Saturday, April 15, 2006

FIFTEEN THOUSAND

Crazy People Have Visited This Website


That’s right, ladies & gentlemen…boys and girls of all ages…

It took me 16 months to get my first ten thousand “hits” here on this blog .

I was quite happy with my performance to that date, because I had no barometer or other standards at the time with which to judge my success except that I liked blogging and someone apparently liked reading my rantings and ramblings.

It all seemed simple enough, at least to me.

Well, I’m proud to announce that YOU, my new and regular readers, just pushed me over the 15,000 mark yesterday…

FIVE THOUSAND ADDITIONAL HITS, ONLY FOUR MONTHS LATER.

Someone queue the fireworks and dancing girls or something, please…

As you may have already noticed, I'm a writer, not a "linker", except on the rare occasion of lazyness or sickness or absence where I choose to point to my fellow bloggers for content.

You probably have also noticed that I tend to call a spade a spade, as I see things. My intent is never to intentionally offend anyone, but if the shoe fits--I allow you to wear it--just like the truth hurts when presented in a public or personal fashion.

Any way, I’d like to take this opportunity to offer hearty THANKS…and to remind you to keep up the good work.

I'll also mention, to those of you that don't like what I have to say, that you are equally welcome to stay the hell away if I really get under your skin or you can't behave yourself in my comments section while you're here.

I look forward to getting the next 5K worth of traffic in three months, perhaps?

Other than that, y'all have a nice day...

Live...From My Best Friend’s Living Room…

To Those Of You Out There In The Rest Of The World


Yes, you read my title and sub title correctly…

What was intended to be this past evening’s blog is was coming to you “live and in color” from the living room of my best friend here on St. Simons Island.

My regular readers already know who I’m talking about, and the rest of you can wander around my archives if you actually need to know, but otherwise…I ask that you just relegate yourself to following along with me, right here, right now, without worrying about the gory details of how and why and what and where we got together.

Trust me, it’s the big picture that I’m addressing here this morning.

He (my best friend) has just gone back to sleep after I helped him get out of bed to attend to some personal business, and he was quite happy to find me hanging out here writing when he needed a little help negotiating his way through the process. Due to a paperwork snafu, the expected attending nurse didn’t make it here before midnight, so I’m filling in as best as I can.

That’s OK, because I’m even enjoying sitting here in my buddy’s favorite chair in his living room in these wee hours of the morning.

As I understand it, it was formerly was a pretty fancy chair—back in “the day”—but since then it has had several different fabric coverings placed over its frame before it came to wear the current slightly nicotine colored blue and cream striped colors it has adopted over the past ten years.

That said, I find the color to be quite OK with my friend, and for that reason it’s also OK with me, because I only have a few more weeks available to sit here in his old familiar piece of furniture, before it is hauled away—along with my best friend—back to New England near where he grew up.

I’m not declaring sainthood on myself or anything like that, yet I have to ask…

how many of you out there ever bother to sit in your friends old dingy chairs, or even walk along beside them in their old worn leather shoes when things are going well, not to mention when things aren’t going their way?

I’ve learned that here in this world there is an obvious need for people to do the kind of things that I’ve been doing for the past half year or so, but I’ve also realized that there is no amount of money that can be paid out to buy the level of appreciation I’ve been blessed with; and no amount of money that anyone can receive as a substitute in order to justify the patience and time it takes to do what needs to be done.

My friend has come to rely on me in his present declining health to accomplish a number of things that until the past few years most of us still take for granted being able to do at will. Yet, in spite of his increasing physical and mental limitations, he is still the same wonderful person that I first met back in March of 2004 and he will still be greatly missed as he moves away later this month to his new home nearer to his own wonderful family.

His most recent trauma occurred Thursday morning when his declining health caused him to take a tumble to the floor in his kitchen, after which he had to endure an ambulance ride, but following a few scary hours in the emergency room and a few stitches later we had him safely back home to his familiar old chair where I sit to write most of this dialogue.

(now here’s the Friday night part…)

It is amazing to me how life’s events put things into perspective, if only you will open your eyes and listen through your ears to what you are being told. It’s amazing what opportunities you can receive, years after you’ve given up on humanity in general, if you do something as simple as change your view or location and allow others to reach out to you, often in need, and just do the things that you are capable of doing.

Just five years ago I had given up on myself and my own prospects for the future after failed marriages, business relationships, businesses, and the total loss of my house and most of my possessions in an electrical fire left me bankrupt and angry at the entire world. I had attained great success, both personal and financial, only to watch it all slip away in an avalanche of bad luck, augmented by a rising tide of stupidity and self pity.

I basically gave up. If I couldn’t have things my way, then I’d just have nothing at all and give the same to everyone else I came in contact with.

Yet here I am today, sitting in St. Cloud, Florida, wishing that I was back on our little island, sitting in my old friend’s chair, standing by to help him get through the evening again.

Hope you have a good night…Bucky

Friday, April 14, 2006

Life Is What Happens

While You're Making Other Plans

Sorry for the light posting, but I took my second ambulance ride in 8 months yesterday--this time I was in the front seat rather than strapped to a bed in the back.

After all the excitement was over and I arrived back home, my obligations dictated other things than the use of a keyboard most of last evening.

Now we're hitting the road headed for central Florida for a long Easter weekend, but I'll have lots of computer time and poolside lnternet access, so I just might set some sort of record for number of words produced this weekend.

Y'all have a lovely Easter, and I'll have a LARGE time myself.

Thursday, April 13, 2006

Unintended Consequences

Why We're Where We Are Today...


Here’s a little history lesson for those of you that are inclined to listen to me this morning. It involves a fundamental issue clearly addressed in the original design of the US Constitution, and concludes by pointing out how we’ve screwed things up since that important document was finally ratified by Rhode Island back in 1790.

It seems to me that very few people know or remember that, prior to the passage of the 17th Amendment in 1913, the US Senators were appointed by the State Legislatures (or the Governors) to represent the States interests at a national level.

As a sideline note, that same Congress also passed this little ditty that same year—1913:

Amendment XVI

The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several states, and without regard to any census or enumeration.

I’d like to personally grab those stupid assed politicians by the throat, yank them into life again today, and make them live with the hideous monster they created in the form of the income tax and the Internal Revenue Service. Talk about poetic justice...


Taking a big breath…and getting back to my original point, here’s what Article I, Section 3 of the Constitution originally said about the US Senate:

Section 3. The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each state, chosen by the legislature thereof, for six years; and each Senator shall have one vote.

Immediately after they shall be assembled in consequence of the first election, they shall be divided as equally as may be into three classes. The seats of the Senators of the first class shall be vacated at the expiration of the second year, of the second class at the expiration of the fourth year, and the third class at the expiration of the sixth year, so that one third may be chosen every second year; and if vacancies happen by resignation, or otherwise, during the recess of the legislature of any state, the executive thereof may make temporary appointments until the next meeting of the legislature, which shall then fill such vacancies

No person shall be a Senator who shall not have attained to the age of thirty years, and been nine years a citizen of the United States and who shall not, when elected, be an inhabitant of that state for which he shall be chosen.


This text was modified by the 17th Amendment’s to read:

Amendment XVII

The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each state, elected by the people thereof, for six years; and each Senator shall have one vote. The electors in each state shall have the qualifications requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of the state legislatures.

When vacancies happen in the representation of any state in the Senate, the executive authority of such state shall issue writs of election to fill such vacancies: Provided, that the legislature of any state may empower the executive thereof to make temporary appointments until the people fill the vacancies by election as the legislature may direct.

This amendment shall not be so construed as to affect the election or term of any Senator chosen before it becomes valid as part of the Constitution.”

In summary, the original intent of the writers of the US constitution was to allow the PEOPLE to elect the members of the House of Representatives to protect the interests of the individuals, and allow the STATES to choose the Senators to address the interests of the State Governments.

I guaran-damn-tee you that people like sHrillary Clinton, John sKerry, Teddy (hicup) Kennedy, Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi (not to mention Bill Frist, Chuck Hagel, Trent Lott, and John McCain) would not be US Senators today if weren’t for the ratification of the 17th Amendment.

I say that this is true because these non-ideological, shape shifting, chameleon-like political morons experts constantly allow the Imperial Federal Government of the United By-God States of America run roughshod over the rights of the individual sovereign states on an almost daily basis.

And finally…

I guaran-damn-tee you that we wouldn’t be sitting here right now watching the Senate take a two week “Easter Recess” while illegal “undocumented” Mexicans pour over our southern border in anticipation of any tightening border restriction that might be eventually passed by Congress; and not to mention the potential wholesale amnesty of anyone caught standing inside our country when they finally pass said new legislation.

How any sane person can possibly support allowing this so called “immigration” situation to continue is beyond me, but I also recognise that we as an American people have been and continue to be our own worst enemies by passing things like the 17th amendment, electing the current breed of elitist rocket scientists to seats in the US Senate, and allowing the ongoing politically correct public dialogue to facilitate the stalling of immigration reform in the name of not appearing to be insensitive or racist.

I read somewhere that 1 in 10 native Mexicans alive today already reside here inside the United States. I’ve also read that bleading heart liberals justify the situation in the name of some kind of twisted humanitarian cause.

Let’s face it, ladies and gentlemen, this whole issue revolves around the simple facts that the Democratic AND Republican politicians want the future Mexican votes while the poor beleaguered Mexicans simply want the jobs and the money.

In closing, let me remind you that people in Hell want ice water too, but Hell is where we’re ALL going to be living in twenty years, in my considered Redneck opinion, as the direct result of the inaction of our glorious US Senate today.

Why can't we all just get along together, but in our own respective individual countries?

Wednesday, April 12, 2006

Suffering From A Severe Case Of Withdrawal…

Technology Withdrawal—That Is


Good gosh is it good to be back on our little island again. Four days out there in “the real world” is almost more than I can stand, apparently. Add in four airplane rides and a funeral for my grandmother, and I think you can see where I’m coming from.

Now not only is my notebook computer out of commission, but ever since I tuned my cell phone off while boarding the Delta airlines flight out of Atlanta the phone has refused to operate again. I guess that it’s bounced off the ground one too many times.

If stuff keeps breaking at the current pace I’ll be wearing animal skins for clothes and talking on two Dixie cups connected together by string…

Hello?

I spent three nights at the Holiday Inn Express in Charleston, WV because they only charged 10,000 Priority Club points per night. For some reason the hotel nearest Grandma’s funeral refused to accept points for motel space, but since the offending property was located out in the middle of nowhere in north eastern Kentucky and the one I stayed in was in walking distance of virtually the entire city of Charleston—at least I wasn’t ENTIRELY bored to DEATH.

The first thing I did, upon realizing that my cell phone was dead, was manage to spend almost $20 on four phone calls amounting to a total of 3 minutes. They charged $4.95 for the first minute and an additional DOLLAR for each additional minute of long distance.

Don’t get me wrong here, I expected to pay a "slight" premium because I first suffered this injustice twenty years ago while staying in hotels on business. It didn’t take me long back then to learn to dial 10288 and use AT&T rather than paying “Jaunita and Julio’s Deluxe Extra Special Ripoff Long Distance Service." In those days I guess they could somewhat justify charging people a Kings Ransom because there was no long distance competition and no VoIP phone service and people were still paying AT&T 30 cents a minute or so on their home telephone to call across state lines.

With rates running $0.03 a minute today (not to mention unlimited cell phone long distance and VoIP service) I guess that I thought that the hotels had given up ripping off their guests with ridiculous rates like I was charged.

Live and learn…

I almost wanted to wring the clerk’s neck when I was informed that the hotel, in their infinite wisdom, didn’t have a business center with the obligatory internet computer terminal. He then cheerfully informed me that they did have high speed internet in all of the rooms. I guess that I could have connected my razor or the blow dryer to the CAT5 cable in order to see if I could contact Google, because after two days without internet and E-mail I was almost willing to try anything.

While I was searching for extra pillows in the dresser, I noticed a computer keyboard laying in one the drawers. My heart leapt in anticipation, then it sunk back into the depths of depression when I learned that “high speed” internet access on their “On Command” TV system would cost $9.95 per day.

Screw that…I walked about eight blocks down the street to Kinkos and checked E-mail Saturday night, and I used my sister’s notebook PC Sunday afternoon after she arrived in town to satisfy my computer addiction on a limited basis. Just a taste…(said with my hands shaking, I can quit at any time…really, I can…)

I resisted the urge to throw any more money at the front desk until I woke up Monday night about 2:00 AM and, in a moment of insane weakness, I changed channels and hit the “select” button authorizing the hotel to steal charge me the necessary ransom fee.

Within ten minutes I ABSOLUTELY HATED MYSELF for my OWN STUPIDITY.

Not only was the system incredibly slow and the display on the TV ridiculously grainy, but I could not access any secure websites like my credit report, my credit cards, and most importantly—I couldn’t post anything here on blogger.

I did manage to access my Yahoo account and clear out a few dozen spams and read a couple of E-mails, but that was about it.

Needless to say that I was pissed.

What a total and complete sham the so called “service” turned out to be. I can’t see anyone but a complete internet idiot that would find the level of performance acceptable, and even then an idiot or otherwise inexperienced user couldn’t have done anything with the clunky wireless keyboard except curse while they attempted to control the cursor without the use of a mouse or touchpad.

I finally gave up after about an hour of use and just slept with the keyboard beside me in the bed like a security blanket. At least it was good for something.

So any way, here I am, sitting comfortably on my ass on my sofa with Pat’s machine in my lap.

Total Paradise.

I’ve still got a lot of reading to do to catch up with the news and the antics of my blogger friends, so stay tuned for a couple of good rants tonight when I get time to put what’s on my mind down on paper on your computer screen.

Until then…
Regard’s Y’all

Redemption

I'm Home From Internet Hell


More Later...After Some Sleep