12/31/2006 - I saw the New Years Ghost
I saw a ghost this News Years Eve when I looked in the mirror. It looked just like me.
Then I started seeing ghosts all around me.
When you go out this New Years, look around at the people. Picture them as if you watching them in a video filmed 100 years ago.

Notice how much we all look alike, how well we get along, and how we all seem to be related? Don't look at our differences. Look are how much we have in common.
Pretend you lost your long term memory?
Ever see a picture of a Great Great relative that looked just like you? Ever talked to someone who thought just like you?
If you can think like me for just a moment
Imagine that when we die, we don't go anywhere. Imagine the we are all reincarnations of our ancestors, without their memories. Imagine that it goes much deeper than that. Imagine we are all the reincarnations of the dinosaurs and further back. Too me, life seems too obvious. Animals, birds, fish, insects, we all have the same organs. We all must be related.
We were born with knowledge.
It came from someone. It probably came from our parents.
Nature could have populated our memories with that of our ancestors, but for whatever reason, it didn't.
Who knows, maybe we'd still be arguing about how someone sacrificed our favorite lamb or something...
But doesn't that seem a lot easier to believe than some fairy floating down and touching us with her magic wand.
If you think like I do, you'll know that on this planet, all life is related. Given enough time, we all come back.

Hi babe
I Love you too!!!

IE only allows 20 cookies per sight.
It looks like one cookie when you look at it in explorer, but you could basically
unstring a cookie.txt file delimited by ";" into cookie1, cookie2...cookie20.
Handling the cookie is IEs job since you have to go through its routines to access local files.
That really sucks. All the other browsers don't care how many cookies you have.
I hate spending hours trying to figure out why items are dropping off when the reason is plain stupidity.
--- sheesh ---

I've heard good things about being hypnotized to quit. How do you look that up?

Hmmm, scrolling action incapacitated at some point, but aside from that.  A super great method for quitting shmoking is this, and it really works.  Dress up your hands each morning.  One hand, the hand you smoke most often with, dress up as a
burglar, or better yet as Bush, or any of his sneaky awful cabineteers.  Dress the other up as something good to you, like some one you would ordinarily most always trust.  Then when the burglar attains in its arms a cigarette you immediately know to
demand an answer from it as to what nefarious intentions it plans for you.  And it will say to you, "Oh this? I just want to
bring the chemicals inside by way of lighting it on fire, you kniow, show them off again to the rest of the body, beginning with
the lungs and heart."  Well, youve caught him there! and the wrestling match should be easily won, as you are alot larger and heavier than your own hand.  After awhile the burglar hand should just give up.  If youve dressed up your other hand correctly
wrestling with it will not be an issue, it will not want to do things it knows you frown upon.    No - Bad mr rumsfeld, you will not host a fundraiser in my body - bad bad mr rumsfeld!!
Im winning yay! This has such moralizing
overtones i think Ill just stop now.

Thats kind of why I mentioned it in this blog. I wrote the shrinks name down, but forgot it, and lost what I wrote it on.
Shoot. And if I try to look it up on the net, I get thousands of junk sites.
I thought his name was Bill...but I forgot his last name too.
--- One of these days I'll fix the order of entries on this blog.

I have Bill's email address written down, on my liptop, but not here at work. I haven't emailed him in two years plus. So, I don't if it's any good. I can try emailing him this evening.If I hear back from him, I'll ask about the smoking hypo.

Jimmy... You remember - Oh, what's his name (Bill something)? The tall, gray haired bloke who you worked with at MGM, and I worked with at Fly's. The cashier... Remember how he said quit smoking, using hyptotism, and it worked for him really well.

People we lost in 2006
Gerald Ford (US president) 93, James Brown (singer) 73, Peter Boyle (actor) 71, Moses Hardy (oldest man) 113, JB Hunt (trucking mogul) 79, Samual Bowers (KKK Imperial Wizard) 82, Dave Kochran (author X-Men) 63, Mike Douglas (talk show host)  81, James Van Allen (Van Allen belt),  James Harvey Young (medical historian) 90, Mikey Spillane (Mike Hammer author) 88, Red Buttons (comedian) 87, Billy Preston (singer) 59, Darren McGaven (actor) 83, Don Knotts (comedian) 81, Wilson Pickett (singer) 64, Shelly Winters (actress) 85, Lou Rawls (singer) 72, Aaron Spelling (TV mogul) 83, Dennis Weaver (actor) 81, Louis Cutlar (my dad) 83.

Wilson Pickey was 64...I copied the footnote reference accidentally. Thanks SAE.

Jimmy... Wilson Pickey (aka: Pickett) was 64, almost 65 - not 93. typo!!!! Howl...

Feeling down from a cold
I wasn't really a pleasure to be with today. I guess its a cold. Sore throat, sneezing, itchy eyes, can't breath.
Since I've been back, my breathing has taken a drastic turn for the worse.
Becky and I are going to quit smoking on New Years.
It seems like the right thing to do. Nevada hates smokers and I don't like being an addict.
I suppose if I succeed, I'll end up like all the other people who quit smoking and hate smoking too.
I'll probably end up using the inaccurate term "Cancer Sticks" in slurs, myself.
BTW - The odds of rolling a 3 in craps are about the same as a smoker getting cancer. 
Only an idiot would think 3's are probable. Hence, "Cancer Sticks" is a stupid label. I know it sound cool.
"Empysema Sticks" would be far more appropriate. Everyone that smokes will eventually get emphysema.
While I'm on stupid slurs,
"Heart Attack Coffee", "Chlorestoral Bacon", "Big Butt Burgers", "Fat Fanny Fries",  "Mucous Milk", and "Bimbo Beer"would be more appropriate labels.
You could even slang ham by saying, "Here, have an ass sandwich", but thats just wrong.
IM'd GMa
We thought we were all invited over today for dinner, but it turned out the invitation was for New Years.
IM'd Ida
We talked about our Christmas's.
Ida says her boyfriend is going to liquidate his business and retire. He hurt his hip not long ago.
I should offer to buy it from him. Ida says he was doing well with it.
She invited Allen into our Instant Messenger conversation.
IM'd Allen, after over a year of silence
We'd been friends since high school, but fell apart over money. That kind of thing seems to happen a lot.
He was funny as usual. He said he'd just visited the Blue Hole in Kentucky. Small world.
He was getting run off by the same hillbilly that tried to run us off. I told him that the guy knew both Allen and me.
Its funny how hard it is to recognize people after they've lost all of their teeth.
I thought the hillbilly guy was just paranoid about us finding his pot crop

 
The Christmas I'll remember best will be the one thats happening today.
My memories of the past
have faded into sepia-like images, tinted by the colors of the spirits that I've chosen to keep in my mind. What I'm trying to say is, when I remember Christmas, I see the spirits of love.
So, at this time...
I want to thank the 100s of people who have shared their holidays with me and made them absolutely wonderful.
You've worn pajamas, business suits, tank tops, and robes. You've put bows in your hair and worn funny hats.
We've celebrated at work, at your place and at my home. We've spent time together and you made me smile.
And I want you to know that I love you with all of my heart.
Thanks for the memories.

Howl.... Life is life. We shall see what happens. But it's all in the right direction over time..

Not that I can claim to know the exact wording of the NV law that just took effect, I can't see where it descriminates. It applies to you, me, and every other Bloke and Sheila (British terms for "Guy" and "girl"). If it ends up closing up all those little bars, of which there are 15 on each LV intersection, then so be it. Part of progress. Who needs those 2 million bars in LV anyway. Let people drink at the larger establishments that will still be around or at home. 

The law discrimates against business types. If they said it applies to all businesses, and allowed for smoking areas, that would be a start at being impartial, but it didn't. The law said it applies to you, you, and you and but not you.
If you own a hookah bar (a specific club for tobacco users), your business will be destroyed. If you don't have an unlimited gaming license, or a strip club or brothel, or serve food thats not prepackaged, your business will be damaged.
After the hooka bars did all of the homework to start a legal business, gotten all of their licensing, and dealt with all the Krapola involved, after all that, a law came up that will shut them down. RED just invested $250,000 to expand one of their hookah bars in Las Vegas.
Don't we have too many stupid laws already?
What if they came up with a law that said computer consultants had to be licensed and pay $20,000 a year in taxes.
These kind of items have already popped up in laws claiming to be Sin Taxes. Cute, but stupid.
What will happen when these kind of discrimintory laws hit your business.
I've read the sample ballots countless times.
No way would the voters think that
- any bar that serves a wedge of lime with a drink be counted as a serving unprepackaged foods
- hotel rooms would be included in the ban,
- the health department can now write $100 tickets to customers
   in effect, turning them into another policy maker and enforcement agency.
But really, I could care less. I'm not effected by the law.
Nevada is. I'd expect the winners of the law would be the casinos. They've had business legally thrown in their direction.

We took to the dentist at 8am this morning.
THEY SAID: She can't have a root canal, so they're going to have to pull her molar.
However, they are saying she needs to be put under for the extraction.
While waiting in the lobby, waiting I talked to this fellow about Medicare supplimental insurance. I told him I thought Champus took care of that for a small premium. Somehow we got to talking about Mexico.
He said, his parents, rather than go through the health system in the US, got their teeth work done in Mexico for 10% of the cost. He also said he has heart problems and will probably go to Thailand for an operation.
I thought that was an interesting thing to say.

This is my yellow page ad, and it cost $200 a month (for three ads).
Advertising is expensive. It'll come out in The Yellow Book some time in April.
Hopefully, I won't have to take a job at Walmart before then...haha.
Http://www.lvdude.com/bequick is close to being finished.
It can take credit cards right now, but it needs at least 40 hours to be polished up.

Jimmy.. I have been leaving my laptop on at night instead of shutting it down and restarting it in the morning. So, I didn't get your IM. So, why did Sonny put a 38 slug through the old water heater to get it to blow up? Just kidding.  So, what are you doing for the holidays?

OH NO!! Dennifer and Justin spent the night? Did they cause any troubles? Is there a specific thing special (food, etc) about a xmas breakfast? That's why so many kids are so out of shape. When you and I were kids, there was little television, no computers, no video games and there was actually phys ed in schools. Now we have too much television, video games and computers and no phys ed.I think you should take Dennifer and Justin jogging around the block a couple times a week until they are in the mode of exercising regularly.

Which headhunter was it? And where in Tampon? I will email you.

Well, RJ has numerous spots, both contract and contract-to-hire spots open right now. Wynn emailed me the other day about a straight 6 month contract (NOT leading to permanent) at RJ, but I didn't reply. I thought you were turned off to headhunters?

Blue Man Group will play live on the start line.  Blue Man Group will perform the Star Spangled Banner in the signature style that has brought them to international prominence against a spectacular display of pre-dawn fireworks.  Immediately after Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman fires the starter pistol, Blue Man Group will entertain and energize with a special performance for the field of up to 20,000 runners, walkers and wheelchair athletes as they run the electrifying neon corridor of the world famous Las Vegas Strip.
The Las Vegas Marathon (a 26.2 mile race) will start at the Mandalay Bay at 6am. The Blue Man Group will kick it off playing the Star Spangled Banner.
Be there, or be square!!!

Regarding Question 5, it reads:
54% of the voters approved Question 5.
991,054 voters are registered.
283,598 of them actually voted.
SO, when we're talking about the majority of voters that passed Question 5,
we're talking about 11,343 voters who tipped the scale.
I call that a very slim majority in a state that has 3 million people.
These stats came from http://sos.state.nv.us/nvelection/2006StateWideGeneral/VoterTurnout.htm
Everyone should vote. You can make a difference.

 
I am Superman at the Las Vegas buffets.
I tend to eat just about anything in mass quantities.
I'm often heard saying "gimme whatever that is" when ordering at restaurants.
I eat foods that dogs spit out. I'd eat fried shoelaces.
So I often wonder about those people who don't eat certain foods because:
- they've never tried it before, its too green, too loud, or its too yucky,, or its touching the mash potatoes on their plate.
These are the people who only eat green M&Ms, or pick the beans out of their chili and pile them up on the side.
These people must be insane?
I've read that picky eating is a symptom of OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder).
On the other hand, eating fried shoelaces would undeniably be schizophrenic.

- 3 months ago you could fry an egg on the side walk.
- 1 month ago, our honeysuckles started to bloom
- Today, the temperature will be 28 to 47 degrees.
The temperatures have dropped 80 degrees in 3 months.

Life changes faster than we realize.
Things we now condemn were common:
- Canada passed a law prohibiting poor people from entering the country for any reason.
- Over-the-counter drugs were marijuana, heroin, and morphine
- More than half the scientific and medical community had developed healthy coke habits.
According to one pharmacist,
"Heroin clears the complexion, gives buoyancy to the mind, regulates the stomach and bowels, and is, in fact, a perfect guardian of health."
LIFE STATISTICS
Life Expectancy: 47 years.
Births at home: 95%
Leading causes of death in the US:
1. Pneumonia and influenza
2. Tuberculosis
3. Diarrhea
4. Heart disease
5. Stroke
Murders per year: 230
HOMES
- with a bathtub: 14%
- with fulltime servants: 18%
- with a telephone: 8%
A three-minute call from Denver to New York City: $11.
TRANSPORTATION
- Cars in the US: 8,000
- Paved roads: 144 miles
- City speed limit: 10 mph
INCOME
- Average Wage: 22 cents
- Average Income: $200 to $400 per year
- Accountants: $2000
- Dentist: $2,500
- Veterinarian: $1,500 to $4,000
- Mechanical engineer: $5,000
EDUCATION
- High school graduates: 6%
- People who could read: 20%
HEALTH
- Physicians with no college education: 90%
- Medical schools were condemned as "substandard."
- Women washed their hair once a month with borax or egg yolks for shampoo.
POPULATION
- Number of States: 45
- Arizona, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Hawaii, and Alaska weren't states
- Alabama, Mississippi, Iowa, and Tennessee were more populated than California.
- California residents: 1.4 million, 21st most populated state
- Las Vegas, Nevada residents: 30
COST OF GOODS
- Sugar: 4 cents per pound
- Eggs: 14 cent a doznen
- Coffee: 15 cents per pound
- Worlds Tallest Structure: Eiffel Tower
- Crossword puzzles, canned beer, and iced tea hadn't been invented.
- There was no Mother's Day or Father's Day.