New Header

So, I put the new header together in about 20min. I was gonna put Moses back in my new logo, but I couldn't figure out how to fit him in without making it look too busy. Anyhow, I like the Tennessee theme, just wish I had a better picture of Nashville. Guess when I pick my Dad up from the airport in a couple weeks I'll photograph the skyline.

I am however, having a problem with the new header. I use a Mac, so I only use Safari and Firefox as my web browser. For some reason, the header looks faded in Firefox, and in Safari the colors look really rich but the background gray is different than my header gray!

If anyone out there is visiting my page using Internet Explorer, please tell me if this is happening in your browser!

***Update***

So, my former neighbor caught me on IM and told me to save as a .PNG file. So Now it looks really awesome in Safari, but the colors look toned down in Firefox. WTF?

Under Construction

I'm bored with the same old, same old. I'm going to upgrade to the new blogger and make a new header. Change things up a bit!

Free Speech and Responsibility

So, this morning I caught a debate on FOX news about four women being fired for gossiping at work. The whole segment was basically a back and forth about “free speech rights” vs “property rights”. Now, please forgive me, as I’ve forgotten the names of the pundits involved in the segment. I don’t have a DVR, and somehow my trusty pen and pad were nowhere to be found. This was the first time I’d heard about this, but instantly I thought about responsibility. Specifically responsibility for one’s actions.

We absolutely have the right to free speech. I’m not arguing that. God gave us a mouth, and our constitution gives us the right to say what we want. That doesn’t however, mean we’re free from ramifications. It’s sort of the Catch-22 of free speech.

The greatest and most recent example of this, is that Don Imus character. He decided to call Rutgers University women's basketball team a bunch of nappy headed hoes. Which by the way, was his right. And for that he was duly canned! Is anybody (besides Imus) complaining about that? So, what makes these four ladies any different?

That said, it surprised me that in all the ruckus and chest-thumping about how the firings were a violation of their free speech right, that none of the pundits mentioned that these women are adults and responsible for their own actions. In this case, spreading a rumor.

Now, according to a cnn.com article titled “Town fires 4 employees for gossiping about boss”, one of the ladies states that "We didn't start the rumor, nor did we say there was an affair going on", and "We didn't have time like they think ... to sit around and just gossip. That is so untrue."

That may be so, but I find it extremely hard to believe they didn’t help spread it. After all CNN declared in the first sentence of the article that gossip is “a staple of the American workplace”. If you keep reading further in the article you’ll also notice that these women were very bitter towards the woman in the rumor. This copy and paste from that page says it all...

“The women say what upset them about the rumor was the perception of impropriety by the public and preferential treatment "A" was receiving, including higher pay than Drewniak and Skorupski despite having less seniority and experience.

"What an insult," Piper said. "Doesn't length of time and length of service count for anything in this community?".

So, because they were “insulted”, they helped keep the fire stoked? Thats not office gossip or any other kind of free speech folks, thats called retribution. Beside these women needing to take responsibility for their actions, it seems they should also pick up the Bible and read about King David and the Green Eyed Monster!

I'm Back! Well sort of...

I'm actually "borrowing" my neighbors wireless connection at the moment. I may or may not have unlimited access to the internet as I do at present. It all depends on when my neighbor moves, or perhaps he'll just get tired of me eating all of his bandwidth and cut me off. I don't know. What I do know though is that I can't afford a decent connection at the moment. Hence my title. Yes my iBook is fixed, and yes I broke down and bought an iMac (which is why I can't afford the net now), so I'm back but I don't know for how long.

Anyhow, I'm also back in America! I'm not going to go into great detail in this post, but I will let you know that it's been one hell of a rough ride since I've come back. Things haven't gone the way I had envisioned them going. Most of the problems are things that are out of my control.

Stockman, I'm really sorry I haven't emailed you. I'm not trying to be rude or ungrateful. HBW left our address book in MI, and Clint ate the tag off of the doll you got him. Go figure. My Mother in Law is going to be bringing the book down to us this weekend, so I'll send an email your way as soon as possible.

My Macintosh is DEAD!

My little iBook G4 died. My friends weren't lying when they said "When a Mac crashes, it crashes hard"! The harddrive is terminated! No iBook, no blogging. I have the Applecare plan and I'm covered Dec 2007, but it's only valid in the United States and Canada. Since I'm currently in Europe it's no good to me. Good thing I'm moving back to the States in January. Otherwise, it would be no computer for Jug for a long time. Oh sure, I can just go to the apple store here in the dutchland, but I've paid for the insurance so I'm going to use it. Plus, I've got better things to do with my money. Like saving up for a downpayment on a house. A computer is like a car, both are nessasary now-a-days and both are a really shitty investment! Whatever money you throw into them is forever gone!

Anyhow, I'm at my neighbors house, using his internet. This will be the last post for a couple of months. I plan a return to steady posting sometime in March. Hopefully. Moving is always a big pain in the ass, and once thats done I've got to get the Mac fixed.

Helen Jean Phelps a.k.a. Nan 1923-2006

This post is very long, but please take the time to read it all the way through

It’s still very hard to swallow that I have lost my Nan. I’ve known it’s been coming for a long time now, but I always put it in the back of my mind and kept telling myself it would never happen. What hurts the most about Nan dying is the fact that I feel I’m losing all the family I’ve got.

Oh sure, I’ve got family scattered throughout the United States, but this is different. It was only Nan, Pop, Uncle Gordon, Mom, Dad, and my two sisters and I down in Florida. Occasionally my grandmothers brother and wife (Uncle Albert and Norma) would come down and stay for the winter, but they usually stayed to themselves.

Uncle Gordon died (unexpectedly) a few years ago, Uncle Albert died earlier this year, and now I’ve lost my Nan. See what I mean about losing my family?

It’s hard to take it all in. These three family members are gone in only a matter of a few short years. I’ll never ever get another chance to say hello, hug them again, or even introduce them to my son Clint. They’ll never get to be a part of my son’s life as they are to mine.

I’m still completely heartbroken that my Nan has died. I’m happy in that she is no longer in pain, but I’m angry that she had to go. I thought I’d never lose my Nan. In my eyes, she was immortal.

Anyhow, enough of my moaning, I’m going to tell you a little bit about Nan in my life. These little tidbits are not in chronological order. As I think about them, I write them.

When I was little, I used to always stay the weekends at my grandparents house in Foxwood. I loved it! I honestly think I spent more weekends at their house then my two sisters did. Nan always had all the good toys ready for me. Little die-cast metal cars, a blue snake toy (hard to explain what it is), and my all time favorite was the huge bucket of legos she kept under the Television. I would spend hours building things with those little plastic blocks! In fact, now that I think about it, I bet she still has those damn legos under the Television for me!

Nan was one hell of a cook! Nobody, and I mean nobody could top Nan’s cooking. The heck with Betty Crocker, she’s got nothing on Nan. There is one recipe that she made that I couldn’t get enough of. Stuffed cabbage or something like that. I hope she has the recipe in her house still, because I want it!

Speaking of food. A funny thing that I noticed, but never gave much thought about until recently was the fact that Nan would never eat supper with us. The men and grandkids that is. She would always wait till we were done eating our fill before she got hers. I’ve always thought this to be odd, until I read a book recently about people who grew up during the depression. Looking back now, I think she did this because of a mentality along the lines of “Feed the men and kids first. Kids need the food to grow and men the food to be strong for work”. It’s just a theory I’ve been floating around. It’s really the only way I can explain to myself why she did what she did.

On another note, there were occasions when Nan would eat with all of us. Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving, birthdays, and at restaurants. But that was it!

Speaking of food,...again. Nan started to get crazier with her food as the years went on. No not the food she fed us, but what she would eat herself. I swear to you that when I was really little she would eat meat. Then all of a sudden she stopped eating cow and chicken altogether and would only eat fish. Then Nan stopped eating anything that had a head on it at one point in it’s existence. It’s weird because she would cook and feed us meat, but she wouldn’t dare eat it herself.

Sunday mornings before church was always awesome for me too. Whenever I was at Nans, she would cook me sausage, eggs, and bacon for breakfast. And if I was good all weekend, I’d be lucky and get a bowl of grits! I love grits (can you tell I’m Southern?). Nan said I was just like Uncle Gordon, always wanting grits for breakfast.

For my tenth or eleventh birthday (can’t really remember what one), Nan got me the best present of all my birthdays. A Transformer! You know, “Robots in disguise”! It wasn’t just any transformer though, it was the Decepticon Space-shuttle transformer!

When I spent the summer with Nan and Pop in their cabin in N.C., Nan made me go to the Peacock Playhouse and try out for a part in Alice in Wonderland. I was to be a card soldier. I’m not exactly sure what happened, but at some point I was no longer going to rehearsals. It’s a huge possibility that I embarrassed Nan by doing something crazy and then lying about it like Huck Finn. At that point in my life, I was known for spinning a tale or two. Punishment, no Alice in Wonderland for Jug!

Whilst in N.C., Nan made me do something that I absolutely dreaded. Oh, I hated her at the time for making me do it, but I can’t give her enough thanks now. She made me go to the library and check out a bunch of books. Oh, not just any books. Sure, I tried being sneaky and picked the picture books, but she wouldn’t have it. No, I had to read books beyond my level. I know for a fact one was the story of Hiawatha, another was Buck (some kind of dog book), and a whole slew of others. She would make me sit down at the supper table and read for a whole hour, and if I had made her mad that day she would make me read aloud! Anyhow, she started a passion in me that hasn’t stopped. I love reading. I kept it a secret for the longest time though. I didn’t want any of my friends back in Florida to know I had become a book worm. If they’d of known I liked books, they would have called me a homo and never talked to me again (You have to understand that until the Canadians took over our little town, things were real redneck, and reading was not a respectable thing for a boy to be doing)! Reading was truly an ass-whooping offense!

Here’s a funny memory. This was also in N.C. for the summer! Out back of Nan and Pops cabin was Tusquitee Creek. It was fast running water where their cabin was, but just down a ways was a calm, deep part of the creek. The swimming hole! Now, at the time, I considered myself to be a pretty awesome swimmer. My mother on the other hand didn’t think so. She made my grandmother make me wear a life-preserver vest whenever I would go swimming, just in case I got sucked out by the rapids. And you better believe Nan made me wear that little orange devil! I was so embarrassed about it. I looked like such a dork. I’m sure Nan has a picture of it somewhere.

Another funny thing about the creek, is for about the first couple of weeks in N.C. I wouldn’t go in the water. Nan would get me all suited up in my life-preserver and take me down to the swimming hole, and all I would do is stand in the ankle deep water. Oh she would get livid with me! Hey, I’m from Florida and you don’t go swimming in the freshwater unless you’ve got a death wish. How the hell was I suppose to know there were no alligators in the Smokey Mountains? Finally, Nan got so fed up with my not going beyond ankle deep water, that she got Pop to come down to the creek and strong arm me into the deep end! I was scared shitless as I was swimming around, scanning the area for anything that could be eyeing me up for lunch. Eventually I got over my fear of freshwater, and Nan eventually let me swim without the damn life-preserver!

Nan also took me to the Cherokee Indian Reservation in N.C. too. I got to meet with the chief! I have a picture somewhere at home of me and the chief. I’ll have to dig it up eventually. I also got to watch the Cherokee Indians making a canoe the old fashioned way. Being on the reservation was a truly cool experience, and led to me reading a whole lot of Cowboy and Indian books.

Nan always got me a 50 dollar savings bond for my birthday. Without fail, I would always receive one in the mail a couple of weeks after my birthday. Last year was the first time I didn’t receive one for my birthday. Pop just wrote me a check for 25 bucks instead. Nan couldn’t write much anymore, so she couldn’t get one for me. I’m going to miss not getting one for my birthday anymore.

Speaking of savings bonds, my first savings bond ever was from Nan!


When my father was hit by a drunk driver and almost killed, Nan was the one who took care of us kids while Mom was at the hospital. Nan always took good care of us. I don't think anybody could ever ask for a better grandmother.

Anyhow, I could go on and on and on about Nan in my life, but I just wanted to show you some of the more special moments in my memory banks. She was a wonderful lady, and an even better Grandmother. I will miss her always, and I look forward to seeing her again in Heaven.

My Vote Will Count!

Great News! I JUST VOTED! Yeah Baby! Ballot came in the mail today, and it’s going right back to Florida tomorrow! SWEET!

This is my first time voting! I could have voted in 2000 when I was in the Marine Corps, but I decided that I wasn’t ready to make concrete decisions on what direction I felt best to vote America towards. It was a maturity thing. Sure I was a big tough Marine ready to take on the worlds toughest men in a bar fight, but at the time I hardly knew a thing about politics. At this point I realized that something had to be done about this, so by around 2001 (pre 9/11), I was knee deep in political books. I began to form my personal ideology.

I was suppose to vote in the 2004 elections, but I never received my absentee ballot. I was pissed! I took the time to write my Supervisor of Elections to get everything in order, and I never received the f***ing ballot!

This time I was taking no chances. I was not going to miss the mid-terms! I personally called my local election office and had them mail a ballot to me! The ladies on the other end of the line were very friendly, and they didn’t get annoyed with me when I constantly asked them to repeat back to me all the information I gave them. Told you I wasn’t taking any chances. They said the ballot would be in the mail the following day! It’s about the first time I’ve ever had good customer service from the government!

Anyhow, in case you didn’t catch it in the first paragraph, I’m a Floridian. My personal ideology is conservative. Now, I hate both political parties but I voted a straight republican ticket. Why? I do this because Republicans are more in line (barely) with my ideology than say socialist liberal Democrats. I simply choose the lesser of two evils.

The main reason for needing to vote this time was not the election of politicians (it never really is). I could care less about those useless windbags. It’s all the BS propositions and amendments to the State constitution that I’m concerned about. You know the little things legislators and special interest groups get placed on the ballot to strip more of your right to govern yourself. I’m not going to go into all the amendments that were on the ballot, but lets say I only voted “Yes” for two of them. One was to do with limiting Eminent Domain, and the other was less property tax for the elderly poor. The rest were a friggin’ joke (especially amendment III, google it if you want to know what I’m talking about)!

Oh well, I’m just really ecstatic that I finally got to flex one of my rights today. It feels good. It’s cool.

Please Excuse My Excessive Absense

Things have been bananas here for me lately. Got a lot of problems to deal with. None with our newborn, thankfully. I do still plan on writing a post about the birth of our son, so please stay with me!

Most of my problems have been money matters. Most annoying is the State of Virginia trying to take our money even though we're not residents of that stinking tax rathole. Also, the lovely socialist government of the Netherlands is trying to keep money of ours and we're not even citizens. Most disturbing though, are all the end of the year bills coming in the mail now! We weren't charged enough by our utilities company for the year (gas and electric), so we just had to pay them about 900 bucks! Our end of the year water bill came in, and we owe them and extra 200 bucks too! It's not over yet either, we're expecting yet another bill from the Gemeente (local government) for garbage pick up and television! Thats going to be a whopper, just like every other year since living in this nightmare.

What's so frustrating, is the fact that no matter how much we save our money, it seems to somehow go right out the door! I just want to rip my friggin' hair out! Although, if this s*** keeps up I won't have to worry, it'll fall out by itself!

Ok, enough ranting from me! I've got bigger things to worry about at the moment.

I do have a prayer request for ya'll though. My grandmother is on the verge of leaving this world. I called the ICU unit where my mother works and asked one of her co-workers if "it was time". She said very soon. I spoke with my grandmother for about 30 seconds and told her that I loved her and good bye. Damn that was hard to do. So please would you all pray for my grandmother. Pray that Jesus will finally come to get her and end the suffering. Finally, please pray for me. I didn't think it would happen, but I lost it on the phone with her today. Please pray to give me strength when the time finally comes for her to go home. :(