Walter Speaks

Good article at CNN

wunderwood — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 13:20:26 +0000

Every once in a while CNN surprises me by having an insightful, good article. Here is one, and I think they even spelled things correctly…

http://www.cnn.com/2010/LIVING/08/27/almost.christian/index.html

“She says parents who perform one act of radical faith in front of their children convey more than a multitude of sermons and mission trips.”

Why do we need TV’s everywhere?

wunderwood — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 17:08:43 +0000

If I go out to dinner at a restaurant, I do not want to have TV’s everywhere. Really. I went to dinner with my lovely wife to a local Japanese steak house / sushi bar. There were two tv’s for the 6 tables that they have on the side. Why do I want a tv there? I completely understand if you are a sports bar that you need to have TV’s. OK, fine. But if I am going for sushi, why do they feel a need for a TV? Does anyone ask for them, or do restaurants assume that they need them? If they turned them off, would anyone ask to have them turned on?

Has any of you ever gone to a restaurant (not a sports bar / theme restaurant or fast food) because you knew they had TV’s that you could watch? Do you think anyone ever asked for a restaurant to get TV’s?

Homemade Pie and Ice cream Kitchen. Yep. A big huge TV up front. Why?

I think I am going to start a list of restaurants with NO tv’s. At least not anywhere other than in the bar.

Does anyone know of one? Let me see…. um… fast food does not count. I think that there are no TV’s at Irish Rover II in LaGrange. Nice. Anywhere else?

States, counties, local government defy federal government.

wunderwood — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 23:03:55 +0000

So, I read a story the other day about how some small country was having trouble with some small counties and a few provinces not obeying the directives they had made to save the local wild life. I think it was somewhere in Africa. Locals were killing animals and farming on land that the government had declared as a wildlife area.

How different is that from Florida and Arizona right now? Arizona is attempting to do something about illegal immigration because the federal government refuses to do the job. There are now areas of Florida that are defying orders to wait for the feds and BP to clean up the oil. They are organizing and actually doing something.

Please understand that although I believe STRONGLY in the Constitution of the United States of America, I also believe that the first line of the Declaration of Independence must also be heeded.

“When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.”

While neither Arizona or Florida have declared any separation, they have clearly stated that they can no longer wait on the feds to do the job that is clearly the responsibility of the federal government. If you were a member of the Coast Guard under orders to not let anyone near the oil, and a bunch of Florida citizens moved to clean it up, would you stop them? How much force would you be willing to use? What if it was the Florida National Guard?

If armed forces of the State of Florida faced off against the Coast Guard… is that civil war? If the National Guard and Federal Border agents faced off against the State Police in Arizona, is that a civil war?

While I do not believe that either of these situations will occur, they clearly could. I pray that cooler heads prevail, and someone in Washington DC wakes up and gets their hands OUT of all of the things they have no mandate to do, and gets back to doing what they are supposed to.

Longest Day of the year…

wunderwood — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 15:06:02 +0000

OK, so I do not really think it is the longest day of the year. Only when “they” add a second to the clock every 75 years or so is it really a longer day. There may be more time between sunrise and sunset today, but the day it self is only 24 hours long.

ANYWAY… happy June 21st!

Starbucks Opens Wifi! It is about time!

wunderwood — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 12:32:38 +0000

Starbucks is going to start offering free wifi at all of their company owned stores starting July 1st. It is about time. It amazes me that they did not do this much earlier. While you could get free wifi from them just by using a Starbucks card, which I have done many times, it is terribly inconvenient when you just want a cup of coffee and to quickly jack in to find the card, make sure you have used it in the last 30 days and then remember your log in. I purposefully have avoided Starbucks and have gone to other coffee shops because of this.
Now, I believe in supporting the local coffee shops. My favorite is Karen’s Book Barn in La Grange KY. Please go see them and spend lots of money.

There are times when other people want me to meet them at a Starbucks. It is annoying that I have to jump through hoops in order to get wifi. Well, now I wont have to. Nice. I am not sure it will save the Starbucks Coffee Shop, food store, music store, small appliance store, tea shop, or whatever they are trying to sell this month, but it will make my life a little tiny bit easier. Thanks.

Enviromental Protection DO NOTHING Agency

wunderwood — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 17:48:14 +0000

So, direct from the EPA website…

What EPA is doing
EPA is one of many agencies providing support to the U.S. Coast Guard-led federal response to BP oil spill. EPA is:

* collecting samples along the shoreline and beyond for chemicals related to oil and dispersants in the air, water and sediment;
* supporting and advising Coast Guard efforts to clean the reclaimed oil and waste from the shoreline; and
* closely monitoring the effects of dispersants in the subsurface environment.

Which means they are DOING nothing. Monitor, provide info, advise someone else. Really? Environmental Advising Agency? NO. Environmental Publishing Agency? No. Is our government so messed up that the coast guard is doing the job of the EPA, Arizona is doing the job of the federal government, and No One is really doing it right!!!

Wow. Does the EPA actually do anything?

Oil Spill and our President…

wunderwood — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 15:37:06 +0000

OK, so I understand why President Obama feels he has to be on camera talking about the Gulf Oil Spill all of the time. The media would be trashing him if he was not. BUT, do we not have a cabinet level agency that should be dealing with this. Has anyone heard of the Environmental Protection Agency? Anyone? Where are they? What have they been doing?

Where is Lisa P. Jackson? (current director of the EPA) What are they doing? I am personally a little tired of the BP this, BP that talk, and no action from the Gov. Stop expecting BP to protect our coasts, let’s get the job done and send them a bill for it later.

Anyone?

PS Lisa Jackson is from Louisianna. She went to Tulane U. She has a chemical engineering degree. It sure seems like the President would like to have her heading up some of the press response. Is this an ego thing for President Obama, or is Lisa Jackson not good on camera?

Hmmm….

Hausman2010.com updated

wunderwood — Tue, 11 May 2010 14:01:47 +0000

So, we finally got the new hausman2010.com website up and running. It took quite a while, and after some very confusing conversations about who was doing what, it is up. I basically rewrote some php, a bunch of css, and got some great free plugins. I am going to try to write a “decompression” about the process at some point. I have learned a lot about wordpress templates, enough to redesign this site, as well as a few others. I also learned what to do and what not to do when dealing with graphic artists and web services companies.

1. Make sure you have exactly what you are paying for in writing before you ever give anyone any money for any kind of work on the web or web graphics. There are so many misunderstood words and phrases that are used that what you mean by “grid, template, skin, graphic, graphics, etc” may not be how someone else understands it.
2. How ever long you think it is going to take is a lie. Yep. It may take much longer, or, in some instances, it may take less time. Just realize that your first estimate is going to drastically change.
3. There is a lot of free help and programs, plugins, templates, info, tutorials, etc out there. Use them.

OK, so go to
http://www.hausman2010.com
and check it out. I created that. Someone else did most of the graphics. I think it is pretty good.

Let me know what you think.

My wife is a culinary genious

wunderwood — Mon, 03 May 2010 00:51:33 +0000

yum

Yum

My wife said “Who wants Pepperoni spinach?”

Then she made this amazing saute of spinach, mushrooms, garlic, sweet peppers, broth, and love. It was sooooooo goood.

Ethan had two servings, Ben picked at it and ate most of it. Daniel asked if he could have broccoli instead. I ate a lot. It was really really really good. Really good. OH, and of course, Gluten Free.

Watching my wife blog.

wunderwood — Sat, 01 May 2010 03:14:51 +0000

I am sitting here in the living room, watching my wife blog. I hope there are not any crazy blogging writing rules that I am breaking, blogging about someone else blogging right now. Funny really.
I love that she blogs, creates, expresses.
Daniel, the middle child, started talking in the car tonight about making his own video game. He went on and on and on for a long time describing different games that he could make, and how he would make them. It was fascinating. I love that he is so creative. I pray that he never loses it.