Return of dogs and everything else...
The Bea is back in town, well, back in the apartment that is. The SO’s dog ran away last Friday, and it turns out, a couple down the street from where she lives saw her chasing a jogger, and grabbed her so that she wouldn’t get run over out on the road where the SO lives. They sequestered the Bea with their other dog for a few days until they could give the Invisible Fence people a call, and they were able to get in touch with the SO’s Dad, and then subsequently the SO, so now, The Bea is back in the fold of things. Which is very nice, because she’s such a sweet dog, and well, it was sad to think that she had run off and might never come back. Luckily, we don’t have to worry about this, as the Black Dog is back in the house. Although she seems a little tired, or not quite herself yet. She’s not chasing the Shark around the apartment like a maniac yet, and not chewing up anything, yet. I’m sure once she gets back into the swing of it, she’ll be terrorizing us once again whilst we’re there. This I have no doubt. The story turned out well though, and everyone is happy that The Bea is back, well, maybe The Shark (the cat) is not so happy about this, but she’ll get over it just like she always does. Or she’ll just get chased around the joint haphazardly.
What is with this State of North Carolina? Sometimes I’ve really got to wonder. First, they held out for the longest time in allowing high alcohol content beer, with the reason being that if you sold higher alcohol beer, people would drink it to just get drunk. Silly logic right there. So instead of say 8 beers to get wasted, you could drink 5 or something like that. Guess what lawmakers, people are still going to get drunk no matter what the alcohol content of beer is (unless it’s zero, and then, well, you don’t get drunk at all). Now, we have this proposal in front of the State legislature that would allow for NC to have a lottery. This is a big deal here, since we are the only East coast State to NOT have a lottery. The lawmakers in Raleigh keep telling us it is for our own good, and that lotteries tend to “play” to a more poverty level demographic, and these people think that we don’t know how to spend our own money. Talk about government intrusion into daily life. On the other hand though, an increase in the cigarette tax would be a bad thing. Considering that North Carolina now has the lowest cigarette tax in the entire WORLD, the lawmakers don’t see the need to increase it, because it would possibly harm small rural tobacco farmers. Hey, genius, I hate to break it to you, but tobacco ain’t the cash crop it once was, and this increase in the tax isn’t going to hurt anyone. On the other hand, it might be good for North Carolinians, because then, it’s possible, a few more people might give up smoking because it becomes too expensive, and they drop the habit, which in turn would better the health of this State’s people, which in another turn might allow for healthcare costs to go lower in the long run. So what I’m trying to say here is that the lawmakers won’t give us a lottery because they “know” what’s good for us, but they won’t increase a cigarette tax on something that isn’t good for us… I don’t get their logic. Not at all. I’ve written lots of letters about this, but only once in awhile do I actually hear anything back from my elected representatives in Washington and in Raleigh. I wonder if the FBI or the Secret Service has my letters to President Bush on file? That would be cool to find out if I had an FBI file. Freedom of information act, here I come. That will be my goal this week, to find out if I have an FBI file somewhere, and to see what’s in it. If I do have one, I’ll post it on up here for all to see. I’m thinking that I’m not that subversive though. Liberal yes, subversive, probably not. Although I’m betting that J. Edgar Hoover is doing backflips in his grave right now, because I’m sure that there are literally hundreds of thousands of people in the US that he’d like to have files on these days, and not tell them about it. I think we’ve come a long way since those days, well, I hope at least. Then again, there is the Patriot Act and all. It appears that after looking at the FBI website, it’s rather easy to send in a request for information, but who knows if it will get processed and all, I mean, they are probably fairly busy, and don’t want to deal with a literal nobody, that being me, asking if they have an FBI file. Check out their homepage at: www.fbi.gov . Looking through just a little bit of the information that they have posted up there, it does appear that the FBI has dirt on EVERYONE. And I do mean everyone. Check out their electronic reading room on their website. http://foia.fbi.gov/foiaindex/foiaindex.htm
How did I get off on an FBI tangent? I don’t know. So yes, the lottery, North Carolina, why don’t they just do it and get it over and done with? Instead of all of this money that is currently leaving the State to go to Virginia or South Carolina when people cross the State border to buy lottery tickets, it could all be staying in State here and possibly helping with educational costs. States have benefited from lotteries in the past, and what’s to say really, that North Carolina can’t benefit the same way, or possibly better? I think we could, if, of course, it’s done correctly. For instance, look at Georgia. They initiated a lottery, and they then take the proceeds, and anyone within the State that maintains a certain grade level when graduating high school can go to a state college or university in Georgia for free. That is an incentive for sure. There are some decent schools in Georgia, and to go for free, well, damn. I’d take that. I just got done paying for my schooling last week. 10 years later, the payments are done. And I mean, almost exactly 10 years later. I graduated technically from the University of Maine in August of 1995. Here it is, August 2005, and I’m done paying off loans finally. 10 years my friends, 10 years. That’s a freakin’ long time to be paying something off, but it’s finally done and over with now. So I can’t complain too much anymore. Now if I can pay off some of those other bills lurking in the back.
Am I not the only person in my workplace that isn’t obsessed with college football? I’m starting to think that I am. Football season is fast approaching, and we have the now yearly ritual where I work of the NC State fans starting to get fired up. Call me hateful if you will, but NC State is never going to go anywhere with their sports programs. Sure, they’re OK, but they’re never going to be top notch, in anything. Football is their best shot, and they still sort of stink at that. State fans have a certain disdain for Carolina fans for some reason, but the converse is not true. I think that they’re just mad that Carolina is pretty much better at everything than they are, and that they think that they’re second class citizens in the realm of Universities within the triangle, which is more or less true. Carolina and Duke rank way above NC State as far as universities go. It’s funny, but State people hate, and hate might be too light of a word to use here, but State people absolutely hate and loathe Carolina people. It’s comical even. If you were a U-Maine alum, and knew about the rivalry that we had/have with BU in hockey, it doesn’t even approach the hate that State fans have for Carolina fans. I know people that lost March Madness betting pools last year because they couldn’t pick Carolina to go past the first round of the tournament because they hated them so much. Of course we know what happened. State got drummed out, and Carolina went and took the National Championship. This only increased their fire and rhetoric. People, it’s just college sports. It doesn’t affect you one way or another. Monday mornings during football season, my boss will roll in here, and the only thing that she will talk about for 3-4 hours on Monday morning is the State football game from that weekend. Win, lose, or draw. She will discuss ad nauseum. She sits on the other side of the room from me, yet I can hear her discussing football at my desk for many hours… It’s sad actually. I have a co-worker who went to a tailgate training camp last weekend to “get ready” for the upcoming football/tailgate season. These are sad sad things my friends. If I ever take a sport that I don’t participate in that seriously, please someone shoot me. Which, unfortunately, seems to happen at NC State tailgate parties, well, at least last year it did. www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9007042/
My incessant rambling has now gone on way too long.
What is with this State of North Carolina? Sometimes I’ve really got to wonder. First, they held out for the longest time in allowing high alcohol content beer, with the reason being that if you sold higher alcohol beer, people would drink it to just get drunk. Silly logic right there. So instead of say 8 beers to get wasted, you could drink 5 or something like that. Guess what lawmakers, people are still going to get drunk no matter what the alcohol content of beer is (unless it’s zero, and then, well, you don’t get drunk at all). Now, we have this proposal in front of the State legislature that would allow for NC to have a lottery. This is a big deal here, since we are the only East coast State to NOT have a lottery. The lawmakers in Raleigh keep telling us it is for our own good, and that lotteries tend to “play” to a more poverty level demographic, and these people think that we don’t know how to spend our own money. Talk about government intrusion into daily life. On the other hand though, an increase in the cigarette tax would be a bad thing. Considering that North Carolina now has the lowest cigarette tax in the entire WORLD, the lawmakers don’t see the need to increase it, because it would possibly harm small rural tobacco farmers. Hey, genius, I hate to break it to you, but tobacco ain’t the cash crop it once was, and this increase in the tax isn’t going to hurt anyone. On the other hand, it might be good for North Carolinians, because then, it’s possible, a few more people might give up smoking because it becomes too expensive, and they drop the habit, which in turn would better the health of this State’s people, which in another turn might allow for healthcare costs to go lower in the long run. So what I’m trying to say here is that the lawmakers won’t give us a lottery because they “know” what’s good for us, but they won’t increase a cigarette tax on something that isn’t good for us… I don’t get their logic. Not at all. I’ve written lots of letters about this, but only once in awhile do I actually hear anything back from my elected representatives in Washington and in Raleigh. I wonder if the FBI or the Secret Service has my letters to President Bush on file? That would be cool to find out if I had an FBI file. Freedom of information act, here I come. That will be my goal this week, to find out if I have an FBI file somewhere, and to see what’s in it. If I do have one, I’ll post it on up here for all to see. I’m thinking that I’m not that subversive though. Liberal yes, subversive, probably not. Although I’m betting that J. Edgar Hoover is doing backflips in his grave right now, because I’m sure that there are literally hundreds of thousands of people in the US that he’d like to have files on these days, and not tell them about it. I think we’ve come a long way since those days, well, I hope at least. Then again, there is the Patriot Act and all. It appears that after looking at the FBI website, it’s rather easy to send in a request for information, but who knows if it will get processed and all, I mean, they are probably fairly busy, and don’t want to deal with a literal nobody, that being me, asking if they have an FBI file. Check out their homepage at: www.fbi.gov . Looking through just a little bit of the information that they have posted up there, it does appear that the FBI has dirt on EVERYONE. And I do mean everyone. Check out their electronic reading room on their website. http://foia.fbi.gov/foiaindex/foiaindex.htm
How did I get off on an FBI tangent? I don’t know. So yes, the lottery, North Carolina, why don’t they just do it and get it over and done with? Instead of all of this money that is currently leaving the State to go to Virginia or South Carolina when people cross the State border to buy lottery tickets, it could all be staying in State here and possibly helping with educational costs. States have benefited from lotteries in the past, and what’s to say really, that North Carolina can’t benefit the same way, or possibly better? I think we could, if, of course, it’s done correctly. For instance, look at Georgia. They initiated a lottery, and they then take the proceeds, and anyone within the State that maintains a certain grade level when graduating high school can go to a state college or university in Georgia for free. That is an incentive for sure. There are some decent schools in Georgia, and to go for free, well, damn. I’d take that. I just got done paying for my schooling last week. 10 years later, the payments are done. And I mean, almost exactly 10 years later. I graduated technically from the University of Maine in August of 1995. Here it is, August 2005, and I’m done paying off loans finally. 10 years my friends, 10 years. That’s a freakin’ long time to be paying something off, but it’s finally done and over with now. So I can’t complain too much anymore. Now if I can pay off some of those other bills lurking in the back.
Am I not the only person in my workplace that isn’t obsessed with college football? I’m starting to think that I am. Football season is fast approaching, and we have the now yearly ritual where I work of the NC State fans starting to get fired up. Call me hateful if you will, but NC State is never going to go anywhere with their sports programs. Sure, they’re OK, but they’re never going to be top notch, in anything. Football is their best shot, and they still sort of stink at that. State fans have a certain disdain for Carolina fans for some reason, but the converse is not true. I think that they’re just mad that Carolina is pretty much better at everything than they are, and that they think that they’re second class citizens in the realm of Universities within the triangle, which is more or less true. Carolina and Duke rank way above NC State as far as universities go. It’s funny, but State people hate, and hate might be too light of a word to use here, but State people absolutely hate and loathe Carolina people. It’s comical even. If you were a U-Maine alum, and knew about the rivalry that we had/have with BU in hockey, it doesn’t even approach the hate that State fans have for Carolina fans. I know people that lost March Madness betting pools last year because they couldn’t pick Carolina to go past the first round of the tournament because they hated them so much. Of course we know what happened. State got drummed out, and Carolina went and took the National Championship. This only increased their fire and rhetoric. People, it’s just college sports. It doesn’t affect you one way or another. Monday mornings during football season, my boss will roll in here, and the only thing that she will talk about for 3-4 hours on Monday morning is the State football game from that weekend. Win, lose, or draw. She will discuss ad nauseum. She sits on the other side of the room from me, yet I can hear her discussing football at my desk for many hours… It’s sad actually. I have a co-worker who went to a tailgate training camp last weekend to “get ready” for the upcoming football/tailgate season. These are sad sad things my friends. If I ever take a sport that I don’t participate in that seriously, please someone shoot me. Which, unfortunately, seems to happen at NC State tailgate parties, well, at least last year it did. www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9007042/
My incessant rambling has now gone on way too long.
posted by giantcu92 @ 7:06 AM
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