BrotherO's Little Fiefdom

End of the World

2011-05-19T14:41:00.004-04:00

The end of the world is finally upon us(.. ) Thankfully, I have a heads up and a nice timeframe to get my house in order. In case you haven't been up to speed on this, the rapture will be on May 21st 2011, this Saturday. Then there will be a time period where we can warn others to get ready for some big, ugly event in October.
Facebook, where I get the majority of my news, is all over this. There are rapture parties, After-Rapture Looting parties and Post-Rapture parties. I've signed up for all of them. Tomorrow for breakfast I'm going to load up on the bacon, you know, the good stuff...the fatty dripping with grease bacon. I'll have an extra egg, no, two extra eggs; maybe just the yokes and throw away the non-fat whites. I've never tried a deep-fried twinkie. I may have that for lunch if I can find one. For dinner, a bacon-wrapped steak with fries and onion rings...and cheesecake...two pieces. In between meals, I'm going to have full-fat ice cream, no cone, just big bowls of ice cream. Friday's going to be fun

Study: PCs hurt students' grades - Technology

2010-06-19T10:17:00.001-04:00

You may want to stop and reconsider whether you think a home computer will help your child with reading and math.

A new Duke University study says North Carolina middle school students' test scores dropped after they got home computers, suggesting they spent more time playing "The Sims" than working practice math problems.

The study by Jacob Vigdor and Helen Ladd at Duke's Sanford School of Public Policy challenges the accepted wisdom that children who don't have computers at home are at a disadvantage compared with their wired classmates.

via newsobserver.com

What a great example of a misleading headline. Reading the article and the cited report clarifies. It's when kids get distracted with socializing, not studying, that there's a problem. But that's part of parental involvement. For my family, the computer, which is the gateway to the internet, has provided more opportunity for a broad range of topics and research than we could get from going to a local library where there is no computer available. The News Observer gets a failing grade for this article.

Posted via web from brothero's fiefdom

Pizza Mart in DC

2010-06-12T15:28:00.002-04:00

Went to Jumbo Pizza yesterday, but it wasn't the one on the Travel Channel. Still, that was a huge slice of pizza! Today, went to the one featured on the travel channel. Another huge slice.But I think yesterdays was just as good, less expensive and the guys yesterday were friendly. Oh, they had beef pepperoni.&Go beef!!!!

Military Spouse Tuition Assistance programs - check it out! http://starturl.com/yrhko

2010-05-31T22:17:00.001-04:00

Posted via email from brothero's fiefdom

Hope Is Over-rated

2009-01-19T11:24:00.003-05:00

Today started out great! A non-work day in Germany! I grabbed the camera and headed out to take some photos of Mannheim. A couple miles into my jaunt around town, it started raining lightly. No big deal, I was sporting a waterproof jacket I bought in China a couple years ago. Thank goodness the Chinese make good knock-offs because that rain bounced off my jacket like bullets bouncing off Superman…cool.

About a half hour later the rain started really picking up so I begrudgingly retreated back to the hotel. Mesh running shoes and cold rain don’t mix well.

Unfortunately, I had no internet connection at the hotel and the TV channels were all in German (go figure) except for CNN International so I settled in to watch that. Great, another repeat of Inside Africa followed by a repeat of International Correspondents. After awhile I was sure I was going insane because I began repeating everything the reporters said. I reached a point where I think if I had a handgun I would have pulled an Elvis and shot the TV!

I pulled myself up out of the chair, threw on my jacket, put on boots this time, and made the trek to the nearest military installation, usually not a bad walk but it was raining icicle daggers and the wind was gusting at 100 knots. The only thing that kept me going were the cozy thoughts of hot coffee, a warm keyboard and the heat from a LCD monitor at the cyber café on the installation. I love the 21st century!

After what seemed like days, I finally made it to the installation and saw the friendly, inviting glow of the AAFES cyber café! I thanked God for the day, the café, the trees, the ground, the rain…okay, not the rain, but you get the idea, pretty much everything as I made my way to the magnificent entryway.

I reached for the majestic door handle, pulled and…nothing. Then I noticed a sign on the door. Closed for the holiday. As I looked around, all doors leading to warmth and possible entertainment were closed and had neat little signs proclaiming the holiday. My mind went numb, my vision went dark and hope seeped out of my soul and froze to the ground. No longer did the trees or ground or anything around me seem colorful and beautiful.

I’m sure I stood there, in front of those cold, rusting locked doors, in the rain, for a few hours, contemplating my next move. The choices were: stand in the cold, dagger icicle rain all day and night, or go back to the hotel and watch CNN Inside Africa and International Correspondents all day and night. Standing in the rain seemed more appealing.

Eventually, I turned around and slowly began to trudge back to the only shelter I knew, the hotel. At least there I would be greeted by the friendly face of Isha Sesay. Along the journey, a man in the shadows did take pity on me and allowed me to use his internet connection for a brief period. Strange that I had to sign some document in blood that mentioned my soul before I received access. Oh well, it’s probably nothing to worry about.

Bench of a Million Pieces

2008-12-17T22:46:00.003-05:00

So I bought this BowFlex weight bench because using the coffee table just isn't cuttin' it. The table's too wide and I'm starting to scuff it and I can't hide the marks anymore.

I ordered the bench from Amazon.com because shipping is free. Go Amazon! Free shipping in this down-turned economy is like Christmas! And Christmas it really seemed because the bench was delivered today, only two days after ordering! What the?!?! How can that be? Don't know and I'm not asking. I don't want any extra charges.

I dragged the box in, quickly opened and was ready to start using it. But there was a problem. The weight bench was in a million pieces! I stood there in awe of the assembly people for a while wondering how a weight bench could be in so many pieces. How is that possible? It was as bad as one of those stinkin' Chinese made book shelves I bought a couple years ago. Took me two days and some alcohol to put that thing together.

Once the amazement and utter shock wore off, I started in on the assembly. It took about 20 minutes, lots of sweat because the tools are never adequate, and much praying so I wouldn't "lose it" in front of my youngest.

Now it's assembled...yay! But I read a tag that says the seat material is made out of cemented polyurethane. Cemented?! I thought that was only for sidewalks and driveways! I'll bet it's some cancer-causing crap, which would be ironic since I bought the bench to make me healthier.

Stupid TV

2008-12-09T23:45:00.002-05:00

I had a little down time while on temporary duty so, while in my hotel room, I turned on the TV. Big mistake. The night consisted of watching a Discovery Health about a guy who had to have part of his skull removed (by a micro-saw) with a follow-on episode of a person who gets big ugly unexplained sores all over her body. Of course I could not change the channel because of the sick attraction to gore and strange things.

Once I came out of the trance, I turned to the next channel. It was about racist organizations in America with a follow-on episode about Gangs and guns.

By the end of the evening I was greatly depressed, obsessed with washing my hands every five minutes in case I inadvertently brushed against a deadly bacteria, and had a feeling of impending doom about walking out the door.

I think this is the hotel's way to keep people in their rooms and drink all their expensive liquor instead of going out and seeing the sights. Well, it worked.

Stupid Meat

2008-11-26T15:36:00.004-05:00

We just bought a megaton turkey for the great Thanksgiving Day event at our home. I love meat, especially chicken; turkey runs a close second. So, it saddens me when I read articles about people buying tofu and mooshing it into a mound to resemble a big turkey breast. I've eaten tofu. I used to eat it all the time in Korea. Koreans know their tofu and they can really cook that stuff up! But there ain't no way you can cook up tofu to taste like turkey; maybe the brains of turkey or the guts of turkey, but not good ol' solid turkey breast meat. There isn't anything in the world that can replicate meat except meat, but then if that's your quest it doesn't make sense.

Wait, I may want to take that back. Spam is supposed to be meat. Its original purpose was to replicate a big ol' chunk of ham. But Spam is not ham. In fact, I don't know if anyone really knows what Spam is. Maybe it's tofu, old hardened tofu left over from the Korean War and doused with some kind of jellified sauce. Don't get me wrong, I like jelly, but not meat by-product jelly. That's just nasty.

What I find ironic is how there are so many recipes and sites on the Great Internet for tofu turkey or tofurkey (that's such a funny word, sounds almost like a cuss word) but the point of using tofu is NOT to have a bird on the table. I'm confused.

I think if I decided to go all out with tofu/no meat, on Thanksgiving I would shape my tofu like a celery stalk or tomato or head of lettuce. But then I would rename a "head" of lettuce to a "ball" of lettuce. Head sounds too much like meat.

Related video: Youtube "They're made of Meat"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gaFZTAOb7IE

I Stared Death In The Face

2008-11-21T16:03:00.000-05:00

The day I stared Death in the Face, it wasn't very pretty. The day was actually very nice; sunny, about 72 degrees, fresh smell of autumn in the crisp air. I had to renew my city vehicle sticker so I drove to city hall. That city vehicle sticker...what is that all about?! Just another way The Man is keeping us down with more taxes... but that's another story.

City Hall...the nerve center of the city. The crown jewel of my great community; where freedom and justice is had by all. But the day I arrived, there was a disturbance outside the Halls of Justice. I just pulled up in my cool bullet-shaped hybrid when a car flew into the parking lot and screeched to a halt on the backside. A guy jumped out of the drivers side and tried to pull a female in his car, shouting, "Get in the car!! Get in the car!! Why you wanna do that and put me in jail?!"

I started to get out to see how I could help when the word "jail" stopped me in my tracks. JAIL?! Like in The Rock, The Big House, The House of Don't Drop the Soap in the Shower?! Thoughts flashed through my mind that this guy (Death) was an escaped convict who had crudely fashioned a shank from the prison metal shop, snuck it out by placing it in his posterior cavity, took it to his cell where he spent months carving a hole in the decaying prison walls. Finally he busted through to the other side and after the midnight watch, snaked through the steam pipe system, busted a hole in the old concrete sewage pipe and made his daring escape through the waste sludge of his fellow thugs, his hate ever increasing for revenge.

I knew I was about to see that infamous crude shank wrapped at one end with shreds of dirty underwear to make a handle, appear out of his jacket and slash the poor female to my front.

For some stupid reason, my feet began to involuntarily move towards the fray, into the jaws of death, like a stupid lamb innocently heading to the slaughter. Before I knew it I was staring Death himself right in his face...RIGHT IN HIS FACE. Okay, we were about 2 yards away from each other but I could see the hate in his eyes and smell the rage induced sweat from his Grim Reaper body.

Death halted his deathly actions to give me the look. You know, the steely eyed death look...up and down. I managed to mutter something about his actions only making things worse for his situation, which seems "negotiator cool" but it probably sounded more like the slurring sounds of the Attorney General at the Marriott before he collapsed to the floor recently.

After, what seemed like an hour, Death finally turned away, got in his death-mobile and took off with his two other death henchmen who were riding in the back of the vehicle.

I'd like to take credit for stopping a public flaying and blood bath, but I think it was the gathering crowd behind me that actually deterred the potentially ugly event.

As I reflect on the events of that day, all I can think of is...I need to check into getting a concealed gun permit because there were no police around...and this was at City Hall!

Women's Day...Ugh!

2008-11-10T23:00:00.000-05:00

I've been debating for an entire day whether or not I should even write about this...but, it's really been on my mind and, what the heck, it's only a public blog so no one will read this.

Sunday was Women's Day at church. I didn't know that until I got to church, but that was a welcome change. I like the church changing things up. There are three pastors who all take turns with the sermons. I like that; keeps things fresh.

Okay, first event of the day was getting up. That IS an event because Saturday night is movie and game night (Xbox/Wii) with the family. We didn't retire for the night until early AM. That's why we usually go to the latter service.

I looked in my closet for the right pants. I dress from bottom up..."Those black pants cling to my legs, those dark blue too long in the legs, these khakis make my butt look big. Okay, I'm going with the jeans. The ones from yesterday seem okay. No major dirt." The shirt was easier to choose because jeans mean casual. Had to rule out my two cool shirts. "How About A Nice Hot Cup Of...." and "Finch Better Have My Money" seemed inappropriate, so I went with a green polo shirt (even though I don't play polo).

Got to church, sat in a cozy seat, did a Twitter text, saw out of the corner of my eye the spouse give me one of those looks, put away the comm device, then it was time to sing. The music minister led us in America The Beautiful and Battle Hymn of the Republic. What a surprise. I think that was the same program from last Vet's Day. Why do we only sing those songs on Memorial Day and Vet's Day, anyway? Well, at least it wasn't Lee Greenwood's God Bless the USA. We Soldiers hear that song more than any normal human can stand; in every hooah video, every Welcome Home event, Going Away event, ball, dining-in, etc... Thank goodness we're Army Strong because normal strong couldn't take all that Lee Greenwood.

Third song was some obscure old Navy song from 1157AD or so. It was the music minister's fav so we had to stand and sing that one. What the!? Why not stand for America the Beautiful? Okay, I'm going to figure out how to be music minister for the day sometime so I can make people stand to "Peanut Butter Jelly Time" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8MDNFaGfT4 just because I like that one.

After the songs they announced it was Women's Day at the church. Unfortunately, the women had to share with the veterans because it was Veteran's Day sunday. No big deal, just tell the vets to stand, round of applause and then have them sit again.

For some reason, that wasn't good enough. The church made a really long video with slow changing photos and two very long patriotic songs on Powerpoint. I'm a Soldier, I've seen this before. It's like standard operating procedure for these types of events, so I sat through it all the while fighting the urge to get out the comm device to check Twitter. It's not that I don't like the church's efforts, but it's so darn predictable. Heck, mix it up a bit. Dress some guys up like they're "Charlie", lob some smoke grenades down the aisle and toss in some firecrackers. Activate some of those suppressed flashbacks and, well, then you would have a great service! Everybody low-crawlin' around in the sanctuary, vets running around all crazified. That would be a service long remembered.

Anyway, back to reality. Long Powerpoint slideshow, I go catatonic until I hear the golf-clap applause for the slideshow finale, then the sermon. Come to find out, Women's Day was just an event to have the women take over the service. It wasn't a tribute to women, just a day off for the male clergy. The lady delivering the sermon did spend a couple minutes explaining some of the organizations the Women's Society helps, but that was all. So I left feeling kind of like I missed the main event.

I don't feel any of the church staff meant to cheat the women and this is definitely not anything against God. Heck, if it weren't for God, I wouldn't be here to type this. His grace has carried me everyday.

I do see this kind of thing often in civilian organizations. Folks just don't really stop to think what Women's Day really means or Vet's Day or Memorial Day. What should have happened for Women's Day was to rename it something like Women's Heritage Day. Then use the entire event to highlight how women have contributed to the church from the early days of reformation up to now. Maybe have some posters in the narthex with historical postings and photos. Maybe have some songs tossed in that were composed by women. Guess I should suggest that for next year. But then, I may have the rose pinned on me to organize that day. Uh, maybe I should have my spouse raise the issue.

Deep Fry This!

2008-11-05T21:50:00.000-05:00

So I'm sitting here thinking about how much food is deep-fried or has bacon added to it. One of the most challenging things for me is going to a restaurant and trying to find something NOT deep-fried and non-baconfied (sure, its a word). I recently went to a Chinese restaurant to find something fresh and healthy to eat. What was I thinking?! It was a Chinese restaurant! That means deep-fried everything...spring/egg rolls, stuffed won ton, noodles, General Tsos chicken, etc And what's not deep-fried is drenched in salt with a little bit of soy sauce. I've been to China and I know normal Chinese do not eat that junk. That's why they all live to be 125 yrs old and Americans seem to have by-pass surgery at 14, then die at 36. At an amusement park I saw deep-fried Twinkies and Snickers. How do you deep-fry a Twinkie without soaking up a gallon of liquid lard? After seeing that, I became convinced restaurants could deep-fry turds, put them on sticks and sell them for a good sum of money. If sales began to fall, just wrap a piece of bacon around it.

Soldier or Pokemon

2008-10-28T23:01:00.000-04:00

I've been wondering what I should do once I hang up my Army Combat Uniform. It was suggested I should look into teaching, maybe middle or high school. However, what am I going to teach them? I dont know of too many teens who want to know how to set up a claymore mine, disassemble and reassemble an M16A2, or call in artillery fire on infantry in the open (WP and airbursts are good). Maybe some of the young folks might want to know intersection/resection/basic map reading so they can figure out how to get home from a friend of a friends house who they dont really know but still went to the social event. But a map reading class doesnt take an entire school year.

So, Im thinking about becoming a Pokemon trainer. This isnt something Im rushing into. Ive been thinking about this for awhile, ever since a friend mentioned that there was a need for such people in this world. Ive been playing and replaying episodes of Pokemon to study the techniques of Ash, Morrison, Team Rocket, Tyson and the like. Hey, if a punk like Tyson can train a Pokemon, so can I. All I need is a Pokemon. I really dont want Jigglypuff (sounds like Jigglybutt) or Clefairy (come on...Clefairy) for obvious reasons. Pikachu is cool but too tied to Ash. Maybe something like Machop, which ultimately evolves into Machamp, who has four arms! Four arms....cool.

I know it would be hard work, but I do have a PS2 Digimon game that involves me training a Digimon, which I think are similar to Pokemon in the aspect of training. Maybe if I play that game while staying in a Holiday Inn Express, that will help (reference the Holiday Inn Express commercials).