Trek Across Maine 2009

Yesterday I registered for the 2009 Trek Across Maine. It is a 3 day 180 mile bike ride from Bethel to Belfast, Maine to raise money for the American Lung Association. A couple of years ago I rode the MS150 (1,2) and had a great time, so this year when Wife suggested I do 'the trek' I was all over it. Plus I could use the training leading up to the ride.

The fundraiser minimum is $500 and I would really like the help of my fellow bloggers in reaching this goal. To each blogger that donates I will do a post about you. What else could I offer? really.

I have set up a fund raising page through ALA for tax deductible donations. I should also mention that I am riding on the PercyCycles Team. It is a small team based out of the small shop that I do my bike repair and wheel building through. I can't wait for June.

2 10's

I feel like I need a t-shirt made: I survived Christmas 2008.

I was'nt that bad, really. Wifes parents came up for the usual Christmas eve dinner and drinking. That went well, although I learned, brown rice is a little tricky to cook. But "The chicken was good." *eyerolling* ugh!. Ok.
Thursday, my brother (Doc256) and his woman came up. After they arrived we decided that Ma and Steve should be over here too. So I call up Ma. "Ma. Come over. We're havin' a pahty. You don't even have to put your pants on." " I don't?!" she says. I guess the last part was the real kicker, they came over. We had a party. She actually decided to put pants on..."In case we broke down."
Saturday, Dad and B came up from Mass. and stayed the night. LilGuns received his first money envelope from his GreatGrammy. Two 10's!

Thanks boy, Ill need that for some beer. Now don't tell anyone.

Testing

This morning a got an idea. I wonder, since I spend about 2 hours on the road every day, lets try a little self promotion.

Who knows? it's just an experiment

I'm guessing that Ill get one hit at best and once the next storm rolls in, my window add will be erased.

So, did it work? Leave a comment if you saw me driving to or from Portland today. Or leave a comment with your thoughts.

MooseHead

Took this pic 2day @ a taxidermist in Grenville. Pretty cool.

*Now that im home and not texting in a blog post I can add that this guy was really good. Bears, fish, fox, rabbits. Bears biting fish. everything. So since we were there and knew one of the other guys at the shop that day we got a brief tour. My boss was picking up a rainbow trout that he got this past summer. The fish are basically skinned and the skin is applied over a foam body. The head is moulded and cast into plastic as it would fall apart. It is all painted, shellacked and mounted. There is a salt table to dry out the hides. and plenty of bond-o, and epoxies are used. Its quite and artistic endeavour and the difference between a good taxidermist and a shitty one can be enormous.

First Concert

What was your first concert?

In 1986 for my 13th birthday my mom got me the greatest present ever. To this day best ever. Tickets to see AC/DC on the Who Made Who Tour and the Who Made Who LP. I still have the t-shirt. It is so thread bare that it is as see through as nylons. I will NEVER get rid of it. I have even thought of framing it. I have probably worn it 2,000 times. Here it is:

I have seen AC/DC four times since then and is still my favorite band. In addition, i have seen Bon Jovi, ZZ Top (4 times), Fishbone, SRV, and so many others I cant even remember them all. I even have the hearing loss to prove it.
So, what was your first?

Parent-Parental Dilemas

I have made a difficult decision as a parent today and it actually doesn't have much to do with raising my son but making a better decision for both him and us.

How to tell GrandPa that comming to his house for Christmas is just a little unrealistic?

I have thought about this since Thanksgiving, when they were at our house. In years past (B.B. before baby) me, Wife and my brother would travel down for the day. Leave in the early morning, leave well after dark. Once comming back in such a snow storm that we were waylaid at the in-laws overnight.

This year after thinking through the logistics our normally 3 hour drive, we would be at least 5 hours traveling by car. Only to subject LilGuns to grandpa, grandma, auntie, uncle, greatgram, friends, family and on and on and on. And who knows what else. Then to drive home the following day. Ugh! no. no. no. Maybe if we were staying a week, it could work. But what normal person has that much vacation time? When do I get to make the decision to stay or go. THIS YEAR, thats when.

So I broke the news tonight and while Im sure it depressed him some, he took it well. I explained the whole thought process, thou im sure he didn't actually HEAR most of it. I'm sure his mind went right into 'the're not comming mode. poor me.' or somthing like that. Ah well, it's done. My stress over the whole thing is fading and hopefully next year Ill feel better about draggin' the boy into the City of Sin.

Blogging is good therapy sometimes. even if the whole world can read it...forever. Sorry for such a lame blog post but this is family crap and I feel that others experience similar issues and its good to share the pain.

In Town

Walking about Portland over the past few days I have come across a couple of photo worthy images.

The first here is a really cool child playhouse that is being given away or something there was some little plaque on it, but i didn't really care what it said. I just wanted the photo.

Then on last Friday driving out of town at 4:30 pm or so the 'Time and Temp' building as it is know around here [ if you call 207 775-4321 you will get the correct time and temperature also it has a HUGE ass clock and temp on the roof visible from most of the city], had the whole building front lit up for the Make-a-wish foundation. It looked really cool. For the photo geeks i used my trusty samsung s860 digital camera with with an F-stop 2.8 and 1.5 second exposure held firm by my steering wheel.
Other than that, its really cold today. Booger freezing cold. Like -18 centigrade. Play nice and stay warm.

Free Dirt

Maybe is a man thing. Maybe a geologist thing. Maybe a home owner thing.

Yesterday on her way out to walk the dogs and LilGuns she saw that the town guys were cleaning out the road side ditches. So she stopped and said "Hey if you guys need a place to put that, Ill take it. I live down there."
She got back home a while later and shortly thereafter the town truck pulls in the the driveway. "Where do you want it?"
So there it is. Two loads of about 8 yards each of mostly sand and gravel. I'm sure there are some rocks, leaves, sticks, and maybe even poison ivy roots just waiting for me to get into. This is probably the 3rd time we've got them to dump in our yard...and at about 125$ per 17 yards, it is well worth it to ask. and its GREAT material.
WTF do I do with it? is a good question.
Well, I use it, with a shovel and wheel barrel it gets distributed to all corners of the yard, filling in here and there, to make nice grassy level areas out of formerly un-useable, mosquito infested breeding grounds, etc.etc. Landscaping if you will. Plus, it is a nice little workout. Ill move a little before it freezes for the winter to make room for snow banks, but once spring comes Ill have it all move in a couple of weeks.
But getting is was all Wife. Im so proud.

Baby, Turkey

A quick image of LilGun's laying next to our cooked Thanksgiving turkey. I wanted to get a before picture of the uncooked bird next to a naked baby but it didn't work out. So I just ended up with the after pic.

Wonderful Internet

It's been an excellent few days off, this Thanksgiving Day. I hope your's went as well.

I came across this and thought it was cool enough to spread around. It is called Its A Wonderful Internet. The story is a retooling and modernization in the style of like 'The Night Before Christmas' and 'How the Grinch Stole Christmas', except that the INTERNET disappears. *shock* *horror*. The narrator has a great voice. I recognize it...I think its car commercial voice over guy. anyone know his name? Anyway, its just fun, interactive story telling.

'Its A Wonderful Internet'

Joke Time (2)

Im tellin' ya Uncle Johnny was a proficient joke writer. I got posts for years. Here's another...slightly dated but still pretty funny.

Why is Kotex like the atom bomb?

It keeps the Reds in, the Poles out, and the French hungry.

Here's a bonus:

She was only a farmers daughter, but she couldn't keep her calves together.

Joke Time

I am really F'ing busy right now so to keep you all entertained, I will share a joke. The joke comes from my mom's Uncle Johnny. After he died we found pages and pages and pages of very well handwritten jokes. Most are dirty. lot's are not. many are one lines. The amount is astounding. Uncle Johnny was a tank driver in WW2. When he got back to the real world I guess this was a coping mechanism.

Hey Ed, did you hear? My new girlfriend is a professional thief. You should see her snatch.

MY World Journal Post (9)

Friday: October 1, 1971

My mother told my father to get a doctor (see why here) but instead he brought a woman who he said was just like a doctor. The woman reassured my mother that she had mended many a broken arm and leg and that she knew what to do.
The woman (I don't know her name) came into my room and began to examine my arm, her findings as told to my mother was that my arm was sprained and that there is nothing to worry about. She then proceeded to pull on the arm and I passed out with pain.
After that horrible ordeal, I begged my mother not to have that woman pull my arm again. The woman had the gall to tell my mother that I was faking and that she had to pull the bone sockets into place. Upon hearing her reply to my mother, I began to scream and beg my mother to send the woman away.
I thanked God that she did send her away, because I don't think my little heart could have taken that much fear and pain again.

Cars and Car Companies

The hot news of late has been the bailout talks the 'big three' auto companies, Ford, GM and Chrysler are having with the Feds. I just want to throw out some of my SlingShot Thoughts on the subject and get to the main reason for writing tonight.

• First: They auto companies asking for $25,000,000,000 dollars. And that is just a bridge loan to cover a short term deficit. If there was one thing we should have learned lately is that things always cost more than twice as much as the original request. I point to the banking and finance bail out and the cost of the Iraq war as two points.
• Second: They are claiming 2.5 million jobs could be lost. Using the same logic above I will say that really only 1.25 million jobs would be lost in the short term.
• Third: You fuckin' jerk off CEOs. Fly 30 million dollar private jets, costing $20,000 for the trip to beg the government crying poor mouth. FUCK YOU GUYS! That's like, what, going to the welfare office wearing a new suit and gold chains.
• Fourth: I say let 'em falter on their own. It was their poor business and management practices. They are not producing products the people want. It's no ones fault but their own. Own up, BITCHES!

Ok. The real rant. GM is pushin' out the Chevy Volt. It goes a whole 40 miles on batteries. whooooo. (if you didn't hear my sarcasm, read that again) 40 miles and the car while, granted LOOKS really cool, is going to cost (according to some reports) like $40,000. This one more perfect reason why they can't sell anything. Who the frig has 40-grand for a car that only goes 40 miles?

My mom sold a Toyota Tercel to a guy who DIY electric car that easily does 20 miles for 5 grand. HERE. This guy got half the range for way less cash.

I'm just blabbering and complaining. With all their resources GM should have a car out, next year, that is getting 300 miles on battery power alone and cost 20-grand. This is the 21st century for christsakes. I mean really we are less than 60 years from when we are all supposed to be living like George Jetson and I can't even get a flying car over here.

It's just aggravating that the car companies are not held responsible for thier actions and that the government isn't pushing for great things. Maybe Obama will put out a Kennedy-esqe man on the moon, electric car in every driveway. However the more I see that news the less and less Mr. Change is bringing in the ol'Cliton gang. So disappointing.

Bah! Maybe another beer and some old school cartoons will chill me out.

Daddy Blog post: shit

What a miserable dreary day the weather gods have spread across the land today. Wife and I started feeling cramped in and needed to get out, But what to do? what to do? The only thing we really could without driving and hour or more...we went to Target.

We arrived in the parking lot and LilGuns shits him self and gets hungry right away. At 7 weeks this kid is chugging a 4-7 ounce bottle every two hours. WTF gonna happen when he's 13? Anyway, wife jumps into the back seat and fed him. Then we laid the front car seat down like a changing table to swap out his diaper.
Wife: " Here hold this and throw it out when we get inside." meaning the mustard shit filled diaper.
Me: doe-dee-doe "ok." I had to piss like a race horse anyway, so the bathroom was my first move and I could toss it there. So, I fold up the diaper really carefully and stick it in my pocket.
And then we shop. l.e.d christmas lights, wrapping paper, boob pads...all kinds of shit.
2 hours later we are driving home and I stick my hand in my pocket..."oh jezzes.. whats' thi...oh no!' I pull out the diaper. i forgot all about it and it now had leaked pee and yellow poo of course. inside my jacket pocket. Now im holding it. awesome. so gross. and without any better option I put it back in my pocket.
Luckily having dogs has desensitized me to some gross things with poo and dog shit stinks WAY worse, so I was able to keep myself under control and get straight home.
I'm sure this will not be the last gross thing that happens. Probably this was just the first really good one.Hey whatcha gonna do? I mean really...just look at him?

Milk Boobies

It was about 1:30pm on Saturday afternoon. I had just finished a trip to the dump and off loaded trash from the past month. Baby shit diapers, by the way, are surprisingly heavy. Here's a vid from August I made when I didnt have any recycling and had to 'go upta the landfill'. I love the dump.

Afterward I drove over to the Humong-o-mart needing some low cost dog bones and after dodging the blue-hairs in their silver ford escorts I found a parking spot. As I moved from the truck, I noticed a live .410 shotgun shell sitting on the light post base. Sketchy I think as I put the shell into my truck. But I did have the .40 on my hip so if some nutjob decided to make shit hit the fan I would have some good solid defense...and maybe a human shield or two. just kidding about the human shield.

I braved the crowds, dodged the stereotypes and vigilantly entered. As I strolled over to my section I saw them from a distance. A nice set of boobies in a low cut shirt giving me a cleavage show like no other. There they were. Then I look to her right and see the dad pushing a carriage with a small baby. I look back...Milk Boobies, nice. I crack a smile, I move on. Then two minutes later the exact same thing with another woman. What is the point of this? Nothing except the poetic statement that I text messaged to my brother and friends "I have a new love of breasts heavy with milk."

Peridotite as CO2 Storage

Peridotite is a rock that looks like the picture over there --->

and it's not just any rock. It is actually the most common rock in the mantle. It is also the birthstone for August, peridote. Now, lets see if I can simplify this....

Recently these two rock docs, geologist Peter Kelemen and geochemist Juerg Matter have conducted studies on this rock and it's ability to absorb (react actually) carbon dioxide. They took the process another step and figured out a method to speed up the reaction rate by 100,000 times or more. The method involves drilling holes into the peridoitie and injecting the rock formation with really hot water and pressurized CO2. I presume that the H2O and CO2 will react with the chemical composition of the peridotite (like: magnesium, iron, oxygen, silicon, aluminum, sodium, potassium).

This is big news for the battle against anthropogenic CO2 in the atmosphere, which has been shown to be increasing for many years. This graph (the keeling curve) is perhaps the most well know and convincing evidence.The study our hero rock docs have coming out on November 11 in the Proceedings of the Natural Academy of Sciences will, I presume, layout in more detail the findings of the study and calculations on storage capacities and costs and all that shit. In the web-articles I have found, they are saying that as much as 4 to 5 billions tons per year will be able to be stored. Humans are currently spewing about 30 billion tons each year, so the amount of capture is significant.

I've done a previous post on carbon trapping before, HERE. That method involved pumping the CO2 in to really deep (many kilometers) aquifers. This has the potential issues of leakage, pH, stabilization and doesn't provide the same extreme long term storage solution that peridodite storage does. The peridotite storage, insofar as I can tell, is a chemical reaction with a crystal (calcite) as the resulting permanent storage device.

from that earlier post I wrote, standby and add:

Carbon Capture and Storage SlingShot Thoughts:

• We have to try. This echos' my thoughts on geoengineering in general (1,2,3,4).
  
• We have less than 50 years to turn this Carbon ship around. More like 1 year.
  
• It is VERY unlikely that the coal fired plants will be retrofitted with CS facilities within 50 years.
• The human effect on the atmosphere in undeniable. see Keeling Curve.
  
• The Earth has great natural carbon sinks. Like the oceans and trees and now peridodite.
  
• Humans are overwhelming the system.
• Carbon sequestration can work but it is only a small part of the solution. Alternatively- we will probably need multiple methods, perhaps geographical.
  
• Humans suck and there is nothing you can do about it.

Slingshot Thougts

I have had a few Slingshot Thoughts floating around in my head recently and I figure I got enough of them built up that it is time to let ‘em loose.

Regarding the economy and money

(1) To protect your 401 K, pull it all out and transfer it into Second Life’s Lindens. There is actually exchange rate kicking around and stock market. People are spending real money on virtual items ranging from horned helmets to property and homes. Since the whole community/ world is virtual it should somehow be shaded from the real world economy. Then take it all back out when the DJA swings up again.

(2) The US Treasury Department has been bitching about how expensive it has become to mint coins, Pennies especially. So how about we just out source the production of coins to China? We seem to be sending everything else that way, and if it costs less, it costs less. Right? However, I'm sure there must be some federal law to squash this brilliant idea.

President Elect Obama
First 2 weeks, speak with the leader of every nation on earth, even if just to say ‘Sup dude?’

A Mission to Mars
I think that as humans we must attempt this. To do it I think we send three identical ships with teams of experienced Navy sub-mariners to set up a colony. However, the first real step would be to have a working magnetic shield to protect them from deep space radiation. No need to send them there only to return looking like Morlocks.

That’s all for now.

BigFoot.

Nope not the grizzly beastie of the pacific north west.
A photo of Lil Guns i took last week.
:)

MY World Journal Post (8)

Continuation from yesterday.

Thursday: September 30, 1971

After I had fallen from the freight car my cousins helped me home. My sister Jacey (Helen) was home and asked my what had happened, I said, "please don't tell ma", and she said, "I promise I won't tell". With this reassurance, I began to tell her what had happened. Her reply was, "ma is going to kill you" - (at that time Jacey was 14 years old and I was 9) - I could always rely on her for protection and good counsel.
The first thing she did was put me to bed and make me as comfortable as she knew how to. By this time my left elbow was giving me a lot of pain. Jacey said, "Don't show your pain, ma is coming home and you'll get a beating". With this reminder, I bore the pain.
My mother came home and she asked why I was in bed, Jacey said, "He isn't feeling good, and I put him to bed".
I do not know how I endured the pain for 9 horrifying days. Each day it felt worse than the previous day. My mother suspected something was wrong with me and she asked if I was alright. I kept insisting everything was fine and went so far as to open and close the door with my fractured elbow.
After nine days of excruciating pain, I began to let my feelings be known and told my mother my arm hurt.

MY World Journal Post (7)

Another post from my grandfathers journal.

Wednesday: September 29, 1971

It was a beautiful Spring day in May 1939, our spring vacation from school. My two cousins came over to play with me (Edwin and Alfred). Edwin suggested we go to Revere Beach and spend the day there. I was sort of hesitant at first because my mother told me to stay around the house. Alfred kept calling me a sissy and a ma-ma's boy. In my anger, I went with them.
We did not go to Revere, instead we played tag at the freight yard. The freight yard had four lines of tracks running parallel with one another. All the tracks were full of freight cars.
Like boys we climbed up to the top of the car and we began to jump from one train to another. We began a game of tag and my cousin began to chase me. In my excitement, I started to climb down the ladder of the train, but missed the first rung and fell backwards onto the cement pavement below.
A feeling of awe come over me, followed by a dull sensation in my left arm. I became very frightened and I cried uncontrollably. For some strange reason I tried to lift my left arm with my right hand only to have my are fall, like it did not belong to my body.
Then a new fear came over me, my mother, I thought, she told me to stay around the house and I didn't, she's going to kill me. Little did I know that I was entering into a whole new world of pain, anxieties and fear.

This journal entry starts off an interesting segments of other entries. I will do my best to post them in order.

MRI Experience

My wrists hurt. A fuckin' ton at times. For many years now. A while back (2 years) I mentioned it to my doctor, who mindlessly referred me to the sports med. people ,who again mindlessly advised me to exercise the muscles in my wrist and forearm. Have you seen my forearms?..like my father and brother they resemble THIS GUY. Really. There huge. Muscle strength is NOT the problem. Trust me.

Recently I mention it again to another of my doctors (Ah, HMOS, never see the same guy twice) and intelligently (finally a thinker and cyclist I might add) get referred to a hand/wrist specialist. Who then says 'I think you got ganglion cysts'. Scary sounding, i know. He says, 'we should set you up with an MRI.'Have you had an MRI? They stick you in a tube as loud as a electric clothes dryer with nothing but sneakers in it and say..' ok, don't move for the next 60 minutes...did you bring music?'

Of course I did. Pink Floyd-Dark Side of the Moon bitches!

After it's all said and done I ask for a copy of the MRI. Which I got by asking at least three people...'Can I get a copy of this?' Thinking of course the whole time, THIS WILL BE A GREAT POST. The image above is a cropped screen cap of one slice of my right wrist. Doya see that little bright spot on the right image? Thats a bag of fluid that hurts like a mother fuckah when I do...well, most anything.
So, now I now have confirmed scientific data of the problem and that it's not extreme enough to actually do anything. Sweet. I just live with the pain and know why I have it. whoop-dee-fuckin-doo. I wonder now how much the insurance company will fuck me for? the bill hasn't come in yet. But HEY, at least I got a good blog post. AM I RIGHT?

I write this post and the only knowledge I can pass on is: Live with the pain unless you got a huge bubble sticking out and Bring DSOM to your MRI, it'll put you in a mental mode like you just smoked a big fatty.

Peace and good health to you.

**UPDATE** 

At the suggestion of a homeopathic doctor I have taken Alfalfa supplements as a 'cure'.   This is working for me.  When ever I feel the ache start up in my wrists (usually after a lot of bike riding) I will take 3 or 4 with a meal.  I will take them a few more times over the following couple of days. Some time I only need to take them once on one day. Other times for a couple of days in a row.  It seems to work for me and I don't have to endure days and even weeks of pain in my wrists.

Dogone Saturday

It's Saturday morning and the dogs are I are about to go on the 2 hour nature hike/walk over at Jamies Pond. Part of the family is comming up today so I had better get going and take the edge off the dogs energy.

In this pic they are with one of their favorite toys, 'the piggy'. its actually a ground hog with a grunting squeaker.

Addie on the left. Watson on the right. They are brother and sister but one year apart. Watson is older.

Art Friday

Here's another installment of art day. This one i believe is done in pen and pencil. I don't know the size but it was done in September 1979 and is titled:

ART CRITICS.

visit the artist: STEVE DEAN

Junk In My Trunk

Holly Hall put up a post today showing us the inside of her car trunk and I commented that the items in the trunk are an introspective of their life and that it sounded like a meme. So, with that, the tag was on and now I present to you my trunk:

First, its not a proper a trunk. It's an VW golf hatch back. The seats are in the down position to maximize space for the dogs, which only really means I can fit WAY more shit in there than I need to and have to empty it every weekend to take Thing 1 and Thing 2 to the trails. But any way in there is:

• my fixed gear bike;
• dog leashes;
• jumper cables;
• extra hat;
• work field bag (hard hat, steel toe boots, extra warm clothes, rain coat, first aid kit, rock hammer, some tools and other crap);
• and of course my Delorme Maine Atlas. (If you can't find it with this map. you deserve to be lost.)

There we have it. who to tag? meh, Ill let it ride.

MY World Journal Post (6)

Monday, September 27, 1971

My mother and father are two people ordinary in every aspect, but a couple that were unique together.
I can remember the joy my father gave us. Like his home made violin, why that damn thing fell apart more than it was whole, but he was never discouraged because he would conjure up his home made glue and clamps, put the violin together, tie it up with clothesline and he would then leave it to harden; like a month! If he got two days play from it, after all that trouble and patience, he would be very pleased.
That is one of many funny stories about this loveable man. (My whole family loved him deeply.)
He worked on one job for 39 years and he only took an afternoon off to become an American citizen. That day was about the happiest day of his life.

Grafiti Art

Near my job place in Portland a local club allows some graffiti art on their back wall. These guys have some serious talent. Here is a small portion of the wall:

My critique would be to work on composure and structure. Less words and faces scattered all over the 'canvas' and more uniform themes would really make this art stand up. But what the fuck do I know?

Daddy blog

It's hard not to do a little daddy-blogging these days, what with such a cute kid an all. Plus for my family that stops by (and a few readers), I know they like to see new pics of LilGuns.

This was taken during tubby time yesterday. At 2.5 weeks he can hold his head up pretty good, turn that mellon left to right and hold up his uppper body with his arms for a short time. He's advanced ;) .

Mushroom Identification -deux

Found a really cool looking group of mushrooms in the yard recently. It only took me a 12 times to get the camera settings just right to get this good, upclose picture. For scale my finger segments are about 1 inch each.

What is it and can I eat it?

Here is a previous post on mushroom identification that I posted.

Light-en it up.

Yesterday I was foolin' around with my digital camera and found that it can do 8 second exposures.
After it got dark I shut off the lights and set up the long exposure mode, practiced waving my arms around and took these pictures.

The left one I simply wrote my name, backwards in cursive using my cellphone.

The one to the right I just tried to outline my body using two small single LED book reading lights.

Fun with photography. Whaddyah think?

Earth Science Week

This week is EARTH SCIENCE WEEK.

pass it on to your kids science teacher.

Friday roamin'

A nice day.

I was out riding my fixed gear bike at lunch today and decided to go done to the Maine State Pier. The weather is unbelievable today: light wind, full sun, 68 deg. F...PERFECT!

Hope you enjoy the pic.

VPMilf - Real Doll

It was a couple of weeks ago that the dirty idea was spawned. It all started HERE with talk of the Sarah Palin school girl action figure.

Since, it is well known and clear that the Republican vice-presidentail candidate is:

• a mostly undeniable POA ;
• very uninformed;
• apparently doesn't read newspapers;
• is part of a relig-o-crazy group that is one step above snake handler;
• and this is the USA;

she makes a great target.
So the step I took was not just to make any doll of Palin but the best one possible for a woman of her prowess and stature, a REAL DOLL (link NSFW)! In order to imagine what the result of such a doll would be I lifted and image from the Real Doll website (i hope thats cool with them, lemme know) and work my meager photoshop...i mean paint shop pro 4 skills, and this is how I see it:AYFKM! The sales would be through the roof. Especially, if those two managed to steal the election. Can you imagine the number of sick fucks that'd be like...

"Yeah, Im bangin' the Governor of Alaska...kindah"

My World Journal Post (5)

When on a roll....Roll.

Tuesday: September 28, 1971

My mother, the backbone of our home, she gave birth to four children all at home and with no doctor to assist her. The amazing thing [gj: that's not the amazing thing!?] was that after each of us was born, she would get up from bed and get my fathers supper. She is a very immaculate person, even today at 85 years, she still prefers to wash her clothes by hand and scrub the stairs on her knees.
She punished us when we deserved it (or not). All the times I got a licken from her, I forgot the words, or not. She was a firm believer in respect for older people.
She was so proud, that even if we didn't have food and someone offered some to her, she would say she had plenty. That woman as proud and as hard as she tried to make us believe she was really as warm and soft as a rose in June.
She proved this time and time again As I will express in my daily journals.
*****************************
I'm told that in this picture Babcia (Polish for Grandmother) is drinking whiskey from her favorite glass. As I sit here and drink whiskey out of my own. I guess it's in the gene pool.

My World Journal Post

Another page from my grandfathers journal:

Tuesday, September 21, 1971

The world that I had lived in was not one filled with geography or history, but rather one filled with vulgarisms and anxieties, love, joy, sorrow and most of all - religion.

I can remember when I was very young during the depression years. We lived near the waterfront in Chelsea, a suburb of Boston, near the Mystic River. That section of the city was called Little Warsaw, due to the fact that everyone on that street (Medford Street) was from Polish extraction.
My mother and father could hardly speak or understand any English, so it would be apparent that I was in the same boat.

Ordinarily, this would be a disaster but it wasn't because all my neighbors and friends spoke the same language.

We were educated in the Saint Stanislaus School. It was there that I learned how to speak English.

The days in school were split up into two parts, the first part of the day was English and the second part of the day was Polish. I did not understand what the nun was talking about when my lessons were in English, but I did very well with my Polish Lessons. As a result, I had to stay in the first grade again.

Those days were very difficult for me because while those good and dedicated nuns were trying to teach me my lessons, my mind would be in 'Little Warsaw', swimming for bananas that would fall from the banana boats or making crab traps. But those thoughts would soon end when the nun would catch me day dreaming.

No matter how hard I tried to pay attention in school, my mind would always drift off, into my world, time and time again.

I can remember how frightened I was of the nuns the first day of school, especially when they spoke a foreign language - English.
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previous journal enteries. 1. 2. 3.

Curve Balls

Yep. Today was going along pretty good. Wife and I were swooning over the little one, who from here on out will be referred to as Lil'Guns, from the bassinet. I was making a grocery list, sitting down at the PC getting ready to put some Lil'Guns photos together for the family and she had turned on the water for a shower.

Then I hear a noise...not quite loud but it was there. So I head down the hall...turning towards the basment stairs..what is tha..? "Aww-fuck"...water is pouring down into the basment. I ran down to the bathroom and shut off the water. Sorry wife, no shower for you.

A pipe had broke at the shower head. So, being the handy motherfucker I am I started taking the drywall down to pin point the problem and start the repair job. The leak was right up at the top and apparently a hole had formed after the copper fitting in the silver shower rod thing that the shower head atatches to. I first tried to back out the silver part but the pipe dope held it tight and the threaded part snapped off inside the threaded portion. I will have to replace the small copper section and shower head rod thing shown in the picture.

At this point I have started it and should have done by tomrrow. Not that it actually takes two days, but considering that the firewood guy showed up, I got in the grocery shopping, picked up dog food, the parts for the plumbing job, cooked dinner and washed all dishes...I think it's ok.
Wife just had to have Lil'Guns suck on the boobie and poop chinese mustard all day ;)... i think i like what I had to do better.

AM pic

Heres a better pic this morning. I got Tchaikovsky going and he fell to sleep.

He made it

After 50 hours he finally arrived. PHEW!

Better pictures soon!

Phrase-ology -TAPE IT

Driving into work today I was thinking about phrases I use that in the future my son (not here yet) will think I'm a weird ol' coot about. So I let my brain drift and I thought of the phrase:

'Tape it'

...as in to record a tv show or song on the radio or whatever.

Because for the most part tapes really don't exist anymore. No more betamax, vhs, cassettes, reel to reel. None of it. It is all been superseded by digital. mp3, dvr..etc.

Since it seems I have a wide variety of readers. I want to know is;

What phrase do you use, or your parents use, that is out dated?

Holy Bat Shit!

Science is amazing to me. Amazing because one can study bat shit, write about it and get published.

What brings this up? Well, last week I received my latest copy of Geology and as I was skimming the abstracts during my Saturday morning post-coffee poo I come across the paper titled: "Stable carbon and hydrogen isotopes from bat guano in the Grand Canyon, USA, reveal Younger Dryas and 8.2 ka events". Thats quite a title for something I might have called 'Bat Shit in a Grand Canyon Cave'.

This group basically showed that the Carbon 13 and Hydrogen isotopes analyzed in bat crap shows the affects of the paleo-climate. It is important because it helps increase, or the term they use is -develop high resolution, of the climate on a more local scale. Additionally, because the Grand Canyon is a semi-arid environment other depositional features (lakes for instance) are rare or non-existent, so this is providing another method to gain information.

The information this adds to the world is that during the Younger Dryas (~12,900 -11,600 years ago) this region of the southwest US seems to have been cool and dry at this time and that the small 400 year change detected during about 8,400 -8,000 years ago was also a cool period. The second event is the first time this anomaly has been detected. Possibly indicating a semi-local effect. EUREKA! A DISCOVERY!

So for fun....why the Ace Ventura reference?