Miss Alternative Maine

Wow it's Friday morning and I think I may have a hangover. Last night I had a couple of firsts. My first first was the Miss Alternative Maine pageant held at Geno's bar in Portland Maine.

Unlike most beauty pageant this one catered to the pierced and tattooed crowd... I still went. Of course me being me I showed up late and missed the first round which is sad because there were only two rounds. I did get to catch the second round, the talent round. Each contest having 30 seconds to show case their talent. The first girl up there (a cute brunette with some tattoos and dressed in goth fashion) danced a little because she had no idea there was going to be a talent portion to the contest and be-bopped up there for thirty seconds. I give her points for bravery. Now the second contestant I hate to say should have been disqualified as a ringer... or perhaps co opting a member of the audience or just because she used a whole song three minutes worth. She was obviously a stripper, got to second or maybe third base with a girl from the audience and basically had a three minute photo shoot. Then the girl after her also happened to be... a stripper. No offense to the exotic dancing community, but maybe instead of doing what you get paid to do maybe some contortionist moves or gymnastics or something you wouldn't see at PT's. Still hot girl dancing and involving that same female audience member... maybe it wasn't the dancer's fault. The fourth contestant had looked at me when this was going on and point blank told me, "I'm screwed." and then with the support of her man and a friend took the stage and banged out some nice air guitar moves... which is a talent and there is a world contest every year (if you are geek enough). Then another brunette did a lil bump and grind... but it was an amateur level bump and grind so I give her points as talent being supposedly something natural and ingrained not something choreographed. Then the final contestant a lil blond with face makeup and spiked multi colored hair went up and she belly danced to Shakira. Now I suppose I should retract what I had said earlier about talent being natural because belly dancing I believed is learned, but damn she shook it for the entire song and I honestly believe she doesn't get paid to do it normally. At this point I left to go to another bar so I can't tell you who won. But overall I thought it was fun and would like to catch next year's contest from the beginning. Of course I also think they should throw in some new talents maybe draw a talent out of a hat or something... thirty seconds of improv... ouch.

Here is a link to a page that has pics of the contestants- http://www.mainetoday.com/photoalbum.html?id=8909

And my second first of the night was at another bar. I was standing near a door and kept a woman from falling over as she was headed out. Asked if she was ok. She stabilized a lil bit kissed me then promptly went to be sick... I am hoping it was from the alcohol... ummm mentos anyone?

Have Fun and Be Great

Time to Tax the Tall

I was reading one of those fun little articles that was talking about how tall people make more money than short people. How tall people get promotions and are presumed to be leaders. It has to do with self confidence which is developed during childhood. As a child if you are taller you often assume a leadership role because children often associate height to adults and get a certain amount of automatic status.

I see it reflected in the dating pool as well. It is programmed into women to want strong, healthy, powerful and tall men to provide and protect them and give their offspring a greater chance to survive. Men look for women with hips and breasts for the presumption of good child bearing (contrary to the opinion it has to do with being breast fed and obsessions with mom thanks Freud).

Well in the article they mentioned that there is a discussion to tax obese people for their increased carbon footprint and their impact on the environment. If they are going to tax fat people they should tax tall people (hmm tall leaders will never go for that). Should thin people also then be given a tax credit for helping save the planet? Does this mean people that are anorexic should be proclaimed as heroes of the planet?

I have always thought people should be rewarded for the merits of their deeds. And while in our personal lives we may not be able to escape "It would be easier to date you if you weren't so short... or fat." (Sorry that is a rant for another time) I would like to think in the workplace we would be judged on what we do vs. our height and weight.

Have Fun and Be Great

What do you think?

I see all these polls and the government is always doing such and such or so and so for the benefit of the people. But I have some questions what does the working people, the people who pay the majority of taxes, say about things? Please comment...

1. What do you think of the bailout?

2. How would you have administered it?

3. What do you think of the Junkers Clunkers bill?

4. What do you think about our tax system?

5 What do you think of our prison system?

6. What do you think of our involvement in the middle east?

Please comment and throw in any extra questions you can think of.

Have Fun and Be Great

Good people

On the rare occasion you get to see genuinely nice people it is very refreshing. The amazing thing is when you see more than one or more of them at a time. I dare say that is the true Legacy of my Grandmother. All her children, and all her grandchildren are really nice people. I got to see that and be reminded how lucky I am to have the family I have.

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farewell

Bernadette Roy "Betty"
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SHERMAN - Bernadette "Betty" Roy, 81, died June 28, 2009, in Patten. She was born June 12, 1928, in Grummond, New Brunswick, the daughter of Ramuald and Martha (Lebel) Gagnon. Betty to her many friends was a strong woman and an example of great courage. She was first and foremost a loving and caring mother, who after the untimely death of her loving husband, Ralph, raised her family alone. Her love of God and strong faith sustained her throughout her life. She did not leave her faith at the door, as many often do on leaving church each Sunday morning, she lived her faith. Betty was a member of St. Benedict's Catholic Church where she sang in the choir, was a member of sodality and Daughters of Isabella, and had been a 4-H leader for many years. She was a willing and hard worker in anything she did, whether it was a bazaar supper, a Fourth of July dinner or a St. Patrick's Day celebration, she was always the first to arrive and the last to leave. There wasn't a soul that entered her home - a home filled with love, laughter and music - that was not touched by her generosity and love. She enjoyed gardening and shared its bounty with all who came to her home to visit or was in need. She is survived by five children, Lorraine and Edgar Ray of Sherman, Linda and James Wood of Gardner, Mass., Rita and Donald Chasse of Molunkus, Mona and Alec Qualey of Benedicta, and Simon "Roger" Roy and his companion, Cindy Lent, of Sherman; 13 grandchildren, 15 great-grandchildren; three sisters, Marie Connolly of Cambridge Narrows, New Brunswick, Ann Gunhouse of Ohio, and Patricia and Pete Spear of British Columbia, Canada; several nieces, nephews and cousins. She was predeceased by her parents; husband, Ralph; three sisters, Theresa Mason, Nelida Cyr and Noella Stevenson; one brother, Armond Gagnon; and Mark Gantnier, whom they lovingly raised as their own. Friends may call 6-8 p.m. Wednesday at St. Benedict's Catholic Church, Benedicta, where a Mass of Christian burial will be celebrated 11 a.m. Thursday. Interment will be at St. Benedict's Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Daughters of Isabella, care of Bowers Funeral Home, P.O. Box 579, Houlton, ME 04730.

Twitter/Facebook new status symbols

Ok here I was thinking about getting a new car. I am single again and a new jeep or sportscar would be really nice. Maybe something eye catching to help me with the ladies, but then I read this article. http://www.good.is/post/conspicuous-but-not-consuming/ My God what a mistake I almost made. See here I was thinking I still had to do things in the material world when the truth of the matter is only online counts. I just need to make my twitter interesting and do up my facebook page so everyone can see what a great guy I am... well umm anyway...

So yes twitter and facebook are having a serious effect on social networking. And people that can manage it and do it well have a key to a new level of success. One of the key things business is trying these days is to use these to connect with more people. So here comes my shameless plug- Girl Friday Services of Maine does that and is good at it.

Well that's it for today and hopefully I will get back in the swing and post more often.

Have Fun and Be Great

The Manly Way To Cry

Well, my relationship of five years is coming to an end. The happiness is no longer what it was so it is time to move on.

It is difficult for her. It is difficult for her children. It is difficult for my children. It is difficult for me.

I will miss my honey. All of her. The time we spent together was good. She is a wonderful woman and brought me a lot of happiness. She did not drive me crazy, she is not crazy and I will always care for her at least a little bit. I do cry at our seperating. A manly cry is done in private with out huge sobs, but just the tears running down the cheeks.

For the children, losing the pets is going to be hard but they are just too much for one person to take care of. They are going to miss spending time playing with each other. I hope they will miss the other half of the parental unit (sorry can't think of a good term at the moment).

I also hope that my honey will miss my children and me. I hope that despite all the chaos we brought into her life she has many good memories of things we did together.

On that note, we are parting as friends. We still care deeply about one another, and it is better to end things now on a high note then to drag it out until we can't stand each other.

Have Fun and Be Great.

Why I should not be president

Yes folks I had to wait until there was enough stuff but here is my latest installment of why I should not be president.

I should not be president because I would not give trillions of dollars to people that didn't handle it right the first time. I would not give more money out until someone proved to the American people who inevitably foots the bill that the last time money was given out some good came of it. Yes that means jobs and things actually getting better (and no, rising oil prices is not a clear indication that things are getting better in the us).

I should not be president because my definition of accountability isn't that if it is improperly spent it has to be paid back. My definition is you spend it wrong you pay it back and you go to jail. Anytime someone uses taxpayer money for personal use they go to court about it... heck lets take three random people off the street for a tribunal instead of paying all the court fees and ask them if they feel that thousands or millions of dollars spent by these people would have helped them if it hadn't been spent by this guy/ gal. Hmmm I know what my answer would be.

I should not be president because instead of increasing our debt to fix our economy I would be setting up a committee to find why the hell we are in the fix we are. Why is our government paying out as much as it does? Why do immigrants get tax breaks? Why are we spending so much money every year figuring out and collecting taxes. It should be easy clear cut across the board. Fair to everyone with no tax breaks for anyone. You want a tax break? How about you support a charity... when that charity helps people enough so that the government doesn't have to help those people than you get a tax break. Same across the board for everyone including churches.... or wait... if you are in a church you get a tax break if there have been no sex scandals involving your clergy.

I should not be president because I feel that the appropriate punishment for a sex offense with a minor should be a severing of the spinal cord at the neck making a person a quadriplegic... I think that might actually stop them from doing it again.

I think the most children a person should have if they are not married is two by different fathers. If its the same father and the man is involved in her life and picks up his share of the child care expenses it doesn't matter. We need to start controlling our population now, before we run out of renewable resources.

That is today's rant on why I should not be president.

Have fun and be great!

Sqip (pronounced Squip)

OK you all know I am a wee bit of a geek... alright a really big geek. Well, my honey just pointed out something new to me a new social networking site that hasn't launched yet. A site that is predicted to surpass Myspace and Facebook in terms of social networking potential.

The thing is if you sign up early enough you can get a hundred free shares (can't beat free) and so when they go public or sell the shares or however they do this thing just because you signed up early and helped promote it you can make some money.

So anyway sign up http://affiliate.sqipcom.com/?user=gabeir

Have Fun and Be Great!

One of Those Days

First, let me say that I am very proud of my seven year old son he is growing up so quick..

I got up this morning and discovered our black lab had pooped on the floor in the living room. Grr... so I put him out and cleaned up the mess. Then my son wanted some breakfast so I washed my hands and made him some cereal. Went to walk through the living room and discovered that our little dog , a terrier, had peed on the floor. Grumble, grumble... I pick the little dog up and put her out and let the big dog in and clean up the puppy pee. I then proceeded to get dressed for work (no I was not running around naked I was wearing shorts and a t-shirt). I come back out after getting dressed to discover that our big dog, not wanting to be out done by our little dog had peed on the floor. Ranting and raving put him out and clean up that mess. I wash my hands and get my son some clothes so he can get dressed for school (He isn't naked either he has a great pair of Spider man pajamas he was wearing). I let the big dog back in and give the cats their food. I think I wash my hands again then I start to make myself some tuna fish sandwiches for work draining the juice from the tuna into the cat food. "Dad! there's poop on the floor!" yells my son at me. I set the bowl I of tuna on the counter. @#$%&! I grab the little dog that had now pooped on the floor to throw her outside again and she pees on me. Long string of unuttered expletives run through my head. I put her out and clean up the mess. "Son get your coat and boots on we have to leave soon." I go to the bathroom to wash my hands. I come out and the black lab is licking his lips and looks guilty. I go into the kitchen and discover that more than half of my tuna is gone. I put the rest in the cat food dish. Throw the other dog outside. I've had it. "Dad, did you put tuna in the cat's food?" "Yes" I go change my work clothes. I come back out my son isn't ready to go yet he is standing on a chair looking into the cat food dish separating the tuna so each of the cats can get some. "Jeremy! get down and get ready to go !" I yell at my son. He gets down and looks at me, he doesn't cry, he doesn't yell, but in a calm voice he asks, "Dad, why are you yelling?" At this point I realize how unfair of me it was to yell at him, "I'm sorry son, just having a bad day what with the dogs pissin' and poopin' on the floor and Max eating my lunch. I'm sorry." He doesn't say anything he just gets his coat on and his boots. We let the dogs in and walk quietly to the car and I bring him to daycare. we get out of the car and he hugs me, "I love you" he says as we squish each other. "I love you too, boy."

So my little boy is growing up. He doesn't panic or cry if someone yells at him when he doesn't do anything wrong he asks why. He dealt with things in a mature manner. I love my little guy and am proud of him.

Have Fun and Be Great!

The Chronicles of the Necromancer

As I have started doing recently, when I finish a book I will kick out a quick mention of it here. I just finished last night book 2 of the Chronicles of the Necromancer, "The Blood King" by Gail Z Martin.

It is a good read and could have ended with this book. It connects solidly with the first book "The Summoner" which ended leaving me hanging. Following the main character and his friends it gives the right mix of action and romance and avoids much of the gore that could be slipped into a book dealing with the living, the undead and the dead.

In book one Matris Drake (the main character) barely avoided regicide as his brother took by force the crown that he would have inherited in time. In the stress of his escape he comes into his powers that he inherited from his long dead grandmother the summoner Bava Kaa. In his escape he gains allies and learns of the evil his brother and his mage the vampire (although they call them by a different name in the book) do. By the end of the book it is clear he needs to go back to his home and over throw his brother.

In book two, he trains to overthrow his brother and stop him and his mage from bringing back the Obsidian King, a powerful spirit of a necromancer trapped in a crystal. When the Obsidian King returns there are no mages strong enough to fight him and will grant power to those that free him. Oh and bring hell on earth as well.

Have fun and be Great!

Taxes

It is that time of year again. The time when we either dread paying money to the government or the time we look forward to getting a refund check. This is the time that many people have a part time job doing people's taxes. Personally, I don't think we should pay an income tax. I think it penalizes the working man/woman. How would that work? Read a book called "The Fair Tax". Enough of this though time for my rant.

I filed my taxes and I am getting back close to what I put in. I am claiming myself and one child and it comes out basically even. The basic family unit in the US calls for two parents and two children and maybe a dog or a cat or whatever (sorry no tax break on the pet). So from a social management standpoint (which includes population controls) we should break even at two children and two parents or for parents that file separately one parent one child.

Now I know you are wondering what does that have to do with anything? Well I hear one person I work with complain because being single with no children he gets less tax breaks and every year he owes the government. Then he sees single mommies or welfare people (sorry I have no control over either what he sees or what he complains about) getting back more money than they put in. The thing that gets me wondering is how does this balance for the government? I know this year it won't. Thanks to our economic stimulus package we as individuals will get slightly more money. It won't save jobs the checks we are getting back, but it looks like the government is helping. What is really happening is the government is sinking farther in debt with no long term return on its quick shot of cash and every year it does this will make people ask why can't we have it again? There is an ancient Chinese proverb, "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for life." Giving us fish isn't going to help us in the long run.

Wow I ranted about both the government stimulus mess and taxes at the same time... Good golly. Anyway back to taxes I think they should use the taxes to encourage our basic family unit two parents and two children. I don't think people should get a free ride (stimulus package bad) and I think our whole tax system is a labor intensive dinosaur that needs to be revamped to encourage business and family in our country.

Have Fun and Be Great!

The Last Centurian

"The Last Centurion" by John Ringo. I finished it a couple of days ago. It is based about twenty years into the future. The whole world is in crisis as the bird flu and a new ice age cuts the world's population in half. What makes matters worse is the president in the book doesn't follow the disaster plan that was ready. She also doesn't recognize the ice age because she believes that it is a side effect of global warming. Ringo gives us the story of a soldier (Bandit Six) and chronicles his journey home from the middle east and his struggles to do the right thing regardless of orders. I won't go into details here, but suffice it to say it was a good story and an excellent read.

Have Fun and Be Great!

I'm sorry

There are many times when "I'm sorry" is the right thing to say. When you hurt someone, when you accidentally do something, or if something is truly your fault.

I get sometimes "I'm sorry i am such a hard person to live with." from my fiancee sometimes. Now I wish she would tell me exactly how she is hard to live with. Is it because she doesn't want to clean up after the four kids, two dogs, three cats, rat, fish, herself and me by herself? Or maybe its because she works 40 hours a week out of the home bringing home money to help pay bills and then turns around and does some work from home? Oh, I know its the way that if something is bothering her she actually communicates issues she has so they can be fixed?

There are just so many ways that a person can be hard to live with. And for when she reads this... You are not a hard person to live with and I love you.

Have Fun and Be Great!

Chat rooms

If you have gone into the chat rooms lately then you probably have been inundated with requests to go to other people's web sites. Pick a site (maybe yours, or someone you know) and when they ask you to go to their site ask them to go that site. It will be fun.

My goal

I have never been a small person... I have always thought myself atleast chubby. When I was 14 I weighed 160 pounds at about 5 ft tall. By the time I turned 19 I had reached 200+. There came a point in my life when I realized I was never going to be "skinny", so I decided to be strong instead. I have always been physically strong , but now I have come up against my first real obstacle to that. I have an injury and I can't lift weights the way I used to, not without causing pain. I still have the muscle I put on before, but I can't lift heavy enough to add to it. I am not looking at pity here andf this is not a sob story. Now I must adapt and do more cardio (yech) because if I was going to be big I was going to be strong. So now that that is no longer an option now I need to work on becoming healthier and more toned and losing all the extra weight so that I can be more defined.