Turkey time is coming devoted readers (ha) and that means family, friends, and stretched belts. I am leaving today for my grandmothers. We will be picking her up and leave for my moms tomorrow. Can't wait to get home, ya know, being a new freshmen in college ya get homesick. Ya, I don't know why I have a Swedish accent all of a sudden, but it is there. Hold on a second. Ya, ya, ya, yea yea. Ok, yeah, I lost it. Speaking of turkey, which I really wasn't, I found this great recipe on the food channel. Haven't tried it, but it sounds good. I will have to try it for Christmas. I mean, I will have to talk mom into trying it.

Let's see, what else is there to talk about. You would think there is a lot since I haven't posted as much to this as I used to. I am applying for job next semester to work in the computer labs on campus, hopefully I will get it.

I am working on changing the entire site over to CSS. Which I am sorry I ever thought about it. I thought it was hard making webpages that work in all browsers, but when I started dabbling with CSS, I discovered a new hell. Word of advice, STOP USING NETSCAPE RIGHT NOW. Sorry, I had to vent some anger. I want to use CSS for a few reasons. 1. It is faster to load up. With designing a whole site in a table the entire page has to download before the browser will display it. It does this so it knows where to put things. CSS shows things as they load. 2. It is more manageable for me. I can change one thing in one file and have it make changes on every page of my site. Very slick. 3. Skins. A lot of people don't like the dark colors on my site and a lot of people do. In order to make everybody happy I can use CSS to skin my site. You, the viewer, can choose the best look for the site yourself. You see it the way you want to see it. It is something to work at though. I will get to it though. Browsers have to catch up in supporting it. Netscape is the worst and Internet Explorer is the best. It has its shortcoming as well, though. None of the browsers out there strictly follow the standards. That is where problems lie. Whatever, what can you do but go with the flow. I will keep working on it though.

Later.

If you like buttons try these two:

• The Really Big Button That Doesn't Do Anything
• Shutdown the Internet

I received this in an email and thought I would pass it along:

An Essay by Samuel Thompson

I don't believe in Santa Claus, but I'm not going to sue somebody for singing a Ho-Ho-Ho song in December. I don't agree with Darwin but I didn't go out and hire a lawyer when my high school teacher taught his theory of evolution. Life, liberty or your pursuit of happiness will not be endangered because someone says a 30-second prayer before a football game. So what's the Big Deal? It's not like somebody is up there reading the entire Book of Acts. They're just talking to a God they believe in and asking him to grant safety to the players on the field and the fans going home from the game.

"But it's a Christian prayer," some will argue. Yes, and this is the United States of America, a country founded on Christian principles. And we are in the Bible Belt. According to our very own phone book, Christian churches outnumber all others better than 200-to-1. So what would you expect -- somebody chanting Hare Krishna? If I went to a football game in Jerusalem, I would expect to hear a Jewish prayer. If I went to a soccer game in Baghdad, I would expect to hear a Muslim prayer. If I went to a ping pong match in China, I would expect to hear someone pray to Buddha. And I wouldn't be offended. It wouldn't bother me one bit. When in Rome...

"But what about the atheists?" is another argument. What about them? Nobody is asking them to be baptized. We're not going to pass the collection plate. Just humor us for 30 seconds. If that's asking too much, bring a Walkman or a pair of ear plugs. Go to the bathroom. Visit the concession stand. Call your lawyer. Unfortunately, one or two will make that call. One or two will tell thousands what they can and cannot do. I don't think a short prayer at a football game is going to shake the world's foundations.

Christians are just sick and tired of turning the other cheek while our courts strip us of all our rights. Our parents and grandparents taught us to pray before eating, to pray before we go to sleep. Our Bible tells us just to pray without ceasing. Now a handful of people and their lawyers are telling us to cease praying. God, help us. And if that last sentence offends you, well..........just sue me. The silent majority has been silent too long... it's time we let that one or two who scream loud enough to be heard, that the vast majority don't care what they want...it is time the majority rules!

It's time we tell them, you don't have to pray...you don't have to say the pledge of allegiance, you don't have to believe in God or attend services that honor Him. That is your right, and we will honor your right...but by golly you are no longer going to take our rights away...we are fighting back...and we WILL WIN! After all the God you have the right to denounce is on our side!

God bless us one and all, especially those who denounce Him...God bless America, despite all her faults...still the greatest nation of all.....

May 2003 be the year the silent majority is heard and we put God back as the foundation of our families and institutions. Keep looking up......

In God WE Trust.

I was driving to school the other day when I turned a corner and saw this car down the street a ways was blocking both lanes of traffic going my direction.

"Somebody must have stalled out," I said when I heard tires squeal. Then all of a sudden this car came out of nowhere and rammed the car that wasn't moving. It ricocheted off of the stalled car and hit another car that had his way blocked. So, right in front of me I see three cars bashed in. The one guy just slammed on the gas and rammed the other car at full speed on purpose.

It makes me wonder. Now I really don't know what was going through the "rammers" head, but I think it is plausible that they hit each other accidentally first. Out of anger he rammed the other guy again. Why do people do such stupid things? These bunch of teenagers then get out of their car. I am a teenager, and I know how to handle my anger. Why don't they know how? These days there is a lot of pressure on kids. I probably don't have to tell you that. But it makes me wonder. Were these kids ever taught how to deal with their anger? Everybody gets mad, I do, but I never cause harm to anybody else. (Especially an innocent bystander.)

Where are the parents to teach these kids how to deal with anger? Are they at work? Do they even care? So, who's job is it to teach kids. Not the schools. I don't want a school raising my kids should I have them some day. It is not their responsibility. It all comes back to parents. Now, most parents are good parents. They care about their kids, but I also think most parents are ignorant.

Think of this. Go through your kids CD's and find how many have parental advisory labels on them. Probably a lot. Look at the movies, and television shows your kids watch. Almost all promote, violence and sex out of wedlock. Am I blaming the media for the troubles of our society? No, but it sure doesn't help. My point is, until a person can figure out what is right and what isn't on their own, the parents should be doing it for them. I don't want to ban violent movies, games, and TV. I want parents to keep kids away from them. Until they grow up to know the difference.

What age is best? I personally believe that if you are asking that question then, you don't know your kid very well. Somebody might be saying that their kid is thirteen and knows the difference between fiction and nonfiction. Think though, every waking hour images of violence and sex is thrown at kids. Everyday, movie makers are pushing the limit of what they can do with the parental ratings. I wonder. I think a lot people in this world should stop what they are doing and think. Look at themselves. Do we want this to continue? Just watch your kids and what they are doing. I am fortunate that my parents watched me. I wouldn't be the person I am today if they didn't. Let's just take notice of what is happening around us.

It angers me when I see references to sex out of wedlock in movies and TV for no reason other than to have it in. AIDS is a worldwide epidemic, teen pregnancies are commonplace. When I went to middle school (6th and 7th grade) we had pregnant students. I didn't use to live in a city, I lived in a town. One that is a great neighborhood, with great schools. Still, they have the problem. The reason for these problems are because sex out of wedlock is a commonplace thing. Joked about on TV shows such as Friends. I watch Friends, I like it, but a lot of the references in it are not necessary for jokes. They measure relationship status with sex on that show. If a person hasn't slept with their partner yet, the relationship isn't going to good. I was watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer the other day, which is another show I like. One scene they had a girl on a guy. In a position that is normally reserved for. . . You could clearly tell they were naked even though they were not showing anything. There was no reason for that image to be pressed in everybody's head. For the plot, if they wanted to show that these two people were together, all they had to do was have them kissing. Both of these shows are watched by you teenagers and pre-teens across the country.

If kids stop having sex, then babies being dumped in dumpster will go away, the issue of abortion will go (almost) away. Why, because less and less kids will be having kids. Doing a quick search on google, I found out that the number of kids (15 years old and less) having abortions was 667 for every one thousand regular births. I am against abortion, but if kids were not having sex, there wouldn't have any reason for an abortion, thus the problem isn't as big of a problem as it is now. If you factor in the age group 15-19 then the ratio is 339.

Anyways, you are probably wondering why I went from a car wreck to this. I don't know either. I needed to blow of a little steam I guess. No matter, I still believe what I wrote here, if you don't agree with me, that is fine. If you do agree with me that is fine too. That is just my 2 cents. Take it or leave it.