Keep the car running

Every night my dream’s the same.
Same old city with a different name.
Men are coming to take me away.
I don’t know why but I know I can’t stay.

There’s a weight that’s pressing down.
Late at night you can hear the sound.
Even the noise you make when you sleep.
Can’t swim across a river so deep.
They know my name 'cause I told it to them,
But they don’t know where And they don’t know
When It’s coming, when It’s coming.

There’s a fear I keep so deep,
Knew its name since before I could speak:
Aaaah aaaaaah aaaaah aaaaaah
They know my name 'cause I told it to them,
But they don’t know where And they don’t know
When It’s coming, Oh! when It’s coming

Keep the car running

If some night I don’t come home,
Please don’t think I’ve left you alone.
The same place animals go when they die,
You can’t climb across a mountain so high.
The same city where I go when I sleep,
You can’t swim across a river so deep.
They know my name 'cause I told it to them,
But they don’t know where
And they don’t know
When It’s coming, Oh! when is it coming?

Keep the car running

August 31, 2008

I , like many millions of other people, was made aware of significant events in the last quarter of century by television news..and not the delayed wait until we can confirm it of the 60's and 70's but the cable news, satellite news, immediate information that really became significant to me with the onset of CNN in 1980.

One of those events was staying up in the wee hours to watch a young woman I had never heard of really, get married on TV to the Prince of Wales...I had never seen a royal wedding, and it was something to see...I mean really, it was a spectacle I enjoyed watching. Yet that same medium also has immediately notified me of tragic events as well.

I watched in horror on live TV as the Challenger exploded in 1986...I had just finished watching a movie, and pulled out the tape from our BetaMax and the TV again brought forth images to make anyone cry in 1996 when TWA 800 exploded and crashed into the Atlantic.

Then there is the events that unfolded in late hours in California when it was already August 31 in Paris France, and Princess Diana died. I remember at first being stunned,and then as the days went by, becoming more and more sad to the point it was like a family member had passed- yet like so many billions of other sad people, I never had met or even seen her other than via TV and published photos.

This is how I received that awful news this day 11 years ago

Keep the car running

Every night my dream’s the same.
Same old city with a different name.
Men are coming to take me away.
I don’t know why but I know I can’t stay.

There’s a weight that’s pressing down.
Late at night you can hear the sound.
Even the noise you make when you sleep.
Can’t swim across a river so deep.
They know my name 'cause I told it to them,
But they don’t know where And they don’t know
When It’s coming, when It’s coming.

There’s a fear I keep so deep,
Knew its name since before I could speak:
Aaaah aaaaaah aaaaah aaaaaah
They know my name 'cause I told it to them,
But they don’t know where And they don’t know
When It’s coming, Oh! when It’s coming

Keep the car running

If some night I don’t come home,
Please don’t think I’ve left you alone.
The same place animals go when they die,
You can’t climb across a mountain so high.
The same city where I go when I sleep,
You can’t swim across a river so deep.
They know my name 'cause I told it to them,
But they don’t know where
And they don’t know
When It’s coming, Oh! when is it coming?

Keep the car running

What becomes of a girl ?

Whore. A word that contains so many negative meanings.

In my high school years, my policeman father was prone to say to me "You look like just a whore of a girl" Always nice to hear from your dad.
He was strict, and frequently critical of me, the oldest child, and much his chagrin, a girl. My younger siblings were both boys, and basked in the adoration and attention of my dad, while I was the butt of frequent jokes ("OK, Larry, now don't throw the ball like your dam sister")

Teenage rebellion started slowly with me. I was working so hard to be what my parents wanted me to be until I was a sophomore in high school. I had several although infrequent boyfriends, and then I started seeking one in particular. He was a nice boy, a little older than me. A musician, he played trumpet in a band that was sort of like Blood Swear and Tears, and had a motorcycle. Not some Harley either, it was a Honda with swept up pipes on the side, a scrambler.
Dad hated him.
He would always make him park his bike in the street, even though we had a three car driveway that was always vacant, since all the cars( and a lot of junk) were in the garage. This friction eventually was vented on me, especially when I migrated from Mod to hippie. ( for those that don't know what mod is, the mod subculture a "fashion-obsessed and hedonistic cult of the hyper-cool" young adults -think Austin Powers).
Rich was into wearing clothes that looked "cool", and I started wearing things like miniskirts and these bizarre paisley blouses. Then I stopped wearing my hair in a pixie, and grew it long. I started going to school in bell bottom button fly jeans, boots and a paisley blouse...and maybe a string of beads around my neck. As Rich got closer to being out of high school, we started worrying about him being drafted. Nixon had gotten elected, and although he had pledged Peace with Honor, instead the war had grown.
This concern on our part, young lovers that we were, culminated in one fall day Rich coming over and saying we were going to the city(San Francisco) to protest.
We rode on his bike down there, to Golden Gate Park, and listened to speechs. I got a flower painted on my face. Then we marched.
When I got home, dad asked where i had been all day, and instead of the usual "oh here and there" I got fiesty and said

We went to protest the fucking war...
SMACK, the hand across my face, followed by the words "You dirty little whore".

It brings back tears even now. So there it was, the turning point in my young life.
From that day on, I always had a seed of doubt about the love my dad had for me. As a consequence, I spend my first three years in college studying psychology, trying to understand why parent child relationships are often so difficult. I eventually gave up on that pursuit, and refocused on graduation , and going into the world of work. But the thing is I to this day have a difficulty accepting unconditional love.
My first marriage ended when I discovered my spouse having an affair, and I have asked myself many times if this only reinforced the urge to isolate myself from uncoditional love.
I ask myself this even today, after being with my honey 27 years.

Years later I would realize that my dad, under the psychological pressures of his job, had become what is referred to as a functional alcoholic, which explained a lot of his mood swings.
Too bad I didnt understand that as a teen...

History - August 30, 2008

I am going to say the Cold War was definitely over in January 1992 when Gobachev said "The end of the Cold War is our common victory".

Now like the story line from a work of fiction, Russia invades the Republic of Georgia, annexs territory under the line of protection, and occupies a soverign nation weeks beyond a brokered "ceasefire accord"

Now our old friend Putin and his minions want to tell this bit of fairy tale to the world

Putin blames US for Georgia role

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has accused the White House of orchestrating the conflict in Georgia for domestic political reasons.

Meanwhile, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has met with Asian leaders at a summit of the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation, where countries expressed deep concern about events in Georgia and Moscow's recognition of its two breakaway republics.

Entry for August 29, 2008

Visitor Stats: Aug 25 - Aug 31

Page Views -

4

How depressing?? Four visitors all week? I guess this experiment is done. I don't hear from PH, rarely from Jon and Joe, next to never from Betty and never from my other friends, well except for American Swede..

If this page did not represent so much time on my part, i would just abandon it. Like 360 has done its users

Entry for August 28, 2008

Dear Yahoo Mash member, Thank you for trying out our Mash Beta service. We hope you had fun with it. Please note that we will shut down Mash on September 29, 2008. As a result, your current profile on Mash will no longer be available. We strongly recommend that you return to ://mash.yahoo.com and copy the content that you wish to save onto a separate document. OK, so if MASH is history (and in my opinion, good riddence!) what's going to happen with 360, which technically still says its Beta, but actually is an unsupported application???

Entry for August 27, 2008

Well, while elsewhere the weather amy start to say fall, summer hold on here, with the forecast of 106 tomorrow. When I left for home this evening it was a balmy 103 in the parking lot, and cooled only slightly by the time I got home at 6:30...but I am not complaining. We have had a relative cool summer, for the past several years...but it has not always been so

Entry for August 26, 2008

I was diggin thru my Cd's this evening and was playing this song, when my dog started barking and acting goofy...every time the chorus was sang, she would bark. So her and I listened to it and sang along!

Call Me - Blondie

This hit the charts in 1980, and eventually went Platinum

August 24, 2008 - Muslim Leader to speak at Democratic Convention

My political party has done some loopy things in the last few years- Won back control of Congress and then failed to do what they said they would do....They have held primaries and causcus meetings across the land and then it comes down to the superfreinds to select a candidate without the experience to (IMHO) govern a country, and now -

(Denver, CO) Americans Against Hate (AAH) is calling on the Democratic National Convention Committee (DNCC) to disinvite Ingrid Mattson, the National President of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), from speaking at its Denver convention. ISNA, a group related to the violent Muslim Brotherhood, was named by the U.S. government a co-conspirator for a 2007 federal trial which dealt with the financing of millions of dollars to Hamas.

I dont know much about Ingrid, other than she used to be catholic and now is Muslim- but the Muslim Brotherhood - now there is a fun bunch of people :

The MB goal, is to reclaim Islam’s manifest destiny, an empire stretching from Spain to Indonesia. It preaches that Islam enjoins man to strive for social justice, the eradication of poverty and corruption, and political freedom to the extent allowed by the laws of Islam.

On the issue of women and gender the Muslim Brotherhood interprets Islam quite strictly. Its founder called for "a campaign against ostentation in dress and loose behavior," "segregation of male and female students," a separate curriculum for girls, and "the prohibition of dancing and other such pastimes...

Not a good choice. Or put otherwise, a choice so bad that once the views about women that the female convert to Islam Ingrid Mattson so stoutly defends -- right down to the "portable seclusion" of the burqa -- it will be an occasion for discussion, up and down the land, for what the Qur'an, Hadith, and Sira, and leading Muslims, and such defectors from the Army of Iswlam as Wafa Sultan, and Ayaan Hirsi Ali, tell us.

Women are weak physically and mentally compared to men. Men have to take care of women all the time.

Women should not have a life outside the family. Education can be provided to them, but not to compete with men in public.

Only the Muslim men can participate in voting or standing for elections.

Go ahead, Democratic Convention, they must be saying at McCain Headquarters.

Make My Day.

I think the Democratic donkey/mule this year is a jackass...

Bobby Fuller 4 on Hollywood a Go Go

I remember the song, but never really collected any records by this band, although now i wish I had.

SMALL FACES - Tin Soldier (Colour)

Love for August 21, 2008

Enjoy, Peace to you..

I am not just Wetware - August 17, 2008

While doing some reading this morning, I came across an article about the ability of social networks to be used to spread malware, better known as viruses, Trojans, worms, the stuff that make network security people have nightmares. The person writing the article, a certified IT security professional peppered his brief article with terms I am well familiar with, and some I thought were only used in scifi. These terms include wetware , liveware, meatware or the abbreviation PEBKAC (Problem Exists Between Keyboard And Chair), generally used to refer to a person operating a computer.

Having been involved professionally with IT since 1979, I have seen a lot of the progress in computer technology, but I find it disconcerting to see the trend of equating humans and the technology they invented. I think it is demeaning to the human to use these terms as I find it repulsive that some would want to become integrated with the technology, by having chips, RFID's implanted; it is to me unequivocally repellent to want to have a computer connection implanted to directly interface with a computer merely for convenience sake. These are the same concerns I voiced in a forum at a major chip manufacturer some time ago.

The concern is where this leads, in terms of migration from the voluntary to involuntary. That said, there are situations where a person is implanted with technology, for the benefit of the person. Examples include pacemakers, cochlear implants, even some experimental vision sensory equipment that hold the promise to restore sight; implants to detect muscle commands from the brain to make artificial limbs perform similar to human limbs.

I am not alone in these concerns; as Neurochips develop further, for example the artificial hippocampus, issues become raised about what it actually means to be human.

Some of the ethical considerations that Brain Computer Interface (BCI) would raise under these circumstances are already being debated in relation to implants and the broader area of mind control, and in particular in the discuss regarding two way communication via the bci, the most common issue being the potential for mind control.

I think this is summed up in this quote:

"The potential for neural prostheses to do good must be tempered with the understanding that the road to realization is pitted with potholes that remain to be negotiated. Yet the promise is stimulating indeed." (Victor D. Chase , science and technology writer based in Yorktown Heights, NY.)

Work of Fiction (August 16, 2008)

Her past is secured from prying eyes not by lies, but omissions, obfuscations, part truths, combined with enough of the reality to qualify as true. She has lived that way since college.

She had been recruited in her senior year of college to work for the government alright, but not the Department of Defense civilian schools. She was a communications analyst, with knowledge of computers, which in the mid 1970s was not all that common a field for women. And so she had been recruited to work for the Government, the Defense Intelligence Agency . She had been sent to Germany to monitor military and government communications. It was well known that less secure communications connected various military commands; her job was to find those commands (and people) that were passing sensitive information over these channels. She was not supposed discuss her occupation, and so the idea of being a teacher was born. A convenient fairy tale. "What do you do? Oh I'm a teacher" was her mantra.

She often speaks of being a middle school teacher to American children in Europe, but anyone with knowledge of government security knows a teacher does not warrant a security clearance of COSMIC TOP SECRET ATOMAL (CTSA).

She had carried out her duties well, and upon return to the US was approached with the idea of becoming an analyst for the National Security Agency. She had done so, only to have an unfortunate personal life event causing that career to end, and a return to the more mundane life known by most. Getting a divorce was frowned upon, but messy divorces were grounds to lift your clearance, and in her world, that was code for you should leave now. But always lurking in the unseen background was her connection to " the community". When she had left "the community" in the late 1970's, they had reminded her she could never discuss somethings, and she had asked how long those things would be classified. "Some 50 years, some forever. We'll be watching." They surfaced and showed themselves briefly from time to time. Not overtly, but in ways she would understand.

A company she worked for needed to send a representative to a top secret missile launch. The company submitted name after name to military authorities, and always a day later the news came back, sorry no. The story repeated itself several times, until they came to her name. Her name was submitted and within a hour the news came back. A meeting was starting, when the executive assistant slowly entered the room, and the CEO asked her " Well??? " She handed a piece of paper to him; in doing so she stared at her seated across the room, "She was approved...I just called and hung up, and in a minute or so they called back and said she could go. No problem. Just like that. " Her face got that perplexed look as she asked "Who ARE you, anyways???" She smiled and replied, "maybe its because i used to work for the government or something?"

Years later in accepting another job, they warned her a criminal background check thru the FBI would be required, which would take a few days. She smiled and said "No it won't" causing the clerk working her file to become amused. "Why not, you special?" "Something like that". Again, what took days for other applicants was approved in under an hour.

Every single time she was subject to a security review, people expecting the usual bureaucratic delay were stunned to see how quickly a response came back.

What they were seeing was how these response were created. Her file in Washington was held by "the community" which in the last 30 years had become increasingly embedded with information networks. She had received a large bulky envelope once in the mail, return addressed to the National Records Center. Inside were numerous files, documents, and a simple notice " These paper files have been imaged and the information transferred to the National Records Center archive system, and are being returned to you as they are not longer needed. "

Episode Two: CyberSpy

Entry for August 15, 2008

Work, the news, the upcoming elections, the weather(hot), it all gets me kind of depressed. Then I play some music and forget about everything for a few moments, and its bearable...until tomorrow anyway.

If you drop by, please say hi...I would like to know what you are doing or thinking

August 14, 2008 How I relax

Some time ago I wrote about his, but I am reminded of it this evening while destressing from work.

I still can't really recall seeing them, yet I have a ticket stub from the concert that says Canice on the back, so I know i went..and I know we saw the first bands, because New Rider of the Purple Sage played Panama Red( I think - maybe wrong decade) anyway, about 35+ years ago this month, I saw this band play this song..which only reminds me of my age...

Vote for Obama- No way !

Barack Obama, as chairman of an IL state Senate committee, voted down a bill to protect live-born survivors of abortion - even after the panel had amended the bill to contain verbatim language, copied from a federal bill passed by Congress without objection in 2002, explicitly foreclosing any impact on abortion. Obama’s legislative actions in 2003 - denying effective protection even to babies born alive during abortions - were contrary to the position taken on the same language by even the most liberal members of Congress. The bill Obama killed was virtually identical to the federal bill that even NARAL ultimately did not oppose.

The documents prove that in March 2003, state Senator Obama, then the chairman of the Illinois state Senate Health and Human Services Committee, presided over a committee meeting in which the "neutrality clause" (copied verbatim from the federal bill) was added to the state BAIPA, with Obama voting in support of adding the revision. Yet, immediately afterwards, Obama led the committee Democrats in voting against the amended bill, and it was killed, 6-4.

Hot entry for August 13, 2008

This blog will likely not be very entertaining: It is more like a journal entry, to remember what a rotten work day today was

First off, stupid stupid me...

I watch about 2 hours of TV in the morning, well i dont really watch it, its on...morning news and WEATHER...but do i pay attention? Not really

So I get honey off to work, then get myself ready, and take way too much time getting ready. Then i panic and just pick something to wear and get ready and go. Today was no different.

Tried on some capris, a dark blue scoop neck T and some sandals...nah, too casual, have a meeting with executives today...I know! khaki slacks, and a nice 3/4 sleeve blouse and my tan clogs! Casual, relaxed, and yet professional. Blouse is a very nice cotton poly blend. In a moment of indecision decide to wear a camisol under the shirt so i can leave some buttons open at top, yet not look like a slut..dont want people talking to me at my desk to (like they do sometimes) stare trying to see my bra or ??

Get to work, and think, wow, thermometer reads 89 at 9:30am..I guess it will be hot today.

At lunch, I drive to the nearby McD, and its now a pleasant (not) 95 degrees at 11:45

After our meeting at 2 PM, wander back to the office, and remark its muggy inside...check and its 82 inside. We immediately checked the server room, and the AC in there is pluggin along, the alarm light on indicating air intake is too high. I have the building maint dept come in and reset air intake to be 50% recycle, and after awhile, alarm light goes out...server cooling is stable at 72 degrees.. Then production says the plant equipment is acting up...the plant has no air conditioning, just a chilled water system with fan units , only during the day the employees think it is either too cold or hot an d leave the doors open. I walked out to the plant floor, and thru the window in the door can see employees with no shirts standing in the forklift lane...not good. As soon as i go out the door, the staggering heat hit me, about then the floor manger radioed me (we all have those horrid cell phones with push to "squalk" ) the the control room was too hot. The computers in the control room can operate in the heat, but when the control room gets hot, it means production area is REAL hot, and those machines malfunction at anything over 100. They suck in air from the plant, and fans blow the air over the control mechanism to limit heat buildup.

Some of the print imagers have heat guards because the normal temp of the air around them is 400 degrees, due to the process to produce thermal images at high speed, a process I still dont fully understand...I get the principle, but watching them run at full speed, I dont get how they can possibly word. They are designed to shut down when the internal cabinet temp gets over 120, to protect the electronics in the control mechanisms, otherwise they could fail, or go wacky according to the factory maintenance guys. Its like a sealed up strobe light, so bright it fuses the image to the material passing underneath; paper, cloth, wood, metal...Obviously paper doesn't get that hot, but there is a cool down room at the end ot the line, where two specially built high capacity fans blow chilled air over the material before it goes to the rest of the plant.

So i went over to the employee exit, and sure enough, the doors were open and the hot air was rushing out of the building, like some mini savana wind. The temp was between 112-115. Being the "IT manager", the floor production manager wanted me to say shut down, so any blame could be deflected from missing production. I did, and called the plant manager, who simply said "OK, we'll just work later tonight on 3rd shift." Simple as that.

By the end of the day, around 5:30, I was ready go drive home in my undies it was so hot and uncomfortable. I drove home with the AC on full, and my hair UP, thank you..

Entry for August 10, 2008

I am addicted to Yahoo, even when i try to go elsewhere, all my pals are here...whats a girl to do?

U2

 I started listening to this band in the 1980's. I thought they were different, but who knew they would still be one of the major icons of rock nearly 30 years later?

I am posting two clips of them, a early one an more recent. Early one features a youthful upbeat band, more recent is the middle-aged serious types they have become.

where's Canice? August 08, 2008

http://canicem.multiply.com/

Canice has decided that if Yahoo can't play nice, she is going elsewhere.

That sort of narrative is something I didn't want to have to post, even though I threatened too many times. But a couple of days ago I realized that people were trying to post comments or send me messages and I was not getting them, unless sent to me directly via email. So know what...? If Yahoo really cared about 360, they would have done something, but the only market they have done anything with 360 is ASIA, particularly VietNam. Thats fine, but what about the rest of the planet???

So I tried Multiply again, and finally came up with a page design I like, so I am outta here for awhile, maybe for good...see ya

Canice

More of the Same August 7, 2008

Well, today's work was ...more of the same.

Today's news...Terrorist Threaten to blowup Olympics...Mountain Lion snatch Labrador Retriever from Colorado home (yeah, a full grown 70 pound dog) http://digg.com/environment/Mountain_Lion_Snatches_Dog_From_Owners_Bedroom Politics-more of the same

Aah, music

Multiply - My new home

I tried very diligently to stay with Y 360, but it is just becoming too much work...takes 15 minutes to write a blog entry and 5 minutes for it to load, and then with errors, or not at all. Readership fell to nearly zero, from a max (I think) of a few hundred hits a week. I am far and away happier with this new site, this page you are looking at. I had a different theme, but when i found this one, it works for me!

 

A Work of Fiction

He is an unremarkable looking man, not quite six feet tall, his wavy dark brown hair giving way to grey and the occasional white. By all appearance he is in his early 50’s, a slight bulge around the middle, the benefit from copious indulgence of alcohol. He routinely laments his current situation, perpetuating the angst he feels annually, or more precisely every winter when the weather turns brutally cold, yet that cold feeds his bravado, his inner sense of survivalist. He works as a writer for a rural backwater newspaper, whose circulation is dwarfed by any big ten school weekly publication; but no matter, for he has seen the wider world, and eschews contact with it because of the horrors he has seen. Terror bombings, murder, rape…he was tasked to find those responsible, bring them to justice often via force majeure. Sometimes at the end of a day, those memories come racing back, feeding his sense of loneness, for those who have seen the grim reapers handiwork close, know no peace of mind. His only regret not serving out enough years in the military to be “one of those retired dicks earning chicken scratch wages and laughing all the way to the bank”. He does not laugh when he goes to the bank. It is for these reasons he is no longer married, but lives alone, getting by on poor wages, cheap booze, cigarettes, coffee…and cyber friends. She is one of those friends.
She was drawn to his short stories...

He had written a series of somewhat complicated and twisted stories, in part based on his experiences in Europe serving his country. His name seemed vaguely familiar, and because of modern technology, it took her no time at all to amass a sizable dossier regarding him. A few well place emails to people she knew revealed some considerable details about him from the community…she was well known in those circles, and not just for her more recent work.

She often speaks of being a middle school teacher to American children in Europe, but anyone with knowledge of government security knows a teacher does not warrant a security clearance of COSMIC TOP SECRET ATOMAL (CTSA). She had been recruited in her senior year of college to work for the government alright, but not the Department of Defense civilian schools. She was a communications analyst, with knowledge of computers, which in the mid 1970s was not all that common a field for women. And so she had been recruited to work for the National Security Agency. She had been sent to Germany to monitor military and government communications. It was well known that less secure telephone communications connected various military commands; her job was to find those commands(and people) that were passing sensitive information over these channels. She was not supposed discuss her occupation, and so the idea of being a teacher was born. A convenient fairy tale.
That was where she first heard of him.

Prior to his current daily duties in the news media, he had been a uniformed member of the Air Force security apparatus. His name was on many reports, and she had spent many hours of monitoring his communications to find leaks. An inopportune comment, a name of operation yet to begin; He was always cleared, considered too insignificant a violator to pursue.

Then in 2006, after she first posted her blog , readers become friends, and by following links from friend to friend she discovered him….his name seemed so familiar. It was only after her background work on his name that she realized who he was, his linkage to her past. Yet she knew that he would not know her. Even if she explained it all, he would not believe her. She had spent hours looking at his face in photos, listening to his voice on tapes, and now here he is a correspondent with her over the Internet. It is a strange thing indeed. She had stared at his face those many years ago and imagined herself having a crush on him; perhaps she did. She was warned to never reveal what she had known, else 30 plus years of secrets be revealed. And so she does not tell him, how could she? He continues to labor on his writings, she continues to build her dossier.

A Work of Fiction

He is an unremarkable looking man, not quite six feet tall, his wavy dark brown hair giving way to grey and the occasional white. By all appearance he is in his early 50’s, a slight bulge around the middle, the benefit from copious indulgence of alcohol. He routinely laments his current situation, perpetuating the angst he feels annually, or more precisely every winter when the weather turns brutally cold, yet that cold feeds his bravado, his inner sense of survivalist. He works as a writer for a rural backwater newspaper, whose circulation is dwarfed by any big ten school weekly publication; but no matter, for he has seen the wider world, and eschews contact with it because of the horrors he has seen. Terror bombings, murder, rape…he was tasked to find those responsible, bring them to justice often via force majeure. Sometimes at the end of a day, those memories come racing back, feeding his sense of loneness, for those who have seen the grim reapers handiwork close, know no peace of mind. His only regret not serving out enough years in the military to be “one of those retired dicks earning chicken scratch wages and laughing all the way to the bank”. He does not laugh when he goes to the bank. It is for these reasons he is no longer married, but lives alone, getting by on poor wages, cheap booze, cigarettes, coffee…and cyber friends. She is one of those friends.
She was drawn to his short stories...

He had written a series of somewhat complicated and twisted stories, in part based on his experiences in Europe serving his country. His name seemed vaguely familiar, and because of modern technology, it took her no time at all to amass a sizable dossier regarding him. A few well place emails to people she knew revealed some considerable details about him from the community…she was well known in those circles, and not just for her more recent work.

She often speaks of being a middle school teacher to American children in Europe, but anyone with knowledge of government security knows a teacher does not warrant a security clearance of COSMIC TOP SECRET ATOMAL (CTSA). She had been recruited in her senior year of college to work for the government alright, but not the Department of Defense civilian schools. She was a communications analyst, with knowledge of computers, which in the mid 1970s was not all that common a field for women. And so she had been recruited to work for the National Security Agency. She had been sent to Germany to monitor military and government communications. It was well known that less secure telephone communications connected various military commands; her job was to find those commands(and people) that were passing sensitive information over these channels. She was not supposed discuss her occupation, and so the idea of being a teacher was born. A convenient fairy tale.
That was where she first heard of him.

Prior to his current daily duties in the news media, he had been a uniformed member of the Air Force security apparatus. His name was on many reports, and she had spent many hours of monitoring his communications to find leaks. An inopportune comment, a name of operation yet to begin; He was always cleared, considered too insignificant a violator to pursue.

Then in 2006, after she first posted her blog , readers become friends, and by following links from friend to friend she discovered him….his name seemed so familiar. It was only after her background work on his name that she realized who he was, his linkage to her past. Yet she knew that he would not know her. Even if she explained it all, he would not believe her. She had spent hours looking at his face in photos, listening to his voice on tapes, and now here he is a correspondent with her over the Internet. It is a strange thing indeed. She had stared at his face those many years ago and imagined herself having a crush on him; perhaps she did. She was warned to never reveal what she had known, else 30 plus years of secrets be revealed. And so she does not tell him, how could she? He continues to labor on his writings, she continues to build her dossier.

TEMPORARY( I Hope) SIGN OFF August 06, 2008

When loading these blogs takes longer than it did to write them...

When all your freinds say they quit reading your blog because it took too long to load...

Well, it time to let it rest for awhile....so i am blogging on blogger for now..

http://squirrelvalley.blogspot.com/

Blogs...so many choices

I have blogs like this one on Yahoo 360, Multiply, MySpace...although I like Yahoo, it is unsupported by Yahoo, and is at times a real pain to deal with.

I think I like it because it is so different from this one, not in what it can do, but in the look and "feel" department.

While bloggin, I can see a lot of other information, simply by clicking another tab and looking at what I have previously done...

Not that one is better than the other. Blogger (or blogspot?) is pretty useful as well, and some say it is way better about allowing freedom of expression, as in not coming in behind you and removing stuff. That has happened at Y 360, although I am not sure it was censorship as much as technical problems, but there have been issues. I had to remove a picture of myself from my Y 360 profile, because it had been flagged as inappropriate. I still haven't figured out that one...it was a simple picture of me, fully clothed sitting on the edge of my bed...no cleavage, no Sharon Stone open leg shots, nothing. So I wrote Y and they never responded. Big surprise...Oh well, another corporate decision arbitarily made I suppose.

Blogs...so many choices

I have blogs like this one on Yahoo 360, Multiply, MySpace...although I like Yahoo, it is unsupported by Yahoo, and is at times a real pain to deal with.

I think I like it because it is so different from this one, not in what it can do, but in the look and "feel" department.

While bloggin, I can see a lot of other information, simply by clicking another tab and looking at what I have previously done...

Not that one is better than the other. Blogger (or blogspot?) is pretty useful as well, and some say it is way better about allowing freedom of expression, as in not coming in behind you and removing stuff. That has happened at Y 360, although I am not sure it was censorship as much as technical problems, but there have been issues. I had to remove a picture of myself from my Y 360 profile, because it had been flagged as inappropriate. I still haven't figured out that one...it was a simple picture of me, fully clothed sitting on the edge of my bed...no cleavage, no Sharon Stone open leg shots, nothing. So I wrote Y and they never responded. Big surprise...Oh well, another corporate decision arbitarily made I suppose.

Religious Holidays August 05, 2008

Come with me on a little journey here:

Somewhere in America, say a quarter of the car factory employees are devoted Russian Orthodox, and they demand the union contract be revised to reflect what they believe, and celebrate Christmas on January 7 . That other Christmas would be a work day.

I imagine that there would be a lot of news, "Factory Dumps December 25th as Christmas" or something akin to that. Yet it was purely accidental that I found this REAL news story online:

Union workers at a Shelbyville Tennessee Tyson Food poultry factory will not get paid to barbecue chicken this Labor Day. A new five-year contract makes a paid holiday trade, Labor Day for the Muslim holiday Eid al-Fitr. Instead of marking the end of summer, the employees will mark the end of Ramadan.(Even if they are non-Muslims? And Ramadan varies year to year, according to our calendar?)

2008		end Ramadan	30 September
2009		end Ramadan	23 September
2010		end Ramadan	9 September

Tyson says the switch has nothing to do with religion (Even though the contract also calls for a designated prayer room), but is instead a contractual agreement reached because the majority of the workers asked for it. Union leaders and supportive employees think it makes sense to accommodate the Muslim workers, too. Other workers lament the loss of an "American holiday," and it appears that they are not alone. Some in the community are calling for a boycott of all Tyson products, arguing that immigrants need to adapt to the American way of life.

August 04, 2008 - More rumors of Zawahiri's death

A Pashtu-language Pakistani television channel has reported that deputy Al-Qaeda leader Ayman Al-Zawahiri was killed in a July 28 US airstrike on a madrassa in the Pakistani tribal belt along the Afghan border, sources informed Stratfor on Aug 1. AVT Khyber TV quoted unnamed sources in its July 29 news broadcast as saying that al-Zawahiri was among three Arabs killed in a strike against the seminary in Zeralita village in the Azam Warsak area of South Waziristan agency in the Federally Administered Tribal
Areas (FATA). The channel also interviewed an official from the Pakistani army's Inter-Services Public Relations directorate who said the military was aware of the incident but could not confirm the report.

At this stage, it is very difficult to say whether Al-Zawahiri or Al-Masri or another Al-Qaeda leader was killed in the July 28 strike. It is interesting, however, that there have been no denials from the United States, Pakistan or the jihadists (though we have heard rumors of a possible pending announcement by the United States). At the moment, it appears the Khyber TV report should not be dismissed as just another rumor.- AP

In October 2001 my cousin visited and told us all he had decided he could no longer work for Morgan Stanley, and was going to volunteer to go back into the Army. It took ahile, but he finally did, and since then he has been to Afghanistan, Iraq, Fort Irwin CA, Iraq, Fort Irwin and Afghanistan. During a 9/11 memorial in Iraq, he was featured in this article, which the AP carried from Stars and Stripes:

"During a memorial service to remember the September 11th victims at the Armor Regiment dining facility, what started out as an ordinary reading of the timeline of events on that tragic day suddenly became riveting for those in attendance. That’s because when Captain T of the 490th Battalion, a reserve unit ...attached to the 3rd Brigade, came to the events on the timeline at 8:01 a.m., they became very personal to him.

“8:01 a.m., United Airlines Flight 93, a Boeing 757 carrying 38 passengers, two pilots and five flight attendants leaves Newark, New Jersey for San Francisco.” Cpt. T said reading from the timeline. What he said next is what got everyone’s attention. At the time I had just arrived for work, on the 61st Floor of the South Tower of the World Trade Center.”

I remember vividly the last time we spoke, we exchanged small talk as we ate lunch at a popular restaurant. I asked if he was sure he wanted to go back into the Army. He said he was, not out of patriotism, but because "them sum bitches killed over 3,000 Americans , they tried to kill more", and then looking like he was going to tear up, "cousin, they tried to kill me, and they want to kill us all."

I went back to work, and on my way home I stopped and bought a bottle of really good American sparkling wine (aka champagne). When I got home, honey asked what we were celebrating, and I said I wanted to keep this until the day they said the main people behind 9/11 were captured or dead. I have never felt that way before, I mean really wanting to hear someone is no more, but I made an exception for bin Laden and Zawahiri, or as honey call em the beard and knot head. I know this means I am not as forgiving as my faith asks me to be. Still, I have the champagne on ice....

Islamophobia - an entirely rational recognition of the threat posed by radical Islam.

Racist/Fascist/Islamophobe/Etc. - anyone who recognises said threat or attempts to resist the global jihad.

August mOON - August 01, 2008 Group Offers Bipartisan Energy Package

WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- As Democrats and GOP leaders excoriate each other's energy policies as key tenets of their election-year strategies, a bipartisan group of lawmakers may be charting a solution that could attract the majorities needed to push their energy proposal into law.

The proposal, which the politicians expect could be brought to the floor in September, appeals to both parties by taxing Big Oil and funneling those funds into alternative and renewable fuels - but opens up major portions of the Outer Continental Shelf currently closed to exploration.

Party leaders may have difficulty whipping members into line to support their presidential candidates' policy positions after lawmakers come back from the August recess, where they'll likely receive an earful from voters angry at Congress for not passing any legislation to cut record oil prices.

"Nothing gets done in this body without 60 votes, and you don't get 60 votes without a true bi-partisan effort," said Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., who along with Kent Conrad, D-N.D., led the "Gang of Ten" Senators - five Democrats and five Republicans - who formed the proposal.

"It hopefully does break down some of the barriers around here," said Sen. John Thune, R-S.D.

Conrad said a number of Senators had already expressed interest in the proposal.

While Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said he didn't agree with all of the provisions in the proposal, he said, "I am hopeful this plan can begin to break the current legislative stalemate on the Senate floor."

He later told reporters the package stood little chance of passing, indicating the comprehensive energy bill was unlikely to be voted into law in the run-up to November elections.(A FLIP FLOP, Harry?)

Specifically, the proposal would open up sections of the OCS 50 miles off the shores of Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia and off Florida's west coast in the Gulf of Mexico.

In the House, another bipartisan group of legislators has offered a similar proposal and has said they would work with their Senate colleagues to gather support.

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As a teen (decades ago-) I would spend my evenings in my room, reading magazines, and listening to the radio. Ronettes, Shirelles and Marvelettes eventually gave way to Beatles, Stones, Doors and the dozens of other bands from 1965 onward. But I always loved this sound, thought her singing was better than the others..

As time went on, so did my musical tastes- this one because of my daughter- she used to dance in her room to this song by U2

Compare that to their more contemporary songs, 25 years later!