Continual Transition..

My life continues to be in continual transition to new phases in life. This past month I have been transitioning into the life of a Diocesan Hermit in the Catholic Church. Sorta a "promotion", but not at the same time. I now live by a personal Rule of Life instead of a Community Rule, and spend my day in prayer, contemplation, reading the Bible, and study of the Catholic Faith by studying philosophy, theology and the Doctors/Fathers of the Church as well as learning the Documents written by the Church. This feels like I have found my home!! Add to that, I am now living right next to a Church in which I have unlimited access to 24/7. This is GREAT!

I still go out to Mass, and have Saturday to go grocery shopping and take care of other "off site" tasks, but I spend most of my time in the Hermitage (of one) either praying or reading/studying. In Christ!!

Unions...

I've never been a fan of Unions in today's age. That said, when I was in Denver, I worked on raising a "Union" for security guards... I DO NOT however think that in most cases that Unions are needed for the better of the US anymore though. (There are exceptions.) The VA employees, as well as most federal government employees, have the option in most jobs to join the AFGE union. The local in Huntington WV VA Medical Center is the worst of the worst of the Union I have been placed in the unhappy position to be associated with. This union office is SOLELY out to help management and not the union member in ALL cases. There are times when the Union should support the management, but that is not their purpose, or at least their stated purpose anyway! This particular Union has a waste of a President, who prayfully will be leaving as President here in a few months to a new one. She only does the bare minimum of work, gone more than she is there, and doesn't fight for her people that NEED her to fight. She is clueless on the rules of the Union, the Contract, and the way of getting things done correctly. Oh, did I tell you she is rude too? Yep, VERY rude, unless you are one of her "Chosen".. Anyway, this union strengthens my dislike of unions, a big money hole that does little for it's members... D.

Life continues to change.... :)

Today was my last day working for the VA.. As of today, I am Medically Retired due to my back, hips and left knee. It feels go to be away from what I VERY much feel is a cesspool. Don't get me wrong, the VA in general is a good department of the Government. But this particular facility is so corrupt and broken, that it is beyond belief! But that said, it is time to go to where I belong, full time service to the Catholic Church! This coming week I will be moving into the Rectory (Church/Parish House) next to Saint Mary's Catholic Church in Pine Grove Ohio, which is part of the group of Churches in Ironton Ohio that I am already part of. My days will consist of pray, contemplation and helping the Church community here in any way I can be of service. The time has come to stop "fighting" this call and make it happen! This also will free time up to return to posting a bit more (hopefully a lot more) and to keep this blog and one other blog active again! Hope to see you all around blogsphere! D.

I've jumped the fence...

A friend of mine had an iMac all in one computer that is pretty decently sized, but he wanted a bigger on. So he went out and got a bigger one. He was going to give his perfectly nice one to his brother, but the brother wants a laptop so he turned it down. For some reason Bill, my friend, decided to just give it to me, and I gladly accepted.

I now own an iMac computer... Haven't been a big fan of Apple equipment, but have been happy with my iPad, iPhone, and recently my iPod Touch. I don't have much on my iMac yet, nor did he, but I have some plans for it, starting with learning all I can about it and how to best work with it. ;)

Always said I'd never have one, but I'm kinda enjoying it....

Fiscal Cliff...

The US is at an impasse in the life of it's finances. BOTH major parties are wrong on the whole issue!! There are ways of fixing our issues here in the US:

1. End all "Loopholes" in the US Tax system.
2. Set a flat rate of tax on all people, regardless of their income levels. Everyone pays the same level, say 10-15%, what ever level that makes the most sense for the US.
3. End the retirement program for our Senate and Congress, and install the money left in the program into the Social Security system. This needs to be immediate. This needs to include the retirement of those that only served for a term or so.
4. Don't allow the Senate and Congress be a life job, but a one term job in which THE PEOPLE fill the position for say 6 years. This this isn't done, make the job a FULL year long, and stop the long recesses, which were originally put in place for the purpose of allowing THE PEOPLE to go back to their farms, ranches and/or businesses and keep them in order. Since these folks "business" now IS government, they don't need the time off like they use to.
5. Stop "lending" money to other countries, and stop ending interest on the money owed to us. Many countries were loaned a LOT of money from us, but we forgave them the interest and then forgave the loans, to the tune of several BILLION dollars total. Look at Mexico, Japan, Germany and other countries, even as current as Iran/Afghanistan, etc.
6. Collect any and all monies, or at least start the process of aggressively collecting, owed us by other nations.
7. Begin reviewing all of our "entitlement" programs and start the process of reducing/removing these programs as is appropriate for the betterment of the Nation. Many programs need to be revamped, redone and removed in many cases.

These are just the beginning steps though. Much more must be done. First and foremost we must begin helping each other, paying attention to each other, and then we need to take care of ourselves as well, not wanting others to take care of us.

Have fun...

Blog Title Change, Life Changes.

For those of you that read this blog pay any attention, you will notice that the name of this blog has changed from Don's Thoughts to Don's Thoughts III. This site was the first blog I every blog I started with to get to know things. I then transitioned to more than one self hosted WordPress blogs. For various reasons I am giving up self hosted (for the most part) blogs and am retiring Don's Thoughts II and re-starting my blogging here as Don's Thoughts III. With these changes, I am also advancing my "life changes". I am going to be spending more and more time reading theology books, studying the Bible, and doing my prayers, some of which I have been a bit slack on. I will be focusing most of my non-VA work related time in learning more about Christ and His life, and living a life as close to that as I can. This blogs focus will be going back to my "secular life" thoughts and actions, and you can read about my Christian Studies and life at "Friar Don and His Spiritual Life". From this day forward, barring more changes in life ;) , these will be my only two blogs. :) Looking forward to keeping you up to date with my life and life changes! In Christ, Friar Don

EYB! - Updated Surfing!

After much thought and contemplation, we have changed our surfing requirements on EYB! There is now a 1 credit for 2 blogs seen instead of 2 for 5 that we started with for free accounts. All paid accounts are now 1 for 1. All blog timers have been reduced by 5 seconds, so blogs on free accounts are seen fro 20 seconds, and blogs on paid accounts are seen for 25-30 seconds depending on the level of membership!

Paid membership still gives the paid member X number of extra credits a month for both blogs and banners, and a further reduction of from 2 to 5 seconds on blog timers.

Prayerfully more changes coming soon!

Friar Don, OBR
Chief Admin/EBY!