Thank You Veterans!

Thank You Veterans! Thank you for all you've done, all you do, and all you will do.

These posts say it best...

Proud at Army Wife Toddler Mom.

I watched Mothers kneel to the floor thankful that they get to touch them for real. I watched Dads give sons tough guy hugs, with so many tears held back that these men looked like pain had overcome them.

Veteran's Day 2006 at House of Zathras. I think that has to be the most touching picture I've seen.

Thank YOU at One Happy Dog Speaks.

Hangin' Out With The Boys at Sgt. Hook's. A great video tribute.

Valour-IT Friday Flog at Blackfive. Another great video tribute. Donate to a great cause while you are there.

Leaving... at Straight White Guy. A nice dedication.

A Pittance of Time at Grouchy Old Cripple.

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Travel IQ Test

I am surprised each time I travel by how much someone's IQ drops when they are boarding a plane.

Why is it necessary to be talking on your cell phone while BOARDING the plane? And I mean holding the phone, dragging two carry on bags and having a full blown conversation with someone. Those 5 minutes on the phone are not going to save the world, get off!

Why bring a full size pillow on the plane. I would consider leaving this one alone if we were going to, say, EUROPE on a 14 hour flight. But we're not. We are flying 2 flippin' hours, in the middle of the day. I think you can live without your slobber stained pillow for that short duration.

Do not get mad at the stewardess when she tells you that you cannot hold your kid in your lap in the exit row. I swear, if your kid gets in the way of me exiting the plane when plummeting to our death.... Stop arguing and pass the kid up to the woman that couldn't keep her legs closed 2 years ago. A matter of fact, why aren't you sitting up there with her? Go help the woman out. You obviously weren't scared to be next to her 2 years ago.

When in a large group, it is not a contest to see who got closest to the 50lb checked bag limit without going over. After your bag has been tagged, do not proceed to put your bag back up on the scale to see your score.

I'm cool with there being 1st class...I have no problems with that. I've never sat in first class, but I really don't care. I don't even care that they board first even though they are at the front of the plane. But can we wait to serve them drinks until everyone boards or before all the coach people board. This is why flights are always delayed. It takes forever to board because the stewardess' are in the aisle pouring drinks for everyone in first class while we seek our seat from the distance.

And finally....to those that think if they run to the baggage carousel will get their luggage first....Guess What??? Our baggage all flew over on the same fricken plane! And for running me over when hurdling to the baggage terminal...I hope your luggage is still at your departure city, in a whole other city, or at least the last fricken bag that had water steadily leaking on it.

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AOL

I hate AOL with a fucking passion! I wouldn't use AOL if it were the last ISP on Earth! I am addicted to the internet and can't go a day without using it and if AOL was the only way I could access the internet, I would quit cold turkey. I would rather stick pins under my fingernails then talk to one of their ignorant, non-English speaking, shit-for-brains agents. If AOL was a country, I would say bomb them. If they were a bug, exterminate them. But they are a company and I will be sure to never, ever use them for as long as I, my spawn and theirs, shall live.

5 years go, I did use AOL. That's when AIM was cool, AOL was cheap and easy. I quit after a few months, while still in my free trial. Sissy2124 has ALWAYS been my screen name. For 8 years now, that's what I have used.

So, a couple of years later, I download AIM because that's all one of my friends would use. A few months later, I receive a bill for $14.95, urging that I pay immediately or they will come for my organs. Of course, there is no phone number on the bill to call. So, I go to www.aol.com to find a few numbers. After 45 minutes of calling different numbers, I get some bucket head that seems to think that I should pay them $15 a month to use my screenname. Fuck that! I promptly told him he could shove the screenname up his ass and that would be the last $14.95 they would get from me!

Fast forward a few more years to today. My mom is receiving my mail right now and she tells me I have something from a collection agency. WHAT?!? I am in the process of buying a house and am watching my credit report like a hawk! I ask her to open it and she says it's for $14.95 for AOL; no date, no explanation, just $14.95. Now, I have refreshed my credit report twice in the past 5 days and there has been no mention of AOL or $14.95.

So she gives me the phone number, and I call. And a recording says for better service, to call another number. So I do. And it rings....but a weird ring like when calling overseas. Then, it sounds like an alarm going off and after about 2 minutes, it just hangs up. I call the first number again to make sure I wrote down the 2nd number correctly. I call the 2nd number where Ha-fucking-beeb answers. I tell him about the letter and he looks it up. He says I had an account from 2001-2004 and I owed $14.95. It took everything I had right there not to put my hand through the phone and strangle the ever loving life out of him. He asks if I would like to make the payment.

I said no. I don't think I owe it. But I will, because I don't want you all trying to put that shit on my report. So I give him my card number where he repeats it back wrong 3 times. He finally gets it and asks if a certain address is my address. No, it's my moms. Which, I'm not sure how he got because I only have my stuff forwarded there, but haven't changed my address to that address. I start to spell out my new address. I kid you not, this takes 10 minutes. He would think I said "D" after a "T" and weird crap like that. Finally I told him to stop and listen and spelled it out with an example of each letter. He still got it wrong.

We finally get it finished and he says he is going to charge $14.95 plus a $5 payment fee to my card. You've got to be fucking kidding me! He then transfers me to his supervisor who also repeats my card number and address to be sure it is correct and lets me know of the $14.95 plus $5 that will be charged to my card.

It took 30 minutes to make this payment, that I didn't even fucking owe...and that was with no hold time!

And I'm a little paranoid, which is unlike me. They asked for my 3 digit security number on the back of my card. Now, I know online they will often ask for that, but I have never been asked for it over the phone. To be safe, I have transferred all of that money to a different account because I am in fact, paranoid of the AOL Nazis.

And that is just one reason why, not even if my life depended on it, I would not ever use AOL.

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Brats

I got this via email and thought some of you might find interest in this:

Dear Lejeune Brat,

"BRATS: Our Journey Home" is now available on DVD at...

www.bratsourjourneyhome.com.

It's the first-ever documentary about us -- about growing up "BRAT" -- and how that has profoundly shaped our lives and our struggle to belong.
Help us spread the word.

I'm Tim Wurtz, Ankara American High School class of 1969. I co-produced
"BRATS: Our Journey Home." It's written and directed by Army Brat Donna Musil and narrated by Air Force Brat Kris Kristofferson. We need your support to let other Brats know about this movie. Here's what people are saying...

"I saw this beautiful film at the Newport Beach Film Festival... it is very, very well made and is a must for each and every person who ever lived under these circumstances... this is not an easy topic... the filmmakers have done an excellent job of laying out the major issues... we should all support this film in the most aggressive way possible..."
-John Hardy, Air Force Brat, London Central '66 - Producer, "Sex, Lies and Videotape" "Erin Brokovich" "Ocean's 11" "Ocean's 12"...

"Thanks for letting us become validated. You're doing a tremendous service and will touch lives you don't even know about for years to come."
-Liz Cain, Brat, Bitburg American High School

"I can't believe the changes in my life it's brought about already."
-Ginger Cole Turner, DOD teacher's daughter

"I am completely overwhelmed. I thought I had covered this waterfront both intellectually and emotionally, but how wrong I was. I was sobbing."
-Sarah Bird, Military Brat, author, "The Yokota Officers Club"

Watch this movie and help us inform BRAT NATION. Please forward this e-mail to every brat you know, including your brothers and sisters, and to the parents of every brat you know.

Visit the web site - www.bratsourjourneyhome.com

Festivals and screenings: [I deleted this for space, you can see it at their website]

Thank-you for your support.

This looks very interesting and I'm looking forward to checking it out.

And I have to share the quote on their website by my favorite author, Pat Conroy:

As author and Marine Corps brat Pat Conroy says so eloquently in his introduction to Mary Wertsch's book, Military Brats: Legacies of Childhood Inside the Fortress:

I thought I was singular in all this, one of a kind. From Mary's book I discover that I speak in the multitongued, deep-throated voice of my tribe. ...[I]t's a language I was not even aware I spoke... a secret family I did not know I had. ... Military brats, my lost tribe, spent their entire youth in service to this country, and no one even knew we were there.

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Happy Birthday Morrigan

Happy Birthday Morrigan

I hope you have a wonderful birthday WEEKEND!

And hopefully the clan will be out there soon enough to where we can celebrate right!

Happy Birthday!!

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Poor Grieving Cindy...

Tough Life. . . . . . .camping outside Bush's Ranch!

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Another Logic Puzzle

Here's another Logic Puzzle from my class. Since some liked the last one I posted (and I don't have much time to post anything else), here ya go.

On Halloween We're Going As ...

Last Saturday, the first five couples to visit Jack O'Lantern's Halloween Shop rented costumes to wear for the night of October 31. Each husband and wife picked a different costume based on a real or fictional person. Given the clues below, will you get tricked or get a treat by finding the first and last names of each couple (one husband is Mark and one wife Erica), the costume each rented for Halloween, and the order 1st-5th in which the couples paid for their selections?

1. All five women and four of the men picked costumes of "appropriate" gender; one of the husbands, however, thought it would be funny to dress as a female character on Halloween.

2. Nick had wanted to go as Elvis Presley or Uncle Sam but found both costumes had been rented to husbands who were in Jack O'Lantern's earlier than he was Saturday.

3. Angela and her husband, who didn't pick the Babe Ruth outfit, picked costumes at the store before the woman who chose Madonna and her spouse did.

4. Mrs. Poe, who isn't the person who rented the Littlest Mermaid costume or the one who chose the Wicked Witch outfit, and her husband picked their costumes immediately ahead of Lou and his wife.

5. In consecutive order first-to-last, Cynthia and her husband, the woman who is going as Catwoman and her husband, and the man dressing as Capt. Hook and his wife rented costumes at Jack O'Lantern's.

6. Nick, who isn't Belinda's husband, and Mr. Hitchcock both decided they were too tall for the Yoda costume, which no one rented on Saturday.

7. Ken and Mr. Chaney and their wives were picking costumes to wear to the Ocean City Marina Floating Halloween Party on October 31.

8. The Kings paid for their rentals, then the couple who had the Old Mother Hubbard and another costume paid for theirs.

9. The man going as Elvis Presley on Halloween, who isn't Cynthia's husband, isn't the one whose wife is going as Barbie.

10. The Hitchcocks were the last of the five couples to choose their costumes.

11. Jim and his wife got their outfits earlier than Mr. & Mrs. Chaney.

12. The wife of the man going as Uncle Sam didn't pick the Old Mother Hubbard costume because she thought it would be too heavy to wear all evening.

13. Belinda and her husband paid for their costumes immediately after the man going as Babe Ruth and his wife paid for theirs and immediately before the woman going as Barbie and her husband rented theirs.

14. Cynthia isn't the woman masquerading as Madonna on Halloween.

15. Nick, whose wife isn't going as Barbie, and Deborah's spouse went to a party last Halloween disguised as George Bush and Al Gore, costumes none of the men selected on Saturday.

16. Belinda, who didn't choose the Catwoman outfit, isn't the woman whose husband is going as Elvis Presley.

17. The Littlest Mermaid costume isn't the one Mrs. Lugosi rented.

#	Husband	Wife	Last Name	Husband's Costume	Wife's Costume	Order
1	???	???	???	???	???	???
2	???	???	???	???	???	???
3	???	???	???	???	???	???
4	???	???	???	???	???	???
5	???	???	???	???	???	???

Read More "Another Logic Puzzle" »

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Critical Thinking

It irritates me when an instructor tells us to do an assignment but that it's not graded. I don't have time for crap that isn't going to be graded. Yes, I know I am responsible for my own learning and anything I do is going to benefit me. But it's still a pain in the ass....

This is the assignment that is worth our thought, but not a grade. Anyone else care to take a stab at it? I'll even give you a grade at the end!

And no, I am not cheating, I've already turned in the assignment. I've even posted my answer in the extended entry!

**************************************

In the document, give the solution, time it took you to solve the puzzle, and any comments. Be honest! If you can't solve the puzzle in 10 - 15 min, let it not bother you. Puzzles are just one sort of Problems and one has to develop the techniques to solve them. That is not the goal of our course - it is a logical activity, that will (should) get you started thinking, step by step.

Cuckoo Clocks

Three members of the Boston Horology Society have just returned from a holiday in Switzerland where they each purchased a handmade cuckoo clock.

Can you work out where each person bought their clock, the name of the clockmaker and how much each clock cost, $100, $120, $150?

1. Gloria Greene didn't buy the cheapest clock and it wasn't the one manufactured by Franz Geisser.

2. The clock bought in Geneva was manufactured by Hans Bruckner and was

cheaper than the one bought by Wilbur Watson.

3. Trudie Tipler didn't buy her cuckoo clock in Zurich.

4. The most expensive clock was purchased in Zermatt but wasn't the one
manufactured by Herman Finkel.

Name	Place	Clock Maker	Price
Gloria Green	???	???	???
Wilbur Watson	???	???	???
Trudie Tipler	???	???	???

(Damn I hope I'm right or this will be really embrassing)

Read More "Critical Thinking" »

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A Woman's Razor!

Okay Ladies!

The new Schick Quattro for Women is definitely worth the purchase!

The four blades make it easy to shave, not having to go over the same place twice. The razor feels heavy and durable. The handle is a better shape and makes it an easier angle to shave.

Definitely the best I've used! There's a deal at Target right now with the razor and 4 additional cartridges for $8.00.

Or, GO HERE and try one for free.

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F is for...

LONDON (Reuters) - The word "fail" should be banned from use in British classrooms and replaced with the phrase "deferred success" to avoid demoralizing pupils, a group of teachers has proposed.

Members of the Professional Association of Teachers (PAT) argue that telling pupils they have failed can put them off learning for life.

A spokesman for the group said it wanted to avoid labeling children. "We recognize that children do not necessarily achieve success first time," he said.

"But I recognize that we can't just strike a word from the dictionary," he said.

The PAT said it would debate the proposal at a conference next week.

In 50 years, they will be banning the phrase "deferred success" to avoid demoralizing pupils.

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The Chocolate Factory!

VS.

I love Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory! So needless to say, I was anxiously awaiting Charlie and the Chocolate Factory since I saw the previews last year!

It is hard to compare the two. They are really two different movies. The same, but different!

Is the new one worth seeing? Yes. Is it better than the first? In my opinion, no.

Willy Wonka, played by Johnny Depp, reminded me of a mix of Christopher Lloyd's character in Who Framed Roger Rabbit (Judge Doom) and Michael Jackson. He played the creepy part well, but couldn't do what Gene Wilder did in the original.

The kids? They picked well. Although I'm still partial to the original Charlie.

The factory? Can't beat the original factory. I don't care how high tech we are these days.

The Oompa Loompa? Again, I prefer the first. Although, Deep Roy (sounds like a porn star) did do a good job!

The Soundtrack? The new one! I was impressed. I caught myself tapping my foot several times!

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory does give you resolution though. It's nice to know what happens to the kids and the family.

Although I was weirded out by Wonka as a kid in his head gear.

Anyways...If you liked Willie Wonka and the Chocolate factory, go see Charlie and the Chocolate factory. If you weren't a big fan, go see the matinee!

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Support Our Troops

Contagion is rallying up support for our troops.

Go over and leave comments that Contagion will forward to them. Leave a donation for items to be sent to the troops. Leave ideas of things to send.

Or, send your own care package. You can contact your local military base public relations contact, a recruiting office, USO office, or local Military Veterans groups.

To see a list of suggest items to send and not to send, go here or here. Includes stuff like:

Baby wipes Mouth Wash Eye Drops Chapstick Sunblock Phone cards Foam balls Batteries Magazines Playing Cards Books

Go see Contagion and be a part of a great cause.

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