Jamie Wakefield

When I first came to Madrid, it was my first time living in the big city. I had to learn a lot of new things like taxis, the subway, getting groceries home without a car, street performers and beggars. Beggars took me the longest to learn. “Oh, they just need a helping hand. Look at this poor women sitting on cardboard with a cup out. She must be sixty years old. And cold. How sad. I will give her some money so she can buy some food.” “Poor guy. Sitting on his heels with just his hand out and a forlorn look on his face. Clearly a mentally ill person who has fallen through the cracks.” “That is an enormous homeless person. She doesn’t look too bright but it’s smart sitting outside a church so the pious will give her some change.” Of course there are many types of beggars. And by beggars I mean people who rely on the kindness of others and have no guarantee of income for the way they spend their time. Like the pleasant black...

Thank you for a well thought out and intelligent post. "That said, poor governance by the republicans in the past does not excuse the same poor governance being continued by the democrats in the present. Do you think that the stimulus bill is a good one, Jamie?" In response I have to say I think the democrats in congress are doing a fucking awful job, which is why they have a 10% approval rating. I do think the revised stimulus bill is a good one. From what I have read, the initial bill had too much pork in it. I am of many minds concerning this. In the past, I thought it was dumb to just put money back into the tax-payers’ pockets. How is putting three hundred dollars into someone's hand going to stimulate the economy? That's not going to do anything! But I believe we are in a unique situation. For one thing, we're not talking three hundred dollars, we're talking three thousand. For another, it's not just that the economy is bad, it's that banking, le...

Not as right as I would like to be, but still right. Wendy and I have had this discussion before, and I was sure I had posted it here, but not in the way that I had hoped. Here's what I said on the blog. http://kingfatty.blogspot.com/2008/02/i-endorse-hilary-clinton.html "Likeability – A lot of people think that the Republicans will hate Hilary and do anything they can to obstruct her progress once she gets in office. A nice wake up call by a columnist at the NYTimes pointed out it doesn’t matter which dem gets into the White House. The Republicans will hate them and do anything they can to obstruct any progress and bad mouth the President at every opportunity. Bill Clinton ran on a platform of bipartisanship, invited Republicans to dinner and meetings and got kicked in the face for his trouble. What? You think Rush Limbaugh and Hannity are going to treat Obama fairly if he gets the nomination? You think they will treat him with any more respect than they do anyone? Don’t kid ...

I just received a funny note that mentioned the McDonald's coffee case. For some reason, I always feel it is my mission to inform people about the facts of this case. I don't know why, I just want you to know it was not a frivolous lawsuit. I just like facts, okay? The full story is here. I think it's a good read. If you don't want to read the whole thing, below is the part that's most important. During discovery, McDonalds produced documents showing more than 700 claims by people burned by its coffee between 1982 and 1992. Some claims involved third-degree burns substantially similar to Liebecks. This history documented McDonalds' knowledge about the extent and nature of this hazard. McDonalds also said during discovery that, based on a consultants advice, it held its coffee at between 180 and 190 degrees fahrenheit to maintain optimum taste. He admitted that he had not evaluated the safety ramifications at this temperature. Other establishments sell coffee at...

For those of you who have responded with feedback about "Marilyn's Story", I want to say "thank you." Most of you say the same thing and that is the advice I have taken. The story has been changed based on your feedback and it's clearly better because of it. I am approaching agents (again) this week and I think some of your comments really demonstrate why they should represent me. Other people's words sell me better than I can sell myself. They hold more weight. I just feel so good about this work and your comments mean so much to me. Thank you for taking the time to read it and taking the time to write feedback. It brings me confidence and joy. Self publishing is still an option. The book publishing industry is in a spiral right now, but I am hopeful. An agent and a publisher is still the Holy Grail but there are other options. Right now, "Quest for the Pro Tour" will be republished under a company owned by Amazon so it will be listed there, ...

I'm going to embarrass myself with history, not my strong suit. Bear with me. - - (see this dash here? Blogger is AGAIN refusing to recognize carriage returns. So much hate. Aren't you guys one of the smartest, best paying companies in the world? And still Google Blogger is riddled with flaws. Notice how my pictures are never centered? Good reason for that. Notice how my text isn't fully-justified? That's not by design but necessity.) - I've never understood some revolutions. American revolution, I understand that. Revolutions where class disparity gets so bad that the poor rise up and slay the ruling class are the ones I don't understand. Redistribute the wealth? Has that ever worked? Unless you have a leader of the revolution who finds the evil landowners' treasuries and doles out an equal portion to an entire nation of people, how do you redistribute the wealth? The only thing that happens is the wealthiest get slain (usually for good reason) and the lead...

Apparently, I am one of the few. It doesn't appear to be any faster than Windows Vista so I have no idea why everyone says it is. It's as much as a memory hog as Vista. With almost nothing in my start bar my memory says it is 41% used up. In fact, when I just went to check that number, the gadget that is supposed to be on my right hand side of the screen is actually missing. It didn't load on startup. Many programs don't work. My Iphone wouldn't sync. WoW refused to start saying that I needed a newer version of DirectX. Hidemyip won't start at all. Utorrent wouldn't work, I needed to switch to Bittorrent. I couldn't download programs from websites. When I tried to download bittorrent it would get to 99% and stop. I tried random programs from download.com all with the same result. I had to reset all my cookies and internet settings in order to get downloading to function again. The way the taskbar works now is insane. All my Internet Explorer windows open...