Inmate suing the Utah Department of Corrections claiming they were denying him his right to practice an ancient Nordic religion while in jail.

According to a story on http://www.news.yahoo.com/ an inmate serving time for aggravated assault and robbery is suing the Utah Department of Corrections saying that he is being denied of religious items which are required for him to practice the ancient Nordic religion of Asatru.

According to the article: "he has been a member of the Asatru faith since 2005, and in order to properly practice it he needs items including: a Thor's Hammer, a prayer cloth, a Mead Horn used for drinking Wassail, a drum made of wood and boar skin, a rune staff and a sword.

Trial delayed due to the LSU-Ohio State Game.

According to a news story on www.news.yahoo.com a state judge has agreed to postpone a trial which was originally scheduled to begin on the same day LSU plays Ohio State in the BCS national championship game.

Attorney for the Defendant as well as the Plaintiff's Attorney in the case had tickets to the games and reached an agreement according to the news story regarding the delaying of the trial pending the Judge's acceptance of the Motion filed on behalf of the Defense.

Attorney for the Defendant states as follows in his written request for a new trial date: "All counsel to this matter unequivocally agree that the presence of LSU in the aforementioned contest of pigskin skill unquestionably constitutes good grounds therefor," Babcock wrote. "In fact we have been unable through much imagination and hypothetical scenarios to think of a better reason."

West Baton Rouge Parish District Judge Alvin Batiste, agreed to postpone the trial but he didn't immediately set a new date for the trial to take place.

He Wants Heat, She Was Packing Heat!

In Washington Township, Michigan Joseph Grucz a 65 year old man and his 61 year old wife Cheryl Grucz were having an argument regarding the heat of their home. He had asked his wife to turn up the heat in their home and she in turn pull out a gun and shot thier flat-screen TV.

According to the Detroit Free Press Cheryl Grucz fired a shot while her husband was hiding his head in a pillow. The shot strck their plasma TV after which Cheryl Grucz went upstairs. Mrs. Grucz picked up the other telephone extention and was telling the 911 operator her side of the story as well as arguing with her husband while on the telephone.

Cheryl Grucz was charged with assault with the intent to do great bodily harm. That charge alone could carry a charge of 10 years in prison. She also faces a felony firearms charge; however, Mrs. Grucz was freed on $50,000 bond and a preliminary examination January 15, 2008.

For more on this one go to www.news.yahoo.com

Administrative Law Judge Sides with Man Who Was Fired for Posting Dilbert Comic Strip

According to the news story on www.news.yahoo.com David Steward of Des Moines, Iowa was fired from his job at the Catfish Bend Casino in Burlington after posting a comic strip on the office bulletin board from the Dilbert Comic series.

Mr. Steward was fired from his position with the Casino as a result of mangement finding the comic to be "very offensive" and as a result he petitioned for unemployment benefits which were denied by his former employer and resulted in the lawsuit presided over by the Honorable Administrative Law Judge Lynette Donner.

According to the news article the exchange in the comic was as follows:

"Why does it seem as if most of the decisions in my workplace are made by drunken lemurs?"
"Decisions are made by people who have time, not people who have talent."
"Why are talented people so busy?"
"They're fixing the problems made by people who have time."

Hon. Donner ruled that posting the comic did not represent intentional misbehavior but however did represent "a good-faith error in judgment."

For more on this article chek out www.news.yahoo.com

Recall of Metromint water sold online

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, Soma Beverage Company issued a voluntary recall Wednesday of its mint-flavored water because of possible contamination after an isolated case of Bacillus cereus contamination was found in a water sample that was bottled a year ago at a Southern California plant.

Bacillus cereus contamination as stated in the article "can cause food poisoning, with symptoms including nausea and diarrhea."

"The recall involves water with a "Best before 2006/12/21" date printed on the shoulder of the bottle and the lettering "KSA" in a rectangle located on the lower-right corner of the back panel of the label."

According to the article the bottled water that is in question was only sold over the internet. For more on this story go to: http://www.sfgate.com

Modern Toilet Diner

Yes that is Ice-cream shaped like feces served in miniature toliets. This is the strangest thing that I have seen in a while however not the first time that I have heard of this place.

It's at a resteraunt called Modern Toliet Diner which is located in the Shilin district in Taipei. All 100 seats in the diner are toilet bowls, not chairs. This is one of 12 resteraunts in an island-wide chain with a toilet theme. For more on these type of resteraunts check out Freekboi's Blog post regarding the resteraunts and the food. His post can be found at the following link:

http://freekboi.blogspot.com/2005/05/eat-here.html

Thanksgiving Humor

Here's a little holiday Thanksgiving humor for you all out there in cyber land. I couldn't pass this picture up. Seeing as how many a holiday with the family may leave you feeling like you need prozac to help you through the forced conversation and the fake smiles.

Not every holiday can be a happy one but at least we can try to make the best of the situations if a best of the situation presents itself for enjoyment. There are holidays where you just want to sit and say ok why are we all here anyway. I mean seriously we can't get along wouldn't it be better if we were miles away from one another at this very moment??? LOL I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving and enjoy the family and friends that drop by to eat your food and clutter your house....I mean drop by for polite conversation and a nice meal.

Art, Stories, Reading and Relaxng

You every notice how time seems to fly by when you are doing something that you enjoy and when you are doing things that don't interest you as much the day just drags by? There are so many things in my life that I used to enjoy doing and I would still enjoy doing them if only I had the time to sit back and relax to do them.

I have loved art since I was old enough to hold a crayon. My father taught me to draw at a young age and I will always share my love of art and drawing with him. That will be a memory I will always treasure throughout my life and art is a great way for me to relax. However, it seems as though I just do not have the time to take out a canvas and paint. I have loved to write poetry and short stories all my life. I am an artist and a writer before anything. Sometimes my writting influences my art and vice versa.

I haven't had a lot of time between work and getting ready to move to do the things that I enjoy but with the coming holiday of Thanksgiving and the short but well needed vacation time for the holiday I am looking forward to kicking back for an hour or two with a good book, sitting down with just my imagination, a pencil and a notebook or blank canvas and getting back to what makes life worth living. You have to enjoy the simple things in life no matter how rare the moment are that you get to enjoy them. Hopefuly I'll be able to do this in the next week and hopefully I'll be in a better frame of mind once I get to relax and enjoy my time to myself and my family.

I hope everyone has a great holiday and I hope you all find time to relax and enjoy yourself over the holiday.

Anime Weekend in Atlanta, GA

Animie Weekend In Atlanta, GA
People cosplay as Inuyasha, Sesshomaru and Kikyou.

Hello all! How is everyone of you doing today. It's been a while again hasn't it. With work and general stuff going on I barely have time to get on here but that should be changing because I have plenty of topics to go through to keep you entertained for a while at lest.

I have a great pen pal who lives in Georgia and he was telling me about this Anime Con that happens down there every year. It's Anime Weekend in Atlanta. Now I have never been to Atlanta, GA but I have been through Georgia on my way to Florida. It's a beautiful state. Here is the link for this years AWA site http://www.awa-con.com/index.php?page=information Now being the big fan of Anime that I have become I found this to be very interesting and love the idea of cosplay and seeing all the different anime that we haven't got into around her as of yet.

I am seriously considering going to the AWA next year and it sounds like so much fun. There are videos on you tube of the AWA if any of you are interested in seeing what it looked like this year. Well that's all for my update today I'll have more coming soon so keep watching this blog for more random stuff! Have a good weekend.

Long Time No Bloggy!!

Well it seems life has a way of stepping in the way of even simple blogging. I have been so busy that I have neglected my blogs and for that I do appologize. LOL I hope you all will forgive me for my laziness in updating but things have been so hectic first with our Relay in May then we had so much going on in June and July and with work and catching up with family and friends things have got a little hectic.

However, now that I'm back in my sanity (yeah right I know that was a funny one) I'll try to keep this thing updated more regularly.

Hope everyone has a great day.

WWE wrestler Benoit murder / suicide

It seems the facts of this situation are getting more and more bizare as new information is discovered and released to the public involving the death of WWE wrestler Chris Benoit, his wife Nancy (Woman) and their 7 year old son Daniel.

www.cnn.com is reporting that only two days before the bodies of the three family members were found in their home Benoit told told co-workers his wife and son had food poisoning and then Benoit called other co-workers and claimed to have missed a flight to a scheduled WWE show in Texas on Saturday. It is believed that his wife Nancy and possibly their son Daniel was already dead by this time. The same co-worker claimed Benoit said "I love you," during the conversation which was completely out of context.

Police are saying that Benoit placed Bibles beside the bodies of his wife and child after he killed them and spent at least one (1) day in the home with the bodies before hanging himself from one of his weight machines in his work out room at the home. There was no suicide note found in the home or anywhere else but there were text messages sent to co-workers from Benoit's cell phone on Sunday. Most of the text message sent from Benoit's cell phone to his co-workers included his address and one said "The dogs are in the enclosed pool area. Garage side door is open." It is apprent that he wanted the bodies of him and his family discovered fairly soon after his own death.

WWE held a 3 hour tribute to the career of Chris Benoit Monday night after canceling their regular edition of Monday Night RAW. However, Benoit had been traded to the ECW brand during last weeks roster draft. The mood was completely different for the ECW show after more information was learned about Benoit's involvment in the death of his family. Aside from an introduction to the show by chairman Vince McMahon, who appeared less sympathetic for Benoit than before, there was no mention of Chris Benoit or what had happened over the weekend. There were no tributes or dedicated matches or anything of the sort and the mood of the night was less somber than the show on Monday had been.

Update on WWE Star Chris Benoit's death

In an update to my earlier post today regarding the murder / suicide involving World Wrestling Entertainment star Chris Benoit, it has been released that Benoit was indeed the killer of his wife Nancy and his 7 year old son Daniel.

Police are saying that Benoit strangled his wife to death and smothered his son to death over the weekend before hanging himself in the weight room of his home Monday. Police are investigating if steroids could have played a factor in the actions of Chris Benoit over the weekend but are not saying much more than that.

For more on this strange story go to:
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/W/WRESTLER_DEAD?SITE=OKTUL&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

WWE Superstar Chris Benoit Found Dead

As a fan of professional wrestling for the vast majority of my life I find it kind of unsettling watching the wrestlers that I grew up cheering and booing passing on at such young ages. Over the years the likes of Owen Hart, "Flyin'" Brian Pillman, Curt Henning and others have passed away in the professional wrestling world leaving behind great matches and a legend that will one day will be an inspiration to others who desire the business as they once did.

Over the weekend there was yet another unexpected death in the world of professional wrestling. Current World Wrestling Entertainment superstar Chris Benoit was found dead in his home Monday along with his wife Nancy and their 7 year old son Daniel. Benoit was scheduled to participate in the pay-per-view Vengence on Sunday night; however, he left the show 40 minutes into it claiming he had to return home for personal reasons and was expected to return in time for his title match. However, he did not return and was found dead the next day.

The police department is now investigating the scene as a murder-suicide. It is believed that Benoit killed his wife and son over the weekend and then killed himself on Monday after sending "strange" text messages to friends. What could make a man snap in such a fashion as to return home and kill his wife and child before killing himself the following day? After watching Benoit for many years in the professional wrestling business it kind of amazes me to find this information out. I went back and forth in my like and dislike for his character in the wrestling world but the character they portray and the person they are are sometimes rarely similar. For the last few years I have not been a fan of Benoit's character in the ring; however, that does not change the fact that he was a person who was giving his all in the ring and was a very sound technical wrestler, something that you don't see much of in the professional wrestling business anymore.

One has to wonder what it was that sent him over the edge if in fact the scinario that the police department released is accurate. There is nothing 100% known yet. The autopsies on the family are scheduled for latter today and hopefully then more will be known.

For more on this on going story go here:
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/W/WRESTLER_DEAD?SITE=PASUN&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

"Thomas and Friends" railway toys recalled

Joining the likes of Peter Pan Peanut Butter, various pet foods and now a brand of toothpaste is the children's toy Thomas and Friends. According to Yahoo.com news: More than 1 million of the popular "Thomas & Friends" wooden railway toys made in China are being voluntarily recalled because some may contain lead paint, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission said on Wednesday.

About 1.5 million wooden vehicles, buildings and other train-set parts for young children are being recalled, the CPSC said in a statement. The toys were sold in the United States from January 2005 through June 2007, the statement said. The recall of toys made in China follows a series of health scandals in the United States involving food, drugs and other products imported from China, from poisoned cough syrup to tainted toothpaste and pet food.

"Consumers should take the recalled toys away from young children immediately and contact RC2 Corp. for a replacement toy," the CPSC said.

For more on this story please go to: http://news.yahoo.com/

Colgate warns of fake toothpaste in U.S.

In the wake of the large Pet Food Recall in recent months and the peanut butter recall a few month prior there is yet another product on the American market that could pose potentially harmful effects to those who may use it. According to Yahoo.com news section: Colgate-Palmolive Co. on Thursday warned counterfeit "Colgate" toothpaste that may contain a toxic chemical had been found in discount stores in four U.S. states.

Colgate-Palmolive said it does not use, nor has ever used, diethylene glycol as an ingredient in its toothpaste anywhere in the world. The chemical, also known as DEG and sometimes illegally used as an inexpensive sweetener and thickening agent, is commonly found in solvents and antifreeze.

The counterfeit toothpaste is labeled as being manufactured in South Africa but Colgate-Palmolive said it does not import toothpaste to the United States from South Africa. The packaging also contains several misspellings.

For more on this story visit http://news.yahoo.com

Company recalls 129,000 pounds of beef

According to various news websites including yahoo, AP, and others, a meat company in Kalamazoo, Mich. is recalling the beef due to ecoli contamination. Davis Creek Meats and Seafood were the manufacturers of the product for Gordon Food Service stores.

Products which were made between April 30th and May 1st were shipped to the following states: Arkansas, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia and Wisconsin.

The items in question are boxes of mechanically tenderized steaks and ground beef of different weights and each has the label "Est. 1947A" on it.

For more on this go here: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/B/BEEF_RECALL?SITE=NCKIN&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

India must resist China pressure on tiger ban

Ok, anyone who has been reading my blog for some time now knows that I adore Tigers. My favorite of which is the white tigers and it really saddens me to think that there are truely a limited number of these awesome creatures left in this world. I for one have been lucky enough to have been able to see one of these creatures in person (at a zoo mind you but in person none the less) and their beauty and power is simply amazing to behold. I would love to see the numbers in these creatures incrase as opposed to decrease. Anyway, enough of my ranting here is the story from www.news.yahoo.com :

India must not support a Chinese campaign to lift a ban on trading tiger parts as any relaxation could wipe out the endangered cats, conservation group WWF-India said on Wednesday. The call came a day after a Chinese delegation met Indian officials seeking support to lift the ban, imposed in 1993 on the sale of tiger bones in China for use in traditional medicines as well as skins. "At a time when the tiger is already facing threats like habitat loss and poaching, China's move to lift the ban will only compound the problem further," Sujoy Banerjee from WWF-India's Species Conservation Programme told a news conference.

"The Indian government should take a strong stance on this issue in the interest of tiger conservation in India, which has the world's largest population of tigers in the wild." "Breeding a tiger costs $1,500 per year, but poaching a tiger costs just $40. If the trade becomes legal, which is more profitable -- poaching or breeding?" said wildlife biologist A.J.T. Johnsingh.

For more go to www.yahoo.com news section.

Man charged with stealing $250,000 worth of Skittles

Now I like these candies as much as the next person but this is a little extreme. Here's the report from www.cnn.com :

A man caught removing tires from a truck has been charged with stealing the tractor-trailer containing $250,000 worth of Skittles, police said.

Seven pallets of the 28 in the truck are still missing, authorities said. Alan Chavez, 22, has been charged with first-degree felony theft. It was unclear Monday whether he had a lawyer.

Chavez said he had paid someone else $500 for the truck's rims and tires, police said. The truck has an estimated value of $85,000, and the trailer's value is $30,000.

For more on this story go to: www.cnn.com

Most-wanted part of $2M estate: the dog

In Memphis, Tenn. A man who didn't have a will left a $2 million estate, but the most hotly contested item in court has been his golden retriever, Alex. The four-way dispute over the 13-year-old pet was so intense, an attorney was appointed to represent the dog's interest. On Monday, the judge decided the man's divorced parents should split custody, The Commercial Appeal reported.

"At first glance, the petition seems almost frivolous, but after speaking with all parties, it is evident that this is a highly emotional issue for all involved," said Alex's attorney, Paul Royal, in his report to the probate court. Ron Callan Jr., 35, committed suicide on New Year's Day. He had been a partner with his father in Callan Salvage & Appraisal Co., and the father was named the estate's administrator.

In the consent order the judge approved, the elder Callan and his ex-wife, Esther Snow Gnall, will trade custody of Alex every two weeks. Both parents also agreed to take the dog to the veterinarian for arthritis treatments and any other needed procedures. Before the agreement was reached, the elder Callan had custody and took Alex to work during the day. The father has cats at home, though, so at night, the dog stayed with Callan Jr.'s former girlfriend, who had known Alex since he was a puppy. The son's fiancee also was interested in Alex, and Gnall had said if she won custody, she would allow the fiancee to spend time with the dog.

Royal, the dog's attorney, said he believes all four people love Alex and would take good care of him, but they were using the fight for the dog to punish each other for past transgressions.
"This case is similar to a bitter custody battle involving children where each party loves the children, but the kids are stuck between two people who cannot coexist," the attorney said in his report.

For more on this story go to http://news.yahoo.com/

Lilly gets U.S. approval for Prozac for pooches

As someone who has two CRAZY poodles who suffer from separation anxiety time to time when left alone at the house when I have to leave them there, this article that I found on could very well be a blessing. However, I doubt that even my precious poodles would take to the treatment. I'm often reminded of Happy Bunny when I look at my two little poodles. "Cute But Psycho...Things Even Out!"

Man's best friend may have a new best friend after Eli Lilly and Co. won U.S. approval to sell its former blockbuster antidepressant Prozac to treat misbehaving mutts. The drug, repackaged into a chewable, beef-flavoured tablet to be called Reconcile, was officially approved by the Food And Drug Administration for the treatment of separation anxiety in dogs in conjunction with behaviour modification training.

"Lilly research shows that 10.7 million, or up to 17 percent of U.S. dogs suffer from separation anxiety," Steve Connell, manager of technical, academic and consumer services for companion animal health at Lilly, said in a statement. Canine separation anxiety can occur when dogs are left alone and manifests itself in a range of undesirable behaviours, such as destruction, excess barking, eating disorders or urinating or defecating in the house. The drug, known chemically as fluoxetine hydrochloride, can minimise a pet's distress from being left alone.

For more on this please visit
http://www.reuters.com/article/health-SP/idUSN2538704320070426