Almost Current Events....

	Have a Merry Christmas!!

and a Happy New Year!! 

Introduction

Welcome to my web page!  I've made this page to help keep in contact with my family, and to share some of my pictures.  Enjoy!  This is a new website design using version 2.0 of Sinorca, I am trying some new techniques using CSS.

Sinorca is based on the website of Acronis, a USA-based computer software company. This template is marked up in XHTML 1.0 Strict and styled with CSS, allowing for greater compatibility and transformability. The design does not use any tables resulting in greater design flexibility and cleaner code.

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What I am doing these days...

In August 2004 I moved  from Colorado Springs, CO where I had just finished 10 years of service in the US Army at Fort Carson, Colorado to Pensacola, Florida.  Previously I was a Flight Medic aboard a UH-60 Blackhawk Helicopter.  The units that I served with are the 159th Medical Company (AA) Wiesbaden Germany, the 57th Medical Company (AA) at Ft. Bragg, NC and the 377th Medical Company (AA) at Camp Humphreys, Korea.  Now I am seeking a career in the information technology field.

Currently I am working with a company by the name of CCH a Wolters Kluwer business as a QA Test Engineer, Assoc.  My job involves testing software and tracking defects.  At some point in my future I will continue going to school to get my MCSE (Microsoft Certified Technical Engineer) and hopefully finish my degree.

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What is Fat Tuesday?

Fat Tuesday is Mardi Gras, the festival New Orleans, Louisiana, is famous for. "Gras" is French for fat and "Mardi" is French for Tuesday.  The annual festivities start on January 6, the Twelfth Night Feast of the Epiphany, when the three kings are supposed to have visited the Christ Child, and build to a climax on Mardi Gras, or Fat Tuesday, which always occurs on the day before Ash Wednesday. The parties and parades will continue until Lent begins at the stroke of midnight on Tuesday.
Mardi Gras is a legal holiday in New Orleans. It is scheduled to occur 46 days before Easter. Since the actual date Easter occurs on changes yearly, Mardi Gras can happen on any Tuesday between February 3 and March 9. For two centuries it has been an annual event in New Orleans, except during the two World Wars.

What is less known about Mardi Gras is its relation to the Christmas season, through the ordinary-time interlude known in many Catholic cultures as Carnival. (Ordinary time, in the Christian calendar, refers to the normal "ordering" of time outside of the Advent/Christmas or Lent/Easter seasons. Carnival comes from the Latin words carne vale, meaning "farewell to the flesh." Like many Catholic holidays and seasonal celebrations, it likely has its roots in pre-Christian traditions based on the seasons. Some believe the festival represented the few days added to the lunar calendar to make it coincide with the solar calendar; since these days were outside the calendar, rules and customs were not obeyed. Others see it as a late-winter celebration designed to welcome the coming spring. As early as the middle of the second century, the Romans observed a Fast of 40 Days, which was preceded by a brief season of feasting, costumes and merrymaking. The Carnival season kicks off with the Epiphany, also known as Twelfth Night, Three Kings' Day and, in the Eastern churches, Theophany.
     Epiphany, which falls on January 6, 12 days after Christmas, celebrates the visit of the Wise Men bearing gifts for the infant Jesus. In cultures that celebrate Carnival, Epiphany kicks off a series of parties leading up to Mardi Gras. Epiphany is also traditionally when celebrants serve King's Cake, a custom that began in France in the 12th century. Legend has it that the cakes were made in a circle to represent the circular routes that the Wise Men took to find Jesus, in order to confuse King Herod and foil his plans of killing the Christ Child. In the early days, a coin or bean was hidden inside the cake, and whoever found the item was said to have good luck in the coming year. In Louisiana, bakers now put a small baby, representing the Christ Child, in the cake; the recipient is then expected to host the next King Cake party.
     There are well-known season-long Carnival celebrations in Europe and Latin America, including Nice, France; Cologne, Germany; and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The best-known celebration in the U.S. is in New Orleans and the French-Catholic communities of the Gulf Coast. Mardi Gras came to the New World in 1699, when a French explorer arrived at the Mississippi River, about 60 miles south of present day New Orleans. He named the spot Point du Mardi Gras because he knew the holiday was being celebrated in his native country that day. Eventually the French in New Orleans celebrated Mardi Gras with masked balls and parties, until the Spanish government took over in the mid-1700s and banned the celebrations. The ban continued even after the U.S. government acquired the land but the celebrations resumed in 1827. The official colors of Mardi Gras, with their roots in Catholicism, were chosen 10 years later: purple, a symbol of justice; green, representing faith; and gold, to signify power.
     The name "Fat Tuesday" or Mardi Gras in French comes from the tradition of slaughtering and feasting upon a fattened calf on the last day of Carnival. The day is also known as Shrove Tuesday (from "to shrive," or hear confessions), Pancake Tuesday and fetter Dienstag. The custom of making pancakes comes from the need to use up fat, eggs and dairy before the fasting and abstinence of Lent begins.

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Olive Baptist Church

The church that I attend is Olive Baptist Church.  I have been a member for just almost 2 years now and it has been a huge blessing in my life.  I encourage everyone to visit the link, and take a peek at what's happening in the church.  There are great sermons online as well.

Rocky the squirrel

This is "Rocky" the squirrel.  He/she lives outside of the building that I work in.  I am not sure who came up with the name, but many of the building employees that frequent the smoking area began using the name Rocky, I assumed after the cartoon character from the popular cartoon "Rocky and Bullwinkel".

I was interested in finding out more since I had not ever come across a pure white squirrel, with pink eyes before.  So I did a little research on the net.  White Squirrel Wars .

 

• FACT: The odds against a pure white squirrel being born are 1 in 100,000.

• FACT: Albinism is due to gene mutations that affect the production of pigmentation. True albino animals lack melanin and are white with no markings and with unpigmented pink eyes. In some species there is also a form known as blue-eyed (or partial) albinism.    

 

		Doug's Guest Book