Dick Measuring In The Cold

“It doesn’t make a difference what temperature a room is, it’s always room temperature.”~Steven Wright

Holy crap, folks!!!

Not minutes after posting the last blog post, a major “dick measuring” contest broke out on social media.

I mentioned the LOCAL temperature here this morning and people from other parts of the country just had to chime in with their local temperature reading, as if it was some sort of contest.

The temperature was not the point of the blog. The fight that people were outside fighting was the point.

So here are some meteorological facts for those who don’t know or for those who just don’t seem to get it:

I’m in Austin, Texas. And Austin, Texas rarely gets as cold as the rest of the nation during the winter months. Although at the beginning of the year, the weather will get very cold but the coldest part of that day will be hours before the sun rises.

Austin, Texas rarely gets temperatures as low as they have been in the past couple of days. Hell, the southern states don’t get as cold as they have been in recent days. Not to mention that Texas doesn’t have a lot of experience with winter-like weather, such as sleet, freezing rain, ice, and snow.

So when these places in the country actually turn cold, you’re going to hear about it on social media. Plain and simple. If it snows in Texas, you are going to hear about it. Even if you have inches of snow on the ground where you are located and have been dealing with freezing temperatures for a while.

Same thing happens when the northern part of the country reaches sweltering heat during the summer. You’re going to hear about it from people in the north because they are not used to it.

There’s no reason for the comparisons to be honest. Just understand that for some people this is a freaky phenomenon that is happening. No need to bust out the plumage on your tail feathers.

I swear, some people’s children!!!

Oh, Charlie Hebdo!!

The French weekly satirical newspaper is at it again.

Their most recent artwork for their publication suggests a very serious moment in the time of Hurricane Harvey striking the very heart and soul of the state of Texas.

To those readers who do not speak French, it reads: GOD EXISTS! HE DROWNED ALL THE NEO-NAZIS IN TEXAS!

This rather insulting cover goes above and beyond to be mocking those people who have Christian beliefs, but more focused this is against those people who are victims of the recent hurricane. And they want to call it humor.

The only ones laughing are those at Charlie Hebdo. And definitely not a single person is laughing in Texas.

For those who do not remember, Charlie Hebdo suffered two terrorist attacks. The most recent back in January of 2015 because they dared to publish an image that mocked Islam on their cover. (The same as they have done with the victims of Hurricane Harvey today.) Two Islamic extremists who were heavily armed stormed the office of the newspaper and held people hostage, killing several people and the entire attack left twelve dead and eleven injured.

And now more than two and a half years later, one could argue that Charlie Hebdo have not learned anything. They mock the citizens of Texas during a very severe disaster, casting those who were lost in the storm as Neo-Nazis.

Hurricane Harvey may have left the state of Texas, but millions of people are still dealing with the effects of what the storm brought. Nearly HALF of the state’s population was forced to deal with Harvey in one way or another. And these effects will most definitely be long lasting.

Even though Charlie Hebdo is purely satire, it has the rest of the world in an uproar. Many people are finding the recent publication offensive, tasteless, and abhorrent.

The idea that the victims of this hurricane were Neo-Nazis is one of the dumbest, most ignorant things that I have ever heard.

And Charlie Hebdo sits thousands of miles away, hiding away in their offices filled with self-amusement and laughter while Americans ponder the thought about the newspaper suffering yet again the same experiences they had in early 2015 and if they ever think about having to go through that again.

It obviously  isn’t going to happen. I DOUBT that any citizen of the state of Texas is going to waste their time, resources, and money to fly to Paris to seek retribution against the newspaper because they were offended.

Instead the state of Texas and ALL of its people are rolling their eyes at Charlie Hebdo.

Texas doesn’t have time for any of that nonsense!!!

We are too busy taking care of our own to be worried about what some insignificant weak ass publication may or may not think about the people of Texas. There are people who need help. There are people who are hurt. There are people who are dead. And those are the  people that we will focus our attention on, until this disaster is over and the needs of the people are met.

These people will be attended to. No matter if they are white or black, liberal or conservative, members of the KKK or Black Lives Matter. If they are calling out for help, then the state of Texas and its people are going to reach out to do just that!!! Americans are helping Americans.

We don’t have the time to be divided as Charlie Hebdo would like us to be. This horrible storm has done the exact opposite and brought everyone together in Texas AND all across the United States of America! Millions of people across the land are doing what they can either by donating money or giving supplies and other goods while the employees sit back laughing and try to think of who they can piss off next week.

It is not working as well as they had hoped here in Texas. Nobody here cares about what other nations think of them right now.

So to those employees in Paris:

We don’t need you. You can keep your fries and Eiffel Tower. We already have BBQ and The Alamo.

Harvey

Houston, Texas: August 2017

“Anyone who says they’re not afraid at the time of a hurricane is either a fool or a liar, or a little bit of both.” Anderson Cooper

I decided to blog about the experiences of the most recent of days. I know a few people have reached out to find out if I was okay and I am appreciative.

Texas is a giant mess right now. However locally it is not as severe as other places.

Harvey was brutal when it made land as a category 4 hurricane. By the time the true outer bands of the storms had reached my area it was only a Tropical Storm. And as of the time of this blog being written, it remains as one.

It began to rain late Friday night/early Saturday morning. And it has been ever since in this area. The storm either was not moving at all or not very fast which caused so much rain to fall in the area. The more east you go from where I am the worse it gets with rivers flooding and mandatory evacuations being put into place.

All day Saturday and much of today (Sunday) there was a lot of wind and rain. The only problem was that the wind never stopped. It never slowed down. And it gusted over 50 mph at times.

My biggest worry throughout this event was the possibility of losing power. And that being over the weekend when nobody is really around. My home phone is connected along with my Internet service provider. If the power went out, the home phone went out. And with nobody around because of the weekend, had their been something that came up that I needed to reach out and call for help, I would not have been able to do so at all. I had my cell phone stolen while in a crowd of people the weekend before. So essentially, if the power went out, I would have been totally lost and in the dark.

I am thankful that never happened. The power did flicker once Saturday evening, but it just “blinked” and that was all.

I had barely used the telephone at all and never really opened my front door through it all.

By the time this whole thing could end and be gone, my area could potentially receive any where between ten and fifteen inches of rain. So even though the storm threat is gone, we will have to deal with the threat of major flooding for quite some time.

We had what is called the Memorial Day Weekend floods happen in 2015. I am not sure if Harvey is going to end up being a worse event than that or not. At least for this area.

My heart is crushed though because of the Houston area. Knowing so many people in that area and now realizing the horrible weather conditions that they are suffering at the moment is a horrible feeling. And it gets even worse knowing that its not over for them as of yet. With that area projected to receive over 40 inches of rain!!! I suspect that this will be a worse storm than Alison that they went through so many years ago.

I am safe for the most part. But due to the damage that the area did suffer through, it will be a struggle to adapt to until this storm clears out and the city is able to clean everything up. Even though the worst parts of Harvey are seemingly done for me, its a battle to be able to get out and get things I may need.

But I am alive. Thank you to all of those who reached out. My struggle alive and well, but it isn’t as bad as it is for the people in the Houston area. My thoughts are with them.

500 Pounds Of Ka-Ching

“For music, unlike a $500 software program, people are paying a buck or two a song, and it’s those dollars and pennies that have to add up to pay for not just the cost of that song, but the investment in the next song.”~ Hilary Rosen

Just when you thought it was safe. Just when you thought I had given up on this blog…

I’m starting 2015 with a whopper of a story. And surprisingly enough, it does not take place in Florida. It does not take place in California. It does not take place in New York.

No, it happened in Slaton, Texas.

That’s right. Texas!!! Hang on to your cowboy hats.

81 year old Ira Keys has found himself going viral today with the story of his almost lifetime savings that he took to the bank. He deposited 500 pounds (almost 227 kg) of pennies. His total deposit amount just a little over $800 USD.

What blows my mind is that this adventure in savings started well over 60 years ago and he’s just now going to the bank. All the weight of the coin that he brought in nearly broke down his pick up truck. That’s how heavy it all was. Plus I can just imagine the looks of people’s faces inside the bank that day when he went to deposit his coins.

How far have you gone to save money? What’s the largest amount you ever put aside?

 

http://www.wsfa.com/story/27873171/slaton-man-deposits-500-pounds-of-pennies

Idiot Award For August 2014

Go ahead. Make me dizzy with my eyes a-rollin’..

This one is way to close to home.

Meet Alicia Walicke of Cedar Park, Texas. A city just outside of Austin, Texas.

Her boyfriend apparently went to jail for reasons unknown at the moment.

But she wanted to take full responsibility for her significant other’s incarceration, and so she decided to steal a bottle of wine that cost $3.99!

Walicke made it NO secret what she was doing and when the police officers arrived on the scene and began to arrest her, she insisted that she be taken to jail.

Just so she could be with or be closer to her boyfriend.

Umm……….. what??!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!??!!?!?!?????????????

I guess it shouldn’t be a surprise that Walicke does have a criminal history for similar actions, but stealing a bottle of Mad Dog 20/20 just to be closer to your significant other. That places you up there with the rest of the boneheads, morons, and idiots of this world that keep the progression of the human race from advancing as far as they can.

Walicke was released after posting $5,000 last Friday. No word on whether or not she got to “make it up to her boyfriend” or not.

Then again, how in the world was she going to do that to begin with? She should have known just by her own criminal arrest record that she would be separated from the male inmates.

She makes it easy to pick on her hair color. But I’m not going to sink to her levels of whatever you wanna call it.

I fear that one of these days, this award is going to be handed out to someone that I personally know!!!!

But this honestly is the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard just to get next to someone. Couldn’t she just wait out her boyfriend’s incarceration time to be served? Then “make it up to him” in other ways??

http://www.statesman.com/news/news/local/cedar-park-woman-stole-wine-to-follow-boyfriend-to/ng3y2/

 

Not The First Rodeo For Ft. Hood

“When life knocks you down, try to land on your back. Because if you can look up, you can get up. Let your reason get you back up.”~ Les Brown

I’m just speechless that another senseless act of violence and death happened yet again at Ft. Hood near Killeen, Texas.

Since the horrible events of 2009 where Nidal Hasan went on a killing rampage, it appears that another soldier carried out another deadly attack.

However the casualties are far less than what they were in 2009.

Nidal Hasan is in custody at the United States Disciplinary Barracks.

The soldier that caused the havoc in 2014 is dead by his own hand.

And so I watch all of these reports and they are constantly connecting 2014 shooting with Hasan’s rampage in 2009.

What they are NOT saying is that these two shootings are not the first time Ft. Hood has dealt with soldiers killing while on base. There has been others who have killed. But they are not talking about that.

PFC Dwight J. Loving (in custody)

PFC Dwight J. Loving was a soldier at Ft. Hood and he was involved in a series of crimes of robbing convenience stores. But what ties him to Ft. Hood and the base is the fact that Loving called for a cab and then he robbed the driver at gunpoint. Then shot him in the head, killing him.

Loving soon after called for another cab and he did the same thing, he robbed the driver and then shot him in the head and killed him in secluded areas of the military base.

Loving was apprehended the next day. Now he sits on United States military death row, waiting for his own execution. The same as Nidal Hasan. There are currently FIVE military members that are military death row.

Loving’s crimes happened in December of 1988.  Hasan was more than twenty years later and now this tragedy less than five years later.

I’m just so surprised that nobody is reporting on ALL tragic shootings for Ft. Hood.

SNAFU Of Lesser Values

Well this stinks.

Today is the birthday of one of my most cherished people from my past and my memories.

I don’t EVER hear from her any more. Other than when I send a cordial e-mail to her on days like today. Usually once a year, I e-mail her with some kind of random birthday message filled with love.

But she’s not one to receive that kind of thing. Why is it that I always find the women that once you even HINT at the “L word” that they wanna pull out all of their hair, spork their eye balls out of their sockets and run screaming into the hills?? Seriously.. you all need to work on that. Its 2014 for crying outloud.

At any rate, I realize that this long lost pillar of admiration of mine has Facebook. So I went for the add. Request was accepted.

I thought she lived just outside of the Houston, Texas area. But it was a shock to see that she no longer is living there. But rather on the other side of the state.

Meanwhile, I have been going on a Facebook rampage using the hack and slash method against my Friends List. And literally took the definition of decimation and applied it.

Shock and horror surfaced as I realized that my admiration pillar now lives in the SAME community/city as does the one that I had affectionately named “the succubus.”

I’ve mentioned her before, she’s the one that has all the talk, but has no walk. I actually had the testicular fortitude to delete her from Facebook. The thing about it, is that it will take her months to figure out that I’m gone. So, on the surface it appears that I am in good shape.

But with the admiration pillar being there currently, it seems as if I may have reacted or acted prematurely? I mean, I don’t know…. I didn’t know that the two separate camps were in the same area as one another. I’d love to finally meet face to face with the one that I do admire so much. But I would also like to try and leave the succubus out of it.

The rubbish that entertains one’s soul on a Thursday morning.

 

DFW Sled Hockey Has Equipment Stolen

“Rape, mutilation, abuse, and theft are the natural outcome of a world in which force rules, in which human beings are objects.”~ Chris Hedges

Recently, it has been in the news about how the sled hockey team located in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area had equipment stolen from them.

http://dfw.cbslocal.com/video/9359854-equipment-stolen-from-dfw-sled-hockey-team/

It becomes more and more surprising for me that there are more people in this world who are so low that they have to engage in criminal activities such as these.

And now all the extra equipment for the Dallas team is gone and they have to rebuild.

I decided personally as a member of a sledge hockey team, as well as being part of the Texas Sled Hockey League, that I would put this out there to everyone in the world to read about. Hopefully with your kindness that is within your heart, you will be able to help DFW Sled Hockey get back to where they used to be.

Send your donations to the address below:

SWAA
Attn: Sled Hockey Equipment
PO Box 1389
Hurst, TX76053

Entering Into Texas History

That pretty much says it all right there. I first saw it when I visited The Alamo in San Antonio, Texas and pretty much have kept up with a collection of anything that had that quote by Davy Crockett printed on it. Starting out with a t-shirt.

The unfortunate thing is that Davy Crockett would be one of the many who were slaughtered at The Alamo on the 6th of March, in 1836. Along with other prominent characters of Texas, as well as United States history. Characters that would be noted for building the state of Texas as we know it today.

But here I was, only just yesterday, Taking in a lot of state history and overloading my brain with everything.

We had taken a field trip to the Texas State Capitol and I had never been to it before, so I didn’t really know what to expect.

I was given the wrong impression that we were embarking on this historical journey on the anniversary of the Battle of Gonzales, which is also important to the story of the state of Texas.  

Evidently, I was a few days too early as the “COME AND TAKE IT” incident didn’t actually happen until October.

Nonetheless, the four of us were dropped off and were looking for the handicapped accessible entrance to this great state monument. And wouldn’t you know it, it was all the way in the back what is considered the South Entrance.

We looked around on our own for a bit, before finding the North Entrance that was actually more interesting than any of the other entrances.

Statue of Stephen F. Austin at the Texas State Capitol

It was where we found that there were in fact, Capitol tours. And a few wanted to join one. But because we were going to be picked up in just 90 minutes, we had to make sure that we had enough time. But the tour guide said about 30 minutes. And so we jumped on board.

The one thing about state capitols is that the artwork and all that is kept within its walls is so mind-blowing and spectacular. I mean, there were paintings of the “Founding Fathers of Texas” that were on the wall bigger than my home. And definitely larger than ANY vehicle out on the road today. It was incredible.

Statues and artwork were everywhere. Including a large collection of every single past governor of the state of Texas were along the walls and the collection apparently goes up each and every floor to the top of the rotunda with the most current governors on the ground floor.

When Governor Perry leaves office, his portrait will go on the walls of the Capitol. And it was mentioned that there are only space for seven more portraits and they do not know what they are going to do after that.

On the ground floor is the image of the five circles of Texas, which gives tribute to all of the different nations who had ruled over the land. The French, the Spanish, even being its own nation for a short time. I thought that was really cool too.  

From the middle is a star and to the top of the Capitol dome is another star which is apparently eight feet in diameter. And from start to star from the floor to the top of the dome is 223 feet.

Way too cool. It was hilarious to watch these people stand on the center star on the ground floor and attempt to look straight up inside the dome and nearly fall and bust their asses.

This was the fourth state capitol that I have visited in my entire life time. And it was just more and more and more impressive.

At least for me it was.

Our tour guide, the longer we were with her, well… she was turning into something really cute. And that was almost going to turn into a problem.

But we continued on, I said nothing to her personally. And we checked out the legislative rooms where everyone does their government work. Both the House and the Senate.

The Texas State Capitol however has some really cool stuff in it. And I wondered if that was the case for every state capitol in the nation. The unfortunate thing is that its been so long since the last capitol that I visited that I don’t really remember what was inside.

Probably the one thing that blew my mind was the life of Sam Houston. Yet another founding father of the state. His political career is curiously interesting.

Sam Houston is the only person ever to be governor of two states. He was governor of Texas in 1859 through 1861. He had been a U.S. Senator from the state of Texas in 1846 through 1859. 

But here’s some thing that I never knew about Sam Houston: He was named the first and third President of the Republic of Texas, once from 1836 through 1838 and then again, in 1841 through 1844.

In 1827, he was governor of Tennessee. So that makes him the only person to be governor of two states of the union.

Sam Houston is buried in Huntsville, Texas.

I probably could have spent all day there. But we got separated from the tour group, because we didn’t understand the instructions on where to meet. We found ourselves asking the Texas State troopers where the Gift Shop was.

When we were led into the right direction……. HELL BROKE LOOSE.

We met up with our “turning cute” tour guide and realized that it was basically the end of the tour, so we instead just went on our own way into the Gift Shop.

Somewhere in the world…… it turned dark. Nearly pitch black as $61 dollars was burned up and gone from my pocket. Can anyone say OUCH?!?!?!?!?

The one t-shirt alone was $19.

Souvenirs are just not cheap any more and I think I may have stumbled on to an expensive hobby.  

The Texas State Capitol though has got some really odd statues on the lawn and property. Some of which were dedicated to the CONFEDERATE state of Texas during the Civil War. I never thought I would see something like that. But there it was.

After that, I returned home. But my day was not over. Not by a very long shot at all.

I had plans to go out to Sixth Street to watch a show. I had been looking forward to it for a very long time. And simply because of that, I had some serious dork moments last night. But that’s for the next blog post.

Let’s just say that I hope and pray that I’ve made a new friend.

 

 

Unusual Justice

“I’m just a musical prostitute, my dear.”~ Freddie Mercury

Here we go again.

I guess I was not finished talking about prostitution as this story was brought to my attention via Facebook this afternoon.

Of course with anything, I don’t always BELIEVE in everything that I read on Facebook. But this story had me wondering what just happened??

There is an online petition that is aimed at the Texas Attorney General because of this story to change the laws based on what happened in court recently. But the other parts of the petition are inaccurate and don’t give the full scope of the situation and story.

So let me fill you in on what I am blabbering on about.

She took Gilbert’s $150 in cash, but did not provide any services and attempted to leave his home with his money.

Ezekiel Gilbert was facing life imprisonment for the murder of a prostitute.

Gilbert had gone to Craigslist and hired a prostitute for the evening, paying $150 for her company and umm, services.

The prostitute then had a change of heart and decided that nothing was going to happen between the two of them and left Gilbert’s home to be picked up by her pimp who was waiting in the car outside. 

As Gilbert was obviously upset for not receiving any services, and the fact that the woman took his money and left, Gilbert went outside after the vehicle and started to fire his AK-47 at them in order to stop them from leaving and retrieve his money back.

But the bullets that were fired killed the prostitute.

And so he went to court because of her death. He was acquitted and not found guilty of any crimes.

WHY?

The state of Texas has a law that states that you are allowed to use force in a situation when at night, if you are being robbed or your property is being stolen. You are allowed to use said force in order to stop the criminal from stealing from you.

This is what Gilbert stated what he was aiming to do. Killing her however was not the intention.

So there you have it. Gilbert was within the law to do whatever he could in order to get his money back since the prostitute did not give up on her end of the deal. That is what the court decided.

Many people are outraged. They are so outraged and pissed off that they are attempting to make this a gun control issue, in which it isn’t.

Granted, I personally feel that AK-47 could be seen as overkill, but if that’s what he had to use in order to protect his property… then so be it.  The property in this matter obviously being his money after the prostitute pretty much called off the deal.

I have seen far too many links to this story in which whatever media outlet or journalist has taken the general basis of this story and blown it so far out of the water that it no longer has proportion. One going as far as to be so bold to accuse the state of  Texas to be sending a message that it is “okay” to kill prostitutes.

No, its NOT okay to kill….. anyone. 

It is ridiculous that those who had nothing to do with this story or had any connections to it could turn it to be so ugly on its head.

The story is tragic enough that a woman is now dead.

Prostitution in the state of  Texas is illegal. Protecting your property in the state of Texas within the letter of the law is not illegal.

And after all, this is TEXAS we are talking about. Second largest state in the nation. There’s going to be a lot of laws that are strange and peculiar.

‘Gimme back my money, you darned ho!! Come back here and cum to daddy!’

I am also going to guess that this law was signed in place during a time when bandits would steal horses and cattle from neighbors in the middle of the night. This law would obviously give them the protection that they needed to shoot someone in the ass and keep them from rustling and stealing.

So if the laws are so awful, then the people of Texas needs to stand up and let their lawmakers know that they want a change. Although I would have to be honest with you…. I don’t see that happening. This wasn’t even on the news this week. This came to my attention from some people who are “out there” if you know what I mean. And of  course they are crying foul. And to top it off, they are NOT from Texas.

This is a state law, not a national law. So please: calm the hell down!!

Gilbert is going to have to have to deal with this for the rest of his life regardless of whether or not he is behind bars. He stated in court that murder was not his intention. And whether or not Gilbert was lying about that… well, that’s going to be on his conscience as well.

Nobody won in this case. The stealing prostitute is dead. Gilbert has dug himself inside of an emotional hole from which he cannot get out of. And the law stands where it does today.