A friend of mine has recently resigned from their place of part-time employment, where they were working as a bouncer. With their permission, I've put a copy of their resignation letter in here, because it's just so darn funny!

There comes a time in every man’s life where the animalistic urges subside to the desires to lead a more tranquil, harmonious life. A time when the adrenaline of fighting or the lure of random young pussy no longer holds centre place in one’s life. After many years of working waist deep in society’s scum, I feel it is time to retire to greener pastures.

Upon reflection, my experiences on the door will provide me with many, let’s say, interesting memories that will make me laugh and worry. The years I have spent as an ‘Attitude Adjustment Coordinator’ have provided me with many different lessons, not to mention lesions. Lessons on how to deal with people, and lessons on how to deal to people. If the former fails then may the latter prevail.

It is with mixed emotion and a guilty conscience that I resign as Head of Security. It has been a position that I have taken seriously at times but also in jest. I find the physical toll of working both day and night to be too strenuous for my aging body as well as the desire to pursue advancement in my career overseas to be overwhelming factors in my decision. Admittedly, the desire to keep my teeth and boyish good looks, avoid the possibility of gaining a criminal conviction and recent engagement have contributed to this decision. Removing the urges to ‘fuck and fight’ have left me a withered shell of a man. Moreover, the job has provided me with great responsibility as well as opportunities, many of which I have exploited. I have enjoyed my time working security for [censored] and will always be thankful for the genuinely wonderful people that I have worked for and with. As for the others, may I come across them one night in a dark alley to dispense long-awaited justice.

I hope that I have had a positive influence and will be remembered favourably by those I have worked with, although I understand that in reality, this is unlikely. Furthermore, I hope that I am remembered for my tolerance, patience and love for all humanity as well as my ability to reason and walk away from conflict thus being the bigger man, although I realise that is an outright impossibility.

It is on that note that I ask that you please accept my resignation as I cannot be a part of an organisation that would see fit to have me as a leader.

Categories: Fun

• 486: The average IQ needed to understand a PC.
• State-of-the-art: Any computer you can't afford.
• Obsolete: Any computer you own.
• Microsecond: The time it takes for your state-of-the-art computer to become obsolete.
• G3: Apple's new Macs that make you say 'Gee, three times faster than the computer I bought for the same price a Microsecond ago.'
• Syntax Error: Walking into a computer store and saying, "Hi, I want to buy a computer and money is no object."
• Hard Drive: The sales technique employed by computer salesmen, esp. after a Syntax Error.
• GUI: What your computer becomes after spilling your coffee on it. (pronounced 'gooey')
• Keyboard: The standard way to generate computer errors.
• Mouse: An advanced input device to make computer errors easier to generate.
• Floppy: The state of your wallet after purchasing a computer.
• Portable Computer: A device invented to force businessmen to work at home, on vacation, and on business trips.
• Disk: What goes out of your back after bending over a computer keyboard for seven hours at a clip.
• Cursor: What you turn into when you can't get your computer to perform, as in "You %@& computer!"

Categories: Fun

I've been a fan of science fiction movies, tv shows and stories for as long as I've been able to see things and to read. When I was in primary and high school, I used to come home with a different book every night, sometimes more than one. And I'd read them in a day or two, and go onto the next. By the time I was 12 I'd read classic authors like Isaac Asimov, Arthur C Clarke, E E 'Doc' Smith and Robert Heinlein. Smith wrote the classic Lensman and Foundation series, which I just couldn't get enough of. Science fiction movies weren't that good for me, as they never matched the depths of my imagination, while books allowed me to flesh out the details. Dr Who was an exception, as that was definitely quality sci-fi. And then there was Blakes 7, another British sci-fi show which was just fantastic. Around the same time was Battlestar Galactica, a show which even my parents loved to watch.

Today we have the new series of Battlestar Galactica, which has been just so awesome for me to watch, I decided I had to write about it.

I've just finished watching the cliffhanger ending of the first half of Season 2. Season 1 only came out earlier this year, and I voraciously downloaded and watched every episode I could get my hands on. Happily, they were released onto the internet around the same time as they were shown in America, which was a few months before they began to be shown here in NZ.

What did I like about it so much? Well, there's not a lot of modern sci-fi shows which capture my interest. Most of them are more in the soap operish style, or just plain crap. I never got into 4400 (if that's what it's called), nor did I get into Smallville, Roswell, etc. I stopped watching Star Trek: Enterprise halfway through the first season and never went back. I'm a Star Trek fan (only of the material since The Next Generation - I never got into the original series with Kirk) in a big way, but Enterprise just didn't grab me.

But back to Battlestar Galactica. Right from the beginning of the pilot, what I liked about it was its gritty realism. It was dark, it was visually spectacular, it had great acting and character development, so that you could get into the minds of some of the characters, and it was realistic. Unlike the original Galactica series, which had many funny moments and completely unrealistic attitudes towards the destruction of humanity, the new series treated the subject with respect.

Humanity was destroyed by the Cylons, with less than 50,000 people surviving and managing to escape from the Cylons in a 'ragtag fleet' protected by the only surviving Battlestar. The Minister of Education, just having found out that she has cancer, is thrust into the position of the new President of the Colonies, being the only surviving member of the government. Characters we come to know and love turn out to be, surprisingly, Cylons, who had developed models that simulate humans. Baltar, the evil human genius from the original series that purposefully helped the Cylons, is in this series a human who is deceived by the Cylons into helping them destroy humanity, and while his genius comes in handy for the Battlestar and the fleet, there's still a connection between him and the Cylons, albeit one that isn't that obvious or destructive.

The humour in the show, the humanity, the chaos and the fear - it's all part of what you would expect real people to do, and how you'd expect them to react under such situations. Every character becomes real, with their own lives, histories, goals and ideals - even the Cylons.

The Season One finale shocked the hell outta me! As a season finale, it came completely out of nowhere, completely unexpected. The event that closed the episode was surprising and shocking simply because it hadn't been predictable, and brought about such a scenario that you just hated the season ending on that note!

When Season Two began, I couldn't download the episodes fast enough. It just got better, with the characters developing even more interesting backgrounds, with the fleet getting closer to finding Earth, with things happening that basically reflect how we, as we know ourselves, would probably react in similar circumstances.

There are parallels to our current civilisation, with police states and the war on terror. It's real, it's exciting, and it's fantastic science fiction.

Season Two has just started a half season break, with yet another cliff-hanger that's just made me hate waiting for the next one! Apparently it starts again in January. Oh my... it's huge!

I can't recommend this series enough. It's a very gripping and rewarding sci-fi drama, and if you have the opportunity to watch it, start from the beginning.

It's not often I give a review of a tv show - and I think this is the first. Battlestar Galactica is worth it.

As some of you already know, I have very strong views on political correctness, to the point where I believe it's edging towards the downfall of society. Insanity is another word I use for it.

Here's the latest gesture of insanity to sicken me. A hospital in West Yorkshire, UK, has declared itself to be a proponent of "patient's rights" by enforcing an attitude that babies are patients too. Not only are they patients, but they're 'little people', just like you and I (except we're not so little... well, I don't know about you at least...).

As people with rights, looking at them and picking them up and cooing at them and making funny faces at them have been banned. It seems this hospital believes that such actions are not in accordance with the rights of 'the patient' to be treated with dignity and respect.

It just makes me sick to see the idiocy of people in charge; people who have absolutely no fracking* idea what they're doing, and who, with the following of politically correct ideals, just shows them to be incredibly insane themselves. Not only is political correctness insane, in my opinion, but so are the people who promote such ideals.

Unbelievable.


* I'm a big fan of the new series of Battlestar Galactica, and they use the word 'frack' and 'fracking' a lot. We all know what the word replaces, and is a great way of saying the equivalent without actually saying it, especially on TV. I'm going to be using it myself from now on. :-)

From a review:

In terms of spacey dialogue, most all of the "space" words were gone. The main one that they kept was the expletive "frack". And they put that to use big time. On the original show you pretty much only heard the word used as "frack". The equivalent to "dang!" On the new show frack seemed more like another "f" word. Instead of just "frack" you got all sorts of variants: frack, fracking, mother fracking, fracked up, frackitty frack (don't talk back). Okay... maybe not that last one.

Categories: Life, Fun

Who you are today is a result of the choices you've made over the past 5 years. Who you are to become in 5 years time will be a result of the choices you make today. Choose wisely.
- author unknown

I heard that quote at an Amway seminar over a decade ago, and I've never forgotten it. Who you are today is a result of your choices, and who you are to become will also be a result of your choices.

Who do you want to become? What do you want to achieve?

All you need to do is make the choices in your life that will give you the results that you want. If you want to be a pilot, then you might need to start choosing to take flying lessons. If you want to be a championship runner, then maybe you should choose to start running now, and choose a personal trainer to help you. If you want to buy a house, then you might need to choose ways of organising your money better.

Any goal that you might have can be broken down into a number of steps, and the successful completion of each step can help you chart your progress towards your goal. Each step - including the first step - is simply a choice that you make. Do you do this, or do you do that? Do you start now, or do you start tomorrow - or not at all? Now that you've done this, do you do that - or something completely different?

In order to achieve your goals and become the person that you want to be, with the life that you want to have, you need to start making choices that will lead you to your goals.

If you haven't been happy with your life so far, it's probably because you've made the wrong or unfortunate choices which have resulted in things happening that you didn't really want. How many times do you do the same thing over and over and over again, believing that if you keep on trying it, eventually it'll work?

Albert Einstein once said, "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."

Stop doing what hasn't been working. Start doing it differently. Instead of hoping for a magical result to appear, to be created at the wave of the wantd of some magical fairy godmother, start taking responsibility for the choices you make and the consequences of those choices. You can use those consequences to make things happen for you.

Here's an example. Let's just say that you wanted a pay rise. The first choice would be to make yourself more valuable to your employer, so as to justify them spending more on you. You might do your work better, or do some courses that end up qualifying you for higher-paying positions. Either way, the consequences of you doing those things will obtain for you the results you're looking for.

Look for things to do where the consequences of your actions will get you what you want. Instead of doing things 'willy nilly', without regard for the consequences of your actions, think instead of what might happen if you do 'this', or 'that', or even 'something else altogether'. Work out for yourself how things will turn out if you make those choices that, so far, only exist in your head. Once you work out a path, or 'an action plan', start actually making those choices that, in your head at least, will give you what you want in life.

If you can see yourself, in your mind, becoming that championship runner, then you can make it happen. Just work out what you need to do, and do it. One step at a time, one choice at a time.

Who you are today is a result of the choices you've been making. Who you are to become will be a result of the choices you start making now. Choose wisely.

Over the past few days I've updated the blogroll on the left. I've found a few new blogs which I think are worth linking to.

Unburned Pieces of the Mind
Interesting writer, with a way with words

Corona Red Roses
I stumbled upon her by blog browsing, and found her talking about internet dating. I added some comments, she added some comments to my own 'dating for men' site and liked it enough to add it to her links, so here she is.

Lee Pletzers
Yesterday I joined the Writers Blog Alliance, and Lee stumbled upon my site from there, and liked / linked it. I also liked his site, so linked back to him. The blogosphere in action...

Categories: Blogs

Deidre and I went for a walk / jog tonight, which is almost common for us. We've been going for walks now for a while, and only the other night we upgraded it to do a bit of jogging as well. Both of us are relatively unfit, so it'll be good for us.

Tonight, I suggested that we jog uphill and walk downhill, to help ease us into it. We started jogging and got to the top of the street we're on and slowed to a walk. It was then we discovered we had some company.

Eve, my cat, decided she wanted to come with us! There she was, 'jogging' after us up the hill! It was pretty funny, but we didn't expect her to continue for too long, so we kept on going, walking along the road. She kept up with us!

We walked for about 10 minutes, with her tagging along, before we decided that we should turn around and go back, because we were in territory she'd never been in before. We got about halfway back, with me carrying her 'cause she was tired, before I set her down. She stayed where she was while we carried on, and so we decided to go down another road, thinking she was staying where she was.

Nope... her plaintive cries of 'Where are you?! I don't want to be alone! Come back...!' echoed through the air, so we went back, picked her up, and carried her back home.

Poor little fella, she's all tuckered out now, resting on her couch again.

She's adorable. :-D

Categories: Cat

I wrote the below early 2004, and I thought it would be a relevent addition to this site:

Her name is Zhenzhen (pron: Jen-Jen) and I've been seeing her on and off for the past couple of months. It's been quite interesting 'cause it started off simply as friendship, but has progressed in fits and starts to something more than just friends. She's 22 and that's why it started only as friends, as I wasn't initially interested in anything more.

The reason it's progressed in fits and starts is because she developed an interest in me which I wasn't ready for, so I went through various processes of making it clear to her where I was at and what I wanted.

Throughout it all she's been mostly understanding, occasionally annoyed and once tried to do something to make me chase her (which didn't work). I've kept her at a distance, told her about my beliefs and values that revolve around me not being here to offer her a free ride (this was after I learnt that Chinese women expect the men they date to buy everything for them), generally inadvertently insulted her and her culture, and been a 'bastard'.

And still she's interested.

I can't get rid of her, and now I don't want to. After all the annoying things I've done to her, she still wants to be with me, and as I've gotten to know her more, I've found it interesting and enjoyable to be around her.

I've asked her in the past why she's interested, and apparently it's because I'm 'mature and she can learn a lot from me', and I'm not like all the rest of the men she's met.

They tell her all the time how beautiful she is (I think she is too, but I haven't told her that). They tell her how much they want to be with her (I've pushed her away). They're always ringing / txt'ing her (I never do). They want to get married to her have her babies (I've told her that's never going to happen in my lifetime).

I guess it's simply an illogical fact of life - treat a woman badly (without beating her) and she'll want you. But really, I think it's simply being the opposite of every other man that makes me more attractive to her/them.

Men constantly chase women who are a challenge. I think women are the same. If you show some interest in them but remain a challenge, they'll want you more than if you tried chasing them.

Please visit this article's new location. Thank you.

Chancelucky asked a question here: "...if demons are a manifestation of the energy we create around ourselves, I assume that implies that angels are as well. If so, are they really the same thing?"

No, I don't believe they are the same thing. For a start, while demons can be a personal manifestation of our own negativity, they can also be the manifestations of the negative energy of other people, throughout history. They exist as entities of a lower vibration, and drift around looking for similar energy to feed on. While they are attracted to those who 'glow brightest', feeding off their energy, they're also attracted to those who are of similar vibrations as themselves, who are weak enough to be defenceless to their influence.

The ones who 'glow brightly' are those people who are highly spiritual or highly positive, and they give off an energy that is attractive to these demons, which are also called by many spiritualists as 'lower astral entities'. If these positive people don't spiritually protect themselves in some way, they can find themselves beginning to form negative thoughts, feelings and ideas. A once-positive person could find themselves becoming a very negative, depressed person, due to the influence of these things.

Angels are a different story altogether. Angels are the same as us, but far more spiritually evolved, having moved beyond the realm of development we're going through. We are all 'angels in training', and some of us are angels to others, helping when someone is in need. When we've finished our spiritual development through multiple lives in this universe, we move on to become 'higher beings'. This can be as spirit guides, assisting those who are living on this planet, or as many other spiritual 'occupations', of which I know very little about. However, the 'pecking order' of spiritual growth has us becoming angels once we get to that level.

Interestingly, since spiritual reality is timeless, it means that 'the time that it takes to evolve' is irrelevent. Spiritual evolution in each of us has already occurred, and yet, is yet to occur. Outside of time there is no beginning, no end, and no inbetween. What you are going to become is already in existence. The angel that you are growing to be is the angel that already exists to somehow be of service. ;-) Where some people think that spirituality is about 'becoming one with God' (or whatever you want to call the creator of everything), the reality is that we're already one with God. Here's something else for you... According to the Bible, Jesus died on the cross in order to have our sins forgiven. This wasn't just for those people who had sinned up to that point, it was for all of humanity, throughout time. We can't be judged negatively - ever - because we've already been forgiven, as the forgiveness was made by a timeless being. But I digress...

Over here I wrote 'What is Hell?' Here's a quote from it:

Hell is simply a place we create for ourselves when we die, but is a creation that is a result of our own ignorance. When we die, if we think physical life is all there is, we will create that physical life in the next plane, the Lower Astral Plane. However, because that Plane is entirely dependent on thought and what is created there, all the physical negativity that is carried with us in life is created there by us in death.

What we fear the most becomes real. That's the Hell that we exist in when we don't know better.

But while many souls exist there, they still have the ability to heal. Their spirit guides and spirit friends are still working with them, trying to show them the truth. (Occasionally people in physical reality have the ability to make a connection with those 'lost' spirits, and help them to 'seek out the Light'.)

Existence in the different Planes is relative to the vibrational frequency we resonate at, as Spirit. On the physical plane, the lowest Plane of spiritual vibration, we have our Spirit aligned with our Ego, which is a requirement of physical existence. The Ego is what helps us survive in the physical world. It's a physical survival mechanism that has no place in higher Planes.

However, when we align more with our Ego than Spirit during our life, then the Ego, refusing to accept death, tries to continue life.

The Ego, now free of the laws of the physical world restraining the creations of thought, is able to create for itself all of those things it fears the most, thus justifying its' fears and continuing to keep the Spirit bound to the Lower Astral Plane.

That is Hell.

Once again, the only demons that exist are those we create - even those that might exist in Hell, which is also of our own creation.

So the difference between demons and angels is that demons are our own creations, feeding off the fears that created them, while angels are what we are yet to become. They can choose to show themselves to people, but usually only with good reason.

I've had an angel work with me (mentally), the same as my spirit guides did, providing me with guidance and information via a form of automatic writing. Working with me was, apparently, as worthwhile to him as it was to me, and that's why he was doing it. I've seen two angels standing on either side of a stall I was working at in a shopping centre, who were 'in the area' and decided to assist when I asked for protection. Those are the only two times I've known of where angels have been in my life.

Ultimately, demons are the manifested expression of our fears, while angels - and spirit guides, etc - are as real as us and are with us to help us grow.

Oh, and if you're wondering how an angel can be as real as you, when it's apparently invisible and doesn't exist in this physical world, just remember that the invisible air around us was once unknown and undetectable too. Plagues were once punishment from God/s, and now they're known by us as scientifically detectable bacteria. The point is, today's scientifically unproven beliefs might very well be scientifically proven tomorrow. We just don't know. To believe you know there is absolutely no such thing as a God or angels or demons is to be exactly the same as those people in history who believed the earth was flat and the centre of the universe.

Categories: Spirituality

Between 1991 and 1996 I was very much into psychic and spiritual development. I experienced things I'd never experienced before, and ran a spiritual development group to help others learn how to do the same. From 1996 I walked away from it all, having experienced a loss in faith that made me doubt the information I had obtained from my spirit guides, who had been prolific with what they had told me. This post, however, isn't about that, but I'll write about that soon. This post is about the perception others might have about what I've experienced.

Many people go through life either being a believer or a non-believer in a religious or spiritual 'reality'. Their belief or disbelief is often dictated by faith, logic, a belief in the words of someone like a priest or even a sceptic (eg. a believer being converted to become a non-believer), or a physical or spiritual experience. Many non-believers become believers due to some kind of spiritual experience, which is often a change of attitude or belief brought about by a physical experience.

However, how often do you hear about a non-believer becoming a believer because of spiritual experiences manifesting as physical experiences? How often do people see demons, talk to spirits, ask for the aid of angels and then see them? And here's the clincher: how often are a person's spiritual (non-physical) experiences confirmed by another person, who goes through the same experience without any prompting?

I wrote about the single most life-changing event of my life over here, where I talked about how another person experienced what they considered 'a psychic attack' at the same time as I felt fear. This was physical, external confirmation that my feelings of fear were caused by something outside of myself. It wasn't just me creating the feelings inside of me, it was something else that was causing the feelings, and they caused those feelings in another person (Kate) sensitive to psychic energy.

Now, I know that a sceptic could say that Kate picked up on the feelings emanating from me and decided to play along. I would tell this sceptic that they weren't there. They weren't able to see the body language. Tthey weren't able to see how little time passed between the onset of the fear in me and the reaction in her to whatever was causing the fear. They weren't able to see that she started reacting in fear herself at exactly the same time as the hairs on my body began standing on end.

Something else I would explain to this hypothetical sceptic is that even if there was NO demon causing the fear in both of us, for her to pick up on MY feelings is evidence in itself of psychic activity of some kind. My projection of fear, and her sensitivity to it, resulting in her thinking she's about to by psychically attacked. Whether it's a real demon or a 'psychic projection', it's confirmed, external evidence of a spiritual event. It's not just in my mind.

Many believers in religion or spirituality are believers because, to them, it makes sense. It's logical. There must be a God, a creator, an 'intelligent designer', because there is order in the universe, and it's impossible for them to believe this order happens by random chance. Their 'spiritual experiences' are mental or emotional 'revelations' that there's something powerful at work, a higher force, a greater good. There is a reason for the madness around them, and the reason they come up with makes sense of physical events which are so surprising or hurtful, or so powerfully positive, that to believe in anything other than a God or Higher Being just doesn't make sense to them.
And then, of course, there are those who already had spiritual beliefs and they encounter experiences which prove to them that there just can't be a God or supreme being; how could there be a 'loving God' who lets so much pain and suffering take place? And so they turn from being a believer to a non-believer.

It's to the non-believers out there, disbelieving for whatever reason that makes sense to them, that this post is predominantly aimed at.

I've gone through the past 14 years keeping to myself a lot of the experiences I've had. If I've ever shared them, it's been to other 'believers', those who are already spiritual. I haven't talked about my experiences to religous believers though. How do you talk to a Christian, for example, about having had demons following you around? How do you talk to them about having 'fought' demons, and talked to spirits, and even having requested the aid of angels and seen them actually standing there protecting you? How do you tell someone these things? It's only 'safe' to tell them if they already believe in it as real, as a fact. They're not surprised by your stories, but they're excited that you've had those experiences.

How do you tell a non-believer these things? What would they think of you? We probably know exactly what they'd think, and it involves calling men in white coats. To say that you've experienced seeing or dealing with these spiritual beings is to invite scepticism, ridicule, disbelief, humour or genuine concern for your mental health. People have been put into insane asylums for seeing things that aren't there, for hearing voices that no one else can hear, for believing things that no one else believes.

There was a time when I thought I was going mad, that I was losing it. I doubted my own sanity at times, and was afraid for what it really meant about me and my future. I didn't want to be locked up, ridiculed, or treated with contempt simply because I'd had experiences that other people hadn't. And so I was careful with whom I shared those experiences with. I didn't let it affect my daily life, and even though I lost faith in the words of my spirit guides, I didn't stop believing in them. I just started believing that I was egotistically editing the messages I was getting from them, in order to be told the things I wanted to hear.

However, it was those spiritual experiences which were confirmed by other people that made me understand I wasn't going mad. It was those accurate visions of people's past, and of futures that actually came to pass, which made me understand I lived in a world that was larger than what most people believed. It was a world where spiritual reality was just as much real as physical reality, and I'd had enough externally-confirmed spiritual experiences to prove to me that I wasn't going mad, and that there ARE things that go bump in the night.

That's my personal experience, and I understand that everyone is different. Reading this, you might not consider yourself spiritual, but you might believe in ghosts. That means you believe in the presence of some form of 'life after death', which is a spiritual concept that leads to the concept of reincarnation. If you can continue existing after you die, then maybe you can be reborn in another life. These spiritual concepts lead onto a whole lot of other spiritual concepts. If you continue to exist after death, and can possibly be reborn, maybe there's a reason for your life after all? Maybe the act of being reborn is your choice? Why would you choose to be reborn? Maybe you have a responsiblity to yourself and to those around you, to make your life meaningful, and that's why you choose to have the life? Maybe there are other spiritual beings, like yourself, who act as guides to help you experience the life you chose?

Spirituality, to me, is about exploring what it means to be a spiritual being having a physical experience. We're here for only a short time, and when we pass on, it should be after we've done something meaningful. Are we wasting our life? What could we do better for ourselves and for our loved ones? This is what spirituality means to me.

It's one thing to say you're spiritual, but it's another thing to say you've fought demons and had angels come to you when requested. It's ok to say you believe in God, but how ok is it to say you talk to spirits?

Society is a funny thing. We accept people having beliefs, but we often find ourselves unable to accept that people's beliefs are based on physical experiences of a spiritual nature. Why is this? Maybe because people in general are afraid. They're afraid of the unknown, and they will do whatever they can to either define the unknown, or, if unable to define it, then to hide it. Pretend it's not real; that it doesn't have an effect on us.

I believe most people with mental illnesses are people experiencing a clash of physical and spiritual reality, and they're unable to deal with it. I find it interesting to see people locked up for insanity when they're unable to deal with the voices in their head, while there are psychic people who also hear voices but don't let it affect their life adversely. I suspect that the differences are that psychics pick up the voices of 'good spirits', while the insane are picking up the voices of 'bad spirits', who want to cause harm in the one they're talking to, and through them, to cause harm in others.

Mental illnesses may be cured in the future if we look at non-physical causes of these illnesses, and help people understand what they're going through. Help them deal with their spiritual experiences rather than lock them away and ignore them and the potential spiritual reality that people want to pretend doesn't exist. When we look at our experienced reality as being a unison of physical and spiritual experiences, we might become healthier, happier, and more responsible to ourselves and each other. When we understand the psychic effects of our actions, the consequences of our actions on a level greater than just the physical, we might decide to do more with our lives.

That's my focus. I'm taking my experiences and my beliefs and I'm using them to help create something better in myself and in others. It works for me. What works for you?

Categories: Spirituality

Deidre and I went to our favourite Malaysian restaurant tonight, Satay Kajang, for our favourite Mee Goreng dish. Well, I had it, while she had something else. Anyway, there was this very (!) cute asian waitress, who I've seen a couple of times before, who I think is just gorgeous. I went to pay after we'd finished eating, and she was at the counter. While I was paying, I wanted to talk to her.

"Your food is so good we have to come back all the time!"

"Yes, you regulars," she replied, smiling. There were dimples on her cheeks from the smile. I entered my account details on the card machine, hardly registering the amount. Was it $17 or $170? Whatever. I entered my PIN number and pressed ok.

"Do you have many regulars?" I asked her.

She looked thoughtful for a moment before slowly replying, "Can... give you a drink..."

"Sorry?" I asked, confused.

"I can give you both free drink?" I realised she misunderstood what I said, thinking I was asking for something special since we were regular customers.

"No no no!" I replied, waving my hands. I leant in close to speak more clearly, and she leaned closer too. Her eyes seemed to get much larger. "How... many... regular... customers... do... you... have?"

"Oh!" she exclaimed, holding her hand to her mouth in embarrassment. We laughed together. "We have many regulars."

"It's because your food is so good," I said, smiling again, and taking my receipt. She thanked me and I went back to our table where Deidre asked me if I had gotten some mints. Doh!

I went back to get the 'after dinner' mints, and the waitress looked at me curiously. I got the mints, smiling at her to show that's all I wanted, and she smiled back. I turned around again to go back to our table, only to see Deidre laughing as she was putting her coat on. The waitress must've thought Deidre was laughing at her, because she was apologising across the restaurant to Deidre, who was, in return, calling out her reassurance back to the waitress that it was ok.

I walked to the door, with Deidre following, still laughing. The waitress was still apologising to us. We went outside, and I looked at Deidre, wondering what the hell all the laughing was about. As we walked back to the car, she calmed down enough to speak.

"She had you!" she said.

"No she didn't," I replied.

"She had you in the palm of her hand!"

"Did not."

"You forgot the mints! You never forget the mints!"

"She didn't have me."

"She turned you into a marshmallow."

"No she didn't. I'm a rock! I'm a hard man!"

"You were a marshmallow!"

"Hell no! I'm harder than that! Maybe like a pillow... but not a marshmallow!"

We walked back to the car, laughing. Damn she's gorgeous. And so was that waitress.

Categories: Fun, Life

Over here I read an interesting piece on America's involvement in Iraq. There were a number of comments which sounded great, but inspired me to write the following as a comment to their post:

You ignore the facts that Iraq was the friend of America, the barrier against Iran, until such time as it suited them to end that relationship. Everything Saddam did was done with US assistance, approval or inaction - which is an unspoken approval in itself.

You also ignore the facts that it's the US taxpayers who are paying for the war. It's the taxpayers' money that is going to those American companies commissioned to rebuild Iraq, including the oil supply. These companies are receiving money from the government to go in and rebuild Iraq. These companies are then free to make a profit from their efforts, not just in the financial return of what they are building, but in the profits gained from government contracts. There is little cost to these companies, but massive financial gain. And who is paying for it? The taxpayers.

It just might be about the oil, considering that the profits are far outwheighing any costs, especially since the US taxpayers are footing the bill. Are they getting any return on the money they're spending? Hell no. All they're getting is more financial burden as their money is reduced by rising costs due to the war they're funding. Money is being made as a result of this, and it's going to the friends of the Bush administration, which will, in return, come back to them when they're out of politics. The good of the country has less value to them than the good of their pockets once they're no longer in political leadership.

War in Iraq has never been about high ideals or noble values. That's the spin they're telling you. If they truly believed in high ideals and noble values, and in acting upon them, they would have stepped in a long time ago, when Saddam was committing atrocities against Iraqis in the 80's and 90's.

Your comments only help with the Bush administration's 'spin', but it doesn't reflect on historical precedent - which is that no action was taken until such action was financially profitable to certain people and companies. It's all about profit, not ideals.

Your words are pretty, but they ignore reality in a big way. Lofty ideals don't measure up to the facts of what could have happened and didn't, and what is happening that shouldn't.

Taking 'historical precedent' back to WWII is not relevent to the situation today. There were no 'friends of the President' setting up companies within Axis nations during the war, to rebuild those countries and take advantage of profits at the expense of innocent deaths. There WAS a higher ideal at play, and the people and companies were all on one side.

There is no unity today because people can see the truth, no matter what the Bush administration, the media or those people like yourself who are aligned with them, says. Noble values are spoken, but not carried out. Actions are speaking far louder than words, and the actions of those within the Bush administration and its supporters, within the US and in other countries, show they're more interested in personal and corporate profit than they are in liberating innocent people from oppression. There's nothing you can say that will prove otherwise, as the expression of noble values has no significance in the face of cold, hard reality.

It saddens me to see people ignoring evidence in favour of high ideals and noble values. They claim that everyone should support the war against Iraq because it serves a higher purpose, and they claim that a lack of unity on this issue will bring about failure. I agree completely to the latter, but not the former.

If the US leadership was serious about the noble values that they claim to have, then there wouldn't be evidence of 'cronyism', where political and financial favouritism is handed out to their friends. If there was no evidence of duplicity from the US government then there wouldn't be this problem. If the government was actually acting in the best interests of the Iraqis, they would have the support from all of the American people and even the rest of the world.

Unfortunately, American and global disharmony is a result of disharmonious actions.

Categories: Politics

Ever since I got into RSS feeds last week, or whenever it was, I've been using Bloglines for my web-based RSS viewing of favourite websites. You can see the sites I keep up to date with this way by looking to the left there. 'My Blogroll', powered by Bloglines, is auto-created and udpated by Bloglines to show those sites I keep up to date with via RSS.

The way it works is like this... I visit the Bloglines website, where I've got bookmarked those sites I want to keep up to date with. When those sites are updated, it shows me the updates on the site, as well as linking to the entries on the actual sites. I also have a notifier in my system tray (down where the clock is) that lets me know when a site has posted an update. It's been very convenient to remain updated on when any of my favourite sites post a new entry.

Bloglines also has the facility of 'sharing' your bookmarked sites so that other people can see them. I've used that facility to create the menu on the left. Every time I automatically add, edit or remove websites from Bloglines (and the automation is very easy), the blogroll is automatically updated on my site. It's been great!

However...

A small problem I've discovered is that if I stick to this, then it means that I don't actually visit those favourite websites. How are those authors going to know I was there?

They don't. In fact, as far as they're concerned, I've just stopped visiting their site! It's often easy for them to know, because many good blogs have a 'sitemeter' which tells who has visited and from where. I've gotten a lot of visitors to my site simply from the referral list on other sites' sitemeters, so I know that a good way of increasing traffic to your own site is to visit other sites yourself.

Ever since I started using Bloglines, I've had traffic to my site drop from 30 people a day down to about 11 people a day. And I've only been using it a week!

So RSS feeds is a good idea if you don't have your own blog, and/or you don't care about bringing traffic to your own blog. But if you do care, then you need to make sure that you continue actually visiting your favourite websites, just so they know you're still there, and you're still interested in them.

So I'll continue using Bloglines as a way of maintaining my blogroll, but from now on I'm going to disable the RSS notifications I get and just use my blogroll to visit those sites manually again. The blogosphere, the community of blogs and bloggers, needs me to visit them. And I need them! :-)

Categories: Website

I came down with the flu on Thursday night, waking up yesterday feeling like crap. It only got worse during the day, so I came home early and went straight to bed. Achey bones and muscles, runny nose, and a stuffy head. Yuk. I hate the flu.

Once again though, Deidre showed me why I love her. She came home from work, made me a drink of hot water with honey and lemon juice, made sure I was comfortable, and then went out to dinner with some friends. I was going to go too, but stayed home instead. There was no way I was ok to go out. But isn't Deidre wonderful? She's so caring.

I know, I'm sure it's making you sick right now. But it's great to have someone in your life who cares about you and shows you by their actions. It's still a relatively new experience for me.

It's election day today, and I found out a couple of days ago that it's illegal to broadcast - via any medium including blogs - any comment that may influence how someone votes. So I won't.

I will say, however, that this is the very first election in my entire life where I've been interested enough to research the different parties and their policies, in order to work out who I most want to vote for, including where votes for smaller parties might end up. It's been a fascinating experience.

Anyway, I'm going to watch a movie now on the laptop. Oh yeh, I remembered last night that the two laptops are networked with 2 network cables joined together, to give it extra reach. I found out last night that the cables reach to my bedroom from the lounge room, so I'm still connected while in bed. Who needs wireless? Hehehe

Categories: Life, Fun

Unbelievable. Absolutely unbelievable. The US Senate voted on a bid to establish an independent, bipartisan panel whose purpose was to investigate where failures occurred across the Federal, state and local governments, in regards to Hurricane Katrina. All the Democrats voted for it.

Every single Republican voted against it.

Why don't they want it investigated? What possible reason could the entire Republican party have for not wanting this investigated? I'm sure it's not because they're afraid of the results, which could show that the Republican government is indeed responsible for criminal negligence. I'm sure it's not that.

Categories: Politics, Conspiracies

Over here I talked about the holiday plans Deidre and I were making, to travel to Australia. It's been a relatively painful thing to do!

We've had to work out the dates that we were going to go there and return, as well as the dates that we'd be in Sydney, Adelaide, Canberra, Sydney, and back to Wellington. Three cities in 4 weeks, with countless family members and friends to see in that time.

Oh God, the pain!

A month or so ago we booked the return tickets to Australia. That was a struggle and a half... Tomorrow I'll be booking the domestic flights within Australia. Next month I'll be booking the car rental for those times we'll need it in Adelaide and Canberra, as well as miscellaneous hotel accommodation in various areas...

Do you know how hard it is to find good prices on websites for travel and stuff? There's so many different airlines that are all competing with each other, and then there's travel agency sites that tell you they'll get you a good deal. Hell, they're morons! We went through a travel agent a few months ago and they told us that the best deal we could get for return flights to Australia was NZ$2300. Interesting, I said (via email). I told them that I could get it at NZ$1600 via the actual airline website, so they need to do better than that. I never heard back from them.

All my research and investigation into best prices has been VERY painful, taking many hours to do. But you know what? I figure that by the time everything has been booked and paid for, we'll have saved at least NZ$2000 by doing it this way.

And spending that money to save the time? That's more painful than spending a few hours to find the best prices.

A friend of mine said that they were going to book a holiday to Fiji if their partner got a job, planning to leave the following weekend. They hadn't booked it yet. I was incredulous, and they said there's no difference in the prices. I researched it and found out that if they did it their way they would be spending close to NZ$3000, while if they booked it for at least 6 weeks later, they would be spending just over NZ$700. It was their turn to be incredulous.

Travel agents love people who don't research or know that savings are to be made. And savings are important! Why spend $3000 on an airfare when you can save $2300 and spend that on other things!!

Makes sense to me.

But anyway, the holiday's getting closer, and everything's getting sorted. One thing at a time. It's awesome to be getting closer to going back home.

Categories: Travel

It was a beautiful weekend we just had here in glorious Wellington, and I've got some more photos for you to enjoy.

This was on Saturday at Petone beach, on the other side of Wellington Harbour. You can see Wellington in the distance there. Beautiful day! And it was the same on Sunday.

Deidre and I took a walk along Queen's Wharf, a very popular area of Wellington city, along the harbour.

Deidre and a friendly lamp post, with a nice view of the harbour in the background.

Someone out enjoying the day in their boat.

Proof that even boats get towed...

Even the kayakers were out having a good time.

It was a 'lazy Sunday afternoon', and there's proof.

More photos soon, when I do something else interesting enough to photograph.

Categories: Photos

From now on, instead of making up timelines based on the incomplete timelines of other websites, I'm going to do my own. Every time something major occurs, I'm going to keep my own notes of events around that disaster and use it as necessary.

One of the things I noticed about so many different timelines on the internet were that they were amazingly incomplete (not really surprising, as most of them are done by people who don't access themselves to a lot of different news sources), or were biased in favour of some kind of preference. I found timelines that reported only the bad things that the survivors did, or that reported only the good government actions, or that reported only the bad government actions, or that reported only scattered fragments. I had to trawl through at least 10 timelines out there on the internet to form my own timeline.

So now I'm going to create one of my own in future, rather than rely on others. I get my news and information from many different news sources and blogs, and the blogs link to even more news sites or other blogs that link to news sites.... and so on.

A friend told me, many years ago, that if you read only one source of information all you get is what they want you to know. But if you read many sources, you get a better picture of what's really happening out there. Understanding different perspectives and different points of view can help provide a more accurate picture of what's going on.

Categories: News

Wht saddens me about the whole thing is the lack of official care and concern for the people of New Orleans. These people are victims of a disaster and they have been ignored or treated like criminals, or - worse still - a subclass of citizens. Criminals get better treatment.

The stories that have come out of there have been shocking. Not only of man's inhumanity to man, as the people treat each other like animals, but also of man's inhumanity to the aforementioned 'subclasses'.

It began when the media photographed a black man who was carrying things he had 'looted', while a white man was photographed with things that he 'found'. White people apparently don't loot things, they just find them instead.

The stories of FEMA and DHS mismanaging the situation seemed to pop up day after day. Aid was prevented by these government agencies for almost a week, and they made it seem as if it was actually a concerted, organised effort to sabotage aid efforts. Any non-government or 'non-authorised' aid was halted, sometimes at gunpoint, turned away or turned off. What went on in these people's heads that tells them these things are sensible, reasonable or required?

It's so difficult to believe that these people, ordinary people like you and I, doing their jobs within these government departments, can suddenly forget all common sense, let alone their sense of humanity, and prevent aid reaching those in need. What is this really saying about these people? Has this truly shown the base mentality of so many Americans, that black people don't deserve aid? Because past disaster victims who have been predominantly white have never had this problem. It seems that the people of New Orleans are the people that no one wanted any more. At least no one in FEMA or DHS.

What's happened in New Orleans, for many people, was the 'end of the world'. For them, they were living the disaster movie scenario. There was anarchy, chaos, gangs of armed and brutal thugs, panic, starvation and horror. For the survivors of Hurricane Katrina, the world was ending and no one was coming to save them.

For the rest of us, it was a lesson that showed us how we, as modern man (or at least modern Americans?), react within that disaster scenario. Some panic, some give up, some take advantage of the weakness around them, some help out, and some don't give a toss. Unfortunately, it seemed that all those who didn't give a toss were in positions where they were expected to give a toss.

I sit here and wonder how we will grow from this, or if it shows that the advancements we've made are simply in the toys we play with, while the real growing has yet to be achieved.

Categories: Politics, Life

I've created a new section called 'Blogs I like' and added a couple of new links to it. These are blogs that I find which I like enough to link to. They aren't blogs I love, but if they become that over time, then they'll be transferred to the relevent category.

• Spaghetti Leopard is an interesting read, and quite amusing. You'd have to read it yourself to like it or not.
• Obsessive Law Student is another interesting read. She captured my attention more than any other 20-something blogger out there - I think it could be because she likes Starbucks like I do. That's always a good start.

I've also added a new feature at the bottom right of the sidebars, which will show where people came from before they arrived at this site. It's so we can all see, without going into the site's stats, where people are coming from. The usefulness of it, for me at least, is to see how people are getting to my site. I'm hoping that as time goes by, the list will be an interesting aspect of the site. I like it on when I saw it on the 'mimi in New York' blog and decided to have it on mine as well.

I got over 60 unique visitors yesterday from www.blogger.com/home. It was unprecedented! I first thought that blogger was profiling my site or something, but I think it was more likely that people were just clicking like crazy on it because it was in the 'recently updated' section on that blogger page. They've never done that before, so it span me out a bit.

If any of the new arrivals, from whatever source, have decided they'd like to hang around, I'm happy that you find something interesting here. I hope you continue to find interesting things.

Note: that's not the same as that old Chinese curse, "may you live in interesting times." So don't think I'm cursing you!

Categories: Blogs, Website, Statistics

You've probably heard about this but don't know much about it. I was exactly the same, until today. I knew it was important to allow people to access RSS feeds of blogs and news sites, but I didn't know how it works. I knew that a lot of people use it to keep up to date. So today I did a bit of investigation into RSS and what I discovered amazed me.

Why haven't I been doing this earlier??

RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication and uses a particular format called XML that is designed for sharing headlines and other web content. These headlines and content are picked up by an RSS reader, that is either integrated into a web page or browser, or a standalone application. A reader allows you to subscribe to various RSS-enabled websites, and every time they update their website with a new blog post or article, it's detected by your RSS reader and you are notified that there's a new entry for you to read. Because it's already detected this information, it has already downloaded that information for you, ready to display.

So instead of going to the website to see if there's any updates, or to read the updates, all that information is in your RSS reader, thus saving you the time and the bandwidth, if you are conscious of how much data you use with your internet connection. You can read the relevent information straight away, or have it sit there until you have the time to read it.

I've added all my favourite sites to a RSS reader I've downloaded (Sharpreader - it's free), and now every time those sites are updates, I'm automatically notified. This saves me from having to go visit those sites on a regular basis to see if they've updated it.

As I said, why haven't I been doing this earlier! *sigh*

Now I can spend more time on other things, like gaming, or looking for new sources of information, or writing, or... whatever I want! It's great. Get into it yourself, if you aren't already. You'll love it.

Categories: Website

I believe that within the next 2 years, and probably within the next 12 months, we are going to see the introduction of a global network-based operating system (OS) that will allow the provision of all services - and more - that you are currently used to. Storage space, applications, games, multimedia and the internet will all be available via this single OS.

Computers using Windows, for example, will be able to access all the network-based services, but as web-based services like we see today, such as Google web and desktop search, Gmail and Hotmail, and file sharing and storage services.

New computers will be built as 'thin clients', which are simply terminals logging into a server and accessing server-based applications and services. You might buy a computer which is actually just a monitor that will have built-in internet access capability, which will allow you to log into the global OS. The computer will have no built-in hard drives, as storage will be available via the global network.

You would have a logon to the OS and services, and being network-based means that you would be able to access your profile via any computer that has internet access, anywhere around the world.

The provision of news and entertainment services will be made available as well, similar to how they are via the internet today, but better. TV and movies will be available, probably by subscription, but better than current TV. You would be able to record TV shows on the computer, or schedule your favourite shows at the times you want to see them. The monitors could be similar to TVs, or even connect to your TV via wireless connections, so that you can watch TV shows and movies comfortably, but which are being received by your computer via the internet.

Internet Cafes would allow you to log into your profile. Internet terminals could be made available at libraries, shops, even street corners, that would all allow you access to your profile and the services you have set up for yourself, and could also include video phoning via the internet. Telephone booths would be replaced by 'communications terminals'.

However, that's farther into the future. The beginnings of a major revolution in the internet and communications services will start within the next 2 years, and evolve from there.

That's my prediction.

Categories: Life

I've heard that President George Bush is proud of the fact that he never watches tv or reads the papers, and all his news and information is given to him by his advisors.

I've also heard that there were at least 2 photo ops in or around New Orleans where aid facilities were set up before his arrival and then torn down after he left. They existed there only because of the opportunity to show Bush as being 'on the ground' and 'amongst the people', even though the people he interacted with were carefully screened by the Secret Service.

What is reality? It's the experiences that you have that determine how things are for you. This is why your reality is so much different to my reality, because we have different experiences that create different realities for us.

I've been wondering how George Bush can sleep at night, knowing of all the lies that he's told. But what if he's not lying? I mean, to us who seem to know better, he certainly seems to be lying. But what if he's being truthful?

What if President George Bush's reality is simply what his advisors and his minders make for him? He thinks he's at 'ground zero' helping people, when in fact he's in a prefabricated, staged environment that's been set up entirely for him to think that's the true nature of things.

How do you get someone to believe they're telling the truth? By convincing them that it IS the truth.

I'm beginning to believe that this very unintelligent President is being easily manipulated by the true people in power (potentially Karl Rove, his advisor, as well as PNAC) in order to bring about their own agenda.

The reality that he believes is occurring is the reality that is presented to him by those in power, which is simply what they want him to believe and to promote. An unintelligent man makes a great puppet.


Update:

It was Senator Mary Landrieu, D-La, who has been the source of one of those particularly juicy bits of information regarding a prefabricated environment for the President and the media. You can find official mention of it here, and here's the relevent quote from what she said:

"But perhaps the greatest disappointment stands at the breached 17th Street levee. Touring this critical site yesterday with the President, I saw what I believed to be a real and significant effort to get a handle on a major cause of this catastrophe. Flying over this critical spot again this morning, less than 24 hours later, it became apparent that yesterday we witnessed a hastily prepared stage set for a Presidential photo opportunity; and the desperately needed resources we saw were this morning reduced to a single, lonely piece of equipment..."

Categories: Politics

I'm supplying here a comparison of two disasters. First the San Francisco earthquake of 1906, followed by the New Orleans Hurricane Katrina, 2005. The New Orleans timeline has been gathered by me from multiple sources on the internet.

San Francisco Earthquake

April 18 1906

The earthquake struck at 5:13 AM.

By 7 AM federal troops had reported to the mayor.

By 8 AM they were patrolling the entire downtown area and searching for survivors.

The second quake struck at 8:14 AM.

By 10:05 AM the USS Chicago was on its way from San Diego to San Francisco; by 10:30 the USS Preble had landed a medical team and set up an emergency hospital.

By 11 AM large parts of the city were on fire; troops continued to arrive throughout the day, evacuating people from the areas threatened by fire to emergency shelters and Golden Gate Park.

St. Mary's hospital was destroyed by the fire at 1 PM, with no loss of life, the staff and patients having already been evacuated across the bay to Oakland.

By 3 PM troops had shot several looters, and dynamited buildings to make a firebreak; by five they had buried dozens of corpses, the morgue and the police pistol range being unable to hold any more.

At 8:40 PM General Funston requested emergency housing - tents and shelters - from the War Department in Washington; all of the tents in the U.S. Army were on their way to San Francisco by 4:55 AM the next morning.

Prisoners were evacuated to Alcatraz, and by April 20 (two days after the earthquake) the USS Chicago had reached San Francisco, where it evacuated 20,000 refugees.

New Orleans Hurricane Katrina, 2005

August 26

• White House declares impending disaster area and orders Department Homeland Security and FEMA to prepare "to coordinate all disaster relief efforts which have the purpose of alleviating the hardship and suffering caused by the emergency on the local population, and to provide appropriate assistance for required emergency measures" in the path of the storm. A significant National Guard presence is not seen until 8 days later.

August 28

• New Orleans evacuated as Hurricane Katrina, a Category 5 hurricane, is expected to hit. It's predicted the entire city could be washed away. The poor, elderly and disabled are left behind.

August 29

• 6:10 AM - Hurricane Katrina, now Category 4, hits New Orleans.


• President Bush hits the road to promote prescription-drug plan. His first stop is Arizona, where he eats birthday cake with Senator John McCain and talks to senior citizens in Phoenix at a golf resort.


• In late afternoon, there are early reports of broken levees. The National Weather Service reported that a levee broke on the Industrial Canal near the St. Bernard-Orleans parish line.


• President Bush travels to Southern California to talk to more seniors about changes to Medicare. He also plays golf. He spends the evening in San Diego to prepare for a Tuesday speech commemorating the 60th Anniversary of the end of World War Two.

August 30

• 1:30AM - CNN reports that a levee on the 17th Street Canal, which connects into Lake Pontchartrain, suffered a two city-block wide breach. It is later reported that a total of three levees are breached.


• FEMA refuses to allow volunteer firefighters into New Orleans. After waiting in a parking lot for 4 days the expert team finally gives up and returns home to Houston.
• President Bush travels to Naval Air Station North Island to celebrate the 60th anniversary of V-J Day. Later, at a country music show at Naval Base Coronado, he plays a guitar.


• Michael Chertoff, Secretary of Homeland Security, apparently learns mid-day that the levees have broken, approximately 36 hours after they did.


• Louisiana and Mississippi request military specialists and equipment from other states.


• 10PM - New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin announces that the planned sandbagging of the 17th Street levee breach has failed. 80 percent of New Orleans is underwater.

August 31

• The Astrodome in Houston opens to refugees of Hurricane Katrina. 18-year-old Jabbor Gibson either finds or steals a bus (depending on who's telling the story) and takes 100 refugees to the Astrodome. Authorities eventually let the 'renegades' into the Astrodome and advise Jabbor is likely to be arrested.


• A Canadian urban rescue team is prevented from entering the US by the Department of Homeland Security.


• The Forest Service offered fire fighting planes to help extinguish blazes in New Orleans, but the Department of Homeland Security refused to authorise their use.


• President Bush cuts his 5 week vacation short by 2 days to fly back to Washington. He flies over the Gulf but doesn't stop.


• Governor Kathleen Blanco organizes a "moment of prayer" -- during which all relief efforts stop. She then orders that all of New Orleans, including the Superdome, be evacuated.


• New Orleans's 1,500 member police force is ordered to abandon search and rescue missions and turn their attention toward controlling the widespread looting and a curfew is placed in effect.


• Mayor Ray Nagin calls for increased federal assistance.

September 1

• Evacuation of Charity Hospital stops because of a sniper.


• The shelter in Houston's Astrodome is ruled full and could not accept any more people.


• New Orleans Mayor Nagin gives a radio interview blasting the relief effort.


• Governor Blanco says that the death toll may be "in the thousands".


• In an incredible display of compassion and timing, House Speaker Dennis Hastert wonders whether New Orleans should be rebuilt. He doesn't suggest where all the residents should go or whether they should be compensated in any way.


• Homeland Security Secretary Chertoff says, "The critical thing was to get people out of there before the disaster. Some people chose not to obey that order. That was a mistake on their part."


• FEMA Head Mike Brown tells Wolf Blitzer, "Well, I think the death toll may go into the thousands. And unfortunately, that's going to be attributable a lot to people who did not heed the evacuation warnings. And I don't make judgments about why people choose not to evacuate."


• President Bush claims, "I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees."


• The President makes a statement in the afternoon that sets the tone of the government's priorities. Rather than direct the military to immediately assist the thousands of people without food or water in the city center, Bush assured the nation that expected gasoline shortages would be temporary and that his father and former President Clinton were ready to pass the tin can to ensure private-sector support for rebuilding New Orleans.


• An entire business week has passed since hurricane Katrina demolished New Orleans, and still there has been no coordinated military action to provide relief to the victims. No water, no food, no airlifts, no medical assistance.


• Hundreds of people in Orleans and Jefferson parishes are rescued by swift water rescue teams from California. However, at the end of the day, FEMA halts further rescues due to supposed security concerns, though no security incidents involving the teams are reported by CNN journalist Rick Sanchez who was embedded with the teams during the rescues.

September 2

• Rapes and murders inside the Superdome are reported. The sanitation hasn't worked for days.


• FEMA Head Mike Brown claims to Ted Koppel that, really and truly, they just found out about the people at the New Orleans convention center. Koppel not only doesn't believe him, but says so out loud.


• Mike Brown gives President Bush a briefing. He uses a five day old map of Hurricane Katrina. President Bush tells him: "You're doing a heck of a job."

September 3

• The National Guard arrives in New Orleans.


• The Department of Homeland Security prevents the Red Cross going into the city because they want to spread the message that: 'You need to leave the city. This isn't going to be a sheltering spot.'

September 4

• The Superdome is completely evacuated.


• FEMA prevented the delivery of three trailer trucks of water donated by Wal-Mart to Jefferson Parish, forbade the Coast Guard from donating 1000 gallons of diesel fuel that happened to be on a Coast Guard vessel docked in Jefferson Parish, and cut all emergency communication lines out of the parish. The communication lines were repaired and put under armed guard.

September 5

• The 17th Street Canal levee breach is plugged with massive 3,000 pound sandbags.


• The estimate here is that there were about 30,000 people evacuated.
  

What I would like to know is - how in the name of all that is sensible was it possible to evacuate 20,000 people from San Francisco in 1906 in TWO DAYS, and yet in 2005, roughly ONE HUNDRED YEARS LATER, they have a problem doing the exact same thing in EIGHT DAYS. It seems obvious to me, based on the events that occurred, that the mishandling of resources by FEMA and the Department of Homeland Security was not just negligent, but criminal.

Heads will have to roll over this.

Categories: Politics

Katie was her name. I met her when she started work for Kirby, and we worked together for a while. We got to know each other quite well, and started seeing each other outside of work.

Now this was back in 1991, back when I was an atheist. I was raised by atheists to BE an atheist. There was no God or angels or the devil or anything like that. It was interesting, however, that even though I considered myself to be an atheist, a non-believer, I still remember thanking a 'guardian angel' for being in my life, back in 1989. I was never sure how to resolve that internally. If there's no God or angels, how can I have a guardian angel? But I felt like I had one, so I went with it. But I digress...

Katie and I had become good friends after a few weeks of us working together. One day she dropped a bombshell on me.

"By the way, I'm a witch."

"You're a what?"

"A witch."

I looked at her. Tall, blonde, slim, very attractive, bubbly personality. "Funny, you don't look like a witch," I said. She laughed, and then explained to me that she was a Wiccan. She practiced the ancient religion of Wicca.

Though sometimes used interchangeably, "Wicca" and "Witchcraft" are not the same thing. The confusion comes, understandably, because both practitioners of Wicca and practitioners of witchcraft are often called witches. In addition, not all practitioners of Wicca are witches, and not all witches are practitioners of Wicca.

Let me go off on a small tangent...

For quite a few years prior to 1991, every now and again I would be overcome with feelings of fear. I might be sitting at home reading a book, or walking somewhere, and suddenly a horrible feeling would overcome me. My heart would start beating faster, and I could hear the blood pounding in my ears. The hair all over my body - my head, the back of my neck, my arms and legs - felt like it was all standing on end. The skin on my back would start prickling; maybe you know the feeling yourself, when you have that paranoid feeling that someone's about to stick a knife between your shoulder blades - or worse - but you can't turn around because you know you don't want to see that knife falling and striking you. It's better to not look and die not knowing, than to look and experience the even greater horror of seeing what's about to strike you. That's the feeling I used to get, repeatedly, but only every few months. I didn't take much notice of it. Most of the time I knew there was nothing behind me, which just made the feeling all the worse, and if I was out somewhere and it occurred, I never actually looked behind me, I just tried to ignore it and move on. It usually passed in less than 20-30 seconds. I got used to it. It was only my mind, I used to tell myself. Some kind of irrational fear of the unknown.

One day while working, doorknocking and giving away free tickets to a holiday, as long as they had a free Kirby demonstration in exchange, I got the feeling again. I had just pressed the doorbell of someone's house, and was looking at the strange curved metal decorations hanging from the verandah over the door, when suddenly 'that feeling' came back. The feeling of great fear, as previously described. I decided to immediately leave the area, as no one seemed to be home, and after walking up the driveway the feeling disappeared. With relief, I went to the next house and prompty forgot the incident.

That night, I was walking with Katie, going back to her house after a wonderful dinner at the nearby McDonalds. We were chatting about stuff to do with Wicca, as we had been for a couple of weeks by this time. I remembered the incident during the day and decided to tell her about it, feeling she'd be interested.

I said, "Oh, by the way...." but I didn't get any further before the feeling came back. I was 'struck with fear' again. At the exact same time, she started freaking out.

"Oh shit! Oh fuck!" And other such exclamations. She held onto my arm, holding me close, but I stopped, looking at her.

"What's wrong?" I asked her, surprised and concerned.

"Nothing," she replied after taking a breath and calming herself down. "It's ok, tell me what you were going to tell me." She stayed silent as we continued walking, while I told her about the feeling I'd had that day, and which had just come back then.

By this time we had arrived at her house and, still silent, she unlocked the door and we went inside. As soon as the door closed behind her, she leant against it.

"Thank God! Now I feel safe again."

I looked at her for a few moments, wondering what the hell all that was about. "You wanna tell me what the hell all that was about?" I asked.

"Well..." she said, looking at me. "It felt like I was about to be psychically attacked."

"Right.... and that means what exactly?"

She had previously explained psychic abilities to me, which was something I believed in. God might not exist, I thought, but the power of our own minds holds untold secrets. Psychic abilities, in various forms, were untapped abilities I believed we have. Albert Einstein believed we only used 10 percent of our brains. What secrets - what powers - are within the other 90 percent?

"It felt like something was about to attack me with psychic energy. Something powerful. I need to find out what the hell that is."

Slightly bemused, I sat back and watched as she prepared a circle of candles and then sat inside it. She went into a meditative trance, and was like that for at least half an hour before she came out of it. I put down the book I had been reading during this time, but my mind wasn't completely on it. Psychic attacks? The fear I felt... what did it all mean?

"Well, that was interesting," she said, and looked at me for a while. I waited. "Ok, you've got a demon following you around."

"A demon?" I asked, incredulous.

She nodded. "A big ugly one too."

"Great, that's all I need. Demons following me around. Life can't get much more interesting than that."

She then taught me about demons. They exist only because of us. We give power to them. We create them with our own negative attitudes and thoughts, and if we put so much energy into our own negativity, that energy becomes substantial. It follows us around, and it can even take on a 'mind' of its own. It affects us, plays with our emotions and our thoughts. It helps us by continuing the cycle of energy that we have created it with. I'm sure you've all heard the saying, "She has to fight her own demons?" It's not just a figurative phrase. Demons are real, and we create them for ourselves.

It took me a few months to learn about the power of negative thought, and how the energy we devote to it can manifest in the form of a being of negative energy. We create them, and they stay with us. They're ours, for as long as we continue feeding them with the same energy that created them. At the same time, by understanding that these demons exist only because of the energy that we give them, we actually do have the ability to defeat our own demons - simply by not giving them that energy any more. They have no power over us apart from the power that we let them have.

The next time the feeling returned, about 3 months later, I had learnt a great deal about energy and the power of thought. I had learnt that this demon existed only because of my own negativity. When the feeling returned, I immediately turned around and in my head I said to it, "I'm not afraid of you any more." I had turned to face it, something I had never done before. I saw nothing. The feeling vanished immediately, and I have never had it return, not once in the 14 years since then.

Now, the really interesting thing about this experience, which began my journey into disbelieving atheism, was that the fear that I felt was simultaneously experienced by Katie. She felt threatened, about to be psychically attacked by something external to her. For me, this was absolute proof that my feelings were caused by something outside of me. It wasn't my mind! It was something else! My fears had manifested into an external being of energy that threatened another person. Demons were real.

This was the single most life-altering experience of my life, and still is to this day. This was the event that changed the path I walk. From this point on, my world changed. It wasn't all simple any more. It wasn't about belief, it was about reality. If demons actually existed, and we created them, what does that say about God and angels, etc? I had to change my beliefs. I was forced to. Physical evidence proved to me that my world wasn't the same any more.

I started to listen to Katie more. I started to believe what she was telling me. I opened my eyes, and she changed my life.

Another event that had another profound effect on me was when Katie wanted to prove to me that Magick was real. Not magic, but Magick. She did another candle meditation one night, and told me to look out for something. She didn't know what it would be, but it would prove to me the reality of what she was talking about. So I watched and waited. While she was in her meditation, after about 15 or so minutes, I suddenly noticed something happening. One of the candles that was half melted was unmelting. It was reforming before my eyes, until it was whole again. I didn't really know what to make of this. It was like a surreal moment. Candles don't unmelt! But again, it was proof for me that she knew what she was talking about, and that everything I had believed about reality was wrong.

She came out of her trance and asked if anything had happened. I pointed to the candle, and she was surprised to see it whole again, as if new. Surprised but very pleased. She explained to me that she set in motion the manifestation of energy. She didn't know what the result would be, but her mind directed energy to manifest in some way so as to prove to me that the manipulation of reality by the mind was possible.

I looked again at the candle, wondering if I was going mad. This kind of thing isn't possible, I was telling myself. But if it's not possible, how is it that she did it? How is she creating what a rational mind believes is impossible? How is she seeing the same thing I'm seeing? If I was going mad, surely I'd be the only one seeing or feeling the things that I do? The only 'rational' conclusion I could come to was that literally, everything I believed was wrong. Magic was real, and reality wasn't what I thought it was.

This has been the foundation, the beginning, of everything that I have done since then, and everything I have experienced. When you come to understand that there's more to reality than what you once thought, your eyes - and your mind - are opened to supernatural and metaphysical experiences that you once thought were impossible.

Since then I have channelled spirit guides for myself and others. I've requested the aid of angels and even seen them. I've sensed the presence of lost spirits (ghosts) and helped them move on. I've had my spirit guides come to my aid and move on angry spirits for me, when I've requested it. I've seen the demons of other people and protected myself from them, subsequently causing those people to feel weird around me and decide not to see me any more. I've seen other people's past and future, with a high degree of accuracy.

But above all, I've learnt that the most important part of life is simply to live it. I move through life understanding that there's more to it than most people think. I'm aware of the dangers around me, and within me, that are actually part of this physical world. I actively work with energy to protect myself from those dangers, and to be more aligned with the path I choose to follow in this life.

Magic? It's real. Reality? It's really not what you think it is. It's so much more.

My cat, Eve, is just gorgeous. She loves to sleep on the end of the bed at night, and sometimes she likes to sleep with us IN the bed. I swear, sometimes she thinks she's human. So human, in fact, that when we're not looking, she snuggles up under the covers just like us.


I came into the bedroom this morning, quite a few hours after Deidre and I had gotten up, to find Eve had made herself comfortable. Just like we do. I HAD to take a photo. Isn't she cute?

Categories: Cat

I'm on Michael Moore's mailing list, and I got this email from him the other day. I just found out that it's the same letter that he's put in a number of newspapers in America. I decided to put it in here as well.

Friday, September 2nd, 2005

Dear Mr. Bush:

Any idea where all our helicopters are? It's Day 5 of Hurricane Katrina and thousands remain stranded in New Orleans and need to be airlifted. Where on earth could you have misplaced all our military choppers? Do you need help finding them? I once lost my car in a Sears parking lot. Man, was that a drag.

Also, any idea where all our national guard soldiers are? We could really use them right now for the type of thing they signed up to do like helping with national disasters. How come they weren't there to begin with?

Last Thursday I was in south Florida and sat outside while the eye of Hurricane Katrina passed over my head. It was only a Category 1 then but it was pretty nasty. Eleven people died and, as of today, there were still homes without power. That night the weatherman said this storm was on its way to New Orleans. That was Thursday! Did anybody tell you? I know you didn't want to interrupt your vacation and I know how you don't like to get bad news. Plus, you had fundraisers to go to and mothers of dead soldiers to ignore and smear. You sure showed her!

I especially like how, the day after the hurricane, instead of flying to Louisiana, you flew to San Diego to party with your business peeps. Don't let people criticize you for this -- after all, the hurricane was over and what the heck could you do, put your finger in the dike?

And don't listen to those who, in the coming days, will reveal how you specifically reduced the Army Corps of Engineers' budget for New Orleans this summer for the third year in a row. You just tell them that even if you hadn't cut the money to fix those levees, there weren't going to be any Army engineers to fix them anyway because you had a much more important construction job for them -- BUILDING DEMOCRACY IN IRAQ!

On Day 3, when you finally left your vacation home, I have to say I was moved by how you had your Air Force One pilot descend from the clouds as you flew over New Orleans so you could catch a quick look of the disaster. Hey, I know you couldn't stop and grab a bullhorn and stand on some rubble and act like a commander in chief. Been there done that.

There will be those who will try to politicize this tragedy and try to use it against you. Just have your people keep pointing that out. Respond to nothing. Even those pesky scientists who predicted this would happen because the water in the Gulf of Mexico is getting hotter and hotter making a storm like this inevitable. Ignore them and all their global warming Chicken Littles. There is nothing unusual about a hurricane that was so wide it would be like having one F-4 tornado that stretched from New York to Cleveland.

No, Mr. Bush, you just stay the course. It's not your fault that 30 percent of New Orleans lives in poverty or that tens of thousands had no transportation to get out of town. C'mon, they're black! I mean, it's not like this happened to Kennebunkport. Can you imagine leaving white people on their roofs for five days? Don't make me laugh! Race has nothing -- NOTHING -- to do with this!

You hang in there, Mr. Bush. Just try to find a few of our Army helicopters and send them there. Pretend the people of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast are near Tikrit.

Yours,

Michael Moore
MMFlint@aol.com
www.MichaelMoore.com

P.S. That annoying mother, Cindy Sheehan, is no longer at your ranch. She and dozens of other relatives of the Iraqi War dead are now driving across the country, stopping in many cities along the way. Maybe you can catch up with them before they get to DC on September 21st.

Categories: Politics