It's Been a Long While

It's amazing to think that I haven't put anything here in a year. So much has changed, but so much still remains the same.
I have to say, the Lord has taken me through a lot. Though a cancer scare, sickness, heartbreak, and all that the Lord has been with me.

Since I last typed anything, I've changed jobs. I now work as a CIC (Certified Independent Consultant with Lexis Products, I work in an office with two other guys here and three other people in Huston TX. Gotta say it's been a fun ride.

Anyway, just wanted to type something here. I know I'll at best update this periodically.

Peace and all that!

Brian

Tired....

So I need to sleep. But I think this is kinda important and I really should talk about it.


A couple of months ago I got involved with St. Baldrick's and organization whose goal is to raise money to help children with cancer. For those not familiar with the organization 'shavee's' (me) essentially agree to shave their head in exchange for donations to the cause.
Basically I was sort of dared to do this, and to do this I had to first of course acquire hair. I'm up to about an inch now, with about another inch to go.
My goal is to raise $1000 for the cause.
That said, if you feel like this is something you want to be involved in then by all means go here and kindly make a donation.

If you've got questions about this drop me a line. The email address is bdickerson@gmail.com

Till next time....

-B

I Just Don't Trust This,....

So I've basically decided to throw my support to that Obama guy. I have some second thoughts as we should all have towards anyone we plan to give the keys to the country to but once again I am annoyed by Hillary Clinton's lack of grace on the evening that Barack Obama secured the superdelegates that he needs.

And to all the talk of her as vice president, if I was a Hillary supporter, I'd still be against it. What's the VP really do at the end of the day? Not a whole lot.
I will say that she ran a good campaign however.

As far as John McCain goes, I like the guy, but I don't think he can pull it off. I know I'm going to get blasted for this but I haven't heard him say anything that didn't make me think that he's pretty much another 4 years of W.

Anyway, in tech news, anyone who uses Outlook and uses it to manage their contacts might want to try out Xobni. It rocks. Essentially it organizes your inbox better then Google Desktop, and it's fast...really fast.

Sorry this needs to be short and sweet but I need to get back to work.
Till next time,

-B


p.s.
Hey A (yes I know who you are). Might be best to email me directly (you should be able to get it from this site), or call why don't you?

In defense of Rachel Ray

I have a secret. I'm a food network junkie. I don't get to cook lately as much as I'd like to, but I consider myself at least decent at it. Anyway, Rachel Ray is getting her Dunkin' Doughnuts ad pulled because she's wearing a scarf that an over-sensitive so-called journalist is associating with Islam.

Sigh.
I can understand airport security and pretty much almost being strip searched when I want to fly somewhere. I understand the need for increased border security. But when we start loosing sleep over the types of scarves somebody wears on a commercial we might have too much time on our hands. It's like she's looking for something to complain about.
There are a lot of bad things I can say about that scarf and a terrorist association is the last thing that would have even popped in my mind. I want to actually read her article but it's not on her blog anymore.
This whole story is a bit sad, and I have to say that I'm more then a bit disappointed at Michelle Malkin.

Oh well it's the weekend. No big plans, I'm just going to do some cleaning really.
Ah well, until next time...

Brian

On Appeasement

So much to say so little time,....

First of all I'm coming off a weekend where I did next to nothing. Yup. Nothing. And you know what, I highly recommend it. It's not something that happens that often these days. This weekend I called my Mom, talked to 'the new girl' (more on that later,..or not..we'll see), played lost of Warcraft and watched way too much CNN.
Sigh.

In a word it was nice.
A few things to touch on. First of all, I also made time to catch some Battle Star Galactica. It was a good episode, but it was really a downer. I think the part that bothered me the most was not watching two of the hottest cylons die. Nor was Gata getting shot. It was the cancer scenes with Roslyn.
The cancer ward on that ship was ten times worse then the cancer ward I went to last year. More for me to be grateful for I suppose.

In the news, R. Kelly is finally going to trial for molesting that little girl.
It's a very odd thing because both people deny that it's them now.
Somehow I don't buy it. Some may say that maybe the girl wanted it.
Point is he doesn't have much of a defense. I just wanna see how he gets out of this one.


Anyway, it feels good to update this thing. I'm going to try to be a bit more on top of the updates.

BD

Not Yelling, Just Saying,.....

There is a time and place for civil disobedience. I feel that the African American Experience has had more then it's share of struggles. Racism still has an ugly scar somewhere in our society, but I feel that we're at a point where that scar has healed some.
I'm talking about the police officers that were acquitted for shooting Sean Bell.

For those not familiar with the case, the link above provides a pretty detailed and unbiased view of what happened.
When I first heard that the officers weren't going to loose there badges, spend some time in prison, and have their birthdays taken away I was a little bit taken aback.
Where's justice I wondered?
Then I took a look at the facts.
Sean Bell and his friends were leaving a strip club after being involved in an altercation. One of Bell's friends was allegedly heard saying "I'm gonna go get my gun."
Upon hearing this the cops told them to stop, they tried to drive away and as a result the officer unloaded their pistols on them. (It also might have helped had they said something along the lines of "Stop, Police".) Then they reloaded the pistols and then kept shooting.
I don't know that the cops deserve to do hard time, but I am uncomfortable knowing that these trigger happy idiots are going to be walking around New York, armed and dangerous, with authority.
I do believe that Sean Bell should have stopped the vehicle when the officers told him to, that is, had they said that they were policemen which eye witnesses say they didn't. I also think that Bell's friend (the one who made the gun comment) is very much to blame for what went down with this case. I blame BET. But I digress.
In the cops defense, when you tell someone to stop after they said they're going to go get their gun and they keep moving, you find yourself suddenly in a very precarious situation.
It's a situation that few of us will find ourselves in. That said, I'm going to call it as I see it.
Unloading the pistols and then reloading them to fire some more is overkill. The fact that the officers didn't ideentify themselves as policemen is incompetent.
Bell and his friends were out being idiots, and encountered idiots with guns.
If indeed the officers did not identify themselves as police officers, it's asking a lot to expect Bell and his friends to just stop.

It's not my job to judge things here and I need to say that my feelings on this case changed half way through writing this. Sean Bell is dead and quite honestly I hope that at the very least the officers in question at least loose their badges. They have put yet another stain on the organization that is the NYPD.
A lot of people are going to try to paint Sean Bell as a choir boy. He wasn't. But I will say this, I don't know that he's done anything worthy of what happened.

I'm not trying to say that Bell was a choir boy. He wasn't. He had lead a life that none will admire. He's done some bad and stupid things. Still I think he deserved a "Stop, this is the Police" or something before you unload two clips on him.
I'm not here to call the policemen involved racist or anything of that nature. I am here to say that this could have been handled a whole lot better then it was.



-BD