Archives for June 2005

In a little more than a year I have put up more than a 1000 posts, maybe close to 1700. Now I may not have written everything contained within, I may have engaged in a few cut and paste jobs, but I know that the overwhelming am0unt of content I produce is spelled correctly.

There are some grammatical errors here and there, but for the most part my material is clean.

So I am not concerned about complaining about the grammatical and spelling problems that have taken on epic proportions within the blogosphere. Your posts do not have to be perfect, but come on now, if there are multiple errors in every post you should do something about it.

Have you no shame, no sense of worth, no pride in your production. Give a damn and clean it up.

P.S. For all of you who think that it is cool to wRiTe LiKe Dis ^%^#%^#%^# and splatter all sorts of other annoying colors and crap I have news for you. You look like an idiot, but chances are you don’t know that because you are too stupid to read. Or maybe you are brilliant but your writing is so annoying that I refuse to try reading it.

Bleah!

“LOS ANGELES – After four significant earthquakes in less than a week, Californians are getting jittery, with some stocking up on water, food, cash and even insurance. But seismologists say clusters of quakes are not unheard of and do not necessarily mean the Big One is coming.

After several years of relative seismic calm, the recent quakes are a not-so-gentle reminder that the ground here is never as solid as it seems.

The shaking began Sunday morning with a magnitude-5.2 temblor in the Anza area of Riverside County, about 90 miles southeast of downtown Los Angeles. That was followed by a magnitude-7.2 quake Tuesday night under the Pacific Ocean off Eureka — an unrelated incident that prompted a tsunami warning.

Thursday brought two quakes that were 10 hours and about 700 miles apart: one of magnitude 4.9 in San Bernardino County and another late that night of magnitude 6.6, also centered off the Northern California coast.

As groups of quakes often do, this week’s shaking brought murmurs of the “Big One” — the kind of quake that moves mountains and levels entire cities.

“I think we’re on our way to the ‘Big One,'” said Jacki Breger, 61, executive director of a Los Angeles charter school who plans to overhaul the school’s emergency plans by this fall. “It makes me really nervous with so much quake activity.”

Marian Garcia, 24, isn’t taking any chances. She stuffed two backpacks with sweaters, shoes and canned food, and her 4-year-old daughter now sleeps with her instead of in the little girl’s own bedroom.

“In case we have to get out there, I want to be close to her,” said Garcia, who works at a downtown Los Angeles flower stand.

Some studies have suggested that the San Andreas fault, which leveled much of San Francisco in 1906 and extends more than 800 miles through California, may be about to release pent-up energy.

But that’s not a consensus opinion — earthquakes just aren’t that predictable, and a few jolts don’t necessarily mean a huge quake is imminent.

“We don’t know whether the ‘Big One’ is coming,” said Tom Jordan, director of the Southern California Earthquake Center.

The last major rupture on the southern portion of the fault happened in 1857, when an estimated 7.9-magnitude quake struck. It severely damaged Fort Tejon, but there was minimal damage statewide because California was sparsely populated at the time and had no high-rise buildings.

The flurry of quakes typically leads homeowners to buy earthquake insurance, which only about 14 percent of homeowners currently have.”

I purchased earthquake insurance as soon as I purchased my home. Better safe than sorry. I just don’t worry about earthquakes, they happen when they happen and I can’t do a thing to stop them, but I can be prepared for them. And that is something that I make a point of doing.

This really bothers me. Jeb Bush’s efforts to subvert the law and adapt things to fit his tiny little worldview were defeated by the courts so now he is out to get Michael Schiavo.

This is just ridiculous. This is pure partisan pandering and petulant behavior on his part, especially in light of the autopsy that proved that she would never have recovered or improved whatsoever.

Give both sides some peace and the opportunity to try and heal.

Many years ago I purchased a Dr. Seuss anthology at Costco. It was well before I had children but since I like Dr. Seuss and always planned on having kids it made sense.

My four year-old has come to love reading these stories in both English and Hebrew (We have the Cat-In-The-Hat in Hebrew as well as a couple of other books).

Last night we read one of my favorites. How The Grinch Stole Christmas. During which I answered many questions about the book, far too many to list, but I did want to share one comment.

Just before my son fell asleep he said to me, “Abba we read about a grouch tonight.” I smiled and told him that the character is named “The Grinch.” He smiled at me and said, “He is mean. That makes him a grouch and a grinch.”

That little boy just makes me smile as does this link.

Ok, I still can’t stop laughing thinking about this post and the comments about it.

The Bastard. That is what I have been calling the jackass that robbed us last week. In truth there were three people that participated, two women and one man. Oh, don’t let me forget the baby that they dragged along to use as camoflauge for their ill-intentions, the place that they hid their loot. The loot that I worked hours upon hours for.

For the most part I have been successful in not thinking too much about this, but it creeps in to my thoughts because of any number of things. The time, effort and money that I lost because they felt entitled to helping themselves to something that doesn’t belong to them.

Today my son asked me about it again and I was reminded again that they robbed him of some innocence and that is part of what fuels the fire. I think in very graphic terms. My thoughts have always resembled a movie. If you got inside my head you would see moving pictures, incredible sound and some amazing stunts. I’d have my 20 year-old body and my 36 year-old mind and life experience.

You know it is funny how life experience and maturity temper your response. At 20 I could still benchpress more than 300 pounds. I could curl 150 and I could run for miles without being winded. At 20 I would have jumped on top of this guy and begun pounding him. I would have used all of my strength to force him to comply with my wishes to return our property and for good measure I would have tried to replace the location of his head and ass.

At 36 I was smart enough to look and listen. I had the sense to consider the potential outcomes and not rely upon brute strength and dumb luck to get me through the day. My neighbor asked me today what I would have done if I had made it inside the elevator in time to see them explore purse.

I am not totally sure, it is one of those situations in which it is easy to play armchair quarterback. But I am willing to admit that had I been inside there, I would have been willing to use force to reacquire my property. And it shames me a little to admit this, the women would have been at risk, the same risk as the male. Had I needed to use force I would have, or so I think.

The nice thing about this blog is that I can vent, I can blow off steam in a safe environment. The last time I hit a girl was around 30 years ago, maybe a little bit more. I hit my middle sister and faced the wrath of my father who explained to me that I was never allowed to hit women or my sister. And then he followed it up with an explanation of why I was to protect my sisters.

And that is the modern beginning of a protective streak, what some would call an overprotective streak. And it is part of why even though I feel comfortable in my actions of last week, there is still a small piece that feels like I didn’t make the grade.

I’ll be back at that Target again. And every time I go back I will search the aisles and shelves for signs of the three bastards. If they have any brains they will never return there, but if they do I will recognize them and this time around there may be a different story. I don’t mean that to be a threat of physical violence. Nah, as much as I would like to hit them in the mouth, I would like even more to watch them be arrested.

My family is safe and I am thankful. In time this will be one more story, one more piece of the tapestry of my life, but for now I’ll have to accept that my trust in people is diminished and that is rather sad.

Don’t you think.