Getting Educated

A young Muslim attending Lovett College, a residential college at Rice University in Houston, TX, wrote an article in essence stating that the non-Muslim couldn't understand Islam without some education.

So, for your educational enlightenment, I offer the following websites:

• Confronting the Global Jihad


• Internet Haganah


• Jihad Watch


• Jihad and Terrorism Studies Project


• Middle East Media Research Institute


• MEMRI TV Monitor Project


• Islam Online


• Islamic Awakening


• Islamic Awakening Forums


• The Agenda of Islam - A War Between Civilizations


• Islam's Dark Past


• 10 Myths about Islam


• Punishing Disobedient Wives


• Ask the Imam - Slavery OK in Islam

Border Field State Park

Never heard of it?

It's in San Diego County, California.

It's an accident waiting to happen. Only it won't be an accident, because "the powers that be" know all about it and since it's their 'cash cow' or should I say 'grant money sinkhole,' they won't do anything to stop the flow of money.

Read the article first, come back and comment. Then write your Congressperson.

As Pogo once said: We have met the enemy, and he is us.

It's up to you and me to make a difference.

Michael Yon reporting from Iraq

From MSNBC.com: "There is actually good reporting coming from Iraq -- check out Michael Yon's blog, for example. And it's possible to get a clearer picture of the strategic picture than most big media accounts provide."

Michael Yon is an independent, informed observer chronicling the monumentally important events in the efforts to stabilize Iraq. His dispatches have the benefit of his life experiences without drawbacks based on deadlines or demands of marketplace. The cost of these dispatches is borne solely by Michael.

The reporting and the photos are straight from the hip and well written.

Michael Yon : Online Magazine

Recommended reading for insight into the War on Terror taking place in Iraq.

My great great granddaddy's rifle?

Confession from my childhood

I mean my really really childhood. I was about 4 or maybe 5 when my Grandfather had a heart attack. All I recall is knowing that somehow THAT MAN in the black car caused my Grandfather to have to stay in bed. So of course in my little childlike mind, I blamed him for my Grandfather's condition.

No one loved my Grandfather more than I, except maybe my brother. My "Paw Paw" was the greatest. My earliest memory is when I was about nine months old. Paw Paw was holding me over his shoulder and rocking me. Back and forth, back and forth, as I tried to focus on the wooden screen door in the house my grandparents lived in at the time. The aroma of pipe tobacco takes me back to that memory. My Paw Paw could fix anything. My parents tell me that one evening I noticed a partial moon in the sky and said "Uh Oh, broken moon. Paw Paw fix it." I don't recall that, but I do recall being carried around by my grandfather when I was a toddler. I recall being carried in his arms to look at his flowers. My grandparents had peonies in Montgomery, Alabama. They knew the 'secret' to get them to bloom that far South. My Paw Paw grew Night-Blooming Cereus regularly. I recall being able to stay up one night so that I could see the flower in bloom.



Well back to my confession: There was another child playing with me in front of the house (I had been shoo'ed away, which was fairly normal back when parents shielded their children from the harshness of life and death.) Well, since it was THAT MAN's fault my Grandfather was sick (to my childish mind), I decided I would just 'fix' him for making my Grandfather have to stay in bed. I found a couple pieces of broken glass somewhere along the curb and I wedged the larger piece between the rubber of the black car's passenger side tire and the road. I was called back into the house before THAT MAN left, so I never knew if he ended up with an 'unexplained' flat tire.

To this day, I wonder about it. And I miss my Grandparents very much. My Grandfather passed away in 1974. My Grandmother was my age now when I was born. I never knew her younger than 60. And I was blessed to have her until 1980.

Did I tell you I miss my Grandparents? I hope my grandchildren can say the same thing about me one day. But not any day too soon. I have a lot of living planned for my retirement.

If you want to know how to grow Peonies where it doesn't get cold enough to grow peonies, ask me in the comments.

Training done

Well, no, it didn't look exactly like that. But it was classroom training AFTER we'd done online internet training. It went well, other than some of us, me included, being exhausted from driving an hour and a half or more in the heat of the plateau leading to the gulley of Atlanta. I said gulley not gutter. You want a heat index of 107* today? That's what Atlanta had. I'm sure we were close to 97* easily. Blacktop highways are HoT. No getting around it. Especially when all the trees are cut back for convenience.

I'm glad the training is over. Maybe I can get some of my life back together.

Or not.

I'm threatening to quit my job when I reach 62. You wouldn't believe the number of people in this week's small newspaper who have passed away and were not even sixty years old! My grandmother was 60 when I was born. Sixty is just NOT old in my family. Ninety five is old. Sixty is "second wind."

I'm thinking of taking Kung Fu or Tae Kwan Do. Finding an instructor in this small mountain town is the problem now. I want to be fairly proficient, maybe a second or third belt, by the time I hike the AT.

Yes, that's still in the planning. So little time, so many trails.

Happy Trails to you.

I still hate my job

My job hasn't gotten better. I have to finish my online training before classes on Monday and Tuesday and I still have eight cases to complete. And not enough time to complete them. But I'll have to get them finished so they're not over standard of promptness. And of course the information that I need to contact the people is out of date.

I can't do my job because someone down the line failed to do his job. But he doesn't get written up about it. I will, though.

My supervisor says learning the stuff we're forced to learn is "job security" and I told her I'd rather take my chances.

And you must have figured it out. I'm not going to last until 2008. I'm going to be fortunate if I last until the end of October 2006. I won't have all my bills paid off, but that's too bad. I'll have to use money I planned to use for a vehicle to pay off most of my debt. I'll end up with less than $2000 a month to live on. My two dogs and I. I figure we can manage. I'll make the necessary adjustments.

I'm still planning to hike the Appalachian Trail. More than once. I just need to find people to keep the dogs for me when I hike. I figure the first time will be the hardest, but I don't plan to carry heavy gear and I only plan to have a couple of mail-drops in a few strategic places. And I plan to hike all day and sleep at night. I'm thinking 4 to 5 months for the entire hike.

Well, I'm going to close down and go watch a DVD on my new personal DVD player. Because I'll be taking the online course on Saturday and Sunday.

Later!

I hate my job!

Take time to look at this image. Look at one side, then the other. Does it seem as if it's 'moving'?



Don't tell me to quit complaining. Tell me when I can QUIT!



This is how my job seems right now.



This is how my job seems on other days.



Well, I'm not sitting around thinking about it, I'm planning to do something!




This is Johnny. See Johnny quit his job. See Auntie Coosa dream of doing the same!



Yes, the time is getting nearer and nearer by the day!




One of these days! One of these days!

I feel the need for speed?

Maybe I'm the only one this happens to, but I think I'm just one of many.

I am on an e-group pertaining to backpacking and hiking a certain National Trail. I am of course opinionated about certain things. One of them is "speed-hiking:" trying to best someone else's record while hiking the entire trail. This trail is over 2100 miles long and was not built to be hiked day and night to create a record of how quickly the trail can be hiked. Someone did it in the 1970s and I think that "record" was beaten in the 1990s. Now it's been bested again. The only reason I can find for it being hiked this fast is because the person hiking this year wanted to take the record time away from the last "speed hiker."


In my not so humble opinion, there's no need or rhyme or reason to hike just to beat someone else to the finish line. Backpacking isn't a competition sport. It's done for enjoyment. I suppose the hiker could say that "his enjoyment is beating other people to the finish line" of a hike. "Go run a couple marathons" would be my reply.

If a person has a life threatening illness and his goal in life was to hike this trail, then that would be a reason to hike it quickly. If a person is about to go to jail for a crime and only has a few months of freedom left, that would be a reason to hike a trail quickly. If a person was about to join the military and had a short time before boot camp, that would be a reason to hike a trail quickly. And there are other life-situations that would give some explanation to why a person wants to hike a trail as fast as possible. But to hike just to be able to brag about being the fastest? That makes absolutely no sense when discussing hiking or backpacking on a trail. As previously stated: Go run a marathon. And get back to me.

Too many people, young and old, seem obsessed with doing something the fastest way possible. And then they're left with time on their hands and inevitably, they find something illegal, immoral or fattening to direct their energies to. Case in point would be the rampant use of methamphetamine. If people took their time living a full life, would they have so much time on their hands that they would need to create a false sense of heightened awareness? I read about it all the time. The use of something (usually illegal) to create a "high" -- when success at mountain climbing is a much more valuable 'high' or riding a bike 100 miles in a weekend, or backpacking for a week with no resupply, or obtaining a black belt in martial arts. Or any number of natural ways to get an adrenaline rush.

Every day, it seems like "rush, rush, rush" and then let's get high on drugs (or alcohol). Why not "slow down and enjoy the moment" and not have the time or inclination to use drugs to obtain a false high? A true 'high' is obtained by accomplishment. Anyone can set a goal and focus on that goal until it is achieved. There are people who are walking today after having broken their backs because they focused on walking. There is Lance Armstrong who has overcome cancer to win 7 Tour de France victories in a row. And I suppose, grudgingly, there are those who, only for the glory, have to hike the fastest in order to obtain their fifteen minutes of fame. What does one do for an encore?


Slow down you move to fast
You got to make the morning last
Just kickin' down the cobblestones
Lookin' for fun and feeling groovy

Hello lamp post, whatcha doin'
I've come to watch the flowers growin'
Ain't cha got no time for me?
Doot'in do do do do bein' groovy

Got no deeds to do
No promises to keep
I'm dappled and drowsy and
ready to sleep
Let the morning-time drop
all its petals on me
Life I love you,
all is groovy

"Feelin' Groovy", the Lovin' Spoonfuls' big
hit from the 60s.

My friend's dog, Mocha

Mocha was a boxer. Not your ordinary boxer. Mocha was the much loved dog of a friend of mine. Mocha became her dog when she (Mocha) was a puppy. And Mocha went everywhere with "her" person. Yesterday, Mocha passed over the rainbow bridge. My friend is mourning the loss of her "best friend" today. Sometimes bad things just happen and we can't rationally explain why. "Stuff" happens. Time passes. You come to terms.



Just this side of heaven is a place called Rainbow Bridge.

When an animal dies that has been especially close to someone here, that pet goes to Rainbow Bridge.
There are meadows and hills for all of our special friends so they can run and play together.
There is plenty of food, water and sunshine, and our friends are warm and comfortable.

All the animals who had been ill and old are restored to health and vigor; those who were hurt or maimed are made whole and strong again, just as we remember them in our dreams of days and times gone by.
The animals are happy and content, except for one small thing; they each miss someone very special to them, who had to be left behind.

They all run and play together, but the day comes when one suddenly stops and looks into the distance. His bright eyes are intent; His eager body quivers. Suddenly he begins to run from the group, flying over the green grass, his legs carrying him faster and faster.

You have been spotted, and when you and your special friend finally meet, you cling together in joyous reunion, never to be parted again. The happy kisses rain upon your face; your hands again caress the beloved head, and you look once more into the trusting eyes of your pet, so long gone from your life but never absent from your heart.

Then you cross Rainbow Bridge together....

Author unknown...