John Burkholder

A co-worker/friend of mine and his fiance were brutally attacked in Chicago celebrating her birthday. She was weeks away from getting medical insurance with a new job and they are asking for help. They put together a website about the story and donations: http://www.thewalkingmiracle.com Please help them if you can. I have a few comments on this. The charges for this blatant attack on innocent people have been upgraded to attempted murder which is good. Unfortunately, taxpayers will be paying for their food, clothing, television, play time, bedding, housing, legal services, medical and dental care. The people who committed the crime and placed the innocent woman in the hospital missing 14 teeth and nearly losing her life, get free health and dental care. Meanwhile the woman who nearly lost her life has over $100,000 in medical bills so far and will likely have another $100,000 added to it. Well, of course that makes sense. Reward the criminal, persecute the victim. How messed up is a c

During lunch today, my Queen and I entered the discussion I have honestly been avoiding. The discussion comes down to bringing another life to this world and expanding our family, or not. Now, I normally do not discuss this type of stuff in my blog but I need to type my way through it all. There is a infinitesimally small possibility that my thought processes are wrong and I need to just expand the family. First issue: I am rapidly approaching 42 years of age. When the child graduates from high school, I will have lived 60 years...if I make it that long. The next 18 years are the years my body will begin to break down from the abuse I have handed it over the past 42 years. The last thing I want to do is leave my not yet grown child without a parent much in the same way my father and my older kids mother did. I want to be able to live an active and fruitful life with my child. Second issue: Mobility is something I have desired for quite some time. The ability to throw the family on a pl

Here I am 7 years after the September 11, 2001, and I am still dealing with what happened on that fateful day. The Queen is right though, most of America really has no idea how much of an impact it had on the people of New York, Washington, D.C, or Flight 93. I have written a previous blog entry about September 11. That one day changed my life in more ways than I could possibly imagine. Normally, I do not work on September 11 out of respect for those who were lost. But today, I came to work. I guess it is my way of telling terrorist that I am no longer immobilized by the day itself. I have healed enough to move on and basically tell them to screw themselves. On another note, why is it after 7 years and the occupation of two countries we have still not caught and terminated Osama Bin Laden? Why is it, the intelligence community that works so well at ensuring our security and liberties can't find the number 1 most wanted man in the world? Personally, if the country is willing to crea

Meetups is the term of choice now for social meetings or get- togethers . I personally don't care what it is called. My intent is to meet new people, have some fun, and try mixing my non-social personality with society. So far, I have been successful. I have not alienated anyone with my extreme geekyness . One night a month my geek socializes with other geeks...except I was one of two people at the new technology meetup that was actually working in and on computers. Of the two of us, I was clearly the ubergeek ...which is somewhat sad since Northern Virginia is considered a technology hot-spot. I had to ask them why they went to the meeting if they weren't really new technology gurus. Most often my responses were "I used to work in it" or "we recruit from here." So, I guess the idea of doing a presentation on Exchange 14 would really fall on a small or deaf audience. However, there was drinking involved and I did meet some great people. As of tomorrow nigh

We now live in an apartment that until last week, was incredibly sound-proof. The new "apartment" is really more a townhouse because we have multiple levels. We had neighbors downstairs who have recently moved out but honestly, we did not hear them and they said they didn't hear us. We have a new neighbor next door on our 3rd level. We heard them move in and kept slamming what we thought was closet door against our wall. Last night, I came to the conclusion that it wasn't the closet door. I believe it is the headboard. With the rhythmic vibrations of the wall shaking the pictures, I could hear them go at it. About 25 seconds in, the crescendo of moans and groans turned into screaming for an intense 5 seconds. That guy was definitely having a good time. I swear you could hear him screaming a block over. This bring me to my point, if you are going to be a screamer, don't be a dude. If you are going to be a screamer, last longer than 30 seconds. If you are going t