Hurricane Preparedness Week

It's Hurricane Preparedness Week. Hurricane season starts June 1st and tuns through November 30. Hopefully, the 2008 Hurricane season won't be a bad one. Hopefully, the loss of human life will be minimal. Hopefully, we won't have another hurricane like Katrina. Hopefully, the property damage will be little. May the storms only bring needed rain to the locations that need rain. Where I live we have had plenty of rain in May, however it doesn't take to many rainless days before the weather people start talking about droughts.

This being Hurricane preparedness, I hope tragic storms like Katrina have taught us valuable lessons. I hope that the world can actually become better prepared to deal with Hurricanes. I hope evacuation plans have improved. I hope we are better prepared to respond to a Hurricane than we were when Katrina helps. I hope people will continue to clean up after Katrina. I hope the ecological damage from Katrina isn't permanent. I hope New Orleans continues to rebuild. I hope the other communities hit hard by Katrina also continue to rebuild.

Strange how Hurricane Preparedness Week could bring out so many hopes.

Memorial Day

Today is Memorial Day. It is time to say thank you to a veteran. It's time to remember the soldiers, Marines, sailors, pilots who gave the ultimate sacrifice. The brave men and woman who face the war zone everyday in Iraq and Afghanistan are heroes. Today is not a day of politics, though I think we all pray or wish for a time of peace. Even in peace, there are rescue missions. There are natural disasters where the National Guard put themselves in harms way for our protection. As you enjoy your Holiday take a moment to think about the ones we have lost. Take a moment to be thankful for the Air Force, Army, Coast Guard, Marines and Navy. Take a moment to be thankful for the National Guard and reserves. May we one day have peace, may one day may all of our POWs and missing service men come home, and may we never forget the ultimate sacrifices which have been made.

Become an Uncle and Hit A Grand Slam

Not everyone who becomes an Uncle has a chance to put an exclamation point on the day! Hunter Pence plays baseball for the Houston Astros. Hunter's brother Howard and his wonderful wife Allison had a beautiful baby girl on Tuesday, May 20, 2008. Hunter Pence hit a grand slam Tuesday, which accounted for all of the Astros runs against the Cubs. The Astros won the game, and Uncle Hunter went 3 for 4. Quite, the way to celebrate becoming an Uncle to your brother's daughter.

Return of the blog

Life gets busy sometimes, that is why a new blog has not come out in a while. Not an excuse just a fact. I work a full time corporate job, AKA the dreaded day job. Anyway we had some visitors in town last week which ended up making my days pretty long. Then I had family obligations over the weekend which kept me pretty busy.

I did cover the West Virginia primary for Associated Content. Which resulted in four political articles. I also pumped out a few more articles.

One was on "Shoes Men Should Wear For a Successful Job Interview", another one on Men' s Sandals. The successful job interview was at least an article written about one of my specialties Human Resources. Really I'm not Mr. Joe Fashion plate, and no I don't have a foot fetish.

However, speaking of fetishes. I did write an article on the Jimi Hendrix Sex Tape. An article for people who have fetishes for great dead guitar players.

Sports which I write most often about has been on the back burner a bit. I wrote quite a bit about the draft so maybe it is time for a bit of a break on sports.

I even wrote an article on Helium, which is pretty rare for me. I don't write that much on their site. I wrote an article on Finding Project Management Training Course.

The point is I've been pretty busy. However, the blog is still alive. I will try to post some new stuff. I'll update the youtube videos soon. I can't do that at work during my lunch break.

RE:Fishing at the lake

The last couple of days, I've taken a break from writing. Monday, I was finally able to cut my grass. It was about time I had a day off from work with no rain. My grass had taken advantage of the rain to grow really high. In between, cutting my grass, in true slacker style I took a couple of breaks to fish the pond(lake) across the street. Not bad, I ended up catching four bass, and three pumpkin seeds(sunfish). I still had worms leftover from Monday, so I went fishing again Tuesday afternoon/evening. I ended up catching four bass, 3 more pumpkin seeds, a bluegill, and my first freshwater catfish! I also caught a small turtle. The turtle was a cute, little thing. Luckily, he let go of the hook after I had landed him. So, I turned it back over on his feet and let the turtle crawl back into the lake. Not a bad evening 9 fish and a turtle! Everything I caught was released so they can grow bigger. I practice catch and release.

The NFL Draft

The NFL Draft was held over the weekend. Which ment I ended up being pretty busy last night writing draft analysis and recaps for associated content.

I ended up getting four done last night. The first one I completed was one on the Jacksonville Jaguars who traded up to get the number 8 pick in the draft. Read about it here.

Next I wrote about the Pittsburgh Steelers who added an excellent running back and a solid wide receiver. Read about it here.

Then I covered the local Washington Redskins. The Redskins added two of the best wide receivers in the draft and the best tight end. Later in the draft they also picked up a good quaterback in Colt Brennan. Read all about it here!

Then I covered the Miami Dolphins who had the first pick in the draft. Find out who else they picked up besides Jake Long. Read about it here!

Well that's how I spent my Sunday evening.

The Cycle of A Good Deed

A while back I signed up for Kiva. It's a neat idea of micro financing. You loan $25 to a entrepreneur in a third world country. Your money is pooled with others, and the entrepreneur gets their loans. The loans are to help the entrepreneur's business, they can be for supplies, repairs, to pay wages, improvements, and the like.

Your paid back as the entrepreneur pays their loan back. Once it is paid back you are credited back the $25 you loaned. There is risk, as a few, a very few loans aren't repaid. However, my loan was paid back. She actually paid her loan off early. I had the option to cash out my $25, but I chose to keep the circle going and I loaned the money to another entrepreneur. I'm just happy to see it work.

For more on Kiva check out the article I wrote about them:

There are lots of things you could do with $25. You could easily spend it on diner, a movie, a concert, and you could donate it a charity. Did you know you could loan it to an organization to make philanthropic micro financing loans to help fight world poverty? (Link)