Here’s an interesting little thing that caught my attention. Apparently Hawaiian legislature has just introduced a bill that would ban all pit bulls from the state of Hawaii. If passed, anyone owning or in possession of a pit bull would be guilty of a misdemeanor.
Now personally, I don’t like pit bulls at all. It has nothing to do with their supposed disposition, I just think they’re ugly. But all that aside, I have some real problems with this kind of law. “Breed-specific” laws are completely unfounded in my opinion. You can’t single out one breed for it’s temperament (I can understand “wild” breeds, but not domesticated). But this bill isn’t necessarily breed-specific. Apparently the great representatives of the people of Hawaii have failed to realize there are more than 20 breeds of dog that are classified as “Pit Bull”. Not only that, but what about pit mixes? At what percentage of “Pit Bull” is a dog considered to be illegal to own? It’s a very broad and poorly-written bill.
My other issue is this: what makes a pit bull more dangerous than any other breed of dog? People have this misconception that Pit Bulls are mean, aggressive dogs. The truth is that these breeds are more reliable and friendly than most breeds out there today. In fact, in temperament tests conducted by the ATTS, pit bulls pass at a rate of about 86%. For comparison, a standard collie tests in at just over 79% out of over 800 dogs tested and only 81% of all dogs ever tested pass the temperament test. A pit bull that is well socialized and taken proper care of is just as safe and reliable as a golden retriever, and this is based on statistical data.
Anyway, I just wanted to cast my opinion that this kind of legislature is stupid. What do you think? For some more information:
Just a few short months ago I jumped on the smartphone bandwagon and got my Motorola Q9c with Sprint. It’s an awesome phone that does more than I can even imagine, but it has one major drawback that bugs me constantly….it doesn’t multitask whatsoever.
Well last week at CES, the guys who first brought us the mobile organizer and smartphone bring us a new “innovation” in mobile computing…..I’m talking of course about the Palm Pre. This is an amazing phone, in my opinion far superior on paper than even the mighty iPhone (and I’m somewhat of an Apple fanboy). Pre is based on a new system called webOS, which has UNIX/Linux at its core. It’s a touchscreen phone with a portrait-style QWERTY keyboard. I can’t even begin to give you all the features here, but I’ll suggest to you checking out the Palm website and giving it a thorough look-over at www.palm.com/pre.
I can tell you this though, if it comes in under the $349 mark I’ll be sure to have me one of my own the second it comes out .
Update: According to reports flying around the web (like this one HERE), the Pre price point will likely be $399-499 without a contract and $149-199 with a Sprint 2-year commitment. If that’s the case, I’ll Pre-order the minute I can (pun intended)!
It also looks as if the target release date is being speculated at around May or June for the U.S.
Well I just got home on Saturday from yet another Vegas vacation this year, only this time it was more business-related. I was attending SuperZoo, which is a convention help every year for pet retailers, put on mainly by the Pet Industry Distributors Association (the good PIDA haha) Worldwide Pet Industra Association (WWPIA). It was an awesome time and I met a whole bunch of people that I hope to be doing business with in the near future. Later on I will post a whole bunch of pictures from my trip and write a little more in depth on my stay. For now, though, I need to get my site working properly again (at the time of writing, the CSS is displaying incorrectly). So until then, anticipate the next awesome post!
I’ve been working on organizing a new business venture for a few months now. Last month I had all of the necessary paperwork filed and approved and now have an official LLC for this project. It’s called Freki Aquatics and is basically an aquarium service and maintenance company. This is a fairly unfilled gap in my area and I have done some estimates and figure it’ll do pretty good once I get a good word out. This week I’ll be in Las Vegas attending SuperZoo 2008 at Mandalay Bay. Hopefully I’ll get some good networking done and learn a thing or two about this industry I’m about to dive into. Wish me luck! I’ll put up some good pics and stories ASAP
Okay maybe I don’t exactly fit the description of the prodigal son, but I was gone for a very long time…and have now returned to the blogosphere. Where did I go? Well, I got caught up with everything I was doing (as I easily do). I just got so busy with finals and all of my goals that the blog just kind of slipped away. Not to worry, I’m back again and here today I’ll try and get you up to speed.
First of all let’s go over some of the goals I had set for myself before I stopped blogging:
I didn’t do the greatest at keeping up on the guitar. In fact I quit practicing all together. It’s sad, because I still really want to learn to play, but right now I just have so much going on (lame excuse I know).
I stuck to my dieting goals, eating smaller portions mainly, but also eating healthier in general. Well this one is a big whopping success! I went from 215 pounds when I first posted I would try a healthier diet, down to a much more appropriate 185 pounds today. Yay me!
I’ve stuck to the excercise….mostly. I’ve been trying to hit the gym about 3+ days per week. I’ve also been trying to run as much as possible. This comes and goes. Some weeks I do great, others not so great. I know I can run a 5k in about 22-25 minutes though.
I’m still working on building my financial strength. This proves harder for me than I realized, but is still chugging along at a positive pace. I’m working on improving my credit/savings enough to buy a house next summer. More on that next.
School. It sucks. I’ve been at a loss about what I really want to do with my life other than making money. I work in healthcare and love it. So naturally I decided maybe nursing would be a good fix for now. I thought that to be an RN (LPNs never get the respect or pay they deserve) you needed 4 years of college (BSN). I was wrong! I discovered this week that I qualify for a 3-semester RN program at a local college. I’ll be spending my next year retaking one or two classes to improve my odds of being accepted, but I’m excited about my new direction!
So to recap, I’ve been busy! But I HAVE been making improvements in my life, so it’s not for waste
Sorry world, I’ve been gone FOREVER. More on that later, but I figured to help apologize for my absentness, what better way than with a hilarious YouTube video. I laughed my ass off! These losers are trying to score some chicks on a video dating service (from the ’80s). Love it!
Last week I made a goal to myself of making more posts, and then I flopped. I shouldn’t make excuses, but I know this is because of my work/school schedule this last week, which has afforded me ZERO time for the internet. I worked almost 60 hours and had school for about 12…which left not much time for anything else. Sorry about that.
Because of my increasingly hectic life and my goal to maintain great grades this semester in school, I decided to drop one of my courses for this semester. This still leaves me at a full-time status in school, but I feel like having this one less class will help me manage stress, get better grades, and focus on all my goals. I also signed up for a condensed summer course. I plan on taking some paid time off from work during the summer classes so I can get them out of the way.
My eating also slipped up this week. I found myself eating out several times through out the week because I was too busy to stop at home and prepare a healthy meal. Along with that, I didn’t work out at all this week (maybe once or twice). Yup…I feel like crap already. It’s amazing how fast you can go from feeling like you’re in great health to feeling cruddy.
In other news, I bought a few new websites and am working on restoring some old ones, since I let all my internet hobbies drop a while back. Who knows if anything will come of them, but it’s a skill that can only benefit.
This next week is a lot less hectic for me. I work my three 12-hour shifts, but they’re spaced out better this week. My class that has been dropped will allow me to have a little more normal schedule as well. So plans/goals for this next week:
1. Write some good, quality articles for this blog
2. Practice the guitar
3. Sell my car (Oh yeah, forgot to mention that. I’m selling my Nissan 240SX)
4. Work on my other websites, especially the forum on a particular site.
Although I gave some little tips on eating healthier and tips on getting in shape, I didn’t do nearly enough posts last week (in fact this post probably should have happened on Monday). That’s goal number one for improving for this upcoming week.
My eating habits have been remarkably improved this last week, but are still not quite where I’d like them to be. I only ate out once last week (Arby’s chicken sandwich), but I haven’t been eating as often every day as I would like. I do still notice I’m feeling a lot healthier though. In addition to eating better, I’ve been doing a little more working out this past week. I worked out about 30 minutes four or five separate times last week. It feels good, and now that it’s finally starting to thaw out here I can start jogging again (only two feet of snow left to melt!).
One personal goal I feel especially proud of this week is my guitar practicing. One of my birthday goals was to pick up and start learning the guitar this year. While my practicing has been fairly hit-and-miss up until lately, this past week I practiced a lot. I’m even learning a few simple songs (motivation)! Another goal I’ve been putting off is to finish roofing Kenya’s doghouse. Today, with the mild thaw we’ve had, I was finally able to start working on that project again today.
Happy 21st birthday to me! Actually my birthday was yesterday, but who wants to work on their birthday? Twenty was a pretty exciting year for me…I moved back to Southeastern Idaho, found my perfect dog, landed my dream job, went skydiving, bought a new truck, and started into school again with a renewed determination. Life has been busy, but to me busy means worthwhile!
I’m going to try something new this year, instead of the normal “New Year’s” resolution, I’m going to make some resolutions for my 21st year of life…or things to accomplish before I’m 22. Here we go:
1. Get into better shape. As of this writing I weigh in at 205 lbs per my cheap bathroom scale. I’m 5′9″ and a pretty beefy build…not large or husky or fat, just beefy. My ideal weight I believe was 165-175 back when I was in high school. My goal for this year is to get down to 175 lbs and not go above 185 again. More on this goal tomorrow.
2. Be organized. This is sort of a tough one for me. I have a strong urge to just set things wherever and forget about them. This year I’d like to make a spot for everything and keep it there.
3. Plan out my day. This goes a little bit with being organized. I need to start planning out my days better. To me this means planning out my 3 things to do for the day the night before and keeping a monthly calendar of important days (tests, family events, etc).
4. Financial responsibility. I have no idea if that’s worded right, but this encompasses building my credit, growing savings, and learning more about smart investing. Buying my truck was really my first major purchase, and with it I have an interest in building up a good credit so I can save myself money in the future.
My fitness plan will start tomorrow (and I mean it!), as well as my other goals. It’ll be tough to get through a whole year of doing all these things, but I believe if I can force myself for at least a six months that it will all become habits I can continue for the rest of my life.
Next to election day in November, this Tuesday is the most important single day in the 2008 presidential elections. Super Tuesday is when the majority of states across the U.S. hold their respective caucuses and primaries to decide which candidate from both the Republican and Democratic parties will be on your ballot come November.
Now whether you’re Democrat or Republican or even Green party, you have to admit that the United States is in sad shape. We are not well-liked by a majority of the world right now, the value of our once all-mighty USD is now paling in contrast to other currencies, health care and social security are in crisis, and our personal liberties are becoming fewer and fewer. Which one of our candidates do you think is going to address all of these problems?
The few (or maybe many) of you who have heard of the man already know what I’m leading up to, and don’t click away before you read the rest of this article…but I’m talking of course about Congressman Ron Paul (M.D. by the way), who is one of four Republican hopefuls left in the race. Unlike the other candidates (including on the Democrat side), Dr. Paul has worked his entire career to end the ever-growing power of our federal government and restore our country to what the Founders envisioned, a nation conceived in personal liberty. Also, unlike the other candidates, Ron Paul is probably the most qualified presidential candidate to run for office when you review the facts:
Ron Paul has served (and is currently serving) in congress for 10 terms, leaving a legacy of arguably the most solid voting record in politics.
Ron Paul was raised in an average family and used his own money and grades to pay his way through medical school at Duke University. He is not the legacy of a wealthy American super-power family, but comes from average roots, just like the rest of us.
Ron Paul served as a Captain in the US Air Force as a flight surgeon. After the Air Force he specialized in obstetrics and gynecology, delivering over 4,000 babies in his 30 years of medical practice.
Ron Paul has taken a special interest in economics for several decades. Some of his writings on economics have been published by the Ludwig von Mises “Ultimate Foundation on Economics” as well as others.
Ron Paul has served on the House Banking committee, House Committee on Financial Services, and the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.
And from his very own website…
He has never voted to raise taxes.
He has never voted for an unbalanced budget.
He has never voted for a federal restriction on gun ownership.
He has never voted to raise congressional pay.
He has never taken a government-paid junket.
He has never voted to increase the power of the executive branch.
He voted against the Patriot Act.
He voted against regulating the Internet.
He voted against the Iraq war.
He does not participate in the lucrative congressional pension program.
He returns a portion of his annual congressional office budget to the U.S. treasury every year.
If you want to learn more about the President our country needs, then check out a few of these sites (only the first one is affiliated officially with his campaign):
Here’s an interesting little thing that caught my attention. Apparently Hawaiian legislature has just introduced a bill that would ban all pit bulls from the state of Hawaii. If passed, anyone owning or in possession of a pit bull would be guilty of a misdemeanor.
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