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* Realized for the first time today that people ar…

* Realized for the first time today that people are actually reading this blog when I noticed people have been commenting! Very cool! Sorta thought I was writing to myself and using it as a strange way for my wife and I to bridge some communication gaps 🙂 I got a little apprehensive thinking that I’m airing too much dirty laundry but then again that’s part of the fun! Enjoy the reading!

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The afternoon! * Whew lots to say! Grabbed the …

The afternoon!

* Whew lots to say! Grabbed the 13 yr old for a companion and headed out to Cingular to pay a much needed overdue cell phone bill and sweat over the food bank account shrinking. Looks like we all are on a diet! Then over to the father-in-law’s for some fun fax repair work.

The Fax Saga

My two favorite things in the world are sitting on hold and dealing with BellSouth </sarcasm>

Summary: I own and highly recommend the VTech 20-2431 two line phone system. It’s expandable with up to 8 VTech 20-2420 handsets each supporting both lines and no wiring required. The only thing that gets plugged into the phone line is the base. It has great features including an intercom system. This is the one feature I wish they had done differently. With each handset having a built-in speakerphone, it seems like you should be able to globally or to a specific handset just start talking–like an in-home intercom. It rings and you have to pick it up. No big deal. Anyhow, I recommend this solution to my father-in-law that needs a home line and a business line in his house. For months my 2 lines worked fine and the fax machine was setup on the 2nd line then suddenly one day the 2nd line says “extension in use” and rings busy as long as the fax is hooked up. I figure a wiring problem and sure enough, I connect a shorter cable that has not been stepped on and it works fine. Now, the father-in-law tries to connect his fax to his VTech 20-2431 and gets the same problem. Now things are getting fishy so I email vtech and begin the troubleshooting. Note: The VTech 20-2481 has a built-in answering machine but I recommend the Bellsouth voicemail over a physical answering machine.

Solution:

  1. Check wiring. All in order.
  2. Send father-in-law to get new phone cable
  3. Call Vtech
  4. Sit on hold
  5. Get technician and explain problem. Tech explains "line voltage is too low. Should be 21 volts" (I always thought phone systems were 12 volts) and that I need to call BellSouth.
  6. Call Bellsouth
  7. Sit on hold
  8. Level 1 tech support schedules repair for father-in-law’s house and my house
  9. Remember the new phone cord. Connect it and ta-da! The fax works!
  10. Father-in-law and I debate cancelling vs keeping service calls.

  11. Phone rings. It’s BellSouth (a technician or higher level support rep) “I’ve been talking to my supervisor and this problem doesn’t make sense”
  12. Debate in mind keeping service call anyway
  13. Tell Bellsouth that the problem is fixed and to cancel service calls
  14. Continue playing with fax to realize that we should have asked Bellsouth Techsupport how to make the Bellsouth voicemail and fax machine play nice together
  15. Call Bellsouth
  16. Sit on hold
  17. Technician answers and says they didn’t used to play nice together but that there is a BRAND NEW feature called Voice Mail Premium which cost “exactly the same as the regular voicemail” (for Complete Choice customers–which we both are). Voicemail Premium allows faxes to be delivered to a fax mailbox then printed to any fax you want at a later time. It fills the void very well! So if you are on the line and a fax comes through it goes to the fax mailbox. If you are away from home, your faxes are not missed. And you don’t have to set your fax machine to answer before the voicemail with some squealing in the person’s ear.
  18. Added it to both houses! Feel very satisfied. Goes into effect at midnight (in hindsight I will probably have to rerecord the voicemail message.

* Next the father-in-law had me listen to a strange noise the car was making and troubleshot that as “get it back to the guys that rotated the wheels!” (metal grinding)

* Returned home to take the 10yr old selling girl scout cookies (I enjoy that a lot!)

* fixed dinner (shrimp and corn on the cob) and got the kids down then relaxed to some blogging.

 

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I received this in email today and have not person…

I received this in email today and have not personally verified the number but have no reason to doubt them either.

Click to skip to the next post


Greetings all,

This is a long list, but if you don’t read through to the end you’ll miss some of the most alarming figures. Here’s a prayer that we all may unite behind the the necessity of regime change here in the good ole U.S. Of A.

peace,



George W Bush and the real state of the Union

Today the President gives his annual address. As the election battle begins, how does his first term add up?

20 January 2004

*232:* Number of American combat deaths in Iraq between May 2003 and January 2004

*501:* Number of American servicemen to die in Iraq from the beginning of the war – so far

*0:* Number of American combat deaths in Germany after the Nazi surrender to the Allies in May 1945

*0:* Number of coffins of dead soldiers returning home from Iraq that the Bush administration has allowed to be photographed

*0:* Number of funerals or memorials that President Bush has attended for soldiers killed in Iraq

*100:* Number of fund-raisers attended by Bush or Vice-President Dick Cheney in 2003

*13:* Number of meetings between Bush and Tony Blair since he became President

*10 million:* Estimated number of people worldwide who took to the streets in opposition to the invasion of Iraq, setting an all-time record for simultaneous protest

*2:* Number of nations that Bush has attacked and taken over since coming into the White House

*9.2:* Average number of American soldiers wounded in Iraq each day since the invasion in March last year

*1.6:* Average number of American soldiers killed in Iraq per day since hostilities began

*16,000:* Approximate number of Iraqis killed since the start of war

*10,000:* Approximate number of Iraqi cililians killed since the beginning of the conflict

*$100 billion:* Estimated cost of the war in Iraq to American citizens by the end of 2003

*$13 billion:* Amount other countries have committed towards rebuilding Iraq (much of it in loans) as of 24 October

*36%:* Increase in the number of desertions from the US army since 1999

*92%:* Percentage of Iraq’s urban areas that had access to drinkable water a year ago

*60%:* Percentage of Iraq’s urban areas that have access to drinkable water today

*32%:* Percentage of the bombs dropped on Iraq this year that were not precision-guided

*1983:* The year in which Donald Rumsfeld gave Saddam Hussein a pair of golden spurs

*45%:* Percentage of Americans who believed in early March 2003 that Saddam Hussein was involved in the 11 September attacks on the US

*$127 billion:* Amount of US budget surplus in the year that Bush became President in 2001

*$374 billion:* Amount of US budget deficit in the fiscal year for 2003

*1st:* This year’s deficit is on course to be the biggest in United States history

*$1.58 billion:* Average amount by which the US national debt increases each day

*$23,920:* Amount of each US citizen’s share of the national debt as of 19 January 2004

*1st:* The record for the most bankruptcies filed in a single year (1.57 million) was set in 2002

*10:* Number of solo press conferences that Bush has held since beginning his term. His father had managed 61 at this point in his administration, and Bill Clinton 33

*1st:* Rank of the US worldwide in terms of greenhouse gas emissions per capita

*$113 million:* Total sum raised by the Bush-Cheney 2000 campaign, setting a record in American electoral history

*$130 million:* Amount raised for Bush’s re-election campaign so far

*$200m:* Amount that the Bush-Cheney campaign is expected to raise in 2004

*$40m:* Amount that Howard Dean, the top fund-raiser among the nine Democratic presidential hopefuls, amassed in 2003

*28:* Number of days holiday that Bush took last August, the second longest holiday of any president in US history (Recordholder: Richard Nixon)

*13:* Number of vacation days the average American worker receives each year

*3:* Number of children convicted of capital offences executed in the US in 2002. America is only country openly to acknowledge executing children

*1st:* As Governor of Texas, George Bush executed more prisoners (152) than any governor in modern US history

*2.4 million:* Number of Americans who have lost their jobs during the three years of the Bush administration

*221,000:* Number of jobs per month created since Bush’s tax cuts took effect. He promised the measure would add 306,000

*1,000:* Number of new jobs created in the entire country in December. Analysts had expected a gain of 130,000

*1st:* This administration is on its way to becoming the first since 1929 (Herbert Hoover) to preside over an overall loss of jobs during its complete term in office

*9 million:* Number of US workers unemployed in September 2003

*80%:* Percentage of the Iraqi workforce now unemployed

*55%:* Percentage of the Iraqi workforce unemployed before the war

*43.6 million:* Number of Americans without health insurance in 2002

*130:* Number of countries (out of total of 191 recognised by the United Nations) with an American military presence

*40%:* Percentage of the world’s military spending for which the US is responsible

*$10.9 million:* Average wealth of the members of Bush’s original 16-person cabinet

*88%:* Percentage of American citizens who will save less than $100 on their 2006 federal taxes as a result of 2003 cut in capital gains and dividends taxes

*$42,000:* Average savings members of Bush’s cabinet are expected to enjoy this year as a result in the cuts in capital gains and dividends taxes

*$42,228:* Median household income in the US in 2001

*$116,000:* Amount Vice-President Cheney is expected to save each year in taxes

*44%:* Percentage of Americans who believe the President’s economic growth plan will mostly benefit the wealthy

*700:* Number of people from around the world the US has incarcerated in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba

*1st:* George W Bush became the first American president to ignore the Geneva Conventions by refusing to allow inspectors access to US-held prisoners of war

*+6%:* Percentage change since 2001 in the number of US families in poverty

*1951:* Last year in which a quarterly rise in US military spending was greater than the one the previous spring

*54%:* Percentage of US citizens who believe Bush was legitimately elected to his post

*1st:* First president to execute a federal prisoner in the past 40 years. Executions are typically ordered by separate states and not at federal level

*9:* Number of members of Bush’s defence policy board who also sit on the corporate board of, or advise, at least one defence contractor

*35:* Number of countries to which US has suspended military assistance after they failed to sign agreements giving Americans immunity from prosecution before the International Criminal Court

*$300 million:* Amount cut from the federal programme that provides subsidies to poor families so they can heat their homes

*$1 billion:* Amount of new US military aid promised Israel in April 2003 to offset the “burdens” of the US war on Iraq

*58 million:* Number of acres of public lands Bush has opened to road building, logging and drilling

*200:* Number of public-health and environmental laws Bush has attempted to downgrade or weaken

*29,000:* Number of American troops – which is close to the total of a whole army division – to have either been killed, wounded, injured or become so ill as to require evacuation from Iraq, according to the Pentagon

*90%:* Percentage of American citizens who said they approved of the way George Bush was handling his job as president when asked on 26 September, 2001

*53%:* Percentage of American citizens who approved of the way Bush was handling his job as president when asked on 16 January, 2004

“Come, my friends! ‘Tis not too late to seek a newer world!” said the poet Tennyson…We realize that we have this moment in time and space where we can change the outcome! Where we are not stuck!…this alternative vision of peace,… that this shall be a vision through which the creativity, and through which the transformational energy that will bring us this new world, can be achieved.

Come, my friends. ‘Tis not too late to seek a newer world.

Dennis J. Kucinich

Excerpted from his 2003 Gandhi Peace Award Acceptance Speech



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* Back from IEP. Boy was that ever a group of peop…

* Back from IEP. Boy was that ever a group of people happy to see us! Hate looks and tense air.

* IEP took 15 minutes to get started and lasted 15 minutes. The school system obviously does not have these children’s interest at heart.

* Went to Knoxville Vistor’s Center for the 10yr old’s cultural project. Then home.

-Now preparing to go to the inlaws and work on a fax.

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* The 10 yr old got me going when I put the baby d…

* The 10 yr old got me going when I put the baby down for a nap and got in the tub he began playing his guitar loudly. We had a confrontation and I spoke strongly too him using some poorly chosen words like “you better damn well find out” in response to his “I didn’t know” Which was a good lesson topic and I didn’t over talk it and I didn’t really yell at him. I spoke firmly. The lesson topic specifically said was “There will be many times in your life where you ‘don’t know’ but you’d better damn well find out.”

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* Day quickly going to hell. If you use the Covey …

* Day quickly going to hell. If you use the Covey planning approach, you’ll recognize that I struggle to be in Q2, live most of life in Q1 and too often slip into Q4–I’d say this is typical of most people. Q1 is killing me!

* Grabbed that powernap—oooohh so nice!

* Helped bathe the baby and put her down for her “not nap” (ie. she’s not napping)

* Some tech support to father-in-law

* Time to get freshened up for the meeting with the school system–a bunch of politically correct pain in the butts that realize all they have to do is talk crap to us a lot and we eventually move on. I debate taking this on as a pet project to bring change to the system. It would not impact us but would certainly make things better for future special needs children. Ah, that’s not the real reason–I’d just like to see a couple of idiots shit canned.

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* No rest for the weary. Baby awoke as I began cra…

* No rest for the weary. Baby awoke as I began craving a powernap. May try to steal one anyway as wife is asleep on the couch and the 13 yr old is in his room on his Gameboy SP

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A New Day! Let’s start the day off with a PayPa…

A New Day!

Let’s start the day off with a PayPal donation link:

This Morning

* Up at 1:30 to check on the fire

* Up at 4:30 to check on the fire (still going and I didn’t need to get out of bed)

* Alarm at 6:45, got out of bed at 6:10 to get the kids up. The 13 yr old is wide awake and asking for schoolwork! Is this his last minute attempt to prove he doesn’t need to be put back in the school system?

* After getting the kids going and brewing coffee, I refueled the fire

Today’s goals: IEP at the school, PHP work to be completed and uploaded, Phone calls to all other web developers, calls to potential employers

Last Night

* Worked on the fire and got it going again. It’s a miracle considering I had no fire starters and only wet wood.

* Watched arrested development with wife and fell asleep.