We reached home, only a bit late
Just a few hours late, we were rushed home on Air Jamaica. They held the flight for us. It was relatively painless. We are most pleased. Hooray hooray.
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Just a few hours late, we were rushed home on Air Jamaica. They held the flight for us. It was relatively painless. We are most pleased. Hooray hooray.
Once again this year, Bonaire was a fantastic vacation. Poor Wessiepooh destressed a little bit, making it possible for him to breathe that little bit easier. I had a great time diving, and learning more about how to shoot video from Hendrik Wyuts, a Dutch videographer I met 10 years ago when he taped our crazy little group during my first real dive trip. Two classes with him and I was ready to take over the world. We'll see whether the videos improve when I get a new camera.
It was great to see old friends again, even though some had moved to other jobs. Karen who fed the kittys and took care of their medical needs was no longer at Habitat. Ernst the sometimes grumpy German photo shop manager had retired back to his catamaran just off the shore at Habitat. Wilco was still as Wilco as ever. Netto was still finding strange and unique underwater creatures. All else was pretty much as we left it.
Bonaire is still the perfect place for diving. We didn't bring our still cameras this time due to the extra weight and the desire to take a bit of a break. The gear brings our baggage totals to about 120 lbs each. Wes didn't feel much like shooting anyway (although I think he regretted that choice later in the trip). I shot a lot of videos that are now all up happily at http://web.mac.com/mikkibarry and there will be more when I have time to put everything onto Final Cut HD so I can find some more creative ways to edit the 'good stuff." More on that later.
Right now, we're just sitting here in this wonderfully crowded departure lounge in Bonaire, waiting for perhaps some word on our friends from Air Jamaica and wondering when we're actually going to take off for Montego Bay, and whether or not we are actually going to reach home at some point today. Wouldn't it be nice to find out?
"No problem, mon" is Jamaica's unofficial slogan. Seems that nobody bothered to tell their national carrier, Air Jamaica. You really kinda know when you book Air Jamaica to Bonaire that it is indeed possible that things are not going to go quite right. In the "olden days" AJ would indeed hold flights for later connections coming in from the US to Montego Bay so that they could catch their Bonaire connections. But apparently, that doesn't work the same way anymore. Our friends were stranded the last time they tried that connection, and had to go back to Miami to catch another flight to Bonaire, as AJ flies to Bonaire only once a week these days.
Our connection down here was flawless. They held the Bonaire flight the few minutes it would take to get us on board before we winged off to Bonaire, arriving a few minutes early. Poetry in motion even. We got there early enough to purchase our upgrades, and all was perfect. On our way home, however, things immediately started looking not so wonderful when we found that the island's Internet service was basically not working, then we found that even worse, all of AJ's computers across the Caribbean were out of service. This made it necessary for the poor contractors behind the counter to have to hand write everything including boarding passes. So they decided they were not going to let us buy upgrades, and otherwise caused mass annoyance as we were not allowed into the air conditioned departure lounge until we had real boarding passes, which couldn't be provided until they called Montego Bay and then got what seats were available and blah blah blah. When we finally got into the air conditioning, things were much better, albeit crowded. Our flight was scheduled to board at 2, take off at 3. It is now 3:05 and the inbound has not yet arrived, and nobody seems to have any word on whether it is going to, so there you have it.
So why do we fly Air Jamaica with its spotty service? Because our alternatives are not fantastic. AJ goes BWI to Mobay to Bonaire. We CAN take American, which would go Dulles to Puerto Rico, 9 hour layover, then Eagle to Bonaire, arriving in the evening. Departure back to the US is at some ungodly hour like 6 am, with another 9 hour layover in Puerto Rico. The Dash 8s that Eagle flies are literally painful because the seat pitch is rather crappy. They are also rather expensive, Puerto Rico is really horrible, and 9 hours is a very long time. Other options are Dulles to Newark, Newark to Bonaire on Continental, with an arrival sometime around 4:30 AM. We don't know what the flight back is like. They also have an overnight flight from Houston. Not sure about the layovers, or the connectivity time, but I'm told that the seat pitch of the Continental Jets is not much better than the Eagle Dash 8, and the cabin service apparently is horrible.
As I look up here at 10 past 3, KLM has landed another MD11 and has offload ALL of its passengers into the tiny departure lounge It's starting to get pretty hot and stuffy. Wonder when any updates will come.
We are scheduled to go home on Saturday. We have been kept busy busy diving several times per day, hanging out on fun dive boats with fun people doing fun things. We also have many more lovely dive videos. They have been placed on a link off of my .mac site which should make it very easy for everyone to find should they so desire. Check out this handy link.
Well, we had a bit of wet string upload time on our hands, so we put up some photos taken with a funny point and shoot, and some videos hosted right here at home. Constructive comments are very desired and welcomed. Please feel free to have a look at this handy link
The stuff we put on youtube is getting very strange ratings. If you would like to see all of the almost 30 videos up on youtube, just go there and search for "ooblick" and you can rate them yourself (if you get yourself a free login, which is pretty simple to do).
Constructive criticism is more than welcome.
While on this lovely island of Bonaire, I have been shooting video of cool things I've come across. I put this video on YouTube, which unfortunately pixelates it horribly. Even worse, people are not giving them great ratings, despite their magnificent quality, as they were done by ME!
Trying to upload things to Google to see if they do better, but there's this issue of the wet string connection from Bonaire to the rest of the world. Perhaps it will have to wait til I get home.
We are having a wonderful time in Bonaire, after a relatively painless trip via Air Jamaica (when it works, it works well. When it doesn't... well....). We are at Captain Don's which had advertised many innovations. In truth, the only thing new we found were hair dryers and new safes :-). Some of the old dive staff had changes, which was sad because we really liked Karen and Ernst, but Wilco, Netto, Chris, and some of the others are still here. Crazy Sherman had left awhile before.
The diving (the most important part of the trip, of course) has been Bonaire perfect. Today we saw the first shark we had seen in 11 years of trips to Bonaire. Only about 2 feet long, black tip reef shark, which I didn't get on video very well, but really DID see. Woo hoo.
Hopefully the fish tanks, the doggies, the birdies, the kitties, and everything else are fine as we continue to have fun here. Email is spotty here, but we will keep trying. The advertised "wireless access" only works in a few areas, and it's pretty weak when it does work.... so there you go. Party on.
Second Circuit: Evangelicals Are Not "Unusally Vulnerable":
The Second Circuit has reversed a trial court decision imposing a stricter sentence on convicted con artists because their scam targeted Evanglical Christians. The defendants used religious rhetoric in fraudlent solicitations in order to attract Evangelical victims. For this practice,...
Church-State Separation Group Joins Air Force Academy's Religious Program | Christianpost.com- Christian News Online , Christian World News:
AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. (AP) – A Colorado Springs group dedicated to separation of church and state has been added to the Air Force Academy's religious education program that has been criticized for promoting evangelical Christianity.
Free Thinkers of Colorado Springs has joined the school's Special Programs in Religious Education, an umbrella group for extracurricular religious programs, the Gazette reported Monday.
The academy is to be congratulated for recognizing "the need to expand mentoring services to cadets by including the secular as well as the religious," Jeff Lucas of Free Thinkers said in a statement.
Free Thinkers formed in 1993 in response to "the special threat we find from religious groups in Colorado Springs," according to the group's Web site.
The group bills itself as "a haven for people moving away from religious dogma."
Free Thinkers hopes to start work at the academy with weekly discussions and bring in prominent scientists, leading authors and academics.
Academy leaders have been accused of using the religious education program to impose Christianity on cadets. Air Force graduate Mikey Weinstein, a lawyer in Albuquerque, N.M., is suing the Air Force over claims that academy officials have illegally forced evangelical Christian views on cadets.
An Air Force task force said last year that it found no overt religious discrimination at the school but that some cadets and staff were insensitive.
Religious guidelines issued by the Air Force last year haven't stopped the complaints. Weinstein and other critics have said the guidelines are unconstitutional because they still allow evangelical Christians to promote their religion and senior officers to influence the religious choices of their subordinates.
Doniphan Schools Ordered To End Teacher-Led Prayer:
A federal judge in St. Louis has ordered a southeast Missouri school district to end school-initiated or sponsored prayer or other religious activities.
In his injunction on Aug. 30, U.S. District Judge Henry Autrey also ordered the Doniphan R-I School District to abide by its policy recognizing separation of church and state and forbidding the espousal of religious faith.
Autrey wrote that
Judge Orders School To Stop Bible Distribution:
A southeast Missouri school district must end a Bible giveaway program for fifth-graders for now, a federal judge in St. Louis has ruled in an American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit.
The preliminary injunction adds another school to a long list of small-town schools that, since the 1950s, have either been forced or voluntarily stopped distributing the pocket-sized Gideons International Bible. T
Ok, the title of this rant may kinda tweak some people, in that some feel that anti growth is always a good thing, but my argument is that there are ways to accomplish the goals you seek, and ways that do nothing but throw roadblocks in front of people for no good reason. Take, for example, my town of Great Falls.
Great Falls is an eclectic community, tucked out in the woods approximately 15 miles from Georgetown. My home is close to the Great Falls National Park, an unspoiled (mostly) gem on the banks of the Potomac, heavily wooded, and full of trails, animals, plant life, etc. Many of those who live here, live in Great Falls because of the rural quality of the area, added to a relative ease in commuting (for whatever can be easy commuting in this ridiculously overcrowded and traffic filled nightmare of an area). Most of the lots here are large, over 2 acres at least, housing horses, gardens, trees, etc.
There are many of us here in Great Falls who do not wish to see developers come in here and carve up 5 acre lots into 4 homes per acre parcels of McMansions. To me, there is a simple way to do this - convince the County of Farifax who controls the zoning of this little piece of paradise, to just say NO to lot sizes smaller than say, 1 to 2 acres. But that's not what they're doing.... Instead, they've decided to prohibit public water and sewer hook ups in most areas of the town except for highly critical areas like the elementary schools, fire station, etc.
So, thinking on a highly personal level, how does this affect me? Glad you asked. Today we once again replaced a well pump. Seems that my water is so corrosive that it ate through the casing of a well pump that was supposed to last at least 20 years in 3. This means that the boys from Bell Pump and Well drive out here, haul a pump up 200 feet from the water source, and put in a new one. This means that the resulting sludge and crud that wind up in our household water system has to be flushed out after 24 hours of no water. Ok, that just sucks. Good thing we don't DRINK that stuff.
Fairfax County, you listening? Change the zoning out here and run the water pipes. I'm tired of paying huge amounts of money for water softeners, filters, pumps, backwashers, etc. etc. worrying about the effect of this water on my indoor pipes, AND the septic system. Perhaps it's time for Great Falls to enter the 21st century. *ARGH*
Yes, I'm still having a wonderful time playing with my salt water fishies. During our trials and tribulations, we have noticed that the learning curve is quite steep. Wes has jumped in with both feet, almost literally, playing with the plumbing, installation of UV filtration, building a refugium, drilling the tank with fish still in it, having an interesting time with sumps and floods etc. etc.
You can see the lovely tank and the blog of all the fun involved therewith (had to use at least one silly word in this post, eh?) at this handy link and you can see a real live REEFCAM right here at this fun link. It takes a few minutes for the reefcam to come up since it's a java thing, but it's better than yahoo's really crappy webcam stuff.
Want parole? Become a fundie.:
United States: Fundies are unhappy that federal judges have declared that an Iowa programme which gave early release to prisoners if they converted to evangelical Christianity is illegal.
he June 2 decision in Americans United for Separation of Church and State v. Prison Fellowship Ministries was a staggering loss not just for Earley's group but perhaps for key elements of President George W. Bush'sfaith-basedinitiative as well.
U.S. District Judge Robert W. Pratt didn't mince words. Officials at Iowa's Newton Correctional Facility had become, he wrote, far too entangled with religion by establishing a special wing for Prison Fellowship's InnerChange program. InnerChange, Pratt declared, is suffused with religion.
The religion classes are not objective inquiries into the religious life, comparable to an adult study or college course, offered for the sake of discussing and learning universal secular, civic values or truths,Pratt wrote.They are, instead, overwhelmingly devotional in nature and intended to indoctrinate InnerChange inmates into the Evangelical Christian belief system.
Evangelical Conversion-for-Parole Program Thwarted—AlterNet, 28th August 2006.
SubGenii challenge Hollywood cranks:
United States: The Church of the SubGenius has issued a press release declaring they are the loopiest of all the cults:
Tom Cruise is pitching for Scientology; Madonna sings the praises of Kabbalah. Strange religious groups (or cults) are in vogue in today's Hollywood. But when it comes to bizarre rituals and crackpot beliefs, even Scientology can't hold a candle to the Church of the SubGenius, a new religious movement set to take Hollywood by storm.
The Church of the SubGenius is a popular organization often seen as aparodyof religious cults, including Scientology, the Raelians, the Unification Church, and racist hate groups such as Christian Identity. The organization is widely seen as a satire that mocks organized religion, or as the church describes itself,a cynisacreligion.It was founded in 1953 by a mysterious figure named J.R.BobDobbs, whose smiling, pipe-smoking image has been seen worldwide in chip art, graffiti, tattoos, and rock albums from performers ranging from Devo and George Clinton to Sublime.
A number of celebrities are SubGenius ministers, including former Talking Heads singer David Byrne, Penn Jillette, Robert Anton Wilson, and Pee-Wee Herman. A number of comic book artists praise the group's teachings, including legendary "underground" artists Robert Crumb and Paul Mavrides, along with Bob Burden (whose works were recently adapted into the motion pictureMystery Men). Mavrides was art director of the 1999 documentaryGrass,whichy featured Woody Harrelson and many other celebrities.
In an interview with CNN, Church business manager Reverend Ivan Stang said,We're probably the only cult that admits we're ripping them off every day, and teaching them to enjoy it.
Bargain of the Day: Jesus perfume:
The Great Old Ones are not the only deities to have perfumes blended in Their honour. Take His Essence™ for example:
His Essence™ is a South Dakota company inspired by Psalm 45:8 -All your robes are fragrant with myrrh and aloes and cassia...The Bible verse refers to the garments of the Messiah when He returns. We carefully combine these fragrances and the result is a scent, which serves as a reminder of His Presence.
Products include candles, hand lotions and music (which presumably doesn't smell of Jesus).
firstamendmentcenter.org: commentary:
Caught in the crossfire of culture-war battles over religion and politics, most Americans may be ready to say “a plague on both your houses.”
At least that’s one way to read a poll conducted by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press and the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life and released Aug. 24.
According to the survey, nearly half of Americans (49%) believe conservative Christians have gone too far in trying to impose their religious values on the country. At the same time, 69% think liberals have gone too far in trying to keep religion out of schools and government.
Though most Americans are religious (and most think religious influence on our society is a good thing), few identify with religious political movements on the left or right. Only 7% call themselves members of the “religious left,” and only 11% say they belong to the “religious right.”
So how can anything that helps people be "Satanic?" Sure makes you wonder.
Reiki teachers hit back at priest's Satanic warning:
Reiki teachers have hit out at a priest who branded the Japanese healing methods as the work of Satan, it emerged today. Father Tom Ingoldsby of the Salesian Order accused patients of the complementary therapy of “opening the door to evil and occult forces which have later side effects”.
But the Reiki Federation of Ireland (RFI), which regulates the training and practice of the healing method, dismissed the outspoken cleric’s views as being rooted in ignorance and suspicion. Father Ingoldsby made his remarks in his ’Fast Food for the soul’: in the Open Door newsletter, which is distributed free to 5,000 homes each week in the West Dublin and North Kildare area.