Tuesday, September 04, 2007

Blog Problems...


I am having trouble logging in to my blog tonight from work.  It will be a problem for em to get a post out other than a text post. i hope that this problem corrects itself soon.
 
Thank you,
--
RMSTringer
+++++++++++++++

Monday, September 03, 2007

Another realization of the end of summer...

As I wrote the last post, it got me to thinking about other memories.  One was that with the end of summer, there would be more order at the house. All of the kids have been out for the summer and have been able to say up all night and watch TV or surf the net.  They would sleep all day and repeat this again.  I was not real bad about this; perhaps only when I had a friend over and we would watch movies, o net was available back then. With the advent of school approaching, kids have to go to sleep at a descent time.  Our time for daughter is 10.30pm to be in bed and asleep. Not to be up asking questions and saying I forgot or I need to tell you something. Growing kids need their sleep and rest and this is an issue that we try to make daughter understand.  I was really never that bad about sleep.

 

Another realization is that there are no more real holidays until Thanksgiving and Christmas. Yes it is a long stretch until then.  Halloween comes around, but that is not a  holiday unless you are a pagan then you might try to get the day off. I can remember when I was in college having to go to football games during that weekend with the band.  When I was younger, I would go skiing with my father to Colorado. So that was something to look forward to during that long stretch between September and November.  After that, Christmas comes very quick so I would make my Christmas list and give it to all concerned…

 

Perhaps more later as I think about things.

 

RMStringer

^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Let teachers and priests and philosophers brood

over questions of reality and illusion.

I know this: if life is an illusion, then I

am no less an illusion, and being thus, the

illusion is real to me. I live, I burn with life, I

love, I slay, and I am content.

(Robert E. Howard, Queen of the Black Coast, Weird Tales, May 1934)

 

Steak!

Need I say moor?

Lador Day BBQ

A nice steak makes all happy!

The End Of Summer...

Well my friends, another summer has come to a close.  Labor Day has come and tomorrow it will have gone the way of all other holidays of yesteryear.  With the closing of summer, all the kids will be going back to school with their mothers not believing that they have advance to another grade and they have grown another 2 inches!  One might say “ We just bought you jeans in March, I can’t believe that you have outgrown them.”  I have heard my wife say that many times.  With the closing of summer, people scurry around to get last minute items on the school list that their kids need. 

 

I always hated the last day before school started because the realization was there that school will start tomorrow.  Understand though, I did not dislike school. The Jerry Lewis Telethon that plays all day Labor Day long was always a final reminder to me that summer is officially over.   I always had a friend over that day and we would play but they had to go home because school was the next day.  I would always look forward to the weekends so I could go or have company at my house or stay with a friend on Friday night.  Another sign in the finality of summer is the fact that the day are starting to get shorter and the night longer.  With a hurried pace, kids will be going to school and getting assignments to take home and projects to work on.  With the Labor Day weekend nearly finished, families will finish up their last minute vacations and will return home to get things in order for the new school season.  But with the ending of summer, some things come anew. 

 

I always anticipated the starting of a new Television Season as the ending of summer always marked a new season of new shows and the continuation of old TV series.  Yes, the summer season of reruns is nearly over with the ending of summer. I can remember me eagerly awaiting the newest episode of Saturday Night Live or way back in the day, Miami Vice. With the ending of summer, the Big Networks will do Labor Day Marathons of the big TV hits from the last season so as to let everyone that did not get to see them the last year or missed a few episodes to catch up and get ready for the shocking conclusion that left you hanging in May of that year. Labor Day was always bitter sweet for me.  It meant that most of my Friday Nights were tied up with Football Games and performing with the band and long trips to away games.  They were hot trips as in Texas “winter” never really hit until December or January and the band uniforms were wool. It was also a time to make new friends that might have moved into the town and reunite with old friends that you lost touch with over the summer. 

 

The end of summer also meant that it was time to get new clothes for the upcoming school year.  I always love to go to the mall and get the latest fashion for men and getting a few new pairs of shoes. I was always a coat man and I love to be able to get a new one for the new year and I could not wait until it was cold enough to wear it! Yes my friends, the end of summer is and always will be a bitter sweet time for us all…

 

God Bless!

RMStringer

^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Let teachers and priests and philosophers brood

over questions of reality and illusion.

I know this: if life is an illusion, then I

am no less an illusion, and being thus, the

illusion is real to me. I live, I burn with life, I

love, I slay, and I am content.

(Robert E. Howard, Queen of the Black Coast, Weird Tales, May 1934)

 

The Back Side...


The is a Panorama i made of the back side pool area of the Hampton Inn and Suits that we stayed at in Carolla NC, OBX
What is your opinion?
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Sunday, September 02, 2007

George at feeding time!


This was a funny little video that i took of George the Gull getting fed peanuts. We saw him on Friday and then when we came back the next morning, he was there again. We fed him some more nuts and he would fight to keep other sea birds away. We went to the beach this morning before we left OBX and saw him again, so we fed him the rest off what we had...

He will be missed.

What is your opinion?

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Grasshopper


Grasshopper, originally uploaded by RMStringer.

I was at the hotel in Orlando Florida and i saw him on the back of a car. I thought that it was a good shot.

Going Down with a Fly Buy...


DSC02513, originally uploaded by RMStringer.

I took this while waiting to get a table at restaurant in Duck, NC. The restaurant is called the Sunset Grill and the food was awesome and it is know for breath taking sunsets like this one. I just happened to get several geese flying in the picture.

Our castle.

George...

Day 3. He is back!

Sunday morning @ 10.25am.

Our time is drawing to a close. we have had a good time. It will be fun to come back next year for a longer vaca at OBXNC!

Thursday, August 30, 2007

Torture school subjects children to lethal punishments...


You just have to love the State of Massachusetts!! When we live in Mass, there were over 40 registered Sex Offenders in the town. One of them was a dentist that molested patients while they were under sedation. In the town where I worked there was several "sex offender" schools way up in the hills. I kind of reminded me of Deliverance.

Now to this story.

Posted by Cory Doctorow, August 30, 2007 6:24 AM

Mother Jones has a long, chilling feature on The Judge Rotenberg Education Center, a private radical behavior-modification school based in Canton, Mass. The school is run by a rogue behaviorist who uses discredited "punishment" techniques -- electroshock -- on children as young as nine to change their personalities. Matthew Israel, the school's $400,000/year executive director, straps homemade, overpowered shock apparatus to children (including severely autistic and retarded kids) and has his staff administer strong shocks for even minor infractions. Some children have been shocked thousands of times a day, and several children have died at the school.

Eight states send troubled children to the school, where "high functioning" kids are "educated" by being sat in front of computers all day, running through automated tutorial programs. Talking, fidgeting, or acting out during this "school" time is punished with shocks. Some kids' shock apparatus misfires, shocking them without any provocation. The staff are instructed to activate the shock apparatus out of sight of the children, so that they can't mentally or physically prepare for it.

The Rotenberg process lacks any kind of scientific basis, and the school uses a 20-year-old film of its "successes" to convince parents to send their children to the program -- however, some of the success stories in the film are still institutionalized at Rotenberg 20 years after their "cure," wheelchair bound and in terrible shape.

Then, in June of 2006, a report produced by the New York State Education Department threatened to destroy the program's carefully cultivated image. A group of investigators, including three psychologists, spent five days at the Rotenberg Center and compiled a 26-page document packed with damning findings.

* Staff shock kids for "nagging, swearing, and failing to maintain a neat appearance" and once threatened to shock a girl who sneezed and then asked for a tissue.
* Some students must "earn" meals by not displaying certain behaviors. Otherwise they are "made to throw a predetermined caloric portion of their food into the garbage."
* When students enter and leave the school each day, "almost all" are wearing some type of restraints, such as handcuffs or leg shackles.
* "Students may be restrained"--on a four-point restraint board or chair--"for extensive periods of time (e.g. hours or intermittently for days)."
* Some students are shocked while strapped to the restraint board.
* A "majority" of employees "serving as classroom teachers" are "not certified teachers."
* Rotenberg's marketing reps bestow presents on prospective families--"e.g. a gift bag for the family, basketball for the student."
* Although the center has described its shock device as "approved" by the FDA in its promotional materials, it "has not been approved."
* The facility collects "comprehensive data" on behaviors it seeks to eliminate, but "there was no evidence of the collection of data on replacement or positive behaviors."
* The facility makes no assessment of the "possible collateral effects of punishment such as depression, anxiety, and/or social withdrawal."

This sounds on par for that draconian state that is about 50 years behind the rest of the USA due to it being a Commonwealth. As you can tell, i am not a big fan of that state and did nto like living there.
What is your opinion?
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895/150/I95 Interchange

895 Is Pocahontas Toll Way, 150 (Chippenham Parkway) becomes 895 at the top of the bridge/overpass because they all cross over I95 North/South and The James River.

This map gives you a look at what i am talking about.




View Larger Map

South 150

It is called The Chippengham Parkway.

Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Another incident...


Mom pushes Applebee's on breast-feeding policy.
WANTS CHANGE IN POLICY AFTER BEING TOLD TO COVER HERSELF

I totaly agree with the manager of the resturant in asking her to cover herself.
" waitress came over and said that if she wanted to breast-feed, she had to cover the baby with a blanket. Ryan said it was so hot that she didn't have a blanket. The waitress then repeated her request. Ryan said she then asked to see the manager and handed him a copy of the 2006 Kentucky law that prohibits interference with a woman breast-feeding her baby in public.

The manager said he knew about the law but a customer had complained about indecent exposure, so she had to cover the baby with a blanket."
Now when I go out to eat, I do not want to see a woman feeding her child with her tit hanging out of her shirt. I have been in many public places and seen women feeding their children with a blanket over their baby and that is acceptable to me and I am sure most other people. This woman asked for a booth in the back and proceeded to feed with no blanket.

"Sen. Tom Buford, R-Nicholasville, who sponsored the breast-feeding protection bill, agrees."She was not treated right under the new law," he said. "There should have been no comment made to her at all; the restaurant overstepped its boundaries. There's no way they can explain their way out of this."

Thirty-nine states, including Kentucky, allow women to breast-feed in any public or private location."

He is probably some dirty old man that likes this. IF you have to feed your children, go to the bathroom or use a blanket to cover yourself, not just flop it out and let the baby suck. I do not agree with the bill and think that it should have an amendment where the mother needs to use a blanket to do the feeding in a very public place like a restaurant or bus station. I do not think that just facing the wall is sufficient for such a personal and private matter especially is there were complaints like in this case.

She, in my opinion is making a spectacle of herself and this practice.

"August is World Breast-feeding Awareness Month, and Ryan has organized two related public events:• A "Nurse-In" at the children's play area at Fayette Mall from 1-3 p.m. Saturday. Ryan says the mall is not a target, but has a place for kids to play.• From noon to 2 p.m. Sept. 8, she is holding a "Nurse Out" with posters and breast-feeding in front of the Applebee's on Nicholasville Road.

She's also asking for a public apology from Applebee's and training for its employees about the rights of breast-feeding mothers. Some day, she says, she would like to see the international breast-feeding symbol of a mother and child in every restaurant that supports the practice.
"I'm not trying to be provocative," she said. "I want to teach."

What is she going to teach by doing this type of exhibition in front of the restaurant? It will teach people to think that she is a news monger and a complete NUT!! That is what it would teach me But then again, this is in Kentucky.

What is your opinion?
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Sugar Ghost Drinking with Paw...

This is out cat Sugar Ghost. She is a very strange cat and she will drink with her paws. She also likes baths and loves to walk in the snow!! We have had her since we lived in Colorado.

What is your opinion?

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Sugar Ghost

Drinking with paws

Tuesday, August 28, 2007

The RMStringers

I did a totally redesign of our site tonight.  Please go and let me know what you think.  It is only pictures.

Thanks,

 

RMStringer

+++++++++++++++++++++++

"We are all geniuses when we dream"

- E.M. Cioran

 

Miss Teen USA 2007 - South Carolina answers a question



She re-answered the question on NBC this morning. I will try to find her response soon.

What is your opinion?
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Bald Eagles...







Busch Gardens is a wildlife preserve and they have over 6 Bald Eagles that are wounded and cannot fly. They live their all the time.

What is your opinion?
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Alpengiest


0828071549, originally uploaded by RMStringer.

We rode it 5 thies today!!!