I sold my artistic soul

I have an order for 100 hair sticks of the new simpler design due just before Pennsic. The store I am selling through wanted them while I was at Pennsic, but 2 weeks early is fine. I am wondering how much money she will want me to discount for her quantity order. She liked my other stuff, but its not in the price range she was looking for. Which is kind of funny. They have tons of pieces that are in the hundreds of dollars.
I will continue to try and find a way to sell my better pieces, but until then I will take what I can get. So after timing myself on making these things, and the the time to make the beads with my MAPPGAS torch. I decided it was not time, or cost efficient. The customer wants 4 beads in Rasta colors, because its the highon hippy chicks that shop at the 5 stores her son owns. He is a fantastic glassblower, and his pipes, and other pieces are things of beauty. I do wonder if he feels like he sold out to make money blowing pot pipes, and the like. So in order to keep my time, and cost low, I went and bought beads. I needed the metal spacer beads, and looked at their glass ones, and in buying all the quantities I needed I got a decent discount. The shipping costs less then my gas money to the shop I buy my glass rod stock to make beads.
The beads are even cheaper then the cost to make them myself, not counting my time, and cost of torch gas. It was worth the couple hours I spent on the Internet, and talking to the customer representatives to get get sizing right, and all the other little details all in row. These beads are not even Indian, or Chinese sweat shop either. They come from a decently known European company. Even our falling economy is better then most places. After doing all this I went hair stick/combs window shopping. A couple of the sites had the artist's shop phone numbers, and I spent a while picking brains about galleries, and stores versus doing it yourself. In the end it really comes down to the internet being the best place to sell things. No selling to places, and having them want to make more money then you do per unit. No overhead of a shop to run, and you can take a vacation, and only have to deal with filling back orders for a couple weeks. One lady even has a two year custom piece wait list she sells so many, and will not compromise her standards, or methods like I did this time. I saw some wonderful pieces, and got interested in a wood to play with. I have that guys number, and will ask him questions about working with it. He has this great way to mass produce things that look lovely, and while I will only dabble with it. I am curious if he has tried some other polishing techniques, that would lend itself well to making a couple pieces a week instead of the hundreds he does. Especially since what I would make from the medium would not lend itself to his polishing system, and hand sanding, and polishing gets old fast. The shop I really liked I saw they use carved bone sticks, then sand and paint them with an airbrush. I liked how she talked about everything being hand made and all, but I know she doesn't hand carve this bone. I know she buys it from somewhere in Asia for cheap. I guess you can say it helps someone eat, that might not. She also buys her beads as well. Lessens my guilt a touch. She still has to affix the beads, and paint the sticks, and do design work, and keep track of it all. Just all the text about how hand made everything is irked me. Seeing pictures of her shop tells me the sticks are for sure Asian sweat shop. Hand made by underpaid semi-slaves would be more truthful. Hell I am only a step up the ladder buying from a newly opened to trade socialist country. These things could be pressed glass, and machine polished for the prices I am paying. Really makes me wonder about the Chinese work with the little details for cheap prices. In the end it gets my stuff some exposure, some money for more tools, and a couple hundred dollars for Pennsic. The tools won't make the work much faster, but I really want a couple fixed anvils, instead of vibrating the hell out of my work benches. After I whore myself out the next batch. A drill press would be nice. Then its time to try selling on the internets. I do have to thank Divona for giving me a good starting place to look for stock.

God my teacher friends are going to hate me...

Well the boy's report card came back. He improved his science, and social studies grades. His English was dreadful yet again.
His math slipped, as he had been sick for a few days, and totally fell behind. It took him weeks to puzzle out things, and I had to browbeat him into going to help sessions with his teacher. Besides the units he blew, it went back to A's so I can live with it. He is now doing Quadratics, and getting close to me being unable to answer questions, without me learning the stuff. There is some math block, that is related to my dyslexia around those stupid functions. I can do the Trig that comes later, but the Calculus after that is not happening. I tried, and it will not happen. It's not that its hard math, it is just that my brain will not work the stuff right. The reading dyslexia I can work with, but the math block is the most horrid evil nasty pain in the ass ever, and I have devoted thousands of hours trying to overcome it. I gave up, and don't worry about it now. Look mom a tangent. Ohh math, and blog pun all in one, how nerdy is that.

Anyways there also has been some bullying issues at school. For those who do not have kids in school now, and did not go to a public school during the last 10-15 years, things have changed. It is like the NFL now. The person who hits first without a teacher seeing wins. The second person who retaliates gets the penalty. So if you poke and smack someone, and they whomp you back, and then you scream they get 3 days off the bus, and their parents have to drive them to school. Now in my opinion, shit like Columbine happened because of this no violence policy. The person who does the bullying rarely gets into trouble. The one who gets picked on, finally loses it over the bully not getting dealt with, and being punched etc, then kicks the living shit out of them, or brings guns to school and shoots it all to hell.
What happened to letting them fight without weapons? Someone picked on me when I was a new student, and I drove his face into a locker door, until it was bloody, and he was crying like little girl. Worked real well. I didn't get bothered, and neither did my friends. Every one profited by this. The bully learned a valuable lesson about choosing victims more carefully. I got to release my temper then and there, plus setting a don't fuck with precedence. The nurse had something to do, besides hand out Midol to teenage girls, and it gave the vice principal something to do, asking the kid how his nose got broken. I am sure he knew of this kid's hobbies, and did what was required, but not much more. Before you spout violence is not the answer, how many fucking school shootings happened before the no-touch nineties.
I would give him the go ahead for a suspension, and tell him just to beat some ass. He is my child after all I spar with him a couple times a week, and while he does not have the athletes body, that I had at his age, he is pretty quick with his hands, and has learned all sorts of real world nasty things from me. He can make the blows effectively. The issue is not only can you get a suspension, but they can expel you.
That's right you can get thrown out of school for protecting yourself from a bully. How fucking awesome is that.

I got a phone call from the school's principal this morning. I do the night thing. I have been asleep 2 hours maybe. The phone call starts with me being worried and all groggy. Things are cleared, there is no accident or immediate danger of expulsions, suspensions, or illnesses going on. The want to know if my wife and I would like to talk about our son and the school, and stuff. I say stuff, because I was not fully awake. I do remember some things distinctly. First after being told my wife leaves to work at 630 AM or earlier, he keeps wanting to set a meeting for 700 or 730. I explain to him one more time, that she leaves for work early, but if he wishes we could get together during an overlap time such as 500 AM, or 4 PM this week. For some reason he thinks people can just wander into work late I guess. Maybe he thinks of the real working world being 7 to 230 like his little school world. I have to explain that my wife has one of those "Essential Personnel" type of jobs, that do not allow you to do what the fuck you want, and that time off must be approved ahead of time. I do mention that she has next Thursday off, and that all three of us could meet then. He still needs me to explain, that I sleep during the day, and she works, and while our child's education is important, that having food and shelter are higher on the list, so going to jobs on time is a requirement. I think I agreed to meet with this very clueless person who is in charge of my son's school on Friday. I can't wait to ask him some questions when I will be awake. Just because I am unhappy with all that is going on, and after talking to him on the phone. I will get him to admit that he is incompetent to me. I don't do this very often, but this time I think it is in order. Just so you now pissed at me teachers know. I live in Michigan ,which ranks in the top 10 states for teacher pay. This principal is more then likely making over 100K a year, and is clueless? In the real world managers get fired for that. I guess in education you get promoted.

Taser party? WTF is that.

Being somewhat of a news junkie, i find all sorts of interesting things to read. This story was about Taser parties becoming more popular.
All I could think of was dumb frat boys and pain. Turns out its not about fun, but something for real and serious. I live in Michigan Tasers are unlawful for the population to own. We can get a concealed pistol permit with minimum fuss now, but can't carry a taser. Human rights groups don't like them either. They hurt, and could injure you. I guess the old fashioned Rodney King style beatings are much more acceptable to Amnesty International. Hmm taser, and fall down, or be beat in the head, and hope for no brain damage. Umm gimme the pain. I have shocked myself working on TVs and other things enough times, that some of the taser shocks would just make me look at someone and go that's it? Ok I'll stop, but you need to buy a better one. Not to mention the fun of playing "catch stupid" with charged up capacitors. Always a fun game. Same thing as a taser, just more for laughs. None of these fun games would happen at a taser party. It seems they are more on the line of what a Tupperware party is. Just more in the line of self defense for women. I am all in favor of such things. Anything that prevents a rape, or other violence is good with me. The tasers even come in pink, and some even have MP3 combos. You got everything to go running with except for the shoes and sweats, and the motivation, and the time, and the ....
One of the persons interviewed does not get a commission for selling them, she just doesn't have to pay as much. She can sell them for 350 bucks, and only pay 300, or something like that. Kind of a neat liability cushion, and less paperwork tax wise for them I would guess.
On another painful note, my so is sick again. This is not really a good thing. He was having some issues with his math. Now this bothers me. His teacher calls him the math king. he gets A's, and it is the one piece of homework I do not have to fight with him about. His homework average for last term was 102.5%. If he is having issues with a concept, then maybe something might be going wrong. He has problems asking for help too. I looked at his homework, and its functions, and graphs, and things I have not done in over twenty years. Not to mention that it is right in the middle of my math dyslexia. I can do the junk that comes after like the Trig, but this stuff I have issues with the graphing, and swapping numbers. This means I cannot help him with it. That is painful all unto itself, but not the issue. I beat on him, and get him to get with the teacher to get the help he needs, and he starts to understand it. He thinks he didn't get a good grade on the test, but knows a lot of other students did worse. the teacher will be curving it so he will have at least a high B. I am all good with that, but thinking about it, start to wonder that maybe the way it is taught needs to be changed or slowed down. The teacher can teach it seems. Lots of students are really having issues with this section. The classroom was full during the extra lunch help sessions. This means about a quarter of the students didn't understand, and asked for help. Not to mention the ones, that decided not to get help. I think that maybe this lesson should be reworked or something. Like I have written before this is a good school district. A Newsweek article has it as the thirty second best in the country. So with him sick I worry about the lost lesson time in the classroom. I am just too stupid to teach him this subject. Maybe once they move the Sines, Cosines, and all the Trig stuff I can help again. Meanwhile I will just teach him some things in the kitchen instead. Like that spray on oil is your friend when baking with pans.

More snow?

Well like everyone north of Oklahoma, and east of Mexico. Did that confuse you? It was of course a Guflstream that tuned from rain into snow when it hit us. The Gulf being east of Mexico, makes sense to me. Then again I am maybe a little different in my thought processes. We got some snow. It was only some snow, as this hole in the clouds stayed over us for 4 hours like a magic eye. This means we only got 6 to 8 inches in the area I live in. Still since it came down hard just before the morning commute they canceled school. Two days off for different weather in the same week. Welcome to north of the Mason-Dixon line. I am sure it snowed, and all that south of it, but our first day off this week was when it changed from 50 degrees and rain to 11 degrees and froze the fuck over in 6 hours overnight. I am pretty sure places like Nashville did not find it that cold early in the week. Still I am glad we did not receive the foot plus of powdery goodness that was possible.
I love the snow, but shoveling it is another matter. I have learned to shovel a good chunk of the street in the front of the driveway. It makes the snow berm tossed up by the plow a day or two later easier to deal with. My four wheel drive pickup handles the hump quite well, but my wifes little Escort has issues when it gets a foot or so tall. I do make the boy shovel as much as possible. It is good for him, and keeps me from wrecking my shoulder, and knee any more then they already are. My back is decent. It can twinge me a little here and there, but the aforementioned joints are not happy things. No running or swimming anymore, which is a sad thing. What to do on snowy days? Well bake of course. Yesterday was Peanut Butter Cup cookies, and they taste real close to those evilly addictive Reese's Cups. I know this because my wife had bought a king size pack for the 3 of us to share, and I said hmm i can taste and match. Boy are they yummy. Today I was looking at having to run out and buy bread, or ask my wife to pick up some on her way back from work. With the fun weather, she has been working overtime. Bad weather causes power lines to go down, or idiots spin out on the roads and crash into the poles taking the lines down that way. I decided since I have yeast, just to bake bread instead. I wanted to get closer to her dead grandmothers taste, and sat down and thought out what she may have used, and how she made it. My wife actually liked this recipe, and while it was a little more work by hand, if it makes her happy, it makes me happy. i didn't use the mixer at all, just a wooden spoon to get the flour wet then mixed it, and kneaded it all by hand, until I got the magic change in how the dough felt. I baked two, and one of them was half gone by the time it was 5 minutes out of the oven. I was nice, and split the heel up for everyone, instead of taking the bakers reward. I was then made to slice more off, because well it was hot, and fresh, and yummy. We killed a half stick of butter as well. Real butter too. I refuse to have margarine in my house. I will use oil or lard instead if I have too, but no margarine. It is a tool of Evil, and I know Evil. I am Evil, and I know not to use it.

Good monkey no new taxes

So it is that time of year again. The last of the various tax forms rolled in today. I hate doing them, but the minute they are in I get it done.
I want my money back fast. the government had it for a while, now give it back. I already have all the computer junk I need to deal with it, and all that need to be done is enter things. In fact if I wanted to, I could have input the various forms as they arrive. Instead I let my Beef Stroganoff grow cold next to me as I did my taxes. It tastes wonderful, but not as good as thousands of dollars. Two hours later, my wife loves me, and is talking about a cold weather getaway next year using this money. what I should do is tap a friend who does the travel agent thing for really cheap tickets. What always makes me sigh isn't the income taxes I pay each year. It is the property taxes. I live in a modest house. It is in a nice neighborhood. The best parts are that it it is in one of the top 50 public school districts in the country. We won't talk about how my son is putting this to use today. It also has lake access, and when the leaves are down, a view of the lake. Nothing special, but it is enough that even in this horrid housing market the value climbs. It does better then the interest on the home loan, so that is good. It is just when I come to the part where I pay damn near 3000 dollars per year I cry. My wife found out how much of the note each month is the loan, and how much is the taxes and insurance she freaked. I did explain I had all the insurance rolled into it. Still when the note is 550 and you are paying 900 afterwards you get confused. This is the one time of the year I don't mind the huge number. I get it back on my taxes. It is my biggest deductions the interest and the taxes on the house. The house makes itemizing worth the time. I don't choke so much over the county wide bus tax. In 20 years I have ridden the bus 2 times, when my car was in the shop. One if them I had some psycho chick bothering me, until I had to explain to her that if she did not shut up, that her life would become exciting, as I would throw her out the window next to me. I was reading a book, and she kept asking me if she was bothering me, by sitting next to me. I think the third time I told her only when she talks to me. That worked for about 120 seconds. After that I had to do the I am dangerous and will eat you thing. That worked for the rest of the trip. I do not think I have gotten my moneys worth from my bus taxes. I do not plan on trying to get my moneys worth anytime soon either. Loud idiot tweens, and psychos. No wonder bus drivers drive like assholes. They must hate the world.
My wife imparted a funny work story to me. She works for a utility company in the phone center. You call her if you want things turned on or off. Of course if those calls are not coming she gets anything else that comes in. Including idiots it seems. The call came in from the detriot area. One of the suburbs I think. They only supply gas in that area, not electricity. A gentleman calls, and asks if she knows any programs to get rid of his used computer monitor. He has no internet connection either. She is totally baffled about why someone would call their gas company to get rid of a working, but unwanted computer monitor. My wife being the good person she is, Googled the area he was in, and places that would take used parts. She found a number of a shop that was in business, and passed it on to the customer. One more time, this guy called his utility that delivers natural gas to his home thorough underground pipes, if they knew where he could donate his used computer monitor. I think he should donate the whole computer being that clueless. At least he is not connected to the internet, because I bet he would be one of the ones passing on all the fake virus alerts, the conspiracy theory stuff, and in general looking at plans for an upgrade to his tinfoil hat to block the secret government brain waves. I think my wife hit me something like 15 times while trying to tell me the whole story as I was laughing so hard at her.

A snow day

Well not really a snow day, but more an ice day, with winds gusting to 50 mph, and 15 below zero wind chill.
It rained then it froze. You all know this by now, if you live where it can get cold. So with all the side streets being too hazardous for the buses, school was canceled. i wake at the leisurely time of noon, and walk out to find the boy playing video crack. He got up around 5 AM, and had been there the entire time. Now this would be all good. Too nasty to do anything outside, so a day in front of the computer sounds good to me.
I myself, baked some brownies for my wife to take into work, and some chocolate chip cookies for the house. Then I went down to my workshop, and played with some metal. It looks nice, but my wife says it doesn't work. I will make another that is longer. Dinner was a Pork Roast, and mashed potatoes, and wax beans. Once again hero status. Now the boy has been sliding on his English schoolwork. I know this, as his teacher has sent an email to my wife stating such, and that could all of us work together on motivating him to finish it, and turn it in. I started mentioning that doing homework was a good idea. He was planning on doing the math homework, as he knows what it will be. He does it too. The English, I keep prodding about. After dinner, I am still prodding. Eight PM I lose it, and start in with the end of the world things.
I ask him to come to the computer, and show him the mouse pointer on Uninstall his latest game. I tell him he has a minute to decide about doing English. He pouts, and fetches the book, bitching the whole time. I get him to sit on the couch with me, and we go through this folder. I sort it out, tossing out all the undone homework form last term. No wonder he got a D. I see all his tests, and the worse in the lot is a B-. Now this annoys me, as lots of the homework was also easy free points. He could have gotten a C or better just by scribbling words on these daily sheets. I am really thinking about an ambush at school tomorrow. His teacher has not responded to my email about meeting with him over this. I even find some homework that was done, but not turned in. Nothing big for good points, but still it is free points. I ask about this. I still do not know what the answer was. In the end we find one assignment that he can do. Just one. Its 95 percent done. It has to be put on a clean sheet of paper. That's it. Two hours of me being an asshole, and all he had was one piece of paper. I am thinking about a good 2 month grounding for this. No video crack for two months. Maybe no damn television either. Last time I got unamused I took the television out of the living room. It bummed out the wife just a little, as she uses the thing for white noise, but she has one in the bedroom she can watch. In fact I think i will remove it while he is school. Kind of a little surprise for when he gets home. I already put a 12 digit alphanumeric password on his computer. Good luck with this is the hint. I will change mine tonight, and send my wife an email telling her to change hers as well. I do not need him to get an A in the class. It is just when I see all the tests with A's on them. The Pre ACT thing with 95 percentile score on it, I get annoyed. If you are getting better scores then 95% of the others taking the test, you can do A work. I still do not need to see an A. Failing or D- which has been the grades over the last year or two in English is just not good enough. Blargh is all I cna say about that. Blargh is also a made up word from my son. Mr. I am not creative, and cannot do fiction.

Bad habits die hard

I have smoked since basic training in the Army. I took it up the last week of basic. One of my dumber ideas. It was something to do while standing around waiting to take the final tests. I have quit a number of times. I think my record was nine months. I still smoked a couple a week with co-workers. I quit in November or December this time. Not sure really, I just decided to quit again, and so far have stuck to it.
I even went so far as to remove all cash from my house, so I would not run out and buy a pack from the local gas station.
A couple weeks ago I bummed one off a friend at a bar, and it tasted like ass. I was not sure if it was because it was a Basic Ultra Light or because they taste like ass to me again. So today I was down in my workshop, and found a half pack of smokes. I had forgotten I had left them down there. There are times I wish I knew about them, when it was bad, and I was stressed out. I decided to see if they tasted like ass still.
I made it through about one quarter of one, and had to put it out. Now maybe they have gotten stale. I am dumb enough to test this of course.
I went and got the pack, and pulled one out. I smelled it, and it smells wonderful. Not stale and nasty. It doesn't make that crackle sound when I feel it, like a dried out one would. I lit the second one up, and yes it still tastes like ass. I coughed a bit, am both happy and sad about this.
I am glad that they do not taste like they did, but sad that while I crave them still, that the sweet satisfying taste is no longer there for me.
I have though about the new drug Chantrix, or whatever it is called. It is supposed to make me no longer feel the need for nicotine. Well after a month or two, do I want to try this stuff? Have I lost enough of the craving, that it would be a step back? Do I really want to substitute one drug for another? Sure it will not be as harmful as smoking, but none the less the point was to stop the need. I talked to my aunt, who stopped smoking 20 years ago, and she said she still wants one every day. It is pretty bad some days, and really I don't want days like this in five or ten years. Chewing gum just isn't the same as smoking once was.

Comfort foods, blackouts, and books.

So since my wife is on call, and working overtime this week. I decided to make her one of her favorites. Macaroni and cheese. I make damn fine one too. Now as you are thinking that your cat/dog/3 year old can make it. I start by making a roux. For those that do not know what it is. In a nutshell you slowly brown flour in fat. It is the start point for tons of sauces, especially in French cooking The Mother sauces start with it.
I use butter in this recipe. Butter not margarine. Margarine has its place if you are keeping Kosher, other then that do not use it. While I am making my roux. I am shredding a pound of cheese, to put in to it. I must say I love my salad shooter. I never shoot salad with it, but it has saved me lots of time shredding things. Cheese, and potatoes for the most part. Let's just skip ahead, and say I make a damn fine macaroni and cheese. The shit that comes in a box would be illegal if it weren't for poor college students. That's right I am one damn fine cook. I write out the meals once a week, and then go shopping after a snack. shopping while hungry is annoying. I notice yummy things I should not purchase. I am even baking some cookies tomorrow, as I saw we have some chocolate chips I never used. I also saw some pumpkin as well. Might be a nice Sunday dinner dessert. Most of the things I make from scratch, and have recipes for the things I never remember written down. Like the one for waffles from scratch. Not Bisquick, which for box is not too bad. I even have my great grandmothers baking powder recipe written down. I am unsure if it is single or double action. I will have to look it up, and make some notes. I even got the funny look from my kid for beating egg whites with a whisk. It was only two, so it was not worth messing around with mixer, and all. one metal bowl, the eggs, the whisk, a pinch of cream of tartar, and a couple minutes later fluffy egg whites ready to be folded into the waffle mix. So after a very nice dinner, I am talking to my wife about her schedule. The rain is icy, and she being on call is going to crawl into bed in case of the 2 AM early wake up. The power goes out. I find the flashlight, and my torch lighter, and start lighting the candles. I go searching for more, as the ones in the holders are not going to last long enough. I find Marathon Christmas candles still in their boxes. They must be at least 20 years old. Who knows they might be worth 20 bucks or so. I leave them alone. I find some half used stubs, and decide they are what I want. I get things together, then go check the sump. If it is full, and water is pouring in, then I will have to buck it up, and mess around with the generator. I own one big enough to run the sump, and furnace. I have to run lines down to the both of them and run it in the garage with the door open enough for the exhaust, and well it is one noisy little sucker. My wife wants to sleep, and the bedroom is right next to where all the noise will be. I will just keep an eye on the sump. If it starts to flood the basement. I will take care of it then. I spend the next couple hours chatting with my son, then once he is off to bed. I light a couple candle stubs, and read by the candle light. I used to be able to read with maybe one or two when I was young, and did not need glasses to read. Now I have 8 candles going around me, mostly to my back to read. I maybe didn't need that many. It is just not right to have a candelabra only have one or two candles lit in it. The power came back before midnight, and once more I am playing on something totally dependent on electricity, and cable transmission lines. I think I will just go back to my book. I might just relight the candles too.

Al Gore, China, and The Mongols

Otherwise known as NO MORE SUNDAY FOOTBALL.!! Help me I am melting.

Yes I know there are two games left, but only one of them counts. The other is a working vacation for the players, and media.
So normally the house has football on the TVs on Sunday. Well unless the kid has wandered into my bedroom,and turned on Cartoon Network, or something else. I never know what catches his brain sometimes. I have caught him watching the cooking channel, even the home makeover shows. I blame his mother for those. She however will be watching football out here with me. So what did I watch today?
Well seeing as how I pretty much watch football, or the History Channel, or Discover, I had the history channel on. They ran some 4 hour global warming marathon. I got to watch Al Gore rant about psuedo-scientists. I got a hard look for screaming at him for being the same damn thing.
So we have this global warming going on, maybe, kind of. Well we know it is getting warmer. We swung out of the min-ice age we were going through. Temperatures are at their highest recored numbers. Well considering how long we have recorded weather data, and how long weather patterns are on the globe. We think we are making it warmer. I do have good news for Mr Gore. World Fossil fuels will be running out, before we get much farther. So really his worries are moot. We won't end the century burning oil, gas, and coal. Our big three carbon producers. He got a peace prize for this folks. You cannot tell me someone else in this world didn't do anything better for peace?
Like maybe Aung San Suu Kyi. We could give her a second one, just for not being killed yet, unlike Bhuto.
I got bored with the world is going to end, and it is all the fault of the United States. China, and India got mentioned for 20 seconds, then ignored. What do i care I live in Michigan, we only would fear an Ice Age. Drought? yeah sure surrounded by lakes here buddy. Oceans rise 40 feet. Hmm until they can climb up the Niagra falls, we are safe here from that. 800 feet above sea level around here. Like New York city is much of a loss. I will mourn the historic sites, but NYC is a pit. Same with DC. I lived in DC. Go ahead and flood that sucker out.
So once bored about hour 4 or 5. I saw on Discovery that a semi-truck tire tread belt flying through your window at 50 or more miles per hour can kill you. Why thanks Mythbusters, nothing like seeing common sense proved. So back to the History Channel I think. A lovely program about China, and its Three Gorges dam project. I got to thinking about that thing. How long does concrete last? A disaster would kill millions of people downstream from that dam. Then again, they have a billion people, so its just a drop in the bucket. It would plunge them into darkness, as they lose all the electricity they get for free from that dam. We get some nice Ladies from the US, in some sort of freedom group, saying it was bad to displace all the others for the dam. People were living in the same houses for over 400 years or more, and were getting displaced. Lovely little stone hovels they were too. Being made to move into new places, with things like electricity,and running water, and central heating. How cruel to move them in those places so far away. Some of them had to move across the river even. Some of course had the hardship of being moved 1500 yards. Pulling these people out of subsistence farming life, and living conditions of 150 years ago. Meanwhile I could smell the leather interior of her Lexus through the TV. Right after the dam, was history of the great wall of China, and the Mongol invaders. Now that was something to see. Miles of stone, mile of stone, did I mention miles of stone.
I see lots more trips to the bookstores, and library in my future if this is the best offerings on the TV. Al Gore running around like prince chicken little just will not cut it until next September.
Doesn't anyone remember the cold war? We knew we all were going to die in a nuclear holocaust. We were sure of it.. We had movies of it, TV shows about it. Duck and Cover drills in the schools. Now were are supposed to be afraid of terrorists, and global warming? You have got to be kidding. I was in the Army when Reagan was president. I know how close we have been to world war III, and nuclear doom.
Al, and pissed off third worlders who are still mad over the crusades just don't the same fear factor for me.

Bad TV, mental vacations, and other silly things.

First off, I love my new dishwasher. I can fit more stuff into it, and it washes things that are dried on. I know it does. I let some cheesy mashed potatoes dry onto a pot on purpose to test it. It passed with flying colors. It also washed a mug I used for tea, that I did not pre-scrub. This is a wonderful thing, that I can use the washer to wash things, instead of using it as an expensive way to sanitize things after I wash them.

My wife has the habit of channel surfing during commercials. She kept coming back to this one show. I think it is called Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew. Now I like Dr. Drew. I listened to him with that loud mouth idiot Adam for years. They made a decent team, and I enjoyed some laughs at other peoples expense, and even learned some shit. I do not know if he opened this clinic, or works there normally, or how all this was set up. I am too lazy to find out. I don't know what the motives of the people in the clinic were. At least the celebrities. Once A listers, but they have slipped. Well except for maybe the porn star. Make up is a wonderful thing. these people all look at least 10 years older then their real age. Looks like a life of heavy drinking, and drugs are not good for stars either. I am not going to comment on who is on the show, except that the guy crying during his DTs made me want to slap his ass. Sucks to be a multi-millionaire with a drinking problem. Go ahead, and kill yourself, just toss me some of your cash. I will put it to use in a way that does not promote drinking or drugs. Thank the gods I only had to watch bits, and pieces of this show. I would have had find the remote, and dealt with it myself. Celebrity rehab, how fucking pathetic. Hey people lets just do what we really want. Roman style gladiators. Not the fake ones. We could have even used that tiger that got out, and killed the guy instead of killing it. Tranquilized it, and shipped it off as a challenge. The world continues to enjoy blood sports let's just admit it, and deal with it. I bet there would even be enough psychotic volunteers, even if we ran short of convicted murderers, rapists, Enron executives, and child molesters. Why the white collar guys. Well two reasons. The shit they bought, didn't really stimulate the economy as well as their company being healthy. the second being, it would be damn funny watching these guys running from a hungry tiger, with only a sword, and shield to protect themselves. You know you would laugh. What do we do for the winners that are convicted dangerous psychopaths? Well you saw the movie The Running Man. We kill them, and have facial doubles lie about what they are doing now. Using an all volunteer group of guards, that get paid well, but with no life insurance payouts will keep things in line. letting them deal with the gladiators as they see fit would also keep a riot from happening. Putting the whole thing on an Island will insure the safety of the general public. As for the island, places to hide? Nope pour concrete on the whole fucking thing. Anyone not in the special walkways gets shot.

Speaking of islands. My wife and I took a two hour vacation. We went to Maui, Key West, St. Thomas, and Puerto Rico. All via travelocity.
What a fun way to not spend money, but dream of sun. I found the most humor in the 16 hour flight to Maui, from Detroit, then back for a 4 day weekend. Flying out Friday, and returning Monday. Puerto Rico was almost possible. Less then 1000 bucks for the two of us included flight, and hotel. Flight was less then 12 hours I think. I went and opened the newest Visa card offer in the mail, but its limit was only 1000 dollars, and I was worried that food, and booze would have pushed it over the limit, so we decided not to go. We were looking for places that were 80 degrees, and sunny not 16 and snowing. We did enjoy going to the Weather Channel's internet site, and looking for places that were 80, and did not require us to have a passport. I also found some places where is was 20 below zero, for her be glad we are not living there. Too bad they were all in Canada, and there were only a couple spots in the US that were actually colder then Michigan is right at that moment. I was so close to calling, and getting a card fed-exed to my door, to buy that package for next weekend too.
I did feel better just looking at beach front views from the hotels, and resorts. I can almost feel my northern white boy sun burn, and my very own anti-pain medicine known as local rum. It was like window shopping when we were younger, and there were department stores, and hell for that matter stores that don't cater to 16 year olds along our main street. all in all better then watching the TV, especially celebrity rehab, with Dr. Drew.