Tag Archive | blog

Not The Enemy Of The People

Defend The Free Press

Supporting The Free Press
August 16, 2018

Today, August 16th, 2018 is the national day to support America’s Free Press. The idea began with the Boston Globe proposing that all Newspapers Rally To Protect The Free Press. The coordinated effort for an editorial response from publications across the U.S. to President Donald Trump’s frequent attacks on the news media.

Beginning as early as one month after being sworn into office, Trump labeled the News Media “The Enemy of the People”. According to the Washington Post, he has “used the word “fake” — as in “fake news,” “fake stories,” “fake media” or “fake polls” — more than 400 times” in the past 19 months.

He constantly tells his followers at rallies, that you can’t believe the “Fake News”, and “what they say is going on, isn’t what’s really happening”. All this to undermine the credibility of ethical and factual reporting that is critical of his actions, both past and present. Continue reading →

Industry Standards

Apr3

COBIT, ISO and ITIL

Nearly every industry doing business in the world has some organization providing best practice processes, procedures and standards. Information Technology is no different from those.

The most popular frameworks in use today, are COBIT, ISO and ITIL. While each of these was initially established for certain regions of the globe, each one has become an international standard world wide. Many corporations who conduct business around the world, utilize all three methods in some fashion.

It’s worth getting to know them all and what they provide or offer to your business and your IT services division.

Continue reading →

How NASCAR Fans Watch Baseball

Nov3

2016 World Series – Game 7
Last night, like a lot of people, I watched the final game of the World Series with the Chicago Cubs and the Cleveland Indians. And also like a lot of people, I watched it while following my normal Twitter feed. Now for me, that means I watched a Major League Baseball game with a bunch of NASCAR fans, tweeting about baseball. Talk about some funny tweets.

But it wasn’t until the final 10th inning when I realized these two sports are more a like than they are different. That’s when the Chicago Cubs brought in their pitcher Carl Edwards Jr. You see, in NASCAR we have a Carl Edwards too. And he is also in the final playoff races to the NASCAR Championship. And that got me thinking about how a NASCAR fan would call the game on Twitter.

Baseball From A NASCAR Tweeter:
The baseball Tweets are provided courtesy of The Wall Street Journal – World Series Game 7: Live Updates. Continue reading →

Words That Touch The Soul

Oct30

The Magic of Poetry

Every now and then you may come across a phrase out of no where that you can’t let go of. Perhaps it’s a poignant moment in a TV show, a movie, maybe even an Internet meme. What ever it is, the words touch you in a way that grabs hold of your mind and you need to know more.

Thankfully in today’s world your only a little search tool away from looking into the Library of Alexandria and discovering more. That happened to me tonight.

While watching a rebroadcast of Inspector Lewis, one of the characters recites a line from a P.B. Shelled poem “And the moonbeams kiss the sea“. There was something magical in that phrase and I felt drawn to finding where it comes from.

It wasn’t hard to find. And I’m glad I made the effort. It’s that last paragraph that truly touched my soul.

P. B. Shelley
CLXXXIV

Love’s Philosophy

The fountains mingle with the river
And the rivers with the ocean,
The winds of heaven mix for ever
With a sweet emotion;

Nothing in the world is single,
All things by a law divine
In one another’s being mingle—
Why not I with thine?

See the mountains kiss high heaven,
And the waves clasp one another;
No sister-flower would be forgiven
If it disdain’d its brother;

And the sunlight clasps the earth,
And the moonbeams kiss the sea—
What are all these kissings worth,
If thou kiss not me?

2016

Get Help For Drugs Dropped from Insurance Plans

Oct5

The Price Of Medication Going Up

Tonight on NBC Nightly News, they shared a story about prescription drug prices and the fight between insurance companies and pharmaceutical corporations to cut costs for prescriptions. As the pharmaceutical industry increases prices on drugs people need to survive, everyone is trying to find ways to save money, including Insurance companies.

Congress can act like they’re offended and concerned about the greed being shown by pharmaceuticals. But let’s face it, IF they do anything about it, it won’t help us afford our necessary medications for several years to come. Those average citizens who have a terminal disease can literally be put in the position of choosing life or death because they can’t afford their prescriptions. Those people who have a disease that can be managed, like diabetes, may also be forced into that same position because of the cost of their maintenance drugs.

Now the insurance companies are making a case that they’re trying to “help” us average citizens by forcing the pharmaceutical industry to lower its prices on commonly used medications. Ok, I can understand the concept. If you want to force any industry into lowering its prices, hit them where it hurts most, in their bottom line. But at the same time, you know the insurance companies are doing the same thing to customers that big pharma is doing. Continue reading →

I Cracked Myself Up

Aug5

If You Can’t Laugh At Your Own Humor

You’re missing out on a lot of silly, funny, seriously ridiculous things!

More About Tony, NASCAR and Racing

NASCAR & Racing ~ My Racing Musings (with more on Tony)

What Smoke Means To Race Fans

Jul25

Tony Stewart 2016.07.24 at Indy

Tony Stewart Tributes

This past Sunday, 3-Time Sprint Cup Champion Tony Stewart ran his last race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS). It was an emotional weekend for sure. Not only for Tony, but for his family, friends and fans too.

Tony was born in Columbus Indiana and IMS is his home track. He’s also the only active Cup driver born in Indiana who still lives in Indiana on a regular basis. He’s a beloved native son and no one has said how much he’s respected and appreciated in Indiana than Robert Riddle’s article “Logging Laps: The Final Lap“.

As a Stewart fan, I always want more stories like this about the good things Tony does for the Racing communities around the world. I think those things he does that some how sneak out through other sources show the kind of man he really is.

Like the 2013 Kyle Larson Daytona Crash into the fence where several fans were hurt and taken to the hospital. Tony won that race. The first thing we saw him do was ask about the fans. Then he kept his winning celebration very low-key out of respect for those who were hurt. It wasn’t until months later we found out Tony went to the hospital and visited with every fan who was injured. And it wasn’t an in and out, I’m sorry you were hurt. He sat with everyone for as long as they welcomed him. That’s class. Continue reading →

Indy Reveals Dirt Track For Tony

Jul5

Indianapolis Motor Speedway Builds Tony Stewart A 3/16th-mile Dirt Track
July 5th, 2016

IMSDirtTrackReveal

In honor of NASCARs 3-Time Sprint Cup Champion Tony Stewart in this last and final season of his Cup career the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, his home track built the People’s Champ a dirt track.

The track made the announcement at the end of last month Indy Builds Tony Stewart A 3/16th-mile Dirt Track on Twitter. Today was the big reveal for Tony and his USAC friends. Bryan Clauson, Sarah Fisher, Keith Kuntz and several others attended today’s exhibition. Continue reading →

NASCAR – Tony Stewart Breaks Winless Streak

Jun29

3-Time Sprint Cup Champion Tony Stewart – Wins at Sonoma

Sonoma California
June 26, 2016

Sunday’s Toyota/Save Mart 350 will become a favorite for many race fans regardless of series or generation. Tony Stewart breaks his 84 race winless streak with a win at Sonoma. Marking his 49th Career win!

Also known as “Smoke”, Tony won at least 1 race each season from the start of his career until 2013. The dry spell of 2014 and 2015 came after several tragedies and emotional comebacks in Tony’s life. He missed the first 8 races of the 2016 season after suffering a broken back in an all-terrain vehicle accident a couple of weeks before his final season was to begin in February at the Daytona 500. A race he was never able to win in his Cup career.

His father, Nelson Stewart, was still wiping away tears while watching his only son celebrate in Victory Lane. “It’s been a tough three years not just for him but everyone that’s close to him,” his father said. “I don’t know what to say. We all needed that bad. He really needed that bad.”

Since 2013 the specifications for Nascar set-ups have changed many times. Tony said many times that these set-ups didn’t mesh with his style of driving and he was struggling to find the right way to drive them from his perspective. But over the past few weeks, Tony and his Crew Chief Michael Bugarewicz have been improving the set up to fit Smoke’s style. Continue reading →

NASCAR – Fireworks War At Hidden Hollow

Jun29

It’s war!

Celebrating The Win At Sonoma
June 28, 2016

Tony begins his Periscope shares and then hands his phone off. Our PR rep for the evening is Megan Droud, Rico Abreu’s girlfriend. She explains who our teams are for the evening.

The young guns driver Rico Abreu, his crew guy Trevor and Tanner Thorson his teammate from Keith Kunz Motorsports.
The old guys Tony, Keith Kunz and crew guy Big Al.

On June 26, 2016 Tony Stewart won at Sonoma, California. It’s his first win of the season and comes after an 84 race dry spell. It was a popular win among a variety of fans, other drivers, crews and even folks from other racing series. After his media obligations at the track, Tony went to his Hidden Hollow Home in Indiana. On Monday, Rico Abreu tweeted about having lunch with Smoke and some of their friends. Continue reading →