I was recently surfing the internets aimlessly....

when I remembered a little side business that a buddy of mine from my last place of employment had started. He took a vacation a few years ago and took some KILLER pictures from some beautiful locations in the western US. I went back to see how his photo store was coming along. The pictures of the bald eagles hanging around the northern Iowa-Illinois portion of the Mississippi River are great. Other than the people I worked with and a few restaurants up there, the eagles are one of a few things I miss. It was tremendous to watch the eagles sit around on the parts of the river that had frozen and occasionally take off soaring to look for fish. Check out Jason's photo store....

As promised....

Here is part two (the remaining nine minutes). I have y'all click "read more" because I don't like having too much video and glitzy stuff right on the front page. So, if you want to check it out, go ahead and click "read more"...


Last 9 (or so) minutes of Art and Suzanne's wedding reception
12/19/1992
Weatherly Heights Baptist Church
Huntsville, AL

I've been swearing for years....

that I was going to get the 17 minute video of our wedding reception onto DVD so we would have less chance of losing it. Years later, I've finally done it. In addition, I've created a PC file-based version of it. Now the entire world can check it out by clicking "read more". That's only true if YouTube isn't blocked for you. The last half of the video will be coming soon. Talk about a blast from the past...


First 8 minutes of Art and Suzanne's wedding reception
12/19/1992
Weatherly Heights Baptist Church
Huntsville, AL

Yesterday, it was the invocation of Vietnam...

Today, the unclassified key findings of an updated National Intelligence Estimate regarding Iraqi stability were released. This merited a prepared statement AND a press conference from the White House. Not long after the new NIE was making news, Senator John Warner (R.-VA) was discussing the need for at least a symbolic pullout of a small number of troops by Christmas. We have to start somewhere. That's had me thinking for a while. What metric will we use to judge whether the "war on terror" part of Iraq has been a success? The President often mentions that too early of a withdrawal from Iraq would "embolden the terrorists and provide a fertile recruiting ground". Seems to me that it's already a prime recruiting ground and (for those militants who don't get killed) an invaluable training ground. Unless the US intends on having forces in Iraq for a VERY long time, our adversaries will still declare their own victory when we get around to bringing our troops home. The new generation of Islamic militants will have the benefit of at least some battle-hardened leaders. I think we need to revamp SOME of the way we conduct business. I think there are a number of people who realize this and are trying to effect change, but inertia and bureaucracy hinder them.....

Well, I'll leave it there for now. I want to devote more attention to watching The China Syndrome. It's on Turner Classic Movies right now and it's much more interesting now that I'm in the nuke industry than it was when I was nine...

Today was a good day to....

grill. These burgers were meant for the grill at the neighborhood party the other night, but it was a little late after returning from Monte Sano...

I don't know what made me start thinking about my 20 year HS reunion (if the Butler High School c/o '88 has one), but it should be less than a year from now. Scary, eh? Here's the official alumni page from Butler's web site. As it is often noted, time flies...

Well, I think I'll end this for now. It's almost time for South Park followed by Lil' Bush. It should be a laugh-filled close to prime time....

One can't place the blame for most....

of the results of the newly declassified executive summary regarding CIA shortcomings leading up to 9/11 on the current administration. The .pdf file is linked from near the bottom of the page. Sure, there were probably things that Bush and Company could have done differently, but it seems that many of the failures (through the various branches of government) were political and systemic. Unfortunately, it often seems as if the will to change the political side of things doesn't exist because the two beasts of power in this country are more interested in longevity in office and partisan bickering than actually achieving much.

Glancing over the news today, I found it somewhat laughable that the President was pointing out the flaws of the Iraqi government (first question in the press availability). To be sure, there are flaws. It is (or should be) MUCH HARDER to correct the errors of the government of a sovereign country than it is to fix our own shortfalls. An admittedly cursory search for any remarks by the President on the GAO report comes up surprisingly empty. There are things that are going OK over there, but much of the lead-up to and follow-through in this war has been farcical.

Anyway, enough complaining....

Y'all have fun, now!

It just occurred to me that I forgot to mention something the other night...

Yes, Assemblage 23 will be in Nashville on September 24. And I'm ready to go right now. However, I noticed that the supporting act will be a band named Cryogen Second. After the shortest amount of looking around, I discovered that Cryogen Second is actually local to Nashville, TN. It's a little bit unusual to hear music like that come from a town so closely associated with country music. I know that when I heard the first track on Cryogen's myspace profile (Outside the Light), the first impression that popped into my head considering the distortion vocals, dark melodies, and pulsing beat was Funker Vogt...

Very nice! If you are able to tolerate the kind of music I listen to, check'em out....

Ahhhhh, weekend recap.....

It's been a nice weekend to just chill out....

We attended a friend's wedding up on Monte Sano mountain in Huntsville yesterday. The wedding was very nice albeit very HOT. Tracy and Ashley, if you read this, CONGRATULATIONS! Heck, congratulations anyway! After that, we came home and dressed down a bit so we could go to a little neighborhood party. We didn't get over there until about 7:30 PM. We had fun. I finally finished the rest of the Sparks Plus that's been in my fridge for at least a month (only 3). That was topped off by a few pints of Guinness (draft bottles). Tasty! Oh, and there were also a few jello shots that appeared out of nowhere. Anyway, we called it a night around 11:00 PM.

Having had that "energy beer", I couldn't get right to sleep. That wasn't necessarily good because I had to get up around 5AM this morning. I had planned to go out riding (bicycles) this morning around 6:30. 5AM sure came early. At least I had enough time to down a cup of coffee. Ric and I rode about 15 miles out here on the back-roads this morning. After we rode, we split up to shower so all of us could go eat breakfast. Over breakfast, we learned that one of the restaurants that we enjoy in Huntsville is closing at the end of this week. We made plans then and there to go to Qdoba this evening. After returning home, the bed was calling me to take a nap. Unfortunately, we got to Qdoba to eat and they had closed up for the day. There weren't enough employees to keep the place open for their normal hours. I'm just wondering if things will be like that the rest of this week. We went to the "alternative" down the street and had a big old time....

And here we are.....

I almost don't know if I'll know what to do with myself tomorrow. I'd love some rain, but I wouldn't mind going up and trudging around the trails on Monte Sano mountain. And there's a chance of having this for dinner tomorrow night. It doesn't matter what's for dinner because the food at Chez Terrell is always awesome! This does mean that I probably won't be going in if I get called for OT tomorrow. C'est la vie! I can't turn down some tasty vittles.....

Peace, y'all!

As it was the first of seven days off, I took it easy today...

Work even called for OT EARLY this morning, but I had a few things to do to get ready for a buddy who's getting married tomorrow. I suspect that they'll call again a few times this weekend, but I'll be fairly tied up. Hopefully they'll have some slots available next week. I used to be the one to sell my soul for the OT money...

Check out some of the biodiversity from my neighborhood:





I could probably make it out to Denver, CO to see Assemblage 23, Tristraum and Leiahdorus on October 20, but I just can't see spending the time and money when I'm already planning to see A23 in Nashville in September. Speaking of Leiahdorus, go on and click "read more" for a video via YouTube. They sound a lot like they're from the 80s....

Fortunately....

The fine people of Athens made (again, my humble opinion) the proper decision last night. I'm not saying there are no adverse effects of alcohol. Heck, I'm living proof. However, it is possible to work through those kinds of issues and just making the city dry wouldn't have ended them anyway. Besides, I found out (I kind of suspected before arriving) that our precinct wasn't voting on the wet-dry thing anyway....

Well, it looks like people aren't being as careful on the roads during the "Take Back Our Highways" campaign as they probably should be. It's not like this little traffic jihad came unannounced or anything....

EARTHQUAKE!

I was glad to hear that my father and family survived Flossie out in Hawaii. I forgot to ask him if he had been that close to a hurricane before. I imagine that he's seen a typhoon or two from the time he was in Korea. I'll have to ask him. Yo, daddy-o, ever been through a tropical-type storm?

Well, I need to go shower right now. I'm stinky. Good night, folks!

PS, for a cool video (this was very spiffy live), click "read more"...

As I am often driven to extremes....

I am going to have to find a way to grow some of these. The site admin for Children of Acid happens to have a great picture of some of these peppers that he has grown. I enjoy insanely HOT food and I believe that these will be entirely too hot for me.....

It looks like the wet-dry issue has kind of stirred things up on al.com's Limestone County forum. As a last plea for common sense (in my humble opinion), if you are reading this and voting on the issues in Athens tomorrow, remember this:

Prohibition Worked Wonders

Howdy, folks...

For those of y'all in my immediate neck of the woods (i.e. Athens, AL), don't forget to join the fray in the wet-dry vote on Tuesday. Obviously, I have my own opinion on the vote. For those who swear that repealing sales will cut down on drinking and driving, I DO NOT BELIEVE you. For those who vaguely invoke the "adverse effects of alcohol" (I saw that in a recent article about the wet-dry issue), alcohol is still for sale in at least some of the surrounding counties. Those who desire alcohol will go to those areas and purchase alcohol to bring it back or, worse yet, drink it on the way back into town or before coming back into town.

For those of you in any part of Alabama, don't forget that the "Take Back Our Highways" campaign begins on Alabama roads this week.

I forgot to mention that we saw The Bourne Ultimatum last week. Great movie!

Running on fumes...

Well, I got back from Columbus in one piece and (amazingly) free of road usage fees around noon today. Of course, I left from Columbus at 6 AM EDT. I dropped my daddy-o off at the airport and then engaged ludicrous speed...

Once I got home, I chilled for a while. Since I had missed it for the past couple of days, I had to partake of the hot sauce on a spoon ritual and then go outside to sweat for about an hour. I knew before I returned that we were going to a Huntsville Stars game with friends this evening. Man, it's been a while since I've even thought about watching (let alone attending) a baseball game. That was quite fun.

All in all, the early rise, seven hour drive and baseball game as a finale should make it supremely easy for me to get right to sleep.

In conclusion, click "read more" for a nifty video (from Tristraum via youtube.com) that I've also included on my myspace profile. Sorry, I like exposing the world to different music...


Tristraum - First Embrace

Yeah, we're cookin' with gas now...

I'm in Columbus, OH. Unfortunately, it's under sad circumstances. I'll be at a viewing for my grandmother tomorrow and a memorial service on Thursday. I've only been up here to visit several times in the past twenty years. I'd say that I'd change that, but I'm never totally sure where life will take me anyway...

The drive from Athens, AL to Columbus was almost perfect (i.e. no speeding tickets and no serious traffic SNAFUs). I say almost because I get to within 5 miles of my aunt and uncle's home and almost have a big wreck. Fortunately, I'm well schooled in the tactics of insanely diversionary driving. I missed hitting the woman who pulled out in front of me by less than one foot. Whewww! That was too close....

My dad and brother are supposed to be flying in fairly early tomorrow. On that note, I'd better skedaddle. It's approaching 1AM and I should try to wake up fairly early in the morning. I am stoked about the wi-fi connection. Later, folks!

It is with an extraordinarily sad heart...

that I have to say farewell to my Grandmother Metcalf. I can say that I don't feel that I ever spent enough time around any of my grandparents but that can't be changed now. She was a TREMENDOUS person. I know that she played a larger part in my life than any of my grandparents because of things that happened long ago.

RIP Grandmother Metcalf! We'll miss you immensely!

Delerium - Angelicus

This video was released soon after Delerium put out Nuages du Monde. Different...

Fairly recently, myspace.com added a feature to be able to list your status and mood...

Now maybe it's just me, but I find it very odd that one of the "moods" they have available is "high". Even the little emoticon looks kind of like a stoner. Maybe they just mean ultra-happy. If not, I'm not sure that I would list "high" as my mood in such a public place...

Speaking of MySpace like things...

Check out MyDeathSpace.com in the next couple of weeks! Unfortunately, the site received an immense amount of traffic after being the subject of an article and isn't currently available.

If this bit of research is true, I might be better off than I thought. I was overexposed to the sun frequently when I was a kid. Back then, it would have taken a team of wild horses to drag me out of the swimming pool during the summer. I had a few sunburns that were excruciating. Hopefully, I never experience skin cancer (or any kind for that matter).

Speaking of caffeine, it's about time to load up on some more. I tried stay awake by loading up on caffeine last night, but the strangest thing happened. After downing a 16 oz. can of sugar free ROCKSTAR, I was out within thirty minutes. I never expected that to happen...

Anyway, y'all have fun. I'm going to get hyped up on caffeine, taurine, guarana and B vitamins! Bye!

As far as campy movies go...

My Super Ex-Girlfriend was fairly funny. I had recorded it on the ReplayTV on a whim and we finally got around to watching it. I think that I'd say I'm glad I didn't pay money to see it...

The latest news from NASA brings up lots of questions....

So far, my latest book is fairly interesting. I wouldn't call it riveting (which is why it's taking me a little while to read it). However, Ted Gup does a good job of discussing the dangers to democracy of living with so many (he argues too many) secrets.

If you can appreciate the humor (quite rough around the edges at times) of Carlos Mencia, check out the "Mind of Mencia Blog". I just discovered it a couple of weeks ago, but I read it whenever there's something new. Funny! Lil' Bush needs a blog now. I don't see Lil' Bush having the same staying power as Mencia. Long live Carlos!

Well, it's probably beyond the time that I should have been asleep, so sweet dreams folks! I'm gonna crash!

If you tend to drive, oh, perhaps a little above the speed limit at times...

Well, always be careful. However, you might want to exercise more than the usual amount of caution from August 13-17. al.com has a write-up about the 'Take Back Our Highways' initiative here while the official press release from "the man" can be viewed here (.pdf file). Mind you, I don't advocate speeding or anything...ha-ha-ha!

I should be asleep! Nighty-night world!

Can you tell the difference between a phishing site and a legitimate one?

Test yourself with this little phishing quiz. The knowledge gained from this quiz can be fairly useful and potentially save you some trouble...

Well, I sure as heck hope that I'm ready to wake up EARLY tomorrow. I am not naturally a "morning" person. Coffee helps with that, but I still hate getting up before the sun! Unfortunately, this morning, I was up until around 5 AM. But, I napped for a few hours and then loaded up on, you guessed it, some coffee. Maybe I should have gone to the grand opening of the latest addition to Athens restaurants, Chick-Fil-A.

I might have had a chance to work some overtime today, but I got plenty done around my house. I'm glad I stuck around here. Top the day off with some fine pizza from Village Pizza, and all was well!

Good evening, folks!

Oh yeah, lest I forget...

There's a fairly new restaurant over at The Village of Providence(in Huntsville) called Market Street Cafe. The selection and food are good. I know for certain that the meat loaf and the banana bread pudding were super tasty!

I like cats and all, but....

I'm quite certain that I wouldn't want this kitty coming over and curling up next to me any time soon...

A little bit of aimless wandering about the internetS (with the help of a Google news alert for TVA) brought me to an old school picture of power generation by TVA. I wonder what the place looks like now. The idea of a "100-year-old photo blog" is fairly unique...

My daddy-o's site for Zzaj Productions has been relocated to a new server. Check it out! Also included are archived issues of Improvijazzation Nation (new one linked from the front page), my dad's improv music e-zine.

Just a quickie here.....

A little further exploration allowed me to find the following bands:

Chinese Theatre

Tristraum

Quite interesting!

W00t!

This stretch of nights is over. I consider myself somewhat of a creature of the night. I naturally tend to stay up very late at night when I have the chance. There's just something nice about calling a set of the night shifts over. Now it's time to see how long I can stay awake. RED BULL...!

So, I get home and see a friend request on myspace.com. It looked like a band profile. I check it out and well....

I have to say that I thoroughly enjoy the music of James D. Stark. It's kind of cool to hear goth/electro in the form of (mainly) love songs. The sound elicits Depeche Mode, Camouflage, and other similar bands. Seeing that I enjoy that sound already, this stuff's right up my alley. But, it's not a clone of other music (though there is a DM remix on his profile right now). Support independent artists and check out this dude's work, if you dare...

Man, oh man, oh man...

With the exception of having gone in for twenty minutes or so last week to take care of a small administrative task, I haven't been to work since the last week of June. Up until an hour ago, I was looking (and feeling) totally scruffy. It's been such a long stretch off. But, I'm rested up and raring to go. Crowning achievement? I suppose I'm stoked that I can say that I made it to 37. We went out and had a great dinner with my mom and company last night. Thanks again!

Hi-ho, hi-ho, it's off to work we go....

I so love...

living where I can go get fast food at four in the morning. I suppose that what I ate wasn't too good for me, but my breakfast sure was tasty. Besides, there wasn't much better to do....

I saw a segment on NBC Nightly News the other night...

The title of the segment was "Did 9/11 create a culture of secrecy?" Unfortunately, there doesn't appear to be a story page on MSNBC's site.

NBC's Bob Faw was interviewing journalist/author Ted Gup about his new book called Nation of Secrets. There's more information about the exact premise of this book here. I just purchased it this evening. I'll let y'all know if it's any good. Come to think of it, I don't read enough. When I do read something (not for work), it's almost always related to politics or current affairs. C'est la vie...

You fine folks have fun now!

As it almost always happens...

I've been staying up later and later at night as my time off from work winds down to an end. It's not so bad, though. At least I'll be ready to go into work on the night shift. Anyway, I was looking for something of quality to watch on TV last night. It often seems like that quest grows more difficult. I finally stumbled across this movie on the Sundance Channel. While watching it, I was thinking what a crappy set of circumstances these folks had if the complete innocence that they tried to assert all throughout was true. After the movie, I looked around a little bit. I found the Wikipedia article about the "Tipton Three" and the Wikipedia entry for the director of the movie. Both of those pages had a link to an article from The Guardian (UK newspaper) about a follow-up story to determine the truth of the story portrayed in the movie. I will repost the pertinent part here in the event that the usual link rot occurs:

"Sisters are doing it for themselves

Andrew Anthony
Sunday June 3, 2007
The Observer

.....
Buried away in the schedules with almost no advance publicity was Lie Lab. Making use of new techniques in magnetic resonance imaging, the programme set out to discover if its subjects were telling the truth. Last week those subjects were Ruhal Ahmed and Shafiq Rasul, better known as two-thirds of the Tipton Three.

That was the name given to the three young men who were picked up in Afghanistan in late 2001 by American forces and transported to Guantanamo Bay, where they were held without charges or trial for two years before being released back to Britain.

Campaigners for the men have always maintained they were innocent tourists-cum-aid workers, caught up in the invasion of Afghanistan. This was also the line of Michael Winterbottom 's film, The Road to Guantanamo. And given the tone and approach of Lie Lab, it also seemed to be a belief shared by the programme makers.

But at the end of what was actually a rather dry and laborious piece of science TV, when confronted with results that suggested he was less than forthcoming with the truth, Ahmed confessed (Rasul had refused to go through with the test) not only to visiting an Islamist training camp but also handling weapons and learning how to use an AK47.

None of which justifies or excuses his sub-legal and subhuman treatment in Guantanamo, but it does raise some questions about the portrayal, in some quarters of the media, of the Tipton Three as blameless heroes. The Lie Lab seemed almost embarrassed by its findings and was neither prepared, nor set up, to follow through on the story. But perhaps another TV programme might one day ask what a British citizen (or citizens) was doing at a guerrilla training camp, learning to fire weapons, in the middle of a war.
....."

From Andrew Anthony on Big Brother | Lie Lab | Brits Get Rich in China | Hotel California: From the Byrds to the Eagles | Media | MediaGuardian.co.uk: at http://media.guardian.co.uk/site/story/0,,2094030,00.html

I probably can't know the whole truth about what happened, but it seems like there's a lot more to this story (and movie) than meets the eye.

Happy Friday the 13th!

Not much to say here...

How about a couple of links?

I stumbled upon one slick offering from the Library of Congress called The loc.gov Wise Guide by accident. The Library of Congress has some excellent material available online. For links to the "Wise Guide" and other cool stuff, check out the Library's news page.

Have you ever wanted to know when the sun's going to go down or the moon's going to rise? How about for the whole year? Check out the data services page from the Astronomical Applications department of the U.S. Naval Observatory.

Finally, what about the loved ones at home when military members are deployed? The DoD has a website for them. Straight from the site:

"MilitaryHOMEFRONT is the official Department of Defense web site for reliable Quality of Life information designed to help troops and their families, leaders and service providers. Whether you live the military lifestyle or support those who do, you'll find what you need!"

Having just finished a fairly rigorous training program to assist in the operation of a nuclear plant...

Nuclear news interests me greatly. Heck, it's pretty much been my life since 1992. Anyway, some anti-nuke folks are aiming for the industry (they're always looking for some angle) by claiming that we're breaking the law by not being sufficiently outfitted and prepared to shut our plants down safely if there is a major fire. In fact, they have a nicely doctored up document (only the portions that illustrate what they are trying to say are included and highlighted). As somewhat of a parallel development, the Government Accountability Office will be investigating nuclear plant fire standards starting in September. By the way, here is the conclusion (not included in the NIRS document) of the the NRC document (NRC accession number ML071160431) being slightly misrepresented by the Nuclear Information and Resource Service:

"The Commission has concluded, based on the considerations discussed above, that: (1) there is reasonable assurance that the health and safety of the public will not be endangered by operation in the proposed manner, (2) such activities will be conducted in compliance with the Commission's regulations, and (3) the issuance of the amendment will not be inimical to the common defense and security or to the health and safety of the public."

They say that idle hands are the Devil's tools...

Man, if that's the case, the Devil must have had a heyday with me this past week. I have accomplished almost nothing useful. I took the week off from work. Well, let me make that last week and this coming week. It's been a great time to just chill out...

I know I was extraordinarily chilled last week at this time. My next-door neighbor was having a bon voyage party. Unfortunately, he'll be visiting here for the next year. All of us here in the 'hood are wishing him the best...

Truth be known, there was not a great deal of excitement during the week. This evening, the Wife Unit (1 each) had a hankering for catfish. We tried to go to Catfish Cabin II. Unbeknownst to us, the restaurant took an extended holiday from 2 July to 8 July. We'll have to go back. Next stop, Greenbrier Restaurant. As expected, there were a whole lot of people so we decided to check out Greenbrier Bar-B-Que. Amazingly, we were seated immediately. Mmmmm, catfish and hushpuppies! Both of these Greenbrier restaurants are mighty fine!

I suppose I'll end this with a "public service announcement". Given my political inclinations, I believe the federal government is entirely too big. But, since it's not going to get smaller anytime soon, you might as well get some of the information your taxes pay for. Here are two decent sources of information that we all pay for:

The U.S. Government RSS Library from usa.gov
Podcasts from the U.S. Government from usa.gov

One other interesting source of information paid for by the taxpayer but not easily accessible to the taxpayer is reports from the Congressional Research Service (CRS). Fortunately, the Center for Democracy and Technology has seen fit to compile many of the CRS reports that have found their way into the public domain into a more or less centralized clearinghouse.

Y'all have fun now! I know I will...

Happy Birthday USA!

Even though we have our problems, we're still free to try and change the way things are. We're free to earn lots of money, drink lots of beer, go to whatever church we want to and still live among each other even when we don't agree. We're even free to criticise leaders who say they respect our system of justice and the decision of a jury one day and then talk about leaving room for a full pardon the very next day.

I occasionally bring up Libertarians and libertarianism here. I mention this because I think people often have misconceptions about exactly what that means. I've mentioned libertarian to some people and the inevitable "Oh, so you want to legalize drugs?" question comes up. For some reason, that seems to be the only understanding of the principles (and the political party) held by at least some people. Here are some links that might provide a better understanding of libertarian thought:

What is a Libertarian? and other FAQs(from the Libertarian Party website)

The rest of these links have a large amount of in depth info covering many practical aspects of libertarian thought:

The Cato Institute
The Ludwig von Mises Institute
LewRockwell.com
The Reason Foundation

Last but not least, a follow-up from the other day...

The whole e-card scam thing is nothing new, but since I received several in a short time period, I figured that type of scam might be on the rise. The immediate key for me recognizing the scam e-mails I received (in addition to the bogus looking e-mail headers) was the links the e-mails invite you to click. In all of the instances, the link was http://XX.XX.XX.XX where the Xs were numbers to form an IP address. Most places with e-cards will have a domain name as the link. Oh well...

Y'all watch out...

I've received a couple of junky e-mails (just today) saying that someone had sent me an e-card. Just out of curiosity, I clicked the link and my suspicions were confirmed. I was taken to a page where there was a nifty executable file for download. I think I'll go back for further investigation, but I'm sure the executable file is probably viral. Keep a close eye out for that junk, folks...

It's not surprising that the one individual found guilty in the Plame case received a commuted sentence. I won't complain too much because it's perfectly within the President's power to grant reprieves and pardons. The speed with which this one happened is just so suspect. So many of the pardons, reprieves, or sentence commutations granted by this President are from cases that are at least a decade old. It just gives the appearance that no loyal parties who had a part in the little political "Plame game" were going to really be subject to hard time. I'm sure this would have happened in just about any administration...

Speaking of administrations, we were approached by some early supporters of Ron Paul at the weekly Concert in the Park this evening. I'm just waiting to see the Libertarian Party candidates. At least I can thankfully say that Ron Paul does not have the appearance of being a Bush-style Republican. Here's a brief synopsis of Ron Paul's votes on various issues.

Though I knew I hadn't "seen it all", I've seen quite a bit...

I only wish that I could've seen this. Perhaps a recording was made. I am a HUGE fan of the fusion of multiple styles of music. You can read what a Boston Herald reporter had to say about dance/club/electronica mixed with the Boston Pops here. I think that would have been HIGHLY interesting...

Sometimes I wish that I had thought to go see the Boston Pops when I was up in New York. Too late now...

Oh yeah, all fifteen of us made it through the final oral board. Woohoo!

And so it ends...

The culmination of about 18 months of training happened today. The other eleven of the fifteen of us who have gone up for our boards so far have also experienced the satisfactory end of their training. We're all keeping our fingers crossed for the three individuals who go tomorrow...

I love being able to know my schedule far enough in advance that I can say without much doubt that I will be going to see Assemblage 23 in Nashville, TN on September 24. I thoroughly enjoy this band. I just bought Assemblage 23's most recent release titled Meta. There are several good songs but my (currently) absolute favorite is Binary. You might be able to discern why by listening to the "Binary Album Mix" here or the minute long snippet (assuming that it might eventually disappear from myspace.com) at the Meta preview page.

Well, you fine folks have fun! It's time to watch some Lil' Bush...

One interesting thing tonight...

Straight from the archives of the CIA...

Oh yeah, the finale of a year and a half of training should happen tomorrow. Yes indeed, it's oral board time. For those who have no idea of what that means, the Department of Energy also uses orals at their nuclear/nuclear-related facilities. Here is a PDF that provides the DOE's guide to oral boards. Let me tell you, they are IMMENSE fun.

Peace, y'all!

First things first here...

Happy Birthday Ric!

As expected, this evening's Concert in the Park was very good. Having listened to Eyes Around on myspace.com and having seen Slipjig for the first time last year, I didn't expect anything less. It was nice that no last minute thunderstorms popped up in the humid afternoon air...

One thing that caught my eye in the news today was the issuance of several Supreme Court opinions. Those opinions (and others from the 2006 term) can be viewed here. Other useful and up-to-date info can be viewed at Yahoo!'s Supreme Court full coverage page.

Speaking of Yahoo!'s full coverage, I love that feature of Yahoo!. The site provides the most current stories about a number of topics and links to audio, video and related sites about those topics.

Finally, as a public service announcement, it's Lightning Safety Awareness Week.

For those of y'all who live in my little part of the world...

I say support your local independent pizza shop. Village Pizza is in East Limestone right across from the high school. We eat there fairly often and we love the joint. They've been in business for a while and have a nice down-home atmosphere. Besides, their pizzas are rockin'...

We just got back. My best friend's birthday is coming up and he wanted to eat there. We're getting older. However, I still say age is partially a state of mind. Tempus fugit...

'Twas a fairly run of the mill weekend. At least we got some rain this afternoon (somewhat of a rarity around here lately). I was glad that it waited until I got home from hiking on Monte Sano and had a chance to kick the footbag around a bit. Somehow, I guess I find myself amused and entertained very easily. Must have come from growing up as an only child...

Tomorrow night's Concert in the Park will see Eyes Around and Slipjig performing. Should be a fun night...

Well, y'all have fun now! I know I will...

Let's talk about some comedy for a moment...

There's a new show on Comedy Central called Lil' Bush. We saw it last night and, as far as political satire goes, it was pretty funny. Thank you Comedy Central! I hope this show makes it....

Speaking of Bush...

It just so happens that he toured and spoke at Browns Ferry today. Here's what he had to say. Fairly standard stuff...

In this case, I happen to agree with most of what the President said. As usual, I don't put much faith in the usual quips about terrorism and foreign energy dependence, but I can save that for another day. I would like to see nuclear power have a stronger role in power production in this country. Having been involved in military and commercial production of nuclear power, I can say that the professionals in my industry constantly make every attempt to be safe and conservative.

Now for local stuff...

A local group has been successful in getting enough signatures to put a wet-dry issue for the city of Athens on our local ballots in August. I can understand some of their arguments but I completely disagree with the measure. For one thing, alcohol sales have been allowed here for several years now. It's kind of like a Pandora's box that has been opened already. For another, those who are prone to abusing alcohol can and will just go to a different city or county and get their fix. Why kill the tax revenue for the local town when that money will just go elsewhere and people will still get wasted? Perhaps the Athens-Limestone Quality of Life Committee could fund local initiatives to provide assistance to those who are prone to abuse alcohol. I will just ask people to remember to go vote on this (if you're eligible) on August 14...

Peace out, y'all...

I think I've found another band that I have to see live (preferably here in the US)...

They are De/Vision. As far back as the 1980s, I was a moderate fan of Depeche Mode. Heck, I even saw DM in June of 1990...

De/Vision seems to bring back a fair amount of DM's sound and style.

Now a shameless plug for the Party of Principle...

Well, I suppose that I had better move along. We're nearing the final hurdle of our training (I never look forward to oral boards) and I have plenty of other things left to do this evening...

Y'all come back now.....!

To all you dads out there (especially mine)....

Happy Father's Day!

Not a whole lot going on here...

Just got off the nightshift to be ready for daytime hours tomorrow. That entails a rapid transition so I'm working on 24 hours of being awake right now. I'm a machine...

Besides, I've stayed at least semi-busy since this morning so my head can't tell me I'm exhausted.

Peace, y'all!

OK, so I wimped out on the bike thing today (sore leg), but...

I did go here to hike between 8 and 10 miles. What a gorgeous day! I had fun, but by the end, my leg was reminding me why I didn't go for a ride. No pain...

The rest of the day was filled with mundane things for my home and vehicle. Except...

We tried the newest location of Surin of Thailand in Madison this evening. The only one nearby prior to the Madison location was further away in Huntsville. It had been quite some time since we'd been to Surin. All I'll say is that the food rocked (as usual). Also as usual, mine was really spicy. Give this place a shot if you enjoy Thai food...

Well, I think I'll set about trying some of this right now. I bought a few of these last night. Energy drink/malt beverage?!? Who knew? I guess I never paid close enough attention for this kind of thing at the stores. Hopefully it will taste OK...

Well, we hit our first "Concert in the Park" for this summer...

The lineup for this evening was the Creel Family Band (Johnny and June Carter Cash tribute band) and Out & Runnin' (a local bluegrass band). The bands sounded good and it was nice to just chill in the park for a little while. There are some good bands playin' this year so check'em out if you get the chance...

Speaking of things to check out, check out this podcast interview of the (in)famous Rotcod Zzaj. While you're at it, check out Zzaj's podcasts.

The bicycle had its inaugural run today. It's times like those that remind me of just how much I need to quit smoking. I'm happy to say I put 15 miles on it. I intend to make it see many more...

What to do, what to do?

Friday was the start of my stretch of seven days off. I know that by the end of that time I'll be wondering what in the world to do with myself.

As I am often wont to do on my nights off, I ended up going for a little drive this evening. I often find myself staying up entirely too late when I have time off. Oh well, I am definitely nocturnal. Anyway, as I was driving, I saw something that made me chuckle. On my way home, a car pulled out of one of the local strip clubs. I noticed that this car had one of the ubiquitous "God Bless America" Alabama plates. I won't say anything beyond the fact that I found that slightly ironic.

I suppose that I could do a little bit of studying for our last round of oral boards. I'm sure I'll get around to it....

When I'm not doing that or one of a few other things, I plan to find time to take this out for a spin. I need to get out and sweat...

Well, I think I'll watch the rest of Enter the Dragon and then make an attempt to crash.

Peace!

Oh man....

Some word on the sly has it that VNV will be doing a US tour part 3 in November. I absolutely hope that they'll see fit to swing by Atlanta. I would go back to see them in a heartbeat.

Speaking of entertainment...

I remember hearing something a year or two about Atlas Shrugged being made for cinema. I read it in my early 20s and I enjoyed it. Only complaint? It was a little long for my taste. I hope that the movie is successful at conveying some of the ideas explored by Rand in her body of work. Heck, there are still a few movies that I have to see from this year...

And now for something completely unrelated to anything here... A favorite topic of discourse at my last job (I actually do kind of miss those folks) was just how hot the sun was. This NASA site has some answers about that as well as plenty of other info and some awesome pictures.

(or An-nyeong-hi ka-se-yo)

I suppose that today didn't go so bad after 5 hours of sleep...

I believe that I'll definitely be ready to crash tonight. We'll see.

Don't forget to check out the "Jeopardy! Google Daily Challenge". You'll have to register so you can play each weekday until July 13. Hey, a chance to win cash for answering questions.....

Speaking of questions, I have a few about the rationale behind a group like this. I just read this in the news. I might be disillusioned with some of the powers that be, but something about secession just strikes a very dissonant chord in my mind...

Finally, it's over...

Our stretch of continual (interrupted by one day a week) 12 hour days to make this happen has ended. I suppose that it was fun at times (less so at others) and it's definitely pretty cool to say that I at least had some small part in making it happen. I just hope that I can adjust to our normal rotating shift schedule with as little pain as possible.

I had planned on sleeping for several hours this morning after we went and had breakfast. Unfortunately, it was closer to five hours. That's OK. I achieved most everything I aimed to do today. Well, everything with the exception of getting to sleep somewhat early. We had an early dinner with our friends and I got home in time to mow the weeds around my house. Afterward, I engaged in a hack session with my next door neighbor for probably 20 minutes or so. That was fun. Our wives watched and laughed at us...

At least there will be a little more time to do stuff like this for the summer...

Nighty-night y'all!

Although it wasn't exactly an in depth talk between parties who have been adversarial for a quarter of a century...

I suppose that this represented some small amount of progress. I hope so. I'm sure that politicians and the duly elected bozos in office will find a way to destroy any chance at sitting down and attempting to resolve our deep differences with those whom we consider to be a part of the "axis of evil".

Google and Jeopardy? Coming June 4...

I was fortunate enough to have been off work for the holiday yesterday and it just so happened that I took the day before off as well. Very nice. We just chilled out and broke bread with friends and family. Oh, and we checked out Borat Sunday night...

Very wrong but very funny!

Well, it's time to get ready for work.

Peace!

For a study in the absolutely bizarre...

Check out some of the info for "SILENCE!" (a musical adaptation of Silence of the Lambs (not necessarily a family friendly page)). You can also download the opening number from FOX NEWS: THE MUSICAL. Scary! I heard about SILENCE! from an individual at work. Speaking of at least slightly older movies...

WarGames is on TV right now. We were just discussing this movie at work the other night. I enjoyed this movie back in the day...

While I'm on the topic of "global thermonuclear war", it's five minutes to midnight. OK, it's really around eight in the morning here, but the Doomsday Clock is at five to midnight. It will be interesting watching the clock over the coming years.

I'm thinking that it's about time to crash. Bye y'all!

PS: Before I leave, I have to highly recommend something. Run, DO NOT WALK, to your nearest grocery store and buy a pint of either the Creme Brulee or Cinnamon Buns ice cream from Ben and Jerry's. They are both heavenly...

The research can be long and arduous, but...

In this country, we at least have the chance to freely speak our minds and be represented. That's one of the things that makes this country great. To that end, it is sometimes useful to know what our elected officials are considering.

I stumbled across a virtual treasure trove of currently active legislation while going through the Senate's website. Click here (for the current session of Congress) to check it out. After that, all that is required is to contact your Senator or Representative with your thoughts. An easier way is to sign up for the occasional (supposed to be weekly) e-mail at congress.org's "congress.org to go" page. You'll receive an e-mail covering recent and upcoming votes by your Senators and Representative. That avoids a great deal of the legwork involved. However, it is much more brief. I still firmly believe that our style of government has a better chance of working correctly when people interact with their elected officials...

To all you moms out there...

Happy mother's day!

I'm sure that I still can't possibly fathom what kind of stress I caused my mother as a moderate hellion (at least after high school). Thanks for doing a great job...

Suzanne has gone to visit her great and vast ancestral lands in Boaz/Albertville with her dad today. They intend to visit cemeteries and remember relatives who have passed on. I intend to get some good sleep. I missed her before she left this morning because I was a few minutes late leaving work. C'est la vie!

Last week, I read a story in the news and then heard a story on NPR about a new project to catalogue and act as a reference for all of the currently known 1.8 million species of life on Earth. If this project eventually lives up to the hype, it sounds as if it will be an amazing piece of work. Check out some of the demo pages. You've got to love the internets! I do.

As always, y'all have a good day and be sure to come back!

I feel so energized this morning...

However, it's about time to make the attempt to crash. I'm not sure when the second wind hit me, but I was even feeling great at work this morning. Heck, one dude even told me to quit acting so happy. I can't! Besides, one more night and then I'll have a wonderful day off. I almost don't know what to do with myself on those days off...

Want an interesting set of completely contrasting views? One is from a psycho and one is from W. Check these two things out:

As-Sahab Video of Third Interview with Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri – 5/2007

President's Radio Address from 05/05/07

See y'all. I'm outta here...

Whewww!

Thankfully, the whole sleep thing worked out much better today. Yesterday it was only three hours. That's partially what led me to renege on the cigarette thing. My intention (road to hell and all) is that that will ONLY be for the time being. I feel bad about that, but my willpower lost out to the insomnia. I gave it the old college try and the next attempt is coming shortly. As Yoda would say, "No. Try not. Do... or do not. There is no try."

Well, shoot....

It's 10:30 AM here and I should be well into the arms of Morpheus but...

Here I am. The same thing happened yesterday. I'll probably surpass the sleep I got then or at least I hope so. I thought I had adjusted to the night shift fairly well. Perhaps my brain's not telling me to wind down enough. I suppose that something's changed...

Well, I guess that I'd better give the sleep thing another shot. Wish me luck, y'all.

As always, the day off was a great one...

I had some sweet downtime and we went to Outback and had a tasty dinner...

On a more serious note, let's not forget that four years ago today, the "mission" was "accomplished". As always, when I rant about that kind of thing here, it's not a slight to our military. It's a slight to the leadership of this country and their inability to grasp the reality of the situation at hand (particularly back then). They've done better recently by having more sober assessments of the way things are going.

Back to the grind tonight...

Mmm-mmmm good...

It's almost time for another day off. I tend to look for the good in things and I remember that we are well over halfway done....

Carlos Mencia had a great bit on his show last week (4-22). He usually has some great stuff on the show, but this tied right back to something I mentioned here. This one was also wonderful. I was especially fond of the "priest". At least I didn't have to jump through hoops to see the video. Some sites make life a total pain in the butt for people who use non-Microsoft products.

Y'all have fun! And don't forget the new episode of Gene Simmons Family Jewels tonight...

Yee-haaaaaw!

OK, it's been (as of about nine this morning) a week free of the nico-beast. I smoked about a carton a week. That's a little over thirty bucks. If you believe these numbers, that's about 2200 minutes I didn't take away from my life (at 11 minutes a smoke). That's the most important part to me...

Well, ladies and gents, it's time to run. We have to go catch our best friends (and their ever-enjoyable kiddies) for breakfast. Mmmmm, breakfast......

Y'all come back now....

For your viewing pleasure....

Here are the folks I was tied up in a classroom with at Browns Ferry from Jan. 2006 to Feb. 2007.



They were a pretty damn fine group of people. Hope none of them object to being put online...

Tonight I kind of got to wondering...

how these beasties are doing. I know about the cat. She has taken to meowing frequently...

All in all, just another average day...

Come home, see Suzanne for a very little bit, and attempt to crash...

Unfortunately, today's sleep was interrupted in the middle. Once I was up, I found other things to do for an hour. Heck, Steven Wright was on TV for a while. That guy cracks me up...

No cigarettes yet! In fact, it's getting easier. But as always, it will still be a long road ahead. Such is life...

Wow, Wal-Mart was NOT very exciting at 3AM...

At least I got everything I think I require for a few days. I'm actually happy to have gotten out of the house because jackin' around on the computer or checkin' out the boob tube just wouldn't have cut it. Boredom really makes my mouth yearn for some nicotine, but I haven't broken yet. I think I'm truly feeling all of the right motivation this time...

It's going on 2-1/2 days...

You might ask for what....

I've decided that it's high time that I made a real attempt at quitting smoking. I've half-ass tried a few times over the years, but this time feels different. It seems like I have much more desire right now. MUCH MORE! I haven't fired one up since Saturday morning. The crazy thing is that there's not a whole lot of withdrawal anxiety yet. It might come....

Tonight will provide an interesting test of my willpower because I will be absolutely bored most of the night (except for the planned 3AM trip to Wal-Mart). I think that it'll go just fine...

I can't remember the last time...

I slept for 6 hours and felt über-refreshed. I am satisfied...

Though at least a few people at work think I'm an odd bird (particularly for wearing a kilt)....

It's a ways off, but...

In future elections, a great thing to ask a candidate (legislative or executive) would be how they would prevent us from getting into a war that seemingly has no end. Though it's in the past, the Congress relinquished their power to declare war with their open-ended allowance for the President in 2002. I would love to be reasonably assured that the Congress will probe harder the next time. Hillary has been getting hammered for her vote a little bit on the campaign trail. The questioning should continue and grow for the incumbents who voted yea back in 2002...

I finally changed the CD in my car out. I was kickin' it to Prodigy on the way into work last night. I hadn't listened to Firestarter for quite some time...

I'm tired as heck so I'm out of here. Y'all have fun!

This is the worst part of having a day off during the night shift...

I am almost fully acclimated to the hours again, but finding something to do in the wee hours of the morning can be rough. At least there's interaction with other people at work. I do kind of miss (from my last plant, Quad Cities) the ability to work on my off night. Back then, I'd do eight hours so I could see Suzanne before I went in. We did have fun today. We met our best friends for a good dinner at TGIFriday's. One strange thing was succumbing to the sleepy monster around 11PM or so. I didn't figure that I would be able to sleep after I had a triple shot espresso beverage from Starbuck's around 9:30. Fortunately, it was a short nap....

I am still thoroughly captivated! VNV's CD has some awesome stuff....

My ennui led me to read some of the news. I thought that one cool story was about one of Scott McNealy's ventures. It's called Curriki. Another related concept is Open CourseWare. Very cool ideas...

In closing:

Words cannot express the sorrow I (and many other people) feel about the horrible events at Virginia Tech yesterday. I hope for the quickest possible healing for everyone involved.

It feels so good to be alive (not that it ever felt bad)...

I do believe that I'm finally getting into the groove of nights. It's about time. Concerning restfulness, yesterday and the day before were atrocious. I think I'm getting my vamp back on now...

April's been fairly cool so far (wetaher-wise). I haven't been following the weather from where we were in Illinois. I was kind of hoping that it would be consistently warmer here. We had a decent stretch of warmth in March. The heat will come...

Is it time for new internets? Some of these people think so...

http://cleanslate.stanford.edu
http://100x100network.org
http://orbit-lab.org
http://geni.net

Well folks, the time has come. See ya....

I'm obsessed!

Please click read more...

I suppose that it may have been inevitable given my nature. I find something that I absolutely love and become completely fixated. I have not listened to any other music (save for the country music radio that Suzanne made me listen to in the car the other night) since I purchased Judgement on Saturday evening. When I discover something of beauty (lest we forget, eye of the beholder), I focus on it to discover every nuance and analyze exactly what it is that I find so enthralling. I must be weird...

I'm hoping that my sparse amount of sleep today doesn't kick my booty around three in the morning. It's a strange day when I don't sleep well...

Well, if this first day is any indication (no, I haven't even gone in yet)....

I was correct in remembering just how much of a lifesucker the nights can be. Not in terms of sleep....

I actually slept very well. In fact, I got down just before Suzanne woke up. Therein lies the rub. I won't really see her until the weekend. She works here in the daytime. I'll see her on Saturday, Sunday, and my day off on Monday.

It could be worse. As I've told several people in the past, I tend to look at these things relatively. Unlike my time on an aircraft carrier, I still come home every day. There's a lot to be said for the sacrifice of military folks. And let's not forget those who support the military, either. Some of them have to be gone from home quite a bit as well.

I suppose I'd better get stirring now. I have to get ready. Y'all have fun....

I hadn't followed the Imus thing much...

In fact, today was the first time I heard any of the uproar. I would like to hope that I wouldn't have said something like that. But...

I'm guilty of helping to perpetuate a double standard regarding racially charged material. I frequently watched Chapelle's Show and I still enjoy Mind of Mencia. Over dinner on Sunday night, I was noting to Suzanne how Carlos Mencia wouldn't get away with some of the things he says if he was a white male. I've never heard Sharpton raise hell about Chapelle or Mencia. That's no excuse for what Imus said. But it's still a double standard...

Imus has apolgized. He will take a public flaying. However, in light of other racially questionable material that continues to air without a ruckus, I hope that Imus doesn't get the boot...

Last free night for a while...

Sure I'll be off once a week from here on out to June, but it won't approach the nice chill-out state that I've been in since Friday. I didn't succeed in beating the sleep monster last night. I guess I was more beat down than I had thought. That can happen when you party too hard. I think I'm ready to go for tonight...

It has been weird being nearly idle for several days in a row. But I wouldn't exactly say that I've missed being at work. Tonight we ate pizza with a couple of friends and their kids. Always fun!

For what it's worth, Suzanne and our friends thought I looked super spiffy in my concert shirt and kilt get-up....

By the way...

I just remembered that I had actually heard the show closer (yes, I'm still on that) before...

I had looked up some VNV stuff on YouTube and ran across this little ditty. The video's not "official" or anything but it's fairly well done. The visuals at the show for this song were SWEET!

Phenomenal!

As usual, VNV put on a KILLER show! The supporting band (And One) did a great job as well. VNV did a nice mix of new and old and even had a couple of tunes from their upcoming release. Speaking of their upcoming release (Judgement) (go here for samples), it is a kickin' piece of work. There are a number of things I dig about VNV. A few of them are complexity, emotion, and grinding beats. Judgement does not disappoint. I also have to get some of their older stuff if I can. They did an older piece that I don't recall hearing (I probably just don't remember it) before. Moving....

As an added bonus, I got up early enough and out on the road soon enough to get back and have an Easter lunch with Suzanne and my in-laws. We also got to go out to eat with my Mom and Kenneth this evening. I figured that we'd better do that since this will be the last time we can go out to eat with them on a Sunday night for a while.

Time to try and stay awake until the morning....

Y'all have fun!

The zero hour approaches....

I'm just about to set out on my trek to Atlanta. I figured that I should make some last minute java. Suzanne and I just got back from having breakfast with Ric, Teresa, William and the kids. I think it's going to end up being a LONG day (and night). That's what caffeine and Red Bull are for. I'm ready to go! Suzanne's going to go visit with her family. I'll bet there are still tickets to the show. If y'all can make it, I highly recommend seeing VNV....

For everyone who celebrates it, Happy Easter (in advance)...

Peace!

Woohoo! I'm starting my several days off a little bit early...

I just called in to work to take an extra day off. I hate burning the time, but after the last couple of days, I'm SO ready to just chill for a little while. Plus, this will give me a chance to adjust to vampire time....

Of course I'm still looking forward to seeing VNV Nation in HotLanta!

The news was just talking about the latest foodborne (peanut butter) Salmonella outbreak. See more here. It doesn't take much.

Here's some decent news from the Middle East. It's always cool to see situations like that work out for the best.

Burning the American flag is STUPID!

However, I happen to be one of "those" who doesn't think it should be against the law. There's a long discourse about that. But the heart of the matter is that although the act offends many people, it causes no direct harm to anyone. Where are the laws against other forms of stupid? Anyway, it seems that three Yale students were arrested for burning a flag. When I first saw the headline, I thought to myself "Oh crap, not another silly flag-burner case!" The biggest problem in this case is that the flag was affixed to someone else's home. They need a good flogging for that. The Supreme Court ruled that flag-burning was protected under the First Amendment in 1989. See here for more of a history about flag burning. I remember when that little Constitutional amendment about flag desecration was introduced and narrowly defeated just last year. As can be expected, the measure was re-introduced in the House in January 2007 as H.J.Res.9 and H.J.Res.12. Time to fight again...

Ticket? Check. Hotel? Check.

I wouldn't exactly say it was self-mutilation....

New holes in my ears? You've probably guessed it, check.



In case you wondered exactly what's new, there's a hoop on each ear right up about the middle of the ear and close to the outside. I know it's probably kind of odd, but look at the source. I actually cringed a little bit as the needle broke through the cartilage....

I think the next art (for Art) will be a little ink.

Well, that's all I have to say about that. We're supposed to get some stormy weather this evening. Hopefully we'll finally get some rain.....

T-5 days and counting....

I'm so ready to take a couple of days off to head over to Atlanta to see VNV...

Now I just have to work on setting up a decent hotel room in which to crash after the show. I suppose that it should be fairly close to the concert venue....

Now that's done...

I'm strongly considering a little bit more self-mutilation (in the form of a piercing) tomorrow night. I would have done it today, but the place right down the street was closed. I'm still debating exactly what type of piercing(s) to get. I'll probably do something from here.

Nice day for a....

All good things...

must come to an end. Wait, maybe it's supposed to be "come to those who wait." Today, it happens to be the first. Not necessarily unexpected, but still as much of a pain. For the first time in quite a while, I (along with about half of my compadres from the past year) will have the pleasure of the night shift for a month and a half. I don't necessarily hate the shift since I'm actually somewhat vampy. I just won't see my wife as much. And seeing our best friends, my mom, and my in-laws as often will pretty much be right out the window. But stuff happens and only seems fair to those currently pulling nights. Besides, it might be fun for a change...

Suzanne let me know today that Cats is going to be in Huntsville for two days near the end of May. I wouldn't mind seeing it again. And I'd love to see Sarah Brightman again. She was tremendous! I'd very much love to see Bond as well.

Well, it's late (we ate dinner with our best friends this evening) and I have to crash soon. Until later...

w00t!

I fetched my ticket from a local retailer this evening. See?





Come to find out, my wife's family from Atlanta is coming here for Easter weekend. I guess it's a good thing she's not choosing to head over there with me.

The latest South Park is pretty funny. They're doing a little parody of 24 and several other cultural phenomena. We're watching the episode from 3/28/2007. Let me just note that (as usual) it is VERY WRONG. SO VERY WRONG....

By the way, if you're so inclined, check out some of the samples from the upcoming VNV Nation releasecalled Judgement. I'd be happy if they had the CD for sale before the official release date (April 10, 2007).

By the way, I believe that I heard a rumor about a new Lords of Acid album in the works for this summer. That would be sweet.

Holy schnike!?!

Yahoo! is going to be offering unlimited e-mail storage. As noted in the post at the link, this is supposed to begin in May 2007. I've been a Yahoo! Mail user for a long time and unlimited space seems pretty amazing...

Speaking of Yahoo! stuff...

I started a Yahoo! group for 1988 graduates from Butler High School (Huntsville, AL) a few years ago in anticipation of our approaching 20 year anniversary. Tempus fugit! Feel free to join if you're an '88 grad.

With the upcoming political season gearing up, here's a little PSA to check out the candidates when possible. Plus, see what your elected representatives in government are doing. Last but not least, sort the crap from the facts. I can't wait to watch the upcoming election season unfold...

Although it was my first day back to work...

It turned out to be an OK day. I was actually occupied for a major portion of the day. The most exciting part was making something along these lines ready for operation on one of our units ready for operation after about twenty years. We were attempting to make this stuff work on Sunday but it didn't all go down as planned. They moved on it yesterday as well, but had a fair amount of the Tennessee River pouring into our plant (as I understand it). We had some small leaks today but they were mostly fixed by the time I left. It couldn't have even approached the Navy's flooding trainers like this.

Then I came home to some great dinner. Add to that some steamed frozen veggies and most of a bottle of the Riesling wine (Biltmore Estate Riesling) from here and I'm set for the evening.

I just wonder how much joy lies in store tomorrow...

I mentioned harmless fun last time. I tend to think that this would approach the summit of fun (as far as I'm concerned). I'm certain this won't happen this year, but I'd love to visit sometime in the future.

Ever want news from a different point of view? Check out one (or more) of these:

Xinhuah
Pravda
AlJazeera English
Islamic Republic News Agency (Iran)
North Korea's Korean Central News Agency

As usual, my day off was tremendous...

Although, one thing I suppose I miss out on when I'm off is my daily ritual of downing a spoonful of this crazy stuff. I tell everyone that it will keep me from getting sick. Heck, it's worked so far. I always forget about the unopened bottle that sits behind my coffee pot here at home....

I have been known to do some silly things. There was that time when I downed about half of an eight ounce cup of pickled egg vinegar. I half figured that the desire to do lunatic things like that would have disappeared by age 36, but I guess I was wrong. In fact, we were driving home the other night and I turned to Suzanne and suggested that we engage in a Chinese Fire Drill at the next red light. She didn't want to play. I just might do it next time. All a little bit of harmless fun...

I'm not normally one for much television, but both Suzanne and I LOVE Gene Simmons Family Jewels. The new season started last night. All I can say is that it's still great this season. By the way, check them out on MySpace.

I still think I'm going to be able to swing Atlanta. Woohoo!

And there I was....

Scoping out my current favorite band and noticing that they were going to be playing at The Masquerade in Atlanta. Now, the show in Hotlanta happens to be near the last few regularly scheduled days of our outage. I had previously told Suzanne that I didn't intend to miss out on any of my overtime days. So....

When I came home last night, I suggested that I might miss out on a couple of my OT days to go see the show. By the way, I highly recommend VNV Nation if you have any interest at all in electronic dance music and have a chance to go see them. Suzanne brought up my previous statement. Hey, things change! I've seen VNV twice before and loved their show each time. If I can swing it (and my job will let me take the time off), it looks like I'm going to see them again. I'm stoked!

Some other faves (at least from MySpace):

Sarah Brightman
Lords of Acid
Pride and Fall
Covenant
Claire Voyant

I'm sure that I am omitting some excellent bands. Sorry!

What a day......

On our current schedule, my off day is Monday. I accomplished a little bit, but generally I just loafed around and took relaxation to an extreme. My ritual for Mondays has come to include an hour long soak in our jet tub. For some reason, it had been YEARS since I actually soaked in a bathtub. So refreshing...

Almost makes me forget about griping about the status quo in DC...

But while I'm talking about that...

Here's something useful and not actually ranting. The State Department publishes a weekly report on the status of things in Iraq. We have done some great things there and I surely hope things get better for them after over three decades of brutal repression. Any way, if you're so inclined, check out the "Iraq Weekly Status Report".

Two other links of interest if you enjoy governmental affairs (as I do):

Browse Daily Issues of the Congressional Record for the 110th Congress

Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents: Main Page

Well, it's time to prepare for the start of another six day stretch, so I'm outta here. Peace!

Happy Saint Patrick's Day y'all!

Darn folks, long time, no see....

By the way, Sláinte! Too bad the package store was out of the draught bottles (cans, too) of Guinness.....

I don't think I ever mentioned it, but we moved (in September 2006) to a nice new house in Limestone County. Check it out:



Been busy as hell at work, but that's OK because it rakes in the dough. I'm just stoked to be done with a classroom for a while. Here's what an individual might look like after a rough day at work at a nuclear plant. For what it's worth, I thought I looked pretty cool.




Heck, I might even save the paper suit for Halloween. I wish I had a little bit more time to work on making some tunes, but that will come. The worst part of our 12 hour, 6 days a week thing is that you can miss out on a portion of life. DO what you can with what you have...

I talked to my dad this evening and found out that he's heading to the Aloha State. I'm thinking that we might have a little trip to plan for in our future...

Yo! What's happening out there in the aether?

First thing, here's an MP3 I've made for you. Might be weird, but look at the source....

Rants? Not too much... Except:

I heard someone very recently say that they received an e-mail talking about how Barack Obama was not suited to be the President. The e-mail mentioned how Obama might be a radical Muslim, had an atheist mother, a radical Muslim father, and so on. I thoroughly believe that the recipient finds this to be the gospel truth and is probably predisposed to believe anything along those lines. I can't believe that that kind of CRAP has started this early. It figures. Now, snopes.com might not always be perfect (very few things are, of course), but at least they cite sources when discussing urban legends. Here's the snopes.com write-up of a very similar "myth" that is probably very close to the e-mail that was received. All that I ask is that people consider their sources of info and do their own research before blindly heeding the inevitable stream of BS propaganda to which they will be subjected over the next two years. PLEASE!

Kudos (yes, I said kudos) to the Bush administration for recently having at least a small reversal in their stance on the oversight of surveillance of American citizens as alluded to in the news recently. Here's what Senator Pat Leahy had to say about this and other things in a recent Senate Judiciary Committee hearing. For a fair and balanced look at things (just like Fox News), here's the prepared testimony of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales for the same hearing. I sure hope that the more level-headed (and Constitutional) approach toward crime and terrorism fighting take root in Washington during the next two years.

Shonuff', leave it to Mr. Vice President "F-Bomb" Cheney...

to accuse Iraq policy critics of aiding and abetting Osama bin Boogieman. As I mentioned in my previous post, for this group of yahoos, it's par for the course. The run-up to Iraq was full of thinly veiled threats of the "smoking gun" that might become a "mushroom cloud" and vague allusions to Iraqi involvement with 9/11. So, we change thrust from the individual ("remember, wanted: dead or alive") who we knew was mainly responsible for the 9/11 atrocities to the clown who saw some support from the U.S. back in the 80s. Yep, in 2003, it was "Iraq, here we come." Couple that diversion with poor war planning, and this administration has done far more "playing into the hands of bin Laden" than any critic could ever hope to avoid. Leave a complete power vacuum in a country like Iraq when you haven't even come close to finishing the mission in another country and don't go in with enough military in the first place and guess what... you've created an extraordinarily fertile terrorist training ground. Thank you Bush administration.

And the headline read.....

"Bush: War skeptics 'proposing nothing'"

Now, I'm not wholly against the "surge". I happen to feel that it won't really change much. What am I against?

This administration has had its share of mistakes. To this day, I believe that we didn't commit enough troops to Afghanistan to fully get the job done. Afghanistan aside, I didn't necessarily agree with the Iraq thing. Now, nobody came and asked me, but we went in guns blazing and potentially believing that our military would be showered with flowers and candy. We are there. Now, I probably happen to be one of the few with my political affiliation who believe that it would be a mistake to just outright leave Iraq to solve all of its problems completely on its own. But, I believe that we could do much more to show the Iraqi government that we mean business when we say that they will have to take over for themselves in a relatively short amount of time. Bush's speech gave that notion lip service by saying something like "I've made it clear to the Prime Minister and Iraq's other leaders that America's commitment is not open-ended."

Bush asks what critics would recommend. I would recommend the attempt to fully implement the 79 recommendations of the Iraq Study Group. The report was close to nine months in the making. The group cost the American taxpayer $1,000,000. Considering the cost of some other things, that's not too bad. But, the people who developed the report are highly regarded individuals with significant experience in the fields necessary to formulate a potentially effective course of action to move forward in Iraq. Unfortunately, the administration's implementation of that course of action will only be piecemeal. Par for the course...

That is what I am against.

Oh no, now I've gone and done it...

Got a PlayStation 2 for Christmas and one of the games we got was MAGIX Music Maker Deluxe for PS2. I've been playing around with it so I've now created a MySpace artist profile. Check it out, if you dare...

Holy crap, multiple posts in the same month....

Yo, yo, yo, wazzzzzzzuppppppppp?

I trust and hope that everyone's holiday festivities went down very well. Ours kicked bootay!

It was awesome being home for Christmas without the rush of having to drive 10 hours a day later to be back in time for work.

One of the things Suzanne and I bought ourselves was a Sony PS2. Our first reason was DDR. We tried the PS2 DDR game a few weeks ago at the home of our best friends. We started out with Dance Dance Revolution SuperNOVA for ourselves. The only other game we currently have is the MAGIX Music Maker Deluxe edition for PS2. Neither of us are ballsy enough to DDR in public. But, I totally dig the music maker game that we now have. Many of my waking moments since Christmas day have been spent messing around with making music from graphical samples. Here's my first attempt at making music with a PS2. It's in .wma format... Hope you like it! It's WWEEIIRRDD!!

Fröhliche Weihnachten und glückliches neues Jahr 2007!!!

For those of you who are Germanically challenged:

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year (2007)!

On that note, Suzanne and I just passed our 14th wedding anniversary. I told her in person of course, but I'll say it here as well.

Happy Anniversary!

Back in those days (not long before we got married) when I used to regularly attend a dance club in Orlando, FL called The Edge, there was this totally popular dance song that somehow seemed fitting for this sad day. Great song but bad news:

James Brown is...

I pinch!

However, probably no more pinching.....

Unless....