Another Reason to Vote Obama....

Obama GOOD!

McCain BAD!

If you care about civil rights here is another reason to "Vote for Obama":

Ultra-conservative Puritanical Religionist Republicans of Dooooom!

Civil Rights has a history, (especially under Bush politics) of suffering and being violated horribly under a Republican regime - I am talking to you Patriot Act, to which the ACLU has had to fight hard to try and fix. Who knows how many innocent people's lives have been wrecked with these horrible laws in effect. Will these people whose rights have been violated ever be compensated for their governments enforcement of these broken laws? No. They will receive a "My bad!" and then be left tot recover from having their life destroyed by an illegal law.

The next president will most likely have the chance to nominate 2 or 3 Supreme Court Judges. The McCain camp is against Gay Rights which is very strongly a civil rights issue which he is against from a puritanical and ultra-conservative (save me some votes) standpoint. This way of thinking is one of the greatest problems with the Republical Party - Conservative Christian Religionism is their hidden mantra.

McCain will appoint judges that will enforce a close-minded backwards-traditional mindset and in an attempt to crush all of cultural progress out of fear, as well as crushing our civil rights in the process.

500GB Maxtor One Touch External Drive Crash...

Well, this weekend our 500GB Maxtor External Drive, which is less than 6 months old crashed in such a way as I was getting an error when accessing certain 2nd or 3rd level directories. The error was something like The directory is either corrupted or missing. I ran a check disk on it and it found all of the links to files and directories OK but the data behind it is gone. We have lost a lot of pictures, music and website work. =( This was a sad, sad weekend. I am hoping that I can recover some of what was lost.

This the Future that I am Looking Forward to

Intel's Mobile and Internet Linux Project is exactly the sort of thing that we need. In my 'Class 2i' short story thing, this is exactly what I am alluding to with the Personal Communication Device (PCD). This really excites me and I wish that I could throw a lot of money at them so that they develop this faster.

Catching up...

Belarus

So life has been busy. Tanya was back in Belarus for 3 months to finish the first half of the last year of her degree in Economics (or something like that). It was a long three months and several people have said I was lost while she was gone. I was in many ways. =) I really missed her and I am soooo very glad to have her back.

Real Estate License

I have been studying for my Real Estate Sales License. That has been a slow and painful process. There was a lot more to it than I expected, but it has been very good information to know. I really look forward to having this done and so does Tanya, that way I can move forward with life's plans.

Vacation

Tanya and I bound for Cancun for the first week in December, which will be a lot of fun. We will be alone with the sun and the water at an all inclusive resort. This is kind of our birthday/New Years/Christmas presents to each other.

New Digital Camera

In preparation for the trip we have bought a digital camera: a Canon CAPSSX100B PowerShot SX100 IS (8 Megapixel, 10x optical zoom). The camera that I bought in St. Martin N.A. (Canon EOS 5000) in like 1994 has seen its better days and has been dropped way to many times. If you know me you will know how unfortunate this camera was to have me as its owner. It has served me well but it is not working so well, plus it is a pain in the but to have the film developed and them make a CD of it.

New Computer

We are also going to be looking at getting a new computer for Christmas as well. This is an expensive Christmas for us, but we really need a new one. The girls are going bonkers because of how slow mine is. =(

Computer Work

I spent a bit of time doing a full reinstall and update of Windows XP for my mother's work computer. That was fun as all full reinstalls are. I also replaces the Bios Battery thingy for the mother board in another.

Thanksgiving

For Thanksgiving we will be going to my sisters house up North and then on Friday we will have another Thanksgiving with my Wife and grandmother as Tanya has to work all day on Thanksgiving. My poor hardworking and wonderful wife. I love her so very much.

Church Website

I am also taking over the maintenance of my churches website :The Free Congregation of Sauk County. I have started with that and eventually we will go through a complete redesign.

So We've Been Busy

Tanya and I have been quite busy over the last few weeks. We have been looking at houses and mortgages; preparing documents for our INS interview on February 1; preparing for eventual problems that Tanya may have with immigration/customs as we leave from Moscow. I have also done 2 full reinstalls: one for Katia's laptop, and one for my mother's insurance business - Freedom Insurance; and of course, working on mom's website.

House Hunting

We have been looking for houses in the Baraboo, Dells, Delton, Delonna areas primarily. We have been looking in Reedsburg as well even though it is not our preferred city to live in. I work in and have friends in Baraboo and Tanya works in Lake Delton. My family lives in Lake Delton. Reedsburg is really out of the way for both of us. Ughh!

Property prices and property taxes are higher in Baraboo and lower in Reedsburg. We have 2 or 3 potentials in Reedsburg - 2 for about $100k and one for about $85k. We have found one in Baraboo for about $100k that we really like. Now the only problem that we have is that after Taxes, Title, License, and small furry animals I do not want more than a $80-90K mortgage. Any more than that and we will be living tight. I have tried to budget everthing so that I can pay for pretty much everything and Tanya can concentrate on school and what ever else she needs to do, and still have some free money to save and to fix up the house. Finding a house that is not a shit-hole for about $80k seems to be almost impossible. So our search continues and so does the impending fear that we will have to get a house that is going to be too much work for us to have any chance to enjoy.

Other Stuff

We are defintely stressing over the possibility of having problems leaving Russia/Belarus. We will be calling the Moscow Airport (Sheremetyevo II) to see what they think we should do and hopefully we can fix the real issue here via the consulate later in the US instead of in Belarus. We really do not want to correct the problems in Belarus as we would have to deal with the corrupt and taciturn beaurocracy there. Not a good prospect. Here is better.

I really do not enjoy doing full reinstalls as they take forever. Installing Windows is not so bad. Downloading and installing the service packs and security fixes takes over half of the time. I have one more to do and then I will be done for quite a while. Ugh!!

I have been quiet because we have been busy! Nothing personal! =) I have even cancelled one of my gaming groups until we get back from Belarus to ensure that we have enough time for everything. Oi! They were not happy, but it had to be done!