Please stop wasting my time!

How irritating is it to get all of these spammed messages that state “I didn’t agree with you first, but last paragraph makes sense for me…” especially when the post is absolutely not about anything that could be agreed or disagreed upon! These folks need to at least put some thought into their comments!  At least take the time to actually read my postings and then make your comment relate to it, it is not that difficult.

Computers and the Internet have made things so much easier for us and it is has become for us all a huge time saver, what a drag to get bogged down with such trivial nonsense.

More men die in floods

I was reading in an article from Time magazine, that men are more likely to die in floods than women.  The article says that men are more likely to die in thunderstorms, too.  The attempted explanations theorize that the reason for these situations could be because men take more risks than women do, and/or it could be simply because men tend to spend more time outdoors than women do, so they are exposed to the risks of being killed in situations like that.

This made me think about what I would do if my friends or family was in a serious flood and I felt that I had to try to rescue a family member.  How much of a risk would I take?  I wonder how many of those flood related deaths are because of men trying to rescue someone else?  Interesting information that someone took a lot of time to gather and put together for us to contemplate and hopefully discuss with others.

Good News about Algae

I think that instead of using salt water to create fuel to run our outrageous amount of vehicles that are clogging up the roads at alarming numbers, that using algae to create fuel is a much more reasonable path to take.  I’ve been reading several articles as of late, about making fuel from algae, and I saw that some companies have already began using fuel made from algae, including one airline company!

This is awesome news because algae is NOT fossil fuel; it is a renewable resource that will produce less harm to the environment!  There is a website about algae fuel that I found that has a lot of information about the subject.  If you are interested in learning more about this exciting news, please click here.

Native Tribes discovered as “uncontacted”

I am always amazed when I hear news of uncontacted native tribes being “discovered.”  There is a story that I saw one today about a tribe in Brazil that shows pictures from a recent “flyover.”  These poor natives are photographed aiming flaming arrows right at the aircraft that is taking their pictures.  Can you imagine the horror and dread these natives are feeling as they see this “monster” flying overhead?

Makes me think whether it really is in the tribes best interest, as human beings, to be left undeveloped or is it in their best interest to be contacted and taught “modern ways.”  That is a moral and ethical decision I know I’ll never have to make, and I’m glad that I don’t have the responsibility of having to make that decision

Block Party ends nicely

I was at a neighborhood block party last night and met some new people that I had not met before. Not that its much of a “neighborhood” being as our closest real neighbor is at least ten miles away, we still got to town though, as do many of those who dwell in the mountains here. But when I go to the town-wide neighborhood street parties, I go with some reservations. You see, I don’t usually like to be around people I don’t know.  You never know what kind of person they are or what they are capable of.  However, I do like going to the street parties to hobnob with the few that show up that are my age and share my interests and see what’s going on in their lives that might actually be of interest.

So it was with quite a bit of surprise that I met a woman about my age who shares the same musical interests that I have, likes the same kinds of movies, television shows and books that I do, and shares my love of animals. So we spent quite a bit of time socializing and she told me to check out her blog when I got home and had a chance to check it out. I did, and I was glad that I did because now I feel like I’ve gotten to know her a little better. I hope we can keep in touch!

The price of stamps are rising once again

The cost of a postage stamp is once again going up on price. I don’t really mind that the stamps are going up again because I honestly don’t use the regular mail much anymore anyways. I pay almost all my bills online using my bank’s free bill pay and I stay in touch with friends and relatives online. There’s not much need for me to even buy stamps to keep them on hand – I’m better off taking the occasional piece of mail to the 24 hour post office and just pay them at the counter when the need arises.

I find most of the time if I need to know the current price of a postage stamp that I haven’t got a clue and need to ask some one, the prices keep changing so often I lost count years ago, right around the time of the 32 cent stamp. It has been down hill ever since.

The need of changing the oil always comes too soon

As one of those people who thought that you had to change your oil every 3000 miles I was excited to see a story the other day that said, with the advances in oil and the better engines that they have developed in recent years that it is not necessarily required to change your oil every 3000 miles. Many of the new oils will last until 5000 miles or even longer if you use synthetic oils they will last up to 10,000 miles.

This is very good news for me, considering I made sure that from the beginning that my vehicle has only used the synthetic type of oil, so it seems that I have a few thousand miles left to go before having to deal with all of that.

April Fool’s Day

One holiday that has always puzzled me is explained so well in the following definition:

April Fool’s Day, although not a holiday in its own right, is a notable day celebrated in many countries on April 1. The day is marked by the commission of hoaxes and other practical jokes of varying sophistication on friends, enemies and neighbors, or sending them on fools’ errands, the aim of which is to embarrass the gullible. Traditionally, in some countries, the jokes only last until noon. If you play a trick on someone after this time you are the April Fool. Elsewhere, for example in France, the jokes may last all day.

Taken from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  It came in handy.

Wildlife galore this time of year

My yard has been filled with an abundance of wildlife these last few weeks, there has been an major explosion of rabbits, skunks, opossum, ducks and gophers and even a porcupine or two, my dogs hate to see critters in the yard and bark and whine like they’ve never seen such creatures when they are out there. We have had deer and foxes in the past, with the lake less than a mile away we get a bit more wildlife than most of the neighborhoods around here.

I remember about six years ago, I found a wounded dear in my backyard.  She stayed perfectly still and rested under the bushes for a few hours thinking she was totally out of site, and then she went running down the sidewalk and into the street, never to be seen again by these eyes of mine.  It is good to see the animals returning, very good.  It is a good sign too.

Hello world!

I am Raymond Whiteside, full blood of the Cherokee Nation. Educated in the white man’s schools. Fought for my country in the uniform of the U.S.Army, in a country far away where our enemy were easier to understand then were our so called allies. We should not have left. But those decisions were not made by men of war. Sort of brings the French Government to mind for some reason. Strange world we live in. Good thing I have a sense of humor. I”ll just say I married a white-eye, so you’d know I just kid a lot about you guys. After all, this is the 21st century and unless something drastically changes the worlds population, the Buffalo won’t be making any miraculous comeback. My wife looks like an Indian, but her people are of the French, and THAT, my friends, is FUNNY!