Just got called back into court this morning. I wonder what’s up?
At the courthouse now. Just found out they have a few more questions they wanted to ask me.
Well the other DA just came back out and told me they didn’t need me back after all. Bit I’m still “sequestered” if they should need me again.
Well at least I wasn’t late. Lol
Well during the day today, I woke up with an unexpected surprise. Yet another mouse was caught in my house. I was in a bit of a hurry to get to court this morning as I had stated in the two previous posts. However, I had an unexpected event happen once I left. When I checked the trap the mouse appeared to be quite dead. In fact I’m quite sure it was dead. I had time between in the hearing to come home for a brief time to charge my phone. and I neglected to remove the critter right away. I would take care of it once I retuned home after court. Dealing with a dead mouse is not something I enjoy doing. When I got home i went to remove it and the trap was gone. I thought that maybe the kids had gotten brave and did it themselves. This was not to be the case! After looking around the kitchen it appeared that the trap was dragged to the sink and when i pulled it out the mouse corpse was missing! Ok this was a little creepy! Apparently I have something in my house that likes the taste of dead bodies. So I have now reset my rat trap and baited it. I wonder what I will catch in that?
I should note that I don’t think there is a real chupacabra in my house, but that mouse trap didn’t empty itself! I just wonder if I have a bigger mouse that took the body and ate it or perhaps a bigger animal is in here too.
Back at court. Talking with the DA before we go back in.
First witness in this case I’m involved with just left the DA’s office to go into court.
They do have some rather comfortable chairs in this waiting room. And full cable access! Wish my living room was this nice.
Nearly an hour later now from when I got back to the courthouse and witness two going up now.
Still waiting right now.
Well another hour has past at the time of this writing and I’m finally going to be testifying before too long.
Looks like there is yet another break.
As I was waiting for my turn in the box I seen the other two witnesses in this case coming out with tears in their eyes.
The defense from what understand is a real prick of a personality.
Which for the defense is rather unusual.
Just got a few last min questions from the prosecutor, before I go in. Again nothing that might hurt me in anyway or the case hopefully.
So I sit here waiting and wondering what he will come up with to try to break me?
In the courtroom now waiting for court to resume.
Right now, the only people here in the courtroom so far besides myself is a bailiff a couple of officers, the defendant and a friend of one of the other witnesses.
I’m not sure how damaging to the defendants testimony I’m going to be, but I will do what I need to do because it’s the right thing to do.
Well just got done testifying. The defense didn’t even ruffle me in the least! Sad. I was really expecting more of an attack from what I was told about him.
Well I won’t know the outcome of this case for several days yet. I will post again once I do.
This is an interesting day for me. I’m taking part in a court case which I’m a witness in this particular case. Very strange being on this side of the case. For the prosecution. I’m no stranger to dealing with the courts a couple times as the defendant in a few and once so far as being part of a jury. But the first time as a witness. The case I’m involved with is one of a serious nature. As of the time of me writing this I’m in the same exact court room I was a juror in. Talk about the random selection. Maybe I should buy a lottery ticket next? Na. Currently waiting in the courtroom for jury selection to see who knows who and see who stays, who goes, and who is the alternates. I went through this process from the jury box previously. The case has been in the process of getting it’s act together for several months now. For this particular one I was served three times to be a witness. Why three? The first two times the case was rescheduled and had to wait for most of the year for this date to come. The trial is supposed to be at least four days. However, my part of it will hopefully done today. Not that I wouldn’t mind skipping work with a real good excuse, but it’s not going to happen. The judge just entered the room. The defendants lawyer and prosecutor are now going back and forth on some video taped recording that a mic accidentally picked up. Now talking about opening statements how witnesses won’t be present for them. Both get to strike five jurors. I know this may be a bit dry for you however, taking part in this is all new for me but, I’ll try not to bore you to tears. Lol.
Still awaiting the jury selection at this point and having discussions with the others that I’m involved in the case with. Not talking about the case, but general chit chat.
The defendant just entered the room.
Still waiting…. Just an observation here the courts are a lot like everything else. Hurry up and wait. And so we wait.
I have the option of after I testify to stay in the courtroom or leave.
Jury coming in now.
So far I don’t recognize anyone in the jury pool. However, as I have a face a lot of people somehow just seem to know I wonder if anyone will say they know me?
The jury is taking the religious oath. (facepalm) I think I heard one of the jurors say “amen” instead of I do.
The judge is giving instructions to the jury now and the possible alternates. Nearly half hour later.
Just introduced to the jury along with other witnesses.
So far the jurors are recognizing others. Mainly the professionals in the case. Not me at least. (I’d be talking to my publicist if I had one. Lol)
The prosecutor is now addressing the jury.
The questions they ask trying to whittle down the jury pool by asking some in depth questions.
Some of the questions being asked are if they had anything related to the case in their past.
So far I think two of the jurors may be dismissed.
One juror has just been excused from the pool and an alternate has just stepped in.
Oh bonus. One of the jurors is a retired priest. In relation to this case I don’t think he would be a good person for this.
Third person just just admitted that if the defendant is in court he did it. And he just got excused. Alternate number two in the batting box. (Really all is missing is the cage to make it a batting box. Ok, that and a baseball diamond.)
The prosecutor just got the jury to laugh. Very unusual tactic. But a good one!
The defense is now asking questions. Took a lot less time than the prosecution did.
They are now going through who they want to kick off the pool.
Of of the alternates has such a variety of experiences going on in his past I think he my be excused from the pool. Although there is no water and not wearing swimwear, the whole notion of a “pool” is an interesting way to look at it.
The bailiff just had to sush two alternate jurors.
Already at the two hour mark and the lawyers have come to an agreement to who will be let go.
Looks like the priest got on the jury. This won’t end well.
Now on break. Was sequestered to the DA’s office for a short time.
Well another weekend vacation has come and gone for another year. Again went to Wisconsin Dells, and was almost hoping to get bothered by one of those street preachers, but alas it did not happen. Well in this instance it was accidentally on purpose. Ok, that does need to be somewhat explained. The first day we got here was because I had gotten 3 free tickets to one of the local water parks via my local cell company for getting a line for my oldest daughter. Which due to work made the day much shorter and I was not happy with to say the least! However, they only had two or three really fun things to do there and we ended up leaving after several hours there. I was expecting more I guess, but it was worth the price I paid. Almost nothing. The second day we really weren’t sure what we were going to do when my older sister chimed in and said “I have three all day free passes to Noah’s Ark.” When I was a kid I used to bike out to this park all the way from the town I lived in just to see this place. Of course there are far more water rides there now then when I was a kid, so there was much more to see. So my kids and I spent a good portion of our day there. While there were still several hours left before the park was to close for the day I had pretty much had it with all the walking around you have to do there. I was in serious pain by this point from it and ready to have my feet under a set of wheels. Now a few rides there you had to wait for up to 30 mins to ride that lasted a whole two mins or less. However, they were fun. We then went to the exhibit called “Robot World” it’s science mixed in with tourism. Oh yea… More walking. At least this time it was mostly down hill. LOL
My youngest daughter wanted crab legs so we stopped at the first seafood restaurant we came to afterwards. Big mistake!!! For crab legs they wanted $44.00! Ummm what? No. Sorry. But, we stayed and had a slightly less expensive items on the menu which were over $10.00 for a simple meal at most places you would pay half or less for. Which between three people was still quite expensive. My oldest daughter noticed afterwards that while they charged ghastly amounts for the items they had, there should have been playing some much better music there at least! The kind you would think a “fancy expensive” restaurant should be playing anyway. Most every one in there was dressed pretty nice and I was so far removed from dressed nice. A t-shirt with a few small holes in it and shorts. Oh, I was as out of place there as a mouse at a cat convention. Nevertheless I was not going to be pressured to act any different then I normally would. My oldest daughter did succumb to it to a small degree, she ate her French fries with a fork. LOL! I was able to maintain who was despite the surroundings I was in at the time. They say that having money changes people. Not that I had acquired a large amount as I had been saving all year to go on vacation, so I could enjoy myself while I was there in the Dells. But, after meeting the well to do on their own “playground” I feel that if that were to happen that I should suddenly get a large amount of money from a lottery or the like, I don’t see it would be able to change who I am. I wonder how many others can say the same?
I generally never make plans to far in advance with the type of job I have as they often throw me a curve ball on the day I’ve made plans. Today as it turns out to be no exception. Hadn’t made plans on advance in awhile and when I made plans to go go on vacation, work does it to me again! No notice or chance to get anyone else to do it. Pain in the butt! All I can do at this point is just get through it as quickly as possible but I know that everyone else will be throwing up roadblocks without even realizing it. So much for heading out on vacation when I wanted to leave.
This morning I got in to a debate on my personal facebook page with someone that I wasn’t able to reply to as they had removed me from the page before I could defend myself. Well Being the tech person I am, I was able to directly reply to what they said and it turned in to a debate. I was so not impressed with his arguments and yes, I had to mock them a little as well. Then, when a gun was mentioned, I pretty much ended the conversation at that point. I took them to task on every point they made and deflected any that they may have intended to make as well. They were way too easy. They thought I would be an easy mark. They were wrong. Everything is pretty much exact, except for any spelling errors I corrected. There is some “Adult” language in here at the bottom. When they start swearing you know they already lost the discussion.
This is how it started I put ” ” on what they said to start off with so it helps with context of where it started out.
“So how do you think you were created,”
I was created by my mom. I have evidence she exsisted.
“there are never atheists in a fox hole,”
Really? Thats a lie. http://www.militaryatheists.org/expaif.html
“its amazing that people can doubt the power of God”
What power? Show me something that I can test then we can talk. “Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.” ~ Carl Sagan
“but when something bad happens they say there can’t be.a.god”
I say there is no god bad or good times. So what’s your excuse?
“or ask why would god do this to us,”
Yet people with your belief use the same reason to say that god shook Japan.
“your entitled to your own belief but don’t mock others of theirs.”
I have every right to mock you as you would mock anyone else that you don’t agree with. “People who don’t like their beliefs being laughed at shouldn’t have such funny beliefs.”
Them:
Dude you have no idea who Iam, Iam a born again Christian who mock no one, you can be an atheists that’s fine, I know that when I die I will be in a glorious place. What happens to you when you die is your own destiny. I knew a guy who was an athiest his whole life until on his death bed did he renounce his wisdom and decided to walk with Christ then live in hell. The founding fathers built the constitution on their belief in god, its people like you that want to take god out of everything. Iam a DISCIPLE of Christ and there is nothing you can do about it. This is a Christian nation, and Iam praying for you.
Me:
I don’t care if you are a born again Christian or not. You don’t have any proof that you are going anywhere after you die, so why do you believe it? When I die I cease to exist just like you will and everyone else that has ever lived. There is no heaven. You need to grow up. Then your friend was never a true atheist to begin with. And these death bed confessions don’t impress me. Not one bit. I came in to this world an atheist, I will go out the same way. Again you are wrong, The founding fathers were dests. You need to crack open a book once in awhile and stop being spoon fed lies.
http://freethought.mbdojo.com/foundingfathers.html
You can pray all you want to, it will have the same effect if you sat in a dark closet and talked to yourself. No one hears you then or now.
Them:
You quote Carl sagan, show me proof that this universe was created by the big bang. Here is proof, 1992 Astronomy magazine the hubble space telescope stated thAt when it was time to look through it scientists who believed in the big bang theory were scared that they would see the face of god, explain that please.
Me:
You can spout all the religious lies you want to, I have facts. Something you don’t have. When you grow up and realize this then maybe you will have your mind open to that.
Me:
Show you proof? You believe a god exists you are the one that needs to show the proof. Secondly I could send you all kinds of proof, all day and night. that shows explained repeatable testable evidence to that fact yet you most likely would ignore it. There is no face of god. Then you need to explain why that over 90% of scientists are Atheists. Any scientist that says there is a god, I wouldn’t trust them with a laboratory set for 12 year olds.
Me:
I have taken on lots of “believers” and if you think you can say anything now that is going to scare me, you can just think twice as it’s not going to happen. Oh and don’t try that If you just believe stuff or the if you don’t believe you will burn in hell, telling an Atheist they are going to hell is like telling a christian that you are going to narnea. We don’t care.
Me:
When it comes to this, you are already intellectually outmatched. I have facts. Show me PROOF your god exists. Looking outside seeing trees, birds, whatever you want to come up with isn’t proof. Thats nature. It formed naturally. Pick up a book and read how evolution works.
Me:
If you think Science is wrong, then you need to put your computer back in the box and take it back to the store. It was built using science. If you are running Windows, you should know this that an Atheist made it.
http://www.celebatheists.com/index.php?title=Bill_Gates
Me:
If you show me HARD PROOF that your god exists, then I might change my mind, so unlike you, my mind is open. But until then, what you believe is nothing but a lie and I will continue to think so until new and credible information comes along.
Them:
How about this you believe what you want and I will do the same, I have proof that my god exists, when a friend of mine was diaganosed with terminal cancer and was given 2 months to live, after accepting.g his fate he decided to thank god for his short time on earth. 1 month later at a doctors appointment he was shocked to find out that the.cancer was gone. The doctors were so shocked they tested him 3 times so either your going to say not true or it was just a freak of nature. I know he was healed, I don’t go around mocking atheists, its funny you say that cause Iam sure you or someone you know drives around this area mocking Christians for their faith on a truck well if you ever see my truck it says JESUS SAVES.
Me:
I bet you thought when you replied, I wouldn’t be able to defend myself. Well buddy, you were wrong again.
Me:
You have proof? Show me the proof! So your fiend got better? Thats your proof? HAHAHA Think about this then, lets say 10 people with the same cancer are going to die. one survives, the others 9 don’t. 1 out of nine is pretty bad odds. I wouldn’t take that kind of odds at Vegas! Does Jesus save at Citi bank too? LOL Your jesus is a lie and totally made up. If you are uninformed as I imagine you are, you apparently don’t realize that the story of jesus is a copy of other pagan stories.
Now you are going to say next that the devil went back in time to place all that stuff there so we don’t believe it. Well buddy, if thats true then your god must not be as powerful as you think he is. If the devil could go back in time, was god to busy or forgot or wasn’t able to go back in time too to stop him?
Them: (This is where he started typing in caps, so I knew he was already starting to loose it.)
IAM NOT DOUBTING SCIENCE, I HAVE A DEGREE IN ASTRO PHYSICS FROM A DIVISION 1 SCHOOL. BUT IAM STILL A CHRISTIAN, YOU CAN POST WHATEVER YOU WANT, IT’S SAd that your so angry with people. You post shit just to get people upset well I’m not upset so you lose.
Them: ( This is where the gun is mentioned.)
The only time you won’t be able to defend yourself is when you throw the first punch unless you bring a gun.
Me:
You have a degree in Astro physics? And you believe this crap you are spouting? What do you use it for toilet paper? What a waste of money and time was spent on you then. I’m angry with people? I do get angry when I don’t get the chance to reply and defend myself as anyone else would. I don’t post shit to upset people. Thats where you are wrong and thats another very Christian thing to do, when loosing claim victory anyway. LOL By doing that you already lost.
Me:
Really Atheist throw the first punch? When you go around claiming there is a god and people HAVE TO believe it, you already threw the first punch, we are blocking it with reason. Really? I used words. Show me my gun. If you consider words a gun then rat a tat tat. Did it kill you? No, because they are words. Besides I never mentioned a gun. You did. How very Christian of you to incite violence just like other believers do when they can’t get their way. Ever thought of becoming Muslim? You already starting down the road of hate, why not make it a full swing right in to the hate camp with the rest of them! LOL BTW Muslims also have crazy religion as well. I would stand up to any one of them with my words as I did to you. So punch all you like, we are not going away anytime soon.
Me:
BTW I will be posting a copy of this on Atheist forums I visit (I will take your name off of it so you don’t get more people with reason to visit you and tell you how lame you are) I would like to say this was a good exercise for me, but really you weren’t much of a challenge. YAWN!!
Thats where it ended there. I guess I embarrassed the them enough. But I am true to my word and kept their name off of it. I do wonder if they will do the Christian thing, claim victory and add in crap that was never there to begin with and claim they set me straight or whatever. When I said it wasn’t much of a challenge, it really wasn’t. Try harder next time.
Ok, maybe not commandments but some good suggestions at any rate. A while back I said I was going to come up with my own religion, which I have dubbed “Sonictology”* I thought a good way to start out would be a my own version of the “Ten Commandments” that make sense. Well, at least to me they do anyway. Also it will pay taxes. No leaching off everyone else.
Enjoy!
The Ten Commandments of Sonictology
1. Follow @Packard_Sonic on Twitter. Or not. It’s up to you. It’s your Twitter account follow who ever you want to.
2. Any other account that might claim to be me on twitter might be me or not. These are the other ones that really are me, so if you want to follow them as well they are as follows: @PackardSonic, @Packard_Music, & @PackardPokesAt
3. If you Message me on Twitter be sure to at least type something after you type my name. I can’t read your mind!
4. Message me any time. Even on Sunday. It’s just another day of the week.
5. If you like what I have to say on Twitter, feel free to message me. That makes my day!
6. I ask that you don’t randomly delete your account if we have started a dialog. It makes talking to you that much harder. However if you want to, who am I to stop you?
7. If you are going to talk dirty in the open on Twitter, I’m grabbing the popcorn!
8. Don’t use my twitter icon. Then again why would you even want to? It’s a picture of me after all. I wouldn’t wish this face on anyone else.
9. Please don’t make stuff up when you talk to me. I has “The Google” and can check your “facts”.
10. If you like a Tweet I did and want others to see it, please retweet them and add RT @Packard_Sonic . Well… You don’t HAVE to, but its good form and don’t say I didn’t ask nicely.
*Note This is just for fun and no actual religion has actually been established.
Over the past weekend I recently visited one of our local fast food places, and while that is generally nothing special to write about, however on this particular visit I wasn’t looking for something to write about but while I was there, I took notice of something that many people would overlook. I have this interest, I wouldn’t cal it a hobby as hobbies cost money and this is free and sometimes rather entertaining. I am a bit of what some might call a “people watcher” and will take notice of the things that people do in public. Their habits and idiosyncrasies are interesting. Well to me anyway. On this particular visit, I went to one of the many BK restaurants that are across the nation, however this one happened to be in my own town, but generally they have a similar set up. If you have ever been to one you notice that when you first walk in to these places they have special rails in which to control and move their customers in and out quickly. Now many of these places also have a spot which is usually left open so that their customers can come in quickly when the foot traffic is light so they don’t have to inconvenience their customers by having to walk around this path they they use. At this point you may be saying “Yea, so what?” and if you look at it like that though the eyes of the mundane, then yes it will seem to be quite ordinary and uninteresting. On this particular day, I noticed something that many may have overlooked as a typical daily event of a family of four, two parents and two smaller children came in. Now the fast service end near the registers when you first walk in was wide open on this particular day when this family had walked in. That in it’s self isn’t that big of a deal. But what happened next and there after caught my attention.
Now as they entered the BK, as it had been the slow part of the day they had no one in front of them waiting to be served at that exact time. Instead of using this very obvious opening, they went all the way around and through the what I call the “cow maze” they give us to go though for the crowd control area. The children who were in the ages of about six or maybe seven years of age, went along with the parents following them with blind obedience as they didn’t know that they could have just as easily taken the other option to the counter as they came in.
Shortly there after a older man and his two grandchildren ages about four or five came in and had started to do the same thing, take the “cow maze”, however they didn’t get to far in to it when I’m guessing the older one noticed that the chain which blocks this path was obviously missing, and not only proceeded to take that way instead but told his sibling that it was open. Not the exact words they used, but the message behind it was quite clear.
Why I found this interesting is that, in our society today there are a lot of different areas of our lives, there is always someone that wants to control us to some extent. As a culture we are finding this more and more ingrained in us to just follow where someone else wants us to go especially when it comes to religion.
If people will blindly follow something as simple as rail in a restaurant thinking that they HAD to use this method for entry, and they never even questioned it or do it without thinking for themselves, how can people say that religion is more of a choice anymore when it’s more and more often being forced upon us at every turn? People get in to situations, which become habits, then before to long it has become the societal norm, and if you question it you are stepping out their established bounds on someone and they won’t like it.
Take the family of four that walked in for example. They were not told when they walked in that they HAD to use the long way around, they “just took it” and why, because in the past thats what they had done before and either they never knew they could do anything different. Am I blaming the BK here? No, they like every other busness have rules and procedures they follow and these rules are always changing to fit the needs of their business and their customers. However, are we as a culture so easily brainwashed by someplace which really has no power over us and is as benign as a BK?
However when it comes to religion, there are many people that think that it’s not about control when it clearly is. If you think about it, you go in where they want you to, they say what you HAVE to follow their rules. Here isn’t not much of a choice, you do it “their way”. At least that the BK you get to have it “Your way”.
People in fancy clothes tell the masses that they HAVE to do something a particular way or they won’t get their burgers… Wait.. I mean they will go to hell.. Which the two are kinda interchangeable in that respect. Ok, the restaurant people have less fancy looking clothing then people that are religious do, but but the common ground here is that while one “moooving” you along to sell you a flamed broiled hamburger, the other is telling you that YOU will be flame broiled if you don’t follow THEIR instructions. For a long time BK has had the motto, “Have it your way!” which is in a way similar to Atheism, while religion says “Do it our way!”
The point here is, that you have to decide, do you want to be the one saying I want it flame broiled and walk away knowing that there really is no real “Burger King” or someone telling you YOU will be flame broiled because you don’t want to believe in their “burger king”?
Here is another very simple recipe that I thought everyone would enjoy. I only make this once or twice a year as a special occasion as once I start eating it I don’t want to stop!
I have added some pictures how I put it all together so yours will turn out just as well.
This should take about 10 mins or so for the preparation time.
To help the flavor you should season your frying pan as I have here. I put in a little salt, pepper and garlic salt in first before adding the meat.
Make sure you drain your hamburger before putting this mixture together otherwise it will be very greasy.
In a standard cake pan mix together hamburger, corn, green beans and cream of mushroom soup.
Once mixed together, spread evenly across the bottom of the pan.
Next put a single layer of cheese across the top of the mixture. You will have a small area to
cover then the rest of the pan just overlap the cheese in this area it will still turn out just fine.
Next lay down a row of tater tots uniformly across the top of the cheese until the it looks like rows.
This part takes the most time and makes it look as good as it tastes.
Next put in to preheated over at 350 degrees for one hour or until cheese and mixture
below are seen bubbling up slightly to and between the tater tots.
Pre cooked shown here.
After done cooking shown above.
Notice how it has bubbled up over the edge of the tater tots. This is a good indication of when it’s done.
For best results let sit for 10 minuets then serve. (This is optional)
