18 Years

I've been working since late December to take a picture a day for at least a year, and I will say it's been pretty hard some days to find something different, something interesting to photograph. I will also say it's been a very rewarding undertaking; I've gotten used to taking my camera (and assorted gear) everywhere I go, I've been working to overcome my inhibitions in photography, and I've more than once enjoyed looking back at the previous five months.

Today, I just read of a man who took a photo a day for 18 years, long before digital cameras were invented. 18 years! Wow. My limited experiences over five months multiplies my appreciation for what he did. It even inspires.

18 years of Polaroids. Think about that. Under the link, see some of his photographs, including the one taken on the day he died in 1997.

The collection is being put on the web by friends here.

Something to do this weekend

Stolen shamelessly from Castle Argghhh!

Good morning, everyone! Just wanted to drop you a note to update you on the status of our Operation Love From Home 2008 4th of July card drive for the troops. Sadly, we are still far, far short of our 5,000-card goal... we have in our possession slightly less than 1,500 cards. We've extended the deadline until JUNE 14, 2008. Please do all you can to help get the word out, and send in a card or two! :) Every single card/letter helps tremendously, and truly makes a very real difference! An empty P.O. Box means less 4th of July Thank You cards & letters going to our troops. :-(

So what is "Operation Love From Home?" - 4TH OF JULY CARD DRIVE FOR DEPLOYED TROOPS

The Mission: To collect at least 5,000 "thank you" cards for troops stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan. The majority of the cards collected will go to a unit currently stationed in an extremely harsh and remote area of Afghanistan.

The Reason: Being away from home and living in harsh conditions with combat & constant danger is difficult ~ our troops need to know we have not forgotten them!!! Mail from home helps to keep our troops' morale strong, making a very real difference in their lives. It keeps them motivated and focused when they know we care about them!

The Address: Send your signed, unsealed thank-you cards to the following address:
Mrs. Kathy Orr OPERATION: LOVE FROM HOME P.O. Box 1660 Loganville, Georgia, 30052
ALL CARDS MUST BE RECEIVED NO LATER THAN SATURDAY, JUNE 14, 2008.

The Guidelines:
The cards can be handmade or store-bought (letters are just fine, too). This is a great pportunity to get your Scout troop, school, church and other civic organizations involved in doing something to show support for our troops. Please do not write the date on your cards Please, no glitter on the cards. Because of the intended destination of the cards, nothing "shiny" should be sent for safety & security reasons.

For those of you that have been deployed you can attest to the power that receiving mail from home can do for one's moral, it really does mean a lot to them to receive mail.

David M

Parties not ideas die

The Republican party is said to be out of ideas and is looking at a defeat in the November elections.

However, the ideas of Conservative thought are alive and well and when implemented, seem to work.

Now how do we get the party to adopt the ideas that work and thus win elections to IMPLEMENT the ideas that the party campaigned on.

History Lesson

When Muslim's conquer Christian territory, its a permanent victory and nothing can be done about it.

When Christians conquer Muslim territory, its an illegal occupation that needs to be rectified in the future (think Spain).

And if Jews take land from the locals who made it a desert and make it a garden (Israel), then holy war must be started to reclaim the land and return it to a desert.

Those who ignore history are condemned to repeat it.

Five-Sided Memorial

Most days I go to work, come home, and think no more of work until the next day. Clock in. Clock out. Today was a little different as my company participated in a meeting at the Pentagon (yes, THAT Pentagon). It was kind of cool as we navigated through the building's rings to our meeting room. Most of the day was spent in the meeting, then into the center courtyard for lunch at the cafe there. It was an interesting day, to be sure. After the meeting, one of the guys working there escorted us through the building and down to the west side.

The west side, where Flight 77 plowed into the facade September 11, 2001.

I saw the chapel there. I looked through the yellowed windows towards the sky in the direction the jet crashed from. I read the names of those killed--many of them held rank; many of them did not. The six of us wandered in silence, in contrast to the bustle and buzz of the rest of the building. Flowers, some of them dried by age, left by others. New Testaments, bound in camouflage, left by the Gideons.

Never forget.

Memorial Day Gratitude

May 17th, 2008
Originally uploaded by kawfeadikt

A heartfelt thanks to all the men and women to have gone before us to preserve our nation and to even extend the hope of freedom to others.

(Taken at the Torrance 2008 Armed Forces Day parade.)

News Roundup

Who will win in November? Good question, but most likely the "experts" will be wrong again. They were for McCain then said he was dead politically and now he is the Republican nominee. Clinton was the Democratic nominee the pundits said and Obama was only testing the waters or looking for a VP slot. Now he is the likely nominee. It will be interesting to watch.

Obama takes a cheap shot at McCain on the Senate floor. Of course the bill being voted on didn't need Obama's vote to pass, its popular legislation. The more controversial bills where his vote could make a difference are a different matter.

As the 1970's theme song goes "Don't do the crime if you can't do the time". Poor little boy is whining he doesn't like jail and doesn't know how he will survive 8 months of it.

A reminder on who said there were WDM in Iraq and when.

Have a good weekend and remember Monday is Memorial Day, make it more then just a day off work or school. Remember why we have the day and who made the day and our country possible.

Opps

ID-protection ads come back to bite pitchman

SAN JOSE, Calif. - Todd Davis has dared criminals for two years to try stealing his identity: Ads for his fraud-prevention company, LifeLock, even offer his Social Security number next to his smiling mug.

Now, Lifelock customers in Maryland, New Jersey and West Virginia are suing Davis, claiming his service didn't work as promised and he knew it wouldn't, because the service had failed even him.

Ouch.

Stupidity

Struggling Ohio village mulls income tax to get share of lottery winner's payout

AMELIA, Ohio (AP) — Officials in the southwest Ohio village of Amelia say they are resisting the urge to quickly pass a local income tax to get a share of the $196 million lottery ticket that was sold there. The windfall could mean more than $1 million to the struggling village of about 4,000 people east of Cincinnati. But Mayor Leroy Ellington says he wants to hear what residents have to say before the village council decides.

Questions:
1. What is to prevent the winner from moving before collecting the ticket?
2. Retroactive laws are not constitutional and
3. If the government promises no one else will get taxed except the "rich", well that was how they got the amendment to the constitution approved for income taxes, only the rich will be taxed.

Do you feel rich?

Simply Amazing

The currency of the United States discriminates against blind people the courts have ruled.

It also discriminates those who are color blind and illiterate or do not know how to read Arabic numbers.

And judges and lawyers wonder why people seem to think Shakespeare's line "The first thing to do to improve society is to kill all the lawyers", while often taken out of context is not such a bad idea in theory.

More feel good environmentalism. Wind is clean, coal is dirty energy. Of course no one is counting how much energy was used to build the wind farm verses the coal plant in their calculation.

The Anti-Human Agenda

Go read the article, very good.

A tongue-in-cheek comment from my university said if we could just get rid of the students it would be a great place to work. Some environmentalists think if we could just get rid of all the people on the planet it would be a great place to live. Generally over-population is a major part of the environmentalists’ argument that humans are causing all the problems, including climate change. Satire is a good measure of this position typified by the bumper sticker that says, “Save the Planet, Kill Yourself.”

Ironman

Well tonight I did something I rarely do. In fact, I think I was in college the last time I did this.

I went to a movie on opening night.

Normally I manage to go to 1 movie every 2 years, and those are usually discount tickets shows.

But this was worth the price of admission. The movie was fun and yes the good guy won (if you were hoping the bad guys would win, this is Marvel comics not Animal Farm).

So wife and I enjoyed the movie and made for a nice date night, especially after the crazy weeks we both had.

Go see the movie, but leave your 5 year old's at home, they will get bored in parts and scared in others. But for the rest of us, its a fun picture to see.

May Day

May 1st is Labor Day for most of the rest of the world. The US will celebrate it on September 1 this year. One reason we don't celebrate it with the rest of the world is political. The communists basically co-opted the day long ago and turned it into a day for pro-communit parades and propaganda.

Much of Western Europe and parts of Asia adopted May 1 as its labor day due to the efforts of the socialists parties in those countries.

Today, most of the people who are celebrating May 1 as labor day think about politics and what this day symbolizes about as much as Americans think about politics and what September 1 symbolizes when we celebrate our labor day. There will be some politics but most people are more concerned about getting away for the long weekend and will be on the road or at friends house or hosting a BBQ for friends.

That is your political and historical trivia for the day.

For those of us living in the Western United States, good news on the snow pack. The Colorado River will start to refill this year which is good.