Administrative Confinement

HearthStone Homes update

2007-06-23T19:38:00.000-06:00

I've moved my focus to my new blogs, one of which deals with evil, the other one is more of a personal blog.

I've just written an extremely long post about my adventures with Omaha's HearthStone Homes. Well, misadventures, really.

I'll put all further updates about our home building process and everything else that happens to get my attention on that blog.

Thanks for reading and I appreciate your thoughts on the matter. Comment on the new blog please.

Two new blogs I'm working on....

2007-05-31T18:25:00.001-06:00

I've been putting a lot of time into each, with more to come. Hopefully Jamie will let me live.

Reviewyou.net - a blog that reviews anything - for free! Go there and request a review of your blog, picture, idea, book, whatever.

PYSIH.com - People You'll See In Hell v2.0

It may look like I'm not doing anything...

2007-05-25T09:20:00.000-06:00

...but behind the scenes, I'm doing a lot of design work.

I bought yet another domain name, on which I hope I can build a website that can take advantage of a particular "hook" I've thought up.

Two of the sites I can do in Wordpress, but I'd like to create a nice-looking unique theme for them with Dreamweaver. The other site, I'd have to do in Dreamweaver.

Anyone have a spare 500 bucks for a copy of Adobe Web CS3 Premium?

Plus the $150 or so for the web hosting?

Anyone?

Why do you deny me?

Blogs that I read on a daily basis

2007-05-19T15:06:00.000-06:00

I love reading The Simple Dollar blog. The guy is a constant source of good financial tips, and presents the info in a wonderful style. He's buying a house now, and is kind of in the same situation I'm in (without the stress of having the house built) so I'm enjoying keeping up with his activity.

The Consumerist blog is a great daily read. Multiple daily updates about companies that screw their customers as well as companies that take care of their customers.

Biting political commentary for Nebraska issues can be found at the Plains Feeder blog. Funny stuff. Probably be a good bunch to invite over for a beer while they fix your retaining wall.

Problogger is also a daily read for me. Great writing, easy to understand tips and hints on how to make your blog all it can be. Great commentary as well, with many experienced commentators all jumping in with their opinions on various topics.

Tyler Cruz is a young guy with a blog who's trying to make a living off the internet. It's fun to read about his experiences and watch his ideas unfold. He's had some success, but can he make it to the big time? Keep reading I guess.

Part of a network of great photo sites is the Omaha Daily Photo blog. It's just what it says it is.

If you have any more blogs about Nebraska, Omaha or Law Enforcement, send me a link. I'll check it out and write about it here.

Write to seeyouinhellguy@gmail.com

It's true, you know.

2007-05-18T17:36:00.001-06:00

It's true.

Correctional officers are called, on a daily basis, everything but a child of god.

People who are incarcerated don't like being told what to do. When you look at it from their perspective, it's understandable.

It's hard for many of them to go from almost total freedom to satisfy their id, to a situation where someone, acting as a representative of "the man," is telling them to stop walking on the top tier of the housing unit, or to keep their shirt on while they're out in the dayroom.

It makes some people a bit tense until they settle into the flow of things.

Some people never settle.

Those are the people who end up locked down for the majority of their stay in our fine institution.

For those people, a few words:

While I may indeed be an "asshole," I am the asshole who is telling you the way it's going to be.

I'm the asshole who is going home tonight to my sleeping family, a microwaved hot pocket, possibly some hetero sex and maybe a hot shower.

You are the asshole who is going to stay in this room until the morning shift decides to let you out. You're the asshole who is unable to make a phone call whenever you want. You're the asshole who can't enjoy Taco Bell's new breakfast menu.

Just so we're clear.

Incommunicado - Updated!

2007-05-18T06:31:00.000-06:00

The wife and I took the kids swimming last night in the apartment complex pool. We took two inflatable plastic inner tubes so Logan and Owen could float around. Had a big fight about this huge plastic ball I wanted to take, but she didn't.

Grabbed my phone, a few towels, the ball, my shoes, and Logan (who weighs 29 pounds now at 1 year.) We walk to the pool and get ready. Owen's already in the pool, so I throw my shirt down onto the table nearby, and jump in.

As I'm entering the pool, I realize that my phone is still in my pocket.

Being the smart person that I am, I realize that this pool is full of water - which, while refreshing to people and assorted animals, is absolutely deadly to both electrical devices and the aliens from Alien Nation.

If you've ever tried to bathe a cat (a wonderfully exciting venture which I highly recommend at least once in everyone's life) then you've seen how that cat will do anything - anything to avoid getting into that water. They immediately grow 3 more legs, with claws, that will latch onto the side of whatever is holding the offending liquid.

That's what I tried to do in the .132 seconds I had until I hit the water.

So now I need to go pick up a new phone from Verizon.

Stupid me.

**UPDATED**

Got a new phone. $185 for the thing. Purchased the $5 a month insurance on it, so if there are any further mishaps, I'll get a free one.

Can I drop off a teenager?

2007-05-16T21:48:00.000-06:00

You know how Japan has just recently opened a baby drop box? No?

Well, evidently some Japanese are tired of people being wasteful and just throwing their unwanted babies away, so they opened a drop-off box by the Catholic-run Jikei Hospital in the southern city of Kumamoto.

The folks who opened this felt that having a safe place to anonymously leave an unwanted baby would discourage abortions and the abandonment of children in unsafe public places.

On the very first day a three-year-old boy was found inside.

Some people just have to ruin things for everyone else.

He claimed his father brought him there. "I came with Daddy," he said.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said, "Anonymously throwing out a child is unacceptable."

It has been decided that no crime was committed because the toddler was not left in a dangerous situation.

Mr. President, we must not allow a baby drop-off box gap!

Hearthstone Homes pours some concrete...

2007-05-16T13:23:00.000-06:00

Looks like they poured our driveway, our front porch and the walkway.

Our lot is getting more and more sloped. Looks like we might have to put some kind of retaining wall in eventually. Maybe some dirt. Our backyard WILL BE FLAT!

I am more impressed with the view out back now that it's summer and things are nice and green.

Can't wait for them to start framing.

I hope our neighbors are nice.

More info on Omaha's Rosenblatt stadium

2007-05-16T06:47:00.000-06:00

Mayor Fahey and representatives from the NCAA met at City Hall on Tuesday to discuss the fate of Omaha's Rosenblatt stadium and talk about how a new, shiny stadium would satisfy everyone's craving to spend money.

The new stadium, which is as good as built, will encompass six city blocks and provide amenities such as a heated grass field, updated locker rooms, a state-of-the-art sound system, and robot butlers to cater to the whims of the people rich enough to afford tickets.

For those of us fearful of the possibility of cost overruns with this project, Mayor Fahey has pointed out his plan to use as much of Rosenblatt's current setup as possible. The Rosenblatt statue, for example, will be transplanted to the new stadium. Fahey also mentioned something about putting Rosenblatt's new video display in his living room.

Alan Stein, the President of the Omaha Royals, wasn't allowed to sit at the grown-up table quite yet, but with the donation of a few million dollars to the project by the Royal's organization, is expected to be able to leave the kids' table "real soon now."

Rosenblatt getting the axe

2007-05-15T12:48:00.000-06:00

Mayor Fahey took a stand last week and decided that after dropping $35 million over the last 15 years into the 59-year-old Rosenblatt Stadium, Omaha taxpayers have finally spent enough money on baseball in Omaha.

Oh, wait. No he didn’t.

Mr. Fahey has decided, in his infinite wisdom, that Omaha needs to spend about $50 million and build a new stadium between the Qwest Center and Creighton University, after which the Rosenblatt stadium will be completely and utterly destroyed.

This new stadium, the name of which will probably be The Mike Fahey Knows Best Stadium will seat 9000, so both of the Royals’ fans better get cracking on their Myspace friends lists.

For those of you who enjoy the College World Series, there will be enough space for 16,000 more seats to be slapped down and sold to those suckers who think baseball is a real sport.

What makes me chuckle is that Fahey didn’t bother telling the Omaha Royals that he was planning on doing this. This surprised the Royals management, who, while probably being happy that they get a stadium that won’t reveal how few people actually go to Royals games, want to make sure they get accommodations that they don’t have to share with the CWS guys.

I would imagine that the conversation between the Mayor and Omaha Royals President Alan Stein went something like this:

Stein: Mayor, what about Leia and the Wookiee?

Fahey: They must never again leave this city.

Stein: That was never a condition of our agreement, nor was giving Hanto this bounty hunter!

Fahey: Perhaps you think you’re being treated unfairly.

Stein: No.

Fahey: Good. It would be unfortunate if I had to leave a garrison here.

Stein: This deal’s getting worse all the time.

What's been going on?

2007-05-15T07:10:00.000-06:00

Well after a stint at another blog where I was told I was far too negative to represent Omaha, I told them to pound sand and find someone else to be Omaha's cheerleader.

Which they did.

And that's that!

The house construction is progressing nicely. I've been hearing rumors about there being framing materials on-site, so I'll head on over there tomorrow and take some pictures.

My parents have decided to sell their house in California and build a house here in Omaha. They've decided on the subdivision of Manchester Park, which looks like a very nice area. I'll follow the building of that house as well.

As a way of apology for my lack of updates, let me share this with you: Indian Thriller!

Paris Hilton and jail

2007-05-06T15:04:00.000-06:00

As I'm sure everyone and their mother knows, Ms. Paris Hilton is headed to jail for 45 days.

Was she singled out? I'm sure she was. Her attitude was probably not properly respectful towards the judge - the one man she needed to win over in the room at the time. She has a long history of acting as if she were above the law. She has money. Her parents have money. She's famous, young and pretty.

I would not be surprised if she ended up dead before she saw her 36th birthday. She's not exactly living a life geared towards longevity.

I'm also sure that people are going to be slightly curious about what her stay is going to be like. Is she going to be someone's bitch? Is she going to get beaten up? Her stuff stolen? Is she going to starve?

Probably not.

Although I can't know for sure as to how the Century Regional Detention Center in Lynwood - a women-only jail is run, if the jail administrators have any sense, they'll place her in their PC housing unit. PC stands for protective custody.

Inmates are put into PC whenever they are at risk of being victimized by other inmates. Typically child molesters, snitches, and high-profile inmates are the types of folks who are placed into protective custody.

She'll be in her own room.

She'll get about an hour's worth of recreation a day, during which time she'll be able to use the phone, take a shower, walk around. She will probably have recreation time alone.

She'll have to clean her own room.

She will probably lose weight, but she'll be able to order food items from the jail's commissary provider every week - so she'll be snacking well enough.

It simply isn't in the jail's best interest to let her out among the general population or to give her a roommate. Jail personnel really do prefer to avoid fights and conflicts - it just creates more work.

We'll see how she takes it in a few weeks. Hopefully it ends up changing her for the better.

My son's imaginary puppy.

2007-05-06T08:08:00.000-06:00

He's almost three now, and he's got himself his first imaginary friend.

It's a puppy.

He has named it "pee-pee puppy."

When he tells complete strangers about his pee pee puppy, he explains that it's very fast, it likes to hide, and it fits nicely in the palm of his hand.

Often, when he is introducing his pee pee puppy, he'll hold his hand out and ask if they want to pet it.

Jamie's face is priceless to behold when these interactions take place.

Another Hearthstone Homes progress update

2007-05-04T09:43:00.000-06:00

Hmmm. Looks like our lot might end up having a slight slope from left down to right. That would be unfortunate. It doesn't look like a lot of slope, but I'd rather have NO slope.

Of course, there's a HUGE pile of dirt on the lot to our left and they might use that to level out both our lot and the lot to our right. We'll see.

We're not quite ready to move our stuff in yet, as you can see, they've only just put in the concrete for the basement floor.

We went to NFM last night with our Berkshire Hathaway passes and ordered two couches for the family room, a refrigerator for the kitchen, a very large and MANLY bed for the master bedroom, and a table and chair set for the "breakfast nook."

Delivery, according to NFM, needs to be within 60 days. Because the house isn't going to be finished in 60 days, we'll have to call and reschedule the deliveries.

If Jamie forgets to do this, we'll have NFM delivering all these things to a house that, at that time, might not have a roof.

You think you want an execution?

2007-05-03T07:36:00.000-06:00

Due to the Nebraska Supreme Court issuing a stay on the execution of Carey Dean Moore, Nebraska will probably be looking for a new way to execute the folks who take it upon themselves to do really, really nasty things to other people.

Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning thinks Nebraska lawmakers should consider changing Nebraska's form of execution to help reduce the number of appeals. He said it could be at least a year before another execution date is set for Moore.

"I don't fault the Supreme Court. I don't think what they did was wrong because I trust them as lawyers and judges. But, we've got a process here in Nebraska that's starting to look like it's just broken," Bruning said.

You know, he might be right - Nebraska's execution system could possibly be broken.

If it is judged to be broken, unconstitutional even, if lawmakers are going to seriously consider switching our electric chair to another type of execution - then allow me to present a few ideas of potential execution methods for Nebraska.

As you can see here, the executee is kept underneath a large block of some hard, heavy, solid substance. The block is suspended by a rope and pulley system. The larger the block, the more spectacular the result. The best substance for the block would probably be rock, but a large metal safe could be substituted with very little difference in the results. A heavy rope could be used to secure the executee. When the time comes, the executioner cuts the rope.

Although I'm no mechanical engineer, it seems to me that this would be an efficient method of execution. The inmate is sedated and placed in a giant catapult. If a catapult is unavailable, then a trebuchet could be substituted, as long as the proper mathematical work is done to find the proper aim. Once the aim is worked out, the inmate is thrown by the catapult towards a large, sturdy, brick wall.

This is possibly the most visually captivating of all the execution ideas I have submitted today, but then I, the artist, am somewhat biased. As you can see here, the inmate is placed into an area secured by tall walls. Above the inmate are two very heavy, solid blocks of material which are connected to a secure post of some kind by rope. Two executioners wielding traditional japanese katanas cut the ropes, releasing the blocks to swing down and smush the executee.

There you go. Fast, humane, safe, suffer-free methods of execution for Nebraska.

Feel free to send a link to this page to the Nebraska State Supreme Court and the Nebraska Legislature.

They sound like they're short on ideas.

Quick! Eat more chicken!

2007-05-03T06:53:00.000-06:00

Make your own KFC sign at KentuckyFriedCruelty.com

Evidently we aren't eating enough chicken in Omaha.

I, for one, will be heading to KFC tonight.

How I came to work in the correctional field.

2007-04-30T07:31:00.000-06:00

I've worked in a lot of fields, in all sorts of positions. Most of them I wasn't particularly suited for, but you've got to do something to pay the bills while you're in school. I've worked in radio, telemarketing, had sales positions of all kinds...

Car sales, for instance - I enjoyed the dance, the play between myself, the sales person, and my victim, the customer. I did not like being disagreed with however, especially by people who didn't know what they were talking about. I didn't enjoy the fact that I felt I was constantly in an adversarial relationship with everyone who came on the lot.

Customer: "I want that new $30,000 car. I want to put nothing down. I want to trade in my 1979 Chevy Nova with 500,000 miles and I want you to give me $2000 for it. I want to pay $250 a month and I'm not going to lease. That's my offer. Take it or I walk."

Me: "You know what, I have someone over here who might be able to help you. Here's Bob."

Bob: "...."

I'm not built for that kind of customer service. My wiring doesn't work that way. Oh, I'm fully capable of being nice, don't get me wrong - as long as the person I'm talking to is reciprocating the guesture. When you're in college though, and forced into a class schedule that you have to work around, you take what you can get.

Which brings me to the corrections field.

In the summer after I had graduated from college and gotten married, I was looking for a long-term job that would hopefully transform into a career.

It was the hip thing to do at the time. All the kids were doing it.

I wanted to avoid sales if I could. I wanted to avoid wearing a tie. I applied to, among other things, the Omaha Police Department and the Douglas County Correctional Center. I took some tests and waited. A few months later, DCC replied and said they wanted me, and the Omaha Police Department had me at #45 on their list (they were hiring 50 or so officers that year.)

I was worried about the cop job. There was a long probationary period. As a cop, you're held to a high standard of professionalism and work under a microscope on a daily basis. You're out there with the uniform and the badge...and you're a target. I was older than most college graduates and had a baby on the way. If I was a few years younger, single...I'd probably take the cop job -but I wasn't.

So I took the correctional officer position. I haven't looked back since -in fact I wish I had started working here years ago. If I'd started back in 1998 or so when I started taking college courses here in Omaha, I'd be at least a Sergeant by now.

The corrections field is the one for me.

We don't carry guns. We don't have batons. We don't have stun sticks, or tazers. Only one person in the building generally has access to chemical spray, and it isn't used often.

We have our hands, our feet and some damn fine people backing us up.

I have a job where I can go to work, hear people complain about things, and I get to say, "No." Sometimes I use even stronger terms.

I have a job where I get paid to charge into a cell where a feces-covered psychopath is waiting to hit me.

I have a job where I can pit my wits and observational skills against people who have been trying to get away with things their entire lives.

Granted, I work daily with people ranging from murderers to drunk drivers to child molesters to prostitutes, but that just gives me stories to tell around the dinner table at Christmas.

It's nice when you can have the mindset that you're actually looking forward to going to work each day.

Yet another reason for Jamie to stay out of the water.

2007-04-28T18:17:00.000-06:00

Those things are aliens. Intelligent, and fast. I want to learn how to communicate with them, so they don't come for me in the night.

There was a lab where marine biologists were studying octopuses and other marine animals. Naturally, different animals were kept in separate tanks. Every morning, when they would come in, the biologists would find a few fish missing from their tank. The only clue they had was that the floor was wet.

Puzzled, they set up security cameras. The next morning, when they watched the footage.

What they found out was: The octopuses waited for the humans to leave, then crawled out of their tanks, across the floor, up and into the fish tanks, ate some fish, then crawled back to their tanks so they humans wouldn't catch them the next morning being where they weren't supposed to be.

Octopi can survive out of water for several minutes at a time. They can squeeze through any hole as large as their beak (the only inflexible part of their bodies). They can and will open jars to get at the contents within. They are (kind of) jet-powered, able to move through water by jetting water out of themselves. Oh, and the main way they communicate? By rapidly changing their skin color. They use that ability both for camouflage and communication.

Good luck learning their language.

Amazing creatures. It's been suggested that the only reason they aren't as intelligent as dolphins is that so much of their brains are dedicated to keeping track of their eight arms

New Hearthstone Homes progress pictures

2007-04-26T08:52:00.000-06:00

Looks like we have a garage floor. They also put the dirt back in after they coated the basement walls with the moisture sealant.

The big metal thing is the bracing for our basement daylight window. My escape hatch in case things go really bad.

The biggest drawback your basement has with a daylight window is that zombies can get in - only one at a time, though, so it's managable. Plus the window is small enough to secure, or you can just secure the top of the bracing.

Whoa. Changed things a bit.

2007-04-25T16:14:00.000-06:00

I got really tired of having to work with the inflexibility of two columns whenever I wanted to do something with the blog. So I was up late last night and early this morning figuring out how to get a three-column template.

I found one that I liked, or at least I thought that I liked. Installed it, didn't like it.

Installed another one, couldn't get it to work.

Looked around some more, found this template, installed it and decided to settle for now. I don't want to waste a whole day on this, you know?

I cannot wait until I pick up Studio 8 or Adobe's CS3 and can teach myself some new tricks.

...well to be honest, ANY tricks. It's been a long time since I've done any HTML.

I'm not saying that private prisons suck, but...

2007-04-24T15:24:00.000-06:00

...in their eternal quest to cut costs and pull in a regular profit, sometimes things fall by the wayside. Things like safety and security.

Things like this happen.

Police in New Castle, Indiana are saying that as of 4:30 PM, they are stabilizing the riot taking place at the New Castle Correctional Facility. Fortunately, so far only two staff members have been reported as having been injured.

If a government is going to take upon itself the responsibility to dispense justice, it needs to take the responsibility of seeing that justice through. Government has a moral responsibility for not only regular citizens, but also the inmates of its correctional facilities.

Government should not pay private companies to provide cheap judge services. Government should not pay private companies to provide cheap police services. Government should also keep private companies out of the incarceration business.

The only reason a government would pay a private company to house inmates is because of the kickbacks that public officials inevitably get during the bidding and construction process of these private prisons.

Great video if you have 15 minutes...

2007-04-24T07:42:00.000-06:00

Via: VideoSift

This is a fantastic 15-minute video of Michael Shermer (the founder of Skeptic Magazine) speaking on the subject of why otherwise intelligent people believe in stupid things. He touches on the subject of UFO sightings, religious icon sightings (a favorite of mine) and how, by establishing an expectation beforehand, we tend to see or experience what we expect to see or experience. Good stuff!

Wendy's comes through!

2007-04-23T15:55:00.000-06:00

So I went with the wife to Wendy's on Saturday night. Hit the drive-through, ordered a #2 (double burger) with fries and a coke. We also ordered a baked potato with sour cream and chives for the wife, as she needs nourishment occasionally as well. Simple enough, right?

I knew there would be trouble as soon as the dude handling the order said, "You want that potato instead of the fries, right?"

"Negative. I want that potato in addition to the fries included in my combo."

"Ok."

So I pick up the bag at the window, pay the man, and we're on our way home. I'm looking forward to my imminent gustatory satisfaction. I open the bag....

No fries.

Jamie notices my crestfallen features and says, "No fries huh?"

"Nope."

"Sucks to be you. This potato is really good. Nummy nummy."

So I head over to Wendy's website, which makes Jamie roll her eyes and ask, "What are you doing?"

"I'm gonna get my fries," I reply.

"You're wasting your time."

So I fill out a customer comment form on the Wendy's site. Right HERE. I mention how heartbroken I was, how my wife made fun of me.

With my sense of duty satisfied, I finish my meal and forget any of this happened.

Today, on Monday, at 1:30 PM, I get a call from a guy on his cell phone who claims to be the regional manager for Wendy's in Omaha. He begins by apologizing profusely for his lackey's incompetence. He fawns over my politely-worded submission, letting me know how often he gets complaints that are somewhat...violently stated.

"Some people are just terrible, you know?"

He apologizes again and eventually, gradually, lets me know that I will be receiving a coupon for a free #2 (double cheeseburger, fries and a coke) in the mail shortly.

I am a happy man.

May the fax set you free.

2007-04-22T17:39:00.000-06:00

Correctional officials set a man free after receiving a fax someone sent from a grocery story which was thought to be, typos and all, a document from the Kentucky Supreme Court demanding this man's release. This is of course, Kentucky, so perhaps legal standards aren't quite as stringent.

Fortunately, Timothy Rouse was later captured at his mother's house.

I'm sick.

2007-04-22T11:58:00.000-06:00

I hate being sick. Hate it, hate it, HATE IT!

Sore throat, headache, sinus pressure, runny nose.

I took a third of a bottle of Nyquil and two Tylenol PM but that didn't help me sleep much. Kept waking up with a dry mouth.

Didn't go into work yesterday, but I will today. Might as well be sick and get paid instead of being sick and not getting paid.

Went out to Hearthstone last night...

2007-04-20T07:31:00.000-06:00

We had some addendums our building coordinator wanted us to sign. One had to do with the fact that we're now going to get radon testing done.

Due to Omaha's conquering of Elkhorn, our future address has changed to better reflect Omaha's numbering system; which is to say, it's not as nice.

While we were out there, we had the wonderful experience of seeing a potential buyer interacting in a calm and reasonable manner with our building coordinator.

Just kidding. This guy was a jackass.

He was upset that certain homes were walkout and others were not, and he let everyone know about it. He insisted that he was fully qualified to determine how a particular lot should be labeled and that he wanted to talk to the foreman to give him a piece of his mind. He was doing all this with his four children present. His wife was also annoyingly bitchy.

I hope they're not on my street.

Regardless, I was able to snap some pictures of the progress Hearthstone Homes had made to my lot, so here they are:

Owen adores dirt clods. It was difficult to pry him away from the huge piles of dirt sitting on our lot. He will be heartbroken when he finds out the dirt isn't going to stay.

Drinking.

2007-04-20T06:58:00.000-06:00

I was reading a story today that suggested lowering the legal drinking age would possibly lower the troubles we are seeing with alcohol among teens. From the story:

McCardell, 57, president emeritus of Middlebury College in Vermont and professor of history there, says alcohol is and always will be a reality in the lives of 18-, 19- and 20-year-olds. Studies indicate that the number of college students who drink is slightly smaller than it was 10 years ago, largely because of increased interest in healthy living. But in the majority who choose to drink, there have been increases of binge drinking and other excesses. Hospitalizations of 18- to 20-year-olds for alcohol poisoning have risen in those 10 years. This, McCardell believes, is partly because the drinking age of 21 has moved drinking to settings away from parental instruction and supervision. Among college students, drinking has gone off campus and underground, increasing risks while decreasing institutions abilities to manage the risks.

I think that what Mr. McCardell has forgotten, or completely failed to realize, is that age is not important when it comes to responsible behavior. Either a person has the self-will and self-control to drink responsibly, or a person doesn't. Unfortunately, just as there are vast numbers of 18-year-olds that can't handle drinking responsibly, there are also vast numbers of 25-year-olds who can't handle it either. Not to mention the 35-year-olds. And the 45-year-olds.

If you haven't outgrown getting drunk by the time you're 35, then you're an alcoholic.

Setting an arbitrary number for inclusion into adult activities (entering a contract, drinking, entering the military, smoking, voting, renting a car) is foolish. It would be wiser for a society to allow individuals willing to conform to what is considered responsible behavior to somehow prove themselves able - at whatever age they can.

Perhaps we should take a page from the Australian Aborigines and their "walkabouts." At the age of thirteen they walk in the wilderness for six months as a rite of passage. They trace the passage of their ancestors, following their routes and re-enacting their heroic acts. Once this is done, they are accepted as an adult into their society.

The ancient greeks also had a good coming of age rite - the Dokimasia. When a young Athenian came of age to vote in Athens, he was brought before an assembly in his district and put to the question. His life and actions up to that point were brought up, talked about and examined. If a valid objection to his inclusion into adult society was found, the candidate had to find a way to overcome that objection and convince others that he could be treated as an adult.

These are unrealistic ideas for a society that is focused on handouts.

I'm going to go play with my kids now.

The Internet is for Porn

2007-04-19T11:16:00.000-06:00

I do not play MMORPG's any longer. They're way too dangerous to my marriage...so I've never even tried World of Warcraft. This video had me rolling though, so I'll share it with my readers.

Please don't feed the homeless

2007-04-18T16:30:00.000-06:00

Annoyed that the city's homeless population isn't dying off quickly enough, Lincoln today launched a new campaign encouraging residents and visitors to their fair town NOT to give money or food to "street people."

Giving money or food to "house people" is apparently still ok with Lincoln's leadership.

Posters, brochures and some "guerilla marketing pieces" will soon be seen around downtown Lincoln. The ads suggest that homeless folks will spend any money given them to satisfy their addictions, like their addiction to food.

Radon Gas! Run!

2007-04-17T09:58:00.000-06:00

Just how dangerous is Radon Gas?

I've been warned by a concerned party (my mom) that Nebraska has a serious problem with radon gas. This concerned party (mom, again) was sure that radon was going to kill us all unless we took steps NOW to solve the problem.

This is an artist's conception of what the radon's assault on our family would look like. Notice my short arms. Both my children have longer arms than I do. This is a weird genetic flaw that can only be explained by radon attacks.

Hearthstone Homes gave us the option to have our own inspector check the site for possible radon gas. This would have been in addition to their own inspector checking everything out. We weighed the risks and decided to let Hearthstone Homes handle the inspecting.

If there's any evidence of radon after we move in, we'll have to get a system installed to deal with that. How much those are, I have no idea.

Here's a link explaining how to build a house that deals with possible radon buildup.

I'd say this police department has some problems.

2007-04-16T07:27:00.000-06:00

Story from the Daily Report - read on!

Police Sgt. Patrick Welles got a call for backup one night in 2004 and told the dispatcher he was busy but would be there shortly. It turned out he was busy having sex with a woman in his patrol car, investigators say. The 12-year veteran was fired for conduct unbecoming an officer and other departmental violations, including misuse of city property.

But now the black officer has filed a racial discrimination lawsuit, claiming white colleagues on the Chattanooga force did similar things — or worse — and were allowed to keep their jobs.

A federal investigator with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission agreed Welles was treated differently. The EEOC reported that the police department ''had knowledge of white officers who violated policy and committed sexual offenses such as rape, masturbation in public, sexual harassment, domestic assault and various of other terminable or egregious offenses, but followed progressive disciplinary procedures as well as resignation or reinstatement for those not of the charging party's race.''

Welles, in his April 9 lawsuit, is asking for reinstatement and back pay, or at least $100,000.
An assistant in the Chattanooga city attorney's office, Kenneth O. Fritz, declined to comment, as did the white police chief who fired Welles, Steve Parks, and Parks' successor, Freeman Cooper, who is black.

Welles told City Council members at an appeal hearing that he had gone to a bar around 2 a.m. for a business check and picked up a woman who had just been fired and was arguing with her employers at the bar. Welles said he drove her to a secluded area, where they had sex in his car.

He said it took less time than a lunch break.

An internal affairs investigation found that while Welles was with the woman, he failed to back up other officers when a dispatcher reported a disorder at a business.

Welles' attorney, Stuart James, said: ''Regardless of the offense, when you see a pattern where white officers are treated differently, it raises a suspicion there may be discrimination because of race.''The lawsuit cites other cases in which white officers were allowed to keep their jobs:

— One officer, charged with rape on city property while on duty, was given only a 28-day suspension and is still employed by the department, the lawsuit says. The lawsuit does not specify the outcome of the criminal charges.
— A lieutenant was disciplined for sexual harassment of an officer — using a city computer to mail sexually explicit material to a female employee. But he was restored to lieutenant after an appeal, the suit says.

Shelley Parker, an attorney for the police department, said the lawsuit would be vigorously defended. Parker said he could not recall some of the examples cited in the suit that involved white officers.

Leamon Pierce, a black city councilman who voted to uphold Welles' firing, said an officer having sex in a patrol car is ''totally out of character for a police officer. Everyone who would come before the council, we would take the same action.'' The councilman said of Welles' contention that he wasn't the only one to commit such an offense: ''You can't justify a wrong with another wrong.''

I seriously need to sue someone.

2007-04-16T06:58:00.000-06:00

The hardest part in suing someone is finding something good to sue about, as evidenced in this story from the Associated Press:

Three prisoners serving potential life sentences in Colorado say their lives have been threatened—by mosquitoes. The inmates at Walsenburg and Limon prisons sued, saying they were at risk of contacting West Nile virus or other diseases after they were bitten repeatedly by mosquitoes and suffered “the emotional and mental distress of whether or not each mosquito’s bite would result in death or serious bodily injury.” Stephen G. Glover, Alan Smith and Michael Freeman said the bites caused high fever, headache, neck stiffness and muscle weakness. “Each attack constituted bodily injury, which the (Department of Corrections) had the power to prevent, but consciously elected not to,” wrote the inmates, acting as their own attorneys. But the Colorado Court of Appeals swat down their case and upheld a lower court’s decision to throw their case out. Prison officials said no confirmed cases of West Nile virus have ever been found in the prison population, and inmates are provided mosquito repellant.

The problem with suing is that you have to A) target someone with the ability to pay you, and B) have enough of a case that you can overcome their better-paid defense.

New house pictures!

2007-04-15T08:04:00.000-06:00

As you can see, Owen likes his new house.

Amazing Pizza Machine

2007-04-14T20:27:00.000-06:00

Odds are, if you're in Omaha and you have kids, that you've been to this place at least once. It's been open for about a year now.

The Amazing Pizza Machine

The buffet is similar to Valentino's Grand Buffet, only not nearly as good. Really, if you want to go somewhere and have a nice buffet dinner in Omaha, go to Valentino's or Ameristar - unless you have kids and a few hours to kill, in which case the Amazing Pizza Machine is fine.

I went there today to help Isaiah (Isaah? Jimmy?) celebrate his birthday. Owen was happy to be there. I took him on the go-karts, which he loved, and walked him through a round of mini-golf, which he was not as excited about.

He plays golf like I play hockey. Enthusiastically, but without much ability.

Birthday Party

2007-04-14T09:30:00.000-06:00

I have been informed that I will be attending a birthday party today at the Amazing Pizza Machine. This means I will not be able to drive out to the house site.

On the plus side, I'm going to enjoy a semi-decent buffet.

On the negative side, I will probably be assaulted by many random children.

House progress

2007-04-13T15:50:00.000-06:00

I'll do my best to get out to the Hearthstone Homes house site tomorrow morning and take some pictures of the progress they're making on our new house. The basement is dug, and there are a bunch of slabs that are up against the walls of the dirt pit.

Am I using the correct technical terms? Probably not.

Will the pictures be pretty? Yes, yes they will.

Google's new real estate tool is up...

2007-04-10T18:16:00.000-06:00

Seriously. In a few years is the realtor profession going to have more than twelve members?

Google Housing

The site works for both rentals and sales listings.

Playing this game at the carnival always makes me feel sad

2007-04-10T17:35:00.000-06:00

The dog whimpers and tries to scamper away, but the duct tape is too strong, and the dog usually hasn't been fed for a while.

Still, you can win a stuffed candy cane, so it's not like you can just walk away.

Shake it off!

2007-04-09T08:51:00.000-06:00

Instead of mourning the passing of a once-funny (a long, long time ago) comic, let's take a moment to soak in a few examples of how an unfunny, crappy comic can be made funny and a pleasure to read! Courtesy of the Family Circuss!

Unfunny comics

2007-04-09T07:33:00.000-06:00

So B.C. creator Johnny Hart died on Easter Weekend...

I came across a collection of his old work when I was a kid. Some of it was really funny.

Around the time Bush 43 got elected, Hart went all Zell Miller on us and I've resented him ever since. I am hoping his crappy, preachy, holier-than-thou, shove-Jebus-down-everyone's-throat comic strip will now disappear from my newspaper. The minute a funny person starts taking themselves and/or their religion seriously *in the context of their work* is the minute they stop being funny and just become plain obnoxious. He went from "comic strip" to "bully pulpit" about 8 years ago and would never have gotten published in the first place if he had been so sanctimonious at the start of his career. The only reason he got away with it in the end is because he was an old habit that died hard for a lot of newspapers and their audiences...

Not funny.

He was a skilled cartoonist, and he brought me a lot of laughs when he kept his observations to everyday topics. When he became "born-again" his cartoons simply stopped being funny. Any other cartoonist serious about their work instead of prosthelitizing could've gotten the Easter message across with a snarky comment about eggs or bunnies, but he had to get heavy-handed with the sacrifice issue. When I read his strip, I felt less that I was learning something through sarcasm or satire that made me laugh, and more that I was simply being preached to. That doesn't make for any kind of good comic, unless you're Jack Chick. His subtlety simply vanished, and it's a damned shame - he was good at one time.

Now all we need to do is to push the guy responsible for Marmaduke along with the guy responsible for Garfield off a nice, high cliff.

Easter Sunday

2007-04-08T10:10:00.000-06:00

While I'm not a religious individual, family gatherings (for my family at least) are nice. Jamie's family is in our apartment right now, getting food ready to take to Jamie's grandmother's house for Easter dinner. Owen is excited, as any 2 year old with approximately 2 pounds of chocolate and 12 ounces of caffeine in his system would be. I think he will have a good time.

Logan of course, would have fun just about anywhere.

I enjoyed my hollow chocolate bunny. It was not as good as the hollow chocolate bunny I remember from Easters past, but really...what is?

Special Ed is not for me.

2007-04-07T15:49:00.000-06:00

My wife wants to go back to school to get a Masters degree in education. She is thinking that she wants to be a special ed teacher. My wife is a noble person. She is a much better person than myself. If someone asked ME to teach a special education class (or any class for that matter) this would be my response:

Yes that IS a picture of Neun. From "Retardation,A Celebration" narrated by Wilford Brimley: Wilford Brimley: First of all, the retarded don’t rule the night. They don’t rule it. Nobody does. And they don’t run in packs. While they may not be as strong as apes, don’t lock eyes with them. It puts them on edge. It might put them on bezerker mode. Come at you like a whirling dervish, all fists and elbows. You might be screaming "No, no, no" and all they hear is "Who wants cake."

Some problems work themselves out.

2007-04-06T07:10:00.000-06:00

Logan finished drinking his morning milk/formula combo bottle this morning, and put it in his mouth to carry about like a puppy.

I wondered if he was still hungry, so I filled a small bottle with some white grape juice and gave it to him. He reached for it eagerly.

He still had his big bottle in his mouth, however. The big bottle prevented him from bringing the little bottle to his mouth so he could enjoy the contents within! He tried for 2 minutes straight to get the little bottle into his mouth while he still had the big bottle hanging from his teeth.

Could not do it.

This makes him sad, and he cried.

Behold! The big bottle falls out of his mouth!

He quickly realized and capitalized on the fact that the little bottle would go in now!

He smiled at me proudly as I smiled back at this rank amateurism in the sustinence game.

Question: How do you know when it's time to pull dad out of the assisted living facility?

2007-04-06T07:01:00.000-06:00

Answer: When you find a rat in his room. And it's dead. And it's lodged in his mouth.

Seriously, if your parents don't have long-term care insurance, you might want to look into getting them some.

Long-term care is expensive, and "The Man" frowns on chaining your parents to a stake in the backyard, even if you leave the hose on for their water needs.

I saw a co-worker while I was shopping today.

2007-04-05T19:51:00.000-06:00

I saw Scuba Steve at Wal-Mart today. He had a small, delicate-featured, beautiful child in his cart, so I said "Hey, how's the little girl?"

He insisted it was a boy.

"Whoops, thought you had a little girl."

My wife, as we were walking to the van said, "Well, I hope he's not your supervisor."

"Why?" I asked.

"Because you just blatantly called his boy, who was dressed in a boy jacket, a boy pair of pants and a boy pair of shoes, a girl," she replied.

"Oh, really?"

"Really. How could you have missed that?"

"Oh, I don't know...the whole color-blindness thing maybe?"

For those of you unclear on the concept:

2007-04-05T19:44:00.000-06:00

Remember kids, when you could care less, you sound like an idiot to those of us who know better.

As promised - house progress pictures

2007-04-05T14:51:00.000-06:00

Tractor was gone, so Owen didn't get to watch it push dirt around. He does so like tractors.

I believe my wife will be taking me to a Chinese Buffet for dinner in celebration of that most holy of holy days.

GIMME!

2007-04-05T13:41:00.000-06:00

For those of you who know someone who might be approaching a specific date that would typically be considered a date when someone else would give that person an appropriate gift.

Build your own calendar of such motivating scenes as this:

Taco Bell breakfasts debut in Omaha.

2007-04-05T07:48:00.000-06:00

According to KETV's story, Omaha's a test market for Taco Bell's new breakfast menu.

If I had to rank breakfast burritos from places in Omaha currently offering A) breakfast and B) breakfast burritos, it would look something like this:

a) Sonic's Breakfast Burrito

b) anything

c) anything

d) anything

e) McDonald's breakfast burrito

Sonic does the burrito right, although they've been slipping lately. I heard McDonald's has a new burrito, but I am unsure. I'll have to go look sometime when I have absolutely nothing to do.

I would hope that Taco Bell can put something together that's pretty decent - hopefully better than what McDonald's tries to pass off as a breakfast burrito.

House pictures from last week.

2007-04-04T20:03:00.000-06:00

Well, not really a house at that point. Just some dirt. We went back today and they had done some digging. I'll go take some pictures tomorrow with any luck.

Brotherly love - some pictures

2007-04-04T19:53:00.000-06:00

Logan's cheeks were a bit red during the winter.

My birthday

2007-04-04T08:43:00.000-06:00

My birthday is on April 6th.

Feel free to join the crusade to get the day recognized as a national holiday.

Or perhaps you can buy me a present.

Order this now for thirty bucks and you can be sure it will arrive on that most holy of days.

Thirty dollars too rich for your blood? Order this instead!

Experiences Owen should have:

2007-04-04T08:34:00.000-06:00

Learning to swim
A weeklong trip to Disneyworld
Camping at least three times a year, serious outdoor stuff - not cabin "camping"
Fishing from a boat
Building a fort
Digging massive holes
Seeing Mount Rushmore/Niagra Falls/Washington D.C.
Martial arts

Logan should experience:

Not being pushed down
Not having his food taken away
Not having a cat dropped on him

Sick world.

2007-04-04T08:29:00.000-06:00

I can see a future where children are born, raised, then cut up for their organs and skin at the age of 13. A healthy young teenager would be worth a lot of money in a world like that. Certainly more than six dollars.

Prisoners sentenced to death will be used as organ donors. After all, the state pays for your keep after your indiscretions, you repay the state with your vitals upon expiration. Simple.

People might think twice about committing capital crimes if they knew they'd be carved up like a 20 pound turkey after they die.

Yes, yes I know. What happens to the body after death wouldn't really deter criminals. And you'd have to monitor the system to ensure people aren't being sentenced just so their organs could be harvested.

Let's get on with it.

Blame Canada!

2007-03-29T07:11:00.000-06:00

Can we please just make marijuana a legal substance and stop locking people up for possessing it?

From cbc.ca news:

A medical marijuana activist in Calgary was sentenced Tuesday to four months in jail for trafficking in marijuana, but the judge ruled that corrections officials must make sure he has access to the drug while behind bars.

Grant Krieger, who suffers from multiple sclerosis and has legal permission to smoke marijuana for medical purposes, had previously admitted to sending two packages of marijuana to Manitoba in 2003 and 2004.

Provincial court Judge William Pepler said Tuesday that incarceration is appropriate, but he is delaying Krieger's time behind bars until June to allow corrections officials to figure out how they will administer medical marijuana to him.

Pepler said although he recognizes that Krieger has a special constitutional right to receive marijuana to alleviate pain, the federal government has a program for people in Krieger's situation and Krieger must now comply with the law.

Judge whips it out in the courtroom.

2007-03-29T07:04:00.000-06:00

From News For Jacksonville, Florida:

A pistol-packing judge made no apologies on Tuesday after pulling out a gun when a scuffle broke out in the middle of court proceedings.

Circuit Judge John Merrett said Friday began as just another normal day in courtroom two of the Duval County Courthouse until the father of an alleged child molestation victim decided to take the law into his own hands. He was there for a plea bargain hearing involving defendant 21-year-old Derrick McNeil, who has been charged with molesting a child.

However, in the middle of the hearing there was sudden chaos.

Merrett said he took out his gun when a brawl broke out near the bench. He said he never put his finger on the trigger or pointed the gun at anyone. He said he wanted to be prepared in case the fight between a child's father and a handcuffed defendant escalated.

"I had no idea what was going on," Merritt said. "I had just spoken to the father. I had just asked him if the plea agreement that the state had reached with the defendant was agreeable to him and he said yes, and I looked down and I see a blur and then there's all this going down there on the floor." He said the father was attacking the defendant. Bailiffs went to break up the fight, while the judge took action of his own.

"Since I didn't know what was going on or who was at risk, I thought it prudent to get my safety device out," Merrett said.

That safety device to which Merrett referred was his handgun. The judge said he kept it at his side and gave it to a clerk to lock up once the situation was under control. A police report said the father landed several punches and threatened to kill McNiel. It took five bailiffs to restore order. The reason Merritt said he became so concerned was that when the father of the victim jumped over the benches he ran and tackled the defendant in an area where the he couldn't see what was going on.

"Anytime someone's running towards the bench in a courtroom … it indicates they've had an emotional break of some sort," Merrett said.

Merret met with the father in his chambers and later ordered him released without bail, even though he was charged with a felony and two misdemeanors. Although Merrett, who has a license to carry a concealed weapon, and did not commit a crime, at least one attorney has called for a change in the rules that allows judges to carry firearms in the courthouse after what he said was a scary, real-life courtroom drama.

Duval County Public Defender Bill White questioned the safety of allowing judges to carry guns. He said he plans to talk to the chief judge about disarming the judges. However, several people at the courthouse on Friday told Channel 4 they believe judges should continue to be allowed to carry guns. "There's a lot of crazy people out there and crazy people are going to have guns, so why shouldn't judges have them? They are there because they are defenders of the law," said Arwen Bosico. "You never know who's going to show up in a courtroom and what they're going to do when they get there, so I believe it'd be OK," Len Taliferro said.

Do NOT litter.

2007-03-29T06:55:00.000-06:00

From AOL.com:

The acting police chief and three part-time officers from a popular Long Island vacation spot were indicted Tuesday on charges they beat a tourist after he was accused of littering.
Samuel Gilberd, 34, suffered severe internal injuries, including a ruptured bladder, that required 10 days in a hospital.

Authorities promised that the indictments were the first phase of an investigation into police conduct in Ocean Beach, a village known for enforcing laws such as a onetime ban on eating cookies on public walkways.

"It was a police department gone wild. There was no control at all," Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas Spota said. The officers "acted as thugs in police uniforms."

Acting Police Chief George Hesse, 38, is charged with assault and unlawful imprisonment in the August 2005 confrontation with Gilberd, who still visits a urologist and is receiving psychiatric care.

A bouncer at a bar across the street from the Police Department accused Gilberd of littering and took him over to be cited. The officers dragged him into a room and kicked him in the stomach, said D. Carl Lustig III, the lawyer representing Gilberd in a federal lawsuit seeking millions of dollars from the village and the department.

Hesse's lawyer, William Keahon, contended Gilberd was intoxicated and suggested he hurt himself in a fall. "This is about a fellow that was drunk, on drugs, injured himself and now wants to sue," Keahon said.

Lustig did not dispute that his client had been drinking, but said medical reports showed his client had no drugs in his system.

The part-time officers were charged with unlawful imprisonment, reckless endangerment and hindering prosecution. They were identified as Paul Carollo, 46; Arnold Hardman, 51; and William Emburey, 42. All four men pleaded not guilty Tuesday. They remain free on bail. Emburey's lawyer, John Ray, said the confrontation occurred on his client's first night on the job. He said Emburey had nothing to do with the allegations and was charged only because it happened on his shift.

A week after the altercation, Gilberd was charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest, but the district attorney later dismissed those allegations.

The population of Ocean Beach, on Fire Island just east of New York City, swells from 138 year-round residents to more than 6,000 renters and day-trippers in the summer, when rentals can start at $10,000 a month. The village is nicknamed the "Land of No" because of odd ordinances such as the cookie ban. It was also the setting for last summer's ABC reality show "One Ocean View" about the island's singles scene.

The police department has two full-time members and 24 part-time officers.

Last week, five former police officers claimed they were wrongfully fired by Hesse, whom they accused of misconduct and mismanagement. In an interview with Newsday, Hesse would not say why he fired the five officers. Doug Wigdor, a former prosecutor representing the five officers in a wrongful termination lawsuit, claimed Hesse was "running the police department like a fraternity house."

Village and police officials have declined to comment on that federal lawsuit, in which the officers seek millions of dollars in damages and the restoration of their jobs.

Watch out for gopher holes.

2007-03-27T08:53:00.000-06:00

According to the Des Moines Register:

A former inmate at the Oakdale Correctional Center in Coralville is suing the state and the Department of Corrections based on allegations he was injured when he fell into a gopher hole on the prison's grounds.

Alfonso McKnight, who was released on parole in 2006 and now lives in the Chicago area, alleges in court documents filed in Johnson County District Court that his injury was a result of the center's failure to properly maintain safe conditions in the recreational area. His lawyer, Robert Leyshon of Rock Island, said McKnight suffered a badly fractured ankle that required surgery. Leyshon would not elaborate on the extent of the mental anguish, disability, or other losses for which McKnight is asking compensation.

The only realistic solution for this serious, serious problem is to close the recreation area until such a time as a professional can be found that can solve the gopher problem once and for all. Hopefully the inmates will get recreation again sometime in the next month or so.

Retards in Kansas do something interesting.

2007-03-24T07:21:00.000-06:00

Do you get evicted if you don't pay your rent?

From the Salina Journal:

MARION -- There'll be no free lunch -- no free anything - at the Marion County Jail. The county soon will begin charging inmates for their care - $11.75 a day at the minimum. A resolution passed this week by the Marion County Commission means the end of "free room and board, three squares a day" at the jail, said Randy Dallke, commission chairman. The charges will take effect after the resolution is published in the county newspaper, said Karen Selznick, office manager at the Marion County Attorney's office.

Marion County Sheriff Lee Becker said Kansas law allows him to charge for jail time. Currently, the bill is passed to taxpayers, who pay a little more than $18 a day to house a prisoner.
Prisoners will pay $9.50 a day for food, $2 for clothing, bedding and laundry and 25 cents for hygiene items. Plus, they'll be billed the full cost of medications and health care, and $25 to $40 an hour for transportation services.

"Hopefully we'll send a message that it's no longer a free ride," Becker said.

If all this sounds inhospitable, that's the point.

"If it gets expensive enough, maybe they won't want to come back and see us again," Dallke said. "We're trying to lighten the tax burden of taking care of people -- the repeat offenders," he said.

Inmates who work for the county -- a maximum of four hours a day -- will see a $5 reduction in the jail bill. Inmates who work for other employers through a work release program will be required to pay the county $20 a day to defray costs.

Dallke said the county will pursue payment "just like any bill. We'll send it to them and see if we get paid. If that's not the case, we'll have to take legal action to get paid in full." Sheriff Becker said collecting the debts could be a problem if civil judgments are required. "I don't see tons of revenue coming in, but anything helps," he said.

The sheriff felt stung recently when an inmate received Social Security disability checks while awaiting trial. "He's in here five months and getting a check every month while I'm paying all the costs of housing, feeding and clothing him. He will get paid until he's convicted and goes to prison," Becker said. "With this resolution, at least I will be able to recoup the costs to taxpayers on one side of it."

The sheriff's office has some precedence for charging fees. Already in place is a $45 fingerprinting fee charged those booked into jail. That fee is waived if the prisoner is not convicted. Last year, Becker said, the county collected $1,300 for fingerprinting.

The cost of care for each prisoner in the Salina jail is $47.80 a day, and that cost is borne by taxpayers. But Sheriff Glen Kochanowski said prisoners are charged for medical care. "When you charge, they usually have a justified reason" for demanding health care, he said. "It cuts down on the unnecessary trip to go see the nurse."

That health care charge was begun by former Sheriff Darrell Wilson. He said his fee schedule - $5 for a nurse, $10 for a doctor -- cut the number of prisoner medical visits by two-thirds.
Wilson, who now is executive director of the Kansas Sheriff's Association, said Marion County's room and board fee is unusual in Kansas.

"Not everybody agrees with charging prisoners," he said. "But most citizens paying the bill would agree if they've (the prisoners) got the money, why shouldn't they pay?"

I don't like this for non-convicted prisoners. If someone is arrested but has not yet been convicted, they are presumed innocent. As such, the burden is on the tax payer, as society's paying for a legal system, police force, and other expenses is the burden that they are to bear if they are to have such systems.

I believe that Spokane, WA tried this and it was found unconstitutional and all prior inmates were awarded a refund.

On the other hand convicted prisoners should be charged for as much as possible. We've got inmates who want to go see the nurse/doctor every single day if they can. I think if Nebraska law let us do this, it would be an extremely popular measure.

U.G.L.Y. You ain't got no alibi!

2007-03-23T07:22:00.000-06:00

If you are a hot white women you can do just about anything. If you are a ugly black man, you might as well walk yourself to the electric chair. Don't believe me? I suggest that you spend a day in traffic court and see how the judge disposes of the tickets. Warnings for all the hot white women, large fines and lectures for the ugly black men for similar offenses.

Unless you get the angry ugly woman judge. Then it is hilarious to see the girls who are used to just acting cute and getting away with anything running into a brick wall. The whole 'You can't say that to me, I'm pretty' look is funny, especially when they get to spend the night in jail for contempt.

From the Daily Mail:

Good looks could help guilty defendants dodge justice, researchers at Bath Spa University have said. They reported that in an experiment jurors were more likely to convict suspects deemed ugly than those seen as attractive. The researchers came to these conclusions after asking 96 volunteers to read a transcript of a fictitious mugging case.

Half of the participants were given a picture of an attractive suspect, the others one of a supposedly ugly defendant. The script was the same in either case. The volunteer 'jurors' were then asked to decide whether the suspect was innocent or guilty. In the latter case they also had to decide on a sentence.

Analysis of the results revealed that attractive suspects were more likely to be acquitted, despite there being no extra evidence in their favour.

Sandie Taylor, the psychologist who conducted the study, said: "We set out to consider the influence of physical attractiveness and ethnicity of a defendant depicted in a photograph on mock jurors' decisions of verdict, extent of guilt and sentencing. "Our findings confirm previous research on the effects of defendant characteristics - such as physical attractiveness - on the deliberations of jurors. "Attractive defendants are, it seems, rated less harshly than homely defendants, so perhaps justice isn't blind after all. "People who are physically attractive are assumed to be clever, successful and have more friends - it is tragic in a way."

Dr Taylor said Ted Bundy, who murdered more than 30 young women in the U.S. in the 1970s, was a good example of a criminal who tried to use his looks to his advantage.

"He was quite an attractive person physically and he had the gift of the gab and that is how he lured his victims into his car and killed them in the end," she said. "He wanted to represent himself in court and I think a few people might have been duped by his character and how he came across. "The hard-core forensic evidence was against him, but if that forensic evidence hadn't been there, he might well have got off, because he was quite charming and knew how to work people."

The study showed that while the jurors were swayed by attractiveness, they did not let race cloud their judgment. Black and white suspects were treated equally. When black suspects were convicted, however, they were given longer sentences.

"It is interesting that being an unattractive black defendant only had an impact on sentencing and not on a juror's verdict of guilt," Dr Taylor told the British Psychological Society's annual conference in York. "However, it is a positive finding that neither black nor white participants showed a bias towards their own ethnic group."

She pointed out that in British law sentences are decided by judges rather than juries.
Previous research by Dr Taylor showed that gender can also be important in the courts.
Women jurors treat female suspects more harshly, especially when they think they might have used their looks to their advantage. Men, on the other hand, tend to give attractive women the benefit of the doubt.

The phenomenon, known as the 'halo effect', is thought to extend far beyond the courtroom, with looks affecting an individual's exam marks, job prospects and even ability to make friends.
"People are constantly making judgments of other people," added Dr Taylor. "That is the way we make sense of a socially chaotic world - we use stereotypes to try to make sense of it all."

Break a deal, face the wheel!

2007-03-23T07:04:00.000-06:00

I used to work loss prevention on a contractor basis for a few stores, and I couldn't tell you how many little idiot teenage girls I'd catch stealing makeup. Then of course, they'd try to bargain with you in hopes their budding female wiles would work and you'd let them go.

From The Statesman:

Authorities have charged a department store loss prevention officer with seeking sex from a 16-year-old girl after he found her shoplifting, according to court documents. Ryan Keith Johnson, 26, is charged with indecency with a child, a second-degree felony, and faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted.

An arrest affidavit said Johnson told the girl that she had enough merchandise to be charged with a felony and that, "If you have sex with me right now, your record will be clean" during the March 7 incident at Kohl's on U.S. 290 in Sunset Valley.

The girl then performed a sex act on Johnson in the loss prevention office, the document said. Investigators said in the affidavit that they later interviewed Johnson, who told conflicting stories about his encounter with the girl.

Authorities said witness interviews gave them enough evidence to charge Johnson.

I'll say this for the dumbasses out there in loss prevention, or corrections, or police work:

Never, NEVER, give somebody who likes doing illegal or stupid things the ability to get your ass tossed in the clink. Criminals always have another agenda at work; even silly little shoplifting teenagers love the idea of tossing "the man" in jail for a few years. The crazy biatches just love to see the world revolve around them for a while, and they get LEGIT victim status - they usually play the part anyway, so why not go for the gold?

In shorter terms: if the words "Have sex with me/give me a BJ/similar and I'll let you go" ever escape your lips, you've earned your jail time.

Stupid has its price, and it's often several years in jail and permanent sex offender status.

What new CO's learn not to do in their first week of training...

2007-03-20T18:36:00.000-06:00

From the Miami Herald -

Gustavo Coronado, a Homestead prison guard, said he grew so tired of an inmate's advances that he had sex with her in her bunk ''so she would leave him alone,'' according to state agents.

They were unsympathetic, and arrested him Monday.

He faces a third-degree felony charge of sexual misconduct with a detainee or offender.

''Any sexual contact is an abuse of authority,'' said Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernández Rundle.

Coronado, 34, was linked to the December 2005 episode at the Homestead Correctional Institution by DNA from the woman's panties, says the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

The guard, agents say, had an illicit, one-afternoon stand with a career criminal imprisoned for forgery, grant theft and burglary. The woman told agents she had been ''playing around'' with Coronado to get him busted for bad behavior. Flirting, she stole his pen on Dec. 30, 2005, proclaiming it hers. After other inmates left for lunch, Coronado demanded to see what was in her locker, agents say.

The rest of the rendezvous detailed in the arrest affidavit, which lasted ''between 30 seconds to a minute,'' describes the sexual encounter.

She first told her story to prison inspectors Cary Ryan and George Montenegro in January 2006. Three days later, she gave a sworn statement to FDLE agents Jeremy Rosenthal and Edward Royal. She also gave them underwear she said she wore during the encounter.

At first, agents say, Coronado denied he had sex with the woman. He did, however, volunteer a DNA swab. The results from that DNA test came back in November.

Later, he admitted he had sex with her, but only after she ''made sexual advances at him on a daily basis for approximately one month.'' The FDLE didn't say why it took four months to arrest Coronado.

''It's a shame, but these things happen,'' said Amos Rojas Jr., the FDLE's regional special agent in charge. ``We're going to aggressively pursue any allegations of criminal wrongdoing by a public servant.''

How do you feel about charity?

2007-03-18T18:21:00.000-06:00

Giving is important for a lot of people. Personally, I'd never feel comfortable just handing some panhandler on the street some cash. You never know what they're going to spend the money on. What would twenty dollars really get that person anyways? A few liters of vodka? A couple sandwiches from Subway? Some meth? An axe handle to beat you with?

I like to know where my money is going, even if it's a small amount.

I came across a program at www.kiva.org that has an interesting approach to giving. It allows you to fund business loans for people starting businesses in third-world countries. With a minimum donation of twenty-five dollars, you can choose a business listed and help fund its development. If you're like me and don't have a lot of money to give, your money will have a lot more impact in third-world countries.

As the money is paid back, you get an email every time a payment comes in. Businesses you fund also post journal entries describing what they're doing with your money, how the business is going and so on.

Very interesting, check it out.

Don't we though?

2007-03-18T17:32:00.000-06:00

I still have to start my proposal paper, which is due today.

Progress on the home

2007-03-17T17:49:00.000-06:00

Signed the purchase agreement today.

$195280.

Wow.

On Friday we finished the "final selection" phase of the building process, where we cemented our option selections that would go into the purchase contract. That was fun. Since we've been in the Choice Studio about 5 or 6 times now we ran through fairly quickly, knowing exactly what we wanted.

Stuff like:
Finished basement
Trayed master bedroom ceiling
Double sinks in master and main bathrooms
42 inch kincaide maple cabinets with crown molding
Moenstone black granite sink
Black quartz island countertop
Tiled backsplash
16x9 deck
Whirlpool tub and a shower in the master bedroom
Cat5 cabling throughout the house
Garage door opener

You can really spend a lot of time picking out all these options you can't really afford. I'd estimate that my wife and I spent about...oh....9 or 10 hours wandering around in there, figuring what goes with what and how to maximize our dollar.

As many options as the Choice Studio has, there are quite a few options I wish that they'd include:

1) 3 car garage option - currently only available as a standard feature on their upper-tier homes...they should make it an option for the lower-tier homes as well
2) Jacuzzi pad/jacuzzi - how hard would it be to lay down a concrete slab adjoining the deck, hook up whatever wiring and tubing you had to hook up and offer a few spa types as an option?
3) Undercabinet lighting
4) Motion detector lighting over the garage door
5) Sprinkler system
6) Fencing
7) Maybe some different tiers of landscaping? For people who don't have a green thumb?
8) Sunroom option off the back porch instead of a patio?

It's not as if we could have afforded a lot of these options, but it'd be nice to look at them and say to ourselves, "Hey look at what we COULD have spent?"

Our house will be finished as early as September 19, 2007, if everything goes to plan and there are no problems. I'll wander on out there every week or so and take some new pictures of the site to post on here.

Moving sucks

2007-03-17T17:43:00.000-06:00

Especially if you have crappy friends.

I had one person show up to help me move.

Parker.

And he showed up an hour late.

"Got lost" he said, as he sipped his overpriced Caribou Coffee.

Stenneche? Thornton? Neun?

...nope.

Neun says he set his alarm for 9PM instead of 9AM. Whoops, got me there Neun!

He's a crappy sniper anyways.

Time for a Jihad jump off a cliff in a 4-person van.

Next time we play BF2, it'll be done.

Financing a house

2007-03-12T22:44:00.000-06:00

I wish that there was at least one other finance company working with Hearthstone Homes that did one-time closes.

Currently with Hearthstone Homes you get a $5000 discount if you do the one-time close with their preferred lender First Horizon, where you close when you sign the purchase agreement.

The problem I have is that they have that only that one lender available to do this one-time close, which means I can't really get a competing quote for the interest rate.

I am extremely interested in the interest rate we'll be offered.

Our house...in the middle of our street.

2007-03-12T19:13:00.000-06:00

So the wife and I finally went to our appointment at Hearthstone Homes today to put money down to reserve the lot of our dreams and get the process started on building our new house.

We've been looking forward to this for several weeks now. We called Hearthstone up a few weeks ago and asked which of the larger lots coming up for sale were flat lots.

Flat lots make mowing easy.

Flat lots mean you have no walk-out basement. Walk-out basements are virtually impossible to secure against either tornadoes or zombies, two of Nebraska's most menacing natural predators.

I will not have my family vulnerable to a possible zombie attack.

The Hearthstone saleswoman pointed out a few over the phone that sounded good. One lot especially perked our ears up, as it had no premium but was a flat corner lot almost twice as wide as most other lots.

We went out to the subdivision and walked around the lots that interested us - the one lot in particular. There's lots of mud out there. They just put in curbs a few days ago.

Our lot looked nicely situated. Almost twice as wide as a regular lot, and a little bit longer. It was on the corner of a cul-de-sac, which would be a great location normally, but worried me a bit because I'd have to mow a lot more grass than I really want.

The land looked a little too...sloped to be called a flat lot though.

She noticed this aspect of the lot first, as she slipped down the muddy slope of what would possibly be our backyard into what could only be called a crevasse. With the kind of determined effort normally only seen in a heroic epic and a handy length of rope, she was freed, wiped off, and we were on our way back home.

Despite this unwarranted attack by gravity, we still felt this might be the lot for us. The saleswoman had said it was a flat lot, after all. Perhaps when the construction dudes excavated our lot, they would put the dirt that was in our basement into our backyard - making it level.

We thought, as we were walking into our appointment, that we had a lot selected.

Heidi was very nice as she crushed our dreams like so much newspaper.

Not a flat lot, she said. It's a walk-out lot.

Drat.

But she had another option, if we were interested, she said.

Hmm?

Well, there was a truly, really, honest-to-god flat lot just a little bit away from that other spirit-damping lot. It was also a large lot, it was also just one house away from a great deal of green space filled with trees and assorted foliage.

It was also discounted $5000.

I asked her if I could plant an apple tree in the green space and possibly release some ferrets.

She said nobody would know.

DEAL!

So on Friday, we will go in and make the final selections for the options for our house. We will sign the purchase agreement on Saturday. Our house should be built by September 20th of 2007.

I'm in Jail. What now? Part 2!

2007-03-09T21:29:00.000-06:00

A few days ago, I posted the first part of this happy little jail guide. Here's the rest!

So...you’re still in jail.

Well, if you’re new to the whole seedy underbelly of our system of law enforcement, you’re probably a bit scared. Unsure of yourself. Worried about what might happen. You’ve heard stories, seen movies…

Relax, you’re probably not going to get raped. Unless you want to be.

Tip #5 – While rape does happen, it’s rare, especially in jail.

Prison is a different story, but there are enough folks in jail who want sex, any sex, that you probably won’t have to worry about being taken against your will. People who would never dream of a homosexual encounter on the streets often play that role in prison. These people are in high demand. People like Parker.

Just kidding, Parker.

There isn’t much sexual activity in jail at all, really, unless you count the female housing units. Female mods are hotbeds of lesbian activity. The C/O’s try to put a stop to…but it’s like holding back a stream of water with a sieve. I’ve talked to incarcerated females who are quite proud of their sexual conquests, and will gladly pointed them out.

“I’ve had her, and her, and her. Oh yeah, I had her last time I was in here. And her. She was pretty good.”

You can try to stop it from going on, but you can’t be everywhere at once. Sex happens.

I don't like where I am.

When you get taken to your first housing unit, if you don’t like it, don’t tell the officer escorting you. He doesn’t care. Don’t tell the officer in the housing unit, either. He also…doesn’t care. You have to follow procedures if you want to have even the slightest hope of getting something done.

Write a kite, kid.

Tip #6 – Ask for an Inmate request form.

Inmate request forms, or “kites” as they’re commonly called, are what you use to get, with luck, what you want.

Want something to read? Write a kite to the library telling them what you’d like to read. They’re usually pretty heavy on Grisham, Koontz and King. You can also request things like drawing paper, jigsaw puzzles and crossword puzzles.

Tooth hurting you? Write a kite to the medical department. They’ll get back to you sometime next year, but you might be able to get some motrin to help a little with the pain.

You can also use kites to ask questions. Questions about policy, when your out date will be, and to manipulate the system to get you out of general population.

Sometimes a housing unit just isn’t for you. Maybe you’re black, and nine out of ten of your fellow inmates in this mod are hispanic. Maybe you’re the only white guy in the mod. Maybe it’s your first time in jail and you really, really don’t want to be with all these tough-looking guys who look a little stabby.

Tip #7 – There are ways to get to a safer location

You have a few options.

The first option is to write a kite to the Chaplin asking to be put into the “God Mod.” Most jails have a God mod. God mods are housing units where the focus is on getting the inmate to turn over a new leaf through religious activity, usually Christian. There are multiple daily prayer sessions, daily sermons, religious activities and so on. In our facility, the God mod is the only housing unit to have a television with a VCR, which can be used to watch PG films. That’s nice when you’ve been stuck watching network TV for a while. The God mod is a very safe location and a pretty good place to wait out your time if you can handle the constant proselytizing.

The second option is to write a kite to the programs department indicating your interest in what they have to offer. Programs departments are your gateway to a great variety of places where you’ll feel a bit safer. Usually if you claim you need to earn your GED, or want to take anger management courses, or substance-abuse programs, they’ll put you in a housing unit where other like-minded folks are housed. These types of mods, although not as nice and not as safe as the God mods, are better than general population mods. The main drawback to these types of mods is the fact that you will be living with a number of uneducated, angry alcoholics who haven’t had a drink in a long time.

Two more options you can choose to write a kite to experience are suicide watch and protective custody (PC). If you’re going to get out in a few days (like people who are in on DUI charges usually do) then one of these two housing units might work for you.

To get onto suicide watch, just walk up to your nearest C/O and mention that life is getting unbearable and you’re thinking about hurting yourself. They’ll rush you to a medical unit to get interviewed and checked out.

Act emo. Mope a bit.

Suicide watch means you’re housed alone, usually in a medical mod with medical personnel around. You’re stripped naked and given a paper gown along with a suicide-prevention blanket. No TV, no recreation, no phone, no books. It can be pretty boring, but if you’re getting out in a few days, for some people it’s a better alternative to being scared.

Protective custody can be harder to get, but it’s less severe. You’re housed alone, you get all the things other inmates get like phone time, books, store items and so on, but your recreation time is usually trimmed down somewhat.

Usually you need a good reason to be placed into protective custody, like being a baby toucher. Baby touchers almost always end up in protective custody. Nobody likes a baby toucher. Even baby touchers don’t like baby touchers.

If you can come up with a good enough reason why you think other inmates might hurt you, it’s possible you can get in there. Have fun.

If you’ve read this and have any comments, questions or concerns, feel free to let loose. I love answering questions. Sometimes I’ll even give you the right answer.

Seriously, I cannot read this book. Do not ask me to read it.

2007-03-09T18:40:00.000-06:00

If you have a mother who you had a good relationship with, or you're a mother, or you know someone who has a mother, or who is a mother, buy this book and send it out.

They will cry.

I can NOT read this book with my kids all the way through before choking up.

I know, I am weak.

I'm waiting for a criminal to donate his kidney, get out, then steal someone else's kidney.

2007-03-09T16:37:00.000-06:00

Inmates in South Carolina could soon find that a kidney is worth 180 days.

Lawmakers are considering legislation that would let prisoners donate organs or bone marrow in exchange for time off their sentences.

A state Senate panel on Thursday endorsed creating an organ-and-tissue donation program for inmates. But legislators postponed debate on a measure to reduce the sentences of participating prisoners, citing concern that federal law may not allow it.

"I think it's imperative that we go all out and see what we can do," said the bills' chief sponsor, Democratic Sen. Ralph Anderson. "I would like to see us get enough donors that people are no longer dying."

The proposal approved by the Senate Corrections and Penology Subcommittee would set up a volunteer donor program in prisons to teach inmates about the need for donors. But lawmakers want legal advice before acting on a bill that would shave up to 180 days off a prison sentence for inmates who donate.

South Carolina advocates for organ donations said the incentive policy would be the first of its kind in the nation.

Federal law makes it illegal to give organ donors "valuable consideration." Lawmakers want to know whether the term could apply to time off of prison sentences.

"We want to make this work, we really do," said Republican Sen. John Hawkins. "But I want to make sure no one goes to jail for good intentions."

Mary Jo Cagle, chief medical officer of Bon Secours St. Francis Health System in Greenville, urged senators to find an allowable incentive.

"We have a huge need for organs and bone marrow," Cagle said.

But Melissa Blevins, executive director of Donate Life South Carolina, said any incentive would break the law and the principle behind donations.

"It really muddies the water about motive. We want to keep it a clearly altruistic act," she said.

Under the proposals, money for medical procedures and any prison guard overtime would be paid by the organ recipient and charitable groups. The state would also decide which inmates could donate.

Corrections Department Director Jon Ozmint said he believes inmates would donate even without the incentive.

"There are long-term inmates who would give if they knew a child was dying," he said. "They're lifers. They know they're going to die in prison."

More than 95,300 Americans are awaiting an organ transplant, according to the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network. About 6,700 die each year.

I'm in Jail. What now?

2007-03-07T10:01:00.000-06:00

At some point in your life, you may find yourself in jail. It is remarkably easy to find yourself in jail - it really doesn't take much. All that's required is:

a) a momentary lapse of good sense
or
b) an annoyed police officer or sheriff

Some people go to jail on a regular basis, and have learned the ins and outs of how the system works and how to behave. They've learned how to deal with an incarceration situation and how to come through the experience unscathed. You may know a few of these people. You may be related to a few of these people.

Most folks, however, do not have experience in a correctional setting. They do not know what to do, or how to act. Sometimes, through no fault of their own, these folks get hurt. This guide is for those people.

So you're in Jail!

The cops have just dropped you off at your local county jail and you're pissed. You've been wronged! You didn't do anything, dammit! You'll sue their asses and have their jobs! Screw the man!

Tip #1 - Your grudge against authority belongs on the street, not in here

The cops are the ones who did this to you, not the correctional officers. It serves no purpose for you to become agitated once you've been dropped off at the county jail. If you act in a way that a C/O construes as a threat to order in the facility, you could be:
a) put into an isolation cell to cool off for a while (keeping you from using the phone)
b) put into lockdown for a number of days (keeping you from using the phone)
c) put into intensive care, and then into lockdown for a number of days (keeping you from using the phone)

You'll be booked into the facility. Your fingerprints will be taken, your photograph will be taken. You will be interviewed by classifications personnel to determine your classification level. Do not annoy the classifications personnel. If you have no criminal history, and your charge isn't rape or murder, you'll probably get classified as a minimum security inmate, which is EXACTLY where you want to be. If you annoy the classifications personnel, there is a chance you will be classified as a medium security inmate, which is NOT where you want to be.

You will be interviewed by medical personnel. Tell them about any conditions you may have, and any prescriptions you may have. Be friendly and respectful. The medical personnel will determine whether or not you get your medication or special medical treatment.

You will dress in, giving your clothes to an officer to inventory and store, and getting jail-issued clothing in return. Be polite and cooperative. Do not be afraid to ask for a larger size item, or a smaller size item, if you feel what was given to you doesn't fit. You might be wearing these clothes for a while, so they should be as comfortable as possible.

Different jails issue different clothing. Typically you will be given a jumpsuit or pants and a shirt, underwear, socks and shower shoes. You will usually be given a towel, a cup, and an inmate handbook. Hold onto all these things, as you can be charged for the cost of those items when you leave if you don't turn them in.

You will be given a chance to use the phone. Most modern facilities have a free phone call system where you can make as many calls as you want up until the time you get taken up to your housing unit. Take advantage of this. Call mom and dad, siblings, aunts and uncles, friends, anyone you can think of who can come and bail you out. Pride at this point is stupid. Get the money you need to get out however you can.

So you couldn't get the bail money, eh loser?

Escorted by a C/O, you will be taken to your housing unit, also called a "mod." Hopefully you will be taken to a celled housing unit, where there are usually two inmates (sometimes more) housed in a single cell with a door that can be opened or closed, depending on the time of day. If you're in a really nice facility, you may even have control of your door.

If you're unlucky, you will be taken to a "dormitory-style" mod, with open bays and rows of beds. Prepare yourself for uncomfortable nights listening to snoring, smelling unpleasant odors, and hoping you won't have your things stolen while you sleep. If you're in a dorm-style mod, keep as much of your property as you can in your locker, or it will get stolen.

The housing unit C/O will tell you where your bed is. Go there, put your stuff away and get your bed ready.

Tip #2 Get along with other inmates

If you're in a celled mod, respect your cellmate, or "celly." Take whatever bed he is not in. Do not touch anything that might be his.

Some more hints to help you get along:

Keep to yourself, but do not isolate yourself. Mingle like you're at a party full of people who would beat you to death with a salad bowl at the slightest provocation.
Stay with your own race as much as possible. Often there are subtle racial issues in a correctional facility that you may not understand. Staying in the same general area as the rest of your race will often keep you from crossing an invisible social line. Don't cross that line. People get stabby.
Do not ask other people what they are in for.
Do not lie about your charges, people will find out what they are, and will probably be annoyed with you for lying to them. They might feel a bit stabby.
Do not gamble unless you fully understand the stakes - it sucks to give away your breakfast tray for a week because you lost a game of chess.
Do not borrow if you can help it, but if you do, pay your debts. Usually debts are paid back on a two for one basis: ie one candy bar today will cost you two on store day.
Watch whatever other people want to watch on television, do not get involved in television arguments.

Tip #3 - If a fight breaks out, get to your bunk or cell.

As a general rule, if a fight breaks out between two other inmates, move away from the fight as rapidly as possible without bringing attention to yourself. Do not bump into other inmates while doing so, or you may find yourself on the wrong side of defensive aggression.

Your goal should be to remain completely uninvolved in the altercation and to get on your bunk or in your cell, whichever is appropriate, NOW. If your cell door has been closed, stand by the door with your hands in plain view. Do not speak. Follow C/O directions immediately. In a fight situation, or "code," responding officers are usually high on adrenaline. They don't know if there are two inmates fighting, ten inmates fighting, or an inmate and one of their fellow C/O's fighting. If you are in the way, they will go through you to get to the incident. It is very likely that you will get hurt. So get out of the way.

Tip #4 You are vulnerable.

Be aware at all times that you may be assaulted at any time, for no reason at all, by another inmate. Regardless of how tough you are, or how skilled you are in a fight, you are vulnerable in a jail setting.

Be aware of your surroundings. Watch hands and body language.

If you think you are about to be attacked, get into a housing unit officer's field of vision. Help him do his job. Make some noise, bring attention to the situation.

If you are personally involved in an altercation, fight to live. Your strategy should be to protect yourself until correctional officers arrive to intervene and slam both of you to the ground. Do not resist responding officers at all, do not argue with them. They will win and you will get hurt.

It is entirely possible that you will get attacked from behind while standing toe-to-toe with your assailant. Keep this in mind and as long as weapons are not in sight, get your back against something solid.

If weapons are being used against you, run if possible. If running is not a possibility, back away quickly while holding the outside of your arms up towards your assailant. You will get cuts to your forearms but your vulnerable nerves and arteries on the inside of your arms will hopefully remain intact. If you have a chance, try to grab something to help you keep them from sticking something inside you...a chair, a broom, a fire extinguisher.

Pacifism is not an option if you are attacked. You will go to lockdown regardless of the circumstances of the fight. That's policy, so you might as well fight as hard as you can.

Tomorrow I will continue this guide, focusing on how to deal with correctional officers, how to make requests, programs that are available, and how to make your life a little more comfortable while you're waiting out your time, or waiting for your trial.

Let's build a house!

2007-03-06T11:08:00.000-06:00

This is the house we're going to have built. It's a Hearthstone Homes Whistler model.

Next week, Jamie and I have an appointment to wander on over to one of their subdivisions and put $500 down on a lot. We've decided that lot selection is going to be crucial, as we made a mistake buying our current home - underestimating the resale value of a nice backyard.

Ninety percent of the buyers that came through our current home said that they liked our house - especially the 1750 square feet of space - but that the backyard was too small. Hearing that over and over again while you're trying to sell your house and move on with your life is extremely disheartening. Different people have different priorities they look for when they look at houses and it was just a matter of time before someone with similar views decided what we have is what they want.

We think we've picked out a nice lot. I'll post more details about it as we get them.

We found the Whistler to be Hearthstone Homes most impressive floorplan. For us it's better than some of their top-tier Tapestry floorplans that have somewhat dated layouts, such as the Monet. Open floorplans are much more appealing to us.

Here's the main floor:

And here's the upper level:

Originally, we were thinking we'd go with the Russell floorplan, mostly because of the kitchen. A "U" shaped kitchen is more efficient and (in my humble opinion) looks better. The Whistler, however, has so many advantages over the Russell that we felt it was worth the $4000 price difference. A few advantages:

A den - this will be a great place for her laptop, for my book collection, and will serve nicely as a general bill-paying and record-keeping room. She can sit in this room, do her bills and watch the kids playing in the backyard at the same time.
Walk-in closets in 2 of the kid's bedrooms
Upper-floor bathrooms have doors that separate the mirror/sink section of the bathroom from the toilet - this is nice for obvious reasons, making the bathroom use more efficient for the kids.
The master bedroom is huge. Seriously, you can't really get an idea of how much space you'll have in the master bedroom until you walk through the model. Will this be wasted space? Probably not. I'm sure Jamie will find a use for the space...especially when we have our third child and wants to keep him/her in the bedroom with us for nighttime feedings.
The master bedroom's huge walk-in closet is accessed through the bathroom. This means after showering, a certain unnamed person can go right into the closet and get dressed without coming back into the bedroom repeatedly and waking me up over and over again.
The landing when you come off the stairs to the second floor is nicely-sized. This will make it easier to move when you have to lug large items up there.
Laundry facilities on the top floor - an end to the mass migration of laundry all over the house.

The square footage we get - 3580 square feet including the finished basement - should solve any space issues we might face in the future.

Two problems I have with the Whistler:

No option to expand the garage - I really wanted a three-car garage, or maybe an option to make the garage deeper. Storage issues make this an important feature. I need somewhere for the snowblower, the lawn mower, the deep-freezer, general tool storage and so on. The basement might help with this - there's a sizable amount of unfinished space down there that might suit us. Hopefully there will be some room for a workshop and the deep-freezer.
L-shaped kitchen. Not that efficient, but the island we're putting in will help. Eventually, when we do the floors for the kitchen (several years from now) we think a batwing-shaped island will really make the kitchen stand out. Too bad that isn't an option. Hearthstone Homes should really look into different sizes and shapes for floorplan islands. Kitchens are important to many people and a little more variety would go a long way.

We've an appointment with a title company tomorrow to sign the documents that transfer the deed and so on to the buyer of our current home. We close on the 23rd. We'll be moving on March 15th to an apartment - I'll let you know how that goes.

Yes indeed.

2007-03-01T13:24:00.000-06:00

Truly a mighty dump.

My son enjoys putting chocolate milk in his mighty dump on a regular basis.

Yes, rather juvenile.

We're all going to die from SNOW POISONING!

2007-03-01T11:08:00.000-06:00

OK John Campbell from ABC affiliate KETV here in Omaha predicted yesterday that Omaha would be seeing three to six inches of snow on Thursday.

"Here's the rub though... the models are going gang-busters with the snow here. Using some equations, giving us 14 inches. However, I think that's definitely over doing it... I think we'll see a swath of 3 to 6 inches. 6 inch totals are probably a good bet here in Omaha and in Lincoln. Some spots around Omaha might end up with an inch or so more.

This is NOT three to six inches of snow:

This is also NOT three to six inches of snow:

Those were taken at about 10:30 AM. It's still coming down hard. The latest posting there on Mr. Wizard's blog, as of 11:29 AM, says there will be six to nine inches of snow.

There's at least six to nine inches of snow right now just in my boots.

Jamie rushed out to get to work on time. She was the only person in the office as of 8:30 AM. She forgot to grab more than a pop-tart to eat. Although the minivan is usually great for driving in snow, Jamie herself almost got into two accidents, and got stuck for 25 minutes on a hill behind some idiot. My wife's employer (who decided that raises for nobody but upper management made sense this year) has a strict "There is no such thing as a snow day" policy. Her immediate boss didn't even bother to try to make it in.

But Jamie is there.

She will probably be there all day.

And management has decided to "try to get some pizza place to deliver."

Idiots.

If I'm the upper-management guy for a multi-million dollar company that provides underwriting services and so on for California businesses, and although there's a BLIZZARD outside some of my 12 dollar an hour workers actually made it to work....what would I do? Try half-heartedly to order a few pizzas, knowing that it's not really sensible to go out to eat for lunch today?

Nope!

I would tell everyone to sit tight and ask them not to leave for lunch. I would get my ass into my SUV. I would drive to a supermarket, restaurant, whatever is open - there are a few options that are fairly close to the building. I would spend a whole wad of cash on some food, something good. I would load all that food into my SUV and drive it back to my workers, who by showing up to work today under adverse conditions, are enabling my business to CONDUCT business. I would tell the workers that bothered to show up that my boss appreciates them, that I appreciate them, and that millions of illegal immigrant workers collecting unemployment in California appreciate them. I would tell them that food is on me as long as the conditions outside suck, and that if anyone felt they couldn't make it home, I would make sure they got there before *I* went home. After that, I would take the rest of upper management and go brush the snow off all my employees' cars.

But that's just me.

And now, a picture of my son looking smug.

Over 12 years in administrative confinment...?

2007-02-27T23:52:00.000-06:00

From the Lincoln Journal Star:

Nebraska State Penitentiary inmate Thomas Fleming told a federal judge that his stay in administrative confinement — from August 1991 to January 2004 - constituted cruel and unusual punishment. Fleming, 45, is seeking $1 million in punitive damages as well as unspecified compensatory damages from corrections officials for the more than 12 years of confinement that, he alleged in a 2003 lawsuit, left him psychologically and physically scarred.
Fleming was placed in administrative confinement following an Aug. 31, 1991 assault, in which penitentiary employee Max Fredrickson was stabbed multiple times with a homemade knife, doused with flammable fluid and set on fire by inmates bent on escape. Fredrickson survived the assault and the inmates involved -- including Fleming -- were quickly subdued.
The inmates eventually received extended sentences, including stays in administrative confinement. That's spending 23 hours a day, Monday through Friday, in a cell described by Fleming as 7 by 10 feet. They are allowed one hour on those days in a small yard defined by three high walls and a grate. The inmates are restricted to their cells on Saturdays and Sundays. The cells consist of a concrete slab and thin mattress, sink and toilet. Visitations and shower times are constricted, as is the chance to communicate with other prisoners or staff. On at least one occasion in 1992, Fleming said, he was beaten by staff after he returned from a Lancaster County District Court hearing on the incident. On other occasions, he said, he returned to his cell to find the room torn apart.
Fleming was sentenced in 1987 on three robbery counts. He was paroled in 1990 but was arrested again and sentenced to 15 to 30 years for armed robbery.

I'm sure that Mr. Fleming, if just given one more chance, could mend his ways and become a productive member of society. After all, he didn't mean to stab that CO multiple times and set him on fire - the CO was just at the wrong place at the wrong time! Mr. Fleming has been a model of virtuous behavior since he's been in administrative confinement, I'm sure.

Administrative Confinment is for inmates that choose to assault an officer, whether or not they are successful. Inmates have also been put into AC for special circumstances involving threats towards officers, as well as instances of violent attacks on other inmates. These inmates generally are not what you would consider as "good people." Many are mentally ill.

The administrative confinement housing unit in the facility I work at is set up so that an inmate can get out of AC within 4 to 6 weeks if he behaves himself. For the first week of AC, the inmate is considered in ZERO status. He gets nothing but hygene items, his bedroll (consisting of 2 blankets, a sheet, and a towel), his clothing, and himself. All AC inmates get 5 hours of recreation a week, per Nebraska Jail Standards. When they come out of their cell, they are shackled and belly-chained.

If the inmate gets no write-ups during that week, he will be placed into 8-20 status, which means he can have up to three books in his cell at one time and he can start earning privileges back, such as a radio, extra recreation time, visits and telephone privileges.

If at any time an inmate commits an infraction (which some can't seem to help themelves from doing) the inmate goes allthe way back to ZERO status and has to climb up the ladder from the bottom once more.

Inmates that behave...go back to general population. It's entirely up to the inmate which direction he or she wishes to take. I personally recommend behaving, but we can accomodate you either way.

I have a feeling that Mr. Fleming has a hard time dealing with other people in a humane manner, that he has a hard time viewing other people as something other than as a tool to get him what he wants. Mr. Fleming belongs in AC until he's judged to be safe for both officers and other inmates to be around on a regular basis.

Omaha's CompUSA....gone?

2007-02-27T22:23:00.000-06:00

So by now you may have heard CompUSA is closing a metric shit-ton of stores throughout the United States...

Guess Omaha's store is on the chopping block.

Funny, I could have SWORN I saw it the other day there on Dodge.

While the prices at CompUSA were not very good, it was still a nice place to go and look for something you might want to pick up later at...say...Newegg. In a fix, you could go in and pay for something you needed RIGHT NOW. As long as RIGHT NOW was in normal operating hours anyways.

So, two tech stores have been kicked out of Omaha so far...CompUSA and Circuit City.

Where can we go for our computer hardware fix in Omaha now?

Nebraska Furniture Mart
Best Buy

and for the ghetto computer guy...DIT Computers

That's pretty much it. Tell me if I missed one.

eVGA Customer Service and how it makes me giggle like a little girl

2007-02-27T20:27:00.000-06:00

So, back in April of 2006 I swindled a friend of mine into giving me 300 bucks for my old eVGA 7800 GTX video card and a few computer parts. I take that $300 and take another $300 and pick up two of the new 7900 GT 256-meg cards that came out, to take advantage of SLI on my DFI Lanparty motherboard. The cards are ordered from Newegg, they arrive, are installed, and SLI-fueled gaming joy is mine. Life is good.

This is an eVGA 7900 GT:

Sometime in January of 2007, I start noticing some artifacting in several games I play, mostly Battlefield 2 and Medieval 2: Total War. This is somewhat annoying, as I've put about $2200 into this machine, but due to my reticence to admit there is an actual problem with MY gaming computer, I let it go for a while.

So the artifacting gets bad. I can't game for 20 minutes without spikey jagged graphical flickering obscuring my view. I finally get annoyed enough to start fixing the problem. Evidently, 7900 GT's, such as mine, are now notorious for memory problems which are causing (gasp) artifacting. They're being RMA'ed left and right. So I pull out one card, test the remaining 7900 GT...yup, it's....artifacting. I pull out that card, put in the other one...it's fine. Ok, this is workable, I can still play on the one card while I send back the other for replacement.

So I start the RMA process, which I've never done before, with eVGA. I request an RMA number, receive it the next day, print off the convenient label that eVGA e-mailed to me, and send my card back to eVGA. About a week later, I get a package in the mail, which I presume is another 7900 GT.

By this time, I've settled with playing my games with just the one 7900 GT. It's slower, especially with Medieval 2's 1000-man battles, but overall - not a problem on a temporary basis. So I'm not in a huge hurry to get my replacement video card installed. I get some time one night about a week later after I get home from work, and figure, "Hey, why not open up that package and install that card, so I can have SLI back?"

So I open up the package and this is what I see:

Whoa! That's not a 7900 GT with 256 megs of video ram at all. That is, in fact, a 7900 GTO with 512 megs of video ram. Take a look at that heatsink/pipe setup. The fan's bigger than the 7900 GT's (which means it's going to run cooler, with less noise) Sweet!

Once the initial euphoria settles, I realize that, as cool as this is, I cannot install both a 7900 GT and a 7900 GTO into my machine and have them working together in SLI mode. To have SLI mode working, you need two cards with the same graphics processor. The GTO is faster than my GT. Crap.

So I go to the eVGA website and shoot an email off to their customer service department.

Question (2/25/2007 9:45:30 PM): I recently submitted an RMA for a 7900 GT and sent it in. I got back a 7900 GTO card. While this is a nice card, even fantastic, I purchased a set of 7900 GT's with the express purpose of running them in an SLI configuration. Sadly, I cannot run the 7900 GTO and my remaining 7900 GT in SLI mode, no matter how much I wish I could. So I am now running the new 7900 GTO alone, by itself, while my poor 7900 GT is sitting on my desk, looking at me with forlorn hope of a productive life. What can I do about this? Would it be possible to send in my 7900 GT for another 7900 GTO so I can run my system in SLI mode? I'd understand why eVGA couldn't do this, but then, what's life without a little hope? I purchase eVGA products because of their reputation of customer service, please help me out. Thanks!

I get a reply a few days later:

Answered By Aaron H (2/27/2007 1:33:31 PM): I can work with my RMA department to make sure that we can upgrade your other 7900 gt. I just need you to verify the serial number for your 7900 gt and your shipping address and we can start an RMA for your 7900 gt to a 7900 gto. EVGA Tech

Wow. I totally expected eVGA to send back a polite little "Sorry, but we're not going to give you a free upgrade" note. I expected something along the line of "Hey, why don't you go find yourself a nice big pile of sand and a comfortable hammer, and go pound sand for a while."

Instead, eVGA took care of my needs, and gained themselves a loyal customer for life.

Yay for me. Yay for them.