Social Dancing – 1st Week

Tonight was the first class of my social dancing.  I learned the four steps of the waltz dance.  The class has about 50 to 60 classes and most of the people in the class were women.

For me, that should be good thing.  However, the age range was mainly skewed 40-50s and 18-22 which were not my age range.  My age range for dating is about 22 to 41 and and anything women older or young than the subject ages are out of the dating.  I did not find any the women in the class to be especially attractive.  Therefore, I do not expect the class will result in any potential girlfriends from the class.

The waltz was fairly easy to dance to learn.  However, the fourth dance step that we learned tonight is going to take some practice.  The progressive step, balance step, and basic step were the easiest steps to learn, but I need to practice the subject steps.  I think that I am going to watch a lot of You Tube and Viemo videos to get my steps down.  I think listening to the instructor is great, but I can learn a lot via watching Youtube videos on the  Waltz dance  especially that I was taught the basic steps from a real instructor.

Right-Wing Fearmongering Will Result in More Terrorism, Not Less

Glenn Beck and other fearmongering can have serious consquences.  Here are the repercussions of Glenn Beck fearmongering as reported by NPR

“Experts worry the controversy surrounding an Islamic center near ground zero in Lower Manhattan is playing right into the hands of radical extremists.

The supercharged debate over the proposed center has attracted the attention of a quiet, underground audience — young Muslims who drift in and out of jihadi chat rooms and frequent radical Islamic sites on the Web. It has become the No. 1 topic of discussion in recent days and proof positive, according to some of the posted messages, that America is indeed at war with Islam.

“This, unfortunately, is playing right into their hands,” said Evan F. Kohlmann, who tracks these kinds of websites and chat rooms for Flashpoint Global partners, a New York-based security firm. “Extremists are encouraging all this, with glee.

“It is their sense that by doing this that Americans are going to alienate American Muslims to the point where even relatively moderate Muslims are going to be pushed into joining extremist movements like al-Qaida. They couldn’t be happier.”

The reality is that Glenn Beck fearmongering will cause serious resentments towards our country.   And serious resentments means terrorism.  Glenn Beck’s language of fear and resentment will stir more resentment and hate and it that will lead to more explosive and fiery speech by the radicals.

And this precisely what Osama Bin Laden wants and people like Glenn Beck are walking into Osama Bin Laden’s trap.

A Journalist Thought Celebrate Recovery Was Started At Local JC, In Reality It Started At Rick Warren’s Church

Speaking of a major gaffe in news reporting

“The Celebrate Recovery group that meets at San Jacinto Assembly of God follows the 12 steps outlined by the founders of Alcoholics Anonymous — but with significant differences.

Participants don’t need to be alcoholic or addicted to drugs to come. Nor will groups be drawn by type of addiction. And where traditional 12-step groups leave it to each person to define his or her “higher power,” the Christian-based Celebrate Recovery says that higher power is Jesus Christ.

Married couple Vic and Debbie Caldwell are ministry leaders for Celebrate Recovery. “The Word tells us that we need to reach out. … We need to look at where we can help,” Vic said.

Because they both abused alcohol and drugs, the Caldwells said Celebrate Recovery was the ministry where they fit.

“We could have been greeters,” Debbie joked. “But this is something we know.”

A national program started by Saddleback College in Mission Viejo, Celebrate Recovery is not just for alcoholics and drug addicts

Excuse me, when did Saddleback College become a church for Jesus Christ.  Saddleback College is a community college in Mission Viejo that I will personally attend during the fall semester.

In reality, he meant Saddleback Church, but to confuse Saddleback Church and Saddleback College is one of the major gaffes that I have seen in a long time.   At Saddleback College, you cannot teach that Jesus is the Christ because it is a secular institution.  At Saddleback Church, they teach Jesus is the higher power that will save your from addiction to drugs and alcohol.  I have  personally have been to Celebrate Recovery meetings while I was in rehab and it is a good program. I personally do not attend meetings of Celebrate Recovery because I prefer the traditional,  12-step secular program.

At Saddleback College, if teacher started share their faith during the classroom, it would cause a major uproar and be in the OC Register and OC Weekly.  At Saddleback Church, sharing your faith with somebody is building community and relationships.

So there is a huge difference between a Christian church and a secular, public junior college.  And that writer of the subject article should have known that and that is why I considered the error to be a major gaff in reporting.

Court

I did not win today at court on getting the court to allow me to go to traffic . The judge stated that I had six months to file my case and the case was considered to be old by the court. So my chance of obtaining a $900 refund from the insurance company goes to down the drain.

The court understood that my disability made I had difficulty making due dates, but I paid off the ticket once the original due date for traffic school had expired. So I resigned to the fact that I have to pay $900 dollars in more insurance costs, but the next ticket means that I have the right to attend to traffic school.

Next time hat I get a ticket, I need to use Google Calendars to ensure that the I comply with the due date for the ticket.

9th DUI Earns A Life Sentence

The Austin Statesman reports

“Bobby Joe Stovall (dob 8/26/57) was convicted on July 29, 2010, by a jury of felony driving while intoxicated. Stovall elected to have the judge assess the punishment. After hearing additional evidence, on August 10, 2010, Judge Billy Ray Stubblefield sentenced Stovall to life in prison.

On July 3, 2009, on East Palm Valley Boulevard in Round Rock, Stovall crossed several lanes of traffic in his truck without yielding to the traffic. Traffic in the area was heavy because of motorists leaving a Round Rock Express game at Dell Stadium. Stovall’s truck was hit by another vehicle. A female passenger in Stovall’s truck was injured and taken to the hospital. She had a blood alcohol level of .38.

Round Rock police determined that Stovall was intoxicated and had eight previous DWI convictions from Collin, Dewitt, Nueces, Galveston, Jackson and Goliad Counties. A blood sample was taken from Stovall. A subsequent test at the DPS Crime Laboratory showed that Stovall had a blood alcohol concentration of .32, four times the legal limit in Texas.

Stovall had also been previously convicted of burglary of a habitation in 1994 and credit card abuse in 1987. He had been sentenced to prison in both of those cases. He also had been convicted of possession of a controlled substance in 1994 and was placed on probation. He also had numerous convictions for theft, driving while license suspended and making alcohol available to a minor.

NOTE: This press release was updated to correct the year of Bobby Joe Stovall DWI arrest”

This guy has a lot of problems. Nobody is going to help this guy get out of prison unless there is something that they get into return The only thing you get is the potential 15 years of sobriety because you have to work with him for 15 years so he can make parole at 15 years.

And the odds of getting 15 years of sobriety is very slim. And the program tells us that we are going to any lengths in our program to help ensure that we do not take another drink. Is helping this guy getting parole will prevent you taking the first drink for 15 years? For somebody, it might be worth it if it prevents them for taking first drink.

However, I doubt that somebody is up for the task, because the task of sponsoring this guy is a thankless task.

Thom Hartmann explains Republican’s 2 Santa strategy

Good Video!  The Republicans do not want go talk about this issue. Especially the connection between small goverment and big business.

Insane Things That Alcoholics Do

This is some insane driving

“Menahga, Minn. (WDAY TV) – A man from Menahga, Minnesota is facing some hefty charges, accused of driving drunk and speeding.Wadena County Authorities say Michael Johnson was going about 178 miles per hour in a Corvette on July 9th., Deputies say his blood alcohol level at the time was 0.115. He was taken to jail for DWI and careless driving.:

Maybe, he will get the subject issue and this will be his last drink. Driving at speeds of 178 mph when your drunk and fleeing the cops is a sign that your life is unmanageable. His sentence would be 365 days county jail, 275 days suspended for 36 months. He would be sentenced to 30 days in rehab followed by another 60 days in residential after-care program instead going to county jail.

Only alcoholics do crazy things like this and this why we need a higher power in our lives. We are crazy and insane when we drink. Only by the grace of a higher power are we saved from taking another drink. and from driving drunk at 178 mph and fleeing the cops The higher power does not need to be divine God, but rather spiritual principles that we live in our lives in daily lives (aka: 12 steps). Therefore, one can be professed atheist and still have a higher power in their life. That is the miracle of the program.

Luckily, my soberity date did not end in a blaze of glory like this guy does. However, this guy is going to have a crazy story on how got sober

Steps to Improve Quality of Work

To reduce further mistakes at work, I should print out of my audit working papers and compare the results to the screen. The first task I should do with the printed working papers is to verify the mathematical computations that are performed on the working papers. The second task is to read the working paper for grammar and accuracy. Before completing a working paper, make sure that you have proofread the working paper by printing out a hardcopy and seening how the hardcopy looks.

I spend hours each day looking at the screen and I commit many errors in my work because my eyes get strained by looking from the screen. My eyes need to see the work on a hardcopy document because it is just more easier to read. I have to try to live life without paper, but when it comes to writing and producing documents, I am going to have to rely on hardcopy print-outs of my work to catch mistakes. I need to surrender to the concept that editing documents should be done with hardcopy documents instead of rely on just reading the screen.

Another thing that I need to do work as well is to block off the outside world. I have a habit of bombarding myself with endless amounts of news and information. I let intentionally let myself get drowned by sea of information and news. Often the news is real depressing and is out of my control. I just need to learn that how to survive without the news and instead, focus on the task on hand. I need to surrender to the concept that the world is going to change just because I listened to the news..

The Twelve Steps teach us to surrender our lives to the will of a higher power. The higher power does not need to be a divine being in the sky, but rather the lessons that we learn from making mistakes and by listening to good advice to others. Surrending to your life to follow the advice is the higher power that will result in a better life. It is will of the universe to follow that advice so you can succeed and evolve to the next level. We need to take action based on life lessons that we learn from our higher power and use it to transform our lives. Resisting the will of the higher power will result in further frustration and you will not be able to achieve your goals.

If an alcoholic does not follow the "will" of the higher power, he will be at a much higher risk to relapse. Therefore, it is better to surrender to the will of the power, than continue in the path of self-will which results in further failure and disaster.

In conclusion, I need to surrender to my higher power’s will and follow the advice that I outlined in this post. If I do not follow advice of this post and act in self-will, I will continue to make same mistakes and I will start to walk the road of relapse and destruction of my life. My financial security is on the line and I have to prevent that.

Car Keys

I lost my car keys at work today. For future incidents where I lose my car keys at work, I need to get a spare key made at the dealership and put the spare keys in my desk.