David's Tangled Thoughts

I just got an email back from an old high school friend who I haven't heard from in quite a while. In the middle of her email she casually tells me that she's getting married. [Throws up hands] Okay, I give up. I'm too damn young to be feeling this freaking old! People are getting married left and right and it's driving me insane. I'm putting my foot down. No more of you are to get married until I do!

...I made my first post . First I want to thank those precious few readers that I have. Season, Kate, Mell and Kris. The few unknowns who I only recognize through their IP addresses. Without you all, I would just be writing crap that nobody reads. So happy blogiversary to me! This year I aim to add a few more regulars. Cross your fingers.

I drove to K-zoo to pick up my sister Friday night. On the way back, I got pulled over by a cop. On Cleveland. In the middle of fucking nowhere. At night. With little to no traffic. My offense? Going 60 in a 55mph zone! WHAT THE FUCK?! 5mph over the speed limit in those conditions. What the hell is his problem? I am willing to bet that he was just looking for someone to pull over to fulfill whatever quota he was given by the department. So now that I have "donated" some money to the Baroda community, I'm on a boycott. No business from me in that loon town. And this is why I like troopers more than townies or county mounties. At least they aren't motivated to pull people over just to make sure that their departments receive money. Oh, and let me rant about the fine schedule. For going 1mph over the speed limit, I pay $95. For going 5mph over the speed limit, I pay $95. It doesn't increase until I go 10mph over the speed limit. But then my fine only increases $5 to

Working for the big blue box sometimes brings me in contact with some weird people. On my last shift, I was putting up stock in the infants department. I'm sitting siting there on my ass rotating the formula when I look up and see a woman with a baby held against her chest. Nothing out of the ordinary. I was about to go back to the formula when something stopped me. Wait a sec, that baby didn't look quite right. Well, it turned out to be a monkey. What the hell is that doing in the store? Wally World only allows service animals to enter the store. Oh great I thought, those door greeters really are blind. How are they expected to deter shoplifters when they can't see monkeys coming through their doors? Still, I was kind of curious and wanted to go talk to this lady. If she would let me, I would have taken a picture with my camera phone. I never go the chance however because I couldn't just leave my isle with a bunch of cans lying on the floor. Safety hazard you know. La

About six or seven weeks ago, I got a letter from MSU Housing and Food Service. The database there that holds the payroll information had been hacked into. Although they claim that they were able to stop the hacker eventually, they warned me that my information may have been accessed. Based on my research I did for the Senior Safety project, I found out that 1 in 4 Americans will be a victim of identity theft at some point in their life. It appears that I may just have beaten the odds this time! Assuming that my identifying information was stolen, I wanted to give it a month before requesting my credit report. I didn't want to request a report before the hacker had time to open another line of credit. The credit report came in a few days ago. Good news, no new lines of credit have been opened. Disappointment: a credit report doesn't contain a credit score. I thought it did. Nope, I have to pay for that. I would highly recommend people get a credit report. They are free and you

"What do you mean I have to learn ballroom dancing? I'm just going to a wedding." I mistakenly believed that showing up would be enough.

When you record a game like football, it's just not the same thing as watching it live. I should have taped yesterday's MSU v. ND game. Or better yet, I should have called off from work! [cough, cough] It turned out to be an awesome, nail-biting one that I wouldn't have wanted to miss. Since I had to work, and since Wal-mart doesn't allow its workers to have any contact with the outside world, I had my sister text me updates on my cell phone. Thanks Kris!! Ms. Sally even called to the back room at half time and at the final to give me updates so I was well informed. The results: Michigan State won 44 to 41 in overtime. For more information go here or here . Of course, I had to show my school spirit, so I dug out my Michigan State shirt that I always wore at the football games. I gave thought to painting my face but that might have crossed the managers' patience. I had already gotten rid of my vest (to show off my shirt) and wore my "M Go Blow" name badge.

Eh, I really don't have much to blog about right now. So I'll tell you about my new phone. My old phone which is two years old now needed to be replaced. When I tried recharging it, the connection was bad. I usually had to fiddle around with it for a couple minutes before it would start to charge. Originally, I had planned to go with Tracfone yet again. I've been with Tracfone since 1999 when I got my first cell phone. Since I still don't use the phone very often, it makes more sense for me to go with pre-paid services. Tracfone and Virgin Mobile are the giants in this field although AT&T, T-mobile, Cingular, etc... all have something to offer. I like Tracfone because I can go anywhere in the country and it will work. This is because it can jump from network to network. Most places I go, I will have a signal. Unfortunately, I forgot about this fact when I went with Virgin Mobile which attracted me with it's price plan and options. Now I have low signa

I was heading for the library today for some research related to my ongoing project/presentation.  While I was traveling down the main drag, I eventually caught up with a car that had plenty of decoration.  Bumper stickers, ribbon, decals, and even an antennae adornment.  All having to do with the United States Marine Corps.  Blech.  Not that I don't mean, that I hate that it was about the USMC but by the fact that this guy went a little over the top -- hmm, much like the Marine Corps.   Some items of note "Proud father of a Marine," "Support our Troops," "Retired Marine," the Marine Corps Seal (in bumper sticker and decal form.)  On his hood was an especially large decal of the Marine Corps Seal.  Looking at the driver, I saw that he was still wearing his cover from his BDU's.  And the part that I just got a kick out of: his birth control glasses.   Now I like the military.  I get the "Support our Troops" ribbons and other small things l

For Michigan residents: If you know of any refugees from Hurricane Katrina, please urge them to contact the Michigan Department of Human Services (formerly known as the Family Independence Agency). They need to register with DHS in order to be eligible for assistance from FEMA . If they don't register within a certain number of days (sorry, I forget how many) they will become ineligible for relief. Also, they need to contact their state agencies from where they are from if they need additional forms of identification such as their birth certificates and drivers license. Michigan is not making an exception to hurricane victims when they apply for Michigan residency. Please see this site for more helpful information. From what I heard, Governor Granholm has offered to take in 10,000 refugees. Currently, the state has taken in 400. However, it is estimated that 1,200-2,000 refugees are in Michigan and not registered with DHS. Resources are being offered for these people, but they ne

I was thinking about making a post full of deep thoughts about September 11th. I was inspired by Mell , instead, to tell you how I will always remember this day. When the attacks occurred, I was in my microeconomics class...probably falling asleep. I made my way back to my dorm where I fell asleep. I was tired because I had physical training with AFROTC at 5am. It must have been some time around 9:30 when my roommate, Pat, came into the room and woke me up. "Hey, something happened in New York." He turns on the TV. I'm a bit irritated that he woke me up, but it sounded important. Slowly, I sobered up to the fact that we had just been attacked. The details were sketchy. At the time, there was rumors of a bomb by some government office in Washington. Vague reports of an attack on the Pentagon. Everyone was glued to their TV's. I managed to go to my Spanish class but only half the class managed to show up. Still, our instructor turned on the television so we were still

College football season is here! And I don't have tickets damn it. Okay, so last week were the openers, but really, now we are getting to the good stuff. Right now, I'm watching Notre Dame versus the University of Michigan . You may be thinking that I would be rooting for UofM since I live in Michigan and it is our premier school. You would be wrong. ND is just south of me, and I'm more attached to them than Michigan. Plus their students are a helluva lot more fun. Let loose a lot of repressed Catholics and you get the picture. As of right now, there is about 3 minutes left into the first quarter and ND leads 7-0. Not a comforting lead, but I'll take it. I'm debating whether I should tape the game 'cause I got to get to work. But I guess it doesn't really matter as I will probably find out the result while on my shift anyways. Michigan State is playing Hawaii later this afternoon. My friend Dusty, who still attends State, will be there. I'm green with

Last night, Erin and I took a short trip to Lake Michigan. I certainly needed this. After having a long series of brain fits, I needed to get out and just enjoy a bit of nature. Having Erin along was great as I needed someone as a sounding board for all the thoughts that I needed to articulate. I went and picked her up. I wasn't keen on heading to Lions or Silver Beach in St. Joe. Instead, I wanted some place with less traffic. We headed over to New Buffalo where Redamak's is located. Honestly, I don't see where all the good reviews about that diner come from. It really wasn't that magnificent. Good but not great. I didn't know of a beach in New Buffalo. I generally knew how to get to the lake (head west, you'll run into it eventually) but I didn't know of a public access point. So we headed up to Warren Dunes. I was fairly certain that there would be signs pointing the way. I was wrong... okay, I was just blind. After traveling too far north, I just swung a

Tomorrow, I hope to finish up my ID Theft presentation project. Then I can work on the Pokagon's. But before I start that, I intend to take a dip in the lake. Maybe another trip to the bar (maybe this time, vomit free). Also, the ND/UofM game is coming up. Let's see here, who will I root for? Oh I think the Irish.

Have you opened your mouth to say something that you thought was perfectly acceptable only to later find out that the person you said it to was horribly offended? Of course, that person said nothing at the time so you just droned on and on making a hole for yourself? After feeling so high... so on top of the world, I find myself in a situation so much worse than I was in before my trip into the clouds. All because I said some things that I wish I had phrased differently. Normally, I don't really care who gets offended by what I say. But this person is so important to me, that I just feel like total shit. I wish that I could have the courage to tell the world what happened. Really, I do. And for people like Pat, Kate, Edward, or Jay... I would have no problem telling them but since this is an open blog, I am only willing to do so in some other manner. This particular person has gone down as the catalyst for one of the most important developments in my life. I would hate to think tha

Ummm.... yeah.... Seriously, hat tip to Stick over at the The Geek Crew Forum who published this in one of his posts. I liked it and had to share it.

Usually when I’m talking about the company that I work for, I’m bitching about it. Well, there’s plenty to bitch about! Today, however, I left work a little proud that I work for the big blue box. I was talking with the store manager (a rare thing) and he said that the donation that Wal-mart is making has been upped yet again to $20 million. This is not counting the fundraising that it is already doing with its associates and customers. Also, signs were put up in our grocery departments explaining why customers should expect lower availability of bottled water. It’s because water shipments are being directed towards LA and MS. In addition Home Office has sent out a directive to all stores: refugees from hurricane Katrina now have priority in all hiring positions. Nice considering that communities such as Battle Creek and Lansing have already taken in a number of victims.

<<--See also: The President selects a nominee. President Bush made a push to have John Roberts confirmed as the next Chief Justice of the United States. This effectively withdraws his nomination for Justice O’Connor’s seat in favor of Chief Justice Rehnquist’s. I am not a happy camper on this. I firmly believe that the CJ needs to be elevated from an Associate Justice. Just as I believe that an Associate Justice should have experience being a judge (technically, anyone can be a justice.) Who would I have picked? Scalia. He has been a real leader amongst the conservative bloc of the high court and I believe that he would keep many of Rehnquist’s policies and procedures regarding the workings of the court. Despite that cases seem to take forever to get through, Rehnquist is known for making the process more efficient. Scalia’s elevation (by itself) to Chief Justice wouldn’t have changed the makeup of the court. It would have been replacing one conservative with another. S

So it’s three in the morning and I am just getting in.  My nose is burning from the smell of puke.  It’s so bad that it makes my stomach churn something fierce.  As a result, I’m warming up some ribs my mom made for dinner.  Hopefully, that will drive away the puke smell.  So why do I smell vomit?  Well, just a few minutes before my shift ended, I got a call from one of my friends (who shall go nameless.)  This friend needed a ride home because drinking to excess leads to puking!  I thought that she would make it but the puke stains in my car show otherwise.  After apologizing, she gave me some money to pay for the cleaning.  I gave the interior a good soap scrub and the febreezed the hell out of it.  Now it is airing out.  Will that be enough?  I’ll find out in the morning. I should be miffed that someone puked in my car but I’m not.  I’d do it again because I would rather be there for my friends at there crappiest moments than not.  So all of you out there, if you need a ride home, d

The Chief Justice of the United States has died. William H. Rehnquist died earlier this evening (or late, depending how you look at it) from cancer. He was 80 years old. I came home to see the bad news displayed over my news feeds on the computer. It’s hardly surprising. For those who actually know of the CJ, we knew that he was nearing the end. The real surprise was that he continued to serve until his death. I had honestly expected him to step down after 2004 elections. My secret wish was that he would retire and Justice O’Connor would have been elevated. Sadly, she is gone too. So now that he is gone, President Bush has two vacant seats to fill. John Roberts seems to be all but sworn in. The real fight is going to be for Rehnquist’s seat. Is President Bush going to elevate one of the sitting justices? If so, it would most likely be Justices Scalia or Thomas. One of the pundits predicted that the President Bush would actually choose a CJ from outside the court. If that is the case, I

Well it appears that my plans to go to Chicago have been dashed.   The Museum of Science and Industry’s Body World exhibit is closing.  As disturbing as it may be to some people, I think that looking at cadavers would actually be interesting.  The medical field has always fascinated me.  One of these days, though, I will make it to the top of the Sears Tower and look out over the lake. Tomorrow, if the weather is nice, I will be going to the beach.  The leaves are beginning to change here and the weather is getting cooler.  The seven week forecast shows us barely making the mid 80’s.  [Sigh] No Indian summer this year.  So one last swim in the lake before we give into fall and winter.