US Aid to Tsunami Victims.

I may be from North America but I don't control what Bush does. We'll take a good look at what the US actually does do to help the efforts before deciding where shame might go.

So far, Bush has pledged 35 million in aid not to mention what the American people will add as well. Personally, I like most people help when and where I can.

So rather than popping off about which country sent more, JUST HELP.

UK Gives 25 Million Tsunami Aid

UK Citizens have given 25 million quid to aid victims of the Tsunami. That's the equivalent of 48.1376 million US Dollars.

We're talking PRIVATE CONTRIBUTIONS in 24 HOURS, right ?

It's not often I am proud to be British, but I don't think that's at all bad. The UK Government tripled it's contribution to 50 million pounds on the back of it.

My friend and his family are all alive after seeing the wave coming and running up the hill from their Sri Lankan beach, so I have a personal reason to be thankful.

To North America's shame, after pledging around 1 hour's Iraq war expenditure in Aid, President Bush is nowhere to be seen.

Donate here: http://tsunamihelp.blogspot.com

Thank You.

Attack of the 50 foot brussel sprout.

I have long been a fan of vegetables. All sorts, shapes and types. I haven't had a vegetable yet that I really disliked. One that I love is the humble brussel sprout. I love to experiment and I fail to see why a person can't be experimental with their food and try most anything that is reasonable. There are few boundaries that I set for myself when doing this. This is where the sprout sandwich idea came from.

Now some of you might be thinking that I've blown a gasket with this one but I don't think so. I was laughed at and mocked the other day after mentioning making a brussel sprout sandwich. But did the mocker actually try a sprout sandwich? Nooo, he did not. Yet he attacked without provocation this noble vegetable when I suggested jamming some between two slices of bread and referred to me as a loon. Ha!

If there isn't a foundation for Brussel Sprouts there should be. I will start one if I can get the proper funding. Sprout Awareness. People for the ethical treatment of brussel sprouts. Call the Sprout Hotline. Equal rights for brussel sprouts.

Better yet, I can see the next great screenplay in my head now. "Attack of the 50 Foot Brussel Sprout". I can see it rolling it's way through some main street emitting choking clouds of sulphurous gas along the way. That's the ticket. M. Night Shamaylan eat your heart out.

Gamers beware!

Another Christmas come and gone and as with every Christmas, I enjoy making my family happy with gifts. Their enjoyment of what I give them is important to me and has a direct bearing on which gifts I give them in the future. It is with certainty that I say that I'll never buy another game that remotely has anything to do with Valve or the Steam system.

For that reason, I would like to mention one of the games I got Pete. Half Life 2. I was hoping that he would have fun with it but the aggravation of the installation from paranoia of the makers of the game is just beyond belief. Read Pete's "Steamed" post on Augmented Reality to get the whole scoop.

Game junkies have to stick together to stop the over-paranoia of the gaming industry. We all understand the need for proper security but if you are going to say that a game will play in offline mode then it should do so without a ridiculous amount of time spent allowing the Valve/Steam system to invade the buyer's system.

Yes folks, I did say "buyer". We actually do buy the games we play. No hacked software here folks. Pete is a programmer and both of us have ethics in regard to software theft. However, there is a limit. That limit was reached with the fiasco of just trying to get HL2 to install properly and play in offline mode without downloading other unwanted games/applications.

Often in our house, I'll end up buying three or four copies of a single game so that we all have a copy to play. But that won't happen here people. All we want the game junkies to know is to beware of the Steam system. Maybe it would be easier to buy copies of Doom 3. It loads reasonably fast and is great fun.

And for the Valve/Steam people these posts as well as store returns prove once again that the pen is mightier than the sword.

Adding links

Greetings fellow bloggers. I am currently in the process of adding some links. These will be up in a day or so. Thank you so much for your patience and for visiting.

Capital punishment

This post continues what Deek posted. That post was written after seeing the movie, "The life of David Gale" on cable the other night, The movie only reaffirmed my feelings and dislike of the death penalty. The contents of that post are personal and raw.

Ordinarily I wouldn't post something this personal but Deek felt it was the right thing to share so in this case I'll make an exception. If reading my words causes even one other person to stop and think about what I feel then maybe they will be more inclined to consider everything that reverbarates from a state execution and do something to help stop them for good. So maybe I've helped just a little.

The previous post (David Gale) by Deek is something I sent to him. This serves no real purpose other than to allow others to see into my heart. To read about something that I feel very strongly against. The subject of capital punishment is a very emotional one for me so if some of my language bothers you, just skip the David Gale post.

What can I do to help with the fight against capital punishment? Write to law makers? Write and call Congressmen? Which Texas Congressman or woman do not support capital punishment? If anyone has any ideas or suggestions please feel free to post them.

Borrowed from tcadp.org, the following says it best. They should make t-shirts with this on it. They would easily sell because these are definitely words to live by.


"As one whose husband and mother-in-law have both died the victims of murder assassination, I stand firmly and unequivocally opposed to the death penalty for those convicted of capital offenses. An evil is not redeemed by an evil deed of retaliation. Justice is never advanced in the taking of human life. Morality is never upheld by legalized murder."

Coretta Scott King


I will do what I can to help. I hope others will too. These inmates need to know that they aren't alone. The TCADP's resource list is amazing and has loads of information on it.

The more people that get involved the easier it will be to someday know that this barbaric behavior no longer exists.

Links:

Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty

Resource Guide

Texas Moratorium Network

Canadian Coalition Against The Death Penalty

Fight The Death Penalty In The USA

Lamp of Hope

David Gale

David Gale was a professor and someone who fought against capital punishment. He was a normal man. He had problems like we all do. One of the women with Death Watch was a very close friend of his. He didn't know for a long time but she was dying of leukemia. Gale had gotten into an argument with the governor of Texas over the fact that innocent people have been put to death. The governor told Gale, "You name me one man on death row that you can prove innocent and I'll free him." Gale had nothing further to say. Later on, the woman friend of Gales was found dead. She was found with tape over her mouth and a plastic bag over her head. She was handcuffed and the key to the handcuffs was found in her stomach. 

Four days before he was to die by lethal injection, Gale shared part of this with a reporter. There was a video tape found that showed the woman dying, laying naked on her kitchen floor. From all accounts, someone had framed Gale of her murder.The reporter started digging. She found out that another guy with Death Watch had done this. Or so she thought.

After she figured out everything, she found a second tape that showed the woman (keeping in mind that this lady was dying of leukemia) had committed suicide with the help of this other Death Watch supporter. The reporter watched as the woman swallowed the key then taped her mouth with duct tape. She put a bag over her head then taped that too. She laid down on the floor and put the hand cuffs on. Just as the tape ended, someone else walked into view of the camera. It was David Gale. He and Laura had planned the whole thing to prove that innocent people ARE falsely convicted and put to death. Throughout the trail the lawyer was totally incompetent yet no one did anything about it. The lawyer was involved as well and left the country.  The other Death Watch supporter helped and left the country as well.

At one point while talking to the reporter Gale had seemed to vaguely explain that he was tired. Tired of life. Gale had been divorced and his ex-wife had taken his son away. He wanted his son to know the truth and why he had done this.

As I said, I wept harder than I have in a very long time. They both had more courage than I ever could. 

I hate that there is any state that approves of murder. Very seldom do I watch local news on TV. I prefer BBC news or anywhere but local. One of the reasons is if there is an execution scheduled, the media won't leave it alone. They continually talk about it like it was a fucking baseball game. They give details that I don't want to know about. Where as I find myself breaking out in a cold sweat and watching the clock. I feel such pity and sorrow for them, wishing I could talk to the person and maybe give some small measure of comfort and love. If I could scream out loud enough for the person to hear me I would tell them, I care, I'm sorry, You're not forgotten.

Through the last night I can't sleep, I get sick if I eat. And I cry at the last minute knowing that a persons life has ended at the hands of the government and that people think it's perfectly ok and deserved. I adamantly refuse to serve on a jury because I simply will not be involved in a trial where the death sentence could possibly be involved. I would sit in a jail cell first. So there's what the fucking death penalty does to innocent people too. Hell we're all victims. Like the government would care though right? Goddamn them.

I send all my hopes, dreams and heart into the world to hopefully come back to me and help me get away from this country sometime soon.

Sorry for the rant. I need tea and music.

K.

Jobs, Christmas and stuff.

Ok, the time has come for me to post my wish that I get a job after I get all healed and healthy. Soon I plan on making a page for my digital (I'm struggling for the correct term here) artwork so that everyone may have a look and critique it if they wish. I would like someone to hire me to do artwork of some sort.

I also plan on putting a link so that my photographs can be viewed. I take pride in my work and enjoy other people seeing what I do. I would like a job as a photographer that could travel at a companies expense and then let me take loads of photos. They would certainly get their money's worth and I would have a dream job. That works for me!

Now to my Christmas list. Well to be honest, I don't really have one specifically other than great steaming piles of cash. However, if any one has a strong, uncontrollable desire to send me Christmas goodies, cards, photography tips, art tips etc, please send them to the following address.

Kate Ford, PO Box 850234 Richardson, Texas 75085 USA

And so that ends this post of information. This was intended to let the public know that I will put some of my art online soon and that I will make my photos more accessible. I will post something when I have the links ready. Until hen, take care everyone and have a great day where ever you are in the world. And remember, think love, peace, acceptance and tolerance for the holiday season and throughout the new year.

Hospital stays, nurses, kids and the salad incident

Most of you know that I've been in the hospital having a rather annoying problem with my heart fixed. The problem being that out of the clear blue, my heart had the tendency to go from a normal beat to a salsa beat in seconds. Which was a pain. Literally.

Well, not (hearty great laugh here) anymore. Thanks to (this should be said with echo and possibly a small amount of reverb. Wait.. are those the same thing?) SuperDoc and his magic microwave. Typing "microwave" just gave me a visual of him standing near a microwave impatiently tapping his foot while looking at his watch. Welp. Almost done now... That sorta thing.

Actually the procedure worked very well as far as I know. I haven't had an attack of SVT or microwaved the entire popcorn isle at the supermarket or anything else so far. I've been fine but time will tell. I do feel a lot like the bionic woman. "...We can rebuild her. We can make her stronger and better than before..." Now watch, I'll go out and jog then keel over. Ha! Jokes on me! I can see the Doctor going through the papers with the nurses,"Dammit, I told you guys to tell her about that part..."

If I had a wish, I would wish they could have microwaved me into looking a lot more like Claudia Shiffer. Just one or two little adjustments and voila! I'm a gorgeous woman dripping with great steaming loads of money. What a shock for the staff eh? Actually, I joke about the nurses but they were all great.

I'm really grateful to the hospital staff for taking such good care of me. I had a couple of really good male nurses which was nice since I've always had only women nurses to care for me. Some are good and some are adequate. But these guys were tops. They were both handsome guys too. One of them should have definitely been in an Armani shirt and jeans on the cover of a magazine and the other guy looked like he was too young to be out of his room so late. I kept refraining from asking if his mother knew he was up so late.

I will say just this one thing about looks and nothing more shall escape my fingertips on the matter. It is unfair that someone 38 years old should look like they are barely out of their 20's and certainly not old enough to have acquired a 19 year old child. Unless the child were borrowed from an older sibling or friend.

But then I don't know why anyone would want to borrow a kid especially if you've actually had any of your own. Once you do, you don't want your own let alone anyone else's. Other than Grandkids and that's because Bill Cosby was right. We do want to know our kids are going through the same things we went through with them. It's natures little payback.

Ok, ok fine. I can see the scowls so I take the "don't like your kids" bit back. For the parents who actually like their kids I apologize. But remember this is my blog and most of what I write is done so with humor included. Even if it isn't everyone's sort of humor. I love my kids and they know it. I'm just paying them back for comments over the years. Things like:

1. Dinner will be served at the sound of the smoke detector.
2. "Son, that's enough food to choke a horse." Any of your food would choke a horse.
3. Call the morgue, she's cooking.
4. Call Guinness she's cooking.
5. Flames. I see dinner is done.
6. Is that whip cream on top or fire extinguisher?

There have been many others over the years.So you see my wisecracks are just payback for some they've dished out to me. That's part of the beauty of having this blog. They never read it! Ha! As for the salad incident? Well, that's better left to another post. I wouldn't want to overwhelm my readers. Two or three people being ill are just too darn many.