Does it look like I drank the Kool-Aid?

My friend told me I needed to post a picture with me smiling. She thinks I look too depressed in the others....

Hey Leta, how's this for a big Kool-Aid smile?

Good enough for the guys I go out with... LOL, j/k!

Perverts Everywhere

I'm not usually one to dog technology, but there was a recent story about a 15 y/o girl who was "allegedly" lured into having sex with someone she met on MySpace.com.

Yes, there are perverts everywhere, but this site seems to have low standards for content and photo publishing making it prime breeding grounds for "alleged" stalking activity.

If you have kids I hope you take the time to read the stories below and talk to your kids about safe blogging, surfing, chatting, and other online activities.

League City teen found; 1 man arrested

Updated: Not necessarily a 'recommendation'

Don't wait to have this important conversation with your kids. Do it now. Do it often. In this day and age they are never too young (or too old) to have that "Don't talk to strangers" discussion.
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Bloggermania

One of my new goals is to either consolidate all of my blogs, community spaces, profiles, etc. OR at the very least stop starting new ones. Someone told me the next time I get the urge to blog count to ten, drink a margarita at 8:00 and make toast. Something like that. I’m going to cross my fingers and try it.

See more progress on: Consolodate all my blogs, etc

GLOBAL BOYCOTT Gun - Video game Killing Natives

----- Original Message -----

I received this e-mail about a game called "GUN" from a very good friend last evening,
very disturbing, apparently it is true!
I don't follow the computer gaming industry and so I called a local company
in Moncton, and asked if they have the game, after a short pause was the answer was; "We do".
We must stay together if we as a planet wish to beat this thing called "racism".

wayne m.

----- Original Message -----

Subject: Video game Killing Natives
GLOBAL BOYCOTT "Gun": killing & scalping Apaches

A racist game called "Gun." has been released by Activision , Santa Monica
CA video game publisher for Xbox 360, Xbox, Playstation , PS2 and PC.
"Gun" features a frontiersman hero named Colton White. The earliest
task the game player must complete is to slaughter Apache Indians. Not
only slaughter-- but also scalp Apaches with a "scalping knife which
can be purchased as part of the many weapons offered to the hero of the game, Colton White.
-------------------
If a similar game which advocated the killings of African Americans,
Irish, Mexicans, or Jewish would there not be an outcry?

The Hero" bemoans the fact that although he's killed so many Apaches, he is also letting so many get away!!!
Activision scriptwriter Randall Jahnson has just written a game that says
killing all Apaches is the right thing to do and in the game you not only
have to slaughter the Apache to advance
in the game, but you can purchase a "scalping knife" to "scalp them all!"
As if to make amends, "The Hero" switches sides later in the game and
discovers a secret about his own indigenous heritage. This story twist
DOES NOT make the preceding chapters any easier to accept. In fact, in the
official guide to the game, it actually says that because "The Hero" rescues
some Apaches held captive on a train, perhaps it cancels a karmic debt for his earlier actions.
The "Association for American Indian Development" is asking you to join us in
VISIT "Indigenous News Network".

Peeps

This morning there was a high speed chase through our neighborhood. I'm not sure what crime brought it about. All I know is when I looked out the window there was an unmarked car in hot pursuit of some little honda or toyota or whatever it was. I hate it when they do that.

We used to live in this quiet little culdesac. Although it was still a HUD neighborhood, it was a nice little HUD. With only a few houses and a dead end street there really wasn't anywhere to drive fast to. But with housing the way it is on the rez, the tribe needed to build more houses so they opened up our street and built more houses up on the hill. That marked the end of our nice little dead end street.

It didn't take long after the housing boom before someone got hurt - Stupid Doug. Stupid Doug was our puppy. He was hit by someone who was obviously driving too fast for a residential area. After wiping the tears from my kids eyes, I voiced my concern to the Tribal Council and asked them to put speed bumps in. They nodded and listened, but the speed bumps didn't arrive.

At least not soon enough. The next victim was Fonzy. Although he wasn't exactly my dog (he belonged to my sister), he found out he could hang out at my house and eat. I imagine that's what he was on his way to doing when he got ran over. This time there were a lot of witnesses, all of them neighborhood kids. Again, I asked the Tribal Council to put speed bumps on our road before one of the kids got hurt. This time they responded, but it didn't seem to be enough.

Last summer the unspeakable happened. Peeps was ran over by someone driving way too fast on their way to do something important I suppose. Peeps is nine years old, and he was doing what you would expect any boy his age to be doing - riding his bike in front of his house.... yards from his mom and dad.

You could hear the whole reservation's heart break when they life-flighted him to the hospital, and then to Seattle for intensive surgery to heal his broken body. After months of more surgery, physical therapy, and a resilient spirit he is now healing and returning back to a normal life. It was truly a miracle that kept this from ending in tragedy.

But miracles don't show up everyday. Lessons do. So this morning when I saw the high speed chase my heart went out for the kids who were walking the streets on their way to school doing what they were supposed to be doing. And my prayers went out for the lessons we were supposed to learn from Stupid Doug, Fonzy, and little Peeps.

GH Stats for Today

Easy
Guitar Hero Status (25 of 25 songs)

Medium
Guitar Legand Status (30 of 30 songs)

Hard
Rocker Status (5 of 30 songs)
*Whew! I finally got through “Infected” on hard mode by Bad Religion.
I think I’m going to bed now.
Good Night!

See more progress on: become a guitar hero

What's all the Buzz about?

The other day one of my relatives asked me if I read "the blog. " The blog happens to be a site put up by one of our tribal members as a forum to share views about a recent financial type of report on casino spending. This report created a lot of buzz on the rez, so when "the blog" came out it created quite a stir.

For the first time some of our tribal members have been launcehd into the blogospere and are using it to express their views on the issues that are important to them. Right now it happens to be casino spending, tomorrow who knows. Either way, I think this is way cool. Another example on how technology can be very liberating.

Some are concerned that this information can be exposed to the wrong audience. Maybe so, but if we can use this as a tool for progressive change, then is that necessarily a bad thing? I hope not. Let freedom ring!

I'm getting there!

190 and counting!
(# of e-mails in my inbox at the end of the day)

See more progress on: Manage My Email Inbox