LOVE STRUCK

This beautiful black swan has fallen in love.
He knows no racial barriers he has fallen in love with a beautiful white swan. He sits by her, he protects her and he won't let anyone near her.

The only problem is the beautiful white swan is a '5ft. paddle boat ' made to look like a swan. What will become of him when alas , she paddles off into the sunset ?

Will he wonder amlessly honking "Honey where are you? Please come back."


Read the short little love story here:
'Lovesick swan falls in love with swan paddle boat'

MEMORIAL DAY

Over the years, people in the 'US' seem to have forgotten the meaning of 'Memorial Day'. When Memorial Day rolled around it seems that the only thing most people think of, is that it's a day off of work.
A holiday, lets go to the lake, have a BBQ, get some friends together.

But now, knowing that our young men are away endangering their lives for a cause called freedom, has kind of been like a punch in the stomach.

It has brought back the true meaning of the reason for this holiday, this Memorial Day, this remembrance day.

I am guilty of forgetting it's importance, but somehow suddenly knowing that I have a friend stationed in Iraq, a friend who has a great heart, a friend who is in the medical profession and is not there to take lives but to save them and knowing that he may or may not see his two small children again.
Knowing that, I get chills and a tears in my eyes every time I think about him. It has brought me back to the reality of what Memorial Day is all about.

A day of remembrance for every young man everywhere who has ever fought and died in any war in the service for 'our country'. From the Civil war,to today.

But is this war for our country?

Somehow, today, it just doesn't matter to me anymore. The only thing that matters is that in the past and today our men have fought and died. And as we stay at home and grill in our back yard we need to remember that somewhere some young man is being sent home, asleep forever with arms folded and a flag for a blanket. It is a chilling image.

This year I remembered.

I remembered and I cried, and I prayed for and the men that have given their lives in the past , present and yes, for those that I feel will not come home in the future.

I do not believe I will ever forget again -- the true meaning of 'Memorial Day' .

THE VA SCANDAL IS OUTRAGEOUS

After hearing the breaking news of the stolen 'VA' files on television yesterday, I got up this morning and went in search of more information, which by the way was impossible to find. What I did find was more scandalous news articles about how lax the VA has been with this vital information in the past.

One of the articles was titled 'Veterans Angered by File Scandal'. I fall in this group of people that may have been jeopardized. Perhaps I should say ' have been' instead of may have been, jeopardized and I must say 'Angered' is an understatement. I think at this point in time words like, disappointed, furious and frightened would be more befitting.

I have always been afraid of identity theft and in the past there have been many things that I won't do for fear of this very thing happening to me, for example there are many times that I have wanted to order something on the 'Net'. If there is not an alternative way to order it like a phone number, it's bye, bye, baby as far as I'm concerned. Even entering an area of the 'Net' that wants some personal information, I will not do, for fear of this very thing. Yet I entrust my government with my most precious possession and they treat it with less care then my credit card company does.

After reading these news articles, I am sickened to find out that they have been lax in the care of these files for years. They have had security checks over the years many times, been told to fix their problems and have done nothing about it. Well then, in that case I'm surprised that this hasn't happened sooner. Should I be grateful? I don't think so, years ago would have actually been better I didn't have as much to lose as I do now.

For God sake has the government not heard of the word 'encrypt', to say the least these files being important enough to ruin a person life should have been encrypted, at least then it would have been a person with some knowledge, some intelligence, a damned good hacker to be able to use the information not just some thief on the street. I am sickened.

To make things even worse the news media have been giving out a number to call for information. I have just found out that it is of no use, you may as will dial the number on your child's toy telephone, because it is my understanding that when calling this number you can not even find out if your name is on the list of said stolen files.

To add insult to injury. This theft happened two weeks ago and they knew about it but didn't tell anyone. Oh gee, what do I do now, thank the government for trying to save me the agony of worrying. Surely that is why they didn't tell us. Or perhaps they were conducting two weeks of group prayer, for the files to miraculously reappear.

Oh 'Thank You' my dear government for saving me this worry, but did you not realize that I could have been checking my credit two weeks ago, instead of rushing around panic stricken today.

Read the news here under opinions: 'ID theft made easy'.

In conclusion let me just mention this one little thing. "The Department of Veterans Affairs does not believe that it is necessary to contact financial institutions or cancel credit cards and bank accounts, unless you detect suspicious activity." Well hear is what I think, frankly it would be a pretty dumb thief to be trying to use them right now. I think if that is what they intend to do, they are probably smart enough to have the patience to wait. I think the time to worry is way down the road, months or a year even, when it won't hit people right away that it is from the VA episode.

TO RESUSCITATE , YES OR NO ?

To resuscitate or not to resuscitate ? A procedure that was meant to help save a persons life has almost become a dirty little word to the families that have to make that decision.

A decision that has become one of the most controversial, as families argue whether they should or should not, while trying to decide what that person would want.

However one woman thinks she has found a way to solve that problem so that it will be clear to everyone as to what her final wishes are. Eighty year old Mary Wohlford had the words
"DO NOT RESUSCITATE" tattooed on her chest.
In her own words she says, "People might think I'm crazy, but that's OK," she said. "Sometimes the nuttiest ideas are the most advanced."
"This is a modern day and age," she said. "You have to advance with the times. We never even had a living will 20 years ago. Now I think we've got to go to the next step."

Well apparently sometimes the nuttiest ideas can be a problem, because when a doctor was asked about it he said that a tattoo wouldn't be enough to stop him from resuscitating her and the state laws say that it's not legal.

Oh come on, you have to love her creativity !!

Read the story here: Woman Gets 'DO NOT RESUSCITATE' Tattoo.

I HATE TAGS BUT HERE I AM, Grrrr

Boxing Champ has tagged me. I'll do it this one time.


TWENTY THINGS THAT YOU DON'T KNOW ABOUT ME

1. I was born in Detroit, lived there between the age of 4 and 5, moved to California where I grew up.

2. I was attacked by a dog (Chow) when I was 4yrs ( in Detroit) and had to have plastic surgery on my face. I was lucky I was found soon after the attack, passed out laying in a pool of blood.

3. Did something stupid when I was 10yrs. and hit my head so hard it got cut open and I had a concussion. Still have the bump on the top of my head. Those suckers hurt for a long time.

4. I almost drowned in the ocean once, story here:http://exseno.blogspot.com/2005/06/reminiscing.html

5. I think people are the most interesting creatures on earth.

6. I believe in smiling at a stranger when you pass on the street, you just might make their day.

7. I can ride a horse, not talking about those dude ranch kind. A good horse.

8. I can shoot a pistol, rifle, shotgun, very well so don't make me mad. lol

9. I love all kinds of music and I do mean all kinds.

10. I am not afraid of very many things.

11. I once had three jobs at one time. Two full time one part time. Days Monday through Friday 8a to 5p. Nights 11p to 7a. Weekends Sat and Sun. 2p to 11p

12. I once owned a small Mama and Papa style restaurant that I traded for a beautiful large beer bar. Didn't keep it long. To long to explain here. Use your imagination.

13. I can eat more then most men. I love good food and sweets. Yum

14. I've have had the best of times and the worst of times. I have lived in beautiful homes and I've been homeless.

15. I am not a pretty woman, but I learned at a very young age that it doesn't matter a bit. If you like yourself, your beauty will shine from within. When people get to know you if they like you , you are pretty to them and if all a guy cares about is your looks, he's not worth having.

16. I believe in both forgiveness and fighting back. Which ever the situation calls for. Always fighting is ridiculous. Always turning the other check can be equally as bad.

17. Some people are book smart and not people smart. Some people are people smart and not book smart. Some people are both- huh those are the lucky ones. I was well behaved in school, but got terrible grades. So that leaves me with----- haha you think I'm going to say something sad , fooled you. That leaves me with a whole lot of people smarts and a big desire to learn. I love to learn.

18. I am a survivor of many things, some I will talk about, some I won't.

19. I believe in stopping to smell the roses. Everyone needs a little Zen.

20. When I was young I hated the thought of becoming old. Now that I'm here, I love it. It's very liberating.

GIRLS NEED A SHOULDER TO LAY ON ?

GET RID OF THE PROBLEM, BUY THIS PILLOW.

SORRY GUYS, I JUST COULDN'T RESIST.

LOOK WHAT I FOUND

I have this site that I sometimes go to in Pakistan, it's kind of like a bulletin board where people that live there can go and leave a post or make a comment for others to read. One day when I was checking it out I found this post with some awesome pictures. Only to find out that the persons work that I was viewing was also from the US. I followed him back to the US and started reading his blog. He's and interesting young man. It seems that he moved from a small town to live in Hollywood to get into the film industry and that is just what he did. Looks like his dream is coming true. I find him to be a bright, energetic, and a very creative young man. I bet he will go far.



He invented this new technique of taking pictures and you should see how some of them have turned out. This is a picture of the United States flag. How does he do it, well he calls his technique 'Camera Tossing' . Yes folks, he snaps and tosses. He actually Throws his camera in the air and lets it do it's thing. The pictures come out distorted but creative. He has other pictures besides flags that look like modern art I really like them.


Here is another picture of a flag. Can you tell me what country it represents?

If you get the time check out his site sometime and tell him I sent you.

Visit Shane at: http://www.shaneenglish.com/blog/

Note: I think I found Shane in the middle of his blog. If you do check him out click on November 2004 or go here, http://www.shaneenglish.com/ and view his home page , or , hmm, I'm not sure what it is because it has a little different ' URL ' might be his 'Ad' anyway view his education and background in Cinematography, impressive.

Correction, I just heard from Shane and he told me that the man that originally invented the 'camera technique' was http://cameratoss.blogspot.com/. Ryan Gallagher , another worthy blog to check out for you photo lovers. Thanks Shane for the correction.

MORE ON IRAQ

Sometimes the news has to get spread by word of mouth. The story is not always told by the media especially when there is a war.

I have a friend who is in Iraq. He's not been there very long but what he is in and what he has been witness to is devastating. He is in one of the worse parts of that country where fighting and bombings are constant and the shooting seems to never stop.

He hasn't seen any of the things that he has witnessed being broadcast by the media, they just don't seem to be reporting what is really going on there.

He is in the service over there. I would love to be able to tell you which service he is in and his rank, but I don't dare. It seems that some of the service men have been reprimanded for saying things that they (the government) doesn't want said. If they have a blog they lose it. If they don't have a blog, well, I don't know what they do to reprimand them for speaking their mind.
It is my understanding that they are briefed before deployment and the soldiers are not at liberty to say what ever they might want to say. The wrong words can get you in prison or even, well, let me just say what ever punishment they deem necessary.

Although I know that my friend is smart enough to verbally not make any mistake that would get him into trouble, I think it is best for me to speak only in general here.

The very men that are fighting and dyeing do not have the right to speak their own minds. I can understand the reason for some of it ( security purposes), but since I don't know what those boundaries are it's better that I play it safe.

I can't tell you whose words these are. I can't even tell how I got this information for fear that it would cause a problem for someone, but this episode happened over there recently and so much more since I wrote this post.

'a suicide bomber walks into an elementary school and detonates his explosives, injuring 16 children. There was not one mention of this on the news. Why? Why is the truth not being told? Maybe because the truth hurts. Or maybe because the truth doesn't support the media's agenda. '

Frankly I'm not even sure that I should say this much, but I'm hoping that if I do, it will help to get the word out, that perhaps progress is not as great as our propaganda makes it sound.

The fighting and bombings are still constant and I'm beginning to wonder why we are still there.

I saw an interview with Tim Russert and Ted Kennedy last week. I had planned to write about it, but let me just give you Ted Kennedys' views on the subject of Iraq. In so many words he said, If it hasn't been fixed by now, we can't fix it and we should get out. There are many countries with terrorists and similar problems and we can not protect them all.

Maybe I'm wrong, but I agree with that. We did our part in trying to help and I think it's time that their own government and people took over.
We helped them to get rid of Saddam and we helped them to get the right to vote and they are grateful and proud of that, but I think if we stay there to long then we are accomplishing nothing but becoming their crutch. I also think it's wrong of us to assume that because we have helped them they must do everything our way to a tee. It can not be that way their beliefs are different. We can't change their religious beliefs or their culture, that's an impossibility and sometimes it looks like that is what Bush wants to.

At whose cost? And for how long?

It's time for us to say the ball is in your court, now take it and run with it.

After all just how long should we stay there? How long is not enough? How long is to long??

MAKE A SOLDIER SMILE

Help our soldiers. There are tons of soldiers that never receive letters or packages. It's sad to realize that some have not had even one letter since they've been over there.

'Some of them get no letters and no packages, yet they are willing to fight and even die, so that maybe if they fight today your children won't have to fight tomorrow'. Just send a letter and put a little smile on a lonely soldiers face.

There is a special site to help you to do this. There are many different ways that you can do it, you can pick a name or your favorite branch of the service, or just sent it randomly and they will give it to someone in need of it. Or send a random package.

Just have a look at this site and think it over and let your heart tell you what to do. www.anysoldier.com

They have packages there that you can buy and they will give it to someone for you , or you can make your own.
Or just write a letter to a soldier man or woman that hasn't had a letter since they have been there. It's a small thing to do , don't you think?