"Jemma" is our puppy. She is a Cockapoo/Pomeranian. We have had her for a few weeks now.
Click the pics to see them bigger!
Caio!
Monday, December 4, 2006
Addition
Hey. Here, finally, is some pics of the newest addition to the Dredd Sweet family.
"Jemma" is our puppy. She is a Cockapoo/Pomeranian. We have had her for a few weeks now.
Click the pics to see them bigger!
Caio!
"Jemma" is our puppy. She is a Cockapoo/Pomeranian. We have had her for a few weeks now.
Click the pics to see them bigger!
Caio!
Thursday, November 23, 2006
Too Busy / Quote
Life is too busy, too hectic, too disorganized and ...frantic...right now, to be worrying about blogging about 'mirror images' and 'how I see myself'.
So that idea is on hold, and possibly on permanent hold.
And now, a quote, from Stephen R. Donaldson's masterpiece work, A Man Rides Through .
"Father," Myste replied like the sun, "all children must be risked. Mother knows that. How else are we to discover ourselves?"
So that idea is on hold, and possibly on permanent hold.
And now, a quote, from Stephen R. Donaldson's masterpiece work, A Man Rides Through .
"Father," Myste replied like the sun, "all children must be risked. Mother knows that. How else are we to discover ourselves?"
Saturday, November 18, 2006
How Is Your Mirror Today?
Okay, with a title like that, you will probably want some explanation.
Well, so do I.
Unfortunately, I am still working out all of the details.
Suffice it to say, that I plan on doing some thinking and some blogging this weekend. Both of these activities may even extend on through the week, if needed.
'Why, thinking and blogging of what, oh great Dredd Sweet", you innocently ask of me.
'Good question', reply I.
Hmm...now I need to think of an answer.
Well, it is like this. I have something of a puzzle that i wish to work out.
The puzzle goes something like this...
We all know what we look like. As long as we have the capacity to see, the gift of vision, most of us have a pretty good idea of what we look like. Everytime we look in a mirror or otherwise see our reflections, we know that we see ourselves. And this helps to define us to us.
Now, what if we lived in a society where mirrors were not allowed? Where it was wrong to see a reflection of oneself.
What, my puzzle asks of myself, what would i think of myself then? How would i describe myself, never having seen myself? If the way that i thought of myself was totally independant from what i looked like, because i did not know what i looked like, how might that change my perception of who i am to me?
How would i describe myself? My traits, would they be any more important? Would comparisons come into play less? What things about myself might i be able to see more clearly, or less clearly, if i had no true idea of what my features looked like? If i had no idea how i compared, physically, with those around me, how would that change my views about myself?
And that is what i aim to tackle.
How?
Truthfully, i am not sure. And i am not overly sure where this is leading, or what it may or may not dredge up.
But at the very least, it will be an exercise of sorts that will expand my thinking about myself, force me to examine some things a little differently than i normally would.
And perhaps it may help us all to see ourselves a little differently.
So, keep reading, and look forward eagerly to reading what i go through as i examine a personal view of myself from a world without physical reflections...
Well, so do I.
Unfortunately, I am still working out all of the details.
Suffice it to say, that I plan on doing some thinking and some blogging this weekend. Both of these activities may even extend on through the week, if needed.
'Why, thinking and blogging of what, oh great Dredd Sweet", you innocently ask of me.
'Good question', reply I.
Hmm...now I need to think of an answer.
Well, it is like this. I have something of a puzzle that i wish to work out.
The puzzle goes something like this...
We all know what we look like. As long as we have the capacity to see, the gift of vision, most of us have a pretty good idea of what we look like. Everytime we look in a mirror or otherwise see our reflections, we know that we see ourselves. And this helps to define us to us.
Now, what if we lived in a society where mirrors were not allowed? Where it was wrong to see a reflection of oneself.
What, my puzzle asks of myself, what would i think of myself then? How would i describe myself, never having seen myself? If the way that i thought of myself was totally independant from what i looked like, because i did not know what i looked like, how might that change my perception of who i am to me?
How would i describe myself? My traits, would they be any more important? Would comparisons come into play less? What things about myself might i be able to see more clearly, or less clearly, if i had no true idea of what my features looked like? If i had no idea how i compared, physically, with those around me, how would that change my views about myself?
And that is what i aim to tackle.
How?
Truthfully, i am not sure. And i am not overly sure where this is leading, or what it may or may not dredge up.
But at the very least, it will be an exercise of sorts that will expand my thinking about myself, force me to examine some things a little differently than i normally would.
And perhaps it may help us all to see ourselves a little differently.
So, keep reading, and look forward eagerly to reading what i go through as i examine a personal view of myself from a world without physical reflections...
Saturday, November 11, 2006
I Will Remember
Remembrance day. Here in Canada, the day that we honour all those who have fought for our freedom, both the living and the now deceased.
Two things seems appropriate for me to do on this day. The first is a quote from a book, the second a famous poem. Firstly, i present for you a fitting quote, from the work of fiction called Into The Fire, by Dennis L. McKiernan (who just happens to be my favourite author).
And he turned to the gathering, and a hush fell over them all. And then he said, “The King has told you of the terrible cost of the war – lost comrades, lost friends, lost brothers and cousins and fathers and mothers and daughters and sons.” Tipperton held the pewter coin between finger and thumb and looked down on it on it’s thong, and then he looked up at the faces of the lords and ladies and honoured guests waiting and said, “Know this, my friends: freedom is not free, for in times of darkness, in the fires of war, freedom is forged of iron, iron oft quenched by the blood of the innocent, a terrible price to pay. Yet to let evil rule is even more costly. No, my friends, freedom is not free, so cherish it and know its true value, for it is paid for by the highest coin of all.”
And now, I present this...
In Flanders Field
By: Lieutenant Colonel John McRae, MD (1872-1918)
Canadian Army
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
McCrae's "In Flanders Fields" remains to this day one of the most memorable war poems ever written. It is a lasting legacy of the terrible battle in the Ypres salient in the spring of 1915. Here is the story of the making of that poem:
Although he had been a doctor for years and had served in the South African War, it was impossible to get used to the suffering, the screams, and the blood here, and Major John McCrae had seen and heard enough in his dressing station to last him a lifetime.
As a surgeon attached to the 1st Field Artillery Brigade, Major McCrae, who had joined the McGill faculty in 1900 after graduating from the University of Toronto, had spent seventeen days treating injured men -- Canadians, British, Indians, French, and Germans -- in the Ypres salient.
It had been an ordeal that he had hardly thought possible. McCrae later wrote of it:
"I wish I could embody on paper some of the varied sensations of that seventeen days... Seventeen days of Hades! At the end of the first day if anyone had told us we had to spend seventeen days there, we would have folded our hands and said it could not have been done."
One death particularly affected McCrae. A young friend and former student, Lieut. Alexis Helmer of Ottawa, had been killed by a shell burst on 2 May 1915. Lieutenant Helmer was buried later that day in the little cemetery outside McCrae's dressing station, and McCrae had performed the funeral ceremony in the absence of the chaplain.
The next day, sitting on the back of an ambulance parked near the dressing station beside the Canal de l'Yser, just a few hundred yards north of Ypres, McCrae vented his anguish by composing a poem. The major was no stranger to writing, having authored several medical texts besides dabbling in poetry.
In the nearby cemetery, McCrae could see the wild poppies that sprang up in the ditches in that part of Europe, and he spent twenty minutes of precious rest time scribbling fifteen lines of verse in a notebook.
A young soldier watched him write it. Cyril Allinson, a twenty-two year old sergeant-major, was delivering mail that day when he spotted McCrae. The major looked up as Allinson approached, then went on writing while the sergeant-major stood there quietly. "His face was very tired but calm as we wrote," Allinson recalled. "He looked around from time to time, his eyes straying to Helmer's grave."
When McCrae finished five minutes later, he took his mail from Allinson and, without saying a word, handed his pad to the young NCO. Allinson was moved by what he read:
"The poem was exactly an exact description of the scene in front of us both. He used the word blow in that line because the poppies actually were being blown that morning by a gentle east wind. It never occurred to me at that time that it would ever be published. It seemed to me just an exact description of the scene."
In fact, it was very nearly not published. Dissatisfied with it, McCrae tossed the poem away, but a fellow officer retrieved it and sent it to newspapers in England. The Spectator, in London, rejected it, but Punch published it on 8 December 1915.
- We thank all the veterans who fought for our freedom, this day and all days. Also, our thanks go out to the brave men and women who fight the good fight around the world today. Special Thanks go out to the Canadians soldiers serving in Afghanistan and other areas. May God keep you safe, and grant you strength. -
Two things seems appropriate for me to do on this day. The first is a quote from a book, the second a famous poem. Firstly, i present for you a fitting quote, from the work of fiction called Into The Fire, by Dennis L. McKiernan (who just happens to be my favourite author).
And he turned to the gathering, and a hush fell over them all. And then he said, “The King has told you of the terrible cost of the war – lost comrades, lost friends, lost brothers and cousins and fathers and mothers and daughters and sons.” Tipperton held the pewter coin between finger and thumb and looked down on it on it’s thong, and then he looked up at the faces of the lords and ladies and honoured guests waiting and said, “Know this, my friends: freedom is not free, for in times of darkness, in the fires of war, freedom is forged of iron, iron oft quenched by the blood of the innocent, a terrible price to pay. Yet to let evil rule is even more costly. No, my friends, freedom is not free, so cherish it and know its true value, for it is paid for by the highest coin of all.”
And now, I present this...
In Flanders Field
By: Lieutenant Colonel John McRae, MD (1872-1918)
Canadian Army
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
McCrae's "In Flanders Fields" remains to this day one of the most memorable war poems ever written. It is a lasting legacy of the terrible battle in the Ypres salient in the spring of 1915. Here is the story of the making of that poem:
Although he had been a doctor for years and had served in the South African War, it was impossible to get used to the suffering, the screams, and the blood here, and Major John McCrae had seen and heard enough in his dressing station to last him a lifetime.
As a surgeon attached to the 1st Field Artillery Brigade, Major McCrae, who had joined the McGill faculty in 1900 after graduating from the University of Toronto, had spent seventeen days treating injured men -- Canadians, British, Indians, French, and Germans -- in the Ypres salient.
It had been an ordeal that he had hardly thought possible. McCrae later wrote of it:
"I wish I could embody on paper some of the varied sensations of that seventeen days... Seventeen days of Hades! At the end of the first day if anyone had told us we had to spend seventeen days there, we would have folded our hands and said it could not have been done."
One death particularly affected McCrae. A young friend and former student, Lieut. Alexis Helmer of Ottawa, had been killed by a shell burst on 2 May 1915. Lieutenant Helmer was buried later that day in the little cemetery outside McCrae's dressing station, and McCrae had performed the funeral ceremony in the absence of the chaplain.
The next day, sitting on the back of an ambulance parked near the dressing station beside the Canal de l'Yser, just a few hundred yards north of Ypres, McCrae vented his anguish by composing a poem. The major was no stranger to writing, having authored several medical texts besides dabbling in poetry.
In the nearby cemetery, McCrae could see the wild poppies that sprang up in the ditches in that part of Europe, and he spent twenty minutes of precious rest time scribbling fifteen lines of verse in a notebook.
A young soldier watched him write it. Cyril Allinson, a twenty-two year old sergeant-major, was delivering mail that day when he spotted McCrae. The major looked up as Allinson approached, then went on writing while the sergeant-major stood there quietly. "His face was very tired but calm as we wrote," Allinson recalled. "He looked around from time to time, his eyes straying to Helmer's grave."
When McCrae finished five minutes later, he took his mail from Allinson and, without saying a word, handed his pad to the young NCO. Allinson was moved by what he read:
"The poem was exactly an exact description of the scene in front of us both. He used the word blow in that line because the poppies actually were being blown that morning by a gentle east wind. It never occurred to me at that time that it would ever be published. It seemed to me just an exact description of the scene."
In fact, it was very nearly not published. Dissatisfied with it, McCrae tossed the poem away, but a fellow officer retrieved it and sent it to newspapers in England. The Spectator, in London, rejected it, but Punch published it on 8 December 1915.
- We thank all the veterans who fought for our freedom, this day and all days. Also, our thanks go out to the brave men and women who fight the good fight around the world today. Special Thanks go out to the Canadians soldiers serving in Afghanistan and other areas. May God keep you safe, and grant you strength. -
Sunday, November 5, 2006
Cooper's Garage
ALICE COOPER - "THE ROLLING STONES Are The Ultimate Garage
Band"
More than three decades into his enormously successful rock
career, the Valley’s own ALICE COOPER is still reaching goals
he set long ago.
“Get a star on Hollywood Boulevard, have a platinum album, go
to No. 1 and open for THE ROLLING STONES,” Cooper says by
phone from a Connecticut stop on his tour after a round of
golf in which the scratch player shot a 75.
Cooper has his star in Hollywood, has hit No. 1 on the album
charts and has gone platinum several times over. On Sept. 23
in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Cooper got to open for The Rolling
Stones, and he’ll do it again Wednesday when The Stones play
University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, AZ.
“It’s one of the things I get to scratch off my list,” Cooper
laughs.
Like millions of others, Cooper is a die-hard Stones fan and,
in a roundabout way, it was The Rolling Stones that got a
track star at Phoenix’s Cortez High School named Vince
Furnier and his teammates to form a band called The Spiders.
“In those days you didn’t play original material,” Cooper
explains of the Valley music scene in 1966. “So we were the
Rolling Stones band and it would say, ‘Tonight at the V.I.P.,
THE SPIDERS will be doing “19th Nervous Breakdown.” ’ That’s
all we did. We were expected to do Rolling Stones just like
the record and, honestly, that’s why people came. Everybody
was doing BEATLES, so we were the band that ventured out and
started playing the Stones.”
And when The Spiders undertook the task of writing their own
material, the Stones’ music was a touchstone for the young
band that would later change its name to Alice Cooper (when
the group split in 1974, Furnier legally changed his own name
to Alice Cooper).
“The Stones are so good — they are the prototype garage
band,” Cooper says. “And I say that in all great respect
because AEROSMITH is a garage band, Alice Cooper is a garage
band and The Rolling Stones are a garage band, but they are
the ultimate garage band. You take their band and you could
put them in 70,000-seat (arenas) or you could put them in a
club, and it’s still the same music and it still works.”
Cooper, who will begin recording his 29th album in January to
be followed by another world tour — he has done five global
treks in the last five years — after the disc is released in
April, is still influenced by The Stones.
“To this day,” Cooper says. “On my last album (2005’s ‘Dirty
Diamonds’) we did two songs — ‘Sunset Babies (All Got
Rabies)’ and ‘Zombie Dance’ — that were absolute, pure
Rolling Stones.”
Band"
More than three decades into his enormously successful rock
career, the Valley’s own ALICE COOPER is still reaching goals
he set long ago.
“Get a star on Hollywood Boulevard, have a platinum album, go
to No. 1 and open for THE ROLLING STONES,” Cooper says by
phone from a Connecticut stop on his tour after a round of
golf in which the scratch player shot a 75.
Cooper has his star in Hollywood, has hit No. 1 on the album
charts and has gone platinum several times over. On Sept. 23
in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Cooper got to open for The Rolling
Stones, and he’ll do it again Wednesday when The Stones play
University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, AZ.
“It’s one of the things I get to scratch off my list,” Cooper
laughs.
Like millions of others, Cooper is a die-hard Stones fan and,
in a roundabout way, it was The Rolling Stones that got a
track star at Phoenix’s Cortez High School named Vince
Furnier and his teammates to form a band called The Spiders.
“In those days you didn’t play original material,” Cooper
explains of the Valley music scene in 1966. “So we were the
Rolling Stones band and it would say, ‘Tonight at the V.I.P.,
THE SPIDERS will be doing “19th Nervous Breakdown.” ’ That’s
all we did. We were expected to do Rolling Stones just like
the record and, honestly, that’s why people came. Everybody
was doing BEATLES, so we were the band that ventured out and
started playing the Stones.”
And when The Spiders undertook the task of writing their own
material, the Stones’ music was a touchstone for the young
band that would later change its name to Alice Cooper (when
the group split in 1974, Furnier legally changed his own name
to Alice Cooper).
“The Stones are so good — they are the prototype garage
band,” Cooper says. “And I say that in all great respect
because AEROSMITH is a garage band, Alice Cooper is a garage
band and The Rolling Stones are a garage band, but they are
the ultimate garage band. You take their band and you could
put them in 70,000-seat (arenas) or you could put them in a
club, and it’s still the same music and it still works.”
Cooper, who will begin recording his 29th album in January to
be followed by another world tour — he has done five global
treks in the last five years — after the disc is released in
April, is still influenced by The Stones.
“To this day,” Cooper says. “On my last album (2005’s ‘Dirty
Diamonds’) we did two songs — ‘Sunset Babies (All Got
Rabies)’ and ‘Zombie Dance’ — that were absolute, pure
Rolling Stones.”
Saturday, November 4, 2006
Work-Related Musings
Hey Y'all!
Seems to be quite a while since i have posted here. Sorry about that!
Well, a few weeks back i had my yearly evaluation at work. This is my third one, as I have now been at my job for three years.
My evaluation marks directly affect the percentage pay raise that i get for the coming work year, as well as the performance-based bonus that i receive.
I finally managed to discover what my marks were like. Well, actually, i already knew that my marks on the Eval were fairly high, but i was unaware of how exactly that affected my pay raise and bonus. THOSE are the figures that i finally'figured out' (pun intended).
Okay. Without giving away too much personal financial detail over my blog, let me just say this; Wow!
Apparently, i got the second highest possible mark. To my knowledge, nobody has ever gotten that high before at my workplace. So, i now co-share a record here , although unofficially since nobody else is supposed to know what other people at work got for marks. And I say co-share because i am knowing that one other person, one whom i work with on an almost daily basis, got the same mark as me on this year's Eval.
Although the pay-raise involved is only percentage based, and therefore is not very large at all, still, it is a lot more than i have gotten in any other evaluations, and hey! , a little something is better than nothing, right?
As for the bonus - again, i do not want to give away any financial details of my life. It is not a huge amount of money. That being said, if the bonus was out of ten dollars, with a ten being the highest possible denomination that one could get, and if the bonuses paid out were only paid in ones (thus, there were only 10 possible bonus amounts to get), then i would have gotten 9 bucks. Again, as far as i am aware, nobody has EVER gotten more than eight bucks from the Eval Bonus. And that has only happened once in the last three or four years. And i, and a workmate of mine, both now hold the record (unofficially) of nine bucks for a bonus. Wa-hoo!
So, it just goes to show me. As goofy and frustrating as my job can be...and no matter how many times i complain that i never get noticed, that too many people have their heads up their own butts to have any idea about the rest of us employees...yet it just goes to prove that as long as the Right Person or two have their eyes on you, and can see your passion for the job and your efforts and your level of competence, and as long as God is for you and you do all that you do as if you were working for God, then good things can still happen.
My faith has been restored. And i continue to pray for some good changes to happen in my workplace. If THIS can happen, most unexpectedly, then anything good Can and Should be expected.
Seems to be quite a while since i have posted here. Sorry about that!
Well, a few weeks back i had my yearly evaluation at work. This is my third one, as I have now been at my job for three years.
My evaluation marks directly affect the percentage pay raise that i get for the coming work year, as well as the performance-based bonus that i receive.
I finally managed to discover what my marks were like. Well, actually, i already knew that my marks on the Eval were fairly high, but i was unaware of how exactly that affected my pay raise and bonus. THOSE are the figures that i finally'figured out' (pun intended).
Okay. Without giving away too much personal financial detail over my blog, let me just say this; Wow!
Apparently, i got the second highest possible mark. To my knowledge, nobody has ever gotten that high before at my workplace. So, i now co-share a record here , although unofficially since nobody else is supposed to know what other people at work got for marks. And I say co-share because i am knowing that one other person, one whom i work with on an almost daily basis, got the same mark as me on this year's Eval.
Although the pay-raise involved is only percentage based, and therefore is not very large at all, still, it is a lot more than i have gotten in any other evaluations, and hey! , a little something is better than nothing, right?
As for the bonus - again, i do not want to give away any financial details of my life. It is not a huge amount of money. That being said, if the bonus was out of ten dollars, with a ten being the highest possible denomination that one could get, and if the bonuses paid out were only paid in ones (thus, there were only 10 possible bonus amounts to get), then i would have gotten 9 bucks. Again, as far as i am aware, nobody has EVER gotten more than eight bucks from the Eval Bonus. And that has only happened once in the last three or four years. And i, and a workmate of mine, both now hold the record (unofficially) of nine bucks for a bonus. Wa-hoo!
So, it just goes to show me. As goofy and frustrating as my job can be...and no matter how many times i complain that i never get noticed, that too many people have their heads up their own butts to have any idea about the rest of us employees...yet it just goes to prove that as long as the Right Person or two have their eyes on you, and can see your passion for the job and your efforts and your level of competence, and as long as God is for you and you do all that you do as if you were working for God, then good things can still happen.
My faith has been restored. And i continue to pray for some good changes to happen in my workplace. If THIS can happen, most unexpectedly, then anything good Can and Should be expected.
Sunday, October 22, 2006
Major Changes In The Works
Attention!
Consider yourself warned - my comics blog, previously located at http://potogoldheroes.blogspot.com ,
IS
NO
MORE !
Due to lack of relavence and other boring issues like that, i chucked it. Finis. Bye-bye.
However...
I now have a new blog,
located at http://Canadas-own-The-Flight.blogspot.com .
This blog, entitled "The Flight - Canada's Superteam" is going to remain current and up to date, dealing with all things revolving around the world of Canada's own superhero team. This team, once called Alpha Flight, is making a reappearance on a monthly basis in 2007 (and beyond) as Omega Flight - and I promise to report all that I can about it.
So, there you have it. One blog, one that nobody ever read and hardly ever got updated, has been destroyed.
And one blog, fresh and up-to-date, and oh-so-very-important [ at least to me! :-) ] , has been created, and is being worked on very hard over the next few weeks, as I am hoping to get a lot of traffic to my site. Interest in this particular comic book runs extraordinarily high...so don't forget to check it out often!
And remember...
Support The Flight!... and Support Canada!
Consider yourself warned - my comics blog, previously located at http://potogoldheroes.blogspot.com ,
IS
NO
MORE !
Due to lack of relavence and other boring issues like that, i chucked it. Finis. Bye-bye.
However...
I now have a new blog,
located at http://Canadas-own-The-Flight.blogspot.com .
This blog, entitled "The Flight - Canada's Superteam" is going to remain current and up to date, dealing with all things revolving around the world of Canada's own superhero team. This team, once called Alpha Flight, is making a reappearance on a monthly basis in 2007 (and beyond) as Omega Flight - and I promise to report all that I can about it.
So, there you have it. One blog, one that nobody ever read and hardly ever got updated, has been destroyed.
And one blog, fresh and up-to-date, and oh-so-very-important [ at least to me! :-) ] , has been created, and is being worked on very hard over the next few weeks, as I am hoping to get a lot of traffic to my site. Interest in this particular comic book runs extraordinarily high...so don't forget to check it out often!
And remember...
Support The Flight!... and Support Canada!
Tuesday, October 10, 2006
Lacking In Wisdom, Am I
Got my two bottom wisdom teeth pulled out today.
Yuck.
Thankfully, it went okay.
I was fairly nervous (understatement), but i got some prayer 'fore i went to have it done, and Rachelle came with me and held my hand while the doc put his foot on my forehead and 'heaved and grunted like a bear in heat.' (that's me using 'poetic license' - cool eh?)
So, all in all, it seems to be going okay. Other than the fact that i have now been up for almost 22 hours, and although i am exhausted i do not seem to be anywhere close to falling asleep...
oh well. at least those two useless teeth have been done away with.
:-)
it's all good!
Yuck.
Thankfully, it went okay.
I was fairly nervous (understatement), but i got some prayer 'fore i went to have it done, and Rachelle came with me and held my hand while the doc put his foot on my forehead and 'heaved and grunted like a bear in heat.' (that's me using 'poetic license' - cool eh?)
So, all in all, it seems to be going okay. Other than the fact that i have now been up for almost 22 hours, and although i am exhausted i do not seem to be anywhere close to falling asleep...
oh well. at least those two useless teeth have been done away with.
:-)
it's all good!
Monday, October 9, 2006
Families Upsizing
Here it is, a story I got off of the Yahoo news. An interesting read.
Bucking norm, some relish big families
By DAVID CRARY, AP National Writer
Sun Oct 8, 5:06 PM ET
NEW YORK - Laura Bennett isn't bound by convention. Professionally, at age 42, she's pursuing a mid-career switch into big-time fashion design. At home, she's a mother of five — with No. 6 due next month.
"It was nothing that we planned ahead of time," Bennett says. "It's more that we were enjoying all the kids.
"We have a happy home. Why not have as many children as we can?"
It's barely a blip on the nation's demographic radar — 11 percent of U.S. births in 2004 were to women who already had three children, up from 10 percent in 1995. But there seems to be a growing openness to having more than two children, in some case more than four.
The reasons are diverse — from religious to, as Bennett reasons, "Why not?"
The families involved cut across economic lines, though a sizable part of the increase is attributed to a baby boom in affluent suburbs, with more upper-middle-class couples deciding that a three- or four-child household can be both affordable and fun.
The Bennetts still stand out. Among other well-off families in Manhattan, three children is generally the maximum — one or two is much more common as parents contemplate private-school tuition of $25,000 a year even for kindergarten, and a real estate market that is far from family-friendly.
Bennett's husband, Peter Shelton, is a successful architect, and the family can afford child-care help while Bennett — also an architect by training — pursues her fashion-design aspirations as a finalist on the TV reality show "Project Runway." But their motives sound similar to those of other, less wealthy parents nationwide who have opted for five or more children.
Dr. Jeff Brown, a pediatrician affiliated with Greenwich Hospital in Connecticut's wealthy southwestern suburbs, has noticed a clear trend in recent years.
"I don't hear people say, 'We'll have two and then we're done,' where I used to hear that before," he said. "People are much more open to three-children families than they were 10 years ago."
However, really big families remain rare, Brown said, in part because many women are giving birth at older ages — they may not have their third child until in their 40s, when the prospect of a fourth might seem too daunting.
The Census Department says it has no national data specifying which demographic sectors are having more kids these days. But a leading expert on family size, Duke University sociologist Philip Morgan, says it makes sense that some well-off couples are opting for more children as concern about global overcrowding eases because of lowering birth rates overall.
"The population explosion — fears about that are over," he said. "People used to think that having more than two kids was not only expensive but immoral. Now, people say if you can afford three kids, four kids, that's great."
Yet Morgan, who has three children of his own, doubts there will be a boom in extra-large families.
"No matter how much money the parents have, most think each of their kids should have their own place and time," he said. "More than four — that's when people start thinking you're crazy, that you're shortchanging the ones you already have."
Bonny Clark, a mother of five from the Minneapolis suburb of Circle Pines, has encountered such skepticism. When pregnant with twins four year ago — with three other children already on hand — even some of her friends were dismayed.
"There were a lot of unwelcome comments, like, 'If I had three kids and was having twins, I'd kill myself,'" Clark said.
Clark, 38, is aware of the buzz that large families — in the suburbs, at least — are a new status symbol.
"I thought it was kind of funny," she said "Most people who have a lot of kids don't have the time or energy to care what about others think."
On top of other family duties, Clark has an extra, self-imposed workload — homeschooling all five children ranging from the twins to an adolescent daughter.
"One of the biggest struggles for me," she said, "is that 4-year-olds' interests aren't the same as a 13-year-old's interests."
Her husband, who runs the mail center at a local college and does landscaping, has limited spare time, and the family constantly improvises to make do financially.
Carmen and Frank Staicer of Virginia Beach, Va., have an even bigger brood — six children aged 2 through 14. The two youngest — including 2-year-old Riley, who is autistic — are at home with Carmen during the day; the others go to local Roman Catholic schools.
Carmen embraces the challenges of raising so large a family but doesn't minimize them.
"There are many nights I go to bed mentally exhausted, after trying to deal with high school bullies and first-grade spelling words," she said. "But I can't think of anything that I'd rather do than be dealing with these incredibly funny, wonderful individuals."
Even with her husband's income as a car dealership finance manager, Staicer says budget-balancing can require buying secondhand sports gear and controlling food bills with coupons and leftovers. Each weekday afternoon, she switches into chauffeur mode, driving her children to afterschool activities.
"I don't want them to grow up thinking that because we had all these kids, they couldn't do anything," she said.
Her oldest children — Nikolas, 14, and Allegra, 11 — sometimes weary of the decibel level around the house, but they also see upsides. If she's briefly feuding with one of her siblings, said Allegra, there's always someone else to play with.
One gauge of the Staicers' home life is laundry — 20 loads in an average week. In South Orange, N.J., where Diana and Ronald Baseman have raised 10 children, trash output is a challenge — at one point, garbagemen needed to be tipped before they would haul away the family's refuse.
The Basemans had six biological children, then — after Diana had three miscarriages — adopted four more from Guatemala, the oldest 8 and the youngest barely a year old.
One factor was Diana Baseman's refusal, as a Roman Catholic, to use artificial birth control, but even as a child she aspired to have a big family.
"I have learned so much from children that I never would have learned otherwise," Baseman said.
Even with the two oldest children in their 20s and living elsewhere, Baseman has her hands full homeschooling the others.
"My biggest frustration is that I make the schedule and then there's an emergency — practically every day," she said. "But a lot people get exhausted by taking care of their children. I don't."
From far-flung communities, many parents of large families enjoy comparing notes. Several Web sites have surfaced to accommodate such exchanges, including LargerFamilies.com, founded this year by Meagan Francis of Williamston, Mich.
Francis, 29, has four children — fewer than many of her site's regular bloggers, but enough to raise eyebrows in her suburb outside Lansing. "People thought I was insane," she said.
From overseeing the Web site, Francis has concluded that large families don't fit the stereotypes sometimes applied to them.
"Some are really religious, others aren't. A lot are homeschoolers but many are not," she said. "There are stay-at-home moms, working moms, some with lots of money, some with not much ... We don't all fit a mold."
Francis is bemused by the recent buzz that large families are a status symbol.
"The majority of the large families I know have made adjustments — the kids share bedrooms, they don't always get new toys," she said. "It's more a question of valuing things a little differently."
Laura Bennett believes mothers with lots of children should make a point of doing something just for themselves on a regular basis. In her case, it's dressing well every day, "not getting sucked into sweatsuits and sneakers."
Bennett's oldest child, a daughter from a previous marriage, goes to college in Houston. The four children she has had with Shelton, sons ranging from 10 to 3, share a bunkroom. A fifth brother is expected at the end of November.
The main reaction Bennett gets from mothers with fewer children is, "How do you do it?"
"My answer is I don't think about it too much," she said. "You do what you need to do, and you have to just let go of a few things. Don't expect things to be perfect every day."
___
On the Net:
http://www.largerfamilies.com/
Bucking norm, some relish big families
By DAVID CRARY, AP National Writer
Sun Oct 8, 5:06 PM ET
NEW YORK - Laura Bennett isn't bound by convention. Professionally, at age 42, she's pursuing a mid-career switch into big-time fashion design. At home, she's a mother of five — with No. 6 due next month.
"It was nothing that we planned ahead of time," Bennett says. "It's more that we were enjoying all the kids.
"We have a happy home. Why not have as many children as we can?"
It's barely a blip on the nation's demographic radar — 11 percent of U.S. births in 2004 were to women who already had three children, up from 10 percent in 1995. But there seems to be a growing openness to having more than two children, in some case more than four.
The reasons are diverse — from religious to, as Bennett reasons, "Why not?"
The families involved cut across economic lines, though a sizable part of the increase is attributed to a baby boom in affluent suburbs, with more upper-middle-class couples deciding that a three- or four-child household can be both affordable and fun.
The Bennetts still stand out. Among other well-off families in Manhattan, three children is generally the maximum — one or two is much more common as parents contemplate private-school tuition of $25,000 a year even for kindergarten, and a real estate market that is far from family-friendly.
Bennett's husband, Peter Shelton, is a successful architect, and the family can afford child-care help while Bennett — also an architect by training — pursues her fashion-design aspirations as a finalist on the TV reality show "Project Runway." But their motives sound similar to those of other, less wealthy parents nationwide who have opted for five or more children.
Dr. Jeff Brown, a pediatrician affiliated with Greenwich Hospital in Connecticut's wealthy southwestern suburbs, has noticed a clear trend in recent years.
"I don't hear people say, 'We'll have two and then we're done,' where I used to hear that before," he said. "People are much more open to three-children families than they were 10 years ago."
However, really big families remain rare, Brown said, in part because many women are giving birth at older ages — they may not have their third child until in their 40s, when the prospect of a fourth might seem too daunting.
The Census Department says it has no national data specifying which demographic sectors are having more kids these days. But a leading expert on family size, Duke University sociologist Philip Morgan, says it makes sense that some well-off couples are opting for more children as concern about global overcrowding eases because of lowering birth rates overall.
"The population explosion — fears about that are over," he said. "People used to think that having more than two kids was not only expensive but immoral. Now, people say if you can afford three kids, four kids, that's great."
Yet Morgan, who has three children of his own, doubts there will be a boom in extra-large families.
"No matter how much money the parents have, most think each of their kids should have their own place and time," he said. "More than four — that's when people start thinking you're crazy, that you're shortchanging the ones you already have."
Bonny Clark, a mother of five from the Minneapolis suburb of Circle Pines, has encountered such skepticism. When pregnant with twins four year ago — with three other children already on hand — even some of her friends were dismayed.
"There were a lot of unwelcome comments, like, 'If I had three kids and was having twins, I'd kill myself,'" Clark said.
Clark, 38, is aware of the buzz that large families — in the suburbs, at least — are a new status symbol.
"I thought it was kind of funny," she said "Most people who have a lot of kids don't have the time or energy to care what about others think."
On top of other family duties, Clark has an extra, self-imposed workload — homeschooling all five children ranging from the twins to an adolescent daughter.
"One of the biggest struggles for me," she said, "is that 4-year-olds' interests aren't the same as a 13-year-old's interests."
Her husband, who runs the mail center at a local college and does landscaping, has limited spare time, and the family constantly improvises to make do financially.
Carmen and Frank Staicer of Virginia Beach, Va., have an even bigger brood — six children aged 2 through 14. The two youngest — including 2-year-old Riley, who is autistic — are at home with Carmen during the day; the others go to local Roman Catholic schools.
Carmen embraces the challenges of raising so large a family but doesn't minimize them.
"There are many nights I go to bed mentally exhausted, after trying to deal with high school bullies and first-grade spelling words," she said. "But I can't think of anything that I'd rather do than be dealing with these incredibly funny, wonderful individuals."
Even with her husband's income as a car dealership finance manager, Staicer says budget-balancing can require buying secondhand sports gear and controlling food bills with coupons and leftovers. Each weekday afternoon, she switches into chauffeur mode, driving her children to afterschool activities.
"I don't want them to grow up thinking that because we had all these kids, they couldn't do anything," she said.
Her oldest children — Nikolas, 14, and Allegra, 11 — sometimes weary of the decibel level around the house, but they also see upsides. If she's briefly feuding with one of her siblings, said Allegra, there's always someone else to play with.
One gauge of the Staicers' home life is laundry — 20 loads in an average week. In South Orange, N.J., where Diana and Ronald Baseman have raised 10 children, trash output is a challenge — at one point, garbagemen needed to be tipped before they would haul away the family's refuse.
The Basemans had six biological children, then — after Diana had three miscarriages — adopted four more from Guatemala, the oldest 8 and the youngest barely a year old.
One factor was Diana Baseman's refusal, as a Roman Catholic, to use artificial birth control, but even as a child she aspired to have a big family.
"I have learned so much from children that I never would have learned otherwise," Baseman said.
Even with the two oldest children in their 20s and living elsewhere, Baseman has her hands full homeschooling the others.
"My biggest frustration is that I make the schedule and then there's an emergency — practically every day," she said. "But a lot people get exhausted by taking care of their children. I don't."
From far-flung communities, many parents of large families enjoy comparing notes. Several Web sites have surfaced to accommodate such exchanges, including LargerFamilies.com, founded this year by Meagan Francis of Williamston, Mich.
Francis, 29, has four children — fewer than many of her site's regular bloggers, but enough to raise eyebrows in her suburb outside Lansing. "People thought I was insane," she said.
From overseeing the Web site, Francis has concluded that large families don't fit the stereotypes sometimes applied to them.
"Some are really religious, others aren't. A lot are homeschoolers but many are not," she said. "There are stay-at-home moms, working moms, some with lots of money, some with not much ... We don't all fit a mold."
Francis is bemused by the recent buzz that large families are a status symbol.
"The majority of the large families I know have made adjustments — the kids share bedrooms, they don't always get new toys," she said. "It's more a question of valuing things a little differently."
Laura Bennett believes mothers with lots of children should make a point of doing something just for themselves on a regular basis. In her case, it's dressing well every day, "not getting sucked into sweatsuits and sneakers."
Bennett's oldest child, a daughter from a previous marriage, goes to college in Houston. The four children she has had with Shelton, sons ranging from 10 to 3, share a bunkroom. A fifth brother is expected at the end of November.
The main reaction Bennett gets from mothers with fewer children is, "How do you do it?"
"My answer is I don't think about it too much," she said. "You do what you need to do, and you have to just let go of a few things. Don't expect things to be perfect every day."
___
On the Net:
http://www.largerfamilies.com/
Monday, September 25, 2006
Pix For Ya
Hey All!
Here are a few family-pet pictures for you!
My Buddy, Toby! She's a work of art ! (Rachelle says she is "a piece of work". Somehow, those two sayings are similar yet feel entirely different...)
The dog. Gizmo. Hurrah.
Felix. Felixio. Mr Feely Pants. Sir Felix. Blubberbutt. Piggy-man. In case you are wondering, he is a 21 lb cat, not a baby seal. But, he's handsome! :-)
Here are a few family-pet pictures for you!
My Buddy, Toby! She's a work of art ! (Rachelle says she is "a piece of work". Somehow, those two sayings are similar yet feel entirely different...)
The dog. Gizmo. Hurrah.
Felix. Felixio. Mr Feely Pants. Sir Felix. Blubberbutt. Piggy-man. In case you are wondering, he is a 21 lb cat, not a baby seal. But, he's handsome! :-)
Sunday, September 24, 2006
Why Fantasy?
This posting is in response to anybody who has asked (or wanted to ask) somebody (somebody like me) why they read fantasy novels.
Too often, i feel like people just do not understand why somebody would want to immerse themselves in the stories of wars and empires, elves and dwarves and hobbits, orcs and goblins, witches and spells, princesses in peril and knights sworn to protect them, dragons and treasures and voyages into danger.
And, quite honestly, that lack of understanding completely blows me away at times.
So, for all of you out there, i write this piece as an explanation...
A good fantasy novel is much more than just a story. It is much more than just fiction. And it is certainly not "just a waste of time"!
More than any other authors out there, the writers of fantasy fiction carry on a long-standing...uh, i lost the word i was looking for [post-note: I think the word i was looking for was "tradition"].
Anyways, what i mean is, most authors today tell stories. Most authors entertain (or try to).
But fantasy , works of fantasy, have been around for centuries upon centuries. These are the same sort of stories, in the same vein, as those told about hearths and campfires many decades and centuries ago. They are re-telling olden stories, with new twists.
Where would our society be without fantasy? Can you imagine what the world would have been like without the stories that we all know and love? Stories like Snow White, many of our best-loved fairy tales, characters both loved and hated (like Baba Yaga the witch, Jason the Argonaut who sailed to find the golden fleece, Rapunzel, Peter Pan, Hercules, to name but a few)?
Fantasy authors take and reshape and retell these stories, carefully adding to their works of old by using many of the same elements to fashion stories that still today carry the most amount of good.
Consider this - what books but fantasy novels can take you to a place where any ordinary person can become a hero? Where there is great beauty, but also great peril? Where we can take heart and believe in the goodness of humanity, and then turn around and see the destruction that same humanity can bring about? Where good deeds bring good rewards, and where an evil thought or word can lead to a lifetime of lost innocence?
Really, is there any other book(s), other than the Bible itself, that i would trust to teach my children... to see a higher power in the world around them, to trust those whom they love, to flee away from evil, to do good because doing good is always it's own reward, to understand that in order to preserve peace and freedom you must sometimes use a heavy hand and ride to war, that what you love is always worth fighting for, to know that courage and sincerity and honour and forgiveness and love are things to seek after and cherish and highly regard in your life, to hold on to those friends who stick by you in times of trouble, to treat nature with respect, to love your fellow man? These things, and many more, are still being taught today, by many fantasy novel authors. Yet way too many parents never even teach these things to their children themselves, hoping against hope that their kids will just "pick up goodness and love somewhere along life's way."
Sometimes, we look at the little things, we nit-pick, and then...to quote an old saying, we "throw the baby out with the bathwater." We see one thing that we do not like, so we empty out and get rid of things that we cannot do without.
Tell me, what is the TV teaching the kids today? What are advertisers instilling in our children? Movies? Anything good? Anyone out there to speak up on behalf of these great institutions? Do these things make our kids better human beings?
So, maybe we should take another look at the fantasy novel and fantasy author. Oh, they may not be perfect. They may deal in magic, in make-believe, in war, and they take an open and honest (and sometimes scary) look at evil. But is this enough reason to get rid of them, or poo-hoo them, and ignore the good qualities that they may be instilling in our future generations?
Most (make that, all) everything good that i have learned in my life, i owe to God. However, i know that He used fantasy novels to help me to have a greater understanding of good and evil, a better working knowledge of how a Kingdom works, and to see the qualities of love and honor and worship in action.
And that is why i read fantasy novels. And i am proud of it.
Too often, i feel like people just do not understand why somebody would want to immerse themselves in the stories of wars and empires, elves and dwarves and hobbits, orcs and goblins, witches and spells, princesses in peril and knights sworn to protect them, dragons and treasures and voyages into danger.
And, quite honestly, that lack of understanding completely blows me away at times.
So, for all of you out there, i write this piece as an explanation...
A good fantasy novel is much more than just a story. It is much more than just fiction. And it is certainly not "just a waste of time"!
More than any other authors out there, the writers of fantasy fiction carry on a long-standing...uh, i lost the word i was looking for [post-note: I think the word i was looking for was "tradition"].
Anyways, what i mean is, most authors today tell stories. Most authors entertain (or try to).
But fantasy , works of fantasy, have been around for centuries upon centuries. These are the same sort of stories, in the same vein, as those told about hearths and campfires many decades and centuries ago. They are re-telling olden stories, with new twists.
Where would our society be without fantasy? Can you imagine what the world would have been like without the stories that we all know and love? Stories like Snow White, many of our best-loved fairy tales, characters both loved and hated (like Baba Yaga the witch, Jason the Argonaut who sailed to find the golden fleece, Rapunzel, Peter Pan, Hercules, to name but a few)?
Fantasy authors take and reshape and retell these stories, carefully adding to their works of old by using many of the same elements to fashion stories that still today carry the most amount of good.
Consider this - what books but fantasy novels can take you to a place where any ordinary person can become a hero? Where there is great beauty, but also great peril? Where we can take heart and believe in the goodness of humanity, and then turn around and see the destruction that same humanity can bring about? Where good deeds bring good rewards, and where an evil thought or word can lead to a lifetime of lost innocence?
Really, is there any other book(s), other than the Bible itself, that i would trust to teach my children... to see a higher power in the world around them, to trust those whom they love, to flee away from evil, to do good because doing good is always it's own reward, to understand that in order to preserve peace and freedom you must sometimes use a heavy hand and ride to war, that what you love is always worth fighting for, to know that courage and sincerity and honour and forgiveness and love are things to seek after and cherish and highly regard in your life, to hold on to those friends who stick by you in times of trouble, to treat nature with respect, to love your fellow man? These things, and many more, are still being taught today, by many fantasy novel authors. Yet way too many parents never even teach these things to their children themselves, hoping against hope that their kids will just "pick up goodness and love somewhere along life's way."
Sometimes, we look at the little things, we nit-pick, and then...to quote an old saying, we "throw the baby out with the bathwater." We see one thing that we do not like, so we empty out and get rid of things that we cannot do without.
Tell me, what is the TV teaching the kids today? What are advertisers instilling in our children? Movies? Anything good? Anyone out there to speak up on behalf of these great institutions? Do these things make our kids better human beings?
So, maybe we should take another look at the fantasy novel and fantasy author. Oh, they may not be perfect. They may deal in magic, in make-believe, in war, and they take an open and honest (and sometimes scary) look at evil. But is this enough reason to get rid of them, or poo-hoo them, and ignore the good qualities that they may be instilling in our future generations?
Most (make that, all) everything good that i have learned in my life, i owe to God. However, i know that He used fantasy novels to help me to have a greater understanding of good and evil, a better working knowledge of how a Kingdom works, and to see the qualities of love and honor and worship in action.
And that is why i read fantasy novels. And i am proud of it.
Friday, September 22, 2006
"Hobbits And Elves And Websites, Oh My!"
Hey All,
Been a While Since I posted.
Just a short something to hold you all over, as I will be leaving for work in about one half of an hour.
(And yes, i AM still planning on doing that long and involved blog on ethics in business...sometime soon, i hope)
I found a site where there is a name generator. You put in your own name, or somebody else's name, and it spits out a Hobbit name or an Elf name for you!
Cool!
the generators are located here, for those interested:
http://www.chriswetherell.com/hobbit/
http://www.chriswetherell.com/elf/
So, here goes!
First, Hobbit names!
Me - Popo Peatfingers of Brockenborings
The wife - Goldie Peatfingers of Brockenborings
Daughter One, C - Rosie-Posie Hamwich of Buckleberry Fern
Daughter Two, K - Esmerelda Peatfingers of Brockenborings
Now, the Elven names!
Me - Huor Elendil
The wife - Órelindë Elendil
Daughter One, C - Lúthien Elensar
Daughter Two, K - Inwë Elendil
Lots of fun!
Have some yourself!
Ciao for now!
Been a While Since I posted.
Just a short something to hold you all over, as I will be leaving for work in about one half of an hour.
(And yes, i AM still planning on doing that long and involved blog on ethics in business...sometime soon, i hope)
I found a site where there is a name generator. You put in your own name, or somebody else's name, and it spits out a Hobbit name or an Elf name for you!
Cool!
the generators are located here, for those interested:
http://www.chriswetherell.com/hobbit/
http://www.chriswetherell.com/elf/
So, here goes!
First, Hobbit names!
Me - Popo Peatfingers of Brockenborings
The wife - Goldie Peatfingers of Brockenborings
Daughter One, C - Rosie-Posie Hamwich of Buckleberry Fern
Daughter Two, K - Esmerelda Peatfingers of Brockenborings
Now, the Elven names!
Me - Huor Elendil
The wife - Órelindë Elendil
Daughter One, C - Lúthien Elensar
Daughter Two, K - Inwë Elendil
Lots of fun!
Have some yourself!
Ciao for now!
Monday, September 4, 2006
Dead Intent
This is a two-parter...
1) I intended to blog this weekend, really i did. REAL blogging, i mean; i even had a great topic picked out. But alas, it is not to be, not right now. I just do not have the brainpower to get into a deep subject right now. Sorry, faithful readers (lol - like I have any!). This weekend, i have had two of the worst sleeps i can remember, and i am so exhausted that i am getting hot flashes and feeling sick.So, not barn-storming session is to happen here, not now, not this time.But next time? Oh yes, next time will be better.I promise.
2) R.I.P. Steve Irwin, Crocodile Hunter. Killed by a stingray while filming some underwater documentary.
huh. dead intent, indeed!ciao!oh, okay...one more thing. Kids, listen up to the nice Mr. Blogger now, will ya! Have fun in school, study hard, play nice, and have a great year. And my advice to parents? Wear sensible shoes before doing your "happy-back-to-school-cuz-now-I-am-free-again" dance, or you might get blisters.
1) I intended to blog this weekend, really i did. REAL blogging, i mean; i even had a great topic picked out. But alas, it is not to be, not right now. I just do not have the brainpower to get into a deep subject right now. Sorry, faithful readers (lol - like I have any!). This weekend, i have had two of the worst sleeps i can remember, and i am so exhausted that i am getting hot flashes and feeling sick.So, not barn-storming session is to happen here, not now, not this time.But next time? Oh yes, next time will be better.I promise.
2) R.I.P. Steve Irwin, Crocodile Hunter. Killed by a stingray while filming some underwater documentary.
huh. dead intent, indeed!ciao!oh, okay...one more thing. Kids, listen up to the nice Mr. Blogger now, will ya! Have fun in school, study hard, play nice, and have a great year. And my advice to parents? Wear sensible shoes before doing your "happy-back-to-school-cuz-now-I-am-free-again" dance, or you might get blisters.
Thursday, August 17, 2006
More In Favour Of Marriage...
Feel blue, say "I do" as weddings boost mood: study
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Lonely? Feeling low? Try taking a walk -- down the aisle. Getting married enhances mental health, especially if you're depressed, according to a new U.S. study.
The benefits of marriage for the depressed are particularly dramatic, a finding that surprised the professor-student team behind the study.
"We actually found the opposite of what we expected," said Adrianne Frech, a PhD sociology student at Ohio State University who conducted the study with Kristi Williams, an assistant professor of sociology.
They expected to find that one spouse's depression weighed too much on the marriage, but "just mattering to someone else can help alleviate symptoms of depression," Frech said.
Frech will present their findings at the American Sociological Association's annual meeting in Montreal on Sunday.
The researchers used a 3,066 person sample that measured symptoms of depression -- such as an inability to sleep, or persistent sadness -- in the same people both before and after their first marriage.
They found that depressed people experienced a much more extreme decrease in the incidence of those symptoms.
"Depressed people may be just especially in need of the intimacy, the emotional closeness and the social support that marriage can provide ... if you start out happy, you don't have as far to go," Williams said.
On the other hand, if you're not depressed, marriage could have the opposite effect, Frech said.
People who were happy before getting married and end up in a marriage plagued by distance or conflict -- qualities associated with a depressed spouse -- might be better off single.
"It seems right to say that people who are not depressed are at risk, that if they marry a depressed person this could be a bad deal for them," Frech said.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Lonely? Feeling low? Try taking a walk -- down the aisle. Getting married enhances mental health, especially if you're depressed, according to a new U.S. study.
The benefits of marriage for the depressed are particularly dramatic, a finding that surprised the professor-student team behind the study.
"We actually found the opposite of what we expected," said Adrianne Frech, a PhD sociology student at Ohio State University who conducted the study with Kristi Williams, an assistant professor of sociology.
They expected to find that one spouse's depression weighed too much on the marriage, but "just mattering to someone else can help alleviate symptoms of depression," Frech said.
Frech will present their findings at the American Sociological Association's annual meeting in Montreal on Sunday.
The researchers used a 3,066 person sample that measured symptoms of depression -- such as an inability to sleep, or persistent sadness -- in the same people both before and after their first marriage.
They found that depressed people experienced a much more extreme decrease in the incidence of those symptoms.
"Depressed people may be just especially in need of the intimacy, the emotional closeness and the social support that marriage can provide ... if you start out happy, you don't have as far to go," Williams said.
On the other hand, if you're not depressed, marriage could have the opposite effect, Frech said.
People who were happy before getting married and end up in a marriage plagued by distance or conflict -- qualities associated with a depressed spouse -- might be better off single.
"It seems right to say that people who are not depressed are at risk, that if they marry a depressed person this could be a bad deal for them," Frech said.
Wednesday, August 16, 2006
No (M)Alice In Wonderland
This was sent to me by, of all people, my ex-wife. Kudos to her for remembering how much I love Alice Cooper!
Read below!
************************************************
Alice Cooper To Open Christian Youth Center
Tuesday, August 1, 2006
Excerpts from USA Today:
Alice Cooper is opening a center where kids can learn to play guitar, shoot
hoops and find Jesus? Apparently so.
The 58-year-old father of shock-rock is teaming up with Grand Canyon
University in Phoenix to establish a $3 million youth haven featuring a
"school of rock," a concert hall and sporting attractions.
"It's a sanctuary where they don't get shot, they don't get stabbed, they
don't have to worry about somebody trying to sell them drugs," says Cooper,
who plans to announce the project today (Tuesday).
He concedes that some parents might view him as unlikely, if not
objectionable, in the role of a philanthropist bringing morality and
religion to America's young people.
"It's a great juxtaposition," he says. "Trust me, I walk that tightrope
every day. Part of the fun is the edge of it."
Cooper says those who understand his shtick recognize that the show has
always been a blend of farce and satire. They also know that he became a
born-again Christian 16 years ago when he quit drinking.
Since 1995, Cooper has operated the Solid Rock Foundation, a non-profit
organization that provides money to children's causes and college
scholarships to Christian students.
Cooper insists that his stage persona is a polar opposite to his personal
life: He has been married 30 years "without cheating" on his wife, and they
have raised three children.
The son of a minister and grandson of an evangelist, Cooper says America
"needs a good hypodermic needle shot of morality."
That will be one goal for his 20,000-square-foot recreational hall, to be
known as The Rock, on the urban campus of Grand Canyon University. It will
be open to children 12 to 18 at no charge; the prime target is at-risk
teens, whose parents may be in jail or on drugs, and whose brothers are
thugs.
"Even kids who grow up in gangs have a creative place in their body," Cooper
says. "They have a choice between a 9mm and a nine-iron."
Cooper, who still tours with his band five months each year, says alcohol
and tobacco will be banned at The Rock. There won't be a chapel, but
counselors will proselytize by example and offer religious guidance to kids
who want to learn about the faith.
"We are overtly Christian," he says, "but we're not going to beat you over
the head with a Bible."
The project, still in design stages and not fully financed, is scheduled to
break ground next year. An artist's rendering shows a concert hall,
recording studios, game rooms, a basketball court and a rock-climbing wall.
Cooper says he's seeking corporate sponsors to provide everything from
guitars to construction materials. In the meantime, his foundation will
raise money with an annual golf tournament and a Christmas music show.
Grand Canyon University will provide the land, security and some of the
financing, says Brent Richardson, CEO of the non-denominational Christian
school. Richardson concedes that some of the university's patrons and its
10,000 students may be leery of the shock-rock image.
But he says Cooper has an honorary degree from the university and has
provided hundreds of thousands of dollars in scholarships through his Solid
Rock Foundation.
"Look at his actions," Richardson says. "I think it's a great thing, and I
don't worry about it at all."
Even in the early years, Cooper says, his shows featured no foul language,
nudity or satanic glorification. In fact, he says, more than 30 of his songs
assail devil worship.
On the other hand, there were songs about necrophilia, sadomasochism and
hedonism; his theme was "Nothing in moderation."
Cooper says he and his family will be regulars at The Rock, working with children and helping to produce shows. He says no decision has been made on
an emblem for the school, but he would prefer that it not have anything to
do with Alice Cooper. Then, with a mischievous grin, he suggests, "How about
a cross through my heart?"
****************************************************************
And the following news article is being reprinted without permission. Tough beans!
******************************************************
Alice Cooper to Build Teen Center in Ariz.
Alice Cooper's Christian foundation to develop teen center in Phoenix
PHOENIX, Aug. 1, 2006
By TERRY TANG Associated Press Writer
(AP) For all the envelope-pushing Alice Cooper has done as a shock rocker, he also knows the value of boundaries, especially for children.
"Kids love boundaries. We used to fight against them. But in all reality, what we really did want was to know where we could go. Of course, you always step over the line just a little bit to see what's going to happen," said the 58-year-old rocker, known for his ghoulish makeup and hits such as 1975's "Welcome to My Nightmare."
Cooper said his Christian, nonprofit Solid Rock Foundation has begun fundraising efforts for a 20,000-square-foot teen activity center to be called The Rock, to be built at Grand Canyon University in West Phoenix.
The $3 million center will feature a recording studio, indoor basketball courts, rock-climbing walls, coffeehouse, game room and concert hall. Construction is expected to begin next year.
"People don't lay in the sun in southwest Phoenix. There's lots of shootings going, there's lots of meth going on, there's lots of gangs," Cooper said. "In the middle of all that is a bunch of 12-, 13-, 14-year-old kids that can go one way or the other."
Officials for Grand Canyon University, a private college with a Christian focus, came to Cooper with the offer to build the youth center on the campus. Cooper has given scholarships to the school for more than five years.
"We're not going to beat them over the head with a Bible," Cooper said. "But we're certainly going to be available to tell them that that's available to them."
Cooper, who spends about seven months of the year at home in suburban Paradise Valley, said that when he walks off the stage, "I'm going back to Phoenix, play golf, work on Solid Rock, go shopping and do everything that a father and a husband's supposed to do."
"I watched all of my best friends _ Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin, Keith Moon _ every one of them, die trying to live their image," he said.
"The one thing that my generation learned was `be a rock star when it's time to be a rock star.'"
Read below!
************************************************
Alice Cooper To Open Christian Youth Center
Tuesday, August 1, 2006
Excerpts from USA Today:
Alice Cooper is opening a center where kids can learn to play guitar, shoot
hoops and find Jesus? Apparently so.
The 58-year-old father of shock-rock is teaming up with Grand Canyon
University in Phoenix to establish a $3 million youth haven featuring a
"school of rock," a concert hall and sporting attractions.
"It's a sanctuary where they don't get shot, they don't get stabbed, they
don't have to worry about somebody trying to sell them drugs," says Cooper,
who plans to announce the project today (Tuesday).
He concedes that some parents might view him as unlikely, if not
objectionable, in the role of a philanthropist bringing morality and
religion to America's young people.
"It's a great juxtaposition," he says. "Trust me, I walk that tightrope
every day. Part of the fun is the edge of it."
Cooper says those who understand his shtick recognize that the show has
always been a blend of farce and satire. They also know that he became a
born-again Christian 16 years ago when he quit drinking.
Since 1995, Cooper has operated the Solid Rock Foundation, a non-profit
organization that provides money to children's causes and college
scholarships to Christian students.
Cooper insists that his stage persona is a polar opposite to his personal
life: He has been married 30 years "without cheating" on his wife, and they
have raised three children.
The son of a minister and grandson of an evangelist, Cooper says America
"needs a good hypodermic needle shot of morality."
That will be one goal for his 20,000-square-foot recreational hall, to be
known as The Rock, on the urban campus of Grand Canyon University. It will
be open to children 12 to 18 at no charge; the prime target is at-risk
teens, whose parents may be in jail or on drugs, and whose brothers are
thugs.
"Even kids who grow up in gangs have a creative place in their body," Cooper
says. "They have a choice between a 9mm and a nine-iron."
Cooper, who still tours with his band five months each year, says alcohol
and tobacco will be banned at The Rock. There won't be a chapel, but
counselors will proselytize by example and offer religious guidance to kids
who want to learn about the faith.
"We are overtly Christian," he says, "but we're not going to beat you over
the head with a Bible."
The project, still in design stages and not fully financed, is scheduled to
break ground next year. An artist's rendering shows a concert hall,
recording studios, game rooms, a basketball court and a rock-climbing wall.
Cooper says he's seeking corporate sponsors to provide everything from
guitars to construction materials. In the meantime, his foundation will
raise money with an annual golf tournament and a Christmas music show.
Grand Canyon University will provide the land, security and some of the
financing, says Brent Richardson, CEO of the non-denominational Christian
school. Richardson concedes that some of the university's patrons and its
10,000 students may be leery of the shock-rock image.
But he says Cooper has an honorary degree from the university and has
provided hundreds of thousands of dollars in scholarships through his Solid
Rock Foundation.
"Look at his actions," Richardson says. "I think it's a great thing, and I
don't worry about it at all."
Even in the early years, Cooper says, his shows featured no foul language,
nudity or satanic glorification. In fact, he says, more than 30 of his songs
assail devil worship.
On the other hand, there were songs about necrophilia, sadomasochism and
hedonism; his theme was "Nothing in moderation."
Cooper says he and his family will be regulars at The Rock, working with children and helping to produce shows. He says no decision has been made on
an emblem for the school, but he would prefer that it not have anything to
do with Alice Cooper. Then, with a mischievous grin, he suggests, "How about
a cross through my heart?"
****************************************************************
And the following news article is being reprinted without permission. Tough beans!
******************************************************
Alice Cooper to Build Teen Center in Ariz.
Alice Cooper's Christian foundation to develop teen center in Phoenix
PHOENIX, Aug. 1, 2006
By TERRY TANG Associated Press Writer
(AP) For all the envelope-pushing Alice Cooper has done as a shock rocker, he also knows the value of boundaries, especially for children.
"Kids love boundaries. We used to fight against them. But in all reality, what we really did want was to know where we could go. Of course, you always step over the line just a little bit to see what's going to happen," said the 58-year-old rocker, known for his ghoulish makeup and hits such as 1975's "Welcome to My Nightmare."
Cooper said his Christian, nonprofit Solid Rock Foundation has begun fundraising efforts for a 20,000-square-foot teen activity center to be called The Rock, to be built at Grand Canyon University in West Phoenix.
The $3 million center will feature a recording studio, indoor basketball courts, rock-climbing walls, coffeehouse, game room and concert hall. Construction is expected to begin next year.
"People don't lay in the sun in southwest Phoenix. There's lots of shootings going, there's lots of meth going on, there's lots of gangs," Cooper said. "In the middle of all that is a bunch of 12-, 13-, 14-year-old kids that can go one way or the other."
Officials for Grand Canyon University, a private college with a Christian focus, came to Cooper with the offer to build the youth center on the campus. Cooper has given scholarships to the school for more than five years.
"We're not going to beat them over the head with a Bible," Cooper said. "But we're certainly going to be available to tell them that that's available to them."
Cooper, who spends about seven months of the year at home in suburban Paradise Valley, said that when he walks off the stage, "I'm going back to Phoenix, play golf, work on Solid Rock, go shopping and do everything that a father and a husband's supposed to do."
"I watched all of my best friends _ Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin, Keith Moon _ every one of them, die trying to live their image," he said.
"The one thing that my generation learned was `be a rock star when it's time to be a rock star.'"
Thursday, August 10, 2006
Another Reason That Marriage Is Good
This article is copied, from the Yahoo Homepage.
All legal rights remain the rights of the authors.
Staying Single May Shorten Life-Span -
WEDNESDAY, Aug. 9 (HealthDay News) -- Staying single all your life may not be good for your health.
That's the conclusion of new research that shows that people who never marry face an even greater chance of dying early than people who have been divorced, separated or widowed. All of these groups had shorter survival prospects than people who were currently married.
The effect held true across all age groups, even younger ones, the researchers noted.
"This seems to happen all the way along," said lead researcher Robert Kaplan, professor and chair of the department of health services at the University of California, Los Angeles, School of Public Health. His team published the findings in the September issue of the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.
Previous research had found a connection between being married and a longer life expectancy and, more specifically, between being married and a lower incidence of heart disease. Marriage is considered a rough proxy for "social connectedness," which experts believe can help people live longer.
Most of these studies, however, haven't distinguished between people who are separated, divorced or widowed and those who have never been married. "We're getting at never-married people," Kaplan said. "That hasn't been looked at as much."
The authors argued that widowed and divorced people are more likely to have children and are thus more likely to be socially connected. Never-married people would not have these benefits.
To test their theory, the researchers looked at the 1997 U.S. National Death Index and the 1989 National Health Interview survey.
In 1989, almost half of the sample were married, almost 10 percent were widowed, 12 percent were divorced, 3 percent were separated, 5 percent were living with someone, and 20 percent had never been married.
The death rate for people who were unmarried, whether because of divorce, separation or widowhood, was significantly higher than it was for those married and still living with their spouses.
But among those not now married, the effect was strongest for those who had never been married and was more pronounced among men than among women. Compared with currently married folk, people who had been widowed were almost 40 percent more likely to die between 1989 and 1997, while those who had been divorced or separated were 27 percent more likely. Those who had never been married were 58 percent more likely to have died than those who were married and cohabitating.
The findings held true across all age groups, and with different causes of death, not just heart disease, according to the researchers. For those aged 19 to 44, the main causes of early death among never-married adults were infectious diseases, presumably HIV/AIDS and other external causes. For the older segment, the main causes were cardiovascular and other chronic diseases.
According to the authors, the risks of being never married were similar to the risks of having increased blood pressure or high cholesterol.
It's not clear if there is a cause-and-effect relationship. "We don't know if it's causal," Kaplan cautioned. It's possible that never-married people suffer from poor health or engage in risky behaviors, either of which could make them less likely to marry, he said.
Additional research done since this study was completed has yielded identical results, Kaplan added.
All legal rights remain the rights of the authors.
Staying Single May Shorten Life-Span -
WEDNESDAY, Aug. 9 (HealthDay News) -- Staying single all your life may not be good for your health.
That's the conclusion of new research that shows that people who never marry face an even greater chance of dying early than people who have been divorced, separated or widowed. All of these groups had shorter survival prospects than people who were currently married.
The effect held true across all age groups, even younger ones, the researchers noted.
"This seems to happen all the way along," said lead researcher Robert Kaplan, professor and chair of the department of health services at the University of California, Los Angeles, School of Public Health. His team published the findings in the September issue of the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.
Previous research had found a connection between being married and a longer life expectancy and, more specifically, between being married and a lower incidence of heart disease. Marriage is considered a rough proxy for "social connectedness," which experts believe can help people live longer.
Most of these studies, however, haven't distinguished between people who are separated, divorced or widowed and those who have never been married. "We're getting at never-married people," Kaplan said. "That hasn't been looked at as much."
The authors argued that widowed and divorced people are more likely to have children and are thus more likely to be socially connected. Never-married people would not have these benefits.
To test their theory, the researchers looked at the 1997 U.S. National Death Index and the 1989 National Health Interview survey.
In 1989, almost half of the sample were married, almost 10 percent were widowed, 12 percent were divorced, 3 percent were separated, 5 percent were living with someone, and 20 percent had never been married.
The death rate for people who were unmarried, whether because of divorce, separation or widowhood, was significantly higher than it was for those married and still living with their spouses.
But among those not now married, the effect was strongest for those who had never been married and was more pronounced among men than among women. Compared with currently married folk, people who had been widowed were almost 40 percent more likely to die between 1989 and 1997, while those who had been divorced or separated were 27 percent more likely. Those who had never been married were 58 percent more likely to have died than those who were married and cohabitating.
The findings held true across all age groups, and with different causes of death, not just heart disease, according to the researchers. For those aged 19 to 44, the main causes of early death among never-married adults were infectious diseases, presumably HIV/AIDS and other external causes. For the older segment, the main causes were cardiovascular and other chronic diseases.
According to the authors, the risks of being never married were similar to the risks of having increased blood pressure or high cholesterol.
It's not clear if there is a cause-and-effect relationship. "We don't know if it's causal," Kaplan cautioned. It's possible that never-married people suffer from poor health or engage in risky behaviors, either of which could make them less likely to marry, he said.
Additional research done since this study was completed has yielded identical results, Kaplan added.
Saturday, August 5, 2006
Gaming Fun
My Baldur's Gate II update!
Okay, so, my party of adventurers finally contacted the head guy in the Shadow Thieves organization (his name escapes me right now, so I'll call him BTD - Big Thief Dude), and...
...BTD promised to help the 6 adventurers rescue Imoen!
First, of course, they had to do a few small favours for him. The first two were simple and easy jobs, The third involved going to the caverns below the city graveyard and attacking the Vampires organization. And that was a CRAZY hard fight! In the end, they had to face the leader, Bodhi. Dick and friends beat on Bodhi for, like honestly, it must have been three or four minutes, while she just stood there and took it! Then, apparently unharmed and a little bit amused, she took off in a wisp of smoke and was gone. But not before dropping hints that she was in league with Irenicus. And that they would meet her again.
Following the orders of BTD (now I remember, his name was Arin Linvail!), the party boarded a ship sailed by a pirate crew, and they transported us to an island. Disembarking, the adventurers were immediately attacked by a few Vampires and pirates. No big deal.
There was a small town to explore, and Dick's Six (my new name for them, at least for now) explored it. After a few adventures there, we learned that we would have to enter Spellhold, an asylum on the island, one for crazy people with power. That was where Imoen was being held.
But they needed to have a wardstone that would let them into Spellhold, so they tracked down the one Cowled Wizard in the town and killed him for his wardstone.
On the way out fo town, Dick's Six met up with a Shadow Thief that Arin Linvail (BTD) had sent to help them find Spellhold, and they were led along the path to it, then left alone again.
Entering the asylum, Dick's Six were shown around by the curator/director, who then revelaed himself to be none other than the recently freed (by his own power, i guess) Irenicus! He had been experimenting on Imoen again, too, the ba**ard! Irenicus locked up Dick's Five. I say "Five", because Yoshimo was revealed to be Irenicus' plant in the party, although Yoshi stated that he did what he did on fear of death from Irenicus if he disobeyed. Then Irenicus experimented on Dick as well.
Apparently, Irenicus learned, finally, what he had wanted to discover through his experiments, and asked his accomplice Bodhi (surprise, surprise!) to dispose of the five heroes, and Imoen.
But Bodhi made a bad mistake, in deciding to play with the heroes instead, and she let them all loose in the deadly Dungeon Maze that she had designed.
Now, joined at last with Imoen, they are a party of six once again, and are trying hard to stay alive in this dungeon and escape to wreak justice upon all evildoers!
Okay...
That's it for now!
Ciao!
Okay, so, my party of adventurers finally contacted the head guy in the Shadow Thieves organization (his name escapes me right now, so I'll call him BTD - Big Thief Dude), and...
...BTD promised to help the 6 adventurers rescue Imoen!
First, of course, they had to do a few small favours for him. The first two were simple and easy jobs, The third involved going to the caverns below the city graveyard and attacking the Vampires organization. And that was a CRAZY hard fight! In the end, they had to face the leader, Bodhi. Dick and friends beat on Bodhi for, like honestly, it must have been three or four minutes, while she just stood there and took it! Then, apparently unharmed and a little bit amused, she took off in a wisp of smoke and was gone. But not before dropping hints that she was in league with Irenicus. And that they would meet her again.
Following the orders of BTD (now I remember, his name was Arin Linvail!), the party boarded a ship sailed by a pirate crew, and they transported us to an island. Disembarking, the adventurers were immediately attacked by a few Vampires and pirates. No big deal.
There was a small town to explore, and Dick's Six (my new name for them, at least for now) explored it. After a few adventures there, we learned that we would have to enter Spellhold, an asylum on the island, one for crazy people with power. That was where Imoen was being held.
But they needed to have a wardstone that would let them into Spellhold, so they tracked down the one Cowled Wizard in the town and killed him for his wardstone.
On the way out fo town, Dick's Six met up with a Shadow Thief that Arin Linvail (BTD) had sent to help them find Spellhold, and they were led along the path to it, then left alone again.
Entering the asylum, Dick's Six were shown around by the curator/director, who then revelaed himself to be none other than the recently freed (by his own power, i guess) Irenicus! He had been experimenting on Imoen again, too, the ba**ard! Irenicus locked up Dick's Five. I say "Five", because Yoshimo was revealed to be Irenicus' plant in the party, although Yoshi stated that he did what he did on fear of death from Irenicus if he disobeyed. Then Irenicus experimented on Dick as well.
Apparently, Irenicus learned, finally, what he had wanted to discover through his experiments, and asked his accomplice Bodhi (surprise, surprise!) to dispose of the five heroes, and Imoen.
But Bodhi made a bad mistake, in deciding to play with the heroes instead, and she let them all loose in the deadly Dungeon Maze that she had designed.
Now, joined at last with Imoen, they are a party of six once again, and are trying hard to stay alive in this dungeon and escape to wreak justice upon all evildoers!
Okay...
That's it for now!
Ciao!
Saturday, July 29, 2006
Shadows Of Amn
Okay. I think i mentioned a while back that I was playing a game on my computer, namely Baldur's Gate II: Shadows Of Amn.
Well, I still am. And, in lieu of saying something else in this blog, i thought i would give you all a great big update on this funnest of games.
As we speak, I am playing in Chapter Two of my game, exploring the teeming and mysterious city of Athkakla with my main adventurer, the hero of The Sword Coast (in Baldur's Gate I) and the Hero of Baldur's Gate city, Dick Splinters.
Here is a picture of Dick.
Well, I still am. And, in lieu of saying something else in this blog, i thought i would give you all a great big update on this funnest of games.
As we speak, I am playing in Chapter Two of my game, exploring the teeming and mysterious city of Athkakla with my main adventurer, the hero of The Sword Coast (in Baldur's Gate I) and the Hero of Baldur's Gate city, Dick Splinters.
Here is a picture of Dick.
As you can see by this picture here,
my main character is leader of a party of 6 adventurers. Currently, our goals are to explore, liberate the oppressed, treasure-hunt, find and rescue our missing (captured) companion, and discover who the mysterious wizard Irenicus is.
Several of the characters, along with Dick Splinters, started the game by waking up in an underground horror dungeon, where they had been tortured and experimented on for who knows how long. Irenicus is the man who kept them there, and they do not yet know why. The prison they were kept in, and burst out of (fighting for their lives the whole way), was underneath the city of Athkakla.
My main character is a level 10 Ranger, whose natural racial enemies are Giant Spiders of all kinds. Dick is a Chaotic-Good Half-Elf. He is equipped with a Ring Of Fire Protection, a Ring Of Protection +1, Bracers Of Defense (Armour Class 6), the Helmet Of Balduran (gives Armour Class and Hit Point bonuses), a Girdle Of Piercing, a Long Bow +2 called The Ripper, a 2-handed sword called Sword Of Chaos +2, the Horn Of Blasting, and Full Plate Mail Armour.
Athkakla is a major bustling city (in the country of Amn), with many differrent areas, and both it and the surrounding countryside are greatly influenced by the warring between powerful factions seeking to control all. The Cowled Wizards are the most visible of the mysterious groups - they regulate all magic, and have outlawed all magic that is not practised by themselves. They have arrested one of my party, Dick's lifelong friend Imoen (more on her later).
The other parties are, in no particular order...
- The Shadow Thieves, a local and powerful Thieves Guild that Dick has begrudgingly temporarily allied his party with, as The Shadow Thieves organization have insinuated that they can help Dick to find and rescue his captured companion (after doing them some favours and passing a few tests, all of which Dick performed with brute force, as all who died at his hands were worthy of death)
- The Vampires, the undead killers who only come out at night, are headquartered in caves and caverns below the city graveyard, and are super-secretive (and, naturally, purely evil)
- and The Harpers, a group that is usually thought of as Good, but the Harpers in this town have twisted hearts and only want to further their own aspirations for their own gain.
And now, as I promised, more about Imoen.
This is Imoen.
She was captured by The Cowled Wizards, along with the evil Irenicus, immediately after the party broke out of the underground torture chambers. The two were arrested for unlawful use of magic, both Dick's best friend and his most hated enemy taken away from him by this mysterious and powerful group. When last seen, Imoen was a Level 8 Mage and a Level 7 Thief. She was my hero's companion all through Baldur's Gate I, and was his foster sister as well. They both hailed from the citadel of Candlekeep (South and West of the city of Baldur's Gate), where they were raised by their foster father Gorion (now deceased), and kept in the dark about their own past. Skilled at both opening locks and shooting a short bow, and more recently having gained many skills as a magic user, Imoen was going to be hard to replace in the short term in the group.
But, the party needed a thief, so, they let Yoshimo into their ranks on a 'permanent' basis.
Yoshimo was found wandering the dungeons beneath Athkakla. Also good with a bow and with opening tricky locks, Yoshimo came with his own special sword that belongs to him only. Yoshimo is a class of Thief known as a Bounty Hunter - strangely enough, he never appears to be hunting anyone as his profession would suggest, and Dick Splinters has become worried that Yoshimo has been planted into his party by Irenicus...but better to have "Yoshi" where he can be watched, than worry about him sneaking up behind at night with a knife in his hand..
Yoshimo has a cloak that renders him undetectable by magical means, Boots Of Stealth, Bracers Of Defense (Armour Class 6), Shadow Armour (+5 Studded Leather, with a bonus to Hide In Shadows), Yoshimo's Katana Sword +1, and a Short Bow +1 called the Tuigan Bow (it allows 3 shots per round of fighting).
"Yoshi" is a Level 14 Bounty Hunter, Human, True Neutral in alignment.
The lovable Minsc is also in the party of adventurers. Minsc is...indescribable, really. Let's start it off by saying, flat out, Minsc is crazy. No, I do not mean that he likes to rush into battle, although that is true. I do not refer to him being fearless, although that is nearly true as well. Rather...well, Minsc's constant companion is Boo. Boo is, in Minsc's opinion, a "miniature giant space hamster". Sadly, Boo is just a small furry hamster that Minsc carries with him. And talks to. And Minsc insists that Boo talks to him, too. Minsc says very crazy things, and has many memorable lines. Yes, Minsc is quite clearly not right in the head. Interestingly enough, Dick killed Minsc in Baldur's Gate I (he was too annoying), but apparently somebody revived him at a temple and he is back. Great...
This is Minsc (seen pictured with Boo).
Minsc is a good guy, if you can get past the insanity thing. He charges into battle, and fears nothing. He is as strong as a tank. Minsc, like Dick Splinters, is a Level 10 Ranger. He is a Human, Chaotic-Good in alignment. His Racial Enemy is Vampire.
Minsc has been equipped with a Composite Long Bow +1, a Girdle Of Bluntness, a Ring Of Earth Control (charm Earth Elemental, and +1 to Armour Class Bonus), Full Plate Mail Armour +1, Bracers Of Defense (Armour Class 6), and the Dragon Helm helmet (gives fire, cold and electrical resistances). He is also armed with the 2-handed sword Lilarcor, a talking sword that is nearly as crazy as Minsc is (I think Boo is the only sane one of the bunch!) and which gives him some immunity to charm and confusion). Minsc was one of the companions found underground with Dick.
Also underground and enduring torture at the beginning of Baldur's Gate II was the True-Neutral Half-Elf Jaheira. Jaheira is slowly becoming Dick Splinters' love interest, as her former husband Kahleid was killed (tortured to death) by Irenicus. She started off annoying and weepy (in BG I, she was whiny and snobby), but has become a strong and valuable companion. Jaheira was also a companion of Dick's throughout Baldur's Gate I.
This is Jaheira.
She is a Level 9 Fighter, and a Level 12 Druid. She sports Delver's Plate Mail +2, a Dragon Scale medium Shield +2 (which grants fire, cold, and electrical resistance), a Ring Of Human Influence (raises her natural Charisma to a high of 18, and allows her to charm people once per day), Bracers Of Defense (Armour Class 6), a Helm of Charm protection, a Scimitar +1, and a Sling +2.
Meanwhile, when the party got topside, one of the first persons they added to themselves was the powerful but inexperienced female Aerie. Aerie is a winged elf, who had her wings cut off of by her captors when she was young. Eventually, she was rescued by her "Uncle", who gave her a job in his circus. The adventurers, led by Dick Splinters, rescued her when investigating the circus, which had been cursed by a powerful illusionist. Her Uncle saw that she wanted to explore the world, so he allowed Aerie to join the group. Aerie has displayed a keen interest in Dick Splinters, and he has been polite but kept her at bay - one love is enough!
This is Aerie...
Aerie is a Level 9 Cleric, and a Level 11 Mage. She is an Elf, Lawful-Good in alignment. She wears a Girdle Of Hill Giant Strength which gives her the Strength score of 19. She has a Cloak Of Protection +1, and a Traveller's Robe (Armour Class +1 versus Missile Weapons, and AC +1 Bonus vs. Breath Weapons). Like all Mages that wish to cast spells, she wears no armour. She has Arla's Dragonbane, which is a +3 Sling. Also she wears a Ring Of Wizardry and a Metaspell Influence Amulet, which together let her memorize 5 extra spells. Aerie is finished off with the Staff Of Rynn +4 as a close range weapon, and Bracers Of Defense (Armour Class 3).
Dick had Nalia in his party for a while, who was a Level 9 Mage and a Level 4 Thief. But he found her rather weak in fighting skills,
so he let her go once they had liberated her family home from the Trolls who had taken over it, and replaced her with Anomen.
Anomen, who at the time I met him was a Level 8 Cleric and a Level 7 Fighter, was not what he was expected to be. Although he had great Clerical spells, he was not the close-in fighter that the group was needing at the time. Within a few days, Anomen was cut loose from the party as well.
Eventually, the party of adventurers was rounded out with the addition of Valygar.
Valygar is a Level 9 Ranger, a sub-class called a Stalker. His Racial Enemy are Golems. Valygar is a Human of Neutral-Good alignment. He wears the Corthala Family Armour (which grants Immunity to Charm, as well as Fire and Acid and Magic Damage Resistance), and has the Corthala Family Blade, a +2 Katana with a +2 Armour Class bonus. LOL - I think that, other than Dick Splinters, Valygar is the only adventurer I have seen yet with a last name!
Valygar has Bracers Of Defense (Armour Class 4), a Helmet Of Defense (Electric, Fire, and Cold resistance), and the Ring Of The Ram (doles out 5-30 pts of damage once daily). Also, he is further equipped with another sword, a Katana +1, and wields both of his Katanas at once, giving him twice the amount of attacks! He is a great close-in fighter, and stands up well to punishment, making him the perfect addition to this group.
The other potential member choice that had to be made was over the mage Edwin. But Dick remembered Edwin from Baldur's Gate I (indeed, Dick KILLED the evil Edwin in BG I!). One of the first conversations with Edwin in this game centered around Dick mentioning that he thought Edwin was dead..."I seem to remember killing you myself" , or something to that effect.
To make sure, remembering how annoying and self-centered and conniving Edwin was, my party members joined Dick in killing him again, this time for good, hopefully. Rest in pieces, Edwin. Bwah-ha-ha-ha!
As I continue the adventuring, I find that Dick Splinters and his companions are now also the Heros Of Imnesvere (a small village which has twice been rescued by this party, and where Dick now has his own cabin and the mantle of Protector of the Village), and they are the Heros of Trademeet, a larger community in the middle of the forest where much commerce takes place. Trademeet actually erected statues of all 6 party members at their central square, surrounding a cool and serene fountain. Erection of a Dick statue - imagine that!
Happy adventuring, folks! More updates will be coming!
And, as Minsc says,
"Go for the eyes, Boo - go for the eyes!"
Thursday, July 27, 2006
Oh...?...
Have you ever noticed...
That the people who are most supposed to care, don't?
And there is no explanation for it.
Or for stupidity.
That the people who are most supposed to care, don't?
And there is no explanation for it.
Or for stupidity.
Monday, July 24, 2006
Spare Fun And Games
Well...
It's a deep subject.
Okay, seriously though.
In my spare time these last few months, I have gotten back into playing good old adventure/hack-n-slash video games. First, i played the all-time bestest game ever made for the pc, Baldur's Gate. Then, when i had completed that game, I "portaged" (think 'early-Canadian fur traders carrying canoes between rivers' - now do you get my "drift"?) my main character into it's sequel, Baldur's Gate II - Shadows Of Amn. A more in-depth game, and one I have only finished once before, so it is taking me a long time to complete. Plus, i usually only play it on my weekends. But it is a hoot. I thoroughly advise the Baldur's Gate series of games for any and all PC-platform gamers out there. There is none better, and never will be.
Other than that, I finally had two days in a row with practically no tooth pain, which has been lovely. I am in desperate need of having two very rotten wisdom teeth pulled out of my head. I will be making the appointment to do that on Tuesday - hopefully, they will get to it before the end of the month. (Yowsers! Nasty teeth, those are!) As well, I have been very busy getting cleanings done (three so far, another one scheduled for November), and fillings too (7 down, 5 to go). So my dental office loves me, of course. I'm sure I am paying for a new car, or vacation, for somebody in that office.
Oh well.
As well, I think i amy have forgotten to mention that I recently got a 'promotion' at work, to Lead Hand. Basically speaking, I am lead operator and semi-supervisor during two of my five weekly shifts, which carries more responsibility and a very slight pay increase. I am not so sure that I get respected or noticed or praised for a good job any more than usual (not at all) at work, but at least i have been promoted in theory and in name. If nothing else, since it is seniority-based, at least it proves that I have staying power at my place of employment. And it puts me one step closer to getting off of the graveyard shift, and to some more normal working hours. Close, but not there quite yet...Keep me in your prayers...
Ciao for now!
It's a deep subject.
Okay, seriously though.
In my spare time these last few months, I have gotten back into playing good old adventure/hack-n-slash video games. First, i played the all-time bestest game ever made for the pc, Baldur's Gate. Then, when i had completed that game, I "portaged" (think 'early-Canadian fur traders carrying canoes between rivers' - now do you get my "drift"?) my main character into it's sequel, Baldur's Gate II - Shadows Of Amn. A more in-depth game, and one I have only finished once before, so it is taking me a long time to complete. Plus, i usually only play it on my weekends. But it is a hoot. I thoroughly advise the Baldur's Gate series of games for any and all PC-platform gamers out there. There is none better, and never will be.
Other than that, I finally had two days in a row with practically no tooth pain, which has been lovely. I am in desperate need of having two very rotten wisdom teeth pulled out of my head. I will be making the appointment to do that on Tuesday - hopefully, they will get to it before the end of the month. (Yowsers! Nasty teeth, those are!) As well, I have been very busy getting cleanings done (three so far, another one scheduled for November), and fillings too (7 down, 5 to go). So my dental office loves me, of course. I'm sure I am paying for a new car, or vacation, for somebody in that office.
Oh well.
As well, I think i amy have forgotten to mention that I recently got a 'promotion' at work, to Lead Hand. Basically speaking, I am lead operator and semi-supervisor during two of my five weekly shifts, which carries more responsibility and a very slight pay increase. I am not so sure that I get respected or noticed or praised for a good job any more than usual (not at all) at work, but at least i have been promoted in theory and in name. If nothing else, since it is seniority-based, at least it proves that I have staying power at my place of employment. And it puts me one step closer to getting off of the graveyard shift, and to some more normal working hours. Close, but not there quite yet...Keep me in your prayers...
Ciao for now!
Sunday, July 16, 2006
New Pics
So, like, this is how I look right now.
Remember, you are only as old as you feel.
And you only feel as old as you can remember.
And cold cuts taste bestest with mayo.
Remember, you are only as old as you feel.
And you only feel as old as you can remember.
And cold cuts taste bestest with mayo.
Tuesday, July 11, 2006
People Are Strange
Have you ever noticed...
Have you ever noticed that, sometimes, the reaction that you get from people is almost the opposite one that you have expected?
Truly, people are a marvelous and versatile and resilient folk. Just when you think you have one figured out...Bam!...they surprise you.
Have you ever noticed that, sometimes, the reaction that you get from people is almost the opposite one that you have expected?
Truly, people are a marvelous and versatile and resilient folk. Just when you think you have one figured out...Bam!...they surprise you.
Saturday, July 8, 2006
Toby's Birthday
important notice!
Happy Birthday to my kitty, Miss Toby Lerone (Toblerone, or Toby).
It was her birthday yesterday, and she turned 11 years old! She even got her daddy to sing Happy Birthday to her!
Happy Birthday, Toe-Beast!
Happy Birthday to my kitty, Miss Toby Lerone (Toblerone, or Toby).
It was her birthday yesterday, and she turned 11 years old! She even got her daddy to sing Happy Birthday to her!
Happy Birthday, Toe-Beast!
Tuesday, May 23, 2006
Hurricanes, FEMA, and the Gulf Coast
Here is a direct quote, taken from a news article off of the Yahoo site.
Though the White House called for tighter coordination among all levels of government, state directors said they remain confused about the new role of a federal disaster oversight commander — or how it fits into the chain of command.
"I don't know what that person's real job is," said South Carolina emergency director Ron Osborne. "It's still nebulous if he's going to slow down the response efforts, or if there is going to be a conflict. ... As long as you've got more people involved, it seems like coordination would take longer."
In an interview Monday, Homeland Security Undersecretary George Foresman said the department and FEMA have gone far beyond the 11 fixes that the White House ordered by June 1, the hurricane season's start, to plug federal preparedness gaps that Katrina exposed.
Aside from creating or revamping systems to track supplies, alert the public to approaching storms and register evacuated victims in shelters and hotels, Foresman said the department has been working closely with state and local officials to make sure they are in sync with Washington long before disaster hits. But, he said, many of the federal changes are largely designed to back up state and local responders whose efforts have failed.
"I understand the concerns that are expressed, but we have to recognize that the federal government is not the responder of the first resort," Foresman said. "It's a responder of last resort. There are a lot of things the state and locals need to be doing as well."
Hello!
Have we (as people) learned nothing at all from this disaster!
With "more people involved" coordination "would take longer."
At last, somebody speaks with sense!
And this - "federal changes are largely designed to back up state" responders "whose efforts have failed."
Yes, yes, YES!
We, as people, have become blame-shifters and finger-pointers. We want to be mollycoddled and taken care of, and when things go sour we want to blame somebody, then elect somebody who will give us handouts.
Now, i am the first to say that last hurricane season was awful. I was glued to the tv - i wept over the damage and the loss of life.
But i was sickened as everybody rushed to blame the federal government.
Why was more blame not put on the state governments, the local city governments, and the people themselves?
Who has the responsibility, in times of disaster? The government? Or the people?
The federal government...it isn't there job to bail people out in every disaster that happens. That falls, firstly, to the local community, then it falls on the city or county, then on the state. Lastly, and very lastly, when all those levels have failed and have been exhausted, THEN the federal government moves in and helps out.
It is a simple system.
And it works.
Unless, all those lower levels fail because of poor planning of their own and poor and inadequate response, and then turns around and cries about how the federal government let the people down
It's sickening, it really is sickening...
Though the White House called for tighter coordination among all levels of government, state directors said they remain confused about the new role of a federal disaster oversight commander — or how it fits into the chain of command.
"I don't know what that person's real job is," said South Carolina emergency director Ron Osborne. "It's still nebulous if he's going to slow down the response efforts, or if there is going to be a conflict. ... As long as you've got more people involved, it seems like coordination would take longer."
In an interview Monday, Homeland Security Undersecretary George Foresman said the department and FEMA have gone far beyond the 11 fixes that the White House ordered by June 1, the hurricane season's start, to plug federal preparedness gaps that Katrina exposed.
Aside from creating or revamping systems to track supplies, alert the public to approaching storms and register evacuated victims in shelters and hotels, Foresman said the department has been working closely with state and local officials to make sure they are in sync with Washington long before disaster hits. But, he said, many of the federal changes are largely designed to back up state and local responders whose efforts have failed.
"I understand the concerns that are expressed, but we have to recognize that the federal government is not the responder of the first resort," Foresman said. "It's a responder of last resort. There are a lot of things the state and locals need to be doing as well."
Hello!
Have we (as people) learned nothing at all from this disaster!
With "more people involved" coordination "would take longer."
At last, somebody speaks with sense!
And this - "federal changes are largely designed to back up state" responders "whose efforts have failed."
Yes, yes, YES!
We, as people, have become blame-shifters and finger-pointers. We want to be mollycoddled and taken care of, and when things go sour we want to blame somebody, then elect somebody who will give us handouts.
Now, i am the first to say that last hurricane season was awful. I was glued to the tv - i wept over the damage and the loss of life.
But i was sickened as everybody rushed to blame the federal government.
Why was more blame not put on the state governments, the local city governments, and the people themselves?
Who has the responsibility, in times of disaster? The government? Or the people?
The federal government...it isn't there job to bail people out in every disaster that happens. That falls, firstly, to the local community, then it falls on the city or county, then on the state. Lastly, and very lastly, when all those levels have failed and have been exhausted, THEN the federal government moves in and helps out.
It is a simple system.
And it works.
Unless, all those lower levels fail because of poor planning of their own and poor and inadequate response, and then turns around and cries about how the federal government let the people down
It's sickening, it really is sickening...
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