Continuing our tradition of Irish Weekends, today we'll cover St Patrick's Day

I, Patrick, a sinner, a most simple countryman, the least of all the faithful and most contemptible to many, had for father the deacon Calpurnius, son of the late Potitus, a priest, of the settlement [vicus] of Bannavem Taburniae; he had a small villa nearby where I was taken captive. I was at that time about sixteen years of age. I did not, indeed, know the true God; and I was taken into captivity in Ireland with many thousands of people, according to our deserts, for quite drawn away from God, we did not keep his precepts, nor were we obedient to our priests who used to remind us of our salvation. And the Lord brought down on us the fury of his being and scattered us among many nations, even to the ends of the earth, where I, in my smallness, am now to be found among foreigners.
St Patrick, The Confessio

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I haven't posted in a long time so I thought I would come out with a few links to share....  Follow my line of thought to discover what video podcasts, Google, a guy on a quest named Aaron, and a 12 year old future Techography poster all have in common.  Oh and a few other iTunes or Mac links for good measure just to keep you all guessing.

In other words... I had to much time on my hands this morning.  Read on if you are interested...

I have been mulling over the idea of writing this for a while now. Not so much because of what I want to say but because I was afraid I wouldn't be able to "say it right". Sometimes, no matter how hard you try, you simply cannot express what is on your mind. To borrow Mozart's expression: "I write as a sow piddles". Something happened this weekend though that made my mind up for me and, be it good or not, I decided to go ahead and write this so just "walk with me". There is something really "unique" about being a fireman.That much is true anywhere in the world, regardless of whether you are in "The Big City" or in a sleepy little hamlet somewhere. You get to see and be a part of life in a whole different way.  You see people at their best and sometimes you see them at their worst.
I'm not a real fireman, I'm just a "callman"; a part-time/per diem worker who serves as an adjunct to our 3 full-time firefighters.   I'm not in the red sticker club, I don't get a pension, overtime, clothing allowance or any of that expensive benefits package people talk about. Hell, we're not even allegible to join the firefighters union (note the use of the word "professional" meaning "full-time")!   Mind you, I do get paid (a little) for my 12 shift but since we're pretty quiet as a town I only have to do 1-2 calls (if any) per shift.  But I'm not there for all those "things".  I joined the department becuase of what I consider the "right" reason: a desire to help my community, a desire for risk/adventure (Ironic, huh?) and becuase I believed that being a "firefighter" is more than just a job and that appealed to the romantic in me. In fact, for my first year I was there striclty as a volunteer.
Regardless of my employement status, in the past 8 years I have seen a decent amount (based on our call volume) of mayhem, destruction, death, hilarity and boredom.  I'm far from burnt out and have actually missed some of our "messier" calls but I have seen a bit.  The odd thing is that the calls that bother me the most aren't the cars wrecks or the handfull of fires I have been in. Sometimes it's the ones that were'nt all that bad or gruesome that really really get to me.
It's been over a year since the particular call I am going to share with you, but standing in line at the market this weekend it all came back to me.  As I stood there buying a snack before my shift I saw her. Tall, slender, wearing tight jeans and a sweater with her long black hair flowing down her back she could have been any young woman (yes, as a matter of fact I was checking her out-duh!). She chatted with the cashier about final exams, changing majors and college life in general and when she turned to grab her bag I saw the face. She looked at me (busted!!), smiled and walked away.  Not a glimmer of recognition, not even a clue.  Then again, last time I saw her it was under very different circumstances.  I can still hear her screams.           

Folks who know me, know my mustic taste is a touch eccentric.

While I have a wide varity of music I listen too, I tend to lock on to a handful of artists and become just this side of obsessed with the sounds and lyrics of their songs. People like Don Henley, whose music and lyrics I can listen to all day. Lynyrd Skynyrd, Blackfoot, Asleep at the Wheel, BR-549, and John Gorka to just name a few.

Some artists I don't like originally, but as they mature in their work their music changes and with it my opinion. Tim McGraw was one of those for me. When he first came out I couldn't stand him. By the time "Set This Circus Down" came out I was hooked. I still think that is his best album to date. Typically though I'm not a big star fan.

However more recently I've gotten my ears on someone, who i was intrested in, because of my love for his fathers music, and because it blends 3 things I love. Southern Rock, Blue's and Country.

That person is Shooter Jennings.

It seems that Verizon Wireless is attempting to rid it's customers of minute eating, time wasting and above all, annoying cellular spam.

It's filed law suits against companies in Florida and California so far in hopes of giving it's customers a break. For a bit more information, you can get more details here and here

Now if they could just do soemthign about that damned fax machine that calls my cell phone 3 times a week.

Seems as though T-mobile, with it's awefull customer services and lacking coverage area doesn't even look good to it's own parent company Deutsche Telekom.

Accoring to this Yahoo article the parent company is considering putting T-mobile up for sale as it faces that or a 10billion price tag to restructure it's network. A few other tid-bits are in the article so pop on over and have a read for yourself.

I just read this article @ CNN in where a group of Drama students at a high school put up posters for a play they were doing and were told to take the posters down.

Where they full of foul language? Lewd? Made fun of another student? Made fun of a faculty member?

The answer to all of those is no. The posters depicted Presedent Bush as Groucho Marxs (mustach & cigar). Whats so bad aboue that? We've all see pic on the interent where Bush looks like a monkey right? So this should be no big deal you would think. well apparently everyone else at the school felt the same, save for one student who complained.

Welcome to part two. This one will be very short. Part of my convergence to Vonage including having them port my existing phone number over from Bell South.

So how did they do? Read on.

So it all starts with a look at my monthly phone bill. For a basic line with call waiting I’m paying $40.33 through Bell South. I don’t have 3 way calling, I don’t have caller ID, I don’t even have long distance through my local phone company. I knew there had to be a better solution and I figured that VoIP had possibly matured enough that it was time to look into that. So my next trip on the internet was to Vonage to have a look at their rates.

I liked their pricing right off. For $27 after tax I was able to get everything my local phone company had to offer plus free long distance to anywhere in the US/Canada. Not a bad deal, but was it worth it? So I did some research. I found the typical complaints about Vonage that I would expect about any company. Some issue with customer service, some issues with the equipment and so on. Nothing seems out of the ordinary. I also spoke with a few folks where I work that told me they had the service and so far they loved it. My wife also hit up her co-workers and got the same response. At that point everything seemed to be pointing in the direction of telling Bell South (my regular landline provider) to kiss my butt.

A fellow dubber (Volkswagen Fanatic) of mine is on a mission. Last year he found that his father had a rare form of inoperable Stomach Cancer. Since then we've also found that a few of our fellow dubbers are also fighting cancer battles of their own. In hopes of saving some lives, Michael Card, a.k.a - Sammiches, has embarked on a US tour to reach a goal of raising $10k for the American Cancer Society.

Very few of us have not been touched in some way by this new black plague. I'm asking you folks to spread the word and if possible donate yourselves. Be sure that all funds donated go directly to the American Cancer Society. Mike doesn't bennifit directly from the donations in any way, shape or form. Mike is very honest and very motivated. If you can, please help or at least spread the word.

Here is a link to a message from Mike himself.

Here is a link where you can donate by purchasing a T-shirt.

If anyone has something they would like to say to Sammiches, please feel free to leave a comment and I will pass it along.