R.I.P. Barbaro, R.I.P.

Yesterday Barbaro was put down due to his injuries and all that has accompanied his life after his race where he broke his leg. I replied to a news story on USA Todays onDeadline section where people can respond to news articles. I responded to one on the site about the famed horse that had to be put down.

The first one is my response. I love animals and am sad for those that actually knew the horse that they have had to put the horse down. I just do not understand those reacting so strong that have never met said horse in their life.

The reason I blog on this is to show you the two sides. I was going to respond to what I think about mine and her response but I want to hear what you say. Am I wrong? Too harsh? etc etc. Let me know.

I do not want to sound mean about this but people are crying, literally heartbroken for a horse? I do not get it. We have humanity dying everyday all over the world yet we cry and hurt for a horse!
Lord help us if we grieve more for an animal than for humanity that is hurting, dying and sick.
How has your life been truly effected by a horse that ran in ovals for a living? Wow, I cannot believe where our feelings lay these days?
Sad sad sad state of the world that we grieve for an animal.
Posted by: Toebee

Now a response to my post:

"Sad sad sad state of the world that we grieve for an animal"Toebee said. This also applies to Mr. GET REAL! What kind of person are you? They say that a person who abuses animals also abuses people and so it seems that if you don't have any compassion for an animal you must really be a rotten person and I find it hard to believe you give a crap about anyone but yourself! I care about everyone including animals. Animals are beautiful, give unconditional love and are precious to this world! Barbaro was a beautiful animal and it breaks my heart to see such a strong horse be in so much pain, may he rest in peace...
Posted by: Diana

Anyone else scared for our world?

Bowl with it!

Well Friday night after a very frustrating week at work my wife and I decided to go out. We ended up going to Main Event and played pool for a half hour before we were called for an open lane.

It was pretty uneventful for us until near the end of the hour we had for the lane. We decided to pop up the rails on the lanes for each of us so we did not have gutters to contend with. My wife and I being non bowlers gutters tend to be a big part of our game.

We only had about 11 minutes left on the clock and about 7 frames to go to finish our last game to make it a full 3 games played. These bumpers were not the old blow up bumpers they had when they first were created. These are built into the lanes and are actual railings that pop up out of the floor.

At one of my turns I looked down the alley and decided to throw the 14 pound ball down the lane as fast as possible since it had radar to tell you how fast your ball was moving. Well the ball did not release from my hand when I thought it should have. It released a little late and ended up catching a bit of air under it. When it finally starting coming down it hit the top of the Bumper railing propelling it into the next lane. It hit the next lane about five feet from the pins only for the "sweeper" mechanism to fall just before it hit any pins.

It smacks into that and rolls the five feet back into the front of the pins jamming the sweeper and stranding my ball in the next alley's gutter. And I thought these things were supposed to keep my ball out of the gutter. I should have asked for my money back at this point but I was laughing a bit too much.

So I had to track someone down and get them to go down and retrieve my ball for me to. I think this happens a lot for them since he did not say anything about why my ball was in the next lane. It was new for me since I have never done it before but I have seen it before by one of my buds who prided himself in doing it at least once a game. He likes to palm the lightest ball and chuck.

All of the people around us a had a good laugh about it. I actually offered the younger kids next too us five dollars due to the minutes lost in their time but they did not accept it. I guess the laught they got was enough payment. Especially to see some older fart doing his best Fred Flinstone impersonation.

Oh well it was a fun time and a great moment!

Frustration

Well most of you who either stumble on this or possibly regulars may not want to hear a little frustration in my blog. But this has been a very very tough week for me here at work. Outside of work life is good but of course not perfect since no life ever will be.

Well this week I started the week down $250 from last week when one of my clients put a hold on his order for three weeks. Well that was not a huge blow to me and my psychy, that came on Wednesday when one of my clients, an Advertising Agency who never do any wrong, decides to cancel a $686 order. That is $936 worth of income that is now out of my pocket and makes my sales numbers look horrible. That means I have to find business to fill the negative numbers that I put up on the board.

OK I work for a weekly publication as an Advertising Consultant. So I have this thing called rollover that is money on the board already each week when I walk in on Monday for work. Which is nice. I hope that helps to show that $936 is a big deal to me, I am not dealing in multi million dollar sales where one or two big sales a year are good. I have to sell 15 + ads a week to make a good income for the week.

So when you loose 3 ads it hurts, not just in the pocket book but a bit personally. These are 2 of my best clients so I know that they will be back with me in the future but it does not help my boss and their boss to see that everything is still good.

OK then today I had another agency place an ad with me a few weeks ago but never got me the artwork for placement. So with no artwork there is no ad to place so they wanted to cancel. AHHH not another one. It is Friday afternoon around 4pm, we cannot cancel this late when our deadline is 4pm on Friday. Well we worked it out where everyone is happy. Still not happy with it all since they had over two weeks to send artwork but didn't.

Well I know this was a who cares or a "I can't understand anything he just wrote" post but it was good for me to vent a bit. Who cares if I am writing properly and easily understood by those reading if I can vent a bit. It is few and far between that I do but here it is for the world to read.

Then to have 3 or so ads that were "supposed" to come in fall of on Friday makes for a bummer of a week here at the office.

I know Christ is here for me and will be here for me so I have to cling more to him and know that everything will be alright. Especially now where there is some added pressure to do much better this year compared to a good year in 2006.

Comic, I am not!

Here is a pretty funny chat I had yesterday with a potential client I have been dealing with. It just goes to show that you have to know your audience before you try the humor or at least think a bit quicker on your feet than I did.

I had been talking with said PPC (this stands for possible potential client for now) for a few minutes about how we can best serve them and their needs.

PPC: With the take over of (place name of company that they just took over here) I have been way to busy to think or do anything else but all that.

Me: So you are all running around like chickens with your heads cut off.

PPC: If that was the case they would have packaged me and thrown me onto one of the trucks by now.

Me: (after I realized what I just said and to whom I just said it too) So how original was that?

PPC: not so very (as he laughed with me about how stupid I was)

What does PPC really stand for? Actually it stands for Pilgrims Pride Chicken. The other Chicken people not named Tyson.

Yea, like he has never heard that one before.

How pathetic am I that the only "witty" thing that I could say was about chickens with their heads chopped off. It would have actually been pretty good if I actually used it intentionally to be funny.

OH well, maybe as you read this it was not all that funny either but you do have to admit that the story line is funny even if the delivery is off a bit. My comedical stylings are off a bit this week I guess.

Got a prob wit dat?

OK it is Monday and that means a long five days until the weekend. Well This past weekend was a little weird for me brain in that all day Saturday I thought it was Sunday and yesterday I thought it was Saturday. I was fine with Saturday thinking it was Sunday cuz once "Sunday" (meaning Saturday) was over there was a second Sunday that came where I was not at work.

The problem is the fact that when you are feeling that it is Saturday when in actuality it is Sunday comes as a large disappointment the next day when you have to awaken early to get to work. I think it felt like Saturday yesterday more cuz it was such a beautiful day outside that it was a nice thought to have two of them in a row that I was not inside at my desk. Oh well it is Monday and here I am inside at my desk, have not been outside yet so I do not know what I am missing.

Maybe that is why I ate like a bitty piggy and gained a few pounds over the weekend. Since I was so lost of what day it was all I could do was eat to ease the pain. Most likely not the reason but in today's world you do not have to take responsibly anymore, just blame it on anything else you can think of. For this instance for me it was definitely lack of control with my arms, they just kept raising food and soda up to my food hole. What could I have done? There was no other option but to eat and enjoy. My arms made me do it. What am I to do, I have two of them?

Heard a something great this weekend that as I think about it goes right along with my problem. Someone was talking about the different types of people and used the water in a cup scenario. But he said that there are three types of people? That only talks about two, the ones who see the glass half full and the others that see it half empty. When he threw the third type of person it rang a bell for me. All the third person wanted was a Cheeseburger! That's my problem, I could care less about the water all I want is a Cheeseburger!

As the Venus flytrap said in that one movie musical "Feed me". What is the name of that movie again?

Oh by the way there was no ice on the streets this weekend as they predicted thanks to me and my last post.

Would you like some ice with that?

Well yesterday was another icy day here in Dallas. Oh what fun it has been. We, as with most of Dallas, were home all day yesterday due to the roads. We had about a half inch of sleet piled up on our streets and driveway. I did leave in the evening time to go to Church for the Jr. High group. There were a few icy spots but not all too much since it was not all to far for me to go.

Well back to work today but it seems that they are predicting more of the same icy conditions over the night tonight and Friday night. You can thank me now for writing about the weather tonight. I have a tendency to say things in advance for it only to not then happen. So thank me know for the non icy conditions Friday or the weekend.

Perfect example is one year I went to a U of Wisconsin hockey game vs. North Dakota while both teams were ranked in the top five. Well UW was up on ND by 2 points with like 5 minutes to go in the game and I was having a little fun with a fella next to me that was cheering for ND. Yeah, they lost 5-4 that day all cuz I spoke to soon about a for sure victory. I have plenty of these types of stories in my life, I tend to speak to soon and the outcome usually turns the opposite way.

Well I got some reading done yesterday for a two page paper that I have to finish for our candidacy into the Missions Department at Church. Will getting that done I still have plenty to do by Monday of next week for the class we are taking on Islam. It looks like it will be good reading and very helpful in my search to be more knowledgeable. I almost said "to be knowledgeable" but I have a long long way to ever achieve that status so I put more knowledgeable. Since they say the only way you can go from the bottom is up so I am in good shape, right?

Icing Islam

Well as most of you are realizing around the country it is darn cool outside. Here in Dallas it is below freezing making the weather very nice. The best part is that for three days usually here in Dallas I get to pull out my my big ol' leather coat to wear and stay warm (Day 1 today since we did not leave the home yesterday). With the added rain over the weekend, lots of rain actually, has made it fun for all. OK there might be a little sarcasm on all of that but it was not as bad as the news made it all out to be. For a little bit I believed it and altered plans to what they were saying only to see that it was not as bad as they had predicted. I should have known better but I am getting older and not as sharp as I used to be I guess. I usually can see thru all of that and plan accordingly but my spidy senses are growing weaker I guess.

Well the ice in the trees made it look pretty cool outside. Driving around this morning we did see a few trees snapped in half due to all of the extra weight due to the frozen precipitation.

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Well tonight classes start again for me. As some of you may remember last year I took an intro to Theology class. Well this time I am taking a class at our church on Islam. Kinda cool that I got to take the Intro to Theology before taking this class since I can see how each of them have progressed and where they are today. It looks to be a pretty intense class with tests and a paper due all to get a certificate stating that I took it and was successful in it. This way as we try and get into a missionary sending agency they know that I am currently learning about everything.

We are trying to get to Nigeria where half the population is Muslim and the other half Christian so all that I learn know will assist in the Lord's work. So pray for me that I can make it thru and learn much. The nice thing is that my wife is taking it right along with me so she will be a huge help as we go along.

Pray that I will not freeze up during the progression of the class and give up in the middle as I tend to do.

Remember the days fish got flushed, now they have to watch!

New toilet is flush with fish

NEW YORK, Jan 9 (Reuters Life!) - Home renovators looking to bring life to the smallest room in their home now have the chance -- with a toilet that doubles as an aquarium.

The Fish 'n Flush is a clear two-piece toilet tank that replaces a standard toilet tank, with a see-through aquarium wrapping itself around a conventional toilet tank.
"We wanted to develop a product that had a dual purpose - to serve as a proper, fully functional toilet and also as a source of entertainment and conversation," said Devon Niccole, marketing director of California-based designer AquaOne Technologies Inc. which has just started to selling the tank.
He said the company, which specializes in water conservation equipment for home appliance, had worked with a marine biologist to design a tank that ensured the fish were not harmed when the toilet was flushed.
The aquarium toilet tank, which sells for $299, fits most toilets with the 2.2-gallon aquarium piece able to be easily removed for cleaning. The toilet tank itself holds 2.5 gallons which gives sufficient pressure for flushing.
"Some people think we're nuts but other just love it and parents are using it to help their children with potty training. One thing you can guarantee is that people will be talking about it after seeing it in your home," said Niccole.

Lights taken down

Hey people seemed to like the Christmas light photos that were posted. It was a close race on the worst of the worst lights I found. Of course there are plenty of bad ones out there that I did not see but this is a good sampling. Final Results are as follows.

House #1 = 3 votes (30%)

House #2 = 0 votes

House #3 = 0 votes

House #4 = 0 votes

House #5 = 4 votes (40%)

None of the above = 3 votes

All are equally bad = 3 votes (30%)

Thank you to all that voted!

Well it is Wednesday today, does it not feel like it should be Thursday or Friday today since we just had two short weeks in a row?

Not too much at this time so I will keep it short and say ado until next time.

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I do not have any ideas for a new poll at this time so there will be a brief respit. If you have any ideas let me know and I will post a new one.

2007!

OK sorry for the poor photo above since it did not turn out so well. I wanted to include it since you can tell from all the lights that it is over the top. Again sorry abou the blurriness that is this photo.

Well had a great weekend up in Milwaukee this past weekend over New Years. Did not get to see everyone that we wished to have seen over the weekend. First of all our flight our of Dallas was canceled on Friday night due to serious thunderstorms Friday. We booked for Saturday morning at 7:10 onlu to be delayed due to fog in Milwaukee. We finally left DFW around 11:30 am. So our vacation was cut short by almost a full day.

Sorry to those that wanted to see us but did not, we wanted to see everyone but with the delay and going up north to Neenah on Monday to see my grandma along with meeting up in Appleton with my buddy and his fam who live in Green Bay.

For those who missed it, the Wisconsin Badgers beat R-Kansas Raz'rbacks in the Citrus Bowl. OK it was not a pretty game and as I said before neither team seemed to want to actually win the game. But ultimately Bucky came out on top.

Well that is it for know, thought I would put something on here before everyone tunes me out since I went missing for a week.

Peace and HAPPY NEW YEAR!!