the trees are beautiful here, and this was a very scenic drive, even if longer and out-of-the-way. So I guess this is good.
Then she had to tell her father that we were going to be close so we had to stop and I had to remove some spyware from his computer. Should have hid for the rest of the week I think. Most definitely not good.
I found some sort of virus on my computer despite the 312 different anti-virus, anti-spyware, and firewalls I have installed.
Monday, I had court in a county so small and poor that the courthouse doesn't even have indoor bathrooms. The DA got his wires crossed on my case and instead of getting a new date and leaving at 11:00, I was stuck there until almost 3:00. On the way there, the bank calls and someone has attempted to charge over $100 onto my debit card. Fortunately my overdraft protection is not included on my debit card, so when the money runs out the card doesn't work, so only 1 purchase went through. Apparently from the virus I found. I was able to get a promise of a refund on the purchase of a webcam site membership, but if I ever find Mike with a g-mail account, look out. Anyway I cancelled the debit card and credit cards. New cards with new numbers will be issued but I won't get them until the middle of next week. I get paid by autodraft, so I never have any cash. Now I have no cards, and I am waiting for them to put money back into my bank account. This sucks.
Thursday, October 19, 2006
Domestically Violent or Violent Domestically?
I hate domestic violence cases. First off they are never neat, always messy. They are almost never resolved, usually dropped, but if a probationer or parolee gets a domestic assault charge, I have to take a warrant. That means that in addition to the new charge they now have a violation warrant. But I have to do it, because the potential for violence is there and they could be a danger to someone, so I need to get them locked up. After all we would want to see the following on the news.
"Jerry Jerkov, convicted felon currently on probation, was arrested 3 times for domestic assault, before finally killing his girlfriend Nancy Nobrain, by repeatedly striking her on the head with an ironing board. Mr. Jerkov had displayed his fondness for blunt force trauma three times previously by assaulting Miss Nobrain with a waffle iron, a baseball bat, and a crowbar respectively." Mr. Jerkov was arrested all three times and Miss Nobrain arranged bail each time and refused to press charges. Each previous time a probation violation warrant was filed, but dropped when no charges were pressed. Why wasn't this violent offender behind bars? The probation office obviously isn't doing its job."
Quite frankly, the domestic violence charges are almost never followed through. The victim usually drops the charges and if that is the only basis for the violation, that warrant is usually dropped also. If the only violation listed on the warrant is a rule one, basically " I won't commit any crimes while on probation." Then the warrant will be hard to pursue. On the other hand, we now have a rule 14 about abusive, assaultive, intimidating behavior. If that rule is listed and the behavior can be proven, the warrant might stand.
I currently have 2 violation warrants out on new charges of domestic. I expect one to be dropped, but the other will go to trial. This genius picked up a charge for choking his girlfriend. He was granted a bond, but an order of protection was taken. Then my warrant got him, but for some reason, the judge placed a bond on it. Then the day before his probation violation hearing, he gets liquorred up and goes to where she is staying. Fakes being a police officer to get admission, then chases her up the stairs and chokes her again in front of witnesses. I get his bond revoked in court and get an ammended warrant on him.
Then I got to listen to another officer's case where the gentleman had decided to demonstrate true love by forcing his way through the door, hauling his woman up the stairs by her hair, slinging her onto the bed. The climbing on top of her and holding a knide to her throat while telling her he will take her out, then kill himself so they can be together forever. That's romantic!!
"Jerry Jerkov, convicted felon currently on probation, was arrested 3 times for domestic assault, before finally killing his girlfriend Nancy Nobrain, by repeatedly striking her on the head with an ironing board. Mr. Jerkov had displayed his fondness for blunt force trauma three times previously by assaulting Miss Nobrain with a waffle iron, a baseball bat, and a crowbar respectively." Mr. Jerkov was arrested all three times and Miss Nobrain arranged bail each time and refused to press charges. Each previous time a probation violation warrant was filed, but dropped when no charges were pressed. Why wasn't this violent offender behind bars? The probation office obviously isn't doing its job."
Quite frankly, the domestic violence charges are almost never followed through. The victim usually drops the charges and if that is the only basis for the violation, that warrant is usually dropped also. If the only violation listed on the warrant is a rule one, basically " I won't commit any crimes while on probation." Then the warrant will be hard to pursue. On the other hand, we now have a rule 14 about abusive, assaultive, intimidating behavior. If that rule is listed and the behavior can be proven, the warrant might stand.
I currently have 2 violation warrants out on new charges of domestic. I expect one to be dropped, but the other will go to trial. This genius picked up a charge for choking his girlfriend. He was granted a bond, but an order of protection was taken. Then my warrant got him, but for some reason, the judge placed a bond on it. Then the day before his probation violation hearing, he gets liquorred up and goes to where she is staying. Fakes being a police officer to get admission, then chases her up the stairs and chokes her again in front of witnesses. I get his bond revoked in court and get an ammended warrant on him.
Then I got to listen to another officer's case where the gentleman had decided to demonstrate true love by forcing his way through the door, hauling his woman up the stairs by her hair, slinging her onto the bed. The climbing on top of her and holding a knide to her throat while telling her he will take her out, then kill himself so they can be together forever. That's romantic!!
Tuesday, October 17, 2006
Windows Dead Messenger
My wife and I met on the internet. We lived in the same town, but did not know of one another. I saw her on a match up website, answered her ad. She replied and we emailed. Then IM, then telephone. Much of our early relationship could be traced to MSN messenger. I worked third shift as a computer operator, and she would often sit up and we would talk while I worked. It would have been long distance over the phone, but thanks to messenger we could talk a lot. Of course we had to type, but still.
Anyway, messenger has evolved and added many features since those olden days. Now I remember from my sales days, one of the methods of selling is called features and benefits. Basically you tell a customer one of your features, then explain what benefits that would give your customer. Well if you've been living under a rock until recently, an instant messenger is a program that connects your computer to a network service. You have an indentification with the service provider. When you log your computer into that network service, the service notifies everyone that has your identifier listed as a contact that you are online. It also tells you which of your contacts are currently signed in with the service. You can then instantly contact any of those people.
You can also use the messenger to transfer files to a contact. Some firewalls may balk at this though. This feature is probably the single most hated feature as far as corporate IT guys are concerned. This has proven an excellent virus spreading feature. On the other had, if you want to send multiple files, or larger files, it beats the heck out of email. I've transferred reports to coworkers, pictures to family and mp3's to friends this way.
Another feature that people like is the voice call, where you can use microphones to actually talk. You can also transmit webcams to whoever you are talking to. Now you can keep as many typing conversations going as you can keep straight, but you can only voice talk to one contact at a time. You can also only view and transmit one web cam at a time. Otherwise Netmeeting might be in danger.
Microsoft's latest version of messenger is called Windows Live Messenger. It has all the basic features plus a lot of cute new stuff, mostly minor but nice. It is also tied into some other projects that fall under the Windows Live banner, such as Live Spaces, ect. Unfortunately it is also fairly buggy. Last Tuesday, both my and my wife's messengers went out. They didn't give any errors, just refused to connect. Our older accounts still worked fine from the computer, but the current ones would not connect. After about 3 days, I finally found a site that had a link to reset the options in the registry which fixed it like a charm. Very aggravating in a product that is fairly nice otherwise. Apparently this affect not only our 2 computers, but a great many other as well as I was about the 50th person to thank the guy for the fix.
Anyway, messenger has evolved and added many features since those olden days. Now I remember from my sales days, one of the methods of selling is called features and benefits. Basically you tell a customer one of your features, then explain what benefits that would give your customer. Well if you've been living under a rock until recently, an instant messenger is a program that connects your computer to a network service. You have an indentification with the service provider. When you log your computer into that network service, the service notifies everyone that has your identifier listed as a contact that you are online. It also tells you which of your contacts are currently signed in with the service. You can then instantly contact any of those people.
You can also use the messenger to transfer files to a contact. Some firewalls may balk at this though. This feature is probably the single most hated feature as far as corporate IT guys are concerned. This has proven an excellent virus spreading feature. On the other had, if you want to send multiple files, or larger files, it beats the heck out of email. I've transferred reports to coworkers, pictures to family and mp3's to friends this way.
Another feature that people like is the voice call, where you can use microphones to actually talk. You can also transmit webcams to whoever you are talking to. Now you can keep as many typing conversations going as you can keep straight, but you can only voice talk to one contact at a time. You can also only view and transmit one web cam at a time. Otherwise Netmeeting might be in danger.
Microsoft's latest version of messenger is called Windows Live Messenger. It has all the basic features plus a lot of cute new stuff, mostly minor but nice. It is also tied into some other projects that fall under the Windows Live banner, such as Live Spaces, ect. Unfortunately it is also fairly buggy. Last Tuesday, both my and my wife's messengers went out. They didn't give any errors, just refused to connect. Our older accounts still worked fine from the computer, but the current ones would not connect. After about 3 days, I finally found a site that had a link to reset the options in the registry which fixed it like a charm. Very aggravating in a product that is fairly nice otherwise. Apparently this affect not only our 2 computers, but a great many other as well as I was about the 50th person to thank the guy for the fix.
Bigger Equal Not as Good
Okay, what is with the current trend that bigger is always better. A long time ago, I became interested in creating web pages. This was a long time ago and things were much simpler. I search the mostly free internet on my V90 modem and then bought a book on HTML. My first couple of pages were done on notepad and were fairly simple. Later, my brother-in-law, who is a computer programmer by profession gave me an older copy of MS Frontpage and I found a simpler, although sometimes just as frustrating, way to do things. Now at that time there were not a lot of people around doing webstites, so I was able to pick up a little spare cash helping people with this. Anyway, I eventually bought an expensive suite of programs to make ever larger and more complicated interactive sites and although I seldom do a webpage anymore, even a personal one, I have kept the programs pretty up-to-date incase I ever want to.
Well the other day, two of the programs in the suite stopped working. The acted like they had never been completely installed, but I could not install or repair them. There was a little project I wanted to do with one program and after 3 days of fighting and cussing, I finally discovered that I had a conflict with another program and which program the conflict was with.
So I uninstalled both programs and reinstalled, and uninstalled and reinstalled and bashed my head against my desk and repeated, but it seemed that the two sets of software could not be on the computer at the same time and have both work, even though they were doing that exact thing last week. AAAAARRRRGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!!!
To shorten it some, after adding about 6 million hits to Google I was able to find the 79 individual folders, well maybe only 52, that the programs installed in various places and with various names, on my pc and many of which the uninstall feature did not even touch, and manually delete them all. I also found that the conflicting program shared files with a completely unrelated program by the same company and of course that program had to go also.
I then reinstalled my suite of programs which worked. I then reinstalled my other program which also worked. Then I tested my suite of programs again and they still worked. The third program I just left off until I need it again. That was a lot of stupid work, I do not understand why it is necessary to spread components of applications all over my computer. And why change the names of the installation folders. Some file names were related to the applications, some named after the parent company, some named after the company that owns the application manufacturer. For all I know some of the folders are named after the thirdshift janitor's pet iguana.
Why is it now neccessary for a computer application to do everything in the world. We have operating systems with built in word processors, data base programs, spreadsheets, image editors, video editors, dvd burning software, animation software, and they even mow the lawn and cook supper. I remember when you had an operating system and then you had a different program for every function. For instance you had windows, navigator, word perfect, lotus 123, and d-base. Then internet explorer came out and fought with navigator. MS Word took on WordStar and WordPerfect. Eventually the programs would import other types of files, then sharing files. I remember when buying a "suite" of related programs was bad. You were supposed to use the best program for the job then fight to get the next program to work with the file. You might use lotus to organize your data then fight to get it into d-base. Eventually MS Office won because you could bounce the same file between all the applications without loosing a half day of work figuring out how to import and export in the proper format. It even included a personal organizer and email program.
Store are doing the same thing. I used to like Walmart. I could pick up toothpaste, a cd, a bag of dog food, underwear and a hammer in one stop. This was cool. It also made the hardware store,
clothing store, and music shop go belly up, but it made life easier for me. Then Walmart decided that people needed to buy more stuff from them so now they want me to buy my groceries, tires, mufflers, get family photos made, my dental work done, and buy my contacts there. It's now too big and a pain in the ass. You can't park in the lot during the day. You have to take a shuttle to the store to make it there and back on the same day, and the store is so big that first you need to rent a scooter to get through it and second, you can't find what you were looking for. They need a medium size army to staff the place, but they are only willing to pay a small size army so don't expect to actually find any help if you need it.
Well the other day, two of the programs in the suite stopped working. The acted like they had never been completely installed, but I could not install or repair them. There was a little project I wanted to do with one program and after 3 days of fighting and cussing, I finally discovered that I had a conflict with another program and which program the conflict was with.
So I uninstalled both programs and reinstalled, and uninstalled and reinstalled and bashed my head against my desk and repeated, but it seemed that the two sets of software could not be on the computer at the same time and have both work, even though they were doing that exact thing last week. AAAAARRRRGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!!!
To shorten it some, after adding about 6 million hits to Google I was able to find the 79 individual folders, well maybe only 52, that the programs installed in various places and with various names, on my pc and many of which the uninstall feature did not even touch, and manually delete them all. I also found that the conflicting program shared files with a completely unrelated program by the same company and of course that program had to go also.
I then reinstalled my suite of programs which worked. I then reinstalled my other program which also worked. Then I tested my suite of programs again and they still worked. The third program I just left off until I need it again. That was a lot of stupid work, I do not understand why it is necessary to spread components of applications all over my computer. And why change the names of the installation folders. Some file names were related to the applications, some named after the parent company, some named after the company that owns the application manufacturer. For all I know some of the folders are named after the thirdshift janitor's pet iguana.
Why is it now neccessary for a computer application to do everything in the world. We have operating systems with built in word processors, data base programs, spreadsheets, image editors, video editors, dvd burning software, animation software, and they even mow the lawn and cook supper. I remember when you had an operating system and then you had a different program for every function. For instance you had windows, navigator, word perfect, lotus 123, and d-base. Then internet explorer came out and fought with navigator. MS Word took on WordStar and WordPerfect. Eventually the programs would import other types of files, then sharing files. I remember when buying a "suite" of related programs was bad. You were supposed to use the best program for the job then fight to get the next program to work with the file. You might use lotus to organize your data then fight to get it into d-base. Eventually MS Office won because you could bounce the same file between all the applications without loosing a half day of work figuring out how to import and export in the proper format. It even included a personal organizer and email program.
Store are doing the same thing. I used to like Walmart. I could pick up toothpaste, a cd, a bag of dog food, underwear and a hammer in one stop. This was cool. It also made the hardware store,
clothing store, and music shop go belly up, but it made life easier for me. Then Walmart decided that people needed to buy more stuff from them so now they want me to buy my groceries, tires, mufflers, get family photos made, my dental work done, and buy my contacts there. It's now too big and a pain in the ass. You can't park in the lot during the day. You have to take a shuttle to the store to make it there and back on the same day, and the store is so big that first you need to rent a scooter to get through it and second, you can't find what you were looking for. They need a medium size army to staff the place, but they are only willing to pay a small size army so don't expect to actually find any help if you need it.
Thursday, October 12, 2006
Judges
I haven't felt like blogging much lately, but an event yesterday ran a random thought through my brain and I am going to explore it just a little.
You see yesterday was inservice training for the month and I was trying to get actual work done on my breaks. One of the things I did was write a violation report and warrant and my boss signed off on it. I ran it to the judge's office on my lunch break so I could lodge it today. Well part of the warrant request states something along the lines of "before me, Joe Blow, Judge of the Criminal Court in and for X county, TN, personally came Jack Meoff, who, being first duly sworen, says that ........" Anyway, we don't usually see the judge and have always just signed the warrants and the judges sign them and let them go. If there is a question they usually call or send the report back with notes. Anyway, in the last couple of years, some of the judges have reconsiderred. With one judge we sign our stuff, but he calls us and swears us in over the telephone and then asks if each individual warrant request is true. Another, one of my judges who is no longer with us, started having us have the affidavit and warrant notorized before we submit it. The other judge found out and he started doing it. Well the new judge apparently wants to follow suite, and I forgot to have the secretary notorize it before I left. The judge was in the office, but his secretary would not take the unnotorized warrant in to him. Now the sole reason to notorize the note, is because we do not usually catch the judges in and it is a confirmation that it was the officer who signed the report swearing to the facts. If I was there in person and the judge was there, why would I need it notorized? I could swear to the report in person in his prescence as the affidavit states.
Anyway judges come in several flavors around here. City judges are elected or appointed. Their authority extends to strickly the city and they usually hear traffic court and city ordinace violations. They tend to be local attorneys.
General Sessions judges are elected by the county, their authority is county wide, but most decisions are valid statewide. They run the general sessions courts and here preliminary hearings and a lot of civil matters. They also often tend to be local lawyers, who maintain a local practice.
Circuit Court Judges are elected by the judicial district they preside over. They are state judges and are full-time judges with no private practice. They tend to either handle civil or criminal court, although if a criminal court judge is ill, a civil court judge may sit in for him. These are the judges I am dealing with.
Federal judges are appointed and hear federal matters. I have only had to deal with a federal judge twice and I like it like that.
You see yesterday was inservice training for the month and I was trying to get actual work done on my breaks. One of the things I did was write a violation report and warrant and my boss signed off on it. I ran it to the judge's office on my lunch break so I could lodge it today. Well part of the warrant request states something along the lines of "before me, Joe Blow, Judge of the Criminal Court in and for X county, TN, personally came Jack Meoff, who, being first duly sworen, says that ........" Anyway, we don't usually see the judge and have always just signed the warrants and the judges sign them and let them go. If there is a question they usually call or send the report back with notes. Anyway, in the last couple of years, some of the judges have reconsiderred. With one judge we sign our stuff, but he calls us and swears us in over the telephone and then asks if each individual warrant request is true. Another, one of my judges who is no longer with us, started having us have the affidavit and warrant notorized before we submit it. The other judge found out and he started doing it. Well the new judge apparently wants to follow suite, and I forgot to have the secretary notorize it before I left. The judge was in the office, but his secretary would not take the unnotorized warrant in to him. Now the sole reason to notorize the note, is because we do not usually catch the judges in and it is a confirmation that it was the officer who signed the report swearing to the facts. If I was there in person and the judge was there, why would I need it notorized? I could swear to the report in person in his prescence as the affidavit states.
Anyway judges come in several flavors around here. City judges are elected or appointed. Their authority extends to strickly the city and they usually hear traffic court and city ordinace violations. They tend to be local attorneys.
General Sessions judges are elected by the county, their authority is county wide, but most decisions are valid statewide. They run the general sessions courts and here preliminary hearings and a lot of civil matters. They also often tend to be local lawyers, who maintain a local practice.
Circuit Court Judges are elected by the judicial district they preside over. They are state judges and are full-time judges with no private practice. They tend to either handle civil or criminal court, although if a criminal court judge is ill, a civil court judge may sit in for him. These are the judges I am dealing with.
Federal judges are appointed and hear federal matters. I have only had to deal with a federal judge twice and I like it like that.
Wednesday, October 04, 2006
A Tribute
We didn't meet Roxie until she was already about 2 years old. She was to become our third Saint Bernard. Our first Bernard was Missy. We took her into our home while she was about 3 months old. We raised her from a puppy and spoiled her rotten. Her official name is Mozart's Mysterious Mistress. We got her because friends had a male Saint and we intended to breed them, unfortunately the friends decided to divorce and our stud was going out the window. We ended up getting the dog, Beethoven's Baby Baker, or Baker. Since we wanted pups, it was going to be a while. Baker was about 14 months older than Missy, but we were told not to breed until the female was at least 2 years old. Now I had an old Rottie named Angel, who adored me beyond reason and who was my girl. She was old and developed some health issues. At 6 months, Missy was already larger than Angel. When Missy was a little over a year old and came into heat on November 1, Baker took matters into his own paws and went through a hole he shouldn't have fit through and bred Missy. This was litter of pups #1. Despite a vet tech attempting to give us the evil eye for allowing underage doggy sex to take place, everything went well, the pups were beautiful, and we placed them all. The money paid for our wedding and honeymoon.
We decided pups were lots of fun, but we didn't want to breed Missy too often, as that isn't good. So we thought we needed another female. As look would have it, we shortly received a phone call from the breeder Missy had come from. They were getting out of the Saint business, but knew of someone who had a grown female saint they wanted to get rid of. We went out and met our beautiful girl Roxie. Roxie was chained up and paid very little attention too. When she got loose she chased cattle and the owner was afraid she would be shot by a farmer. We made arrangements with the owner who had never registered her. We took possession and registered her complete with late charges.
Roxie was a half-sister to Missy. She was from an earlier litter and was 6 months older, but they shared the same father. Roxie was darker, larger, and had a more squared head. She was strong as an ox, but had no idea how to play. She couldn't fetch or play tug-of-war. All she could do was bounce on you. She was no were near as bright as Missy, but she didn't have the streak of mean in her either. Roxie was the sweetest dog in the world.
Well, her life changed. We were dog fanatics and our family went places. She went on walks, went to the creek and to the river. She went to parks, went camping, went swimming. She wore costumes for Halloween and got Christmas gifts. She went to visit family and go on picnics. She had two litters of pups and was an excellent mother.
On October 2, 2006 at 5 years of age, Mozart's Foxie Roxie departed from our family courtesy of a intentional overdose of anesthetic courtesy of a veterinarian. She had bone cancer and survived approximately 6 weeks after the first symptoms were noticed until my wife and I could no longer justify being selfish and keeping her with us. She was the sweetest dog in the world and god made her last few days on earth beautiful autumn days, for which I am grateful. Perhaps I am stupid, but the dog gave us unconditional love and affection and the last week with us, she could barely get around. She was a shadow of her wonderful self, in pain, and yet, never snapped, never complained, hardly whimpered. She bore her discomfort bravely and I hope she didn't suffer too much. We brought her in and spent a lot of time with her those last 3 days. She ate ham and hotdogs and other treats. She got to sun in private and the nieces and nephews came by to see her and say good bye. She got one last ride in a truck, which she enjoyed.
God provided again in that a man with a bobcat stopped by the vet while we were there and my mother-in-law spoke to him and he graciously agreed to help with the burial for what amounted to fuel money. The ride back was horrible and I remember only trying to drive and cry.
After words, neither of us felt like cooking so we went to get something to eat in town. We passed a billboard that quoted "Blessed are the meek, for they will surely inherit the earth." Then the stupid radio started in with that "Lips of an angel" song and I lost it. Up to that point, I had kept it pretty low key, but I couldn't any longer. The animals are our lives. They make up such a large part of it. I feel bad enough when one of the chickens die, but man, when it's one of the dogs or cats, it's like loosing a member of the family. Roxie isn't the first pet I lost, but it doesn't get any easier.
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