me (again)

Yay!! More stuff on gaia ^_^

Well something to right now. Fu fu fu, ive been doing lots of stuff lately, most of it sleeping . I got to help my dad in his job some more so there's money for me ^_^...

Eh I'm bord  and have nothing to do... my cousins are coming up though, that'll be a good change ^_^;. I am worried. All this stuff thats been going on with them, I don't think it will be a good idea..... oh well not my choice.

on to other things. I found an awsome magazine called.... ANIME INSIDER!!!! not exciting huh... Well if you like anime I bet you've already herd of it, but if not.

As I quote from http://www.wizarduniverse.com/aninmagsub.html

"No longer an underground experience, Japanese animation and comics are now a mainstream phenomenon, and Anime Insider is the #1 anime and manga magazine in America! Unlike any other anime magazine in the world, it approaches its content with a sense of humor. A.I. appeals to modern anime fans because it understands them and gives them what they want—content straight from Japan in the form of exclusive previews, in-depth interviews, photo tours and cultural lessons. Each issue covers TV shows, DVDs and manga as well as videogames, music, merchandise and Japanese pop culture."

in the department of info, this mag takes the cake. There's everything in here. From death note to Naruto, to even J-rock in the back section (you likey the J-rock). Every month there's a knew manga preview to see , so if you're looking for some knew stuff it's here.

I do like NEW TYPE though but Anime insider is cheaper (at 5 bucks an issue) and has alot more on what's happening. NEW TYPE does have a lot of manga and comes with a DVD so it's your choice.

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I think I've reached a wall. The ideas don't come as easily. I'm less interested in seeing the stats. The novelty of the ability to use U-tube, twitter, delicious, thoughts.com, wordpress, or blogger has dwindled. I just offered to let my son put together a blog. Perhaps, it is time to pass this on. Perhaps after vacation, I will find a voice for all of this, but for the moment, I wonder if I have become one of the many people out there that started this with so much excitement only to fade into the pasture of blogs that have not been updated in many, many months. What about you-what keeps you going?

June shoved the carrot pieces into the juicer, pressing them down a bit more violently than intended. The gadget responded by sending a small spray of orange up into the air. June watched as the drops showered down on her countertops. Great. Something else to stress about.

“Mom, can I have some juice too?” Alex asked as he raced into the kitchen and opened the fridge. “I want some juice and a sandwich and maybe a couple of cookies.” June didn’t care. “Eat whatever you want. I’ll make you some juice when I’m done with mine. Did your dad show up at practice today?” Alex nodded his head up and down, as June sighed in relief. At least the jackass did something right. “He was there for the warm-ups, than he took off. Said he had a meeting and that he’d be home real late. He told me to tell you not to wait up.” Alex paused for a breath and continued. “Mom, why does he always have so many meetings? He didn’t used to be gone all the time. Did he get a promotion or something?”

June focused on her juicing, thinking to herself. Great. Now I’ve got to explain to my son how his dad has a girlfriend and would rather spend time with her than his kids. Screw that. I’ll do what he does. Lie. Turning to face Alex, she said, “That’s right honey, daddy got a promotion. Less money, more work. Because your dad is so good at what he does.”

“Less money, more work? That doesn’t sound so good,” Alex responded.

“Learn from his mistakes Alex. Your family is the most important thing in the world.”

Alex nodded and returned to his sandwich fixings. June reached into the fridge and pulled out some more carrots and apple for Alex’s juice. She just wanted to crawl up in bed and cry. What does that bitch see in her husband? He’s an addict, just barely off the pain pills. He hasn’t worked in years. June wondered if the whore knew that all their assets were in her name and hers alone. They had done that for safety back when he was trading stocks. Since he took up with the bimbo, she had been slowly draining the accounts and moving them into new and different places. Let him find them. Ha. She wasn’t about to be the laughing stock of the neighborhood.

Lana kissed him one last time before he walked out the door. It was already 1:30 a.m., and she couldn’t understand why he wouldn’t just spend the night. He reached for her naked body and she shimmied back, “No way. If you’re leaving, no touching.” Jerry smiled at her, “I’ll be back for more tomorrow. I love you.” She softened at that, “I’ll see you tomorrow. I love you too.” And she did. With all her heart. He was the best man she had ever met, and she couldn’t believe her luck. The only drawback was that evil wife of his, June. Every night, like clockwork, despite her best efforts and outfits, he left at 1:30 to go home. Saying he didn’t want the kids to wake up and not find him there. Kids my ass, she thought. Those kids are seventeen and twenty. They’ve got to realize their mother makes him insane. Why else would he be popping all those vicodin? When Jerry’s with her, he rarely takes anything. A couple of glasses of wine, but who doesn’t drink?

Walking back to the bedroom, Lana paused to pick up a wineglass and drink the last few sips. Foolish to let it go to waste. Placing the glass in the sink, she walked to the bathroom and smiled. She looked good. Those implants had done wonders for her life. Best five grand ever. She padded into the bedroom and fell asleep, dreaming of Jerry.

Driving the ten blocks home, Jerry popped two vicodin, knowing by the time he got home, it would kick in and he’d be able to fall asleep. That Lana was something special. When he was with her, he felt like he was the big man. Not like the whipped puppy June had created. If only he could find a way to move the money back into his name, or at least into a joint account. He hated being dependent on June for every dime, but that’s exactly how it seems. He had a couple of small accounts hidden deep, but not enough to escape her grips. Plus there were the kids to worry about. Alex has enough issues, what with the figure skating and all. How the hell did he create a boy figure skater. That kid’s going to need a fortune in therapy. Sighing, he wondered whether Lana had anyone else in her life. He was so worried that she would toss him, he made sure to spend as much time with her as possible, so she wouldn’t have a chance to hook up with anyone else.

Sex with Lana was special. She needed it as much as he did. Not like June. June would be totally content having sex once a week, and she would never let him do the things he did to Lana. He’d tried, but June made it clear once Alex was born that from then on, sex was just an obligation, not any kind of pleasure for her. Bitch. She was his wife. She should at least try and enjoy it once in a while. Jerry tried to remember the last time they had sex. It had to have been eight months or so ago, right before he had met Lana. It was amazing how much different the two women were. Lana was all curves and voluptuousness. All about pleasure and lust. June was about austerity and severity. There was no joy in that woman.

Jerry yawned, surprised at how tired he was. After eight months, he was used to this routine. But somehow, tonight, it was harder to focus on the road. He fidgeted in the seat, only seven more blocks. I can do this. By the time he pulled into the driveway, he was shot. Instead of getting out of the car, he passed out in the driver’s seat. Alex woke him up the next morning. “Dad. Dad. Wake up. Why are you in your car?” Jerry made some feeble excuse and stumbled into the house. June gave him the death stare as he walked upstairs to shower and shave. How much more can one man take?

By: Lauren J. Walter July 18, 2008

Today, the three of us are beginning a special project.

In the San Gabriel mountains near Pasadena is the Mount Wilson Observatory.

The sign says "Authorized Vehicles Only" but today that's us.

Then the Mt. Wilson Observatory's 60-inch telescope was built, it was the largest telescope in the world. This upcoming December, it will be 100 years old, and still in daily operation.

One of the controlling computers, the Encoder Server, needs to be replaced, which is why Dad and Chuck and I are here. We've volunteered to build them a new one. This is Secret Plan 174.

The project involves hardware and software work for the system which tracks the telescope's position, the dome position, the timers, and then calculates the telescope's direction in space adjusted for the Earth's rotation, and allows the astronomer to offset it if necessary.

The telescope is managed, maintained, and constantly improved by William Leflang and Gale Gant. We are meeting with both of them today.

Gale meets us at the telescope, and takes us inside.

This isn't just a private tour; this is a "see every single system, understand how it works so you can write one of the control systems for it" mega-goosebump-orama.

Oh. My. God.

The telescope itself weighs 44,000 pounds. For reference, a Boeing 737-100 jetliner is about 62,000 pounds.

There are lockers downstairs for telescope users, and one is permanently marked "Hubble." Einstein used this telescope. Zwicky used this telescope. Instead of being paid for this job, Dad and Chuck and I will be allowed to use this telescope.

The tour covers every system, mechanical and electrical. Note to self: Bring the muse here for sure.

All of the electronics were recently rebuilt by Gale and Bill, our hosts. They're beautiful.

...so when Gale says "Let's power it up and acquire a target" we don't offer any objections. Watching such a large object move with such accuracy is very impressive.

After a few hours, we've got all the information we need, as well as goofy ear-to-ear grins.

After our time at the telescope, the three of us hold a meeting over tacos and margaritas to plan the operation, and to talk about the different female characters in A Knight's Tale.

The result is a pretty good plan for the first few weeks, and a general agreement that the blacksmith is much hotter than the princess.

Random assertion: Some things are done for love, others for money. Working on a hundred-year-old telescope only offers one option, and it's a good one.

Steganographic data: 1834/2.1

Boompa started bringing Alexis Hershey's Syrup from work. (That he stole, hehe!) She started calling it "Boompa Tocate" since he is the one who brought it to her.

EVERYTHING turned into Boompa Chocolate. M&M's, Chocolate cake, Reese's, etc.. anything that resembled chocolate - is BOOMPA CHOCOLATE.

It is a MUST when she has her "cuppie".  You have to put Boompa Chocolate inside, not just plain "mowtney" (milkie).  Oh, and you CANNOT shake it.  She has to see the visual of the glob of chocolate on the bottom of her cup.  Yes, she tips it upside-down to check. ;o)

I will never have a refrigerator without Boompa Chocolate.

Name: Kest Schwartzman

Shop Name: Vagabond Jewelry

Blog/Website: www.VagabondJewelry.net

Location: Somerville, MA

A little bit about Kest:
I went to Massachusetts College of Art. I spent a lot of time in the foundry and by the forge. I didn't wear any jewelry. I had a van, but walked everywhere I needed to get, because parking was such a hassle. Now I work out of my basement and ride a bike nearly everywhere I go (I borrow a car to go to fairs, the tent and table are a bit much for my bicycle). I wear Carrhartts, Blundstones, dirty T-shirts, and a cuff on my left wrist. Times have, I supposed, changed.

What do you sell that would appeal to the guys?
The earthiness of copper appeals to men- the cuffs tend to sell mostly to an urban male population, while the pendants seem to go well with everyone. And, of course, the word panels are entirely unisex, and so easy to wear, I've been selling them to a lot of guys who say things like " well, I'm not really one for jewelry, but..." which is always a wonderful thing to hear!

Where do you sell your stuff?
I sell mostly on my website, VagabondJewelry.net. Etsy has been wonderful, too, and really helped me get started- it took me a long time to actually set my website up so that it worked. This summer I'm doing a lot of fairs (craft fairs, folk festivals, and the like) and that's a lot of fun, too. I even got accepted to sell thing at Falcon Ridge Folk Festival at the end of July- I used to go there as a kid, and I'm really excited.

How long have you been in business?
I started selling cuffs made entirely from other people's scraps in undergrad. It helped make ends meet, but I didn't formally set up business till February of ‘07. I registered with my town as a business one year later, in February of 2008. May of this year, I quit my day job, and now I'm doing this full time.

How did you get started?
Well, back at Mass Art, I was making very large scale installations. I am still proud of what I was doing then, but they were massive things, I was putting in 80 hour weeks and would finish one piece per semester. The first summer I volunteered to watch the studio one day a week, so I had access to all the tools. I worked full time in the summers to pay for school, so there was no way I would be doing anything like I had been doing, so I started to experiment with what I could make copper do that my teachers told me I couldn't. At the time it was all cuffs, and I was having the time of my life. I kept that up for years, making money on the side, before deciding that really, this could support me.

How do you get the word out about your shop?
I pay for advertising. I'm really not very good at self marketing, and a lot of people I know don't even know I do this. This may not be the most efficient form of getting the word out, but for me, the stress of feeling like I'm always supposed to be handing out cards and selling myself just isn't worth it. So far, I've had very good luck with Project Wonderful, and I buy slots on webcomics, because I read them.

What's your creative process?
The cuffs are still my favorite thing to make. I'll usually cut a whole bunch of blanks in various widths and lengths, and I'll go ahead and file those. That's generally a day's labor. Then the next day is the fun. I have a vise, an anvil, a torch, and a whole bunch of different hammers. At this point, I have a repertoire of folds and forms that I know (all the things that turned out not to be nearly as impossible as the professors would have you think!). I basically play with those. What happens if I combine this fold with this form? How about if I only do half this fold? Oh, that's neat, if I do that half fold with this full fold, then... And every few weeks I'll come up with a new one- I figured out a fan fold just the other day that I'm working with now. And I play with the copper. This sounds a bit blasé, but the process of playing is, in fact, quite structured. Nothing can be hit twice with treating the metal in between, there's a whole lot of torch work, some things require gloves, while others do not, etc, but I would be lying if I didn't say it was fun. I'll spend all day working those blanks. The next day is a day of trimming ends, filing (again- the first filing was for my hands, the second is for yours!), sanding, and finally waxing and photographing. 

What do you want people to know about your work?
Every one of my pieces is unique. Every one has a name, because, in some way, every one is a friend of mine. I can't repeat a piece any more than you can find two people who agree on every aspect of the upcoming presidential election- some will have one thing in common, others another. And, like people, they change with time, and they change according to their environment. One might darken, another redden, and another will gain a shine I may never have intended. These pieces are all intended to be both tough enough and comfortable enough that they can be with you all the time; they'll join you on a hike along the Appalachian trail, and they're equally happy tagging along to your mother-in-laws dinner party.

Anything else you'd like us to know?
Having made friends with copper, I am now comfortable enough with it to evoke in it the natural landscape from which it emerged. From bold pieces, shouting of earthquakes, to secretive types whispering of quiet fields rustling with grass, the range of jewelry calls up all the world. Every piece I create is entirely different from every other piece I have ever created. Each has their own personality, as organic and hard to define as each of your friends.

There's also this business of my 'secret' which they want me to tell them, even though they have already guessed and got it right, I just haven't told them that yet. It's just something I literally cannot talk about and they are going to make me come next week, they have already told me that. They think it's what is causing all my problems with anger and self-harm and stuff, and they are probably right. But still, talking about it is just going to be so difficult. I'm not doing too badly at the moment but I can't afford to go much further downhill.

I can hear my dad talking about me to an old friend on the phone. He started off talking about my brothers, how well they are doing at school, how my youngest one has had someone from Chelsea come and watch him play football, because he is like amazingly talented at it.  All he's said about me is  'She has good days and bad days...more bad than good, It's such a shame because she's such a nice kid inside'. He went out into the garden to talk, where he thinks I can't hear him but I can. I'm such a let down :\.

I wish there was like, a miracle pill for feeling like shit.
Citalopram and Risperidone are not it.

Above: A little league coach gets thrown out of a game, causing a brawl to escalate on the field between all the parents.

The hassles that come with having kids aren't always kid-related; sometimes, it's the having to deal with the parents they're related to that becomes an even BIGGER hassle.

Parents have to be protective of their kids.  After all, the little tykes don't have the complete mental capacity to always make decisions that are the safest for them.  Unfortunately, the level of child protectiveness a person feels is necessary varies from parent to parent.

All of this is well and good when a person is dealing with their own child.  Throw another person's child into the mix, however, and things can suddenly start to go hay-wire!

Why? Because when you interact with other people's children, you are also interacting with a set of parents whose child-raising views, opinions and methods are different from yours.  And when their parenting methods are ones that don't match with yours, the consequences of dealing with these people can be catastrophic!

For example: you have a kid named Johnny, who has a school chum named Iko.  Iko wants to come over to your house after school to play with Johnny.  After talking to the parents, they agree to allow Iko to go over.  However, they instruct you not to feed Iko any bread because he's allergic to it, and you tell them it won't be a problem.  So far, so good, right?

But then: Iko comes over to the house to play with Johnny, and when you leave the room for 5 minutes to go to the bathroom, Iko slips into the kitchen to make himself a Peanut-Butter and Jelly sandwich, which, of course, consist of peanut butter, jelly... and BREAD!! He eats the sandwich before you get back from the bathroom, and, since Iko put all the evidence of sandwich-making away, you don't notice anything.

10 mintues later, you look over at Johnny and Iko, and notice that Iko is breaking out in bumps on his face.  He's also staring to cough a lot.  You call Iko's parents and tell them what's going on, only to hear from his Mom that the symptons are the result of him eating bread.  Before you can defend yourself, Iko's parents start going off:

"How DARE you feed our kid bread!  We TOLD you he was allergic to it!! Why are you trying to harm our child!!  I should have KNOWN you couldn't be trusted - your son always LOOKED like he was a bad influence!!" 

Next thing you know, the both of you are yelling back and forth on the phone, threatening to call the police on the other one for being rude and inconsiderate - all this, while Iko is still coughing his brains out!!

Think this scenario is too far-fetched? HA! This is just an example of a MINOR incident that could occur!  I've seen parents fight with other parents over many stupid things, including:

• Which person's kid is smarter than the other
• Aruging over who's kid is getting more playtime in (name of various sports)
• Whose kid gets to be first in line for something
• The last of a popular Christmas toy on the shelf at a Toy Store
• Which kid REALLY got the biggest half of cake
• Whose kid did more work on a school project
• Which kid deserves a better scholarship deal/college placement
• Whose kid is taller. Yes, you read that correctly!

The fact is, since most parents see their child as the end-all, be-all savior of the future, any other parent that comes along with their own kid is a threat to that ideal.  And personally, I can live without the hassle of other parents meddling in my life!!

-A.P. Taylor

Send your "Why I'm NEVER Having Kids" stories/ideas to neverhavingkids@gmail.com.  If you're a parent, send your "Dealing w/Kids Horror Stories" - who knows, your story could be the catalyst for my next blog!

Source: Islandevents

Garth Henriques, father of dancehall sensation Sean Paul survived an attack at gunpoint on Sunday morning, during which a friend and business partner, John 'Pops' Dowling was shot and injured.

Both Dowling and Henriques are directors of Reggae Inc. Dowling is now convalescing at the University Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI).

Dig the story

As many of you know, for the past three years I have road in a charity bike ride under the team name “Imagine” after I saw this power statement, “imagine a world without cancer.” As someone who has lost a family member to cancer and who has another who recently finished his treatment, I want everyone to read this slogan and fully appreciate what it could mean to you, me, and our families. When I did, it became my dream and one that I will not been able to forget it – Just imagine.

When I heard about the Sunflowers to Roses Ride, a bike ride that benefits the KU Cancer Center, Cancer Action, the Lance Armstrong Foundation and the Sunflowers to Roses Organization, I had to register and participate.  There are so many reasons why I am doing this. There are so many things to say in such a short section. For me it all boils down to the following;

1.      I am doing this in memory of my Aunt Venesa who passed away from breast cancer,

2.      I am doing this in honor of my Dad who is a recent survivor, and

3.      I am doing this in hopes that my family, or anyone else’s family for that matter, will never have to go through the same pain and suffering my family has gone through ever again.

I need to raise at least $100 to participate in the Ride, but my goal is to raise $2,000. It’s a big goal, but I’m taking a big step. So, I invite you to join me in the fight against cancer by making a donation. Make it on behalf of a friend or loved one if you like and I will ride for them as well. Your donation will help fund important cancer research, and every pledge will bring us one pedal stroke closer to a cure!

Dare to imagine a world without cancer...

My Donation page can be found at:

https://secure2.merchantcart.net/KCSportsPublic/main.cfm/S2R/C7635BFD99248A2CDEF8249EF7BFBEF4/?do=mywebpage&pID=88590 

Thank you,
Michael

Really.

I talked to him about this a lot.  These are dad's...

He was always amazingly open to conversation with me.  He didn't like to hide things from me-not in the real sense of the word.  He might have a simple answer; or, perhaps one that he would use because he had had the conversation with me in his mind before even seeing me.  But he always came through in the end.

I liked asking him the hard questions.  He paused.  Sometimes, I felt that's where we really existed.  Somewhere between the hard questions and the harder answers.  In the silence that bound us to each other.

Day 1

Day 2

6:00 am.  Up and at the computer working.   Despite working and managing the kids, I have problems piling up at work.    I actually had to make a list to make sure I wasn't missing something.

8:30 am.  The kids made their way upstairs last night.   When my daughter crashed on the bed, I carried her to hers and left my son in ours.    My daughter was the first one up today and I could hear her up there moving around in our room.   They must have been in there watching TV for about an hour this morning.   I didn't disrupt them, it was good to have three hours straight to be working.

9:00 am.  Daughter chooses cereal, I made an omelet for my son.

9:20 am.   Boss calls.   I let him know that I am going to try to spend the day at home.   We go over some of the contractual things we need to get done.   I "took" a lot of stuff with me, so I was ready for this to happen.  I need to put a couple of more hours on this stuff before the end of the day.   The kids aren't going to get as much of my attention today.

10:00 am.   Wife calls.  Phone is dying.   Despite my plea, she didn't take her phone charger.  "It last for days during the week, I don't want to carry too much stuff..."   She is at the correct gate in Atlanta and she has an empty seat next to her where she can put the car seat.

(I ran the dishwasher last night and emptied it this morning.   The sink will be empty when my wife gets home and the infamous fruit tray is going to be full.   The two of them are playing together nicely...it is good to see.)

12:30 pm.  This is the day I was afraid of happening.  A couple of emergency deadlines have popped up.  I did have a back-up plan and I am lucky this stuff can be done from home.   This age of technology is so cool.  I don't know how work was done before the electronic age.   I guess everything was just slower.

1:00 pm.  Lunch is done.  I have managed to keep everyone in the living room and the "huge platter of fruit" has been a live saver.  I have contained the chaos to one room.   I can have that put back together in a jiffy.  My daughter is sharing her lunch with her "Little People" and my son has rediscovered some old computer games for the old computer that I have plugged into the living room TV.  That is a huge screen.

1:30 pm.   Mom should have landed two and a half hours ago.   She could be home at any time.  Since her phone is dead and the charger is here at the house, I have no way of knowing her ETA.

3:00 pm.  Mom arrives home in one piece she runs upstairs to sleep.  Work goes crazy and the screaming begins.  

4:00 pm.  Mom comes down to get 6 month old.  Nurses him upstairs and they both sleep.

6:00 pm.  Working issues ending for the evening and I am able to push them off until tomorrow.   I really needed to go do something, but I'll just head out very early tomorrow morning.

6:45 pm.  Dinner served, wake up mom.

7:30 pm.  I skipped dinner and went for a run (I haven't been running since Sunday!)

8:02:43 pm.  Run completed.  Four miles.   Felt good.

9:00 pm.   Baths/Showers completed and the routine is back on.

My son and I ended the three days watching the Tigers/Orioles game.   Originally, we were going to try to take a road trip to go see the Tigers while they were in Baltimore.  This is their only trip and Baltimore is the closest they get to where we are.   The trip fell through when my wife wanted to go out of town...maybe next year!

This has been a fun three days.  I had hoped to do some more playing with them today, but it just couldn't happen.  The lack of redundancy in our office really jumped out at me.

Everyone had a good time and not only didn't we burn the house down, but we actually left it cleaner than it was given to us.

Good night!

My father is an unusual man - but I'll just stick to the theme of crafting. He traveled during the week on business and to amuse himself in the evenings he would wander K-mart and other stores and look for fabric remnants. (This was before Wally World took over.) This was the 70's and 80's so you know they were mostly hideous, double knit, bullet proof, polyester. From these he would sew pants and quilts. The quilts were usually simple strip quilts with a flannel backing. They weren't pretty but they were warm. I was very thankful for them when we moved into a house with no heat when I was in the 8th grade. We also used them when we camped.

He liked to build things. He would take spare wood from construction projects and build furniture. He made chairs, desks, shelves, and anything else he could come up with. Once he took 4 really long pieces of threaded pipe and attached 5 boards to make a set of shelves. These were great. You could adjust the shelves by changing the position of the nuts. I used those shelves for at least 20 years. They weren't real stable, but if put in a corner, they were very handy.

My favorite piece was an art desk. It was huge! You could lift the top and the inside was divided into spaces for supplies. It didn't match any other furniture because it was painted industrial grey with leftover construction paint. That's okay - I cherished it anyway. It was way too big to carry with me to my first small apartments and I have no idea who has it now.

Dad instilled in me a love of construction and building with my hands. I still love the smell of freshly cut wood and the feel of finely sanded furniture.

Thanks Dad and Happy Birthday.