Turbin head cartoons and the state of the world

I just read some comments people were blogging and some if it really alarms me. Having said this, I think that there is one axis of evil that takes place here. Let me explain from my perspective.

Over the ages,regligion of any type has provided people with a vision and a purpose in life for all. Look how many christians go to confession on a regular basis. They are following the time honored values christianity has given them and when they break from tradition, the confessional is a way of conforming to socieity's values and redeam themselves. Muslims have a simliar set of rules that govern the way they think and act on a regular basis.

What we fail to see is a few extreme leaders who are very very very good at creating a vision for people and getting them to follow thier ideas and beliefs(Usually for personal gain, eg Arafat.) These men just simply enjoy thier power and are very good at creating a vision for the masses. Look to see when people are rioting, it is always young men in the streets, mostly teenagers who have no clear vision in life and are desperate to conform and be led. Being told what to do when a person is poor and lost is better than what thier current reality is, unfortunately. It is much the same way in the Repubic of Ireland, so the muslims are not only the ones with someone creating a vision for them and having a mass following. Once again, Christianity in the western world sets out a clear set of rules and values for people to live thier lives by. I would hate to think of what this world would be with out them. They are the foundation for how we behave and act in society. I feel this is probably why we are so insensed at suicide bombers and such. They have a different set of values they believe so strongly to live by. Bin Laden was very effective at recuiting and creating a clear concise vision for young men. So strong and clear was his vision, that he brought the greatest nation on this planet to it's knees for a couple of days. I doubt like hell it will happen again but you never know!

I just wanted ya'll to take a look back at the underlying cause of all this. It was just a stupid cartoon and I noticed someone else noticed that in the muslim world cartoons in thier papers were just as damning and crude. Be-heading christians and reporters comes to mind.

Muslim or no Muslim, Christian or no Christian, stong country or weak country, it is the leader who creates a vision for the masses to follow.

One simple example testiment that a clear concise vision is strong a well kept body. It is something to cherish and to be proud. Look at the gym at how many people can create the vision of a body they want and work towards that goal. For some it is as simple as a picture on the refrigerator and for others it is a much more elaborate process. It is this kind of vision and determination that drives us to that goal.

I just wish the rest of the world could understand this simple fact for strength and guidance.

Day 2 of VS Live in SF

Ok.. I have been officially informed.. I have to refer to San Francisco as SF and not SFO! I won't make that mistake again. I was officially told that SFO is just the airport and that only! So much for listening to my Sister the travel agent who refers to San Francisco as SFO!

Last night was relatively quiet. The meal was at a sub shop and a atkins bar for desert. Definitely a budget meal. I must say it was good though Joey and I went off to crate and barrel and I bought one of those fancy pastry brushes that won't degrade in the dishwasher.. Woo hoo!
From there we went to the Marriot hotel across the street from ours to check out the gym. I may use it this afternoon while one of the sessions is on I am not keenly interested in.

I did hear from my good friend David.. He was in Switzerland of all places and got back last night. He has turned into such a globe trotter!

Day 1-VSLive

Well, today was day 1 and it all started off with a summarily from the marketing manager from Microsoft. I have seen him before at this conference and his style wasn't new to come. They have a few new additions to their products to make developers more efficient in their work. I am at times quite interested in the information and 10 minutes later I could just fall asleep!

I have been toying with working on a best cost feed formulation software on this new software but it intimidates me on how to start such a project. What I worry about is not working on it enough to make it fly.

Yesterday Joey and I did the Alcatraz tour and saw the former prison. It was a lot more informative this time around than when I was there last. We were at fisherman's wharf also for a couple of hours and had some sea food which was excellent. From there we took the cable card back over the hill south down to Market street. On the way we stopped at the cable car museum which was so interesting. The thing that impressed me is City council at one time in the 50's was going to get rid of the rail car system because of costs associated with maintaining it. A lady who's name escapes me now felt that the car system in San Francisco was part of what made the city unique. She felt it was the signature of San Francisco and wanted to have the cars preserved. She was successful at having the cable car system on the municipal ballot during the next city wide election. The city at that time and still does, feel it is worthy of keeping the cable cars working. They system has all been updated over the years and I believe it will likely be here for years to come.

Joey and I went for dinner last night at a restaurant on Market Street called 2223. The unique thing about the restaurant is the street number is just the name of the restaurant. We have actually been to this restaurant last year and returned. The menu changes every day so the experience isn't the same every time we have gone. I really really like the food here and the presentation is excellent. I find the restaurant a bit noisy but the quality of the food and the service is well worth it.

We also went to the Imax flick called Roving Mars. It is an hour long and the film was well done. I didn't realize that there were two rovers sent to Mars in such quick succession. If a person is in SFO and wants to go to see a film at Imax I would recommend this flick there.

We also are veterans on riding the muni in SFO. The system sure runs cars often. Even on Sundays. I would not own a car If I lived here I am sure.

I called one of my old friends David Lindley and have not heard from him at all yet. I fired off an email to him and called 3 times. I guess it is his turn to call back now if he is in town. I suspect he is out of town and not home. It would be good to see him and I think Joey would like him as well.

San Francisco-VSLive

Well yesterday was on a plane all day. Atleast we had spock(tablet PC) to watch a movie on the way. Joey had bought the SeaQuest DSV disks and we watched three episodes on the plane on the way to SFO from DFW. It sure helped pass the time.

I was so hungry when we got here. We went out to get a bite to eat and then a movie. I of course ate too much popcorn and blew my size reducing diet all to hell. I am all plugged yet so hopefully the coffee from this morning will help recitify that situation!!!

I think since today we are not in conference today( VS Live) we might go see the Avenue of the Trees.

Hectic Day Coming

Well I have alot to get done today if I am going to be satisfied with things.
1. Go to Post Office and mail parcels.
2. Re-stain the vanity in the bathroom I sanded down and stained once yesterday
3. Mud the sheet rock in the bathroom because the wall paper took some of the sheet rock paper off. Damn people who built this house didn't prime the walls first. Bastards!
4. Once Stain is dry apply polyurethane coat to wood .
6. Get the wash done
7. Go to Lowes for dust masks.
8. Go to lunch.
9. Go to the gym tonight
10. Pack our bags to head off to SFO at 8 am tommorrow morning.

If I have time I will take pictures of the bathroom in progress.

Work, Work Work ya know! Gotta Go!

Wall Paper!

Well yesterday afternoon and today until 12:30 I was poking away at the wall paper in the bathroom downstairs. It is the ugliest paisley wall paper I have ever set my sorry eyes on. The problem with it was three fold.

1. It was starting to peal away from the walls where the moisture from the shower and needed to be removed.

2. It was not hung on a primed wall so the stuff really stuck to the sheet rock and tore off the paper in places off of the sheet rock. Now I have to float the wall in places to make it pretty again! Grrrrrrrrr..

3. It is the ugliest stuff I can imagine. The decorator had thier head up thier ass when they put that paper down!

We also called a company to come take a look at placing a new vanity top in the bathroom here. I think it will be some shade of Granite so I hope it will look nice. We have samples to look at to see what would go there.. I think Joey will pick a lighter color than I would but you never know.

UnderWorld Evolution was good!

Well since we bought the first Underworld DVD and watched it, it was only natural we go see the new one which was Underworld Evolution. It followed on from the first movie and was excellent. John, Joey and Myself went on Saturday night.

I also go my feet selling some stuff on ebay. Sold a Universal gym that wasn't being used in the bedroom. It seems I can motivate myself to work out at the gym but not at home so the machine was sold. Got 75 bucks for it so I think it was a good deal for a machine such as that even if the new ones are well over 200 dollars. Also Joey had some Bose Satellite speaker brackets that go on the wall I think sold too cheap but they went. The used ones I listed last night and I will see how they sell.

Next week we go to San Francisco to a conference for a week. I will have more information to post when we are there. I hope to see a few old friends there and just take it easy. We are going to a programmers conference there called VS Live.