Finally got my PC operational again. Was hit by a virus or something that created one of those blue screen stop codes in XP. Had Microsoft help me make a second instance of Windows so I would be able to back up files instead of lose everything. Took about a week to get that done, format the hard drive and reinstall software. Still have a lot of software to reinstall, but have the basics done for now.

And already, my PC is starting to show signs of the same infection so I may be inoperational again soon. This is driving me crazy. My PC intermittently decides to reboot itself and often takes nearly an hour to start up in the mornings from all the rebooting. All the firewall, anti-virus and Windows software is up to date. Spyware programs run daily and yet nothing is detected.

Anyone having similar problems? Got a solution besides using a sledge hammer?

Thought I'd repost a message from an internet friend. She wrote it for a message board community of roleplaying gamers who are in the throes of debate over the blame game.

Hi,
I used to live in New Orleans and was the one who started this thread (Katrina's long reach). I'm sitting in someone's office trying to escape reality right now and thought I'd tell you some things.

This storm has affected Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama directly. It's also affecting every neighboring state because us refugees have to go somewhere. I'm in Jackson, Mississippi. I'm sleeping on someone's floor and have been for a week. There is no gas so I can't leave. Waits for gas are 24 hours plus. My home in New Orleans is most likely gone along with everything I own. I was 2 months from finishing my PhD there and have no university. No income obviously. BUT. I am fortunate.

The people here are like the walking dead. The misery on faces is impossible to describe. I've been volunteering at the Red Cross making food for shelters. At first I was so angry at the looters. Now I don't care, I hope someone could make use of the food, water and clothes I left in my home. The one thing I've learnt from this is that all that matters is the people. The stories I hear every day are sadder than you can imagine. The people with children are the hardest to listen to. Again a huge BUT. The people are amazing. Everyone wants to help here everyone wants to move on and build a new life.

Yes there is horror for all of us watching the news and realizing what the hurricane didn't destroy, flooding or looters took care of. All I want is to know my friends and neighbors are safe. But most phones still don't work. Okay, I'm rambling entirely. What I wanted to say was that the debates are for later. Right now if any of you can, send help for those who have lost everything. Who is to blame for the horror can wait until people rebuild some semblance of their shattered lives. I cannot describe how it feels to have your entire life torn away and destroyed.

This is also a farewell for now. I've written to billing to cancel my account. As much as I'd LOVE to escape this crappy reality for some gemstone fantasy I won't be able to pay the next bill. I hope anyone else affected is doing well. We will get through.
Nicole.

"I aspire to be the person my dog thinks I am". Anon.

And another thing... in about six weeks the colder temperatures of Autumn and Winter will be arriving in the South. What is going to occur to help the people of that region prepare for it? There isn't much time.

Some questions that are nagging at me for answers:

1. Regarding the environment in the shelters such as convention center and superdome being in such horrendous shape, what has happened to the maintenance and janitorial closets in those facilities? Make the cleaning supplies and garbage bags available to the refugees to help themselves by doing their own cleaning. If no garbage bags, sweep all the trash into one room or location as a central dump so the rest of the facility can be relatively clean.

2. True, there isn't electricity to run pumps to remove the water in New Orleans. What about using fire hoses and natural laws of physics to syphon some of the water out?

3. How can you have prior planning schemes and experience in using the Superdome as an evacuation shelter without having stockpiles of supplies in storage rooms or nearby warehouses?

4. Will this disaster and follow up evaluations of the response/lack of preparation be enough to finally ignite a movement to create a third political party and perhaps elect the likes of Ralph Nader? If an election were held today, Nader just might win.

Molly Ivins says it so well in her latest column, that nothing more need be said but "read it."

The most poignant points of the article:

To use a fine Southern word, it's tacky to start playing the blame game before the dead are even counted. It is not too soon, however, to make a point that needs to be hammered home again and again, and that is that government policies have real consequences in people's lives.

This is not "just politics" or blaming for political advantage. This is about the real consequences of what governments do and do not do about their responsibilities. And about who winds up paying the price for those policies.

This is a column for everyone in the path of Hurricane Katrina who ever said, "I'm sorry, I'm just not interested in politics," or, "There's nothing I can do about it," or, "Eh, they're all crooks anyway."

Nothing to do with me, nothing to do with my life, nothing I can do about any of it. Look around you this morning. I suppose the National Rifle Association would argue, "Government policies don't kill people, hurricanes kill people." Actually, hurricanes plus government policies kill people.

...This, friends, is why we need to pay attention to government policies, not political personalities, and to know whereon we vote. It is about our lives.

My hope for the rest of the nation in the aftermath of hurricane Katrina, is that lessons on all levels of our society and government are learned and better preparations are made for each of our own varieties of local disasters. Stop procrastinating on that emergency survival kit for yourself and family. You can expect not to receive any help from anyone but yourself and neighbors for at least a week after such a catastrophy. Be better prepared for it.

If you can't afford to fully stock an emergency survival kit, at least do what you can. Gather neighbors together to make contingency plans and share resources for your immediate area.

Californians, especially need to take this situation to heart. It will seem like deja vue when the anticipated big earthquakes hit the Bay Area and Los Angeles. The loss of life and property will dwarf in comparison.

You can lessen the loss of irreplacible items such as family photos, important documents and memories. Take pictures of things, scan and upload those and other family photos to any of the free photo website hosting places. If the physical items are lost, you'll have the copies on the internet to reprint for replacement.

Not much new to report. Had a phone interview with the Sac Business Resource Center and he seemed excited about my qualifications and experience and said he'd be calling on Friday for one-on-one personal interviews. Never got a call or "screw you." I have a feeling he didn't want to pay as much as I was wanting (which was barely enough to cover my basic living expenses).

This week, I received an email invite to apply for a customer service analyst at Sage Corporation, the makers of Peachtree software. Did so, but haven't had any kind of response yet. Will call them on Tuesday if no word.

Got a notice for jury duty next month at Superior Court so I'll have a few dollars coming in if I get picked for a jury.

We got a break in the heatwave for a few days with temps down into the low 90's. The Delta breeze is just about gone though so temps are going back up into the 100's next week. The plants on my balcony are relieved. They were getting tired of wilting in the afternoons inspite of early morning watering. Haven't seen any birds at my feeders for a few weeks now. West Nile virus has really taken a toll on the bird population in the area. I don't even hear birds chirping in the mornings like I used to. Usually their noise and songs provide a great wake up call.

Looking forward to autumn. Maybe a change in seasons will bring better news.

Found this in email this morning and thought I'd share. Warning, this is painfully hysterical and graphic. Not for the faint of heart. So, put down those drinks before reading.

The perils of bikini-line hair removal:


All hair removal methods have tricked us with their promises of easy, painless removal - The Epilady, scissors, razors, Nair and now...

My night began as any other normal weekday night. Come home, fix dinner, played with the kids. I then had the thought that would ring painfully in my mind for the next few hours. Maybe I should get the wax out of the medicine cabinet. So I headed to the site of my demise; the bathroom.

It was one of those cold wax kits. No melting a clump of hot wax, you just rub the strips together in your hand and then they get warm and you peel them apart press it to your leg (or wherever else) and hair comes right off.

No muss, no fuss. How hard can it be? I mean I'm no girly girl, I am mechanically inclined enough that I can figure it out.

YA THINK?

So I pull one of the thin strips out. It's two strips facing each other stuck together. Instead of rubbing them together I get out the hair dryer and heat it to 1000 degrees. (smart!) Cold wax my rear end. (Oh how this phrase haunts me.) I lay the strip across my thigh. Hold the skin around it tight and pull.

OK, so it wasn't the best feeling, but it wasn't too bad. WOW! I can do this. Hair removal no longer eludes me! I am She-ra, fighter of all wayward body hair and smooth skin extraordinaire.

With my next wax strip I move north. After checking on the kids I sneak back into the bathroom, for for the ultimate hair fighting championship. I drop my panties and place one foot on the toilet. Using the same procedure I apply the wax strip across the right side of bikini line, covering the right half of my vagina and stretching down to the inside of my butt cheek (Yes, it was a long strip) I inhale deeply and brace myself. RRRRIIIPPP! I'm blind! Blinded from pain!....OH MY GAWD!

Vision returning, I notice that I've only managed to pull off half of the strip. S&%T! Another deep breath and RRIIPP!!! Everything is swirly and spotted. Do I hear crashing drums? OK, back to normal. I want to see my trophy - A wax covered strip with my hairy pelt, that has caused me so much pain, sticking to it. I want to revel in the glory that is my triumph over body hair.

I hold up the strip. There's no hair on it. Where is the hair? WHERE IS THE WAX? Slowly I ease my head down, foot still perched on the toilet. I see the hair...The hair that should be on the strip. I touch. I am touching wax. Sh*T! I run my fingers over the most sensitive part of my body, which is now covered in cold wax and matted hair.

Then I make the next BIG mistake....remember my foot is still propped up on the toilet. I know I need to do something. So I put my foot down. DAMN! I hear the slamming of the cell door.

Vagina? Sealed shut. Butt? Sealed shut. I penguin walk around the bathroom trying to figure out what to do and think to myself, "Please don't let me get the urge to poop. My head may pop off."

"Hot water!! Hot water melts wax!! I'll run the hottest water I can stand into the bathtub, get in immerse the wax covered bits and the wax should melt and I can gently wipe it off right? WRONG!

I get in the tub - the water is slightly hotter than then that used to torture prisoners of war or sterilize surgical equipment - I sit. Now, the only thing worse that having your nether businesses glued together is having them glued together and then glued to the bottom of the tub in scalding hot water! Which, by the way, DOES NOT melt cold wax!

So now I am stuck to the bottom of the tub!

God bless the man that convinced me I should have a phone in the bathroom! I call my friend thinking surely she's waxed before and has some secret of how to get me undone. It's a very good conversation starter. "So, my butt and who-ha are stuck to the bottom of the tub!" There is a slight pause. She doesn't have a secret trick but does try to hide the laughter from me. (that b&*#h!) She wants to know exactly where the wax is located on bottom. "Are we talking cheeks or hole or what?" She's laughing out loud by now...I can hear her. I give her the rundown and she suggests I call the number on the side of the side of the box and ruin someone else's night while we go through various solutions. I resort to scraping the wax off with a razor. Nothing feels better then to have your girlie goodies covered in hot wax, glued shut, stuck to the tub in boiling hot water and then dry shaving the sticky wax off!

By now the brain is not working, dignity has taken a major hike and I slip into glazed donut land.

My friend is still talking with me and my hand reaches towards the saving grace....the lotion they give you to remove the excess wax. What do I really have to lose at this point? I rub some on and OH MY GAWD! The scream probably woke the kids, scared the dickens out of my friend, but I really don't care. "IT WORKS! It works! I get a hearty congratulation from my friend and she hangs up. I successfully remove the remainder of the wax and then notice to my grief and despair....THE HAIR IS STILL THERE!....ALL OF IT!

So I shaved it off. Heck, I'm numb at this point.

Next week I'm going to try hair color.

In Sac Valley, the number of cases of West Nile virus in humans is growing exponentially and percentages of trapped, infected mosquitoes have grown beyond epidemic proportions. The county is starting aerial spraying tonight and for the next three nights to try and kill off a generation of adult skeeters. So, for the next three nights when we've had 100+ degree days, we get to choose between keeping windows closed and air conditioning off or insecticide poisoning and breathing problems. I'm doing a little of both by keeping window shut but also keeping the air conditioning on. If I feel like I'm getting gassed by aerial spraying, I'll turn it off.

Aerial Spraying to Fight West Nile Virus Begins

We broke a record in July and will break August's record at the end of this week. In July we had 26 days of 97 degrees or above, 16 of which were over 100. In August, we've already had 4 days of 100 degrees and are forecasted for the next 4 to be 104 or higher. Good thing we had all that rain and snow during the winter or we'd be growing cacti instead of veggies in the Valley.

Got my electric bill which covered half of June and half of July. Wasn't too bad, only $25 more then usual. The worst is yet to come though. Next bill will include a full month of A/C use. The sad thing is I have it set at 85 degrees and it only runs from around 2pm until 8pm, and have the windows open with fans running the rest of the night. I don't see how folks are affording to have their A/C at comfort levels below 80 degrees 24/7. They must be paying through the nose.

http://www.planarity.net/#

How to Play
Click on the little blue dots, which we call vertices, and then drag them to a new position. Try to arrange the vertices so none of the lines intersect. These lines are also called edges. When none of the lines intersect, then click on the "Check Solution" button. If your solution is correct, you will go to the next level. We call this kind of graph planar because it can be drawn (embedded) on the surface of a plane or sphere with no edges intersecting.

Oh great, psychologists are now taking queues from political spin doctors. Fake some evidence, lie to people and tell the folk it's evil and they must conquer it at all costs.

Isn't it bad enough that many of us are already emotional overeaters with lots of real childhood baggage to overcome? Why pile on more fake crap?

Aug. 2, 2005, 8:44PM

Researchers play mind tricks to help dieters lose weight
Psychologists use fake memories of fatty foods to steer people away from eating them
By ROSIE MESTEL
Los Angeles Times

In their battle against the bulge, desperate dieters have tried drugs, surgery, exercise, counseling, creams and even electrical fat-burning belts.


Now some psychologists have a new idea: Lying.

A team led by psychologist Elizabeth Loftus of the University of California, Irvine, found that it could persuade people to avoid fattening foods by implanting unpleasant childhood memories about the food — even though the event never happened.

In a paper published in Tuesday's edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the team said it successfully turned people off strawberry ice cream and, in earlier studies, it has done the same with pickles and hard-boiled eggs — in each case, by manipulating the subjects to believe the foods made them sick when they were children.

The scientists say they also have successfully implanted positive opinions about asparagus by convincing subjects that they once loved the vegetable.

The method, if perfected, could induce people to eat less of what they shouldn't and more of what they should, Loftus said.

In the ice cream experiment, Loftus and her team asked 131 students to fill out forms about food experiences and preferences, including questions about experiences with strawberry ice cream. The subjects were then given an analysis of their responses that was supposed to indicate their "true" likes and dislikes.

Forty-seven students, however, were inaccurately told that the analysis made it clear they had gotten sick from eating strawberry ice cream as a child. Of these, almost 20 percent later agreed that they had been sickened by the treat and that they intended to avoid it.

The findings were stronger in a second experiment where students were asked to provide details about the imaginary strawberry ice cream episode. In that case, 41 percent of the subjects given erroneous information later believed the tale and said they intended to avoid the food.

Weight-control experts expressed interest in the study, but were skeptical about using implanted memories as a dieting technique.

Deliberately implanting memories "raises profound ethical questions," said Stephen Behnke, director of the ethics office of the American Psychological Association.

The food studies are the latest in a string of memory experiments by Loftus, a professor of psychology and criminology at UC Irvine.

Loftus is most famous for her position on recovered memories of childhood sexual abuse. Based on her work, she has suggested that most of these memories were probably false.

Btw, my webhost agreed to bill me month-to-month rather then annually so my vanity will be intact for a few more months at least.

West Nile Virus is here! Wondered what had happened to all my birdie friends. Not as many are visiting my feeders this summer. I get bit a lot from skeeters that sneak into the house when doors are opened. Guess I need to go purchase some citranella candles and some Off!



http://www.sacbee.com/content/news/ongoing/west_nile/story/13322946p-14164952c.html

West Nile warning in Citrus Heights
Residents are being urged to 'fight the bite' of infected mosquitoes, but City Council members downplay the risk.
By Edgar Sanchez -- Bee Staff Writer
Published 2:15 am PDT Saturday, July 30, 2005


An alert has been issued in Citrus Heights in response to what an official called a "significant outbreak" of West Nile virus found in mosquitoes.
The alert was announced at Thursday night's City Council meeting by David Brown, manager of the Sacramento-Yolo Mosquito and Vector Control District, who said evidence indicates the disease has shown up "specifically in Citrus Heights."

With the alert, district officials are asking residents to make a greater effort to eliminate places for mosquitoes to breed and to take precautions against being bitten by the insects.



The development occurred amid the district's intensified efforts to educate Galt and Citrus Heights residents about how to protect themselves from the virus, which is mostly a disease of birds that is spread by mosquitoes.

A few days ago, a crew from the California Conservation Corps began going door-to-door in both cities, delivering pamphlets explaining how residents can "fight the bite."

Although both cities have a significant number of infected mosquitoes, the crisis is greater in Citrus Heights. Brown said the number of infected mosquitoes is "nearing epidemic proportions."

"We saw a significant die-off of crows, magpies and ... jays" in Citrus Heights, he told the City Council.

Crews have been working to eradicate mosquitoes in the city's creeks and drainage ditches and place mosquitofish in local streams and ponds. The fish also are free to any homeowner requesting them.

Brown advised residents to eliminate sources of standing water. Waterfalls and other features, including the fountains around the Citrus Heights city offices, should be run because moving water inhibits mosquito breeding, he said.

On Friday, Mayor Bret Daniels described the alert as "a serious issue, no doubt about it."

But he said Brown's comments to the council had more of "an informational" quality than that of a "high alert."

"I think Mr. Brown came to let us know that there's a problem," Daniels said, insisting that the mosquito problem is no worse in Citrus Heights than it is "in any other part of the county or California."

Brown's alert, Daniels added, simply means that people must "take precautions and get some information as to what they can do to control this as much as possible."

Councilwoman Jayna Karpinski-Costa said she doesn't recall Brown having announced any kind of alert.

"I didn't hear him say anything like that," she said. "If he did, I would have asked him what an alert was.

"Maybe I was asleep when he said it," Karpinski-Costa continued, "but if there was an alert, he (Brown) would have been serious instead of smiling."

Writing about an alert in Citrus Heights would have lasting repercussions, she said, because it would be erroneous. (Yes, we have idiots in government here too.--Lynn)

Jennifer Benito, spokeswoman for the mosquito control district, confirmed Friday night that Brown had issued an alert for Citrus Heights.

At least 5,000 "Fight the Bite" pamphlets have been distributed in and around Galt and Citrus Heights since Monday, Brown said in a phone interview Friday.

They were delivered by a crew of 12 to 16 California Conservation Corps members after the CCC and the mosquito control district formed a partnership.

"We're targeting areas where we see a significant increase in West Nile activity," Brown said. "This is an effective means of getting information out, door to door, as soon as possible."

The pamphlet distribution, costing about $30,000 a month, will continue in selected areas for the next couple of months.

The CCC is pleased to be helping the district, said spokeswoman Susanne Levitsky. "We're basically the labor force for the district," she said, noting that corps members normally do other chores ranging from fighting fires to helping with flood control.

At least one Californian, an elderly man from Kings County, has died this year as a result of West Nile virus. Several Sacramento County residents have been infected, Brown said.

Just letting folks know that sometime in the next 10 days or so my website will be coming down until further notice. I can no longer afford the hosting fees until I find a job. It was a choice between survival air conditioning in this extreme heat or a vanity website.

It's a miracle! We have a slight breeze this afternoon! Don't know what did it, the breeze cleaning up the air a bit, the 5 degrees lower in temp or the new refrigerator (I'm guessing all of the above) but man, what a difference!!! Makes me want to run up on the roof, fling open my mumu and just go "Aaaahhhhhaaaaaa!."


Just in time to keep things a little cooler while I cook up a storm tonight. Wheeee!

I put a thermometer out on my balcony yesterday. The weather folks said we had a high of 108 in Sacramento but the thermometer on my balcony read 113 at 4:30 yesterday afternoon.

We've been having State issued health alerts telling people to stay indoors between 2pm and 7pm when the ozone is at its worst. Last night the smog index reached into the red zone 150+ parts per whatever - unhealthy for everyone. As long as I keep the fans and air conditioner running I'm okay. I bought a new hepa filter for the furnace/air conditioner and that is helping to scrape the junk out of the air inside. The day I wrote the last post on my blog, I felt like I was literally suffocating from lack of oxygen. Felt like I was experiencing carbon monoxide poisoning. That's when I said fuck the cost, I'm turning on the air conditioner and all the fans. I still keep the temp between 82 and 85 inside so I'm conserving as much as possible.

I've been taking as many as 3 showers a day and don't even bother toweling off. By the time I walk out of the bathroom I'm completely dry and my hair dries in less then 5 minutes without being toweled. I keep a spray bottle of water by me and mist myself down while sitting in front of a fan. Without the portable fan aimed at me at all times 24/7 I'd pass out from heat sickness. I'm making a point of drinking extra amounts of water and chewing on ice cubes but my body still feels dehydrated most of the time. I'd go swimming but then I'd have to choose between oxygen depravation and cool pool water.

Once the remnants of hurricane Emily reach the southwest area that should push the high pressure bubble away from us and we'll finally get some wind to clean the air and cool off a little. That won't happen until next Wednesday or Thursday.


Even my refrigerator is having a hard time in this weather. It stopped keeping things frozen/cool yesterday. I pulled it away from the wall and cleaned off the condensers and cleaned all the seals around the doors, but it didn't help at all. This morning I put in an emergency call to the apartment manager's office and I get a new refrigerator, but not until Monday morning. In the meantime I have a freezer crammed full of meat and food starting to thaw out. I bought six bags of ice to stuff around the meat in a futile attempt to keep it frozen. Guess I'll be having one hell of a cooking party Monday night so I can cook up all the food and refreeze it before it spoils beyond safe consumption levels. Luckily, most of my food is in the freezer and not in the refrigerator. Water from the tap is cooler then the bottles of water in there.

Looks like Los Angeles doesn't it? That, my friends, is beautiful Sacramento Valley at 3pm this afternoon, where the nation's food supply is grown. Would you want to inhale that mess if you were a plant? What the hell are we doing to ourselves? Get out of the fucking SUV's already! Why am I having to pay double the cost of fuel so your gas hog can waddle down the road feeding your ego? Your vanity is sufficating me! I can't breathe!!

Today is our fifth day of 100+ heat and there is no relief in sight for the next 7 days. Air quality is at an all-time low. I feel like I am starved for oxygen, or at least in a room with lots of carbon monoxide and can't get enough fresh air into my body. And that's inside, with fans and air conditioners running.[/rant]

Happy birthday, mom! Wish I was there to help you celebrate.


Hope you have a nice cool and relaxing day in your garden with your favorite buddy.

BBQ anyone?



With apologies to the unknown cartoonist whose work I stole and altered...

Stuart and Linda are no longer hurricane virgins. They seemed to have come through it unscathed. A couple of small tornados touched down about 2 miles from their place in Brandon, Florida and they had a lot of wind and rain. Glad it is over with for now and hope their luck holds for the rest of this year's hurricane season.

Speaking of my dad's letter from the previous post, he said he is going to be on jury duty next week. That should be an interesting experience. My entire life, my dad has not been able to sit still for more then 5 minutes without fidgeting and getting up to stretch his legs. Between his fidgets and nicotine habit, the judge will need to give the jury a lot of breaks. Dad is looking forward to the jury duty though. Says it will give him something interesting to do besides listen to Bingo callers. ;)

Got a letter from my dad this weekend with an article my cousin Patty's 14 year old son and his new bait shop business. Quite impressive. That's him and his shop in the picture. You can read the newspaper article about him at The Enterprise of South Boston.Learned he also has a website at http://ericsbaitshop.com/. Stop on by and leave him a note in the guest book.

Hopefully I'll get some of the Hanberry clan stopping by here too. If they do, I urge them to take a look at the family photos elsewhere on my website. And, if any of you Hanberry's have a photo or two to add to the family album, send it to me and I'll include it.

Here's a link to my revised resume. For best viewing, open it in a new browser window.

Sent off my application package for this Web Site and Forum Service and Support Specialist job at Intuit (the maker of Quicken). This would be a dream job for me. Really really hope I at least get called for an interview. The only part I feel weak on is their desire for "Process Excellence / Six Sigma training preferred." I think I have enough experience to overcome that weakness though.

Today I am sending new packages to several of the title insurance companies in the area to see if the new resume will spark any interest in me. Will also reapply at some more employment agencies now that I have a decently presented resume to offer for their "10 second" perusal. :::smirk::: When I was recruiting people for various positions I always thought the screening job important enough to thoroughly read resumes after doing a quick elimination of those with glaringly obvious incompatibilities. This need for a "10 second" first impression just reinforces my distaste for today's corporate culture.

I received the final revision of my professionally edited resume this morning and am in the process of updating my resume on all the job sites I have posted it at. Am also preparing a package to send to Intuit with the new resume in response to a job opening of theirs for a message board manager for their Quicken software.

I should have had my resume done a long time ago. What a difference! It sure re-energizes my job search and boosts my morale. I realized I really do have a lot more to offer then just an underpaid glorified secretary. The editor from resumeedge.com has been giving me quite a bit of advice on how to revise my approach to the job application to better avoid age discrimination and how to handle explanation for the gap in employment from 1999 to now. Even if I don't get a response immediately from the rewrite, it was worth the money just for the boost in self-esteem and confidence.

Here's a quote from the first paragraph to give you an idea of the changed tone of the resume:

QUALIFICATIONS

Award-winning, analytical professional with an extensive technical background and solid experience in message board moderation. Exceptional customer service skills demonstrated by receiving two “Customer First Quarterly Service Star” awards at First American Title Insurance Company for outstanding service in systems administration and the help desk. Strong accounting background with expertise in converting manual accounting systems into efficient computerized functions. Performs duties above expectations proven by consistently receiving promotions to positions of greater responsibility. Capable of managing projects independently under limited supervision. Computer skills include MS Word, Excel, Access, Multiplan, Front Page, and Publisher, Visio, WordPerfect, Lotus 1-2-3, BoeingCalc, Basic HTML, Adobe PhotoShop and PageMaker, Jasc Paint Shop Pro and Animation Shop, and exceptional web navigation skills. Knowledge of the following operating systems: Windows XP, 2000, NT, MS-DOS, and Novell.

I'll post a link to the full resume as soon as I get a chance to create a new webpage and upload it. Might be a day or two.

Received a response from bloggerforum.com re: my archiving problem and thought I'd share the results:

Re: Removing/Archiving Stale-Dated Posts from "Current Posts" Page
Well if I understand the problem correctly it's that there are too many posts showing on the Main page correct?

This will be in the blogger settings. You're right about the template will not affect this in any way.

Log into Blogger>Dashboard>Settings>Formatting and the first option on the page is
Show X X on the main page

The xx's can be filled out in two ways, either by number of posts or number of days.

Put in what you want. Save at the bottom of the page. Republish the blog.

This SHOULD change what blogger puts on the main page.

Just another note-about the archiving. If you have archiving enabled...posts aren't moved from the main page to the archives when a certain time elapses...they can be on both at the same time.

When a new post is made it's added to the main page, and it's also added to the appropiate archive page.

When time/number of posts elapses (based on the settings above) and that post gets kicked off the main page it will continue to reside on the archive page....if that makes sense. This behaviour is not really changeable.


The most important thing I think is your main page settings I described first. See what they are and change accordingly and that should resolve the issue.

My response:

Re: Removing/Archiving Stale-Dated Posts from "Current Posts" Page
Hi Redryder,

Thanks for responding. You understand the description of the problem.

My Blogger>Dashboard>Settings>Formatting and Show X X on the main page option is currently set to 30 days.

I changed it to 5 posts and republished. This in fact does remove stale-dated posts from the main page as I desire. I changed the setting back to 30 days and republished again and am returned to the overabundant state originally creating the problem.

I guess the problem is my expectation that "30 days" is the last 30 calendar days while Blogger's settings is defining it as the last 30 days of posts. So, if it takes 5 years to accumulate posts from 30 individual days, that is what is shown. Silly me to expect something so commonplace as a calendared utility. LOL!

Okay, I can solve this by changing the number of individual posts to be displayed and ignoring the number of days.

It never occurred to me that the definition of 30 days would be so literal. They create the archive index links on a calendar basis but don't use the same logic when displaying the posts.

Unless you can think of a work around to make the 30-day calendar option work, consider the problem bandaided.

Don't be alarmed. Whatever Blogger did this past week seems to have screwed up many blogger templates, mine included. Rather then try to recreate all the tweaking I did to my old one, I took the lazy way out and switched to a new template. If you're looking for the archive links, they're now grouped at the bottom of the page. This gives more girth to the blog and allows it to house all my verbosity and graphics without me doing a lot of formatting.

I'm still looking for a solution to my one pet peeve with blogger. If anyone has suggestions, please feel free to speak up!

I've used several blog templates provided on blogger.com's website and experience the problem with each of them so I don't think the problem is specific to a particular template. Not sure if additional code is needed in the blog template or if the problem is due to the fact that I display the FTP'd blog file on this page using inline frames.

The problem:

The indexing of archives works as designed and is displayed correctly on my blog page. The problem is that the archive process does not clean up the "current entries/main page." This is causing an increasing problem with download times since I use a lot of photos in my blogging to break up the walls of text. Currently all posts with a 2005 date are displayed on the current posts page.

The desired solution:

I want the indexing and display of archives to continue working as they do, however, I'd like the display of blog posts to be truncated to the frequency set in the ARCHIVE settings tab of my blogger dashboard. Specifically, I'd like to display only the current month's postings on the main page with all other stale dated posts accessed/displayed only by clicking on one of the archive index links.

Is anyone able to supply advice to solve the problem on my own or to provide template code for me to use with editing instructions?

My thanks and appreciation to anyone willing to help.

I posted this same question on bloggerforum.com. If anyone provides a solution, I'll share it here.

NASA spacecraft to collide with faraway comet on July 4
Posted on : Sun, 26 Jun 2005 23:02:00 GMT | Author : Geoffrey Lewis
News Category : Space



On July 4, NASA’s Deep Impact space mission would smash into distant comet Tempel 1 in a bid to unravel the mystery of the creation of the solar system 4.6 billion years ago.

Tempel 1, which is half as big as the Manhattan Island, is one among millions of comets, which are essentially collections of ice and dust particles, in the solar system. According to scientists, comets slamming into Earth might have been behind the planet getting water in the oceans as also the chemicals that might have created life.

The Deep Impact mission, a copper projectile around a third of a ton in weight, would hit Tempel 1 with a velocity of 23,000 miles per hour and would create a crater measuring 40 meter by 400 meter.
“This is a tremendously exciting, daring first-of-its-kind mission,” said Rick Grammier, the Deep Impact project manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena.

There are so many disturbing aspects about this whole thing, I'm not sure where to begin.

1. This appears to be a Trojan Horse containing the continuation of Reagan's Star War's legacy. This quote from the article only reinforces the thought given the example of bullets used to describe the difficulty of the mission. If they can pull this off successfully, we'll be hard-pressed to stop further efforts on the Star Wars missile system. Although, the pessimist in me says that I highly doubt any work on the system ever stopped in the first place. It just went into stealth mode.

“What makes it new and exciting also makes it extremely difficult and challenging from a technical viewpoint. It’s a bullet trying to hit a second bullet, with a third bullet in the right place at the right time watching the first two bullets,” he said.

2. The audacity of mankind is boggling. We've already managed to upset the balance of nature on planet earth with our "experiments." Tinkering with the delicate balance of objects in space while having no idea of the outcome is just asinine. At the same time, how dare we think we can simulate the creation of the solar system by throwing one spit wad at a tiny ball of ice. Seems to me, if they wanted to learn about the differences between surface layer and interior on a ball of ice, all they need do is study earth's glacial layers.

Michael A’Hearn, the University of Maryland astronomer and Deep Impact’s principal investigator, said, “The whole purpose of Deep Impact is to go back and understand the differences between the surface layer and the interior. What we don’t have any control over is what will happen when we do the impact. We know so little about comets that it's very hard to predict.”

3. The political ramifications for the timing of the event to occur on July 4th, the USA's greatest patriotic holiday of the year, is extremely bad PR for the other peoples of the planet. The spectacle of the US bombing things in space with the accompanying flag waving and pagentry of fireworks displayed in the background isn't my idea of making nice with the neighbors. With the focus on the US holiday, it will be an even greater flop if the experiment goes wrong either with a miss or catastrophic disturbance in the spacial balance of things. Either way, what a windfall for the anti-US voices. The fallout has already started with a $311 million lawsuit being files by a Moscow woman who claims:

In court papers, Bai said that Deep Impact will "infringe upon my system of spiritual and life values, in particular on the values of every element of creation, upon the unacceptability of barbarically interfering with the natural life of the universe, and the violation of the natural balance of the universe."

Bai says she fears that the blast could somehow disrupt mystical forces. Also, she added, it might create an open season on celestial objects by the world's spacefaring nations.

"If the Americans can study comets with the help of bombs, why not the Chinese?" she asked. "Americans want to be ahead of everybody. And maybe that's good, but not in this case. It's a barbaric method, to study the universe with bombs."

On news closer to home, California's earthquakes rumble on with a 4.8 shaker at Lake Tahoe. I felt it here in Sacramento and continue to feel smaller aftershocks. It felt just like the very beginning moments of Loma Prieta, long rolling back and forth action. I was already on my feet and heading toward my desk to get under it when the shaking stopped. Immediately turned on the radio and TV but there were no reports so got on the internet and was relieved to find it was a mild local quake and not the distant major quake I've been fearing the past month.

Did you know that a 7.0 quake near Lake Tahoe is capable of producing 3 to 10 meter Tsunami waves in the lake? I learned that today. Nature's power is nothing to sneeze at.

My apartment complex is undergoing a transformation of its own. Resurfasing the roads and parking lots, rebuilding parking stalls, repaving sidewalks, painting all exterior surfaces of the buildings and finally pruning trees and installing fresh landscaping and lighting. Last week they completed the tree pruning, roads and parking lots and started the painting. Wonder how much the rent increase will be to pay for all this stuff. It was needed though. The place was showing its age rather badly.

Big quake off the coast up near Eureka about an hour ago registering 7.0 with a tsunami warning for most of the Pacific Ocean coastlines. The warning has now expired with no sighting of a tsunami wave. Didn't feel the quake here in Sacramento but I'm sure mom's friends in Eureka felt it if it was anything in comparison to the Loma Prieta quake I felt.

Funny thing was I had just checked the USGS quake website this afternoon to see if there was anymore evidence to bolster my suspicion that we were going to have a big quake in California very soon. After seeing the info about the big quake in Chile, I filled the birdbath on my balcony with water up to the brim so I'd have it to use as a pretty good indicator of a quake should we have one close enough to be felt. I don't think this is the last of them. We had a small one in San Diego and the big one in Eureka. There's a lot of stress on the faults between and it seems obvious to me that the earth's plates are still readjusting themselves. The Hayward fault is way overdue and probably will be the one to go. Glad I'm no longer living in the area. I still have fears and nightmares from my experiences in the Loma Prieta quake.

Quite a few security updates from Microsoft today. Be sure you update your software mom and Stu.

Come on, Gals! Exercise that power that each and every one of us has! Flaunt those girls in all their natural splendor!

Did you know the nipple has the power to alter get-out-the-vote campaigns in England?



Even the clothed nipple of Sharron Davies can sway the simple minds of Olympic swimming event viewers. Apparently, the 41-year-old's prominent nipples diverted attention from the action in the pool.



The powerful nipple has couples in Columbia standing in long lines for the opportunity to tweak the nipples of statuary to improve their relationships. The sculptor who created the statue a short 4 years ago was quoted as saying "It`s amazing to hear that the breasts have had to be repaired many times because they`re being worn out by too much touching."

Need more examples of the amazing nipple before invoking their power for yourself?

Pamela Anderson is ordering rolls of duct tape by the case to comply with efforts to keep her untamed silicon harnessed on her show, Stacked.



And now even the producers of Desperate Housewives are spending millions to eradicate the offensive protrusion.

Okay, this is a test. Did those photos of nipple laden mannequins distract any of you from reading my blog? Go ahead, tell the truth! LOL!

Maybe John Travolta has the right idea. Everyone should just walk around clutching their breasts like he does in the movie Basic.

It would sure make these shows a lot more entertaining to watch!

Personally, I find the people finding offense at such silly nonsense to be nothing but big boobs themselves. What about all those distracting crotch bulges in tight jeans? What's good for the goose is good for the gander, boys. Tape up those hairy nuggets before you cause an accident!

Amazing discovery of weapons of mass destruction in Italy:

washingtonpost.com
WW2 bombs found in Italy, thousands evacuated

Reuters
Sunday, May 29, 2005; 3:23 PM



ROME (Reuters) - The discovery of two World War II bombs in southern Italy has forced more than 10,000 people to evacuate their homes, snarled train travel and shut down a vital highway leading to the port city of Naples.

The most dramatic of the two discoveries was in the Italian town of Formia last week, where explosives experts are preparing to detonate on Tuesday a 250-kg (500-pound), 2-meter long device dropped by the British air force more than 60 years ago.

Local authorities believe the device's malfunctioning time-release mechanism was accidentally triggered upon its discovery near the train station, Formia's spokeswoman said.

They ordered more than 10,000 of the city's 36,000 residents to stay away while the army builds a special casing around the bomb to limit fallout, she added.

A second bomb was discovered by road construction workers adding another lane to a busy highway outside the city of Naples, forcing the mayor to temporarily shut down a section of the motorway over the weekend and causing delays.

Cooking not your bag? How about gardening?

We'll start off by testing our gardening knowledge with a few quizzes.

Fernlea Flowers Gardening Quiz

Vegetable Gardening Quiz

Organic Gardening Quiz

Container Gardening Quiz

Australian Holiday Garden Quiz

Canadian Spring Gardening Quiz

Plant Power Quiz

Nature Poetry & Quotes Quiz

How to be a problem solving gardener

What's Your Bulb IQ?

The Bug Barometer

What Type of Garden Should You Grow?

Is cooking more then just a necessary task for you? Test your knowledge of cooking with these quizzes:



BBC Science of Cooking quiz

Anne's Joy of Cooking Quiz

Healthy cooking quiz: How sharp are your skills?

Low Fat Cooking Quiz

I did pretty well on them. How'd you do?

Now I know why I'm having such a difficult time finding a job. I haven't falsified the facts on my resume. I need to go to work for the Army and learn how to be rewarded for lying like these folks.

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=8632467

Awards for analysts behind Iraq finding- report
Sat May 28, 2005 01:23 AM ET


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two U.S. Army analysts whose work was cited as part of a key intelligence failure on Iraq have received job performance awards for the past three years, The Washington Post reported on Saturday.

The civilian analysts work at the Army's National Ground Intelligence Center, an agency criticized by President Bush's commission investigating U.S. intelligence.

Ahead of the U.S. attack on Iraq, the analysts concluded it was unlikely that aluminum tubes sought by Baghdad were for use in Iraq's rocket arsenal. The Bush administration used that finding as evidence that Saddam Hussein was rebuilding Iraq's nuclear weapons program, the paper said.

The intelligence commission said the analysts failed to seek or get information from the Energy Department and elsewhere indicating the tubes were the kind used as rocket-motor cases by the Iraqi military.

A Pentagon spokesman said the awards to the analysts were to recognize their overall contributions on the job.

But some unnamed current and formal officials said granting such awards shows how the administration has not held people accountable for mistakes on prewar intelligence, the paper wrote.

Mmmm, mmm mmm! I just invented the oddest pork stir fry I've ever had. It's the end of the month and my produce and pantry items are dwindling down while I try to make them stretch until the first week of next month when there should be a lot of good after-holiday sales to restock with. This makes for some inventive cooking so I sliced up a gigantic onion, 5 cloves of garlic and fried them in some butter and olive oil. Then added a half-pound of pork loin strips, some herbs de Provence and stirred until the pork was browned. I added some frozen green beans and shredded 4 lemons on the shoestring potato blade of my mandolin and added that to the concoction with about half a cup of orange juice and a teaspoon of mustard. The mixture simmered until the sauce reduced enough to coat the bits.

Mmmmm mmmm mmmm! I had to write that one down so I could do it again. I think it would be good as a sauce over some noodles too.

The burns on my arm are starting to heal a bit. If I'm careful, I can type and use the mouse as long as I have on a thick gauze bandage to protect the tender spots.

And now for a lighter note. Don't know how they managed this screw up (well, yes I do but I promised not to point) and put me on their campaign donor's list (well, not me, but Mr. Lynn Worrell). If I had the extra funds I'd be quite tempted to accept the invitation I received in the mail just for the thrill of providing a huge amount of moon light for the honored guest.



Excerpts from the invitation from Bill Frist are humorous.

This year The President's Dinner not only celebrates President Bush's second term, it's also a testimonial dinner for you, Mr. Worrell, and a handful of other Republican men and women who played vital public, and in many cases, critical behind-the-scenes roles in President Bush's campaign.

(It must of been one of those critical behind-the-scene moon shots that got me the invitation. :::stare:::)

That's right, on June 14th -- Flag Day -- the Republican Party will publicly recognize the lifetime commitment you've made to help make our Republican agenda for America a reality.

(There they go again, usurping yet another national holiday to aid in their divisive partisan agenda. I guess us evil democrats will again have to resort to burning the flag rather then waving it to show our patriotism.)

The 2005 President's Dinner is also about passing the President's agenda over the coming year and building lasting Republican majorities in both the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives.

President Bush has outlined an aggressive agenda to continue to move America in the right direction including strengthening Social Security, continuing the War on Terrorism, and improving education.

But, as usual, the Democrats here in Washington, D.C. are doing everything in their power to defeat the President's agenda -- despite the President's overwhelming victory in the 2004 election and solid Republican gains in both houses of Congress.

Since Howard Dean became the Democrat Party Chairman, Democrats have raised millions of dollars.

(LOL! Dean has nothing to do with it. Sadly, Bush Administration is the best campaign funding tool the democrats have!)

The Washington Post reports that Hillary Clinton, Ted Kennedy, Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi are organizing liberal Democrats in Washington, D.C. and across the country for "... a year of confrontation and resistance..." And they're vowing to "... block Bush's major initiatives and thereby deny him the mandate he has claimed from his re-election victory last November."

So the President and all of us in the Republican Party must work together to overcome these Democrat obstructionists.

The 2005 President's Dinner is our opportunity to honor President Bush for his courageous leadership and recognize the historic and heavy mantle he has shouldered during a difficult time in our nation's history.

(Poor guy. He's really made quite a sacrifice, cutting short his many vacations in hopes of getting to finally sign a Bill that gets rammed past those evil liberal obstructionists.)

Mr. Worrell, will you accept the honor you so richly deserve and the accolades and public appreciation of your Republican Party?

(Richly is the correct word! Even though Frist states he's already reserved a seat for me, it will cost a minimum of $2,500 for me to sit down for those deserved honors and accolades.)

I did something stupid a couple of days ago. I was sauteing pork strips for a stew and accidentally bumped the pan handle, spilling hot oil all over my right wrist and forearm. It blistered quite a bit and the blisters are now broken and rather painful.

I've done everything a doctor would do. I applied cold water and ice cubes as soon as it happened so that lessened the burn quite a bit. If you've known me awhile you'll remember I used to get a lot of bad burns while working as a chef in the food service industry. I've a lot of experience treating them. The problem with this one is the location rather then the severity. Makes using the mouse and typing hard to do. I'm keeping it wrapped in gauze and using an antibacterial ointment to prevent infection and keep the skin moist. I'm okay, just need to let my arm heal up a bit so it isn't so tender. More battle scars to add to a life time of cooking scars I have on my arms.

Made these fantastic Lemon Squares this morning while thinking about my grand-Aunt Luella. Her most favorite gift to receive was a box of extremely tangy and tart lemon drops, not the sickly sweet kind but ones that tasted like fresh lemons. I used to give packages of them to her whenever I could.

Anyway, here's the recipe. I altered it a bit. I couldn't let all that lemon goodness go to waste after squeezing the juice from 5 large lemons so I scraped off all the zest and added it to the flour mixture in the food processor to give the crust a really strong lemon flavor too. Aunt Luella would have loved these!

Lemon Squares
This recipe comes from Martha Stewart's "Everyday Food" magazine.
Yield: 9 servings

Ingredients:
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup confectioners' sugar
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
4 large eggs
1 cup granulated sugar
2/3 cup fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt



Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees with the rack in the center. Coat a 9-inch square baking pan with cooking spray.
To make the crust: In a food processor, pulse the first four ingredients, flour through salt, a few times. Add the butter and pulse until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Press the mixture into the bottom and 3/4-inch up the sides of the prepared pan. Refrigerate 15 minutes, then bake until the crust is lightly browned, about 20 minutes. Remove from oven and lower heat to 325 degrees. Let the crust cool slightly in the pan while you make the filling.

To make the filling: In a bowl, beat the eggs with an electric mixer until thick. Beat in granulated sugar, lemon juice, flour, baking powder, and salt. Pour over the warm crust and bake until set, about 20 minutes. Cool to room temperature. If desired, sift an additional tablespoon or so of confectioners' sugar on top. Cut into squares and serve.

Continuing on with my concerns for the state of journalism and the free press in the United States these days, the current cannibalistic attack on PBS by its parent company, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, is alarming.

Be sure to give a through read to the transcript of Bill Moyers' speech at freepress.com's National Conference for Media Reform.

Here's another source that describes what is going on at CPB:

http://www.tvtechnology.com/dailynews/one.php?id=2938



To join Free Press’ campaign to put the public back into PBS, please add your name to their petition calling for the resignation of Kenneth Tomlinson and the creation of a series of town meetings across the country on the future of public broadcasting.

And speaking of Pete Stark, anyone remember his speech on the floor way back in October of 2002 in opposition to the Iraq invasion? Seems both he and Molly Ivins have the same guru when it comes to predicting the Bush Administration.

Oct. 10, 2002

"Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to this resolution (authorizing military force against Iraq). I am deeply troubled that lives may be lost without a meaningful attempt to bring Iraq into compliance with U.N. resolutions through careful and cautious diplomacy.

"The bottom line is I don't trust this president and his advisors.

"Make no mistake, we are voting on a resolution that grants total authority to the president, who wants to invade a sovereign nation without any specific act of provocation. This would authorize the United States to act as the aggressor for the first time in our history. It sets a precedent for our nation -- or any nation -- to exercise brute force anywhere in the world without regard to international law or international consensus.

"Congress must not walk in lockstep behind a president who has been so callous to proceed without reservation, as if war was of no real consequence.

"You know, three years ago in December, Molly Ivins, an observer of Texas politics, wrote: 'For an upper-class white boy, Bush comes on way too hard. At a guess, to make up for being an upper-class white boy.'

"'Somebody,' she said, 'should be worrying about how all this could affect his handling of future encounters with some Saddam Hussein.' How prophetic, Ms. Ivins.

"Let us not forget that our president -- our commander in chief -- has no experience with, or knowledge of, war. In fact, he admits that he was at best ambivalent about the Vietnam War. He skirted his own military service and then failed to serve out his time in the National Guard. And, he reported years later that at the height of that conflict in 1968 he didn't notice 'any heavy stuff going on.'"

"So we have a president who thinks foreign territory is the opponent's dugout and Kashmir is a sweater.

"What is most unconscionable is that there is not a shred of evidence to justify the certain loss of life. Do the generalized threats and half-truths of this administration give any one of us in Congress the confidence to tell a mother or father or family that the loss of their child or loved one was in the name of a just cause?

"Is the president's need for revenge for the threat once posed to his father enough to justify the death of any American?

"I submit the answer to these questions is no.

"Aside from the wisdom of going to war as Bush wants, I am troubled by who pays for his capricious adventure into world domination. The administration admits to a cost of around $200 billion!

"Now, wealthy individuals won't pay. They've got big tax cuts already. Corporations won't pay. They'll cook the books and move overseas and then send their contributions to the Republicans. Rich kids won't pay. Their daddies will get them deferments as Big George did for George W.

"Well then, who will pay?

"School kids will pay. There'll be no money to keep them from being left behind -- way behind. Seniors will pay. They'll pay big time as the Republicans privatize Social Security and rob the Trust Fund to pay for the capricious war. Medicare will be curtailed and drugs will be more unaffordable. And there won't be any money for a drug benefit because Bush will spend it all on the war.

"Working folks will pay through loss of job security and bargaining rights. Our grandchildren will pay through the degradation of our air and water quality. And the entire nation will pay as Bush continues to destroy civil rights, women's rights and religious freedom in a rush to phony patriotism and to courting the messianic Pharisees of the religious right.

"The questions before the members of this House and to all Americans are immense, but there are clear answers. America is not currently confronted by a genuine, proven, imminent threat from Iraq. The call for war is wrong.

"And what greatly saddens me at this point in our history is my fear that this entire spectacle has not been planned for the well-being of the world, but for the short-term political interest of our president.

"Now, I am also greatly disturbed that many Democratic leaders have also put political calculation ahead of the president's accountability to truth and reason by supporting this resolution. But, I conclude that the only answer is to vote no on the resolution before us."

This hasn't hit the mainstream media yet so you'll have to read it from the horse's mouth and not wait for someone to tell you how to react to it.


http://www.house.gov/stark/news/109th/pressreleases/05-17_iraq.htm

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, May 17, 2005
Contact: Drew Nannis (202) 225-5065


STARK SPEAKS OUT AGAINST THE ADMINISTRATION'S LATEST HYPOCRISY
Mr. Speaker,

The pot is calling the kettle black. The Administration is chastising Newsweek magazine for a story containing a fact that turned out to be false. This is the same Administration that lied to the Congress, the United Nations and the American people by fabricating reasons to send us to war. The same Administration responsible for the death of over 1,500 American servicemen and women and countless Iraqi civilians; the same Administration which shields its highest officials from responsibility for prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay.

Under those circumstances, how can the Bush Administration, with a straight face, denounce a journalist for not checking all the facts before going public with a story?

Of course, Newsweek should have checked the facts more diligently before publishing their article. They made a big mistake. But, Mr. Speaker, we must keep this incident in perspective. Newsweek did make a mistake, but they had the dignity and honor to own up to it.

Unfortunately, I doubt the Bush Administration is capable of displaying such honesty. Instead, the Bush Administration focuses on public relations tactics to divert attention from their own incompetence and fabrications rather than focusing their energies on creating a plan to get our troops out of Iraq.

The hypocrisy of this Administration is astonishing and this most recent episode is, unfortunately, merely one example of many. Just yesterday Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld said in reference to the Newsweek article, ?People lost their lives. People are dead. People need to be very careful about what they say, just as they need to be very careful about what they do." I couldn?t agree more. People should be very careful about what they say and do; President Bush and his Cabinet, most of all.

Mr. Speaker, accountability and power cannot be separated. If the President accepts the duties and responsibilities of his office he must do exactly what he is asking Newsweek to do: he needs to tell Americans the truth about his own indiscretions in this tragic war.

-30-

Pete Stark is one heck of a congressman. I remember my mom campaigning to get him elected to congress while I was in high school in the early 70's. We had a gathering at our house in Pleasant Hill and Pete came to speak to the folks. I was impressed with him then and he's only gotten better as time has passed. Want to know more about Pete Stark? Here's the bio from his official website:

This is a defining moment in American journalism. Will the corporate press wimp out and fold under pressure of the Taliban Republicans or will they finally remove the kidd gloves and start earning the privileged rights granted to them in our constitution?

This is a good article in the May issue of Fortune Magazine that describes what I am seeing in the job market. The unfortunate thing is they and all the other career sites and publications focus mainly on the middle and upper executive or professional. They ignore the fact that clerical and other frontline workers are having the same problem and have different needs when it comes to advice on coping with or overcoming the job hunting blues.

50 And Fired: Are You At Risk?


And this article in the same issue explains why I am having trouble even finding temp work. I haven't applied with more then a dozen temp agencies, only 4 or them. Guess I need to get out the Yellow Pages and work my way down the list.

Want a 'Real Job'? Temp While You're Looking

Thanks to a check from Linda and Stu, I don't have to make a choice between replenishing groceries or hiring a resume writing service this month. I've decided to have professionals work on my resume and see if that makes a difference. Am going to give it another couple of months and then I'll be forced to make plans to move out of California and see if I can get a job somewhere else. Mom has offered to have me move in with her, but I don't think I can physically handle the high altitude of Alburqueque. I was on the brink of cutting short my visit with her last year due to the breathing problems I was having. I'd sure like to know where the statistics are coming from that show the job outlook in the US as improving and expanding. I don't think they are. I think a lot of people have just given up and are getting by on the one salary of their spouse if they were lucky enough to have the luxury of a working spouse.

It's been a wild and whacky couple of days here in the Sacramento Valley. Yesterday we had a couple of earthquakes and today we had 14 severe weather warnings issued in our area during a 6 hour period Monday afternoon including 3 tornado warnings. I'm happy to say that the rest of the week is supposed to be calmer and we're supposed to finally start having spring weather next week with temps in the high 80s.

I sat in my bedroom and watched a lot of it as it rolled by from the west. One minute it would be bright sunshine and a few minutes later ominous dark clouds would start building up with a keen sense of doom as they approached. In the distance low rumblings would hammer out their warning and then suddenly the darkness would light up like daylight as lightning streaked the air above followed by an immediate clap of thunder. More then a few times I could feel the ozone in the air right after a very close lightning strike. Large pea sized hail trampled the plants on my balcony as the downpour of rain overwhelmed the drains. Suddenly the rain would stop and the storm cell rolled on through. We'd have the sun for a few minutes and then the cycle would repeat itself over and over for the next several hours.

I was afraid to turn on or even touch anything electric. During one wave, the lightning was so close I went around and unplugged all my appliances and electronics just to be safe. The most ironic thing about today was the television stations as they broadcasted their weather alerts during the middle of the storms. They'd issue the usual safety suggestions of getting indoors and seeking low level shelter in the center of the building in the tornado warning areas. They'd also advise unplugging all electronic equipment to protect them and end with a suggestion that people go to their website for complete details of the weather alert. Now tell me....in the middle of a severe lightning storm, who is going to turn on their computer to check out weather alert information on a website, especially after being told to unplug it? That's just asking for a fried PC at the very least.


These pictures are from the Folsom area after the final hail storm of the day. No, that isn't snow. It's hail.


Powerful Storm System Brings Funnel Clouds, Hail and Heavy Rain
A series of intense thunderstorms swept through Northern California Monday afternoon, dumping heavy rain and hail, flooding streets, and prompting tornado warnings.

In the Sierra Nevada snow fell as low at 4,500 feet. Alpine Meadows received nearly two feet of snow.

Interstate 80 was closed for a time early Monday morning. Chains were required intermittently on 1-80, US-50 and SR-88 throughout the day.



Storm Brings Funnel Clouds, Tornado Warnings


SACRAMENTO -- A severe spring thunderstorm that brought rain, hail, snow and funnel clouds to Northern California is also responsible for the issuance of several tornado warnings.

The severe thunderstorms produced heavy downpours and dime-size hail.

Hold on tight folks. Corporate America is now trying to tighten control of our news sources on the internet after their successful campaign to filter other forms of media.

Who decides what "quality" is and how do you obtain a patent on that judgment?

Who breaks the grip that media conglomerates have in controlling the news?

The Blog is going to become an even more important source of independent news.

Is there anyone left to investigate the news or will they all just report the news purchased from conglomerates?

If the patent is granted to Google, I'd like to see one stipulation added as a requirement for the patent. I'd like to see Google and Yahoo types have to add a code to their news headlines denoting the media ownership of that news source. That way, it would be blatantly obvious if all the news is coming from one source.

Google trying to patent news ranking by quality

Web search leader Google Inc. has applied for U.S. and international patents on technology to rank stories on its news site based on the quality of the news source, according to patent applications obtained by Reuters on Thursday...

Google's (GOOG - news) search engine now automatically scours some 4,500 news sources and highlights stories, typically by popularity and timeliness, although Google does not disclose full details of its ranking system.

Google News site gathers article from disparate news outlets such as ABC News, Voice of America, the Christian Science Monitor, the World Peace Herald, Xinhua, Reuters, Bloomberg and the Los Angeles Times.

As Web logs and other commentary sites proliferate, postings from some have received prominent play within search result pages and on online news-gathering sites. Sometimes, such postings have carried biased or inaccurate claims.

The technology Google is attempting to patent may help the company choose the most reliable information sources, although some Web commentators have said it will create a bias toward mainstream news sources.

Topix.net is an online news service that gathers stories from thousands of sources around the Web as well as from such places as college newspapers. In March, newspaper publishers Gannett Co. (NYSE:GCI - news), Knight Ridder Inc. (NYSE:KRI - news) and the Tribune Co. (NYSE:TRB - news) each bought 25 percent stakes in Topix, while company founders retained the last one-quarter stake.

Online news has become an increasingly competitive market as newspaper circulation declines and mainstream news organizations look for ways to hold on to readers, many of whom favor sites that gather stories from many sources over those run by a single news outlet.

Yahoo Inc. (YHOO - news) recently gave a visual make-over and technological boost to its online news site, which is the most-visited in the United States. Yahoo gathers news from disparate sources via direct feeds and a Web crawler. But unlike Google News, Yahoo News employs human editors and carries advertising.

Info on the big three owners of the online news service Topix.net from The Newspaper Guild. That's one heck of a grip on news.

Gannett Co., Inc.

Gannett is the USA’s largest newspaper group based on circulation. The company’s 99 US daily newspapers have a combined daily paid circulation of 6.6 million. The company owns more than 200 non-daily publications in the US. Gannett also operates 22 US television stations. Most of its TV stations and newspapers sponsor news sites on the web. Gannett does business in 45 US states, and the District of Columbia.

Gannett is also a first-tier global player with publications in Guam, England, Germany and Hong Kong. The company’s recent acquisitions of England’s Newsquest and Newscom, are its largest overseas transactions to date and brings close to 300 British publications including 15 dailies to the company. Gannett is now one of England’s largest regional newspaper publishers. The Newsquest group goes into 8 million homes, about one third of British households. Newsquest publishes in 12 geographic clusters, Newscom in three. Both companies had well-established regional internet products.

Gannett recently purchased 21 Thomson newspapers for $1.6 billion in the US in Wisconsin, Ohio, Louisiana, Utah and Maryland. At a cost of $2.6 billion Central Newspapers has become a wholly owned subsidiary of Gannett. The company also completed a swap of two TV stations, one in Austin, Texas, for a Sacramento, California station. Late last year, Gannett sold its cable systems to Cox Communications for $2.7 billion.

Gannett’s buying spree has been funded by increased revenue from advertising. Second quarter advertising revenues overall were up 5 percent compared to the same quarter last year. National ads were up 9%, and classified revenue increased four percent in comparison to last year. Through its ownership of USA Today, Gannett enjoys a higher income from national advertising than the typical newspaper company. Gannett’s national ad revenues are estimated to be 30 percent for USA Today, versus 15 percent for newspapers in the industry as a whole.


Tribune Co.

If the Tribune Company and Times Mirror merger had been the only merger this year it would still have had a dramatic impact on the newspaper industry. Through its $8 billion purchase of Times Mirror, the Tribune Company’s combined newspaper circulation has become the third largest in the United States. Through its broadcast, publishing and interactive operations, the company will reach 80 percent of US households daily. As a result of the merger, Tribune is the only US media corporation with television and newspaper combinations in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago.

The new Tribune Company owns leading local web sites in 23 markets. Tribune’s interactive sites generated over four million unique visitors in April—more than Knight Ridder’s Real Cities, more than City Search and more than Cox Interactive Media.

Tribune Ventures is an industry leader in partnerships with new-media and technology companies—one of the largest organized efforts in the industry; bringing both monetary payoffs for their investments, and access to emerging companies likely to alter the landscape for its core businesses. The company is determined to develop mass media assets. They believe that mass media are more valuable, and will be more valuable in a fragmented media environment, because today’s advertisers need to reach consumers in major markets. As John Morton says: “New businesses need mass media to create awareness, build brands and drive traffic. And existing businesses need mass media to protect their franchise.” Online is one-to-one, and newspapers and broadcast can be targeted demographically and geographically. The combination of online, newspapers and local broadcast media provides the company with an ability to deliver unbeatable value to the advertiser.
Knight Ridder

Knight Ridder Inc. (KRI) owns 31 daily, 22 non-daily newspapers and 45 associated web sites, employing 22,000 people.

Although Knight Ridder is identified with its print publications, the company is optimistic that its distribution deal with Yahoo will bring in larger numbers of non-newspaper consumers. KRI’s Real Cities Network will become the default provider of local news for Yahoo’s Web site. Yahoo, in turn will promote Knight Ridder’s sports, restaurant reviews, advertising and other content. And, though it is not as involved in broadcast as other newspaper chains, KRI has heavily involved in lobbying against FCC regulations limiting cross-media ownership.

New PC Virus Outbreak

Time to ensure that your firewall, anti-virus and Windows software are current with up-to-date versions and updates.

"One in every 22 emails sent across the internet is currently infected by the Sober-N worm -- making this one of the biggest virus outbreaks of the year," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos. "All internet users must secure their systems with up-to-date anti-virus software and ensure that they never open unsolicited email attachments. No-one should be fooled into thinking that email viruses are a thing of the past."

Sophos reports that the worm fooled users into opening its dangerous email attachment by using a variety of tricks -- including using a number of different subject lines and message texts, and sending itself in either German or English language depending on what it suspected was the natural language of the recipient.

"In particular, this worm appears to have caused problems by posing as an offer of free tickets for the soccer World Cup tournament in Germany next year," continued Cluley. "Many people found the prospect of free tickets to the prestigious sporting event just too hard to resist."

Interesting poll results on AOL regarding the flap about the networks cutting short the President's news conference in favor of Sweeps Month network TV programming. Even more telling that Fox Network was one of them and that the local Sinclair Broadcasting Company station didn't air the conference at all while all the other local stations including PBS did so.

Considering the poll results and the selective broadcasting choices, it leaves me bewildered about how this guy got re-elected. Are people just not interested in what a president has to say, not interested in receiving their news from broadcast journalism and/or prefer to have their favorite pundit tell them what to think about what the president said rather then listen to him themselves?

Should the networks have aired Thursday's press conference?
No, they shouldn't have aired it 41%
Yes, and I watched 34%
Yes, but I didn't watch 26%
Total Votes: 117,339

How familiar are you with what Bush said at his press conference?
Very 44%
Somewhat 32%
Not at all 24%

Were you satisfied with what you heard?
No 68%
Yes 32%
Total Votes: 71,659


Bush vs. Paris Hilton

Similarity: Their last names were famous before them
Difference: Where do you start?

Who's more popular?
Paris Hilton 59%
George Bush 41%
Total Votes: 24,119


Bush vs. 'Survivor'

Similarity: Voters decide their future
Difference: Wardrobe on election day

Who would you vote to remove?
Bush out of office 60%
'Survivor' off the air 40%
Total Votes: 19,261


Bush vs. Donald Trump

Similarity: If they say "you're fired," it makes news
Difference: The hair

Who would you fire?
George Bush 60%
Donald Trump 40%
Total Votes: 21,139


Bush vs. 'The OC'

Similarity: 'OC' homes are as big as the White House
Difference: Bush got airtime on Thursday

How would you rather spend a day?
With show's cast on 'The OC' 60%
With Bush in D.C. 40%
Total Votes: 19,921

Stuart and Linda are getting settled into their new house in Florida. They currently have nine people in the house with the addition of the newest grandchild. Jason, Samantha and son Angelo moved in with them and a few days later, Samantha gave birth to a second grandchild.



Nana Linda and baby Andreas
on their first date.

I've added more pictures in the Family Photo Gallery.

Grrrr! I am so tired of Sinclair Broadcasting Company's censoring of the public airwaves! Every time a show comes on that they don't agree with they run either their own bastardized joke of a "Newsroom" drama or repeatedly air the same Billy Graham revival hour. It happens about 3 times a month.

Usually it is the Joan of Arcadia show in which they censor, but tonight the local Sinclair station is blocking the 60 Minutes show about the Italian woman who was shot in Iraq by US troops.

When will this blight on the public's airwaves be reigned in by the FCC?

Surely, if they'd held an art contest and had someone etch the likeness of the Virgin Mary upon the zircon, it wouldn't of taken nearly 20 years to obtain the funding from EBay for that million dollar lab equipment. Come on folks. You need a microscope to see the thing! And they never do say where it came from. This thing smacks of a grilled cheese sandwich or cornflake on steroids. Hope they cancelled the janitorial service so it doesn't get swept out with the rest of junk in the dust pan.

For one day only, Earth's oldest known object will be on display

MADISON - A tiny speck of zircon crystal that is barely visible to the eye is believed to be the oldest known piece of Earth at about 4.4 billion years old.

For the first time ever, the public will have a chance to see the particle today at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where researchers in 2001 made the breakthrough discovery that the early Earth was much cooler than previously believed based on analysis of the crystal.

To create buzz about an otherwise arcane subject, the university is planning a daylong celebration of the ancient stone - capped with "The Rock Concert" by jazz musicians who composed music to try to answer the question: What does 4.4 billion years old sound like?

With the aid of a microscope, anyone will be able to check out the tiny grain, which measures less than two human hairs in diameter.

As part of Saturday's event, Valley will display a brand new, $3 million ion microprobe that he and other researchers will use to analyze tiny samples such as the zircon crystal. The hand-built instrument weighs 11 tons and takes up an entire laboratory.

Valley, who has tried to obtain the equipment for 22 years, had to travel to Scotland and Australia while he analyzed the zircon to use equipment there. A federal grant is paying for most of the new instrument.

After the festivities the object will return to its native Australia with Simon Wilde, professor at Curtin University of Technology in Perth, Western Australia, who made its discovery in 1984. The sample will eventually be put on display at a natural history museum in that country.

Loudoun Judge Gives Spammer 9-Year Prison Term

A Loudoun County judge yesterday sentenced the first person convicted of felony spam charges in the nation to nine years in prison but allowed him to remain free on bond during his appeal.

During the trial, prosecutors portrayed Jaynes as the head of a lucrative spam business that he operated from his home with help from his sister and codefendant, Jessica DeGroot, and a third defendant, Richard Rutkowski. They said the defendants used phony Internet addresses to send more than 10,000 spam e-mails to America Online subscribers on three days in July 2003 -- a volume that makes the crime a felony.

Horne said the jury's recommended sentence reflected community sentiment about spamming and what he called its "tremendous societal costs."

About damned time. Now, if only they'd do the same to the companies who cram our postal mail boxes with thousands of spam and junk mail. Surely the trees, energy, delivery and disposal costs are just as much a drain on society. Why isn't that considered a felony? What's the difference?

Severe weather in the Valley yesterday and today. Numerous tornado and funnel cloud reports. We must of had a funnel cloud or huge thunder storm cell pass over the Citrus Heights area around 3 pm today. The sky got eerily dark, trees were wildly swaying and blowing in several directions at once and we had pea-sized hail for a good 3 minutes. People always say it sounds like a freight train and I can say that yes, it sure does!

Good thing the Valley is a lot narrower then the Midwestern Plains! Not much room in the Valley for the tornados to ramp up into something life threatening.

Possible Tornadoes Sighted in Sacramento County

Tornado Reported Near Truxel Road And I-80


Funnel Cloud Spotted Near Lathrop

Anyone else having problems with Blogger in the last 48 hours or so? It has something to do with the new "recover post" feature they just installed. The "feature" creates a real-time copy of your post in a cookie it places on your PC. I have yet to get it to work without first clicking my heels together 3 times and chanting "there's no place like Google." If that doesn't work, I've been able to get a post to publish by first clearing all cookies, temp files and history and then loading up BlogThis! and using that utility to upload files or publish a post. The only trouble is if you need to edit your post, you get redirected to the blogger.com website again and get the browser errors when you try to publish what you edited. The work around for this is to clear cookies again, reload BlogThis! and copy and paste another version of your post, then go to blogger.com to delete the old version. Yes, the website does let you delete a post, just not create or edit one.

It would be a lot easier if they'd just let me continue clicking my heels together while chanting. At the very least, give me a way to disable the "recover post that never posts" feature.

Well...looks as if one of the bozos finally admitted to/got caught what we all knew all along.

Counsel to GOP Senator Wrote Memo On Schiavo

Excerpts:

The legal counsel to Sen. Mel Martinez (R-Fla.) admitted yesterday that he was the author of a memo citing the political advantage to Republicans of intervening in the case of Terri Schiavo, the senator said in an interview last night.

The unsigned memo -- which initially misspells Schiavo's first name and gives the wrong number for the pending bill -- includes eight talking points in support of the legislation and calls the controversy "a great political issue."

"This legislation ensures that individuals like Terri Schiavo are guaranteed the same legal protections as convicted murderers like Ted Bundy," the memo concludes.

It asserts that the case would appeal to the party's core supporters, saying: "This is an important moral issue and the pro-life base will be excited that the Senate is debating this important issue."

The most mind-boggling quote in the article:

Martinez, the GOP's Senate point man on the issue, said he earlier had been assured by aides that his office had nothing to do with producing the memo. "I never did an investigation, as such," he said. "I just took it for granted that we wouldn't be that stupid. It was never my intention to in any way politicize this issue."

How "stupid" does a person have to be to not know that campaigning for an intervening Bill in Congress is politicizing the issue? And, how "stupid" does a person have to be hand over documents to a collegue without at least glancing at them first? Who elected this guy? Oh yeah, he's from Florida, land of the hanging chad.

In light of the above, I offer my edited version of a joke going around message boards. Only, I am not joking...

I, being of sound mind and body, do not wish to be kept alive indefinitely by artificial means.

Under no circumstances should my fate be put in the hands of politicians who couldn't pass ninth-grade biology if their lives depended on it. This goes especially for those who cut off life support for vegetative-state relatives but characterize other people's private and well-reasoned decisions to do the same as murderous and evil.

If a reasonable amount of time passes and I fail to sit up and ask for a cold glass of water, it should be presumed that I won't ever get better. When such a determination is reached, I hereby instruct my spouse, children and attending physicians to pull the plug, reel in the tubes and call it a day.

Under no circumstances shall the members of the Legislature enact a special law to keep me on life-support machinery. It is my wish that these boneheaded clowns mind their own damn business, and pay attention instead to the health, education and future of the millions of Americans who aren't in a permanent coma. (I realize it is sometimes difficult to determine which are the ones in a permanent coma.)

Under no circumstances shall any politicians butt into this case. I don't care how many fundamentalist votes they're trying to scrounge for their run for the presidency in 2008, it is my wish that they play politics with someone else's life and leave me alone to die in peace.

I couldn't care less if a hundred religious zealots send e-mails to legislators in which they pretend to care about me. I don't know these people, and I certainly haven't authorized them to preach and crusade on my behalf. They should mind their own business, too.

If any of my family goes against my wishes and turns my case into a political cause, I hereby promise to come back from the grave and make his or her existence a living hell.

Sincerely,