A long, long time ago... I can still remember How that JoeUser used to make me smile. And I knew if I had my chance That I could make those bloggers dance And, maybe, they’d be happy for a while. But October made me shiver With every twitter JU delivered. Bad news on the doorstep; JU couldn’t take one more step. I can’t remember if I cried When I read about Mason's ride, But something touched me deep inside The day the Joeuser died. So bye-bye, Free IceCream Ride. Drove my G...

When I hit 10k, I was astounded and really proud!  It was an accomplishment for me! Now, I just hit 100k.  Joining an elite group of people that includes Brad, and 2 ladies! I dont expect to advance much beyond this.  But I did reach a mile stone!  And given the people on JU, I am appreciative of that. I am content where I am.  I am happy with my participation numbers.  And I thank everyone for letting me share with you. And for your interaction with me. ...

I have been reading Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson's books about the Butlerian Jihad (I always wondered about the title, and am now glad they wrote it and I am reading them).  Jihad is a unique word.  Christians had Crusades, Hindus and Buddhist don't have any equivalent, and indeed the Crusades are not quite the same. Jihad is a powerful word!  Islam gave us this word.  And it can be bad, but then it can also be a cleansing action (read Brian and Kevin). But Jihad al...

I recently posted a Tale of 2 states, sent to me by a friend.  I asked his permission to post it, and he said ok, but to not mention him.  SO I cleaned it up and posted it.  I had thought I had attributed it to anonymous at the end, but upon looking back on it, I see that line was deleted.  So some got the impression that I had written it.  I did not say I did. Then some accused me of avoiding it.  SOme people spend all day haunting the forums, but as I have stat...

Sorry if my Darth Vader imitation is off by a bit.  I cant seem to get the nuance down at times. Recently, 2 people have called me fatherly, or father like.  One I think was done in a spirit of good natured ribbing, and the other in the heat of debate.  For the life of me, I don't see how any one can say I am fatherly, father like, or paternal.  I never had one! My father left me when I was 4.  I saw him once in my life after that.  I probably would not have r...

My sister had a birthday yesterday!  I will not embarrass her with the age as I intend to send a link to this for her.  But let me tell you about her. She was born of my stepfather and mother.  In fact, I had to sleep with my stepfather as he would not wake form anything and my mother was in the hospital in a difficult labor (this was the X0s - no birthing rooms!).  So about 2am, on October 14th in the year of our lord 19xx, I got a call.  I woke my step father and to...

Before I begin, let me thank all the great citizens of JU Land that welcomed me back, even the ones who scolded me for not telling anyone I was going on vacation.  It just means you missed me! For those who don't know, I took a couple of weeks off to what was originally intended to be, a Wedding.  And a vacation (if you are going to California for a Wedding, might as well make it a vacation too!).  We spent the first weekend in LA, where the weather was seasonable.  M...

My Wife and I had planned on taking a couple of weeks vacation to go to her Nephew's wedding in California since last March.  So we did.  Instead of writing a "see you later" or "I am done" article, I debated if I was going to say anything at all.  I will admit, that I did drop hints, and at least one person picked up on them, and I did tell one person What was going on.  But he kept it to himself. I decided at the last moment to just go and not announce.  I have seen...

I have had this bike for about 25 years.  I bought it when I worked for a major retailer that was trying to become the first in their niche market to pass a Billion Dollars in Annual sales.  So they had a great sale!  It is not a great bike.  A Schwinn 12 speed.  Not what you would call a racing caliber bike. Back in High School, I bought a Peugeot 10 speed that had bent front Forks.  I straightened them out, and got a $250 bike for $29!  I also learned all ...

With Kudos to Texas Wahine for beating me to the punch (I have been busy): http://texaswahine.joeuser.com/index.asp?aid=83879 I do want to chime in on this blatant and apparent ignorant stigmatism and stereotyping by our northern brethren. First of all, the illustrious north is so ignorant of the real south, that like Howard Dean, they think it is filled with a bunch of KKK robed individuals running around trying to lynch every black man in existance.  They and their willing medi...

ON a blog, I told Philomedy (Philo for short, not Phil BTW) to shut up.  And I am sorry. I tried to find the offending passage, and could not.  I tried to remember where it was, and could not.  All I have to offer in my defense was that I was wrong!  And since I cannot find the thread, I want to offer a public appology.  And a special thanks to Philomedy! For he is a bigger man (you are a guy, right?) than I.  He said forget it, it was nothing.  But it wa...

This is about as much as they have told us.  But then we are just lowly employees!  and the local rag is just that a rag.  Do you think they would try some investigating? is the moon made of green cheese????

But do I need you to respond or read it?  Well, I like it, but it is not necessary. What I like to do is what I just did a few minutes ago.  I lampooned Dharma and her Franken Scar! It was not mean, it was eerie! (unless you follow SciFi).  And it was inspired by what she said on someone else's blog. it was fun!  It was not mean, and it gave a few people some laughs! Why?  Cause life is tough, and every chance we get to laugh, we want to laugh! SO how many...

With all this points wars going on, I have not really been paying attention to mine.  Because as many others have stated, I blog for my own reasons, and points are just an abacus that counts the tax, not the content. But I just created a special group.  The group is made up not of like minded people (indeed all of them BBQed my tail), but ones I owe an explanation to about an article (Shades, Baker and Mano, please view the link - oh, and if anyone else can view it, let me know.&nbs...

For about a week, a couple of weeks ago, my site was listed as the second highest in JU Land.  While I have not taken any time off lately as I normally do in the summer, I have not really been blogging more than others, and as far as I know, there was no earth shattering article written in that time.  So why did I have over 20k points and beat out Skinning the Frog? I have no idea.  I can tell you that while I do have a few articles marked as private, none were written in the l...