Here is a link to the unabridged version of Al Sharpton's speech. The official version I linked to earlier was a tamer version.

And another funny thing happened today. Not to me, but to April. On her way into work this morning, she saw the General Lee and Roscoe P. Coltrain's sheriff's car from the Dukes of Hazzard driving around town. She had seen the General Lee before but never being followed by the sheriff's car. It was something. I didn't get to see it though :(

Today at work was the retirement party for our supervisor. She has worked for our agency for 32 years, longer than I and April have been alive. Oh, and Scarlett is younger than that too. Our prospective new supervisor came down for the festivities but she wasn't a bit festive. She didn't socialize with anyone but the two people who came up from the personnel office, our retiring supervisor, and our Regional Manager. You'd think she'd at least make small talk with some of the workers she would be supervising. A couple people from P-Burg came down and they were friendly. Scarlett made a couple of cute decorative pillows for the retiring supervisor. The Real Estate woman who sells houses while she's supposed to be working her government job had the nerve to doubt that Scarlett made them herself. And Scarlett, it was Julie who told me that Real Estate woman and RAM were buddies, but yesterday, she told you that they weren't - Just an interesting point. Scarlett, April and I helped set some of the things up for the shindig and I guess as a thank you, we were given the floral centerpieces that were on the tables we used for the luncheon. I'm not for sure about that because we weren't at our desks when April and I got ours. Scarlett asked the regional manager if she could have one of them and the RAM said yes, but when April asked, the Ram said she had to bring the vase back. So, we've been teasing Scarlett all day about being the Ram's favorite. When April and I left work, Scarlett was in the office with the RAM and the prospective new supervisor and the door was closed.

Scarlett, I'm not working Monday, so if you read this before then, post a
comment and tell me what the big secret meeting was about.

Someone in the office told April and me that they were going to have to repost the supervisor position and make everyone interview again because there will be too much time between the first interview and the actual filling of the position. .......... Funny comment taken out of context: "And I'm not wearing that many clothes." Sometimes work is all right :)

Here is the link to the transcript of Al Sharpton's speech at the Democratic National Convention.  It isn't the same as watching Sharpton deliver it live, but you should check it out all the same...

10 Laws of Bad Science Fiction

I Think I'll Vote for Al Sharpton.....

Al Sharpton gave probably the best speech I've ever heard just a few minutes ago.  There were times when I had to remind myself that he wasn't the nominee because he was so persuasive.  The best line of his speech, and probably the soundbyte of the convention, is from Sharpton's speech.  He said in regards the failed promise of 40 acres and a mule for each freed slave back in the 1860's:  "We never got the mule so we decided to ride this donkey as far as it could take us."  The donkey being the symbol of the Democratic Party.   Hopefully, there will be a transcript of his speech available on the internet.  I will keep a watch for it and if I can find it, I'll link to it. 

Tonight's Rendition of the National Anthem.....

kicking off tonight's Democratic National Convention program did not sound all that great.  I'm sure the guy did a good job, but it didn't appeal to me.  Last night, Ted Kennedy gave a rousing speech that was peppered with little history lessons about Boston's importance in the founding of the New World and the Revolution.  I summed it up at work today by saying that it had sounded to me like he was calling for the masses to overthrow the government.  LOL!  See what happens when you take comments out of context?  I missed Ron Reagan's speech.  I think it stinks that all the good speakers are on after I go to bed.  Don't these guys know that the working class has to work the next day and can't stay up 'til midnight watching them?  Tonight,  John Edwards  is supposed to speak, once again after I go to bed.  I'm looking forward to the Daily Show's coverage of the Convention.  I love John Stewart.

Now for something a little different....  A few months ago, Dad planted some pear seeds in my flower pot that houses my miniature orange tree.  As the little seedlings grew Dad grew more and more suspicious of their true nature.  I had planted several orange tree seeds before finally getting one to sprout and Dad seemed to think that these seedlings of his had actually been those old orange tree seeds sprouting.  I made a point of telling him that that's what he gets for touching my stuff.  He's always taking what's mine and using what's mine.  But tonight I looked up pear trees on the internet and the leaves on our seedlings look like the leaves of a pear tree, so I'm thinking that these seedlings are really pear trees. 

After work I stopped by Walmart and ran into John, the attorney I work with.  I had just left him there at work and then saw him at the store.  He said, "are you following me?" and I said, "No, I'm stalking you."  He laughed and said, "I always wanted a stalker."  Heehee.  We are very lucky to have someone with his personality as our attorney. 

I just crossed two more things off my Wish List.  I got the Season 2 Andromeda Box Set and Alias: Vanishing Act today in the mail.  I can't wait to watch the dvds and post some insightful comments on the "The Earth Has Skin" blog.  The Alias book will be read by the end of the week, I'm sure. 

I watched some of the Democratic National Convention last night on tv.  Al Gore was funny.  Jimmy Carter kicked butt - odd for the Peace Prize Winner.  I didn't get to see Bill Clinton or Hillary introduce him.  They had a kids choir singing the real This Land is Your Land song, which I thought was funny considering the link I posted last week about the parody of the song.  I think tonight Ron Reagan Jr is supposed to speak about stem cell research.  Sorry if I'm wrong about when.  That might be interesting to watch since all I've seen him do lately is dog show hosting.  But he's good at that.   He has a good voice for that kind of work.  Last night Glenn Close gave a little speech about the women in the Senate and she said the first woman senator or the first democrat woman senator was elected to office in 1932. Then she introduced some woman to speak.  I thought, wow, that woman looks good to have been elected 72 years ago.  Someone didn't do a very good job with Close's speech.  They should have at least identified by name the woman elected in 1932.  As it was, the speech suggested that the 1932 woman and this new speaker were the same people. 

Here's an interesting story from Space.com.

Interested in meteor showers? 

Black holes?

My favorite....   space art.

Tin Foil Hat, check them out by clicking on the link in the Blogs of Note section, posted a link to this weird story.  Apparently, on September 29th, there will be an alien invasion and most all humans will be killed.  So mark your calendars. 

The Return of Neighborcat

Neighborcat, a.k.a "The Tailess Wonder" or "Lucky" returned to our humble abode this morning for some food. He had been absent from our company for about a month. Where ever he's been he has not been in any new accidents or fights (no new wounds) and he has been fed and groomed! Hopefully, his string of GOOD luck will continue.

No one in our office won the Individual BEST Award this time. So, our boycott of the rigged event has resumed. We plan to give out our own best awards.   If the State Office people want us to participate, then they better give us the group award. 

The new supervisor called me today to ask me some questions about an accounting procedure.  We still haven't been officially told that she was selected to be our new supervisor.  Maybe they will make the announcement when she actually starts to work in our office.  A little late, but hey, that's government work for you.

I came in from work today and Mom said, "Miranda, tell your dad how to make meringue."  I have never made meringue in my life, but I know it has something to do with beating egg whites until they are white and resemble whipped cream.  You never know what you'll encounter when my dad is left up to his own devices. 

Tonight on the Nightly News with Tom Brokaw, I saw a news story about this little cartoon called "This Land" created by the two guys who have the website, JibJab.com. It is a funny little cartoon featuring Dubya Bush and John Kerry. I thought you all would like it. Since it is so popular, neither the creators' website nor the cartoon site would load for me, but maybe it will for you.

Today, Scarlett, April and I took an extra half an hour for lunch and went to the mexican restaurant for their buffet. I thought it was pretty good. Our poor waiter boy was stuck with the customer from you-know-where sitting in the booth next to ours. She would send him back for this and that and something else as if he was her personal slave. Oh well, fate will be kind to the little waiter boy and bad luck will befall the evil woman.

Yesterday after work I was driving into town and in front of me was this guy who was apparently in a big hurry. In front of him was a dump truck hauling some dirt and going about 40 miles per hour. Well, the guy in front of me was gesturing angrily with his arm out the window and weaving around thinking he could pass the truck on a double yellow line (which is a big no-no for those of you not familiar with U.S. driving rules). Eventually, the truck pulled off the road and the guy in front of me got to speed up a little. What was really funny is where he stopped. Not the bank before closing, or the post office. But....... a yard sale.

Free Martha!!!

Martha Stewart is at this moment giving an interview to Larry King. I think it's stupid that with prison overcrowding and lack of funds to support the prison system that Martha's going to jail. Just the other day on the news there was a story about how the Federal Government is letting illegal aliens out of jail because it doesn't have the money to keep them there. In this day of Homeland Security and all that crap, the Federal Government believes Martha Stewart is more dangerous than people from other countries and that she is more of a criminal than Ken Lay who after two years of walking around free was finally led around in the public eye in a pair of handcuffs.

Two hours later....

And I have that bar back on my post screen for blogger.  I had to upgrade my Internet Explorer to 6.0.  So, I think I will test some of the buttons on this bar.  Like the size and font options.  The text color options.  Numbered lists:
 
Things I noticed at the fair:

1. Young girls only use a mirror to check their hair and make-up.  Not to see how awful they look in size 4 clothes when they happen to have size 8 bodies.  Fat rolls are not flattering.
2. You can tell the actual fair participants from the socializers - the participants are dressed in normal clothes.  The socializers are dressed in the tightest, shortest, and thinnest clothes available.
3. Babies should not be right next to the loud speakers at the concert.  They need their hearing for later in life.  When they get older and you have to tell them 5 times to clean up their room, just remember that it was you who destroyed their hearing. 

 

 

 

What's the deal with Blogger? They took off that little bar that had the icon you clicked on to do links in your posts. Blogger is becoming increasingly user un-friendly. It's a good thing I don't mind looking up the html stuff and figuring out how to use it.

Road Trip

Yesterday, Mom and I took a little road trip to P-Burg to see Buddy Jewell perform at the county fair. It's been years since Mom and I did the fair thing. I think the last one might have been our county fair to see someone like The Whites, or T.G. Sheppard. About the concert, Buddy Jewell was great. He sounded better in person than he does on the cd, usually it's the opposite. Buddy sang many of the songs he sang on Nashville Star and many of the songs on his cd. One song that I hadn't heard him sing before was "Turn the Page" made popular by Bob Seger. Buddy could sing the phone book and make it sound good. And it's true what they say, the camera does add ten pounds. Buddy looked to be in great shape.

This quiz is way screwed up.

I chose the options of quiet and alone. And here's what I get:

hockey you like rough sports and a part of a group
that work hard to acheive the final goal.


What sport are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

This is just wrong!

Clark doesn't meet Lois until way after college! Anyone who watched the first movie knows that! If I actually watched this tv show, I'd stop.

Check out Cooking By Numbers

Bear Spirit Calls To You ~
Bear is spirit keeper of the West, the place of
darkness, maturity and good harvest. Bears are
active during the night and day. This
symbolizes its connection with solar energy,
that of strength and power, and lunar energy,
that of intuition. The bear holds the teachings
of introspection. When it shows up in your life
pay attention to how you think, act and
interact.

Bear's Wisdom Includes:


*Introspection

*Healing

*Solitude

*Change

*Communication with Spirit

*Birth and rebirth

*Transformation

*Astral travel

*Creature of dreams, shamans and mystics

*Visionaries

*Defense and revenge

*Wisdom



Animal Spirit Guides ~ Which One Calls To You?
brought to you by Quizilla

Snow Cones Rule

Since it's been so ridiculously hot here, I have been dying of thirst. But, I can only drink so much water, so the other night I took a hammer to some ice cubes. Eating ice cubes would quench the thirst but wouldn't have me drinking gallons of water. While it was great therapy to crush and smash stuff, it was also loud and a bit of a hassle. So, Mom bought a snow-cone maker today at Walmart. It works great. She got some cherry syrup to go with it, but plain snow is the best on a hot day.

Someone with the electric company really screwed up somewhere. Our electric bill for this past month is nearly three times what it was last month. Of course last month's KW usage was an outrageously low number so I would say some lazy bum working for the electric company didn't read the meter like he was supposed to (or was too stupid to know how to read it) and turned in the wrong number and now this month the company is trying to make up for it. Dad will go through the roof when he sees the bill. Wonder if I can be somewhere else when that happens......

Elvis recorded "Hey Jude"??

He must have because I'm listening to him sing it on the Satellite radio station. Strange. Anyway, this means that we still have the Elvis radio station on the satellite dish. I figured we'd lose it after the preview days but we still have it. YAY!!!

Today I found out that for the second quarter this year, I was completely Error Free at work. The evil state office people keep an 'error rate' on me (such as it is considering how many mistakes they make) and for the second quarter my error rate was ZERO! April and Tony had a lot of fun with that today. They said my head was getting so big that I'd need to knock down a wall of my cube and expand. And then Tony said the only reason the evil state office people said I made no errors was because they were all afraid of me. LOL! Afraid, error free, it's all success to me.

I'm getting tired of the Miss Real Estate working her real estate job when she's supposed to be working her state job. Her cell phone rings all the time and if it bothers me this much, imagine how poor Scarlett feels, her cube is right next to Miss Real Estate's office. I really think the official Personnel people need to make a rule about cell phones at work. And someone should turn in Miss Real Estate for working her second job while she's supposed to be working her first one. There is Personnel policy about that. But I hear Miss Real Estate is a buddy of the RAM so it might not be a good idea to complain. I guess the only option is to make so much noise that she is drowned out. Or we could each take turns calling Scarlett's cell phone all day long and drive Miss Real Estate's workers nuts. Better not tell Scarlett that idea, she'd actually do it. A definite rebel, that girl :)

I bought the Brad Cotter cd today. He won Nashville Star 2. It's ok, not as great as Buddy Jewell's. The songs from Brad Cotter's cd that I think should be singles are: I Meant To (already released), I Miss Me, Patient Man, and I've Got Time. Back to work today and I had to send a polite email to my RAM for the complaint I had about Thyme last week. The RAM sent my original fiesty email on to her boss and asked for his opinion! I've had a stomach ache since yesterday afternoon. Didn't get much sleep last night. I hope this goes away soon. And when I was at WalMart tonight I found out that Jack from Days of Our Lives is still alive! He's only died on that show probably 3 times already. I just love how no one dies in soap operas.

I spent today watching the rest of Season 2 of Nero Wolfe. They were really good episodes. I know I've been inspired to read the books again and probably to buy the ones I don't have from ebay.

Also today, I turned the computer on this morning and the computer decided to connect to the internet without me. It was connected to the internet most of the day before I noticed it. No one believes the computer has a mind of its own, but when it takes over the world and starts killing people, get ready to hear a few "I told you so's" from me.

And yesterday I got some lemons and made some lemon stuff to put on the dogs to control their fleas. It looks like all the fleas have been chased down to the dogs' feet since I put the lemon juice on their backs.

Elvis is still the King!

The Sirius Radio people who have graciously offered some of their stations to Dish Network now have a whole station devoted solely to Elvis music! Right now it's playing on a channel the Dish Network people are offering to us satellite tv customers, but in a few days the Elvis station will move to another station and who knows if we will get that station with our satellite dish package. I want that station! I love Elvis!

Free Music

I received a free promotional cd with the latest issue of Wizard magazine yesterday. The cd was of a band called Lacuna Coil. Never heard of them so I played the cd just a little bit ago and looked them up on the internet. And here's what I found. It's not really my kind of music (as far away from country and Barry Manilow as you can get), but it wasn't all that bad either. Although, I confess I probably broke some kind of rule in that I didn't listen to the music as loudly as I could have. And with the dogs barking and Mom dropping dishes in the kitchen and Dad mumbling about something or other, I probably missed all the parts of the songs that make these people the really cool people they must be. But free music is good. They apparently will be appearing at Ozzfest 2004 on the Second Stage. That's what's written on the back of the cd cover.

A Tribute to Marlon Brando....

Here are a few websites to comemmorate the life and career of this brilliant actor:

A Tribute to Marlon Brando

IMDB

TIME 100: Marlon Brando

Destination Hollywood Tribute to Marlon Brando

Today I went to the bank and then did a little shopping. I bought silverware for when I get my house. I'm not buying a lot of stuff for my future residence because we don't have the room to store it here, but I can fit a few things under my bed. I came home, put a turkey on to cook for the pets, had lunch and then napped for a good part of the afternoon. I had a headache and was trying to get rid of it. The dogs have been suffering with fleas so I put some flea drops on them. I don't think it's done any good. And this heat isn't helping them any either. If I had lemons I would make the natural flea repellant that I found on budget101.com. A few days ago I won an auction on Ebay for 2 pigs handcarved out of Teakwood. I sent off the payment on Tuesday and I got the pigs today. I know the seller couldn't have gotten the payment that fast so I suspect he's sent out the pigs before receiving payment. While that's a nice gesture, I really wish they wouldn't do that. Now I'm going to worry that he won't get his payment. The pigs are really cute. It does bother me that they don't have eyes though. But there are little scratches where I'm guessing eyes could be, so I'm going to assume that they are having such a good time that they've closed their eyes and are smiling or laughing.

Mom went shopping in P-Burg today. I thought about tagging along with her, but I couldn't miss the opportunity of being at home alone for most of the day. Days alone are very rare around here. And then, I don't want to spend a lot of money on stuff I don't need since I'm going to be doing the house thing in the coming months. I'll need every penny I've got then. The pigs I had to have though.

RIP

Marlon Brando Dies at Age 80

Follow-up

I referred to Admiral April as Double A in the last post. Here is the website for another great Double A - Double A Arn Anderson. He is a phenomenal professional wrestler who also went by the moniker "The Enforcer" (that was for you too Scarlett).

When last we heard from the fearless leader of the CC Squad*.....

(*CC Squad = Cubicle Commando Squad)

..... Granny had really ticked me off and I'd sent an email to my RAM complaining. Well, the RAM sent the email on to Granny's boss and Granny's Boss's boss. Yesterday Granny's boss responded but I didn't want to ruin my 4 day vacation so I didn't open the email. Today, my RAM responded so that meant I had to actually read both emails. I didn't want her to be fighting the battle for me if I'd already moved on. So, it turns out that Granny's Boss agreed with me. Great. Only now another state office worker has ticked me off. We will call her Thyme, (if you knew her real name, you'd understand the reference). I had done an audit on one case to move some money over to another one. The other case didn't need an audit since it started in June and only June's debt was owed. But Thyme wanted to be nitpicky and said that case needed an audit. So, I did the stupid audit for a whole month's worth of debt and sent it to her. Then I sent another email to the RAM, this time warning her that it wasn't meant to be forwarded on to anyone, and complained about Thyme. I ended the email by saying that I was beginning to think they are nitpicking and not really trying to do their jobs. The RAM told me once that the reason they do things like this is because I intimidate them. But I think the real reason is because they are JEALOUS of me. They should be.

And yes, you read it right, I do have another vacation coming up. It starts tomorrow and runs through Monday. That's the price a person pays for working for an employer with a 'take it or lose it' policy on vacation days. This year I was given 17 days vacation and if I don't use them all, then I will lose them. So, instead of waiting around and ending up taking the whole month of December off, I planned out my whole vacation schedule for the whole year back in January. It's only a tentative schedule and can be changed if I need it to be. But the bosses appreciate my thoughtfulness.

Ugh! I just had a sudden urge to bake something. Must be the vacation kicking in. I'm getting the distinct desire for cake.

Scarlett and Double A (Admiral April) took off to the mountains for a couple of days. Or at least that was the plan when I last saw them. They may have changed their minds again. I hope Scarlett talks about the trip on her blog. You remember that blog of yours, don't you Scarlett? What's it called..... Guilty Telegram? No, that's not it. No Contest Memorandum? No, I don't think that's right either. Oh yeah, Scarlett's Innocent Postcard! That's it!