David's Tangled Thoughts

I was at the post office earlier today. "Hi. I'd like to get postage for this [package] to the United Kingdom." I give the lady the package along with my filled out customs declaration slip. She looks over the package and weighs it. She then fills out the remaining information on the customs slip and slaps it on. She then tells me what I owe and I hand her a Lincoln. She gives me my change and I am about to say, "Thank you," and walk out. "By the way," she says, "The next time you mail something out of the country you need to put the country on the last line." You see, on the last line I wrote, "SCOTLAND UNITED KINGDOM." Mainly because of her attitude, I put on my poli-sci hat. "Umm, Scotland is a country." "No it's not ." She is entirely confident that it isn't. "Well, I'll be sure to keep that to myself should I ever run into a Scotsman." UPDATE 31 January 2007: I shit you not. G

I wanted to copy Bob (and now Herb) for a couple of days but I had to wait until I had broadband connection to get these satellite photos. Click on any of them for a larger image. Key West, Florida. 1986-1989 This is Sigsbee Island, where naval housing was located. The arrow shows were I lived. The housing here were duplexes. I lived in the end closest to the arrowhead. "F" is the footbridge that I took to get to "S" which is Sigsbee Elementary. I can't find any photos at the moment of the house but here is a picture of my friends and me at my house. * * * Poro Point and San Fernando, La Union, Philippines. 1989-1990 Here is a areal photo of Wallace Air Station. You can see the two radar domes. Off to the left and out of view is a drone launch facility. My memory is a bit hazy on this but... B-Base housing L-Library W-Wascom the Officer and Enlisted Club X- Base Exchange (BX) VOA- Voice of America broadcasting 1. This is was my Nanay's house.

While waiting for Erin to get off work, I stayed at the library and did some light reading. One of the books that I was surprised to come across was “Deep Ancestry: Inside the Genographic Project” by Spencer Wells. It had been a couple of years since I last encountered his work in “The Journey of Man.” No offense to the Niles Library, but I wouldn’t have expected to run into this book at that place. The Genographic Project collects data from people and identifies certain genes that are distinctive for groups of people. (Forgive me, but I’m not really a science person so my working will be fast and free.) The aim is to map out the migratory path of humans as they populated the planet. In a way we are backtracking to the starting point of the human race by finding our common ancestral groups. The more subjects the projects analyzes, the better the data. I first came aware of Spencer Wells while I was at State. Coincidentally, I was taking an anthropology course that focused on th

Reading a few of the blogs out there concerning T.R. Knight and Isaiah Washington, I thought that I should make this post. Some of you might be wondering why I would be putting a post with a gay subject up on this blog. Usually, I reserve those for Peering and not this one. I’ve been out on this blog for a number of months but references to my sexuality were only related to whatever subject a post was made on. Since I don’t talk about it here on Thoughts, it never overtly came up. However, since it appears that no one visits my other blog any longer, I wanted to get something off my chest to those of you who are here. I don’t know, maybe I’ll move this over… Fag. Faggot. The “F” word. I have a hard time trying to fully appreciate how hurtful that word can be. Aside from some taunting in second grade, I was never called the word. Well, I take that back, I’ve been called it before but in the way boys will taunt other boys by calling them names. “You pussy.” “Don’t be such a s

I really hate it when I wake up minutes before my alarm clock goes off.

All across the country, the news channels are giving reports on all the problems winter is giving us. I don’t know about the rest of the country, but I don’t see this as a big deal. It’s barely a foot of snow. Goodness gracious, the roads were plowed and salted by the time I had to go anywhere. It only took me 15 minutes to dig out my car. Bonus: there wasn’t even a layer of ice to contend with. Personally, I think the area looks freakin’ beautiful. Ask me again in a couple days and I’ll probably tell you something different but for right now, I’m enjoying it. I said earlier this season that I wanted to try out skiing. Well how ‘bout that? Now I can. "Downtown" Galien Towards the end of last week, the Hunter Ice Festival took place in Niles. The weather wasn’t exactly cooperative. We were worried that all the warm weather would either cancel the event or confine it to a few hours of the morning before the blocks melted in the sun. If I remember right, the festiva

Don't have sex while committing a felony in Michigan. You might get life in prison. Read the Detroit Free Press article here . From MCL: Section 750.520b Michigan Penal Code Act 328 of 1931 1) A person is guilty of criminal sexual conduct in the first degree if he or she engages in sexual penetration with another person and if any of the following circumstances exists: . . . (c) Sexual penetration occurs under circumstances involving the commission of any other felony. First degree Criminal Sexual Conduct can carry a life sentence.

<<--See Also: And the Snyder Saga Continues , Roseland is Back , ...in the other corner... Geezus, is there anyone in Roseland who is on the level? When you vote for change, you hope for something better to come along. Nah, politicians are cut from the same cloth it seems. From a WNDU article : The town of Roseland has revamped its Redevelopment Commission. All five existing members of the commission were terminated by the town board today. That means Dorothy and David Snyder, along with David's father Russel Snyder, are off the Redevelopment Commission. Among the five new members named, was the daughter of Councilman Ted Penn. I'm so glad nepotism is still alive and well in Roseland.

David Beckham is coming to the United States to play football soccer? Does he suck now? Read it here and here .

<<--See Also: New Number Comin' Up Verizon Wireless is updating their network in the South Bend area to EV-DO (Evolution-Data Optimized) which is a 3rd Generation network. That's cool and all, and my phone is 3G capable. My question is will Alltel's roaming agreement with Verizon allow me to use that network? If so, I wonder how that will affect my battery life. I can go about four days without having to recharge but I've heard that EV-DO dramatically shortens battery life. I'm hearing that problem is mainly for people who live on the edges of an EV-DO network where their phone switches back and forth between EV-DO and the regular network. Since I'm only a couple miles away from the border, would I be affected? Hmm... Some hacking may be in order.

<<--See Also: Roseland is Back! and ...in the other corner... David and Dorothy Snyder have sent a complaint to the Indiana Attorney General in regards to that fight David Snyder had with Ted Penn. They call his arrest by Town Marshall Larry Miller politically motivated. They are asking that County Prosecutor Michael Dvorak be removed from the case, a special prosecutor be put in his place and that the Indiana State Police take over the investigation. Here are some of my favorite quotes from the two articles I read: Dorothy Snyder: "Larry Miller yesterday knew he would be fired by Charley Shields and Ted Penn if he didn't do what they told him to do... That's the climate in our police department."-- Hmm, I bet that climate wasn't helped by her when she had two officers suspended because they didn't take her complaints seriously. I wondered if they feared being fired for not doing what she wanted them to do. David Snyder: "They're doing the

Kate , if you are still around, you might get a kick out of this. I know that I am truly a fan of a television show if I dream of it. It has only happened a few times with some shows like Star Trek: The Next Generation, The Pretender, The Gilmore Girls, Saved by the Bell, and Friends. I must be big fan of CSI then because I had an interesting dream about it. I wouldn’t say it was a nightmare but it wasn’t exactly pleasant either. But this dream felt like an entire episode of CSI and I was a part of it. Since it was a dream, I can’t recall everything about it, but as far as dreams go, this has remained pretty clear. My memory of the dream starts towards the end of my episode. Grissom and I were in an apartment where the last of a series of murders took place. It was dark (like it always is). I remember that we were in front of a couch in the living room. To my back left, a door was ajar. So Grissom and I were discussing the reason why these murders were occurring. Out of t

<<--See Also: Roseland is back! Man, it never ends with these two. The Snyders continue to be at the center of controversy in what has been called the "Rumble in Roseland." After only two days since the formation of the new council, a fight broke out between David Snyder and Ted Penn, the man who replaced Mr. Snyder's wife, Dorothy, when her term expired. Ted Penn was hospitalized for his injuries while David Snyder was arrested and charged with battery. (I think it would have been great if the officers that arrested Mr. Snyder were the same ones that were suspended for not taking Dorothy Snyder's complaint of intimidation* seriously.) I was under the impression that Dorothy Snyder videotapes the meetings. I wonder if she got this on tape because I think that it might tell a better story than either the Snyders or Penn is offering. Articles from The South Bend Tribune , WSBT , and WNDU . *A letter was delivered by the Roseland police to Dorothy Snyder to r

I hope that I don't steal some of Herb's thunder, but I'm planning to do a 5k race this summer. Sure it's no sweat for some people like Mike , but for someone like me who has been this massive bleh for most of their life, this is a huge deal. The most I've ever run was two miles for the Air Force and saw no need to do any more. At the beginning of December, being able to eventually do two miles in sixteen minutes was my goal but Erin has got the idea into me that I could go a bit further. During the summer, I got up to two miles by running until I reached my limit. As time went on my endurance slowly increased. I thought that I would go with that approach. However, after three weeks, I'm only getting in 1 & 1/10 of a mile (or eleven laps on the track) before I have to quit. This evening I tried a different tactic: run 3, walk 2, until I reached 2 miles. It worked and I was able to complete those two miles without much difficulty. I may switch to t

Finding a good Chinese take-out or restaurant is a challenge sometimes. Most of my friends probably would say that the stuff is all the same, but there are some distinct differences that I pay attention to. When I moved up to East Lansing, the first place I got dinner from was the local Chinese take-out. It was horrible. I couldn't even finish it and neither could my roommate. His beef & broccoli eventually stunk up the room because he let it sit in the fridge for a few days. It wasn't until Erin and I got an apartment together during my junior year that we actually found a decent place. My judging of a take-out place does not have much to do with the main courses. Actually, most of it is done on three things: the egg roll, the fried rice, and the egg drop soup. Today, I tried out a new place and had them deliver to the store. Panda Express sucks and although, I felt like Chinese, I definitely didn't want their stuff. This new place looked like it had a great

Ding dong the bitch is gone! Some of the residents of Snyderville Roseland had a bonfire to celebrate the ending of Dorothy Snyder's term as vice-president of the town council. She and her husband had held two of the town's three council seats and used their majority votes to make Roseland their little kingdom. It was amusing to see the drama unfold since I first became aware of the problems early last year. Her husband will continue to hold on until his seat is up for election which takes place later this year, I believe. Article here . Gov't website here .

Another year has ticked away and hopefully we can all make this new one better than the last. This year’s celebration went by a lot better than last. (Not that I didn’t enjoy spending time with you that night, Season.) Instead of heading out to the bar, Carrie and Justin had a house party. It was a good time. Usually, I feel out of place when I go to parties. You’ll always see me up against a wall somewhere just watching people. Not with them, however. Oh, I got my first New Year’s kiss. Granted it was on the cheek but I’ll take whatever I can get! I don’t do New Year’s resolutions because I’ll never follow through with them but this year I’m trying to make some lifestyle adjustments. First, I’m going to take advantage of the Y whenever I can. Second, I’m going to whore myself out for money. Nah, I won’t do that but cross your fingers and hope that a certain lawyer is willing to hire me.