barnson.org Half-baked opinions, served lukewarm.

I just was doing some paperwork - and, long story short, while we were using just our cellphone, we overestimated our minutes.. and we have a $1500 cellphone bill that is usually $150.

Wow.. this sucks.

SO.. theres gotta be some advice from these collected brains - what can I do? WHat would you suggest.. the charges are legit. Theyre ours.. we were just moving and had a new baby and well.. here we are.

The trudging down my driveway to the large green coffin of a trashcan with my black bags full of the ghastly remains of partially eaten food, unused gift wrap, torn boxes.. and its all over.

I'll admit, this was my craziest Christmas ever. Moved to VA with a newborn, shopping with said noewborn, and producing a Christmas album with the family.

Yet today was wonderful, as it always is, and ended with me being too full, back at home, Kelly and Liam in bed.. and me disposing of all the merriment.

Now comes the long haul - 364 days to go.

Oh.. BTW: Here's a tune or two from the aforementioned album..
"GO XMAS (Go) - An Original Rap

The name for the final Harry Potter book has been announced.. and now the speculation can begin.

Any thoughts on the upcoming release? Predictions for plotlines, character deaths, etc? Be warned, spoilers for books 1-6 may be in this thread..

HOWEVER...

PLEASE - if you have inside info, dont let us know.. we can speculate.. but not based on real spoilers.. lets keep those in another forum.

He's a regular guy. Works at a newspaper. lives with family, newly married, typical suburban Baltimorean..

Oh, and he's a B-Movie icon - especially in Maryland.

This guy has the kind of career i think about when I imagine leaving the quest for stardom.. he just lives his life.. and makes fun, cheap movies that struggle to make a little profit, if any - but eventually... yes, they do.

And so it is that his name is mentioned in books and articles.. and people come in droves to kiss his ass and try to get in his movies.

Okay.. there's been a wrinkle.
What if you had lived forever in a townhouse. What if, for 40K more you could have your first single family home with a yard.. and as an added bonus, your mother, brother, and sister lived four doors down and were offering free childcare?

What if it meant freedom to pursue things like acting, with the ability to go places at a moments notice.. but what if it meant your wife had to add 45 minutes to her commute?. What if it meant giving up a lot of your social scene, but solidifying your relationship with your siblings?

Mongtomery county, MD. - Could be anywhere in the DC area.
Tell ya what.. it has everything you'd want. Good schools, a million retaurants, shops, movie theatres, malls, access to Washington and Baltimore - a thriving music and theatre scene in DC - its a nice place to live.

But is it worth it? Of late, I have looked around my home.. which costs upward of 300k, and noted.. its a townhouse.. and I cant see us ever really getting out of the townhouse market. We would just upgrade townhouses and neighborhoods.

UPDATE!
Wayward Sun has been deleted already by Wikipedia. I guess I didn't make them seem important enought (Reason given was that it was an "unremarkable organization").
/end update

I have headed over to Wikipedia and created a Wayward sun article.. but it is very basic.. I did no formatting, and it needs a lot more information. The registration was easy.. just create a username and password, no more info.

Do the needful and read this post. I am on a crusade to make you believe in the power of this post.

Should the same people be forced by a government to carry guns if they believe in evolution - or should they use Firefly's chinese swear words to help in tying shoes?

Furthermore, since the founding fathers were Christians, it should make sense that they would use Mutt on FreeBSD while flying model airplanes and playing the bass guitar and reading the book "Godless".. and liking pie.

Yup.. I know better.. never open an unsolicited attachment. yet there I was, mouse hovering over the attachment.. one click.. then.. no.

I thought it out.. and sure enough it was phony. Bet you ten to one the attachment was a virus. Glad I skipped the second click.. here's their message.

Dear Customer,

Thank you for ordering from our internet shop. If you paid with a credit card, the charge on your statement will be from name of our shop.

WHAT?? Yes, this is an attempt to bring this particular debate up to speed. Postings on ancient threads are hard to follow -

SO.. here's the deal.
Some dude went bonkers and killed a bunch of Amish kids. He used guns. So society is asking.. "Are guns really worth having, as a right?"

It is true, to paraphrase Eddie Izzard - "Guns don't kill people, people kill people. But the guns help." - We do have more guns and also more per capita gun homicides than most first-world countries. It is a problem.