As I said in a previous commentary, it sure is good to know Christmas is almost over. We finally finished getting all the cookies ready, packing them up, and shipping them out. We decided to relax last night and go to the mall… I know what you’re thinking, relax at the mall? Yeah right! Well, all the major stores were open until 10, so we decided to go. It was nice, very few people, no lines, and best of all, light traffic! haha. After the mall, we made an obligatory stop at my favorite store (not just Wal-Mart, but a Super Wal-Mart), and spent another hour there. When we walked in the door, we knew Christmas was almost over. It wasn’t the satisfaction that the cookies were done. It wasn’t the satisfaction that the last present had been purchased. What was it you ask? It seems Benny decided to “play” with the Christmas Tree (I wondered when he would). Yep, we came home, and found our Christmas Tree sleeping in front of the TV. There were bulb fragments everywhere. We were shocked that neither dog had cut their feet on all the glass. After containing our tempers and cleaning the apartment at 11 o’clock at night, we chuckled. We now have a very homely Christmas Tree with only one bulb, and a very frazzled looking angel. Trying to look on the bright side, I sit here and think, hey, at least he’s learning to potty outside! Have a great day! :)

Nine years ago today, 270 people were killed when a terrorist bomb exploded aboard Pan Am Flight #103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. Efforts are still underway to extradite the two suspected bombers from Libya. In remembrance of the victims (259 on the plane, and 11 on the ground), today I am posting a poem I wrote back in August of 1989, and asking you to observe a moment of silence in honor of the victims and their families.

When Planes Fall From The Sky
The tears flow from my eyes, as I hear the awful news,
One man is in deep despair, while another man sues.
It happened on a cold windy day, they say it was a bomb,
I keep repeating in my mind, the twenty-third Psalm.

With all of our technology, how could we let this happen?
Was it a simple oversight, did one bomb get by, or ten?
How could a bomb slip by them, aren’t they paid to see?
And why are they so quick to say, “Hey, it wasn’t me!”

Of course I am talking of the bomb, on the Pan Am jet,
They have found the cause, inside a radio it was set.
I feel sorry for the victims, and the people of Lockerbie,
But thank the Lord it did not blow, over the open sea.

What will be done now, to correct this problem in the air?
Before another bomb blows up, and a plane begins to tear.
Is tigher security the answer, to this awful airline plight?
Should we all be strip searched, before each and every flight?

Whatever the answer may be, I hope it comes real fast,
Before another airline jet, becomes a victim of the past.
Every time I hear of this, I think of all who die,
It really makes me worry so, when planes fall from the sky.

If you wish to find out more about the crash, please visit the Pam Am 103 Crash Page or the Lockerbie Memorial Page. That’s all for today. :)

Wow, what a birthday! I spent the entire morning trying to figure out a mysterious “unknown device” in Windows 95. Wouldn’t it be nice if Windows 95 told you WHAT TYPE of device it was (like modem, cd-rom, etc) so you could at least attempt to find a driver for it? Anyway, the problem still exists… Then, to make matters worse, I decided to go ahead and try out Internet Explorer 4.0 (I know I know).

So far, no problems, and I actually am beginning to like it. Yikes. Well, at least it isn’t crashing on me every 20 minutes like some other browser that I won’t mention. Yep, you read right, its my birthday, the big 33. I am now older than my own father was when I was born. Let’s look back and find out what interesting things happened on this day in history:

1732: Ben Franklin, under the name of Richard Saunders, began publishing “Poor Richard’s Almanac”.
1777: Gen. George Washington led his army of about 11,000 men to Valley Forge, Pa., to camp for the winter.
1842: United States recognized the independence of Hawaii.
1910: Rayon was first commercially produced.
1918: Robert Ripley began his “Believe It or Not” column in The New York Globe.
1955: Carl Perkins recorded “Blue Suede Shoes.”
1960: Frank Sinatra recorded his first session with Reprise Records.
1964: Slobokan was born in Las Vegas, Nevada.
1984: Britain and China signed an accord returning Hong Kong to Chinese sovereignty on July 1, 1997.

It seems to me December 19 was a very busy day in history. I also share my birthday with these other famous people:

Alyssa Milano, 25, actress.
Jennifer Beals, 34, actress.
Mike Lookinland, 37, actor. (Bobby on “The Brady Bunch”).
Janie Fricke, 50, country singer.
Robert Urich, 51, actor.
Tim Reid, 53, actor.
William C. De Vries, 54, surgeon/inventor. (artificial heart).
Cicely Tyson, 64, actress/singer
For dinner tonight, Gidget and Brandon (my brother-in-law) took me out to eat dinner at one of my favorite places (if you know me, you know it was Taco Bell), and surprised me with a “singing candle” right there in the place. :) :) I had a great day, hope you did too! :)

Today is the day… Okay, okay, I know it seems like we put it off, but honest, we JUST finished everything. Yep, today is the day we ship all the Christmas presents to relatives all over the place. We have boxes headed for Maine, New York, Maryland, Florida, and Nevada. Of course, we spent most of last weekend baking cookies and other goodies for the adults, I sure hope the post office doesn’t “rattle” the boxes too much, or everyone just might get cookie crumbs. hehe… It’s the thought that counts, right? :) Of course, we did make sure all the kids got something special (I sure know, I would be pissed if all I got was cookies), because every Christmas should be special for the children. (Hey mom, remember the christmas with Carla, me, eggs, and the vacuum? It sure was special wasn’t it?) hehe. I hope you all have a great day! :)

We had to go to Wal-Mart (my favorite store, and the official store of Slobokan’s Site O’ Schtuff) tonight to get more cookie tins, and we had to wait in line for what seemed an eternity, until a nice lady opened another checkout lane and told us we were next (I wonder if she was an elf?). The holiday season is a very strange thing. Some people are filled with joy, others are sad. Some people are nice and polite, others are grumpy and rude. Some people go all out buying everything in sight, while others keep it simple. Yet, after all is said and done, most people are glad when the holidays are over. Do you ever wonder why that is? No matter what your beliefs, you must admit, the holiday season has become “over-commercialized”. From department store ads, to credit card companies offering “no payments til March”, the commercialism of the holidays seems to be getting more and more. In years past, you never saw Christmas decorations in the stores until after Thanksgiving, yet, this year, it wasn’t even Halloween and there were Christmas Trees in most department stores. I realize that most stores rely on the holiday season to provide almost 50% of their total yearly sales, but I think their attempt to capitalize on the season has deviated most people from the real reason for the season. Whatever your religion, the holiday season should be a joyous celebration of life, not a time to be overwhelmed with ads for the perfect gifts that everyone just has to have. Just remember, its not the gifts that make the holiday special, its the love and thoughtfulness behind them that brings the most joy. Have a great day! :)

Don’t worry, I didn’t forget about the commentary page. I was busy, very busy. Gidget came home the other night with “part” of my birthday present. It was ONE blank CD (like those used in a CD-Writer). Her plan WAS to give me ONE blank CD every day until my birthday, and then give me a new hard drive. Yes, I said hard drive, her plan was to throw me off track. hehe… It didn’t work. Of course I was a bit “spastic” searching the house for the CD-Writer. Then, she thought I was busy cleaning up after the puppy, so she decided to hide things a bit better, and I caught her red-handed with the goods… Soon afterward, I sat here at the computer with my new CD-ReWriter (my Christmas present), as well as a 6.4 gig hard drive (my birthday present). Although, in my haste to install both of them, I made the most major mistake anyone could ever make with their computer. I accidentally FDISK’ed the WRONG hard drive, and lost everything on my computer. Yep, everything, from our internet “dating” emails, to my extensive image (GIF & JPG) library for web design, and even three Delphi projects that were almost finished. sigh… Well, at least now I have enough room to keep backups. HAHA… So pardon my absence, I have been re-installing, configuring, burning CD backups, and much, much more. I hope you have a wonderful day! :)

When is enough, enough? When do you, as a parent, cross the line and start “spying” on every move your child makes. If you suspect your child is doing drugs what should you do? Do you ask them point blank? Do you search their room and personal belongings looking for answers? Personally I believe you as a parent, have the obligation to do both. I feel you should search their room and personal belongings, and whether you find evidence or not, you should ask your child point blank. As a parent, you have a responsibility to protect your child from danger, no matter what that danger may be. In short, I believe that a parent must take responsibility for their child’s safety, and take action as soon as they discover their child is in a dangerous situation. No amount of sympathy, and no amount of remorse would ever be enough, if something happened to your child because you chose to “look the other way”. My thoughts for today’s commentary came from watching today’s Sally Jessy Raphael show. Have a good day! :)

I think I mentioned before that we bought a device from “The Right Start” that was developed by nurses for ordinary people to listen to their unborn child (much like the doplar device the doctor uses). Well, ever since we bought it, I have tried to hear our child’s heartbeat, to no avail. The other night, I was listening, and heard something, which I could not pass by. When I would put the device on one side of Gidget’s belly and pressed lightly with my hand on the other side, you could hear a very distinctive sound. It was just one solid thump, and it seemed to do it every time I pressed on her belly. Could it be? Yes, I am sure of it. It was the sound of our baby kicking or moving deep inside it’s amniotic ocean. It was our baby’s way of letting us know to “get that thing away from me”. hehe. There is nothing more exciting, and yet a bit scary, than awaiting the arrival of this precious gift. Have a good day! :)

I just had to have a Beagle. For the longest time, I have always thought that having a Beagle would be a kewl thing, you could even say, I thought of the Beagle as my “dream dog”. Never in my life could I even comprehend the reality of having one. On October 18, we bought one. We named him Mr. Bennington Jack, and we call him Benny. It took a while for Buffy (Miss Buffington Magwei), Gidget’s 12 year old Lahso Apso, to warm up to him, in fact, now I think she actually likes him. I read online that Beagles live on their own agenda, and I remember thinking to myself, “oh yeah, sure”. Well, I am here today to tell you, yes, they do live by their own agenda. When you feed him, and it’s not quite what he was expecting, he buries his food in his kennel, and gets very defiant, you can even see the expression on his face telling you, “this is not what I want, fix it now”. When you take him outside, attempting to teach him that the hallway is NOT the place for puppy poop, if he decides he is not going, that’s the end of the matter. There is no bargaining with him, he has made his decision. The one thing that amazes me, is no matter how you attempt to discipline him, and no matter what has occurred that day, he is as loyal at the end of the day as he was the day before. He indeed has his own agenda, and we as responsible pet owners must adjust our agenda to arrive at a happy medium. Although, I hope his agenda changes soon, and the hallway gets a rest. If you want to see pictures of Buffy & Benny, click here. Have a great day! :)

We spent most of the day re-installing my brother-in-laws computer. The company we purchased his computer from supplied him with a Win95-OSR2 (Second Release) CD-ROM, like all other new computers, yet they had installed the first release of Win95 on his system. A few months ago we purchased NetNanny for his computer, and to this day have still yet to get it working correctly. So we installed CyberPatrol this weekend, and it seems to be working good. If you find a site that you think is unsuitable for kids under 18, please go to the CyberPatrol site and add it to their NOT list. Have a great day! :)