<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?><?xml-stylesheet href="http://www.blogger.com/styles/atom.css" type="text/css"?><feed xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom' xmlns:openSearch='http://a9.com/-/spec/opensearchrss/1.0/' xmlns:blogger='http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008' xmlns:georss='http://www.georss.org/georss' xmlns:gd="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005" xmlns:thr='http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0'><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6876821</id><updated>2024-09-06T16:34:24.443-04:00</updated><category term="Crash"/><category term="Septa"/><category term="ABC"/><category term="CBS"/><category term="Information"/><category term="Keith Olbermann"/><category term="MSNBC"/><category term="NBC"/><category term="NBC10"/><category term="Peter Jennings"/><category term="WPVI"/><title type='text'>Rock Rock Till Ya Drop!</title><subtitle type='html'>Just gonna drop some rants when I get the chance!!!</subtitle><link rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#feed' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://rocktaxi.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6876821/posts/default?alt=atom'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://rocktaxi.blogspot.com/'/><link rel='hub' href='http://pubsubhubbub.appspot.com/'/><link rel='next' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6876821/posts/default?alt=atom&amp;start-index=26&amp;max-results=25'/><author><name>Unknown</name><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><generator version='7.00' uri='http://www.blogger.com'>Blogger</generator><openSearch:totalResults>212</openSearch:totalResults><openSearch:startIndex>1</openSearch:startIndex><openSearch:itemsPerPage>25</openSearch:itemsPerPage><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6876821.post-8802514419436972078</id><published>2008-08-27T09:55:00.002-04:00</published><updated>2008-08-27T10:09:15.461-04:00</updated><title type='text'>A new beginning...</title><content type='html'>Today was a really big day in the lives of our family...&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;My oldest daughter started high school. Yikes...&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;My oldest son started Middle School. Double Yikes...&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;My baby started kindergarten. FINALLY!!! ha ha ha...&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;And me? I&#39;m sitting downstairs in a silent house for the first time in 13 years!!!!!!!!!!</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://rocktaxi.blogspot.com/feeds/8802514419436972078/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment/fullpage/post/6876821/8802514419436972078' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6876821/posts/default/8802514419436972078'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6876821/posts/default/8802514419436972078'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://rocktaxi.blogspot.com/2008/08/new-beginning.html' title='A new beginning...'/><author><name>Unknown</name><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6876821.post-8373043541423946443</id><published>2008-03-29T11:39:00.002-04:00</published><updated>2008-03-29T11:41:26.040-04:00</updated><title type='text'>Genious</title><content type='html'>&lt;a onblur=&quot;try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}&quot; href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVeKPhkk4YvKwrDyVkVU8TuIObtCSaQG7whTPDvFjp4UZ7zszS1bDQinibwPHo07UP3oZQ9lntkbLZqGhTZ5DIwAZj9j3Zt_R-EOz25vw1FrExKflJguni2gnhXfhczyviZXMQ/s1600-h/imagescourage-small.jpg&quot;&gt;&lt;img style=&quot;margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVeKPhkk4YvKwrDyVkVU8TuIObtCSaQG7whTPDvFjp4UZ7zszS1bDQinibwPHo07UP3oZQ9lntkbLZqGhTZ5DIwAZj9j3Zt_R-EOz25vw1FrExKflJguni2gnhXfhczyviZXMQ/s320/imagescourage-small.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; id=&quot;BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5183189201150472114&quot; border=&quot;0&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://rocktaxi.blogspot.com/feeds/8373043541423946443/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment/fullpage/post/6876821/8373043541423946443' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6876821/posts/default/8373043541423946443'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6876821/posts/default/8373043541423946443'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://rocktaxi.blogspot.com/2008/03/genious.html' title='Genious'/><author><name>Unknown</name><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVeKPhkk4YvKwrDyVkVU8TuIObtCSaQG7whTPDvFjp4UZ7zszS1bDQinibwPHo07UP3oZQ9lntkbLZqGhTZ5DIwAZj9j3Zt_R-EOz25vw1FrExKflJguni2gnhXfhczyviZXMQ/s72-c/imagescourage-small.jpg" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6876821.post-4236390853459231014</id><published>2008-01-27T21:13:00.000-05:00</published><updated>2008-01-27T21:14:03.235-05:00</updated><title type='text'>I&#39;m still laughing...</title><content type='html'>&lt;object width=&quot;464&quot; height=&quot;392&quot;&gt;&lt;param name=&quot;movie&quot; value=&quot;http://embed.break.com/NDM5MjE1&quot;&gt;&lt;/param&gt;&lt;embed src=&quot;http://embed.break.com/NDM5MjE1&quot; type=&quot;application/x-shockwave-flash&quot; width=&quot;464&quot; height=&quot;392&quot;&gt;&lt;/embed&gt;&lt;/object&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-size:78%;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://view.break.com/439215&quot;&gt;http://view.break.com/439215&lt;/a&gt; - Watch more &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.break.com/&quot;&gt;free videos&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://rocktaxi.blogspot.com/feeds/4236390853459231014/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment/fullpage/post/6876821/4236390853459231014' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6876821/posts/default/4236390853459231014'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6876821/posts/default/4236390853459231014'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://rocktaxi.blogspot.com/2008/01/im-still-laughing.html' title='I&#39;m still laughing...'/><author><name>Unknown</name><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6876821.post-1667315367591535744</id><published>2007-09-14T13:34:00.000-04:00</published><updated>2007-09-14T13:35:21.844-04:00</updated><title type='text'>Fall #1</title><content type='html'>Well I guess the bad part is that I thought I had a few more posts on here and since they don&#39;t seem to appear, maybe I dreamed that I had made some posts? Oh well. Maybe I&#39;ll do some this weekend....</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://rocktaxi.blogspot.com/feeds/1667315367591535744/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment/fullpage/post/6876821/1667315367591535744' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6876821/posts/default/1667315367591535744'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6876821/posts/default/1667315367591535744'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://rocktaxi.blogspot.com/2007/09/fall-1.html' title='Fall #1'/><author><name>Unknown</name><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6876821.post-1230866355267156400</id><published>2007-07-31T19:26:00.000-04:00</published><updated>2007-07-31T19:28:19.285-04:00</updated><title type='text'>Me stink!</title><content type='html'>Oops. So the summer has gone by and not a post from me. Ok, so I&#39;ve been busy ok??? I&#39;m still here though. Been working on my main website a little more really. Although I&#39;ll still come back here from time to time. Work&#39;s been real slow but we have hired another person for our department and she starts tomorrow so that&#39;ll make things more interesting for a few days as we get her oriented to the way we do things.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;That&#39;s it for today!</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://rocktaxi.blogspot.com/feeds/1230866355267156400/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment/fullpage/post/6876821/1230866355267156400' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6876821/posts/default/1230866355267156400'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6876821/posts/default/1230866355267156400'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://rocktaxi.blogspot.com/2007/07/me-stink.html' title='Me stink!'/><author><name>Unknown</name><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6876821.post-5017976541181110555</id><published>2007-05-15T01:12:00.000-04:00</published><updated>2007-05-14T22:20:09.891-04:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Crash"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Information"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Septa"/><title type='text'>Update to yesterday&#39;s post</title><content type='html'>A few people have actually contacted me already, no, not news media yet, just friends that were checking in on me... I guess in all of my excitement last night, I did forget to point out that I WAS a passenger on the R5 train to Doylestown. I got on a Suburban Station at 4:44pm for the express to Lansdale/Doylestown. I was in the last car, 2nd seat from the middle facing backwards. I did not experience any major injuries other than frayed nerves and a sore neck and shoulder from when I banged into the window.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I&#39;ve ridden Septa for over 5 years now and my main complaint is the lack of information that they give us. Even after sitting on the train for nearly 15 minutes, no one told us anything about what was happening. Was it a collision? Did we hit someone on the track? Did we jump off the track?? No idea because we got ZIP from Septa. How hard would it have been to um, look out the window and see another train and tell everyone that &quot;we hit another train&quot;. All we got was &quot;There has been an incident and we will be delayed indefinately&quot;. Gimme a freaking break. What if it was a bomb??? Septa would then have 5,000 dead people to deal with instead of the 30 who are injured. But we&#39;d have never known cause Septa didn&#39;t tell us. The first sign of nearly anything even being wrong was a police officer who was walking through the train asking if there were any injuries! And they still couldn&#39;t tell us what was going on!!!! ARGH!!!!</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://rocktaxi.blogspot.com/feeds/5017976541181110555/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment/fullpage/post/6876821/5017976541181110555' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6876821/posts/default/5017976541181110555'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6876821/posts/default/5017976541181110555'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://rocktaxi.blogspot.com/2007/05/update-to-yesterdays-post.html' title='Update to yesterday&#39;s post'/><author><name>Unknown</name><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6876821.post-4054959597434527779</id><published>2007-05-14T20:52:00.000-04:00</published><updated>2007-05-14T22:21:34.869-04:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="ABC"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="CBS"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Crash"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="NBC"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="NBC10"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Septa"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="WPVI"/><title type='text'>A bump? A tap?</title><content type='html'>Ok, so after almost a year and a half, I never thought I would ever resurrect this blog. However, after the events of tonight, I HAVE to speak up and speak my mind. I&#39;m trying to get the posted out on the web to every place that I can so that Google will pick it up in searches. So hey, if you are with the news media and want to email me or call me, reply to this and talk to me!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;From 6ABC (WPVI): Thirty people suffered injuries after two SEPTA trains &lt;span style=&quot;font-weight: bold; font-style: italic; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);&quot;&gt;bumped&lt;/span&gt; on the rails this afternoon. (emphasis mine)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;From NBC10: SEPTA officials report 30 injuries, none of them life-threatening, after one northbound regional rail train bumped another at 9th and Vine. One of the trains then &lt;span style=&quot;font-weight: bold; font-style: italic; color: rgb(255, 102, 102);&quot;&gt;backed up&lt;/span&gt; almost to the station Market East station in Center City, where a few people with minor injuries got off, NBC 10&#39;s Mike Strug reported. (WRONG! We couldn&#39;t MOVE)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;from CBS3 (KYW): Authorities said the outbound &lt;span style=&quot;font-weight: bold; font-style: italic; color: rgb(255, 102, 102);&quot;&gt;R5 line was struck from behind by the R6 &lt;/span&gt;Norristown line after leaving the Market East Station at about 5:15 p.m. Ok, CBS3, you get part of the award tonight. Atleast you got the right trains, just wrong order. The R5 HIT the R6, not the other way around. The R6 was late, but the R5 switched tracks to train 2 instead of track 1 and we then followed the R6 out of Market East.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Oh... and the VERY BEST one...&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-weight: bold; color: rgb(102, 102, 204);&quot;&gt;SEPTA officials say around 5pm, an R6 Norristown train rearended an R5 Doylestown &lt;/span&gt;train as the two were headed north in the Market East tunnel under 11th and Filbert Streets.  &lt;span style=&quot;font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);&quot;&gt;Passengers on the the train tell KYW the R5 hit the R6&lt;/span&gt;.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Ok, so in a situation like this, kind of like a parent versus a child... you&#39;d tend to beleive the parent right? Thinking they&#39;ve got the experience, honesty, trust, etc to know and tell the truth.... so why the freak &lt;span style=&quot;font-weight: bold;&quot;&gt;did Septa officials say an R6 rearended an R5 train and yet the Passengers tell KYW the R5 hit the R6&lt;/span&gt;......&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Is SEPTA THAT screwed up that they can&#39;t tell two of their trains apart from each other??? Ok, it was on the northbound tracks... you&#39;ve got an R5 with an R6 in front of it. You mean to tell me with all their sofisticated equiptment or hell, even their FREAKING eyes that they couldn&#39;t tell the Green R6 train was IN FRONT of the Blue R5 train?????? Um, my 4 year old daughter could have figured that one out!!!!!! Did we hit THAT hard that the signs on the train actually moved and replaced themselves on the boards of the opposite train????&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Ok, ok,,, so we&#39;ll give them the benefit of the doubt there... but back to the headlines. I&#39;m guessing that the second the news hit the wires, the wires began hitting the bank accounts of NBC, CBS and ABC... why else would they report that two SEPTA trains &lt;span style=&quot;font-weight: bold; font-style: italic; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);&quot;&gt;bumped.... &lt;/span&gt;after one northbound regional rail train bumped another.......&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;um... so when did you last hear that a BUMP injures over 2 dozen people!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It was a freaking CRASH, it was a COLLISION, it was a mangled MESS!!!! A bump doesn&#39;t tie up transit systems for 3 hours. A Bump doesn&#39;t injure 30 people and send hundreds of others home all frazzled. A Bump doesn&#39;t call out 4 major news stations, dozens of ambulences, dozens of police....&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;This is utterly ridiculous the way it&#39;s being reported and I bet that 99% of it is Septa&#39;s Damage Control...&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-weight: bold;&quot;&gt;UPDATE!!! 9:46pm...&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Just as I posted this, I checked 6ABC again to get more info and I&#39;m famous!!! I had emailed them because they were still listing it as an R3 and R6... I emailed to correct them and they posted my comments as part of the story! Now I really wish I would have commented about the &quot;bump&quot; in there!!!!!!!! Woo Hoo!!!</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://rocktaxi.blogspot.com/feeds/4054959597434527779/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment/fullpage/post/6876821/4054959597434527779' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6876821/posts/default/4054959597434527779'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6876821/posts/default/4054959597434527779'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://rocktaxi.blogspot.com/2007/05/bump-tap.html' title='A bump? A tap?'/><author><name>Unknown</name><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6876821.post-113608315592520651</id><published>2005-12-31T21:22:00.000-05:00</published><updated>2007-05-14T22:22:10.132-04:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Keith Olbermann"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="MSNBC"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Peter Jennings"/><title type='text'>The Point of 2005</title><content type='html'>I haven&#39;t said too much here towards the end of 2005, but who says I can&#39;t start 2006 a little early? Alot happened over the last year. Births, Deaths, Marriages, Divorces, Hurricaines, Snow, Rain, and Raincoats...&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;But the one thing that I&#39;d like anyone who comes across my blog to remember, is the following transcript that came from the August 8th edition of Countdown with Keith Olbermann on MSNBC TV. I had been watching it because it&#39;s a great show. Also they were focusing in on the death of Peter Jennings from ABC the night before. I had the distinct pleasure to meet Peter at a book signing he did in Philadelphia with a colleage of his. He was a great man, a great broadcaster and someone who will be missed.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;But that&#39;s not the point. The rest of this post is. Read it, think about it, and read it again. I&#39;m proud to say I&#39;ve never picked up a cigarrette in my life, aside from the one that was part of a 6th grade science experiment that was all I never needed to see. As soon as each of my 5 kids is old enough to understand, I&#39;ll be doing the same experiment with them. Ironically, 2006 will be 20 years exactly since I did that experiment in class and I still remember it like it was yesterday. THAT&#39;s how powerfull it was to me.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;On that day, each student was given a 2 liter empty soda bottle. Inside the bottle, we stuffed cotton, fabric and other items. We placed a cigarrette in the neck of the bottle and surrounded it with cotton. Once outside the classroom, we lit the cigarettes. (Yeah, try that in 2006!) We squeezed the bottles lightly for about 10 minutes. That&#39;s it. It simulated your lungs breathing in and out and puffing each time. Once it was over we went back to the classroom, and deconstructed the bottle. We then started to pull apart the cotton. My class partner vomited. I looked down and I started to gag myself. In front of me was a mass of black slimy goo with barely a hint of the original white cotton. As the classroom quieted down, the teacher, a smoker herself, began to speak in a voice I still hear right now.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&quot;Boys and girls? This is your lungs after one month of smoking&quot;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Game over for me. That was all I needed. Thanks Mrs. DeYoung. You made me a follower and 20 years later, still haven&#39;t puffed an ounce. Now I&#39;ll get off my podium and allow you to read Keith&#39;s story. And when you&#39;re done, read this all again.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;• August 8, 2005 | 9:41 p.m. ET&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Flush the butts (Keith Olbermann)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;SECAUCUS — I wrote here yesterday of Peter Jennings’ death from lung cancer. The entry yesterday — as nearly all the talk - was, suitably and appropriately, about the man.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Now, about the disease — and you.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The statistics are staggering. By the time this day is over, just in this country, 447 people will have died of lung cancer — 1,562 from all forms of cancer. Nobody did a better job of remembering the part of this sadness that we are trying to forget than Tom Brokaw, yesterday morning, on the Today show: &quot;To go through this difficult time seemed particularly cruel to me. But I know Peter would want us to say, this happens to families every day, and we can&#39;t forget about them either.&quot;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;To that point, the story now of somebody who quite probably should&#39;ve been in Peter Jennings&#39; shoes, except for dumb, undeserved luck.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Me.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;‘So,’ I thought, as I was hunched over, spitting blood into the garbage can in my office, half an hour before the newscast, ‘this is it — this is cancer.’ It gets uglier, I understood that — so ugly that those who&#39;ve survived can&#39;t even describe how much uglier it gets.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Still, that imagery that I want to have stick in your mind, is pretty good: They&#39;ve just had to cut something out, from inside your body because they think it&#39;s cancer. And because it doesn&#39;t heal up right away, every couple of hours the coagulation breaks and your mouth fills up with blood — and all of a sudden, hunching over a garbage can, spitting it out, is the best available option.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I&#39;m not doing some sort of bad taste ‘what-if’ on the passing of Peter Jennings — I have had a tumor removed from the roof of my mouth.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It was benign — that makes all the difference in the world, of course.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Except for the part — where it doesn&#39;t make any difference. Because, I was in that position — spitting globs of myself into a garbage can in Secaucus, New Jersey, entirely through my own doing, my own fault.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;And maybe there&#39;s the chance that if the loss of Peter Jennings hasn&#39;t impacted you, that maybe if you listen to my story you might get smart enough in a hurry — or scared enough in a hurry — so that you don&#39;t wind up spitting blood into the garbage can, and spending five days like me, thinking you had cancer — or actually having it.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;There are some things in life you don&#39;t have much control over — terrorism, lightning, and even cancer when it runs in your family or when you just get it.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;But that&#39;s not what this tumor was — the one that for five very long days had me convinced I had cancer. This is from me smoking pipes and cigars for 27 years. And if you work for a company that produces or sells pipes and cigars and you are recoiling defensively and saying ‘you don&#39;t know that’... well, let me quote Robert Novak — &quot;bull&quot; — I do too know that.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The place where this thing grew on the roof of my mouth, is precisely above the spot where the end of the cigar, or the tip of the pipe, would sit, nearly every time I&#39;ve smoked. I&#39;ve been smoking — with the first place the smoke connects with my tissue, right in this one spot in my mouth — since Jimmy Carter was President.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;So, yes, biologically speaking, smoking caused that tumor. Behaviorally speaking, I caused that tumor — period.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It&#39;s not like this thing that they cut out of me a week ago last Friday just appeared overnight, either. It was there no later than 1991, and a dentist told me then: either quit smoking or keep an eye on this — or both — because that could be pre-cancerous.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;But no — until my current dentist Bob Schwartz said &quot;this has changed, go see an oral surgeon&quot; — I knew better. Both my grandfathers, I liked to say, lived into their 80s and in the last weeks of their lives, both of them walked into town to get a haircut and some cigars — and that would be good enough for me.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Well, maybe that would have been good for me. Except, the point is this: they cut something out of your mouth; it&#39;s a benign fibrous tumor; they have to cauterize it with a laser; you wind up spitting blood like Rocky Balboa in front of Burgess Meredith; you spend five days thinking about the radiation and the chemo to come; and — by the way — ten days later, your mouth still hurts and it&#39;ll probably be all healed in six weeks.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;And that&#39;s if you&#39;re lucky — so lucky that you start jumping up and down and singing &quot;Happy Days Are Here Again.&quot;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Imagine… if it were bad news.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.msnbc.com/&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.msnbc.com/&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://rocktaxi.blogspot.com/feeds/113608315592520651/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment/fullpage/post/6876821/113608315592520651' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6876821/posts/default/113608315592520651'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6876821/posts/default/113608315592520651'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://rocktaxi.blogspot.com/2005/12/point-of-2005.html' title='The Point of 2005'/><author><name>Unknown</name><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6876821.post-113487357440668902</id><published>2005-12-17T21:34:00.000-05:00</published><updated>2005-12-17T21:39:34.416-05:00</updated><title type='text'>Enjoying the summer</title><content type='html'>Whoa.. wait a sec... it&#39;s what? no... wrong calendar... wait.. no... noo... nooo...&lt;br /&gt;OMG IT&#39;S A FREAKING WEEK TILL CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Holy mo fo sh*t!!!!!!!!!!!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Like last week it was 4th of July at my sisters... and then halloween happened in there somewhere, oh yeah, and the freaking trip to hell in Mexico, and supposedly thanksgiving came and went but don&#39;t remember a damn thing about that...&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Only thing I do remember clearly was the last of Internet access for the last 3 weeks. Guess those damn yellow shutoff letters from the cable company do mean business! Oh well. I didn&#39;t suffer too bad since I have net at work. But of course couldn&#39;t go where I wanted to. But I survived.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Anyway, this whole YEAR has been one that I will forget with no trouble. Talk about the longest freaking hell of a year. Maybe next weekend I&#39;ll start my top 10 reasons to forget this year... and I guess whereever the mexico trip falls, I&#39;ll finally have to divuldge what happened in that one since I&#39;ve repressed it so much it&#39;s never been mentioned on this blog yet....&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;If I don&#39;t get back to post again, have a merry christmas everyone!</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://rocktaxi.blogspot.com/feeds/113487357440668902/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment/fullpage/post/6876821/113487357440668902' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6876821/posts/default/113487357440668902'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6876821/posts/default/113487357440668902'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://rocktaxi.blogspot.com/2005/12/enjoying-summer.html' title='Enjoying the summer'/><author><name>Unknown</name><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6876821.post-113340370401523188</id><published>2005-11-30T21:07:00.000-05:00</published><updated>2005-12-17T21:40:04.316-05:00</updated><title type='text'>Doing my Civic Duty</title><content type='html'>If you&#39;ve ever driven down a highway, you&#39;ve had to have seen those trucks with the &quot;How&#39;s my driving&quot; stickers with an 800 number to call with a vehicle number. Of course, the best ones are the stickers that say &quot;How&#39;s My Driving---Call 1-800-EAT-SHIT.&quot;...&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Well, tonight, I was driving my normal route and came upon a car in front of me that was traveling slow (it was slightly wet) but when we got to a major intersection, he stopped kinda halfway between our lane and the next lane. No biggie as I presumed he may just not have seen the lane marker since it was dark. Well, some guy came up on the right and ended up flying past us when the light turned green. Again, no biggie as I would have done the same if I had thought about it...&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;As we start moving though, the car is moving at like 10 miles an hour. At this point, it&#39;s 5:30 at night, on a dark rainy night. And rush hour, so I&#39;ve already got about 50 cars behind me that I can tell are getting pretty pissed. But not much I can do as it&#39;s a one lane road and I ain&#39;t passing illegally on a dark night.</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://rocktaxi.blogspot.com/feeds/113340370401523188/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment/fullpage/post/6876821/113340370401523188' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6876821/posts/default/113340370401523188'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6876821/posts/default/113340370401523188'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://rocktaxi.blogspot.com/2005/11/doing-my-civic-duty.html' title='Doing my Civic Duty'/><author><name>Unknown</name><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6876821.post-113259345609849843</id><published>2005-11-21T12:11:00.001-05:00</published><updated>2009-08-06T11:22:52.534-04:00</updated><title type='text'>File this under DUH!!!!!</title><content type='html'>Ok, I had to post this one...&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Everyday, just to break up the day and allow me to know when time is actually passing at work, I have different text messages sent to my phone at various times. Most of them are stupid things like news updates or sports scores etc, but one I usually look forward to is called &quot;News of the Weird&quot;... well today it was ????&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;So I get this text message. &lt;strong&gt;&quot;News of the Weird - Researchers in Japan have discovered that happiness is related to the amount of income a person receives.&quot;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Um.... No sh*t sherlock!!! My freaking 2 year old could have told me that! And it took a team of researchers in Japan to figure that out??? How much freaking money do they make in a year to come up with a study like that??? Oh my freaking gosh!!! I bet you they probably had a million dollar grant from a University and came up with that as their results! A Pre-schooler could have figured that one out dipsh*t!!!!!!</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://rocktaxi.blogspot.com/feeds/113259345609849843/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment/fullpage/post/6876821/113259345609849843' title='2 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6876821/posts/default/113259345609849843'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6876821/posts/default/113259345609849843'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://rocktaxi.blogspot.com/2005/11/file-this-under-duh.html' title='File this under DUH!!!!!'/><author><name>Unknown</name><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>2</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6876821.post-113124744586752573</id><published>2005-11-05T22:17:00.000-05:00</published><updated>2005-11-05T22:24:05.880-05:00</updated><title type='text'>Spam anyone???</title><content type='html'>Well, if the blogger counts are actually correct, I think this is my 200th post! Pretty incredible if I do say so myself. However, of course, it should be like number 500 but I&#39;ve somewhat abandoned this thing. Each time I say, hmmm I need to post that or hey! I should blog this!!!... well, that&#39;s as far as it gets. And I really thought about throwing in the towel when earlier this week I got a comment on my blog that was unsolicited! Actually someone stumbling across my blog and leaving a comment! (and a good one at that!)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;But then I got the same comment again on Thursday. From the same person.... and the SAME exact comment. Now I&#39;ve heard about &#39;comment spam&#39; on alot of other blogs that I read each day, but never did I think that I would actually be hit with it as well! But maybe it&#39;s genuine. And if it is, of course Mr. Computer guy or whatever your name was... please accept my deepest apoligies. But when I looked at my last post before this one, expecting to see the comment there, it wasn&#39;t. Nor on the next previous post. In fact, it went back a few months which means that the person, or computer, must have picked up on something in my archives. oh... and yes, in his comment to me, he of course mentioned his own blog, presumably for either cross traffic or self glorification. Not sure which one. But you did say you were going to bookmark my blog and if that is the case, then please redeem yourself by posting on this post a new comment and don&#39;t reference your site for once so I know you are genuine. If I do see that, then by all means, I will visit your blog, heck, I&#39;ll even post a link from this blog to yours, and add it to my OTHER blog that I run primarily as a testing ground but to this day still gets more hits than this one!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Phew! What a rant!</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://rocktaxi.blogspot.com/feeds/113124744586752573/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment/fullpage/post/6876821/113124744586752573' title='2 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6876821/posts/default/113124744586752573'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6876821/posts/default/113124744586752573'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://rocktaxi.blogspot.com/2005/11/spam-anyone.html' title='Spam anyone???'/><author><name>Unknown</name><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>2</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6876821.post-112920484719467121</id><published>2005-10-13T07:58:00.000-04:00</published><updated>2005-10-13T08:00:47.203-04:00</updated><title type='text'>OMG!!!!!!!</title><content type='html'>Ok... so I&#39;ve been in hiding for a while... but this joke I just HAD to post.... OMG&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I never quite figured out why the sexual urge of men and &lt;br /&gt;women differ so much.  And I never have figured out the whole Venus and &lt;br /&gt;Mars thing.  I have never figured out why men think with their head and women &lt;br /&gt;think with their heart.  I have never figured out why the sexual desire gene &lt;br /&gt;gets thrown into a state of turmoil, when it hears the words &quot;I do&quot;.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;For example, one evening last week, my wife and I were &lt;br /&gt;getting into bed.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Well, the passion starts to heat up, and she eventually &lt;br /&gt;says &quot;I don&#39;t feel like it, I just want you to hold me.&quot;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I said &quot;WHAT????!!!!! What was that?!&quot;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;So she says the words that every husband on the planet &lt;br /&gt;dreads to hear .....&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&quot;You&#39;re just not in touch with my emotional needs as a &lt;br /&gt;woman enough for me to satisfy your physical needs as a man.&quot;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;She responded to my puzzled look by saying, &quot;can&#39;t you just &lt;br /&gt;love me for who I am and not what I do for you in the bedroom?&quot;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Realizing that nothing was going to happen that night I &lt;br /&gt;went to sleep. The very next day I opted to take the day off work to spend &lt;br /&gt;time with her.  We went out to a nice lunch and then went shopping at a big, &lt;br /&gt;big unnamed department store. I walked around with her while she tried &lt;br /&gt;on several different very expensive outfits. She couldn&#39;t decide which &lt;br /&gt;one to take so I told her we&#39;ll just buy them all.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;She wanted new shoes to compliment her new clothes, so I &lt;br /&gt;said lets get a pair for each outfit.  We went on to the jewerly department &lt;br /&gt;where she picked out a pair of diamond earrings.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Let me tell you.....she was so excited.  She must have &lt;br /&gt;thought I was one wave short of a shipwreck.  I started to think she was &lt;br /&gt;testing me because she asked for a tennis bracelet when she doesn&#39;t even know &lt;br /&gt;how to play tennis.  I think I threw her for a loop when I said, &lt;br /&gt;&quot;That&#39;s fine, honey.&quot;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;She was almost nearing sexual satisfaction from all of the &lt;br /&gt;excitement.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Smiling with excited anticipation she finally said, &quot;I &lt;br /&gt;think this is all dear, let&#39;s go to cashier&quot;.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I could hardly contain myself when I blurted out, &quot;No &lt;br /&gt;honey, I don&#39;t feel like it.&quot;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Her face just went completely blank as her jaw dropped with &lt;br /&gt;a baffled &quot;WHAT???!!!&quot;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I then said, &quot;Really honey! I just want you to HOLD this &lt;br /&gt;stuff for a while.... You&#39;re just not in touch with my financial needs &lt;br /&gt;as a man enough for me to satisfy your shopping needs as a woman.&quot;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;And just when she had this look like she was going to kill &lt;br /&gt;me I added, &quot;Why can&#39;t you just love me for who I am and not for the things &lt;br /&gt;I buy you?&quot;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Apparently I&#39;m not having sex tonight either.</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://rocktaxi.blogspot.com/feeds/112920484719467121/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment/fullpage/post/6876821/112920484719467121' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6876821/posts/default/112920484719467121'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6876821/posts/default/112920484719467121'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://rocktaxi.blogspot.com/2005/10/omg.html' title='OMG!!!!!!!'/><author><name>Unknown</name><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6876821.post-112282066368805553</id><published>2005-07-31T10:34:00.000-04:00</published><updated>2005-12-17T21:40:50.876-05:00</updated><title type='text'>Complicated...</title><content type='html'>Well, I contemplated overnight, over week, over month? And the change never happened. Been too busy recently really... haven&#39;t even been on my own blog in the last two weeks. Got 2 trips I&#39;m planning. One more than the other. Next Saturday at dawn we leave for Hilton Head, SC. There are good and bad things about that trip. Good will be away from work for the first real vacation in like 2 years. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Anyway, once that is over, things kick into SUPER high gear with planning for MEXICO!!!!! And oh, will there be stories about that trip. It&#39;s been an adventure just planning it at this point.</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://rocktaxi.blogspot.com/feeds/112282066368805553/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment/fullpage/post/6876821/112282066368805553' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6876821/posts/default/112282066368805553'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6876821/posts/default/112282066368805553'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://rocktaxi.blogspot.com/2005/07/complicated.html' title='Complicated...'/><author><name>Unknown</name><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6876821.post-112147232164990795</id><published>2005-07-15T20:02:00.000-04:00</published><updated>2005-07-15T20:05:21.656-04:00</updated><title type='text'>Here, There, Everywhere...</title><content type='html'>Feeling like a new direction with this.... more to come tomorrow when I&#39;m up early with the rugrats... Going to contemplate overnight...</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://rocktaxi.blogspot.com/feeds/112147232164990795/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment/fullpage/post/6876821/112147232164990795' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6876821/posts/default/112147232164990795'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6876821/posts/default/112147232164990795'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://rocktaxi.blogspot.com/2005/07/here-there-everywhere.html' title='Here, There, Everywhere...'/><author><name>Unknown</name><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6876821.post-112032373644813180</id><published>2005-07-02T12:41:00.000-04:00</published><updated>2005-07-02T13:03:25.263-04:00</updated><title type='text'>Live 8</title><content type='html'>Ok... so I kinda coulda, shoulda wanna be down at Live 8 right now, particularly since it&#39;s all of a whole mile from my office downtown. But since I did get a walkkthrough last night at midnight after the baseball game, I don&#39;t feel all that bad.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;What I do feel bad about right now, is the absolutely, pardon my french, shitty coverage that MTV is providing right now. They&#39;ve been broadsasting the show for all of one hour now and have shown a total of 8 minutes of concert footage!!!!! Oh tha&#39;ts right... MTV doesn&#39;t stand for Music Television anymore...Too bad VH1 is owned by the same company because they actually still show music! Come on people...</content><link rel="related" href="www.live8live.com" title="Live 8"/><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://rocktaxi.blogspot.com/feeds/112032373644813180/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment/fullpage/post/6876821/112032373644813180' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6876821/posts/default/112032373644813180'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6876821/posts/default/112032373644813180'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://rocktaxi.blogspot.com/2005/07/live-8.html' title='Live 8'/><author><name>Unknown</name><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6876821.post-111870693752230059</id><published>2005-06-13T19:52:00.000-04:00</published><updated>2005-06-13T19:55:37.526-04:00</updated><title type='text'>Post of the Decade!!!</title><content type='html'>&lt;strong&gt;Llama Found Running Wrong Way On Interstate &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;POSTED: 10:53 am EDT June 13, 2005&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;LAMAR, Pa. -- Is your llama missing?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;State police corralled a llama that was reported running east in the westbound lanes of Interstate 80 at the Clinton-Centre County line around 8 a.m. Sunday.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Troopers took the wrong-way llama to a farm for safekeeping. They want to return the animal to its owner. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;via AP...&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I HAD to post this, heck, I may post it on all my blogs! (Those who know me, know I love Jimmy Neutron on Nickelodeon and my favorite character is Carl who loves llama&#39;s.... so how appropriate is this!!!</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://rocktaxi.blogspot.com/feeds/111870693752230059/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment/fullpage/post/6876821/111870693752230059' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6876821/posts/default/111870693752230059'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6876821/posts/default/111870693752230059'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://rocktaxi.blogspot.com/2005/06/post-of-decade.html' title='Post of the Decade!!!'/><author><name>Unknown</name><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6876821.post-111828223041727449</id><published>2005-06-08T21:54:00.000-04:00</published><updated>2005-06-08T21:57:10.423-04:00</updated><title type='text'>Life, Round 2...</title><content type='html'>WEll golly gee... maybe I jinxed something by actually posting and updating my blog??? Crap, maybe I shouldn&#39;t have just said that... well, like 24 hours after made that last post on Memorial Day, I ended up in the hospital for a few days. First time that one has ever happened!! It was a little relaxing of a time, although it drove me absolutely nuts that they only had like 10 TV stations! OMG that&#39;s torture! Sad thing is I actually found myself watching cartoons sometimes cause it was better than the other crap that was on!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Anyway, lappy battery is about to die so before I lose this post, I&#39;m gonna post it and then follow up tomorrow night with a new post.</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://rocktaxi.blogspot.com/feeds/111828223041727449/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment/fullpage/post/6876821/111828223041727449' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6876821/posts/default/111828223041727449'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6876821/posts/default/111828223041727449'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://rocktaxi.blogspot.com/2005/06/life-round-2.html' title='Life, Round 2...'/><author><name>Unknown</name><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6876821.post-111749622308179400</id><published>2005-05-30T19:36:00.000-04:00</published><updated>2005-05-30T19:40:03.953-04:00</updated><title type='text'>Memorial Day 2005</title><content type='html'>If I could find the cool graphic I used last year, I&#39;d have posted it again, but nope...&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Anyway, 6 weeks of soccer is over (minus tourney next week)&lt;br /&gt;Mrs. Rocktaxi is still in the hospital (after 6 weeks)&lt;br /&gt;6 weeks since I&#39;ve updated??? (almost....)&lt;br /&gt;6 people in my department at work (well 5 really but I do the work of two)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;So yes, lots going on. Best part is that 1st one with only a week left of soccer. However, if we win our first game next week, which by the way starts at 8am... we play at 11... if we win, we play at 1...if we win we play the championship at 3.... damn that&#39;s gonna be one long day!!!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I&#39;ll update with the final scores next week...</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://rocktaxi.blogspot.com/feeds/111749622308179400/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment/fullpage/post/6876821/111749622308179400' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6876821/posts/default/111749622308179400'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6876821/posts/default/111749622308179400'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://rocktaxi.blogspot.com/2005/05/memorial-day-2005.html' title='Memorial Day 2005'/><author><name>Unknown</name><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6876821.post-111629775470121114</id><published>2005-05-16T22:38:00.000-04:00</published><updated>2005-05-16T22:42:34.706-04:00</updated><title type='text'>oops times 2...</title><content type='html'>Here&#39;s how bad I&#39;ve been.. I actually had to look at my own blog cause I couldn&#39;t remember what the last post was that I made! ha ha ha...&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Anyway, geez, so what&#39;s gone on this month??? Well, Mrs. Rocktaxi was in the hospital... then she was home... then she went back to another hospital... and she&#39;s been there for 3 weeks now. Yeah, that sucks. But the kids have certainly been good so that&#39;s been a help. Although it&#39;s been a letdown because I haven&#39;t been able to be online as much as I&#39;d like. Actually I can&#39;t really say that because I have been online but only to keep up on email. I haven&#39;t been on at all for fun because all my time has been taken up by SOCCER!!! Man, a sport I love but a sport I&#39;ve grown to hate!!!! Yes I&#39;m coaching again, and that was my mistake.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Skipped the boys this time and thought I&#39;d try to go for the girls. That was the BEST thing I could have ever done.</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://rocktaxi.blogspot.com/feeds/111629775470121114/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment/fullpage/post/6876821/111629775470121114' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6876821/posts/default/111629775470121114'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6876821/posts/default/111629775470121114'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://rocktaxi.blogspot.com/2005/05/oops-times-2.html' title='oops times 2...'/><author><name>Unknown</name><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6876821.post-111507612386114537</id><published>2005-05-02T19:15:00.000-04:00</published><updated>2005-05-02T19:22:03.863-04:00</updated><title type='text'>#@$#(#$@($@(@#(%)#)@%(</title><content type='html'>AWWWW FUDGESNICKERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;For WEEKS, heck, Months, heck, 12 MONTHS I had planned a big celebration for the one year anniversary of this blog... and guess what????&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I MISSED IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;(It was yesterday)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I thought about back posting but that&#39;s not PC these days. I&#39;m sorry but I&#39;m just mad at myself for missing it. I think I did actually think of it yesterday but I was so exhausted from the weekend of soccer games that I took probably 20 cat-naps in the afternoon. I haven&#39;t been that tired in a real long time. Going to work today was actually a nice break for a change! ha ha ha&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Anyway, now that we are in year two, who knows what the year will bring? (Hopefully more posts really!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Over the last year, I hit almost 500 visitors which I think is good considering I haven&#39;t bumped up my visitor count like alot of other sites! I Managed nearly 200 posts out of 365 days.. (don&#39;t go by Blogger&#39;s counter since they deactivated it a few months ago. It&#39;s been stuck on 170 posts since January!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I actually am running 2 full time blogs right now, 1 part time, and contribute to my daughter&#39;s every once in a while. And brought a bunch of other people into the world of blogging at the same time too! Not too shabby if I say so myself. Well, that&#39;s all for now. It&#39;s monday night, so I gotta get ready for Wrestling!!!</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://rocktaxi.blogspot.com/feeds/111507612386114537/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment/fullpage/post/6876821/111507612386114537' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6876821/posts/default/111507612386114537'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6876821/posts/default/111507612386114537'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://rocktaxi.blogspot.com/2005/05/blog-post.html' title='#@$#(#$@($@(@#(%)#)@%('/><author><name>Unknown</name><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6876821.post-111421307418473464</id><published>2005-04-22T19:27:00.000-04:00</published><updated>2005-04-22T19:37:54.183-04:00</updated><title type='text'>Sad Sad Song Night</title><content type='html'>Man... April 22nd and I&#39;ve made like 4 posts this month... geez... I feel sad... The really sh*tter is that I had all kinds of hopes leading up to the one year anniversary of this blog next month. O well, I guess I still have a week to go... I am still here but life&#39;s been tough. I should be writing all this down for my own reality show. Reality shows should not be taped. They should be live. What happens in that hour is real. That&#39;s reality. Not something pre-recorded a year ago and edited for &quot;broadcast&quot;. Please.... Anyway, I&#39;ll update this weekend as available. I&#39;m praying to the rain gods right now for rainouts tomorrow so if all goes well, I can do some major updates in the morning. See ya then!</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://rocktaxi.blogspot.com/feeds/111421307418473464/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment/fullpage/post/6876821/111421307418473464' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6876821/posts/default/111421307418473464'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6876821/posts/default/111421307418473464'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://rocktaxi.blogspot.com/2005/04/sad-sad-song-night.html' title='Sad Sad Song Night'/><author><name>Unknown</name><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6876821.post-111378367124752549</id><published>2005-04-17T19:56:00.000-04:00</published><updated>2005-04-17T20:21:11.246-04:00</updated><title type='text'>Alive by Pearl Jam...</title><content type='html'>Yeah I&#39;m still here... Life&#39;s been plain ol&#39; shitty recently so the blog&#39;s been on the back burner.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Mrs. Rocktaxi&#39;s been in the hospital and while it&#39;s afforded me the opportunity for unlimited net time, there&#39;s been lots to do at night after the rugrats hit the sack. And I&#39;ve really been trying to be good and hit my own sack (BED!) at a good time too knowing baby rugrat was going to be getting up at night.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Anyway, just wanted to check in and since I&#39;ve heard Pearl Jam on the radio about 100 times this weekend, the title was easy to pick.</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://rocktaxi.blogspot.com/feeds/111378367124752549/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment/fullpage/post/6876821/111378367124752549' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6876821/posts/default/111378367124752549'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6876821/posts/default/111378367124752549'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://rocktaxi.blogspot.com/2005/04/alive-by-pearl-jam.html' title='Alive by Pearl Jam...'/><author><name>Unknown</name><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6876821.post-111309279577334752</id><published>2005-04-09T20:22:00.000-04:00</published><updated>2005-04-09T20:26:35.773-04:00</updated><title type='text'>It&#39;s gonna snow!!!</title><content type='html'>For the first time in years, I have actually finished my taxes before April 14th 11:59pm...&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I haven&#39;t done it for years but this year, I knew (or atleast hoped) that I was getting a nice refund and kinda needed it to pay this little thing called the Mortgage. Of course, the IRS website now places my refund due to be paid on April 18... oh.. and the mortgage is due on the 15th... soo.... oops... we&#39;ll see what happens.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Sorry that I forgot to post more this month. Kinda been a ton of you know what going on. Mrs. Rocktaxi&#39;s gone for a few days (PARTY!) no, really not but hopefully she&#39;ll be better. If anything, it allowed me to sit home all day today for once and do about 100 loads of laundry and clean out the Van. Man that was gross. I think that&#39;s why we tried to just buy new last year but we got turned down for the loan so we were stuck with the mobile trash can. O well....&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Time to get the littles to bed... I&#39;ll update more if they go down easy...</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://rocktaxi.blogspot.com/feeds/111309279577334752/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment/fullpage/post/6876821/111309279577334752' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6876821/posts/default/111309279577334752'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6876821/posts/default/111309279577334752'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://rocktaxi.blogspot.com/2005/04/its-gonna-snow.html' title='It&#39;s gonna snow!!!'/><author><name>Unknown</name><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6876821.post-111232118000639245</id><published>2005-03-31T21:04:00.000-05:00</published><updated>2005-03-31T21:28:33.103-05:00</updated><title type='text'>Apprentice Live Blog</title><content type='html'>Well, now that Erin is gone, and yes, that still stinks, I am still interested in seeing who wins and most importantly when the heck Chris gets FIRED!!!!!!!! Ugh! can&#39;t stand him!!!!!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Wow... Alex has been drafted...&lt;br /&gt;(nice haircut Don...)&lt;br /&gt;++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++&lt;br /&gt;9:08pm&lt;br /&gt;Pizza!!!!!!!! Oh man... I gotta stop watching this show before I&#39;ve eaten dinner!!!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++&lt;br /&gt;9:13pm&lt;br /&gt;MMMMM balls... I like balls..sweaty balls.. oh wait.... scratch that.... Meatballs!! I like Meatballs!!! (BTW: the last bit was from Y100 and Saturday Night Live...)&lt;br /&gt;++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++&lt;br /&gt;9:28pm&lt;br /&gt;Ok... hate to say it, but that pizza looked disgusting!!! I&#39;m curious to know how much they were selling each piece for....&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Woo Hoo! You sold a whopping 6 pizzas to construction guys??? They should eat 6 each!!!&lt;br /&gt;++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://rocktaxi.blogspot.com/feeds/111232118000639245/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment/fullpage/post/6876821/111232118000639245' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6876821/posts/default/111232118000639245'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6876821/posts/default/111232118000639245'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://rocktaxi.blogspot.com/2005/03/apprentice-live-blog.html' title='Apprentice Live Blog'/><author><name>Unknown</name><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry></feed>