2008

Cnn is reporting that Raul Castro has lifted the ban on cell phones and that ordinary citizens would be getting them. Within the first few weeks of being officially in charge, the new Castro has begun letting more and more freedom into Cuba. I wonder what his brother, Fidel thinks. Maybe America should send Barbara Walters over there to find out, seeing as how they seem to have a special relationship when it comes to interviews.

I think it would be especially interesting to see how Fidel feels about his brother’s policies. Maybe it was something that Fidel had wanted too, but couldn’t just trust? Maybe all this is just a ploy to get some capitalist aid from democratic countries like the United States and the UK? I don’t know, but I’d definitely like to hear Fidel’s and the citizen’s of Cuba’s reactions to the policies.

Greed, and power stem from one of two things. One of those things as you can tell by the title is money. The other thing is brute force.

Money can buy you anything you want, therefor it is natural and greed should follow with the money. With money you also have power. The power to buy and sell things, and occasionally people in certain cases.The power to get the things they want and do the things they wish to do.

Brute force is just as powerful as having money. You can manipulate people by forcing them to do something. Controlling people with threats and violence can be just as powerful as controlling them with money. Sometimes it is even more powerful than money, people can turn down money, but the threat of violence can move mountains when even a high dollar amount won’t.

Is money really the root of all evil? Other countries have oil which means that they have money, but the United States has the brute force behind it. Does that mean that the countries are threatened? No because with their money they can buy protection against the force and then they would have both the power of money and force.

So is money really the root of all evil, is it really as powerful as people say, or is it the money with the force to back it up that is the true power?

Running a business can be hard. Even a good business which started out small and easy can get hard as it grows. That is why companies like Smarter Solutions exist. The Smarter Solutions Six Sigma Black Belt Training will teach you how to manage your growing business the best way possible based on your goals and ideals. It is especially good for the up and coming business that just took off. With over 75 years of experience, why wouldn’t you trust them to help your business get to where you always knew it could be?

I can scratch another notch in my belt of games completed after I finished up the main storyline for Superman Returns. I don’t have an interest in going and collecting all the kittens and powerups. Since I am done with it, I may trade it in at Gamestop, though I am not sure when I will do that. Now if only I can sit down and play some Mass Effect to figure out what is going on in that game.

I don’t use checks. I pay all my bills online and if need be then I send an e-check. As I learned last month when I got the cable boxes, e-checks don’t always work. The cable guy required a check, he couldn’t take cash or credit, so I was in a dilema. I had to go to the bank and get a certified check of $30 to pay for the service. Since then I have ordered checks for those just in case moments. When I reorder checks from the place I ordered them from, I enter the coupon code BlogFreeChecks08 and I get 25 free checks. I haven’t actually used any checks just yet, but it is still good to know that I have them when I need them.

The hardest part I always found about having checks was balancing the checkbook. It is actually easier now, especially after I took that accounting class a few years ago. Now the biggest challenge is having more money going into the checking account than coming out of it. Of course I think everyone has that problem, otherwise we wouldn’t be in a recession right now. I think it will get eaiser though, especially if Krissy gets this job she’s hoping for and I finally have something take off on my end.

A few days ago I installed Ubuntu 5.04 on my laptop and I was planning on using it as a server. It was very unstable though, so I am downloading the newest version of Ubuntu so I can run it as a server. If I can get enough interest then I might purchase a T1 line and host some people for a fee. It would most likely be Krissy’s company mainly, seeing as how it would benefit her clients with us having an in house server. We’ll see what happens though.

A lot of people ask me what this site is all about. To be honest, I don’t know anymore. It started out as mainly a blog, which I hate to admit, with a few other features. It has grown to so much more than that. It has grown to Myspace comments and wallpapers and so much more. I am trying to get other people involved in the content making so it won’t all be on me. What do I tell people when they ask what is the point of my site? It is a multifacited site that offers something for everyone. Why do sites have to have a focus anyway? People are multifacited and websites can be too.

I owe a lot of money for my credit cards. The interest rates on them are ridiculous. If I had a chance to transfer the balances to a lower interest card, then I would. At least if I did that then I wouldn’t have to worry about such steep interest rates, and if I sent in the minimum payment then it wouldn’t just barely cover those interest rates. I wish I could get charity and sports club credit cards, they seem to have lower interest rates and lower minimum payment requirements, both of which would greatly help me out in trying to pay back what I owe.

So I am still planning on getting this new thing up, but my host has been having issues with my MySQL server so I need to wait for them to get their act in gear. Once they do however, I will be on the fast track to adding it to what is currently here. The hard part is really done already, now it is just the database stuff that needs to be done, so I should be able to get it up relatively quick as soon as everything is fixed.

I am still getting everything set up for this new thing. There seems to be a little snag with my host and MySQL, I had multiple servers so I put everything on one server, but moving everything could take a few hours so for now it is just a waiting game. I am going to do what I can to finish it up and then I guess I just need to wait until my host resolves everything.

Is there any sight more beautiful than a sky filled with stars? When I was younger I remember looking up at the night sky and seeing the millions of stars twinkling in the sky. I can’t do that anymore, there is too much light pollution. There seems to be a lot of ambient light anywhere you go in the United States. I’ve been in West Virginia, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, and Delaware and in none of those states could I see as many stars as I could ten years ago in New Jersey.

Whatever happened to going in the backyard laying on the ground and looking for all the constellations? Nowadays it seems in order to see constellations you need to go to a planetarium. The Dark Sky Festival is being held to make people aware of the light pollution and to have people do something about this problem.

It’s too bad that they can’t just turn off the power to a town, some exceptions apply like hospitals, etc, so that people can enjoy the natural beauty of what they might not see otherwise. When was the last time you stared at the millions of stars in the galaxy? If you can’t answer that then maybe it is time that you go out and just lay in the grass and see what stars you can, or take a vacation to somewhere without all the light and enjoy the view.

I’ve been working on something for the last few hours that will put a new spin on Lep’s Lair. It should either be done later today or tomorrow at the latest. It will expand the Funbox and will allow me to do something that I have been wanting to do for a while. So far I am happy with how it is coming, and I think it will be a pretty good direction for where this site is going. I am hoping to have much more like it in the future (you’ll know what it is when it is up).