Thirteen Reasons I Heart Huckabee!!
In no particular order…

1. He Supports the FairTax - thats right. A candidate who actually supports the fair tax. HOW FREAKING AWESOME IS THAT?? Mike is for removing the IRS and instituting the fairtax. Something that would benefit EVERYONE and not just the super rich or super poor for once.
2. He can rock out on the Bass Guitar. - I’ll let this one speak for itself…

3. His wife has gone 2 for 3 with a grenade launcher, jumped out of an airplane, flown in an F-16 and shot an MP5 submachine gun. What have the other candidate’s spouses done (besides set the US up for one of the greatest terrorist attacks in the history of the country).
4. He wants to make health care better. Not by making it a government program but by fixing what is wrong.
   

   by reforming medical liability; adopting electronic record keeping; making health insurance more portable from one job to another; expanding health savings accounts to everyone, not just those with high deductibles; and making health insurance tax deductible for individuals and families as it now is for businesses. Low income families would get tax credits instead of deductions. We don’t need all the government controls that would inevitably come with universal health care. When I’m President, Americans will have more control of their health care options, not less.

5. He wants to Improve Education not by more government intrusion, but through working with the states to improve the quality and not quantity of education. Mike believes that music and art should play important parts in every education and he wants to base the success of schools on actual academic results and not how much they’re spending per student.
6. He knows what he believes in and he stands for it. He believes “Our nation was birthed in a spirit of faith - not a prescriptive faith telling us how or whether to believe, but acknowledging a providence that pervades our world.”
7. He believes in right to life. While this isn’t a die hard issue for me (I’m much more concerned with taxes, health care and protecting our country) its important for a lot of voters. Thompson might have received the NRTL endorsement this week, but I believe Mike will fight for the right to life the hardest out of any of the candidates.
8. Chuck Norris Supports Huckabee. I could really stop the list here, but if Walker, Texas Ranger and his fists of death support Mike, shouldn’t we all??
9. Securing our Borders. Mike wants to Secure our borders to stem the flow of illegal immigrants to the country. He doesn’t believe in amnesty for those here against the law and he wants to do something about it.
10. He’ll fight to protect our right to Arm Bears. Wait. I mean bare arms. Mike’s a staunch supporter of the Second Ammendment and all it means to America. He’s the only candidate to consistantly fight for the rights of gun owners and protected gun manufacturers from frivolous law suits. Plus he was the FIRST govenor in the country to have a concealed handgun license.
11. He’ll work towards energy Independence - What does that mean? It means no more leaning on foreign oil for our oil. It means being able to take care of ourselves and not having to worry about the nutter in the third world country who supplies oil for our SUVs. It also means finding new viable energy sources and ways to fuel cars, power and other things like Hybrid engines, wind turbines and more power plants. And he plans to have it done by the beginning of his second term in office.
12. He supports the efforts to Protect us from Al Qaeda in Iraq and Around the world - This in itself is one of the biggest things Mike has going and one of the main reasons I haven’t looked at Ron Paul yet. Huckabee is willing to go the distance to secure the Country against threats from hostile forces. Something few of the other candidates are willing to do.
13. He’s picked up in the latest polls in Iowa to move in to second position in the GOP race there behind Romney. Chuck Norris Supports Him. His wife went 2 for 3 with a grenade launcher. The man just rocks.

I know its been said before, but its true. Diamonds are a girls best friend. I’ve given Amy diamonds several times (earrings mostly) and she loves them. Wears them almost constantly. Needless to say it helps I found a close jeweler with good prices on all kinds of jewelry. Palas Jewelers is located near the heart of Buckhead (almost everything wonderful is… isn’t it?) and they have some awesome deals right now in time for the holidays.

You can get custom designed pieces just for your special one or find a ready made piece. The cool thing is that they have some really nice staff who are fun to hang out with. You can shop on line (find me a place where you can’t these days and I’d be surprised) or visit their showroom at 3209 Paces Ferry Pl No 10, Atlanta, GA 30305. They promise a cup of tea for anyone who stops in

As if Chuck Norris’ fists of furry weren’t enough reason alone to vote for Mike Huckabee we now have all the ammunition we need (quite literally too). In an interview this past week Huckabee’s wife let it be known that she once went two for three with a grenade launcher at a National Guard training camp in Arkansas.

“I have fired a grenade launcher and hit the target two out of three times, so I think that’s pretty good odds for me,” she said, noting that she had a special interest in military matters and has also jumped out of an airplane, flown in an F-16 and shot an MP5 submachine gun.

I believe I heard Chuck Heston issue his endorsement for Huckabee’s wife and the Navy Seals have contacted her about filling in when their team is out with the flu. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Chuck Norris supports Huckabee. Maybe you should too (or suffer “a roundhouse kick to the face for not complying with the wishes of Chuck Norris” - Thanks Jade )

Finally some rain came our way. They’ve (the forecasters) have only been talking about it all week. First, it was a 40% chance then it went up to 50, then an almost certainty. Its funny how something that we take for granted (rain) can be so missed when it isn’t there. Makes you wonder about other things in life.

The rain is only supposed to yield a half inch or so of rain, but still its the beginning. Like taking your car in for dent repair when you get a little ding in it from the shopping carts at walmart. Our current situation is one where every little bit helps. The governor had a prayer service yesterday for rain. Today it rained. Maybe he should pray a little more??

A month or so ago we let you know that Chuck Norris is endorsing Mike Huckabee for President. Now we want to let you know that Chuck has a three point plan he wanted to share with the world. Here it is:

1. The first thing I need you to do today is make a contribution in support of Mike Huckabee’s campaign
2. The second thing I need you to do today is ask at least one friend to make a contribution to Mike’s campaign
3. The third and final thing I need you to do today is to tell your friends and family members that aren’t able to contribute at this time to Mike’s campaign to at least sign up for his email updates.

I think it speaks highly of Huckabee that the man whose fists can break blocks just by glaring at them is endorsing him. I know that when it comes to choosing the leader of our country, I don’t look to who the Right to Life, the Christian Coalition, the Union Bosses or anyone else is endorsing. I look to Chuck Norris and I hope you do too.

(for the record, so far I’m leaning to Huckabee… and that was before norris endorsed him)

With Thanksgiving right around the corner, I thought it’d be a good time to talk Turkey. Not the bird, the country. Turkey holidays (no, not holiday’s for the birds) are quickly becoming a favorite vacation for people looking to get away to Europe for a while and why not? Have you seen the Turkish Countryside? With average temps around 30 degrees celsius during the summer, its the perfect place to get away and tan for a while.

Surrounded by sea on three sides, Turkey has a colossal 5,000 mile stretch of coastline that manages to showcase the beauty of the Aegean, Black and Mediterranean seas. Turkey is also well renowned for it’s mountains, such as Mount Ararat in Turkey’s East, Turkey’s highest point at over 5,000m!

Turkey really does have it all to offer and its fairly cost effective for a place to visit. For other On the Beach vacations check out otbeach.com.

This week’s Amie Street Music Wednesday post is actually in honor of Gruntled. The code monkey I turn to when I need help debugging a script (or my sites). In 2005 Jonathan Coulton quit his job as a computer programmer and began recording a song a week and posting it on his website. Things blossomed from there. Listen as he tells the code monkey how to deal and then check out the bonus track. I’m sure you’ll love it.

Bonus Track!!

Linuxtracker.org is pleased to announce the availability of IBM Lotus Symphony Beta 2 on the linuxtracker bittorrent network. For faster downloads, more accurate statistics and to see all of the available torrents, please visit http://linuxtracker.org.

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Could there be the crack in the armor her opponents have been looking for after all? The first story not boding well for the presidential hopeful is that her campaign was planting questions at an event in Iowa over the weekend. The student was approached by Clinton staff and asked what she had intended to ask Mrs. Clinton (when did she drop the hyphen??). When Muriel Gallo-Chasanoff, a 19-year-old sophomore at Grinnell College in Iowa said she was going to ask “how her energy plan compares to the other candidates’ energy plans?” the reply she got shocked her a little.

“‘I don’t think that’s a good idea,” the staffer said, according to Gallo-Chasanoff, “because I don’t know how familiar she is with their plans.”

He then opened a binder to a page that, according to Gallo-Chasanoff, had about eight questions on it.

Apparently the top question had “college student” written next to it. A clear prompt as to who should be asking the question. Has Clinton been planting questions all along? If so, does how does this measure up to the recent event at FEMA where they staged a whole press conference?

On another front, the producer of the hit tv series “24″ has said that

it’s “nuts” to think of New York Sen. Hillary Clinton being the next real president.

True, Joel Surnow, the executive producer of the Fox show has cast several presidents over the run of the show, but its not like this is casting for a show is it?

I think it speaks well for our country when the leading democratic candidate for President is planting questions at an event and the producer of a fictional tv show compares choosing the next president of the US to casting one for his show.

Why send out the boring old christmas cards with a drawing of the three wise men on them when you can send out custom cards with photos of your offspring, pets or christmas tree? One of the simplest ways to spread cheer and merryment through out the holiday season is to send custom Photo Cards with photos that reflect you and your family on them. VistaPrint (known for their good selection of cheap business cards and items) has brought custom cards to the net marketplace in an affordable way.

Starting at 10 cards for around $4.98 for the traditional post card like photo card, you can design your own Christmas card using one of their templates or a design all your own. Why not spread some holiday cheer this year? Get dressed up alike (amy bought us all matching disney christmas sweaters last year…), take that family photo you’ve been meaning to take and send out a card with personality on it. It might just make someone’s holiday brighter.

I was stumbling around the intarweb today and I came across this little gem of a quiz. Fourteen questions designed to determine which side of the political scale you fall on. Turns out, I’m a Mormon.

Its the law. Have car insurance or don’t drive. Unfortunately, too many people drive uninsured these days causing the rates for everyone to go up. When we travel abroad (to foreign countries anyway) we usually try to avoid driving for several reasons (have you seen how they drive in the UK?? All wonky on the wrong side of the road!). I’m tempted to rent a car once though just to say I’ve done it. Before I do, you can bet I’m going to check on Car Insurance policies over there to make sure I’m covered or not.

The cool thing is most Car Insurance coverage covers you on trips abroad for a certain number of days out of the year. Its imperative to check with your carrier to make sure you’re covered.

I can think of nothing worse than going abroad and getting in an accident to find out I’m not covered in the UK (or europe in general) while I’m out motoring about on the chunnel or the autobahn. It’d be a little disappointing. Luckily its cheap and easy to get updated policy info and find out what exactly I need to pick up in addition to my current coverage. Something anyone should do when going over seas. At least if you plan on driving that is.

http://linuxtracker.org is pleased to announce the availability of La Litera Multidistrox on the linuxtracker bittorrent network. It includes: Knoppix 5.1.1, Super Grub Disk 0.9667 and features the Super Live Boot technology which lets you choose Knoppix Boot options easily. With SGD you can restore grub to the mbr, boot your Linux and other oses.

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There’s apparently some good news for the Senator from Tennessee we all call Fred that will be announced tomorrow at a press conference. Thompson has apparently picked up the endorsement of the National Right to Life movement. This could be a coup for the senator who needs a bolstering in his numbers to stay a viable candidate for the GOP nod this coming year. But is it enough?

On the other side, Hillary was apparently Attacked by FLAGS this weekend at an event in Iowa. The stars and stripes know whats bad for the country, why can’t the rest of the nation pick it up??

There was an interesting article in the November 5th issue of Computerworld by Mary Brandel listing out seven steps to boosting your career in 2008. I want to take a brief look at them to see exactly what they offer.

1. Talk to Your Manager - I think that this is actually a fairly good starting point. Your manager won’t know that you’re looking to move up in jobs unless you tell them. Just sitting by idly while the person in the cube next to you is making constant references to a bump in pay grade does little to get you noticed. Granted, it might mean your manager is a little harder on you to see if you have what it takes or how serious you are in your move. It doesn’t hurt to ask what you can do either.
2. Broaden Your View - Mary points out here that most in the IT field have tunnel vision. We tend to focus mainly on our area of concentration (networking, security, etc) where as we need to be looking at more of the business as a whole. In my position I’ve experienced the ins and outs of being a CSR and an estimator so far. Its helped me understand the workings of the company as well as the workings of the job tracking and order placement system we run here. Its also a good way to find out where we’re lacking in the IT field and what can be done to better that. Besides, its easy to go out to lunch with the sales weasels or the hottie in accounting, right?
3. Find a Mentor - Either one within your company or someone in your field from outside who has a lot of knowledge and power in the industry. Its easy to do and it can often lead to open doors you might not have found other wise. Besides, its a good way to network. As Mary points out in her article “People Like to Mentor other people”.
4. Show off your writing skills - No, not by writing long winded emails about the perils of forwarding on the latest forward. Contribute articles to any of the print or online tech magazines (techcrunch anyone?) or start your own blog. She points out that one of the biggest things lacking in the IT field is good communication skills and if you have them they can go along way to getting you noticed. Its true. Have you seen some of the support tickets that get submitted in the larger help centers? A little bit of writing practice can go a long way. And besides it can be fun to document your co-workers
5. Broaden Your Circle - Unlike broadening your Vision, this one takes place outside of the workplace. Brandel suggesting joining some of the local user groups (like a linux user group) or other interest group. Join Rotary or the Kawanis club even. A small bit of networking can go a long way. You never know who’s looking to hire and helping out with an organization can go a long way.
6. Work for FREE - Not at your current job. Brandel suggests volunteering with a foundation or group who might need help. Does your church need some one with network knowledge to rewire the current office network or maintain the computers? Put in a little volunteer time and you can add it to your resume. Even better if you learn a new skill set (programming?) out of it. Something else to add to the resume and as Mary points out it demonstrates “your willingness to learn new things”.
7. Become an Entrepreneur - Not in the true sense. Brandel isn’t suggesting you hang up a shingle and start your own consulting firm (though it may not be a bad idea for some side income) but her point is that you need to own your work. Both failures and accomplishments. Someone who takes responsibilty for their work will get noticed much quicker and gain more in their job than someone who doesn’t. With that comes the ability to take critisism well and handle what the job will throw at you. Don’t be quick to pass it on if it might mean you learn something or gain something out of it. Don’t wait around for the next task to land in your lap, find it before it finds you.

   Follow some of the steps Brandel outlined and you might find that ‘08 is more rewarding than ‘07 ever was.

   Rate this:

   2.5

Linuxtracker.org is pleased to announce the availability of Ultimalinux 8.2b Desktop x86 LiveCD on the linuxtracker bittorrent network. For faster downloads, more accurate statistics and to see all of the available torrents, please visit http://linuxtracker.org. The absolute latest release is Ultima Linux 8.2b, available for x86

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Christmas is right around the corner and if there’s one thing everyone needs in their wallet or purse this season its coupons! Coupons for food, clothing, electronics, movies or music, theres one place to find the best promo codes for whatever you’re shopping for. Deal Locker is the coolest site for online promotions.

For instance, amy checked the site for Kohls coupons and promo codes before she left today. They also have some other cool and hard to find stores and sites online. Maybe you’re going on a trip this holiday season and will be booking a car. Check out the Enterprise rent a car coupons and codes.

DealLocker is setup in an easy to navigate layout, making it easy to find coupons for whatever you’re looking for. You can search by store, by category or by anything you can think of using their easy to use search feature. If you’re looking for toys this season, just click the toys category and you’re off and running. It really couldn’t be easier to find AMAZING deals on things you need or want to buy this season.

Make your christmas Green, save a little cash this shopping season!

So I joined facebook a couple of weeks ago (two?) to see what the fuss is about. I’m on MySpace and I’m not impressed at all. Its a playground for high schoolers it seems. I like facebook at this point for the fact that it has some pretty cool add-ons like scrabble and a feed for my radar account.

The other nice feature is that I seem to be finding friends on Facebook that I’ve lost contact with. A couple from scouts, some from high school and a few from college. One of the last additions from my college friends has brought a little bit of drama in to my life.

I received notification that a friend wanted to friend me, so I accepted her invite. I also added how I know her. I put school (college), an organization (rotaract) and that we hooked up. On the last one, I put I Wish! as well. She was a good friend in college (someone I studied with often), but nothing in fact had ever happened with us. Well, that lasted all of three or four days.

I checked my email this morning and I had a note on facebook from her husband.

I don’t appreciate making those comments about you and my wife, wishing or not, it’s very innappropriate and if it continues you and I are going to have some serious problems.

*****’s husband

At first, I thought I’d contact her via FB (since I don’t have an email address for her). I logged in to find out she was no longer in my friends list. I could see stuff she had sent and said to me, but I could not access her profile either. I don’t know if its been removed or I’m just blocked. Thats yet to be seen. So I replied to his email:

Hi ****** * *****. Its nice to meet you. ***** and I went to college together and I was thrilled when she contacted me here on facebook. If I offended you, I’m sorry, though I have to say you’re acting in a very childish manner.

Emailing me and threatening me with “serious problems” when I don’t even know you, and then removing your wife’s facebook profile (or at least blocking me from seeing it) is juvenile to say the least.

Any way, if I caused you and personal or mental harm, I’m sorry. If you behave this way to any of Nancy’s other male friends, I’m sorry as well.

Oh and if you see ***** (which you should since you’re her husband) let her know I’m sorry if my innocent comment (how ever true it was) caused her any problems.

I hope you and I can be the best of friends,

Mark (Amy’s Husband) Angeli

Of course, I doubt that we’ll be friend at all, but if thats the tone he wants to take…

EDIT 11/12/2007: Now her name still shows up under my notifications, but there is no link to a profile, I believe her profile has been deleted, but it appears his is still online…

I wrote earlier about LED christmas lights and how they were an interesting change from the traditional lights. I’ve done a bit of research since then (which was easier since target has a slew of LED Christmas lights in stock right now) and from what I’ve seen, they most definitely are worth the investment.

On average, the initial cost of the LED mini lights is higher than that of the traditional bulb. Thats the only down side. One of the best upsides is that they more than makeup for it in longevity, durability and brightness as well as the improved cost of keeping them on. Think about your christmas lights. If they’re like mine, then currently they’re in a box in the basement (or attic). They may be coiled, wound or a jumbled mess that will take at least a day to unknot and check. Once you have them straightened out, the fun begins. You have to test each strand. If you’re lucky, none of the filament in the bulb (the wires that make it light up) will be intact and the strand will work. If not you have to check each bulb.

If I had a quarter for every bulb I’ve pulled out and replaced only for it to not be the right one… TOO MANY! No more with the LED mini lights. They stay lit. And since the light is one solid piece the chances of it getting broken, cracked or other wise damaged is nil because LED lights are encased in a nearly indestructible expoxy plastic bulb which can withstand lots of abuse. It really is a beautiful sight. Check in to it. I’m going to slowly begin converting my lights to LED maybe you should too?

Thats right! With little work you can be rollin in the dough at amazon dot com. “Tell me what I have to do, mcangeli!” you say? Well, its simple. Make comments on my posts. Respond to something I’ve or someone on my site has said. The contributor with the most posts for the month of November will win and if you don’t believe me… ask Sabriena. By the way, they need to be quality comments. I get the final say

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