Good God! I now know - I am absolutely certain - that the XP in Win XP stands for Xtra Pain. I find it utterly amazing that a drive cable can bring an otherwise technologically advanced OS to a screeching halt without any indication or warning. XP even ate my video card. All because the numb nut that built this machine had a drive cable reversed, with the master plug in the slave drive. And it took me two weeks to determine that little bit of information. THis really needs to go on the Rants page, but since I have not updated this page in a while, I thought I would start here. Finally have a job, although it ain't the best in the world. Working at my Church as Sexton (glorified janitor.) Pay is alright, I am making the same as was at Steel Stud, and the hours are ok. I usually work half days, but I do have to work Sat and Sun in order to get my 40 hours. I will have benefits for the first time in 4 years as well. Maybe I will actually go see a doctor or something. naaa I have taken a liking to golf, and I am wishing that I could play more often. However, so far the only people I have played so far have been Todd and Jeremy. I think Todd's desire to play the game has flagged a little, seeing as how he is having trouble, and as a result he would rather raise hell with the cart than play the game. Jeremy goes along with it, and then gets offended when he gets called on it. The two of them nearly got us thrown off the last course we played. Yay. In the meantime, I thought my game was improving. I was actually driving the ball pretty far, if not necessarily straight, and was having reasonable luck with my short game. I think I want to learn the Natural Golf system. The more I look at it, the better I like it - now if they would just lower the cost of their equipment. Their stuff looks very good, and is supposed to be designed to compliment the system - it is just very expensive. $700+ for a set of irons with no woods and no wedges is way out of my league at the moment. I would have to see if the system would work for me first though, and that would take playing more often, and actually taking the time to learn it. Maybe with my free afternoons. BTW, anyone who still believes that the problems with the voting in Florida during the 2000 elections were the result of the system being bad have to shut up now. They fixed the system, and the same three counties proved that their voters and their voting regulation authorities are too stoopid to vote properly. The same people have caused the same problem for the same people a second time. Dimocrats regulating a Dimocrat primary have grounded the campaign of Dimocrat Janet Reno. Keep up the good work guys!! The nation needs all the help you can give it!


Oh, and I had to post this in my rants page because Blogger screwed up my template, and I cannot reproduce it yet.

Here is an example of media and educational overload screwing up the minds of the people they are supposed to be informing. Without a doubt, in any objective view, Diana's death should not even rank in the top ten. She was not in line for ascendancy. She was no longer a "royal" by nature of her divorce from the family. She was not a political figure, elected or otherwise, charged with the defense of the country and its principles. She was not even killed in an attempt to defend her own principles (unless you count avoiding the media as a 'principle')

No, Diana was a public figure, popular with both the media and the people, whose death, while tragic, is more well known for its publicity than any impact it may have had policy or history.

The key here is that she was a media figure. And the media, particularly in England, is failing in its secondary role of educating the people. But then, so are the schools, although they are probably better off there than they are in the Untied States, where I would imagine that they could get the same result here, if they asked the right people. The ensuing media circus surrounding her death and burial has placed in the minds of the population an undue measure of importance. Rather than putting the events in their proper perspective, the media chose sensationalism and aggrandizement.

So you get the results you have here. The people have this tragedy burned into their psyche night after night for weeks, and then are reminded of it every time they turn around. And the people, when asked to recall historic events, remember this as if it were important. THen people run around shocked, wondering why?

While my knowledge of English history is somewhat lacking, as I do not live there and I am not concerned with their day to day events, I can assume that in the past 100 years, there have been more significant events that warrant greater importance than the Death of Diana. I would imagine that many of the events surrounding WWII fit that description. And I also know that if pressed, the people in England would honestly agree with that. There are other events just as important historically, I am sure. But you will not hear that from the people, because they are not thinking about it, they are feeling about it, and that is what the media wants.

I hope they do this again in a year, and the results are different - because if the people consider Diana to be the single most important historical figure in their minds, they are not doing well as a people.