Monday, December 24, 2007

"T'was the night before Christmas and all through the house,...."

That's what I woke up to this morning, running through my head!
Funny, but this has been one of those "who gives a shit!" years in terms of Christmas spirit for me. Why? Wish I really knew,...but I don't. There's enough nasty shit brewing, and that could be part of it, plus I'm closing in on 63 and the long term "outlook" is not one of roses and lollipops. (My fault, and I take responsibility for it!)
But I gotta tell you my faith in the braincells governing us are in very suspect position, the hope for our youth is in even worse shape, and I'm too damn tired to jump on my noble steed and fight it.
Sorry, I didn't want to screw up your Christmas,...(sigh) so on to things to be hopeful about.

Number two son and his wife are "with child" and expected delivery of Junw 2008, (looks like another trip to Utah!)
Number one daughter happier than a pig in slop doing "pro bono" work for Legal Aid and then wondering "who's gonna pay the rent?" (Non-profit is about as close to slavery as you can come,...but you're doing it to benefit mankind! (But mankind aint' payin' the rent either!)
Number one son is in the Houston/Dallas area trying to make things happen for himself,...the good news here is that he's gone back to school nights and is amazed at how easy it is for him! (DUH! It's nothing new, just the reality of life they try and teach dumb 18 year olds who are more concerned with partying and a cute piece of ass every weekend! Do I sound opinionated? Naaaaaw! Not me!)
My dipshit old company is sueing me for a bogus non-compete clause and a couple of "tortious interferance with contractual relations" charges. (That was last Friday's good news!) Like I told the wife, the attorney, and everyone else that will listen, I ain't goin' there. Win lose or draw F*** 'em all! I'm simply moving on with my life, you want to battle me there will be a body count, but not mine! I am prepared to become a "guest of the State" if the Courts rule against me! What the hell, 3 squares a day, roof over the head, free clothes,....only bad part no local pub, but I can adapt!
The very last thing you want to ever do is piss on my shoes, I take that seriously, and Don Quixote was a rank amateur when it comes to being ethically driven and stubborn next to me!
Well maybe tomorrow morning I'll wake up to Rudolph the Red nosed Reindeer and it will make Christmas a little brighter.
Again sorry to rain on your parade, but I really wish you all the best and have a joyous day!
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Friday, December 21, 2007

An early Christams wish to all!!

I've been caught up in the "worldly shit" of business this past few monthes,...and it sucks!! Here i am on December 21st, three days before Christmas, no Christmas spirit, no presents bought( other than good friends Carl and Doug) and I really don't care!! That SUCKS!
Well I won't expound tonight, but over this weekend I will , along with a few other "surprises", so as they used to say on TV,...."stay tuned"!

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Saturday, December 08, 2007

Told you I was going to write a "bunch" Chapter 3

Next new find was a bit of a fluke. It was so flukey I don't even remember how I found it1 (God I love the web!!)
This one is under "www.genetree.com".
I've been interested in tracing my family lineage for decades, but I'm stuck when my grand parents got off the boat, because all the immagration dudes put was "Ireland", no county, no city or town,...nada! And me, having been a smart ass kiddie some fifty years ago, never bothered to ask them when they were still around, at least some of them. Now I find I am the patriarch of the entire family!! SHIT!
Anyway every once in a while I would get a passing thought about how wondeful it would be to get a "dna" swab and try and track my family that way. (Ok, so I watch WAAAAY too much CSI! No wisecrack Lucy!)
Well it seems this web site is actually trying to accomplish that in a way. As I understand it, and we all know that's really a stretch,...me understanding that is. This guy who started the company, which is out of Utah (I know, maybe it 's a Morman thing) has already rounded up over 750,000 dna files and thier objective seems to be to trace everyone on this earth back to the "Adam and Eve" origin. Well it facsinated me (see I told you it did'nt take much!) So I signed up.
The theory is that at one point in the history of the world there were "tribes", and these tribes were the basic "foundations" if you will to todays modern humanity. Inter "mingling" over the eons produced more and differing "tribes" and so on and so on.
(Yeah I know, ...so what!)
Well it really would be a so what if it were not for the fact that apparently the female of the species all contain a never changing mitochondrial gene. Therefore that one gene can be matched and traced back forming a "chain" of lineage. (And they said I slept through Science!)
Makes sense to me, so I signed up for a DNA kit and once I get it and take my own DNA and plunk it back into the system what will it tell me?
Basically it will trace my "tribe" back. Obviously I'm hoping it's European, then perhaps a Roman or Greek strain, and then who knows! Sounds like an interesting experiment and the, I think it's spelled Hapologue or similar will show the entire movement of my tribe troughout time, and history.
I said it before it does not take much to amuse me!!
If Kevin Bacon is only six times removed from me, I wonder what Caesar was, or King Arthur, oh shi,...maybe even Bill Gates! (Dear Mr. gates, irrefutable research has shown I am a relative of yours, so please be sure my name is spelled correctly in the will, sincerely Cousin ------.)
Ok I'm going on hour number four of my writing marathon.
Well i'm going to end here because I'm going to go to work on a new blog I'm putting together called "The Emerald Rose". I've written a few test blogs to it, and I am trying to make it more visually appealing than this one
TTFN

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OOOOoooooopppppppss!!

For all my jibber jabber about the Kiva project I spelled it wrong.
It's www.Kiva.org humble appologies, reading is fundamental!

Chapter Two - "I get by with a little help from my friends"

One of my all time favorite Beatles tunes from "days of yore". But it has always been a reminder of us all helping each other out, whenever we can. Why? It's simple 'cause none of us is getting out of here alive! And that's a fact,...so do some good, it doesn't hurt and it's warmth to a little corner of your heart.
End of sermon (damn I shoulda been a preacher!)
I found some really neat new stuff on the web and I thought I'd share it with you, cause it might just warm a corner of your heart.
www.kivo.org , check it out. A friend of mine told me about a financial network TV program coming up the other night with a segment on "Second Life" (Yeah, I've been learning it for a couple of months already behind closed doors in the privacy of "the pit", names McCallen, ..Shawno McCallen if any of you get to second life, well look me up)
Anyway I digress. I watched the segment on second life with interest,, and then before I could switch back to a twenty-eighth re-run of "Law & Order", a new segment came on about this "Kivo", so I watched it.
Seems like in the less fortunate parts of the world there are people whose desire to support themselves and thier families, as well as not be "on the dole", or sucking of the public teat, and they have desire, ambition, an idea, but alas,...no money. (Sure sure I can hear you now, well so what so do a lot of people sounds like a scam coming up.) I said the same thing, but they explained the concept simply. It's not like the individual in Equador is looking for a half a million dollars for a MacDonals franchise, but a total of $700 to open a livestack sales business. Cool, but I don't have an extra $700 in my jeans. But they went on to say that all they would accept from anyone was $25. And if 28 of us "chipped in" $25 a piece it would be done, and it was not a "gift" but a business loan that would be repaid. The monies wnet directly to the "entrepreneur" through hundred of "micro banks", and the loans had to be repaid. The idea intrigued me, so when the piece ended I popped up stair to "the Pit" and checked it out.
www.kiva.org - sign up is free, and there is an international catalogue of entreprenuers, with thier picture, a summary of thier plan for thier business, a check out tht it's all on the "up and up" by the local "micro-bank", but what amazed me was the amount of money that the "micro-banks" , utilizing the measely $25 per person had put into economies from Equador to Tanzania, to Aberbajan. They were simple businesses, ideas of men, women, and groups of men and women. Being a bit of a skeptic I looked through the "money wanted" section at all the little businesses. The thing that truly amazed me was the virtually complete lack of "bad debt" or "failed loans" they were ZERO. and the "micro banks" were utilizing MILLIONS of dollars on these little loans. And they were all being repaid!!!
I said what the hell and after perusing all the candidates I decided I'd skip a few beers this week and spring for $25. (Make someone around the world an early Christmas present or some such.) I selected this woman who was standing in this scrawny looking "field" of her families "farm" and wanted $1200 for fertilizer, pest control , fungicides etc. so she could plant and grow Yams to sell from her land.
You get an account, and your "investment" shows up on your account, with the picture, you get periodic updates, and the repayments are posted to your account and you can see all the other "investors" that with you, are making this possible. As you get re-paid your "cash" grows in your account and you can either take it out and it cost you nothing, or "re-invest" in other ideas and entrepreneurs around the world.
It fasinates me that my little "beer money" is capable of helping someone stand on thier own two feet and be proud to be able to support thier own family, not by "gifts" but in the basic business method of banking.
I would urge everyone to check out this web sight, make your own decisions, but I know I really feel like I am making a difference in someone's life, somewhere on this planet, and yes, that another human being now has more dignity and character,...and I helped them get it!
www.kiva.org

-30- Stay tuned for Chapter 3 of the weekend blog "where did I come from?"

Ok,....I'm in a writin' mood! Hence "Chapter 1 of the weekend blog"

As promised a few goodies for all of you today.
Thanks for the prayers for my sister, she came through ok. They did two more stents for a total of three, did the old "roto-rooter" for a boatload of calcium buildup, and they are sending her home today. Again many thanks.

On to fun and games. First of all last time I did the 1967 (year I got married) events and intersting trivia for you, so let's jump ahead a scant ten years to 1977 and see how badly the world went to hell in a decade!
January 1977 - Apple computer incorporates
May - the first "quadraphonic concet" is performed in London by Pink Floyd
October - three members of the Southern Rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd ("Sweet Home
Alabama" a virtual Anthem round here) die in a tragic charter plane
crash
November - The first flight of the Concorde (London to New York)
Television first appears in South Africa
The Vatican bars women from joining the priesthood
West German Police engage in protracted battles with the Baader-
Meinhof gang, and the Red army faction
The worlds first MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) is tested in
New York
The Nobel Peace prize winner was Amnesty International
Elvis Presley, Charlie chaplin, and Bing Crosby all passed away
in 1977
Costs of things
A new house = $49,319.00
Average U.S. Income = $15,070.00
Tuition to Harvard = $4,100.00
Gasoline a gallon = $0.65
Fresh baked bread a loaf = $0.36

Notable births
Liv Tyler, Sarah Michelle Gellar(Buffy the Vampire killer), and my
youngest son,...Jay the missing (long story for another time)
Tunes we love still
Hotel California - The Eagles
Best of my Love - the Emotions
How deep is your Love - The Bee Gee's
Movies from "the old days of '77"
Star Wars (the one that started them all)
Close encounters of the third kind
Saturday Night Fever - bet Travolta can't dance that way now!
Smokey and the Bandit - Coors finally made it east!
The spy who loved me - go 007!!

Aaaah! Ain't life great back then? It was a wonderful time to liv through , even though we were all just trying to survive and begining to recover from Viet Nam.
I could ask a dumb question like "Where were you in '77?" but I''m sure most of my readers just flat were not anywhere YET. The miracle of conception and birth had not begun. But next time you hear "Hotel California" you can say I know someone who was there then!
Back in a minute with Chapter two of the weekend blog!
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Friday, December 07, 2007

Oh yeah,

If you get a chance a couple little prayers for my little sister who is getting two more "stents" put in her heart today. Should be no problem,.....BUT, I'll take all the help I can get!
Tom
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Ok,...so I lied!

I said I'd write this past weekend,...but I didn't. 40 lashes with a wet noodle!! (Or going to Burger King and knowing the only way I'm going to get it "your way" is jump the counter and do it myself!)
But it's Friday morning! EIGHT hours to freedom!! It's not that I don't like what I do it's just the fact that as a damn "portfolio manager" I have too many things to do! I could literally work 18 hours a day and get further behind every day. And NO it's not becasue I'm an old fart losing grey cells, but the entire work attitude of the younger generation is infiltrating the world. (Feel a good rant coming on? You're right, but if I start it this morning, well, ..I'll just say "screw it" and stay home and write all day, which...will cause me to fall even further behind!! (sigh)
So off to work I go, but I will return this weekend,....promise. I've discovered a number of absolutely FANTASTIC new things on the 'web". Ok I'll give you a little sneak peek or two before I come back.......................
1. Point your cursor to the little line at the top and type,.."www.kiva.org" This is something I did get involved in this week because it beats the hell out of the old write a check for charity thing. "Give a man a fish he'll eat for a day, teach a man to fish and he'll eat for a lifetime" The investment is about my average bar bill a night (with tip) but if it lets someone be thier own master in any way I'm in!
2. Again point your little cursor to "www.genetree.com" a fascinting concept an reminder of the fact that good old druggie Rodney King actually had a good thought, just didn't extend it far enough,..."Can't we all get along (extended version) cause way back when we all came from Adam and Eve" Wonder which roads my genes came down?
More later fans, plus the continuing saga of Mr. Guinness sueing the Health Insurance Company. (You'll love this shit, and I do mean shit!) If you read a previous blog or so back about my attempts at getting health insurance wait until you read chapter 2. Not only do I have a "bad heart", COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease), a "leper like" disease, but ED (Erectile disfunction)! I sure as hell wish my Doctor knew about that, then he could tell me about it, particularly the ED part then I could just relax and give up sex! Oh how wise the Underwriting department of Blue Cross Blue Shield must be to know all this stuff!
And other "slices of life" from the week gone by! Get a BIG mug of coffee, I may have to do multiple blogs on the same day, just so we all get a "potty break"
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