If you are going to the Del Mar Fair that starts this weekend, please check out the Photography exhibit. It's my favorite and I am happy this year that they have have accepted one of my photographs for the show. It's called "Desert" and was taken near Las Vegas, Nevada last year.

If you had bought $1,000.00 of Nortel stock one year ago, it would now be worth $49.00.

With Enron, you would have $16.50 of the original $1,000.00.

With MCI/Worldcom, you would have less than $5.00 left.

If you had bought $1,000.00 worth of Miller Genuine Draft (the beer, not the stock) one year ago,
drunk all the beer then turned in the cans for the 10-cent deposit, you would have $214.00.

Based on the above, 401KegPlan.com's current investment advice is to take that $5.00 you have left over
And drink lots and lots of beer and recycle.

http://401kegplan.com/keg/

 

Free and green. Those are the goals of a pilot program launched today by the U.S. Postal Service that allows customers to recycle small electronics and inkjet cartridges by mailing them free of charge.

The “Mail Back” program helps consumers make more environmentally friendly choices, making it easier for customers to discard used or obsolete small electronics in an environmentally responsible way. Customers use free envelopes found in 1,500 Post Offices to mail back inkjet cartridges, PDAs, Blackberries, digital cameras, iPods and MP3 players – without having to pay for postage.

Postage is paid for by Clover Technologies Group, a nationally recognized company that recycles, remanufactures and remarkets inkjet cartridges, laser cartridges and small electronics. If the electronic item or cartridges cannot be refurbished and resold, its component parts are reused to refurbish other items, or the parts are broken down further and the materials are recycled. Clover Technologies Group has a “zero waste to landfill” policy: it does everything it can to avoid contributing any materials to the nation’s landfills.

It was this philosophy that won Clover the contract with the Postal Service, besting 19 other companies, said Anita Bizzotto, chief marketing officer and executive vice president for the Postal Service.

“As one of the nation’s leading corporate citizens, the Postal Service is committed to environmental stewardship,” Bizzotto said. “This program is one more way the Postal Service is empowering consumers to go green.”

The free, postage-paid Mail Back envelopes can be found on displays in Post Office lobbies. There is no limit to the number of envelopes customers may take.

The pilot is set for 10 areas across the country, including Washington, D.C., Chicago, Los Angeles and San Diego, but could become a national program this fall if the pilot program proves successful.

The Postal Service recycles 1 million tons of paper, plastic and other materials annually. Last year, USPS generated more than $7.5 million in savings through recycling and waste prevention programs. The nation’s environmental watchdog, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has awarded the Postal Service eight WasteWise Partner of the Year awards, the agency’s top honor.

The Mail Back program is another example of the Postal Service’s commitment to sustainability. USPS is the only shipping or mailing company in the nation to receive Cradle to CradleSM Certification from MBDC (McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry) for human and environmental health. More than half a billion packages and envelopes provided by the Postal Service annually are nearly 100 percent recyclable and are produced with the least harmful materials. Based on the recycled content of these envelopes and packages, more than 15,000 metric tons of carbon equivalent emissions (climate change gases) now are prevented annually.

“We know our customers are interested in real solutions for proper disposal of personal electronics,” Bizzotto said. “Everyone from consumers to businesses to non-profit organizations use the mail, and the Postal Service works to manage resources wisely to minimize environmental impact.”

In this day of age with the Internet, you would think customer service would be better? Well I'm amazed at how many large companies totally ignore you when you send them an email or submit a support request. Below are companies that I never hear from or they take a long time. I will also list the good ones (one day or less turn around).

Bad Customer Service

• I sent Corel (the makers of Paint Shop Pro) a support request the week of 1/7/2008 because the dang program will not accept the serial number from the invoice when I purchased the program. I even followed their online instructions that that did not help. I never heard back from them. 

Good Customer Service

• On 1/22/2008 I sent an email to Symbol about .NET Framework install for Windows CE for one of their barcode scanner devices. I received an answer back in less than a day!

Last night I made a $130 order at Amazon.com. This time, as I do most of the time, I qualified for the "free" shipping so I selected that option. Today, I looked at my delivery date and it's October 29, 2007 - November 2, 2007! What the heck! Almost a month... come on! When they say 5-9 days to process your order, they weren't kidding! Then another 6 days to ship it... if I were lucky.

I went back and paid 10.32 for shipping and now my order will arrive on October 16, 2007 - October 19, 2007. Huge difference. Wonder why? With the amount of orders I make a year, all my shipping should be free

This is an ode to the “Things I've Learned This Week” feature that Carl Franklin does on his Monday’s podcast. Since I do not have a weekly podcast, blogging will have to do.

I learned that taking the Coast Starlight train from Los Angeles to San Luis Obispo is pretty cool. Much less stressful than driving.

I learned that two volunteer Forest Rangers get on the Coast Starlight train in San Bernardino and give everyone a very cool guided tour of what we are passing until we reach San Luis Obispo.

I learned while the best view of the ocean and the sights from the Coast Starlight train is from the observation deck. This is also where the only power outlet is for the entire train!

I learned it is best to bring a power strip on the Coast Starlight train so there is no fighting over the one power outlet.

I learned that some women on the Coast Starlight train start reading books on how to change their man before they even have one.

I learned that said women gets nervous when sitting with three geeky programmers in the dinning car.

I learned that the drunken woman on the Coast Starlight train somehow lost her boot???

I learned that Robert Hope, almost single handedly, but on the best organized Code Camp that I have ever spoken at!

I learned that bikers (Harley-Davidson) are not as tough as they try to appear. When a biker walks up to the bar at the Embassy Suites and orders a white wine or a mojito, I have to question their masculinity.

I learned that San Luis Obispo is a pretty cool place and that geeks live there!

I learned that 6:45am is too early in the morning to catch a train.

I learned that train food is just as bad if not worse than airplane food.

I learned that you should never bring grandma on the train because they think they know everything and they never shut up.

I learned that burps from the old man behind me smell just like old man farts.

I learned that kids should not be allowed in the business class section of the train because they never shut up and stop whining.

I learned that my iPod is a necessity on the train when kids (or grandma) are in the business class section.

I learned that earphones should be required on a train for anyone listing to a DVD player!

I learned that if the kids in front of me had earphones then their grandpa would not have gotten mad at them for turning up DVD player and in turn making them cry.

I learned that when a freight train comes apart in front of your train, it delays you outside of Ventura for about an hour while they put it back together?!?!?

I learned that train engineers cannot make up time by going faster like airplane pilots can. In the end I was 2.5 hours late arriving home (San Diego).

I learned that crazy old people are allowed to bring their dogs on the train… can it get any worse?

I learned that listening to “Answers” by Steve Vai while your train is going through the bowls of Los Angeles makes it more enjoyable. Do not know why. Maybe anything from Steve Vai would do the trick.

I learned that my iPod volume does not go up loud enough to drown out whining kids that have been stuck on the train for 8 hours.

I was on a conference call today with two programmers from a VERY large over night shipping company. They said in passing that recently someone at at their company "lost" a laptop that contained over 15,000 customer accounts, including names and account numbers! The person no longer works there, but this brings up two issues:

1. Why do large corporations like this one allow employees to place this sensitive information on portable devices?
2. How secure are these laptops if they are stolen or "found"? I'm sure any hacker could get into the system and recover the data.

I'm sure this is a much bigger problem than most of would like to admit. I Googled this to see if it was in the news... it was not.

The reason is that I work about 4 miles from where I live in the Del Mar area. My 10 - 15 minute commute home every evening is now taking 30 - 60+ minutes! As soon as the fair is done then racing season starts... we don't get a break all summer! Fridays are really bad during racing season because of the late start and concerts.

I don't think the owners/ promoters of these events give any thought to the many thousands of people that are put out for 3 months and we get nothing out of it.

ABC News reported this morning about the dangers of text messaging while driving and that Washington will be the first state to make it illegal. This got me thinking on why we need laws for issues that should be common sense to people? This is obviously a very dangerous habit that seems to be common among young people since this is their main method of communication.

They also reported a news story about a bus driver that crashed a bus while text messaging and injured 30 children including one child lost her hand.  Should we have an IQ test before handing out cell phones? Well, my boss who is very intelligent does this all the time. He did it once with me in the car and I was very scared. He also sends me email from his Blackberry while driving his entire family in an SUV!

If we need legislation because so many people are clueless, why does it take so long? Why isn’t this banned country wide? Actually, in my mind, cell phone and hand-held devices should be totally banned from cars. When I sit an intersection watching cars go by, I see about 50% of people talking on their cell phones with it up to their ear (not using hands free).  There is no phone call, text message or email that is worth endangering your life or others.  How many lives have to be loss to this activity?

The Solution

Since people are addicted to their phones and messaging and no matter how much legislation you throw at them, it will keep happening. So what is the solution? I thought of an easy one… make a law that if a cell phone detects that it’s traveling more than three miles an hour (via the internal GPS), disable it! No reading messages, no dialing and no receiving calls.

Okay, I'm not... but I am tired of hearing about this! So I decided to do something about it. Check out my new web site:

http:\\ImAnnaNicolesBabysFather.com

You too can register as the "real" father of the baby and see a map of the world to see where her donor tour went (coming soon). Wonder what country will win? You can get your very own I'm Anna Nicole's Baby's Father swag and let the world know that you are the true father!

Ever wonder what is on your magnetic key card? Answer:

1. Customer's name
2. Customer's partial home address
3. Hotel room number
4. Check-in date and out dates
5. Customer's credit card number and expiration date!

When you turn them in to the front desk your personal information is there for any employee to access by simply scanning the card in the hotel scanner. An employee can take a hand full of cards home and using a scanning device, access the information onto a laptop computer and go shopping at your expense. Simply put, hotels do not erase the information on these cards until an employee re-issues the card to the next hotel guest. At that time, the new guest's information is electronically "overwritten" on the card and the previous guest's information is erased in the overwriting process. But until the card is rewritten for the next guest, it usually is kept in a drawer at the front desk with YOUR INFORMATION ON IT!

The bottom line is: keep the cards, take them home with you, or destroy them. NEVER leave them behind in the room or room wastebasket, and NEVER turn them in to the front desk when you check out of a room. They will not charge you for the card (it's illegal).

For the same reason, if you arrive at the airport and discover you still have the card key in your pocket, do not toss it in an airport trash basket. Take it home and destroy it by cutting it up, especially through the electronic information strip!

Information courtesy of: Pasadena Police Department

Tired of going to mutiple travel sites looking for the best deal? Well, check out SideStep. They search all the major travel sites so you can get the best deal/schedule. Pretty cool, but nothing is ever perfect. I used it today to make a flight with American via Orbitz but I found if I went to the American web site, I saved almost $6.

Today I almost got hit a few times from a woman doing her makeup in her car!!! I am so tired of people doing things in their car besides driving... talking on cellphone, makeup, eating, not paying attention etc. So I found this great site, www.roadrage.com, that has these AWESOME flip card that allow you to express your feelings. Below are one of my favorites.

The American Association of Blood Banks just awarded me a 3 Gallon Donor certificate! I started giving blood a long time ago because a friend of mine got a very rare kind of cancer at the age of 16. So I donate to the American Cancer Society... my way of doing something. While her mother was taking care of her, she came down with cancer and died shortly after that. Pretty sad.

Anyway, I encourage everyone to donate to your local blood bank every eight weeks! If you live in San Diego, visit the San Diego Blood Bank.

you see a car with longhorns mounted to the front of it! This car was parked in downtown Bastrop, TX (downtown consists of about one city block). If you look closely you can even see that the seat covers are cow fur! (I forgot to check for a gun rack!)

How much time is wasted where you work because people come in late, go home early, call in sick, inept at their job etc? Well the current place I am contracting I have never seen a bunch of employees abuse the system so badly. I won't say where it is, but let’s just say it's related to the government. No, I'm not saying people should come into work when they are sick... PLEASE DON'T! But when it seems they take sick time every week it gets kind of suspicious.

To make this more visible here, they usually email when people won't be around. For the last two weeks, I have kept track of this and here are the results:

9/26
Sam out today.
Jayne will be out the rest of today.

9/27
Nancy will be in late.
Steven out sick.
Tom G working from home.

9/28
Tom G will be in late.

9/29
Jayne will be working from home the rest of today.

9/30
Tom G will be working from home this morning.

10/4
Fred out sick.

10/5
Fred out sick.

10/6
Martin will be in late.
Annie out sick.
Alice will be in late.
Martin went home sick.

This is just what was publicly announced. It does not include people that just came in and out without notice. Plus we have less than 20 people in our department!

If you can believe it, as I was writing this today, here is what happened:

Tom G will be in late.
Fred is out sick (he was out the next day too).
Annie will be in late.
Martin went home sick.

How can a department function with these work ethics going on? Well, it gets worse here. Let me tell you about some of the biggest abusers.

Annie is constantly coming in late, leaving early, calling in sick, taking long lunches and more. Most of here lateness, sick and early departures are due to her kids being sick, taking them to school etc. For the longest time I figured her husband worked long hours and was not around much. But then I found out he is an artist and works at home! So what's up with him helping out!?!?! One day she had the nerve to bring in one of her sick, coughing and hacking kids and let him run around the office so he could infect the rest of us. I left early that day! When she actually is at work, she can spend an hour or more on the phone chatting with her friends. She disappears for hours during lunch. She also volunteers (a lot) to help out with company activities during work time so she can get out of working and there is more. She is a database administrator and made a huge mistake recently and cost the company 40K+! As the norm around here, nothing happened to her.

Zack is a programmer in our department. I don't know first hand how good he is, but he has been working on the same project for two years and has not completed the first phase. I was told by another programmer that his project should have taken six months at the most. So why has it been taking him so long? Well maybe because for the last two years he has been working on his real estate license at work. He got his license and now I'm told he devotes around 80% or more of his day running his real estate business from his cube!?!?!

Stephen is another programmer that has been working two years on a project that should have taken him three months. I don't know what his story is... yet.

Rob is a programmer that skills could be in question. About a year or so ago a hacker broke into the company and stole thousands of teacher and employees personal information. This made the news. Because of his sloppy programming, he stored this sensitive information in normal text files that anyone could open and read! As usual in this department, nothing happened to Rob after the break-in which has cost the company an untold amount of money.

I can keep going, but in summary, this is a typical government facility if not worse. What I mean by that is once you work here about two years it takes an act of god to fire you. So many people just shut down and wait for retirement (I'm told they have great benefits here). I usually estimate 90% of the people here are in this mode. The other 10% actually do the work, but it's very difficult because the other 90% are always trying to stop anything you are trying to do... because it might actually cause them some work.

This is pretty funny...

1. I HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA WHERE MY PHONE IS.

2. I BELIEVE THAT DANCING WITH MY ARMS OVERHEAD AND WIGGLING MY BUTT
WHILE YELLING "WOO-HOO!" IS TRULY THE SEXIEST DANCE MOVE AROUND.

3. I'VE SUDDENLY DECIDED I WANT TO KICK SOMEONE'S ASS AND HONESTLY
BELIEVE I COULD DO IT TOO.

4. IN MY LAST TRIP TO PEE, I REALIZE I NOW LOOK MORE LIKE A
HOMELESS HOOKER THAN THE GODDESS I WAS JUST FOUR HOURS AGO.

5. I DROP MY 3:00 A.M. SUBMARINE SANDWICH ON THE FLOOR (WHICH I'M
EATING EVEN THOUGH I'M NOT THE LEAST BIT HUNGRY), PICK IT UP AND
CARRY ON EATING IT.

6. I START CRYING AND TELLING EVERYONE I SEE THAT I LOVE THEM
SOOOOO MUCH.

7. I GET EXTREMELY EXCITED AND JUMP UP AND DOWN EVERY TIME A NEW
SONG PLAYS BECAUSE "OH MY GOD! I LOVE THIS SONG!"

8. I'VE FOUND A DEEPER/SPIRITUAL SIDE TO THE GEEK SITTING NEXT TO ME.

9. THE MAN I'M FLIRTING WITH USED TO BE MY 5TH GRADE TEACHER.

10. THE URGE TO TAKE OFF ARTICLES OF CLOTHING, STAND ON A TABLE
AND SING OR DANCE BECOMES STRANGELY OVERWHELMING.

11. MY EYES JUST DON'T SEEM TO WANT TO STAY OPEN ON THEIR OWN SO I
KEEP THEM HALF CLOSED AND THINK IT LOOKS EXOTICALLY SEXY.

12. I'VE SUDDENLY TAKEN UP SMOKING AND BECOME REALLY GOOD AT IT.

13. I YELL AT THE BARTENDER, WHO (I THINK) CHEATED ME BY GIVING ME
JUST LEMONADE, BUT THAT'S JUST BECAUSE I CAN NO LONGER TASTE THE
VODKA.

14. I THINK I'M IN BED, BUT MY PILLOW FEELS STRANGELY LIKE THE
KITCHEN FLOOR

15. I START EVERY CONVERSATION WITH A BOOMING, "DON'T TAKE THIS THE
WRONG WAY BUT..."

16. I FAIL TO NOTICE THAT THE TOILET LID'S DOWN WHEN I SIT ON IT.

17. MY HUGS BEGIN TO RESEMBLE WRESTLING TAKE-DOWN MOVES.

18. I'M TIRED SO I JUST SIT ON THE FLOOR (WHEREVER I HAPPEN TO BE
STANDING) AND TAKE A QUICK NAP.

19. I BEGIN LEAVING THE BUTTONS OPEN ON MY BUTTON FLY PANTS TO
CUTDOWN ON THE TIME I'M IN THE BATHROOM AWAY FROM MY DRINK.

20. I TAKE MY SHOES OFF BECAUSE I BELIEVE IT'S THEIR FAULT THAT
I'M HAVING PROBLEMS WALKING STRAIGHT.

I just never understood this mostly male pastime. I just started working at a new place last week and I would say there are at least 100 males or more on my floor (and only 2 toilets). Just about every time I go in, there is someone in the big stall… reading. The other day people were coming in, needed to use a stall, and he just sat there quietly waiting for them to leave before he turned the page.

I never liked bathrooms, especially sticky, hot, dirty ones like where I work. I get in and out of a bathroom, including mine at home, as soon as I can. I never linger reading or thinking. So why do so many men do? Do they need to read to “complete the task at hand”? Is this the only place they can find peace and quiet so they can think?

Now, I could figure out why they might want to linger if they have a Playboy or Hustler with them, but here at work I see guys taking in the San Diego Reader? Go figure.

Here is a letter that I just sent to the GoodGuys store telling them of a recent "bad" experience... I wonder if I will hear anything back from them?

"I writing to let GoodGuys know how unhappy I am with a recent experience when getting my car stereo repaired at your La Jolla, Ca store. They removed it from my car and the manager told me it should take about two weeks to repair and they will give me a call when it arrives back in the store. About 3 ½ weeks later, I finally called the repair center and they told me it was sent back to the store over 20 days earlier! It is totally unacceptable no one from the store called me to let me know it was there!

That next weekend I arrived at the store just as it opened. I got my car stereo and then informed the manager that my unit has been there over 20 days and no one called me. He seemed perplexed and the told me that there was a system in place to call the customer when the unit arrived and then continue to call them afterwards. Obviously, this system is not working.

When the installation person (has been at the store only three weeks) started putting in my unit, he told me that two clips that were needed for mounting and the trim ring were missing. I don’t recall if the person that took out my unit gave me those items or not. This installation person told me it’s common for the repair facility not to send these items back?!?! Again, this is totally unacceptable… no matter who screwed up this part of the process.

So after showing the manager what happened and then waiting about 30 more minutes, the manager said he was going to order a new trim ring and it should be here within a week. So the installation person installed my unit, minus the ring. Later that day I discovered that the radio did not work. It can’t find any stations, so I assume the installation person did not hook up my antenna when he installed my unit. Again, totally unacceptable!

About a month later my trim ring was finally arrived, installed and the installation person fixed the radio stations issue (he plugged in the antenna). About a month after that the unit broke again.

I believe that an important part of any business like yours is after the sale service. About 10 years ago or so Circuit City gave me a few bad service experiences and I have never been in their store since. When I stopped going to Circuit City, I started buying most of my “big ticket” items (big screen TV, VCR, DVD players etc) at GoodGuys. After this experience I will not be bringing in my broken car stereo to GoodGuys or buying a new one from you."

I think I will check out BestBuy this weekend to replace my car stereo. I hope my experience there goes better.

how people talk about someone after they leave a company. The CEO of the company I work for was unexpectedly fired by one of the board members yesterday. Before that time, all I heard was people saying good things about our CEO. As soon as he was out the door, it all changed. I guess the truth came out. I wonder how they will talk about me when I leave the company next week?

Just a few years ago on the weekends, people started showing up on the median strip at busy intersections in San Diego selling the weekend edition of the Union-Tribune newspaper. Walking up and down a strip of cement just a few inches wide in the hot sun while cars go speeding past you does not seem like a very safe way to make a living to me. All it takes is one slip or miss-step and that person could easily be run over!

Why the Union-Tribune condones this activity is beyond me. I’m sure it does not take much for them to convince these seeming homeless/ low-income people to put their lives on the line for their newspaper.

I urge you to join me in boycotting any newspaper that does this until they stop this practice!

You walk across the parking lot, unlock your car and get inside. Then you lock all your doors, start the engine and shift into REVERSE, and you look into the rearview mirror to back out of your parking space and you notice a piece of paper stuck to the middle of the rear window.

So, you shift into PARK, unlock your doors and jump out of your car to remove that paper (orwhatever it is) that is obstructing your view. When you reach the back of your car, that is when the car-jackers appear out of nowhere, jump into your car and take off! Your engine was running, (ladies would have their purse in the car) and they practically mow you down as they speed off in your car.

BE AWARE OF THIS NEW SCHEME THAT IS NOW BEING USED.

Just drive away and remove the paper that is stuck to your window later, and be thankful that you read this email. I hope you will forward this to friends and family...especially to women! A purse contains all identification, and you certainly do NOT want someone getting your home address. They already HAVE your keys!

Back in October of 2004 it was time to buy a new cell phone. Being the geek and sometime photographer that I am, I wanted to get the best quality camera phone that I could from my carrier (Verizon). The highest resolution camera they had was the Motorola V170 that took 1.2 megapixel photos! Wow, I was impressed and thought this will be good to carry around and snap decent quick photos and hopefully work well when I go to concerts.

Well, unfortunately this phone falls short on delivering my goals. When I took photos at the Verizon store they looked good of course because I could only see them on the small screen on the phone. Once I got the photos off of the camera (unfortunately past the time Verizon would let me take the phone back), I found out that none of the photos were good enough to keep.

Okay, I admit, I am a little picky, but you be the judge. Below is a picture I took about a week ago of the building where I work. As you can see, the building wall is completely washed out, the colors are horrible and it does not even seem to be in focus. Recently I was at a concert trying to take pictures (about 10 feet from the stage) and none came out at all. I was standing next to this guy with a "normal" camera phone and his were coming out great :-( My sons "normal" phone takes better pictures than this phone… okay they are smaller resolution but the exposure is a lot better and they are not fuzzy.

I recently took the phone into Verizon and they did a major software upgrade to it. I have noticed that the camera tries harder to adjust the exposure, but as you can see if still falls way short. So now I'm left with this phone that takes horrible pictures, is much larger than most cell phones and much heavier too. So my advice to wait until something better comes along if you want higher picture resolution.

After recent events, rush this living will to your lawyer:

I, _________________________ (fill in the blank), being of sound mind and body, unequivocally declare that in the event of a catastrophic injury, I do not wish to be kept alive indefinitely by artificial means. I hereby instruct my loved ones and relatives to remove all life-support systems, once it has been determined that my brain is longer functioning in a cognizant realm. However, that judgment should be made only after thorough consultation with medical experts; i.e., individuals who actually have been trained, educated and certified as doctors.

Under no circumstances -- and I can't state this too strongly -- should my fate be put in the hands of peckerwood politicians who couldn't pass ninth-grade biology if their lives depended on it. Furthermore, it is my firm hope that, when the time comes, any discussion about terminating my medical treatment should remain private and confidential.

Therefore, I wish to make my views on this subject as clear and unambiguous as possible. Recognizing that some politicians seem cerebrally challenged themselves (and with no medical excuse), I'll try to keep this simple and to the point:

1. While remaining sensitive to the feelings of loved ones who might cling to hope for my recovery, let me state that if a reasonable amount of time passes -- say, ____ (fill in the blank) months -- and I fail to sit sit up and ask for a cold beer, 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.

2. 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 boneheads 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.

3. 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, it is my wish that they play politics with someone else's life and leave me alone to die in peace.

4. 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.

5. It is my heartfelt wish to expire quietly and without a public spectacle. This is obviously impossible once elected officials become involved. So, while recognizing the wrenching emotions that attend the prolonged death of a loved one, I hereby instruct my relatives to settle all disagreements about my care in private or in the courts, as provided by law. 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 ____ (fill in the blank)

I found this on: http://blog.bioethics.net/2005/03/new-living-will-form.html

If you have kids in San Diego, then you need to check out this web site brought to you because of Megan's law: http://www.sandiego.gov/police/newsflash/sexoffender.shtml

...you take a walk around it and you see shopping carts littering the sidewalks. I live in the Carmel Valley area of San Diego, which is pretty affluent. Why this started happening here about three or four years ago is beyond me. The funny thing is the carts are never far from the actual store?? Don't these people have a car? If not, are they really pushing home that much that they need a cart? Come on people!!

Last week I went to see "Meet the Fockers" at a movie theater in Mission Valley here in San Diego. I heard the movie was great, maybe even funnier than the first so I was excited to go check it out. My excitement severely dropped when I saw (and heard) at least four small infant babies being brought into the theater by their parents! So I prayed and hoped they would not cry… I was wrong. Not only did one or more of them cry during most of the movie but I swear that they all were crying at one time at one point! This pretty much ruined the movie for me.

I don't know about "most" parents, but when I had my kids, I did not step foot into a movie theater for many years unless we got a grandparent to watch our kids for us. It is totally beyond me why anyone would want to go take an infant or small child to a movie that is rated PG-13 or higher. Heck, kids should only be in G movies and babies should never be there!

Leave your baby at home and wait for the movie to come out on DVD or video! If you can't afford a babysitter, than this is cheaper anyway. I even said something to the parents down the row from me and they still did not take their baby out of the theater so it would stop bothering everyone around them. This is just another example of why I really don't like going out to the movies any more… I just can't take the ever increasing rudeness of the people that go. Don't get me started on cell phones and talking during the movie!!!

Another 9/11 passes and another year with absolutely no major network coverage of the event. The only show I could find today was a one hour special on the Discovery special. None of the major networks (Fox, CBS, NBC or ABC) devoted event 1 minute of prime time to this event on Friday (9/10) or on 9/11 (Saturday).  My thoughts I wrote last year (Remember Those Who Unwilling Gave Their Lives: 9/11) still ring true this year… sad. It’s sadder that the only time we really hear about 9/11 is when one political party is laying blame on the other or the president is using it to get himself re-elected.

Quake Shakes San Diego . An earthquake hit San Diego Tuesday with enough force to make more than a few San Diegans nervous. Where I work, some people actually stood up and exclaimed "... what was that?". I wonder... if a tornado hit the building they would be asking the same question. Then a bunch of people ran to the window as to try to witness massive distruction. FUNNY!

Only two years after the worst tragedy in the history of the United States, I'm amazed of the lack of "prime time" television coverage given to this day. There is only one sixty minute show looking at the current state of a few topics. NBC actually cancelled a thirty minutes show it was going to do! Thirty minutes? Only sixty minutes? That's all the networks are willing to give up when all they are showing are repeats anyway? This deeply saddens me.

I remember all too well that day… I sat in front of the television for almost two days in a state of shock… numb and confused that something like this happed to over 3,000 innocent fellow Americans. Unfortunately, like the day that JFK died or Columbia blew up on liftoff, it will be etched in my mind forever. But unlike other recent events, this one we can never forget! What worries me is that we already are.

If it were up to me, this would be a holiday. All Americans would take the day off and remember those who died. Those who helped people to survive. Those who made a difference. Then, we would collectively work on how to prevent this from happening again… how ever that might be. We can never fall asleep at the wheel again!

Another grueling major voting period is finally over. The biggest relief is that all those misleading and negative television commercials are gone! Why do you choose to spend so much time tearing down the other candidates? Why can’t you talk about what you are going to do for us? Why can’t you talk about the issues? Why can’t you talk about the plans you have to fix what’s wrong with San Diego, California or America?

 

Instead you just focus on the negative. Are you being a good example (role model) to other Americans? I think not. If you think these types of tactics will deter me from voting… you are wrong! I will make sure I vote… just not for anyone who chooses to participate in this type of negative campaigning!!

 

So I hope you think about this next year. The numbers of people who think like me are growing! Any you wonder why most of us hate politicians.

Dr. Blackbourne (who bares a striking resemblance to Yoda) took the stand on the second day of the Westerfield trial. During his testimony, he seemed to not really give the answer we all have been waiting for… how Danielle Van Dam was murdered. If he were a little greener, I could imagine him saying in my head the following things…

• “Cloud your minds with doubt, I will.”
• “Weather charts? Meditate on that I will do.”
• “I know the time of death, but no real evidence I have.”
• “You must find your own answers, young jurors

Have you gotten the surprise of your life from your girlfriend or acquaintance and they say they are pregnant with your child? Before you let her put you through emotional torture (and your family and current children... as I did) and possible financial strain, PLEASE get a DNA test done!

The actual test is painless and can even be done yourself! I used the DNA Testing Centre, Inc. in Texas. You can order kits on the web by going to: http://www.dnatestingcentre.com/order.htm. It's relatively inexpensive and is well worth it if you compare it to the devastation it can cause you and your family if the child is not yours.

Here is a list of people in cars you should avoid at all times while you are driving on the road! (I have seen all of these type of drivers)

1. All VW Bus's! They don't go very fast and screw up the stream of traffic!
2. All Mini-Vans! They are the new VW Bus's!
3. Any driver and rests their head in their hand. If they are too tired to keep their head up, then they must be too tired to pay much attention to the road!
4. All Teenagers!
5. Drivers that eat cereal out of a bowl propped up on the lower part of the steering wheel!
6. Woman driver doing her makeup! I never understood this one. Why can't you women take care of this at home or in the bathroom at the office instead of putting us all in danger or slowing the flow of traffic?
7. Woman driver doing her makeup while on her cell phone!
8. Anyone on a cell phone! Ever notice how they drive slower and act as if they don't know where the hell they are going. They are an accident waiting to happen! Using a cell phone in a car should be made illegal while it’s in motion. Pay attention to the road!!!
9. Anyone who stops two or three car lengths behind the car in front of them at a stoplight. Obviously, these people have a depth perception problem and should not be on the road in the first place!
10. Anyone who puts on their breaks every few seconds for no apparent reason. I can’t figure this one out. Either they have a problem remembering which pedal is for the breaks and which is for the gas? The other reason is that they are so afraid of everything around them that they might needs to slam on the breaks at any millisecond? Who knows.
11. Reading while driving! That's right, reading newspapers, books, memos... I've seen it all. The car is not a library people!
12. Fussing around with something in the passenger seat. No I don't mean a child, I am talking about purses, briefcases or what ever else some of you keep in the passenger seat that for some reason you think driving on the road is a good time to take care of it. Can't you do this before or after you get in the car?
13. Anyone flossing their teeth while driving!