COMMENTS

Once again, due to the stupid SPAM and just plain stupid comments, I am putting restrictions on comments to my blog. I am sorry for any inconvenience this causes. Don't blame me, blame the stupid spammers.

THE MEME OF FOURS

The Meme of Fours.

OK Scott, Scott-O-Rama here is mine.


Four Job’s I’ve Had

IBM Machine Operator
Photographer
Electrician
Laborer

Four Movies I Can Watch Over and Over

Champagne for Caesar
2001 A Space Odyssey
2010 The Year We Make Contact
Home Alone

Four Places I’ve Lived

Granite City, IL
Venice, IL
Hamel, IL
Edwardsville, IL

Four TV Shows I Like To Watch

Law & Order
Law & Order SVU
E-Ring
Paula’s Home Cooking

Four Websites I Visit Daily

AOL
Discuss-It
Scott-O-Rama
My Bank

Four Places I’d Rather Be

Winnetka, IL
Branson, MO
Nashville, TN
Orlando, FL:

MY TAXES ARE DONE

It's that time again. Time for you to rush around trying to find that elusive receipt for your large purchase last July. Time to gather all your donation receipts from Goodwill, that is; providing you kept them. Or even worse, providing you really did donate Aunt Mae's antique bureau to Goodwill. Poor Goodwill, they must recieve credit for a billion donations that they never really get.

Well, where do you stand on getting your 1040 done? Interesting note here, you work a normal 40 hour work week for 52 weeks and you will have worked 2080 hours a year. Does the Form 1040 mean that you will give half of your income to Uncle Sam? Somehow, I think it does. Big Brother isn't dumb, they know how to tell you something without actually saying the words. Isn't life fun?

I must have worked three weeks at getting my taxes down. I seriously suggest you purchase TurboTax. It is the best tax program I have ever used. It allows you to try this and try that in your effort to lower the amount you give Big Brother.....er. make that Uncle Sam. Besides, G.W. and Mr. Halliburton need the money to finance their efforts overseas. Don't forget the opportunity to depreciate your home, your car or anything else that you can legitimately do.

I do not suggest that anyone cheat on their income taxes; but I do suggest that you take every deduction that you can. Don't forget the price of the tax program and the price of the stamps to send the return to Big.. . ah Uncle Sam. I have been audited twice and both times the auditor laughed at my deduction for postage; but he had to accept it. It was a legitimate deduction.

I am cheap and damn well proud of it.

WHAT DO YOU WATCH ON TV?

As many of you know (that is the two that read this blog), I like to watch The History Channel, The National Geographic Channel, The Military Channel and The Discovery Channel. I just finished watching, TiVoing and cutting a DVD of The National Geographic Channel's presentation of The Final Report. The subject of this episode was the fiasco in Waco, Texas.

I am referring to the Mount Carmel Compound of the Branch Davidians. The TV report puts the main blame for this disaster on the Federal Government. Does that surprise you? It shouldn't. Our government, the FBI, and the ATF knew very little about the religious sect known as the Branch Davidians. The Branch Davidians had been amassing a vast array of weapons to defend themselves against attack of what they believed to be the enemy of their beliefs.

The first thing to understand is that they had a full God-given and U. S. Constitutional right to believe as they did. They were looking at the world as ready for the Apocolypse. The visions described in the Book of Revelations were, in their eyes, ready to occur. If you read the Book of Revelations it does encourage true beleivers to prepare themselves for a siege. In that belief, they purchased many semi-automatic weapons and converted them to ILLEGAL fully automatic status. This was their main activity that attracted the interests of the Feds.

The Federal Government had no idea what these people believed, nor did they care. The FBI lied to Attorney General Janet Reno in obtaining permission to use tear gas in storming the building. They claimed that David Koresh and his followers were beating and abusing children. This was a complete lie. We all know the outcome of this debacle.

Janet Reno later stated that the assault on the compound was a mistake. President Bill Clinton said the same. The man in charge of the FBI units at the compound quietly resigned after the outcry resided. In fact, they were shown on camera crying. They all were very sorry for the outcome of the attack at Waco. Our Federal Government overreacted and, most likely, contributed to the Branch Davidians resistance to surrender.

I was appalled at what I saw on this TV show. Yes, I watched the event play out on TV in the early 90's but never knew the full story behind our government's actions. The FBI acted in haste to storm the compound even while the hostage negotiators were trying to reach a peaceful end to it all. Sort of like, "here, take this olive branch I hand you in peace while I shoot you with my other hand."

What is your "take" on the situation?

P A S S W O R D S

Do you remember the game show? It sure had some funny moments. You have passwords with your computer access and it isn't a funny time at all if someone were to guess your password. They can cause all sorts of havoc with your online account, even to the point of identy theft. Do you do online banking? Have you ever responded to a phishing expedition? Those are the spams that aggavate me the most.

How about those passwords that you are required to furnish when logging into a newspaper site or something that you are only slightly interested in? Should they even require you to log in with your email address and a password? I think not.

If I am required to furnish some stupid site with a password, I try to use something silly; like the word "password" if possible. I have used "stupid1" and "ID10T", words that express my disgust with the situation. I have even used "oh-shit" when it allows me to use the dash. I believe too many web sites require us to furnish passwords that allow people to peek inside our lives.

Computers are supposed to be here for our benefit, not the benefit of the spammers. Same with the telephone, they are in my home for my benefit, not for some asshole construction company to call and attempt to sell me something I do not want or need. Now, there is another rant for another time.

To think up a new password every month, as is required by some IS Departments is almost an impossible task. You can not reuse a password from the past nor can you duplicate the password of a fellow worker. Want some suggestions I have seen in use? I have seen "TOBOR" as a backdoor password for a complete series of machines. That is robot spelled backwards. Try using the make of your partner's automobile. Never use your mother's maiden name as I have seen some folks do. Think up a childhood nursery rhyme and use the first letter of each line.

One more suggestion, "MICKEY DUCK". That should give someone a bit of a problem. They know there never was a Mickey Duck. Or, from the Mickey Mouse era, how about "Annette", I kinda liked her. "Bobby" completely rubbed me the wrong way. There is always the cousin to Mickey Mouse, "RICKEY RODENT". Aren't you sorry you read this?

I AM STILL HERE

I was surprised to see how long it has been since I last posted to this blog. My only excuse is that both of us have been sick. You really don't want all the details, so I will just say that Felix got a touch of the flu and had 5 days of the Hershey Squirts. We spent 5 hours on 10 January in the Emergency Room at a Hospital in St. Louis getting rehydration and medication for Felix. I was very patient, I sat there and shivered the whole time. Boy, they keep those Emergency Rooms cold.

Just as I predicted, as soon as he got well, I got sick. If there is one thing a colostomy patient does not want to go through is diarrhea. I had a very bad experience with it in 2002 when I was still doing the chemotherapy and it quickly turned into a major case of dehydration. I spent 3 days in the hospital getting my electrolytes back in order. The skin on the bottoms of my feet was peeling off in 1/8th inch thick pieces. I was in bad shape. The only thing I could drink was Gatorade. Even Gatorade popsicles. Didn't taste that bad.

Both of us are better now; but Felix was on vacation for two weeks and we had many plans that we had to cancel. Many restaurants had to go it alone, without us. You should know that we both like to eat. We cancelled trips to Southern Illinois and Northern Illinois for suppers and our favorite German Restaurant in Hermann, Missouri for lunch. Damn. The only real treat we had was on the day I had my annual cancer CT checkup. After getting out of the Radiology Department we made our way to the "Hill" district of St. Louis for some authentic Italian food.

We went to Amighetti's Italian Deli at the corner of Marconi and Wilson on the Hill. I wasn't even sure they would be open at 9:30 AM; but thank God, they were. As far as I am concerned, there is no better Italian Deli than Amighetti's. They make the best Italian soups in the city of St. Louis. I had a cup of Beef Barley soup and a full foot-long Amighetti's Special sub. Felix had a 6" Special sub and a 6" Taste of Italy sub. We had 2 cans of Coke each. Now, that was some breakfast.

After that, we looked up a camera store and I purchased some additional gear for my Canon 20D digital camera. Unfortunately, Quantaray doesn't make a flash handle for the digital market; but I didn't know that at the time I made the purchase of flash equipment. The next day, they were very agreeable to accepting it back with appropriate adjustment for my credit card. Now, I am going to have to, either modify an analog handle or come up with some other arrangement to hold the flash off camera. Trust me, I will figure out something that works.

OK, that is where I have been for two weeks. I apologize to my readers for my absence; but not only did I not have anything new to talk about, I simply didn't feel like talking at all. Like The Terminator, I am baaack.

TODAY IS JANUARY 2, 2006

And a very Happy Lobster Newburg to all. Honestly, I am kind of tired of the old "Happy New Year" thing. Really folks, unless the person is giving me millions of dollars, my 2006 will be just like the 2005; I will still pay the mortgage, the credit cards and buy gasoline and groceries. What is so happy about that? Well, what? You tell me.

Christmas is for children and with all the colored Christmas lights, gifts cookies and nice meals; it is a joyous occasion. I love Christmas, I love the colored lights, the cookies, the happy kids, the cookies and the big festive meals. I don't like white lights, Santa Claus and bills. Oh, did I mention that I like cookies? Gingerbread, pumpkin, chocolate chip, sugar cookies; I love cookies of all kinds. Felix baked one batch of chocolate chip cookies and stopped. What a grinch he is.

Right now, Felix is laying in his easy chair in his room groaning about an upset tummy and a case of the squirts. I have no idea what caused his discomfort; I ate the same supper last night that he did. He may have overworked himself, yes that is what I said, overworked himself yesterday. He got some wild idea in his noggin that it was time to shred all old bill statements from 2004 and 2005. He burned up two paper shredders in the process. He started on New Years Eve and burned up the two shredders, On Sunday, January 1, we were at Office Depot to buy two new paper shredders.

Felix, then, cleaned house from top to bottom. I do not know what got in him, possibly a feather or a wild hair; but he worked himself into a bad case of the squirts. Squirts, I am not talking about the soda pop here. He says he won't eat a thing. I even offered to fix him a bowl of his favorite chicken noodle soup; but he refused it. The boy is sick, I tell you, sick The way he is moaning I am ready to call the morgue and book a table for him. From all the activity on Saturday evening, I understand they have standing room only at the morgue. Get it? Standing Room Only. Ah well, get your own cookies.

Felix has the rest of this week off work. He sure picked a nice way for a vacation, being sick and a sore pooper at that. That is one thing I do not have to suffer anymore. The colostomy has eliminated the pooper. Somehow I will bet you didn't really want to know all this. No cookies for you either.

Last night I was talking on the radio to two fellows that grew up across the street from each other 70 years ago. It was kind of nice to hear them bring up names that they both knew; but they did not know each other. We all talked about the early history of the city, the railroad tracks that no longer exist, the time a kid climbed up on the top of a boxcar and stood up to touch the hot 600VDC trolley line, of course it killed him, things we all could remember. What ever happened to trolleys? What ever happened to trains? Yeah, I know there are still a few of them around; but 90% of the tracks that used to exist are gone.

Sort of makes me wonder if the U. S. of A. is putting all it's eggs into one basket. There are too damn many trucks out there on the highways as it is, we sure don't need more. I wonder if everything ships in small quantities nowadays? Go to buy something and you will find out that it is on backorder. What ever happened to the days of a boxcar load of something, a truck load of something? Now the businesses only order what they will sell in one week and take orders for the next two weeks. That cuts down their inventory, thereby cutting their taxable goods on hand. That kind or retail business sucks. No cookies for them, either.

Now that I have gotten rid of the competition, I think I will venture into the kitchen for a can of soda and a couple of cookies. Happy Lobster Newburg to you.

OUT OF TOUCH

Today is Happy New Year day. It is December 31 and everyone is supposed to be in a festive spirit, or filled with spirits. I am depressed. I am not really in a festive mood at all. Things have not gone bad, my life has not taken a turn for the worse; but I feel unfulfilled. There seems to be something lacking.

I have talked with old and good friends today. Felix and I have bought each other decent presents for the holidays; but I seem to feel that life is ready to pass me by. I have so many dreams of things I want to do, places to see, people to meet, friends to make; but none of this is happening. I feel stymied. I am retired;but not happily so. My health forced me to accept the company retirement. I was not ready for it.

Of course, along with retirement comes a cut in income. I am not hurting for money, at least, not at this point; but I think I would be happier and more content if I were working. I had planned to work until I reached the mandatory retirement age of 70 set by the company. I had all my plans, finances, everything set up to retire at 70. Even my credit cards were timed to that achedule. OK, so am I bitching about the financial crunch. Well, not really. Sure, an extra thousand or two coming in each month would be very nice; but I do not think that is the basis for my present feeling.

So, what is it, the lack of sex, the lack of money; what? I have a life that many people would envy. I have friends, I have Felix to attend to my needs, to be with me when I leave the house for the wild, outside world. I have six little kittens that entertain me all day with their funy antics. We have good food, a nice home, many good friends; but for the first time in my life , I do not have plans for the future. Maybe that is what I am lacking, a plan for the future, a reason to live.

Is this a normal feeling or am I in deep doggy doo?