"What did you do over Christmas?" -"I went to Iraq!"

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/world/sfl-ciraq30dec30,0,4859169.story?coll=ny-leadworldnews-headlines

This kid is awesome!!  Here is the short summary, Teenager from Florida goes to Iraq by himself without telling his parents.  He is now on his way home safely.

I think he was going with journalistic intentions and to help a "neighbor" in need.

This is what he said in an email that is right on.

"There is a struggle in Iraq between good and evil,between those striving for freedom and liberty and those striving for death and destruction. You are aware of the heinous acts of the terrorists ... For their goals to be thwarted, decent individuals must answer justice's call for help ... So I will."

Not sure what he planned on doing and it was pretty stupid and risky but you have to give him credit for going through with it.  Someone with this much drive will go far in life.  What a great story he will have to tell when he gets back.

"What did you do over Christmas?"

"I went to my grandmas.  What did you do?"

"I went to Iraq!"

Why Didn't I Think of That?!!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20051229/ts_nm/homepage_dc

"...Alex Tew, a 21-year-old student from a small town in England, is cleverer than you. And he is proving it by earning a cool million dollars in four months on the Internet...

The idea: turn his home page into a billboard made up of a million dots, and sell them for a dollar a dot to anyone who wants to put up their logo. A 10 by 10 dot square, roughly the size of a letter of type, costs $100."

Here is the actual website http://www.milliondollarhomepage.com/

Ok I have a new idea.  It is called BillionDollarHomepage.com  ;-)

Capitalist Pig

You are a Social Liberal (60% permissive) and an... Economic Conservative (83% permissive) You are best described as a: Capitalist Link: The Politics Test on Ok Cupid Also: The OkCupid Dating Persona Test

Re: Jacob update

Just found out from Jenny that Jacob is going to get to come home today before noon!!  I guess he is maintaining his oxygen levels on his own.  Ethan and Rachel and I are about to head up to the hospital.

Thanks again for all of your prayers!

--
hjh

Jacob Pictures

	Jacob after his bath
	Jacob playing with some new toys
	Jacob with his breathing treatment

Re: Jacob update

Jacob is doing a little better.  After he took a bath this morning we went back to the room right away because they were worried about his oxygen level and when we hooked him back up his levels were even better than they had been before.  So they lowered the level he was getting from 1 liter down to 1/2 liter.  When his level continued to remain the same they went ahead and took him off of it.  Then he was able to get down and ride a tricycle for a while and he had lots of fun, but then when I checked his oxygen level it had dropped a little bit and then it kept getting worse until the nurse came back in and put him back on the oxygen at 1/2 liter and he is doing well with that.  They are going to try to ween him off a little bit slower this time.  The doctor thinks he will be able to come home tomorrow.  I hope he is right but we will see.

Here are some pictures of him.  Guess which one is right after his bath :-)  Another one is of him getting his breathing treatment.  He is really good about it and just sits there and opens up his mouth and closes his eyes until they are done.

His uncle Jeff came by to see/play with him this morning and my Mom and Rachel should be here around 5:00

Thanks for all of your love, support and prayers.
--
hjh

Jacob update

I just talked to Jenny on the phone and even after numerous breathing treatments lots of other medicine and they have a little oxygen mask blowing right on him they still haven't been able to get his Oxygen levels up.  They think he is going to have to stay for 2 days!!  He is at St. Francis Hostpital, which is a childrens hospital.

She also said how they tortured the poor boy last night by inserting an IV which took at least 3 tries and both hands and then they weren't able to draw blood in is arm so they had to prick his finger and squeze it out like that :-(  I am pretty sure he is going to hate hospitals and doctors now.

I am going up to the hospital in a few minutes.  We will try to let you all know of any developments.

--
hjh

Back to the emergency room.

Last night after we put the boys to bed we had just finished watching The Apprentice and were in the middle of Smallville, Jacob got up crying. He couldn't breath very well, was coughing uncontrollably and complaining of chest pain so we took him to the emergency room at around 11:30. Turns out is was some kind of bronchial asthma attack. He is fine but they haven't been able to get his oxygen level up to a good enough level to release him so finally they decided to keep him over night for observation. So I have came home with Ethan at about 3:30 am, he was falling apart as you can imagine after spending 4 hours in the emergency room.

He has had this problem twice before but never this serious.

Please pray that they will be able to get his oxygen levels up. After 3 breathing treatments and some steroids he was floating between 88% & 94%, which I don't think is really bad, but it just isn't good enough to release him. If it had stayed at 94 they would have let him go, but it kept going up and down.

Also pray that we will all some how be able to catch up this lost sleep. Ethan woke me up at 9:30 this morning after going to bed around 4:00.

2 emergency room visits in 2 months :-S (Last month Ethan stuck his finger in the paper shredder. So keep that in mind little fingers and paper shredders are not a good mix.)

The Apprentice

Markus cracks me up. LOL.

Every time he starts to say anything I am literally rolling around on the floor.  I have never seen someone string together so many words and not communicate any comprehensible idea.  (**Spoiler**) Even though I have thought from day one that Markus should be fired I must say that he has grown on me the way that the annoying kid at school... (now it is the next day since I wrote everything before this.  I was interrupted with a trip to the emergency room.  More on that later.) So Marcus had grown on me like how the annoying kid at school might grow on you b/c you feel sorry for him since everyone else hates him.  So I was kind of sad to see him go, he made the show interesting.

(**Still Spoiler**) It seemed to me that Clay was more detrimental to that specific task, but he had also done well on the task before where he was a good salesmen for the golf items.  So I can see that it was probably better for the team as a whole for Markus to go but the show will be a little less interesting with out him  :-(  and even though he was a worthless player he will be missed by me.

Our shameful politicized court system

Here it happened again.  Nobody is getting charged for committing the original crime that they were investigating.  Libby is only getting charged for lying during the investigation of a non-crime!!! 

Top Cheney aide Libby indicted, quits post
"WASHINGTON - Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, was indicted Friday on five charges that include obstruction of justice, making false statements and perjury in the investigation into the leak of a covert CIA agent's name."

Imagine somebody accusing you of stealing something that you didn't steal and in the process of the investigation they manage to trip you up with what you had said and you get indicted for that, even though you hadn't committed a crime in the first place.  Think of how you could use this against your political enemies just by making an accusation.  Get anyone in front of a 23 person grand jury for a couple of hours with no lawyer and no notes and see how easy it is to confuse them and trick them into misspeaking or appearing to lie!!  Shameful.

All of this is just being used to hurt and weaken the Bush administration while ignoring the true scandal; that Joseph Wilson is an outright liar and used his wife to worm himself into a position to de-legitimize the Iraq war and the mainstream media has almost completely ignored it.  Vallerie Plame was not a covert agent.  Everyone that knew her knew that she worked for the CIA.  You can't out someone who is already out, and she hadn't been "in" for more than 6 years.  No crime was committed.

Surgical Robots.

I thought this was pretty cool.

Surgical Robots.

Dr. Chuck Norris

So I went to my new optometrist the other day.  I was very surprised to find that the Dr. was actually Chuck Norris working under an alias (I won't use his name here to protect Chucks new secret identity).

It was a most unpleasant experience.  Especially for an eye appointment.  Usually they are pretty cut and dry, in and out and here is your new contact prescription, right?  Wrong, not this time.

Now I have to give him a break, that is quite a change to go from a Texas Ranger to an eye doctor, but surely he did some training for it, I don't know.  First he tried to tell me that my eyes weren't lining up exactly but my brain was compensating for it so I didn't have double vision.  But his equipment kept drifting while he was doing that test were you have to tell him when the 2 things line up.  Not to mention that he did it really fast.

So I already do not have very much faith in Dr. Chuck, but then he tries to tell me that my right eye has improved 3 clicks to a -2, but my contact was only a -2.25 to begin with, so I am pretty sure that when they measured my glasses to determine my prior prescription they measured it wrong.  When I told him that my right eye was only a -2.25 to begin with, then he said "Oh, well that is only one a '1 click' improvement, but you should get yourself checked out for diabetes, just in case."

Then a lady takes me into another room and says that she is going to put some "eye numbing drops" in my eyes and it will make them fill "puffy", whatever the heck that means.  If they were honest they would just say "Ok, I am going to put these eye drops in your eyes that are going to burn really bad and then make your eyes feel really freaky for about 30 minutes", freaky makes sense, "puffy" isn't a feeling.

But I accomplished my goal and I am wearing a new pair of contacts now that seem to be much more comfortable then the last brand that I had.  The last brand that I had made me want to rip my eyeballs out of their socket for relief after about 4 hours.

Unfortunately Dr, Norris is the only optometrist on my health insurance plan, so I will go back to him.  I am trying to work up the nerve to ask if he is still bringing criminal scum to justice down in Texas and if so how does he find the time to both fight crime and "practice" Optometry.  That is one heck of a commute.  Don't worry Dr. Norris, your secret is safe with me.

My Office Space

Reflections and Stories About My Office Space.

I have been at my new job for almost 3 months now.  My biggest complaint is my chair.  Not only is at least 5 years old, but it is extremely uncomfortable.  My tailbone is sore every night and it won't raise up high enough for my legs.

They have finally finished construction of the new office space on the first floor, which I pray they will never send me too, but about half of my half of the floor moved down there a week ago.  Then yesterday I noticed the tech guys bringing up a bunch of new computers to fill up those now empty cubicles with new people.  My window of opportunity was about to pass.  So I set off on a mission to find myself a decent chair.  I searched far and wide for something to cushion my posterior end better than my current operation.  I probably sat in over 20 different chairs and passed over more than that.  It was very disappointing I could not find anything better!  Pretty pathetic not one decent chair in the whole bunch.  Maybe that is why all those people moved to the basement, their butts hurt.  Maybe they have new chairs down there.  Hmmmm.... maybe moving below wouldn't be such a bad idea after all.

Note to self:  find out if they have better chairs in the basement...

On another note I have discovered that the 3rd floor seems to be the good looking floor.  I have been down there a few times and for some reason all of those people are better looking than the people on my floor, the 4th floor, man and woman alike.

Note to self:  find out why I am not on the 3rd floor.

Finally, I hate it when you get on the same bathroom schedule as someone else.  I have run into the same guy in the bathroom 3 times today (I drink lots of water).

Bono's Mistress?

Did anybody listen to Rush yesterday?  Bono has won "UberSexual" man of the year and Rush was talking about it. 
http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/10-11-2005/0004165259&EDATE=

The Bad News:
When it was mentioned that Bono is madly in love with his wife Rush went off on how he has a mistress.  A few minutes later Snerdly got an instant message from someone asking who was Rush's source about Bono's mistress.  I thought how funny it was that I was not the only one listening to the show who was more concerned about Bono having a mistress than the actual point Rush was trying to make.  Fans of Bono love him for more than just his amazing music. The fact that he is still married to his high school sweetheart is part of it.  So Rush said he couldn't reveal his source and it wasn't information that you could just go look up.

The Good News:
After his next commercial break Rush said that he had just gotten a message from his source that said that maybe it was just speculation or rumor and that he shouldn't say it on the air!  So Rush had to retract his statement and apologize.  Their is no evidence that Bono has a mistress.  Whew.

Here is the Transcript.  The retraction is actually at the top even though it took place after the rest of it.
http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_101105/content/cutting_edge.guest.html

The same scare story as always.

Is it just me or has it been every year for at least the last 5 years that we have heard that this is going to be the year for the big Flu pandemic?  Not really an interesting story or anything.  I wouldn't bother reading it if I were you, but it is here for reference.

U.S Health Secretary Warns of Flu Pandemic
http://www.breitbart.com/news/2005/10/10/D8D5G42O1.html

The Best Smile in the World!

Here are Jacob and Ethan outside the Zoo on Saturday. Isn't that the best smile in the world?



Here is a message from Jacob: jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjngkkklpooooovcxzaqw

He said each letter very slowly as he typed it, "J, and then N, then G, then K...." I am amazed at how he is barely 3 and already knows most of his numbers and letters.

asdtteqzxpujlg - more from Jacob :-D

Can I Change My Answer?

In my interview for my current job a few months ago my now boss asked me
first what my favorite customer is like and then he asked me what my least
favorite customer is like. I don't remember exactly what my answer for
least favorite was, maybe something about a really picky customer or
someone who changes their mind a lot.

Today I have a better answer. People who are very specific about what
they want. They don't know what it is that they want, but they do know
what they don't want!

I think that might be my final answer. I just spent an hour on the phone
with a lady who was actually very nice but fits the above description
perfectly, and really I would rather have somebody yell at me for 5
minutes and then hang up. BTW I am involved in graphics and webpage
design, which has a humorous story about it but I don't know if I want to
share that secret with the world just yet ;-)

Too Dumb To Vote.

"We're an ignorant nation right now. We're not really capable, I do not think the majority of our people, of making the decisions that have to be made at election time and particularly in the selection of their legislatures and their Congress and the presidency of course."

-Walter Cronkite on Larry King Live
Full transcript NewsBusters.org http://newsbusters.org/node/1824

If Americans aren't smart enough to choose their own leaders Walter, then
why are all of your liberal buddies out there trying to get as many of
them to vote as possible. Despite the old saying that 2 heads are better
than one, I am afraid that that doesn't translate into 2 stupid people
voting equaling one smart person.

I think the biggest evidence of the American public being dumb is the
fact that they tuned into you for so many decades. I am happy to say that
we are smartening up and the MSM does not have its grip on us like it once
did.

What is really implied in what you are saying is that we are obviously too
stupid to vote because look at who we chose, George W. Bush, twice!! And
on top of that a Republican Congress and Senate. Maybe you would be
happier if only the Blue states were allowed to vote. Or maybe a red state
vote could only count for 1/2 or maybe 3/4 of a vote.

I am sure that you find comfort, Walter, in knowing that the election was
stolen anyway. So we aren't as ignorant as we would be if we had
actually chosen Bush as our President.

You seem to want to blame education for this, Walter, but how could we be
a nation full of a brilliant and enlightened electorate during the Clinton
administration and then fall to the depths that we are at now in so short
a time. Was it the recent High School Graduates flooding the polls in
2000 that offset things? The answer would have to be yes, in which case
we only have Clintons education policies to blame. So in other words it
must be Clintons fault that Bush got elected. If only he had done a
better job in educating our youth we wouldn't be in this terrible predicament.

The ironic thing is that really it is the democrats that can't figure out
how to read a ballot or work the voting machines. They are the ones
always complaining about how complicated the ballots are too read.
"Hmmmm... It says Pat Buchanan so I will punch that hole to vote for Al
Gore." Doesn't make any sense to me, but then again, I am probably just
too stupid to get it.

The Great Carpenter

My family and I went to GC for the weekend. We finished fixing up our
house for our renters on Saturday who moved in that afternoon. We would
rather sell the house but we are very happy to be getting some income to
at least offset the mortgage payment plus we don't have to pay the
electric bill or water like we were so that will help us out a lot.

I had a really good weekend though. It was great to see my family and
friends. I feel rested and refreshed and even Church on Sunday morning
seemed better than usual. Jeff spoke about Holiness and how as Christians
we are on a journey to achieve holiness. It is a constant struggle
between this world and Heaven. He gave the example of Billy Graham
weeping in a small group of pastors about how he wants to be a Holly man
and he wanted them to pray for him everyday.

That helps me to see just how far from holiness I am. We get in a rut in
our lives sometimes where we are blinded to our own sin and our own
shortcomings. We think that we are "fine" but in reality we are just
used to the comfortable state of our lives. It reminds me of the C.S.
Lewis illustration about how when we become Christians and The Great
Carpenter Jesus comes in and starts fixing up this run down shack of a
life that we live in. First he fixes the leaky roof, plants a lawn and
some trees and flowers. Puts in some new carpet to get rid of that nasty
smell and throws on a fresh coat of paint.

We step back from it and say, "Wow this is just great! Much, much better
than before." Jesus says, "Yes that is better, but we are only getting
started." Then he starts knocking out walls, jacking up the crumbling
foundation, putting up a new wing here, adding a floor there. And we say,
"Whoa, whoa Jesus, whats going on. We had a nice thing going here!" We
were happy with our nice and comfy little cottage but Jesus is building a
mansion!! Why would He settle for anything less, He plans on living in it
himself!

We are ecstatic when Jesus helps us get rid of our obvious sins or things
that hinder us from a productive life. It is great when He helps us
overcome our addictions to gambling, drinking, smoking, womanizing or
whatever, but when he wants us to stop cheating on our taxes or gossiping
or worst of all he wants to start developing patience in us, well that
makes us uncomfortable, that starts to become an inconvenience.

So that is kind of where I was, comfortable with myself. God shook that
up a little on Sunday morning through Jeffs sermon and the worship. He
started knocking down some walls, and I think I saw him go down into the
basement carrying a few house jacks...

Make that GODLESS-Cheese Eating Surrender Monkeys. But at least they don't have any crime!

Well it has finally been decided. The very thing that we have all
suspected from the very beginning. A God fearing moral people are bad for
society and actually contribute to social ills. I am so glad that the
UK's TimesOnline could clear that up for us in its article about a recent
study...

Societies worse off 'when they have God on their side
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1798944,00.html

Here the author, referring to the study, says "belief in and worship of God
are not only unnecessary for a healthy society but may actually contribute
to social problems."

The author of the study, Gregory Paul, says that "In general, higher rates
of belief in and worship of a creator correlate with higher rates of
homicide, juvenile and early adult mortality, STD infection rates, teen
pregnancy and abortion in the prosperous democracies." Of course the
deeply religious and pious United States is the most dysfunctional of them
all.

Paul concludes in his study

"The non-religious, proevolution democracies contradict the dictum that a society cannot enjoy good conditions unless most citizensardently believe in a moral creator.

"The widely held fear that a Godless citizenry must experience societal disaster is therefore refuted."

I didn't realize how dangerous it was to go to church. From the sound of
this you would think that people would be getting slain in their pews.
Those damn Christians going around killing and raping all the time,
spreading their STD's.

Interesting how the large cities on the East and West coast are by far the
most secular yet have the highest crime rates. I wonder how that figures
into the data that Paul used. He must be a smart and honest guy with no
personal bias or agenda to publish an article in the Journal of Religion
and Society. It must be true then. Hmmm... lets see I will Google him.

Google Results:

Gregory S. Paul is one of America's leading dinosaur paleontologist and also a gifted paleo-artist, renowned for his anatomical accuracy. He has served as a consultant on Jurassic Park and the Disney film Dinosaurs. His scientific papers have been printed in numerous magazines and journals, and he is the author of several books, including
Beyond Humanity and Dinosaurs of the Air."

Ok so Paul is a Paleontologist with no credentials for religious or social
studies. Tell you what Gregory Paul when we want to know the impact of
religious beliefs on a Stegosaurs herd we give you a call. Until then
why don't you just stick to dinosaur bones!

Cheese Eating Surrender Monkeys...

Those stinking socialist anti-American pigs better keep their yellow belly
paws off of OUR Internet. When they come up with some world changing
revolutionary idea they can keep control of it themselves. Until then
they will just have to be stuck with their long lines from their broken
down Nationalized Health Care systems that they can spend half of their
budget on b/c they have been able to rest in the protective shadow of the
United States Military!!

Maybe if they would actually get off their butts and work more than 35
hours a week they could be innovative as well.

"EU Wants Shared Control of Internet"
http://www.breitbart.com/news/2005/09/30/D8CUKA481.html

So you want to start a Blog

Well here I am, one of those people who write personal things about
themselves on the Internet for a billion people to have access to read yet
very few ever will. I am now among the throngs of writers who spill their
guts to a bunch of strangers (and maybe a few friends) that probably don't
care but they are just reading because they want to feel as if they aren't
alone, or they might just be bored.

Anyway now that I have gotten that negativity out of the way. HI. Thanks
for reading my blog. (maybe I will come back and delete that paragraph
above later) The hard part about having a blog is finding the time to
write in it and deciding what to write. I always think, "well if I write
about something that trivial then why not this other thing", and you can
see how that can turn into a vicious circle that ends in not writing
anything, so I will just write.

A little about me. I just moved about 8 weeks ago from a town of 35,000
in the middle of nowhere to a city of 350,000 ironically still in the
middle of nowhere but a little closer to somewhere. I left a small
business that I owned with my Dad and another partner to come and work for
The Man in a big faceless corporation. I went from a small office having
a desk with 2 enormous windows that faced main street in front of it to a
cubicle in a sea of cubicles about 30 feet from the nearest window that if
I sit back in my chair I can sort of see out of.

I have been married to my wonderful wife for 7 years and we have a 3 year
old son Jacob and a 1 year old son Ethan. They are both Awesome and I am
sorry that if you have kids, your kids have to be second best in the world ;-)