Doublespeak 101: How your Government Lies to you

Sneaky: sneak·y/ˈsnēkē/; Adjective: Furtive; sly: "sneaky, underhanded tactics". See, US Government.

All kidding aside, there is always a good reason for the people of the United States, especially her registered voting public, to know exactly what it is you are voting for. Take for example the following bill introduced to the House of Representatives back on May 25, 2011:

H.R. 1981: Protecting Children From Internet Pornographers Act of 2011

Seems innocent enough right? We all want to protect our children from the perverse nature of sexual predators, regardless of intent. I'll be honest and state right here that looking at the bill in the manner it was presented to me, had me thinking this isn't a bad thing and caught me off guard. Only later, researching the bill, do we see the true nature and the full extent that our government is willing to go, just to invade our privacy.

To be fair and to give credit to the folks that wrote and presented the bill in it's true form, H.R. 1981 was originally about protecting children. Sadly, like most things our government gets it's hands on, it's been twisted from it's intent and seeks to invade the privacy of every American who browses the internet from any device, any where, any time. The Patriot Act was just one stepping stone and this is yet another avenue to dig deeper into our personal lives.

I won't bore you with all the gory details and let you read the bill for yourself, as you should, and not take mine or any one else's word for gospel truth. I will however, skip to the most intriguing part of the bill in order to save you some time:

SEC. 4. RETENTION OF CERTAIN RECORDS BY ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATION SERVICE PROVIDERS.

(a) In General- Section 2703 of title 18, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following:

‘(h) Retention of Certain Records- A provider of an electronic communication service or remote computing service shall retain for a period of at least 18 months the temporarily assigned network addresses the service assigns to each account, unless that address is transmitted by radio communication (as defined in section 3 of the Communications Act of 1934).’.

(b) Sense of Congress- It is the sense of Congress that records retained pursuant to section 2703(h) of title 18, United States Code, should be stored securely to protect customer privacy and prevent against breaches of the records.

What does this mean exactly?  Well my fellow American's, it means that each and every one of us will be treated as a criminal.  Guilty until proven innocent.  An invasion of our right to privacy.  For those of you who failed your US Government classes, that's the 4th amendment to the Bill of Rights. 

The bill will mandate that any provider of electronic communication or remote computing service (your internet provider) to retain at least 18 months of log files on each and every leased computer IP address assigned to it's customers accounts. Your computer IP address is the unique number assigned to your computer from the moment it gets internet access from your provider, be it home PC, Mobile Device, internet enabled vehicles and so on.  Anything you search for, research, post on a message board or share about your life on a social network, is now 100% available to the US Government, at all times, for a period of time equal to 18 months.

Imagine having all your dirty laundry from that nasty divorce your going through, instantly available to your estranged spouse's attorney.  Those pics you shared with your friends on your last drunken night of debauchery before the wedding, are now available online for the right person.  Your private medical logs, discussions with your doctor, or labs that are now easily available to you online, have just become open reading for the United States Government.

Am I exaggerating?  Possibly to small degree, but consider this; nothing online is safe no matter how well you think you are protected.  The US Government or any local municipal authority only needs "suspicion" of child exploitation to go snooping through your private stuff.  Have nothing to hide?  Neither do I, but I still don't want anyone to have access to my personal info without a damn good reason, and while you think that this is just the extent of the bill's problems, I haven't even started on hackers or other unscrupulous individuals looking to find "info" on you or a member of your family, especially if that info is related to one of your kids. 

The very bill that was originally trying to protect our children, will become a tool to use against them.  If you think for a second that this law will protect you and your kids, think more outside the box.  If passed, this bill would hand deliver access to all our personal information, packaged nicely in gift wrap and ribbons of 18 months worth of data, to those who have the knowledge, tools and means of finding it.  The Government is the least of our worries folks.  Just ask Sony, HBGary, Bank of America, and a plethora of other well know institutions, how having their vulnerabilities shared to the world really feels.  Then stop to ask yourself if you are prepared to share your own.

If you, like myself, are not yet ready to give out access to your own or your loved ones personal lives, visit a small group called Electronic Frontier Foundation to get more info.  They'll even help you write to your favorite Representative and count you among the many who have already taken action to stop this bill from seeing the light of day.

A poem

My 16 year old daughter Alyssa wrote a poem that I wanted to share.  Simple but elegant.

What happens to a girl that can't be with the boy she loves ?

Is it like a mirror that shatters ,
and becomes a broken matter .

Will it be like a fire with a terrible flame,
that cannot be tame

Or will it be like a sun shining day ,
with a stormy night that comes by to stay

28 Droid tools you can't live without

Gizmodo posted the best of series on their site a few days back, including Droid, iPad and iPhone lists of best apps.  Much of what they had there I'm a big fan of but there were some I felt had been left off.  So, here is my list of Droid stuff you can't live without.

1. Download AppBrain App Market and set up an account online.
   
   
   
   • Once you have the app on the phone and you’ve created an account, you can go to the web, pick the stuff you want and send it directly to the phone
   
   
   • This also keeps a record of all your apps, so if you have to reinstall or your memory card fails, you have an online back up.
   
   
   
   


2. Tango – video chat for the Droid like the FaceTime for iPhone.  Even better, iPhone users can Video chat with you using Tango.  Something FaceTime won’t allow.  Apple Sucks.


3. Handcent SMS – for SMS Texting.  Just nicer than the standard android sms.  You can do all kinds of things with it, including set your own backgrounds, chat colors, etc.


4. Pandora – if not already installed, get it.  Free internet radio that selects music based on recommendations you give it.  If you don’t like a song, tell Pandora and it won’t play it again ever.  Plus, it builds your taste preference and eventually selects stuff geared to your likes.  Not all artist are available, but still plenty of tunes.


5. Shazam – can listen to a song and tell you who the artist and title are.  Helpful when you’re in the car and hear something you like and the radio fails to tell you who it is.


6. IMDB – dur.  A must have for those arguments about who was or wasn’t in that movie.


7. Vignette – Awesome picture tool


8. Listen – Google's answer to podcasts.  You’ll be surprised at how many are out there and the content.  Silent Bob (Kevin Smith), my buddy Jim Mercurio at Shouts from the Lawn, NPR, This American Life, and tons more that are geared toward your fave topics.  Podcasts are nice to listen to in the car during a commute or when you need something more than just a song or book to read.  It's my only way of staying connected to the outside world now.


9. Alchemy – You can thank my cousin Aubrey for this one.  Simple but clever little game where you combine elements (Fire, Water, Air, Earth) to make new elements.  Those elements then make more elements and so on.  I played this for 1 hour last night and only got 80 of the over 600+ Possible elements.  Addictive.


10. Angry Birds and Angry Birds Seasons.  I don’t have to explain these two.


11. Google Voice – Google’s free internet phone number that you can point to any phone.  Give this number out instead of your real number and get added benefits like live call screening, voice mail transcripts, caller identification or blocked caller to VM and lots more.


12. Swift Keyboard – Scary accurate predictive text…


13. Beautiful Widgets – transform common apps into widgets on the home screens.


14. AKNotepad – simple, but one of the best.


15. Weather Channel – not the most with features, but it wins for me on simplicity and the “Feels like” feature.  Just give me the weather!!


16. Google Shopper – bar code scanning, voice and image searching, product finding, savvy shopper app.


17. Google Goggles – take a picture of something with Goggles and it will try and tell you what it is.  Buildings, famous paintings, etc.  Also a bar code scanner for searching best prices.


18. Spaghetti Marshmallow – Supposedly a very fun game.  Haven’t tried it yet. Damn you Alchemy!


19. Backgrounds – thousands of free wallpapers.


20. HandyCalc – Best.  Calculator. Ever.


21. App Organizer – if your Droid gets filled up with apps as quick as mine did, you’ll need this one.  It allows you to create “Folders” that store all the shortcuts for your apps, based on “type”.  You could have a Games folder, Tools folder, Social Folder, and so on.  It just makes finding that app you need one step easier.


22. Kitten Cannon – fire a kitten out of a cannon and record the farthest distance.  Hit bombs, dynamite and trampolines to make him go farther, but avoid spikes and other hazards that will stop him dead.  Not for the kiddies.


23. Mint – keep track of all your bills, bank accounts, etc.  Alerts for bills coming due, spend trending, etc.


24. Random LOLCat – 'nuff said.


25. Dolphin Browser – a much more user friendly and customizable internet browser.


26. Chrome to Phone – send your Google Chrome browser links directly to your Droid browser from your PC.


27. PicSay photo editor- add cute cartoon bubbles to your photos.   A must for parents who moonlight as comedians.


28. Goby – find fun things to do around town.  Still a work in progress, but getting better.

I'm sure I'm missing some but 28 is a good list.  I'd love to hear about your favorites so post it here and I'll give it go.  I'm always looking for the next cool app.

7 Best Android Apps Students Can Really Make Use Of

Are you a student with and Android?  Check out the goodness.

7 Best Android Apps Students Can Really Make Use Of | Free and Useful Online Resources for Designers and Developers.

Migraine

Those of you who know me well, know that I've suffered with these for a long time now.  Sometimes I can go months with nothing and other times I'm hit back to back.  This week has been one of those latter times.  Because I was blessed with one yesterday morning at 1AM, the blog has suffered and will suffer again today outside of this quick and dirty note.

I can't begin to explain to you what it's like unless you've experienced them before.  There is just no physical description that will do it justice.  They are not just "a bad headache".  They are excruciating pain that makes even the simplest tasks impossible.  Moving your head, neck or shoulders, any form of light above pitch blackness, and loud noise just add to the pain.  Very little medicine is out there that really and truly helps.  The triptans do a great job, IF you catch them before they get too far along.  Otherwise, you are in for a day of hell.

I take several medicines as preventatives and that does help keep them at bay, but only for so long.  When they hit and the rescue meds are needed, you pray there is a dark quiet place to hide in for the next 4-8 hours.   When the rescue meds don't cut it alone, I've found that taking two benedryl helps to bring sleep, but only if it's not too bad.

So as I play catch up with my life the blog will take a hit.  I probably need some new material anyway.  The blog every day thing is a good goal, but a little unrealistic for me.  There are just so many hours in a day and I do like spending time with my family.  Besides, who wants to read crap about migraines anyway?  Those few followers I have come for the silliness that is my life and the stories that I tell.  I'm not about to lose them for some depressing pain recaps.

For those of you who have started following, thank you.  It means a lot that you come here in your busy day to spend just a few minutes with me.

So, until next time - peace out.

Sir Rodney the Neurotic

I've talked about our pets before.  After all, I live in a zoo and have plenty of animals to write about.  So it should come as no surprise that the time has come for me to introduce you to Rodney our 4 year old bully.

Raising a bully is no easy matter.  They take a lot of time and handling.  Thanks to my lovely wife Tina, he's handled with extraordinary care.  It's like raising a child all over again and I'm completely serious.  You would be surprised what has to be done to keep him clean and healthy.

To the point of this story; Rodney loves toys.  More so than any other animal we've ever had.  He loves them so very much that he can't stand for anyone else to have them.  He is a toy hoarder.  Not many toys last long in his paws so we've had to buy industrial strength toys so as not to go broke.

Still the back yard is littered with toys, because if they are back there, no one else can get them.  He plays with his older sister, Belle, our Golden Retriever and they mock fight over the toys.  Belle just sometimes grabs it from him and runs away with small bully legs in full pursuit.  What he lacks in gait, he makes up for in speed.  When he gets the toy back, the direction of the chase changes, but Rodney has learned to get so far, then stop dead and fall over, feet in the air like a dead possum.  His poor sister has no choice but to leap over him and double back, by which time Rodney is already on the other side of the yard in the opposite direction.

It wasn't until a few months ago that we started buying toys with squeakies in them.  Stuffies, balls, nylon ropes or anything that squeaked.  On delivery of the first squeaky, we unleashed some dark hidden side of the sweet little bully we were raising and we were introduced to Beelzabobo - demon dog.  Fluffies became fluff, ropes became threads and balls were small pieces of rubber or latex scattered to the wind.  One thing became perfectly clear; he had to find and kill the squeak.

Being the good parents that we are, we bought him more to destroy and watched him in foolish delight.  Then we did the unthinkable.  We collected the small plastic squeaking devices from inside his fallen toys.  We found that it's pretty easy to drive our dog mad while three people, in opposite sides of the house, all have small squeaky devices.  It starts simple with just one small squeak and then grows to a crescendo of harmonious squeakage throughout the house.  Rodney immediately picks up the sound of the first squeak and begins to seek it out.  Then another squeak follows and he changes track.  Then another squeak until we are doing them at random and Rodney is spinning in circles trying to hunt it down.  If he finds that it's just too much, he'll go for my wife and starting barking and chewing on her, I suspect because she is the source of all these neat ideas and he knows it all too well.

Because of the balls with squeakies, no other ball is safe.  We recently put up a tether ball pole in our back yard for our youngest daughter.  Rodney saw this as an opportunity bring down another opponent, but with a challenge.  We put the pole 1 foot deep and another 7.5 feet out of the ground.  When we first attached the ball, it hung too low and Rodney was able to bite it with no effort at all.  So, we raised it high enough off the ground that all of us could still reach it, with the exception of psycho dog.  Or so we thought.

We'd all play, with Rodney running circles around the pole trying to catch the ball and then running back the other way when the ball changed direction.  After about 15-20 minutes of this, Rodney looked like a dog that had spent way too much time hitting the sauce.  He couldn't walk a straight line or stand for more then 2 or 3 seconds before falling on his side and rolling over.  That didn't stop him from trying though.  This has gone on for about 2 weeks when finally, he became super dog and managed to jump high enough to get the ball and hang on.

We are currently looking for a new tether ball.

My son, friend of Smitty

It's the little things that he does.  Some will drive you crazy and others will have you laughing hysterically.  Facial expressions add to the comedic value, but it's a "you had to be there" thing.  He's always done it and even when you think he's being dead serious, he's likely pulling your leg.

The routines go back as far as I can remember but there are quite a few that stick out in my mind.  The first of which is Denny's...

 

Those of you who have seen Pulp Fiction would easily remember this scene with John Travolta and Uma Thurman.  My son, who was but 4 at the time, had not.  That didn't stop him from busting out in a dance routine of The Swim while seated at our table in Denny's while we waited for our food.  No prompting, no key word mentioned and no music.  Just Josh bustin' a move.

A few months later I would be getting married to my beautiful fiance'.  As I'm dressing my son in his little dress shirt and vest, he's fussing with me as most boys do when wearing dress clothes.  After a few minutes, we finally get him situated and I let out a heavy sigh.  He looks at me, pulls down his vest to straighten it out and says very matter of factly, "Dad, you know the difference between you and me?  I make this look good".



Josh is not one to have attention drawn to him, unless it's at your expense.  For the longest time, Josh and his friend Jordan went everywhere with us.  Having the two of them together was a blast, but by the end of the weekend, you were ready to commit them to speacial care facilities.  For the longest time, my wife and I thought they had a friend named Smitty.  We stopped believing in Smitty a long time ago as he never was around when the boys said he was.  We could be in a movie, at a restaurant or smack dab in the middle of a hot tourist crowd in one of Florida's many theme parks and "Smitty" would just pop up.  At first it was a lot of coincidences.

Josh: "Jordan, there's Smitty!"  as loud as he could.

Jordan: "No way where?"

Josh: "Right there! HEY SMITTY!"

When we'd all look at the two of them, Josh would just say "Dad, it's my friend Smitty" and point in some random direction.  Later, we learned that we were the butt of a long, never ending joke.  There really is a Smitty and my son does know the kid.  He was just never anywhere we were and thus began a long line of deception and pranks.  While it was fun for Jordan, it sometimes took a different turn when he became the butt of the jokes.

Josh: "Dad, Jordan says you're going bald."

Jordan: "Wait, what?!?  No I didn't!"

Josh: "Dad, he did.  I don't think that's very nice of you Jordan."

Or even worse, just yelling out at random, "Jordan!  Stop hitting my sister!  She's smaller than you.  I know she can be a brat but..."   And all Jordan could do was look at me like "please, you really don't believe this do you?"

Part of the fun is his randomness.  He torments his grandfather with obscure comments, quotes movies he's fond of and swears you are off your rocker when you try to recall a conversation with him just moments before.  It can drive you insane.

Some of his favorite quotes:

"LT. DAN!  You got legs!"



"I hid this uncomfortable piece of metal up my ass for two years."



"Son, we live in a world that has walls, and those walls have to be guarded by men with guns. Who's gonna do it? You? You, Lt. Weinburg? I have a greater responsibility than you could possibly fathom. You weep for Santiago, and you curse the marines. You have that luxury. You have the luxury of not knowing what I know. That Santiago's death, while tragic, probably saved lives. And my existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, saves lives. You don't want the truth because deep down in places you don't talk about at parties, you want me on that wall, you need me on that wall. We use words like honor, code, loyalty. We use these words as the backbone of a life spent defending something. You use them as a punchline. I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very freedom that I provide, and then questions the manner in which I provide it. I would rather you just said thank you, and went on your way, Otherwise, I suggest you pick up a weapon, and stand a post. Either way, I don't give a damn what you think you are entitled to."



In all fairness, he comes by it honest.  I've always been the one to make up wild stories when the kids asked me a question about something like "Why is the sky blue?" or make them apologize to the wall when they run into it.  After all, the poor wall didn't do anything to them.  Tina isn't much better and I blame a lot of my own sarcasm on her.  After all, I was this shy, reclusive guy who never would say much of a peep much less give off any sarcastic remark.  She's made us all unbearable (kidding babe).

Josh is much older now, drives his own car, works a lot after school and we see much less of him than we'd like too.  But that little boy is still there and apparently, so is Smitty.  Josh has been dating a wonderful young lady and she's perfect for him and this crazy family.  She has been known to hack into his Facebook account and post wild messages professing his undying love for her.  He deserves every bit of it.  I only hope that he one day experiences the same joy I've had watching him grow into the young man he's become.  More importantly, I can't wait for the opportunity to spend my time with his children so I can share my knowledge in the art of pranks and sarcasm.  It's only fair to them right?

S&!t my kid says

Today will be short and sweet.  Lots to do.

Last night before dinner, my youngest daughter Drew asks me if I can change her assorted coin into some dollar bills.  I gave it to her but told her to give mom the change because she looks for coins that are rare and she'd have a fit if we didn't let her look through them.

After dinner, the discussion turned to boobs.  Long story, but basically we started teasing Drew about me going to a strip club.  She gets adamant and says "You can't go there.  And mom is sitting right beside you and you're talking about other womens boobs."

"But I like the boobs", I said.  "And besides, I wouldn't go without mom."

"EWWWWWW!!  Gross!  Well, you can't put any dollar bills in their g-strings."

To which I reply, "I'd let mom do that.", which leads to another rousing chorus of "ewwws" and "gross".  I then add, "Did you ever wonder if those dollar bills you have came out of a stripper's butt crack?"

"Disgusting dad.  And now I won't touch any dollars again".

"Awesome!  That means I don't have to pay you any allowance any more!"

"Uh, no.  You'll just have to pay me in coin."

ZING!  And the kid gets another comeback.  Tina is of course, laughing through the whole exchange.  And you guys wonder where I come up with this stuff for Facebook....

Solutions for your empty wallet

A family member was poking around today looking for cheap goods and food stuffs for a friend in need.  After giving her some idea and looking at her other suggestions, I thought this might make a good topic for todays discussion.  I'm not going to get into basic budgeting discussions here.  Hopefully, most of you have figured that stuff out, or maybe thats blog fodder for another day.

So where can you find great deals on the interwebs?  A quick Google search can certainly help, but there are some of those sites that are obscure and get missed.  Sometimes, you just need someone to point you in the right direction or hopefully have had some experience using the service before.  Today, I'm going to be your "personal interweb deal guide".  Sit back, relax and let's see what awesomeness I can dig up...

All deals, all the time

DealCatcher - This one is a personal favorite, among many.  Where Google supplies you with coutless site possibilities, DealCatcher supplies you with deals mined from all over the web all in one convenient location; coupons, savings codes, and online sales from your favorite sites.  In addition to this deal hunters dream, are the many options for finding your ultimate deal.  Browse by category or by popular stores.  See coupons that are the most popular, expiring and newly available.  Compare prices across the site or simply just browse the current day deals along with the "Catch of the Day" which is usually a savings code or limited time deal.  Just for good measure, they've supplied all the Sunday newspaper ads from across the nation in one place with an easy drop down selection for the state of your choice.  The possibilities are endless.

WOOT! - Woot: An interjection similar to "YAYE!" or "Woohoo!" used to express joy or excitement, usually about some kind of accomplishment. Primarily used by gamers, spreading rapidly to anyone who chats online .

It's no surprise that the guys at Woot decided to use this term since the daily "woot-off" is usually a deal so good and in limited supply, that if you are lucky enough to get an item you are likely to exclaim "WOOT!" after the checkout process.  Woot is on of the first daily deal sites offering a limited time sale of a particular item in limited quantity.  There are many of them now, some good, some bad but none will replace the growing community of wooters.  Woot started to expand from the main sellout.woot site offering shirt.woot, wine.woot and kids.woot where items are relative to the respective titles.  More recently, deals.woot was launched and in similar fashion to DealCatcher, offers us the best deals from around the web.  At the home page, there are 5 sponsored deals at the top, the first being from their own sellout.woot sister site.  Below that is the "community deals" section where people from around the web submit deals from just about anywhere.  What makes deals.woot different is the community of wooters who bring the deals to the site to share with our fellow discount hunters.    By "wooting"  (voting) the deals, the community escalates the deal based on popularity with the membership and it climbs up the favorite deals ladder.

Travel

Kayak - taking what priceline has done and making it better, Kayak allows you to search hundreds of travel sites all at once.

Yapta - taking Kayak one step further more, these folks will save you money by tracking prices before you buy, and the refund you the difference if you purchase and the price drops again.

Freebies

These site will have some form of "free" offers.  Deals range from local restaurants, grocery store coupons, software, rebates...the list goes on.

Freebie Blogger - she does a good job of pulling a lot of freebies together in one site.

Deal Seeking Mom - more coupons than freebies, but she squeezes good stuff in so she get's a shout out.

GCF LearnFree - free online learning for MS Office products, basic computer skills, reading and reference material, math, money and more.  The site is updated regularly and new content is being added daily.

Deal of the Day

Similar to Woot, these guys have their own 1 day deals.  Rather than try and keep track of them all, some "tracker sites" do all the work for you.  Keep this one handy.

Deal of the day Tracker

Groupon - Positively one of my favorite daily sites.  There is always something for everyone, you just might have to wait awhile to get the deal that works best for you.  When it does, BAM!  Money savings for the win!  Deals sometimes up to 90% off restaurants, hotels and retail stores, and that's just part of the sites charm.  I have found more mom and pop businesses around town that I've been missing out on, just by checking in here daily.  If you're a first time sbscriber, Groupon sends out a $10 off coupon for your first purchase that sweatens the deal.  Now you can have that elegant dinner for two at 90% off plus an additional $10 off.  Oh, and if you refer a friend, you get $10 too!

Random Loot

Not really a site, but sites of leftover crap from TSA seizures around the country's major airports. This stuff gets turned over to state surplus agencies that then sell it online or in retail outlets. To whit:

Alabama
Airports: 14 in Florida and Alabama, including Miami, Orlando, Huntsville, and Birmingham
Where to buy: eBay (seller ID: alstatesurplus)
Info: adeca.state.al.us/surplus%20property

Georgia
Airports: Atlanta, Savannah/Hilton Head
Where to buy: Stores in Tucker (Atlanta Surplus Center, 770/414-6468); Swainsboro (Swains­boro Surplus Center, 478/289-2623); and Americus (Americus Surplus Center, 229/931-2407)
Info: surplusproperty.doas.georgia.gov

Illinois
Airports: Chicago O'Hare, Chicago Midway, and occasionally four more in Illinois and Michigan
Where to buy: Auctions held at ibid.illinois.gov


Kentucky
Airports: Eight in various states, including Orlando and Miami (Alabama shares the loot), and Louisville
Where to buy: eBay (seller ID: kysurplus)
Info: finance.ky.gov/internal/surplus

Oregon
Airports: Portland and Eugene
Where to buy: eBay (seller ID: oregontrail2000)
Info: oregonsurplus.com 

Texas
Airports: Seven across the state, including Dallas/Fort Worth and Austin
Where to buy: Austin Storefront in Austin, 512/463-1990
Info: http://tfc.state.tx.us/divisions/supportserv/prog/statesurplus/

Washington State
Airports: Seattle-Tacoma, Spokane, and Tri-Cities
Where to buy: Auburn Retail Store in Auburn, 253/333-4912
Info: ga.wa.gov/surplus

While this list certainly isn't the all-inclusive deal Bible, I hope it still delivers some savings and shopper savvy.  If you have other sites that you just can't live without, feel free to share them here.  I'm always interested in finding new ways to save cash.

What I do best.

I'm trying to kick off this blog by doing the Post a Day commitment and I'm sticking to it.  The only problem is, I'm having a hard time finding content to write about.  Usually my stuff is either satirical, reflective or random, hence the name of the blog.  I've been looking through "ideas for posts" from various sites and well, they just don't suit me.  Yesterday's post was OK, but not really something I'd write about unless there was a reason that led me to it.  It took me a while to finish it because I was struggling with the content and what I wanted to say.  Blogging shouldn't be like that.  It should be fluid and easy to write.  It should be about something you know, care about or that you are very passionate about.

So, with that in mind, I'm gonna try this my own way and do my own thing.  I'm good at writing articles for work on "how-to's" or reviews of new hardware, software, movies, games, etc.  With a mixture of my personal anecdotes thrown in for good measure, I might just be able to pull this off.  We shall see.  So bear with me, send me ideas, feedback, questions, suggestions or whatever and I'll try to keep this ship afloat.

What is a friend?

Seems like an easy enough question to answer right?  All of us have friends that we talk to every day, socialize with either in person, on the phone or on the web.  Hell, some of us still write actual letters.  When you really start to think about it though, it isn't that easy.  There are a lot of things that can define a friend and for each of us, it is likely very different.

I have had the pleasure of calling a few people "friend", the longest of which is going on nearly 28 years.  I meet new people every day, some come, some go and most of them quicker than others.  It takes me a long time to identify a friend simply because I'm very gaurded.  I learned a long time ago that people you come to call friend can very quickly disappear from your life.  So, I take my time qualifying those people in my life that I think might fit the bill.

For the most part, a friend to me is someone you have built a relationship with.  It cannot be someone you just met and I know some will disagree with me, but you simply cannot determine a persons character, likes/dislikes, personality and other such qualities in just a days, much less a few hours.  A true friend is someone who's been there with you, physically or in spirit throughout some of your most difficult times and even more so, for the most beautiful events of our lives.  A friend is someone who you've not spoken to in 6 months, but you can stop by or pick up the phone and it was just like you spoke to them yesterday.  They are one of the first people you think of when something funny happens, or when you need someone to lean on.

A friend will not only help move your house for the 7th time, they stay the longest because they feel comforable in your surroundings.  You don't have to like the same music, books, films or TV shows, but you respect each others opinions and are genuinely interested in their thoughts and ideas.  A friend is someone you ask for guidance, even on some of the most personal things you'd never share with anyone.  There is no competition because their success is your success and it works both ways.

A friend is a friend for life.  Regardless of the hardships, disagreements or years or miles that pass between you, true friendship overcomes all of life's obstacles and is there for you always.