Christmas with my family

Even though it is Christmas Eve Eve, my family traveled to Norman to have Christmas with my family (my mom, my brother and his family and me and my family).  Everyone got there in time to help get a great lunch together, and we had a great time stuffing ourselves before the gift exchange happened.

 

I won't go into great detail about all the gifts that were opened, but it is needless to say that all of us were greatly blessed by each other.  I will share one very special gift that I received from my brother.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My brother ordered a Road ID for me.  He picked out the black wristband style (visit RoadID.com to see the entire line of products).  In comparison to the other gifts shared today, it wasn't big on the list -don't get me wrong-, but the sentiment and thought behind this gift was HUGE!  The six lines of text on the ID plate itself contains my name, city & state, home telephone number, my mom's telephone number, my medical allergies and on the last line: Tis Gar Plen.  The fact he took the time to find out my allergies, he recognized the importance of my motto (Tis Gar Plen) and he is concerned for my safety with all of my bide riding really means a lot to me.

 

I put it on as soon as I got it and haven't taken it off yet.  Not only is it a safety item for me when I ride, it will be a symbol of my brother's love and concern for me.

 

Note to my brother:  Dee, if I haven't told you lately, I love you!

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Want to sponsor a class?

Being that we already have Boone Pickens Stadium

 

and the ConocoPhillips OSU Alumni Center

 

this cartoon may actually become a reality in the near future:

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Holiday Greetings to Everyone

I wanted to send some sort of holiday greeting to my friends, but it is so difficult in today's world to know exactly what to say without offending someone. So I met with my attorney yesterday, and on his advice I wish to say the following:

 

Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit, my best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low stress, non-addictive, gender neutral celebration of the winter/summer solstice holiday, practiced with the most enjoyable traditions of religious persuasion or secular practices of your choice with respect for the religious/secular persuasions and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all.

 

I also wish you a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2007, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make our country great (not to imply that it is necessarily greater than any other country) and without regard to the race, creed, color, age, physical ability, religious faith or sexual preference of the wishee.

 

By accepting this greeting, you are accepting these terms:

This greeting is subject to clarification or withdrawal. It is freely transferable with no alteration to the original greeting. It implies no promise by the wisher to actually implement any of the wishes for her/himself or others and is void where prohibited by law, and is revocable at the sole discretion of the wisher. This wish is warranted to perform as expected within the usual application of good tidings for a period of one year or until the issuance of a subsequent holiday greeting, whichever comes first, and warranty is limited to replacement of this wish or issuance of a new wish at the sole discretion of the wisher.

 

...... Yeah right!!!!

 

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to each and every reader of TisGarPlen!

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Views of the drinking glass

Variations on the "half full/half empty" argument:

Optimist: The glass is half full
Pessimist: The glass is half empty
Engineer: The glass is twice as big as it needs to be
Accountant: Does that glass really need all that water?

Quantum Physicist: The glass has a 50% probability of holding water

Philosopher: If no-one looks at the glass, who's to say how full or empty it is?

Matter of perspective: Half empty or half full? Depends on if you're drinking or pouring.

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Escapee charged with stealing handcuffs

(AP) CLINTON, Iowa — A would-be Houdini faces escape and theft charges after slipping away from Clinton police while still in handcuffs. The theft charge is for taking the handcuffs.

 

David Lee Griffin, 19, of Clinton, and two other suspects were arrested about 1 a.m. Wednesday after stealing items from cars in the 800 block alley between 5th and 6th avenues south in Clinton, according to court records.

 

Griffin was brought to the Clinton Police Department with his hands cuffed behind his back and placed in an interview room. He managed to get his hands in front of him when he was left alone in the interview room, then left the room and slipped out a side door of the police station, still wearing the handcuffs, according to court records.

 

Police officers spotted Griffin going into a nearby residence and took him into custody, adding misdemeanor charges of escape and fifth-degree theft to the misdemeanor charge of third-degree burglary he already was facing.

 

Griffin was being held Wednesday in the Clinton County Jail on $1,950 bond.

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Story confirmed via the Quad-City Times

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Five Great Movie Trailer Spoofs

The rise of YouTube, Google Video and other video sharing web sites has lead to more than just copyright infringements. It has lead to some pretty clever satire, in the form of movie trailer spoofs.

 

Of course, in a world where a two-second sample from a three-note guitar solo is copyright infringement, the creators of these videos have probably already been sued. But enough talk, here are five movie trailer spoofs well worth watching.
    (each will open in a new window) 

• Mary Poppins
• 10 Commandments (warning: one curse word)
• Shining
• Back to the Future
• Forrest Gump

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How to get out of a Speeding Ticket

The best way:  Don't Speed!

 

But if you do speed and get caught, here are some suggestions:

#1: As soon as you hear the siren or see the "flashing red & blues", safely pull over, put the car in park, and roll down your window.

#2: Turn on the inside car light (if at night) and place your hands on the "10:00 and 2:00" positions of the wheel, staying still as the officer approaches. (This situation is one of the most dangerous for a police officer, and he or she will appreciate your courtesy of making their job just a bit easier and helping them to feel safer). This is definitely a step in the right direction.

#3: When the officer asks if you realized you were going __ in a __ mile per hour zone, admit it. Don't lie. Don't make excuses.

You might say, "I apologize officer. I didn't realize it until I heard your siren. I looked down, and yes I was going at that speed. I'm absolutely in the wrong." (This right there might get you off the hook, as it will be the most honest and refreshing words that officer has heard all night. Imagine, someone actually taking responsibility for their mistake.)

#4: If you feel you must "make your case", simply say, "Officer, again, I was definitely in the wrong. It's not something I usually do and I'm wondering if, perhaps, I could possibly get off with a warning."

Then, if you believe it necessary, use, what I call, the "Eight Key Words", which are, "If you can't do it, I'll definitely understand."

 

The combination of your politeness, courtesy and words, might help you get, at worst, a written warning and, at best, a verbal warning to "make sure you slow down".

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Interesting Space Factoids

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Daffy-nitions

From a friend:

• Coffee (n.), the person upon whom one coughs.
• Flabbergasted (adj.), appalled over how much weight you have gained.
• Abdicate (v.), to give up all hope of ever having a flat stomach.
• Negligent (adj.), describes a condition in which you absent-mindedly answer the door in your nightgown.
• Lymph (v.), to walk with a lisp.
• Flatulence (n.), emergency vehicle that picks you up after you are run over by a steamroller.
  Pokemon (n), a Rastafarian proctologist.
• Circumvent (n.), an opening in the front of boxer shorts worn by
  Jewish men.

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Couple of warnings

Gift Cards & Crooks

The crooks have found a way to rob you of your gift card balance. If you buy Gift Cards from a display rack that has various store cards you may become a victim of theft. Crooks are now jotting down the card numbers in the store and then wait a few days and call to see how much of a balance THEY have on the card. Once they find the card is "activated", they then go online and start shopping.

 

You may want to purchase your card from a customer service person, where they do not have the Gift Cards viewable to the public.  Victims are losing between $25 and $500.
    Confirmed as a real fraud via Snopes.com

 

Cell Phone reminder

REMINDER ....11 days from today, all cell phone numbers are being released
to telemarketing companies and you will start to receive sale calls.

....YOU WILL BE CHARGED FOR THESE CALLS

To prevent this, call the following number from your cell phone: 888-382-1222 .
It is the National DO NOT CALL list. It will only take a minute of your
time. It blocks your number for five (5) years.

You must call from the cell phone number you are wanting to have blocked.

You cannot call from a different phone number.

HELP OTHERS BY PASSING THIS ON TO ALL YOUR FRIENDS
OR GO TO: www.donotcall.gov

 

Snopes.com claims this warning to be false, but then goes on to explain how there may be a 'national registry' of cell phone numbers in the future.  I went ahead and used the DoNotCall.gov website to register the cell phones for my family (you can register three at a time on their form).  A few seconds later I received the email confirmation link to finalize the blocks.

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Blogging in your template view

I have been using Windows Live Writer for a while now as my blog editor and I am really impressed.  I had been using two different editors, depending upon if I had a picture to post or not.  One of the major issues I have with my current template is the width of images I plan on posting.  If the image is too wide, then it really throws off the look of the blog.  A couple of the huge selling points or WLW for blogging is the fact the client presents the entry during writing in a WYSIWYG format, including the width and CSS formatting of my blog.  This way I am able to see how it is going to look exactly, prior to publishing.  This is a huge bonus.

While the image is scaled down, here is what I see while I am authoring posts:

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Two free days, thanks to Mother Nature

Thursday morning, a few minutes before my alarm was set to go off, I got a call from my boss.  He was letting me know that OSU was going to be closed and not to worry about coming into work today.  All I had to say was: "Wow!".  When I got got up a little while later, I found that there was very little ice on the ground.  The cancellation was done due to the threat of snow and ice.  Being that we had some travel plans in the near future, I used this free day opportunity to get the oil changed in our car.  As I was out, ice started covering the roads.  By the time I got home, it was rather slick with ice, but no real snow to speak of (yet).  That came later.

Snow, snow and then some more snow started in the afternoon.  When there was enough to play in, Sarah and Hope went outside to have some fun.  Just as I was thinking about joining them, a buddy called who was out running errands and was wondering if I would like to join him.  Hummm, sliding around on icy roads in someone else's vehicle ... of course I would!!!!

 

We got back to the house about 90 minutes later, and it had been snowing so hard that all evidence of the girls playing in the front yard was gone.  Later that evening there was a large amount of thunder in the middle of the snow storm.  I don't ever remember that happening before (then again, how often do we get this much snow in Oklahoma?)

Another call this morning from my boss informed me of a second day of snow closing for the campus.  The errand this morning was shoveling the sidewalk and driveway (the driveway had a four foot high snow drift in the middle of it!).  The rest of the day has been spent on the computer, watching videos with the girls or helping review Sarah's research paper on the French Revolution. 

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