Libraries and noise…

I spend a lot of time at libraries reading, studying and connecting to the web. When I was being brought up by my parents, I was taught that when you were in the library, you ONLY talked when you had a problem, and then to the librarian (or parents) in a VERY low voice. When I went to school, the same thing was said to us.

I use to go to the Pompano Beach Library here in Broward County, but it started to get noisier and noisier. I then moved to the “Beach Front” Library, but it didn’t have very good network connections (it was quiet though), so I went to the North Regional Library at the Broward College. Initially it was quiet. And easy to work with.

Even last year during the school year when I came in. This last two months has been a different story. It has been SOOOOO noisy that I’m about ready to give up internet access and find a more quite place to go! Today, as I type in the library, there are two VERY loud groups VERY near to me, talking as if they are in a stadium, with their loud voices, talking over each other. Add to that, across form me is a man and his 7 year old son (no school today) doing the son’s homework. In a VERY loud manner.

What happened to a Library as being a place to be quiet in? A place to study and read in peace?

Now, I can understand students getting together at a library to study together. This being a library at a school, they have SEVERAL rooms for groups to get together and work on projects. I just walked around. All but two are empty, and both of those two are single people trying to get away from the sound (I’m betting!). Why aren’t these folks heading to these rooms? Mind you, I’d LOVE to say, “these kids”, but adults my age or older are even talking loudly! Have they given up and “gone over to the dark side”?

I think I ranted on this before here, but I think it is getting worse! MUCH worse.

Oh, and don’t forget the cell phones! I just had a lady sitting one seat over from me, talking on her cell phone like she was at home in her bed room. (She was talking about making out, etc, with her boyfriend. (I could hear his voice and some of the words, I learned a thing or two there, let me tell you!!))

TDBell Enterprises, Inc.

Aside from opening my own Dojo, I have also reopened TDBell Enterprises, Inc. and it’s associated blog. So, if you are looking to open your own business, and will be looking for venture funding, or need IT technical (paid) support, or both, I’m the person to talk to.

Enjoy!

Martial Arts Pictures!

This weekend Soke Burt and I took some pictures of one of his students (who also happens to be his future wife), him and I in various actions. You can check them out here.

Here is one of me in my Gi:

It is here to stay. :)

After talking with the crew at Kaltura, the authors of the video plugin I wanted to us, I now have a working plugin! You can now insert you comments via video or audio. Enjoy my third video, that you can actually hear!

Politics Today.

During my day, I have the opportunity to review a handful of BLogs like this one, via BlogExplosion (which I think has lost it’s development and support crew, and many of it’s users?). There are MANY blogs out there dealing with today’s political theme of election time.

I have seen tons and tons of anti McCain and anti Obama sites, but none, so far, positive sites for either party. What happened to positive politics? Doesn’t sell?

In each of these negative blogs I read over, I find that name calling is predominate, and only partial truths are turned into major wrongs. Words are taken out of context and blown up. Histories are “re-written” to meet the goal of the poster. In a couple of instances, I was privy to “what really happened” (I was there in at least one case, involved in what was happening) about an event, and what I read was 180 out from what really happened!

Where do these people get their information? From like minded people, and from only one source, or sources “highly related” to their mind? Don’t they do deeper investigations and find at least three sources, not all of the same mind, to validate their information? Do they ever talk to someone that “was there” at the event?

I understand about posting for your Candidate (I like neither personally), but why not post the VERIFIABLE positive stuff about YOUR candidate, not the NEGATIVE, possibly NOT VERIFIED, stuff about the opposing side? I am betting that if these blogs ran a positive campaign on their blog, they would find less conflict and issues. I’m also betting that they WANT the conflict and issues to make themselves look bigger and better!

Now on to the Politicians themselves. Why do they insist on dogging the other side with negative comments? (Aside from the crappy press agents we have out there goading them into it!) What I would rather hear from the Candidates is a CLEAR, UNDERSTANDABLE and DEFENSIBLE position on:

And when these platforms come down, don’t tell me how the other side will do it, tell me how you will do it, why you will do it, and how you will get the support of the Congress and the People of the US. Negative campaigning turns me off on all sides. And it doesn’t tell me what YOU are doing. Let us get back to the good side of life and leave the negative behind. Let us stop pointing fingers and start taking POSITIVE action to fix things, action that is well thought out, agreed upon by the majority of the nation and helpful to one and all!

Marriage and Divorce, a Civil Affair!

Historically marriage has been a civil contract between two consenting, and sometimes not consenting, people to live together and help each other through their trials, tribulations and positive life events. It was originally a Church or religious process, blessed by a Priest/Pastor and the community.

When the marriage was not going well, the couple would go back to the Church and talk with Priest/Pastor and attempt to find ways to get the marriage back on track. If the marriage could not be saved in any way, one of two things happened, they stayed together anyway, or the marriage was “annulled”.

As people and families started gaining wealth, when an annulment came about, there would be squabbles and disagreements about the splitting of the wealth. Initially the Church intervened and helped divide the possessions (and took a good portion of said wealth). But soon there after, the local government began getting involved and divorce court (roughly speaking) was created on the civilian side, outside of the Church(es). Again this was still a civil issue. As this continued one spouse or the other kept demanding more and more. Now, mind you, at this stage, most of the women were not working, except at home taking care of the children, house and spouse.

During this phase, child support and spousal support programs were started. The male (initially, now either side may have to pay) had to pay the female money each month to support the children, and often her as well.

People being people, the men stopped paying sooner or later, to support their children or spouse. The courts stepped back in and did all they could do to get the payments started up again. Again, it was still a civil issue.

Some time in the “resent” past the federal government decided to step in. Divorce is now a federal issue, and not a civil issue. You go to a federal district court to get your divorce. At least in most states, such as Colorado, California, etc. So, we have gone from a civil contract (which it still is!!) to a federal ending of the civil contract. Now, the Judge, instead of the Priest, ends the marriage and decides, if the parties don’t agree initially, how to split the property and wealth, and who pays whom what.

This payment system is built off of a bizarre formula that twist and turns on numerous factors. It isn’t based on the needs of the spouse or kids, but on other issues, not related to the basic needs of survival. It is keyed on the paying spouses income predominately, and at the time of divorce, not at real time.

Now, initially, in this “new” system, the court only demanded the payments, and would garnish wages and withhold tax returns to get the payments, minus their handling fees of course, made to the paid spouse. The the Feds step in again…

In most States the District courts are only able to garnish up to 80% of your wages, remove your driver’s license, and withhold tax returns. Now, the money maker goes form paying a child support, to loosing up to 80% of their income to their X-Spouse. Often not having enough to live on, forcing them to work two or more jobs just to survive. And all this while not having a vehicle (legally anyway!)!?

If the national economic situation changes, it doesn’t matter, the paying spouse still must pay as if they are able to make the same amount of money they did before. Hey, they did it once, they still can. What, the receiving X-spouse now has a very good paying job? No problem, the paying must continue at the same level!

There are some States, such as Colorado, California and a few other states, that have made the non-payment of child support a felony offense, punishable with up to 6 years in prison as a Class 5 felony at the low end, and a Class 1 felony with 25-life at the high end. Now, if you are convicted as a felon, you now have a reduced area of work capacity, because few people hire felons, regardless of what the charges are. (All they see is the word “Felony conviction” and automatically lump you into the same category as rapist, murderers, drug lords, etc.) So, a civil issue is now a felony issue.

So, my questions are:

(I have more questions, but these are the pressing ones..)

Now, in some cases I have seen fathers that stopped paying child support because their XWife stopped letting them see and interact with their kids. The judges, as a majority, don’t seem to care about that, they say “work it out”, but don’t do anything to make the visitations happen. In fact they hamper it in many ways. So, when the father stops paying child support, he is taken to court, often by the District or States attorney, not even by the Xspouse. Then the charges start and the man is in trouble all over again. (Could be inverted rolls, I’ve seen it both ways!)

Mind you, I do think that both parents should be responsible for the growth and upbringing of the offspring. With some catches. Both parties should have access to the children, should be able to input into their growth, and should be able to communicate with them. If this is blocked by one of the spouses, or even the courts, that person being blocked should not have to contribute financially. Now, if that spouse is not blocked, but does not contribute physically by being there, they should probably still be paying into the growth of their children. I do not think the federal/district court should be involved in these cases, and at most the civil courts may touch on them. I don not think there is criminally actionable events (in most cases) involved here that require taking away drivers license, jail or prison. Again all three of those make it harder to get the payments in that everyone is after.

Again, we are going the way of the Romans in all of our demands and actions. Wake up America, smell the coffee (at $8 a cup) and let’s get back to the basics of life, growth and love! Let us bring back God and Church into our life. Let us get back to the reasons we ceded from England, and stop taxing heavily (one of the main reasons we split), governing heavily (another big reason), and legislating heavily!

The Way of Rome…

The Roman Empire lasted for roughly 1000 years. It started between 753BC and 625BC, and ending in roughly in 467AD. Rome grew large for many reasons. One strong reason for their growth over those 1000ish years was what they brought with them as they grew. They brought a strong governmental system that allowed everyone to prosper. With this they had a justice system that was well thought out and beneficiary to all parties in that it was fair, and became the foundation for many civilized justice systems. They brought with them, through the “conquering” and acquiring many peoples, many inventions, locks and keys, quick drying cement, many weapons of war far advanced for the time, public toilets, and many other items of use.

Over time they got pretty spread out, they were in more peoples business than they knew how to handle. Their army was spread out over a VERY large amount of land. They were taxing their people pretty hard to build roads, water systems, and to feed the armies. They forced their religion (until the end) on their peoples to an extent as well.

The Roman Empire fell for many reasons. Some of them are:

Now, you may ask why mass migration may cause problems? Masses of people came into their Empire and just plain put such pressure on the Empire that it collapsed.

Now, we come to the United States. In the last 200+ years we have followed the same path. We have put our troops all over the world. We try to put our government system and laws all over the world. We push our religions and politics everywhere. People from all nations and ethnic groups are migrating to this nation looking for homes and success. As they come they bring their cultures and demand that we live by their cultures, just like what happened in Rome. Our economic structure is under major stress and is crumbling. We have MAJOR infighting and disunity within our Nation. We have had bad “Emperors” (on BOTH sides of the party lines!), and no good ones that fully meet the term Good Emperor in the horizon, and we have increased illnesses and issues of health.

So, like many things the US has done over the years, we have done in a bit under 300 years, what it took the Romans to do in over 1000 years. We, as a Nation of Power, are starting to die off. Years ahead of the schedule we should be dieing off if we were to have followed the Roman Empire’s foot steps.

Isn’t it time to sit back and look at what, as a Nation, we are doing to ourselves? Is it time to strategically get out of the lives of other Nations? Shouldn’t we focus on rebuilding our core National structure here in the US, spending our money and efforts here instead of around the World? Let us learn from the Romans, and not repeat what they did, at an accelerated pace! I only can pray that we are not too late already!

Chess Game, Game 1

Hello, I thought I’d challenge any one of you readers to a chess game.

After “talking” with the Author of this plugin, I have adjusted the game. If you are not already a registered reader of the Board, and want to play, please register, and leave a comment here that you want to challenge me. I will update the board, and put you in as the other player and we can start.