terpfan1980

Oh what a tangled web some ants and art may weave in Current Events JoeUser Forums

The Warhol Foundation threatens to withdrawal, or at least cease to provide future funding (over $300k of it) from Smithsonian system (National Portrait Gallery) over the pulling of a video that showed ants crawling on a crucifix. Catholics and others had taken offense to a video clip that was approximately 10 seconds or so in partial length (small part of a much longer video). When they started protesting, politicians started threatening to pull funding from the NEA and

Who couldn't see this coming? in Politics JoeUser Forums

I could insert a bad joke here about famous blind musical artists (and perhaps compound it by using the names of dead, blind musical artists) being able to see how we got the result that we got today in the Virginia court case against the Obama/Pelosi Healthcare reform package's requirement that everyone must buy health insurance. That single component was pretty much guaranteed to be DOA once it got into the legal system. Unconstitutional with a capital UN at the beginning

Only how many more days until... in Life Journals JoeUser Forums

I'm glad that most of my Christmas shopping is done. Yay Giftcards! Seriously, I have completed most of my annual Christmas shopping, with just a few items left to get, most likely giftcards, but for where would be the question. Even there, I think I know the answers, it's just a matter of deciding once and for all that where I'm thinking of is where I should be getting the cards for. I'll figure that all out soon enough and get things wrapped up completely very soon

Cats rule, dogs drool in Pets & Nature JoeUser Forums

LOL. The cat (Patches the cat) got her spay surgery today so she was sent home with the lampshade (Elizabethan) collar around her neck. The same type of collar that the Pom puppy here got to wear after her surgery several weeks back. The dog wore the collar for about 10 days before we finally took it off and let her leave it off. She tried pretty hard for a day or two to get rid of the collar herself but was not successful in pushing it off or otherwise escaping it

It's a Bundy-ful Christmas in Life Journals JoeUser Forums

CMT is running a marathon of episodes of Married With Children. Gawd, I've missed that series. Such deliciously trashy humor. Mostly holiday episodes airing, but they're all very funny. I may toss on the Bundy-ful life episodes later tonite as I have part of the series on DVD (including those episodes). Sam Kennison was so great as Al's guardian angel, and of course Al was awesome in accepting his miserable life and wanting to be sure his family never got to en

Fun for the kitty this weekend in Life Journals JoeUser Forums

Kitty Patches goes to the vet for her spay surgery tomorrrow. I know already that isn't going to be that much fun. First there's the cutting off of food that must happen tonite, and then there'll be the fun of trying to get her into the crate tomorrow (she puts up a pretty good fight against being pushed into the carry crate that we have). Worse will be getting her into a crate for the trip back home later, as she'll have the lampshade collar on, making it harder t

Liberals whine while I cheer in Politics JoeUser Forums

Liberals are returning to their whining ways as they cry that President Obama is giving away the farm in negotiations with the GOP when it comes to extending the "Bush" tax cuts. Apparently they forgot some of the lessons that Obama taught everyone after he was elected... something about {them, as in the GOP at the time} not being given the keys any more because they had proven they were not competetent to drive. What the liberal Democrats seem to be missing is that the last elect

Wow, that was fast... in Current Events JoeUser Forums

Only yesterday the news circulated that Elizabeth Edwards' cancer treatments would be ceased as the doctors had determined there was no longer any chance of those treatments helping her. Today the news hit that her fight was over as she had, in fact, succumbed to cancer. I know it was a long fight, so in reality it wasn't that fast, and yet it seemed that way given the timing of the news yesterday followed with the announcement of her death today. There have been other dis

Best Wishes to Elizabeth Edwards in Current Events JoeUser Forums

I saw news (via CNN) that Elizabeth Edwards, former spouse of adulterer and former Vice Presidential candidate John Edwards, has been told by her doctors that further cancer treatments would be fruitless and thus she is discontinuing such treatments. I'm saddened by that news. While her former husband's politics were not in agreement with my own, I believe she handled herself with class throughout, and certainly didn't deserve to be cheated on or cursed with the plaque we call can

Weekend events and thoughts on current events in Life Journals JoeUser Forums

I took both kids (son and daughter) to a concert on Saturday that we all enjoyed. Carbon Leaf. A mix of country/ folk/ Celtic/ rock/ pop music that is, as you can see from that list, a little hard to categorize other than say highly enjoyable. If you have the chance to catch them, do it. They put on a nice entertaining show that should leave you well satisfied when you leave the show. In the thoughts on current events, I have to pause for a bit an include a not

Amazon chases away... in Consumer Issues JoeUser Forums

I don't know why I have to get forced into a love/hate relationship with Amazon, but it seems that I do. As a buyer, I love dealing with Amazon. The experience is pretty hard to beat, and as evidenced in a recent news article about customer service and bad actors and the lack of such on Amazon, it's pretty easy to justify buying via Amazon. If you happen to hit a bad customer service experience, Amazon will step in and make it right, and rather swiftly the bad seller will

Reply to Salute to the bell ringers in Life Journals JoeUser Forums

[quote]but as with most charities they keep up to 90% of donations to run operations[/quote] I'm not sure where that figure comes from as when I research the organization they come up pretty well on administrative costs versus funds given to intended recipients. With that said, they are looked at as discriminatory in some ways (socially) and some people don't care for them (much like the Boy Scouts and such) because of that.

Cleveland fans should cheer Lebron James in Basketball JoeUser Forums

Lebron James returns to Cleveland tonite as a member of the Miami Heat. His new team takes on his old team and there's a lot of speculation about what the fan reaction will be, and a bit more on what it should be. Here's the right answer for Cleveland fans: cheer the guy. I am sure that there are people that read that sentence and wonder just what the heck I've been smoking, snorting, or injesting, but bear with me a minute... Cleveland fans should be cheer

Salute to the bell ringers in Life Journals JoeUser Forums

Thanks to new restrictions on possible solicitation at some area food markets/grocery stores, I was worried that I might not find a bell ringer out during a convenient time this holiday season. Apparently some grocery stores are more interested in being Grinches than they are in being good neighbors, at least in my opinion. In any case, I was able to find a bell ringer out today and made a donation to the kettle. I was happy to do so as I am 100% certain that when I drop c

Listenin' to the music... in Life Journals JoeUser Forums

I'm at work tonite, putting in the last few hours for my work week, knocking out some tasks that were better and more easily tackled during hours when the bulk of the user community wouldn't be here with demands on my time, or needs for the systems/applications that were going to be affected by the work that I needed to get done. Most of the work is done, now I'm just left with a few minor tasks to knock off before I can claim complete victory. Yay me, in a little while, hopefully

Reply to And with that, they lost my business for quite a while... in Life Journals JoeUser Forums

[quote]Seriously though. I'm sorry you didn't have the Thanksgiving you were looking forward to having with the kids. Next year maybe you should make a meal at home, just get a turkey breast or something, let the kids help...just an idea...(personally I like when someone else does all the work, but then I eat too much...for some reason when I prepare everything, the last thing I want to do is shovel it in....lol)[/quote] I was more disappointed in having to take frozen prepared stuff

And with that, they lost my business for quite a while... in Life Journals JoeUser Forums

Sometimes the best laid plans go to ... well, you get the idea. A famous Market of restaurants that hails out of the Boston area lost my business for quite a while thanks to being completely and totally unprepared for doing business today (Thanksgiving, the day that I'm typing this article) after we (my kids and I) had called the day prior to confirm that they'd be open and what their hours for the day would be. We planned to go to my kid's grandparents (their mother's pa

Don't take legal advice... in Life Journals JoeUser Forums

More fun! The insurance company that covers my mobile home sent me a check to cover the costs of the fire related damages (from the neighbors home that burned, my home had some damaged vinyl siding from the heat of the fire), less the deductible and the depreciation since the policy is a cash value policy. Anyway, the claim was processed pretty quickly, the appraiser came out quickly and checked the situation, and the claims handler did a great job getting the claim check s

Reply to If you’re not running Windows 7 64-bit yet, please do so soon in Personal Computing JoeUser Forums

I've been waiting for 32-bit operating systems to die for a while now. I'm not saying I won't be using some 32-bit systems for some things, but I want the old stuff gone asap and will replace it all as time and money permits.

Reply to 20% of Americans Are in Politics JoeUser Forums

LOL. Cause and effect?

Cookies, cookies everywhere.... in Life Journals JoeUser Forums

I started to just put this article in as a place holder, as I knew I was going to be pretty wiped out when I got home (as I am now), and had thought of this earlier today when I didn't have the time to put in an article. As it turns out, I have some time and even though I'm feeling nigh on exhausted, I think I can finish my thought in a reasonable manner so I'm going for it... The article title is in regards to the training that I've been in over the last several days. One

Reply to Better today, though I expect... in Life Journals JoeUser Forums

Oh, the "though I expect..." point (that I forgot to put in above) relates to the fact that I'll likely be asleep in my seat, no matter how much caffiene I ingest between now and the end of the day, several times throughout the day. Yesterday was a long day and I was up pretty early this morning, so I'm definitely working on a lack of rest. Of course I'll load up on sugar and caffiene throughout the day and probably be wide awake in the afternoon and evening and have a tough tim

Better today, though I expect... in Life Journals JoeUser Forums

Traffic was much better today. Of course not having any rain falling from the sky helped quite a bit there. Thankfully the traffic last night, but for a five to ten minute delay right near the end of the trip I had to take. Everything worked out and I (and my daughter) got to the show right on time. By the time we were parked and enterring the venue and lined up at one of the merchandise booths it was almost time for the opening act to take the stage. Shortly a

It's only rain people! in Life Journals JoeUser Forums

Argh, the traffic this a.m. was a complete and total pain in nether-regions. Because the sky was falling in little droplets of water apparently most of the drivers in the region experienced amnesia and completely forgot how to drive. A commute that was supposed to have taken me about 20 minutes at worst wound up taking over an hour of incredibly frustrating snail's paced driving, all while my lifetime traffic monitoring GPS and local radio stations seemed completely oblivious of a

Proving my own incompetence or lack of coordination in Life Journals JoeUser Forums

First, a moment of silence in honor of Moderateman. While he may have asked for nothing, I still think he deserves it, and find the news of his passing sad. I hope his passing means his Earthly pains have been lifted, as I know he was burdened by same, but I'm saddened that he left behind a loved one that I know will miss him terribly. -- Now, while I have an instant to type out a few quick words, I must admit to proving my own incompetence over the last 24 hours.&