After nearly nine years of CITY living... it is back to the country for me!  Yep, I am an old farm boy.  I might work with computers and do engineering kind of stuff.  But I can run a "grubbin-hoe" ( a manually operated digging device similar to an ax designed for digging a trench).

I may be a professional geek but I love to run a tractor.  I move files around for money and spend it on MAN-STUFF.  I don't plant flowers! I do plant trees.

Three Creeks Plantation is a real find, 83 acres with three running creeks a 20 acre meadow with 60 acres of natural mature hardwood forest.  It is loaded with wildlife and surrounded by 10 thousand acres of managed forest.

If I were to drop you in the middle of the place you would think that you were in the foothills of north Georgia or North Carolina.  I feel like I am on vacation all the time.

I once thought that the media had only recently become polluted and corrupt.  Now I know that it is a long standing condition...

"If it were not for the reporters, I would tell you the truth."
Chester A. Arthur, US President 1881-1885

I won TICKETS!  Thanks to the people at Fox49 and Saturn of Tallahassee!

Shelley and I got backstage passes to meet the Blue Man Group before the show.  They were very friendly, willing to talk about many aspects of being in the Blue Man Group.  Just nice guys working very hard.

There naturally was the normal snafu stuff happening, like being given the wrong seating tickets.  We were to be right down front but since we had the wrong tickets the Civic Center staff had to work it out.  The unfortunate couple who had our tickets had to give up the front row seats, which they did without any complaint.  I didn't meet them but thank you for being good sports.

The warm up act Mike Relm was awesome.  If you have never seen or been to a Blue Man Group concert it is very much geared to audience participation.  It has elements of comedy and lots of ROCK music.  You must be an active part of the show.  If you do you will have a great time.

I went to the show to experience it.  I allowed myself to be engaged and to yell, wave, jump and act totally out of character.  I had a great time!  The music was fantastic.  The band was excellent. The energy level started high and got higher.  For ninety minutes the Blue Men worked the crowd and we loved it.  The band and the Blue Men expended more energy, I mean downright physical endurance kind of energy, in the ninety minutes than I do in a week.  If you attend the Blue Man Group concert and don't have fun, it is your own fault!

The reason we go to something like this is to be entertained, to participate.  Like a ball game, we go there to shout and have fun.  I have been to concerts that were simply dead, The Blue Man Group concert is anything but dead.  Its hot, its loud, its engaging, and its just plain fun.

After the show we went to the Blue Man reception where we got to just hang with the band and the Blue Men for about an hour. Great stuff.

OH! I didn't mention.  I got to go up on stage and introduce the band!  I had a BLAST!  Thank you Blue Man Group for giving me a wonderful evening of rock music, and clean fun. (more pictures in the gallery)

I have found the world's best SPAM filter but before I tell you where you can get it I want to tell you a few things about SPAM that you might not have thought about.

SPAM sources: SPAM comes in two basic flavors regular SPAM and CANNED SPAM.  Both of these types of SPAM come to you in the same delivery vehicle: email.  Regular SPAM is that which you didn't order but someone thought that you wanted anyway so they just sent you some.  Usually you just throw that SPAM in with the rest of the junk and never think about it again.  Then there is the CANNED SPAM.  Now CANNED SPAM is a little different.  Its been cooked and prepared by your co-workers, friends and family.  Well meaning people who think that you need and want it. It even is sent out  by church members to other church members.  What is wrong with that you ask?

CANNED SPAM served this way is usually old and rotten.  No body has checked the inspection sticker to see if it is any good (usually it isn't).  They look at it, its from somebody they know, it smells a little fishy but otherwise it is good enough to "re-gift" to all your contact list.  So out to the send list it goes, more CANNED SPAM that nobody needed or wanted.

I really hate CANNED SPAM. It sticks in my inbox.  I have to check the inspection sticker (snoops.com) then I have to send a friend a reply message thanking him for the CANNED SPAM but asking him politely not to send me anymore as I have plenty already.

Please do the world a favor, don't re-gift your CANNED SPAM.  I promised you that I would link you to the world's best SPAM filter.  http://YOUR-BRAIN I trust that you have one and are able to use it to best advantage.

Is CANNED SPAM a problem.  For me it is. I have lots of friends and co-workers who like to send me warmed over, slightly stale, sometimes rotten STUFF.  Here is how I use my SPAM filter, I don't even open it because I know it stinks. I just throw the stuff in the trash and then frequently I throw out the trash. Presto, no more CANNED SPAM!

Think for a moment if everybody would just stop re-gifting their CANNED SPAM how much faster the Internet would be.  Think how much traffic would be removed from our information super-highway. OK, not impressed, then think how much faster YOUR computer would be without it!

Please do not send this message as CANNED SPAM.  If you are compelled to send this message to your friends then don't copy it, send a link to it and tell them what you are sending!  Or tell them to use Google or Live to search for it. I am not cooking up more CANNED SPAM here.

Thanks

This weekend I learned a very valuable lesson.  It is a lesson learned long-ago but somehow forgotten.  When you are dealing with other people's lives be very careful and very certain about what you do or say.  Know - understand - contemplate the complexities of inter-personal relationships.

This weekend I was included into the middle of an exchange between factions in my family.  I (with limited knowledge) reacted.  Let me emphasize REACTED.  In practically any other instance I would have evaluated the validity of the information and assigned it a mental "threat" level.  With that I would have devised a well thought out plan of response (which should always include the "let it drop" option).  I would have delayed any action until these steps were completed.

Saturday, I didn't do those first two curial steps.  I reacted as if there were imminent danger to my child. I reacted like there was a car about to hit her in the street.  There was no imminent danger to body, mind, or even her family.  I was NOT thinking.  I was REACTING.

It took many hours of painful retracing between the others involved to calm the situation.  The underlying problems still remain is certainly true but in retrospect the event could-should have been handled more carefully.

In the future I will certainly remember this lesson.

I am working on converting years of video tape to video files.  Now that I have grandchildren I am finally converting all that old stuff to video files of my children.

I will be posting a bunch of the old Christmas stuff in the public folders.