Bugs's Blog

Hey Guys! Sorry to be gone so long, but life lives me instead of me living life.

I’m going to be back on in a couple days to discuss this nasty election, but today I have another dilemma. 

A friend of mine is going through a nasty divorce where his soon to be ex-wife is violating a court order and forbidding him from seeing his son.

He can’t afford an attorney and seems to be pretty well screwed. She refuses to deliver his son as ordered by the courts and he doesn’t have a clue on what he should do.

Has anyone else here been in a similar situation or have any advice they can offer my friend? The court order clearly states she’s supposed to deliver their son to him every other weekend, but she just absolutely refuses to follow the order.

 

She’s even gone as far as to make false accusations and file a false police report.  I’ve cried a lot of tears for this friend of mine and especially his son. By the way his son is a beautiful perfect little six year old (I’ll tell ya’ll more about him in a couple of days).

 

So guys let’s heart it. He’s here with me now and we’ll be around for a little while, but any advice you can offer him would be appreciated.

Love Ya’ll

Wayne a.k.a. Bugs and Master Yoda

PS: The worst part of all this is the little boy is being put in the middle and his mother doesn't ever seem to care.

"MAX"

Hi folks!

Just dropped by to say “hi” and tell ya’ll I did it!

I know I shouldn’t have, but I did it anyway.  Late Saturday afternoon, just before closing time, I found myself parked in front of the Tri-City Animal Shelter in Cedar Hill.  The workers told me that there were no more adoptions for the day, but I was welcome to look around.

As I entered the room, the first dog I saw was a beautiful German Shepherd puppy around 4 months old.  It was love at first sight. I hadn’t planned on adopting a dog that day and I couldn’t adopt him even if I wanted to. I continued looking around the shelter and after a quick go-round, I found myself back at the Shepherd’s cage.  Much to my dismay, the cage was empty.

A man and one of the shelter workers had taken the puppy out to the play area. I could tell the man was already in love with the puppy.  I watched as the man and the puppy played.  Tears welled in my eyes as I relayed my story about losing Bugs to both of them.

The man wasn’t giving an inch; he wanted that puppy.

I obsessed over the puppy all weekend long, and so did my wife – and she hadn’t even seen him.  This morning we showed up at the shelter around fifteen minutes after they opened. I fully expected to see the man from Saturday, but he was nowhere to be seen.

Within minutes, I was filling out the paperwork and the puppy was on the way to being mine. Just as I was finishing up the adoption, the man from Saturday walked in. He took one look at me, grumbled something under his breath and left.

So here he is folks! The newest addition to the family is our son “Max”. His name on the paperwork was Phineas, but he didn’t respond to it, I can’t spell it, and he looks more like a Max. He was found roaming in a parking lot at around 12 weeks old and was quickly adopted. A few days ago the adopted family returned Max to the shelter saying their child was too rough on the puppy or visa-versa.

Max is beautiful and perfect in every way.  If he grows into his ears and paws, Max is going to be huge. Hope took a while to warm up to him, but they seem to be becoming friends fast. The cat just sits in the corner and growls;  Max stays far away from that corner.

Max loves being loved on and he’s fitting in perfect.

I hope everyone is doing well!

I only know one way to post pictures to the blog so if anyone has other ways or suggestions, feel free to chime in.

1. First, I went to photobucket.com and opened an account (it’s free).

2. Second, I uploaded the pictures that I wanted to post to my blog into my “Photobucket” account. Copy the “Direct Link” which appears just below the image that you uploaded.

3. Third, when I’m writing my post on the blog I place the curser in the text where I want the picture to appear and I select the “Insert/Modify Image” button at the top of the text window. (It’s the picture of a mountain with the sun coming up over it.)

4. Fourth, paste the direct link to my picture at “Photobucket” in the space provided in the “Insert/Modify Image” dialogue box. You can preview your picture to make sure the link is working and if it is, hit the “OK” button and the image should appear in your blog.

You can resize the image by grabbing the sides and corners of the picture with your mouse and dragging them in or out.

I hope this helps TM and if anyone else has other ways of posting pictures to the blog, let us know.

Ya'll have a great day!
Bugs

A member posted this post, but it turned into a battle (go figure) so she edited the post and turned her comments off; I don’t blame her. I hope she doesn’t mind me reposting this. If she does, all she has to do is say so and I’ll pull it down.

“This blog is not about the news, but it is about current events here in the Fox4 NEWS blogs. Really this is a plea for a new blog category, we could call it "Ridiculous Alter Blogs" or " Insulting Juvenile Blogs". Come on Alice, help us out here. You can just move the blogs to their new category and I and others who really would like to blog about the news won't have to wade through ridiculous amounts of nonsense on the news blogs. You could just call it "Insult Blogs" or "Trash Mouth 101 Blogs" Surely, these blogs would be very easy to identify. Surely, you agree that it has gotten unbearably ridiculous.

Anyone who would like to suggest a name for the new category, please share. Maybe Fox4 will choose yours :)

Those participating in the nonsense the titles above imply, don't waste your time posting a comment here, I won't even read it before I delete it :)”

My questions are for those members who post non-news in the news category.

Why do you do it? Is it the attention? Is it you don’t know the difference between news, entertainment, politics, sports, and faith? Or is that you just don’t care or because you can? I don’t understand people not using this forum, especially the “News” category, as the blog was intended to be used.

Good Morning Everyone!
Bugs

PS: Just tell my why you or you think people post non-news in the “News” section. I’m not looking for a blog battle so keep personal observations about other members to yourself; I’ll delete them anyway.

I was just sitting here thinking about why I’ve been so cranky towards the blog lately. I know why I come here; that’s easy. I enjoy most of the people who contribute to this forum.

Overall, or should I say individually, ya’ll are good people. So if this place is so great and I love all ya’ll so much, why do I find myself getting grumpy every time I come here?

Is it the alters? Nope. Heck, sometimes they’re the most entertaining “things” on the board. I’m even guilty of creating a couple of my own (Wayne's World & Master Yoda; sorry). More power to those of you who have managed to have never created an alter and may you stay steadfast in your purity, but alters aren’t my biggest gripe.

Is it all the fussing and fighting? Nope. The only time blatant aggression really gets to me is when I see INNOCENT people being attacked for no reason. Notice I said “INNOCENT”. In my opinion there are only two blog veterans that come close to wearing the badge of innocence. Other than those two, none of us are innocent. We’re all guilty of making slurs or jabs or picking outright fights with other people.

“Let those amongst without sin cast the first stone.” So it’s not for me to complain about something that I’ve done.

Well it’s not alters and it’s not the fighting, then what is it?

Is it the egomaniacs? No; I like big egos. They have great sense of humors. Is it the know it alls, the done it alls, or the seen it alls? Nope. I’ve seen it all, done it all and…well, I’ll have to pass on the last one, but those types of people make life interesting. Right?

To be honest, what gripes me is that the “News” category is misused, neglected and abused. Of course FOX moderators are in control of which category what post goes in, but they usually allow the posts to remain where they are originally posted. I don’t like that, but who really cares what I don’t like, huh?

If I were “King of the Blog” (LOL), I’d promptly move any non-news posts into another category. A post about sports would be zapped into the sports section; a post about politics would go in politics and so on and so forth. Boy wouldn’t ya’ll love me?

Dedication blogs and battle blogs would be a thing of the past. If the post didn’t fall into one of the established categories, out the door it would go.

Unfortunately that would pretty much leave the “News” category empty. That would also force someone to decide what news is and what’s not news. What’s news to some people isn’t news at all to other people. This gets me to the purpose of this post.

Perhaps some members aren’t familiar with what news is and what news isn’t.

What’s News?

Most anything published or broadcasted by any news media is news. Now there can be sports (steroid usage) and politics (Foley gets nabbed or Clinton gets his) on the front page and that is considered news, but your opinion about your favorite team or what a scumbag Bush or Clinton are, isn’t news.

Those are “Sports” and “Politics”.

Entertainment news can be news too (ie: the writer’s strike), but telling everyone you can’t stand Britney is NOT news.

In other words news is pretty much anything that’s in the media that can’t fall into any of the other categories.

Now that leaves us with birthday wishes, I had a baby, my dog died, my wife is sick, google won’t work, going on vacation, and my neighbor’s dog crapped in my front yard again. Those are all news. Yep. That’s all news.

The reason those subjects are news to me is because they’re very real happenings and thoughts about those events in the lives of real people. To me, that’s hyper-hyper local news. Anyone remember that?

Hyper-local news is any news happening in your community. From a burned down IHOP to a lost dog, that’s all considered hyper-local news.

News can also be fun and funny.

Begging for money is not news.

What’s also not news is standing in the middle of the forum crying about how much you hate someone or can’t stand this person because they said this or think that way. News is not hormonal rants about how much you hate everyone on the blog; news is not middle aged men flexing their mental muscles. Folks, that’s not news at all; that’s dribble and we have plenty of double dribblers around here.

If ya’ll want to duke it out, go to the entertainment section and we’ll all be happy to go down there and watch and even join in, but take your battles out of the news, please.

Giant pictures of snowing mountains is not news; jokes are not news; daily observations of blog battles are not news; open threads are not news, and let’s all have an orgy on my blog is not news.

Well, maybe that last one could be news.

I know why people post non-news posts in the “News” category. More people visit the “News” category (expecting to find news LOL); members want to post where they will be seen by the most people, but if it’s not news the post doesn’t belong here. Set your ego aside and post it somewhere else.

I’m sure I’ve stepped on a lot of toes and said a lot of silly things (what’s new?), but you can take solace in knowing I am neither the ‘King of the Blog” or any type of blog law enforcement. You guys can relax; they’re just words.

Now I’d be hypocritical if I sat here and complained about people complaining and not posting any news and not post any news, so here I go.

Did any of ya’ll see that story the other day on the woman and son who saw the woman’s dead son’s face in a tie dyed shirt? That, to me, was NOT news, but FOX thought it was. So what do ya’ll think? Is that really a message from her son or are they loco?

If ya’ll aren’t familiar with the story, I’ll summarize.

A woman’s son died and she tie dyed a shirt and an image of her dead son appeared in the dyed shirt. (Trying saying that fast three times)

At least that’s what the mother and brother say.

Ya’ll have a good day!?
Bugs

One of my dad’s favorite annual gifts was his “Word-A-Day” calendars. One of us would always get him a new one for Christmas every year. Each day of the week had a new word and the definition for that word. A new word wasn’t revealed until the previous day’s word had been torn off the calendar.

As if my dad wasn’t “loquacious” (one his favorite “new” words) enough, Dad loved using the new words he learned.

Dad and this day have inspired me to post a word every now and then. Here is my word for the day. - Déjà vu

“The experience of déjà vu is usually accompanied by a compelling sense of familiarity, and also a sense of "eeriness", "strangeness", or "weirdness". - Wikipedia

"1. feeling of reliving something: a feeling of having experienced something before, although in fact it is the first time that it has been experienced. 2. boredom: a state of boring familiarity or repetitiveness." - Encarta

I don’t know what made that word pop into my head today (teehee), but I thought I’d just toss it out there and wondered if anyone else has ever experienced “Déjà vu”.

I hope everyone is having a great day!

Bugs

One morning a man woke up on his birthday and rushed down to the kitchen expecting a special breakfast and warm birthday greetings from his wife and children. Instead, he was met with the usual drab “good morning” and dry bowl of cereal.

 

As his children walked out the door to go to school, neither of them mentioned his birthday. His wife also breezed out the door without saying a word about his birthday.

 

Although the man was disappointed his family had forgotten about his birthday, he looked forward to getting to the office where he was sure his co-workers would have a huge cake and throw the usual pot luck birthday lunch like they did for everyone else’s birthdays.

 

Lunch came and went and there was no cake, no pot luck, and not a word about the man’s birthday. He didn’t even receive a telephone call from his parents.

 

Around 5:00 someone slid an envelope under his door. Excitedly he retrieved a card from the envelope which read, “Happy Birthday! Want to come to my place and have a drink?” The card was signed by his sexy secretary.

 

The man told his secretary he’d be happy to have a drink with her after work.

 

After they got to his secretary’s apartment, his secretary suggested she slip into something more comfortable and that he make himself at home while she was in the other room.

 

As she walked out of the room she lowered to lights to where he could barely see. He quickly stripped off all of his clothes except his socks and underwear and sat down on the couch. From the other room his secretary cooed, “Are you ready?”

 

Proudly spreading his arms across the back of the couch he answered, “Whenever you are.”

 

About that time the lights came up and “Happy Birthday” echoed throughout the room. There in front of him stood his entire family including his parents, wife, and kids, all of his co-workers and most of his friends.

 

I hope you had a better birthday than this guy did.

 

Happy Birthday I_S!

Bugs

 

Footnote: This is an old joke so don’t be surprised if you've heard a different version.

Just thinking out loud....

I got this card for Christmas from a “Republican” friend of mine. She said as soon as she saw it, she thought of me.

 

"Evolution or Intelligent Design? You Decide!"

 

I hope everyone is having a great evening!

Bugs

There appears to be an overwhelming consensus occurring in Iowa. When asked which choice voters would like most to see added to the list of Republican choices, the overwhelming response was, “None of the Above.”

On the other hand when asked what choice voters would most like to see added to the Democratic list of choices, voters agreed “All of the Above” would be most appropriate.

Ya’ll have a great day!
Bugs

Happy New Year Everyone!

Except for the sound of three firecrackers at midnight, New Years passed without much fanfare.  Sleep took over somewhere during the news making the last news story of 2007, at least for me, the story about the lady getting tossed off the bus for reading the Bible out loud to her children.

Not only was this not news last night, but FOX felt compelled to re-run the article this morning.  The only logical reason FOX would create news out of such a non-event might be because they’re trying to shake off the byproduct of reporting the truth (liberalism), but, to me, creating Christian conservative news is a bit obvious and debasing.

Between Dart and the T, does anyone have a clue how many people are asked to get off trains or busses every year for creating disturbances? Many of those people are preaching “their” own form of gospel, but no Christian subculture of the ACLU jumped in to defend those peoples’ rights.  I have little doubt the woman was treated any differently than if she had been reading a newspaper or reciting “Mother Goose” rhymes at the same voice level as she was reading the Bible. 

If she was speaking as loudly on the bus as she was in the newscast, she certainly would have prevented other passengers from reading quietly to themselves. She would have also more than likely silenced any conversations between other passengers and perhaps even been a distraction to the bus driver.  In my opinion the T went above and beyond their obligation by delivering the woman to church.

Being familiar with these types of Christians, my guess is this lady was not just reading the Bible to her children; she was in essence preaching to everyone else on the bus. She was probably quite proud of herself up until the time she was asked to stop.  The only advice I could give to her would be to either keep her voice down to an unobtrusive tone or restrict her preaching to where and when preaching is appropriate.

I hope ya’ll have a great day!
Bugs

God’s Greatest Gift

by Bugs for the FOX4 blog, Keller, and Aunt Bee

 

And a bright shining star arose in the sky,

Bringing with it hope for the world, for you and I.

The shepherds quaked in mortal fear,

Until voices of angels they did hear.

 

“A prince is born unto you this day;

He comes to love you, to teach you and show you the way.”

To the stable beneath the bight shining star,

People did flock from near and far.

 

Wise men journeyed to reach the manger,

Bowing before a King who is no man’s stranger.

They brought gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh,

To give to Mary and the child born unto her.

 

And there on a fresh clean bed of straw,

Laid the son of God sent to save us all.

For this is the day we celebrate with joyous mirth,

The birth of God’s greatest gift ever given to earth.

 

I wanted to share a Christmas story with you guys, but it was way too long for the blog so I posted the first paragraph and a link to a “geocities” page I set up just for the blog.

 

Times were hard and I wrote this story as a Christmas gift for my family. I hope if you take the time to read it, you enjoy it as much as they “say” they did.

 

My Christmas Present to You

 

Snow fell silently around the tiny shack.  Smoke bellowed from the chimney and a warm orange glow filtered through the thin curtains hanging in the windows.  A deer nuzzled a barren bush as the gripping wind whipped a bitter cold chill around him. Inside, an elderly man sat alone rocking back and forth in front of a blazing fire.  His saddened face was worn and wrinkled; his hands tough like leather and his eyes were soft bluish gray clouds. In his lap sat a faded picture of a young man and woman standing in front of a beautifully decorated Christmas tree. As a tear found a path down his cheek, he lovingly and gently stroked his hand across the photograph. Leaning back in his rocking chair and closing his eyes he drifted into an exhausted sleep.  The fire began to fade and cold quickly filled the room.

 

Continued…

 

Use this link: “My Christmas Story”, to read the rest but be warned, it’s about 6 pages long. Oh yeah, it has that version of “Silent Night” which I love that I was trying to share with you guys as the background so you might just want to listen to the music.

 

Merry Christmas Everyone!

…and as they say in the mountains,

“May Those ‘Infernal Revenuers’ Stay Away for Another Year!”

Bugs a.k.a. Wayne

I had a hard time sleeping last night. Just before I went to bed a good friend of ours (the blog family), Keller, posted a post offering to give away most of his possessions. I’m not ashamed to tell people that I wept.

Keller is one of the best men I’ve had the honor of ever communicating with. He’s a home grown country boy, respectful of others, a veteran, and former police officer. Keller’s had a rough year, but never once has he ever come here asking for our help. Instead, during a time of trial, he comes here offering something to someone else.

This is how Jesus taught us to live.

There are a lot of people in dire straits and every once in a while one of them wanders into the forum asking for money. Instead of money, they should be asking for prayers. Prayer is far more powerful and will solve many more problems than money ever can.

I won’t say I can’t do much for Keller. In the physical sense, I can’t do anything, but I can offer a prayer. A prayer is all anyone ever needs.

Dear God,

Please wrap your loving arms around our friend Keller in this time of turbulence and change. Encompass him in your sweet gentle compassion. I pray you provide the means for Keller to find happiness and joy; especially at this special time of year.

In Jesus name I pray,

Amen

Keller,

The Bible says God’s strength is made perfect in our weakness. I know you’re feeling like that old adage “God will never put more on you than you can take” isn’t true, but it is.

When you are feeling your weakest, your most beaten and most downhearted, your bond with God is stronger than ever. This is the time to lay it all on God’s alter and know God will not disappoint you.

You’re in my heart and prayers.

Wayne

I’d ask that everyone send out a special prayer for my good buddy Keller tonight.

As I’ve indicated several times, I’m no Martha Stewart in the kitchen, but every once in a while I come up with some pretty tasty meals.  Usually these savory concoctions are created out of necessity.

 

I’m sure everyone, maybe not, has had those days where they go to the cabinets, fridge, and nightstand to see what kind of ingredients might be lying around for diner.

 

Anyway, I have to give you a little history before I can go any further. For as long as I can remember, Spam, the canned meat, has been a staple at our house.  Dad kept no less than half a dozen cans on the shelf at all times.  We ate Spam, just spam and mayo, sandwiches for lunch, on fishing trips, and just about any time in between.

 

They were great and I wanted to share one of my own Bug’s original Spam recipes with you.

 

Several years ago on a night when I did not want to go to the store (3ft. of snow), I managed to round up a can of Spam (no bread or mayo), a bottle of Honey Mustard BBQ sauce, and a bottle honey.

 

There are the ingredients:

1 can Spam

Some Honey/Mustard BBQ sauce (favorite brand)

Some honey

 

CAUTION: WHEN OPENING SPAM, DON’T GET CUT ON THE LID!

 

Pre-heat a medium sized well greased NON-STICK skillet to warm and slice the Spam into thin (aprox. ¼ in.) slices.

 

Using a fork, mix a several (aprox. 4 tablespoons) of each the BBQ sauce and honey in a small bowl. Keep the bottles handy because you might need more.

 

Dip each slice of Spam making sure the entire piece is coated in the mixture and place the Spam in single layers in the skillet. Pour any remaining or mix up another couple tablespoons of mixture into the skillet over top of the Spam.

 

Do this as quickly as possible and begin turning the Spam slices frequently. As soon as (within a just few minutes or less depending on how hot your skillet is) the glaze begins to brown, remove the Spam from the skillet.

 

Believe it or not, if you cook it right, to me, it tastes just like a honey baked ham, but if you don’t use a non-stick skillet, well, we had to throw ours away.

 

Do ya’ll like Spam? Have you ever eaten Spam? Do you have a favorite Spam recipe?

 

Ya’ll Have A Great Day!

Bug’s

Disclaimer: This is in no way a political endorsement or advertisement. I just want to share, that’s all.

 

I was unsure where to post this.  In one sense, yes the story is political, but in another sense I find the piece appropriate for the “Faith” category. But then again politics and faith tend to rub people the wrong way so I’ll just post this up here in the news section.

 

I’ve been a long time fan of Sen. McCain for many years and have a great deal of respect for him. This is the text of Sen. McCain’s last campaign email. I really enjoyed reading it and I hope you do too.

 

This it the picture that came with the email.

 

“My Christmas Story "

 

As a POW, my captors would tie my arms behind my back and then loop the rope around my neck and ankles so that my head was pulled down between my knees. I was often left like that throughout the night.

 

One night a guard came into my cell. He put his finger to his lips signaling for me to be quiet, and then loosened my ropes to relieve my pain. The next morning, when his shift ended, the guard returned and retightened the ropes, never saying a word to me.

 

A month or so later, on Christmas Day, I was standing in the dirt courtyard when I saw that same guard approach me. He walked up and stood silently next to me, not looking or smiling at me.

 

After a few moments had passed, he rather nonchalantly used his sandaled foot to draw a cross in the dirt. We stood wordlessly looking at the cross, remembering the true light of Christmas, even in the darkness of a Vietnamese prison camp. After a minute or two, he rubbed it out and walked away.

 

That guard was my Good Samaritan. I will never forget that man and I will never forget that moment. And I will never forget that, no matter where you are, no matter how difficult the circumstances, there will always be someone who will pick you up and carry you.

 

May you and your family have a blessed Christmas and Happy Holidays,

John McCain”

 

I hope that if you find yourself facing “difficult circumstances" this season  you can remember, “there will always be someone who will pick you up and carry you.”

 

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Wayne