How BIG is it?
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Posted:Aug 1, 2008 6:27 pm
Last Updated:Aug 5, 2008 4:13 am 3580 Views
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Is your fear bigger than the size of your dreams?
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A Few Choice Words
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Posted:Jul 30, 2008 10:25 pm
Last Updated:Aug 3, 2008 1:18 am 3574 Views
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I was reading American Dreamer’s post about profanity in the blogs and Pat got me to thinking.
I don't always use the best choice in words, not necessarily in my blog or in my real third dimensional life on this rock.
I don't mean to offend anyone in my choice of words but at the same time I try to be as me as I am in real life as I am in the blogs.
I use "Sheesh" in real life just as I do online in posting. I do say the dyslexic version of a word that is the name of a freshwater fish and often I add "tastic" to it.
It doesn't sound as crass with the "tastic" on it and it helps made a bad day a wee bit better in my book.
I think sometimes there are also words that can be misconstrued culturally.
For example: Doesn’t the word: “Bloody” mean something akin to dropping the F bomb in the UK?
Thongs in Oz are shoes and here they are butt floss, which is another word that may be offensive to some. I guess I should say undies but I think the other describes them much better.
Here’s another example:
I used to know someone quite well that was from New Zealand but lived in Oz. We were speaking one morning when he told me in his thick Kiwi accent that he was really “naked” and driving home from work.
I responded quickly with, “You Perv! They arrest you for that here in Texas.” In fact, I was a bit offended that he called me on his cell phone and was driving around naked.
Later I found out that he said he was really “knackered” which in kiwi rhymes with a southern “naked” but means tired. He was driving home exhausted and not sans clothing!
A computer geek programmer friend of mine once created a few chatrooms for various projects. He used to be very creative with the settings on the chatroom word censors.
There was an entire list of words that if someone entered them into public view in the chatroom, it would trigger a completely different sentence like: “I enjoy picking my nose!” “My mom should wash my mouth out with soap!” Or… “I do not have the vocabulary to sufficiently converse with intelligent life forms.”
However, you also could not post the word “multitasking.” You’ll just have to figure that one out because I am not going any further with that thought.
I was banned from a chatroom once for posting the word “Fudge.” I guess a lot of people in that particular Christian chatroom used the word “Fudge” as a substitute for the dyslexic version of the freshwater fish word. However, I was actually chatting with someone about holiday baking at the time!
Personally, no, I do not want to offend my God with vulgarity coming out of my mouth. I really should keep a better control of my mouth. God gives us warnings over and over about the trouble our words and mouths can do.
When I read Pete’s reply to Pat’s blog about being so brash to stand before the Living God with something like that coming out of my mouth… Man! Can you even imagine standing before Him like that?
And when Jesus was asked which commandments were the best ones… He replied to love God with all you heart and love your neighbor as yourself.
If we offend God or another we shouldn’t do it. Sometimes we don’t mean to hurt or offend another. Sometimes there are misunderstandings. And sometimes we just plain screw up but those are the times that we must come to one another, discuss it in love, forgiveness and in fellowship and sharing.
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Anyone want to lend me $200,000 and a jar of Tang?
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Posted:Jul 28, 2008 9:02 pm
Last Updated:Jul 30, 2008 8:36 pm 3586 Views
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I remember watching the tv screen intensely as Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon for the first time. I grew up believing that by the time I was a grown up, we would all have jet packs, eat dinner from little foil packets and have jet cars like on the Jetsons.
And as an adult, I have taken quite an interest into Virgin Galactic's mothership which was unveiled today.
The guy who built it, Burt Rutan (along with Richard Branson's money) is someone that I have met on multiple occasions. If you have ever been in Mojave desert area of California and seen a weird insect looking vehicle in the sky, chances are you have just seen one of Rutan's babies.
I first met Rutan years ago when I was just starting my news career in Bakersfield. He along with his brother and another pilot were drumming up support for a plane they were developing. It was called Voyager and it was basically one very large flying gas tank.
In fact, they flew the thing around the world without ever stopping to refuel.
Now Rutan is partnered with Branson as commercialization of space travel begins.
No one know just when the actual trips into outer space will take place but 250 people have already signed up to go.
I would love to do that! I have been to Johnson Space Center many times and I have always been fascinated by the space race.
Tickets aboard Virgin Galactic are just a mere $200,000. Of course that's about $200,000 more than I have right now.
I guess it's just as well being that I haven't had any Tang since I was a .
Do they even still sell Tang?
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Is she nuts?
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Posted:Jul 28, 2008 5:36 pm
Last Updated:Aug 3, 2008 8:01 pm 4197 Views
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I read a story online about a Romanian woman up in Canada who gave birth to her 18th !
Do they not have cable tv up in Abbottsville, BC?
The woman is 44 years of age. That's my age! She has 17 other rugrats ranging in ages from 20 months to 23 years of age! Ten are girls and eight are boys.
The husband has been quoted as saying they would like to have another boy to even things up a bit. I think that call should be up to the wife!!
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A Little Sumpin Sumpin for Saturday...
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Posted:Jul 26, 2008 5:34 am
Last Updated:Jul 30, 2008 8:34 pm 3648 Views
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First let me get something off my chest:
I Hate Dial Up!!
My hamsters spent Friday night out partying with some female gerbils, drinking way too much tequila and smoking cigars and now refuse to pedal the silly wheel any faster!
Okay I feel better now...
I see that China in all its compassion has made some exemptions to the one rule for victims of the May 7th earthquake.
Under the exemptions, families whose only died or was disabled or whose two were both disabled may now have another as may families in which one parent was disabled.
Some 70,000 adults and died. That's a lot of families torn apart!
How blessed are we?
I heard on the radio that gas on the average went down 5-7 cents last week. I don't know where. I certainly haven't seen it!! Have you?
New York City tops the list of most expensive places to live. That sounds about right to me.
I was amazed that Houston made the list at number 8. While the report said that Houston remains in the top 10 for best places for careers and business, the price to commute within the city is indeed outrageous.
Our mass transit here sucks big time. You have to have a car and lots of gasoline to get around this area.
Other places like Chicago, Los Angeles, San Fran, White Plains NY, Honolulu, Washington DC and Miami made the list as well.
Today is a busy day for me. I have been up for 90 minutes now so I need to get dressed and get a move on. No rest for the wicked here!
Y'all have a great day and God bless you!
Wooo Hooo It's Saturday! Thank You Jesus for another brand spankin' new day!
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Hellooooooooo Dolly!
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Posted:Jul 22, 2008 8:45 pm
Last Updated:Aug 1, 2008 4:21 am 4963 Views
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Hurricane Dolly is on her way heading toward the Texas/Mexico gulf coast.
I was reminded of this on the way home when the large light up board along the freeway was flashing: "Hurricane in the gulf - Fill up your tank now!"
I filled up not because I may have to evacuate but because any time there is anything in the gulf, the price of gasoline will spike 3-5 cents easy overnight.
I evac'd with millions of other people when Rita was threatening Texas on the heels of Katrina.
I will not evac again!! There were more people who died in the evacuation than in the storm. I spent 10 hours to go what would usually take 45 minutes northernly in 100 plus temps in a black Neon without A/C.
If I go anywhere the next time we have a Hurricane breathing down our necks, it will be to my mom's who's subdivision is right across the street basically. I am certainly not going to sit in Texas' largest parking lot again.
I am now far enough north of the gulf and in a non-flooding area that I should be able to batten down the hatches during a good storm. If anything, a tree would fall on my place.
But I doubt I will see much from Dolly. We might get some rain but this storm is way too far south to affect me personally.
However there are a lot of folks in low lying areas down by Brownsville, many who live in poor colonias, that are going to get bashed by the flooding.
Needless to say, there are some folks south of me that could certainly use some prayer right now! I know I am praying for them!
Hello Dolly - Hello Hurricane Season!
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One down, four to go
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Posted:Jul 22, 2008 4:40 am
Last Updated:Jul 22, 2008 8:06 pm 3515 Views
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Well I survived, endured and celebrated the passing of yet another hectic Monday.
I was so tired when I arrived home yesterday that we had breakfast cereal for dinner last night.
Lately Mondays have been kicking my backside at work but yet, no matter what problem comes my way, what issue must be solved, I keep plugging along like the Little Engine that Could.
I know it's His strength that keeps me going! His wisdom that propels me.
And when I come home and I am so dead tired, I know I have done my best and accomplished much. It's a good tired that comes from being productive. And I have my Daddy in Heaven to thank for getting me through it all.
Now it's off to brave another hectic day but I am sitting pretty today after yesterday. And I may come home dead tired tonight but I know when I can no longer walk, He is there to carry me.
Y'all have a great Tuesday and God bless you. He blessed me each and every day!
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Dontcha Just Hate It When...
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Posted:Jul 19, 2008 10:18 pm
Last Updated:Jul 21, 2008 4:27 am 3648 Views
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Dontcha just hate it when God places people on your heart to pray for His will to be done in their lives and you really don't like the people?
It's much much easier to love the loveable!
But yet we are called to pray for all sorts of people and some of them are not good people at all.
Of course, God was also patient with me. He never gave up. I wonder if He had people praying for me before I came to know Him.
So even though I do not like praying for some people, I am so very blessed that God continues to work on me and my heart. There were times when I wasn't so good either!!
So I will be obedient and if I am supposed to pray for someone like Charles Manson or Osama Bin Laden. I will pray that His will be done in all things. Only God can soften a heart. And salvation can only come from Him!
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To Penelope: Lessons from the South #25
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Posted:Jul 19, 2008 9:11 am
Last Updated:Jul 22, 2008 10:05 pm 3863 Views
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This post is for that crazy honorary American who lives in Oz so that she can be a true southern belle.
Fixin' : (verb) readying oneself to participate.
"I was fixin' to eat that thar tator but Bubba stuck his fork in it faster than Mustang Shelby and beat me to it."
You know that Nike' tennis shoe slogan, "Just Do It" In the south, we're fixin' to do it.
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Susan Adkins: Mercy or Justice?
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Posted:Jul 17, 2008 4:58 am
Last Updated:Mar 24, 2017 7:40 am 5633 Views
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There is an Gaelic Irish saying that says:
Bíonn dhá insint ar scéal agus dhá leagan déag ar amhrán
This means there are two sides to every story and 12 versions of every song.
When it comes to Susan Adkins, this is indeed seems to hold true.
For anyone who doesn’t live in the US or lives in a cave here in the states, Adkins has been in the news with week as her loved ones pleaded with the parole board in the State of California to let the nearly 60 year old cancer ridden Adkins come home to die. She has now been incarcerated longer than any other woman in US history.
On one hand, you have Susan and her loved ones and another you have the families of all those people that Susan along with other Manson families members brutally butchered back in 1969 including Actress Sharon Tate who was 8 and a half months pregnant.
Up until I read Dennis' post earlier yesterday evening, I had no idea of what happened to any of the Manson girls that were convicted of those murders, sentenced to die and then have their sentences commuted to life in prison in the early 70s after the California supreme court banned the death penalty there.
As far I knew they all sat in their individual painted concrete cells for 24 hours a day twiddling their thumbs and every so many years you might hear how one of them had a parole hearing and, of course, it was denied.
I have seen clips of Manson through the years. The most recent ones I have personally viewed shows a picture of an older Charlie but one that seems quite positively mad in so many ways. He's obnoxious and it's easy to see why he should remain behind bars for the rest of his life.
But as for knowing what has happened to the girls involved, and they were indeed just girls, I hadn't the slightest. So I googled Susan Atkins. I was amazed at what I found out. The picture of her on this post was taken in 2004 by the way.
Convicted in March of 1971, Susan stayed a loyal follower of Manson’s but in prison she felt ostracized for being a snitch by fellow family members.
Anyone who has read Helter Skelter by Victor Bugliosi probably can surmise that the cops pretty much dropped the ball on getting, losing, contaminating any physical evidence and if it weren’t for Susan Adkins bragging, I am unsure how successful the State of California would be for convicting Manson for murders for which he was not physical present. Adkins made the case!
Of course under the present circumstances, even Bugliosi who prosecuted the case against Manson and the family is now siding with the merciful release of the one known as Crazy Sadie.
Susan has done a lot in prison during her incarceration. She has been very involved in helping others both within and outside the prison gates. I was very surprised. In 1974, she became a Christian. One site I found online has a giant list of all her accomplishment after accomplishment over her 37 years behind bars.
Inside she not only got her high school diploma but a college degree as well. She was incredibly involved in fund-raisers and charities. And I had no clue you could become a member of the Toastmasters while in prison!
Her accomplishments read of someone with a true sense of community. Minus the small reputation problem of being a convicted murderer involved in one of the most shocking crimes of my lifetime, any chamber, civic, community based or volunteer driven group would have loved a go getter like her in their organization.
After her reading her background, I wonder if she could have done as well on the outside.
Following the death of her mother at 15 and tired of fighting with her alcoholic father, Susan quit school and headed to San Francisco. It was the 60s and Haight Ashbury was the scene. However Susan sucked at choosing friends.
Before she met Manson, she had been committing robberies up and down the West Coast with a couple of ex-cons she met. She also ended up busted and did three months in the slam. When she got out she began dancing topless and selling drugs to support herself.
I think she was about 19 when she met the infamous Charles Manson who was 32 at the time and had spent more time incarcerated than ever a free man.
While a member of the Manson family, she also had a . I wonder what happened to him. Protective Services rounded up all the found at the ranch where the Manson Family lived, changed their names and had them adopted into traditional families. I wonder if he knows about any of it. I suspect not.
She has been married twice while she has been in prison. I never even considered marriage behind bars. I mean how does one meet a man of good character while in prison? (Ladies, you think you can’t meet “anyone” ? LOL )
The first time she was married was in 1981 to a guy who claimed to be a millionaire but turned out to be one big fraud. She divorced his backside as soon as she learned he had been married 35 times and had less money than I have tucked between in my sofa cushions. In 1987 she said, “I Do” to Hubby #2 Harvard Law Student James Whitehouse. Whitehouse has since represented his wife at parole hearings since 2000.
Now at age 59, Susan isn’t doing so well. She is dying of brain cancer. Adkins and her loved ones had asked to be released this week on compassionate grounds. One leg has been amputated and she has been diagnosed with about six months to live. She is confined to a hospital.
Since last March, Adkins hospitalization including the guards to watch over her has costs the taxpayers of California $1.4 million dollars. If she had been released from state custody, her family would be responsible for all medical bills henceforth.
On the flip side some reports say that she has never shown remorse for the killings of which she herself gave graphic detail to authorities and the court. She has recanted her involvement at times over the years as well. Many feel she has never taken personal responsibility for her involvement in the Manson Family murderers even though she has testified about how she hacked the nearly full term pregnant Sharon Tate to death as Tate pleaded for her unborn ’s life.
The families and loved ones who those who were the victims in these horrible murders continue to grieve, many have not healed completely. It is a slow process for many of these families. And I am sure some of those family members of the victims are still angry, bitter, heartbroken, and repulsed to the torture and subsequent deaths of someone so very special in their lives. I am sure their emotions have run the gauntlet and back again. Mine should would in their shoes.
Why should they feel any compassion and mercy toward someone who nearly 40 years ago had absolutely no mercy or compassion toward their loved ones?
Personally, I am glad I wasn’t on that board making the decision for her release or not. It’s a tough situation! While I do not believe Adkins is a threat to society, I also feel so much compassion for the families whose loved ones were brutally butchered so many years ago.
As a Christian myself, where should I stand and what should I do?
Personally I feel very called to pray but not for specifics because I think God has a much better handle on these things than I do. And I'm glad about that one!
I feel we are called to pray, both for the loveable and the not so loveable, Christian and non-Christian alike, friends and enemies for God’s will to be done in their lives to best benefit His glory and kingdom. May all involved on both sides of the fence find God’s peace and healing one way or another.
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