In June while I was in recovery from my Spinal injury I hired a Web Designer to help us clean up the code on Geek News Central to optimize it for MT version 3 and to develop a skin for this site. I paid a $280.00 advance on work to be completed. To make a long story short the web developer cleaned this site up and then provided me some images of what he had in mind for a skin for the other site. I approved one of the images and he then promised to get it chopped up into CSS and put up on the website.

Make a long story short he quit before he finished. I think it may have had something to do with the political views on the other site but if my views where not obvious in the beginning he must have been blind. At this point I am awaiting a return of 1/2 of the money I paid him. I am sure I will get it but this guy is struggling “Artist” in New York and it will probably be a long time before I will see it.

I think the thing that pisses me off the most is this. At the time the developer was out of work I figured hey he needs some work and I have a small project and this could work out for both of us he earns some money while unemployed and I get a skin from someone that appears capable of doing original work. He gets a real job during the design of the skin and quits working on the project and then claims he has no time when he is already 90% finished.

Meanwhile I have a site that still needs a skin and I am very gun shy now on who I will hire. So are you a web designer that finishes what you start?

I highly recommend that you avoid AnziDesign as this supposed designer/artist cannot be relied upon to complete a project that he has agreed to start.

This is the skin we went with fearing this was the best he could come up with. This was as far as he got when he welched on the job.

This is the first design my so called Artist web designer came up with. Obviously he was trying to be funny as I rejected it after 3 seconds of looking at it.

I am awaiting a refund on some of the money I used to pay a web designer to build a skin for this site and fix some issues on Geek News. Thus I am in the market for a web designer again. If you are a good web designer I have some JPG’s of the ideas that the old developer put forth before he quit that I would like put to use. Let me know as soon as possible if you would like to do that and only contact me if you can complete the work.

(1) 709,000 REGULAR (ACTIVE DUTY) PERSONNEL.

(2) 293,000 RESERVE TROOPS.

(3) EIGHT STANDING ARMY DIVISIONS.

(4) 20 AIR FORCE AND NAVY AIR WINGS WITH 2,000 COMBAT AIRCRAFT.

(5) 232! STRATEGIC BOMBERS.

(6) 19 STRATEGIC BALLISTIC MISSILE SUBMARINES WITH 3,114 NUCLEAR WARHEADS ON 232 MISSILES.

(7) 500 ICBMs WITH 1,950 WARHEADS.

(8) FOUR AIRCRAFT CARRIERS AND 121 SURFACE COMBAT SHIPS AND SUBMARINES PLUS ALL THE SUPPORT BASES, SHIPYARDS, AND LOGISTICAL ASSETS NEEDED TO SUSTAIN SUCH A NAVAL FORCE.

CAN YOU GUESS WHICH COUNTRY THESE ARMED FORCES BELONG TOO?

RUSSIA? NO

CHINA? NO

GREAT BRITAIN? NO

FRANCE? WRONG AGAIN

MUST BE USA RIGHT? STILL WRONG

GIVE UP?

THESE ARE THE AMERICAN MILITARY FORCES THAT WERE ELIMINATED
DURING THE ADMINISTRATION OF BILL CLINTON AND AL GORE.

NOW WE HAVE HILLARY CLINTON AND THE DUMMYCRATS SCREEMING
WE DON’T HAVE ENOUGH TROOPS – DAH!

HOPE EVERYONE IS SLEEPING WELL!………

WHAT ABOUT THE NEW PROCLAIMED JFK???

John F. Kerry on Defense — I hadn’t seen this list printed before. It would make one heck of a mailer if it were sent to voters.

(9) He voted to kill the Bradley Fighting Vehicle

(10) He voted to kill the M-1 Abrams Tank

(11) He voted to kill every aircraft carrier laid down from 1988.

(12) He voted to kill the Aegis anti aircraft system

(13) He voted to Kill the F-15 Strike Eagle

(14) He voted to Kill the Block 60 F-16

(15) He voted to Kill the P-3 Orion upgrade

(16) He voted to Kill the B-1

(17) He voted to Kill the B-2

(18) He voted to Kill the Patriot Anti Missile System

(19) He voted to Kill the FA-18

(20) He voted to Kill the B-2

(21) He voted to Kill the F117

In short, he voted to kill every military appropriation for the
development and deployment of every weapons systems since 1988 to
include the battle armor for our troops. With Kerry as president our Army will be made up of naked men running around with sticks and clubs.

He also voted to kill all anti terrorism activities of every agency of
the U.S. Government and to cut the funding of the FBI by 60%, to cut the funding for the CIA by 80%, and cut the funding for the NSA by 80%. No wonder our intelligence was so wrong about WMD…!

But then he voted to increase OUR funding for U.N operations by 800%!!!

Is THIS a President YOU want? He will kill our military as much if not more than Clinton and Gore did…! Plus place then under control of the U.N.

Again, do you think you can sleep well with your kids possibly under U.N. control?

Please pass this on, as many people may not know how bad it REALLY is. And don’t limit your sending to just your Republican friends. Everyone needs to know… Flip flop (Kerry) and Mop Top (Edwards) are not the real deal…

If you can read this, thank a teacher; If you are reading it in
English, thank a SOLDIER, SAILOR OR AIRMAN.”

I am not real happy tonight. I have paid a web designer in good faith to develop a template for this site and things were on track with him coming up with a design that I signed off on and since then I keep getting a, “will work on your site as soon as I can message”.

I just don’t get it, I wanted the new skin on the site by the beginning of the DNC but it did not happen, and my e-mail messages have went unanswered this week. I am sure he will get it done eventually but I am not at all happy.

Several thing are brewing in RSS land, one centers around Technorati as it looks like they are getting ready to start pulling Political feeds in a separate area. Along with that Dave Winer has a hot project in work that will be needing some hard-core bloggers to help out on. It’s nice to see that innovation in the weblog community is alive and well. [Politics Technorati] [Scripting News]

Immediate Update: Looks like Technorati will be working with CNN during the DNC. [ZDNet]

[Open letter to veterans signed by twenty-one Medal of Honor recipients]

Dear fellow veterans:

We have listened to Senator Kerry falsely attack President Bush for months over funding for veterans, and it’s time to set the record straight. The truth is President Bush has led the way on improving veterans’ benefits, supporting our troops and restoring honor and dignity to the White House.

Since 2001, President Bush has increased veterans funding by over $20 billion, and funding for veterans’ health care has increased by 40 percent since he took office. Funding for veterans has gone up twice as fast under President Bush as it did under President Clinton, and those who accuse the President of cutting funding are simply not being honest with veterans.

Meanwhile, John Kerry voted against a $1.3 billion increase in veterans health care, skipped votes on concurrent receipt and voted against funding for our troops in Afghanistan and Iraq. And while he talks a good game, Kerry’s record shows he is out of the mainstream. The American Flag symbolizes our ideals, our history and our values. President Bush shares this belief and supports a Constitutional Amendment banning desecration of the Flag. John Kerry believes this is “an attack on free speech.”

We are disturbed that John Kerry would try to scare veterans with his false accusations, and we are disappointed in his lack of support for today’s troops. Please join us in setting the record straight and showing your support for President Bush — a leader who has proven his support for those who have served, backs our troops defending our nation and shares our values.

Sincerely,

*The signatures on this letter of Medal of Honor recipients does not denote the support or endorsement of the Congressional Medal of Honor Society

That’s a damn scary thought not sure why I used New York in my title, I guess it’s the farthest city away from Honolulu. It very well could be Detroit, Los Angeles, Dallas gulp Honolulu or any other number of big cities. The death toll and destruction not to mention the probable start of World War III would be upon us.

The nightmare would not only be ours it would also be the nightmare of a handful of countries leaders that could start counting the days before we come to get them. Leaders in countries that support terrorism have to be scared to death of the possibility of one of their groups or even UBL doing such a deed as I could ponder that a few countries will be under new ownership before it’s over, and the American public is not going to be so upset over human rights violations.

God forbid something this terrible happening. My parents lived the Cuban Missile Crises when they where first married. I grew up understanding the meaning of the cold war and had my life very much affected by the events of 9-11. I keep things in sharp perspective but lets face it someone is going to let the Jeanie out of the bottle at some point just to prove they can. Let’s just hope that our defenses are good enough to stop them before they can deliver the payload.

Today reading a report of a flight from Detroit to Los Angles raised the hair on the back of my neck. I will let you read the article but I will make this point. American Airlines, United Airlines has clear stated policies about congregating in the back of the aircraft. I used to like and stand a lot during flights but have respected the wishes of the airlines and stayed in my seat. I am not sure how the folks on this flight kept calm but I would have been ready to rumble if I had be on the flight. This story is going to shock you. [www.womenswallstreet.com]

Update: Seems this is the story of the day and a bunch of people have weighed in. The story thus far is checking out and will more than likely be hitting major news outlets shortly. I am linking to some site that have interesting takes on the article. [Michelle Malkin] [Blogingham] [Instapundit Part 1] [Instapundit Part 2]