40 Years Ago...NOW!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_8

Its been 40 short years since we first went around the moon. The US government gutted the Space Program to fund warships at Raygun's command. Long may he rot for it.

Mankind makes progress fast during two things: Exploring and War.

Some of us prefer the first route. Its time to end the wars, take the military funding and give it to NASA to head deeper out into the neighborhood of the night. For those who disagree, go ahead and get rid of your computers, TV sets, cars newer than 1980, phones and pretty much everything else that has been improved upon due to NASA's work in getting to Space!

Sidenote: SpaceShip Two has taken flight for the first time!

16 Days....

...until I outlive Jim Jones.

Geez, maybe I could catch a break here...? I mean, I haven't started any cults, didn't get people to give me their money and move to some weird jungle, didn't get them to commit suicide by drinking poison or chase down those who didn't with machine guns.Yet who gets remembered by history? Yeah, the guy who did evil things.

Not me.

Whatever.

Has everybody left blogger now...?

Its the Memory...what was I saying?

Exhaustion.

Messes with my ability to memorize. Got a final coming up, and two years of aeronautics to deal with, and all is not going well.

No Justice.

The drunk asshole that killed a friend last year by driving the wrong way down a Southern California freeway (how can any moron do that?!?!?!) didn't get convicted of murder. Nope, manslaughter, so the worst that can happen is 8 years in jail. He'll probably be free in a year or two and never look back.

I hope his family is killed by another drunk driver. Fucking Asshole. Drunk drivers should be executed on the site once they sober up.

MY Bailout Plan for Carmakers.

So what.

The CEO's for car makers used their own jets to arrive at meetings to ask for help. That's how business at that level works. Believe it or not, CEO's actually do things that affect each and every member of the companies work force. Some CEO's are fucking morons, some not. Did any of the assholes downing them for private jet use ask....WHY? Nope.

Anybody remember a little known historical event they used to call "9-11"? Anybody notice the names and jobs of many of the folks killed on the commercial jets that day? Some were pretty important, key people in their work. They were not replaceable there (not even talking about personal value). Many, many companies felt like airport security wasn't worth a damn, and it was foolish to risk losing the heads of their companies to something like hijacking and terrorists. Remember how they are all just around the corner all the time? So they started using private jets! It wasn't a frill, it was a SAFETY CONCERN!!!! Now...what the hell is wrong with that?

In addition, when someone at that level travels in a private jet, they have instant access to a workplace, and are able to keep right on working. No waiting to get to a wi-fi spot there. PLUS- HOW MANY TIMES HAVE THE AIRLINES BEEN ON TIME OVER THE LAST FIVE YEARS?!?!?!?!?!?!?!? Yeah, that would look good, "Will the CEO of Chevrordler please come forward? What...? What....? He had his flight canceled...? Screw him then, if he couldn't even get here on time!"

AND...did anybody watch to see if the Wall Street Crooks used their own jets? NOPE! They sure pulled off a slick one, didn't they?

So, here's MY bailout plan for Car makers:

Granted, they haven't been making autos that fit the needs of the country for a LONG time. That's why the roads are covered with Jap crap. But the Japs got it right, didn't they? Why can't America get it just as right?

Gee...remember those "Oil Companies" that have been showing "Record Profits" the last few quarters? Yeah....they have a vested interest in making sure nobody comes out with a series of autos that GET BETTER MILEAGE, don't they? Isn't it clear how far into bed the auto and oil industries actually are?

Good, you finally noticed. This leads to my plan....Let's pass a bill that sends the excess profits from the oil companies to the Automakers. BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE...BEFORE we pass that law, lets pass another that requires the oil companies to put up the needed bailout money for Detroit. Remember, they got to be Fat Cats at the expense of the country and its economy already, time for them to contribute BACK to the whole process. Oh, yeah...and while we are at it....

What the HELL is the deal? Refineries ALL have to be shut down for service at the same time of the year (Summer) every year...thus driving prices up? What kind of MORON in the White House allows this?!?!??! Oh yeah, he's an oilman.

NEXT... "Oh, there's a hurricane 600 miles away that has a 4% chance of hitting our refineries, Oil Price Must Be Raised Immediately!" ...HUH?!?!?!?!?!!?

Geez, then build larger reserves to prevent fluctuations you idiots! Oh yeah, you wouldnt be able to screw the rest of us for extra income otherwise.

Regulation is too good for oil companies. Yep, time to nationalize them in the best interest of the country. And the world.

It Just Keeps Getting Harder Every day.

...that I haven't completed my labs.

Got to the last one for this portion of the program, and it has ten pages to complete it. I believe I have six of those pages left before having to dig into a year's worth of reveiw for the portion of the program done a year ago....geez.


Work remains as confusing as ever. Can't seem to get anyone interested in staying long term after their Intro class. Out of like 6 people last cycle....one stayed.Wonder if the new year will pick things up? The election sure didn't....and that's a first. Usually things get better after any election. Oh well...

Book Titles I Should Follow Up and Write:

" You call that horse shit art?"
" I Knew Your Mom When She Gave Head for Ten Bucks or Before The Church"
" There are More Intelligent Fish Than You."
" Drving Like That Will Get You Killed, Here...Let Me Help"
" I'd Rather Weld Than Dance"
" Your 8 Year Old Isn't a Guitarist, He's a Fucking Boring Twat Abusing A Guitar"
" Blues Musicians Don't Use Tabs"
" Your Pansy Dog Is A Cat"
" Get Your Cat Off My Car"
" Yes, I want To Fight. Excuse Me For Not Getting Out Of The F-250 While Killing You"
" Sure, Increasing The Rent Will Help Build My Failing Business"
" And By Inappropriate I Mean YOU"
" Dickhead"
" The Marching Band Diaries"
" Actually Crushed By Life, Not A Spoiled, Rich Goth"
" Every Goth With A Pen Thinks He's A Poet"
" Marilyn Who?"
" At The Dawn Of The 80's"
" The Night The 70's Died"
" The Day After The 90's"
" Hunter Thompson Was NOT Your Father"
" Screenplays About Junkies Best Be Written By Them"
" Go Fuck Yourself: A Guide To The 21st Century"

Alone In All I Do.

Much of my mental reveiw as of late has centered around getting dates correct in my head. That fucking car wreck certainly muddied the waters for afr too long. It's given insite into timing and foresight to reckon what's coming. I still have that capacity,but it seems focused other than the arts.

THEN AGAIN....Over the last few years I've the chance to have contact with any number of would be artists from the current crop. Not the ones you may think I am talking about either. BUT, there certainly isn't the width of dynamics that existed amoung those I knew so long ago. Now, all seem rather plastic, without a fresh idea in their heads. Funny, was at one place where everyone was patting an artist on the back for some great concept he was displaying....and all I could thinbk about was I had seen exactly the same thing years ago, and even on the internet. Their glory boy was just a copy cat. How funny.

Then, IN ADDITION, I sometimes find myself among a crowd who consider themselves to be educated and so important. NONE of them could figure out why their cars won't start if they break, none could plow a field or plant it, none could harvest or hunt game, I doubt if fishing is among their skills either- BUT they sure do act all important talking about yet another of their ilk with the same lack of survival skills. That's nice, splash some paint on the canvas and be a star. Maybe we'll call you Jack the Dripper...oh wait, that's been done too.

Overall, the key is that I am an only child, and we never seem to have the ability to get others to share the work load for what we endeavor. Then, when we go it alone, everyone attacks us and claims we act too good to let anyone help. Funny, I remember countless hours of mind-crushing boredom as my youth. I was the only kid on my street, until that one family moved in when I was like 9. If I wanted to "play", I had to entertain myself. I learned to rely on nobody but me.

And now that seems to be a curse.

Most of the time I can achieve a task more quickly by myself, than with a group. Oh well. Whatever.

The Past.

Fear is the mother of violence. Fear seperates by class and race, usually with good reason.

Music was all I ever wanted, drugs everything I hated. Cocaine cowboys destroyed the Florida I loved. A Florida of boats, ships and old planes lumbering around for the hell of it. Turned everything into a drug deal. I hated coke, coke users and coke dealers. And they were everywhere.

I left.

I wanted no part of any of it. I stopped talking to people that had been close friends because of it. Anything to stay away from it.

It replaced most of what I valued. I remember being in California the first time I saw Miami Vice and was thinking how toned down from reality it was, when the people in the room started laughing at it for being so wild. That's when you keep your mouth shut. No one would believe you anyway.

I hate the coke heads who provided the demand most. You destroyed nightlife, art, music, clubs...everything. Then you had your yuppie dreams that ran over life how it was meant to be. Blowing coke up your nose, going to church and voting republicain like your frat buddies did too. And all these years later you are so respectable.

Guess its yet another reason I want the borders to be more secure. Remember how bad it all got after Castro dumped all those criminals on us? No....? Is it any surprise I carry so much anger towards illegals who have nearly killed me a couple of times from behind the wheel?

My anger and indignation knows few bounds. If only there was a way to make those bastards who destroyed the good part of America pay for it in their own blood. Somebody should replinish the vaults of blood, sweat and tears that it took to create the place the first time.

There are few of that kind of people left. I recently meet one, but even he is getting old. I just barely remember what they look like. I'm not, I have just been trying to survive.

Bastards.

Timing is Everything.

I've spent a LOT of time this last week looking at videos of the Metal scene of the early 80's. With Prog roots, I happened to sound more like Motorhead that Marillion, which was fine by me. Both were great bands.

I cashed it out and burned all the bridges and moved to California to be involved. Problem was, three weeks before the move, after the fires were raging, the destination changed from LA to Stockton because of my future roomate. That was all fine for HIM, but looking at the timing of it all, it neatly kept me 400 miles from where I NEEDED to be at the time. The fincial trama of the move and car troubles buried me so I might just as well have stayed in Florida. In fact, seeing what CRAP came out of the area four years after I left means I might have actually had a chance even there.

I always seem to have a feel for what is coming next, in music and every other thing that interests me. When I used to hang it all out to dry, put all my eggs in one basket, etc....I usually achieved things. Now I have a CROP of projects at all levels that needs finshing. I am trying to remember how to live for today and just do things.

Some choices might seem weird- like the desire to paint my somewhat abused 4 x 4 in an olive drab type green with a flat black hood. It already looks like its out to run over you, why not go with it?

So many projects, so little time, er...money. Someday. Someday hopefully soon.

One of the good things.....

...about life is the fact that I realized the business was in for a downfall some two years ago when the economy started to go bad. That prompted me to enroll in school to be able to go to something else if need be. I am now 6 labs away from completing two of three major portions of the program. I wonder if I can pound them out next week? Time will tell. When they are all done I still have to test with the FAA, but that shouldn't prove overly hard. The instruction has been amazing, so I should pass with flying colors.

After all this is done and I am working there are two plans (after bills are caught up, of course), a camera that will do what I need it to do, and software to go with it- and flying lessons. BOTH of which will be saved for in advance and then done non-stop so as to achieve them faster.

Things in history class today got me to thinking more about the fact that I have been in business for like 16 years and never taken a loan out to keep things going. Guess I have actually done better than 99.999999% of people who ever go into business. BUT...I have a bent for my next business. Still in planning stages, but someday....;<>!

Never a dose of Sanity again....

I never really liked The Beatles. I did like George Harrison. Seemed like he was a dose of sanity in his own bright hearted way.

Perhaps I am depressed at how long he's been gone. It's been like 7 years now or something? I sure could use a new album from him. They always seems to hit the spot, like a cup of good tea on a warm morning. I miss tea too I guess.

Brainwashed.

Might be the end I see coming....

So...the owner of the facility I call the main location wants to "reveiw the rent" again. That's his code for raising it. Each time he does so, its usually to the turn of a couple of hundred dollars a month. If it gets raised this time, I think its time to kill the business. Well, more to the point, I can't afford it and need some income. HE gets paid and I make enough to get gas to get to and from the classes. I could be working nights and finish school and do better than this. Probably make school work a lot easier without the constant strain of what 40 students need to work on.

Let's see, three years ago the gross was 4 times higher than now, and there was a group of about 10 competing members out spreading the word about their group. The facility kept pushing back our starting time to an unreasonable hour where it is now. I don't want to try teaching this late, everyone is too tired and ready for bed by then. Performance has dropped through the floor, as has participation. They won't take part of Fridays, and not outside the group at all.

That's 16 years of work to get nowhere fast. I find by asking that our group is as big or bigger than some other local ones, but the others go show their colors out there. We are a ghost, dead to the world and a thing of the past at this point. It takes money to bring a ghost back to life, and I have zero left. Had it not been for the wife paying rent at home....this would have all ended a year ago.

The real focus has to remain on finishing school, as its becoming very clear there is no future with the current set-up. I feel so stupid for breaking myself for this...I hope at least someone later figures out how good they had it. Should I have never done it and let everyone drive 91 miles each way for a lesson like I had to? No matter how much I want it to survive (with or without me, future job permitting), it appears there will be no legacy to all my sacrifice.

Currently, not counting what taxes would take, I am making $5.83 an hour to take on all this stress. Gezz, Minimum wage in the state is $8.00 an hour. I could work at McBlandburgers and make more than I make now......I really needed this depression today, didn't I?
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Post script- Yes, the rent has been raised.

Dog Gone.

In a stunning first intelligent move of the Iraq war, the US government has allowed a dog seperated from its soldier owner to come to the US to be with its owner.

World wide reaction to this stunning flash of common sense has paralyzed the news services, many of whom simply ignored the story.

Welcome to America, you Dog you!

Headache From Hell

I have had a headache for 4 days straight now. Not a little one that goes away, but an ever increasing one that is killing me. The Friday mid-term was hell to handle as a result. Sleep isn't helping much, and my eyes won't focus right. I think maybe this is a concussion from getting whacked in the head on Wed or so. I hate head injuries.

Bitter as Hell.

This is the future we all dreaded in 1981. The others actually turned out to be right. I was the hopeful one.

My best friends of youth all dead, useless wars abound.

Morons of the first magnitude joust for the role of leadership.

Africa gives nothing to the world except aids. Those doe eyed kids from 81? Thier haulin AK's and making as many kids as they like with no end to the killing. Why did we bother? Why should we again?

Machines improve the killing.

Music has gone down the drain.

There are no heros, no poets for the times. There is no sacrifice to the alter of the bigger picture of what really matters.

Why bother anymore? No place left to hide. Nothing you can do against the mind-numbed world of the internet.

Teachers send you to the internet without regard for verification? WTF?!?!?!?!?

Dreams cruished by PC attitudes, the bastard child of yuppie bullshit. The actual children self-serving assholes of the highest magnitude. What happened to the energy of youth? The economy of cashing in on it...? can you say "Hot Topic"?

How could it have all turned out so badly?

Honor a Soldier, Save Her Dog!!!

Seems like when you put your life on the line for your country, the least they could do is allow you to save one small soul (o.k., a dog's soul...) yourself. There is a link in the title and from it a link to a petition to reunite a hard-working solider and her dog!

I Am A Thing Of The Past.

It's true. I have been passed over by time. Of course, long ago I obsessed with history, art, music, etc......

While I have adapted and re-invented myself over and over again, I have no desire to do so yet again. The ghosts of my past haunt me so. Too many lives gone, lives that I once knew. Aids, murder, premature death. They scar me.Gains me nothing now, need to find a way to keep it from wasting so much of my mind's time.Working on re-inventing now, but that seems to bring me current to maybe the mid 70's or so. Perhaps cutting edge is the world I should pursue to finally get somewhere meaningful.

But now I find that nothing I liked impresses me any longer at all. To say I have lost the fire to create isn't exactly correct, but it needs to be applied and marketable at this point. Bizzillions of people create things of low to no merit. I want more.

It seems a shame, but the world of video games has run rampant over every other artform/ activity.I hate virtual worlds, unless they have a real world application. Now it seems, if one wants to excel and create, it must be done at the feet of the video game.

Maybe a place so far from everything that you have to make your own power wouldn't be bad. Maybe a life without technology like this wouldn't be bad.

Wish I could sleep.

3.5 Years

So there I was at the Miramar Air Show, chatting with a Harrier pilot. He was a young fellow, no more than 25 years old. In course of conversation I asked how long he had been flying. For some reason I expected to hear he soloed at 16 and that sort of thing. Instead, his answer was "About three and a half years, been flying the Harrier for a year now."

GEEZ!

It all rather sunk in later. Yes, I have made some progress in life over the last couple of years, but I ceratinly didin't go from nothing to piloting something like the Harrier.

OK, gotta make the NEXT 3.5 years count. I have already taken some steps towards making them count as a result of this realization.......

Rollin'

Nothing better than a late night bicycle ride. All the nuts in cars are asleep and the roads are free of exhaust fumes. Good for the body, good for the badly damaged knees, good to use the damned iPod anyway and listen to loud shit you never listen to anymore anyway. Don't expect I'll ever actually enjoy daytime rides......

I would venture to say that this was my best bike ride since Feb of 1988 when I trashed my road bike and got attacked by a dog afterwards on the way home. I am not at the level I was then by any means, but the good feeling of how I used to bike was there. (There really was never a good feeling commuting on the mountain bike for those years in the 90's....). This is what you need to succeed.

Work Vs Passion in Life

For some reason people think my job is my passion in life. I hear "It must be great to be able to do something you love as your job!" over and over again. I was thinking that too, so I went back to school to try and get a job in Aviation- which is something I love!

I have many, many interests. They include, but are not limited to: Aviation, Space, Bicycling, shooting sports, high power rocketry, history, writing, music, automobiles and trucks, sailing and any number of other things that rotate in and out of my veiw in what seem to be cycles.

What I do for a living was once an interest, a strong one- but never a passion. Now it is a job. It's just that I approach any job with a lot of energy and focus. Usually it gets me fired, because everyone then thinks you are out to climb the ladder and take their jobs away. I have never given a damn about taking any manager's job away. There are bigger things in life to put one's effort into. I suppose this is why so many think I am having the time of my life at this current employment. Is it wrong to do your best to do a good job at anything you are involved in?

But it certainly isn't my PASSION in life.....;<>!!!

Screw Your 700 Billion Dollar Bailout!

Here, I have a BETTER idea:

First, let's freeze the assets of everyone from the top to the bottom of the lending/ investing industry. That's right, the CEO's down to the Loan Officers who were living high on the hog selling everybody loans they couldn't afford.

That's right, ALL of them. Like any of them are innocent...treat them like a vanquished army. There certainly has to be enough equity in all they own to bail this all out. The money went somewhere didn't it? That would be their pockets and paychecks!

FACE IT: If these people were caught growing pot, everything they owned would be seized by the government. The next line would be "We can't prove what you bought with legally earned money, and what was bought with money generated by illegal means, so we are taking it all." Treat Wall Street the same way, "We can't tell what was bought with money from sensible business, and what was bought with money earned from bad loans, so we are keeping it all."

THEN, sell it at cost, not what they paid for it all and use the money to bail their industry out. Gee....ain't that the way it works for the rest of us?

The problem with bailing this industry out is that they get to screw up bigger than anyone else ever, and they all get to keep their overpaid jobs and earn money while the people dying under bad loans try and get new home loans. Maybe they should have to set up and provide GOOD loans without benefit of a commision when they do so...why pay them twice, once for the bad loan and once for a good one?!?!?!?!??


SCREW WALL STREET!

(While you are at it nationalize the oil companies that have been bleeding us all dry and use those assests to help fix things...! Record profits and they need to raise prices, my ass!)

Need To Ride/ Forgetting Propellers

Need something to clear details of Hamilton Standard Hydromatic Propellers, Curtiss Electric Propellers and countless other Propellers from my mind! I am so watered down and wet under the weight of their baldes I could burst. Almost feeling good enough to excercise some now, sickness be gone.

Bad, bad day yesterday...a friends brother was killed at his work. Super bummer. Don't know what to say.

I really need a ride.

Cycled.

Got on the bike and rode. Need to do it more.

I DIDN'T VOTE FOR HIM!!!!!!

Let me sing it from the mountains, let me ring it from the valleys...I didn't vote for the moron in the White House!

Here we are at the end of 8 years, and I've had to listen to all the crap about what a great leader Bush is. I had to listen to how badly screwed up the USA was as a result of Clinton, and how Bush was going to turn this place around and make it better!

I may not like 100% of what Clinton did, or stood for...BUT...the place sure ran better when he was in charge. Of course, the loudmouths said his first 4 years were simply riding on the coattails of the pres before him. OK. So the second four years were his doing? LET'S USE THAT LOGIC NOW: The first four years f what Bush did were the results of Clinton's work, and the last four reflect Bush's work.....OPPS! But if the loud mouths were going to force this logic on me for all that time- IT'S THEIR TURN!

Let's look at the highlights of what Bush has achieved:

He put the country into two wars on widely separated fronts that he couldn't win quickly. (Guess he made a "C" in history when they talked about how that worked out for Hitler in the Big One.)

He's gotten scores of young US soldiers killed.

The National Guard is MIA and unable to help during disasters because they are trudging around someplace overseas searching for WMD's or something or other.

The country can't support itself because all the money goes to running these wars.

His VP shot a lawyer. (OK, maybe they did do something positive).(( Not really, I have friends who are lawyers, and they are awfully nice people too...))

All his buddies in the oil business are making record profits and laying to the public about having to hold prices for oil products so high.

He's made the situation so bad that many people think a mulatto man claiming to be black is a viable choice to replace him.

He's made the situation so bad his own party is doing the best they can to sabotage their own Presidential campaign, so that they won't be in office when the whole place comes down around their feet.

He's brought back memories of the Great Depression and the Stock Market Crash of 1929, all in one fell swoop!



The best solution for him is a final solution, wherein NONE of his direct family members survive, so they may never wreak havoc on the world again.I guess I understand why they used to kill the king...AND their whole family.

Anyone else notice that when TEXAS is threatened by a hurricane, the Federal Government is all over it like flies on shit? Like we didn't see THAT coming....

Whta's Wrong With The Two Main Political Parties?

NO order here at all:

The Dems have Obama, a mulatto male acting like he's black. I'm soo tired of hearing about him being raised by a single mother. Single mothers don't usually trot the globe, living on research grants and drag their spoiled child along. Well, black ones don't at least. So it's a good thing for Obama his mom wasn't black.

And another thing...why is it that anyone in the USA that has ANY black heritage is pounced upon to proclaimed ONLY that portion of their heritage? Like Jimi Hendrix. Or Tiger Woods (At least HE doesn't place the whole annoying race thing!).As for Obama, why would he embrace the culture of the parent that abandoned him in the first place? Oh, and created him while still married to another woman anyway. Yeah, THAT'S the part of my heritage I would want to proclaim.

And the whole "I had to live with my poor grandma" bit....wasn't she a retired bank vice-president? ?!?!?!?!?!?!?!!? What an asshole. I can't see how anybody would trust a fool who has never even owned a business or been in charge of ANYTHING for any length of time. Remember when HE said about Hillary that being President wasn't the place for on the job training? Hmm...maybe it is for false black men like him.....


Then he picks a pretty reasonable person as Vice Pres to run with him.OK, great.

Then the Repubs. They found a pit bull of a guy who is at least schooled in combat and tactics. If I were stuck in a uniform I'd probably vote for him on this alone. At least he has a chance to wind down the wars like he means it. So he's old, SO WHAT? Oh yeah, he isn't the most popular skin color, I forgot. Because white people have done nothing in the USA except oppress the minorities, and since he's white, it's all his fault. Everyone should vote against him because of the color of his skin, which is why everyone should vote for the half black guy...he's not as white! (But he IS more of a spoiled rich college boy lawyer than the white guy....).

THEN they go and ruin it with the world's WORST candidate in history. Sarah "Soccer Mom" Palin. Yeah, we all know the deluded masses of soccer moms is what helped get Bushie in office...twice. But what idiot would actually want one running the country?!?!?!?! Most NORMAL people HATE soccer moms and their greater than thou raving christian attitudes. The whole bridge to nowhere thing? Its such a christian response she gives "God forgave me, so I don't care if you do". As for pit bulls wearing lipstick, they would certainly be more attractive that this middle age slag with the fuck me red pumps and the on her back daughter parading around like they are better than us. What was the bumper sticker I saw? Something like, "My bastard grandchild is a wonderful gift from god, yours is a social disaster that taxes the economy and is a mistake."

And she would be one chicken bone away from running the country? WHAT?!?!?!!? Ever seen a self-proclaimed soccer mom run anything important correctly without fucking it up and bringing in only her friends and buddies to work it? NOPE!


What kind of crap country is it that can get only two seemingly reasonable people out of four to run for office, and then not even on the same ticket?

Back to the chicken bone- It sorts out like this: If the Dems win, they'll need bucket's of the Colonel's best sent to the White House everyday. If the Repubs win they'll need a gate guard to prevent the delivery guy from getting there....


WHY should I vote...HOW can I vote? I really regret not selling everything I owned and moving to another place to live all those years ago. I wonder if I could pull it off now.....

...and one MORE thing.

The history class I am taking is the worst piece of revisionist crap I have ever heard. How does crap like this un-supported propaganda get taught anyway? I am finding that "college" has no relationship to reality anyway. It seems to be half-wit wanna-bes with their own agendas to preach. I wish to hell they had to work at real jobs.

How can anyone stand a class where half the people in it don't know where someplace called "Spain" is located on the planet?

Closer than a Razor Thin sheet of paper.

I get tired of not being able to sleep. At worst, I can't focus on anything, and having the internet is like leaving me the keys to a huge public library. I end up spending far too much time looking up this and that from way back when. I have become quite annoyed at how many times I was right next to something/ someone famous or successful. Its happened over and over. I usually find that such and such lived within a mile and used to be part of this or that group that I was hanging out with. They include a famous woman who became an actress on a tv show, another who used to be a guitarist and ended up acting, producers, musicians that made it after all, and god knows who else. I did all the same things as most of them. Worked hard, moved to try and make it at something.Guess none of them damn near got killed by an illegal alien in a car wreck like me. It certainly depresses me at what should/ could have been. I am tired of working so hard for so little.

Every kid with 2 weeks playing guitar can start recording at home now. I've lost interest in most music when its that simple.

8 gizzilion people can write and self-publish. The challenge was to write something that others valued enough to buy. The numbers of writers now means "Who cares"? and why bother.

I feel like the guy in Amadeus most of the time....

Just Sail Away

A couple of weekends back at a harbour, and all I want to do is ditch it all, get a sailboat, and just sail away. Working numbers shows it would be cheaper than flying, but I still want to reach the sky. Perhaps a sail would be a nice step inbetween. Getting more done on left over labs required to finish getting certified to work on airplanes. Job prospects seem ok overall. One would be awesome, but don't think I want the danger of the work locations involved. Then again, to be debt free from even student loans in like a year is very alluring. Be closer to sails and wings then too....

Can't shake the feeling that something is wrong

used to be a line from a song of mine. Can't remember last time I got to play an instrument. Tired of picking up after the dog and everything else instead.

A Lot Slower Than I Used To Be.

Been reading Larry Brown again. It used to be Kerouac, but he's long gone long. Too bad, opened his mouth and got his ass handed to him around my age. Guess I should be happy I am healthier than he was. But oh so injured.

Damned knee is giving me so much grief I barely notice the pain in my neck and back. Damned reading giving me so much pain, 'cause I am starting to remember what used to matter so much. Wonder if I can get back to writing? Been a few years now. Just got a glimpse of what I was supposed to do this life again.

But I'm so much older than I used to be......

Back To The Grind....

School starts this morning. I was only able to get like 3 hours sleep before waking up too stressed to go back to sleep. Have a Gened class and ground school. Then the rest of the day os spent with catching up my labs to get my certificate of completion...so I can go test with the FAA.

When is somebody going to invent liquid sleep? I sure need a half a six pack right now....

How Many More Mondays Are There These Week?

Got a headache around Thursday of last week and it has yet to go away. My stomach has been sick and churning since Friday...and it has yet to go away. Have done some stuff needed, but not a lot. The phone has gone insane (I hope thats good) and I am far, far behind in getting messages. They keep piling up on top of ones not yet checked.

Monday first got the news that the bottom end of the Miata is screwed. Time to yank the engine and rebuild it. No problem at all as far as doing the work. Problem is a seriuos lack of cash.

Today the truck seems to have ingested portions of its front brake system, meaning tomorrow is spent trying ot get it rolling before 6:00 p.m. I mean, for gods sake, that two vehicles killed in two days! And I thought I was going to get started on reviving the Jeep tomorrow.

Staying up all night to keep up with the Olympic Fencing events. Womens Sabre was a mess, they call that fencing? All hopping around and counterattack. No defense, no compound actions (unless they made some sort of mistake...). All flailing and counterattack. And these people laugh at epee? There have been more parries in epee than women's sabre...!

Women's Foil has to be just about the best Foil Fencing I have ever seen. The Gold Bout was beyond awesome. Men Epee Gold rocked also, so very much going on under the stinky, sweaty masks there! Didn't see much og M Sabre, but happy that some new country got up to mattering in it.

Women's epee has a cross-sectioon of actual epee fencers, and folks who must prefer foil, because they certainly fence like they have a foil in their hands. The epeeists seem to be taking them down. They ain't shown M Foil thus far, would like to see if it is as awesome as the women's foil group.

OK, sick again. Maybe I sleep.

Used To Be Ahead of the Curve

I used to be ahead of the curve. I always obsessed on my interests to the point of knowing more than anyone else I'd meet. It was good, it was progress in life.

Got in that car wreck and wrecked my brain. All for what? To pay rent and work and utterly boring job I hated that had nothing to do with my goals/ dreams. I sacrificed my hopes for the mundane and got stuck there. I dig through stuff as I move and see all sorts of glimpses of who I used to be, and the roads I was on. I have forgotten more on most subjects than most people ever know. What a sad/ weird truth that is.The only truth the last 15 years has focused on is the harder you work, the more you will get screwed for it.

Who knows what to be now, with this mixed bag of information, at this time in history and this age on life? I suppose it starts with knowing what you are and no longer want to be...? Hmmmm...what book to reread this 20 years later? Who has time, its been a year or more without my car. I need to find nmy books and fix it myself.

Hyacinth. Rootless and jammed into the bank.This I understand.

Doing Nothing.

Finally got a computer set up correctly, and have done nothing but use a flight sim ever since. Too much work and not enough time to do it all.

Can't figure out why when I try and log into blogger it tells me I don't have the correct e-mail, or password or something....and then accepts it all the same on a later try. Weird.

Need to get to school and get a catalog for the genreal ed classes I will be needing this semester. I want to be done and working.

How To Be Tired

90% of the stuff is moved from the old address to the new one. I have to clean out the second garage, but there is no room in the new one....as there are dozens of boxes still in the new garage that have yet to be moved into the house.

The good news is that the washer and dryer are now ooked up and working. The dryer needed to be electric, and the outlet was in a weird place, so I had to make an extension cord of th proper size to place the dryer in the only place it fits. I had to get a ducting kit to vent it outside, and it appeared to be missing an important gasket. I managed to find it and get the ducting routed, the wiring done and the unit pushed in place. Of course, its 3:00 a.m., so I have no time to start running loads through the set-up. Oh well...tomorrow comes, I mean...is here anyway.

The fellow who lived next door at the old place had moved out to someplace else, but now is actually back...in our old place. At least the place will have a decent person in it, and all the crap that never got fixed over all the years and owners HAS to be fixed now. I feel happy the place is getting a new lease on life. This means it is the LAST place on the property to be fixed up.

Took a short but decent ride on the new bike with the wife on hers. Went to the gym today instead of a ride, and my knees are hurting.Need to move slow in gettingback into shape, so I don't damage myself yet again. Found a blog from a fellow who has lost like 00 pounds so far and is shooting for like another 200 I think. He did most of it on a bike, and it inspires my tired ass to get busy. Once I start losing weight I'll have to send him a thanks for the blog...!

Sleep...oh yeah....good night.

What?

What do you do with so many memories? I was there and saw it. What you are doing now is nothing but a sad copy of what was then. It mattered, this doesn't. Anyone can copy, who will create?

Plastic pop recycled crap with a fake dangerous edge.....

Just Tired Now.....

Still trying to get moved from the old to the new place. 90% is done, with the garage stufff left to go. I am bummed to find many, many things destroyed by the rats I fought off. Some clothing I had stored became a massive nest, brand new carpet for my truck is destroyed by chewing and urination. A huge amount of 80's rock music magazines are also destroyed. I can only guess what I could hav gotten for them on ebay.

I still have to move the huge rack of lp records, which I can't do during the day. I have move 99.8 percent of the this crap by myself, and am too exhausted to are about anything else at all right now. I need a month of sleep when I finish....but there may be a body shop class in a few weeks that I could complete my truck in. Damn...oh well. We will see.

Moving and Profoundly Sad

It came as a surprise. A small house nearby went vacant, and the rent is close to what we pay now, so we signed the papers today to move in to it.

I started moving things a load at a time. It was too hot. I find myself profoundly sad to the core. For my apartment...

I havelived here for like 15 years, god knows how that happened. I was a destroyed wreck when I moved in and it was supposed to be a short stay until I got on my feet. I was in my 30's and now I am in my 40's. I realized today that for th termites, the broken everything, the floods, the bug infestations...the crazed weirdo neighbors...whatever....this has been my home longer than any other building I have ever lived in.

Its grown too small for even myself. I can't get anything done bcause of it. I sit paralilyzed for hours as a result. But still, it was my place to go hide.I lived here when my dreams of music died. I lived here when I stabbed at wiriting novels and fell hort of my own standards. I lived here when I wanted to die. I lived here when my mother did die. I lived here from when my little car Evie was new, until she was falling apart at nearly 300,000 miles. I lived here through many,many very bad times, and some good ones.I have rebuilt a number of engines, fixed friends cars, gone round and round upon my own and even completley restored my Jeep while here. I amglad I haven't sold the Jeep...I need that peice of the past to have a future.

None of the troubles were the fault of this modest little apartment. Things happened here I guess. Its going to be so strange to come "home" to another place, and still be able to see my apartment. It will be so weird to live in a house. I haven't lived in one since 1979.

I will miss the stream out back that calmed me, and also flooded the apartment. I won'tmiss the fucking annoying neighbors dogs that bark if I get up at night and go to the bathroom. I won't miss the asshole high schoolers playing hokey out back.

I will miss my apartment, quite badly it seems. I should be moving more stuff out, but instead I will go to bed.The Girl is at work tonight, so its one last night so very alone, as so many I spent here...in my apartment.

Like Tom Petty Once Said.....

....The waiting is the hardest part!

My bicycle still isn't here! O.K.,maybe I am nitpicking, but two weeks after May 24 should be now,not the definition I got today of yet another week. Went out for amazing Japanese BBQ you cook yourself on an in-table grill and then dropped in on the store the bike was ordered from. It's an outdoor place I have known about for years and years, that only recently built a store near enough to me to check out.


I have to say that half the employees are pretty cool, and half are fucking flakes. They appear to be spoiled college kids with no clue thinking they are somehow saving the world by working there. When we ordered the bike to get the correct frame size, the woman who got the numbers was spot on. The one who rang it up wasn't.

The ringer took our new club member information and put it into the computer. This was supposed to rack up credit on yearly purchases, so a 600 dollar bike certainly needs to be attached to this. She kept trying to look up my name, even though we had never been there before. Then, sh pulled up a "Ralph" who sharedmy last name and wrote up the ticket under his name, somehow getting my correct address on it all. I let it slide until the next day and went back in to correct it.No one knew how, and I was told it would be fine, and could be corrected when the bike arrived.

Still no call on the bike, which was at the most two weeks out.

Our trip today we found the order had, in addition, reversed the first and last names (including the incorrect first name...) The woman today didn't tell us all would be ok, she walked us to a special phone, got on the horn and got the order corrected in the system. The first bill was refunded and it was recharged, and all was then properly tied back to my club account card thingie. She found a picking ticket had been generated at their distribution center, and gave an educated guess it might mack it Monday

Damn! Someone old enough and caring enough to do their job! She was cool.

I just wish the bike was here. Until then, I hav been surfing to find information on building a carbon fiber recumbent frame for a road bike. Bents are cool, my old roadie is long since dead when a wasted frame (though I did find a manufactuer nearby with 100 surplus frames for less than 300 bucks a peice!...So I might rebuild it around a new frame). I want a bent that looks cool and costs me less than half of what flyinglessons go for.

I need to pedal!

Dog Beachs Rule!

So Max got to go to the dog beach in San Diego a few weeks ago. He is really shy and unsure around other dogs, as he was a stray for part of his life. He is fearful of other dogs approaching him, and that happens alot at the beach! By the endof the first day he had stopped nipping when cared, realizing that most were just there to say hello.

He also walked in the water, and I carefully held his harnes to see how he was with swimming. he seemed unhappy about the whole deal, but wagged his tail after each dip. He reacted weird to playing with his ball, running to it, picking it up in the sand...and dropping it while staring at it. He wouldn't bring it back!

Yesterday we made another trip down to the beach. He got way xcited when we asked if he wanted to go to the beach. he actually seems to have a very good vocabulary.He also seemed to know where we were at around a mile from the beach and got way excited. Perhaps it was the salt in the air?

Anyway, he was much more open to other dogs, and at one point he wandered off with another family group of dogs bfore realizing WE were calling him. That's right, he made it off the leash with no problems. He LOVED playing ball, and not so much me getting him to swim. At one point, I carried him out about 50 yards and let him swim back to shore.He seemed ok with it, so I began throwing his ball into the water, and then deper and deeper water. In the end, he hadno fear of dashing out, walking in the water....and then actually swimming out to get his ball and swim back with it!

Max freaking RULES! He was SO tired all the way home, and still today. I suspect we will get all that holiday weight worked off him at this rate, he looks happier for it all.

Max is such a good fellow, the idiots that abandoned him and abused him in his past should be beaten for hurting this little guy. I am glad he is OUR dog now. Now all we need is a house with a yard for him to run in.


and...the bike the Girl bought me isn't here yet, but should be any day. Back to WHEELS for me! Let's see Max keep up with THAT.

Getting On With Life.

I have now completed the main portion of my schooling. I can get a grade from the school for the work I've done, but owe a fairly large number of labs to complete the FAA requirements of the course. It will happen.

I waited a long time to look into getting a degree based on this course, and it was probably some weird fear that I couldn't complete the course that stopped me. Life has really beat me up over the years,some from my own bad choices, but many I things I had no control over. This time, I got a boost instead. I received a scholarship in the name of my favorite pilot ever, Art Scholl. It lit my fire again, and made me want to work more.

I have to admit I am stressed out and bummed at finishing the courses. I will badly miss going to class and learning so many cool things about airplanes. Guess I will have to satisfy myself with the general ed classes now to complete the degree. I am hoping to take some interesting stuff like astronomy. I suck at math, but maybe having to learn it for stuff like this will help.

In the end, I am seeking to go as far as possible with getting degrees. AND..trying to stay ahead of student loans by starting a new business venture.

BUT...

Its also time to get back to being healthy. Five or so years ago I got in shape and lost a lot of weight. Injury and an increased teaching load put the weight back onto me. I hate when I am 277 pounds. Currently, I am 236 pounds and unhappy.

The girl of my dreams and I are back to the gym, in spite of my agonizing knee pains. I need to pull back into eating less. My blood pressure is way too high and I know it, need to knock that down to.

I want to start seeing an old friend again, one that I used to spend hours with. The friend was the road as viewed from my bicycle. In fact, I used to bike commute as a choice for many years. I so miss that. Southern California damaged my health with its smog the last time I commuted for work. I ended up with asthma according to the doctor. I know it came from the morning traffic smog I was breathing.

Getting into teaching my martial art ruined my commuting schedule completely. There wasn't time to commute and make it to teaching after work. I regret this choice in many ways.

I am depressed beyond reason much of the time, all over stress I pile on myself. So, I am hoping its back to cycling. I bought the GOMD's a bike a year ago, and every time we have tried to go out....MY bikes have failed. Guess I had just about worn them out all those years ago. They are quality bikes, but more than well used. There is a chance that I will be getting a hybrid commuter/ mtb 29er bike soon. The more upright position may be the ticket to renewed health. It may be able to lad me to a recumbent I have always lusted after.

Do I think this is a direction to go? Well...sometimes you have to listen to chance. A friend tonight spoke to me at length about HIS joy of cycling, and encouraged me to get back into things. I'd say that was a sign. Then my math friend showed up...as I was thinking about her and her love of math.

Look out future, here I come (Guess getting the air filter/ ion generator fixed was a good thing, I am feeling a little better already!).

Chino POF Airshow 2008

Well, its been a year since I suffered and spent my last dime to get a camera to take photos of three P-38's together at last years show. Sinc then, I have taken thousands of photos of stuff at school, and all over the place. Happy Birthday to my camera.


This happens to be Steve Hinton in a Bearcat...filling the "Tumbling Bear" spot that Rob Harrison (The Tumbling Bear) usually fills with his Zlin 50. He had a rather bad day last Saturday in Modesto and is healing nicely. At least it was a "Bear" in the slot!



Everyone knows what these planes are I am sure....




Remember Baa Baa Black Sheep....?



The Horsemen Ride....!



....and you thought polishing the RV-7 was a chore!

Another Chapter Almost Finished

...in the grand parade of life. I've a week left in schooling for my A & P,and then a number of labs to make up due to illness and missed time. The intention is to finish the general coure studies to complete this as a degree, so that I can keep going into a higher portion of the field.

Rumour has it that the company I want to work for (all this time...) has dried up on jobs. That would really suck, as I could be quite the asset to their growth, and they would keep me intereted. Oh well, wherever I go I am it seems You can plan and work, but you have to know whn to give up and let things take their own course also.

There is a chance of a job involving travel, which I would distain at this point because I don't want to be away from home, but I might b forced to consider it anyway.

Chino Planes of Fame has their yarly airshow this weekend, and it marks a year of having a decent enough camera to gt good photos at airshows. Hopefully, by next year I'll have a great camera to take photos with- including lens that suit the task itself.

Now to finish page after page of homework that's been dumped on me. I thought I was getting caught up...

The Only Issue That Matters.

So the folks that want to be president are dancing around the same old, tired subjects. How long will they reinvent class struggles and misplaced lack of responsibilities as actual issues? How long this phony war to distract us from real issues will go on...? NOPE.

There is only ONE ISSUE that should be addressed that isn't being touched. The issue is the COST OF GAS IN THE USA.

I am sick to death of hearing how the price is going up because there are not enough refineries, or because they close down 12 months a year for yearly repairs. I don't care what the price a barrel is, and that its all being traded like gold now, so for some reason we all have to pay more for it.

Why are the energy/ oil companies not investing in new refineries while they are showing record profits? It seems if you can't keep up with demand you should be spending money to catch up.

The higher the price of gas goes, the more the average person has to cut back on any and everything they enjoy. THAT'S what is wrong with the economy. Why can't all the stuck up college experts figure it out? Maybe they should pull their degrees off the wall and have them ready when they need something to burn for heat next winter.

The rest of us, the people who have to work and not hide behind theory and vague ideas already know the only issue....and its creating all the other issues.

WHEN WILL ANYONE RUNNING FOR PRESIDENT GIVE US THEIR PLAN TO LOWER GAS PRICES?

I say nationalize them all and nationalize the salaries of their CEO's while they are at it. Put all that money back into the economy and split it up among everyone else.

A Word About Max...

You know, I really need to post something abot a wonderful little fella that has been in my life around a year.

His name is Max.


He was a rescued dog that had been abandoned more than once. He came with his share of issues and problems, but thats ok- he is deep down a very good dog. We've gotten past the shredding of everything in site once we leave (because he LOVES his cage when we are gone). I still am upset over him destroying my speakers- seeing how no replacement for the speaker is available (studio grade moniters that sounded just right to my ears). He has, many times over, made up for it.

He keeps the herds of stray cats away with a growl from the door, which then keeps the car from getting scracthed up as they climb all over them with their irresponsible owners no where to be found.

He is over-joyed to see you when you come home, and morose and sad when you leave.

They say a house is not a home without a dog, and it's true. Now to get him a house and move out of this godforsaken apartment have languished in for so long. It'll take some work, but it will happen.

The Greatest Bands Never Win...

I am buried under homework and geting ready for a final. Out of the blue it seems that REM has started sounding like themselves again. I got the CD to prove it.

All those years ago thoselocal boy went up north to Ga. to open for some other unknownsand came back freaking about rREM. Got the first ep the day it came out and believed in them.

Years came and went, as did ad campaigns. OK, I was younger than them but older than the high schoolers who thought them theirs. They fianlly drifted off the scope. But at least they really hit the big time hard and it paid off.

You get th new disc and load it into the technologie to get it to your iPod and lsiten as it imports. All is well, the disc sounds good and without warning the iTunes doesn't end, it just goes on to the next track....of one of themost gloriuos bands to ever exist...THE RAINMAKERS!!!!! Suddenly I remembered what a time it was underground in the early 80's. The Alarm, The Rainmakers, Hanoi Rocks, Marillion, IQ....the list could go on so long. All bands that shined brighter than the George Micheals CRAP that coated the airwaves (Wham was good fun though....).

Support your best memories and find the bands lost in the haze. Bring back real music, kill everything and everyone associated with corp music (read that as "Rap").

I dream of a golden day when the best musicians record their stuff at home, use the internet to get to us all, sell us the download to cover th cost and get to bring the joy of our creations. No more A & R men making money on the backs of talent. No more college educated trend followers saying what we get to hear. Cut them all out for a Brave New World of music!

Iron Maiden is getting there, a few old favorites wander around the internet, rather unsure of it all.

Spend a day a week looking up folks like Mike Peters, The Waterboys, Pat Tomek (http://www.largelypro.com/mtblog/) and maybe with enough encouragment some of the folks will call old friends and bash out a few tunes.

May have hated Guitar Hero at first, and I HATE playing it....but anything that brings actual musical ability back and brings the art of songwriting and playing back is fine by me! I love the kids that got a guitar and now think the game is stupid....as they learn to actually make music!!!

SUV's are turning up more in the US, say Law Enforcement

The morning started like any other morning for Stan Widicks. He shared breakfast with his wife and three elementary school age children. He chatted with his wife, gave her a kiss and left for work. He didn't expect to be murdered that morning.

"They won't do anything about them." his widowed wife, the 26 year Melody said. "They cut you off, tailgate you and force their way in front of you and the cops just look the other way!". She fell quiet as Jiminey, her youngest began crying again He missed his daddy.

What happened that morning was that like every other morning, the father of three got into his small Miata car and left for work.10 minutes later he was first run off the freeway and then killed when 31 one year old homeschooling mother Misty Chambers lost control of her Hummer while trying to change the DVD for her children. Recordings of the cell phone call she was engaged in provided detail to investigators.Officers that arrived on the scene found the woman cursing at the gravely injured Widicks and blaming him for the accident. Members of both her church and charter district defend her as being a model driver, often ignoring the 6 tickets she has received in the last four months, and the fact that she was driving with a suspended licence.

Hummers are giant trucks designed for use of the US Military. They have exaggerated body's covered in armor,over sized tires used for running over insurgents cars and may times gun ports to allow strafing the enemy from the vault like safety of the vehicle. Civilian versions often feature the same deadly extras that make them so successful on the battlefield.Owners of these killers tend to be middle management with flashy houses in the suburbs and little attention to being good citizens.

Often times the civilian versions fall into the hands of unskilled drivers and other "Soccer Moms" as they are known. These women tend to have never held down any form of employment, bray loudly about their responsibilities of raising children and act with an outlandish sense of entitlement to owning these barely toned down killing machines. Joe Staunch, a Sargent in the local police department puts it this way, " They've got the cash, or did until the housing crash, to own these beasts. Nobody NEEDS a Hummer, they were made for the battlefield, not downtown America. But here are no laws to regulate who gets their hands on these things,and no laws that require any sort of training before heading out into traffic. Until the laws change, people are going to die every day as a result."

Joe had to cut sort the interview as he was called to the scene of another fatal accident, that involved an Escalade. "They're just as bad, but nobody wants to say so." He looked depressed at the thought of having to tell another young mother about the loss of a family member.

Having a Hummer, or other form of "SUV" (the civilian term for these over-sized military trucks) means you are 100% more likely to be involved in an accident with one. Police have found that the more SUV's that make their way out onto the road, the more fatal accidents they cause. But still, no one is doing anything about it. People talk about the dangers, but nothing gets done.

Lillie Sharecropper lost her husband two years ago, and she hasn't rested since.Lille has formed a non-profit organization to speak out against the dangers of allowing SUV's into the community. At a recent town hall meeting she stood in front of the crowd, offering facts, figures and finally photos of her own husband's fatal accident caused at the hands of a drunk driver in an SUV. At this meeting, she was heckled and interrupted repeatedly by a group of Soccer moms who came only to upset the meeting. They have every right to do so, as there are no laws that prevent them from harrassing and upsetting others.Many times these types band together after meeting at ballet studios and Tae Kwan Do studios, where their own children struggle for identity against numbingly average talents of other children much like themselves.

"She doesn't know what she's talking about. Idiots like her husband don't know how to drive and its their own fault if they get hit by an SUV. They don't seem to understand how hard it is to get a group of kids to all their appointments on time when the appointments get rescheduled all the time. They don't even know how to drive while using a cell phone and burping a baby! An SUV is the only car that I can drive to haul around 4 kids at a time!"

Lillie counters at one point with, "I guess you've never seen a station wagon?" Only jeers answered her direct and honest question. "It's the attitudes that have to change. The general public just doesn't understand how dangerous these things really are. Anyone can walk into a dealership and leave with a military grade piece of equipment designed only for killing people. Nobody NEEDS a vehicle designed for killing people. They may need transportation, but allowing them to run wild with these types of vehicles is wrong. What's it going to take before there are laws to protect us? Maybe one of the Bush daughters being killed by an SUV?"

Melvin Davies has owned trucks all his life. He even owns and restores old military vehicles. His collection numbers around 30 of various kinds of trucks, personal carriers and jeeps. His attention to detail and his carefully use of the vehicles is being threatened by the new wave of SUV owners.

"I didn't really notice when they started calling them SUV's, they were always just jeeps to me and my friends. First the jeeps got called SUV's, then the old Panel Wagons and Suburban type trucks started getting called SUV's. All of a sudden they were everywhere, and the prices to own and maintain them went through the roof. " Melvin added. " I don't understand why all of a sudden everybody got one. It's not like they have a lot of uses, and if you aren't careful with them, somebody can get hurt or killed." He glanced at the TV, which was showing yet another death caused by the gleaming war machines on a local street.

"That kid had no reason to be in an SUV. He was 16, his parents were rich, and now he's killed a whole family and two of his friends. His family lived in an urban neighborhood and didn't have any reason to own one of these things." Melvin agreed.He seemed disgusted when the report ended with the news that after two other "accidents" with injuries, the criminal was sentanced to 30 hours of public service and nothing more. " They're gonna ruin it for all the folks who work hard and work to safely enjoy their trucks. It makes me kinda sick to see. I hope they don't wanna take away my jeep because this stupid judge's son killed all them folks."

"I've got rights, because this is America and that's why are soldiers are dying overseas for. They are protecting my rights to own an SUV! I've never killed anyone with mine." the short, fatted woman near the door added. Lillie answered back, "Maybe you haven't killed anyone yet, but you will. A friend of mine overheard you at the ballet studio talking about how your first SUV got totaled. You laughed because the other guy got hurt, and bragged that you were getting a bigger one next time....which you did. YOU'RE the exact kind of person who should never be allowed to own an SUV!"

The room erupted into chaos and police had to be brought in to break up the riot. At the end of it, 6 cars in the parking lot had been "Bumped", and SUVer's term for backing into a car hard enough to damage it and then leaving without giving the car's owner their insurance information. As the parking lot cleared of SUV's, most of the other vehicles owners were disappointed to find "Does it have a hemi in it?" and "Hummers don't kill people, economy cars get them killed." stickers stuck all over their cars. "That's just not right." one man said, adding that he hadn't been there attending the meeting, he was the night janitor trying to support his family of five on his second job. A job he needed since his wife had been killed in an "accident" with an SUV.

The next morning, officer Staunch contacted us, after he got of shift, "It was a bad one. There is some sort of weird rivalry between the owners of US and Import SUV's. Nobody wants to talk about it. Two rival SUV owners pulled up next to each other and tried to prove whose was best. A car full of deaf children on their way home from the zoo will never see another Panda as a result!", He stopped for a moment, "I'm sorry, it may be wrong, but things like this happen every day and the public doesn't ever hear about it! I KNOW about Hummers, I learned how to drive one in the military, but if you told me that I would be facing that kind of killing power on the streets of my home town in the USA, I would have laughed at you. We feel helpless, you can chase them in a police cruiser, which is specially designed for pursuit of other criminals, but at the tap of a brake pedal I will never see my own family again. We elect these lawmakers...when are they going to step up and DO something about the problem?"

In the length of time it took you to read these, more people have died at the hands of SUVers. But don't tell the companies that make them about it, they don't care. They don't feel responsible at all for the death and carnage made possible by their SUV's. Maybe they'll feel different when they lose a family member to a rival SUVers uncontrollable rage.

I KNEW IT!

OK, Let's try embedding a video. Never done that before. This one is full of cussing, but its a must see. I just KNEW this was what was going on with roleplaying games and first person shooters:

Ghosts

I've been up a few hours, and ghosts haunt me today. So very many ghosts to contend with.

Ghosts of friends long gone, ghosts of my past. Ghosts of things I've forgotten, ghosts of the charm I once had. Ghosts of people and places. Ghosts of contacts with them. Ghosts of e-mails and phone numbers, ghosts of them all now gone. Ghosts of my hopes and drams,ghosts of what might have been. Ghosts of what now will be, ghosts of how to begin again. Gosts of tomorrow and never. Ghosts of never and forever.

The sky outside weighs heavy with dew. Th sky outside clears slowly to a crystal clear version of the unknown.

What happened to who I was going to be? Shattered in an instant of twsting crushing metal and glass. I suffer still at what I lost, because I now know what it was and how it never came back. It left me not good enough to be who I intended to be.

This time, this year, I work to gather this brokn shards of my life and skills to become....myself.

The soundtrack continues. Its a little louder again.

Bait and Switch Politics

Ever since I can remember (o.k., the mid-70's). I have noticed the American tactic of stupid news stories covering up what's REALLY going on...espicially if what's going on isn't good news. It works like this:

Something goes terribly wrong in a. the economy,b. a war somewhere, c. national issues, d.etc.,small mention of which is made in the US media. Then, all of a sudden, out of nowhere...a HUGE story buries the airwaves for weeks at a time, covering and making everyone think about the "real" issues at hand.

Did anyone else notice the man in charge of the "war" in Iraq quit last week? No...I guess Elliot Spritizer's dick and Brittney's moron sex toy are a GREAT DEAL more important to think about than a person who is in charge of leading a war in an entire miltary arena!

I remember years ago some stupid story was out, and I told everyone else, "What's really important is all the way around the world and we aren't hearing about it.". Back in those days I had a shortwave radio that filled me in on the bombing of Libya and troubles in Beirut that the American media didn't announce. A full two weeks later, both situations "blew up" in the US media.

I really don't believe for a minute there is a free press in the USA. Can all these people working in the field REALLY miss the important facts that badly? For god sakes, even NPR was on the whore banging bandwagon all week long! I really, really don't care about these fluff stories.

What about the war and what about the economy?

It ALL gets down to gas prices right now. My buisiness has fallen apart because people can't afford anything extra when gas costs so much. I can go back and chart my loss of students to increases in gas prices. A few folks have actually confirmed that if the gas used to commute to work costs so much, they have had to pull cash from other things to cover it.

There isn't a single person running for president that has said the phrase, "Gas prices" EVER during this run. I don't give a shit about anything except gas prices. The MORONS who put an oil man into office and then can't believe record profits from oil companies should be beaten senseless. What was the big story then...? Lance Bass is gay? Brittney is married to white trash? There are weapons of mass destruction in a piss ant tiny country that wouldn't be stupid enough to use them against us?

What happened to this country? It began to fall apart with Raygun and his yuppies. We can all see the effect of years of trickledown economics now....guess what...IT DIDN'T WORK! (I used to say that what trickled down to the majority of people smells like the piss it is. )

Oh well, as long as they don't try and take away our guns there is still hope. Did you see that Brittney's manager agreed to stay away from her another month?! (Why don't they prosicute Brit's parents under the Mann Act? They exploited her and transported her across state lines for immoral purposes....making themselves rich.)

Almost There.....

...The Miata is back in one peice again, and it runs.

I took it for a smog, and all the levels tested amazingy low- sort of like it was a brand new car. The shop was surprised at this, as it has 197,000 miles on it. Doing the valve job really seems to help it all. It now runs better, smoother and with more power than I can ever remember.

BUT...it failed the smog test because the computer had no history in it. I guess it cleared when the battery cable was disconnected. This means I have to driv it at least 100 miles to reset the computer, then have it retested.

Damn...I have to DRIVE the car I have been missing so bad for like 8 months? It had half a tank of gas, and I topped it off for like 14 bucks. DAMN...topping the truck (at least twice a week) is no less than 80 dollars a time! Maybe my finanaces can recover now.

Even the clutch feels pretty good at this point Maybe in another class cycle I can get a new clutch for it.I hope so. Geez, I'll be out of my classes then, with only 4 zillion labs to make up.

Wow...only like 25 bucks a week for gas....I ain't used to that at all! It might even get better ileage at this point also. EVERYTHING inside the top half of the engine is cleaned to like new condition. No gobs of oil and crap plugging everything up anymore.

I have to go to work now.....in my CAR.
Wonder if the room will be full tonight............

Cleaning House

I have recently looked at much of my creative output from the last 20 years. Some of it was half-baked and unfinished, some had potential, some was done. Much of it just wasn't where I am anymore to any degree.....so.....

....I have destroyed over 200,000 words of written material this past week. That's about 70 sets of song lyrics, a number of short stories, and one full novel of around 230 pages. Like a garge full of old crap you no longer use, it feels better to be cleaned up and out.

Currently, I have zero desire to write novels or songs. This is weird, as for the fact that for as longas I can remember, I have worked on writing. Wonder where the drive/ interest went to? Perhaps its the fact that there are 80 cazillion novls of littl to zero worth out there, and the numbers say that it would be a waste of time to try and get published. I do have something of an interest in working on some biography type stuff or some historical stuff around aircraft. Oh well, when I get time.

I would actually like to get back to rockets and model aircraft to some extent right now. Guess that starts with cleaning the apartment up and laundry. Hope the Car is back from its final part of being repaired today. 8 miles to the gallon in the truck is still killing me.

30 Years Of......

Its gotten rather annoying that I CAN reflect back on 30 years of anything at all.

I have always carefully gaurded against beng stuck in the "Back then things were better...." type of thinking. BUT, in many ways that seems true.

FEW bands these days sound like they mean it. Its th legacy of letting in crap like "alternative rock". Face it, you should have just admited that "punk" was people who couldn't play anything more than what the three chords allowed. Tha's not groundbreaking, that's pathetic.

Oh well, we've always got Wolfsmother.....

Things one loves.

2008 will be a good year. I will not let it be otherwise.

Karma sometimes flashes and is fun. The troublesome, lying student and strange parent that caused me so much grief a number of weeks ago came in and annouced he is "Taking a break for a while..." after having missed a month already. Really? I hadn't guessed!Hope you get 20 bucks for your gear on e-bay, you'll find some team sport more suited to your attitude. Why did I ever give up all my interests to teach useless little snots like this anyway? I should have taken up illegal drugs, at least people would feel sorry fo me then.

The phrase I hate worse in this world is, "Wow, it must be great to do something you love and make a living from it!" Hmmmm....ok, I finally put definition to it. I don't love this martial art in the least. I have been highly interested in it. I have been sometimes challeneged by it, but I have never loved it. AND...I have NEVER loved teaching it. I didn't take it up to spend all my time making sure everybody else had fun. I took it up because I wanted to have fun. What I loved was music and writing and anything to do with airplanes, and even sometimes cars. There was the whole world of shortwave DXing too. Can't do that when you are off teaching at the prime time of the day for reception of stations. Pretty much all the things I have no time or money t do as a result of how much time I have spent making sure everybody else is having fun

School is rough, but I make slow progress. I will reach my goals. Nevermind dying trying...its KILLING trying.
Grrrr.

Overwhelmed

It's been a while since I posted. I wish I had some interesting stuff to post, lik the good bloggers do. I dislike cats, so I guess I can't be a real bloger. Why the hell do so many people waste bandwidth with pictures of their cats?

I still haven't reassembled my dead car, the weather has either been freezing cold or raining....which makes it a mess to work on the car outside. In the meantime I am going broke driving the truck.

I am very far behind in school due to the tramas of the end of last year. Looks like I am best served to catch up the labs from last year and test out on that half of the program. I owe twice as many labs for last semseter as I do for last year. What a nightmare. I am feeling the pressure to get things done, so I can get the hell out of teaching for a living.

I am sick and tired of dealing with what are now known as helicopter parents. Kisa today don't learn responsibility, and are all cuddled far past the youthful age that they should be learing responsibility. I've had another bad parent experience, and I just want to quit and go work nights at a grocery store or something to earn my income until school is done. I migt have to anyway, as its not paying the bills as it is. I may lose overall income, but I would lose close to a $1000.00 a month in rental expense, and save untold thousands of dollars of gas and vehicle repair costs.

I need to get caught up with school, thats all there is to it.

Just Keep....Moving...

It's finally a new, better year than last year!

So....the FAA says that the normal passenger or crewmember on an airplane weighs 170 pounds. This number must have been chosen in the late great glory days right after WWII when everybody waqs smaller than they are now, and fit having just fought wars and all the like. I haven't been 170 pounds since fifth grade, and I suspect the years and years of cycling that built my legs up made them into muscle that won't drop below a certain point.

Timing has it that The Girl and I have joined a gym, and paid a Trainer to harrass us into working out better. Hell feels like this. Someday, all those 20-something trainers will also be 46 and know what THIS feels like. I hope I am in the room to see it.

I'd like to get back to cycling, get back to rockets and autocross stuff...plus get my Private Pilot's ticket. I suppose that I need to finish all my labs and get my A & P ticket first, so I can afford to do the other things.

It's an Olympic year, and hopefully that means new students this year. That might mean getting get caught up on bill before all else.

Let the slaughter begin! 2008 is upon us!