Day: October 10, 2006

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Monroe County Thanks You

I spoke with the Red Cross last night regarding the Monroe County family with the blind mother and 5 children that lost their home to fire. The children are ages 3-16. The fire occurred on the 16 year old’s birthday. They are looking for clothing in the following sizes: size 4 boy, girls size 6 and 8, boys size 14 and 16. The Monroe County Red Cross, unlike the Knoxville Red Cross, is self-supported through their own fund raising and donations. They have been very surprised by the community response from outside of Monroe County.

Yesterday someone donated 6 beds. The Red Cross gave them backpacks with some coloring books, toys, etc. They have been given a television and vcr and a vhs library of movies. Today they are hoping to arrange housing that is not a motel. I am not sure what else they have received.

If you want to help, call the help line at (423) 337-9011.

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Be a Patriot – Challenge Your Leaders

"Blind faith in bad leaders is not patriotism."

A patriot does not tell people who are intensely concerned about their country to just sit down and be quiet; to refrain from speaking out in the name of politeness or for the sake of being a good host; to show slavish, blind obedience and deference to a dishonest, war-mongering, human-rights-violating President.

That is not a patriot. Rather, that person is a sycophant. That person is a member of a frightening culture of obedience–a culture where falling in line with authority is more important than choosing what is right, even if it is not easy, safe, or popular. And, I suspect, that person is afraid–afraid we are right, afraid of the truth (even to the point of denying it), afraid he or she has put in with an oppressive, inhumane regime that does not respect the laws and traditions of our country, and that history will rank as the worst presidency our nation has ever had to endure.
[Source]

"Blind faith in your leaders will get you killed" -Bruce Springsteen

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Challenges of self-employment

I work as an independent consultant. I do anything involving computers. Typically I build business systems on the Internet such as e-commerce websites. My skills are varied. I have bid on automating assembly lines in factories. I also do repairs such as virus removal on business and home computers. I enjoy project management the most.

Sometimes clients are slow to pay and in some cases never pay at all. These situations cause difficult cash flow problems and make for uncomfortable decisions at times. This week our websites may temporarily go offline. Cathy’s email and blog may become unavailable as well as Reality Me and a half a dozen or so other sites. We may also be without phone for a bit. I post this so that when it hits the fan you don’t think we fell off the Earth.

As a minor act of desperation, I have created 3 ad sponsor places on the blog and will keep them there until January 1, 2005. If anyone wants to donate any amount (paypal button below), I will happily fill that space with your advertisement. (that was dumb) Purchasing webhosting via this link could also help.

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Strange Inventions

My current project involves the US Patent Office. In randomly searching patents I came across Patent #5782779 for a vibrating tampon which first showed up in the US Patent Office June of 1947 and is currently not available to the general public because they are "…in the process of developing high speed manufacturing equipment." I would hope the vibrator would have a high speed! The ladies will have to wait until late 2007.

Btw, I found it randomly after growing tired of looking at Patent #5000000 for Ethanol production by Escherichia coli strains co-expressing Zymomonas PDC and ADH genes.

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Today’s Political Video

We all know that Google has now purchased YouTube.

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., October 9, 2006 – Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) announced today that it has agreed to acquire YouTube, the consumer media company for people to watch and share original videos through a Web experience, for $1.65 billion in a stock-for-stock transaction. Following the acquisition, YouTube will operate independently to preserve its successful brand and passionate community. [Source]

There’s some CYA! "Yes, we own them but they operate independently so you can’t touch our bank accounts with your lawsuits!" Of course, some questions remain unanswered. If you fear the transition to Google, you can use other services like Dailymotion. So, while you still can, watch Jon Stewart on Bush speeches. The best part of this video starts at 3:33.

An interest tidbit for you Daily Show lovers. The theme song is performed by none other than They Might Be Giants. The original theme song is "Dog on Fire" by Bob Mould.