Chris Ricci Presents's blog

Ok, so every year at Thanksgiving my wife makes this confection that features Yams and Marshmellows... She calls it Candied Yams.. I call it ewwwww... I mean who came up with this?

I am trying to think of the genesis of this dish... I just cooked some yams, but you know they are missing something... what should I throw in there? Granola Bars? nah... a little Montery Jack?.. Oh I know.. how about some Marshmellows! Oh yeah that sounds divine!

So my burning question of the day... Candied Yams? Delish or EWWWWWW???

I was asked to do an interview with sonicbids.com about our band submission process for X Fest. I thought that I would post it here for the benefit of all our local musicians. Give it a listen and I hope that it helps a little.

http://lounge.sonicbids.com/163/#more-163

Chris

A friend of mine from high school has ran into some trouble. He was arrested a bit ago for holding up 2 pharmacies in the Bay Area to get Percocet, which he became addicted to after a hip injury he suffered while in Bosnia as an Army Ranger. I have created an online petition in support of his situation. It is located here:

http://www.petitiononline.com/binkley/petition.html

Sargent Binkley was born and raised in Los Altos, California. He attended Los Altos High School, where he excelled in school while playing on the football and rugby teams and becoming an Eagle Scout. Binkley’s goal as a teenager was to work hard enough to enroll at the US Military Academy in West Point, NY. He succeeded, and matriculated there in 1993. After graduation he entered the US Army, joining the elite Rangers and passed the notoriously difficult airborne jump course.

Sargent was sent to Bosnia after his graduation, where he served as a peacekeeper by guarding the mass graves of genocide victims. From there he was sent to Central America, where he participated in drug interdiction operations. At one point he was ordered to open fire on a truck that contained a civilian teenage boy, an act that haunts him to this day. While on duty in Honduras, he fractured his pelvis and dislocated a hip. This injury was consistently misdiagnosed by Army physicians over the next several years, resulting in chronic pain and an addiction to prescription painkillers.

Sargent mustered out of the Army in 2002 and returned to civilian life. He worked for a time until his chronic pain and addiction destroyed his ability to be productive. He moved back home with his parents, who paid for a diagnosis by a private sports physician. The private doctor used a high-resolution MRI and found tears in the cartilage of his left hip, injuries that the military medical system had been unable to find. Surgery finally fixed the problem. After this his prescriptions from the VA were discontinued but his addiction remained, compounded by a psychiatric diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Sargent held up two Walgreens pharmacies in 2006 – one in Mountain View on the twentieth of January, the second in San Carlos on the third of March. He used an unloaded gun, harmed no one, and left only with bags full of painkillers. Shortly after the second robbery he turned himself in. He has been in the Redwood City jail ever since, awaiting his sentencing and undergoing a drug rehabilitation program.

Sargent is due to be sentenced on Thursday, September 20, 2007 in the Sunnyvale Courthouse of the Santa Clara County Superior Court. The prosecuting attorneys are David Howe (Santa Clara County) and Steve Wagstaffe (San Mateo County); they control Sargent’s fate.

Sargent’s family has already presented their case to Santa Clara District Attorney David Howe, but at this point, only a focused outpouring of support can help. Steve Wagstaffe, the assistant DA in San Mateo County, will conclude his prosecution once proceedings in Santa Clara County are finished. In spite of his private offer to reduce the charges, he has not made any personal appeal to the Santa Clara District Attorney's office to remove the gun charge and pursue a more lenient sentence including probation and treatment. Letters or phone calls to his office in support of Sargent are equally as important as those to the District Attorney in Santa Clara County, because they may convince Mr. Wagstaffe to become more vocal with his colleagues in Santa Clara, and help to influence the outcome of sentencing there.

The Mountain View pharmacist himself has written supporting leniency for Sargent, as have several veterans organizations, military colleagues of Sargent, and concerned California citizens. You can join them! We urge you to please take a few minutes of your time to support Sarge by putting pressure on the DA to pursue a more reasonable sentence.

Thanks for your help.

Chris

Everyone has their trials and tribulations in life and I am certainly no exception, so I thought I would share my garbage frustrations with you just for the heck of it. Am I alone in my frustration? I am hoping to find out...

Its January 28th and my Christmas Tree is still outside my house. 5 of my nieghbors' trees are still outside their houses as well. Apparently the garbage company requires you to cut the tree into pieces and then put it in your green can for them to take it.

I have never been a tool guy or a fix it guy. I don't have time to fix my own cars or mow my own lawn, and I certainly don't own a chain saw. I am a little bit irritated about this whole thing.

To add insult to injury the new garbage company has not been picking up the garbage on the regular days since we switched over. The whole thing has been really strange.

I also hate the fact that they took away our blue recycling can a couple of years ago in favor of a "blue bag" method of recycling. Basically you are supposed to get a "blue bag" and put your recyclable materials in them. Then the garbage company sorts them for you. Now I have less room in my can and I have to track down these special "blue bags" every three months.

So thats my frustration... Thanks for listening!

So I took my daughter down to Boomers! on Sunday you know to do the usual, play a little mini golf and drive me some go-carts. We are sitting there in line for the go carts (by the way Modesto Go-Cart riders, worst parkers ever! Talk about future back injuries from rear end collisions...) and these kids drive by Ghost riding the whip! Totally classic, these young Motown youth getting into the Hyphy movement...

You think that 5 front page stories in the Modesto Bee may have something to do with it? You have to wonder...

Chris

Just wanted to share...

My dogs did so much business in the side yard this week I had to use a snow shovel to clean it up!!

I am re editing this post so it is a little more accurate here..

The cell phone companies other than Verizon are going to begin utilizing a 411 directory of cell phone numbers. Although telemarketing companies will not have open access to these lists it is likely that at some point the telemarketers will find a way to get at those numbers.

You can call 888-382-1222 and register your cell phones with the National DO NOT CALL list.

It blocks your number for five (5) years.

HELP OTHERS BY PASSING THIS ON TO ALL YOUR FRIENDS OR GO TO:

http://www.donotcall.gov/

I actually have done this my self with all my lines, including home, cells, fax etc.

So a lot of people that I know are really passionate about Immigration. I am not super passionate either way, but I do have some opinions that I would really like some feedback on. I want to understand better why people feel the way that they do.

Illegal immigration is well... illegal. I mean that is right isn't it? Our country sets up laws so that people from all over the world can immigrate and become part of our melting pot. I personally don't think it is fair that people from our southern borders in particular (including Central and South America) don't wait their turns. Instead they ignore the laws and come anyway. That isn't right. Is it?

That being said, illegal immigration has had some really positive effects. Cheaper labor and more labor are good for our country. In my opinion more people living in our country is also really good. You have more people you sell more houses, food, insurance, cars, get more tax income, and grow. We as a country benefit from the influence of new culture and ideas. With the long term impacts of countries with populations that are 4 times as big as ours (India and China) we need to increase our population or we will not be able to compete ultimately. We will become the next France: A proud country whose influence in the world is in decline. Believe me, American Pride could be as big a weakness as it is strength.

Why not increase immigration across the board? Why not allow the poor masses from Ethiopia, Uzbeks, and Ukrainians, people from Indonesia, Palestians, and people from India to join our country in greater numbers? As it is we are gaining illegal immigrants from one geographic area and that area is getting a really unfair slice of the pie. How can that be justified?

I am reminded of the Roman Empire... although the United States is truly a young country by the Roman standard there are a lot of parallels. Immigration was massive during the Roman Empire. The people who were under the influence of the barbarians wanted the safety, economic security, and peaceful way of life that the Romans provided. Many moved within the borders of the empire to gain from their success. The Romans in turn gained new citizens, more tax revenue, and more troops for their legions. As the Empire began to decline the non-Romans began to take a much larger role in the administration and government of the empire. What they did is the most encouraging thing. They emulated the Romans in every way. They tried to run the empire as the Romans did. Those who believe that the American way of life is threatened by illegal immigrants I believe are sadly mistaken.

That being said I would like America to remain a truly racially diverse nation. I don't think that one race of immigrants should grow so large as to overshawdow the others in 40 years, especially illegally. I think this fact is one of the main fears that people have, but won't say.

Anyway, that’s my two cents on the subject. I am not looking for people to insult me. If you want to do that I hope that Ruben steps in and deletes the posts. I want honest perspectives and real opinions so that I can understand the issue better.

Thanks for taking the time to read this and I look forward to learning more from all you great people here in Motown...

Chris

So I drive around Modesto... a lot actually. I think I drive from one end of this town to the other at least twice a day.

I always take notice of all the political signs... Usually they are pretty tame, just the candidate's name and a maybe a slogan at most. I suppose they are just getting the word out.

However, this year you look all over town and there are these posters that simply say "Modesto Mall Murderer is free because the District Attorney's Office screwed up the case." I would imagine this is a negative ad campaign against the current DA. Gotta love the smear...

So I have a few questions if anyone knows anything I would love to hear about it. First when and what happened in the Modesto Mall Murder(s)? Do they have a real suspect or was this person that they tried actually innocent? Does anyone have any information because I am curious now...

Personally I question any candidate that resorts to negative tactics. I have a lot of respect for the current DA's office. They handled a very high profile case with Lacy Peterson and really got the job done. Los Angeles certainly couldn't say that when they were on the national stage with OJ.

Chris