Scott McClellan, Mary Kay, and the Triple Crown

NEWS FLASH is basically news or thoughts that may be changing over time - an update or an evolution of thought that covers a multiple of topics. It is what makes a blogger tick and it is the reason why we read. So, with that in mind, I came up with NEWS FLASH as an acronym that stands for what is going on in life:



News (or current events)
Entertainment (movies, TV, celebrity, etc.)
Writing (thoughts on the blog(s) or other writing projects)
Spirit (thoughts on God and/or the supernatural)
Family (or friends)
Love
Anxiety (a rant or a trouble)
Sports (also considered should be contests, reality TV, recreation, cards, games), and
Home (house, yard, or even another family type of thought.
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NEWS - Former White House spokesman Scott McClellan wrote a tell-all book about some major issues in the Bush White House. In response, the Bush team all recite the same mantra: "It is puzzling. He never said anything to us at the time that he had these thoughts. It doesn't sound like the Scott McClellan I know."
Apparently, according to McClellan, Dick Cheney, Karl Rove, and Scooter Libby lied about their involvement in exposing CIA operative Valerie Plame. Also, and even more importantly, the Bush administration exaggerated and trumped up reasons to justify going to war in Iraq and relied on propaganda (McClellan's words not mine) to convince the American people to go along with it.
Excuse me, but is this really news to anyone?
ENTERTAINMENT - Can't Hollywood make a movie that critics will like? I get so tired of looking forward to a movie (read: Indiana Jones) and find out that critics chop it to shreds before I get a chance to see it. It is not that I believe the critics; I believe in judging for myself for the most part. However, reading that a movie stinks sure takes the excitement out of seeing it. I think that maybe movie critics should review movies in a more measured way. For instance, they might say if you like "x", then you will like this movie. After all, we don't all have the same taste, do we?
WRITING - I am mulling over whether or not I should apply to be on our local paper's editorial advisement board. Board members have input on the editorial pages and write one column per month. If you think I should try, what posts do you think I should send to the paper (I must submit three "articles").
SPIRIT - I just can't seem to get my priorities in order. Intellectually I can reason the right order of things, but they do not manifest themselves in actuality in my life. God first, family second, job third. I just don't seem to let God take the wheel enough.
FAMILY - My wife is now a Mary Kay Independent Beauty Consultant. Can you believe that? She is so introverted and shy that it just seems like a bad fit in that respect. However, she cares and knows a ton about fashion and make-up, so that part fits. This line is continued in the next section.
LOVE - My wife, the Mary Kay rep, originally decided NOT to do it for the reasons I mentioned above. However, since her father and another counselor told her that in order for her life and marriage to improve, she must step outside her comfort zone, she decided to do the Mary Kay thing. It cost us a fortune to get her started, but if it helps her and us, it will be money well spent. Now, who out there is interested in me recovering some of this investment, uh, I mean who out there is interested in Mary Kay cosmetics?
ANGUISH - My renter guy is really pushing me beyond the brink. All of the sudden he is trying to insist I put on a new roof on the house I am renting to him. The deal was that I would rent the house to him for an extremely low amount so he could put some money into the house. Therefore, when he buys the house (for a low, pre-improvement price) it will be in good shape. We knew that the roof was going to be needing replaced at some point, but there was no mention of ME doing it. I think it has a couple of good years left. He thinks that I should rent it to him (at about 40% discount, pay to have a new roof put on, and STILL sell it to him as if I didn't put a new roof on). I am this ---> <--- close to giving him the boot.
SPORTS - Two thirds of the Triple Crown of horse racing is in the books. There is a very good chance that the undefeated Big Brown will be the first horse in thirty years to win all three races of the crown. He was not even tested in the first two. However, a horse from Japan named Casino Drive is coming in to try to steal the crown from him. This horse has impressive credentials and is also undefeated. It will be quite the race to watch. For those interested, is Saturday, June 6 on ABC, at 5 pm EDT.

Important News: Jeff is going to die.

When I was a child, I thought about death a lot. I was even afraid to go to sleep, because I thought I might never wake up. I also thought that my parents would leave me one day in death and how that would be unbearable. Death was never my friend.

As I got older, my thoughts of death got a little more complicated. I often wondered how and when I would die. Usually, I thought about cancer. Cancer robbed my uncle and aunt of their life when I was a small child. It took my dad on my birthday the summer after my high school graduation. Everytime I had a strange pain, I always wondered if it was cancer.

I came to the conclusion that I didn't want to know how or when I was going to die. However, the recent news has eliminated that from consideration. I will look to it as a blessing because I know I have a brief time to put things in order. I just wish I would have found out in different manner than I did. I found out in an email of all things. I guess it is appropriate for a blogger. I guess I could have gotten feedback from one of my blog posts instead, but the email is appropriate enough, I guess.

Because I have grown to care about those of you that read my blog, and many of you have come to care about me, I decided to share the bad news email with you:
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SOMEONE YOU CALL YOUR FRIEND, WANTS YOU DEAD.

I felt very sorry and bad for you, that your life is going to end like this if you don't comply, i was paid to eliminate you and I have to do it within10 days.

Someone you call your friend wants you dead by all means, and the person have spent a lot of money on this, the person also came to us and told us that he wants you dead and he provided us your names, photograph and other necessary information we needed about you. If you are in doubt with this I will send you your name and where you are residing in my next mail.

Meanwhile, I have sent my boys to track you down and they have carried out the necessary investigation needed for the operation, but I ordered them to stop for a while and not to strike immediately because I just felt something good and sympathetic about you. I decided to contact you first and know why somebody will want you dead by all means. Right now my men are monitoring you, their eyes are on you, and even the place you think is safer for you to hide might not be.

Now do you want to LIVE OR DIE? It is up to you. Get back to me now if you are ready to enter deal with me, I mean life trade, who knows, and I might just spear your life, $8,000 is all you need to spend. You will first of all pay $3,000 then I will send the tape of the person that want you dead to you and when the tape gets to you, you will pay the remaining $5,000. If you are not ready for my help, then I will have no choice but to carry on the assignment after all I have already being paid before now.

Warning: do not think of contacting the police or even tell anyone because I will extend it to any member of your family since you are aware that somebody want you dead, and the person knows some members of your family as well.

For your own good I will advise you not to go out once is 7 pm until I makeout time to see you and give you the tape of my discussion with the person who want you dead then you can use it to take any legal action. Good luck as I await your reply to this e-mail contact:

b.patbulle224@gmail.com
Mr.Celestine chuks
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There you have it. I thought about taking him up on his offer to help, but decided that I would just assume be shot than have my life "speared." I just hope that any money he gets from other would-be victims will help him with any future "English as a Second Language" classes he undoubtedly needs. You would think a guy with this kind of lucrative business would have a secretary that . . . oh nevermind, I digress.

Well, it was good knowing all of you. If there is a way that we could beat this, I would be all for it. If I could get thousands of emails from my readers to this guy warning him that we have our own militia looking out for "his boys" - and we have stronger weapons than the spears that he touts, maybe that would do something. Nah, probably not.

Sayre: Psychosomatic Wit is Excellent

I think about this blog a lot - probably too much. I had an idea about what I wanted this blog to be before I started it. It is not that. However, I have more information about blogs and what they are and can be now - knowledge that I didn't have then. I like my blog. I like this community. Still, I am conflicted.

I did NOT want this blog to be a diary. I did NOT want to filter my opinions. I had no clue that a community would develop that I would care about. This causes me to want to be careful to not offend others' opinions. I believed that I would be writing to strangers about my opinions and insights about the world around us. Some would agree; others would disagree. I didn't care as long it was interesting and discussion inspiring. Plus, I thought my blog would be somewhat humorus.

So what is my blog? It is a little diary, a little opinion/insight and really not so funny. For some reason, some people like it and that humbles me. I am sure it will continue to evolve, but I think for the most part, it is what it is. It has its own identity. It lives, breathes, cares, and reacts to you - all of you - even the lurkers. Thanks for being a friend of the psycho!

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Sayre from SayreSmiles has given me the honor of having an excellent blog. She should know, she has an excellent one, herself.



I must now pick blogs that qualify as excellent. This is both easy and hard. It is easy because there are many excellent blogs out there. It is hard, because choosing is ALWAYS hard. I also do not want to duplicate other picks. Here we go:

Jod{i} at Looking Beyond the Cracked Window has an excellent blog. She often gets deep and lets her thoughts dictate her posts in an unbridled manner. Somehow it always has a way of making sense and makes me ponder life from her perspective.

Another great blog is Am I Thinking That. Charles has such a sincere blog - kind of like Linus' pumpkin patch. He uses his blog to learn about life from himself and his readers. Its uniqueness like that keeps me coming back.

Stephanie (a.k.a. HollyGl) has a relatively new blog called Meaningful Malarchy. Normally, I wouldn't think to put a new blog up, but only the blog is new. Stephanie has been a masterful blogger for a while. She is sensitive, caring, and quite a find.

Crow's Feet is another blog that is worthy of this award. Michelle uses her uncommon understanding of the spiritual to shape her blog. She is also very caring and that translates to a warmth when reading her blog.

Meg, as far as I know, is not REALLY a liar. However, her blog Confessions of a Compulsive Liar is excellent. Meg captures her present drama surrounding her family, upcoming nuptuals, and of course, the office. If she is a compulsive liar and made the whole thing up, she is darn good at it!

Emily is the one that got me started blogging. She even tweaked this blog for me so it would look better than some lame, blogger-supplied template. Her blog, Two Write Hands is one of the best things out there in blogland. Emily has a way of making her readers sincerely care about her and her life. Remember her name; she will undoubtedly be famous some day!


Chris at Inane Thoughts has a great blog. It covers everything from food recipes to martial arts - but mainly just life itself. It is also good to get a man's perspective since blogging seems to be a primarily female endeavor.

Another male blog of note is Byzantium's Shores. Kelly's blog covers a ton of different topics. He talks of sports (particularly Buffalo sports), literature, movies, and other blogs. Not only that, he posts quite often so there is ALWAYS something fresh. Excellent blog!

Kristarella is a Christian scientist from Australia. Need I say more when it comes to interesting? She blogs about a lot of things and even has a photo blog. Check her out!

And finally something different: Rodger Johnson is Your PR Guy. This blog is more of a business-oriented blog exploring different aspects and strategies for public relations. The reason this blog is interesting is that its content targets US! It is an excellent blog to see how companies approach its marketing and relations with the buying public. Maybe you can pick up some tips for making your blog more popular.

There are other great blogs out there that I read. Many just as deserving as those I listed. It is a great blog world out there! Go read it!

Rummage Sale Blues

I survived the weekend rummage sale. I can't believe all the work it was and all the drama that ensued from it.


On Saturday when we set up, we had the old retired guys stroll in and ask for tools. No tools. What we did have is clothes. We had nice clothes, too, Anne Taylor Loft, Abercrombie and Fitch, Talbots, and assorted other mall store apparel. The trouble is, that they were all sizes 4-8 longs and small and extra small tops. That is my wife! (I feel so unman right now. At least I didn't say "cute tops." Guys should never use the term "top" to describe a shirt, nor should they use the term "cute" to describe anything but a girl, but I digress.) Anyway, the trouble with these sizes is that rummage share shoppers are generally NOT that size. They are breakfast biscuit totin', men's sweat pants wearin', full-figured gals. That is fine with me, except they don't buy my wife's clothes. As a matter of fact, they look at the size tags and scoff, as if we don't know how to market to the "pro's."


I know what you're thinking. No, they weren't scoffing at the price. I would say that $0.25 for an Aeropostale SHIRT isn't something to scoff at. So, if you are in the market for the aforementioned sized clothing for cheap, check out our local Goodwill Stores, because that is where they are now.


Around lunch time, my sister announces that she doesn't feel "right". This is the sister that is STILL waiting for disability because she has every malady in the book. A short time later, she goes into a seizure and we had to call for an ambulance. She is STILL in the hospital as I type. The odd thing about it is that, the shoppers didn't miss a beat. They continued shopping like they were glad that there was one less person to compete with for the curling irons and roller sets that were in limited supply. I assume that they were trying to be polite and not gawk at the spectacle, but maybe that is wishful thinking.

When the weekend was over, we didn't get rid of very many of the big items - the important ones that would free up space. I don't even know how much we made. I haven't felt like even counting it. My wife and I were exhausted, sunburned and after the clean-up, we were pretty much in bed by 8:30 Sunday night.

Monday morning, I get a call from my tenant complaining about some things about the sale. Little things like a couple of stones out of place and two balloons that somehow got loose and got caught up in a wire. He also complained that some stuff marked "free" was ransacked overnight and a mess was made. He lectured me how certain items were not going to be picked up by the garbage service.

I told him that I okay'd all that with him before we put it out there and HE told me that the garbage men would pick up all the stuff that was left. He replied that he shouldn't have told me that. "Oh, my fault," I thought. "I shouldn't have let YOU tell me that." However, I went and took care of all of it. However, we are going to butt heads on the extra building on the property I use for storage. He hinted that I am going to have to rent a storage space somewhere for anything that didn't sale. Not going to happen. I rent the house to him dirt cheap. I pay $250 every month for him to live there (my mortgage payment minus his rent). I am not going to pay more than that to store stuff when I OWN the extra building. When he buys the place, I will move it; I will be able to afford it then - but not until then. I have offered sharing some space in there for him to store some things, but we'll see what happens.

I guess I just don't have enough drama in my life. One day at a time . . .