If you could be invited to one person's birthday party, whose would it be?

My daughter's. :)

Ask me anything

If you won a million dollars what would you do with it?

Pay off the house. Then, make sure I had enough for Jenna's college. The rest would be stuffed away in an account somewhere as an "emergency only" fund until I retired.

Ask me anything

If you could change one thing that happened last year what would it be?

I wouldn't have cancelled my planned anniversary trip for things that came up for work.

I requested the day off months in advance (way before the said meeting was even being thought of). I even wrote it on the calendar on my office wall.

Wouldn't you know it, after them insisting how important it was for me to be at a job meeting, I cancelled the trip and went to the meeting instead. Three weeks later they laid me off.

I'd say that was a bit of a dick move on their part.

Ask me anything

Adding to my previous post, my research on our school district has turned up an elementary school Gym teacher who's salary breaks out to $71 per hour!!

Gee, I obviously didn't realize just how much of an emergency that levy was.

Another school levy failed last night. Although the district has maintained that they are running out of cuts to make, I did some research that would lead me to believe otherwise.

According to public records, the average teacher salary for the Cardinal Middle School is $60,745. Please note that these are the wages in their pay check, and does NOT include pensions, annuity, health care, sick days, or any of their many benefits. For the sake of comparison, the average household income of the residents in the district is $38,981.

So, those teachers, on average, are paid over 55% more than the people who pay their salaries! I'd love to see the percentage once the benefits are figured in, how about you? I bet that would be a REAL eye opener!!

According to the same public records, the same teachers work 184 days in a year, and 7.5 hours per day.

Once you do the math, you will find that the average teacher, in that building alone, is making $44.02 per hour, not including their benefits package!

Now, I suppose that, when the economy is booming, and people can afford it, that would be acceptable (that is an argument for another time). However, that is not the case today. Businesses are closing their doors. More people are losing their homes than at any time since the great depression. The State of Ohio's unemployment fund went broke two years ago, and we are now "borrowing" from the feds. In today's economy, nearly 1 in every 10 employees are unemployed. Of those still employed, a good majority of those have had their benefits and salaries cut, due to decreased profit margins.

Meanwhile, the teachers have said that they will take a pay freeze for a while. Sorry, but that's not enough. The salaries of everyone that pays the teachers' salaries have been decreasing rapidly. Yet, I have yet to see the teachers' union come to negotiations offering to cut salaries across the board. No way!! Instead, they cry that they are actually "underpaid," and that, if we cared about the children, we would keep throwing money their way.

The time has come for a reality check. And, that reality is, people cannot afford it anymore. Cuts need to be made.

I know union electricians who are working (still through their union) for wages nearly 25% less than they were making three years ago. Yet, schools are asking them to cough up a few more tax dollars so that their teachers can still get their step raises. Shouldn't you be more concerned about your fellow AFL-CIO members?

Start searching around at http://www.buckeyeinstitute.org/school-data to find out how much your districts' teachers are REALLY making, and then decide just how much of an "Emergency Levy" the next one really is. I'd bet good money that it's not as much of an emergency as you previously thought!

formspring.me

This is sort of neat. "Ask me anything" http://formspring.me/gimemoore

Places I have visited

First, here are the States that I have been to...


visited 16 states (32%)


Create your own visited map of The United States



And, now for the countries I have been to...


visited 3 states (1.33%)
Create your own visited map of The World

We are so screwed up

Here's something pretty good from today's emails. Sorry for the crappy formatting, but I don't have time to deal with it right now.

Have I got this right?

IF YOU CROSS THE NORTH KOREAN BORDER
ILLEGALLY YOU GET TWELVE YEARS
HARD LABOR.

IF YOU CROSS
THE IRANIAN BORDER ILLEGALLY YOU ARE DETAINED INDEFINITELY.

IF YOU
CROSS THE AFGHAN BORDER ILLEGALLY, YOU GET SHOT.

IF YOU CROSS THE
SAUDI ARABIAN BORDER ILLEGALLY YOU WILL BE JAILED.

IF YOU CROSS
THE CHINESE BORDER ILLEGALLY YOU MAY NEVER BE HEARD FROM
AGAIN.

IF YOU CROSS THE VENEZUELAN BORDER ILLEGALLY YOU WILL BE BRANDED A
SPY AND
YOUR FATE WILL BE SEALED.

IF YOU CROSS THE CUBAN
BORDER ILLEGALLY YOU WILL BE THROWN INTO POLITICAL
PRISON TO ROT.

IF YOU CROSS THE U.S. BORDER ILLEGALLY YOU GET:
1 - A JOB,
2 - A DRIVERS LICENSE,
3 - SOCIAL SECURITY CARD,
4 - WELFARE,
5 - FOOD STAMPS,
6 - CREDIT CARDS
7 - SUBSIDIZED RENT OR A LOAN TO
BUY A HOUSE,
8 - FREE EDUCATION,
9 - FREE HEALTH CARE,
10 - A LOBBYIST IN WASHINGTON
11 - BILLIONS OF DOLLARS WORTH OF PUBLIC DOCUMENTS
PRINTED IN YOUR LANGUAGE
12 - AND THE RIGHT TO CARRY YOUR COUNTRY'S FLAG
WHILE YOU PROTEST THAT YOU
DON'T GET ENOUGH RESPECT.

I JUST WANTED TO MAKE SURE I HAD A FIRM GRASP ON THE SITUATION.

These kids are going to regret it... SOMEDAY!!

Being older with a kid, I am thankful that there is no photo or video evidence of certain periods of my past. I now see postings on youtube by people and think to myself, you better hope to hell you never have kids, because they WILL find these!! Once posted, they are there forever!

On the other hand, I really envy those that will have pictures or videos of some of the good times that they can share with their kids. I personally have over 60 gigs of pictures and short videos from when I finally "went digital." And, some of the stuff I have that my daughter recorded I will cherish forever.

Perhaps one could "walk the line," so to speak. But it can be a real bitch to even see that line, let alone walk it, after a fifth of Jim Beam...

Things aren't always what they seem...

Why does the "point system" for traffic violations unfairly put a greater burden on those of us who drive more?

Let me explain a bit. Recently, a friend told me that I must be a more reckless driver because I seem to get speeding tickets nearly every other year, and he only gets them every three years or so.

Sounds reasonable, right? Well, not so fast.

He, like many people, only drives 10,000 - 12,000 miles a year. So, if he gets a ticket every three years, that's one ticket for every 30,000 to 36,000 miles driven.

I tend to drive a bit more. I actually drive between 40,000 and 45,000 miles each year. So, getting a ticket every other year is about 80,000 - 90,000 miles driven between tickets.

So, my "safe" friend gets ticketed at nearly three times the rate that I do. In fact, if he wanted to match my true ratio of tickets to miles driven, he would only be allowed to get one ticket every eight or nine years!!! But I get to pay the price...

My insurance is higher because I carry more points on my license, and have "more frequent" violations than he does. Also, my fees to waive these violations are much higher, even though my ticket to miles driven ratio is nearly a third of his. Yes, that's right - the fines Change depending upon WHEN your last ticket was, not how much you've driven since.

So, here I am, being unfairly punished by our system on the basis that I drive more. And it sucks.

But, I suppose I should count my blessings. If our current leaders have their way, I'll be paying an "emissions fee" over and above all my other costs, merely because my job forces me to drive more.

I guess that's what I get for having a job and working my ass off trying to keep people working.

Rotten bastards.

Stupidity

I was driving home from work, and passed a woman mowing her lawn, with her small toddler in one arm, half on her lap, half off. I couldn't help but wonder, are people REALLY that stupid?

Now, don't get me wrong - if the blades are off, and you're just cruising him down the lawn, that's one thing. Maybe not the ultimate in safety, but that's part of life. But, to drive around with your kid on your lap with the blades on? Well, that makes you a dumbass. A complete, foolish, ignorant, without-a-clue dumbass.

Excuse the pic - it was taken via cell phone while driving. And don't give me any flak about that, either. I drive 35,000+ miles a year, 90% of those miles while on a cell phone for work, and am still safer than most of the idiots I see on the road. Perhaps instead of making more laws for that, the politicians should ask the police to start enforcing the existing laws that the "bad apples" break, instead. Because, last I checked, it didn't matter if you were on a phone or not - running a red light is illlegal. As are illegal lane changes, reckless operation, failure to yield... should I go on?

But, that would cut into the politicians "face time" on television, wouldn't it? Which I suppose is important, especially with so many voters being complete and utter dumbasses and morons, such as the woman in the picture above.

Happy Independence Day!

For Independence Day, I leave you with an excerpt of Kennedy's speech in 1946.

The American character has been not only religious, idealistic, and patriotic, but because of these it has been essentially individual.

The right of the individual against the State has ever been one of our most cherished political principles.

The American Constitution has set down for all men to see the essentially Christian and American principle that there are certain rights held by every man which no government and no majority, however powerful, can deny.

Conceived in Grecian thought, strengthened by Christian morality, and stamped indelibly into American political philosophy, the right of the individual against the State is the keystone of our Constitution. Each man is free.

He is free in thought.

He is free in expression.

He is free in worship.

To us, who have been reared in the American tradition, these rights have become part of our very being. They have become so much a part of our being that most of us are prone to feel that they are rights universally recognized and universally exercised. But the sad fact is that this is not true. They were dearly won for us only a few short centuries ago and they were dearly preserved for us in the days just past. And there are large sections of the world today where these rights are denied as a matter of philosophy and as a matter of government.

We cannot assume that the struggle is ended. It is never-ending.

Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty. It was the price yesterday. It is the price today, and it will ever be the price.

The characteristics of the American people have ever been a deep sense of religion, a deep sense of idealism, a deep sense of patriotism, and a deep sense of individualism.

Let us not blink the fact that the days which lie ahead of us are bitter ones.

May God grant that, at some distant date, on this day, and on this platform, the orator may be able to say that these are still the great qualities of the American character and that they have prevailed.

So, what do you think? Sadly, many of these qualities seem to have been dwindling. And, I fear it's going to get worse.

Here's a link to some of my photos...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/gimemoore/

I'll be continuously adding more to that album, so keep checking back.

Photography is something that has always appealed to me, but it just doesn't pay well enough. So, it is nothing more than a hobby - a hobby that my wife will say I spend too much money on. LOL

Twikini - Windows Mobile Twitter application out of beta

Some time ago, I got rid of my Blackberry, and switched to a Windows Mobile smartphone. Despite it's shortcomings, I do like the Windows Mobile operating system. But, the one thing I noticed is that there was no good, fast Twitter client available. I tried Pocketwit, TinyTwitter, and a few mobile web clients, but none of them were quite up to the standard of the client I used on my Blackberry (SocialScope).

Then I heard about a beta product making the rounds, Twikini, and gave it a try. At first, it was very fast, but lacked features and had some bugs that I couldn't deal with. But, being a beta, I kept trying new builds as they were released, and left feedback for the developers as to features I'd like, and problems that needed fixed. And, after trying the newest version, 1.1, it's safe to say that they listened!

The app is very fast and looks great. And, throughout it's beta stage, the developers kept adding features that people thought necessary. Some of these features include URL shortening, direct messaging within the app, viewing user profiles, notifications of new tweets, GPS location support, and the ability to view the public timeline from within the application.

The only addition I'd like to see would be for the ability to search twitter from within the app. But, even if that never comes about, I'm still very happy with Twikini, and will continue to use it.

While beta testing this app, I never could bring myself to completely uninstall either TinyTwitter or Pocketwit, due to problems or missing features in Twikini. But, if this new version keeps functioning as well for the next few days as it has been, as I fully suspect it will, Twikini will be the only one on my phone.

You can get Twikini here --> http://www.trinketsoftware.com/Twikini

The full version can be bought with one of their other apps for just $4.95, which doesn't seem like a bad deal to me.

I am "triumphant" in my claim...

Well, our credit card company informed us yesterday that our account will be credited for the skateboard I bought after Martini Skate and Snow reneged on their stated return policy. w00t! (see this old post if you don't know what I am talking about.)

What I found interesting was the response to them from the store that reneged on their return policy, Martini Skate and Snow. Their argument was that I was too heavy and broke the board. That's funny, because I specifically asked that question in the store when I bought the board, and the owner himself said "oh, that board could hold you and your wife together." In fact, they even let me stand on it before I bought it. Funny how things change when someone needs to find an excuse.

I even had correspondence with the manufacturer that I sent in with my claim that stated I was no where near heavy enough to damage that board.

The only thing that bothers me is that the store will still get their money. See, our credit card company "misplaced" our documents and originally found in favor of the store. I called and talked to a few people, our info was found, and suddenly they said, "oops." They credited our card in full, but said that they may not be able to go after the store due to the language of the merchant agreement. It sucks that an error on their part causes the store to get away with it. But, on the other hand, I have been credited AND get to keep the board, which the manufacturer will now exchange for me free of charge. So, I effectively can sell it and double my money. Or, maybe I'll keep it - it's not the manufacturer's fault that the store wouldn't abide by what was written on my receipt, and it is a nice board. Plus, they will actually honor their warranty directly with me, regardless of the store's inability to abide by their own policies.

I suppose it could be worse, eh? But, just remember, be careful when buying from places like this.

In my experience I have found that, just because their receipt states "refunds or exchanges within 30 days from date of purchase, After which all sales are final. GO RIDE!" doesn't necessarily mean that they intend to honor that policy.

Pirates!! Arghhhh...

Today's post is a copy/paste from a comment I had made on Facebook regarding the sailor being held by the pirates.

They need to get that Navy ship close, and bring some sharp shooters on board. Assign two shooters per pirate, in case one screws up and doesn't make a clean kill shot. On the count of three, everyone pulls the trigger. Bam - you have a boat with a bunch of dead pirates, and one live captain who just shit himself.

Next, start hunting them down on their own turf with half the US Navy's fleet with one rule - NO live prisoners, kill on sight.

That would send a message that we're done pussy-footing around, and would immediately make the area safer.

But, our leaders would never allow us to react in such a manner, which would construe us as to having a set of balls.

Here we go again

A major reason that our economy is in this shape is because of the big push to get people to buy homes that previously could not afford them. I remember Barney Frank and his Democratic colleagues bragging to the media about how wonderful it was. The problem was, many buyers still couldn't afford these homes, regardless of how much meddling with Fannie and Freddie our politicians did to help these loans get approved.

So, now we know. Well, sort of. Word on the streets puts Bush to blame, and somehow it has been forgotten who started the push for these loans.

But, it seems the lesson learned may have already been forgotten, too. Now, the auto industry is telling people to go buy a car, and they will cover your car payments if you lose your job. So, if you are worried about being able to afford a car, stop worrying and go buy one???

Don't forget, these auto loans are backed by companies that our government is backing with our tax dollars. So now, I get to pay for someone's beautiful new car, which is parked in the garage of a $350,000 home, even though they may have bought both knowing full well they couldn't afford it. All the while, I work 80 to 100 hours every week for less and less money.

Ah, yes. Aren't our leaders just great?

"Mandatory Volunteerism"

Mandatory volunteerism for grade school children. Uniforms while "volunteering." All in the name of what is "best for the nation."

Sounds eerily familiar....




http://www.newswithviews.com/Graham/cj117.htm

http://wizbangblog.com/content/2009/03/27/the-house-giveth-and-the-government-taketh-away-our-freedoms-1.php

http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20090325/OPINION/903250315/1042?Title=CLOSE-TO-HOME-How-can-volunteerism-in-America-be-mandatory-

The Catholic Church

It goes against my better judgment to get into this here. And, I almost didn't. But then I realized that this is MY blog. These are MY thoughts. So, if you are one of the religious few that seem to be intolerant of other people's thoughts, I'd suggest that you use YOUR better judgment and not read any more of this post...

I was watching the news last night, and saw more stories about all of the Catholic churches that are going to close. It seems that those in charge somehow need to do this because they cannot afford to keep them open. Well, I've got a better idea...

Instead of closing all of these churches, why not close The Vatican? Let's face it, as much as people like to treat him like he's a god, the Pope is still just a person. And, if he really cares about the religion and not just the "benefits" he receives, then he would have no problem with this if it kept all of the neighborhood churches open. After all, in the grand scheme of things, these neighborhood churches actually help people. And, those people aren't just the members. Say what you will about the religion being a business, but at the local level, that business donates more time and assistance to those that need it than anyone. While the Pope is out cruising the streets in his $1,000,000 "Pope Mobile," spouting off his ideals to a world that should already KNOW them had they actually read the bible, the local churches are giving food drives, working in hospitals, and giving free counseling to those that need it. When is the last time you saw the Pope Mobile dropping off food to a family who's bread winner was just killed in an unexpected accident?

But, the sad reality is that too many Catholics are brainwashed into thinking that they somehow need the Vatican with it's gold chalices, marble pillars, and $1,000,000 paintings. These people think that the church somehow needs this elaborate, wealthy, sovereign country with its excessive operating costs to tell them what to do, when deep in their hearts they should already know what to do. These are the same people that, when they do see the Pope, drop down on their knees and bawl like babies, acting as if he himself is a God, which in itself is sac religious according to the actual writings of the Bible.

If the hundreds of thousands of yearly visitors to Vatican City put the five grand that their trip cost them into their local church instead,would they still have to close? How about adding that to the billions spent on keeping the Pope in his elaborate castle, on his security forces, his million dollar pope mobile, the chefs, the housekeeping, and the building maintenance costs? Keeping a sovereign nation operating isn't cheap - just ask our politicians.

I'm sorry, but I think the church members need to rethink a few things. Like, what is more in line with the teachings of the Bible - spending billions on the local level altruisticaly, or spending billions on a shrine and lifestyle for the Pope?

I bet I know what Jesus would do with his time and money...