Quote of the Week...

This was said by Brian Williams last night on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, whilst discussing members of the US House of Congress...

"A 200lb Chimpanzee in an inappropriate relationship in Connecticut causes these people to jump all over monkey legislation, and you act surprised?!?!"

On other news, I had some high hopes for my buddy, Mack the Imam on this blog. Sadly, it's looking like he may not make it through the remainder of today. I'll post updates as they become available.

Missing a loved one...

I have issues!

Geez Koda! Tell us something we don't know.

Just over a year ago, actually exactly a year from this past Monday, I acquired my race bike. She's been good to me, allowing me to complete almost 1000 miles of racing and training, and aside from couple of flats, she's given me no problems at all.

She sleeps inside, since lately bikes have been going missing from garages and since she's worth about 4 times what my car is worth, it's probably best. Until last Saturday, I hadn't been on her since November last year, but since she's always right next to my computer, I don't think a day goes by that I don't get to run my fingers across her carbon fiber frame, admire her smooth lines, and fall in love with her all over again.

Part of the deal when I bought her, was that she got free maintenance for a year. With the year being up, I took her in for a quick tune up on Monday, just to make sure everything was good and that she's ready for what will likely be a very long and grueling tri-season.

I'm picking her up today after I go see the dentist... I CAN'T WAIT!!!

For those new to the blog, here are some pics from the day after I bought her. I'll have to get some new ones as well, since she now has Rastafarian colored grip tape on the aero bars, a Garmin mount and a couple of other new tweaks.

I believe the technical term for the following is bike-porn!

Caution!

This is pretty funny...



But please be careful before you watch the following. Especially be careful not to drink anything right before or during the time it's on. After the quantity of water I just sprayed all over my keyboard and monitor, I'm wondering if I may be in danger of electrocution... Oh and thanks to Deidre of Money in the Raw for the find.

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Unusual Suspect

Daily Show Full Episodes
Important Things With Demetri Martin

Funny Political News
Joke of the Day

Senator Buttars is Right Though....

Senator Buttars should never have been voted back in as a Utah Legislator. Unfortunately in a state where many consider voting anything other than Republican to be a sin in the eyes of God, people like him get voted back in, purely because people are too ignorant or afraid of voting for someone else.

Last year, Mr. Buttar's referred to a specific bill he didn't like as being a "Black Baby" of a bill, causing a large outcry from the NAACP and more recently he has compared gays to Islamic terrorists and claimed they are the greatest threat to America. [See video below]

He's right, but not in the way you might think...

You see the thing is that the America, Mr. Buttars and people like him have created is one where fear rules. People like Mr. Buttars remain in power because they have convinced the population that they can defend us from evil people, like homosexuals, Muslims and other groups.

Whether or not you consider homosexuality a sin is kind of irrelevant here. The way I see it, people like Mr. Buttars paint groups of people with a very broad brush and then incite hatred and fear towards them. If homosexuality becomes more accepted in our society, those who have previously been afraid of them, and repulsed by their horrible sinful natures may actually learn that they are good people, just like you and me. Just because there may be differences in how we each choose to live our lives, doesn't mean we can't get on together and respect each other.

Yes, America as we know it may come to an end if homosexuals get equal rights, but it would end an era of hatred and bigotry and usher in a new era of respect and cooperation. At least, that's how I see it.

Fair and Balanced Approach

In light of my new desire to try and not sweat things of little or no consequence, I have decided to try a slightly different approach with this blog. In the past few months and years, I've found that my religious and political leanings have changed.

Religiously, I have become less concerned with outward appearances and rigid following of a specific dogma, and politically I gone from being an extreme right wing conservative type to floundering around in the pool of liberalism and left wing thinking (mixed in with some libertarian ideals - it's kind of a mess!)

I had an experience this weekend however that I may share more about as time progresses, but for now, I would just like to introduce a new guest whom I will allow to blog on occasion and hopefully balance out my views.

He has asked that I keep his real identity undisclosed, for reasons which will soon become apparent, and so he shall be writing and appearing as "Mack the Imam".

As soon as I can figure out how to get his login attached, hopefully he can share some of his opinions and ideas. He's not exactly a computer genius, and it's something which I haven't done before, but I'm thinking that between the two of us, we can figure it out.

Ladies and Gentleman! Let me introduce to you our newest blogger and hopefully the catalyst in a new error of fair and balanced opinions... Mack the Imam!

It's about bloody time!!

Letting Go

I should be working, but I had an epiphany of sorts, and if I don't write these things down, all to often they end up leaving and I forget the initial feeling, and in this case it's best that I remember this...

I found a new blog last week 'The Liberal Mormon that Could'. I probably spent almost 3 hours that first day reading through her stuff. She's a little younger than me, by a couple of years, but has many of the same questions and thoughts about Mormonism that I have - only she is far more eloquent in conveying those thoughts than I am. This morning she had a new blog entry posted, entitled 'Last Post'.

Nooooooooooooooooooooooo!

I'm likely going to butcher this, but if I could summarize her thoughts. Actually, let me just quote her, in identifying the problem... "the Church and my disaffection with it has become too central to my life. It dominates conversation and has shoved every other interesting part about me out." It's not that she hates the Church and wants to bring it down, but at the same time, she's not 100% committed to it either.

Anytime you are involved in something like the LDS Church, and you start to see things you don't like, you walk a fine line.

In the Matrix, there is a quote by Morpheus that I really like. After Neo has been pulled from the Matrix, Morpheus offers him a choice.

This is your last chance. After this, there is no turning back. You take the blue pill - the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill - you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes.

Four or Five years ago, when I started to see that things weren't what I thought they were, I had the same choice. I could ignore what I had found and plunge myself back into the blind obedience and faithful devotion that had been my life for the preceeding twenty something years, or I could take the red pill.

I chose the red pill. When faced with a choice, I prefer to take the option that opens up further options, rather than one which limits me. So it is with the Red Pill. I'm facing some new options...

1. I can stay within the organization and try and effect the changes I think need to happen.


2. I can leave the organization and effect change from the outside

I've been trying option 1 over 2. I worry that 2 would cause me to be labeled and apostate and shunned by community, neighbors and family, which ironically has pretty much happened as I have tried option 1. My worry with 2 as well is that I would degenerate into a bitter man, sworn to destroy anything good in the world - much of this is due to being consistently told by the organization that this is what would become of me, should I choose to leave.

After reading the comments in the 'Last Post', I realize I have another option...

Why waste my time with an organization that treats me like crap? It has a lot of good, but all to often that gets twisted and perverted to help corrupt men get what they want.

I realized this morning that I have far too much going on in my life to worry about this kind of thing.

I have 5 absolutely incredible children. I work far too many hours in order to support them, and they could really do with more of my time - rather than me spending it trying to change the culture in an organization that quite frankly, is what it is, and isn't likely to change.

I have an incredible wife who could really use more of my time and support as well.

I live in a great place with many outdoor opportunities, many of which I could share with my wife and children.

There is a whole lot more available for me to experience, and significant opportunities to make a difference in the world, that doesn't involve me being involved in trying to affect change in a corrupt organization.

I guess what I'm saying is that I'm not going to allow something stupid and relatively insignificant to consume my time.

As a kid I remember being told that Satan would only have as much power over me as I would let him have, and so it is with this. I have allowed something to consume my life, when it really doesn't deserve my time or attention.

Some of you may also be aware of some personal challenges I have faced recently as well. To those who have shared their love and support, I am profoundly grateful. It's another aspect of my life, I've come to realize is not worth my time or attention.

I have far too much good to do, noble responsibilities to take care of and wonderfulness to experience to waste my time with stuff which in the grand scheme of things is of little or no consequence.

Sinners!!

I found a cool quote today, and a made a couple of changes to the layout of the blog...

First, the quote. (I found it here. This is by a guy called Hugh Nibley. He was one of the high up muckety mucks in the LDS Church a while back. I believe he passed away 4 years ago.

"The worst sinners, according to Jesus, are not the harlots and publicans, but the religious leaders with their insistence on proper dress and grooming, their careful observance of all the rules, their precious concern for status symbols, their strict legality, their pious patriotism... the haircut becomes the test of virtue in a world where Satan deceives and rules by appearances."

I've shared criticism and praise for the LDS Church on this blog. I believe it is based on a number of true principles, but I also believe part of it has become corrupt and a culture has developed which seems to be at odds with what the religion should be standing for. In the last 2 congregations which I've been involved in, immense attention has been paid to dress and grooming standards. I myself am currently sporting a full beard, for personal reasons, but also to annoy the Pharisaical leadership amongst whom I find myself living!

I've also made some changes to the blog... On the right are links to "Just Good Stuff". Blogs which I read daily, or try to at least, and whose content I find informative and amusing.

Below that are links which existed before but which I have now categorized and will continue to add to. I like political view points by people who have taken the time to think them through, and formed their own opinion. Even if I don't agree, I like to see the other side of the coin, as it were.

Below those are some religious links. Most of these are humorous sites, poking a little fun at the idiosyncrasies of LDS Culture. The more fundamentalist types tend to miss the point of these blogs. If you're not LDS, some of the content may not make a lot of sense, but then again some of it is hilarious no matter what your religious view point. On the other hand, if you're a religous zealot, who support Prop 8 because you were supposed to and would find my facial hair offensive, you probably want to steer clear of these. You have been warned.

Communication...

So Mrs. Koda and I have been going to marriage counseling. Now I know what you might be thinking, but that's not why! A friend of mine is working on a degree which deals with marriage counseling and needed a couple to volunteer to undergo some sessions.

It was actually an excellent experience, and one that I would highly recommend to any couple, no matter how good you think you have it. After the first session I was just blown away by how good I really have it, and how well my wife and I communicate.

Apparently for a marriage or any relationship to be successful you need to have a ratio of at or above 4 positive comments to every 1 negative comments. One of the exercises was to figure out what our ratio was... We're not really sure. We think it may be up around 40:1, but the 1 negative we had during the week was actually more of a positive, or at least it turned out that way after it was brought up.

I bring this up because I've had other interactions lately which have not been so positive. Here are some things I've learned over the years about communication and relationships.

• If you look for and expect the worst in the other person, you'll find it. Even if it isn't really there, you'll still find it.


• If someone disagrees with you, it's OK. It doesn't mean they hate you, despise you, or think less of you in any way. Actually I almost prefer talking with someone who differs in opinion. It gives me more of a chance to learn and grow.


• If for any reason you have a disagreement with someone, trying to discuss it using the "You Suck, you're awful, you are the worst person in the world because in the past you did, A, B and C, now lets talk" method is generally not the best approach to resolve problems.


• It's OK to make mistakes. We all make them everyday - Me probably more than most. You can either learn from them, or dwell on them. Denying that such mistakes ever happened though, doesn't mean they didn't happen, and is more just an indicator of your true character.

World Medley

I thought the following was really cool and then it got even better as the song progressed. About halfway in, a group from Umlazi, South Africa joins it. I spent 6 months of my life in Umlazi when I was 20 - amazing place, amazing people and good memories.



Thanks to Ard Matthews for the find!!

Just how bad the Democrats spend...

With work commitments, illness and other things, I've been slack of late, and I'm afraid this will just be a quick one.

You know what hacks me off?

First, Conservative Radio Commentators. For years we've been hearing about how the horrible partisan Democrats won't support the president, but yet since Obama took office they've become the very people they were complaining about. It's one thing to disagree with policies, but it's quite another to be a blatant hypocrite.

Second, I'm sick of hearing (from many of the same hypocrites) about how great Ronald Reagan was, how great his financial policies were, and then on how awful President Obama's policies are. It was only recently that I learned that the current federal policy of borrowing money to balance the budget is something for which Mr. Reagan appears to have been the trendsetter. After viewing the following site though, I'm even more testy. I need to verify the facts some more, but it looks like this guy knows what he's talking about - Check it out here.

Sure he's not perfect, but I'm still proud to call Mr. Obama my president.

On behalf of the Jackasses in Washington...

I would like to issue an apology to the rest of the world on behalf of the jackasses currently seated in positions of authority within the United States Government. You're not going to get an apology from them, but perhaps if I can share some information, maybe we can elect some people with even just the smallest measure of integrity next election.

First just a statement about my leanings... I used to lean very far right and support the Republican party. The problem is that the Republican party has it's own little agenda, and is filled with what I can only described as corrupt scumbags.

Since seeing the problems with the so-called conservatives, I've been leaning more left. I don't like socialism, but if it's a choice between socialized services and living under a fascist regime, I'll take the socialists everytime.

My opinion now is that both parties have some good principles and representatives who honestly want to do the right thing. They are the minority unfortunately.

I am currently registered Libertarian, but I'm still trying to figure out where the balance of power lies between a representative government and individual freedoms. So with that said. I'm not beholden to one party or the other, and based on the players in this story, I would suspect most people would agree.

First, the following video is an excerpt from 60 minutes last Sunday. It's an investigation into the reason why the oil prices went sky high last year. It's a little long, so perhaps below that, I will provide a summary from my personal understanding, and then I would like to address something called the Enron Loophole.


Watch CBS Videos Online

OK, so to summarize what I understood the problem to be... The commodities market was established to help regulate prices and assist farmers with determining the price of their crops. Later oil and other items were added to this. All worked as it should until some of the large investment banks got involved in this, and started trading oil futures. My initial reaction was that this would obviously increase the price, but it sounded reasonably fair. Just like stocks, people would trade the futures and as such they increased in value.

The problem is though... Many of the institutions which were trading these futures, were also dabbling in the energy market itself, and while they claim the business entities were separate, my response is a sarcastic, "SURE THEY WERE!!!"

It doesn't matter how you look at this, the whole thing really stinks. It would appear that many of the investment banks who were heavy into oil futures were also recipients of federal bail out money. Then when you look at those behind the Enron Loophole it stinks even more.

The Enron loophole is a piece of legislation which as far as I can tell was drafted by Enron Lobbyists working Senator Phil Gramm from Texas. My understanding is that it allowed Enron to engage in secret trading which was not subject to Federal Regulation.

A few things don't add up here... First, the Government loves to control stuff, so the question has to be asked, Why would the government willingly relinquish control on something like this?

Secondly, Senator Gramm's wife had previously held the position of Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chair, and when she left that position in 1993, secured herself a seat on the board of Directors at Enron. A position which she held until Enron collapsed.

So I guess we can figure out a couple of reason why Senator Gramm was pushing for it, and I would suspect that much in the way of political contributions were made to other politicians to help sway their votes. Back in the old days, this kind of things used to be called bribery and corruption.

Now you would think that being from Texas and a Republican, all this would have happened on GW's watch, but I was surprised to learn that it was actually former President Clinton who signed the bill into law.

President Elect Obama spoke about repealing this law during his campaign, and in June of last year, Senator Carl Levin introduced legislation to repeal it. It passed and was then vetoed by President George W. Bush. Following that, the House and Senate both over-rode the veto, and I believe it was late September when the Enron Loophole was finally closed. Ironically, that was when prices of Gasoline started to drop like a rock.

Stephen Colbert has his tip of the hat / wag of the finger segment, and I would like to kind of emulate that here...

A tip of my hat to President Elect Obama and Senator Levin for getting this legislation removed.

And a kick to the groin and a flaming paper bag of poo on the doorsteps of:
Senator Phil Gramm
Former President Bill Clinton
and
President George W. Bush

To the rest of the world, I'm sorry these assholes were elected, and for the state of your economies. Hopefully we'll exercise better judgment in future elections.

insertCell populates cells in reverse order with IE

WARNING: This is a departure from my usual content. I ran into a nasty little bug this afternoon while coding, and since it's not documented anywhere, I figured I would document it here.

SEVERE GEEK ALERT: Do not read unless you're a computer geek. You have been warned...

I have been using a javascript function to dynamically populate a row in an html table.

The basic formula was to create a new row to the table, and then to create 5 new cells, using:

row.insertCell(x) where x is the number of the cell.

So I had:

cell1 = row.insertCell(0);
cell2 = row.insertCell(1);
cell3 = row.insertCell(2);
...

And I would also assign contents to each cell.

Problem was in IE, the cells would be displayed in the order 0, 4, 3, 2, 1 but in Firefox it was 0, 1, 2, 3, 4 as expected.

What I ended up doing to resolve the problem was to create a set of cell elements like:

var cell0 = document.createElement('td');
var cell1 = document.createElement('td');
var cell2 = document.createElement('td');
....

adding all the contents to each cell, and then once the were all populated, appending them as childElements to the Row element.

row.appendChild(cell0);
row.appendChild(cell1);
row.appendChild(cell2);
...

Wonderfulness

I realize that over the past year or so, I haven't perhaps been the biggest advocate of the LDS Church, and yesterday I was reminded of everything I have come to despise about this particular religion. The arrogance, the pride, the self-righteousness, the hypocrisy and the intolerance for ones fellow man.

But the thing is, that isn't what the religion is about, nor what it was ever intended to be about. If it was, I would have left a long time ago. Perhaps if I may share a few of the wonderful principles taught by the LDS Church.

The Church preaches the Gospel of Christ. The Gospel of Christ is about love, pure and simple. And not just any love, the pure love of Christ, an unconditional love for ones self and ones fellow men. The story of Christ is of a man who when confronted by a situation where a woman was caught in adultery, prevented her accusers from stoning her and encouraged her to continue on her way, leaving her mistakes behind her. It's about the love to allow people to make mistakes, but leave them behind them. It's that love that means even if we don't agree, it doesn't make a difference to how we feel about them. It is a love without condition. A perfect love.

My dear in-laws have such love. Their son-in-law (and that would be me), may not be the perfect Mormon boy that they may have wished to marry their daughter, but they recognize that I try really hard, and while they may not always agree, they still offer unconditional love for me.

The Church preaches the consideration of the poor and afflicted. The welfare services for the Church are often among the first to respond, and members of the Church are encouraged to help out in their communities. Some view this only as a step to convince other to join the Church, but I suspect they may be a rather small minority who have merely missed the point.

The Church teaches of the divine nature of the soul and the quest for truth. I can think of no greater knowledge than the fact that I have an eternal nature, that this earth is merely a step in my existence, and that I have the freedom and opportunity to seek for truth. I am eternally indebted to many who read this blog, and other who have questioned my reasoning and offered opposing view points. It is never an easy thing to accept that I may be wrong, but your non-judgmental spirits encourage me to explore places where I may be. Specifically D. Sirmize, Frank Stahelli and the very respectful Protestant Minister I met while a missionary. There are many others as well, some LDS, some not, but all good and respectful people.

The Church teaches that we are all brothers and sisters. A huge family with the responsibility to care for each other, regardless of race, creed, nationality or sex. I am privileged to be related to so many wonderful and incredible people.

I recognize too that these wonderful principles and ideals are not limited to the LDS Church, but they exist in many religions and in many who do not believe in a religion, but still recognize that there is good in mankind.

The LDS Church is a wonderful institution, its just a pity that some view that wonderfulness as an opportunity to manipulate and control others.

Suckage

Today sucked. You don't need to know why, just know that you could take you most sucky day of all time, and I think mine could give it a good run for it's money.

I have a good friend who informed me one that the phrase "To Suck" actually came from the phrase, "To Suck Dick"

My friends... Today really, really, really SUCKED DICK!!

My apologies to all who may have found that offensive - but it really was that bad.

Baby Fighting Ring Tax Breaks...

There is something which fundamentally disturbs me, every time I hear about war breaking out. This past weekend Israel launched a full scale military offensive into Gaza. Before sharing my opinion on this, perhaps I should just make a few key points.

• Rockets were being launched from Gaza into Israel, which needs to be stopped. Nobody, Jew, Muslim, Christian or whatever should have to live under that kind of fear.


• I don't claim to understand even a part of the problems in the Middle East. My basic understanding is that the Jews claim God promised them the land and the Arabs claim the same thing. By applying simple logic, one of them has to be wrong. I would submit both are. Israel isn't exactly a beautiful tropical island paradise. If either side had any brains they'd give the area up and establish a 'Promised Land' in Hawaii or Tahiti or some place that a lot nicer.


• The Jews have been through a lot. The Holocaust was a terrible thing. But at the same time, there comes a point, when you have to quit using past as an excuse for entitlements. Time to move on people!

Oops, that probably contained more opinion than it should have. But with that said, I learned something else interesting this week...

Did you know that Israel is one of the largest recipients of foreign aid from the US? Perhaps you did. Perhaps I've been naive. I've always been under the impression that Israel was a the only country in the Middle East with a solid economy. A nation which was truly making something out of themselves. It would appear that they are just another leech on the US economy, living the high life at the expense of the US Tax Payer.

While I don't condone the rocket attacks, I do feel very bad for the Palestinians. From what I understand they're kind of the red headed step child of the Arab Nations, and have been forced to live along side the spoiled rotten child of the US. It's gotta suck, and probably a huge motivating factor for those who pursue a career in terrorism. Not that I'm saying it's right, but it is understandable.

Amidst this sea of gloom and despair, The Daily Show returned on Monday, and added a little more to my view of things. Unfortunately the key quote I wanted to reference is in the last 15 seconds, but the rest of it is good as well. Among my favorite quotes from this video is "Do you know anything?" and the Baby Fighting Ring comments. The segment which follows on Baby New Year was excellent as well.

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Strip Maul

Barack Obama Interview
John McCain Interview

Sarah Palin Video
Funny Election Video

I think the comment about the mentally disturbed person is excellent. Although mentally disturbed is probably not how I would categorize the Palestinians - more just victims of unfortunate circumstance.

Just a bad situation for all involved.

Woman's Underwear?

One of my favorite quotes from Shrek 2 is:

"Are you wearing woman's underwear?"

"I most certainly am not"

"You most certainly am are!"

Anyway, my youngest son reminded me of this tonight. We had hamburgers for dinner, barbequed outside in sub-zero temperatures. The wife and I were eating at the table while the young monkey was sitting on a stool by the island. He had been trying, unsuccessfully I may add, to put more ketchup on his plate.

Minutes later, his usual mischevious grin had faded and he appeared to be crying.

"Are you trying to cut yourself more onion?", I enquired.

"No!" came the solid reply.

The crying appeared to get more intense.

"Are you playing with the onion?" - Sometimes they think they're smarter than you, if you don't nail down the specific activity involved.

"No!", came as solid a reply as the first time, but this time, with a little doubt slipping in.

At this point he raised his hands to wipe his eyes, still firmly grasping half a rather strong onion.

We laughed.

Hopefully the lesson has been learned.

Lustening?

I think one of my new years resolutions will be to become a more regular blogger...

Christmas was good this year. In the wake of the failed business deal, I was able to shut my computer down on Christmas eve and not boot it up again until the morning of the 27th. I expected more withdrawal symptoms, but I think I've gotten to the point, where I actually hate my computer in recent weeks, so it was more of a relief.

Before I begin this main part of this posting, let me apologize to all of my readers of the more feminine persuasion. I mean no disrespect and if I am being entirely objective, she does have an excellent voice and a great deal of performing talent, not limited to her dancing and stage presence.

One of the last gifts I opened in Christmas Day was a CD. Good Girl Gone Bad : Reloaded by Rihanna. First of all a huge hats off to the wife for being secure enough to purchase me a CD by a woman about whom I have been very vocal in my opinion that is SMOKIN' HOT. I'm not typically a R&B type guy, but she is that good!

I'm listening to it right now, or is it lusting....

OK, enough of that.

On other fronts... My pirate friend has not been around recently, not sure if it's because he is off for the holiday break, or if the patch was only temporary and now he's back to normal, in which state I may not be able to recognize him.

Perhaps inspired by the pirate man, this years New Years Eve in the Koda household will likely feature a Pirates of the Caribbean marathon. I'm thinking of putting together a Dr. Seuss marathon for the kids, perhaps starting with The Grinch, then the Cat in the Hat and finally Horton Hears a Who - hopefully at which point they will all have fallen asleep in various spots around the family room.

Anonymity, the Closet and Money

It's been a pretty stressful couple of weeks. Hence the some what sketchy blogging all around. I have a side business and as part of that I got into a partnership with someone a year or 2 back. Based on my calculations the deal could have allowed me to gross 1/2 million over the next 3 years. I'm guessing my business partner realized this too, used it to bring a few of his buddies into the mix, and on Sunday was gracious enough to offer me $15,000 in shares (Of course only if the company gets sold). Needless to say I didn't take the news well. We're no longer in business together. It's actually quite a liberating feeling. I think I could probably get a decent law suit pulled together, but that's not the way I like to do things. I figure I spent 2 years building the man an incredible web application, so why couldn't I take the same application, improve on it, and market it myself (With 100% equity, that's not a bad deal!)

On other matters, I'm not ready to come out of the closet. Despite my fervent support of Gay Marriage it's not that closet. Nor is it the broom closet, although I have taken quite an interest in pagan worship practices in recent months. Its the closet of exactly who I am inside, and I'm still confused about that myself.

On that same note, I really appreciate the anonymity of the blogosphere. It gives me a place to vent, to explore my feelings and to bounce ideas off friends.

In checking my logs on my other blog earlier today, I realized that that anonymity may have been in danger recently. I'm hoping not, but I'd rather be safe than sorry. If you are a regular reader of the Koda Think Tank, please send me an email, so I can send you an official invite to read it. I'll keep any email addresses strictly in confidence and delete them as soon as the process is complete.

Click here to email me

I hate to do this, but I think it is the best course of action for all involved.

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!!

Arrrrrrrrrr Matey!

I don't mean to be disrespectful, but I've run into a moral dilemma twice in the past week, and I thought I might see if anyone had any insights into how to handle this situation.

I believe it is the same gentleman in both cases, but once on Tuesday and then this morning as I passed through a doorway, I have been confronted by a man with an eye patch. And not just any eye patch, but nice big black, piratey looking eye patch. The man himself if probably in his late twenties or early thirties, and has been dressed reasonably well both times.

So here's the dilemma... Could he be doing it as a joke and by my not making a comment about it, am I offending him? Or if I lost my self control and said something like "Aye, ye scurvey ridden yellow dog" would he be offended?

I just don't know quite how to handle myself around the man...