hope everyone here has a great 4th of july holiday.things have been pretty rough for me the past year and a half so i haven't been posting as much due to serious financial and family issues that needed tending.with gas prices not to mention everything being so rough these days i'm seeing a lot more people dealing with the same issues.the first couple years i was here it was like a dream and i was winning a lot and everything was going great and then of course the internet gambling ban was passed,my state went RNG and then my finances went from great to obliterated in a very short period.my job folded after eight years and then i started having other troubles too.its a wonder i haven't had a nervous breakdown but thats everyday life where the highs are high and the lows will test your spirit.i made an effort not to get on here and that was very hard because most people know that for years i was on here pretty much nonstop but i had to step back because i knew i'd want to play if i started posting again but it was a bad time because of me being broke plus other factors so i had to step back and focus on other things and its hard when life is about all work and no play which has pretty much been it for me that past year and a half.things are still rough at times at this point but i think its time for me to get back to the spirit of things before the bottom fell out and try and have some fun again so i'll be here more like old times and hopefully here soon i'm hoping arkansas will pass a lottery so i'll have a new place to play.hope everyone has a safe fourth of july

me and my uncle were talking and he said that his wife was worried because my uncle busted one of those compact fluorescent bulbs in their bedroom and she said it had mercury in it.funny thing is he was trying to get me to buy some and i was going to go get them but now i am thinking twice.are these bulbs dangerous?

hope everyone is doing well here.doing the usual myself and trying to get through another day.to the point now that gas,food and bills take up all my resources so i don't play anymore but thats the state of things here in the summer of 2008 and could stay that way until the politicians finally see the huge amount of americans slipping out of the middle class.

sorry i haven't posted lately and probably won't for a good while if things keep going at this current pace.just a few months back it was hard but living was managable and doable.this was a few months back.now out of nowhere rising food,gas,rent,etc. threaten to put me and mine one step closer to the street and i never thought this would happen but its pretty dire.i had 2,300 dollars in savings just over two months ago that has beaten eaten up by my vehicle breaking down on three or four seperate occasions recently.this most recent is a combination of belts,pulleys and compressor all having to do with my air setting me back a grand total of 960 dollars and officially broke.before that it was a distributor and something else that put me back nearly 400 bucks.before that another 300 or 400 for a fuel pump plus sensor.before that i had to get two front tires and a couple weeks later another for the back after a couple flats plus running over a nail and that set me back another few hundred.i sit in my vehicle at work and have to do patrols all night so thats another 25 bucks a night.i've already prepared my family that soon if our vehicle breaks down again we have no finances to fix it which means we'll be on foot.went and bought some bread,peanut butter,bologna,chicken nuggets,soda,paper towels and cereal which cost me 30 buxcks when a few months back the same items totaled 22 bucks.my rent was just raised again also and between all this its put a hell of a strain on my personal relationship not to mention my finances and mental well being.goodness when are all these prices going to quit rising and stabilize.even just six months ago i would not have believed i'd be in the shape i'm in right now.never ever has things looked this bleak and i've got friends moving back in with parents who are grown.my buddy said overseas the dollar is virtually worthless and a joke.the american dream is now a nightmare for lots of people in this country and i think its going to get worse.are they trying to wipe out the middle and lower class?  it really doesn't look like a solution is in sight for these crisis in my opinion.......

WASHINGTON -- President Bush has set a record he'd presumably prefer to avoid: the highest disapproval rating of any president in the 70-year history of the Gallup Poll.

In a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll taken Friday through Sunday, 28 percent of Americans approve of the job Bush is doing; 69 percent disapprove. The approval rating matches the low point of his presidency, and the disapproval sets a new high for any president since Franklin Roosevelt.

The previous record of 67 percent was reached by Harry Truman in January 1952, when the United States was enmeshed in the Korean War.

Bush's rating has worsened amid "collapsing optimism about the economy," says Charles Franklin, a political scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who studies presidential approval. Record gas prices and a wave of home foreclosures have fueled voter angst.

Bush also holds the record for the other extreme: the highest approval rating of any president in Gallup's history. In September 2001, in the days after the 9/11 attacks, Bush's approval spiked to 90 percent.

In another record, the percentage of Americans who say the invasion of Iraq was a mistake reached a new high 63 percent.

Assessments of Bush's presidency are harsh. By 69 percent-27 percent, those polled say Bush's tenure in general has been a failure, not a success.

The telephone poll of 1,016 adults nationwide has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

Low approval ratings make it more difficult for presidents to maneuver, limiting their ability to get legislation passed or boost candidates in congressional elections.

The White House declined a request for comment.

Bush has had dismal ratings through most of his second term. His approval rating hasn't reached as high as 50 percent since May 2005. He's been steadily below 40 percent since September 2006.

Views of Bush divide sharply along party lines ' more so than for previous presidents.

Among Republicans, 66 percent approve and 32 percent disapprove. Disapproval is nearly universal - 91 percent - among Democrats. And 23 percent of independents approve, 72 percent disapprove of the job he's doing.

since the 50's up until the 2000's i think music and television shape a big part in kids thinking growing up.all throughout this city i live in you see kids wearing tacky stuff and saying the things they say because of what they are influenced by in music and television.when people imitate trash they become trashy.like someone said it might drive up ratings for advertisers but at the cost of gullible kids being influenced by questionable subject matter and repeating the things they see or hear thinking its cool.i might've had long hair from being influenced by hard rock music back in the 80's but i'd hate to have been growing up these days influenced by all this gang stuff infesting the airwaves.

congrats to the team for getting us to the national championship game.now we take on the kansas jayhawks in what will be a very exciting contest for the 2008 NCAA mens championship.

NEW YORK (April 4) - More than 80 percent of Americans believe the country is headed in the wrong direction, the highest such number since the early 1990s, according to a new survey.

The CBS News-New York Times poll released Thursday showed 81 percent of respondents said they believed "things have pretty seriously gotten off on the wrong track." That was up from 69 percent a year ago, and 35 percent in early 2002.

The survey comes as housing turmoil has rocked Wall Street amid an economic downturn. The economy has surpassed the war in Iraq as the dominating issue of the U.S. presidential race, and there is now nearly a national consensus that the United States faces significant problems, the poll found.

A majority of Democrats and Republicans, men and women, residents of cities and rural areas, college graduates and those who finished only high school say the United States is headed in the wrong direction, according to the survey, which was published on The New York Times' Web site.

Seventy-eight percent of respondents said the country was worse off than five years ago; just 4 percent said it was doing better.

The newspaper said Americans are more dissatisfied with the country's direction than at any time since the poll's inception in the early 1990s. Only 21 percent of respondents said the overall economy was in good condition, the lowest such number since late 1992. Two in three people said they believed the economy was already in recession.

Still, the approval rating of President George W. Bush did not change since last summer, with 28 percent of respondents saying they approved of the job he was doing.

The poll also found that Americans blame government officials for the housing crisis more than banks or home buyers and other borrowers. Forty percent of respondents said regulators were mostly to blame, while 28 percent named lenders and 14 percent named borrowers.

Americans favored help for people but not for financial institutions in assessing possible responses to the mortgage crisis. A clear majority said they did not want the government to lend a hand to banks, even if the measures would help limit the depth of a recession.

Respondents were considerably more open to government help for homeowners at risk of foreclosure. Fifty-three percent said they believed the government should help those whose interest rates were rising, while 41 percent said they opposed such a move.

some are saying the democratic party could ask al gore to run and make either obama or hillary VP if things get to the point where no resolution can be reached,i'd like this but can they do this?

can you see this pic?   just wondering if its there or the red x.....

pics of my kids and me with my kids........

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A chunk of Antarctic ice nine times the size of Manhattan has suddenly collapsed, putting an even larger glacial area at risk.

Satellite images show the runaway disintegration of a 220-square-mile chunk in western Antarctica.

British scientist David Vaughan says it's the result of global warming.

The rest of the Connecticut-sized ice shelf is holding on by a narrow beam of thin ice and scientists worry that it too may collapse. Larger, more dramatic ice collapses occurred in 2002 and 1995.

does anyone here have lupus?  my mother has had it for a while and i was wondering how others deal and cope with it.

a question about taxes and marriage...

i have two children and a girlfriend i've been with 11 years.i claim the two children and get about 5 or 6 grand each year during tax refund time.if i end up marrying my girlfriend will i get more or way less on my tax refund each year?  yes or no....