shadowgod

Umm, lets see if I can get this done. It's a little older but I'll damned if I still dont look the same, well I have more chin hair now Steve

It all started with directons... simple enough... You'll see a Home Depot on the right a Shell on the left, make a left at the Shell. I was assured if all else failed, she and Jason would find me. I dunno if she recruited Jason for the task but Viv did find me sitting on my front porch waiting patiently. I thought she missed me at first as she drove right by. Turned out she was just turing around to park . Both Viv and I had managed to get the same night off, and she was child & husband free for the evening. So we figured we'd meet up again. The last time having been the D-land escapade. The day from there turned into some weird Murphy's Law thing. There was Jamba Juice first, which was packed cause it was 95 degrees and everyone needed their whirl fix, and right as we got to the front of the line their computers decided it was time to take a dump. Which was all cool cause we both work with hokey registers and know that it happens. What was rather annoying was the three other employees in the building who were doing absolutely nothing. They could have been taking orders and getting them started. Life does go on with-out computers folks. From there we decided to see a movie, So Viv and I shot over to the Mall. Deciding on a which movie was relatively easy, Viv doesn't do Horror/suspense, and Blades of Glory had its next showing in an hour. She was willing to see it again, and I was a Blades virgin. Tickets bought, yeah I had to coax her away from the cashier and tell her I bought her ticket already, we cruised around the Ghetto Mall taking in the local wild life. By Ghetto Mall I mean an over-abundance of stores selling urban labels, with names like; Urban-Outfitters, Duke'z (yeah thats the way it was spelled on the sign), and Concrete Jungle. She kept mentioning that they didn't have these sores in her Mall, I couldn't help but thinking they don't have these stores in any other Mall. After I was through mocking the 'Why Men Marry Bitches' book in a book store I looked up to see a Pirate. Yes a pirate right there in the middle of the ghetto mall, and considering the choice of stores I could see why he was in the book store. Doesn't mean he wasn't horribly out of place though, looking like a hefty Jack Sparrow. Viv being her playfull self suggested I go up and say Hi! I didn't agree. Figuring we could go hit up the movie we walked back to the theater only to be told they don't let people in until its thirty minutes before the move starts. Ok whatever, but it was 6:47 and the show started at 7:20. whats three minutes? what if we wanted popcorn and an Icee? honestly they are selling themselves short. Its not like we didn't have to go through a second set of security who double checked our tickets when we did get in fifteen minutes later. The Movie was funny I suggest you see it if you haven't, Theres a whole crotch lift thing that will make you squirm in sympathy where you sit that and who wouldn't enjoy a Male/Male figure skating pairing?? After the show we headed out to diner. Tried Bj's, a brewhouse pizza place, that was a no go as the wait was like forty-five minutes. So we opted for the Olive Garden. Thirty minutes two pagers, number 19 was flawed singing when inappropriate, later we had diner with James our server. Tall cute and terribly forgetfully it would seem. It took a bit to get our bill, and he didn't offer us wine. Apparently such a thing is a big no no in the Olive Garden world. All in all it was a good night, though next time Im heading down to the block. Theres more to do in her neck of the woods then there is mine.

I thought the san berdoo and riv couinties had the same blood bank... Isnt it The Blood bank of San Bernardino and Riverside counties?? http://www.bbsbrc.org/ Yup Jack, Im a local.. are you afraid yet? Steve

Mine is a design I made myself way back when... well part of it anyhow. It started purple but I found adobe at some point and made it the tarnished chrome you see now

No offense to dell or Mark but... all the dells I have ever owned seemed to be .. well... problematic. Form screens going out to the CPU over heating and various buttons on the keyboard popping off and that was all in the first year. As for XP, I'm afraid that you are going to have to do without on that front unless you happen upon an electronics store that still has stock pre-loaded with XP over vista. Expect to pay extra for word. but the good news here is if she waits until she starts school in the fall to get Word she'll get it at the student price. I assume by word you mean MS Office, there is a student edition of the new office 2007 package. I suggest you visit the office website: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/suites/FX101674081033.aspx You could also try looking around for the previous version but I'm not sure how much luck you will have there. as for the laptops, there are plenty out there that start from around 479.00 and going up from there. I do however suggest staying away from the lower end processors. (Celeron. & Sempron.) With Vista you wont want anything under 1gig of RAM The hard drive size, I'd go big there, as big as you can get within your budget constraints. why? because those things fill up faster then you can imagine. Other then that is the keyboard feel, IS she going to be doing allot of numerical entry? If she is I suggest a "full size" keyboard it will have a separate ten-key on the side. Hope that helps if you have any other questions don't be afraid to shout! Steve

If the information has no relevance to the story I'd say leave it out, as it is chunky useless information. Concerning said information would CHris have remebered that detail anyhow? Or would he have more preoccupied with the situation to notice something as trivial as a small flash.

Happy Birthday Vance!!!! Steve

First things First... Whats with the girly fire? C'mon more work was exerted in the flower bed at the Williams residence. For future reference a fire pit is not a fire pit unless it is six foot around and at least five feet deep. Had our hero's invested effort in said fire pit, that insidious little (insert expletive here) wouldn't have had a chance, the whole clearing would have been lit up like noon at the OK coral. I do have to say though this chapter was a real eye opener for me, I have maintained some modicum of hope for Eric all along. But with his little plan here I'm not sure I can maintain such a optimistic outlook for his future. Maybe it would be best if he fell victim to a certain plot device. And yeah... blame the anonymous beta-reader!

by all means ramble! I too look forward to the day where hydrogen is a viable alternitive. Sadly among the issues you pointed out there is also a serious lack of infustructure for any of these types of energy. The infustructure is the major breaking point, as it has taken decades to get inplace the fuel infustructure we currently have. And replacing it is a high cost investment that in turn will only trickle down to the price of what ever fuel the infustructure is supporting.

Ooh speaking of the Corn thing. I heard Coca Cola was crying over the amount High Fructose Corn Syrup's price had risen ever since the ethanol mandate went into effect. Seem's it may soon be entirely possible for them to Make soda with Cane sugar instead of HFCS

Theres a reason for this Talonrider... gas is all the same. Refiners usually swap barrels of the stuff amongst each other when their own supplies are running thin. The only difference between the brands is the different additives they throw in the mix, and those are not added until the gasoline is loaded into the tanker. And yes Davey, a substantial percentage of fuel price is tax, more then the dealer, who any such boycott would cause the most adverse effect, makes off a gallon. Also take a moment to realize just where ExxonMobil's profit comes from. Yes there is gasoline, but then there is a rainbow of other products that are derived from oil. Lubricants, solvants even plastics. You notice how gasoline companies are ofted cited as the devil when Wal-Mart hasn't been far behind them in profits in the last several years?

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KURT!!!!

Sure wouldn't the gas you buy at the pump today was bought at a crude price weeks ago (refining transport.) So not buying gas for one day would only stagnate the supply on hand. Leaving the higher priced fuel on hand longer. Any dissruption not purchasing fuel for one day would cuase would only be eased by sales either the day before or after. then there is the whole thing about Oil companies, already being paid for the fuel at the station level. The majority of fuel stations are not company owned. Any participation in such a scheme would only hurt the small business dealer who own and operates the station. Not the oil company whose name he pays to put on the pump. You have to feel for these guys, they are stuck in the middle. with gas nearing $3.40 a gallon (in California) the dealer usualy only reaps about .10 cents a gallon. The rest is the cost of the gas and state and federal taxes. Then you get to factor in all the permitting fees said station owner has to dish out on an annual basis for the priviledge of being able to sell the gasoline in the first place.

The L'oreal case while interesting does not compare to the Harrah's case. Comparing the two is like comparing apples and oranges. Harrah's decided to implement standards of appearance that were decided by its customer base. So those standards included women being made up and men being neatly groomed. Don't blame a company for stereotypes decided upon and set in place by society at large. Especially something as ubiquitous as wearing make-up, which millions of woman do daily with out prodding or prompting by their employers. Had she gone forth with the undue burden as to the additional costs of the makeup I could understand her case. On the Other hand men in a similar position would have to get their hair-cut at least twice as often as women would. However that was not the way in which it was argued. She argued that the standards imposed were amount to sexual discrimination. Which, judging from the information received, they were not. Alleging standards of appearance are equal to sexual discrimination is an abuse of the law. The main focus is: would a man in the same position have his employment terminated if he failed to uphold the standards. If a man was in a similar situation and was not fired, then it would be a case of unlawful sexual discrimination.

Was she let go for being a woman and not wearing Makeup or was she let go for failing to follow company policies and procedures? I'm sure a male in the same postion who failed to keep his image to set standards would also be fired. Therefore it is not unlawful gender stereotyping. Like it or not she was hired by said company to work with the public. Part of that job is maintianing the companies public image, as obviously requested by the public. her failure to adhear to those standards resulted in a failure to adhear to her job requirements. Nowhere does it state she was to apply makeup in copious ammounts as to appear like a two dollar hooker. Just enough to appear presentable.

Bobcats are smaller then Mountain Lions (or any of their 'other' assorted names) closer in size to, and resembling a large domestic tabby then any other wild cat, hence the preference for smaller game. The large deer thing I just don't understand given the size difference...

DK had the fanfic's removed a few months ago. I don't remember his exact reasoning but there he did mention it in ethier his blog or his forum.

Too bad he couldnt be charge with stupidity... Then again you think there is an over crowding problem now. It's a toss... was the DVD player in operation at the time of the incident? or did they just notice a screen that had the DVD logo? Many nav systems run off a DVD.

43... If I find the paper I have my answers on I'll post those too... eventually

Alas... the devil I was citing was indeed Wal-Mart.

DEFINITELY the latter there Greame.... I envy you

I knew you were... I knew it! and you did not! I'd been in that wal-mart (both the super-center and its predicessor next to the albertson's and whattaburger) before I ever happened upon your trail! Where do you think I get my shell's when I go camping??

YAY! Full Marks! I knew someone would say well a tomato IS technically a fruit if I didn't

AS Greame so assutidly pointed out.. Pineapple as apizza topping isn't a 'Only in California" thing.. bet your cloven hoove that many things are, but that isn't one of them sadly! As for this 40,000 claim. I live in a city that has nearly three times that number of people. And citing the devil as a referance... Only one Wal-Mart for 40,000 people? I think not by those numbers there should be at least five.