Alec Baldwin - The True "Thoughtless Little Pig"

Alec Baldwin has really crossed the line with his recent hate-filled outburst on 11th April - to a 11-year-old child - his only daughter!

The "TMZ" website has released an audio message that Alec Baldwin recently left for his daughter, Ireland, in which he lambastes her for apparently not answering his phone call.

Below are some quotes from the audio message:

“I don't give a damn that you're 12 years old or 11 years old, or a child, or that your mother is a thoughtless pain in the ass who doesn't care about what you do..."


"Once again I’ve made an ass of myself getting to a phone to make a phone call … I’m tired of playing this game with you. You have insulted me for the last time …You’ve made feel like shit and you’ve made feel like a fool over and over again … I’m going to straighten your ass out … You are a rude, thoughtless little pig..."


"This crap you pull on me with this goddamn phone situation that you would never dream of doing to your mother...and you do it to me constantly over and over again...."



"You better be ready Friday the 20th to meet with me..."

Listen to the actual audio here.


Who the hell does Mr. Baldwin really thinks he is? Is this proper "parenting"? Does anyone believe this is the FIRST time he has verbally abused his child?

Imagine how this child felt listening to this message - from her own father.

Criminal charges should be brought against him, he should lose all visitation rights to his child and his films should be boycotted. A strong message has to be sent to people like him - being a "rich" parent doesn't mean you can treat your child any way you feel like - at any time you feel like.

Even though he and ex-wife, Kim Basinger, is in the middle of a nasty custody and visitation battle over daughter Ireland for the past couple years, it certainly does not give him the right to off-load his frustrations on his own child in this manner. There is simply NO excuse for it. Kim Basinger should, at all costs, protect her daughter from this type of abuse.

Is there any wonder that Los Angeles County Superior Court Commissioner, Maren Nelson, has temporarily barred Mr. Baldwin from having any contact with his child - after she heard his hate-filled outburst. The Commissioner should be highly commended for taking this action (he would not be able to see his child on "Friday the 20th") and at a court hearing on 4th May, Mr. "Thoughtless Little Pig" could lose all contact and visitation rights, permanently.

When you listen to the actual audio, you can clearly tell he is not simply "angry" or even "drunk" - he seems to really believe in what he says and feels.

Talk show host, Don Imus, recently called players of the Rutgers Women's Basketball Team "nappy-headed hos" and after overwhelmingly negative responses from various groups and corporations, he was suspended and then fired. He was made to feel the consequences of his actions - even though he apologized for his remarks several times.

After Mel Gibson's well-publicized anti-Semitic tirade and drunk-driving arrest in July 2006, he was made to feel some of the consequences of his actions - but not much - as his directed-film "Apocalypto" still topped the box office back in December 2006, with U.S $14.2 Million.

I certainly look forward to Mr. Baldwin also "feeling" the consequences of his actions.

How To Use An Image In Your Gmail Signature

As of the time of this article, Gmail still does not allow you to use images in your signatures - which is really for security reasons as placing HTML codes in signatures can lead to abuse and the transmission of viruses. So for the time being, Gmail will only allow you to use plain text as your signature - which many people use right now.

There is however, a manual way to add an image to your existing text signature in Gmail, or even as the header of your email.

Here's how:

1) First create your image and upload it to any free image hosting service, such as Photobucket.

2) When your image is uploaded, simply copy the entire image itself as you see it on the page.

3) Create a new message in Gmail and paste in the image anywhere you want. Make sure the image is loading properly.

4) Type in a subject line such as "Email Sig" or anything else that will identify the contents of the email.

5) Click "Save Now", which saves the message as a "Draft".


Now, anytime you want to send out an email with your special image, all you have to do is first open up the draft message, copy the image and then paste it anywhere in your new message.

There may be other ways to accomplish this in Gmail, but the above method works and does not take very long to set up.

Now go ahead and spice up those Gmails!

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How To Configure ZoneAlarm Free Edition For Use With A Network

ZoneAlarm Free Edition works well on a stand-alone PC and is an excellent personal firewall. However, if you connect that same PC to a network (with another PC or laptop) you'll soon realise that ZoneAlarm will not let you see or access your network. ZoneAlarm is in fact doing its job - blocking "unauthorized" incoming attempts to access your PC. The key word here is "unauthorized". To get ZoneAlarm to recognise your network and allow access between PCs, you will have to give ZoneAlarm information about your network so it will then become "authorized".

This sounds simple enough, but it is in fact very tricky for the "average Joe" to configure this when you are using ZoneAlarm Free Edition. (ZoneAlarm Pro Edition is better suited for use on networked PCs).

Here are complete instructions on how to authorize your network on ZoneAlarm Free Edition.

We will be using 2 PCs on a simple home-network for this tutorial and a dial-up internet connection. The instructions and explanations will be as non-technical as possible and you can read more about networks here.

The gateway PC is running Windows XP Home and the Client PC is running Windows XP Professional. Both PCs have been connected via network cable and the Gateway PC has been configured to share it's dial-up internet connection with the Client PC, along with file and printer sharing.

1) Install the very latest version of ZoneAlarm Free Edition on both PCs. When you then try to share / access files on the network, it fails right away. The Client PC is also unable to access the internet through the Gateway PC.

2) You will need to find out the IP address (or range of addresses) for each of the PCs. On our Gateway PC, we were able to find this out by right-clicking on our network connection (Control Panel > Network Connections) and selecting "Properties". In the "General" tab, we then clicked on "Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)" and then clicked the "Properties" button. We saw an IP address in this format - 192.xxx.x.x. We will be using this as the IP address for our Gateway PC.

3) We then tried to follow the same procedure on the Client PC to ascertain its IP address, but we ran into a problem. The Client PC was set to "Obtain an IP address automatically" and therefore this did not help us to see its IP address. We went back to the Gateway PC where ZoneAlarm was already running and looked at its log file (double-click the ZoneAlarm icon near your PC's clock, click on "Alerts & Logs" and then click the "Log Viewer" tab). We were able to see that a particular IP address was consistently being blocked. This, we figured out, belonged to the Client PC. So we now have IP addresses for both PCs.

4) Open ZoneAlarm on the Gateway PC, click on "Firewall" and then "Zones". This is where we will enter in the IP address of the Client PC, thereby giving it permission to access the Gateway PC. Then click on the "Add >>" button and (in our case), click on "IP Address". If you have an "IP Range", you would select that instead. In the dialog box that comes up, be sure that the Zone is set to "Trusted" and then type in the IP address of the Client PC. Then you must also type in a description (example: Home Network). If you do not do this, you will be unable to proceed. You have now successfully added the Client PC to the "Trusted" Zone of the Gateway PC. At this point we went over to the Client PC and tried to access files from the Gateway PC - success. We then tried to access the internet through the Gateway PC - failure.

5) The next step we did was to open ZoneAlarm on the Gateway PC and click on "Firewall" and then "Main". Set the "Internet Zone Security" to "Medium" (which allows your PC to be visible but still be protected) and then do the same for the "Trusted Zone Security".

6) We then went back over to the Client PC and tried accessing the internet - success! We have now successfully configured ZoneAlarm Free Edition on our Gateway PC - allowing the Client PC to gain access to it and share files, printer and internet. Once your Gateway PC is protected and providing you with useful alerts, it is not necessary to have ZoneAlarm running on the Client PC. However, we will go even further for this tutorial and configure ZoneAlarm on the Client PC as well.

7) At this point, we went over to the Client PC and followed step 4) making sure we typed in the IP address of the Gateway PC instead. We then wrapped up by following step 5).

Both PCs were then restarted and complete tests were done.

ZoneAlarm Free Edition was running successfully on both PCs which were networked together. The Gateway PC can access files on the Client PC and vice-versa. The Client PC can utilize the printer connected to the Gateway PC and it can also access the internet through the Gateway PC.

As stated earlier, this process is tricky - but not impossible to accomplish.

Based on your particular network setup and the number of computers involved, the steps outlined above may not work for you, but it is worth the effort to have ZoneAlarm's firewall protection.

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The U.S $500 Million Curse

When Anna Nicole Smith married oil-billionaire, J. Howard Marshall in 1994 (63 years her senior), she probably never thought her life and the life of others around her, would turn into such a tragedy - just 13 years later. After Marshall's death in 1995, Anna claimed he promised her half of his U.S $1.6 Billion fortune. Is this where the "curse" began?

Think about this for a minute - after Anna was "promised" half of Marshall's fortune, she soon began suffering with her health, career, finances (she filed for bankruptcy in 1996), legal battles and drug-use - only to name a few. Marshall's own son, E. Pierce Marshall, died battling Anna over his father's fortune, Anna's son Daniel died under suspicious circumstances (mere days after the birth of her daughter, Dannielynn) and then came the suspicious death of Anna herself (at age 39). No less than 6 men subsequently came out of the woodwork, all claiming they were the father of Dannielynn! But is this the end of the "U.S $500 Million Curse"?

Absolutely not.

If you were one of the many who were glued to their TV set this past week looking at the court-battle over Anna's remains, you would see why the "curse" is still very much alive - despite people dying around it. The 3 main parties involved in the legal-wranglings include Anna's mother, Virgie Arthur, Howard K. Stern and Larry Birkhead. Judge Larry Seidlin in Florida indicated that the focus of everyone's interest should now be directed to the well-being of Anna's little girl, Dannielynn. True, but for the parties involved, does a US $500 Million pay-day trump that? Judge Seidlin on 22nd February 2007 made an emotional ruling (complete with tears) that he wants Anna buried next to her son, Daniel in the Bahamas. It is what Anna would have wanted - she had even purchased a plot next to Daniel before she died. Judge Seidlin received alot of criticism for his unconventional antics during the hearings, but he was fair throughout (as with his final ruling) and you got the impression he was also sincere (despite rumors he is seeking a "Judge Judy"-type TV show). When one of Virgie's lawyers briefly collapsed in court, Judge Seidlin promptly called a recess and whipped out his own credit card to pay for orange juice for the diabetic lawyer. Sure, the cameras were on and rolling - but there was an air of sincerity about the Judge. Later on when the same lawyer was speaking to a witness, the Judge was softly heard advising him to take his time and not get too excited.

Less than an hour after Judge Seidlin's ruling, all 3 parties involved in the hearings came out with their lawyers for a brief press conference - showing a united-front and suggesting everything would be worked out amicably and everyone had agreed to have Anna buried next to her son in the Bahamas. Right. Sure. Is that why Anna's mother later sent her lawyers to appeal Judge Seidlin's decision? She wants Anna buried in Texas and she also wants to exhume Daniel's remains in the Bahamas and have it moved to Texas! During their testimonies, Virgie, Howard and Larry all admitted under oath that they profited from Anna in one form or another (Howard went as far as to admit that for a long time, his only source of income was Anna!). Larry admitted he sold many of Anna's pictures for profit as her photographer. There is also a rumor that Howard talked Anna into selling photos of Daniel and her new baby - soon after Daniel died!). So these people all clearly profited from Anna while she was alive - so are their intentions now to seek profit from Anna's death? Anna's own mother, Virgie, admitted that she took along a journalist from "Splash" to film her visit of Daniel's grave in the Bahamas. Was Virgie paid for this video? She said "no" during her testimony - but later came back and admitted that her round-trip to the Bahamas was paid for by the "Splash" journalist. Who knows what other compensation she received. This ties well into the video that was played during the court hearings, showing Anna blasting her mother for trying to profit off her and Daniel. Anna knew exactly what was going on even then - and probably knows what is taking place now, after her death.

Before Anna died, she named Howard as "Executor" in her Will. According to Florida law, an "Executor" is entitled to 6% of the awarded-fortune. Do the math on 6% of U.S $500 Million.

As the battle over where to bury Anna continues (more than 2 weeks since her death), other court proceedings are already on the way to prove that Larry Birkhead is the biological father of Dannielynn (never mind the fact that Howard is currently recognised as Dannielynn's father in the Bahamas). The matter of exactly how much of Marshall's fortune will eventually go to Dannielynn (and who gets control of it) is yet to be finalized. Sadly, the battle over Marshall's millions will take us into the new decade - and beyond.

This all reminds me of the title of a classic movie with James Cagney - "Angels With Dirty Faces". Everyone is weeping for Anna and trying to show an angelic-front, but they all have dirty motives behind it.

When A Mountain Lion Attacks

This is an amazing story about "courage" and "loyalty".

A 65-year old woman, Nell Hamm, has been credited with saving her husband's life (Jim Hamm - 70) in San Francisco - when a vicious mountain lion pounced on Jim and wrestled him to the ground while they were both hiking in Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park. The mountain lion opened its mouth and put Jim's head between its powerful jaws - and locked down.

"He didn't scream. It was a different, horrible plea for help, and I turned around, and by then the cat had wrestled Jim to the ground", said Nell - later at a hospital where her husband was being treated.

Nell picked up a 4-inch wide log and started to relentlessly beat the mountain lion - but to no avail. While Jim's head was still inside the lion's jaws, he spoke to his wife - telling her he had a pen in his pocket that she can use to poke the lion's eye. Nell reached for the pen and to her surprise, the pen bent after a few jabs into the lion's eye! She then picked up the log again and continued to beat the lion.

Eventually, the lion let go of its powerful jaw-grip on Jim's head. Having tasted blood, the lion stood there and looked at Nell - who was screaming and waving around her log in the lion's direction. The lion then simply walked away - leaving Nell and her badly wounded husband.

The couple would be celebrating their 50th Wedding Anniversary next month in New Zealand and before this horrific incident, neither of them had seen a mountain lion - even though they were both experienced hikers.

Nell strongly encouraged her husband to get up and walk away from the bloody scene. She gathered more logs and branches around them, in case other lions were in the area. They waited until a Park Ranger came around and they were rescued. Game Wardens then closed off the Park and released the hounds to track the lion. They were unsure how long it would take to actually locate the lion, but instead of coming across one lion, they came across two! The pair of lions were spotted not far from the scene of the incident and they were both shot and killed. Their bodies will be flown to a State Forensics Lab in hopes of determining whether any of them were directly responsible for Jim's brutal attack.

Jim has since undergone surgery for multiple lacerations on his head and body. His lips had to also be stitched back together and he has suffered puncture wounds as well as a torn scalp.

If Nell had ran away screaming for her life when the lion attacked her husband, there would have been no way he would have survived - but she stuck by her husband's side and fought hard to save his life. Nell displayed immense "courage" and "loyalty". In an age where marriage is usually short-lived and generally treated as "just something fun to do" (remember Britney Spears and Jason Alexander's 55-hour marriage?), this is a truly wonderful story and really highlights what marriage is supposed to be about.

Here's wishing all the best to Nell and Jim Hamm.