10.27.2010

Story Time

This is a story, about a boy and a girl, and one determined little kid.

See, this boy and girl met each other, hung out together, found themselves compatible and decided to begin dating. They did things the old fashioned way when he finally popped the question and she said yes. They were married in a quaint backyard wedding with a few friends and family present.

The boy and girl, seeing as they were only briefly engaged, decided to take their time in starting a family. They had many plans, they wanted to travel together and see the world, get to know each other a little better, encourage each other to stay active by participating in different races and relays, they were already planning on what they wanted to do, thinking perhaps ‘next fall’ would be the perfect time to begin their family. There was a lot on their plate, girl had some jobs coming up soon that she was looking forward to, boy had things he wanted to buy, things were well for the two of them as they completed their house and were starting their life together.

The kid had other plans. Though the boy and girl decided to be careful, tracking the time of month and their fertility calendar and arranging their unions around that and using some contraceptives (girl was a little weary of using hormones in her birth control), the kid had apparently waited long enough as the boy and girl were entering their thirties and decided ‘nope, sorry mom and dad, I’m coming now.’ The girl was a little bit frazzled when she realized the kid decided to come a year ahead of schedule, trying to wrap her head around the thought of becoming a parent, but alas, her original plans were thwarted with new ones.

One determined little kid was entering their lives come June or so.

Moral of story? Condoms aren’t foolproof.

PS – I’m pregnant. . .

10.21.2010

Westboro Baptist Church in town

So Westboro Baptist Church, the one entity that both the Left and the Right can agree on is a rabid bunch of idiots, is coming to town today.  I'm torn, on one hand, I want to go and counter protest because I think they are idiots, but on the other hand, I think they need to be ignored and just go away, unfortunately that is likely not to happen because they thrive off the attention. 

What a despicable group of people.  I might just check out some things and take a few pictures, see how the counter protest goes.  There's talk of traffic congestion where they go.  One thing for sure, they don't know how to schedule a protest, because they are going clear across town from one location to the other.  From Whitworth to Ferris?  That is like polar opposite sides in this city. 

Morons.

Update:  Seven.  That's how many people were protesting, seven.  They were each holding two to four signs that said inflamatory comments like "God Hates Fags" and "Thank God for Dead Soldiers," and other insightful comments.  But these didn't really get me one bit when I realized that the counter demonstration was what they were after.  And it was impressive, at one point I would have guestimated between 2-400 people showed up to counter protest.  Lot's of rainbow flags and signs expressing of unity, I'll get some pics of those in a minute.  And while the counter demonstration was big, and it was impressive to see all these people of different stripes come together to offer their support, I get the impression that the WBC measures how successful their demonstration is by how many people show up to counter protest. 

In other words, if you want to make an impact on these peope, ignore them.  Treat them like they don't exist.  They say mean and hateful remarks for the attention they recieve, and for a mediocre group of seven people to show up and protest sites like Gonzage because they want to 'remind this generation of rebels that there is a God and that all things unfold according to His divine plan', and because 'college students spend more time pursuing their drunken sins than their academic studies'. 

I actually find it amusing why they chose to picket Moody Bible Institute.  'The instructors at Moody Bible College prefer the praises of men to the praises of God and thus they will not teach their students the truth, that God Hates Fags, Fag Doom Nations, America is a Fag Nation ergo, God Hates America!'  In other words, they picket places because they don't teach what Wesboro thinks they should teach.  Unless a church decries that God Hates America, then they are blasphemous and allowing their followers to go to hell, apparently.

Which brings me to my original dilemma that I faced this morning.  Do I go and counter protest which adds fuel to the fire, or do I leave them be?  And I've come to the conclusion that if you are ever unfortunate enough to have these fools show up in your home town, leave them be.  in fact, go out of your way to not even drive near them, what would do more for counter protesting these imbeciles is if nobody showed up to their demonstration.

Like I mentioned, there were seven of them holding signs.  Seven.  They were there specifically to antagonize people and the big crowds probably made them feel powerful, that they were able to get that many people to care about what they had to say.  It doesn't matter what they had to say, they could say the most offensive thing in the world, but the fact that people showed up to counter them meant that they had our attention.  There will always be people like this, all you can do is ignore them, which will derive them of their power base. 

The exception to this?  I would say funerals, and in situations like this, all you have to do is place yourself between these idiots and the grieving family, and once you have blocked the view, turn your backs to them as if they weren't there. 

Violence will do nothing against these people, all one needs to do is ignore them.

That said, here are some pictures of the demonstration.




There's the whole group in one shot at Gonzaga.  Morons.  Unfortunately, the sizeable demonstration against them was probably exactly what they were after. 
The counter demonstration at Gonzaga.  This was the first stop, it was just getting started, so the counter protest was still smaller.

Love this!


 Indeed, it should have been on a lighter sign, but the sentiment is awesome

This wasn't the counter demonstration, but a demonstration for Gonzaga students in regards to hate groups.

Some of the signs (um, seeing that 8 has a 't' in it already, there's an extra t in that sign)

The front of the sign

and the back, excellent message

I would say that this was the most offensive sign on this side of the demonstration.  "Jesus is gay", well, considering that this is a counter protest that involved anyone who disagrees with Westboro Baptist Church, and that's pretty much everyone, this is inflammatory to just about any Christian.

Snicker. . .

WBC at Moody Bible Institute.  To the left there, behind the cop car.  Yeah, same seven.  The right side in the back is a counter protest.

This doesn't do the counter protest justice, this was just a fraction of it. 



That was one benefit of the counter protest, how it unified groups that generally didn't normally get together.

:)

"Thank You for Bringing Our Community Together"


The Patriot Guard Riders

I followed them to Whitworth, because part of me wanted to actually talk to them, on tape if I could get it, but I didn't see Wesboro there, and like I mentioned, I didn't want to give them the benefit of my attention.  Ignoring these guys is the best way to deal with them.  



10.20.2010

Graveyards

Whenever I'm at work I can come up with a million and one things to blog about, mostly because I have a lot of time on my hands.  I am by my nature a night owl, at least I was when I was younger but I do realize that graveyard shifts are not the most conducive thing to my social schedule.  It is kind of nice that I can choose to sleep in the morning or in the evening, thus freeing my day for other events if they should come about, but still, well, I have to say that Grave Yard Shifts kindof suck.

I've never worked a job consistently on graveyard before (there is a first for everything) but the work is rather easy in the scheme of things.  I can just go into autopilot and let my mind wander.  It's not a retail job afterall (which I was dreading the possibility of going back to retail, Nooo!) but in the long run I would rather be doing other things. 

However, it does keep me humble, as I need to do something productive to contribute to the household, and this job kind of found me (long story).  If left to my own devices, I would go strictly housewife routine, and my husband would probably tell you I'm not a very good housewife.  See, I lack domestication, being super independent before and addicted to the internets.  But I vow to get better, starting with learning to love how to cook.  My husband likes food, and is old fashioned in that regard.  He'd probably like it better if I didn't work graveyard shifts too, but alas, until I find another source of income for me to contribute (preferably from the home) I'll keep working this shift.  That's motivation for me. 

I just have to find the right job.to do.  Anything to get off the graveyard at this point.  Aside from retail.  And fast food.  I draw the line somewhere.

10.16.2010

Chickens

I have five chickens.  I used to have six.  One has recently disappeared.  I think some critter got to it.  Probably the same place one of my barn cats went too. . .

My task is to get them to lay eggs.  They were laying when I first got them, and then they stopped.  It might have been dog related (dog's gone), not enough space (they're pretty much free range now) and they just finished molting (shouldn't they start laying again?).  I guess that leaves me putting a light (and heat) on them. 

But anyway, this is my latest quest.  To get my chickens to lay eggs again, and perhaps to get a few more chickens to join them.  Chickens are amusing creatures I have discovered, they make the funniest noises, and it's interesting how a bunch of birds have different personalities. 

But if they aren't laying eggs, why do I have them?  I guess they make a good food disposal, they'll eat just about anything I throw at them, to include chicken.

10.15.2010

The Horses

One of my latest things is Horses. I've got three (plus a boarder) so I might as well write about them and introduce you to them so you know who I am talking about when I start talking about them.

First there is Jet.
 Jet is my skinny old Tennessee Walking Horse that's coming about 23 years old.  She is my tride and true throw anybody on her that is a reasonable weight horse.  She does great with kids in that she tests them just enough to see what they know and if they give her conflicting commands she doesn't do anything.   But if you prove that you know what you're doing she responds as well.  She is old and therefore lazy, but still has some go to her.  I've also been in the process of working to keep her weight on, as she is my bossy dominant mare in the pasture and tells the other horses what for.

I purchased her in April, but not really for her.  It was a two for deal, but she's grown on me. 

The horse I purchased her with is Breezy.

Breezy was kind of thin here for whatever reason, but she's porked up recently.  She's a quarterhorse lineback dun, and I have to get her age confirmed officially because I originally thought she was eighteen and then I was told she was fourteen or fifteen.  This little girl has go, she LOVES to run.  She's also a gaming horse, I just did a bit of pattern racing on her recently and holy crap have I found a new love!  So much fun!  This horse knows more then I do and she is very well trained, take her out on the trails and she just wants to go.  She also allows a confident beginner to ride her, she is not hot, though once she starts going she is difficult to slow down, and she does these super tight turns that can take you by surprise if you aren't ready for them.  Everyone who rides this horse loves her.

Magic is the boarded horse. 


Approximately 15 year old Morgan Mare that has a nervous habit of immediately starting to sweat as soon as you get on her.  She is actually a great trail horse, if she doesn't know the trails she listens a lot better.  However, the trails near our house she knows and therefore she just wants to go and prances a bit.  She's not a bad horse, but she has a profuse amount of sweat that can get a little disgusting.  And all she wants to do is eat.

She belongs to a friend, but I have been riding her more then she does, mostly because when I go out with people, I tend to put them on Breezy and Jet and I ride Magic. 

Bo was a trial horse.  He turned out to be insane, so he stayed for a grand total of three days. 

Ok, he wasn't really insane, but he wasn't rideable due to an injury.  He had some other issues going on.  It was kind of fun in a scary 'I'm going to die' way when he went into a bucking fit with me. 

Then there is Turtle
Turtle is our resident gelding that we got about three weeks ago.  The only boy in a field full of girls, poor guy.  He is actually quite sweet and cuddly as far as horses go.  He's also an off the track thoroughbred, having come off the race track in Portland.  No big races though, a couple maidens and when he finally won one of those he went on to win a few claiming races, but nothing big.  He's our project horse, can't wait to try him on the trails and see how he does.  I kind of have it in mind to teach him how to jump.  Don't know if I'll do any serious showing with him, but he is quite calm and mellow for a former race horse.  He's only six, coming seven too.  He'll go when pushed, but he prefers the leisurely stroll, which is nice and the anti Magic and Breezy, who just want to go go go.  He's also going to be a husband horse, because he's so tall, and my husband is a full foot taller then me.
So there are the horses (and one former horse) that I ride.  Next year I anticipate that I'll be doing a lot of stuff with them, especially Breezy and Turtle.  Jet has become more of the guest horse, when people come to ride I throw them on her. 

That's my herd.  Unfortunately, I get this idea in mind as soon as I see a horse for sale I want to check it out and perhaps buy it.  Husband doing a good job of reining me in on that.  I think for now these four are going to be our only horses, but perhaps I can talk him into letting me bring another one in?

10.12.2010

Political Season

It's political season. Everyone have their permits?

What is it about election years that gets people's blood boiling anyway? I've been following this election year fairly closely, its been amusing to watch to say the least.

My hopeful outcome, Republicans take the house for sure, put serious gridlock in the senate, and the outcome is similar to 1994 by forcing Obama to tack strongly to the middle. Then perhaps we can have a pretty well flowing government in tune to Clinton's term. I'm no fan of Obama, but if it forces him to tack right, I'll make due with it, even if it gives him a second term.

My problem is that it has become increasingly obvious as of late that all Republicans in charge is about the same as all Democrats in charge. Checks and balances work a lot better when everything is not run by one party, and it keeps the government small. It also helps when you have a strong president like, say Reagan instead of one named Bush or Clinton or Obama. Maybe I'd give the Republicans another chance at running everything if they pulled their heads out of their butt and acted like Conservatives. That's one reason why I'm a fan of the Tea Party movement, which I got involved with (on a mild basis), mostly due to the explosion of the government and the extreme debt. I love how they have really shaken up the establishment and I'm rooting for them to keep at it. Social issues need to be largely left to the individual with only limited government interference. I know how bloated bureaucracies work, the larger they are, the more inefficient they are. And the government is huge, if you want to see an example of waste, look no further then the people running this country.

Looking at different republicans that are potential Presidential Candidates, I like Palin but feel she has a long way to go to prove she's capable of leading to the country when at the moment she has a polarizing affect much akin to Hillary. I think she has what it takes and would vote for her if she ran, but at the same time, I'm not sure if she'll make it past the primary election if it were held today (or maybe she could, but could she defeat Obama right now?) I'm still learning of the other candidates as they come onto the scene, maybe I should do more research on them before I make an opinion? I guess as 2012 nears, I'll be able to make a better judgement on that.

What is a Conservative? Small Government and Free Enterprise

Lately I've gotten to know Bill Whittle, mostly through Instapundit really, and every video I've seen is great. If you want to figure out a way to articulate what exactly a conservative is, this video is fantastic. If you are of a liberal persuasion and can't understand conservative thought, this video sums it up. This pretty much is right in line in regards to my thoughts on small government and free enterprise (I believe there should be some regulation, yes, but our current government over does it). Heck, i couldn't have said it better so if you have some time I highly recommend you take a look.

Life Happens

So I guess I should give a full update of what I've been up to these last few months, should I? I gave one a while back, but it was kind of rushed and then I kind of left it to the wayside.

Let's start off with this year. I started the year off at home, as I was on leave from the military. I hooked up with a good friend and we were hanging out, mostly at his place, going snowboarding, riding go-carts and ATVs and basically getting to know each other better. Then I had to go back to Fort Knox and finish off my orders there.

I was home again in February. My time in Fort Knox pretty much killed my blogging last year, which was why I didn't blog. So much happened this year that I never really got back to it (and blogger killing FTP didn't help either but in the long run that's probably a good thing since it took so long to upload my blog). So anyway, back to February. We hooked up again and continued hanging out. Went to Bend OR and went snowboarding at MT Bachelor.

We decided when we got back that we might as well say we're dating.

Oh, and he's Active Duty Air Force. Meaning he deploys.

Without going into a lot of detail with that, he had a deployment this year, which we thought would be in the fall but got bumped to late spring. Things got a little rushed after that. Being as old as we both are, with not to much emotional baggage and very little physical baggage (neither of us married before) in March he asked me to marry him. In Vegas of all people. Many people thought we would actually elope there, but we're both still caught up in the old fashioned way of things.

When he asked me to marry him, we had to set a date. It ended up being a small wedding, very little fanfare, in his backyard. A month after we got engaged. I don't recommend a rushed wedding to anyone, but I guess it worked for us, and to be honest if it took any longer I would have been a worse Bridezilla then I turned out to be.

We were married three weeks. Then he deployed and I went to being single again (ok, not really, but I didn't feel like I was married)

I spent all summer tending to the property and the house (in only a way that a newly wed non-domestic can), and in the time of our engagement to present our family has expanded from the two of us to two and a half cats (one disappeared, but I won't write her off as completely gone yet), six chickens which don't lay eggs, and four horses, one of which isn't mine and will thusly be called Boarded Horse Uno (Dos will be showing up here soon, bringing the full count to five). I spent the summer traveling around, bonding with his family, riding horses, and working for the army. I kept busy, but didn't get a lot of things for my house done. That included, well, blogging. It didn't help that my desktop crashed and I sold my truck.

Anyway, he came back and we're back to wedded bliss, or at least trying to work out the kinks of married life and get used to being around one another. It is definitely a different experience then I am used to, but in a good way. I just have to let go of my independent streak and embrace it. Sharing a life with another person can be a good thing.

So where do we go from here? Well, like I said, we both like to travel, we have some vacations plotted, as we are waiting at least a year before we start a family (but if things happen before then, we'll take them as they come). I have three horses, one is my ol' plug of a kids horse that shows a bit of spunk now and then, the second is my speed demon gaming horse that I have discovered pattern racing on (and yes, I will be blogging about this!) and the last being our project, the tall retired race horse that is a big giant love. I might acrue some more chickens too.

Right now I'm looking for ways to earn some money from home (hey, AdSense, even if it's only a few bucks a month!) and domesticate myself by learning how to be a house wife, something I really never saw myself as being until recently. But it's a good thing! We're painting the house (already a vast improvement from the horrid brown of before) and trying to plan trips to other continents besides this one.

Lot's to do, things to see. And maybe I'll remember to blog about it.

10.11.2010

Liberal Advisory, Conservative Content

This is just a blog that I might post back to in the future, especially towards anybody who comes and reads my blog who may be of a liberal persuasion. I have several friends and acquaintances who are far more liberal then I am. I don't want them to think that just because of our political differences that I think differently of them. I disagree, but generally I avoid talking politics with these people. I value our friendship more then my right to alienate them due to a difference of opinion.

Do I think I am right? Well, yes and no. I don't know everything, but being conservative it is a cornerstone of what I believe. It is right to me. May not be right to you, but that's just what I believe. I have always been conservative, but how conservative I am has fluctuated through the years. When I was younger I was more liberal then I am now. I am somewhat liberal on some topics. But overall, I would call myself a fiscal conservative and social moderate, in that I believe largely in the idea of live and let live. I would prefer if the government would get out of the business of ruling our lives.

Now, if you disagree with my postings, feel free to post and debate on the topic. If you keep it civil, I will respect your opinion and enjoy a friendly conversation back and forth. Who knows, you may even persuade me on a certain topic. It's been known to happen before. I am opinionated though, and I am usually knowledgeable on the topic before I opine on it. But I'm always looking for another viewpoint.

However, if you are here to troll, speak in a deragotory fashion, and resort to flaming and name calling (and I've had plenty of that on my site), you will not win any arguments here. I love eating trolls for breakfast, and over the years I've grown a pretty thick skin. Ad Hominem attacks have little use here. Most people who know me know i am mostly a pretty reasonable person, but if you are out to set me off, I'll berate you back and move on with my life. Waste your time all you want. I really don't care.

Apologies in Order

If you follow my feed, and you were spammed by a bunch of juvenile posts that were backdated for 2002, my apologies.

I'm in the process of merging all of my blog posts into one blog, and if you were to go back and read my posts at the time, you would find that my posts were rather incoherent and a little rambly, hence the title of my blog.

You have been warned if you go back and read them. Why you would, I don't know. Why I'm putting them on the internet for people to read, I don't know either. I had some interesting rants back then, but when I started blogging, I was rather juvenile at it. But I got better with time.

Relaunched Ramblings

I really like to blog. I miss it. I'm going to try to get back into it.

The big difference is now I have to do blogging through Blogspot (though I'm going to try to direct it through my website so at least its on my domain, hmm).

So anyway, as you can see, the blog looks a wee bit different. I'm still in the process of updating my blog links and appearance and all of that fun stuff, so this will be a work in progress.

That being said, what else has changed about the blog? Actually, not much in regard to content, I'm still going to write about whatever I want to write about, the key difference being that I'm older and a bit more mature then my earlier blogs, and hopefully not so narcissistic. However, this is an opinion blog and I pretty much write about whatever I want to write about.

The exception is military matters. Unless it's related to current events or what not, I probably won't write much about my life in the military, because it's a headache producer and I don't want to deal with the drama. The other exception is going into a lot of detailed with my personal life, being that I'm married now. I might post a little bit about married life and all, but posting about my significant other is going to be minimal. I don't really see this as being a mommy blog or one of those.

What else has changed? The obvious is the comments, I've just changed to Blogger's default comments, which sucks because I lost all of the comments from my previous blog, which are actually archived on my website and direct linked there. Up until May, this blog is actually mirrored on my site, just getting to those posts is a hassle. Some of the more popular blog posts I might actually take the comments off of, but overall, everything is starting off from scratch.

I also added advertisements, because I decided to sell out, but not only that, because being a lowly house wife these days, I'm trying to figure out ways to make money. I had a successful blog at one point, maybe I'll get it again? Maybe not, but whatever, why not try to make a little bit of an income with it? Doesn't hurt to try, does it? Will it be successful or not, only time will tell. But I love blogging enough, I had some kind of early freakish success with it at one time, that I thought I should do something to profit off of it somewhat, even if it's only a few bucks a month.

Might as well get paid doing something I love.

So that's about it. Hopefully everything runs smoothly with the transition and I can get the blog appearance to grow on me.