Health insurance

Watched Oprah show when they talked about health insurance and mike moore's movie Sicko. Very interesting. Made me realize that all of us who have yet to be a victim of the health care industry are basically just lucky, REGARDLESS of how good our insurance plans are or how much money we make.

One thing I think they didn't talk enuff about, tho, is the COST of health services. Do those pills and operations REALLY cost that much? If so, do they actually have to cost that much? Why can't government control prices thru out the manufacturing chain? My leukemia operation's retail price is $200,000 - but is the wholesale price actually $1,000?

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What's the big deal??

Am I the only one that doesn't understand why folks is loving Halo 3? Let me preface by saying that yes I am an xbox 360 gamer, and I love Gears of War, among other games. But yet I've never understood the fascination with h3. Looks like a basic first person shooter to me...

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More blogging

I'm gonna try to start blogging more. Even tho I am busy, I aint got no excuse when I can easily send messages from my phone like I'm doing now. And writing my thoughts is good for the soul I think. :) ...well, that was a nice little procrastination break I just took. I guess now I gotta get back to work. Mutha...

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Return on investment

Well, I'm in Vegas for the week. I put five $ in a slot machine just to pass the time while the wife was having fun with the one-armed bandit... 2 hours later I had turned that 5 into 3 hundred...

Unfortunately I can't post video clips from my phone, so you'll just have to imagine me doing the 2-step down the vegas strip...

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A Certain Damsel's Distraction

In my most recent men's bible study group session this past Wednesday, we read & discussed Acts Chapter 16 vers 16 - 34, which is the story about Paul and Silas being thrown in jail for exorcising a demon from one of the villagers. I found one part of this to be very interesting...

To paraphrase the story, Paul and his boys were were walking to a "place of prayer", and ran into this "certain damsel" who was possessed with a demon or "spirit" that allowed her to predict the future. She was being pimped by some of the locals as a way of making money off this 'talent'. Anyway, she started following Paul and his peeps, and the demon thru her was telling everybody, "These are God's servants! They'll tell you how to be saved!" (I guess even demons have to speak the Truth when it comes to God's Word).

The interesting part is that Paul lets this go on "for many days" before he finally turns around and speaks to the demon (not the girl) and says, "In the name of Jesus I command you to come out of her!" And the demon comes out.

What's interesting about that for me is that Paul and his boyz endured the wailings of this demon for several days before doing anything about it. (Even tho the demon was speaking truth, there's a problem when that truth comes of out of a demonic vessel)

I wrestled with that for a while - why would Paul let this possessed woman follow them for days like that? Is this a lesson in patience?

My conclusion: you can't let the Devil keep you off balance by reacting every time he throws a distraction your way. Paul had a mission; a ministry. If he stopped walking every time somebody came up talking some bull, he'd never get to where he was going! So I can't slow down my Christian walk by letting a bad day, or a bad word out of someone's mouth, keep me from 'making it happen'. I've gotta use the Holy Spirit to know whether I need to call somebody out and set them straight, or when I just need to "keep on truckin', baby!"

Industry rule #4080

Is it possible that the PPC 6700 is like the best phone ever??? I found another use today - using the flash on the phones camera to help me see inside my computer case while I changed my hard drive. I feel just like MacGyver!!! :)

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What is my doggie good for?....

Here's another pic of my boxer puppy Kwali.

Today on the news there was a story about a golden retriever who, when he saw his owner was choking, knocked her down and started jumping on her chest until the obstruction was dislodged.

I looked at my wife in pure amazement like "what??!!" it is amazing the keen senses that dog's have.

Then I looked at Kwali. "Can u do that?", I asked. His blank stare seemed to suggest that he was saying, "...are u gonna give me another doggie biscuit or what?...."

-- sent from mobile phone --

Waiting patiently...

The chair...where I sit and wait patiently while my wife shops at a store in Jeffersonville (at least I think that's where we are). She's using a gift card I got for her as a gift. She's very excited. I personally don't know what all the fuss is about, but lately I've come to realize that her purses and clothes are the happiness-equivalent of my pocket pc's and xbox 360's. :)

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1-year old puppy

The last time I posted to this blog, Kwali was just a wee lad. Now he's a 64-lb force to be reckowned with. :)

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Once again it's on...

This is a test of my first MOBILE post, sent from my pocket pc phone. If this works, it may be the beginning of a new age of blog posts from The Ric'. I'm including a pic I just took of my own eye, cuz like Nino Brown, "I've seen the future, y'all..."

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"...If God made light on the first day, what was giving the light, since the sun doesn't appear until the fourth day?... " - David Plotz, Blogging the Bible

Wow, that's a deep thought! What was giving the light on the 1st day, if not the Sun? Hmmm....

So maybe the light isn't the kinda light we automatically think of. So what's going on here?

My first thought: the Truth is the Light. That sounds like a good biblical saying, but now that I'm looking, I can't actually find that anywhere in the Bible. Where did I hear that from?

My next thought: II Corinthians 4:6 - "...the light of the knowledge of the glory of God...". Was the glory of God somehow manifested physically on the first day? Was this manifestation necessary to continue His work?

What about Matthew 5:16 - "...let YOUR light so shine before men...". Hmmm. So obviously even I have a light that can shine w/o the benefit of the Sun.

Interesting. I'm gonna vybe on this in my head for a while - wait, better yet - I'm gonna vybe on this in my spirit for a while (big difference). Let's see what we can see.

what are your thoughts?....

"Yoo Le-Hoo, mon cherie! I am looking somewhere to find you!..." - Pepe Le Pew, Looney Tunes

Looks like I get a lot of hits to this blog from people who are searching the 'Net for The Boondocks. Kool!

To you all you Boondocks fans, holla at ya boy! Lemme know what you think of the show. Like for instance:


- How kool was the fight sequence between Huey and the kung-fu brutha in "Let's Nab Oprah"?!

- Do you think Uncle Ruckus' religious campaign of black self-hate could work in the real world? Or is it already working?

- Did you fall out laughing when little Jazmine was in the pulpit talking about "Praaaise Santa!" in the Xmas episode?

- Did you have to sit and think seriously for a moment about some of the statements made by Martin Luther King, Jr. in the "Return of the King" episode?

Holla!

"...You humans, when're you gonna learn that size doesn't matter? Just 'cause something's important, doesn't mean it's not very, very small...." - Frank the Pug, Men in Black


This week during lunch I attended a rally in support of a new bill against puppy mills in Ohio. My employer is a supporter of this, and encouraged us to attend. I went home and got my puppy to take him along - I figured he was a supporter also. :)

This was his first real interaction with other dogs since I've had him. He was so excited! More so, I think, than the other dogs. But then, to be fair he was the youngest guy out there.

Little did I know, lil' Kwali is a fighter! Every time he would 'greet' another dog, next thing I know he's throwin' dem 'bows! I guess they call them Boxers for a reason.

But what really tickled me was when a guy came by with his 120 lb (that's one-hundred twenty pounds) Great Dane. Mind you, this small horse was only 8 months old! So I guess I shouldn't say that the guy came by, but rather the dog came by dragging his master helplessly behind him.

The Great Dane bends down to greet Kwali. Kwali sniffs him and what not. Next thing I know, Kwali's all over his face! The Dane was kool about it tho - he had an expression on his face like, "...sigh...silly baby puppy..." But I was concerned - the Dane could literally have swallowed Kwali in one gulp.

To be honest, Kwali wasn't fighting anyone - just being really playful like puppies do. He was the life of the party, tho - everybody wanted to meet him & pet him and I kept overhearing folks say "that's a beautiful dog".

Uh, hello...I'm here, too. Can I get some love? :-)

"No need to worry
No need to cry
I’m your messiah and you’re the reason why
'Cause, I would die for you..." - I Would Die 4 U, Prince

Was I the only one that didn't know that Prince's "I Would Die 4 U" song was about Christ? I was chillin' today and having a nostalgic Prince jam session (music, old videos, etc), and started listening to the lyrics of this song like "what?" Then I looked up the lyrics, and it seems to me like this song is clearly about Christ dying for us. Wow! This was a like a mainstream radio song in 1984. Interesting...

"What is 'real'? If 'real' is what we can hear and taste and touch and see, then real is nothing more than electrical signals sent to our brain..." - Morpheus, The Matrix

I found this really kool article about scientists making a machine that can 'read thoughts' - well, sorta. Here's a little excerpt:

"...During calibration, the person imagines moving his left or right hand. The signals picked up by the electrodes are processed in a specially written computer program that filters out signals from thoughts not related to moving the object and homes in on the brain activity responsible for the imagination of movements. Once the person is in sync with the computer, he can imagine moving his hands or feet or rotating an object to trigger an action on the screen...."

So of course, this all made me think of the story of the Matrix, and Morpheus' quote above. In other words, if I can figure out what the electrical signal looks like that goes from nose to my brain when I smell a flower, why can't I duplicate that electrical signal, and make your brain think you're smelling a flower?

That's why The Matrix is so deep is cuz, why can't that actually happen? The reason the robots were able to create the Matrix for humans is cuz, according to the story, they had mapped every single part of the human brain - they knew exactly how it worked, and how to interface with it.

That's the same thing these typewriter guys are doing - today they're learning what part of the brain does the left hand, next the right, then all the fingers, then which part of the brain can see red, which sees blue, then they put all that 'eye' data together and they can display what you the person is looking at right onto the monitor!

So far, they're dealing with output [from the brain] only. But maybe one day they'll find a way to INPUT. That's where it gets kool, as well as scary. Imagine uploading your college textbook into your brain. But then again, also think of 'Total Recall' (w/Arnold Schwarzenegger) where they screw with your mind - not good.

If only we could all live another 100 years, and I bet we'd be there. Maybe my 4-year old nephew will be able to experience playing a video game using only his brain!