Nothing matters until you are done playing.

I let myself sleep in. I was going to go to practice today, but I slept in until one pm. By the time I got ready and got gas I would have been late. I chose not to go. I watched a movie on TV instead. It was Mr. Destiny. That was about a guy who more or less changed one event in his life and the rest of his life changed but not for the better. It reminded me about the Butterfly Effect in some ways. Mr. Destiny was a little less sinister and had a much happier ending.

After that I went to my IS office and checked my e-mail. I also listened to some of my old recordings of the Peter Eichman Show. I am looking for a good twenty minute clip I can send in for a job. Not that I need another job, but it would be cool to get back on the radio. I would love to get a two or three hour talk show again.

I left and headed to Pullman. We had vehicle maintenance. I got to the fire station and found out Bryan got a job with Aberdeen Fire. So he was going to be leaving in nine days. Brandon is gone in about twenty-three days. So the fire department will change. Jason is taking Bryan's temporary position at the main station.

We started maintenance. I got some of the rescue done when two calls came out back to back. Both rescue and engine left on the calls. I went in to the station and watched some TV while waiting for them to get back. Star Wars Episode One was on.

When the rigs got back I help finish the maintenance. Then I went to my office with John to play cards. I could not buy a hand. I was having terrible luck. I was down to my last eight dollars when we played a guts game. We both stayed in and I won so I got the pot which was fourteen dollars. John had to match that. I won the pot by myself and so I had a lot of the money. But John was grinding away and I was back down to about six bucks. I went all in and won. I had just over ten dollars when I went all in again and won. Now we were even. I called two more games. We went nearly went all in and I won. John only had about ten dollars. He said after having been up all night he was going to lose no matter what. We went all in again. I won. So, I ended up winning twenty five dollars after losing most of the night.

We are one and oh.

I got up and got ready for our football scrimmage. Because I am still a gimp that required simply getting dressed. I drove over to Moscow to meet up with the rest of the team. Then we were off. I had two guys riding with me to Moses Lake. We stopped at McDonald's in Pullman for breakfast then at the Exxon gas station in Colfax.

We left from there and headed out hiway twenty-six towards Othello. We were doing about ten miles per hour over the speed limit most of the way. At one point I started getting the urge to go to the bathroom really bad. I needed to hit the rest area at the three-ninety-five interchange. I thought if I passed everyone I could go to the bathroom and catch up with them. I passed the front two cars and I was doing about one hundred miles per hour. I let the car naturally slow down.

I came around a curve and over a hill. I was slowing down some more. I was still doing about fifteen over the speed limit when I passed a cop. I thought for sure I was nailed. The cop never turned on me. The guys in the vehicle with me were surprised I was not pulled over. Cliff said if it were him he would have gotten a ticket for sure. He was laughing saying how lucky I was.

I got to the bathroom and took the break. We got back on the road and headed to Othello and then we took hiway seventeen to Moses Lake. We met up with everyone else at a gas station on the side of the road. Then we caravanned to the middle school where the scrimmage was scheduled.

We went into the locker room and everyone got ready for the game. We took the field and did some warm-ups. At game time there were a few people out there to watch the game and there were players and coaches from other teams video taping the game and scouting out our team and Moses Lake's team.

We did not do any special teams, just offense and defense. The offense got the ball about the thirty yard line. They got ten plays to drive the distance of the field. We had four chances each then took a half time. Neither team had scored. Our defense was looking pretty good. Our offensive line needed some work.

We went out for the second half. We were on our last possession. It was the last possession of the game. We were driving down the field. Our line held long enough and made an opening that the quarterback stepped up and found a guy in the end zone wide open. He threw the ball and we scored. We won the game. It was cool!

Afterwards the other team shook our hands and then gave us a six foot sub for coming up there. We took it to the locker room and ate. We headed back to Moscow and got there about ten hours after starting the day. It was a long day.

I went to Pullman and met up with Ryan. We got a pizza and rented a movie. I had wanted to see Johnny English. We rented that and watched it. It was pretty funny. After that was done we did some channel surfing before I headed home and went to bed.

Six characters could take twenty-eight days.

Due to sleeping in yesterday I had to work a full ten hours today. That was not a big deal because I did not have a lot of to do this evening. I have football tomorrow morning so I actually have to get to bed sort of early. The day was pretty normal. I was trying to find some marine frequencies for the Lower Granite Dam. I found a few phone numbers to call. I actually got a hold of someone who helped me. That was good.

This week's weather has been getting me excited about getting out on the river! It will be so nice to go boating and hanging out on the water. This will be the third year that I have a boat. Two years ago I traded a Seventy-Five Corvette for a boat and trailer. I loved my Corvette. The boat has been awesome. Getting on the river and playing. I have had a ton of fun. I can hang out with more friends. The car was fun, but there was always risk of getting a speeding ticket.

Anyhow, after work was over I went to Colfax Fire. I chatted with Carl to see if he could program my radio with the new marine frequencies. He asked if he could do it another night. I told him that would be no problem at all. Then I headed out to the customer's house for the computer work. The customer has a MS Money program. It was protected with a passport password. For some reason she cannot login anymore. It says it is getting the wrong password. So, I worked on a couple things for a while. With no luck. So, I took the MS Money file and I was going to use a program that the company has that can break passwords. We need to use the brute force method and that will take a while to do. The program is hitting about forty-seven thousand passwords a second, and at that rate it will take about twenty-eight days just to try all the possible combinations for six characters. That is why people say to use at least six characters. Many times if you use symbols, numbers, and alphabetic characters and you have eight or more characters it could take months using a brute force attack. Therefore changing your password every month or so, someone trying to hack your password may never get it.

After I got the computer working on the brute force attack I watched Third Watch. I am getting back into the show. For a while I was not able to watch it so I am lost on a few things, but I am learning. I went home after the show and played with Amber for a few hours before retiring to bed.

Logic you gotta love it.

My oh my... Somehow my alarm clock was turned off. I never turn off my alarm clock during the week. So, without hearing it make noise this morning it was up to my internal clock to wake me. If you have ever woke up and immediately realized you are late. That is what happened to me this morning as I looked to my alarm clock letting me know I was two and a half hours late. OOPS! So I called work. I came in for just a few minutes and then I had to go to Pullman for class. The professor always has some topics to discuss, some more politically charged than others. Today was about getting plastic surgery and making sure you know about the doctor's past. Many people have died getting plastic surgery. Well, I am not going to beat a dead horse by commenting on that, but something was brought up in class that I thought was awesome.

We were talking about inductive and deductive logic. Deductive logic is something like the following.
All cats are cute.
Fluffy is a cat.
Therefore, Fluffy is cute.

Inductive logic is a bit different. That is where a whole bunch of little pieces of information are strung together to come up with a conclusion. For example.
- There is a broken window in your house.
- There is a baseball on the floor near the broken glass.
- The baseball was not there this morning.
- There is an empty lot next door where kids play baseball.
- There were kids playing baseball there today.
- They are not there now.
With all these pieces of information we can say that one of the kids playing baseball caused the broken window. That is were the awesome part comes in. A comment was made that one of the kids playing baseball "broke the window."

Dissecting this situation a little farther I have some questions.
The baseball flew through the window breaking it.
The bat made the baseball fly.
The kid swung the bat hitting the baseball.
So who or what broke the window? Was it the kid who broke the window? Was it the bat that broke the window? Was it the ball that broke the window? One might argue the ball broke the window but it was the kid who caused it to happen by hitting the ball with the bat.

Think about how you would answer that question, and honestly look at this next situation.
A bullet hits a person cause the death of the person.
A gun fired the bullet that causes the death.
Someone pulled the trigger of the gun which caused the bullet to be fired.
Who killed the person? How often do you hear someone say "that person was killed by a gun"? Do you believe it was the bullet, the gun, or the person pulling the trigger that caused the death of the person?

Relate what you say on this one to the baseball example. I bet you did not saw the bat broke the window. But did you say the gun killed the person? Being consistent either you said the ball broke the window which means you should have said the bullet killed the person. Otherwise you probably said the kid broke the window, therefore you should have said that someone killed the person.

Gun arguments often bring in emotions where the ball breaking a window would not draw the emotions. You can use logic on the ball/window situation where the bullet/dead person brings out emotions. Emotions and logic don't mix.

Why was that awesome? Well it was cool. Trust me on that one. I was sitting in class and I heard the professor said "one of the kids playing baseball broke the window." I then immediately thought about who someone would have said if it had been a shooting. The professor no doubt would have said that a gun killed the person.

Moving along after class I met up with George to talk about my paper that I am working on for English. I am writing about network security at WSU.

I went to the health department in Pullman and dealt with a computer issue. They just got DSL and thought it was running slow. I showed that it was quickly running. I fixed their e-mail so they all get e-mail now.

I came back to my office and working on C# and ASP.Net some more. At six-thirty I met up with Pete and Patti for our coroners meeting. We talked about a couple of the recent cases, including the homicide in Pullman. We did a table top exercise.

I went to Colfax fire and watched CSI with Carl. We talked during the commercials. Then I headed home. I went to bed a little after eleven pm, hoping that I would get a good night sleep.

Easy come, easy go.

I had fire training on Wednesday. We were doing defib and combi-tube recert training. My second time in the last few months. It went very quickly. When that was done John and I went to play cards. I was grinding it out nicely. I was up seventy-five dollars. John wanted to do one hand of Texas Hold 'em double or nothing. Because it is a "friendly" game that we play, I gave him the chance. And sure enough, he won so I was down to zero. It took hours to build what ten seconds took away. It is not like I would have seen that money anyhow, but it is nice to have for the days I go cold and lose money.

My rule of thumb is that Softball is Life.

Everyday in class like clockwork the teacher likes to talk about some social situation. One time it was about swearing. Once about gay marriage. One time it was dealing with people of different cultures. Today as I sit in class I wonder what the topic of today was going to be. It was about a little saying that you probably hear without thinking twice. You probably hear it on the minimum of once a week. You have probably said it to others without a second thought. Our teacher said she does not want to see it in our papers, nor should we use it normally.

But first, before class I talked with someone from a company who had called my office in Pullman last night. She said there are a couple service jobs in the Pullman area. They get service jobs from Dell and other manufactures. She said that Lobo can be the primary contractor for working those jobs and others that come in. I told her I would be interested in doing that. That was good because that could give us some steady inflow of jobs. They are all replacing hardware on computers. It is pretty easy work.

I got a few things done around the office before I left for class. I hobbled my way to class. Our discussion revolved around "rule of thumb". That, my professor said, has a negative source. People use "rule of thumb" all the time to talk about the general rule of something. Last night at fire training the instructor was talking about building construction. He said "the rule of thumb is..." It is funny that I heard it the very day we talked about it in class. I knew where rule of thumb origins had come from but others in the class had not heard of it.

The rule of thumb came from the time when you could beat your wife with a stick that was no bigger than the husband's thumb. She said that is such a negative origin, that the phrase "rule of thumb" should not be used. She then joked that if she had lived back then she would have married a guy with no thumbs. I can say I will not stop using it. I don't think that it should stop being used only do to its origin. If we stopped using things that came from a bad situation, then there are other things that people should not use today.

There are some people that say the medical advancements that we have gained due to the Nazi experiments from WWII should not be used because they were unethical. I don't buy that. I don't believe the end justifies the means, however we should not discontinue the use of things because people apply our standards of life to a different generation. That might sound a little like cultural relativism. I don't believe in that either. There are rights and wrongs that transcend cultures. But that does not mean that we should ignore things that help people, or phrases that may have come from a bad beginning.

After I was done with work I had fire training. Like I said earlier we were talking about building construction. Following training I went to Subway and got a sub before heading home.

Has Matt?

No poker tonight. I talked to John and he had vehicle maintenance last night and training on Wednesday. He said he could not come out tonight as well. Dan wanted to play, but I wanted to stay in Colfax and relax tonight. I had a meeting with the county commissioners today to request about six thousand dollars worth of computers. They said it was a go.

There was a Haz Mat training class this afternoon at the public service building. I went to that after lunch. It was good. It was a testing system to determine whether a substance is not one of seven bad things. Such as Ricin, Anthrax, SEB, and other items.

After work I completed more of my engineer manual. I got into the part that was dealing with math. I love math, but was not in the mood last night to deal with it. So I stopped and headed to my house.

I watched Trauma: Life in the ER. There were two episodes back-to-back. Then CSI: Miami. Trauma were old episodes but I had not seen them, so I suppose that made them new to me.

Steve Largent is a gentleman.

Today I had football practice at two o'clock pm. I went to bed so late I decided that I would try to sleep in. I find for some reason I am never able to. I got less than eight hours of sleep before I started my day. I got up and took care of Amber followed by a trip to my IS office to check my e-mail.

I headed off to the field in Moscow. It was a shorter practice. I got there an hour early so I started to work on my engineer workbook. There are a ton of pages to do in it. I was working on the multiple choice questions. I did there for about forty-five minutes. I got out and joined everyone who was gathering for practice. The defense coordinator had given a talk yesterday about being role models. He talked about working as a team. He spoke of being respectful and leaving it on the field. He said he did not care for the "stick-kill" chant that they had used the week before. I really liked what he said. I call it the Steve Largent principle. He was a gentleman but he played hard. I see Steve Largent and Dennis Rodman as being the opposites in everyway. Largent played hard. He did not talk smack. He played his game and let his performance do the talking. That is that way I like to play and that is the way I expect my softball team to act.

After practice was over I went to the fire station and worked on my engineer packet some more. I was watching some TV. The resident's from the station were helping with a live burn for the recruits. They all came back around five o'clock pm. I went over to the TV and we started to watch American Pie. John came down around six and we all talked about the shooting call. The reserves were the first on scene. They had to do the CPR and all the other things that went along with that.

We did vehicle maintenance. I helped with Rescue Thirty-Two. After maintenance I went home. I watch Malcolm in the Middle before going to bed at ten pm. It was nice to get to bed that early since I normally get to bed a lot later than that.

Muddy football, just like it use to be.

I allowed myself to sleep in a little bit before I had to get up for football practice. I drove to my IS office and checked my e-mail. There was none of interest. I headed off to Moscow for practice. The field that had been covered by snow, hard-crunchy snow was now mud. People started to show up for practice. At the same time guys from nearby fraternities were showing up to play football on the same field. We ended up sharing a field with them. They were playing a full tackle game with a lot of people watching.

I was watching our practice. I sure wish I could be out there in some ways. For many years I would do EMS at high school football games. I watch these guys go out there and hit and have fun. I wished that I could. Then when the Palouse Thunder semi-pro football team started up, I found my chance. However due to my ankle surgery I am stuck only watching until it gets better.

Because the field was so muddy I was trying to help keep the football's dry. I was using a towel. On crutches I was having a hard time doing it and I was getting really muddy in the process. So, Once the practice was over I was going to have to make a trip to Colfax to clean up. That is something I was hoping to avoid. I went to Ryan's apartment hoping to get him to go with me so he could see my house for the first time. There was a note on his door saying he went to Safeway. I drove to Safeway hoping to meet up with him. He took the bus and has only left about fifteen minutes before I got there.

I waited at Safeway until four o'clock. I was putting the car into gear when I got a call. It was Ryan letting me know he was at Rite-Aid. That is across the street from Safeway, so I picked him up. I went to Dairy Queen and then we drove to Colfax. I got changed and we left again. Ryan wanted to see Victor. So he went in a petted Victor.

We got back to Pullman and Ryan went back to Rite-Aid and got his photo's that were being developed. We went to Ryan's apartment and hung out a little bit. Meredith and Eddie were there. We were going to watch a movie. No one could agree on one. We agreed to gamble. Ryan and I went to get some pop. Meredith went to pick up Kendan. We played four handed poker for about two hours then Meredith, Eddie, and Kendan went to a party. Ryan and I played for a few more hours. I was ready to go to bed, but I stayed. Meredith came back and played some more. I ended up winning pretty big. I would say I was up about ten bucks. I finally left at about three o'clock am.

Like a bullet from a gun.

I had part of a day to put in at IS. My working partner, Dan, helped me out today. I had to get the computer back to the parks department. I put a new OS on it. He walked it over there for me. It turned out that no one was there and the office was full. I still need to add printers and e-mail to the system. So, we told them to get a hold of us when they get in.

I also had gotten an e-mail from the assistant-chief at the fire department. He asked that I call him on Friday morning about a place at the fire station. I called him up. He said that I would get a place at the station. It was nice to hear. I have been trying to get in there for a few years. What is cool is that I don't think I will have to wait long to not be the newest member of the residents. There are some spaces that I think other guys from the recruit class will get. Many of the guys who are there now will be gone within a few months to a year. So, I should move up the ladder quickly.

I went to the superior court office to work on a problem with pop-ups. Even when not on the World Wide Web pop-ups will fill the screen. That is worse than the pop-ups that happen while on the net. I ran Spybot. There were over one hundred instances of spyware or suspicious items on the computer. While I was there the lady who was there said she had been getting a lot of calls from the media about the shooting in Pullman. I said there was a shooting in Pullman... LAST NIGHT?!? She said yes. I asked if anyone was killed and she said that one person was killed and one person was picked up on suspicion of murder.

Talking about being out of the loop. I called a friend at the fire department to ask him about it. He told me a few things about it. He did tell me that it was college students involved. Then I talked with the coroner. I asked if he had been called to it. He said he has been out with in for about ten hours. He said I would have been called has I not been a gimp. I thought about the experience I lost due to my injury. That really sucked.

But on a scale of what sucks more is the two lives shattered and the family members who are going through the trauma of losing a son or having a son in deep trouble. It is like a nightmare you can not wake up from for a while. You hear the bang of the gun. You see your friend fall. It realize thing went bed in a hurry. You wish it was a bad nightmare. You wish that you could take it all back. You wish you could go back a day in time. But there is no way that is going to happen. Your friend lay dying on the floor and your actions caused the event that is taking your friends life away. That is a heavy thought.

Shifting gears I am back at work finishing up dealing with the computer with spyware. I decided I need to get hours in at the jail otherwise next month I will be in bad shape as far as bills go. After I got off work at IS I went to the sheriff's office and into the jail. The guy from the shooting was arrested on second degree manslaughter. He was brought to jail. He was booked by one of the officers. The booking photos need to be processed.

The Sheriff had asked that either Sam or I process the photos of high profile cases right away. There is a system that I build for the digital booking photos. After the photo is taken either Sam or I will open each photo and rotate it so it is right side up. Then we will create a folder of the person’s full name. We will put all the photos that belong to that person in his folder. Then we will use an Active Server Page to enter the stats of the person. That way the system can be used to make photo line-ups. It can also be used to search for a photo of a known person. All the deputies through out the sheriff's office have access to this photo line-up searching database via the intranet.

I got the disk with the photos of the person who accidentally killed his friend and I got the processed. Then a copy of the photo was printed for the undersheriff who gave a copy to the news. The photo that was shown on a couple of the news channels was the booking photo.

After that I continue to work. It is four of us until after dinner. We were all running around and busy, except for the resident gimp. I just sat in control answering phones and opening doors. At one point I was on the phone. There are two telephones side by side in control. The second one rang and my partner answered it. Then when I was done with my call I hung up on the wrong phone base. Cutting off the other call. Everyone was laughing. Oops!

I worked until midnight then I headed home. I got there and got Amber inside. She and I played with the tennis ball for a while. She is very insistent on playing. She loves to play fetch as long as it is a tennis ball. You hardly ever see her walking around without a ball in hand. She is good at it too. Many times she can catch the ball in mid air.

You have no clue what I want.

Thursday morning I thought it was Tuesday and that was a drag! It felt like that week would never end, then I realized that it in fact was Thursday. What a relief. I had to get to class today. I thought I was going to be off the crutches so that was not going to be a big deal, however I am still on crutches. For anyone who has ever had to use crutches, I feel sorry for you. Now I know that pain and I am part of the club.

I hobble my way to class and read the chapter in the book that is supposed to be read. The professor comes in and she starts to talk about an issue. On Tuesday she talked about swearing and how it is very unprofessional. I would agree with that. It does not sound professional to swear; however, I am a corrections officer. That is a profession with professional people. I don't swear in front of the inmates. I refrain. I think that if you swear in front of the inmate that they have won. As the professional I need to have the ability to communicating without relying on swearing. There are times when swearing is warranted and needed. When inmates never hear you swear and some inmate is flying off the handle, a dropping of the F-bomb makes them stop and think for a second. So, I would agree that swearing is not professional. But when you really need the F-bomb, it does come in handy.

Today's class she discussed an editorial that appeared in the Daily Evergreen. It was the one that I talked about yesterday. The whole Bible vs Homosexuality. She was talking about how people don't choose to be gay. In my younger years at college I would have challenged the professor with the comments she was making. These days I am there to go to class and go home. I was not in the mood to get into a discussion. There were many points she was making that I could argue. We could have spent the whole class arguing. As a highly-conservative guy I see a lot of left-wing comments made in my classes and at work. Even my friends are pretty left-wing. But most of my friends agree compared to me there are a lot of left-wing people.

After class I had to get to an apartment in Pullman and do a quick computer job for my company Lobo Computer Services. I was installing a new monitor on a Macintosh.

I got back to Colfax and started to work on rebuilding a computer for the park rangers. They have an old computer with only sixty-four MB of RAM. The rangers have been complaining that it is freezing up and crashing a lot. It does have Windows Ninety-Eight.

I called the jail and talked with one of the Sgt's to see if I could come in and work. I need to get hours at the jail. I would like to get about sixty hours. I suggested that shakedowns could be accomplished. He said that was a good idea. I offered to help with them. I said as long as the inmates are not in the area I don't see how it would be an issue with me being in the unit. As a gimp I can not have contact with the inmates. The sgt said no, I would have to remain in control.

When I got off work at IS at five-thirty I went home and changed into my jail shirt. I did not put the rest of the uniform on. I did have to shave though. I have not shaved in almost two weeks. I was starting to look like a mountain man. This was one of those rare times in my life where I could go without shaving for that long. With the fire departments and the jail I have to be clean shaven. I am not one-hundred-percent clean shaven. I have a soul patch.

I got into the jail and my partner's did a search of male work release. Other than general dirtiness they did not find anything else wrong. I help one of my partners with a spreadsheet. He had one Excel workbook for each month. He needed to pull data from each workbook into a different workbook. I helped him do that. Then I set up a single workbook with each month and a total's sheet. I helped my other partner print off the new WACIC manual. We have a new printer in the sheriff's office. It has duplexing. I set up the duplexing and printed off about three hundred sheets front and back.

Off the subject now, I am not sure of the word I am thinking about here, and maybe my thoughts will not be the same as someone else's, but for years I have listened to the Palouse Mall's commercials say "We know what you want and we got it." Listen to that first part. It sounds like the government telling me what is good for me. We know what you want. HA! You don't know me. If you did, where are all the gun shops? What about the indoor batting cage that operates year-round? Oh, and one other thing I want but you don't have is Nordstroms. Don't run commercials saying you know what I want. The other thing I don't want is a government worker to walk up to me and say "Hi, I'm from the government. I'm here to help."

The Bible says so...

I got an e-mail from Nick today. He was upset at what someone had written to the Daily Evergreen. The writer had a one verse quotation from the Bible and then inferred that homosexuality is wrong. Nick was livid. I looked at what she said. I decided that I would respond to it.

Editor,

A religious war is not something I normally enter. I am not a Bible scholar, nor do I pretend to know a lot about the Bible. However, pulling one verse from the Bible as Bethany Prince did to prove a point is not a good way to win an argument.

First examine her choice. Leviticus 21:13 "And if man lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them." The first question is the choice of words, "Man lie with mankind", how come the scripture chooses to say man then use mankind. Seems to me that two different concepts are being used.

Ignoring the point I made, and I will concede that what is written in the Bible is what it means. If that is the case, I would like to point out a few things within Leviticus 21.

Leviticus 21:5 "They shall not make baldness upon their head, neither shall they shave off the corner of their beard, nor make any cuttings in their flesh." It appears to be wrong to shave your beard, to shave your head, and to get body-piercing.

Leviticus 21:13-14 "And he shall take a wife in her virginity. A widow, or a divorced woman, or profane, or an harlot, these shall he not take: but he shall take a virgin of his own people to wife." I hope no woman ever has sex before marriage. Sounds like you can not get married if you have had sex before marriage. If your husband dies, tough luck, your days of being married are over and you can't re-marry.

One other thing I would like to point out. Prince's choice verse from the Bible actually comes from Leviticus 20:13. As you can see from the previous paragraph Leviticus 21:13 has to do with a wife and her virginity. If you have a point to make, you can surely do so, but leave quotations from the Bible out of it. Anybody can pull one verse from the Bible and use that to "prove a point."

Scotty Anderson

Other than that, it was a pretty normal day. I went to the doctor. I found out I have to be on my crutches for two more weeks. That was bad news to me. He took out the stitches as well. I told him about the Palouse Thunder football team. He said that he would be interested in being a team doctor. I told that to Jerry and he said that we are interested in having him work with us.

When I got back I went to the sheriff's and fixed some problems. Actually the problems are PEBKAC and not real problems. It is that the information I posted about dealing with the "problems" were taken down. Because of that people were not able to add printers, nor were they able to set up their e-mail. I re-posted those papers, and then e-mailed everyone and let them know where the directions are located.

I went to the fire station. Scott was covering for Ken. We chatted for a while about the normal topic. He always is comparing paramedics and EMT-I's.

I headed home and just hung out.

Stop doing PSA's

I have been so tired lately that I chose to sleep in a little and come in to work late. That meant that I had to work late. I got my normal things done. I worked on resolving issues.

I had to go to class today and I could not park as close as the other day. We spent time going over our proposal letters. I got a B+ on the proposal letter. I was happy with that. After class I took my duty boots for Pullman fire to the fire station. They are going to get re-soled. My soles are in bad shape. Then I was off to Colfax.

I stopped at Bulldog Pizza. I got a couple slices of pizza and I talked to the owner, Ben, about sponsoring the Palouse Thunder. He said he would get back to me.

I ended up working until seven o'clock pm. While I was here after five Allison stopped by. We talked for about a half hour total. She seemed nice. The feeling I get is that she likes me.

After she left I worked on doing some C# programming. Actually, I am working through a book on C# programming. I got one thing complete, but it is not working correctly. I am not sure why. I have a feeling it's because there is something wrong with the computer and not the code.

I headed to Colfax Fire for training. We went to a house on Cedar street that is going to be torn down. We did two hose evolutions in it. I just hung out on crutches and did do a darn thing.

Well, I was finally disturbed enough with the Daily Evergreen and they little PSA's through out the newspaper asking people to write a letter to the editor. Just before Christmas break a guy names Alex wrote a letter to the editor about getting rid of WSU fire. It was a terrible letter. I wrote a rebuttal to it and it was never published. So, I thought I would write a letter to the editor stating my displeasure with what they are doing.

Editor,

Throughout recent editions of the Daily Evergreen I have seen many PSA’s requesting students write a Letter to the Editor. Yet, when one is written, as a rebuttal to one of the most asinine letters in Daily Evergreen history, it was not published.

When someone wrote a Letter to the Editor claiming that the WSU Fire resident program should be ended not a single response letter was published. The letter calling for the end of WSU fire was illogical and its arguments were poorly supported.

I know that at least one letter was submitted that addressed the claims that were made. The Daily Evergreen chose not to run the rebuttal letter.

In the future before you waste space in the Daily Evergreen asking for people to write a Letter to the Editor, you should make sure you plan on giving both sides of an issue a fair chance to speak.

Scotty Anderson
MIS

Shortly after this letter, I got a response from the editor. He said that it was not published because "too much time" had elapsed since the original letter was written. Too much time had elapsed because we went out to Christmas Break. He suggested that I write a different letter that did not address the old one but would support my main ideas. I took the opportunity to do just that.

Editor,

At any university, programs come and go. WSU use to have a rifle shooting program on campus. That is gone. WSU use to have a physical education major. That is gone. WSU use to have a police science program. That is gone. Should WSU Fire be the next thing to go?

Is WSU Fire a needed service within a city that already has a fire department? A compound answer is yes and no. Yes, by law, it is needed. If those laws change, then no, it is not needed, but it is still desired. Cable TV is not needed in your house, but it is desired. A bus is not needed to get to campus, but it is desired. A post office in the CUB is not needed, but it is desired. Just because something is not needed does not mean it is not desired.

Some reasons that you may desire keeping WSU Fire.

WSU Fire is on campus. That means they help serve the campus population with very little delay. An ambulance from WSU Fire can be on scene in less that half the time that it would take Pullman Ambulance.

WSU Fire’s firefighters are all trained EMT’s. This is important because most calls for service by today’s fire department deal with medical situations. Because they are EMT’s they can quickly stabilize and transport an injured or sick person.

WSU Fire residents’ training often leads to full-time employment shortly after graduation. Becoming a full-time firefighter can take several years for most people. Many of WSU’s student firefighters leave WSU with the ability and training necessary to performing better on tests and in the oral boards. Their real-life experience is invaluable in getting outside employment.

Our campus is safer because of the presence of WSU Fire. We should be proud of the high caliber firefighter/EMT’s who serve our campus.

I wonder if that one will make it into the Daily Evergreen. I have a good feeling that it will.

I love the 80's

I slept in Monday morning, because I could. It was a holiday. I got up and watched TV for several hours. Mainly watching I Love the Eighties. It is interesting seeing those things that I grew up with. What is so funny are things like the Member's Only jacket. They were so popular and then not popular. But that is how many crazies are.

Following that I went to the IS office and checked my e-mail. I went over to the jail and helped out with a computer problem Mark was having. I told him last night while we were on the phone that I would come in today and fix the problems. He was really stressing out about them. Really all that happened is that he deleted the shortcuts off the desktop and then moves the start menu to the right side of the screen.

After that I went home and I got a call from the Lars Larson show. He put me on the air about Ryan Anderson. I told him mostly the same stuff I had told him on Friday. After his show I called Dan and John to see if they wanted to play cards. They did, so I figured I would head to Pullman. Dan and I were going to meet at six pm to start and John would meet up with us.

On my way to Pullman I stopped by Nolan Heating and Air to see if they were interested in sponsoring the football team. I left them information. Then I got to Pullman and deleted hundreds of SPAM from my inbox. Dan showed up at six pm and we played card. Dan had also brought some pizza from Little Caesar's. I paid him for mine. We played several new poker games that we had not played before.

After a while John showed up and he joined in. We played until about ten o'clock pm. I ended up losing my ass. I was down about five dollars on the night. I committed the cardinal sin of poker. I won the first hand of the night. If you win the first hand of poker you will end up losing for the night. I would also have to say I was playing some stupid hands. I allowed my lack of energy to cause me to play poorly. That is as much of a reason for my loss as winning the first hand.

First team get-together.

I woke up this morning with Amber on my bed with me. She is a good girl and did not wake me up at all. I got up and played with her a little while before letting her outside to go to the bathroom.

I was looking for an article from the Daily Evergreen on my stash of newspaper articles. The article I wanted was from ninety-eight and the stack I was going through was from ninety-four. Needless to say I did not find it.

I was running behind as I was planning on being at Zeppoz at one o'clock pm. It was about twelve-thirty and I still needed to pick up Ryan. I headed out and called Ryan's roommate, Meredith, to have her let Ryan know to be ready for me. I made it to Pullman in less than twenty minutes and the got Ryan. We made it to Zeppoz at one on the nose. Dan and Michele, Ron and Heather, and Joe and Marliss were already there. Ryan and I talked to them for a minute or two then headed into the bar area. We were going to get a large table for all of us.

We were having an IM softball team get together. Dave was the first to show up. I had a pitcher of beer on the table and offered Dave a glass. The others who were bowling came over and joined us. Dan had to go to work. We talked about softball and getting the team together. Mark showed up about one hour late like he said he would. Chief came as well. Matt and Aaron made it. But they got there pretty late. Aaron is now twenty-one so he bought some beer.

Matt, Eddie, Ron, and Joe played a golf game. So Aaron and I went into the casino and played cards. Aaron won sixty dollars. It was his first time in a casino. We played Texas Shoot-out. He did well. Russell was there so he stopped over and said hi to us. Everyone who filtered in also filtered out.

Dan and Michele were subs in a bowling league and they had to bowl. So we watched them. I also went back in and played some more cards. I sat at a table with my football coach. We were playing Black Jack. I won some money and I ended up walking out of the casino only down ten dollars from when I started the day. After Dan and Michele were down bowling Ryan and I went back to Ryan's apartment. We watched Anger Management before I went home to go to bed.

First full football practice

I got up and started the day off with football practice. I got underway early to make sure I was able to park close to the field. I got there at about eleven-thirty. I listened to some music while waiting for the other people to arrive. Soon people showed up. I got out and hobbled over to the field. I watched practice. I wish I could have been there with them.

After practice I went to the team owner's house. I bought a few more items from him and then I had to get the playbooks from Kinko's. So I went there and had them made. I headed back to Pullman.

I called up Pat to see if he wanted to get together. He said he wanted to talk to me about some stuff. Pat is a full time fire fighter with Pullman. I went to his house and we talked for a few hours. We talked about owning a business, centered on owning a computer business. We also talked about a few other subjects as they would tangent off the main topic.

He had to leave around seven o'clock pm. I headed to Colfax. I stopped at Colfax fire and talked with Carl at length. We watched a TV show and then I headed home. It was about ten o'clock pm and I needed to let Amber inside.

On the air... Nationwide.

I got to work this morning and looked up John Carlson's e-mail address. He is a talk show host on KVI in Seattle. I e-mailed him that I knew Ryan Anderson. I also spent some time looking up some old e-mail’s from Ryan and I. I got a call about eleven am from the John Carlson Show. They asked if I would go on the air at about three-fifteen to talk about Ryan.

Between nine am and noon we had the county surplus sale. We sold a lot of the computer stuff. After the sale I did some work and then got off at about two-thirty pm. I went home and waited for John's call.

They called about three-fifteen. I was on hold and then someone came on the phone and said "go Miss Bud Seafair." I started to laugh. I use to call his show all the time and the first thing I would also say was "go Miss Rock Seafair." He chatted with me a little bit and then put me on the air. I talked about what Ryan and I did together and what Ryan was like. I was on the air for about forty-five minutes. John thanked me for my time.

I hung out at home for a while. I was going to meet up with Russell and hang out with him for a while. I headed up for Pullman around five pm. I was listening to Lars Larson. I called in and told the call screener that I knew Ryan. He got me on the air right away. He also got my name and number so he could call on Monday and talk to me some more about it. I was on Lars' show for about ten minutes.

I went to Ryan's apartment and Kristine and Ryan were getting ready to go to dinner. They invited me to come along. We went to Ranch Viejo. We had some Mexican food. I told them my story about Ryan. They asked if I had heard what happened to Peter. I told them I had not. They said he was fired from ASWSU because of misappropriation of funds. They told me he used ASWSU funds to go to Olympia on ASWSU's buck for personal reasons.

We left after about an hour. I dropped them off and then headed to Russell's apartment. Fowler and Nick were there. Nick and Russell seem like they really love each other. It is neat to watch them. We all watched Heavy Metal and then sat around and talked about different things.

It was getting late so I headed home to play with Amber for a while before going to bed.

Old Friend, Ryan Anderson, Arrest for Treason!

I had class again being a gimp. At least I was able to park closer. But it still seemed like it took forever to get to class. I got together with my group-mate. We discussed options for our project. Sounds like we will deal with network security. After class I headed back to Colfax.

I finished out the day working until past six o'clock pm. I went to the fire station at about seven pm. The Fire Commissioners were having a meeting. I sat in on it to see what they do. After the meeting Ken, Jug, and I watched the Gonzaga basketball game for a while.

I then headed home and watched CSI. After CSI I was flipping through the channels and I saw that a Ft. Lewis Soldier was arrested for treason. They flashed a picture and a name. Low and behold it was Ryan Anderson, a guy who I was friends with back at WSU. I was really surprised to learn that he had become Muslim about five years ago.

We use to hang out and talk about gun and the military. We went to see David Irving together. He came in April of Ninety-Eight. He was there to talk about the holocaust. Ryan wore a German military uniform that he had. I had also given him a ride back to Seattle one time on my way back. To hear that he went Muslim is almost a three-sixty from the way he was when I knew him. He was pretty extreme when I knew him. I was just floored by the fact that he had been arrested. I stared in disbelief.

Monthly Haz-Mat Training.

I woke up this morning sans pain! Well that is not one hundred percent correct; I had some pain about two in the morning. My walking boot was creating a pressure point and it was causing enough pain for me to wake up. So, I opted to fix it. I went to sleep again and I was fine.

I made it to the sheriff's office for the first time after my surgery. They have created a new report writing room. A new HP LaserJet Forty-Six-Hundred DN came in today. I went to the SO to get it hooked up and printing. It is pretty sweet.

A little after five I headed back to the my office to get ready to head to Pullman for Haz-Mat training. I am not going to be able to do anything other than what can be done sitting down. We talked about a few things that dealt with the team and some of our new gizmos and gadgets.

We went to the bay of the fire station and worked on the Ten-Step test and using the Sense-IR. I took off about seven-thirty pm to head home. I wanted to get some stuff done around the house. I am a gimp now so doing anything takes a lot of extra work. I need to get a Trinitron monitor, which are heavy, into my den. I also need to get my nineteen inch TV/VCR into the den. I had to use something on the floor and push them in, crawling on my hands and knees.

I got my laptop with the broken LCD into a docking station and hooked to a monitor. I was not able to hook the VCR up to it. I have wanted to do video editing for a long time. So, I gave up on that and went into my living room and sat down and enjoyed a little relaxing time with Amber and then I was off to bed.

Why did I have a surgery?

I went to class today. I found out that I did not miss any points for the class participation. That was good. After class I had to get back to my mom's Explorer. It had to park farther than I ever have. It sucked having to go the whole way to the hill like that.

I called Dan and we met up for lunch at McDonald's. Then we went to the office to get him a paycheck for this month. I also got the deposit ready and deposited. I headed back to Colfax and worked some more. I was getting the last computers ready for the sale.

I found out that a new LCD screen for my laptop is EIGHT HUNDRED DOLLARS!!! I think I will be buying a new laptop now. Well I will not be buying it now, but I will buy one soon.

I went to Colfax fire. We had our TB test and then our business meeting. It was short. Jim, Greg, Greg, Matt, and I played cards. Matt won some money then ran. Greg and Greg were both busted. Then it was just Jim and I. We were playing fifty cent ante Texas Hold'em. One hand I went all in in-the-blind. Jim called me. I flipped my cards. It was a pair of Aces! Jim flipped his and it was a Three and Nine off suit. The Flop came and it was King, Three, and Nine. Head beat me with two pair. What a way to go out.

I got an e-mail from a guy who plays on my softball team. He asked why I was on crutches, so I thought I would write out a little explanation for him.

I was playing basketball July 1999. I rolled my left ankle. I thought at first it was broken, but I went to the hospital and the X-rays indicated a bad sprain. I was given an air-splint. Within one day I was out and about walking on it and all sorts of good stuff. So, time goes on and it gets better. But alas in the summer of 2000 I was living in the Seattle area for a few months working for a company over there. I was desperate to play softball. As all my friends know "softball is life." They also know that softball is my number one priority. I was worried I would go the summer without playing softball, but I found the little gay league called the Emerald City Softball Association. It has about 20 teams in the league and they play all their games on Sunday. So each Sunday I would play anywhere from one to four games. I love playing softball so I did not complain about four games in one day, however my ankle started to hurt -- More and more and more. It was becoming debilitating. I would have to ice it and it would hurt as I went to bed at night.

After that season things started to get better. Then I was back in Pullman playing softball. The pain started to happen again. I initially thought it was my cleat's that were old and they did not have the correct support. I thought maybe that was the cause of the pain. Because after I stopped playing the pain did go away. In the summer of 2002 the same thing happened but the pain followed my a lot farther into the off-season.

By the summer of 2003 the pain was nearly unbearable. I don't like to wear braces because I think you can become dependant on them. So, I would not wear one; however, once in a while I would have to wear one. I was taking a lot of pain killers after games. I would hardly be able to walk. I would limp for days after the games. It was getting really bad.

After the IM softball season in Fall 03 I went to the doctor. He had some X-rays taken. It showed that I had indeed broken a bone back in 1999. Really what had happened is that when my ligament was stretched it caused an avulsion of my bone. The bone of course did not heal correctly. It was causing inflammation and pain for all these years. The doctor referred me to a specialist. The specialist had me get an MRI and then scheduled a surgery for last Thursday, Feb 5th.

So, Phil, that in a nutshell is why I got the surgery. I hope that by the time this IM season rolls around I will at least be able to play at 50%.

Amber Bolted.

Today was my first day back at work. I was in some pain and I had a lot of swelling in my left foot. I decided I was going to skip training tonight and go home and elevate the foot. When I got off work I went home and elevated my foot. My mom and I watched Support your Local Sheriff. That is a good movie.

While I was at work today I got a call on my cell phone from Scott at Colfax Fire asking if I knew where Amber was. I said that my mom was worried because Amber disappeared from the house. Mom said that Amber bolted. My mom looked for Amber for a while and then came down to my office to have lunch with me. She went to Rosauers to get some food for my house and that is when Amber appeared at the fire department. That is why Scott was calling. Amber was down there. So I called my mom. She met me at the fire station and we got Amber home. She was really smelly, so my mom gave her a bath.

Pain is residing.

I knew I would miss the training class at Pullman fire for renewal of CPR instructor cards. I was not feeling like I could do it sans a bunch of pain. I spent most of today again sitting in my chair with my ankle elevated. I watched more movies and relaxed. Mom got some more stuff for my house and she has been doing all my laundry.

It has been several days since my last dip. I guess that shows that I have the ability to not chew. I was a little worried I was getting too addicted to it.

I talked to John a little bit on the phone. He did not say anything about missing the training class today. I am happy about that. I wonder if he will do something special for me or not. I got a few more things organized in my room with my mom's help. She has really done a lot of things to help out with the house. It has been great having her around. She has done more to get my house in shape in the last few days than I have in a long time.

I am worried that she will find stuff I don't have well hidden. I have some magazines like Instinct, and a few other gay pride type things. If she finds those, it will be hard to deny what it means. I have thought about talking to her about it, but I am not ready to do so yet.

I stayed up and watched the Simpson's and Malcolm in the Middle. It was a pretty good and relaxing day.

The thing that happened that was a real bummer was breaking the screen on my laptop. I was using it while sitting on my recliner. I set it down and when I got out of my recliner, it rocked forward and hit the screen. It caused a bad crack and ruined the screen. I was so bummed.

Paybacks are not fun.

I was paying for yesterday. I was in a lot of pain. My ankle really hurt. I took some hydrocodone. I did not want to have to rely on the hard drugs, but at that time the pain was really bad. I don't think I would have needed them if I had kept my ankle elevated.

I spent almost the whole day with my ankle elevated. While it was elevated it was making a difference. I watched some movies. I stayed up until about eleven pm. I was not sure if I wanted to stay up and watch more TV or just go to bed. I decided to go to bed.

Going to see Larry the Cable Guy

I woke up and I was feeling okay. I probably did more than I should have today. I got up a lot and I went with my mom to Rosauers. We went to the appliance store and got a new refrigerator. My old one broke down. We got a nice one with side by side doors. There is a water and ice maker in it as well.

I had tickets to see Larry the Cable Guy. I wanted to go, but I was afraid of the possible pain I would have. I started calling all sorts of people to see if anyone wanted the tickets. Finally I called Carl. He said that he would talk to his wife. His step-son Dustin (a ten-six-seven) wanted to use one. So Carl drove with his wife and step-son. I asked if I could go. He said it would be alright. So, we drove up there. Carl dropped us off up close.

We got our seats. They were pretty good. Larry the Cable guy was pretty funny. We laughed and had a good time. Then it was a chore to get back outside. There were a ton of people trying to get out. We went behind the Opera House. I got to go through the brush a little bit. I was getting a good work out. Carl drove around the building and picked us up on the street. Then we headed back to Colfax. It was a long night for me. I was ready for bed when I got home.

My surgery.

I got into work at about eight in the morning. Then I got a call asking me to come in an hour early for the surgery. So I only worked for thirty minutes. Then I went home and mom and I went to the hospital. I got checked in and I was readied for surgery. The anesthesiologist came in and talked about what we would use. I said I did not want a general. He asked what I do for a living. He said that with my build and that I chew that I should be a lumberjack. Mom was surprised that I chew. Soon I was wheeled into the operation room.

He gave me a shot. I asked if it would put me down. He said "you tell me." After about one minute I started to go to sleep. Then I remember what felt like needles puncturing me. I kept moving. They decided to give me another shot to put me down for the operation. They said I was moving around too much. I remember telling the anesthesiologist that he should video tape the conversations he has with people and play it for his kids. It would be funny to watch.

I then remember getting all the monitors taken off and moved into my room again. I started to wake up. They game me some food and I went to the bathroom. Then we left. Mom drove me home. I got here and used the crutches to get up the stairs. Then I sat in my recliner. Propped up my ankle. Watched TV. Mom went to get stuff for dinner and cooked for me. We had chicken and fries. I had a few pop's and water. I watched some more TV then ended with CSI before going to bed.

She really does like me.

Today mom is getting into town to help me out for a few days. She got in about three-thirty pm. I showed her around my new office. I spent most of the day working on the upcoming surplus sale. I left to go home a little after five-thirty pm. Mom and I went shopping for some food stuff. We also bought some stuff for the house. We went to Shopko and then to RadioShack. I got RCA cables to hook up my TV system. We went out to eat on our way back. Then to Rosauers. We got some food there. I saw the Gazzette there. They had one of the photos that I took of the grain elevator fire on the front page. It said Carl took it. I will have a talk with Carl about that! I got home and hung out for a while. My surgery is in the morning.

Before I left work Jacqueline and her daughter Alison stopped by. They wanted to invite me to dinner the night of my surgery. I told them my mom was going to be in town. I was really surprised that she likes me. This is causing me a great concern. What should I do? Admit that I am gay, or try it out and see if it can work?

Rounders. Makes me want to gamble.

Tuesday I went to class, then I took the rest of the day off. I made a dump run and got rid of a truck load of stuff. Then I went to Moscow for my doctor's appointment. My surgery is set for eleven-thirty am on Thursday. When I was done with the doctor, I went home and worked on the house. I got the thirty-five inch TV set up with the VCR and stereo system. I got the bed set up as well. I started to watch Rounders, then I decided to go to the fire station to play cards.

I got to my truck only to hear air leaking for a tire. I had a nail in it. So, I got to the fire station and pulled into the bay and changed the tire. Then I waited around for Greg and Scott to get back from training. Carl joined in and we played cards for about one hour. I won a few bucks tonight.

New protocols

I got into work today and after about two hours a call came out for a man who was not breathing well. It turned out he was a cancer patient who was going down hill. We got on scene and more or less talked with the family. We respected their and the patients wishes of not transporting him to the hospital.

We got back and I went back to work. I had a few things that I was able to work on. It was nice to get a few things to do so I was busy. I talked to Bev about my up coming surgery and schedule. It is Brandon's fiftieth birthday tomorrow so her and Sharon are going to decorate his office and get him a cake.

When five-thirty rolled around I headed to Pullman. I was on call. We had medical training. We talked about the new EMS protocols. Then we did some stuff on trauma assessment. Went back to our station and we had a shift meeting. We have three new rookies on our shift. Then John and I played cards until nearly midnight. I won twenty five dollars.

SuperBowl Sunday should be a holiday.

I woke up Sunday morning and headed to Colfax. I was tired so I went to sleep a little while longer. Amber came in and shared my bed for a while. Then she left and I slept some more. Finally I got up about noon and headed to the store to get stuff for the SuperBowl party.

I went to the fire station and no one was there. I was a little earlier than everyone else. I got the bean dip ready. About two pm others started to show up. We played some poker until the game started. Then we started to watch the game. I had to leave about fifteen minutes after the game started to work at the jail. I got there and no one was watching the game. In fact they were watching something else.

I was mad I was missing the party because I had to work, and I was missing the game because no one wanted to watch it. I also had the first four on the floor so I had to serve dinner and release three people. I missed most of the game. It was a slow uneventful night over all.