Funner Than The Funnest Fun

So if you go here and read the words you will have just a glimpse of how my week at summer camp really was .... http://www.foxhome.com/ferngully2/html/sing/sing_lyrics2.html

A special thanks to all the wonderful staff and campers at Leoni Meadows for the opportunity to hang out and have fun with a purpose ....

If you love to work with kids -- a week of volunteering at summer camp is just about the best way to relax i can think of.

On a more personal family note for those who do not know yet ... on Saturday July 22, 2006 i became an Aunt for the fourth time to go along with being an Uncle three times ....

So ... please give a rousing GEEK FILES welcome to the newest member of the Hicks family ... Jasmine, born to Jeff and Roshan at 11:34 am (vitals for those into statistics are 8 pounds 11 ounces, 20 1/2 inches long) both parents and baby are doing well ..... (pictures still as of yet unavailable).

Many of my faithful readers have asked why i do not talk at great length of my personal views on many of the world events happening. The biggest reason is that i do not want this BLOG to become a vitriolic (which always seems to happen) sounding board for the many and varied views that i and all of you my readers have. I do, and will continue to speak out on those subjects for which i have a BURNING PASSION; however if i do not feel the overwhelming desire to discuss a subject i will not even mention it in passing.

There will also be topics that i DO have a BURNING PASSION for that will also NOT be discussed in this BLOG. I do not mind sharing my views (just ask my good friend Pete or any of the millions of other people who have been subjected to more than an hour's conversation with me like ... yes you Mister Brownlie with your hand up in the back of the room ....); however my fear with broaching either topics for which there may be massive disagreement or where i am extremely impassioned is that the argument becomes the focus rather than the issue and so, despite possessing the familial genes (as well as the Faded Glory's) of the love of the argument i will more often than not choose not to give voice to the arguments via this GEEK FILES forum.

Hopefully that answers the queries i have recently received regarding opinionated issues.

Also belated shout outs for a Happy birthday to my favorite cousin ..... you know who you are (Sheryl) 7/22 and still OLDER THAN ME ....

please to all my other cousins do NOT write in and complain i can only pick one ....

and also my niece MARCI ....

To close this edition i believe a quote from the movie BILL AND TED'S EXCELLENT ADVENTURE offered up at this time will be of benefit not just to each of us as individuals but as collective entities throughout human society .....

"Be excellent to each other."

Thanks for listening and as always remember that THE GEEK FILES is brought to you by the letters K and W and the number 7.

Its sum ... sum .... summer time !!!!!!!!

and we all know what that means .... YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSS ice cream, baseball, water balloon fights and SUMMER CAMP!!!!

and so for the second year in a row i shall be traveling this next week to the GREATEST JOB you DONT GET PAID FOR .... at the GREATEST SUMMER CAMP ....

thats right ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, cats and rats and elephants .... truly the 9th wonder of the modern world ..... LMC....

A week at summer camp is more fun than any (and especially this) human should ever be allowed to have .... and NOT just because of the GREAT FOOD .... the atmosphere ... the clean air and trees .... and most importantly for one of my advancing and mature years .... the daily quiet time nap at 1:00 pm.

Its not all fun and games though i do have to talk every day (yea there's a horrible thing huh!!! Imagine having to talk for 5-7 minutes twice a day) ... oh the indescribible pain and anguish of it all.

I know that all of my faithful and loyal readers will shower me with letters of condolence and amazing gifts upon my return and so i thank you all in advance. MONEY is alsays an acceptable form of recoupment after one has had such an adventure as mine.

I have been packed and ready since April just so you know. As always all the gripping details will be made available right here on THE GEEK FILES just as soon as i return.

Oh Padawan Learner ... since you have started your summer festivities at LMC already (and might have missed these) here are a few headlines from around the world ... just for you!!!!

As noted on page 12 of the Sao Paulo Herald ....

É realmente uma coisa sad para relatar que a flor de Orlando está casada ainda muito feliz.

From the Inside fold on Page 2 Section B of Pravda ....

Реально будет унылой вещью для того чтобы сообщить что цветене orlando все еще очень счастливо поженено.

Found on page 17 of Kumhuryet ....

Είναι πραγματικά ένα λυπημένο πράγμα για να αναφέρει ότι η άνθιση του Ορλάντο είναι ακόμα πολύ ευτυχώς παντρεμένη.

and finally from the Amsterdam Daily News ...

Het werkelijk is een droevig ding om te rapporteren dat de Bloei van Orlando nog zeer gelukkig gehuwd is.

I hope you have enjoyed this short trip around the world discovering all the news they care to print.

well its been a fun little bit of silliness tonight .... at least it has been for me!



THE GEEK FILES is brought to you today by the letters M and Q and the number 11.

Good night everybody .... thanks for listening and caring ....

remember while only you can prevent forrest fires ...... only Listerine can prevent the gum disease gingivitis.

"When in the course of human events ....

it becomes necessary for one people to separate themselves, to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. —

That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security."

Yesterday, July 4th, 2006 was the 230th anniversary of the afore-quoted document, and to quote the Honorable A. Lincoln, "It is altogether fitting and proper" that we should take a moment out of our busy hectic and stress-filled hours to reflect upon them and our rights and more importantly our RESPONSIBILITIES to them.

Freedom as many have said is not free but paid for by the blood of patriots, citizens, heroes and ordinary men and women who in times of need do extra-ordinary things and accomplish extra-ordinary deeds.

Men and women of all races, colors, creeds ..... average AMERICANS .... Soldiers, Sailors, Marines, Airmen, Coast Guardsmen, Firefighters, Law Enforcement professionals, Doctors, Nurses, Teachers, Storekeepers, Waste Management workers, Construction tradesmen, Secretaries .... vocations and avocations too numerous to list them all in a million pages let alone this one small blog ... WE THE PEOPLE .... proud, strong, caring, giving ... AMERICANS--doing what we do best .... dreaming of hope, liberty, equality of opportunity, the pursuit of personal happiness, searching for and providing freedom of speech, press, religion to do ... or not to do ....

This is our day .... a day of independence to be independent and yet to also be depended upon ... by our senior citizens; by our children and grandchildren to keep our world available for their use; by our friends and neighbors in countries around the globe to help in times of need and distress; to those who guard our way of life in the far reaches of the globe keeping watch upon the walls ....for support and grateful thanks for a thankless job WELL DONE.

A day and a time which we should remember and give thanks for EVERY DAY and EVERY HOUR of EVERY DAY .... a day to truly as Benjamin Franklin so eloquently put it "hang together" as one NATION, UNDER GOD (or not if you so believe), INDIVISIBLE ....

A day and a time to together and with each other, EVERY ONE, "pledge our lives, our fortunes and our SACRED HONOR." We as a race of humans, in our various nationalities, cultural heritages, dreams, aspirations and goals are independent in how we get there , where we are going and why we want to get where we are going .... but we are also dependent upon each other ... being part of the whole as the world moves forward.

I am proud to be free to write, and think and speak and worship as I wish; i am proud to have served in duty to my country as a member of its Armed Forces for over 10 years (10 years four months 2 days and 13 hours to be exact) ... i am proud to say that MY country despite all its many faults (and there ARE INDEED MANY) is still the best, brightest, greatest human endeavor ever attempted 230 years strong and still providing that "Shining city on the Hill" .... that place of refuge for tired, poor huddled masses -- with Liberty and Justice (imperfect as it may seem to be) for ALL.

Happy Birthday ... WE THE PEOPLE ..... for that is what makes AMERICA great .... its people!!! WE THE PEOPLE ..... are the freedom and liberty and justice and opportunity and compassion. WE THE PEOPLE ..... will continue to be so for as along as we remember that the SOURCE of all that is good is not the government or some program but WE OURSELVES ... THE PEOPLE ... guided by DIVINE PROVIDENCE .... and LOVE FOR ALL MANKIND.


MAY GOD GRANT HIS RICHEST BLESSINGS TO EACH AND EVERY ONE and CONTINUE TO BLESS OUR COUNTRY.

-- The Geek --