Gate Advises Obama TeamGate has been giving advice to the Obama transition team for a week now.
Gate is mostly concerned that 1. the future Obama administration understand the importance of habitat expansion for Alligators and 2. the Obama administration not be unduly influenced by turtles, pythons, crocodiles and other creature who share that habitat.
UGA Taking An On Line Course in SecurityUga (or George Dog) was thinking about going to get a 4- year degree but changed his mind when he spoke with Graduation Bear.
Uga is now learning Security Management. Its a two year on-line course.
The biggest drawback is the lack of dialogue with other students. Of course since Uga only wants to know "What's Up?", this isn't entirely bad.
Lobby Ponders His OptionsOur stuffed lobster, Lobby, was once considering going to medical school. He was going to follow in the clawpath of Dr. Zoidberg, of Futurama Fame (the doctor is the first image).
Coke Bear, who seems to be doing more and more consulting for our family stuffed animals, and I pointed out to Lobby that, notwithstanding his degree, Dr. Zoidberg has the job of staff physician to a small, capital starved and poorly managed delivery company. In the animated show, Dr. Zoidberg is always hungry.
After some internet work, which was difficult given his claws don't hold a mouse very well, Lobby decided to seek work advising the various Seafood Associations.
Graduation Bear at WorkThe Hedge Fund makes Graduation Bear go though dusty old folders that were placed in laundry baskets and look for receipts that they can use to pretend they were doing business when they were actually being entertained.
This is pretty bad for Graduation Bear especially because, as a salaried employee, he doesn't get paid for overtime. The Hedge Fund bosses have demanded he work both Saturday and Sunday almost every week since he started with them.
Uga (which stands for University of Georgia) was Surprised By the LetterWhen Uga (a.k.a., George Dog) came to stay with us he had his mail forwarded to us also. The USPS apprised the Georgia Department of Family Services (GDFS) of the new address when the sent a communication to UGA's old address.
The Georgia Department of Family Services wrote to the Maryland Attorney General asking if the home UGA had chosen was a good home for a stuffed animal. The Maryland Attorney General then wrote to the GDFS that there was a sexual offender in the house, namely the cat, Soda. The GDFS then wrote to UGA. When UGA received the letter, his first reaction was total disbelief. Then he confronted Soda and asked him, "What's Up?"
Coke Bear Consults for Graduation BearCoke bear was just coming back from advising at a construction site when Graduation Bear asked for some consultation work.
Graduation Bear's problem is, of course, the monumental debt he piled up with the college loans and the interest and penalties.
A secondary problem was that a stuffed animal with a communication degree isn't very employable.
However, Coke Bear had contacts in the Hedge Fund industry and within a few weeks, Graduation Bear was offered a job as a "Personal Service Assistant" to the Executive Office of the Hedge Fund. The work would be tiring and somewhat unpleasant (let's just say it involved some work that could be considered illegal if it wasn't voluntary).
Coke Bear didn't have a lot of options at the time so he signed up to work for the Hedge Fund.
After Supper Entertainment for AlligatorFrequently after supper or lunch on the Sabbath, George and his father play Cribbage or Klabberjast. This latter game is also called Clabber or Klabberjass. The hot links go to articles on these games.
These are card games.
Alligator likes to watch and give advice. During the cribbage game he always advises the player with the crib regarding what to contribute to the crib, "Don't throw away what you don't want; throw away what you don't need."
Alligator is also reminding people to count knobs even though it is only one point. In klabberjast, Alligator constantly advises people to get a lot of meld and also to take the last trick (a.k.a. stuch).
The picture of Alligator was not taken on the Sabbath.
Coke Bear Agrees to HelpCoke Bear was at his computer terminal one day and received a variety of messages from other stuffed animals.
It seemed a lot of these animals were facing difficult situations (for example Graduation Bear's problem with college debt as noted in the post below). So he decided to become a consultant to the stuffed animal world in addition to his work for the Coca Cola Corporation.
Graduation Bear Created a Problem for HimselfGraduation Bear got his degree in Communications back in 2002. He got the degree from an exclusive northeastern private University. Because tuition was high, he borrowed the money for tuition and living expenses.
He spent the next six years going to parties and interest on the borrowed money piled up. He also got fined for delinquency because, the debt-holder said, he did not make a reasonable attempt to pay the loan back. Graduation Bear thought he would get out of this by simply declaring bankruptcy. Graduation Bear went to Alligator to discuss it. Unfortunately for Graduation Bear, according to Alligator, tuition debt is in a similar class with debt owed for child support or criminal restitution and is not terminated by bankruptcy.
Bummer!
Eventually he had to take a job that he didn't like.
Gate Loves Doing Grace After Meals with us.One of the things Gate likes to do is to join us for Grace After Meals. We typically do this as a family on Sabbath.
There are several things Gate likes about this.
1. There is the psalm we do at the beginning which Gate thinks is a "Song of Allegation". Most people translate the phrase "Shieir Hamalos" as Song of Elevation but Alligator is sure they are wrong.
2. He also likes the first benediction because it has a sentence which praises God for giving sustenance to all his creatures (Gate believes the words, "especially Alligators" have been incorrectly edited out.
3. He like the invocation of God's mercy because it mentions the fact that we await "Elijah the Prophet" which Gate says is a misprint since it should say "Alligator the Prophet". The word "Eliahu HaNovi" should thus be "Alligator HaNovi" according to Alligator.
4. He likes the last benediction which includes the line from a psalm saying that God gives every creature what they need.
This isn't the only thing in Judaism that Gate likes. He also like the Scroll of Ester which Gate has amended to read,
"In the days of Alligator,
The Alligator.
He ruled from Florida to Louisiana
Over 127 counties and parishes"
The picture of alligator with the prayer book was not taken on the Sabbath
Gate ArrivesOur Alligator (aka Gate) arrived from Mississippi. He began looking over George's law school related material.
He loves wild allegations (he would spell it 'alligation' and thus his favorite TV show is Nancy Grace.
Of course he also likes nature shows about alligators and also the SciFi channel's movie "SuperGator". The poster for the movie is the first image.
