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The Governor of Arkansas has signed an executive order banning woke words in State Government. The only humans that give birth are Women. Thank you Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders. I hope other States follow your lead.

I blame Frank Sinatra for downplaying the most important holiday of the year. Is this a rant? I don't think so... but read on and see MY point of view.

Here are some facts:
It's a one-day Christian holiday that Jews and other religious groups get to partake in. That includes the Santa Claus version for those who aren't religious.

Your holiday preparation starts a month sooner on the day after Thanksgiving where you shop for gifts that will take eight credit card payments to whittle-down the balance.

For this single day event, you will travel thousands of miles to see family on Christmas.
(think about that)

You spend $100 on a tree to hang decorations, put up lights and spray fake snow on your windows in parts of the country where it doesn't really snow.

Your office is decorated with cards mailed to you from your clients and suppliers.

Chestnuts are no longer roasted on an open fire... instead, you conveniently open a sealed pouch where someone at a factory cooked and peeled them for you.

Slaving 3 hours over an oven for the perfect turkey and fixings has been replaced by a phone app where the whole thing was catered from the local grocery store.

Chopping fire wood doesn't happen because the real fireplace was closed off and a faux glowing fireplace was installed years ago... it supports 4 different colors by remote and the real heat comes from your central HVAC system.

On that note... Have yourself a merry LITTLE Christmas!


Seriously Frank. What were you thinking?

HAPPY CHRISTMAS EVE, EVERYONE!!!!!!!!!!

My studio / home office is in turmoil. For years, I've been working for companies as a salesman & designer on a commission or sub-contract basis. Sometimes, they provided a workspace, cubby or office of my own. When the workload increased, I stayed longer hours or took work home to complete. Remembering back more than 30 years ago, my design drawings were done at a drafting table in their facility. I had a portable drafting table at home maintained a fully functioning office, complete with phone lines, FAX, scanner & printer.

10-15 years ago, I abandoned the drafting table and started making drawings by computer. I subscribed to a service that allowed me to seamlessly remotely link my home & office computers. They claimed to have a secure connection and all seemed okay. With the approval of the company I'm working for now, the IT guy said there was a 'worm hole' security weakness to their network and redid the connection so all my files are supported by Google products that synchronize to all my devices. I no longer have to pay for the other service.

For the past few months, I've been working on a project that has lots of rooms. Main kitchen, catering kitchen, summer kitchen, 6 bathrooms, his & hers master baths, bar, 3 laundry rooms... it's a big freaking job and lots of drawings. Most of these dealings are digital, but my meeting notes are on printed copies, so I need lots of space to layout all the documents. I'm a paper guy and retain more information if the drawing is printed and not on a screen.

I used to have dual monitors before and downsized to a single 27" monitor for each system. Enough is enough. My eyes aren't getting any better. One monitor is 10 years old and the icons are starting to 'burn into' the screen. I have one 32" monitor for drawing and bought another that's new in the box waiting for me to get out of 'procrastination mode' and change that old monitor.

Year end now and I'm moving things around, archiving stuff and putting folders into plastic stackable bins for future reference. Okay, as long as I'm doing that, it's time to reconfigure the layout to get the added desk space.

Part of the turmoil is mixing and matching. The older monitors have VGA connections. Some have DVI, the newer have HDMI and the newest have Display Port. The VGA doesn't support ultra-high resolution, so I'm only using that on a computer that does email and web surfing. I bought some adapters that change the DVI and HDMI to work with Display Port so I can take advantage of high resolution with the larger monitors.

The showroom will be closed between Christmas and New Year, so I'm not planning to see too much activity next week. If I stay focused (no pun intended) I'll be able to organize 'my everything' that will allow me to put an end to the turmoil I've created.

So today I did a search on gemini compatibility, somewhere down the line was the question: "When will a gemini find their soulmate?" The answer was "With 19 years of age, but they won't know this, until they get older."

That answer "stunned" me, because I think that I did meet my soulmate when I was 19, we got married, and divorced when I was 21 or 22. Over the years, I've wondered what has become of him, wondered if we would still have been married, how many children we would have had. We met again, many, many years ago, after I had moved to Germany (I gave him some important papers from our divorce), he told me that he had remarried and had a child. He's the only man in my life, who I really felt "at home" with, the only man who I know really loved me for who I am, and I loved him just as much.

I found a telephone number online for him, I called it many times over the years, but got no answer, and I didn't want to send a SMS. He doesn't know that I now live in Sweden, so maybe he thought it was a "spam call" that's why he never answered but since Covid, the number no longer works. I have an adress for him, and often think of writing, but also ask myself....."What do I hope to achieve by contacting him again, after all, we've been divorced for more than 35 years:" I still have strong feelings for him, and maybe that's why my other relationships, including my 2nd marriage didn't work out, it was I who wanted and filed for divorce.

He's 10 years older than I, and I guess the age difference at that time, played a big part in our getting a divorce: he wanted to settle down and have a family (I was his 2nd marriage, and no, I wasn't involved with him when he was 1st married. I met him 3 years after his 1st divorce. I was still somewhat of a "party girl", not ready to start a family. One thing we both agreed on when we were asked during the divorce proceedings is that "we married for love, and still loved eachother", but sometimes love isn't enough to keep a marriage together.

Maybe sometime in the new year, I'll have the "guts" to take a pen to paper, and write to him.

The way my luck is going at the moment I could scream.
So yes the insurance has started paying for all the storm damage, hopefully I'm picking up my car tomorrow after being sandwiched In a queue on a main road, only taken a month to repair. One of my cats has started to recover only 2 weeks hopefully he'll carry on. Yesterday received a letter from the tax office saying I've to pay my tax in two countries, told them this morning in their dreams and for the 5th time they've copied the papers saying I've already paid it. Then I've found out I've won a bottle of champagne I HATE champagne. Give me a break.

Mctag. } History. U S M C .. new 0rder.

..eYe will take charge of the post & all government property in view. -01.


...[ .war 1$ a racket.]

Vulgar display of power. ) Pantera.
..have a coke. [ Coca Cola inc.
Caribbean Unity. } Black Stalin.
..$ync. ) Rum & Coke . ) Pirates
.rider. ) World peace none of your business) Morrissey.
Taps. ) . Mental Autopsy. ) Obituary.

Never is a strong word. Often there's some bad mojo attached to saying never... when you do something and use the word never, the situation could change making you the fool.
Try to use it sparingly.

Probably the first example I recall, was in high school and my classmate Billy was turned around to me bragging how he never did homework. A few seconds after the words left his lips, the teacher said "Billy, I want you come come up to the blackboard and show us how you solved problem number 3 in last nights assignment."

"The Colorado supreme court on Tuesday declared Donald Trump ineligible to hold office again under the US constitution’s insurrection clause."



Of course Trump will appeal to the Supreme Court, but as he has threatened their continued existence, I'd be very surprised if they favoured Judge Wallace's bizarre ruling over his disquaification.

I have long been wanting to travel and to see the world. Most of my life, I haven't had the financial opportunity to pay for my own holidays, but now with me working, I can finally save up and enjoy holidays overseas. It started with the United States back in May. I am still blown away by the fact that it was back in May. I feel like I have just been there last month. Anyway!

Now that I have a stable income, I can now plan ahead for the next three years of holidays. They are as follows:

Italy with a friend next year. We're still debating on where we are going to go. I want to go to Rome, but my friend doesn't know where she wants to go. We'll get there soon.

In 2025, it's back to the USA again, to visit a friend in New York and take part in an American Halloween. Hopefully that'll be a fun time. I need to look at when it's best to book the flight. I might book it this time next year. The last time I went to the US, I went with Lufthansa via Frankfurt. This time I am planning on booking a direct flight from Copenhagen to New York, and luckily there is an airline which offers just that. I am willing to spend more on a direct flight.

In 2026, I'm heading to Southeast Asia, to a country in the western Pacific Ocean: The Philippines. I have always wanted to visit, and now that I have the money and ability to do so, I am definitely taking that trip. The Philippines is a big country, so there are many places to visit. I just need to find the right city to go to.

With all this holiday planning, I am thinking back to where I have been on holidays or layovers. It turns out, that I have been to quite a few places. Sweden, Norway, the UK, Spain, Portugal, the Czech Republic, France, Malta, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Germany, the United States of America and the Netherlands.

One of these countries is one that I never want to visit again. To me, it's extremely overrated and I hate the capitol city. If you want to know, it's Paris. In movies and on promotional videos, Paris looks wonderful. Some might even say magical. But spend a few days there, and you're extremely disappointed with how filthy it is, how crime infested it really is and just how run down things are. Prague, on the other hand, was absolutely fantastic - even if I got drunk on absinthe and passed out..

Anyway - For my next three holidays, I need to save up as much as I can. So far, it's going pretty well.