ok, today I found plinky.com which essentially provides a daily prompt for you to answer.  So here’s mine for the day:

Ok, actually, I’m a really honest person, and I generally lose my mind when someone calls me a liar. But looking deep inside, hey… yeah, I’ve lied before… they’re not grandiose lies, but come on, if you’re a parent, you lied to your children when you exposed them to the myth of Santa Claus! Or how about that time you told your friend everything would be ok, knowing it wouldn’t? hmmmm? Everyone lies!

Every year at this time I try to remember to stop and count my blessings and  remember all the things that I have to be thankful for.

This year it seems a bit more difficult than usual.  It’s been a long time since I spent the holidays alone.  I’m definitely not used to it.  Yet, I still have so much to be grateful for.

My parents are still healthy and happy.  What a blessing that is - I am so fortunate.

Robin’s still in my life, even if it is long distance.   We talk nearly every day.  I miss her so much sometimes.  But I’m grateful to still have her around.

My sons.  No matter  how desperate things seem, I have them, and I know I done good.  They’ve grown up into fine men, and I’m so proud of them.

My long time friends that have followed me over here to the blog.  It’s good to know that there are some friendships that can withstand the tests of time.  Ya’ll have pulled me through some tough times before, and I’m thankful for each of you.  And I’m honored that you think enough of me to let me help pull you through tough times too.

My new-ish poker friends - what a ride it’s been this year!  Mark, Scott, Sue, Louis, Tracy, Missy… I can’t believe the laughter and joy you’ve brought into my life.

And my other new friends - Amy, Mark, Mark, Thea, Thane, Glenda, and others.  To say “what a long strange trip it’s been” is a bit of an understatement - thanks for your understanding and support… it means a lot.

Last but not least (not that he’d believe it if I said he was )… Den.  Friendships like ours don’t come along very often, and I treasure ours.  Life’s a journey.

A friend of ours - a lovely vivacious fun-loving outgoing ball of fire was found dead in her home on Monday, and her husband had to be revived.

Right now it’s looking like a suicide pact, although there’s speculation that her husband may have found her and decided to commit suicide also.  I’m not sure we’ll ever know.

It makes me so flippin’ angry!

A true story as related to me by my friend Mark.

Mark’s son, a healthy teen who’d never been sick a day in his life suddenly got very ill.  He was misdiagnosed and two weeks later ended up in the hospital for what turned into 7 weeks.  The hospital was far from home, and the family ended up staying in one of the Ronald McDonald houses.

Obviously, when a family member becomes this ill, finances become strained, especially for those that are self-employed.  And so it went.  When the son was finally released from the hospital, the family was down to their last $400, with no groceries at home.  As they walked through the parking lot to start the journey home, a young woman approached Mark.

Tearfully, she related the story that she had no food and no gas for her car.  Mark reached into his wallet and pulled out all of the cash he had and handed it to her.  His wife, for obvious reasons, was not happy, thinking the girl would probably use the cash for drugs.  Regardless, the family headed for home.

At any rate, once home, Mark went to the grocery store.  On a lark, he bought a lottery ticket.  And he returned home $10,000 richer.

The universe will always provide for those who do the right thing.

Pay it forward, my friends.

Ok, I haven’t posted for a while.  Bad me, bad.  (insert wet noodle lashes here)

Some know, some don’t, that I have returned to IRC.  It’s funny how the old addictions never go away.  I feel like I’ve fallen off the wagon… it didn’t take long to become immersed again.

In ways, it’s been good.  No more “I’m scared” posts.  No more “omg what would I do without you people?” posts.  I’ve found new ways to occupy my time, new people to talk to.

Am I still lonely?  of course.  Am I pathetic at times?  You bet.   But at any given hour of any day, I can find people more lonely, more pathetic, and certainly more dumb and more desperate than me, LOL… seems silly to put it that way

I dropped into PVP today, after days and days of urging by a few people.  I lasted less than 10 minutes.  It made me so sad and so sick.  I can’t believe we have let our entire community crumble because of a fucking free site.  I am so angry about it.

Oh wait, what’s to be angry about?  Somebody posted an actual poker topic.  That should be enough.  Well lemme tell ya, I don’t think it’s good enough for 90% of the members there.  The other 10%, the mostly vocal 10%, thrive on the drama - they don’t care about poker, they care about the rush that comes from reading and/or posting about their lives as they are involved in the poker community.  It’s  a huge difference.

With Windows XP, Microsoft put in “restore points”.  Click the link, and voila!  Your computer is restored to a previous time.  There are times I wish life was like that.  To be able to say “whoops, this didn’t work out, let’s try that again” would be a huge bonus.

No can do.

Image by Getty Images via Daylife The story at DailyTech.com

What interests me most is the comments after the story, but first…

The committee has plans to offer a $7,500 tax credit for light-duty plug-in electric vehicles that feature a 6 kWh or larger battery for propulsion.
…
Surprisingly, Toyota, which has seen tax credits of at least $3,150 on its Prius in the past, is opposed to the $7,500 tax credit for the Volt according to Motor Trend. Toyota’s Robert Wimmer said that the legislation “redefines plug-in electric vehicles to seemingly eliminate consumer tax credits for all but one plug-in vehicle design.”

In other words, Toyota doesn’t feel that the efforts GM put into the Volt are worth a $7,500 tax credit and that such a technological feat is out of reach for other auto manufacturers — including Toyota.

Ok, now keeping in mind that this is an article posted at DailyTech.com,  you would have to believe that the majority of the readers (and commenters) would be a cut above the idiots and morons that sometimes permeate the web, such as the DMOZ haters.

For the most part, that’s true.  The comments are informative and insightful.  So why I’m flabbergasted that a few IQ-challenged individuals would join in on the discussion, I’m not sure.  But some of these just crack me up.

I fail to see how this is an out of reach goal. It’s Toyota’s own fault for not making the 3rd generation Prius run on Lithium Ion batteries. Yes, they have a tendency to go boom shakalaka boom, but if encased properly it should be a non-issue.

It’s ok for my battery to blow up??  Not in My Car it’s not!

If Toyota wants to continue whining, maybe something can be arranged by our government to even things up. Maybe an import fee to cover the difference in the exchange rate. It would make things a little more fair while our dollar is in the toilet. Ya think?

Skipped Economics 101, took SmokinInDaBoysRoom405 instead.

You think that the Volt will solve the cost-of-ownership problem by replacing gasoline with electricity? Well, assuming that the consumer-lemmings all line up in millions to buy this wonderful “green” vehicle, consider where the power to satisfy that massive jump in electric consumption will have to come from, at least in the US… Electric power consumption is already near maximum generating capacity. The electric transmission infrastructure has been neglected for years. So, think of the (green) wind-farms that will need a huge new infrastructure of transmission lines, or the (near-green) nuclear power-stations that will need to be constructed and their transmission-line requirements. Er, exactly who is going to pay for all this new infrastructure? The consumer through massively-raised utility rates, of course - regardless of whether they own this wonderful “green” electric vehicle or not.

Consumer-lemmings?  LOL… ok, someone has a clue.

Salesman: With our new plug-in Prius you can now drive a full mile without ever using gas! Just keep your speed under 30 MPH and the gas engine never turns on!

egads - two people with clues?!

The Detroit 3 definitely put themselves where they are today, don’t get me wrong, but who knew gas prices would go where they did? …

Anyone with half a brain who thought about it for more than 3 seconds?

 Well I still want a Volt! Even after the Chevy
makeunder/Volt Makeover. lol VOLT FTW!!!

Good bye guzzleleen! ^^
Chevy > Toyota, Finally!

Proving my point so I don’t have to.

So I went out tonight for my last smoke of the night.  I always flash the porch light before I go outside… you know, to discourage all the snakes and antelope squirrels from eating me … or maybe to alert a would-be mugger that the door’s now open, his patience has paid off (I’m really not unscaring me here )

At any rate… there was this “vehicle” out across the desert.  I originally thought it was across the highway.  I know my glasses need to be updated… but it was so odd… I could see it was searching for something/one (the searchlights were a dead giveaway).  But the lights flashing were red and yellow (!?!?).  I could hear the beep beep when it backed up, so not little, but the oddest part was that it appeared to expand and contract - the lights would get closer together and then farther apart.  I began to wonder if I was seeing some sort of earth-bound UFO since we’re really close to Area 51… but then it turned its headlights on me and they were sorta earth looking, yanno?  But it wasn’t searching quite like any search I’ve ever seen (usually a grid pattern, right?).  It turned out it was on my side of the highway and I started to get a bit uneasy.  Then I heard a double honk of the horn and I started to get worried.  Then it started moving toward me at a rapid pace, but I fooled them and disappeared into my house at the speed of light *koff*.

I watched them come up to the road behind my house, but farther down and behind the only house on that road… then I went to switch windows and by the time I got into the kitchen they were all the way back down toward the highway and moved out of my sight.

Fen’s been following me around for an hour.  I think she’s probably been hearing them… she’s not usually this attached at this hour of the night.

This is the one part I totally totally completely utterly (you get the picture) hate about living alone.  When you end up scared, it’s difficult to get unscared.  I’ve managed to misplace my cell phone today (I’m good at that, and they say to do what you’re good at…), so I am, for one time in my life, completely ecstatic that I have procrastinated - I haven’t dropped the house line yet.

I already posted this at PVP, but wanted to cross post it here.  Hire a Hero wants to collect one million thank yous before Veterans Day.  Just go do it!

While we’re on the topic - thank you seems to be somewhat feeble, but still… thanks Rox and Mike… two of the greatest people I know.

Long ago before the turn of the century I had a rather serious bout of depression.  It lasted far too long and got very very scary at times.  My closest friends pretty much pulled me by the hair through it, a fact for which I am eternally grateful.  So Mike, Rox, and Den… please know that I am eternally in your debt and I have not forgotten your strength and kindness that pulled me through.

I always swore that I would never ever allow myself to get that depressed again, but for the past 4 months or so, I’ve definitely been flirting with it.  This time I’m even more isolated than I was back then - last time, I refused to let the doctor give me the papers for a medical leave of absence, since I knew I needed the normalcy that working brought me.  This time, I have no job.

However, this time I have a much larger network of friends, and a much larger set of interests and activities.  I can play poker, I can edit at Best of the Web, I can voice chat with my friends at PVPosse, and of course I can still chat on IRC and IM.  I also read a lot more than I did back then, and I have my dogs.

This morning I’m looking back at the weekend and I realize that I really am very very fortunate.  The comments on my blog have been a blast, and of course spending time with Scott, Fila, Sav, and Light was a big pick-me-up.

So I guess I just wanted to say thank you to all of you.  I’m going to make it through this one much faster, and ya’ll are the reason.

P.S. Sue - if you see this, thank you again honey.  I’m glad we’re friends again, and I appreciate you more than you know.

Full story here

I’ll be cross-posting this on the SmileyRose blog, although my language probably won’t be quite so colorful.

The First Amendment:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

WTF was this judge thinking???

The Virginia law “is unconstitutionally overbroad on its face because it prohibits the anonymous transmission of all unsolicited bulk e-mails, including those containing political, religious or other speech protected by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution,” Justice G. Steven Agee wrote.

How the hell can SPAM be protected under the first amendment??  Did this judge miss his history class?  Does he not understand the reasoning behind the first amendment?  It is to allow people to speak their minds and not be persecuted by the government for doing so.  How can millions of emails, sent anonymously to people (or “email addresses”, technically) be considered speaking one’s mind?  So now it’s ok to harass and annoy millions of people and hide behind freedom of speech?  What about my freedom to live in peace?  What about the costs involved to all of the network and server providers?  This jerkoff can send millions of emails for free, and small business owners like me pay for it.  Yes, folks, email does cost money.

It’s 8:40 AM and my blood pressure is through the roof.  Gonna be a fun day.