Perception is Reality

Be Aware of Hit Man E-Mail Scam

Be wary of a scam e-mail that continues to circulate. The sender claims to be a hit man hired to kill you, but offers you reprieve in exchange for money.

I appreciate the comments made by each person who took the time to express themselves concerning the statement made about Senator Obama. (Why support Barack Obama)

I suppose like responses from those supporting Senator McCain would be given if I had written "Why support McCain he is too old." Or how about this one, "Why support Monica Lewinsky’s boyfriends wife."

All are general statements made to invoke reaction(s) and many of you reacted in a rather predicable fashion. I, for one, was glad to see people rally to support their candidate. It showed compassion for that which you as individuals believe in. It showed that you as Americans are entitled to your opinions and was willing to go out on a limb and publically state how you felt about the generalized statement.

Stand up, be heard, and vote. That is the real issue. I am proud to be an American and to be able vote for the candidate of my choice.

Aren’t you?

Why would you vote for Barack Obama when he won't salute the American flag? The flag of the country he wants to run!

Mind boggling - WAKE UP AMERICA!

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2:29 am - February 20, 2008

I appreciate the comments and emails made by each person who took the time to express themselves concerning the statement made about Senator Obama.

I suppose like responses from those supporting Senator McCain would be given if I had written Why support McCain he is too old. Or how about this one, Why support Monica Lewinsky’s boyfriends wife.

All are general statements made to invoke reaction(s) and many of you reacted in a rather predictable fashion.  I, for one, was glad to see people rally to support their candidate. It showed compassion for that which you as individuals believe in. It showed that you as Americans are entitled to your opinions and was willing to go out on a limb and publically state how you felt about the generalized statement.

Stand up, be heard, and vote. That is the real issue. I am proud to be an American and to be able vote for the candidate of my choice.  Aren’t you?

A picture is worth a thousand words. Enough said?

The older I get, the more I enjoy Saturday mornings.  Perhaps it's the quiet solitude that comes with being the first to rise, or maybe it's the unbounded joy of not having to be at work.  Either way, the first few hours of a Saturday morning are most enjoyable.

A few weeks ago, I was shuffling toward the garage with a steaming cup of coffee in one hand and the morning paper in the other.  What began as a typical Saturday morning turned into one of those lessons that life seems to hand you from time to time.

Let me tell you about it.

I turned the dial up into the phone portion of the band on my ham radio in order to listen to a Saturday morning swap net.  Along the way, I came across an older sounding chap, with a tremendous signal and a golden voice.  You know the kind; he sounded like he should be in the broadcasting business.  He was telling whomever he was talking with something about "a thousand marbles."  I was intrigued and stopped to listen to what he had to say.

"Well, Tom, it sure sounds like you're busy with your job.  I'm sure they pay you well but it's a shame you have to be away from home and your family so much.  Hard to believe a young fellow should have to work sixty or seventy hours a week to make ends meet.  It's too bad you missed your daughter's dance recital" he continued.  "Let me tell you something that has helped me keep my own priorities."  And that's when he began to explain his theory of a "thousand marbles."

"You see, I sat down one day and did a little arithmetic.  The average person lives about seventy-five years.  I know, some live more and some live less, but on average, folks live about seventy-five years." 

"Now then, I multiplied 75 times 52 and I came up with 3900, which is the number of Saturdays that the average person has in their entire lifetime.  Now, stick with me, Tom, I'm getting to the important part.  It took me until I was fifty-five years old to think about all this in any detail", he went on, "and by that time I had lived through over twenty-eight hundred Saturdays.  I got to thinking that if I lived to be seventy-five, I only had about a thousand of them left to enjoy.  So I went to a toy store and bought every single marble they had.  I ended up having to visit three toy stores to round up 1000 marbles.  I took them home and put them inside a large, clear plastic container right here in the shack next to my gear."

"Every Saturday since then, I have taken one marble out and throwing away.  I found that by watching the marbles diminish, I focused more on the really important things in life."

"There is nothing like watching your time here on this earth run out to help get your priorities straight."

"Now let me tell you one last thing before I sign-off with you and take my lovely wife out for breakfast.  This morning, I took the very last marble out of the container.  I figure that if I make it until next Saturday then I have been given a little extra time.  And the one thing we can all use is a little more time."

"It was nice to meet you Tom, I hope you spend more time with your family, and I hope to meet you again here on the band.  This is a 75 Year old Man, K9NZQ, clear and going QRT, good morning!"

You could have heard a pin drop on the band when this fellow signed off.  I guess he gave us all a lot to think about.  I had planned to work on the antenna that morning, and then I was going to meet up with a few hams to work on the next club newsletter.

Instead, I went upstairs and woke my wife up with a kiss.  "C'mon honey, I'm taking you and the kids to breakfast."  "What brought this on" she asked with a smile."  "Oh, nothing special, it's just been a long time since we spent a Saturday together with the kids.  And hey, can we stop at a toy store while we're out?  I need to buy some marbles."

(BM2 Franklin – USCG Station Milwaukee – thanks for sharing this one with me to share with the world)

OK, now that you have an idea of what 1 trillion dollars is let’s try and figure out how long it would take the average person to spend it. If you spent $1,000 a day it would take you just over 2.7 million years to spend one trillion dollars.

I used to get flabbergasted when the government spent billions of dollars a year on the annual budget. Now I am total blown out of the water when I think of the government spending 3 trillion dollars a year to run this country. What are your thoughts on this (besides saying I have too much free time on my hands to figure out this stuff)?

The FBI has recently developed information indicating cyber criminals are attempting to once again send fraudulent e-mails to unsuspecting recipients stating that someone has filed a complaint against them or their company with the Department of Justice or another organization such as the Internal Revenue Service, Social Security Administration, or the Better Business Bureau.

This information was obtained from the FBI web page.