Parental Control - NOT!

I work on serious things for people.  By serious I mean that at the end of our months of working together you might leave very happy or very sad with a criminal record that will follow you for the rest of your life ruining 95% of any future job prospects and life ambitions that you may hold dear to your heart.  That serious.

So will someone please tell me why the branch/arm/tentacle of the US Government decided that it would be a good idea to put a thrift store and WIC on the floor below me?  Why are the children’s gymnastics/dance class on my right side and piano lessons on my left?  Why did they put Army Family Team Building across the hall from my office?  Why is it that when I have to explain decisions that will lead to a maximum punishment of 24 months instead of Life In Prison (without the possibility of parole) I have to speak over the unattended children screaming in the hall.

When the parents are in the hall with their children they talk to each other while their offspring run and scream and climb and throw random objects at each other.  Sometimes these parents actually pay attention to their children.  Unfortunately this often involves stripping and changing their 9 yr old daughters in the middle of the hall.  Or, they are allowing their children to use the one public bathroom on the floor (the one I have to use) with the door completely open, while they are 80 feet away with ten adults and 17 children between them.

To this I say: WHAT THE HELL IS YOUR PROBLEM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is NOT a private company.  It is a PUBLIC building with open access to the world.  Don’t rely on me to correct your child’s behavior (I do anyway, but that is for my own sanity).  If you can’t be bothered to attempt to control your kids, don’t have them.  Really don’t have a second or third.  After the first one you should have clued into the fact that unprotected sex could lead to pregnancy.

Have some respect for others.  I have people deciding their fate in my office.  Don’t belittle their lives by inflicting yours on them.

Have some respect for your fellow person, yourself, and your children.

VP Dick Cheney or America's Most Wanted

Is Vice-President Dick Cheney about to be one of the nation’s newest felons?!?

Although I passed the Maryland bar exam in 1995 that does not make me an expert on Texas law.  I am not.  But, I have been reading for about 31 years now, and I have found some interesting things under the Texas State Penal code.

§ 22.01.  ASSAULT.  (a)  A person commits an offense if the person:      

1. intentionally, knowingly, or recklessly causes bodily injury to another, including the person's spouse;

Let’s see, the reports say that our VP seems to have shot a guy, that was standing behind him, wearing bright orange.  That might just fall into the “reckless” category.  

Was there bodily injury to another?  Well, if you count getting shot in the face, neck, and chest by a shotgun as bodily injury then the answer is most likely, “Yes.”

Unfortunately the Texas statute goes on to add:

§ 22.02.  AGGRAVATED ASSAULT.  (a)  A person commits an offense if the person commits assault as defined in § 22.01 and the person:
          (1)  causes serious bodily injury to another, including the person's spouse;  or

1. uses or exhibits a deadly weapon during the commission of the assault.

(emphasis added)

D’oh!  Well, it doesn’t look good for the VP IF the reports are accurate.  Any idea on whether Vice President status gives a person the proverbial “Get out of jail free” card?  Wait!  I forgot to add:

1. An offense under this section is a felony of the second degree

Yep, second degree felony.  Nope, this does not seem to be good news for the Home team.

Not to make fun of this, but this is funny:
http://www.poe-news.com/features.php?feat=31845

This picture is from March 2005 and yet is strangely appropriate to today’s news.
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(Thanks www.boingboing.net)

"The great American Novel"

I never paid much attention to this old cliche. As a matter of fact, I have never really looked into what it may mean. When I sit down to write though, I have hopes for my own book and part of me wonders if my works will fall into this category. Is it positive or negative? I am going to leave it a mystery so that I do not have a possible negative distraction to my work.

Writing on a whole is going well. There have been sessions that do not flow easily, while during other writing sessions the words just seem to pour forth onto my e-page. I have hope, and that makes me smile.

New Car Smell

 


Past the half-way mark to 70 years of age and what happens to me? The clutch goes out on the 1989 Audi. Worse, it is not really cost effective to repair the car. After some adult (remember the half-way to 70 comment?) considerations I have settled on the 2006 VW Passat. While this may be an adult decision with adult considerations, I am all giddy on the inside. Monday and this beauty will be mine. I could of had it today, but US Army regulations require me to register the car on post before I can get a hold of a license plate. Oh well, one day and a wake up! 

In the Alps or How my writing slowed down...

A European-wide work conference really cuts down on writing time.  True, I had “free” time, but then there were all these people there.  How is it that I started to talk to people over writing?  Then there were the two poker tournaments that I couldn’t lose my way out of until the end of the night.  Then there was sleep.  Crap!

But, the writing still happened.  Sorta.  I think that I am officially a day behind, but I can make that up.  The book will still be the BOOK.