Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Schuyler Fisk: From Where I’m Standing
A great folkish song by Schuyler Fisk. Take a look at her website and listen to the 4 or 5 songs she’s got up there…worth your time…would I lie to you?
Wife and I saw her open for Kenny Wayne Shepherd last summer in Utah and really liked her. The video is from the local PC tv station and the audio isn’t great, but you’ll get the picture.
Monday, December 22, 2008
Recession? What Recession?
I haven’t really posted anything in a few days because I’ve been avoiding as much real thought as possible. It seems that the recession is finally hitting me in the work place. The one thing I’ve never been able to really handle about being a manager is having to cut someones hours. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t have any issue with cutting someone loose due to performance or the lack there of. But when I have to cut someone back due to the lack of business that’s where I run into trouble. I just have trouble looking at someone and having to explain that your position is no more…sorry…
Thankfully I have only ever run into that position a few times, but every time is just as difficult as the first. I’m telling someone that hasn’t done anything wrong, that is in good standing with the company and by all accounts shouldn’t be in that situation that as of X date you’re no longer receiving a pay check…
Maybe it’s tougher this time because it’s all of 3 days before Christmas…maybe…probably not…
Thankfully I have only ever run into that position a few times, but every time is just as difficult as the first. I’m telling someone that hasn’t done anything wrong, that is in good standing with the company and by all accounts shouldn’t be in that situation that as of X date you’re no longer receiving a pay check…
Maybe it’s tougher this time because it’s all of 3 days before Christmas…maybe…probably not…
Saturday, December 20, 2008
Fini
Finished finished finished…
The final production of my latest cabinetry job came down to the wire, ultimately finishing a day before I had to load it into the trailer and head to northern Utah to install. This was two weekends ago now and it still seems like I’m wearing off the stress of making sure we finished and installed it in time to meet our contract.
Not having had a commissioned job in the last year it was a little nerve racking trying to make sure that I have everything I needed to do the job. Needless to say Wife and I still had to hit Home Depot for a few items I forgot. The job still went pretty smooth and the install came out awesome, better than I had expected actually. I had been having doubts about the over all design of the flat screen tv frames matching the room (after all I hadn’t really spent anytime in the room since last year). Thankfully everything matched and they really completed the room. They really gave the room a finished look and warmth that hadn’t been there before.
There’s another frame that matches this one on another wall in the same room…double the pleasure..
Everything was produced in Knotty Alder to match the casings and base board of the room. Not bad if I do say so myself.
The final production of my latest cabinetry job came down to the wire, ultimately finishing a day before I had to load it into the trailer and head to northern Utah to install. This was two weekends ago now and it still seems like I’m wearing off the stress of making sure we finished and installed it in time to meet our contract.
Not having had a commissioned job in the last year it was a little nerve racking trying to make sure that I have everything I needed to do the job. Needless to say Wife and I still had to hit Home Depot for a few items I forgot. The job still went pretty smooth and the install came out awesome, better than I had expected actually. I had been having doubts about the over all design of the flat screen tv frames matching the room (after all I hadn’t really spent anytime in the room since last year). Thankfully everything matched and they really completed the room. They really gave the room a finished look and warmth that hadn’t been there before.
There’s another frame that matches this one on another wall in the same room…double the pleasure..
Everything was produced in Knotty Alder to match the casings and base board of the room. Not bad if I do say so myself.
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Monday, December 8, 2008
Resurgence?
With the impending end of the free world as we know it, I’ve been wondering what’s in store for the flashy veneer that the 21st century? Will less money translate into the resurgence of real toys for kids? Children once again playing football in the streets, building tree houses and riding their bikes? Will this spell the doom of the ipod, xbox and playstation? Or have these items become so ingrained as the norm that there’s no dethroning them from their pedestal?
Ultimately what I’m driving at here is, what in the hell happened to Charlie Brown? I remember the olden days of the 80’s growing up and watching the happy Christmas special 3 or 4 times before Christmas. Now you’re lucky if you get to see it once. Have we really changed so much that a simple story with timeless characters (with an overly christian theme, but I can look past that) have become passe or politically incorrect? Is the message about Christmas being about the small things, friends, family and time together really that bad?
Well hopefully the turn in the economy will help us realign some of our values and push our kids outside to play in the snow on Christmas rather than plunk them in front of the TV with that new xbox…besides…it’s my turn, so go outside and play in the snow for awhile, I’ve got an alien overlord to blast with my laser cannon!
Ultimately what I’m driving at here is, what in the hell happened to Charlie Brown? I remember the olden days of the 80’s growing up and watching the happy Christmas special 3 or 4 times before Christmas. Now you’re lucky if you get to see it once. Have we really changed so much that a simple story with timeless characters (with an overly christian theme, but I can look past that) have become passe or politically incorrect? Is the message about Christmas being about the small things, friends, family and time together really that bad?
Well hopefully the turn in the economy will help us realign some of our values and push our kids outside to play in the snow on Christmas rather than plunk them in front of the TV with that new xbox…besides…it’s my turn, so go outside and play in the snow for awhile, I’ve got an alien overlord to blast with my laser cannon!
Saturday, December 6, 2008
Ta Daaa
Almost a year ago I made the jump to an iPhone. As I was completing my order online I went through all the cases and screen protectors in an attempt to keep my new investment safe. Then jumped in the voice of reason (I like to call it Wife)…you don’t need that, it’s like another $60.00 and for a $400.00 phone that’s just too much. Here look at this video by PC World. They dropped it like 10 time on the concrete, scratched it with a key and nothing happened…it’ll be fine without the case etc.
I will admit that after viewing the video I too believed that I wouldn’t need those protections either. I even dropped the phone getting out of my truck at the gas station and watched it pinball around the concrete and gas pump like 4 times before it came to a rest. This resulted in nothing more than a few scratches on the chrome trim ring. Alright I thought, this thing really can take a beating. Well, that was until karma decided to give me a bitch slap across the iPhone. It seems that at Thanksgiving my brother pulled out his new 3G and low and behold it was tightly packaged in all the protective casing and scratch proof covers like a new born little baby. I scoffed…you don’t need all that crap, look at mine, it’s nearly a year old, been dropped on the concrete at least a dozen times and been in my pocket non stop since the day I bought it. True it shows a little wear, but nothing more than an average cell phone would be showing at this age.
Bitch Slap O Rama baby…
Not even a week after uttering these words I find myself getting out of the truck like any other day, keys and iPhone in hand. Well that day was not just any other day, it was the day that Karma came creeping up my driveway and helped me drop my iPhone once again onto the concrete. The difference however was that that day the planets were perfectly aligned, the wind speed and shear was just right and karma was on their side. So as my phone tumbled to the ground it landed perfectly upside down, directly on its screen. Oh Shit! that’s not going to be good. I bent over and picked it up and what do my eyes see?
This: Warning, those of you with a weak constitution should look away…just look away
Oh the horror…THE HORROR!
The real bummer is that I also opted out of the insurance plan…it’s tough, what do I need that for? After all the only thing that’s going to kill it is dropping it in water and the insurance doesn’t cover that…SHA RIGHT!
Needless to say, I will be insuring the new 3G that replaces this one and wrapping it up like a little new born and coddling it everywhere I go…no no…don’t touch…it’s sleeping…we just look at it, not poke it.
Oh well…life goes on, I guess…
I will admit that after viewing the video I too believed that I wouldn’t need those protections either. I even dropped the phone getting out of my truck at the gas station and watched it pinball around the concrete and gas pump like 4 times before it came to a rest. This resulted in nothing more than a few scratches on the chrome trim ring. Alright I thought, this thing really can take a beating. Well, that was until karma decided to give me a bitch slap across the iPhone. It seems that at Thanksgiving my brother pulled out his new 3G and low and behold it was tightly packaged in all the protective casing and scratch proof covers like a new born little baby. I scoffed…you don’t need all that crap, look at mine, it’s nearly a year old, been dropped on the concrete at least a dozen times and been in my pocket non stop since the day I bought it. True it shows a little wear, but nothing more than an average cell phone would be showing at this age.
Bitch Slap O Rama baby…
Not even a week after uttering these words I find myself getting out of the truck like any other day, keys and iPhone in hand. Well that day was not just any other day, it was the day that Karma came creeping up my driveway and helped me drop my iPhone once again onto the concrete. The difference however was that that day the planets were perfectly aligned, the wind speed and shear was just right and karma was on their side. So as my phone tumbled to the ground it landed perfectly upside down, directly on its screen. Oh Shit! that’s not going to be good. I bent over and picked it up and what do my eyes see?
This: Warning, those of you with a weak constitution should look away…just look away
Oh the horror…THE HORROR!
The real bummer is that I also opted out of the insurance plan…it’s tough, what do I need that for? After all the only thing that’s going to kill it is dropping it in water and the insurance doesn’t cover that…SHA RIGHT!
Needless to say, I will be insuring the new 3G that replaces this one and wrapping it up like a little new born and coddling it everywhere I go…no no…don’t touch…it’s sleeping…we just look at it, not poke it.
Oh well…life goes on, I guess…
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Obsession?
Last week before I left for Turkey day I hoped onto the Adult Swim web site to play one of their mindless games in an attempt to wind down a little. It had been awhile since I had last logged on and played “5 minutes to kill“, so I thought I’d see what else was available. “Amateur surgeon” caught my eye as I scrolled through things and thought what the hell. Maybe it was because it was listed under the “twitchy games” but still, what the hell. This game rocked. It’s poor story line, awesome sound effects and grizzly nature seemed to appeal to every sense I was trying to appease at the moment. So now a week or two later I find myself returning to it again and again…it has some strange hold on me. Maybe I should have become a doctor…hmmmm???
Sunday, November 30, 2008
And we’re back!
God bless my family. They’re great, but after a few days with them in one house I have to wonder how my parents actually did it. How did they raise us to maturity without one of us killing the other one?
The weekend was good, it was the typical turkey day mixed with a little white trash but that’s ok I guess. The one big shocker was that my older brother, whom is more left leaning, far, far, far far far more left leaning that anyone else in my family actually bought a shotgun. My other brother happened to mention that he had just bought a shotgun and thought it would be fun to go do a little trap shooting out in the fields behind his house (for those of you wondering, yes, he lives in a very rural part of Idaho and this sort of thing is just another day in that part of the country). Having not done this myself since High School I thought it sounded fun. A little too fun it turns out, evident in the resulting gun purchase by a left wing democrat.
I can’t say too much myself as it proved that when the next gun show comes through town,
Either way we can’t get past the whole propaganda machine touting that Obama is going to take away our guns and as such gun sales are up and now the one brother I never would have thought to be a gun owner is. Sweet justice…
The weekend was good, it was the typical turkey day mixed with a little white trash but that’s ok I guess. The one big shocker was that my older brother, whom is more left leaning, far, far, far far far more left leaning that anyone else in my family actually bought a shotgun. My other brother happened to mention that he had just bought a shotgun and thought it would be fun to go do a little trap shooting out in the fields behind his house (for those of you wondering, yes, he lives in a very rural part of Idaho and this sort of thing is just another day in that part of the country). Having not done this myself since High School I thought it sounded fun. A little too fun it turns out, evident in the resulting gun purchase by a left wing democrat.
I can’t say too much myself as it proved that when the next gun show comes through town,
God bless my family. They’re great, but after a few days with them in one house I have to wonder how my parents actually did it. How did they raise us to maturity without one of us killing the other one?
The weekend was good, it was the typical turkey day mixed with a little white trash but that’s ok I guess. The one big shocker was that my older brother, whom is more left leaning, far, far, far far far more left leaning that anyone else in my family actually bought a shotgun. My other brother happened to mention that he had just bought a shotgun and thought it would be fun to go do a little trap shooting out in the fields behind his house (for those of you wondering, yes, he lives in a very rural part of Idaho and this sort of thing is just another day in that part of the country). Having not done this myself since High School I thought it sounded fun. A little too fun it turns out, evident in the resulting gun purchase by a left wing democrat.
I can’t say too much myself as it proved that when the next gun show comes through town, Wife and I will be purchasing a shotgun of our own. This won’t be our first gun purchase. A few years back Wife and I bought a little .22 caliber rifle and have done some target shooting here and there.
Either way we can’t get past the whole propaganda machine touting that Obama is going to take away our guns and as such gun sales are up and now the one brother I never would have thought to be a gun owner is. Sweet justice…
and I will be purchasing a shotgun of our own. This won’t be our first gun purchase. A few years back Wife and I bought a little .22 caliber rifle and have done some target shooting here and there.The weekend was good, it was the typical turkey day mixed with a little white trash but that’s ok I guess. The one big shocker was that my older brother, whom is more left leaning, far, far, far far far more left leaning that anyone else in my family actually bought a shotgun. My other brother happened to mention that he had just bought a shotgun and thought it would be fun to go do a little trap shooting out in the fields behind his house (for those of you wondering, yes, he lives in a very rural part of Idaho and this sort of thing is just another day in that part of the country). Having not done this myself since High School I thought it sounded fun. A little too fun it turns out, evident in the resulting gun purchase by a left wing democrat.
I can’t say too much myself as it proved that when the next gun show comes through town, Wife and I will be purchasing a shotgun of our own. This won’t be our first gun purchase. A few years back Wife and I bought a little .22 caliber rifle and have done some target shooting here and there.
Either way we can’t get past the whole propaganda machine touting that Obama is going to take away our guns and as such gun sales are up and now the one brother I never would have thought to be a gun owner is. Sweet justice…
Either way we can’t get past the whole propaganda machine touting that Obama is going to take away our guns and as such gun sales are up and now the one brother I never would have thought to be a gun owner is. Sweet justice…
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Drive time
Well I’ve made it through the week and am now facing an 8 hour drive to my brothers house for the holiday weekend. Needless to say I’m not looking forward to this at all. 8 hours of stressed out jackasses on the road all trying to make it to Grandma’s house in time for turkey. I’m just hoping that the economy has more than a few of them scared off of the roads and into staying home. After all Grandma can heat up that hungry man and celebrate just fine with you.
So to those of you lucky enough not to have to drive or fly somewhere this weekend, bless you. I just hope we don’t run out of liquor before it’s time to leave…
So to those of you lucky enough not to have to drive or fly somewhere this weekend, bless you. I just hope we don’t run out of liquor before it’s time to leave…
Monday, November 24, 2008
Merry Xmas
May your Holiday Season be a Blast!!!
| Futurama | Thursdays 10pm / 9c | |||
| Stopping Robot Santa | ||||
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Sunday, November 23, 2008
Whyyyyyyyy?
I plug my ipod into my computer and up comes that nasty message “itunes has detected an ipod in recovery mode. You must restore this ipod before it can be used with itunes” Why me? I think it does this on purpose. It’s one of those little things that Apple has written into all their software that makes their products self destruct after so many months, ultimately requiring you to repurchase your music or go without. Thank God I learned so long ago to back up my itunes, but the problem is is that I have nearly 5000 songs and 28 gigs of the 30 used. Yeah it’s going to take me like 3 days to re load that back up. Bastards I tell ya, bastards!
Don’t they know that I’ve been putting off cleaning up my itunes library for oh so many months now? I mean come on guys…do you know how many duplicate songs I have in there thanks to the penchants of itunes to duplicate rather than move songs after you’ve selected like 80 of them. Yeah, great idea there guys. Like I have the time to do that and restore my ipod. It’s not like I’m a web designer or system administrator or some other bull shit job that doesn’t require any real time focused to it. It seems that my employer gets pretty uptight when I decide to stay home and have a second or third cup of coffee while monkeying around on my computer. I have a real job it seems…I knew I should have finished my degree, but noooo I had to join the real world and pay my bills. If only I had stuck to it, I too could be one of those bastards that does nothing all day but sit in my pajama’s in front of my computer screwing around and calling it work. Bastards!
And before I start getting the hate mail, yes, I’ve tried resetting my ipod, several times in a vain attempt to keep from having to face the truth that it needs to be restored. At least it still works in the car so the inevitable restore can be schlepped off for a few more days…
Don’t they know that I’ve been putting off cleaning up my itunes library for oh so many months now? I mean come on guys…do you know how many duplicate songs I have in there thanks to the penchants of itunes to duplicate rather than move songs after you’ve selected like 80 of them. Yeah, great idea there guys. Like I have the time to do that and restore my ipod. It’s not like I’m a web designer or system administrator or some other bull shit job that doesn’t require any real time focused to it. It seems that my employer gets pretty uptight when I decide to stay home and have a second or third cup of coffee while monkeying around on my computer. I have a real job it seems…I knew I should have finished my degree, but noooo I had to join the real world and pay my bills. If only I had stuck to it, I too could be one of those bastards that does nothing all day but sit in my pajama’s in front of my computer screwing around and calling it work. Bastards!
And before I start getting the hate mail, yes, I’ve tried resetting my ipod, several times in a vain attempt to keep from having to face the truth that it needs to be restored. At least it still works in the car so the inevitable restore can be schlepped off for a few more days…
Friday, November 21, 2008
Well
Earlier this week I had the opportunity to head back to northern Utah and work with my former company on how to improve one of the departments of my current company. It was definitely beneficial, and should result in more than a few changes.
It was nice getting back to Northern Utah. This time of year there is actually one of my favorites. The air is cool and the town is still sleepy and slow. It’s the time of year that the locals get to be local. Hang out at the double E for breakfast and coffee, hit Davanza’s for a slice at lunch and then on to one of the many great restaurants on main street, no reservations needed, just walk right in. On our last night in town we were able to hit The River Horse and ended up as one of maybe a half dozen tables that I’m sure they had that night. The food was still excellent, and the atmosphere was great. I’m not regretting the move to southern Utah, but I do miss the atmosphere that northern Utah had. I miss its restaurants, its liquor stores and the relaxed pace during the off seasons.
The trip also served as a follow up for the cabinet job at my former property. I was able to verify my measurements and make sure that my ideas for the area will work. So now that that is out of the way it’s into production in a mad rush to get it completed and installed before the 15th of December. Yeah, the next few weeks are going to suck.
It was nice getting back to Northern Utah. This time of year there is actually one of my favorites. The air is cool and the town is still sleepy and slow. It’s the time of year that the locals get to be local. Hang out at the double E for breakfast and coffee, hit Davanza’s for a slice at lunch and then on to one of the many great restaurants on main street, no reservations needed, just walk right in. On our last night in town we were able to hit The River Horse and ended up as one of maybe a half dozen tables that I’m sure they had that night. The food was still excellent, and the atmosphere was great. I’m not regretting the move to southern Utah, but I do miss the atmosphere that northern Utah had. I miss its restaurants, its liquor stores and the relaxed pace during the off seasons.
The trip also served as a follow up for the cabinet job at my former property. I was able to verify my measurements and make sure that my ideas for the area will work. So now that that is out of the way it’s into production in a mad rush to get it completed and installed before the 15th of December. Yeah, the next few weeks are going to suck.
Friday, November 14, 2008
Nerds Beware
I couldn’t resist writing a comment about a story I read on Reuters about a nerdy couple that met online and are now getting divorced due to an online affair, based in Secondlife. See the story…UK couple in real-life divorce over virtual affair
Common lady…first you met him online, second you’ve already caught him having nerdy animated hooker sex for play money online and third, he’s having nerdy animated play sex online. What the hell did you really expect from him? I mean really, the sticky mouse and keyboard should have been your first inkling that something was up. But to hire a cyber private eye…now that takes the cake.
By the way, how do I become a cyber private eye? Do I get to stake out nerds having fake sex online? WOW what a life’s ambition.
Common lady…first you met him online, second you’ve already caught him having nerdy animated hooker sex for play money online and third, he’s having nerdy animated play sex online. What the hell did you really expect from him? I mean really, the sticky mouse and keyboard should have been your first inkling that something was up. But to hire a cyber private eye…now that takes the cake.
By the way, how do I become a cyber private eye? Do I get to stake out nerds having fake sex online? WOW what a life’s ambition.
Argument 3.0
Wife and I seem to be at odds over what time we should be hitting the gym. And no, I haven’t gotten my fat ass there as planned, here, and here, and I’m sure somewhere else but I’m sure you get my point.
The fact of the matter is that I love sleep and the early morning is when I love sleep the most. All warm and snuggy with those sweet dreams of topless women, brilliant I tell you, absolutely brilliant. So the thought of getting ripped out of those sweet, sweet dreams by the screeching alarm clock at 5am just doesn’t twist my crank. But where we have yet to attain that lofty goal of being in debt to no one and being the masters of our own destinies we can’t just roll out of bed and hit the gym at 10am like so many other stay at home mothers. This leaves us with the evenings after work, or what I like to call slime time.
Slime time is the time frame between noon and about 7pm when the gym is packed with those guys that really aren’t there to do anything but watch your crotch, their crotch, everyone’s crotch in the mirror. You know the guys I’m talking about. The ones that are generally found lurking around the free weights, looking like they’re staring at themselves in the mirror when in reality they’re staring at your wife’s crotch while she’s on the kegelsizer thingamajig. Or better yet when some unaware female enters the free weight area and runs through her routine while getting mentally raped by the slimers doing pseudo curls across the way. Don’t get me wrong here, women aren’t the only victims of the mental rape. I’ve seen a fair number of men checking out other men in the same fashion…it’s just creepy. But I think my absolute favorite is the home boy slimer. You know the one, it’s teen age/twenty something kid that’s there in his best “g” wear of baggy pants hanging around his ass and a tank top with a baseball cap on backwards. I swear the last time I was at the gym it was during slime time and I saw this kid that totally looked like he had just rolled in from his Friday night dressed in those half pant half shorts, you know, the ones that are too long to be shorts but too short to be pants…and his very best homie button down black shirt with ghost flames on it, gold chains and complimentary backwards baseball cap. What was he doing? lifting free weights…yeah…you tell me he’s not there in an effort to score some action. But honestly from the look of the kid the only action he was scoring was the redbull he fingered from the local 7-eleven. Slime time is chalk full of those guys that when trying to pick up women at the gym use that classic line of, “hey, you work out?”
Rocket scientists I tell ya, rocket scientists!
So I guess that leaves me one choice…get my fat ass out of bed and away from those bouncing boobies in my dreams and go to the gym…sucks!
The fact of the matter is that I love sleep and the early morning is when I love sleep the most. All warm and snuggy with those sweet dreams of topless women, brilliant I tell you, absolutely brilliant. So the thought of getting ripped out of those sweet, sweet dreams by the screeching alarm clock at 5am just doesn’t twist my crank. But where we have yet to attain that lofty goal of being in debt to no one and being the masters of our own destinies we can’t just roll out of bed and hit the gym at 10am like so many other stay at home mothers. This leaves us with the evenings after work, or what I like to call slime time.
Slime time is the time frame between noon and about 7pm when the gym is packed with those guys that really aren’t there to do anything but watch your crotch, their crotch, everyone’s crotch in the mirror. You know the guys I’m talking about. The ones that are generally found lurking around the free weights, looking like they’re staring at themselves in the mirror when in reality they’re staring at your wife’s crotch while she’s on the kegelsizer thingamajig. Or better yet when some unaware female enters the free weight area and runs through her routine while getting mentally raped by the slimers doing pseudo curls across the way. Don’t get me wrong here, women aren’t the only victims of the mental rape. I’ve seen a fair number of men checking out other men in the same fashion…it’s just creepy. But I think my absolute favorite is the home boy slimer. You know the one, it’s teen age/twenty something kid that’s there in his best “g” wear of baggy pants hanging around his ass and a tank top with a baseball cap on backwards. I swear the last time I was at the gym it was during slime time and I saw this kid that totally looked like he had just rolled in from his Friday night dressed in those half pant half shorts, you know, the ones that are too long to be shorts but too short to be pants…and his very best homie button down black shirt with ghost flames on it, gold chains and complimentary backwards baseball cap. What was he doing? lifting free weights…yeah…you tell me he’s not there in an effort to score some action. But honestly from the look of the kid the only action he was scoring was the redbull he fingered from the local 7-eleven. Slime time is chalk full of those guys that when trying to pick up women at the gym use that classic line of, “hey, you work out?”
Rocket scientists I tell ya, rocket scientists!
So I guess that leaves me one choice…get my fat ass out of bed and away from those bouncing boobies in my dreams and go to the gym…sucks!
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Waiting
Well, I’ve decided to wait on the redesign of the site until another day. There’s just far too much on my plate for me to focus on a redesign just yet.
It turns out that I have landed a few bids for the wood business and as such will be giving it my focus over the next few weeks as it’s paying me, and well this site just isn’t rolling in the money as of yet. I do think that Wife is going to be posting up the latest and greatest of the gallery for the business though and that should be a huge improvement.
So stay tuned, improvements will be coming down the pike but just not for a few weeks.
It turns out that I have landed a few bids for the wood business and as such will be giving it my focus over the next few weeks as it’s paying me, and well this site just isn’t rolling in the money as of yet. I do think that Wife is going to be posting up the latest and greatest of the gallery for the business though and that should be a huge improvement.
So stay tuned, improvements will be coming down the pike but just not for a few weeks.
Sunday, November 9, 2008
One More Time
I’ve decided that there’s a great deal more that I’m looking for out of the sight and am just not in love with the current design. Even when I finished with it last month I was left feeling that there was so much more that it needed and that I wanted. The color scheme really wasn’t what I was looking for and just kind of fell into place based off of the dark header/logo.
So what I’m trying to say is that I’m undertaking yet another redesign. At the same time I think I need to work with Wife on getting the business site up and running with an updated and modern version as well.
So stay tuned for what I hope to be a more matching site to my personality. In the mean time I’m pulling the thematic site as I’ll have to change a number of default files to accomplish my goals and I’m sure the rest of you don’t want to watch this or that piece change over the next week or two.
So what I’m trying to say is that I’m undertaking yet another redesign. At the same time I think I need to work with Wife on getting the business site up and running with an updated and modern version as well.
So stay tuned for what I hope to be a more matching site to my personality. In the mean time I’m pulling the thematic site as I’ll have to change a number of default files to accomplish my goals and I’m sure the rest of you don’t want to watch this or that piece change over the next week or two.
Saturday, November 8, 2008
Where was this last week?
Came across this today while surfing through YouTube. Absolutely priceless…even Big Foot votes Democratic…tree hugging jackoninnys
glub glub
What the hell! What…The…Hell!
The economy is in the crapper so what do credit card companies do? They jack your rate to force every last penny out of you in order to keep sending their executives on retreats to Cancun. Total BULL!
Wife just informed me that our American Express just made an astronomical jump to 24%. WHAT THE FUCK? 24% why not just bend me over and take it straight out of my ass. Thank God our credit isn’t as bad as it had once been. Nor are we currently tied down to a mortgage so unlike the majority of credit card holders out there right now, I don’t have a HUGE debt to income ratio so lets jack my rate. Yeah egg heads that totally makes sense. Let’s jack the rate of those that have the money to pay for things with cash and discourage them from using our services, that’ll keep us in business. Makes complete sense to me too.
The economy is in the crapper so what do credit card companies do? They jack your rate to force every last penny out of you in order to keep sending their executives on retreats to Cancun. Total BULL!
Wife just informed me that our American Express just made an astronomical jump to 24%. WHAT THE FUCK? 24% why not just bend me over and take it straight out of my ass. Thank God our credit isn’t as bad as it had once been. Nor are we currently tied down to a mortgage so unlike the majority of credit card holders out there right now, I don’t have a HUGE debt to income ratio so lets jack my rate. Yeah egg heads that totally makes sense. Let’s jack the rate of those that have the money to pay for things with cash and discourage them from using our services, that’ll keep us in business. Makes complete sense to me too.
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Slumpy
Feelin kinda slumpy today.
Donno what that really means other than it has just been one of those blah days. Works been non stop though, maybe that’s why. I think it also has something to do with the time change and my rearranging my work schedule so that instead of the weekend being 1 day away it’s now 2…I hate working Saturdays, but it is what it is and that’s what it takes to get the job done.
On the plus side I should have a bid going out tonight or tomorrow for 2 flat screen cabinets and an electronics cabinet back in Deer Valley. That would give me some extra cash flow for either Christmas or even better…the beach in January. Mmmmmmmmmm beach…. The only problem is that pricing has increased a fair amount on materials and I’ve already bid this job once and lost it then due to budget but they’ve come back to me a year later and the pricing has only risen since. Hopefully they’ll go for it because the current setup they have is U G L Y. It looks like a blind monkey installed things and for the level of hotel this is going to go into they definitely could do better.
Now if I can only find the time to produce it before I’d have to install it in December…guess I’ll worry about that if I get the job…
Donno what that really means other than it has just been one of those blah days. Works been non stop though, maybe that’s why. I think it also has something to do with the time change and my rearranging my work schedule so that instead of the weekend being 1 day away it’s now 2…I hate working Saturdays, but it is what it is and that’s what it takes to get the job done.
On the plus side I should have a bid going out tonight or tomorrow for 2 flat screen cabinets and an electronics cabinet back in Deer Valley. That would give me some extra cash flow for either Christmas or even better…the beach in January. Mmmmmmmmmm beach…. The only problem is that pricing has increased a fair amount on materials and I’ve already bid this job once and lost it then due to budget but they’ve come back to me a year later and the pricing has only risen since. Hopefully they’ll go for it because the current setup they have is U G L Y. It looks like a blind monkey installed things and for the level of hotel this is going to go into they definitely could do better.
Now if I can only find the time to produce it before I’d have to install it in December…guess I’ll worry about that if I get the job…
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
I hate to say it but there are dark dark days on the horizon for the American public. It’s never a good thing when one party has a majority in all branches of government. You thought the past 8 years have been a wild ride, just wait for the next 4. (Yes I understand that the senate majority isn’t great, but it’s still enough to cause havoc on the system as a whole…)
Before you begin sending me hate mail you should know that I’m not a registered republican or democrat but an independent so my stance is pretty neutral. I don’t care about this party or that party…I just want the damn thing to work for once and my vote goes to the individual who I believe will accomplish that…nothing more and nothing less!
What the general public seems to have forgotten in this election is that balance in government is good. It means that no one specific faction can control the direction of the country to meet their personal beliefs. That balance has now been thrown out the window because everyone has been absolutely blinded by the media rather than looking at the actual underlying facts and stories. All anyone saw and heard was that President Bush drove the country into the ground but any fourth grade student in a US civics class could tell you that the President doesn’t have that power. It was driven into the ground with all branches of government (republicans and democrats alike) sitting at the wheel. But Americans are fickle and none of us want to take the blame so we follow what the man on tv tells us and he tells us that it’s Bush’s fault so it MUST be Bush’s fault. We then sit back and wait for the media to spoon feed us the answers rather than form an opinion of our own and this round the media was all over the democratic party. They’re the saviors, they’re the ones with the answers and they’re the guiltless ones that didn’t want to go to war, or allow the economy to drop or a million other things that have drug the country down. It’s the Republicans fault, they’re the ones to blame for everything so we have to remove them from that balance and turn the country over to the democrats…they’ll save us…won’t they…at least that’s what the man on the tv said…
Dark days my friends, dark days…
This election should prove the absolute need for a reform of the election laws, the electoral college needs to be scraped and there needs to be a cap on fundraising and donations allowed. It’s time that the process was returned to the average joe american. It’s time that our voice is heard, not the media’s voice and definitely not the top 10% of the wealth in the country. Those are the voices that need to be curtailed so that the rest of us can have a say for once. If this election hasn’t proved that, then the last 4 sure have…
It’s also proven that anyone can buy their way into the presidency. Enough money will buy you any position you like. Rather than doing good with the SICKENING amount of money wasted by both candidates we chose to look the other way and allow them to continue without issue. How many mouths could have been fed from Palin’s wardrobe? How many homes could have been saved from Obama’s infomercials? How many Americans should be outraged by this? How can we sleep at night knowing that rather than do some good with those funds they were flushed down the toilet. The next time you think about donating that $1.00-$10,000,000.00 to your political party, take a look around you, where should that money really go? What good could you do and how many lives could you change by giving that money to something that really mattered?
At the very least we should be allowed a none of the above vote…what’s the percentage of American voters out there that wasted a vote on someone that they don’t support because they had to choose between the lessor of two evils? I know I did…
Dark, dark days…We all should be ashamed of ourselves…
Before you begin sending me hate mail you should know that I’m not a registered republican or democrat but an independent so my stance is pretty neutral. I don’t care about this party or that party…I just want the damn thing to work for once and my vote goes to the individual who I believe will accomplish that…nothing more and nothing less!
What the general public seems to have forgotten in this election is that balance in government is good. It means that no one specific faction can control the direction of the country to meet their personal beliefs. That balance has now been thrown out the window because everyone has been absolutely blinded by the media rather than looking at the actual underlying facts and stories. All anyone saw and heard was that President Bush drove the country into the ground but any fourth grade student in a US civics class could tell you that the President doesn’t have that power. It was driven into the ground with all branches of government (republicans and democrats alike) sitting at the wheel. But Americans are fickle and none of us want to take the blame so we follow what the man on tv tells us and he tells us that it’s Bush’s fault so it MUST be Bush’s fault. We then sit back and wait for the media to spoon feed us the answers rather than form an opinion of our own and this round the media was all over the democratic party. They’re the saviors, they’re the ones with the answers and they’re the guiltless ones that didn’t want to go to war, or allow the economy to drop or a million other things that have drug the country down. It’s the Republicans fault, they’re the ones to blame for everything so we have to remove them from that balance and turn the country over to the democrats…they’ll save us…won’t they…at least that’s what the man on the tv said…
Dark days my friends, dark days…
This election should prove the absolute need for a reform of the election laws, the electoral college needs to be scraped and there needs to be a cap on fundraising and donations allowed. It’s time that the process was returned to the average joe american. It’s time that our voice is heard, not the media’s voice and definitely not the top 10% of the wealth in the country. Those are the voices that need to be curtailed so that the rest of us can have a say for once. If this election hasn’t proved that, then the last 4 sure have…
It’s also proven that anyone can buy their way into the presidency. Enough money will buy you any position you like. Rather than doing good with the SICKENING amount of money wasted by both candidates we chose to look the other way and allow them to continue without issue. How many mouths could have been fed from Palin’s wardrobe? How many homes could have been saved from Obama’s infomercials? How many Americans should be outraged by this? How can we sleep at night knowing that rather than do some good with those funds they were flushed down the toilet. The next time you think about donating that $1.00-$10,000,000.00 to your political party, take a look around you, where should that money really go? What good could you do and how many lives could you change by giving that money to something that really mattered?
At the very least we should be allowed a none of the above vote…what’s the percentage of American voters out there that wasted a vote on someone that they don’t support because they had to choose between the lessor of two evils? I know I did…
Dark, dark days…We all should be ashamed of ourselves…
Monday, November 3, 2008
Longing
I hate daylight savings. It does absolutely nothing but throw my system out of whack and effectively make me tired for the 2 weeks following the change. I understand where it came from and why we needed but we’re no longer chained down by the amount of daylight we have at our disposals. I think it’s time that we abandon this weird shift in time and allow the country to progress as God had intended.
I mean really…here I am still in my office and it’s 4:30 and the sun just set behind the ridge effectively throwing us into twilight for the next hour and a half. IT SUCKS!
On a lighter note I was cruising through the pictures of San Diego on my iPhone while eating lunch and came across one I completely forgot
I took this as we were heading off the beach in Coronado as the fog was rolling in. Being a mountain boy it was amazing to sit there and watch it roll in off the water, across the beach and up and over the buildings. Too bad the iPhone doesn’t have a zoom yet, this picture could have been far more amazing, but it’s still not that bad.
Oh how I long for the beach!
I mean really…here I am still in my office and it’s 4:30 and the sun just set behind the ridge effectively throwing us into twilight for the next hour and a half. IT SUCKS!
On a lighter note I was cruising through the pictures of San Diego on my iPhone while eating lunch and came across one I completely forgot
I took this as we were heading off the beach in Coronado as the fog was rolling in. Being a mountain boy it was amazing to sit there and watch it roll in off the water, across the beach and up and over the buildings. Too bad the iPhone doesn’t have a zoom yet, this picture could have been far more amazing, but it’s still not that bad.
Oh how I long for the beach!
Sunday, November 2, 2008
Beach Good
We’re back to the real world now and it S U C K S! I’ve found myself over the past day or two daydreaming of the beach and San Diego.
We got into town a week ago last Friday and could immediately feel the energy of being that close to the ocean and in such a great town. We picked up the rental car and immediately got lost on our way to the hotel. That’s ok because we were in no hurry and who really cares. We eventually found our way, thanks to the mighty iPhone and it’s GPS…yeah thanks really goes out to the California department of transportation for their superb upkeep of the road signs in the area. If you’ve never been to the area make sure that when you do visit, that you arrive before dark as the signs are so old and weathered that they’re no longer reflective, effectively rendering them completely useless in the glare of a cars headlights. Yeah…that was great…thanks.
Saturday however delivered the eye opener that we were looking for. We had an idea that the view from our room was nice but we had no idea the view of Mission Bay would be absolutely amazing. Every morning and afternoon was awesome. Watching the sail boats and rowing teams while sitting on the beach just feet from our room was the best.
We hit the typical San Diego sites, Hotel Del Coronado & Coronado, Imperial & Pacific Beaches, Old Town, The Whaley House, Highway 101 up to Carlsbad, Sea World and Kobeys Swap Meet. I would have loved to have been able to stuff more in but between my conference and a few foggy days I think we accomplished quite a bit.
One of the coolest things we did was to tour though the Whaley house. It’s supposedly the most haunted place in California, blah blah blah, I think most of it is bunk and the number of pictures that they’re touting as showing some sort of paranormal activity to me shows nothing more than just bad photography. Either way it was still pretty cool. The house did give off some quirky vibe and I could see something lurking around it’s dark corners, but when they’re touring 25+ people through every 15 minutes I don’t think much is going to be happening. It might be worth getting a group of friends together and renting it out for a night and seeing what decides to pop up.
I think this trip may have given us the kick in the butt that we’ve needed in order to begin planning our vacations and taking some time for ourselves rather than waiting for something to force us into going. It’s funny that Wife’s old boss sent us on our first beach vacation and now we can’t seem to get enough of them. What’s even more funny is that I never thought that I would EVER be a beach kind of guy, but every time we get there I absolutely love it. Like I said in my last post, I would eat dirt on a daily basis if it meant that we could live on the beach.
Yeah…the beach ROCKS!
The best part of the trip? Seeing that South Park has finally given me something totally topical again.
I mean really, they ARE everywhere!
The best part was the rendition of “my heart will go on”…
It was so cultural…
Friday, October 31, 2008
Is it supposed to be like that?
Wife and I are back from our trip to sunny San Diego and man o man what a sweet ass town that place is. Loved it as much as I did back in the day. I could honestly find myself sliding into a sweet little position in one of the swanky hotels there and living on the beach. I’d eat dirt at this point to live on the beach.
Anyhow I’ve got a ton of stories and a few pictures to get out but for now I’ve also got to dig out from the pile of work on my desk. It’s funny how I went there for work, and yet am even more buried by work now that I’m back. Weird!
Anyhow I’ve got a ton of stories and a few pictures to get out but for now I’ve also got to dig out from the pile of work on my desk. It’s funny how I went there for work, and yet am even more buried by work now that I’m back. Weird!
Friday, October 24, 2008
I can’t help myself
I have to make a comment on the latest election headline. I REALLY don’t want to but I can’t seem to stop myself because I am SO FUCKIN outraged by the current election. God help me!
Obama: Grandmother may not see Election Day
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Drivers Ed…
I can’t seem to wrap my head around the thought processes many of the drivers on the road seem to go through every day. It’s like driving through a grand theft auto mission everyday on my way to and from work. People running red lights left and right. Making illegal turns and my most favorite of all, the left hand turn from the lane of travel. Come on people…there’s a center lane, sometimes known as the “turn lane” for a reason. Pull your winkled old ass into that lane and then make your left turn. This whole slow down to 2mph in the traffic lane, begin the turn and then remember to turn on your signal is getting a tad FRUSTRATING.
Oh no, don’t think that I’m only singling out the older population on this one…no no…you little bastards out there aren’t getting off that easy. Life isn’t a fucking video game where you can drive as you please while talking to your dumb-ass boyfriend and texting your best friend about the hand job you gave him last night (unless you’re in Utah then it’s that dry humping session but I digress), oh no it’s not. How about we put the cell phone down and focus on the road and traffic around you, oh and yeah…the center lane is where you should be initiating your left turn from, not the traffic lanes.
I swear, as life speeds up and technology takes over we all seem to forget the rules of the road. What would be refreshing on one of my commutes is to not get cut off, have to slam on the brakes for some dumb ass making a left turn right in front of me instead of from the turn lane, nearly get rear ended by some jackass texting on their phone or run the risk of getting broadsided because that yellow light doesn’t mean slow down and stop anymore, no no, it means hit the gas because the first 10-15 seconds of a red light don’t really count…didn’t you get that memo?
So to all of you out there…PUT DOWN THE FUCKING PHONE & DRIVE OR GET OFF THE ROAD!
Oh no, don’t think that I’m only singling out the older population on this one…no no…you little bastards out there aren’t getting off that easy. Life isn’t a fucking video game where you can drive as you please while talking to your dumb-ass boyfriend and texting your best friend about the hand job you gave him last night (unless you’re in Utah then it’s that dry humping session but I digress), oh no it’s not. How about we put the cell phone down and focus on the road and traffic around you, oh and yeah…the center lane is where you should be initiating your left turn from, not the traffic lanes.
I swear, as life speeds up and technology takes over we all seem to forget the rules of the road. What would be refreshing on one of my commutes is to not get cut off, have to slam on the brakes for some dumb ass making a left turn right in front of me instead of from the turn lane, nearly get rear ended by some jackass texting on their phone or run the risk of getting broadsided because that yellow light doesn’t mean slow down and stop anymore, no no, it means hit the gas because the first 10-15 seconds of a red light don’t really count…didn’t you get that memo?
So to all of you out there…PUT DOWN THE FUCKING PHONE & DRIVE OR GET OFF THE ROAD!
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Yes I’ve noticed
That there is a HUGE amount of political ads on my site and they all seem to be for Obama. DO NOT think this is any sort of endorsement on my part for him or for the current and future political status quo. Unfortunately I don’t have any say in the advertisements on the site other than they are pulled from the tags given to each post and am seriously considering pulling all political oriented tags until after the election.
None Of The Above
A classic from “Brewsters Millions”. Now if only we could accomplish the same in this election. Vote None of the Above!
You’re Joking
A few months ago Wife and I went and saw “WALL-E” which was pretty poignant and kind of direct in addressing where humanity is going to end up if things don’t begin to change. I’ve done a decent job at repressing that information since leaving the theater, that was until I read this, “India launches moon mission in Asian space race”.
Now I am in no means what so ever a tree hugging, liberal, humanitarian, green peace weenie. Not even close, but I can’t seem to contain the outrage boiling in my gut over this headline. A country where the majority of its population lives below the poverty line is spending billions upon billions to keep up with the Jones family next door. What complete and utter horse shit! Who can blame them though, look around the world and they’re not doing anything less than anyone else. Look at us…we’re more focused on what other countries think of us than how we treat our own citizens. We’re so focused on keeping our police strangle hold on the world that we refuse to take a step back and look at ourselves. Maybe it’s time that we began taking care of the problems at home before looking to solve the problems of the rest of the world. How can we set an example for someone else when we can’t do it ourselves?
But still, a 3rd world country sending a satellite to the moon to map its surface is more important than dealing with the poverty issues facing its population. And yet I act surprised by this. This in a country where men are slapped on the wrist for throwing acid in the face of their mothers, daughters, sisters and wives, setting them on fire or just plain murdering them and dumping them in an irrigation ditch all in the name of “honor”. Horse shit, absolute horse shit. Way to go India, keep turning that blind eye and one day you’ll be just like us, hope you’re happy.
Now I am in no means what so ever a tree hugging, liberal, humanitarian, green peace weenie. Not even close, but I can’t seem to contain the outrage boiling in my gut over this headline. A country where the majority of its population lives below the poverty line is spending billions upon billions to keep up with the Jones family next door. What complete and utter horse shit! Who can blame them though, look around the world and they’re not doing anything less than anyone else. Look at us…we’re more focused on what other countries think of us than how we treat our own citizens. We’re so focused on keeping our police strangle hold on the world that we refuse to take a step back and look at ourselves. Maybe it’s time that we began taking care of the problems at home before looking to solve the problems of the rest of the world. How can we set an example for someone else when we can’t do it ourselves?
But still, a 3rd world country sending a satellite to the moon to map its surface is more important than dealing with the poverty issues facing its population. And yet I act surprised by this. This in a country where men are slapped on the wrist for throwing acid in the face of their mothers, daughters, sisters and wives, setting them on fire or just plain murdering them and dumping them in an irrigation ditch all in the name of “honor”. Horse shit, absolute horse shit. Way to go India, keep turning that blind eye and one day you’ll be just like us, hope you’re happy.
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Californication
We’re a few days away to leaving for California so that I can attend a hospitality conference and so that Wife can wile her days away on the beach while I work. I think I’m getting the short end of the stick here. We’re going to be spending our time in San Diego which should be a lovely 70 to 75 degrees the entire time we’re there. We’re heading in a bit early so that we can have some time to play on Saturday before the conference starts that night. I’ve also arranged for us to stay an extra night so that we can play on Wednesday before coming home on Thursday afternoon.
I have to admit that I am feeling a little guilty about the whole thing. The conference falls smack dab over our 7th anniversary so I basically stiff armed Wife into tagging along so that we could get some sort of a vacation out of the deal, no matter how small it may be at this point. Either way I know she’ll love it. It’s been a few years since I was last there, but from what I remember it was absolutely gorgeous. I can see why so many people flock to the area.
I think we’re just going to play it by ear and make our plans on the fly. I know that she really wants to see Sea World and where it’s like a mile away from our hotel that’s pretty much a given. I also remember a pretty sweet swap meet happening at the sports arena (I think that’s where it was) that we may also try to hit on Saturday. I’m pretty sure that it was at the San Diego Sports Arena and if that’s the case it’s all of another mile or two down the road. I like things that are close…no worry…no hassle.
Either way this should be a relaxing trip (at least for one of us).
I have to admit that I am feeling a little guilty about the whole thing. The conference falls smack dab over our 7th anniversary so I basically stiff armed Wife into tagging along so that we could get some sort of a vacation out of the deal, no matter how small it may be at this point. Either way I know she’ll love it. It’s been a few years since I was last there, but from what I remember it was absolutely gorgeous. I can see why so many people flock to the area.
I think we’re just going to play it by ear and make our plans on the fly. I know that she really wants to see Sea World and where it’s like a mile away from our hotel that’s pretty much a given. I also remember a pretty sweet swap meet happening at the sports arena (I think that’s where it was) that we may also try to hit on Saturday. I’m pretty sure that it was at the San Diego Sports Arena and if that’s the case it’s all of another mile or two down the road. I like things that are close…no worry…no hassle.
Either way this should be a relaxing trip (at least for one of us).
Monday, October 20, 2008
Voting: what’s the point
I’ve been informed that I’ll be leaving work early this afternoon so that I can spend more of my precious time worrying about which candidate truly gives a fuck about me and my problems by registering to vote at the 11th hour. Whoooopeeeeeeeeeee
It’s not that I don’t care, because I really do. There have only been a few critical elections in the past and I firmly believe that we’re faced with one of the more important elections of our countries history. Yet the outcome is not going to lead us towards a stronger and brighter future…no no…neither candidate is capable of delivering that promise no matter how much they’d like you to believe, nor how much their fanatical supporters would have you believe. That’s right I called them fanatics because that’s what they are. I’ve seen them, they act like a bunch of pubescent teenage girls at a beetles concert. I have no doubt that there’s been more than a few pair of under ware or depends (take your choice) thrown on stage during these rallies because they’re just another concert, nothing more nothing less. Each one as important as the next Wiggles appearance.
In the past I’ve always looked at elections as which one is the lessor of two evils and who won’t screw it up too badly. Lets face it, it doesn’t matter who’s in power, they’ll screw it up one way or another, it’s just a matter of how badly. Only on this round I think we’re all in for one hell of a ride down the cluster fuck highway. Do I believe that in 4 years we’ll be any better off with either Obama or McCain at the helm? Not in the least. I have no doubt that we’ll still be ignoring our internal social issues and wrongs. There will still be old and young without proper housing, food or medical attention and we’ll still be shuttling our young off to fight a bunch of asshole religious extremists all in the name of freedom. Freedom, what a crock…how can we claim to be the home of the free when the majority of the population lives paycheck to paycheck and regularly has to decide between which bill to pay and which hits the trash can so that they put gas in the car and food on the table. Yet we can shovel money into foreign affairs that aren’t getting better with our assistance and ultimately would probably be better off if we washed our hands of them and instead chose to address one of the wrongs in our own country for a change.
Wife is freaked that I might vote for a total psycho that’s running for Utah’s gov. Why not? the old regimes and old boys clubs that are currently in power all over the country sure can’t seem to get it done, so why the hell not. Who knows, he may surprise us all and do a hell of a job. Yeah he’s a little crazy and has had some issues, but you can’t tell me that he’s not more of a regular guy than the other old rich assholes in the race. I have no doubt that he’s looking at it as how can he make things better where the others are looking at it as how quickly can this catapult them into an even higher ranking government position. Either way we’re screwed, at least with this guy we have a little fun along the way.
If I had my choice I’d be campaigning for “NONE OF THE ABOVE” and calling for another round of candidates. But we all know that won’t happen because we have the movie star and the old guy…Instead of voting who’s president and vice president we should be voting which candidate becomes president and which becomes vice president. At least that way we might have some balance in the office rather than another lackey licking the boots of the president. Isn’t that how all other elections are handled? I mean really, I can’t think of another position that is a twoffer like that. Don’t we usually have to vote for a president AND a vice president? Am I wrong to question why this election means we have to get two assholes for the one vote? What are we the Costco of nations and have to get the best bargain even in our elections?
Screw it…I’m flipping a quarter on all my votes, we’re all screwed anyway. That way I can point the finger at someone else…just like they do in Washington!
It’s not that I don’t care, because I really do. There have only been a few critical elections in the past and I firmly believe that we’re faced with one of the more important elections of our countries history. Yet the outcome is not going to lead us towards a stronger and brighter future…no no…neither candidate is capable of delivering that promise no matter how much they’d like you to believe, nor how much their fanatical supporters would have you believe. That’s right I called them fanatics because that’s what they are. I’ve seen them, they act like a bunch of pubescent teenage girls at a beetles concert. I have no doubt that there’s been more than a few pair of under ware or depends (take your choice) thrown on stage during these rallies because they’re just another concert, nothing more nothing less. Each one as important as the next Wiggles appearance.
In the past I’ve always looked at elections as which one is the lessor of two evils and who won’t screw it up too badly. Lets face it, it doesn’t matter who’s in power, they’ll screw it up one way or another, it’s just a matter of how badly. Only on this round I think we’re all in for one hell of a ride down the cluster fuck highway. Do I believe that in 4 years we’ll be any better off with either Obama or McCain at the helm? Not in the least. I have no doubt that we’ll still be ignoring our internal social issues and wrongs. There will still be old and young without proper housing, food or medical attention and we’ll still be shuttling our young off to fight a bunch of asshole religious extremists all in the name of freedom. Freedom, what a crock…how can we claim to be the home of the free when the majority of the population lives paycheck to paycheck and regularly has to decide between which bill to pay and which hits the trash can so that they put gas in the car and food on the table. Yet we can shovel money into foreign affairs that aren’t getting better with our assistance and ultimately would probably be better off if we washed our hands of them and instead chose to address one of the wrongs in our own country for a change.
Wife is freaked that I might vote for a total psycho that’s running for Utah’s gov. Why not? the old regimes and old boys clubs that are currently in power all over the country sure can’t seem to get it done, so why the hell not. Who knows, he may surprise us all and do a hell of a job. Yeah he’s a little crazy and has had some issues, but you can’t tell me that he’s not more of a regular guy than the other old rich assholes in the race. I have no doubt that he’s looking at it as how can he make things better where the others are looking at it as how quickly can this catapult them into an even higher ranking government position. Either way we’re screwed, at least with this guy we have a little fun along the way.
If I had my choice I’d be campaigning for “NONE OF THE ABOVE” and calling for another round of candidates. But we all know that won’t happen because we have the movie star and the old guy…Instead of voting who’s president and vice president we should be voting which candidate becomes president and which becomes vice president. At least that way we might have some balance in the office rather than another lackey licking the boots of the president. Isn’t that how all other elections are handled? I mean really, I can’t think of another position that is a twoffer like that. Don’t we usually have to vote for a president AND a vice president? Am I wrong to question why this election means we have to get two assholes for the one vote? What are we the Costco of nations and have to get the best bargain even in our elections?
Screw it…I’m flipping a quarter on all my votes, we’re all screwed anyway. That way I can point the finger at someone else…just like they do in Washington!
Crap
A few months ago I set a goal to get back into the gym on a regular basis and drop a certain amount of weight before today. Well…I didn’t do it, and when I mean I didn’t do it, I don’t mean that I missed the goal weight by a few pounds here or there, I mean I DIDN’T DO IT, as in, at all. Yeah I suck!
Wife and I were doing great for the first 2-3 weeks. Getting up early and heading to the local Gold’s Gym (all of 3 blocks away) and were seeing some great results. She was far less crazy and I was feeling better, looking better and losing the weight. Then I don’t know what happened. We got lazy and one morning sleeping in turned into 2, then 3, then 4 and then before I knew what happened the entire week was gone and the vicious cycle would begin again. We really were doing great. We even began keeping tabs on just what we were eating and the amount of mindless junk, sugar and fat that we had been shoveling in took a huge nose dive.
The drive for this change came when I found out that I would be speaking twice at the hospitality convention that I’m attending at the end of this week. I thought, my God, I have to stand in front of a group of other industry professionals and convince them that I know what I’m talking about and I have to do that while being a big fatty, not good, not good at all. The worst fear was the fact that I have a genitic disposition to sweat buckets from my forehead when I’m nervous and the weight exacerbates the problem 100 fold. I’m sure that it won’t be an issue and no there is really going to care one way or another, the problem is that I care and repeatedly choose not to do anything about it.
I’ve been toying with this idea in my head of posting real time results and workouts on a daily basis on the site. I haven’t quite decided the best way to do it, but it’s something that I’m seriously considering. Maybe in that way I can kill two birds with one stone, regularly update the site and get my butt to the gym. This probably won’t be starting until the first of Nov, but who knows, I may start it tonight with the amount of guilt that I’m feeling. Sucks!
Part of the other issue that has brought this to light is that Wife and I went shopping over the weekend for a few things I need to fill in the closet, the goal was to be doing this with smaller sizes, not more of the same but that’s just what happened. The worst is that the rest of town is made up with large asses like mine so finding things in my size proves a little difficult. This is then compounded by the fact that we live in a town that is trying hard to grow, but when you really don’t have any competition what’s the point to carry a well stocked selection of items. This all resulted in a lot of frustration and turning to the online store to order something that I should have easily been able to find on the shelf. Oh well, no one’s fault but my own. Guess I should do something to change that.
Wife and I were doing great for the first 2-3 weeks. Getting up early and heading to the local Gold’s Gym (all of 3 blocks away) and were seeing some great results. She was far less crazy and I was feeling better, looking better and losing the weight. Then I don’t know what happened. We got lazy and one morning sleeping in turned into 2, then 3, then 4 and then before I knew what happened the entire week was gone and the vicious cycle would begin again. We really were doing great. We even began keeping tabs on just what we were eating and the amount of mindless junk, sugar and fat that we had been shoveling in took a huge nose dive.
The drive for this change came when I found out that I would be speaking twice at the hospitality convention that I’m attending at the end of this week. I thought, my God, I have to stand in front of a group of other industry professionals and convince them that I know what I’m talking about and I have to do that while being a big fatty, not good, not good at all. The worst fear was the fact that I have a genitic disposition to sweat buckets from my forehead when I’m nervous and the weight exacerbates the problem 100 fold. I’m sure that it won’t be an issue and no there is really going to care one way or another, the problem is that I care and repeatedly choose not to do anything about it.
I’ve been toying with this idea in my head of posting real time results and workouts on a daily basis on the site. I haven’t quite decided the best way to do it, but it’s something that I’m seriously considering. Maybe in that way I can kill two birds with one stone, regularly update the site and get my butt to the gym. This probably won’t be starting until the first of Nov, but who knows, I may start it tonight with the amount of guilt that I’m feeling. Sucks!
Part of the other issue that has brought this to light is that Wife and I went shopping over the weekend for a few things I need to fill in the closet, the goal was to be doing this with smaller sizes, not more of the same but that’s just what happened. The worst is that the rest of town is made up with large asses like mine so finding things in my size proves a little difficult. This is then compounded by the fact that we live in a town that is trying hard to grow, but when you really don’t have any competition what’s the point to carry a well stocked selection of items. This all resulted in a lot of frustration and turning to the online store to order something that I should have easily been able to find on the shelf. Oh well, no one’s fault but my own. Guess I should do something to change that.
Friday, October 17, 2008
Found
I was cruising through one of my favorite little websites today and happened upon one that was all too familiar.
Ex-Mountain Biker!
You know, my shoulder still hurts…I wonder how that tree is doing…My favorite is when it decides to dislocate in the middle of the night just to say hi. That was an epic trail though, totally worth it!
I highly suggest that you spend some time at the site, because it kicks ass. The best tactic isn’t to go through them in order by date, no no no…go to the archives and hit the tag cloud, absolutely priceless I tell you, PRICELESS! I think my favorite has got to be “prom” or maybe it’s “oops” but then “cheese” is kinda good too…so many choices.
Ex-Mountain Biker!
You know, my shoulder still hurts…I wonder how that tree is doing…My favorite is when it decides to dislocate in the middle of the night just to say hi. That was an epic trail though, totally worth it!
I highly suggest that you spend some time at the site, because it kicks ass. The best tactic isn’t to go through them in order by date, no no no…go to the archives and hit the tag cloud, absolutely priceless I tell you, PRICELESS! I think my favorite has got to be “prom” or maybe it’s “oops” but then “cheese” is kinda good too…so many choices.
Ta Da part II
Well it seems I’ve had a slight change of heart. The original version of this theme was too cluttered for my liking with the two side bars on the right and lets face it, I really didn’t like having one on either side of the blog posts. So this is as good as it’s going to get. I am however going to widen the body to better space the posts and see if I can draw the bottom of the site up a few pixels. I’ve also dumped a few wiggy plug ins and installed better versions. The coolest of which has got to be the text cloud.
I’d love to say that I came up with it on my own but no, it is a plug in that I found on the WordPress site. It’s by Roy Tanck who did an amazing job. I mean really, it’s a piece of art.
So aside from these recent changes I’m basically done. I’m going to add a p
cture gallery, or flickr widget or something in the coming days, but for now tis is good enough for me.
Up next is the business site and Wife's blog. She’s been at this a little longer than I have and her site really is in need of an updating. I’m pretty sure that we’re going to run with Thematic on her site as well where it has really proven to have everything I’m looking for at this point. There are a few items I wish I could tweak but we’ll see what the newest version does in the coming weeks and cross the bridge when it gets here. If the newest version doesn’t have what I’m looking for (from the themeshaper forums it sounds as if it will) I’ll have to change the main design elements and keep restoring them when a new version of Thematic comes out.
I’d love to say that I came up with it on my own but no, it is a plug in that I found on the WordPress site. It’s by Roy Tanck who did an amazing job. I mean really, it’s a piece of art.
So aside from these recent changes I’m basically done. I’m going to add a p
cture gallery, or flickr widget or something in the coming days, but for now tis is good enough for me.
Up next is the business site and Wife's blog. She’s been at this a little longer than I have and her site really is in need of an updating. I’m pretty sure that we’re going to run with Thematic on her site as well where it has really proven to have everything I’m looking for at this point. There are a few items I wish I could tweak but we’ll see what the newest version does in the coming weeks and cross the bridge when it gets here. If the newest version doesn’t have what I’m looking for (from the themeshaper forums it sounds as if it will) I’ll have to change the main design elements and keep restoring them when a new version of Thematic comes out.
Thursday, October 16, 2008
um, Yeah!
I had to sneak away from the office a little early this afternoon to take care of a few items and get a much needed haircut before I head out to a hospitality conference next week. Before all of this however I had been working through next years budget numbers, which resulted in some sort of weird time warp and my not realizing what time it was. What does this mean? Well it means that I didn’t really eat lunch. Blamo, too late to do anything about it I had to hit the road. So when I got home later this afternoon I was starving…craving that something special. I scan the kitchen for that something and low what do I spy?
Oh ho ho, a brand spanking new bag of Cheetos puffs…but these aren’t any run of the mill puffs, oh no these are ginormous. I mean I can barely fit one whole in my mouth, and trust me when I say this…I, have a big mouth…
I have a slight problem when it comes to cheetos…especially puffs. If there were an AA program from cheetos I would totally have been ordered to participate via this or that courts mandate, and then promptly flunked out. I’m certain that one day Wife is going to come home from work one day and find me in a coma with lovely cheese encrusted fingers.
MMMmmmmm what a day that will be…
Oh ho ho, a brand spanking new bag of Cheetos puffs…but these aren’t any run of the mill puffs, oh no these are ginormous. I mean I can barely fit one whole in my mouth, and trust me when I say this…I, have a big mouth…
I have a slight problem when it comes to cheetos…especially puffs. If there were an AA program from cheetos I would totally have been ordered to participate via this or that courts mandate, and then promptly flunked out. I’m certain that one day Wife is going to come home from work one day and find me in a coma with lovely cheese encrusted fingers.
MMMmmmmm what a day that will be…
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
A very cool site
One of Those days
I couldn’t say it better myself…
It’s that time of year when just about every company I have ever worked for hunkers down with the trolls in accounting and produces the magic numbers for the next year. Dilbert and I are on the same wave length today.
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Ta Da
So here it is. The latest and greatest styling. This one should be good for more than a few days I hope. There are a few items that I need to tweak but it’s basically all there.
It’s a child theme based off of the thematic frame work, which proved to be a life saver while trying to come up with something that I liked. Due to thematic I will be able to update and change things very easily without much if any down time. Between Thematic and Wordpress things went fairly smoothly, even for a hacker like me. It definitely proved that if I can adapt and change the site that anyone out there can do it to.
So there you go…I hope you like it.
It’s a child theme based off of the thematic frame work, which proved to be a life saver while trying to come up with something that I liked. Due to thematic I will be able to update and change things very easily without much if any down time. Between Thematic and Wordpress things went fairly smoothly, even for a hacker like me. It definitely proved that if I can adapt and change the site that anyone out there can do it to.
So there you go…I hope you like it.
Monday, October 13, 2008
Stay Tuned
Recently I made a pack with myself to make sure that I would post something daily if at all possible. Well not even two weeks in and I’m falling behind.
I won’t make excuses other than I’ve been busy working on a new layout, style and direction for the site the past week or so. The latest version just isn’t cutting it for me. It’s too 1998 and really has a basic html look to it that I’m not super excited about. So please stay tuned and I hope that you’re surprised with the new changes.
I won’t make excuses other than I’ve been busy working on a new layout, style and direction for the site the past week or so. The latest version just isn’t cutting it for me. It’s too 1998 and really has a basic html look to it that I’m not super excited about. So please stay tuned and I hope that you’re surprised with the new changes.
Friday, October 10, 2008
Spooky
You’re witnessing the latest and greatest version of whatthefetch.com exciting don’t you think? As I mentioned before I had been toying with the idea of swapping out my old theme for something new and this is what I’ve come up with. It’s based off of the “Vrooom!” theme by Rajaie AlKorani. It caught my eye with the larger right sideblog and the overall format. I have made a large number of changes, in reality making it my own theme at this point with the basic css and xhtml coding left in place. I pulled a large number of colors, images and formatting from my previous theme over to give it that extra bit that the original theme was lacking.
I’m still not supper excited about it…something is still just missing. It’s also a little too Halloweenie for me. But being October I suppose it’s ok for now.
I’m also fighting the clutter it would seem. I have a feeling that for me to really do away with a lot of the clutter I’m going to have to come up with my own formatting. That however is light ages down the road. In the mean time I’m going to be keeping my eye out for a theme that I can manipulate into something more my liking. Hell, I may even dump back into my original if I can’t get the current version or something new more to my liking.
I’m still not supper excited about it…something is still just missing. It’s also a little too Halloweenie for me. But being October I suppose it’s ok for now.
I’m also fighting the clutter it would seem. I have a feeling that for me to really do away with a lot of the clutter I’m going to have to come up with my own formatting. That however is light ages down the road. In the mean time I’m going to be keeping my eye out for a theme that I can manipulate into something more my liking. Hell, I may even dump back into my original if I can’t get the current version or something new more to my liking.
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Latest Revisions
I went on a tear yesterday and decided to make an attempt at updating to the latest version of WordPress 2.6.2 from our currently installed version 2.2. Wife and I had talked about updating our systems off and on for the past few months, each time returning to that what if everything crashes and we lose our sites and can’t get anything back. Well, coming from a background of starting out on an old IBM XT back in the day I can totally see her point. I remember going through high school having to use Mac’s in our computer lab because our district was to snotty to use simple PC’s, THOSE machines are for laborers and people who schlep for a living…not my son or daughter, no they need to create and to make sure that they aren’t physically able to get sucked into a lifeless job in front of a computer we’ll make sure they don’t know how to use them.
Sorry, the crazy seemed to jump in there. Where was I?
Oh yeah, so we were pretty certain that the upgrade would cause some sort of doomsday reaction and that it would not only dump all of our blogging history but blow up the Western Hemisphere in the process. I decided that enough was enough and that if the Western Hemisphere was blown off the face of the planet because of it, well then we’d all be that much better off anyhow.
Our sites are hosted through liquid-web and they offer the use of fantastico to help the blogger challenged (much like myself) to keep on top of our updates and software upgrades. After making every physical back up to our sites that I could come across I crossed my fingers and clicked update. It took all of 20 seconds and was done. I couldn’t believe how easy it was. I happily clicked on the “view site” link and was immediately taken to my page that was not proudly showing a large bold “NOT FOUND” error message.
Well I thought, thank God I didn’t update Wife’s site because she would have a stroke and I’d be found guilty for murder and rot the rest of my life away known as Erica to my closer friends in prison. So I began digging around and with Wife’s help realized that everything was still there, our categories etc worked as they should. Once you clicked through, everything loaded and it was if nothing was wrong. It was then that I realized that we had an external problem and that this issue had to be based in WordPress. After some frantic searching across Google and the WordPress forums I stumbled across a one line response that someone had given to someone else in a similar position. “Did you deactivate your plug-ins?” Ahhhh hell could it be that simple I thought. So I went back into the admin side and did just that. That’s when everything came back like magic and I thought I was in the pink again. With everything working I then re-activated all the plug-ins and found that I was back to square one. After some further trial and error I discovered that my Katesgasis Side Blog plug-in was causing all the trouble. So after some frustration in trying to remember what our FTP address, user and passwords were I was able to auto update it and a few others.
For those independent WordPress users I highly recommend staying current in the newest software releases. I know that if we hadn’t gone from version 2.2 to 2.6.2 directly I would have saved some heartache. Oh well, knowledge is power and now I know so next time won’t be quite so frightening.
Sorry, the crazy seemed to jump in there. Where was I?
Oh yeah, so we were pretty certain that the upgrade would cause some sort of doomsday reaction and that it would not only dump all of our blogging history but blow up the Western Hemisphere in the process. I decided that enough was enough and that if the Western Hemisphere was blown off the face of the planet because of it, well then we’d all be that much better off anyhow.
Our sites are hosted through liquid-web and they offer the use of fantastico to help the blogger challenged (much like myself) to keep on top of our updates and software upgrades. After making every physical back up to our sites that I could come across I crossed my fingers and clicked update. It took all of 20 seconds and was done. I couldn’t believe how easy it was. I happily clicked on the “view site” link and was immediately taken to my page that was not proudly showing a large bold “NOT FOUND” error message.
Well I thought, thank God I didn’t update Wife’s site because she would have a stroke and I’d be found guilty for murder and rot the rest of my life away known as Erica to my closer friends in prison. So I began digging around and with Wife’s help realized that everything was still there, our categories etc worked as they should. Once you clicked through, everything loaded and it was if nothing was wrong. It was then that I realized that we had an external problem and that this issue had to be based in WordPress. After some frantic searching across Google and the WordPress forums I stumbled across a one line response that someone had given to someone else in a similar position. “Did you deactivate your plug-ins?” Ahhhh hell could it be that simple I thought. So I went back into the admin side and did just that. That’s when everything came back like magic and I thought I was in the pink again. With everything working I then re-activated all the plug-ins and found that I was back to square one. After some further trial and error I discovered that my Katesgasis Side Blog plug-in was causing all the trouble. So after some frustration in trying to remember what our FTP address, user and passwords were I was able to auto update it and a few others.
For those independent WordPress users I highly recommend staying current in the newest software releases. I know that if we hadn’t gone from version 2.2 to 2.6.2 directly I would have saved some heartache. Oh well, knowledge is power and now I know so next time won’t be quite so frightening.
Political Low Point
I’ve been fighting with myself over whether to post anything on this site concerning the current state of politics in this country. Unfortunately I don’t think I can remain quiet any longer. I’m tired of reading through this blog or that blog and just wanting to bang my head on the desk in frustration. Everyone seems to have an answer or a reason as to why we’re currently in the state that we’re in. They all seem to point the finger at President Bush and his less then shining record of action.
Last night I refused to watch the debate because there is absolutely no point. Why have a debate when it’s not a debate? Where is the accountability? Where is the structure and demand to answer a direct question with a direct answer. This is how I will fix the problem, 1, 2, 3. We as a country have become so blinded by our own sense of superiority that we refuse to open our eyes and our minds to new ideas and demand that those we have elected be held accountable and actually represent US for once.
I’m not going to give you my stance on the current presidential candidates other than they both scare the hell out of me.
On one side we have Barrack Obama, a man who clearly doesn’t understand basic economic principles and is proposing tax cuts for the middle and lower incomes while raising taxes for higher incomes. WAKE UP…budy, the only thing that this is going to accomplish is to drive the final nail into many American businesses and force the middle and lower incomes out of a job. What happens when the higher incomes are now taxed more? They have less disposable income, which in turn means they now purchase fewer and fewer of the luxury items that the middle and lower incomes produce. In other words this translates into even less cars being purchased, less boats, less homes, less electronics etc. Who makes those items? YOU AND I do, so now that they’re not being bought by the higher incomes due to a tax hike what happens to you and I? We’re out of a job, tell me how that is a good thing. Everyone thinks that taxing the rich is the answer to our problems when in reality it will only add to them. The rich have the money and will always have the money. Raising their taxes just means that they hold onto it tighter and spend less of it on those items you and I produce on a daily basis. If you don’t believe me I suggest you take 15 minutes out of your time and do some basic economic principle research. Hit the library or better yet hit the local college and find an economics professor…they’ll tell you the same damn thing.
He’s also touting change change change. How can you change when your running mate is a senator that has been in office for what seems like a life time? How is a long time senator who ultimately is the real problem with politics in our country change? How are they going to give us something different and begin pushing the country back to the level it had once been?
On the other side we have John McCain, a man who is afraid of rocking the boat. He’s touting change and that he knows how to fix the problem, but really hasn’t put out anything new. The most interesting bit would be his pick of a woman as his running mate. Does she have what it takes to cut the mustard or is she a gimmick? Hell if I know. The only thing I can see that he has running for him is his experience in the military. And lets face it, every country out there pretty much hates us and we may need someone who’s been there and experienced that. Other than that I don’t see much in him either. He’s kind of like that toad stool on the stump in your back yard. It’s always there, not really doing anything, but not really hurting anything either. Not really the type of person we need as a president when we’re currently in the financial and military fiasco’s that we’re currently in.
The one that will get my vote is the one that can prove in the next 20 some odd days that he has the know how and the drive to extricate ourselves from the rest of the world and to begin fixing the issues we’re facing here at home. Will it be one of the two mentioned above? probably not. I think this year may be a year for “none of the above”. I think the real question is does Obama or McCain have what it takes to fix our broken country? Unfortunately I believe the answer to be no on both sides.
On a lighter side I was pleasantly surprised to find that Wife had packed me a some yogurt and homemade granola this morning. I know that it wasn’t the success that she had been looking for, but it still turned out good which is more than I can say about our looming presidential election.
WAKE UP PEOPLE
President Bush isn’t the Antichrist that every liberal news media outlet out there would have you believe. If you want to begin pointing fingers you need to point them at yourselves. YOU elected the real people in power and have no idea what you have really done. Everyone is sooooo tied up with the president’s position when they really need to be taking a look at those men and women that are currently representing your voice in the Senate and Congress. It’s these people that really make the country move in a certain direction, not the president. Yes the president has the power to create and veto laws, bills and various programs, but he or she in no way has the power to turn the tide of a country one way or another like that of the Senate or Congress.Last night I refused to watch the debate because there is absolutely no point. Why have a debate when it’s not a debate? Where is the accountability? Where is the structure and demand to answer a direct question with a direct answer. This is how I will fix the problem, 1, 2, 3. We as a country have become so blinded by our own sense of superiority that we refuse to open our eyes and our minds to new ideas and demand that those we have elected be held accountable and actually represent US for once.
I’m not going to give you my stance on the current presidential candidates other than they both scare the hell out of me.
On one side we have Barrack Obama, a man who clearly doesn’t understand basic economic principles and is proposing tax cuts for the middle and lower incomes while raising taxes for higher incomes. WAKE UP…budy, the only thing that this is going to accomplish is to drive the final nail into many American businesses and force the middle and lower incomes out of a job. What happens when the higher incomes are now taxed more? They have less disposable income, which in turn means they now purchase fewer and fewer of the luxury items that the middle and lower incomes produce. In other words this translates into even less cars being purchased, less boats, less homes, less electronics etc. Who makes those items? YOU AND I do, so now that they’re not being bought by the higher incomes due to a tax hike what happens to you and I? We’re out of a job, tell me how that is a good thing. Everyone thinks that taxing the rich is the answer to our problems when in reality it will only add to them. The rich have the money and will always have the money. Raising their taxes just means that they hold onto it tighter and spend less of it on those items you and I produce on a daily basis. If you don’t believe me I suggest you take 15 minutes out of your time and do some basic economic principle research. Hit the library or better yet hit the local college and find an economics professor…they’ll tell you the same damn thing.
He’s also touting change change change. How can you change when your running mate is a senator that has been in office for what seems like a life time? How is a long time senator who ultimately is the real problem with politics in our country change? How are they going to give us something different and begin pushing the country back to the level it had once been?
On the other side we have John McCain, a man who is afraid of rocking the boat. He’s touting change and that he knows how to fix the problem, but really hasn’t put out anything new. The most interesting bit would be his pick of a woman as his running mate. Does she have what it takes to cut the mustard or is she a gimmick? Hell if I know. The only thing I can see that he has running for him is his experience in the military. And lets face it, every country out there pretty much hates us and we may need someone who’s been there and experienced that. Other than that I don’t see much in him either. He’s kind of like that toad stool on the stump in your back yard. It’s always there, not really doing anything, but not really hurting anything either. Not really the type of person we need as a president when we’re currently in the financial and military fiasco’s that we’re currently in.
The one that will get my vote is the one that can prove in the next 20 some odd days that he has the know how and the drive to extricate ourselves from the rest of the world and to begin fixing the issues we’re facing here at home. Will it be one of the two mentioned above? probably not. I think this year may be a year for “none of the above”. I think the real question is does Obama or McCain have what it takes to fix our broken country? Unfortunately I believe the answer to be no on both sides.
On a lighter side I was pleasantly surprised to find that Wife had packed me a some yogurt and homemade granola this morning. I know that it wasn’t the success that she had been looking for, but it still turned out good which is more than I can say about our looming presidential election.
Sunday, October 5, 2008
The Finish Line
This morning found us back in southern Utah, with two pickup trucks and our Budget Rental truck full of the remains of our lives in northern Utah. Yesterday was a little depressing, I know that Wife will never admit how tough it was for her to pull the door closed to her home, knowing that it was now someone else's home, but she did it and I love her that much more for it.
We may no longer be home owners but at least we’ve got some great memories of the place and our life together there.
The last thing we did before we pulled the door closed was to dig out Saint Joseph and clean him up. He’s earned his place in our home, wherever that may be. With the way the markets are right now, the sale of our home is an absolute miracle. I don’t know any other way to describe it, it’s a miracle.
So it’s now official. We’ve moved to Southern Utah and there’s no turning back. Leaving our lives there has been tough, but it’s for the best. Part of me is sad to see it go, especially this time of year. Fall in that area was absolutely perfect. The days were warm and the nights were cool. The changing of the leaves
and the smell of winter coming was just to die for. Southern Utah will be nice though. We experience all of those things, just not in the usual timing, they’ll be more like November and December experiences now.
Here are a few more pictures from the move…
Soooo Bored
So that’s that…I guess the next step is getting out of debt and finding a new house to make our own.
We may no longer be home owners but at least we’ve got some great memories of the place and our life together there.
The last thing we did before we pulled the door closed was to dig out Saint Joseph and clean him up. He’s earned his place in our home, wherever that may be. With the way the markets are right now, the sale of our home is an absolute miracle. I don’t know any other way to describe it, it’s a miracle.
Fresh out of the ground
and the smell of winter coming was just to die for. Southern Utah will be nice though. We experience all of those things, just not in the usual timing, they’ll be more like November and December experiences now.
Here are a few more pictures from the move…
Soooo Bored
I don't know why, but this shot makes me think of daisy as a nun
Saturday, October 4, 2008
File Not Found (your brain is being shut down to prevent further system failure)
Friday afternoon found Wife and I packing away our lives into the back of a Budget Rental moving truck. It was a little sad and a little exciting at the same time. We decided to empty the storage shed first. I can’t tell you how glad I am to be rid of that shed. We got it when we first moved to northern Utah 3+ years ago and have reworked it I don’t know how many times. Filling it to capacity, cleaning it out and donating the items we no longer needed or used, only to refill it again a few weeks later. Hopefully with our new lives we’ll be able to afford a house that has enough space and storage that we can keep all our crap in one location. Everyone tells you to simplify and to do without those items and to never get a storage shed. I remember reading somewhere something about how if you have to store it then you don’t need it. This is probably true, but doesn’t change the fact that unlike the person who said that, the items I’m storing are those that are usually stuffed into an attic or basement. Where our house had neither we were left without much choice. It was still liberating to clean that damn shed out and pull the door shut for one last time.
This morning proved a much harder task…
How do I surmise the past few years of my life with Wife into something tangible for the rest of the world to understand? I don’t think there is a word to describe that feeling. I’ve tried, and have rewritten this paragraph a hundred times attempting to describe that feeling. I don’t think anyone fully understands it until they pull the door shut on their first home for the very last time, knowing that the truck now full of their belongings wasn’t going to a new and exciting home to start over again, but back into another storage shed. I think the only people out there that would know that feeling would be those that have lost their homes due to the upheaval in the credit and mortgage industry. Thankfully I have an upside and that is knowing that in a few months Wife and I will be out of credit card debt and will emerge from this whole financial mess facing the country and world a step ahead of hundreds of thousands of others. Thankfully my move is not a forced one but one made by choice. Thankfully we were able to find a buyer for our home and still make a profit, a small profit but at least I’m still ahead of the game.
This morning proved a much harder task…
How do I surmise the past few years of my life with Wife into something tangible for the rest of the world to understand? I don’t think there is a word to describe that feeling. I’ve tried, and have rewritten this paragraph a hundred times attempting to describe that feeling. I don’t think anyone fully understands it until they pull the door shut on their first home for the very last time, knowing that the truck now full of their belongings wasn’t going to a new and exciting home to start over again, but back into another storage shed. I think the only people out there that would know that feeling would be those that have lost their homes due to the upheaval in the credit and mortgage industry. Thankfully I have an upside and that is knowing that in a few months Wife and I will be out of credit card debt and will emerge from this whole financial mess facing the country and world a step ahead of hundreds of thousands of others. Thankfully my move is not a forced one but one made by choice. Thankfully we were able to find a buyer for our home and still make a profit, a small profit but at least I’m still ahead of the game.
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Tomorrow IS the day
I know that my last post claimed that it was the day, but in all respects, tomorrow really is the day. It’s the day that our move to Southern Utah becomes final and an actual reality. It’s going to be a good step for us financially and will I’m sure prove to be one of our better decisions.
Tonight however also proved a few chinks in our plans as we had a celebratory dinner of sorts with some good friends. It served as a reminder of even though we’re leaving winter and some huge debt, we’re also leaving some great people. It proved that we’re going to have to actually put forth some effort now and be good friends back.So Gfunk & Kgirl, here’s to you and thanks for a great night out. Sorry we couldn’t continue on with you to the side car, but we’ll see you next weekend in Vegas!
(this post was written & published on iPhone)
Tonight however also proved a few chinks in our plans as we had a celebratory dinner of sorts with some good friends. It served as a reminder of even though we’re leaving winter and some huge debt, we’re also leaving some great people. It proved that we’re going to have to actually put forth some effort now and be good friends back.So Gfunk & Kgirl, here’s to you and thanks for a great night out. Sorry we couldn’t continue on with you to the side car, but we’ll see you next weekend in Vegas!
(this post was written & published on iPhone)
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Today IS the day
It looks like our constant finger crossing is finally paying off. Wife and I leave today to head back to northern Utah to close on the sale of our house and the way the markets are going right now I’d say we’re pretty damn lucky that it’s happening.
I’ve been a little nervous about the whole thing because of all the financial upheveal and wondering how we’d be able to buy a new home if our sold. In all actuality I’m thinking of this as a step that has it’s up sides and one down side. The up sides are that we’re out from under it and no longer have to worry about how we’re going to pay the mortgage tomorrow. There’s no more utilities, insurance, or upkeep and all that extra cash is going to pay off some major debt now. I’m that much closer to answering to no man… However the one downside is that we no longer have that huge investment. The one thing that always seems to stay strong, “real” property. No matter, it’s sold, we’re closing and moving and getting on with life. So in a few months when the markets stabilize and we’re out of debt we’ll be able to secure that much nicer of a home because we won’t be strapped for cash every month. Freedom, sweet sweet freedom.
On another note you’ve probably noticed a few major changes to the site in the past 24 hours. Well, with the thought of no longer being tied down I’ve been able to focus a little more on the site and getting it to where I’d like it to be. I think I’ve just about pushed this version as far as I can and will now need to look at a complete overhaul. This isn’t going to be an overnight process, noooooo way. I’m talking about a fully designed and functioning site based off of my own templates. So until that happens enjoy the new additions and I’m sure I’ll figure out ways to tweak version 1.3874-5b (current format for those of you not in the know) and will continually push it for better flow, ascetic’s, function etc. So stay tuned and in the mean time why not subscribe to the new rss feed? You know you want to. Some of the other changes are the addition of a page that shows what’s currently on my iPod or iPhone. I’ve also added some feeds to what I’m reading on a daily basis and a few other little tweaks. Hop you like it.
I’ve been a little nervous about the whole thing because of all the financial upheveal and wondering how we’d be able to buy a new home if our sold. In all actuality I’m thinking of this as a step that has it’s up sides and one down side. The up sides are that we’re out from under it and no longer have to worry about how we’re going to pay the mortgage tomorrow. There’s no more utilities, insurance, or upkeep and all that extra cash is going to pay off some major debt now. I’m that much closer to answering to no man… However the one downside is that we no longer have that huge investment. The one thing that always seems to stay strong, “real” property. No matter, it’s sold, we’re closing and moving and getting on with life. So in a few months when the markets stabilize and we’re out of debt we’ll be able to secure that much nicer of a home because we won’t be strapped for cash every month. Freedom, sweet sweet freedom.
On another note you’ve probably noticed a few major changes to the site in the past 24 hours. Well, with the thought of no longer being tied down I’ve been able to focus a little more on the site and getting it to where I’d like it to be. I think I’ve just about pushed this version as far as I can and will now need to look at a complete overhaul. This isn’t going to be an overnight process, noooooo way. I’m talking about a fully designed and functioning site based off of my own templates. So until that happens enjoy the new additions and I’m sure I’ll figure out ways to tweak version 1.3874-5b (current format for those of you not in the know) and will continually push it for better flow, ascetic’s, function etc. So stay tuned and in the mean time why not subscribe to the new rss feed? You know you want to. Some of the other changes are the addition of a page that shows what’s currently on my iPod or iPhone. I’ve also added some feeds to what I’m reading on a daily basis and a few other little tweaks. Hop you like it.
Monday, September 29, 2008
RSS Feeds to the rescue
So I’ve recently begun to delve into the whole RSS feed. I’ll admit that I’m a total RSS Virgin and haven’t a clue how to really work, manipulate or use them. But the time will come when I do. As it is, the site is now up and running with the super new RSS feed and is ready for someone to subscribe. I’ve even added the counter in the side bar below…I even colored it to keep it in theme with the site. Special I know….
Now subscribe or else! Do it! Do it now!
Now subscribe or else! Do it! Do it now!
This is The End
It’s time for all the spam to take a bow and stop wasting my time. So by the time it came for me to pull the plug we easily topped the 8,000 mark, 8,156 to be exact, not the estimated 8,273 but a good start and not a bad number for 30 days. So say good night Cleavland, it’s time to go.
But before we call it a complete loss lets take a look at what came in between yesterdays number and todays.
“lvbz”, wins the award for last minute length: “s tuesday||usb speakers no sound card||bracelet including||pokemon ruby get jirochi||double diamond||silver wolf||ruby daphane huff||single stone silver rings||birthday card invitation sample||card ge master platinum select||diamond peak ski||silver halid” I’m totally excited about the Pokemon ruby, aren’t you?
“jntzfe”, wins the agriculture award with: “buy bred cows ” Because I’ve always wanted a bred cow.
“jmaoul”, has it for the most obscure location: “cheap car rental in wareham“Because I’ve always wanted to see Wareham…beautiful churches…travel channel.
“dtkc”, how could I pass you by when you’ve got this going for you: “napoleon dynamite valentines cards” After all who could say no to a Napoleon Dynamite valentine card? I would have gotten so much action this last Valentines day if I had only had one. Thank you for pointing me in the right direction.
And finally we have “idal” with my absolute favorite: “buy mystical dragon webkins” Because no one is complete without a mystical dragon webkin…how have I lasted this long without one. I swear my plus 3 mage just couldn’t do without one any longer. Thank You “idal”
So if you couldn’t tell by now I seem to have fallen prey to some pretty boring spamojaculators that think I need to be advertising and redirecting my readers. Thanks but no thanks guys. And yes there are more to what I’ve posted but I’m exorcizing e karma and not posting the myriad of fake email addresses, websites or ip addresses of these ass hats, I know you wanted to see it all but too bad.
So I say ciao to these guys, hopefully our paths won’t cross again.
But before we call it a complete loss lets take a look at what came in between yesterdays number and todays.
“lvbz”, wins the award for last minute length: “s tuesday||usb speakers no sound card||bracelet including||pokemon ruby get jirochi||double diamond||silver wolf||ruby daphane huff||single stone silver rings||birthday card invitation sample||card ge master platinum select||diamond peak ski||silver halid” I’m totally excited about the Pokemon ruby, aren’t you?
“jntzfe”, wins the agriculture award with: “buy bred cows ” Because I’ve always wanted a bred cow.
“jmaoul”, has it for the most obscure location: “cheap car rental in wareham“Because I’ve always wanted to see Wareham…beautiful churches…travel channel.
“dtkc”, how could I pass you by when you’ve got this going for you: “napoleon dynamite valentines cards” After all who could say no to a Napoleon Dynamite valentine card? I would have gotten so much action this last Valentines day if I had only had one. Thank you for pointing me in the right direction.
And finally we have “idal” with my absolute favorite: “buy mystical dragon webkins” Because no one is complete without a mystical dragon webkin…how have I lasted this long without one. I swear my plus 3 mage just couldn’t do without one any longer. Thank You “idal”
So if you couldn’t tell by now I seem to have fallen prey to some pretty boring spamojaculators that think I need to be advertising and redirecting my readers. Thanks but no thanks guys. And yes there are more to what I’ve posted but I’m exorcizing e karma and not posting the myriad of fake email addresses, websites or ip addresses of these ass hats, I know you wanted to see it all but too bad.
So I say ciao to these guys, hopefully our paths won’t cross again.
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Beaker, YOU ROCK!
Beaker buddy, if I wasn’t a guy I’d totally be all over you. We’d have fuzzy little muppet babies…Ok that’s a little too creepy, scratch that last part. But you still rock it old school!
Go Forth and Spam No More
As some of you may remember I had turned my comments section off due to the amount of spam sneaking through the system. I then turned them back on when I starting using the Akismet spam filter (find it here) last month. It’s a great tool, but not the best. All it really did was presort all the spam and allow me to mass delete it at my whim or it would do it for me after 2 weeks. It’s not a bad plugin and I highly recommend it for EVERYONE using WordPress as the base for their blog. For someone who has just started blogging or has not had a tough time with spam it would work great. It just didn’t cut it with me (probably because of the mass quantities of inuendo on the site, boobies, cock) for some reason…weird.
Anyway I just couldn’t get over the fact that I was still seeing all this spam coming through my system and not really do anything about it. So today I did some searching and found a simple little WordPress plugin that acts as the word verifier that many other sites use but is much cooler and a little educational. The plugin I’m talking about is called the “Challenge” (find it here) and requires that anyone posting a comment now must complete a simple math problem. True, it is a little vindictive to those of you that like me were a little less enthusiastic about math, but hey, life’s a bitch and I think the irony is kinda fun.
But I have since decided to hold off the start of this new phase of the site until tomorrow. Why would I do this? Simple…One month ago today, exactly today, I installed the akismet plugin and in that timing I have currently, at this very moment filtered 7, 963 no wait, 7,964 comments concerning how to enlarge my penis, buy viagra without a perscription and see hot asian teen whores exchanging various body fluids with a dwarf. How could I not let this continue for at least the remaining few hours of the day just to see where a full 30 days would get me? I’m pushing for at least 8, 273 comments by the time I put a stop to it tomorrow…how sweet will that be? As a little treat I’m going to post up a few of the better offers tomorrow. I can’t wait!
Anyway I just couldn’t get over the fact that I was still seeing all this spam coming through my system and not really do anything about it. So today I did some searching and found a simple little WordPress plugin that acts as the word verifier that many other sites use but is much cooler and a little educational. The plugin I’m talking about is called the “Challenge” (find it here) and requires that anyone posting a comment now must complete a simple math problem. True, it is a little vindictive to those of you that like me were a little less enthusiastic about math, but hey, life’s a bitch and I think the irony is kinda fun.
But I have since decided to hold off the start of this new phase of the site until tomorrow. Why would I do this? Simple…One month ago today, exactly today, I installed the akismet plugin and in that timing I have currently, at this very moment filtered 7, 963 no wait, 7,964 comments concerning how to enlarge my penis, buy viagra without a perscription and see hot asian teen whores exchanging various body fluids with a dwarf. How could I not let this continue for at least the remaining few hours of the day just to see where a full 30 days would get me? I’m pushing for at least 8, 273 comments by the time I put a stop to it tomorrow…how sweet will that be? As a little treat I’m going to post up a few of the better offers tomorrow. I can’t wait!
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Another favorite from the old days
Many of you may remember this one from nearly a year ago…it still makes me scratch my head
Feeling a little nastalgic today
Thought I would post a little pick me up. This is from the “New” Muppet show…when did this come about and why wasn’t I notified?
Cha Cha Cha Chaaanges
Fall is coming on strong in a number of areas around the country and even here in the fiery pits of the countries furnace things are starting to cool a bit. The nights are no longer a blazing mess of heat and are turning cool. The mornings are beginning to linger rather than burning off as soon as the sun crests above the desert horizon and we’re actually seeing something the rest of the world calls rain…
Along with this change has come a new addition to the blog. I’ve finally gotten around to producing the long missing email links across the site for those that so desire to send me their random thoughts, rants and praise…
We’ve also finally found a buyer for the house and not a moment too soon. It seems that we have burned through what savings we did have, maxed the credit cards and drained the slight retirement we managed to begin to scrape together in an effort to remain a family and push forward with this move. Without a buyer in October I don’t have a clue where we’d come up with the money to pay all of the bills coming across our plate. Thank God the timing has worked in our favor. I’m attempting to remain positive about the entire transaction but it’s tough as we grow near to the final back out deadline for the buyers. We’ve been through this twice before and lost both of those sales failed due to bad market conditions and a bad economy. So you see where I’m coming from, hoping and praying like crazy that this one stays strong and completes the deal, but it’s tough. Everytime I pick up the paper, turn on the computer or the television I’m bombarded with huge financial firms closing their doors and telling the little guys too bad about all that money you had invested, we appreciated it when buying our million dollar mansion and beach houses but we just couldn’t do without it so you’ll just have to survive because we had to spend spend spend. Thanks for all the money you dumped into the firm, oh, by the way could you bend over one more time so we can ream you one last time for old times sake too.
This time is different, it’s going to reach the deadline on the 26th and close on the 2nd like planned and everything is going to work out…
Along with this change has come a new addition to the blog. I’ve finally gotten around to producing the long missing email links across the site for those that so desire to send me their random thoughts, rants and praise…
We’ve also finally found a buyer for the house and not a moment too soon. It seems that we have burned through what savings we did have, maxed the credit cards and drained the slight retirement we managed to begin to scrape together in an effort to remain a family and push forward with this move. Without a buyer in October I don’t have a clue where we’d come up with the money to pay all of the bills coming across our plate. Thank God the timing has worked in our favor. I’m attempting to remain positive about the entire transaction but it’s tough as we grow near to the final back out deadline for the buyers. We’ve been through this twice before and lost both of those sales failed due to bad market conditions and a bad economy. So you see where I’m coming from, hoping and praying like crazy that this one stays strong and completes the deal, but it’s tough. Everytime I pick up the paper, turn on the computer or the television I’m bombarded with huge financial firms closing their doors and telling the little guys too bad about all that money you had invested, we appreciated it when buying our million dollar mansion and beach houses but we just couldn’t do without it so you’ll just have to survive because we had to spend spend spend. Thanks for all the money you dumped into the firm, oh, by the way could you bend over one more time so we can ream you one last time for old times sake too.
This time is different, it’s going to reach the deadline on the 26th and close on the 2nd like planned and everything is going to work out…
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Can someone tell me why this is news? Facing all the other issues about to come crashing down on the American public, her illness and imminent demise is making headlines. This is complete and utter BULL SHIT.
Why is no one calling Obama to the mat on using this as the PR stunt that it is. How about for once we have an unbiased media that is willing to report the real news rather than trying to sway public opinion to fit their personal beliefs.
Where is the media coverage for the thousands of sick and dying homeless in this country? There’s no headlines for them…There are bigger issues at hand here but we’re too blinded by the candidates rose colored glasses that no one seems to care.
It’s a shame that we don’t have the option for a “None of the Above” vote in this election because neither candidate has the chops, experience or direction to lead this country. For the first time in my life I am ashamed of our government. Our current leaders and of their potential replacements have become so corrupt over money and power that there is no way they will be able to lead us out of the status quo and back into prosperity.
I don’t know about the rest of you but I am sick and tired of a system that promotes the choice of a lessor of two evils mentality when it comes to the choice of our next leader and I’m sick of the media using total BULL SHIT headlines like this one in an effort to sway our votes.
Don’t get me wrong on this one. I have nothing but complete and utter sympathies for him and his family. On a number of news comment sites many people are questioning the ability of a broken hip to cause a death. This is how my own grandmother passed a number of years back. If they say she’s near deaths door do to this condition then I believe them. However, I don’t believe this to be actual news that is worthy of the American public’s attention during such a critical time. I have no doubt that this is nothing more than an attempt by the liberal media outlets in an effort to gain a sympathy vote movement for Obama and that is despicable and they should be ashamed!