3-31-07

"I couldn't love a human baby more than I love this brush!" Chaz (Will Farrel "Blades of Glory")

Yup! I went and saw Blades of Glory this weekend. I loved it! It's been a while since Will Farrel has been on top. He's made some stinkers but this movie brings him back. I know some people who don't like Will Farrel. I guess he's one of those people who are a love them or hate them kinda guy. I didn't particularly care for Farrel until he made Zoolander. I saw his Mugatu and thought it was comedic genius.

3-27-07

Today was the sentencing...

I don't really have a lot to say on the matter. I guess I said what all I wanted to at the sentencing.

I just hope we all can move on from this now.

My Story: The Beginning..

A few weeks back I posted that I would tell my parents story. I haven't forgotten. It's just been a hectic time with adjusting to not having to deal with the trial and all. Trust me. I haven't forgotten.

Before I get into what happened to me and my parents I'm going to go back. Way back! About 147 years back. I want to lay some groundwork so that I don't repeat myself in future postings. What I will be discussing is the history of the farm and how my family came to own it. I will also be discussing in detail the supposedly "disputed" right-of-way. I won't get bogged down in deed numbers and the like, but you will get an understand of the history and what the farm meant to the community of Four States.

HISTORY LESSON

The deed that goes the furthest back is 1860. The Civil War hadn't started yet and West Virginia wasn't a state. But the Martin family purchased 115 acres of land in Four States area. About 80 acres of this would become the farm that exists today.

The farm was one 115 acre piece until 1885. One of the Martin's passed away and divided up the farm into four parcels. Each parcel went to the four siblings that were still alive. The current farm is parcels 2, 3 and 4.

Here's where it get's interesting. The Martin family cemetery is on the property. A road was erected to get to the cemetery. This cemetery now borders the Consul property which borders the farm. A second road was constructed to allow all four siblings to access their parcel of land. The access road started at the county road, went through parcel one, through parcel two and three and stopped at a newly erected home on parcel four. The home was built in 1883 and is the house that me and my parents were renovating.

The Martin children continued to own the property until 1927 when it was sold to my Uncle Steve (Stipa) Markovich. He married my Aunt Anna (Teta) Slatt. My Aunt Teta's daughter was my Aunt Mary. When my family purchased the farm both roads were there and both roads are made mention of in our deed. The road to the cemetery is listed on page one of the deed and the right-of-way to the county road is listed on page two. This will be important later.

What is also important is that in the 40's the farm went from 115 acres to around 82 acres. Parcel one was sold. The parcel was sold with the stipulation that all mineral right agreements and access road agreements were still valid in the sale of the property. For those that don't follow - The disputed right-of-way that was in existance since the 1880's is still valid along with mineral right agreements. The farm later went from 82 acres to 117 acres with aquisition of property across the county road. Parcel one was again split up. The pieces of parcel one today are Dale Eagle's property and his neighbor Betty Corbin's property. Do not ask me why my Uncle Stipa sold parcel one. I have no clue.

During the Second World War the farm was the hub of activity in Four States. The mine was open and people in the community came to buy butter and bread, get their animals slaughtered and turned into meat and get their horses new shoes. The Parrish farm that borders our farm was an important part of the Four States community also. I should also mention that moon shine was a product of demand on the farm too. That's a story for another time though.

Enter my dad. He is the youngest of four children. My Grampa Slatt was a coal miner and he wasn't home a lot. Something happened to my biological grandmother when my father was four so she wasn't around either. My Aunt Mary never married and didn't have any children. So, it was a relationship of convenience that began. My Aunt Mary was in many ways a surrogate mother to my dad. Even though the family home was in Bellview, my dad spent a majority of his life on the farm. When my dad turned 18 and graduated from High School, he hopped on his motorcycle and went to northeast Ohio to find work at the Lorain Ford Plant. There he would work for 30 years, meet Tanna Garra, get married and have two sons.

During this time my dad never forgot the farm. For most of my life we would visit Fairmont and the farm once sometimes twice a month. It was a tradition to spend Easter in Bellview with my Grandpa and then go to the farm before we left. My Aunt Mary was a gentle soul. She never spoke ill will about anyone. But you did know if she didn't like someone. She would get quiet and get a conserned look on her face. Then she'd smile and change the subject. She didn't do that too often and that's why when she did do this we took notice. Ironically one of these instances when this happened was when Dale Eagle was mentioned.

After my brother and I graduated from High School in the mid 90's my dad continued to visit but my brother and I were too busy doing other things. Life sometimes gets in the way and next thing you know we haven't been to the farm in a few years. My dad would still go and do odd jobs for my Aunt Mary. He built a new chicken coop (which will be called the Hilton for it's beautiful baby blue siding) and other things she needed. My Aunt Mary had a friend that helped her named Goldie. Goldie would put the ducks and geese away when my Aunt Mary's knees would keep her from moving well.

In the early 90's the part of parcel one that had the road in it was purchased by Dale and Rose (Judy) Eagle. I personally never saw Dale or Judy on the farm during the 90's. They used to have a store where their garage is right now. I went and bought bread there once for my Aunt Mary. That was the extent of my interaction with them until 2004 when I moved up to the farm. My dad made mention when he would come back to Ohio on visits that he had talked to Dale once or twice. But no real acknowledgement that there was a relationship. I guess that didn't happen till later. My point is that Dale wasn't around when we came into town. Except for the occasional friendly conversation every now and then there really was no interaction. All the while my Aunt Mary, when Dale's name was mentioned would lower her head, get quiet for a few seconds, lift her head up smiling and change the subject.

In 1998 my parents had moved to Fairmont to be the managers of The Woodlands apartment complex on Kingmont road. My dad was able to do a lot of work on the farm for my Aunt Mary while they lived there. Again, Dale wasn't visible. I would come visit and I still had never met the man. I only saw him and Judy from a distance when we went up the road to the farm. In 2000 my parents moved to South Carolina to be near to my mom's parents who are of ill health. I eventually moved there also. In late 2002 we got a call that my Aunt Mary had been diagnosed with cancer and she wasn't doing well. My dad would make trips back up to the farm to check up on her. Finally in October of 2003 my Aunt Mary passed away. My Aunt Mary had left the farm to the person that closely resembled a son to her. That was my dad. Because of the ducks and gees and other animals on the farm my parents immediately moved to the farm to take care of them. I stayed in South Carolina to take care of loose ends for them plus I was attending the University Of South Carolina (Go Gamecocks!!!).

I went to the funeral and afterwards we went to the farm. I took a walk with my dad around the property. As we walked and talked he would get quiet and get the same grimace on his face that Aunt Mary would get. Puzzled I asked my dad what was on his mind.

He said "You know how your Aunt Mary doesn't say anything negative about anyone?"

I said "Yes".

He said "Well, your Aunt Mary said something to me a few weeks ago that suprised me."

I said "What did she say?"

He said "She said to watch out for Dale Eagle. He's crazy like a fox!"

We both looked at each other and then continued walking. I would have never thought that two years and seven months later from that conversation that my parents would be dead and I would have Dale Eagle standing over me with a pistol pointed at my head.

TO BE CONTINUED.....

3-26-07

I'm posting out of order.

I will be posting for March, 17, 21 and 23 in a little bit. I just haven't had time to get them posted yet. I've noticed that since I've been blogging that the time period between February and April seem to be the time that I blog the least. Then I pick up over the summer and fall. Interesting...

I had an eventful morning. I spent most of it in the Administration building. It's class scheduling time again and I'm ready and raring to go when with my schedule. I had some financial aid and registration questions and some questions for my advisor. So I visited everyone this morning and took care of business. Now I should be able to register classes with no problem.

My summer is not going to be a vacation. I will be making up all the classes I dropped and then some. So I'll be in class from 10am till 2pm every day this summer with weekends off. But if I can get my degree sooner than that's a plus. I have to schedule and academic evaluation to see how far I'm away from graduating. I may be closer than I think, or maybe not!

I'm gonna eat lunch now. I'm starving. I have class at 1pm and then more administration stuff. I have flyers to make for the Political Science Association and the College Republicans. Good times.

3-23-07

COWABUNGA!!!!!!

The Ninja Turtles are back!!!!

I was so phyched to see this movie. I had my misgivings though. I was thinking that it was going to be a movie targeted towards younger children and that I would have to endure a computer animated cartoon. Instead I was suprised to see a movie that updated the Turtles and found a balance between an older fanbase (like me) and a new fanbase. It was action packed and very funny. I would recommend this movie to anyone young and old.

I did go at the 9:30pm showing too. That way I didn't have to be bothered by children. I made the mistake one time of seeing Finding Nemo at a 12:30 showing. Before the shooting I could say that this was the most traumatic event of my life. I did the same thing with the last Harry Potter movie too. Taking kids to a movie and filling them up with Raisinettes, pop corn and soda and expect them to sit quiet for 100 minutes isn't realistic.

3-21-07

MY FELLOW WEST VIRGINIANS!!!!

I'm not really governor. But I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night!!!

I played hookie from college today and went back to Charleston with a friend of mine. My friend Mike works for an organization called World Vision. World Vision is active in 110 countries and provides medicine and building supplies to 3rd world countries and poverty areas in the U.S. We went to a business expo at the Charleston Civic Center and later we went to the Capitol Building to talk with Governor Manchin. When you walk into the Governor's office you first step into the reception area. In that area is a podium where the Governor gives all his speeches. The guvna was in his office in a meeting so we had to wait. So, while we were waiting I gave Mike my camera and we shot the wonderful pic you see here. It's got the Governor's seal and everything. Now If I can only get a pic of the President's poduim.....

I almost forgot to mention our trip to the Clay Center. It's a science museum in Charleston. We watched an IMAX movie about the Sarengetti in Africa. The movie consisted of animals eating other animals and animals having sex with other animals. I slept through most of it. James Earl Jones was the narrator so it was kinda wierd to hear Darth Vader talk about animals having sex. Then we went into the kids area where they can play with cool scientific toys. There was a wall of plastic pins that if you placed your hand into it, the pins made an imprint. So I placed my face and hands into the plastic pins and on the other side came out my best impression of Han Solo frozen in Carbonite. I wish I would have gotten a pic of that. I guess that means another road trip to Charleston!!!

If you're gonna skip class, you might as well make it count. Sorry Dr. Sprowls :-)

3-17-07

Today is my Dad's birthday. He would have been 57.

I worked all day today. I really didn't think it wise to use this day to sit by and do nothing. I didn't tell anyone what today was either. If I spoke the words I know I would have lost it.

I was there when Dale hunted us. I was the last person to see my Dad alive. I also saw him laying there next to the barn damaged. But yet none of those images haunt me. I don't have nightmares. The images in my mind are of my dad smiling, walking up to the house from the barn with his dog (and I mean his dog) Maxwell by his side. He is a collie that never left my dad's side. My dad rarely wasn't smiling. That's what was so fun about being around him.

I talked to my brother today. He did have a rough day. Chris spends hours at the track training and sometimes he's alone in the stadium. It's those times that it got to him. My Dad was a beautiful person. It's horrible that such a beautiful person was killed by such an ugly man. But isn't that the way it goes. Ugliness destroys what is beautiful.

Happy Birthday Dad. We miss you....

03-12-07

It's Spring Break!!!





Yeah. So much for spring break. I'm not really going on a break right now. I have a ton of things to do. First I have the daunting task of putting all my computer files in some type of order. I spent the last week staying up till wee hours in the morning doing that one. I have most of my files in some type of order so I can scratch that one off my list for now. I have to organize my storage shed too. Thank goodness the weather will be nice this week.
Here is a pic of me and the crew at lunch here at good ole Fairmont State. I'm doing the ATL thug face on the left, then there is Jesse B, Brandon, and Jesse A. I like to call the two Jesse's "Jesse Squared". That's my only venture into math. I work with another Jesse and when all theree are together then I call them "Jesse Cubed".

I'm not going to blog about last night. I had to work Sunday night. There were two busses full of Canadians. I almost went into a coma....

I've got the urge to do some stand-up or something creative again. Too bad there is nothing in WV like that. The only comic relief here is when you see a banged up truck with the phrase "Git r Dun" posted on the back window with mail box stickers. How ghetto is that????

03-09-07

300 Rocked!!!

This movie is the greatest "man" movie ever made. It surpasses Conan the Barbarian on so many levels. If you're looking for a movie that truly revels in testosterone then this is it. Go see it with a bunch of your guy buddies.

Didn't do much today. I slept in due to staying out late last night watching "300". Then I went to work. It was a pretty good shift. Everyone worked together and we were running on all four cylendars. Good stuff.

I almost forgot. There is a part where one of the warriors is putting a cloth around his head to cover a damaged eye. His King walks up to him and says "I hope that your scratch doesn't interfere with your duties." The soldier's response is "It's just an eye sir. The gods were kind enough to bless me with a spare." All my friends leaned over at me in the movie theater and chucked. I just smiled back. I totally get what this soldier is saying.

Some Political Notes...

Here's an article from everyone's favorite blond attack dawg on the right. Enjoy

SHOOTING ELEPHANTS IN A BARREL
By Ann CoulterWed Mar 7, 6:41 PM ET
Lewis Libby has now been found guilty of perjury and obstruction of justice for lies that had absolutely no legal consequence.
It was not a crime to reveal Valerie Plame's name because she was not a covert agent. If it had been a crime, Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald could have wrapped up his investigation with an indictment of the State Department's Richard Armitage on the first day of his investigation since it was Armitage who revealed her name and Fitzgerald knew it.
With no crime to investigate, Fitzgerald pursued a pointless investigation into nothing, getting a lot of White House officials to make statements under oath and hoping some of their recollections would end up conflicting with other witness recollections, so he could charge some Republican with "perjury" and enjoy the fawning media attention.
As a result, Libby is now a convicted felon for having a faulty memory of the person who first told him that Joe Wilson (news, bio, voting record) was a delusional boob who lied about his wife sending him to Niger.
This makes it official: It's illegal to be Republican.
Since Teddy Kennedy walked away from a dead girl with only a wrist slap (which was knocked down to a mild talking-to, plus time served: zero), Democrats have apparently become a protected class in America, immune from criminal prosecution no matter what they do.
As a result, Democrats have run wild, accepting bribes, destroying classified information, lying under oath, molesting interns, driving under the influence, obstructing justice and engaging in sex with underage girls, among other things.
Meanwhile, conservatives of any importance constantly have to spend millions of dollars defending themselves from utterly frivolous criminal prosecutions. Everything is illegal, but only Republicans get prosecuted.
Conservative radio personality Rush Limbaugh was subjected to a three-year criminal investigation for allegedly buying prescription drugs illegally to treat chronic back pain. Despite the witch-hunt, Democrat prosecutor Barry E. Krischer never turned up a crime.
Even if he had, to quote liberal Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz: "Generally, people who illegally buy prescription drugs are not prosecuted." Unless they're Republicans.
The vindictive prosecution of Limbaugh finally ended last year with a plea bargain in which Limbaugh did not admit guilt. Gosh, don't you feel safer now? I know I do.
In another prescription drug case with a different result, last year, Rep. Patrick Kennedy (news, bio, voting record) (Democrat), apparently high as a kite on prescription drugs, crashed a car on Capitol Hill at 3 a.m. That's abuse of prescription drugs (BEGIN ITAS)plus a DUI offense. Result: no charges whatsoever and one day of press on Fox News Channel.
I suppose one could argue those were different jurisdictions. How about the same jurisdiction?
In 2006, Democrat and major Clinton contributor Jeffrey Epstein was nabbed in Palm Beach in a massive police investigation into his hiring of local underage schoolgirls for sex, which I'm told used to be a violation of some kind of statute in the Palm Beach area.
The police presented Limbaugh prosecutor Krischer with boatloads of evidence, including the videotaped statements of five of Epstein's alleged victims, the procurer of the girls for Epstein and 16 other witnesses.
But the same prosecutor who spent three years maniacally investigating Limbaugh's alleged misuse of back-pain pills refused to bring statutory rape charges against a Clinton contributor. Enraging the police, who had spent months on the investigation, Krischer let Epstein off after a few hours on a single count of solicitation of prostitution. The Clinton supporter walked, and his victims were branded as whores.
The Republican former House Whip Tom DeLay is currently under indictment for a minor campaign finance violation. Democratic prosecutor Ronnie Earle had to empanel six grand juries before he could find one to indict DeLay on these pathetic charges -- and this is in Austin, Texas (the Upper West Side with better-looking people).
That final grand jury was so eager to indict DeLay that it indicted him on one charge that was not even a crime -- and which has since been tossed out by the courts.
After winning his primary despite the indictment, DeLay decided to withdraw from the race rather than campaign under a cloud of suspicion, and Republicans lost one of their strongest champions in Congress.
Compare DeLay's case with that of Rep. William "The Refrigerator" Jefferson, Democrat. Two years ago, an FBI investigation caught Jefferson on videotape taking $100,000 in bribe money. When the FBI searched Jefferson's house, they found $90,000 in cash stuffed in his freezer. Two people have already pleaded guilty to paying Jefferson the bribe money.
Two years later, Bush's Justice Department still has taken no action against Jefferson. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (news, bio, voting record) recently put Rep. William Jefferson (news, bio, voting record) on the Homeland Security Committee.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (news, bio, voting record), Democrat, engaged in a complicated land swindle, buying a parcel of land for $400,000 and selling it for over $1 million a few years later. (At least it wasn't cattle futures!)
Reid also received more than four times as much money from Jack Abramoff (nearly $70,000) as Tom DeLay ($15,000). DeLay returned the money; Reid refuses to do so. Why should he? He's a Democrat.
Former Clinton national security adviser Sandy Berger literally received a sentence of community service for stuffing classified national security documents in his pants and then destroying them -- big, fat federal felonies.
But Scooter Libby is facing real prison time for forgetting who told him about some bozo's wife.
Bill Clinton was not even prosecuted for obstruction of justice offenses so egregious that the entire Supreme Court staged a historic boycott of his State of the Union address in 2000.
By contrast, Linda Tripp, whose only mistake was befriending the office hosebag and then declining to perjure herself, spent millions on lawyers to defend a harassment prosecution based on far-fetched interpretations of state wiretapping laws.
Liberal law professors currently warning about the "high price" of pursuing terrorists under the Patriot Act had nothing but blood lust for Tripp one year after Clinton was impeached (Steven Lubet, "Linda Tripp Deserves to be Prosecuted," New York Times, 8/25/99).
Criminal prosecution is a surrogate for political warfare, but in this war, Republicans are gutless appeasers.
Bush has got to pardon Libby.

3-8-07

I'm Just Chillin...Literally!!!

We got a lot of snow yesterday. I woke up yesterday morning with at least six inches on the ground. After class I came home and rocked out the snow blower! Then I spend the rest of the day inside thawing out.

Today I got warmer. I'm glad for that. Unfortunately the snow is still on the ground. It's supposed to be in the 60's this weekend.

I've got some Browns news. Running Back Jamal Lewis of the Baltimore Ravens has signed a one year deal with Cleveland. I know this should be a good thing but signing him is like signing John Elway to quarterback the Browns. This guy is a Browns killer!!! Oh well. I guess that's the nature of the business. We're still gonna be awful next year.

I'm going to see 300 tonight. Midnight showing baby!!! That movie is filled with testosterone. I think I'll eat a steak with my bare hands and belch out loud a few times before I go see it.

3-06-07

Yeah I know! It's been a while.

I finally have some time to myself. That's a good thing. I have dropped a lot of my classes for this semester though. That was a tough decision to make but a wise one. I had missed the first two out of four weeks of class due to the trial and an internship at the state capitol. I was pretty far behind. Playing catch up was impossible for at least two of my classes so I took the hit and chalked up this semester as a loss edjucation wise. I still have one class which is International Relations. I can handle this class.

Since I've dropped the work load I've had time to gather myself. I can say that this has been the best thing for me so far. I've kept myself busy for the past few months and now that the trial is over I've noticed some emotional issues starting to creep in. I've been so focused on the trial that I don't think I've had time to really deal with the loss of my parents completely. For my own health both physically and emotionally this time to relax and gather myself is a good thing.

I've been keeping in touch with my brother in Los Angeles. He's been worked pretty hard out there. The great thing is that he's a seasoned athlete and is very coachable. I am excited for his first outdoor meet. Becca is out in LA with him right now. It's her spring break. Mine's next week. I miss them a lot. My brother is a Slatt through and through. Sometimes I think he's more a Slatt than I am. I miss that. My brother reminds me of my dad more than he knows.

Well, I've got a few errands to run. It's supposed to snow this evening. Yuk!