Nope, that's not a tornado in the background. . .

It's the sound of our nation's founders and millions of other sane people spinning in their graves.

Here's what our so-called conservative leaders think is a good idea.

Teen-Screen

It's not a new idea.  I'm sure I've posted about it before.  But as someone in the mental health field who already sees enough overdiagnosed kids, this is just unthinkable.  It's nothing more than a gift for the pharmaceutical companies.

I'm a big fan of the free market and business in general.  But this is the antithesis of the free market.  Corporations' incestuous relationship with government is not capitalism.  It is called Mercantilism and it's just as bad an idea as fascism or socialism.  If you don't know what those terms mean, educate yourself on the subject.

Electric Fireplaces

*a sponsored post

Now here's a concept that's new to me.  The Electric Fireplace. I first learned of these today, from The Fireplace Lowdown blog. I"m not sure whether heating with electric is cheaper than gas or not.  There are probably different factors involved in determining the amount of energy used, but what's really important (to anyone who would be interested in one)is the aesthetic value of a fireplace.  I've always enjoyed sitting in front of a fireplace myself, enjoying a good book or good conversation with friends.  But I'm not sure it would be the same with a fake fire.  I guess that's all an individual preference, but I'd be willing to give it a try.

Comment Away.

It was just pointed out to me that I had comments set to "only registered users" or whatever.  I have just changed that to "anyone can comment."  That's the way I wanted it to be all along.  Sorry about the oversight.

Blessings in Disguise

The other day Scott had talked about possibly getting together with me and some other friends at Applebees.  Today, we talked and he said he had forgotten he had already made plans with his girlfriend.

That worked out great for me in the end.  I had to go pick up some of my Boys Hope guys from school and drive them home.  By the time I got done with that, it was rush hour, so I stopped at P.F. Chang's for dinner in order to avoid the traffic. 

After dropping off the van, I headed home.  I decided to go for some Dairy Queen before going home though.  Anyway, not long after I had sat down to eat my blizzard, a group of four people walked in.  It was two of my old St. Joe's kids with two staff.  They were very happy to see me, as I was to see them.  I got multiple hugs from each of the kids.  They took their ice cream to go, but both of the kids sat down and talked with me while the staff were waiting for their orders to be made.  It was a good time.

That about made my night.

Bill O'Reilly Rots your brain.

Here's the proof.

Sheesh.

Things at work have been really bizarre lately.  The boys are at their respective homes due to an infestation of bedbugs at the house.  We staff have been busy preparing the house for and cleaning up after the exterminators came.  We have to do the same thing in two weeks as they have to treat the house again for those bedbugs who hatch in that time.

Darin just announced he's leaving on Labor Day.  That will put a lot of the house responsibility on me since I've been there a year.  I also very possibly will go back as a live-in staff.  That will certainly solve my apartment problems.

Anyway, I'm exhausted from all this chaos.  That is all.

Gnarls Barkley

This has to be my best cd purchase in a long time. I like when a hybrid band comes around which doesn't fit comfortably in just one genre.

Gnarls Barkley's "St. Elsewhere is one of those rare finds. It's somewhere between r&b, alt-rock, jazz, blues, etc. The first track, "Go-Go Gadget Gospel,"is a semi-gospel type of thing and serves mostly as an extended album intro, then goes right into the first single--"Crazy." That's the first tune I heard from these guys. I was hooked just by that one tune. Then I heard "Smiley Faces" on the radio as well. When I heard Gnarls Barkley's cover of the Violent Femmes' "Gone Daddy Gone," I knew I had to pick up this cd.

I'm definitely not disappointed. Every song on this 14-track cd is great.

You've gotta check it out.

Test

Snakes on a Plane

I went to the theater fully expecting this movie to be so bad it was funny. I was pleasantly surprised.

No, it isn't the greatest movie ever made. There are some definitely cheesy parts which could have been left out. At least one of those scenes was obviously one of the scenes which were added in order to rate an R rating.

There's a lot to like about the movie, despite the obvious cheese factor that goes along with a movie like this. There's always that when creatures are attacking and some gore is involved. That, and some of the dialogue is horrible. And the title is one of the most dreadfully bad titles in cinematic history.

But overall, I found it entertaining and a fun view for my money.

Sponsored posts.

Since I don't post as regularly as I'd like, I'm going to try something new. In order to find things to blog about, I've joined Pay Per Post. I can choose from different opportunities to post about products and/or services that may interest me. In return, I am paid a small one-time amount. When I do a sponsored post, I will indicate that it is a paid post.

It's a good concept. If you decide to join, please say you were referred by me (mr_al@fuse.net) as there are also benefits for referring others.

I guess we'll see how it goes.

Officially Official

Yep, the corrected certificate came today.

http://www.alnewberry.com/certif.jpg

Check it out.

Finally almost close to being pretty close to maybe being rested up.

Well, it's been almost a week now since I've been back from Washington D.C. What a wild, fun, exhausting, exhiliarating trip it was.

I was pretty much on duty from 7:30 am each morning until 10:30 or 11:00 pm each night when the boys finally got settled for the night. They were pretty good despite some initial difficulty. I think mostly they were trying to impress the older guys.

Tuesday we visited the Smithsonian Institute. We only got to the museum of natural history and the National Air and Space museum, but there were a lot of fascinating things to see there. That evening, we got out to see the sites in D.C., including the Jefferson and Lincoln memorials, Korean and Vietnam memorials, and such.

Wednesday, we visited the White House and the Capitol building. That evening, we went to the National Zoo, but it was later in the evening and there wasn't much to see. Most of the animals had gone to bed.

Thursday we got to go on a Duck tour. A Duck is an amphibious vehicle, so part of the tour was on land and part on water. It was pretty impressive. After that, we took a drive to Six Flags America for some R&R Six Flags was a pretty small park, really, compared to what I'm used to. But there were a couple of really cool rides. And the few of my guys who were paired with me got to see a whole different side of me. They're not used to seing be be exciteable.

Friday was the long ride home, which we also made fun.

Saturday and Sunday nights I worked at St. Joe's, which wore me out even more. Monday and Tuesday were spend playing catch-up, yesterday we had a meeting for work, and today I had to go to the house and mow the lawn.

So maybe this weekend I'll be able to recoup.