My Last Blog for a Week is a Movie Must See - Death in the Stone Valley

Never buy a Compaq!

I've had a Presario for a year and a few months, and the power adapter has gone out twice. They won't cover it. It's in and out now. I'm blogging on one of the "in" times. Now I'm debating between the $100 adapter and a Macbook, which is significantly more than $100, but virus free and calling my name like Dreamland ribs do so frequently.

We're headed to south Alabama for the week of July 12th through the 18th to visit family and friends. This will definitely lead to blogging material. I'll give this adapter a week-long break. I told the Compaq guy on the phone when he refused to help me that I'd tell the world on my blog. He didn't seem to care. (It was the only ammo I had.) So world, if you're in the market for a PC, don't go Compaq.

Fall comes after summer. I like fall. I like summer too.

Ah, summertime. I absolutely love it. You see a shot of the watermelon I attacked last night. What a fruit! And I love going to any larger body of water in heat like this... lake, river or beach. Though I'm still sore from skiing three days ago and from cutting my dumb grass this afternoon, there's no season I like better than summer. Except for fall. Why do I like fall better? Well, now that I'm 39 years old, I don't have to worry about school starting. (I loved the social and sports aspect. It was the whole book part I didn't like.) The fall has a lot to offer. The 90's cool on down to the 70's. Trees turn more interesting colors. And the joy that is football graces our television set on Saturdays and Sundays. I'm not wishing the summer away by any means. There's a ton more fun to have in the 50 or 60 something days left. I'm just really full from the watermelon and pouring my thoughts out here for whatever reason. I should probably stop typing since I said everything I'd planned to.

Alright, I'm blogging about Michael Jackson.

Michael Jackson's memorial service was viewed by 20,000 directly in the Staples Center, including a star-studded guest list, and by nearly 10 million online. I wasn't one of them. I had the Thriller album and wore out Startin' Somethin' and PYT right along with everybody else. When he freaked, I stopped caring. I hope he accepted Christ before death, but I honestly haven't shed a tear. I did however get a little angry. The city of Los Angeles set up a Web site Tuesday to allow fans to contribute money to help the city pay for his Staples Center memorial service. A spokesman for the mayor estimated the service will cost $1.5 million to $4 million. What? Don't you think the Jackson family has enough to cover their own funeral expenses without asking for handouts? Even Tito could handle that much.

Lake Blog Video

I'm at the Lake

I just wanted to say that I'm at the lake right now with family and friends and I'm not blogging today. I prerecorded this message on Friday to appear today so today's blog wouldn't be blank. Nobody wants a blank blog. Hopefully by now I haven't sustained any serious damage skiing, tubing, kneeboarding or faceriding. (Faceriding is when I fall face first into the water while skiing and swallow several gallons of water before letting go.) Pictures or video of the weekend could follow. Thanks.

Happy Independence Day!

The 4th of July is Independence Day. You knew that. It's the day we commemorate and celebrate the adoption of the Declaration of Independence. You knew that too. In case our liberties continue to be voted away by our "leaders" like they have been in just the last few months, I thought I'd post the first portion of the Declaration for you here. Have a happy 4th of July weekend! And a massive thank you to our soldiers here and overseas.

When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security.