[ Our Military .... II ] Just received this from the war front. If you do not like to view war killings, then skip this please. 

[ Quote ] I loved this quote so much, that I had to share it. "Don't walk behind me I will not lead, don't walk in front of me I will not follow, just walk beside me and be my friend." - Unknown

[ Space, I need space! ] The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is in the process of warranting 14,000 acres to the California tiger salamander. So my first question is, why do we need such an expanse of land for this species? Last time I saw a salamander it was not crawling, it was as still as a stick. The time before that, still as a stick. Now that I think about it, I have never seen a salamander crawl. Hmm, do they the fly? ;-) All seriousness folks, why do we need 14,000 acres for a species of that size? I think the conversion of acres to mile is 640, so that would be 21.8 square miles. That is larger than the Town of Whiting, Vermont. The fact that the U.S. Fish & Wildlife is possibly beating out the land developers for this piece of parcel is also beyond me.

[ Yummies ] March is right around the corner. You got it, Girl Scout Cookie month!!!

[ Our Military ROCKS! ] These pictures require no words.

[ Lions and Bears ] In this recent article by Yellow Bird I find it interesting that YB says Lion attacks are on the rise, to four a week. I almost fell out of my chair when I read that. FOUR! Holy Leaping Cats Batman! I wonder where that data comes from. All those times where I found myself alone in a forest, investigating a recent deer attack, I might have been closer to a Cat than I thought. Wow, chills are riding my back but the excitement has me jumping!

[ Gilroy Lion Sighting ] SJ Merc reported, "A mountain lion was recently reported behind Gavilan Community College on the west side of Gilroy." They also state "Wildlife experts estimate that there are between 4,000 and 6,000 adult mountain lions in California. But attacks are rare. Just five people have been killed in California by mountain lions in the past century. Reynolds was the first fatality since 1994." Which we all know there are thousands of Lions in CA. Sure, attacks are rare but on the rise they are along with sightings. So the nature theory is if sightings go up so will attacks and killings.

[ feelings, oh woo oh feelings... ] The Pocket PC is a handy tool for coordinating everyday life schedules. I have been a PDA user since Palm's second generation. A great work horse it was and I continued to use Palm up to their model V. So I had three of their units and was pleased. Low and behold, I was attracted to the Pocket PC, mainly for the integration with MS Outlook. So off I went researching and I purchased the Toshiba e740. This was their top of the line at the time with nice color, size, weigh and best of all a built in NIC. What attracted me to the Toshiba's offering was the built in NIC. What best to download news items while sitting in a meeting or the library. Well, that was my thoughts when I left three generations of Palm to my dusty old desk draw when I switched to the Pocket PC world. What a mistake! I thought the integration with Outlook was key for staying on top of, well, life. Remember that at one time, Palm could sync with Outlook out of the box. A third party app was needed, for an extra price, and when it did sync up it was testing the Chaos Theory. Did I mention how wrong I was for switching over? Purchasing this expensive POS, the Toshiba's e740 pocket pc was clearly one of my biggest mistakes in life. And trust me, I have made many many mistakes! This POS has been repaired three times and going on the fourth. Since that third return, I now have to reformat the unit at least three times a day. For some reason the unit will just not turn back on! So you all know what that means? I have to resync everything from scratch. This happens about 4 times a day. So I called their tech support and asked to open a ticket so that I can get some resolve with this matter, like asking for a replacement because clearly this is a lemon. The tech support guy laughed at me. I kid you not. I pushed the issue further and he finally escalated the ticket for me and wished me luck. That was four weeks ago. Since then I have not heard back from tech support. This POS is now a paper weight and on some days I use like I would a Stretch Armstrong toy.

[ Cats, cats everywhere ] A Mountain Lion was spotted yesterday at Coyote Creek Trail.

[ the challenge ] How fun does this sound! I think I hear a challenge.

[ a little bit of off-whites and BAM! ]  Talk about laying down some cash for a nice gift. Ebay just took it to a new level by offering a set of Pearls via a private collector.

[ fog ] Fog fog go away, come back another day... PLEASE!!! Those days when work is so busy and you can't get outside for a lunch or a break of any kind and the hours are building and building and the and your only hope for a slight reprieve from the office is a glance out the window and all you see is fog fog fog fog..... oy! I am having one of those WEEKS!  

[ Holy Shakin Bakin Batman! ] Well, it has finally happened. Scientists can now predict earthquakes. Great job to you all!!

[ Mtn Lion sightings ] Somewhat recent sightings: Kansas Colorado El Dorado, CA Colorado (not so recent) California Arizona Pennsylvania Iowa Iowa

[ Confronting a Mtn Lion ] If a person happens to be confronted by a mountain lion he or she should: - Stop, stay calm and refrain from running. - Talk loudly and firmly to the lion in a low voice. - Face the lion, but avoid direct eye contact. - Back away slowly if they are able to do so. - Attempt to make themselves look as large as possible by raising their arms or holding a jacket or backpack above their head per Colorado's Division of Wildlife (DOW)

[ A Perspective ] This is sad yet so true and all too common place. Maybe this is why people do not want HMO's?