Religious Toleration

Well as I sit here on this Sunday, watching cartoons with Eva, I thought I would spend this time doing something productive. Being a blogger, or rather trying to be, I try to stay up on the latest relevant news and unless you have been living under a rock for the past week you cannot help but know that there is some terrible stuff happening all over the world right now. I posted about the Egyptian protests and would have covered everything that was going on in Libya but thought that you would have enough information from everyone else, but you can see that on my Facebook Page. I also just plain didn't have the time.

Egyptian protesters tear down US Flag and burn it on anniversary of 9/11

This just in. Will update when more information is known.

Update

USA Today says that CNN reported that U.S. Security guards, probably U.S. Marines fired warning shots today shortly after 2 pm EST. Of the 2000 protesters that are outside of the walls Reuters is saying that only 20 have climbed the walls. If you watch the video it looks to me as if more than twenty have shimmied up there.

Children, Mead, and Good Times

I have recently started brewing kombucha tea. If you don't know what it is head over to Cultures for Health and educate yourself. Once I know that I have a successful batch I will put up a post about it. This attempt has also refueled this need that I have always felt to brew some good homemade adult beverages. 

The first thing that I wanted to brew at home was mead. Yes, you did read that correctly. I hadn't actually tasted mead until this past Saturday and that was my main reason for not even attempting to make it. I just couldn't justify spending the money on the equipment, which isn't actually all that expensive, or the ingredients, which kind of is. 

Summer's End

Delicious watermelon!

Today has been pretty uneventful. This is the end to a big summer for me. We have left Virginia after being there less than a 1 1/2 years, to move up to Ohio. We have only one connection here and that is our friends Klahzia and Robert, no family, no other friends. I got a new job, in a office nonetheless, that I actually kind of like. Cari is working, Eva is in a new school where she is being exposed to a whole new culture.

Supplying Afghanistan with the Best

Everything that we are doing overseas to help rebuild the war-torn country of Afghanistan is in vain if we don’t understand that we need to train the local army so they can defend their own country. There are many ways that we could be helping the country, but the cheapest, most effective, and easiest is by placing better quality service-members into the units that train the foreign militaries. Wouldn’t it make sense that if we want our family, friends, brothers and sons, out of harm’s way, we do it as effectively as we can? We need to give Afghanistan our best so that our best can come home.

Tattoos

Beautiful back piece by Den Yakovlev
 from Negative Karma

Hello out there. Today I do not have an exact topic to talk about so I am going to fall back on one that is near and dear to me. Tattoos. Those of you who know me well also know that I have several tattoos and that they are all nicely done and tasteful. I got everyone of my tattoos while on Active Duty with the Marines AND I stayed within regulations for them all.

Why men have no say about abortion.

Okay, I just have to say that Todd Akin has to be one of the most ignorant people in politics today. There now that I got that out of the way let me get into why.

This man is trying to say that a woman should not not be allowed to have an abortion due to rape because if it is a legitimate rape her body will not even let a fetus be formed. Go back and read that line again, I'll wait. Okay, what the hell is he smoking?

Why I think Ubuntu is better than Windows

I just want to go over a few things today, so this isn't going to be long. Today as I was trying to wrap up my migration from FB to Google+ I encountered a terrible message from my Ubuntu system. Without any lag at all my system informed me that I had mere megabytes left on my hard drive.

I do not have a small hard drive at all, but when I first made the move to a Linux system I decided to do a dual-boot with Wubi as I wasn't sure if I was going to enjoy the OS or not. I allocated 17GB to the Ubuntu Partition I think and never thought that I was going to fill that up. When I turn my laptop on now I cannot just hit the button and walk away for a drink, I have to be there to keep my Toshiba from booting into Windows Vista and if I miss it I just go to Windows and then restart.

The Right Rights | Scott's Stuff

“God Hates Fags!” and “Thank God for dead soldiers” are both horrible things to say in today’s world. These words should never be spoken, much less written on posters and paraded about a fallen service member’s funeral. How can a grieving family, like Matthew Shepard’s, deal with these insane protestors while at the same time weeping over the horrific murder of their son? The police should come and arrest them all, every last one.

The Topeka, Kansas based Westboro Baptist Church (WBC), was founded in 1955 by current pastor Fred Phelps and his family, and is sadly protected from most prosecution by the Bill of Rights that these same dead soldiers died to protect. Best known for picketing funerals, the group will also picket synagogues, high school graduations, school plays, and even other churches! The widely held Christian belief that god, intentionally left lowercase, loves everyone is also overturned and denied by their beliefs and actions.

How to Transfer Facebook Contacts to Google+

I have had a Google+ profile page for awhile now and have thoroughly enjoyed it. The only reason I have not used it exclusively is because the Facebook page that I have had since I first got a college email address in 2005 has all of my friends on it.

I like to get in on technology early on if I can, but most of my Facebook friends don't agree with me. I didn't bother hunting down each FB friend on G+ because I had every intention on moving all of my Google stuff to Google Apps. Once I did get Apps set up I wanted to add all of my FB friends to make it worthwhile, should be simple right?

Not.

MIA

Hey folks, i have been MIA since this move up to Ohio. I am here, I am alive and I am busy. I am also in the process of moving the site so i can do a few more things with it.

To keep you happy I have put up a page of links for to to look at until i get squared away. Enjoy.

How do I get so lucky?

Well, no book chapter today. They are not exactly chapters, and if I can ever get more than two people to read it and actually publish it one day the whole division will be redone.

Why no new material for my loyal readers? Packing. I hate packing. When we moved from Hawai'i to Virginia the Wife got out of packing up an entire house The one good thing about that was I could have all the cocaine, hookers, and strip clubs I wanted when she left. Oh, and I got to pack up sexy time clothes that she left. I somehow get by with like 8 pairs of underwear (are they technically 'pairs'?) While she could go three damn months of no laundry and still have lacy stuff to wear. Blows my mind.

Now that we are moving again, she was again got out of packing. She and Eva have been in Ohio for almost two months now while I slave away down here, eating frozen foods and sleeping alone. No cocaine, hookers, or strip clubs in Giles. So as I sweat my ass off in this house, meticulously filling then labeling then taping then stacking, only to load them in the uhaul tomorrow and then do it again at Mom's, I hope someone out there will read this and take pity on me and drink several Flying Dog beers for me.

Marriage is equal my ass

Chapter Three

July 23, 2009

The smell brought me back. Powerful, but not like a weightlifter, more like a dictator. Sweet, but not like sugar, more like when you have a really good day that you wish would go on forever. This was a good sign and then I heard it. Nothingness.
“What happened to the angels, I don’t hear the beating anymore”, said Lani.
“Cupid happened”, I told her, “We should be leaving though, like now!”
“Wait I have to grab the rest of the ti leaves.”
I knew it was too late when I heard the slight whistling, a whistling that you don’t want to hear. The first ball of burning rock came through the roof of the building, melting the ragged edges smooth like cauterizing a wound. I heard the screaming of a cherub as one of the other fireballs found its first target. The smell of burnt sugar permeated the air and it was sickening.

Call me Mack

Growing up I had one solid male role model in my life and that was my Pawpaw, William Mack Walker. Pawpaw was just always there no matter what. The things I remember most about him are some of the meanest things he did to me.

I was staying at his house with him one summer when we had the squirrel incident. Grandma Walker, who was my great grandmother who I called grandma, had this huge chestnut tree in her yard and I loved to climb it. I was the best climber of all the kids and could even pick on my older cousin and run away straight up that old tree. Well, like I said it was a chestnut tree and can you guess what is attracted to chestnut trees? Nuts. No. I mean squirrels. I wanted to catch one of these things so badly and I just knew that Pawpaw would know how, he knew everything. I went inside and asked him and he just smiled and explained it all to me. I should have known when he smirked that this was a bad idea.

Chapter Two

Chapter Two

July 23, 2009

Sometime this fucking year Cupid. It sounds like there are a hundred of them out there. Probably with his boyfriend again. Bastard,

Last time he had a spat with his lover I nearly died. Turns out that when he gets all melancholy and down on himself he just stops whatever he has going on at that particular time. At the last particular time he lost it, we were sitting ready in an ambush. We had some intel that told us where and when two of the largest cells on the east coast were meeting to plan a large operation. A large operation, that is, against us.

Chapter 1

Chapter 1

July 23, 2009

It started out like any other day. Any day since the first day that is. I am a survivor of the End of Days. Today’s date is July 23, 2009. Unless I stop and do the math I have forgotten how many days exactly that it has been. It happened on May 5, 2005. The day Yahweh came down.

May 1, 2005

We were walking down the street to the coffee shop. Mike looked at me as we passed another crazy man standing on his street corner screaming about the end of the world coming and how all sinners were going to burn in hell.
“Same song they have been singing for ages now, man, I wish they would just get a clue and knock it the fuck off”, Mike said.
“Well,” I laughed, “I don’t guess they will quit until it happens.”
“It? You don’t actually believe that shit do you?
“I don’t know man, I mean something has to be out there right? Why not their god, why not the techie’s gods, hell, why not all of the gods?”

My new book

I have started writing a book. Yes, yes I have. I will be posting chapters on here as they are completed, and my blog will be the only place that it will be available. It has no title yet but will have a dystopian / religious undertone, along with a war theme.

Great Photo

I stole this photo from Make Use Of. They had it on there Facebook and I just think it is a fantastic photo.  I generally ignore all the photos on my news feed because I just can't get into all the Bible thumping, friends are great, help a kid with cancer pictures. This one was worth reporting though.

I think it is great that in a generation where more and more of us move away, get caught up with life, and just get out of touch, that we have various means of staying connected. Even when we randomly run into someone that we havent seen in a long time, we still know basically how they are doing thanks to things like Facebook .

When I deployed to Afghanistan in 2008 Eva was almost two weeks old. If not for Facebook I would have missed a lot more than I did.

On another note, since this was a screen shot from me Evo,  let me know in the comments if the picture is even readable.

Summertime

Summer wind and barefoot kite flying. Be seeing you soon Eva.

End of days

I have given a lot to this company.  A lot of hours and a lot of effort. Last night I went and worked from just after midnight to 730 in the morning. I was tired. I came home and went to bed instead of going to the next job and working it. That job is one that all I am doing is coming in behind a shitty contractor and fixing what should have been done in the beginning.

My boss came to my house tonight. Woke me up. I was accused of making funny business of my timesheet.  Asked if I would give 100% this week. Of course I will, I always do. I was also asked ringing through Sunday I would be let go.

Looks like I will be joining my family in Ohio a little sooner.  Time to get the U-Haul.

Views galore

To kick this thing off I would like to get between 4 and 6 people to donate time to this blog. I am looking for varied views on several topics. Maybe a few on saving money with DIY tricks. Let me know of any other ideas you have or if you are interested in the writing part.

Technology wins again.

I work a lot of weekends at this little job of mine. A LOT. The other day i worked 17.5 hours. That is pouring 13 yards of concrete, driving a little over an hour away and then texturing and priming a house until 1:15 in the morning. By myself. Sleep for 4 hours and do it all again. Why do I do it? Well my family needs to eat and I have to work insane hours to make endsmeat. My boss,  the one I like, depends on me. I won't charge him much today because you know what? I have laid around and set up my phone, checked emails, played on facebook, and setup a new voicemail system. Oh I started a new blog too. At least I stayed off of YouTube.