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Woohoo! I’m make good code but I still can’t make it fast enough!

Have a good thunderstorm going right now. Makes me wish I had screened windows in the office.

It’s 3am and I’m up and working! I still need to bend time to fit everything in today.

Love Your Reporter! Love Your President! Love Your Obgyn!

It was hilarious the first time around. It’s even better when the reporter loses composure.

Amy eats a poptart and sudden holds it up and declares “it’s a dress!” On her own she had made bites that turned her poptart into what did indeed look like a summer dress.

We are using the Earth to improve our lives, but our children and grandchildren will live in a worsening environment that endangers their existence, more than 1,300 scientists warn.

Some of the recommended changes:

• Remove subsidies to agriculture, fisheries and energy sources (such as fossil fuels) that harm the environment.
• Pay landowners to manage property in ways that help the environment, such as storing carbon dioxide, which causes global warming.
• Use free-market incentives to reduce farm pollution and global-warming gas emissions.
• Protect more areas from development, especially in the oceans.
• Invest in cleaner technology for agriculture and energy use.

I wish our city planners would read these recommendations as we continue to leave old buildings empty and build new buildings. And plan unnecessary roadways like the Knoxville beltway (the Orange Line).

I woke at 2am! Wide awake! But ambivalence kicked in. I could not decide between two courses of action so I decided to lay in bed and think about it. 2nd rise at 5am but now I’m dressed and ready to face the day.

Wahoo! Received my 2nd check from Google!
And made another milestone on one of my projects.

I want to discuss finances here but I view it inappropriate. Besides to discuss the details could potentially put my family in harms way. For instance, I’ve had to garage a car since in order to make this happen I could not afford to renew the registration or insurance on that vehicle. This week it will be a small miracle if I can keep the kids fed. I’ve had to delay payment on important bills and go to arbitration with UT over a loan.

However, 3 weeks ago I made the last payment on a debt I’ve fought for 15 years. Part of that conclusion did include a lump settlement with the creditor. It was huge relief!

The irony?

Yesterday I received a letter from the creditor declaring me free and clear. In a separate envelop was a new bill from an unrelated source for an amount almost the same as what I just paid off. It numbs the mind.

“We must keep the proletariate down for if they rise just a litte we will not be able to keep them down.”

I woke this morning at 2am and worked for an hour and a half before making the dreaded mistake of allowing myself a “power nap” from which I rose at 5am. I found Amy half asleep on the hallway floor at the top of the stairs at 2am. She’s learned to climb over the gates so I anticipate a fall down the stairs soon. I wonder if it would simply be safer to leave the gate open.

In November I started trying to do my taxes. Every week since then I’ve thought about it and stressed over it at least twice in the week. April is here and NOTHING has been done on the taxes.

Their real headlines vs my made-up headlines.

These are actually headlines taken from Google News at roughly 12:37pm GMT-5.

Them: Quake strikes off Indonesia coast
Me Earth splitting apart. Democrats rush to the side with the most trees.

Them: Space Station Empty as Crew Takes a Space Walk
Me: Emergency Shuttle Launch Prepared. Space Station Crew Locked Out!

Yuri says, “Perhaps comrade we could get one of those hollow, fake magnetic, meteorites with spare key outside.”

Them: Jacko Case Focuses on Past Allegations
Me: Prosecution loses confidence in themselves; returns to familiar ground.

Them: Terri Schiavo Receives Easter Communion and Morphine for Pain
Me: This is the body and whoooppeee!

Them: Crowded House Drummer Hester Found Dead
Me: House Less Crowded

Them: Hail and Heavy Rain Pounds the Southeast
Me: Apparently I don’t live in the Southeast like I thought I did.

Them: Court Considers Foreigners Rights in US Death Penalty Cases
Me: Foreigners may be exempt from dying.

Them: Supreme Court to Decide P2P Legality
Me: Supreme Court finds answer to sharing all those volumes of legal pleadings with other courts while avoiding royalties and copyrights.

Them: SunGard agrees to $11.3B buyout
Me: SunGard Board of Directors Very Happy. As are their children. And their grandchildren. And their great grand children. And what will be their great, great grand children. And…

Them: Mandela gives me strength – Jackson
Me: Criminals Bond

Them: Jennifer Aniston and Brad Pitt Officially Split
Me: Movie to be “Siamese Fraternal Twins” Cancelled
Me: We’ve gotten all the publicity this relationship can muster, let’s move on.

Them: Irish show jumper stripped of Olympic Gold Medal
Me: When asked “So did you eat grass?” the horse replied “Nay.”

Them: Nepal’s Police Detain 16 More Anti-Monarchy Protesters
Me: Napal allows protesting but only one person can do it.

Them: New Hope for Cat Allergy Sufferers
Me: Help put an end to cat sneezes…because its really cute and distracting.

Them: Zimbabwe Ruling Party Blasts Archbishop
Me: UN Steps in and requests Zimbabwe turn down the music

I received my email that my Adagio Tea is on its way!

I just posted that “It doesn’t take much effort to make a difference.” A few simple phone calls I have made which led to a difference: I’ve had speed limit signs with “children playing” posted at each entrance of the neighborhood. I’ve had knocked down road markers replaced. I’ve moved bus stops. There are more but I need to return to programming. The point is you can get things done if you are willing to make “a little” effort.

What can the American people do but belief they are watching legitimate news?

The Bush administration, rejecting an opinion from the Government Accountability Office, said last week that it is legal for federal agencies to feed TV stations prepackaged news stories that do not disclose the government’s role in producing them.

Is this legal? In a contradictory memo on February 17 Comptroller General David M. Walker wrote:

such stories — designed to resemble independently reported broadcast news stories so that TV stations can run them without editing — violate provisions in annual appropriations laws that ban covert propaganda.

As a citizen it is your right and obligation to step up to the plate and protect your rights and freedoms. When you see information like this that disturbs you, contact your state representative or congressman. They all accept emails, phone calls, letters and faxes. It doesn’t take much effort to make a difference.

It took me an hour to draw myself from bed but I’m up at the hour I like to rise and I’m working!