Culture of Deception

I read a very lengthy blog post today, and it really stirred me up. We get blasted my the media daily about the so called debacle in Iraq, and how the "Administration" screwed it all up. References to buzz words like "No Bid Contracts" and "Halliburton" or "Quagmire" come to mind. The average American likely has little to no experience with Middle Eastern culture other than paying the cashier at the local quickie-mart. Read this insightful true life story of about re-building Iraq in a culture of decepton.

The simple task of finding an image to accompany my posting of this link was a challenge. Any search for rebuilding Iraq leads to nothing but satire aimed at defacing those who are working to rebuild and resurrect the country when the reality is we are working in a culture reluctant to cooperate with us. Even today, the UN security council is beginning the process of sanctioning Iran for failing to comply with it's resolutions (Big Surprise) The scary thing is most Americans believe Iran's goal is to make a intercontinental ballistic missile, something they likely are quite a long way from doing. With enriched uranium however, a small "suitcase nuke" is a real threat to be considered and with our current border security the way it is, we are sitting ducks. How far would you trust Mahmoud Ahmadinejad?

Have you read that blog yet?, wait until you read his PART I, I read part II as posted above, out of order, however I think it may be better that way.

Solar Cappuccino Frother

A followup post to the auto esspresso maker, Mike has posted another link to a solar powered milk frother so you can make that foam you crave when you don't have the wall juice to do it. This would be the perfect companion for my campstove espresso brewer, and my hand crank coffee grinder (YES I OWN BOTH!), now I just need the frother for a perfect fireside cup of cappuccino! What a perfect father's day gift (HINT-HINT!) for that geeky, outdoor loving, tree hugging hippy. Or just a guy too cheap to buy batteries like me.

Concept Car Accessory, I Need One NOW!

As I likely spend about $800 a year on drive-thru coffee. This built-in espresso machine is the perfect must-have auto accessory! As posted on "THE RAW FEED", Audi is featuring this armrest/coffee maker in a concept car to be called the Road Jet. As if I don't have enough distractions in my car, an on board coffee stand is sure to keep me alert while I fumble to steam my milk on my morning commute. My only question is what happens to the used coffee grounds? Are they disposed of in the exhaust system or do you have to throw them out the window in a road rage? I should read my own posted links to find out.

Super Suppers

Cindy and I attended the grand opening of the South Salem Super Suppers store, owned and opperated by good friends of ours, Lou & Marena Pereyra. Super Suppers is a great concept of preparing meals in a commercial quality comfortable atmosphere, then freezing them at home. Making your meals takes only a few minutes with pre-stocked food stations, already set-up for the recipe you intend to package. The correct measuring tools are in each ingredient, and the instructions are posted to follow along as you learn. If you have a preference to omit a spice, or add some more kick, you can do so knowing this is your families meal and can cater to your personal tastes. Quick and easy to follow cooking instructions are provided on each meal you prepare, because you do all the cooking at home!


"It is like going to the grocery store, but you only buy the items and portions on your recipe, then package the meal at the store so you don't mess up your own kitchen!"


Quickly a nutritious meal, with your own hands can be prepared for as little as $3 per serving saving your family valuable time at home. By encouraging eat-at-home meals, even a busy family can dine at the table and enjoy each other's company without the mess, and hassel of planning, shopping for, and preparing home cooked meals. Time and budget would need to be considered before making an appointment to Super Suppers. Booking a sesson, that allows you to make 12 meals during your appointed visit is usually done online. Although the various menu items differ in cooking requirements, you can have your meal ready, usually in less than an hour, and hot on the table for your family to enjoy. Best of all, you let Super Suppers do all your preparation dishes! No measuring spoons to scrub, and no mess! Their menu is frequently refreshed with new ideas, and since Super Suppers recipes are authored by a trained chef, you can trust the quality and look up the nutritional information available on their website! Let me tell you, Cindy and I are excited to return and stock up on some Super Suppers! See you there!

Lar's Editorial on Illegals

Read Lars Larson's comments on the current illegal alien debate, as always he tells it like it is. Listen to his local raidio show on 750KXL or visit his site and find out where is national show can be heard in your area.

LARS' EDITORIAL ON ILLEGALS (Sunday Oregonian 4/2/06):


Immigration Debate
Sunday, April 02, 2006
Lars Larson

Consider the oxymoron. Hundreds of thousands of law-breaking aliens march in America's streets demanding that their right to live and work in the U.S. illegally be respected.

Fearful of backlash at the polls from millions of aliens who, in theory, have no right to vote, the U.S. Congress is preparing to reward those who have broken our laws with the most precious treasure on Earth -- the opportunity to become United States citizens.

Read More

Happy Easter

Hope everyone had a great Easter! Ours was the typical dysfuctional family day. Had the wake-up wars, and fights for the shower, followed by in-car assult on the way to church. Then a roll of the eyes filled hour and a half at the Sunday Easter Service. Later in the afternoon we decided to "Torture" our 13 year old with the infamous dinner at the parents. I hope she doesn't turn us into the child services division for "Ruining her life" Oh I love teenagers there so cute. Thankfully our puppy can take the edge of parenting a teenage daughter. Enjoy this pic of our bunny puppy Daisy the wiener dog. 

Back In The Day

Back in 1987 my stepfather Howard sold me his recently restored 1972 VW Karmann Ghia Cabriolet. I drove this car from MN to Oregon in 1998 and was my pride and joy before my children were born. My mid-life crisis soon approaching, dreams of owning another classic Ghia Vert to recapture my youth run through my mind. Yes that is me pictured at the age of 16! This was my 2nd car, my first bieng a 1974 VW Super Beetle I rolled over in a field a week after sealing the deal on the Ghia. The scary thing is my kids are fast approaching driving age. Thanks for the reminder MH!

Starbucks SUX

Rarely to I get my coffee fix from Starbucks, the liberal sayings on the cups aside, they just don't get it. I don't want to know the fancy vocabulary to get my caffine liquified and down my neck. On occiasion I get a gift card that makes it a neccessary evil to walk into hipocrocy coffee. One such afternoon I waltzed into the Beaverton location to use up a $1.05 credit left on a gift card, and ordered a drink.

Needing sweetening I proceeded to the condiment bar to add some sugar. With a choice of several artificial chemical sweeteners, and some "natural" brown sugar, I finally located the paper packets of the white devil in a bin, and ripped open a 1/2 dozen or so to get the calories into my drink. After discarding what was a large quantity of paper scraps left over, I noticed right above in a display, how Starbucks is saving the rain forrest and would like my help. What I really wanted to know, is why couldn't they have a jar of sugar like the resturant down the road, and save the waste basket a tree's worth of paper from these annoying sugar packets! And don't get me started on the little wood stir sticks. Rather than waste another tree filling out a comment card located next to the "save the planet" propaganda, I decided to write this blog post. It will likely get me more attention than Starbucks has for me.

Comet Collision with Earth

Former Military Air Traffic Controller Claims Comet Collision with Earth on May 25, 2006: Eric Julien claims an impact from the comet Schwassman-Wachmann will destroy our planet. The comet fragmented the same year as a crop circle appeared showing our solar system minus earth. He concludes this is a sign of the pre-emptive nuclear strike President Bush indends for Iran. In other news, Monkey's seen flying out my ass. (But for the record, I warned you)

Firefox Browser Plug

After sitting on the fence for a while, this ad took me over the edge and it is time to post my fancy for the Firefox web browser.

Firefox is not for everyone, and making the change might take some patience, as you might need to install some plug-in's, and get the new browser familiar with some of the site you visit, though once you do, you won't go back to Internet Exploder. In simple english, Firefox is an alternative to the blue lowercase "e" you click on to visit websites. My favorite feature of the the Firefox web browser tabbed browsing. By opening new pages on a new tab, similar to a filing cabinet, you can have more than one page open and click on the tabs to swap from news to web mail, and back to your web search results, without loosing your space, or trying to layer windows. Some sites still don't work well with Firefox so I added an extension that allows me to open a page using exploder, but embeded within a firefox tab so I still don't miss a beat. There are tons of add-on extensions that can help you get more value for your internet service experience. One plug-in I found handy is a right-click blogger menu that allows me to post a blog entry about a page I may be reading and submit it immediately to my blog. Some prior posts have been started in this way and it saves me the trouble of copy-pasting the links to my posts. Since using firefox, I rarely get pop-ups and my scans for spyware & adware come up clean or cleaner than ever before. Get it here!

Tech Tip Overdue

When I started this blog my intent was to post some computer tips, so I could refer to the posts when folks asked me for help. Over the last few months, the content has drifted to more personal posts, humor and political notes, so I felt it is time to add some more educational content for the technology challenged readers who happen by.

In January I posted my love for Picasa, the best way to deal with loads of digital images, and since then I found a great way to get your digital pictures on to paper for cheap. My brother turned me on to Wal-Mart's photo center online. Certainly another similar service exists, but since there is a Wal-Mart in most communities, this tip should be nationally useful.

By making any edits using Picasa, red-eye can be removed, unwanted relatives cropped out, and images rotated as needed in short order. When finished, using the EXPORT button, I send them to a new folder. For prints, be sure not to reduce the image size. Once you have the images you want to order prints for, exported with all your touch-ups, you just need to login to the Wal-Mart photo center, go to the "Add or Claim Photos" page, and when you click on the add photos link, a neato applet allows you to drag & drop your photos from your exported folder to the photo center page creating an online album. When you order prints from this online album you have several choices in size and delivery. You can save money by having them produced and delivered to a nearby store, usually withing 3-4 days, or have them ready to pick up in as little as an hour at your local store. Alternately, you can pay for shipping and have your photos send directly to your home, and several delivery options exist. What I found the most useful, is when selecting in-store 1-hour pick-up, I can choose any store, and have my photos pre-paid and ready for pick up in another state where my friends and family reside. This is a great way to share pictures over a distance, most of your relatives who are too cheap to own a computer or print the pictures you email them, are sure to shop at Wal-Mart.

Here are some points to remember when ordering or even printing your own digital photos:

• Use the highest quality setting on your camera when you want prints
• Avoid printing photos that have been emailed, unless you are certain they are the original size and quality. Some email programs reduce quality to speed delivery.
• Keep in mind, cropped photos will have reduced quality proportional to the amount of image you remove, print these in smaller sizes for better results.
• Similar to above, photos you edit brightness or contrast may not have the quality you will achive if you took the original photo with proper lighting.

Have fun and send me some pictures, my local Wal-Mart would be store #1920!

Bush Was Right!

If video fails to load you can view it here.
Check out the band "The Right Brothers" and download some additional tracks.

Taxed

Got your taxes done? Mine have been complete for a while thanks to turbo-tax and one thing that gets my attention every year is the older I get, the more I pay. Not only does my federal tax liablity seem to ever so slowly grow, we have state income taxes as well that take a bite out of my livelyhood. Oregon has an income tax rate up to 9%, making us the 3rd the highest in the nation, next to CA, & DC. Then you think of all the other types of taxes and government fees we pay, and it is highly evident how out of control things have become. In Oregon we pay through the nose property tax, 28th in the nation on a collection per capita comparison, and although we don't have a sales tax (YET) that was the hot topic in the gubernatorial debates. Oregon imposed an income tax to provide for property tax relief, and now they propose a sales tax to provide income tax relief! Oregon charges $0.24/Gallon gas & diesel tax on top of the federal 18.4 cents, only 10 states charge a higher gas tax, and today's news report was touting an idea for an employee tax for businesses to pay on a per employee basis for road improvements. I am going to have to ask for a raise so I can afford to pay my taxes and pay for the gas to get to work, of course that will likely put me in a higher bracket! Here's my soluton: A forign exchange program for American workers, we exchange places with Mexicans and they can work our jobs and pay our taxes, while we move to Mexico and try to cross back and avoid them.

Flipp'n Out

Spring is in the air, and today we are in the 60's with a chance to hit 70 this weekend. My mind is begining to drift off into thoughts of wakeboarding, watersking, and abusing my children on the ski-bisket.


Get this video and more at MySpace.com

In this video installment, Lou's son Nick, has trouble holding on to the tube during a 6-G turn at about 42MPH, what a baby.

slugabed \SLUG-uh-bed\ noun

The Word of the Day for April 06 is:
slugabed: a person who stays in bed after the usual or proper time to get up; broadly : sluggard

Example sentence:
Rather than be a slugabed for her entire vacation, Jeanne made it a goal to rise at 6:00 AM and go for a jog every morning.

So my mother sends this to me in my morning email, if she emplies that I fit this definition then I am offended. I always wake up at the proper time, 15 minutes before I need to leave the house. This leaves me 5 minutes for a shower, 5 minutes to shave and apply the apropriate anti-stink products, and 5 minutes to get dressed and kiss the wife goodbye.

The word of the day I have been waiting for is the word to describe the idiots at the drive thru coffee stand who can't make up their minds, or order coffee for the whole frick'n office while I wait in the next car. Or the snail drivers on the freeway who go 5 miles below the speed limit in the fast lane and require everyone to pass on the right. Or how about a word to describe red light effect, where after the coffee slug, and the freeway slug has cost you 10 minutes of commuting time, then every traffic light must turn red for the remainder of the journey!

Amy Bites The Dust

The new "My Space" video feature, allows me to embed them here on my blog.

Get this video and more at MySpace.com

Sweet, hope Amy likes it as well.

Welcome (Back) to Oregon

A great adventure was had, but the green was missed. After over a week in the Land-O-Lakes we returned thankfully to the scenery of the great Pacific Northwest. The hospitality, and company experience in my home state will be remebered and is greatly appreciated. It is great to be home and off the road, there are no regrets and someday we will give it a go again, but next time with someone to share the wheel time.

The picture is of the Columbia Gorge interstate 84.

The Deed Has Been Done

Jon & Jennifer's wedding went off without a hitch, it was a spectacular event and one to remember. It was an honor to attend, and expect some additinal photos posted when I return to Oregon.