Skippy's Stack

So sorry

2006-10-08T09:12:00.000-05:00

Not that my blog is that interesting to everyone but I have to apologize. Most of my blogging efort has been focused on Clemson football this season over on the Sporting Gnomes. I understand i'm not a writer but I've been reading, commenting and researching on the net as much as I can. My efforts are refocused and I'll eventually return with something semi interesting, eventually.

Go Tigers.

Hope You Can Float Alone for Eleven Months!

2006-09-17T09:15:00.000-05:00

SO! Let’s talk about all those Clemson people who jumped shipped last week after our double overtime loss to BC. For an entire week I took it on the nose from a VT, West Virginia, NC State, and Auburn Alumni. The worst of the ribbing came from none other than a fellow Clemson graduate. I endured nearly hourly reminders that Tommy Bowden sucks, Clemson sucks, Jad Dean Sucks, our team is in the "shitter". Well, after last week I would like for all which jumped the boat to envision this. You bailed and jumped into frigid waters my friends. The good ship Tiger Rag is still sailing to a divisional championship and if you try and clamor back aboard you will be catching the broadside of an ore in the forehead. I’ve been an Atlanta Falcons fan now for 16 years, I’ve seen them in the good and bad and never bailed on them. That is what a true fan is. As for all you Clemson scabs out there, I have great aim with my trusty piece of Basswood. Hope you can tread water till next season!

Taps

2006-09-03T20:18:00.000-05:00

Anthony, we'll miss you. I hope you'll be on the sidelines this season supporting everyone. We still need the leadership.

You Can Cram Your Chocolate Right Up Your...

2006-08-29T11:50:00.000-05:00

On a tour of the decimated Ninth Ward, Nagin tells Pitts the city has removed most of the debris from public property and it’s mainly private land that’s still affected – areas that can’t be cleaned without the owners' permission. But when Pitts points to flood-damaged cars in the street and a house washed partially into the street, the mayor shoots back. "That’s alright. You guys in New York can’t get a hole in the ground fixed and it’s five years later. So let’s be fair."

Nagin is confident New Orleans will be whole again and will even be able to withstand another hurricane of Katrina strength, pointing out that taller and stronger levees are being built. It will take time.

Bottom line, the 1906 and 1989 San Fransisco Quake, the Galviston Hurricane of 1900, and lets not forget the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. What do all of these have in common. The common bond between all of these is simple. All of the disasters were cleaned up and the cities were rebuilt primarily from PRIVATE FUNDS!!!!! Nagin, get off your ASS and get to work. Stop Bitch about how the government isn't giving you enough money (what demographic do we usually here this from anyways). Oh, and by the way, you're not even going to be able to pull that off since you alienated white people with your "chocolate" comment and now you've single handly pissed of me and every other patriot in the world. As far as I'm concerned, this is my offical stance:

Nagin, you can have your poverty ridden, murder rampant, ghetto fab chocolate city. Because as long as your are in charge it will never be anything but that. There is one thing your are right about. You said this would have never happend it were in Orange County of Boston, your exactly right, it wouldn't. Those cities wouldn't have turned into hell in a matter of days and remained as such a year later, "we would have handled it differently". With any luck you'll be at the bottom of that hole when they fill it in up there in the great city of NYC.

T-minus 6 Days and Counting Down

2006-08-27T10:20:00.000-05:00

So this past Saturday Skippy and the future Mrs. Skippy attended a wedding. A wedding in the most wonderful places, Clemson (Congrats Jessie). After the ceremony we hoped in the SUV and drove through campus, of course we managed to make our way over the football stadium and it hit me. Amid the grunting stacy could bairly make out that I was saying, "football". IT"S LESS THAN A WEEK! I have had the Clemson countdown wallpaper on my two comuters at work since day 82. The wonderful day is almost upon us. To celebrate, I downloaded two new ringtones on my cell. Incoming calls are now the Clemson Band playing, what else, Tiger Rag and all of my text messages are now "Eye of the Tiger". Do I have Clemson Football on the brain, Yes. I promise you though someone that reads this will want to know if the version of my ringtone is a good one and where they can get it. I will know then, I'm not alone. Honeslty don't we all have Clemson Football on the Brain...Go Tigers!

There Are Rules Here?

2006-08-10T12:21:00.000-05:00

Fun read from our friends at ESPN…

It's early August, which means most college football fans have regressed into 5-year-olds with a week left until Christmas. The suspense is killing them and the calendar is moving in cruelly slow motion. Labor Day weekend seems eternally out of reach, with too many soul-killing baseball games still to be played between now and kickoff. To pass this excruciating time constructively, I say it's time we get educated. In homage to Bill Maher, whose schtick is blatantly and unapologetically ripped off here, I offer the New Rules for College Football Fans, 2006 edition:

New Rule: If the scoreboard says you lost, you lost. That's not going to change. Take an hour to vent postgame, then try to regain your sanity. Do not diminish your quality of life -- and the quality of life of those around you -- by spewing for days about the refs who cheated your team, the flagrant league bias against your team or the complete lack of class displayed by the team that beat your team. Your team l-o-s-t. Try to deal.

New Rule: If you know the tailgate lot at the stadium like the back of your hand but wouldn't be able to find the campus library without joining a tour group, reevaluate your priorities.

New Rule: It's August. Refrain from posting on your team's message boards that your coach needs to go. At least let him fall behind by a touchdown in September -- or if you really want to be patient, let him even lose an entire game -- before demanding regime change.

New Rule: Try using your real name on a message board. It might be a liberating feeling to stand behind your words, instead of hiding behind the handle "GatrHatr88," or whatever lame nom de cyberplume you choose.

New Rule: The offensive coordinator has feelings, too. Try to remember that.

New Rule: Nobody else thinks his or her team gets enough respect from the media, either. You're encouraged to come up with a new complaint.

New Rule: If you know the name of the long snapper but don't know the name of the school president, reevaluate your priorities.

New Rule: By all means, have a couple of pregame beers if you want. Try to stop before 12, though.

New Rule: If you didn't stop at 12, remember this: The people sitting around you in the stadium or standing next to you at the urinal don't think you're funny. And they don't want to hold you up when you tip over. Especially at the urinal.
(Aside: colleges might want to study the new Bengals initiative: they have instituted a "jerk" hotline for fans to call to report abusive, profane and intoxicated louts in the stadium to authorities. Then again, considering the arrest record of Marvin Lewis' squad, fans could easily report a bunch of the guys in uniform.)

New Rule: Yes, Notre Dame is different. Get over it. If your school were important enough to get its own NBC contract and thumb its nose at conference affiliation, do you really think it would decline?

New Rule: If you spend more on face paint, clothes in school colors, tailgate accessories and an RV horn that honks the school fight song than you spend on charity, reevaluate your priorities.

New Rule: If you insist on smugly condemning the complete lack of morality and ethics at Rival U when one of its players gets in trouble, prepare a good defense for when one of your team's players screws up the next week. Today's "great kid" could be tomorrow's armed robber.

New Rule: Every other team in America says it had a great summer in the weight room, too. Every other team in America had great attendance at "voluntary" summer workouts, too. Every other team in America says the chemistry and attitude are better than last year, too. So don't get prematurely overconfident based on the usual August rhetoric.

New Rule: When the hotshot freshman quarterback isn't playing yet, rationally consider the possible reasons why. I mean beyond the fact that the coach is an absolute moron. Maybe the kid is an absolute moron who cannot learn the playbook.

New Rule: We know you have a brilliant, unique, surefire plan for an NCAA football playoff. Your barber, your bank teller and the kid working the espresso machine at Starbucks have playoff plans too. And Myles Brand isn't interested in any of them.

New Rule: USC won a share of the 2003 national title, no matter what the BCS says about the LSU-Oklahoma Sugar Bowl being the title game. Quit being greedy, and quit talking about it three years later.

New Rule: If you're on a voice-recognition basis with a call-in show producer or have your own call-in show persona and handle (like "Wolverine Mark"), reevaluate your priorities.

New Rule: An 0-1 start is not the end of the world, especially with a 12-game schedule. Unless you start 0-1 with a buy game against what was supposed to be a guaranteed chump. Then you can pound the panic button.

New Rule: Before your fan message board mounts an e-mail lobbying campaign to poll voters demanding higher rankings for your school, consider: Is it effective or obnoxious to send out 200 e-mails that all parrot the same "talking points"? And how silly is it for football fans to have "talking points"? After careful consideration of those questions, hit the delete button.

New Rule: If you're over the age of, say, 14, beseeching players as they leave the field for a receiving glove is unseemly and best avoided. I mean, who other than Michael Jackson is going to get excited about a single glove?

New Rule: Flying a car flag when your team is 5-0 is easy. Try it when your team is 0-5.

New Rule: It is understandable and acceptable to wonder (out loud) why Temple is still playing Division I-A football.

New Rule: If you turn to a sportswriter for guidance on how to be a college football fan, reevaluate your priorities.

AArrrrgggg!!!

2006-07-28T07:20:00.000-05:00

The Dems are attempting to get the country's min wage up from 5.15 to 7.15! They are pushing for it by the end of this session.

http://www.letjusticeroll.org/

Let justice roll indeed...let me state this plainly, YOU FLIP BURGERS!!!! What in your lame bag of skills makes you think you desearve a 40% raise! Fine give a wage hike and then abolish Welfare. I think the Dems would see this as resonable, don't you? Hey Teddy, put the highball down and think about it for a minute.

Doomsayers...I'm Shooting You the Bird

2006-07-26T17:07:00.000-05:00

So what are liberal doomsayers going to say now!?! I think they may actually be thinking about reporting a future Zombie attack because in less than a year the killer world wide bird flu pandemic is being taken off the table. GlaxoSmithKline has produced a vaccine which produced a "strong possitive response" in 80% of the human test subjects. Article can be found below:

LONDON — A British company reported Wednesday it had achieved the best results ever seen on an experimental human vaccine for bird flu and said mass production might be possible by 2007.

A global health official called GlaxoSmithKline's early results "an exciting piece of science." If future tests are as promising, it would be a major step in the frustrating campaign to protect people from a possible deadly flu pandemic.
The U.S. government's chief infectious disease scientist also was very optimistic.
"The data are really very impressive," said Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. "It changes the whole complexion of the issue that we have to face of getting enough vaccine for people who might need it in a pandemic."

Glaxo's results came from tests on 400 people in Belgium, most of whom developed strong immune responses from very low doses of the prototype vaccine.
Success from wider tests of the vaccine could intensify competition with Sanofi-Aventis SA, whose vaccine unit, Sanofi Pasteur, reported disappointing results in March on its experimental product. It protected only about half of those who got two shots with a very high dose -- 90 micrograms of the key ingredient.
Glaxo said two shots of its vaccine provoked strong responses in more than 80 percent of people tested at lower doses than other experimental bird flu vaccines are using. Some received as little as 3.8 micrograms, said Fauci, who has seen the test results on the vaccine."It's pretty strong," he said.

The Glaxo vaccine includes an immune-system booster that allows it to use less of the main active ingredient, meaning that greater quantities could be produced if the H5N1 bird virus mutates into a form that spreads easily among people and causes a global epidemic. The vaccine uses an inactivated version of the newer strain of H5N1, which was isolated in Indonesia last year.

"It's a good and exciting piece of science," said Dr. David Nabarro, the United Nations' coordinator for avian and pandemic influenza. "But as with all new discoveries, quite a lot of work has now got to be done to establish its place in public health and pandemic preparedness."

Sanofi and another vaccine maker, Chiron Corp., also have been experimenting with ingredients called adjuvants to boost effectiveness. Glaxo's results, which were announced by the company but have not yet been published in a medical journal, are the best success reported so far with this approach.
"This is very significant," said Dr. Albert Osterhaus, head of the virology department at Erasmus University in the Netherlands. "With this adjuvant added to the vaccine, provided the rest of the tests are OK, you could make 10 times as much vaccine."

Glaxo's chief executive officer, J.P. Garnier, said the preliminary findings validate this approach, and that the company expects to seek regulatory approval "in the coming months."

While cautioning that it's still early in the testing, some pandemic flu experts are optimistic that this may ultimately lead to production of many more doses of pandemic vaccine.

However, Dr. Klaus Stohr, a World Health Organization flu vaccine adviser, said it would have been better if the adjuvant was a substance widely available to other companies rather than a Glaxo company product.

"Access for other companies to use it will most likely be limited," he said.
More than 20 clinical trials involving potential H5N1 vaccines are being underaken by more than 30 companies.

Glaxo's success also would not guarantee that all people and countries would be protected in the event of a flu pandemic. Flu viruses mutate so readily that it may ultimately be a different strain of the virus that threatens people.
"It's a risk judgment for those potentially purchasing vaccine," said Dr. Angus Nicoll, influenza coordinator at the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control. Because it is impossible to predict which influenza strain will spark the next pandemic, "it's a very difficult decision for a country to decide whether to invest in pandemic vaccines," he said.

In May, the U.S. government awarded more than $1 billion to five companies, including Glaxo, which are developing faster ways to mass produce vaccine in case of a pandemic. The government also has ordered millions of dollars worth of Aventis' experimental vaccine to stockpile in case bird flu starts spreading more easily from person to person.

Somethin Jumped Up and Bit Me!

2006-07-24T06:59:00.000-05:00

So he got shot in the butt and his friend had a gun in his pocket at the ready if this kind of thing happened? What the ____ is going on down in Miami!?! I thought if there was a weird guy in the bushes down there you just had to worry about him attacking your butt…

SOUTH MIAMI, Fla. -- Miami Hurricanes reserve safety Willie Cooper was shot in the buttocks when confronted in his yard Friday morning by an unknown person who fled after another player returned gunfire.

Police said Cooper was able to walk after being shot and the injury wasn't believed to be serious, but he was taken to a hospital for treatment.

After Cooper was shot, teammate and roommate Brandon Meriweather pulled a pistol from his pants pocket and fired three times at the person, who jumped a fence and fled with another person in a car, police said. It was unclear if the assailant was hit. Police said Meriweather used his gun legally.

Cooper and Meriweather told police they noticed a suspicious car parked outside their home near campus shortly after 6:30 a.m. When they went outside to investigate, a person crouched next to the house jumped up and shot Cooper.

The Miami athletic department released a statement saying it was cooperating with the police investigation. "Until the investigation is complete, we will not have any additional comment," the statement said.

The house is owned by Hurricanes defensive backs coach Tim Walton and rented to players with approval from the school's compliance office.

Cooper, a junior, has played mostly on special teams for three years. He is listed as a second-team safety on the spring depth chart.
Meriweather is a standout safety for the Hurricanes.

Beware!!!!

2006-07-20T07:13:00.000-05:00

This is a published editorial in the Charlotte Observer today (7/20)…I think it’s pretty funny. Constant doom saying being the reason I don’t read newspapers anymore, I thought this was a pretty funny poke at the news industry

Fear mongerers, didn't you forget something?
Every day I see countless articles about politics, the war and why flip-flops aren't good for your feet, but I also see Charlotteans neglecting the important news.

The threat of a zombie attack.

The dead are everywhere: in our cemeteries, in our morgues, in our own backyards. The potential for an undead uprising is huge. There is no question we'd be overcome -- we would be no match for their brute strength and blind determination to feast on human flesh. I appeal to parents to sit down with their children and discuss emergency evacuation plans, which household items make the best weapons, and how to recognize when a loved one no longer has a soul.
Please, Charlotte, concentrate on the real danger.
Diana Westley

Charlotte

FYI to my Peeps

2006-07-19T20:39:00.000-05:00

Just want to drop everyone a line and let everyone know that the wedding planning has begun and is well underway (remember my bride to be and I lived for this planning stuff in school). Its been almost two weeks know and we have a date and locations. The wedding is going to be June 2 in Greenville. The ceremony will be at Buncombe Street United Methodist Church and the reception will be held at Thornblade Country Club. We are pretty sure its going to be a 6:00 wedding so no worries about the heat. As an added bonus we were sure to plan the wedding the week AFTER Memorial Weekend, so we won't be taking up one of your few three day weekends we all treasure during the year. Untill I see all of you again, hopfully not to far from now, CLEMSON FOOTBALL IS COMING, take care.

By the way, if anyone can explain to me why you would pay a DJ $800 then tip him %15 at the end of the night, I would enjoy hearing a damn good reaon why that is proper wedding etiqutte. This tipping thing is nutts in my opinion...did I mention football season is almost here?

Tell All the Ladies I'm Off the Market...

2006-07-10T21:32:00.000-05:00

Well, how to begin. I’ve been planning this for a few months now. It all started with me asking Stacy’s dad if I could marry his daughter. I’ve always been a very traditional person so this was a must. Luckily I got the answer I was hoping for; he told me I had his and Missy’s (Stacy’s Mom) permission. Her dad gave me Stacy’s grandmothers 50th wedding anniversary diamond ring which had been passed on to her mother and then onto Stacy. I had the round 2.5 carat diamond reset in a delicate platinum band with 20 pavé diamonds lining both sides of the band (Stacy helped me with this description just now). A couple months later, after making plenty of reservations, I convinced Stacy we were going to Charleston to watch my 3 and 5 year old niece and nephew for the weekend while Gene and Liz took a romantic trip to the mountains of North Carolina. I even forwarded fake emails to her outlining faux itineraries and emergency contact information…I tried to be sneaky. So we made our way to downtown Charleston and I had made reservations at Magnolia’s on E. Bay Street. We finished up our dinner around 8:00 and walked a block to the Water Front Park just down Vendue Street. We walked for a bit and made our way to the “Pineapple Fountain” overlooking the Charleston Harbor, as the sun went down. I told Stacy how much I loved her and asked if she would love me forever…got down on one knee and asked her to marry me. She was absolutely shocked, had no idea the question was coming and said YES! About ten to fifteen people around us all started clapping as we hugged and a girl even came up and took our picture, which was emailed to us on the following Monday. Since Stacy was totally convinced we were babysitting the first question she asked me was if we were really watching Luke and Katie. Of course we weren’t and I had made reservations for us to stay at the four star Harbour View Inn just a few hundred yards away. Our balcony room overlooked the Park and the Charleston Harbor. Everything was absolutely perfect…including the two days of room service and breakfast in bed. We spent Saturday exploring the downtown area and shopping, more room service, and a moonlit night time walk along the Battery. We started our wedding planning that afternoon and decided to get married in Greenville at Buncombe Street Methodist in Downtown on June 2. So, everyone save the date. Thank you for all of your friendships and you’ll be hearing from us soon! Take Care!

A Little JDGA Humor

2006-05-26T06:26:00.000-05:00

It was a sunny morning, a little before 8:00 am, on the first hole of a
busy course. I was beginning my pre-shot routine, visualizing my
upcoming shot when a piercing voice came over the club house loud
speaker.

"Would the gentleman on the woman's tee please back up to the men's
tee!"

I could feel every eye on the course looking at me. I was still deep in
my routine, seemingly impervious to the interruption. Again the
announcement, "Would the MAN on the WOMAN'S tee kindly back up to the
men's tee."

I simply ignored the guy and kept concentrating, when once more, the man
yelled:, "WOULD THE MAN ON THE WOMAN'S TEE BACK UP TO THE MEN'S TEE,
PLEASE!!!"

I finally stopped, turned, cupped my hands and shouted back, WOULD THE
@$$HOLE WITH THE MICROPHONE KINDLY KEEP QUIET AND LET ME PLAY MY SECOND
SHOT?!"

9/11 Cover Up?

2006-05-16T15:01:00.000-05:00

The Only Released Video Showing the Moments of the Attack
In March of 2002, five frames from a Pentagon surveillance camera became public, published by the Associated Press. The camera was positioned north of the section of the Pentagon's west wall destroyed on September 11th, and its field of view includes the destroyed section. This is the only video footage capturing the seconds of the attack that has been made available to the public.

The copies of the five frames on this page, which have been widely circulated on the World Wide Web, have greater horizontal cropping than glossy photographic prints of the photographs provided by the Associated Press. Copies of the frames published by CNN have higher resolution than these, and about the same horizontal cropping as the AP glossies, but have the date stamp on the bottom cropped off.

What do the frames show about the attack and its investigation or cover-up by authorities? This analysis suggests the answer is far from immediately obvious.

I have to say this website is extremly intersting...

http://911research.wtc7.net/pentagon/analysis/videoframes.html

Cruelty to the Lower Skilled Worker...

2006-05-08T12:49:00.000-05:00

I have to say this is a bit interesting. I would even pose a new point of view, raising minimum wage may be a back door attempt politicans are using to help the up and coming Social Secruity Crisis. How ever you cut it, I'm against rasing minimum wage. I can feel the debate about to ensue...

$1 more means fewer jobs
Hike in N.C. minimum wage would hurt low-skilled workers
FOR THE RECORD Adapted from a report by Dr. Roy Cordato for the Raleigh-based John Locke Foundation:

State Treasurer Richard Moore has endorsed the idea of raising the state's minimum wage to "at least" $6.15 per hour. This would be $1 above the federally mandated minimum of $5.15. Toward this end he has started a campaign that he has dubbed "the one dollar more" coalition to push for the wage hike.

Moore claims this boost in the minimum wage would give those at the lower end of the economic ladder "the opportunity to improve their situation and that of their families." While his logic might seem straightforward -- if you want people to take home a higher wage, simply force employers to pay them more -- basic economics suggest that this approach actually makes conditions worse for those who are supposed to be helped.

The myth that Moore and many others buy into is that people's wages can simply be raised by government decree without any change in workers' productivity. He assumes that there is no direct relationship between wages and productivity. Indeed, it is assumed that even if the cost of hiring a worker is greater than the value of the production he is capable of generating, employers will hire him anyway.

Recent empirical estimations by two Duke University economists suggest that for each increase of 10 percent in the minimum wage there will be a 2.9 percent decrease in the likelihood that a low skilled worker will find employment. For "one dollar more" the tradeoff will be a 5.5 percent decline in the chances that a low-skilled worker will find employment. This means that for those low-skilled workers who start out severely disadvantaged in the marketplace, this is just "one more" obstacle placed in their path.

The economic theory behind these conclusions is not difficult to understand. In fact it would be irrational for any employer to hire someone whose work skills are so low that the value of their productive efforts is below the full costs of hiring him.

This unemployment effect would become quite clear if we raised the minimum wage to $100 per hour. It would then be obvious that hundreds of thousands of people would lose their jobs as the economic value of their skills and capabilities fell below the mandated minimum. Most of us would be against such a law because we know that we would lose our jobs immediately. The increase in the minimum wage proposed by Mr. Moore would have the same effect, but the impact would fall on a narrower group, namely the most disadvantaged among us.

For someone employed at $6.15 per hour, the full cost to the employer would be, at minimum, close to $7 per hour including payments for Social Security and Medicare. The hourly cost could climb considerably if the employer provided health insurance or other benefits. But taking the lower minimum amount, anyone whose skills are such that they cannot provide greater than $7 per hour's worth of service to an employer would not be able to find work. Especially vulnerable would be teenagers and minorities, particularly African American males, who tend to be underserved by the public education system.

It is cruel for the state to provide someone with a substandard education and then set a minimum wage that prevents that person from finding a job. With a poor educational background, they need the work experience offered by entry-level jobs. Without it, the possibility of moving into higher-paying positions as their skills and experience improve is denied. This one-two punch of a poor education and a minimum wage cuts off the bottom rung of the economic ladder for many disadvantaged young people.

This Problem is Worse than Humpty Dumpty

2006-04-26T10:01:00.000-05:00

A man eats two eggs each morning for breakfast. When he goes to the
grocery store he pays .60 cents a dozen. Since a dozen eggs won't last a week he normally buys two dozen at a time.

One day while buying eggs he notices that the price has risen to 72 cents. The next time he buys groceries, eggs are .76 cents a dozen. When asked to explain the price of eggs the store owner says, "the price has gone up and I have to raise my price accordingly".

This store buys 100 dozen eggs a day. I checked around for a better price and all the distributors have raised their prices. The distributors have begun to buy from the huge egg farms. The small egg farms have been driven out of business.

The huge egg farms sells 100,000 dozen eggs a day to distributors. With no competition, they can set the price as they see fit. The distributors then have to raise their prices to the grocery stores. And on and on and on. As the man kept buying eggs the price kept going up. He saw the big egg trucks delivering 100 dozen eggs each day. Nothing changed there.

He checked out the huge egg farms and found they were selling 100,000dozen eggs to the distributors daily. Nothing had changed but the price of eggs.

Then week before Thanksgiving the price of eggs shot up to $1.00 a dozen. Again he asked the grocery owner why and was told, "cakes and baking for the holiday". The huge egg farmers know there will be a lot of baking going on and more eggs will be used. Hence, the price of eggs goes up. Expect the same thing at Christmas and other times
when family cooking, baking, etc. happen.

This pattern continues until the price of eggs is 2.00 a dozen. The man
says, "there must be something we can do about the price of eggs".

He starts talking to all the people in his town and they decide to stop
buying eggs. This didn't work because everyone needed eggs. Finally, the man suggested only buying what you need.

He ate 2 eggs a day. On the way home from work he would stop at the
grocery and buy two eggs. Everyone in town started buying 2 or 3 eggs a day.

The grocery store owner began complaining that he had too many eggs in his cooler. He told the distributor that he didn't need any eggs. Maybe
wouldn't need any all week.

The distributor had eggs piling up at his warehouse. He told the huge egg farms that he didn't have any room for eggs would not need any for at least two weeks.

At the egg farm, the chickens just kept on laying eggs.

To relieve the pressure, the huge egg farm told the distributor that they
could buy the eggs at a lower price. The distributor said, " I don't have
the room for the eggs even if they were free".

The distributor told the grocery store owner that he would lower the price of the eggs if the store would start buying again. The grocery store owner said, "I don't have room for more eggs. The customers are only buy 2 or 3 eggs at a time". "Now if you were to drop the price of eggs back down to the original price, the customers would start buying by the dozen again".

The distributors sent that proposal to the huge egg farmers. They liked
the price they were getting for their eggs but, them chickens just kept on
laying.

Finally, the egg farmers lowered the price of their eggs. But only a few
cents. The customers still bought 2 or 3 eggs at a time. They said, "when the price of eggs gets down to where it was before, we will start buying by the dozen."

Slowly the price of eggs started dropping. The distributors had to slash
their prices to make room for the eggs coming from the egg farmers. The
egg farmers cut their prices because the distributors wouldn't buy at a
higher price than they were selling eggs for.

Anyway, they had full warehouses and wouldn't need eggs for quite a while.

And them chickens kept on laying.

Eventually, the egg farmers cut their prices because they were throwing
away eggs they couldn't sell. The distributors started buying again
because the eggs were priced to where the stores could afford to sell them at the lower price.

And the customers starting buying by the dozen again.
Now, transpose this analogy to the gasoline industry.

What if everyone only bought $10.00 worth of gas each time they pulled to the pump. The dealers tanks would stay semi full all the time. The dealers wouldn't have room for the gas coming from the huge tank farms. The tank farms wouldn't have room for the gas coming from the refining plants. And the refining plants wouldn't have room for the oil being off loaded from the huge tankers coming from the Middle East.

Just $10.00 each time you buy gas. Don't fill it up. You may have to stop
for gas twice a week but, the price should come down.

Think about it…

JUMP THIS JOSE!!!

2006-04-21T11:45:00.000-05:00

Enough said...

http://www.weneedafence.com/

"I'll take an RLA to go please"

2006-04-03T17:47:00.000-05:00

So tomorrow I begin the miserable task of taking my registration examinations. I'll take the first two of five exams in the wonderful city of Rock Thrill, SC. If I pass everything outright, which statistically speaking I have a 21% chance of doing I will wrap everything up this December and be $1500 poorer. On the agenda for tomorrow, Legal Considerations of Practice and Analytical Aspects of Practice. By the way, if you know the difference between a General Warranty, a Special Warranty and a Quitclaim...I'd like to know. Hopefully come January I’ll be known as Skippy, RLA.

K9 Smarter Than Man

2006-03-27T21:15:00.000-05:00

So everyday I go through the same commuter routine. I leave work, travel up I-77, exit Uptown Charlotte and turn left at the second redlight. It's this spot which has really begun to piss me off, everyday. Turning left and being only a few hundred yards from work, this spot has the potential to place me in a bad mood for the rest of the day. Charlotte has done a great job with crosswalks, the red glowing hand and white walking person says, "hey, its safe" or "stop you fool". When I sit in the turn lane (with a green arrow) I wait for my signal. When I have the green arrow I turn and mindless idiots walk across the street with a Red hand flashing. Most of the time I get my bumper close to the people to proove a point and they look at me like I'm an idiot...while they J-walk. So today the same thing happens, with a twist! I'm sitting at the light and notice a blind man with a seeing eye dog is standing at the crosswalk. I get the green arrow, they (the mass of idiots) have the red hand and walk, the blind man and the dog don't budge. I just got a real kick out of that! I came to the conclusion, "Dogs are smarter than most people". Thoughts?

THWACK!!

2006-03-03T13:24:00.000-05:00

Oh yes, I am returning to my middle school and High school and some college) days tomorrow. My office is playing paintball! I think back to my amateur days of throwing paint in 15 minute games. My record is firing off 1250 paintballs in a 12min game, not bad if I do say for myself. For those of you that don't know I was the captain of a paintball team for about four years and I even helped our Fraternity go undefeated for two years in a philanthropic paintball tournament in college. So this outing has all ready stirred the pot and gotten the memories flowin again. Maybe I'll get back into the sport. If you can believe it it's dominated by young and older adults alike. I was the odd one out on the weekends for playing and being under the age of 18. All I know is, tomorrow when I get the 500 paintballs which comes with our field fees, I'll be buying 1000 more right away. I plan to dish out some bruises on the field, HUWAA!

40 Days, 40 Nights

2006-02-27T21:59:00.000-05:00

Well, as we all know Mardi Gras is almost over, Fat Tuesday is here, which brings in the meaning of the celebration, Lent. Every year I ponder what I am going to sacrifice; this year has been no different. At first I pondered giving up junk food. As much as being healthy means to me at this point in my life, being the gym rat I’ve become, giving up junk food is wide open for interpretation. Seeing that I did not want to be eating carrots for the next month; I've decided to give up alcohol, GASP! Yep, I'm hopping on the train and it's leaving the station. Last year I gave up liquor and after Lent I never really hopped back on the wagon, Poot and Wha can support this, the Jack sculpture in the apartment is hurting and it's my fault. So, I wonder if any of you have made or a making a sacrifice for this Lent. Who knows, it may benefit you in the long run.

The Truth on Taxes

2006-02-14T11:35:00.000-05:00

This being Tax season I thought it would be appropriate to forward this along. It bring everything into perspective, like why democrates suck so much...

Sometimes politicians, journalists and others exclaim; "It's just
a tax cut for the rich!" and it is just accepted to be fact.

But what does that really mean?
Just in case you are not completely clear on this issue, I hope
the following will help. Please read it carefully.

Let's put tax cuts in terms everyone can understand.
Suppose that every day, ten men go out for dinner and the bill for
all ten comes to $100.
If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go
something like this:

The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing.

The fifth would pay $1.
The sixth would pay $3.
The seventh would pay $7.
The eighth would pay $12.
The ninth would pay $18.
The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59.
So, that's what they decided to do.

The ten men ate dinner in the restaurant every day and seemed
quite happy with the arrangement, until one day, the owner threw them a
curve.

"Since you are all such good customers," he said, "I'm going to
reduce the cost of your daily meal by $20." Dinner for the ten now cost
just $80.

The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes
so the first four men were unaffected. They would still eat for free. But
what about the other six men - the paying customers? How could they divide
the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his 'fair share?'

They realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33. But if they
subtracted that from everybody's share, then the fifth man and the sixth
man would each end up being paid to eat their meal.

So, the restaurant owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce
each man's bill by roughly the same amount, and he proceeded to work out
the amounts each should pay.

And so:

The fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing (100%
savings).

The sixth now paid $2 instead of $3 (33% savings).

The seventh now paid $5 instead of $7 (28% savings).

The eighth now paid $9 instead of $12 (25% savings).

The ninth now paid $14 instead of $18 (22% savings).

The tenth now paid $49 instead of $59 (16% savings).

Each of the six was better off than before. And the first four
continued to eat for free. But once outside the restaurant, the men began
to compare their savings.

"I only got a dollar out of the $20," declared the sixth man. He
pointed to the tenth man," but he got $10!"

"Yeah, that's right," exclaimed the fifth man. "I only saved a
dollar, too. It's unfair that he got ten times more than me!"

"That's true!!" shouted the seventh man. "Why should he get $10
back when I got only two? The wealthy get all the breaks!"

"Wait a minute," yelled the first four men in unison. "We didn't
get anything at all. The system exploits the poor!"

The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up.

The next night the tenth man didn't show up for dinner, so the
nine sat down and ate without him. But when it came time to pay the bill,
they discovered something important. They didn't have enough money between
all of them for even half of the bill!

And that, boys and girls, journalists and college professors, is
how our tax system works. The people who pay the highest taxes get the most
benefit from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for being
wealthy, and they just may not show up anymore. In fact, they might start
eating overseas where the atmosphere is somewhat friendlier.

Provide Stones or Fish

2006-01-31T21:02:00.000-05:00

How should a father and mother feed and nurture their child? Should a father allow a child to fend for itself until one day it becomes strong, competent, enlightened enough to take on the world? I ask this question as part of an idea/doctrine which has been brought to my attention a few days ago and have thought through the concept. I charge you all as this being an important decision all of you will have to make one day, some sooner than others.

A church here in town, previously a Presbyterian Church recently broke off from the governing body of the church and became independent, for a few reasons, ability to freely govern within the church and the issue of baptism. The church feels it is a necessity to allow people the opportunity to be baptized multiple times. For example, if a person is baptized as a baby and wishes to be re-baptized as an adult. At my first thought, this abandonment of traditional values seems outlandish and wrong. This idea and feeling of mine was challenged, I am always open to the ideas of other people, so I listened and drew my own opinions on the situation over the next few days from scripture.

Multiple baptisms, in my opinion the idea cheapens the sanctity of what is baptism. The handing over of a soul to God is the most sacred of all events in Christendom. Why should it be cheapened by man? I understand these arguments, “I can’t remember my baptism”, “I have fallen so far from God I want to start over with a clean slate”, and “I am going to allow my child to choose when they grow up”. All of these arguments are weak. To the first, why should you need to remember the sacrament? To what benefit is it to a person that they remember the Holy Water cleansing their soul. Baptism signifies not the cleansing sins one has committed in the past but also the sins to come. Jesus died on the cross for all of our sins, the sins of all those which see him as our savior, those which believe in god. If someone is Christian than the knowledge of their Baptism, that the sacrament took place, the cleansing of their sins, past and future is enough. To the second, if someone has fallen that far from God they need to pray ask for forgiveness and take communion. Communion is a ritual in which the act is seen as a freeing of the soul, washing the soul if you will. It’s a remembrance of Jesus and the sacrifice he made for us. The third, I have to admit, I felt like this. I will allow my child to choose one day. Who am I to force this decision on anyone? Well, I have completely recanted this idea. Baptism doesn’t make you a Christian, it’s the door to a life of never being alone, having strength to deal with life’s worries and woes, a shield to the evil and wrong in the world. Baptism is the start of a journey a life long journey, an eternal journey. As a parent it is your responsibility, if you are a Christian to expose you child to this journey at an early age. Well, they can not speak for themselves why should I speak for them. To you I say this. A lawyer spoke for me at my adoption hearing at the age of one month. It was in my best interest if I was aware or not. Baptism is the joining of a family of men and women, girls and boys which will be there to guide, help, educate, and love. Who are you to speak for a child? A parent, a Christian parent, has every right to bring there child before God at any age, it is their responsibility to show their children the door. If a child is starving shall you feed them stones? A parent of a sound tree bears good fruit. If this is your argument then what say you about education? Is the argument, “ I will not educate my child until they choose it is right for them.” Denying a child and education is fundamentally abusive. Denying a child the path to Christianity, in a Christian family is the same.

Matthew 7:7-23 - 7: "Ask, and it will be given you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 8: For every one who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. 9: Or what man of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? 10: Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent?

How will a child know to ask or knock if they do not know any better. I ask these things to all of you. In my humble opinion, it is my belief that a person only needs to be shown the door, the path one time in life regardless of age. So, after running this road, I open it up for comments, thoughts and ideas. Please I would like to hear them. I do ask all of you this. Please to not be offended by anything I have expressed here. This is an open discussion meant to better all of us, Christian and non alike.

With Green Chunks and Corn Nibblets

2006-01-20T10:58:00.000-05:00

Our basketball team makes me want to vomit, projectile I say. Seriously, we are now the lowest scoring team to play Miami since Princeton in 1948. Up, here it comes, Mmpfh...BLAAAAA! Thats better, at least until Saturday.

High of 72, Honest.

2006-01-10T21:53:00.000-05:00

It’s funny how you can not hear from a friend for years. A good friend of mine from highschool managed to track me down and give me a call this week. It’s amazing how you can loose touch with some one for such a long period of time, four years in my case, and it seems like yesterday when you talked to them last. Well, considering he's gotten married and I was freed from the biggest bitch in the world not too much has happened. Oh yeh, I graduated, lived in Atlanta, started my career, lost some family to cancer, moved to Charlotte, found the love of my life...he's on air for the CBS affiliate in Augusta on the weekends as the weatherman (he mentioned all weathermen pull the 7th day of their forecast out of there ass...I knew it!). Funny how life long friendships work out. Loosing touch for so many years but when you reconnect, its seems just like yesterday. I guess that is a solid testament as to who our real friends are...I'm sure it would be the the same with all of you, well, maybe not Wha.