National Boards are DONE!!!!

The tests are over.... my National Boards are FINALLY DONE!!! Yahoooo!


The good news is that out of the 6 tests that I took, I think I:

- ROCKED THE HOUSE on 4 of them

- DID OK on 1

- BOMBED the last test.

Hopefully, my good sections will give me enough points to push me over the edge and achieve my boards. If not, I'm going to have to study another year and retake the last part again. We'll find out at the end of NOVEMBER!!!

Confession

I have a little confession to make: I am a terrorist

Evil doers, terrorists, threats to national security.... these are the buzzwords being thrown around to justify spying on the American public. The problem is that there are no checks or balances to this process and can/is grossly misused by those in power. What is a terrorist anyway? Of course the first thing you think of is a middle Eastern dude with a gun or the Sept 11th highjackers, however in most countries you are a terrorist if you disagree with the current government (again, I'm guilty). Now the government wants to spy on the media so they can find out who their anonymous sources are.... this is just CRAZY!!! Sure, reporters constantly deal with information that could affect the integrity of our nation, but a FREE nation needs to have these liberties without fear of pursecution. Per capital, our elected officials are some of the most unethical, lying, cheating, stealing people on the planet.... yet this administration feels that they should be givin a greenlight to spy with absolute authority because they know bests....... BULL %@#$.

I feel the Bush aministration has not only bent the rules and values of our Constitution.... He's darn near written his own. In my opinion, he is a threat to our National Security and needs to be labels a Terror suspect (see, if I were Bush... who could stop me for my opinion?.... NOBODY)

BTW, I've joined the ACLU fight to speak out against this crap. If your interested... visit their website and sign their petition: ACLU.org

Hapland 3

Alright ya'll, Hapland 2 took me the better part of an hour to complete..... Hapland 1 was a little less. This new version of Hapland took me over 5 days (probably around 1.5 hours a day) to complete!!!! Now I can go to sleep at night without wondering what would happen if I just _______ or if I change the order of ________ and ________ (Yes, it really did keep my brain spinning for days).

Anyways, It's over now and I'm feelin' like I'm on top of the world (completing the hard puzzles gives a great sense of satisfaction). Give it a try if you're up to the challange.

Handicapped? Then Press the Button!

The title of this blog serves two stories:

1. At my request, my school district has finally installed a handicap button for my library door. Sure, we have one on the back door but nobody uses that door and it stays locked all day. Now the wheelchair students at my school can rejoice in the new button I have given them. On the other hand..... EVERYBODY pushes the button. Nobody wants to actually push or pull the door open anymore because they know about the new "easy button"; a quick tap and the door opens..... for a whole 10 seconds before closing). So, I've been giving the "Don't press the button unless your handicapped" lecture all month.

2. Blogger has added a similar "easy button" to their comment page. You want to see it? Simply leave me a comment and direct your eyes to the right when it asked you to type in the confirmation letters. This is a new wheelchair logo, and being the curious cat that I am (ok, so I'm just as bad as the kids at my school), I pressed it. Go on now.... give it a try! We'll see if the Blogger people give us the "Don't press the button unless your handicapped" lecture!!!!!!!

Can't afford to live

Over the past few days, I've taken several steps to look for affordable housing for next year..... and I'm getting REALLY frustrated.

It started earlier in the week when my apartment complex informed me that my rent was going to climb another $150 next year (this after the $110 increase from last year). I thought, "they much be out of their minds..... I'm outta here"! Then I started looking around and found that EVERYBODY is out of their minds!

I've gone to the internet and used several real estate calculators to see what kind of morgage I could afford...... basically, NONE!! I went to my credit union to see if they had any first time buyer programs or excellent rates they could point me to....... NOTHING!

So for right now, things are looking really CRAPPY for the future. If I stay a renter, I may start looking for a roommate. In the meantime, I hear that modular homes (formally known as "mobile homes") could be a nice change.... I'll look into that some more.

Reinventing the Wheel

I just don't get it. There are a number of companies (mostly in Eastern countries) that are racing to invent to next big thing in walking. Whether they are exoskeletons or some kind of assist device, these biped inventions just look silly when you concider that we already have a segway technology. Really people, what are we going for here..... a horseride experience? I think I better give the parking lot guys at Epcot a heads up that their Segway experience could change soon.

What's that in the Sky?

After a record 40-some days without rain.... last night the sky opened up and said "hello"! From about 1am - 4am there was a steady stream of BEAUTIFUL lightning and thunder.... mixed with moments of heavy rainfall (I stayed up ALL night on my balcony working on my laptop....it was fun). As the sun came up the rain vanished leaving only wet roads.

Then 10 day forecast has sunshine sunshine sunshine as far as we can see..... Who knows when the next rain will come.

Whoa!

Wednesday is a ONCE in a Hundred Years event..... Hope you don't miss it:

At two minutes and 3 seconds after 1pm the time will read:

01:02:03 04/05/06

GO GATORS

TWO BITS,
FOUR BITS,
SIX BITS,
A DOLLAR,
... ALL FOR THE GATORS
STAND UP AND HOLLA!!!!!

Video Memories

So I'm in the process of converting all of our family DVDs to computer files (DivX). It's been a hoot watching some of the old footage! Hopefully in a couple weeks I can share my files wit everybody.