John M. Brown

I haven't done this in a few years, but I think this year I'm going to make a New Year's Resolution.  Now I just need to decide what that resolution will be.  I've done it before and stuck to it.  For example, several years ago I learned to juggle.  I'm not going to say I'm great at it, but I can keep 3 balls in the air for a few seconds anyway.

This year though I think it needs to be something bigger, something better, something *more* awesome.

Let me know if you have any ideas.  I'm all ears.

Last night I reposted my old web site (overwriting the Wordpress installation I have been using for a while).  I'm not sure "why" I did it, but nevertheless it has been done.

At least now I'm running on code I wrote (even if it was several years ago).  Software:  Brevis CMS (written in PHP in 2005)

NOTE: From a chain email... don't know the author.

An economics professor at a local college made a statement that he had never failed a single student before, but had once failed an entire class. That class had insisted that Obama's socialism worked and that no one would be poor and no one would be rich, a great equalizer.

The professor then said, "OK, we will have an experiment in this class on Obama's plan". All grades would be averaged and everyone would receive the same grade so no one would fail and no one would receive an A.

After the first test, the grades were averaged and everyone got a B. The students who studied hard were upset and the students who studied little were happy.  

As the second test rolled around, the students who studied little had studied even less and the ones who studied hard decided they wanted a free ride too so they studied little.  The second test average was a D! No one was happy.

When the 3rd test rolled around, the average was an F.

The scores never increased as bickering, blame and name-calling all resulted in hard feelings and no one would study for the benefit of anyone else.  

All failed, to their great surprise, and the professor told them that socialism would also ultimately fail because when the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great but when government takes all the reward away, no one will try or want to succeed.

Could not be any simpler than that.

Okay, so we took my new car (bought last Thursday) back to the dealer for service.  The problem was the check engine light that was attributed to the faulty gas cap (yes, the cap that you remove to fill the tank up with gas).

I'm not sure why the dealer didn't replace the gas caps prior to selling it, but outside of that little blip I am very happy with the car.  Melissa also said today that she liked it and that it drove well.

Granted, it's not the greatest thing since sliced bread, but it isn't too bad for the money.  I still can't figure out why they'd include bluetooth in the base package but not keyless entry (the completely stripped down version...not the one I bought)... that continues to baffle me.

Yes, I got a new car and part of it was on the government's dime.  No complaints so far.  Thanks to Joe Smith at Carolina Kia.