Infinity

This is the sort of stuff that sets people loose and math drives them crazy. This is the analemma. Basically it is pictures of the sun at the same time every day for a year, if I understand it correctly. Also worth noting, that is the symbol for infinity. Who knows maybe that is where the symbol came from, I didn't read into it too much. I just thought you might like it.

Americans

In the spirit of the Thanksgiving holiday my thoughts turn to the Native Americans. Canadians call them "First Nation" people. I like that. These pictures may seem posed but the people look real. I live on a native reservation so I can't help but be aware of natives and I think about the way of life they must have had before we arrived. I admire a people who live in harmony with the land and always keep in mind that they were here first.

Are You Thankful?

So I think this holiday is our most genuine of our full calender of special days. I know we tarnished the image set by the first dinner, but it doesn't negate the fact that it happened. At least we tried. This is also the most traditional holiday we have - as far as meaning goes. For some reason corporations have had a really hard time taking this one from us. I don't know about you, but I love that.

Near the end of the post is a short video about Thanksgiving. The content starts from the first dinner and shows the evolution to what we typically do now, it covers a lot. Although I will admit they focus on football a little too much towards the end. A large thank you to the History Channel for reminding us where Thanksgiving came from. Had I had more time today I would have found something more comprehensive and able to be embedded.

Sadly today I am not celebrating Thanksgiving. We're having ours tomorrow due to my aunt and uncle having work/travel problems with the day. So we are doing a dry run with my grandma. We got her out of the nursing home and into our house without any help and after I shower we're gunna try to play some cards or something to keep her happy. Today is a dry run for tomorrow when she'll get to see our entire family and we should have stuff that she is able to eat too.

What are you thankful for? I know this is cheesy, but I think it is really important to reflect every once and a while. I will share some of the wonderful things that have happened to me the past week as soon as I've taken my grandma back. I don't want to waste anymore time. Happy Holiday folks.

Click here for the short segment produced by the History Channel. If there are no comments on this when I come back, I will try to find a better video. Time is just an issue right now.

Thank you all for sticking around for the blog. It means more to me than you'll likely ever know.

The Sun

I used to subscribe to a handful of magazines. Mother Jones, Utne, Sierra Club, etc…..
Then I reached a time in my life where I wanted to simplify. I got rid of all the magazines except the one I consistently read cover to cover every month. The Sun. It has no ads but what it does have are real human stories. Fiction and non fiction. They interview people I would never otherwise hear about.

My favorite section is Readers Write. Months in advance readers are given a list of topics on which they can write their stories. I can’t think of a single month I have not cried when reading through them. Some readers complain in the letters to the editor about some of the sad stories that get printed. It doesn’t bother me. Life is sad. Sadness is real. And not all the stories are sad.

The founder of the magazine shared an incident where a prisoner had written into Readers Write and asked that if they print his story that it not reveal his name lest it endanger his life while incarcerated. Due to a proof reading error, after printing, it was discovered that that man’s name had been included. After agonizing over what to do (this is a small magazine with not a lot of money) it was decided to scrap that printing and to print the whole thing over again.

This link will get you to the magazine's website where you can sample what they have to offer. I feel like The Sun is my lifeline to humanity. Nothing in my life is more real. I know the founder is getting up in years (60+) and I dread the day he can no longer keep it going. It may sound silly but if anything happened to The Sun I would have a big hole in my life.

Congressional Runner in Texas

This is a beautiful charity run by my friends brother. As much as I don't agree with right wing politics, this guy is a true christian. He started it to help injured troops that our government has forgotten about. They don't have the money to buy homes, live, or even take care of the injuries they sustained for you and I, or so the government told them. You should check it out and if you give to a charity like I do during the holiday, you may want to consider this one. I only work with the Make a Wish Campaign though. I don't have enough money to spread the love.

Here is one of his YouTube videos that is low quality, but that is only because it is so early and he doesn't have that kind of money yet. His charity does, which is why their tv spot is up for a bunch of awards.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYI9Hd04Xs0

Robin Williams

I absolutely love Robin Williams -- the man is a comic genius along the same lines of George Carlin. He was just on Good Morning America - totally forgot he has a new movie out "Old Dogs" with John Travolta. Some of Robin's quips: He was asked how his new "heart" is doing - I had forgotten he had problems with his health and that it was his heart. Apparently he had surgery and had a bovine (cow) transplanted. He said the valve is working great and "I can crap standing up." Asked about how it was to work with John Travolta (whom he's been friends with for 30 years): He's the human equivalent of a panda. Blurted out (following a previous segment about the Octomom): The Octomom should be in charge of a Planned Parenthood Clinic.

This guy is so quick and astute with his humor and it's based on human behavior - he's still good!

He Can Play Hardball

I was surprised to say the least to see this exchange with Chris Matthews and a Catholic guy... A father? I am like 75 percent thru with it, and am kind of pissed that he didn't bring up separation of church, but you never know. He might, but since he is planning on running in PA, I doubt he will alienate people. This is the best woman's rights argument I've seen on "TV" ever, I think.

Shirt

A Heart Warming Story....

Anonymous Philanthropist Donates 200 Human Kidneys To Hospital

It can't all be a translation problem

Some of these are hilarious.....
I can't stop chuckling to myself at the thought of this kid running around some school event with that shirt and NO ONE knows what it says. Makes you wonder what some of the Asian symbols on shirts here in the US mean.

Lady GaGa on Gays

So I've never liked Lady Gaga. I find her to be an annoying fame whore with no substance or talent. I've just never taken her seriously, because of the stupid shit she says. However, up at the Democratic Underground there was this clip about Lady Gaga and because it was up on a political site, I was curious. She's being for real in this interview and you can tell she genuinely is sensitive to gay discrimination. I still don't like her, but I have a little bit of respect for her now. If she were to drop the character she plays altogether, I might try to see what she is all about. So what do you think about this clip?

Sunday Evening

Tonight I am finally moving stuff from my apartment into that room I was building. Its still not finished but it is livable. I just need a floor. Anyhow, I like to smoke before I do stuff like this because it is more entertaining and I could up with better ideas - for like arranging furniture. It is always good to smoke for project work. I took a picture of something that happened because of it. You've gotta take the good with the bad.

I'm on a break right now and I just wanted to share that picture and talk about a few things. 1st does anyone know if anything eventful happened at the vote last night? I know we got it, I just haven't had time to sit down with the paper yet (all this moving). Did Lieberman or Lincoln give us any trouble? What happens next? Does it just get sent to another committee to finalize the bill and send it off the president? I don't even like saying his name anymore.

I also wanted to share a bit of news about something I know quite a bit about. For a little backstory on me - In high school I was one of those kids that busted his ass. I was the pool manager for the school city and I managed a mom and pop restaurant while I was a Senior. I did that for two years living with my parents and saved like 20 grand. I was always interested in wall street and I studied up on strategies and learned the basics and used virtual accounts to play the market, for fun. I probably did that from like 16-20. When I had the money I decided to try it out for real. This is always how I made my money until last may. I worked at my State Senate and did a few retail jobs but I always did that for experience or to meet people. I'm only saying this to show you that this is kind of an experienced opinion because I've probably made about 70-90 thousand dollars over the course of 6 to 8 years. It sounds like a lie, because everything that has happened to me up until like 2 years ago had always been something big. But I promise you, that isn't a lot of money when you are living on it.

So what am I going to tell you, right? I read today that Tesla Motors could have a public offering any day. I don't know if you remember this post, but it was about the Tesla Roadster and their new sedan model for average people. They started 6 years ago and I think it was just a couple of engineers that kinda just started it in a garage and now there cars are sought after by people like celebrities and wealthy collectors. I think they've only made 700 cars to date but that was because they are just a small company. Well the government gave them 500 million as stimulus and they've used the money well. They are going to go public and get a shit load of money coming in, because they are like the flagship green company in the states.

It's a great buy if you know anyone that has money they've been afraid to invest. With the release of this new car and then getting more factories, the company is going to blow up and start to become a real competitor with GM and Toyota. I really think the government is even going to help hype this company over time because it has major potential for exports, and we need exports. I know times are bad and that is why I wanted to share this. This stock will do amazing, despite the overall market. That will make it that much more successful actually. It will be the only real positive stock out there that is recession proof too. It is starting from a small company to grow in this market. They don't have debt yet and they can't be stuck with inventory bc they don't have any. Because this is also a political topic, I'm probably going to update the blog about this company and the industry as news develops.

One other thing too, I wanted to ask what we want to do with the blog. We've been doing it long enough now that we know how we behave towards it and we know each other well enough to know what we like. How should we be doing this? I think I'd like to bring more people in. If we did that, then I would leave off all the personal stuff. Can we get a conversation started on this?

Also kerry, can you send me an email at jradkins@gmail.com Thanks