Self Owned Cell Phone

Update...

2011-08-17T06:28:00.000-07:00

Been a while since I've last posted.
I have a baby on the way now, a puppy, and 2 kids and a new wife.
Life is pretty good.
Can't complain about anything.

A humanitarian Effort

2008-11-07T18:31:00.000-08:00

I was talking to my mother tonight on the phone and she told me that she thought something big would happen.
I didn't really understand and asked her to elaborate.
(A little back story:
We've been buying some stocks and learning a little bit about the market. Since the stock market has been fluctuating so agressively since the Lehman Brothers scandal/crash happened, we've taken an active interest. The real estate market is bad comparatively adn tehre are a lot of foreclosures around the country. The value of the dollar is low. We dramatically disagree on politics.
I said Pres Bush is now a lameduck because of Barack winning.)
She said that something really big would happen between now and the end of the month, around thanksgiving. She said the global markets around the rworld would assist our market in a great humanitarian effort to remedy the bad economy. She said that there would be a joint merger of some sort to help the people. She said not just corporations would be helped, that also the people would be helped by this effort and that George Bush would be the one responsible in an effort to get credit and steal it from the Democrats before they get in office.
I don't know if she's right, but either way, consider it documented.
She's promised a morale booster by the month's end.

Where the candidates stand / The candidates viewpoints / The candidates opinions

2008-01-12T12:25:00.000-08:00

I've cleaned up and consolidated some of the viewpoints that I borrowed from a combination of great sites.
Primarily - Newsday.com A great source for news on everything
http://www.newsday.com/news/politics/chi-071218candidates-htmlpage-css,0,3171367.htmlpage

And Ontheissues.com
Also a great source for political data and imformation.

Anyway, this is just something that I thought most people would prefer to print out and assist them in voting for a candidate which is comign up on us. Florida primaries are on the 28th.
We're going to pick which candidates issues we agree with and then vote for whoever gets the most votes. In the event of a tie, we'll pick who could be a better leader in the event of WW3.

Democrats

-Iraq

Hillary Clinton
Bring troops home starting with the first 60 days of the new administration.

John Edwards
Supports immediately drawing down 40,000 to 50,000 combat troops.

Mike Gravel
Begin an immediate and orderly withdrawl of all U.S. troops that will have them home within 120 days

Dennis Kucinich
Supports withdrawing troops and closing military bases.

Barack Obama
Immediately begin withdrawing troops engaged in combat operations at a pace of one or two brigades every month, complete by the end of 2008.

-Health Care

Hillary Clinton
Keep existing coverage or access the same private insurance options that their Members of Congress receive through a new Health Choices Menu.

John Edwards
Create new tax credits, expand Medicaid and State Children's Health Insurance Program, and reform insurance laws.

Mike Gravel
Supports a universal health care voucher in which the government would issue health care vouchers based on projected needs.

Dennis Kucinich
Establish Medicare for All -- a universal, single-payer, not-for-profit health care system.

Barack Obama
Create a new national health plan to allow individuals without access to affordable insurance coverage to buy coverage similar to that available to members of Congress

-Taxes

Hillary Clinton
Supports permanently ending marriage penalty, extending the lower-income tax rates and providing a deduction for college tuition

John Edwards
Expand the Child Care Credit, triple the Earned Income Tax Credit for single adults and cut the marriage penalty.

Mike Gravel
Eliminate the IRS and the Income Tax and replacing it with a progressive national Sales Tax on new products and services.

Dennis Kucinich
Double the tax refunds and credits for Americans earning $80,000 and less.

Barack Obama
Increase the number of working parents eligible for Earned Income Tax Credits, increase the benefit available to parents who support their children through child support payments and reduce the marriage penalty.

-Immigration

Hillary Clinton
Supports the DREAM Act, which provides a path to citizenship through military service or higher education.

John Edwards
Supports hiring additional border agents, increased use of technology, establishing a path to legalization for those already here.

Mike Gravel
Supports a guest worker program and setting up naturalization procedures that would bring existing illegal immigrants into legal status.

Dennis Kucinich
Supports amnesty for illegal immigrants, establishing a path to legalization for those already here.

Barack Obama
Supports new employment eligibility verification system and the Citizenship Promotion Act to ensure fair immigration application fees.

-Gay Marriage

Hillary Clinton
Opposes same-sex marriage, favors civil unions. Says it's a state issue.

John Edwards
Opposes same-sex marriage, supports civil unions. Says states should decide.

Mike Gravel
Supports same-sex marriage.

Dennis Kucinich
Supports same-sex marriage.

Barack Obama
Opposes same-sex marriage, supports civil unions.

-Energy

Hillary Clinton
Supports a $50 billion Strategic Energy Fund, paid for in part by oil companies, to fund investments in alternative energy.

John Edwards
Supports economy-wide limit on the emission of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.

Mike Gravel
Supports legislation that caps emissions and targets global deforestation.

Dennis Kucinich
Supports reducing greenhouse gas emissions, rejoining the Kyoto accord and implementing its recommendations.

Barack Obama
Supports implementing an economy-wide cap-and-trade program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to the level recommended by top scientists.

-Trade

Hillary Clinton
Seeks to reopen North American Free Trade Agreement to strengthen enforcement of labor and environmental standards.

John Edwards
Says human rights should be "central to our trade policy." Calls NAFTA and other regional trade agreements a "total disaster."

Mike Gravel
Favors overhaul or repeal of NAFTA.

Dennis Kucinich
Blames free trade policies for lost jobs in the U.S. and oppressive working conditions abroad.

Barack Obama
Seeks to reopen NAFTA to strengthen enforcement of labor and environmental standards.

-Abortion

Hillary Clinton
Supports abortion rights, but says “pro-choice” does not mean “pro-abortion.” Has called abortion “a sad, even tragic choice to many, many women,” and urged better sex education to prevent unwanted pregnancies.

John Edwards
Supports abortion rights. Vows to “reverse the damage that has been done by President Bush’s anti-choice agenda.”

Mike Gravel
Supports abortion rights and favors “age-appropriate” sex education to reduce unwanted pregnancies.

Dennis Kucinich
Supports abortion rights. Says number of abortions could be reduced through improvements in family planning, health care and the economy.

Barack Obama
Supports abortion rights. Urges efforts to reduce teen pregnancy, “making it less likely for women to find themselves in these circumstances.”

Republicans

-Iraq

Rudy Giuliani
Supports keeping troops in Iraq.

Mike Huckabee
Supports keeping troops in Iraq.

Duncan Hunter
Supports keeping troops in Iraq.

John McCain
Supports increasing troops in Iraq.

Ron Paul
Supports withdrawing troops in Iraq.

Mitt Romney
Supports increasing troops in Iraq.

Fred Thompson
Supports keeping troops in Iraq.

-Health Care

Rudy Giuliani
Supports an income exclusion of up to $15,000 for those without employer coverage.

Mike Huckabee
Opposes universal health care

Duncan Hunter
Supports purchase of health insurance across state lines; would require hospitals to make their fee schedules readily accessible.

John McCain
Supports purchase of health insurance across state lines; supports giving a tax credit to increase incentives for insurance coverage.

Ron Paul
Opposes legislation that increases the FDA's legal powers; supports legislation to expand the ability of Americans to use alternative medicine.

Mitt Romney
Opposes universal health care; supports individual state-by-state health care reform.

Fred Thompson
Supports increased competition and consumer choice.

-Taxes

Rudy Giuliani
Supports making the current tax provisions permanent and reining in the growth of the Alternative Minimum Tax.

Mike Huckabee
Supports replacing current income tax with a flat tax or national sales tax.

Duncan Hunter
Supports Alternative Minimum Tax reform, opposes marriage penalty tax.

John McCain
Supports making Bush tax cuts permanent, opposes Alternative Minimum Tax.

Ron Paul
Supports dissolution of the IRS, supports making Bush tax cuts permanent, opposes marriage penalty tax.

Mitt Romney
Supports making Bush tax cuts permanent; proposes lower tax rates for all individuals.

Fred Thompson
Supports dissolution of the IRS.

-Immigration

Rudy Giuliani
Supports border fence construction; supports the Secure Authorized Foreign Entry Card to be uniform for all non-citizen workers and students.

Mike Huckabee
Supports border fence construction and hiring additional border agents.

Duncan Hunter
Opposes amnesty for illegal immigrants; supports border fence construction.

John McCain
Supports guest worker program, increasing border security and border fence construction.

Ron Paul
Opposes amnesty for illegal immigrants; supports increasing border security.

Mitt Romney
Opposes amnesty for illgegal immigrants; supports increasing border security.

Fred Thompson
Opposes amnesty for illgegal immigrants; supports increasing border security.

-Gay Marriage

Rudy Giuliani
Opposes gay marriage but also opposes constitutional amendment banning gay marriage. Says New Hampshire's civil unions law goes too far.

Mike Huckabee
Opposes gay marriage.

Duncan Hunter
Supports constitutional ban on gay marriage.

John McCain
Opposes gay marriage, says states should control marriage law.

Ron Paul
Federal government should leave issue to the states.

Mitt Romney
Supports constitutional ban on gay marriage.

Fred Thompson
Favors "great leeway" for states to decide on civil unions, says marriage is between a man and a woman.

-Energy

Rudy Giuliani
Supports use of ethanol and bio-fuels, expansion of environmentally responsible access to the proven oil and natural gas reserves throughout North America, and increasing percentage of power that comes from nuclear energy.

Mike Huckabee
Supports a federal research and development budget that will be matched by the private sector to seek new products in alternative fuels.

Duncan Hunter
Supports construction of new oil refineries, opposes moratorium on offshore oil drilling.

John McCain
Supports immediate reduction in greenhouse gases and a ban on drilling in Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Ron Paul
Supports repeal of gas tax, opposes ban on drilling in Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Mitt Romney
Supports research to identify cleaner and more efficient sources of energy.

Fred Thompson
Supports research to identify cleaner and more efficient sources of energy

-Trade

Rudy Giuliani
Supports free trade, says North American Free Trade Agreement has been good for U.S.

Mike Huckabee
Blames China's currency manipulation and weak U.S. regulatory action for trade imbalance and imports of unsafe products.

Duncan Hunter
Would put same charges on foreign goods that other countries put on American goods.

John McCain
Opposes protectionism and says free trade is a way to open "closed societies" in the Middle East.

Ron Paul
Says current trade accords are not free trade but instead help special interests.

Mitt Romney
Wants to renegotiate liberalized trade with China to stop currency manipulation that he says gives Chinese unfair advantage.

Fred Thompson
Supports free trade, says NAFTA has been good for U.S.

-Abortion

Rudy Giuliani
Supports abortion rights. Says abortion is "morally wrong" but that women should have the right to choose for themselves.

Mike Huckabee
Favors constitutional amendment banning abortion. Says the idea of different laws state by state is comparable to "the logic of the Civil War," when some states were free states and others were slave states.

Duncan Hunter
Supports a constitutional amendment banning abortion.

John McCain
Says Roe vs. Wade ruling should be overturned, with states allowed to make own laws on abortion -- leading, he hopes, to the end of the procedure. Urges support for "armies of compassion" helping women bring fetuses to full term.

Ron Paul
Sponsored bill to bar federal courts from interfering with state abortion bans.

Mitt Romney
Would let states decide the issue. Opposes constitutional amendment banning abortion. When he ran for Massachusetts governor, said he would support abortion rights then in place. Later called that a mistake and now says he's firmly anti-abortion.

Fred Thompson
Wants Roe vs. Wade overturned. Says states should decide on abortion, indicating he would not support a constitutional ban. Previously stated support for right to early-term abortion.

Choices

2008-01-11T21:20:00.001-08:00

Regardless of what the nature of study is, quality is generally preferred over quantity. There are always choices and decisions. Choices will be made, decisions can be postponed. Nature vs. Nurture or otherwise, It's a world of nothing but Coke and Pepsi's. We must choose how we decide even. Choices lurk around every bend and everything lingers on a choice that is made. The mugger that threatens offers a choice, Money or Life. The homeless guy has the choice, his home or his booze. No one said the choices were always fair. The choice between expensive medicine and food for senior citizens without healthcare and the choice between high property taxes or poor schools for many local jurisdictions. The primaries are coming up and I would encourage all of you to vote for who you, with all of your facts and education, feel is the best candidate for the parties of your choice. Your CHOICE.

Cardopoly...

2007-11-04T17:26:00.000-08:00

It seems like everywhere you go there is a company trying to get you to put their plastic keytag on your keychain or their cheap barcoded card in your wallet. Just about all the clothes stores, supermarkets, shoe stores, pharmacies, convenience stores, even my hair salon has it. I looked at my keychain the other day and was positively overwhelmed at the amount of shuffling I'd have to do to get my appropriate tag in the event that one of these merchants actually called me out on it. I propose that we let the merchant do the shuffling and that we disregard the way they look at us when we present them with the opportunity to handle our wares. I think if they want our business they ought to share the burden of our carrying for all these tags.
The wallet cards are another story. Why associate all of our information in an online account and assign it to a card for us to just lose the card and then ask our phone number to give us the discount. I'd like it if our license would work the same way. Just give your address and your license info will pull up. Why not have a thunb print database that links our names, addresses, phone numbers, credit card info, and the works. That would be great.
I read maybe 6 months ago in popular science magazine that they would be putting cell phone information out there for people to try in select cities. All of our information would be stored on our cell phone and it could be swiped at various convenience locations thus eliminating the need for a plastic card.
Ideally, if dogs can be chipped now to scan and identify them in the event of loss, then the concept of scanning a thumb to identify credit is just as feasible. I'd get into the spare thumb market now, while the concept is still relatively unexplored. Cut em off and freeze them on a metal stub. Remove yours accordingly, and save it so that you can attach the thumb of your chosing for appropriate identity theft!
I'm just kidding, but this is the wave of the future. There was a time when nobody thought you could like about your identity online and now everyone does it. Caveat Emptor. Let the buyer beware.

Virtue

2007-11-01T16:18:00.000-07:00

A pre political society has people that are inherently one way or another. All sorts of political thinkers vary their opinions on this and there is no correct answer to this. Hobbes thought all people were inherently evil and sacrificed freedoms to maintain peace, hence any gov being good gov, people naturally competitive so forth. I mention this because I assume the opposite that everyone is naturally cooperative and that virtues are demonstrative positive attributes to people. Lack of a virtue is negative in itself and needs no polar opposite. So viciousness would lack of compassion and lack of some other independent attribute. I haven't sat down and thought of the virtues as features, but I'd probably use utility, creativity, compassion, constraint, wisdom, agility, and ability.
Lethargy would be lack of utility and ability. So forth.
Just my own little theory. I borrow from catholic(universal) theology's virtues a tad, but mostly my own spin.

I think your view on virtues depends on your view of people innately. If people are innately peaceful in your opinion, then assume they possess pos attributes from the start, if neg view on people in state of nature, then neg view on attributes. Christianity depicts its members as inherently evil by lineage, and assumes that they strive to become virtuous. That was Thomas Aquinas, the catholic saint and philosophers view point.

Anyway, This is not a religious debate, it's just that the best philosophers in my humble opinion were the ones that contested religious ideals.

Plato is my personal favorite though. The analogy of the cave was one of my favorite stories ever. love it.

Something I'd like to add. To compare us to animals is fair, but think of this: from a sociological point of view, a professional is one who strives for excellence (not perfection, there is no perfection to a professional) in their field or expertise and compares only to those other professionals in that field. Animals have insufficient mental capacity to evaluate and perform the types of analysis on themselves that makes them capable of determining whether or not they can enhance or falter in the process of being virtuous. Thus, making it improper to really compare animal to man. Sand is no more virtuous than plant by this standard, but girl can be more virtuous than boy or specific comparable better than specific comparable and like. It allows for more accurate comparison. The ability to reason is what makes us human. It used to be tool use, but since a monkey is able to grab a honey stick, cross over a hill, and then jab the honey stick into an anthill to pull out a delicious treat utilizing the stick as a tool, we are now classified as the only species that has the ability to reason.

Agree?

2007-10-23T10:42:00.000-07:00

I had a nightmare last night about this cannibal that took a torso and put it on a barbecue grill. The torso was smothered in barbecue sauce and it bubbled over and boiled the meat. The flesh that remained cooked looked like an uncooked hamburger patty, giant, and saucy. The grill sides had oozing red liquid gushing from its sides as the grill rose higher and higher. It looked as though the blood from the body had seeped out and overflowed. The sides of the grill were a mess and if it didn't smell like a 4th of July feast, it would have overwhelmingly nauseated me.

Anyway, this was the nightmare I had and I'm still grossed out by it now!

2007-10-05T21:44:00.001-07:00

I was doing some reading of Diet Studies and saw an article that rated diets. The Ornish diet rated very well. It's no meats, vegetables and very lean snacks. It's a lot of wheat products and no fat items. Looks good, supposedly very good for your heart. Ang doesn't like it. She likes meat too much. I'm fine with that. I love a good steak and chicken of all sorts. I think I could have the will power to do it though and would somewhat like to try. I can't do it unless she supports it! We'll see it.

2007-10-05T21:25:00.000-07:00

Today we went shopping for clothes. We went to the Florida mall after driving in circles for a while. We are still learning the back ways! The Florida mall was busy because it was a rainy day. Because of the nature of the Orlando Tourist industry, this time of year being off season, we think about rainy days as busy days for shopping and indoor activities. At a movie theater, one of the busiest times of year is a rainy day. A succession of a few rainy days in a row drives big business to restaurants, movie theaters, malls and the like. When hurricanes hit in this remote area it leads to everyone cancelling their vacations. I can't say I blame them, people wait the entire year to take their vacation. It's hard to coordinate work for 2 or more people, school for a few kids and travel accommodations as well as a place to stay. Timeshare makes that easy, but it's still a dilemma if weather is involved. So I'm writing to discuss how to make a great vacation if there is rain all week long! A typical week consists of 5 days of actual vacation. 1 day of prep on arrival, 1 day of exit prep. In that 5 days 1 day is usually destination, such as Sarasota, Naples, Florence, Miami, Tampa, something of that sort. So for the 4 days that you actually stay, what do you do to enjoy the days? For starters if it's raining, the movie theaters only buy you a night. Otherwise, there's wine bars, coffee houses, restaurants galore, dinner shows, casino cruises, and more. Not too mention, the indoor Disney attractions! If you do them all you'll have plenty of things to entertain you. We went to the prime outlets today and they were great as well. I recommend visiting and window shopping. If you use your WHO savings card, they give you a discount pack that can help get you discounts. Check it out.

2007-09-29T16:21:00.002-07:00

I'll be going to an old friends wedding soon, and it made stop and think about some of the friends I've had over the years. When we think about the people that last in our lives, and I say last because, you don't know what's going to happen month to month, so many of them leave and move around. Some of them keep in touch, some of them don't. I've recently had some people in the past year come back into my life, family and former family. Also, some are dearly departed. I can't help it but sometimes i feel like there is always a balance in life and the equilibrium sets in to take where you've given and give where you've taken from. Things become wonderful just as soon as there is peril. The peril ends and so begins glory. This might be pessimism, or maybe it's just the bitter rants of man who's napkin blows away in the wind. I think a realistic view about the balance of life is a budhist idea, but this brings me to my original idea of friends over the year. It's always good to keep those friends somewhat close, because you never know when you need one, if nothing else for than to make some noise that doesn't come from an electronic device. That's a whole new post in itself!

Autism

2007-09-29T16:21:00.001-07:00

I have been doing some reading lately and someone named Michelle from Ithica posted something that stuck with me about Autism that I'd like to share on her behalf. She said that you can't look at someone with autism and treat them like they are with cancer, that you have to realize it is who they are and almost like an alien who needs to be loved and nurtured to survive here, we need to care for them and acknowledge them for their essence. I just thought that was pretty moving. On a side note, I wanted to say that the emotional aspect of discussing Autism in reference to families is difficult for some. I think the science behind Autism is difficult to talk about because so much of Autism and Science in general is either theory or unknown and just speculated, but humanity, in all of it's splendor is emotional, and that is something we can all celebrate and cherish.

Arabian Nights

2007-09-22T18:33:00.000-07:00

We went to Arabian Nights on Friday night. It's a dinner show that starts at 8:30 and has a pre show starting at 7pm. It's roughly $50 a ticket and always sells out. We arrived at 7:10 and there were hundreds of people already. The food was mediocre. Not amazing service but the combination of dinner, desert, beer, soda and coffee with a magic show before hand and a nice horse riding show with lengthy presentation was definitely very much worth the money for an evenings entertainment and meal. I would recommend getting discounted tickets and taking advantage of the event.

Typhoon Lagoon

2007-09-22T18:29:00.000-07:00

Today we went to Typhoon Lagoon at Disney World. It was a nice park with many exciting tube rides and wave pool, slides, the works. Prices were tourism appropriate and the weather was on the brink of raining so it was less than densely populated accounting for no wait time at all for lines. The park opened at 10 and closed at 5pm. It's about 40 per person entry fee and 7 dollars for a large locker plus a 5 dollar deposit, free parking, 5 dollars for 2 pretzels.
We had a blast and would do it again. Walking around the park made us pretty tired!