NickolasJames8

To my readers: I apologize for missing last week's update of Staying together. Life has grabbed me by the hair and its been running me around at its own leisure. So far I've been able to juggle school, work, spending time at home with my family and writing, but the last two weeks have been out of control. On the days that I don't have to go to school, I have more work than I know what to do with. I'm on a serious paper chase right now, trying to keep what I have in savings in tact and still be able to afford to buy things that we want. My fiance and I are looking at buying a house in the near future, but I want to have a good enough down payment so that our payments aren't through the roof. That said, I've been doing some extra work for my dad on the side. On September 11th, he talked me into driving to the DC area, Sterling, Va, to be exact, to tender a package for him at Dulles International. Driving to Northern Virginia is bad enough, but having to do it on the anniversary of 9/11 was outrageous. By the time we got out of the airport, it was 5pm and traffic on the beltway sucked. When I got home, I said only two words to my father; Never Again. But, I did get a chapter off to Talonrider last night, and I have plans to take some time to write the next one soon. Sometimes, though, it's hard to focus on my writing when I have so many other things swirling through my mind.

Actually, the person who was running the Baltimore office is a top official. Baltimore is a major city, and to be in charge of an entire region definitely qualifies one to be a top official. The fact of the matter is, this whole scandal just proves what people were saying before the election about President Obama... his associations are suspect to say the least. And of course, he'll say the same thing he's said in the past; he had no idea. It's bullshit. I know it infuriates the radical left when someone exposes their seedy underbelly, but it has to be done. And of course, the common defense from democrats is that anyone who points to the corrupt activities of the President's close inner circle is a racist.

I agree with all of the points you've made so far, James. I just think it's fun to watch the democrat party implode from within. I subscribe to the Young Turks channel on Youtube, a "progressive" commentary channel, and it's hilarious to watch them lose their minds every time Obama throws the democrats under the bus. They know he'll never agree with any type of public option, and it's eating them up inside. These are the same dumb f**ks that they want the Bush administration brought up and charges and can't stand the fact that Obama won't give them their way.

This hasn't been a very good month for democrats. First, they lost a lot of ground on the healthcare debate, then James Trafficant got out of prison and wants to run for congress again. Add to that the fact that they're losing badly in the polls in the Virginia and New Jersey governor races, and it becomes clear that the last thing they needed was for top Acorn officials to be caught on camera giving advice on how to run a successful prostitution operation, evade the IRS and traffic underage girls into the US to work as hookers. It makes me wonder what we'll learn about next.....

I was reading a thread in the Soapbox on Healthcare, and I took a particular interest in Jamessavick's ultra moderate posts on the issue. He made so many good points that I hardly know where to begin. For me it all comes down to two points: a) How the United States pays for a public option (there's currently no viable plan.) and b ) We shouldn't be talking about reforming health care. We should be talking about reforming health insurance. I was reading some of the posts from people who had some trouble getting coverage, and it made me wonder what health care had to do with their issues. It should be about reforming the insurance industries, its policies and structure, and how to make sure that Americans who pay their premiums get the coverage that they paid for. For some reason, the people who are for a public option insist on calling it health care reform, but they don't seem to understand that Americans don't want their health care f**ked with. We have the best health care in the world here in the US. What people would like to see is insurance reform. I think it all comes down to the emotions that a word like health care conjures up. Pro reform folks know that it strikes at the heart of everyone. We all want great health care. But what they didn't expect was that the republicans, under the leadership of the neutered Michael Steel, would be able to twist the debate. So instead of talking about comprehensive coverage, there's talk of "death panels." Instead of dealing with dental coverage, there's talk of "rationing." Instead of talking about affordable premiums, there's talk of a bureaucratic government run system where people die waiting their turn for breast cancer screenings. So what should we do? Simple. We have to rise above the crap that's being thrown from one camp to another and start talking about the real issue. It's all about reforming the insurance coverage that we pay for. That doesn't mean making the insurance companies non profit. If we do that, why would they want to stick around. But what we can do is pass laws forbidding them from denying coverage that people have paid for. If we want a public option, we should be also be willing to pay for that option. That means being brave enough to say that we need a new tax; maybe a national snack tax. I can't imagine that some sweat hog looking for a Snickers or a Milkyway would be willing to let a few cents worth of sales tax stand between them and their candy bar.

I always thought that the psychology behind the 9/11 Truth movement had more to do with high doses of LSD that permanently altered their mental state.

So I was a little conflicted about who I wanted to vote for in the upcoming gubernatorial election here in Virginia, but the Creigh Deeds campaign made my decision for me. Who's Jennifer? Apparently, the Democrat party, struggling under the inept leadership of Tim Kaine, has become desperate. One of Creigh Deeds's staffers called the campaign headquarters of his opponent, Bob McDonnell posing as a reporter. Unfortunately for that staffer, she happened to place that call from Deeds's capaign headquarters, and the McDonnell staffers were able to figure out who was calling by looking at the caller ID. I was honestly not sure who to vote for just yesterday, but then I heard about this dumb-ass stunt and I saw the light. Not so much for the fact that they tried to get information from the McDonnell campaign using a dirty trick, but because Deeds obviously surrounds himself with morons. Morons who placed the equivalent of a prank call, but they didn't have enough sense to remember that the caller ID might give them away. Dumb-asses. Basically, here's what happened to the Deeds campaign yesterday http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ht8q1H1_vtA

I heard a pretty good counter yesterday to the 9-11 truther argument that I wish I'd have thought of myself, because it makes so much sense and essentially shuts down the arguments that the truthers have....at least as it pertains to the downing of the twin towers. If there was really overwhelming evidence that the WTC was blown up with explosives as opposed to succumbing to the heat of the fire from the plane crashes, then why haven't we heard from an overwhelming majority of the nations structural engineers backing the claims of the truthers? They say that the heat from the fires wasn't enough to bring the towers down, that steel doesn't melt... where are their experts? And if this was really the case, wouldn't there have been an outcry from the majority of people who design these buildings and oversee the construction projects of the magnitude of WTC? The 9/11 truthers are just as crazy as the radicals who believe in "global warming."

Yeah it was a seriously stupid thing to do. I was so frustrated at the time because I couldn't figure out what else I could do to make the damn thing work. The breaker was tripping because of the heat, and we used to be able to leave the panel door open and point a big fan at it to keep it from happening, but that's not the right way to take care of a problem. I just didn't want my boss to have to call an outside technician from Allen Bradley to come work on something that I should be able to handle. I'm good with relay logic, but when it comes to Process Controllers, I'm still learning. And I leaned a pretty scary lesson yesterday. But like I said before.... NEVER AGAIN.

Well, I officially know what it's like to have the living shit shocked out of me. I was working on a panel box today at work and I went to remove a fuse, but I didn't lock out the power first. Basically, I got my ass lit up with 440 Volts and I'll never forget the feeling. It was brief, and to be honest it didn't hurt, but it was definitely an eye opener. I'll NEVER make that mistake again. Okay, so now onto an issue that I really consider to be none of my business, but what the hell.... Looking back over the posts in the political forums for the last few days, I can see where the admins have posted over and over again, in numerous threads, in all three subforums, to pick a side and stay out of the forum you don't belong in. Yet, for whatever reason, people don't seem to be getting the hint. There's a thread in the Left Wing forum about the late Ted Kennedy, and in spite of what's been said, people who shouldn't be are still posting there. It doesn't bother me, I just find it amusing that there's such a disconnect between the edicts being handed down from the admins and what the members decide to do for themselves.

I got up this morning and went for a hellacious jog. It's been a week since I've ran, and I realize now that I shouldn't have taken such a long break. My legs feel like rubber right now, but I guess if nothing else I can at least say that I got it out of the way and tomorrow morning's run shouldn't be quite as bad. So when I got home I jumped in the shower and when I got out, I went to check on the baby. When I went in there she was awake and for a change, she wasn't screaming her head off. We're finally to the point where she sleeps in her own room without us taking her to bed at some point because she won't stop crying if we don't. Anyway, I changed her and took her with me to the PC so I could post my chapter announcement and she made it almost impossible because she seems to find amusement in banging her hands on the keyboard. Never the less, I got the announcement up and even picked a random new avatar I guess the point of this entry is that I can't believe how lucky I am to have such a beautiful little girl. Yeah, she's spoiled as hell, especially by her grandparents and her mom, but she's gotten to be so affectionate lately that it just makes my heart melt. Her love is so unconditional, and it's like the most innocent, most perfect thing in the world. I shouldn't carry on like this, but whatever. I'll stop now.

lol... it sounds like you just gave an accurate description of about 95% of the democrat party. But instead of creating bullshit "art", they create bullshit theories like "global warming" and "climate change", then they try to tax the shit out of those of us who work our asses off to make a decent buck. I've heard of people getting themselves infected with HIV on purpose, and I don't get it. Most suicidal people want to get it over with quickly, but I guess some people want to do it slowly and miserably, giving all of their loved ones as much misery by forcing them to watch while the disease takes its course. Very sad.

For the last year or so, I've been subscribed to the Buck Hollywood channel on You Tube. It's probably my favorite channel along with SXE Phil and the Shaytards. I don't really feel like talking about politics this time because the whole health care fight makes me sad. To think that the level of the debate has sunk down to the point of republicans taking about death panels and comparing Obama to Hitler, while Nancy Pelosi compares the town hall protesters to Timothy McVeigh, the terrorist who murdered Americans, is despicable. The republicans would love to take credit for killing the public option, and the democrats would love to blame them. But the fact is that they've both had a hand in destroying the substance of the debate, which is tragic for the nation because whether or not we want a government solution, this would have been a healthy debate for the United States to have.

In 1993, the democrats were in complete control of Washington. They had picked up huge majorities in the 1992 trouncing of George H W Bush by Bill Clinton, and Hillary Clinton was working hard on national healthcare. At the same time, an unpopular trade treaty called NAFTA was being forced down the throats of Americans. The democrat controlled congress and the democrat president pushed it through. While that was happening, a seemingly tone-deaf congress pushed through a vicious tax increase on the lower and middle class working Americans. Then in 1994, the republican party, which had been essentially neutered only two years before rose to power, capturing the house and the senate, as well as a whole shitload of governorships across the nation. Fast forward to 2009. The democrats are in complete control of Washington. They made huge gains in the house and control a filibuster proof senate. President Obama practically broke John McCain's hip in the presidential election and the majority of the governorships across the nation are held by democrats. In the meanwhile, a widely unpopular national healthcare plan is sinking the approval rating of the president, and a cap and trade bill that Americans overwhelmingly oppose was passed by the house. President Obama is demanding that his democrat controlled senate do the same, regardless of what the American people are saying. On top of that, the treasury secretary, who's also a confirmed tax cheat, wants the senate to increase the debt ceiling because we're about to blow the roof off with the deficit. Is history repeating itself? Will the seemingly impotent republican party rise once again to power in a sweeping coup next year? What's likely to happen this November when Virginia and New Jersey hold their gubernatorial elections? In 2005, it was the democrat victories in both states that seemed to start the momentum that carried the party to power in 2006 and 2008. Who knows the answer? I don't, but it's definitely interesting to make the comparison and watch history unfold.

CABLE NEWS RACE NIGHT OF AUG 10, 2009 FOXNEWS O'REILLY 3,814,000 FOXNEWS HANNITY 3,118,000 FOXNEWS BECK 2,417,000 FOXNEWS GRETA 2,388,000 FOXNEWS BAIER 1,988,000 FOXNEWS SHEP SMITH 1,833,000 MSNBC OLBERMANN 1,243,000 MSNBC MADDOW 1,082,000 CNNHN GRACE 875,000 CNN KATHY GRIFFIN 810,000 MSNBC HARDBALL 710,000 I wonder what it is that compels so many people to tune in to Fox News and why so few (comparatively) watch CNN and MSNBC. The sad part is that if you combine the viewers of every MSNBC show in the top ten, they would only add up to 3,035,000. How embarrassing for CNN and MSNBC. The End.

Is it the coffee I'm drinking this morning, or our federal government? After reading that Timothy Geithner sent a letter to senate majority leader Harry Reid asking the senate to raise the national debt ceiling, I have to wonder. He wants to take our debt to out of control levels, and no one's talking about how in the hell we're going to get this shit paid off. One can only hope that the democrats that control the senate can do the right thing for a change, instead of laying down for the Obama administration. It's a f**king mess, and we'll never get out of it unless we wake up and realize that we have to pay our debt off. At this point, I wouldn't blame China if they told us to go straight to hell and decided not to buy anymore of our debt.

No kidding...or ruined her private jet.

I subscribe to a channel on You Tube called Rhett and Link (I think I spelled it right). Anyway, they pretty much do all original stuff, and I thought this tribute to the 1980's was hilarious. BTW, I sent chapter two of my new story off to Steph, and as soon as she can, she's gonna get it posted. She's not feeling well so there's been a slight posting delay...no big deal. BTW, I don't have any beta readers for this story (except for Talonrider, my editor, who reads the chapters as he works on them(, so if anyone is interested, there's an open slot. OK, here's the video........

I was debating a Republican friend of mine last night on what the party needs to do to get back on track. I told him that I feel like as long as they continue to talk about gay marriage, Obama's birth certificate and the "real America" (ie; small town America) that they should just make themselves comfortable as the minority party in Washington. Apparently, he's a birther, one of those people who refuses to accept that President Obama is a natural born citizen of the United States. I asked him kindly if he'd ever heard of factcheck.org, and he took a funny right turn in the middle of our conversation. You see, according to him, I'm not following the "Principles of the 912 project." I almost started laughing but was able to contain myself long enough to ask him what the hell that had to do with anything. Well, supposedly, the "912 project" is something that Glen Beck invented. I'm sure you all know who glen beck is. He's the pussy on Fox that cries over the dumbest ass things, and got called out on the view for lying (and for crying). So my best guess is that they'll never get their shit together and continue to wander out into the political wilderness. They'll look and sound just as crazy as the democrats did for eight years when they refused to let the 2000 election drop and move on. They'll continue to talk about the real America and call people who don't agree with their political viewpoints Un-American because that's such an effective way to draw people under their political tent. They'll pin all of their election hopes on the back of Rush Limbaugh, Shawn Hannity and Glen Beck because of their ratings share on the radio and television, but what they won't take into consideration is that those guys only need a 5 or 6 point ratings share to be considered popular. They need at least a 51 point share of the populous to win elections. They'll keep talking about Ronald Reagan like he was the second coming of Jesus because these days, that's all they have to hold onto. There is literally NOBODY in the Republican party that can take them to victory. They'll talk about the great Sarah Palin and how great she'd do against Obama in an election, but they'll only be fooling themselves. I'm going to venture a guess and say that Palin has never read a book about the Middle East, World Wars one or two, Vietnam, Korea, Communism, Eisenhower or even an Atlas of the world. If she had, she would have known that Africa was a continent and not its own country. But when I tried to convey these points to my poor republican friend, all I got was a lecture about liberal bias in the media and lies about Sarah Palin. I asked him to cite one lie the media told about her, and he couldn't. I really hate the democrats, and call them out every chance I can. I think it's a bad idea for one party to be in control of all of the legislative bodies in Washington. We saw what happened when the republicans held both houses of congress and the White House. We're watching history repeat itself at this very moment. Unfortunately, thanks to a group of mind numb ditto heads and birthers, it's probably going to be a long trip back for the republican party.

Somewhere deep down, I know it's wrong to point and laugh. But damn.....

I had a nice, long blog entry written and ready to roll. Then I hit the post button, and instantly, I was disconnected from the internet and my entry was gone.... oh well. Anyway, here's a quick summary. Sent the first chapter of my new story off to Steph. Wrote a new short story. Not allowed to get a bike anymore because two people were killed this weekend in the area on bikes and it was on the news. My fiance said that I could get one, but that I could also move into the guest room or onto the couch if I did. We settled on an Audi 5 but I want to get a 2010 model, so we're holding off for a minute. We still might get an Infinity instead, or, if I get my way, an Audi for her and an Infinity for me Probably not though So yeah, that's the condensed version of everything I had before my connection to the internet went away

Well, I thought about a 2007 or 2008, but that's up to her. We're planning to buy a house in the coming months, so it's definitely something we need to look at. She has her heart set on a new car, though, so if worse comes to worse, I hate to say, I may have to wait on the bike. I'm gonna take my grandpa with me when we go. He used to be a part owner of a used car dealership, and he's pretty good at negotiating with dealers. He got me a hell of a deal on the Honda, and I got my Sentra a lot cheaper than the lot I got it at wanted for it because he was there.

So my fiance and I made our first compromise the other day. I've been wanting to buy a street bike, and she's been wanting a new car. Technically, neither one of us needs either, but we both have our minds made up. So I made a deal with her..... If she lets me go to the Kawasaki dealer, I'll get her the car she wants. We both win. Granted, my bike's going to be a lot cheaper than her car, but I understand that a new car is a much more practical purchase than a motorcycle. I should mention that she wants an Audi, and to be quite honest, I think they're f**king sick, but they're pretty expensive. Not that expensive, but still. We have the money, but it's going to make me nauseous to part with that much. Still, Audi's are safe and I want her driving something safe. The Civic's getting older, and while she was learning to drive a stick she pretty much slayed the clutch and ground all the gears into fine powder (I'm exaggerating there, but only a little bit). So it's definitely time. In other news, I'm still working on the sequel. I also have a few other ideas in the works, and they should all be coming down the pike shortly. Anyway, I also wanted to mention the fact that Barbara Boxer is the dumbest racist in the history of the US Senate. Not the biggest racist (that still applies to Robert Byrd, the former Klansman), but the dumbest racist. She's such a dumb racist that she doesn't even know how bad of a racist she is. Here's proof.....

So I read a story about the Stella Doro factory closing in the Bronx, and I started thinking about a cookie I used to eat at my grandparents' house when I was probably no older than about five or six. They were Stella Doro cookies, but they were topped with Sesame Seeds. They were perfect for dunking in hot chocolate and would be great to dunk in my morning cup of coffee...I say would be because I found out Stella Doro stopped making them a few years ago. Now aside from the fact that I won't get to experience the tastiness of those wonderful cookies ever again, my life isn't really that impacted. Except that for some reason, I feel a sense of loss over it mainly due to the fact that I won't have the opportunity to sit down at the table someday with my daughter and share the memory with her of dunking a Stella Doro Sesame Seed cookie in our hot coco. Silly? yes. Meaningless? To most, I'm sure, but not to me. The good news is, though, that there are plenty of other brands of cookie out there, but I somehow doubt that they'll have the timeless mystique that Stella Doro cookies have. The taste, the texture and even the packaging takes me back to another time. It just makes me sad that I won't have that one special facet of my childhood to pass along to my daughter when she gets old enough to appreciate its significance.

Here's the first section of the first chapter of the story I've been working on.......in Greek. "Μπαμπά, πρέπει να ακούσετε αυτό;" griped Ι, για την επίτευξη του Ipod πριν έκανε ένα δυνατό κτύπημα στο χέρι μου. Άφησα ένα δυνατό αναστεναγμό και διασχίζεται χέρια μου, με τον τρόπο με τον ερεθισμένο μου είχε περάσει ολόκληρη τη μέρα. "Φίλιππος, που είναι δύστροπος μαζί μου δεν πρόκειται να πάρετε το αυτοκίνητό σας έξω από το μαγαζί κάθε νωρίτερα," ο μπαμπάς μου μου διδάξει. "Το έχω ήδη πει, μπορείτε να οδηγείτε το Pontiac σε αυτό το χρονικό διάστημα." "Αυτό είναι χάλια," I Muttered, που οδήγησε τον πατέρα μου να μου δώσει μια μεγάλη, όπως μας επισήμανε κοιτάζω καθίσει στο stoplight, περιμένει να κάνει μια αριστερή στροφή που θα μας πάρει σπίτι. Το ίδιο stoplight όπου νωρίτερα μέσα στην ημέρα, μου έλεγχο κινητήρα φως ήρθε και άρχισε να αναβοσβήνει. Όταν προσπάθησε να φύγει, το αυτοκίνητο μετακινηθεί, αλλά μόνο ελάχιστα. Θα φτάσει σε ταχύτητα της τάξης των είκοσι μίλια την ώρα, όταν ήξερα ότι ήταν κάτι σοβαρό, έτσι τράβηξα πάνω και κάλεσε τον πατέρα μου. Τέσσερις ώρες αργότερα, ήταν το τράβηγμα έξω από το Chevy αντιπροσωπείας ΧΩΡΙΣ μου Μαλιμπού. Το Τριπλό Α τύπος είπε ότι ακούγεται σαν Έχασα κάπου στη συμπίεση μου αυτοκίνητα, και ήθελα να του πω "δεν Sherlock σκατά." Αντί στάθηκα από gritted και τα δόντια μου που είδα τον τραβήξτε το αυτοκίνητό μου πάνω στο κρεβάτι του γερανό . Ο μπαμπάς μου είπε που να οδηγεί στην αντιπροσωπεία, και ακολούθησε μαζί. Θα ήθελα να πω ότι έχοντας το αμάξι μου είχε καταρρεύσει το χαμηλότερο σημείο της ημέρας μου, αλλά θα ήθελα να βρίσκεται. Προηγούμενα κατά τη διάρκεια της ημέρας, ανακάλυψα ότι το πλυντήριο αυτοκινήτων δούλευα σε αυτό, για τουλάχιστον το ήμισυ του detailers εκτός, και από τότε που ήταν η τελευταία αυτού, θα ήθελα να είναι το πρώτο πιθανό ένας από την πόρτα. Ι εμφανίστηκε για εργασία στις 8:30 απότομη, που ήταν όταν είχε προγραμματιστεί να είναι εκεί, μόνο για να πει ότι μπορώ να δουλέψω δύο ώρες, τότε θα έπρεπε να προβλέπονται ρολόι. Από τη δική μου σπίτι, θα προσπαθούσε να αφαιρέσει ένα σχέδιο στο μυαλό μου για να βρει νέες θέσεις εργασίας, όταν το αυτοκίνητό μου, που ανοίγει σε μένα, και ήξερα ότι δεν ήταν μόνο δική μου μέρα.